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Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner after a government meeting to approve the US-brokered deal to release all hostages and implement a ceasefire in Gaza

New York attorney general attracted Trump's ire after she led a civil fraud case against the president. Key US politics stories from Thursday 9 OctoberSenate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has accused Donald Trump and his administration of turning the Department of Justice into personal attack dogs against their political enemies", after New York attorney general Letitia James was indicted for fraud in Virginia.Calling the move outrageous", Schumer was among those labelling the move as Trump's latest effort to weaponize the department to punish political rivals. Continue reading...

Officials say US to establish center in Israel to help flow of humanitarian aid and logistical and security aidUS troops have been sent to Israel as part of the peace deal approved on Thursday to support and help monitor the ceasefire, according to multiple news reports.Senior US officials told reporters that 200 troops will initially be on the ground with a civil-military coordination center" operated by US Central Command to help facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid as well as logistical and security assistance into the territory wracked by two years of war, the Associated Press reported, citing two officials who confirmed the report on the condition of anonymity to discuss details not authorized for release. Continue reading...

Report reveals Maricopa county spent huge sums on items not connected to court-ordered overhaul of agencyThe sheriff's office for metro Phoenix spent millions of dollars budgeted for compliance costs in a racial profiling case over Joe Arpaio's immigration crackdowns on things that had little or nothing to do with a court-ordered overhaul of the agency, according to an expert's report.The report released on Wednesday criticized the use of compliance money by the Maricopa county sheriff's office to fund personnel costs and tasks, either in part or in full, that are not connected to the overhaul. Continue reading...

Data shows stunning shift in law enforcement priorities that has raised public safety concernsNearly half of the FBI agents working in the US's major field offices have been reassigned to aid immigration enforcement, according to newly released data, a stunning shift in law enforcement priorities that has raised public safety concerns.Personnel data obtained by Mark Warner, a Democratic senator, and shared with the Guardian, suggests the Trump administration has moved 45% of FBI agents in the country's 25 largest field offices to support the Department of Homeland Security's immigration crackdown. Across all of the FBI's offices, 23% of the roughly 13,000 total agents at the bureau are now working on immigration, according to Warner, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee. Continue reading...

The president was coy about a peace prize for the ceasefire deal in Gaza - Marco Rubio was much less reticentSo to peace in our time. And why not? The Nobel committee is meeting in Oslo to divvy up its annual gongs and Donald Trump, convening his cabinet - and the media - in the White House had a good story to tell.After two years of death, destruction, starvation and captivity for Israeli hostages in Gaza, peace at last was at hand. Israel and Hamas were on the brink of a historic deal, brokered by the man in the Oval Office, who has made no secret of his desire to be known as the president of peace. Continue reading...

Trump administration has been accused of preparing to severely limit journalists' ability to cover the departmentWith days left before journalists covering the Pentagon must sign on to a new set of guidelines to retain physical access to the department, major US news companies - and organizations representing their interests - remain concerned about specific policies they fear will stifle independent reporting on the Pentagon.The Trump administration has been accused of preparing to impose severe limitations on the ability of journalists to cover the Pentagon and publish information that had not been officially approved for release. Continue reading...

President attacks Chicago mayor and Illinois governor as extra troops at army training site south-west of cityHundreds of national guard troops remained in the Chicago area as city and Illinois officials awaited a judge's decision to stop Donald Trump's aggressive immigration enforcement operation in the nation's third-largest city.It was still unclear where specifically the Trump administration would send the troops who reported to an army training site south-west of Chicago, which was laden with extra fencing and tarps put up to block the public's view of the facility late on Wednesday evening. Continue reading...

Company, which reached $787.5m defamation settlement with Fox News, becomes new entity called Liberty VoteDominion Voting Systems, the company that makes widely used voting equipment in the United States that became synonymous with election conspiracies and Donald Trump's effort to overturn the 2020 election, has been sold.The company was purchased by Scott Leiendecker, a former Republican Missouri election official who founded KnowInk, which makes electronic pollbooks used at voting sites across the country. Leindecker purchased Dominion under a new company called Liberty Vote. Leiendecker, served as the elections director in St Louis from 2005 until 2012, according to his LinkedIn, a period during which he would have overlapped with Ed Martin, a staunch Trump ally at the justice department who served as chairman of the St Louis board of elections from 2005 to 2006. Continue reading...

