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      ‘No-holds-barred fight’: California’s governor takes off his gloves to punch back at Trump

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      In the opening weeks of Donald Trump’s second term, Gavin Newsom wagered that peacemaking was best: a tarmac greeting for Air Force One, an Oval Office visit and a podcast slot for Maga’s biggest names. But then Trump came for California, and its governor dropped the niceties.With a flood of all-caps social media posts, a counterpunching redistricting proposal and a string of lawsuits challenging the new administration, Newsom is not just taking on Trump, he’s stealing his tactics: fight, fight, fight.“We’ve got to wake up, disabuse ourselves as Democrats,” Newsom said on a podcast last week. “I’m sick of being weak. I’m sick of being effete. I’m sick of being non-consequential. It’s not good enough to say it – it’s time to do.”Newsom has charged on to the national stage as a recast political brawler willing to wield power as ruthlessly as the other side. On Thursday, he signed redistricting legislation establishing a special election to ask voters to temporarily redraw the state’s congressional boundaries and give Democrats as many as five additional US House seats in next year’s midterm elections.The ballot measure is a direct attempt to “neuter and neutralize” Texas’s partisan gerrymander, engineered at Trump’s behest, to safeguard Republicans’ fragile House majority. At a bill-signing ceremony on Thursday, Newsom cited the president’s claim that he was “entitled” to five additional congressional seats in the Lone Star state: “That should put chills up your spine.”Now the California referendum transforms an off-cycle election year into a high-stakes national showdown that could determine control of Congress – and set the stage for 2028. For Newsom, who’s term-limited and widely viewed as a presidential contender, the success – or failure – of this 11-week sprint could carry major consequences for his political future.The November special election gives voters in deep-blue California a chance to strike back at Trump, who has relentlessly tormented the state since returning to the White House. But by temporarily overriding California’s independent redistricting commission – long a point of pride in the Golden state – Democrats are being asked to “compromise their own values,” said Kim Nalder, a political science professor at California State University, Sacramento.“That’s been a guiding light for a lot of Democrats – the whole ‘they go low, we go high’ idea,” she said. “One of the risks is that the Democratic party – and Newsom himself – become associated with this all-out brawl, no-holds-barred fighting, rather than having a particular set of political principles that they stand by no matter what.”How Californians will decide remains uncertain. A Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll released on Friday shows 48% of registered voters in the state support Newsom’s redistricting plan, compared with 32% who oppose it. Another 20% are undecided, providing an opening for either campaign to make their pitch.“If Proposition 50 passes, and Californians succeed in adding more House seats, and is partially, if not completely, responsible for flipping the House next year, he’s a hero, plain and simple,” said Bill Whalen, a Hoover Institution fellow who was a speechwriter for Pete Wilson, the former Republican governor of California.Even if the initiative falls short in November, Whalen believes Newsom still benefits. “He still gets credit among those same Democrats for fighting the good fight,” he said. “I don’t see how he fails.”The all-out political war between the president and California’s governor erupted earlier this summer, when Trump seized control of California’s national guard and deployed US marines to Los Angeles, over Newsom’s objections, to suppress protests against the federal immigration crackdown. The raids are ongoing, and Trump has targeted the state in other ways: an attempt to strip federal funding from UCLA, and tariffs that threaten California’s economy – the fourth largest in the world.Newsom has argued that Trump was not just a threat to his state – but to the entire 249-year-old American project. While his approach might offend virtue-minded Democrats, he says the moment demands it.“Yes, I’ve changed,” he said recently in a local news interview. “The facts have changed. We need to change.”In recent weeks, as Newsom has stepped up his attacks on Trump as a “weak” and a “failed” leader, his social media team has trolled the president online – unleashing a jumble of unfiltered, stream-of-consciousness rants, AI-generated political fan art and schoolyard taunts, some of it signed with the governor’s initials, GCN, meant to parody the president’s own chaotic posting style.View image in fullscreenNewsom says he’s simply holding up a mirror. “If you’ve got issues with what I’m putting out,” he told reporters last week, “you sure as hell should have concerns about what he’s putting out as president.”The posts have gone viral – racking up millions of views, thousands of comments and driving a flood of engagement. They’ve also caught the attention of the right. Fox News hosts, Kid Rock, JD Vance and even Trump himself have all taken the bait, provoking what the governor’s staff gleefully dubbed “Maga meltdowns”.“JESSE WATTERS KEPT CALLING ME ‘DADDY’ (VERY WEIRD, NOT INTERESTED, BUT THANK YOU!)” his office clapped back, in an 188-word tweet about Fox News’s breathless coverage of Newsom’s furious posting streak.“Gavin Newsom can mimic Donald Trump all that he wants to,” Vance told Fox News host Laura Ingraham, “they’re still going to lose unless they get better policies that actually serve the American people.”Trump, for his part, weighed in on his own social media platform, Truth Social, vowing to save “the Once Great State of California” from “Newscum”.“Triggered?” Newsom replied with a wink.The Berkley poll suggested that California voters back his gloves-off strategy with the president by a nearly two-to-one margin, with just 29% saying they’d prefer a more cooperative approach. The tougher posture lands especially well with younger voters: 71% of Californians under 30 say they approve.In a blitz of media appearances last week, Newsom escalated his rhetoric.