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      Yes, New York will soon be under new management. But Zohran Mamdani is just the start | Carys Afoko

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      A relatively unknown thirtysomething parachuted on to the national stage and into high political office. Energising to some of the Democratic base but lacking support from the party establishment. Not Zohran Mamdani but Lina Khan, who Joe Biden appointed to chair the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2021 when she was just 32. Khan, who left her role at the FTC when Trump returned to the White House, is now one of five women appointed to the mayor-elect of New York’s transition team.Khan is the most exciting pick for a few reasons. She entered the FTC with an ambitious mandate to transform the government agency, broaden its focus to increase scrutiny of corporate mergers and do more to protect consumers – and got results. She brought down the price of inhalers (routinely being sold for hundreds of dollars) by tackling price gouging by pharmaceutical companies. She blocked a huge supermarket merger and returned more than $60m to Amazon drivers in unpaid tips. All of her achievements were delivered in four years, while navigating a bureaucracy that was sometimes hostile to her leadership.Mamdani has a mandate from New Yorkers, but he can expect opposition from the rich and powerful, as well as many Democrats, to some of his flagship policies. Khan, who made her name calling out big tech monopolies, knows first-hand what it’s like to have influential opponents. After she was confirmed in post at the FTC with bipartisan support, Meta and Amazon tried to get her to recuse herself from investigating them. In the 2024 presidential race, two billionaire Democratic donors publicly called on Kamala Harris to fire Khan if she became president. The Daily Show host Jon Stewart claimed that Apple was resistant to him even interviewing the FTC chair on his podcast because of her views. Big tech and Wall Street execs have already been grumbling about her latest appointment, seeing it as a “shot across the bow”. What better sign that the mayor-elect is on the right track? More

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      Texas’s Eagle Pass voters turned to Trump. A year later, some have doubts

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      Along southern Texas, the Rio Grande forms the US-Mexico border, an arrangement established after the end of the Mexican-American war. Eagle Pass, which had been known as El Paso del Águila, became the first US settlement on the Rio Grande.Swimming across the river has remained treacherous ever since. But migrants never stopped risking their lives to set foot on US soil – and in 2023, those numbers reach record highs as Eagle Pass, the seat of Maverick county, became the epicenter of growing backlash over the Biden administration’s immigration policies.In 2024, for the first time in a century, the Hispanic-majority border county voted for a Republican: Donald Trump. Trump won 14 out of 18 counties along the southern border, gaining the most support there of any Republican in three decades. But he made his biggest gains in Maverick, with 59% of the votes, increasing his support by 14% from 2020.While many supported Trump’s policies on border security, one year later some residents in Eagle Pass are increasingly uncomfortable with the tactics the administration has used across the country in keeping with its mass deportation agenda. Since Trump’s inauguration, federal agents have disrupted communities as they arrest parents who are with their children, show up at schools or daycare facilities, and accidentally sweep up US citizens.The intensity of the national crackdown is jarring for residents like Manuel Mello III who have been on the frontlines of border issues for decades. The chief of the Eagle Pass fire department, Mello explained that border crossings have always been part of the city’s history.Mello said his grandmother would pack food and water for those migrants that passed by. She would give them las bendiciones, or blessings in Spanish, and send them off. But what he saw at the Rio Grande in the last year of the Biden administration was unlike anything he had witnessed in his 33 years in the fire department.“We would get between 30 to 60 emergency calls a day about migrants crossing the river with a lot of injuries, some with broken femurs or this lady who had an emergency childbirth,” Mello said.In all 2024, the Eagle Pass fire department received more than 400 emergency calls and reported eight drownings. This year, the department has responded to fewer than 100 calls and reported only three drownings, according to numbers shared with the Guardian.“Now Eagle Pass has gone back to normal, but this is still a broken system. Because you’re deporting people doesn’t mean that you’re fixing it,” Mello said.A mile away, Ricardo Lopez and a group of friends gathered at a McDonald’s, as they do every week, to discuss some of the challenges facing Eagle Pass, a town in which 28,o00 people live.Not long after ordering coffee, Lopez and his friends, all bilingual men of Mexican descent, realized it has been almost a year since the last elections. They remembered the evolution of what was then an extraordinary series of events: from thousands of migrants swimming across the Rio Grande each day to foreign journalists wandering the town’s streets and Texas national guard troops grabbing lunch at local restaurants.“I think most people that live here can agree that it was the illegal immigration that was causing all the problems and that [Joe] Biden didn’t respond to the needs of the border,” said Lopez, 79, who recently ran for city council in Eagle Pass and lost. “After the last election I asked some of my friends, why did you vote for Trump? And they put it back to me: don’t you see what is happening? Though I don’t like the guy, he fixed the problem.”Just hours after taking office for a second time, Trump signed an order declaring a national emergency that allowed additional US troops to arrive at the southern border. But Trump didn’t only try to cut down on illegal immigration. The administration also terminated a mobile phone app created under Biden known as CBP One, which had allowed tens of thousands of people waiting in Mexico to cross into the US legally and apply for asylum.Since then, residents like Lopez have seen a dramatic change in Eagle Pass.At the height of the spike in migration in December of 2023, the border patrol recorded over 2,300 crossings a day in the Del Rio sector, home to Eagle Pass. In September of this year, it averaged just 30 crossings a day there, government data shows.Joshua Blank, research director of the Texas Politics project, a nonpartisan polling initiative by the University of Texas at Austin, said Maverick county was a reflection of broader political dynamics in the state, where Republicans were seeking to expand their appeal in blue-collar areas, including among Latinos.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“Texas is a changing competitive landscape and more diverse than the country as a whole. If you try to appeal to Hispanics based on their Hispanicness, you might be missing the mark. And I think Democrats have probably failed in engaging with this group of people,” Blank said.Shortly after Biden entered the White House, Texas’s governor, Greg Abbott, had also launched Operation Lone Star in a bid to deter illegal immigration. The effort quickly raised concerns about its tactics, including the busing of thousands of migrants to Chicago, New York and Washington DC.As part of the initiative, an 80-acre base camp was built in Eagle Pass to house 1,800 Texas national guard soldiers. Troops deployed there by Texas and other Republican-led states have been seen standing on the US side of the border setting up coils of razor wire along the banks of the Rio Grande, ordering migrants to swim back to Mexico.Texas says Operation Lone Star had led to more than 500,000 apprehensions of undocumented people.On a recent afternoon, the Guardian observed armed Texas national guard troops walking and watching over the US-Mexico border atop shipping containers. No migrants were seen crossing the river from Mexico. In Piedras Negras, there wasn’t razor wire preventing access to the Rio Grande.While the migration dynamics have changed at the border, some longtime residents are not just concerned about the impact on people. They’re also worried about the degradation of the environment as a result of Trump and Abbott’s crackdown.Abbott used a natural disaster declaration to install floating buoys separated by saw-blades in the river as a part of Operation Lone Star. Shortly after, Jessie Fuentes, the owner of a kayaking company in Eagle Pass, filed a lawsuit, seeking to stop the installation of floating barriers.“The river was part of my grandfather’s upbringing, my father’s upbringing and mine, more than 200 years of experience as a family, and now it’s been mistreated with this militarization,” said Fuentes.“The river can’t defend itself so I sued the Texas government.” More

