US news | The Guardian

Milano Cortina Games to be opened on Friday evening

Turning Point USA is plotting its own half-time show in defiance of Bad Bunny - but one of TV's Blackest programs already perfected the alt-cast in 1992When the NFL announced Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny as this year's Super Bowl half-time show headliner, it walked right into a culture war. Right-wing critics raged over the musician's gender-nonconforming style, Spanish-language music and anti-Maga politics. Donald Trump, after saying he had never heard of Bad Bunny, called the headlining choice absolutely ridiculous".In response, Erika Kirk and her Turning Point USA conservative advocacy group turned the controversy into its own counter-programming event: the All-American Halftime Show. After its Nashville-heavy lineup, led by Kid Rock, was announced on Monday, vice-president JD Vance was first among conservatives to enthusiastically spread the word. Continue reading...

The Barbz have built a parasocial relationship with the rapper - in some cases to their own detrimentNicki Minaj is back doing PR for Donald Trump, and it's messier than ever. Last week, she appeared at a treasury department summit in Washington DC to show support for Trump accounts, a new kind of investment account designed to provide eligible American children with tax-advantaged investment accounts courtesy of President Donald J. Trump", according to a government website.The most disappointing part of the rapper's recent turn toward Maga, though, is how her stans - a significant portion of whom are Black and queer - are responding. After the summit, Minaj's followers defended her online and even helped push Trump's agenda. In a society full of hate and division, supporting Nicki Minaj is reminding people to see past political differences and see the human in one another," one supporter wrote. Oh brother. Minaj is a perfect example of the cult of celebrity, the dangers of modern fan culture and how celebrity worship can intersect with politics in truly dangerous ways.Tayo Bero is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Kennedy later said the purpose of his trip had nothing to do with vaccines. US embassy and UN staff at the time said otherwise, emails showOver two days of questioning during his Senate confirmation hearings last year, Robert F Kennedy Jr repeated the same answer.He said the closely scrutinized trip he took to Samoa in 2019, which came ahead of a devastating measles outbreak, had nothing to do with vaccines". Continue reading...

In Santa Clara, California, where nearly half of residents are born outside US, fear builds as game approachesThis weekend, tens of thousands of people will make their way to the Bay Area city of Santa Clara, ready to celebrate a weekend at the Super Bowl.Beneath the jubilant mood, some residents and officials have been grappling with the possibility of ICE enforcement operations during the game, and taking steps to prepare. Continue reading...

Luxury plane owned by Florida property tycoon has twice flown Palestinian men from Arizona to Tel Aviv, Guardian investigation shows. Plus, Democratic senator calls for national strike if Trump interferes with midterms

The Seahawks and Patriots are the last teams standing this season. The championship is likely to be decided by the smallest marginsThe Seattle Seahawks' run game came alive during the second half of the season and postseason. But it's still the passing game that makes the offense sing. Almost all of that flows through Smith-Njigba. Continue reading...

Fascism feeds on the arbitrary killings that have long plagued the US. Ending the horror starts with abolishing ICEIn a recent Saturday Night Live episode, when asked about Minneapolis, one of the white hosts intones: Well, the first word that comes to mind is unprecedented. You've got federal officers roaming the streets just pulling people out of their cars based on how they look. This just doesn't happen in America." The joke is, of course, that this" has been happening forever, but to Black people in America. Now that it is happening to others, and particularly now that white protesters are being killed in the streets, it is suddenly a national emergency.In his 1955 work Discourse on Colonialism, Aime Cesaire, the French poet and politician, argues that fascism was the result of bringing to bear on domestic populations the tactics European countries used on their colonial subjects in Africa. This is what has been called in the literature the imperial boomerang thesis". As many have been pointing out on social media and elsewhere, if we think of the US Black American population as an internally colonized population, then you can see what is happening on the streets of Minneapolis as a manifestation of the imperial boomerang thesis. Continue reading...

Puerto Rican rapper to follow Grammy victory and anti-ICE speech with show on most-watched US TV event of the yearJust a week after receiving the Grammy award for Album of the Year, the Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny will take on the US's most watched concert of the year when he performs at the Super Bowl this Sunday.The artist born Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio took home the music academy's top honor for 2025's Debi Tirar Mas Fotos, a politically minded record infused with Puerto Rican music and culture. The album became the first Spanish-language work to take home the prize, beating out competition from Kendrick Lamar, Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber. Continue reading...

