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Trump's admission that he recognises no constraint outside his own morality was a horrifying moment of truth. It should galvanise all those who oppose himFor a serial liar, Donald Trump can be bracingly honest. We've known about the mendacity for years - consider the 30,573 documented falsehoods from the president's first term, culminating in the big lie, his claim to have won the 2020 election - but the examples of bracing candour are fresher. This week both began and ended with the US president speaking the shocking truth.At a press conference to celebrate his capture of the Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, Trump announced that from now on the US would run" that country, before moving in the very next breath to Venezuela's oil. There was no pious talk of democracy, scant mention even of the drug trafficking that earlier served as a pretext for military action. Instead, Trump said out loud what had once been a slogan on leftist placards in protest at past US interventions, admitting that it really was all about the oil. It was as transparent a revelation of Trump's true motive as you could have asked for.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnistGuardian newsroom: Year One of Trumpism: Is Britain Emulating the US? On Wednesday 21 January 2026, join Jonathan Freedland, Tania Branigan and Nick Lowles as they reflect on the first year of Donald Trump's second presidency. Book tickets here or at guardian.live Continue reading...

A video posted online by the US homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, shows what she says is the US Coast Guard boarding and seizing the tanker Olina in international waters east of the Caribbean Sea on 9 January. On Friday the US said it had seized another tanker that tried to break a naval blockade aimed at preventing oil from departing Venezuela, the fifth ship apprehended in recent weeks

On Wednesday, Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was killed by a federal immigration agent in Minneapolis during a large-scale immigration enforcement operation. Eyewitness footage from various angles shows how the incident unfolded

US faces big challenges in trying to unlock tremendous wealth' from Venezuela's long-neglected oil industryDonald Trump has laid claim to billions of dollars' worth of Venezuelan crude this week, which at a stroke has handed the world's biggest consumer of oil up to 50m barrels - but his ambitions are far greater.The White House said Venezuela would be turning over" the nearly $3bn (2.3bn) of crude stranded in tankers and storage facilities before it is sold on the international market and after that the US plans to control all the country's oil sales indefinitely". Continue reading...

Data compiled by news non-profit the Trace shows 29 incidents as of 9 January, including 16 shootingsFederal immigration agents have been involved in a sharp rise in shootings in recent months, coinciding with the Trump administration's expanded immigration enforcement efforts.Under Trump's crackdown, immigration officers have been connected to 16 shootings, according to data compiled by the Trace, a non-profit newsroom focused on gun violence in the US. Continue reading...

Americans took to the streets across the country after a Minneapolis resident, Renee Nicole Good, 37, was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent during a confrontation on Wednesday Continue reading...

The Guardian reviewed figures from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection since Trump's inaugurationDonald Trump campaigned on a platform of mass deportation. Since he took office, his administration has reshaped immigration enforcement across the country. The Guardian, using data published every two weeks by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is tracking the number of people the administration has arrested, detained and deported. Continue reading...

Trump's attacks on mainstream media have opened a window for journalists who want to operate independentlyWhen Donald Trump retook office last January, many national newsrooms braced for what lay ahead. There was the expected firehose of news, with the president issuing dozens of executive orders in his first week alone. Then there was the fear and tension over the president's history of attacking and suing news organizations over unfavorable coverage. Meanwhile, audience trust in media was at an all-time low.While it was a turbulent time for traditional media, it opened a window for independent journalists like Marisa Kabas, who is not beholden to covering Trump's every move, nor saddled with decades of institutional distrust. On 27 January, she received a massive scoop she published in her newsletter, the Handbasket: the US office of management and budget was freezing federal grants. Getting to that news first only led to more exclusives and subscribers. Continue reading...

Analysis estimates Trump administration wasted' billions to compensate over 154,000 federal employees on leaveThe Trump administration wasted" $10bn on paid leave, or paying workers to stay home, as part of the department of government efficiency's" assault on the federal workforce, a new analysis by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (Peer) estimates.In a letter sent to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Peer estimates that more than 154,000 employees were put on paid leave in 2025, making up nearly 7% of the federal civilian workforce. That costs taxpayers approximately $10bn in compensation for workers who were staying home and not working. Continue reading...

Police say pair are in hospital but condition not known, as mayor urges ICE to pause operationsUS border patrol agents shot two people outside a hospital in Portland, Oregon, a day after an ICE officer shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis.The Portland police bureau (PPB) said in a statement on Thursday afternoon that two people were in hospital after a shooting involving federal agents, adding that the conditions of those shot were not known. Continue reading...

