Donald Trump is basking in cheers from his supporters in Alabama where he started by fondly recalling his first visit to Alabama in 2015, when he spoke to 30,000 wildly enthusiastic fans at a football stadium in Mobile, including a school teacher smiling broadly while holding her infant up to Trump. An image of that moment went viral on social media, in an early indication of how deep Trump’s support might be.
As Donald Trump’s war against non-partisan reporting on his presidency continues, the White House released a supercut of him insulting CNN a dozen times since he returned to office last year, and posted it on a government YouTube channel on Friday.
The video, which shows Trump railing against the people running the news network, soon to be controlled by his supporters, also includes a clip from June of the president deriding one CNN correspondent, the former Daily Caller journalist Kaitlan Collins, because she “never smiles” while asking him questions.
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Senator Tommy Tuberville, an Alabama Republican, just concluded remarks at the campaign rally in Mobile Donald Trump is headlining.
Tuberville, who is running for Alabama governor against Democrat Doug Jones, urged Trump supporters to “go out and vote” in the midterms to send a message “to all the states across the country that we’re here as Alabamians, and we’re here to stay.”
“And if you want to move here, move, but don’t bring you down politics with you when you come,” Tuberville added.
Alabama added 30,000 new residents in 2025, AL.com reported, “thanks to a continued influx of new arrivals from other states.”
“You’re here for a treat tonight from a guy that again I call my friend,” the former football coach said. “Everybody’d give up on him after the first election,” Tuberville added, apparently in reference to Trump’s loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
Tuberville was one of the Republican senators Trump called during the Capitol riot on January 6 2021 to urge him to help delay the certification of Biden’s electoral college victory, according to the House select committee that investigated Trump’s effort to overturn the results of that election.
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A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from constructing a border wall at Big Bend national park in Texas on Friday. US District Judge Kathleen Cardone’s ruling means that the construction will have to cease until a lawsuit opposing it is resolved.
In August, crews contracted by US Customs and border protection (CBP) began bulldozing at the mouth of Big Bend National Park’s famed Santa Elena Canyon. The plan was to construct new border security infrastructure, which was dubbed the “smart wall”.
The plan was met with swift backlash from local leaders and landowners for its fast-moving plans. Construction was briefly paused in mid-August but resumed at the beginning of September.
In a statement following Judge Cardone’s ruling, Tiernan Sittenfeld, the CEO of the National Parks conservation association, said:
Today’s court ruling halting the destruction is a victory for Big Bend and for all of America’s national parks. While national park advocates are grateful for this halt to border construction in Big Bend, the devastating toll it has already taken on this national park must be studied and remediated. The administration must repair the damage it has done to the beautiful, fragile desert ecosystems that make Big Bend National Park one of America’s most iconic places.”
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Trump personally directed spending of taxpayer funds on ads celebrating himself – report
Donald Trump personally directed the use of $20m in taxpayer funds to purchase advertising time on national television to air a series of political ads that celebrate his presidency in the run-up to the midterm elections, the New York Times reported on Friday.
The campaign, which has featured four pro-Trump ads so far, has been called illegal government propaganda by critics.
“The money for the ads was freed up on Sept. 19, when the Office of Management and Budget shifted $20 million in Customs and Border Protection funds to a budget category called One Big Beautiful Bill Commemorative Events,” the Times reported, citing anonymous sources familiar with the spending.
The first pro-Trump ad, broadcast on Fox News last week, uses audio of Trump telling supporters in Las Vegas last month: “Together we will defeat communism, socialism and Marxism in America,” and a rapid-fire montage of images of Trump beneath the onscreen text: “America will never be a communist country,” as a chorus sings the words “love me”, taken from a song of that name by JMSN. In the original speech, Trump explicitly identified the enemy as “Dumocrat communists in Congress”.
The last 10 seconds of the ad included text at the bottom the screen saying: “Paid for by the US government.”
The second ad was a White House produced highlight reel of Trump’s address at Mount Rushmore on the weekend of 4 July.
