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Liberal judge defeats Brad Schimel in the most expensive judicial election in US history, which cost a combined $80m

Liberal judge defeats Brad Schimel in the most expensive judicial election in US history, which cost a combined $80mSusan Crawford won the race for a seat on the Wisconsin supreme court on Tuesday, a major win for Democrats who had framed the race as a referendum on Elon Musk and Donald Trump's popularity.Crawford, a liberal judge from Dane county, defeated Brad Schimel, a former Republican attorney general and conservative judge from Waukesha county, after Musk and groups associated with the tech billionaire spent millions to boost his candidacy in what became the most expensive judicial contest in American history. Continue reading...

Just 100 extremely wealthy families invested $2.6bn during the election cycle that put Trump back in the White HouseBillionaires spent record amounts during the 2024 federal election, according to a new analysis from Americans for Tax Fairness, a coalition of more than 420 national, state and local organizations advocating for economic reforms.The report's findings show that during the election cycle that put Donald Trump back in the White House and seated Republican majorities in both the House and Senate, just 100 extremely wealthy families invested $2.6bn - an amount more than double what billionaire donors contributed just four years prior. Continue reading...

Randy Fine beats Josh Weil in Mike Waltz's former district, and Jimmy Patronis wins seat vacated by Matt GaetzRepublicans on Tuesday won special elections for two US House of Representatives seats in Florida vacated by Donald Trump's cabinet nominees, dashing Democratic hopes for an upset victory in the first federal special elections held since the president began his second term.But Democratic candidates Josh Weil and Gay Valimont are on track to lose the solidly red districts by much smaller margins than the more than 30 points that Democrats lost them by in November. Continue reading...

Elections in Wisconsin and Florida seen as reflection of Trump's standing with voters. Here's your roundup of key US politics stories from 1 April 2025.Republican Randy Fine won a special election for a House seat in Florida vacated by Donald Trump's national security adviser, Mike Waltz, which will help Republicans preserve their razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives.However, Democrats are likely to have performed better in the Republican district than they did in November, after their candidate Josh Weil put up a stiff challenge in the eastern coastal district that Trump carried by 30 percentage points in the November elections. Continue reading...

Oscar Arias, 84, who won Nobel peace prize in 1987, said US president was behaving like a Roman emperor'Former Costa Rican president and Nobel winner Oscar Arias said on Tuesday that the US had revoked his visa to enter the country, weeks after he criticized Donald Trump on social media saying he was behaving like a Roman emperor".Arias, 84, was president between 1986 and 1990 and again between 2006 and 2010. A self-declared pacifist, he won the 1987 Nobel peace prize for his role in brokering peace during the Central American conflicts of the 1980s. Continue reading...

In speech that began Monday night, Democratic senator warns of grave and urgent' danger of Trump administration

Exclusive: UK willing to placate Trump with lower digital services tax rate also encompassing non-US companiesBig US technology companies have been offered a significant tax cut by Keir Starmer in return for lower tariffs from Donald Trump's administration as the UK braces itself for a global trade war.The Guardian understands the UK government is willing to reduce the headline rate of its digital services tax (DST) in an attempt to placate the US president, while at the same time applying the levy to companies from other countries. Continue reading...

Jerry Nadler of New York says president weaponizing real pain American Jews face to advance desire to wield control'

Nina Jankowicz, who led DHS's disinformation unit under Biden administration, pointed to restrictions under TrumpA Capitol Hill hearing held to explore supposed government censorship under Joe Biden was based on a fiction", a leading expert on countering online disinformation told members of Congress on Tuesday.Nina Jankowicz, head of the American Sunlight Project, a pro-democracy organization, went on the offensive at a House of Representatives foreign relations subcommittee meeting held to examine the existence of an alleged censorship industrial complex", which Republicans claim was established to stifle rightwing views on social media, rather than combat foreign propaganda, as officially stated. Continue reading...

