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Tax breaks for foreign residents in Portugal are “no longer justified”, the prime minister, Antonio Costa, has declared, promising to close the scheme for new applicants in 2024 after it stoked housing prices in one of western Europe’s poorest nations. Launched in 2009, the scheme allows people who become residents by spending more than 183 days a year in the country to benefit from a special 20% tax rate on Portuguese-sourced income derived from “high value-added activities“”, such as doctors and university teachers. It was introduced to attract investors and professionals as Portugal suffered from the financial crisis. Other benefits of the scheme – known as Non-Habitual Resident – include tax exemptions on almost all foreign income if taxed in the country of origin and a 10% flat tax rate on pensions from a foreign source. Portuguese citizens who lived abroad for five years or more could also apply. Costa told CNN Portugal late on Monday the scheme had “inflated the housing market”, calling it a “fiscal injustice that is no longer justified”. “It no longer makes sense,” Costa added, explaining that those who already benefit from it would continue to do so. The announcement came two days after thousands of people took to the streets of Lisbon and other cities across Portugal to protest against soaring rents and house prices stoked by growing gentrification and record tourism. Government data show more than 50% of workers earned less than €1,000 (£866) a month last year, and a 65% increase in Lisbon rents since the start of the tourism boom in 2015 has made flats unaffordable for many. FULL STORY

At least 21 people have died and 18 were injured after a tourist coach crashed off an overpass near Venice in northern Italy. The coach was carrying a group of tourists who were returning to a campsite in Marghera after spending the day in Venice, according to reports in the Italian media. Officials said the vehicle fell 30 metres (98ft) on to electricity lines and caught fire at about 7.45pm local time. Those on board included Ukrainian, German and French citizens, according to Venice prefect Michele Di Bari. Two of the dead were children. The Italian driver, aged 40, was also killed, Di Bari said. “The bus is totally crushed. The firefighters had difficulty getting a lot of the bodies out,” Di Bari told Sky Italia television. Four of the injured were in serious condition, said Renato Boraso, a Venice city official. The coach veered off the road in Mestre and landed close to railway lines where it caught fire, TGCom24 reported. Italy’s interior minister, Matteo Piantedosi, said the bus “flew 30 metres”. “It seems that the aggravating factor of the scenario was determined by the fact that it [the bus] was powered by methane, therefore the fire developed quickly,” he told TG1. Mestre is connected to Venice by a bridge. The cause of the incident is unclear. “It’s an apocalyptic scene. I am speechless,” Venice’s mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, posted on X, formerly Twitter. FULL STORY

A gun charge hanging over President Joe Biden's son, Hunter, is rarely filed by prosecutors. Will it stand up in court? Patrick Darnell Daniels was pulled over by police in April 2022 for driving a truck without a registration plate in Hancock County, Mississippi. Inside his vehicle officers found marijuana cigarette butts and two loaded firearms. The 26-year-old was charged under a law that bans users of illegal drugs from owning guns. Hunter Biden pleads not guilty to gun charges A judge denied him bail and ruled him a flight risk, citing a previous contempt of court, a history of substance abuse and a lack of stable residence. He was convicted and sentenced last October to nearly four years in prison. But in August an appeals court overturned Daniels' conviction. He was freed on 26 September. Hunter Biden, 53, faces the same charge: possession of a firearm by an unlawful user of a controlled substance. It carries a maximum prison sentence of up to five years. He pleaded not guilty on Tuesday. South Texas College of Law Professor Dru Stevenson, who has published research on gun charges against drug users, says it's unusual for such cases to make it to court. "It's just really rare that they would go after someone and prosecute them for this," Prof Stevenson said. "But this [Hunter Biden] is a high-profile person and there's been members of Congress demanding he be prosecuted." Of the 7,454 people sentenced for illegal gun possession in 2021, only about 5% of them were charged due to drug use, according to US Sentencing Commission data. FULL STORY

