No fatalities reported in flooding, which prompted Trump to approve emergency declaration request from governorRecord-breaking flood waters in Washington state have started slowly retreating after days of devastation that saw neighborhoods inundated, emergency rescues from cars and rooftops, and widespread evacuations.This is not just a one- or two-day crisis," Washington's governor, Bob Ferguson, said during a press briefing. These water levels have been historic, and they're going to remain very high for an extended period of time." Continue reading...
Cuban foreign ministry called US military action maritime terrorism' under a policy of economic suffocation'Cuban officials have denounced the US seizure of the Skipper oil tanker off Venezuela's coast on Wednesday, calling it an act of piracy and maritime terrorism" as well as a serious violation of international law" that hurts the Caribbean island nation and its people.This action is part of the US escalation aimed at hampering Venezuela's legitimate right to freely use and trade its natural resources with other nations, including the supplies of hydrocarbons to Cuba," the Cuban foreign ministry statement said. Continue reading...
Arabella McCormack, 11, died after being tortured and starved by adoptive family and police and church failed to interveneA lawsuit over the death of an 11-year-old California girl who was allegedly tortured and starved by her adoptive family reached a settlement on Friday totaling $31.5m from the city and county of San Diego as well as other groups.The suit was brought on behalf of the two younger sisters of Arabella McCormack, who died in August 2022. The girls were ages six and seven at the time. Their adoptive mother, Leticia McCormack, and McCormack's parents, Adella and Stanley Tom, are facing charges of murder, conspiracy, child abuse and torture. They pleaded not guilty to all charges, and their criminal case is ongoing. Continue reading...
Dense, 450-mile-long fog bank lingering over central valley as experts blames unusual combination of weather factorsNew Nasa satellite images reveal the scope of central California's dreary December, caused by an enormous fog formation that has been haunting the Central Valley for weeks, trapping residents in colder-than-usual temperatures.The low cloud formation, known as tule fog, first formed over central California in November and persisted into early December. The Central Valley typically sees this type of fog during the colder months of the year, when the air near the ground is cold and moist, and the winds are calmer, allowing moisture in the air to transform into a thick layer of fog. Continue reading...
The OpenAI CEO gushed about the bot's parental-assistance abilities. Is it really his best child-rearing hack?Just how does he do it all? Every time I look at the news, Sam Altman's face seems to be staring back at me. The CEO of OpenAI, a well-known workaholic, is constantly in the public eye explaining how AI will probably cure cancer and transform the social contract and generally change the world. While doing all that he's reportedly gearing up for OpenAI to file for a stock market listing valuing the company at $1tn, as soon as next year. And he's also a new dad: Altman and his husband, Oliver Mulherin, welcomed their first child into the world in February. So he's got a lot on his plate.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
After Trump ended key repayment plan, 40% of borrowers say their student loans make it harder to cover essentialsA recent survey found that a whopping 40% of student loan borrowers say that their loans have negatively affected their ability to cover their basic needs, such as food, housing and transportation - a financial burden that becomes even more apparent around the holiday season.At first glance, someone like Ben L should not be struggling financially. He attended Georgetown University and Columbia University for his undergraduate and graduate degrees, respectively, and now earns a six-figure salary working at a biotech company. Still, the 36-year-old is drowning in student debt. Continue reading...
The wife of the Trump adviser aims to entice conservative women into Maga - but like much of the rest of the movement, her sales pitch is fundamentally lackingWhen Katie Miller, the wife of Donald Trump's powerful adviser Stephen Miller, interviewed Pete Hegseth on her podcast last week, she didn't ask him about whether the war secretary had ordered the US military to kill the shipwrecked survivors of an airstrike. She didn't ask him about the settlement he paid a woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her. Nor did she ask about allegations of alcohol abuse, or the accusation that he had made his ex-wife so terrified that she hid in a closet.Instead, when Hegseth and his wife, Jennifer Rauchet, appeared on the Katie Miller Podcast, the titular host asked questions like: If you could write one Hegseth family rule on that whiteboard, what is that?" Continue reading...
