San Francisco’s mayor, along with Silicon Valley leaders, managed to stop the president’s law enforcement surge

Donald Trump rarely has kind words for Democrats, especially those who stand in his way. But on Thursday the president offered something unfamiliar: a compliment.

As federal agents mobilized at a US Coast Guard base in the Bay Area, Trump credited San Francisco’s new mayor, Daniel Lurie, for “very nicely” persuading him to stand down from a planned immigration enforcement “surge” in the city this weekend.

Fourteen protesters from LA to DC share thoughts on new leaders, shutdown negotiations, and Republican policies

• Millions across all 50 US states march in No Kings protests against Trump

• No Kings protests across the US: in pictures

Saturday’s No Kings protests brought millions to the streets across all 50 states in the latest demonstration against Donald Trump’s administration amid a government shutdown. But many protesters are already strategizing about what to do next.

Some said continuing protests were a sign of vibrant civil resistance against the administration’s heavy-handed policies, which have challenged legal and constitutional norms in the US. They also discussed economic boycotts and strikes.

Former Republican US representative walks free after being sentenced in April to more than seven years in prison for deceiving donors and stealing identities of 11 people

Donald Trump announced on Friday he had commuted the sentence of George Santos, the disgraced former New York representative and serial fabulist who had been sentenced to more than seven years in prison after a short-lived political career marked by outlandish fabrications and fraudulent scheming.

Santos left the Federal Correctional Institution Fairton in New Jersey just hours later and was “on his way home”, his attorney Joseph Murray told Agence France-Presse by phone late on Friday.

It is not the party’s first foray into the dystopian territory, with Trump having posted AI videos of his own

The National Republican Senatorial Committee crossed into dystopian new territory for political campaigning on Friday after releasing an attack ad that features an artificially generated video of the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer.

The deepfake video, posted on Friday to the Senate Republicans’ social media account, shows an AI-generated Schumer robotically repeating the phrase “every day gets better for us” in reference to the ongoing government shutdown. A small disclaimer tucked in the corner acknowledges its artificial origins.

Eighth Senate vote fails on 49-45 tally as Congress remains deadlocked on legislation amid now two-week shutdown

• US politics live – latest updates

Congress remained deadlocked on legislation to reopen the federal government, as the US Senate on Tuesday again rejected a Republican plan to end the government shutdown that began two weeks ago.

The eighth Senate vote to advance a Republican bill that would fund government operations through 21 November failed on a 49-45 tally – far short of the 60 needed for advancement in the chamber. In a sign that that there has been little if any progress toward ending the stalemate, no senators changed their votes from the last time the measure was brought to the floor, though there were a handful of absences.