← Feed

Posts

• Website behind widely shared fake election polls run by 21-year-old

  Exclusive: Rahil Prakash tells the Guardian: ‘I wanted to see if fake polls could penetrate the ecosystem that easily’ A 21-year-old recent college graduate was behind an anonymous website that put out widely shared fake election polling in Wisconsin, Nevada and California, the Guardian can reveal. The website, Median Strategies, abruptly shut down and withdrew its polling earlier this week following questions from a reporter from the Los Angeles Times. In an unsigned statement, it described...

• Trump keeps embracing data centers even as they become toxic in midterm races

  Donald Trump, speaking alongside cryptocurrency leaders at the White House this week, made a statement that Republican and Democratic candidates alike wouldn’t touch with a 10-foot pole. “If I were the mayor of a town or the governor of a state, and I had a chance to get a big plant in, an AI plant or a data center,” Trump said, “I would absolutely want it because the jobs are enormous and the money paid, the taxes paid, are just enormous.” It’s not the kind of message anyone is using in com...

• ‘Political earthquake’ in Western Pennsylvania as Democrats flip deep-red district in special election

  Pennsylvania Democrats, including Gov. Josh Shapiro, are pointing to a stunning upset in a special election for a deep-red state House district as proof that the party has momentum while campaigning this fall for a trifecta in Harrisburg. Butler County Democrat Brandon Dukes said his apparent victory over Republican Scott Timko, by fewer than 100 votes as of Wednesday afternoon, was thanks to his focus on local issues, such as a major corridor perennially under construction to the frustration...

• Election denier Tina Peters to be hired as elections consultant in conservative California county

  Shasta county, hotbed of US election denialism movement, set to appoint ex-Colorado clerk who served prison term A northern California county that has become a hotbed of activism for those who sow doubts about the reliability of voting machines plans to hire Tina Peters, the prominent Colorado election denier recently released from prison, to work on elections. Clint Curtis, the top election official in Shasta county, told the Guardian he plans to hire Peters as a consultant to replace Brent...

• Trump reportedly casts mail-in ballot in Florida Republican primary

  President, who has decried mail-in ballots amid false claims of election fraud, issued March order to curb voting by mail Donald Trump voted by mail in Florida’s Republican primary, Politico reports, citing Palm Beach county voting records. The White House has confirmed the president’s mail-in vote, according to the New York Times, which added that this is at least the third time the president has mailed his ballot. In March, the president signed an executive ⁠order restricting the ​use of m...

• Trump blames vandals for damaged grass in the same spot where he held his big July 4 celebration

  Donald Trump on Sunday said vandals are to blame for large swaths of dead grass on the National Mall near the World War II Memorial — in the same spot where Trump had a stage built and hosted crowds for his July 4 celebration. Trump made the accusation in a social media post without saying why he believes it’s the work of vandals instead of trampled turf from the Independence Day festivities. He posted a photo showing a once-grassy area by the World War II Memorial, now patchy and brown across...

• Kennedy’s quiet hunt for autism culprits stalls as Trump orders baseless changes to childhood shots

  Donald Trump has ordered a reduction in childhood vaccines — publicly faulting the shots for an increase in autism cases — even as the nation’s top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has failed to produce evidence linking vaccinations to the disorder. While the executive order released Aug. 10 does not directly mention autism, Trump’s demand to limit vaccine recommendations has puzzled leading medical groups, doctors, and political analysts alike. The directive landed less than 90 days be...

• US gas prices reach highest ever recorded for August amid stalled talks with Iran

  Energy prices have been high since the US-Israel war with Iran began and the strait of Hormuz was blocked US gas prices this month are so far the highest ever recorded for August as peace talks between the US and Iran have stalled and Donald Trump launched fresh threats against Oman. The national average price of gas was $4.06 per gallon on Monday, according to data from AAA, $0.05 higher than last week and $1 more expensive than a year ago. In California and Hawaii, averages hit about $5.50...

• Trump tells Americans to accept high gas prices as Iran remains defiant on Strait of Hormuz

• BBC seeks to subpoena Trump children and son-in-law over defamation lawsuit

  Network wants to serve Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr after president sues over January 6 documentary The BBC is trying to subpoena Donald Trump’s children as it builds its defense against the president’s defamation lawsuit centered on a documentary on the January 6 insurrection. In a motion filed on Friday, the BBC sought authorization to serve Trump’s two eldest children, Donald Trump Jr and Ivanka Trump, and son-in-law Jared Kushner, with subpoenas for testimony and their...

