Doubts over whether Ankara will be part of 5,000-strong force to be deployed to prevent postwar power vacuum

Turkey will probably be excluded from the 5,000-strong stabilisation force that is to be set up inside Gaza after Israel made clear it did not want Turkish troops taking part.

Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, said it was a requirement that Israel is comfortable with the nationality of the multinational force, set up to prevent a security vacuum when the massive task of reconstruction in Gaza starts. Turkey has said it is willing to offer troops, but Israel has let it be known that it disapproves of Turkish troops taking part in the force.

From the raid on the Louvre to the spectacle of Sarkozy in jail, it is tempting to think France is on a downward spiral. But history tells the tale of its resilience

In the classic dinner-party scene in the film Notting Hill, Tim McInnerney’s character promises a brownie to “the saddest act here”. In response, the guests (including the glamorous movie star played by Julia Roberts) try to outdo each other with tales of their painful suffering and pathetic failures.

In our gloomy autumn of 2025, western democracies could play quite a convincing version of this game. There is the depressed United Kingdom, where Keir Starmer’s approval ratings have fallen to record lows and Reform leads in the polls. There is the deeply broken United States, where a supine opposition seems incapable of preventing Donald Trump from chopping away one guardrail after another of our constitutional order. There is Spain, where this summer a Socialist party scandal threatened to topple the fragile minority government of prime minister Pedro Sánchez.

Treasury accuses Gustavo Petro of ‘allowing drug cartels to flourish’ as president attacks Trump’s ‘oppressive regime’

The US treasury department has announced sanctions on Colombian president Gustavo Petro, one of Donald Trump’s harshest international critics.

“President Petro has allowed drug cartels to flourish and refused to stop this activity,” treasury secretary Scott Bessent wrote in a post on X. “Today President Trump is taking strong action to protect our nation.”

Police say one person critical and one person in serious condition but no details on suspect or suspects

A shooting near Howard University has left at least four people shot, police in Washington DC said.

The shooting happened as thousands descended on the campus for homecoming celebrations.

Show’s leader, who resigned in April, says he was also pressured to apologize for edit of Kamala Harris interview

The former executive producer of 60 Minutes, Bill Owens, said he faced intense internal pressure from his corporate bosses to avoid certain stories that had the potential to generate backlash for parent company Paramount, in his first public remarks since his sudden resignation in late April.

In January, 60 Minutes ran a segment featuring former state department employees who had quit over how Joe Biden’s administration handled the war in Gaza. The segment drew backlash from pro-Israel organizations and unnerved Paramount’s controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, a strong supporter of Israel.

Justice department targets two Democratic states holding off-year elections after requests from state Republicans

The Department of Justice is preparing to send federal election observers to California and New Jersey next month, targeting two Democratic states holding off-year elections following requests from state Republican parties.

The department announced it was planning to monitor polling sites in Passaic county, New Jersey, and five counties in southern and central California: Los Angeles, Orange, Kern, Riverside and Fresno. The goal, according to the department, is “to ensure transparency, ballot security, and compliance with federal law”.

Use of USS Gerald Ford along with fighter jets comes as president plots strikes against alleged cartels on land

The Pentagon said on Friday that it was deploying the United States’s most advanced aircraft carrier to the Caribbean, a major escalation in the Trump administration’s war against drug cartels that provides the resources to start conducting strikes against targets on the ground.

The move will bring the USS Gerald Ford, with dozens of stealth fighter jets and surveillance aircraft, in addition to other warships that accompany the carrier, to the coast of Venezuela as it nears the end of its current deployment in the Mediterranean.

Ontario premier says he plans to run ad featuring speech that sparked Trump’s ire again during World Series but campaign will end Monday

After the US suspended all trade negotiations with Canada over a 1987 speech by Ronald Reagan denouncing tariffs that appeared to spark Donald Trump’s ire, the premier of Ontario said he planned to run an ad featuring the speech again during the World Series on Friday.