The third ad was a recycled 2024 Trump campaign ad showing a moody, black-and-white shot of Trump staring into the camera as the soundtrack plays the closing riff of a campaign speech he gave dozens of times in 2023 and 2024. The ad was played on giant screens during the 2024 Republican national convention before Trump’s speech accepting his party’s nomination.
The most recent ad, first broadcast this week, is a celebration of Trump’s decision to start a war with Iran, and features audio taken from the president’s 28 February declaration that the United States military had begun major combat operations there. That ad concludes with images of Iranians in New York celebrating the initial strikes the next day. It makes no mention of the fact that the war is ongoing, seven months later.
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As fears grow over US economy, Trump calls his ballroom project 'pretty cool' and claims his new helipad 'is getting all sorts of awards'
Donald Trump is now flying to Alabama for a campaign rally but, before he left the White House, he took a moment, as fears grow over a US economy that added just 29,000 jobs last month, to boast about his new helipad and point to a massive crane towering over the White House ballroom he is constructing.
“I hope you like what you’re seeing here,” Trump told reporters, pointing to the new helipad. “That’s getting all sorts of awards,” he said, without explaining who, exactly, was handing out awards for White House home improvement projects.
“And the best of all,” the president continued, turning to point at the ballroom construction site. “Look at that. You see the new crane? The red boom, that’s one of the biggest cranes in the world; that lifts up the steel for the roof. Pretty cool, right?”
Trump expresses sympathy for Cornell students accused of rape, 'because they won’t get a fair shake' from New York attorney general Letitia James
Speaking to reporters as he left the White House for Alabama on Friday, Donald Trump expressed sympathy for the Cornell University students accused of gang-rape, saying “they won’t get a fair shake” from Letitia James, the state’s attorney general, who has been charged with investigating the alleged gang-rape as a special prosecutor.
Trump was asked by the Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy to comment on the appointment James by Kathy Hochul, the New York governor.
“Letitia James is a corrupt person,” Trump replied. “I feel badly for whoever she’s looking at, because they won’t get a fair shake.”
The president has harbored an intense hatred of James since she won a civil fraud lawsuit against him and his family real estate business in 2024, when a New York state judge ruled that he was liable for conspiring to commit fraud by inflating his net worth to obtain favorable loan terms.
Trump ended the brief exchange with reporters after taking that question from Doocy. Earlier this week, Trump suggested that Doocy would be a good fit for the job of defending him as his White House press secretary.
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Trump threatens to double tariffs on South Korea if they do not pay for Alaska natural gas pipeline
As he left the White House for a campaign rally in Alabama on Friday, Donald Trump was asked by a reporter if he had “jumped the gun” by announcing on Wednesday that South Korea had agreed to pay for a $54bn natural gas pipeline in Alaska, only for a Korean official to contradict him on Thursday, saying that Korea had only agreed to “initiate a review” of the possible investment.
“No, I didn’t jump the gun,” Trump replied. “Let’s see if they don’t want to do it. That’s okay with me. I’ll just charge them more.”
When he announced the pipeline project in an Oval Office ceremony on Wednesday, the president claimed that the Korean investment was part of a deal he struck in 2025, to lower tariffs on imports from South Korea in return for billions of dollars of investments in the US.
“They said they didn’t sign it?” Trump asked the reporter on Friday. “Tell them if they don’t sign shortly, I’m going to double it up, okay?”
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Kash Patel commissioned classified report to examine FBI's alleged 'failures' – report
FBI director Kash Patel has reportedly commissioned a classified report to examine where the agency “fell short” and to ensure “those failures are not repeated”, according to MS Now, citing unnamed current and former officials and a copy of an internal memo.
The officials told MS Now that while they don’t know the contents of the report, they expect it includes the FBI work into the Russia investigation and the more recent special counsel investigations involving the alleged mishandling of classified documents, and attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
The sources also said that by formalizing the so-called “Patel Report”, it will be more difficult to challenge long-running political arguments within the FBI.
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Hakeem Jeffries has joined the chorus of Democrats using today’s job report to slam the Trump administration’s economic agenda.
“Inflation is up, job creation is down and the reckless war of choice in Iran has been a disaster,” said the House minority leader, who is hoping for his party to reclaim the majority in the lower chamber this November. “Republicans have crashed the economy.”
