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US justice department's website shows the disgraced former CEO petitioned Donald Trump over fraud convictionTheranos founder Elizabeth Holmes has asked Donald Trump to commute her sentence after she was convicted of defrauding investors in her now-defunct blood-testing startup that was once valued at $9bn, a notice on the US Department of Justice website showed.The justice department's office of the pardon attorney lists the status of her commutation request, which was made last year, as pending. Continue reading...

Immigration enforcement has sent a surge of federal agents to the fishing state, with about 50 arrests so farThe Trump administration has begun another targeted immigration crackdown, sending a surge of federal personnel to Maine, an ocean fishing state, in a plan dubbed by the government Operation Catch of the Day.Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is aiming the push at Somali immigrants living in the north-eastern state, according to reporting by the New York Times. Continue reading...

Scale and speed of president's moves have stunned observers of authoritarian regimes - is the US in democratic peril?Three hundred and sixty-five days after Donald Trump swore his oath of office and completed an extraordinary return to power, many historians, scholars and experts say his presidency has pushed American democracy to the brink - or beyond it.In the first year of Trump's second term, the democratically elected US president has moved with startling speed to consolidate authority: dismantling federal agencies, purging the civil service, firing independent watchdogs, sidelining Congress, challenging judicial rulings, deploying federal force in blue cities, stifling dissent, persecuting political enemies, targeting immigrants, scapegoating marginalized groups, ordering the capture of a foreign leader, leveraging the presidency for profit, trampling academic freedom and escalating attacks on the news media. Continue reading...

House committee opens prospect of using one of its most powerful punishments against an ex-president for first timeHouse Republicans advanced a resolution on Wednesday to hold former president Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress over the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, opening the prospect of the House using one of its most powerful punishments against a former president for the first time.The Republican-controlled House oversight committee approved the contempt of Congress charges, setting up a potential vote in the House. It was an initial step toward a criminal prosecution by the Department of Justice that, if successful, could send the Clintons to prison in a dispute over compelling them to testify before the House oversight committee. Continue reading...

After covering Trump's immigration policies from Chicago and LA, the Twin Cities operation feels like a marked escalationThe Minneapolis Star Tribune editorial board described the Trump administration's immigration enforcement operation in the Twin Cities as a military occupation". Local leaders have used words like siege" and invasion". After a week of reporting in Minneapolis and St Paul, I wouldn't know how else to describe the scene.I've been covering the administration's immigration policies since Donald Trump's inauguration on 20 January last year. I was in Chicago in January last year, when the administration assigned hundreds of federal agents to conduct enhanced targeted operations" in the city. I was in Los Angeles last summer, when agents began seizing workers at car washes and garment warehouses, grabbing bicyclists and raiding churches. Continue reading...

Donald Trump stepped up his demands about taking Greenland but said the US would not use military force during a long and rambling speech to thousands of business and political leaders at the World Economic Form in Switzerland.Guardian reporter Jakub Krupa explains what we learned from Trump's Davos address and what this means for European leadersTrump said he would be dropping his idea to add a 10% tariff on goods to eight European countries who opposed his ambition to take over Greenland. He said he had spoken to Nato's secretary general and 'formed the framework' for a future deal with on Greenland Continue reading...

In victory for Trump administration, appeals court has temporarily lifted injunction as JD Vance set to visit stateAn appeals court has temporarily lifted restrictions from a federal judge in Minnesota that blocked ICE agents from pepper-spraying and arresting peaceful protesters.In a victory for the Trump administration, the eighth US circuit court of appeals on Wednesday granted the justice department's request for an administrative stay of a preliminary injunction issued last Friday by Judge Katherine Menendez. Continue reading...

Governor's office says US pavilion bowed to pressure and pulled scheduled fireside chat' with Fortune magazineThe office of Gavin Newsom, the California governor, said his appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos was canceled under pressure from the Trump administration.Newsom had been scheduled to sit down with Fortune at an event sponsored by USA House, the country's official headquarters at the annual gathering of world and economic leaders. But before the talk was due to begin, his team says, the USA House bowed to political pressure from the Trump administration and denied the governor entry. Continue reading...

