Joint statement comes as Trump pushes Kyiv and Moscow on US-mediated proposal to end nearly four years of warDonald Trump's advisers and Ukrainian officials said Friday they'll meet for a third day of talks after making progress on creating a security framework for postwar Ukraine and are urging Russia to commit to peace.The officials, who met for a second day in Florida on Friday, issued a joint statement that offered broad brushstrokes about the progress they say that's been made as Trump pushes Kyiv and Moscow to agree to a US-mediated proposal to end nearly four years of war. Continue reading...
A manageable World Cup draw hands the co-hosts matches with Australia, Paraguay and a European playoff winner - familiar opponents posing very different challengesThe United States were placed in a World Cup group with Australia, Paraguay, and the winner of a European play-off between Turkey, Romania, Kosovo, and Slovakia in Friday's 2026 World Cup draw in Washington DC. Here's what to know about the co-host's opponents. Continue reading...
by Barry Glendenning and John Brewin (earlier) on (#71YW9)
Our live report from a ceremony that was part intriguing spectacle and part prolonged fever dream featuring Donald Trump dancing to the Village PeopleFrance, Senegal and Norway meet in Group of Death'
Ruling compels unsealing of documents from 2006-2007 federal investigation into Epstein in FloridaA federal judge in Florida ordered the release of grand jury transcripts from the Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell sex-trafficking cases on Friday, citing the recently enacted federal law that overrides traditional secrecy protections.US district judge Rodney Smith ruled that the Epstein Files Transparency Act, signed into law last month by Donald Trump, overrode federal rules prohibiting the disclosure of grand jury materials. Continue reading...
Advisers for the CDC voted to limit the vaccines - here's what happened and why the vote is so significantVaccine advisers for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) voted on Friday morning to limit hepatitis B vaccines in a major move signaling the Trump administration's regressive approach to vaccines that have been given safely and effectively for decades.What is the situation now and what does this mean? Continue reading...
These deadly US boat strikes are the latest example of a president corrupting both the law and moralityThe Trump administration looks ever more like a criminal enterprise - and now it seems to have added war crimes to its repertoire. Though even that may be too generous a description.On Thursday, word came that the US military had launched yet another deadly strike on a small boat moving through international waters. This time the attack killed four people, bringing to at least 87 the number of people the US has killed in a series of 22 such strikes on what it says are drug boats - vessels carrying illicit narcotics in the Caribbean or eastern Pacific.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnistGuardian newsroom: Year One of Trumpism: Is Britain Emulating the US?
Reform UK leader's legal threats, denials and attacks on the media are tactics often deployed by US presidentWhen Nigel Farage angrily denounced the BBC and insulted one of its presenters for raising questions about his alleged schoolboy racism, those who have been studying the tactics of the right noted that his behaviour felt familiar.Is it out of the Trump playbook? I think that's exactly what's going on," said Steven Barnett, a professor of communications at the University of Westminster. This is becoming his new modus operandi, turning defence into attack. It's exactly the tactics White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, uses. There are a lot of journalists in this country who just aren't used to it." Continue reading...
Advocates demand public health officials listen to autistic voices' after health secretary's debunked vaccine claimsWhen the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) altered its website last month to reflect US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr's belief of a causal link between vaccines and autism - a claim that has been debunked by dozens of scientific studies - autism advocates sprang into action.Leaders at the Association of University Centers on Disabilities demanded online that public health officials listen to autistic voices". Continue reading...
Sang Hea Kil is first tenured faculty member fired from a public university in connection to the protestsA tenured professor at San Jose State University in California is fighting for her job after the university fired her last month over her pro-Palestinian activism - the first tenured faculty member fired from a public university in connection to campus protests against Israel's war in Gaza.Sang Hea Kil, a longtime member of the university's justice studies department and a faculty adviser for its students for justice in Palestine chapter, is the latest in a growing list of university professors and staff who have been suspended, investigated, and in some cases dismissed or forced out in connection to the wave of pro-Palestinian protests that swept US campuses in the first year of Israel's war in Gaza. Continue reading...
The congresswoman from Minnesota responded to Trump's dismissal of Somali Americans as garbage'Ilhan Omar, the Somali-born Minnesota congresswoman, has said Donald Trump is lashing out at her and her community with bigotry because he knows he is failing".The US president dismissed Somali Americans earlier this week as garbage" in a racist rant. Continue reading...
