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Chaos as key transit hubs in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha close, and more than 1,000 flights by major Middle Eastern airlines cancelled

The question of who owns and authorizes the month holds particular relevance amid attacks on Black history in the USThere is a myth that persists about Black History Month that can be heard in the common gripe: They gave us the shortest month of the year" (they, the unnamed powers that be). Jarvis Givens, the author of I'll Make Me a World: The 100-Year Journey of Black History Month, hates it. Every time I hear that backhanded comment it doesn't seem right," said Givens, an associate professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. If you know anything about the basic origins of Black History Month then you know that we weren't given' anything."The question of who owns and authorizes Black History Month holds particular relevance now, in its centennial year, and at a time when efforts to celebrate, preserve, and acknowledge Black people's past in this country are under attack. Official recognition of Black American resistance to centuries of racial injustice is being challenged by local, state, and national efforts to restrict, ban and possibly criminalize such information in public schools, universities and other institutions. So the sentiment that Black history can be quite literally given or taken away by state officials is valid.Saida Grundy is an associate professor of sociology and African American studies at Boston University, and the author of Respectable: Politics and Paradox in Making the Morehouse Man Continue reading...

War launched by US and Israel on Iran has quickly escalated prompting anxiety and concern in whole region

The building appears to be among many devastated in Trump's major combat operations' as long expected attacks arrive

US president posts on Truth Social that Iran's supreme leader, one of the most evil people in History, is dead'

Coordinated daylight assault on Tehran sparked Iranian retaliation and plunged the region into wider conflict

Iran strikes are attempt to hijack the global narrative and drown out Epstein and tariffs with the thunder of cruise missilesIn 2003, the United States invaded Iraq without deciding whether it should. The George W Bush administration failed to ask whether the costs, risks and likely consequences of regime change justified the gamble. The result was tragedy - for Iraq, for the Middle East and for America.Donald Trump's attack on Iran now follows the same pattern - but with an even narrower logic of performative power. In the run-up to Iraq, Washington devoted enormous energy to planning the invasion. Almost no attention was given to the more important question: was war necessary, and could it realistically produce a stable political outcome?Christopher S Chivvis is a senior fellow and director of the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Continue reading...

Body of Nathan Smith, known professionally as DJ Young Slade, was found in pond north of Atlanta in FebruaryThe son of the rapper Lil Jon drowned after ingesting hallucinogenic mushrooms, officials in the US state of Georgia said.The body of Nathan Smith, known professionally as DJ Young Slade, was found in a pond north of Atlanta in early February. Continue reading...

Imam Shuaib Din was not hit by multiple shots fired by Abdul Raouf Afridi, who ambushed him outside his homeA man has been arrested for recently shooting a gun at prominent Muslim leader Imam Shuaib Din in Utah, the police department in the city of Sandy said Saturday.Din's suspected attacker was identified as Abdul Raouf Afridi. Police said the man was arrested on 12 counts of aggravated assault, including felony discharge of a firearm, possession of a controlled substance, dangerous discharge of a weapon from a vehicle and possession of a dangerous weapon as a prohibited person. Continue reading...

The US president upended half a century of US foreign policy in an eight-minute video with another attempt at Middle Eastern regime changeIt was another date that would live in infamy. But whereas Franklin Roosevelt declared war in sombre tones to a joint session of Congress, Donald Trump did it his way.The US president wore a white USA" cap, dark jacket and white shirt open at the collar. He stood at a blue lectern bearing the US presidential seal and a black microphone, with the Stars and Stripes behind him, presumably at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. He released a video on his own social media network, Truth Social, at 2.30am on Saturday - a time when most Americans are asleep but Trump is often found rage-tweeting into the night. Continue reading...

In a televised statement, Sir Keir Starmer has said British planes 'are in the sky today' in the Middle East 'as part of coordinated regional defensive operations to protect our people, our interests and our allies'. This came after the US and Israel launched a joint military operation against Iran, prompting Tehran to fire retaliatory strikes against Israel and US bases across the Middle East Continue reading...

After Zohran Mamdani's upset, a new wave of challengers targets incumbents, driven by fury at Donald TrumpThey are impatient, unafraid and hungry for change. Inspired by Zohran Mamdani's shock victory in last year's New York mayoral race, a wave of insurgents is mounting primary challenges against Democratic incumbents ahead of November's midterm elections.The emboldened lineup of primary challengers - often, but not always, from the party's progressive wing - has been fuelled by anger over the party's tepid response to Donald Trump's authoritarianism, complicity in the war in Gaza and a crushing affordability crisis. Continue reading...

