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Court grants justice department request to block judge's order that shielded Rebecca Slaughter from being dismissedThe US supreme court on Monday let Donald Trump fire a Democratic member of the Federal Trade Commission, for now, while agreeing to hear arguments in the case in December, setting up a major test of presidential power over government agencies designed by Congress to be independent.The court granted a justice department request to block a judge's order that had shielded Rebecca Slaughter, who sued to challenge Trump's action, from being dismissed from the consumer protection and antitrust agency before her term expires in 2029. Continue reading...

Tom Homan alleged to have taken $50,000 cash from undercover FBI agent in return for political favoursDemocrats have urged treasury watchdogs to investigate reports that Donald Trump's border czar Tom Homan accepted a $50,000 bag of cash from an undercover FBI agent in return for political favours.In the alleged scheme, Homan promised immigration-related government contracts when he joined the Trump administration in exchange for the money, according to unnamed sources quoted by multiple media outlets. The justice department subsequently shut down a bribery investigation. Continue reading...

Rand Paul, a Kentucky senator, also said Disney and ABC have no obligation to employ the late-night hostRepublican US senator Rand Paul broke with Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr for seemingly putting his finger on the scale in the ongoing dispute between suspended talkshow host Jimmy Kimmel and his employer, Disney-owned ABC.Paul, Kentucky's junior senator, spoke Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press about the Donald Trump-appointed communications regulator who recently threatened to pull ABC affiliate broadcast licenses if Disney did not take action against Kimmel over his comments suggesting that Republicans were trying to characterize the alleged killer of far-right commentator Charlie Kirk as anything other" than part of the president's Maga gang". Continue reading...

The president's admission is more than bravado. By blurring truth and criminalising dissent, he is dismantling the US's free-speech order from withinAt Sunday's memorial for the rightwing activist CharlieKirk, Donald Trump paid a peculiar tribute. Having quoted Mr Kirk's words of forgiveness, he put aside the script. That's where I disagreed with Charlie," he said. I hate my opponents, and I don't want the best for them." It was a stark and clarifying admission. Mr Trump does not seek to criminalise hate speech so much as to criminalise speech he hates.The US is being dragged into a state of emergency. Speech is framed as terrorism. Satire is rebranded as enemy propaganda. Employers punish workers for personal posts. The predictable result is a chilling climate of surveillance and reprisal, in which citizens learn to keep quiet. The assassination is not just being used to police manners; it is being used to reconstruct the public square so that dissent equals disloyalty, and disloyalty is treated as a security threat. Continue reading...

Democrats trod carefully in responding to event attended by nearly 100,000 that blended politics with religionDemocrats maintained a wary silence on Monday as Donald Trump's Republican party appeared galvanised by a memorial service for the late rightwing activist Charlie Kirk that was part religious revival, part political rally.Nearly 100,000 people filled an American football stadium and overflow arena in Glendale, Arizona, on Sunday to pay tribute to Kirk, according to his his organisation Turning Point USA. The 31-year-old staunch Trump ally was shot dead on 10 September. Continue reading...

Mikie Sherrill and Jack Ciattarelli's face-off reflects tense US political climate over issues including free speech

The possession that once defined the Spanish manager's sides has evaporated, and it's hard to see exactly why

Robert Steven DeCesare was dining at country club in Nashua and faced the shooter to protect his wife and familyThe wife and mother of a man who was killed during a shooting at a New Hampshire country club carried out over the weekend by a former facility employee say the victim sacrificed his life to protect his family.Robert Steven DeCesare, 59, was fatally shot on Saturday night at the Sky Meadow Country Club in Nashua, about 45 miles (72km) from Boston, where relatives say he had been dining with his wife and family to plan his daughter's upcoming wedding. Continue reading...

What is happening to Judith Butler - a Jewish intellectual - in the name of fighting antisemitism' is outrageousAmid all the other breaking news consuming the United States this month, the University of California, Berkeley, arguably the nation's most elite public university, gave the Trump administration a list of 160 names of faculty, staff and students, as part of an investigation into alleged antisemitic incidents".While all the names on this list are significant, one name in particular that UC Berkeley handed over to the Trump administration stands out: Judith Butler, the eminent queer theorist, literary theorist and philosopher, and one of the most famous public intellectuals in the United States today.Joel Swanson is professor of Jewish studies at Sarah Lawrence College Continue reading...

Move is high-risk and potentially unlawful amid Trump's deportation push since military lawyers lack immigration expertiseThe Trump administration has started recruiting hundreds of military lawyers to sit as immigration judges, presiding over what are often life-and-death federal decisions for immigrants in the US, as experts warn the White House strategy is high-risk and arguably unlawful.The judgeships are temporary, but renewable, and the government's goal is to fill an acute need for more immigration judges amid Donald Trump's mass deportation mission - which is now happening even as experienced immigration judges seemingly deemed to have fallen foul of the president's agenda are being purged from the courts. Continue reading...

