section
Politics
Policy, power, and the news of the day.
4572 stories archived
The 9/11 attacks of 2001 – in pictures
This gallery contains sensitive images that some viewers may find distressing Twenty-five years ago, as New Yorkers woke to crisp blue skies after a storm the day before, two planes – United Airlines Flight 11 and Flight 175 – were hijacked in Boston by terrorists loyal to the al-Qaida leader, Osama bin Laden. They were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center 17 minutes apart. On the same day American Airlines Flight 77 was flown in to the Pentagon in Virginia, and a fourth hijacked plane, United Airlines 93, was downed in Pennsylvania after a revolt by passengers. The attacks killed nearly 3,000 people Continue reading...
Russia targets Kyiv petrol stations for first time with jet-powered drones
Three facilities in two days struck as bombardment of Ukraine’s capital enters new phase of intensity Europe live – latest updates Petrol stations in Kyiv have been hit by jet-powered drones in a wave of targeted Russian attacks as the bombardment of Ukraine’s capital enters a new phase of intensity. At least two people were killed and six injured in strikes on two petrol stations on Friday morning, according to the city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko. Continue reading...
The Smithsonian chief’s exit is a blow to democracy | Kimberlé Crenshaw and Jason Stanley
The Trump administration wants a feel-good version of American history. That is not a feature of a democratic system On Tuesday, Lonnie G Bunch III announced he would step down as the 14th secretary of the Smithsonian. Bunch was the first historian to lead the august institution, as well as the first African American. His retirement comes as the Trump administration has pressured the Smithsonian to adopt its agenda of “patriotic” education. Continue reading...
How Ron DeSantis politicized Florida’s higher education by placing his loyalists at the top
Term-limited, hard-right governor instituted an ideological infiltration of universities by placing allies in powerful posts In fewer than four months’ time, Ron DeSantis, Florida’s hard-right governor, will be termed out of office, and what critics saw as his relentless eight-year, “anti-woke” assault on higher education in the state will finally be over. But while DeSantis himself will be gone, numerous hand-picked loyalists will remain in positions of power to protect his ideological makeover of universities and colleges. The latest, Alex Kelly, the governor’s former deputy chief of staff, and Florida commerce secretary, was named last week as the sole finalist in Pensacola state college’s search for a new president, at least the 12th close DeSantis ally to win such a plum post. Continue reading...
Iran’s Houthi allies capture strategic island on vital oil shipping route
Rampant Yemeni rebels take control of island in narrow point of Bab al-Mandab strait, which Saudi is relying on for oil exports Violence in Yemen: why it matters and how it is linked to the US-Iran war Yemen’s rampant Houthi forces have captured a strategic island in the Bab al-Mandab strait, expanding their control of the narrow waterway, one of the world’s vital shipping routes. The Iran-aligned Houthis took control of the volcanic island after forces allied to the UN-backed, Aden-based government left in the latest of a dramatic series of reverses along Yemen’s west coast in recent days, including the loss of the port city of Mocha on Thursday. Continue reading...
‘I think of him every year’: remembering those lost in 9/11, 25 years later
Guardian readers share stories of the friends, colleagues and mentors whose lives they continue to honor decades after the attacks The September 11, 2001 attacks killed 2,977 people, resulting in the largest loss of life caused by a foreign attack on American soil. Twenty-five years later, Guardian readers who lost friends and loved ones are continuing to honor their memories through stories about their lives, relationships and the moments they shared. Christopher Allen, 69, a retired estate manager from Niantic, Connecticut, remembers Jeremy “Caz” Carrington. Continue reading...
Hundreds of asylum seekers removed from UK to France have disappeared, say NGOs
Human rights organisations concerned about people – including age-disputed children – returned under one in, out out deal Hundreds of asylum seekers – including at least 41 age-disputed children – removed to France under the “one in, one out” deal have disappeared, human rights organisations have said. The one in, one out pilot scheme was hailed as “groundbreaking” by the former prime minister Keir Starmer when he and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, announced it in July 2025. Under a treaty drawn up for this agreement, it forcibly returns one small-boat asylum seeker to France in exchange for another asylum seeker brought legally to the UK from France. Continue reading...
