Trump administration is seeking to oust Hampton Dellinger, head of the office of special counselThe US supreme court on Friday temporarily kept on the job the head of the federal agency that protects government whistleblowers, in its first word on the many legal fights over the agenda of Donald Trump's second presidency.The justices said in an unsigned order that Hampton Dellinger, head of the office of special counsel, could remain in his job at least until Wednesday. That's when a lower-court order temporarily protecting him expires. Continue reading...
There are three tried-and-tested strategies for getting into Donald Trump's inner circle, from adoration to misogynyThere are three tried-and-tested strategies for getting into Donald Trump's inner circle. No 1: be young, blond and so obsessed with the president that even the Secret Service think it's kinda weird. That strategy certainly seems to have worked out well for Natalie Harp, a former far-right cable host who is now an official aide to Trump. Continue reading...
by Stephen Starr in Maysville, Kentucky on (#6VEZN)
President's anti-immigrant actions fuel a heartland battle between middle-ground Republicans and extremistsFrom under the floorboards of a large, white building in Maysville, Kentucky, African American slaves making the arduous, secret escape from the south would hide one final time. Freedom, across the Ohio River to the north, was in clear sight.The Underground Railroad term was thought to have first been coined in Maysville, when Tice Davids, a slave, escaped a life of cruelty in 1831 by swimming across the roiling Ohio River. For tens of thousands of people such as Davids, the river was the final barrier to freedom, separating the free state Ohio from slavery in the south. Continue reading...
Dubbed eHarmony for babies', bill would create connected databases for pregnant women and those looking to adoptA Republican lawmaker in Missouri has introduced legislation to create a registry of pregnant women who are at risk" of having an abortion - a proposal the bill's author characterized as an eHarmony for babies" that could also help match adoptive parents with babies.If passed, the bill would create two registries: one for people at risk" of abortions and one for people looking to adopt. Members of each registry could access the other, while Missouri government officials would be tasked with helping members meet each other and facilitating adoptions. The bill's goal is to reduce the number of preventable abortions in Missouri". Continue reading...
Sports betting firms claim their programs are not designed' to enable problem bettors - but advocates are skepticalFirms at the heart of the US's sports betting boom have been accused of encouraging gamblers to chase losses by rewarding high spenders with betting credits, bonuses, gifts and even trips.In letters obtained by the Guardian, gambling giants told a prominent US senator last year that their controversial VIP programs were not designed" to prompt frequent bettors to bet more. But problem gambling advocates are skeptical. Continue reading...
Colored School No 4' was built in 1850 to serve Black kids, but it's unclear what the city plans to do with it todayIn the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, a modest brick building stands as a silent witness to nearly two centuries of Black American history. Once known as Colored School No 4, this unassuming structure was designated a landmark in 2023, sparking conversations about both its past and future.The school, which served as a beacon of education for Black children in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, is now at the center of efforts to preserve and celebrate the contributions of Black Americans to New York City's cultural and historical fabric. That preservation comes at a time when diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, which seek to promote the fair treatment and full participation of all people, are under attack at all levels of government. Continue reading...
Democrat Jasmine Crockett calls it really wild' that it is foreign leaders who are speaking truth to powerThe congresswoman Jasmine Crockett has revealed she is rooting" for Canada and Mexico over Donald Trump in their attempts to stand up to him, saying it is really wild" to find herself in that position given he is the president of the US.They are really the ones that are speaking truth to power right now," the Democratic representative from Texas said on Friday on the popular Breakfast Club podcast, alluding to the political feuds Trump has engaged in with the US's two North American neighbors during the first month of his second presidency. They can see what it is and they were like, We are not messing with this crazy regime.'" Continue reading...
From adding the president's face to Mount Rushmore to pushing for him to serve a third term, party members are getting inventive in their brown-nosingIf proof were needed that Donald Trump's cult of personality has never been stronger, it comes in the inventive ways Republican members of Congress have spent his first month in office trying to lionise him. Welcome to the sycophancy stakes.On 23 January the congressman Addison McDowell of North Carolina introduced legislation to rename Washington Dulles international airport as Donald J Trump international airport. Continue reading...