Brandon Wright alleges criticism of the homeland security secretary is protected by the first amendmentA former employee of the Department of Homeland Security who was fired after video circulated of him on a date criticizing the agency's head, Kristi Noem, sued the department on Monday, alleging the termination violated his first amendment rights.Brandon Wright, who worked at DHS for eight years in IT, said in a federal lawsuit that his time at the agency came to an abrupt end" because of the yellow journalism tactics" deployed by an unidentified woman he met on the dating app Bumble. Continue reading...

Scott Bessent's maladroit efforts to calm European anger and Americans' puzzlement over Greenland have fallen flat

President's anti-Somalia tirade and insults to European leaders were in line with aide Stephen Miller's worldviewDonald Trump turned up in Davos wielding an insult bazooka. He mocked Emmanuel Macron's aviator sunglasses, chided Mark Carney (Canada lives because of the United States"), asserted that the Swiss are only good because of us" and had a dig at Denmark for losing Greenland in six hours" during the second world war.But beyond the fractious rhetoric, the US president brought a deeper message on Wednesday that sought to unify the west rather than divide it. It was his most dark, insidious and sinister project of all. Continue reading...

The president's address in Switzerland featured a range of dubious assertions, from exaggerated to falseDonald Trump's address at the World Economic Forum in Davos featured a parade of dubious claims about everything from peace deals to windfarms. Several assertions ranged from exaggerated to provably false.Here's what Trump got wrong.

The prime minister has a duty to be candid with the British public about the scale of the global realignment caused by a volatile US presidentOne foreign policy achievement that Donald Trump prefers not to boast about is his role in helping Mark Carney win last year's Canadian general election. The incumbent Liberal party faced crushing defeat before Mr Trump threatened to annex Canada. Mr Carney's candidacy was buoyed up by a patriotic rally against US bullying.Perhaps because his country has also been coveted by Mr Trump, Mr Carney has given one of the most clear-sighted responses of any democratic leader to the US president's designs on Greenland. Addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, the Canadian prime minister set out the challenge for countries whose security and prosperity have depended on a global system underwritten by the US.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

In his second term, Trump's bluster has been accompanied by an emotional and aggressive approach to foreign policy

Expiration of expanded subsidies has left many with higher healthcare costs - and some with no coverage at allThe final day for most Americans to enroll in an Affordable Care Act (ACA) health insurance plan that begins in February passed earlier this month, closing a critical window at a moment of deep uncertainty for millions who rely on the law for coverage.The deadline arrives as federal subsidies that once kept premiums affordable have expired, sharply increasing costs while lawmakers remain deadlocked over whether, and how, to restore them. Continue reading...

The opportunity for this tournament's legacy is in the fan fests, camps and tune-ups accessible to more than the lucky fewIn Germany, fans watched the games on screens in crowded town squares, their roars careening off ancient buildings, or from the banks of rivers, peering at floating, double-sided big screens on barges. At the next World Cup, in South Africa in 2010, people gathered in parks and open-air markets and hotel lobbies and unlicensed, makeshift bars in people's garages. In Brazil, four years later, fans spilled from the bars on the Copacabana or watched in restaurants or in streets closed for the occasion - not as if anybody was driving during the Selecao's games anyway.During the 2018 World Cup, Russia surprised visitors - and its own citizens - with its friendliness as spontaneous parties broke out all over the country. The reason the 2022 World Cup in Qatar didn't entirely feel like a real World Cup is that those sorts of spontaneous soccer gatherings just didn't seem to be happening, or not at the same scale, at any rate. The absence of hordes of supporters just milling about everywhere contributed to the feeling of being at a Potemkin World Cup. Continue reading...