The window to impress on Mauricio Pochettino is waning, and the pressure is on for the No 9s on the bubbleIn past points of his managerial career, Mauricio Pochettino could upgrade his squad via the transfer market. When Tottenham sold striker Roberto Soldado in 2015, his replacement came two weeks later: Son Heung-min. It's a facet of the job completely absent in his role with the US national team, though he'd be forgiven for wishing a similar market was available ahead of this summer's World Cup.With provisional World Cup squads due 11 May and Pochettino wanting to avoid a cruel" scenario of bringing players over for the final friendlies in May and June only to leave them off of his tournament squad, the window for hopefuls to make an impression is nearly closed. There are positional battles across the pitch; there's no ironclad starting goalkeeper, a likely opening (or two) at center back beside Chris Richards, and multiple midfield places. Continue reading...

Cubans, once fast-tracked to US residency, now find themselves targets of Trump's immigration crackdownWhen Rosaly Estevez self-deported" from Miami to Havana last November, US immigration officers bid farewell by removing her ankle monitor. The 32-year-old had been told she was about to be detained, so she left with her three-year-old son, Dylan, a US citizen.Heidy Sanchez, 43, wasn't given a choice. She was forcibly removed from Florida last April but, worrying about Cuba's failing healthcare system, she left her two-year-old daughter, Kaylin, behind with her American husband, Carlos. Continue reading...

Their pro family' rhetoric is a cynical and hollow shamOf the 3,800 children and infants taken into immigration custody between January and October of 2025, a majority - 2,600 - were detained by ICE officers. That means that the children, as young as one or two years old, were not arrested at the border or legal ports of entry, where asylum seekers frequently present themselves to border officers, but from inside the country.That means that those children were not new arrivals seeking help; they were kids going about their daily lives in the US, often with legal status. They were children like Liam Ramos, aged five, who was snatched from his driveway after school by immigration agents while wearing a blue bunny hat to keep him warm in the Minnesota cold. They are children like one student, a 17-year-old from Liam's school district in Minnesota, who was taken from their car, or the other child, a 10-year-old girl in the fourth grade, who was taken alongside her mother; or the two other boys, brothers in the second and fifth grades, who were delivered by school officials to an ICE detention center after their mother was arrested and taken there. She had called the school to ask them to bring her boys to her in the prison; there was no one else to take care of them. Continue reading...

The US enter the team event as hot favorites: powered by world champions, rising stars and a generation determined to push figure skating beyond its traditional audienceOn Friday morning inside the Milano Ice Skating Arena, the United States will launch their defense of the Olympic figure skating team title carrying something rare in a sport usually defined by individual brilliance: overwhelming depth. Which raises a question that, until recently, would have sounded almost absurd in figure skating.Is the new USA Dream Team a group of figure skaters? Continue reading...

Files suggest David Stern was Jeffrey Epstein's man in the palace', passing messages to the former prince until 2019Jeffrey Epstein wanted his 26-year-old Belarusian girlfriend, Karyna Shuliak, and her friend, Jen, to have a good time in London - and he knew just who to ask.Karyna - my girlfriend, and Jen, the tall girl who you've met will be London Tues and Wed," the 63-year-old disgraced financier apparently wrote in April 2016 to an aide to the then Prince Andrew. They have never been there before. If you are around, I'd appreciate any help you can give them." Continue reading...

In wake of Donald Trump's call for Republicans to take over' voting, senator Ruben Gallego urges citizens to take a stand and give the ultimate response'The Democratic senator Ruben Gallego has proposed that, should Donald Trump try to sabotage the midterm elections, Americans should respond with a general strike that would grind the country to a halt".Earlier this week the US president called for Republicans to take over" and nationalise" voting in at least 15 unspecified locations, repeating his false claims that elections are plagued by widespread fraud. Continue reading...

Death toll from Washington's campaign on alleged drug traffickers now at least 128The US military on Thursday said it killed two alleged drug traffickers in a strike on a boat in the eastern Pacific, bringing the death toll from Washington's campaign to at least 128.Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations," the US Southern Command said in a post on X. It said no US military forces were harmed" in the operation. Continue reading...

