US news | The Guardian

A negotiated settlement would be unfair and frustrating. But after nearly four years of fighting, it may be the best optionOn Wednesday, President Trump imposed substantial new sanctions on Russia's giant oil and gas companies, and lifted restrictions on the use of certain long-range missiles by Ukraine, which will now be able to strike more freely into Russia itself. These moves come on the heels of Trump's conversations last week with Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, after which the US president expressed his frustration at both side's intransigence. Trump had hoped to end this war long ago. Will this be enough?When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the US and its allies chose a strategy that aimed to use Washington's awesome political, economic and military power to impose such high costs on Russia that the Kremlin would sue for peace on Ukraine's terms. This cost-imposition" strategy makes sense in theory. The problem is that, in practice, it has slowed Russia's progress but not persuaded Putin to end his aggression.Christopher S Chivvis is a senior fellow and director of the American statecraft program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Continue reading...

US vice-president has criticised Israel's parliament vote on West Bank annexation, calling the move a 'stupid political stunt' after a bill applying Israeli law to the occupied West Bank, a move tantamount to the annexation of land Palestinians want for a state, won preliminary approval from Israel's parliament on Wednesday. Speaking on the tarmac of Tel Aviv's international airport before departing at the end of his visit to Israel, JD Vance insisted that 'the policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel. That will continue to be our policy. And if people want to take symbolic votes, they can do that but we certainly weren't happy about it,' adding:'I personally take some insult to it'

Freedom of speech requires freedom of thought - and the American political climate poses a serious threat to itFor all the opinions about free speech and censorship that rage around us, there is remarkably little argument about what the free" in free speech means. Most defenders of free speech" only seem to care about the freedom to express themselves. They fight for the right to say anything, not whether the speech itself comes from a position of freedom.Focusing on what makes free speech free is fundamental to our moral and political futures. Because free speech, properly conceived, is not just about the right to say what one wants. It is also about being the kind of person who has been so conscientious in their thinking, learning and discussion that they have become a free subject whose speech is directed toward the pursuit of truth. And there are serious threats today against the freedom of thought on which free speech relies. Continue reading...

Tina Frundt is one of Washington DC's most experienced specialists in protecting children from sex trafficking. Many of the youths she supports are targeted and exploited on social media platforms, which give traffickers unprecedented levels of access to their victims. Fighting to break this cycle, Tina works closely with law enforcement, social workers and parents to create an environment where some of America's most vulnerable children can feel safe again Continue reading...

Claim that Tren de Aragua planned to attack officers was widely shared - only for FBI to later acknowledge it was mistaken, internal files showAn unverified rumor that Venezuelan gang members were preparing to kill police officers spread like wildfire through US law enforcement agencies last year, internal records reveal, only for federal officials to later quietly acknowledge the claim was mistaken.The intelligence report, which appears to have first been disseminated by a local New Mexico police department in July 2024, suggested that the Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang had directed its members to fire on or attack" law enforcement. The vague assertion quickly traveled among law enforcement agencies. It even made its way into a formal proclamation by Texas governor Greg Abbott, and was repeated by Republican Congress members as evidence of the dangers of Venezuelan immigrants and Democrats' border policies. Continue reading...

In an embarrassing climbdown, the game in Miami is off with the league having alienated the players and even Villarreal, the club that was on its sideIf there is a moment that defined La Liga's fourth failed attempt to play in Miami, an image to explain why everything went wrong, it may have been the moment it was all over. On Tuesday night, Spanish television broadcast reaction to the news from the Estadio de la Ceramica, live and unfiltered.Cameras caught someone else who felt dismissed and disrespected, treated as if they didn't count. This time it was someone who was supposed to be on the league's side, but now appeared as a portrait of poor planning and poorer communication, a lack of consideration that pushed the project to collapse. Continue reading...

The Trump administration hardens its stance against the Kremlin. Plus, the final New York City mayoral debate gets heated

Obama once joked about what a gaudy Trump White House would like - the president seems bent on proving him rightWhen Barack Obama roasted Donald Trump at the 2011 White House Correspondents' Association dinner, the icing on the cake was a cartoon illustration of what the White House might look like if Trump ever became US president.The name Trump" was emblazoned across the top in giant capital letters, followed by the White House" in lurid purple cursive, then hotel casino golf course" and presidential suite". The parody imagined gold pillars, a giant crystal chandelier and two scantily clad women sitting at reception. Continue reading...

