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Mike Johnson announces compromise after decoupling government funding from Trump-backed citizenship billUS congressional leaders have agreed to a short-term funding deal in a move that averts a damaging pre-election government shutdown and also amounts to a snub for Donald Trump.The prospect of a shutdown at the expiration of the current government funding on 30 September had been looming after Republicans insisted on tying future funding to legislation that would require voters to show proof of US citizenship - known as the Save Act and backed by Trump but opposed by Democrats. Continue reading...

A draw represents a missed opportunity after Arsenal's defensive diligence and gamesmanship frazzled Pep Guardiola at the Etihad

Seventeen people injured in shooting outside nightclub after being caught in crossfire, police sayA manhunt in Alabama for a suspect in the shooting outside a nightclub that killed four people and wounded 17 on Saturday night entered its second full day on Monday.The shooting in Birmingham was at least the 24th mass murder in the US so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The archive defines a mass murder as one in which four victims are killed or wounded. Continue reading...

Suspect also maintained a list of dates and venues where Trump was to appear, justice department says

Lina Khan made remark on largest-ever US grocery merger, which FTC is seeking to block, on CBS's 60 MinutesThe chairperson of the US's Federal Trade Commission has warned that the largest-ever planned grocery merger would increase costs for everyday shoppers despite promises to the contrary by those at the center of the $24.6bn deal.Lina Khan made the remarks on Sunday on CBS's 60 Minutes while discussing plans for Kroger and Albertsons to merge, something that the FTC is seeking to block. Continue reading...

Departures from campaign for North Carolina governor include senior adviser and campaign managerSeveral top employees on Mark Robinson's campaign to become North Carolina's next governor have quit their posts after a media report found compelling evidence that the Republican candidate previously described himself as a black Nazi, spoke favorably of reinstating slavery and shared other disturbing thoughts on a porn message forum.The departures announced on Sunday include the campaign's senior adviser, campaign manager and finance director, among others.

Corporations such as ExxonMobil and Blackstone also big funders of climate crisis, new trade union report findsSome of the world's largest companies have been accused of undermining democracy across the world by financially backing far-right political movements, funding and exacerbating the climate crisis, and violating trade union rights and human rights in a report published on Monday by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).Amazon, Tesla, Meta, ExxonMobil, Blackstone, Vanguard and Glencore are the corporations included in the report. The companies' lobbying arms are attempting to shape global policy at the United Nations Summit of the Future in New York City on 22 and 23 September. Continue reading...

Survey by PEN America suggests bans nearly tripled nationwide from previous year's figureMore than 10,000 books were banned in US public schools from 2023 to 2024, according to a report, marking a stark increase over the year before as Republican-led states pass new censorship laws.The survey from PEN America suggested that bans of books nearly tripled nationwide, from 3,362 the previous year. Continue reading...

Experts worry H5N1 virus is more widespread than is being reported as they call for stricter mandates from USDAAfter three more herds in California's Central valley tested positive for bird flu, questions have been raised about the whether true extent of the outbreak in the US is much wider than recognized, given inadequate or nonexistent biosecurity and a persistent lack of testing.The new cases, revealed by officials at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), bring the total in California to eight affected herds discovered this month. Continue reading...

Democratic nominee says she accepted a debate invitation from CNN but her Republican rival said it was too late'. Plus, the hidden life of Elizabeth Taylor - as seen by her sonGood morning.Kamala Harris has challenged Donald Trump to debate her again before November's election, telling supporters in New York that her rival seems to be looking for an excuse" to dodge a second round.Where are the polls now? Harris appears to have a narrow lead over Trump - but in the swing states that decide the vote, the picture is mixed.Who does Zelenskyy think this global conflict' could involve? He listed Israel, Lebanon, Iran, Taiwan, China, as well as many African countries". Continue reading...

