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Two-year attempt to prosecute opponents of police training center on criminal conspiracy charges ends in failureGeorgia prosecutors are facing what one expert called probably the highest-profile failure of using conspiracy charges to indict a protest movement" in US history, after a two-year attempt to prosecute a criminal conspiracy in connection with opposition to the police training center known as Cop City.Fulton county superior court Judge Kevin Farmer announced his decision to dismiss charges against the case's 61 defendants during hearings this week on a handful of defense attorney motions. Continue reading...

In Truth Social post, US president also suggests members consider imposing tariffs of 50% to 100% on ChinaDonald Trump has said he is ready to impose sanctions on Moscow, but on the condition that all Nato allies agree to completely halt purchases of Russian oil and implement their own sanctions.He also suggested members of the transatlantic alliance consider imposing tariffs of 50% to 100% on China for its purchases of Russian petroleum as a way to help end the war. Continue reading...

Invective against Kash Patel includes insults to his handling of investigation, his ethnicity and his reference to ValhallaThe killing of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk has conjured a storm of online criticism on the far right towards the FBI director, Kash Patel, both for his perceived incompetent stewardship of the bureau and his invocation of Viking lore.During the news conference announcing the arrest of Tyler Robinson, 22, the alleged killer of Kirk at a Salt Lake City campus on Wednesday, Patel made triumphant statements as the Utah governor, Spencer Cox, looked on. Continue reading...

The sex offender was worth $600m when he died, but exactly how he acquired his wealth remains a mysteryJeffrey Epstein was a very wealthy man, but exactly how wealthy and where that money came from remains shrouded in mystery.Newly unearthed emails last week shone light on Epstein's role as freelance client development officer, acting as a channel between political figures and business titans, greasing up the former with lifestyles they could not afford and the latter with avenues of political influence. Continue reading...

Survivors of previous eras of xenophobia say the harms done have lasted generations - and what's happening now threatens to do the sameMass expulsion, babies born behind barbed wire, intrusive medical exams for newcomers, families torn apart: these aren't scenes from Donald Trump's promised second-term immigration crackdown, but from the US's extensive history of xenophobic immigration policy.While so many Americans watched in horror at Immigration and Customs Enforcement's military-like raids across Los Angeles this summer, US cruelty and violence towards immigrants is nothing new, from the Chinese Exclusion Act to the mass deportation of Mexican Americans during the Great Depression. As the Trump administration escalates its attacks on immigrants - or those perceived to be immigrants - survivors of previous eras of xenophobia say it's more important than ever to remember the past. The harms done to them and their families have lasted generations, and what's happening now threatens to do the same. Continue reading...

The slain head of Turning Point USA stoked campus culture wars and treated faculty and students as enemies'Charlie Kirk, the far-right activist killed this week while speaking at a campus event at Utah Valley University, never graduated from the community college he briefly attended. But his lack of a degree didn't stop him from assuming a defining role in the ongoing transformation of US higher education.Kirk pioneered a style of ideological warfare against what he viewed as bastions of leftism, helping turn campuses into cultural battlefields and paving the way for Donald Trump's unprecedented campaign to weaken American universities and subject them to his movement's ideological agenda. Continue reading...

The country's finest male intellectuals - including some in positions of power - are weighing in on the matterShould women in the US have the right to vote? You'd be forgiven for assuming this particular issue was sorted out quite a long time ago. But, because we live in hell, it seems the question is once again up for debate.Not by women, though; the fairer sex is obviously too emotional for such muscular discussion. So please sit this one out, ladies, and listen to what America's finest male intellectuals have to say.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Reaction to the shocking killing of Charlie Kirk has largely overlooked the obvious: the country is awash with guns and people prepared to use them on fellow AmericansAt 12.23pm on Wednesday, as the rightwing influencer and provocateur Charlie Kirk was addressing a large crowd at Utah Valley University, a single shot rang out. He was struck fatally by a bullet in the neck, sending thousands of screaming students scattering in all directions and propelling the country into a new and dangerous crisis.Exactly one minute later, at 12.24pm, about 450 miles to the east in Colorado, a 911 call came in to first responders in the mountain town of Evergreen. A 16-year-old student had opened fire with a revolver on high school grounds, critically injuring two fellow students before turning the handgun on himself. Continue reading...