“We’re fighting fire with fire,” he said on The Siren podcast. “And we’re going to punch these sons of bitches in the mouth.”The response was telling: no ​Democratic moralizing, no rebuke from party leaders, no pressure on Newsom to apologize. Instead, his team promoted the interview to his legions of new followers and supporters replied with MAGAesque AI images of the governor as a superhero.“People are just not used to seeing this kind of rough around the edges, non-poll-tested messaging coming from Democrats,” said Olivia Julianna, a 22-year-old Democratic activist from Texas and social media influencer who interviewed Newsom for the episode. “It’s real, it’s raw, it’s authentic, and it shows that he’s a fighter.”As Democrats brace for the loss of up to five US House seats in her state, under the redistricting plan approved by the Texas legislature on Saturday, Julianna said voters alarmed by Trump’s increasingly brazen power grabs are desperate for leaders who offer more than just fighting words.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“We want to feel like someone is standing on the frontlines ready to go to battle for us,” she said. “And that’s what it feels like Gavin Newsom is doing.”Newsom’s new fight-fire-with-fire strategy isn’t always trained on Trump.When the Bed Bath & Beyond chair announced on Wednesday that he wouldn’t reopen stores in the state, calling it “overregulated, expensive and risky”, Newsom’s press office fired back. “After their bankruptcy and closure of every store, like most Americans, we thought Bed, Bath & Beyond no longer existed,” it said. “We wish them well in their efforts to become relevant again.”He’s also taken on his own party. Earlier this year, Newsom declared the Democratic brand “toxic” in an interview with provocateur Bill Maher – a diagnosis backed by polling and voter registration trends, but striking language for the leader of the largest blue state who could seek that same party’s nomination.He enraged progressives – already wary of his record on housing and homelessness – when he questioned the fairness of transgender athletes competing in women’s sports. The comments, during a conversation with rightwing agitator Charlie Kirk on the inaugural episode of the governor’s podcast, This Is Gavin Newsom, marked a split from other top Democrats on the issue and rattled some of his LGBTQ+ allies.In response to a Guardian story about the loss of care for trans youth in California, a Newsom spokesperson said critics should point the finger at Trump, not at a governor whose “record supporting the trans community is unmatched”.“Everyone wants to blame Gavin Newsom for everything. But instead of indulging in Newsom derangement syndrome, maybe folks should look to Washington,” the spokesperson said – invoking a pejorative phrase, “derangement syndrome”, used by Trump supporters to mock the president’s detractors.While his sharper tone has angered some on the left, the redistricting gambit has managed to unite progressives and establishment Democrats – sending Newsom’s once-stalled approval rating soaring.His redistricting plan has drawn praise from across the party, including Barack Obama, who called it “a responsible approach”, the former House speaker Nancy Pelosi and the entire congressional delegation of California Democrats. With the ballot initiative in motion, he challenged other blue state leaders to follow suit, laying down the gauntlet for fellow Democratic governors with presidential ambitions as Trump expands his push to secure Republican advantages in states such as Indiana, Ohio and Missouri.That aggressive posture – in effect becoming an “anti-Trump troll” – has been cathartic for many Democrats, Nalder said.“Democrats nationwide have been feeling like the Trump administration has been punching their values and their party and democracy itself in the face repeatedly day after day and they’re just ready for somebody to punch the bully back,” she said. “And Newsom right now looks like he could be that guy.”View image in fullscreenNewsom’s campaign faces mounting opposition from Republicans, including those not in Trump’s Maga camp. The popular former Republican governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, a longtime Trump critic and advocate of independent redistricting, has promised to TERMINATE GERRYMANDERING”.Former House speaker Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, has also vowed to pump money into what some observers predict could quickly become one of the most expensive contests in Golden state history.“The voters of California have a say,” he said in an interview on CNN. “If you truly believe in your power of your own vote, you should vote against this.”Newsom has raised more than $6.2m from 200,000 donations in the week since he officially launched the ballot campaign at a rally in Los Angeles last week, according to his team.There, Newsom stood side by side with labor leaders, members of the teacher’s union and the head of California’s Planned Parenthood. His redistrticting plan even earned the endorsement of Sara Sadhwani, a Democrat who served on California’s 2020 independent redistricting commission. Making the case for tossing out her work, she declared: “Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures”.As Newsome spoke at the Japanese American National Museum’s National Center for the Preservation of Democracy earlier this month, federal agents, armed and masked, fanned out across the complex. Newsom said their presence could not have been coincidental, though a Trump administration official called the accusation “misinformed”.The next day, the governor’s office filed a freedom of information request seeking details on the administration’s involvement in the decision to send border patrol agents to that location.It was just more fuel for Newsom’s argument: his campaign is not just about congressional districts, but a referendum on Trump – and American democracy.“Donald Trump, you have poked the bear,” Newsom says in a new ad for the redistricting campaign, as the camera flashes to the grizzly on the state’s flag. “And we will punch back.” More

