More than 50m Americans cast ballots in early voting with three days to go before midterms

Record number of early votes cast, with Democrats outnumbering Republicans in states which collect that information

There has been a surge of early voting for the US midterm elections, with millions more Americans going to the polls compared with the last such election amid a series of tight contests that will determine control of Congress.

More than 50.5m early votes have been cast across the US as of Saturday morning, according to an analysis by the University of Florida. This is already nearly 5m more votes than the total number of early votes made in the last midterm elections, in 2022.

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Maurene Comey ruling offers hope of check on Trump’s assault on rule of law

Legal experts welcome judge’s rejection of firing of James Comey’s daughter prosecutor but warn an appeal is likely

A recent legal ruling against an effort to fire the star-prosecutor daughter of a former FBI chief targeted by Donald Trump could send a strong message about politicized firings – and influence other judges weighing similar cases, legal veterans said.

Judge Jesse Furman ruled this week that the Department of Justice’s firing of assistant US attorney Maurene Comey without cause was unlawful. Comey, the daughter of former FBI director James Comey, successfully litigated numerous high-profile cases during her tenure at the southern district of New York, including guilty verdicts against Ghislaine Maxwell and Sean “Diddy” Combs.

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Luigi Mangione’s lawyers file to dismiss state charges, citing double jeopardy law

Mangione pleaded guilty in August in federal case in the killing of UnitedHealthcare executive Brian Thompson

Luigi Mangione’s lawyers filed paperwork on Friday once again pushing for dismissal of his state-level case in the killing of UnitedHealthcare executive Brian Thompson following his federal guilty plea.

Mangione pleaded guilty on 14 August to federal charges in Thompson’s grisly death outside a Manhattan hotel on 4 December 2024. The shocking plea came less than a month before his state murder and weapons trial, which had been scheduled for 8 September.

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Ukraine’s Zelenskyy praises US over $2.1bn Patriot missile deal but warns it could take years

The Ukrainian president called the US decision strong, but added that delivery of 500 Patriot PAC-3 missiles ⁠could take years

The US has approved the sale ⁠of 500 Patriot PAC-3 missiles ⁠to Ukraine for an estimated $2.1bn, but Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned deliveries could take years and stockpiles were needed now to counter Russian ballistic missile attacks.

“The proposed sale will improve Ukraine’s capability to meet current and future threats by improving its integrated air and missile defense capabilities,” the US state department said in a statement on Friday.

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Retired Michigan teacher released from Russian prison believed he would never be freed

Stephen Hubbard said that only when he was being taken from Moscow to St Petersburg did he believe he was ‘going somewhere’

In his first comments since recently being released from a Russian prison, a retired Michigan teacher said he only believed he would be freed when he got new clothes.

Stephen Hubbard, 74, remarked on Friday that he had heard many times previously that he would be released – but never really trusted what he was told, adopting a philosophy of “seeing is believing” and “actions speak louder than words”.

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Democratic lawmakers demand ICE data on detainee miscarriages

Demand comes after Guardian investigation found ICE failed to record data on miscarriages suffered by immigrants in its custody between October 2025 and June 2026

US lawmakers are urgently demanding that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) disclose how many pregnant immigrants have experienced miscarriages, stillbirths and pregnancy-related hospitalizations while in the its custody, after the agency admitted it lost count last year.

US representatives sent the request following a recent Guardian investigation revealing that the Trump administration is detaining a record number of pregnant women and teens, and at the same has lost track of how many suffered miscarriages.

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Gulf states must rethink trillion-dollar defence in light of US-Iran war, says report

IISS study questions overreliance on American support and ‘overdependence on expensive, high-end systems’

Gulf states are going to have to reconfigure their trillion-dollar defences given the damage inflicted on their economies and the questionable continued value of US bases in the face of Iranian attack, according to a study by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

The report says that in the weeks before the 8 April ceasefire, 12 regional states, overwhelmingly in the Gulf, faced 4,670 Iranian one-way attack drones and more than 1,400 ballistic missiles. Nearly half were aimed at the United Arab Emirates. Although the vast majority were repelled, one estimate of the damage to energy infrastructure cited by the report is put as high as $58bn (£43bn).

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James Comey lawyers seek to have third criminal case dismissed

Federal judge to hear arguments on Friday over leak case that was twice previously investigated with no action taken

Lawyers for the former FBI director James Comey will ask a federal judge on Friday to block the US justice department from pursuing its third criminal case against him.

