Category Archives: US Politics

Ukraine’s military says Starlink satellite connection stable after recent restrictions

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But Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX owns Starlink, accuses Ukrainian military of violating ⁠the company’s terms

Ukraine’s military has a “stable connection to Starlink”, the Ukrainian government said, 10 days after its ability to use the satellite communications system was suddenly restricted.

But hours after the announcement, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, whose company owns Starlink, accused the Ukrainian military of violating ⁠the company’s terms. Neither Musk nor the US government, which operates Starshield using Starlink technology, took responsibility for imposing the curbs.

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Epstein files take back seat in midterms but experts say issue has not gone away

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Other voter concerns have prevailed but return of Congress likely to see renewed focus on late sex offender’s activities

As US voters head to the polls for crucial and fraught midterm elections, some survivors’ advocates in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation have expressed concern that the scandal could recede into the background.

Political experts believe, however, the Epstein issue is not going away permanently and that many voters can balance day-to-day concerns such as affordability and AI with the scandal involving the late financier and accused sex trafficker whose social circle was widespread among America’s elite.

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ICC prosecutor says court making ‘significant progress’ despite US sanctions

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Nazhat Shameem Khan claims some staff are facing ‘banking difficulties’ but their work is unaffected

The deputy prosecutor of the international criminal court has said new US sanctions are beginning to take effect on its staff but insisted they have not hindered the court’s work.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, announced the sanctions this month, accusing the ICC – a frequent target of the Trump administration – of being a “rogue court” and declaring: “Either the ICC will end its threats, or we will end the ICC.”

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New Trump rule allows hunters to bait bears in Alaska with doughnuts, bacon and more

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Critics decry Trump administration rule that lets hunters lure bears with human foods on federal lands in Alaska

A new Trump administration rule allows hunters to bait bears on federal lands in Alaska with bacon, doughnuts, meat scraps or other human foods typically used to help kill the trophy animals at close range.

Opponents say the practice will cause bears to be more aggressive around humans, and allege that the rule change is a political gift to largely rightwing trophy hunters. The rule replaces a 2024 Biden administration rule that banned the practice, and environmental groups criticized the move as “indefensible and inexcusable”.

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Rubio tells Cubans ‘now is the time’ to act to see political change

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US secretary of state makes comments after Trump tells US rally warships could intervene on return from Iran

Marco Rubio urged Cubans seeking political change in their country to act, saying “now is the time” moments after Donald Trump told a Friday rally for candidates in south Florida that US warships could intervene in Cuba on their way back from the Iran war.

The US secretary of state, in his social media post addressed “to those who seek to create positive change”, urged Cubans to capitalize on Trump’s plans. “The disappointment of failed promises, corruption, and the privileged lives of only a few; seize this opportunity to create the change you desire through a discrete [sic] partnership with the CIA,” Rubio said.

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Department of Justice opens criminal investigation into Corey Lewandowski

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Ex-Trump adviser and former top aide for homeland security alleged to have profited off government role

Corey Lewandowski, a former political adviser to Donald Trump and ⁠top aide at the Department ⁠of Homeland Security, ​is under criminal investigation over allegations he profited off his role in the US government, three US officials and a fourth person familiar with the matter told Reuters ⁠on Thursday.

The investigation began with a criminal referral to the justice department from the internal watchdog at DHS, according to the four people. The DHS inspector general’s office has been investigating ⁠Lewandowski’s involvement in the handling of certain government contracts, according to one of the people, a DHS official.

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Chiricahua monument in Arizona is now the 64th US national park

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New designation of the Land of Standing-Up Rocks, known for its historic rock spires, passed with bipartisan support

An area of towering rock spires in south-eastern Arizona known among Native Americans as the Land of Standing-Up Rocks has become the nation’s newest national park.

Legislation to create Chiricahua national park was sent to the White House and Donald Trump signed it on Tuesday. It passed Congress with bipartisan backing and is now the 64th US national park.

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‘America, this is a warning’: pro- Trump Maga media in a froth over Europe protests

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Fox News and others have toed president’s line – seemingly hoping unrest abroad will make people vote Republican

Donald Trump sought to capitalize on the scenes of unrest in France, telling a crowd in Kansas on Monday that “migrants” and “communists” were responsible, and that the scenes were “what the radical ‘Dumocrats’ want to do to America”.

