Driver turned himself in to Maryland authorities after initially fleeing scene, where eight children were injuredA driver rammed into a group of people at a children's birthday party outside of Washington DC late on Saturday, killing a woman in her 30s and injuring at least 14 others, eight of whom were children.In a statement released by the Bladensburg police department in Maryland, they announced that the driver of the striking vehicle had turned himself in and had been identified as a 66 year-old man from the surrounding area. Continue reading...
Trump vows to cut US funding as Pete Hegseth says US hit Colombian rebel group vessel and three terrorists killed'Donald Trump on Sunday accused Colombia's president, Gustavo Petro, of being an illegal drug dealer" and threatened to immediately cut US funding to the country, as a Republican senator said the US would soon announce major tariffs" on the country.It comes after the US defense secretary confirmed in a social media post an attack on a vessel associated with a Colombian leftist rebel group. Pete Hegseth said three terrorists were killed" in the operation, which was conducted in international waters". Continue reading...
Like many American cities, Portland has been struggling to combat rising unaffordability and homelessnessWhen Donald Trump said he was sending the national guard to Portland, Oregon, to protect immigration officers, local residents immediately responded with characteristic sarcasm. Mocking the president's portrayal of a city in decline, social media was awash with videos of children in parks, busy farmers' markets and September's falling leaves overlaid with satirical text: war ravaged".When the US secretary of homeland security, Kristi Noem, visited the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) building where protesters had been gathering for weeks, she found a small crowd of demonstrators wearing inflatable animal costumes, not a city overrun by antifascist militants. The reality on the ground did not deter Trump from painting the city as unlivable. Continue reading...
District courts are speaking truth to power over troop deployments. If only the supreme court would do the sameAt a time when Donald Trump has declared war on the truth, it was heartening to see two federal district court judges have the courage to call out Trump's rationales for sending troops to Portland and Chicago as blatantly untrue - one of the judges said that rationale was untethered to the facts".And at a time when the United States supreme court has been so craven and deferential toward Trump, it was gratifying to see that these lower court judges had the guts to do what the high court's six conservative justices have been utterly unwilling to do: speak truth to Trump's power.Steven Greenhouse is a journalist and author, focusing on labor and the workplace, as well as economic and legal issues Continue reading...
US consumers say price rises caused by president's tariffs contradicts his promise to make life more affordableAs a mother of two, Paige Harris has noticed a change in the way she shops for her family.Items that I have bought regularly have gone up in price steadily," she said. From hair dye to baby formula, our grocery list has gotten smaller while our budget has had to increase. Meats like steak are a no-go for our household." Continue reading...
State's Republican-led public service commission to decide on power expansion and prices, as Democrats vie for voiceGeorgia is facing the largest demand for electricity in its history, driven by nation-leading datacenter construction.The Georgia Power company has made an unprecedented bid to the agency that oversees the utility for about 10 additional gigawatts of energy in the coming years - enough to power 8.3m homes, at an estimated cost of nearly $16bn, according to the Southern Environmental Law Center. Continue reading...
by David Smith in Washington and George Chidi in Atla on (#70VSM)
She's been a true Maga believer in the past, but the Georgia representative has lately shown a streak of independenceFor years she was one of Donald Trump's most loyal foot soldiers. Marjorie Taylor Greene trafficked in racist statements, indicated support for executing Democrats and even floated conspiracy theories about Jewish space lasers. Beneath a red Make America great again" cap she became an instantly recognisable face of the Maga movement.Yet in recent months the Georgia congresswoman has surprised friend and foe alike. On issues ranging from healthcare to Gaza to the Jeffrey Epstein files, she has broken ranks with Republicans and won unlikely fans among Democrats. The streak of independence has stirred speculation about her motives - and future ambitions. Continue reading...
