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Opinion polls suggest late surge in support for Trump-endorsed nominees who have embraced his lie about election fraudThe spectre of Donald Trump’s imminent declaration of a new White House run looms over races in several key states ahead of Tuesday’s US midterm elections, with the former president poised to seize on any success for ultra-conservative candidates as validation for his 2024 campaign.Opinion polls appearing to reflect a last-minute surge of support for Trump-endorsed nominees in a number of crucial congressional and governors’ contests came as the former president appeared at a rally for the Republican senator Marco Rubio in Florida on Sunday. Continue reading...

Republican control of state legislatures allowed them to draw advantageous districts, and the party is racing to do it again in the midterm electionsEva Burch has worn out her shoes visiting thousands of voters this year.Burch, a Democrat running for the Arizona state senate, tells people that her race could be decided by just a few hundred votes. She’s not just “cat-mousing them” – the race really could be that close. And while her race has gotten nowhere near the amount of attention of Arizona’s closely watched US Senate and gubernatorial races, it could ultimately be just as important. Continue reading...

Proposal 2 is the first measure of its kind, explicitly designed to block partisan actors from overturning electionsSeventy-two hours before election day, Anne Ballew and her husband Tom Porter spent their Saturday afternoon darting up and down stoops to knock on doors in Dearborn, just outside of Detroit. But Ballew and Porter weren’t there to talk about Michigan’s races for governor, US House, attorney general, or secretary of state.They were there to pitch voters on an under-the-radar measure in Michigan that could dramatically protect democracy in the state and offer a roadmap of how to do it elsewhere. Continue reading...

Should these candidates prevail, it’s far less likely that schemes to overturn the 2024 election will succeed. Here’s a look at some of the key candidatesYou’ve probably heard about at least one of the candidates threatening democracy – the people running for office on the baseless premise that the last election was rigged, and that Donald Trump should be president right now.But what about the ones working to protect and expand access to the ballot? Continue reading...

Flightline’s memorable run set the perfect seal on an event that showed the extent to which US racing is beginning to find its feet after years of declineAn unusual lot at the Keeneland November breeding stock sale on Monday will put a price on Flightline, the brilliant – and now retired – winner of Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Classic. A 2.5% slice of the world’s best racehorse will be sold to the highest bidder and when the hammer falls, most guesstimates suggest Flightline will be worth at least $70m.Rarity value alone will bump the price, of course, but Flightline did everything that any fan – or breeder – could have hoped to see in what turned out to be his final start. The winning margin of eight and a quarter lengths was a record for the Classic, and Flightline powered clear, under a hand ride, after sitting just behind a blistering pace for the first mile. Continue reading...

For years the world saw Putin as almost a figure of fun – while in Russia he was already meting out brutality to dissidents and LGBTQ+ activists

Anyone hoping a poor election showing might pull the party back from extremism doesn’t see the unfortunate truth: Trump and his radicals now represent Republican valuesIn 2010, the then conservative Canadian-American commentator David Frum feared that the conservative Tea Party movement would radicalize the Republican party, which would bring it short-term gain but long-term loss. Two years later, after some unconventional Tea Party candidates had defeated establishment “Republicans in name only” in primaries to then lose in the general elections – like Christine “I’m not a witch” O’Donnell in Delaware or Richard “God intended your rape child” Mourdock in Indiana – the Republican establishment successfully blamed the Tea Party movement for the party’s electoral defeats and regained control, albeit, as it turned out in 2015, for just a few years.Recently, some commentators have argued that radical outsiders once again endanger Republican success in the midterms. While this might be the case, don’t expect this to seriously change the far-right direction of the party.Cas Mudde is a Guardian US columnist and the Stanley Wade Shelton UGAF professor in the school of public and international affairs at the University of Georgia Continue reading...

Rich countries not upholding finance promises to developing states. Plus, Republicans expected to take CongressGood morning.Billions of dollars of promised to developing countries by the US, UK, Canada and Australia to aid carbon emission reduction plans and help make communities more resilient to more extreme weather have not yet been delivered.Only Canada responded to requests for comment. A government spokesperson said it remained committed and would double its climate finance in order to overdeliver, despite appearing to so far have covered only a third.“Hey, don’t ask us.” Billionaires should not be expected to make up for climate finance gaps caused by failures to uphold promises to less developed states, the head of the Bezos Earth Fund has said.Democrats are on the defensive. Even in places they thought were safe, like New York and Washington, while Biden’s low ratings continue to burden his party’s most vulnerable candidates. Continue reading...

