Judge orders government to notify her by 8pm ET Sunday whether its position changed from Friday’s court filing

Donald Trump posted on Truth Social on Sunday that “restoration work will begin” on 15 November to a historic public golf course in Washington DC despite a federal judge’s court order to pause his plans over environmental and historic preservation concerns.

US district judge Ana Reyes had ruled earlier this year that the federal government must give notice before any substantive construction work on the East Potomac golf course could proceed, and last week issued an order halting the removal of trees at the site, which she called “inexcusable”.

‘Meta owes us an explanation,’ group says as organizers fear censorship after account goes dark for several hours

The coalition leaders behind nationwide pro-democracy protests that have drawn millions of Americans to the streets in recent years were frustrated when its Instagram account was temporarily shut down during its latest demonstration on Saturday.

The No Kings movement’s account went dark for several hours while protests focused on increasing early voter turnout were under way, sparking censorship fears.

Ex-president urges Americans to defend congresswoman, saying ‘there’s no reason to believe it will stop with her’

Former US president Barack Obama condemned comments by Donald Trump’s “border czar” that the Republican presidential administration could “of course” strip Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar of her citizenship and deport her.

Obama wrote Sunday morning, on X, that “the full weight of the federal government is being brought down on a law-abiding elected official because she has dared to criticize the president.”

Two people killed and at least 17 injured as Russia and Ukraine continue to trade strikes on power infrastructure

Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday thanked the Trump administration for resuming intelligence sharing between the two countries, but maintained the US had intentionally throttled its Starlink satellite internet access so that Donald Trump could send a “message” in his ongoing feud with the Ukrainian president.

In an interview on NBC, Zelenskyy said the US had “unblocked” intelligence on impending Russian ballistic missile strikes, which have pounded the country’s energy infrastructure as winter draws in.

Mike Huckabee calls for arrest and prosecution of those responsible as Heidi Levine, 63, recovers in hospital in Israel

The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has denounced the settler attack that left the Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine badly beaten and needing surgery as a “despicable act of terror” and called for the arrest and prosecution of those responsible.

Levine, 63, an award-winning journalist who lives in Israel, was set upon last Friday by masked Israeli settlers who used clubs and other weapons to attack Palestinian people attempting to harvest their olives in occupied West Bank towns.

Protesters held rallies across the US as part of the 'No Kings' movement, voicing opposition to the Trump administration and calling for early voting ahead of November's midterm elections. The rallies coincide with heightened legal battles surrounding voting rules, including a recent federal lawsuit filed against California regarding mail-in ballots and warnings from the justice department concerning ballot processing. Current opinion polls suggest Democrats will win the House of Representatives in the upcoming midterms, while the Senate remains too close to call

From the attorney general stumping for Republican candidates to federal agents raiding the home of a Democratic congresswoman up for re-election, the department is violating longstanding norms

Donald Trump’s justice department has aggressively inserted itself into the midterm elections in the contest’s final weeks, shattering the department’s longstanding practice of political neutrality and leaving little doubt about the department’s willingness to help should the president attempt to subvert elections where his party is forecasted to lose seats and ultimately control of Congress.

In the last few weeks, federal agents have raided the home of a Democratic congresswoman up for re-election. It has touted criminal charges and arrests of non-citizens charged with voter fraud. The attorney general has hit the campaign trail to stump for Republican candidates. And the department gave California election officials 48 hours to investigate the citizenship of 20,000 people, and then sued the state when it refused to comply. The FBI also recently published a video criticizing Michigan senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and other Democrats, drawing an immediate rebuke from one watchdog, who said the video “has no place in a democratic society”.

Move comes after Trump administration announced restrictions that could slash water supplies

Arizona has joined Nevada in its legal battle against the Trump administration’s proposed cuts to their shares of the shrinking Colorado River.

The move comes after the interior department announced restrictions this summer that could slash the water supplied to lower basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – over the next two years depending on the river’s condition.

