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Latest image drop comes as pressure mounts on Trump's justice department to release files

Videos show people in Minnesota and Illinois throwing snowballs at federal agents trying to arrest residentsICE, meet snow. As federal agents aggressively raid and detain immigrants in cities across the US, people working to prevent these arrests are using the abundant snow on the ground to fight back.In videos of confrontations in Minnesota and Illinois, people have thrown snowballs at federal agents who are trying to apprehend their neighbors, often as agents are using force or wielding weapons. In many instances, the agents then responded with more aggression, using pepper spray or teargas against protesters. Continue reading...

Change will loosen limits on research and certain regulations but stops short of making marijuana legalDonald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order to move cannabis out of the most restrictive drug category, a change that would loosen limits on research and certain regulations but stop short of making marijuana legal nationwide.I'm pleased to announce that I will be signing an Executive Order to reschedule marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule III controlled substance with legitimate medical uses," the president said from the Oval Office. Continue reading...

US federal agents were filmed dragging a woman and pinning her down in the snow for several minutes in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Monday. Bystanders pleaded with the agents to let the woman go and threw snowballs at them. The Minneapolis police chief, Brian O'Hara, criticised the ICE tactics after the incident Continue reading...

Images, undated and uncaptioned, include Nabokov lines written on woman's body and show Bill Gates and Noam Chomsky

Ronald Hicks, who endorsed message condemning ICE raids, to lead one of biggest US archdiocesesPope Leo XIV has named a fellow Chicagoan as the next archbishop of New York, one of the biggest US archdioceses, in a signal that the church will continue its stance against the Trump administration on immigration.The US-born pope chose 58-year-old Ronald Hicks, the current bishop of Joliet, Illinois, to lead the church in New York, replacing retiring Cardinal Timothy Dolan who has served for 16 years after being selected by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012. Continue reading...

Flagship body to be know at Trump-Kennedy Center amid administration's push to reshape cultural institutionsThe board of the Kennedy Center in Washington DC is moving ahead with a proposal to rename the arts and culture-focused institution, named after President John F Kennedy, in honor of Donald Trump, according to an announcement from the White House on Thursday.It will now be called the Trump-Kennedy Center. Continue reading...

With the Christmas recess slowing the political havoc, it's time to hand out the Guardian's parliamentarian of the year awardsYou can hear the sighs of relief. Not from the MPs who are packing up to slope back to their constituencies for the Christmas recess, but from the rest of the country. Finally, the year is coming to an end and there will be few chances for our politicians to do any further damage before they return to Westminster in January.The psychodrama is finally done. We can all go to bed vaguely hopeful that the world won't have taken a further turn for the worse by the time we wake up. Continue reading...

Justice department must release most documents by Friday, and failure to do so would provoke a firestormIn less than 48 hours, Donald Trump's justice department must release most of the files related to Jeffrey Epstein in its possession. Last month, Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which required the release of those materials by 19 December, except in narrow cases where they would jeopardize current investigations, harm national security or foreign policy goals, or reveal information about Epstein's victims.Since Trump signed the legislation, his administration has been silent on its progress. Earlier this month, a bipartisan group of lawmakers asked Pam Bondi, the attorney general, for a briefing on the department of justice's progress, but she did not provide one. Two Democratic senators among that group subsequently pledged to block some civilian nominees, because they were concerned the administration is gearing up to disregard the law we led the fight in the Senate to pass, which overwhelmingly passed both chambers of Congress". Continue reading...

Brooks, who dismissed Epstein scandal as stupid story', wrote column expressing lack of interest in developmentsThe New York Times columnist David Brooks appeared in multiple photos from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein that were released on Thursday by the House committee on oversight and government reform.The photos, which have been rolled out in batches by the minority Democrats in the committee, lack crucial context, including dates and locations. But the photos appear to show Brooks attending a lunch or dinner event. Brooks is shown seated next to Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google. Continue reading...

Proposal would prohibit Medicaid funds from being used to cover puberty blockers, hormone treatments or surgical procedures

The 55-year-old from Boulder, Colorado, is the first female head of a major oil companyThe surprise appointment of BP's third chief executive in a tumultuous five years reflects the embattled fossil fuel producer's need for profound change. The hiring of Meg O'Neill appears to offer exactly that.The 55-year-old from Boulder, Colorado, is the first female head of a major oil company, and the first outsider" to be hired to a position usually reserved for company veterans. She joins from the Australian oil and gas company Woodside, where she took up her first chief executive role only four years ago. Continue reading...

