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Judge Raymond Dearie suggested assertions of privilege by the ex-president lack evidence for a ruling to be made in his favorDonald Trump’s assertions of executive and attorney-client privilege over certain documents that the FBI seized from his Mar-a-Lago resort appeared to lack evidence sufficient for him to rule in the former US president’s favor, the special master reviewing the records suggested on Tuesday.The special master, senior US district court judge Raymond Dearie, complained during a conference call in the case that the log of documents Trump is trying to withhold from the justice department did not give enough information about the validity of the privilege claims. Continue reading...

Report finds hurricane-force winds were key reason Seacor Power vessel overturnedThe results of an investigation into the deadly capsizing of an oil industry boat off Louisiana’s coast that killed 13 mariners in April 2021 has underlined how personal beacons could save lives and “take the search out of search and rescue”, the US transportation safety board chairperson said on Tuesday.The report into the capsizing of the Seacor Power during severe weather in the Gulf of Mexico concluded that hurricane-force winds, rather than any other suspected factor, were the primary reason the vessel overturned. Continue reading...

Rapper alleged Floyd died from a fentanyl overdose on a podcast, sparking a $250m lawsuitThe mother of George Floyd’s daughter, Roxie Washington, has sued rapper Kanye West for $250m (£221m) after the artist alleged that the 46-year-old man died from drug abuse rather than being murdered by a police officer.Last Saturday, on the Drink Champs podcast, West, who legally changed his name to Ye, alleged that Floyd died from a fentanyl overdose. In the same interview, which has since been taken down by YouTube, West also made antisemitic comments. Continue reading...

President Joe Biden has officially announced that if the Democrats gain control in Congress his first move will be to send a bill codifying Roe v Wade and sign such legislation ahead of the 50th anniversary of the 1973 decision. Midterm elections are 22 days away and abortion rights have been a key motivating factor for the Democratic campaign. The Republican party are calling for a federal abortion ban that would punish doctors for performing the procedure after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade earlier in the year

President cast election as a choice between Republicans who seek to impose a nationwide abortion ban and Democrats who aim to protect itWith Democrats’ congressional majorities at risk this November, Joe Biden vowed on Tuesday that the first bill he sent to Capitol Hill next year would codify Roe v Wade – if Americans return his party to power with wide enough margins to pass abortion protections.It’s a major lift for Democrats, who face a challenging political environment marked by a rocky economy and decades-high inflation. But the loss of abortions rights has sparked a political backlash, motivating Democratic voters and women more broadly who have registered to vote in significant numbers since the supreme court’s decision to overturn Roe in Dobbs v Jackson. Continue reading...

Brady Lowry suffers broken arm and wounds after trying to fight off bear in Shoshone national forest, south-east of YellowstoneA college wrestler from a small Wyoming school helped his teammate survive a grizzly mauling over the weekend by trying to wrestle the massive bear off his friend, eventually drawing a more brutal attack to himself.The men are crediting their bonds as wrestling team-mates at Northwest College in Cody, Wyoming, with helping them survive the attack Saturday evening south-east of Yellowstone national park. Continue reading...

McCarthy says Congress won’t ‘write a blank cheque’ while another senior Republicans says Ukrainians should ‘get what they need’The Republican leader in the House of Representatives has said that Congress would not “write a blank cheque to Ukraine” if his party wins next month’s midterm elections, stoking fears in Kyiv that the flow of military equipment could be cut off.However, another senior Republican said that he thought that the Ukrainians should “get what they need”, including longer-range missiles than those the Biden administration has so far been prepared to supply. Analysts say the mixed messages reflect an internal debate between traditional national security conservatives and the Trumpist wing of the party, where pro-Russian sentiment is much stronger. Continue reading...

Group including children and pregnant women became stranded while piled in yolas, rickety homemade boats smugglers useUS authorities are trying to rescue more than 100 migrants stranded on an uninhabited island near Puerto Rico during a human smuggling operation.The nationality of the migrants awaiting help on Mona Island wasn’t immediately known, although officials believe the majority are Haitian, said Jeffrey Quiñones, spokesman for US Customs and Border Protection in Puerto Rico. Continue reading...