Federal officer slammed vehicle into a construction worker while pursuing a man who died in similar circumstances

A federal officer slammed a vehicle into a Houston construction worker and broke his leg, believing him to be a man who apparently died years ago, the dead man’s family said on Friday, further calling into question the account given by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The worker, 48-year-old Miguel Parra Hernandez of Mexico, remains hospitalized with multiple leg fractures and needs reconstructive ankle surgery, according to FIEL, a Houston-based immigration advocacy group. At a news conference on Friday, the group said the alleged suspect’s family had shared documentation proving his death.

Minnesota lawmaker’s attorneys asked for return of seized items and the preservation of any recordings of search

Ilhan Omar’s attorneys have asked the US Department of Justice to return property that federal agents removed days earlier from her home during a search.

The lawyers for the Minnesota Democrat contended that the seizure as “neither justified nor lawful”, according to a letter that the Associated Press reported on Friday.

Half of the women on Trump’s team have been replaced by men, while men facing misconduct allegations remain

Donald Trump is not, by any measure, a feminist. He has said so himself. But the president has often pointed to his hiring and promoting of women in an attempt to stave off criticism of both his policies and personal conduct over the years.

During his second term, however, there is one common characteristic among most of those who have departed the Trump administration.

President signed the legislation championed by late senator Lindsey Graham last month but has waived the restrictions as they were due to come into effect

Donald Trump has put on hold a sweeping new sanctions package targeting the Russian economy, telling Congress the pause on the legislation passed by both chambers was in the national interest.

In an executive order on Friday, the US president said he was waiving many ⁠sanctions, restrictions and duties ⁠on Russia, in a move that comes as he has been publicly criticising ⁠Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, including suggesting that Ukraine needs a ​new leader.

Justice department warns election officials of prosecution if they ‘knowingly tabulate ballots’ cast by noncitizens

The Trump administration is escalating its fight with California ahead of next month’s midterm elections, warning that local officials who process and tabulate ballots submitted by suspected noncitizen voters are putting themselves at risk of criminal investigation and potential prosecution.

The letter on Friday from senior justice department officials and obtained first by the Associated Press is the latest salvo in an ongoing tussle with heavily Democratic California, coming just a day after the Trump administration sued the state to prevent it from counting mail-in ballots from people the federal government has identified as “likely” noncitizens until their immigration status can be confirmed.

The president reportedly chose Zacharia after seeing her on television, but her first press briefing and disastrous interviews sealed her fate

And so Katie Zacharia joins the mayfly ranks of Liz Truss, Anthony Scaramucci, New Coke, CNN+ and Quibi. To say she burned twice as bright and half as long would be too kind. She went out like a firework on a soggy night.

The White House confirmed on Friday that Zacharia was leaving her role as press secretary after just five days on the job. No one was surprised after a lacklustre press briefing debut and scrutiny over her legal credentials.

Her abrupt firing after just five days reopened the contest for one of the Trump administration’s most prominent roles

The White House is without a press secretary again after the ousting of Katie Zacharia, just five days into her appointment as Donald Trump’s spokesperson.

Zacharia’s departure comes just months after Karoline Leavitt unexpectedly resigned as the White House press secretary to focus on her family.

Zacharia hosted widely panned first briefing on Tuesday and faced scrutiny after admitting she didn’t pass bar exam

Donald Trump’s new press secretary, Katie Zacharia, was fired on Friday, just five days after she assumed the role, according to a White House official.

Zacharia confirmed her departure from the White House on Friday evening.

In an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity, the new White House press secretary, Katie Zacharia, admitted that she did not pass the bar exam, after facing scrutiny about her legal career before becoming the top spokesperson for Trump. Zacharia had previously said she practiced law before entering politics, and Trump had described her as an attorney. Zacharia earned a law degree from Pepperdine University in 2011, according to the school. Nearly all licensed US lawyers first obtain a law degree, but law school graduates cannot legally practice law in the US without being admitted to a state bar. In China, the law requires practicing lawyers to be Chinese nationals. Foreign staff can advise and consult on legal matters but not practice law.