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      Gen Z’s ‘first lady’: how Rama Duwaji, Mamdani’s wife, speaks to a new era of political fashion

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      It is the most traditional of assets for any ambitious young male politician: a fashionably dressed, beautiful young wife. But as with everything else about the rise of Zohran Mamdani, his wife, Rama Duwaji, represents a new era of politics which speaks to a new generation of voters.Married to the soon-to-be leader of the biggest city in the US, Duwaji, 28, is arguably the US’s first generation Z “first lady”. Duwaji is an artist and illustrator of Syrian heritage, whose work explores themes of Arab identity, female experience and social justice. Working in paint, line-drawing, ceramics and animation, she graduated with a master’s degree in fine art from New York’s School of Visual Arts in 2024. Her thesis was titled Sahtain!, an Arabic expression which translates as “bon appetit”, and explored the communal act of making and sharing a dish and its role in Middle Eastern culture.View image in fullscreenIt is fair to assume that one does not pursue a career as a socially conscious artist contributing line drawings to niche left-leaning publications with the aim of becoming a global celebrity. But Duwaji’s life took an unexpected turn when, in 2021, she met Mamdani. The couple married in February this year, about eight months before Mamdani was elected mayor of New York City, and Duwaji was thrust into the spotlight as New York City’s 28-year-old first lady. In the week since Mamdani’s triumph, Vogue headlines have included “Zohran Mamdani and Rama Duwaji Are Making Finding Love on Hinge Seem Possible Again” and “Fall’s Next Cool-Girl Haircut Is Officially the Rama”.View image in fullscreenFirst lady is one of the most high-profile spots in US politics and culture. From Eleanor Roosevelt’s civil rights advocacy to Hillary Clinton’s healthcare reforms, the political wives of the White House have long been impactful players on the political scene. As the first lady of a city, rather than the nation, the stakes are more muted for Duwaji – but the buzz around her husband is shining a spotlight on both of the new inhabitants of Gracie Mansion.New York City last had a first lady when Chirlane McCray, Bill de Blasio’s wife, oversaw a portfolio of mental health programs with a budget of $850m. (Eric Adams, the current mayor, is unmarried.) But the position has a significance that extends far beyond policy. First ladies are expected to fulfil the role of America’s sweetheart, embodying shared values and semaphoring tone with every public appearance. Michelle Obama’s recent comments, characterising the media’s fixation with her toned arms in sleeveless dresses as a strategy to “otherize” her as a Black woman, illustrate the extent to which the first lady discourse can become a cultural battleground around the status of women and people of colour, while the ongoing psychodrama about Melania Trump’s non-appearance on the cover of American Vogue speaks to an enduring fascination with the first lady as a poster girl for the US itself.View image in fullscreenDuwaji’s victory-speech look was sober: all-black, with a high neck and calf-length skirt, and silver jewellery. But her low-key style did not deflect a feverish online reaction, with her chic dark bob and vintage-style boatneck top bringing instant comparisons to Audrey Hepburn. The outfit was notable for being consistent with Duwaji’s personal style, rather than a cut-and-paste political wife style. (“Rama Duwaji Is New York City’s First Lady, and She’s Not Wearing a Sheath Dress,” noted Harper’s Bazaar magazine approvingly.) Fashion industry paper Women’s Wear Daily reported her style choices under the headline “Rama Duwaji’s Election Night Look Bridges Brooklyn and the Middle East”, noting that Duwaji’s denim top, embellished with laser-etched embroidery, was by the Palestinian-Jordanian designer Zeid Hijazi. The choice of a Palestinian designer was widely interpreted as a deliberate and political choice by Duwaji, who has expressed clear and vocal support for the plight of Gaza. Duwaji’s velvet and lace Ulla Johnson skirt and silver Eddie Borgo earrings showed support for two independent New York designers drawn from outside the traditional high-status Manhattan names – Oscar de la Renta, Carolina Herrera and Michael Kors – with whom modern first ladies have been most associated.View image in fullscreenIn their style and in the story of their relationship, Mamdani and Duwaji blend youthful energy with traditional elements. Mamdani maximises his youthful advantage as a digital native and uses social media as a political broadcast channel, but does so while wearing the most traditional of outfits: a dark suit and tie. Duwaji, likewise, steers clear of the first lady cosplay of a pastel skirt suit, but her quirky retro-tinged elegance has a ladylike tone, albeit one forged in the vintage boutiques of Brooklyn rather than the department stores of Fifth Avenue. She has a taste for chunky flat boots and oversized white shirts, layered necklaces and winged black eyeliner. These are recognisable as the authentic style choices of a 28-year-old woman, but they do not present as challenging or radical. Likewise, their love story is