Seventh round of votes fails to yield breakthrough while president threatens to cut funds for Democrat programs'The US Senate remained deadlocked on legislation to end the government shutdown on Thursday, as Donald Trump reiterated his threat to make Democrats pay for the funding lapse that has closed federal agencies and furloughed workers nationwide.The Senate took its seventh round of votes on competing Democratic and Republican proposals to restart the funding, but neither won enough bipartisan support to clear the 60-vote threshold for advancement in the chamber. In a sign that neither party had budged from its demands, no senators changed their votes from when the bills were last considered in recent days. Continue reading...

White House deputy chief of staff had an odd pause during a CNN interview when asked about the president's power to deploy national guard troopsAn odd moment in a CNN interview with Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, has been circulating on social media after Miller's distinct pause when discussing the plenary authority" of the president. A technical glitch - crossed wires from another broadcast in Miller's earpiece - caused him to stop talking before completing his thought, CNN said.But the term plenary authority", has been taken as subtext for the broader ambitions of the Trump administration to assert legally-unassailable power over the use of the military and other functions of government. Continue reading...

This is the best prospect of ending Israel's war in Gaza since it began. But a long-term solution remains distantDonald Trump called the pause in hostilities he has brokered the first step to a strong, durable and everlasting peace". No one can do more to determine the outcome than the US president. This was, for him, a modest statement, acknowledging that Israel and Hamas had agreed to the first phase of his plan - it being their decision, not his, to break a multi-point agreement into a multi-stage discussion. Two parties so far apart agreed on one thing: both would rather defer the really difficult issues.In Israel and Gaza, there was joy - however tentative- at the announcement. An end to the annihilation, the release of all hostages and the resumption of large-scale aid have all been desperately needed. There is every reason to fear that this will not lead to a lasting peace, and every reason to strive to ensure that it does. In finally reining in Benjamin Netanyahu, and in offering Qatar a security guarantee that persuaded it (with Egypt and Turkey) to lean more heavily upon Hamas, Mr Trump has created an opportunity which must be seized.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Prosecutor says Jonathan Rinderknecht had traits of an arsonist and family expressed worries about mental stateA federal magistrate in Florida on Thursday ordered a man charged in California's deadly Palisades fire to remain jailed after a prosecutor said he had traits of an arsonist and his family had worried about his declining mental state.Federal officials have said Jonathan Rinderknecht, who lived in the area at the time, started a small fire on New Year's Day that smoldered underground before reigniting nearly a week later and roaring through the wealthy enclave, home to many of Los Angeles's rich and famous. Continue reading...

The US president's fervid pursuit of the award is believed to have been a key motivator in brokering peace deals in Ukraine and Gaza

Two who received presidential pardon among six activists charged with trespass and conspiracy in PennsylvaniaSix anti-abortion activists, include two previously pardoned by Donald Trump, will stand trial on state charges that they trespassed on an abortion clinic's property and refused to leave.The six, who were also charged with criminal conspiracy, were due in court on Wednesday, but waived their right to appear - a move that is tantamount to pleading not guilty, according to lawyer John Williamson. A trial date has not been set. Continue reading...

New law signed by Gavin Newsom will define and ban ultra-processed foods of concern' beginning in 2029California will become the first state in the US to phase out certain ultra-processed foods from school meals over the next decade.A new law signed by the governor, Gavin Newsom, on Wednesday will first define, and then ban, ultra-processed foods, the often super-tasty products typically full of sugar, salt and unhealthy fats, from school meals. Continue reading...

Phase one of Donald Trump's peace plan has brought joy and relief, yet it's hard to believe this fragile peace will last

Adelita Grijalva won a landslide election for her Arizona seat. But Mike Johnson is defying the will of the votersThe people of Arizona's seventh congressional district - a vast territory extending across the state's south, along the Mexican border - have been denied representation in Congress for weeks. That's because Mike Johnson, the Republican House speaker, has refused to swear in Adelita Grijalva, their representative-elect, who won a special election to fill the seat vacated by her father, the late Raul Grijalva, in a landslide late last month. Grijalva, a Democrat, has been largely ignored by the speaker. Unlike sworn representatives, she has to go around the Capitol with an escort. There's an office with her name on the door, but she hasn't been allowed inside, and has worked instead out of a conference room on another floor.It is an unprecedented abuse of procedural power on the part of the speaker, one that has had the effect of silencing a political opponent and denying representation to the citizens of her district. In refusing to seat Grijalva, Johnson has defied the will of Arizona's voters, and effectively nullified, at least for the time being, a legitimate congressional election. He has persisted in this even in defiance of his own promises, after saying on Friday he would seat her this week once the House returned to session - and then telling lawmakers they wouldn't reconvene this week after all. Last week, Grijalva showed up to a three-and-a-half-minute pro forma session, hoping to be sworn in then. (Johnson has sworn in other representatives at pro forma sessions in the past.) But the Republican presiding over the session, Morgan Griffith, ignored the effort. On a weekend talkshow, Grijalva said she had heard absolutely nothing" from the speaker about the timing of her swearing in.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Dog named Eeyore attracted sheriff's deputy's attention: He practically dragged me to her'A dog named Eeyore turned into a very good boy and a hero of the hour after leading a Florida sheriff's deputy to where a missing 86-year-old woman had fallen while walking him, bodycam footage shows.The woman's husband reported her missing on the night of 25 September after she failed to return from her walk in their Destin neighborhood in the panhandle region of the US state. Continue reading...

