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Wall Street Journal reports Kristi Noem arranged purchase to expand deportation flights and for personal travelThe secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Kristi Noem, reportedly authorized the purchase of Spirit Airlines jets before discovering the airline didn't actually own the planes - and that the aircraft lacked engines.The bizarre anecdote was contained in a Wall Street Journal report released on Friday, which recounted how Noem and Corey Lewandowski - who managed Donald Trump's first winning presidential campaign - had recently arranged to buy 10 Boeing 737 aircraft from Spirit Airlines. People familiar with the situation told the paper that the two intended to use the jets to expand deportation flights - and for personal travel. Continue reading...

TikTok video shows woman speaking into camera and reacting to a loud thud before she says I just hit somebody'Authorities are investigating a newly surfaced video that suggests a woman who hit and killed a man while driving in the Chicago suburb of Zion, Illinois, on Monday night was livestreaming on TikTok at the time of the crash.The video in question was reportedly taken by a user in Zion, and it shows a woman behind the wheel of a car reacting to a loud thud by saying, Fuck, fuck, fuck ... I just hit somebody." Continue reading...

Democrat Sam Rasoul, a Muslim, won re-election to the state legislature despite accusations of antisemitismSam Rasoul, the Virginia Democrat who is currently the longest-serving Muslim state lawmaker in the US and who faced accusations of antisemitism over language condemning Israel's assault on Gaza as genocide, scored a resounding victory in Tuesday's election that he believes shows voters are craving honesty from politicians.Rasoul, an American Palestinian state legislator since 2014, strengthened his majority as he was re-elected to an area of Virginia where the city of Roanoke leans Democrat and the surrounding areas are deeply conservative. In an election seen as a referendum on Trump's policies, which have disproportionately affected Virginia, Rasoul increased his vote share from four years ago by more than 5% as Democrats trounced Republicans from the legislature to the governor's mansion. Continue reading...

Though Latino voters gave sweeping support to Democrats in Tuesday's elections, they're not a permanent coalitionLatino voters delivered sweeping support to Democratic candidates across multiple states in Tuesday's off-year elections, reversing what many Republicans had come to believe was a lasting political realignment after Donald Trump's historic gains with the community in the 2024 election .The rapid reversal represents one of the most volatile electoral swings in recent memory and threatens to upend Republican redistricting strategies that banked on sustained support from Latinos, the fastest-growing voting bloc in the country. It also suggests that Trump's appeal to Latino voters was highly personal rather than an embrace of the Republican party itself - a miscalculation that could reshape the landscape heading into the 2026 midterms. Continue reading...

As tens of thousands of military personnel work without pay and others are furloughed, a local pantry sees its numbers increasing as restaurants are losing customersWhen Jane Doorley and her husband Bill arrived at the Fairborn Fish Food Pantry they help run on 28 October, they couldn't get into the parking lot, such was the number of cars belonging to people seeking food.Our numbers are way up. Last Friday was really bad too," says Jane. Around 250 families, including 300 children, come to the pantry every day it's open." Continue reading...

Ticket sales at about 40% unsold compared with before president made himself chair of US performing arts centerThe Washington National Opera (WNO) is considering moving out of the Kennedy Center, the company's home since the US's national performing arts center opened in 1971.The possibility has been forced on the company as a result of the takeover" of the center by Donald Trump, according to WNO's artistic director, Francesca Zambello. The president declared himself chair of the institution in February, sacking and replacing its board and leadership. Continue reading...

This week, Mexico's president was groped in public. But a New York Times podcast is fretting about excessive wokenessLean in (to misogyny), ladies!Are you a woman? Do you want to rapidly raise your profile and get booked on the speaking circuit? Are you good at mental gymnastics?Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Commerce department expected to add about 700 more items with steel content to levy list at request of US firmsBusinesses around the world are steeling themselves for another round of Donald Trump's tariffs, this time on goods ranging from bicycles to baking trays, as US industry embraces a call for more products to tax on import.Small, medium and large American companies have asked the US Department of Commerce to add about 700 more items to an August list of 407 products already facing extra tariffs because of their steel content, which hit items such as Ikea tables with metal nuts and bolts and German combine harvesters. Continue reading...

