Three proposed casinos approved as researchers say they take money from businesses and increase addictionNew York City will probably soon see three new casinos, whose owners could rake in profits because of a recent surge in gambling in the United States that has some campaigners worried.The New York gaming facility location board this week approved three proposed casinos in the US's largest city - two in Queens and one in the Bronx - after determining the businesses would create new jobs and generate billions in tax revenue, according to the group's report. Continue reading...
Civicus, a nonprofit that monitors global civic freedoms, moved the US from the narrowed' to obstructed' category. Plus, the gay wool' taking over a New York catwalk
The administration is offloading gems of US architecture while redesigning the city to match the president's valuesWhile the original architect of Donald Trump's ever-expanding ballroom steps down and preservationists panic over the fate of New Deal murals inside the Social Security Administration building, the president gushes about painting the granite Eisenhower Executive Office Building white, fixing" the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, and erecting his own Arc de Triomphe.To peruse the plans for a Trump-era capital district alongside the General Services Administration's list of assets identified for accelerated disposition - the federal buildings slated for off-loading - is to discern a diagram of Trump's values.Judith Levine is a Brooklyn-based journalist, essayist and author of five books. Her Substack is Today in Fascism Continue reading...
Activists from Hungary, El Salvador and Turkey offer advice to the US about what they've learned about authoritariansDonald Trump makes no secret of his admiration for strongmen like Hungary's Viktor Orban or El Salvador's Nayib Bukele. Last month, he praised Orban's hardline stance on immigration and urged European leaders to show more respect" for the president; earlier this year his administration struck a deal with Bukele to send more than 200 detained migrants to a notorious, maximum-security prison in El Salvador.Many international organizations, experts and historians have sounded the alarm about the United States heading in a similar direction as these authoritarian regimes. Continue reading...
Civicus, a non-profit that monitors global civic freedoms, moved the US from the narrowed' to obstructed' categoryA coalition of global civil society organizations has downgraded the United States' civic health rating from narrowed" to obstructed."In a report released on Tuesday, Civicus, a non-profit that monitors civic freedoms in 198 countries, placed the US in its obstructed" category. The group cited a sharp deterioration of fundamental freedoms in the country ... following a year of sweeping executive actions, restrictive laws and aggressive crackdowns on free speech and dissent." Continue reading...
With democratic values under attack from populists within and former allies without, there are no simple solutionsThree decades after political philosopher Francis Fukuyama declared the End of History and the universalisation of western liberal democracy as the final form of human government", the democratic model is under attack in many parts of the world, not least here in Europe. Populists bent on weakening the rule of law, rolling back human rights protections, subjugating the judiciary and cowing independent journalism are amplified by anything-goes social media algorithms that promote anger and polarisation over rational discourse.They have now received a mandate from the Trump administration, which effectively declared civilisational war on the EU and its values in its National Security Strategy.
Agents who kneeled in 2020 accuse Kash Patel of retaliation and say they were trying to calm volatile situationTwelve former FBI agents fired after kneeling during a 2020 racial justice protest in Washington have sued to get their jobs back, saying their action had been intended to de-escalate a volatile situation and was not meant as a political gesture.The agents say in their lawsuit that they were fired in September by Kash Patel, the FBI director, because they were perceived as not being politically affiliated with Donald Trump. But they say their decision to take a knee on 4 June 2020, days after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, has been misinterpreted as political expression. Continue reading...
Court appears to be split down partisan lines in favor of historic expansion of executive power - key US politics stories from 8 December 2025The US supreme court on Monday appeared poised to back the Trump administration's argument that the president should be able to fire independent board members that for almost a century have been protected from presidential interference.The court heard arguments concerning the legality of Donald Trump's firing of a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) member and appeared to be split down partisan lines in favor of a historic expansion of executive power, with the conservatives - including the sometimes swing vote of Justice Amy Coney Barrett - seeming to side with the administration. Continue reading...
Footage shows officer said It's him, dude' as testimony sheds light on arrest at Pennsylvania McDonald'sMoments after Luigi Mangione was handcuffed at a Pennsylvania McDonald's, a police officer searching his backpack found a loaded gun magazine wrapped in a pair of underwear.The discovery, recounted in court on Monday as Mangione fights to keep evidence out of his New York murder case, convinced police in Altoona, Pennsylvania, that he was the man wanted in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan five days earlier. Continue reading...
