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Politics
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New York man charged with rape and lethal fentanyl dosing of college student
Prosecutors allege Moises Freire gave two students at FIT the opioid, saying it was cocaine, and raped one as she overdosed A man raped a student at New York ’s Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) after giving her a dose of fentanyl that rendered her unconscious and ultimately killed her, federal prosecutors allege. That student’s friend also experienced an overdose and nearly died after taking the potent synthetic opiate, leading to charges against three men, the US justice department said in a statement on Thursday. Continue reading...
Katie Zacharia admits she never passed legal exams – video
In an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity, the new White House press secretary, Katie Zacharia, admitted that she did not pass the bar exam, after facing scrutiny about her legal career before becoming the top spokesperson for Trump. Zacharia had previously said she practiced law before entering politics, and Trump had described her as an attorney. Zacharia earned a law degree from Pepperdine University in 2011, according to the school. Nearly all licensed US lawyers first obtain a law degree, but law school graduates cannot legally practice law in the US without being admitted to a state bar. In China, the law requires practicing lawyers to be Chinese nationals. Foreign staff can advise and consult on legal matters but not practice law. Continue reading...
UK national security adviser under pressure over wife’s comment on supporting Palestine Action
Author Sarah Helm, married to Jonathan Powell, wrote to back novelist Sally Rooney’s support of proscribed direct action group The UK’s national security adviser Jonathan Powell is under pressure to distance himself from a comment made by his wife, the award-winning writer Sarah Helm , in support of Palestine Action. The post was made in defence of the critically acclaimed Irish novelist Sally Rooney, who said she had been forced to pull her books from shelves in the UK after pledging proceeds from their sales to Palestine Action. Continue reading...
The Guardian view on the banks: too big to fail cannot mean too big to tax | Editorial
Financiers owe their windfalls and bonuses to higher interest rates. Britain should reclaim more for the public and resist City lobbying John Healey is planning to tax British banks, the Guardian revealed , in the forthcoming budget. It’s about time for the chancellor to act. Banks have been raking it in. The campaign group Positive Money reported this summer that Britain’s four biggest banks made £29bn in the first half of this year, up a fifth on 2025. These windfalls owe more to higher interest rates than better products or services. Households and businesses pay more to borrow. Meanwhile, the Bank of England pays the banks tens of billions in interest on their reserves, with the Treasury footing the bill. The chancellor is said to favour restoring the bank surcharge from 3% to 8%, which could raise around £2bn a year . This would recover a very modest share of the sector’s bonanza. Louis XIV’s finance minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, said that “the art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing”. Britain’s banks have plenty of feathers. That hasn’t stopped them hissing . The banks say that they already face higher taxes than other companies, that they won’t be able to lend as much, and that their profits won’t last. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here . Continue reading...
Brazil’s Lula says he now supports lowering age of criminal responsibility from 18 to 16
Lula reverses position on age of responsibility for ‘heinous’ crimes in what many see as a desperate electoral gambit Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has announced that he now supports lowering the age of criminal responsibility for “heinous” crimes from 18 to 16, reversing a longstanding policy in what is widely seen as a desperate electoral gambit. The U-turn, which Lula announced during a Thursday night interview with TV Globo, comes with the presidential runoff in just over a week. The incumbent faces an uphill battle to overturn the first-round victory of his opponent, the far-right senator Flávio Bolsonaro, who remains slightly ahead at the polls. Continue reading...
Barack Obama pays tribute to Manchester cotton workers and cites them as an inspiration
Speaking at live UK event, former US president expresses hope rooted in the past and discusses the modern challenges to democracy Barack Obama cited the “wonderful” story of how Manchester cotton workers stood in solidarity with enslaved African Americans as an inspiration for our times in a live appearance in the city. Tens of thousands of people packed Co-op Live in the city on Thursday for An Evening With Barack Obama, where the former US president was interviewed by the writer and broadcaster Afua Hirsch. Continue reading...
NHS staff investigated over alleged accessing of tiger victim’s records
Yorkshire ambulance service says workers may have accessed or attempted to access information ‘without legitimate reason’ NHS staff may have accessed the medical records of a man killed by a tiger at a wildlife park “without legitimate permission”, an ambulance trust has said. Yorkshire ambulance service NHS trust has launched an investigation into two members of staff at the trust, which responded to emergency calls on Saturday when William Chapman climbed into the tiger enclosure at Yorkshire Wildlife Park. Continue reading...
Six-figure payout for senior civil servant sacked over Peter Mandelson vetting
Former head of Foreign Office Olly Robbins applied for judicial review after Keir Starmer dismissed him in April Olly Robbins, the former head of the Foreign Office sacked by Keir Starmer over his role in vetting Peter Mandelson, has received a more than six-figure payout from the government over his dismissal. Robbins had applied to the high court for a judicial review of the prime minister’s decision to remove him as the top civil servant at the Foreign Office after he was dismissed in April. Continue reading...
