Trump administration sued over plans to send election monitors to voting sites 07. October 2026 (16:48) NAACP files lawsuit after head of DoJ’s civil rights division says she hopes to send election monitors to pollsThe Trump administration has been sued over its plans to deploy “a historic number” of election monitors to polling stations during next month’s midterm elections.The bid “stands to jeopardize” the elections and could “interfere with the right of voters to participate in the election free from intimidation”, according to the NAACP, which filed a lawsuit against Harmeet Dhillon, head of the justice department’s civil rights division, who has said she hopes to send 1,000 monitors to midterm polling sites in November. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Satellite images show attack jets at Chinese military facility in Laos 07. October 2026 (16:46) New ‘support and training centre’ prompts concern in region but China says it is ‘not directed at any third party’ Satellite images show attack jets stationed at a new Chinese military facility in Laos, which opened last week and gives Beijing’s air force its first foothold in mainland south-east Asia.Images provided by the commercial satellite provider Vantor show eight light attack aircraft positioned at Ban Keun airport alongside what appear to be more than a dozen military vehicles lined up in rows. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Could the UK really rejoin the EU? 07. October 2026 (16:45) The big question facing Andy Burnham is not whether Brexit has harmed Britain, but if a rapidly changing Europe will keep the door open if the UK decides it wants back in• Don’t get This Is Europe delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereIt was lobbed into the national conversation without fanfare or warning, almost a footnote in the UK prime minister’s first speech as leader to his governing Labour party’s annual conference. But Andy Burnham has kicked off a quiet U-turn on Brexit.By stating bluntly that the decision to leave Europe’s core political community had done “more harm than good”, Burnham broke a taboo in his own party, in effect, discarding his predecessor’s paralysing ‘red lines’ on Europe, and signalling he will not be bound by these constraints after the next British election. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Overseas, Albanese sees ‘the very definition of climate injustice’ – but at home, he still wants coal 07. October 2026 (16:00) It isn’t hard to see a contradiction between the PM’s message in Fiji and his opposition to legal action to stop a NSW coalmineGet our new political email, free app or daily news podcastThere are unlikely to be many bigger moments in Australian action on the climate crisis this year than a judgment by the high court on Wednesday.In what is likely to prove a historic victory, the court sided with community members in the Hunter Valley to strike down a state regulator’s approval of a massive coalmine expansion that could have kept it operating until 2048.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s Politics, really newsletter here Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Mayor of Turkish opposition stronghold defects to Erdoğan’s party amid political crackdown 07. October 2026 (15:54) Izmir mayor Cemil Tugay joins ruling AKP after vowing he would never switch sides in boost for Turkish presidentThe mayor of Izmir, Turkey’s third city and an opposition stronghold, has defected to the ruling AKP in a move hailed by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish president.Turkey’s opposition is battling an increasingly intense crackdown, with a barrage of what observers say are politically motivated arrests and lawsuits targeting its mayors and elected officials. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