both strikingly modern – the two met on Hinge – and solidly traditional in being formalised by marriage. Wedding photos shared on Mamdani’s Instagram show the couple holding hands on the subway as they travel to city hall, Duwaji wearing a vintage coat and her trademark flat boots with a short white dress, Mamdani carrying an umbrella. Their combination of romcom-worthy New York spirit and down-to-earth, affordability-conscious relatability has charmed the public.View image in fullscreenIn the ultimate cultural flex, Duwaji has already had a vibe shift named after her. “Aloof wife autumn” is trending on social media after a New York Post headline reported that the new mayor-elect’s “aloof wife … quietly steered his campaign from behind the scenes”. Duwaji’s husband is conspicuously absent from her Instagram page, where she posts street selfies in chic monochrome outfits and “things I saw that made me want to make art”. Her creative purpose and cool-toned self-possession are in striking contrast to the docile, gingham-aproned “tradwife” aesthetic that has stormed the TikTok algorithms in recent years.As a visual artist, Duwaji is aware of the power of image-making. She is also comfortable moving in the circles of the more avant garde end of the fashion industry, recently attending a catwalk show for Diotima, which is helmed by Rachel Scott, an American designer of Jamaican heritage who is a rising industry star. Scott, who dedicated the collection to “the honour of all displaced persons”, said that she invited Duwaji because she was “intrigued by her work and her personal style”.The stylist Bailey Moon, who helped Dr Jill Biden with her wardrobe throughout her tenure as first lady, was last week reported to have been working with Mamdani and Duwaji. Bailey, who is also credited with the recent high-fashion makeover of actor Pamela Anderson, is an experienced political stylist, who told Vogue that clothes “are part of the conclusion people make of an event or an appearance”. However, Moon told the New York Post that he was not on the Mamdani payroll, noting that he “shared some advice” but that no fee was charged.View image in fullscreenFor many young New York voters, who have not until now felt themselves represented in civic life, Duwaji’s style is more than ornament. It represents a shift in what public leadership can look like, and speaks to voters who are accustomed to absorbing news and understanding values through visual clues and messages. The biggest city in the US is about to rewrite the first lady myth for a new generation. More

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      John F Kennedy’s grandson Jack Schlossberg announces run for US House seat

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      John F Kennedy’s grandson Jack Schlossberg has said he will run for the US House next year, announcing Tuesday that he was seeking a key New York seat set to be vacated by longtime Democrat Jerry Nadler.“This district should have a representative who can harness the creativity, energy and drive of this district and translate that into political power in Washington,” Schlossberg said in a campaign video posted on social media late Tuesday.In an email to supporters, Schlossberg, a Democrat, said that his campaign will officially launch on Wednesday.Schlossberg has drummed up a large following on social media with frequent posts weighing in on national issues, including taking aim at his mother’s cousin, health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.Last month, he posted on Instagram an image of a Halloween costume for “MAHA Man,” in reference to Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again message and described it as including such things as measles.Nadler, who is serving his 17th term in Congress, announced in September that he will not run for reelection next year, suggesting to the New York Times that a younger Democratic lawmaker in his seat “can maybe do better, can maybe help us more.”The 12th District includes Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Upper East Side and midtown.A political commentator and writer whose work has been published in such news outlets as The Washington Post, Politico and Time magazine, Schlossberg joins a crowded field of contenders already vying for the 12th congressional district seat.His decision to run comes as Democrats are hoping to regain control of the House in the 2026 midterm elections and thus a measure of legislative clout they currently lack in opposing the agenda of Republican president Donald Trump.“There is nothing our party can’t do to address costs of living, corruption and the constitutional crisis that we’re in,” Schlossberg was quoted as saying in an interview with the New York Times. “But without the control of Congress, there’s almost nothing that we can do.”Schlossberg’s entry into congressional politics follows the meteoric rise of another younger New York millennial, Zohran Mamdani, 34, the state assemblyman who was elected last week as mayor of New York City.“If Zohran Mamdani and I have anything in common, it’s that we are both trying to be authentic versions of ourselves and meet people where they are and communicate with people in New York City and be present and show up for people,” Schlossberg told the Times.With Reuters and Associated Press More

