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Leftwing policies have mass appeal - what's needed is a figurehead who can bring back alienated voters and dodge culture warsTony Blair's devotees always had a stock response for their leftwing critics, and it went like this: your desire for political purity will render Labour unelectable, and the poorest will pay the price. A Labour party led by sensible moderates" may not be your first choice, but it is the only hope for the most vulnerable.As Labour imposes poverty on at least 250,000 people through cuts to disability benefits, according to estimates by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, this argument is submerged under a tidal wave of misery. The government has already robbed many pensioners of their winter fuel payments, and not only voted to keep a Tory two-child benefit cap that imposes squalor on hundreds of thousands of children, but suspended those Labour MPs who opposed it. A Labour party that knowingly imposes hardship on disabled people, pensioners and children has filed for moral and political bankruptcy.Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Donald Trump has upended decades of US foreign policy by bringing in a vast array of tariffs that threaten to disrupt international trade. Here are some initial key points

It seems to me that whatever the charges facing the activists at the Quaker meeting house raid, their fundamental crime is dissentThe faces are different, but it's the same authoritarianism. Keir Starmer's team might not look or sound like Donald Trump's, but its policies on protest and dissent are chillingly similar. So is the reason: coordinated global lobbying by the rich and powerful, fronted by rightwing junktanks.Last week, six young women were having tea and biscuits in the Quaker meeting house in Westminster. Twenty police officers forced open the door and arrested them on conspiracy charges. Had the police discovered a plot to blow up parliament or to poison the water supply? No. It was an openly advertised, routine meeting of a protest group called Youth Demand, discussing climate breakdown and the assault on Gaza.George Monbiot is a Guardian columnistThe Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism, by George Monbiot and Peter Hutchison, was published in paperback last weekDo 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...

The US president's new tariff regime on every country threatens to unleash a global trade war. Here we explore how the world is responding

Australian prime minister surprised after external territories - including tiny Norfolk Island and remote islands home to penguins - targeted by US presidentA group of barren, uninhabited volcanic islands near Antarctica, covered in glaciers and home to penguins, have been swept up in Donald Trump's trade war, as the US president hit them with a 10% tariff on goods.Heard Island and McDonald Islands, which form an external territory of Australia, are among the remotest places on earth, accessible only via a two-week boat voyage from Perth on Australia's west coast. They are completely uninhabited, with the last visit from people believed to be nearly 10 years ago. Continue reading...

Trump announces reciprocal' tariffs on largest US trading partners; Elon Musk may leave government role at end of 130-day cap. Here's your roundup of key US politics stories from 2 April 2025Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on some of its largest trading partners on Wednesday, upending decades of US trade policy and threatening to unleash a global trade war on what he has dubbed liberation day".Trump said he will impose a 10% universal tariff on all imported foreign goods in addition to reciprocal tariffs" on a few dozen countries, charging additional duties onto countries that Trump claims have cheated" America. Continue reading...

Myanmar, which is reeling from a huge earthquake and civil war, faces 44% rate amid suspicions that the underlying target is China

This liveblog is now closed. For continued coverage on the tariffs, head to the live business blog.Donald Trump's planned tariffs will be negative across the world, with the damage depending on how far they go, how long they last and whether they lead to successful negotiations, the European Central Bank head, Christine Lagarde, said on Wednesday.The Trump administration on Wednesday is set to announce reciprocal tariffs" targeting nations that have duties on US goods. That move would come after it slapped new import levies on products from Mexico, China and Canada - the top US trading partners - as well as on goods including steel and autos.Wisconsin beat the billionaire.Wisconsin cannot be bought. Our democracy is not for sale. And when we fight, we win. Congratulations, @CrawfordForWI Continue reading...

Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on some of the US's largest trading partners, upending decades of US trade policy and threatening to unleash a global trade war on what he has dubbed 'liberation day'. The president said he will impose a 10% universal tariff on all imported foreign goods in addition to 'reciprocal tariffs' on a few dozen countries, charging additional duties onto countries that Trump claims have 'cheated' the US

Trump pledged to liberate the nation from higher prices, and is betting tariffs won't raise them too high, for too longFor weeks, Donald Trump and his aides sought to brand Wednesday as liberation day" in America. Many in the US could be forgiven for wondering what exactly they've just been liberated from.After much hype, the president unveiled his plan for a new era in global trade: a blanket 10% tariff on goods imported into the US starting Saturday, and higher reciprocal" tariffs (of up to 49%) on countries taxing US exports starting next Wednesday. Continue reading...

Lawsuit alleges department's ending of wide array of grants is unlawful' and poses serious harm to public health'Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia are suing the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, alleging the abrupt terminations of $11bn in public health funding were harmful" and unlawful".The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Rhode Island, says that in March 2025, HHS unexpectedly ended a wide array of grants supporting immunizations, infectious disease tracking, and mental health and substance abuse services. The federal government justified the cuts by claiming that the funds were no longer necessary" because their limited purpose" had ended along with the Covid-19 pandemic. Continue reading...

President to impose reciprocal' tariffs on largest trading partners and says new charges will bring about golden age'

President promised liberation yet may have plunged the US into recession and the world into an economic scrambleDonald Trump is finally making good on his campaign promises to build that wall" - but instead of steel fencing along the Mexican border, it will be constructed from tariffs, and will enclose the entire United States.In his pugnacious and typically rambling speech on the White House lawn on Wednesday, Trump set out plans for across-the-board import taxes, ranging from 10% to more than 40%. Continue reading...

Retaliation may not be needed as Britain likely to be front of the queue' in agreeing deal to redraw trade relationshipWhat is the best way to respond to Donald Trump and his sweeping tariffs? Keir Starmer thinks the answer is to tread softly, softly - while engaging in intensive negotiations behind the scenes.There are signs that this strategy is bearing fruit. On Wednesday night, the president announced reciprocal tariffs on countries throughout the world" including a 10% import tax on UK exports to the US - crucially, lower than the 20% imposed on the EU. The 10% rate was the lowest rate Trump announced and applied to several other countries including Australia, Singapore and Brazil.100 days of Trump's presidency, with Jonathan Freedland and guests Continue reading...

Britain gets off comparatively lightly but US president's action could still cost billions in lost growth

While the president has identified the need to do things differently, his strategy risks a slump, hitting the very Americans he claims to championIt would be liberation day" in the US, the White House announced. Well, we shall see. Yet even if one puts the noise and nastiness that accompany a Donald Trump announcement to one side - in this case tonight's pronouncement that there will be an executive order announcing reciprocal tariffs on countries throughout the world", a 10% tariff on the UK and 20% on the EU - the significance of the theatre is hard to miss. Whether they presage the US's liberation, or instead the disintegration of the global trading order, Trump's tariffs add up to an attempt to transform a badly broken economic model. And that is something that affects us all.Trump's announcement was awash with insult and rambling nonsense. The rest of the world had looted, raped and pillaged, had scavenged and ransacked America - shocking claims if they had come from any other US president, yet water off a duck's back today. But the hard core was there all the same: tariffs on the whole of the rest of the world. The shutters were up.Martin Kettle is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Republicans in Florida couldn't re-create Trump's November margins, while Musk's efforts in Wisconsin failedDonald Trump and the Republicans ought to be wary of a possible blue wave in next year's midterms. On Tuesday, voters in Florida and Wisconsin signaled dissatisfaction with Elon Musk, the GOP and the president. On the surface, the results spelled political equipoise. No seats changed hands.A closer look, however, reveals possible headaches for Donald Trump and his party. Continue reading...