The judge presiding over Donald Trump's civil fraud case issued a limited gag order after the ex-president made "disparaging" remarks about a court clerk. Mr Trump had attacked Judge Arthur Engoron's clerk in a post on his social media site, Truth Social. The judge warned of "serious sanctions" if the order was disobeyed. Mr Trump has repeatedly made personal attacks on the judge and called him "deranged" and a "rogue adjudicator". But Tuesday's gag order is limited and restricted to public comments against members of court staff. Mr Trump on Tuesday posted a picture of principal clerk Allison Greenfield with Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer at a campaign event. In the post, he called Ms Greenfield "Schumer's girlfriend" and said that the case against him should be dismissed. After a court break, Judge Engoron did not mention anyone by name but referenced the social media incident saying that a defendant "posted to a social media account a disparaging, untrue and personally identifying post about a member of my staff". "Personal attacks on members of my court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate and I will not tolerate them under any circumstances," he said. "Failure to abide by this order will result in serious sanctions," he said. Justice Engoron said that his statement should be considered a gag order forbidding any posts, emails or public remarks about members of his staff. The post on Mr Trump's social media site, Truth Social, was removed following the judge's order. Mr Trump has called the trial a "fraud" and a "scam" and pledged to take the stand in his own defence. Asked if he would testify in the case, he said: "Yes, I will. At the appropriate time, I will be." The former president, his two adult sons and the wider Trump Organization are accused of massively inflating the value of their properties by over $2bn (£1.65bn), in order to secure favourable loans. Attorney General Letitia James is seeking $250m (£207m) and sanctions that could prevent the Trump family from doing business in the state of New York. None of the defendants will face jail time if convicted, because this is a civil case not a criminal one. The trial is a bench trial, meaning that the ultimate decision on whether the co-defendants are liable and any damages or penalties rest on Judge Engoron alone, not a jury. FULL STORY

The House on Tuesday voted to remove Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as Speaker, a never-before-seen historic vote that leaves the lower chamber of Congress in chaos. The mutiny, led by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), came days after McCarthy averted a government shutdown by putting a stopgap measure on the floor that garnered Democratic support — a move that infuriated hardline Republicans. In the final 216-210 vote, seven Republicans joined Gaetz to unseat McCarthy. Every Democrat in the chamber also voted to boot McCarthy, refusing to help protect him from his unruly conference. McCarthy said he would give Democrats nothing if they were to vote to help him. The House is now in uncharted territory, with House members and aides unsure what will happen next. Immediately after the vote to remove McCarthy, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) was declared Speaker pro tempore. He said the House would go into recess so that Democrats and Republicans could meet separately to “discuss the path forward.” McCarthy said Tuesday he would not run again for Speaker. No votes are expected in the House the rest of the week, and Republicans said they would meet to select their pick for Speaker next Tuesday. FULL STORY

Russell Brand is facing a second criminal investigation in connection to allegations of harassment and stalking. The 48-year-old comedian and actor has been accused of rape, assault and emotional abuse between 2006 and 2013, when he was at the height of his fame working for the BBC and Channel 4 and starring in Hollywood films. He denies the allegations. On Monday, it emerged Thames Valley police were investigating claims made by a woman who contacted the force two weeks ago with “new information” about “harassment and stalking”. Brand lives in Oxfordshire, within the Thames Valley catchment. Without naming Brand, Thames Valley police said in a statement: “Thames Valley police in the past two weeks received new information in relation to the harassment and stalking allegations dating back to 2018. “This information is being investigated. As such, it would be inappropriate to comment on an ongoing investigation.” The woman reported her allegations to Thames Valley police numerous times between 2018 and 2022 but no further action was taken. Brand had also accused the woman of harassment against him in 2017, according to the BBC. Brand has been approached for comment. Last week, the Metropolitan police said it had opened an investigation after receiving a number of allegations of sexual offences in London and “elsewhere in the country”. The offences were all non-recent, the Met said, adding that officers would be offering specialist support to all the women who had made allegations. FULL STORY

“It is going to be difficult for my Republican friends to keep calling President Biden ‘feeble’ while he continues to take Speaker McCarthy’s lunch money in every negotiation,” Gaetz said in his floor speech. “It is becoming increasingly clear who the speaker of the House already works for, and it’s not the Republican conference.” Gaetz had vowed on Sunday that he would soon introduce a motion to remove McCarthy as speaker, but he declined to outline a specific timeline for that effort in his floor speech. Calling on McCarthy to reveal the details of his alleged “secret deal” with Biden, Gaetz suggested the motion could be introduced as early as Monday. “There may be other votes coming today or later this week that could be implicated by the answers to these questions,” Gaetz said. “Members of the Republican party might vote differently on a motion to vacate if they heard what the speaker had to share with us about his secret side deal with Joe Biden on Ukraine. I’ll be listening. Stay tuned.” Speaking to reporters after the floor speech, Gaetz reiterated his plans to introduce a motion to vacate the chair at some point this week, and he indicated he would keep pushing the issue until McCarthy is removed. “It took Speaker McCarthy 15 votes to become the speaker, so until I get to 14 or 15, I don’t think I’m being any more dilatory than he was,” Gaetz said. Gaetz’s threats come after McCarthy was forced to rely on Democratic votes to advance the stopgap funding bill, known as a continuing resolution. Gaetz had threatened that he would move to oust McCarthy if he collaborated with Democrats to keep the government open, and he now appears ready to make good on that threat. Any single House member can force a vote on vacating the chair, and the motion requires only a simple majority for approval. Because of House Republicans’ narrow majority, McCarthy can only afford to lose five votes within his conference and still hold the speakership, assuming every House member participates in the vote. Despite that tricky math, McCarthy has responded to Gaetz’s threats with defiance, insisting he has the votes to keep his gavel. FULL STORY

