US news | The Guardian

Democrats say Trump is the one doing it' while Republicans claim it's over giving healthcare to illegal aliens'

Civil rights groups say new districts dilute Black and Hispanic power while Republicans claim legal gerrymander

Officials said there were no immediate reported injuries after reports of a gas explosion at the 20-story buildingPart of a high-rise apartment building in New York City collapsed Wednesday morning, leaving a corner of the building a pile of rubble.The city's fire department said it had no immediate reports of injuries. It said it was responding to a report of a gas explosion that collapsed an incinerator shaft in the 20-story building in the Bronx borough. Continue reading...

Trump considers himself a master deal-maker. But he's been regularly outmaneuvered by strongmen like Netanyahu and Vladimir PutinAs a presidential candidate, Donald Trump claimed he would quickly end the war in Gaza. Eight months after taking office, Trump finally decided to exert some US pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, announcing a 20-point peace plan at the White House on Monday.But the deal that the US president struck with Netanyahu - after Trump dithered for months, allowing Israel to continue its genocidal war with US weapons and unwavering political support - is less a ceasefire proposal than an ultimatum for Hamas to surrender. Continue reading...

Trump's $100,000 visa fee will gut the immigrant workforce that keeps US hospitals - and patients - aliveThe Trump administration announced last week that every new H-1B visa will now cost $100,000. Framed as a crackdown on Silicon Valley, the policy will devastate American hospitals. Its real casualties will be poor and rural Americans in need of medical care but who will be left with no one to provide it.One in four US physicians is foreign-trained. Many enter through the H-1B program, disproportionately staffing rural and underserved hospitals where American graduates rarely go. In some facilities, every single doctor is an immigrant. These are the physicians who deliver babies in Mississippi Delta towns, staff emergency rooms in the Dakotas, and run primary care clinics in the Bronx. By raising visa costs from a few thousand dollars to $100,000, the administration is functionally cutting off their pipeline.Eram Alam is a historian of medicine and migration in the department of the history of science at Harvard University. She is the author of the Care of Foreigners: How Immigrant Physicians Changed US Healthcare, forthcoming from Johns Hopkins University Press in October 2025 Continue reading...

The president's intervention promises a return to normality' - one that appeals to Israelis unconcerned with Gaza's future

The USA women's manager on the death of her predecessor at Chelsea, Matt Beard, and how managers need more support to navigate the modern gameEagerly with hands raised in the air, the children from Abbott Community primary school all want to quiz the United States head coach. The plan was for Emma Hayes to just take a few questions from the youngsters at the National Football Museum, but she wants to answer them all. Even her son, Harry, watching on, raises his hand. The tone is light, fun and educational as Hayes celebrates being inducted into the Hall of Fame.The former Chelsea manager, who is being honoured by the National Football Museum for her coaching achievements so far, not least her seven Women's Super Leagues titles and Olympic gold medal, is quick to point to how glad she is that the women's game is in a better place in this country" compared to when she took on the Chelsea job in 2012. Alongside her smiles, though, there is a deep sadness at present. When later sitting down to speak to the Guardian, Hayes issues words of warning to the sport, namely that it must learn lessons from the death of her predecessor at Chelsea, Matt Beard, after the shock news of his death at the age of 47 last month. Continue reading...

Advocates say reopened tower, which tells story of Miami as welcoming city for immigrants, will be tarnishedThe donation by the state of Florida of prime development land in Miami for Donald Trump's presidential library has angered critics who say it is a betrayal of the city's famous Freedom Tower, a beacon of hope for generations of immigrants.Ron DeSantis, Florida's Republican governor, and his three cabinet colleagues voted unanimously on Tuesday to deed the almost three-acre parcel of land immediately adjacent to the building - also known as El Refugio (the shelter) - to the foundation that will build the library devoted to the legacy of the 45th and 47th president. Continue reading...

