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Election officials continue push to assure Americans mail ballots are safe after supreme court rules against president

Financier refused to comply with subpoenas seeking his testimony for the investigation into the late sex offenderThe House oversight committee voted unanimously Tuesday to recommend that the House of Representatives hold Leon Black, the billionaire financier, in contempt of Congress, after he refused to comply with subpoenas seeking his testimony and nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) sought by the panel as part of its investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. Black contends the subpoenas are invalid" and he is suing to block them.Subpoenas are not suggestions; they carry the force of law and require full compliance" the representative James Comer, who chairs the committee, said in the chamber on Tuesday afternoon before the voting began. Mr Black's testimony is crucial to our investigation because he maintained a close personal relationship with Epstein for years during the time when Epstein was engaged in sex trafficking." Continue reading...

Damaging budget report estimates cost would grow $3bn per month and stockpile could take five years to rebuildThe war in Iran has cost the US at least $38bn and left its stockpile of defensive missiles so depleted it could take five years to rebuild, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has found, in a damaging report less than two months before midterm elections where the war and the cost of living crisis will likely hurt Republicans at the polls.The economic report comes a day after the Pentagon's inspector general finally released its own first review of the war, saying that the US spent $22.3bn on munitions alone through 30 June, put total spending at $33.4bn, and found the fighting had resulted in strategic inventory shortfalls and revealed industrial base bottlenecks for munitions resupply". Continue reading...

Three-month-old Jabal was returned to Park Slope bodega after community rallied to rescue purloined kittyThe owner of a New York City bodega on Tuesday was reunited with the store's cat after a couple passing by the establishment five days earlier appeared to abduct the feline in plain view of a surveillance camera and ignited an intense grassroots search effort.The plight of three-month-old Jabal began on Thursday morning in Brooklyn, when he went just outside the Eighth Street Mini Market where he lives as it opened for the day. A man walking alongside a woman passed the Park Slope market then picked up Jabal, and the pair took off as the kitten visibly squirmed, according to store surveillance video which the bodega's owner, Imad Jimmy" Innab, reviewed after he noticed the cat had gone missing.This article was updated on 15 September 2026 to reflect Jabal's return to the bodega. Continue reading...

During a Senate committee hearing, FBI director answered questions from Republican senator John Kennedy about the bureau's new policy allowing the hiring of people who have engaged in bestiality Continue reading...

Congressman says defense secretary repeatedly violated constitution through his handling of Iran warRepublican congressman Thomas Massie on Tuesday proposed impeaching Pete Hegseth, saying the defense secretary had repeatedly violated the constitution through his handling of war with Iran and the deaths of civilians in conflicts worldwide.The proposal by Massie, an iconoclastic lawmaker who lost his primary earlier this year after Donald Trump and Hegseth urged voters to oppose him, may put House Republicans in a bind just weeks before the 3 November midterm elections, where they are defending their control of Congress. Continue reading...

On Tuesday, the 10-year treasury rate yield reached a 19-year high at 5.041%, even as investors wary Iran war falloutScott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, claimed the government's massive buyback of US bonds was a success.The claim came as the 10-year treasury yield reached a 19-year high on Tuesday, increasing pressure on interest rates as the Federal Reserve weighs another hike to see off rising inflation. Continue reading...

During his 16 August campaign event in Atlanta, Georgia, Senator Jon Ossoff mentioned White House aide Natalie Harp when condemning the Trump administration's handling of the Iran war and USS Lincoln sailors Continue reading...

All deaths occurred in Pennsylvania, in worst year since 1992 for one of the most contagious diseasesPennsylvania health officials said a fourth person had died of measles-associated illness in the worst year for the disease since 1992. All four US deaths have occurred in the state.Due to the Trump administration changing how it reports measles deaths, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) does not count any of the deaths in its national tally. Three people died in 2025. Continue reading...