Trump's racist remarks on Ilhan Omar and Somali immigrants reveals his vision for the US as a white Christian nationA rally on affordability in Pennsylvania on 9 December devolved into a racist tirade when Donald Trump said to the crowd: We only take people from shithole countries. Why can't we have some people from Norway, Sweden, just a few? ... From Denmark. Do you mind sending us a few people? Send us some nice people. But we always take people from Somalia, places that are a disaster, right? Filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime."Referring to the US representative Ilhan Omar's hijab as a little turban", Trump continued: She should get the hell out. Throw her the hell out." His supporters erupted in chants of: Send her back." Continue reading...
The US's national security strategy, shared last week, claims European immigration will cause civilisational erasure'How do you create a foreign policy manifesto for a US president who leads from the gut?The initial draft fell to Michael Anton, a Maga firebrand whom officials have called the lead author behind the US's radical new national security strategy (NSS). The document shocked US allies, warning that immigration to Europe would cause civilizational erasure", reviving the Monroe doctrine in the western hemisphere, and downgrading the US's responsibility for great power competition with China and Russia. Continue reading...
By using music from SZA, Sabrina Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo in ICE videos, the government is playing a game of rage-baitLast week, as the Trump administration was engulfed in controversy over its illegal military strikes near Venezuela (among numerous other crises), a Department of Homeland Security employee - I picture the worst sniveling, self-satisfied, hateful loser - got to work on the official X account. The state-employed memelord posted a video depicting Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) officials arresting people in what appeared to be Chicago, celebrating the humiliation and incarceration of undocumented immigrants as some sort of patriotic achievement. The vile video borrowed, as they often do, from mainstream pop culture; in this case, a viral lyric from Sabrina Carpenter's song Juno - Have you ever tried this one?," referring to sex positions - overlaid clips of agents chasing, tackling and handcuffing people, cheekily nodding to all the methods in ICE's terror toolbox.Carpenter, as a pre-eminent pop star, was caught in an impossible position. Say nothing, as her friend and collaborator Taylor Swift did weeks earlier when the White House used her music in a Trump hype video, and risk appearing as if you condone the administration's use of your art for a domestic terror campaign (the administration hasn't yet used Swift for an ICE video, but I'm sure it's coming); engage, even if to honestly express your utter disgust, and risk bringing more attention to objectionable propaganda designed to provoke a response. Continue reading...
With Trump championing Pete Rose and pressuring MLB's commissioner, the Hall of Fame vote became a referendum on power, memory and whether integrity still mattersSince mid-May, when Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred announced Pete Rose would be eligible for Hall of Fame consideration and explained his specious reasonings behind it, last week's Hall of Fame vote by the 16-member Classic Era committee carried with it a certain air of inevitability for Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds, the two greatest players currently not enshrined in Cooperstown.Rose was championed by Donald Trump, who used his populism to demand the Hit King finally be allowed into the Hall, an honor denied Rose since 1989 when baseball placed him on the permanently ineligible list for betting on games when he managed the Cincinnati Reds. After Rose died in September 2024, Trump then won the presidency five weeks later and immediately increased the pressure on Manfred to end Rose's 36-year banishment - despite the absence of any evidence suggesting Rose was any less guilty in death of gambling on the sport than he had been alive. Nevertheless, Manfred acquiesced to Trump, and in 2027, for the first time, Pete Rose will be eligible for induction into the Hall of Fame. Continue reading...
California jury finds company knew its talc-based products were dangerous but failed to warn consumersA California jury on Friday awarded $40m to two women who said Johnson & Johnson's baby powder was to blame for their ovarian cancer.The jury in Los Angeles superior court awarded $18m to Monica Kent and $22m to Deborah Schultz and her husband after finding that Johnson & Johnson knew for years its talc-based products were dangerous but failed to warn consumers. Continue reading...
