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One judge issued temporary restraining order while another judge ruled the government must continue to fund program that helps low-income households

Verdict delivered in favor of Lyndsey Sutherland over death of daughter Jazzy' after doctors failed to identify conditionA civil jury in Maine has awarded $25m to a woman whose teenage daughter died from leukemia after being misdiagnosed with a condition linked to steroid-using men.The hefty verdict delivered in favor of Lyndsey Sutherland on Thursday called for her to receive $10m for the wrongful 2021 death of 15-year-old Jasmine Jazzy" Vincent as well as $15m for pain and suffering, said her attorney, Meryl Poulin. Continue reading...

Request to Fulton county underscores determination to revive president's falsehoods about election he lostThe justice department on Thursday asked election officials in Fulton county, Georgia, to turn over records related to the 2020 election, a request that underscores how the administration is trying to revive one of the president's biggest falsehoods about the election he lost five years ago.Investigators have cleared Fulton county of malfeasance in 2020. Nonetheless, a Republican majority on the board voted to reopen the investigation last year. On the night of the 2024 presidential election, the board voted to subpoena a slew of documents. This summer, the board passed a resolution asking the justice department to intervene and help them get the documents. The subpoenas issued last year seek records related to voter lists, chain of custody forms, ballot images, security seals and ballot scanner paperwork. Continue reading...

A Times associate editor reportedly addressed situation in an email to staff, saying: We should have been on our guard'It was humiliating" for a Times reporter to have quoted someone the journalist erroneously believed was former New York City mayor Bill de Blasio, an editor for the London outlet reportedly said in an email to staff.We should have been on our guard. We should have tried much harder to speak to the people concerned," Ian Brunskill , the Times associate editor, told the company, according to an email obtained by Deadline. He went on to acknowledge the serious damage" done to the Rupert Murdoch-owned paper. Continue reading...

Ro Khanna, member of the House oversight panel, said Mountbatten Windsor should provide informationA Democratic congressman on Friday called for the former prince Andrew Mountbatten Windsor to testify before the US House of Representatives committee that is conducting an inquiry into the government's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case.The statement from Ro Khanna, a California Democratic representative, who serves on the investigative House oversight committee, comes after the UK trade minister, Chris Bryant, suggested that since Mountbatten Windsor had been stripped of his royal titles, he should answer demands for information about his dealings with Epstein, an alleged sex trafficker who died by suicide while in federal custody six years ago. Continue reading...

The world said never again' after Darfur's genocide. Yet it stood by as catastrophe loomedNo one can claim they did not know what would happen in El Fasher. An 18-month siege had already seen war crimes by the Rapid Support Forces, including the execution of civilians and sexual violence. Warnings of the massacres that would follow when the city in Darfur fell - as it did on Sunday - were widespread.The reality was an even darker hell, in the words of UN officials. The World Health Organization says that the RSF killed 460 people in one hospital. Satellite images appear to capture bloodstains on the ground. Footage showed fighters executing unarmed men. Other captives were taken for ransom. The UN says hundreds of civilians and unarmed fighters were raped or killed while trying to flee the city, with clear evidence of ethnically targeted violence. The horrors continue. Continue reading...

Elections across the US next week should be easy pickings for the opposition. But they're finding it hard to beat a player who breaks all the rulesEvery year is election year in the US, but the contests of 2025, which reach their climax on Tuesday, will be especially revealing. These off-year" battles - a smattering of governors' races, statewide referendums and the election of a new mayor in the country's biggest city - will tell us much about the national mood 12 months after Americans returned Donald Trump to the White House and one year before midterm contests that could reshape the US political landscape. Above all, though, they will reveal the division, the confusion and sheer discombobulation Trump has induced in the US's party of opposition.The verdict on Trump's first 10 months in office will be delivered most clearly in the two states set to choose a new governor: New Jersey and Virginia. By rights, these should be relatively easy wins for the Democrats. Both states voted for Kamala Harris a year ago, and the current polls are grim for Trump. This week, an Economist/YouGov survey registered Trump's lowest rating of his second term - 39% of Americans approve of him, while 58% disapprove - the lowest number they'd recorded for him bar one poll in his first term. Trump's handling of the economy gets especially low marks, and a plurality of voters blame the continuing government shutdown, now in its second month, on Trump and his party. If an off-year election offers an opportunity to kick an unpopular incumbent, then Tuesday should be plain sailing for Democrats. Continue reading...