Refurbishing the nation should be a collective effort - not the work of a single man with an unmatched taste for the gaudyWho doesn't love a good home renovation project? Something to take your mind off the humdrum details of life. A fresh start. A dream made reality. I recently repainted my French doors from teal to aquamarine. I felt like a new man, albeit one with all the same problems. Just with a new door color.The average homeowner will always find something to change, tweak or revise - even in the most beautiful property. Don't like your kitchen sink? Rip it out. Not a fan of subway tiles? Scrap them. Have you ever considered the sublime serenity of a rainfall shower on your body in the morning? All of these amenities can be yours for the price of materials, labor and the psychic distress of a bunch of burly middle-aged men traipsing around your house with large, thick boots. A small price to pay for a bit of temporary contentment. Continue reading...

A few months ago Baltimore were seen as a Super Bowl contender; now they're struggling to make the playoffs. We assess their chances of turning things aroundThe Ravens' season is on the brink. Coming out of a bye week, Baltimore are 1-5 after a miserable start partly because their roster has been ripped apart by injuries. Next up are the Chicago Bears, who have come into some form. Beat the Bears, and the Ravens could turn the year around. If they lose, and they fall to 1-6, their season is effectively over, a huge disappointment for a team with genuine Super Bowl aspirations a few months ago. Below, we look at the factors that have hurt the Ravens - and the chances of those factors changing for the better. Continue reading...

As the LA Angels stand trial over the pitcher's death in the quiet shadow of the World Series fanfare across town, a sport confronts a truth practically as old as the game itselfBefore steroids, before amphetamines and before fentanyl, baseball's first documented chemical dalliance came from monkey testicles. In August 1889, a worn-down pitcher for the Pittsburgh Alleghenys named James Francis Pud" Galvin, so nicknamed for his once-devastating ability to reduce hitters to pudding", was in need of a spark. He was 32, his right arm a rubbery relic of nearly 5,000 innings pitched, his career on the fade. Then came salvation in a syringe. A French-Mauritian doctor by the name of Charles-Edouard Brown-Sequard published a paper - The Effects Produced on Man by the Subcutaneous Injections of a Liquid Obtained from the Testicles of Animals - in which he claimed that a few drops of an extract sourced from dogs and guinea pigs might well make ordinary men stronger and more virile. Galvin, a stocky power pitcher, wasted no time getting jabbed with the so-called Brown-Sequard elixir in a public demonstration at the Western Pennsylvania Medical College, only four miles east from the team's home ground. The next day he pitched a five-hit shutout to turn back the Boston Beaneaters, adding a double and a triple at the plate off the great Old Hoss Radbourn for good measure. (Take that, Ohtani.)If there still be doubting Thomases who concede no virtue of the elixir, they are respectfully referred to Galvin's record in yesterday's Boston-Pittsburg game," wrote the Washington Post, with proto-advertorial flourish. It is the best proof yet furnished of the value of the discovery." No one thought to call it cheating, even before Brown-Sequard's colleagues called cap on the tonic's efficacy in the weeks that followed. Why would they? Good old Pud wasn't breaking the rules so much as pushing the boundaries of willpower and endurance. In baseball, those things have often been one and the same. Continue reading...

Senior US House armed services committee member says Washington must boost own manufacturing before it can sell nuclear submarines to Australia

Official X accounts posts and then deletes AI-generated attack ad that prompts widespread denunciation

Candidates jockeyed for advantage during debate, but were unlikely to change voters' minds before election dayZohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee and current frontrunner for New York City mayor, faced off with Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor now running as an independent, and Curtis Sliwa, the Republican candidate, at the second and final New York mayoral election debate on Wednesday night.Here are some key takeaways from the evening. Continue reading...