Members of Congress swiftly denounced the president's military action against the Islamic Republic alongside Israel

Nomma Zarubina, convicted of lying to the FBI, is the latest Russian woman accused of using her sexual wiles for spyingNomma Zarubina, 35, now sits in a New York jail awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty last week to charges that she lied to the FBI about her contacts with the FSB, Russia's biggest domestic intelligence service.But, in a playbook that comes straight from the cold war, the striking-looking Zarubina - known as Alyssa" to her Russian handlers - was tasked with meeting prominent Americans in order to lure them into the orbit of Moscow intelligence. Continue reading...

In a rare public address, former president said US is experiencing dark days' and urged Americans to vote

As a result of New York's most severe winter in years, the city may see a drop from it's estimated 3 million ratsSince arriving from Europe in the 1600s, New York City's rats have survived hurricanes, floods, terrorist attacks, riots, fires, a pandemic (they actually thrived during that), the Dutch and Crocodile Dundee II.But as a result of New York's most severe winter in years, when the city saw snow, then a historic deep freeze, then even more snow, the rat population might now be about to decline. For a bit. Continue reading...

The first lady is a Trump and therefore automatically qualified to do anything her heart desiresWe ended DEI in America," Donald Trump boasted during his State of the Union (SOTU) address on Tuesday.Unlike many things the president said in his excruciatingly long SOTU speech, this was actually half true. The Trump administration's war on woke" has pushed a lot of large companies and institutes to retreat from the diversity, equity and inclusion policies they used to pretend to be proud of.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Volunteers offer moral and legal support, and document ICE actions with the aim of holding people accountableAs ICE operations ramped up across the US over the past year, vans emblazoned with imagery of the Statue of Liberty have been deployed in Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte and most recently, Minneapolis. Liberty Vans, or camioneta de la libertad in Spanish, are on a mission to defend vulnerable communities in the crosshairs of federal enforcement.Volunteers in the small fleet of three vans - which are named for the second world war Liberty ships that delivered supplies to Allied forces - offer moral and legal support, stand in visible solidarity with families and document ICE operations so people can see the human impact of the military-style raids that have become a daily part of American life. Continue reading...

Businesses are vying for a refund, with nearly $175bn on the line, but customers are unlikely to benefit from reversalAt 8am, two hours before the US supreme court officially slapped down Donald Trump's liberation day" tariffs on 20 February, Joseph Spraragen's phone was already ringing off the hook.The seasoned New York-based attorney and his 40-strong specialised trade team at Grunfeld, Desiderio, Lebowitz, Silverman & Klestadt (GDLSK) had spent months filing hundreds of lawsuits for heavy-hitter clients, including luxury brands Prada and Dolce & Gabbana, in protest of the US president's decision to impose sweeping import taxes last April. Continue reading...

With David Ellison's Paramount Skydance poised to buy Warner Bros Discovery, the president is tightening his grip on the US mediaFor many years, Donald Trump has trashed CNN and has taught his loyal followers to do the same.During the 2016 presidential campaign, angry chants of CNN sucks!" reverberated at his campaign rallies, and he still jumps at every opportunity to disparage star CNN journalists such as Kaitlan Collins. Continue reading...

Democrats hope to capture the House, but the Senate could be a heavier lift in November's midterm electionsOn the first Tuesday of November, Americans will decide whether to keep Congress under Donald Trump's control, or hand power to the Democrats. The first national elections since the 2024 polls that brought Trump back to the White House, the 3 November midterms will be a crucial test of whether the president's handling of top issues such as the economy and immigration have met Americans' expectations. On Tuesday, voters will cast ballots in initial state primaries, with more to follow in the months ahead.Up for grabs in November are all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 33 seats in the Senate, and if Republicans lose their majorities in either chamber, it will alter the course of Trump's presidency. Should Democrats take the House, they will gain the power to issue subpoenas as they investigate his administration, and can block the president's legislative agenda. Should they wrest control of the Senate from the GOP, Democrats could stop Trump from appointing nominees to cabinet positions and the federal judiciary, including the supreme court. Continue reading...

