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Latest arrests come after DoJ unsuccessfully fought to force state election officials to set aside about 20,000 ballots

Individual, who also had underlying conditions, was hospitalized after being exposed to avian influenzaA Washington state resident has died after being hospitalized with severe illness" after contracting bird flu, local health officials said on Sunday.The individual was exposed to avian influenza, also known as bird flu, at a dairy with infected cattle in Yakima county, according to a news release. The person was subsequently hospitalized with severe illness and died on Sunday. Health officials said that the individual, whose identity had not been released, had underlying health conditions. Continue reading...

Family of four, two close friends and nanny also died in crash as pilot identified as 55-year-old Jeff GregoryFamily members on Monday identified a young Florida pilot as one of nine victims of a plane crash in Palm Beach county that occurred during a heavy thunderstorm.Nathalia Filgueiras, 20, was co-pilot of the private Learjet 60 en route from Austin-Bergstrom international airport in Texas to North Eleuthera airport in the Bahamas on Sunday when it suddenly plummeted out of the sky, killing all onboard, her mother told the New York Times. Continue reading...

Lawyers for Massachusetts mother who killed children argue new trial would violate double jeopardy rulesLindsay Clancy returned to court on Monday in an attempt to dismiss the charges that she murdered her three young children.The hearing Monday was the second time the Massachusetts mother has been in court since her trial ended with a deadlocked jury in September after jurors were unable to agree on a verdict. Continue reading...

Democrat Mary Peltola's campaign reportedly recruited a second Dan Sullivan in the race in what Republicans call a ploy to split votesRepublican officials have called for an investigation into an alleged ballot-stacking scheme in Alaska's competitive Senate race by Democrat Mary Peltola's campaign.For months, Donald Trump and others accused Peltola and Democrats of recruiting candidates with the same name as her Republican opponent, Dan Sullivan, to purposefully confuse voters when they cast their ballots in November's midterms. Continue reading...

Douglas DePodesta says he was made scapegoat' after collapse of case against Broadview Six anti-ICE protestersThe former head of the FBI in Chicago has accused the Trump administration of pressuring him to investigate the president's political opponents and making him a scapegoat" after a major federal case against anti-ICE protesters fell apart.Douglas DePodesta, who served as FBI special agent in charge from 2024 until July 2026, alleged in a federal lawsuit filed on Monday that the Department of Justice (DoJ) had engaged in misconduct" and malfeasance" in its pursuit of unjust prosecutions - and that he was wrongly blamed for the DoJ's missteps and unlawfully forced out of his job. Continue reading...

Democratic congresswoman Haley Stevens has endorsed the Republican candidate for the Senate after a spat with her party's own candidate in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed. The endorsement stunned Stevens' Democrat colleagues, with one calling it a despicable betrayal' on the eve of the midterm elections. So what will it mean for the race? Lucy Hough speaks to US southern bureau chief and host of Anywhere but Washington Oliver Laughland Continue reading...

US voters will decide whether Republicans will retain control of Congress or whether Democrats will rise up to stymie Trump's agendaDonald Trump will still be US president on the morning of 4 November. But he could be facing a very different political landscape, depending on the results of the US midterm elections held the previous day.As the name implies, midterm elections fall nearly halfway through a president's term. They are often a telling referendum on the sitting president's performance, something Trump is actively encouraging by telling voters pretend I'm on the ballot". In this case, voters will decide whether Trump's Republican party can retain its grip on Congress.All 435 seats in the House of Representatives. Republicans are defending a narrow majority, with Democrats needing a net gain of four seats to take control.35 seats in the Senate. Thirty-three seats are up in regular elections, along with two special elections in Florida and Ohio to fill the remainder of terms that were vacated early. Republicans currently hold 53 seats, against 47 held by Democrats and independents who caucus with them. Democrats need to gain four seats to secure a majority.39 governorships. Voters will choose governors in 36 states and three US territories.Thousands of state legislative seats, as well as local offices, judicial contests and ballot measures on issues including taxes, abortion rights and voting rules. Continue reading...

