US news | The Guardian

Opposition challenger Peter Magyar is ahead in the polls on a promise of hope. Orban is betting on fear of war to stay in powerAfter 16 years of uninterrupted power, Viktor Orban is facing his biggest electoral challenge. For years Hungary's prime minister has spun weak policy performance as success. The rise of a rival, Peter Magyar, and the opposition Tisza party has exposed the limits of that strategy.The economy is stagnating, despite repeated promises of a long-awaited takeoff. Over the past decade and a half, Hungary has slipped from being one of central and eastern Europe's strongest performers to one of its weakest. Public services, from healthcare to transport, are widely seen as neglected, and Policy Solutions surveys show that voters have noticed. Hungary is not alone in facing a cost of living crisis, but comparisons offer little consolation to voters who were assured that Orban's model would deliver exceptional results.Andras Biro-Nagy is a senior research fellow at the ELTE Centre for Social Sciences in Budapest and director of Policy Solutions. He is the author of The Path of Hungary's EU Membership Continue reading...

Mette Frederiksen and her Greenlandic counterpart, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, said the pressure on the island's people was unacceptable". Key US politics stories from 14 February at a glanceDanish prime minister Mette Frederiksen has said she believes Donald Trump still wants to own Greenland, despite dialling back his recent threats to seize it by force.Asked at the Munich Security Conference if the US president still wanted to own the Arctic island, Frederiksen said: Unfortunately, I think the desire is the same." Continue reading...

It was another day of high drama at the Milano Cortina Games as Lucas Pinheiro Braathen made history for Brazil and South America, among other plotlinesWomen's dual moguls: It's all very civilised out on the snow, the athletes have a hug when they reach the bottom. I was thinking the snow looked a bit grubby but it turns out the authorities put out pine needles - I think to help skiers find their way.Anyway, they've zipped through very quickly and have already sorted the quarter finals, with four Americans in the final eight. Continue reading...

Luis Munoz Pinto, 27, who was sent to notoriously brutal prison in El Salvador, would like to clear his name after US judge's rulingA US federal judge's order that some of the Venezuelan men sent by the Trump administration to a notorious prison in El Salvador must be allowed to return to the United States to fight their cases has been greeted with hope and a sense of vindication - but also fear - by one of the deportees.

Speaking with progressive YouTuber, former US president stressed unprecedented nature' of agency's actionsBarack Obama publicly gave his support to demonstrators in Minneapolis for standing up to the unprecedented nature" of the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation in Minnesota.Speaking in an interview with progressive YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen on Saturday, the former president discussed the power that US citizens hold when standing up for the values they believe in and his hopes for the next generation of American leaders. Continue reading...

Senators said repeal was particularly troubling' and was counter to EPA's mandate to protect human healthMore than three dozen Democratic senators have begun an independent inquiry into the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) following a huge change in how the agency measures the health benefits of reducing air pollution that is widely seen as a major setback to US efforts to combat the climate crisis.In a regulatory impact analysis, the EPA said it would stop assigning a monetary value to the health benefits associated with regulations on fine particulate matter and ozone. The agency argued that the estimates contain too much uncertainty. Continue reading...

Ilia Malinin entered the Olympic free skate as the runaway favorite. Early mistakes triggered a meltdown that laid bare the brutal math of modern figure skatingWhat made Ilia Malinin's Olympic defeat so shocking was not simply his years-long dominance entering Friday night. It was how completely the competition had tilted in his favor before he even stepped on the ice.For nearly three years, Malinin had been men's skating's guiding light: unbeaten since late 2023, winner of back-to-back world titles, the skater who recalibrated the sport's technical ceiling and then made winning look procedural. He arrived at the Milano Ice Skating Arena leading by more than five points after the short program and carrying the most difficult planned program in the field. Under almost any normal competitive logic, that combination should have been decisive. Continue reading...

Clients including Chappell Roan and Abby Wambach cut ties to firm after communications came to lightCasey Wasserman, a leading Hollywood talent agent whose clients include Chappell Roan, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran and Kendrick Lamar, is selling his business after communications with Ghislaine Maxwell were exposed as part of the US justice department's recent dump of investigative documents relating to Jeffrey Epstein.Wasserman, grandson of the late famed Hollywood dealmaker Lew Wasserman, said late on Friday he was putting his eponymous talent and marketing agency on the block, citing the impact on the company from past personal mistakes" and telling staff he felt that he had become a distraction" to its work. Continue reading...