Small group of Republican lawmakers help Democrats to obstruct key procedural motion in setback for GOPAn attempt by Republican leaders to stop new parents from voting by proxy sparked a bipartisan mutiny in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, during which a small group of GOP lawmakers joined with all Democrats to obstruct a key procedural motion and paralyze the chamber.The revolt was the first legislative setback Republicans have faced since Donald Trump returned to the White House with the GOP holding a slim majority in Congress's lower chamber. It also delayed consideration of House speaker Mike Johnson's legislative agenda for the week, which included a bill to stop federal judges from issuing nationwide injunctions - as several have done for Trump's executive orders - and to require proof of citizenship to vote. Continue reading...

Republican defections would amount to rare public rebuke as concerns mount over impact of president's plans

Rolling Stone interviews with 10 people reveal claims that Jeremy Lewin threatened a girl with a knife and openly shared racist views

What is at stake for the EU and UK economies - and how they could hit backThe EU and the UK are bracing for a damaging trade war with the US, as Donald Trump is expected to implement his threat to impose tariffs on imports from Europe.For weeks, he has named 2 April liberation day", with the unveiling of a tariff plan to reverse what he called unfair practices that have been ripping off our country for decades". Continue reading...

Unofficial Trump adviser's cost-cutting team to finalize shuttering the foreign aid agency on which millions depend

The US president wields tariffs not as a policy tool but as an instrument of pressure, rewarding loyalty and punishing defiance - even among alliesDonald Trump has probably not read much MichelFoucault. But he appears to embody the French philosopher's claim that politics is the continuation of war by other means". Nowhere is this more apparent than in his fondness for tariffs. He presents taxing foreign imports as a way to rebuild the American economy in favour of blue-collar workers left behind by free trade and globalisation. Yet he plainly thinks that politics is not about truth or justice. It is about leverage and supremacy.Britain is learning first-hand that Mr Trump, with his us-versus-them framing and taste for spectacle, is an accidental Foucauldian - using tariffs as tools of loyaltyand dominance, even against allies. If MrTrump follows through on his threat to impose a 20% tariff on all imports, UK growth will suffer. The effect depends on the response. No British retaliation would mean GDP 0.4% lower this year and 0.6% next. A global trade war would push that to 0.6% and 1%. Either outcome would wipe out the government's fiscal headroom. But while British policymakers fret over the shrinking margins of fiscal rules, Mr Trump sees no need to cloak power in objectivity.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Data says 34% of those in US stopped purchasing breakfast staple and won't buy again until costs lower to $5 a cartonAs egg prices have reached record highs, about a third of American consumers have stopped buying them in response to the rising costs, a new study suggests.According to research from Clarify Capital, 34% of Americans have stopped purchasing eggs as prices for the breakfast staple are becoming less affordable. On average, these consumers say they won't begin buying eggs again until costs come down to $5 or less for a carton. Continue reading...

Mangione, 26, accused of carrying out premeditated assassination' of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian ThompsonFederal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against the man accused of fatally shooting the UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson, outside a Manhattan hotel on 4 December, the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, said on Tuesday.Bondi said in a press release that she had directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty" for Luigi Mangione, 26, because he allegedly committed a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America". The move, Bondi notes, was in an effort to carry out President Trump's agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again". Continue reading...

Andry Jose Hernandez Romero sent to an El Salvador prison after claim crown' tattoos proved he was a gang memberFor as long as anyone can remember Andry Jose Hernandez Romero was enthralled by the annual Three Kings Day celebrations for which his Venezuelan home town is famed, joining thousands of fellow Christians on the streets of Capacho to remember how the trio of wise men visited baby Jesus bearing gold, frankincense and myrrh.At age seven, Andry became a Mini King, as members of the town's youth drama group Los Mini Reyes were known. Later in life, he tattooed two crowns on his wrists to memorialise those carnival-like Epiphany commemorations and his Catholic roots. Continue reading...

