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Millions of gallons of raw sewage have been pouring into the water through a ruptured pipe since last monthDonald Trump approved a federal emergency declaration Saturday related to a sewer main break north of Washington DC that threatens to put a stink on the US's 250th anniversary celebrations in the US capital this summer.The president's action authorizes Fema to coordinate all disaster relief efforts to alleviate the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population and to provide appropriate assistance to save lives, to protect property, public health and safety, and to lessen the threat of catastrophe," a release from the Federal Emergency Management Agency said. Continue reading...

LAUSD provides resources to diverse schools in an effort to combat segregation - Pam Bondi's agency wants it to stopFor decades, the Los Angeles Unified School District has classified its schools based on the proportion of enrolled students who aren't white.In a city where more than two-thirds of residents identify as Hispanic, Black or Asian, that meant a vast majority were found to have extraordinarily diverse student bodies. And in an effort to combat segregation, the school district has afforded those diverse schools with smaller class sizes and other benefits. Continue reading...

A picture is emerging of one of the worst avalanche disasters in US history, and the women among a tight-knit group of friends who diedThe ringing of a phone echoed through the Nevada county, California, sheriff's office just before noon on 17 February.The 911 call brought devastating news: an avalanche had occurred on nearby Castle Peak - a 9,110ft (2,780-meter) mountain north of the Donner summit in the Lake Tahoe area. A group of backcountry skiers had been on the mountainside, returning home from a three-day expedition, during a heavy winter storm. While six had survived, more than half their group was missing. Continue reading...

The US supreme court ruled against the president. Let's hope the court removes its pro-Trump glasses on other issues and stands up for the rule of lawThere's no denying that the US supreme court's long-awaited ruling that overturned Donald Trump's global tariffs is important, and if the ruling turns out to be a harbinger that the court is ready to abandon its startling sycophancy toward the US president, it could prove hugely important. The ruling this Friday is the first time during Trump's second term that the justices have struck down one of his policies. Not only that, the policy they struck down is Trump's signature economic policy - he has used tariffs to bash, lord over and terrorize dozens of other countries and make himself the King of the Economic Jungle.In the court's main opinion, joined by three conservative justices and three liberals, chief justice John Roberts used some sharp language to slap down Trump's tariffs, writing that the constitution specifically gives Congress, not the president, the power to impose taxes and tariffs. (Roberts noted that tariffs are indeed taxes.)Steven Greenhouse is a journalist and author, focusing on labour and the workplace, as well as economic and legal issues Continue reading...

Recent incidents involving Anderson Cooper and Stephen Colbert suggest things are not well at the network after the acquisition financed by Trump supporter Larry EllisonAnderson Cooper decides to walk away from broadcast TV's most prestigious news show, 60 Minutes. Stephen Colbert takes his interview with a rising Democratic politician to YouTube instead of his own late-night show. The CBS Evening News anchor presents a misleading version of the network's own exclusive reporting on Ice arrests. And a news producer writes a farewell note to her CBS News colleagues blaming the loss of editorial independence.If you connect the dots, the picture of what's happening at CBS becomes all too clear. That picture comes into even sharper focus once you recall an underlying factor: the network's parent company is trying to get a big commercial deal done and needs the help of the Trump administration to bring it over the finish line.Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture Continue reading...

The civil rights trailblazer imagined a future for America in which the marginalized became the center of US politicsReverend Jesse Jackson, the civil- and human-rights trailblazer who died on 17 February, imagined a version of America where the marginalized became the center. His was a much more progressive vision than what the Democratic party thought possible after the civil rights movement, and through Jackson's National Rainbow Coalition - launched after his first presidential campaign in 1984 - he laid the groundwork for a new era.This Rainbow Coalition is the embodiment of a national politics that is radically inclusive," Charles McKinney, a professor of history at Rhodes Collegesaid. He was like: I've got something for the middle class, I've got something for the elite, and I also have something for working-class folks. To me, that was the embodiment of his politics." Continue reading...

