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Patagonia sues Trump over slashing of protected areas in Utah

President’s order strips nearly 3m acres of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, sacred tribal sites, of safeguards

Patagonia, the outdoor clothing and gear company, has joined a lawsuit challenging Donald Trump’s decision to significantly reduce the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah, removing protections from nearly 3m acres.

In July, the president approved the reduction of the sites by 90%, clearing the way to open the land to oil and gas companies. He argued in his proclamations that doing so would allow lands to be “put to a higher-priority use” and that they contained critical minerals important to “resource independence …[and] national security”.

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© Photograph: George Frey/Getty Images

© Photograph: George Frey/Getty Images

© Photograph: George Frey/Getty Images

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Trump ‘happy’ about Harry and Meghan UK return: ‘I was not a fan’

President praises late queen and King Charles but says duke and duchess treated royal family ‘with great disrespect’

Donald Trump has weighed in on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s move back to Britain, declaring: “I’m happy about it.”

“I was not a fan,” the US president told reporters during a question-and-answer session after a press conference with travel executives on Wednesday. “I had a very good relationship with the queen, really good. I got to know her very well. A really good relationship with King Charles – I knew him as Prince Charles and King Charles. I’ve known him for a long time.”

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© Photograph: Jonathan Brady/Pool PA/AP

© Photograph: Jonathan Brady/Pool PA/AP

© Photograph: Jonathan Brady/Pool PA/AP

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Apple Maps renames Lake Ontario as ‘Lake America’ for US users after Trump order

Tech company submits to controversial Trump order to rename body of water amid US trade spat with Canada

Apple has renamed Lake Ontario as “Lake America” for US users of its Maps app, after an executive order from Donald Trump to change the name of the Great Lake amid his trade spat with Canada.

The Apple Maps app now displays the controversial new name for the lake, which sits between New York state and the Canadian province of Ontario, for users in the US. Apple users outside the country will still see the Lake Ontario name.

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© Composite: The Washington Post/ABACA/Shutterstock, Apple Maps

© Composite: The Washington Post/ABACA/Shutterstock, Apple Maps

© Composite: The Washington Post/ABACA/Shutterstock, Apple Maps

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The $1 Trump coin: legal tender, depending on what you mean by legal

Various laws and 250 years of tradition prevent the likeness of living people from appearing on currency. Donald Trump and Scott Bessent don’t want you to worry about that

Two hallmarks of Donald Trump’s second-term: the president’s enthusiasm for putting his name and face on things, and his cavalier approach to established law.

Today the president is once again combining both those interests, as the government releases a $1 coin bearing his image, an item of currency that scholars say should be illegal, but which is happening anyway. How many times have you heard that in the last 18 months?

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© Photograph: Department of Treasury/United States Mint/Reuters

© Photograph: Department of Treasury/United States Mint/Reuters

© Photograph: Department of Treasury/United States Mint/Reuters

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US medical groups urge people to get flu and Covid shots in counter to Trump guidance

Top medical groups band together to ease confusion from Trump administration’s changing immunization advice

Leading US medical groups are urging people to get updated flu and Covid-19 vaccinations this fall, banding together on Wednesday to issue shot guidelines – and highlight the science behind them – saying they hope to ease confusion caused by the Trump administration’s changing advice.

Flu vaccinations are beginning and the latest coronavirus shots are starting to arrive after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved this year’s updated versions last week. Winter also brings another vaccine-preventable risk called RSV.

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© Photograph: Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

© Photograph: Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

© Photograph: Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

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What’s really behind Trump’s deference to Putin?

Whether or not US president fits the definition of a Russian asset, his actions align closely with the Kremlin’s interests

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Could Donald Trump be a Russian asset? The headline on a review in the Guardian of my new book Betrayal has provoked heated international debate. Written by the historian Lawrence Freedman, the piece generated thousands of comments from across Europe and beyond on social media. Many people responded with a single word: “Duh!”

Trump’s relationship with Vladimir Putin is the biggest mystery in international politics. In 2017 I wrote a book called Collusion, which set out Moscow’s operation to support and cultivate Trump, going back decades. The US president, of course, denies links with Russia. But in his second term, his behaviour towards Putin has been as weird and perplexing as during his first.

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© Photograph: Thilo Schmülgen/Reuters

© Photograph: Thilo Schmülgen/Reuters

© Photograph: Thilo Schmülgen/Reuters

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Trump’s ridiculous bullying of Canada is backfiring | Robert Reich

The US president’s need to assert dominance is igniting patriotism abroad and a backlash at home

What do bullies do when someone stands up to their bullying and punches them in the face? They look for someone weaker to bully who won’t punch back.

Presumably that’s why Donald Trump has now taken on Canada, after Iran punched back so hard in the cage match the US president began more than six months ago as to leave him humiliated and baffled.

