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      Trump says Hamas is ready for peace and Israel ‘must immediately stop bombing of Gaza’ – live

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      Donald Trump just welcomed the response from Hamas to his peace plan, without worrying about the parts of it that the Palestinian movement said need to be negotiated further, and urged Israel to stop bombing Gaza “immediately” in a social media post that was shared by the White House.Trump, who is eager for a Nobel peace prize and appears ready to declare victory, wrote:
      Based on the Statement just issued by Hamas, I believe they are ready for a lasting PEACE. Israel must immediately stop the bombing of Gaza, so that we can get the Hostages out safely and quickly! Right now, it’s far too dangerous to do that. We are already in discussions on details to be worked out. This is not about Gaza alone, this is about long sought PEACE in the Middle East.
      Yair Lapid, the former television anchor who leads Israel’s main opposition party, says that he has informed the White House that his party will support the government of Benjamin Netanyahu to close a peace deal in Gaza. The opposition’s support would be necessary to keep Netanyahu in power should far-right ministers in the governing coalition who want to continue the war withdraw from the government.“President Trump,” Lapid posted, “is right that there is a genuine opportunity to release the hostages and end the war. Israel should announce it is joining the discussions led by the president to finalize the details of the deal. I have told the US administration that Netanyahu has political backing at home to continue the process.”In a statement posted on social media, the Egyptian government, which has played a central role in negotiations with Hamas, has welcomed the Palestinian movement’s response to the plan announced this week by Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister.The statement thanks Trump for his vision to achieve peace and stability in the region, his “complete rejection” of the annexation of the Israeli-occupied West Bank by Israel or the displacement of the Palestinian people from their lands.Donald Trump just welcomed the response from Hamas to his peace plan, without worrying about the parts of it that the Palestinian movement said need to be negotiated further, and urged Israel to stop bombing Gaza “immediately” in a social media post that was shared by the White House.Trump, who is eager for a Nobel peace prize and appears ready to declare victory, wrote:
      Based on the Statement just issued by Hamas, I believe they are ready for a lasting PEACE. Israel must immediately stop the bombing of Gaza, so that we can get the Hostages out safely and quickly! Right now, it’s far too dangerous to do that. We are already in discussions on details to be worked out. This is not about Gaza alone, this is about long sought PEACE in the Middle East.
      Donald Trump has posted the full text of the Hamas statement in response to his proposed plan to end the war in Gaza on his social media platform.The White House initially posted the text on X as well, but that post was removed without explanation, forcing anyone who wantws to read it to visit the president’s own platform.Donald Trump has just recorded an Oval Office video in response to what his White House press secretary calls “Hamas’ acceptance of his Peace Plan.”While the Hamas response to the Trump plan for an end to the war in Gaza signals a willingness to had over governance of the territory, it specifically says that the new government should be made up of Palestinian technocrats, not a foreign-run “board of peace” overseen by the US president.A few hours ago, the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, who rules over isolated sections of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, announced that Palestinian officials were drafting a temporary constitution for the state of Palestine, which includes Gaza, to be ready within three months.“We reaffirm our commitment to holding general presidential and parliamentary elections within one year after the end of the war,” Abbas said, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.Abbas has not stood for election since 2005, and there have been no elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council since 2006, when Hamas won a majority of seats in the West Bank and Gaza. In 2007, power-sharing between Hamas and Abbas collapsed and Hamas seized control of Gaza after armed conflict with forces loyal to the president.In a copy of the statement seen by Reuters, Hamas issued its response to Trump’s 20-point plan after the US president today gave the group until Sunday to accept or reject the proposal. Trump has not said whether the terms would be subject to negotiation, as Hamas is seeking.Notably, Hamas did not say whether it would agree to a stipulation that it disarm, a demand by Israel and the US that it has previously rejected.In its statement, Hamas said it “appreciates the Arab, Islamic, and international efforts, as well as the efforts of U.S. President Donald Trump, calling for an end to the war on the Gaza Strip, the exchange of prisoners, (and) the immediate entry of aid,” among other terms.It said it was announcing its “approval of releasing all occupation prisoners — both living and remains — according to the exchange formula contained in President Trump’s proposal, with the necessary field conditions for implementing the exchange.”But Hamas added: “In this context, the movement affirms its readiness to immediately enter, through the mediators, into negotiations to discuss the details.”The group said it was ready “to hand over the administration of the Gaza Strip to a Palestinian body of independents (technocrats) based on Palestinian national consensus and supported by Arab and Islamic backing”.The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Hamas’ response to the proposal, which is backed by Israel as well as Arab and European powers.Among the 20 points in Trump’s plan are an immediate ceasefire, an exchange of all hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, a staged Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the disarmament of Hamas and the introduction of a transitional government led by an international body.As we get more from Hamas’s statement trickling in, the group has said it has accepted some elements of Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan, including handing over administration of Gaza and releasing all the remaining hostages, but that it would seek further negotiations over many of its other terms.In its statement, Hamas says it appreciates the efforts of Arab, Islamic and international efforts, as well as the efforts of US president Donald Trump.I’ll bring you more from the statement as soon as we get it.Hamas has also agreed to hand over the administration of the Gaza Strip “to a Palestinian body of independent technocrats”, according to the statement. More