Israel and the US launched strikes against Iran as Donald Trump declared the start of 'major combat operations' and called on Iranians to rise up against their government. The US president's comments came soon after explosions were heard across central Tehran. One apparent strike hit near the offices of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran was preparing a 'crushing retaliation', an Iranian official told Reuters

Donald Trump said the US had begun 'major combat operations' in Iran, warning that there may be US casualties. The strikes, which the US president said were aimed at destroying Iranian missiles and annihilating its navy, follow repeated US-Israeli warnings that they would strike Iran again if it pressed ahead with its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. Trump told members of the Revolutionary Guards, Iran's armed forces, to lay down their weapons, promising they would be granted immunity. The other option, according to Trump, was 'certain death'

He's the Democratic politician with movie-star looks and a picture-perfect family, dogged by accusations of being a smoothtalking elitist. Can he really unite the American left and win the most powerful office in the world?When you think of the politician Donald Trumpisn't, when you think of the norm he broke, the archetype he shattered, you might well picture aman who looks alot like Gavin Newsom. Tall and handsome, hair coiffed just so, with a blond wife and four photogenic kids at his side, Newsom, who has been the governor of California since 2019 and is often described as the frontrunner to be the Democratic nominee for the White House in 2028, looks the way professional politicians, and especially presidential candidates, look in the movies.It's dogged Newsom for years, that look of his, perennially suggesting that he is, in the words of one California newspaper, too ambitious, too slickly handsome, and too patrician-seeming", especially for a populist age that cherishes the authentic and has no truck with anything either phoney or elite". The elite tag especially has hung around Newsom's neck for decades, thanks to the fact that his ascent to the top of California politics has seemed smooth and unbroken, apparently eased by a childhood spent in the orbit of the Getty family, when that name was a byword for astronomical wealth. Continue reading...

DoJ says it will not ask US supreme court to rehear tariffs case despite president's complaint on Truth SocialThe Trump administration said refunds of tariffs struck down by the US supreme court will take time", according to court documents filed by the Department of Justice.Businesses including FedEx have lined up to demand reimbursement for US tariffs they have paid but that the court last week deemed were imposed illegally, prompting heavy criticism from Donald Trump. Continue reading...

Hours after exclusion of Anthropic, OpenAI announces fresh Pentagon deal, but says it will maintain same safety guardrails at the heart of the dispute

I know what I did, and more importantly, what I didn't do,' former US president says after six-hour depositionBill Clinton told a congressional committee on Friday he had no idea of the crimes" Jeffrey Epstein was committing and insisted he did nothing wrong" in his relationship with the convicted sex trafficker.The former president's remarks came in his opening statement in a deposition to the House of Representatives' oversight committee, a day after his wife, Hillary Clinton, appeared before the same body and called the proceedings partisan political theater" and an insult to the American people". Continue reading...

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Anthropic has resisted allowing its Claude AI system to be used for mass surveillance or autonomous weapons systems - key US politics stories from Friday, 27 February at a glanceDonald Trump said Friday he will direct all federal agencies to IMMEDIATELY CEASE" all use of artificial intelligence technology from Anthropic.The US Department of Defense and Anthropic hit an impasse with neither side backing down as a deadline for an agreement lapsed on Friday afternoon. The Pentagon had demanded the AI company loosen ethical guidelines on its systems or face severe consequences. Continue reading...

Neither president nor anyone in administration has reached out after Good was killed by immigration officer, says familyThe family of Renee Good, an unarmed US citizen and mother who was killed by a federal immigration officer in Minneapolis last month, said in an interview with NBC News that neither Donald Trump nor anyone in his administration has contacted them since her death.There's a reason that we hired our own investigators - to make sure that the truth is transparent and available, to make sure that this is really taken seriously, and to make sure that we know what occurred," Brent Ganger, Good's brother, told NBC News. Continue reading...

Trustees unanimously voted to place Alberto Carvalho on leave and appointed Andres Chait in the interimTwo days after the FBI searched the headquarters of the Los Angeles unified school district and the home of its superintendent, the district board of education placed Alberto Carvalho on administrative leave.The board met in closed session meetings for several hours on Thursday and Friday to discuss Carvalho's employment with the nation's second largest school district. The trustees unanimously voted Friday to place Carvalho on paid leave, and appointed another high ranking district official, Andres Chait, to serve as interim superintendent. Continue reading...

Trump administration's unlawful policy turns refugees' American Dream into a dystopian nightmare', judge saysA federal judge has blocked a Trump administration policy that allowed immigration authorities to arrest and detain certain refugees in Minnesota, ruling that the government relied on an incorrect interpretation of federal law and unlawfully targeted people who had already been admitted to the US.In an order on Friday, the court said the administration's approach had effectively been terrorizing" refugees by subjecting them to arrest and potentially indefinite detention despite their lawful status. The judge concluded that federal immigration law does not give the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) authority to detain refugees simply because more than one year has passed since their arrival in the country. Continue reading...

