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Politics
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Police were told night before Dover unrest that far-right agitators had converged on village
Details passed to Kent police after far-right activists heard in pub boasting about going to to Dover to ‘attack Muslims’ Police were told the night before far-right agitators blocked roads into Dover that those involved had converged on a village 18 miles away and planned to use it as a launchpad, it has emerged. People in Preston-next-Wingham told of how hundreds of men had started to arrive in the village of just over 920 residents on Friday afternoon and in effect “took over” the village. Continue reading...
US real estate agent duct-taped and zip-tied to plane seat after ‘racial slurs’ is fired
The man, also accused of homophobic slurs on American Airlines flight, faces assault and disorderly conduct charges An Arizona realty company says it is “no longer associated” with an agent who was recently arrested after alleged unruly behavior – including racist and homophobic slurs – on an airline flight led to his being zip-tied, duct-taped to his seat and arrested. Layne Arthur Lundeen, 67, faces counts of disorderly conduct and second-degree assault in the case, according to Maryland court records filed after he was taken into custody at Baltimore ’s airport on 3 September. Continue reading...
America: the gulf, the lake and now the state – what’s next on Trump’s huge renaming spree? | Marina Hyde
Farewell, New Mexico. The war isn’t going well and nowhere on Earth is safe from the US president’s favourite displacement activity Busy times for crayon-wielding US president Donald Trump, Earth’s most tireless freelance cartographer, who at the weekend celebrated the US labouring under the highest diesel prices in its history while his “two-week” Iran war edges into its seventh month with a social media spree in which he pushed renaming New Mexico as New America. In some ways, it was a surprise to see Trump go for merely rebranding a state at this point, given that it was only so recently that he declared: “If you think about it, we have a gulf, and we have a lake. Now all we need is an ocean .” This is believed to be a reference to the Gulf of America, formerly – and indeed currently, in every meaningful sense – the Gulf of Mexico. It was also a nod to Lake America, as precisely no one calls Lake Ontario despite Trump supposedly retitling it by executive order last month, in another fit of pique over his trade war with Canada. Candidates for this heavily trailed American Ocean clearly include the Pacific and the Atlantic – though why the other oceans should be locationally ineligible increasingly feels unclear. At this rate, geography exams in the US are also about to get a whole lot easier. Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Trump’s approval rating is plummeting – as his fortune grows and grows | Arwa Mahdawi
The US president says criticising his soaring investment portfolio is ‘very unfair’. Tell that to the millions of Americans struggling with the cost of living If I had a dollar for every time Donald Trump said something inane, I would be a very rich woman. But even with an income that steady, I could never hope to be as flush as the president. A Forbes calculation from March puts his net worth at about $6.5bn – and it’s growing rapidly. Trump made $2.2bn in 2025 via business interests that ranged from selling cryptocurrency and Trump Bibles to offering early access to his (often market-moving ) Truth Social posts. To be fair, Trump isn’t making all this money just so he can buy golf clubs and gold toilets. No, he’s amassing these billions for the good of the little people; it’s altruism, not avarice! “I do this for our Country, not myself,” the president wrote on Truth Social on Sunday night alongside an AI-generated picture of him trading Intel stock. “I’ve made Hundreds of Billions of Dollars on Stocks, and many other type Holdings, for the U.S.A., not myself, and all I do is get criticized by the Radical Left Dumocrats. Very unfair, but what can you do!” Continue reading...
New Hampshire voters head to polls in race crucial to Democrats’ Senate hopes
Centrist Chris Pappas faces progressive primary challenger Karishma Manzur while Republicans eye chance to flip seat New Hampshire voters head to the polls Tuesday for primaries that will set up a closely watched Senate contest – a vulnerable open seat Democrats must defend if they are to have any shot at reclaiming the upper chamber. The race opened when Jeanne Shaheen, 79, the state’s three‑term incumbent Democratic senator, announced her retirement. Congressman Chris Pappas, who represents New Hampshire’s first district, is seeking the nomination and enters the final stretch with a clear financial edge: more than $4m cash on hand, according to his latest filings. But his main challenger, Dr Karishma Manzur – a scientist and progressive activist with no experience holding public office – has gained ground . Continue reading...