Trump is featured in three images, while others feature Epstein with Bill Clinton, Steve Bannon and Woody Allen - key US politics stories from 12 December 2025House Democrats have published a new tranche of what they called disturbing" photographs from the estate of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, featuring among others Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and the British former royal Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.The 19 photographs in the initial drop - some of which have been seen before - plus another 70 released later Friday afternoon represent a small number of the almost 100,000 images released to the House oversight committee, which is looking into the conduct and connections of Epstein, the disgraced financier who died by apparent suicide in a New York jail cell in 2019 after he was charged with sex-trafficking offenses. Continue reading...
With insurance premiums set to rise sharply for at least 22 million Americans, Mike Johnson unveils alternativeWith health insurance premiums set to rise sharply for at least 22 million Americans who purchase their coverage through Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces using tax credits that will expire at the end of this year unless Congress acts, the US House speaker Mike Johnson unveiled a Republican alternative late Friday.Johnson's bill comes as his party refuses to extend the enhanced tax subsidies for people who buy policies through the ACA, dubbed Obamacare by opponents of the 2010 law. Those subsidies help lower premiums for Americans who do not get insurance through employers. Continue reading...
Blaine McGraw accused of inappropriately touching and secretly filming patients during appointments on baseAnother 81 women have joined a civil suit against a US army gynecologist who was recently criminally charged in connection with accusations that he secretly filmed dozens of his patients during medical examinations.The civil lawsuit, which initially began in November, alleges that Blaine McGraw, a doctor and army major at Fort Hood in Texas, repeatedly inappropriately touched and secretly filmed dozens of women during appointments at an on-base medical center. Continue reading...
Ex-Fed governor Kevin Warsh is at top of his list to succeed Powell as central bank's chair, president says in interviewDonald Trump declared he should be listened to" by the Federal Reserve, as he weighs candidates to lead the central bank amid an extraordinary campaign by the White House to exert greater control over its decisions.The US president said on Friday that former Fed governor Kevin Warsh is currently top of his list to chair the central bank. Continue reading...
National Trust looks to halt construction, claiming Trump tore down historic East Wing without needed permissionDonald Trump is facing a federal lawsuit seeking to halt construction on his $300m White House ballroom, with historic preservationists accusing the president of violating multiple federal laws by tearing down part of the iconic building without required reviews or congressional approval.The legal challenge, filed on Friday by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the US district court for the District of Columbia, represents the most significant attempt yet to stop Trump's 90,000-sq-ft addition to the White House complex. The organization is seeking a temporary restraining order to freeze all construction activities until proper federal oversight procedures are completed. Continue reading...
by Lucy Hough Lucy Osborne Ryan Ramgobin Zoe Hitch on (#724FX)
A year-long investigation into the Free Birth Society reveals how mothers lost children after being radicalised by uplifting podcast tales of births without midwives or doctors.
The US is ramping up the pressure on Nicolas Maduro with a tanker seizure and expanded sanctions following threats and boat strikesEarly in his first term, Donald Trump mooted a military option" for Venezuela to dislodge its president, Nicolas Maduro. Reports suggest that he eagerly discussed the prospect of an invasion behind closed doors. Advisers eventually talked him down. Instead, the US pursued a maximum pressure" strategy of sanctions and threats.But Mr Maduro is still in place. And Mr Trump's attempts to remove him are ramping up again. The US has amassed its largest military presence in the Caribbean since the 1989 invasion of Panama. It has carried out more than 20 shocking strikes on alleged drug boats. Mr Trump reportedly delivered an ultimatum late last month, telling the Venezuelan leader that he could have safe passage from his country if he left immediately. There was already a $50m bounty on his head. This week came expanded sanctions and the seizure of a tanker.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...
