Day: October 26, 2025

Experts see move as Trump’s latest attempt to shift power of the purse away from Congress and into executive branch

By ordering that US military personnel receive paychecks even though the government is shut down, Donald Trump is seeing to the needs of a politically untouchable constituency that has been caught up in the congressional logjam over federal spending.

But experts who spoke to the Guardian warn that he is doing so in a way that is almost certainly illegal and, if left unchecked, bodes ill for Congress’s constitutional authority to control government spending. Some fear it could set the stage for the president to unilaterally fund other contentious decisions in the future, such as the deployment of the military on US soil.

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Party rides high with new leader Zack Polanski winning media plaudits and supporter numbers doubling to 140,000

A surge in membership levels is causing the Green party some novel problems. “Our local association went from 400 to over 1,000,” one activist said. “We had meetings booked in rooms with a capacity of 50, and loads of people were being turned away. We’ve had to start booking bigger rooms.”

The Greens have long been a party on the rise. But it is fair to say that in the near-seven weeks since Zack Polanski took over the leadership in England and Wales, things have gone to another level.

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‘Trumped-up’ charges spark diplomatic row as scientists express fears for health of 70-year-old Leonid Pshenichnov

• Antarctic krill: how did a paperclip-sized crustacean cause a diplomatic row – and why are they so important?

A diplomatic row has erupted over the “illegal” detention of one of Ukraine’s scientists, who has been accused by the Kremlin of undermining Russia’s industrial trawling for krill in Antarctica.

Leonid Pshenichnov, 70, a Ukrainian biologist who is an expert on Antarctica, has a decades-long record of scientific research and contributions to conservation, including support for marine protected areas in the region.

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