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      FBI cuts ties with two advocacy groups that track US extremism after rightwing backlash

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      Kash Patel, the FBI director, says the agency is cutting ties with two organizations that for decades have tracked domestic extremism and racial and religious bias, a move that follows complaints about the groups from some conservatives and prominent allies of president Donald Trump.Patel said on Friday that the FBI would sever its relationship with the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), asserting that the organization had been turned into a “partisan smear machine” and criticizing it for its use of a “hate map” that documents alleged anti-government and hate groups inside the US. A statement earlier in the week from Patel said the FBI would end ties with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a prominent Jewish advocacy organization that fights antisemitism.The announcements amount to a dramatic rethinking of longstanding FBI partnerships with prominent civil rights groups at a time when Patel is moving rapidly to reshape the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency. The organizations over the years have provided research on hate crime and domestic extremism, law enforcement training and other services – but have also been criticized by some conservatives for what they say is an unfair maligning of their viewpoints.That criticism escalated after the 10 September assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk amid renewed attention to the SPLC’s characterization of the group, Turning Point USA, that Kirk founded. For instance, the SPLC included a section on Turning Point in a report titled “The Year in Hate and Extremism 2024” that described the group as a “case study in the hard right”. Prominent figures including Elon Musk lambasted the SPLC in recent days about its descriptions of Kirk and the organization.A spokesperson for the SPLC, a legal and advocacy group founded in 1971 as a watchdog for minorities and the underprivileged, did not directly address Patel’s comments in a statement Friday but said the organization has for decades shared data with the public and remains “committed to exposing hate and extremism as we work to equip communities with knowledge and defend the rights and safety of marginalized people”.The ADL has also faced criticism on the right for maintaining a “Glossary of Extremism”. The organization announced recently that it was discontinuing that glossary because a number of entries were outdated and some were being “intentionally misrepresented and misused”.Founded in 1913 to confront antisemitism, the ADL has long worked closely with the FBI – not only through research and training but also through awards ceremonies that recognize law enforcement officials involved in investigations into racially or religiously motivated extremism.James Comey, the former FBI director, paid tribute to that relationship in May 2017 when he said at an ADL event: “For more than 100 years, you have advocated and fought for fairness and equality, for inclusion and acceptance. You never were indifferent or complacent.”A Patel antagonist, Comey was indicted on 25 September on false statement and obstruction charges and has said he is innocent. Patel appeared to mock Comey’s comments in a post Wednesday on X in which he shared a Fox News story that quoted him as having cut ties with the ADL.“James Comey wrote ‘love letters’ to the ADL and embedded FBI agents with them – a group that ran disgraceful ops spying on Americans,” he said in a post made as Jews were preparing to begin observing Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. “That era is OVER. This FBI won’t partner with political fronts masquerading as watchdogs.”An ADL spokesperson did not immediately comment Friday on Patel’s announcement. But CEO and executive director Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement Friday that the ADL “has deep respect” for the FBI.“In light of an unprecedented surge of antisemitism, we remain more committed than ever to our core purpose to protect the Jewish people,” Greenblatt said. More

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      US treasury considers special $1 Trump coin reading ‘fight, fight, fight’

