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Eight USS Lincoln personnel have attempted suicide, US navy confirms

Hung Cao, acting US navy secretary, answered questions from US senator Kirsten Gillibrand in a letter

Eight US navy personnel assigned to the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group have attempted suicide since the start of their lengthy deployment as part of the US war on Iran, Hung Cao, the acting US navy secretary, revealed in a letter to the US senator Kirsten Gillibrand on Tuesday.

“Since the beginning of Lincoln’s deployment, there have been a total of eight suicide attempts across the strike group,” Cao wrote, responding on behalf of US defense secretary Pete Hegseth to Gillibrand’s inquiry about the quality of life aboard the fleet. “This number includes the Lincoln crew and sailors from the carrier airwing, strike group and destroyer squadron staff, escorting destroyers and all embarked aviation squadrons.”

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© Photograph: Chanakarn Laosarakham/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Chanakarn Laosarakham/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Chanakarn Laosarakham/AFP/Getty Images

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RFK Jr received $4m in book advances from Maha allies over past year

Par : Maya Yang

In 2024 ethics filing, US health secretary pledged to ‘not engage in writing, editing, marketing or promotional services for any of these books during government service’

Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, received $4m over the last year in book advances from allies within the Make America Healthy Again movement, according to a new report.

The advances were for upcoming books by Skyhorse Publishing, a publishing house belonging to Tony Lyons, a friend of Kennedy Jr who is also president of Maha Center, a non-profit that describes itself as “tackling America’s health crisis through education, investigation, innovation and action”.

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© Photograph: Jacquelyn Martin/AP

© Photograph: Jacquelyn Martin/AP

© Photograph: Jacquelyn Martin/AP

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Trump greets Xi Jinping on arrival in rare move as US-China trade truce extended

President lays out red carpet as treasury secretary announces extension of ‘Busan agreement’ pausing trade war hostilities

Donald Trump has welcomed Xi Jinping to the US, taking the unusual step of greeting the Chinese leader on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews to kick off his state visit to Washington.

Xi’s plane was met with a lavish arrival ceremony that included a 30-metre-long (100ft) red carpet flanked by US service members, a military flyover by two B-1 bombers and a presentation of the flags and national anthems of both countries.

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© Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

© Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

© Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

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Democrats accuse Susan Collins of corruption after bombshell ‘pay-to-play’ report

Republican senator calls bribery allegation ‘categorically false’ as ProPublica reports Trump derailed FBI inquiry

Democrats in Maine on Wednesday accused Republican senator Susan Collins of corruption after a major media outlet reported that the FBI had proposed investigating her for allegedly accepting bribes – before Donald Trump derailed the inquiry.

The article from the investigative newsroom ProPublica rocked the race for Collins’s Senate seat, which is crucial to Democrats’ hopes of winning control of the chamber in the 3 November midterm election. The outlet reported that in the run-up to Collins’s successful bid for a fifth term in 2020, the head of her Super Pac had solicited a campaign donation from contracting firm Navatek, which demanded assurances of business from the government in return.

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© Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

© Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

© Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

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‘We hope he’ll accept’: US invites Putin to G20 summit at Trump golf club

Kremlin yet to respond publicly to US invitation that is likely to raise concerns from Ukraine and EU countries

The United States has invited Vladimir Putin to take part in the meeting of the G20 scheduled in Miami in December in what would be the first major summit with the Russian leader present since he launched his invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The invitation, which marks a significant reversal by the Trump administration of Russia’s international isolation, was announced by Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, during a press conference on the sidelines of the United Nations conference in New York.

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© Photograph: Alexander Kazakov/Pool Sputnik Kremlin/AP

© Photograph: Alexander Kazakov/Pool Sputnik Kremlin/AP

© Photograph: Alexander Kazakov/Pool Sputnik Kremlin/AP

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The Guardian view on Russian disinformation: a foreign threat that relies on UK complicity | Editorial

Par : Editorial

Andy Burnham’s accusation against the Kremlin tells half the story. Domestic extremists amplified by US big tech are part of the same problem

In November 2020, Barack Obama warned of an “epistemological crisis” facing western democracies. Polarisation and radicalisation were corroding trust in established information sources. “If we do not have the capacity to distinguish what’s true from what’s false, then by definition the marketplace of ideas doesn’t work,” the former US president said.

That vulnerability has grown since then. Democracy’s enemies have become more determined to exploit it. This is the threat that Andy Burnham highlighted in a speech at the United Nations this week. The prime minister accused Russia of waging an “industrial-scale assault” on the UK’s information environment using bot armies and fake websites to spread falsehoods, interfere in elections, foment discord and poison inter-community relations.