Nearly 16,000 nurses set to join union-led strike Monday to demand large hospitals across NYC put patients over profit'Nearly 16,000 nurses in New York City are set to strike on Monday amid a battle over pay during contract negotiations.The action, due to take place across five large hospitals, is being organized by the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), which is demanding the hospitals put patients over profit. Continue reading...

As Americans worry about healthcare and affordability, the no more wars' president is helping oil companies insteadImmediately after Donald Trump ordered a military strike in Venezuela, many critics focused on how that attack violated international law as well as the US War Powers Resolution. But there hasn't been nearly enough focus on the domestic implications of Trump's move.Trump seems to have ordered his Venezuela venture in part to flip the script away from domestic matters, where things aren't going well for him. His approval ratings are under water, and he's getting low marks on the economy, health policy (just 30% approval), inflation (31% approval on the cost of living), his immigration crackdown (41% approval) and his sending the national guard into US cities. Then there's the big thumbs down that Americans are giving to his tariffs, which have helped push up prices even though candidate Trump promised to lower prices on day one.Steven Greenhouse is a journalist and author, focusing on labour and the workplace, as well as economic and legal issues Continue reading...

We have our own medics,' bystanders were told after ICE agent fatally shot Renee Nicole Good in MinneapolisWitnesses to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent fatally shooting Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on Wednesday say federal officers impeded the response of emergency medical personnel to the scene, blocking the road with their vehicles.Emily Heller, a witness who lives near the intersection of 34th Street and Portland Avenue, recorded the scene as it unfolded. She told NBC News that agents blocked people from approaching Good's vehicle. Her video shows a man who identified himself as a physician asking to check for a pulse and being rebuffed. Continue reading...

Barely a mile from Floyd's murder, an officer killed Renee Nicole Good. We must peacefully say no to this violenceOn 25 May 2020, America witnessed a stunning act of police brutality when a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, murdered George Floyd. The killer, Derek Chauvin, apparently confident that he would be immune to accountability, did his deed in the open, with other officers standing by and in front of a crowd of onlookers.The video of Floyd's murder shocked the nation.Austin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell professor of jurisprudence and political science at Amherst College, is the author or editor of more than 100 books, including Gruesome Spectacles: Botched Executions and America's Death Penalty Continue reading...

Victim-blaming began almost as soon as Renee Nicole Good was killed - we examine the claims and the realityThe killing of a US citizen by a federal immigration agent in Minneapolis was a five-alarm fire for the Trump administration. But a torrent of untruths, half-truths, smears, and innuendo has been unleashed by the White House, and amplified by its social media and cable television acolytes, in an attempt to douse the flames.Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic House minority leader, called homeland security secretary Kristi Noem a stone cold liar" on Thursday for her efforts to falsely portray the victim Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother of three and award-winning poet, as a domestic terrorist". Continue reading...

The postseason kicks off on Saturday. Our writers pick the dark horses, players to watch and make their tips for the NFL's championship gameMelissa is right about the Lions (see below), but how about the Dallas Cowboys? Their defense was nauseating, and nobody wants a playoff weekend spoiled watching that. But their offense was electric. They finished fifth in the league in EPA/play in the regular season. And with Dak Prescott, a solid o-line and George Pickens and CeeDee Lamb, they had the potential to drop 30 points on any playoff group. If they'd snuck in and managed to knock off a top seed, it would have convinced Jerry Jones that he was on the right path. And nothing is funnier than Jones failing to recognize that the reason why Dallas is stuck is the reflection in his mirror. Oliver Connolly Continue reading...

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Trump sounds off on Venezuela's future, Taiwan's security and his aims for Greenland, days after operation to seize Nicolas MaduroJust days after launching an unprecedented operation in Venezuela to seize its president and effectively take control of its oil industry, Donald Trump sat down with New York Times journalists for a wide-ranging interview that took in everything from international law, Taiwan, Greenland and weight-loss drugs.The president, riding high on the success of an operation that has upended the rules of global power, spoke candidly and casually about the new world order he appears eager to usher in; an order governed not by international norms or long-lasting alliances, but national strength and military power. Continue reading...

President gives interview to New York Times as tensions mount at home and abroad over his federal and military actions - key US politics stories from 8 January 2026Does the president of the United States need to follow international law?According to Donald Trump, that depends on what your definition of international law is". Continue reading...

Lawmakers issue warning about homeland security budget after shooting death by federal agent of Renee Nicole GoodA day after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a 37-year-old US citizen in Minneapolis, Democrats on Capitol Hill are demanding restraints on the agency Donald Trump has empowered to carry out his mass deportation campaign - and some are threatening to use the next funding deadline to force those changes.Democrats sharply condemned the Trump administration over the killing of Renee Nicole Good, demanding accountability after the president; JD Vancethe vice-president; and the secretary of homeland security, Kristi Noem repeatedly claimed that the officer acted in self-defense". Continue reading...

