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The British conservative party has lost touch with reality in ways that are reminiscent of how Trump transformed Republican politics in the USAfter serving for a mere 45 days, Liz Truss has become the shortest-serving prime minister in British history. George Canning, the previous holder of this record, was forced from office because he died of tuberculosis. Truss, by contrast, is entirely the author of her own demise. But even though her short premiership has no doubt left her own political talents utterly discredited, it would be a mistake to stop apportioning blame there. In fact, Truss’s elevation and downfall show how the British Conservative party has lost touch with reality over the past decade in ways which mirror the descent of the American right.Truss was forced from office after unveiling a budget that was profoundly out of touch with the realities of modern Britain. A diehard libertarian, she announced steep tax cuts for the rich, including removing an immensely popular cap on bankers’ annual bonuses. Much like the Trump tax cuts of 2017, these moves were supposed to be paid for by generating trickle-down economic growth – and when that failed to happen, as it inevitably does, public service and welfare cuts would follow. This kamikaze libertarianism was combined with sheer nastiness towards the poor, such as when the chair of the Conservative party told voters worried about rising energy bills to either go and get a better-paid job or “freeze”.Andrew Gawthorpe is a historian of the United States and host of the podcast America Explained Continue reading...

Emilia ‘Amy’ Marin, the school speech pathologist who called 911 that day, says in ABC News interview she is traumatizedA staff member at the Uvalde, Texas, elementary school where 21 people were shot to death in May says she is traumatized not only by the massacre she survived – but also because she was prematurely and incorrectly blamed for inadvertently facilitating the killings.Emilia “Amy” Marin, the Robb elementary school speech pathologist who called 911 on the day that a man invaded the campus and began shooting people indiscriminately, for the first time spoke out about her post-traumatic stress struggle in an interview with ABC News which aired on Monday. Continue reading...

Progressive members of Congress are urging Joe Biden to push for a settlement with Russia over Ukraine. Here’s their letterDear Mr President,We write with appreciation for your commitment to Ukraine’s legitimate struggle against Russia’s war of aggression. Your support for the self-defense of an independent, sovereign and democratic state has been supported by Congress, including through various appropriations of military, economic and humanitarian aid in furtherance of this cause. Your administration’s policy was critical to enable the Ukrainian people, through their courageous fighting and heroic sacrifices, to deal a historic military defeat to Russia, forcing Russia to dramatically scale back the stated goals of the invasion. Continue reading...

I was offered plantation rum, saw plantation-themed shutters and then a plantation-linked housing estate. And I thought: enoughIt was date night in the upmarket, ever-fashionable Ivy restaurant, and it was all going so well. The lights were dimmed and we had shared some champagne and zucchini fritti, but the frivolity soon dissipated when the dessert menu arrived. Listed on the pages of puddings before me was a “Plantation” rum-soaked sponge with chantilly cream and raspberries. “Plantation” rum. Hmm (rather than “Mmm”). My dad is Jamaican. My ancestors were slaves. Here I was, the only person of colour in the restaurant, choking on the P-word.Why is it, despite all the diversity and inclusion awareness that followed the Black Lives Matter movement, that businesses still feel the need to use “plantation” as a selling point? Woodlands may use the term in an agricultural sense, but elsewhere – from wharfs and window dressings to weddings (J-Lo and Ben Affleck’s recent nuptials at his Georgia estate included) – it’s bandied around, fetishised even, to connote luxury, class and status. Continue reading...

President Joe Biden mispronounced the name of the new UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, as he congratulated him during a Diwali celebration at the White House on Monday. Biden described Sunak's rise to power as a 'groundbreaking milestone', expressing surprise at the fact that he belongs to the Conservative party. The White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also mispronounced Sunak's name but corrected herself