The Guardian's parenting WhatsApp group discusses the recent spate of school shootings and political violence - and how they explain it to their kidsI have been emotionally at my wit's end with the violence."Gabriela Rangel is a glass dispatch coordinator in California City, California, and mother to a five-year-old. Like many parents across the nation, she was horrified to learn about the 27 August shooting at a Catholic school in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Two children were killed and 17 other people were injured. Continue reading...

Concerns that three separate shots would be more costly and time-consuming, and keep kids from being vaccinatedThe measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine is undergoing more scrutiny by the Trump administration in their ongoing reassessment of vaccines despite the worst measles outbreak in decades.Jim O'Neill, the deputy secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the acting director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), called on Monday for new vaccines to replace the current MMR shots. Continue reading...

Voters support progressive economic populism, our survey shows. They just don't trust Democrats to deliver itIf anyone could have broken through as a progressive in red America, it was Sherrod Brown. For decades, the Ohio senator railed against corporations for shipping good-paying jobs overseas and pleaded with Democrats to take the struggles of deindustrialized communities seriously. Yet in 2024, even Brown, a model economic populist, fell to a Republican challenger.Does that prove, as writers such as Jonathan Chait have argued, that the idea of winning back the working class with progressive economic policies has been tried and has failed?Jared Abbott is the director of the Center for Working-Class Politics. Bhaskar Sunkara is the president of the Nation magazine and the founding editor of Jacobin Continue reading...

Tucker Carlson says young people are more health-conscious than older generations. Does it explain why Republicans are drinking less?Butterworth's, an eclectically decorated restaurant in Washington DC, is an unofficial lounge of the Maga elite. A nameplate on one table declares it the official nook" of Raheem Kassam, the former adviser to the rightwing British politician Nigel Farage and a co-owner of the restaurant. Steve Bannon is also frequently sighted holding court over Carolina gold rice - though the signature dish is bone-marrow escargot, which some young Maga politicos swear is good for your collagen.When he opened the farm-to-table brasserie in 2024, Bart Hutchins, Butterworth's chef and one of its partners, was determined to resist what he sees as the new puritanism" of wellness and sobriety culture. Hutchins finds non-alcoholic mocktails" annoying on principle. I did this edict, where I was like, I'm not stocking that stuff,'" he said. If you want to drink a glass of juice, just ask for a glass of juice; I'm not gonna pretend it's a cocktail." Continue reading...

Lawyers scramble as Robert Roberson to be first person executed under theory now widely seen as junk scienceAt 6pm next Thursday, barring a last-minute reprieve, Robert Roberson will become the first person in America to be executed under the theory of shaken baby syndrome", a medical diagnosis from the 1970s that is so disputed it is now widely denounced as junk science.Roberson, 58, will enter the death chamber at the Huntsville unit in Texas, where he will be strapped to a gurney and injected with a cocktail of lethal drugs. He will be put to death having been convicted of shaking to death his two-year-old daughter Nikki Curtis in 2002. Continue reading...

Trump says all hostages to be released and Israel to withdraw troops to an agreed line. Plus, shutdown deadlock deepens as senators reject competing bills

Artificial intelligence endangers democracy - but it's less about specific deepfakes and more about a bigger transformationWe study AI and democracy. We're worried about 2050, not 2026.Half of humanity lives in countries that held national elections last year. Experts warned that those contests might be derailed by a flood of undetectable, deceptive AI-generated content. Yet what arrived was a wave of AI slop: ubiquitous, low quality, and sometimes misleading, but rarely if ever decisive at the polls. Still, given the outcome of the US presidential election, few observers concerned about democracy felt relief. The immediate, prolonged challenges brought by the second Trump administration make it difficult to do much more than react to crises as they happen.Samuel Woolley is the author of Manufacturing Consensus: Understanding Propaganda in the Era of Automation and Anonymity and co-author of Bots. He is a professor at the University of Pittsburgh. Dean Jackson is a senior fellow at the University of Pittsburgh's CTRL Lab, a contributing editor at Tech Policy Press and the principal of Public Circle LLC, a research consultancy on technology and democracy issues Continue reading...