Wake up, Britain: Donald Trump’s US is no friend of ours. We must secure our own place in the world | Simon Jenkins
The US president is ever more wayward – and has little interest in defending Europe. The constitution may hold him to account, but we can’t wait If Americans vote for a Republican majority in both houses of Congress in November, “I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000.” But they must not spend it in Canada or China or anywhere else outside the US. So said Donald Trump in Texas on Wednesday in advance of the forthcoming midterm elections. He further told voters to “Pretend that I’m on the ballot”. It was a climactic moment in an almost two-hour rant. Trump does not have the required trillion dollars in his pocket, and it would be illegal to disperse such a sum without congressional approval. In any case, JD Vance now appears to have rowed back on the promise. Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Céline Dion fans gather in Paris as singer prepares for sold-out comeback shows
More than 30,000 due to attend Canadian artist’s opener at Plenitude arena, as thousands without tickets plan Friday night karaoke More than 30,000 Céline Dion fans have gathered in Paris for the Canadian singer’s long-awaited return to performing on Saturday night – four years after she revealed her diagnosis of stiff person syndrome, a rare neurological condition. Thousands more people without tickets have flocked to a series of giant karaoke events across France to belt out Dion’s famous power ballads, in celebration of the star’s health stabilising enough for her to return to the stage. Continue reading...
Nation pauses to remember September 11 on 25th anniversary | First Thing
Commemoration ceremonies to be held around the world for the nearly 3,000 killed in 2001 terror attack on US. Plus, JD Vance sets out his stall as heir to Donald Trump Good morning. It is a sombre day for the nation as people gather to mourn and remember the nearly 3,000 victims of the attacks on September 11 2001 , when 19 al-Qaida hijackers seized control of four airliners, slamming two of the planes into the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and the fourth into a field in western Pennsylvania. We have comprehensive coverage of the anniversary, which will be marked by ceremonies around the world. There are stories of the day from people who were there. Stanley Praimnath and Brian Clark were two of only four individuals known to have survived above the impact zone in the south tower, and they spoke to our Washington bureau chief David Smith . Anna Sweeney Rossman was five when her mother, Amy Sweeney, a flight attendant, was killed onboard American Airlines flight 11, and she spoke to Ramon Antonio Vargas about how the events of that day have cast a shadow on her life. Donald Trump’s promise of a $5,000 “Trump dividend” for every US citizen if Republicans retain control of the US Congress in November’s midterm elections has sparked incredulity and accusations of bribery . With his approval rating at a historic low, Trump brought down the curtain on the Republicans’ first ever midterm convention by pleading with supporters to do him “the biggest favor” and “pretend” they are voting for him in November’s US elections. JD Vance, meanwhile, made a clear pitch that he should be the heir to Trump with a blistering speech that featured exaggerated claims of success, criticism of the Democrats as “lunatics” and an aggressive dismissal of a protester waving a Mexican flag. A US appeals court has rejected Trump’s attempt to impose sweeping restrictions on mail-in voting before November’s high-stakes midterm elections, dealing a fresh blow to the president’s attempted crackdown. Anthropic has detailed efforts by bad actors to misuse its AI for the production of bioweapons . More researchers and staff members at the AI startup have posted their own dire warnings about the safety of the technology, but Elon Musk called the chorus of concerns a “setup” and a “psyop”. California has adopted what Gavin Newsom described as “nation-leading” legislation that bans addictive social media features for young users , regulates companion chatbots and implements new safeguards around AI. Sales of previously occupied US homes declined in August to their slowest annual pace in more than a year as home shoppers grappled with rising mortgage rates and home prices. Continue reading...