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© Photograph: Grant Rooney Premium/Alamy

© Photograph: Grant Rooney Premium/Alamy

© Photograph: Grant Rooney Premium/Alamy

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Trump’s UN speech was delusional and dangerous | Kenneth Roth

It is sad and dangerous that at such a perilous moment, the United States is saddled with a president like Trump

Donald Trump’s speech on Tuesday to the United Nations general assembly was an object lesson in his lawless rule and remarkable capacity for self-delusion. Disregarding the UN charter’s emphasis on the peaceful resolution of disputes, he doubled down on his violent unilateralism while denigrating the global issues that the UN is designed to address.

For many, the headline remark was his musing about whether to “annihilate the Islamic Republic” of Iran. “Do I drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations?”

Kenneth Roth is a Guardian US columnist, a senior fellow at Yale University and a former executive director of Human Rights Watch. He is the author of Righting Wrongs: Three Decades on the Front Lines Battling Abusive Governments

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© Photograph: David Dee Delgado/Reuters

© Photograph: David Dee Delgado/Reuters

© Photograph: David Dee Delgado/Reuters

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DoJ defends Trump media ban: ‘Access to the White House is a privilege’

Justice department cites national security to support ban on CNN, Politico and MS Now as trio file lawsuit in response

The US Department of Justice has defended Donald Trump’s decision to ban three new organizations from the White House, arguing in a court filing that access to the grounds was a “privilege” and citing national security concerns.

Lawyers for the US president doubled down on Trump’s claims about CNN, Politico and MS Now reporting “Fake News”, and insisted the ban did not violate the first amendment because “access to the White House is a privilege, not a right”.

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© Photograph: Finn Gomez/Getty Images

© Photograph: Finn Gomez/Getty Images

© Photograph: Finn Gomez/Getty Images

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Delays in Covid shots for kids is latest bid by Trump officials to restrict vaccines

Administration is holding back Covid vaccines for all children in at least 11 states and one US territory

The Trump administration is holding back Covid vaccines for all children in at least 11 states and one US territory, and officials have not indicated when or whether the shots will become available.

It’s the latest step by top officials to restrict vaccines in the US – and it sets a precedent for holding back other immunizations, experts said.

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© Photograph: Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images

© Photograph: Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images

© Photograph: Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images

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What’s on the agenda for the Trump-Xi summit, and what won’t they discuss?

Two leaders could discuss tech safety issues and US-China trade ties but may skip over climate emergency

The leaders of the world’s two superpowers are meeting in the US on Thursday for Xi Jinping’s first state visit to the US in more than a decade. The last time the Chinese president was hosted in Washington (by Barack Obama in 2015), the issues on the agenda included cybercrime, technology, the climate crisis and human rights. The star of the day was Ne-Yo, who serenaded Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, with Peng reportedly singing along at the state dinner.

This time, Xi is meeting Donald Trump, who has overhauled the world order and recalibrated the US-China relationship. Trump is contending with a China that is in a much stronger position than it was 10 years ago. Here are five things to look out for at the US-China summit.

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© Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

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Burnham survived his first Trump meeting. His nice hair may have had something to do with it | Emma Brockes

The PM’s shiny newness could explain the easy ride he got this time. But who would dare predict the ever-shifting weather in the president’s head?

Watching footage of Andy Burnham at the UN general assembly on Tuesday was like watching your child from behind a tree in the playground. Are they making friends? How normal do they seem relative to the average? How will they react when they come into contact with that hulking great child who seems to be running things? Burnham’s first face-to-face with Donald Trump was billed as a knife-edge encounter that, due to the latter’s capriciousness, could go either way. In the event, it was drama-free, leaving observers to ask: was it Burnham’s brilliance or simply the weather in Trump’s head?

To viewers at home, Burnham’s performance at the press conference looked like that of a man who had worked out his best approach was to go for the sheepish, slightly cheeky air of the junior partner. Burnham is 24 years younger than Trump, on top of everything else – which can afford a certain licence to the less powerful person in any exchange. At the last minute, the meeting had been moved behind closed doors and afterwards, in a windowless room at the UN, the two men appeared side by side, mirroring each other’s body language: just two guys, legs akimbo, shoulders hunched, hanging on a bench in the locker room.

Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist

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© Photograph: WPA/Getty Images

© Photograph: WPA/Getty Images

© Photograph: WPA/Getty Images

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Nazi jokes and ‘cum trophies’: meet the Texas gunfluencer who could soon represent Uvalde

Brandon Herrera, a YouTuber known for making outrageous pro-gun statements, is the frontrunner to represent a district devastated by mass shootings

The video begins with Brandon Herrera staring intently into the camera. He is filming himself in a hotel room seated between twin beds, his black hair slicked back and beard neatly trimmed. He is wearing a T-shirt branded with his trademark nickname, “The AK Guy”, above the image of a semi-automatic rifle primed for action.

