A last-minute supreme court intervention prevented Javier Salazar from getting deported, but the battle is far from overWhen 19-year-old Javier Salazar was loaded on to a bus from an immigrant detention center in northern Texas, he had no idea where he was being taken.He wondered if he was being transferred to another facility or maybe deported back to his native Venezuela. He and the other passengers, their hands and feet shackled, settled into a tense silence. Then a terrifying possibility crept into Salazar's mind. Continue reading...
We would like to hear from US Social Security benefit recipients and agency workers about their experiences under the Trump administrationThe Social Security Administration (SSA) plans to cut 7000 jobs, about 12% of its workforce as part of the Department of Government Efficiency review of the federal work force.Nearly 69 million Americans on average per month are set to receive Social Security benefits in 2025, consisting of retired workers, disabled workers, survivors and dependents. These benefits represent 31 percent of income for people over the age of 65 in the US. Continue reading...
Men at Bluebonnet fear deportation to El Salvador under wartime law despite maintaining they do not have gang tiesDetainees at the Bluebonnet immigrant detention center in the small city of Anson, Texas, sent the outside world a message this week: SOS.With a Reuters drone flying nearby, 31 men formed the letters in the dirt yard of the facility on Monday. Continue reading...
On Monday, the US president took another swing at cities that protect immigrants and limit Ice cooperationSince his first day in office, Donald Trump has zeroed in on so-called sanctuary cities", pledging to withhold federal funding and ensure they are eliminated as part of his administration's massive crackdown on immigrants.On Monday, he took yet another swing, directing his administration to publish a list of state and local jurisdictions that obstruct the enforcement of federal immigration laws". The order also calls on the government to identify federal funds that can be terminated as a consequence for cities that identify as sanctuary jurisdictions. Continue reading...
Although the resistance at the start of Trump's second term was wobbly, ordinary people' are pushing the movement forwardThose opposed to Donald Trump's agenda started his second term on a worse footing than the beginning of his first term.This time, the social media platform owners who previously tried to tamp down on false claims stood with him at his inauguration. Some major media outlets attempted to stay in Trump's good graces. Democrats were wrecked by a popular vote loss, believing they lacked the backing to lead an opposition. The courts were stacked in Trump's favor and had ruled the president had absolute immunity from criminal punishment for official acts". Continue reading...
Aide alludes to president running again in 2028 . Plus, border pick accused of cover-up over death of man beaten by US agentsGood morning.President Donald Trump has said that nothing will stop" him, speaking at a rally in Michigan to celebrate his 100th day in office where an aide alluded to him running again in 2028 - even though US presidents are constitutionally barred from serving a third term.What was said about a third term? Margo Martin, a White House aide, joined Trump on stage and asked: Trump 2028, anybody?" to roars from the crowd.When did the US campaign begin? It began to strike Houthi targets on 15 March, and the US military's central command says it has hit 800 targets and killed hundreds of Houthi fighters. Continue reading...
The president's approach: tackle problems that don't exist via policies that won't workIn the 2024 election, Donald Trump eked out a narrow victory, by 1.5 percentage points nationally, the lowest popular vote margin in 56 years, since Richard Nixon's wafer-thin win by 0.7 points in 1968. Trump claimed he had won an enormous historic mandate to impose a counterrevolution. The American people have given us a mandate, a mandate like few people thought possible," Trump boasted on 6 March in his address to the Congress.His election rested on two principal issues, immigration and inflation. He demonized immigrants (poisoning the blood" of the country), raised the bogeyman of transgender people, and racialized the Democratic candidate, Vice-President Kamala Harris, whom he claimed had decided herself she was Black. In the minds of the marginal voters who swung to him, however, immigration and inflation were conflated, factors impinging on their standard of living and economic security. Trump stigmatized migrants as the source of crime and cultural impurity, but swing voters mainly (and falsely) regarded them as economic competitors for jobs and government resources. Continue reading...