Started after the 2024 election, the Unnamed and Unbound: Black Voters Matter Podcast works to dispel propaganda from the administration and build communityIn a recent episode of Unnamed and Unbound: Black Voters Matter Podcast, the co-host Cliff Albright spoke with his guests about the power of resilience and community building during a time of uncertainty. Resilience takes different forms, he said, such as mutual aid drives or Washington DC protests featuring go-go music during the national guard's continued deployment in the capital. As food is becoming more expensive, and as food programs are being cut, whether it's Snap or Meals on Wheels, you've got a lot of organizations and Black communities that are looking at: How do we feed ourselves?'" Albright, the co-founder and executive director of the voting rights and community empowerment organization Black Voters Matter, said. The best of our resistance has always included some form of taking care of ourselves."After the presidential election in November, the Black Voters Matter team got to work. In late January, Albright, his co-founder LaTosha Brown, and the group's legal director and chief of staff April England-Albright launched the podcast about voting rights and organizing to help keep Black communities informed. Their goal is also to dispel misinformation by engaging people who may be vulnerable to the Trump administration's propaganda, Albright said, and need some persuasion in terms of how to interpret what's going on around us". For England-Albright, she'd like for activists to build coalitions that learn from the shortcomings of past movements. Ultimately, Brown hopes that listeners feel a sense of belonging in the podcast and that they are encouraged to build community. Continue reading...
By holding back federal tax revenues, Democratic governors can turn a one-sided assault into a constitutional showdownAgainst Illinois governor JB Pritzker's objections, Donald Trump's Pentagon has ordered hundreds of national guard troops to join his regime's assault on Chicago communities. Trump subsequently called for Brandon Johnson, Chicago's mayor, and Pritzker to be jailed for not supporting his agenda. These are simply the latest steps in Trump's plan not to govern as the president of all Americans but to rule as the dictatorial head of a punitive factional state. Federal funding to Democratic cities is being slashed through executive maneuvers; the justice department is conducting politically targeted investigations and arrests; and the military is being deployed to intimidate fellow citizens. Los Angeles, Portland, my home town of Chicago and other cities have been cast as enemies to be subdued, not communities to be served.This weaponization of federal power represents a sharp break with constitutional tradition. It's not merely ideological hostility; it is economic coercion and the exercise of violence in service of a president's whim. The Trump regime is selectively starving Democratic jurisdictions of federal funds, even as their residents continue to pay billions in federal taxes, with blue states accounting for over 60% of the federal government's revenue. We are being compelled to subsidize our own political subjugation.Eric Reinhart is a political anthropologist, psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst Continue reading...
US government is seeking proof that acetaminophen leads to autism while not providing services and support so we can be included in the community'The Trump administration is seeking to make the proof" that acetaminophen (or paracetamol) leads to autism, Robert F Kennedy said earlier this month during a televised cabinet meeting.But autistic researchers and advocates say they are significantly less interested in the causes" of autism - which decades of research have shown to have a strong connection to genetics - than in support services and research on issues that would improve their quality of life. Continue reading...
A Guardian investigation finds the US soda and snack-food industries, threatened by RFK Jr's movement to change Americans' eating habits, have turned to a group of well-connected strategists, shadowy pollsters and anti-woke' influencersMajor US soft-drink and snack-food corporations are waging a coordinated campaign that aims to pit Donald Trump's Maga faithful against Robert F Kennedy Jr's Make America Healthy Again movement, a Guardian investigation in partnership with environmental watchdog Fieldnotes has found. Their goal is to stymie the Maha-led effort to curb Americans' consumption of soda and ultra-processed foods.To carry out the plan, the companies have turned to a partially formalized network of for-hire pollsters, strategists and political financiers with deep ties to the national Republican party - several of whom have taken steps that obscure their connection to the effort and to one another. In the process, the industry has also been aided less directly by a loose coalition of free-market ideologues who have previously worked to advance Trump's deregulatory agenda. Continue reading...