Three days earlier, on 3 August 2019, a white nationalist armed with a semi-automatic firearm not dissimilar to the one stamped across Herrera’s chest entered a busy Walmart store in the Texas border city of El Paso and opened fire.

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© Photograph: Brandon Bell/Getty Images

© Photograph: Brandon Bell/Getty Images

© Photograph: Brandon Bell/Getty Images

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Stung by Trump, machinists union campaigns for affordability in midterms

One of the largest labor unions in the US targets eight battleground states in ‘workers v billionaires’ campaign

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), one of the largest labor unions in the US, has launched a “workers v billionaires” political campaign tour targeting members in eight battleground states and encouraging them to support pro-worker candidates in the midterms.

IAM has nearly 700,000 active and retired members in North America, covering workers at corporations that include Boeing, Lockheed Martin, United Airlines and Harley-Davidson. The union is targeting members and voters in Maine, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Texas, Ohio, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and Illinois.

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© Photograph: Ross Olson/IAMAW

© Photograph: Ross Olson/IAMAW

© Photograph: Ross Olson/IAMAW

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Iran denies dropping preconditions amid ‘very productive’ three-hour UN talks in New York

Trump says further talks possible as barrel of Brent crude falls to below $100 for first time in two weeks

Iran has pushed back on claims that it dropped former preconditions for reopening the strait of Hormuz in surprise talks held in New York under the mediation of Qatar between Tehran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, and Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

Trump said the three-hour talks held in a room at the UN headquarters had gone very well and been very productive. He suggested further talks were possible imminently, which led to the price of a barrel of Brent crude to fall to below $100 (£75) for the first time in two weeks. Witkoff said the talks had been “encouraging, constructive and successful”.

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© Photograph: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA

© Photograph: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA

© Photograph: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA

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Republican jitters grow as unpopular Trump fuels midterm ‘bloodbath’ fears

Iran war, rising prices and president’s low ratings give Democrats advantage, but Republicans have poured cash into key races – could it be decisive?

Donald Trump pulled out all the stops at the Republican party’s midterm convention two weeks ago. In speeches aimed at the voters who will soon decide whether to keep Republicans in control of Congress for the final phase of his presidency, the president dangled $5,000 checks, and warned the United States would turn into a “communist country” if Democrats are elected.

The unprecedented political gathering amounted to a Hail Mary pass at retaining control of Congress, which history indicated Trump’s Republican allies had always been likely to lose in the 3 November vote. Two weeks later, with election administrators in several states already sending out mail ballots, there is no indication the gambit has worked.

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© Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

© Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

© Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

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Gretchen Carlson on press under Trump: ‘It’s my hope journalists will start speaking up’

In an interview before the White House’s media ban, Carlson called on reporters to push back against Trump’s misogyny

Donald Trump has achieved something rarely seen in Washington: uniting rival television networks against him. When he banned CNN and MS Now – along with Politico – from the White House, their competitors suspended shared coverage of the US president’s events.

Gretchen Carlson, a journalist, author and former Fox News host, hopes this will not be the only example of solidarity from a White House press corps facing what she describes as an “outright onslaught” from the administration.

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© Photograph: Richard Drew/AP

© Photograph: Richard Drew/AP

© Photograph: Richard Drew/AP

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Wednesday briefing: ​Can Burnham ​seek a ​different ​path​ to Trump’s world order?

In today’s newsletter: The PM’s first face‑to‑face with​ the US president marks a fragile reset

Good morning. In the early hours of Tuesday a plane carrying Andy Burnham, a handful of UK ministers, an excited group of British political journalists, and Burnham’s wife, Marie France, landed at a New York airport for one of Burnham’s first major outings as prime minister: a face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump.

Considering the president once described Burnham as the mayor of “a town,” and the prime minister once said Trump wouldn’t be welcome in said town (Manchester), the meeting yesterday afternoon went remarkably well.

UN general assembly | Donald Trump has called on nations to unite to isolate Tehran and bring down global energy prices, as he gave a bellicose defence of his administration’s foreign policy and decision to strike Iran.

The far right | Charities have condemned footage of a far-right activist using a blade to slash an inflatable dinghy in the Channel while a rescue worker was onboard, in a further escalation of organised anti-immigration protest.

UK news | Children as young as 13 in the UK have been referred to a specialist clinic for a “devastating” bladder condition linked to sustained use of ketamine.

West Bank | British banks and financial institutions are receiving warnings from MPs that they should not invest in Israel’s E1 settlement project.

