At 17, Cooper Lutkenhaus is the youngest world champion in track and field history - and potentially USA's poster boy for LA28Fire on the boards. Slack jaws off it. Last week, I was fortunate enough to be yards away from the 17-year-old American high school student Cooper Lutkenhaus when he powered away from a strong 800m field in Torun to become the youngest world champion in track and field history. But no sooner had the applause died down that the search for superlatives began.He's like David Rudisha," said Eliott Crestan, the Belgian who took world indoor championship silver behind Lutkenhaus. In 10 or 20 years' time, I'll be able to say that I ran against him." An hour or so later, I spoke to Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows, the coaches of Keely Hodgkinson, who were just as effusive. He's phenomenal," Painter said. You look at things like that and you think: Wow. I'd love to know what he's done at his age to do that.'" Continue reading...

An international break that many expected to provide clarity has instead provided fresh reasons to doubt the tournament co-hostsRoberto Martinez has long been easy with a smile. Those moments aren't in short supply after wins like Tuesday's, when Portugal comfortably dispatched the United States 2-0 in Atlanta.That smile was on full display afterward, when he was asked for his thoughts on how the US look ahead of their home World Cup. Continue reading...

In her first print interview since release, the Palestinian immigrant says after year in custody, she sees it as her duty to denounce ICE detention in the USA Palestinian woman who was released last month after spending a year in a Texas immigration detention center told the Guardian in an exclusive interview that she sees a lot of similarities" between the treatment of people in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody and that of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.Leqaa Kordia, who was detained by ICE following her arrest at a protest against Israel's war in Gaza, says that she will continue to speak up about the rights of Palestinians, but that she now also sees it as her duty to denounce the human tragedy" of immigration detention in the US. Continue reading...

Experts say the US believes it is entitled to resources it desires - a perspective president has supported for decadesDonald Trump said this past weekend he wants to take the oil in Iran" by seizing control of a key export hub, echoing a refrain he has returned to for over a decade.It's a sign of his disregard for international law and belief in fossil-fuel imperialism", experts say. Continue reading...

Cable signed by secretary of state Marco Rubio endorses Musk's platform by name and suggests staff work with Pentagon psychological operations unit - key US politics stories from Monday 30 March at a glanceThe United States has directed every American embassy and consulate across the world to launch coordinated campaigns against foreign propaganda and endorses Elon Musk's Twitter/X as an innovative" tool to help do it.The cable, signed by the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, on Monday and obtained by the Guardian, also suggests embassies and consulates work alongside the US military's psychological operations unit to address the problem of rampant disinformation. It lays out a sweeping set of instructions for how embassy staff should push back against what it describes as coordinated foreign efforts to undermine American interests abroad. Continue reading...

Prosecutors investigate whether Farah Louis and Debbie Louis accepted bribes to help migrant shelter providerFederal prosecutors are investigating whether a New York City councilmember and her sister, an aide to governor Kathy Hochul, accepted bribes or kickbacks in connection with the appropriation of city funds to a migrant shelter provider, according to a copy of a search warrant obtained by the Associated Press.The warrant, signed on 19 March, seeks evidence of possible criminal violations involving councilmember Farah Louis, a Brooklyn Democrat, and Debbie Louis, who serves as Hochul's assistant secretary of New York City intergovernmental affairs. Continue reading...

Congressman Joaquin Castro calls for release of boy, Kaleth, and mother from much-criticized detention Dilley facilityA two-year-old detained in a family detention center in Dilley, Texas, is sick and not getting adequate help, said Joaquin Castro, a Democratic congressman from San Antonio. The boy, Kaleth, has a fever and is not eating the food served at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center, which Castro said detainees have complained of having mold and worms.When his mother asked for help, the staff said it was all mental'," Castro wrote in a post on X. A vulnerable child at the Dilley trailer prison was suffering and ICE denied their reality and their needs. It's shameful and must stop." Continue reading...

California governor contender not accused of wrongdoing in decade-old inquiry into suspected Chinese agentThe Trump administration has reportedly been pushing to release records from an FBI investigation related to Eric Swalwell and alleged links to a Chinese agent as the Democratic congressman makes gains in the California governor's race.The Washington Post reported on Saturday, citing three people familiar with the effort", that the FBI director, Kash Patel, is pushing to release the files, even though there is no public evidence of wrongdoing on Swalwell's part. The records stem from a decade-old investigation into a suspected spy who had developed relationships with US politicians and assisted Swalwell with fundraising. Continue reading...