A student at a San Jose high school posted a photo of eight students lying in the shape of a swastika on a football fieldA photo of eight students lying in the shape of a swastika on a high school football field in San Jose, California, has caused shock and outrage among the Bay Area Jewish community.A Branham high school student posted the photo to social media on 3 December, and included an antisemitic quote from Adolf Hitler in the caption. A screenshot of the post began circulating on Reddit last Thursday and garnered over 500 comments. The post and the account were removed by Instagram by Friday morning, according to J., the Jewish News of Northern California. Continue reading...
President says money will come from tariff revenues and promises trade policies will make farmers so strong'Donald Trump announced on Monday $12bn in economic assistance to farmers, which he said would be drawn from tariff revenue.This relief will provide much-needed certainty to farmers as they get this year's harvest to market and look ahead to next year's crops, and it'll help them continue their efforts to lower food prices for American families," Trump said during a roundtable discussion of American agriculture. Continue reading...
Paramount's bid for the entire company counters $82.7bn Netflix deal for WBD's studio and streaming operationDavid Ellison's Paramount Skydance is not giving up in its aggressive campaign to acquire Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), launching a hostile bid for the entertainment company despite the announcement on Friday that Netflix had agreed to buy its studio and streaming operation.Netflix's bid for WBD's storied Hollywood movie studio, as well as its premier HBO cable network, valued the company at $82.7bn. But it did not agree to acquire WBD's traditional television assets, including the news network CNN and the Discovery channel. Continue reading...
The two-term Texas congresswoman seeks to flip seat held by Republican John Cornyn in the GOP-dominated stateDemocratic representative Jasmine Crockett launched a bid for US Senate in Texas on Monday, bringing a high-profile official to a race that may be critical to Democrats' bold ambition to reclaim a Senate majority in next year's midterm elections.Crockett, one of Congress's most outspoken Democrats and a frequent target of GOP attacks, made the announcement shortly before the state's 6pm deadline for candidates to file the paperwork to run in the primary, due to be held on 3 March. The two-term representative of Dallas is seeking to flip the seat held by Republican John Cornyn, who is running for re-election in the GOP-dominated state. Continue reading...
Becky Hill sentenced to probation after admitting to showing photos to photographer and lying about it in courtThe former South Carolina court clerk who administered the 2023 double-murder trial of attorney Alex Murdaugh has pleaded guilty to showing graphic crime-scene photos sealed as court exhibits to a photographer and lying about it in court.Former Colleton county clerk of court Mary Rebecca Becky" Hill was sentenced Monday to three years of probation. Hill pleaded guilty to four charges - obstruction of justice and perjury for showing a reporter photographs that were sealed court exhibits and then lying about it - as well as two counts of misconduct in office for taking bonuses and promoting her book through her public office. Continue reading...
Father of student detained at Boston airport on her way to visit family in Austin, says agents showed up at Texas homeImmigration agents appeared on Sunday at the Texas home of the family of Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, the 19-year-old college student who was recently deported to Honduras while on her way to visit them for Thanksgiving, her family reportedly said.Lopez Belloza, who attended Babson College in Massachusetts, was detained on 20 November at Boston airport while she was on her way to surprise her family in Austin, Texas, for the holiday. Within 48 hours she was deported to Honduras, a country she left at age seven when her family came to the US. Continue reading...
Bruna Ferreira, who was released from ICE custody Monday on bond, denies claims that she's an absentee parentThe Brazilian-born mother of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt's nephew - who was recently detained by US immigration authorities - has rejected the Trump administration's characterizations of her as an absentee parent.Bruna Ferreira, who was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in November during a traffic stop in Massachusetts and was being held at a Louisiana detention center, said in an interview with the Washington Post that the White House's statements that she had never lived with her son or spoken with Leavitt in many years" were incorrect. Continue reading...
