Day 2 of our Guardian analysis of more than a million Epstein emails exposes the child sex offender's deep relationships with more high-profile figuresThe Epstein files have led to intense scrutiny over links between the child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the rich and powerful. But the vast trove of information has made it difficult to assess the extent of some of those connections.In this second of a two-part series, The Guardian has focused on Epstein's links to high-profile people in business and the arts - including the renowned economist and former US treasury secretary Larry Summers, the New York film director Woody Allen and Jes Stalay, the former head of Barclays. Continue reading...

Kennedy's appointees promoted treatments' like bleach enemas, but new committee has only one autistic memberThe first public meeting of US autism advisers - notably, since Robert F Kennedy Jr reshaped the committee - was cancelled recently with few details, coinciding with the creation of a rival organization that has prompted some questions within the autistic community about their focus.Kennedy, the secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) who has long argued for a debunked link between vaccines and autism, chose entirely new members for the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) in late January, with fewer autistic people and several anti-vaccine advocates. Continue reading...

We are trying our best to resist him, contain him and remove him from office as quickly as we possibly can. Thank you for your patienceDonald Trump is alone.That's different from the United States being alone.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist and his newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com. His new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, is out now in the US and in the UK Continue reading...

Rulings in cases alleging antisemitism on US campuses say common pro-Palestinian speech is constitutionally protectedFew debates from the last few years have been more contentious than whether criticism of Israel and Zionism is antisemitic, threatens Jewish people or violates their civil rights. Allegations of antisemitism have cost people jobs, provided pretexts for censorship and fueled an unprecedented crackdown on protest over Israel and shows of support for Palestinian rights, especially at universities.Pro-Israel groups have filed hundreds of lawsuits or legal actions in an effort to silence some of this speech, with the vast majority filed since 2023 in response to the protest movement surrounding Israel's recent war in Gaza. The most important rulings to have come out of these cases, experts say, have found that speech and slogans at the heart of the controversies are protected by the first amendment. Continue reading...

US spent $11.3bn on bombs in the first six days of the US and Israel's joint attack on Iran - key US politics stories from 18 March 2026 at a glancePart of Donald Trump's pitch to voters was that, if he became president again, he would rein in government spending and not send US troops to war. He may have campaigned with promises, but he's governing with billions of dollars worth of bombs dropping on Iran.In the six days that followed the US and Israel's joint attack on Iran on 28 February, $11.3bn was spent on American taxpayer-funded bombs that hit the country and caused hundreds of deaths, the Pentagon has told lawmakers. This figure does not capture the full cost of the conflict, such as deployment of forces, and will now be far higher given the ongoing nature of the war. Continue reading...

Admission came during questioning at Senate intelligence committee worldwide threats hearingThe Federal Bureau of Investigation has started buying location data on Americans, Kash Patel, FBI director, said under oath at the Senate intelligence committee worldwide threats hearing on Wednesday.Patel's admission came in response to a question from the senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat who is a longtime opponent of the warrantless surveillance of Americans. Wyden told Patel that his predecessor, Christopher Wray, testified in 2023 that the FBI did not at that time purchase location data derived from internet advertising, although he acknowledged that it had done so in the past. Continue reading...

New York Times report leads to multiple cancellations of events meant to celebrate the late labor organizer

Exclusive: Republican congresswoman started negotiations with Saudi Arabia without informing the White House

After 17 months of negotiations, the WNBA and its players have agreed to a new CBA. From salaries to revenue sharing, here's what's changing and why it matters

National intelligence director says Iran's conventional military projection capabilities had been largely destroyed'

Thomas Abt, a researcher, says online taunts and barbs from songs can intensify shootings in underserved areasWhenever the US tries to make sense of a high-profile mass shooting, it inevitably turns to one source: the social media accounts of the suspect. Law enforcement, reporters and the public scrutinize these digital footprints, hoping to find clues about a possible motive.Less explored, however, is the role social media platforms like Instagram and YouTube play in shootings that happen in underserved Black and Latino communities and are scarcely covered outside of local crime news. These shootings, Thomas Abt, the lead author of a new Violence Reduction Center white paper on the topic told the Guardian, are increasingly being fueled by online disputes and barbs being traded back and forth in songs and music videos and shared online. Continue reading...