Security staff at the Adelanto detention center found Ramos unconscious and unresponsive in his bunkA Mexican immigrant has died at a detention center outside Los Angeles, marking at least the 14th death in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody since the year began.Security staff at the Adelanto detention center found Jose Guadalupe Ramos unconscious and unresponsive in his bunk on 25 March, according to an ICE press release. Staff attempted to carry out life-saving procedures, including CPR, then called emergency services, who took Ramos to Victory Valley Global medical center in nearby Victorville. He was pronounced dead there at 9.29pm. Continue reading...

Without diplomacy or restraint, the economic shock will deepen and US soldiers may become embroiled in a quagmireThe fifth week of Donald Trump's illegal war on Iran has confirmed the absence of any overarching strategy. The US continues to hit Iranian targets while building up forces in the region. Iran continues to launch missile and drone attacks on Israel and neighbouring Gulf states. Tehran's proxies in the region have entered the fray. Its closure of the strait of Hormuz has seen oil prices shoot up and had knock-on effects already visible across fuel, fertiliser and supply chains. No amount of contradictory social media posts from MrTrump can negate the shortages felt across the world, from Asian factories to European diesel markets. The pain is likely to get worse. There is no sign of imminent US victory or Iranian collapse.This instead looks like a war of attrition. Each side can point to successes and their opponents can highlight failures. That is what sustains the conflict. The stakes extend far beyond the battlefield. The war is embedding itself in the global economy, shaping what is produced, moved and ultimately affordable. Even European ministers now admit they are losing sleep over what comes next - not just the war but its economic consequences.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...

Resumption of diplomatic operations come three months after former president Maduro was abducted

Judge seems skeptical of Pentagon's restrictive protocol but did not rule on forcing compliance with an earlier orderFederal judge Paul Friedman seemed skeptical of the new press policy implemented by the Pentagon last week, calling aspects of it weird" and Kafkaesque.Friedman struck down key aspects of the previously implemented Pentagon media policy on 20 March, but at the latest hearing on Monday stopped short of ruling on a motion filed by the New York Times to force compliance of his decision. Continue reading...

Presidential decisions can mean life or death for millions around the world, that's why constitutional safeguards exist. But do they work in practice?Donald Trump's cognitive skills are amazing. So amazing! So great! So much better than any other dumb presidential contender you could mention, at least according to Trump himself, who bragged once again last week of how he had repeatedly aced what he calls a very hard test for a lot of people". (It's thought he means a screening tool for mild cognitive impairment in elderly people.)Sure, the 79-year-old leader of the free world recently interrupted a cabinet meeting in the middle of a war to ramble on at length about a conversation he supposedly had with the head of the Sharpie pen company over supplying bespoke presidential felt-tips, of which the firm said it could find no record. And made a baffling joke about Pearl Harbor during a press conference in front of an alarmed-looking Japanese prime minister. And called the strait of Hormuz the strait of Trump", before adding that that was absolutely deliberate because there are no accidents with me". But anyway, to be clear, his mental state is great. The greatest!Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnistDo 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...

Reports, based on X post from unofficial account, follow JD Vance's accusations and threats of finding legal remedies'

Tori Mattingly told TMZ Dayton Webber would lash out' at her during four-year relationship that ended in 2025A woman who claims she was romantically involved with a quadruple-amputee cornhole champion and the man he is accused of shooting dead in a murder case grabbing national attention has spoken of dating both of them - and said the accused killer had a dark side".Tori Mattingly told TMZ in an interview published over the weekend that Dayton Webber would lash out" at her during their four-year relationship. That relationship ended in February 2025 before she dated Bradrick Wells, the alleged victim of a deadly shooting in Webber's car in suburban Washington DC on 22 March. Continue reading...

Cape Canaveral and Titusville, long ghost towns after 1969 moon landing, have witnessed space industry renaissance'Almost six decades have passed since the space coast of Florida experienced an atmosphere quite like this. On its beaches and in cities, there is an air of anticipation, excitement and anxiety to match the final days of Nasa's storied Apollo moon program.At 6.24pm ET on Wednesday at Cape Canaveral, subject to adverse weather and last-minute technical hitches, four Artemis II astronauts - three Americans and one Canadian - will become the first humans to blast off on a journey to the moon since 1972. Continue reading...