Final debate was marked by heated exchanges between the frontrunners, while Sliwa quipped at Cuomo's expenseNew York City's three mayoral contenders had a fiery debate on Wednesday night in their final televised face-off less than two weeks before voters decide the city's next leader on 4 November.Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, independent Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa participated in a tense and often chaotic discussion. The current mayor, Eric Adams, who dropped out of the race weeks earlier, once again did not attend. Continue reading...

Attorney general Letitia James urges residents to share video and photos amid outcry over Chinatown raidThe New York state attorney general, Letitia James, rolled out a Federal Action Reporting Portal" form urging New York residents to share photos and videos of federal immigration enforcement action across the state, just a day after a high-profile ICE raid rattled Manhattan's Chinatown and prompted hundreds to come out in protest.A US congressman revealed in a Wednesday press conference that four US citizens were arrested and held for nearly 24 hours" after Tuesday's raid. Protests broke out in New York on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. Continue reading...

Candidates came out swinging as they vied for New Yorkers' votes in final debateIt's us versus them," Curtis Sliwa, the Republican candidate, says in his brief opening statement, in which he claims that he is the true representative of New Yorkers.Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor, begins by urging the Knicks to win, and then pivots to attacking my main opponent", Zohran Mamdani. Continue reading...

Women report miscarriages, delayed care, being shackled and being held in solitary confinement, letter saysPregnant women have reported bleeding, miscarriages, being shackled and other instances of medical neglect while in US immigration custody, according to a group of prominent civil rights organizations.The groups - which include the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and its Louisiana chapter, the National Immigration Project, Robert F Kennedy Human Rights, Sanctuary of the South and Sanctuary Now Abolition Project - sent a letter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Senate committees on Wednesday, describing interviews with more than a dozen women. Continue reading...

Trump, who has to date not put sanctions on Russia over the war and instead relied on trade measures, says Rosneft and Lukoil will be targeted. Key US politics stories from Wednesday 22 OctoberDonald Trump imposed Ukraine-related sanctions on Russia for the first time in his second term, targeting oil companies Lukoil and Rosneft, sending oil prices higher by more than $2 a barrel.The president imposed the new measures as his frustration grows with Russian president Vladimir Putin over the war. Continue reading...

Newsom calls move right out of the dictator's handbook' as agents prepare for key immigration enforcement operationThe Trump administration appeared poised to send dozens of federal agents to the San Francisco Bay Area for a major immigration enforcement operation, prompting condemnation from California leaders.Details of the deployment were still emerging, but it will reportedly involve more than 100 federal agents, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The agents are reportedly set to begin using the US Coast Guard base in Alameda, a city located across the bay from San Francisco. It remained unclear whether national guard troops would also be involved. Continue reading...

Demolition has drawn fierce backlash, with National Trust for Historic Preservation saying plans are legally required'

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Jeff Merkley of Oregon gives address to make case that president is violating the law' through authoritarianism

Spokesperson calls journalists who refused to agree to new rules self-righteous media who chose to self-deport'After the recent departure of Pentagon reporters due to their refusal to agree to a new set of restrictive policies, the defense department has announced a next generation of the Pentagon press corps" featuring 60 journalists from far-right outlets, many of which have promoted conspiracy theories.Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell posted the news on X but did not provide any names. Continue reading...

Carlitos Ricardo Parias remained hospitalized after he was shot in the elbow by federal agents during arrestAn influential Los Angeles man who livestreams US immigration enforcement operations on social media remained hospitalized on Wednesday after he was shot and arrested by federal agents.Authorities allege that Carlitos Ricardo Parias, a TikTok creator with a large following online, tried to ram federal agents' vehicles with his vehicle in an attempt to flee after agents surrounded him and boxed in his car. He was shot in the elbow during the incident while a ricochet bullet hit a deputy US marshal in the hand. Continue reading...

The start of construction on the president's $250m ballroom marks a regression to his property wheeler-dealer days

Robert Garcia cited revelations from Virginia Giuffre's posthumous memoir in letter to the attorney generalThe top Democrat on a congressional committee investigating the government's handling of Jeffrey Epstein's case demanded on Wednesday that Pam Bondi, the attorney general, turn over files related to the alleged sex trafficker, citing revelations from the posthumous memoir of a prominent abuse survivor.Virginia Giuffre's memoir Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice, published this week, details how Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell groomed and manipulated her. Continue reading...