Brass Solidarity was formed after George Floyd's murder, and now also marks the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti at its weekly meetupA week after a federal officer shot Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, a troupe of brass players, percussionists and singers gathered at the site of the killing, to play a blaring, defiant rendition of the O'Jays' Love Train.Trumpeters, trombonists and sousaphonists had lined up along the ice-slicked sidewalk or were balancing on the snowbanks, blowing up clouds of condensation. Continue reading...

13% of federal civilian workforce is affected, although DHS - which spurred budget standoff - remains fundedA limited US government shutdown came into effect on Saturday - the third of Donald Trump's second term - after negotiations between the White House and Democrats in Congress failed to agree on new restrictions for federal immigration agents.The shutdown affects about 13% of the federal civilian workforce and is confined to agencies under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which screens airline passengers. Continue reading...

Sheriff's, FBI and forensics vehicles passed through roadblocks 2 miles from missing 84-year-old woman's homeLaw enforcement investigating the disappearance of Today show host Savannah Guthrie's mother, Nancy, sealed off a road near her home in Arizona late Friday night.A parade of sheriff's and FBI vehicles, including forensics vehicles, passed through the roadblock that was set up about 2 miles (3.2km) from the house. Continue reading...

A documentary about Mississippi examines competing forces: the nostalgic celebration of the old south and the refusal to sanitize the brutal history of enslavementNatchez swallowed a master narrative about the old south."In Suzannah Herbert's documentary Natchez, the opening remark from National Park Service ranger Barney Schoby functions as both diagnosis and thesis. The film that follows does not evade the Mississippi town's contradictions. Instead, it actively adjudicates them, staging white people's curated nostalgia against Black people's historical knowledge, lived experience and institutional fact. Continue reading...

The Democratic-leaning midwestern state where federal agents killed two citizens is in many ways anathema to the administrationSince the federal immigration surge began late last year, Minnesotans have offered varying theories for why their state was targeted by the Trump administration.It's a midwestern state that hasn't voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 1972, including the three times it voted against Donald Trump. Continue reading...

Claims that agreement is unconstitutional could pose problems in talks with Washington over GreenlandDenmark could face legal action over an agreement that gives the US sweeping powers on Danish soil, over claims it is unconstitutional" and could pose problems in talks with Washington over Greenland.The agreement, which was signed under the Biden administration in 2023 and was passed by the Danish parliament last year, gives the US unhindered access" to its airbases and powers over its civilians. Continue reading...

Antoine Massey was convicted on charges of rape and kidnapping before New Orleans jailbreakA man who joined nine others in fleeing a New Orleans jail - then publicly pleaded for help from Donald Trump, a rapper whom the president pardoned and reality TV star Kim Kardashian while on the run - recently got a 60-year prison sentence for kidnapping and raping his ex-girlfriend.Antoine Massey, 32, received his punishment on Thursday at a suburban New Orleans state courthouse, months after his jailbreak-related capture and subsequent conviction at trial of prior charges.Guardian reporting partner WWL Louisiana contributed Continue reading...

The disappearance in Arizona of the Today show host Savannah Guthrie's mother has captivated the nationNancy Guthrie disappeared from her Tucson, Arizona, home two weeks ago, setting off a potent chain reaction of federal and local criminal investigation, amateur sleuthing and public obsession that - so far - has resulted in neither the 84-year-old grandmother being located or anyone named as a suspect or, indeed, arrested.It is a case that is both enthralling and baffling the American public, casting doubts on the ability of investigators to get to the bottom of the mystery that each day generates a fresh 24-hour news cycle - but seemingly little in the way of solid fresh leads likely to solve the case. Continue reading...

Secretary of state calls the US a child of Europe' and urges continent to back a new world order

The brilliant American was expected to glide to a gold medal on Friday. It was tough to watch such a gifted athlete discover the ruthlessness of his sportBy the time Ilia Malinin reached the closing stretch of his Olympic free skate, the outcome was no longer really the story. The story was the expression on his face - not panic, not shock, but the dawning realization that a destiny he had controlled for nearly three years had slipped beyond his reach in the blinding span of four and a half catastrophic minutes.For the rising generation of men's skaters, the 21-year-old Malinin has existed less as a rival than as a moving technical horizon. The Quad God. The skater who built programs around jumps others still treated as theory, who pushed the sport into something closer to applied physics. Much like Simone Biles, who took in Friday's contest from the arena's VIP seats, his only competition was himself. Continue reading...