Ridicule should remain an important part of Harris's playbook as Trump's campaign continues to spew execrable liesWhile presidential campaigns always distort and distend time in strange ways, this election already feels like it's stretched on surreally for eons - long enough that several distinct and quite different feeling periods have been pressed into the fossil record.Recall for instance, if you can, the Republican primary. For many months, Republican insiders who should have known better and were paid handsomely to know better pushed the idea that Florida's governor, Ron DeSantis, or even one of his lesser-known and lesser-resourced rivals, stood a real chance of defeating Donald Trump for the nomination - even as the former president remained firmly at the top of the polls and his challengers struggled to articulate a rationale for their campaigns to a still staunchly pro-Trump base. There were never any real grounds for this, but the press mocked up a race for DeSantis and his fellow also-rans anyway, complete with the most irrelevant series of debates in the history of American presidential politics.Osita Nwanevu is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

In 2021, I see I sent my home-alone eldest 12 unanswered messages over three days. I have to face facts: they're just not that into meTexting your teenage son is like texting a guy who has no interest in you" goes a meme that has re-emerged recently, piercing in its accuracy. I am so proud of you, I love you, have a great day," the ur-version goes; OK," the son replies. Longer versions feature a litany of lengthy mum texts - offers of food, solicitous inquiries, general expressions of love - met with single-syllable son replies. Occasionally, there's the teen son equivalent of a booty call: a request for cash (or food).I feel the truth of it to my core, and it trails on into their 20s. I considered myself relatively sanguine about my sons leaving home: there was no sobbing into pillows or sniffing left-behind sweaters. I thought I projected unconditional yet stable maternal support and appropriate boundaries. Our WhatsApps, however, tell a different, unhinged story: my sons keep in touch in a normal, loving, if laconic way, but my messages - quantity and content - give me a full-body cringe. Continue reading...

The former New York Jets first-round pick is enjoying a career-best run of form in Minnesota. And he may offer a lesson for quarterback-needy teams elsewhereNot long ago, it looked like Sam Darnold's days in the NFL were numbered. The No 3 overall pick in 2018 by the New York Jets had bounced around teams over the past few years and was set to be a backup this fall to the Minnesota Vikings' first-round draft pick, JJ McCarthy. A preseason knee injury for McCarthy pressed Darnold into action, though, and the veteran has made the most of the chance. In a 34-7 romp over the Houston Texans on Sunday, Darnold completed 17 of his 28 passes, only getting 181 yards through the air but avoiding interceptions and firing four touchdowns to four different receivers. Darnold has been one of the league's most efficient quarterbacks in all three weeks this season, and the Vikings are 3-0.Darnold was a college star at Southern California, but his NFL career had mostly been cascading disappointment. If Darnold had never gotten on the field this year, it's possible that the defining image of his career would have been an ESPN graphic from the time he got mononucleosis in 2019, or perhaps another moment that season when a hot mic caught Darnold becoming so befuddled by the New England Patriots defense that he said he was seeing ghosts". For an early draft pick, Darnold had become a sideshow. Until now. Continue reading...

Last autumn, I pared back the clutter to face the white walls of my flat in the bright light of day. It was the start of a more guilt-free approach to healingWhen Jenny Diski decided she would journey to Antarctica, she did so with the four walls of her bedroom in mind. White walls, icy mirrors, white sheets and pillowcases, white slatted blinds," the author wrote in her late-1990s travelogue, Skating to Antarctica. Opposite my bed, in the very small room, a wall of mirrored cupboards reflects the whiteness back at itself, making it twice the size it thought it was."This gave her a pure moment of gratification each morning, and a feeling of expansiveness. A boundless feeling that, when she traced it back, had emerged among the white hospital sheets of London's Maudsley psychiatric unit, where she had been a patient at the age of 21.Kat Lister is the author of The Elements: A WidowhoodDo 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...