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      Trump news at a glance: Top House Democrats vow to oppose shutdown bill after splinter group disappoints

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      Democrats’ resolve cracked this week, when a splinter group in the Senate joined with the GOP to craft a compromise bill that reauthorizes government funding through January, without extending healthcare tax credits.Donald Trump called the agreement “a very big victory” during remarks at Arlington National Cemetery.“We’re opening up our country,” the president said. “Should have never been closed, should have never been closed.”The spending package has moved to the House of Representatives, which could vote on it as early as Wednesday. But top Democrats have vowed to oppose the bill for not addressing their demand for more healthcare funding.“It’s our expectation that the House will vote at some point tomorrow and House Democrats will strongly oppose any legislation that does not decisively address the Republican healthcare crisis,” minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, told CNN on Tuesday.Top House Democrats vow to oppose shutdown bill over healthcare fundingDemocrats have for weeks demanded that any measure to fund the government include an extension of tax credits for Affordable Care Act health plans, which were created under Joe Biden and are due to expire at the end of the year, sending premiums for enrollers higher.The Democratic opposition threatens to make for a tight vote for the Republican speaker, Mike Johnson, who has kept the House out of session for more than 50 days in an attempt to pressure Senate Democrats into caving to the GOP’s demands.Read the full storyPentagon’s largest warship enters Latin American watersThe US navy has announced that the USS Gerald R Ford, regarded as the world’s newest and largest aircraft carrier, has entered the area of responsibility of the US Southern Command, which covers Latin America and the Caribbean.The deployment of the ship and the strike group it leads – which includes dozens of aircraft and destroyer ships – had been announced nearly three weeks ago, and its arrival marks an escalation in the military buildup between the US and Venezuela.Read the full storySupreme court extends Trump pause on $4bn in food aid benefitsMillions of Americans grappling with food insecurity will face more uncertainty this week after the US supreme court enabled the Trump administration to continue withholding $4bn in funding for food stamps.In an administrative stay issued on Tuesday, the highest court upheld the administration’s request to extend a pause on a federal judge’s ruling that would have required funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or Snap, the food aid relied on by 42 million people, to be distributed. The funding freeze now remain in place until midnight on Thursday.Read the full storyUS flight problems to worsen even if shutdown endsAir travelers should expect worsening cancellations and delays this week even if the US government shutdown ends, as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rolled out deeper cuts to flights at 40 of the nation’s major airports Tuesday, officials said.Read the full storyOutrage over Trump’s pardons for friends and alliesThe president’s unprecedented pardoning spree for political and business friends since returning to the White House has prompted warnings from ex-prosecutors and legal scholars of “corrupt” pay-to-play schemes, conflicts of interest and blatant partisanship. It has included hundreds of Maga allies, a cryptocurrency mogul with ties to a Trump family crypto firm, disgraced politicians, and others who could yield political and financial benefits.Read the full storyA plan to allow oil and gas drilling off California coastThe Trump administration is planning to allow oil and gas drilling off the California coast for the first time in decades, according to a draft plan shared with the Washington Post.The move is guaranteed to set up a battle with the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, a staunch opponent of offshore drilling.Read the full storyA new attempt to dismantle top US consumer watchdogThe Trump administration has launched its most direct attempt yet to shut down the top US consumer watchdog, arguing the current funding mechanism behind the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is unlawful.Attorneys for the administration claimed in a court filing that the agency “anticipates exhausting its currently available funds in early 2026”, setting the stage for it to be dismantled.Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

      Britain has suspended the sharing of intelligence with the US on suspected drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean amid concerns information supplied may be used to engage in lethal military strikes by American forces.

      Ethics officials at Fannie Mae were removed from their jobs as they investigated whether a top Trump ally improperly accessed mortgage documents of Letitia James, the New York attorney general, and other Democratic officials, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

      A Utah judge handed Democrats a win in the continuing national fight over voting districts by ordering a new map that creates a House seat in a blue-leaning area.

      One-third of US museums have lost government grants or contracts since Donald Trump took office, according to a new survey released by the American Alliance of Museums.

      An Illinois man said his US citizen family – including his one-year-old daughter – were pepper-sprayed in their car by ICE agents during a shopping trip in a Chicago suburb.