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© Photograph: Cole Burston/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Cole Burston/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Cole Burston/AFP/Getty Images

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USS Abraham Lincoln’s crew of 5,000 arrive at notorious Thai resort after 270 days at sea

Shore leave in Pattaya, known for its red light district, comes after reports of deteriorating living conditions onboard the vessel during record stint

At Pattaya’s Hard Rock Cafe and hotel, the city’s mayor and police officials, along with women in traditional Thai dress, wait to greet the sailors who are arriving in civilian clothes, bags slung over their shoulders, off the buses.

The USS Abraham Lincoln’s crew of 5,000 have not been on shore for nearly nine months, a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea.

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© Photograph: Chalinee Thirasupa/Reuters

© Photograph: Chalinee Thirasupa/Reuters

© Photograph: Chalinee Thirasupa/Reuters

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Trump doubles down on Canada trade war as talks remain stalled – as it happened

This live blog is now closed.

As tensions flare in the mideast with American military forces resuming strikes on Iran, Donald Trump has taken to social media to discuss his ballroom project.

“We have hundreds of happy construction workers in D.C. busily doing their job building the finest Ballroom/Military complex anywhere in the World,” Trump said in a truth social post Wednesday morning. “There is nothing like it, and never will be! It was a long, hard, fight in the Court System, but the winner is, as always under ‘TRUMP,’ the U.S.A.”

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© Photograph: Getty Images

© Photograph: Getty Images

© Photograph: Getty Images

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Teamsters union leaders support Republicans despite members endorsing Democratic candidates

Sean O’Brien, president of the 1.3-million strong union, was also the first to speak at the Republican national convention in 2o24

The powerful Teamsters union is backing Republican candidates in the 2026 election cycle even after members have voted to support their Democrat opponents.

The 1.3 million-strong union’s president, Sean O’Brien, angered many members and union leaders in 2024 when he became the first union president to speak at the Republican national convention (RNC).

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© Photograph: Matt Rourke/AP

© Photograph: Matt Rourke/AP

© Photograph: Matt Rourke/AP

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Trump’s threat against an NBC journalist is an attack on reality | Margaret Sullivan

The president’s call for the FCC to scrutinize Kristen Welker’s innocuous remarks is a sign of desperation

With his approval ratings tanking, the crucial midterm elections looming, and his war with Iran turning into a quagmire, Donald Trump has entered full freak-out mode.

It’s not hard to tell. Just look at what happened this week when he lashed out at Kristen Welker, the well-respected host of NBC’s Meet the Press, and one of the best-known journalists in the nation.

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© Photograph: NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images

© Photograph: NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images

© Photograph: NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images

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The deportation of Milo Yiannopoulos signals a rupture within Maga | Moira Donegan

The far-right provocateur helped galvanize a movement that no longer needs him. Now his imitators are claiming victory

It’s been a long, slow decline for Milo Yiannopoulos. From the vantage point of 2026, it’s easy to forget that he was once a big deal.

The British-born far-right provocateur, who was arrested by ICE in Louisiana and deported from the US this week, was among the first media figures to ride the “gamergate” controversy and ensuing rightwing populist wave that brought Donald Trump to office in 2016. An editor of the then ascendant Breitbart News from 2014 to 2017, Yiannopoulous was an early adopter of the media strategy of algorithm-optimized outrage bait, trawling the internet and consulting a large network of well-placed sources in search of stories he could use to fan the flames of online culture war discourses. He would write a story mocking a feminist, or fire off a tweet saying something racist about Muslims, and the ensuing firestorm of controversy would result in online arguments, media coverage, and his own promptly and decisively rising star. Rinse, repeat.

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© Photograph: Mary Altaffer/AP

© Photograph: Mary Altaffer/AP

© Photograph: Mary Altaffer/AP

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Democrats warn of ‘hollowed out’ leadership after army chief resigns amid clashes with Hegseth

Sudden departure of Daniel Driscoll comes after Pentagon chief removed senior officers and blocked promotions, prompting warnings of a leadership crisis

A senior Senate Democrat accused Pentagon secretary Pete Hegseth of having “hollowed out” the army’s senior ranks after its top civilian leader resigned after months of internal clashes with Hegseth.

No official reason was given for army secretary Daniel Driscoll’s departure after 18 months on the job, while thousands of US soldiers are deployed in the Middle East. In a statement on Monday night, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said Driscoll had been “highly effective in advancing President Trump’s agenda”, citing his work on “readiness and lethality” and his role in Russia-Ukraine negotiations.

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© Photograph: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

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US and Iran exchange more airstrikes, fuelling fears of wider return to hostilities

Attacks on Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and reprisals against US bases in Middle East quash hopes that flare-up last weekend was limited in nature

The US has launched new airstrikes on Iranian targets, prompting counter strikes by Tehran targeting American interests in Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan and Iraq, and fuelling concerns about a ⁠wider renewal of hostilities.