As the WNBA finals tip off on Friday amid another year of explosive growth, inconsistent refereeing fueled by systemic shortcomings threatens to hijack the occasionThe WNBA has never been more visible. The best-of-seven-games finals between the Phoenix Mercury and Las Vegas Aces will tip off Friday night before what are expected to be the largest TV audiences that women's basketball has ever drawn. Crowds have swelled, viewership milestones have toppled, franchise valuations are soaring and formerly niche stars have broken into the mainstream. Yet as the league celebrates a second straight year of explosive growth, an old and thorny problem has risen to the surface: officiating.Complaints about referees have always been louder and more persistent in professional basketball relative to other sports due to the subjectivity of calls and sheer number of decisions. But in the WNBA's 2025 season, the volume and intensity of the criticism from all sides have reached new heights. Coaches have been ejected and suspended. Star players have vented in press conferences and online. Fans have dissected blown calls with Zapruder-film rigor on social media. What had long been background noise and the province of hoop wonks became the defining subplot of the season, colliding awkwardly with the league's ongoing surge into the spotlight. Continue reading...

The US government has shut down because Congress couldn't reach a funding agreement. Here's what to know about what happens next

The US government has shut down for the first time since 2018. Democrats refused to support a Republican plan to extend funding for federal departments unless they won a series of concessions centered on healthcare. The GOP, which controls the Senate and the House of Representatives, rejected their demands, setting off a legislative scramble that lasted into the hours before funding lapsed at midnight, when the Senate failed to advance both parties' bills to keep funding going

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Report from Scholars at Risk counts some 40 attacks against academic freedom in the US in the first half of 2025A global academic freedom group has warned that the Trump administration's assault on universities is turning the US into a model for how to dismantle" academic freedom.We are witnessing an unprecedented situation - really as far as I can tell in history - where a global leader of education and research is voluntarily dismantling that which gave it an advantage," said Robert Quinn, executive director of Scholars at Risk (SAR). Continue reading...

Unreasonable delays' in giving permits violates residents' second amendment rights, claims justice departmentThe US Department of Justice sued the Los Angeles county sheriff's department on Tuesday, alleging it violated the constitution by moving too slowly to process gun licenses for people who want to carry concealed weapons.The sheriff's department's unreasonable delays" in granting licenses violates California residents' second amendment right to bear arms outside the home, the justice department's civil rights division said in a complaint filed in Los Angeles federal court. Continue reading...

Senate sinks Democratic and Republican plans to extend government funding beyond midnight and avert shutdown

Senate Democrats voted down a Republican bill to keep funding the government, putting it on a near certain path to a shutdown. Key US politics stories from 30 September 2025Donald Trump has blamed Democrats for stalled talks that have made a US government shut down all but certain, and has threatened to punish the party and its voters during any stoppage by targeting progressive priorities and forcing mass public sector job cuts.Late on Tuesday Senate Democrats voted down a Republican bill to keep funding the government, putting it on a near certain path to a shutdown after midnight Wednesday for the first time in almost seven years. Democrats refused to vote for the bill unless it included a series of concessions centred on healthcare. Continue reading...

US Senate rejects Republican plan to keep funding flowing as each party mostly unites to block other's proposal

Federal Trade Commission alleges agreement between two firms started when Zillow paid Redfin $100mThe Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is suing Zillow and Redfin, accusing the real estate companies of entering what the regulator says is an illegal deal to suppress competition in online rental advertising.In a lawsuit filed on Tuesday, the FTC alleges that this agreement started in February - when Zillow paid Redfin $100m. In exchange for that and other compensation, the commission said, Redfin agreed to end contracts with advertising partners, stop competing ads for multifamily properties for up to nine years and serve as a syndicator of Zillow listings on its own sites. Continue reading...

Nakia Porter was violently arrested by sheriff's deputies in 2020 after stopping to switch drivers during a family tripA woman who was knocked unconscious and arrested by two sheriff's deputies in northern California after stopping to change drivers during a family trip in 2020 has reached a $17m settlement with the county, her lawyer said on Monday.Nakia Porter had filed a federal lawsuit accusing the Solano county sheriff's office deputies violating state and federal civil rights statutes by engaging in unlawful seizure, assault and excessive force". Continue reading...

Rancho Palos Verdes threatened by worsening landslide with no injuries reported and but trigger unknownA wealthy enclave in southern California that has been threatened by worsening landslides for years saw more of its land crumble this week.Aerial photos showed parts of several backyards of large homes in Rancho Palos Verdes, a coastal community about 25 miles (40km) south of Los Angeles, had crumbled toward the ocean on Saturday evening. Continue reading...