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      ‘Pattern of lawfare’: Trump is targeting opponents with mortgage fraud claims

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      Donald Trump and his allies have been accused of executing a “pattern of lawfare” akin to those exerted by authoritarian regimes in Hungary and Russia after adopting a new strategy to target political opponents: allegations of mortgage fraud.First it was Letitia James, the New York attorney general, then it was Adam Schiff, a California senator. Now, the president is targeting Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, demanding she resign and threatening to fire her.Cook, the first Black woman to be appointed a Fed governor, was appointed in 2022 by Joe Biden. Her 14-year term is not due to expire until 2038.Leading this new strategy is Bill Pulte, heir to a home construction company fortune, appointed by Trump to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees regulations of federal housing lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.Pulte has used his role to publicly accuse Trump’s opponents, publishing extraordinary allegations on social media and referring them for investigation.He alleges that James, Schiff and Cook committed what is known as owner-occupancy fraud, when a person claims a second home or investment property is actually a primary residence to get better mortgages. Lenders are more inclined to give borrowers a lower mortgage on a primary residence, compared with a second home or investment property.In a letter to the Department of Justice, Pulte claimed that Cook “falsified bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms”. In other online posts and on TV news appearances, Pulte said that Cook should resign or be fired over the allegations, which have not been verified.James and Schiff have denied the allegations. Cook has pledged to “provide the facts” after gathering the relevant information.Trump allies have celebrated the accusations, citing it as evidence of corruption within the Democratic party. “This is not just hypocrisy, this is poetic justice,” said Fox conservative commentator Laura Ingraham, of Schiff’s fraud accusations, in a clip Trump reposted to social media.While Pulte has targeted two prominent Democrats and a Democratic appointee, accusations of such fraud are not exclusive to the party: an investigation by the Associated Press found Texas attorney general Ken Paxton, a Republican and staunch Trump ally, and his then wife claimed that three homes were their primary residences.View image in fullscreenThough Paxton has not commented on his own mortgage fraud accusations, he had said of the accusations against attorney general James: “I hope that if she’s done something wrong, I hope that she’s held accountable.”Owner-occupancy fraud is not uncommon. Philadelphia Fed researchers in 2023 estimated that over 20,000 loans were given to “fraudulent investors”, or people who purchased more than one home they listed as a primary residence within a year.Some political experts have raised concerns that the president and his allies are blatantly using the legal system to intimidate political opponents. “The fact that the law is being selectively applied underlines that this is part of a pattern of lawfare,” Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan, told the Guardian via email.“What we are seeing is the type of weaponization we associate with authoritarian regimes, like Hungary, Turkey or Russia,” Moynihan added. “I would say that this is a massive warning sign, but the reality is that we have seen so many of these signs at this point.”Contacted for comment, a US federal housing spokesperson said: “We refer people of all political parties for mortgage fraud, and we will continue to do so.”A White House official said: “Anyone who engages in criminal activity should be held accountable. No one is above the law.”‘No intention of being bullied’That Trump is targeting a Fed governor speaks to the president’s continued antagonism against the Federal Reserve. Compared with James or Schiff, both of whom have headed investigations against Trump, Cook has not singled herself out as an enemy to the president.But her role on the 12-person Fed governing board that sets interest rates has probably made her a target. Since taking office in January, Trump has demanded the central bank cut rates, disregarding the precedent set by his predecessors; the Fed has historically been treated as an independent institution, free from political influence, by past presidents.The Fed board hasn’t yet lowered rates during any of the five meetings it had this year, which has infuriated Trump. Policymakers, including the central bank’s chair, Jerome Powell, say the administration’s tariffs have clouded the economic outlook and raises the risk of higher inflation.Pulte has pushed himself into the heart of the action, criticizing the Fed on social media and reportedly