Heritage Foundation defended former Fox News host, others slammed him for platforming white supremacistConservatives are fighting among themselves over the far-right commentator Tucker Carlson's decision to interview the antisemitic white supremacist Nick Fuentes on his podcast, where the two men decried conservatives who support Israel.Kevin Roberts, the head of the conservative Heritage Foundation thinktank, defended Carlson after the episode, saying Carlson remains and, as I have said before, always will be a close friend of the Heritage Foundation". Continue reading...

Top figures and controversial policies from Donald Trump's administration are being sharply satirized this year through Halloween displays across Washington DC.Among the most popular subjects targeted are the health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, who has drawn criticism for cutting funding for vaccine research; Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy, widely viewed as the chief architect of the administration's hardline immigration agenda; Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary accused by critics of theatrical posturing' in her handling of prison operations and ICE raids; and Tulsi Gabbard, the national intelligence director who sparked controversy after revoking 37 security clearances without notifying the White House. Policies and agendas under attack include Project 2025 and trade tariffs Continue reading...

Calling Democrats stone cold crazy', president says nuclear option' is necessary to end government shutdown

About 43% of tickets for typical productions remained unsold this fall as people pledge to boycott the institutionTicket sales for the Kennedy Center's three largest performance spaces have reportedly fallen to their lowest level in years after Donald Trump's takeover of the performing arts institution earlier this year, according to a new analysis from the Washington Post.The Post reported on Friday that it collected and analyzed ticket sales data from 3 September to 19 October and found that about 43% of tickets for typical productions remained unsold. In comparison, the Post reported that about 93% of tickets were sold or issued on a complimentary basis in the fall of 2024 and 80% in the fall of 2023. Continue reading...

US president suggested ending the filibuster to conclude the federal government shutdown. Here is what to know

They've got a bit in common

Agents allegedly denied people held at Broadview private calls with attorneys and blocked lawmakers and journalists

Illinois governor had asked for pause after border patrol agents reportedly used teargas to disrupt Halloween parade

Proposition 50 would undermine the best example of reform in redistricting - and any benefit to Democrats might be negligibleLet's imagine it's early 2031. Democrats hold a three-seat edge in the US House. California has just lost four seats to congressional reapportionment. Texas has gained four.Reapportionment has not gone well for Democrats. In addition to the four from the Golden state, New York has lost two seats. Minnesota, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Illinois each lost one. Blue states surrendered those seats - and electoral college votes - to red states where the Republican party draws the lines: Florida, Utah, Idaho, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas.David Daley is the author of Antidemocratic: Inside the Far Right's 50-Year Plot to Control American Elections as well as Ratf**ked: Why Your Vote Doesn't Count Continue reading...

Americans' health in jeopardy as agency plunged into tumult and inefficiency even after court ruled firings illegalAs layoff notices swept through the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on 10 October, Aryn Melton Backus thought she would be safe this time.Then she received the email: she was part of a major reduction in force (RIF) during the US government shutdown. It wasn't the first time she'd been fired from the CDC by email, nor the second. Continue reading...

Bhuwan Pyakurel and Kamal Subedi's story charts a Bhutanese refugee community's rise - and its growing political divideAlmost 32 years ago, in a refugee camp in eastern Nepal, children sat cross-legged around a small blackboard propped on the dirt, repeating the alphabet in sing-song rhythm. Among them was Bhuwan Pyakurel, a fourth-grader, and his teacher, Kamal Subedi, barely 18.He was tall, thin, and very talkative," Subedi said, now 52. We didn't know what would happen tomorrow. So we went hut to hut, gathering kids to learn." In the early 1990s, thousands of Bhutanese refugees had arrived across seven camps in the region, each day bringing more families, more children, and more uncertainty. Continue reading...

