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Trump's planned rally at Madison Square Garden will be the ultimate act of ego and the climax of his Hitlerian rhetoricFor the apotheosis of his entire poisoning of the blood" campaign, Donald Trump has planned a spectacular extravaganza in Madison Square Garden on 27 October, a week before the election. When JD Vance sings Trump's fulsome praises to introduce him, his ominous tribute will not inspire comparison to the night in the Garden of 19 May 1962, when Marilyn Monroe sang Happy Birthday, Mr President to John F Kennedy.Trump's climactic rally will not be in the spirit of any past presidential event ever held there. His gathering for the great racist replacement theory will be the culmination of his spiraling descent since the Charlottesville rally in 2017 when neo-Nazis chanted, Jews will not replace us." Fine people on both sides," Trump said then. Now, at his night at the Garden, Trump will revive the memory of the infamous American Nazi mass rally held there on 20 February 1939 through his reflected Hitlerian rhetoric. Continue reading...

It has been called the great paradox' - when communities who most need government support vote for a Republican party hell-bent on dismantling itA few hundred yards from the shoreline- where the Gulf of Mexico meets the small town of Cameron in south-west Louisiana - my feet are crunching over four-year-old detritus.I am standing among the battered pews of a Baptist church, on shards of glass and wood that are strewn across the floor, gazing at its partly collapsed roof. The relics of the back-to-back hurricanes that pummelled this community in 2020 are still scattered here and throughout much of Cameron. Residents have long referred to this distant part of the US as the end of the world" - but the adage feels more prescient now than ever. The population has dwindled from nearly 2,000 to a few hundred since the storms; empty foundations mark the locations of many homes that were swept away in tidal surges; and a gargantuan gas export terminal looms on the horizon. Continue reading...

A rebuild is afoot in Toronto, Cincinnati's woes continue, while a new contender emerges in the Pacific NorthwestWelcome back to the Guardian's MLS Power Rankings, where I have a beef with your specific team and your specific team alone. Unless you're the last-place San Jose Earthquakes, in which case you have enough to worry about without me getting all up in your face.Now, as a reminder, these aren't your standard, run-of-the-mill power rankings. We're still ranking teams from worst to first. But along with the rankings, we're diving deep into a handful of teams from around the league who are doing particularly interesting things. Continue reading...

Test your knowledge of the past seven days in football, tennis, rugby, cricket, boxing and more Continue reading...

Living in Marseille, I see how bread is a source of daily joy - but the reality of French bakery is not as charming as it seemsFor many French people, the first experience of being allowed out alone as a child is going to the local bakery. The smell of bread mingles with a sense of newfound freedom as the tip of the baguette, le quignon, is torn off on the way home. This is a romantic story, but it holds some truth about the esteemed role that bread and the baker hold in France - and it is partly what drew me, an English baker, to the country.Having worked and lived in Paris and Marseille, I've since learned that although there is much to admire about the French relationship to bread, it is all underpinned by a web of political, social and economic relations that make it not as charming as it may seem from the outside. For one, the sale of pre-frozen, industrially made bakery goods is on the rise. The Spanish company Europastry, one of the top producers in this growing sector, recently claimed that in a blind test you can't tell which is which" between their frozen products and the unfrozen, artisanal equivalent. In France, frozen pastries and sweet baked goods accounted for a remarkable 24% of all pastries in 2021, higher than Britain and Spain.Lizzie Parle is a baker in Marseille Continue reading...