Erika Kirk, the widow of the conservative activist, delivered her first public remarks on Friday. In a livestreamed speech, she thanked Donald Trump, his vice-president, JD Vance, and law enforcement officials for their support since her husband's death

Document appears to undermine claim from Donald Trump allies that Cook committed mortgage fraudA loan estimate for an Atlanta home purchased by Lisa Cook, the Federal Reserve governor accused of mortgage fraud by the Trump administration, shows that Cook had declared the property as a vacation home", according to a document reviewed by Reuters.The document, dated 28 May 2021, was issued to Cook by her credit union in the weeks before she completed the purchase and shows that she had told the lender that the Atlanta property would not be her primary residence. The document appears to counter other documentation that Cook's critics have cited in support of their claims that she committed mortgage fraud by reporting two different homes as her primary residence, two independent real-estate experts said. Continue reading...

Brianna Ladapo, the wife of Florida surgeon general Dr Joseph Ladapo, claims her husband won't work with anyone she hasn't vettedThe wife of Florida surgeon general Dr Joseph Ladapo, a leading vaccine skeptic, believes that angels have spoken to her and that dark forces" are targeting her family with chemtrails, and has claimed her husband won't work with anyone she hasn't vetted.In published works and interviews reviewed by the Guardian, Brianna Ladapo - who edited her husband's USA Today op-ed from March 2020 against Covid-19 shutdowns and appears alongside him at conferences - claims to have regularly received visions that come true and believes her life has been saved multiple times" by angels. Continue reading...

No item of clothing seems to go through revisions more than jeans. And the denim discourse is insufferableIf you're reading this, there's a good chance you are wearing clothes. Or my byline photo made you spontaneously strip down to nothing but a pair of crusty underwear and a smile. I don't judge, and I also don't blame you. That photo is from a decade ago.Assuming you're in clothes, then you had to decide what to wear. It's an arduous task for most of us - the rummaging in a closet, color coordinating, the classic smell" test to confirm you can go another week without doing your laundry. For me, dressing is a joy. I have multiple closets stocked with clothes - suits, mostly. I have some shorts, some sweats, hoodies and T-shirts, but those are for special occasions only. Like a kid's birthday or a hangover.Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist Continue reading...

Slain far-right influencer was was instrumental in driving youth support for Trump's re-election in 2020

Will Canelo's power or Crawford's precision prove the decisive factor in Saturday night's showdown in Las Vegas? Our writers set out the arguments on both sidesFor years Bud Crawford's name has been synonymous with patience. Denied mainstream recognition and opportunities against name-brand fighters, he kept beating everyone they put in front of him until he'd unified all four titles at junior welterweight. Then he did it again at welterweight with a dismantling of Errol Spence Jr so complete it cemented his place in boxing's pound-for-pound S-tier alongside Naoya Inoue and Oleksandr Usyk. His gifts are obvious: the ability to switch seamlessly between stances, to read rhythms like sheet music, and to mete out punishment with icy composure once he's cracked the code. Continue reading...

Portugal star will hand Gianni Infantino the perfect publicity coup if he does play in America for the first time in more than 10 years, having already begun cosying up to Donald TrumpIs it still safe to stage the World Cup in the United States? After more headline evidence this week of the extreme nature of American gun violence, some may conclude that the answer is no. Nine months out from the opening game, it is now almost impossible to ignore this. But believe it or not statistics suggest more than 300 people will have been shot in America last Wednesday alone.The same number will also be shot on Friday, Saturday, every day next week, and every day of World Cup year. On average 127 of these unnamed, largely non-famous people not called things such as the superstar influencer Charlie Kirk will die each day. Within this, youth gun deaths will be both alarmingly high and a register of social injustice: a disproportionate 46% of all young people shot will be black. Continue reading...

Feminism exposed the ubiquity of child abuse, rape, sexual harassment and domestic violence - and helped fight that cultureI was there. I kept the receipts. I remember how normalized the sexual exploitation of teenage girls and even tweens by adult men was, how it showed up in movies, in the tales of rock stars and baby groupies", in counterculture and mainstream culture, how normalized rape, exploitation, grooming, objectification, commodification was.The last Woody Allen movie I ever saw was Manhattan, in which he cast himself as more or less himself, a dweeb in his mid-40s, dating a high school student played by Mariel Hemingway. She was my age, 17, and I was only too familiar with creeps, and the movie creeped me out, even though it was only long afterward that I read that she said he was at the time pressuring her to get sexually involved with him in real life.Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. She is the author of Orwell's Roses and co-editor with Thelma Young Lutunatabua of the climate anthology Continue reading...

