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Former president told Washington Post reporter: ‘We have stuff that Putin and Xi have never heard about before’In a taped conversation with Bob Woodward, Donald Trump boasted about US nuclear weapons development.“I have built a weapon system that nobody’s ever had in this country before,” the then president told the veteran Washington Post reporter. “We have stuff that you haven’t even seen or heard about. We have stuff that Putin and Xi have never heard about before.” Continue reading...

Two-time champions Portland Thorns are the favourites in Saturday’s game, but Kansas City Current have the beliefWelcome to Moving the Goalposts, the Guardian’s free women’s football newsletter. Here’s an extract from this week’s edition. To receive the full version once a week, just pop your email in below:Old meets new on Saturday evening at Washington DC’s Audi Field, which hosts the NWSL Championship final between the two-time champions Portland Thorns and a Kansas City Current side in their second season. Continue reading...

In this, one of a series of essays on the war in Ukraine from countries in or neighbouring the former Soviet bloc, a Georgian playwright says the government is out of step with the anti-Putin popular moodWhen Russia’s modern tsar escalated his war by announcing the partial mobilisation of reservists on 21 September, another wave of anxiety swept over Georgia. With due acknowledgment that every word written from this region at the moment should be about, or in support of, the Ukrainian people and their struggle, this anxiety is why I’m diverting to focus briefly on how we see this brutal war from Georgia, which, thanks to historical and geopolitical misfortune, happens to be a southern neighbour of Russia.The invasion of Ukraine has revived painful collective and personal memories of Russia’s 2008 war on Georgia. The trauma from this not-so-distant past rose to the surface again in February and has remained there. The current government of Georgia has tried to ignore it altogether, as if it had never happened. Continue reading...

US president and new British PM reaffirm ‘special relationship’ after Sunak becomes Britain’s third leader in 2022. Plus, TikTok risks being a vector of misinformation in run-up to midterm elections

For Adrian Fontes, the secretary of state election is a battle for the ‘fate of the republic’ against his rightwing election-denying opponent, Mark Finchem“BELIEVE”. The word is written in large blue letters above the door of Adrian Fontes’s campaign office in Scottsdale, Arizona, a replica of Ted Lasso’s motivational sign from the hit TV show featuring an American football coach thrown into the bear pit of the English Premier League.“It speaks to me,” Fontes explained. “It says that ‘You can do it’ is a question of faith.” Continue reading...

Workers across the US allege the company is fending off efforts to organize as election petition to be resubmitted in CaliforniaWorkers at Amazon are increasing pressure on the world’s largest retailer with strikes and protests aimed at improving working conditions and wages as the company continues to fend off unionization efforts.The unionization movement at Amazon, which has garnered worldwide attention, suffered a recent setback when it lost a vote at a warehouse outside of Albany, New York, amid numerous charges of unfair labor practices. Continue reading...

Ex-president eyeing Chris LaCivita, whose 2004 ‘Swift Boat’ campaign questioned Kerry’s Vietnam war recordAs he prepares a possible new presidential campaign, Donald Trump is seeking to recruit an operative who was behind a group which famously questioned the Vietnam war record of the 2004 Democratic nominee, John Kerry, the Washington Post reported.The operative who ran Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, Chris LaCivita, worked for one Trump-aligned political action committee during the 2020 election and now runs another. He is also a consultant for Ron Johnson, a Trump-supporting Wisconsin senator fighting for re-election. Continue reading...

New evidence shows that the conviction of Mumia Abu-Jamal – who has spent over 40 years in prison – was tainted, prompting calls for a re-examinationMumia Abu-Jamal, the best known of the African American radicals incarcerated for decades for their actions during the black liberation struggle of the 1970s and 80s, is petitioning a Pennsylvania court for a new trial after the discovery of fresh evidence that casts doubt on his conviction.Abu-Jamal’s case will come before the court of common pleas in Philadelphia on Wednesday. The hearing could be one of the prisoner’s last attempts at freedom after more than 40 years behind bars, including two decades on death row, for the murder of a white police officer – a crime for which he has always insisted he is innocent. Continue reading...