Putin will not stop unless he is forced to. It's time to change the way we think about nuclear deterrence, and commit to securing victoryThe western strategy towards supporting Ukraine is dominated by concerns about potential nuclear escalation and the possibility that Russia's invasion could trigger a third world war. It is clear that no democratic state, including Ukraine, wants to see such an outcome. However, over-cautious preventive measures that allow Russia to prevail in its aggression could themselves become escalatory. Excessive apprehension may inadvertently provoke the very outcome the west seeks to avoid.A current topic of global discussion is whether President Joe Biden will approve Ukrainian strikes on military targets within Russian territory using US-supplied weapons. The UK government is waiting for Washington's decision before taking further action. Yet the length of this debate points to a deeper issue: the absence of a unified strategy between Ukraine and its allies for achieving victory and ending the war. The western coalition, led by the US, continues to prioritise avoiding escalation, even if this slows down Ukraine's defence efforts.Andriy Zagorodnyuk is a former Ukrainian defence minister and chair of thinktank the Centre for Defense Strategies in KyivDo 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...

Niece locates her uncle Luis Armando Albino living on other side of the country after search sparked when she took online DNA test just for fun'A man who was abducted as a six-year-old while playing in a California park in 1951 has been found more than seven decades later thanks to the help of an online ancestry test, old photos and newspaper clippings.The Bay Area News Group reported on Friday that Luis Armando Albino's niece in Oakland - with assistance from police, the FBI and the justice department - located her uncle living on the US east coast. Continue reading...

Democratic nominee says she accepted an invitation from CNN to debate Republican rival, who said it was too late'Kamala Harris laid down another challenge to Republican rival Donald Trump to meet her for a second debate before November's presidential election, telling supporters in New York that her opponent seems to be looking for an excuse" to avoid a second confrontation.On Saturday, the vice-president and Democratic nominee said she had accepted an invitation from CNN to debate the former president, but Trump said it was already too late". Continue reading...

Republican nominee says in interview that he doesn't see that at all' and he hasn't made deals with Musk or RFK JrDonald Trump said in an interview released on Sunday that he did not think he would run for president again in 2028 if he loses this year's race for the White House.In an interview on the Full Measure television show with Sharyl Attkisson, the former US president - who ran in 2016 and 2020 - was asked whether he saw himself running yet again in four years time. Continue reading...

Ex-president attacks influential entertainment figure after Winfrey hosts livestreamed interview with vice-presidentJust over a week ago, it was the pop superstar Taylor Swift. Now Donald Trump is taking aim at Oprah Winfrey over her support of Kamala Harris.Whether or not attacking some of the most popular and powerful entertainment figures in US history will prove a solid campaign strategy is yet to be proven, but the former president has not held back. Continue reading...

Haitians escaping violence at home now face it in their refuge in Ohio thanks to the extreme right and the Republican presidential campaignThere is a humanitarian crisis involving Haitians and, despite JD Vance's lies, it isn't in Ohio. It's in Haiti itself, where violence has reached terrifying levels. Five children a week are killed and injured and almost 5million people - about half the population - face acute hunger. Little wonder families flee. Most of the 15,000 Haitian immigrants in the town of Springfield are in the US through the temporary protected status(TPS) granted to them because of the turmoil intheir owncountry.Now they face fresh danger thanks to the vicious and baseless lies of Donald Trump's campaign. In his debate with Kamala Harris, Mr Trump declared that In Springfield, they're eating the dogs. The people that came in. They're eating the cats." He had picked up on his running mate Mr Vance's slanders on X that pets [have been] abducted and eaten by people who shouldn't be in this country".Do 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...

Michigan governor responds to ex-president saying women will no longer be thinking about abortion if he wins electionGretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan, called Donald Trump just deranged" on Sunday after he said women would no longer be thinking about abortion if he is elected as president in November.This guy just doesn't understand what the average woman is confronting in her life in this country, and how could he? He's not lived a normal life," Whitmer said in an interview on CNN's State of the Union. Continue reading...