Kamala Harris appeared via video for Al Smith charity dinner, where Donald Trump took aim at transgender people

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US vice president Kamala Harris says 'justice has been served' with the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, adding that the US, Israel and the entire world were 'better off as a result'. Her comments came after Israel said it had killed Sinwar in Gaza. Harris also pressed for an end to the year-long war, saying 'it is time for the day after to begin, without Hamas in power'

In comments to reporters after landing in Germany, US president Joe Biden said he had congratulated Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar's death and that 'now was the time to move on'. He called the killing an opportunity to free Israeli hostages held by Hamas and end the yearlong war in Gaza. US officials have expressed measured optimism that Sinwar's death might breathe new life into ceasefire talks that have so far failed to produce a breakthrough

Justice department says Vikash Yadav, who remains at large, planned to murder a Sikh separatist in New YorkThe United States has charged a former Indian intelligence officer who allegedly directed a foiled plot to murder a Sikh separatist in New York City last year.An indictment of Vikash Yadav was ordered to be unsealed on Thursday, court records showed. Yadav was a former officer in India's Research and Analysis Wing spy service, the records said. He remains at large. Continue reading...

Colt Gray, 14, and his father, Colin Gray, were indicted separately for the mass shooting at Apalachee high schoolA grand jury indicted a father and son on murder charges on Thursday in a mass shooting at Apalachee high school in Winder, Georgia.Georgia media outlets reported that the Barrow county grand jury meeting in Winder indicted 14-year-old Colt Gray on a total of 55 counts, including four counts of malice murder, four counts of felony murder, plus aggravated assault and cruelty to children. Grand jurors formally charged his father, Colin Gray, with 29 counts, including second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and reckless conduct. Continue reading...

After cracking down on password sharing, expanding into ads and investing billions in live TV, group declares successNetflix expects to double its profits this quarter after the world's largest streaming service added more than 5 million new subscribers this summer.After cracking down on password sharing, introducing adverts to its service and investing billions in live TV, the group declared it had delivered" on plans to shore up its business. Continue reading...

Rifle association workers wrote letter warning that inaction against Doug Hamlin will destroy' NRA's comeback chancesThe board of the National Rifle Association (NRA) is facing pressure to suspend the gun rights group's chief executive, Douglas Hamlin, following revelations that Hamlin was involved in the sadistic killing of a cat.The news broke as Donald Trump cancelled a planned appearance with Hamlin next week in Savannah, Georgia, where the Republican nominee for president was meant to give a keynote address to an NRA convention. Organizers said Trump had a scheduling conflict. Continue reading...

Report by independent panel convened by DHS secretary criticises lack of critical thinking' by agencyAn independent investigation into the first assassination attempt on Donald Trump has warned that further such episodes will occur unless the Secret Service undergoes fundamental reform".In a sometimes scathing 51-page report, a panel commissioned by the homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, lambasted the agency for a spate of failings, including a lack of critical thinking", and said it had not engaged in sufficient self-reflection" over the episode. Continue reading...

With the reported killing of the Hamas leader, Israel's partners should renew the push for a ceasefire and hostage dealThe Israeli military's announcement that it has killed the Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar should be an opportunityto end the devastating war in Gaza that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinian men, women and children. The death of the man whomasterminded the 7 October massacres in southern Israel that killed more than 1,200 people would mark a key moment in the conflict. It could renew momentum for a ceasefire deal and hostage release - as families of those held have demanded. With the group's two other key figuresalready dead, Benjamin Netanyahu could declare victory.There is no sign that he is prepared to do so without intense and sustained pressure on him - the sort of pressure that the US has repeatedly been unwilling to exert. Mr Netanyahu knows that protracting conflict extends his political life. It seems more likely that he will vow that it's time to finish the job. The Israeli prime minister said last month's killing of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, had settled the score", and his approval ratings rose. Then Israel launched its ground offensive in Lebanon. Continue reading...

Designation will last 18 months to eligible people due to ongoing armed conflict, states homeland securityThe US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a new temporary protected status" allowing Lebanese nationals in the US to remain in the country and apply for work permits, as the ongoing armed conflict" in Lebanon continues with Israel expanding its invasion and its attacks on Hezbollah.As of July 2024, around 11,500 Lebanese nationals were believed to be in the US on nonimmigrant visas for business, tourism, temporary work or other opportunities, with California and Michigan hosting the most. About 11,000 of them will probably now be eligible to apply for temporary protected status, as well as for deferred enforced departure - in other words, protection from deportation. An additional 1,740 students from Lebanon may also be eligible for special student relief. Continue reading...