She woke me in the night with stomach pains, which I dismissed as gas. Her treatment was great, but we are still waiting for the bill and US healthcare can be cruelly expensiveLast week I almost killed my wife. It was the middle of the night and E poked me awake (grounds for murder in itself) to tell me that she wasn’t feeling well and there was an agonising pain in her stomach. I made a few sympathetic noises, gestured towards some painkillers and went back to sleep. An hour later she budged me awake again to say that she thought she should go to the emergency room. “Are you sure?” I asked. The idea of rousing our sleeping toddler and Uber-ing to a Philadelphia hospital at 3am seemed a little extreme. “It’s probably just gas or something,” I said. “See how it is in the morning!”The next morning it was worse. My wife went to ER where she was told that her appendix had cruelly turned on her and she needed an appendectomy. The appendix may look like a tiny, harmless worm but it can become deadly very quickly. One minute it’s just quietly hanging out in your gut; the next, it’s rupturing and you’re at risk of dying of a horrible infection. It’s kind of humbling really: a 10cm (4in) tube that everyone used to think was a completely useless vestigial organ (now scientists think it might be used as a sort of safe house for helpful bacteria) can kill you unless you get medical help fast.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

The country has been changed utterly under its ‘red emperor’. Now I fear we’ll give up on imagining an alternativeThe messages are scrawled on the toilet walls and across stall doors, on the tiles and next to the holders for paper. In Chinese characters, with the occasional English phrase, they echo the words of the protest banner that was unfurled across a busy overpass in Beijing: “No to confinement, we want freedom! No to lies, we want dignity! No to the great leader, we want to vote!”The stunning act of defiance at the bridge took place on the eve of the 20th Communist party congress, when Xi Jinping officially embarked on a custom-breaking third term as China’s supreme leader, surrounded by a politburo stacked with his loyalists. The party’s narrative of confidence and triumph was nevertheless punctured by one man’s disobedience. Continue reading...

Court rejects appeal against nine-year prison sentence for drugs possession and smugglingA Russian court has rejected an appeal by the US basketball player Brittney Griner against her nine-year prison sentence for possession and smuggling of drugs.The two-time Olympic gold medallist was arrested on 17 February at a Moscow airport with vape cartridges containing cannabis oil, which is banned in Russia. Continue reading...

Victim’s harrowing death comes after two people were pushed in front of trains, seemingly at random, in recent weeksA 20-year-old man was killed on Monday after his clothes were caught in a New York City subway car, which dragged him on to the tracks in front of an oncoming train, police said, in the latest grim episode for the largest transit system in the United States.The victim’s harrowing death comes just three days after David Martin, 32, was shoved in front of a train on Friday, seemingly at random, suffering a broken collarbone. A convicted felon identified as Lamale McRae, 41, was arrested on Monday in that attack. Continue reading...

Ex-chancellor is third Tory prime minister in less than two months and fifth in six years. Plus, the history of radical art protest by women

GOP courts blue collar voters but most favor anti-union ‘right to work’ laws and reject laws that would protect right to organizeAfter years of struggle, America’s labor unions enjoy greater public approval than at any time in more than 50 years. Yet even as the Republican party seeks to rebrand itself as the party of the working class, its lawmakers, by and large, remain as hostile as ever toward organized labor. It doesn’t look like that situation is about to change.With the midterm elections approaching, and many polls indicating that the Republicans will win control of the House, nearly all Republican lawmakers in Congress oppose proposals that would make it easier to unionize. One hundred and eleven Republican House members and 21 senators are co-sponsoring a bill that would weaken unions by letting workers in all 50 states opt out of paying any fees to the unions that represent them. And at a time when many young workers – among them, Starbucks workers, Apple store workers, museum workers, grad students – are flocking into unions, Republican lawmakers often deride unions as woke, leftwing and obsolete. Continue reading...

A Black man was hanged, then a group of white people burned his body by a US roadside. His family want police and prosecutors to acknowledge race was a factor, but they still deny it

Opponents fear the measure might result in increased ballot counting time and identity fraudA measure on Arizona’s ballot in November could require more stringent voter identification, both at the polls and via mail-in ballots – the primary way people in the state vote.Opponents of Proposition 309 warn it could disenfranchise voters, making them susceptible to identity fraud and taking longer to count ballots. But the measure has the backing of Arizona GOP heavyweights and the state party itself, and it comes on the heels of nonstop, unfounded claims of 2020 election fraud by Republicans here. Continue reading...