The US president's attack on the Smithsonian isn't about truth. It's about erasure, and erasure is violence'Last week, Donald Trump issued another executive order, this one aimed directly at the Smithsonian Institution, and called for Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History". He contended that the Smithsonian had come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology" and that it advocates narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive". Specifically, the order targeted American history and art that focused on stories of race and racism.Being responsible for the distillation of the nation's narrative is no small thing. The Smithsonian oversees 21 museums, libraries, research centers and the National zoo. Every year millions of people visit various sites that are free to the public. The collection of museums represents the pinnacle of public history and the story America tells the world about itself. Continue reading...

Amber Ruffin skewers journalists who canceled her appearance, mocking their subservience to TrumpA comedian whose skit for White House reporters was canceled for fear of upsetting Donald Trump skewered the journalists who dropped her in a biting late-night talk show routine mocking their perceived subservience to the president.I thought when people take away your rights, erase your history and deport your friends, you're supposed to call it out. But I was wrong," Amber Ruffin said during a brief appearance Monday on NBC's Late Night With Seth Meyers. Continue reading...

Official says Kilmer Armado Abrego-Garcia, who lived in Maryland with his wife and child, is in El Salvador prison due to oversight'

Amendments pushed by Republican Jeff Landry on crime, courts and finances resoundingly defeated in voteLouisiana voters soundly rejected four constitutional amendments championed by the Republican governor, Jeff Landry, related to crime, courts and finances.Voters said no to each amendment by margins exceeding 60%, according to preliminary results the secretary of state's office released after voting concluded on Saturday evening. Continue reading...

Trump administration begins reducing Health and Human Services workforce as Kennedy plans up to 10,000 job cutsThousands of Health and Human Services (HHS) employees across the country are being dismissed on Tuesday as the Trump administration began implementing its controversial workforce reduction plan, which could ultimately remove 10,000 staff from the department through forced layoffs.The job cuts mark the first tangible impact of health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr's departmental overhaul announced last week, landing just days after Donald Trump moved to strip collective bargaining rights from workers at HHS and other federal agencies. Continue reading...

Conservatives bid to overturn liberal majority on Wisconsin supreme court while Florida votes to replace Mike WaltzUS voters are headed to the polls on Tuesday in Wisconsin and Florida in elections that some see as a test of Donald Trump's popularity and the political clout of his billionaire ally Elon Musk.The most closely watched contest is a battle for a seat on Wisconsin's seven-member supreme court. Conservatives are trying to flip ideological control of the court, which currently has a 4-3 liberal majority. The contest, which features the liberal judge Susan Crawford facing off against the conservative Brad Schimel, will have huge consequences in the state. Continue reading...

State attorney general had said anti-conspiracy laws might be used to charge groups helping women travel for abortionsAlabama's attorney general cannot prosecute individuals and groups that help Alabama women travel to other states to obtain abortions, a federal judge ruled on Monday.US district judge Myron Thompson sided with an abortion fund and medical providers who sued Alabama's attorney general, Steve Marshall, after he suggested they could face prosecution under anti-conspiracy laws. Thompson's ruling declared that such prosecutions would violate both the first amendment and a person's right to travel. Continue reading...

The state has one of the highest US rates of substance use disorders and ranks last for access to treatment. These initiatives are changing what rehab looks likeOregon has for years struggled with a drug crisis, reporting one of the highest rates of substance use disorders in the US and ranking last in the nation for access to treatment.The problem is systemic, rooted in decades of failure to invest in the level of behavioral health services needed for people with mental illnesses and addiction. The Pacific north-west state's significant affordable housing shortage has compounded the challenges, as people languish on the streets without care. Many drug users spiral downward until they overdose, wind up in jail or prison, or are forced into Oregon's overcrowded psychiatric system. Continue reading...

Last week, he moved to end collective bargaining rights for 1 million people. And would anyone who cared about workers hire this staff?If any workers are still holding on to the notion that Donald Trump is pro-worker or pro-union, his move last week to terminate union bargaining rights for 1 million federal workers should disabuse them of that notion. Candidate Trump often wooed workers by promising to fight for them, but ever since he returned to the White House, he has taken dozens of anti-worker and anti-union actions.In an unprecedented anti-union action last Thursday, the president moved to end collective bargaining for a million federal employees and scrap union contracts nearly that number, while attacking their unions as hostile" merely because they were doing what unions are supposed to do: battling to save the jobs of tens of thousands of union members whom Trump and Elon Musk had summarily fired. Continue reading...