The club will finally begin playing in Miami next season. For local fans near Chase Stadium there are mixed emotionsFrom an abandoned and derelict symbol of failed efforts to establish professional football in south Florida, to the arena where Lionel Messi has dazzled MLS while attracting visitors from around the globe. It has been a unique journey for the site where Fort Lauderdale's Lockhart Stadium once stood.Even after all these years it's so funny to me that Lionel Messi, one of the most famous faces in the history of mankind, is not only playing for our club but playing in this stadium that was abandoned," said Nico Abad, a member of The Siege supporters' group and a native of Broward County, where Chase Stadium stands on the former site of Lockhart. It's where kids would go to do doughnuts and to smoke and drink." Continue reading...

Colorado Republican congresswoman kicks off fourth term run with email to potential donors: They tell us we're crazy'Republican congresswoman Lauren Boebert has kicked off her run for a fourth term in the US House by pledging to pursue the truth about UFOs", said an email from the Colorado politician's re-election campaign to potential donors.For decades, our government has shrouded the truth about UFOs in a veil of secrecy," the Boebert campaign's message on the topic read. Strange crafts have been spotted soaring through our skies, defying the laws of physics, and yet the bureaucrats in Washington act like we're too NAIVE to handle the facts." Continue reading...

Exclusive: Republicans Against Perry are relaunching their campaign to oust Trump ally Scott Perry in 2026A group of Republicans in Pennsylvania are relaunching their efforts to unseat Congressman Scott Perry, the fervent Trump ally who represents the state's 10th congressional district, according to plans first provided to the Guardian.The Republicans Against Perry" (Rap) group began in late 2023, backing the congressman's Democratic opponent, Janelle Stelson, who ended up losing by less than two points in the 2024 election. Now, Rap is restarting their grassroots campaign on Thursday, which includes a slew of electronic billboards throughout the district. Continue reading...

A southern hockey feud has morphed into a clash of styles, politics and privilege that mirrors America itself and exposes how deeply the NHL's power still skewsThe Florida Panthers-Tampa Bay Lightning rivalry was once a regional sideshow, a quirky matchup between two southern expansion teams playing to half-empty arenas and polite indifference. But in the space of just a few years it has mutated into the nastiest, most revealing feud in hockey: one that's exposed the NHL's double standards, cronyism and cultural divide.Preseason hockey is meaningless by design, a handful of perfunctory tune-ups that even hardcore fans barely notice in the run-up to opening night, when the games finally start to count. Yet in the past week the Panthers and Lightning turned a pair of exhibition contests into three-hour fever dreams of violence: 114 penalties totaling nearly 500 minutes in the box, 16 game misconducts and one ejected player who somehow picked up an assist on an eighth goal that shouldn't have counted. It was all-out bedlam before the season even began, but the uneven fallout has raised uncomfortable questions around the sport. Continue reading...

Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen have former an axis of excellence. But which player will break that cycle?There has been a trend in recent NFL seasons. Around Week 8, the MVP race starts to follow a predictable script: Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson (if the Ravens are rolling) will almost certainly feature.Between 2015 and 2019, the NFL had four first-time MVP winners - Cam Newton, Matt Ryan, Mahomes and Jackson. But in the last five years, only Allen has been a first-time winner (Aaron Rodgers, Mahomes and Jackson were the other victors). Continue reading...

Relatives of Israeli hostages who are currently residing in Washington DC spoke over the phone with US president Trump, who told them that their loved ones will all return on Monday (October 13). Continue reading...

Trump announces first steps' to durable peace'; Kristi Noem compares Antifa to MS-13. Key US politics stories from 8 October at a glance

Politicians, poets and academics make posts on social media to laud the US president or share concerns

Witnesses at White House describe being assaulted by leftwing protesters but fail to mention they often confront people and film the responses they provoke. This blog is now closed.

Jonathan Rinderknecht allegedly started blaze that destroyed over 6,800 structures in CaliforniaA 29-year-old man has been arrested and charged with igniting the fire that days later became the devastating Palisades blaze, which killed 12 people and destroyed more than 6,800 structures in one of the most destructive wildfires in Los Angeles history.Jonathan Rinderknecht was arrested near his Florida residence on federal charges of destruction of property by means of fire, acting US attorney for the central district of California, Bill Essayli, announced on Wednesday. No motive was presented. Continue reading...