Steve Scalise questioned whether Democrats sought help on January 6, but video shows him standing near Pelosi as she called for national guard troopsThe second-highest ranking Republican in the US House, Steve Scalise, is facing criticism for questioning what Democrats did to halt the deadly January 6 Capitol attack on the day of the riots despite being shown on video standing beside chamber speaker Nancy Pelosi as she called for back-up from national guard troops.Scalise, whose Louisiana district includes a large suburban area outside New Orleans, at one point questioned the lengths to which top Democrats went to end the assault on the Capitol staged by a mob of Donald Trump supporters as the former president questioned the results of the 2020 election that he lost to Joe Biden. Continue reading...

Hearing aids now available from stores including Walgreens and Walmart without prescription after new FDA rule takes effectAmericans can start buying hearing aids over the counter this week, a significant development for whose need hearing assistance and are now expected to be able to get it more cheaply and more easily.Retail stores, including Walgreens, CVS, and Walmart, began selling hearing aids Monday after a new rule from the Food and Drug Administration went into effect allowing for the devices’ sales over the counter at such establishments. Continue reading...

President says he ‘used to get into trouble’ by being too policy-focused as Democrats brace for losing House majorityBarack Obama acknowledged Democrats can be “a buzzkill” with their abstract campaign messaging and could better connect with voters by emphasizing what constituents feel in their day to day lives.During an interview on Pod Save America, released Friday, Obama acknowledged that he “used to get into trouble” when he appeared too professorial, including by standing behind a lectern and talking about policy in theoretical ways that didn’t directly connect with voters. Continue reading...

Jeremy Hunt, resurrected from several political deaths, is apparently the safest pair of hands in the Tory partyThe lesson of the past few years in British politics is that new lows can always be found. Barely three months ago, it seemed there could be nothing less elegant than Boris Johnson’s dignity-aborting exit from Downing Street. That now seems like an exquisite performance of the Royal Ballet. Yesterday was mainly spent watching Jeremy Hunt try to persuade the markets to get back together with the UK, their maddest ex. At some level, it’s slightly adorable that the markets continue trying to make it work with a country that repeatedly demonstrates itself to be a basket case. It’s possible they’re the most hopeless romantics of all.Quick recap: the prime minister is in special measures. Black Monday’s already taken, so I don’t know how you’d describe yesterday’s lunacy. Crack Monday? The upshot is … Britannia has been rechained. The Britannia unleashed in the mini-budget three weeks ago – only to wreak appalling havoc everywhere from the bond markets to household budgets – has been lassoed by incoming surprise chancellor Jeremy Hunt. Hunt has immediately re-manacled her, then wound 40ft of heavyweight steel chain round her to prevent her threatening public safety again. Fan theory: was Liz Truss Britannia all along?Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnistWhat Just Happened?! by Marina Hyde (Guardian Faber, £18.99). To support The Guardian and Observer, buy your copy here. Delivery charges may apply. Continue reading...

Fresh attacks hit Kyiv, Kryvyi Ri, Dnipro, Kharkiv and Mykolaiv, damaging energy facility. Plus, US Secret Service charged $1,185 a night for Trump hotel stays

We adults may not be able to unlearn the damaging stories we were told, but we can halt their march through the generationsWe cannot shield children from history. In Ukraine, millions of families have lost their homes to Vladimir Putin’s war. In Delhi, record shattering temperatures of 50C saw kids locked inside this summer, unable to study or play. Global food prices are soaring, causing children all over the world to go hungry. So, surely it is inevitable that the next generation want to confront the big questions: why are there wars? What is our place in nature? What is money and why is it so important?Often, children take these questions far more seriously than grownups. They question things that adults take for granted. Adults might find it annoying when a child replies “why?” to our every answer. But typically, the child is just trying to get to the bottom of things in a way that adults have long stopped doing.Unstoppable Us: How Humans Took Over the World by Yuval Noah Harari is published on 20 OctoberDo 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...

