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The billionaire's acrimonious blow-up with Trump is a time to choose sides - and legislators are toeing the Maga line

What one did to Twitter and Tesla, the other is doing to the United States of America. Their feud is revealing a fatal flaw in the Maga projectThe scriptwriters of Trump: the Soap Opera are slipping. The latest plot development - the epic falling-out between the title character and his best buddy, Elon Musk - was so predictable, and indeed predicted, that it counts as the opposite of a twist. Still, surprise can be overrated. Watching the two men - one the richest in the world, the other the most powerful - turn on each other in a series of ever-more venomous posts on their respective social media platforms has been entertainment of the highest order. X v Truth: it could be a Marvel blockbuster.But this is more than mere popcorn fodder. Even if they eventually patch things up, the rift between the president and Musk has exposed a divide inside the contemporary right, in the US and beyond - and a fatal flaw of the Trump project.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

American starts as underdog but winning a second major would underline the 21-year-old's precocious talentCoco Gauff was only 18 when she navigated a path to a grand slam final for the first time. After her breakthrough in the preceding years, and the intense hype and scrutiny that accompanied her as she tried to build her career, Gauff's run to the 2022 French Open final proved to herself and the world that she was ready to live up to those expectations.Although she did not win the title, her experience at Roland Garros then was an essential lesson that has guided her over the past few years. In the buildup to that final against Iga Swiatek, she struggled badly with her nerves and her intense fear of failure. At first I thought it would be the end of the world if I lost, and the sun still rose the next day," said Gauff after beating Lois Boisson in their semi-final on Thursday. So knowing, regardless of the result, the sun will still rise. Especially being in a city like Paris, I was walking around the next day, and no one knew that I lost [in 2022], and no one cared. Some people know who I am, but not a lot and not everyone. Just realising that however big the moment seems in our lives, [it] is not as big in the grand scheme of things." Continue reading...

World has seen alliance between US president and Tesla boss unravel in real time via social media and television

The policy is alienating, counterproductive and racist - and it isn't the flex that Trump thinks it is

Deportees and officers are ill' and face risks after flight to South Sudan was stopped by US court in late MayA group of men removed from the US to Djibouti, in east Africa, are stranded in a converted shipping container together with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers sent to supervise them after a deportation flight to South Sudan was stopped by an American court.The eight deportees and 13 Ice staff have begun to feel ill", the US government said. Continue reading...

Today foreign journalists stand on the hill of shame' overlooking Gaza, reliant on Palestinians for newsWatching the TV coverage of the conflict in Gaza with increasing dismay this week, my mind went back to the banks of the Suez canal in October 1973. I was filming the surrender of the entire Egyptian third army with a team from the BBC, without significant censorship or hindrance. The Israeli commander, Gen Avraham Adan, paused in whatever he was doing to give us an update.Crossing the canal on the Israeli pontoon bridge in a bright yellow Hertz car (not a wise choice of colour) we were even helped when we had to repair a tyre that had been punctured by the shrapnel that littered the battlefield. Continue reading...

US's cruel escalation of policy puts misplaced target on vulnerable nations such as Afghanistan and SudanThe list of countries banned by the Trump administration's newest order seems to have no rhyme or reason. Little connects Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, all targeted for a total ban, or Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela, all targeted for restrictions. The reasoning stated in the order is that they all pose security threats measured by whether each country has a significant terrorist presence within its territory, its visa-overstay rate, and its cooperation with accepting back its removable nationals".Visa overstays, the order elaborates, indicates a blatant disregard for United States immigration laws". Yet the latest data on overstays from Customs and Border Protection does show these countries high on the list, along with others not included. Continue reading...

Alex Chiu fell 3,000ft from a climbing route on Denali, or Mount McKinley, and was not roped up at the timeMountaineering rangers in Alaska recovered the body of a Seattle man who died after falling 3,000ft from a climbing route on Denali, or Mount McKinley, the highest mountain in North America.The National Park Service said that Alex Chiu, 41, was on the treacherous mountain's west buttress route when he fell from a location called Squirrel Point, about 12,000ft above sea level. Continue reading...

