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      US military kills 14 in attacks on vessels in the Pacific, according to Hegseth

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      The US military killed 14 people and left one survivor in more strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats in the eastern Pacific, the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, said on Monday, as the Trump administration continued to expand its campaign beyond the Caribbean.The latest strikes mean the US has now attacked at least 13 vessels and brought the officially acknowledged death toll to 51 people since the campaign began at the start of September.Hegseth did not provide geographic details beyond saying that the strikes took place in the eastern Pacific, in international waters. Last week, the administration started targeting boats on the western side of the Americas after initially focusing on boats off the coast of Venezuela.The four boats were hit on Sunday in three strikes, Hegseth said in a social media post announcing the matter. His said the boats were “known by our intelligence apparatus, transiting along known narco-trafficking routes, and carrying narcotics”. He also acknowledged there was a survivor.In perhaps an effort to avoid the legally thorny questions that could come with detaining that person, Hegseth said the US enlisted Mexico to take on search-and-rescue responsibilities – which Mexico accepted.Hegseth sought to justify the attacks by comparing the US strikes against alleged drug traffickers to conducting strikes on al-Qaida targets during the global “war on terror”.“The Department has spent over TWO DECADES defending other homelands. Now, we’re defending our own. These narco-terrorists have killed more Americans than Al-Qaeda, and they will be treated the same. We will track them, we will network them, and then, we will hunt and kill them,” Hegseth said.Even so, the justification for the strikes has been widely disputed by legal experts. For one, when the US killed al-Qaida members, Congress had authorized the use of force. In targeting drug cartel members, the administration has relied on Trump’s Article II powers to defend the US against an imminent threat.Republican senator Rand Paul, who has been at odds with Trump in recent weeks, on Tuesday expressed criticism with the unilateral strikes and the prospect of a wider escalation with the Venezuelan government.“I am disturbed by the actions with blowing up boats, with people whom we don’t know their name, we’ve been presented with no evidence of a crime,” Paul told reporters. “We don’t even know if they’re armed, frankly, and that’s more indicative of a war. It may be a prelude to war, but I hope it’s not.”Still, the latest boat strikes come as the US appears destined to start hitting land-based targets in the coming weeks, after the Pentagon sent its most advanced aircraft carrier and its strike group to the Caribbean – a major escalation in the Trump administration’s stated war against drug cartels.The move is expected to bring the USS Gerald Ford, with its dozens of fighter jets and its accompanying destroyers, to the coast of Venezuela by roughly the end of the week, according to a person familiar with the matter.Sending the carrier strike group to the Caribbean is the clearest sign to date that the administration intends to dramatically expand the scope of its lethal military campaign from hitting small boats alleged to be carrying drugs bound for the US to targets on land.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe supercarrier has dozens of F-18 Super Hornet jets that increase the offensive firepower and ability for the US to hit air-defense systems in Venezuela. That would clear the way for US special operations or drones to destroy land-based targets, current and former officials said.Donald Trump confirmed to reporters at the White House on 23 October that the next stage of the campaign was to hit targets on the ground. “The land is going to be next,” the president said. “The land drugs are much more dangerous for them. It’s going to be much more dangerous. You’ll be seeing that soon.”Trump did not discuss which targets in which countries the US intended to strike. But he directed Hegseth, who was seated beside him at the White House event about curbing the flow of illegal drugs into the US, to notify Congress about the administration’s plans.Asked whether he would declare war against the cartels, Trump suggested he would continue with individual strikes. “I think we’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country, OK?” he said. “We’re going to kill them, you know? They’re going to be, like, dead.” More

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      Shutdown stretches into 28th day as Senate again fails to pass spending legislation