Sadiq Khan rounds on Westminster council for keeping ‘vertical drinking’ curbs on pubs
Exclusive: London mayor accuses council of ‘breathtaking arrogance’ in ‘ignoring’ responses to a consultation Sadiq Khan has criticised the “breathtaking arrogance” of Westminster council, which has kept restrictions on vertical drinking in Soho and an effective ban on new bars and pubs in the area. The mayor of London has accused the Conservative-led council of “ignoring” the responses to a consultation into its new licensing policy. The vast majority of respondents, 81%, disagreed with the council’s “cumulative impact zone” which decrees that applications for bars and pubs in the West End of London, one of Europe’s most famous nightlife districts, will be refused unless in exceptional circumstances. Eighty-four per cent said the licensing policy would be bad for business. Continue reading...
Anti-AfD protests sweep Germany as far right closes in on two more states
Alarm that Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania may fall next after party’s Saxony-Anhalt election victory ‘It breaks my heart’: victory sparks dismay Europe live – latest updates Thousands of Germans have staged protests against the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) after the party’s watershed victory in a state election, warning it posed a danger in two more polls this month. Demonstrators at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate held a peaceful pro-democracy rally denouncing the anti-immigrant, pro-Russian AfD, which has called for mass deportations of asylum seekers and a rollback of state support for renewable energy and public broadcasting. Continue reading...
Here in Liverpool, buses are back under public control – and that’s great for the only people who really matter | Steve Rotheram
For decades we were told that privatisation would deliver better services. The experience of millions of passengers tells a different story Steve Rotheram is mayor of the Liverpool city region One of the best-known scenes from the TV series The Inbetweeners is the four angst-ridden teenage characters shouting abuse at people queueing at a bus stop. Only losers take the bus, is the point – except they use a much ruder word. There’s also a statement, misattributed to Margaret Thatcher, that any man over the age of 26 using a bus was a loser. This idea is deeply ingrained. But when I was an MP it became obvious that there wasn’t the same stigma attached to jumping on the bus in London as there often was in other big cities. It often wound me up that the rest of the country was expected to accept a suboptimal public transport system – so much so that it could be joked that only losers would use it – while London retained its excellent bus service, which it ran under public control. Steve Rotheram is mayor of the Liverpool city region Continue reading...
UK accuses Israeli ‘terrorists’ of ethnic cleansing in West Bank with government backing
In strongest condemnation ever by UK government, Ed Miliband announces sweeping sanctions on trade with Israeli settlements UK politics live – latest updates Israeli “terrorists” are conducting ethnic cleansing in the West Bank with the tacit backing of the government, the UK foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, has said as he announced sweeping sanctions, alongside France and Canada, on trade with Israeli settlements. In the strongest condemnation ever issued by the UK government, Miliband said the government would now take the official position that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank was unlawful in its entirety, saying such acknowledgment was “the least the people who face such suffering deserve. And it should be the prelude to justice.” An import ban on goods from illegal settlements in the occupied territories. A comprehensive sanctions regime against providing services such as construction or financing for Israeli settlements. A ban on the advertising in the UK of illegal settlement properties. Personal sanctions against key individuals accused of promoting settler violence. A new ban for arms licences and other exports that “materially contribute to the occupation”. Continue reading...
One in 12 golf clubs in England broke water extraction rules in past five years
More than 140 clubs breached licences, with a third caught taking water illegally, analysis shows – but no fines issued More than 140 golf clubs in England have breached their water extraction licences in the past five years, according to data analysis by the Guardian. More than a third of these clubs were caught taking water illegally from the environment, either by taking more than permitted or by removing it outside of the permitted period. Continue reading...
Houthis strike Saudi Arabian cities in significant expansion of Middle East war
Riyadh says it will retaliate after overnight attacks by Iran-backed Yemen group on oil facilities wound more than 70 Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis have attacked four cities in Saudi Arabia, wounding more than 70 people and setting oil installations ablaze in what appeared to be a significant expansion of the Middle East war. Saudi Arabia said it would retaliate after the overnight strikes – reportedly involving dozens of drones and missiles – that targeted several oil facilities in the country’s south. Continue reading...
Crocodile head found in luggage at Italian airport
Man, who had arrived in Turin from Miami via Istanbul, under investigation for smuggling and faces fine or prison An Italian man is facing a hefty fine or possible prison term after the dried head of a critically endangered crocodile was found in his luggage at Turin’s Caselle airport. The man had arrived at the airport in the northern Italian city on a flight from Miami via Istanbul, the Turin unit of Italy’s financial police squad said in a statement. Continue reading...
