US news | The Guardian

A mining disaster in the Democratic Republic of Congo underscores the human cost of extraction. Intensified competition for resources isn't helpingWhen Donald Trump boasted recently that he had stopped the conflict between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo - though fighting persists in the DRC, at appalling human cost - he madeclear that his goals went beyond a long-sought Nobel Peace prize.They said to me, Please, please, we would love you to come and take our minerals.' Which we'll do," the US president added. Now he is following through. Last Monday he launched a new strategic reserve plan, Project Vault", worth almost $12bn. Two days later, JDVance hosted a summit seeking to create a trade zone for critical minerals. Continue reading...

The US broadcaster Savannah Guthrie said her family had received a message from the potential kidnappers of her mother, Nancy Guthrie, on Saturday and pleaded for her safe return. News of the message came three days after a purported ransom note was sent to media outlets and a day after the 84-year-old's relatives renewed their appeal to whoever may be holding her captive to contact the family directly 'so we can move forward'. The video released on Saturday was the third this week that pleaded with potential kidnappers

Environmental groups said dicamba drift has damaged vegetable farms, trees and other critical plantsThe Environmental Protection Agency on Friday reapproved the weedkiller dicamba for use on genetically modified soybeans and cotton, a pesticide that has raised widespread concern over its tendency to drift and destroy nearby crops.The agency said dicamba was critical for farmers who would otherwise have their crops threatened by fast growing weeds. To ensure the pesticide is used safely, the agency said it imposed strong protections and limits on its use. Continue reading...

Valeria Chomsky says Epstein had deceived them and they were careless' not to thoroughly research his backgroundNoam Chomsky and his wife, Valeria, made a grave mistake" and were careless" not to thoroughly research the background of Jeffrey Epstein, Valeria Chomsky said in a lengthy statement on Saturday, adding also that Epstein had deceived them.The relationship between Noam Chomsky, the 97-year-old linguist and philosopher, and Epstein has been under scrutiny after documents released by the justice department shed light on their friendship. As Epstein came under scrutiny for sex trafficking allegations in 2019, he asked Chomsky for advice on how to respond. I've watched the horrible way you are being treated in the press and public. It's painful to say, but I think the best way to proceed is to ignore it," Chomsky wrote in a message signed Noam" that Epstein shared in email with an associate. Continue reading...

While AI is having an impact on the workplace, experts suggest tariffs, overhiring during the pandemic and simply maximising profits may be bigger factorsOver the last year, US corporate leaders have often explained layoffs by saying the positions were no longer needed because artificial intelligence had made their companies more efficient, replacing humans with computers.But some economists and technology analysts have expressed skepticism about such justifications and instead think that such workforce cuts are driven by factors like the impact of tariffs, overhiring during the Covid-19 pandemic and perhaps simple maximising of profits. Continue reading...

Online pile-ons can destroy small businesses. Save the derision for big companies that can weather social media stormsA viral Reddit post mocks a $22 grilled cheese sandwich and helps to sink a Bay Area shop. A restaurant owner is forced to push back on a viral complaint. A small business owner in Maine faces a viral backlash after posting a No ICE" sign. The owner of a furniture store mistakenly receives backlash after being confused with another store. An influencer calls out a South Carolina boutique in a TikTok video after a negative shopping experience.I have had countless bad experiences at small businesses. I have eaten cold pasta and seen mice scurry behind a table. I don't go back. Sometimes, when the experience is particularly great, I'll give a quick good review on Google. But when I have had a bad experience? Never. Ever. Continue reading...

Several men appear in photos on the nearly 10,000-acre Zorro ranch, which included a 26,700 sq ft mansionFor years, Jeffrey Epstein took respite at a sprawling ranch in the desert scrub outside Santa Fe, New Mexico. Epstein's nearly 10,000-acre (4,000-hectare) property - known as Zorro ranch - was dotted with cholla cactus and Angus cattle, and came to include a 26,700 sq ft mansion, as well as a private runway and hangar.For years, Epstein abused teenage girls and young women on this ranch with impunity, according to testimony from several women. In court proceedings, survivors detailed horror after horror they say unfolded on this isolated expanse of land. Continue reading...

