Ed Miliband meets Iran’s foreign minister as Tehran gives US ultimatum on strait of Hormuz 24. September 2026 (21:13) Senior Iranian officials say Washington has four to five days to respond to its conditions for reopening the strait The UK foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, has met his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, for the first time in New York amid warnings from senior Iranian security officials that the US has four to five days to respond to its conditions for reopening the strait of Hormuz.The previously unknown apparent deadline was specified by Mohsen Rezaei, the secretary of the supreme national security council, in a TV interview on Wednesday evening, and it is unclear what action Tehran will take if the US does not respond to Iran’s preconditions for reopening the vital waterway. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
California sheriff ordered to return ballots he confiscated in voter ‘fraud’ inquiry 24. September 2026 (20:55) State supreme court rules Chad Bianco’s conduct unlawful and says he ‘must refrain from further handling’ of ballotsA Republican California sheriff must return more than a half-million ballots he seized for an investigation into unfounded voting improprieties in a special election last year, the state supreme court ruled Thursday.Riverside county sheriff Chad Bianco in February seized approximately 650,000 ballots from a November 2025 special election on statewide congressional redistricting favorable to Democrats and pushed by Governor Gavin Newsom. The measure easily passed statewide, and won in Bianco’s county by roughly 80,000 votes. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
ICE has wasted tens of millions to carry out Trump’s mass detention agenda – report 24. September 2026 (20:54) US GAO documents array of costly problems as ICE pursues controversial plans to rapidly increase detention capacityUS Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agencies have wasted tens of millions of dollars pursuing controversial plans to rapidly increase detention capacity – and the total will likely rise due to ongoing mismanagement, congressional investigators warned on Thursday.The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) documented costly problems in several initiatives ICE has pursued since Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025 and ordered the mass arrest and deportation of people whom his administration has deemed should be forced out of the country. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Trump swoons over strongman soulmate Xi – are you feeling jealous, Vladimir? 24. September 2026 (20:30) Deference was deafening as US president rolled out red carpet for world’s biggest jailer of journalists – perhaps he was seeking tipsOne is an authoritarian who represses the media with a strong allergy to democratic elections. The other is head of the Chinese Communist party.Donald Trump welcomed the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, to the White House on Thursday, setting the stage for a scene quite unlike anything the august old building has seen over more than two centuries. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