US president and tech billionaire's transactional bromance has exploded in a public feud over politics and powerSometimes you see two young children fighting like crazy," Donald Trump observed in the Oval Office on Thursday. They hate each other, and they're fighting in a park, and you try and pull them apart. They don't want to be pulled. Sometimes you're better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart."The US president was referring to the war between Russia and Ukraine but could just as easily have been talking about himself. On Thursday, to the surprise of no one, Trump's bromance with billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk exploded in a very public feud. Continue reading...

Much of the country has little access to local news, with public media filling the void - and serving as a lifelineWhen Hurricane Helene walloped North Carolina last fall, residents were hit by a second threat at the same time: the dire need for accurate information.The loss of electric power amid the widespread flooding meant that people - especially those in isolated areas - were deprived of basic news. They needed to know about everything from road closures to the whereabouts of their family and friends to sources of drinkable water.Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture Continue reading...

Nate Hochman, staffer for Eric Schmitt, also peddled far-right conspiracy theories as experts decry rise in extremismA staffer for Missouri Republican senator Eric Schmitt was previously fired from Ron DeSantis's unsuccessful presidential campaign after making a video containing neo-Nazi imagery, and later peddled far-right conspiracy theories in a Marco Rubio-linked thinktank.Nate Hochman's job in the hard-right senator's office, along with earlier Trump appointments to executive agencies, suggest to some experts there are few barriers to far-right activists making a career in Republican party politics. Continue reading...

Incident - which included masked officer opening car to take a photo of her - took place during Swat-style raidA woman has sued an Atlanta police officer for allegedly leaving her breasts exposed while taking her from her house to a squad car - where she sat several hours, topless, while officers stopped and looked at her, with one masked officer opening the car door to take a photo.The incident took place during a pre-dawn, Swat-style raid staged by Atlanta police and agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (or ATF), on 8 February 2024. The agents sought evidence related to the arson of police motorcycles and cars, carried out in opposition to a controversial police training center known as Cop City", which has attracted local, national and internet media attention. Continue reading...

The world's richest man called for the US president's impeachment, and in return Trump threatened to scrap subsidies for Musk's companies. Plus, a university paid private investigators to snoop on campus activists

A raft of absences and the nature of the Gold Cup means that, aside from a trophy, the US's goals are largely intangible.In a certain sense, there really is no winning the Concacaf Gold Cup.Not if you're the United States men's national team, at any rate. While the tournament's name may allude to a glory conferred by the most valuable of precious metals, the whole thing remains among the ugly ducklings of global continental championships. Continue reading...

In the end, we're likely to see a legislative pastiche - a Frankenstein's monster forged by political necessityThe feud between Elon Musk and Donald Trump is a godsend for Democrats, a headache for the president and a problem for Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House. Between now and the Fourth of July, Trump expects congressional Republicans to deliver a badly needed win. After more than four months back in the Oval Office, he still lacks a major legislative achievement.Republicans control both the House and Senate, but the public sees goose eggs on the scoreboard. Almost daily, the courts upend the president's executive orders. Slim legislative majorities and government by rage come with drawbacks.Lloyd Green is an attorney in New York and served in the US Department of Justice from 1990 to 1992 Continue reading...

Indiana didn't lead for 47 minutes and 59.7 seconds of Thursday's NBA finals opener. But belief, defiance and Tyrese Haliburton's dramatic flair made the final 0.3 countThis is why you play the games, as the old adage goes. In recent years, the later rounds of the NBA playoffs - and the finals in particular - have felt rote. They've gone chalk. The drama was minimal, even under the brightest lights of the league's biggest stage. This year has been different: a playoffs filled with suspense, tension and plot twists galore. But at the start of the finals, the scene was set for a regression to the intrigue-less mean. Every roundtable pundit, basketball expert and barbershop patron outside of Indiana state lines had Oklahoma City - basketball's best team from wire to wire - winning the series easily.But Tyrese Haliburton, the instigator of several of this postseason's most jaw-dropping twists, knows a thing or two about drama. It oozes out of his pores. And he and his Indiana Pacers had other plans. Continue reading...