even drafting a letter for Trump – which remains unsent – to fire Powell. “Jerome Powell’s career is done,” Pulte wrote in July.View image in fullscreen“Could somebody please inform Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell that he is hurting the housing industry very badly? People can’t get a mortgage because of him,” Trump wrote on social media earlier this week.Trump’s gut-reaction to seize control of the Fed is to fire Powell, but neither the stock market nor the US supreme court have responded kindly to such threats. So, Trump, with Pulte’s help, has spent the summer following other tactics.In July, Trump zeroed in on renovations that were taking place at the Fed’s headquarters in Washington DC, claiming that the renovations were fraudulent because they were more expensive than what was originally budgeted, costing $2.5bn instead of $1.9bn. The Fed put this down to complications that came up during renovations.But as criticisms of the renovations died down, Trump started zeroing in on Cook. Her exit would allow Trump to appoint a replacement who may be more sympathetic to his desire for lower rates.In a statement, Cook said that she has “no intention of being bullied to step down from my position because of some questions raised in a tweet”, adding: “I do intend to take any questions about my financial history seriously as a member of the Federal Reserve and so I am gathering the accurate information to answer any legitimate questions and provide the facts.”On Friday, Trump threatened to fire her if she did not resign. More

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      Trump news at a glance: after 50 years of growth US immigrant population in decline amid wider crackdown

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      The immigrant population of the United States, which has been growing for more than 50 years, has declined by more than a million people since Donald Trump took office in January.According to a new study by the Pew Research Center, there were a record 53.3 million immigrants in the US in January, when Trump took office for the second time. By June, that number had dropped to 51.9 million.Among all US residents, 15.4% were immigrants as of June 2025, down from the recent historic high of 15.8% in January.The Pew survey also found that 750,000 immigrant workers had dropped out of the US labor force since January, which is now 19% foreign-born.Here are the key Trump administration news stories of the day:US immigrant population falls amid Trump crackdownThe Pew Research Center pointed to several policy changes that have affected immigrant populations across the US, including Joe Biden’s restrictions on asylum applications in 2024, which led to a significant decrease in border crossings involving immigrants seeking asylum.Additionally, the center pointed to Donald Trump’s 181 executive actions targeting immigration, including the arrival of new immigrants and the mass deportation of noncitizen immigrants.Read the full storyUS intends to deport Kilmar Ábrego García to UgandaUS immigration officials said they intended to deport Kilmar Ábrego García to Uganda after he declined an offer to be deported to Costa Rica in exchange for remaining in jail and pleading guilty to human smuggling charges, according to a Saturday court filing.The 30-year-old was initially deported by federal immigration officials in March. The Trump administration admitted Ábrego’s deportation was an “administrative error” but officials have repeatedly accused him of being affiliated with the MS-13 gang, a claim Ábrego and his family vehemently deny.Read the full storyPentagon blocks Ukraine from striking deep inside Russia – reportUS defense officials have stopped Ukraine from using US-supplied long-range missiles to strike targets inside Russia since late spring as part of a Trump administration effort to get Vladimir Putin to engage in peace talks, according to a report on Saturday.The Wall Street Journal’s report said the Pentagon had blocked Ukraine from using US-made army tactical missile systems, or Atacms.Read the full storyJudge blocks White House from defunding 34 municipalities over ‘sanctuary’ policiesA federal judge has stopped the Trump administration from cutting off federal funding to 34 “sanctuary cities” and counties that limit cooperation with federal immigration law enforcement, significantly expanding a previous order.Read the full storyTexas Senate approves redrawn congressional map favouring RepublicansThe Texas Senate has given final approval to a redrawn congressional map that gives Republicans a chance to pick up as many as five congressional seats, fulfilling a brazen political request from Donald Trump to shore up the GOP’s standing before next year’s midterm elections.It will now be sent to governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, who is expected to quickly sign it into law.Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