Nick Reiner, the son of the actor-director Rob Reiner and photographer-producer Michele Reiner, appears on security footage recorded in Los Angeles on Sunday after his parents were found dead in their home.Reiner is suspected of fatally stabbing them. He appeared in court on Wednesday but did not enter a plea

Comments follow reports that US president discussed idea with constitutional scholar Alan Dershowitz

It is clear that the FCC is not an independent agency, but an instrument of the president's political agendaThe Federal Communications Commission chair, Brendan Carr, admitted at a Senate hearing on Wednesday that there had been a political sea change" and he no longer viewed the FCC as an independent agency. Commissioners, he says, serve at the pleasure of the president.In his case, that president is Donald Trump, whose face Carr wears as a lapel pin, whose agenda he loudly embraces, and who often publicly demands that Carr censor his critics, including revoking their broadcast licenses.Seth Stern is the director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation and a first amendment lawyer. Clayton Weimers is the executive director of RSF USA, the North American branch of Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Continue reading...

Lawsuit alleges that Larry Bushart's first amendment rights were violated when he was arrested and jailed for 37 daysA former law enforcement officer in Tennessee is suing his county and sheriff after he was jailed for more than a month for posting a meme on Facebook related to the 10 September assassination of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk.According to the new 30-page lawsuit filed this week, 10 days after Kirk's killing, Larry Bushart, 61, shared a post in the comments of a Facebook post about a vigil for Kirk in Perry county, Tennessee. Continue reading...

DoJ says a group of protesters at an ICE detention center was part of a terror cell; legal experts say it is an effort to crack down on leftwing groups and deter protestersAfter the assassination of Charlie Kirk in September, Donald Trump and others pledged a no-holds barred crackdown on leftwing activists.We have radical left lunatics out there and we just have to beat the hell out of them," Trump said after Kirk's shooting. Top White House officials, including JD Vance and Stephen Miller, repeatedly publicly vowed that a crackdown was coming. In particular, the government focused on Antifa." short for antifascist, is not an organization but rather an ideology that broadly describes a variety of left-leaning beliefs. Continue reading...

As Trump carries out his mass deportation operation, residents are banding together to block raids and distribute groceriesA year into his second term, Donald Trump's pledge to stage the largest deportation operation in American history" has already made an indelible mark on the nation.Nearly 300,000 people have been deported, and a record 65,000 people are being held in detention centers. Aggressive raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents, sometimes with the backing of federalized national guard units, have terrorized immigrant communities from Charlotte to Chicago, New Orleans to New York. Enabled by a supreme court ruling that effectively legalized racial profiling", immigration enforcement has separated families, forced targeted individuals to miss work, school and doctors appointments, and caused communities to cancel festivals and gatherings. Continue reading...

Longest federal government shutdown meant data was only collected for second half of NovemberUS prices rose 2.7% in the year to November, according to federal data released a day after Donald Trump claimed they were falling very fast" on his watch.The latest consumer price index, released on Wednesday morning, was down from 3% in September, and short of economists' expectations of about 3.1% for last month. Continue reading...

A Guardian study of past ticket prices for the men's World Cup, compared with current 2026 figures, shows how the barrier for entry has been raised for most fansIn the past, a fan's ability to attend a World Cup hosted in their nation hinged more on bid books than their checkbooks. For 2026 in the US, Mexico and Canada, even the least expensive tickets are a luxury commodity by comparison.An analysis by the Guardian of men's World Cup ticket pricing shows that amid the general rise in ticket prices for the 2026 World Cup, the most extreme of those hikes have often applied to the cheapest tickets. The analysis is based on official Fifa pricing dating back to 1994, with more robust data available starting in 2006. Prices for 2026 games are accurate as of 16 December 2025, and do not include the 1.6% of sellable tickets for each game that Fifa recently made available for a fixed $60 price. Continue reading...

White elephant parties - in which people are invited to steal each other's gifts - are the last thing we need right nowHappy forced frivolity season! We have once again arrived at the eye of the storm for the holidays, where cheerfulness is mandatory and lack of goodwill towards people is punishable by stoning in the town square. Surely, I don't have to tell you that such quaint human emotions as happiness" and hope" are in short supply these days. This year, of all years, no one should be blamed for plugging their ears any time Mariah Carey comes on in the lobby of the unemployment office. And yet, we carry on with the rituals of joy that seem more and more incongruous, when life feels like some never-ending episode of MTV's Ridiculousness, where God comments on clips of the human race getting hit in the face with a plastic baseball bat.I'm certainly making an effort to put on a pleasant facade. I've cobbled together some nice gifts for my friends and family. I say hello to strangers, even the ones that look like they might want to deny me my basic rights as outlined in the US constitution. And I say yes to just about every holiday party invite - save for one massive exception.Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist Continue reading...