In this, one of a series of essays from countries in or bordering the former Soviet bloc, a Bosnian poet warns that Europe will have to leave its comfort zoneStop a person on the street in Sarajevo and ask them what they think about the war in Ukraine, and they’ll tell you they think that almost everything that happened in the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina is happening in Ukraine.In April, we commemorated the 30th anniversary of the war against Bosnia-Herzegovina. We consider early April 1992 the moment a new era began: we have the before, during and after the catastrophe.Faruk Šehić is a Bosnian poet, short story writer and novelistThis essay is part of a series, published in collaboration with Voxeurop, featuring perspectives on the invasion of Ukraine from the former Soviet bloc and bordering countries. Translation by Will FirthDo 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.

Negotiations between world’s biggest emitters have stalled since House speaker’s visit to TaiwanJohn Kerry has urged China to return to the negotiating table with the US on the climate crisis to kickstart stalled global progress on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.The special envoy on climate to the US president, Joe Biden, said: “China is 30% of all emissions. We need to get China.” Continue reading...

In an extract from his new book on the multi-sport legend, Jeff Pearlman takes a look at the star’s unusual trip across the Pacific for the Japan BowlOn New Year’s Day 1986, Bo Jackson’s Auburn football run concluded in the most humdrum of ways. The Tigers traveled to Dallas, where they suffered their fourth loss of the season, a 36–16 beatdown at the hands of Texas A&M. When the Cotton Bowl PA announcer notified the crowd that Jackson (who ran for 129 yards in defeat) was voted game MVP, the news was greeted with indifferent silence.This was hardly the way to cap a career. Continue reading...

Isolation, exacerbated by social pressure and cuts to services, can lead to postnatal depression. Being open would help Continue reading...

The new PM’s rise is a great achievement, but his hardline views mean this is a less transformative moment than many hoped forCongratulations to Rishi Sunak on becoming the first Asian prime minister of the UK. It’s a momentous day for a number of reasons, not least because the Conservative leadership race was a shining example of that old immigrant adage: you have to work twice as hard to achieve your goals.On his second opportunity to become the leader of the Conservative party, all it took for Sunak to win was Liz Truss tanking the economy, global markets in turmoil and the threat of Boris Johnson returning as leader. The race showed that not only did Sunak have to work much harder than his predecessors for his appointment, but it was already obvious to the whole country in the previous leadership election that he was the only sensible candidate.Hashi Mohamed is a barrister and author of People Like Us: What it Takes to Make it in Modern BritainDo 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...

The wealthy Lindell has found a home among diehard Trumpists and has spent tens of millions to expose unproven electoral fraudMembers of the crowd cheer when a man, wearing a blue suit and a long red striped tie, walks by their section in the Covelli Centre . Some of the rally attendees stand as the man smiles and waves at them, applauding him before he climbs the steps to the press risers.Surprisingly, the man at the center of this praise is not Donald Trump, even though the former US president is the host of the rally in the hardscrabble rust belt city of Youngstown, Ohio. Continue reading...

State to withhold funds for planned bathroom until city finds a way ‘to use public money more efficiently’Controversy is swirling around a proposed public lavatory in San Francisco after a city newspaper exposed the project’s eye-watering price tag of $1.7m.That sum would have covered a 150-sq-ft restroom with just one toilet. The pricey plans were moving ahead until the San Francisco Chronicle lifted the lid on how much taxpayer money would go down the drain, prompting backlash and ridicule. Continue reading...

Excerpts reported by biographer show Alito, who wrote June ruling that outlawed abortion, said he was ‘big believer in precedents’In a private meeting in 2005, Samuel Alito, who would become the US supreme court justice who wrote the ruling removing the federal right to abortion, assured Ted Kennedy of his respect for Roe v Wade, the landmark 1973 court decision which made the procedure legal in the US.“I am a believer in precedents,” Alito said, according to diary excerpts reported by the Massachusetts senator’s biographer, John A Farrell, on Monday. “People would find I adhere to that.” Continue reading...