Comey is an outspoken critic of Donald Trump, in open feud since the US president fired him from that post early in his first term, and he is a frequent target of Republican outrage.

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First Thing: Alaska Senate race descends into legal acrimony over second Dan Sullivan

DoJ reportedly issues subpoenas after reports Democrat campaign sought candidate with same name as Republican incumbent. Plus, tributes pour in for Patrick Stewart

Good morning. The US justice department is said to have issued subpoenas after a report that the Alaska Democrat Mary Peltola’s campaign collaborated with party operatives to get a challenger with the same name as the Republican senator Dan Sullivan on to the midterm ballot.

Ballot stacking is a political tactic used in elections to draw votes away from an opponent by “stacking” the ballot with other candidates. While it is not illegal, the US president and the justice department have filed a lawsuit pre-emptively to block the certification of the Senate election results if the incumbent senator loses. Ariana Baio explains what is going on.

The Trump administration has opened a criminal investigation in California over claims that thousands of noncitizens are registered to vote. Donald Trump has repeatedly alleged that California’s elections are “corrupt” and “rigged”. Some employees from the office of the Los Angeles county registrar-recorder received grand jury subpoenas, the office confirmed.

Government corruption has emerged as a top issue in the upcoming elections, with an overwhelming majority of Americans saying US government officials use their public office for personal financial gain, according to an exclusive Harris poll for the Guardian. Three-quarters of voters said they thought elected officials cared more about enriching themselves than improving the economy for ordinary people.

Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican nominee for Ohio governor, confirmed his campaign had pulled an attack ad featuring Donna Arthur, the estranged mother of his Democratic opponent, Amy Acton. It followed a public backlash after the revelation that Arthur lost custody of Acton in 1978 after Arthur’s second husband was charged with repeatedly raping the then child.

The Canadian rocker Bryan Adams has trolled Donald Trump with a new song criticising his attempt to rename Lake Ontario, and another track called 51st State about Trump’s efforts to annex Canada.

This video explainer gives an overview in three and a half minutes of whether Israel’s opposition parties can work with new Palestinian Knesset members to oust Netanyahu.

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Families in the US are opting for earlier measles vaccinations amid outbreak

Parents are opting for a second shot of MMR vaccine sooner, which aligns with guidance in Germany, the UK and France

Measles cases are accelerating in the US, with twice as many confirmed cases as last year, and more parents are opting for earlier vaccination – especially with the second dose of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, which can be given as soon as four weeks after the first.

Giving the second shot soon after the first aligns with what some other countries, such as Germany, the United Kingdom and France, recommend – and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also says it’s an option.

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Hegseth reportedly fires high-ranking army strategist over alleged leaks

Pentagon says it has referred leak case to justice department for criminal investigation

The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has reportedly dismissed Lt Gen Brett Sylvia, a high-ranking army strategist serving on the Pentagon’s joint staff, following allegations that he disclosed classified information to the public.

The Pentagon announced on Thursday that it had referred an alleged information leak case for criminal investigation, maintaining that the removal of the senior general was essential “to protect sensitive information”, the Washington Post reported.

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Patrick Stewart, Star Trek actor and acclaimed thespian, dies aged 86

Star Trek: the Next Generation and X-Men actor died at his home after ‘a brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia’

Patrick Stewart, the acclaimed British stage and screen actor renowned for both Shakespeare and sci-fi, has died. He was 86.

The Star Trek: the Next Generation and X-Men star died on Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles after “a brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia”, said Kelly Bush Novak, his longtime spokesperson, to the Hollywood Reporter.

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DHS cites risk to more than 40,000 personnel in effort to take leaked data offline

The Department of Homeland Security asked an Icelandic hosting company to take down data obtained through hack

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) asked ⁠an Icelandic hosting company on Thursday to take down or limit access to data related to thousands ⁠of agency personnel, saying ⁠the content ​put them at risk, according to the request posted online by hosting company FlokiNET.

The database “places more than ⁠40,000 identifiable individuals at risk of harassment, stalking and physical harm”, the request said.

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DoJ reportedly issues subpoenas over same name Alaska candidates

Democrat Mary Peltola’s campaign allegedly collaborated with party operatives to confuse voters in midterms

The US justice department on Thursday is reported to have issued subpoenas in response to a report that the Alaska Democrat Mary Peltola’s campaign collaborated with party operatives to get a challenger with the same name as the Republican senator Dan Sullivan on the midterm ballot.

