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Europe offers platitudes, Trump dithers, and Ukraine and its extraordinary people stand on the brink. Nato must step upFor 40 cruel and bloody months, Ukraine has fought the Russian invader. Since February 2022, when Moscow's full-scale, countrywide onslaught began, its people have faced relentless, devastating attacks. Tens of thousands have been killed or wounded, millions have lost their homes. Ukraine's industries, shops, schools, hospitals and power stations burn, its fertile farmlands are laid waste. Its children are orphaned, traumatised or abducted. Despite repeated appeals, the world has failed to stop the carnage. And yet Ukraine, outnumbered and outgunned, has continued to fight back.Ukrainian heroism amid horror has become so familiar, it's almost taken for granted. But as Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, escalates the war, raining nightly terror on Kyiv and other cities using record waves of armed drones, as US support and peace efforts falter, and as Ukraine's overstretched frontline soldiers face exhaustion, such complacency looks increasingly misplaced. A no longer hypothetical question becomes ever more real and urgent: what if Ukraine falls?Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator Continue reading...

US president threatens further tariffs if Europe retaliates, and tells federal immigration agents they can use whatever means' necessary - key US politics stories from Saturday 12 July 2025Donald Trump has said he will impose tariffs of 30% on the European Union and Mexico from 1 August, threatening Europe that it would pay a price if it retaliated and telling Mexico it had not done enough to stop North America from turning into a Narco-Trafficking Playground".If for any reason you decide to raise your Tariffs and retaliate, then, whatever the number you choose to raise them by, will be added onto the 30% that we charge," he wrote in a letter to the EU. Continue reading...

Agency director says conspiracy theories aren't true' amid backlash against FBI-DoJ decision to block release of filesFBI director Kash Patel has denied swirling resignation rumors over reported unhappiness at a justice department decision to close the book on Jeffrey Epstein after administration officials teased a big reveal earlier in the year.In a Saturday social media post, the agency director said: the conspiracy theories just aren't true, never have been. It's an honor to serve the President of the United States - and I'll continue to do so for as long as he calls on me." Continue reading...

Serving Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton, Gergen was a speechwriter and communications directorDavid Gergen, a veteran of Washington politics and an adviser to four presidents, Republican and Democrat, in a career spanning decades in government, academia and media, has died. He was 83.Gergen was perhaps best known for a line he summoned for then presidential candidate Ronald Reagan for a TV debate with Jimmy Carter: Are you better off than you were four years ago?" Continue reading...

xAI's lengthy apology for antisemitic remarks says they apologize for the horrific behavior many experienced'Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI has issued an apology after its chatbot Grok made a slew of antisemitic and Adolf Hitler-praising comments earlier this week on X.On Saturday, xAI released a lengthy apology in which it said: First off, we deeply apologize for the horrific behavior that many experienced." Continue reading...

Deeply sourced narrative charts the delusions of the main players and the disastrous debate that reset the campaignDonald Trump is on a roll. The big, beautiful bill" is law. Ice, his paramilitary immigration force, rivals foreign armies for size and funding. Democrats stand demoralized and divided. 2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America, by Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager and Isaac Arnsdorf, is a book for these times: aptly named, deeply sourced.Kamala Harris declined to speak. Joe Biden criticized his successor in a brief phone call, then balked. Trump talked, of course.2024 is published in the US by Penguin Random House Continue reading...

British ambassador to US believes universal levy unlikely to change but there is scope' for negotiations in some sectorsThe 10% tariffs on most UK goods imported into the US are likely here to stay", according to Lord Mandelson.The British ambassador to the US said the universal 10% tariff" was unlikely to change but that there was scope" for negotiations in different sectors and industries, such as technology. Continue reading...