As Republicans struggle to convince voters across the country ahead of November’s midterm elections, Trump’s allies in the conservative media have followed suit, seemingly hoping that the scenes in France can scare people to the polls.

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Russia bombards Kyiv with missiles hours after agreeing to resume talks with Ukraine

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Experts say Russia is trying to destroy energy infrastructure before winter and US ‘appeasement and flattery’ will not achieve peace

Russia has carried out a massive “demonstrative” attack on Ukraine, bombarding Kyiv with ballistic missiles just hours after Vladimir Putin said he had agreed to resume trilateral negotiations after talks with the US envoy Steve Witkoff.

Overnight, Moscow pounded the Ukrainian capital, killing at least two people and wounding 22, including four children. Targets included the southern bridge over the Dnipro River, civilian houses, energy infrastructure, an ambulance station, office buildings and a monastery.

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Some US diplomats told to leave Saudi Arabia amid Houthi attacks

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Similar withdrawals from UAE, Jordan, Qatar and Bahrain reported as concerns grow about restart of war on Iran after US midterm elections

The US state department has ordered some diplomats and the families of US government employees to leave Saudi Arabia as the gulf kingdom faces a barrage of near-daily attacks, with at least three people killed at an airport and oilfield.

Attacks on “civilian airports and other critical infrastructure” by the Iranian-supported Houthis in Yemen were highlighted as the reason for the drawdown. The state department spokesperson, Tommy Pigott, said: “The safety and security of department personnel and their families remain our highest priority.”

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US gave us no warning of Russian strikes on Kyiv power plants, Zelenskyy says

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Ukrainian president accuses Washington of ‘denial of reality’ in continuing row with Trump over apparent support for Moscow

Ukraine did not receive a warning from the US about an impending Russian missile attack on Sunday evening, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said, reviving concerns that Washington is withholding intelligence to bully Kyiv into capitulating to Moscow.

Yuri Ihnat, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian air force, said on television on Monday morning that Ukraine had not received a warning before a Russian missile barrage hit power plants in Kyiv at about 11pm. Earlier, a Ukrainian government official had told the Guardian the US had not warned the capital about the impending missile strike.

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Massachusetts lieutenant governor candidate ends campaign after arrest

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Police said Shawn Oliver was arrested on suspicion of operating under influence of alcohol after a car crash

The Republican candidate for lieutenant governor in Massachusetts announced the suspension of his campaign on Sunday hours after he was arrested in a suspected drunk-driving crash.

Shawn Oliver, a city councilor in New Bedford and a corrections officer, said in a post on X he was ending his campaign because “the election is too important to be overshadowed by personal matters”.

Guardian staff contributed

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Ebola cases in Kenya highlight US failures amid Trump cuts to key services

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Opposition to US-led quarantine center in Kenya follows sweeping funding cuts and withdrawal from WHO

An eighth person in Kenya has tested positive for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola in the country’s first-ever cluster of cases of the virus, as the second-largest outbreak in history has killed more than 4,300 and sickened more than 9,000 people in the region.

It highlights the diminished role the US has played in the worsening Ebola outbreak by building a controversial quarantine center in Kenya, pulling back health support globally, and banning travelers from certain countries. All of this has also reduced the ability to identify and respond to the outbreak and exacerbated mistrust.

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CBS reporter apologizes and deletes post praising Abdul El-Sayed heckler

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Jan Crawford had praised man who asked Democratic candidate whether he would disavow Muslim Brotherhood

CBS’s chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford has apologized for and deleted a social media post praising a man who questioned Democratic Michigan US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed about the Muslim Brotherhood during a town hall on Saturday.

On Sunday, Crawford, who initially joined CBS in 2009, wrote on X: “Earlier, I tweeted a video from an Abdul El-Sayed town hall. I deleted that tweet because it was a violation of CBS News standards. I apologize.”

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Trump ‘border czar’ says Ilhan Omar could be ‘of course’ denaturalized and deported

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Officials allege congresswoman, whose home was raided by federal agents, or family violated law to obtain citizenship

Tom Homan, Donald Trump’s “border czar”, has said that the Republican presidential administration could “of course” strip Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar of her citizenship and deport her.

Homan’s comments during a Saturday appearance on Fox News were the first remarks explicitly mentioning denaturalization and deportation in connection with Omar that were attributed by name to a top Trump administration official since federal agents raided the Minnesota US House representative’s home on 12 October.