UK politics | Andy Burnham has opened the door to fighting the next election on the UK rejoining the EU, but said his immediate priority was continuing to rebuild bridges with European allies.

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© Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

© Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

© Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

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AI looms large over Trump-Xi meeting amid deep distrust between US and China

Fears persist about Trump ‘sucking up’ to Xi on Taiwan, but few concrete outcomes anticipated from US meeting

When Xi Jinping, China’s leader, touches down in Maryland on Wednesday, he will step out into the arms – perhaps a hug, if Donald Trump’s wishes come true – of a US president who has shown China more bonhomie than any of his recent predecessors.

The meeting between Xi and Trump this week will be the second time that the leaders of the world’s two biggest economies have talked face to face this year. At the previous summit, held in Beijing in May, there was much talk of building a “strategic stability” between the two powers. But there was little by way of concrete outcomes: the countries remain at loggerheads over trade, export controls and geopolitics.

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© Photograph: Kenny Holston/Reuters

© Photograph: Kenny Holston/Reuters

© Photograph: Kenny Holston/Reuters

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California and New York sue over Trump push to halt wind energy projects

US officials have begun to buy back wind leases as president seeks to block renewables in favor of fossil fuels

Democratic attorneys general from California and New York have sued the Trump administration over its plans to buy back offshore wind leases as Donald Trump seeks to discourage the expansion of wind energy in favor of fossil fuels.

California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, said he was suing over removal of a project off his state’s coast planned by Chicago-based Invenergy. The Trump administration said in June it was buying back the company’s US offshore wind leases for four wind projects on the east and west coasts.

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© Photograph: UCG/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

© Photograph: UCG/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

© Photograph: UCG/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

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Trump invades the UN with a brutish speech | Ted Widmer

Gone was any shred of US idealism. It was a spectacle of raw power – a power that is likely to only diminish in the years ahead

Expectations were low for Donald Trump’s address to the UN on Tuesday, and yet somehow it was even worse than expected. He does not perform well in formal settings, like chambers of government, preferring a blingier room, like Mar-a-Lago, or an outdoor rally. For years, he has made no secret of his hostility to the UN, and the very principles of international order that define it.

In recent years, that hostility has deepened into something more like a full-on assault, with frequent attacks on the international criminal court (perhaps out of fear that he will someday be indicted), on the UN’s climate agenda, and on Unesco (which the US decided to withdraw from in July 2025).

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© Photograph: Selcuk Acar/Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Selcuk Acar/Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Selcuk Acar/Anadolu/Getty Images

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Trump made over 1,000 July stock trades worth up to $270m, filings reveal

President made more than 440 purchases and 700 sales despite voter anger over elected officials trading stocks

Donald Trump made over a thousand stock sales and purchases worth between $79m and $270m in July, according to a Guardian analysis of his latest financial disclosure released Tuesday.

His two largest sales were of Amazon and Microsoft stock, selling between $5m and $25m each on 20 July. That same day, he also sold up to $5m worth of Oracle and Costco stock, $500,000 to $1m in Nvidia, and bought up to $5m worth of shares in Intuit and Salesforce, among dozens of other transactions.

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© Photograph: Alexi J Rosenfeld/Getty Images

© Photograph: Alexi J Rosenfeld/Getty Images

© Photograph: Alexi J Rosenfeld/Getty Images

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Trump praises relations with Burnham despite tensions over AI and Iran

US president calls UK prime minister ‘a natural businessperson’ as leaders meet at UN assembly in New York

Donald Trump has asserted his relationship with the UK is “more up” with Andy Burnham than under Keir Starmer despite tensions between the two countries on a range of thorny issues including regulation of artificial intelligence, the Chagos islands and the war in Iran.

At their first face-to-face meeting, the US president praised Burnham, who sat nervously alongside him, as a “natural businessperson”, saying he thought he had “lots of assets on his side” and would be a “great” prime minister.

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© Photograph: Toby Melville/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Toby Melville/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Toby Melville/AFP/Getty Images

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Trump says he backs diesel export ban to curb soaring energy costs

But industry trade group says plan would backfire and lead to even higher prices for gasoline

Donald Trump on Tuesday said he backed ⁠the idea of a ban on diesel exports, which some US politicians are calling for ⁠as a way ⁠to curb ​the soaring cost of energy.

Diesel prices have rallied in Europe and the US to ⁠record highs as wars in Iran and Ukraine sharply cut exports from some of the biggest producers ⁠such as Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. A gallon of diesel fuel in the US was $6.53 on Tuesday, the highest average on record and over 75% higher than a year ago.