Lawsuit accuses sheriff of falsely characterizing Vem Miller's arrest as a thwarted assassination attemptA Nevada man who was arrested over the weekend with guns at a security checkpoint outside a Donald Trump rally in the southern California desert has filed a lawsuit accusing the sheriff of falsely characterizing his arrest as a thwarted assassination attempt for his own personal gain.The man, identified as 49-year-old Vem Miller of Las Vegas, had been driving an unregistered black SUV with a homemade" license plate when he was stopped by deputies assigned to the rally in Coachella, east of Los Angeles, Riverside county sheriff Chad Bianco said on Sunday at a news conference. Continue reading...

Christopher Patrick Laney was also charged in connection with overdose and death of customerA southern California man was arrested on Wednesday after federal prosecutors say he used a drone to deliver fentanyl and other drugs to customers, including one who died of a fentanyl overdose.Christopher Patrick Laney, 34, of Lancaster, California, was arrested on several charges, including distribution of fentanyl resulting in death, four counts of knowingly and willfully operating an unregistered aircraft in furtherance of a felony narcotics crime, and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and fentanyl, Martin Estrada, US attorney for the central district of California, said in a statement. Continue reading...

Lucky Loser, by two New York Times journalists, reveals just how much Donald owes to his father (spoiler alert: everything)The singular piece of publicity most helpful to The Apprentice, a film about Donald Trump that opened in the US last week and opens in the UK this Friday, is the fact its subject tried to block the movie's release. The title refers to Trump's adventures as a young man under the informal mentorship of the notorious New York lawyer Roy Cohn - former chief counsel for Joseph McCarthy, among other things - and from whom, the movie suggests, Trump picked up much of his conniving and ruthlessness. Trump is so lurid in life that he may be impossible to fictionalise, but the movie has a good crack. That it fails leaves one feeling vaguely cheated of an opportunity to deepen one's loathing for Trump with a little more background and insight.With the US election two and half weeks away, any representation of Trump, if it's not up to scratch, risks looking like either an act of hubris or total obliviousness. The Apprentice, which languished in development for years before getting a boost when the actor Jeremy Strong agreed to play Cohn, is at best a tabloid romp in which Trump-as-playboy is compellingly rendered and at worst a piece of counterintuitivism so obvious it's more predictable than a straightforward hatchet job. Sebastian Stan, as the young Trump, injects just the right level of nascent tics into his performance - the pursed lips, the flapping hands, the constant faffing with the hair - so that he appears physically very convincing. At the front end of the movie, the film-makers also make Trump appear gauchely, winningly, absurdly sympathetic. Continue reading...

Ex-president continues to distance himself from Heritage Foundation document as son preps staff blacklistDonald Trump's transition team is reportedly preparing a blacklist of potential officials to be banned from a future administration, with special emphasis being placed on those with links to the radical Project 2025 plan to overhaul the US government.The former president's eldest son, Donald Jr, is spearheading the drive to compile the list of barred staffers, according to Politico, citing a former official in the first Trump administration. Continue reading...

Howard University poll shows 84% of Black likely voters in seven swing states say they plan to vote for Harris

Document printed in 1787 to be sold in North Carolina, where minimum bid of $1m has already been madeA rare copy of the US constitution printed 237 years ago and sent to the states to be ratified is being auctioned on Thursday evening in North Carolina.Brunk Auctions is selling the copy, the only of its type thought to be in private hands. The minimum bid of $1m has already been made. There is no minimum price that must be reached. Continue reading...