The US Marine Corps base Camp Titin in Jordan was targeted for an “intense ballistic missile attack”, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) said early on Wednesday, according to Iranian news outlet Tasnim.

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© Photograph: Amirhosein Khorgooi/AP

© Photograph: Amirhosein Khorgooi/AP

© Photograph: Amirhosein Khorgooi/AP

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Mark Carney tells US to ‘start being serious’ amid escalating trade war

Canadian PM is set to retaliate against tariffs levied by Donald Trump and criticized US officials over insults

Mark Carney has rebuked Donald Trump’s administration and urged officials in Washington to “start being serious” amid escalating trade tensions between the US and Canada.

Days before Canada is due to retaliate against Trump’s sweeping tariffs with its own duties on US goods, the Canadian prime minister criticized US officials for insulting his country. “It is beneath their office,” he said.

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© Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

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Olivia Rodrigo is standing up for the vulnerable. I wish Taylor Swift would do the same | Arwa Mahdawi

This weekend, Rodrigo raised millions for charities that benefit women and girls, and she has previously been vocal about Gaza and ICE. With free speech increasingly under threat, her peers should take note

Donald Trump, the 80-year-old president of the United States, spent his weekend whining about a lake and posting memes of Donald’s Ducks. While he was busy with his ducks, Olivia Rodrigo, a 23-year-old pop star, spent her weekend trying to Make America Somewhat Decent Again. On Saturday, Rodrigo hosted the inaugural Daisy Chain Fields festival, bringing together female artists to raise money for women-focused non-profits which have had their funding slashed by the Trump administration. The festival raised $10m (£7.4m) which Melinda French Gates matched, bringing the total to $20m.

In a perfect world a singer holding a benefit concert for feminist charities wouldn’t be radical stuff. But we don’t live in a perfect world, do we? We live in hell. Trump has successfully bullied US institutions into doing his bidding. Universities have defunded diversity, equity and inclusion programmes, many media outlets have kowtowed to the US’s self-styled king and tech CEOs have jumped into bed with him. Women’s rights are going backwards globally and our civil liberties are under attack.

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© Photograph: Christopher Polk/Billboard/Getty Images

© Photograph: Christopher Polk/Billboard/Getty Images

© Photograph: Christopher Polk/Billboard/Getty Images

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New system for screening mail-in ballots risks denying entire batches, says whistleblower

US senator says that project, a key part of Trump’s voting restrictions, is ‘perilously rushed and potentially unlawful’

A new system to screen millions of mail-in ballots for this November’s US midterm elections was thrown together so hastily, and tested so little, that a single scanning glitch could see entire batches of ballots turned away, a whistleblower has told Congress.

The project – a key part of Donald Trump’s new restrictions on voting – is “perilously rushed and potentially unlawful”, according to the US senator Richard Blumenthal, who disclosed the warning in a letter to David Steiner, the postmaster general, on Tuesday.

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© Photograph: Bonnie Cash/UPI/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Bonnie Cash/UPI/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Bonnie Cash/UPI/Shutterstock

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Four Maga defectors on what led them to walk away: ‘I’d been addicted to fear and rage’

Ex-Maga supporters unpack their role in bolstering Trump’s platform and share what brought them to the Leaving Maga non-profit support network

Since Donald Trump’s first presidential campaign a decade ago, “Make America Great Again” (Maga) has evolved from a slogan into an identity, one that claims to center conservative, “America first” values and relies on lies and conspiracy theories to stay afloat. And while Maga has survived impeachments, indictments and a lost election, some devotees are walking away – and doing so loudly.

Rich Logis, a former Trump campaign volunteer, left Maga in 2022, publishing a public apology to help others see that it was OK to challenge the movement. The overwhelming response led him to found the non-profit Leaving Maga, a network of support groups and meetups for people to unpack their role in bolstering Trump’s platform. Logis said he doesn’t persuade people to leave; he just gives them a place to land when they do. The group’s billboard campaign, now running in 27 states, is built around a simple message: “Having doubts? You are not alone.”

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© Composite: The Guardian/Getty Images

© Composite: The Guardian/Getty Images

© Composite: The Guardian/Getty Images

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MapQuest app reaches No 1 on US Apple list after defying Trump’s Lake Ontario order

Navigating app surpasses Google and Apple Maps on top-downloaded US chart after posting ‘we’re not changing it’

A pioneering online mapping app that defied Donald Trump by refusing to rename Lake Ontario has become the most in-demand navigation tool in the US.

MapQuest, which was openly dismissive of the president’s 27 August executive order directing federal agencies to refer to the smallest of the Great Lakes as “Lake America” amid a trade spat with Canada, leapfrogged rivals Google Maps and Apple Maps to top the most-downloaded list, as first reported by TechCrunch.