New York's mayor-elect has taken on powerful institutions. With the World Cup taking place in his city, he should challenge Fifa nextAfter winning the election for mayor of New York City, an exuberant Zohran Mamdani took to the stage at his victory speech and said, If there is any way to terrify a despot, it is by dismantling the very conditions that allowed him to accumulate power." He was alluding to Donald Trump, but the sentiment also applies to Fifa, the world's governing body for soccer.In September, Mamdani's team kicked off a Game Over Greed" campaign targeting Fifa's use of dynamic pricing for 2026 men's World Cup tickets, calling it an affront to the game." His petition demanded that Fifa cease its rapacious dynamic pricing scheme, place a price cap on tickets that are resold on Fifa's ticketing platform, and reserve a tranche of tickets for local residents. Mamdani, a longtime Arsenal fan, told the Guardian's Football Weekly podcast, I have long been quite troubled by how the supposed stewards of the game have opted for profit time and time again at the expense of the people that love this game." Continue reading...

Public health advocates praise rewrite of legislation backed by big-food influence operation AFITA bipartisan group of public health advocates have defeated a proposal to kill state food safety laws that was pushed by what some critics have called a faux Maha" big-food influence operation.The industry-funded group, called Americans for Ingredient Transparency (AFIT), suggests it is part of a grassroots Make America Healthy Again (Maha) movement, but opponents say it is waging a campaign on behalf of big food companies that Maha figures typically criticizes - ConAgra, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Hormel, and Nestle among other food giants. Continue reading...

After the ex-host of the ReidOut was forced out in February, she launched her own streaming show on YouTubeJoy Reid hosted the 7pm hour on MSNBC for nearly five years, providing a daily dose of progressive energy and verve that led into the network's primetime programming. Then, in late February, Reid was suddenly forced out, and her show, The ReidOut, was cancelled as part of a broader programming shakeup at the network. Reid has since launched her own streaming show, The Joy Reid Show, and has a few things to say about the mainstream media she was once part of.Now that it's been eight months since you were abruptly fired by MSNBC, how do you view your departure? Continue reading...

Federal employees on social media share practical tips and document lives amid longest US shutdown in historyAs the US government shutdown stretches on after becoming the longest in history, influencers and content creators have stepped into improvised public-service roles by chronicling life without paychecks.Across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, federal workers have been publishing shutdown vlogs" that mix dark humor with practical tips. The federal shutdown has created its own internet sub-genre of resource directories, budget-stretching advice threads and mental health check-ins. Continue reading...

The fact that Latino stars were at the forefront of the victory over the Toronto Blue Jays sits alongside the club's near silence on the immigration raids roiling the cityFor Natalia Molina, a lifelong fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers and a third-generation Mexican American, the crowning moment of baseball's World Series didn't come in last Saturday's nail-biting finale, when her team performed one death-defying escape act after another before prevailing in extra innings over the Toronto Blue Jays.It came a game earlier, when two of the team's second-tier players, Kike Hernandez, who is from Puerto Rico, and Miguel Rojas, from Venezuela, pulled off a thrilling, game-winning sequence that simultaneously upended the many negative stereotypes Donald Trump has been touting about Latinos since he first ran for president a decade ago. Continue reading...

Israel turns the violence up and down at will, maintaining full dominion over Gaza and the West Bank, then calls each pause a generous ceasefire'If you started attending one funeral a day beginning 1 January 2025, you would finish in the year 3887. That is how long it would take to mourn every life lost in Gaza. By then, your grandchildren's great grandchildren would be dust, and still you would be burying Palestinian bodies from a war" Israel insists was about self-defense. Even then, this number does not tell you about the thousands of ways these bodies were burned, torn, crushed and made anything but whole.And yet here we are, watching world leaders gather in Egypt for a peace summit" last month where the only people absent were Palestinians. The banner read Peace 2025", while Palestine's representatives were barred from the room.Ahmad Ibsais is a first generation Palestinian American, law student and poet who writes the newsletter State of Siege Continue reading...