After 35 US caps, three World Cups and hall of fame recognition, the former flanker is still a fighter - but now it's in the octagon, for moneyPhaidra Knight is already a pioneer, the only African American woman in the World Rugby Hall of Fame. In 2017, when she retired after three World Cups and 35 US caps, she was 43. Now she's 50 but on Saturday night in Patchogue, New York, she will claim another first: the oldest woman ever to make her pro MMA debut.All roads lead to where I am," Knight says, by phone from New York, on her way to training, with a sort of fierce zen sentiment familiar from conversations about rugby, the game she found at law school, through which she found herself, and which she came to see as a prop and a flanker as violent yet controlled, kind of a form of art". Continue reading...
Ending their decades-long ban on facial hair and bringing beards back to the Bronx had to be done to prop up New York's declining competitive advantageOne of the last vestiges of George Steinbrenner era is finally over. The in-house (that Ruth built) rule that denied New York Yankees players the right to wear beards on baseball diamonds from the 1970s on is done and dusted, not unlike like The Boss himself, who died at 80 back in 2010. It's the latest move showing that the new boss, George's son Hal, who axed the 49-year-old rule on Friday, will do everything he can to differentiate himself from the old Boss, his dad.In recent weeks I have spoken to a large number of former and current Yankees - spanning several eras - to elicit their perspectives on our longstanding facial hair and grooming policy, and I appreciate their earnest and varied feedback," Steinbrenner said in a statement. These most recent conversations are an extension of ongoing internal dialogue that dates back several years. Continue reading...
While US allies are alarmed at changing loyalties, ordinary Americans are starkly divided on the president's shift away from Ukraine and EuropeDonald Trump's shocking and mendacious attack this week on the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as a dictator" while cozying up to the Russian president and indicating that traditional US security support for Europe is waning may have alarmed US allies abroad but has prompted a more starkly divided response among Americans at home.Reflecting the country's deeply partisan attitude to the new president and his America first" foreign policy doctrine, polling suggests that Republicans are much more likely to oppose additional help for war-torn Ukraine. A Pew Research Center survey earlier this month found that 47% of Republicans but just 14% of Democrats thought the US was providing too much support to Ukraine - views that have changed dramatically since the war began three years ago, when just 7% of all American adults (9% of Republicans and 5% of Democrats) said the US was providing too much support to Ukraine. Continue reading...
by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Jean Todt on (#6VEW0)
Deaths on the road costs countries up to 5% of GDP. Centring transport around people, not cars, can propel developmentIf you had to guess the leading cause of death for children and young people around the world, what would you say? Malaria perhaps? Pneumonia? Suicide? They're all high up there, but no, it's road accidents.Cars have been around for more than 120 years, and we know how to prevent these tragedies. Yet road crashes still claim more than two lives every minute - killing nearly 1.2 million people every year. Continue reading...
A historic number of arrests were made, but the days of targeted murder or massive political influence are long gonePalermo has not seen anything like it for years. Helicopters in the pre-dawn sky. Carabinieri barracks across Sicily emptied, with all 1,200 officers deployed. The Cacciatori - red-bereted shock cops - brought over from the wilds of Calabria. The Carabinieri's own film units serving up a morning montage of flashing blue lights, balaclava-wearing officers with submachine guns, police dogs sniffing, cottage doors breaking, and burly, handcuffed men ushered into Alfa Romeos. And then, of course, in the press, the humiliating wiretaps of gangsters sharing their secrets. Cosa Nostra is back in the headlines, and back under the cosh.Italian law enforcement is good at this stuff. Not a single one of the 181 men and women targeted for arrest on 11 February managed to go on the lam before the crackdown. Based on the numbers alone, this raid was the biggest anti-mafia operation since the 1980s. But Sicily was a very different place back then. It teetered on the brink of becoming a narco-state, and Cosa Nostra treated the Italian institutions with contempt, murdering any prosecutor, police officer or politician who got in its way.You've got to get by on a slab of hash? Is that how far we've fallen? The guys from the old days, the ones who've tragically been sent to prison for life, would they be talking about a slab of hash? If they talked about hash, it was because a shipload was due in ... We're down in the dirt lads. We think we're doing business, but it's others who are really at it. Continue reading...