Trump’s clash with Canada is his latest imperialistic embarrassment | Sidney Blumenthal
The president’s chaotic schemes of aggrandizement, from Venezuela to Iran, have no larger rationale Trumpism is the lowest stage of imperialism. “We’re not going to invade Greenland. We’re going to buy it,” Donald Trump reportedly told the annual black-tie dinner on 1 February of the private Alfalfa Club, an assemblage of prominent Washington figures, a number of whom he had publicly humiliated, and others he was investigating or suing. “It’s never been my intention to make Greenland the 51st state. I want to make Canada the 51st state. Greenland will be the 52nd state. Venezuela can be 53rd.” The room greeted several of his remarks with dead silence. His cosplay as the Pirate King was not received as a good-humored takeoff from a Gilbert and Sullivan opera. He went on. “So many people in the room I hate,” he said in a display of honesty. “Most of you I like,” he claimed. Then, at his peak euphoria, he flew off to Mar-a-Lago to plan his attack on Iran, which took place 27 days later. Trump’s imperialism of piracy and plunder is less of a system even than that of the earliest imperialism of 17th century privateers raiding the Spanish Main, the divine right of kings, and monarchs dividing up the spoils as favors to create their lords and earls. His schemes of aggrandizement operating by threat and force are justified by no larger rationale, nothing as exalted as “the white man’s burden”, marauding wherever and however he can to seize resources. Continue reading...
Pupils missed 15m hours of school time during UK’s June heatwave, study finds
At least 760,000 children in England and Wales missed lessons as more than 1,700 schools closed or finished early The gruelling heatwave that hit the UK in June caused pupils to miss more than 15m hours of lesson time as soaring temperatures forced hundreds of schools to close, according to a study. The research found that at least 760,000 schoolchildren in England and Wales missed lessons owing to closures during the heatwave – one of five to batter the UK this summer – as temperatures inside some classrooms topped 40C, leaving pupils and staff suffering from heat stress, nausea and headaches. Continue reading...
9/11 entrenched Islamophobia in US politics. But it doesn’t work the way you think | Moustafa Bayoumi
Anti-Muslim sentiment is used as a political weapon. Meanwhile, Muslim American leaders are making a difference for all It’s been 25 years since the terrorist attacks of September 11, and during this time Muslim Americans have learned how to live in that dangerous space between other Americans’ fears and their ignorance. The fear was clear from the beginning. Immediately following 9/11, Muslim Americans faced what Human Rights Watch called “a severe wave of backlash violence”. A tide of hate rose up against ordinary Muslims and those who appeared to be Muslim, including at least three murders in the immediate backlash after the attacks. The federal government, for its part, began targeting Muslim immigrants in a massive surge of repression that legal experts soon compared with the Palmer Raids of the 1920s. Continue reading...
We must pause risky AI research while we still have the power to do so | Gaby Hinsliff
Warnings of AI’s existential threat to humanity are piling up – it’s time to listen and take them deadly seriously Another day, another horseman of the apocalypse galloping over the horizon. Lately we have heard from so many AI doomers – tech whistleblowers popping up to warn that their work is probably going to kill us – that we’re becoming almost blase about it. Humanity wiped out within a decade? Well, only if another world war or the climate crisis doesn’t get us first. Since it’s never clear whether the tech threat is real, or just a twisted form of hype from an industry that drums up investment by making their products sound more powerful than they really are, most of us settle for trying not to think about it too hard. But something about the AI researcher Jacob Coxon’s very public resignation from the cutting-edge American lab Anthropic, via a post on X arguing that he can’t keep working for companies “gambling with our lives”, has cut through where bigger names have not. Most chillingly, he claimed that colleagues still at Anthropic aren’t staying because they think he’s wrong about the dangers of pursuing self-improving super intelligence – the holy grail of machines that are not just smarter than humans but capable of building their own even more powerful successors, evolving independently of humans – but because they’re afraid of ceding the field to people with fewer scruples. His colleagues, Coxon said, talk routinely about the “endgame” or the “ crunch time ”, meaning that what they do in the next year or two will decide the fate of humanity. Whether that’s true or simply self-aggrandising techbro delusion, what he describes is an industry now practically begging to be saved from itself. Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Greens select Zack Polanski to run in Holborn and St Pancras byelection
Leader has said Greens are underdogs in race for Keir Starmer’s former seat but he is confident they can beat Labour Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, has been selected as its candidate for the Holborn and St Pancras byelection on 8 October. The seat became vacant this month when the former prime minister Keir Starmer announced he was leaving parliament . Continue reading...
