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Donald Trump recently launched Operation Midway Blitz' in the city and threatened to send in the National Guard. The mood is febrile, with fears things could get worseAt 5am on a warm September morning a small crowd of protesters assembles in the dark. They are gathering outside the Broadview immigration processing centre, a two-storey brick structure in the Chicago suburbs that has the ambience of a US outpost in a foreign war. Windows are boarded with plywood. Fences are lined with razor wire and black cloth. Masked Ice agents appear sporadically, dressed in military fatigues - tactical helmets, flak jackets and rifles.The protesters begin to heckle each time an agent turns up for work or leaves through a chainlink gate. Quit your job!" they chant. Take off your mask!" Continue reading...

The Trump administration ultimately gave the King a replica sword on the president's recent state visitThe Eisenhower Presidential Library's director has exited his position after advocating against giving a sword from the collection to King Charles as a gift during Donald Trump's recent state visit, according to US media reports on Thursday.Todd Arrington left his post on Monday after being told to resign or be fired", he told CBS News, which did not specify who had relayed the message to the historian. Continue reading...

This liveblog is now closed. To read more on day two of the 2025 government shutdown, click below:

The government has already announced the cancellation of billions of dollars in federal funding for projects tied to Democrats. Key US politics stories from Thursday 2 October at a glanceAs the US government shutdown stretched into its second day, Donald Trump on Thursday hailed the funding lapse as an unprecedented opportunity" to further his campaign of firing federal workers and downsizing departments.The president announced on social media that he would sit down with Russell Vought, the White House office of management and budget chief, an architect of the mass firings and buyouts of federal workers. Continue reading...

Administration attempts to justify strikes on alleged Venezuelan drug boats by claiming US under armed attack'The Trump administration is trying to justify strikes on alleged Venezuelan drug boats by advancing a novel legal theory that the US is now in a non-international armed conflict", according to a person familiar with a notification to Congress.The notification was provided by senior Pentagon officials as part of an attempt to explain the Trump administration's legal arguments for the strikes, including a classified briefing to members of the Senate armed services committee on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Abortion rights supporters hail win for evidence-backed medicine as Evita Solutions' generic version of mifepristone given approvalIn a move that has left anti-abortion advocates reeling, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) quietly approved a request to manufacture a new abortion pill earlier this week.Thanks to the approval, a company called Evita Solutions will be able to manufacture its generic version of mifepristone, one of two drugs typically used in most US medication abortions. A generic version of mifepristone, which was first approved as a brand-name drug in 2000, is already available on the market. Continue reading...

Governor Gavin Newsom urges schools not to sign radical agreement' to cuts to departments, students and speechAny California universities that sign the Trump administration's proposed Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education" will instantly" lose their state funding, California governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement.The Trump administration on Wednesday offered nine prominent universities, including the University of Southern California, the chance to sign a compact" that asks the universities to close academic departments that purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas", limit the proportion of international undergraduate students to 15% , accept the administration's definition of gender and ban the consideration of race or sex in hiring and admissions, in exchange for substantial and meaningful federal grants". Continue reading...

Valuables were being transported in 1715 from American colonies when a hurricane wrecked a Spanish fleetHidden beneath the turquoise waters off a stretch of Florida known as the treasure coast", a team of divers from a shipwreck salvage company have uncovered exactly that - a load of long-lost Spanish treasure they estimate is worth $1m.More than 1,000 silver and gold coins thought to be minted in the Spanish colonies where Bolivia, Mexico and Peru now sit were uncovered this summer off Florida's Atlantic coast, 1715 Fleet-Queens Jewels LLC announced this week. Continue reading...

According to one report, each week of shutdown could cost up to $7bn, with another suggesting a $15bn loss in GDP

Departments and staff are using out-of-office emails and websites to engage in partisan political activity

Several thousand federal employees will be furloughed or must do unpaid work. Regular people will feel it differentlySince the US government shut down Wednesday at midnight, tens of thousands of federal workers have been furloughed (told not to work), while others must work without pay until Congress passes a budget. The shutdown will have a wide range of effects on government services and programs as well as the US economy.Here's what it means for everyday people: Continue reading...

