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Lawyers also attempting to throw out two federal charges, saying US attorney general has ties to UnitedHealth GroupLawyers for Luigi Mangione are attempting to avoid the death penalty and throw out two federal charges in the justice department's case against him, arguing that attorney general Pam Bondi is biased because she used to work at a lobbying firm that represents UnitedHealth Group.In court documents filed on Friday, Mangione's lawyers said that Bondi has a profound conflict of interest" because her former employer, Ballard Partners, a DC-based lobbying firm founded by the Trump donor Brian Ballard, counts UnitedHealth Group as one of its clients. Continue reading...

Suspect killed himself after allegedly killing an MIT professor and two Brown University studentsAn autopsy report on the suspect in the mass shooting at Brown University and the killing of an MIT professor in Massachusetts has shown that he died from by suicide two days before he was found in a storage locker on Thursday.The New Hampshire attorney general's report estimates that Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, 48, a Portuguese national who had been living in the US, died on 16 December, the same day that his fellow countryman, MIT nuclear physics professor Nuno Loureiro died at a hospital in Massachusetts. Continue reading...

Republicans such as Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene slam redactions, but others express satisfactionConservative reaction to the partial release of documents in the Jeffrey Epstein case has been mixed, with Trump administration supporters highlighting the prominent presence of Bill Clinton and other Democrats in photographs, with others lamenting how the heavy redaction casts Donald Trump and Republicans in a bad light.Administration officials defended the redactions with fervent hyperbole. Never in American history has a President or the Department of Justice been this transparent with the American people about such a sensitive law enforcement matter," said Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, who released a six-page letter describing the redaction process. Continue reading...

Public exhibition, featuring billboard-sized portraits projected onto buildings, calls attention to Trump administration's attacks on civil libertiesEach evening, drivers on the busy 101 freeway in downtown Los Angeles pass billboard-size portraits of Angelenos that flash across the side of a building with a simple message next to their faces: Am I Next?Three Los Angeles institutions have teamed up to launch a response to federal immigration raids in the nation's second-largest city, projecting illuminated images of everyday LA residents in support of the thousands of community members who have been detained this year. Continue reading...

Company settles allegations it failed to honor shelf prices in multiple states, and customers anywhere in US may be eligible for repaymentsDollar General, the retail giant that promises convenience, quality brands and low prices", has agreed to pay at least $15m to settle claims that it overcharged customers at many of its 20,000 US stores.The settlement resolves lawsuits in multiple states alleging that shoppers at the dollar-store chain often see one price on the shelf but pay a higher price at the register. Customers anywhere in the US may be eligible for repayments. Continue reading...

Released images illustrate relationships Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell forged with significant figures

People are supporting economic boycotts to show discontent with businesses capitulating to Trump's agendaIt's the busiest shopping season of the year - and a time when many are trying to figure out where to ethically spend their money.Over the first year of Trump's second term, companies and institutions have fallen in line with the administration's anti-DEI and anti-immigration policies. As a result, people are supporting economic boycotts to show their discontent with the businesses capitulating to the president. Continue reading...

Epstein Files Transparency Act mandated full disclosure of all files by 19 December with certain exemptionsDonald Trump's justice department was hit with legal threats and scathing outrage after authorities released a limited, heavily redacted trove of Jeffrey Epstein files in an apparent violation of the law mandating the near-complete disclosure of these documents by Friday.The justice department's document dump this afternoon does not comply with Thomas Massie and my Epstein Transparency Act," Ro Khanna, the California Democratic congressman who co-authored the law requiring full disclosure of all Epstein files by 19 December, said in a video statement. Continue reading...

Defense department will still allow stabbing and burning, and weapon wounding' on animals to test weaponsThe US military will stop its practice of shooting pigs and goats to help prepare medics for treating wounded troops in a combat zone, ending an exercise made obsolete by simulators that mimic battlefield injuries.The prohibition on live fire" training that includes animals is part of this year's annual defense bill, although other uses of animals for wartime training will continue. The ban was championed by Vern Buchanan, a Republican congressman from Florida who often focuses on animal rights issues. Continue reading...

There were some bright spots in a year of dark news stories - here are the ones that brought readers the most joy2025 has been a trying year. From the devastating Los Angeles wildfires to mass federal layoffs in Washington DC to the assassination of the rightwing political activist Charlie Kirk, individuals of all walks of life have been affected by economic concerns, political division, climate change and beyond.Still, there were bright spots in the darkness. We asked Guardian readers to share some of their favorite news moments of the year. Continue reading...