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US ambassador to Israel calls West Bank settler attack on American photojournalist ‘terror’

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Mike Huckabee calls for arrest and prosecution of those responsible as Heidi Levine, 63, recovers in hospital in Israel

The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has denounced the settler attack that left the Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine badly beaten and needing surgery as a “despicable act of terror” and called for the arrest and prosecution of those responsible.

Levine, 63, an award-winning journalist who lives in Israel, was set upon last Friday by masked Israeli settlers who used clubs and other weapons to attack Palestinian people attempting to harvest their olives in occupied West Bank towns.

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ICE agent who crashed into man in Texas was targeting suspect who died years ago, family says

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Federal officer slammed vehicle into a construction worker while pursuing a man who died in similar circumstances

A federal officer slammed a vehicle into a Houston construction worker and broke his leg, believing him to be a man who apparently died years ago, the dead man’s family said on Friday, further calling into question the account given by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The worker, 48-year-old Miguel Parra Hernandez of Mexico, remains hospitalized with multiple leg fractures and needs reconstructive ankle surgery, according to FIEL, a Houston-based immigration advocacy group. At a news conference on Friday, the group said the alleged suspect’s family had shared documentation proving his death.

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Elon Musk agrees to settle lawsuits over 2024 election lottery

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Trump-boosting billionaire was sued over promise to give away $1m per day to random signatories of petition

Elon Musk and his ⁠America Pac political action committee said recently that they agreed to settle two ⁠proposed class ⁠actions ​alleging the billionaire entrepreneur defrauded residents in closely contested states before the ⁠2024 US election by promising voters a lottery-style daily $1m giveaway.

The plaintiffs, Musk and America Pac ​told the ‌judge overseeing the two ‌related lawsuits in federal court in Austin, Texas, ‌on Thursday that they have reached settlements subject to court approval.

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Trump calls Ukraine’s renewed strikes on Russian oil refineries ‘a disgrace’

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US president says Zelenskyy ‘more difficult ​to deal with ​than Putin’ after ‘energy ceasefire’ collapses

Donald Trump has called Ukraine’s renewed strikes on Russian oil refineries “a disgrace” and criticised Volodymyr ⁠Zelenskyy after an energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine failed to take hold.

Ukraine resumed strikes on Russian oil refineries ⁠after Zelenskyy said Kyiv was abandoning a ceasefire unilaterally declared by Trump on Sunday, having briefly halted its attacks to demonstrate its readiness for peace talks. Russia had continued its strikes on Ukrainian power plants.

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Thursday briefing: Thanks to an erratic Trump, peace in Ukraine is still far away

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In today’s newsletter: As Russia resists a ceasefire and Trump’s shifting priorities unsettle allies, an end to the conflict isn’t getting any closer

Good morning. In his usual asinine unconventional approach to international relations, Donald Trump announced on Sunday (via Truth Social, how else) an “ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the War between Russia and Ukraine”, apparently without checking with either side. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who said any such deal was “news to me,” nonetheless declared he was “ready and we will accept it”. Vladimir Putin responded by blowing up some Ukrainian power plants.

This has been the tenor of much diplomacy during Trump’s tenure: false starts, U-turns, incoherent positions (and some playful flirting with Vlad). Meanwhile fighting continues, and America’s allies attempt to manage the fallout. Andy Burnham hosted Zelenskyy at Downing Street yesterday, stating the UK is doubling down on its support for Ukraine, and pointedly calling on others to “follow suit”.

UK | Sally Rooney has said she is being forced to withdraw her books from sale in the UK because of her support for the banned organisation Palestine Action.

Gaza | Israel is refusing to allow a key military outpost project for Donald Trump’s Board of Peace to proceed in Gaza, the Guardian has learned.

EU | Britain will benefit from much closer trading relations with the EU even if that means giving up its ability to negotiate free trade agreements, the Scotland secretary has said.

Ukraine | Ukraine’s military has suddenly had its access to Starlink satellite internet terminals restricted as the Trump administration has increased pressure on Ukraine to immediately halt long-range strikes on Russia’s oil industry.

Vaccine | Guinea-Bissau has not approved the controversial hepatitis B study in newborns that would be funded by the US government and private partners, the African country’s minister of health said.

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