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US president faced more scathing criticism, a day after his address. Key US politics stories from Wednesday 25 February at a glanceDonald Trump continued to face scathing criticism for his State of the Union on Wednesday, with senior Democrats accusing him of failing to protect Americans.The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, said Democrats were right to remain seated when Trump called on the audience to stand if they believed in protecting US citizens over undocumented immigrants. Continue reading...

Vice-president makes announcement with Mehmet Oz, who says other states will be next after MinnesotaJD Vance announced on Wednesday that the Trump administration would temporarily halt" more than a quarter-billion dollars in Medicaid reimbursements to the state of Minnesota, escalating Donald Trump's newly announced war on fraud".Vance said the action was to ensure Minnesota was a good steward of the American people's tax money", part of its crackdown on the state following a fraud scandal linked to residents of the Somali community in Minneapolis, which prompted the administration to send thousands of federal immigration agents into Minneapolis and that resulted in the deaths of two US citizens and widespread protests. Continue reading...

Killing of Ruben Ray Martinez on 15 March 2025 in Texas was not disclosed by the department until media reported itA grand jury on Wednesday rejected indictments over the fatal shooting last year of a US citizen by a federal immigration agent during a traffic encounter in Texas, prosecutors said.The shooting of Ruben Ray Martinez on 15 March 2025 by a Homeland Security investigations agent wasn't publicly disclosed by the Department of Homeland Security until the Associated Press and other media outlets reported it last week. Continue reading...

Proposed settlement would pay users of glyphosate-based weedkiller who have non-Hodgkin lymphoma $10,000 to $165,000A group of 14 law firms representing nearly 20,000 plaintiffs is seeking to intervene in Bayer's proposed class action settlement of Roundup litigation, citing concerns that the deal will not be fair to cancer sufferers.The group filed both a motion to intervene and a motion for an extension of time for court preliminary approval of the deal in St Louis city circuit court in Missouri late on February 24.This story is co-published with the New Lede, a journalism project of the Environmental Working Group Continue reading...

Investigation under way after man was dropped off five miles from home but family wasn't notified, officials sayA nearly blind Burmese refugee who was abandoned by border patrol agents has been found dead in Buffalo, New York, city officials confirmed.Nurul Amin Shah Alam, 56, had been missing since 19 February, when he was dropped off by border patrol following his release from Erie county holding center, according to the Investigative Post. Continue reading...

Department commissioner will be Erin Dalton, who conducted outreach in Pennsylvania among unhoused communitiesZohran Mamdani, New York's mayor, has hired Erin Dalton as a new commissioner of the city's department of social services.The hire comes as the new mayor has faced scrutiny over the city's handling of its unhoused population following the deaths of at least 20 people who were found outdoors during an especially cold winter. Continue reading...

Critics concerned as Casey Means, aligned with RFK Jr on vaccine stance, does not have active medical licenseCasey Means, Donald Trump's controversial nominee for US surgeon general, appeared before the Senate health committee on Wednesday for a twohour hearing in which she defended her medical credentials, side-stepped direct questions on vaccine guidance, and blamed the country's chronicdisease burden on ultraprocessed foods, industrial chemical exposure, lack of physical activity, chronic stress and loneliness, and overmedicalization".As the nation's prospective top doctor, Means would be responsible for communicating federal publichealth guidance. In her opening remarks, she said Americans were angry, exhausted and hurting from preventable diseases" and called for a great national healing". Her hearing was postponed in October, after she went into labor hours before she was scheduled to testify. Continue reading...

Federal officials search district chief Alberto Carvalho's home, but allegations being examined remain unclearThe FBI raided the headquarters of the Los Angeles unified school district, the second largest school district in the US, as well as the home of Alberto Carvalho, the district's superintendent, federal officials confirmed on Wednesday.An unnamed source familiar with the investigation told the Associated Press that authorities served warrants that were part of an ongoing investigation". Continue reading...

Aliya Rahman, who was dragged out of her car in January by agents, arrested for refusing to obey orders' to sit downA guest of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota, was arrested by Capitol police during the State of the Union address.Omar had invited Aliya Rahman, a US citizen and Minneapolis resident who in January was removed from her car and dragged by immigration agents in the city as part of the Trump administration's increased efforts to arrest and deport alleged undocumented immigrants. The officers had been shouting at her to move. Continue reading...