In a video posted on social media, he further implored the people holding Nancy Guthrie to send proof they had herTV host Savannah Guthrie's brother on Thursday renewed the family's plea for their mother's kidnapper to contact them, hours after an Arizona sheriff said investigators don't have proof Nancy Guthrie is alive, but believe she's still out there".Whoever is out there holding our mother, we want to hear from you. We haven't heard anything directly," Camron Guthrie said in a video statement posted on Instagram. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed.

The journalist Jen Ortiz charts the rise of Bad Bunny - the Puerto Rican superstar musician and ICE critic - before his performance at the Super Bowl on SundayThe halftime show at the Super Bowl is an American cultural institution and this year it will be performed by perhaps its most controversial star yet.Bad Bunny has been labelled by those on the American right as un-American" and shameful" - criticised for everything from his outspoken stance against ICE to his insistence on singing in Spanish. Continue reading...

Car, being driven by 92-year-old driver, crashed at 99 Ranch Market and victims, trapped under vehicle, died at sceneThree people were killed and six others were hurt after a 92-year-old driver collided with a cyclist and then slammed her car into a grocery store on Thursday afternoon in Los Angeles, authorities said.The crash was reported shortly after noon at a 99 Ranch Market in the city's Westwood neighborhood, according Los Angeles fire department spokesperson Lyndsey Lantz. Continue reading...

Private jet owned by Florida property tycoon Gil Dezer has twice flown Palestinian men from Arizona to Tel Aviv, the Guardian found - key US politics stories from 5 February 2026A new Guardian investigation has revealed a secretive and politically sensitive US government operation to deport Palestinians arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.A private jet owned by Florida property tycoon Gil Dezer, a longtime business partner of Donald Trump, has twice flown Palestinian men from Arizona to Tel Aviv. Continue reading...

Jon Hallford to be sentenced Friday for abusing nearly 200 corpses; his wife, Carie Hallford, to be sentenced in AprilDerrick Johnson buried his mother's ashes beneath a golden dewdrop tree with purple blossoms at his home on Maui's Haleakal volcano, fulfilling her wish of a final resting place looking over her grandchildren.Then the FBI called. Continue reading...

Severe lack of public defenders has meant people charged with crimes have been routinely unable to fight their casesThe Oregon supreme court has ruled that a large number of criminal cases across the state must be dismissed due to a severe shortage of public defenders, a major decision that attorneys say will impact more than 1,400 pending cases.The problem has been years in the making and has become a significant constitutional crisis, as people charged with crimes are routinely unable to fight their cases as they wait weeks, months or sometimes years for the state to appoint them lawyers. The attorney shortage - due in part to the increasing difficulty of recruiting attorneys for the low-salary, high-caseload jobs - has meant that people have had cases hanging over them for extended periods of time, impacting their housing, employment and families, advocates say. Continue reading...

Featuring an unlikely animal friendship, the commercial boasts enough patriotic iconography to verge on self-parodyThree years after its sister brand, Bud Light, faced a rightwing boycott over a transgender spokesperson, Budweiser's new Super Bowl ad, American Icons, contains absolutely nothing that could be mistaken for social progress. Instead, it features an unlikely friendship between two animals whose blood runs red, white and blue: a bald eagle and a Clydesdale horse, the Budweiser icon. An adorable foal trots out of a barn, and the viewer is injected with a single minute of American iconography so pure that it would make Lee Greenwood nauseous.The horse meets a struggling baby bird who gets caught in the rain, prompting the horse to stand over the bird as a roof. The pair become pals and grow up together, the bird riding on the horse's back as it grows larger. It falls off a few times, but, like George Washington at Valley Forge, it never gives up. Finally, the horse jumps over a log while the bird spreads its wings above, and we get a slow-motion image of something like Pegasus. We realize the bird, now fully grown, is a majestic bald eagle, taking to the sky as Lynyrd Skynyrd's Free Bird reaches its climax. Two farmers look on while drinking Budweiser, as the words Made of America" appear on the screen. You crying?" one asks. The sun's in my eyes," says the other. Continue reading...

Anonymous insider alleges director of national intelligence withheld classified information for political reasonsThe Republican leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees have rejected a top-secret complaint from an anonymous government insider alleging that Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, withheld classified information for political reasons.The responses this week from Senator Tom Cotton and Congressman Rick Crawford mean the complaint is unlikely to proceed further, though Democratic lawmakers who also have seen the document said they continue to question why it took Gabbard's office eight months to refer the complaint to Congress as required by law. Continue reading...