The plan attempts to thread the needle between creating the conditions for a ceasefire and negotiating a lasting end to the war but hard questions remainFor Donald Trump, a peace deal - or even a durable ceasefire between Israel and Hamas - could be the biggest diplomatic achievement of his presidency.The details and sequencing of a deal to end Israel's war in Gaza remain murky but the statement of purpose by both Israel and Hamas is meaningful. In agreeing to a deal with political backing from Arab states and other regional powers, this is the best chance for an end to the war since a ceasefire broke down in March, returning Gaza to a grinding war that has left nearly 68,000 people dead, most of them civilians. Continue reading...

First vote in Congress on military campaign that White House says has hit four vessels and killed at least 21 peopleSenate Republicans voted down legislation Wednesday that would have put a check on Donald Trump's ability to use deadly military force against drug cartels after Democrats tried to counter the administration's extraordinary assertion of presidential war powers to destroy vessels in the Caribbean.The vote fell mostly along party lines, 48-51, with two Republicans, Rand Paul and Lisa Murkowski, voting in favor and the Democrat John Fetterman voting against. Continue reading...

Purpose of Friday checkup at US military medical center unclear for oldest man to be inaugurated presidentDonald Trump, the oldest man to be inaugurated US president, will visit Walter Reed national military medical center on Friday for what the White House said was a routine yearly check up".On Friday morning, President Trump will visit Walter Reed Medical Center for a planned meeting and remarks with the troops," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement on Wednesday. While there, President Trump will stop by for his routine yearly check up. He will then return to the White House." Continue reading...

During a White House roundtable, secretary of state Marco Rubio handed Donald Trump a handwritten note with the words 'very close' underlined. 'I was just given a note by the secretary of state saying that we're very close to a deal in the Middle East, and they're going to need me pretty quickly,' said the US president

Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego hold press conference at speaker's office over his refusal to swear in Adelita GrijalvaArizona's Democratic senators pressed Mike Johnson on Wednesday to swear in their state's newest representative, Adelita Grijalva, but the Republican House speaker refused to budge until funding for the government was restored.Grijalva, a Democrat, last month won a special election to replace her late father, Raul M Grijalva, in a southern Arizona House district. However, she has been unable to assume her new role because Johnson has not administered the oath of office. Continue reading...

Homeland security secretary calls loosely affiliated network of anti-fascist street activists just as dangerous'The homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, on Wednesday compared antifa to MS-13, Hamas, Hezbollah and the Islamic State, calling the loosely affiliated network of antifascist street activists just as dangerous" as designated terrorist organizations during a White House roundtable discussion.They are just as sophisticated as MS-13, as TDA [Tren de Aragua], as Isis, as Hezbollah, as Hamas, as all of them, they are just as dangerous," Noem said. They have an agenda to destroy us, just like the other terrorists we've dealt with for many, many years." Continue reading...

Move comes after White House memo suggests workers may not get back pay, despite law Trump signed in first termThe Internal Revenue Service said it will furlough nearly half of its employees - about 34,000 workers - due to the government shutdown, making it significantly harder for US taxpayers to receive assistance.In a statement on Wednesday, the IRS said that due to the lapse in appropriations", it would begin its furlough on 8 October for everyone except already-identified excepted and exempt employees". Continue reading...

Authorities say they found convicted killer Derrick Groves after a standoff at a home in south-west AtlantaThe last fugitive from the high-profile, 10-man New Orleans jailbreak in May has been captured, according to authorities.In an announcement on Wednesday, Jason Williams, the New Orleans district attorney, said that authorities had captured four-time convicted killer Derrick Groves after a standoff at a home in south-west Atlanta. Continue reading...

UK ministers preparing to raise payments to end standoff with pharma industry, cited as reason for firms axing British investmentsMinisters are preparing to raise the amount the NHS pays pharmaceutical firms for medicines by up to 25% after weeks of intensive talks with the Donald Trump administration and drugmakers.Labour has drawn up fresh proposals to end a standoff with the industry over drug pricing, including changing the cost-effectiveness thresholds under which new medications are assessed for use on the NHS, according to industry sources. Continue reading...

State attorney general Ken Paxton claims cabal of abortion-loving radicals' practiced medicine without a licenseEight people linked to a Texas midwife accused of performing illegal abortions have been arrested, Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, announced on Wednesday.The midwife, Maria Rojas, earlier this year became the first person to be charged under Texas laws that outlaw virtually all abortions. She is now facing three counts of performing an abortion and 12 counts of practicing medicine without a license. The new arrests were all of people indicted for practicing medicine without a license under Rojas, who operated three clinics in the Houston area, according to Paxton's office. Continue reading...

Proposals from both sides fail to receive enough support as no senators change their votes from recent days