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© Photograph: MapQuest

© Photograph: MapQuest

© Photograph: MapQuest

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What should we do with Trump’s monstrous architectural legacy? | Jan-Werner Müller

Questions over Trump’s ballroom and other structures might not feel urgent. But when his reign ends, Trumpism must be repudiated

On Monday, a majority on the supreme court found a technical way to overrule a lower court’s imperative to stop work, while not taking a stance on whether the whole enterprise might be illegal to begin with. Preservationists, the majority held, appear to lack legal grounds for filing a suit blocking Trump’s ballroom; that means construction will proceed, even if none other than John Roberts, in a dissent, held that “those responsible” were breaking the rules in deciding “what to build up at the People’s House”. The solicitor general, John Sauer, is on record claiming that 65% of the project is completed (of course, he might have exaggerated – such things are known to have happened in Trump administrations). Either way, it is thus likely that there will be a massive structure next to the original White House; and, given that the ruling will embolden the president dramatically to change Washington DC’s landscape by spending money never approved by Congress, we might be cursed with a triumphal arch as well. All of which raises the question: what to do with a monstrous architectural legacy in post-Trump America?

Some might dismiss the question as a bit of a luxury problem. After all, a war that also demonstrates the ongoing disempowerment of Congress keeps dragging on; ICE continues its cruel day-to-day work; Trump is trying every tactic to make the midterms go his way. But the built environment, and especially the civic landscape of a capital, is never just an afterthought. Buildings and monuments make values visible, as the philosopher Susan Neiman once put it. And the decision to leave Trump’s structures in place as if his reign had just been another normal era in US history is not neutral – just like leaving Confederate monuments in place is not neutral.

Jan-Werner Müller is a Guardian US columnist and a professor of politics at Princeton University

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© Photograph: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

© Photograph: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

© Photograph: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

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Forest Service chief faces scrutiny over logging ties as Trump plans to scrap protections

Rollback of ‘roadless rule’ expected to benefit companies US Forest Service chief, Tom Schultz, previously lobbied for

Donald Trump this month announced plans to rescind a landmark rule that has protected old-growth forests in the US for 25 years. If finalized, the rollback is expected to benefit the companies that Tom Schultz, chief of the US Forest Service, represented in his previous roles as a timber industry lobbyist and executive, according to research by consumer advocacy non-profit Public Citizen.

The Roadless Area Conservation Rule, more commonly known as the “roadless rule”, was adopted in 2001 to limit development in roughly 45m acres of national forest. Industry interests and Republican representatives have long lobbied for the rule’s rescission, which would open up those swaths of untouched land to road construction, drilling and logging.

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© Photograph: The Washington Post/Getty Images

© Photograph: The Washington Post/Getty Images

© Photograph: The Washington Post/Getty Images

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Once again, Trump wants the FCC to put a bandage on his thin skin | Tom Wheeler

The president is lashing out at an NBC host. As the agency’s former chair, I can only hope it stands up for free speech

Will the FCC chairperson again abuse his authority over broadcast licenses to put a Band-Aid on Donald Trump’s thin skin?

Since the opening days of the Trump presidency, Brendan Carr has acted as the president’s attack dog to coerce broadcasters to say things that please his client. Only days after taking office in January 2025, Carr revived a previously dismissed complaint against CBS for the editing of 60 Minutes that tracked candidate Trump’s specious lawsuit on the matter. At the time, the FCC was considering the transfer of CBS licenses to Skydance, a decision that did not come until after CBS agreed to pay $16m to settle with Trump. In September, after Jimmy Kimmel’s remarks about Charlie Kirk, Carr urged broadcasters to take action, saying “we can do this the easy way or the hard way” – an attack even the senator Ted Cruz said sounded “right out of Goodfellas”. In March 2026, he threatened broadcasters over their coverage of the Iran war after the president complained on Truth Social. In April, he ordered Disney’s eight ABC-owned television stations to submit their licenses for premature review, even though most aren’t even halfway through their license term (Disney, ABC and the stations are suing).

Tom Wheeler was chairperson of the Federal Communications Commission from 2013 to 2017

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© Photograph: Daniel Cole/Reuters

© Photograph: Daniel Cole/Reuters

© Photograph: Daniel Cole/Reuters

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‘Dangerous power grab’: top Democrats decry USPS system that could thwart mail-in voting – as it happened

This live blog is now closed.

Democratic senator Chuck Schumer is introducing a bill that would reverse Donald Trump’s most recent tariffs, among them the new 50% duty on Canadian goods, MS Now reported.

While the Senate minority leader’s proposed legislation has virtually no chance of becoming law, Schumer hopes that his proposal shows that Democrats are actively fighting the affordability crisis. Schumer first shared his proposed legislation with MS Now.

