US news | The Guardian

Reports say move could come this weekend as White House urges Iran to make a deal' with Trump on nuclear programThe US military is ready for possible strikes on Iran as soon as this weekend, multiple news outlets reported Wednesday citing unnamed sources.However, the reports said, Donald Trump has yet to make a final decision on whether to carry out an attack. Trump has repeatedly demanded Iran cease its nuclear program, and has warned he intends to use force if no deal is reached. Continue reading...

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Lawsuit is first by Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over workplace DEI in Trump's second termA US civil rights agency has sued a bottler and distributor of Coca-Cola products it accuses of sex discrimination over an employee networking event that excluded men, its first lawsuit over workplace diversity programs since Donald Trump took office. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, says Coca-Cola Beverages Northeast violated federal law when it hosted the event for about 250 female employees at a casino in Connecticut in September 2024.The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It is owned by Kirin Holdings, a Japanese company. Coca-Cola is not a defendant in the case. Continue reading...

After crew on flight 543 reported smoke in the cockpit, passengers and crew exited Airbus A320 via slidesTraffic was temporarily disrupted at Newark Liberty international airport in New Jersey on Wednesday after a Florida-bound JetBlue flight suffered an engine failure on takeoff and returned to the airport, officials said.Crew on flight 543 reported smoke in the cockpit, and after an emergency landing, passengers and crew exited the Airbus A320 on a taxiway via slides, the Federal Aviation Administration said. No injuries were reported. Continue reading...

Avalanches have caused deaths in Lake Tahoe area in six of past 10 years but latest slide is fourth deadliest in US historyThe avalanche that killed at least eight skiers in California's Sierra Nevada mountains occurred in the Castle Peak area, near Lake Tahoe - an area where deadly avalanches are not uncommon.The Sierra Avalanche Center, which provides forecasts for the region, has observed at least 50 avalanches in the area near Lake Tahoe since September 2025. And according to the National Avalanche Center, which maintains a map of locations where avalanche danger is highest, risk is currently particularly high in the Lake Tahoe area. Continue reading...

NYU Langone's decision comes amid Trump administration threats to cut funding to providers who treat trans youthNYU Langone Health, one of New York City's major hospital networks, announced this week that it will shut down its genderaffirming care program for minors, as the Trump administration escalates threats to strip federal funding from providers that treat trans youth.In a statement to the Guardian, spokesperson Steve Ritea said that given the recent departure of our medical director, coupled with the current regulatory environment, we made the difficult decision to discontinue our Transgender Youth Health Program." He added that the hospital's pediatric mental health services will continue. Continue reading...

The USA and Canada both won in overtime to reach the men's ice hockey last four, while Mikaela Shiffrin dominated the slalomWomen's aerials: the qualifying rounds of accelerating down a ramp and flying through the air. Hanna Huskova, gold medallist in 2018, does a triple somersault, or the the kiss arse blaster" in the commentator's words, but it is only enough to leave her seventh.Women's curling: Back to the brushes, where Rebecca Morrison posts the final stone of the sixth end into perfect position, Team GB take two and go into a 4-3 lead against the USA with four ends left. Continue reading...

The greatest American skier of all time won her first Olympic medal in 2014. The 12 years in between have been marked by brutal ups and downsA lot can happen in 12 years. If you're Mikaela Shiffrin, as a teenager you can become the youngest ever person to win the Olympic slalom, stack a couple more medals at the next Olympics, become the most successful World Cup skier of all time with a record 108 victories, go 10 more Olympic races in a row over three Winter Games without reaching the podium, overcome the two biggest crashes of your career and subsequent battles with self-doubt and post-traumatic stress disorder and eroding trust in your own skiing, and then bring it all back home with a second Olympic slalom gold.You can also lose your dad. Continue reading...

One skier still missing and six others rescued after group engulfed in Sierra Nevada mountains during severe stormEight skiers who went missing after an avalanche swept the Castle Peak area of the Sierra Nevada mountains in California have been confirmed dead, authorities said during a Wednesday press conference.One skier is still unaccounted for, while six others, who had been stranded, have since been rescued. Continue reading...

Unite Here, the US's largest hospitality workers' union, says ICE crackdown is harming tourism and costing jobsDonald Trump's immigration policies are having a chilling effect on the hospitality industry, where nearly a third of workers are immigrants, according to the largest hospitality union in the US.The number of employed hospitality workers dropped by 98,000 from December 2024 to December 2025, according to a report from Unite Here, which represents 300,000 workers across the hospitality, food and tourism industries in the US and Canada. Continue reading...