Banner at justice department just the latest example of how president has imposed himself on daily US lifeYou wouldn't be alone if you feel that the US more closely resembles North Korea these days - with giant images of the dear leader scowling down on the citizenry, and his name inscribed everywhere from public buildings to street signs, transportation hubs and self-aggrandizing monuments.Thursday's unfurling of a massive banner bearing the visage of Donald J Trump, the 47th US president, on the exterior of the Washington headquarters of the federal justice department was only the latest example of how he has imposed himself on every facet of American life. Some critics have called it dictator vibes". Continue reading...

History shows that when called to testify about difficult things - Monica Lewinsky, Benghazi - Bill and Hillary excelFor political connoisseurs of a certain vintage, it feels like deja vu all over again.To anyone who witnessed Bill Clinton's presidency in the 1990s, the once unimaginable spectacle of a sitting president testifying under oath over sexual misconduct allegations levelled on a wave of Republican antipathy became so familiar as to seem almost routine. Continue reading...

Arab Americans in Dearborn and beyond are being swept up by ICE at places of worship and work, with devastating consequencesLorenda Lewis is so tired she can barely keep her head straight. Surrounded by her six young children at a cafe in Dearborn, Michigan, she recounts the nightmare of the past four months that saw her husband, Abdelouahid Aouchiche, an Algerian national, taken away.It was still dark when, at about 5.15am last October, her 61-year-old husband and 12-year-old son, Abdullah, arrived at the Furqan mosque for morning prayers. Abdullah recalls his father being approached by two men outside the mosque, grabbing him and asking for his papers. After a brief conversation, he says he was allowed to call his mother and told to go inside the mosque by the agents. When she arrived minutes later, her husband and the agents were gone. Continue reading...

Karen Newton was in America on the trip of a lifetime when she was shackled, transported and held for weeks on end. With tourism to the US under increasing strain, she says, If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone'When Karen Newton left home in late July 2025, she knew that international travellers were being locked up in immigration detention centres in the US. I was aware," she nods. But I never thought it would have any impact on my holiday." Karen, 65, had a British passport and a tourist visa. She hadn't been abroad for eight years, and was keen for some guaranteed sun. Ireally just wanted to get away from the house."She and her husband, Bill, 66, had an ambitious itinerary that would take them through California, Nevada, Wyoming, Montana and then on to Canada over two months. Las Vegas wasn't to Karen's taste: Way too commercialised." She much preferred Yellowstone, where they saw Old Faithful, the famous geyser, as it shot boiling water into the air, and got up close with some extraordinary wildlife. There was a bison right next to the car. Another time, a wolf walked past." Her eyes sparkle at the memory. It was just amazing." Continue reading...

As the war enters its fifth year, it's time for Europe to take the fight to Putin on its own terms and tell Trump to get lostViewed from Europe, the US's failure to defend the people of Ukraine against Russian aggression is the greatest and most consequential of a host of recent American betrayals. It's not just the sickening subservience shown to Vladimir Putin, an indicted war criminal and mass killer. It's not only the victim-blaming and bullying of Kyiv into making concessions. It's not even Donald Trump's crass attempts to monetise the war and milk the misery of millions for Nobel glory, while undercutting Nato allies and trampling sovereign rights.What really shocks, and hurts, is the sheer bad faith shown by a country that Europeans always counted a friend. As the 18th-century English gothic novelist Ann Radcliffe noted, few circumstances are more afflicting than a discovery of perfidy in those whom we have trusted". To echo Trump's dark warning after he was rebuffed over Greenland: Europe will remember. Continue reading...

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Trump called justices fools' and disgrace to the nation' after their rebuke of his aggressive trade tactic - key US politics stories from 20 February 2026 at a glanceDonald Trump experienced a rare moment in his second term as president Friday: a loss from the nation's highest court.The US supreme court declared many of Donald Trump's tariffs illegal in a sharp rebuke that topples a key pillar of the president's aggressive economic agenda. Continue reading...

Move brings total number of people killed in US strikes on suspected boats since September to at least 148The US military launched a strike on an alleged drug smuggling boat in the eastern Pacific on Friday, killing three men in its second strike this week.Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations," US Southern Command, which oversees operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, said on Twitter/X. Continue reading...