Organizers scramble for new venue after University of Southern Maine cites sanctions over Francesca Albanese's virtual talkThe University of Southern Maine abruptly revoked access to an on-campus venue days before a conference about Palestine was to take place there, citing the participation in the program of an individual under US sanctions and following pressure from local legislators.More than 300 participants have registered to attend the Consequence of Palestine" conference, which was slated to include remote participation from Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, who has been under sanction by the Trump administration since last year. Continue reading...

Drivers of SUV and pickup truck emerge unscathed from incident in trendy section of Nebraska citySurveillance video captured the dramatic moment a sinkhole opened up on a busy intersection in south-central Omaha, Nebraska, swallowing up two vehicles.The incident happened on Tuesday afternoon in a trendy section of the midwest city, when a sport utility vehicle and a pickup truck waiting at a traffic light dropped into a hole several feet deep as the pavement under them suddenly gave way. Neither driver was injured, police said. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Jamie Raskin, top Democrat on the House judiciary committee, asks for justice department briefing

The State of the Union address has been in decline for decade as a TV spectacle, and Trump probably hastened that trendIn fulfillment of clause 1 of section 3 in article II of the US constitution, Donald Trump duly gave Congress Information of the State of the Union" last night.Information ... and more information. At an hour and 47 minutes, this was the longest State of the Union address in history. As he has so often done in the past, Trump bobbed and weaved impressively (the weave" is his own term for his meandering speaking style). He zigged and zagged, taunting Democrats for much of the speech (he called Zohran Mamdani a communist" and took pot shots at Democrats throughout the night), while claiming to be a unifier when the mood struck. Continue reading...

Democrats accuse president's address of litany of lies as Republicans hail his bullish claims about year back in office

Nobel laureate Richard Axel announced resignation as co-director of Columbia University's neuroscience instituteDr Richard Axel, a molecular biologist and Nobel laureate, has announced that he is stepping down as the leader of a prestigious neuroscience institute at Columbia University over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.Axel, who has taught at Columbia for 53 years, said in a statement on Tuesday that he would be leaving his post as co-director of the university's Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute to focus on research and teaching in my lab". Continue reading...

States call move an illegal threat to public health and argue CDC puts children's lives at risk with new guidanceMore than a dozen states, including California, sued the Trump administration over its rollback of vaccine recommendations for children, calling the move an illegal threat to public health.The states argue that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) put children's lives at risk when it announced last month that it would stop recommending all children get immunized against the flu, rotavirus, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, some forms of meningitis and RSV. Under the new guidance, which was met with criticism from medical experts, protections against those diseases are recommended only for certain groups deemed high risk or when doctors recommend them in what's called shared decision-making." Continue reading...

Microsoft co-founder admits affairs and calls meetings huge mistake' but denies involvement in Epstein's crimes

With Republicans facing grim poll figures, Trump promised action to influence the vote citing debunked fraud claimsDonald Trump once again railed against imagined fraud in America's elections on Tuesday during the State of the Union address.They want to cheat," he said of Democrats. They have cheated. And their policy is so bad that their only way to get elected is to cheat. And we're going to stop it." Continue reading...

Man, 32, shot dead by deputy after stabbing attack was the subject of domestic violence protection orders

Jamieson Greer warns tariffs may climb from 10% after Trump imposed global levy amid US supreme court setbackThe US tariff rate for some countries will go up to 15% or higher from the newly-imposed 10%, Jamieson Greer, the US trade representative, said on Wednesday, without naming any specific trading partners or other details.Right now, we have the 10% tariff. It'll go up to 15 [%] for some and then it may go higher for others, and I think it will be in line with the types of tariffs we've been seeing," Greer said in an interview on Fox Business Network's Mornings with Maria program. Continue reading...