So many people and organisations are capitulating to the US president, from Silicon Valley to the Democrats, legal firms and elite universities. How realistic is the prospect of Trump 3.0?Hell is empty and all the devils are in Washington DC. And, what with devils being immortal and all, it looks as if they might stay there indefinitely. Now, before I seamlessly segue from fun devil facts into talking about Donald Trump threatening to run for a third term, the current political climate compels me to make a few things clear. I recently had to submit my US green card for renewal (impeccable timing!) so I'd like to explain to any United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officers reviewing my file that the first line of this piece was just riffing on Shakespeare. I'm absolutely not comparing Trump, the greatest man to walk this Earth, to Satan. Nor am I suggesting evil people seem to live long lives.On the contrary, I am thrilled that our 78-year-old president has suggested he is looking into methods" that will allow him to serve this wonderful country longer. And it's a shame my enthusiasm isn't universally shared. I mean, to quote JD Vance (who is up there next to Shakespeare in the words department), have any Trump detractors SAID THANK YOU ONCE? Trump could be relaxing with his billions; he could be playing golf every day. Instead, the poor man only gets to play golf every few days - costing taxpayers millions of dollars - and has to spend most of his time sorting out the US. The economy doesn't just crash itself, you know? So thank you, Mr President. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Continue reading...

As claims pile up about the charity he founded, he's learning that smiling and biting your lip can be quite painful. Hear, hear, as the Windsors might sayStraight faces, please, as we try to look charitably at the toxic row engulfing Prince Harry's charity. Are you up to speed with this everyday story of giving folk? I'm in such a muddle with it all that I can't remember if I'm allowed to say that purely from my observations of her telly interviews, Sentebale chair Sophie Chandauka does seem like a right old loose cannon.But I'm getting ahead of myself, so let's do a quick recap. Sentebale is a charity to help children and young people with HIV and Aids in Lesotho and Botswana, and was set up almost two decades ago by Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, in honour of their mothers. Its current chair is Chandauka, a Zimbabwean lawyer, and something about her stewardship of the charity has provoked its entire board of trustees to judge that their relationship has broken down irretrievably. Accordingly, they have all resigned. Chandauka in turn has said that the charity was riddled with poor governance, weak executive management, abuse of power, bullying, harassment, misogyny [and] misogynoir", and accused Prince Harry of harassment and bullying at scale".Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

The team that brought us Moneyball is in the middle of a move from Oakland to Las Vegas. Fans turned up to their home opener but this is still a club in fluxIt could have been worse for the Athletics. Before they headed west to Oakland in 1968, their characterful former owner, Charlie Finley, threatened to move them from Kansas City to a cow pasture in the tiny town of Peculiar, Missouri.Now they are in a place you might call Limbo, California - also known as the home of the Pacific Coast League's Sacramento River Cats. It's a staging post for Major League Baseball's most contentious franchise after the burning of their Bay Area bridges left them needing somewhere to play ahead of a planned relocation from Oakland to Las Vegas. Continue reading...

Can moderate Democrats, plotting their path back to power, convincingly make a populist pivot?Progressives have plenty of bad ideas that should be axed, but populism without an economic promise is a bloodless bleat.It wasn't long ago that Democratic party moderates expressed ambivalence toward the working class. In 2016, Chuck Schumer summed up the party's attitude by predicting that for every blue-collar Democrat we lose in western Pennsylvania, we will pick up two moderate Republicans in the suburbs of Philadelphia".Dustin Guastella is a research associate at the Center for Working Class Politics and the director of operations for Teamsters Local 623. Continue reading...