Ryan Easley operated Growler Pines preserve, which called accident painful reminder' of unpredictability' of natureA tiger fatally mauled its handler at a preserve in Oklahoma, officials at the facility say.Ryan Easley, the operator of the Growler Pines Tiger Preserve near Hugo, Oklahoma, was mauled to death on Saturday in what the site portrayed as an accident" with a tiger under his care. Continue reading...

Irishman does not fear the New York crowd and wants to avenge heavy loss the last time the match was in the USRory McIlroy nudged Shane Lowry at a recent European Ryder Cup team gathering as footage of the 2006 football World Cup final was shown. We watched that match together,'" Lowry says McIlroy reminded him. I was like, What?' He said, Yeah, European Youths' Team Championships. Sotogrande.' From that to sitting at a Ryder Cup dinner, 19 years later is pretty cool." Next stop, Bethpage.Lowry has told his close friend that he envies him, in the nicest possible sense. The 38-year-old looked on with smiles, but green eyes, as McIlroy claimed the Masters - completing a career grand slam - and produced heroics to win a second Irish Open this month. I said to him the other day, I am starting to get really jealous," says Lowry. I also said to him that I hope Irish people realise how lucky they are to have Rory at that level, coming back to play the Irish Open every year. Continue reading...

Worker groups oppose move, citing studies finding health risks and decline in cognitive skills with increase in ageTed Cruz, the Texas Republican who heads the US Senate's commerce committee, has urged Donald Trump to support international efforts by an airline trade group to raise the mandatory pilot retirement age to 67 - despite opposition from a pilots association, which says such a move could increase travel risks.In a letter first reported by Reuters on Sunday, Cruz asked Trump to support efforts the upcoming opening of a United Nations aviation meeting in Montreal. Continue reading...

Chicago's quarterback has done very little to justify his No 1 overall selection since he was drafted last year. On Sunday things changed for the betterCaleb Williams needed this. Ben Johnson needed this. The Chicago Bears, more than anyone, needed this.The Bears dismantled the Cowboys on Sunday, 31-14, with an offense that finally resembled the one fans had imagined when Williams was drafted first overall and Johnson was hired to orchestrate a rebuild. It was fast. It was explosive. It was bruising. It was fun. Continue reading...

The wealthiest New Yorkers are desperately to rally support - and millions of dollars - for Andrew Cuomo to defeat the democratic socialistZohran Mamdani has had to overcome a lot during his campaign to be New York City's next mayor.His age, relative lack of experience and his self-stated democratic socialism could have held him back. Yet the 33-year-old, a relative unknown 12 months ago, sailed through all challenges as he became the favorite to win the election in November. Continue reading...

The disappearance of America's leadership class at a time like this means that the rest of us have to be leadersAs Trump and his goons strip Americans of our constitutional rights, the silence of the nation's leadership class is deafening.I'm old enough to remember when, during the Vietnam war, university presidents utilized their bully pulpits to remind America of its moral center.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist and his newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com. His new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, is out now Continue reading...

FBI announces $10,000 reward to find suspect who disappeared after Sid Wells was fatally shot in 1983The recent death of Robert Redford brought renewed interest to an unresolved search for a murder suspect - the one accused of killing the boyfriend of the acclaimed actor's daughter in Colorado decades earlier.As local outlets recounted in the aftermath of Redford's death, his daughter Shauna was attending the University of Colorado Boulder when her boyfriend and fellow student, Sid Wells, was fatally shot in his apartment. Redford was gearing up to film his classic The Natural at the time of the 1 August 1983 murder, yet he was at his daughter's side in the wake of Wells' death and was present for his funeral. Continue reading...

I appear to be the first attorney targeted in a scheme that calls on federal agencies to accuse lawyers of unethical conductOn Memorial Day weekend 2025, a woman frantically called to tell me her husband was being removed to Laos late that night, with only hours of notice. Though I'm a solo practitioner with limited resources, I took the case pro bono because my values drive me to help indigent clients. I was aware of the government's catch-me-if-you-can scheme to move detainees around without notice to escape court oversight, but I felt prepared for the challenge because I'm also an independent legal scholar who published a practice guide to help lawyers navigate habeas corpus actions for immigrant clients.Though I secured an order from the northern district of Texas explicitly preventing my client's removal from the United States, he was nevertheless put on an international flight around 1am on Memorial Day. After a restless night making calls and sending emails, I went on a hike to refresh. My client surprised me with an exasperated call from Guam, where he had been deplaned and detained, possibly because of my actions that night. It was a small victory - he remained in a US territory. I rushed to file for a new order in the district of Guam to help ensure my client was not going to be made stateless, indefinitely imprisoned or removed in a way that defied human rights treaties.Joshua Schroeder is a first amendment attorney Continue reading...