The US host city's resolve in maintaining its Pride Match' should be commended as exactly the sort of thing this tournament is forThere are two World Cups. The product, marketed and monetized for all it will yield, and the experience.Only one of those is the real thing. And in one case, it's holding strong. In Seattle, the local organizing committee long ago designated the 26 June game slated for Lumen Field as the Pride Match" to mark the city's LGBTQ+ pride weekend celebration. Continue reading...

Americans told time to get vaccinated is now' as concerning mutation of influenza virus circulates in USOfficials are urging doctors to vaccinate their patients and provide flu antivirals after deaths among children reached record highs and as a concerning mutation of the virus circulates in the US.Influenza activity is increasing in the US. The time to get vaccinated for this season is now," Timothy Uyeki, the chief medical officer of the influenza division at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said in a call with clinicians last week. Continue reading...

Class Action, a grassroots network formed after the affirmative action ruling, seeks to be critical of universities in their current formLast spring, as the Trump administration was freezing billions in federal research funding for universities and threatening the visas of thousands of international students, Emily Hettinger, a senior at Yale, joined a campus protest in defense of higher education.It was a strange place to be for Hettinger, who had been growing disillusioned with Yale over what she saw as its elitism and disinterest in the disadvantaged community surrounding its Connecticut campus. I remember feeling this sort of dissonance," Hettinger said. I wanted to defend higher education, but I didn't want to defend it in its current form." Continue reading...

Learning Resources is suing the administration, claiming the president's tariffs are illegal - and millions of dollars are on the lineThe conveyors whir in the massive warehouse, boxes gliding at fast clip, filling up with toys ready to be shipped out for holiday gifts across the country. They make their way to shipping trucks, nearly full with hundreds of boxes by the afternoon of a recent Thursday.The 364,000 sq ft warehouse in the suburbs outside Chicago is just one of Learning Resources' investments in the US. The company and its affiliated brands employ more than 500 people. They make about 2,000 different products, mostly educational toys such as children's binoculars, cash registers and learning games. Continue reading...

UN condemns strikes as extrajudicial executions. Plus, Trump's end-of-year Bah! Humbug!' addressGood morning.The US military has carried out another lethal strike on a vessel it claimed was engaged in drug trafficking in the eastern Pacific, according to the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth.How do human rights groups view the airstrikes? The UN, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have described them as extrajudicial executions. The family of one man killed in a bombing, from Colombia, have filed a petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, alleging that he was killed unlawfully on 15 September.What did the speech tell us? This was not an address by a self-confident man dishing out Christmas presents to the nation," Smith wrote. It smacked of desperation from one who can feel the December windchill of opinion polls - a Reuters/ Ipsos poll on Tuesday showed just 33% of US adults approve of how Trump has handled the economy." Continue reading...

US hedge fund Elliott thought to prefer IPO in London over New York, which could be welcome boost to UK stock market

Remarkably, most of the men connected to the convicted sex offender have barely experienced any fallout. That says as much as the scandal itselfA couple of weeks ago, the annual DealBook Summit got under way in New York. It's a series of public talks billed as conversations with the world's most consequential people", and is part of that circuit of live events in which the worst people on Earth gather on stage to address the second-worst people on Earth, their paying audience. Hosted by Andrew Ross Sorkin, the conference was a characteristically starry affair, but in a lineup that included Charlie Kirk's widow, Erika Kirk, the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, and changemaker" Halle Berry, it was Ehud Barak, the former prime minister of Israel and a former associate of Jeffrey Epstein, who really caught the eye.My first thought about Barak's appearance was: Larry Summers must be spitting. Summers, the former president of Harvard and another Epstein associate, was very much not on stage at the DealBook Summit, nor is he anywhere else in polite society right now. One can only imagine how bitter he must be feeling about the variance in fortunes of the men - and occasional woman - with known connections to Epstein. Of this list, two are dead (Marvin Minsky and Jean-Luc Brunel), one is in jail (Ghislaine Maxwell) and one has lost his house, his title and his invitation to the family Christmas (Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor). But for the rest of the prominent associates, email correspondents, birthday-card signatories, grant recipients and dinner companions of the late convicted paedophile - all of whom insist that, while in Epstein's orbit, they remained in total ignorance as to the man's true nature - the cancellation fairy's aim has been predictably inconsistent and wide.Emma Brockes 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...