Magali Lafourcade says the two envoys were convinced the far-right leader's corruption trial had been political

Trump administration acknowledges that Elon Musk's cost-cutting operation accessed Americans' sensitive dataAfter months of denials, the Trump administration has acknowledged in a federal court filing that employees working for Elon Musk's supposed cost-cutting operation accessed and improperly shared Americans' sensitive social security data.The justice department court filing, submitted on Friday in an ongoing lawsuit, reveals that a member of the so-called department of government efficiency" (Doge) signed a secret data-sharing agreement with an unidentified political advocacy group whose stated aim was to find evidence of voter fraud and overturn election results in certain states. Continue reading...

A grand bargain on immigration could address problems with both the old approach and Trump's new approachImmigration is one of the most divisive issues facing the United States, as it is in many countries. An ICE agent's killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis is only the latest outrage that has brought the issue to the fore.Facing a 30 January deadline to renew funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which houses ICE, Democrats are now insisting on limits on ICE, at risk of another shutdown. It may be a pipe dream, but it is worth asking whether now might finally be a time to forge the long-elusive bipartisan agreement on immigration.Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch (1993-2022), is a visiting professor at Princeton's School of Public and International Affairs. His book, Righting Wrongs: Three Decades on the Front Lines Battling Abusive Governments, is published by Knopf and Allen Lane Continue reading...

In a rousing speech, Mark Carney made the case for unity in the face of Donald Trump's new world order. We reproduce it hereToday I will talk about a rupture in the world order, the end of a pleasant fiction and the beginning of a harsh reality, where geopolitics - where the large, main power, geopolitics - is submitted to no limits, no constraints.On the other hand, I would like to tell you that the other countries, especially intermediate powers like Canada, are not powerless. They have the capacity to build a new order that encompasses our values, such as respect for human rights, sustainable development, solidarity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the various states. Continue reading...

To tie ourselves to the worst excesses of the Trump regime would be an act of national sabotage

Emma Raducanu is out but US prodigy Iva Jovic will face Paolini in the third round, with Zverev and De Minaur also throughRaducanu out but head held high'Norrie is doing his thing again, upping it when he needs to for another mini-break and 6-2. I wonder if it's a cognitive thing, because it's not like he wasn't trying his best when struggling earlier in the set, so it's not an effort thing, but I guess focusing for hours at a time is hard if not impossible and there's a kind of locked-in version that intensifies as the match does ... and, as I type, he serves out to lead Nava 6-1 7-6(3) having saved two set points not that long ago.Obviously Zverev finds an ace to restore deuce - he may be resigned to his fate of never winning a slam, but his serve remains one of the best shots in the game, and from there, he ends a long hold. And back with the breaker, Norrie has a mini-break and a 3-2 lead. Continue reading...

US civil rights activist who as a schoolgirl protested against segregation on Alabama's busesAlthough she was a pivotal figure in the US civil rights movement, Claudette Colvin, who has died aged 86, never received the full recognition she deserved for her courageous and groundbreaking protest against segregation.On 2 March 1955 Colvin, aged 15, was riding a bus home from school in Montgomery, Alabama, with seats in the front reserved for white passengers, while those in the rear were designated for black people. She was in a neutral" zone from which, as the bus filled up, the driver could order black passengers to move to the back. When she refused to give up her seat to a white woman, the driver called the police, and Colvin was arrested. Soon afterwards she appeared before a juvenile court. Charges of violating segregation laws and disturbing the peace were eventually dropped on appeal, but her conviction for assaulting a police officer was upheld. Continue reading...

Mark Ruffalo, Brian Eno and Abigail Disney sign letter timed to coincide with World Economic Forum in Davos. Plus, what if this was the year we finally learned to rest? Don't already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up hereGood morning.Almost 400 millionaires and billionaires from 24 countries are calling on global leaders to increase taxes on the super-rich amid growing concern that the wealthiest in society are buying political influence.What did the letter say? A handful of global oligarchs with extreme wealth have bought up our democracies; taken over our governments; gagged the freedom of our media; placed a stranglehold on technology and innovation; deepened poverty and social exclusion; and accelerated the breakdown of our planet," it reads.What else is happening at Davos? Trump has top billing at the conference today and is scheduled to give a special address in the early afternoon (2.30pm local time, or 8.30am EST). He was expected to use this speech to outline his affordability agenda, but given his threats against Greenland his address is now expected to take a more international turn.This a developing story. Follow our live blog here. Continue reading...