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      The US government shutdown stretched into its 28th day with no resolution in sight on Tuesday, as the Senate remained deadlocked over spending legislation even as a crucial food aid program teeters on the brink of exhausting its funding.For the 13th time, Senate Democrats blocked a Republican-backed bill that would have funded federal agencies through 21 November. The minority party has refused to provide the necessary support for the bill to clear the 60-vote threshold for advancement in the Senate because it does not include funding for healthcare programs, or curbs on Donald Trump’s cuts to congressionally approved funding.The quagmire continued even after the president of the largest federal workers union called on Congress to pass the Republican proposal, citing the economic pain caused to government workers.“Both political parties have made their point, and still there is no clear end in sight. Today I’m making mine: it’s time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today. No half measures, and no gamesmanship. Put every single federal worker back on the job with full back pay – today,” Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), said in a statement released on Monday.But the top Senate Democrat, Chuck Schumer, signaled no change in his party’s strategy of holding out for concession from the Republicans, citing the imminent rise of premiums for Affordable Care Act health plans. Though tax credits that lower their costs expire at the end of the year, many enrollees in the plans have received notices of steep premium increases ahead of Saturday’s beginning of the open enrollment period.“Families are going to be in panic this weekend all across America, millions of them. How are they going to pay this bill? How are they going to live without healthcare? It’s tragic, and of course, it didn’t have to be, but Republicans are doing nothing,” Schumer told reporters at the US Capitol.The Republican Senate majority leader, John Thune, seized on the AFGE’s statement to argue that Democrats were being irresponsible for refusing to back the bill, which Republicans in the House of Representatives approved on a near party line vote last month before the speaker, Mike Johnson, ordered the chamber into a recess that has yet to end.View image in fullscreen“It’s not very often that I get a chance to say this, but I agree with the AFGE,” Thune said.He reiterated that he would negotiate with Democrats over the expiring tax credits, but not with “a gun to our heads”.“I sincerely hope, in the best interest of every American who is impacted by this shutdown, and particularly those who are going to be really adversely impacted come this weekend, that the enough Democrats will come to their senses and deliver the five votes that are necessary to get this bill on the president’s desk,” Thune said, adding that he planned to hold further votes on the spending legislation.Both parties traded blame for the imminent expiration of funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), also known as food stamps. The Department of Agriculture has announced that it does not have the money to continue providing the benefit after 1 November, though on Tuesday, more than two dozen states sued the Trump administration, arguing that funds are available for Snap benefits to continue.North Dakota senator Kevin Cramer said Democrats should either support a proposal from fellow Republican senator Josh Hawley to allow Snap to continue during the shutdown, “or they could just reopen the damn government, which is what they should be doing and should have been doing for the last month”.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionSouth Dakota senator Mike Rounds said the tax credits should be addressed by bipartisan action, but criticized the affordability of Affordable Care Act health plans. “The Obamacare product itself is fatally flawed. It continues to create a death spiral coming down with regard to the increasing costs. There are people out there, real people, that are going to get hurt because Obamacare is not working,” he said.In an interview, Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren signaled no change in the party’s strategy for the shutdown, which began at the start of the month after Congress failed to pass legislation to continue funding that expired at the end of September.“Millions of people across this country are receiving their health insurance premium notices, and telling Democrats and Republicans, lower those costs,” Warren said. “Democrats are in there fighting to lower healthcare costs for millions of Americans. Donald Trump would rather shut down the government than help out these families.”Susan Collins, the Republican senator from Maine who has repeatedly broken with Trump as she faces what is expected to be a tough re-election contest next year, said she did not buy that the agriculture department lacked funding to continue Snap, but noted the money it had on hand was not enough to cover the program’s costs.However, Collins expressed concerns about the readiness of air traffic controllers, who did not receive a fully paycheck on Tuesday due to the shutdown. She noted that on two recent flights to Ronald Reagan Washington National airport, her plane had to divert at the last second.“I can’t help but think that reflects the strain on air traffic controllers,” she said. More

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      Agriculture secretary accused of unlawfully refusing to use emergency fund to prevent food stamp disruption – US politics live

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      Today brought more concern over food assistance for millions of Americans, as states filed an emergency lawsuit to prevent SNAP benefit cuts during the ongoing government shutdown.Donald Trump continued his Asia trip with stops in Japan and South Korea, while war secretary Pete Hegseth announced the killing of 14 people in strikes against alleged drug-trafficking vessels.Here’s what else happened today:

      More than two dozen states and Washington DC filed an emergency lawsuit against the Trump administration seeking to prevent food stamp benefits from being cut off for roughly 42 million Americans starting 1 November. State officials asked a federal judge to force the agriculture department to tap emergency reserve funds.

      The Pentagon announced US forces killed 14 people onboard alleged drug-trafficking vessels in three separate military operations on 27 October. Defense secretary Pete Hegseth vowed suspected narcotics smugglers will face the same treatment as terrorist organizations, saying: “We will track them, we will network them, and then, we will hunt and kill them.”

      Donald Trump appealed his criminal conviction in his hush money case, with lawyers arguing the trial was “fatally marred” by evidence that should have been protected under the supreme court’s presidential immunity ruling.

      The Trump administration plans to revamp ICE leadership as it seeks to intensify mass deportation efforts, potentially replacing multiple field office directors with border patrol officials after falling well short of arrest targets.

      House Republicans’ oversight chair James Comer asked the justice department to investigate whether Joe Biden’s aides improperly used an autopen to sign executive actions, claiming Biden’s inner circle concealed his cognitive decline while exercising presidential authority without authorization.

      Trump is expected to offer China tariff cuts in exchange for a fentanyl crackdown when he meets with Xi Jinping on Thursday, according to the Wall Street Journal. The US could halve the 20% levies on Chinese goods in return for Beijing restricting exports of chemicals used to manufacture fentanyl.

      Trump confirmed he would meet with Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang on Wednesday during his Asia trip, ahead of Huang’s attendance at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit in South Korea.