Housing and VA departments attack radical left' despite law limiting political activities of government employeesSeveral US federal agencies on Tuesday began blaming Democrats for an impending government shutdown at midnight in a move that experts say appears to violate the Hatch Act, which limits the political activities of government employees.Some agencies reportedly sent emails to employees on Tuesday afternoon, while others posted public statements faulting Democrats, the radical left," and radical liberals in Congress" for a potential government shutdown at midnight. Continue reading...

Democrats said they won't vote for legislation unless Republicans reverse Medicaid cuts and extend subsidies

Brendan Carr earlier said we can do this the easy way or the hard way' as he urged networks to take action on KimmelBrendan Carr, the tough-talking, pro-Trump chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), claimed on Tuesday that Democrats and the media had misrepresented" critical comments he made about Jimmy Kimmel's late-night talkshow.Television conglomerates including Nexstar and Sinclair opted to pull the show for business" reasons, Carr argued, not because of anything he said. Continue reading...

Release comes after a Guardian investigation revealed US pullback on anti-trafficking efforts, which Trump officials denied

Lawsuit from Trump's justice department targets advocates involved in a 2024 protest at a New Jersey synagogueThe Trump administration has filed a first-of-its-kind civil rights lawsuit against pro-Palestinian groups and activists, accusing the advocates of violating a law that has traditionally been used to protect reproductive health clinics from anti-abortion harassment and violence.The lawsuit, filed on Monday by the justice department's civil rights division, alleges that two advocacy groups and six people broke the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (Face) Act when they protested against an event at a West Orange, New Jersey, synagogue in November 2024. The event at the Ohr Torah synagogue promoted the sale of property in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are widely considered illegal under international law. Similar events have sparked protests in the years since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, but this event escalated into violence. Continue reading...

Judge rules non-citizens have the same free speech rights as US citizens under the first amendment

President also said that company would provide medications to Medicaid at most favored nation' pricing

Miguel Angel Garcia-Hernandez, a father of four, succumbed to his injuries after being removed from life support'A second person who was shot recently at a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) facility in Dallas, Texas, has died, according to the League of United Latin American Citizens (Lulac), which is representing his family.Lulac announced in a news release on Tuesday that Miguel Angel Garcia-Hernandez, 32, had succumbed to his injuries after being removed from life support following the [24 September] sniper attack on the Dallas Ice facility". Continue reading...

Jeff Landry's request comes as crime trends analyst says New Orleans has had fewest murders since 1970The Donald Trump-supporting Republican governor of Louisiana has asked for national guard troops to be deployed to New Orleans and other cities, saying Monday that the state needs help fighting crime and praising the president's decision to send the military to Washington DC and Memphis.The Republican governor, Jeff Landry, asked for up to 1,000 troops through fiscal year 2026 in a letter sent to the Trump administration's top military official, Pete Hegseth. It comes weeks after Trump suggested New Orleans could be one of his next targets for deploying the national guard to fight crime. Continue reading...

Federal workers' move offers Democrats a chance to win the budget battle - and their identityThe Federal Unionists Network (FUN) and 35 national, state and local unions have written a letter to the Democratic congressional leadership - Chuck Schumer in the Senate and Hakeem Jeffries in the House, urging them to hold out against Republicans in the budget negotiations, even if it means a government shutdown and halted paychecks. The signatories represent tens of thousands of federal workers", according to an FUN press release.The Democrats' demands, the letter says, should include adequate funding for critical public services" and a guarantee" that funds appropriated by the Congress are spent.Judith Levine is a Brooklyn-based journalist, essayist and author of five books. Her Substack is Today in Fascism Continue reading...