New White House press secretary faces more scrutiny – this time from Trump-friendly Fox News
Katie Zacharia made the rounds at the conservative news channel to defend her appointment as Trump’s mouthpiece US politics live – latest updates Katie Zacharia, the new White House press secretary , faced intense scrutiny from news outlets including the rightwing cable network Fox News amid growing questions over her legal credentials. During an appearance on Fox on Friday – her fifth day as Donald Trump’s chief spokesperson – Zacharia was asked if she still has the confidence of the US president. “I’m standing here,” she replied. Continue reading...
India’s Cockroach Janta party leader detained amid crackdown on protests
Abhijeet Dipke was arrested ahead of planned anti-government demonstrations in Delhi The leader of the Cockroach Janta party (CJP) youth movement, Abhijeet Dipke, was detained by police from his home on Friday as authorities cracked down on fresh anti-government protests in the Indian capital. Dipke was detained before a planned Friday evening demonstration he had called in central Delhi, urging supporters of the movement to come out and hold up the Indian flag. Continue reading...
Utah police dog survives injury after leaping from overpass – video
Newly released video by the Park City police department shows the moment K-9 dog Bruno jumped from a freeway overpass while inspecting a suspicious package on 15 September. An independent review found that the handler, officer Wayne Henderson, deployed Bruno in line with standard K-9 tactics. Bruno was air-lifted to a veterinary hospital after the incident and has been released to recover at home. Video shows moment Utah police dog seriously injured in leap from overpass Continue reading...
‘Tough to watch, impossible to ignore’: what the reviewers say about NAZA documentary
Film interviewing military insiders about mass killing of civilians in Gaza receives widespread praise around the world Critics around the world have hailed the award-winning documentary NAZA as a “brilliant and harrowing” film that is “impossible to ignore”. NAZA, which is produced by the Guardian and details Israel’s mass killing of civilians in Gaza, was released in UK cinemas this week and will be shown in more than 50 countries. As well as its global cinema releases, NAZA will be available free on the Guardian’s website from late November. Continue reading...
Starlink access still not fully restored for Ukraine’s military, says Zelenskyy
Ukrainian president says US limiting access was a ‘dangerous and unpleasant surprise’, amid reports the order came from inside White House Europe live – latest updates Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said the Ukrainian military’s access to the Starlink satellite internet service has not yet been fully restored, as media reports suggested the order to throttle the service had come from within the White House. Zelenskyy met European leaders on Friday in Brussels, where he asked the EU for another €70bn next year to fund Ukraine’s defence against Russia. Continue reading...
Target pensions or welfare, not banks, IMF tells John Healey
Supporters of planned tax, however, say banks were bailed out by taxpayers during the financial crisis and can afford to pay more now John Healey poised to raise taxes on banks in budget The International Monetary Fund has urged John Healey to target savings on pensions and welfare, instead of taxing Britain’s banks at the budget later this month. Helge Berger, deputy director of the IMF’s European department, was asked about bank taxes after the Guardian revealed Healey plans to tap the sector for additional revenue. Continue reading...
Of course Trump is helping Russia in Ukraine – he’s a master of the art of betrayal | Jonathan Freedland
The old certainties have gone. We will have to spend whatever it takes to protect ourselves in this new and dangerous world Donald Trump must find it oddly frustrating. He keeps showing the world exactly who he is, and yet the world keeps refusing to believe it. As clearly as he can, he is announcing that he is not the leader of the free world, that he is not even a reliable member of the democratic west, that he is in fact an ally of its enemies – but the west, including Britain, either doesn’t fully get the message or can’t quite bring itself to draw the obvious conclusion. Trump had another go this week, finding multiple ways to declare that in the war between Russia and Ukraine, he is no mediator or peace broker but a partner of Vladimir Putin. In fairness to him, the US president had loudly issued that declaration within weeks of his return to the White House when, in February 2025, he delivered an on-camera dressing down of Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, seeking to humiliate the Ukrainian leader by telling him “you don’t have the cards”, even as JD Vance demanded their visitor show gratitude. That should have made Trump’s position sufficiently plain, but in the past few days he has all but put it up in lights. Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist US midterms: Trump, war and America’s future On Thursday, 5 November join Jonathan Freedland, Devika Bhat, Professor Adam Smith in London and David Smith and leading US commentator Tara Setmayer live from the US to discuss the results and their implications for the future of Trump, the US and global politics. Book tickets here or at guardian.live Continue reading...