Demonstrators were seen near a federal building after an unknown number of detainees were taken by agents

Group of 27 Congress members wrote to Marco Rubio to call for swift release' of 16-year-old Mohammed Ibrahim

Leaders of left-leaning groups behind mass protests against Trump administration map out their visionThe No Kings alliance, the left-leaning groups behind the mass days of protest last Saturday and in June, is building a nationwide rapid response network that will call on supporters to take new actions each week. Leaders of the organizations told the Guardian that there was energy for some type of disruption", and future actions could include targeted boycotts, campaigns at universities, more street protests, and electoral organizing in local communities.After an estimated 7 million people took to the streets last weekend, tens of thousands joined a national call on Tuesday to hear what's next for the growing movement. Leaders celebrated the broad turnout, saying it showed how much opposition to Trump there was in all corners of the US, and talked about how to sustain and grow a movement during an increasingly authoritarian moment for the country. Continue reading...

Graham Platner says he was never questioned about the skull-and-crossbones chest tattoo in the 20 years he had itGraham Platner, a Democratic candidate for US Senate in Maine, said on Wednesday that a tattoo on his chest has been covered to no longer reflect an image widely recognized as a Nazi symbol.Platner said he got the skull-and-crossbones tattoo in 2007, when he was in his 20s and in the Marine Corps. It happened during a night of drinking while he was on leave in Croatia, he said, adding he was unaware until recently that the image has been associated with Nazi police. Continue reading...

Hochul, Schumer and the three mayoral candidates express outrage over federal operation in ChinatownLocal and state officials in New York are expressing outrage after dozens of federal agents carried out a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) raid in Manhattan's Chinatown on Tuesday.Eyewitnesses accounts and video footage captured the chaotic scenes in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon, where masked and armed federal agents were seen detaining several individuals near Canal Street, while crowds of New Yorkers gathered, protesting against the action. Military-style vehicles were also seen driving through the area. Continue reading...

President says government owes him a lot of money' for federal investigations during and after first termDonald Trump declared himself the arbiter of whether or not his own administration should pay him damages over past federal investigations, telling reporters that any such decision would have to go across my desk".The president insisted on Tuesday that the government owes him a lot of money" for previous justice department investigations into his conduct, while at the same time asserting his personal authority over any potential payout. Continue reading...

Combo of heavy surf and low tide causes partially translucent gelatinous creatures to litter the tideline'Thousands of sea cucumbers have washed up on the beach in the Oregon coastal town of Seaside thanks to a combination of heavy surf and low tide.The partially translucent gelatinous creatures are called skin-breathing sea cucumbers. They normally burrow into the sand along the low tideline and farther out. But on Tuesday, they were scattered across more than 2 miles (3.2km) of Seaside Beach, said Tiffany Boothe, the assistant manager of the Seaside Aquarium. Continue reading...

Gavin Newsom criticized Trump for endangering people's lives' as shutdown sets stage for delayed food benefitsGavin Newsom warned this week that Donald Trump's increasingly long government shutdown will impact those who rely on federal food support, likely delaying benefits as families are preparing to celebrate Thanksgiving in November.On Wednesday, California's governor said he would set aside $80m in state support and deploy the California national guard to assist food banks. Continue reading...

Sequoia park zoo said staff were doing an inspection when they saw a wild black bear looking in at three captive bearsA wild bear in California has broken into a zoo and paid an unexpected visit to the bear enclosure.In a Facebook post, the Sequoia Park Zoo in Eureka in the northern part of the state said its staff were conducting a routine inspection of part of the complex when they spotted a wild American black bear leaning on a gate and looking in at three captive black bears in their enclosure. Continue reading...

Elite helicopter unit's part in military deployment comes as Donald Trump ramps up pressure on Nicolas MaduroThey call themselves the Night Stalkers and their unofficial motto hints at the group's lethal nocturnal line of work: Death Waits in the Dark." You can flee, but they will find you," warns a rare book about the US army's secretive 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR).Since the elite helicopter unit's creation in 1981, its daredevil pilots have taken part in some of the most dangerous missions in recent US military history: battling Islamic State during Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq and Syria, and Somali warlords during Operation Gothic Serpent; and spiriting Navy Seals into Pakistan to kill the al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden as part of Operation Neptune Spear. Continue reading...