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      To commemorate the 250th anniversary of the US’s independence, the treasury department is mulling production of a $1 coin displaying Donald Trump with a clenched first under an American flag and the words “fight, fight, fight”.The words overtly reference what Trump said immediately after narrowly surviving an assassination attempt four months before he won a second presidency.US treasurer Brandon Beach effectively announced a draft design of the coin Friday on X, saying: “No fake news here. These drafts honoring America’s 250th birthday and [Trump] are real.”The X post – which boosted another account commenting on the draft design – said Beach looked “forward to sharing more” after the end of the partial government shutdown that began after midnight Wednesday when Senate Democrats demanding concessions on healthcare and other spending priorities refused to provide the votes necessary to pass a Republican-backed funding bill.As Politico pointed out, in 2020, at the end of his first presidency, Trump signed bipartisan legislation authorizing the treasury secretary to issue $1 coins during the calendar year 2026 that are “emblematic of the United States semiquincentennial”.One side of the coin on whose draft design Beach commented Friday showed Trump’s profile alongside “Liberty”, “In God we Trust”, and “1776-2026”.The other side referenced the attempt on Trump’s life at a political rally in Pennsylvania last year, when authorities said a sniper injured Trump’s right ear and wounded two others before being shot to death by the US Secret Service.Trump raised his fist after the attack – one of two attempted assassinations for him as he successfully ran for a second Oval Office term in 2024 – and shouted, “Fight! Fight! Fight!” with an American flag looming nearby.A statement from a treasury department spokesperson to Politico said the draft which Beach’s X post discussed was not the “final $1 coin design”. But the statement maintained that “this draft reflects well the enduring spirit of our country and democracy, even in the face of immense obstacles”.Trump’s approval rating on average has plummeted to -9.5%, as his second administration has cut healthcare protections and nutrition assistance that benefits the poor – while also implementing tariffs that preceded a reported rise in consumer prices.A poll of 3,445 US adults taken by Pew Research between 22 and 28 September showed 53% believed Trump had made the national economy worse. Only 24% believed that he’s improved the economy, according to the poll’s finding.Among other things, the Trump administration has also deployed US military troops into the streets of multiple cities, axed roughly half a billion dollars in funding for vaccines such as the ones that helped end the Covid pandemic, and struggled to contain a scandal over his past friendship with late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. More

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      All the US campus protesters have been released – except for her: ‘Most days I feel helpless’