Even a summer holiday isn't straightforward any more - and all across the US, millions of people are having to make calculations like mineLet me start with a message to my wife. SORRY!!! I apologise in advance for everything you are about to read.My more sensible half, you see, is a US citizen, who keeps telling me (a green card holder) that I should stop making jokes about getting sent to a detention centre or deported.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
The president promised an extraordinary' first 100 days in office but for many that has been true in all the wrong waysThe first 100 days of Donald Trump's second term have polarized the United States and the world.Public opinion polls show the president's approval rating is around 40% - having flipped from positive to negative since his inauguration. A vast majority of Americans are worried about a recession and how his trade war will affect the economy. Continue reading...
A conservative movement seeking to harness female fandoms and pop culture gossip is the new front in the hard right's endless culture warFun news from the Guardian's Everything is Awful" desk this week: the womanosphere" cometh. The article heralds the arrival of a crop of conservative personalities ... convincing young women of a gender-essentialist worldview".What does such essentialism entail? The woman holding a sign reading Make him a sandwich" is a strong clue. Be thin, fertile and Republican" is the Guardian's conclusion. Continue reading...
As part of the price for peace, Moscow would like sanctions on Russian airlines lifted. That's no surprise: they're vital to the Kremlin's war machineOn Monday, the Kremlin offered a three-day pause in hostilities against Ukraine in May, to coincide with Moscow's celebrations of the end of the second world war. In a context where Ukraine is calling for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire, and the US a permanent one, Russia wants concessions before a lasting pause or permanent peace can even be discussed. Central to the Kremlin's demands is the removal of sanctions - especially those restricting its aviation sector.We must be cautious not to make concessions prematurely, under the guise of quick progress. The short pause offered would not make a meaningful difference to the war, and accepting it would enable a regime that has repeatedly shown intent to prolong its war of aggression and undermine this chance for a just, fair and lasting peace.Andriy Yermak is head of the Ukrainian presidential office Continue reading...
During a rally in Michigan to mark his first 100 days in office, Trump mad the false claim that, 'for the first time in modern history, more Americans believe that our country is headed in the right direction than the wrong direction'. In the latest nationwide poll, conducted from 17-21 April for the Associated Press by National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, the overwhelming majority of Americans said that the country is headed in the wrong direction (62% vs 37%).
Donal Trump celebrates 100 days in office with Michigan event, saying nothing will stop me' - key US politics stories from Tuesday 29 April at a glanceDonald Trump has celebrated his 100th day in office with a campaign-style rally in Michigan and an attack on communist radical left judges" for trying to seize his power, warning: Nothing will stop me."The president also served up the chilling spectacle of a video of Venezuelan immigrants sent from the US to a notorious prison in El Salvador, accompanied by Hollywood-style music and roars of approval from the crowd. Continue reading...
At least 28 people charged in federal court as civil liberties groups condemn enhanced militarization' of border landsThe US Department of Justice has begun the first criminal prosecutions of migrants for entering a newly declared military buffer zone created along the border with Mexico, according to court filings, Reuters reports.At least 28 migrants were charged were charged in federal court in Las Cruces, New Mexico, on Monday for crossing into the 170-mile-long, 60ft-wide militarized buffer zone patrolled by active-duty US troops. Continue reading...
Felix Rojas, 44, arraigned after video showed him performing sexual acts on unresponsive passengerAuthorities in New York have charged a man with attempted rape after surveillance video taken showed him performing sexual acts on an unresponsive passenger who was later determined to have died.Police have been looking for suspects in the case for weeks, after footage captured two different people robbing the corpse of a man on a train traveling from Brooklyn to Manhattan, one of whom allegedly sexually violated him. Continue reading...
Former top official calls for Rodney Scott to be blocked from CBP role over handling of investigation into Anastasio Hernandez Rojas's deathRodney Scott, Donald Trump's nominee to lead Customs and Border Protection (CBP), has been accused by a former top official of orchestrating a cover-up" over the death of a man detained while trying to enter the country from Mexico, according to a letter obtained by the Guardian.Scott is a former US border patrol chief who has supported the president's vow to build a wall along the border with Mexico and criticized Joe Biden's handling of immigration policy. As commissioner of CBP, Scott would lead one of the largest federal law enforcement agencies, which encompasses the border patrol and staffs ports of entry across the United States. Continue reading...