Defender has gone from villain to hero at Chelsea and can embellish his cult status by lifting the Club World CupMarc Cucurella is thinking back to his early days at Chelsea. Signed from Brighton for 62m in August 2022, the left-back struggled to adapt to life at a big club. Chelsea were experiencing teething problems during the opening months of the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital ownership and it was Cucurella's misfortune to be held up as a symbol of the club's apparent malaise.It is funny to think that the Spain international was booed on to the pitch by Chelsea supporters before a Champions League match against Borussia Dortmund in February 2023. Cucurella is a cult figure these days. He is loved by the Chelsea faithful and has come a long way since that difficult first season at Stamford Bridge. Continue reading...

Iga Swiatek took only 57 minutes to win her first Wimbledon title and sixth grand slam after delivering a brutal masterclassRoad to the final. When Anisimova whitewashed Yulia Putintseva 6-0, 6-0 in the first round, perhaps we should have known she was going to do something special this fortnight. She dealt well with the pressure of being the favourite in every round until the semi-finals, where she dealt even better with the world No 1 Sabalenka. Swiatek, meanwhile, hasn't dropped a set since the second round, gaining confidence and momentum as the rounds have gone by on a surface that had previously befuddled her.Anisimova

Owners of 1st Edition Collectibles in New Bedford say suspect broke in to courtyard and smashed window in doorMore than $113,000 worth of rare Pokemon cards have been stolen from a Massachusetts shop, according to the store's owners.Officers responded to a reported break-in at 1st Edition Collectibles, a trading card shop in New Bedford, Massachusetts, on Tuesday. The break-in reportedly happened around 2.30am and the thief stole a handful of Pokemon cards including five to seven rare cards and a few vintage boxes. Continue reading...

A sold-out crowd of 19,721, split almost evenly between Irish and Puerto Rican fans, packed Madison Square Garden on Friday night for the first ever all-women's boxing card to be held at the storied venue

The president made the announcement on social media, even as the EU was hoping for a trade agreementDonald Trump announced on Saturday that goods imported from both the European Union and Mexico will face a 30% US tariff rate starting 1 August, in letters posted on his social media platform, Truth Social.The tariff assault on the EU came as a shock to European capitals as the European Commission and the US trade representative Jamieson Greer had spent months hammering out a deal they believed was acceptable to both sides. Continue reading...

The billionaire says the America party will challenge the system, but third-party bids rarely make it far in the USYou want a new political party and you shall have it!" Elon Musk declared in early July.The world's richest man is never one to shy away from grandiose statements, and he continued: When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy. Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom." Continue reading...

Lara Trump, a Fox News host, is said to be mulling a Senate run. The Republican National Committee chair can't waitOnce upon a time, before she retired to Florida, Ivanka Trump reportedly had her sights set on being the first female US president. According to a book about the first Trump administration by Michael Wolff, Ivanka made a pact with her husband, Jared Kushner, that if sometime in the future the opportunity arose, she'd be the one to run for president".Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Josh Earnest says president brought staff into Oval Office to hear address stressing national unity: It was very poignant'The hardest day on the job for the White House press secretary for most of Barack Obama's second term was right after Donald Trump was first elected president, he recently revealed during a fireside chat at a journalism convention.Speaking at the 2025 National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) conference in Chicago, Josh Earnest said it was grueling for the Obama administration to realize it would have to follow through on promises of a peaceful transfer of power despite spending the 2016 election cycle offering dire warnings about what could or would happen if Donald Trump were given the keys to the Oval Office". Continue reading...

Amid Trump cuts and state-level backlash, experts worry that progress in messenger RNA vaccines could stallAs US regulators restrict Covid mRNA vaccines and as independent vaccine advisers re-examine the shots, scientists fear that an unlikely target could be next: cancer research.Messenger RNA, or mRNA, vaccines have shown promise in treating and preventing cancers that have often been difficult to address, such as pancreatic cancer, brain tumors and others. Continue reading...