With the end of the New Start treaty, we face a potentially catastrophic arms race. It can still be preventedThe risk of nuclear war is greater now than in decades - and rising. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists recently set its famous Doomsday Clock closer to midnight, indicating a level of risk equivalent to the 1980s, when US and Soviet nuclear stockpiles were increasing rapidly. In those years, massive waves of disarmament protest arose in Europe and the United States. Political leaders responded, the cold war ended, and many people stopped worrying about the bomb.Today, the bomb is back. Political tensions are rising, and nuclear weapons have spread to other countries, including Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea. China is rapidly increasing its nuclear arsenal. The US-Russia arms competition may accelerate soon with the expiration on 5 February of the last remaining arms control agreement, the New Start treaty. To prevent the growing nuclear threat, we need a new global peace movement.David Cortright, a visiting scholar at Cornell University's Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, was the executive director of Sane, the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy, during the 1980s Continue reading...

Since a presidential post on Truth Social the Washington DC arts hub has lost its leadership, had its name changed and will now be closed for yearsThe Brentano String Quartet had finished their performance when a special guest dropped in backstage: the US supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. We thanked her for everything she had done for our country," recalls violinist Mark Steinberg. It was a nice moment."The year was 2016 and the place was the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. Fast forward a decade and old certainties have been shaken: Ginsburg is dead, Donald Trump is president and the Kennedy Center has become a case study in how a seemingly solid American institution can quickly unravel. Continue reading...

The gruesome finish to the US star's comeback, at age 41 and with a ruptured ACL, is a reminder of skiing's unforgiving natureThere was always a version of this story that ended in a single, violent instant. Lindsey Vonn was 13th to push out of the start gate on Sunday in Cortina d'Ampezzo knowing exactly what she was racing with: a fully ruptured ACL in her left knee, a heavy brace wrapped around the joint, and the accumulated wear of a career spent flirting with speed and consequence.She barely made it out of the opening phase of the run. Continue reading...

Murdoch tabloid leads charge as big freeze persists - could the mayor please do something about the weather?It snowed two weeks ago in New York. Since then, the temperature has barely risen above freezing - a temperature science naturally dictates is necessary to melt snow and ice.But science isn't enough for some US political critics, however, who have instead blamed Zohran Mamdani, New York's new socialist mayor, for the snow not having melted and still clogging up some of the city's streets. Continue reading...

The Bucks star has become a shareholder in one of the world's largest prediction markets. It only ushers the NBA further into the fetid swamp of sports bettingCouldn't he have just started a podcast? The Internet is full of opinions. I decided it was time to make some of my own," Giannis Antetokounmpo, one of the four best basketball players in the world, posted in a statement announcing that he was joining the prediction market Kalshi as a shareholder. We all on Kalshi now."We are not, but doesn't the tone sum it up? The universe's ineffable forces have clearly decided that the ubiquity of sports betting companies is insufficient. There must be new companies, with which you can bet on any outcome - Kalshi competitor Polymarket has hosted markets tied to geopolitical outcomes, including scenarios related to Israel and Gaza, for instance - that incentivize people to treat life's most important avenues as trivially as a sports game. Kalshi and Polymarket are prediction platforms rather than traditional betting companies. Users effectively bet (or trade") against others on the platform about the outcome of events, from familiar wagers such as the result of a sporting event, to the obscure, such as the color of a politician's suit at an election appearance. Kalshi has enjoyed plenty of freedom under the second Donald Trump administration, and Donald Trump Jr is a strategic advisor" for them and Polymarket. A Kalshi outcome taking bets until recently was Giannis Antetokounmpo's next team?" as rumors swirled that the two-time NBA MVP was about to leave the Milwaukee Bucks. Antetokounmpo will be involved in marketing and publicity for Kalshi, and is forbidden from trading on markets related to the NBA. The move is also in step with the NBA's rules - players are allowed to endorse betting companies as long as they don't gamble on the league itself. But that hasn't prevented scores of fans across Instagram and Reddit, and media members on Twitter, from expressing their displeasure at the move and insisting there is a conflict of interest. Continue reading...

