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FBI has surveillance footage confirming testimony of employee who spoke to investigators, Washington Post and CNN sayDonald Trump asked for boxes of records at Mar-a-Lago to be moved after receiving a government subpoena to return them, an employee of the former president reportedly told the FBI.The Mar-a-Lago employee is cooperating with the US Department of Justice and has been interviewed multiple times by federal agents, the Washington Post said. Continue reading...

Former president requested independent arbiter to vet more than 100 documents marked classified seized from his Florida homeThe US supreme court on Thursday rejected Donald Trump’s bid to let an independent arbiter vet more than 100 classified documents that were seized from his Florida home as he confronts a criminal investigation into his handling of sensitive government records.The justices, in a brief order, denied Trump’s emergency request that he made on 4 October asking them to lift a federal appeals court’s decision that prevented the arbiter from reviewing more than 100 documents marked as classified that were among the roughly 11,000 records seized by FBI agents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach on 8 August. Continue reading...

Alyssa Farah and Cassidy Hutchinson tell January 6 panel former president acknowledged he had been defeated by Joe BidenDonald Trump privately admitted to losing the 2020 election even as he worked to undermine and change the results, according to two top aides who testified before the January 6 committee.During the ninth and possibly final hearing, the committee investigating the January 6 insurrection shared new testimony from Alyssa Farah, a former White House aide, who said that a week after the election was called in favor of Biden, Trump was watching Biden on the television in the Oval Office, and said: “‘Can you believe I lost to this effing guy?’” Continue reading...

Tish James asks court to bar Trump Organization from offloading assets while civil fraud case against ex-president plays outThe New York state attorney general, Letitia James, on Thursday urged a court to appoint an independent monitor to oversee Donald Trump’s family company before a civil fraud case – against the former president, three of his adult children and the family’s real estate firm – goes to trial.James’s injunction also sought to bar Trump’s company from conducting “significant fraudulent and illegal business” of precisely the kind described in the lawsuit filed by her office against him in September. Continue reading...

Video footage obtained from a Danish documentary film-maker shows Trump ally discussing violence after 2020 electionThe House January 6 committee on Thursday played as promised video footage of the Republican operative and Trump ally Roger Stone discussing the need for violence after the 2020 election, before 6 January 2021, the day of the deadly Capitol attack.“Let’s just hope we’re celebrating,” Stone said, in footage obtained from a Danish documentary film-maker. Continue reading...

Shooting in Bristol also leaves one officer injured, with one suspect dead and another hurtTwo police officers who were shot dead in Connecticut were apparently drawn into an ambush by an emergency call about possible domestic violence, authorities said on Thursday.Connecticut state police said the 911 call on Wednesday night about a dispute between siblings appears to have been “a deliberate act to lure law enforcement to the scene” in Bristol. Continue reading...

Conspiracy theorist has routinely claimed he does not have the money to pay the large damages that he now owesMany people across the US have praised a verdict against conspiracy theorist Alex Jones that will force the rightwing online personality to pay almost $1bn to those affected by his lies about the Sandy Hook shooting being a hoax.But Jones himself has maintained a defiant attitude that he does not have the money to pay. Continue reading...

The ongoing bin fire of Truss’s premiership leaves her cabinet floundering, incoherent and riven by remorseThere have been more welcoming greetings. When Liz Truss met the King at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday evening for their weekly get-together, the first thing Charles said to her was “Dear oh dear”. The sort of thing he normally says when told Prince Harry has signed another book deal, or that Prince Andrew has agreed to give another interview to Emily Maitlis. Still, he could have been speaking for all of us. And on the plus side, he did refrain from saying “WTF”.Where the conversation went from there we can only imagine, as the cameras were hastily removed. But it’s more than likely that Librium Liz went on to tell him that everything was going to plan and the economy was in line for record growth in time for his coronation next May. And that she had totally nailed prime minister’s questions earlier in the day, had received a standing ovation from her backbenchers at the 1922 Committee and the opinion polls had given her a 25-point lead. Continue reading...