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© Photograph: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

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Life after Maga: the group offering an ‘exit ramp’ for rightwingers questioning Trumpism

The non-profit Leaving Maga is built on the premise that abandoning the Trump-built movement is like fighting a disease or breaking an addiction

Stephania Messina kept birthing boys. In the Quiverfull conservative Christian church she belonged to outside Detroit, Michigan, that made her a community celebrity. Your quiver, as the church taught it, is your womb, meant to be filled with as many arrows – a metaphor for children – as you can shoot unto the Lord. She shot five. “They treated me like I was Mother Mary, like I was this gift to the church,” she said.

But while she was quickly pushed into leading worship and Bible study groups for women and children, she wasn’t permitted to talk about politics.

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© Composite: The Guardian/Getty Images

© Composite: The Guardian/Getty Images

© Composite: The Guardian/Getty Images

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Trump suggests he is reviewing US support for UK over Falkland Islands

Comments signal president prepared to use dispute to push UK to raise defence spending and Nato contributions

Donald Trump has suggested he is reconsidering US support for Britain’s sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, in a move likely to strain the “special relationship” between Washington and London.

“I always review every position – that’s just one of many,” the US president told reporters in the White House, in response to a question about whether he was reviewing the US’s position over the South Atlantic islands, an archipelago whose status has long been disputed by Argentina, which claims sovereignty.

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© Photograph: Annabelle Gordon/Pool/Annabelle Gordon - Pool/CNP/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Annabelle Gordon/Pool/Annabelle Gordon - Pool/CNP/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Annabelle Gordon/Pool/Annabelle Gordon - Pool/CNP/Shutterstock

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US supreme court allows Trump to keep building $400m White House ballroom

Justices’ 5-4 ruling permits Trump administration appeal to block lower court order halting above-ground work

A divided US supreme court has permitted Donald Trump to continue building his controversial $400m White House ballroom despite legal challenges, raising the likelihood it will be completed.

In a 5-4 ruling, the justices permitted the Trump administration’s request to ⁠block a lower court order that had halted above-ground construction of the project while a lawsuit by a historic preservation group seeks to block it.

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© Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

© Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

© Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

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Trump attacks datacenter backlash, claiming communities pushing back risk becoming ‘backwards and poor’

Par : Maya Yang

Three-quarters of Americans said in a recent poll that they oppose datacenters being built next to their homes

Donald Trump has criticized communities pushing back against datacenter projects across the US amid a growing backlash, warning those that reject them risk becoming “backwards and poor”.

As controversy surrounding local datacenter plans continues to swirl around election campaigns nationwide ahead of November’s midterm elections, the US president declared Americans “will only have yourselves to blame” if they are canceled.

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© Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty Images

© Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty Images

© Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty Images

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The Guardian view on Trump’s immigration crackdown: who will have fewer rights next? | Editorial

Par : Editorial

The president’s deportation machine is creating a class of people inside the US who have fewer protections against the power of the state

Is the Trump administration creating a group in the US with fewer protections against executive power owing to their immigration status? Its often openly racist actions suggest so. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) claims to target “the worst of the worst” – undocumented migrants who commit violent crimes. Yet the Guardian reported that over half of those arrested in July had no criminal convictions or pending charges. That month, ICE made record arrests and deportations, apprehending 1,500 people and removing 1,100 daily.

When campaigning, Donald Trump falsely claimed that Haitians were “eating the pets”. In office, his administration moved to end temporary protected status (TPS) for Haitians. In June, the supreme court let the protection expire, leaving about 350,000 people at risk of deportation to a country gripped by violence and instability. The court’s decision means more than 1 million TPS holders from 13 nations previously considered too unsafe to return to are now at risk of deportation. Many have lived and worked legally in the US for years.

Do 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.

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© Photograph: Al Drago/Pool/Al Drago - Pool/CNP/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Al Drago/Pool/Al Drago - Pool/CNP/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Al Drago/Pool/Al Drago - Pool/CNP/Shutterstock

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Trump’s ballroom construction can resume at White House, supreme court rules – as it happened

This live blog is now closed.

Chris Hippensteel

We’re watching today as Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, and Kevin Warsh, the chair of the Federal Reserve, deliver their opening remarks at the G20 meetings in Asheville, North Carolina.

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© Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

© Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

© Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

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As US-Canada tensions flare, who’s calling the shots in Trump’s trade team?

US trade representative Jamieson Greer has a level-headed reputation but commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and White House adviser Peter Navarro also have key roles

Having reportedly read Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, in French, during a military tour of duty in Iraq, Jamieson Greer considered himself an unlikely target for accusations of francophobia.

But Donald Trump’s US trade representative, hitherto one of the president’s less high-profile cabinet members, found himself in that uncomfortable position amid the acrimonious collapse of bilateral trade talks with Canada that now threatens to degenerate into an all-out trade war between the two close trading partners whose economies are tightly intertwined.