Movements are not born fully formed - they begin when ordinary people decide to actNearly 60 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr posed a question that still haunts us. In his final book, published just a year before his death, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, he argued that we were standing at a crossroads: one path leading toward chaos - deepening poverty, violence, and repression - while the other required us to collectively choose and build community.Too few of us answered his call. At times, we chose distraction, comfort and complacency. At others, we turned away from the violence this country inflicted on the world, allowing the corruption of those in power to harden and accumulate. We can blame politicians and corporations, or those who remained neutral - but the truth is, we all carry some level of responsibility.Eric Morrison-Smith is executive director of the Alliance for Boys and Men of ColorDo 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...

Will Drake Maye lead New England into a new era of championships? Or will the Seahawks get revenge 11 years in the making? Our writers give their verdictsPressure Sam Darnold. Darnold was outstanding in the NFC championship game when forced to throw under duress. But that hasn't been the case all season. The Seahawks rank sixth in EPA/dropback when there is no pressure, but drop to 22nd when there is pressure. Collapsing the pocket is New England's best shot at success. Their interior pass-rushers, Christian Barmore and Milton Williams, will need to overwhelm Darnold. OC Continue reading...

It's chilling to watch as Trump and Netanyahu adopt the methods of regimes their countries once condemned

Whistleblower says that Tulsi Gabbard blocked agency from sharing report and delivered it to White House chief of staffLast spring, the National Security Agency (NSA) flagged an unusual phone call between two members of foreign intelligence, who discussed a person close to Donald Trump, according to a whistleblower's attorney who was briefed on details of the call.The highly sensitive communique, which has roiled Washington over the past week, was brought to the attention of the director of national intelligence (DNI), Tulsi Gabbard. Continue reading...

The real risk for American broadcasters is not that dissent will be visible. It is that audiences will start assuming anything they do not show is being hiddenThe modern Olympics sell themselves on a simple premise: the whole world, watching the same moment, at the same time. On Friday night in Milan, that illusion fractured in real time.When Team USA entered the San Siro during the parade of nations, the speed skater Erin Jackson led the delegation into a wall of cheers. Moments later, when cameras cut to US vice-president JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance, large sections of the crowd responded with boos. Not subtle ones, but audible and sustained ones. Canadian viewers heard them. Journalists seated in the press tribunes in the upper deck, myself included, clearly heard them. But as I quickly realized from a groupchat with friends back home, American viewers watching NBC did not. Continue reading...

Highly sensitive communique has roiled Washington over the past week - key US politics stories from Saturday 7 February at a glanceNational intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard is facing growing questions about her handling of a report about an intercepted phone call between two members of foreign intelligence, who discussed a person close to Donald Trump.A whistleblower said that Gabbard blocked the National Security Agency from sharing the report, instead delivering it to the White House chief of staff. Continue reading...

Today show host tells potential kidnappers of mother Nancy that family is prepared to pay for safe returnSavannah Guthrie told the potential kidnappers of her mother, Nancy Guthrie, on Saturday that the family is prepared to pay for her safe return, as the frantic search for the 84-year-old entered a seventh day.We received your message, and we understand. We beg you now to return our mother to us so that we can celebrate with her," she said in a video posted on social media, flanked by her siblings. This is the only way we will have peace. This is very valuable to us, and we will pay." Continue reading...

Several demonstrators taken into custody Saturday after marking killing of Minnesota woman by immigration officerPolice arrested several demonstrators Saturday outside a federal building just south of Minneapolis, breaking up a protest marking the one-month anniversary of a Minnesota woman's death at the hands of an immigration officer.Renee Good was killed on 7 January as she was driving away from immigration officers in a Minneapolis neighborhood. Her death and the killing of another Minneapolis resident, Alex Pretti, just weeks later have stoked outrage nationwide over Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. Continue reading...