US pressure over Ukraine has revealed Sir Keir Starmer's limitations and a British state too hollowed out to shape events at home or abroadThe bullying of Ukraine by the Trump White House has exposed Sir Keir Starmer as a prime minister adrift in shifting geopolitics. Unable to describe Britain's position, he managed only a hope of lasting" peace. This reveals a British state that has been hollowed out, as well as the diminishing returns of a political order built for another age. For decades, UK leaders assumed that the US would underwrite Europe's security; that, as Washington's closest ally, Britain would punch above its weight; and that British institutions would stabilise order, if not justice, in turbulent times. That world has gone.Monday's Downing Street summit with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, threw the dilemma that Sir Keir faces into sharp relief. Mr Macron could speak of the cards in Europe's hand; Germany's leader could voice scepticism about American proposals. Even Mr Zelenskyy, fighting for national survival, could pithily articulate why he needed both Europe and the US. Each spoke from within a political system that, however imperfect, has begun adapting to a post-American world. Britain has not - and, under its present leadership, shows little inclination to even envision one. Continue reading...
by Lucy Hough Jon Henley Ryan Ramgobin Zoe Hitch on (#720X6)
Donald Trump has loomed large over Volodymyr Zelenskyy's meeting with European leaders, after the US president took aim at the Ukrainian leader once again. It comes in the wake of a new White House national security strategy that has caused fear in Europe, but drawn praise from the Kremlin. Lucy Hough speaks to our Europe correspondent Jon Henley. Continue reading...
House speaker worked behind the scenes to strip provision after it was added as an amendment earlier this yearA huge defense policy bill, revealed by US lawmakers on Sunday, does not include a provision that would have provided broad healthcare coverage for in vitro fertilization (IVF) for active-duty members of the military, despite Donald Trump's pledge to strengthen access to the procedure.Both the House and Senate previously approved the provision, which was added to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) as an amendment earlier this year. But Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House and a diehard anti-abortion Republican, worked behind the scenes to strip the provision from the new version of the NDAA, MS NOW reported last week. Continue reading...
Defense secretary's comments recirculating amid dispute over US strikes on alleged drug boats in CaribbeanThe US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, stated repeatedly in 2016 on Fox News that US service members should refuse unlawful" orders from a potential president Trump - exactly the position he called despicable" when Democratic lawmakers said it last month.The debate about whether US soldiers should refuse illegal orders is now at the center of a fiery political dispute over the US killings of alleged drug traffickers in boats off the coast of Venezuela and Columbia. Continue reading...
Civil rights leaders decry administration's move to downplay Black American history and promote presidentThe US's National Park Service (NPS) will offer free admission to US residents on Donald Trump's birthday in 2026 - which also happens to be Flag Day - but is eliminating the benefit for Martin Luther King Jr Day and Juneteenth.The new list of free admission days for Americans is the latest example of the Trump administration downplaying America's civil rights history while also promoting the president's image, name and legacy. Continue reading...
US president's efforts under harsh spotlight as Rwanda-DRC deal and Thailand-Cambodia mediations waverFor the sake of anyone confused by Donald Trump's apparently supernatural abilities as a global peacemaker - for which he was given the inaugural (and perhaps only) Fifa peace prize" - current events have intervened to offer some clarification.Trump has claimed a number of dubious diplomatic successes on the international peace front, among them a freshly signed deal between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, mediating in Thailand and Cambodia's deadly border dispute, and the Gaza ceasefire". Continue reading...
Siembra in North Carolina gives owners fourth amendment rights trainings should federal agents show up at their doorWhen Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection agents descended on North Carolina last month, many local businesses were ready to push back. Posted on store- and restaurant-front windows across the state were signs reading: private area", fourth amendment workplace" and There's always room at our table, but to enter past this point, we'll need to see a warrant signed by a judge."The signs are part of a new fourth amendment strategy launched by the North Carolina immigrant rights group Siembra, to teach business owners their rights if federal agents show up at their door. While most Americans can name the rights protected by the first and second amendments, far fewer are familiar with the fourth, which prohibits unreasonable government searches and seizures. Siembra is working to change that, seeing the fourth amendment as a vital tool in fighting against the Trump administration's brutal immigration crackdowns. Continue reading...
by Rebecca Ratcliffe in Bangkok and agencies on (#720CK)
Escalation follows killing of Thai soldier and four Cambodian civilians weeks after Trump-brokered ceasefireThailand has launched airstrikes along its disputed border with Cambodia after both countries accused each other of breaching a ceasefire deal brokered by Donald Trump.Four Cambodian civilians and at least one Thai soldier have been killed in the renewed clashes, which have forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes. Continue reading...
Ukrainian president says latest discussions with US were constructive, although not easy'. Plus, the autism advocates fighting RFK Jr's barrage of misinformation
Officials track public sentiment, noting negative impact of videos with sounds of children crying' as parents arrestedState and federal authorities are closely tracking online criticism and protests against the Trump administration's immigration crackdown in New Orleans, monitoring message boards around the clock for threats to agents while compiling regular updates on public sentiment" surrounding the arrests, according to law enforcement records reviewed by the Associated Press.The intelligence gathering comes even as officials have released few details about the first arrests made last week as part of Catahoula Crunch", prompting calls for greater transparency from local officials who say they have been kept in the dark about virtually every aspect of the operation. Continue reading...