Jonathan Capehart, who interviewed US president for TV network, says he is sure Biden is preparing to run againJoe Biden is “totally running” for a second term, the MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart has said, just days after interviewing the US president.The oldest president ever inaugurated, Biden will turn 80 on 20 November. Continue reading...

The two candidates for the competitive Senate seat argued over the economy, crime and the tone of Republican attacks on the Democrat candidates health

The woman alleges the producer raped her in 2013 and is the first of eight witnesses providing testimony during the trialA woman who accused Harvey Weinstein of raping her in 2013 testified on Tuesday that the attack left her wanting to “destroy” herself.The woman, a model and actor living and working in Rome who was in Los Angeles at the time for a film festival, is the first of eight Weinstein accusers set to testify in a courtroom in Los Angeles where the 70-year-old movie mogul is on trial on multiple counts of rape and sexual assault. Continue reading...

A new report says sheriffs’ patrols spend more time conducting racially biased stops than they do responding to calls for helpBlack drivers in California’s capital are nearly five times more likely than white motorists to get pulled over by sheriffs for traffic violations, according to a new report on racial profiling across the state.Records from the county sheriff’s departments of Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento and Riverside show that Black Californians were disproportionately stopped across those regions in 2019, especially for minor infractions. Continue reading...

Tennessee woman was serving six-year sentence before prosecutors’ withholding of crucial document came to lightA Tennessee woman who had a six-year prison sentence for voter fraud overturned this year is suing state and local officials for damages, claiming she was wrongfully prosecuted and incarcerated.Pamela Moses, a 44-year-old Memphis activist, was sentenced to six years in prison in January after prosecutors said she tried to register to vote knowing she was ineligible because of a prior felony conviction. She was convicted even though two government officials, including a probation officer who conceded he made an error, signed off on a state form affirming her eligibility. The case prompted national outrage. Continue reading...

Charlie Crist, former Republican who switched parties, puts governor on defensive during Florida’s sole gubernatorial debateIn the sole debate of the Florida governor’s race, the Republican incumbent, Ron DeSantis, was put on the defensive by his Democratic challenger, Charlie Crist, on subjects including abortion and DeSantis’s presidential ambitions.Crist called Florida’s 15-week abortion ban, which does not include exceptions for rape or incest, “callous and barbaric”. Continue reading...

Election denier calls for hand counts are starting to play out weeks before the midterms, setting stage for confusion and chaosA small border county in Arizona voted to conduct a hand count audit of all ballots, disregarding legal warnings from the county’s attorney and threats of lawsuits and investigations.The decision creates a wave of uncertainty for elections workers in the county just two weeks before election day and with early voting, the primary way Arizonans cast ballots, already underway. Continue reading...

Letter was drafted months ago and ‘released by staff without vetting’, says Pramila Jayapal

The jailed US basketball star Brittney Griner's appeal was rejected by a Russian court on Tuesday, after she challenged a nine-year sentence for drugs possession and smuggling. The WNBA all-star and two-time Olympic gold medallist was arrested on 17 February and found guilty by the court in August. She was sentenced to nine years in a penal colony. Elizabeth Rood, the charge d'affaires at the US embassy in Moscow, said: 'Nothing in the previous sentence, nothing in the result of today's appeal changes the fact that the United States government considers Miss Griner to be wrongfully detained.' Griner's lawyer, Maria Blagovolina, said the handling of the case 'contradicts almost all of the existing judicial practice known to us in this regard'.After reports of a possible prisoner swap, Blagovolina said she wasn't involved in nor was she aware of any negotiations between the US and Russia. President Joe Biden however, said talks with Moscow to secure the release of Griner and other American prisoners in Russia were ongoing, but so far had not been met with 'much positive response'.

Man’s body found on lawn of home in Excelsior Springs, Missouri, where police later shot English mastiff and German shepherdTwo dogs were fatally shot by police after an Amazon driver was found dead near them on Monday night with what appeared to be wounds from an animal attack.Police in Excelsior Springs, Missouri, said they found a man’s body on the front lawn of a home about 7pm after neighbors reported a van had been parked there for many hours. Investigators discovered that the dead man was an Amazon delivery driver. Continue reading...

