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US politics: the White House, Congress, the courts and the elections.
1035 articles · page 7 of 22
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal from a Democratic-appointed member of the National Labor Relations Board who challenged the legality of her firing by President Donald Trump, marking another step in the erosion of protections for independent federal agencies.
A growing exodus of American and international scientists from the United States has reached unprecedented levels, according to new reports and interviews, as foreign universities actively recruit researchers disheartened by federal grant delays, political interference in scientific funding, and concerns about academic freedom under the Trump administration.
Top Trump adviser Ric Grenell allegedly offered a Turkish billionaire access to President Trump and administration officials in exchange for a donation to the Kennedy Center, according to a text message reviewed by Axios. The White House counsel is investigating the claims.
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a petition from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks, to restore plea agreements that would have spared him and two co-defendants the death penalty. The denial keeps capital punishment on the table as the case proceeds toward a military trial scheduled for June 2028.
· 5 sourcesFederal immigration agents broke the arm of a US citizen during a confrontation in Long Beach, California, on Saturday, prompting a Democratic congressman to call the incident a 'brutal attack' and renew calls to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Elon Musk has announced he will give one of his SpaceX shares to every child in the United States next year, a gift valued at over $10.5 billion based on the company's current stock price. The pledge was made in a post on X early Monday, with Musk describing it as the "first of many" such donations. The proposal would leverage the Trump Accounts program, a federal framework designed for direct investments to children, which the Trump administration launched earlier this year.
· 3 sourcesA Bloomberg News investigation has detailed how a Russian state-backed operation is using armies of automated accounts to inflate view counts of AI-fabricated videos attacking Democratic candidates, manufacturing the illusion that false stories about the November midterm elections are popular on X.
· 4 sourcesSeven members of Cornell University's Chi Phi fraternity have been accused of drugging and sexually assaulting a fellow student, prompting a civil lawsuit and two separate investigations. The student, identified only as Jane Doe, has sued the university, the fraternity and others over the alleged attack, which took place about two years ago. The men deny the allegations.
CBS News chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford has apologized and deleted a social media post in which she praised a man who interrupted a Democratic Michigan Senate candidate's town hall with questions about the Muslim Brotherhood, as the man was identified as a former aide to Senator Josh Hawley. The incident has intensified scrutiny of CBS's editorial direction under editor-in-chief Bari Weiss and highlighted the role of the Muslim Brotherhood issue in a closely watched midterm contest.
· 5 sourcesPresident Donald Trump has unveiled detailed plans to turn Washington's historic East Potomac Golf Links into a single 18-hole championship course, announcing a November 15 start date that clashes with a federal judge's orders halting work at the site. Judge Ana Reyes responded by extending a ban on further tree removal to October 26 and demanding the government state whether its legal position, that the project was only at a preliminary stage, still stands.
· 5 sourcesMeta temporarily suspended the Instagram account of the No Kings movement on Saturday as the group organized nationwide pro-democracy protests aimed at boosting early voter turnout. The company apologized, attributing the shutdown to an automated system triggered by high-frequency posting, but the coalition and elected officials questioned the explanation, reigniting censorship concerns.
Massachusetts Republican lieutenant governor candidate Shawn Oliver has suspended his campaign, a day after he was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving following a late-night crash in New Bedford. His running mate, GOP gubernatorial candidate Mike Minogue, said he asked Oliver to immediately suspend the campaign and would formally ask for his resignation if elected.
· 2 sourcesTom Homan, Donald Trump’s border czar, said on Saturday that Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar could “of course” be stripped of her citizenship and deported if she lied during the naturalization process. The remarks, made on Fox News, are the first attributed by name to a senior Trump administration official since federal agents raided Omar’s home on 12 October, sparking accusations of political weaponization.
· 2 sourcesThe US Environmental Protection Agency has quietly abandoned its long-held claim that the toxic PFAS chemicals PFOA and PFOS have been phased out of American production, changing its website to acknowledge that both remain in use. The reversal follows a formal complaint from environmental group PEER and comes amid a six-year legal fight over Houston-based Inhance, which makes up to 200 million plastic containers a year used across the US economy.
President Donald Trump has formally waived the sweeping sanctions and tariffs mandated by the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, signing an executive order that took effect as the law's October 18 deadline passed without triggering new penalties on Russian energy buyers. The president simultaneously escalated a feud with Kyiv, claiming Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky 'doesn't want to end this war,' while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defended the move as a temporary pause to examine the situation.
· 5 sourcesPresident Donald Trump fired his newly appointed press secretary Katie Zacharia on Friday after just five days in the role, according to a New York Times column by Maureen Dowd. The column, reprinted in Australian outlets, reports that Trump told Zacharia "Honestly, if I were you, I'd reconsider" before giving her the boot, capping a brief and turbulent tenure marked by a disastrous debut news conference and internal White House infighting.