Mamdani reshaped the electorate, bringing hundreds of thousands of non-voters out to the polls, from young people to left-behind immigrant communitiesOne of the main media takeaways from the 2024 election was the much-discussed vibe shift". That is, a resurgence of cultural conservatism and a backlash to the shifting cultural attitudes on race, LGBTQ+ rights, immigration and the wokeness" of the Obama and first Trump eras. The conservatives were in control not only of the White House, but, more importantly to them, the culture. Corporations, media outlets, and even Democratic politicians who had sought to portray a tolerant, inclusive image rushed to match this new vibe.Of course, the evidence for this shift was scant. Trump had won the election without a popular vote majority, and a closer look at the results showed a more conventional explanation: voters, rather than yearning for the days before there were interracial couples in television commercials or demanding a military crackdown on their cities, thought that they were working too hard for too little and maybe Trump would change it. They wanted lower prices, higher wages and a feeling of security. A year into Republican government and its top-down imposition of a new vibe, perhaps the reaction shows there finally is a vibe shift. Just not the one they planned on.Ben Davis works in political data in Washington DC. He worked on the data team for the Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign and is an active member of the Democratic Socialists of America

Need something brilliant to read this weekend? Here are six of our favourite pieces from the last seven days Continue reading...

US president also praises Hungarian leader's hardline stance on immigration during friendly White House summitThe US has granted Hungary a one-year exemption from US sanctions on importing oil and gas from Russia, according to a White House official, after Viktor Orban pressed his case for a reprieve during a meeting with Donald Trump in Washington.Last month, Trump imposed Ukraine-related sanctions on Russian oil companies Lukoil and Rosneft that carried the threat of further sanctions on entities in countries buying oil from them. Continue reading...

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High court's order comes after appeals court rejected Trump administration's request to block November benefitsThe supreme court has issued an emergency order temporarily blocking full Snap food aid payments.The high court's order came after the Trump administration asked a federal appeals court on Friday to block a judge's order that it distribute November's full monthly food stamp benefits amid a US federal government shutdown. Continue reading...

Karin Immergut said earlier she found no credible evidence' that protests in Oregon city were out of controlA federal judge in Oregon on Friday blocked Donald Trump from deploying national guard troops to Portland, ruling there was no evidence of widespread violence to justify federal intervention.The US district court judge, Karin Immergut, a Trump appointee, delivered her final order in the case on Friday. She found that protests near Portland's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility were predominately peaceful, with only isolated and sporadic instances of relatively low-level violence". Continue reading...

The high court's order came after a federal appeals court denied the administration's request to block an order to distribute November's full monthly food stamp benefits - key US politics stories from 7 November 2025On Friday, moments after a federal appeals court ruled the Trump administration needs to fully fund Snap food aid payments, the White House turned to the supreme court in a further attempt to block the order.Within hours, the top US court issued an emergency order temporarily blocking full Snap food aid payments, which nearly 42 million people rely on to put food on the table. Continue reading...

Viktor Orban had a friendly meeting with Donald Trump on Friday to press his case for a reprieveThe United States has granted Hungary a one-year exemption from US sanctions for using Russian oil and gas, a White House official said on Friday, after Viktor Orban pressed his case for a reprieve during a friendly meeting with Donald Trump in Washington.Last month, Trump imposed Ukraine-related sanctions on Russian oil companies Lukoil and Rosneft that carried the threat of further sanctions on entities in countries that buy oil from those firms. Continue reading...