The two FBI agents were charged with making false statements to Congress while testifying about the bureau's role in investigating Biden's laptopA federal judge dismissed criminal charges against two former FBI officials who were accused of lying about their involvement in the investigation into Hunter Biden, the son of former president Joe Biden, on Monday.Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui said prosecutors failed to show probable cause that the two former officials, Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, had knowingly made false statements. Continue reading...

Lawyers file opposition to Trump's request, telling supreme court justices they do not need to bail out this president'E Jean Carroll's lawyers are fighting Donald Trump's efforts to toss her $83m damages verdict in the US supreme court, telling the justices that they do not need to bail out this president from the consequences of his repeated litigation choices".Jurors delivered Carroll the huge award on 26 January 2024, less than one year after the journalist and author won $5m in her sexual abuse and defamation case against Trump. The president has repeatedly denied all wrongdoing in relation to Carroll. Continue reading...

Former US representative, health secretary and state attorney general is a shoo-in after a stunning comeback victory in primaryIt was Tuesday, and the man poised to be the next governor of California wanted to talk about Donald Trump.Xavier Becerra had come to Guelaguetza restaurant in Los Angeles to talk about Trump's attacks on voting in the state, but instead found himself answering questions about a presidential provocation of a different order. Continue reading...

Sunday's win at Liverpool showed the Gunners are deeper, more experienced, and are playing against a weaker class of contenders than last season

Corporations and tech moguls have spent billions to push provocative - and often inaccurate - political ads for far too longWelcome back to How We Win, a Guardian opinion series with leading thinkers, offering bold ideas for America's political future. Last week, Katie Phang argued that the Epstein files are a midterms sledgehammer. Today's edition was written by Judd Legum, the founder and author of Popular Information. Sign up for future editions here.An unprecedented influx of cash from tech billionaires and corporate interests have been injected into the midterms to sway the election.We don't have to accept the world as it is. There are several ways we can combat dark money, as the balance of power shifts in Washington. Continue reading...

Republican John Sununu tries to distance himself from unpopular president in race against Chris Pappas that has gone from toss-up to lean Democrat'Chris Pappas is stopping himself from getting too excited ahead of Tuesday's midterm election.I take nothing for granted," said the four-term US representative and Democratic nominee for New Hampshire's open Senate seat. This is a very purple, competitive state. Elections are never in the bag here." Continue reading...

Young voters have many of the same concerns as the larger voting cohort, even if many are not registered to voteThe 2026 US midterms are approaching against a backdrop of growing political uncertainty, with young voters increasingly mobilizing around concerns about the country's future.Although nearly 50 million Americans aged 18 to 29 are eligible to vote in the midterms, almost half remain either unregistered or civically disengaged, according to US Census Bureau data. Continue reading...

Patient with chest pains rescued by Cleveland EMS after driver of private ambulance gets lost and leavesAn ambulance driver in Ohio abandoned a patient they were taking to hospital after getting lost and decided to call an Uber and go home.The bizarre incident played out in Cleveland last week when the patient was being transported to the Cleveland Clinic with chest pain. According to the local broadcaster KWTX: The ambulance driver got lost, told her he was done driving for the day, and called an Uber." Continue reading...

As Josh Shapiro, the governor, mounts outreach program, members say you don't get to change anybody's mind'Making hay was more than a figure of speech last week at the New Holland auction house in Pennsylvania last week, where a ton of top quality hay bales were going for upwards of $400, up about 20% from last year.For members of the Lancaster settlement, a term used to describe the Amish population that settled here in 1760, the price of hay was only part of the discussion: the price of horses, donkeys and milk were also topics of conversation and, as it has been for year or more, a potentially deadly outbreak of measles. Continue reading...