      Donald Trump has pardoned a trail runner who briefly took a closed trail on his way to a record time on the tallest peak in the Teton Range of western Wyoming. The pardon for Michelino Sunseri, unlike recent ones for Trump allies, appeared apolitical.
      Catching up? Here’s what happened on 10 November 2025. More

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      US supreme court extends Trump pause on $4bn in food aid benefits

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      Millions of Americans grappling with food insecurity will face more uncertainty this week after the US supreme court enabled the Trump administration to continue withholding funds for food stamps.In an administrative stay issued on Tuesday, the highest court upheld the administration’s request to extend a pause on a federal judge’s ruling that would have required $4bn in funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or Snap, the food aid relied on by 42 million people, to be distributed. The funding freeze has been given two additional days, and will now remain in place until midnight on Thursday.With the House planning to vote Wednesday on a package that could spell the end to the longest government shutdown in US history, the administration has dug its heels in on fully funding the essential food program, insisting the funds will only be cleared when Congress comes to a compromise.“The only way to end this crisis – which the executive is adamant to end – is for Congress to reopen the government,” solicitor general D John Sauer wrote in the Trump administration’s filing.Program benefits are funded federally but are administered by local and state governments. The funding lapse, a first for the largest anti-hunger program in the US, has caused chaos in states that were left in the lurch after they issued benefits they believed were authorized prior to the supreme court’s decision.On Sunday, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) directed states to “immediately undo” the aid already provided to low-income Americans. It remains unclear whether funds already issued by states will be reimbursed by the federal government, where coffers are already running low.“To the extent states sent full Snap payment files for November 2025, this was unauthorized,” Patrick Penn, the deputy undersecretary of agriculture, wrote in a to state Snap directors on Saturday. “Accordingly, states must immediately undo any steps taken to issue full Snap benefits for November 2025.”The back-and-forth has left chaos and confusion in its wake as the USDA threatened states with penalties if they did not comply.In a filing in the first circuit court of appeals a coalition of states argued that returning hundreds of millions of dollars would “risk catastrophic operational disruptions for the States, with a consequent cascade of harms for their residents”. Several state officials have already vowed to fight the orders.“If President Trump wants to penalize states for preventing Americans from going hungry, we will see him in court,” Maura Healey, the Democratic governor of Massachusetts, said in a statement on Sunday.“There is a chaos, and it is an intentional chaos, that we are seeing from this administration,” Wes Moore, the governor of Maryland, said in an interview on CBS on Sunday, noting there had been four different measures of guidance in only six days.As the political battles continue, those who rely on the food aid have had to face increased instability.With only half of November’s allotment issued to beneficiaries, pressure on food banks and local agencies trying to keep pace with the need has been immense. With the Thanksgiving holidays quickly approaching and schools closing, those needs will sharply rise if funds are not soon restored.“It’s hard to look someone in the face who’s telling you they can’t feed their family, and be able to try to guide them to other avenues to try to get some food for their household,” Stacy Smith, a government worker, told the Guardian this week.“We have community food banks, and we have food pantries, and they’re already maxed out.”Michael Sainato and Anna Betts contributed reporting More

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      Top House Democrats vow to oppose shutdown bill over healthcare funding

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      As House Republican leaders move to hold a vote on legislation to reopen the US government, top Democrats vowed on Tuesday to oppose the bill for not addressing their demand for more healthcare funding.Democrats have for weeks insisted that any measure to fund the government include an extension of tax credits for Affordable Care Act health plans, which were created under Joe Biden and due to expire at the end of the year, sending premiums for enrollees higher.With Donald Trump’s encouragement, Congress’s Republican leaders refused, sparking a spending standoff that resulted in the longest government shutdown in US history. But the Democrats’ resolve cracked earlier this week, when a splinter group in the Senate joined with the GOP to craft a compromise bill that reauthorizes government funding through January, without extending the tax credits.The Senate passed that legislation on Monday evening, and the House of Representatives is expected to vote on it on Wednesday afternoon. The House rules committee will consider the bill on Tuesday evening, setting the stage for it to come to the House floor on Wednesday.Top House Democrats oppose it, with the minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, calling it a “partisan Republican spending bill that continues to gut the healthcare of the American people.“It’s our expectation that the House will vote at some point tomorrow and House Democrats will strongly oppose any legislation that does not decisively address the Republican healthcare crisis,” Jeffries told CNN on Tuesday.The House’s largest ideological caucus, the centrist New Democrat Coalition, has announced its opposition to the measure.“While New Dems always seek common ground, our coalition remains united in opposition to legislation that sacrifices the wellbeing of the constituents we’re sworn to serve,” chair Brad Schneider said.“Unfortunately, the Senate-passed bill fails to address our constituents’ top priorities, doing nothing to protect their access to healthcare, lower their costs or curb the administration’s extreme agenda.”The sentiment appears much the same in the Congressional Progressive caucus, where chair Greg Casar called the measure “a betrayal of millions of Americans counting on Democrats to fight for them”.The Democratic opposition threatens to make for a tight vote for the Republican speaker, Mike Johnson, who has kept the House out of session for more than 50 days inan attempt to pressure Senate Democrats into caving to the GOP’s demands.With a 219-member majority assuming full attendance, Johnson can only afford to lose two votes on the bill, and the Kentucky representative Thomas Massie is likely to vote no.But Democrats may have their own defectors. Maine’s Jared Golden, who last week announced he would not seek another term representing a district that voted for Trump last year, was the only Democrat in September to vote for a Republican funding bill that did not extend the tax credit. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, whose Washington state district is similarly friendly to the president, also expressed her support for that bill.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionBoth lawmakers’ offices did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how they would vote on the Senate’s compromise.The compromise bill cleared the Senate on Monday evening by 60 votes, the minimum it needed to overcome the chamber’s thresholds for advancement. All Republicans supported the measure’s passage except for Rand Paul of Kentucky, along with eight moderate members of the Democratic caucus, several of whom were recently re-elected, or serving their final terms in office.That group was composed of Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Tim Kaine of Virginia, Dick Durbin of Illinois, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Jacky Rosen of Nevada and Angus King of Maine, an independent who caucuses with the party.While they did not win an extension of the tax credits, the group claimed credit for getting the Republican Senate majority leader, John Thune, to agree to hold a vote by mid-December on extending the subsidies. However, it remains to be seen if enough Republicans will support its passage, and Johnson has not agreed to put the issue to a vote in the House.Though the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, did not back the bill publicly, Shaheen told Fox News on Monday that the group “kept leadership informed throughout” their talks. Progressive organizations who backed Schumer’s strategy during the shutdown have now turned on him, for allowing the compromise to come together.Indivisible announced plans to support Democratic candidates in primaries who oppose Schumer remaining as the party’s leader, and MoveOn joined in the calls for him to bow out.“It is time for Senator Schumer to step aside as minority leader to make room for those who are willing to fight fire with fire when the basic needs of working people are on the line,” MoveOn Political Action’s executive director, Katie Bethell, said. More