Mike Johnson's denials of knowledge of presidential scandals strain credulity - but may be an effective tacticThe US House speaker, Mike Johnson, has developed a go-to response when asked about something controversial Donald Trump or members of his administration said or did.It's some version of I don't know anything about that." Continue reading...
Patrick Mahomes has led his team to seven straight AFC Championship Games, winning three Super Bowls on the way. That run appears to be overThis is how great runs end. Not with a single catastrophic collapse, but with a slow drift towards the finish, looking old, tired and out of ideas. For the Chiefs, that sense of finality arrived on Sunday night, delivered by the Texans in a 20-10 defeat at home that felt more lopsided than the score.For much of this season, there had been a gnawing sense of inevitability about the Chiefs. Whether judging by the eye test or the advanced data, this year's group has been slightly better than the 15-win team who trudged through one-score victories last season, got hot in the playoffs and then were crushed by the Eagles in the Super Bowl. Even as the losses mounted this year, it felt like the Chiefs still had a run in them. If they could figure out their disjointed offense and find any juice on defense, they could sneak into the playoffs. And in a one-off game, with everything on the line, it would still be hard to look past the Andy Reid-Patrick Mahomes axis. Continue reading...
by Gretchen Carlson and Julie Roginsky on (#720JQ)
When abuse occurs, the first instinct is too often containment. We know this pattern because we have seen it ourselvesFor years, Jeffrey Epstein conjured a kind of grotesque fascination: the private island, the powerful friends, the whispered allegations. But focusing on the lurid details of his life and eventual death obscures the far more unsettling truth his case lays bare. Epstein's story is not really about one man's depravity. It is about a system - legal, cultural, and institutional - engineered to protect the powerful through silence. His crimes thrived not because they were hidden, but because the people who knew were coerced, encouraged, or more than willing to shut up.Silence was not incidental to Epstein's success. It was central to it. And in this, he was hardly unique.Gretchen Carlson is a journalist, bestselling author and internationally recognized advocate for women's rights. Julie Roginsky is a champion of women's rights and political consultant. Carlson and Roginsky co-founded the nonprofit Lift Our Voices, dedicated to eliminating silencing mechanisms like forced arbitration and NDAs for toxic workplace issues Continue reading...
Speaking at the Kennedy Center on Sunday night, Donald Trump said the Ukrainian president 'hasn't yet read' the latest US-authored peace proposal for the war in Ukraine. Trump added: 'Russia is, I believe, fine with [the deal], but I'm not sure that Zelenskyy's fine with it. His people love it but he hasn't read it.' The US president's comments come after days of negotiations between US and Ukrainian officials ended on Saturday without an apparent breakthrough. Zelenskyy will be received in London by the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, along with the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, to discuss the negotiations
President refers jokingly to renamed Trump-Kennedy Center' at celebration of stars from music and filmDonald Trump added another job title - awards host - to his presidential portfolio on Sunday when he took charge of the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, claiming his show was getting rave reviews" even before it ended.The US president stayed away from the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts during his first term. But since returning to office in January, he has made the complex a lightning rod in a broader attack against what he has labelled woke" anti-American culture. Continue reading...
There is a bread and circuses feel to this scandal. A wise public would see red flags; instead it sees entertainmentOne upside of adversity is art, inspiring cultural output that seeks to process and channel suffering. I'll say one thing about Thatcher, some fantastic songs were written during her reign," said the Irish singer Christy Moore once - before belting out a goosebump-raising rendition of Ordinary Man by Peter Hames, a song about the 1980s recession. That is, so far, the only upside of the publication of Olivia Nuzzi's book American Canto, an affliction to journalism, politics and publishing: there has been some fantastic writing since it all kicked off.Masterful reviews. Very funny commentary. Scathing analysis. But first, a summary of events for readers of this column, most of whom I assume are well-adjusted, offline people, with better things to do with their time than follow what can only be described as a niche beef. Nuzzi is (or perhaps was, keep reading) a celebrated US political journalist who had a digital affair" with Robert F Kennedy Jr while he was running for president, broke all sorts of journalistic rules while doing so, and was fired from her job at New York magazine. RFK Jr went on to become Donald Trump's anti-vaccine health secretary, Nuzzi has published a book about the whole affair, and her ex-fiance Ryan Lizza - another political journalist - has been dripfeeding revelations about how she cheated on him, and a litany of other personal and professional transgressions. There are no heroes here.Nesrine Malik 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...