Katie Zacharia had a rough start as she fumbled first press conference and faced questions from media about her professional background

• US politics live – latest updates

Donald Trump has urged Katie Zacharia, his new White House press secretary, to “reconsider” taking the job after she faced intense scrutiny from news outlets, including the rightwing cable network Fox News.

Speaking with reporters outside the White House on Friday, the US president said Zacharia had been “treated very badly by the media” after she stumbled through a 14-minute press conference on Tuesday and questions arose over her legal credentials.

The old certainties have gone. We will have to spend whatever it takes to protect ourselves in this new and dangerous world

Donald Trump must find it oddly frustrating. He keeps showing the world exactly who he is, and yet the world keeps refusing to believe it. As clearly as he can, he is announcing that he is not the leader of the free world, that he is not even a reliable member of the democratic west, that he is in fact an ally of its enemies – but the west, including Britain, either doesn’t fully get the message or can’t quite bring itself to draw the obvious conclusion.

Trump had another go this week, finding multiple ways to declare that in the war between Russia and Ukraine, he is no mediator or peace broker but a partner of Vladimir Putin. In fairness to him, the US president had loudly issued that declaration within weeks of his return to the White House when, in February 2025, he delivered an on-camera dressing down of Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, seeking to humiliate the Ukrainian leader by telling him “you don’t have the cards”, even as JD Vance demanded their visitor show gratitude. That should have made Trump’s position sufficiently plain, but in the past few days he has all but put it up in lights.

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

US midterms: Trump, war and America’s future
On Thursday, 5 November join Jonathan Freedland, Devika Bhat, Professor Adam Smith in London and David Smith and leading US commentator Tara Setmayer live from the US to discuss the results and their implications for the future of Trump, the US and global politics.
Book tickets here or at guardian.live

Court filing alleges ‘physical abuse by guards’, ‘filthy living conditions’ and disease outbreaks at Camp East Montana

• How has Trump’s immigration agenda affected the US midterms? Send us your questions

Attorneys and experts are raising the alarm that immigrants at Camp East Montana, the sprawling desert detention camp on the Fort Bliss military base in west Texas, face a risk of serious injury or death because of ongoing, extreme health and safety hazards there, according to a fresh court filing, the Guardian can reveal.

The allegedly dangerous conditions persist at the tent jail, the largest immigration detention facility in the US, despite regular reports from inside and outside the federal government that it has violated dozens of official standards since it opened last year.

The US vice-president is following the Donald Trump playbook, attacking the Democrats, attempting to make jokes and even swearing more. Jonathan Freedland talks to Arwa Mahdawi about why Vance is making such an effort to court voters

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In Maine, Troy Jackson, the Democratic nominee for US Senate, and Susan Collins, the five-term Republican incumbent traded barbs on Thursday in their final debate ahead of the November midterms.

This was the fourth showdown between the pair. Collins has tried to cast Jackson as an inexperienced state lawmaker, and attempted to yoke him to the former nominee, Graham Platner, who dropped out of the race earlier this year following allegations of rape and sexual assault (which he still denies). Meanwhile, Jackson accused his opponent of corruption, and castigated her for her “moderate” persona in Congress.

Thousands of vetted and approved refugees are suffering as Trump restricts quotas and prioritizes white South Africans

Donald Trump plans to once more severely restrict the number of refugees admitted to the US, announcing a limit of just 17,500 people in fiscal year 2027 – and that, again, those let in will be “primarily” white South Africans.

Refugee rights groups are alarmed and infuriated at the decision last month by the US president to exclude almost every other demographic.

US president says Zelenskyy ‘more difficult ​to deal with ​than Putin’ after ‘energy ceasefire’ collapses

• Europe live – latest updates

Donald Trump has called Ukraine’s renewed strikes on Russian oil refineries “a disgrace” and criticised Volodymyr ⁠Zelenskyy after an energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine failed to take hold.