      Students and faculty heading back to US colleges and universities from summer break are returning to bruised institutions reeling from the Trump administration’s unprecedented campaign to bend higher education to its ideological will, and are bracing for more uncertainty ahead.

      Prominent Democratic lawmakers and legal advocates have called for the new immigration detention camp at Fort Bliss military base to be shut down amid accusations of lack of external oversight and concerns over access to legal services.
      Catching up? Here’s what happened 22 August 2025. More

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      Pentagon has blocked Ukraine from striking deep inside Russia – report

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      US defense officials have blocked Ukraine from using US-supplied long-range missiles to strike targets inside Russia since late spring as part of a Trump administration effort to get Vladimir Putin to engage in peace talks , according to a report on Saturday.The Wall Street Journal reports that the Pentagon has blocked Ukraine from using US-made Army Tactical Missile Systems, or Atacms.Two US officials told the outlet that on at least one occasion, Ukraine had sought to use Atacms against a target but was denied under a “review mechanism” developed by Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon’s undersecretary for policy, that governs how US long-range weapons or those provided by European allies that rely on American intelligence and components can be used.The review process also applies to Britain’s Storm Shadow cruise missile because it depends on US targeting data, according to two US officials and a British official, the Journal said.The review system reportedly gives US defense secretary Pete Hegseth approval over the use of the Atacms, which have a range of nearly 190 miles (305km). Ukraine was previously given authority by the Biden administration to use the missile system against targets inside Russia in November after North Korean troops entered the war.Before the inauguration in January, Trump told Time magazine that the decision to allow Ukraine to use US weapons systems to attack targets inside Russia had been a mistake.“I disagree very vehemently with sending missiles hundreds of miles into Russia. Why are we doing that? We’re just escalating this war and making it worse. That should not have been allowed to be done,” he said.It is unclear whether the US defense department’s review process amounts to a formal policy change. But it comes alongside increasing control of munitions to Ukraine as US stocks are themselves depleted.In a statement to the Journal, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump “has been very clear that the war in Ukraine needs to end. There has been no change in military posture in Russia-Ukraine at this time.”But last week, amid efforts to broker talks between the Russian president and Voldomyr Zelenskyy, Trump said that Ukraine couldn’t defeat Russia unless it could “play offense” in the war.“It is very hard, if not impossible, to win a war without attacking an invader’s country,” Trump wrote on Thursday. “It’s like a great team in sports that has a fantastic defense, but is not allowed to play offense. There is no chance of winning.”Last month, the US agreed to supply Ukraine with new weapons systems but only if European nations paid for them. While Trump has said that the US is “not looking” to provide longer-range weapons that could reach Moscow, US officials told the Journal that the administration has approved the sale of 3,350 Extended Range Attack Munition air-launched missiles, or Erams, which have a range of 280 miles (400km). More

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      US immigrant population down by more than a million people amid Trump crackdown