In statement Friday, Erika Kirk says evildoers responsible for my husband's assassination have no idea what they have done'

President sought to cast people on the left as sole problem of US politics, while widow of Charlie Kirk said her cries will echo around the world like a battle cry' - key stories from 12 September at a glanceDonald Trump on Friday advocated for the death penalty in the killing of his close associate Charlie Kirk, as the widow of the rightwing activist spoke publicly for the first time since the shooting.The president told Fox & Friends in an interview - during which he also announced that a suspect was in custody - that he hopes the shooter gets the death penalty". He added: Charlie Kirk was the finest person. He didn't deserve this". Continue reading...

In Washington, a small city some 260 miles from where Kirk was killed, neighbors expressed shock and surprise at arrest of local college studentEditor's note: This article was updated on 12 September 2025 to remove summarized quotes after the verified source who attended high school with Tyler Robinson said after publication that they could not accurately remember details of their relationship.The quiet neighborhood was like many others in the sun-baked city of Washington, Utah, which lies amid the red rock and sagebrush mesas of the Utah-Arizona borderlands. Continue reading...

Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez shot and killed and officer injured in incident in Franklin Park, IllinoisA man was fatally shot during a vehicle stop on the outskirts of Chicago by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers after attempting to flee the scene, according to officials, and another officer was injured during the altercation.Ice released the following statement after the shooting: This morning in Chicago, Ice officers were conducting targeted local enforcement activity during a vehicle stop, the suspect resisted and attempted to drive his vehicle into the arrest team, striking an officer and subsequently dragging him as he fled the scene, fearing for his life, the officer discharged his firearm and struck the subject. Both the officer and subject immediately received medical treatment and were transferred to a local hospital." Continue reading...

Spencer Cox said a family friend of the suspect, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, contacted authorities and said he implied he committed the incident'

Demonstrators gathered outside an Ice detention facility in the Broadview suburb west of Chicago on Friday to denounce the Trump administration's increased crackdown on undocumented immigrants in Illinois. About six miles away, officials said a man was fatally shot during a vehicle stop on the outskirts of Chicago by Ice officers after attempting to flee the scene

Democrats Chris Van Hollen and Jeff Merkley reach inescapable conclusion' after fact-finding trip to regionTwo Democratic senators claim they have reached the inescapable conclusion" that Israel is acting on a systematic plan to destroy and ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Gaza to force local people to leave, and they say the US is complicit.Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Jeff Merkley of Oregon, both members of the Senate foreign relations committee, released their findings in a report on Thursday after returning from a congressional delegation to the Middle East where, they note, the destruction goes beyond bombs and bullets. They say they also found a systematic campaign to strangle humanitarian aid, which they call using food as a weapon of war". Continue reading...

Utah officials say they were contacted by family friend of Tyler Robinson, 22, accused of killing rightwing activistThe initial portrait emerging of the man authorities say killed the conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah is a complicated one.Tyler James Robinson, 22, was arrested on Thursday after contacting a family friend who then called the sheriff's office in Washington county, Utah, officials said. Washington county is 260 miles south of Orem, home of Utah Valley University (UVU), where Kirk was killed. Continue reading...

Surveillance footage of person suspected of fatally shooting the rightwing activist set in motion a rapid series of events

In their humane responses to the killing of Charlie Kirk, Democrats are observing the old norms. Things are different now: anger and division rule

Loomer accused TPUSA founder of betraying president in July but now bashes those she perceives to celebrate' his assassination

Conservative activist and Trump ally was shot dead at a Utah Valley University event on Wednesday

Conspiracy theorists wonder about what Epstein and his powerful friends may have done to cover up his crimes. But they barely were covered upJeffrey Epstein had a lot of friends. When his girlfriend-cum-assistant and convicted fellow sex trafficker, Ghislane Maxwell, set out to compile letters, drawings and well wishes from friends in celebration of the pedophile financier's 50th birthday in 2003, the resulting scrapbook was 238 pages long. The book, titled The First 50 Years, included letters from prominent well-wishers such as former president Bill Clinton and the Bear Stearns executives James Cayne and Alan Greenberg, as well as from the late Jean-Luc Brunel, a French modeling scout and Epstein's fellow pedophilic rapist.The lawyer and longtime Epstein friend Alan Dershowitz contributed a mock cover of the magazine Vanity Fair, which was working on a profile of Epstein at the time; Peter Mandelson, until this week the UK ambassador to the United States, wrote that Epstein was my best pal!" The fashion designer Vera Wang compared Epstein to the contestant on the reality series The Bachelor, and the Microsoft executive and Bill Gates deputy Nathan Myhrvold included photos from a recent trip to Africa, writing that they were more appropriate than anything I could put in words". The photos included images of lions and zebras copulating, as well as of a zebra with a visible penis.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Utah governor Spencer Cox confirmed today that Tyler Robinson, 22, is the prime suspect in the murder of rightwing activist Charlie Kirk. Kirk was shot in the neck while speaking at a campus event at Utah Valley University. In a press conference, Cox said: 'Robinson reached out to a family friend who contacted the Washington County Sheriff's Office with information that Robinson had confessed to them or implied that he had committed the incident'

