House minority leader is under attack from his own party for ‘affordability crisis’ meeting with president’s son-in-law

• Democrats incredulous over Hakeem Jeffries and Jared Kushner meeting

• US politics live – latest updates

Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic minority leader in the US House of Representatives, has defended his meeting with Jared Kushner and claimed it was arranged at the request of Donald Trump’s son-in-law.

Jeffries, who has come under attack from Democrats since the New York Times reported on Sunday that the two met privately to discuss common ground on issues like housing, immigration and the high cost of living, said he agreed to the meeting “to discuss the affordability crisis” in the US.

Maxwell sought to vacate Epstein-related conviction, alleging hidden trial evidence and juror’s abuse history

• Sign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email

A federal judge has rejected Ghislaine Maxwell’s legal effort to throw out her 2021 conviction on sex-trafficking charges and 20-year prison sentence, calling her claims “demonstrably meritless, and generally based on speculation, distortions, and/or outright falsehoods”.

In a 67-page decision filed on Tuesday, the US district judge Paul Engelmayer for New York’s southern district denied the former British socialite’s petition for relief, finding that Maxwell had failed to make a substantial showing that her constitutional rights were denied when she was convicted for her role in crimes linked to the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

• Child wandered on field during MNUFC’s 5-1 win

• Minnesota posts win was ‘Like taking money from a baby’

A toddler interrupted a Major League Soccer match between Minnesota United and San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday by invading the pitch – a bizarre scene punctuated by an on-air analyst saying, “There’s a baby on the field.”

With a minute and a half to play in the game that Minnesota won 5-1 at PayPal Park in San Jose, California, the small child took to the field – and the referee blew his whistle to stop play.

Gary mayor says 12 days is ‘too long’ for residents to go without power after storm downed trees on to power lines

The mayor of Gary, Indiana, has said it is “unacceptable” that thousands of residents in the city are still without power nearly two weeks after an 11 August storm known as a derecho brought 90 mph, straight-line winds, downing trees on to power lines.

“We’re at day 12, and 12 days is too long for families to be without power,” Eddie Melton, Gary’s mayor, said in a video address on Sunday, adding that he is continuing to pressure the Northern Indiana Public Service Company (Nipsco) to restore the city’s power before the end of Tuesday.

Tens of thousands are still under evacuation orders or warnings amid ‘human-caused’, wind-driven blaze

The Hawk fire is about 27% contained, authorities said on Monday afternoon, two days after the fast-moving, wind-driven wildfire sparked near Reno, Nevada.

Authorities added that 23,000 people are under a “go-now” order and 40,000 people are under a “get-set” warning, an improvement from the 90,000 Nevadans under evacuation orders or warnings on Monday morning.

Sean Grayson, who was diagnosed with stage three colon cancer in 2023, was serving a 20-year sentence for second-degree murder

The former Illinois sheriff’s deputy convicted of fatally shooting Sonya Massey in her home after she reported a possible prowler to 911, has died, his attorney said on Sunday.

Sean Grayson died on Sunday, lawyer Daniel Fultz – who represented the ex-Sangamon county deputy at his trial – told NBC News and CBS News.

PEN America condemns lawyers using passage from thriller to bolster claim ex-FBI director intended to harm Trump

A leading US free-expression group has hit out at federal prosecutors’ use of a novel written by former FBI director James Comey in their case accusing him of threatening to kill Donald Trump.

“Citing a novel to save an indictment that is constitutionally dubious is a desperate Hail Mary and should be rejected,” said a statement posted on Friday by Mara Gassmann, legal director of PEN America, using a term for a last-second heave in American football.

33,124 residents still in the dark as utility company says it is working to restore power in north-west of state

Thousands of residents of north-west Indiana on Saturday were headed for their 11th day without electric power after storms swept through the state, toppling trees and power lines, earlier in August.

The powerless conditions have led to food lines, closed businesses, dead phones, no schools, spoiled food, dirty clothes, dry gas pumps and a multitude of other deleterious effects on life without energy.

Max Lederer and Erik Slavin receive termination notices after publication reported on crew conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln

The Pentagon has fired the publisher and the editor of Stars and Stripes, the US military news outlet that has clashed with the Trump administration and armed forces brass over its partly taxpayer-funded reporting.

Publisher Max Lederer and editor Erik Slavin received termination notices, CBS News reported on Friday. The cause cited was insubordination, and they have been given five days to appeal against their dismissals.

ICE charter carrying more than 160 Haitian nationals landed in Cap-Haïtien, after temporary protection status was revoked

The first deportation flight to Haiti since the US supreme court upheld Donald Trump’s power to strip 350,000 Haitians – and others – of a key type of legal status in the US landed in the troubled nation on Thursday.