Mark Francis Ford has been held without bail for five months after authorities arrested him in IndianaA man accused of molesting a disabled boy whom he met while working as a Roman Catholic priest in New Orleans has been indicted on child rape charges, according to authorities.Grand jurors seated in New Orleans' state criminal courthouse on Thursday handed up a nine-count indictment against Mark Francis Ford, nearly five months after authorities arrested him and jailed him without bail. The document charges Ford, 64, with aggravated rape of a child; raping a person suffering from a physical disability preventing resistance; two counts of molesting a juvenile; another three of indecent behavior with a minor; and kidnapping. Continue reading...

Amid officials' concern about vocal crowd reactions against the US, the vice-president's visit to a hockey game felt closer to theater than geopoliticsSeveral thousand spectators who turned up for a Thursday afternoon hockey game in Milan's western suburbs may have gotten a sneak preview of the 2028 Republican ticket when US vice-president JD Vance and secretary of state Marco Rubio attended the United States women's Olympic opener. With one hockey game already postponed because of norovirus, Olympic organizers could have been forgiven for hoping to avoid any other sudden waves of nausea inside the secondary rink across town.Vance is in Italy to lead the official US delegation at Friday's opening ceremony, joined by second lady Usha Vance, Rubio and billionaire Tilman Fertitta, the US ambassador to Italy and owner of the NBA's Houston Rockets. The group watched Thursday's game from the second and third rows at center ice behind the scorer's table alongside Olympic gold medal-winning hockey sisters Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson and Monique Lamoureux-Morando. Continue reading...

Shifting explanations of Gabbard's presence at election center intensifies scrutiny of role she played in operationDonald Trump on Thursday offered a new and shifting account of why Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, was present last week at an FBI raid of an election center in Georgia, saying she went at the urging of the attorney general Pam Bondi.She took a lot of heat two days ago because she went in at Pam's insistence," the US president said at the National Prayer Breakfast, a high-profile event of political and religious leaders. She went in and she looked at votes that wanted to be checked out from Georgia." Continue reading...

Vodafone also reviewing its contract with Global Counsel after revelations of former minister's links to Jeffrey EpsteinBarclays has reportedly cut ties with the lobbying firm co-founded by Peter Mandelson, after intense scrutiny of the founders' dealings with the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.Vodafone has also said it is reviewing its contract for public affairs services with Global Counsel, which Mandelson co-founded in 2010 after Labour lost the general election. Continue reading...

Party says it will not back funding bill without reforms on - among other things - masks, ID and judicial warrants

Trump might not embody Christian values yet is the religious right's chosen instrument to turn the tide against liberal, godless America

While the US president's many mentions in the Esptein files seem to have no consequences, in the UK Starmer could be the first world leader to fallAll around Europe, the political and business elite are facing an inquest on what blinded so many to think it was permissible to consort with a known child sex offender. As the 3m emails and 1,800 photos released on Friday by the US Department of Justice start to percolate across the continent and through to national media, questions about the moral fibre of this elite are starting to be asked at markedly different levels of intensity.Squirming businessmen, bankers, politicians, royals, academics, tech bros and partners in law firms have become entangled in Jeffrey Epstein's interlocking circles of money, power and sex. It seems there was no one in a position of power that Epstein was not in email contact with, and that there was little limit to what this networking elite was prepared to do in return for a gift, a contact or an invite to a sexually charged party. Elon Musk was right when in July 2025 he tweeted - only to quickly delete it - that so many powerful people want that list suppressed". Continue reading...

Exclusive: Luxury aircraft owned by property tycoon close to US president's family has twice flown Palestinian men from Arizona to Tel AvivOn the morning of 21 January, Israeli authorities left eight Palestinian men at a West Bank checkpoint. Disoriented and cold, they were dressed in prison-issued tracksuits and carried their few belongings in plastic bags.Hours earlier, they had been sitting with their wrists and ankles shackled on the plush leather seats of a private jet owned by the Florida property tycoon Gil Dezer, a longtime business partner of Donald Trump. Continue reading...