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© Photograph: M Scott Brauer/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: M Scott Brauer/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: M Scott Brauer/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

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Call it a win: boredom but no temper tantrums in Burnham’s first face-to-face with America’s King Baby

Meeting at the UN in New York, the UK prime minister showed signs he can handle trash-talking President Trump

How do you deal with a problem like The Donald? The simple answer is that you don’t. You can’t. The normal rules of political engagement don’t apply. The US president is like a five-year-old child with the world as his set of toys: a King Baby.

Nothing is ever constant or predictable. What’s agreed one day can be forgotten the next. Any deal can be interrupted with a temper tantrum at any time. Trying to second-guess Donald Trump is a fool’s errand.

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© Photograph: WPA/Getty Images

© Photograph: WPA/Getty Images

© Photograph: WPA/Getty Images

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Trump’s threat to annihilate Iran to UN general assembly is stunning, even for him

US president may have upstaged the ghost of Soviet leader Khrushchev by musing destruction of fellow member state

Donald Trump has a habit of discomfiting delegates to the United Nations general assembly. But this year, he may have upstaged the ghost of former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev by openly contemplating the annihilation of a fellow UN member state.

Eleven minutes into a 40-minute address, the US president announced he had “a big decision to make” over Iran, which has staged a much more determined resistance than Trump anticipated when he decided to go to war against the country in February.

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© Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

© Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

© Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

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Another Florida Republican distances himself from Donald Trump before midterms

GOP nominee for governor Byron Donalds removes multiple mentions of president from his campaign website

Another prominent Florida Republican has publicly distanced himself from Donald Trump, days after María Elvira Salazar called out the US president’s immigration-enforcement policy targeting law-abiding undocumented immigrants.

Byron Donalds, the Republican nominee for governor in November’s US midterm elections, launched an updated campaign website on Tuesday that was stripped of almost every mention of Trump and removed a photograph of the congressman and his wife, Erika, posing with the president, the Miami Herald reported.

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© Photograph: Callaghan O’Hare/Reuters

© Photograph: Callaghan O’Hare/Reuters

© Photograph: Callaghan O’Hare/Reuters

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The Pentagon has unveiled its secret weapon: two idiotic influencers | Arwa Mahdawi

Jake and Logan Paul were invited to give a motivational speech. Just don’t let them get involved with military policy

We’re now approaching month seven of a war against Iran that Donald Trump repeatedly assured us would be over in a matter of weeks. Prices are rising, troop morale is plummeting, and there is little evidence things will improve.

The situation is so desperate that the decision makers at the Pentagon have decided to bring out the big guns. I’m not talking about nuclear weapons, although Trump recently threatened to “blow the entire nation [of Iran] up”. No, I’m talking about influencers Jake and Logan Paul, who are famous for doing idiotic stunts on YouTube and getting hit in the face during boxing matches. Last Thursday, Pete Hegseth’s Department of Defense or whatever they’re calling it these days (the Department of War Crimes?) welcomed the Paul brothers to Washington DC “to meet with our warriors” and deliver a motivational speech. In response, former Republican congressman and air force officer Adam Kinzinger wrote, “We aren’t a serious country at the moment.” That about sums it up.

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© Photograph: Taylor Hill/FilmMagic

© Photograph: Taylor Hill/FilmMagic

© Photograph: Taylor Hill/FilmMagic

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AOC refuses to rule out run against Senate leader Chuck Schumer

‘I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it,’ the progressive US representative says

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive Democratic congresswoman, has refused to rule out a potential run against the party’s Senate leader Chuck Schumer amid mounting speculation around her political ambitions.

When asked by the New York Times whether she would challenge Schumer in 2028, when his current term is up, Ocasio-Cortez declined to exclude the possibility – even if Democrats win back the Senate majority.

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© Photograph: Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

© Photograph: Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

© Photograph: Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

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Republican calls for Senate investigation of Trump Jr wedding paid for by Russian oligarch

Putin ally helped cover cost of renting private island in the Bahamas for wedding of Trump Jr and Bettina Anderson

A Republican senator has accused Donald Trump Jr of corruption and demanded a Senate investigation into revelations that a Russian oligarch bankrolled part of his recent wedding in the Bahamas.

John Curtis, of Utah, wrote to the leaders of the US Senate judiciary committee on Tuesday, urging them to subpoena Trump Jr over his business dealings, his relationships with foreign individuals, gifts he has received – and any occasions where his connection to his father, Donald Trump, “was invoked or understood to provide value”.