Kevin Young has been absent since 14 March, weeks before president's order taking aim at anti-American' content

Watching the New Jersey senator hold court for 25 hours felt radical and catharticOne of the problems beleaguering political opponents of Donald Trump has been finding a form of protest that, given the scale of his outrages, doesn't seem entirely futile. You can parade outside a Tesla showroom. You can hold up dumb little signs during Trump's address to Congress inscribed with slogans such as This is not normal" and Musk steals". You can, as Democrats appear to have been doing since the election, play dead.Alternatively, you can go for the ostentatious, performative gesture. On Monday evening, Cory Booker, the Democratic senator for New Jersey who carries himself like someone who'd have been happier in an era when men wore capes, started speaking on the floor of the Senate and carried on for 25 hours and five minutes, breaking the chamber's record by almost 50 minutes and delivering - finally - a solid, usable symbol of rebellion.Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

US president's erratic approach has fuelled a dizzying array of tariff measures, before pausing or changing them, prompting a chaotic series of responses

Former Biden health secretary and state attorney general enters race as speculation swirls over Kamala Harris's plans

Democrats seize on result as a referendum on Musk and an emphatic repudiation of Trump's richest supporter and allyDemocrats were tasting unfamiliar triumphalism on Wednesday after the election for a vacant Wisconsin supreme court seat turned into an emphatic repudiation of Elon Musk, Donald Trump's richest supporter and key ally.Musk endured a wave of gloating on Twitter/X, his own social media platform, after Brad Schimel, a Trump-endorsed judge that he spent $25m supporting lost by 10 percentage points to Susan Crawford, whose victory sustained a four-three liberal majority on the court. Continue reading...

Democrats motivated by deep anger from voters who say party isn't doing enough to coalesce around a strategy

Latest security flap again focuses scrutiny on Waltz after he earlier added journalist to Yemen war-planning chat

Judge said Trump officials' push to have case dropped smacks of a bargain' over immigration enforcementA US federal judge on Wednesday dismissed the Department of Justice's corruption case against New York City's embattled mayor, Eric Adams, after weeks of scandal about the Democratic mayor bowing to pressure from the Trump administration to cooperate on immigration crackdowns while trying to get out from under the criminal charges.Despite the judge's decision, he said the Trump administration's grounds for having the case dropped smacks of a bargain". Continue reading...

Texas volunteers had prepared welcome for family fleeing Taliban now stranded in Pakistan in fear of being deportedThe 24-year-old Afghan woman wants to become a surgeon - and she had set her sights on training in the US.She wants to care for other women and girls, so they don't have to be afraid to visit the doctor - so at least in one crucial aspect of their lives they won't have to endure the unwanted advances, dismissive comments and blatant disrespect that she's experienced from many of the men who have always surrounded her, first in her native Afghanistan and now in legal limbo in Pakistan. Continue reading...

Liberal judge says victory is against unprecedented attack on our democracy' after defeating Brad Schimel in the most expensive judicial election in US historySusan Crawford won the race for a seat on the Wisconsin supreme court on Tuesday, scoring a major victory for Democrats who had framed the race as a referendum on Elon Musk and Donald Trump's popularity.Crawford, a liberal judge from Dane county, defeated Brad Schimel, a former Republican attorney general and conservative judge from Waukesha county, after Musk and groups associated with the tech billionaire spent millions to boost his candidacy in what became the most expensive judicial contest in American history. Continue reading...

The Reserve Bank says they are cautious about the outlook. Caution is fine, but indolence in the face of a challenging world is notLife is like a box of chocolates," said Forrest Gump, who had clearly never looked at the label descriptions on the box. You never know what you're gonna get." And so it was for the RBA on Tuesday when they announced that it was keeping the cash rate steady at 4.1%.Not the actual decision - we all knew they were not going to cut rates. The market on Tuesday morning rated it about a 10% chance but no one was about to go bet their mortgage on it happening. No, the uncertainty was all about what was in the Reserve Bank's statement and what they think is about to come next. Continue reading...

Some seemed nonplussed and said it would make no difference, while others expressed support for Trump's planDonald Trump's liberation day" - his plan to overturn decades of US free trade policy - was getting a mixed reaction in New York on Tuesday.With Trump planning to unleash tariffs on global trading partners on Wednesday, many said the price rises economists are predicting would make no difference because they were already out of reach of pinched pocketbooks. Others said they would accept short-term price hikes for longer-term US economic well-being. Continue reading...