This would all be sad enough even if it didn't have global consequences. For Democrats, the moment has comeEver since the world's richest person, Elon Musk, threw his financial weight behind Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign and appeared hopping around idiotically behind the candidate at a rally stage, political observers have wondered what would instigate the two men's inevitable falling out.Would it be a matter of competing egos, with each man resenting the power and influence of the other? Would it be a matter of clashing cultures, with Trump's sleaze rubbing the wrong way against Musk's Silicon Valley creepiness? Would it be an ideological clash, with the paleocon nationalists of Trump's dwindling inner circle turning against Musk's cadre of teenage Doge hackers and cosmopolitan techno-reactionaries?Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Tirso TJ' Dominguez says Escobar paid him $20m monthly to fly planeloads of cokeA man who eventually became Pablo Escobar's go-to cocaine pilot has revealed that he first turned down an employment offer from the notorious Colombian drug lord because he was content with the $4m a month he was earning while flying for a competitor.But, in a new podcast containing what is believed to be his first interview since authorities arrested him at his Florida mansion in 1988, Tirso TJ" Dominguez recounted how he changed his mind about working for Escobar when the so-called Patron - or boss - offered him a salary that was five times higher: $20m monthly. Continue reading...

President had cued up ban in January order and, despite exemptions, policy will separate families and harm people fleeing crisesDonald Trump's first travel ban in 2017 had an immediate, explosive impact - spawning chaos at airports nationwide.This time around, the panic and chaos was already widespread by the time the president signed his proclamation Wednesday to fully or partially restrict foreign nationals from 19 countries from entering the United States. Continue reading...

Trump's signature Big Beautiful Bill' precipitated an epic fallout between the US president and his former ally, billionaire Elon Musk

Harvard had asked the judge to block the ban, arguing Trump violated law by failing to back up claims students posed a threat to national securityA district judge in Boston has blocked the Trump administration's ban on Harvard's international students from entering the United States after the Ivy League university argued the move was illegal.Harvard had asked the judge, Allison Burrough, to block the ban, pending further litigation, arguing Trump had violated federal law by failing to back up his claims that the students posed a threat to national security. Continue reading...

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Musk had complained for weeks about Trump's tax spending bill, but the feud has descended into an extraordinary exchange of insults. Key US politics stories from 5 June 2025The relationship between the richest man in the world and the most powerful one has spectacularly exploded, as Elon Musk publicly agreed Donald Trump should be impeached and linked him to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.Musk stepped down from his role as a special government employee on 28 May after showing discontent with Trump's tax spending bill, officially known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, but had until this week stayed relatively restrained in his remarks. Continue reading...

Lawmakers still weighing whether to pass Big, Beautiful Bill' at root of rift between US president and tech boss

Across the US, hundreds of thousands of Chinese students are now uncertain about their academic future and some are considering moving awayChinese students in the United States are questioning their future in the country after the state department announced last week that it would aggressively" revoke visas for Chinese students and enhance scrutiny of future applications from China and Hong Kong.Chinese students hoping to study at Harvard, the US's oldest and wealthiest university, are under particular pressure after the Trump administration announced on Wednesday that it was banning the school from enrolling new foreign students. The presidential proclamation cited Harvard's links with China as a particular cause for concern. Continue reading...

The bromance might be over but Trump has kissed and made up with his enemies before. Enjoy it while it lastsIf you paid attention during physics class you will remember the third law of ego-dynamics. Namely: when two egos of equal mass occupy the same orbit, the system will eventually become unstable, resulting in an explosive separation and some very nasty tweets.To see this theory in action please have a gander at the dramatic collapse of the Donald Trump and Elon Musk bromance. The news has been a nonstop horror show for what feels like forever. Watching two of the very worst people in the world direct their nastiness at each other is extremely cathartic. Continue reading...

US secretary of state cites illegitimate actions' of court that issued arrest warrants against Israeli officialsThe United States is placing sanctions on four judges from the international criminal court (ICC) for what it has called its illegitimate actions" targeting the United States and Israel.The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, announced the sanctions in a statement on Thursday. They target Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda, Luz del Carmen Ibanez Carranza of Peru, Reine Adelaide Sophie Alapini-Gansou of Benin and Beti Hohler of Slovenia. Continue reading...

Palestinian graduate describes weeping as he crouched on detention center floor listening to wife give birthMahmoud Khalil, the detained Columbia University graduate and Palestinian activist, has said in a new court filing that the most immediate and visceral harms" he has experienced during his nearly three-month detention have been missing the birth of his son and being separated from his wife.Instead of holding my wife's hand in the delivery room, I was crouched on a detention center floor, whispering through a crackling phone line as she labored alone," Khalil said. I listened to her pain, trying to comfort her while 70 other men slept around me. When I heard my son's first cries, I buried my face in my arms so no one would see me weep. Continue reading...