Milwaukee city council member calls for inquiry into Uline's previous shuttle program' to bring in Mexican workersA Milwaukee city council member has called for an investigation into the immigration policies at Uline, the office supply company owned by Liz and Richard Uihlein, two of the biggest donors to Maga Republicans in the 2024 election.The statement by JoCasta Zamarripa, who is running for the Democratic nomination for Wisconsin secretary of state ahead of November's election, follows an investigation by the Guardian into Uline's previous use of a so-called shuttle program". It involved the company bringing workers from its facilities in Mexico to staff warehouses at its headquarters in Wisconsin, Florida and Pennsylvania, for weeks and even months at a time, using visas that are meant for workers who are being trained - not working regular full-time jobs. Continue reading...

The newly crowned Olympic champions were warmly greeted by both Republicans and Democrats. They were also used as props by the presidentDuring Tuesday's State of the Union, Donald Trump welcomed members of the US men's national hockey team to the House gallery to chants of U-S-A, U-S-A!". Trump revealed that Team USA's goaltender, Connor Hellebuyck will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. What special champions you are," Trump told the players, who had beaten Canada on Sunday in the final of the Winter Olympics.In Trump's America, proximity is never neutral. Continue reading...

The Democratic congressman Al Green has addressed his protest at Donald Trump's State of the Union speech, in which Green held up a handwritten sign that read 'Black people aren't apes!'. The sign referenced a racist depiction of Barack and Michelle Obama that the president had shared on social media. After being ejected from the event, Green told journalists he had wanted to take a stand against the president doing 'these dastardly things with impunity'

International conference circuit gives worldwide right wing opportunities to share ideas and learn from each otherThe president of the New York Young Republican Club (NYYRC) is a featured speaker at a conference this week in Pretoria, South Africa, hosted by an Afrikaner nationalist group whose founder was instrumental in persuading the American right that white South African farmers face systematic attacks.Stefano Forte, also the executive director of the billionaire-funded 1776 Project Pac, will speak at the Lex Libertas Future of Nations conference on 25 February alongside leading figures from the Afrikaner Solidarity Movement, members of Belgium's far-right Vlaams Belang - whose predecessor was outlawed for racism - and a political analyst from a thinktank wholly funded by the regime of the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orban. Continue reading...

McDonald's and other food industry players accuse the big beef packers of collusion and price-gouging. The packers deny these allegationsOn 21 November, at the end of the first shift at the Tyson Foods beef processing plant in Lexington, Nebraska, all workers were called to the lunchroom and told they no longer had jobs. Many gathered afterward in the gravel parking lot. Some wailed and cried out.It's a terrible thing to know that we won't be able to pay rent, won't be able to pay the electricity, our cars - all the bills coming our way," said Constancio Perales, a 64-year-old worker born in Durango, Mexico, who has worked at the plant since 1996 - the last 25 years cutting the bone out of chuck steaks. It's very sad that they would fire us like that - just telling us there's no more work, as if to say go away." Continue reading...

In his new memoir, Art Manteris recalls raucous times in Nevada, and explains why the explosion of sports betting in the US presents serious risksForty years ago, the New England Patriots played in their first Super Bowl. It ended disastrously for New England, who lost 46-10 to the Chicago Bears. The Bears' mammoth defensive tackle, William The Refrigerator" Perry, even got involved in the scoring with a touchdown.That moment looked like it would cause serious problems for Art Manteris, who at the time ran the sportsbook at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Under Manteris, Caesars had offered odds on whether Perry would score during the game - and, as fans scrambled to back the popular player, the house stood to lose a significant sum if he did. When Perry ran into the end zone, gamblers collected handsomely, to the tune of $250,000. The next day, Manteris was summoned to meet the boss of Caesars, Henry Gluck. Continue reading...

Timing and luck often dictate a team's success at tournaments. And the co-hosts have players coming into form at just the right timeBruce Arena once said that if his United States men's national team had contested the 2006 World Cup a year earlier, the Americans would have done much better than the joyless, winless group stage elimination they suffered through. That team, he felt, had peaked during qualifiers and were past their best - despite being ranked an absurd fourth in the world by Fifa - when the World Cup kicked off.Four years earlier, when the USMNT stunned the 2002 World Cup by nearly reaching the semi-finals, his side benefited from time's relentless march, Arena argued. The Americans, cohesive and energized then, upset a golden Portugal generation that had already lost its sheen, 3-2, to spark their run. Continue reading...