Ukraine resumed strikes on Russian oil refineries ⁠after Zelenskyy said Kyiv was abandoning a ceasefire unilaterally declared by Trump on Sunday, having briefly halted its attacks to demonstrate its readiness for peace talks. Russia had continued its strikes on Ukrainian power plants.

The mixed martial arts organization has had links to the US president for years. Now it could be involved in training federal agents

In the lead-up to UFC Freedom 250 – the cagefighting spectacle that took place on the South Lawn of the White House to mark Donald Trump’s 80th birthday this past summer – the FBI announced that a handful of UFC fighters would visit the bureau for an exclusive training seminar for federal agents.

Taking place at the FBI Special Agent Academy in Quantico, Virginia, the March seminar put roughly 300 federal agents and academy students through specialized hand-to-hand combat training with seven past and current UFC fighters, including former middleweight champion Chris Weidman, who was pictured giving attendees advice on warding off attackers.

Katie Zacharia faces mounting questions over her legal credentials after admitting she did not pass the bar exam

Donald Trump’s new White House press secretary says it is “unknown” how much she will engage with the press, amid mounting questions over her legal credentials after admitting she did not pass the bar exam.

In a brief interview with the Guardian, Katie Zacharia detailed the whirlwind sprint to replace her predecessor Karoline Leavitt as the US president’s chief spokesperson.

DoJ had demanded that LA county confirm citizenship of people on list in thumb drive, but officials refused

• Send us your questions about immigration and the midterms

The US Department of Justice sued California on Thursday, seeking a court order to prevent the state from tabulating certain ballots cast in the midterm elections.

The suit came two days after the department made a specious demand to the state. On Tuesday, the department sent election officials in Los Angeles county a thumb drive with a handwritten password purporting to contain the names of noncitizens registered to vote. The department asked officials to confirm the citizenship of anyone on the list and set aside ballots from those whose status could not be confirmed. It gave the state 48 hours – an extremely narrow window – to take action. It did not provide details on how it came up with the names on the list. In its lawsuit, filed in federal court in the central district of California, the justice department said it had provided the state with more than 20,000 names of likely noncitizens.

UK defence secretary trying to cool tensions and is arguing it is in America’s economic interests to support Kyiv

Wes Streeting urged the US to stand by Ukraine on his visit to the American capital and sought to cool tensions between the two countries in the wake of the Starlink row that is threatening to set back Kyiv’s war effort.

The British defence secretary, giving a speech before a meeting with his US counterpart, Pete Hegseth, argued that supporting Ukraine was in the long-term interests of Washington – and a business opportunity.

Join our final live Q&A before the midterm elections, on 22 October at noon ET on the Guardian US site

Since Donald Trump started his second term in January 2025, immigration enforcement has remained a major issue for US voters, with arrests reaching record highs, operations becoming deadly and immigration raids hitting politicians’ homes. Our reporting has documented the experiences of those directly affected by the harsh conditions in detention centers and resistance to ICE agents on the ground.

Immigration will be a defining issue in the final weeks of campaigning for the 2026 US midterm elections.

The makeup of the Democratic party, plus key races to watch

Who are the groups financially backing the candidates in the midterms?

Will the Iran war cost Trump in the US midterm elections? Your questions answered

Soldier who killed 13 people in 2009 will still be executed, but president said ‘people would rather not watch him die’

Donald Trump has shelved a widely condemned plan to livestream the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, who was convicted of killing 13 people at a military base at Fort Hood in Texas in 2009.

In a social media post on Thursday, Trump argued that broadcasting such an execution “might have been a strong deterrent for the World to witness how America deals with Terrorists and SCUM like Hasan” but said that “many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die, through streaming, or through any other visual device”.

Voters’ opposition to the state of Trump’s economy is well established – despite his desperate attempts to deflect

• Tell us: what is your personal ‘recession indicator’?

It’s indisputable that the political polarization of our time has reduced (and confused) the influence of economic conditions on US elections.

In September of 2024, in the waning weeks of the Joe Biden presidency, 65% of Republicans believed the US economy was getting worse. About six months later, as Donald Trump launched a trade war on the rest of the world with his “liberation day” tariffs, the share of Republican pessimists had dropped to 33%.