Our writers give their verdicts on the new season, which starts on Tuesday night. Who is MVP? Who gets Victor Wembanyama? And who are the dark horses?The unabashed tank, unfortunately. It’s been whispered for a while that Victor Wembanyama is a generational talent, but after his mind-blowing performance in his Las Vegas exhibition games this month, it seems all but certain that it will be a race to the bottom for a chance to draft him. CDL Continue reading...

When I put the house on the market, I uncovered a story of a Black woman losing her home to municipal greed

The group places support for Israel over all over considerations, endorsing extreme rightwing candidates in the midterm electionsThe US’s largest pro-Israel lobby group is backing dozens of racists, homophobes and election deniers running for Congress next month because they have pledged to defend Israel against stiffening criticism of its oppression of the Palestinians.The powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) has justified endorsing Republicans with extremist views, including members of Congress with ties to white supremacist groups and representatives who attempted to block Joe Biden’s election victory, on the grounds that the singular issue of support for Israel trumps other considerations. Continue reading...

My bike has left me covered in grease – or, as the old hands call it, a ‘Cat 5 tattoo’For about six weeks, I had been cycling at a very stately Miss Marple pace because my brakes weren’t working. I assumed the brake pads were worn and meant to replace them, but in the interim found my left foot worked just as well, as long as I wasn’t on a hill. Until, one day, inevitably, I was. Hair-raised, I took the bike into a shop, where they said nothing was working at all. The cables had perished. Then they fixed them, which is hands-down the most my life has ever been saved by a shop. I should swear an oath of fealty to them, like a knight.Anyway, it’s good, because now I can pick up speed, which is exactly what you want when you are glad to be alive. That is how I got my “Cat 5 tattoo” – a greasy chainring imprint on the inside of your right calf. My brother-in-law introduced me to it gleefully because it’s meant as an insult. If you were a proper racer, in categories three or four, your chainring would be clean. If you were a better racer still (in categories one or two), your calf wouldn’t be anywhere near your chainring. But, because you are a novice and an idiot, you have grease all over yourself in an attractively symmetrical pattern. It’s also called a “noob tag” because why have one piece of jargon when you could have two? Continue reading...

Republican politics centering on opposition to Cuba’s late dictator Fidel Castro continue to resonate in Florida, even as they have faded in the rest of the USIt was a rainy Tuesday morning in South Florida, and two men in their 80s were deep into conversation and cafecito at the iconic Versailles Cuban Bakery in Miami.Born in Cuba and now retired, the pair – who would only give their first names Manuel and Juan – have lived in the area for more than 60 and 20 years, respectively. And when asked about their political stance, they shy away from the Republican label many of their neighbors proudly embrace and instead simply describe themselves as deeply anti-communist. Continue reading...

After being involved in same wreck, Megan Warfield felt contractions start but stayed to help trapped womanMegan Warfield, a firefighter in Baltimore county, Maryland, was nine months’ pregnant with her third child when the car she was riding in crashed and she began to experience contractions.But she didn’t allow herself to go to the hospital and give birth until after helping free a woman trapped under another car in the wreck, actions that drew widespread praise. Continue reading...

Ukraine needs more support for our military and tougher measures to stop Putin evading sanctions. This can and must be agreed this week

Investigators determined the victims died from gunshot wounds before they were dumped in the Deep Fork RiverDismembered bodies found in the Deep Fork River in Oklahoma have been identified as those of four men reported missing last week, the local police chief said on Monday, adding: “This is now a murder investigation.”Investigators found the first remains on Friday and determined over the weekend that the victims died from gunshot wounds before they were cut up and dumped into the river, Okmulgee police chief Joe Prentice said at a news conference. Continue reading...