Narrative that US listings outperform European ones has been popular for years, but analysis shows a different storyDonald Trump is doing an excellent job of demonstrating that US stock markets don't always outperform European ones.On-off tariff wars, threats to fire the head of the Federal Reserve and general unpredictability have prompted a reappraisal of boring old Europe. The S&P 500 is down 6% this year, versus a gain of 2.5% for FTSE 100 index and a 3% improvement in the pan-European Stoxx Europe 600. The differences aren't enormous but they mark a reversal from recent years. Continue reading...
Texas officials say 87 patients hospitalized as researchers say country at tipping point for return of endemic measlesMeasles cases in Texas rose to 663 on Tuesday, according to the state's health department, an increase of 17 cases since 25 April, as the US battles one of its worst outbreaks of the previously eradicated childhood disease.Cases in Gaines county, the center of the outbreak, rose to 396, three more from its last update on Friday, the Texas department of state health services said. Continue reading...
Marsupial spotted hopping along side of interstate before police surrounded area and owner used dart to tranquilize itA runaway kangaroo named Sheila shut down a stretch of interstate in Alabama on Tuesday before state troopers and the animal's owner wrangled the wayward marsupial.The Alabama law enforcement agency said the kangaroo was spotted on Tuesday hopping along the side of Interstate 85 in Macon county, which is between Montgomery and Auburn. Continue reading...
The president has begun his second term at a whirlwind pace, slashing the government, upending international alliances, challenging the rule of law and ordering mass deportationsLaw-abiding migrants sent to foreign prisons. Sweeping tariffs disrupting global markets. Students detained for protest. Violent insurrectionists pardoned. Tens of thousands of federal workers fired. The supreme court ignored.The first 100 days of Donald Trump's second term have shocked the United States and the world. On the eve of his inauguration, Trump promised the most extraordinary first 100 days of any presidency in American history", and what followed has been a whirlwind pace of extreme policies and actions that have reshaped the federal government and the US's role in the world. Continue reading...
Husband of Kamala Harris calls move political and decries turning historical atrocity into a wedge issue'The Trump administration has fired several members of the US Holocaust Memorial Council appointed by Joe Biden, including Doug Emhoff, the husband of Kamala Harris.Emhoff described the move as a political decision that turned one of the worst atrocities in history into a wedge issue". Continue reading...
Deal represents largest aggregate settlement in US history as officials issue apology for reprehensible acts'Los Angeles county officials on Tuesday approved a $4bn payout to settle nearly 7,000 claims of sexual abuse in juvenile facilities since 1959.The agreement reached on April 4 far surpasses a $2.6bn settlement reached in 2022 with the Boy Scouts of America that was the largest aggregate sexual abuse settlement in US history at the time. Continue reading...
Miriam Haley testifies as ex-producer faces charges involving two women from original trialThe first of three accusers expected to testify at Harvey Weinstein's rape retrial took the witness stand on Tuesday, reprising her testimony from his first #MeToo trial five years ago.Miriam Haley, a former TV and movie production assistant, alleges that the former movie mogul forcibly performed oral sex on her at his New York City apartment in 2006. Continue reading...
The US president's territorial and economic threats have prompted voters to unite against his bellicosityCanada's astounding election comeback by the Liberals will hearten many outside its borders as well as within. The governing party's Lazarus moment was sparked by a man who was not on the ballot - though he took the chance to reiterate that the country should become the 51st US state, implying that voters could then elect him.By then it was already clear that Donald Trump's threats had backfired. Monday's result was a clear repudiation of his agenda. For two years, the Conservatives' Pierre Poilievre looked like a dead cert as the next prime minister, assailing Justin Trudeau's government on issues including the cost of living, housing and immigration. His party built a 25-point lead. But within four months, Mr Trudeau's resignation, his warning that Mr Trump's 51st state" remarks were no joke, and the imposition of swingeing US tariffs, transformed the contest. Mr Poilievre lost his seat. The Liberals are embarking on a fourth term, though this time perhaps as a minority, under MrTrudeau's replacement Mark Carney.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...