Missouri UPS worker two weeks from retirement fatally struck by company vehicle
Paul Roberts, who was employed by UPS for 44 years, was working at a customer care center when he was struck A longtime United Parcel Service (UPS) employee less than two weeks away from retiring was struck and killed by one of the company’s vehicles while he was at work in St Louis, triggering a federal labor investigation along with an intense outpouring of grief from his family and colleagues. Paul Roberts, 63, was on duty at the UPS customer care center in Earth City, Missouri , on the night of 4 September when a company vehicle hit him, authorities said. Continue reading...
9/11 families to gather at World Trade Center and Pentagon to remember victims on 25th anniversary – US politics live
Victims of those killed in September 11 attacks honored at memorials across the US Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. It is the 25th anniversary of 9/11, as Americans come together to remember and commemorate the devastating effects of the attacks, which claimed the lives of 2,977 victims. Donald Trump doubled down on his pledge to pay all US adults $5,000 if Republicans hold on to control of Congress in the midterm elections. He’s one of the few people to actually mention the pledge tonight, as many lawmakers and officials – including his vice-president, JD Vance – avoided mentioning the so-called “dividend” altogether. Trump defended his plan: “We can do that because our country has never done better. We’re taking in trillions, trillions of dollars.” In a shorter address to voters than his nearly two-hour speech on Wednesday, Trump again pleaded with voters to “pretend I’m on the ticket” in November. In an improvised pledge of allegiance to himself, Trump directed the audience to commit to voting in the midterm elections at all costs. The president asked Republicans in the arena to repeat: “I don’t care if I’m registered or not. I’m going to try. And cheat like hell like they do.” Trump also told those gathered in Dallas that they would “go to hell” if they didn’t vote. Earlier, JD Vance urged Republicans who may oppose parts of the Trump administration’s agenda not to abandon the party in November’s congressional races. The vice-president pointed to Charlie Kirk – the conservative activist killed a year ago today – to argue that voters shouldn’t “throw the baby out with the bathwater” over “a policy issue here or there”, an apparent nod to dissent over the Iran war that he avoided naming. Vance’s speech, in many ways, was an audition for a possible 2028 presidential run. He spent much of his time on stage setting out the threats of the so-called “far left”, listing the administration’s greatest hits and slamming Joe Biden’s tenure in office. Meanwhile, dozens of demonstrators gathered outside the arena to protest Trump’s policy agenda. Dallas police said that two people were taken into custody after an alleged assault involving a counter-protester and for blocking a roadway. Continue reading...
Emma Bonino, radical Italian politician who stood up to Vatican, dies aged 78
Militant feminist led campaigns to legalise abortion and divorce and went on to become foreign minister Emma Bonino, the radical Italian politician who led campaigns to legalise abortion and divorce against the objections of the Vatican, has died aged 78. “Today we lose not only our leader but also one of the most clear-sighted, courageous and free figures in the political history of our country,” the small party she founded, More Europe, said on Facebook on Friday. Continue reading...
Pochettino’s ‘different’ vow to the US invites unwelcome speculation
The US manager’s relationship with the international job has changed with a full World Cup cycle beginning I hope, in this lifetime, you find someone who loves you the way Mauricio Pochettino loves Tottenham Hotspur. The grip Spurs have on his heart seems the stuff of a literary classic: his imperfect partner who called things off at the first sign of trouble must merely check in on him occasionally to rekindle hopes of a reunion. Perhaps a bit extreme, but this week’s revelation – that he’d return to Tottenham even if they were relegated and chalking his absence up to imperfect timing, not the part about handing the club a decade-old title – has implicity laid out the terms of his return as United States manager. Others may always have interest in his services, and a certain North London suitor will never get the door slammed in their face outright. Continue reading...