US president insists that fears expressed by top experts are a hoax - and that humanity can sleep easy while he's at the wheelWe can all sleep easy. In a post on his Truth Social account, Donald Trump has declared that fears over artificial intelligence were all a hoax dreamed up by conspiracy theorists. Obviously that includes the top bods at Anthropic and its competitors, who all called for a coordinated global slowdown while the industry works out how to mitigate the risks. Still, good to know the tech bros are just fantasists and space cadets at heart.All that was needed to keep humanity safe and well, The Donald insisted, was a president with a very high IQ. Someone very like him. The only man alive who could out-think the combined power of the world's supercomputers. He could tell them where to draw the line and they would reprogram themselves to back off. Inside every AI network is a default off switch that kneels before the US president. Trump can rewire the world with the power of his mind. Continue reading...

Senators question FBI chief on move to cut restrictions on agent applicants who have engaged in bestiality

Proponents say sanctions would help Ukraine, but some Democrats say Trump shouldn't have more tariff authority

ICE says it has no updated information on the number of miscarriages after 3 October 2025. Lawmakers, advocates and immigration attorneys have raised alarms that pregnant detainees are not receiving basic prenatal care and screeningsICE is arresting a record number of pregnant women and teenagers - placing them in detention centers where they say it can be exceedingly difficult to access medical care. At the same time, the agency appears to have lost count of how many suffered a miscarriage.Government documents obtained by the Guardian show that the Trump administration placed more pregnant immigrants in detention last fall and winter than at any time over the previous year. Continue reading...

Wage growth - used to set triple-lock pension - slows to 3.9%, meaning state pension should hit 13,000 next year

The player who invented the Peanut Punch talks about his nomadic childhood, love of Chicago and time as a copBy No Helmets RequiredDefensive back Charles Tillman played 168 games for his hometown team Chicago Bears across 13 NFL seasons. Nicknamed Peanut" as a child by his mother, he became renowned for the Peanut Punch, where he would whack the ball out of the hands of unsuspecting receivers. After retiring from playing, he spent eight years in the FBI before quitting over the Trump administration's ICE policies and tactics. Now 45, he spent some of his summer in England, teaching flag football to kids in Liverpool.You went to a dozen schools around the world as a child. Do you share your own experiences when you coach kids now? Absolutely. I share a great deal because it helped shape me into the person I am today. My dad being in the military and us moving around so much helped my personality. I'm very outgoing and a lot of that stems from my childhood, always being the new kid in school and having to make new friends. So, I talk about those experiences with the kids when it feels appropriate." Continue reading...

A petition against the mayor's presence reeked of Islamophobia - and ran counter to the sense of togetherness that followed the attacksEveryone who was in New York on 11 September 2001 has their 9/11 story. My husband and I were at JFK, boarding a plane to San Francisco. Our two sons were home in lower Manhattan, a block away from my 85-year-old mother. They watched the towers fall from our corner. The weather was radiantly beautiful.For a long time, the faces of the missing were everywhere. Their eyes seemed to follow us from the makeshift shrine outside St Vincent's Hospital to the window of our local bodega. We cried at random moments. We slept badly. Continue reading...

Ruling comes a day before homeland security department's substantial restrictions were set to take effectA federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration from implementing a new rule that would limit how long foreign students and journalists can remain in the US without applying for extensions.F Dennis Saylor, the US district judge in Boston, ruled in favor of a coalition of unions and higher education advocacy groups a day before the federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS)'s rule was set to take effect. Continue reading...

Tobacco investments raise new concerns about Dr Nicole Saphier ahead of confirmation hearingDonald Trump's nominee for US surgeon general reported more than $200,000 in business income from a company she owns that sells dietary supplements, a loosely regulated industry that health and consumer advocates say raises concerns about her record and which some critics allege are akin to snake oil".Dr Nicole Saphier, who specializes in breast cancer as a radiologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New Jersey and was formerly a Fox News contributor, is facing a Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday. She filed a financial disclosure and ethics agreement last week. Continue reading...