· 5 sourcesRallies organised by the No Kings network were held Saturday in cities across the United States, urging voters to cast ballots early in the November 3 midterm elections. Organisers said they have planned more than 3,000 events nationwide under the banner 'No Kings: Vote Early', seeking to build on nearly two years of demonstrations against President Donald Trump.
A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer slammed a vehicle into a Houston construction worker, breaking his leg, while pursuing a suspect who apparently died years ago, the dead man's family has revealed, further calling into question the agency's account of the incident.
US President Donald Trump has sparked bipartisan condemnation by suspending new sanctions on Russia and countries that buy its oil and gas, just days before the restrictions were due to take effect. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the move would only encourage further attacks, calling it a 'financial reward for Putin'. Trump signed an executive order on Friday citing national interest, but did not set a timeline for when the penalties might be reintroduced.
· 8 sourcesA fourth-generation Nebraska farmer who voted for Donald Trump three times says he will not do so again, the latest sign that the president's rural base is fracturing ahead of the November 3 midterm elections, with Republican control of both chambers of Congress in doubt.
Lawyers for Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar have demanded the return of property seized during a federal raid of her Washington, D.C. home, accusing the Justice Department of conducting a politically motivated investigation and failing to follow a magistrate judge's instructions. The Justice Department has rejected the accusations as 'false allegations and inaccuracies.'
· 2 sourcesElon Musk and his America PAC have agreed to settle two proposed class-action lawsuits filed by Arizona residents who alleged the billionaire defrauded voters by promising a daily $1 million giveaway during the 2024 US presidential election. The settlements were disclosed in federal court in Austin, Texas, on Thursday and are subject to court approval. Terms of the agreement have not been made public.
· 2 sourcesElon Musk and his America PAC political action committee have agreed to settle two proposed class action lawsuits alleging the billionaire defrauded voters by promising a $1 million daily lottery-style giveaway to registered voters in swing states before the 2024 US presidential election. The settlements, announced in federal court in Austin, Texas, on Thursday, require court approval and their terms have not been made public.
· 2 sourcesA former Reform UK politician has compared her former party's response to criticism to that of an abuser in a domestic abuse relationship, amid fresh allegations of sexism and misogyny. Sarah Cooper-Lesadd, who left Reform UK for Plaid Cymru last month, said she was not surprised by the claims and had personal experience of such behaviour.
A column published in Australian newspapers cites new data showing consumer prices are rising faster in rural America than in cities for the first time in years, a trend the author attributes to President Donald Trump's tariffs and military conflict with Iran. The analysis comes less than three weeks before the US midterm elections, in which Republicans are defending their congressional majorities.
· 4 sourcesMultiple congressional offices in Florida, South Dakota and California reported receiving suspicious mail on Friday, including envelopes containing unknown substances, as federal authorities investigate a wider series of mailings targeting lawmakers and election officials nationwide.
· 3 sourcesU.S. Secret Service Deputy Director Matthew C. Quinn will leave his post on Nov. 7, 2026, after 18 months in the role, he announced in a letter to agency personnel on Friday. Quinn said the decision was partly for personal reasons and partly because he believes the agency is well-positioned for the future.
Donald Trump used a rally in north Georgia to again claim that the 2020 election in the state was fraudulent, alleging that Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff was never legitimately elected. Speaking to about 1,200 supporters at Dalton municipal airport, Trump also touted unfulfilled foreign investment pledges, defended the Iran war amid rising fuel costs, and dismissed criticism over the cost of living as 'Democratic propaganda.'
Katie Zacharia has broken her silence after being sacked as White House press secretary just five days into the job, saying the role 'was an honour'. The BBC has confirmed her departure, which came on Saturday, and the White House has not announced a replacement. Her swift exit follows questions about her legal credentials and a debut briefing in which she could not say whether Washington had suspended intelligence sharing with Ukraine.
· 6 sourcesUS Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has transferred $1 million from her own campaign to support Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, marking a major progressive intervention in the tightly contested race. Ocasio-Cortez confirmed the donation on Friday, saying she is 'leaving everything I can on the field' to counter what she described as smears against El-Sayed's Muslim faith, Egyptian heritage and support for Palestine.
· 2 sourcesA federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit accusing private equity billionaire Leon Black of rape after the plaintiff, known only as Jane Doe, said she was medically incapable of continuing and at risk of acute psychiatric crisis including suicide. The dismissal, requested by Doe herself, comes without any settlement, according to Black’s legal team, and does not resolve Black’s separate battle with the US House of Representatives, which has voted to hold him in criminal contempt for defying subpoenas related to his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
Representative Ritchie Torres of New York has introduced the Power To The Players Act, a bill that would require the Federal Trade Commission to establish regulations guaranteeing consumers ownership of the video games they purchase rather than a revocable license. The legislation comes amid growing frustration over games that become unplayable when publishers shut down the servers required to run them, with the bill specifically citing NBA 2K25 as an example of the problem.
· 2 sourcesThe Food and Drug Administration under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is advancing a policy to allow easier access to unproven peptide drugs popular in Kennedy's Make America Healthy Again movement, despite internal staff findings that the drugs lack sufficient safety and efficacy data and may cause harm.