Two-day walkout begins after contract negotiations fail amid unprecedented stresses' on county budgetMore than 50,000 Los Angeles county workers were on strike again on Tuesday, closing libraries and disrupting administrative operations across the nation's most populous county.The two-day walkout that began on Monday followed failed negotiations with the county for a new contract after the last one expired in March, according to the Service Employees International Union Local 721. Continue reading...
Defense secretary dismissed it as a woke ... Biden initiative' despite it being a Trump achievement from his first termPete Hegseth, the defense secretary, has abruptly banished the Pentagon's Women, Peace and Security program as part of his crusade against diversity and equity - dismissing it as woke divisive/social justice/Biden initiative" despite it being a signature Donald Trump achievement from his first term.In a post on X, Hegseth wrote: This morning, I proudly ENDED the Women, Peace & Security' (WPS) program inside the [Department of Defense]. WPS is yet another woke divisive/social justice/Biden initiative that overburdens our commanders and troops - distracting from our core task: WAR-FIGHTING." Continue reading...
Yunice Abbas claims he acted as lookout in Paris hotel lobby while US celebrity's jewellery was taken at gunpointA 71-year-old man who has said he played a bit part in a jewellery heist in which Kim Kardashian was robbed at gunpoint in 2016 has said he totally regretted" having participated.Yunice Abbas is one of 10 people on trial in Paris for having taken part in the robbery on the night of 2-3 October. Continue reading...
From deportations to human rights to the economy, the president's actions have resulted in mayhem. Here's a samplingSome Democrats fear they're playing into Donald Trump's hands by fighting his mass deportations rather than focusing on his failures on bread-and-butter issues like the cost of living.But it's not either-or. The theme that unites Trump's inept handling of deportations, his trampling on human and civil rights, his rejection of the rule of law, his dictatorial centralization of power, and his utterly inept handling of the economy is the ineptness itself.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading...
Actor makes major dramatic bid as UFC fighter Mark Kerr in biopic also starring his Jungle Cruise co-star Emily BluntDwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt aim for awards glory with the first trailer for fact-based sports drama The Smashing Machine.The wrestler-turned-actor plays the MMA fighter Mark Kerr in the film inspired by the 2002 documentary with the same name. Kerr won multiple awards and medals in his career and also struggled with substance abuse. Continue reading...
Education department claims that article selection process appears to pick winners and losers on the basis of race'The Trump administration said it would investigate whether Harvard University and the student-run journal, the Harvard Law Review, violated civil rights law when editors of the prestigious journal fast-tracked consideration of an article written by someone of a racial minority.News of the investigation on Monday night came hours after a federal judge agreed to expedite Harvard University's lawsuit challenging the administration'sfreeze of $2.3bn in federal funding. The Ivy League elite private university, the oldest and wealthiest in the US, has warned the freeze would threaten vital medical and scientific research.Reuters contributed reporting Continue reading...
by Hugo Lowell, Joan E Greve, Joseph Gedeon, David Sm on (#6V0SY)
Follow major developments of the second Trump administration's first 100 days, brought up to date weeklyDonald Trump has completed an extraordinary return to power as the 47th president, vowing to impose his vision and re-altering the political and cultural landscape of the nation.To keep up with the dizzying array of executive orders, directives, firings and policy changes, the Guardian tracked the major developments of the second Trump administration's first 100 days, just like we did during the first 100 days of Trump's first presidency in 2017. Continue reading...
Crew members jump out of Super Hornet before jet and towing tractor fall into the Red SeaUS sailors had to leap for their lives when a fighter jet fell off a navy aircraft carrier that was reportedly making evasive maneuvers to avoid Houthi militant fire in the Red Sea on Monday.The F/A-18 fighter Super Hornet jet, along with the vehicle towing it into place on the deck of the USS Harry S Truman, rolled right out of the hangar and into the water, the navy said. Continue reading...