The flight was carrying more that 160 Haitian nationals and landed in Cap-Haïtien, Haiti’s second-largest city, aboard an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) charter.

First responders also rescued flood-stranded people after storms unleashed heavy rains in the US north-east

Residents in Delaware’s capital and on Long Island, New York, were picking up the pieces on Friday after tornadoes touched down during sudden storms that battered the north-eastern US with heavy rains and left dozens of people stranded in their cars during flash flooding.

In Atlantic Beach on Long Island, the long peninsula that stretches out into the ocean to the east of New York City, images posted on social media showed a large funnel cloud over the water and small buildings torn apart at a beach club.

Appeals court slashes judgment to $1.5m in a significant legal victory for the rightwing Infowars founder

A Texas appeals court has slashed the $50m judgment to $1.5m against Alex Jones, founder of the rightwing platform Infowars, over falsely calling the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, a hoax.

The ruling does not affect a $1.4bn judgment against Jones in Connecticut, but is a significant legal victory for Jones after he and his company, Free Speech Systems, were found liable for damages for claiming the mass shooting didn’t happen.

Kyle Spitze of Tennessee faced federal charges for targeting girls online as part of ‘764 network’ investigated by FBI

A 27-year-old Tennessee man described by the US justice department as a “nihilistic violent extremist” was sentenced to 77 years in prison on Wednesday for his targeting of girls online as part of the 764 network, an online group the FBI calls a form of “modern-day terrorism”.

Kyle Spitze of Friendsville received the federal sentence on Wednesday for “production of child sexual abuse material, abetting the distribution of animal crushing videos, and possessing and accessing with the intent to view”, the justice department said in a statement.

Max Lederer, longtime head of the US military news outlet, says his ‘philosophy of leadership’ differs from Pentagon’s

The long-serving publisher of Stars and Stripes could face an early dismissal just days after the taxpayer-funded military news outlet’s reporting revealed deteriorating conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, according to a news report.

Pentagon officials have discussed firing Max Lederer ahead of his scheduled retirement next month, according to CBS News, which quoted anonymous sources. Lederer, the publisher of the military daily for 19 years, had previously cited fundamental differences with the Trump administration for his decision to retire soon.

Paula Musgrove stated her daughter had said medications were ‘destroying’ her mind and she was becoming ‘paranoid’

The defense in the Lindsay Clancy filicide case called the defendant’s mother as one of its first witnesses Monday, after three weeks of prosecution evidence laid out, in often harrowing detail, events surrounding Clancy’s killing of her three children.

Under questioning from defense attorney Kevin Reddington, Clancy’s mother, Paula Musgrove, testified that her daughter’s statements and actions had unsettled her in the months leading up to 24 January 2023.

USS Benfold lost power after ‘engineering casualty’ leaving sailors without galley services, toilets and air conditioning

A US guided-missile destroyer reportedly spent four days adrift and without power in the South China Sea in July, furthering concerns about strain being placed on deployed military members.

The USS Benfold, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer which had been sailing with the George Washington carrier strike group, was reported to have been towed to Subic Bay in the Philippines, according to the US Naval Institute News, an independent military publication.

Prosecutors pointed to internet searches made on the family computer in the months before the killings to make their case

Prosecutors revived a theory in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial case this week, suggesting she had faked a suicide attempt after allegedly strangling her three children.

While prosecutors have been arguing that Clancy acted intentionally and should be held criminally responsible, her defense has said she suffered from postpartum psychosis.

Storm expected to strengthen to hurricane as state of emergency declared amid danger of ‘life-threatening’ floods

Tropical Storm Lala is set to hit Hawaii’s Big Island with hurricane force in a matter of hours, bringing dangerous winds, heavy rainfall and high surf in a sign of what a strengthening “super” El Niño in the Pacific may bring.

The tropical storm is currently about 420 miles (675km) south-east of Hilo on the archipelago’s largest island, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) said in its latest advisory, packing winds of 60mph (97km/h). Lala is forecast to strengthen into a hurricane as it approaches the Big Island.

Biological parents given custody of child born in Texas amid dispute over surrogate mother’s claim of abortion request

A two-day-old baby with a rare heart defect at the center of a complex surrogacy dispute in Texas has been handed over to the parents’ custody and is receiving care, lawyers for the parents said on Friday.

The baby has hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a defect that requires surgeries to correct. The baby was born on Wednesday to surrogate mother McKenna West of Alaska after she reportedly refused requests to get an abortion from the biological parents, Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed of California – requests they deny making.

Suspect faces two felony charges after memorial filled with bubbles and spray-paint reading ‘Clean hands Dirty $’

A woman was arrested on Friday morning in connection with the vandalization of the National World War Two Memorial on the National Mall in Washington DC, the capital’s federal prosecutor announced.

Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, announced mid-morning that a suspect was in custody and had been charged with federal crimes.