Deeming universities too leftwing, outside donors and state governments are sponsoring curricula that center the classics, Christianity and the great books' of western civilizationA small conservative revolution has swept the humanities at some US colleges and universities. Its vanguard are new programs, called centers or institutes, that have begun cropping up at schools in recent years. Often funded by outside donors or earmarks from state governments, the programs tend to bear names featuring words such as civic", freedom" or classical".These centers do credible teaching and research, and are usually not explicitly political. But their goal, to counter what conservatives see as hegemonically leftwing teaching, arguably is. Continue reading...

US refugee groups say move lowers our moral standing.' Plus, unionized Starbucks workers to vote on strikes over pay and conditions

Miller is one of the most powerful officials in Trump's White House, illustrating how it has sought to overcome a deep state' of professional diplomats

Union says world's largest coffee chain engaged in bad faith bargaining and stonewalled over contractUnionized Starbucks workers across the US are casting their votes on whether to hold a strike amid anger over pay and conditions at the world's largest coffee chain, and allegations it breached labor laws by engaging in bad faith bargaining.Starbucks has faced a rapid wave of mobilization since 2021. Starbucks Workers United, a union representing baristas at the chain, has won elections at more than 650 of its locations in 45 states and the District of Columbia, representing more than 12,000 workers. Continue reading...

What is and is not constitutional is determined, in effect, by loyalists on the supreme court and their bad-faith enablersThe news cycle has continued in a predictable arc. Last week, Steve Bannon, the far-right provocateur and one-time Donald Trump adviser, said in an interview with the Economist that the president would seek an unconstitutional third term. Trump is going to be president in 28, and people ought to just get accommodated with that," Bannon said. (He seemed to be referring to Trump winning the presidential election in 2028 - Trump's current term will last through 20 January 2029.) At the appropriate time, we'll lay out what the plan is."Like clockwork, Trump commented on the idea soon after, telling reporters following him on Air Force One as he flew from Kuala Lumpur to Tokyo: I would love to do it."Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Jeff and Brian Park spent 40 years working in secret at a CIA lab - but science is just one part of their lives

On Breeders' Cup weekend the thoroughbred is celebrated. My aging friend reminds me that the same industry too often steals dignity from the young horses who run for our entertainmentMy beloved friend Pancho is an off-track thoroughbred who has been with me for 24 years. In his youth, in the early 2000s, he soldiered through a vigorous mid-level career on the competitive tracks of Southern California. At nearly 28 now his life is approaching its natural end. Our life together riding trails has been the purest gift. But his slow decline forces me to face the unsettling possibility of euthanasia. It's a decision that haunts me constantly, like a whispering djinn. Some days are good, some are not. Though I dread the day I may walk into the barn and he lets me know he needs my help to die I am consoled only by the dignity of his life. He's privileged where many thoroughbreds of his day and thousands since were not. As it was back then, as it is now and will continue to be, for the young racehorse who dies on the track there is no dignity in the end.As thoughts of Pancho's creeping decline weighed on me, I took a job at a large equine hospital to fill gaps in my knowledge and learn how best to care for him as health problems arise. But after a while I admitted to myself that the more sincere reason I am there is to observe other horses die. It may sound dark or morbid, but it hardly compares with the deaths I've witnessed before: young racehorses with shattered legs or hearts that burst mid-stride, collapsing before an audience in the name of sport.Elizabeth Banicki worked for two decades as an exercise rider in the horse racing industry. Continue reading...

Uncertainty surrounds the signing of this week's trade deals amid the failure to secure reciprocity from the US to cut tariffsOn Donald Trump's whirlwind tour of Asia - which involved stops in Malaysia, Japan and Korea - the US president triumphantly collected new trade deals from countries hoping for a reduction in the tariffs he slapped on them earlier this year.However - China aside - analysts were left asking just how much Asian nations got out of it. Continue reading...