From firing lawyers and government officials to pursuing indictments - president has created a culture of vengeanceDuring his first year in the White House, Donald Trump has pursued a campaign of retribution unlike any other president in US history.That Trump would pursue such a campaign is not surprising. Since he launched his first run for president in 2015, Trump has channeled the politics of grievance into political success. Returning to the White House after surviving two impeachments and four different criminal cases against him, Trump has used the might of the federal government to punish those he believes have wronged him. Continue reading...

We sat down with the basketball legend at the O2 to discuss his ties to Tottenham, Vancouver, Majorca and MacclesfieldBy No Helmets RequiredDoes your background, growing up outside basketball's mainstream on Vancouver Island with English parents, help you appreciate how people in places such as London or Berlin feel when a big NBA game comes to town? Yeah. That's true. I didn't watch much basketball on TV until I started playing at 13, so can relate to coming upon something new and exciting. At the same time, the world's so small now with social media access. But it is interesting to go to parts of the world where basketball is smaller and see how can we make the game accessible to them.Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker and John Amaechi were guests at the O2. But every team had a foreign player on opening night this season, with 135 players from 43 countries across the league; up from 7% in 1992 to 24% now. Are the current Europeans different to that generation or have they just had more opportunities? Europeans have always been quite good. It's not like Serbia wasn't always great at basketball but, as the game has grown, the possibilities grow. The world gets smaller with the internet and social media. There's not as much difference; everyone has access to all the pertinent information. The NBA is more accessible nowadays to people from Europe, Africa and every corner of the world. It's only natural that more Europeans have success in the NBA. Continue reading...

Developments in Minnesota closely mirror a scenario explored in a 2024 exercise conducted at the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law at the University of Pennsylvania, which I directSince January 6, roughly 2,000 ICE agents have been deployed to Minnesota under the pretext of responding to a fraud investigation. In practice, these largely untrained and undisciplined federal agents have been terrorizing Minneapolis residents through illegal and excessive uses of force - often against US citizens - prompting a federal judge to attempt to place limits on the agency's actions. The Trump administration is encouraging the lawlessness by announcing absolute immunity" for ICE agents. But if the secretary of homeland security, Kristi Noem, does not heed the court ruling, the consequences may be nothing short of civil war.In just the past week, ICE agents shot and killed Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, shortly after she returned from dropping her child off at school. They blinded two protesters by shooting them in the face with so-called less deadly" weapons. They fired teargas bombs around the car of a family carrying six children, sending one child to the emergency room with breathing problems. They violently dragged a woman out of her car and on to the ground screaming. They have shot protesters in the legs. They have forcibly taken thousands of individuals to detention facilities, separating families and casting people into legal limbo - often without regard to their legal status.Claire Finkelstein is the Algernon Biddle professor of law and professor of philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. She is also the founder and faculty director of the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law at Penn's Annenberg Public Policy Center Continue reading...

As lottery picks and MVP candidates pile up, North Texas is emerging as one of the NBA's most fertile talent pipelinesAnother season, another name, another kid from Dallas. At street level, the city appears to be like any other - yet it continues to produce league-shaping NBA players. The main highway through Dallas cleaves down the middle of Texas. Taking it south brings you closer to the center of the state's basketball talent pool. The road slopes downward as the city's cosmopolitan polish thins out, neighborhoods split cleanly from downtown by sun-baked concrete and beige. Pink, green, and blue houses sit behind chain link fences, where yards are scoured down to dirt. Auto mechanic shops line the frontage roads with open bays and hand-painted signs peeling in the sun. Farther south, the road dips again, and space opens up to the heart of the story.Welcome to Duncanville. Continue reading...