Tensions over the Republican spending bill burst into public view as the president's relationship with his former adviser deteriorated

The US president, Donald Trump, has said Russia and Ukraine may need to 'fight for a while' to assist efforts to bring peace, likening the two countries to bickering and fighting children. Trump was speaking alongside the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, who was visiting the White House. Trump said: 'Sometimes you're better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart. And I gave that analogy to Putin yesterday'

The US president's ban has failed to register the same fierce resistance as his similar move of January 2017

Lawmakers also said the president's ban on travel from certain countries would isolate the US

US president says he accepted invitation in first phone conversation between leaders since JanuaryDonald Trump said he had accepted an invitation to meet Xi Jinping in China after a phone conversation on trade was held between the leaders of the world's two largest economies.In a post on Truth Social, the US president said the very good" call lasted about 90 minutes and the conversation was almost entirely focused on trade". Continue reading...

The US president says he is very disappointed that the former 'department of government efficiency' (Doge) chief criticised his upcoming spending bill. Trump accused Musk of turning against the bill because of its provisions revoking incentives for consumers to buy electric vehicles approved by Congress during Joe Biden's term. He also suggested Musk may be suffering from 'Trump derangement syndrome', which he said afflicts people who leave his administration

Aryna Sabalenka took out the four-times champion in three sets while Coco Gauff emphatically ended the run of the French wildcardSabalenka 1-0 Swiatek* (*denotes server) Swiatek is so methodical in her work, particularly when serving, and her first delivery makes 15-0. But two booming returns, full of length, rush her, and at 15-30, Sabalenka again unloads, her forehands too hot; Swiatek pushes wide and must now face two break points. A double follows, and that's a poor start from the champ, who somehow seemed surprised by the power coming at her from the other side of the net.Swiatek to serve, ready ... play. Continue reading...

We would like to hear from people from the 19 affected countries on what the travel ban might mean for themDonald Trump has announced an order banning travel from 12 countries and restricting travel seven others, citing a range of reasons including national security and concerns that visitors from those countries are overstaying their visas.The nationals of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen will be fully" restricted from entering the US, according to the proclamation. Meanwhile, the entry of nationals of Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela will be partially restricted. Continue reading...

Lawsuit alleged that Smith & Wesson and Interstate Arms aided the illegal trafficking of firearms to drug cartelsThe US supreme court on Thursday spared two American gun companies from a lawsuit by Mexico's government accusing them of aiding illegal firearms trafficking to drug cartels and fueling gun violence on the south side of the US-Mexico border.The justices, in a unanimous ruling, overturned a lower court's decision that had allowed the lawsuit to proceed against the firearms maker Smith & Wesson and distributor Interstate Arms. The lower court had found that Mexico plausibly alleged that the companies aided and abetted illegal gun sales, harming its government. Continue reading...

Catholic Charities had argued it should not be required to pay unemployment taxes

US defence secretary says he expects goal of 5% of GDP in next decade to be agreed this monthThe US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, said Nato allies were very close, almost near consensus" to an agreement to significantly raise targets for defence spending to 5% of GDP in the next decade.The Trump administration official indicated he expected the increased target to be agreed at a summit in The Hague later this month - and confirmed that the headline figure was to be split into two parts. Continue reading...

The Tide detergent and Pampers maker plans global restructuring as US consumers pull back and trade costs riseProcter & Gamble will cut up to 7,000 jobs, or approximately 6% of its global workforce, in the next two years as the maker of Tide detergent and Pampers diapers wrestles with tariff-related costs and customers who have grown anxious about the economy.

Johns Hopkins hospital reported 200-gallon spill at its East Baltimore facility before the harbor spill was discoveredCrews were working on Thursday morning to contain and clean up a 2,000-gallon (7,570-liter) diesel fuel spill in Baltimore's harbor, according to state and city officials.Initially, the Johns Hopkins hospital reported a contained 200-gallon diesel fuel spill at its East Baltimore facility on Wednesday morning, but a few hours later the fire department responded to a 911 call for a spill at a marina in Harbor East more than a mile away, officials said. The state, city and US Coast Guard began coordinating a response to the spill. In an update at about 7pm, Johns Hopkins reported that 2,000 gallons had spilled, officials said. Continue reading...