Acting president says Kevin de Léon and Gil Cedillo have ‘lost all credibility’ after leaked racist commentsTwo Los Angeles city councilmembers have been removed from their committee roles after they were caught on tape in a conversation in which city leaders used racist and disparaging language about constituents and colleagues in a scandal that has thrown LA politics into turmoil.Mitch O’Farrell, the acting city council president, announced on Monday that he would cut Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo from their committee assignments, the Los Angeles Times reported. De León chairs the committee on poverty and homelessness and has roles on committees dealing with finance, public works and environmental issues while Cedillo oversees the housing committee and serves on committees overseeing immigrant rights and environmental issues.This article was amended on 17 October 2022 to correct a headline that implied the members had been removed from their posts entirely. Continue reading...

US energy department research links megablazes in the west to hail, deluges and risk of flash floods in central statesImages showing thick clouds of wildfire smoke drifting thousands of miles away have become commonplace in the US in recent years as the country’s western states battle megablazes with increasing frequency. But a new study from US Department of Energy suggests the harmful impact of those behemoth blazes may extend much further.The new study, published by the department’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, for the first time links extreme hail, dangerous deluges, and the growing risk of flash floods in states like Colorado, Wyoming, Oklahoma and Nebraska to the growing intensity of wildfires in the west. Continue reading...

The man, speaking into the phone, accuses the man he is holding of stealing a bicycle out of a friend’s yardMilwaukee police say they are investigating a viral social media video depicting a white man with one of his hands around the neck of a frightened Black man while calling 911 about a neighbor’s stolen bicycle.A police spokesperson on Monday said officers know the 62-year-old white man’s identity but didn’t release his name, saying the investigation into the case was ongoing and that its findings would be forwarded to state prosecutors for review of potential charges. Continue reading...

Documents released by congressional committee appear to show ex-president profiting from security detail in and out of officeThe US Secret Service was made to pay as much as $1,185 a night to stay at properties belonging to former president Donald Trump, a congressional committee said on Monday as it released documents that appeared to show the former president profiting from his protection details in and out of office.All told, the Secret Service, which is mandated by law to protect the president and his family, spent $1.4m at Trump-owned properties in the US, according to records obtained by the Democratic-led House oversight committee as part of its investigation into Trump conflicts of interest. Continue reading...

Midterm elections will decide contested rematch between Stacey Abrams and Brian Kemp and which party controls the US SenateToday marks the first day of early voting in Georgia, the first major election for the critical state since the signing of the controversial Election Integrity Act, which brought forth new voting restrictions. Within the first few hours of the start of the election day, there were reports of disruption in service from polling places throughout the state, and later in the day voters at some stations saw two-hour lines.Still, voters and election officials remain optimistic about the midterm elections, which will decide the strongly contested rematch between gubernatorial candidates Stacey Abrams and Brian Kemp, and which party controls the United States Senate with the election between Senator Raphael Warnock and controversial figure Herschel Walker. Continue reading...

Librium Liz appeared for a brief, silent cameo in the Commons as her captors, Jeremy Hunt and Penny Mordaunt, held courtIt was a very British coup. So polite that you could almost have missed it. So restrained that Liz Truss actually had to mastermind her own dismissal. If Librium Liz can be said to mastermind anything. It was like asking a death row inmate to administer their own lethal injection.But it was a coup nonetheless. There may have been no military berets, but we might as well have had a TV announcer saying: “We interrupt this programme to inform you that the United Kingdom has a new junta. Continue reading...

The Georgia Republican candidate for the Senate claims he has ‘no idea’ what the money was used forConfronted on Sunday with receipts that appear to prove he paid for the abortion of a woman he once dated, staunch anti-abortionist Herschel Walker – Georgia’s Republican candidate for the US Senate – had a ready response: “It’s a lie.”Walker is competing for a Senate seat considered pivotal to determining which party controls the chamber in the 8 November midterms, but his campaign has spent weeks under fire after reports emerged earlier this month that Walker – who has publicly argued that abortion should be illegal nationwide without exceptions – sent the unnamed woman money to end her pregnancy. Continue reading...