Wexner, who has denied misconduct related to Epstein, is one of several subpoenaed by House oversight panelThe former boss of the Victoria's Secret lingerie brand, Les Wexner, said he has done nothing wrong" and has nothing to hide", as he testifies on Wednesday before a congressional committee in relation to his past ties to Jeffrey Epstein.Wexner is one of several Epstein associates subpoenaed to testify before the House oversight committee in their continued investigation of the late financier's crimes. Continue reading...

Money clears path for work on Gateway project increasing number of tunnels linking New York City and New JerseyThe Trump administration transferred the balance of federal funds it owed to the Gateway rail tunnel initiative on Wednesday, along with additional money beyond the original amount, clearing the path for work on the project to restart as early as next week.Once finished, the project will increase the number of rail tunnels linking New York City and New Jersey, as well as repair a century-old tunnel that was heavily damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, which is used by more than 200,000 travelers and 425 trains daily. Continue reading...

Dozens of world leaders head to Washington for what White House says will largely be a fundraiser on ThursdayDozens of world leaders and national delegations will meet in Washington DC on Thursday for the inaugural meeting of Donald Trump's Board of Peace, as major European allies declined to join the group and criticised the organisation's murky funding and political mandate.The White House has indicated that the summit for his new ad hoc council at the renamed Donald J Trump Institute of Peace will heavily function as a fundraising round, with Trump announcing on social media that countries have pledged more than $5bn toward rebuilding Gaza, which has been devastated in the war with Israel and remains in a humanitarian crisis. Continue reading...

Threat of 9.5% property tax increase puts pressure on Governor Hochul, who is seeking re-election this yearZohran Mamdani, New York's democratic socialist mayor, has unveiled two new budget proposals for the city - one to raise income and corporate taxes, or another to raise property taxes - triggering resistance from some political figures in and out of the state.Mamdani's two proposals include either raising taxes on the city's wealthiest residents - which would require approval from New York's governor, Kathy Hochul - or a last resort" measure of a 9.5% property tax increase, which could affect more than 3 million single-family homes, co-ops and condos and over 100,000 commercial buildings", according to the New York Times. Continue reading...

Union coverage slightly increased last year even as White House tried to eliminate contracts for thousands of workersThe number of workers covered under union contracts increased to a 16-year high in 2025, despite ongoing attempts by the Trump administration to wipe out collective bargaining agreements for tens of thousands of federal workers, according to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.About 16.5 million workers were covered by a union contract in 2025, up from 16 million in 2024 and the highest level since 2009. The increase stems from workers joining unions as members - 14.7 million US workers were union members in 2025, up from 14.2 million workers in 2024. Continue reading...

The restaurant can keep menu term despite claim product is essentially chicken nuggets', Illinois ruling saysA customer who sued the US restaurant chain Buffalo Wild Wings after finding out their boneless wings" were not in fact made of wings has been told by a US judge that his claim has has no meat on its bones".Buffalo Wild Wings can continue using the term boneless wings" on its menu even though the product is essentially chicken nuggets", John Tharp, a district judge, ruled, dismissing a lawsuit that claimed the chain was misleading customers. Continue reading...

Leadership disputes claim of political motive for ousting Jeffrey Rosen, who was praised for non-partisan approachThe first and only museum dedicated to the US constitution has been plunged into turmoil over the sudden departure of its president, a legal scholar widely respected for his commitment to non-partisanship.The National Constitution Center (NCC) in Philadelphia announced last month that Jeffrey Rosen would step down after 12 years to be replaced by Vince Stango on an interim basis. Continue reading...

What made the Manchester United co-owner's anti-immigrant screed so revolting was his brazen willingness to say it all out loud. Remind you of anyone?Did British petrochemicals billionaire and Manchester United's controlling minority owner, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, really mean it when he proclaimed to Sky News that the UK is being colonized by immigrants"?Is Ratcliffe simply a gutter racist or actually making a cynical political play that may redound to his benefit down the line when Britain faces down yet another period of political upheaval as the country's old factions continue to fracture? There's reasonable debate to be had there. Continue reading...