Data from November 2025 was also revised lower amid a softening in labor market conditions at the end of the yearUS job openings dropped to the lowest level in more than five years in December and data for the prior month was revised lower amid a softening in labor market conditions at the end of 2025.Job openings, a measure of labor demand, decreased by 386,000 to 6.542m by the last day of December, the lowest level since September 2020, the labor department's Bureau of Labor Statistics said in its Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or Jolts report, on Thursday. Continue reading...

It is not good enough just to criticize Trump. We must offer a positive vision that will improve the lives of AmericansAt this difficult moment in American history, it's imperative that we have the courage to be honest with ourselves.The United States, once the envy of the world, is now a nation in profound decline. For the sake of our children and future generations, we must reverse that decline and change, in very fundamental ways, the direction of our country.We must create a vibrant democracy by ending Citizens United and preventing billionaires from buying elections.

Today show host Savannah Guthrie and her siblings have published a video statement calling for the safe return of their mother, Nancy Guthrie, 84, reported missing on Sunday. Guthrie said her mother's health was fragile and she needed her medicine to survive. She said she had heard of the reports of a ransom letter and continued: 'We are ready to talk, however we live in a world where voices and images are easily manipulated. We need to know without a doubt that she is alive'

US federal judge issued a preliminary injunction barring warrantless arrests unless there is a likelihood of escapeUS immigration agents in Oregon must stop arresting people without warrants unless there is a likelihood of escape, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday.US district judge Mustafa Kasubhai issued a preliminary injunction in a proposed class-action lawsuit targeting the Department of Homeland Security's practice of arresting immigrants they happen to come across while conducting ramped-up enforcement operations - which critics have described as arrest first, justify later". Continue reading...

The Guardian reviewed figures from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection since Trump's inaugurationDonald Trump campaigned on a platform of mass deportation. Since he took office, his administration has reshaped immigration enforcement across the country. The Guardian, using data published every two weeks by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is tracking the number of people the administration has arrested, detained and deported. Continue reading...

Elizabeth Caisaguano and her mother released from Texas facility hit by measles outbreak. Plus, the Epstein stories you may have missedGood morning.A 10-year-old Minnesota girl has been released from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody after a month in detention in Dilley, Texas, school officials said, one of hundreds of children detained at the facility.What are the conditions like at the detention center? Federal officials have confirmed that Dilley, which houses families, is now the site of a measles outbreak.What did the judge say? On Monday, Fred Biery, a federal judge in Texas Western District, issued an order blocking the removal or transfer of Elizabeth and her mother and giving the federal government five days to respond to the family's release petition. This didn't have to happen. ... They did everything they were supposed to do and still found themselves detained and separated," he said.Brad Karp has resigned as chair of the powerful law firm Paul Weiss after revelations of extensive communications with Epstein.The documents provide a high level of insight into Epstein's close relationship with the former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, in which Bannon acted as a mentor for Epstein's appearances in the media.The UK prime minister is fighting for his political future amid fury over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador despite his friendship with Epstein. Mandelson appeared to leak confidential information to Epstein while a minister.Bill Gates has said he regrets" ever knowing Epstein, as his former wife Melinda French Gates alluded to muck" in their marriage, and said the Microsoft founder has questions to answer.The release included Epstein's full household manual" detailing strict, cult-like requirements for his Florida mansion staff, who were expected to see nothing, hear nothing, say nothing". Continue reading...

At least two cases confirmed at detention center for children and their parents in TexasAt least two cases of measles have been confirmed at a major immigration detention center for children and their parents in Texas as cases of the dangerous virus in South Carolina, Arizona, Utah and other US states continue growing and alarming experts.In January alone, the US saw 25% of the total confirmed in all of last year, and the outbreak shows no sign of slowing as federal officials stay silent on vaccination. Continue reading...

Experts say Tom Homan's charge, replacing Greg Bovino's aggressive tactics, may change the tone, but not the missionIn his clearest attempt yet to deescalate" tensions in Minneapolis, Tom Homan, Donald Trump's border czar", announced on Wednesday that the administration will draw down 700 federal immigration officers as the statewide crackdown continues.The Twin Cities remain on edge, waiting to see whether the fear will ease. Continue reading...