Beijing seeks to decipher effect of Iran war on US midterms and best way to apply pressure when Trump meets XiThe White House said on Wednesday that China had agreed to postpone Donald Trump's visit to Beijing, as war in the Middle East rages on, complicating the US president's position at home and abroad.China has not yet commented on the delay to the highly anticipated trip, in which Trump and the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, will meet in person for the first time since October. Trump previously said he hoped to delay the trip, originally scheduled to run from 31 March to 2 April, for five or six weeks". Continue reading...

Prosecutors say Kouri Richins slipped five times the lethal dose of the synthetic opioid into a cocktail that he drankA Utah woman was convicted on Monday of aggravated murder after poisoning her husband with fentanyl and then self-publishing a children's book about coping with grief.Prosecutors said Kouri Richins slipped five times the lethal dose of the synthetic opioid into a cocktail that her husband Eric Richins drank in March 2022. Continue reading...

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US president wants countries to help police the strait after Iran effectively closed the vital fossil fuel shipping channel - key US politics stories from Monday 16 March at a glanceKey US allies in Europe and beyond have ruled out sending warships to the strait of Hormuz, despite threats from Donald Trump that Nato faces a very bad future" if members fail to help reopen the vital waterway.The UK, Germany, France and Italy, along with Australia and Japan, have said they had no plans to send warships. Continue reading...

Cheddar cheese from California-based Raw Farm identified as likely source' of infections across multiple statesCheese from the country's largest raw milk distributor have been linked to a multistate E coli outbreak.Raw cheddar cheese from the California-based company Raw Farm has been identified as the likely source" of several E coli O157:H7 infections in California, Florida and Texas, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), PBS News reported, though no Raw Farm products have tested positive for E coli. Continue reading...

Arrest of asylum seeker Elvis Joel TE and his two-year-old, without a warrant, had sparked widespread outrageA federal judge ruled on Friday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) must release a Minneapolis man and asylum seeker who has been unlawfully detained for 50 days.The man, identified as Elvis Joel TE in court filings, was arrested on 22 January at the height of ICE's aggressive raids in Minneapolis. The case sparked widespread outrage as Elvis TE was detained with his two-year-old daughter while they were returning home from the store, and ICE quickly flew both of them to Texas despite a court order barring their transfer out of Minnesota. Continue reading...

Kordia was taken at a check-in at an ICE office in New Jersey and was held despite court ruling thrice for her releaseA New Jersey woman who had been arrested at a pro-Palestine protest and booked into a US immigration detention center in Texas last March has been released on bond, after a year in custody.Leqaa Kordia, 33, originally from the West Bank, was arrested in April 2024 at a protest against Israel's war on Gaza outside of Columbia University. Nearly a year later, she was taken into custody after reporting for a check-in at a Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in New Jersey. Continue reading...

Pair attempt to strike united front amid reports vice-president skeptical over US-Israeli attack on IranDonald Trump revealed that he had asked China to delay his forthcoming visit to Beijing while the war with Iran was continuing, as he attempted to strike a united front on Monday with his vice-president JD Vance, who is believed to have been skeptical over attacking Tehran's regime.Appearing together with Vance for the first time in two weeks, Trump said he did not think the conflict - which started on 28 February after the US and Israel opened hostilities - would be over this week but predicted victory would be achieved soon. Continue reading...

Storm system dumps snow in midwest and threatens east coast with high winds and possible long-track tornadoes'

Oil could pass 2008 record of $147.50 a barrel as damage and field closures risk compounding supply shock caused by Iran warAbout 20 miles off the coast of Iran lies the source of the petrostate's economic lifeblood and the latest target of US military aggression: an 8 sq mile coral island through which nine in every 10 barrels of Iranian crude passes each day.The US president's decision to launch a weekend attack on Kharg Island, the home of Iran's processing hub and the heart of its economy, is an unsurprising counterstrike to the Iranian regime's ongoing chokehold on the oil market's trade artery. Continue reading...

The luxury property surge fuels growth in Miami, but a poll finds many residents weighing an exit over housing and living costsTo a casual observer, everything in south Florida's real estate garden is looking rosy. There's a gold rush" in Miami as ultra-wealthy buyers snap up mega-mansions and luxuriously appointed condos as soon as they hit the market; and the Guardian has also reported recently on the Mamdani effect" of elite New Yorkers arriving in the sunshine state with bulging pocketbooks in search of a high-priced escape from the city's new mayor.Yet alongside the boom, there are rumblings of a more troubling parallel reality. Undoubtedly, the billionaire class is helping to pump even more dollars into an already thriving Florida economy. But as prices rise and the less affluent find everything from housing and insurance to gas and groceries increasingly expensive, many are considering doing something about it. Continue reading...