The Tory party is already lining up its next leader, running through all its MPs in ever-decreasing qualityIf you’ve found the past few days in British politics tumultuous, spare a thought for the chair of the 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady, who reportedly returned to work on Monday after a half-term break in Athens to a pile of letters from rebellious Tory MPs trying to oust Liz Truss. We can only imagine his serenity as he contemplated the wonder of democracy at the Parthenon, before wandering into Westminster, putting down his carrier bag of duty free, and asking:“What did I miss?”Just a little, Graham! Over the past few days, Truss’s entire government agenda has been rewritten – and worse still, not even by her. Today’s emergency statement by the new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, confirmed the kind of change in direction that typically causes whiplash: almost all of the remaining tax cuts from the mini-budget have been scrapped, with even Truss’s flagship plan to cap rising energy prices scaled back.Frances Ryan 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...

It took the death of Sarah Everard to prompt the Casey report. As a former officer I was sickened by the findings – but sadly not surprised

Baton Rouge resident Patrick Ford discovers sunken Brookhill trading ship as lack of rainfall creates record-low water levelsRemains of a 19th-century ship were found in Louisiana’s capital as widespread drought creates record-low water levels in the Mississippi River.Baton Rouge resident Patrick Ford discovered the trading ship during one of his daily searches of the Mississippi riverfront for artefacts, the local news station WBRZ reported. Continue reading...

Senator says nonetheless Democrats should appeal to ‘millions of … working-class people’ who can’t afford healthcare or tuitionDemocrats should give up trying to appeal to racist, sexist or homophobic voters on the far right even as their party tries to preserve thin majorities in both congressional chambers, the progressive US senator Bernie Sanders said on Sunday.Sanders’ remarks came during an appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press after host Chuck Todd asked a question about attempting to woo over supporters of Donald Trump, which include white nationalists who helped stage the deadly January 6 Capitol attack on the day that Congress certified the former Republican president’s defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 election. Continue reading...

Former Trump strategist found guilty of criminal contempt of Congress for ignoring subpoena from Capitol attack committeeSteve Bannon should be sentenced to six months in prison and a $200,000 fine for “his sustained, bad-faith contempt of Congress”, the justice department said in a legal filing on Monday.Bannon, the former Donald Trump White House strategist, was found guilty on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress in July for ignoring a subpoena from the US House committee investigating the January 6 attack. Continue reading...

Looming layoffs, rising inflation and fears of an impending recession bode ill for companies’ earnings calls next weekAmid an ongoing slowdown in the tech industry, with potential layoffs looming, investors are expecting another rough season of earnings reports from the sector.The next two weeks will see earnings calls from Meta, Twitter, Tesla, Google and others – and analysts are warning of more slowdowns, as economic headwinds including rising inflation and fears of recession continue. Continue reading...

Kari Lake, who has echoed Trump’s claims the 2020 election was stolen, refuses three times to answer when pressed on CNNThe Republican gubernatorial nominee in Arizona, Kari Lake, refused to say whether she would accept the results of the election if she loses in November.Lake, a former Phoenix-area news anchor, has made denying the 2020 election results that her preferred candidate Donald Trump lost a pillar of her campaign. She has said she wouldn’t have certified the 2020 vote that the former president lost – and which the Democratic victor Joe Biden won in Arizona by just over 10,000 votes, saying the election was “corrupt, rotten”. Continue reading...

Drones seen swooping low across skies of Ukraine’s capital as people seek cover. Plus, why pet shelters are overrun with guinea pigs

Dawn Wooten raised the alarm more than two years ago after detained immigrant women accused a gynaecologist of performing non-consensual proceduresWhen American nurse Dawn Wooten started asking questions about the alarming number of unwanted hysterectomies and gynaecological procedures being performed on detained immigrants at her workplace in Georgia, she was unfamiliar with the term whistleblower.Now, more than two years on, she has no regrets about having raised the alarm with her report on Irwin County Detention Center that shook the US and Congress with allegations against a gynaecologist so notorious he was known as the “uterus collector”. Continue reading...