By mid-afternoon, it was 91F (33C) in downtown LA, according to the National Weather ServiceAfter a week of heavy downpours that left parts of Los Angeles flooded, the city is now facing unusually high temperatures for late February.By mid-afternoon Friday, it was 91F (33C) in downtown Los Angeles, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). That breaks the daily record for 27 February, which was 88F (31C), set last year. Continue reading...

Streamer said deal no longer financially attractive' at price required to match offer by David Ellison's firmParamount Skydance has beaten Netflix to take over Warner Bros Discovery's storied Hollywood studios and streaming business after the streaming giant refused to increase its bid.The $110bn deal ends a high-stakes bidding war between the two media companies, but the takeover still faces regulatory hurdles and a backlash from critics worried about a rightward tilt in US media. Continue reading...

Trump commerce secretary - who lived next door to Epstein in New York - urged to testify about extent of relationship

US retailer's decision comes as RFK Jr and Maha movement increase pressure on food industry to drop dyes like red 40The big-box US retailer Target announced on Friday that by 31 May it will only sell breakfast cereals made without certified synthetic food colors.The company is introducing the restriction amid increased pressure on the food industry from the Trump administration and the Make America healthy again" (Maha) movement to stop using such ingredients, which they see as dangerous. Continue reading...

Exclusive: memo came after Mike Huckabee's remarks about Israel sparked alarm inside White House

Russian airstrikes in Kyiv, Ramadan in Gaza, Trump's State of the Union address and snow in New York City - the past seven days as captured by the world's leading photojournalists Continue reading...

Police chief accused of caving to Republican demands by reversing decision to fire implicated duoA Detroit police department decision to reverse course on firing two officers who allegedly violated local law by coordinating an arrest with federal immigration agents has ignited outrage and accusations that the chief caved to Republican demands.It has also played into a debate in the US around the role of local law enforcement amid the Trump administration's immigration crackdown as many police departments - especially in large Democratic-run cities such as Detroit - have a policy of not co-operating with federal immigration operations. Continue reading...

The supreme court has deferred to executive power for decades. Its decision on tariffs is a long-overdue warningAfter two decades of deferring to executive authority and eroding anti-bribery laws, the supreme court has suddenly limited presidential power in a way that could make one ugly form of political influence a bit more difficult to pull off. Last week's ruling did not merely strip one president of his executive power to unilaterally impose levies across broad swaths of the economy - it makes it harder for any president to transform tariffs from a broad economic policy into a personal political cudgel that muzzles criticism and enforces fealty.A Supreme Court otherwise inclined to endlessly expand Trump's authority just restricted his go-to tool, ruling that U.S. presidents do not have the power to unilaterally deploy tariffs and dole out punishment and favor to specific companies and economic sectors, friends and family, and entire countries," said Lori Wallach of Rethink Trade.The Washington Post reported that Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, dumped $1m into Trump's inauguration, cultivated relationships with Trump officials, and refrained from publicly criticizing the president or his policies on national television" - just before securing tariff exemptions for his company's products.ProPublica reported that the administration approved a tariff exemption for a thermoplastic made by a company owned by a pair of brothers who have donated millions of dollars to Republican causes".A tariff exemption for electronics conveniently benefited Tesla and, by extension, its CEO, Elon Musk, who bankrolled a multimillion-dollar campaign to re-elect Trump.The sugar behemoth Florida Crystals, which has lobbied on tariff policy, gave $2m to the main pro-Trump Super Pac, Maga Inc, ahead of Trump slapping tariffs on imported sugar. Reynolds American likewise delivered $2m to the same Super Pac while successfully pushing Trump to crack down on imports of Chinese tobacco products.Trump relaxed export controls on the microchip maker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) after the company gave $1million to Maga Inc.Trump reduced tariffs on Vietnam and removed that country from the United States's export controls list after the Hanoi government approved his family business's $1.5bn golf course and real estate project. Continue reading...

Second time in two weeks military used laser to attack what it mistakenly thought was a threat, disrupting air traffic

Scientists say crackdown on gender-affirming care could have impact on healthcare of all AmericansAs more health systems end gender-affirming care for patients amid a crackdown from the Trump administration, scientists and advocates say the science of sex and gender is being misrepresented - and will have major repercussions for the healthcare for all Americans.Trump officials don't actually understand the science at all", said Jey McCreight, who is the founder of Beyond X&Y and has a doctoral degree in human genomics. McCreight, who uses they/them pronouns, added that using misinformation to limit who can seek healthcare is a warning for all patients. Continue reading...