Mandatory evacuations in Arizona and New Mexico with Pagosa Springs warned of potentially catastrophic' delugeHeavy rainfall produced flash flooding and mandatory evacuations in a swath of the south-west on Sunday, including in a Colorado tourist town bracing for its main river to rise to historic levels, as weary residents in the normally arid region deal with another drenching.Officials in Pagosa Springs, a town of more than 2,000 in the Rockies located near ski resorts and known for its hot springs, warned of potentially catastrophic flooding" as the San Juan River was forecast to crest at more than 20ft (6.1 meters) late on Sunday night. Continue reading...

Trump called Democratic candidate a jihadist' as El-Sayed's defeated primary opponent backs Republican Mike Rogers. Plus an Australian fish worth its weight in gold

At more than $52m, the race has become the most expensive in US history, but residents are fed up with floodingAida Havel mulled her fate over coffee after working the early voting polls all day in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. We are trapped," she concluded.The Dare county commission candidate lives about 50 miles (80km) south, on Hatteras Island on the state's Outer Banks. Continue reading...

The USMNT striker scored his first goal since the World Cup in a losing effort against Paris FC. Could it lead to something more?Before this weekend, the last time Folarin Balogun scored was in the United States' 2-0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina at this past summer's World Cup. In the immediate aftermath, the outlook for Balogun seemed rosy; an ascendant player who could muster a goal in tense games. At half-time against Bosnia, US fans weren't just wondering how far his team could advance - they were sizing Balogun up against some of the world's best strikers.But for most of the ensuing four months, Balogun has been in limbo. His breakout World Cup was overshadowed by a red card in that same game against Bosnia and Herzegovina, followed by a scandal of which he wanted no part. Just as it seemed a summer move away from Monaco could get his club career on track, he broke off a possible deadline-day move to Everton after a lengthy visit to the training grounds and a medical he felt was improperly handled. Continue reading...

Republicans are focused on a race that could flip the Senate - and where an Alaska Native is favoredDays before Alaskans get to vote, the federal government is already trying to overturn the result.Last week, at Donald Trump's behest, the justice department sued to block the certification of Alaska's US Senate race, if the Republican incumbent narrowly loses; a judge dismissed that suit on Sunday, though the administration said it planned to appeal. On Wednesday, Trump demanded that Mary Peltola, the Alaska Native Democrat whom polls favor to win, be removed from the ballot and prosecuted. Piling on, Alaska's Republican governor has since ordered an investigation into Peltola's campaign. Continue reading...

Journalists such as Jim Acosta and Scott MacFarlane are now competing against their former employers for eyeballsOn Tuesday, for the first time in more than 20 years, Jim Acosta, a former CNN stalwart, will not be working for a mainstream television network on election night.Acosta, who left CNN last year after nearly 18 years at the network, is putting on his own live broadcast at the University of Virginia that will air on YouTube and his Substack platform. Continue reading...

In state where driving is part of life, president's pledge to lower prices at the pumps cuts little iceBehind the granite countertops of Fuel City, a gas station in Dallas where taxidermy deer flank the entrance and hot tacos are served 24/7, Alina Cardenas sees first-hand that Texans are stretched thin.Drivers are filling up less, she said, while ringing people up for cigarettes and beer, and fewer people are buying a full tank. Some stop once they've reached $10 or $20 worth of gasoline. Continue reading...

Major changes in US law and industry have shifted the sources of large contributions to political campaigns - and how much they spendThe upcoming midterm elections will be the most expensive elections ever conducted in the US. And more of the money is dark" than ever before, meaning it's impossible to get a full picture of who is spending gargantuan sums to influence races that could provide a critical check on Donald Trump's second term.The elections have also shown how money in politics is being reshaped, with the increasingly powerful role played by big donors from the tech industry as well as the growing concentration of spending among a few powerful individuals and corporations. Continue reading...