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      Growing up in the West Bank, Leqaa Kordia was separated from family in Gaza by Israeli restrictions on movement between the territories. So aunts and uncles in Gaza would call from the beach there, allowing Kordia to share her cousins’ laughter and glimpse the waves.Now many of those relatives are dead, killed in the war that has destroyed much of the Gaza Strip. And more than 200 days after Kordia was swept up in the Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters, she despairs over being unable to give her family a voice.“Most days I feel helpless,” said Kordia, 32, speaking from a Texas immigration detention center where she has been jailed since March. “I want to do something, but I can’t from here. I can’t do anything.”Kordia, a Palestinian who has lived in New Jersey since 2016, was one of the first people arrested in the government’s campaign against protesters, many of them prominent activists. All the others have gained release.Only Kordia – mischaracterized by the government, largely overlooked by the public and caught in a legal maze – languishes in detention. That is, in part, because her story differs from those of most others who thronged campuses.When she joined demonstrations against Israel outside Columbia University, she wasn’t a student or part of a group that might have provided support. As the arrests of activists like Mahmoud Khalil drew condemnation from elected officials and advocates, Kordia’s case largely remained out of the public eye.And Kordia has been reluctant to draw attention to herself.In her first interview since her arrest, Kordia said recently that she was motivated to protest because of deep personal ties to Gaza, where more than 170 relatives have been killed. The government has cast those ties as suspect, pointing to Kordia’s money transfers to relatives in the Middle East as evidence of possible ties to terrorists.Lawyers for the Department of Homeland Security didn’t reply to calls for comment. An agency spokesperson declined to answer questions about the case.In a blistering decision this week, a federal judge found the Trump administration unlawfully targeted protesters for speaking out. That ruling isn’t binding, though, in the highly conservative district where Kordia’s case is being heard.“The government has tried again and again to muster some kind of justification to hold this young woman in custody indefinitely,” said her immigration attorney, Sarah Sherman-Stokes. “It doesn’t seem to matter to them that they have no evidence.”Kordia grew up in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Her parents divorced when she was a child and her mother remarried, eventually becoming a US citizen. In 2016, Kordia came to the US on a visitor’s visa, staying with her mother in Paterson, New Jersey, which is home to one of the nation’s largest Arab communities.Soon after, Kordia enrolled in an English-language program and obtained a student visa. Her mother applied to let Kordia remain in the US as the relative of a citizen.The application was approved, but no visas were available. Government lawyers say Kordia has been in the US illegally since she left school in 2022, surrendering her student status and invalidating her visa. Kordia said she believed then that her mother’s application assured her own legal status and that she mistakenly followed a teacher’s advice.Kordia worked as a server at a Middle Eastern restaurant on Paterson’s Palestine Way while helping to care for her half-brother, who has autism.Those routines were upended in October 2023, after Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage. Israel responded with a massive military campaign, killing more than 66,000 Palestinians.In calls with relatives in Gaza, “they were telling me that: ‘We’re hungry. … We are scared. We’re cold. We don’t have anywhere to go’,” Kordia said. “So my way of helping my family and my people was to go to the streets.”Kordia said she joined more than a dozen protests in New York, New Jersey and Washington DC. In April 2024, she was arrested with 100 other protesters outside Columbia University’s gates in upper Manhattan – charges quickly dismissed by prosecutors and sealed.Soon after winning office for a second time and returning to the White House, this January, Donald Trump issued executive orders equating the protests with antisemitism. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) intelligence analysts began assembling dossiers on noncitizens who criticized Israel or protested the war, based on doxing sites and information from police.In March, immigration agents showed up at Kordia’s home and workplace, as well as her uncle’s house in Florida. “The experience was very confusing,” she said. “It was like: why are you doing all this?”Kordia hired a lawyer before agreeing to a 13 March meeting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officials in Newark. She was detained immediately and flown to Prairieland Detention Facility, south of Dallas.Once there, she was assigned a bare mattress on the floor and denied religious accommodations, including halal meals, her lawyers said.When her cousin, Hamzah Abushaban, visited Kordia about a week after her arrest, he was taken aback by the dark circles under her eyes and her state of confusion.“One of the first things she asked me was why was she there,” Abushaban said. “She cried a lot. She looked like death.”“I must’ve asked her a thousand times, like, you’re sure you didn’t commit a crime?” he said. “What she thought and I thought was probably going to be a few more days of being detained has turned into almost, what, seven months now.”Kordia said that she didn’t understand the reasons for her detention until a week or two later, when a television at the facility was tuned to news of protester arrests.“I see my name, literally in big letters, on CNN and I was like, what’s going on?” she said.Administration officials touted Kordia’s arrest as part of the deportation effort against those who “actively participated in anti-American, pro-terrorist activities”. A DHS press release noted her arrest the previous year at a “pro-Hamas” demonstration, mistakenly labeling her as a Columbia student.Court papers show New York police gave records of her dismissed arrest to DHS – an apparent violation of a city law barring cooperation with immigration enforcement. Federal officials told police the information was needed in a criminal money-laundering investigation, a police spokesperson later said.At a bond hearing weeks later, government attorneys argued for Kordia’s continued detention, pointing to subpoenaed records showing she had sent “large amounts of money to Palestine and Jordan”.Kordia said she and her mother had sent the money, totaling $16,900 over eight years, to relatives. A $1,000 payment in 2022 went to an aunt in Gaza whose home and hair salon had been destroyed in an Israeli strike. Two more payments last year went to a cousin struggling to feed his family.“To hear the government accusing them of being terrorists and accusing you of sending money to terrorists, this is heartbreaking,” Kordia said.An immigration judge, examining transaction records and statements from relatives, found “overwhelming evidence” that Kordia was telling the truth about the payments.That judge has twice ordered her released on bond. The government has challenged the ruling, triggering a lengthy appeals process – highly unusual in immigration cases that don’t involve serious crimes.Typically, when the government goes after someone for overstaying a visa, they are rarely arrested, let alone held in prolonged detention, said Adam Cox, a professor of immigration law at New York University.“The kind of scale and scope and publicness of the campaign against student protesters by the Trump administration is really nothing like we’ve seen in recent memory,” said Cox, who studies the rise of presidential power in immigration policy.Kordia has sought release in federal court, the same path taken by Khalil and others. Whether she succeeds may depend on an appeals court in New York, which heard arguments this week from government attorneys who contend that such relief should be largely off-limits to noncitizens.Khalil, who was freed in June, said he had followed Kordia’s case closely, asking lawyers to relay messages and reminding his supporters “that there is one person left behind”.As detention stretches on, Kordia said it’s been difficult to follow developments in the war, let alone maintain contact with relatives caught in the conflict.But it’s provided many hours to think about a time when the war is finally over and she can find peace.That would start by being reunited with her mother and other relatives, she said, and maybe one day having a family of her own. She dreams of opening a cafe and introducing people to Palestinian culture through food. She wants to pursue an American life.“That’s all I wanted, to live with my family in peace in a land that appreciates freedom,” she says. “That’s literally all that I want.” More

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      Nature, books and naked bike rides: Portlanders push back on Trump claims that city is ‘like living in hell’