Brett Baier interrupted Harris so much she could barely finish a sentence. She still injected some reality into Fox News's world

Netanyahu has broken multiple promises to Biden to restrain Israeli attacks on Gaza. Biden is complicit in Israel's impunityFor the past year, as the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, eviscerated one US-imposed red line" after another in Israel's brutal war on Gaza, Joe Biden and his feckless administration insisted that they did not want the conflict to spread to neighboring Lebanon and beyond. But over the past month, Netanyahu and his government launched an all-out war against Lebanon, with intensive airstrikes throughout the country and a ground invasion of southern Lebanon. More than 1 million people have been displaced, as Israel expands its assault on what it claims are Hezbollah strongholds".And how has Biden responded to Netanyahu's latest obstinacy and constant humiliation of the US administration? Biden keeps sending more US weapons and military support to Israel. On Sunday, the Pentagon announced that it was deploying one of its most advanced missile defense systems to Israel, along with about 100 American troops to operate it. This will be the first time that Washington has openly deployed US forces to Israel since Netanyahu's government launched its war on Gaza after last October's attack by Hamas militants.Mohamad Bazzi is director of the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies, and a journalism professor at New York University Continue reading...

Republican vice-presidential candidate makes baseless claim that big tech rigged the election'The Republican vice-presidential candidate, JD Vance, told a reporter on Wednesday that there were serious problems" in the 2020 election and suggested for the first time that the then president Donald Trump did not actually lose the race.Did Donald Trump lose the election? Not by the words that I would use," Vance said in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. But look, I really couldn't care less if you agree with me or disagree with me on this issue."Don't miss important US election coverage. Get our free app and sign up for election alerts Continue reading...

The US military launched a clandestine program amid the Covid-19 crisis to discredit China's Sinovac inoculation, in part, as payback for Beijing's efforts to blame Washington for the pandemic. One target: the Filipino public. Health experts say the gambit was indefensible and put innocent lives at risk. The covert operation reveals the dangerous intersection of geopolitics and global health during a time of unprecedented crisis Continue reading...

We must make this moment a watershed that quenches the hellfire that threatens to envelop Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and the entire regionLast Sunday night, as I was getting ready for bed, my friend Ali from the South Hebron Hills of Palestine sent me a text which read, Israel is burning sleeping people alive in the refugee camps." I clicked on the accompanying video and I could not believe what I saw: an inferno blazing, people running around screaming, and there, amidst the flame, a body writhing, crackling; a raised arm, reaching out for help, still attached to an IV. I waited for the following morning to share the video, until the event had been reported by reputable news outlets, because the images appeared too gruesome to be real - like they were something out of a movie - but they were real: an Israeli airstrike hit near the grounds of al-Aqsa Martyrs' hospital in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah and killed at least four people. The man that we saw burning alive? His name was Sha'ban al-Dalou, a 19-year-old software engineering student.In the 24 hours since this attack, my social media feed was filled with videos of and reactions to this attack. The reel posted on Instagram by the Palestinian journalist Saleh Aljafarawi has been shared more than 455,000 times. The CNN Instagram post has been viewed more than 1.2m times. Randa, a Palestinian friend of mine whose grandparents were born in Gaza, shared that this event was clear proof that Israel was waging a war of annihilation". Survivors of the attack said the fires were caused by gas cooking canisters. Israel blamed secondary explosions" in a statement.Zak Witus is the young leadership and education coordinator at the New Israel Fund Continue reading...