I was detained for co-writing a op-ed about Gaza as a student at Tufts. My experience has only made me feel more connected to others facing oppressionIt started off as a normal Tuesday. On 25 March 2025 I reviewed applications from university students applying for a summer research position at my lab. I told friends I would bring pastries from Harvard Square for the Friday dinner we were planning. I finalized my schedule for an upcoming child development conference. I worked on my dissertation proposal.The day was busy but not unusual - until I left home after quickly dressing for an iftar dinner at the interfaith center. What followed was my first personal encounter with human-made trauma through state violence. Continue reading...

Social Circle, a mostly Maga town, builds strange bedfellow coalition against plans to convert warehouseOn a recent morning Eric Taylor, city manager for a small Georgia town of about 5,000 residents called Social Circle, was contacted by a staffer from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.They asked me to turn on the water," he said of a 1m sq ft warehouse nearby that the federal government recently purchased for $128m, with plans to use it for locking up as many as 10,000 detainees as part of the Trump administration's mass deportation plan. Continue reading...

Starting next year, MLS will align itself with big European leagues and become a summer-to-spring operation. Executives see the change as an opportunityFew constants have endured from MLS's 1996 debut to now. It's still an operational soccer league, for one thing. There's the name itself, although its initial logo was shelved in 2015 for its current shield-and-kickstand. Eight of the 10 teams that launched the league remain involved, though each one has changed their name, crest, or both over time.Another rare constant will soon fade into the rearview: the league's schedule. MLS has run spring-to-fall/winter since its launch, more specifically from late February to early December in recent years. Preseason kicks off at the start of each new year, three weeks or so after the previous season's championship bout. It's a pretty well-ironed routine, even as ancillary competitions like the Leagues Cup and Club World Cup shuffle the middle bits each year. Continue reading...

Exclusive: 15 Congress members write to Marco Rubio about nine-month detention of Mohammed IbrahimFifteen members of Congress have written to Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, demanding to know what steps the United States has taken in response to the mistreatment of a Palestinian-American teenager who spent nine months in Israeli detention.The letter, led by Senator Peter Welch and first seen by the Guardian, is centered around the case of Mohammed Ibrahim, a Florida resident who was 15 when Israeli soldiers arrested him during a raid on his family's West Bank home in February 2025. He was charged with throwing objects at moving vehicles before being released on 27 November following a guilty plea and suspended sentence, and was taken directly to hospital upon his return. Continue reading...

Kimberly Prost and Luz del Carmen Ibanez Carranza vow US reprisals will not affect work of international criminal courtWhen the Canadian Kimberly Prost learned Donald Trump's administration had imposed sanctions on her, it came as a shock.For years, she has sat as a judge at the international criminal court, weighing accusations of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity; now she is on the same list as terrorists and those involved in organised crime. It really was a moment of a bit of disbelief," she said. Continue reading...

Democratic former presidents and Donald Trump respond to the death of the civil rights leader at the age of 84. Plus, how worried should we be about China's dancing robots?Good morning.Three Democratic former presidents led a wealth of tributes to Jesse Jackson, a titan" of the civil rights movement and one of America's greatest patriots", who has died at the age of 84.What did Donald Trump say? In a post to social media, the current US president called Jackson a good man" and a friend" but then attacked the scoundrels and Lunatics on the Radical Left" who, he said, falsely and consistently" called him a racist.What was on the T-shirt? Civil rights movement leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr and Shirley Chisholm, as well as images of protests from that time. Continue reading...

In the 2010s it described an insurgent rhetorical style; in the 2020s it is inadequate to account for the wildly diverging fates of the left and rightPopulism" may well have been the defining word of the previous decade: a shorthand for the insurgent parties that came to prominence in the 2010s, challenging the dominance of the liberal centre. But no sooner had it become the main rubric for discussing both the far left and far right than commentators began to question its validity: worrying that it was too vague, or too pejorative, or fuelling the forces to which it referred.Now, with the fortunes of the two political poles heading in different directions - the right gaining ground across the west while much of the left struggles to rebound from serial defeats - the notion that this word could encompass such different players seems even less plausible. For a lucid account of these forces, we might have to shift our focus elsewhere: finding terms that can explain their unequal balance of power, so that we can in turn find the proper remedy.Oliver Eagleton is managing editor at Phenomenal World Continue reading...