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      Fetterman defends decision to break with Democrats to end government shutdown: ‘My party crossed a line’ – live

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      John Fetterman – the Democratic senator from Pennsylvania who voted on several occasions for a continuing resolution to end the shutdown – defended his decision to break from his party and join members of his caucus to pass a new bill to reopen the government.“My party crossed a line,” the lawmaker told Fox News in an interview. “It’s only wrong to shut our government down, and I’m relieved … the people now that are going to get paid and fed.”Fetterman added that he “never got any outreach” from the Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, about his vote and holding out against Republicans to ensure that they came to the table on extending Affordable Care Act premium tax credits. “People went five weeks without being paid. I mean, that’s a violation of my core values, and I think it’s our party’s as well,” Fetterman said.The US Food and Drug Administration plans to name oncology expert Richard Pazdur as the nation’s top drug regulator, the Washington Post reports, citing three people familiar with the matter.Pazdur would lead the agency’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, which regulates over-the-counter medicines and most prescription drugs. If selected, he would replace Dr George Tidmarsh, according to the Post.Tidmarsh resigned from the role last week following “serious concerns about his personal conduct”, according to a government spokesperson.The departure came the same day that a drugmaker connected to one of Tidmarsh’s former business associates filed a lawsuit alleging that he made “false and defamatory statements” during his time at the FDA.Tidmarsh, an experienced biotech executive and longtime Stanford University professor, took over as the director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research in July.A government watchdog group has asked two different bar associations to investigate Lindsey Halligan, a former personal attorney for Donald Trump who brought cases against James Comey and Letitia James.Halligan is currently serving as US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia after an outburst in which Trump overtly put pressure on his attorney general to more aggressively pursue his political foes.The complaint filed by the Campaign for Accountability (CFA) asks the bar in Florida and Virginia to investigate misconduct they claim violates justice department regulations.“By contacting Lawfare journalist Anna Bower to discuss and attempt to influence her coverage of the James prosecution, Ms. Halligan appears to have violated DOJ regulations, Virginia District Court rules and RPC 3.6, prohibiting pretrial publicity,” reads the statement by the group.“Ms. Halligan appears to have violated numerous rules of professional conduct for lawyers,” said CFA executive director Michelle Kuppersmith. “We are asking the Virginia and Florida Bars to investigate, making clear that a government appointment is not a hall pass for unethical behavior.”

      The House is considering a short-term spending bill that passed in the Senate and would end the record long government shutdown. A small group of the Democratic caucus broke party ranks and joined Republicans to reach a 60-vote threshold in the upper chamber. Now, the House is set to cast a vote to secure its passage as early as tomorrow. Most Democrats in the lower chamber vow to vote “no” on the legislation, as it includes no extension for expiring Obamacare subsidies – the centerpiece of their negotiations throughout the shutdown. Today, the House’s largest ideological group, the centrist New Democrat Coalition, announced their opposition to the measure. The sentiment appears much the same in the congressional progressive caucus, where chair Greg Casar called the measure “a betrayal of millions of Americans counting on Democrats to fight for them”.

      Procedurally, before the bill heads to the House floor, it will require the rules committee to schedule a vote on the legislation. Politico is reporting, citing two people with knowledge of the matter, that this will take place at around 6pm ET today. The hope is then for an official vote on Wednesday afternoon.

      For his part, Donald Trump called the bill’s progress a “very big victory”, during his remarks at Arlington National Cemetery earlier to commemorate Veterans Day in the US. The president also congratulated House speaker Mike Johnson and Senate majority leader John Thune. “We’re opening up our country. Should have never been closed, should have never been closed,” Trump added.