• Trump hid in catering cart to board secret flight in Turkey amid Iran threat – reports

  Elaborate ruse was used to transport president to military flight from Air Force One to return from NATO meet Prompted by an Iranian assassination threat, Donald Trump departed on a secret military flight from Turkey last month when the White House said he was flying aboard ⁠Air Force One, in an extraordinary ruse that involved hiding the president in an airport catering cart, according to reporting from the Washington Post and the New York Times. The operation took place when Trump was in A...

• Justice Samuel Alito confirms he's staying on the Supreme Court for another term

  Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito confirmed Friday he’s staying on the nation’s highest court, weeks after a swell of speculation about a possible retirement. “Obviously, I’m here for another term,” Alito, 76, said in an interview published in The Wall Street Journal’s editorial section. Discussion of Alito’s future hit a fever pitch in June, when a mistake by a veteran Supreme Court reporter at National Public Radio resulted in the erroneous publication of a previously prepared retirement...

• Trump’s top general is ‘looking for an off-ramp’ from Iran war as US military options remain limited, sources say

  Over the last few weeks, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine has privately made clear to other top Trump advisers that the US needs to find an off-ramp from the war with Iran — because the military options on the table to escalate the conflict could backfire and airpower alone is unlikely to achieve Donald Trump’s stated objectives, according to three sources familiar with the matter. “Caine is looking for an off ramp,” one of the sources said bluntly. Caine is not alone in his view...

• Trump says Pirro 'folded like an umbrella' in bid to drop Reflecting Pool vandalism charges

  Donald Trump said Monday that U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro “choked” and “folded like an umbrella” in moving to drop charges against a former Olympian accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Speaking at an unrelated Oval Office event, Trump ducked questions about whether he’d fire Pirro, a former Fox News host and longtime ally he handpicked as top federal prosecutor in the nation’s capital. But the president kept up his drumbeat of sharp criticism, saying he remained disapp...

• ‘Completely hollow’: critics denounce Blanche deal to halt Trump slush fund

  Democrats say agreement – which clears way for Blanche’s confirmation – makes promises president can easily reverse A compromise between Todd Blanche and two Republican senators that potentially cleared the way for Blanche’s confirmation as attorney general is weak, Democrats and several experts said, as it makes promises Donald Trump can easily reverse. Blanche, the acting attorney general, posted two documents on Sunday evening showing he was withdrawing an 18 May order allowing for the cr...

• Trump's threat to push ahead on settlement fund injects new uncertainty into attorney general talks

  Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to push forward with a fund to compensate his allies if two Republican holdouts will not support his nominee for attorney general, injecting fresh uncertainty into a Senate confirmation vote planned for next week and underscoring once more his interest in securing payouts for supporters who feel unjustly persecuted. Trump asserted in his Truth Social post that he would keep acting Attorney General Todd Blanche in his current role and press ahead on the “Anti...

• US reporter fighting back after border patrol seized his cellphones

  Max Blumenthal says he was singled out at airport after Trump ally Laura Loomer targeted him in online posts When reporter Max Blumenthal went to a cafe in Tehran one night a few weeks ago to upload videos from his reporting on the funeral of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, he began seeing social media posts from Trump ally Laura Loomer targeting him, including one that suggested he should be “taken off the plane by US Marshalls when he lands back in the US … [and] detained”. “I began to...

• Fed holds interest rates steady despite Trump’s renewed calls to lower them

  Rates remain unchanged for fifth time since December as tenuous Iran peace deal pushes energy prices up again The US Federal Reserve held interest rates steady on Wednesday in a divided vote, indicating growing pressure on the central bank to address heightened inflation. The Fed’s federal open market committee voted 9-3 to maintain rates, with three dissenting members indicating a preference to raise the rate by a quarter-percentage point. It was the first time in a decade that three board...

• It’s not me, it’s them: Platner goes down snarling with graceless exit video

• Trump denies disaster aid for 4 Democratic-led states

  Donald Trump denied disaster aid to four Democratic-led states in a move that is raising new questions about whether he’s injecting political motivations into emergency management decisions. Trump on Friday rejected $227 million in aid requests from New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Rhode Island for help recovering from a major snowstorm in February. Two days earlier, Trump approved Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster aid for six Republican-led states, while extolling the politi...