In letter to VA and DHS, Adam Schiff expressed alarm after Guardian reported on memo to gather informationAdam Schiff, a US senator, is expressing alarm in a letter to the Departments of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Homeland Security (DHS), following a report from the Guardian that revealed the VA was gathering data on its non-citizen" workforce.The VA told the Guardian some of the information gathered could be shared with other agencies for immigration enforcement purposes. Continue reading...

The world needs global leaders to clearly and firmly denounce the havoc Trump is wreaking on the US and international orderHundreds of global CEOs, finance titans, and more than 60 prime ministers and presidents are in Davos, Switzerland, for the annual confab of the world's powerful and wealthy: the World Economic Forum.This year's Davos meeting occurs at a time when Donald Trump is not just unleashing his brownshirts on Minneapolis and other American cities, but also dismantling the international order that's largely been in place since the end of the second world war - threatening Nato, withdrawing from international organizations including the UN climate treaty, violating the UN charter by invading Venezuela and abducting Nicolas Maduro, upending established trade rules, and demanding that the US annex Greenland.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist and his newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com. His new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, is out now Continue reading...

Coyote is thought to be the first ever to reach the notorious former prison island off the coast of San FranciscoA coyote recently stunned observers by swimming to Alcatraz, braving the treacherous waters surrounding the notorious former prison island off the coast of San Francisco in plain view of a tourist recording video.The coyote in question is thought to be the first ever to reach Alcatraz, now a tourist attraction, in that manner. While it's uncertain why the animal doggy-paddled there, the consensus is that the creature probably came from San Francisco - about 1.25 miles away - or other islands near Alcatraz where coyotes have been spotted. Continue reading...

It's time to stand up for ourselves. With targeted action and tariffs, we can help push back the bully in chief

European leaders who know their continent's history must now see that the US president is siding with the forces of tyrannyIn January 2018, when Donald Trump was in the second year of his first term as US president, Angela Merkel, in her 13th year as German chancellor, gave a gloomy speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos. She opened her remarks with a warning from Europe's past. Politicians had sleep-walked" into the first world war. As the number of surviving eyewitnesses to the second world war dwindled, she added, subsequent generations would have to prove they understood the fragility of peace. We need to ask ourselves if we have really learned from history or not."Fast forward eight years. Vladimir Putin's territorial aggression harries Europe's eastern flank. To the west, Trump, now in his second term and guest of honour at Davos, threatens to annex Greenland. This is not a world that has internalised the lessons of the 20th century. Continue reading...

President also declines to offer any reassurances about his commitment to the stability of Nato allianceDonald Trump ratcheted up the uncertainty over how far he would be willing to go to acquire Greenland as he warned the Nato alliance on Tuesday that it was only as strong as the United States allowed it to be.You'll find out," Trump said in a terse reply at a White House press briefing before moving to the next question. Continue reading...

US president boards another aircraft to continue trip to World Economic Forum in Davos, SwitzerlandThe US president's plane, Air Force One, has been forced to abort its flight to Switzerland and turn back after what officials described as a minor electrical issue".Donald Trump boarded another aircraft, an Air Force C-32, a modified Boeing 757 normally used for domestic trips to smaller airports, and continued his trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos shortly after midnight. Continue reading...

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Trump warned alliance it was only as strong as the US allowed it to be - key US politics stories from 20 January at a glanceJust how much is Donald Trump willing to risk in his quest to seize Greenland? Is he prepared to blow up the Nato alliance that formed when he was a toddler?You'll find out," the US president replied when a reporter posed that question to him during a lengthy, rambling press conference on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Minnesota governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey among officials who received subpoenasThe justice department subpoenaed several top officials in Minnesota on Tuesday as part of its investigation into whether Minneapolis officials have conspired to impede federal immigration efforts there.A copy of a subpoena to the office of the Minneapolis mayor, Jacob Frey, obtained by the Guardian, requests guidance and policies related to immigration enforcement in Minnesota since last year. It also requests communication regarding those policies with other state agencies, as well as documents related to hindering, doxxing, identifying, or surveilling immigration officers". Continue reading...