About 134,000 trans veterans live in the US, with many now blocked from life-saving gender-affirming careWhen Savannah Blake joined the air force at 22 years old, she was looking for stable employment and a way out of poverty. For the last few years of her service, she worked as a cyberdefense operator in the intelligence squadron. But the work, which involved overseeing computers operating drone surveillance, eventually took a toll on her mental health.If I had to watch any more of this, I was going to not be alive anymore," Blake said, who says she experienced suicidal ideations. I just felt like the bad guy. I felt evil." Continue reading...

The temporary restraining order is another setback in less than a week for Trump's immigration crackdownA federal judge in California has ordered the Trump administration to temporarily restore legal aid to tens of thousands of migrant children who are in the United States without a parent or guardian.The Republican administration on 21 March terminated a contract with the Acacia Center for Justice, which provides legal services for unaccompanied migrant children under 18 through a network of legal aid groups that subcontract with the center. Eleven subcontractor groups sued, saying that 26,000 children were at risk of losing their attorneys; Acacia is not a plaintiff. Continue reading...

Why is the moral panic only ever about younger generations? It's time we heard what confuses or worries them about usEvery generation looks at the next generation, and the one after that, with bafflement and concern. There's probably a name for this phenomenon. That's not to say we (the olds) aren't right to be more worried than ever about what they (the young) are up to. There's a lot for us to be worried about and confused about in equal measure. The TV drama Adolescence got at this. Even having had its emojis and red pills - and emojis of red pills - patiently explained to me, I remain concerned and confused. Mainly confused. It's all decidedly mysterious - and not in a good, exciting way.This intergenerational bewilderment seems only to work in one direction: down, rather than up. We flail around trying to make sense of what's going on with the young. If you are young, this is relevant to you, too, because you will soon be feeling like this about those coming up behind you. What I want to know is what, if anything, baffles the young about the old. Do they get together to express despair and confusion at the conduct of the olds? Is there stroking of chins, scratching and shaking of heads, as they ask: What's going on with elderly people today? I can hardly understand a thing they're saying. I don't know what's going to become of them, I'm sure." Continue reading...

Comments come after it was revealed judge ignored DoJ recommendations against expelling survivors from panelClergy abuse survivors who were ousted from a committee trying to negotiate a settlement resolving the New Orleans Catholic archdiocese's bankruptcy say they have lost their confidence in the judge presiding over the case.Their comments come after it was revealed that Judge Meredith Grabill ignored US justice department recommendations against expelling the survivors from the group, delivering the latest twist in the child sexual abuse scandal roiling one of America's oldest Roman Catholic dioceses. Continue reading...

It is a factually inaccurate and totally, utterly wrong to say that undocumented people are illegal' and are criminals'On 29 January, the second Trump administration held its first White House press briefing. Of the 3,500 arrests Ice has made so far since President Trump came back into office, can you just tell us the numbers?" asked a reporter in the front row. How many have a criminal record versus those who are just in the country illegally?"All of them," responded the new White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, making her debut in the briefing room, because they illegally broke our nation's laws, and, therefore, they are criminals, as far as this administration goes." She continued: I know the last administration didn't see it that way, so it's a big culture shift in our nation to view someone who breaks our immigration laws as a criminal. But that's exactly what they are."Mehdi Hasan is a broadcaster and author, and a former host on MSNBC. He is also a Guardian US columnist and the editor-in-chief of Zeteo Continue reading...

Ron Klain tells author Chris Whipple then president could not focus and obsessed about foreign leaders, ahead of debate that ended his campaignIn a new book, Joe Biden's former White House chief of staff paints a devastating picture of the then US president's mental and physical state before the debate with Donald Trump that sent his 2024 campaign into a tailspin, resulting in his relinquishing the Democratic nomination to Kamala Harris.Ron Klain served Biden from 2021 to 2023, then returned to his side last June, to run debate preparation as he had for numerous Democratic presidents before. Continue reading...