Republicans and Democrats engage in war of words as White House also uses impasse to cut government spending

Russ Vought, architect of rightwing Project 2025, has been waiting for his moment to pursue deep cuts to governmentDonald Trump's social media post early on Thursday about looming cuts as a result of this week's US government shutdown was a prime exhibit in the art of the troll.I have a meeting today with Russ Vought, he of Project 2025 fame," Trump wrote, gleefully. To determine which of the many Democrat agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent. I can't believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity." Continue reading...

Abrego, who was deported to El Salvador in March before being returned to the US, has 30 days to appeal rulingAn immigration judge in Baltimore has denied Kilmar Abrego Garcia's bid for asylum on Thursday, but he has 30 days to appeal.Abrego's case has drawn national attention since the 30-year-old was wrongfully deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador in March. The Salvadorian national has an American wife and children and has lived in Maryland for years, but he originally immigrated to the US illegally as a teenager. Continue reading...

Wing of one aircraft hit fuselage of another, resulting in one flight attendant with non-life threatening injuriesTwo Delta Air Lines regional jets collided on the taxiway at LaGuardia airport in New York, injuring a flight attendant, damaging a cockpit and tearing off part of a wing in what the airline described as a low-speed collision".The wing of an aircraft carrying 32 people getting ready to take off on Wednesday night to Roanoke, Virginia, hit the fuselage of an aircraft arriving from Charlotte, North Carolina, with 61 people aboard, according to a statement from Delta. Continue reading...

Brown and MIT among nine schools told to back conservative views or risk losing federal support, sparking free speech fearsDonald Trump is offering nine top universities a deal in which they would agree to advance conservative ideas on their campuses and commit to a range of other conditions in exchange for federal funding.The extraordinary offer, which was sent out from the White House on Wednesday, presents the universities with a 10-point compact". As a sweetener, any university that signs up to the deal is promised multiple positive benefits", including substantial and meaningful federal grants". Continue reading...

We're interested to hear what people make of the Democrats' refusal to vote for the Republican spending bill, and what people think the party should demand to end the shutdownThe US federal government has shut down after Democrats refused to vote for a Republican plan to keep the government open through mid-November, instead laying out a series of demands centered around healthcare that amounted to the undoing some of what the GOP has accomplished over the past year.Do you agree with Democrats' refusal to vote for the Republican spending bill, even though it risked a shutdown? Why or why not? Continue reading...

During the 2024-2025 school year, there were more then 6,800 instances of books being pulled, led by the horror authorA new report on book bans in US schools finds Stephen King as the author most likely to be censored and the country divided between states actively restricting works and those attempting to limit or eliminate bans.PEN America's Banned in the USA, released on Wednesday, tracks more than 6,800 instances of books being temporarily or permanently pulled for the 2024-2025 school year. The new number is down from more than 10,000 in 2023-24, but still far above the levels of a few years ago, when PEN didn't even see the need to compile a report. Continue reading...

Leaning so heavily on politics to understand mass violence fails to capture rapidly changing landscape of radicalizationIt's a common feature in the response to the high-profile acts of gun violence in the US: among the first, if not the first, element in a shooter's background to be scrutinized is their political beliefs.The recent spate of mass shootings has followed this same playbook. After Charlie Kirk's shooting, Republican officials, including Donald Trump and JD Vance, were quick to paint the suspect as a radical leftist", even when little was known about his background. When a young man opened fire at a Texas Ice facility last week, killing two detainees and injuring another, authorities and the media quickly turned to the question of which political camp the suspected attacker belonged to. Continue reading...