Unions are battling in court to halt firings and ensure workers retain their collective bargaining rightsAs Donald Trump continues his drive to cull the federal workforce and consolidate his power, labor unions have emerged as some of his staunchest opponents.Unions are battling the administration in federal courtrooms nationwide, after filing dozens of lawsuits to try to halt attempts to shed hundreds of thousands of government employees, strip collective bargaining rights from over a million workers, and gut some federal agencies. Continue reading...
Gavin Newsom says safety concerns forced state officials to close a portion of the busy Interstate 55 on SaturdayThe California governor, Gavin Newsom, has accused Donald Trump of putting his ego over responsibility" over a military showcase that involved firing live artillery shells over a major highway in the state's south.Newsom said safety concerns over the event forced state officials to close a portion of the busy Interstate 5 near the US Marine Camp Pendleton base on Saturday. Continue reading...
Republicans mostly silent as protesters turn out in every state to peacefully reject authoritarianism in No Kings rallies. Key US politics stories from Saturday 18 October at a glanceAmericans in every state marched in protest against the Trump administration, giving voice to concerns that the country is sliding into authoritarianism.Millions turned out nationwide with signs, marching bands, a huge banner with the US constitution's preamble that people could sign, and inflatable costumes ranging from bananas to SpongeBob SquarePants to frogs, which have in particular emerged as a sign of resistance beginning in Portland, Oregon. Continue reading...
by Aaricka Washington in Leimert Park, Los Angeles, C on (#70VEN)
The bi-monthly group gives Black men a safe space to share, reflect and support each otherDesmond Carter is on a mission to save the lives of Black men.Carter, founder of Mental Health Is Real Wealth, leads a bi-monthly mental health group in Los Angeles' Leimert Park neighborhood, and on a recent Thursday, 15 Black men gathered inside a conference room without pressure and without women. Continue reading...
Crowds amassed across the US in planned No Kings protests on Saturday, opposing what participants view as Donald Trump's increasingly autocratic tendencies and anti-democratic actions as president. The turnout, which built on the first No Kings protests in June, reflected frustration over administration moves including criminal prosecutions of the president's political enemies, nationwide immigration raids and the dispatch of federal troops into US cities.
Releasing them from US custody evades thorny legal issues regarding military detention of suspected drug smugglersThe Trump administration is moving to send the two survivors of Thursday's strike in the Caribbean overseas rather than seek long-term military detention for them, four US officials and a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Saturday.The source, who like the US officials spoke on condition of anonymity, said the survivors were being sent to Colombia and Ecuador. Continue reading...
State senator Samuel Douglass, 26, and wife, Brianna, both made comments in Young Republicans Telegram groupA Vermont state lawmaker has resigned over racist and antisemitic chat messages that circulated within the Young Republican political group, another substantial consequence in a scandal that on Friday saw the New York state Young Republicans' charter revoked.State senator Samuel Douglass, the only elected official known to have taken part in the leaked group chat exposed by Politico, resigned Friday over his participation. Continue reading...
Trump commuted Santos's seven-year sentence for fraud and identity theft after he had served less than three monthsDisgraced former US House member George Santos was released from prison in New Jersey late on Friday, hours after the Republican's seven-year, three-month prison sentence for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft was commuted by Donald Trump.An X statement attributed to Santos's lawyer, Joseph Murray, called Trump the greatest president in US history". Continue reading...
No one was hurt in the incident when a wing from one plane struck the tail of another United aircraftA United Airlines plane heading for its gate clipped the tail of another United aircraft at Chicago's O'Hare airport, authorities said.No one was hurt in Friday's incident, and the 113 passengers on flight 2652 from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, were able to leave the plane normally after a delay, United officials said in a statement. Continue reading...
Layoffs follow $8.4bn merger between Skydance Media and Paramount Global in AugustParamount Skydance will begin mass layoffs the week of 27 October, eliminating about 2,000 US jobs as part of a $2bn cost-cutting plan under new chief executive David Ellison, Variety reported on Saturday.The layoffs follow the $8.4bn merger between Skydance Media and Paramount Global, which closed in August. Continue reading...