In North Carolina, children affected by Hurricane Helene are putting this proven method to the testOn a winter afternoon at the old Methodist church in Swannanoa, North Carolina, a group of young children gathered around a special sandbox. The sand was silky and lavender-scented. The toys inside were carefully chosen: small sections of wooden fence, fist-sized plastic houses, tea lights with battery-operated flames, matchbox-sized police cars and construction machines.In the wake of Hurricane Helene last autumn, these objects took on new meaning in the town of 5,000 miles (8,000km) east of Asheville. The storm downed thousands of trees and knocked out power and water for weeks. Driving water, wind and mudslides swept away people, buildings and fences. Continue reading...

The Save Act is aimed at cutting rare instances noncitizens vote - by making voter registration more difficultThe myth that noncitizens are voting in large numbers in US elections wasn't quashed with Donald Trump's victory last year. Instead, a Republican bill that would make voting more difficult for millions of eligible US voters based on this false premise is expected to come up for a vote this week.The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or Save Act, is aimed at eliminating rare instances of noncitizens voting in US elections. It could disenfranchise swaths of eligible voters - including people who changed their names in marriage, young voters, naturalized citizens and tribal residents -by requiring onerous identification to vote. Continue reading...

Critics say bans would hinder rights as proponents would impose their beliefs on others who don't share their viewsRightwing groups around the US are pushing legislation that would place new limits on what books are allowed in school libraries in a move that critics decry as censorship often focused on LGBTQ+ issues or race or imposing conservative social values.Caught up in the attempts at suppressing books are classics like The Color Purple and Slaughterhouse Five. Continue reading...

Sources say Danette Colbert and Rickey White's texts show coordination to incapacitate victims and take their moneyTwo people linked to the alleged drugging death and robbery of a television sports reporter found dead in his hotel room days before February's NFL Super Bowl had spent years using text messages to evidently coordinate furtively incapacitating others with pharmaceuticals and stealing from their financial accounts, according to multiple law enforcement sources.While investigators have not publicly elaborated on the relationship between the pair arrested in connection with the death of Adan Manzano, 27, outside of New Orleans, the Guardian has confirmed that Danette Colbert and Rickey White have previously listed the same home address in legal documents. And at some point in the months prior to Manzano's death, Colbert accused White of domestic violence, implying a romantic involvement between the two. Continue reading...

Trustees aren't academics - and they're often political wolves in sheep's clothing. We need reform to save the American university as we know itLate on Friday evening, the trustees of Columbia University announced that its interim president, Katrina Armstrong, was leaving her post.Six days earlier, she had convened an emergency meeting with 75 faculty after the university had cravenly surrendered to the demands of the Trump administration in the hopes of recovering $400m in federal grants and contracts. The president and her staff called their predicament heartbreaking" and sought to reassure faculty that academic freedom and departmental autonomy remained intact. Continue reading...

The quandary over the Yankees' new technology is solvable, but first MLB must take it on the chin and usher in a temporary banIn its brief moment of fame, the torpedo bat has made quite the impression in MLB. Over the weekend, the New York Yankees used the bat, designed by an MIT-educated professor, as an instrument of destruction against the hapless Milwaukee Brewers. Since then, I've heard about the bats so often that they've been showing up in my dreams. And that makes sense, because prior to this weekend, even in a bandbox like Yankee Stadium, even for a franchise that's featured the likes of Babe Ruth, Lou Gheirig and Mickey Mantle, such home run power could only have been cooked up in the sweetest slumbers of their fanbase. Such a display of muscle was less video game and more cartoon, as in the famed 1946 Bugs Bunny clip that saw the Gas-House Gorillas rack up 46 straight runs against the genteel Tea Totallers.In case you missed it, the Yankees, minus the 68 home runs of the now departed Juan Soto and the injured Giancarlo Stanton, provided a franchise record nine home runs in one game, 15 home runs across three games and 36 total runs against the Brewers. We're talking about a Yankees team that coughed up five errors on Saturday and still won by 11 runs. Continue reading...