Community fears shooting will be written off as gang violence and says examination of complex factors such as online feuds is requiredTashante McCoy was celebrating her grandson's fifth birthday in Stockton, California, on Saturday, when she learned that masked men had opened fire at another child's birthday party on the other side of town.Armed men had walked into the banquet hall where at least 100 people had gathered to celebrate a toddler's birthday, a friend of McCoy's who was at the event would later tell her. At least one man opened fire just as partygoers were preparing to cut the cake. Continue reading...
Defenders rally to Olivia Nuzzi amid book mockery, while rakish David Dimbleby channels his inner DickensIt's publication week for American Canto, the hastily turned around memoir by the former New York magazine journalist Olivia Nuzzi, who took on the challenge of explaining what it was about Robert F Kennedy Jr she found so alluring, a task for which no upper word limit is adequate. Nuzzi, if you've fallen behind, developed romantic feelings for the then presidential candidate, now Trump health minister, while profiling him for the magazine and since I've had to read this sentence, you do too: He was exhausted, and he threw himself onto the bed, his pink shirt unbuttoned, revealing my favorite parts of his chest." If you have a favourite part of RFK Jr's chest, or consider chests in general subject to preference by localised area, this may be the book for you. Continue reading...
Seventy years after the Montgomery bus boycott, policies hiding in plain sight continue to ravage the Black communityFriday is the 70th anniversary of the Montgomery bus boycott, which began because Rosa Parks refused to relinquish her seat to a white person, as required by law. While her brave act brought national attention to the civil rights movement and triggered student sit-ins to end segregation across the south, it also subjected her and her husband, Raymond, to constant death threats. Consequently, like many other Black families fleeing Jim Crow south's racial violence, in August 1957, Rosa and Raymond moved up north to Detroit.When the Parks arrived in Detroit, they and other Black people did not have to sit at the back of the bus. Nonetheless, the city was permeated by a quieter but no less pernicious type of racism: racist policies, which are any written or unwritten laws and processes that produce or sustain racial inequity. In my book Plundered: How Racist Policies Undermine Black Homeownership in America, I demonstrate how racial covenants, redlining, urban renewal, blockbusting, predatory mortgage lending and racialized property tax administration have stymied the Black community.Bernadette Atuahene is the Duggan Professor at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, the Executive Director of the Institute for Law and Organizing, and the author of Plundered: How Racist Policies Undermine Black Homeownership in America Continue reading...
Gary Walters managed the president's official residence for 37 years - now he's sharing his most vivid recollectionsGary Walters has a special feeling" about the White House East Wing. He met his future wife Barbara when she worked in the visitors' office there. But asked to contemplate the wing's destruction by Donald Trump, the former chief usher evidently still believes that discretion is the better part of valour.All the presidents and first ladies have made changes in one manner or another - some larger than others," Walters, 78, says with the measured cadence of a man who has spent a lifetime guarding privacy. One of the things that I have seen not commented on was back to when the West Wing was built. Continue reading...
Ever since the club's very beginning, David Beckham and Jorge Mas have had moments like this Saturday in mindBack on 27 February 2020, days before Inter Miami's first-ever fixture in MLS, I stood next to the club's managing owner, Jorge Mas, and co-owner David Beckham as part of an MLS press junket in New York City. I was there for Sports Illustrated and my show Planet Futbol TV, which I co-hosted with my friend, the late, great Grant Wahl. We were adamant that the Inter Miami story was riveting, not just because of Beckham's influence in MLS, but also because his new club was about to introduce the unique culture of Miami and south Florida - the Latin American capital of the world - to the league.The conversation in 2020 was my second meeting with Mas and my first with Beckham. I remember the sense of excitement from both men, knowing that this Inter Miami project - seven years in the making before their debut in the league - was about to come to fruition after a long, arduous journey. From legal battles with Internazionale over the trademark of the word Inter" to political and structural problems as they tried to make a stadium, Miami Freedom Park, a reality. Now, the club was finally starting life in MLS. Continue reading...
Strike comes amid congressional turmoil over legality of US attacks on suspected drug smugglersThe Pentagon announced on Thursday that the US military had conducted another deadly strike on a boat suspected of carrying illegal narcotics, killing four men in the eastern Pacific, as questions mount over the legality of the attacks.Video of the new strike was posted on social media by the US southern command, based in Florida, with a statement saying that, at the direction of Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel in international waters operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization". Continue reading...