The United States finished the 2026 fiscal year with a budget deficit of nearly $2 trillion, about 12 per cent higher than the previous year, the Treasury Department reported Friday, underscoring the depth of the country's fiscal strain.
· 2 sourcesThe United States has recorded 4,410 measles cases so far in 2026, up 330 in a week, and the CDC is sending an investigator to Pennsylvania, where the country's largest outbreak has killed five people and prompted a sixth death investigation.
Amber Guyger, the former Dallas police officer convicted of murdering her black neighbor Botham Jean in his own apartment in 2018, was released from prison on Friday after serving seven years of a 10-year sentence, two weeks after the Texas board of pardons and paroles approved her release.
Katie Zacharia has been removed as White House press secretary after just five days on the job, the shortest tenure in U.S. history. President Donald Trump told reporters on Friday that he had encouraged Zacharia to reconsider the role, saying 'I just spoke to her about it. I said, Katie, is this for you?' A White House official confirmed to reporters that Zacharia was 'transitioning out' of the position.
· 15 sourcesKatie Zacharia, Donald Trump's new White House press secretary, faced tough questions from Fox News host Sean Hannity on Friday amid growing scrutiny of her first press briefing and her claim to be a lawyer despite not having passed the bar exam.
· 2 sourcesThe 16-year-old who killed three children and a teacher at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, on Thursday was a former special-needs student who targeted a special education classroom, police said. The bystander who shot the suspect has been identified as Kaylub Giamanco, a father of two girls at the school. A teacher confronted the gunman, throwing her phone and wrestling for his shotgun before Giamanco intervened.
· 8 sourcesU.S. Representative Ritchie Torres of New York has introduced the Power To The Players Act, federal legislation that would require video game purchases to confer ownership rather than a revocable license. The bill directs the Federal Trade Commission to establish regulations ensuring consumers own their games and that online-only titles must provide an offline mode before their servers are shut down. The move follows growing backlash against publishers that deactivate games after discontinuing support.
An Oregon-based influencer who played a key role in spreading false claims that Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico had been admitted to a mental health facility has a long history of social media posts that invoke Nazi Germany, express antisemitism and anti-Black racism, and call for the remigration of refugees, according to a Guardian review. The hoax, which circulated widely on Sunday before being debunked by the Lindner Center of Hope psychiatric hospital in Ohio, was amplified by a staffer on the campaign of Talarico's Republican rival, Attorney General Ken Paxton.
· 2 sourcesFederal agents have launched an investigation aimed at stripping US Representative Ilhan Omar of her citizenship, executing a pre-dawn search of her Washington DC home and issuing more than a dozen grand jury subpoenas, according to sources familiar with the case. The probe, conducted by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), is focused on whether Omar's father misrepresented her age when applying for her citizenship, with potential charges including conspiracy, false statements on immigration paperwork and immigration fraud.
Police have locked down part of Dulwich Hill in Sydney's inner west after reports of gunfire and a man armed with a shotgun who allegedly set fire to a stolen car and fled on foot. Heavily armed tactical police, a police helicopter, and general duties officers responded to the area near Williams Parade and Constitution Road on Friday morning.
· 3 sourcesA study published Thursday in JAMA estimates that up to 25 percent of active-duty Army members could receive a low testosterone result under the mandatory screening announced by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in July, even though the true prevalence of the condition is likely a tiny fraction of that figure. Medical experts warn the program could trigger a cascade of unnecessary evaluations, misdiagnoses and treatments.
A new Fox News poll has found that a majority of registered US voters believe President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement campaign has gone too far, as the debate shifts from border security to the conduct of operations ahead of the November 3 midterm elections. The poll, conducted in September, shows 53% of registered voters feel the crackdown has overreached, with 60% of independents and two-thirds of Hispanic participants sharing that view.
An investigation by Al Jazeera's Fault Lines series has detailed the death of Ismael Ayala-Uribe, a 39-year-old Mexican-born detainee who died in California in September 2025, one of more than 50 people who have died in ICE custody during the first 500 days of President Donald Trump's second term. The reporting says 2025 was the deadliest year on record for people in immigration detention, and experts fear 2026 could match or surpass it.
· 2 sourcesThe Department of Health and Human Services has submitted a plan to the White House that would allow specialty pharmacies to compound certain peptide drugs, a class of largely unregulated injections that have gained popularity among followers of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and wellness influencers. The policy, filed Thursday with the Office of Management and Budget, is the latest sign the Trump administration is seeking to widen access to products that have not undergone full FDA approval.
The Albanese government introduced its digital duty of care bill to parliament on Thursday, with Communications Minister Anika Wells confirming the reforms would capture US President Donald Trump's Truth Social platform and revealing a list of proscribed online harms. The same day, the government's private health insurance rebate bill faced a Senate standoff, and Greens senator Jordon Steele-John took leave amid allegations.
· 3 sources