She left her job when her husband got a shot at VP - only for the couple to be met with the frostiest of receptions in Greenland at the weekendThere are a few people to blame for the fact that JD Vance, a staggeringly unlikable man with a supremely meme-able face, has been thrust into such prominence. The first is Peter Thiel: the tech billionaire who bankrolled Vance's political pivot. The second is Kevin D Roberts, head of the Heritage Foundation and mastermind of Project 2025, who has been an energetic Vance advocate.And the third is Usha Chilukuri Vance, JD's wife. While Usha kept a low profile during the Trump-Vance campaign, trailing after her other half with a smile on her face and a copy of The Iliad in her hand, JD has made her influence clear. In his memoir Hillbilly Elegy, for example, he wrote that Usha helped him navigate Yale and always encouraged me to seek opportunities that I didn't know existed". Continue reading...

As the 2026 World Cup approaches, the USMNT lack the charisma, underdog charm and striking victories of their predecessorsImagine the 1980 Miracle on Ice, but with the USA on the other side.In this scenario, the US men's hockey team aren't a scrappy band of outmatched amateurs playing for the country perceived as the good guys in the cold war. The opponents aren't an aloof, brutally effective Soviet Union team expected to steamroll their way to a gold medal just as their military were attempting to steamroll their way through Afghanistan. Continue reading...

A third of the league is tanking with a third of the season remaining, creating a lose-lose situation for the NBA, its fans and TV partners. What's the fix?The Toronto Raptors aren't new to losing. But they are new to whatever this is.After taking over as the Raptors' president of basketball operations in 2013, Masai Ujiri refused to embrace the blatant, in-your-face tanking that Sam Hinkie and the process" Philadelphia 76ers were busy popularizing during that same era, instead opting to build from the middle. I'm not sure the karma is great when you do stuff like that," Ujiri said about tanking. We're not doing that here," he later added. Continue reading...

Val Kilmer, the actor best known for his roles in Top Gun, Batman Forever and The Doors, has died at the age of 65 from pneumonia, his daughter told the New York Times. Here are some of his most famous roles in film

Democrats have appeared lame and leaderless for 72 days, but then Cory Booker stood up and did somethingWould the senator yield for a question?" asked Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.Senator Cory Booker, who on a long day's journey into night had turned himself into the fighter that many Democrats were yearning for, replied with a wry smile: Chuck Schumer, it's the only time in my life I can tell you no." Continue reading...

After a decade of conflict, loss is constant, as is fear for our children's future. But we are more than thisA decade of war in Yemen has left us in a place we never could have imagined. Our biggest worries were once exams, work and weddings. Today, we live with the weight of constant fear. You wake to the sound of explosions or the silence of grief, leave your home uncertain if you will return, look at your child and wonder what kind of future awaits.Yet life goes on. We carry our losses, our broken hearts, our grief, and we continue. Ten years of war, ten years of mourning, of learning to survive with a lump in our hearts. Continue reading...

Judge Susan Crawford's win in the supreme court race means the liberals keep a 4-3 ideological majorityThe liberal judge Susan Crawford won the race for a seat on the Wisconsin supreme court on Tuesday in a closely watched election. It is a major win for Democrats who had framed the race as a litmus test for Donald Trump's and Elon Musk's popularity.Crawford, from Dane county, defeated Brad Schimel, a former Republican attorney general and conservative judge from Waukesha county, after Musk and groups associated him spent millions to boost his candidacy in what became the most expensive judicial contest in American history. Continue reading...

Cory Booker, the Democratic senator from New Jersey, spoke on the Senate floor for more than 25 hours, the longest speech ever given in Senate history. Starting his speech on Monday evening in Washington, vowing to remain on the Senate floor as long as he was 'physically able', Booker spoke in protest at what he called the 'grave and urgent' danger that Donald Trump's presidential administration poses to democracy and the American people. In 1957, Strom Thurmond, a Republican from South Carolina, gave an anti-civil rights speech that lasted 24 hours and 18 minutes

Randy Fine beats Josh Weil in Mike Waltz's former district, and Jimmy Patronis wins seat vacated by Matt GaetzRepublicans on Tuesday won special elections for two US House of Representatives seats in Florida vacated by Donald Trump's cabinet nominees, dashing Democratic hopes for an upset victory in the first federal special elections held since the president began his second term.But Democratic candidates Josh Weil and Gay Valimont are on track to lose the solidly red districts by much smaller margins than the more than 30 points that Democrats lost them by in November. Continue reading...