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© Photograph: Getty Images

© Photograph: Getty Images

© Photograph: Getty Images

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The Nepal floods seem a world away – but make no mistake, climate breakdown will affect us all | Nesrine Malik

Richer countries might have more resources to deal with catastrophe, but this problem grips the entire planet, however much leaders may want to deny it

Climate breakdown is happening on one Earth, but two different worlds. In one, its impacts increasingly encroach on everyday life; longer periods of discomfort and shorter periods of sharp pain. Endless, hotter summers, and within them sudden wildfires, evacuations, homes burned to cinders in a matter of hours. In another, catastrophe. This summer has been a snapshot of that split-screen. The hottest day on record in parts of Europe, and a wave of water, mud and ice in Nepal that so far has claimed more than 750 lives. Thousands of people are still missing.

The difference is also one of resources. The climate crisis has an economic cost, but some places can absorb it better than others. Responses to this summer of wildfires in Europe included a rapid scrambling by the French government to provide everything from tax breaks for businesses affected by the fires to relocation costs and aid to rebuild homes. The UK government had deployed almost £100m before the summer to strengthen wildfire resilience.

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© Photograph: Prabin Ranabhat/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Prabin Ranabhat/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Prabin Ranabhat/AFP/Getty Images

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Trump says NBC’s Kristen ‌Welker should face ‘punishment’ from FCC

Trump’s threat comes after host described success record of candidates whom president had endorsed as ‘mixed’

Donald Trump ⁠on Sunday said NBC’s Kristen ‌Welker – host of Meet the Press – should face “rebuke or punishment” from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Welker, during a live segment for a local Washington DC affiliate, described the success record of political candidates whom the president had endorsed as “mixed”. The segment aired before Sunday’s edition of Meet the Press.

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© Photograph: Jim Bourg/Reuters

© Photograph: Jim Bourg/Reuters

© Photograph: Jim Bourg/Reuters

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The Guardian view on rare earths: it’s common sense to secure essential supply chains | Editorial

Par : Editorial

Outsourcing the industry to China cannot continue, but Europe knows it can no longer count on the US for a solution

The alarm sounded 16 years ago. In 2010, China blocked exports of key rare earths to Japan in a row over disputed islands in the East China Sea. The critical minerals are essential to everything from advanced weaponry and iPhones to electric vehicle batteries and wind turbines, so the rest of the world took note. But it didn’t take much action. China still accounts for about 70% of rare-earth mining globally and 90% of separation and processing.

Then, last year, Beijing forced Donald Trump to back away from his trade war – not with its retaliatory tariffs, but the curbing of rare-earth exports. A scramble for new supplies began in earnest. The year-long trade truce is due to expire in November. The price of erbium, an element essential to communications infrastructure, has already jumped because of fears that export controls will soon be renewed.

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© Photograph: Imaginechina Limited/Alamy

© Photograph: Imaginechina Limited/Alamy

© Photograph: Imaginechina Limited/Alamy

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Canada erects giant ‘Lake Ontario’ sign as spat with Trump over name escalates

Meanwhile, Trump posts video of himself kicking over a Lake Ontario sign and replacing it with Lake America sign

Donald Trump and Canada continued a verbal duel on Saturday over the US government’s administrative renaming of Lake Ontario, with the Ontario premier erecting a giant sign saying “Lake Ontario. Now and Always” – and the American president posting a video of him tearing down an avatar of that sign, erecting a replacement saying Lake America, and dancing to YMCA.

Rhetoric over the naming of Lake Ontario is the public face of an escalating trade dispute between the US and its northern neighbor involving a 50% US tariff on Canadian steel and retaliatory tariffs from Ottawa.

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© Photograph: Carlos Osorio/Reuters

© Photograph: Carlos Osorio/Reuters

© Photograph: Carlos Osorio/Reuters

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Ontario premier unveils Lake Ontario sign in response to Trump’s ‘Lake America’ order – video

The Canadian province's premier, Doug Ford, installed a billboard-sized sign on the lake's shoreline after the US president signed an executive order on Thursday directing US federal agencies to change the lake's name on US maps, documents and databases to 'Lake America'. Ford told reporters that the lake's name, which is more than 400 years old, would remain unchanged. Trade talks between the US and Canada collapsed last week, with each side ‌blaming the ⁠other for derailing three days of intensive negotiations

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© Photograph: The Canadian Press/AP

© Photograph: The Canadian Press/AP

© Photograph: The Canadian Press/AP

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Trump the renamer-in-chief keen to leave his mark – or his stain – on world

As Americans face an affordability crisis and war with Iran, the president is focused on … changing the names of things

Is it a key policy move which will “recognize the extraordinary contributions of the American people”? Or “real foolishness”?

Whatever the impact of Donald Trump unusual decision to retitle Lake Ontario as Lake America, days after Canada’s prime minister refused to be cowed by Trump’s punitive tariffs, it has certainly divided opinion – but perhaps it shouldn’t have come as a surprise.