Chuck Schumer offered a deal to reopen the government in exchange for a one-year healthcare subsidies extension

Footage shows commotion inside vehicle in Massachusetts as desperate woman in passenger seat tries to awaken manUS Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is facing fierce questions after a video that appeared to show a man falling unconscious during an arrest while clutching a small child went viral, and officials accused the man of faking a medical emergency to stop the arrest of his wife.The footage, obtained by the Boston Globe, shows a frantic commotion inside a vehicle in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, on Thursday. A desperate woman in the passenger seat tries to awaken the man in the driver's seat, with a crying child in the middle. People can be heard shouting: He's having a seizure." An officer can be seen trying to pull the passengers from the vehicle, while a Fitchburg police officer orders the crowd to back up" repeatedly. Continue reading...

Officers found Maria Florinda Rios Perez De Velasquez dead after she accidentally went to a wrong propertyAuthorities in Indiana are considering whether to charge a homeowner who they say shot and killed a woman after she mistakenly went to the wrong address where she thought she was turning up to clean a property.Police officers found Maria Florinda Rios Perez De Velasquez, 32, dead just before 7am Wednesday on the front porch of a home in Whitestown, an Indianapolis suburb of about 10,000 people. Continue reading...

Administration has long accused South Africa of allowing white Afrikaner farmers to be persecuted and attackedDonald Trump said Friday that no US government officials would be attending the Group of 20 summit this year in South Africa, citing the country's treatment of white farmers.The US president had already announced he would not attend the annual summit for heads of state from the globe's leading and emerging economies. JD Vance had been scheduled to attend in Trump's place, but a person familiar with Vance's plans who was granted anonymity to talk about his schedule said Vance would no longer travel there for the summit. Continue reading...

President asks justice department to open an investigation but provides no proof to support his allegationsDonald Trump on Friday accused foreign-owned meat packers of driving up the price of beef in the US and asked the Department of Justice to open an investigation.The Republican president announced the move on social media days after his party suffered losses in key elections in which the winning Democratic candidates focused relentlessly on the public's concerns about the cost of living. Continue reading...

Travellers forced to adjust their plans as longest shutdown on record continues with no sign of resolution

Aryna Sabalenka came through a gripping three-set battle with Amanda Anisimova and will face Elena Rybakina, who fought back to defeat Jessica Pegula in the first semi-finalFirst set: Pegula 2-2* Rybakina (*denotes next server) Rybakina had started the stronger but lost her way in that last service game. Can Pegula back up the break? An early double fault doesn't help matters, and Rybakina outlasts her in a rally to earn break point. From the middle of the court, Rybakina lands an inside-out forehand on the line, and we're back on serve.Cam Norrie is playing in the Metz semi-finals; he's trailing Lorenzo Sonego 6-4, 0-1. In Athens, Novak Djokovic is facing Yannick Hanfmann; it's on serve in their semi-final. Continue reading...

Student, national and local groups across US organized day of action to condemn Trump's assault on academic freedomStudents, faculty and staff at more than 100 campuses across the US rallied against the Trump administration's assault on higher education on Friday - the first in a planned series of nationwide, coordinated protests that organizers hope will culminate in large-scale students and workers' strikes next May Day and a nationwide general strike in May 2028.The day of action was organized under the banner of Students Rise Up, a network of students including both local groups and national organizations like Sunrise Movement and Campus Climate Network. Students were joined by faculty and educational workers' unions like the American Association of University Professors and Higher Education Labor United. Continue reading...

Carrie Coyner conceded defeat after igniting text scandal over Democrat imagining two bullets' in rival's headThe Virginia Republican politician who shook up multiple statewide elections by disclosing text messages in which a prominent Democratic candidate fantasized about a rival receiving two bullets to the head" has conceded defeat in her own bid to retain office.Carrie Coyner was seeking a third two-year term in Virginia's house of delegates when she publicly shared the text messages that she had previously received from Jay Jones, a former Democratic colleague who ran in the state's attorney general election on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Economic concerns felt by Americans of different ages, incomes and political affiliations, survey findsThe federal government shutdown dragged consumer sentiment in the US to a near record low in November, according to a monthly survey conducted by the University of Michigan.Consumer sentiment fell about 6% in November, with the consumer sentiment index for November 2025 at 50.3, down from 53.6 in October, nearly three points below expectations. Economists polled by the Wall Street Journal expected a 53.0 index reading. Continue reading...