Bari Weiss is touting a new debate series at the network as the billionaire Ellisons' media power growsHas feminism failed women? I know that may seem like a silly question to ask when women's rights are declining around the world thanks to rightwing authoritarian politics, but trust me, OK? The problems with feminism are what we really need to be focusing on right now.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Georgia residents share their vastly different shopping habits - from food pantries and Snap aid to $300 steak dinners and Whole Foods runs

The network's fate has become a battle of corporate ownership, not a question of what benefits AmericansOn Thursday evening, as rumors about the Brown University gunman swirled, CNN's Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, noting the confusion and directing people to her network's 9pm newscast.CNN is certainly not a flawless news source, but her words rang true to me. The network is one of the outlets where you can find reality-based and largely dependable reporting - especially in breaking news situations like the one that was developing near a New Hampshire storage facility. Continue reading...

A $1,000 fix is out of reach for many Americans - and so is good public transportationCars are essential to everyday life for most Americans, and more than 75% of people use cars to commute every day according to the 2025 census. But emergency car costs can upend families financially.Of 10 parents who joined a WhatsApp group to regularly chat with Guardian journalists, nearly every one said that an emergency car expense had left them struggling financially this year, if not decimating their savings. That's a deeply American experience: most car owners spend more than $1,400 annually to keep their vehicles running, said the travel organization AAA, which also conducted research that found 64 million Americans go into debt to absorb these costs. Continue reading...

Anthony Joshua has said he wants to take on Tyson Fury next, after knocking Jake Paul out in the sixth round of their fight in Miami on Friday night. Joshua dropped Paul four times in the one-sided affair, and then called out Fury - even impersonating his fellow British heavyweight as he urged him to 'sign the contract'. On YouTuber turned boxer Paul, who went to hospital with a broken jaw, Joshua said: 'Jake has spirit, he has some heart. He tried his best and I take my hat off to him.'

Most Americans have yet to see this boom - but they've certainly heard a lot about it from the presidentMoments into his second term, opening his inaugural address, Donald Trump was unequivocal. The golden age of America begins right now," he declared.At a White House reception last weekend, a little over 10 months later, the US president appeared to acknowledge just how far his timeline had shifted. Continue reading...

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Long-awaited tranche of documents is heavily redacted but viewable files include images of Epstein with figures such as Bill Clinton and Michael Jackson - key US politics stories from 19 December 2025The Department of Justice on Friday released a long-awaited and huge tranche of documents detailing its investigations into the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a major development in the lengthy saga that turned into one of the biggest political setbacks Donald Trump has suffered since his re-election last year.While significant portions of the files are redacted, those that were viewable included images of Epstein socializing with an array of prominent figures, including entertainers like Michael Jackson, Chris Tucker and Diana Ross, and the entrepreneur Richard Branson. Bill Clinton appears in several photos, including one in which he is in a swimming pool along with Epstein's convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. The images also show former British royal Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. Continue reading...

Photos included in tranche of documents as Democrats accuse Trump officials of failing to comply with law

Most transparent' administration has slow-walked and stonewalled - the incomplete release smells of a cover-up

Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, and Richard Branson are among the people who appear in the thousands of documents released by the US justice department on Friday Continue reading...

Interview from 2019 reveals specific preferences for recruitment, including age and race

Suspect Claudio Manuel Neves Valente was found dead in New Hampshire storage facility after five-day manhuntInvestigators turned on Friday to the search for a motive in the murders of two Brown University students and a physics professor in Massachusetts in separate but linked attacks, after the prime suspect was found dead from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.The body of Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, 48, a Portuguese national and formerly very briefly a student at Brown, was discovered in a New Hampshire storage facility on Thursday night after a five-day manhunt. Continue reading...

The latest trove of Epstein files have been released. You can follow live coverage here.

Pope Leo names Rev Manuel de Jesus Rodriguez, who has criticized US immigration policies, as bishop of Palm BeachPope Leo XIV on Friday named the Rev Manuel de Jesus Rodriguez, now pastor of a predominantly Hispanic church in the Queens borough of New York City, as bishop of Palm Beach, Florida.The diocese is home to the Mar-a-Lago estate of Donald Trump, whose get-tough immigration policies have drawn objections from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. Continue reading...