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National Park Service also sued for removing rainbow Pride flag from Stonewall national monument in New YorkConservation and historical organizations sued the Trump administration on Tuesday over National Park Service policies that the groups say erase history and science from America's national parks.A lawsuit filed in Boston says orders by Donald Trump and interior secretary Doug Burgum have forced park service staff to remove or censor exhibits that share factually accurate and relevant US history and scientific knowledge, including about slavery and climate change. Continue reading...

We have nothing to hide,' former secretary of state says ahead of her and Bill Clinton's depositions next week - key US politics stories from Tuesday 17 FebruaryHillary Clinton has accused the Trump administration of a cover-up" over the Epstein files, while claiming that she and her husband are being forced to testify before Congress to deflect scrutiny from Donald Trump.In an interview with the BBC, Clinton said the US Department of Justice was slow-walking" the release of documents relating to Jeffrey Epstein's catalogue of crimes and urged the administration to get the files out". Despite periodic document dumps of the files since Congress mandated their release late last year, the justice department is still withholding about 3m files. Continue reading...

Group was skiing in snow-hit Sierra Nevadas, while winter storm brings heavy rain and floods to other parts of stateSix skiers have been found after a group of 16 went missing this morning as heavy snowfall blanketed California, prompting avalanche warnings in the Sierra Nevada mountains, closing coastal roads and causing flooding in Los Angeles.The 10 remaining skiers are still missing, according to the sheriff's office in Nevada county, California. The group was in the Castle Peak area, where an avalanche was reported around 11.30am. According to the sheriff's office, the group consisted of four ski guides and 12 clients. Continue reading...

Pawtucket officials name shooter and say two other family members in critical condition after Monday attackThe shooter who opened fire at a Rhode Island ice rink was specifically targeting family members, authorities said. A woman who used to be married to the shooter and her son were killed in the attack, and three others were injured as hockey fans fled and a small group rushed to stop the shooter.The Pawtucket police chief, Tina Goncalves, confirmed the shooter's ex-wife Rhonda Dorgan and adult son Aidan Dorgan were killed, and said three others were injured: Rhonda Dorgan's parents, Linda and Gerald Dorgan, and family friend Thomas Geruso, all of whom remained in critical condition. Continue reading...

Independent experts appointed by human rights council speak of grave' nature regarding scale of atrocities against women and girlsMillions of files related to the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein suggest the existence of a global criminal enterprise" that carried out acts meeting the legal threshold of crimes against humanity, a panel of independent experts appointed by the United Nations human rights council has said.The experts said crimes outlined in documents released by the US justice department were committed against a backdrop of supremacist beliefs, racism, corruption and extreme misogyny. The crimes, they said, showed a commodification and dehumanisation of women and girls. Continue reading...

Lawyer for defendants accused of terrorism at ICE protest decried by Trump appointee over shirt's potential for bias'A federal judge in Texas declared a mistrial on Tuesday after a defense lawyer wore a shirt in court with images from the civil rights movement, delaying a closely watched case in which the Trump administration is accusing a group of protesters of being terrorists and says they are part of a North-Texas antifa cell".US district judge Mark Pittman, an appointee of Donald Trump, declared a mistrial only hours after jury selection began at the federal courthouse in downtown Fort Worth. He abruptly halted the proceedings after MarQuetta Clayton, an attorney for one of the defendants, had been questioning potential jurors for about 20 minutes, taking issue with a shirt she was wearing underneath a black blazer. The shirt contained images of civil rights movement leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr and Shirley Chisholm, as well as images of protests from that time. Continue reading...

Japan's skaters stole the spotlight as the Americans largely struggled in their attempts to end a two-decade medal droughtJapanese teenager Ami Nakai was the surprise leader after the short program of the Olympic women's figure skating competition on a night when her country's skaters largely stole the spotlight from Team USA's Blade Angels in their bid to end America's two-decade medal drought.Nakai delivered a clean, commanding skate on Tuesday, highlighted by a soaring triple axel for a personal-best score of 78.71, edging three-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto (77.23) into second. Only Alysa Liu of the United States was able to break the Japanese hold on the top spots, scoring 76.59 to come in ahead of fourth-placed Mone Choba (74.00). Continue reading...