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      The immigrant population of the United States, which has been growing for more than 50 years, has declined by more than a million people since Donald Trump took office in January and defined immigration as a threat to the nation, not one of its strengths.According to a new study by the Pew Research Center, there were a record 53.3 million immigrants in the US in January, when Trump took office for the second time. By June, that number had dropped to 51.9 million.Among all US residents, 15.4% were immigrants as of June 2025, down from the recent historic high of 15.8% in January.The Pew survey also found that 750,000 immigrant workers had dropped out of the US labor force since January, which is now 19% foreign-born.The center pointed to several policy changes that have affected immigrant populations across the US, including Joe Biden’s restrictions on asylum applications in 2024, which led to a significant decrease in border crossings involving immigrants seeking asylum.Additionally, the center pointed to Donald Trump’s 181 executive actions targeting immigration, including the arrival of new immigrants and the mass deportation of noncitizen immigrants.The center noted that the change in the data could be due to a declining survey response rate among immigrants.Mexico remains the largest origin country among US immigrants. As of mid-2023, more than 11 million US residents were born in Mexico, marking nearly a quarter, or 22%, of all immigrants nationally. Nevertheless, immigration from Mexico has declined since 2007 and the Mexican-born population in the US has dropped. From 2010 to 2023, the Mexican share of the US immigrant population dropped from 29% to 22%, according to Pew’s research.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe second-largest immigrant group was from India, at 3.2 million, or 6% of the total immigrant population, as of mid-2023. The next largest immigrant groups were from China, at 3 million, or 6%, followed by the Philippines, at 2.1 million, or 4%, and Cuba, at 1.7 million, or 3%.In July, a Guardian analysis of arrest and deportation data revealed how Trump has “supercharged the country’s immigration enforcement apparatus – pushing immigration officials to arrest a record number of people”.The analysis found that average daily arrests were up by 268% compared with June 2024 and that the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (Ice) was targeting all unauthorized immigrants, including people with no criminal records.The analysis also found that the US has deported more than 8,100 people to countries that are not their home country.Trump’s crackdown on immigration has shown no signs of stopping, with the state department announcing this week that it is reviewing the records of more than 55 million foreign citizens with visas allowing them to visit or reside temporarily in the US for potential revocation. More

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      New England states vow to fight Trump administration order to halt work on offshore wind farm that’s nearly complete

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      The Democratic governors of Rhode Island and Connecticut promised on Saturday to fight a Trump administration order halting work on a nearly complete wind farm off their coasts that was expected to be operational next year.The Revolution Wind project was about 80% complete, with 45 of its 65 turbines already installed, according to the Danish wind farm developer Ørsted, when the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management sent the firm a letter on Friday ordering it to “halt all ongoing activities”.“In particular, BOEM is seeking to address concerns related to the protection of national security interests in the United States,” wrote Matt Giacona, the agency’s acting director, adding that Ørsted “may not resume activities” until the agency has completed a review of the project.Giacona said that the project, which had already cleared years of federal and state reviews, now needs to be re-examined in light of Donald Trump’s order, on the first day of his second term, to consider “terminating or amending any existing wind energy leases”.Giacona, whose prior work as a lobbyist for the offshore oil industry alarmed consumer advocates, also said that the review was necessary to “address concerns related to the protection of national security interests of the United States”. He did not specify what those national security concerns are.Rhode Island’s governor, Dan McKee, criticized the stop-work order and said he and Connecticut’s governor, Ned Lamont, “will pursue every avenue to reverse the decision to halt work on Revolution Wind”, which was “just steps away from powering more than 350,000 homes”.Senator Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, connected the decision to Trump’s reported pitch last year to oil industry executives to trade $1bn in campaign donations for regulatory favors. “When the oil industry showed up at Mar-a-Lago with a set of demands in exchange for a $1 billion of campaign support for Trump, this is what they were asking for: the destruction of clean energy in America,” Murpy said in a statement.“This is a story of corruption, plain and simple. President Trump has sold our country out to big corporations with the oil and gas industry at the top of the list,” the senator added. “I will work with my colleagues and Governor Lamont to pursue all legal paths to get this project back on track.”Since returning to office, Trump has taken sweeping actions to prioritize fossil fuels and hinder renewable energy projects. Throughout his time in public office, Trump has repeatedly brought up his visceral hatred for wind power, apparently prompted by his belief that offshore turbines spoil the views at his golf courses, and his embrace of the bizarre theory that “the noise causes cancer”.Trump recently called wind and solar power “THE SCAM OF THE CENTURY!” in a social media post and vowed not to approve wind or “farmer destroying Solar” projects.Rhode Island’s attorney general, Peter Neronha, said in a statement on Saturday that, without the Revolution Wind project, the state’s Act on Climate law, which aims to use renewable energy to battle global warming, “is dead in the water”.Scientists agree that nations need to rapidly embrace renewable energy to stave off the worst effects of climate change, including extreme heat and drought; larger, more intense wildfires and supercharged hurricanes, typhoons and rainstorms that lead to catastrophic flooding.Construction on Revolution Wind began in 2023, and the project was expected to be fully operational next year. Ørsted says it is evaluating the financial impact of stopping construction and considering legal proceedings.Revolution Wind is located more than 15 miles (24km) south of the Rhode Island coast, 32 miles (51km) south-east of the Connecticut coast and 12 miles (19km) south-west of Martha’s Vineyard. Rhode Island is already home to one offshore wind farm, the five-turbine Block Island Wind Farm.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionRevolution Wind was expected to be Rhode Island and Connecticut’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm, capable of powering more than 350,000 homes. The densely populated states have minimal space available for land-based energy projects, which is why the offshore wind project is considered crucial for the states to meet their climate goals.Wind power is the largest source of renewable energy in the US and provides about 10% of the electricity generated in the nation.Green Oceans, a non-profit that opposes the offshore wind industry, and sued in federal court last year to stop the 83,798-acre (33,912-hectare) Revolution Wind project on environmental grounds, applauded the decision. “We are grateful that the Trump Administration and the federal government are taking meaningful action to preserve the fragile ocean environment off the coasts of Rhode Island and Massachusetts,” the non-profit said in a statement.This is the second major offshore wind project the Trump White House has halted. Work was previously stopped on Empire Wind, a New York offshore wind project, but construction was allowed to resume after New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, and senator Chuck Schumer intervened.“This administration has it exactly backwards. It’s trying to prop up clunky, polluting coal plants while doing all it can to halt the fastest growing energy sources of the future – solar and wind power,” Kit Kennedy, managing director for the power division at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a statement. “Unfortunately, every American is paying the price for these misguided decisions.”The Associated Press contributed reporting More