Raising a baby is a huge challenge. No wonder many new parents resent the cult of compulsory joyOf all the phrases parents tell me they dislike, “cherish every moment” is the winner. Time is a strange thing when you are caring for small humans, and, as I thought about it this week, it is this phrase that keeps coming back to me. It’s the idea that by feeling any negative emotion, you are somehow squandering time. I have been told by parents with postnatal mental health issues that this unrealistic phrase – often said by older people – has made them feel deep shame. Time is precious, and to not feel constantly delighted by your child is a terrible waste.

Joe Biden was joined by Barack Obama on the campaign trail in the swing state of Pennsylvania on Sunday as the US gets ready to vote in new members of Congress and the Senate. Biden also addressed supporters in Westchester, New York, where he echoed his message that 'democracy is literally on the ballot'. Donald Trump also visited Pennsylvania, where the former president attended a rally in support of the Republican candidate for Senate, Mehmet Oz

The veteran political strategist on why he believes his Republican party will benefit from dissatisfaction with the status quoOn the eve of a crucial midterms election that Joe Biden has warned “will preserve democracy or put us at risk”, veteran top Republican strategist Karl Rove says his party will benefit from dissatisfaction with the status quo, despite the specter of a Trump 2024 run and the end of federal abortion rights.Rove, widely seen as a villain by the left for his orchestration of George W Bush’s victory over Al Gore in 2000, and for his senior role in Bush’s two terms as president, says American voters are being propelled by fears over inflation, the economy, crime in some areas, and feelings about the overall direction the country. Continue reading...

The Green Bay Packers quarterback threw three ugly interceptions against the Detroit Lions’ usually porous defense. This time he couldn’t blame his receiversDuring Green Bay’s 15-9 loss to the (previously) one-win Detroit Lions on Sunday, the TV cameras happened to catch Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers angrily slamming down a phone on the sideline. This is not inherently interesting. Rodgers is far from being the only NFL player unable to hide frustration when playing badly. He’s not even the only future Hall of Fame quarterback to take his anger out on technology this season.However, such is the nature of his season (which can pretty easily be described as his worst – more on that later), that this otherwise insignificant moment has already been turned into a meme. Sunday’s loss to lowly Detroit may represent a new rock bottom for the perennial contender Packers, but it wasn’t a surprise. Coming into Sunday’s game, the Packers had lost five of their last eight games, the worst start of the Rodgers era. Continue reading...

In an increasingly red state, Ohio Senate hopeful Ryan blames Democrats as much as Republicans for failing the working classTim Ryan stood in the middle of the electrical workers union hall, facing the signs declaring he puts “Workers First”, and prepared to call for a revolution of sorts.But this was Dayton, Ohio, where patriotism and religion are largely unquestioned even if political loyalties are fluid. So first came the national anthem and then the prayers. Continue reading...

The president has remained outwardly optimistic about Democrats’ prospects in Tuesday’s midterm elections, but the party is now struggling as polls tightenThe lights dimmed, the music throbbed and cellphone lights danced across the arena. Then a DJ welcomed to the stage the president of the United States, Joe Biden, flanked by the former president Barack Obama and Pennsylvania’s nominees for Senate and governor. An ecstatic crowd of thousands roared to their feet.With days left until the midterm elections, the presidents were in Philadelphia to mobilize Democrats in a pivotal swing state that could determine Congress’ balance of power. But the event also had the feel of a political homecoming for Biden, joined by his former running mate in the state where he was born at the end of a volatile campaign season. Continue reading...

Momentum appears to be with Republicans capitalising on economic frustration as experts say party peaking at right timeJoe Biden is fighting a rearguard action to stave off defeat in Tuesday’s midterm elections as Republicans look poised to make sweeping gains in the US Congress, setting up two years of political trench warfare.The president, along with former president Barack Obama, has been criss-crossing America in a last-ditch bid to persuade voters that a Democratic victory is critical not only to Biden’s legislative agenda but the preservation of American democracy. Continue reading...

The city is seeking transparency in job ads – but employers aren’t exactly abiding by the spirit of the measureDo you want to know how much money your future co-workers will make? Take a look at new job postings in New York City. One Deloitte ad promises compensation between $86,800 and $161,200 a year. A technical writer at Amazon can expect to make somewhere in the range of $125,800 to $211,300. And a head of news audio at the Wall Street Journal will earn somewhere in the range of $140,000 to $450,000. That’s a difference of $305,000.These astronomical figures became social media joke fodder after the reporter Victoria M Walker rounded up the most ridiculous ranges in a Twitter thread. “With NYC’s salary law now in place, I’ve been looking at some companies’ salary ranges, & I can already see that the ‘good faith’ part of the law is going to be tested,” she wrote, setting off a slew of responses naming and shaming such listings. Continue reading...