Poland’s defence, interior and foreign ministers lined up in front of a tall, metal wall topped with barbed wire. Speaking to assembled television cameras, the three men warned of a terrible plot against Poland, orchestrated in the Kremlin. The weapons in this “special operation” were not tanks or bombs, suggested the foreign minister, Zbigniew Rau, but people from the Middle East and Africa. It was only the decision of the patriotic Polish government to construct the wall behind him that had foiled this Russian plan to sow discord and chaos in Poland, he said. “Otherwise, we would have become Lampedusa, but a Lampedusa filled with migrants who had been given military training. Ninety per cent of them, then and now, have been recruited by the Russian special services,” Rau claimed, falsely. Job done, the three ministers headed back to Warsaw. Their speeches were fed into the daily churn of migration scare-stories on pro-government television. The temperature rises each week, as Poland enters the final phase of a closely contested election campaign. That same evening in late August, on the other side of the border wall, the health of 20-year-old Sadia Mohamed Mohamud was deteriorating. By then, Sadia had been stuck in the thin strip of land between the two border fences, Polish and Belarusian, for almost a month, together with a few fellow Somalis also trying to get to the EU. Sadia told the others she had left her conflict-torn home country in the hope of earning money in Europe to provide a decent life for her two young children, who remained in Mogadishu. FULL STORY

One of New Zealand’s youngest political candidates, 21-year-old Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke, has experienced more politically targeted abuse in the past week than many senior politicians have experienced in their entire careers. The candidate for minor party Te Pāti Māori, has had her home broken into twice, her belongings and rubbish bins rifled through, a threatening letter left in her mailbox and a man turn up to her house in the early hours of the morning yelling racial slurs while trying to break down her fence. In the same week, Labour candidate Angela Roberts was confronted by a member of the public who, she said, grabbed her shoulders, shook her and then slapped her face with both his hands. Two weeks earlier, Labour’s MP for Northland, Willow-Jean Prime, said she experienced the worst racism of her career, after a crowd shouted and jeered at her for using Māori words during a candidate debate. “When I said Aotearoa, the crowd shouted ‘it’s New Zealand’,” Prime said in a media conference, adding she was told to stop speaking “that language”. “That is racism … and that is unacceptable,” she said, adding “what is really worrying is that they feel so emboldened that they can come out and say these things publicly.” New Zealand enjoys relatively open access to its politicians, and historically election campaigns have been fairly safe. But abuse, threats and attacks have been ramping up as the 14 October election draws near, with women and Māori candidates being especially targeted. Te Pāti Māori’s co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, told the Guardian the party was no stranger to hate speech and online threats, but that the attacks directed towards their candidate, Maipi-Clarke, had crossed a line. FULL STORY

Apple has blamed a bug in its operating system and updates to apps such as Instagram for its new iPhone 15 overheating. Since the latest model of the smartphone went on sale in September, some users have complained the devices are getting too hot to touch. Apple said there was a bug when updating iOS 17 on the phone. But it also claimed that changes to third party apps are "causing them to overload the system". iPhone users have come to expect their devices to become hotter during the initial set-up or when they are being backed up, due to the amount of processing power being used and the handset working overtime - but these issues with the iPhone 15 have been worse. Users took to social media to complain the new phones were searing. Apple said that the device may feel warmer in the first few days "after setting up or restoring the device because of increased background activity." The company said: "We have identified a few conditions which can cause iPhones to run warmer than expected." This includes a bug in iOS 17 which is the latest version of Apple's software which is accessible for its most recent models. It said that "another issue involves some recent updates to third-party apps that are causing them to overload the system," and it is working with app developers on fixes that are in the process of being rolled out. Among the apps blamed for the problem are Instagram, Uber and the video game Asphalt 9, according to Apple. FULL STORY