Senator does not call for Robinson to drop out of governor race and says he deserves a chance to defend himself'The senior Senate Republican Lindsey Graham has said reports that the North Carolina Republican candidate for governor, Mark Robinson, calling himself a black NAZI!" in posts on the porn forum Nude Africa a decade ago are beyond unnerving" and should see him end his political career if proven true.If they're true, he's unfit to serve for office," the long-serving South Carolina senator said Sunday. If they're not true, he has the best lawsuit in the history of the country for libel." Continue reading...

Police say multiple victims were caught in crossfire in nightlife area of Five Points South in BirminghamA major manhunt is under way in Birmingham, Alabama, for those responsible for a shooting at a nightclub late on Saturday night in which four people have died and 17 were wounded.The violence is just the latest shocking incident that highlights the epidemic of gun violence and killings that continues to plague the US and yet prompts little to no political action. Continue reading...

While Dick Cheney has endorsed Harris, there have been no comments from other senior Republicans from Bush's eraThe MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell this week hit out at George W Bush, the Republican former president, for refusing to weigh in on America's looming presidential election.All any decent person wants him to do is to say, Don't vote for Donald Trump, and here's why,' and he won't even do that," O'Donnell told the Fast Politics podcast, of the Republican president who was in office from 2001 to 2009. Continue reading...

Public letter calls VP a candidate who defends America's democratic ideals' and says Donald Trump is unfit' for jobMore than 700 national security leaders and former military officials publicly endorsed Kamala Harris for president in a letter released on Sunday, calling her a candidate who defends America's democratic ideals".They also said her Republican rival, Donald Trump, was unfit" for the job. Continue reading...

Ethics, aesthetics and philosophy are all intertwined in the poetry of Hafez and his words help us to rediscover long-lost truths

Police say Shawn Stines killed Kevin Mullins after argument in judge's chambers as town struggles to understand motiveA small Kentucky town is still reeling after a longtime sheriff was accused of shooting and killing a judge at the county courthouse on 19 September in an act of shocking violence that has left many questions unanswered.State police said that the sheriff, Shawn Stines, 43, killed the district judge Kevin Mullins, 54, after an argument in the judge's chambers. Stines turned himself in, was arrested at the scene and now faces first-degree murder charges. Continue reading...

Coins are latest merchandise launch by Republican, who raised third of the amount brought in by Harris in AugustDonald Trump has launched a range of $100 commemorative coins, which join Trump sneakers, Trump Bibles, Trump playing cards, Trump NFTs and strips of the suit he wore when he was booked in Georgia last year, in his hunt for campaign cash.The latest addition to the Trump entrepreneurial universe - one that four bankruptcies and a recent financial fraud conviction only begin to attest to - display a profile of Trump's face and an image of the White House with the words In God we Trust". Continue reading...

Being human is so complicated - all that doubt, dread and self-loathing. Dogs have a much better time of it. But can I access their world of pure sensation?You know how sometimes you think you've had a brilliant idea, then it bites you in the bum like an athletic but mean jack russell? Suggesting I could live like a dog for a day to see if they're happier" turned out to be one of those.It seemed so promising. When I heard the title of the philosopher Mark Rowlands' book The Happiness of Dogs: Why the Unexamined Life Is Most Worth Living, it struck me like a Frisbee to the head. Rowlands hasn't written a how-to guide - rather it's a lovely meditation on what it's like in our canine companions' heads - but it filled me with urgent longing. Continue reading...

From Vance's penchant to create stories' to Trump's false claims, lies are brazenly flaunted as a tactic to win supportJD Vance was holding court on CNN's State of the Union programme. The American media totally ignored this stuff," he complained last Sunday, until Donald Trump and I started talking about cat memes."But it wasn't just a meme, objected interviewer Dana Bash. The Republican vice-presidential nominee gave a telling response: If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that's what I'm going to do, Dana, because you guys are completely letting Kamala Harris coast." Continue reading...