Company had strong first quarter but says it cannot raise outlook for this year owing to tariffs uncertaintyAdidas has said the price of its popular trainers, including the Samba and Campus models, is likely to rise as a result of Donald Trump's tariffs.The German group said the uncertainty around US import tariffs had prevented it from raising its outlook for sales and profit this year despite reporting strong first-quarter results. Continue reading...
The prime minister is apparently pursuing ways to land the 2028 Open for the president. With friends like that, POTUS surely won't be carrying his own clubsAt what point does realpolitik tip over into nakedly facilitating conflict of interest/corruption? I only ask in the strictest hypothetical terms after reading that Keir Starmer's government has been exploring whether golf bosses could host the 2028 Open championship at Donald Trump's Turnberry resort in Ayrshire. Sorry, but no. It's almost as if the prime minister is compiling material for a seminal 2025 business manual. Call it The Art of the Kneel. Perhaps Starmer could ask the Treasury to explore" buying a load of Trump meme coins.According to reports, Donald Trump has frequently mentioned in his phone calls with the prime minister that he'd prefer it if the Open returned to Turnberry. As so often with this particular caller, the reply to this should simply be, And I'd prefer to be talking to Mickey Mouse, but we're all making compromises." Failing that, just go with: God, you always want MORE, don't you? Scotland invented the great game of golf. Have you said thank you ONCE?" Unfortunately, the actual reply seems to have been: Capital idea, Mr President! How can we make that happen?"Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Trump administration has been cracking down on people who leak information to the media since JanuaryThe US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said on Monday it has started using polygraph tests to aid investigations aimed at identifying the source of leaks emanating from within the law enforcement agency.We can confirm the FBI has begun administering polygraph tests to identify the source of information leaks within the bureau," the bureau's public affairs office told Reuters in a statement. Continue reading...
People queued calmly for torches and shared radios, but our vulnerability in an internet-reliant world was badly exposedAt the entrance to a healthcare centre on Trafalgar Street, in my densely populated, central Madrid neighbourhood, somebody had stuck a sign: We ask for patience and common sense." The door was half open as doctors and nurses calmly tended to emergencies inside.Patience and common sense is a very good way to describe what I witnessed in Madrid throughout the big blackout. We had no light, no power, no phone signal, not even water in some apartment buildings. Continue reading...
The country's future depends on law firms, universities and media companies - as well as everyday Americans - breaking their silenceWhen a woman asked me a couple of weeks ago why leaders were not standing up to Donald Trump, my thoughts went immediately to political leaders. When I started to answer, she corrected me and said: No, no, I'm talking about college presidents and law firms. Where the heck are they?"Where indeed? From all observations, most have been asleep as the US president dismantles democracy piece by jeweled piece. They are either cutting sweet little deals on their knees, or just remaining silent as the fruits of 250 years of national labor and life are strangled by Trump's tentacles. From the cowering of major media companies to the shameful capitulation of some law firms, and oppressive silence from virtually all of them, the nation is sleepwalking into a slow but ever encroaching totalitarian state. Continue reading...
by Michael Sainato in Gainesville, Florida on (#6WYCF)
Republican committee advises against holding town halls as cases of lawmakers berated over federal cuts go viralAngry voters are holding empty chair town halls as Republican members of Congress are refusing to hold those meetings with constituents.Weeks into Donald Trump's second term as president, Republican members of Congress were advised by the National Republican Congressional Committee against holding in person town halls with constituents, as several cases of Republican members of Congress being berated by constituents over federal worker firings and cuts went viral. Continue reading...
Mounting stories of forced disappearances' of Venezuelans in the US have left their loved ones distraught and disbelievingNeiyerver Rengel's captors came one sunny spring morning, lurking outside the apartment he shared with his girlfriend and pouncing as soon as he emerged.The three government agents announced the young Venezuelan man had charges to answer" and was being detained. Continue reading...
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