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      Zohran Mamdani leads in fundraising for New York City mayoral contest

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      Zohran Mamdani pulled in almost double the funds of his nearest rivals for New York City mayor between early July and mid-August, as the candidates prepare for the crucial post Labor Day push to the November poll.New York’s City’s campaign finance board said on Saturday that the democratic socialist, who won the Democratic party nomination in June against former state governor Andrew Cuomo, raised $1,051,200, with an average donation of $121 recorded equally from donors in and outside the state.Cuomo raised $541,301, with an contribution size of $646. The incumbent mayor, Eric Adams, running as an independent, raised $425,181, with an average donation of $770. Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa brought in $407, 332.Mamdani’s fundraising dominance is mirrored in a polling advantage. Last week, a Siena poll placed him at 19 points ahead of Cuomo, his nearest rival, who is also running as an independent. A 12-poll average from Decision Desk HQ puts Mamdani ahead of Cuomo by 13 points.Mamdani, who has proposed rent freezes on almost a million rent-stabilized apartments in the city, free buses and childcare, city-run grocery stores, and elevated taxes on Columbia and New York University to subsidize city colleges and trade schools, has been consistently ahead in fundraising over rivals.In March, he asked his campaign’s grassroots supporters to stop donating, and directed his primary campaign staff to encourage supporters’ focus to volunteering efforts. His campaign funds on hand are put at $4.4m, and his campaign is eligible for $2.2m more in matching public funds.Last week, it was revealed that the anti-billionaire candidate had received a donation of $250,000 to a political action committee from Elizabeth Simons, the daughter of late hedge fund billionaire Jamie Simons.Adams is barred from receiving matching campaign funds, the city campaign finance board having found he had violated related laws. Cuomo has begun transferring money from a $7.5m state campaign account to his city campaign account and has $1.2m on hand. Cuomo is in line for a payout of about $400,000 from public funds.Pressure on the two trailing candidates, Adams and Sliwa, to step out of the race is likely to increase next month, but both have said they are unwilling to do so.Last week, Adams repeated his resistance to dropping out after a close adviser, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, was indicted for allegedly running a political-favors scheme that included receiving seafood and an acting role opposite Forest Whitaker.Politco reported last week that Cuomo told supporters at a fundraiser he expects Republican leaders, including Donald Trump, to urge Republican voters to switch from Sliwa to stop Mamdani, whom Trump has branded “a 100% Communist Lunatic”. Mamdani has said he is “Donald Trump’s worst nightmare”.Cuomo said on Friday that “a lot is going to happen” between now and the November vote. “I don’t think the public even knows who the assemblyman is, what he represents, what his positions are. So I think the more they find out about him, the less they’re going to like him, and … his appeal is going to drop dramatically.”Mamdani, meanwhile, has accused Cuomo of lying about his coordination with Trump and says the former governor, who bitterly clashed with Trump while in office, is now seeking the president’s help.“It’s par for the course for Andrew Cuomo,” Mamdani said on Tuesday. More