European Commission confirms reports it is looking at postponing parts of landmark legislationThe European Commission is considering plans to delay parts of the EU's Artificial Intelligence Act, after intense pressure from businesses and Donald Trump's administration.The commission confirmed that a reflection" was still ongoing" on delaying aspects of the regulation, after media reports that Brussels was weighing up changes with the aim of easing demands on big tech companies. Continue reading...

In Marana, residents crowded into a town hall recently to learn the fate of a building that's been closed for two yearsIn an Arizona town where farmers have long wrested a living off the arid land, reports that a former prison complex may be turned into an immigration detention center have sparked a fierce backlash, with residents seeing the potential transition as the latest undesirable symbol of the Trump administration's massive escalation of immigration enforcement.The facility in Marana, a town of about 63,700 people located north of Tucson, sprawls across a flat expanse of desert studded with scrubby bushes and hardy trees. It was shuttered almost two years ago, and the Management and Training Corporation, the private company that owns it, informed the town manager of company plans to operate a detention center in the prison. Continue reading...

Zohran Mamdani, Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill focused their messages on the economy, but structural problems endureOn Tuesday, Democrats won right, left and center.In purple Virginia, Abigail Spanberger, the staunchly anti-socialist former CIA official won handily over her Republican counterpart. Meanwhile, Mikie Sherrill, a poster child for centrist Democrats, won big in light-blue New Jersey. And in ultra-progressive New York, the democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, predictably, took the mayoralty. With such varied success, what could be the common lesson?Dustin Guastella is the director of operations for Teamsters Local 623 in Philadelphia, and a research associate at the Center for Working-Class Politics Continue reading...

The Maga machine is clicking into gear to ensure that defeat is all but impossible in next year's midterm electionsAfter the joy, the trepidation. Or at least the preparation. Democrats, along with many others around the world, cheered this week's wins in a clutch of off-year elections that saw Donald Trump's Republicans defeated from sea to shining sea. But now they need to brace themselves for the reaction. Because Donald Trump does not like losing. And he will do everything he can to ensure it does not happen again - by means fair and, more often, foul. Indeed, that effort is already under way.For now, the Democrats are still clinking glasses, enjoying a success that tastes all the sweeter for coming exactly a year after they lost everything - the House, the Senate and the White House - to a returning and triumphant Trump. The most dramatic win was Zohran Mamdani's history-making victory in America's most populous city, New York, but there was success too at the other end of the continent, as voters in California backed Democrats on an apparently technical measure that could prove hugely significant. In between, Democrats won the governorships of New Jersey and Virginia by healthy, double-digit margins.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist and host of the Politics Weekly America podcast Continue reading...

The president has put Snap benefits in jeopardy amid a fight over Medicaid. The nation has lost its moral authorityThe Democrats had a great day on Tuesday. It's crucial that they hone their economic message for next year's midterms to focus on affordability and fairness.Trump is doing the opposite. Although a federal court ordered him to continue to provide food stamps to about 42 million low-income Americans who depend on them, Trump threatened to deny them anyway until the end of the government shutdown.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist and his newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com. His new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, is out now Continue reading...

The 23-year-old has little in common with the basketball great but has helped the Bulls to their best start to an NBA season since peak Mike' in 1996Josh Giddey couldn't help but crack a smile. The normally composed half-court conductor had just been told by a reporter that he was the first Chicago Bull to record back-to-back triple doubles since Michael Jordan more than 30 years ago.The Australian's starring role in the 24-point comeback against Philadelphia this week, when he gathered double-digit tallies in points, rebounds and assists - hence triple" double - ended with an exclamation point. Continue reading...