Lead singer died on Saturday, months after he announced that he had been diagnosed with stage 4 kidney cancerBrad Arnold, the lead singer of the Grammy-nominated rock band 3 Doors Down, has died, months after he announced that he had been diagnosed with stage 4 kidney cancer. He was 47.The band said in a statement on Saturday that Arnold passed away peacefully, surrounded by loved ones, in his sleep after his courageous battle with cancer". Continue reading...

Italy's Francesca Lollobrigida won Italy's first gold medal to get the party started at their home Games on day oneGallery: Roll up, roll up for the very best of the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics opening ceremony in pictures ...Curling mixed doubles: We're in the sixth end and Team GB have extended their lead over Canada to 7-2. Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat are quite literally sweeping all before them in the round robin stages of this comepetition and heading for their sixth consecutive victory. Continue reading...

Raman, backed by the Democratic Socialists of America, enters a crowded field that includes incumbent Karen BassLos Angeles city council member Nithya Raman formally entered the race for mayor on Saturday, unveiling her campaign during a press conference.Representing areas that stretch from the San Fernando valley to Silver Lake, Raman declared her candidacy just hours before the filing deadline. She now joins a field that includes former reality television personality Spencer Pratt, Housing Now California deputy director Rae Huang, veteran city engineer Asaad Alnajjar and the incumbent mayor, Karen Bass. Continue reading...

Liam Conejo Ramos and his father were seized by ICE in Minneapolis last month before a judge ordered their releaseAttorneys for the Trump administration are aiming to deport Liam Conejo Ramos, the five-year-old boy whose photograph in a bunny hat in snowy Minneapolis circulated globally after his detention last month by federal officials during the aggressive anti-immigration crackdown there.The child, Liam, returned home to Minnesota earlier this week after being taken into custody alongside his father last month and transferred to a notorious family detention facility in Texas. Continue reading...

President reportedly wanted Dulles airport and Penn Station to be renamed after him in exchange for fundingA federal judge has reversed a freeze put on funds by Donald Trump for $16bn in enhanced rail links connecting New York and New Jersey amid reports that the US president wants major travel landmarks named after him in return for continued investment.The Gateway Project will build a new commuter rail tunnel between Manhattan and New Jersey under the Hudson River on the western side of New York City and repair a century-old tunnel used by more than 200,000 travelers and 425 trains daily. Continue reading...

We take a look at the best images from the opening day of the Games, including curling, downhill skiing, and ice hockey Continue reading...

Immigration operations are still stoking fear and disrupting the ability to go to work, school or doctor's appointmentsWith the public's outrage and attention focused on the deadly surge of federal agents in Minneapolis, immigration operations have quietly continued across the US - albeit in less noticeable but still troubling ways, advocates say.In recent weeks there have been day laborers swept up at a Home Depot in San Diego. A taco truck vendor chased down outside a church in Los Angeles. Immigrants arrested at check-ins in North Carolina, and during traffic stops in the nation's capital. Continue reading...

After first dismissing uproar over depiction of Obamas as apes, White House then said it was erroneously posted by stafferDonald Trump said on Friday he made the call to post a now-deleted video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as monkeys but deflected blame for the move, causing new speculation in his orbit about whether the blame lay with the president or his aide Natalie Harp.The brief clip, shared late Thursday night on Trump's Truth Social account, appeared in a video pushing conspiracies about the 2020 election. Invoking racist tropes, the video depicted the Obamas' faces superimposed on the bodies of cartoon apes dancing to The Lion Sleeps Tonight. Continue reading...