Brian Gavidia, plaintiff in lawsuit alleging blatant racial profiling', says encounter with agent has left lasting scarsBrian Gavidia can't sleep. It's been three months since federal immigration agents accosted him, twisting his arm and pushing him into a metal fence outside a Los Angeles tow yard as he tried to tell them he is a US citizen.Now, he frequently finds himself awake late into the night, wondering: are they coming for me? Continue reading...

Three people have died in two years at the South Korean Hyundai-LG battery plant in EllabellA week after a federal immigration raid on a South Korean battery plant under construction in Georgia, concerns over the economic fallout have reverberated between the United States and South Korea. The detention of more than 300 Korean workers at the Hyundai-LG worksite in Ellabell has created uncertainty both about the future of the project and those like it in Georgia, as well as the exact reasons for the aggressive and unusual workplace raid.One reason that may have driven immigration officials to take actions that threaten an important trade relationship and a politically and economically sensitive development in one of the poorest parts of the US: workplace safety issues that led to three deaths in two years. Continue reading...

Deadly airstrike was Benjamin Netanyahu's latest move to obstruct peace negotiations, threatening Qatar's role as intermediaryWhen Donald Trump visited Qatar in May, he promised to defend the tiny, wealthy emirate and its rulers. We are going to protect this country," Trump declared on his state visit, where he was treated like royalty and honored in gilded palaces. It's a very special place, with a special royal family ... They are great people and they are going to be protected by the United States."Over two decades, Qatar spent billions of dollars to upgrade the largest US military base in the Middle East and spent many more billions to buy US warplanes and other weapons. In May, as the president prepared to visit, the Qatari government donated a luxury Boeing jet, a palace in the sky" valued at $400m, which is now being refitted so Trump can use it as Air Force One.Mohamad Bazzi is director of the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies, and a journalism professor, at New York University Continue reading...

Reward of $100,000 and direct appeal appear to indicate struggle to identify Charlie Kirk's killer. Plus, the rise of ecoanxiety on the frontline of climate breakdownGood morning.US officials have issued an urgent appeal for help from the public as they continue to search for the shooter of Charlie Kirk, releasing new videos and photos from the scene of the attack in Utah.Who was Charlie Kirk? The Donald Trump ally and star of the US Republican right galvanized young conservatives through online antics and inflammatory views, helping to push a new generation to the right. Even those who did not agree with his values could not deny his ubiquity on the political scene.This is a live story. Follow the latest updates here.What did the judges say? Announcing Bolsonaro's sentence for crimes including coup d'etat and violently attempting to abolish Brazil's democracy, the supreme court justice Alexandre de Moraes said: [He tried to] annihilate the essential pillars of the democratic rule-of-law state ... the greatest consequence [of which] ... would have been the return of dictatorship to Brazil." Continue reading...

A Guardian investigation into the Alexandria, Louisiana, facility reveals a pattern of alleged due process violations, previously unreported accounts of neglect and abuse, documented health emergencies and long staysHe arrived in Alexandria exhausted and sick.It was early April, and Amilcar Lisser-Posadas - shackled at his hands and feet - had been transferred from a nearby immigration detention center to this remote US immigration facility in Louisiana. He feared it would be his last stop before deportation. Continue reading...

Maga leaders blame a mythically powerful left for political violence. Now, they are bent on destroying anyone who opposes themI disagreed with Charlie Kirk on pretty much everything, but his shocking and morally repugnant assassination is deeply concerning, and not just because it's another example of the lethality of our politics. Kirk's killing is also sending prominent conservatives on a warpath, setting the stage for a dangerous expansion of federal government repression.Kirk was a social media megastar and the founder of Turning Point USA, the foremost rightwing youth organization in the country. His political positions were to the far-right, and his language was often combative, to say the least. He called Martin Luther King, Jr awful" and said we made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s". He believed in the so-called great replacement theory, which asserts that elites are encouraging mass migration to undermine white people in western countries. Islam is the sword the left is using to slit the throat of America," he wrote on X the day before he was killed. He also blamed Jewish dollars" for funding cultural Marxist ideas and supporters."Moustafa Bayoumi is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

The hiring of Kenneth Weinstein as an ombudsman hands the US president a seat at the editors' deskNews outlets, including CBS, are free to run their editorial operations as they see fit. If they independently decide to hire a bias ombudsman, that's their prerogative. If they think the best person to monitor bias at this moment is a career partisan like Kenneth Weinstein, that's cause to question their judgment, but not necessarily a first amendment concern.That all changes, however, when the monitoring is at the behest of the federal government. And that's what's going on at CBS. The creation of the ombudsman role was one of many capitulations CBS's owners made to the Trump administration to persuade the Federal Communications Commission to approve the Paramount-Skydance merger. Continue reading...