Shooting death of Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, in Texas was not publicly disclosed by Department of Homeland SecurityNewly released records show a US citizen was shot and killed in Texas by a federal immigration agent last year during a late-night traffic encounter that was not publicly disclosed by the Department of Homeland Security.The death of Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, would mark the earliest of at least six deadly shootings by federal officers since the start of a nationwide immigration crackdown in Donald Trump's second term. On Friday, DHS said the shooting on South Padre Island last March occurred after the driver intentionally struck an agent. Continue reading...

President calls six justices a disgrace to the nation' while praising three justices who dissented

A man, 23, drove a car full of weapons through gate of power facility before shooting himself in the head, officials saidA 23-year-old man drove from New York to a Las Vegas suburb and crashed a rented Nissan Sentra through a gate and into a pile of heavy wire reels at a power substation before shooting himself in the head, local police said on Friday, describing the incident as a suspected act of terrorism.The suspect, Dawson Noah Maloney, died of the self-inflicted shotgun wound, the Las Vegas sheriff, Kevin McMahill, said at a press conference on Friday. He was wearing soft body armor when police discovered him. Continue reading...

Rightwing Trump ally tells Tucker Carlson Israel has biblical right to land from wadi of Egypt to the great river'The US's ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has contended to the podcaster Tucker Carlson that Israel has a biblical right to take over the entire Middle East - or at least the lion's share of it.It would be fine if they took it all," Huckabee said to Carlson during an interview posted on Friday. The Trump administration appointee and former Arkansas governor discussed with Carlson interpretations of Old Testament scripture within the US Christian nationalist movement. Continue reading...

South Korea win gold and silver in women's speed skating as new champions were crowned in men's freeski, men's aerials, men's biathlon and women's ski cross.The first person down the half pipe was world champ, Finley Melville Ives, who lost a ski mid-air and is languishing at the bottom of the leader board.Ah, here comes Gus Kenworthy, he of the the urinated fuck ICE' snow message, and silver medallist in the 2014 ski slopestyle for the US, before switching to Team GB. He's a brave guy, and has received death threats since his protest. Continue reading...

6-3 ruling against unilateral imposition of tariffs without congressional approval labelled a disgrace' by Trump

The US president says he will impose a 10% global tariff after the supreme court found his current use of tariffs illegal blocked it. Trump called the decision a disgrace Continue reading...

The arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Ramadan in Gaza, Russian airstrikes in Odesa and flooding in France - the past seven days as captured by the world's leading photojournalists Continue reading...

Criminal investigation into possible sex trafficking at Zorro Ranch follows Guardian report on lack of federal actionNew Mexico will reopen its investigation into Jeffrey Epstein's Zorro ranch in the state following a public pressure campaign for a fuller accounting of the role the location it played in the late financier's sex-trafficking conspiracy.The New Mexico department of justice's announcement came less than two weeks after the Guardian reported that federal agents did not appear to have ever searched Zorro Ranch. Continue reading...

As aid trickles into Gaza, Washington channels $10bn into a body chaired by the president. Peace in the region rests on law and sovereignty, not ego and brinkmanshipIn Gaza, aid still trickles in at levels relief agencies say are far below what is required. Temporary shelters are scarce. Reconstruction materials are restricted by Israel's controls on goods entering the territory. Conditions, say the UN, remain dire". The violence has not stopped: Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed about 600 people since the ceasefire began. The announcement that the US would transfer $10bn to President Donald Trump's newly convened Board of Peace is hard to reconcile with the reality on the ground. Even worse is that Washington has paid only a fraction of its UN arrears - $160m against more than $4bn owed.This raises the obvious question: why is a private initiative being capitalised so heavily while existing UN mechanisms remain severely cash-strapped? Funnelling state funds into a body chaired by Mr Trump suggests foreign policy is serving private interests, not the public good. The board has ambitious plans. Rafah is to be rebuilt within three years with skyscrapers. Gaza is to become self-governing within a decade. An International Stabilisation Force is expected to begin deployment, eventually numbering 20,000 troops. These are dramatic claims. But their delivery is largely notional.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...