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The US government could spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a media campaign in South Africa to figure out why more white Afrikaners are not applying to become refugees to the US, as Donald Trump had hoped.

State department officials, according to an August proposal seen by the Guardian, outlined a roughly $335,000 research and advertising effort after applications to the refugee program “trended lower than expected” since Afrikaners were allowed to apply directly online in November 2025. The document, written by the US mission in South Africa with a department research unit for the embassy in Pretoria, admits officials know little about why.

Kimberly Guilfoyle’s departure has renewed scrutiny of the president’s picks for diplomatic posts, from France to Jamaica

Donald Trump has appointed family members, friends and loyal political allies to represent the US on the world stage, dispatching an extraordinary array of characters to embassies across the world.

While presidents of both parties have long rewarded donors and allies with plum ambassadorships, Trump has chosen loyalists willing to go to bat for him regardless of the implications for US-foreign relationships.

Exclusive: Trump has falsely claimed Afrikaners are facing ‘white genocide’, but very few have applied to live in US

The US government could spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a media campaign in South Africa to figure out why more white Afrikaners are not applying to become refugees to the US, as Donald Trump had hoped.

State department officials, according to an August proposal seen by the Guardian, outlined a roughly $335,000 research and advertising effort after applications to the refugee program “trended lower than expected” since Afrikaners were allowed to apply directly online in November 2025. The document, written by the US mission in South Africa with a department research unit for the embassy in Pretoria, admits officials know little about why.

The president is used to bullying his media targets. The quagmire that is his libel actions shows the broadcaster is working to a different script

For the greatest account of the BBC’s finest hour, one must turn to Penelope Fitzgerald’s novel, Human Voices, written in 1980 and set 40 years earlier, at the corporation’s Portland Place wartime HQ. Flanked by sandbags and infused with a smell of cooking “from the deep hold that suggested more strongly than ever a cruise on the Queen Mary”, the organisation that Fitzgerald describes is at once noble and deeply eccentric. “Broadcasting House stood headed on a fixed course south,” she writes. “With the best engineers in the world, and a crew varying between the intensely respectable and barely sane, it looked ready to scorn any disaster.”

In other words, a formidable foe, one that in the spring of 1940, in the face of anticipated Nazi invasion, decided “without prompting, that truth was more important than consolation, and, in the long run, would be more effective”. I bring this up in respect to the gathering storm of Donald Trump versus the BBC, a fight triggered by the US president’s $10bn defamation lawsuit – $10bn! It’s a wonder he didn’t go for $10 gazillion – brought against the corporation at the end of last year in response to a poorly edited episode of Panorama. The BBC was at fault, editing together comments made by the US president at a rally on 6 January 2021 to give, as the corporation’s apology put it, “the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action”. But it is fighting the lawsuit.

Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist

As the midterm elections loom, Oliver Laughland and Tom Silverstone travel to rural West Virginia, a Republican party stronghold, to explore how soaring gas prices, war in the Middle East and datacenter expansion are affecting Donald Trump's popularity among his base. Although the state remains staunchly Republican, there are signs of a new politics emerging – and local Democrats are looking to capitalize on it

In today’s newsletter: As Russia resists a ceasefire and Trump’s shifting priorities unsettle allies, an end to the conflict isn’t getting any closer

Good morning. In his usual asinine unconventional approach to international relations, Donald Trump announced on Sunday (via Truth Social, how else) an “ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the War between Russia and Ukraine”, apparently without checking with either side. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who said any such deal was “news to me,” nonetheless declared he was “ready and we will accept it”. Vladimir Putin responded by blowing up some Ukrainian power plants.

This has been the tenor of much diplomacy during Trump’s tenure: false starts, U-turns, incoherent positions (and some playful flirting with Vlad). Meanwhile fighting continues, and America’s allies attempt to manage the fallout. Andy Burnham hosted Zelenskyy at Downing Street yesterday, stating the UK is doubling down on its support for Ukraine, and pointedly calling on others to “follow suit”.