Revellers watch the cars hop and bounce and spread their pro-immigration message Continue reading...

Oscar-winning actor Angelina Jolie has said 'I don't recognise my country' amid the threats to free speech in the US. 'Anything anywhere that divides or limits personal expressions and freedoms from anyone, I think, is very dangerous,' she said at Spain's San Sebastian film festival. Jolie added: 'These are such serious times that we have to be careful not to say things casually. These are very, very heavy times we are living in together'

In a packed arena in Phoenix, Arizona, Trump officials and prominent members of the Make America Great Again (Maga) movement gathered to remember the late rightwing activist Charlie Kirk. His widow, Erika Kirk, as well as Donald Trump and many of his cabinet members gave speeches weaving politics with evangelical conservative Christianity. We need to bring back religion to America,' the US president told the crowd, while vice-president JD Vance said: I always felt a little uncomfortable talking about my faith in public. I have talked more about Jesus Christ in the past two weeks than I have my entire time in public life'

Musk, who bankrolled Trump's presidential campaign and later became an advisor to him, greeted the president at the memorial for Charlie KirkDonald Trump met with billionaire Elon Musk, his once trusted adviser with whom the president had a spectacular public falling out, at a memorial event for right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, raising speculation that the two could be reconciling.Trump shook hands with and chatted to Musk, who once led the president's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which took a hatchet to the US federal workforce and agencies in the early months of Trump's second administration. Continue reading...

President says I hate my opponents'; Kirk's widow forgives shooter; Murdochs could be part of TikTok deal - key US politics stories from 21 September at a glanceDonald Trump gave a rambling, freewheeling address at the Charlie Kirk memorial in Arizona on Sunday, taking aim at Joe Biden and trailing a major announcement on autism as well as praising Kirk, who was shot dead on 10 September.In front of a crowd of tens of thousands, Trump said Kirk was a great American hero" and martyr" for freedom. During the event he sat side-by-side with billionaire Elon Musk, a once trusted adviser with whom the US president had a spectacular public falling out. Continue reading...

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Vice-president was in confessional mode as he eulogized his friend in Arizona - but speech could have political utility tooJD Vance went into confessional mode. I was telling somebody backstage that I always felt a little uncomfortable talking about my faith in public," he said. As much as I love the Lord, and as much as it was an important part of my life, I have talked more about Jesus Christ in the past two weeks than I have my entire time in public life."The crowd at rightwing political activist Charlie Kirk's memorial service at a football stadium in Glendale, Arizona on Sunday rose to its feet and roared its approval. Continue reading...

President delivers mix of eulogy and campaign speech while JD Vance calls Kirk martyr for the Christian faith'

Pennsylvania's Josh Shapiro says US stands at inflection point' after Charlie Kirk killing and urges unity over divisionPennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro has said Americans must universally condemn political violence, no matter where it is" after the killing of rightwing youth organizer Charlie Kirk as well as a deadly shootout in Shapiro's state that left three police officers dead and two others injured.Hours before Kirk's funeral, Shapiro said that the nation stands at an inflection point" and urged Americans to choose shared values over division, pointing to the solidarity shown by Pennsylvanians in the aftermath of the officers' killings in York county last week. Continue reading...

Chuck Schumer and Chris Murphy condemn president's call for justice department to act against perceived enemiesTop Democratic leaders on Sunday warned that Donald Trump's drive to go after his political opponents is putting the US on a path to becoming a dictatorship and a banana republic" just eight months into his second presidency.The warnings came a day after Trump's public call for the justice department to take action against perceived enemies - and after ABC yanked its late-night talkshow host Jimmy Kimmel off the air in the wake of a threat from regulators at the Federal Communications Commission who are loyal to the president. Such behaviors, along with others since his return to the Oval Office in January, has prompted many who are not fiercely aligned with him to describe him as an authoritarian. Continue reading...

DoD previously said journalists would lose passes if they did not sign pledge' not to release certain informationDonald Trump appeared to talk down about Pentagon restrictions that aim to severely limit journalists' abilities to report on US military issues.The president faced questions about the directive as he departed the White House for Charlie Kirk's memorial service on Sunday. Asked whether the Pentagon should be in charge of deciding what reporters can report on, Trump said: No, I don't think so." Continue reading...

Thousands of people lined up early to fill a football stadium in Arizona for Charlie Kirk's memorial service, where the US president, Donald Trump, the vice-president, JD Vance, and other prominent Maga allies will pay tribute to the slain conservative activist.

From a Dickensian romance to the mythology of student loan forgiveness, it's been a long decadeElla Scheuerell is an editorial cartoonist Continue reading...