US secretary of defense had questioned whether history-making air force general CQ Brown Jr got job because of raceDonald Trump abruptly fired the air force general CQ Brown Jr as chair of the joint chiefs of staff on Friday, sidelining a history-making Black fighter pilot and respected officer as part of a campaign to purge the military of leaders who support diversity and equity in the ranks.The ouster of the second Black general to serve as chair of the joint chiefs comes three months after Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, outlined a plan for ridding the US military of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts during a podcast interview. Continue reading...
Pete Hegseth supports cuts of up to 8% of civilian workforce as Trump bids to institute massive government cutsThe Pentagon announced plans Friday to fire 5-8% of its civilian workforce, staring next week with layoffs of 5,400 probationary workers, a Department of Defense official said in a statement.The initial civilian layoffs will be followed by a Department of Defense hiring freeze to analyze the military's personnel needs in compliance with Donald Trump's political goals, Darin Selnick, the acting under-secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said in the statement. Continue reading...
Here are the key US politics stories from Friday at a glanceThe Trump administration made several moves Friday regarding US immigration policy, including the removal of the top Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) official and restoring legal aid for unaccompanied immigrant children. Meanwhile, the Senate passed a budget resolution to fund Donald Trump's mass deportation plan and US officials made more comments about Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president.Here are the biggest stories in US politics on Friday, 21 February. Continue reading...
Adam Abeldon rules that president's efforts to ban DEI programs likely violate first amendment of constitutionA federal judge in Maryland on Friday temporarily blocked Donald Trump from implementing bans on diversity, equity and inclusion programs at federal agencies and by businesses that contract with the federal government.US district judge Adam Abelson said the directives by Trump and an order urging the Department of Justice to investigate companies with DEI policies likely violate the first amendment of the US constitution. Continue reading...
Keith Kellogg takes different tone from Trump, who contrasted very good talks' with Putin with cooler relationship with Ukraine's leaderThe US envoy to Ukraine, Gen Keith Kellogg, has praised Volodymyr Zelenskyy as the embattled and courageous leader of a nation at war", striking a dramatically different tone from Donald Trump, who has called Ukraine's president a dictator".Kellogg left Kyiv on Friday after a three-day visit. Posting on social media, he said he had engaged in extensive and positive discussions" with Zelenskyy and his talented national security team". A long and intense day with the senior leadership of Ukraine," he said. Continue reading...
Order by Trump-appointed judge setback for government employee unions who have filed lawsuit against firingsA federal judge on Friday cleared the way for the Trump administration to put more than 2,000 US Agency for International Development (USAid) workers on leave, a setback for government employee unions that are suing over what they have called an effort to dismantle the foreign aid agency.US district judge Carl Nichols in Washington lifted a temporary restraining order he had put in place at the outset of the case and declined to issue a longer term order keeping the employees in their posts. He wrote that he was satisfied by the administration's assurances in court filings that USAid personnel abroad who were placed on leave would still be protected by US security. Continue reading...
Pair declined to give public endorsement of Trump in wake of 7 October attacks, All or Nothing by Michael Wolff revealsDonald Trump's Jewish daughter and son-in-law, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, refused to sign a statement saying Trump was not antisemitic, according to a new book by the veteran Trump tell-all author Michael Wolff.As he kept seeming to be incapable of offering absolute support for Israel in the wake of October 7," Wolff writes, referring to the deadly 2023 attacks by Hamas, Trump, not for the first time, turned to Jared for Jewish cover, explicitly asking him and Ivanka for a public endorsement. Continue reading...
A stop-work order had been issued to government-funded attorneys to cease counsel for about 26,000 minorsThe Trump administration has rescinded its decision to cut off legal aid for unaccompanied immigrant children, just three days after it ordered government-funded attorneys across the country to immediately stop their work.The Acacia Center for Justice and the Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef) confirmed that the stop-work order affecting non-profits that provide legal counsel for about 26,000 unaccompanied minors had been lifted. Continue reading...
by Maya Yang (now); Chris Stein, Erum Salam and Fran on (#6VE7Y)
This live blog is now closed. For the latest on the Trump administration, read more coverage here.National security adviser Mike Waltz told a crowd of Donald Trump loyalists that he believes the president will receive the Nobel peace prize.This is the presidency of peace. He's going to end the war in Europe. He is going to end the wars in the Middle East. He is going to reinvest the United States and our leadership in our own hemisphere, from the Arctic to the border to Panama all the way down to our good friends in Argentina," Waltz told the Conservative Political Action Conference.The pause comes after CNN reported on Wednesday that the mass terminations, which could affect over 50,000 civilian employees across the Pentagon, could run afoul of Title 10 section 129a of the US code. Following that report, Pentagon lawyers began reviewing the legality of the planned terminations more closely, the officials said.That law says that the secretary of defense may not reduce the civilian workforce programmed full-time equivalent levels unless the Secretary conducts an appropriate analysis" of how those firings could impact the US military's lethality and readiness. The law also says that mitigating risk to US military readiness takes precedence over cost. Continue reading...