Democrats need to win. Here’s the message our research says works
Candidates must focus on two issues: affordability and accountability. They are not competing priorities As the November election approaches with control of the House and Senate on the line, the stakes are high. With so much riding on the outcome, there is no shortage of debate about the message Democrats need to win. Affordability has emerged as a shared – if often undefined – rallying cry. Working families are struggling with rising costs and looking for answers. But too often, we’ve seen affordability positioned as the beginning and end of the plan. Meanwhile, many see holding the Trump administration accountable for its corruption and harms as at odds with a relentless focus on kitchen-table issues. Continue reading...
Want to borrow a dinosaur fossil? Try California’s one-of-a-kind taxidermy lending library
A natural history museum lets residents take home 1,400 specimens, from bobcats and beetles to snakes in jars On a hot afternoon in August, I walked out of the San Diego Natural History Museum carrying a whale rib, a leopard pelt, a taxidermized weasel and a small piece of fossilized dinosaur poop. It felt like a heist. These were real specimens that belonged to the museum, not gift shop replicas. But for two weeks, they were mine to take home, display in my living room, even bring to events with my friends. Continue reading...
How meteorologists helped recreate one of history’s most important weather forecasts
Experts helped guide weather scenes in Pressure – a film depicting dramatic buildup to 1944’s D-day landings Dressed in a Royal Air Force uniform and sporting a trim moustache, Andrew Scott looks slightly queasy – as well he might. Behind him is a huge map of the Channel, and in front of him is Brendan Fraser, looming with a request: “I need a forecast,” he says. Starring in the film Pressure, based on a true story, Scott plays the meteorologist Capt James Stagg – the man who must tell Gen Eisenhower – played by Fraser – whether conditions will be suitable for the D-day landings scheduled to take place on 5 June 1944. But a large storm is approaching the Normandy coast. Continue reading...
US datacenters face further backlash over wastewater pollution
From rare bacteria to ‘forever chemicals’, a series of cases of violations or alleged pollution has prompted alarm When officials in Wyoming conducted a routine test on the water that was being discharged from a massive under-construction Meta datacenter, it was a shock to find it contained a rare and potentially hazardous bacterium. While the wastewater flushed into sewers in Cheyenne, Wyoming, was never destined for the public drinking supply, the presence of Cupriavidus gilardii bacterium in 801,000 gallons of water ejected by a contractor for the datacenter earlier this year was still unnerving. Continue reading...
Harry and Meghan ‘surprised’ at king’s letter reiterating they are non-working royals
Duke and Duchess of Sussex were apparently given little notice before message was sent to the media The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were “surprised” at being given little notice of a formal letter sent to government departments and the military on behalf of King Charles reiterating their status as non-working royals. Harry and Meghan, who returned to the UK from the US two weeks ago , had insufficient time to clarify any points before details were issued to the media, it is understood. Continue reading...
First Thing: Trade dispute escalates as new Canadian tariffs on US goods come into effect
Stalemate between two nations leads to tit-for-tat measures on wide range of imports. Plus: Captain Kirk recalls 60 years of Star Trek Don’t already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up here Good morning. Canada’s retaliatory tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of US imports have come into effect , escalating a trade fight that has been marked by intensifying tensions between Donald Trump and Mark Carney. The tariffs range from 15% to 50% and apply to products covering $20bn in imports from the US. The measures target sectors including steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, and electronics. What tariffs did Trump impose on Canada? Last month the US president announced a new 50% tariff on cars and raw materials from Canada. He accused the country of “ripping off” the US “for years”. The US tariffs hit items such as hockey sticks and cement, affecting about 5.5% of Canadian exports to the US. Why have the two sides not reached agreement? Negotiations broke down in August, with Carney saying the US terms were unacceptable. The Canadian prime minister accused negotiators of introducing restrictions on Canadian trade deals with other countries at the 11th hour and making unacceptable “threats” to the French language. Carney said American negotiators viewed measures protecting the language as an “irritant”, while “in Quebec, these are rights”. How has Germany’s national government reacted to the result? A “shocked” and chastened chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has vowed to stay in office . Appearing ashen-faced in front of reporters in Berlin on Monday, he said: “We know that Germany carries special responsibility because of its history.” Will the AfD be able to form a state government? That remains unclear. In the 13 years of its existence, mainstream parties have maintained a “firewall” with the party, refusing any formal cooperation that would allow it to take power. That strategy has appeared to backfire, however, as the permanent “outsider” role appeals to legions of voters fed up with politics as usual. What are the wider implications for Europe? In this analysis , Jon Henley says Europe’s centrist politicians fear a continent-wide nationalist wave, fuelled by the persistent inability of mainstream governments to deliver for disillusioned voters hit by a spiralling cost of living crisis. Continue reading...
