The Supreme Court term opens on Monday with big test cases on religion, guns and climate change. Plus, the emergency docket keeps popping.
The Supreme Court faces another term jam-packed with controversy

Original reporting
NPR Politics: read the full reportFollow this story
Earlier reports and follow-ups on the same developing story.
Related stories

Higher training costs for older workers risks plan to tackle youth jobs crisis, employers say
Exclusive: Ministers planning overhaul of apprenticeship funding to increase cost of over-25s training, Guardian understands Britain’s largest employers have told the government that forcing businesses to pay more to train older workers risks damaging its goal to tackle the youth jobs crisis. The Guardian understands ministers plan to overhaul Labour’s apprenticeship funding scheme to increase the cost of training a worker over the age of 25 in England by 25%, to encourage firms to train young people instead. Continue reading...

We’ve made Oxford Street traffic-free – and that’s just the start. Soon there’ll be green spaces for arts and music too | Sadiq Khan
We’ll revive the in-person shopping experience with a transformation of the area, inspired by the John Lewis and Selfridges founders who first set up there Sadiq Khan is the mayor of London At around 8pm on Sunday evening the last car made its way down Oxford Street, marking the start of a momentous new era for our nation’s high street. Today, after decades of discussions and deliberations, the action we’ve taken means almost one kilometre of Oxford Street is now officially traffic-free – just in time for Christmas. But this is only the start of a much bigger transformation, and the first step towards a bright new future for this historic thoroughfare. Walk down Oxford Street, and you’re passing through hundreds of years of British history and culture. In 1864, an ambitious young draper called John Lewis opened his first shop on the street. Forty-five years later, the American entreprene

From Trump’s staff to buttering a jacket potato: Edith Pritchett’s week in Venn diagrams – cartoon
Continue reading...

Britain's Be Ready campaign aims to encourage (frighten?) citizens into preparing for disaster | First Dog on the Moon
You’ll need food, water, plastic bags, spare stiff upper lips and a shovel Sign up here to get an email whenever First Dog cartoons are published Get all your needs met at the First Dog shop if what you need is First Dog merchandise and prints Continue reading...

How Abu Dhabi bought Andy Burnham’s Manchester - podcast
After the prime minister recently intervened to defend Manchester City’s beleaguered ownership, many began to ask: just how deep are the ties between Andy Burnham and the UAE? With North of England editor Josh Halliday . Send your comments and questions to tif.questions@theguardian.com Why did Andy Burnham recently intervene to defend Manchester City’s beleaguered Abu Dhabi owners, days after they were found guilty of one of the biggest cheating scandals in British sporting history? Today in Focus presenter and city resident Helen Pidd walks through modern Manchester – where Burnham was mayor for nearly a decade – and charts its transformation wrought by Emirati money. Continue reading...

Funding set to double for plan to get rough sleepers off streets by Christmas
Burnham made ending rough sleeping his first pledge when entering Downing Street in July.