      Three US servicemembers connected to Wright-Patterson air force base in Ohio were found dead in a double-murder suicide over the weekend in what officials called a “tragic event” under investigation by state and military authorities.
      This blog has been paused for now, but may resume later today pending new developments.A federal judge in San Francisco has barred the Trump administration from continuing to terminate government employees during the shutdown, extending legal protections beyond a temporary order that was scheduled to expire this week.Judge Susan Illston’s preliminary injunction will remain in place throughout the legal challenge, indicating her belief the mass terminations across education, health and other departments will ultimately be proven unlawful.Three US servicemembers connected to Wright-Patterson air force base in Ohio were found dead in a double-murder suicide over the weekend that impacted multiple locations around Dayton, according to a statement from the Air Force materiel command’s deputy commander.Lieutenant general Linda Hurry said authorities are “committed to fully investigating this incident” but declined to share specific details as the Ohio bureau of criminal investigation, assisted by the Air Force office of special investigations, continues its probe into deaths occurring over a 12-hour period overnight between the 24 and 25 October.A government accountability organization has accused agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins of unlawfully refusing to tap a $5bn emergency fund that Congress specifically created to prevent food stamp disruptions during government shutdowns.The Democracy Defenders Fund sent a letter to Rollins arguing that the USDA is legally obliged to use the SNAP contingency fund to continue benefits for 42 million Americans, warning that the secretary’s failure to draw on available money represents “a deliberate decision to deny food” to vulnerable populations including the elderly, children and veterans.The halting of SNAP benefits will devastate merchants across the country who accept food stamps, including about 26,600 grocers and farmers’ markets in California alone, 17,000 in New York, and 10,600 in Pennsylvania, according to the states’ legal filing.And with Thanksgiving a few weeks away, the filing argues that many retailers have already purchased increased inventory to meet expected demand, but without SNAP funds flowing to recipients, businesses face significant revenue losses and food waste just as families would ordinarily be preparing for the holiday.The sudden loss of food assistance for 42 million Americans is expected to trigger a cascade of healthcare costs as food insecurity drives increased emergency room visits and hospitalizations, according to the lawsuit.One example state officials point to is Connecticut, which anticipates that the abrupt termination of SNAP benefits will create downstream effects on safety net programs like Medicaid, which partially depend on state funding to cover healthcare costs for vulnerable populations.About one in eight people in the United States are on food stamps, which average around $187 a month and cost the federal government about $8bn monthly, making the potential November cutoff a crisis affecting tens of millions of households.The Trump administration declined to extend a reprieve for Snap benefits, despite the agriculture department acknowledging weeks ago that it could reprogram emergency reserve money to prevent benefit cuts – a move supported by both congressional democrats and republicans.More than two dozen states and Washington DC have filed an emergency lawsuit against the Trump administration seeking to prevent food stamp benefits from being cut off for roughly 42 million Americans during the ongoing government shutdown.State officials from Arizona, California, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Colorado, Michigan and other states asked a federal judge to force Washington to tap emergency reserve funds so that families receiving assistance under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program would not see their benefits interrupted starting 1 November.Donald Trump and Xi Jinping will likely discuss a trade framework that would see the US slash tariffs on Chinese goods in return for Beijing’s commitment to restrict exports of chemicals used to manufacture fentanyl, according to reporting in the Wall Street Journal.The report said the US could halve the 20% levies imposed on Chinese products as retaliation for fentanyl precursor exports, with details to be negotiated following Thursday’s meeting between the two leaders during Trump’s Asia trip.Every morning, Alicia Mercado makes the 50-minute drive from her home in Columbus to Springfield, where she runs the Adasa Latin Market store. She opened the business next to a Haitian restaurant in 2023, having spotted a gap in the market for Caribbean and Latin foods – the neighborhood’s Haitian population was booming at the time.But over the past year, she says her business, which includes an international money transfer kiosk, has taken a major hit.“About 80 to 90% of our customers were Haitians; now that’s down to about 60% over the past six months,” she says. “No more people are moving to Springfield.”Mercado’s experiences are being echoed around the city of 58,000 people that garnered international attention last year when Donald Trump falsely claimed during a presidential debate that immigrants were eating people’s pets.Until the end of last year, Springfield was something of a surprise economic juggernaut. A report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland found that it ranked second among all Ohio cities for job growth since the pandemic. New housing projects, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, are among the biggest investments the city has ever made.That growth was partly fueled by the availability of manufacturing and blue-collar jobs that were eagerly filled by the more than 15,000 Haitian immigrants who had moved to the city over the past eight years, fueling businesses such as Mercado’s.Local companies got cheap, reliable labor, while Haitian workers received stable income, health insurance and a safe place to live. Many bought homes and invested their hard-earned income into improving the city’s housing stock that, in turn, padded the city’s tax coffers. For the most part, it was a win for all involved.But since then, the city’s economic fortunes have spiraled.For the full story, click here:Donald Trump has appealed his criminal conviction in his hush money case, with his lawyers arguing that the trial was “fatally marred” by evidence that should have been protected under the supreme court’s 2024 ruling on presidential immunity.In a court filing on Monday night, his lawyers accused Manhattan’s district attorney Alvin Bragg of being politically motivated to prosecute Trump.“Targeting alleged conduct that has never been found to violate any New York law, the DA concocted a purported felony by stacking time-barred misdemeanors under a convoluted legal theory, which the DA then improperly obscured until the charge conference. This case should never have seen the inside of a courtroom, let alone resulted in a conviction,” his lawyers said.The appeal comes 17 months after Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to payments he made to his former lawyer, Michael Cohen. Those payments reimbursed Cohen for a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels, intended to keep her from speaking publicly about an alleged sexual affair with Trump.The Trump administration is planning to revamp the leadership of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to reports, as the government seeks to intensify its mass deportation efforts.Multiple news outlets have reported that the government intends to reassign multiple directors of ICE field offices in the coming days, potentially replacing them with border patrol officials.It comes as the government is falling well short of its targets on immigration. Earlier this year, Stephen Miller – Donald Trump’s deputy chief of staff – set ICE a target of arresting 3,000 people every day. But as of late September, the agency on average was arresting 1,178 daily, NBC reported.The New York Times reported that the proposed changes stem from the White House becoming frustrated at the pace of deportations, which now lags behind Trump’s goal of removing 1 million immigrants in his first year in office.For the full story, click here:Donald Trump will reportedly meet the presidents of five Central Asian nations next week in what marks a rare high-level gathering focused on the resource-rich former Soviet republics, a source familiar with the plans tells Reuters.Should the 6 November meeting happen, it will bring together the leaders of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.The justification for the strikes has been widely disputed by legal experts. For one, when the US killed al-Qaida members, Congress had authorized the use of force. In targeting drug cartel members, the administration has relied on Trump’s article II powers to defend the US against an imminent threat.The latest boat strikes come as the US appears destined to start hitting land-based targets in the coming weeks, after the Pentagon sent its most advanced aircraft carrier and its strike group to the Caribbean – a major escalation in the Trump administration’s stated war against drug cartels.The move is expected bring the USS Gerald Ford, with its dozens of fighter jets, and its accompanying destroyers, to the coast of Venezuela by roughly the end of the week, according to a person familiar with the matter.Sending the carrier strike group to the Caribbean is the clearest sign to date that the administration intends to dramatically expand the scope of its lethal military campaign from hitting small boats alleged to be carrying drugs bound for the US to targets on land.Read more from my colleague Hugo Lowell here.A far-right Republican legislator has urged federal authorities to investigate whether Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayoral candidate, committed naturalization fraud by allegedly failing to disclose his Democratic Socialists of America affiliation and political views when becoming a US citizen.The latest freak-out over Mamdani’s possible ascension to mayoralty comes from Andy Ogles, the Tennessee congressperson who claims in a letter to attorney general Pam Bondi that Mamdani “praised terrorists” and held views that “openly despised the US constitution” in 2017, and argues such positions should have been revealed during the citizenship process.“If we deport Mamdani for breaking REAL laws, we can save NYC and take back our country from the Marxists who want to reduce America to a third-world wasteland,” he wrote on X.Mike Johnson, while talking to reporters, said the pardons made by Joe Biden are “invalid on their face”.“I used to be a constitutional lawyer,” the House speaker added. “I would love to take this case, go into the court and make that law to set the precedent”.The Monday strikes hit four boats in three waves in the eastern Pacific ocean, Hegseth said. There were 14 confirmed killed, and one survivor, who was taken by Mexican search and rescue teams.Prior to the missiles on Monday, US forces have carried out at least eight strikes against boats off the Caribbean over the last few weeks, killing 40 people.Pete Hegseth, the Trump administration’s defence secretary, announced on social media that US forces killed 14 people onboard alleged drug-trafficking vessels in three separate military operations on 27 October, and vowed that suspected narcotics smugglers will face the same treatment as terrorist organizations.“These narco-terrorists have killed more Americans than Al-Qaeda, and they will be treated the same,” Hegseth wrote Tuesday morning, adding: “We will track them, we will network them, and then, we will hunt and kill them.”There was one survivor. Hegseth said the strikes came at the direction of the Donald Trump.The GOP-led committee also released a staff report based on a 14-witness deposition alleging Biden’s advisors orchestrated a cover-up involving scripted appearances and restricted media access.It claims that senior strategist Mike Donilon and other key advisors “stood to gain financially and politically” from maintaining Biden’s candidacy while suppressing evidence of his decline.Three aides, including Biden’s physician Kevin O’Connor, invoked fifth amendment protections during the probe. More