Austin Peay State University will also pay theater and dance professor Darren Michael $500,000 in settlementAustin Peay State University has reinstated a professor who was fired for his social media post after the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The Tennessee school is also paying the teacher $500,000 in the settlement.Austin Peay spokesperson Brian Dunn said Darren Michael returned to his position as a tenured faculty member at the public university in Clarksville effective 30 December. A copy of the settlement agreement obtained through a public records request includes a $500,000 payment and reimbursement of counseling, as reported earlier this week by WKRN-TV. Continue reading...

Democrat Ro Khanna and Republican Thomas Massie seek to compel justice department to release full set of filesTwo US House of Representatives members have asked a federal judge to appoint a special master to compel the justice department to release all files related to Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender.On Thursday, Democratic representative Ro Khanna of California and Republican representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky asked US district judge Paul Engelmayer to release the full Epstein files, as required by the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Continue reading...

Seventeen Republicans join Democrats to pass a three-year extension of tax credits cutting ACA premiumsThe US House of Representatives on Thursday passed legislation to re-establish tax credits that lowered premiums for Affordable Care Act (ACA) health plans, after a small group of Republicans broke ranks and joined with Democrats to defy Donald Trump on a key healthcare issue that could sway voters ahead of the November midterm elections.The chamber voted 230-196 to approve a bill that would extend for three years the credits, which were first created under Joe Biden but expired at the end of last year despite a concerted effort by the Democratic minority to continue them. Continue reading...

Court records point to Jonathan E Ross as officer in Renee Nicole Good's death, amid protests and political fallout

GM says end of tax incentives and less stringent emissions regulations slowed consumer demand for EVs in 2025General Motors said on Thursday it will record a one-time earnings hit of $7.1bn in its quarterly financial results, mostly due to its pullback from electric vehicles in light of shifting US policies.The Detroit auto giant's fourth-quarter results will be dented by $6bn in charges connected to reversals on EV investments, according to a securities filing. The remaining $1.1bn includes costs from the company's restructuring of its China operations. Continue reading...

The vice-president went ballistic against the media and the left - a version of Trump with even more menaceIt was James David Vance's pitch to his boss: don't forget me!The vice-president was nowhere to be seen last weekend when US special forces swept into Venezuela and snatched its leader, Nicolas Maduro. Instead Marco Rubio, the secretary of state and a potential rival to Vance in the 2028 presidential election, grabbed all the Maga glory. Continue reading...

Minneapolis remains on edge, with several protests planned after shooting of Renee Nicole Good

DHS secretary's claims have been widely disputed with video of shooting showing vehicle turning away from agent

Donald Trump's Venezuela policy confirms he has no time for rules or process. America's allies must find new ways to guarantee their own interestsOccasionally, history generates smooth changes from one era to another. More commonly, such shifts occur only gradually and untidily. And sometimes, as the former Downing Street foreign policy adviser John Bew puts it in the New Statesman, history unfolds in a series of flashes and bangs". In Caracas last weekend, Donald Trump's forces did this in spectacular style. In the process, the US brushed aside more of what remains of the so-called rules-based order with which it tried to shape the west after 1945.The capture of Venezuela's former president Nicolas Maduro has precedents in US policy. But discerning a wider new pattern from the kidnapping is not easy, especially at this early stage. As our columnist Aditya Chakrabortty has argued this week, the abduction can be seen as a assertion of American power, but also as little more than a chaotic asset grab.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...

US president says Delcy Rodriguez's interim administration is doing everything that we feel is necessary'The US is receiving full cooperation from Venezuela's regime and will control the country and its vast oil reserves for years, Donald Trump has claimed.Caracas was giving Washington everything that we feel is necessary" and the US would remain a political overlord there for an indefinite period, the US president said. Continue reading...

Lloyd's List analysis suggests 40 suspicious vessels joined Russian registry last year, with 17 reflagged last monthForty ships accused of belonging to a large shadow fleet" moving sanctioned oil for Venezuela and others were reflagged to Russia last year in an apparent attempt to gain Kremlin protection from American seizure.Analysis by the shipping intelligence publication Lloyd's List suggests that of those, at least 17 suspicious vessels joined the Russian registry over the past month, compared with 15 ships in the previous five months of 2025. Continue reading...