Richard Alston, trailblazer and guiding light of British dance, dies aged 77
Akram Khan among those paying tribute to ‘pioneering’ choreographer of intense musicality and grace who inspired generations of dancers Sir Richard Alston, the British choreographer and teacher who took contemporary dance into new directions with his elegant and intelligent creations, has died at the age of 77. A former artistic director of Rambert and the Place, where he made more than 50 pieces for the Richard Alston Dance Company , he was celebrated for lucid, emotionally attuned work that was often as graceful as it was rigorous. His death was announced on Monday by the Richard Alston Foundation , which was established in 2021 to promote contemporary dance and preserve his work. “It is with deep sadness that we have to report the death of Sir Richard Alston,” said the statement . “After a period of ill-health, and despite exceptional treatment at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead and the support of his closest friends, he passed away peacefully at his home on 7 September. While Richard is best known for his extraordinary career and contribution to contemporary dance, we will also remember him for his wit, warmth and generosity of spirit.” Continue reading...
Fourteen men go on trial in Paris over deadliest small-boat Channel crossing
Sinking of inflatable dinghy in 2021 resulted in 31 people dead or missing, including a seven-year-old child Fourteen men will go on trial in Paris on Tuesday over the deaths of at least 31 people in the worst mass drowning from a small-boat crossing in the Channel on record. The accused men, alleged to be linked to people-smuggling networks, face charges including manslaughter and facilitating illegal immigration as part of an organised criminal group. Continue reading...
Donald Trump’s midterm strategy? Make it all about him | Robert Reich
The president apparently plans to focus on the person he most admires – himself – even if Republicans would rather he didn’t With the midterm races officially beginning this week, a big question hanging over the Republican party is how Trump will allocate his giant stash of Super Pac money. As of 31 July, Maga Inc had more than $400m on hand, larger than the cash reserves of any of the major party committees. But he’s barely spent any of it yet. Why not? Continue reading...
‘Everything is against us’: Jaguar Land Rover suppliers voice fears amid carmaker’s cutbacks
Firms warn of impact of company’s decision to to axe 4,000 jobs and call for government to support sector Jaguar Land Rover confirms plan to cut 4,000 jobs David Roberts is not in an optimistic mood. The chair of Coventry-based Evtec may preside over a business with 900 highly skilled employees, multiple sites and precision machinery, but the outlook for the manufacturer appears tricky. “Everything is against us,” he says. Evtec is a “tier one” supplier to Jaguar Land Rover, also headquartered in Coventry, which this week announced 4,000 job cuts over two years even as the chancellor, John Healey, attempted to talk up Britain’s growth prospects in his first big speech, just down the road. Continue reading...
US police fear Meta smart glasses could be used to secretly record them
Exclusive: Documents show officers from Maine to California worry Meta’s camera-equipped glasses will be used either to secretly record them or aid acts of terrorism In January, the New York Police Department’s counterterrorism unit sent out a memo warning police officers about a new potential “security and counterintelligence” threat: Ray-Ban Meta glasses. The memo directed officers to “conduct thorough inspections of all eyewear permitted within inmate cells” and cautioned that people who have been arrested could use these glasses, equipped with small cameras and microphones, to record inside police facilities. The memo cited two examples of such videos posted on social media. Continue reading...
OpenAI models went rogue. We urgently need a better ‘hugging face’ investigation | Mackenzie Arnold and Stephan Llerena
The breach won’t be the last – or the most dangerous – of its kind. We need an agency capable of full investigations into AI incidents When OpenAI first revealed that its AI agents had autonomously hacked a major real-world company, Hugging Face, many assumed only one or two agents were involved. The truth, a new report reveals, is far stranger: the incident involved about 1,200 AI agents, 700 of which directly participated in the attack. OpenAI invited researchers from METR, along with an expert from Redwood Research, to produce the new report, alongside the company’s own investigation . The findings shocked the experts. Continue reading...