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      Two dozen states sue White House over food stamps suspension amid shutdown

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      A coalition of more than two dozen states on Tuesday sued the Trump administration over its decision to suspend food stamps during the government shutdown.The lawsuit, co-led by New York, California and Massachusetts, asks a federal judge to force the US Department of Agriculture to tap into emergency reserve funds to distribute food benefits to the nearly 42 million families and children who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap). The USDA has said no benefits will be issued on 1 November.“Snap is one of our nation’s most effective tools to fight hunger, and the USDA has the money to keep it running,” the New York attorney general, Letitia James, said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “There is no excuse for this administration to abandon families who rely on Snap, or food stamps, as a lifeline. The federal government must do its job to protect families.”The Democratic attorneys general and three governors argue in their lawsuit that the federal government is obliged by law to maintain food benefits to the low-income households who rely on the program. They ask for a ruling by Friday on their motion.Snap is the nation’s largest nutrition assistance program, according to the USDA, serving roughly one in eight low-income Americans at a cost of approximately $8bn per month. The USDA’s contingency fund is estimated to contain approximately $6bn.The expiration of Snap benefits has emerged as a major pressure point in the shutdown standoff between Democrats and Republicans. Across the country, food banks and pantries, already struggling under the sharp cuts to federal programs, were bracing for a surge of hungry people if federal food aid is paused, as state officials scrambled to keep assistance flowing to recipients.Many congressional Democrats and Republicans had called on the Trump administration to use the reserve funding to prevent widespread hunger and financial hardship on millions of American families, but it has so far declined.“Snap benefits are about to end on Saturday,” the agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, said on Fox News. “We don’t have the funding to cover them.”The USDA’s food and nutrition homepage has a banner with a strikingly partisan message falsely accusing Senate Democrats of shutting down the government to provide healthcare to undocumented immigrants and trans Americans. “Bottom line, the well has run dry,” the notice says. “At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 01.”“Despite having the money to fund Snap, the Trump administration is creating needless fear, angst, and harm for millions of families and their children especially as we approach the holidays,” the Massachusetts attorney general, Andrea Joy Campbell, said in a statement. “It is past time for the Trump administration to act to help, rather than harm, those who rely on our government.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe plaintiffs cite a memo from the agriculture department stating that contingency funds were “not legally available to cover regular benefits” during the government shutdown, which the document blamed on Democrats. The agency said it was only able to tap into the reserve funds under certain circumstances, such as natural disasters.The memo appears to contradict the department’s lapsed funding plan, released in late September, which stated that Congress’s “evident” intent was for Snap operations to continue during a government shutdown and pointed to “multi-year contingency funds” that could be tapped in the event the closures dragged on. The plan has been removed from the department’s website.“USDA not only has authority to use contingency funds, it has a legal duty to spend all available dollars to fund Snap benefits,” said California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, adding: “We are taking a stand because families will experience hunger and malnutrition if the Trump administration gets its way.” More