UK | Sally Rooney has said she is being forced to withdraw her books from sale in the UK because of her support for the banned organisation Palestine Action.

Gaza | Israel is refusing to allow a key military outpost project for Donald Trump’s Board of Peace to proceed in Gaza, the Guardian has learned.

EU | Britain will benefit from much closer trading relations with the EU even if that means giving up its ability to negotiate free trade agreements, the Scotland secretary has said.

Ukraine | Ukraine’s military has suddenly had its access to Starlink satellite internet terminals restricted as the Trump administration has increased pressure on Ukraine to immediately halt long-range strikes on Russia’s oil industry.

Vaccine | Guinea-Bissau has not approved the controversial hepatitis B study in newborns that would be funded by the US government and private partners, the African country’s minister of health said.

Federal authorities issued more than a dozen grand jury subpoenas in inquiry into potential immigration fraud

• US politics live – latest updates

Federal authorities investigating the Minnesota representative Ilhan Omar seized the Democratic lawmaker’s phone and have issued more than a dozen grand jury subpoenas, including to some of her relatives, according to a person briefed on the inquiry.

The subpoenas were issued for a grand jury collecting evidence in Minnesota as federal authorities investigate potential fraud in Omar’s immigration paperwork, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation. The investigation led to federal agents searching Omar’s Washington DC home on Monday just weeks before the November midterms, in which Omar is seeking re-election.

Exclusive: Israel has not permitted US-led project to house 150 international troops to move forward

Israel is refusing to allow a key military outpost project for Donald Trump’s Board of Peace to proceed in Gaza, the Guardian has learned.

In early August, the Board of Peace, the international organization authorized in 2025 by the UN and chaired by the US president, issued its first construction contract for Gaza: Louisiana-based Arkel International would construct a military outpost for 150 international troops that would be the vanguard of an international stabilization force.

Blow for Trump administration as Dawn and Taag hail ‘important step in unraveling the ICC sanctions regime’

A US federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from placing sanctions on two US-based human rights groups for working to help the international criminal court’s (ICC) investigations into war crimes in Gaza.

In a 30-page order issued on Tuesday, Jesse M Furman, a judge at the US district court for the southern district of New York, granted a preliminary injunction to the two groups, Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn) and Taxpayer Alliance Against Genocide (Taag).

‘Seniors have spent years watching their expenses outpacing their benefits’ advocate says

Social security recipients will see a 3.6% cost-of-living adjustment (Cola) in 2027, increasing retirement benefits by an average of $75 a month as millions of Americans continue to grapple with rising prices.

Nearly 72 million social security beneficiaries will see higher payments beginning in January 2027, while approximately 7.3 million supplemental security income (SSI) recipients will receive increased payments starting on 31 December 2026, according to the Social Security Administration.

Final inflation report before voters go to polls comes amid widespread anger over cost of living under Trump

• Send us your questions on how the US economy is shaping the midterm elections

Republicans are entering the midterm elections with the highest rate of inflation since the spring, according to a government report released on Wednesday.

US price increases reached an annual rate of 3.7% in September, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, up from 3.4% in August. This final inflation report before the pivotal midterm elections comes amid polls showing widespread dissatisfaction with the Trump administration over the cost of living.

Firms turning crude oil into the ‘workhorse’ fuel stand to gain most despite economic fallout from record prices

Days after Donald Trump announced a deal to import Russian diesel into the US in an effort to lower soaring pump prices, the world’s energy watchdog has warned that the global fuel shortage will drag into 2027.

Trump’s temporary sanctions reprieve was criticised for offering “too little, too late” to temper the sky high pump prices triggered by the shutdown of war-damaged refineries in the Middle East and Russia – once the world’s second-largest diesel exporter behind the US.

Conservative court asked to rule on several signature policies in 2026-27 term – will it rule in president’s favor?