Here's a recap of the day so far
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New figures, released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, show that the number of new jobs added in the US was weaker than expected, while unemployment saw an uptick. The US added 29,000 new jobs in September, significantly fewer than the roughly 90,000 economists forecasted. Unemployment increased slightly to 4.2% – up by 0.1 point compared with last month’s data.
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Democrats quickly slammed the figures as emblematic of Donald Trump’s “failing economic agenda”. Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate banking committee, added that the president’s leadership “keeps pushing prices up”. Meanwhile, Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, noted that “American families are being squeezed on all sides by Trump’s disastrous economy”, in response to Friday’s figures.
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The White House, however, projected confidence about the latest figures. Taylor Rogers, a spokesperson, highlighted the addition of “9,000 manufacturing jobs and 12,300 factory construction jobs over the month” as proof that Donald Trump’s “reindustrialization agenda is working”. She noted that “wages are up over last year” – despite the fact they have not kept up with inflation.
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Also today, G7 leaders agreed to release up to 100m barrels of diesel reserves within four months, to mitigate the ongoing energy crisis as a result of the US-Israel war on Iran. On Truth Social, Trump welcomed the news after urging European allies to release their diesel reserves as fuel prices continue to rise, and he weighed an export ban. The president added that “the process will begin immediately”.
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The top Republican aligned Super Pac, the Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), will pause it’s multimillion-dollar ad spend in North Carolina in support of Michael Whatley, the GOP nominee for the open US Senate seat, according to multiple reports. The SLF initially announced a $71m investment in the North Carolina race back in April – noting that Whatley – the former chair of the Republican National Committee with backing from Donald Trump – was a “battle-tested leader”. Semafor first reported the news that SLF shifting its spending priority, and is now reserving a seven-figure sum for the Senate race in Kansas – which has become increasingly competitive as Trump’s approval rating hits a record low nationwide.
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Ahead of Donald Trump heading to Mobile, Alabama today, it’s worth pointing out a new poll from AP-Norc which shows that a majority of Americans blame the president for their struggle with the cost of living. More than 60% of respondents say that the economy is worse off since Trump took office, and 52% of Republicans surveyed say that the president’s handling of the cost of living has been worse than expected.
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Environmental groups sue Trump administration for slashing fuel economy rules
A group of environmental organizations have sued the Trump administration over its recent move to slash clean-car rules that had been aimed at reducing planet-heating emissions and boosting electric vehicles.
On Monday, the administration relaxed the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (Cafe) standards that regulate how far new vehicles need to travel on a gallon of gasoline.
Donald Trump said last week that the less stringent mileage requirements would “take the waste out of building cars in America” and save families “thousands on a new, beautiful and safe car”, while boosting auto production in the US.
Trump has repeatedly pledged to end what he falsely calls an EV “mandate”, referring incorrectly to Joe Biden’s target that half of all new vehicle sales be electric by 2030. No federal policy has mandated auto companies to sell EVs.
Sean Duffy, the US transportation secretary, hailed the new initiative – called Freedom Means Affordable Cars – which the agency said would reduce the average cost of new vehicles by $1,300, and save consumers $138bn over the next five years.
The lawsuit is currently a petition to review the Department of Transportation’s move.
New polling shows that a majority of Americans blame Trump for cost of living struggle
Ahead of Donald Trump heading to Mobile, Alabama today, it’s worth pointing out a new poll from AP-Norc which shows that a majority of Americans blame the president for their struggle with the cost of living.
This also comes as the latest jobs report shows tepid growth and a rise in unemployment. What’s more, wage growth has not kept up with inflation.
More than 60% of respondents say that the economy is worse off since Trump took office, and 52% of Republicans surveyed say that the president’s handling of the cost of living has been worse than expected.
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The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) – which serves as the official campaign arm for House Democrats – moved eight districts on their map of targets this midterm cycle to “in play”.