A letter signed by 30 representatives from the left of the party puts pressure on US president’s Ukraine strategy two weeks out from midterm elections

The Texas US Senator was talking about inflation when demonstrators started to chant and ABC turned off the audioThe daytime talkshow The View momentarily descended into chaos when climate protesters interrupted an interview with the Texas Senator Ted Cruz on Monday.Cruz was in the middle of talking about inflation when chanting that sounded like “Government funding now!” began. Continue reading...

Sports brand Adidas is also facing pressure to cut ties with the rapper over his hateful commentsKanye West is facing a growing backlash among California political leaders, entertainment industry figures and members of the Jewish community – who have called on Adidas to cut ties with the star – following several antisemitic incidents in Los Angeles that came after the artist made bigoted comments about Jewish people.The fashion designer and rapper now known as Ye has been spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories for weeks in interviews and on social media. He generated further outrage for wearing a “white lives matter” T-shirt during his runway show at Paris fashion week earlier this month. Continue reading...

Gunman, 20, shot and killed two people at Central Visual and Performing Arts high school before police shot him deadA gunman broke into a St Louis high school on Monday and killed two people before police shot him dead.Several other people were wounded in a deadly intrusion that is certain to reignite debate about gun control in the US, even after Congress passed a bill earlier this year that tightened restrictions on access to firearms for some people who are considered to be at risk of carrying out violence. Continue reading...

Residents plan to ‘pay double’ in the Arizona metropolis, which has the highest inflation rate in the USJosé Beltrán wakes up at 4.45am, has a cup of coffee and lets his dog out before heading to the hospital for his 6.30am shift. For the next 12 hours, he works as a certified nursing assistant in a Covid unit, helping patients who are on mechanical ventilation. When he gets home, he has a couple of hours before bedtime – time he’ll spend having dinner with his family, then hitting the books as he studies to get into nursing school himself.It’s a grueling routine: last week alone, he was scheduled to work 57.5 hours at the hospital. The job can be harrowing and requires absolute focus: when there’s a code blue, a patient needs resuscitation and it’s up to Beltrán to help save a life. “It’s the highest thrill in my field,” he says. “It’s a privilege to be able to do that. I couldn’t do it if I didn’t love it.” Continue reading...

J Alexander Kueng to serve 3.5 years in prison to run concurrently with previous sentence he was given in federal trialOne of two former Minneapolis police officers charged with aiding and abetting the killing of George Floyd, the Black man whose violent death prompted street protests around the world, has pleaded guilty as part of an agreement with prosecutors hours before jury selection in his trial was to start.J Alexander Kueng pleaded guilty on Monday to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in Floyd’s killing. As part of the deal, Keung will serve 3.5 years in prison to run concurrently with a previous three-year sentence he was given in a federal trial, though a more serious charge of aiding and abetting second-degree murder will now be dropped.The Associated Press contributed to this report. Continue reading...

Gory Halloween restaurant display called ‘disgusting’ and ‘sick’ in wake of controversial Netflix series about serial killerA Texas pizzeria is facing criticism for displaying a gory-looking pizza named after serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.Capital Pizza restaurant in Lubbock, a city in northwest Texas, introduced a store display featuring a pizza called the “Jeffrey Dahmer Special”. Continue reading...

The investigative journalist’s new audiobook, The Trump Tapes, digs deep into the threat the former president poses to democracyExplaining his decision to publish tapes of his 20 interviews with Donald Trump, renowned journalist Bob Woodward said he had finally recognized the “unparalleled danger” the former president poses to American democracy.His three books on the Trump presidency, Woodward said, “didn’t go far enough”. Continue reading...

Holga Castillo Olivares, 61, accused of concealing the fact that unnamed Sacramento teenager was staying at her homeFor nearly two years, a California teacher hid a boy who had been reported missing aged 15, authorities allege.Sacramento public school teacher Holga Castillo Olivares, 61, is accused of concealing the fact that the teenager was staying at her home despite a report that the boy was missing since the spring of 2020. Continue reading...