Hospitality jobs have long kept struggling artists, actors and musicians going. When those gigs go, the arts are diminished tooBefore Stanley Tucci was Stanley Tucci, he was just another out-of-work actor striving to make ends meet by pulling front-of-house shifts in a restaurant. Like so many people in the arts, without the income and flexible hours that restaurant work affords," he told me, I would have struggled to support myself until I was able to do so as an actor." The theatre star Anna-Jane Casey says she needed that work to sustain herself through gaps between jobs. Likewise, the Sherwood and Dear England writer James Graham says working in restaurants enabled him to take in shows and make contacts through numerous Edinburgh festivals. Or as Jamie Dornan says, about his barman years before his big break: It's great for learning people skills, communication and dealing with wankers. All very handy in entertainment."The hospitality sector, which provided all these brilliant, creative people with vital employment in the early years of their careers, faces unprecedented challenges. At least five British restaurants closed every day in 2023, up 45% from the year before. About 50 pubs closed every month in the first half of 2024. The newsbites at the bottom of my reviews online have become a litany of the fallen: farewell Cafe Kitty and Copper and Ink; goodbye Frenchie, and Beverley's the Pig and Whistle. And it's likely only to get worse. Post-Covid, the hospitality sector was granted 100% relief from business rates, which dropped to 75% in 2022. Next April it will be phased out altogether, adding a likely 1bn in costs. That comes on top of food and fuel price inflation and the general squeeze on incomes, which in turn has limited custom. Continue reading...

During this election season there have been multiple extreme weather events, which continue to intensify as the climate crisis worsens. But paradoxically, many of the communities that are being battered by natural disasters are still choosing to back Donald Trump, a vocal climate denier. The Guardian's Oliver Laughland and Tom Silverstone head to south-west Louisiana to find out why Continue reading...

In the nation's most affordable metro area, getting hurt or sick is expensiveOn an October evening, Tom Frost was zooming down a dark state road on the northern edge of Indiana. The father of two had just finished his shift at a small town fiberglass factory. Now, he was doing what he loved, riding a Harley Davidson in his typical getup: black gloves, leather chaps, no helmet.As Frost revved past the corn fields and thinning birch trees that led to his girlfriend's house, a green pickup jerked off a side road and into his path.

Former One Direction star, 31, fell from third floor of Buenos Aires hotel, police say. Plus, Trump doubles down on lies about immigrants eating pets

Robert Roberson was convicted of killing daughter through shaken baby syndrome' - supporters say there was no crimeRobert Roberson, whom advocates say was wrongfully convicted of killing his two-year-old daughter more than two decades ago, is scheduled to be executed in Texas on Thursday amid claims that his conviction was secured with junk science.Roberson, 57, brought his daughter Nikki Curtis to hospital in Palestine, Texas, on 31 January 2002. He told doctors that she was ill with fever and had fallen from a bed. Continue reading...

Trump has repeatedly threatened to deploy the military inside major cities run by Democrats. Senior officials nationwide are preparing to defend their communities from his threatsSenior Democrats in US cities are preparing to defend their communities in the event of Donald Trump's return to the White House after the former president has repeated threats that he would use presidential powers to seize control of major urban centers.Trump has proposed deploying the military inside major cities largely run by Democrats to deal with protesters or to crush criminal gangs. He has threatened to dispatch large numbers of federal immigration agents to carry out mass deportations of undocumented people in so-called sanctuary" cities. Continue reading...

Polls that show Kamala Harris losing Black support have Democrats in a panic. The reality is more complicatedAre Black voters gravitating towards Donald Trump in meaningful numbers? Recent polls and articles, most notably the New York Times/Siena College poll, have set off alarm bells across the country with their survey results finding the former president garnering historic levels of support among African American voters.The short answer is no, there is little credible evidence showing a meaningful shift in the levels of support Black voters give to Democrats. The longer answer is that the current chorus of media concern illuminates serious shortcomings in polling methodology, political interpretation of polling data, and the responsible communication of information to the public in an ostensible democracy.Steve Phillips is the founder of Democracy in Color, and author of Brown Is the New White: How the Demographic Revolution Has Created a New American Majority and How We Win the Civil War: Securing a Multiracial Democracy and Ending White Supremacy for Good Continue reading...