Investigators searched car and deemed it safe after Secret Service officials took man into custody Tuesday nightA man was taken into custody late Tuesday after driving his car into a security barrier outside the White House, authorities said.The US Secret Service said the man crashed into the security gate at a White House entrance at 10.37pm on Tuesday. The man was immediately arrested by officers from the Secret Service's uniformed division, the agency said. Continue reading...

Americans able to buy deadly gangster weapons' again as lobbying forces key concession from Trump officialsUS citizens are free once more to buy some of the country's most deadly firearms and gun accessories, after relentless lobbying by the gun industry and Republican politicians forced a concession from the Trump administration under the federal government shutdown.As of this week, gun owners will be able to restart purchases of some of the most highly regulated weapons in the US, with the return to work of federal employees responsible for regulating the items now reclassified as essential". They include silencers, short-barreled rifles and vintage machine-guns produced before 1986. Continue reading...

The MLS postseason starts on Wednesday night. We assess the contenders for the championship, and take a look back at the talking points from the regular seasonHow little there was between the top teams. When all was said and done, just seven points covered the top six teams in the standings. The Supporters' Shield race was settled with a game to spare, but any one of several sides could have finished top of the pile, which bodes well for the playoffs. Even by MLS standards, the field is wide open. GR Continue reading...

Gaza's media office says Israel killed at least 80 Palestinians since ceasefire deal took effect. Plus, Trump's pick for whistleblower office drops out after racist textsGood morning.JD Vance has expressed great optimism" over the Gaza truce plan, which he described as durable" and going better than expected" during a visit to Israel on Tuesday, two days after Israeli airstrikes killed 26 Palestinians.What are the ceasefire violations? On Sunday, Israel launched lethal airstrikes in Gaza that killed 26 Palestinians after two Israeli soldiers were killed in an attack the army blamed on Hamas. The militant group said it was not responsible because it had not had contact with fighters in the area since communications were cut off in March. The Israeli military later said it had resumed enforcing the ceasefire.What is Israel alleging about Hamas? Israel has accused Hamas of delaying the return of hostages' bodies. Hamas has sent back 15 bodies but still needs to hand over 13 more. The group has said locating the remains will take time as many are buried under rubble. Continue reading...

DEI is being used as a smokescreen to roll back progress and consolidate power. The goal is to rewrite our nation's storyDemocracy flourishes when Black Americans advance. The evidence is clear: birthright citizenship, constitutional due process, anti-discrimination laws from education to housing to employment and equitable small business investments, are all byproducts of the systemic corrections known today as DEI. Yet, in recent years, DEI has been used as a smokescreen by cynical politicians and activists to roll back progress and consolidate power. Across classrooms, museums, boardrooms and federal agencies, the key pathways to opportunity and success are under attack through a coordinated disinformation campaign of erasure, distortion and suppression.The impact of these tactics is concrete and undeniable. Since the start of this year, Onyx Impact's research has found, 306,000 Black women have lost their jobs and $3.4bn in grant programs investing in Black communities has been slashed - including $9.4m in sickle cell disease research, $42m in programs designed to address Black maternal mortality and $31m in cuts to address asthma rates and air pollution harming Black children. Continue reading...

Message sent to fundraising site led investigators to man accused of stabbing Evin Paulos about 30 timesA tip sent to an online fundraising campaign recently allowed investigators to jail the prime suspect in a deadly 2017 stabbing in Arizona - a case which otherwise appeared as if it might not yield any arrests, according to authorities.The remarkable chain of events, which began with a tip to a page on the GoFundMe platform in September, led to the 15 October arrest in Mexico of Michael Anthony Arredondo, who is accused of stabbing Evin Paulos about 30 times and killing him while the two were traveling together. Continue reading...

An immigration enforcement sweep targeting vendors on Canal Street in the Chinatown district of New York City turned chaotic on Tuesday, as bystanders and protesters surrounded federal agents and attempted to block them from carrying out raids