Nikolas Cruz pleaded guilty a year ago to killing 14 students and three staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high schoolA Florida jury on Thursday recommended life in prison for a former student who murdered 17 people in the nation’s deadliest high school shooting.Nikolas Cruz, 24, killed 14 students and three staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland on Valentine’s Day 2018, shooting into numerous classrooms with an AR-15 style assault rifle during the six-minute rampage and wounding 17 more. Continue reading...

Inflation rate stubbornness will likely spark a further increase to interest rates which could come in early NovemberThe cost of goods and services in the US continued to go up in September, and though the rate of price increases is starting to temper, high inflation persists as the midterm elections in November approach.The consumer price index (CPI), released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, showed on Thursday that prices in September were 8.2% higher compared to prices in September 2021. The figure is another decline in the inflation rate seen during the three months since June, when the rate peaked at 9.1%, the highest in more than 40 years. Continue reading...

New poll reflects significant concerns by both Republicans and Democrats about false information ahead of the midtermsAmericans from across the political spectrum say misinformation is increasing political extremism and hate crimes, according to a new poll that reflects broad and significant concerns about false and misleading claims ahead of next month’s midterm elections.About three-quarters of US adults say misinformation is leading to more extreme political views and behaviors such as instances of violence based on race, religion or gender. That’s according to the poll from the Pearson Institute and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Continue reading...

Historic increase means average recipient will receive over $140 extra a month along with a 3% drop in Medicare Part B premiumsMillions of social security recipients will get an 8.7% boost in their benefits in 2023.That’s a historic increase and welcome news for American retirees and others but it is tempered by the fact that it is fueled by record high inflation that has raised the cost of everyday living. Continue reading...

Republican Rick Caruso corrects debate moderator who referred to him as white by saying he is ‘Italian … thank you, that’s Latin’The Republican candidate for mayor of Los Angeles, Rick Caruso, faced criticism and mockery after claiming in a debate that he was not white but “Latin”, because he is Italian American.He was responding to a question about the racial identity of the two candidates: him and Karen Bass, an African American Democratic congresswoman. Continue reading...

By gouging global oil prices, Saudi Arabia has humiliated Biden and boosted Putin. The US must end this unofficial allianceIn July, Joe Biden traveled to Saudi Arabia and shared a fist bump with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. As a presidential candidate, Biden had promised to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” for its human rights abuses and its seven-year war against Yemen. But a devastating global pandemic and Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine forced him to set these concerns aside in favor of realpolitik. Biden needed the Saudis to increase oil production in order to lower gasoline prices for American consumers, so he swallowed his pride and treated the crown prince as the world leader he aspires to be.Unfortunately for Biden, that cringe-inducing fist bump photo op has backfired in spectacular fashion.Mohamad Bazzi is director of the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies and a journalism professor at New York University. He is also a non-resident fellow at Democracy for the Arab World Now Continue reading...

Planned Parenthood and doctor with mobile clinic dubbed the ‘Nutcracker’ to offer procedures in midwest, citing high demandAmid a reported surge in demand for vasectomies prompted by the US supreme court ruling that removed the right to abortion, Planned Parenthood and a physician with a mobile vasectomy clinic will offer 60 free vasectomies over three days in St Louis, Springfield and Joplin, Missouri, in the first week of November.Dr Esgar Guarin plans to take his mobile clinic – a vehicle friends have dubbed the “Nutcracker” – on the road the following week, to offer 40 free vasectomies in towns in Iowa. Guarin also plans to offer discounted vasectomies at his regular clinic in the Des Moines area. Continue reading...

Ex-president calls legal system a ‘broken disgrace’ after judge rejects request by his lawyers to delay depositionDonald Trump lashed out angrily on Wednesday, calling the US legal system a “broken disgrace” after a judge ruled he must answer questions under oath next week in a defamation lawsuit lodged by a writer who says he raped her.He also called the 2019 lawsuit by E Jean Carroll, a longtime advice columnist for Elle magazine, “a hoax and a lie”. Continue reading...

