US Politics

Former US president comes to Georgia to support Jon Ossoff for US Senate and Keisha Lance Bottoms for governorBarack 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.” Continue reading… More

Justice department had demanded state segregate and not count ballots from people it claimed were non-citizensA federal judge declined to order California election officials to segregate and not count ballots from people the Trump administration claimed were non-citizens, rebuffing a legally thin request from the justice department that appeared designed to cast doubt over the results of the midterms.The ruling from US district judge David Carter, nominated to the federal bench by Bill Clinton, comes about two weeks after the justice department delivered a USB drive to election officials in Los Angeles and Sacramento that it said contained the names of 20,000 non-citizens on the state’s voter rolls. There are more than 23 million registered voters in California and non-citizen voting is extremely rare. Continue reading… More

This live blog is now closed.Sign up for the Breaking News US emailFor months, Mary Peltola’s campaign for Alaska’s Senate seat has denied any connection to a separate campaign launched by a man who, coincidentally, shares the exact same name as Peltola’s Republican opponent, Dan Sullivan.New reporting from the New York Times undercuts that claim. The outlet reported, based on interviews, obtained text messages and legal filings, that the Peltola campaign had not only recruited Mr Sullivan (not the Republican), but had sought out a number of Dan Sullivans across the state for potential candidacy, as well as others who could peel votes away from Peltola’s main opponent. Continue reading… More

Information released by Distributed Denial of Secrets is the third such government data disclosure in the last monthData identifying more than 41,000 employees and contractors for the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was released on Wednesday in an unprecedented leak that reveals how the agency is organized. The records, which were made public by the transpaency nonprofit Distributed Denial of Secrets reference operation names, surveillance programs and information on undercover initiatives.DHS did not immediately return a message seeking comment. Continue reading… More

I’m hopeful these elections will be a win for democracy rather than dictatorship, for peace rather than war, and humanity rather than hubrisRecently I made my own envelope out of a sheet of paper and sticky tape, signed it and affixed a sticker. Then I took it to my nearest Australia Post shop in Sydney and mailed it.In other words, I voted from abroad in the US midterm elections. Because my last place of residence in the US was the state of Virginia, I can register to vote and request a ballot online, but the ballot still needs to be printed, signed, sealed in an envelope made of folded paper, signed again, placed inside another (store-bought) envelope and mailed in. There was no sausage sizzle or cake stall to reward me for my civic duty, and no spectre of a fine if I didn’t complete it. Continue reading… More

Kushner threatens to sue, denying allegations that two slush funds were set up to influence his Middle East roleA new book containing incendiary claims about Jared Kushner’s financial dealings during Donald Trump’s first term has ignited a political and media firestorm.The book by author Matthew Cole is called Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohamed bin Zayed’s Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East and was released in the US this week. An excerpt was published by Vanity Fair last Thursday, and immediately drew a furious response from Kushner, who called its claims “completely insane”. The book contains numerous allegations about Kushner, whose father-in-law is Trump and who has served as one of his top diplomatic envoys in the Middle East – the most explosive of which are claims linking him to huge bank accounts allegedly funded by Gulf states. Continue reading… More

Obama has been accused of ‘snobbery’ over his Trump diss, as people rush to defend the restaurant chain’s ‘affordable opulence’Around lunchtime on Tuesday, a Rolls-Royce stopped at the intersection of Beverly Drive and Dayton Way in Beverly Hills, California. Local people in athleisure walked past Balenciaga, Dior and Prada boutiques, as visitors on Hollywood bus tours ogled nearby Rodeo Drive, where Burberry and Louis Vuitton shops meet at a celebrated street corner.Up the street, across from the upmarket Erewhon grocery store – home to $21 smoothies – a few diners sat outside an American landmark: the Cheesecake Factory. Continue reading… More

Late-night hosts discussed Trump discrediting midterms results, and Don Jr’s friendship with a Russian oligarchLate-night hosts looked into Republicans’ efforts to discredit election results ahead of the US midterms and Donald Trump Jr’s questionable friendship with a Putin-aligned oligarch. Continue reading… More