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      12 months out from the US midterms, both sides struggle to gain electoral advantage

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      Donald Trump is clearly concerned about the midterm elections that loom next November, which look to be a referendum on his administration. All seats in the House of Representatives will be up for grabs as will one-third of the Senate. Losing control of the House would severely crimp the US president’s ability to govern the way he has for the first nine months of his second term.

      Trump has already voiced some unease about the election. In a recent interview with the One America News (OAN) network he stated: “The one thing that I worry about is that… I don’t have the numbers, but the person that wins the presidency always seems to lose the midterms”.

      There’s a clue to the president’s apprehension about the numbers from the 2024 general election results. Despite winning the popular vote in 2024, the Republican vote in the House fell by 0.2 percentage points, as a result the GOP (the Republicans) lost two seats, leaving them with a majority of only five seats.

      Trump knows from bitter experience what could happen if he loses control of the House. The Democrats made a net gain of 40 seats at the 2018 midterms after which the House impeached Trump twice.

      So the president and his Maga coalition are well aware of how important it is to retain control of Congress.

      The president is already taking steps that could tilt the midterms in his favour. Shortly after being sworn in as president in January 2025, he rescinded Joe Biden’s executive order that aimed to expand voting access and voter registration.

      In April Trump ordered the Department of Justice to launch an investigation into the Democrats’ top fundraising platform ActBlue, after allegations it had allowed illegal campaign donations. The Democrats denounced the move as “Donald Trump’s latest front in his campaign to stamp out all political, electoral and ideological opposition”.

      In August, Trump announced he wanted to ban mail-in-voting for the midterms. Three in every ten ballots cast in 2024 were mail-ins and are historically thought to favour the Democrats. But the US constitution mandates that the states control their elections. Congress has the power to pass legislation banning mail-ins for federal elections, but it is thought unlikely that such a measure would pass the Senate.

      History has shown that the party occupying the White House usually performs poorly in the subsequent midterm elections. Three recent polls, Economist/YouGov, Morning Consult, and Emerson, show Democrats edging ahead in the generic congressional vote.

      But precedent and political polling may count for little over the next year, as America’s democratic system is tested by extraordinary events and challenges.

      Redistricting

      There are already moves by mainly, though not exclusively, Republican controlled states to carve out additional congressional seats (referred to as redistricting) to bolster the party’s chances of retaining their majority in the House of Representatives. In three states – Texas, Missouri and North Carolina – Republican legislatures have redrawn constituency lines to the party’s electoral benefit, resulting in a notional seven new GOP-leaning congressional seats.

      Changing electoral boundaries could affect the election result.
      Alan Mazzocco/Shutterstock

      After the Republican-controlled North Carolina legislature voted through a new congressional map that may provide the party an additional seat in next year’s midterms, Trump posted on Truth Social that this provided the potential for “A HUGE VICTORY for our America First Agenda.”

      Democrats have responded to these events by launching their own redistricting plans, with Virginia becoming the latest blue state to announce proposals to redraw electoral boundaries that could give the party two or three additional seats.

      It is, however, the largest state in the union – California – which serves as the base for Democrats counterbalancing moves. California Governor Gavin Newsom is asking his state’s voters to decide on proposition 50. If passed this would authorise state lawmakers to create new electoral wards that could favour Democrats. Academic analysis has estimated that the move could provide up to five additional Democratic seats in Congress.

      This action has been endorsed by former US president Barack Obama, who stated the Democrats strategy in California gives the national party a “chance… to create a level playing field” in next year’s elections.

      Partisan gerrymandering is nothing new in US politics. But what is new, according to Benjamin Schneer, a Harvard-based expert in political representation, is the scale on which this is being done. He believes:

      Gerrymandering can be done more effectively now because we have fine-grained data on the population and on how people are likely to vote, and computing techniques to design maps in clever ways. Put all that together with intense polarization and that creates a perfect storm where gerrymandering can flourish.

      Voting rights

      The 2026 midterms would also be affected in a seismic way by an impending Supreme Court decision relating to a central pillar of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA). Section 2 of the act “prohibits voting practices or procedures that discriminate on the basis of race, colour, or membership in one of the language minority groups”. The court is now weighing whether Section 2 is constitutional.