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      In Portland, Oregon, a city Donald Trump claims to have seen “burning down to the ground” on his television, residents are pushing back on the US president’s false depiction of their tranquil city as a war zone.Trump, who refuses to accept firsthand accounts from Oregon’s governor and the Portland mayor that the widespread unrest he thinks he’s seen on television is not actually happening, has ordered the military in to the Pacific north-west city.Portland police made three arrests on Thursday night after fistfights broke out between demonstrators and a pro-Trump influencer from Washington DC at an Ice field office, and 200 national guard troops are expected to arrive in the coming days. But a visit to the Ice field on Thursday afternoon showed that, far from being “under siege” by militants, there were fewer than 10 protesters on the sidewalk, nearly outnumbered by journalists.Now residents, frustrated with the president’s false claims that Portland is “war ravaged”, are showing a different side of their city from the one depicted by Trump and Fox News.A raft of Instagram and TikTok videos from Portlanders are poking holes in Trump’s claim that life in their city is “like living in hell”, showcasing verdant hiking trails, trees in rich fall colors and a thriving food scene. Plans are also being drawn up for the most Portland of all possible responses: an Emergency Naked Bike Ride against “the militarization of our city”.View image in fullscreenOn a rainy Thursday in the city, the kitchen at Kann, Portland’s award-winning Haitian restaurant, was busy preparing for dinner. Jokes about Trump’s war were shared at Coava, a cafe with a single-origin coffee menu that changes seasonally which is popular with Japanese tourists. Business was brisk at Powell’s Books, the downtown icon which inspired the new protest slogan: “Portland isn’t a war zone; it’s a bookstore with a city around it.”The parking lot was full at Providore Fine Foods, a culinary marketplace whose owner, Kaie Wellman, said she was concerned about how Trump’s “threats against our city” could be “devastating for local businesses” like hers, which worked so hard to survive the pandemic only to be hit first by Trump’s tariffs and now his “100% false” portrayal of a minor protest at the Ice field office in the city’s south waterfront district. “It’s really profoundly upsetting,” she said.Wellman, a fifth-generation Oregonian, is opening a bistro this month in the Portland Art Museum’s new Mark Rothko Pavilion, a $110m expansion that has taken a decade to complete. “It really is such a cornerstone for our community, for downtown Portland, to have such a significant new building,” she said. She describes her leap of faith in opening a new restaurant just blocks from where the 2020 protests for racial justice took place as “a love letter to Portland and what a vibrant community we are.“One of the main reasons that we’re opening up this cafe downtown, and do what we do here in town, is because of our deep love for the state and for the city. And to see it portrayed anything less than what it is, you know, is just so frustrating. It’s a place that people want to come and live and raise their families. And it’s kind of unmatched in beauty,” Wellman said.View image in fullscreen“Yes, we’ve had issues here, but we’ve had the same issues that basically every other city around this world has had. And we’re coming at these issues from a thoughtful place and not trying to sweep them away. But the issue that’s being portrayed right now does not exist in this town.”Asked about Trump’s claims of lawlessness, Wellman said it was “not the case at all”. “And I am in the south waterfront at least two to three times a week because my 92-year-old mother lives in the south waterfront,” she added. “So I can tell you firsthand what’s been happening down there. And what I have seen, at the quote-unquote very worst, it’s still been peaceful protests. Maybe there’s been some strong words thrown around.”“I would say right now, if there is any disturbance that’s been going on, it’s Black Hawk helicopters that are circling around a neighborhood that is filled with many retirees and older people … causing all of them fear and a lack of sleep,” she added.View image in fullscreenBack at the Ice field office protest, Amanda Cochran, a US army veteran, was holding a homemade sign that read “Vets Against Militarization” on one side, and “Immigrants Are Not the Enemy’ on the other. She wore a tour shirt for the Canadian rock band Three Days Grace with the lyrics “Let’s start a riot.”“I’m here because I’m really fed up with the fact that Trump is talking about using the military to go into cities and to train the forces,” she said.“I served in the US army for six years and this is my first time ever protesting,” she said. “I just felt really strongly that if we don’t stand up and say something then this could easily become a militarized country and the citizens will be under the control of the military, and I don’t think that that is OK, and that’s not what I fought for.“Us veterans, we have the privilege of being able to express our opinions because we’re out, and hopefully we can kind of give those soldiers that don’t want to be there a voice. If enough of us show up, maybe Trump will back off,” she added.Across the street, the Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin, who has been reporting from inside the facility, prepared for a live hit out front, accompanied by three men with covered faces who appeared to be private security guards.Just to their left, a young protest organizer, Jack Dickinson, who achieved a measure of viral fame this week for the chicken costume he wears to mock Trump, was being interviewed for the local news.Why a chicken? One of the advantages of the costume, Dickinson explained, is that “it disarms people.“We’re dealing with a real influx of rightwing agitators right now,” he continued. “It becomes difficult for them to interact in certain ways, I think, when there’s the chicken suit, but not just the chicken suit, it’s then somebody who tries to have a conversation with them about the soybean situation that we’re facing right now,” referring to the collapse in crop prices for US farmers due to Trump’s trade war with China.View image in fullscreen“We do not want this to escalate,” he said, agreeing with local officials who suggest that Trump wants to provoke a response from the protesters.“There is definitely a desire for a response. We saw this most clearly on Sunday night because for that protest, we had 30 people that were down here associated with rightwing Twitter accounts or rightwing YouTube channels,” Dickinson said. “There is a clear desire to get somebody reacting in a way that they can frame as a justification for what they are doing. And Portland just isn’t giving them what they want.” More

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      ‘Time for Democrats to exercise what power they have’: readers on the US shutdown