Missouri gunman left note detailing loneliness and life of isolation leading to ‘perfect storm for a mass shooter’The 19-year-old gunman who killed a teacher and a 15-year-old girl at a St Louis high school was armed with an AR-15-style rifle and what appeared to be more than 600 rounds of ammunition, the local police commissioner, Michael Sack, said on Tuesday.Orlando Harris also left behind a handwritten note offering his explanation for the shooting on Monday at Central Visual and Performing Arts high school. Tenth-grader Alexandria Bell and 61-year-old physical education teacher Jean Kuczka died, and seven students were wounded.The Associated Press contributed reporting

Dramatic U-turn from progressive caucus, withdrawing letter sent to US president urging talks to end war in UkraineThe chair of the progressive caucus of the US House of Representatives, Pramila Jayapal, has retracted a letter sent by 30 of the members urging Joe Biden to engage in direct talks with Russia to end the war in Ukraine following a heated debate within the Democratic party about future strategy over the conflict.In a statement issued on Tuesday afternoon, Jayapal made a dramatic U-turn, scrapping the letter that had been sent to the White House the previous day and implying it had all been a mistake. “The letter was drafted several months ago, but unfortunately was released by staff without vetting,” she said. Continue reading...

Forgive me for not buying the line that the rise of our third prime minister in 50 days is proof that ‘the system’ worksHere we are, then. The UK prime minister has regenerated as Rishi Sunak, after several seasons of some of the worst writing in political primetime, which occasionally looked capable of killing off the entire franchise. The country has its first British Asian prime minister, which is a truly significant historical moment. It would be nice to think that people who can accept Downing Street being cast in this way will eventually be able to handle the really important roles – like telly time-travellers and movie spies – being played by non-white actors, without losing their minds and reaching for the word “woke”.On Tuesday morning, Liz Truss addressed the nation in Downing Street, and shared the key takeaway of her stint as the shortest-serving prime minister in British political history: she was right, and everyone else was wrong. Hey, she’s Elizabeth Seneca Truss, and she will have her hot take – in this life or the next. The rest of us are merely tasked with living through the clean-up. On which note, Jeremy Hunt’s Halloween budget is likely to be so horrifying it can go trick-or-treating dressed as itself. Continue reading...

With his conventional warfare campaign failing, the Russian leader is reaching for ever more desperate tacticsPutin’s conventional army is being defeated by a much smaller force, albeit one backed by the west’s latest technology and intelligence. His ridiculous claim that Ukraine is planning to use a “dirty bomb” – an explosive device containing radioactive material – implies he is now groping towards more unconventional methods of warfare.This is unsurprising when we see how poorly the Russian army is performing, which presumably Putin is also seeing. Putin’s response has been to appoint General “Armageddon” Surovikin as his overall commander in Ukraine, and the dirty bomb allegation is right out of Surovkin’s playbook.Hamish de Bretton-Gordon is a former commander in UK and Nato CBRN forces, a chemical and nuclear weapons expert and an adviser to the Union of Syrian Medical Charities Continue reading...

The British conservative party has lost touch with reality in ways that are reminiscent of how Trump transformed Republican politics in the USAfter serving for a mere 45 days, Liz Truss has become the shortest-serving prime minister in British history. George Canning, the previous holder of this record, was forced from office because he died of tuberculosis. Truss, by contrast, is entirely the author of her own demise. But even though her short premiership has no doubt left her own political talents utterly discredited, it would be a mistake to stop apportioning blame there. In fact, Truss’s elevation and downfall show how the British Conservative party has lost touch with reality over the past decade in ways which mirror the descent of the American right.Truss was forced from office after unveiling a budget that was profoundly out of touch with the realities of modern Britain. A diehard libertarian, she announced steep tax cuts for the rich, including removing an immensely popular cap on bankers’ annual bonuses. Much like the Trump tax cuts of 2017, these moves were supposed to be paid for by generating trickle-down economic growth – and when that failed to happen, as it inevitably does, public service and welfare cuts would follow. This kamikaze libertarianism was combined with sheer nastiness towards the poor, such as when the chair of the Conservative party told voters worried about rising energy bills to either go and get a better-paid job or “freeze”.Andrew Gawthorpe is a historian of the United States and host of the podcast America Explained Continue reading...