Protesters were outside hotel in Washington demanding the release of political prisoners in AzerbaijanBodyguards traveling with the Azerbaijani president, who was visiting Washington for the inaugural meeting of Donald Trump's Board of Peace, punched, kicked and chased protesters outside a Washington hotel on Thursday, video footage shows.Demonstrators calling for the release of political prisoners were driven from the street near the motorcade of Ilham Aliyev, the Azerbaijani leader. Continue reading...

After stepping away from figure skating, the US star climbed back on her own terms. Her journey culminated in a medal, but it was about much more than thatAlysa Liu made her way through a mixed zone teeming with hundreds of reporters at a quarter past midnight early Friday morning, an Olympic gold medal draped around her neck, the sequins in her color-coordinated dress glimmering beneath the klieg lights and crush of television cameras. The 20-year-old from West Oakland had just become the first American woman to win figure skating's biggest prize in 24 years, drilling seven clean triples to leapfrog a pair of Japanese rivals from third place after Tuesday's short program and gatecrash her sport's most rarefied air. But to hear Liu tell it, her second gold in 12 days was merely a passing footnote in a Milan fortnight she doesn't want to end.Liu's carefree mindset should and will be studied in the weeks, months and years after these Olympics - especially these Olympics - as a counterpoint to the results-obsessed mindsets that have shattered the mental wellbeing of so many athletes thrust into the pressure-cooker of the world's biggest sporting event. She spoke candidly and insightfully on how her unique journey from child prodigy to burnout case to second-act skater gave rise to an indifference to scores or placements. All she wanted in the end was a chance to make the US team and share her artistry on the world stage. Continue reading...

GDP grew 1.4% last quarter, down from economists' forecast of 3%, though AI and tax cuts could boost growth this year

Sam Forstag, who parachutes from planes to fight wildfires, believes pro-worker polices can flip district from Trump allySam Forstag is used to launching himself into heated territory.As a smokejumper, his job is to jump out of airplanes 3,000 feet in the air and parachute down into the Montana wilderness. Going by air is often the easiest way to access the remote wilderness and combat the wildfires that burn an average of 7.2 million acres a year in the state. Continue reading...

In a university ecosystem that breeds hunger for status, Epstein made scholars feel like celebritiesThe Jeffrey Epstein story is often told as the intersection of two obsessions: sexual abuse and money. The recently released emails certainly contain significant evidence of both. But after more than two decades as a professor at Harvard, Cornell, and Cambridge, I am most struck by the limitation of that frame - in part because it fails to explain why academics show up so consistently in these files.Certainly, money played a role in Epstein's university connections. A rich man using donations and access to burnish his ego and legitimacy is a well-worn script, from Andrew Carnegie's libraries more than a century ago to Bill Gates's more recent global health philanthropy. As a college drop-out, Epstein clearly craved respect" from high-profile academics. Universities, meanwhile, are perpetually fundraising and institutions that rely on donations often avoid asking hard questions about where the money came from. As the Bard College president, Leon Botstein, put it when defending his Epstein connections: Among the very rich is a higher percentage of unpleasant and not very attractive people." Institutions sometimes learn to stop asking hard questions about where the money came from.Christopher Marquis is the Sinyi professor of management at the University of Cambridge and author of The Profiteers: How Business Privatizes Profits and Socializes Costs Continue reading...

Experts say new labeling could deceive consumers as dangerous substances still allowed under new rulesIn a further retreat from its pledge to ban artificial dyes from food, Donald Trump's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it would loosen labeling requirements to allow companies to state no artificial colors", even though products may contain some dangerous substances such as titanium dioxide.The FDA in early February announced it would allow food makers to claim no artificial colors" as long as the dyes are not petroleum-based, but health experts say even some naturally based additives present health risks, and the labeling would deceive consumers. Continue reading...

We want to hear people who have been through the process of renouncing their US citizenship and how they found itAre you an American living abroad who has tried to renounce your citizenship? We want to hear from you!We want to hear about what triggered it, how hard it was, whether you encountered any issues or have concerns about returning home in the future - as well as any fun encounters you had while doing it. How has it all made you feel? Continue reading...

