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RX Bar’s new apple pie protein bar earned mixed reviews: it’s “the least bad flavor from the brand.”

A box of RX Bar's Nut Butter & Oat bars in apple pie flavor

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Other notable releases include Snack Factory’s apple spice white creme pretzel crisps. (Fair warning: these are sweet – and best enjoyed in small amounts.)

A bag of Snack Factory's Apple Spice White Creme pretzel chips

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We loved Olipop’s caramel apple soda, which has a subtly sweet, authentically caramel apple taste you wouldn’t think possible in a prebiotic beverage. “It tastes almost like a caramel apple cider. I’m not usually a soda person, but this may have converted me to Olipop,” said one of our testers.

A can of Olipop's caramel apple soda with a green and caramel colored label featuring a bright green apple on a stick.

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Apple. Apple-flavored foods are all the rage this fall. McDonald’s released four caramel apple-flavored coffees. Dairy Queen announced a caramel apple cheesecake Blizzard. Olipop and Poppi have apple-flavored sodas.

A collection of apple flavored snacks tested by the Filter US.

Photograph: Tracy Allison/The Guardian

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Read all of the stories in our new series about ICE's less publicized, but more effective strategy: www.theguardian.com/us-news/seri...

An image that says "Investigation series - ICE 2.0: Inside Trump's new immigration dragnet"

"The Trump administration has adopted a less publicized strategy, fueling record ICE arrests that are stealthier but just as ruthless"

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On August 1, the federal government ends its contract providing more than 20,000 unaccompanied immigrant children with legal representation. At the same time, attorneys report that immigration judges are taking a “deport at all costs” approach to their young clients.

A migrant child seeking asylum waits to be processed by the US border patrol in Yuma, Arizona, on 3 May 2022.

Photograph: Nicolo Filippo Rosso/Bloomberg via Getty Images

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By summer, ICE significantly increases its collaboration with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to detain immigrants with expired visas – many of whom have pending applications for green cards, asylum, employment-based visas, etc – at airports.

Federal agents patrol the John F Kennedy international airport in New York on 23 March 2026.

Photograph: Olga Fedorova/EPA

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On June 25, the US supreme court rules in favor of the Trump administration’s bid to strip temporary protected status (TPS) from hundreds of thousands of Haitians and Syrians who were legally in the US and protected from deportation.

Immigrants' rights activists and demonstrators attend a rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court, as justices were scheduled to hear arguments on whether the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump can end the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) of Syrian and Haitian nationals, in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 29, 2026.

REUTERS/Nathan Howard/File Photo

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The DHS then “supercharged” efforts to deputize local and state officials to actively enforce immigration laws during regular police work. From January 2025 these deals grew from 142 to 2,315 nationwide, acting as a force multiplier for arrests while allowing federal agents to avoid the spotlight.

Oklahoma police shackle a man at the McIntosh county criminal justice center during an operation with ICE on 3 September 2026.

Photograph: Nick Oxford for the Washington Post via Getty Images

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On March 24, Markwayne Mullin, formerly a first-term senator from Oklahoma is confirmed by the US Senate as the new DHS secretary. At his confirmation hearing, he says about immigration-enforcement officials: “My goal in six months is that we’re not in the lead story every single day.”

Markwayne Mullin at a confirmation hearing for the position of secretary of homeland security in Washington DC on 18 March 2026.

Photograph: Will Oliver/EPA

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Just over a month later on March 5, Kristi Noem becomes the first cabinet secretary fired during the second Trump administration when she loses her leading role at the DHS.

The then secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, at a press conference in New York on 8 January 2026.

Photograph: Olga Fedorova/EPA

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Two days after Pretti was killed by CBP officers and 19 days after Good had been shot dead by an ICE agent, Trump announces that his “border czar”, Tom Homan, will deploy to Minnesota, while Gregory Bovino, the border patrol’s confrontational commander-at-large, suddenly stands aside.

Greg Bovino and other federal agents in Minneapolis on 13 January 2026, a week after the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent.