We can move from defensive crouch to position of strength but only if we use the economic cards we have against US coercionEurope is on a trajectory towards nothing less than civilisational erasure", the Trump administration claims in its extraordinary new National Security Strategy, a document that blames European integration and activities of the European Union that undermine political liberty and sovereignty" for some of the continent's deepest problems.Everybody should have seen it coming after Washington's humiliating 28-point plan for Ukraine. JD Vance's shocking Munich speech in February, in which he suggested that Europe's democracies were not worth defending was an early red flag. But the new words still land as a shock. The security document is the clearest signal yet of how brutally and transactionally Washington wants to engage with the continent. It marks another phase in Trump's attempt to reshape Europe in his ideological image while at the same time abandoning it militarily. US policy, the paper says, should enable Europe to take primary responsibility for its own defence".Georg Riekeles is associate director and Varg Folkman a policy analyst at the European Policy Centre Continue reading...
Democrats are pushing the Trump administration to release the video of a second strike on the drug boat which was incapacitated in the Caribbean. Key US politics stories from 7 December 2025A video of a US military strike on an alleged drug boat that killed two survivors of the initial attack has said he would not oppose its public release if the Pentagon were to declassify it, adding that it shows nothing remarkable."Democrats are pushing the Trump administration to release the video of the second strike on the boat which was incapacitated in the Caribbean, amid accusations the attack was unlawful. Continue reading...
Rams take over top spot in NFC with 45-17 win while Steelers beat Ravens in key AFC North matchIt's GOOD! Ravens 3-0 Steelers 10:58, 1st quarterTyler Loop boots one from 36 yards to give the Ravens an early lead in the battle for the AFC North. Continue reading...
Georgia lawmaker says colleagues who made fun of president before 2024 win now support him out of fearRepublicans in Congress privately made fun of Donald Trump only to come around to support him when he won their party's 2024 White House nomination, outgoing GOP House member Marjorie Taylor Greene said on Sunday.I watched many of my colleagues go from making fun of him, making fun of how he talks, making fun of me constantly for supporting him, to when he won the primary in 2024, they all started - excuse my language, Lesley - kissing his ass," Greene, a Georgia Republican, said in a clip of an interview that is set to air on Sunday on CBS's 60 Minutes program. Continue reading...
Minnesota representative says hateful rhetoric' can lead to dangerous actions by people who listen to the president'US House member Ilhan Omar on Sunday defended the Somali community in her Minnesota congressional district, saying it was completely disgusting" when Donald Trump recently referred to them as garbage.These are Americans that he is calling garbage,'" Omar, a Somalia-born Democrat, said while responding to the president's remarks on CBS's Face the Nation. I think it is also really important for us to remember that this kind of hateful rhetoric - and this level of dehumanizing - can lead to dangerous actions by people who listen to the president." Continue reading...
Trump team faces mounting pressure as members of Congress allege that the deadly attack was unlawfulUS Democrats on Sunday pushed the Trump administration to release video of a second strike on an alleged drug boat incapacitated in the Caribbean, continuing to escalate pressure on the Pentagon amid accusations the attack was unlawful.Eleven people died in the 2 September attack, including two men killed in a follow-up strike as they reportedly clung to wreckage for an hour. That killing has been met with intense scrutiny and accusations of war crimes after the Washington Post reported defense secretary Pete Hegseth gave an order to kill them all". Adm Frank Bradley of the US navy, who oversaw the attack, told lawmakers on Thursday there was no such order - and the Pentagon has defended the legality of the attack. Continue reading...
Jamaican-born US army veteran faces deportation as more non-US citizen military members are swept up by ICE raidsThe fiancee of a Jamaican-born, decorated US army veteran who is now facing deportation under the Trump administration says she hopes his story might inspire legislative action to restore immigration protections for former military members.If you served this country, you deserve a chance to stay in this country," said April Watkins, who is engaged to Godfrey Wade, one of tens of thousands who have been put in immigration detention under Donald Trump's second presidency. That is the hope for not only him but for any veteran who sits in a detention center. Look at their service that they gave this country and take that into consideration." Continue reading...
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