Ethan Crumbley, now 16, pleads guilty to all charges nearly a year after attack at Oxford high school in south-eastern MichiganA teenager pleaded guilty Monday to terrorism and first-degree murder in a Michigan school shooting that killed four students and put an extraordinary focus on the boy’s home life and the alleged role of his parents in the tragedy.Ethan Crumbley pleaded guilty to all 24 charges he faced nearly a year after the attack at Oxford high school in south-eastern Michigan. In the gallery, some relatives of the victims were weeping as assistant prosecutor Marc Keast described the crimes. Continue reading...

Texas senator wrote he ‘vehemently disagreed’ with colleagues’ call to allow certification of 2020 electionAs a mob of Donald Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol during the January 6 attack in a desperate attempt to keep him in the Oval Office, Ted Cruz hid in a closet next to a stack of chairs, but he never thought twice about continuing to sow doubt about the former president’s electoral defeat, the Republican senator from Texas has revealed.Cruz revealed his whereabouts on the day of the deadly Capitol attack – which unsuccessfully aimed to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in the 2020 presidential election – in a new book. The news was first reported by Newsweek. Continue reading...

The Tories have been feted for having minorities at the top, but that’s less of a panacea than you might think. Here’s why

Trump previously indicated he would agree to testify under live proceedings, but Pelosi says his lawyers will be unlikely to let him to speakAs jury selection begins in a criminal trial of the Trump Organization for tax fraud, the top Democrat in the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, has taunted Donald Trump with being too cowardly to testify in another legal challenge bearing down on him.The House speaker goaded the former president in an MSNBC interview over the subpoena that was served on Friday, ordering him to testify under oath before the committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack. “I don’t think he’s man enough to show up,” Pelosi said. Continue reading...

The parliamentary party must unite around the new prime minister to end the fiasco of the past six yearsThe comedy is over. The clowns have backed off. Boris Johnson raced from his Caribbean beach to revive his political potency, but for once it failed him. Those who knew him best recoiled in horror. He decided in his arrogance that this was “not the right time”. The money markets shuddered and this morning recovered. Britain is a parliamentary democracy, not a mobocracy. The grownups are taking back control.Now that the former chancellor Rishi Sunak will be the new prime minister, a greater question looms on the horizon. Has he the authority required to decontaminate Liz Truss’s brief essay in public finance? That she could do such damage in just six weeks shows the alarming fragility of a modern government. Sunak’s motto of “integrity, professionalism and accountability” could not be clearer. But stability depends on a brutal new round of spending cuts due on 31 October.Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnistCrisis at No 10: How long can the Tory government hold on? Join Hugh Muir, Polly Toynbee, John Crace and Jessica Elgot discussing another failed Tory prime minister and what the future holds for the government, in this livestreamed event. On Wednesday 26 October, 7pm–8pm BST. Book tickets at theguardian.com/guardianlive Continue reading...

While a whopping 71% of voters said that American democracy is at risk, just 7% named it as the most important issue in this electionThis much is clear: Democrats are in trouble in the midterms. After an initial bump from the widespread outrage at an extremist supreme court that stripped American women of our nationwide right to safe, legal abortion, voters are recalibrating, and falling into a familiar midterm routine: supporting the opposition party. Republicans, according to new polling, are leading with voters nationwide, and especially in a handful of crucial state races that will determine control of Congress.But there’s something bigger going on here than just the usual political churn, or even the idea that voters are more motivated by pocketbook issues than amorphous ones like a potential future need for abortion. Voters are adapting to authoritarianism. And that doesn’t just portend a bad outcome for Democrats in November; it suggests America’s democratic future is at acute risk.Jill Filipovic is the author of the The H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness Continue reading...

The final public hearing has wrapped up – we asked our readers to give their thoughts on whether the evidence stacked upThe House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol ended its likely final public hearing last week by subpoenaing Donald Trump to give evidence.Here, Guardian readers in the US share their views of the hearings, what they thought of the evidence given and if it had changed their mind. Continue reading...