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© Photograph: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

© Photograph: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

© Photograph: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

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Documents leaked by Trump official to bolster a conspiracy show ‘absolutely nothing’

Inside the US state department, critics are still attacking a shuttered office established to counter foreign propaganda. Now, some of its work is also being resumed

A botched leak of purportedly explosive government files to a prominent conservative online personality was supposed to offer proof of what the Trump administration and its allies have long alleged: that a little-known office inside the US state department, created to fight foreign propaganda, had secretly become a tool for domestic censorship.

Two former high-ranking officials at the Global Engagement Center (GEC), a target of Republican ire that lost its funding in 2024 and was disbanded after Donald Trump’s return to office in 2025, say the documents show nothing of the kind.

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© Photograph: Aaron Schwartz/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Aaron Schwartz/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Aaron Schwartz/AFP/Getty Images

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Trump’s ‘economic D-day’ against Iran risks driving the stakes even higher | Sina Toossi

As with its approach to Hormuz, the US has mistaken applying pressure for an actual strategy. But Tehran has chips of its own to play

Donald Trump has found a new way to promise victory over Iran. After months of war have failed to force Iran’s capitulation or collapse, his administration has unveiled what the US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, calls Operation Economic Outcast: an effort to cut it off from what remains of the global economy and threaten foreign governments, banks and companies with sanctions if they continue doing business with Tehran.

There is no question that Iran is vulnerable. Its economy has been battered by years of sanctions, war and a months-long US naval blockade. Iranian officials acknowledge that oil exports and access to foreign currency have been severely constrained. Ordinary Iranians are already enduring high inflation, currency depreciation and worsening living standards. Further economic strangulation will inflict significant additional hardship.

Sina Toossi is a senior non-resident fellow at the Center for International Policy, where his work focuses on US-Iran relations, US policy toward the Middle East and nuclear issues

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© Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/AP

© Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/AP

© Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/AP

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Ex-White House teleprompter operator fined $172,000 for Trump speech bets

Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Gabriel Perez wagered on Kalshi about words president used in speeches

A White House teleprompter operator who left his post amid accusations that he used inside knowledge to make bets on Donald Trump’s speeches on an online prediction market has been fined $172,000, according to federal regulators.

Gabriel Perez illicitly exploited “material, nonpublic information” that he gathered through his work for the president in order to place wagers on the Kalshi platform “for his personal benefit”, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) maintained in a news release on Friday.

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© Photograph: Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images

© Photograph: Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images

© Photograph: Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images

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Is Donald Trump’s bid to brand Democrats as ‘radical’ communists working?

In deep red South Carolina, the president helped stoke apprehension of a deeper red surge ahead of November’s US midterm elections

After casting his vote in South Carolina, a man who introduced himself as Chestnut was unwilling to give his full name. “You don’t have a need to know,” the air force veteran declared. He was, however, happy to share his views.

“I’m a true American. I believe in the USA,” said the man, outside Christ the Servant Lutheran church in Conway. “And I don’t believe in communism or socialism.”

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© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

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‘Inept, incompetent, craven’: Scott Bessent struggles to clean up the president’s mess

There’s little optimism about treasury secretary’s ability to handle Trump’s tariffs, Iran sanctions and colossal US debt

History remembers Gen Dwight Eisenhower, the supreme commander of the allied forces in Europe during the second world war, for his role in the D-day invasion of Normandy. Whether Scott Bessent will achieve similar posterity as the face of the “economic D-day” in Iran remains to be seen.

The US treasury secretary, already trying to manage a $40tn national debt pile, this week took charge of Donald Trump’s effort to reverse-engineer his war of choice. Whereas the US would typically take on an adversary with diplomacy, sanctions and military force, in that order, the US president started with a six-month bombing campaign and now hopes that economic isolation can finish the job.

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© Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

© Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

© Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

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The rebranding of ‘Lake America’ is Trump’s desperate attempt to distract us | Arwa Mahdawi

Ignore Iran, the Epstein files, and your wallet – not to mention Trump’s plummeting approval ratings

Don’t mention the war! Or the economy, for that matter. Or the Epstein files. Or Natalie Harp. Or “affordability”, which, as Donald Trump recently said at a rally, is a word that was “never used” by the media before he took office. Best not to talk about anything that affects ordinary people or embarrasses the president, really. Instead, let’s all rejoice in Trump’s latest triumph: renaming Lake Ontario, which is shared by Canada and the US, as Lake America.

On Thursday, Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to America-fy the lake’s name on US maps and documents, which is an excellent use of time and resources. I suppose we can at least be thankful that the president, who is trying to slap his own name on everything from airports to the Kennedy Center, didn’t decree that the body of water be called Lake Trump.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

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© Photograph: Al Drago/Pool/Al Drago - Pool/CNP/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Al Drago/Pool/Al Drago - Pool/CNP/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Al Drago/Pool/Al Drago - Pool/CNP/Shutterstock

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Trump announces new US oil agreement with Venezuela

US president says US will have ‘majority’ control of 65bn barrels of proven oil reserves

Donald Trump announced Friday a new US oil agreement with Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodríguez, saying the US will have “majority” control of 65bn barrels of proven oil reserves.