Nathan Hochman casts doubt on sexual abuse claims but declines to say whether he would support resentencingLos Angeles's new tough-on-crime district attorney made clear on Friday he was taking a much less sympathetic view of Erik and Lyle Menendez's case, though his office has not yet announced what position it will take on the issue of whether the brothers should be resentenced.Erik, 53, and Lyle, 56, Menendez were found guilty of first-degree murder in the killings of Jose and Kitty Menendez in 1989, and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Continue reading...
Capitol police said officers saw Tarrio strike protester at gathering he attended with Oath Keepers' Stewart RhodesEnrique Tarrio, a former national leader of the far-right group the Proud Boys, was arrested on Friday near the US Capitol on a charge that he assaulted a woman protesting against a gathering attended by him and others who received presidential pardons for crimes stemming from Donald Trump supporters' 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol.Capitol police said officers saw Tarrio strike the protester's cellphone and arm after the woman placed the phone close to his face as they walked near the Capitol. Tarrio had just left a news conference that had ended without incident", police said. Continue reading...
All three major stock indexes moved decisively lower, extending sell-off in wake of dour economic reportsUS stocks tumbled on Friday, extending a sell-off in the wake of dour economic reports and closing the book on a holiday-shortened week fraught with new tariff threats and worries of softening consumer demand.All three major US stock indexes moved decisively lower on the heels of the data, and continued their slide into afternoon trading. Continue reading...
News agency claims White House blocking journalists from press events is unconstitutional effort to control speechThe Associated Press sued three officials in Donald Trump's administration over access to presidential events, citing freedom of speech in asking a federal judge to stop the 10-day blocking of its journalists.The lawsuit was filed on Friday afternoon in US district court in Washington DC. Continue reading...
The French far-right leader Jordan Bardella has cancelled a scheduled speech at the US Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland after Donald Trump's former aide Steve Bannon flashed an apparent fascist-style salute there hours before. The National Rally president cited Bannon's allusion to 'Nazi ideology' as the reason.Bannon flashed the gesture after speaking on Thursday night directly after tech billionaire Elon Musk, who caused controversy in January after he gave a similar gesture at the US president's second inauguration
Outside lawyer appointed to present arguments against prosecutors seeking to drop case against New York mayorA New York judge on Friday said he would not immediately dismiss Eric Adams's corruption case, but ordered the Democratic New York City mayor's trial delayed indefinitely after the justice department asked for the charges to be dismissed.In a written ruling, the US district judge Dale Ho in Manhattan said he would appoint an outside lawyer, Paul Clement of the law firm Clement & Murphy PLLC, to present arguments against the federal prosecutors' bid to dismiss, in order to help the judge make his decision. Continue reading...
Sunday's poll is a turning point for the EU's most powerful member state, as it comes to terms with Trump 2.0When Germany's chancellor, Olaf Scholz, chose in November to force this weekend's snap election, it felt like awkward timing. In the United States, Donald Trump had just won a decisive victory and was promising to move fast and break things. With a political storm brewing, was this the right time for the EU's most important member state to embark on aperiod of prolonged introspection?Three tumultuous months later, with German democracy itself in the crosshairs of a hostile Trump administration, Sunday's poll feels more like a valuable opportunity for an emergency reset. Any federal election carries huge significance beyond Germany's borders. This poll is distinguished by being the first of a new era - one in which the transatlantic alliance that underpinned Europe's postwar security can no longer be relied upon. Its outcome will be fundamental to shaping the EU's response to that new reality, as existential decisions are made over defence spending and protecting Ukraine. Continue reading...