To see this war as archaic, the last squawk of the Middle East hawks, is at once maddening and hopefulFrom the moment the United States and Israel attacked Iran, the news seemed incongruous with the year 2026. A war to kill the Ayatollah and overthrow the government - this was the fantasy of neoconservatives after September 11, before today's college students were born. Hadn't every president since, Donald Trump most boisterously of all, repudiated regime-change wars in the Middle East?When he announced the strikes in an overnight video, decked out in a USA ballcap, Trump evoked an even more distant era. The president barely bothered to claim that Tehran posed some kind of imminent threat. Instead, he recited the litany of misdeeds perpetrated by the Islamic Republic since it took power in 1979. Continue reading...

War is testing operating principle that has guided Trump for decades: construct a narrative, declare it to be true and relentlessly force the world to submit to itLet me say, we've won," he told a rally in Kentucky on 11 March. I think we've won," he said on the White House south lawn on 20 March. We've won this war. The war has been won," he said in the Oval Office on 24 March. We are winning so big," he promised a fundraising dinner on 25 March.Donald Trump keeps declaring victory in Iran. But saying it over and over does not make it so. While the US president insists that his military campaign in the Middle East is a historic success, the world is bracing for a conflict that continues to metastasize and could wreak havoc on the global economy. Continue reading...

If there is any consistency to Trump's policy, it is a series of frantic attempts to justify his original blunder and extricate himself from its dire consequencesDonald Trump has lost his Iran war. He is the Iranian hostage. Unlike the US embassy personnel captured as hostages for 444 days, Trump threw himself into Iranian hands. Less than a month into his short-term excursion", his stated objectives have been scattered to the winds. There is no regime change, no uprising and no access to oil wealth along the Venezuelan model. The decapitation gambit - assassinating Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and senior Iranian leadership - has failed to destroy the regime. Despite the massacre, it is Trump who stands exposed to slings and arrows for the rashest military adventure since Custer at Little Bighorn.Iran maintains a chokehold on the strait of Hormuz and, through its narrowest passage of 21 miles, on the global economy. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development forecasts a spike of inflation to 4.2% in the US, a 40% increase since Trump returned to office. The stock market has dived into correction territory. Iran has also demonstrated its capacity to wreak existential destruction on the Gulf states whose rulers' delusion of their invulnerability and US protection has been shattered. I'm the opposite of desperate," Trump declared on 26 March. I don't care." Continue reading...

Younger conservatives say they are disappointed by Donald Trump's decision to launch war against Iran. Key US politics stories from 29 MarchA generational divide over the Iran war has emerged between older attendees and their political heirs at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Texas, as the group's leaders pleaded for unity ahead of a challenging midterm election year for Republicans.Younger conservatives spoke of disappointment and even betrayal" over Donald Trump's launch of strikes against Iran, saying that the president's actions run counter to his many pledges to oppose foreign entanglements. Continue reading...

Levi Vargas, 30, was competing in Baker to Vegas race through Mojave desert as US south-west faces extreme heatLos Angeles county sheriff's deputy Levi Vargas died on Saturday after a medical emergency while participating in an annual relay race through the Mojave desert. He was 30 years old.Vargas had been competing at the Baker to Vegas Challenge Cup relay race, which follows a 120-mile (193km) course from Baker, California, to Las Vegas, Nevada, through the Mojave desert. Several law enforcement agencies send 20-runner teams annually to compete in the race. Continue reading...

Marsupial escaped from enclosure at Wisconsin's Sunshine Farm on Wednesday after he was spooked by stray dogsHow does a kangaroo escape a petting zoo?It's not the opening line to a dad joke. If you're Chesney the kangaroo, you scale an 8ft (2.5-meter) fence and go on the lam for three days, giving your keeper sleepless nights and sending residents of a small Wisconsin town on a search that would end happily on Saturday. Continue reading...

If the now six-week partial shutdown continues after the weekend, it will become the longest of any shutdownThe shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the fourth-largest agency in the US government, became the longest partial shutdown in US history on Sunday.If the now six-week partial shutdown continues after the weekend, it will also become the longest of any shutdown, surpassing the impasse late last year that dragged on for 43 days. Continue reading...