Time has never seemed to stop the US skiing star. Entering Sunday's Olympic downhill medal race, injuries haven't eitherIt was all going a little too easy for Lindsey Vonn. All the nervous apprehension, the paternalistic concern, the arch skepticism and hushed snickers that had rippled through the sports world when she announced her comeback from a six-year retirement had long since gone silent. A once-unthinkable fairytale ending at the age of 41 on the slopes of Cortina d'Ampezzo was practically within touching distance.Back in November 2024, having been chased from the sport in 2019 by a battered right knee worn down by a string of gruesome crashes and multiple surgeries, Vonn proposed a return to a high-risk sport where no woman had ever won a race past the age of 34. There's a history of comebacks like these going brutally wrong, and even Vonn's most dedicated fans were bracing themselves for the worst. Think a shopworn Joe Louis getting battered through the ropes and on to the ring apron by Rocky Marciano. Or Bjorn Borg returning to the tour in the early 90s with a wooden racket, defiantly flailing through a sport that had moved on without him. Continue reading...

The Obama video should take a toll on the president's political career - but of course it won'tDespite Donald Trump's war on woke, he hasn't (yet) made Black History Month illegal. In fact, on Tuesday the president issued a proclamation declaring February 2026 to be a celebration of Black history and called upon public officials, educators, librarians, and all the people of the United States to observe this month with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities".Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Outreach teams battle mistrust, mental illness and thin resources as subzero weather pushes the city to its limitsOn the corner of 23rd Street and 5th Avenue in Manhattan beneath the landmark Flatiron building, two workers from the Bridge, an outreach non-profit, were hoping to help a number of homeless men seek shelter from the dangerous, freezing temperatures gripping the city.It is a matter of life and death as New York endures one of its longest stretches of subzero cold since 1960. Seventeen people have died, with at least 13 deaths linked to hypothermia. The city estimates that 800 homeless people have been moved inside, with Zohran Mamdani, the mayor, saying recently we have been taking every possible measure to get New Yorkers inside. This has been a full all-hands-on-deck approach." Continue reading...

The Amazon documentary brought in $7m its opening weekend - thanks to admirers eager for a glimpse of the first lady's secretive lifeThe dress code for Lisa Copeland's big night out: what would Melania wear?The 60-year-old real estate entrepreneur and nine other friends were headed to Amazon's new documentary Melania, which debuted in theaters nationwide last week. We all brought our best power suit," Copeland said, nodding to Melania Trump's penchant for neat, tailored menswear-inspired looks. But since she lives in Austin, Texas, Copeland put her own country-glam spin on it: black leather pants and a pearl jacket with diamond and pearl beading. Continue reading...

The astonishing case of the missing Today morning show anchor's mom is six days in so far and without resolutionA missing 84-year-old mother of a famous TV morning show anchor; droplets of blood and a mysterious white van; a ransom note sent to a celebrity news website; no suspects; a city surrounded by desert near the US-Mexico border; frustrated investigators; and a concerned US president.It is for all these reasons that the astonishing case of the missing Nancy Guthrie has captivated US public attention in a six-day mystery that still has no resolution. It leads the US news and dominates the headlines, fusing crime and celebrity together in ways not seen since OJ Simpson or the Lindbergh baby. Continue reading...

I understand the appeal of avoiding all human contact. Still, good old-fashioned taxis have so much to offerIt's Super Bowl weekend here in America, which means a few things: copious amounts of gut-busting food, controversial half-time show performances, extravagant commercials, and occasionally a bit of football.For the tens of thousands rich enough to afford tickets to the Big Game, transportation to and from Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, will be paramount. Thankfully, our robotic saviors are here to rescue the throng from the indignity of sharing a ride with an actual human being. This year's Super Bowl is a test of the driverless taxi industry, currently lorded over by Waymo - a company that's about to get a $16bn cash injection to further expand its business to cities all around the world. Smaller American metro areas like Sacramento and Nashville are next up to get Waymo service, as are global capitals like London and Tokyo. Fleets of robotaxis are seeming more and more inevitable, yet another soldier in the onslaught of shiny gadgets designed to sand off the sharp edges of modern life. I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist Continue reading...