Emilia ‘Amy’ Marin, the school speech pathologist who called 911 that day, says in ABC News interview she is traumatizedA staff member at the Uvalde, Texas, elementary school where 21 people were shot to death in May says she is traumatized not only by the massacre she survived – but also because she was prematurely and incorrectly blamed for inadvertently facilitating the killings.Emilia “Amy” Marin, the Robb elementary school speech pathologist who called 911 on the day that a man invaded the campus and began shooting people indiscriminately, for the first time spoke out about her post-traumatic stress struggle in an interview with ABC News which aired on Monday. Continue reading...

Progressive members of Congress are urging Joe Biden to push for a settlement with Russia over Ukraine. Here’s their letterDear Mr President,We write with appreciation for your commitment to Ukraine’s legitimate struggle against Russia’s war of aggression. Your support for the self-defense of an independent, sovereign and democratic state has been supported by Congress, including through various appropriations of military, economic and humanitarian aid in furtherance of this cause. Your administration’s policy was critical to enable the Ukrainian people, through their courageous fighting and heroic sacrifices, to deal a historic military defeat to Russia, forcing Russia to dramatically scale back the stated goals of the invasion. Continue reading...

I was offered plantation rum, saw plantation-themed shutters and then a plantation-linked housing estate. And I thought: enoughIt was date night in the upmarket, ever-fashionable Ivy restaurant, and it was all going so well. The lights were dimmed and we had shared some champagne and zucchini fritti, but the frivolity soon dissipated when the dessert menu arrived. Listed on the pages of puddings before me was a “Plantation” rum-soaked sponge with chantilly cream and raspberries. “Plantation” rum. Hmm (rather than “Mmm”). My dad is Jamaican. My ancestors were slaves. Here I was, the only person of colour in the restaurant, choking on the P-word.Why is it, despite all the diversity and inclusion awareness that followed the Black Lives Matter movement, that businesses still feel the need to use “plantation” as a selling point? Woodlands may use the term in an agricultural sense, but elsewhere – from wharfs and window dressings to weddings (J-Lo and Ben Affleck’s recent nuptials at his Georgia estate included) – it’s bandied around, fetishised even, to connote luxury, class and status. Continue reading...

President Joe Biden mispronounced the name of the new UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, as he congratulated him during a Diwali celebration at the White House on Monday. Biden described Sunak's rise to power as a 'groundbreaking milestone', expressing surprise at the fact that he belongs to the Conservative party. The White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also mispronounced Sunak's name but corrected herself

She woke me in the night with stomach pains, which I dismissed as gas. Her treatment was great, but we are still waiting for the bill and US healthcare can be cruelly expensiveLast week I almost killed my wife. It was the middle of the night and E poked me awake (grounds for murder in itself) to tell me that she wasn’t feeling well and there was an agonising pain in her stomach. I made a few sympathetic noises, gestured towards some painkillers and went back to sleep. An hour later she budged me awake again to say that she thought she should go to the emergency room. “Are you sure?” I asked. The idea of rousing our sleeping toddler and Uber-ing to a Philadelphia hospital at 3am seemed a little extreme. “It’s probably just gas or something,” I said. “See how it is in the morning!”The next morning it was worse. My wife went to ER where she was told that her appendix had cruelly turned on her and she needed an appendectomy. The appendix may look like a tiny, harmless worm but it can become deadly very quickly. One minute it’s just quietly hanging out in your gut; the next, it’s rupturing and you’re at risk of dying of a horrible infection. It’s kind of humbling really: a 10cm (4in) tube that everyone used to think was a completely useless vestigial organ (now scientists think it might be used as a sort of safe house for helpful bacteria) can kill you unless you get medical help fast.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