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© Composite: Getty Images

© Composite: Getty Images

© Composite: Getty Images

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Never mind Trump – if Europe wants to save Nato, it must win over the American people | Leslie Vinjamuri

Mark Rutte has the right idea – go beyond Washington and make the case for the transatlantic alliance to the public. They may well have a willing ear

At a moment when Europe is focused on persuading Donald Trump to remain committed to Nato, it needs to convince Americans, too. So the presence this evening of the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, in front of a public audience in Des Moines, Iowa, is significant. This is the home town of Trump’s ambassador to Nato, Matthew Whitaker, and the visit brings the debate over Nato’s future directly to a midwestern audience in a red state that operates far from elite foreign-policy circles in Washington. Rutte’s appearance is long overdue.

Russia’s war in Ukraine and uncertainty over the US commitment to European security have forced European leaders to confront their dependence on Washington. While some are pressing for building European capabilities as a means to separate from the US, others see greater European defence spending as essential to keeping the US engaged. Either way, European governments can’t rely solely on meetings with Trump to secure the alliance’s future.

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© Photograph: Haiyun Jiang/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Haiyun Jiang/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Haiyun Jiang/AFP/Getty Images

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‘Literally state-run TV’: Trump launches YouTube channel amid boycott by US networks

White House press coverage row continues while anchor-less channel of the administration’s ‘latest and greatest’ streams propaganda for the Maga faithful

Donald Trump’s previous television career centred on his role on The Apprentice, but the US president’s latest media venture is a rather lower-budget affair: the launch of Trump TV in the wake of his ban on several outlets from covering the White House.

With major US networks agreeing to not cover the president while the dispute continues, on Monday the White House announced the new 24/7 YouTube live stream, which it promised would feature “top past moments, announcements, and the latest and greatest from the administration all in one place”.

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© Photograph: Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images

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Why the CDC is excluding measles deaths in Pennsylvania even as outbreak appears to be ‘accelerating’

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention refuses to count four measles deaths in the state though doctors are ‘seeing new forms’ of disease

The US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its measles dashboard on Friday – but it’s still not counting four measles deaths in Pennsylvania, where the outbreak appears to be accelerating and cases are appearing in ways providers have never seen before.

Members of Congress on Monday requested an “immediate briefing” on the decision to change how measles deaths are reported as cases continue to rise throughout the United States, reaching levels not seen in decades. A possible measles exposure was reported in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia last week.

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© Photograph: Hannah Beier/Reuters

© Photograph: Hannah Beier/Reuters

© Photograph: Hannah Beier/Reuters

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Brendan Carr was a member of a rogue Alcoholics Anonymous group some labeled a ‘cult’

Carr was a member of the group in his teens and 20s. There is no evidence Trump’s powerful FCC chair participated in any inappropriate conduct

Brendan Carr, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), was for about a decade a member of a rogue Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) group when he was in his late teens and 20s that some former members compared to a “cult”, according to a Guardian investigation.

The Midtown group, which was based in the Washington DC area, attracted young people who were seeking help with addiction, sometimes at the urging of their parents.

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© Illustration: Mark Harris/The Guardian

© Illustration: Mark Harris/The Guardian

© Illustration: Mark Harris/The Guardian

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In Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed’s candidacy has split the Jewish community

The Democratic Senate nominee’s views on Israel and comments after a synagogue attack prompted a public debate among Jewish voters

When Jess Newman heard that Temple Israel in Detroit was attacked last March, her first thoughts went to her extended family.

“I grew up going to services there,” she said. “The attack was awful. My Jewish identity is very important to me.”

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© Photograph: Emily Elconin/Getty Images

© Photograph: Emily Elconin/Getty Images

© Photograph: Emily Elconin/Getty Images

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Democrat says ICE restricted her oversight visit to country’s largest detention camp

Veronica Escobar tells Guardian she was prevented from speaking to detainees at much-criticized Texas facility

Federal immigration officials in Texas prevented US representative Veronica Escobar from fully conducting her congressional oversight duties at a controversial Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center, the lawmaker said in an interview with the Guardian.

Escobar, a Democrat who represents El Paso and surrounding areas on the US-Mexico border in west Texas, conducted an oversight visit last month at the Camp East Montana ICE tent facility housed in the Fort Bliss military base, after two separate “disturbances” had been reported there in recent weeks.

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© Photograph: Miguel Paredes/KTSM 9 News

© Photograph: Miguel Paredes/KTSM 9 News

© Photograph: Miguel Paredes/KTSM 9 News

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AI is generating a new wave of US populism. It could be a tipping point | Robert Reich

It’s becoming obvious to many Americans that corporations have been raking it in while workers take it on the chin

Last week, the unlikely duo of Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon spoke before a Washington group demanding a stop to AI and its datacenters.

Notably, both lambasted the corporate oligarchs behind AI.