The instrument has strengthened community ties, but some organizers say whistles can create panic or confusionOver the past year, whistles have become a symbol of the collective resistance of ordinary people standing up to federal immigration enforcement. As the Trump administration expands its immigration crackdown to cities and towns across the US, people are relying on whistles to warn their neighbors about the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.But not all activists agree on their efficacy. Some organizers, including those in rural areas of the US, say that whistles can heighten panic in the communities they serve. Others say they can create unnecessary confusion for children, the elderly and those with disabilities.

The 2026 MLS season kicks off on Saturday. Our writers discuss the teams, players and story lines they're watching this yearMessi v Son. The two best players in the league play for the two glamour" teams on opposite coasts, and each have large and dedicated fanbases. If both stay relatively healthy and perform up to capabilities, there's no way the race between them for some honor (Golden Boot? MVP? Both?) won't be fascinating to see unfold. AA Continue reading...

The 22-year-old became the first Black woman to win an Olympic hockey title on Thursday. Those she grew up alongside couldn't hide their delightAbout 75 residents packed the Cleveland Heights Community Center on Thursday afternoon to watch the Winter Olympic women's ice hockey final. They crowded around a big screen with eyes locked on Team USA - and on one of their own, Cleveland Heights native Laila Edwards. For once, the tension in the room wasn't the familiar Cleveland sports dread. It was the kind that comes with watching a hometown kid play for something bigger.Still, the old reflex surfaced when Team USA fell behind to Canada early, and stayed behind deep into the game. Cleveland knows heartbreak, the kind that defined the city for decades before the NBA's Cavaliers broke through in 2016. Continue reading...

The TV screen's jazz of drags, snaps, pops, and stops during the Milano Cortina Games have shown sport at its most powder-light and loveableThe mountains always promise escape from the squalor of existence at sea level, if not a kind of purification. The fortifying ruggedness of the terrain, the apple-crisp air, the high-albedo dazzle of sunlit snow: at altitude, it seems, everything is thinned to its essence. The Winter Olympics frequently play on this mythology of purity, but rarely has culture's quadrennial ascent up the switchbacks felt as clarifying as it does this year. Propelling us into heights untroubled by the compromises and tradeoffs that blight sport's lower zones, Milano Cortina has delivered images so brilliant and sharp they've also served to expose how ugly - and morally murky - most non-Olympic team sports have become over the past four years.As a TV spectacle, the excellence of this Olympiad has been defined as much by absence as presence. No gambling ads, no live betting odds gunking up the screen, no win percentage trackers, no janky little segments in which the hosts joke about what the prediction markets are doing: these Games have brought delight and relief to a tired public's eyes in equal measure. Cleaned of clutter and slop, sport, it turns out, can still be a thing of wonder and mystery, agony and beauty. Who would have thought? Continue reading...

Trump has attacked judges and weakened global safeguards. Someone needs to stand up to the US and stop the erosion of democracyIn an era of overlapping crises, corruption is no longer a side issue - it is a structural threat to achievinginternational equality and even freedom itself. Each year, Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, a league table of 182 countries, is greeted with predictable theatrics: praise where it flatters power, condemnation where it can be weaponised, and hollow promises of reform that quietly expire once attention moves on. Instead of a moment of reckoning, it is ignored by those with the power to act.As this newspaper reported, last week's table showed a worrying trend" of backsliding and a picture of democratic institutions being eroded by political donations, cash for access and state targeting of campaigners and journalists". Continue reading...

Joint patrols are being mounted to protect undersea cables from Russian sabotage: localised cooperation is our best hope for now

US lawmakers say action by UK authorities on matters arising from release of Epstein files compares unfavourably with a lack of accountability in the US

The president's announcement came after predecessor Barack Obama went viral last week for saying aliens are real'Donald Trump has announced he is directing the defense department and other agencies to release whatever files they have on the search for alien life.In a post on his social media platform, Trump said that he will ask the defense secretary and others to begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs)." Continue reading...

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