      The justice department plans to investigate the University of California, Berkeley following altercations that occurred during a protest on Monday, outside a Turning Point USA campus event. The influential rightwing college group founded by Charlie Kirk made the final stop of its American Comeback tour at the San Francisco Bay Area university, which was met with large and sometimes rowdy protests. Demonstrators gathered outside the hall where the event was being held, chanting and carrying signs with slogans such as “We won the war, why are there still Nazis” and “No safe space for fascist scum”.

      A Utah judge handed Democrats a win in the continuing national fight over voting districts by ordering a new map that creates a House seat in a Democratic-leaning area, in a state where Republicans currently control all four positions. It consolidates Salt Lake county – which includes the state’s largest city – largely within a single district, rather than dividing the Democratic-voting population center among all four seats.
      John Fetterman – the Democratic senator from Pennsylvania who voted on several occasions for a continuing resolution to end the shutdown – defended his decision to break from his party and join members of his caucus to pass a new bill to reopen the government.“My party crossed a line,” the lawmaker told Fox News in an interview. “It’s only wrong to shut our government down, and I’m relieved … the people now that are going to get paid and fed.”Fetterman added that he “never got any outreach” from the Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, about his vote and holding out against Republicans to ensure that they came to the table on extending Affordable Care Act premium tax credits. “People went five weeks without being paid. I mean, that’s a violation of my core values, and I think it’s our party’s as well,” Fetterman said.The Trump administration has launched its most direct attempt yet to shut down the top US consumer watchdog, arguing the current funding mechanism behind the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is unlawful.Attorneys for the administration claimed in a court filing that the agency “anticipates exhausting its currently available funds in early 2026”, setting the stage for it to be dismantled.The CFPB is legally barred from seeking additional funds from the Federal Reserve, its typical source of funding, the attorneys suggested.Donald Trump’s officials have tried persistently to close the agency, attempting to fire the vast majority of its workforce. These efforts sparked months of legal wrangling.The CFPB has returned more than $21bn to US consumers since it was set up, in the wake of the financial crisis, to shore up oversight of consumer financial firms.The justice department’s office of legal counsel issued an opinion claiming the CFPB cannot draw money from the Fed currently, claiming the “combined earnings of the Federal Reserve System” refers to profits of the Fed, which has operated at a loss since 2022.The USS Gerald R Ford, the defense department’s largest aircraft carrier, entered the Latin America region on Tuesday, according to the Navy’s Fourth fleet. The area, known as the US Southern Command (Southcom), is seeing a sizable increase in military presence amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on drug cartels.“The enhanced U.S. force presence in the USSOUTHCOM AOR will bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere,” said the department’s chief spokesperson, Sean Parnell. “These forces will enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle Transnational Criminal Organizations.”The Pentagon has carried out at least 19 strikes against suspected drug-carrying boats in the Caribbean and off the Pacific coasts of Latin America, killing at least 76 people.It also comes amid acrimony with Venezuela, and its leader Nicolas Maduro – who claims the military escalation is a move to oust him from power. For his part, Trump told CBS News recently that Maduro’s days are “numbered”, but downplayed the possibility of a war.Donald Trump made a surprise appearance on the Pat McAfee show, broadcast on ESPN, where he expressed confidence in the final passage of the Senate bill to reopen the federal government. “So the House is going to vote, and I think they’re going to vote positively. I think most people want to see it open,” he told the host. “Only people that hate our country want to see it not open, because our country is doing so well.”The US Department of Justice plans to investigate the University of California, Berkeley following altercations that occurred during a protest on Monday, outside a Turning Point USA campus event.The influential rightwing college group founded by Charlie Kirk made the final stop of its American Comeback tour at the San Francisco Bay Area university, which was met with large and sometimes rowdy protests.Demonstrators gathered outside the hall where the event was being held, chanting and carrying signs with slogans such as “We won the war, why are there still Nazis” and “No safe space for fascist scum”. Dozens of police officers were staged around the campus, blocking entrances and clearing a path for those with tickets to the event.The protest was marked by tense moments and sometimes violent confrontations, including scuffles between demonstrators and counter-demonstrators and some people who allegedly threw things at police officers. A UC Berkeley spokesperson told the Los Angeles Times that four people were arrested, including two people who fought. Photographs from the event showed a Charlie Kirk supporter with a bloodied face.Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights division at the justice department, shared video online posted by rightwing influencers who alleged “Antifa” turned the campus into a war zone. Dhillon said she saw “issues of serious concern regarding campus and local security and Antifa’s ability to operate with impunity in CA” and that campus and the city can expect to receive correspondence from the department.