Photograph: Seth Herald/Reuters

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When federal agents fatally shot the US citizen protesters Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis in January during the nation’s largest immigration-enforcement operation ever, it marked a turning point for the second Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign. 🧵

Children look at posters honoring Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good, who were fatally shot by federal immigration agents in separate incidents on January 24 and January 7, respectively, near the site of Pretti’s death, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., January 31, 2026.

REUTERS/Tim Evans

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Even as three separate “heat dome” events scorched the US in July, likely worsened by global heating caused by the burning of fossil fuels, many people were rationing their use of air conditioning and other appliances or lost use of them entirely by being cut off for non-payment.

A chart showing the 10 top utility companies driving the surge in July shut-offs, with the percentage net increases of shutoffs between July 2024 and July 2026.

Con Edison (New York): +1,305%
Peco (Pennsylvania): +112%
Georgia Power: +45%
Duke Energy Carolinas (North Carolina): +51%
Rochester Gas & Electric (New York): +691%
Southern California Gas: +3,595%
New York State Electric & Gas: +93%
Duke Energy Progress (North Carolina): +34%
Nicor Gas (Illinois): +33%
Kedny (New York): +147%

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A record hot summer collided unhappily with rising energy costs for households across the US that struggled to the point where many were disconnected from their electricity supply, even as dangerous heat baked their communities.

A bar chart that shows utility shutoffs going up more than 28% in 2 years across 10 states, rising to above 150,000 in July 2026.

Data comes from California, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Iowa, New York, Virginia and the District of Columbia.

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When the documentary NAZA premiered this month, it sent shockwaves across the globe. Composed of interviews with 24 anonymous Israeli intelligence officers and soldiers, NAZA is a haunting exposé of the tools that the Israeli military uses to carry out the remote killing of Palestinians in Gaza.

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Juan Jairo Coronilla Durán, a 28-year-old Mexican tourist, was visiting friends and family in the US. When immigration officials approached him at a Florida gas station on July 14 at 7am, he took off running. He ran into a busy highway, fell in front of a tractor-trailer and was killed.

Edgar Olalde, of Jacksonville, who knew the victim from his store, lays a bouquet of flowers during a vigil for a Mexican man who was struck and killed by a tractor trailer while running from an encounter with Immigration and Customs Enforcements officers.

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On an ICE transport bus in Georgia, staff saw that Jesús Manuel Arenas-Silva was unconscious. At 8:31am, the 45-year-old with preexisting health conditions was pronounced dead. When he was arrested three days prior, ICE officials only allowed him to take one of his medications with him.

People in orange jumpsuits behind concertina wire inside the Folkston ICE Processing Center and D. Ray James Correctional Facility in Folkston, Georgia.

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The morning of July 13, Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, 25, left his home in Maine by car. ICE officers were reportedly looking for another person, spotted the Colombian man, and gave chase. Neighbors heard the “pops” of gunfire in the quiet neighborhood. An officer had fatally shot Durán Guerrero.

A poster of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, the man killed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is displayed among flowers and tributes at a makeshift memorial in Biddeford, Maine.

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Public backlash against ICE climaxed after the January 2026 fatal shootings of two US citizens in Minneapolis. Since then, stealthier arrest operations have fueled enforcement that is quieter but just as ruthless. The 24 hours between the mornings of July 13-14 stand out as exceptionally deadly. 🧵

Blood is seen on the pavement near the scene of a shooting involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Monday, July 13, 2026 in Biddeford, Maine.

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But an increasing proportion of arrests have been made by local law enforcement in partnership with ICE, via 287(g) agreements. In many regions, it can be difficult to know when local officers are conducting routine policework or immigration enforcement. In many cases, they are doing both.

A chart showing immigration arrests by local police, which have increased steadily since ICE's new enforcement strategy began in April 2026, reaching its highest amount above 200 arrests per day in late June 2026.

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The biggest category of arrests this summer were people on probation, picked up by immigration officers at their work, or who were arrested in communities across the country.

A chart showing immigration arrests by immigration enforcement in communities, where arrests peaked in late June 2026 at over 1,000 per day.

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As has long been the case, ICE works with jails and prisons to take custody of immigrants after they have been booked in. Since Trump took office last year, only 46% of detainees have been previously convicted of crimes.