Tommy Thompson refused to give up the location of 500 missing coins found in a historic shipwreckA US treasure hunter who was imprisoned for 10 years after refusing to reveal the location of missing gold coins has been released from prison, without officials apparently ever learning where that gold is.Tommy Thompson - a renowned salvager who in 1998 found the long-lost, so-called Ship of Gold near South Carolina - was freed from federal prison on 4 March, records and reports recently indicated. Continue reading...

Could we be at the beginning of a change never before seen by humans - allowing us to escape the drudgery of work?The other day I pulled into the parking lot of a client's offices and in the spot next to me was a woman sitting in her car blasting music. She caught me looking and rolled down her window and said, I'll be inside in a minute ... Just enjoying my last few moments of freedom!"Is this way we want to live? No, it's not. Continue reading...

Jewish and Arab American leaders decry violence at Temple Israel, but US-Israel war on Iran complicates healingJewish and Arab American leaders across Detroit and the US strongly condemned the 12 March terrorist attack on a Michigan synagogue and largely aimed to lower tensions against the backdrop of the US and Israel's ongoing military campaign in Iran.But in Michigan, where large populations of Arab Americans and Jews live near one another, the complexities of the situation can be difficult to grapple with - and few people had easy or quick answers on how to move forward. Continue reading...

Bill faces constitutional hurdles as previous abortion bans were struck down by state supreme court in January

The American propelled ahead of frontrunner Michael Kimani Kamau by a fraction of a second

From Gaza to Iran, the pattern is the same: precision weapons, chosen blindness, and dead children. The cost of failing to regulate AI warfare is already too highThere is an Israeli military strategy called the fog procedure". First used during the second intifada, it's an unofficial rule that requires soldiers guarding military posts in conditions of low visibility to shoot bursts of gunfire into the darkness, on the theory that an invisible threat might be lurking.It's violence licensed by blindness. Shoot into the darkness and call it deterrence. With the dawn of AI warfare, that same logic of chosen blindness has been refined, systematized, and handed off to a machine. Continue reading...

Suspects accused of throwing explosive devices at rightwing anti-Islam protesters as tensions rise across USEarly on Monday afternoon, two teens in white plastic jumpsuits were escorted into a Manhattan federal courtroom. Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, who were shackled and handcuffed, quietly took their seats at the defense table.If not for the metal restraints and jail garb, Balat, 18, and Kayumi, 19, could have been any number of young men who carry themselves with an aura of discomfort about their place in America. Continue reading...

Humiliating failure now looms, as symbolically damaging to US global standing and national self-esteem as Afghanistan or IraqDonald Trump menaces the world. He's global public enemy number one. He's steadily losing the illegal war with Iran he started but cannot stop. His violence-addicted Israeli sidekick, Benjamin Netanyahu, is terrorising Lebanon. And ordinary people everywhere, their security threatened, face a huge economic bill for his reckless folly.Add Trump's war-making to his daily debasing of democracy, appeasing of Russia, punitive tariffs, climate crisis denial and flouting of international law, and it's clear this White House travesty has gone on long enough. Americans must put their house in order and act decisively to restrain someone who endangers us all. Continue reading...

The country's 900 billionaires have far too much influence over our government and economy. Here's how we can reduce the power of the ultra-richNot a day goes by without some news about billionaires throwing their weight around to bend the system in their favor or about politicians giving them tax cuts, government contracts or pardons. In today's new Gilded Age, the 900-plus billionaires in the US have far too much influence over our elections, our economy, our government policies and our news media, and it's urgent for Americans to create a movement to curb their power in order to preserve what's left of our democracy and assure we have an economy with some basic fairness.It's deeply troubling that billionaires have far more power in shaping our nation's politics and policies than do average Americans, whether they're auto workers, teachers, nurses, carpenters or supermarket cashiers. What's more, it's deeply disturbing that so many billionaires support the most authoritarian president in US history, whether by donating to his campaign or his gilded ballroom.Steven Greenhouse is a journalist and author, focusing on labour and the workplace, as well as economic and legal issues Continue reading...