Customs and Border Protection implemented rule this week, sending Americans with X' marker into panicUS Customs and Border Protection implemented a rule this week that will require airlines to disregard X" sex markers on passports and input an M" or F" marker instead, sending those people with an X" marker into panic.X" markers became available to US passport holders in 2022, in an effort to allow people with gender identities other than male and female to obtain more accurate travel documents. Continue reading...
This isn't the first time Cory Mills has faced allegations of misconduct - but the House speaker wants to talk about serious' thingsMeet Cory Mills, a Republican congressman representing Florida. He is rabidly anti-abortion, incredibly anti-immigration, and obsequiously pro-Trump. Earlier this year, perhaps in a desperate bid to get Dear Leader to notice him, he introduced a bill, dubbed the DON-ument Act", which would make the wall on the US-Mexico border a national monument.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Generation Z women represent the most leftwing demographic in modern US history: There's definitely a gender divide'When Emily Gardiner first started paying attention to politics, she was 15, just beginning high school in 2016. It was the start of the first Trump administration, a moment that politicized a lot of young Americans.Now 23, Emily works as a library assistant in eastern Connecticut and is rewriting the second draft of her adult fantasy novel. She describes herself as definitely leftist, not liberal". Continue reading...
Second member of Sarina Wiegman's England setup joins Bay Collective to sail into waters there are no roadmaps for'On Wednesday, Bay Collective announced the recruitment of England's general manager under Sarina Wiegman, Anja van Ginhoven, as their director of global women's football operations. The new multi-club ownership body, with San Francisco's Bay FC the first club in its portfolio, has previous in recruiting from the Football Association.The appointment this year of Kay Cossington, the influential former FA technical director, as the chief executive was a signal of intent from Bay Collective. Cossington knows women's football inside out and now she has assembled a leadership team with a deep understanding of women's football history and laden with experience. Continue reading...
More than 2,600 events are planned across the US to dissent against Trump's policies. Organizer James Phipps, 75, says: Protest is all I've done all my life'
Johnathan Walton, who was a victim of Marianne Mair' Smyth, had helped UK authorities track her downA US podcaster and author who helped UK authorities convict a woman derisively known as the Queen of the Con" of defrauding a group of Northern Irish mortgage advice customers has expressed disappointment in her being sentenced on Friday to only four years in prison.She scams or tries to scam everyone she meets, and she will never change," Johnathan Walton said in a statement after Marianne Mair" Smyth's sentencing closed the books on a transatlantic case against her. Continue reading...
Former Republican US representative walks free after being sentenced in April to more than seven years in prison for deceiving donors and stealing identities of 11 peopleDonald Trump announced on Friday he had commuted the sentence of George Santos, the disgraced former New York representative and serial fabulist who had been sentenced to more than seven years in prison after a short-lived political career marked by outlandish fabrications and fraudulent scheming.Santos left the Federal Correctional Institution Fairton in New Jersey just hours later and was on his way home", his attorney Joseph Murray told Agence France-Presse by phone late on Friday. Continue reading...
Officers reportedly tackled and dragged several people after authorities told demonstrators to stay in protest zones'At least 15 people were taken into custody outside the Broadview Ice detention center in the Chicago area after heated confrontations between Illinois state police and protesters on Friday.Authorities had instructed demonstrators to remain in designated protest zones", but tensions escalated when officers moved to clear the roadway. Continue reading...
by Coral Murphy Marcos, Shrai Popat, Anna Betts and T on (#70TM5)
This liveblog is now closed.The US Senate failed on Thursday to re-open the government and to vote to fund the military during the federal government shutdown, ensuring that the standoff will stretch into next week.The Senate vote on a short-term Republican funding bill failed for the 10th time with just 51 votes. A second vote on Pentagon funding in the afternoon similarly failed in a floor vote, meaning the process to begin fully funding military operations also becomes a non-starter. After the votes, senators are expected to leave Washington for the weekend, almost guaranteeing the shutdown lasts until at least Monday. Continue reading...