Emmanuel Macron's comments come as Germany's president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, warns against turning world into robber's den'

Police close murder case of Alys Eberhardt after confession from Richard Cottingham, known as the Torso Killer'Richard Cottingham, a US serial killer widely known as the Torso Killer", has confessed to the 1965 killing of an 18-year-old woman in New Jersey.On Tuesday, New Jersey police announced the closure of the murder case of Alys Eberhardt after Cottingham, 79, admitted to killing her nearly six decades ago. Eberhardt, then a nursing student, was found brutally beaten and dead in her family home in Fair Lawn. Continue reading...

An almost admiring feeling pervaded the early coverage - and not just among right-leaning outletsIf you believe the early public opinion polls, Americans are uncertain about last weekend's raid on Venezuela and the seizure of leader Nicolas Maduro.But many in the media seem to be trying to move that wavering needle to approval.Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture Continue reading...

Jessica Plichta faces misdemeanor charges, which locals say is a tactic of Grand Rapids, Michigan, police to suppress protestsJessica Plichta was arrested on 3 January after a live interview with a local news station about a Grand Rapids, Michigan, protest against the Trump administration's seizure of Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela's president, in an attack with a reported death toll of 100. The clip went immediately viral, racking up millions of views across social media. While the headlines focused on Plichta's age (22) and that she's a preschool teacher, Plichta believes the reason for her arrest - seemingly the only one among roughly 200 protesters - went beyond the day's events.Plichta, who recently co-founded local group Grand Rapids Opponents of War, which helped organize Saturday's protest, had visited the Venezuelan capital of Caracas just last month, amid the Trump administration's blockade. She was a part of a delegation to the International People's Assembly for Sovereignty and Peace of Our Americas. Activists from dozens of groups planned to attend. But after Trump ordered that Venezuelan airspace be closed in its entirety" on 29 November, many canceled their trips. Continue reading...

Democrat sets stage for what many view as audition for future White House runJosh Shapiro, the Pennsylvania governor once considered a frontrunner to be Kamala Harris's running mate, announced he will seek a second term in office, setting the stage for what many Democrats view as an audition for a future White House run.The 52-year-old Democrat, who has governed the crucial swing state since January 2023, made the announcement Thursday with planned events in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Continue reading...

In New York, it's progressives versus the party machine - and the city's queen of tabloids offers some unexpected insightIf, like me, you're a faithful reader of the New York Post, the election of Zohran Mamdani as the new mayor of Gotham was the best thing to happen to my native city - and to journalism - in a very long time. All through the run up to Zoh's" remarkable victory, the queen of tabloids outdid itself in hysterical brilliance - to such an extent that I and apparently tens of thousands of other New Yorkers were left excitedly panting for more, unable to share in the mourning that overtook rightwing commentators and pro-Trump operatives all across the land. Moreover, whether or not you voted for the Ugandan-born Muslim progressive/socialist, his improbable triumph furnished a great political education for anyone who bothered to pay attention, even if you weren't a Post reader. Now, with Mamdani inaugurated and the unofficial municipal host of Nicolas Maduro, the deposed Venezuelan president, and his wife - jailed in Brooklyn and arraigned in federal court just a stone's throw from city hall in Manhattan - Donald Trump's newspaper mouthpiece is also an excellent way to make sense of the growing fissure inside the Democratic party about everything Mamdani represents.I didn't say that the Post's political reporting during the final month of the campaign was worth reading because it was accurate. Beginning with Miranda Devine's 8 October column, whose headline proclaimed The Dems are letting Antifa take over their cities", the paper's leading lights made analytical hash of what was really going on inside the Democratic party. Portland and Chicago are emerging as the epicenter of anti-Trump resistance," she warned. [Governor JB Pritzker] and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson are endangering the lives of ICE and Border Patrol personnel," apparently taking their cue from the antifa militants" of the first Trump term who terrorized" the country during the riots that followed the killing of George Floyd. It will be a relief," wrote Devine, to find out who has been funding these violent groups that appear for all the world to be Dem street militia. How else to explain years of Democrats gaslighting us and Democrat governors and mayors covering for Antifa." Continue reading...

In 1934 and 1978, Fifa's big event was given over to authoritarian aims. There's no more doubt that 2026 will be the sameBy 1934, it was entirely evident what Benito Mussolini was up to. Italy's dictator had already consolidated power, colonized Libya and annexed the city of Rijeka. He nevertheless got to stage the second-ever World Cup, managing it with a heavy hand and even supplanting the Jules Rimet trophy with a far larger one. Hosting and winning that World Cup didn't sate his expansionist appetites. By the end of decade, Mussolini would take Ethiopia, annex Albania and back Francisco Franco in the Spanish civil war.It was equally well established in 1978 in Argentina that General Jorge Rafael Videla's military junta, which had taken over two years earlier, was maintaining its grip on power through systematic detention, torture and murder. Still, protestations from other nations were ignored and the World Cup kicked off.Leander Schaerlaeckens' book on the United States men's national soccer team, The Long Game, is out on May 12. You can preorder it here. He teaches at Marist University. Continue reading...