Officials pledge massive savings' as companies agree to offer drugs at prices paid in other wealthy countriesDonald Trump and nine major pharmaceutical companies on Friday announced deals that will slash the prices of their medicines for the government's Medicaid program and for cash payers, in his latest bid to align US costs with those in other wealthy nations.Bristol Myers Squibb, Gilead Sciences, and Merck and Roche's US unit Genentech have struck deals. Novartis, Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Sanofi and GSK have also signed on. Continue reading...

Guardian investigation sparks letter from 30 lawmakers questioning how seriously' Dollar General and Family Dollar prioritize ethics and affordabilityThirty members of Congress are demanding answers from Dollar General and Family Dollar, requesting internal documents about widespread disparities between shelf prices and register prices at the dollar-store chains' 28,000 US stores.The demand for answers - detailed in a letter sent on Friday to the CEOs of both companies - comes as the direct result of a 3 December Guardian investigation of the two national chains. The investigation found that Dollar General stores have failed more than 4,300 government price-accuracy inspections in 23 states since January 2022. Family Dollar stores have failed more than 2,100 price inspections in 20 states over the same time span. Continue reading...

Christopher Day was fired barely a month into the job after granting asylum to migrants at a high rateA US army reserve lawyer detailed as a federal immigration judge has been fired barely a month into the job after granting asylum at a high rate out of step with the Trump administration's mass deportation goals, the Associated Press has learned.Christopher Day began hearing cases in late October as a temporary judge at the immigration court in Annandale, Virginia. He was fired around 2 December, the National Association of Immigration Judges confirmed. Continue reading...

Todd Blanche, deputy attorney general, says release of files won't include full set, prompting outrage from lawmakers

What we know about the deal with TAE Technologies so far - from why it is happening to what fusion energy isTrump Media & Technology Group, owner of Donald Trump's social media platform, Truth Social, announced a merger on Wednesday with a company developing fusion energy technology.TAE Technologies, an energy company founded in 1998, will join with Trump Media via a $6bn merger that it promises will propel it to build the world's first utility-scale fusion power plant" next year. Continue reading...

Children's Health Defense using familiar playbook to defend health secretary as it downplays dangers of disease and exaggerate risks of vaccines, public health experts sayThe non-profit group that Robert F Kennedy Jr built into a giant of the anti-vaccine movement is defending its old boss even as the US health secretary presides over the worst year for measles in more than 30 years.Three people have died and 1,958 people have been reported infected with measles in the US this year, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In South Carolina, 224 people are in quarantine amid an outbreak that has sickened 144 people. Most are unvaccinated children. Continue reading...

Exclusive: federal document reveals children arriving as undocumented immigrants being threatened with detentionBorder officials are pressuring unaccompanied children who arrive in the US as undocumented immigrants to quickly agree to return to their countries of origin, even if they express fear for their safety there - or else face prolonged" detention and other consequences, a federal government document reveals.The document, which emerged as an attachment in a court filing made by immigration attorneys, is understood to be presented or read to children within the first few days of them entering the US while they are still in the custody of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), before they can see any relatives in the US. Continue reading...

The US Department of Justice is expected to release files relating to the disgraced late financier and sex trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein, this evening. The Trump administration is obliged to publish a massive archive of documents that could shed further light on Epstein's misdeeds and his connections with key public figures - including Donald Trump Jonathan Freedland joins Lucy Hough to discuss why it is such a big moment Continue reading...

From a world-shifting meeting in the Oval Office to the human stories that shaped our year, here's how Guardian journalism told the story of a year unlike any other

Man known as John' expected to be eligible for $50,000 reward from FBI for providing details on the suspectThe authorities dealing with the mass shooting at Brown University hailed on Friday a member of the public who came forward with information that helped crack the case and lead to the suspect.A man known publicly so far only as John" posted key information on the Reddit platform about an encounter with the suspect that caught the attention of investigators, while Reddit users urged him to go to the police with his tips. Continue reading...

Huge archive - set to shed fresh light on Epstein's misdeeds - legally obliged to be released before midnight deadlineSpeculation surrounding the affairs of Jeffrey Epstein is expected to reach a defining moment of revelation on Friday with the much-anticipated publication of files relating to the disgraced late financier and sex trafficker.The deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, said Friday morning that the Department of Justice (DoJ) plans to release documents Friday from the government's files, but added they won't all come out at once. Continue reading...