There was a compelling clash of heavyweights in Catalonia, some unhappy rumblings at Real and a legend of Azerbaijani football roared The viewers. Barcelona v Paris Saint-Germain was the final many wanted last season. Wednesday's group-stage meeting showed why. The fixture did not disappoint, even if, with red tape delaying the opening of the renovated Camp Nou, it was played in the less atmospheric Lluis Companys Stadium. Luis Enrique's young Parisians staged a comeback in Catalonia, thanks to their coach's expert use of his squad. Senny Mayulu, 19, upstaged Lamine Yamal by scoring the equaliser - Wednesday was the first match this season Yamal had failed to either score or contribute to a goal. Instead, the resurgent Marcus Rashford set up Ferran Torres's opener for Barca. PSG were shorn of Ousmane Dembele, Desire Doue and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, the forward line that claimed last season's crown. No matter: 23-year-old Bradley Barcola stepped up as the senior forward and ravaged Hansi Flick's high-line, high-wire defence. The youngsters kept coming for PSG: 17-year-old Ibrahim Mbaye was replaced by another teenager, Quentin Ndjantou, to play alongside the lively Lee Kang-in. In the end, Achraf Hakimi supplied the assist for Goncalo Ramos, another sub, to score the 90th minute winner and inflict Barcelona's first loss this season. If you're the best team, you have to show it on the pitch, and not talk," said Ramos, who habitually scores late goals off the bench. We are the champions of Europe." Continue reading...

The former FBI director prioritized fidelity to his office. The case against him is flimsy - but that's cold comfortIn 1931, an exceptionally talented young Berlin attorney named Hans Litten summoned Adolf Hitler to testify in a criminal case. Litten represented four victims of a brutal assault perpetrated by members of Hitler's Sturmabteilung, or SA, on a dance hall frequented by leftist workers; by the time the assault ended, three people were dead. At trial, the defense sought to portray the SA as a disciplined political organization, under orders from Hitler to use force only as self-defense.In his three-hour cross-examination of the head of the Nazi party, Litten managed what precious few dared to attempt. Hitler had expected the young lawyer to be intimidated; instead, Litten aggressively and skillfully dissected him under oath, reducing the supposedly gifted orator to a stammering rage. In trapping Hitler in contradictions and exposing him as an inveterate liar, Litten also made clear the Nazis' goal of destroying the Weimar Republic. Hitler left the witness stand rattled and humiliated, henceforth forbidding Litten's name to be uttered in his presence.Lawrence Douglas teaches at Amherst College. His newest book, The Criminal State: War, Atrocity, and the Dream of International Justice, will be published in the spring of 2026 Continue reading...

Barbara Lagoa's husband, Paul Huck, is an attorney whose law firm has business with the Florida governmentAn appeals court judge who blocked the closure of Ron DeSantis's controversial Alligator Alcatraz" immigration jail is married to a powerful conservative attorney whose law firm has raked in millions of dollars from the Republican Florida governor's administration, it has been revealed.Barbara Lagoa authored the 11th circuit court of appeal's 2-1 ruling last month that paused the Miami district judge Kathleen Williams's earlier order that the harsh detention facility in the Florida Everglades must be wound down within 60 days. Continue reading...

Experts say White House presented association as causation' and based conclusions on poor quality studies'The White House recently issued a press release with links to scientific studies to back up Trump's claim that use of acetaminophen, commonly referred to as Tylenol, during pregnancy causes autism, but those studies provided only weak" and inconclusive", evidence, according to physicians with expertise in reviewing medical research who spoke to the Guardian.Jeffrey Singer, a surgeon and senior fellow at the Cato Institute who has written about the Tylenol/autism claims, said that the links in the White House press release showed that the claims contained a political spin. Continue reading...

Lisa Louis says she was next to her mortally wounded father, when the attacker approached and asked a questionA woman who was inside a Michigan church when her father and three other people were killed says she and the gunman locked eyes during the chaos and she was able to look into his soul, seeing his pain and a feeling of being lost. She said she instantly forgave him with my heart".He let me live," Lisa Louis, 45, wrote. Continue reading...

Democrats reject Republican lies' as both parties try to pin the shutdown blame on each other. Plus, Israeli naval forces board pro-Palestinian flotilla

The WNBA finals tip off on Friday. But many of those discussing the league denigrate its players while not bothering to watch the action itselfUnder the Trump administration, we will defend the proud tradition of female athletes, and we will not allow men to beat up, injure, and cheat our women and our girls."- Donald Trump during the signing of his Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports executive order, 5 February 2025 Continue reading...