Immigrants are living in brutal conditions at the Florida detention camp, built on a sense of scripted unrealityThe concentration camp seems to have been erected largely for the sake of a photoshoot. Florida's governor, Ron DeSantis - eager to rehabilitate his reputation among the Maga right in the wake of his humiliating and disastrous 2024 presidential run - has been among the most eager foot soldiers of the Trump administration's mass deportation agenda. He has dedicated funding to capturing migrants and holding them at facilities like the Krome detention center in Miami, where dramatic overcrowding, the absence of air conditioning, rapidly spreading disease, and a shortage of food, sanitation, and medical care have contributed to an outcry among immigrants imprisoned there and the deaths of multiple detainees, including a 29-year-old man from Honduras, a 44-year-old man from Ukraine and a 75-year-old Cuban national who had lived in the United States since his teens.For his efforts, DeSantis has received praise from Donald Trump and the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem. This kind of abuse of immigrants - rounding them up, cramming them into detention centers that are little more than cages, and letting them die there of heat, illness or neglect - is exactly the kind of policy that aligns with the Trump administration's aims. Continue reading...

But White House is backing away from pledge to phase out' disaster-relief agency, even as key leaders have leftAs the cleanup continues from this month's torrential rain storms and flooding in Texas that left more than 120 dead, recently departed officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) say the organization is dangerously underresourced and overstretched in the event of further natural catastrophes.A mass staff exodus, plunging morale and a loss of key leaders has left the main US disaster-relief organization ill-equipped to cope with an anticipated deadly spate of storms in the current hurricane season, former agency insiders say. Continue reading...

Club World Cup final features two youth-driven teams but Enzo Maresca's side believe they can hurt favouritesChelsea have already made more than 80m from their Club World Cup adventure but they can achieve something priceless against Paris Saint-Germain. This goes beyond gaudy gold badges and money in the bank. The season with no end is almost over, the final of the tournament that nobody asked for is here and while Chelsea have no intention of getting carried away if they triumph in New Jersey on Sunday it is also the case that there would be no better way to demonstrate that they are on to something with their youth-driven project than by beating Luis Enrique's awesome PSG.Easier said than done, of course. One school of thought is that Chelsea will have done well if they leave MetLife Stadium with their dignity intact. Premier League opponents hold no fears for PSG, whose path to Champions League glory was paved by wins over Manchester City, Liverpool, Aston Villa and Arsenal, while they were in terrifying form against Real Madrid on Wednesday. It finished 4-0, but it could have been 10; PSG really were that good and the reality is there will only be one outcome if they hit those heights again. Continue reading...

Palestinians continue to hold on to the practice we call sumoud - refusing to give up or leave - despite the world turning its back on usOver the past 21 long months of Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, voices all over the world have decried the demise of international law and the rule-based order. And indeed, the facade of Israel's adherence to international law has vanished and policies that constitute war crimes are now brazenly declared.This week, Israel's defence minister, Israel Katz, has shared plans to forcibly move Palestinians into a camp in the ruins of Rafah. Once they enter, they cannot leave. In other words, a concentration camp, which by definition is an internment centre for members of a national group (as well as political prisoners or minority groups) on the grounds of security or punishment, usually by military order. Michael Sfard, an Israeli human rights lawyer, was quoted in the Guardian as saying that Katz laid out an operational plan for a crime against humanity". Hundreds have been killed and thousands wounded trying to access food.Raja Shehadeh is a Palestinian lawyer and writer, and founder of the human rights organisation Al-Haq. His latest book is Forgotten: Searching for Palestine's Hidden Places and Lost Memorials, with Penny Johnson. Continue reading...

Judge issues temporary block in seven counties including Los Angeles after lawsuit accuses government of systematically targeting brown-skinned peopleA federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to halt indiscriminate immigration stops and arrests in seven California counties, including Los Angeles.Judge Maame E Frimpong on Friday blocked the administration from using what has been called unconstitutional tactics in raids after a lawsuit was filed by immigrant advocacy groups last week. Continue reading...