Chicago can edge closer to sealing the NFC North in a sepia-toned Soldier Field showdown that headlines a pivotal week in the NFL playoff raceAnother week as the NFL winds up for the postseason offers a fresh look at contenders building for the Super Bowl. Jacksonville v Denver, yes please. Baltimore v New England, bingo. Pittsburgh v Detroit, hmm ... OK. Still not satisfied? The strange lights of Saturday night over in the NFC North should do the trick with a sepia-toned showdown between the Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers at Soldier Field. A win for either and a Detroit defeat confirms a playoff slot while victory for the Bears gets them close to sealing the division (even in defeat the Packers still will be ahead for the seventh seed). The gaping hole left by Micah Parsons in Green Bay's defensive front may have Chicago fans edging to the side of expectation that their Bears can put together a deep playoff run if home-field advantage is on their side. Continue reading...

Alliance Defending Freedom has ramped up its global spending on litigation and other campaigns to push its ultra conservative Christian valuesAlliance Defending Freedom, the conservative legal advocacy group behind the overturning of Roe v Wade, has ramped up its global spending on litigation and other campaigns, in what appears to be an attempt to export what critics call its hard-right Christian theocratic values beyond US borders.ADF and ADF International, a separate legal entity, spent a combined $10.9m on international grants and programs for the year ending June 2024, according to its most up to date public tax records, and appears to have increased by 70% year-on-year spending on Europe-related issues. Continue reading...

Claudio Neves Valente, who was found dead in a storage facility, also killed an MIT professor. Plus, what will your life look like in 2035?Good morning.A man suspected of killing two people and wounding nine others at Brown University before going on to kill a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor has been found dead in a New Hampshire storage facility, where he had rented a unit, officials said.How has the White House responded to the incident? The homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, has ordered the suspension of the green card lottery program at Donald Trump's direction, saying it had enabled the suspect in the Brown University and MIT shootings to enter the US.What did Volodymyr Zelenskyy say about the deal? The Ukrainian president wrote on social media that the deal is significant support that truly strengthens our resilience", adding: It is important that Russian assets remain immobilised and that Ukraine has received a financial security guarantee for the coming years." Continue reading...

Retailer targets 7m in bonuses as FCA examines scandal in North American armWH Smith will try to take back as much as 7m in bonuses from former executives after revealing the UK's financial watchdog has launched a formal investigation into a devastating accounting error linked to its US business.Almost 600m was wiped off the books to paperclips retailer's stock market value overnight in August after it identified errors with accounting for supplier income and provision for lost stock going back to 2023 in its North American arm. Continue reading...

US president has been blatant in his appointment of relatives, close friends and big donors - almost none of whom have diplomatic experienceWhen your goal is to help Europe correct its current trajectory" because it is weak", decaying" and facing civilisational erasure", your choice of highly trained operatives for the mission is plainly of paramount importance.In Donald Trump's case they include: a former burger magnate; his eldest son's former fiancee; the owner of the Houston Rockets basketball team; a producer of Broadway musicals; PayPal's co-founder; and a convicted felon who is also his son-in-law's father. Continue reading...

Internal report shared with Guardian shows FBI has launched cases in 23 regions, some linked to Trump memo on thwarting terroristic activities'The FBI has launched criminal and domestic terrorism investigations" into threats against immigration enforcement activity" in at least 23 regions across the US, according to an internal report shared with the Guardian.The two-page FBI document, dated 14 November, says some of the investigations are related to the countering domestic terrorism" memo issued by Donald Trump in September. Continue reading...

After a traumatic brain injury, Rita Buckley worries the skills she worked hard to regain will atrophy as the largest healthcare provider in the area closes clinicsAfter Rita Buckley slipped on a sidewalk, hitting her jaw so hard she broke four teeth and sustained a traumatic brain injury, she struggled to tell red and green apart. Turning her head could make her lightheaded or, worse, spark a devastating headache. She fought to remember basic daily tasks. Driving became impossible, as did the idea of continuing to work as a nurse.But at Buffalo Therapy Services, a clinic near her home in the suburb of East Aurora, New York, Buckley felt hopeful. For more than a year, she worked diligently with the clinic's cognitive and occupational therapists. They took her into the darkened staff room and flashed red and green lasers so she could relearn the difference. They taught her to write everything down, to help with her lack of short-term memory. They made a list of what she wanted to accomplish, and told her: We're not going to work on what you can't do any more. We're going to work on what you can do." Continue reading...