“In America, we do not allow citizens to be attacked by violent thugs and shrug and turn our backs. Been there, done that, not on our watch,” she wrote.The first step – before the Senate-passed bill to reopen the government heads to the House floor – will require the Rules committee to schedule a vote on the legislation. Politico is reporting, citing two people with knowledge of the matter, that this will take place at around 6pm ET today.The hope is then for an official vote in the lower chamber on Wednesday afternoon.Jodey Arrington, the Republican congressman from Texas who also serves as chair of the House budget committee, announced that he will not seek re-election in 2026. He is now the first GOP House member to announce his decision to leave Congress at the end of his current term, ahead of the midterm elections.Arrington was one of the key architects of the president’s sweeping domestic policy bill in Congress, and called it the most “consequential piece of legislation in modern history” in his video announcement.“There is a time and season for everything, and this season is coming to a close,” he said. “I will be passing the torch to the next West Texan. Because I believe, as our founding fathers did, in citizen leadership, temporary service, not a career.”The lawmaker’s district, which mainly covers the Lubbock area, is a GOP safe-seat.Donald Trump has, for years, used legal threats and lawsuits to pressure news companies who put out coverage he does not like. After his return to power, a string of US broadcasters and tech firms have paid tens of millions of dollars to settle such cases.The president has now gone global with this campaign, crossing the pond to threaten the BBC with a $1bn lawsuit over an episode of the Panorama documentary program that aired more than a year ago.The saga is only the latest chapter in a campaign meant to keep media institutions that cover Trump on their toes. Often, legal letters sent to media companies on his behalf have not actually led to lawsuits – though many journalists say they have contributed to a chilling effect on coverage.But Trump has also followed through on several lawsuits, and since his re-election one year ago, a series of media and tech companies have chosen to take the easy way out by agreeing to significant settlements. Several of those companies have business before his administration.In July, Paramount, parent company of CBS News, chose to settle a case that Trump had filed in the state of Texas arguing that the company had violated consumer protection laws by misleadingly editing a 60 Minutes interview of then vice-president Kamala Harris. Many legal experts viewed the case as easily winnable for Paramount, considering the unrelated statute he sued under – and that Trump could not credibly claim to have been harmed by the segment since he defeated Harris in the election.But company leadership viewed the lawsuit as an unnecessary distraction, particularly as it sought the federal government’s approval of a merger with Skydance Media. Paramount ultimately paid $16m.Trump also won a settlement last year from ABC, owned by Disney, which he had sued over comments made by anchor George Stephanopoulos. ABC agreed to pay $15m.When combining Trump’s settlements with ABC, CBS and cases against both Facebook parent company Meta and YouTube, which is owned by Google, he has racked up over $80m in agreements.Now the BBC is in his sights. Unlike CBS, owned by Paramount Skydance, and ABC, owned by Disney, the BBC is not part of a complicated corporate empire: it is independent, although its unique structure as a publicly funded organization invites intense scrutiny.But if Trump chooses to sue, Mark Stephens, an international media lawyer at the firm Howard Kennedy, said the case would bring renewed attention to Trump’s comments, and any role he might have played in fomenting the violence of January 6. (Trump claims he did no such thing.)
      If he sues, he opens a Pandora’s box, and in that Pandora’s box is every damning quote he’s ever uttered about January 6.
      So this isn’t the hill to die on, in my view. It’s a legal cliff edge, and if he jumps, there’s a high chance he’ll fall.
      As House Republican leaders move to hold a vote on legislation to reopen the government, top Democrats vowed today to oppose the bill for not addressing their demand for more healthcare funding.Democrats have for weeks demanded that any measure to fund the government include an extension of tax credits for Affordable Care Act health plans, which were created under Joe Biden and due to expire at the end of the year, sending premiums for enrollees higher.With Donald Trump’s encouragement, Congress’s Republican leaders refused, sparking a spending standoff that resulted in the longest government shutdown in US history. But the Democrats’ resolve cracked earlier this week, when a splinter group in the Senate joined with the GOP to craft a compromise bill that reauthorizes government funding through January, without extending the tax credits.The Senate passed that legislation yesterday evening, and the House is expected consider it beginning Wednesday afternoon. The chamber’s top Democrats oppose it, with minority leader Hakeem Jeffries yesterday calling it a “partisan Republican spending bill that continues to gut the healthcare of the American people”.Today, the House’s largest ideological caucus, the centrist New Democrat Coalition, announced their opposition to the measure.“While New Dems always seek common ground, our coalition remains united in opposition to legislation that sacrifices the wellbeing of the constituents we’re sworn to serve,” chair Brad Schneider said. “Unfortunately, the Senate-passed bill fails to address our constituents’ top priorities, doing nothing to protect their access to healthcare, lower their costs, or curb the administration’s extreme agenda.”The sentiment appears much the same in the congressional progressive caucus, where chair Greg Casar called the measure “a betrayal of millions of Americans counting on Democrats to fight for them”.The Democratic opposition threatens to make for a tight vote for speaker Mike Johnson, who has kept the House out of session for more than 50 days in a bid to pressure Senate Democrats into caving to the GOP’s demands.With a 219-member majority with full attendance, he can only afford to lose two votes on the bill, and Kentucky representative Thomas Massie is likely to vote no.But Democrats may have their own defectors. Maine’s Jared Golden, who last week announced he would not seek another term representing a district that voted for Trump last year, was the only Democrat in September to vote for a Republican funding bill that did not extend the tax credit. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, whose Washington state district is similarly friendly to the president, also expressed her support for that bill. More