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      The US federal government shut down on Wednesday after Democrats opted against voting for a Republican funding plan in order to seek concessions on healthcare and other priorities.It is the Democrats’ first major opportunity to make a stand in Congress since voters re-elected Donald Trump last year and relegated them to the minority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Yet it comes with risks – previous shutdowns have not accomplished much for whichever party instigates them, and the Trump administration has threatened to use the funding lapse to intensify its campaign of laying off federal workers.Do voters agree with the party’s tactics? Have Democrats issued the right demands? The Guardian asked its readers, and the overwhelming answer was yes – though not without some concerns about the party’s overall strategy.“Normally I think a government shutdown is bad, but in this case, it is time for the Democrats to exercise what little power they have,” said 66-year-old Las Vegas resident Jenn Gilbert.“This is the only power Democrats have in government at the moment, and they must use it or lose out entirely,” said Randy Barron of New Mexico.“The Republicans have refused to negotiate with the Democrats on anything related to governing. Therefore, in my opinion, they were left with the only leverage they had: a government shutdown,” was the view of Douglas T Rand of Boston.“I deplore having to take this step as people will suffer by being laid off, individuals in many parts of the country will be severely inconvenienced as a result of the shutdown. Ultimately though, the miscreant in charge of our government has the ultimate responsibility to solve this issue,” said 82-year-old John M Dowley Sr of Kingston, New York.Opinions were more divergent when it came to the Democrats’ conditions for reopening the government. The party is demanding that the GOP agree to extend premium tax credits for Affordable Care Act health (ACA) plans. Those expire at the end of the year, and 20 million Americans will pay more for health insurance if they are not renewed.Democrats also want a reversal of cuts to Medicaid made under the One Big Beautiful Bill act Republicans passed earlier this year, which, together with other changes in the bill, are expected to cost about 10 million people their health insurance. The party is also demanding a restoration of funding for public media outlets like PBS and NPR, and a prohibition on Donald Trump’s use of a pocket rescission to slash funding Congress has already approved.Republicans have scoffed at their conditions, and insisted Democrats provide the necessary votes in the Senate to advance legislation that will fund the government through 21 November.Many of those who wrote in to the Guardian were on board with the Democrats’ ultimatum, particularly when it came to healthcare – an issue that has long been a top priority of the party.“We Democrats can’t consent to taking away healthcare coverage from millions of people. We need to hang tough,” said 86-year-old Glenna Matthews of Laguna Beach, California.“Hold these Republicans accountable for trying to take away people’s healthcare. Counteract their despicable lies,” said 70-year-old Janet Borton of Florida.Mary Hunter of Lewiston, Maine, said Democrats should continue doing “exactly what they are doing”, but bemoaned the dilemma it put her lawmakers in. She is a constituent of Jared Golden, the only Democrat to vote for the GOP spending plan in the House, and Angus King, the independent senator who aligns with Democrats but has voted for the bill in the Senate.“Unfortunately we are left trying to weigh the undoubted harm done by a shutdown against the equally indubitable harm done by rocketing insurance premiums and the dialing back of Medicaid. That is a totally unnecessary quandary to put our representatives in,” she said.Other supported the shutdown, but were unsure if the party was fighting on the right issues, or if the cost of their struggle was worth bearing.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“We need a functioning federal government to prevent the United States from breaking apart,” said Duane Wyatt Bays of McGill, Nevada, that he supported the Democrats’s tactics “with hesitation”. “We do not have a functioning federal government if everything is cut except the military.”Paul David White, 73, of Massachusetts said he was “disheartened by Democrats’ inability to explain the rationale. What is the game plan here? Obstruction for its own sake [is] never a winning strategy.”Benjamin Allen of Oregon noted that he benefited from the ACA subsidies, but called the party’s focus on the issue “a mistake”.“That’s a policy issue and Democrats are in the minority,” he said.Allen was one of several who argued that Democrats must use the showdown to counteract Trump and the GOP’s moves to cut funding that Congress has already approved. In July, congressional Republicans passed legislation cancelling $9b in funds for public media outlets and foreign aid, which Trump followed up weeks later with a pocket rescission to block another $5b in funding for aid programs – a move that the supreme court’s conservative majority allowed to proceed.“The use of pocket rescissions makes any appropriation a joke, and Congress’s attendant loss of control over spending undermines democracy, which is already genuinely teetering under the Trump administrations constant and Supreme Court-assisted assaults,” Allen said.Democrats should insist on “the return of the power of the purse to Congress,” said White, who called it: “A big ask but … [this is] the issue at hand.”Bruce Higgins of San Diego, 71, agreed, saying: “This is a fundamental test of our democracy. This shutdown will establish that Congress’s power of the purse is real, and must be respected. The second principle is that Congress is a co-equal partner in our government. The president must consult and negotiate with Congress. He cannot rule by decree. The Democrats must defend these principles or we might as well crown Trump king now.” More