State is key in president's effort to secure Republicans' fragile House majority for second half of his term - key US politics stories from 4 December 2025Texas can use a redrawn congressional map that adds as many as five Republican-friendly congressional districts, the supreme court ruled on Thursday, handing Donald Trump a major win in his push to boost Republican seats ahead of next year's midterm elections.In an unsigned order, the 6-3 conservative majority court granted a request by Texas to lift a lower court's ruling that struck down the state's new map in November. The supreme court's three liberal justices dissented. Continue reading...
Judge allows call from manager of Pennsylvania McDonald's to be made public after press urged its releaseAn audio recording of a 911 call that led to Luigi Mangione's arrest has been made public after the press advocated for its release.The audio recording was played in Manhattan state court this week during a proceeding about evidence gathered during Mangione's arrest over the murder of senior United HealthCare executive Brian Thompson a year ago. Mangione was arrested at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania in December last year after the restaurant's manager called 911. Continue reading...
Zoe Rosenberg, 23, studying at UC Berkeley, had said it was a rescue' and will not apologize' for her actionsA California student has been sentenced to 90 days in jail after breaking into a Petaluma poultry slaughterhouse and taking four chickens in an effort she called a rescue".Zoe Rosenberg, a 23-year-old student at the University of California, Berkeley, was convicted of felony conspiracy and three misdemeanor counts in October. On Wednesday, a judge sentenced her to 90 days - 60 of which may involve jail alternates, such as house arrest - far less than the four-and-a-half-year maximum sentence she could have faced. The judge also ordered Rosenberg to pay more than $100,000 to Petaluma Poultry, the Perdue Farms facility from which she took four chickens in 2023. Rosenberg has been ordered to report to the Sonoma county jail on 10 December. Continue reading...
Major win for Trump as majority rejects lower-court ruling that found maps had been racially gerrymanderedTexas can use a redrawn congressional map that adds as many as five Republican-friendly congressional districts, the supreme court ruled on Thursday, handing Donald Trump a major win in his push to boost Republican seats ahead of next year's midterm elections.In an unsigned order, the 6-3 conservative majority court granted a request by Texas to lift a lower court's ruling that struck down the state's new map in November. The supreme court's three liberal justices dissented. Continue reading...
Decision comes less than two weeks after judge ruled similar case against New York attorney general unlawfulA grand jury declined to indict Letitia James on Thursday, according to a source familiar with the decision, a decision that came less than two weeks after a judge ruled that a similar mortgage fraud case brought by federal prosecutors against the New York attorney general was unlawful.The move by the justice department to present the case again to a grand jury was seen as a signal of its determination to prosecute James, who has been one of Donald Trump's top political foes ever since she successfully brought a fraud lawsuit against him in New York. Continue reading...
Daughter of James Comey was dismissed by Trump justice department from job as prosecutor in New YorkMaurene Comey, the federal prosecutor who helmed criminal cases against Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, appeared at Manhattan federal court on Thursday, in a lawsuit claiming she was fired as political retaliation against her father, James Comey.Comey was terminated in July, shortly after the federal trial of Sean Diddy" Combs, whose prosecution she led; he was found guilty of prostitution-related crimes. Comey's lawsuit contends that Donald Trump's justice department axed her without explanation or cause, and instead simply cited article 2 of the United States constitution and the laws of the United States" in an email. Continue reading...
Communities remain terrified as Trump administration's crackdown on another Democratic-led city enters day twoDozens of people have been detained across the New Orleans area as the Trump administration's latest sweeping federal immigration crackdown in a Democratic-led city entered its second day.The city's immigrant communities remain terrified and traumatized, advocates said, with many in hiding as people have been arrested in public spaces including parking lots outside Home Depots and Lowe's hardware stores, at bus stops, shopping malls and in residential areas around the city. Continue reading...
President and James McCrery II disagreed over expanding ballroom's size, but change prompted by firm's limited staffDonald Trump has replaced the architect originally selected to oversee his $300m planned gilded ballroom.According to the Washington Post, which first reported the news on Thursday and cited three people familiar with the matter, architect James McCrery II and his boutique firm had been leading the project for more than three months, up until late October. Continue reading...
Order allows troops to remain for now, amid ramp-up after 26 November shooting of two guard membersA US appeals court on Thursday handed a victory to Donald Trump in his effort to keep national guard troops in Washington DC, pausing a lower court order that would have ended the deployment in the coming days.In a written order, the US court of appeals for the District of Columbia circuit lifted an injunction that said the troops needed to leave the nation's capital by 11 December. Continue reading...