• Gavin Newsom turns on the press for asking Trump softball questions

  The California governor described White House reporters as ‘sycophants’ California Governor Gavin Newsom criticized the media for what he described as overly deferential coverage of Donald Trump, characterizing reporters in Oval Office press briefings as “sycophants.” The Democratic governor — widely seen as a potential contender for the 2028 presidential race — made the remarks during a Sunday interview with progressive commentator Jack Cocchiarella. Cocchiarella pressed Newsom on what he...

• JD Vance takes the lead as Trump’s 2028 heir while Rubio fades, insiders say

  Polls show JD Vance is far ahead of Marco Rubio in a hypothetical race for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination Donald Trump is reportedly giving increasingly high marks to Vice President JD Vance, strengthening Vance’s chances of securing the Republican Party’s presidential nomination in 2028. Vance has been in the spotlight throughout the year, promoting a new memoir about his faith, appearing frequently on TV and negotiating an end to the Iran war — all of which has reportedly caug...

• Nearly half of Americans don’t know what they’re celebrating on July 4, poll finds

  Many of those polled failed to correctly answer basic questions about American independence and the Constitution Nearly half of Americans don’t know what they’re celebrating on the Fourth of July, according to a shocking poll. July 4 marks the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, but 46% of Americans and 61% of Gen Zers couldn’t tell you that, the Cato Institute’s national survey found. Celebrations are taking place across the country this holiday w...

• ‘Who should I vote for?’ Voters turn to A.I. before casting their ballots

  It takes effort to be an informed citizen. Artificial intelligence tools offer an alluring shortcut — but they’re not without risk.

• Democrats accuse Trump-linked fundraisers of fraud over diverted donations for America's anniversary

  Consultants tied to Donald Trump may have engaged in financial fraud, tricking donors who wanted to support the nation’s bipartisan 250th anniversary organizer into sending their money instead to a rival group set up by his administration, according to a report released Thursday by House Democrats. The report draws in part on interviews by Democratic staffers of the House Committee on Natural Resources. Those interviews suggest that donors seeking to celebrate America fell for a bait-and-switc...

• July 4 fireworks on National Mall expected to cause hazardous pollution: report

  Internal National Park Service documents seen by The Washington Post suggest visitors should “avoid prolonged exposure” in unhealthy areas July 4 fireworks in Washington, D.C. may cause hazardous levels of pollution around the National Mall, according to a report. ​ More than 850,000 pyrotechnic effects are set to be launched from areas surrounding the Mall, West Potomac Park and the Potomac River throughout the display, Freedom 250 says, to mark 250th anniversary of the signing of the Decla...

• Trump hijacked US’s 250 anniversary to serve ‘political ideology and pet projects’, congressional report says

  House Democratic subcommittee report outlines web of alleged corruption, wire fraud and pay-to-play schemes Donald Trump staged a hostile takeover of the US’s 250th anniversary celebration to enrich political allies, harvest voter data and promote Christian nationalist ideology, according to a congressional investigation released on Thursday. The interim report, “From Vanity to Insanity: How the White House Cheated the American People Out of Their 250th Birthday”, outlines a web of alleged c...

• Ukrainian drones flew all the way to Siberia to strike Russia's largest oil refinery

  Ukraine struck Russia’s largest oil refinery, located in the city of Omsk, on Monday, marking what its forces say was its furthest-ever drone attack in the war. The Omsk facility, which processes about 21 million tons of oil a year, is in Western Siberia and about 1,700 miles from Ukrainian territory — roughly the distance between Los Angeles and Houston.

• Mitch McConnell’s daughter deletes her X account as questions swirl over health after his hospitalization

• Kash Patel draws flak for posting FBI case details on social media ‘to make himself look good’

  Kash Patel may have flouted legal constraints and the FBI’s disciplinary code in prematurely divulging arrests in an alleged plot to attack this month’s Ultimate Fighting Championship bout at the White House, bureau veterans have alleged. The FBI director was accused of “jumping the gun” by posting details on social media of five arrests in an investigation carried out in conjunction with the Secret Service. It subsequently emerged the inquiry was sealed by a court order, theoretically const...