PM to claim if US rejects Mauritius's claim to own the islands, Beijing will be drawn into the regional disputeKeir Starmer is to urge Donald Trump to recognise that a US rejection of Mauritius's legal claim to own the Chagos Islands, including the strategic US military base at Diego Garcia, may stoke tensions similar to those in the South China Sea.Starmer is due to meet Trump next Friday mainly to discuss the future of Ukraine, but also a UK plan for Gaza's reconstruction under international protection with no need for Palestinians to be required to quit the Gaza Strip. The paper is similar but not identical to proposals being discussed by Arab foreign ministers in Riyadh, which has a strong international component and would prevent Hamas ruling in Gaza. Continue reading...
Federal government examining whether insurance giant is illegally raising Medicare program users' monthly paymentsThe US Department of Justice is reportedly investigating the insurance giant UnitedHealthcare for its Medicare billing practices.The federal government is examining whether UnitedHealthcare is using patient diagnoses to illegally increase the lump sum monthly payments received through the Medicare Advantage program, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Continue reading...
by Joseph Gedeon in Oxon Hill, Maryland on (#6VECR)
National security adviser Mike Waltz tells CPAC agreement is expected imminently as part of ceasefire negotiationsThe White House national security adviser, Mike Waltz, said on Friday that the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, was expected to sign a minerals agreement with the United States imminently, as part of broader negotiations to end the war with Russia.Here's the bottom line: President Zelenskyy is going to sign that deal, and you will see that in the very short term," Waltz said during remarks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Continue reading...
Officials announce possible withdrawal of $4bn for project to shuttle riders between San Francisco and Los AngelesThe Trump administration is once again targeting California's controversial high-speed rail project, with federal transportation officials on Thursday announcing an investigation and possible withdrawal of about $4bn in federal funding.Voters first approved $10bn in bond money in 2008 for a project designed to shuttle riders between San Francisco and Los Angeles in less than three hours. It was slated to cost $33bn and be finished by 2020. But the project has been beset by funding challenges, cost overruns and delays. Continue reading...
Principles First has become a venue for anti-Maga conservatives and hopes to be a rightwing exit ramp'While Donald Trump and his acolytes take a victory lap at the Conservative Political Action Conference this week, some of the president's staunchest right-leaning critics will convene for their own event just 10 miles away.The Principles First summit, which will be held in Washington from Friday to Sunday, has become a venue for anti-Trump conservatives to voice their deep-seated concerns about the Make America great again" faction of the Republican party, and the gathering has now grown in size and scope. As its organizers confront another four years of Trump's leadership, they are stretching beyond party lines with speakers such as the billionaire Mark Cuban and Jared Polis, the Democratic governor of Colorado, to craft their vision for a new approach to US politics. Continue reading...
His capitulation to Putin over Ukraine reveals a pattern. He's the patsy: giving everything away, getting little in returnHe parades as a strongman, but in fact he's weak, weak, weak. In the face of America's adversaries Donald Trump is, as he might put it, a patsy, a sucker, a pushover. He folds like a pack of cards. He's a human doormat. A loser.Just consider the gifts he has handed Vladimir Putin this week. He has brought Russia in from the diplomatic cold after three years of ostracism following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, whose anniversary is nearly upon us. Sergei Lavrov, Putin's foreign minister, was meant to be persona non grata; he remains under international sanctions. Nevertheless, this week in Riyadh he met Trump's secretary of state, Marco Rubio, in so-called peace talks.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
The president has signed orders to ban gender transitions for people under 19, end birthright citizenship and moreDonald Trump has signed more than 50 executive orders since returning to the presidency in January, including enacting steep tariffs, ending birthright citizenship, curbing DEI and gender radicalism" in the military and pardoning January 6 rioters.The US president promised in his inaugural speech that these orders would amount to a complete restoration of America". Continue reading...
A new initiative targets 58,000 kids who lost a caregiver or were in the foster system during the Covid pandemicDuring the pandemic, tens of thousands of children in California lost a caregiver due to Covid. Since then, these kids, who are predominantly Black, Latino and Indigenous, have experienced instability, economic precariousness and grief that will carry long-term impacts.This year, the state is launching an initiative aimed at helping them, as well as children who were in the foster system at the time: baby bonds. Continue reading...