Momodou Taal, who had been asked to surrender by immigration officials, says he has lost faith' that favourable court ruling would protect himA Cornell University student who participated in pro-Palestinian protests and was asked to surrender by United States immigration officials has said he is leaving the US, citing fear of detention and threats to his personal safety.Momodou Taal, a doctoral candidate in Africana studies and dual citizen of the UK and the Gambia, has participated in pro-Palestinian protests against Israel's war in Gaza after the October 2023 Hamas attack. His attorneys said last month that he was asked to turn himself in and that his student visa was being revoked. Continue reading...

We could have a fair, independent process, as justice demands - or buckle under pressure from the US. Frankly, it could go either wayA turquoise Koenigsegg Jesko, the world's fastest car and worth about 2.3m, zipped through central Bucharest at nearly 100mph on Monday 24 March. At the wheel, the self-proclaimed misogynist" influencer Andrew Tate, exuding an air of invincibility as he sped past the imposing Palace of the Parliament.To the surprise of many Romanians - and to their horror, frankly - Andrew and his brother, Tristan, collectively known as the Tate brothers, had returned to Romania from the US as part of their legal obligations in the investigation against them on serious charges of rape, money laundering and human trafficking. The two also face separate charges of rape and human trafficking in the UK. The two men deny any wrongdoing. Their return made front pages around the world - but this is so much more than a big news story for people here. It is a true test of our political and judicial system at a tense time in our history. Will officials bow down to pressure from the new US administration? What will their handling of the case say about the country we are now? Continue reading...

President backs commonsense reforms' to stop soaring resale prices as singer urges Congress to pass legislationDonald Trump signed an executive order on Monday that aimed to protect fans by cracking down on exploitative ticket scalping" and introduced commonsense reforms" to the way live entertainment events are priced.Flanked by a bespangled Kid Rock in the Oval Office, Trump signed what he called a very serious" order designed to protect fans from having to pay crazy prices" for tickets. Continue reading...

This liveblog is now closed.Immigration remains a strength for Donald Trump, but his handling of tariffs is getting more negative feedback, according to a poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Groups say Trump's demands set out in executive order threaten to silence potentially millions of Americans'Donald Trump's executive order seeking to overhaul the nation's elections faced its first legal challenges Monday as the Democratic National Committee and a pair of nonprofits filed two separate lawsuits calling it unconstitutional.The Campaign Legal Center and the State Democracy Defenders Fund brought the first lawsuit Monday afternoon. The DNC, the Democratic Governors Association, and Senate and House Democratic leaders followed soon after with a complaint of their own. Continue reading...

Group's chief executive condemns president's dangerous' agenda and says funding cuts will cause devastation'The reproductive health provider Planned Parenthood said the Trump administration would cut federal family planning funding as of Tuesday, affecting birth control, cancer screenings and other services for low-income people.Planned Parenthood said that nine of its affiliates received notice that funding would be withheld under a program known as Title X, which has supported healthcare services for the poor since 1970. Continue reading...

Fears access could create cybersecurity attack risk; Trump talk of third term met with scorn. Here's your roundup of key US politics stories from 31 March 2025Members of Elon Musk's so-called department of government efficiency" (Doge) reportedly gained access to a payroll system over the weekend that processes salaries for about 276,000 federal employees across various government agencies, despite warnings from senior staff about the potential risks.Senior career officials at the interior department reportedly issued a memo last week highlighting the unusual nature of the request to gain access to the Federal Personnel and Payroll System and the associated risks with granting it, the New York Times reported. Continue reading...

Administration accuses university of failing to protect students and plans to look into federal grants and contractsThe Trump administration announced a review on Monday of $9bn in federal contracts and grants at Harvard University over allegations that it failed to address issues of antisemitism on campus.The multi-agency joint task force to combat antisemitism said it will review the more than $255.6m in contracts between Harvard University, its affiliates and the federal government, according to a joint statement from the education department, the health department and the General Services Administration. The statement also says the review will include the more than $8.7bn in multi-year grant commitments to Harvard University and its affiliates. Continue reading...

Former US vice-president will next month take part in a moderated on-stage conversation at the Australasian Real Estate Conference