Sites like Kalshi and Polymarket offer faux populism as elites reap the benefits - and voters risk being misledOnline betting is a bit like Donald Trump.The prediction markets - platforms where users bet on whether events will occur - pretend to be populist, pushing the nabobs aside and representing the wisdom of the crowd". This data is bottom-up, not elites-driven," a Kalshi spokesperson told Reuters. But in fact, the markets are controlled by a few, skillful traders. Continue reading...

In a downpour against the Atlanta Falcons, Tampa Bay decided throwing was for losers. They were proved rightI don't think I'm being cheeky when I say that passing is the most exciting part of football. A solid hit is nice, and a big run can thrill you, but this is a quarterback-centric game. When a QB is bad, teams usually lose and fans get bored. So, Sunday's performance by Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers has me positively gobsmacked. I wouldn't say their 16-0 win over the Atlanta Falcons was thrill-a-minute, but it certainly was historic. By completing a grand total of zero passes out of a paltry three attempts, Baker Mayfield led the Bucs to the first game with no passing offense since the Buffalo Bills beat the New York Jets 16-12 on 29 September 1974. If you are miraculously old enough to remember the NFL before the advent of the forward pass in 1906, first off, congratulations on being over 120 years of age. Please email me your full diet and exercise regimen. You're probably on your feet (if standing is still something physically possible), cheering a bit of hard-nosed, classic football. The rest of us young whippersnappers still grinding through our first century are holding our noses.Of course, Mayfield - a former No 1 overall pick - can throw. As recently as 2024 he threw for 41 touchdowns and 4,500 passing yards in a season. But Sunday's game was played in pouring rain that led to farcical moments like this, and Tampa clearly decided that the ground game was the only way to go. That Tampa Bay could score at all, let alone 16 points, is a credit to Bucky Irving and Kenneth Gainwell running as if their lives depended on it. Irving finished the day with 170 rushing yards and one touchdown, while Gainwell had 140. Combined, they rushed 52 times for 324 yards - the most ever in a single game for the Bucs. They more than made up for Mayfield's borderline irrelevance in the pocket. Mayfield made himself useful blocking for his runners, but otherwise, I probably could have started at QB for the Buccaneers and the game would have been the same, other than the high likelihood of me suffering at least one gruesome injury. Continue reading...

Despite the US president's ratings being at rock bottom, undoing his legacy will be difficult, not least because the Democrats are in disarrayThe stats and polling all suggest one thing: the Republicans are set for a hammering in the midterms. Donald Trump has the lowest approval rating of any US president going into a midterm election since Harry Truman. And it's still dropping. The Democrats are projected to win by a margin of 11 percentage points, the largest swing by any party in almost 20 years. It is possible that the Democrats flip the Senate and secure a large majority in Congress. Those majorities would make a material difference, perhaps finally establishing oversight of the policies Trump has brought in during his second term: immigration enforcement, trade disputes, gutting the federal workforce, the Iran war, to say nothing of his own family's corruption. The tide seems to be turning, and one question is on everyone's mind: is the Trump era really ending?Nobody wants to jinx it," wrote David Wallace-Wells of the New York Times, but: All the signs we have suggest that, historic or not, these midterms are likely to mark the end of a political era." What that gives way to is a much more complicated picture in which the US will be delivered from Trump himself, but remains a country riven and undermined by what he has unleashed. By the time he is gone, Trump will have been president for eight years, and a toxic force for more than 12. That is a long time even for a normal politician. Under one who shatters norms and forces himself into the centre of everything, Trump's effect is as if he were president for decades. Continue reading...

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President again took aim at progressive Senate candidate and lauded Haley Stevens for endorsing Mike RogersDonald Trump railed against Democratic US senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed at a campaign event in Iowa Sunday, repeatedly referring to the Michigan progressive as a jihadist".Trump's comments aimed to influence a neck-and-neck race that will play an outsized role in determining which party controls the senate after Tuesday's midterm elections. Continue reading...