A chart showing immigration arrests by transfer from jail or prison, with daily arrests peaking over 600 in July 2026.

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And it's clear that ICE is using both familiar and novel tactics to maximize arrests, from jail transfers to so-called 287(g) agreements that deputize local police forces to carry out immigration enforcement on ICE’s behalf.

A chart that breaks down the trend of immigration arrests into four categories:

- Immigration enforcement in communities
- Transfer from jail or prison
- Local police
- Other

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ICE is now lying in wait outside convenience stores, or at busy intersections. Agents are arresting people at international airports. Local police and sheriffs, deputized by the federal government, are detaining immigrants during traffic stops. ICE is now detaining more immigrants than ever before.

A chart that shows a timeline of ICE immigration enforcement against different significant events (Los Angeles raids, Minneapolis and Chicago raids), with a line in late March 2026 that says "New enforcement strategy begins" before a peak of over 1,500 daily arrests in July 2026.

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Gone are the mass raids and militarized metro operations. Gone are the pomp and pageantry. But ICE arrests have hit record levels. ICE operations are no longer concentrated in large American cities. Immigration enforcement officials are also working in suburban and rural areas, all across the US.

A map of the United States that shows immigration arrests per 100,000 people since ICE's new enforcement strategy began under DHS secretary Markwayne Mullin.

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Then, officers killed two US citizens during an ICE “blitz” on Minneapolis. After a public backlash, the Trump administration said it would try a new approach.

Signage of Renee Good and Alex Pretti are seen near the site of Pretti’s death in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Feb. 4, 2026.

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Guardian US @us.theguardian.com · 27/09/2026

At the height of the ICE raids earlier this year, agents in armored military vehicles rolled through residential neighborhoods. Masked agents patrolled public parks and stationed themselves outside elementary schools; squadrons of ICE agents snatched pedestrians off the streets. 🧵

Federal agents line up in front of community members at the scene where federal agents fatally shot a man while trying to detain him, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., January 24, 2026.

REUTERS/Tim Evans

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"Republicans overall are expected to outspend Democrats," said our senior politics reporter Chris Stein. "But that doesn't necessarily mean they'll preserve their majorities." Our reporters answered your questions about the big money being spent on the midterms: www.theguardian.com/communi...

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Guardian US @us.theguardian.com · 26/09/2026

"Super Pacs run advertisements in the media," said senior politics reporter Chris Stein. "Does this make a difference? It depends on the race." Our reporters answered your questions about the big money being spent on the midterms: www.theguardian.com/communi...

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This week has told us a lot about how Trump sees himself, versus how he’s viewed internationally, says our political reporter Shrai Popat. But instead of the strong, undefeatable leader he attempted to present himself as, US allies see a leader displaying various authoritarian tactics.

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NCES for decades has collected critical data on the state of education in America, including an assessment of what students know across math, reading, writing, science and history. Now, most of the agency’s ongoing data collections and reports appear to be inactive or reduced in scope.

A bar chart labeled that NCES data are cited in at least 34,000 studies. Five NCES research programs account for more than 40% of citations, including:

- National assessment of educational progress (NAEP): 3,313 citations
- Schools and staffing survey (SASS): 3,230 citations
- Early childhood longitudinal study (ECLS): 2,827 citations
- Common core of data (CCD): 2,728 citations
- National postsecondary student aid study (NPSAS): 2,456 citations

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When the Trump administration took a wrecking ball to the Department of Education last year, a little-known agency called the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) was among the hardest hit, losing more than 95% of its workforce. 🧵

A bar chart showing a dramatic reduction in employees at the NCES, dropping from 100 in 2024 to 4 in 2025, and then rising slightly to 12 in 2026.

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We're live! Who are the groups backing candidates in the midterms – and why? In our second live discussion ahead of the elections, Joseph Gedeon, Dara Kerr and Chris Stein answer your questions about who is supporting the November races 👉 www.theguardian.com/communi...

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Yesterday, Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at the UN general assembly. It was his first time in New York City since Zohran Mamdani, the mayor, vowed to arrest him for war crimes. Before his speech, dozens of attendees walked out in protest – while Netanyahu labeled them "moral cowards."

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