Senator's comments come amid growing divisions within the party, which he says has too small of a coalition'Cory Booker, the Democratic senator from New Jersey, renewed his calls for new leadership of the Democratic party, saying the party has failed this moment".As a whole, our party has failed this moment," Booker said on Sunday. I've called for a generational renewal, because this left-right divide is killing our country and our adversaries know it." He also said that purity tests" within the party have led to more division in the US. Continue reading...

Officers fired pepper balls and teargas into group of about 150 on Saturday night, arresting those who did not disperse

The United States' collapse in a 5-2 loss to Belgium made clear that the gap between the sides in 2014 has yet to narrowMauricio Pochettino was literally unmoved.To his left and right, his assistants pumped their fists, clapped their hands, rose to celebrate. Not Pochettino. After Weston McKennie put the US ahead with an end run around the Belgian defense that freed him up at the far post to tap the ball past Senne Lammens in the 39th minute, Pochettino just sat there, stoically, hunched forward in his seat, two fingers to his mouth. Continue reading...

The US health secretary says he is a big fan of peptides. Many are promising drugs, but the only way to know their utility is proper clinical trialsRobert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, is a chaotic person, but his Make America Healthy Again (Maha) agenda tends to follow a predictable logic. Large-scale, mandatory public health interventions - such as childhood vaccine requirements - are generally treated with suspicion and undermined. Personal choice - to drink unpasteurised milk, for example - is to be unleashed, and unburdened by regulation. In theory, Maha promises freedom and autonomy; in practice it tends to replace the precautionary principle with exhortations for individuals to do your own research", and sidelines scientific expertise in favour of wellness" hucksters and profiteers.This is particularly obvious in Mr Kennedy's recent claims that he will open up the sale of about 14" injectable peptide drugs to the public. Peptides are molecules often used by our bodies for sending signals - so there are many kinds of peptides, and the safety and efficacy of each is a separate question. The widely used weight-loss jab" drugs are peptides but so are the toxic compounds in snake venom that dissolve living cells. MrKennedy is likely to be referring to a subset of 17 peptides restricted by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2023 due to potential significant safety risks". None have been proved to be safe or effective for human use, so there is no clear argument for reversing the decision. Continue reading...

Two hundred miles from LA, an off-grid community with roots in Burning Man offers an unorthodox educational experience - is Mars College the future?A dozen writing students perched around a collection of weather-beaten couches, laptops balancing on their knees, ready to discuss their work. Next up to read was Ira Birch, a poet sporting black boots and a shag haircut.I told myself I was gonna share today," Birch said nervously, looking around the circle. But there are a lot more people here." Continue reading...

It's likely, but it also could be a boon for a new generation of entrepreneurs willing to take over established operationsWant to buy my business? It's been very profitable. I've run it for more than 25 years. But no, you don't want to buy it. Like most small businesses in this country, there's really nothing of value here.According to the Small Business Administration, there are approximately 33m small businesses in the US. But fewer than 7m actually employ people. The rest comprise freelancers, side gigs and independent contractors. I'm sure many of these people are making a living. But are they building assets? A brand? Probably not. If that business owner" suddenly disappears, their business disappears with them. No one wants to buy a business like that. There's no value. Continue reading...

Shift seen away from from traveling to states with legal abortion in favor of telehealth and mail-order pillsThe abortion rate is holding steady in the US despite total and partial bans in some states - largely because of travel across state lines and a significant increase in telehealth appointments, a new report says.US regulatory officials are weighing changes to the ways mifepristone, an abortion medication, may be dispensed, but they have reportedly pushed their review until after the midterm elections, given the widespread support for abortion across the US. Continue reading...

Anti-authoritarian rallies, in all 50 states plus more than a dozen countries, were the largest number of protests in a single day in US historyMore than 8 million people protested against the Trump administration at more than 3,300 No Kings events across the US and in more than a dozen countries on Saturday, according to organizers. It's the greatest number of protests in a single day in US history, said Britt Jacovich, the deputy communications director for Move On, one of the organizers behind No Kings.Saturday's protest was the third No Kings, organized by a coalition that also includes anti-authoritarian" groups Indivisible and 50501, labor unions and other grassroots organizations. The last one in October drew 7 million people nationwide. Continue reading...