Texas Democrat removed for holding Black people aren't apes' sign as colleagues stay seated while Republicans cheerAs dozens of their colleagues boycotted Trump's State of the Union address, several of the Democrats in the House chamber on Tuesday night made their opposition to the president's remarks clear.Congressman Al Green was ejected from the speech almost immediately, marking the second year in a row he has been removed from the annual event. After being ordered out by House speaker Mike Johnson during last year's speech for yelling responses as the president spoke, this year's protest from the Texas representative was silent but pointed. Continue reading...

Amid Trump's lies and xenophobic rants, people struggling to pay bills and make ends meet are unlikely to be movedHe wanted to give the king's speech. Donald Trump entered the US House chamber on Tuesday like a medieval monarch, with Republicans lined up eager to touch his royal robes (or, in two cases, grab a selfie with him). But within moments, the illusion was shattered.As the US president strolled by, soaking up adulation, Democratic representative Al Green of Texas held aloft a handwritten sign: Black people aren't apes!" - a reference to Trump recently sharing a racist video depiction of Barack and Michelle Obama. Continue reading...

President hails turnaround for the ages' but offers few policy pledges and repeats jibes against crazy' DemocratsDonald Trump proclaimed his first year in office a success at the State of the Union address on Tuesday evening, even as his presidency is dogged by low public approval ratings before November's midterm elections in which voters could hand control of Congress back to his Democratic opponents.The annual address to a joint session of Congress came after months of turmoil for the Republican president, including a crackdown on immigrant communities in Minneapolis that resulted in the deaths of two US citizens, and faltering progress on his campaign promise of lowering the cost of living. Continue reading...

Donald Trump proclaimed his first year in office a success at the State of the Union address on Tuesday evening, even as his presidency is dogged by low public approval ratings before November's midterm elections in which voters could hand control of Congress back to the Democrats. Trump spoke for two hours addressing a host of issues, from his supreme court challenges to Iran, and was met by Democrats walking out, holding signs and verbally clashing in the chamber

Lio Cundiff, who is trans, told the Guardian he hopes the act shows everyone how human we are - because all I did was a human act'A Chicagoan who recently jumped into a perilously cold lake to help rescue a baby whose stroller was blown into the water by a wind gust has implored everyone in the US to just take care of one another".In an interview Tuesday, Lio Cundiff, who is a trans man, said of himself: All I did was a human act. I'm just a human who did the most human thing you could do - which is save someone who can't save themselves." Continue reading...

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The president's lengthy speech to Congress contained myriad inflated, misleading or simply false claimsDonald Trump officially made the longest State of the Union address in history on Tuesday night, with broad claims about the successes achieved during the first year of his second term.But the speech that stretched across more than an hour and 41 minutes was filled with strong statements, many of them inflated, misleading or simply untrue. Continue reading...

Throughout the speech, Trump seemed tired. He had difficulty reading from his teleprompter; he gripped the podium with a tightness bordering on desperationIt is one of Donald Trump's unique talents that he reveals the absurd obsolescence of long-held traditions. In presidential election years, is screaming bloviations on stage make the exercise of gathering the candidates together seem futile. In power, when he divorces facts from policymaking and relies instead on myth and grift to guide his decisions, he renders useless and impotent vast fields of expertise.When he lies in public, and insists that his fantasies and distortions will dictate the course of government action, he makes those of us in the news business wonder if there's any point, any more, in gathering and printing the truth.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Virginia's new governor gives State of the Union rebuttal while Alex Padilla echoes similar themes in Spanish response

Secretary of state makes rare briefing to so-called gang of eight' as US deploys largest force of aircraft and warships to Middle East since 2003

Some Democratic lawmakers boycott Trump's speech - key US politics stories from Tuesday, 24 February at a glanceDonald Trump proclaimed his first year in office a success at the State of the Union address on Tuesday evening, even as his presidency is dogged by low public approval ratings before November's midterm elections in which voters could hand control of Congress back to his Democratic opponents.The annual address to a joint session of Congress came after months of turmoil for the Republican president, including a crackdown on immigrant communities in Minneapolis that resulted in the deaths of two US citizens, and faltering progress on his campaign promise of lowering the cost of living. Continue reading...