In California, daily life under Trump is marked by sporadic resistance and avoidance. Neither will defeat the autocratsHow would you behave if your democracy was being dismantled? In most western countries, that used to be an academic question. Societies where this process had happened, such as Germany in the 1930s, seemed increasingly distant. The contrasting ways that people reacted to authoritarianism and autocracy, both politically and in their everyday lives, while darkly fascinating and important to study and remember, seemed of diminishing relevance to now.Not any more. Illiberal populism has spread across the world, either challenging for power or entrenching itself in office, from Argentina to Italy, France to Indonesia, Hungary to Britain. But probably the most significant example of a relatively free, pluralist society and political system turning into something very different remains the US, now nine months into Donald Trump's second term.Andy Beckett is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Survey, in which one-third respondents voted for the president, found 56% disagree with moveMore than half of Americans disapprove of Trump's demolition of the White House's East Wing and the construction of a new ballroom, according to a new poll from the Washington Post, ABC News and Ipsos.The survey was conducted between 24 and 28 October and indicates 56% of the respondents disagree with Trump's recent move while 28% are in favor of it. Most of the survey's respondents were white, one-third of them voted for Donald Trump and another third for Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. Continue reading...

RFA will begin closing overseas bureaus, as well as laying off and paying severance to staff members, with the hope that it could return in the futureRadio Free Asia (RFA) has said it is suspending its news operations due to the US government shutdown and the Trump administration's cuts to government-funded news services.RFA has been forced to suspend all remaining news content production - for the first time in its 29 years of existence," said Bay Fang, RFA's president and CEO, in a statement. Continue reading...

Despite rare opposition in the Senate, the House is unlikely to take any similar action - key US politics stories from Thursday 30 October at a glanceA (small) handful of US Senate Republicans issued a legislative rebuke to president Donald Trump's world-rattling trade tariffs in a rare alignment with their Democratic counterparts.Four Republicans - Susan Collins of Maine, Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska - joined the opposition party, voting 51-47 on a resolution to end the base-level tariffs on more than 100 nations that the president put into place via executive order. Continue reading...

Miller urged firings of those who had investigated president to satisfy Trump's desire for revenge, Injustice authors writeStephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, was the driving force behind a purge of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents who had investigated Donald Trump, a new book reveals.Miller trampled the independence of the FBI by demanding firings that would satisfy the US president's desire for retribution, journalists Carol Leonnig and Aaron Davis write in Injustice: How Politics and Fear Vanquished America's Justice Department. Continue reading...

Shooting at vehicle in Ontario comes as Trump officials attempt to step up deportation operations across USUS Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were involved in a shooting in southern California on Thursday, prompting a federal investigation.The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement that ICE officers were conducting a vehicle stop in Ontario when another driver, who was not the target, approached. Officers ordered the driver to leave the area, according to the statement. Continue reading...

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The Times thought they were interviewing ex-NYC mayor Bill de Blasio. They were actually talking to a wine importerIt was a hell of a scoop.Here was Bill de Blasio, the progressive former mayor of New York who has been an enthusiastic supporter of Zohran Mamdani, suddenly turning on the man whom many expect to be elected as the next mayor next month. Continue reading...

Victims to receive payments based on severity and effects of abuse perpetrated by members of clergyIn a nearly unanimous vote, hundreds of victims of child sexual abuse by clergy and other church creditors approved a $230m bankruptcy settlement with the Roman Catholic archdiocese of New Orleans by a midnight deadline on Thursday.The archdiocese reported in a court filing on Thursday morning that the deal was accepted by a staggering 99.63% of creditors, excluding a small group of bond investors who voted against it while suing the church and alleging it committed securities fraud. Continue reading...

Vote passes 51-47 in latest bipartisan effort to challenge tariffs, but House is unlikely to take any similar actionThe US Senate took a stand against Donald Trump's global tariffs affecting more than 100 countries on Thursday, voting to nullify the so-called reciprocal" tariffs.Four Republicans joined with all Democrats to vote 51-47 on a resolution to end the base-level tariffs that the president put into place via executive order. Continue reading...

Abby Zwerner is suing former assistant principal for $40m, saying she failed to act after reports that child had gunA first-grade teacher who was shot by her six-year-old student in 2023 has told a court she thought she had actually died that day and was on her way to heaven after being severely wounded.Abby Zwerner is suing the school's former assistant principal, Ebony Parker, for $40m after she was shot in the hand and chest as she sat at the reading table in her classroom at Richneck elementary school in Newport News, Virginia, on 6 January 2023. Continue reading...