Oversight Democrats have released a new batch of photos from the Jeffrey Epstein estate, including images of Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Woody Allen, the former Prince Andrew, Steve Bannon and Bill Gates
The US made it clear this week that it plans to help the parties of the European far right gain power. Keir Starmer and his fellow leaders have to face this new realityWhen are we going to get the message? I joked a few months back that, when it comes to Donald Trump, Europe needs to learn from Sex and the City's Miranda Hobbes and realise that He's just not that into you". After this past week, it's clear that understates the problem. Trump's America is not merely indifferent to Europe - it's positively hostile to it. That has enormous implications for the continent and for Britain, which too many of our leaders still refuse to face.The depth of US hostility was revealed most explicitly in the new US national security strategy, or NSS, a 29-page document that serves as a formal statement of the foreign policy of the second Trump administration. There is much there to lament, starting with the sceptical quote marks that appear around the sole reference to climate change", but the most striking passages are those that take aim at Europe.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnistDo 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...
Displays include handcuffed baby Jesus and Mary wearing a gas mask in wake of Trump's immigration crackdownSatirical holiday displays mocking Donald Trump's aggressive immigration crackdown, portraying the newborn Jesus and his parents, Mary and Joseph, as victims of heavy-handed tactics by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE), have appeared across the US.One striking retelling of the Christmas story, at Lake Street church in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, features baby Jesus lying in a manger in the snow - but wrapped in the kind of thin, foil blankets given out in emergencies and regularly as bedding to ICE detainees, and with his wrists zip-tied. Continue reading...
An array of under-the-radar initiatives are taking hold across the US, often tied to immunization, fluoridation and raw milkEven within the freak show that is Donald Trump's cabinet, the health and human services secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has a singular knack for dominating the headlines with the most disturbing sort of carnivalesque spectacle.In recent months, he's amplified harmful misinformation linking Tylenol and autism and dismissed the entire CDC vaccine advisory committee, replacing them with skeptics and conspiracy theorists. And even as that agency debated and ultimately scrapped its hepatitis B vaccination recommendation for many newborns, Kennedy courted further controversy for his alleged involvement in a tabloid-fodder love triangle.Katrina vanden Heuvel is editor and publisher of the Nation, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a contributor to the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times Continue reading...
In World Cup parlance, Qatar was Fifa president Gianni Infantino's qualifier. Now it's the big time for Trump's dictator-curious protegeI used to think Fifa's recent practice of holding the World Cup in autocracies was because it made it easier for world football's governing body to do the things it loved: spend untold billions of other people's money and siphon the profits without having to worry about boring little things like human rights or public opinion. Which, let's face it, really piss around with your bottom line.But for a while now, that view has seemed ridiculously naive, a bit like assuming Recep Erdoan followed Vladimir Putin's election-hollowing gameplan just because hey, he's an interested guy who likes to read around a lot of subjects. So no: Fifa president Gianni Infantino hasn't spent recent tournaments cosying up to authoritarians because it made his life easier. He's done it to learn from the best. And his latest decree this week simply confirms Fifa is now a fully operational autocracy in the classic populace-rinsing style. Do just absorb yesterday's news that the cheapest ticket for next year's World Cup final in the US will cost 3,120 - seven times more than the cheapest ticket for the last World Cup final in Qatar. (Admittedly, still marginally cheaper than an off-peak single from London to Manchester.)Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
With ICE targeting vendors and fear rising, community groups are organising fast to keep New Yorkers working on the streets safeOn a December day when temperatures dipped below 20 degrees, Street Vendor Project staff walked along a busy commercial street in the Bronx, handing out know your rights" information to vendors selling fruits and vegetables. Several vendors mentioned they were scared after watching videos of immigration raids across the city.We used to go around helping vendors apply for permits so they wouldn't get fined," said Eric Nava-Perez, Street Vendor Project's Spanish-speaking member organizer. But now, we're out here distributing immigration rights information." Continue reading...