Former President Donald Trump has attacked a judge and prosecutor in a day of courtroom drama as he attended the opening of a fraud trial that could threaten his business empire. On entering the room on Monday dressed in a blue suit, Mr Trump - who turned up voluntarily - looked ahead as he walked past the prosecutor who brought the case. State's attorney general Letitia James, sitting in the front row, averted her gaze. Their paths did not cross for the rest of opening statements as both sides laid out their case. Mr Trump, the Trump Organization, several executives and two of his children - Donald Jr and Eric - are the defendants in the civil trial in New York Superior Court. Fact-checking Trump's claims about NY fraud trial They are accused of fraud, falsification of business records, issuing false financial statements and conspiracy. As the trial got under way, the former president occasionally glanced in the direction of Judge Arthur Engoron as he addressed the court. Moments beforehand, in a tirade outside court that echoed across the chamber, Mr Trump had called the judge a "rogue adjudicator". FULLL STORY

The new ball-shaped venue and world's largest LED, the Las Vegas Sphere, is now open to the public. Irish rock band U2 played the first show of its residency on 29 September. This is the first time the inside of the venue has been seen. https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-66979484

Video footage showing an incident recorded in a Co-op in the West Midlands this year. Photograph: Co-op Almost 90 retail leaders, including the bosses of Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Boots and WH Smith, have written to the government demanding action on rising retail crime, in which violent criminals are “emptying stores”. The retailers, who also include the bosses of Aldi, Primark and Superdrug, call for the creation of a new UK-wide aggravated offence of assaulting or abusing a retail worker – as already exists in Scotland – which would carry tougher sentences and require police to record all incidents of retail crime and allow the allocation of more resources. “The police consistently tell us that a lack of data about these offences means they have no visibility about the nature or scale of the issue,” the letter says. The 88 retail bosses have asked for a meeting with the home secretary, Suella Braverman, to discuss the issue after a meeting with the minister for crime, Chris Philp, led to the promise to develop an action plan. The call comes after retailers, including the Co-op and John Lewis, highlighted what they said was a worsening issue. A survey of members of the British Retail Consortium (BRC), which represents all the major chains, found levels of shoplifting in 10 of the biggest cities had risen by an average of 27% this year. Meanwhile, the police’s own data for one major retailer shows that forces failed to respond to 73% of serious retail crimes that were reported, while 44% of retailers in the BRC’s annual crime survey rated the police response as “poor” or “very poor”. FULL STORY

The government has admitted it will cost businesses £330m each year in additional charges when new post-Brexit border controls on animal and plant products imported from the European Union are implemented next year. Lucy Neville-Rolfe, a minister of state in the Cabinet Office, confirmed the estimated annual cost adding that the UK needs tighter border controls to “protect our international reputation” in a letter to Labour MP Stella Creasy, the chair of the Labour Movement for Europe. “It will depend greatly on how businesses adapt their business models and supply chains to integrate the new controls regime,” said Baroness Neville-Rolfe, in the response to Creasy. “We estimate these new costs of the model at £330m [per annum] overall, across all EU imports. We have not had full biosecurity controls in place at our border since leaving the European Union.” Food and logistics firms have repeatedly warned that the UK’s post-Brexit border strategy risks further pushing up food prices, which have already surged due to rampant inflation. In August, the government delayed for the fifth time the introduction of post-Brexit checks on food, plant and animal produce arriving in Britain, meaning they will not begin until the end of January 2024. The government said the delay in implementation – from late October – followed talks with industry which said businesses needed more time to prepare. The move has also been interpreted as a response to concerns that the start of checks would further fuel food price inflation during the cost of living crisis, although the government said the impact of the new border strategy on headline inflation would amount to “less than 0.2% across three years”. FULL STORY