The terms of the agreement remain to be seen, but the US president said on his social-media platform that it had been brokered “through a partnership with ⁠private business” by his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and defense secretary, Pete Hegseth.

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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

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Los Angeles fire survivors face record wait for federal disaster aid under Trump

Nearly 600 days after the devastating 2025 fires, thousands of Los Angeles residents are still waiting for more than $15bn in federal funds to rebuild their communities

As thousands of residents in Spokane, Washington, begin to grapple with a long recovery after a destructive set of blazes that consumed hundreds of homes in the state’s second most populated city this month, victims of the Los Angeles firestorm broke a grim record – they have faced the longest delay in modern history for federal aid.

Nearly 600 days since a historic firestorm roared into communities across Los Angeles, reducing more than 16,000 structures to ash and toxic debris, the Trump administration has failed to appropriate more than $15bn in long-term recovery funds that are crucial to rebuilding. The delay in supplying the badly needed funds is months longer than the last record set when victims of the Maui fires had to wait 500 days to receive the support, LAist noted this week.

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© Photograph: David Ryder/Reuters

© Photograph: David Ryder/Reuters

© Photograph: David Ryder/Reuters

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Trump arch will alter sightlines of many Washington DC landmarks, report says

National Park Service, which backs the 250ft arch, says it is likely to disrupt historical significance of dozens of sites

A new National Park Service report backs Donald Trump’s proposed arch, despite what it says are adverse effects to the sightlines of a host of landmarks in Washington, including the Washington Monument and the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials.

The report released on Friday says the 250ft-tall (76-meter) memorial arch is likely to disrupt the historical significance of dozens of sites near its planned location adjacent to the Arlington Memorial Bridge.

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© Photograph: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

© Photograph: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

© Photograph: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

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Trump administration pushing to hand parcel of Yosemite land to private developer – report

Nevada-based Kingsbarn Realty Capital seeks to acquire land to construct private road to development outside park

The Trump administration is reportedly pushing to give a parcel of land inside Yosemite, the country’s first national park and one of its most popular, to a Nevada-based private developer.

Staff with the National Park Service have been exploring how the agency can give a quarter-mile parcel to a company operated by Kingsbarn Realty Capital, the news outlet Notus reported on Friday, citing agency documents and unnamed sources “directly familiar with discussions”.

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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

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Trump pledges to allow cattle ranchers to process own food amid beef imports backlash

President faces criticism over plan to import up to 300,000 metric tons of foreign beef without charging higher tariffs

Donald Trump has pledged to allow cattle ranchers and farmers to process their own food amid a backlash from the US agricultural sector over his decision to pause US tariffs on foreign beef.

The US president has been sharply criticized, including from members of his own party, since announcing the US will temporarily import up to 300,000 metric tons of foreign beef without charging higher tariffs in an effort to bring down prices.

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© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

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White House construction played part in Trump helicopter incident, safety officials say

Helipad relocation led in part to incident where Marine One, carrying the president, had close call with passenger jet

Safety officials say the relocation of a helipad amid Donald Trump’s multi-project White House reconstruction led in part to an incident earlier this month in which a military helicopter carrying the president came too close to a passenger jet.

A preliminary report published on Thursday by the National Transportation ⁠Safety Board (NTSB) blamed “communication issues” for the failure of the crew of Marine One, the presidential helicopter, to give the required three minutes’ notice to air traffic controllers that they were about to take off from the White House.

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© Photograph: Andrew Leyden/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Andrew Leyden/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Andrew Leyden/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

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Dolly Parton was the polar opposite of our bullying president | Robert Reich

Terrified of being seen as a loser, Donald Trump is nonsensically lashing out – even against our old friend Canada

I’m still grieving Dolly Parton. I never met her and always wanted to. She was almost exactly my age and my height and had values I deeply admired. Her death leaves a hole in the firmament.

Which brings me to the person whose values are as far from Dolly Parton’s as any human could possibly be and still claim to be human. I’m referring, of course, to the current occupant of the Oval Office.

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© Photograph: Brandon Bell/Getty Images

© Photograph: Brandon Bell/Getty Images

© Photograph: Brandon Bell/Getty Images

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National Park Service supports Trump’s arch even though it would have ‘adverse effects’ on other DC monuments, report says – as it happened

This live blog is now closed.

A reminder that we are covering the latest out of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where Kevin Warsh – the new chair of the Federal Reserve – will deliver his first speech as the head of the US central bank at the annual economic policy symposium.

As my colleagues note, Warsh is under pressure to provide clarity on how the Federal Reserve should handle with inflation if price pressures don’t abate.

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© Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

© Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

© Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

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