Primetime speech - delivered with shouty spirit but no cheer - betrayed a figure dogged by a cost of living crisis and the looming release of the Epstein filesIt will go down in history as the Bah! Humbug!" address.Surrounded by Christmas trees and garlands before a fireplace, Donald Trump on Wednesday gave a convincing rendition of Ebenezer Scrooge, the elderly miser who despises Christmas and blames everyone but himself. Continue reading...

The announcement from Pete Hegseth comes a day after Trump issued a blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving VenezuelaThe US military carried out a lethal strike on a vessel it said was engaged in drug trafficking in the eastern Pacific, according to defense secretary Pete Hegseth, as Trump further ratcheted up pressure on Venezuela, accusing the country of taking US oil.On Wednesday Hegseth said the lethal kinetic strike" on a vessel engaged in narco-trafficking operations" had killed four people. The latest strike in the Pacific brings the death toll to 99 since the US began its campaign of striking alleged drug-trafficking boats in September. Continue reading...

Arnett won 1966 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting for his Vietnam War coverage for the Associated PressPeter Arnett, the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who spent decades dodging bullets and bombs to bring the world eyewitness accounts of war from the rice paddies of Vietnam to the deserts of Iraq, has died at 91.Arnett, who won the 1966 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting for his Vietnam War coverage for the Associated Press, died on Wednesday in Newport Beach, California, and was surrounded by friends and family, said his son Andrew Arnett. He had entered hospice on Saturday while suffering from prostate cancer. Continue reading...

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Official response to lawsuit filed by victims' relatives admits FAA and army failures played role in Washington DC crashThe US government admitted Wednesday that the Federal Aviation Administration and the army played a role in causing the collision in January between an airliner and a Black Hawk helicopter near the nation's capital, killing 67 people in the deadliest crash on American soil in more than two decades.The official response to the first lawsuit filed by one of the victims' families said that the government is liable in the crash partly because the air traffic controller violated procedures about when to rely on pilots to maintain visual separation that night. Plus, the filing said, the army helicopter pilots' failure to maintain vigilance so as to see and avoid" the airline jet makes the government liable. Continue reading...

Bongino, a former Secret Service agent turned podcaster, will step down in January. Key US politics stories from Wednesday 17 December at a glanceThe FBI deputy director, Dan Bongino, confirmed on Wednesday that he is stepping down in January.In a statement posted on social media, Bongino thanked Donald Trump, FBI director Kash Patel, and Pam Bondi, the attorney general he reportedly clashed with over her decision not to release files from the federal investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. Continue reading...

Two bills, one passing House, mark first time Congress votes over national care bans and escalation of anti-trans rhetoricNicholas Mitchell took a deep breath and reached for the door handle. He never knew what to expect inside. Sometimes, the staffers for US House representatives were friendly; sometimes, he'd heard, they tore up their copies of the informational sheets Mitchell carried on a clipboard.This time, they were receptive. A policy aide for a Democratic representative said he had five minutes to talk, and Mitchell didn't waste any time as they settled into a conference room. Continue reading...

Former podcaster Bongino confirms departure after Trump tells reporters I think he wants to go back to his show'The FBI deputy director, Dan Bongino, confirmed on Wednesday that he is stepping down in January.In a statement posted on social media, Bongino thanked Donald Trump, Kash Patel, the FBI director, and Pam Bondi, the attorney general he reportedly clashed with over her decision not to release files from the federal investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender who socialized with Trump for more than a decade. Continue reading...

Researchers at Cedars-Sinai say rates of heart attack and respiratory illness matched worst years of Covid'In the first 90 days after the devastating Palisades and Eaton fires that destroyed entire Los Angeles neighborhoods, there was a 46% increase in ER visits for heart attack symptoms at LA's Cedars-Sinai hospital, according to a newly released study.Rates of heart attacks in January 2025 actually surpassed heart attack rates during all the prior Januaries, even during the Covid years," Dr Susan Cheng, director of public health research at Cedars-Sinai and the study's senior author, told the Guardian.This story was amended on 17 December 2025 to correct a misprint in the journal study. The was a 118% increase in blood-test abnormalities after the January wildfires. Continue reading...

