Replacing the TV licence with a means-tested alternative may help disarm the right of one of its most effective weapons, says Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee

The amended package will still have to be passed by the House and sent to Trump for his signature, a process that could take days The Senate on Sunday made significant progress towards ending the longest US government shutdown in history, narrowly advancing a compromise bill to reauthorize funding and undo the layoffs of some employees. But the measure, which resulted from days of talks between a handful of Democratic and Republican senators, leaves out the healthcare subsidies that Democrats had demanded for weeks. That appears set to cause turmoil for the legislation in the House of Representatives, where the top Democrat and several of his lawmakers have announced their opposition. Continue reading...

Former US vice-presdient Dick Cheney has died, according to a family statement

Georgia Republican lawmaker also claims she didn’t know Rothschild family, of her ‘space laser’ theory, was Jewish Republican US House member Marjorie Taylor Greene has said she believes in demons, surmising that they might be aliens who fell from heaven, and claims to have been unaware that key figures in the antisemitic space lasers conspiracy she floated were Jewish. She made those bizarre remarks as a guest on Friday on HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher after winning some fans among Democrats who once loathed her – yet had come to appreciate how the far-right Georgia representative had recently broken with Republicans on various issues. Those include healthcare, Gaza, the federal government shutdown that began on 1 October and the handling of documents pertaining to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who was friends with Donald Trump before the latter man won two presidencies. Continue reading...

King’s brother will surrender lease and become known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, Buckingham Palace says Prince Andrew is to leave his home at Royal Lodge in Windsor after he was served with a formal notice to surrender the lease, Buckingham Palace has said. King Charles has initiated a “formal process to remove the Style, Titles and Honours of Prince Andrew”, who will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, the palace said. Continue reading...