Eduardo Flores-Ruiz pleaded guilty to illegally re-entering US and will soon be deported, his attorney saysAn immigrant who was arrested after a judge in Wisconsin allegedly helped him dodge federal agents has been sentenced to time served for illegally re-entering the United States and will soon be deported, according to his attorney.Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, 31, has spent nearly seven months in jail since he was arrested outside the Milwaukee county courthouse. He pleaded guilty in September to illegally re-entering the country after he reached a deal with prosecutors to not fight deportation. Prosecutors in exchange agreed to recommend a time-served sentence. Continue reading...

Investigation ongoing after package was sent to the home of the US president's Air Force OneSeven people were briefly hospitalized after a suspicious package containing a white powder" was sent to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, home to the US president's Air Force One, on Thursday.According to a spokesperson for the base, someone opened the package sometime in the afternoon, and it was cleared up by early in evening. Continue reading...

Glen Casada and his ex- chief of staff were accused of running scheme to win taxpayer-funded mail business from lawmakersDonald Trump has pardoned the former Tennessee state House speaker and a onetime aide of public corruption charges after the White House said the Biden administration justice department significantly over-prosecuted" both for a minor issue.Glen Casada, a former Republican state representative, was sentenced in September to three years in prison, and his former chief of staff, Cade Cothren, was also convicted and received a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence. The case centered on their actions after both had been driven from their leadership roles and were accused of running a scheme to win taxpayer-funded mail business from lawmakers. Continue reading...

President jets in to speak at ritzy American Business Forum as millions see their food aid slashed - crisis, what crisis?It was the week in which Republicans took a beating at the polls, the government shutdown became the longest in history, and 42 million people across the country, including 3 million in Florida, saw their federal food aid slashed.But in the alternative reality of Miami, where tickets to an overwhelmingly conservative business conference headlined by Donald Trump cost up to $1,990, and billionaires from Saudi Arabia rubbed shoulders with equally wealthy American tycoons such as Jeff Bezos and Ken Griffin, those events created barely a ripple. Continue reading...

After nearly 40 years in the Congress, the former House speaker is stepping down, reigniting interest in the raceNancy Pelosi's announcement that, after nearly four decades in Congress, she will not seek re-election has reignited interest in the race for her long-held San Francisco seat.The retirement of the former speaker of the House was long-anticipated, and two Democrats had already declared their intent to run. Saikat Chakrabarti, a former tech executive who previously served as the chief of staff to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Scott Wiener, a state senator, kicked off their campaigns this year. Continue reading...

If this stretches to Thanksgiving, we'll be facing a nightmare. The obvious solution: move back in with your parentsIn our modern age, the only thing worse than flying - cramped seats, bad food, someone potentially calling you a racial slur - is not flying at all. I will suffer all manner of indignity, up to and including a drunk puking up Jersey Mike's on to my trousers, but if you dare say that I might not be able to board the Flying Nightmare Tube at the scheduled date and time, I will throw the kind of fit you only see in YouTube videos of people that are actually on airplanes.This is why the United States Federal Aviation Administration potentially cancelling 10% of air traffic at 40 airports chills me to the bone. Whether I like it or not, I have to be in Pittsburgh this month. Would you keep me from enjoying the epic sights and sounds of Pittsburgh? Maybe so, if the alternative is a sleep-deprived air traffic controller suggesting my pilot take a nosedive into the Grand Tetons.Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist Continue reading...

Hundreds from New York City, across the US and beyond share their optimism, joy and more on the mayoral electionZohran Mamdani was elected the next mayor of New York City this week and Guardian readers had a lot of feelings to share about the news.Winning with more than 50% of the vote, the 34-year-old democratic socialist and state assembly member from Queens defeated the former New York governor Andrew Cuomo and the Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa. Continue reading...