Democracy experts say there is little doubt about president's desire to interfere in elections this NovemberDonald Trump set off alarm bells earlier this week with comments that his administration should take over the voting" in some states in the run-up to the 2026 midterms, which followed an unprecedented FBI raid on an election office in Georgia. Although election experts say it's clear the president doesn't have authority over elections, they warn the president's corrosive rhetoric leaves little doubt about his intent.For months, the Trump administration has stoked doubts about the integrity of American elections largely through lawsuits designed to create the impression states aren't doing enough to keep ineligible voters off the rolls. That effort escalated significantly last week when the FBI raided the election office in Fulton county, Georgia and seized ballots, along with other materials, related to the 2020 election. Shortly after the raid, Trump escalated his attack even further, saying the federal government should take over elections. Continue reading...

Grammy-winning Puerto Rican star is in the center of US culture wars before leading this weekend's half-time showA few days after Christmas 2022, Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican reggaetonero, appeared without warning on one of the most unlikely of stages: the roof of a Gulf Oil gas station in San Juan. To a massive crowd singing every word, he performed a surprise concert, along with friend and collaborator Arcangel, that was part hype-y music video shoot, part exultant post-tour homecoming, and part pointed critique. He ended the set with El Apagon (The Power Outage"), a clubby protest anthem about local displacement and the rolling blackouts that have plagued Puerto Rico, a US commonwealth" (read: colony), since Hurricane Maria in 2017.Bad Bunny sang it from a roof on Santurce's Calle Loiza, a thoroughfare in a former working-class Black neighborhood now dotted with Airbnbs. But you do not need the full context to get the show's contagious energy. Though I have never walked Calle Loiza, nor do I speak Spanish, the gas station show is still my favorite concert to rewatch via online fan clips: electric, organic, genuinely popular. In terms of reach, critical acclaim and longevity, Bad Bunny rivals - and sometimes outsells - the likes of Taylor Swift, Kendrick Lamar, Beyonce and Drake, though it is hard to imagine those peers appearing so unguarded, so public, as he does on that roof. Continue reading...

I am convinced that Europe's new right' is a radically contemporary movement. Defeating it means understanding its critique of liberalismEuropean governments are terrified of Donald Trump's threats on trade, Greenland and the future of Nato. But the biggest threat is not that Trump invades an ally or leaves Europe at the mercy of Russia. It is that his ideological movement could transform Europe from the inside.A year after Trump's return to the White House, his second American revolution" is radiating outward into Europe. The Epstein files reveal how this began clumsily in 2018 with Steve Bannon; but it has become a much more sophisticated partnership with the second coming of Trump and the rise to power of JD Vance. The US National Security Strategy published by the White House in November called for strengthening the growing influence of patriotic" European parties such as Reform UK, Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD), Marine Le Pen's Rassemblement National (RN), Fidesz in Hungary and Vox in Spain. As with the communist movements of the cold war, these nationalist, populist and in some cases far-right parties are best understood not as isolated national phenomena but as expressions of a shared intellectual project - a movement that is, to varying degrees, now being reinforced by a foreign power.Mark Leonard is the author of the report The new right: anatomy of a global political revolution. He is director of the Berlin-based European Council on Foreign Relations Continue reading...

Bill Clinton says closed-door depositions would be akin to kangaroo court' as Hillary Clinton says they have already told House committee what they knowFormer US president Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary are calling for their congressional testimony on ties to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein to be held publicly, to prevent Republicans from politicising the issue.Both Clintons had been ordered to give closed-door depositions before the House of Representatives' oversight committee, which is investigating the deceased financier's connections to powerful figures and how information about his crimes was handled. Continue reading...

Files reveal a world of flattery and fratboy tones, where rich men are cultivated and women provide servicesPluck an email at random from the millions in the Department of Justice's Epstein Library. It is a Saturday evening in February 2013, and Jeffrey Epstein is messaging Bill Gates's assistant about guests for a dinner he wants to organise.People for Bill," the email begins. Epstein starts listing possible candidates: the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, the film director Woody Allen, the prime minister of Qatar, a couple of Harvard academics, the billionaire CEO of Hyatt hotels, a White House communications director, a former US secretary of defence. Continue reading...