Woman, 70, won $100,000 on one scratch-off and when celebrating her win with more tickets, another $300,000Whatever are the odds of winning two six-figure lottery prizes within just a few days of each other, a woman in Delaware recently beat them.The 70-year-old woman at the center of a viral story coming out of the Delaware state lottery benefited from a stroke of good fortune when in the middle of October she went to a gasoline station and bought two scratch-off tickets. One of the Instant Game tickets was a $100,000 winner, according to a news release from state lottery officials. Continue reading...

Democrats frame election as referendum on US democracy while Republicans say they will better address economic woesUS political leaders from both sides of the aisle on Sunday made their closing arguments to voters two days before the hotly contested midterm elections, with several top Democrats framing the election as a referendum on American democracy.President Joe Biden accused Republicans of reveling in political violence, saying hundreds of the party’s candidates for state, federal and local office were “election deniers, who say that I did not win the election, even though hundreds of attempts to challenge have all failed, even in Republican courts”. Continue reading...

Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate’s staffer opened the envelope and is under medical supervision, spokesperson saysArizona’s Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake closed a campaign office after an envelope containing “suspicious white powder” was delivered to the premises on Saturday, according to reports.A member of the candidate’s staff unwittingly opened the envelope and is now under “medical supervision”, campaign spokesperson Colton Duncan told CNN. Continue reading...

Pieper Lewis could face up to two decades behind bars for violating probation she was ordered to serve at a correctional facilityAn Iowa sex-trafficking victim who at age 15 killed her alleged rapist escaped custody on Friday, violating the probation she was ordered to serve at a correctional facility after pleading guilty to manslaughter, according to reports.Pieper Lewis, who is now 18, could face up to two decades behind bars after this alleged probation violation. Authorities have issued a warrant for her arrest, the Des Moines Register newspaper reported. Continue reading...

Eagles score 10 tries against Kenya while Portuguese have slightly harder time against Hong Kong in DubaiThe USA and Portugal have the inside running on qualification for the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France after bonus-point wins in the first matches of the final qualifying tournament, in Dubai on Sunday.The US beat Kenya 68-14 and Portugal defeated Hong Kong 42-14 at the Sevens Stadium in the first round-robin games. Continue reading...

Melody Jennings of Clean Elections USA teamed up with True the Vote for project that echos Trump’s false claims about 2020A far-right group run by a Christian pastor has sparked a legal firestorm by spearheading a drive to aggressively monitor drop-box voting for fraud in Arizona and other states, in an echo of Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election results were rigged.Melody Jennings, who runs Clean Elections USA, has teamed up with the conservative group True the Vote, which has a track record for making debunked charges of voting fraud. Together they are promoting a project to hunt for alleged drop-box fraud, which Jennings boasted in multiple interviews on Steve Bannon’s podcast War Room and the MG Show, a conspiratorial QAnon program. Continue reading...

The prize keeps getting bigger because no one can overcome the long odds – 1 in 292.2m – to snag itA record Powerball jackpot grew to an even larger $1.9bn (£1.67bn) after no one won the lottery drawing on Saturday night.The numbers for the drawing were: white balls 28, 45, 53, 56, 69 and red Powerball 20. The next chance for someone to get lucky will be Monday night. Continue reading...

Envoys quietly start to prepare groundwork for aggressive field operation, putting Trump at center of attention ahead of midtermsDonald Trump is expected to announce a third White House campaign before the end of November as envoys have quietly started to prepare the groundwork for an aggressive field operation, according to people familiar with the matter, thrusting him into the center of attention ahead of Tuesday’s midterms.The plans for a potential 2024 campaign have started to accelerate in recent weeks, with the former president and his advisers signalling that an announcement is imminent and aiming to capitalize on his position as the clear frontrunner to seize the GOP nomination. Continue reading...