Boxing's biggest fight in years takes place on Saturday night in Las Vegas. Here's everything you need to know about Canelo v Crawford, including how, when and why to watchSaul Canelo' Alvarez and Terence Crawford, two of the most accomplished boxers of the past 20 years, will climb through the ropes on Saturday night in Las Vegas for one of the sport's biggest events in years.Alvarez, 35, will be defending his undisputed super middleweight title at his natural 168lb. Crawford, 37, is attempting the jump of a lifetime: moving up two full divisions to that weight for the first time after winning his fourth world title last year in his 154lb debut. That size gap is at the heart of Saturday's intrigue. And because the fight will be carried globally on Netflix at no extra cost to subscribers, it could draw the largest audience ever for a major championship bout. Continue reading...

The far-right activist, who was fatally shot this week in Utah, galvanized young conservatives through online antics and inflammatory views

Douglas Alexander says he would not have been appointed if PM had known the depth of his links to Jeffrey Epstein

This blog is now closed, you can read our new live blog hereA UK offshoot of a US conservative group set up by Charlie Kirk is to hold a vigil in London after he was shot dead, reports the PA news agency.Turning Point UK has said its activists will gather on Friday evening by the Montgomery statue in Whitehall and called on others to join us in remembering Charlie".It's absolutely shocking, we're heartbroken over here in the UK.My thoughts this evening are with the loved ones of Charlie Kirk.It is heartbreaking that a young family has been robbed of a father and a husband.Political violence has no place in our societies.Our thoughts and condolences are with his family.An atrocious murder, a deep wound for democracy and for those who believe in freedom.My condolences to his family, to his loved ones, and to the American conservative community. Continue reading...

Vice-president JD Vance flies with casket as officials say rifle found and images of suspect released

The far-right commentator didn't pull his punches when discussing his bigoted views on current events

A day after Trump blamed the radical left' for shooting, vowing a crackdown, president says Kirk advocated nonviolence and that's the way I'd like to see people respond'. Key US politics stories from Thursday 11 SeptemberDonald Trump has said his supporters should respond peacefully to the killing of rightwing activist Charlie Kirk as the gunman continued to evade a manhunt more than 24 hours after the fatal shooting.A day after Trump gave an inflammatory address blaming the radical left" for the killing and pledging a wide-ranging response, the president agreed with a suggestion from a conservative reporter that his supporters should not respond with violence. Continue reading...

People paid respects to the far-right activist and Trump ally as they pondered his divisive legacy

From an Omaha gym to a Las Vegas stadium, Terence Crawford has built a career solving problems others can't. Now he must out-think size, history and Canelo AlvarezTerence Bud' Crawford, America's finest boxer since Floyd Mayweather Jr, has spent his life closing the distance between the improbable and the inevitable. He was the kid from North Omaha who survived a bullet to the head and poured himself into neighborhood gym. He was the stubborn amateur who missed the Olympics but kept showing up in dingy basements until the craft became second nature. He was the icy technician and ruthless finisher, denied opportunities against name-brand fighters for most of his career, who unified the fractured world championship at 140lb, then did it again at 147 by dismantling Errol Spence Jr so comprehensively that it felt like a curtain being ripped back. Here, at last, was the full measure of the quiet man's design.Now, at 37, undefeated in 41 professional fights with 31 wins by knockout, he's arrived at boxing's biggest stage yet. On Saturday night, beneath the fluorescent dome of Allegiant Stadium, Crawford will climb two weight classes to face Saul Canelo' Alvarez for the undisputed super-middleweight crown. More than 70,000 fans are expected - the largest boxing crowd in Las Vegas history by more than double - in a $2bn football coliseum better known as the home of the NFL's Raiders. Netflix will beam the spectacle to hundreds of millions of subscribers around the world at no extra cost, the first time a fight of this magnitude has bypassed the pay-per-view model that defined the sport for decades. Continue reading...