Fascist regimes pushed narratives of domestic bliss, yet relied on women's unpaid labor. In the US today, womanosphere' influencers promote the same fantasiesIn 1980, Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, an unrepentant former leader of the Nazi women's bureau in Berlin from 1934 to 1945, described her former job to historian Claudia Koonz as influencing women in their daily lives".To her audience - approximately 4 million girls in the Nazi youth movement, 8 million women in Nazi associations under her jurisdiction, and 1.9 million subscribers to her women's magazine, Frauen Warte, according to Koonz - Scholtz-Klink promoted what she called the cradle and the ladle", or reproductive and household duties as essential to national strength. Continue reading...

Changes to regulatory or information environments will help states decouple from federal health recommendationsSeven US states and the nation's largest city announced this week that they have formed the Northeast Public Health Collaborative, in an effort to strengthen the region's health guidance as the national health landscape fractures.As national health agencies revisit their recommendations, including high-profile restrictions on the updated Covid shots and the measles, mumps, rubella and varicella (MMRV) vaccine, the pressure is increasingly falling on states to navigate recommendations and new federal rules. Continue reading...

Carrie Edwards, a widow and grandma, gave the money to dementia research, food access and aid for military familiesCarrie Edwards of Virginia wasn't the big winner when she won $150,000 playing the Powerball recently - instead, that honor went to dementia research, food access and support for military families, the charitable causes to which she donated her entire prize.Edwards, described by lottery officials as a widow and grandmother, has gained praise in parts of the web dedicated to finding uplifting news stories - along with the charities benefiting from her windfall - after buying an online ticket for the Powerball drawing on 8 September. Continue reading...

Such properties are a housing alternative for younger people, but longterm residents worry about being priced out of their homes and losing communityIn the heart of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, a property management firm has opened a 19-bed co-living complex with rooms as small as 74 sq ft for rent. For almost $1,900 a month, it is touting authentic Brooklyn energy" on a block with real local charm".The firm, Cohabs, dubbed the site Crown 120. But for longtime residents, it was the Kingston Lounge, a storied jazz club and bar. Its transformation serves as a tangible reminder of cultural erasure and gentrification. Continue reading...

The Federal Reserve cut interest rates this week. But the aggressive action Trump seeks could dramatically backfireDonald Trump has once again taken a wrecking ball to the rule of law and long-standing norms as he seeks to fire Lisa Cook, the Federal Reserve governor, and pursue his unprecedented assault on the central bank's independence. Just as he failed to understand the huge problems his tariffs would create, Trump fails to understand the serious damage his attacks on the Federal Reserve could cause.In April, Trump launched repeated attacks on the Fed, threatening to fire its chairman, Jerome Powell, and demanding it slash interest rates. Trump called Powell a stupid guy" and said Powell's termination cannot come fast enough!" Trump ultimately chickened out on firing Powell after financial markets tumbled at the prospect, but he hasn't stopped pressing the Fed to chop its rates - suggesting they should be below 1% - to spur the slowing economy. Although Trump keeps denying it, he inherited a robust economy from Joe Biden. It's Trump's tariffs and the humongous economic uncertainty they created that have dragged down economic growth.Steven Greenhouse is a journalist and author, focusing on labour and the workplace, as well as economic and legal issues Continue reading...

Free speech is vital for democracy but liberty cannot mean licence. We need to be able to prize the humanity of those we differ from and disagree with

Lindsey Halligan appointed as US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia after president demands investigations of his political enemiesDonald Trump said he was appointing his former lawyer Lindsey Halligan to be US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia after an extraordinary outburst in which he overtly put pressure on his attorney general to more aggressively pursue senior public officials he regards as his political enemies.Pam Bondi is doing a GREAT job as attorney general of the United States. She is very careful, very smart, loves our country, but needs a tough prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia, like my recommendation, Lindsey Halligan, to get things moving," Trump wrote on Truth Social post, announcing his decision. Continue reading...

Critics worry Donald Trump will use memorial service for Charlie Kirk to turn collective grief into revenge campaign against radical left' - key US politics stories from 20 September 2025 at a glanceOn Sunday the late rightwing activist Charlie Kirk is set to be hailed by Donald Trump as a martyr of the Make America Great Again (Maga) movement.But Kirk's memorial service at a football stadium in Arizona could, critics fear, be exploited by the US president to turn collective grief into a campaign of vengeance against his political opponents. Continue reading...

Alleged handoff occurred before Trump won second presidency, after which administration killed federal corruption caseThe FBI reportedly recorded Donald Trump's border czar Tom Homan accepting $50,000 in cash from undercover agents who were posing as business contractors last year.A new report from MSNBC on Saturday reveals that the agents recorded Homan, six weeks before the 2024 election, allegedly promising to assist in securing government contracts across the border security industry during Trump's second term. Continue reading...