The president's policies have weakened the US's competitive position and undermined its alliances to China's advantageIf Donald Trump's presidency has any theme (beyond self-promotion), it's that his America First" agenda will Make America Great Again. Unfortunately for the American people, if Trump's maneuvers and machinations have made any nation greater, it's been China, not the United States.During Trump's first term, he treated China as a strategic rival and often talked of checking its rise. His administration complained that China was seeking to challenge American power" and erode American security and prosperity". But during his first year back in the White House, Trump - in governing by whim and impulse with little strategic vision - has done lots to Make China Great Again.Steven Greenhouse is a journalist and author, focusing on labour and the workplace, as well as economic and legal issues Continue reading...

Writers and theatre groups across the country are creating works in response to crackdowns on their communitiesOn a cool winter night in Los Angeles, dozens gathered to protest the Trump administration's attacks on the arts and the recent federal immigration raids in southern California. But these protestors didn't carry signs or chant in front of a government building - they recited poems such as Antifa Tea Party and Love in Times of Fascism. They performed anti-fascist improv to a small but lively crowd at The Glendale Room, a library-themed theater, as part of the monthly show Unquiet: A Night of Creative Resistance.If you've got talent or skills as a communicator, you can move people," Chris Kessler, a writer and poet, said after performing at Unquiet. I really believe that we need to be moving people toward a stronger sense of collectivism in the face of fascism." Continue reading...

Seattle's Aden Durde will be the first British coach to appear in the Super Bowl. He wants to ensure he's not the lastMidway through the 2023 NFL season, Dallas Cowboys star edge rusher Micah Parsons was frustrated. Asked about the source - a feeling of being held by opponents all the time - Parsons credited his defensive line coach Aden Durde with keeping him in check.[Coach Durde] pulled me aside and said, You gotta remember, you're Micah fucking Parsons," he recalled. This shit is going to happen. You just gotta keep going. Fuck all the other stuff.'" Continue reading...

The interview, revealed in the latest tranche of Epstein files, was reportedly intended for a sympathetic documentarySteve Bannon, a one-time adviser to Donald Trump, has long styled himself as a populist nemesis of the global elites. Yet the latest release of Jeffrey Epstein files shows that he exchanged hundreds of friendly texts with the wealthy financier, discussing politics, travel and other topics.One of the biggest surprises in the files was a bizarre video in which Epstein - who exploited and abused dozens of young girls - is interviewed by Bannon at what appears to be Epstein's New York home. Continue reading...

If US elites can find the courage to speak up, we can still prevent our country from descending into full-blown autocracyAlex Pretti - an ICU nurse documenting alleged cases of federal immigration agents' overreach - was killed by federal agents in Minneapolis on 24 January. Just hours later, Minnesotans gathered in their neighborhoods for vigils to mourn his death and demand an end to the federal incursion on their state.Meanwhile, the CEOs of Apple, Amazon, Zoom and the New York Stock Exchange attended a glitzy screening of the new Melania documentary at the White House, where they munched on popcorn in special commemorative black-and-white boxes and took home Melania-branded cookies. Continue reading...

New Start expires on Thursday. That leaves no limits on US and Russian nuclear arsenalsLet's be honest: America needs another nuclear weapon about as much as Donald Trump deserves a Nobel peace prize.Yet on Thursday, the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between the U S and Russia will expire. When the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty - New Start - goes away, there will be no limits on US and Russian nuclear arsenals for the first time in more than 50 years.Edward J Markey represents Massachusetts in the US Senate. He is a co-chair of the bicameral congressional nuclear weapons and arms control working group Continue reading...

As his team returns to the Super Bowl, the New England owner who once stood up on social issues proves he is just another transactional billionaireDuring the worst of it, when Philando Castile and Alton Sterling were killed by police a decade ago and Colin Kaepernick took a knee in protest, when a widespread reaction was to tell the highly accomplished, overwhelmingly Black professional athletes they were un-American, or well-paid farmhands who needed to get back to work, or both, and some of his peers in the ownership class were releasing players as punishment for joining the protest, it was New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft who positioned himself as the voice of reason.Kraft attempted to broker peace between the ownership hawks who saw the high-paid kneelers as ungrateful mutineers and, after decades of docility, the radicalized players unwilling to collect their checks in exchange for political silence. Kraft encouraged two of his players - the twins Devin and Jason McCourty - into deeper citizenship, to engage with the legal and political systems and promote reforms. As a sign of compassion and a willingness to listen, Kraft visited the incarcerated rapper Meek Mill, and later the two partnered with another artist, Jay-Z, on various criminal justice initiatives. Continue reading...