      People vote in Louisiana: changes to voting rights laws could affect the outcome in 2026.
      Allen J.M. Smith/Shutterstock

      The case relates to a lawsuit in Louisiana where it was required under the VRA to redraw its congressional map to ensure two majority black districts. This is now being challenged in the Supreme Court. If successful it could weaken the voting power of minorities and result in congressional districts being redrawn throughout the American south.

      This would be a major blow for the Democrats. Analysis by the BBC projects that this could “flip more than a dozen seats from Democratic to Republican”. Findings from the Economist go further, suggesting “Republicans could eliminate as many as 19 Democrat-held districts in the House of Representatives, or 9% of the party’s current caucus.”

      The 2026 midterms will be hugely consequential. They will decide what party controls the US Congress for Trump’s last two years in office and therefore the extent of his power until January 2029. They will also serve as the unofficial start of the 2028 presidential campaign and determine whether it is the Republicans or Democrats with the political momentum heading into this historic election. More

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      Trump’s third term? Don’t laugh. He’s never let the rules stop him before | Arwa Mahdawi

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      Let me tell you a secret about the US constitution: it’s just a piece of paper. It’s not immutable law created by a higher being. It was made by men, it’s been amended by men, and it can be destroyed by men. It’s only as strong as the institutions that uphold it – institutions which Donald Trump has been systematically weakening as he expands his executive power.I say this because there are still lots of people who have faith that the constitution can stop the US from gradually turning into an electoral autocracy like Hungary. There are still people so drunk on American exceptionalism that they think it’s ludicrous to believe Trump might seek a third term, because such a move is explicitly outlawed by the 22nd amendment of the constitution.But the president and his cronies don’t think the idea is ludicrous. Trump has refused to rule out the idea of a third term on multiple occasions – most recently on Monday when he told reporters he “would love to do it”. And last week Trump’s former White House chief strategist, Steve Bannon, told the Economist that “there’s a plan” to get Trump a third term.Don’t dismiss this as trolling or an attempt to shake off the “lame duck” label second-term presidents are landed with. The golden rule of Trumpism is this: no matter how illegal or unusual something may be, if Trump can figure out a way to do it, then he will. And while I think it’s extremely unlikely, there is a path to Trump 3.0. Here’s a very simplified version of how it might pan out.Step one, obviously, is to figure out a plausible legal basis for a third term. Repealing the 22nd amendment, ratified in 1951 in response to Franklin D Roosevelt bucking tradition and serving a third term, requires approval from two-thirds of the House and Senate. Not easy. Another possibility is a constitutional convention; two-thirds of state legislatures (34 states) would need to call for a convention and any amendment would need ratification by three-quarters of state legislatures. This would also be incredibly difficult but it’s worth noting that the Heritage Foundation, which is responsible for Project 2025, are keen on holding a constitutional convention. And where there’s a will, and a lot of cash from ultra-wealthy donors, there is often a way.Another possibility is that Trump could declare a state of emergency and postpone the 2028 election. Trump loves a good fake emergency: he’s already used at least 10 emergency declarations to justify everything from his tariffs to dispatching the National Guard to Los Angeles. Again: while this seems far-fetched, we live in extraordinary times; it shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand.Once you’ve conjured up a legal basis (no matter how flimsy) for a third term or extended second term, you’ve got to manipulate public opinion to make it seem above board as opposed to autocratic shenanigans. Trump has already proved himself adept at chipping away at press freedom and turning elements of the US media from watchdogs to lapdogs.Social media, as we all know, is also easily manipulated; some studies suggest one-third of the internet is now bots. Reports show that Russia and Israel have poured huge amounts of money into bot-based programs to push propaganda to US audiences. And they’re spending that money because it works: fake accounts can cause very real shifts in views. Remember the hoo-ha over the recent Cracker Barrel rebrand? Researchers think it was largely driven by bots. Now that Elon Musk owns X and TikTok is on its way to being owned by a consortium of Trump’s pals (with Barron Trump potentially sitting on the board), much of social media has been Maga-fied. It’s gone from being a place to find alternative views to a consent-manufacturing machine.Finally, you’ve got to neutralise your opposition. Unlike the previous two steps, this is easy, since there’s no opposition. The Democrats are still floundering and trying to figure out what they stand for. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris, who appears to surround herself exclusively with sycophants, is threatening to run again in 2028. Doing so would be a gift to Trump. Gavin Newsom, a likely 2028 contender, is a more serious threat to Maga but there’s still plenty of time to do what Democrats do best and self-sabotage.Look, I hope my fears are unfounded. I hope the Democrats seize the moment. I hope Trumpism is a temporary nightmare. But while we should hope for the best, we should be prepared for the worst. I don’t want to have to say “I told you so” from an ICE detention centre. Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist and the author of Strong Female Lead More

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      Jon Stewart on Trump’s taunts of an illegal third term: ‘We know he’s thought about it’