Their list now includes, Virginia’s sixth, Washington state’s fifth, North Carolina’s 13th, Kansas’s second, Texas’s ninth, Oklahoma’s fifth, New Jersey’s second and Michigan’s first. This means the DCCC has identified 66 critical districts as competitive, in order for Democrats to reclaim control of the lower chamber.
While some forecasters expect the party to win the House, many of the competitions are neck-and-neck. The last time Democrats saw a so-called “blue wave” was in 2018 – when they flipped 41 seats.
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Top Republican Super Pac pauses ad spend in North Carolina, focuses on Kansas – reports
The top Republican aligned Super Pac, the Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), will pause it’s multimillion dollar ad spend in North Carolina in support of Michael Whatley, the GOP nominee for the open US Senate seat, according to multiple reports.
Democrats are hoping to flip the Tar Heel state in the upcoming midterm elections, where they need to net four seats in order to reclaim control of the Senate. Roy Cooper, North Carolina’s former governor, is the Democratic nominee and is leading Whatley in every poll, in some cases by double digits.
The SLF initially announced a $71m investment in the North Carolina race back in April – noting that Whatley – the former chair of the Republican National Committee with backing from Donald Trump – was a “battle-tested leader”. Semafor first reported the news that SLF shifting its spending priority, and is now reserving a seven-figure sum for the Senate race in Kansas – which has become increasingly competitive as Trump’s approval rating hits a record low nationwide.
While a Democrat hasn’t won a Senate seat in the Sunflower state in almost a century, the race between Republican incumbent Roger Marshall and his Democratic challenger, pastor Adam Hamilton, has become more of a concern for the GOP. The Cook Political Report, a prominent election forecaster, downgraded the competition from “leans Republican” to “likely Republican” at the end of September.
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Democratic senators said today that they expect a vote before 13 December on the Trump administration’s pact to share nuclear power technology with Saudi Arabia.
“The Senate will now have a chance to fulfill its statutory responsibility to study and weigh in on the impact this agreement could have in driving a nuclear arms race in the Middle East and potentially undermining nuclear nonproliferation efforts around the world,” senator Jeff Merkley said in a release reported first by Reuters.
Merkley worked on getting the vote with four of his fellow Democrats.
The US will deploy about 500 troops to Texas’s Rio Grande valley this week, days after Coast Guard personnel came under fire from suspected cartel members near the Mexican border, NewsNation reports citing law enforcement sources.
NewsNation reported it had obtained video showing troops being dropped on to islands in the sector from Chinook helicopters.
The Coast Guard said Coast Guard Forces Rio Grande personnel encountered gunfire from the Mexican border near Garceno, Texas, on Saturday while conducting joint interdiction operations with federal partners, according to NewsNation’s report. Personnel returned fire in the incident, which is still under investigation.
No injuries to Coast Guard or other personnel were reported, and no damage to Coast Guard assets was reported.
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Will Democrats take Congress from Trump? The key midterm races – mapped
Chris Stein, Alex Clark, Andrew Witherspoon and Ashley Kirk
A turning point in Donald Trump’s second term will soon arrive. On 3 November, voters across the US will decide whether to keep the president’s Republican allies in control of Congress, or return Democrats to the majority.
Many indicators of voter sentiment suggest the Democrats are favored to take back control of the House of Representatives, and potentially the Senate. Winning either would be a significant victory for the party and give it the power to block Trump’s legislative agenda and more aggressively investigate his administration.
This interactive piece charts and maps reveal where the battle for Congress will be fought.
Related: The US midterm races that will decide control of Congress – mapped
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Kennedy Center Honors to be held off site for the first time
This year’s Kennedy Center Honors will be held at Washington’s Capital One Arena, not the arts institution that’s been at the center of a legal battle over adding Donald Trump’s name to the building, a spokesperson said.
The 49th annual awards are set to take place at Washington’s downtown arena, a Kennedy Center spokesperson said. Few other details were immediately available, and an explanation for the change wasn’t given. The event will take place on 7 December.
The center’s Trump-picked board voted last month to close the performing arts venue after a federal judge blocked the institution from returning Trump’s name to the facade.
Trump has threatened in social media posts that safety repairs the center needs would only happen if the board was allowed to move forward with plans to add his name to the building.