In the aftermath of the Charlie Kirk killing, the Guardian's Oliver Laughland and Tom Silverstone head to Chicago, where Donald Trump's Ice deployment, codename Operation Midway Blitz, has been met by a defiant wave of sustained protests. With political violence on the rise, they speak to a new generation of political candidates and organisers, including Kat Abughazaleh, to find out if worse is still to come Continue reading...

The government has effectively been shut down since Trump returned to office, as officials clamp down on work they opposeThe United States government is officially closed.Starting on Wednesday at 12.01am Washington time, the federal government ran out of money.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...

The world of soccer throws up no shortage of questions on a regular basis. In today's column, Graham Ruthven endeavors to answer three of themIt's no wonder Ruben Amorim spent the closing moments of Manchester United's defeat to Brentford staring at the floor. That's the only place he can escape the reality of his team's continued slide. United's latest defeat means the Portuguese manager has now lost nearly twice as many matches (17) as he has won (nine). Continue reading...

Rule tweaks and K' balls have put special teams at the center of the NFL season like never before, from 65-yard field goals to newfangled kickoff formationsVic Fangio, the Philadelphia Eagles' crafty defensive coordinator, took great pride watching his defense force a third-down incompletion Sunday, leaving the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 47 yards from the Eagles' goal line with only four seconds left in the first half.In the old days, that might have led to a Hail Mary pass into the end zone. But instead Bucs kicker Chase McLaughlin trotted on to the field and calmly belted a 65-yard field goal through the super-heated Florida sky, tied for the second-longest in NFL history. Continue reading...

Switch of 66 hand-sewn flags for use along Mall and at Windsor Castle cost estimated 52,800 in public fundsDozens of US flags used for Donald Trump's unprecedented second state visit to the UK last month had to be replaced because the stripes were the wrong shade of red, a government supplier has claimed.The switch of the 66 hand-sewn flags that had been due to be used along the Mall in London and at Windsor Castle cost an estimated 52,800 in public funds. Continue reading...

Trapped between Putin and Trump, EU citizens understand the grave dangers facing the continent. Their leaders urgently need to face reality, tooFascism is supposed to look a certain way: black-clad, uniformed, synchronised and menacing. It is not supposed to look like an overweight president who can't pronounce acetaminophen and who bumbles, for a full minute, about how he would have renovated the UN's New York headquarters with marble floors, rather than a terrazzo. But as Umberto Eco remarked in his timeless essay on identifying the eternal nature of fascism: Life is not that simple. Ur-Fascism can come back under the most innocent of disguises."Historians, scholars and even some insiders from the first Trump administration have seen through the comedic quality of the disguise. They appear to have seen in Donald Trump himself and those around him, Eco's core criteria: the call to tradition and the rejection of reason, the fear of difference, the hostility towards disagreement, the ressentiment, the machismo, the degradation of language into newspeak, the cult of a strong" leader. Almost a year ago, the historian Robert Paxton, in explaining why he had changed his mind about employing the word to describe Trumpism, remarked: It's bubbling up from below in very worrisome ways, and that's very much like the original fascisms. It's the real thing. It really is."Alexander Hurst is a Guardian Europe columnist Continue reading...

JD Vance, the VP, said he thought the video was funny' and the sombrero memes' would cease if government reopenedAs the Trump administration insists it is serious about negotiating an end to the government shutdown, a pair of racist deepfake videos mocking Democratic leaders played on a loop in the White House briefing room for hours on Wednesday.The videos, posted by Trump on his social media platform on Monday, use fabricated audio to make it seem as if the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, called Democrats woke pieces of shit", and showed the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, with a fake mustache and sombrero. Continue reading...

Historic US company also offering 12-month lease' - an annual supply - of pre-ground coffee for under $40Housing in the US has become so unaffordable that a coffee company has based a viral marketing campaign on the idea that almost nobody can afford to buy a house.Maxwell House coffee, a 133-year-old brand, recently launched a marketing campaign rebranding themselves as Maxwell Apartment Coffee". Continue reading...