Doug Ford, whose government ran the Reagan ad in US markets this week, first posted on X that the two nations were “stronger together”, while Trump added his own string of social media posts trumpeting the supposed benefits of tariffs.

Nearly 42 million people in danger as federal government shutdown continues and Snap funding to end 1 November

• US politics – follow live

Two decades ago, Sara Carlson, then a mother of three, was newly single because of a traumatic event, and the US’s food stamp program, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), helped her feed her children with free food supplies.

“I wouldn’t have been able to afford to live,” said Carlson, 45, who lives in Rochester, Minnesota, and now works as an operations manager for a wealth-management firm and serves on the board of Channel One Regional Food Bank, which works to increase food access.

US House minority leader ends four-month standoff over backing for Democratic nominee

The House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, endorsed Zohran Mamdani for New York City mayor on Friday, ending a four-month standoff that left the Democratic nominee without the backing of one of the party’s most powerful figures until the day before early voting begins.

The announcement arrives after months of pressure from progressives in Congress and after the top Democrat has been repeatedly grilled by reporters about his reluctance to support his party’s candidate.

Some drivers say vehicles using new version of full self-driving system can travel above speed limits

The US main transportation safety regulator said on Friday it was seeking information from Tesla about a new driver assistance mode dubbed “Mad Max” that operates at higher speeds than other versions.

Some drivers on social media report that Tesla vehicles using the more aggressive version of its full self-driving (FSD) system could operate above posted speed limits.

New regulation will allow US authorities to require non-citizens to be photographed at any point of departure

The US will expand the use of facial recognition technology to track non-citizens entering and leaving the country in order to combat visa overstays and passport fraud, according to a government document published on Friday.

A new regulation will allow US border authorities to require non-citizens to be photographed at airports, seaports, land crossings and any other point of departure, expanding on an earlier pilot program. Under the regulation, set to take effect on 26 December, US authorities could require the submission of other biometrics, such as fingerprints or DNA, the document said.

Stephany Gauffeny says her husband, Miguel García-Hernández, had his ‘arms restrained to the bed and handcuffs on his feet’ as he lay dying in the hospital

• Widow of man shot at ICE facility wonders if political violence is to blame

A few hours before the Texas sun set, Stephany Gauffeny held her newborn son close to her chest as she started walking in a cemetery. The grave she stopped at had no headstone, but Gauffeny, 32, had written her husband’s name on a red ribbon.

She married Miguel García-Hernández in 2016, nearly 10 years before he was shot at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Dallas in late September.

Democratic leader calls Canada tariffs ‘damaging’ and vows effort to overturn them; Canadian prime minister says he wants to see progress on trade

• US and Canada spar over anti-Trump tariff ad that suspended trade talks

The US secretary of state has confirmed Donald Trump’s announcement that all trade negotiations with Canada have been suspended.

Marco Rubio spoke during a visit to a civil-military coordination centre in southern Israel.

Administration will manage basic services ‘in cooperation with Arab brothers and international institutions’, says joint statement

The main Palestinian factions have said they have agreed that an independent committee of technocrats would take over the running of Gaza after Hamas said it had received “clear guarantees” from mediators that “the war has effectively ended”.

A joint statement published on the Hamas website said the groups had agreed in a meeting in Cairo to hand “over the administration of the Gaza Strip to a temporary Palestinian committee composed of independent ‘technocrats’, which will manage the affairs of life and basic services in cooperation with Arab brothers and international institutions”.

Despite president’s promise to preserve it, the eastern section of the building is now completely destroyed

The East Wing of the White House has now been completely destroyed to pave way for Donald Trump’s $300m planned gilded ballroom, just days after the administration announced it would happen and contradicting Trump’s earlier promise that the existing building would not be touched.

Satellite images on Friday showed the historic building’s eastern section reduced to rubble, to the outrage of historians, former White House officials and much of the public.