Locals support and volunteer at Haitian-owned businesses to stand against Trump and Vance's anti-immigrant liesThe line down the center of the Rose Goute Creole restaurant on Springfield, Ohio's South Limestone Street is halfway out the door. It's been like this ever since former president Donald Trump falsely accused immigrants in Springfield of eating cats and dogs during a televised debate on 10 September.At the back of the restaurant, kitchen staff scramble to take orders and load plates of herring patties, rice and beans, and barbecued chicken legs on to serving trays. Outside, cars with plates from Georgia, Wisconsin and Indiana - diners who've stopped off a nearby highway to show support for the Haitian community - fill the parking lot. Continue reading...

A new baby in the family means learning to pronounce a new name - and a bit of cruel fun for parentsI have a new niece, as my sister Fionnuala and her husband Adam welcomed Sadhbh (pronounced: Sadhbh) into a grateful world this week. At time of writing, she is three days old, but she seems very sound and her sister Clodagh is delighted by her company. My kids haven't met her yet, but are wholly infatuated. They insist on watching the few videos we've been sent on a loop, and attempt to learn her name as they do so.My son sees Sadhbh written down as I show him pics from our family WhatsApp group. The pile-up of consonants taxes his English brain a little too hard for intuitive speech. Give it a go, we tell him, baiting an age-old trap beloved of all Anglo-Hibernian relationships. He tries Sadib' and Sahiddybib', which draws cruel laughter from his loving parents. It's sigh-v' we tell him, like five, but with an S instead of an F.' Continue reading...

US president is recorded on hot mic singling out Beijing, saying it continues to behave aggressively' in areas including the South China SeaJoe Biden has been recorded on a hot mic telling the leaders of Australia, India and Japan that an aggressive China is testing us", in remarks at a Quad summit that risked undercutting the group's declaration that carefully avoided referring to Beijing by name.The comments came as Biden opened a farewell summit in his home town of Wilmington, Delaware, with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida and Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese. Continue reading...

In ceremony in Kake, military acknowledges bombardment of village that destroyed it and led to many deathsIn a ceremony Saturday afternoon, the US navy apologized for firing upon and torching the Alaska Native village of Kake in 1869.Surrounded by tribal Chilkat weavings, historic photographs and other Lingit artwork in the Kake elementary and high school gymnasium, R Adm Mark B Sucato expressed the military's regret, in the first of two apologies planned by the military for bombardments of Alaska Native communities in the late 1800s. Continue reading...

Tim Ryan, former Ohio Democratic representative, says Trump is avoiding debate because he is scared'Kamala Harris has accepted an invitation from CNN to participate in another debate with Donald Trump, on 23 October, her campaign said on Saturday.Donald Trump should have no problem agreeing to this debate. It is the same format and setup as the CNN debate he attended and said he won in June, when he praised CNN's moderators, rules and ratings," the Harris campaign chair, Jen O'Malley Dillon, said in a statement. Continue reading...

Nate Hochman recorded several videos for America 2100, a thinktank linked to the Republican Florida senatorThe rightwing activist Nate Hochman, who was fired last year by the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, for employing neo-Nazi imagery in a campaign video, is now the face of a Marco Rubio-linked thinktank's efforts to spread anti-immigrant panic from Ohio to Pennsylvania.Videos featuring Hochman recorded in Charleroi, Pennsylvania, have been boosted on X by a range of rightwing figures including the platform's owner, the tech billionaire Elon Musk. Continue reading...

Chinese aggression in the South China Sea forcing countries such as Japan to increase defences and talk up an Asian Nato'Whoever declared that in this world nothing is certain except death and taxes" plainly led a sheltered life. Some authorities say Benjamin Franklin coined the phrase, but it was probably first voiced by the memorably named Toby Guzzle, a comedic character in Christopher Bullock's 1716 English farce, The Cobbler of Preston.With all due respect to Guzzle, war is a third inescapable, global certainty, as present-day citizens of Lebanon, Ukraine and Sudan know only too well. China's expansionist regime is testing this proposition again in the choppy waters of the South China Sea. Maritime states from the Philippines to Japan struggle with Beijing's aggression. Continue reading...