A federal judge has twice said that can’t happen without the approval of Congress, which has allocated $257m for repairs.
The president hosted the 2025 awards , whose honorees included Sylvester Stallone and George Strait. He said at the time that he would rename the facility the “Trump Kennedy Center”, and not long after workers began adding his name to the building.
The board of trustees voted unanimously for the change, which has been challenged in court since.
Congress named the performing arts center as a living memorial to John F Kennedy in 1964, the year after he was assassinated.
The law explicitly prohibits the board of trustees from making the center into a memorial to anyone else, and from putting another person’s name on the building’s exterior.
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As we bring you the news of the deal that European leaders have struck to release millions of barrels of diesel reserves, a White House official tells the Guardian that Donald Trump spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday night, and with G7 leaders on Friday morning, to successfully negotiate the release of the stockpiles.
This detail comes after the administration publicly urged the leaders to tap into the reserves, and Trump has floated a possible diesel export ban, which Europe has warned would be economically crippling.
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White House touts tepid jobs report as proof that Trump's 'reindustrialization agenda is working'
The White House has welcomed the latest jobs report – which shows fewer new jobs added than economists projected. Taylor Rogers, a spokesperson, highlighted the addition of “9,000 manufacturing jobs and 12,300 factory construction jobs over the month” as proof that Donald Trump’s “reindustrialization agenda is working”.
She noted that “wages are up over last year” – despite the fact they have not kept up with inflation.
Hegseth announces 'one-day stand-down' for service members to vote in midterm elections
Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, announced today that there will be a “one-day stand-down” this month, for service members to vote in the upcoming midterm elections. He added that many members of the military “face unnecessary, difficult ways of obtaining, completing, and returning absentee ballots while serving far from home” and said the directive would take place this year and every election year to come.
“We’re not telling you who to vote for, but we will give you every opportunity to do so,” Hegseth said in a straight-to-camera video. “Take that day to fill out your absentee ballot. Help your family members do the same, or go to the polling place yourself and exercise your right to vote.”
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My colleagues are covering the move from G7 leaders to release up to 100m barrels of diesel reserves within four months, to mitigate the ongoing energy crisis as a result of the US-Israel war on Iran.
Earlier, as I reported, Trump welcomed the news after urging European countries this week to tap into reserves while he weighed an export ban. However, the president offered few details about which countries had signed on to the deal.
Related: G7 to release 100m barrels from reserves to combat surging diesel prices – Europe live
On today’s episode of Politics Weekly America, Jonathan Freedland is digging into the Texas Senate race.
The Democratic Senate nominee, James Talarico, is surprising everyone, as polls have him leading his Republican opponent, Ken Paxton.
Jonathan speaks to James Henson, founder and executive director of the Texas Politics Project, about why a blue wave in the Lone Star state – which hasn’t seen a Democrat win a Senate seat in almost 40 years – would be seismic.
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Trump claims Europe has agreed to release diesel oil reserves as he weighs export ban
On Truth Social, Donald Trump has claimed that Europe has “just agreed to release a massive amount of their heavily stocked Diesel Oil”. This comes after the administration urged European allies to release their diesel reserves as fuel prices continue to rise due to the ongoing Iran war and the president continues to weigh an export ban. The president added that “the process will begin immediately”.
In the US the average price for a gallon of diesel sits at $6.3, up from $3.7 a year ago – a 70% hike.
Trump said on Wednesday that he was still “thinking about” a ban on diesel exports to curb the soaring cost of energy domestically. However, he noted that an embargo “might raise the price of other things.” Europe has warned of a further economic tailspin in the event of a ban.
A reminder that major sectors of US agriculture, manufacturing and commercial fishing depend heavily on diesel.
Europe has also becoming increasingly reliant on US diesel exports after Ukrainian strikes destroyed Russian oil refineries and Moscow implemented its own export ban earlier this year to preserve its supply.
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And as we bring you the latest on how the jobs report stands to impact voter sentiment ahead of the November midterms, my colleagues have done all the hard work in mapping out the battle for Congress and the key states, candidates and districts that will ultimately decide the balance of power on Capitol Hill.