The far-right Republican who is running for governor in Pennsylvania has extremist views – and he hasn’t softened his stance. Plus, how Barbra Streisand rose above jabs at her appearanceGood morning.As Pennsylvanians prepare to vote for their next governor, it is no exaggeration to say the future of American democracy is at stake.What does Mastriano believe? As a state senator in Pennsylvania, he said women who violated a proposed six-week abortion ban should be charged with murder. Mastriano frequently attacks trans people, and has said gay marriage should be illegal and same-sex couples should not be allowed to adopt children.Ten years after Mitt Romney’s loss, Republicans are fighting their first election since the presidency of Donald Trump. But far from entering next month’s midterms as the party of tolerance, diversity and sincerity, critics say, it has shown itself to be unapologetically the party of hate.Did Boris Johnson get much support? The former prime minister claimed to have won the support of 102 colleagues – two clear of the threshold needed – but only about 60 had publicly stated their support for him, leading many to believe he was bluffing.Who else is in the race? Penny Mordaunt is the third candidate in the race. She had only 30 public backers by Sunday night – 70 short of the number needed to get on the ballot paper, and is under pressure to withdraw and accept that Sunak has the support of the parliamentary party. Continue reading...

The 45-year-old had nothing to prove and plenty to lose by coming back from retirement. And now he’s stuck with a team that looks unable to support himIt was midway through the third quarter in Carolina on Sunday, with the Buccaneers trailing 14-0. At the peak of the Tom Brady Era, the deficit would have felt surmountable. After all, this was a matchup the oddsmakers almost considered a lock for Tampa Bay, listing them as 13.5-point favorites. This was the game for Brady and his offense to take out their anger on the lowly Panthers after losing to Pittsburgh last week. After all, in Carolina they were facing an interim head coach, former XFL quarterback PJ Walker, and a franchise which had just lost its best player.But after yet another stunning loss, this one 21-3 and somehow worse than last week’s, it’s safe to declare the Tom Brady Era as we know it O-V-E-R. As Oliver Connolly pointed out in these pages last week, many of Tampa’s woes are not down to Brady. The wideouts continued to be a detriment on Sunday, starting with Mike Evans dropping what should have been a touchdown on the opening drive. According to ESPN Stats and Info, Evans had 10.9 yards of separation between himself and the nearest defender. It was the most wide-open drop on a pass traveling over 30 yards this season. Continue reading...

The far-right Republican, running for governor in Pennsylvania, has extremist views – and he hasn’t softened his positions one bitAs Pennsylvanians prepare to vote for their next governor, it is no exaggeration to say the future of American democracy is at stake.Doug Mastriano, a retired army colonel who has enthusiastically indulged Donald Trump’s fantasy that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, is the Republican candidate. If he wins, he plans to deregister every single one of Pennsylvania’s 8.7 million voters. In future elections, Mastriano would choose who certifies – or doesn’t – the state’s election results. Continue reading...

Poverty is stalking the streets of Britain – and that’s the big issue the people in charge continue to duckIt won’t be Boris Johnson, but whoever the new prime minister turns out to be, they will have been dragged into office by “economic orthodoxy” and its henchmen. Their mandate is pre-written in the data you have been deluged with about the impact of unfunded tax cuts, from the depreciation of the pound to rises in interest rates, and the untenable upward effect this has had on mortgages and rents. The charts have spoken – an ideological experiment has gone terribly wrong and must be reversed.But it is a tale of two crises, and only one is being told. Attracting far less fanfare is another set of statistics about cold and hunger. More than a million people are expected to be pushed into poverty this winter. Their slide into deprivation will test an informal support network already stretched to its limit. Last week, the food bank charity the Trussell Trust launched an emergency appeal for donations because need for food banks has now outstripped donations. Charities like this, private citizens and schools are mobilising to bridge the gap. Continue reading...

Nevada’s athletic commission voted to oversee league of the controversial sport that has already seen one competitor dieCue the Will Smith jokes: the much-maligned president of the UFC, Dana White, has the green light for a new venture – the Power Slap League.Though much remains uncertain about the new league, slap fighting is pretty much what it sounds like: two people face each other and take turns smacking one another on the side of the head with an open hand. Continue reading...