Case could cost former president a fortune and end his control of the empire that made him the world’s most famous businessman. People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular. I call it truthful hyperbole,” Donald Trump wrote 36 years ago in his best-selling book, The Art of the Deal. “It’s an innocent form of exaggeration, and a very effective form of promotion.” This week a New York judge called Trump’s “truthful hyperbole” fraud in a ruling that could cost the former president a fortune and end his control of the business empire that made him the world’s most famous businessman and president of the United States. Trump is mired in litigation but perhaps no case is more personal to him than the one set to begin on Monday at a Manhattan courthouse near the city’s financial district. The case, brought by New York attorney general Letitia James, comes after a three-year investigation into Trump’s complex and sprawling businesses. James contends Trump consistently overstated the value of his assets to broker deals and obtain financing. What had looked set to be a months-long affair will probably be much shorter after New York supreme court Justice Arthur Engoron agreed and found Trump guilty of fraud days before the case had even begun. The ruling struck at the foundations of Trump’s image, ending his ability to run his real estate company in New York state and, unless overturned, could force him to hand over control of his New York properties — including Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan from which he launched his presidential victory — to an independent third party, otherwise known as a receiver. One essential question remains: how much will he have to pay up? James is asking for a fine of at least $250m – the minimal amount, the office determined, that Trump’s company gained from fudging financial statements over the course of a decade to bolster the value of its assets. It is a huge sum, even for a man who claims to be as rich as Trump. FULL STORY

A hardline Republican says he will seek to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy this week, after he pushed through a last-minute spending bill with support from the opposition Democrats. Mr McCarthy submitted the bill - aimed at averting a government shutdown - in defiance of the right of his party. They had already vowed to topple him if he tried to overcome their opposition with Democratic support. Hardline Republicans in both houses of Congress voted against the motion. Republicans control the House of Representatives, with Democrats enjoying a wafer-thin majority in the Senate. On Sunday, Rep Matt Gaetz vowed to oust Mr McCarthy, telling the CNN that House Republicans needed "trustworthy" leadership. "I do intend to file a motion to vacate against Speaker McCarthy this week," said Mr Gaetz, long a vocal critic of the Californian congressman. "I think we need to move on with new leadership that can be trustworthy." The Florida Congressman, who is among the party's most right-wing members and a keen ally of former President Donald Trump, has been threatening to force a vote on Mr McCarthy's future for weeks. Along with other hard-right Republicans in the so-called Freedom Caucus, Mr Gaetz refused to back successive budgets proposed by Mr McCarthy, insisting on heavy spending cuts and an end to new military aid to Ukraine. FULL STORY

President Joe Biden has vowed continued US support for Ukraine, after further military funding was excluded from a last-minute congressional budget deal. The temporary measure, pushed through to avert a government shutdown, did not include $6bn (£4.92bn) in military aid for Kyiv - a top White House priority. Hardline Republicans oppose further military aid, with many openly opposing Mr Biden's approach to the war. But on Sunday Mr Biden said Ukraine could "count on" US support. "We cannot, under any circumstances, allow US support to Ukraine to be interrupted," Mr Biden said. "I can reassure [Ukraine] we'll get there, that we're going to get it done," he said on restoring funding for the war. "I want to assure our American allies... that you can count on our support, we will not walk away." The US has already supplied some $46bn (£37bn) in military aid to Ukraine since Russian launched its full scale invasion in February 2022. President Biden has requested another $24bn (£19bn). And in recent months the US has sent state of the art equipment to Kyiv - including long-range missiles and Abrams tanks. It comes as Kyiv's forces continue to launch a slow moving counter-offensive in the south of the country. US Congress avoids government shutdown in last-minute deal Russian video 'shows Black Sea fleet commander alive' How Zelensky is grappling with Western war fatigue But Saturday's temporary budget agreement - which will fund the US federal government for 45 days - stripped out continued military funding for the time being. FULL STORY

Russia’s invasion has had a major impact on the bloc’s security and energy policies – and even its very raison d’être by Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor “The EU has changed. There is no turning back. We have turned out the lights behind us and there is basically only one way.” The words of the Danish politician and EU commissioner Margrethe Vestager at a conference in May neatly reflect the mood among the Brussels elite, taken aback at their own ability to shed EU bureaucratic torpor, defend Ukraine, embrace enlargement and move closer to fulfilling Ursula von der Leyen’s ambition for the EU to become a “geopolitical force”. “Our response to the invasion was by the hour at first, now not to the same degree, but it is absolutely Europe’s top priority and we will stay supportive of Ukraine until the war is won and Ukraine has been rebuilt, and become a member of the European Union,” Vestager continued. “I think that is the crucial commitment that has been made, and that will be a better union when that is brought about – a more dynamic union and a more united union.” Indeed, in the immediate aftermath of the Russian invasion, Josep Borrell, the EU foreign and security chief, argued the EU had grown up, “making more progress in a week toward the objective of being a global security player than it had in the previous decade”. The example of the brave Ukrainian resistance sprang the EU into a newfound sense of purpose. FULL STORY