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      Late-night hosts reacted to Donald Trump’s taunts about an illegal third presidential term and his demolition of the East Wing of the White House.Jon StewartFrom his Monday night post on the Daily Show, Jon Stewart assessed the threat of Trump attempting to run for a third term as president, which is illegal under the 22nd amendment to the constitution.Asked by reporters for his thoughts on comments by Steve Bannon that he had a plan for such a campaign, Trump answered: “I would love to do it … I have my best numbers ever.”He also claimed, however: “I haven’t really thought about it.”“That’s the tell for whenever he’s asked about something that he is definitely going to do that is dubious legally, ethically or morally,” Stewart noted. “He says he hasn’t thought about it. But of course we know he’s thought about it because he already has the merch,” he added, pointing to “Trump 2028” hats that Trump has displayed in the Oval Office.“What’s interesting about Trump is he’s actually worked through the various scenarios of running for a third term that he has not thought about,” said Stewart, pointing to Trump’s further comments that “I think the people wouldn’t like that. It’s too cute.”“Too cute? No, that’s why you don’t go to Build-a-Bear as an adult,” Stewart replied. “Running as the vice-president to skirt the 22nd amendment isn’t cute. But he’s the kinda guy who’s like ‘I respect Americans too much to play games. If I’m going to run again, I’m going to rip off the constitution’s head and shit down its neck.’“Indications are very clear he’s gonna do it,” he continued, “because you don’t move into a house, knock down a wing and build a 90,000-sq-ft ballroom for the next guy.“Trump’s not a house-flipper,” he added. “He’s not Ellen. He’s in it for the long haul.”Jimmy KimmelJimmy Kimmel returned from a weeklong family trip to Ireland with renewed perspective on his home country. “In case you’re wondering what people in other countries think about what’s going on here in our country, I’ll tell you: they’re worried about us,” he said. “They’re very worried. They’re worried about us in the same way you worry about a nephew who you maybe haven’t seen for a few years and he shows up at Thanksgiving missing all of his front teeth? That kind of worry.”People in Ireland, Kimmel reported, had a lot of questions for him about Trump, including: “Why is he knocking down part of the White House?”“I don’t know. Nobody knows,” he answered. “I don’t think he even knows.“Back here at home, the unrest continues to rage out of control. Antifa terrorists are destroying government – oh wait, that’s the White House,” Kimmel joked over a photo of the demolished East Wing. “That’s what Trump did on purpose, without permission, to the White House. I told you we should’ve made him put down a security deposit!”Nevertheless, Trump’s treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, defended the move on NBC News: “I think this was a judgment call by the president. The president is a master builder. I don’t know, I assume that maybe parts of the East Wing, there could’ve been asbestos, there could’ve been mold.“There could’ve been some old Chinese food, could’ve been ghosts! We don’t know,” Kimmel joked. “All we know is that the only solution was to completely smash the whole place down. I wish the master builder would master-build in private like the rest of us do.”Seth MeyersOn Late Night, Seth Meyers also touched on the Trump 2028 hats seen on his desk during meetings with congressional Democrats.“It’s so weird to make a hat for a thing that can’t happen,” said Meyers. “Wearing a Trump 2028 hat is like wearing a hat that says Super Bowl champion New York Jets.”“So Trump put some hats on the desk during a meeting with Democrats,” he continued, “and the Democrats in attendance definitely thought it was weird.”As the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat from New York, told CNN: “it was the strangest thing ever.”“Come on, the strangest thing ever? Don’t you live Brooklyn?” Meyers laughed. “If someone Rollerbladed into a Brooklyn deli wearing a full mermaid costume, the only thing anyone would say is ‘the usual, Jeff?’“It’s not even the strangest thing Trump has done,” he continued. “Not long before that meeting, he wandered on to the roof of the White House.“Think about how insane this is: this was supposed to be a meeting about keeping the government open, making sure troops get paid and families get nutrition assistance and air traffic controllers can do their jobs,” Meyers added. “And instead the president’s main interest was trolling.“Trump can’t help himself,” he concluded. “The Maga movement cares more about trolling libs than making government function, which is why he keeps going on about this unconstitutional third term.”Stephen Colbert“It was a beautiful day here in America because Donald Trump was out of the country,” said Stephen Colbert on the Late Show. To start the week, Trump was on a “field trip” to Asia, where “he’s going to tear down the Great Wall and put up a ballroom,” Colbert quipped.The trip includes stops in Japan, South Korea and Malaysia, where Trump danced to a marching band in a way that Colbert could only describe as “shuffling and swinging his wrists like a low-battery Chuck E Cheese robot”.In Japan, the new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, reportedly planned to gift Trump a gold golf ball. “It is so sad to see how easy it is to butter up the president of the United States,” Colbert remarked. “OK quick, Trump’s visiting, what are we going to get him this time? Gold burger? Gold TV? Have we tried spray-painting a woman gold?”Colbert also touched on the fourth week of the ongoing government shutdown. “The longer it goes, the more used to having no government we get and then the less likely it is to ever end,” he said.The shutdown is now restricting military pay. But on Friday, an anonymous donor – later identified as Timothy Mellon – gifted $130m to pay troops during the shutdown. “I know that sounds nice, I get it, but I don’t like the idea of the armed forces having a private sponsor,” Colbert said. “I don’t want our next invasion to be code-named ‘Operation Chili’s New El Diablo Triple Dipper Rib Tips: Can You Stand the Heat?’” More

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      Tattoo fixers on removing Nazi symbols: ‘You don’t know if they’re changing or hiding’