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      When will US generals stand-up to Trump? | Moustafa Bayoumi

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      At what point will the US’s top military brass decide that enough is enough, that loyalty to the constitution and the rule of law supersedes blind fealty to job and Donald Trump?The question is hardly academic. The president has been rapidly intensifying military operations on United States soil during his second term. In April, he began expanding the military presence along parts of the US’s southern border by establishing so-called “national defense areas”. Troops are now authorized to search, question and detain people in those zones, dangerously muddling the line between military rule and civilian law enforcement.By the summer, Trump sent in the marines and the national guard to Los Angeles, against the wishes of the governor, and later to Washington DC. Similar deployments of the national guard, also against the wishes of the respective state governors, are expected for Chicago and Portland, Oregon.Needless to say, US law, under the Posse Comitatus Act, generally prohibits the use of the military in civilian law enforcement roles. A federal judge ruled in September that Trump’s troop deployment in Los Angeles violated the act, but Trump is doing it anyway. And he expects the military to follow him.Not just follow him. He expects the military to venerate him. Trump turned a 250th Anniversary Parade for the Army, which we already didn’t need, into his own 79th birthday celebration, which we definitely didn’t need. (Both anniversaries were on the same day. Attendance at the parade was not only sparse, but was dwarfed by the estimated 5 million people who turned out for the “No Kings” demonstrations across the country on the same day.)And most recently, he joined his recently renamed secretary of war, Pete Hegseth, in an abruptly summoned meeting of the country’s military commanders on 30 September. (“I love the name,” Trump said, referring to the Department of War. “I think it’s so great. I think it stops wars.”) At the meeting, Trump told the leadership: “We’re under invasion from within, no different than a foreign enemy, but more difficult in many ways because they don’t wear uniforms.” His evidence was that “Democrats run most of the cities that are in bad shape,” even though all the cities he listed – San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles – have some of their lowest levels of violent crime in decades. And then he said: “We should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military.”Trump and Hegseth are attempting to reshape the US military into a partisan force committed to preserving Trump’s power, a prospect which is not only anathema to our tradition but should also worry all Americans. And they want to make this restructuring into a spectacle. Everything Hegseth said at this highly publicized and very expensive meeting could have been issued by memorandum, and in fact was. But Hegseth in particular needs a rebrand. He is, at this point, much less known for leading military operations than he is for leaking them. For Hegseth, the very public lecture was a vainglorious attempt at buffing his own tarnished image. Unfortunately for him, it came across more like a condescending Ted talk that had possibly been directed by the ghost of Leni Riefenstahl.But far more significant, and infinitely more troubling, was Trump’s foreshadowing of even greater numbers of troops on our American streets. So, I return to my initial question: when will the nation’s top military brass decide that enough is enough?There’s every reason to believe that high ranking members of the military might already be worried about getting sacked by this president, either for being insufficiently loyal to Trump, insufficiently white, or insufficiently male, based on past actions from this administration. Within weeks of assuming office, Trump sacked the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Air Force Gen CQ Brown, only the second Black man to hold the position. Adm Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to be named to chief of naval operations, the US Navy’s highest rank, was also dismissed.Trump also got rid of judge advocates general for the army, navy and air force, and fired Gen Tim Haugh, the head of the National Security Agency and US Cyber Command, reportedly at the request of far-right activist Laura Loomer, who claimed Haugh was insufficiently loyal to the president. There are many more examples.While it’s true that every administration does some house cleaning upon assuming power, it’s also true that the scale and mission to restructure the military during this administration is unprecedented. As Peter Feaver and Heidi Urben write in Foreign Policy: “No previous administration exercised its power in this dramatic fashion for fear that doing so would effectively treat the senior officer corps as akin to partisan political appointees whose professional ethos is to come and go with changes of administration, rather than career public servants whose professional ethos is to serve regardless of changes in political leadership.”Hegseth claimed that he will also now get rid of “stupid rules of engagement”. Those rules, however, define what is lawful and unlawful behavior by the military, a line made more difficult to discern as the administration decimates the legal wing (the judge advocate generals) of the military. Clearly, there has been plenty of illegality in the US military behavior from its inception until today. But if you are a member of the military, you have the right, if not the duty, to refuse illegal orders.The Trump administration is currently engaged in blatantly illegal acts being carried out by the US navy. Lethal strikes are being launched against vessels in the Caribbean that the US claims are drug smuggling boats. No evidence has been provided, and now the administration is claiming the US is in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels and the people who were murdered by the US in the strikes are “unlawful combatants”.This is ludicrous, of course, and is reminiscent of the worst legal reasoning developed during the early War on Terror era. Even if the people on those boats were participating in drug smuggling (which is quite unlikely), being involved in the sale of a controlled substance does not rise to the standard of engaging in hostilities, as noted by Geoffrey Corn, a retired judge advocate general lawyer and formerly the army’s senior adviser for law-of-war issues.When a state intentionally kills a person outside of armed conflict and without due process, it’s a form of murder. It’s already happening in the Caribbean Sea. Is that the path we’re headed down on the streets of our own cities? Trump may have drawn up his own battle plans for his purposes, but it’s the members of the military who will have to carry them out. With all our institutions currently on the line, including the military, we need a much stronger defense against his idea of war.