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      Marjorie Taylor Greene joins Bernie Sanders in urging US to end Gaza famine

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      Amid mostly silence in Congress, some US lawmakers on opposite sides of the political spectrum spoke out Saturday over a UN-backed report warning of famine in parts of Gaza.“Let’s be clear: President Trump has the power to end the starvation of the Palestinian people,” Vermont’s politically independent senator Bernie Sanders posted on X. “Instead he is doing nothing while watching this famine unfold. Enough is enough. No more American taxpayer dollars to Nethanyahu’s [sic] war machine.”Sanders, who also pushed resolutions to ban selling US weapons to Israel, has long been consistent about his concern regarding the humanitarian crisis in Gaza amid the war.Marjorie Taylor Greene, the outspoken, far-right Georgia Republican, also called for greater compassion for Palestinians in a social media post Saturday, a day after UN secretary general António Gutteres described the famine in the territory as a “failure of humanity”.The US representative, in a departure from the majority of her peers in Congress, described the Gaza humanitarian crisis as a genocide last month. In a long post on X, she then said that while Israel’s war against Hamas was justified, the suffering of civilians was not.“Does Hamas deserve it? Yes,” Greene wrote, in part. “Do innocent people and children deserve it? No.”“The innocent people in Gaza did not kill and kidnap the innocent people in Israel on Oct 7th,” she continued. “Just as we spoke out and had compassion for the victims and families of Oct7, how can Americans not speak out and have compassion for the masses of innocent people and children in Gaza?”Greene linked the entirety of US financial and military aid to Israel to the conflict, arguing that it “means every U.S. tax payer is contributing to Israel’s military actions”.“I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to pay for genocide in a foreign country against a foreign people for a foreign war that I had nothing to do with,” Greene concluded. “And I will not be silent about it.”The post received an almost immediate response from far-right influencer Laura Loomer, who reportedly petitioned the White House to suspend the entry of injured Palestinian children from Gaza to the US.Greene and Loomer, both claiming the mantle of Maga authenticity, have bitterly clashed on the issue, with Loomer falsely describing Palestinian children as a “national security threat” and “Islamic invaders”.Loomer, who is Jewish, once claimed that her ban from social media platforms for anti-Muslim hate speech was antisemitic, while Greene infamously shared an antisemitic conspiracy theory that wildfires in California might have been started by Jewish space lasers.On Saturday, Loomer hit out at Greene, falsely accusing her of calling for Palestinians from Gaza to be resettled in the US and asking: “Why are you advocating for GAZANS to come to the US? How is Islamic immigration ‘America First’?”The UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said last week that parts of Gaza are experiencing a “man-made” famine in the Gaza governorate, which includes Gaza City, site of a new Israeli offensive.“As this Famine is entirely man-made, it can be halted and reversed,” the report said. “The time for debate and hesitation has passed, starvation is present and is rapidly spreading. There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that an immediate, at-scale response is needed.”The Israeli agency heading aid distribution in Gaza, the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), rejected the report, saying it “relies on partial, biased data and superficial information originating from Hamas”.On Saturday, Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, said on X that “the [international] media is missing the real story of ‘famine’ in Gaza. Hostages ARE starving, Hamas is getting fat, & the UN declares famine while 92% of THEIR food is stolen to be sold by Hamas. Meanwhile UN food sits rotting in sun. The UN should declare itself corrupt & incompetent.”In her post, Greene wrote that if the US were being bombed day and night, with millions killed or injured, and the world said “Americans voted for their government so they deserve it… How would you feel? What would you think? What would you do?” More