US president said we need Tomahawks and a lot of other things' as he meets Zelenskyy; fraud sentence of disgraced serial fabulist Santos commuted - key US politics stories from Friday 17 October at a glanceDonald Trump has played down hopes that he will supply Ukraine with Tomahawk cruise missiles, saying during a White House meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy that the US may need them for a future conflict.Responding to a question on whether the US would send the cruise missiles requested by Ukraine, Trump said: We need Tomahawks and we need a lot of other things that we've been sending over the last four years to Ukraine. Continue reading...
Justice department submits emergency filing as Trump pushes to expand use of military in Democratic-led citiesThe Trump administration on Friday asked the US supreme court to permit the deployment of national guard troops to Illinois, as the president pushes to expand the domestic use of the military in a growing number of Democratic-led cities.In an emergency filing, the justice department urged the court to overturn a lower court ruling that halted the deployment of several hundred national guard troops to the Chicago area. The district judge had raised doubts about the administration's justification for sending troops, questioning its explanation in light of local conditions. Continue reading...
The sweeping exhibition Monuments, which features 19 contemporary artists, opens in LA on 23 OctoberIn 2021, the city of Charlottesville, Virginia, finally removed the Confederate statues that had inspired a series of violent and eventually deadly white supremacist rallies in 2017.The statue of Robert E Lee, which had been surrounded by white men with torches in a famous far-right propaganda image, was melted down. But the statue of Confederate general Stonewall Jackson, which stood at the heart of a 2017 Ku Klux Klan rally, was given to a California-based arts non-profit, which pledged to use it for transformation, not further veneration". Continue reading...
Lawmakers urge president to allow for repair of housing and utilities after Typhoon Halong devastates villagesMike Dunleavy, the governor of Alaska, has asked Donald Trump to declare a major disaster after a powerful storm devastated villages in the state's south-west, displacing 1,500 people and prompting large-scale air evacuations.The state's senators and congressman urged the president to approve the declaration to allow additional federal resources into the region to repair housing and utilities before winter. The scale of the disaster has surpassed the state's ability to respond, Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, and Nick Begich, the Alaska congressman, wrote. Continue reading...
According to complaint, Mahmoud Amin Ya'qub al-Muhtadi participated in attack on Israel, then applied for US visaThe FBI has accused a Louisiana resident of participating in the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 - then lying about his past and fraudulently obtaining a visa to live in the US.According to a recently unsealed FBI criminal complaint, Mahmoud Amin Ya'qub al-Muhtadi armed himself and gathered a group to cross from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel during the attack that left nearly 1,200 people dead. Continue reading...
More than 2,500 US rallies are planned in all 50 states as protesters call for limits on presidential powerMillions are expected to show out for protests on Saturday at more than 2,500 locations across America, from small towns to large cities, to speak against the Trump administration.No Kings, the coalition behind a mass demonstration in June, is again calling people to the streets to send the simple message that Donald Trump is not a king, pushing back against what they see as increasing authoritarianism. Continue reading...
The indictment of critics including John Bolton rings alarm bells as the US president expands his power and seeks to use the justice system to exact revengeHe who saves his country does not violate any law," Donald Trump posted after beginning his second term - emboldened, perhaps, by the supreme court's bombshell ruling on presidential immunity last year, which many say gave the office-holder the powers of a monarch.Millions of Americans are expected to push back against the president's growing power at No Kings protests across the US on Saturday. The demonstrations come as former intelligence and national security officials warn that the country is sliding towards competitive authoritarianism", in which elections and courts survive but are systematically manipulated by the executive. Continue reading...
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