Moves come after Gordon Brown's claim that files show that US sex offender used Stansted airport in Essex to fly in girls'British police have expanded their interest in the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's links to Britain, by admitting for the first time they are looking at claims he used dozens of private flights into UK airports to traffic women.It comes after former prime minister Gordon Brown said that documents about Epstein released in the US showed in graphic detail" how the disgraced financier, with links to high-profile people including the former Prince Andrew, was able to use Stansted airport in Essex to fly in girls from Latvia, Lithuania and Russia". Continue reading...

Mahdawi, arrested last year during US citizenship interview, says he is grateful to the court for honoring the rule of law'An immigration judge has blocked the Trump administration from deporting Mohsen Mahdawi, a 34-year-old Columbia University student and pro-Palestinian activist who was arrested by federal agents last year during a US citizenship interview in Vermont.Lawyers for Mahdawi gave details of the decision in a court filing on Tuesday with a federal appeals court in New York, which had been reviewing a ruling that led to his release from immigration custody in April. Continue reading...

Team GB were disappointed in a men's curling match against Canada while Tormod Frostad's big air win was one for the agesHeinis of France is in the air, it feels hein just looking at him, and he jumps 129, giving him 133.8 points; he moves above Karhumaa and into the lead.I've also got the curling on and, if you'll excuse my parochialism, I'm not watching pool leaders Switzerland monstering defending champions Sweden, rather USA v China, for reasons of relevance to GB. The Americans now lead 2-1 playing the fifth. Continue reading...

Three boats targeted in eastern Pacific and Caribbean as Trump continues pursuit of alleged narco-terrorists'US military officials have said American forces launched assaults on three alleged drug-smuggling boats, killing 11 in one of the deadliest days of the Trump administration's months-long campaign against alleged traffickers.The military action on Monday brought the number of fatalities caused by US strikes to 145 since September, when Donald Trump called on American armed forces to attack people deemed narco-terrorists" on small vessels. There have been 42 known strikes in notorious drug-trafficking routes such as the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, according to the Associated Press reported. Continue reading...

Interim president Jose Jeri voted out by country's congress amid scandal concerning secretive meetingsPeru's interim president has been forced out of office in an express impeachment" after a political scandal over his secretive meetings with Chinese businessmen.Lawmakers voted by 75 votes to 24 to proceed with the removal of Jose Jeri, who had been at the helm for just four months. Continue reading...

Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Al Sharpton, Donald Trump and more react to death of the civil rights leader at the age of 84

Secretary of state spoke of golden age' of US-Hungary relations at time of tense transatlantic relations with traditional alliesEven before he in effect endorsed Hungary's Viktor Orban before a crucial parliamentary election, Marco Rubio's itinerary for Europe promised to be provocative. After meeting US allies at the Munich Security Conference during a particularly tense moment in transatlantic relations, the US secretary of state departed for Slovakia and Hungary - the two EU states most dependent on Russian energy and sceptical of the bloc's support for Ukraine.In what bordered on an explicit political endorsement, Rubio told Orban that relations between Hungary and the US had entered a golden age" - and would stay like that for as long as Orban remains in power. Continue reading...

Case became focal point for immigration after he was deported to El Salvador where he faces gang threatsImmigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) cannot re-detain Kilmar Abrego Garcia because a 90-day detention period has expired and the government has no viable plan for deporting him, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday.The Salvadorian national's case has become a focal point in the immigration debate after he was mistakenly deported to his home country last year. Since his return, he has been fighting a second deportation to a series of African countries proposed by Department of Homeland Security officials. Continue reading...

Jackson's two presidential runs brought the civil rights movement into the heart of the Democratic party and opened doors for others to walk through

Some universities and colleges have taken action involving faculty or affiliates named in the documents. We want to hear about what's happening where you study or workAs fallout from the large release of documents connected to Jeffrey Epstein continues, a handful of US universities have taken action against faculty or affiliates named in the files.At some campuses, professors have been placed under review, research centres closed, conferences cancelled or public explanations issued. Students and staff have responded in different ways, including petitions, open letters and campus forums. Continue reading...

We would like to hear your memories of the civil rights trailblazer - whether you met him or just valued his workThe Rev Jesse Jackson, a civil rights campaigner who was prominent for more than 50 years and who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988, died on Tuesday at the age of 84. Jackson championed the rights of Black, poor and working-class people with his rainbow coalition".We would like to hear your tributes and memories of Jesse Jackson - whether you met him, or appreciated his work. Continue reading...