The United States' next World Cup cycle gets underway with this week's squad selection - here's who we think will make the cutPablo: Matt Turner (New England Revolution), Brian Schwake (Nashville SC), Chris Brady (Chicago Fire), Diego Kochen (Lyngby) Continue reading...

Julia Curlee, a former senior CIA officer, speaks on Trump administration's purge of national security staff, attacks on DEI and failures in Iran warWhen the White House fired Julia Curlee from her senior intelligence position in March 2025, her boss had an odd request: please still show up to work on Monday, but be discreet".The longtime CIA analyst had served in Donald Trump's first term, briefing Vice-President Mike Pence; worked for Joe Biden as a national security director; and stayed on for Trump's return. She had known her days might be numbered as the incoming White House was ousting national security staffers en masse. Curlee is also transgender, which made her particularly vulnerable as the new administration made anti-trans policies a top priority. But she didn't understand her boss's message until she opened her phone and saw the X post: Continue reading...

Civil rights groups have praised verdict on administration's last-ditch attempt to change midterm voting processes. Plus: all you need to know about last night's Emmys

Across the US, anti-datacenter organizers are harnessing community anger to win local electionsAfter four months of teach-ins and canvassing, Steven Kung helped Monterey Park, just east of Los Angeles, become the first US city to ban datacenter construction. Now, the organizer is running for city council - and he's taking on an incumbent who supported the development of the sprawling facility.The datacenter coming to my neighborhood turned my life upside down," said Kung. I saw that there's a dismantling of democracy at a local level." Continue reading...

Discussion has focused on behavioral outcomes. But Meta's settlement shines a light on damage to young people's emerging desires and identitiesDuring the landmark social media addiction trial that led to Meta's recent $17.1bn settlement, a therapist testified that she had once asked the plaintiff - a young woman named Kaley, who had been using social media since she was six - what her miracle day would look like: what she wished to come true, if anything were possible. Kaley replied that she would be prettier.As a psychoanalyst, I find that exchange devastating in a particular way. A miracle day is an invitation to engage with the full range of human desire: with what one might accomplish or experience, whom one might encounter or love. Kaley's answer contracted the world and all its possibility into a single preoccupation with her own image. Continue reading...

The businessman has spent the past decade moving through some of Russia's most politically connected circlesUmar Kremlev, the Russian oligarch at the centre of reports that he helped pay for Donald Trump Jr's wedding in the Bahamas, has spent the past decade moving through some of Russia's most politically connected circles.Born in 1982 in Serpukhov, an industrial town about 60 miles south of Moscow, he has said he boxed until the age of 19 but never turned professional, blaming what he later called a lack of discipline. Continue reading...

Decision allows states to send ballots under process followed for years even as president tried to limit systemThe supreme court on Monday rejected Donald Trump's mail ballot restrictions for now, capping a flurry of last-minute legal action with voting in the midterm elections already underway.The decision allows states to continue sending out mail ballots under the same processes they have used for years. Continue reading...

In interview, term-limited California governor said running against former VP would waste everybody's time'Gavin Newsom, the California governor, will not run for president if former vice-president Kamala Harris does, he said in a forthcoming interview with CNN.Newsom and Harris, both from California, are widely viewed as two of the top establishment frontrunners in the coming Democratic presidential primary. Newsom, who terms out this year as governor, has increasingly portrayed himself as a foil to Trump and is widely viewed as positioning himself for a 2028 presidential bid. Continue reading...

The 84-year-old said he was prepared to cast his first vote after rampant speculation about his healthMitch McConnell, the former Republican Senate majority leader, returned to the Capitol on Monday and cast his first vote after a monthslong absence that fueled rampant speculation about his health.One of the highest-profile figures in Congress, the 84-year-old senator has been away from the Senate since mid-June, following what his office said was a fall that left him hospitalized. After weeks of silence, that spurred demands for greater transparency and stoked online conspiracies, McConnell disclosed that he had been briefly unconscious" and also had to deal with a mild case of pneumonia". He was discharged from a rehabilitation center last month. Continue reading...