Many indicators of voter sentiment suggest the Democrats are favored to take back control of the House of Representatives, and potentially the Senate. Winning either would be a significant victory for the party and give it the power to block Trump’s legislative agenda and more aggressively investigate his administration.
Take a look here:
Related: The US midterm races that will decide control of Congress – mapped
A reminder that my colleagues are covering the latest market reactions to today’s job report, including allayed fears about future interest rate hikes in light of the weaker-than-expected numbers reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Related: US bonds rally after weaker-than-expected jobs report shows hiring slowdown – business live
Top Democrats slam 'Trump's failing economic agenda' following jobs report that experts call 'mediocre'
Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate banking committee, has blasted Donald Trump’s “failing economic agenda” following the latest jobs report – which many experts have described as “mediocre” and “weak”.
“Since January 2025, Trump’s economy has only added 33,000 jobs a month on average, far below the 120,000-a-month average in 2024,” Warren said. “Since the start of Trump’s war, real wages have fallen 0.7% as his failed agenda keeps pushing prices up.”
Ahead of the November midterms, Democrats are hammering home that many of the Trump administration’s policies have resulted in a cost of living crisis, and urging voters to eschew Republicans vying for seats in Congress at the ballot box.
Meanwhile, Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, noted that “American families are being squeezed on all sides by Trump’s disastrous economy”, in response to Friday’s figures.
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Of note, the wage growth according to the latest jobs report, sits at 3% – which is still lower than the current 3.4% inflation rate. The gap here is crucial as voters prepare to vote in the upcoming midterms, and affordability is consistently polled as the key election issue ahead of November.
Jobs report shows weaker growth than expected, while unemployment sees uptick ahead of midterm elections
New figures, released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, shows that the number of new jobs added in the US was weaker than expected, while unemployment saw an uptick.
The US added 29,000 new jobs in September, significantly fewer than the roughly 90,000 economists forecasted. Unemployment increased slightly to 4.2% – up by 0.1 point compared to last month’s data.
The latest report shows a drop in the overall number of jobs in September, compared to August, where the revised numbers show that the US added 133,000 new jobs.
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Donald Trump will begin his day in Washington after spending Thursday campaigning in Durant, Oklahoma. He’ll travel to Mobile, Alabama, later for a campaign rally. It’s part of the president’s 32-day blitz to juice support for Republicans ahead of the November midterm elections. He won Mobile county by almost 17 points in the 2024 presidential election.
Despite the president initially saying that he would focus his attention on competitive districts, in recent days he’s made speeches in Republican strongholds as his approval rating is still under water.
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On Monday, following public outcry, Matthew Van Houten, the Tompkins County district attorney, said his office would reopen the investigation into the Cornell case, nearly two years after the student victim of the alleged gang-rape gave a statement to police.
My colleagues Richard Luscombe and Maya Yang covered the story earlier this week. They wrote:
According to lawyers for the student, who filed a civil lawsuit against the university and her alleged attackers earlier in September, only two members of the Chi Phi fraternity were expelled after the October 2024 incident, in which she said she was drugged and repeatedly raped over the course of seven hours.
None of the seven were arrested, they said, and the others were made to write essays, attend workshops or serve short suspensions.
On Monday, Matthew Van Houten, the Tompkins county district attorney, said his office was looking again at the case, after the woman, who was 20 at the time of the alleged assault, presented allegations in her lawsuit that were “dramatically different” from the statement she gave to police two years ago.
Later on Monday, Van Houten released a fuller statement defending his office’s past decision to not seek charges.
“While I generally refrain from commenting publicly on criminal investigations, the community outrage stemming from the incomplete news and social media coverage requires that I provide an answer to why the investigation resulted in a lack of criminal charges,” he said.
Read more:
Related: Investigation of alleged gang-rape at Cornell University fraternity house reopened
Calls grow for US death penalty halt after ‘torturous’ botched execution of Christa Pike
Top lawyers, doctors and members of the faith community are calling for a moratorium on the US death penalty after Tennessee’s failed attempt to execute Christa Pike left the prisoner alive but in critical condition and receiving life-saving medical care.