The US flag bearer and first Black woman to win Winter Olympic individual gold carries the lessons of Special Forces into Sunday's 500m speed skating finalOn the ice, Erin Jackson is the picture of control - metronomic in her balance, rhythmic in her stride, a woman whose margins for error are blade thin. But all that control melted away when the speed skater glided on to Fox's Special Forces: World's Toughest Test reality TV series in fall 2023 for a taste of the grueling training that elite US troops endure.She was part of a motley cast that included former Dallas Cowboys star Dez Bryant, NBA clutch shooter Robert Horry and skier Bode Miller, a fellow Winter Olympic champion. But Jackson was less concerned with outshining her athletic peers than with confronting her own fears. To test her anxiety around swimming, Jackson was strapped into a mock helicopter, submerged in icy water and told to hold her breath for at least 15 seconds before freeing herself, grabbing a lifejacket, and paddling to safety. Continue reading...

His shameful stewardship of a once great title highlights how much we lose when private interest eclipses the public goodNot long after being made Time magazine's Person of the Year in 1999, Jeff Bezos told me: They were not choosing me as much as they were choosing the internet, and me as a symbol." A quarter of an increasingly dark century later, the Amazon founder is now a symbol of something else: how the ultra-rich can kill the news.Job cuts in an industry that has struggled financially since the internet came into existence and killed its business model is hardly new, but last week's brutal cull of hundreds of journalists at the Bezos-owned Washington Post marks a new low. The redundancies that were announced to staff on a video call, the axing of half its foreign bureau (including the war reporter in Ukraine) - not since P&O Ferries have layoffs been handled so badly. Former Post stalwart Paul Farhi described a decision that affected nearly half of the 790-strong workforce as the biggest one-day wipeout of journalists in a generation". Continue reading...

Epstein files release shows David Stern advised against mentioning being denied previously or criminal charges'An aide to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor advised Jeffrey Epstein to illegally hide his child sexual abuse conviction to obtain a visa to China, according to the latest Epstein files release.David Stern, who was a close associate of both Epstein and the then prince, was asked for his help after the disgraced financier's initial application for a visa was rejected. Continue reading...

Lawmakers left Washington for a long weekend without resolving an impasse over much-criticized agency's fundingThe Department of Homeland Security has begun a partial shutdown, after funding for the much-criticized agency expired, with a range of services, including domestic flights and the US Coastguard, now vulnerable to disruption.The shutdown was all but confirmed on Thursday, after the Senate failed to clear the 60-vote threshold needed to pass the DHS appropriations bill and lawmakers left Washington for a long weekend without resolving the impasse. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed.The annual rate of US inflation eased in January, according to the latest data consumer price index report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Over the last 12 months, the cost of goods has increased by 2.4% -down from 2.7% in last month's report.Lawmakers in the House and Senate left Washington on Thursday as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) heads for another shutdown, when stopgap funding lapses tonight. Nearly all Democrats blocked a second attempt to pass the annual DHS appropriations bill as negotiations for guardrails on federal immigration enforcement have stalled. Senator John Fetterman was the only lawmaker to break ranks with the party. Continue reading...

Strike appears to be first in Caribbean since November, with vast majority of recent strikes happening in the PacificThe US military's Southern Command, which oversees operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, said it had carried out its second deadly boat strike this week. The command said the latest strike killed three suspected drug smugglers in the Caribbean on Friday.Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations," the Southern Command said in a statement. The command included a video of the strike with its announcement, which shows a boat traveling through the water as it explodes into flames after being hit with what looks like a missile. Continue reading...

Democratic representative also condemns US capture of Nicolas Maduro, Trump's threats to annex Greenland and US support for Israel's war on Gaza - key US politics stories from Friday, 13 February at a glanceAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez has accused Donald Trump of tearing apart the transatlantic alliance with Europe and of seeking to introduce an age of authoritarianism", as she condemned his administration's foreign policy in front of its allies' top policymakers at the Munich security conference.Speaking at a panel on populism on Friday, the New York representative outlined what she called an alternative vision" for a leftwing US foreign policy, challenging the Trump administration's shift to the right in front an audience of US allies who have grown increasingly wary of the US's increasingly nationalist - and militaristic - global posture. Continue reading...

