Politics

Senate Democrats pressure EPA to drop abortion pill water quality study

Senate Democrats are pressuring the Environmental Protection Agency to drop its study on the presence of abortion pill chemicals in the water supply, which they argue is driven by anti-abortion politics rather than sound science.

Democrats keep expanding their battleground map. History suggests it's a mirage

Welcome to Thursday’s Washington Secrets. We have another nerdy look into the final stages of midterm campaigning, and we ask whether Democrats have any chance in the districts they have just added to the list of targets.

Hegseth church allies backed plan for ‘public’ execution of Fort Hood shooter

Leader of CREC church – whose pastors have advocated death penalty – says he ‘prefers public executions to private’

How has Trump’s immigration agenda affected the US midterms? Send us your questions

Join our final live Q&A before the midterm elections, on 22 October at noon ET on the Guardian US site

Trump Formally Asserts Executive Privilege in Legal Fight Over Kennedy Center's Closure

October 15, 2026 / 11:54 AM EDT / CBS News

Repressive, secretive and highly militarised: Eritrea, the east African country facing UK visa ban threat

Country has not had an election in 33 years and has withdrawn cooperation with UK on migrant returns

Republican Susan Collins dismisses allegations of corruption as ‘completely false’

Maine senator refutes claim from ex-Navatek CEO that he funded Collins’s Super Pac in exchange for naval contracts

The Pentagon’s 60-day game of chicken over aircraft carriers

When President Donald Trump issued an executive memorandum directing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to draft a plan to rip the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) off the future USS Doris Miller, the administration set a strict 60-day clock to force a return to legacy steam. As that mid-October deadline looms, the mainstream is scanning the horizon for signs of a public bureaucratic mutiny. They are looking in the wrong place.

“The valley has been left behind”: how one of California’s poorest areas became its toughest political battleground

Rising costs and threatened healthcare benefits are testing voters’ loyalty to Trump as Democrat Randy Villegas challenges David Valadao

Holdout juror in Lindsay Clancy trial gives first interview since mistrial

Michael Desronvil tells Fox News he never had reasonable doubt Clancy was guilty but didn’t back up his claims

James Talarico Announces Record-Breaking $64 Million Fundraising Haul in Texas Senate Race

October 15, 2026 / 10:33 AM EDT / CBS News

Trump cancels plan to livestream execution following global condemnation

Man convicted of killing 13 people in Fort Hood, Texas will still be executed, but president said ‘people would rather not watch him die’