The recent spate of harrowingly botched executions across US death penalty states reached a new low late on Wednesday when Tennessee’s governor Bill Lee called off the procedure after Pike had been injected with two full syringes of pentobarbital. She is the only person to have survived being administered 5mg of the sedative – a massive dose that under normal circumstances is considered fatal.
An hour after the first injection was given, she was overheard by eyewitnesses to be still breathing, choking and struggling, and was found to have a heartbeat. Her lawyers said that her current condition, and the degree to which she may have been brain damaged through oxygen deprivation, were as yet unknown.
Sandra Babcock, a death penalty scholar at Cornell law school who advises Pike’s legal team, told the Guardian that the events that unfolded were “unimaginably barbaric. They demand accountability.”
Read more:
Related: Calls grow for US death penalty halt after ‘torturous’ botched execution of Christa Pike
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Letitia James is no stranger to high profile investigations involving powerful individuals and institutions.
Her most prominent case in recent years was the civil fraud action against Donald Trump and the Trump Organization. In February 2024, a New York judge ruled in her favour and ordered Trump to pay a $450m penalty after finding he fraudulently overstated his net worth to dupe lenders. A five-judge panel tossed the financial penalty last year, but James’s office has appealed to reinstate it.
In this profile of James in February 2024, Guardian US reporter Lauren Aratani wrote:
Raised in Brooklyn with her seven siblings, James attended public schools before getting her law degree at Howard University in Washington DC. She rose through the ranks as a public defender before entering New York politics as a councilmember and then as public advocate, the first Black woman to hold the watchdog role and one where she filed a record number of suits on behalf of people with disabilities, seniors and tenants.
When she won the attorney general’s office, another first for a Black woman, James vowed to “take that power back” from corporations and corrupt politicians.
“The law is the great equalizer and the biggest pillar of our democracy,” she said in her inaugural speech in 2019. “I will shine a light into the murkiest of swamps and act as a steward of justice.”
The profile is more than two years old but still worth a read for useful background on James’s career and her involvement in several of the big cases that have defined her tenure as attorney general.
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New York governor to provide update on Cornell gang-rape case after appointing special prosecutor
The governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, has named New York attorney general Letitia James as special prosecutor to investigate an alleged gang-rape at Cornell University in 2024, saying she had lost faith in the local district attorney’s ability to handle the case.
Both Hochul and James are due to speak today to provide an update on the investigation following the attorney general’s appointment.
Hochul said newly released information raised questions about the investigation conducted by Cornell police and the decision by Tompkins County prosecutors not to file charges.
“This has, in turn, undercut my faith, and the public’s faith, in the district attorney’s ability to effectively investigate and prosecute the case at this time,” she said in a statement.
James will oversee the investigation and, if warranted, present evidence to a grand jury, Hochul added.
Matthew Van Houten, the Tompkins County district attorney, declined at the time of the alleged assault to file charges, saying his office chose not to prosecute because the victim’s testimony did not establish a lack of consent.
But with renewed attention on the case and mounting public pressure, Van Houten said on Monday that his office would reopen the investigation.
A woman, known as Jane Doe in court documents, filed a civil lawsuit last month alleging she had been drugged with ketamine and raped by a group of men at a fraternity house near Cornell University’s campus in October 2024. She reported the incident to the Cornell University police department several weeks later, but no criminal charges were filed.
James said her office would “fully and fairly” investigate the allegations.
You can read our latest report on this story here:
Related: Letitia James appointed special prosecutor in alleged gang-rape at Cornell
In other news:
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Donald Trump is heading to Alabama today as part of his near month-long midterm campaign blitz. He began the 32-day tour yesterday in safe Republican territory, starting with Texas and Oklahoma and continuing to Ohio this weekend and Nebraska on Monday. The US president is expected to campaign almost daily ahead of November’s midterm elections, as the Republicans wrestle to retain its slim majorities in both the House and Senate.
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The Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics will publish its employment report today, with Reuters reporting that US job growth likely slowed in September while the unemployment rate held steady at 4.1% for a third month in a row.
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