Does the Donald know that there's a new master negotiator in town? Of course he does, he taught the apprentice everything he knowsAny dramatist seeking a character through whom to distil the sold-out madness of the present times could do a lot worse than President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner. Yesterday exposed Jared's starring role in not one but two current deals. 1. History's biggest-ever leveraged buyout, of video game giant Electronic Arts (EA), which Kushner's firm is taking private and effectively into Saudi ownership. And 2. Eternal peace in the Middle East", as per what has been widely referred to as the Kushner-Blair plan" for Gaza. Busy week for Jared! He's popping up at so many seismic moments - just call him Forrest Trump.Quick refresher on our boy: he is married to Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka, and previously served as a senior adviser in his father-in-law's first administration, taking the opportunity of Trump's election loss/unfortunate insurrection-fostering to seemingly leave frontline politics and start his own investment firm. And contrary to popular conjecture that he would be a pariah after that period, Jared sails unstoppably on. These days his appearance is so coolly detached and rarefied that he looks more like a drawing of Jared Kushner, or maybe like the cyborg you'd build to covertly replace Jared Kushner after the real one was plagued by conscience glitches.Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Michigan suspect was a Marine veteran, as was suspect in another recent shooting in North Carolina, who has been charged with murderThe suspected shooter in the killing of at least four people in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Michigan on Sunday bore a virulent hatred of the Mormon religion which he frequently referred to as the antichrist, local people have reported.The hostile views of the suspect, 40-year-old Thomas Jacob Sanford, who was shot and killed by police minutes after he opened fire inside the church in Grand Blanc Township, have emerged as the FBI continues to search for a motive in the mass shooting. The authorities have labelled the incident as a targeted act of violence". Continue reading...

New Zealand destroyed pistols the FBI director gifted to security chiefs after finding the guns potentially operableOn a visit to New Zealand, Kash Patel gave the country's police and spy bosses gifts of inoperable pistols that were illegal to possess under local gun laws and had to be destroyed, New Zealand law enforcement agencies told the Associated Press.The plastic 3D-printed replica pistols formed part of display stands the FBI director presented to at least three senior New Zealand security officials in July. Patel, the most senior Trump administration official to visit the country so far, was in Wellington to open the FBI's first standalone office in New Zealand. Continue reading...

Study finds prosecutors targeting low-income women mainly in US south - and figure likely to be an undercountIn the first two years after the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, prosecutors in 16 states charged more than 400 people with pregnancy-related crimes, new research released on Tuesday found.Of the 412 cases tracked by Pregnancy Justice, the vast majority took place in the US south, targeted low-income women and involved allegations that women broke laws against child abuse, endangerment or neglect, according to the research, which was compiled by the reproductive justice group. About 300 prosecutions took place in Alabama and Oklahoma. In 16 cases, law enforcement charged women with homicide. Continue reading...

Former prosecutors condemn takeover of the DoJ' but say chance of success could be tainted by president's commentsDonald Trump's public and private push to have ex-FBI director James Comey indicted on criminal charges is a strong sign of the US slipping into authoritarianism, but it could also taint the case's chances of success because it is evidence of a selective and biased political prosecution, ex-prosecutors and scholars say.Trump's retribution drive against an old foe he blames for legal and political problems notched a big win when Comey was indicted last week on two criminal counts in Virginia. Continue reading...

Exclusive: more than 100 members of Congress warn TPS cancellations will result in significant staff losses that US healthcare facilities will struggle to replaceThe US healthcare system faces a perfect storm", more than 100 members of Congress warn today, as Donald Trump's administration risks exacerbating pressure on its workforce by stripping nearly one million US immigrants of work authorization and legal protection.Temporary Protected Status (TPS) has granted about 570,000 US workers protection from deportation, as their home countries are regarded as dangerous, due to factors like war and natural disaster. Continue reading...

Spencer Cox tells 60 Minutes he's making plea after being able to unsee' video of Charlie Kirk being shotThe Utah governor, Spencer Cox, has called on people in the US to stop shooting each other - that's it" saying he makes that plea against political violence after being unable to unsee" video of a sniper in his state killing rightwing activist Charlie Kirk.Cox delivered those comments in an interview aired Sunday evening on the CBS program 60 Minutes, 18 days after Kirk's shooting death at Utah Valley University (UVU) and one week from the Turning Point USA founder's memorial service outside Phoenix. Continue reading...

Any questions about how the Gabon international would gel with Son Heung-min have been put to rest after a historic scoring runWhen Son Heung-min arrived at Los Angeles Football Club last month, there was a huge sense of excitement: here was South Korea's most popular athlete and one of the best Asian footballers in history. In a city with the largest South Korean community in the United States, there was also a belief that - just as with Lionel Messi and Miami - the diaspora would create a strong bridge between club and city.But this was also about LAFC itself. Undoubtedly, there was much Son could offer to Steve Cherundolo and a squad that was already blessed with attacking talent, including Denis Bouanga, the 30-year-old France-born Gabon international. Just before Son's debut for LAFC on 9 August against Chicago Fire, Bouanga - a three-time All-Star - had 13 goals in the league and had long served as the main goal threat for the club, who at the time were sixth in the Western Conference. Continue reading...