Colossal Biosciences' CEO says its work follows a moral obligation' while critics say it's tech bro' hype that could undermine conservationCan and should we resurrect animal species that have been extinct for thousands of years? Such weighty, existential questions were once the preserve of science fiction but are now being played out within an unassuming brick building in a Dallas business park.Colossal Biosciences, valued at $10.2bn after raising hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from investors including celebrities spanning from Tiger Woods to Paris Hilton, has provoked a stampede of acclaim as well as denunciation after announcing last year it had made the dire wolf, a species lost from the world for more than 10,000 years, de-extinct" via the birth of three new pups. Continue reading...

Experts query mix-up of priorities' as president plays golf, posts old pictures and repeats details of Bill Maher feudMore than two weeks into the US-Israel war on Iran, and the conflict appears at risk of spiraling out of control.Back home, Donald Trump's behavior also appears chaotic. A foreign conflict typically brings somber reflection from leaders: in Trump's case, it has brought a stream of behavior that has defied norms and raised eyebrows over his state of mind. Continue reading...

It's hard to be transported by the glitz and glamour when it's constantly overshadowed by some white-hot new horrorIt's been a full decade now since I attended the Academy Awards ceremony for this very same publication, and chat, I am feeling, like, totally cooked. I'm so unc'd, it's cringe, fam.The article was titled My first Oscars", which is a terribly presumptuous statement, because it assumes there will be a second or a third. Despite my best efforts, it remains my only Oscars. I reread the piece to prepare to once again write about the Academy Awards for the Guardian, and I was shocked by how mundane the whole experience came across on the page. As befitting the much younger, more crass version of myself, there was a lot of eyerolling and snark about how soulless the event was. Also, I wouldn't stop talking about seeing Gary Busey.Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist Continue reading...

Niko Bray, who obtained pilot's license in January 2025, shares story after averting disaster on busy Jupiter roadA teenage pilot who made an emergency airplane landing on a busy Florida road while averting disaster entirely says you just execute" when thrust into such life-or-death situations.It can happen ... so fast," 19-year-old Niko Bray said in an interview with the Florida news outlet WSVN, nearly a week after authorities say he landed the small airplane he was flying on a six-lane thoroughfare in the community of Jupiter because of an emergency in the skies. Continue reading...

Joshua Nass, of alleged $600,000 extortion plot, played role in pardon of man convicted of failing to pay $40m in taxesA New York lobbyist and attorney connected to a presidential pardon issued by Donald Trump in November has been charged with attempting to extort a former client and the client's son over an alleged $500,000 debt.Joshua Nass, 34, was arrested on Friday after being charged in federal court in Brooklyn with attempted Hobbs Act extortion. US justice department prosecutors contend that Nass threatened a client for payment that he claimed he was owed for his services. Continue reading...

Palantir's CEO says the platforms will have a vast effect on the electoral landscape ... especially women. Is it a warning or a sales pitch?Don't you just love AI? It has inundated the internet with slop, destabilized the concept of truth, and made it much easier to bomb people. And that's just the beginning. As we look towards the future of our brave new world, AI might also disrupt all those pesky highly-educated female voters who keep casting a ballot for Democrats.To be clear: that assessment isn't coming from me, a highly exhausted female who wishes the Democrats would work a little harder for people's votes. Rather, it's coming from one of the key architects of our glorious AI-driven economy: Alex Karp, the co-founder and CEO of tech firm Palantir.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Ohio representative Joyce Beatty, an ex officio member, may access documents and speak, but may not voteA federal judge ruled on Saturday that a Democratic lawmaker is entitled to participate at a board meeting about Donald Trump's plan to close down the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for two years of renovations.But the judge is not forcing the board to let the Ohio representative Joyce Beatty, an ex officio member through her position in Congress, vote at Monday's session. Continue reading...

A Chevron station just outside downtown charges more than $8 a gallon - nearly $3 more than the city's averageIt's tempting to think that a gas station charging more than $8 a gallon is a glamorous Los Angeles curiosity. Sort of like shopping at Erewhon, the healthy grocery chain that wows with a premium experience - and commands up to $22 a smoothie.But there's no glamour at the 901 N Alameda Street station. It's just a dingy Chevron on the edge of LA's Chinatown, regularly featured in news stories to illustrate the high cost of fuel in California. Midday on Tuesday, the station charged $8.31 for a gallon of regular gas. Continue reading...