It’s all too easy to make fun of Gwyneth Paltrow’s ‘wellness’ empire. But what the hell: I’m going inI’m conscious that the Goop holiday gift guide – and particularly the notorious “Ridiculous but Awesome” section – has become so knowing, so tongue-in-cheek, that to parse it is to play into Gwyneth Paltrow’s gold-painted hands. The whole thing is plainly workshopped to death at Goop’s oatmeal leather and blond wood Santa Monica headquarters to create the precision-tooled blend of outrage and aspiration that gets GP column inches. Despite that, moth to the open flame of a Dome Outdoor Oven ($2,149), I cannot resist.Capitulating to the Goop master plan has consolations. There are some vintage picks: the $28,500 perv ottoman (sorry, “tufted boudoir chaise” with stirrups and restraints) and the €15,900 preppers’ bunker (for those “who lead modern, self-providing lives”) catch my eye, inevitably. So does the fetishy $239 beribboned baguette bag for carrying your Tesco French stick (or, indeed, the $210 lamp made from a real baguette from the 2020 gift guide). Then $3,900 of seemingly Goop-inspired minibar snacks (pistachio milk, seeded honey and sea moss), to “accompany” the $299 joint rolling machine is pleasingly on-brand.Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

The key state is seeing record early voting – but some say restrictions are disproportionately affecting certain groupsJust six days before the midterm election, Madison Cook, an eager first-time Georgia voter and a college student at school in Mississippi, awaited the arrival of her requested absentee ballot. She continued to follow up with her county election officials. But nearly one month after her application was processed, it appeared to be lost in the mail.“Here’s a great example of a voter who is falling through the cracks,” said Vasu Abhiraman, deputy policy and advocacy director at ACLU of Georgia, who received an email seeking help for Cook. “If she doesn’t get her ballot, she has almost no hope of voting.” Continue reading...

The Houston Astros manager has long been seen as a tragicomic figure due to his inability to win the Fall Classic. That time has now passedTurns out you can have a smile as wide as a Texan freeway even with a toothpick doing somersaults in your mouth.For much of his long and distinguished managerial career, Dusty Baker has chomped minty sticks as a healthier alternative to chewing tobacco, taken teams to the postseason, and not won the World Series. You can scratch that last part now. Continue reading...

Democrat Cisco Aguilar is challenging Republican Jim Marchant, who pledged to ‘fix’ country and secure Trump victory in 2024The man who could save free and fair elections in Nevada was rushing to finish his breakfast. No one seemed to notice him.It was this anonymity that belied the weight on the shoulders of Cisco Aguilar, a 45-year-old cherub-faced lawyer who is running to be Nevada’s top election official. Aguilar, a Democrat, is in the final stretch of the secretary of state race against Jim Marchant, a former Nevada lawmaker who has been one of the most prominent leaders of a movement to question the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election. Continue reading...

It’s rude to end a relationship in radio silence, but it provides insight into a company’s culture and how it treats its employeesWe knew it was coming. The practice of “ghosting” has taken a 180-degree turn. Up until recently, many job candidates in this very tight labor market thought nothing of accepting interviews – even job offers – and then ghosting the company that recruited them by simply not showing up. Now, new data from jobs platform Glassdoor finds that a growing number of employers are doing the same.According to Glassdoor’s chief economist, job seekers have increasingly reported being ghosted by employers since the pandemic began. “The share of interview reviews mentioning ghosting has almost doubled (+98%) since Feb ’20,” he wrote in a Twitter post. “In January 2019, roughly 1.25% of interview reviews mentioned ghosting and that percentage has increased over the past two and half years to more than twice that amount.” Continue reading...

Congressmen were far ruder to Federal Reserve boss Janet Yellen than men in the post… but not if they had daughtersMost people probably understand that sexism exists in workplaces, with real consequences for those who experience it today and rise to leadership positions tomorrow. However, proving it – let alone accurately measuring it – can be hard.Which is why everyone should read a great, if depressing, research paper that investigates sexism among politicians. Why is it great? Well, first of all there’s the simply brilliant title: “Yellin’ at Yellen: Gender Bias in the Federal Reserve Congressional Hearings”. Second, the researchers developed a simple but powerful way of measuring discrimination that you might have guessed given the great title – they compare how specific congressmen behaved towards Janet Yellen (the first female chair of the Fed from 2014 to 2018) and her male predecessors/successor when they came to give testimony at the US equivalents of our select committees. Continue reading...

US Democrats and leftwing parties around the world have failed to come up with a compelling narrative to counter the lies and distortions of extremistsUnless polls, pundits and precedents are wildly wrong, Democrats will crash and burn in this week’s US midterm elections. Given the problems he inherited, Joe Biden’s presidency was always likely to end in tears. Expected Republican gains on Tuesday herald a descent into bareknuckle political fisticuffs and legislative gridlock before the 2024 White House race.The Democrats appear odds-on to lose control of the House of Representatives. They could possibly cling on in the Senate but that, too, looks increasingly uncertain. Biden has had less than two years to implement his policies. Now his domestic agenda may be stymied at every turn. Internal party recriminations have already begun. Continue reading...