A doorbell camera captured the moment an explosion erupted after a gas line rupture in Hayward, California, on Thursday. The incident injured at least six people, according to local news reports.The explosion in the San Francisco Bay Area broke out about 9.30am, several hours after a construction crew allegedly damaged a gas pipe
Lawyers say people don't feel safe to leave their home' as officials target recent arrivals and those awaiting hearingsImmigration agents appear to be increasingly arresting and detaining Afghan asylum seekers, especially men, who have arrived in the US recently and are awaiting court hearings to decide their cases.Amir - an asylum seeker who came to the US via Mexico in 2024 - was driving home from his English class in Bloomington, Indiana just after noon on Monday, when he was pulled over by an unmarked police vehicle. Minutes later, the asylum seeker from Afghanistan was cuffed and driven to a detention center. Continue reading...
Artificial intelligence could make income inequality even worse and create a new underclass. Governments and society must take actionNowadays there seems to be nonstop discussion about AI, with much of the conversation focused on whether there's a speculative bubble or whether the chipmaker Nvidia is really worth $5tn or whether OpenAI will beat its rivals in developing new generations of artificial intelligence. But the vast majority of Americans - just like the vast majority of Europeans and Asians - couldn't care less about those things.Their big concern is whether AI is going to cause huge layoffs and create a disastrous job market, especially for younger workers. Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, a leading AI company, fed those fears when he said that AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs in the next one to five years and increase unemployment in the US to 10% to 20%. In October, Bernie Sanders, the top Democrat on the Senate education and labor committee, issued a report saying AI and automation could replace up to 97m jobs in the US over the next decade.Steven Greenhouse is a journalist and author, focusing on labour and the workplace, as well as economic and legal issues Continue reading...
Measure to add two GOP-friendly seats failed 19-31 after 21 Republicans joined 10 Democrats. Plus, how the Paris climate treaty changed the worldGood morning.Indiana Republicans rejected an effort to redraw the state's lines on Thursday in a rebuke to Donald Trump and Republican efforts to add two more Republican-friendly seats to Indiana's congressional districts.How might the administration react to the vote? Heritage Action, the advocacy branch of the conservative Heritage Foundation, posted on social media: President Trump has made it clear to Indiana leaders: if the Indiana senate fails to pass the map, all federal funding will be stripped from the state. Roads will not be paved. Guard bases will close. Major projects will stop. These are the stakes and every NO vote will be to blame."What are Democrats doing on redistricting? They've retaliated to the initial push by Texas to add five more likely Republican seats by redrawing maps in California.Has there been pushback to Trump's escalation? Yes - after the US seized a tanker named the Skipper off the coast of Venezuela, some US lawmakers expressed concern that Trump was sleepwalking us into a war with Venezuela". Continue reading...
The AFC East rivals face off in a game that could decide their conference's top seed, while a familiar face may return for the ColtsThere is some serious debate that could run over this week's top-shelf matchup. The Rams, the NFC's current No 1 seeds, are welcoming the Lions, who claimed top seed in the conference last season. The Denver Broncos, the AFC leaders, host the Green Bay Packers who still have a shot at a first-round bye in the NFC. Either way you go you won't be disappointed. Only there is a third way: Buffalo v New England. The emphasis is on the bounty that winning brings rather than the perils of defeat on Sunday. The Patriots can wrestle back the AFC's No 1 seed while Buffalo can give themselves a shot at snatching the AFC East title from New England. Oh, and two MVP candidates in Drake Maye and Josh Allen are running the show. It could be a classic. Continue reading...
The forward's blocked contract and a growing talent drain to Europe have nudged the NWSL into crisis mode. Here's what's happening and why it mattersThe Trinity Rodman contract saga has exposed a fundamental tension at the heart of the National Women's Soccer League: a salary-cap model built for stability and measured growth coming in collision with a global market that has accelerated far beyond it.Rodman is one of the most important young players in US soccer, arguably its most marketable female star and a centerpiece of the NWSL's future. Yet European giants have offered her salaries that America's top women's domestic league cannot legally match, prompting the NWSL to veto a record-breaking Washington Spirit deal (and the players' union to file a grievance in response). Continue reading...