The Federal Trade Commission is investigating Media Matters over critical coverage. It's just one example of the administration's approachThe Trump administration is embracing an intimidation strategy to silence critical media coverage. Here's how it works: a federal agency launches a pretextual investigation into a perceived enemy, keeps the investigation open to coerce compliance, and resists any effort to have a court review the lawfulness of the agency's actions.There's no better example than the Federal Trade Commission's retaliatory investigation of Media Matters for America for its critical coverage of one of the Trump administration's most powerful allies.David Bralow is counsel to the Intercept Continue reading...

As a potential 2027 stoppage looms, MLB owners argue a wage cap is vital for parity. In truth, it's just another way to boost their assets and fleece fansBaseball should be on a high. Spring training has begun and a record-breaking winter makes the games especially welcome - baseball means the good weather is coming soon. Injuries marred the NBA playoffs and the Super Bowl was a dud, but no sport settled its championship last year better than baseball, as the Los Angeles Dodgers barely and thrillingly defeated the Toronto Blue Jays in a seven-game epic that ranks among the greatest World Series ever played.Instead of basking in the afterglow, however, the game is spending this abundance of capital preparing for war: a 2027 work stoppage portends to be the most catastrophic since the summer of 1994, when the players went on strike and the owners responded by cancelling the World Series for the first time in 90 years. Continue reading...

Union-backed pledge urges fast food employers to protect workers' rights as immigration raids fuel fear and walkoutsFast food workers in California are demanding employers sign a pledge reaffirming workers' rights amid Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids at workplaces across the US.The California Fast Food Workers Union, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union, drafted a Constitutional Pledge to California Workers' Rights for workplaces to sign that affirms a commitment to protecting workers and keep ICE from going where they are not allowed". Continue reading...

Former secretary of state says hearing is an attempt to deflect attention from Trump. Plus, the textile artist weaving patterns to inspire the labor movement Don't already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up hereGood morning.Hillary Clinton rebuked a congressional committee investigating her supposed links to Jeffrey Epstein on Thursday, accusing its Republican members of embarking on a fishing expedition" intended to distract attention from President Trump's actions".How did we get here? The Clintons reluctantly agreed to appear in response to a subpoena from the committee's Republican chair, James Comer, after being threatened with contempt of Congress charges. Both Clintons have previously complained that they are being singled out unfairly to distract public attention from Trump, who had a long friendship with Epstein before breaking with him.What happens next? Bill Clinton, a former president, will testify later today, also in a closed-door session.What stage are the bills at? None have been signed into law, and they may face legal challenges. The bills, nonetheless, underscore the determination by Democratic state lawmakers in New Jersey, California, Maryland and Washington state, to undermine Trump's hardline immigration policy.How did immigration enforcement get so many resources? The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, approved by the Republicans along party lines in Congress, allocated nearly $30bn to hire and train new ICE agents. The agency embarked on a hiring spree that often used xenophobic slogans in recruitment ads, as well as incentives such as signing bonuses as high as $50,000. Continue reading...

Despite claims, polls and economists say tariffs and structural pressures keep US households under strainThe affordability crisis is over, Donald Trump told the US on Tuesday. The president's state of the union address put the blame for soaring prices squarely on the dirty, rotten" lies of the Democrats and claimed prices were now plummeting downward".Soon you will see numbers that few people would think were possible to achieve just a short time ago," Trump said. Continue reading...

The US spent months promoting a false case for the invasion of Iraq. This time, we're in the dark about Washington's goalsIn October 2002, George W Bush laid out his case for taking the US to war against Iraq in a half-hour speech televised around the world. Bush warned that Saddam Hussein's regime could attack the US on any given day" with chemical or biological weapons, including anthrax, mustard gas or the nerve agent sarin. He argued Iraq was seeking to acquire nuclear weapons and could develop a bomb in less than a year. And if those warnings weren't enough to terrify the US public, Bush invoked the ultimate fear of an unprovoked nuclear attack: Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof - the smoking gun - that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud."The world soon learned that Bush's rationale for invading Iraq was based on manipulated intelligence and outright lies; the Iraqi regime no longer had any weapons of mass destruction and was not developing them. But the administration's relentless campaign to convince Americans that Saddam was a threat had paid off by generating significant support. As the invasion got under way in March 2003, many polls showed public approval of the war at more than 70%. Bush's own approval rating hovered around a similar high, underscoring that war can boost the popularity of America's commander-in-chief as few other things can. Continue reading...