Endorsement was met with backlash from the party, condemning Stevens for her betrayal'Congresswoman Haley Stevens, who lost the Michigan Democratic Senate primary to Abdul El-Sayed, endorsed his Republican rival, Mike Rogers, in an extraordinary rebuke of her party's nominee on the eve of the midterm elections.Her endorsement came in a video posted to X after she attended an event with Rogers at the predominantly Black Perfecting church in Detroit on Sunday. Stevens's endorsement was the culmination of an escalating feud between the former primary rivals - primarily over support for Israel - that has roiled one of the most fiercely contested Senate contests of the cycle. Continue reading...

Report: Antonelli wins world championship at age of 20Antonelli claims the Formula One crown - his season in picturesLap 4 of 71: Hamilton inquires as to what action is being taken. He's assured that people are looking into it.For now: Continue reading...

Bowen Wan was on anti-seizure medication, and chatbot provided her with a tapering schedule to reduce dosageA woman's death from an epileptic seizure after she received dangerous advice from a chatbot has prompted her parents to sue OpenAI earlier this week.The legal action is the latest lawsuit that in which plaintiffs allege that a bot provided counsel to a user that ultimately led to their death. Continue reading...

Democratic senator was at his son's hockey game when he felt a numbness in his arm and was in Johns HopkinsDemocratic US Senator Chris Murphy has been hospitalized after suffering a stroke.Murphy, 53, started feeling numbness in his arm while attending a his son's hockey game on Saturday, according to the Connecticut senator's chief of staff, Allison Herwitt. A hospital visit confirmed that Murphy had experienced a stroke. Continue reading...

Voting is particularly high in states with tight Senate races that could determine which party controls the chamberUS citizens are casting ballots in record numbers ahead of the midterm elections on Tuesday, another potential indication, analysts say, of voter dissatisfaction with Republicans and Donald Trump.Voting was particularly high in states that feature tight Senate races that could determine which party controls the chamber. Continue reading...

With affordability a major election issue, the incumbent is trying to ward off her democratic socialist challengerAt the end of 2022, the four largest US cities - New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston - all had Black mayors. It was a historic alignment made possible by the aftereffects of the Black Lives Matter civil rights movement and the unprecedented wave of protests following the killing of George Floyd in 2020.Six years on, only one of those mayors remains: the embattled Karen Bass of Los Angeles, who is facing a strong challenge from a younger, even more progressive challenger. Bass's opponent is Nithya Raman, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, although the group is considering rescinding its endorsement over her refusal to explicitly embrace the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. Continue reading...

Voters are turning against the Republicans. But the clearest possible message is needed to safeguard democracyThe psychologist Jennifer Freyd identified a pattern often used by perpetrators: deny, accuse, and reverse victim and offender. More than one observer has noted that Donald Trump employs that pattern politically. With polls suggesting Republicans are likely to lose the House and perhaps the Senate too in the midterms, the man who refused to accept Americans' democratic verdict in 2020 is hawking a narrative of cheating Democrats who will steal seats via illegitimate votes.The January 6 insurrection showed how acute the peril to American democracy had become. It is more so now. This time, Republican efforts to undermine the results began well in advance. In 2020, Mr Trump's vice-president, Mike Pence, the attorney general, William Barr, and others refused his most outrageous demands; now the justice department is supine. And the supreme court's gutting of the Voting Rights Act, which safeguarded against the worst kinds of racial discrimination, means that states no longer require pre-approval for decisions that could well tilt a race. Districts have already been redrawn. Continue reading...