Dick Durbin accuses FBI chief of irresponsible joyriding' and says agency's work marred by Patel's poor decisionsA top Senate Democrat alleged on Tuesday that FBI director Kash Patel's personal travel and decision-making have undermined high-profile investigations, citing a whistleblower report.Senator Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate judiciary committee, wrote in a letter to two government watchdogs that Patel has seemingly engaged in what amounts to irresponsible joyriding on DoJ and FBI-operated aircraft at the expense of the American taxpayer and to the detriment of ongoing bureau operations". Continue reading...

Lawmakers gather on National Mall as politicians and celebrities including Robert De Niro and Mark Ruffalo gather at National Press Club

Court itself to search devices for documents related to national security inquiry as newspaper calls ruling victory'A federal judge has prohibited the justice department from searching electronic devices it seized from a Washington Post reporter, ruling that the court will search the devices for documents related to a national security investigation itself.In his ruling, magistrate judge William Porter criticized the Trump administration for omitting relevant case law in its application for a search warrant to seize the devices in the first place, but acknowledged the possibility that classified national security information may be among the seized material" complicated the matter. Continue reading...

Victims, as well as 32-year-old suspect, confirmed dead after incident in town west of Tacoma, says county sheriff's office

Anthropic presents itself as most safety-forward AI firm and Pentagon has threatened penalties if it does not yieldUS military leaders including Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, met with executives from the artificial intelligence firm Anthropic on Tuesday to hash out a dispute over what the government will be able to do with the company's powerful AI model. Hegseth gave Dario Amodei, the Anthropic CEO, until the end of the day on Friday to agree to the department's terms or face penalties, Axios reported.Anthropic, which presents itself as the most safety-forward of the leading AI companies, has been mired in weeks of disagreement with the Pentagon over how the military is allowed to use its large language model, Claude. US defense officials have pushed for unfettered access to Claude's capabilities, while Anthropic has reportedly resisted allowing its product to be used for mass surveillance or autonomous weapons systems that can use AI to kill people without human input. The Department of Defense (DoD) has integrated Claude into its operations, but has threatened to sever the relationship over what its top brass perceives as roadblocks erected by Anthropic. Continue reading...

Melvin Trotter, 65, gets lethal injection for 1986 stabbing death, becoming second person executed by state this yearA man convicted of killing a 70-year-old grocery store owner was put to death Tuesday in Florida, becoming the second person executed by the state this year after a record 19 executions in 2025.Melvin Trotter, 65, was pronounced dead at 6.15pm following a lethal injection at Florida state prison near Starke for the 1986 stabbing death of Virgie Langford, according to authorities. Alex Lanfranconi, a spokesperson for Republican governor Ron DeSantis, said there were no complications. Continue reading...

Lawsuit is latest action by Trump administration against a university and escalation of president's feud with CaliforniaThe justice department sued the University of California, Los Angeles on Tuesday, alleging the university created a hostile work environment for Jewish and Israeli faculty and staff after protests against the war on Gaza broke out across campus.The lawsuit claims UCLA violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act by failing to prevent and correct discriminatory and harassing conduct" after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and ensuing war on Gaza. The lawsuit is the latest action against a US university by the Trump administration since the president took office last year, and an escalation of Donald Trump's feud with the state of California. Continue reading...

Republican Tony Gonzales allegedly pressured Regina Ann Santos-Aviles, who died by suicide, into sexual relationshipUS congressman Tony Gonzales refused growing calls to resign from his fellow Republicans on Tuesday amid a furore over allegations that he had an affair with a staffer who later died by suicide.Gonzales has been accused of sending sexually explicit text messages in which he appeared to pressure the senior staffer to share images of herself and, eventually, coerced her into a sexual relationship.In the US, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org Continue reading...

Gwendolyn Westbrook, ex-CEO of a San Francisco homeless non-profit, is accused of using public funds for personal useThe former CEO of a San Francisco homeless services charity will be arraigned on Tuesday on nine felony charges after prosecutors said she stole more than $1.2m in public funds meant to keep people off the streets.Gwendolyn Westbrook, 71, raided the accounts of the United Council for Human Services while she had near-exclusive financial control" over the non-profit serving homeless and low-income people, according to a statement on Monday from the district attorney's office. Continue reading...