Trump administration undermining rule of law at home and worldwide, according to intergovernmental reportKey indicators of democracy in the US have fallen to their lowest levels in 50 years, with the global rule of law significantly undermined by the Trump administration's threats and actions", data from a leading thinktank shows.Around the world, judicial independence, credible elections and freedom of expression, press freedom and access to justice are all at their lowest levels for at least 30 years, according to the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International Idea). Continue reading...

Officers were instructed to search state voter databases and create federal records on suspected non-citizen voters despite concerns over the processDepartment of Homeland Security (DHS) lawyers told officers investigating voter fraud they would not be held responsible for violating state laws around accessing voter registration information, an anonymous whistleblower revealed on Monday. DHS officers also had concerns about the reliability of the data they were working with, the whistleblower said.The Trump administration has ramped up its investigation into noncitizen voting ahead of the midterm elections. Noncitizen voting is extremely rare and the effort has only turned up a handful of cases so far. Continue reading...

US president's eldest child married Palm Beach socialite Bettina Anderson in three-day celebration across two exclusive private islands

CDC announces changes to how it reports measles deaths as Pennsylvania continues to confirm more casesThe Trump administration has changed the way it counts measles deaths amid an outbreak in Pennsylvania, which on Sunday saw the third apparent measles-related death in the state reported by a local coroner.The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is now using data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), which is a way to track mortality trends over time, according to a note published to the agency's website on 4 September. Continue reading...

Lawsuit accuses university of deliberate indifference' and failure to respond to persistent and coordinated harassment'Mahmoud Khalil announced on Monday that he's sued Columbia University, accusing the New York City school he attended of a years-long history of anti-Palestinian discrimination, indifference to harassment, and retaliation.Khalil, a US green card holder of Palestinian descent, was a graduate student at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) when he was arrested at his university apartment by federal immigration agents in March 2025, the first of a number of foreign nationals that the Trump administration has detained and sought to deport over their pro-Palestinian advocacy. Continue reading...

Office of inspector general's report says practice at Florida immigration jail is not aligned with humane treatment'Before the facility was shuttered, detainees at Florida's Alligator Alcatraz" federal immigration jail were frequently locked in outside metal cages no bigger than a phone booth, according to a damning government watchdog report that said the practice does not align with standards for humane treatment".The findings from the office of the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) were published on its website - and offer rare criticism of the Trump administration by one of its own agencies. Continue reading...

The policy allows immigration officers the authority to deny green cards to those using public benefitsA coalition of 22 states and the District of Columbia sued the Trump administration on Monday over a new policy that would allow individual immigration officers to deny green cards based on use of public benefits.The new policy changes a long-established public charge" rule, which dates back to the Immigration Act of 1882, established to ensure that newcomers to the country would be able to provide for themselves without relying on governmental benefits. Continue reading...

Donald Trump's blithe comments at the weekend were characteristically unhelpful. A careful and considered discussion on the subject has yet to beginA decade ago, the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) viewed Brexit as a potential gamechanger in the struggle to resist future pressure for a united Ireland. As the author and journalist Fintan O'Toole wrote in anessay published last year, the DUP hoped that the 2016 referendum would deliver a double exit. Brexit would not simply mean the UK's departure from the EU. It would also be an act of separation fromthe Republic. It would reverse the slow drift towards integration." That proved to be, to put it mildly, adeeply flawed judgment.The direction of travel since 2016 has instead been the opposite. Rather than leading to a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, which would have disastrously undermined the Good Friday agreement, the UK's divorce agreement from Brussels eventually placed one in the Irish Sea. The logic of further economic integration between north and south within the EU's single market was reinforced. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Currently under federal law, up to 25% of a worker's take-home earnings can be collectedHouse Democrats introduced a bill Monday that would prevent workers from having their wages garnished for medical debt collection.The bill would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to include a ban on wage garnishment for medical debt and prohibit any state or court from issuing or enforcing such wage garnishments. Continue reading...