Prince Mohammed bin Salman can no longer be allowed privileged access to, and support from, western leadersEvery picture tells a story, or so it’s said, and the photo of a smirking Vladimir Putin shaking hands with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, at the opening game of the men’s football World Cup in Moscow in June 2018 carried a clear warning for the west.The message, for those who cared to heed it: Saudi Arabia, nurtured by the British in the days of empire, defended by the US against Saddam Hussein and Iran, and forgiven its close connections to the 9/11 terror attacks, was no longer the dependent, biddable ally it once was. Prince Mohammed was making new friends.Simon Tisdall is a foreign affairs commentator. He has been a foreign leader writer, foreign editor and US editor for the GuardianDo 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...

Nevada Independent obtains letter from Adam Laxalt’s family praising Democrat Catherine Cortez MastoIn the close-run race for US Senate in Nevada, 14 members of the Republican candidate’s family endorsed his Democratic opponent.The polling website fivethirtyeight.com puts the Republican challenger, Adam Laxalt, ahead of the incumbent Democrat, Catherine Cortez Masto, by less than one point. The contest could decide control of the 50-50 Senate next month. Continue reading...

Infowars host punished over promotion of lie 2012 massacre never happened. Plus, 70% of animal populations wiped out since 1970Good morning.A jury has ordered the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay almost $1bn to people who suffered from his relentless promotion of the lie that the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school massacre was a hoax.‘I’m done saying sorry’. While Jones acknowledged he had been wrong about Sandy Hook during testimony, he called the proceedings a “kangaroo court”, mocked the judge, called the plaintiffs’ lawyer an ambulance chaser and labeled the case an affront to free speech rights.How much can he afford to pay? Jones has claimed he could not afford any judgment over $2m, but one economist has testified that Jones and his company were worth as much as $270m. He has vowed to fight the decision and put out a fresh call for donations on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Athena Larois and Melanie Swandby, who lost Jacob Gonazalez, 17, in a shooting in 2013, wanted to be more proactive in addressing the issueSince the beginning of this school year, there have been at least two school shootings in Oakland, California.A shooting at the end of August in Madison Park academy in East Oakland, allegedly committed by a 12-year-old student, left one classmate injured. Another, at Rudsdale Newcomer high school in East Oakland, left six wounded. Continue reading...

I raise my lorgnettes to a national treasure who was never fully a leading lady in Hollywood or quite a doyenne of the theatreIf the criterion is grandness and grandness alone, then the grandest dame of them all was someone like Dame Edith Sitwell, the poet, who back in the 1950s, at the height of her grandness, would intimidate her enemies by regarding them through a pair of lorgnettes. These days, it’s a term generally reserved for elderly female actors – hearty, salty, imperious. Americans can do it, of course – Elaine Stritch, so very great, so very grand – but may struggle to ascend to the highest reaches of haughtiness achieved by a Dame Maggie Smith or a Dame Edith Evans. You can be a national treasure, meanwhile, without being a grande dame (fight me on this, but I’d say Dame Judi falls into this category). Which brings us to Dame Angela Lansbury.On Tuesday, news broke of her death aged 96, triggering an outpouring of affection and sadness for a cherished figure and one of the last of her generation of performers. Mind-bogglingly, Lansbury started her career in 1944 after moving to the US from Britain during the blitz and landing a role, as a teenager, alongside Elizabeth Taylor in National Velvet (1944). That same year, she appeared in the movie Gaslight, with Joseph Cotton and Ingrid Bergman. She was around for the heyday of MGM musicals – I remember as a child seeing her on TV in the 1946 movie The Harvey Girls, alongside Judy Garland, and finding it impossible to connect her with the character from Murder, She Wrote. By the time she played the teapot in Beauty and the Beast in 1991 – at a mere 66 – her longevity alone had already made her beloved. Continue reading...