Artifacts such as Native American baskets, ivory carvings and daguerreotypes taken in early morning burglaryThieves stole more than 1,000 items belonging to a museum in Oakland, California, authorities said this week, including historic artifacts and jewelry.Local officials are working with the FBI to investigate the burglary, which took place earlier this month at an off-site storage facility owned by the Oakland Museum of California. Continue reading...

Though the US president's meeting with Xi Jinping appears to have staved off a global trade war, this is far from a win for WashingtonThe diverging verdicts offered by the Chinese and American leaders after their talks in South Korea on Thursday reflected more than the chasms between their personal styles and political cultures. Donald Trump gushed about an amazing" meeting, scoring it 12 out of 10; Xi Jinping reportedly noted that a consensus had been reached, with the two sides needing to finalise follow-up steps rapidly.Mr Trump's usual trade approach - shout loudly and wave a big stick - faltered when Beijing raised its own bludgeon. No tribute of gold crowns or Nobel nomination pledges were on offer from Mr Xi. The US president blinked first - but, predictably, attempted to repackage the underwhelming result as a great success. Continue reading...

Oregon and Virginia also issued emergency declarations to fund food assistance as shutdown imperils Snap benefits

Low number represents a dramatic drop after US previously allowed in hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war and persecutionThe Trump administration is going to restrict the number of refugees it admits into the United States next year to the token level of just 7,500 - and those spots will mostly be filled by white South Africans.The low number represents a dramatic drop after the US previously allowed in hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war and persecution from around the world. Continue reading...

It's ridiculous for the government to splurge on defence while it slashes spending on its most valuable asset: cultureThe US has backed down in its tariff war with China. Thanks to Donald Trump's egotistical diplomacy, rare earths can again flow one way, soya beans the other, and less of the chemicals used to make fentanyl in between. No matter that the war was Trump's own idea and seems to have been a stunt. The stunt is over. Trump has played his favourite game of dealmaker, much to the discomfort of millions.Meanwhile Britain still cannot make up its mind if China is its enemy. In 2008 British officials visited the Beijing Olympics authorities to discuss the next games in London in 2012. The government told them to raise" human rights issues, about which the British government was most concerned. I am told the Chinese reacted with sympathy at the Britons' embarrassment at broaching the matter, and then everyone got down to business. Soon China was a friend, certainly to David Cameron and George Osborne.Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnistDo 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...

Casey Means, a leading Maha figure with an inactive medical license, is Trump's second pick for the role

The Ballydoyle squadron is at the heart of the European challenge in California this weekendAidan O'Brien's gallop towards an extension of his record for Group One wins in a season has slowed a little in recent weeks, but there was still a shield-beating sense of theatre about the scene as his team for the 2025 Breeders' Cup meeting at Del Mar this weekend made its way to the track for morning exercise on Wednesday.Unlike 2024, when City Of Troy was being aimed at the Classic, there is no obvious headliner in the O'Brien lineup, but plenty of the horses trotting past in a well-ordered single file have banked at least one Group One already this season and four are expected to set off as favourite. Continue reading...

We're interested to hear how the looming pause of Snap benefits, as well as rising insurance costs due to a loss of subsidies, could affect AmericansMore than 40 million Americans will stop receiving food stamps on 1 November, as the US government shutdown enters its fifth week.The Department of Agriculture says the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) will be suspended until Congress reopens the government. While the Trump administration argues the department does not have the legal authority to use a $5bn contingency fund to continue the aid, Democrats disagree, and two dozen states have sued the government to force the program to continue. Continue reading...

US biotech viewed as lucrative target partly because of its promising pipeline of weight-loss drugsNovo Nordisk has launched a surprise $9bn (6.9bn) offer for the US obesity-focused biotech firm Metsera that could gazump an existing bid from Pfizer as the pharmaceutical giants fight for dominance in the weight-loss market.The bid comes weeks after Metsera agreed to a $7.3bn takeover from the US group Pfizer. Denmark's Novo Nordisk, which owns the weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, lost out in a competitive auction processin September. Continue reading...