Thomas Wenski says it would be more financially sensible and more morally acceptable to expand legal pathways'. This blog is now closed.The US state department is firing more than 1,300 employees in line with the Trump administration's reorganization plan initiated earlier this year.

President praises flood response while state department begins issuing first of more than 1,350 termination notices - key US politics stories from Friday 11 July 2025Donald Trump has defended the state and federal response to deadly flooding in Texas, while administration officials continue to dodge questions about his plans to abolish the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema).Speaking at a round table in Kerrville, Texas, Trump said Fema deployed multiple emergency response units and praised all the officials involved in what he said was an effective and swift response. Continue reading...

Since disaster that has killed at least 120 people, US president has remained quiet about promises to axe relief agencyDuring a trip on Friday to look at the devastation caused by the catastrophic flooding in Texas, Donald Trump claimed that state and federal officials had done an incredible job", saying of the disaster that he had never seen anything like this".The trip comes as he has remained conspicuously quiet about his previous promises to do away with the federal agency in charge of disaster relief. Continue reading...

Jaime Alanis died after sustaining injuries during raid where authorities say they arrested about 200 peopleA farmworker died Friday from injuries that he sustained a day earlier in raids on two California cannabis farm sites as US immigration authorities confirmed they arrested 200 workers after a tense standoff with authorities.Jaime Alanis's death was confirmed in a social media post by the United Farm Workers advocacy group. We tragically can confirm that a farm worker has died of injuries they sustained as a result of yesterday's immigration enforcement action," the post read. Continue reading...

Brant Frost IV's First Liberty Building and Loan lied to investors about lending high-interest loans to small firmsA prominent Georgia Republican was running a Ponzi scheme that defrauded 300 investors of at least $140m, federal officials alleged in a complaint filed on Thursday.The civil lawsuit by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said First Liberty Building and Loan, controlled by Brant Frost IV, lied to investors about its business of making high-interest loans to companies. Instead, investigators said, it raised more money to repay earlier investors. Continue reading...

Officials say breaches by two staff members let Grant Hardin walk free, and lawmakers warn of deeper security failuresTwo employees at an Arkansas prison where an inmate known as the Devil in the Ozarks" escaped have been fired for policy violations, corrections officials said on Thursday as they faced questions from lawmakers who said the escape pointed to deeper problems.The head of the Arkansas board of corrections told state lawmakers the violations allowed Grant Hardin to escape from the Calico Rock prison wearing a makeshift law enforcement uniform on 25 May. But officials have said there was no evidence employees knowingly assisted Hardin's escape. Continue reading...

Cases top 1,297, driven by low immunization, summer travel and vaccine policy shifts under Robert F Kennedy JrThe US is in the midst of the worst measles outbreak in 33 years, according to figures released this week. Driven by an outbreak in Texas, the US has now seen more measles cases in 2025 than in any year since 1992.Experts said they expect the growth in measles cases to continue, spurred on in part by the summer travel season. The best way to prevent measles is to be vaccinated against the disease. Continue reading...

Career diplomats and other staff begin receiving notices amid Trump administration cull of about 15% of workforce

Business groups had lobbied hard for law's repeal, but voters could have a chance to reinstate it next yearEight months after voters approved it, Missouri's governor, Mike Kehoe, signed the repeal of a law on Thursday that had guaranteed paid sick leave to workers and inflation-linked adjustments to the minimum wage.The move marked a major victory for the state's largest business group and a frustrating defeat for workers' rights advocates, who had spent years - and millions of dollars - building support for the successful ballot measure. The repeal will take effect on 28 August. Continue reading...

The New York City mayor is posting more on Instagram lately, and it's hard not to see Mamdani's elite TikTok strategy as the reason whyEric Adams, possible resident of New Jersey and mayor of New York City, is a man of many talents. He is the city's most famous vegan", albeit one who eats fish. He has a knack for scoring freebies from foreign governments. He managed the great feat of being the first mayor in the city's history to be indicted while in office. And, on top of all that, he may well be the most unintentionally hilarious man on the internet.Please see, as exhibit one, a classic piece of Adams surrealism from 2011, shot when the mayor was just a humble state senator. Dressed like an undertaker, Adams instructs viewers to search their child's room for contraband. Per Adams, a jewelry box may have a gun in it, and the bullets may be behind a picture frame. Unappreciated for many years, the video finally found an audience when it went viral during Adams's indictment. Continue reading...