Israel, seemingly with the US president's blessing, has kept troops inside Lebanon. Renewed conflict with Hezbollah is loomingAs global attention remains focused on the hostage-prisoner swaps between Hamas and Israel, another ceasefire in the region hangs in the balance.The 14-month war between Israel and Hezbollah, a Shia Muslim militia which has been the most dominant political faction in Lebanon for the past two decades, was paused by a US-brokered ceasefire in late November. The agreement also paved the way to end years of political deadlock in Beirut. Lebanon has formed a new government, and finally has leaders chosen for their promises to carry out reforms, rather than their sectarian affiliations - but the future of the ceasefire deal has left them facing an immediate crisis.Mohamad Bazzi is director of the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies, and a journalism professor at New York UniversityDo 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...
The mayor of America's largest city is caught up in a swirl of indictments, immigrants, Rikers and Donald TrumpThis Valentine's Day, a new political power couple said their vows on the plush white couches of Fox & Friends in midtown Manhattan: Donald Trump's border tsar, Tom Homan, and the New York City mayor, Eric Adams.The pair appeared on the conservative TV show to discuss an agreement they had reached the day before. Their deal reversed longstanding New York City policy by letting federal immigration agents back onto Rikers Island, the city's jail complex that largely holds people who have been charged but not yet convicted of crimes. The surprise agreement came as the newly installed leaders of Trump's Department of Justice were making an extraordinary push to dismiss criminal corruption charges that the agency had been pursuing against Adams.Weeks after the election, the mayor, who had once declared that the city would ALWAYS stand up to' Trump and that immigrants fleeing oppression should remember they were ALWAYS welcome here', sounded like a different manNow they have a compromised mayor of the largest city in the country
The steel industry needs to modernize. Tariffs can help, but the government must go beyond trade policyLast week, Donald Trump revived a trade war from his first term, implementing a 25% tariff on all imported steel. In doing so, he's using tariffs as a blunt-force tool under the assumption that they'll be sufficient to jump-start the American steel industry.But that's not the case.Mike Williams is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and former deputy director of the BlueGreen Alliance Continue reading...
Benjamin Netanyahu accuses Hamas of a serious violation' and vows it will pay. Plus, Germans share their concerns about the far right's rise before this weekend's election
The president punished the AP for choosing its own language, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. The press must show unityIt might seem like a small matter, just a disagreement over whether a body of water should be called one name or another.But it's really about much bigger things: Trump-style intimidation, a clear violation of the first amendment - and the extent to which news organizations will stick together in each other's defense, or will comply with the powerful for the sake of their own access. Continue reading...
President's order means a race to the bottom rigged against US, argues anti-corruption watchdog Transparency InternationalBribery is not a victimless crime. Stories listing the amount paid or the fine imposed can make them sound more like distasteful financial transactions, but they have harmful - sometimes deadly - outcomes.Bribes have been paid to building inspectors to ignore safety violations later cited in catastrophic collapses, and to officials to ignore worker standards that result in disabling and lethal outcomes. They have even helped divert weapons into the hands of rogue and dangerous actors.Gary Kalman is the executive director of Transparency International US.Maira Martini is the CEO of Transparency International. Continue reading...
In Trump's jungle, the powerful make decisions the weak must simply accept - international law and human rights be damnedIt's been quite a week for US foreign policy. Following a phone call last week between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, US and Russian delegates met in Saudi Arabia to smooth relations between the two countries and discuss possible paths to ending the war in Ukraine.Ukraine was not invited to the talks. Quite reasonably, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said his country would not be bound by decisions taken without their participation. Trump responded to this by falsely claiming that Ukraine had started the war, and sought to undermine Zelenskyy's legitimacy by claiming in a Truth Social post that he refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls ... A Dictator without Elections."Matt Duss is executive vice-president at the Center for International Policy and former foreign policy adviser to the senator Bernie Sanders Continue reading...
JD Vance says Europe should not shun far-right parties. He seems to have forgotten 1933, but hits a key conundrumIn his speech last week at the Munich Security Conference, JD Vance pressed European leaders to stop excluding extremist parties from government. Alluding in particular to Germany's neo-Nazi Alternative for Germany, or AfD, he accused European leaders of running in fear of your own voters". The US vice-president underscored the point by then meeting with the AfD candidate for chancellor.In his view, these extremist parties should be welcomed into the mainstream because they reflect voters' concern about migration. He evidently was not troubled that the AfD also has a history of using Nazi rhetoric, making racist and antisemitic comments and plotting to overthrow the German government. Continue reading...
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