Zohran Mamdani, the New York mayor, announced on 14 September that New York City, alongside several other major cities, will sue the Trump administration over a new rule that would make it more easy to deny green cards and visas to immigrants based on their need of public benefits Continue reading...

Subpoena is among a flurry issued in recent weeks as part of DoJ inquiry into alleged conspiracy against TrumpThe former CIA director John Brennan has been subpoenaed to testify next month before a Florida grand jury as part of a Department of Justice investigation into whether former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired against Donald Trump, one of his lawyers said Monday.Ken Wainstein, an attorney for Brennan, disclosed in a court filing that prosecutors last Thursday presented him with a subpoena for Brennan to appear before a grand jury in Fort Pierce, Florida, on 15 October. Continue reading...

Families have asked Trump to declassify records that could shed light on Saudi Arabia's alleged role in the 2001 attacksDonald Trump said on Sunday that he will look into requests from families of 9/11 victims to release records that could shed light on Saudi Arabia's alleged role in the attacks 25 years ago.Several families have long alleged that a group of extremist religious leaders in Saudi Arabia gained influence in the kingdom's government and aided the hijackers. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudis, but the Saudi government has long denied any involvement in the attacks. Continue reading...

Center's Trump-installed leaders also say it is on brink of bankruptcy and could close as early as TuesdayLeaders of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts say it is reportedly on the brink of bankruptcy and could close as early as Tuesday.The center's Donald Trump-installed leaders argued that putting the president's name on its facade may be the only way to avoid imminent and certain fiscal collapse", the Washington Post first reported, citing documents it obtained. Continue reading...

Woman, her daughter, her son and his girlfriend identified as victims in incident that also critically wounded a childA Louisiana woman, her daughter, her son and his girlfriend have been identified as the four victims killed in a stabbing spree on Saturday that also left a young child critically wounded in the southern part of the state, according to a relative and family advocate.Verna Mae Verdin, her daughter Letha Verrett, her son Paul Verret, and his girlfriend Krissy Lynn Parfait were stabbed to death at their home in the community of Houma, the relative and advocate, Brandon Thiel, told Louisiana television news station WVUE and said on an online campaign raising funds in part for the victims' funeral expenses. Continue reading...

The actor's latest promotion has stirred outrage but will no doubt be good for the prediction markets hoping to lure in young menPrediction markets are a cynical business.Many customers will lose money, and the real product may just be the delightful dopamine hit that comes in that brief window between placing a bet and its outcome - which is statistically more likely to be a disappointment than a victory. So the bettor has to think they are buying more than their own fleecing. Continue reading...

Alexander Zverev was simply too good for the home hope at the US Open on Sunday. Andy Roddick's record may stand for some time to comeOn a Sunday afternoon set up for Ben Shelton to play national hero, the US Open final debutant suffered a four-set defeat to Alexander Zverev, a result that deflated the partisans at Arthur Ashe Stadium. The match compounded Shelton's miserable head-to-head record against the German, who claimed a second career grand slam title without having to face final bosses Jannik Sinner or Carlos Alcaraz. The defeat also extended a long drought - the last win by an American man at a grand slam was Andy Roddick at the 2003 US Open, when Shelton was still a month off his first birthday.After the final, Shelton wore a hangdog expression as he thanked his team and the capacity crowd in New York, tucking the silver runner-up tray under his arm as if shunted off to high school detention. Disappointed with how today went," he said in his press conference afterward. Excited with the progress that I feel that I've made. But, yeah, this one stings 100%." Continue reading...

Until Pierre Damas Bel's death on 31 August, the story of Haitian adolescents in Springfield was one of triumphAt a pavilion west of downtown Springfield, Ohio, 32 high school students dressed in black T-shirts stand silently at a vigil in the warm fall evening air.Some are holding signs depicting the number 11, as worn on the soccer field by Pierre Damas Bel, the 20-year-old Haitian student and athlete who died in an apparent suicide on 31 August. Other students hold signs that read live like Pierre" and Pierre was selfless". Continue reading...