Nearly half of Americans fear their country will erupt within the next decade. Ahead of the midterm elections this week, three experts analyse the depth of the crisisAmerican political scientist and author of How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them (Viking) Continue reading...

Fugitive Quashon Burton apprehended at Florida vacation park by federal agent who was on holiday at the timeOn the run from charges that he scammed his way into nearly $150,000 worth of coronavirus relief loans, Quashon Burton went on vacation last month to Disney World’s Animal Kingdom theme park, where he crossed paths with another most unfortunate tourist for him.That tourist was a federal agent who had been investigating Burton’s case, before going on vacation and taking time out of his Florida holiday to help catch him, according to authorities handling the bizarre circumstances surrounding the arrest. Continue reading...

Part Trump rally, part religious service, and much conspiracy theory thrown in – on the eve of the midterms, Ed Pilkington visits the ReAwaken America tour“There is a man by the name of Donald,” the voice on the recording says. “God said, ‘You have been determined through your prayers to influence this nation … I will open that door that you prayed about, and when it comes time for the election you will be elected.”Three thousand people are packed into an overflowing auditorium, many with arms raised and eyes closed in prayer. The recording to which they are listening is from April 2013 and of Kim Clement, a late South African preacher, as he prophesies the first coming of Donald Trump. Continue reading...

Democrats roll out political heavyweights to deliver closing arguments, warning that democracy itself is at risk

Ex-president strikes familiar notes at Pennsylvania rally as he swipes at potential rival ‘Ron DeSanctimonious’ and effectively kicks off another run for White HouseA Boeing 757 plane halted on the runway with “Trump” emblazoned on the side in giant gold letters. Loudspeakers boomed Elvis Presley’s Dixie, Village People’s YMCA and Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the USA. Donald Trump descended stairs to rapturous cheers and whistles from thousands of supporters.Officially, the former US president was rallying at a regional airport to support Republicans candidates in Tuesday’s midterm elections. Unofficially, he was already accelerating down the runway of a 2024 campaign for the White House. Continue reading...

Fading veterans have given way to promising and dynamic youngsters but there are problems at centre-forward and centre-backThis article is part of the Guardian’s World Cup 2022 Experts’ Network, a cooperation between some of the best media organisations from the 32 countries who qualified. theguardian.com is running previews from two countries each day in the run-up to the tournament kicking off on 20 November. Continue reading...

The odds-on favourite took off in the showpiece race on a day Charlie Appleby’s Rebel’s Romance won the Turf race under James DoyleThat was a decisive win for Goodnight Olive, who set off as the 9-5 favourite.BREEDERS’ CUP FILLY & MARE SPRINT RESULT: Continue reading...

Video shows Robert Walczykowski wrapping hand around neck of 24-year-old and accusing him of stealing neighbor’s bikeA white Milwaukee man has pleaded not guilty to a criminal charge filed against him after video captured him with his hand around the neck of a Black man with special needs in a case many are calling an example of racial profiling.Robert Walczykowski, 62, recently pleaded not guilty to a disorderly conduct misdemeanor charge after video went viral of him wrapping his hand around the neck of 24-year-old Trevon Burks, who is Black and has a disability. Continue reading...

The big social media platforms don’t reflect back our views so much as form them‘I didn’t do it to make more money. I did it to try to help humanity.” Elon Musk in his own words on buying Twitter. He follows in the footsteps of fellow multibillionaire Mark Zuckerberg, who in 2017 published a “manifesto” for Facebook, setting out how he wanted it to help save humanity from itself.Delusions of grandeur in wildly rich men aren’t unusual, so it’s tempting to scoff, then move on. But they are right to claim that their ownership of huge social media platforms confers significant power – in their heads, to do good, but, for the rest of us, to create harms spanning mental health to child safety to health misinformation. Zuckerberg’s manifesto didn’t stop Facebook helping stoke violence against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar or in the Tigray conflict in Ethiopia. Continue reading...

Audit details potential irregularities in which nearly $400,000 of church congregants’ funds were allegedly misusedA Catholic priest who led one of New Orleans’ best-known inner-city churches until being accused of sexually molesting a child has been reported to federal authorities for possible financial crimes after an audit found he spent nearly $400,000 of his congregants’ money in questionable ways.John Asare-Dankwah ran the St Peter Claver church in New Orleans’ historic Treme neighborhood from 2014 until early 2021, when a lawsuit alleging that he raped a boy on an out-of-state overnight trip years earlier prompted church officials to indefinitely suspend him from his role. Continue reading...