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© Photograph: David A Lieb/AP

© Photograph: David A Lieb/AP

© Photograph: David A Lieb/AP

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Many Americans live in the UK – but few vote back home. This year, that must change | Kathryn Sikkink

The rights of overseas voters are protected by US federal law. It’s not hard – but Americans should start planning now

The UK hosts the second largest population of voting-age US citizens outside the United States, but Americans living in the UK vote at very low levels in US elections.

The US government’s Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) estimated that there were 298,268 voting-age US citizens in the UK in 2022, second only to Canada. But FVAP also estimated that only 3.8% of these US citizens in Britain voted in that year’s midterm elections. Why do hundreds of thousands of eligible US voters in the UK not exercise their right to vote, even though US rules for voting abroad are relatively welcoming compared to many other countries?

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© Photograph: Alberto Pezzali/AP

© Photograph: Alberto Pezzali/AP

© Photograph: Alberto Pezzali/AP

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Trump seeks ‘massive’ Belarus fertiliser deal amid Canada trade war

Trump’s announcement on Russia ally comes as he steps up his trade war with Canada, a long-term US ally and top supplier of potash

President Donald Trump has said he is working on a “massive” deal to buy fertiliser from Belarus, pivoting away from main supplier Canada amid an escalating trade dispute, and moving instead toward an ally of Russia.

“The United States is working on a massive deal with respect to the purchase of Potash from Belarus,” Trump said on his Truth Social network. “The pricing would be for substantially less than we are currently paying to Canada, very good news for our farmers and ranchers.”

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© Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

© Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

© Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

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Trump and Mamdani appear friendly after ‘wide-ranging’ meeting at Gracie Mansion

Republican president said he hoped the democratic socialist would be a ‘great mayor’ for New York City

Donald Trump said on Monday that he hoped Zohran Mamdani would be a “great mayor” for New York, an unusually warm assessment of the democratic socialist leader whom the president and his Republican allies have spent months holding up as a symbol of the Democratic party’s alleged embrace of “communism” ahead of the November midterms.

At a news conference following their closed-door meeting at Gracie Mansion, Trump and Mamdani appeared friendly as they have in previous meetings. Mamdani said he and Trump held a “wide-ranging” discussion, which touched on affordable housing and immigration, but did not offer extensive details regarding any disagreements between them.

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© Photograph: Yuri Gripas/Pool/Yuri Gripas - Pool/CNP/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Yuri Gripas/Pool/Yuri Gripas - Pool/CNP/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Yuri Gripas/Pool/Yuri Gripas - Pool/CNP/Shutterstock

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US judge declines to block transfer of wildlife refuge land to Musk’s SpaceX

Environmental groups vow to continue opposition to deal that would expand site for Elon Musk rocket company

A federal judge on Monday refused to block the Trump administration from giving SpaceX more than 700 acres of wildlife refuge as part of a land swap in Texas, while environmental groups vowed to continue their legal challenge.

US district judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr declined the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction to prevent the parcel exchange, saying they failed to prove it would worsen ecological risks to a Gulf coast region already transformed by billionaire Elon Musk’s rocket operations.

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© Photograph: Eric Gay/AP

© Photograph: Eric Gay/AP

© Photograph: Eric Gay/AP

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Appeals court rules in favor of Trump-backed Missouri congressional maps

Supreme court, which has twice blocked maps from being used in November, likely to have final say in legal fight

A long-running legal fight over Missouri’s congressional map took another turn Monday when a federal appeals panel ruled in favor of new districts backed by Donald Trump, even though the US supreme court has blocked those districts from being used in the November election.

A three-judge panel of the 8th US circuit court of appeals said Missouri should use the new Republican-drawn US House districts in the November election, just as the state did in its August primary. To revert to its prior districts for the general election would violate the US constitution, the appeals judges said.

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© Photograph: Tammy Ljungblad/Kansas City Star via Getty Images

© Photograph: Tammy Ljungblad/Kansas City Star via Getty Images

© Photograph: Tammy Ljungblad/Kansas City Star via Getty Images

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Democrats’ Gaza reckoning: how failing to give Palestinians a voice came back to bite the party

Voters rejected many establishment choices this year in favor of candidates pushing accountability for Gaza, writes Akbar Shahid Ahmed

The last time she gathered with fellow Democrats for a pre-election national convention, Georgia state representative Ruwa Romman got an unspoken message from the party establishment: on their biggest stage, she said, “There’s room for an anti-choice Republican but not for Palestinians”. Democratic officials gave speaking slots to an architect of Georgia’s strict abortion ban and other conservatives critical of Donald Trump, but they denied a speech from Romman or other Palestinian Americans.