A 15-year quest ends with a monument, drawing crowds and nostalgia as Detroit embraces its cult-film pastThe statue looms and glints at more than 11 feet tall and weighing 3,500 pounds, looking out at the city with, how to put it ... a characteristically stern expression?Despite its daunting appearance and history as a crimefighter of last resort, the giant new bronze figure of the movie character RoboCop is being seen as a symbol of hope, drawing fans and eliciting selfie mania since it began standing guard over Detroit on Wednesday afternoon. Continue reading...
Protesters were removed from a New Orleans city council meeting after they disrupted the event to protest against an ICE immigration crackdown in the city. Federal agents descended on New Orleans on Wednesday, making Louisiana's most populous city the latest front in the Trump administration's sweeping crackdown on immigrant communities
From 1990 to 2019, reported cases of acute hepatitis B among kids declined by 99% due to infant immunizationAfter a contentious meeting, vaccine advisers for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) voted on Thursday to delay a vote on restricting hepatitis B vaccination for infants until Friday.The meeting of the advisory committee on immunization practices (ACIP) turned confrontational at times before one member introduced a motion to delay the vote, which passed by six to three, to give advisers time to examine the wording before taking a vote. Continue reading...
Renaming adds insult to injury' says lawyer for staff fired from non-profit thinktank by Trump administrationThe Trump administration has renamed the US Institute of Peace after Donald Trump and has planted the president's name on the organization's headquarters despite an ongoing fight over the institute's control.It is the latest twist in a seesaw court battle over who controls the US Institute of Peace, a non-profit thinktank that focuses on peace initiatives. It was an early target of the so-called department of government efficiency (Doge) job-cutting scheme this year, drawing swift legal challenge. Continue reading...
Activists prepare for more targeting of Somali residents by ICE as Trump renews racist tiradeAs Donald Trump went on another extended racist tirade against Somalis on Wednesday, Minneapolis activists prepared for more targeting of the community by conducting trainings on their rights and planning how they would protect their neighbors.In the White House on Wednesday, a reporter asked the president about Minneapolis's mayor, Jacob Frey, who has defended the Somali community. Trump responded: I wouldn't be proud to have the largest Somalian - look at their nation. Look how bad their nation is. It's not even a nation. It's just people walking around killing each other. Look, these Somalians have taken billions of dollars out of our country. Billions and billions." Continue reading...
Before Friday's event we also examine a possible overall group of death and where geopolitics could meet footballCroatia are the highest-ranked potential Pot 2 opponents (10th) and reached the final and the semi-finalis at the past two World Cups respectively but, with a maximum of two European teams in each group, drawing them would eliminate for England the possibility of facing Erling Haaland's Norway, who are in Pot 3, or Italy, who are in Pot 4, if the four-time champions get through the playoffs in March. Continue reading...
In a more reasonable, more compassionate country, we would thank Ali Faqirzada for how much he has done on behalf of his people and our ownOn 14 October, Ali Faqirzada - an Afghan refugee, a resident of New Paltz, New York, and a computer science student at Bard College - arrived for an interview at a federal immigration office on Long Island. He was applying for political asylum, a designation for which he was - and remains - a perfect candidate.In his native country, Faqirzada had assisted the American government and Nato with projects designed to improve the lives of Afghan women and help them get an education. But after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, the ministry where he, his mother and sister had worked was bombed by the Taliban, and one of its employees was murdered.Francine Prose is a former president of PEN American Center and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Continue reading...
Climate Cabinet supports candidates in state and city races as the federal government ignores the climate crisisWith a president who has called climate change a hoax", refused to send a delegation to international climate talks, and packed the federal government with former fossil fuel industry employees, this can feel like a dark moment for climate action in the US. But shifting one's focus to local and state law makes for a very different outlook.Analysts have estimated that 75% of the commitments that the US made at the Paris climate agreement - which Donald Trump pulled the nation out of as soon as he took office - can be reached entirely without federal support. Continue reading...
Amazon calls the report flawed and misleading' and says it offers lower prices than competitorsSchool districts and local governments across the country appear to be overpaying for basic supplies because of Amazon contracts that bind them to dynamic pricing, according to a new report based on government data and public records analyzed by the non-profit Institute for Local Self-Reliance.A school district in Denver, Colorado, would have saved about $1m in 2023 had it been able to negotiate for and lock in the lowest of the platform's continuously changing prices, according to one estimate cited in the report. Denver public schools, which spent $5.7m with Amazon that year, could have saved 17 percent" had it consistently received Amazon's lowest prices", the report said. Continue reading...
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