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      Last week, Graham Platner, a progressive Democrat running for the US Senate in Maine, responded to a burst of online criticism by doing something few candidates for high office are ever required to do: he posted a topless photo of himself on the internet.It was an unusual moment in a campaign that had so far gone his way. Platner had won praise from progressives and secured the backing of Bernie Sanders. But his campaign came unstuck when a video surfaced of him dancing in his underwear at his brother’s wedding – and revealing a skull-and-crossbones tattoo on his chest. The design, known as the Totenkopf, is widely recognised as a Nazi symbol.Platner insists he had no idea of its associations when he got the tattoo, drunk, while stationed in Croatia during his 20s as a marine. After learning of its meaning, he says, he covered it with a new design – a Celtic cross and a dog – and released the topless photo to prove it.It’s a strange campaign story, but not all that uncommon. Across the country, tattoo artists and laser removal technicians regularly see clients who are trying to erase far-right symbols from their bodies.There a number of national non-profits that help people remove their hate-based tattoos. The California-based Jails to Jobs, for example, helps formerly incarcerated people rebuild their lives. The group maintains a directory of more than 300 free or low-cost tattoo removal programs across 45 states and several countries and publishes a how-to manual for communities hoping to start their own.Not everyone who seeks their services has tattoos linked to white supremacy. Some are survivors of trafficking, domestic violence or gang coercion. But many prison tattoos still bear the marks of racist ideology: swastikas, lightning bolts or coded runes that declare allegiance to neo-Nazi groups.View image in fullscreenThe Anti-Defamation League has catalogued hate symbols since 2000 through its Hate on Display database, which is now more than 50 pages long.Kate Widener, an advanced esthetician and owner of Undo Tattoo and Laser in Gresham, Oregon, averages about 70 tattoo removals a week. Of these, she wagers “25%” are part of her free removal program. “Everyone deserves a second chance,” she said. “I’ve seen it all, including some pretty bad ones. But they just pop in, pop out, and soon it’s gone.”Some of Widener’s clients say they are coming in only out of discretion – they are still racist, but don’t want their co-workers to know. “I have one guy who comes in only for the tattoos on his face, and he’s keeping the rest from his neck down,” she says. “Thirty-plus [swastikas] on his neck all the way down. So there are a lot of people hiding who they really are.”“There’s a big concern of: [are they] changing or hiding?” said Dustin Ortel, who oversees the free Ink-nitiative program at Removery, another national tattoo-removing chain. Since 2020, people every year submit applications – bolstered by letters of recommendations from parole officers or counselors – and about 300 are chosen for the procedure.Ortel says he is a good judge of character and helps people who are genuinely changing. “I have a great gut feeling, and going through our paperwork and seeing the advocate letters, you really get to see where the person is coming from compared to the markings on their skin.”Before each session, Ortel listens to a person’s story, what led them to get the tattoo and how they changed their mind. These conversations are always emotional: “I cry with people.”Widener, in Oregon, does not require people to apply for her free removal. “It’s invasive, and I don’t like that,” she says. “I’m confidential and judgment-free. As long as you say, ‘Please help me,’ I’ll talk.” That makes her pretty popular, with people driving hours to see her, coming form as far away as Idaho or Seattle.Removing or covering up someone’s tattoos is always an intimate process. It requires close contact. “A lot of people talk about themselves,” Widener said. “I’ll get a vibe if they’re doing this for the right reasons, or maybe not the right reasons, and that makes me more leery of them.”View image in fullscreenStill, most people are “pretty nice” and many are grateful. And, ultimately, Widener is in control during the experience: “They know that I control a laser that can cause a lot of harm to them.”What makes people change their beliefs? “Sometimes, it’s because they fall in love,” Widener said. “I have clients who were white supremacists and then they fall for a person of color.” One of her clients was brought up in a racist family and never questioned their beliefs – until he began an interracial relationship.“She kind of opened his eyes to other things,” Widener said. “He’s my favorite. He comes every six weeks like clockwork to get his tattoo removed, and he cries at every point to tell me how it changed his life. He has a child now, and he would like to put something over that to honor his mixed son.”After the white nationalist rallies in Charlottesville in 2017, interest in hate tattoo-removing services rose, with some people who had previously been affiliated with far-right groups wanting to distance themselves as the groups became emboldened. Three years later, after the murder of George Floyd and international protests against police violence, NPR pointed to an increased interest in tattoo removal. For some, the ebb-and-flow popularity of these services shows a pattern: when hate crimes hit the headlines, more people who have left a racist past behind urgently feel the need to rid themselves of such reminders.But lately, Widener says interest in her free program among people with hate tattoos has cooled. She blames the Trump administration. Before Donald Trump was in office, Widener had “a lot more people” coming in to erase a white supremacist past. “Then once [Trump was re-elected], I had someone who called me and told me they no longer need to remove it.” (Still, Undo Tattoo’s free removal program is fully booked until December.)Three other people involved in free tattoo removal or cover-up programs said they had not noticed a decline in clients due to Trump’s administration. Lorenzo Diaz, an artist at Ruby Tattoo in Marine City, Michigan, has covered up hateful ink for the past 17 years. “I have at least three, maybe four a week. They’re usually pretty big, dark pieces.”So far, Widener does not turn away clients – but she could change her mind in the future. “I thought about certain situations, because at some point, ICE officers are going to start throwing little symbols around,” she said. “I’ve personally seen in my own neighborhood how they hurt people. I’m still judgment-free, letting everyone come in, but I don’t know what the future holds.” More