A new book explores how an all-time great and a world famous franchise handle the waning of a monumental careerIn a book about LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers, it's only fitting that one memorable scene involves a Hollywood star: Will Smith.Yaron Weitzman's latest book is titled A Hollywood Ending: The Dreams and Drama of the LeBron Lakers. Suffice to say the plot thickens when Smith goes to the Lakers' film room to speak to the team in 2022. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Congress members seek answers after Guardian revealed data to be shared for immigration enforcementMore than 20 members of Congress are demanding answers from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and homeland security officials after the Guardian revealed the VA is compiling a report on all non-US citizens employed by or affiliated with" the government agency that will then be shared with other federal agencies, including immigration authorities.The lawmakers, led by Illinois congresswoman Delia Ramirez - along with congressman Mark Takano of California and US senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, the top Democrats on the House and Senate veterans affairs committees - have written a group letter to be sent to the VA secretary, Doug Collins, and the secretary of homeland security, Kristi Noem, on Friday. Continue reading...
With the US threatening to support patriotic' parties here, we need better defences, starting with tough new rules about political donationsThe new threat is so dizzyingly bizarre that Europe, and especially Britain, is slow to believe it. The US declares itself our enemy. Europe emerges as its main adversary in the US national security strategy. Russia is its friend, not us. Everything that looked solid since the second world war is turned upside down; the land of the free becomes the destroyer of democratic values. Appeasement fails.He may ramble, but Donald Trump speaks plainly. He means what he says, and he hates everything European. Except its emerging patriotic" parties, which he wants to support. His strategy warns of civilizational erasure", claiming Europe will soon become majority non-European" and parroting the racist conspiracy known as the great replacement theory. Describing Europeans as weak", decaying" and destroying their countries", with real stupid" leaders, Trump responded to the question of whether they would still be allies, in a Politico interview, with a hint of threat: It depends."Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Proposals to change US citizenship rules leaves dual citizens like me caught in the crossfire. If push comes to shove, I know where my loyalty lies Continue reading...
Trump's press secretary suggested Trump was growing weary of process as Ukraine's president under immense pressure to sign US deal - key US politics stories from 11 December 2025When it comes to Ukraine peace talks, Donald Trump is sick of meetings just for the sake of meetings", White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday.Leavitt added that the White House may send a representative to meet with European and Ukrainian officials this weekend if it feels like a meeting is worthy" of the US's time, adding that Trump is extremely frustrated with both sides of this war". Continue reading...
by Andrew Roth in Washington and Tom Phillips in Rio on (#723M1)
Six more oil supertankers added to sanctions list, as well as members of Maduro's extended family, amid rising tensions following tanker seizureDonald Trump has exerted more pressure on Venezuela's president Nicolas Maduro, expanding sanctions and issuing fresh threats to strike land targets in Venezuela, as the South American dictator accused the US president of ushering in a new era of criminal naval piracy" in the Caribbean.Late on Thursday, the US imposed curbs on three nephews of Maduro's wife, Cilia Flores, as well as six crude oil supertankers and the shipping companies linked to them. The treasury department alleged the vessels engaged in deceptive and unsafe shipping practices and continue to provide financial resources that fuel Maduro's corrupt narco-terrorist regime". Continue reading...
Order, which lacks the force of law, also creates taskforce whose sole responsibility' will be challenging states' AI lawsDonald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday that seeks to halt any laws limiting artificial intelligence and block states from regulating the rapidly emerging technology. The order also creates a federal taskforce that will have the sole responsibility" of challenging states' AI laws.At a signing ceremony, the president touted AI companies' enthusiasm for wanting to invest" in the United States and said that if they had to get 50 different approvals from 50 different states, you could forget it". Continue reading...
Abrego plans return to Maryland as DHS pledges to appeal judge's decision, calling ruling naked judicial activism'Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been freed from an immigration detention facility in Pennsylvania after a federal judge in Maryland ordered his release on Thursday.Abrego was released shortly before 5pm ET, his attorney told the Associated Press. He plans to return to Maryland, where he has lived for many years with his US citizen wife and child after first entering the country illegally as a teenager. Continue reading...
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