District judge says hundreds of federal layoffs at four agencies not allowed under law Congress passed last monthA federal judge on Wednesday said she would block Donald Trump's administration from laying off hundreds of federal employees, the latest legal setback for the president's efforts to downsize the US government workforce.US district judge Susan Illston during a hearing in San Francisco said hundreds of layoffs at four agencies were likely not allowed under a law Congress passed last month to end a 43-day government shutdown. Continue reading...

District judge says policies deeming ICE field offices off-limits for congressional oversight' violates federal lawA federal judge on Wednesday said Donald Trump's administration cannot bar members of Congress from making unannounced visits to immigrant detention facilities.US district judge Jia Cobb in Washington DC said US Department of Homeland Security policies deeming Immigration and Customs Enforcement field offices off-limits for congressional oversight" and requiring seven days' notice for visits violated federal law. Continue reading...

Fulton county DA hits back at Republican opponents who investigated her over relationship with special prosecutorFulton county district attorney Fani Willis testified on Wednesday at a combative Georgia state senate committee about her prosecution of Donald Trump for election interference.The state senate created the special committee in early 2024 to investigate Willis after the revelation that she had a romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, special prosecutor in the Trump case, which ultimately derailed the prosecution of the now-re-elected president. Continue reading...

New plaques on Presidential Walk of Fame' scorn divisive' Obama and by far the worst' Biden - but Reagan is praisedWhite House officials on Wednesday revised what they call the Presidential Walk of Fame," installing plaques beneath portraits of former presidents that reflect Donald Trump's own views, including branding former president Joe Biden as the worst president in American history".The changes are part of Trump's broader effort to reshape the White House environment to match his preferences. Along the colonnade, portraits of past presidents now feature expanded text that permanently records Trump's assessments of their records. Continue reading...

Ex-special counsel tells House panel US president's actions alone underpinned now-dropped prosecutionsJack Smith, the former US justice department special counsel who brought two now-dropped criminal cases against Donald Trump, defended his investigation before a House of Representatives panel on Wednesday, telling lawmakers that the basis for the prosecutions rests entirely with President Trump and his actions".Smith gave private testimony to the Republican-controlled House judiciary committee following months of disclosures from Trump appointees at the justice department, and Republican lawmakers intended to discredit Smith's investigation and bolster Trump's claims that the cases were an abuse of the legal system. Continue reading...

Brendan Carr's declaration raises concerns amid Trump efforts to exert greater control over independent agenciesThe Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is not an independent" agency, its chairman suggested on Wednesday, as the word was scrubbed from its online mission statement.Brendan Carr's declaration to senators raised concerns of a further power grab by the White House, amid concerns surrounding efforts by Donald Trump and his officials to exert greater control over independent agencies since his return to office in January. Continue reading...

More than 3,500 cases of dressing, including Hidden Valley Ranch, recalled after foreign objects' were discoveredThousands of cases of salad dressing have been recalled in the US after foreign objects" were discovered in the products, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).The recall involves items produced by California-based Ventura Foods and affects dressings distributed to retailers nationwide. Continue reading...

Stunning move comes after House Republicans pushed ahead with bill that doesn't address soaring premiums if Affordable Care Act tax credits expire

Son of Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner who is being held without bail did not enter a pleaNick Reiner, who has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the killing of his parents, acclaimed actor and director Rob Reiner and photographer Michele Singer Reiner, made his first appearance in court on Wednesday.The 32-year-old, who is being held without bail, did not enter a plea, and his arraignment has been delayed until January. Continue reading...

Senate advances 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, which White House says Trump will sign into lawThe US Senate voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to advance a $901bn bill setting policy for the Pentagon, sending the big piece of legislation to the White House, which has said Donald Trump will sign it into law.The fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, is a compromise between separate measures passed earlier this year in the House of Representatives and Senate. It authorizes a record $901bn in annual military spending, with a 4% pay raise for the troops, purchases of military equipment and efforts to boost competitiveness with US archrivals China and Russia. Continue reading...

The former Liverpool and Barcelona striker, who turns 39 in January, has been productive but was benched for the tail end of Miami's title runInter Miami have re-signed striker Luis Suarez through the 2026 season, the MLS Cup champions announced Wednesday.The legendary Uruguay international had 17 goals and 17 assists in 50 appearances for the team in 2025. However, Inter Miami became a buzzsaw after Suarez was dropped to the bench by head coach Javier Mascherano. Replaced by Mateo Silvetti after Miami's 2-1 loss at Nashville SC in Round One, Miami won their next four games and outscored opponents 16-2 in route to the MLS Cup title. Continue reading...