Former president and frontrunner for GOP nomination also warns ‘this country will die’ if Joe Biden wins election Donald Trump called for shooting store robbers on Friday in a bleak speech to California Republicans –and warned “this country will die!” if Joe Biden remained president. During the address to GOP members, Trump also railed that wealthy Beverly Hills residents smell because of water denials, and repeated election fraud lies, according to the Associated Press. “We will immediately stop all of the pillaging and theft. Very simply: If you rob a store, you can fully expect to be shot as you are leaving that store,” Trump said, spurring applause. “Shot!” The rhetoric is in keeping with Trump’s tough-on-crime mantra but signified a ramped up emphasis on punishment. Trump has previously pitched shooting migrants to keep them from entering the US. The former defense secretary Mark Esper has said that Trump asked about shooting George Floyd protesters. He also floated imposing the death penalty on convicted drug dealers, cop-killers and human traffickers, AP said. Several other GOP presidential hopefuls also attended the event. It is unlikely that California voters will pick a Republican during the general election, but any GOP candidate that triumphs in this state’s primary sees an easier path to the nomination. California has 169 delegates up for grabs and a novel change in rules could give Trump, who is leading the GOP pack, a leg up. Under this new rule, Trump would take each of California’s delegates should he garner more than 50% of its primary vote, AP explained. FULL STORY

The Senate passed a bill Saturday to extend government funding for 45 days, sending the legislation to Joe Biden’s desk with just hours left to avoid a federal shutdown. The Senate approved the bill in a bipartisan vote of 88 to 9, easily surpassing the 60-vote threshold needed for passage. Nine senators, all Republicans, opposed it. “It’s been a day full of twists and turns, but the American people can breathe a sigh of relief. There will be no shutdown,” the Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, said after the vote. “Our bipartisanship made this possible and showed the House that they had to act.” The Senate vote came hours after the proposal passed the House in an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 335 to 91, with 209 Democrats joining 126 Republicans in supporting the legislation. Ninety House Republicans opposed the bill. The bill – unveiled by the House Republican speaker, Kevin McCarthy, on Saturday morning – will extend funding through 17 November and allocate $16bn for disaster aid. The bill does not include additional funding for Ukraine, which has become a source of outrage among hard-right lawmakers. At the last minute, Senator Michael Bennet, a Democrat of Colorado, threatened to block the bill’s advancement because of its lack of Ukraine funding. But leaders of both parties promised that Congress would soon take up a supplemental appropriations bill to provide additional financial assistance to Ukraine. “I’m confident the senator will pass further urgent assistance to Ukraine later this year,” said Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader. “But let’s be clear: the alternative to our action today, an entirely avoidable government shutdown, would not just pause our progress on these important priorities. It would actually set them back.” McCarthy introduced the stopgap bill under suspension of the rules, meaning he needed the support of two-thirds of House members to advance the proposal. Although House Democrats also criticized the bill’s lack of Ukraine funding, they ultimately provided McCarthy with the support needed to get the legislation across the finish line. FULL STORY

Ruth Swailes, an early childhood specialist, alleges the Department for Education tried to cancel a conference she was speaking at because she had criticised its policies. Photograph: Richard Saker/The Observer The Department for Education (DfE) is keeping files monitoring the social media activity of some of the country’s leading educational experts, the Observer can reveal. At least nine experts have uncovered files held on them, some as long as 60 pages. One individual even discovered the department had compiled an Excel spreadsheet in which officials had detailed who she interacted with. Officials at the DfE also tried to cancel a conference because two of the scheduled speakers had previously criticised government policy. Ruth Swailes and Aaron Bradbury, co-authors of a bestselling book on early childhood, were told by the organisers of a government-sponsored event for childminders and nursery workers, which they were due to speak at in March, that the DfE planned to cancel the conference just days before it opened because they were deemed to be “unsuitable” headline speakers. The event was eventually allowed to go ahead after Swailes and Bradbury threatened the department with legal action, although a senior government official was present to “monitor” what they said. Speaking to the Observer, Bradbury, principal lecturer in early childhood studies at Nottingham Trent University, said: “I received a phone call from the organisers saying there were some concerns about us being speakers. The DfE had decided we were unsuitable because we had been critical of government policy.” He said: “To be told that we couldn’t have this debate felt like we were living in a dictatorship, not a democracy. “We were due to talk about nurturing and early child development. It wasn’t some covert stuff about infiltrating Russia.” Swailes, an independent consultant who advises schools and nurseries on early years education, was so shocked that she filed a subject access request, requiring the DfE to disclose any documents it held on her. FULL STORY'