American attacks have killed more than 14 people they claim were drug traffickers in our waters. Now our islands are at risk of being dragged into a manufactured conflict we are ill-equipped to endureFor decades, the Caribbean has been caught in the slipstream of other people's wars - from cold war proxy battles to Washington's war on drugs" and war on terror". Our islands have too often been turned into the frontlines for policies scripted elsewhere but fought in our waters, our communities, and on the backs of our most vulnerable.The recent US naval strikes against alleged drug boats" leaving Venezuela, and the decision of Trinidad and Tobago's prime minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, to grant access to territorial waters without first consulting the Caribbean collective of developing countries, Caricom, risk dragging our islands into yet another manufactured storm. Continue reading...

Jared Kushner and Tony Blair's neocolonial venture would be an incompatible transplant that would be rejected by the bodyOn my first day in Baghdad, after the mortar fire had subsided, I made my way to my office in the Republican Palace and set about the first task I had been given: writing a new policy for the Iraqi police on pregnant officers. To be clear, I was 26 and knew nothing about policing, nor about pregnancy, nor, for that matter, about Iraq, but I was part of the Coalition Provisional Authority - the American government that had been imposed after the war - and this policy, I was told, was what Iraq needed.Five years later, I found myself sitting in a plush hotel suite in Jerusalem, as Tony Blair - one of the architects of the Iraq war, but now the quartet special envoy for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process", waxed lyrical on the economic growth that was occurring in the Palestinian city of Jenin. Having spent a significant amount of time the day before negotiating the myriad of Israeli military checkpoints that separated Jenin's dusty streets from the five-star German Colony Hotel where we were meeting, I could not square Blair's impression with my own reality.Josh Paul served as a national aecurity consultant in the Coalition Provisional Authority for Iraq, a security sector governance adviser to the US security coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian territories, and now leads Washington DC-based non-profit advocacy group A New Policy Continue reading...

As the postseason starts with the wildcard round, our writers pick the dark horses, likely winners and the high seeds at risk of going out earlyThe Pirates may have been abysmal again but have remained appointment viewing thanks to Paul Skenes, whose highlight reels make you question physics. It's not just his raw pace, throwing 100mph+ deep into games, but his mastery of late-moving variations that mean batters can't pick whether it's a sweeper or a splinker until it's already behind them. Alan Evans Continue reading...

This week marks the 50th anniversary of one of boxing's greatest fights. As Muhammad Ali's biographer, I knew the toll the bout took on himIn 1989, with Muhammad Ali sitting beside me, I watched a tape of Ali's historic triumph over Joe Frazier in Manila, which took place 50 years ago this week.For months, Ali and I had been reviewing his fights for a book I was writing as his authorized biographer. We'd watched Henry Cooper knock Cassius Clay to the brink of oblivion with a picture-perfect left hook. From the vantage point of my living room, that had amused Muhammad. Continue reading...

US official says inquiry launched in June still under way but Australian PM and defence minister confident deal is secure

Neither Trump's US nor the rise of the AfD explains it all. Self-styled progressives in the arts must take a hard look at themselves tooIn sports, the Black athlete is often mythologised: supernatural speed, exceptional strength, genetics as magic. And yet, in public spaces, a Black person running is met with suspicion, fear or anger. The choreographer Joana Tischkau's new piece Runnin', which premiered at Berlin's prestigious performance stage HAU, last week, opens that tension and holds it for us to see.The work builds itself in the everyday: four performers move in circles across an empty stage. It brings the so-called pedestrian movement" of postmodern dance - walking, standing, sitting - the sort of movement considered neutral, almost invisible, into collision with the Black body. When a racialised person simply moves, simply breathes in our shared streets, the piece seems to ask, is that ever neutral?Fatma Aydemir is a Berlin-based author, novelist, playwright and Guardian Europe 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...