The first rounds of the postseason saw three 100-win teams lose to opponents with worse records. Is this a sign of a flawed system or just how baseball works?Do you accept the results of the 2022 playoffs? This is not some obtuse political metaphor, it’s a conversation being had in some circles after three teams that won more than 100 games in the regular season fell to theoretically inferior squads in the first two rounds of the playoffs. It’s one heck of a debut for baseball’s brand-new postseason format that strikes many fans, particular of those eliminated teams, as essentially unfair.It started with the 101-win New York Mets, who didn’t even make the National League Division Series. Forced to play the San Diego Padres in a newly established three-game Wild Card series, the Mets managed to win just a single playoff game. The Atlanta Braves, despite earning a bye after just beating the Mets to the NL East title, didn’t fare much better. They managed to eke out the same number of postseason victories as the Mets, losing 3-1 in the NLDS to the Philadelphia Phillies, who finished 14 games below both teams in the NL East standings. Continue reading...

Kansas City and Buffalo both have an electrifying QB. But the balance of power on Sunday was shifted by a wily old veteranIn March, barely a month after he helped the Los Angeles Rams win the Super Bowl, a tough old linebacker named Von Miller surprised much of the football world by announcing that he was going to sign with the Buffalo Bills. Miller, a veteran of 10 NFL seasons, was about to turn 33, but the Bills were giving him a younger man’s contract: six years, $120m.“Is 40 open?” he said that day on Twitter, referring to his preferred jersey number. It was. Continue reading...

As the chess furore between Carlsen and Niemann rolls on, we take a look at some enduring disputes in sportNot since Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit enthralled 62 million viewers has chess captured mainstream attention to such an extent.Last month the Norwegian grandmaster Magnus Carlsen, world No 1 and already the “rock star” of chess – see GQ profiles and multimillion‑pound apparel collaborations – accused the American Hans Niemann of cheating after the 19-year-old ended Carlsen’s over-the-board 53-match winning sequence. Continue reading...

I watch people preparing food, working out and doing laundry. But what if I don’t want to ‘maximise my potential’?You will not be surprised to hear that there’s another TikTok microtrend to feel bad about. It’s called #my5to9 (4.6m views) and it’s a two-headed beast, covering what people do in the 5am to 9am slot before work and their 5pm to 9pm post-work schedules. It’s a wholesome if exhausting-looking sequence of workouts, food prep and domestic drudgery. I watched one user cook, prep the next day’s breakfast and lunch, do laundry, plump pillows, bathe, exfoliate and moisturise. Then I needed a lie-down to recover.Given that sleep has already been hacked to death with everything from smart rings to ice baths, we are reaching a full 24-hour timetable of aspirational activity: there is no room for drooling or vacant downtime. It’s the logical conclusion of what essayist Jia Tolentino called the “always be optimising” mindset. Every second of time must be used well as we tick towards death. Why are you wasting yours reading this? At least listen to it on triple speed on the treadmill, loser. Continue reading...

Hispanic voters could tip the scales next month in a number of battleground statesArizona’s Democratic senator Mark Kelly frequently consults his “Latino kitchen cabinet”. In south Texas, the Democratic House candidate Michelle Vallejo hosted a neighbourhood quinceañera. And in Georgia, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams appeared on stage at La Raza’s Fiesta Mexicana. Across battleground states this midterm cycle, Democrats are urgently working to engage and mobilize Hispanic voters.Their push comes two years after Donald Trump made surprising but substantial inroads with Latinos despite his defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential race. Democrats started to fear their party was losing its hold on a historically reliable cohort, while Republicans became hopeful. Continue reading...

Governor Greg Abbott wants to make the border safe for his state but loose gun laws allow cartels to drive to any Texas gun shop and legally stockpile guns, Mexican officials saySaying he wants to make the US-Mexico border as safe as possible for his state, Texas’s governor Greg Abbott last month signed an order designating Mexican drug cartels as “terrorist organizations” and urged the Joe Biden White House to do the same.But the same border that Abbott insists he wants to make safer is actually being destabilized by Texas’s lax gun laws, which the governor defends and which the Mexican cartels exploit to arm themselves – legally – to the teeth, according to officials left to grapple with the situation. Continue reading...