Springboks v All Blacks a US World Cup preview in Baltimore as thrilling series goes down to the wire
‘Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry’ will culminate on US soil on Saturday, a staging post on the road to America hosting the World Cup in 2031 When New Zealand and South Africa kick off at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on Saturday, there will be more at stake than victory in “Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry”, the four-Test series the Springboks lead 2-1 . For World Rugby CEO Alan Gilpin, the game is a key staging post on the road to the 2031 World Cup, which the US will host – a journey that could include Six Nations games on American soil . “We’ve been in a long process with venues and cities, over the last two years,” Gilpin said, of the build to World Cup kick-off. “We’ve still got 25-plus cities involved in that process, which is fantastic in terms of engagement and enthusiasm. Continue reading...
Weather tracker: Hurricane Lowell pounds Hawaii’s western islands
Widespread damage across Ni’ihau, Kaua’i and O’ahu after reportedly first-ever recorded tornado watch in Hawaii Hurricane Lowell caused significant damage to Hawaii’s western islands this week. On Tuesday night the centre of Lowell tracked 50 miles (80km) from the island of Ni’ihau in Kauai County as a category 2 storm with winds of up to 110mph. The strong winds resulted in widespread power outages across Ni’ihau, and the islands of Kaua’i and O’ahu. The event was particularly notable because a tornado watch had been issued for Kaua’i on Monday night and into Tuesday morning. According to research maps from Iowa State University, it was likely to be the first-ever recorded tornado watch in Hawaii’s history. In the event, a tornado was not documented, however hurricanes can produce tornadoes and most often occur in thunderstorms within rain bands away from the centre of the hurricane. Currently, five named stormed have occurred in the central Pacific with the strong El Niño this year being a key driver in the above normal hurricane season, as noted by the National Weather Service. Continue reading...
Pressure grows on Burnham to commit to increasing statutory paternity leave
Exclusive: Calls from Labour grow as 105 MPs write to PM urging ‘obvious’ step to alleviate cost of living crisis Andy Burnham is coming under increasing pressure from his own MPs to commit to improving paternity leave in the UK in the next budget, with more than a quarter of Labour MPs writing to the prime minister to urge him to take action. Ahead of the chancellor’s first budget next month, 105 MPs have written to Burnham calling on him to increase statutory paternity leave to help alleviate the cost of living crisis and arguing that lowest-paid fathers are the hardest hit by meagre paternity leave provision. Continue reading...
Five-set tennis is under attack. Killing it would be a colossal unforced error | Andrew Lawrence
Five-set matches are physically punishing, occasionally absurd and increasingly under threat. They also produce much of what makes grand slam tennis great Tuesday night’s quarter-final match between Ben Shelton and Carlos Alcaraz had everything a US Open spectacle could ask for: huge stakes, knife-edge drama, top-shelf competition and an American hero who comes through in the end. The only fault to find was really the matter of time. The first ball wasn’t struck until 11.05 in the evening, and Shelton’s clinching ace didn’t come until 3.33 in the morning – marking, after a total of 4hr 28min on court, the latest-ending US Open match by a whopping 43 minutes. Somewhat predictably, the discourse among media and fans following the late-night match has swiftly moved on from the USTA’s misadventures in scheduling to a referendum on the five-set match and whether it should be put out to pasture. For the record: that would be a colossal unforced error. Continue reading...
Remembrance ceremonies to be held across the US to honor victims of 9/11
Memorials and remembrances will mark the 25 years since the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 on 11 September 2001 The United States is marking the 25th anniversary of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on Friday, with memorials and remembrance ceremonies taking place across the country to honor the nearly 3,000 people killed in the attacks. In New York City , the national September 11 memorial and museum will hold its annual commemoration ceremony, with the families of victims gathering at the 9/11 Memorial Plaza and reading aloud the names of those killed in the 9/11 attacks and in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Continue reading...