The country has been changed utterly under its ‘red emperor’. Now I fear we’ll give up on imagining an alternativeThe messages are scrawled on the toilet walls and across stall doors, on the tiles and next to the holders for paper. In Chinese characters, with the occasional English phrase, they echo the words of the protest banner that was unfurled across a busy overpass in Beijing: “No to confinement, we want freedom! No to lies, we want dignity! No to the great leader, we want to vote!”The stunning act of defiance at the bridge took place on the eve of the 20th Communist party congress, when Xi Jinping officially embarked on a custom-breaking third term as China’s supreme leader, surrounded by a politburo stacked with his loyalists. The party’s narrative of confidence and triumph was nevertheless punctured by one man’s disobedience. Continue reading...

Court rejects appeal against nine-year prison sentence for drugs possession and smugglingA Russian court has rejected an appeal by the US basketball player Brittney Griner against her nine-year prison sentence for possession and smuggling of drugs.The two-time Olympic gold medallist was arrested on 17 February at a Moscow airport with vape cartridges containing cannabis oil, which is banned in Russia. Continue reading...

Victim’s harrowing death comes after two people were pushed in front of trains, seemingly at random, in recent weeksA 20-year-old man was killed on Monday after his clothes were caught in a New York City subway car, which dragged him on to the tracks in front of an oncoming train, police said, in the latest grim episode for the largest transit system in the United States.The victim’s harrowing death comes just three days after David Martin, 32, was shoved in front of a train on Friday, seemingly at random, suffering a broken collarbone. A convicted felon identified as Lamale McRae, 41, was arrested on Monday in that attack. Continue reading...

Ex-chancellor is third Tory prime minister in less than two months and fifth in six years. Plus, the history of radical art protest by women

GOP courts blue collar voters but most favor anti-union ‘right to work’ laws and reject laws that would protect right to organizeAfter years of struggle, America’s labor unions enjoy greater public approval than at any time in more than 50 years. Yet even as the Republican party seeks to rebrand itself as the party of the working class, its lawmakers, by and large, remain as hostile as ever toward organized labor. It doesn’t look like that situation is about to change.With the midterm elections approaching, and many polls indicating that the Republicans will win control of the House, nearly all Republican lawmakers in Congress oppose proposals that would make it easier to unionize. One hundred and eleven Republican House members and 21 senators are co-sponsoring a bill that would weaken unions by letting workers in all 50 states opt out of paying any fees to the unions that represent them. And at a time when many young workers – among them, Starbucks workers, Apple store workers, museum workers, grad students – are flocking into unions, Republican lawmakers often deride unions as woke, leftwing and obsolete. Continue reading...

A Black man was hanged, then a group of white people burned his body by a US roadside. His family want police and prosecutors to acknowledge race was a factor, but they still deny it

Opponents fear the measure might result in increased ballot counting time and identity fraudA measure on Arizona’s ballot in November could require more stringent voter identification, both at the polls and via mail-in ballots – the primary way people in the state vote.Opponents of Proposition 309 warn it could disenfranchise voters, making them susceptible to identity fraud and taking longer to count ballots. But the measure has the backing of Arizona GOP heavyweights and the state party itself, and it comes on the heels of nonstop, unfounded claims of 2020 election fraud by Republicans here. Continue reading...

In this, one of a series of essays from countries in or bordering the former Soviet bloc, a Bosnian poet warns that Europe will have to leave its comfort zoneStop a person on the street in Sarajevo and ask them what they think about the war in Ukraine, and they’ll tell you they think that almost everything that happened in the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina is happening in Ukraine.In April, we commemorated the 30th anniversary of the war against Bosnia-Herzegovina. We consider early April 1992 the moment a new era began: we have the before, during and after the catastrophe.Faruk Šehić is a Bosnian poet, short story writer and novelistThis essay is part of a series, published in collaboration with Voxeurop, featuring perspectives on the invasion of Ukraine from the former Soviet bloc and bordering countries. Translation by Will FirthDo 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.

Negotiations between world’s biggest emitters have stalled since House speaker’s visit to TaiwanJohn Kerry has urged China to return to the negotiating table with the US on the climate crisis to kickstart stalled global progress on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.The special envoy on climate to the US president, Joe Biden, said: “China is 30% of all emissions. We need to get China.” Continue reading...