People claim the foreign doctors coming back from Gaza are lying. I wish that were the case, because the truth is beyond horrificFirst come the bombs. A boom, then 2,000lb worth of destructive force flattening everything in its way. Severing limbs, vaporizing bodies, leaving craters full of blood and rubble where children used to play.Then come the drones. As the dust settles, the drones start to swarm, picking off any survivors. Armed quadcopters; ingeniously engineered killing machines hunting for human prey. The drones, many of which seem to be autonomous, shoot everything that moves. Even if it's a helpless child, the drone will sometimes shoot: firing lethal bullets into a soft skull. A scene straight out of a dystopian sci-fi movie set on some desolate dust-covered planet. Except it's not sci-fi; it's reality. It's happening right now in Gaza.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Many US riders are turning their back on the sport in Europe to ride in gravel races back home. There is less support but more opportunitiesFor decades, professional cycling has been dominated by European World Tour teams. But in the last decade, American gravel privateers have disrupted that paradigm.The World Tour is like being in the NFL or NBA," says Peter Stetina, who rode for three different teams on the tour, the highest tier of professional road cycling, from 2010 to 2019. You get drafted and signed. You have a salary and your job is just to pedal, nothing else. Racing is cutthroat, resigning is cutthroat." Continue reading...

Healthcare facilities burn, food and water are blocked and drones shoot their fleeing targets. Yet we cannot say we were not warnedThe killing fields of northern Gaza speak of a crime that was confessed to long ago. The Israeli state is creating a lifeless desert" and an unliveable wasteland", says Medecins Sans Frontieres, effectively emptying out the whole north of the Strip of Palestinian life". Even by the standards of Israel's year-long genocidal assault, this autumn's attacks on the north have been defined by shocking levels of depravity. Yet almost a year ago, this very outcome was detailed on the pages of a seemingly obscure British journal.Giora Eiland is a retired Israeli general who - according to US diplomatic cables leaked by WikiLeaks - described Gaza as a huge concentration camp" in 2004. He is the former head of Israel's national security council, and says he is now acting as an adviser to Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant. Continue reading...

Can the Inter Miami talisman win the league's top individual honor despite missing much of the campaign? It depends on your definition of valuableIn a development that will only come as a shock to newborns and extraterrestrials, Lionel Messi's MLS performances have been absolutely stellar this season. He has been a key part of the Inter Miami team at the top of the standings, has produced all manner of goals and assists, and has generally lived up to the hype every time he has stepped on the field.It's slightly more surprising that if his spectacular run ends with winning MLS's Most Valuable Player award (MVP), it would be unprecedented in North American men's sports and nearly unheard of in the most famous domestic men's leagues in Europe - with one very notable exception. Continue reading...

The 30-year-old is dominating offenses at an age when most of his peers have long retired. But he is also a symbol of the resurgence of the ground gameThe NFL is a passing league - or so we are told. It's been that way for close to 20 years. Every new rule, contract, coaching hire and draft slot reinforces that the sport is now engineered to attack or defend the air. But Derrick Henry, it seems, did not get the memo.In a league that chews up running backs with a ruthlessness that borders on disdain, Henry continues to plough ahead. In his ninth season, the 30-year-old future Hall of Famer tops the league in rushing - again. And it's not even particularly close. Six weeks in, Henry leads the rushing race by nearly 100 yards over San Francisco's Jordan Mason, doing so by thumping away between the tackles. Continue reading...

Our state was a Republican stronghold, but the party's assault on reproductive rights is making many voters think twice

Shares in food company jump 13% after reports Advent is in early stages of preparing an offerTate & Lyle could become the next UK company to fall to an overseas takeover offer, after reports that the US private equity firm Advent International is preparing a bid for the group.Shares in Tate & Lyle, which makes ingredients such as artificial sweeteners, jumped by as much as 13% on Wednesday after the Financial Times reported that Advent was in the early stages of preparing an offer. Continue reading...

At a town hall for the largest US Spanish-language network, Latino voters got few straight answers when questioning former president on extreme policies and lies

Kamala Harris spent Wednesday urging Republicans to vote Democrat as Donald Trump defended baseless claims about Springfield, Ohio