A coach shaped by her circuitous basketball journey was uniquely suited to building the trust that made Golden State champions just 534 days after their first gameThe mighty, miserly Golden State Valkyries won their first WNBA title on Saturday night with a point guard Dallas had given up on and cast aside, a starting forward who had been waived five times and a late-blooming All-Star once passed over by every team in the league. That made them a fitting match for their coach. Natalie Nakase has pieced together a basketball life on making small openings count, turning a walk-on place at UCLA into a scholarship and an unsolicited scouting report into a coaching job in Japan's top men's league.The Valkyries' nerve-shredding 68-63 fightback over the Atlanta Dream in Game 7 did more than make them the fastest expansion team in major North American professional sports history to win a championship - as 45-1 preseason longshots in their second season of existence. It was proof of concept for an organization that gave overlooked players the resources, responsibility and trust to become champions - and enlisted a leader whose own circuitous journey had taught her what those things could unlock. Continue reading...

US voters will decide whether Republicans will retain control of Congress or whether Democrats will rise up to stymie Trump's agendaDonald Trump will still be US president on the morning of 4 November. But he could be facing a very different political landscape, depending on the results of the US midterm elections held the previous day.As the name implies, midterm elections fall nearly halfway through a president's term. They are often a telling referendum on the sitting president's performance, something Trump is actively encouraging by telling voters pretend I'm on the ballot". In this case, voters will decide whether Trump's Republican party can retain its grip on Congress.All 435 seats in the House of Representatives. Republicans are defending a narrow majority, with Democrats needing a net gain of four seats to take control.35 seats in the Senate. Thirty-three seats are up in regular elections, along with two special elections in Florida and Ohio to fill the remainder of terms that were vacated early. Republicans currently hold 53 seats, against 47 held by Democrats and independents who caucus with them. Democrats need to gain four seats to secure a majority.39 governorships. Voters will choose governors in 36 states and three US territories.Thousands of state legislative seats, as well as local offices, judicial contests and ballot measures on issues including taxes, abortion rights and voting rules. Continue reading...

Republican congressman's support of many of the president's policies has infuriated some of his constituentsThe Republican congressman Mike Lawler is in danger of losing his seat next week. Again.In the last two elections, Lawler, 40, has defeated Democratic opponents in New York's 17th congressional district - one of the closest-run battlegrounds in this year's midterms - with moderate policies. Continue reading...

Trump's utter abuse of the power proves it. As the midterms approach, voters have not forgotten January 6From betraying Ukraine and dispatching masked agents who killed Americans to deporting US citizens and pulling out of accords controlling climate change and Iranian nuclear weapons, the list of Donald Trump's abuses is long and growing still longer, seemingly by the day.Looking back decades from now, historians will see that at the top of this shameful list is Trump's utter abuse of his pardon power. It started on the first day of his second term, when he pardoned more than 1,500 insurrectionists who, on 6 January 2021, had stormed the US Capitol. Continue reading...

Haitian community in Springfield demands dignity and better rights for immigrants as ICE crackdown ramps upMichaelle Louis's feet and legs are aching. She can barely walk.Surrounded by corn fields and the distant hum of a busy highway, the native of Haiti and dozens of other activists are 23 miles into a 45-mile march from Springfield to Ohio's statehouse in Columbus to demand better rights for Haitian immigrants. Continue reading...

The conflict that tore through New England 350 years ago was the bloodiest per capita in colonial or US historyMassachusetts is proud of its ties to the American Revolution. From Paul Revere's Ride to the siege of Boston, the past year-plus has been devoted to celebrating 250 years of US independence. Yet during this time, the state, and New England in general, has given far less attention to an older, more complex remembrance: The 350th anniversary of King Philip's war.King Philip, or Metacom, was an Indigenous leader from the Pokanoket people. Alarmed by English colonists' infringement of Indigenous rights, from seizing land to proselytizing, Metacom led an alliance of New England tribes - including the Pokanoket, Nipmuc and Narragansett - in an existential struggle for control of the region. He gave his name to the conflict, but paid with his life - as did many others, soldiers and civilians alike. With an estimated 800 dead on the colonial side, and three to five thousand Indigenous slain, the war claimed more deaths per capita than any other in colonial American or US history. Continue reading...