Marcee Gray, 43, charged with exploiting an elderly person in Ben Hill county, 200 miles from Apalachee high schoolThe mother of a Georgia teenager charged with fatally shooting four people at his high school has been indicted in connection with an alleged domestic incident last year.The indictment handed down earlier this week charges Marcee Gray, 43, with exploiting an elderly person and other crimes in Ben Hill county, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. It appears unrelated to the school shooting at Apalachee high school earlier this month, which occurred in a different Georgia county nearly 200 miles away. Continue reading...

Vice-president and Democratic national committee pulled in $257m while former president and Republicans saw $85m

Decision that weakened power of government regulatory agencies sows confusion to already chaotic cannabis lawA recent supreme court decision that weakened the power of US government regulatory agencies such as the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has added additional confusion to America's already chaotic cannabis law.This month, a federal court was able to overrule the DEA on what qualifies as legal hemp, in part because of a supreme court decision that nullified the Chevron doctrine, which once directed courts to defer to the expertise of federal agencies. But now the reverse will apply and courts may have the final say over even highly technical regulations. Continue reading...

Voters picked Trump in 2016 and Biden in 2020. Winning Saginaw is key to securing Michigan - and the White HouseA local law says that residents of Saginaw Township in Michigan cannot publicly display political signs in support of a presidential candidate until 30 days before the US election, even on their own front lawns.But you wouldn't know it while driving through this neat midwestern township that borders a town of the same name - simply, Saginaw - in the most closely contested county, also called Saginaw, of a battleground state that Donald Trump won in 2016 when he took the White House and then lost in 2020 when Joe Biden wrested it from his control. Continue reading...

If anyone could undo ... the will of Louisiana ... the Catholic church can and will,' says survivor whose case is targetedMonths after Louisiana's supreme court upheld the constitutionality of a state law that let child molestation victims sue for long-ago abuse, despite arguments to the contrary by a Roman Catholic diocese, another church organization is asking the federal government to strike the statute down.Behind the request in question are the Dominican Sisters of Peace and a law firm that boasts about having represented Catholic institutions in Louisiana courts for more than a century. Another of the law firm's clients in question, the archdiocese of New Orleans, is offering clergy molestation victims less than 10% of what they are requesting in a bankruptcy settlement, in part by arguing the so-called lookback window" law doesn't apply to more than 600 abuse claims. Continue reading...

The US presidential election is neck and neck. But only one candidate has been compared to Adolf Hitler. Is it an exaggeration or based in fact?Is Donald Trump really a fascist? It's a question that has been bubbling away since he first announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination in 2015 after a years-long campaign to brand Barack Obama an illegitimate occupant of the White House. Back then his questioning of Obama's citizenship appeared overtly racist (When I was 18, people called me Donald Trump. When he was 18 @BarackObama was Barry Soweto"). So were his comments about Mexican immigrants at his campaign launch: They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people." Trump's early indications that he would not accept the results of any election he did not win made him sound like an anti-democrat. And he told Hillary Clinton in their first presidential debate that if he became president, she would end up in jail, which is where he seemed to think his political opponents belonged. It was plenty. But was it fascism?Before 2016, the closest the US had ever come to electing a fascist as president was in a work of fiction. Philip Roth's The Plot Against America, published in 2004, imagines an alternative history for the country in which Charles Lindbergh - real-life aviation hero and Nazi sympathiser - has defeated Franklin Roosevelt in the 1940 presidential election on a promise to keep the US out of the second world war. In Roth's telling, Lindbergh then initiates non-aggression pacts with Hitler's Germany and Imperial Japan before embarking on a domestic programme of forced Jewish assimilation. Only when the popular radio host Walter Winchell announces he will stand against Lindbergh for the presidency and is shot dead at a campaign rally does the country come to its senses and drive Lindbergh out. Continue reading...