Attacks on Ukraine’s power plants show Russia has given up on military victory
Strikes increasingly resemble an intercepted Russian blueprint to make life unliveable in major Ukrainian cities Europe live – latest updates As Russian missiles and drones have systematically slammed into power plants in Kyiv and Kharkiv this week, the rolling blackouts and water outages have increasingly resembled a supposed Russian blueprint to destroy life in major Ukrainian cities seen by the Guardian. Even as Donald Trump unilaterally declared an “energy ceasefire” last week between Moscow and Kyiv, Russia continued with its methodical and devastating strikes on Ukraine’s power grid, in particular in Kyiv, in a strategy meant to punish Ukraine’s population and drive the country to capitulation. Continue reading...
Judi Dench joins calls by The Archers cast to keep show in Birmingham
The actor, who made a cameo in the Radio 4 drama in 1989, has signed a letter urging BBC not to move studio elsewhere The cast and crew behind The Archers, including the one-time guest star Judi Dench, have written to the BBC director general urging him to keep the recording of the Radio 4 drama in Birmingham. It emerged this week that the corporation was planning to stop recording the rural community soap opera in the city for the first time in the show’s 75-year history, after it scrapped plans for a radio drama studio. Continue reading...
Russell Brand was ‘wild-eyed maniac’ when trying to drag woman into toilets, court told
Woman says she ‘wrenched’ herself free of assault that allegedly took place when she was working at MTV in 2001 Russell Brand transformed into a “wild-eyed maniac” when he tried to drag a woman into the men’s toilets for a sexual encounter before she “wrenched” herself free, a court has heard. The 51-year-old comedian is accused of indecently assaulting the woman who told Southwark crown court: “I emerged relatively unscathed. He didn’t manage to rape me.” Continue reading...
Police search for clues to deadly shooting at Oregon elementary school
Schools closed after one teacher and three children killed, and child and teacher hospitalized with critical injuries Police are investigating a deadly shooting at an elementary school in Bend, Oregon, where a 16-year-old opened fire on Thursday, killing three children and a teacher, before being shot dead by an armed bystander. Authorities in Oregon said that the three children killed at Silver Rail elementary school were aged five, eight and 11, and that a seven-year-old child and a 54-year-old teacher were also hospitalized with critical injuries. Continue reading...
US voters want action on global heating. So why are midterm candidates ‘climate hushing’?
Polls show that Democrats and Republicans in battleground states want to hear more from candidates about the climate crisis Most Americans feel unease or alarm about the climate crisis and, in both red and blue states, want to know how political leaders are going to fix it. But in midterm election campaigns across the US, candidates have responded to this desire with near silence. People in the US have this year endured a record hot summer as well as soaring costs, equating to roughly $2,000 per household , in extra energy and mortgage payments, due to the country’s dependence on a fossil fuel supply scrambled by Donald Trump’s decision to attack Iran. Continue reading...
UK police force pays out after claims it protected officers accused of abusing women
Exclusive: Devon and Cornwall police formally apologise to nine women and settle claim without admitting liability A police force alleged to have promoted and protected male officers despite knowing they were accused of attacking women has formally apologised and paid compensation to nine female victims, the Guardian has learned. The women allege they were subjected to a range of abuse including rape, assault, threats, harassment and coercive control while in relationships with male officers from Devon and Cornwall police. Continue reading...
UK risks losing key role in European space industry over satellite contract, says Airbus boss
Guillaume Faury writes to Andy Burnham warning him against choosing US firm Lockheed Martin to build Skynet satellites The boss of Airbus has told Andy Burnham that choosing US rival Lockheed Martin to manufacture military satellites could cost the UK a key role in the European space industry, intensifying a last-minute lobbying effort for the £2.4bn contract. It is understood that Guillaume Faury, chief executive of France-headquartered Airbus, has written to the prime minister suggesting that the choice of provider of the Skynet system could have effects for decades to come on the UK’s strength in military satellites in Europe, in an effort to tip the contract away from its US rival. Continue reading...
Martin Rowson on John Healey’s first budget – cartoon
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‘Unsafe’ conditions at Texas ICE facility put immigrants at risk of injury or death, lawsuit says
Court filing alleges ‘physical abuse by guards’, ‘filthy living conditions’ and disease outbreaks at Camp East Montana How has Trump’s immigration agenda affected the US midterms? Send us your questions Attorneys and experts are raising the alarm that immigrants at Camp East Montana , the sprawling desert detention camp on the Fort Bliss military base in west Texas, face a risk of serious injury or death because of ongoing, extreme health and safety hazards there, according to a fresh court filing, the Guardian can reveal. The allegedly dangerous conditions persist at the tent jail, the largest immigration detention facility in the US, despite regular reports from inside and outside the federal government that it has violated dozens of official standards since it opened last year. Continue reading...