In an extract from his new book on the multi-sport legend, Jeff Pearlman takes a look at the star’s unusual trip across the Pacific for the Japan BowlOn New Year’s Day 1986, Bo Jackson’s Auburn football run concluded in the most humdrum of ways. The Tigers traveled to Dallas, where they suffered their fourth loss of the season, a 36–16 beatdown at the hands of Texas A&M. When the Cotton Bowl PA announcer notified the crowd that Jackson (who ran for 129 yards in defeat) was voted game MVP, the news was greeted with indifferent silence.This was hardly the way to cap a career. Continue reading...

Isolation, exacerbated by social pressure and cuts to services, can lead to postnatal depression. Being open would help Continue reading...

The new PM’s rise is a great achievement, but his hardline views mean this is a less transformative moment than many hoped forCongratulations to Rishi Sunak on becoming the first Asian prime minister of the UK. It’s a momentous day for a number of reasons, not least because the Conservative leadership race was a shining example of that old immigrant adage: you have to work twice as hard to achieve your goals.On his second opportunity to become the leader of the Conservative party, all it took for Sunak to win was Liz Truss tanking the economy, global markets in turmoil and the threat of Boris Johnson returning as leader. The race showed that not only did Sunak have to work much harder than his predecessors for his appointment, but it was already obvious to the whole country in the previous leadership election that he was the only sensible candidate.Hashi Mohamed is a barrister and author of People Like Us: What it Takes to Make it in Modern BritainDo 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...

The wealthy Lindell has found a home among diehard Trumpists and has spent tens of millions to expose unproven electoral fraudMembers of the crowd cheer when a man, wearing a blue suit and a long red striped tie, walks by their section in the Covelli Centre . Some of the rally attendees stand as the man smiles and waves at them, applauding him before he climbs the steps to the press risers.Surprisingly, the man at the center of this praise is not Donald Trump, even though the former US president is the host of the rally in the hardscrabble rust belt city of Youngstown, Ohio. Continue reading...

State to withhold funds for planned bathroom until city finds a way ‘to use public money more efficiently’Controversy is swirling around a proposed public lavatory in San Francisco after a city newspaper exposed the project’s eye-watering price tag of $1.7m.That sum would have covered a 150-sq-ft restroom with just one toilet. The pricey plans were moving ahead until the San Francisco Chronicle lifted the lid on how much taxpayer money would go down the drain, prompting backlash and ridicule. Continue reading...

Excerpts reported by biographer show Alito, who wrote June ruling that outlawed abortion, said he was ‘big believer in precedents’In a private meeting in 2005, Samuel Alito, who would become the US supreme court justice who wrote the ruling removing the federal right to abortion, assured Ted Kennedy of his respect for Roe v Wade, the landmark 1973 court decision which made the procedure legal in the US.“I am a believer in precedents,” Alito said, according to diary excerpts reported by the Massachusetts senator’s biographer, John A Farrell, on Monday. “People would find I adhere to that.” Continue reading...

A letter signed by 30 representatives from the left of the party puts pressure on US president’s Ukraine strategy two weeks out from midterm elections

The Texas US Senator was talking about inflation when demonstrators started to chant and ABC turned off the audioThe daytime talkshow The View momentarily descended into chaos when climate protesters interrupted an interview with the Texas Senator Ted Cruz on Monday.Cruz was in the middle of talking about inflation when chanting that sounded like “Government funding now!” began. Continue reading...

Sports brand Adidas is also facing pressure to cut ties with the rapper over his hateful commentsKanye West is facing a growing backlash among California political leaders, entertainment industry figures and members of the Jewish community – who have called on Adidas to cut ties with the star – following several antisemitic incidents in Los Angeles that came after the artist made bigoted comments about Jewish people.The fashion designer and rapper now known as Ye has been spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories for weeks in interviews and on social media. He generated further outrage for wearing a “white lives matter” T-shirt during his runway show at Paris fashion week earlier this month. Continue reading...