      Moustafa Bayoumi is the author of the award-winning books How Does It Feel To Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America and This Muslim American Life: Dispatches from the War on Terror. He is Professor of English at Brooklyn College, City University of New York More

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      Make green great again: Can appeals to the wallet make climate policy an election-winner?

      by

      At stuffy United Nations press conferences, in swanky auditoriums and at sticky socialist dance parties, one word was on everyone’s lips at this year’s Climate Week NYC: affordability.The US energy secretary, Chris Wright, said under that under President Trump the United States is “returning to commonsense energy policies that focus on affordability”. The former energy secretary, Jennifer Granholm, said Democrats must focus on renewable power’s ability to shrink power bills to win elections. And supporters of the almost certainly soon-to-be New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, trumpeted their efforts to link green policies with efforts to lower city residents’ rent and make transit affordable.The attempt to link everyday cost issues to global warming is not new. The concept was a key part of the Green New Deal, a progressive policy platform popularized by youth-led climate group the Sunrise Movement and New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in 2018. Joe Biden picked up the framing in the White House, naming his signature green carbon-cutting policy the Inflation Reduction Act, from 2022.Now, as utility bills soar around the country, Americans on every part of the political spectrum are framing their energy and climate proposals as ways to protect ordinary people’s pocketbooks.More on that after the most important reads from the week.Essential reads

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      In focusView image in fullscreenEvery year, Climate Week in New York City brings together government officials, corporate actors, scholars and activists for a vast array of climate-focused events, timed to coincide with the United Nations general assembly.This year, the Trump administration’s anti-environmental blitz cast a massive shadow over the event. In appearances through the week, White House officials aimed to peg its deregulatory agenda as a win to lower Americans’ bills, with Trump calling green energy a “scam” and Wright saying: “The more people have gotten into so-called climate action, the more expensive their energy has become.”Climate advocates attempted to expose those statements as false while getting Americans on board with green policies on the grounds that they can cut costs. For instance, two Democratic representatives, from Illinois and California, unveiled a proposal to speed new power-line construction and restore green energy incentives which Trump repealed earlier this year. Its name: the Cheap Energy Act.It’s a framework that Jennifer Granholm, who served as US energy secretary under Biden, said she expected as climate slips down the list of political concerns for Americans, while economic worries rise. “My guess is you’re not going to see a lot of politicians using the word ‘climate’, because people see that as a nice-to-have [concern], not a must-have, and right now they’re in the must-have mode,” she told reporters over avocado toast one morning. “Affordability is key.”Those well to Granholm’s left also called for a focus on affordability in the climate fight. But many called for more ambitious solutions that deliver more immediate benefits. Instead of merely tinkering with the tax code to incentivize green technology buildout – a hallmark of Biden’s climate efforts – politicians should prioritize less wonky, “green economic populist” campaigns such as fare-free transit and the build-out of decarbonized public housing.“These kinds of programs do have decarbonization benefits, but they’re extremely important for starting to build up a mass base [who have] trust in public institutions and trust in the government,” Batul Hassan, labor director at the left-leaning thinktank Climate and Community Institute, said at a panel.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionMamdani, the socialist who achieved a stunning win in the New York City mayoral primary this summer, embodies this kind of agenda, said Hassan. On Wednesday of Climate Week, progressives gathered for a dance party at the legendary Sounds of Brazil music venue to celebrate the candidate’s success.“It has long been understood that if we’re going to build a mass movement, people need to see the connection between the transition to renewable energy and spending less money,” New York City comptroller Brad Lander said in an interview with the Guardian at the party, shouting over the thrum of Charli xcx.Messaging is important, but merely talking about affordability is not enough, Alexa Avilés, a New York City council member and democratic socialist, told the Guardian at the Mamdani event. Trump, for instance, has failed to deliver on his promise of lowering bills while handing massive benefits to oil giants and other corporations. And many Democrats are also guilty of prioritizing their corporate donors’ interests, Avilés said.“Some people talk about working-class folks, but then they make policies that are designed for the rich. We’ve been living with that frustration for a long time,” she said. “We need to focus on actually bringing relief to people. And we see that when we really center people over profit, people respond to that. People can tell who is for real.”Read more:

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