Joe Biden has threatened ‘consequences’ after Opec+ decided to reduce supply in a decision that will benefit Russia

As the new season approaches, it’s worth examining how shots from beyond the arc became one of the most important parts of modern basketballWhen the shot went up, so did the voice of ABC’s legendary broadcaster, Mike Breen. “Curry! Way downtown! BANG!” It all happened so fast. It was a regular season game in Oklahoma City on 27 February 2016. The Golden State Warriors were on a magical run that would see them break the single-season wins record, going 73-9, pre-playoffs. That year, Stephen Curry earned his second-straight MVP, unanimously. He achieved that feat because he’d turned the three-pointer into a weapon unlike anyone else in history.The game-winner against the Thunder on that February night marked the beginning of a new chapter in the NBA. Not only did it clinch another win for the Warriors, but it cemented the three-pointer as a play en vogue in the NBA. A season later, after the Thunder’s Kevin Durant defected from the team and joined Golden State, he hit an unprecedented, walk-up three-pointer over LeBron James to all but clinch the 2017 NBA finals. Durant later told GQ, “That was the best moment I ever had.” The modern game was unfolding before our eyes. Continue reading...

Two Democrat senators have called for a freeze on arms sales to Saudi Arabia unless it reverses a Riyadh-led Opec+ decision to cut oil production. They said the decision to reduce production would help Russia's war in Ukraine.'The only apparent purpose of this cut in oil supplies is to help the Russians and harm Americans. It was unprovoked and unforced, as an error,' the Connecticut senator, Richard Blumenthal, said. His statement was echoed by his Democrat colleague from California, Ro Khanna, who said: 'When Americans are facing a crisis because of Putin, when we're paying more at the pump, our ally, someone who we have helped for decades, should be trying to help the American people.'The Biden administration said it was reviewing its ties with the Gulf kingdom.Speaking to CNN, however, a Saudi minister, Adel al-Jubeir, said: 'Saudi Arabia does not politicise oil. We don’t see oil as a weapon. We see oil as our commodity. Our objective is to bring stability to the oil market.' Riyadh is not partnering with Russia, he added

Wildlife has an amazing ability to recover – but only if we keep vital legal protections in placeIn the latest of what can often seem like the “final nails in the coffin” of biodiversity across Europe, we heard in recent weeks that UK environmental protection is under threat. But while the global scale of the climate crisis and biodiversity loss remain alarming, vital new research, which I helped lead, shows there are also heartening examples of European wildlife bouncing back from the brink.For the past two years, we at the Zoological Society of London’s Institute of Zoology, along with colleagues at BirdLife International and the European Bird Census Council, have been investigating the fortunes of 50 European wildlife species over the past 50 years, from humpback whales to Iberian wild goats to white-tailed eagles. Each of these species are incredible comeback stories, and researching how they have recovered has been a refreshing and inspiring endeavour – the Eurasian beaver and European bison, for example, have both increased in average relative abundance by more than 16,000% since 1960. Continue reading...

Ex-EU envoy Gordon Sondland derides Democrats and Pompeo, and recalls fallout from testifying in Trump’s first impeachmentIn a new book, the former US ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland defends his conduct around Donald Trump’s first impeachment, derides Democrats for their investigation of Trump’s attempt to extract political dirt from Ukraine – and calls his former boss a narcissist and a “dick”.Sondland also takes aim at Mike Pompeo, Trump’s secretary of state, who is now a potential candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. Continue reading...

Flamboyant rightwing strategist and self-confessed dirty trickster expected to be a focus of committee’s latest sessionAt its hearing on Capitol Hill on Thursday, the House January 6 committee is expected to show footage of Roger Stone, shot by Danish film-makers.According to the Washington Post, the clips will show that Stone “predicted violent clashes with leftwing activists and forecast months before the 2020 vote that [Donald Trump] would use armed guards and loyal judges to stay in power”. Continue reading...