ABC News reported the subpoenas, citing sources familiar with the matter. The federal investigation comes a day after the New York Times found that the effort to recruit a second candidate named Dan Sullivan in the Senate race set to be decided on Tuesday was led by Peltola’s campaign, which had for months denied involvement.

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JD Vance letter may offer last chance to avert fresh conflict between US and Iran

US vice-president writes to top Iranian security official in sign Washington has not abandoned diplomacy

Hopes of averting a major new conflagration between Iran and the US soon after Tuesday’s midterm elections could rest on Iran’s response to a personal letter from the US vice-president, JD Vance, offering to restart diplomacy.

The letter, written after predominantly Qatari mediation, was sent to the secretary of Iran’s supreme national security council, Mohsen Rezaei on Sunday. It requires Tehran to agree to make commitments on its nuclear programme at the start of a process that would lead to the opening of the strait of Hormuz within seven days in return for US sanctions relief.

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Seven oil tankers carrying 288,000 tonnes of Russian diesel sail towards US

Tankers, tracked by Greenpeace, are first phase of Trump-Putin deal – but there is uncertainty over whether they will unload

Seven oil tankers carrying an estimated 288,000 tonnes of Russian diesel are now sailing towards the US, though it is uncertain if the vessels will be able to unload amid a political row about the legality of the shipments.

The transport, tracked by the pressure group Greenpeace, is the first phase of a contentious supply deal negotiated between presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin earlier this month, reversing years of sanctions on Russia oil.

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Cuts like a knife: Canadian rocker Bryan Adams trolls Trump with new song

Musician wrote a ‘love letter’ to Canada with a new album – and some pointed commentary about the US president

Lake Ontario, the vast body of water that straddles the US-Canada border, has gone by many names over the centuries: Lac Saint-Louis, Lacus Ontarius, Skaniadorio, Cataraqui Lake. But one thing it will never be called, says the Canadian rock star Bryan Adams, is Lake America.

In his new song Lake Ontario, Adams takes aim at the US president, Donald Trump, accusing him of “breaking the peace” between the people who live on the lake’s shores.

The ‘lake of shining waters’ is what the Iroquois called her

It’s a First Nations name – not an executive order.

But things weren’t going his way in Iran

So like a baby tossing the toys from the pram

You can push us to the brink

But where the open road divides

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Elke Sommer, prolific German star of A Shot in the Dark and And Then There Were None, dies aged 85

The Berlin-born performer had a gift for languages that took her to Hollywood, landing roles alongside Peter Sellers, Dick Van Dyke and Paul Newman

Elke Sommer, the prolific German star of the Pink Panther film A Shot in the Dark, early 70s Agatha Christie adaptation And Then there Were None, and British sex comedy Carry on Behind, has died aged 85. Bild magazine reported that Sommer died in Los Angeles of heart failure.

German-born Sommer, whose best-known film roles were in the 1960s and 70s, was one of the wave of European performers who crossed over to Hollywood and English-language cinema with considerable success, following the postwar emergence of European new wave cinema. Sommer was one of the few German actors to make waves at the time, as Hollywood made much of her bombshell image.

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Nvidia CEO reportedly targeted by an alleged Chinese spy

Jensen Huang reported to have had close relationship with tech company executive suspected of passing intel to China

US intelligence agencies believe the Nvidia chief executive, Jensen Huang, has been targeted by an alleged Chinese spy who had done business with him, according to a new report by the New York Times.

Alice Huang or Huang Le, of no relation to the Nvidia CEO, is an executive at a Singapore-based datacenter company called Megaspeed. She had previously been suspected of smuggling Nvidia chips to China, prompting American officials to surveil and monitor her. Those officials have determined that she was acting as a Chinese intelligence asset, passing commercial information to Beijing, the New York Times reported, citing unnamed sources.

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‘They mobilized a whole government response to that joke’: Obama laughs off Trump attacks in rally for Ossoff

Former US president comes to Georgia to support Jon Ossoff for US Senate and Keisha Lance Bottoms for governor

Barack Obama, speaking at a Wednesday campaign rally in suburban Atlanta, offered a closing argument for Democrats in the final week of the midterm election campaign.

“These are not serious people,” he said of Donald Trump and the Republican party. “And we’re all paying the price for their lack of seriousness.”

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