An agent shot a woman in Minneapolis, causing vast and needless grief. Our country is diseased - but that is not the only truthA woman in Minneapolis has died as her neighbors fought Donald Trump's mass deportation operation. On Wednesday morning, a group of local civilian protesters gathered around a site where several ICE agents were attempting to abduct migrants. The agents were part of a surge of roughly 2,000 deportation officers who have been sent to Minneapolis as part of Trump's effort to persecute the Somali community there. In a disturbing incident caught on video by multiple onlookers, a woman driving in an SUV covered in bumper stickers blocked traffic on the residential road - perhaps as part of an effort to keep ICE vehicles from passing. In the videos, an ICE agent approaches the SUV, yelling: Get out of the car. Get out of the fucking car." He stands at the driver's side, with his feet clear of the vehicle, and reaches into where the woman is driving. She begins to drive away, and an officer fires three shots, the last from behind the vehicle as the car pulls away from him. The SUV then crashes into a parked vehicle as onlookers scream in distress. You did a murder, for what?" one of the protesters calls out to the agents.The driver, a US citizen who was described by Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar as a legal observer", was declared dead. She died less than a mile from where George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in 2020. Her name was Renee Nicole Good, and she was 37.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Crowds gathered in Minneapolis on Wednesday to protest and hold a vigil for a woman killed during the Trump administration's latest immigration crackdown.The Minneapolis motorist was shot during an Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in the city in what federal officials claimed was an act of self-defence by an officer, but which the city's mayor described as 'reckless' and unnecessary

President Gustavo Petro announced on Wednesday that he had agreed to meet Donald Trump after calling for Colombians to take to the streets in a 'day of national mobilisation' against the US president's military threats. Anger mounted in Colombia after the US intervention in Venezuela and the capture of Nicolas Maduro last week. On Sunday, when asked if there would be a US operation in Colombia, Trump replied: 'Sounds good to me. You know why? Because they kill a lot of people.'

Trump's actions at home tell a different story - and they parallel many of Maduro's own repressive movesWhatever else the US attack on Venezuela is ostensibly about - oil, drugs, communism - it's not about the freedom of the Venezuelan people.If Trump cared about that, he would not have lifted the temporary protective status of the roughly 600,000 Venezuelan refugees in the US, the very people fleeing the tyranny and economic instability he is now supposedly liberating them from.Judith Levine is a Brooklyn-based journalist, essayist and author of five books. Her Substack is Today in Fascism Continue reading...

Before shooting of Renee Nicole Good, 37, agents had been grabbing people at stores, gyms, homes and schoolsIn the days before a federal agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, the Trump administration said it was launching what would be the agency's largest operation to date" in the Twin Cities.Since early December, agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations - many of them masked and brandishing rifles - have grabbed people at hardware stores and gyms, or outside homes and schools around the cities. They have violently tackled undocumented immigrants as well as US citizens, including advocates and protestors. Continue reading...

Health department's decision to freeze money for childcare and for families in need could lead to disaster, experts sayThe Trump administration's sudden decision to freeze $10bn worth of federal funding for childcare and needy families has not only already thrown the US childcare system into mass confusion, but could also lead to disaster for hundreds of thousands of families within weeks, experts say.The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced late on Tuesday it would block California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York from drawing down money from three major social safety programs over serious concerns about widespread fraud and misuse of taxpayer dollars in state-administered programs". In order to access the funding, the Democratic-run states must provide the Trump administration with extensive documentation to allay the fears of fraud. Continue reading...

In the early fray of foreign interventions, evidence is largely circumstantial. But here the circumstances tell a powerful storyAs late as Saturday afternoon, fires continued to smolder in parts of Caracas. Residents throughout the city, stunned and anxious, filled grocery stores and gas stations, stocking up before a future unknown. Everywhere the question hung in the air like the smoke still clouding Venezuela's capital: what next?After months of military buildup, deadly strikes at sea and a looming ground war, the United States made good on its threats to attack Venezuela in a dramatic overnight raid that ended with Nicolas Maduro in a New York City jail cell. Yet 48 hours later, little else appeared different in Caracas: Maduro's inner circle remained in place; state institutions remained in their control; streets were calm, if tense, while authorities called on people to return to their daily lives. In other words: move along, nothing to see here.Alejandro Velasco is an associate professor of history at New York University Continue reading...