The very stable genius' zigzagged wildly in a packed press room - Nato's future lies in the hands of a modern CaligulaI was quite the baseball player, you wouldn't believe," said Donald Trump, suddenly wistful as he recalled his salad days when his mother would tell him, Son, you could be a professional baseball player," and he would reply, Thanks, mom." Carpe diem!Not for the first time on Tuesday, the US president had veered wildly off topic. The point of this story was a big building" that loomed over the park" in Queens, New York, where he used to play little league baseball. When he asked why it had bars on the windows, she told him it was a mental hospital. Continue reading...

Emmy award winner faces charges of inappropriately touching a minor while on set directing a TV seriesA judge has ordered that actor Timothy Busfield be released from jail during a detention hearing on child sex abuse charges .The order Tuesday by state district court judge David Murphy is linked to accusations that Busfield inappropriately touching a minor while working as a director on the set of the series The Cleaning Lady. Continue reading...

Mark Ruffalo, Brian Eno and Abigail Disney sign letter timed for WEF in Davos saying wealthy are buying political influenceNearly 400 millionaires and billionaires from 24 countries are calling on global leaders to increase taxes on the super-rich, amid growing concern that the wealthiest in society are buying political influence.An open letter, released to coincide with the World Economic Forum in Davos, calls on global leaders attending this week's conference to close the widening gap between the super-rich and everyone else. Continue reading...

Second lady becomes first US vice-presidential spouse to be pregnant while her husband serves in officeJD Vance and his wife, Usha Vance, announced on Tuesday that they are expecting their fourth child this summer.We're very excited to share the news that Usha is pregnant with our fourth child, a boy," the pair announced in a post shared on social media. Usha and the baby are doing well, and we are all looking forward to welcoming him in late July." Continue reading...

Seizing of vessel in Caribbean Sea is seventh apprehension in Trump's campaign to control Venezuela's oil flowsThe US military said it seized another oil tanker with links to Venezuela on Tuesday, in the Caribbean Sea.The report marks the seventh such apprehension since the start of Donald Trump's month-long campaign to control Venezuela's oil flows. Continue reading...

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Authorities believe that in 2022 Austin Thompson, then 15, went on killing rampage, beginning with his older brotherAn 18-year-old plans to plead guilty to a 2022 mass shooting in North Carolina that left five people dead - including his older brother - avoiding a trial in February, his attorneys have said.A written notice filed in Wake county court by the lawyers for Austin Thompson said their client intends to plead guilty to all charges against him. Continue reading...

Trump's demand for Greenland is a throwback to the 1884 Berlin conference: a transaction of land and people driven by a might makes right worldviewThe announcement on 17 January that Washington will impose punitive tariffs of 10% to 25% on eight European allies - unless they facilitate the complete and total purchase" of Greenland - is likely to be the death knell of the post-1945 transatlantic order. By linking the territorial sovereignty of a Nato ally to trade access, the US has transitioned from Europe's security guarantor to a 19th-century imperial rent-seeker.This is a moment of profound rupture. For decades, the western world believed that raw imperialism had been relegated to the past among advanced industrial powers. Even China, for all its assertiveness, largely couches its ambitions in the language of revanchism - the reclaiming" of lost territory. Washington's current demand for Greenland, by contrast, is a throwback to the age of the 1884 Berlin conference: a transaction of land and people driven by a might makes right worldview.Christopher S Chivvis is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and former US national intelligence officer for Europe Continue reading...

A Matter Neuroscience project lets callers in liberal San Francisco and conservative Abilene speak across party linesTwo experimental payphones - one placed in San Francisco and the other in Abilene, Texas - are connecting strangers across party lines, allowing callers to speak directly with Democrats and Republicans in two of the US's most ideologically opposed cities.The project is the work of Matter Neuroscience, a Boulder, Colorado-based biotech company and is fashioned out of old payphones bought off Facebook. One phone sits outside Black Serum Tattoo parlor in San Francisco's Mission District - and the other is in downtown Abilene by the bookstore Seven and One Books. Each phone is marked with a sign explaining that callers will be connected to someone from the opposite end of the political spectrum. Continue reading...