In Democratic primaries this year, voters rejected many of the party establishment’s choices, including a 15-term congresswoman in Colorado and the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. The unlikely winners in all those races emphasized empathy and accountability for Palestinian losses in Gaza; Abdul El-Sayed, who won Michigan’s Senate primary, made opposition to the ardently pro-Israel group Aipac central to his candidacy. With 60% of potential Democratic voters in a May poll sympathizing more with Palestinians than Israelis and 48% saying the party has been too supportive of Israel, the base is eager for Democratic leaders to rethink unfettered US-Israel solidarity.

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© Photograph: Getty Images

© Photograph: Getty Images

© Photograph: Getty Images

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US TV networks suspend White House pool coverage over Trump media ban

White House promoted its own ‘Trump TV’ feed online after ABC, CBS, Fox News and NBC decline to participate

The major US television news outlets agreed to suspend their video coverage of Donald Trump after the administration banned journalists from several outlets from entering the White House grounds.

The collective decision came after the barred outlets – CNN, MS Now and Politico – sued the administration on Monday, saying the president’s actions were a violation of their first amendment rights.

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© Photograph: Samuel Corum/Pool/Samuel Corum - Pool/CNP/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Samuel Corum/Pool/Samuel Corum - Pool/CNP/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Samuel Corum/Pool/Samuel Corum - Pool/CNP/Shutterstock

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ICE hides locations of thousands of detainees with final removal orders

Immigration agency’s move makes it harder for lawyers and family to find detainees, in line with stringent Trump policy

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has stopped publicly revealing where it is holding thousands of detainees who are subject to final deportation orders, an unannounced move that has made it far more difficult for lawyers and relatives to find them, according to current and former officials familiar with the practice.

ICE removed those detainees from its online detainee locator system on 15 September, according to three current and former ICE officials who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the change. Several lawyers contacted by the AP confirmed their clients vanished from the system this week, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association warned its members about the situation on Friday.

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© Photograph: Yuki Iwamura/AP

© Photograph: Yuki Iwamura/AP

© Photograph: Yuki Iwamura/AP

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Venezuelan shot by ICE seeks medical care as lawyer says bullet lodged in back

Shooting of Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez comes months after increased federal immigration enforcement in Austin

The Venezuelan man who was shot by a federal immigration officer in Texas on Sunday spoke out from detention on Monday afternoon when he was able to call his lawyer, in the middle of a press conference, and plead for better medical care.

Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, 28, was taken from a hospital in Austin into Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention, even though he apparently still has a bullet lodged near his spine and is in much discomfort.

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© Photograph: Eric Gay/AP

© Photograph: Eric Gay/AP

© Photograph: Eric Gay/AP

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Flights resume across US north-east after FAA communications failure

Thousands of flights were delayed or canceled after a primary line failed and a backup fiber-optic cable was severed

Airport operations across the US north-east resumed Monday evening after a communications line failure snarled flights at some of the country’s busiest airports, leading to thousands of flight cancellations and delays.

Flights were halted at several airports after a primary communications line failed at a key Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) facility in Philadelphia. The backup fiber optic line, which delivers internet service, was inadvertently severed by a railroad construction crew, resulting in a telecommunications crash and hundreds of canceled flights at Newark, LaGuardia, JFK, Philadelphia and Boston airports.

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© Photograph: Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

© Photograph: Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

© Photograph: Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

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Lauren Boebert says claims of sexual relationships with staffers ‘utterly false’

Republican congresswoman rejects ethics complaint and says allegations part of ‘politically motivated’ hit campaign

Lauren Boebert, the firebrand Republican subject of a House ethics complaint that she had sex with three staff members, and paid one to keep quiet, has said the allegations are untrue – and part of a “politically motivated” campaign against her.

Boebert’s denials came through a formal statement from her office, which said “the congresswoman rejects the claims as utterly false”. She also published a verbose video rant on social media in which she accused the person who filed the document as a “sloppy, desperate, obsessive hack” – and journalists who reported the story as falling victim to a “scam”.

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© Photograph: Nathan Howard/Reuters

© Photograph: Nathan Howard/Reuters

© Photograph: Nathan Howard/Reuters

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Key ally urges Trump to back US farmers amid anger over rising prices

Iowa senator Chuck Grassley calls for embargo on diesel exports as tariffs and Iran war drive up costs for sector

Donald Trump is facing growing calls, including from within his own party, to boost support for US farmers as his administration faces mounting anger over its treatment of the agricultural sector.

Republican senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa called on the US president to place an embargo on diesel exports this weekend and help farmers grapple with high prices.

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© Photograph: Samuel Corum/Getty Images

© Photograph: Samuel Corum/Getty Images

© Photograph: Samuel Corum/Getty Images

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