Charges dropped against two Venezuelan men over January shooting as investigation opened into agents' conductFederal authorities have opened a criminal investigation into whether two immigration officers lied under oath about a shooting in Minneapolis last month, as all charges were dropped against two Venezuelan men.ICE director Todd Lyons said on Friday that his agency opened a joint investigation with the justice department after video evidence revealed sworn testimony provided by two separate officers appears to have made untruthful statements" about the shooting of one of the Venezuelan men during the Trump administration's immigration crackdown across the Minneapolis area. Continue reading...

New York congresswoman criticizes unconditional' US aid and calls for enforcement of Leahy lawsAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez said during a Munich security conference panel on Friday on the future of foreign policy that the Democratic party's next presidential nominee should reconsider the country's military aid to Israel.Hagar Shezaf of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz asked the US congresswoman if she thought the Democratic presidential candidate in the 2028 elections should re-evaluate military aid to Israel". Continue reading...

In a floor speech, Ro Khanna, a Democratic representative, revealed identities of six men after seeing unredacted filesRo Khanna, the US congressman, publicly revealed the names of six men whose identities were redacted from the Jeffrey Epstein files, including Leslie Wexner, a billionaire retail magnate, whom the FBI appeared to have labeled as a co-conspirator.Four of the six men had no connection to Epstein whatsoever and were simply part of a photo lineup assembled by law enforcement, according to reporting from the Guardian. Two of the men who spoke to the Guardian strongly denied knowing Epstein and said they had been arrested by NYPD for unrelated crimes in the past, which likely explains how their photos ended up in the array. Continue reading...

President insists he will also restrict mail-in voting, even if Congress fails to pass the Save America actDonald Trump threatened on Friday to impose a requirement that US voters present photo identification before being allowed to cast ballots in the upcoming midterm elections.Trump insisted he will push for the change even if Congress fails to pass the Save America act, which cleared the House earlier this week but faces an uphill battle in the Senate. The bill would impose a national photo identification requirement to vote, in addition to requiring proof of citizenship to register and drastically limiting mail-in voting. Continue reading...

President of Protect Our Care issues one-word statement to US health and human services secretary: Resign'A prominent healthcare advocacy group is calling for the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, to step down from his post after he downplayed Covid risks by saying: I'm not scared of a germ. I used to snort cocaine off of toilet seats."Kennedy, who was appointed secretary of the federal health and human services (HHS) department despite his avowed anti-vaccine activism, made that remark on the 12 February episode of Theo Von's podcast This Past Weekend. Continue reading...

Matt Weston wins gold for Great Britain in the men's skeleton and Ilia Malinin finishes in a shock eighth place in the men's figure skating finalItalian biathlete Rebecca Passler will be able to participate in the Winter Olympics despite failing a doping test, the Italian skiing federation (Fisi) said on Friday. Italy's anti-doping body (Nado) upheld her appeal against a provisional suspension that followed a positive test for the banned substance Letrozole on 26 January.Nado's Court of Appeal acknowledged the possibility of unintentional ingestion or unknowing contamination of the substance. Passler will rejoin her teammates starting Monday, February 16, when she will be available to the coaching staff for the subsequent competitions on the Olympic programme," Fisi said in a statement. Continue reading...

Men appeared in photo lineup assembled in New York and had no apparent connection to late sex offenderRo Khanna, a California Democratic representative, read a list of six names on the House floor earlier this week and said they were wealthy, powerful men that the DoJ hid" in the recently released files related to Jeffrey Epstein. After questions from the Guardian, the Department of Justice said that four of the men Khanna named have no apparent connection to Epstein whatsoever, but rather appeared in a photo lineup assembled by the southern district of New York (SDNY).Khanna, along with Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican representative, pushed the justice department to unredact names in the files, arguing that some names were being unlawfully redacted. Massie claimed credit on X earlier this week for forcing the justice department to remove redactions on a file that listed 20 names, birthdays and photos, including those of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Khanna then read some of those names on the House floor. Continue reading...