Emily Gregory's victory in district that includes Mar-a-Lago has revitalized the party before the crucial November vote

Secretary of state Marco Rubio repeats administration's belief that US can achieve its aims without a ground warAmid tentative White House efforts at diplomacy to end the war in Iran, US troops have also been arriving in the region to deliver what Donald Trump has hoped could be a knockout blow if he can't negotiate a ceasefire with Tehran.Thousands of US marines aboard navy amphibious ships from the 31st and 11th expeditionary units have been deployed to the Middle East from Asia. Another 2,000-odd paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne are also being sent to the theatre - they are tasked with deploying worldwide within 18 hours of notification and execute parachute assaults, including against a defended airfield" to prepare for further ground operations. Continue reading...

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Saudi intelligence source confirms reporting that crown prince has urged Trump to ramp up historic opportunity' to remake Middle East - key US politics stories from Friday 27 March at a glanceSaudi Arabia has urged the US to ramp up attacks on Iran, a Saudi intelligence source has confirmed, as it decides whether to join the fight directly.The Saudi source confirmed reporting in the New York Times that said the kingdom's de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has urged Donald Trump not to cut short his war against Iran, and that the US-Israeli campaign represented a historic opportunity" to remake the Middle East. Continue reading...

Two others injured after sightseeing aircraft comes down on remote beach on Na Pali CoastA tourist helicopter crashed on a remote beach off the coast of Kauai, Hawaii, killing three people and injuring two others, authorities said.The helicopter was carrying one pilot and four passengers when it crashed on Thursday afternoon at Kalalau Beach, the Kauai fire department said. The beach is on the Na Pali coast on Kauai's north shore. The area is otherwise reachable only by hiking or boat. Continue reading...

Actor outside Kennedy Center urges Americans to stand tall against authoritarianism' and resist free-speech threatsThe actor Jane Fonda joined journalists, musicians and writers outside Washington's John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Friday in urging US citizens to break your silence" and stand tall against authoritarianism".At a damp but defiant rally hosted by Fonda's Committee for the First Amendment, around a hundred invited guests gathered to hear speakers and singers rail against book bans, political censorship and other threats to free speech under Donald Trump. Continue reading...

Peter Ticktin, a Florida lawyer, is promoting a legally dubious plan experts say could sharply restrict voting rightsPeter Ticktin, an 80-year-old Florida lawyer who has various ties to Donald Trump and represents some 2020 election deniers, has become an outspoken advocate for an emergency executive order on US elections that would overhaul voting rules and rights by ending machine and mail-in voting.The exact nature and extent of Ticktin's contact and influence with Trump and other administration officials is not clear. But election experts and analysts see Ticktin's push for an executive order as worrying, and part of a broader drive by fellow election conspiracists who are now promoting similar and legally dubious emergency order plans to revamp voting rules this year in order to boost Republican fortunes in the fall elections. Continue reading...

Mohammed bin Salman said to consider war a historic opportunity' to remake Middle East. Plus, Senate passes funding package for Homeland Security that excludes ICE

Telecom regulator has become one of the most prominent newsmakers in the nation - he seems to relish the spotlightDuring a ceremony at the White House late last week honoring the US Naval Academy football team, Donald Trump gave a shoutout to the man he said was perhaps the most powerful man in this room": Brendan Carr, the Federal Communications Commission chairman.You are doing some job," Trump said. He's trying to make the fake news real and respected again, which is not an easy job." Continue reading...

The real defining image of this presidency should be the bank statement of the average American citizenShockingly, inexplicably, Donald Trump keeps finding new places to put his face. Also, his name. Or initials. Or one of those drawings a turkey a kid does by tracing the outline of their hand. He's got his ballroom, the Kennedy Center, and a proposed 250ft arch that would become one of the tallest buildings in all of Washington DC - a city with longstanding height restrictions for development. His signature will be on US dollars later this year, in a first for a sitting president. I'd ask if he was getting tired of all the attention, but I think we know the answer to that. Up next is a commemorative gold coin - worth exactly $1 - featuring Trump's scowling visage looming menacingly over the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.It's a pretty classic Trump pose, designed to make a nearly-80-year-old man with a variety of mystery bruises who eats McDonald's on a regular basis look physically intimidating. Beyond the president sporting a classic gen Z pout, the Commission of Fine Arts (a panel appointed by You Know Who) recommended this coin be as large as possible", which immediately makes me think of the giant penny Bruce Wayne keeps in the Batcave. Good luck trying to feed a parking meter with that.Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist Continue reading...