Defense secretary appeared to endorse killing prisoners, a violation of international law, during press briefingA top Democratic lawmaker with a military background has reacted strongly to US defense secretary Pete Hegseth's call for no quarter" for US enemies during a Friday press briefing at the Pentagon, calling such an order - if followed by troops - a potential violation of international law.The US senator Mark Kelly, of Arizona, posted on Friday on X that No quarter' isn't some wanna be tough guy line - it means something. An order to give no quarter would mean to take no prisoners and kill them instead." Continue reading...

Alexandria airport center would hold migrant families and children inside converted barracks before deportationThe Trump administration is poised to expand immigration detention operations at a controversial site inside a rural Louisiana airport, the Guardian has learned.The administration is seeking to establish a first of its kind" short-term facility that would hold migrant families and unaccompanied children next to a runway that has become a central node for the White House's mass deportation agenda. Continue reading...

Erratic rhetoric, shifting goals and mixed signals leave allies, foes and voters unsure what the president wants from warMr President," said a reporter. You've said the war is very complete' but your defence secretary says, This is just the beginning'. So which is it?" Donald Trump's eyes darted left and right then down. Well, I think you could say both," he parried.The confusing answer at a press conference in Doral, Florida this week did not befit a wartime leader armed with stirring rhetoric and a lucid plan. But it was entirely on brand for the 47th US president. The tumultuous style that Trump brings to election campaigns, dealing with Congress and global trade relations has now been imported to the theatre of war. Continue reading...

He is stuck in a quagmire. His goals are elusive. His bombing does not force a surrender. He has no exit strategy. Good morning, VietnamDonald Trump is lost in his fog of war. He compounds confusion with improvised fabrications as his naive expectation of a lightning victory has been sunk in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran, he felt certain, would easily follow the perfect scenario" of Venezuela, accede to naming a leader who would instantly do his bidding, and there would be no disruption of the oil markets - a strong game plan", stated Karoline Leavitt, his White House press secretary, who defends each of his changeable excuses with equal ferocity.There may be few if any facts underlying the delusions upon which Trump constructs his vapid explanations and evanescent strategies. The belief that coherent sense can be made out of Trump's shuffling words is a weakness of the rational mind that refuses to accept the impulses of the inveterate demagogue for what they are. Searching for reason in the jungle of Trump's tales may compel hopelessly sensible people to superimpose logic where there is none in order to satisfy the need for some semblance of soundness. Continue reading...

Dr Brian Elmore witnessed a public health crisis unfold at the border near El Paso. He reflects on why it was like a perverse Groundhog Day'In late spring 2024, Dr Brian Elmore was working out of a mobile clinic, providing medical treatment to migrants in Ciudad Juarez, just south of the US-Mexico border wall. One of his patients, a Venezuelan man with a fractured arm and a detached left chest from his sternum and clavicle, told Elmore that Mexican immigration officials broke his arm when he first got to town, and that rubber bullets fired by Texas national guardsmen had caused his chest injuries.The man somehow had managed to fashion a shoddily made splint for his arm, but his chest would require surgery. When an ambulance arrived, the criminal group that controlled the riverine area refused to let him leave. The Texas guardsmen looked on from the US side of the river. It was heartbreaking," Elmore said of the spectacle. Continue reading...

The former No 3 overall NBA draft pick opens up about addiction, homelessness and redemption in a candid memoir revisiting basketball's cocaine eraWhen the Golden State Warriors drafted Chris Washburn with the No 3 pick in 1986, it should have been a dream come true. Instead, it might have been the worst thing that could have happened for the 6ft 11in NC State prospect.I put on a smile because they were paying me to be out there," Washburn, a former three-time high school All-American, tells rhe Guardian. But I felt alone." Continue reading...

Defense secretary offers alternative TV headlines to reporters to more favourably reflect US military campaign in Iran - key US politics stories from 13 March 2026Pete Hegseth has used a press conference at the Pentagon to criticize journalists over their coverage of the war in Iran, at one point proposing alternative TV headlines.The US defense secretary claimed Iran had been left without a functioning air force, navy or missile defense network after 13 days of strikes, and said the combined US-Israeli air campaign had hit more than 15,000 targets since the war began. Continue reading...