President hints at major announcement' on Monday after halting arms shipments due to dwindling stockpiles

New levies, apart from the 25% on auto parts and 50% on steel and aluminium, will come into effect on 1 AugustDonald Trump has said the US will impose a 35% tariff on imports from Canada from the beginning of August, and threatened to impose blanket tariffs of 15% or 20% on most other trading partners.The US president sent a letter to Canada late on Thursday, after an interview in which he warned EU nations to expect a tariff announcement today or tomorrow". Continue reading...

These teens say gender-affirming care saved their lives - now they're protesting as two leading US hospitals halt their treatmentsEli, a 16-year-old Los Angeles student, is spending his summer juggling an internship at a natural history museum, a research project, a physics class and cheer practice - and getting ready to apply for college.But in recent weeks, he has been forced to handle a more urgent matter: figuring out how he is going to access vital medical treatments targeted by the Trump administration. Continue reading...

Men from Mexico, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar were removed from the US and flown to the war-torn countryTom Homan, the US border czar, said he does not know what happened to the eight men deported to South Sudan after the Trump administration resumed sending migrants to countries that are not their place of origin, known as third countries.They're free as far as we're concerned. They're free, they're no longer in our custody, they're in Sudan," Homan told Politico on Friday. Will they stay in Sudan? I don't know." Continue reading...

Leiweke, ex-president of Denver Nuggets and former CEO of MLSE, which owns Toronto's major sports franchises, indicted over $388m arenaA prominent sports executive has been criminally charged with organising a conspiracy to ensure his own company won the bid to build a $388m sports arena in Texas.Timothy Leiweke, the former president of the Denver Nuggets basketball team and former CEO of MLSE, which owns Toronto's major sports franchises including the Leafs and Raptors was charged on Wednesday by a federal grand jury. He resigned as chief executive of the company at the center of the case, Oak View Group (OVG), after the announcement. Continue reading...

Long seen as women's work, childcare is underpaid and considered a private matter for families - not governmentIn 2021, Bri Adams was pregnant with her first child and began signing up for waitlists for childcare - eight, to be exact. She was thrilled when she found a spot, but was quickly horrified when the childcare shut down abruptly.It kind of broke my brain a bit", said Adams, a 34-year-old tech director from Falls Church, Virginia. Scrambling again, she found a new location close to the family's home. Continue reading...

Move comes after supreme court sides with Trump. Plus, Florida records more than 700,000 human trafficking victims in 2024

Report from University of South Florida says total includes 100,000 children targeted for sex trafficking in stateMore than 700,000 people fell victim to human trafficking in Florida last year, an alarming new study has revealed. Of that number, about 100,000 were children targeted for sex trafficking.The report, compiled by researchers at the University of South Florida, uses data from a variety of sources, including the Florida department of children and families, to paint a bleak picture of the extent of such crime in the nation's third most populous state. Continue reading...

The BDS movement is today a pillar in the struggle for Palestinian freedom, justice and equalityDo no harm, a principle that many associate with the medical practice, has become a fundamental ethical principle of global solidarity the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has mainstreamed since its inception 20 years ago this week.In the midst of the most depraved phase of Israel's livestreamed genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in the illegally occupied Gaza Strip, our unbearable grief makes it impossible to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the BDS movement. The Israeli state, enabled and emboldened by the shameless and seemingly boundless military, financial, political and discourse complicity of the US, the European Union and the UK, is trying to normalize the fundamentally abnormal and to numb our consciences with its relentless savagery. Continue reading...