Several of Donald Trump’s second-term policies will be tested at the supreme court in the coming months: it is being asked to rule on challenges to theadministration’s harsh immigration and deportation policies, along with a climate change lawsuit against energy companies and an attempt to loosen restrictions on assault-style rifles.

The Roberts court is often split in favor of conservative issues 6-3, but it has also diverged from Trump on some key cases, leading the president at times to rage against some of the justices he nominated for the bench.

Recent polls show that American voters across the political spectrum are deeply dissatisfied with the Trump administration, and the upcoming midterm elections will provide them an opportunity to express how they feel. The Guardian's reporter Fabiola Cineas breaks down the four key issues that will drive voters to the polls

Airports’ TSA staff have been stripped of their chairs in the name of ‘professionalism’. Most supermarket staff have never had them. Meanwhile, Donald Trump is seated at his desk – and apparently snoozing

Great news for everyone who is soon to fly via a US airport: the Trump administration has just elevated the travel experience. You still risk getting arrested by immigration agents and thrown into a detention centre, but never mind that! Instead, luxuriate in the fact that none of the poorly paid Transportation Security Administration (TSA) staff with whom you interact will be sitting down. The government recently got rid of all the chairs at travel document checking stations, arguing that “maintaining a standing posture helps reinforce professionalism” and strengthens “our security posture and … commitment to hospitality”. Funnily enough, border patrol and customs officers have not adopted the same policy. Perhaps because their job tends to involve being as inhospitable as possible.

TSA agents aren’t the only US workers getting sore calf muscles during their shifts. Unlike their European and British counterparts, cashiers at US supermarkets have traditionally been forced to stand while working. The US’s upright obsession seems to be down to a Protestant work ethic and a lack of labour laws. Sitting apparently conveys laziness to the discerning American consumer. Over the years there have been numerous right-to-sit lawsuits pushing back on mandatory standing but, while things are shifting slightly, seated supermarket cashiers are still unusual. One exception is Aldi, which has been expanding aggressively in the US. Cashiers get chairs at Aldi because (surprise) it’s more efficient when your workers’ feet aren’t aching all the time.

Launch of Russian ballistic missiles on Ukraine, with no US warning, coincides with outage of Starlink managed by Musk’s SpaceX

Ukraine’s military has suddenly had its access to Starlink satellite internet terminals restricted as the Trump administration has increased pressure on Ukraine to halt long-range strikes on Russia’s oil industry immediately.

The terminals, which are produced by Elon Musk’s SpaceX but managed by the US government, are a key component of Ukraine’s military operations and the sudden restrictions on the terminals travelling at high speeds on Tuesday evening led to the failure of several combat missions, said an adviser on military technology to Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

District court judge Timothy Kelly was ruling after Trump administration blocked access to three outlets last month

A federal judge ordered the White House on Tuesday to continue allowing journalists from CNN, MS Now and Politico to access the building as the media coalition’s lawsuit against the Trump administration plays out.

Timothy Kelly, a district court judge, had on 24 September granted a 14-day reprieve for the news organizations, which six days earlier had been banned by the president in an extraordinary move from entering the White House grounds “as a result of their constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS”.

District judge Ana Reyes halts tree-cutting at the East Potomac golf course until 26 October, and now requires advance notice before making course changes

US district judge Ana Reyes on Tuesday ordered a halt to tree-cutting at the East Potomac golf course until 26 October, putting a further pause on work at the historic Washington DC course that has been part of Donald Trump’s plans to remake the country’’s capital city.

Reyes issued the order one day after a tense three-hour hearing in which she harshly criticized the government for having deceived her with its actions over the holiday weekend.

When asked about the decision to request US ambassador Kimberly Guilfoyle's resignation, Donald Trump told the press she 'was doing a good job' but that the administration 'didn't like what we were reading', referring to allegations that Guilfoyle had asked a Trump donor to pay her credit card bill. Guilfoyle, who was once engaged to Trump’s son, Donald Jr, was a longstanding political ally

• Kimberly Guilfoyle steps down as US ambassador to Greece after alleged misconduct