Former CNN anchor said he was working as a journalist when he was arrested at protest during church serviceFormer CNN host turned independent journalist Don Lemon pleaded not guilty on Friday to federal civil rights charges connected to his coverage of a protest at a Minnesota church where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official is a pastor. Four others also pleaded not guilty in the case.Lemon did not comment to reporters as he entered the courthouse accompanied by his attorney Joe Thompson, but he later issued a statement stating his refusal to be intimidated by the Trump administration and vowing to fight these baseless charges". Continue reading...

Congressperson says US president and Marco Rubio are tearing apart transatlantic allianceAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez has accused Donald Trump of tearing apart the transatlantic alliance with Europe and of seeking to introduce an age of authoritarianism", as she condemned his administration's foreign policy in front of its allies' top policymakers at the Munich Security Conference.Speaking at a panel on populism on Friday, Ocasio-Cortez outlined what she called an alternative vision" for a leftwing US foreign policy, challenging the Trump administration's shift to the right in front an audience of US allies who have grown increasingly wary of the US's increasingly nationalist - and militaristic - global posture. Continue reading...

Protests in Buenos Aires, Lindsey Vonn crashes at the Winter Olympics and Bad Bunny performs at Super Bowl LX - the past seven days as captured by the world's leading photojournalists Continue reading...

School district says students will return next week after teachers demanded higher wages and more health benefitsSan Francisco teachers who staged their first strike in decades over wages and family health benefits have reached a tentative agreement with the school district.The San Francisco unified school district (SFUSD) announced on Friday schools would reopen to staff immediately, and to students on Wednesday, after two holidays. Continue reading...

Kevin Taylor allegedly accepted trips and lavish dinners for help in selling a mobile panic alert system' to city schoolsA New York police leader tasked with protecting the city's schoolchildren allegedly accepted bribes to help a businessman sell his mobile panic alert system" to schools in 2023, Manhattan federal prosecutors have alleged.Kevin Taylor, former commanding officer of the New York police department's school safety division, repeatedly abused his authority and considerable influence ... by soliciting or demanding bribes in two bribery schemes" - allowing him to enjoy lavish travel and luxe eateries, an indictment against him alleged. Continue reading...

EU's head of foreign policy claims Board of Peace' is personal vehicle for Donald Trump that removes accountability to Palestinians or UNA bitter dispute between Europe and the US over the future of Gaza has broken out into the open, with the EU's head of foreign policy, Kaja Kallas, warning that Donald Trump's Board of Peace" was a personal vehicle for the US president that removed any accountability to Palestinians or the United Nations.Spain's foreign minister, Jose Manuel Albares, also accused Trump of trying to bypass the original UN mandate for the board, and said Europe, one of the chief funders of the Palestinian Authority, had been excluded from the process. Continue reading...

Kristi Noem announced end of TPS for Yemenis, saying protections were against US national interest'The Trump administration has ended temporary protected status (TPS) for Yemeni nationals in the US, the secretary of homeland security, Kristi Noem, said on Friday, the latest move targeting immigrants.The decision to end humanitarian protections that grant deportation relief and work permits to more than a thousand Yemenis in the US was taken after determining that it was against the US national interest", Noem said. Continue reading...

State agencies are now mandated to protect the big cats, which have been increasingly vulnerable due to habitat lossMore than 1,400 mountain lions across California are now protected by the state's Endangered Species Act, the state's fish and game commission announced on Thursday.The commission unanimously voted to list six groups of central coast and southern California mountain lions under the California Endangered Species Act, meaning the agency determined that they are likely to become extinct without intervention. The affected species can be found from the Bay Area all the way down to the Mexican border. Continue reading...

Leqaa Kordia was taken into custody last March, nearly a year after being arrested at a protest at ColumbiaCalls are mounting for the release of a Palestinian woman who has been held in immigration detention for nearly a year following her arrest at a pro-Palestine protest last year, with several elected officials weighing in after a medical emergency renewed attention to her case.Leqaa Kordia, a 33-year-old originally from the West Bank, was arrested in April 2024 at a protest against Israel's war in Gaza outside Columbia University. (She was not a student there.) The charges against her were dismissed the following day, but last March, nearly a year after the protest, she was taken into custody when she checked into an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in New Jersey. She had a pending asylum application at the time, her attorney said. Continue reading...

Out-of-state investors buy cheap homes in the city, leaving working residents struggling with substandard housing