Videos were previously posted on Trump's social media page amid government shutdown as Republicans insist on stripping Americans of healthcare. This blog is now closed.

Text appears meant to assure the Qataris following Israel's surprise attack on the country targeting Hamas leadersDonald Trump has signed an executive order vowing to use all measures including US military action to defend the energy-rich nation of Qatar - though it remains unclear just what weight the pledge will carry.The text of the order, available Wednesday on the White House's website but dated Monday, appears to be another measure by Trump to assure the Qataris following Israel's surprise attack on the country targeting Hamas leaders as they weighed accepting a ceasefire with Israel over the war in the Gaza Strip. Continue reading...

Brendan Carr, who appeared to pressure broadcasters to take show off air, set to go before commerce committeeBrendan Carr, the pro-Trump chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has agreed to testify before the Senate commerce committee following Disney's decision to take talkshow host Jimmy Kimmel off air temporarily, according to multiple reports.Carr agreed to testify after speaking to committee chair Ted Cruz, Reuters reported, citing a source familiar with the matter on Wednesday, adding the date of the hearing has not been set but was expected after November. Semafor was the first to report on the hearing. Continue reading...

US-born Leo Garcia Venegas says I just want to work in peace' after agents in Alabama said his ID card was fakeAn Alabama construction worker and US citizen who says he was detained twice by immigration agents within just a few weeks has filed a lawsuit in federal court demanding an end to Trump administration workplace raids targeting industries with large immigrant workforces.The class-action lawsuit, filed on Tuesday by Leo Garcia Venegas, a concrete worker, demands an end to what the firm calls unconstitutional and illegal immigration enforcement tactics". Continue reading...

On a post on social media, the president says guards had been deployed, while no members were presentDonald Trump once again shared misinformation about Portland, Oregon, on social media on Wednesday, when he announced that the national guard troops he called up in response to a small protest outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) office in the otherwise tranquil city are now in place" and have begun restoring LAW AND ORDER".However, Portland's NBC News affiliate KGW reported 90 minutes after Trump's social media post that no members of the guard were yet in place around the Ice field office where dozens of protesters have demonstrated against immigration sweeps since June. Continue reading...

The vice-president said the administration would be forced to resort to layoffs if the shutdown lasts more than a few days. Key US politics stories from Wednesday 1 October at a glanceDonald Trump's administration froze $26bn for Democratic-leaning states, following through on a threat to use the government shutdown to target Democratic priorities.The targeted programs included $18bn for transit projects in New York, home to Congress's top two Democrats, and $8bn for green-energy projects in 16 Democratic-run states, including California and Illinois. Vice-president JD Vance, meanwhile, warned that the administration might extend its purge of federal workers if the shutdown lasts more than a few days. Continue reading...

Cool Patch Pumpkins' enormous maze allows visitors a little uncertainty in an age of always knowing where we areThe owner of a giant northern California corn maze once crowned the world's largest wants visitors to remember that there is fun in getting lost.It is confusing. It's exciting, and in a world of GPS and constant signage, you always know where you are, where you're going," said Taylor Cooley, owner of Cool Patch Pumpkins. When you're in the corn, everything looks the same until you pop up on a bridge and you're like, Oh wait, I'm all the way over here. I thought I was over there.'" Continue reading...

Vice-president falsely says Democrats calling for billions for healthcare for illegal aliens' as funding deadlock continuesJD Vance, the US vice-president, used false claims to blame Democrats for the government shutdown as the White House warned that worker layoffs were imminent.Federal departments have been closing since midnight after a deadlocked Congress failed to pass a funding measure. The crisis has higher stakes than previous shutdowns, with Trump racing to slash government departments and threatening to turn furloughs into mass firings. Continue reading...

For the first time since 2017 the US will be represented in the event, by Brian Evans of On the Rise Artisanal BreadsA bakery in Ohio has been chosen to pursue its own slice of worldwide fame by representing the US at the Bread Olympics", a prestigious international baking contest.The biennial Mondial du Pain event, held in France, brings together elite bakers from around the world to compete in traditional breads, viennoiseries and elaborate artistic creations. Continue reading...