Members of Congress raise prospect of one-year arms sales ban unless kingdom reverses Opec+ decision to cut outputDemocrats in the US Congress have issued a fresh ultimatum to Saudi Arabia, giving the kingdom weeks to reverse an Opec+ decision to roll back oil production or face a potential one-year freeze on all arms sales.The threat came as Joe Biden reiterated his pledge to take action over Riyadh’s decision last week to cut oil output by 2m barrels a day, which Democrats have said would help “fuel Vladimir Putin’s war machine” and hurt American consumers at the petrol pump. Continue reading...

The conspiracy theorist Alex Jones must pay $965m to people who suffered from his false claim that the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting was a hoax, a jury in Connecticut decided on Wednesday.The verdict is the second big judgment against the Infowars host over his relentless promotion of the lie that the 2012 massacre never happened, and that the grieving families seen in news coverage were actors hired as part of a plot to take away people’s guns

Verdict is second big judgment against Infowars host over promotion of the lie that the 2012 massacre never happenedThe conspiracy theorist Alex Jones should pay $965m to people who suffered from his false claim that the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting was a hoax, a jury in Connecticut decided on Wednesday.The verdict is the second big judgment against the Infowars host over his relentless promotion of the lie that the 2012 massacre never happened, and that the grieving families seen in news coverage were actors hired as part of a plot to take away people’s guns.The Associated Press contributed reporting Continue reading...

More than half claim they are more motivated to vote than in previous elections, with 50% of those people citing abortionMore than half of Democratic-leaning voters say abortion has become a crucial motivation for them to vote in next month’s US midterm elections, according to a recent poll.A survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) conducted in September reveals that June’s supreme court decision to overturn Roe v Wade has put a fire under Democratic voters, with more than half claiming they are more motivated to vote than in previous elections, and 50% of those citing as their prime reason the ruling on abortion. Continue reading...

The former city council president faced intense pressure to step down, including from Joe BidenThe embattled former president of the LA city council stepped down from the board , days after a recording surfaced documenting her and two other Latino council members using racist language to mock colleagues and constituents while they planned to protect Latino political strength in council districts.Nury Martinez announced her resignation in a statement on Wednesday, hours after the state attorney general announced an investigation into possible criminal charges involving the meeting where she made the remarks. Continue reading...

Treasury inquiring into whether Florida governor improperly used interest on Covid relief funds to transport people to MassachusettsThe US treasury department is investigating whether the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, improperly used funds to transport migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard on chartered flights.The Treasury Office of Inspector General (TIG) is inquiring into whether DeSantis used the interest earned on funds from the coronavirus state and local fiscal recovery funds (SLFRF) program that his state received as part of Biden’s American Rescue Plan. Continue reading...

Court order keeps ban on hold while judges consider whether Republican-backed effort violates state constitutionThe Indiana supreme court issued an order Wednesday that prevents the state from enforcing a Republican-backed abortion ban while it considers whether it violates the state constitution.The supreme court took over the case after a county judge blocked the ban last month, spurring the attorney general to appeal the decision. The court denied a request from the state attorney general’s office to set aside the preliminary injunction, setting a hearing on the lawsuit filed by abortion clinic operators for 12 January. Continue reading...

National security strategy reveals president’s resolve to build international alliances to strengthen democracy

Judge denies request from Trump’s attorneys that planned testimony be delayed in defamation lawsuitDonald Trump will have to answer questions under oath next week in a defamation lawsuit lodged by a writer who says he raped her in the mid-1990s, a judge ruled Wednesday.US district judge Lewis Kaplan rejected a request by Trump’s lawyers that the planned testimony be delayed. The deposition is now scheduled for 19 October. Continue reading...

Moderna vaccine has been approved for children six years and older, while children as young as five can get PfizerThe Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday authorized Covid-19 vaccine boosters for children who are five years old and above.The Moderna vaccine has been approved for children six years and older, while children as young as five can get the Pfizer vaccine. Continue reading...

Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate insists his disability is temporary, while his opponent Mehmet Oz has mocked him for itJohn Fetterman, the Democratic candidate whose health has been mocked by his Republican opponent, Mehmet Oz, during a rancorous race for Pennsylvania’s US Senate seat, has admitted the stroke he suffered in May “changes everything” about his life.In a televised interview with NBC, in which he used a closed captioning machine to be able to read the questions put to him, he insisted his disability was temporary, and that in January “I’m going [to] be much better – and Dr Oz is still going to be a fraud”. Continue reading...

Duo say police, in separate incidents at Atlanta airport, singled them out for drug search and questioning because of their raceThe comedians Eric André and Clayton English have sued Clayton county police, alleging racial profiling at Atlanta’s main airport in a program supposedly aimed at finding illegal drugs but in which officers regularly confiscate passengers’ cash.André, creator and host of The Eric Andre Show, and English, a standup comedian and actor, say that in separate incidents, Clayton county police officers at Hartsfield-Jackson international airport racially profiled and illegally stopped them to question if they had illegal drugs.This article was amended on 12 October 2022 to delete a repeated name in a caption. Continue reading...

Platforms like Twitter and Instagram control the largest megaphones in world history. Do we want them to have that power?Twitter and Instagram just removed antisemitic posts from Kanye West and temporarily banned him from their platforms. It just goes to show … um, what?How good these tech companies are at content moderation? Or how irresponsible they are for “muzzling” controversial views from the extreme right? (Defenders of West, such as the Indiana attorney general, Todd Rokita, are incensed that he’s been banned.) Or how arbitrary these giant megaphones are in making these decisions? (What would Elon Musk do about Kanye West?)Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com

It’s clear to me, as a victim of press intrusion, that the only way to truly root out wrongdoing is to forge ahead with the second part of the Leveson inquiryI suspect that as you are reading this, your mobile phone is somewhere close by. If it is, scroll through your messages and read or listen to the content.Now read or listen to them again through the lens of a tabloid journalist – out of context – looking for a story, looking for clues as to your whereabouts, activities, associations, relationships, private thoughts, feelings, opinions, arguments, arrangements. Has someone implicated you in something? What story could they possibly be writing? What could be misconstrued, misinterpreted, manipulated. Continue reading...

James Brennand, 25, charged with aggravated assault after shooting of Erik Cantu, 17, at McDonald’s in San AntonioA now-former San Antonio police officer was charged on Tuesday with two counts of aggravated assault by a peace officer for shooting and gravely wounding a teen eating a hamburger in his car in a McDonald’s parking lot. The teen had begun driving away when the officer opened fire.James Brennand, 25, was charged in the 2 October shooting of Erik Cantu, 17, according to a police statement. He turned himself in to police on Tuesday night and remained in custody, said the police chief, William McManus. Continue reading...

Three of the USA team talk about what must happen after the Sally Yates report revealed ‘systemic’ abuse in the NWSLWelcome to Moving the Goalposts, the Guardian’s free women’s football newsletter. Here’s an extract from this week’s edition. To receive the full version once a week, just pop your email in below:This past week, the US Women’s National Team took on a challenging international window amid the fallout of Sally Yates’s 172-page report investigating “abusive behavior and sexual misconduct” in the NWSL. Released on 3 October, the report detailed abuse of various nature, at multiple clubs, and illustrated issues more pervasive than even the athletes involved had realised. Continue reading...

Richard Trahant was fined $400,000 for violating confidentiality rules around a bankruptcy filing by the local archdioceseA New Orleans attorney who represents victims of clerical sexual abuse faces a $400,000 fine after alerting a local Catholic high school that a priest who worked there once admitted to fondling and kissing a teen girl he met at another church institution.The lawyer, Richard Trahant, said he would appeal against the hefty sanction handed to him on Tuesday, which stemmed from a federal judge’s ruling that his alert violated confidentiality rules governing a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by the local archdiocese. Continue reading...

Calls for sustained efforts to help people experiencing ‘prolonged suffering’. Plus, Saudi Arabia to face consequences

In their vicious efforts to extinguish Ukraine, the Russians have reached an unprecedented state of weakness and cluelessness