Ninth person dies from harsh winter weather in Georgia as bone-chilling cold predicted for northern plainsMuch of the US faced another round of biting winter weather on Sunday, with torrential rains causing intense flooding in Kentucky and resulting in multiple deaths.The Kentucky governor, Andy Beshear, on Sunday said at least eight people were dead amid the inundation, with the number possibly increasing. Continue reading...
President posted he who saves his country does not violate any laws' quote attributed to French emperorCritics rounded on Donald Trump on Sunday for likening himself to Napoleon in a dictatorial" social media post echoing the French emperor's assertion that he who saves his country does not violate any laws".The post came at the end of another tumultuous week early in Trump's second presidency, during which acolytes questioned the legitimacy of judges making a succession of rulings to stall his administration's aggressive seizure or dismantling of federal institutions and budgets. Continue reading...
Family of Martin Luther King Jr says Trump mandate could revive J Edgar Hoover's efforts to discredit revered activistThe family of Martin Luther King Jr has expressed concern over Donald Trump's executive order to release records surrounding the civil rights leader's assassination, saying the president's mandate could revive efforts to discredit the revered activist with the public.Speaking to Axios, a friend of the King family said: We know J Edgar Hoover tried to destroy Dr King's legacy, and the family doesn't want that effort to prevail," referring to the late former FBI director and his agency's years-long surveillance of King as well his associates. Continue reading...
European papers express deep alarm at declaration of an ideological war', while the NYT says Putin may soon realise his dream'This year's Munich security conference exposed the chasm in core values separating the Trump administration from most Europeans and sparked deep alarm at US efforts to control the Ukraine peace process and exclude European governments from it.Here is what some of the main European and US newspapers had to say about it. Continue reading...
Four months ago, I took an emergency response course. Then the wildfires came, and I realised, in an era of disasters, how vital trained neighbors areKelley McIntosh is the kind of person who gives her friends fire extinguishers as housewarming gifts. In other words, my kind of person: as a climate journalist who's spent eight years reporting on adaptations critical to life in our burning, storming, fevered world, I've been known to gift-wrap prepper items, too. Loved ones have sighed and nodded as they opened solar lanterns, flashlights and emergency radios none of us quite understand how to crank".Shockingly for two hypervigilants, neither Kelley nor I had ever actually pulled the pin and shot a fire extinguisher until the day we met last September in Los Angeles. Continue reading...
Ukrainian president tells NBC's Meet the Press that Putin's next targets may be Poland and LithuaniaVolodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday predicted Russia would wage war against Nato" if the US stepped back from its support of Ukraine - and that he had seen intelligence suggesting that the Russian dictator, Vladimir Putin, was building up troops for a possible military invasion of another European country.The Ukrainian president made the claim on the NBC show Meet the Press in a wide-ranging interview ahead of an emergency summit of European leaders in Paris to discuss Russia's war on Ukraine - and peace talks between US and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia. Continue reading...
Police in upstate New York say Sam Nordquist, 24, who was from Minnestoa, endured weeks of tortureFive people in New York have been charged with subjecting a transgender man from Minnesota to repeated acts of violence and torture" before murdering him, according to police.The allegations come after the discovery of human remains believed to be those of Sam Nordquist, 24, in a field near Canandaigua in upstate New York on 13 February. Continue reading...
Republican Bill Cassidy calls state surgeon general's halt to promotion of mass vaccination a disservice to parentsBill Cassidy, the Republican US senator, has said his home state of Louisiana's recent decision to cancel the promotion of mass vaccination against preventable diseases is a disservice to parents who want to keep their children healthy.Nonetheless, before those remarks, the medical doctor-turned-politician who has clashed with Donald Trump joined 51 of his fellow Republicans in voting to confirm anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F Kennedy Jr as secretary of the US's health and human services department. Cassidy had also previously voted to advance Trump's nomination of Kennedy as national health secretary from the committee level to the full Senate. Continue reading...
by Thalia Juarez with words by Nina Lakhani on (#6VANH)
Mountain communities in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee were among the hardest hit by the deadly storm but residents have found strength and solace through helping each other
Thus far, the administration has pursued appeals. But remarks from JD Vance and Elon Musk echo authoritarians worldwideWill the Trump administration defy the courts?JD Vance's tweet last weekend that judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power" has sparked widespread concern that the Trump administration might become the first in US history to do so. At least at this stage, it is not clear that it will come to that, notwithstanding the president's proclivity for asserting limitless executive power. But as other countries' experiences show, if he were to adopt the position of the US vice-president, Trump would be crossing perhaps the most fundamental line demarcating constitutional democracy from autocracy.Amrit Singh is a law professor and executive director of the Rule of Law Impact Lab at Stanford Law School. David Cole is a professor at Georgetown Law and former legal director of the ACLU Continue reading...
The president's full-court press to dominate media and control cultural institutions is straight out of the authoritarian playbookBigger than the Super Bowl, claimed Donald Trump, sitting in a big leather chair beside a big map. Then came an announcement over the public address system. Air Force One is currently in international waters," declared the flight crew of the US presidential jet, for the first time in history flying over the recently renamed Gulf of America."As his aides clapped and whooped, Trump gloated: Isn't that nice? We're about Make America Great Again', right? That's what we care about." He proceeded to sign a proclamation declaring 9 February Gulf of America Day" as Air Force One flew over the body of water previously known as the Gulf of Mexico. Continue reading...
By voting in favor of nominees they knew should never be approved, Republican senators became Trump's subjectsFirst, before Elon Musk came for everyone, Donald Trump came for the US Senate. When he returned to office, the House of Representatives was already under his heel. Many of the House Republican leaders had been his sidekicks during January 6, and one, Mark Johnson, had since become the speaker. The Senate, however, still retained, for the most part, its club-like atmosphere where the members considered themselves powers unto themselves. Senators with a toga complex have always looked down on House members as rabble. Trump viewed the independent character of the upper body as a thorn in his side. The subservience of the House of Representatives was the model that Trump envisioned for the Senate. It could no longer pretend to be the greatest deliberative body of legislators in the world, but a vassal fiefdom subject to his whims.Trump's opportunity to crush the Senate appeared at once. As soon as he made his nominations for his cabinet, the Senate would hold confirmation hearings. His misfit nominees gave him his chance. In any previous time, just a tincture of the alcoholism, serial sexual abuse, playing footsie with a Russian-backed despot, hawking of snake oil, doodling enemies lists and bilking non-profit organizations, quite apart from plain incompetence, would have been enough to knock them out before they ever approached a seat in a hearing room. Continue reading...
Canadians have been booing the US anthem for weeks over Trump's proposed tariffs. But it's no wonder that tensions boiled over when the US finally met Canada on the iceAs usual, Canadians approached the latest international hockey tournament, the 4 Nations Face-Off, with worry. Despite top-tier talent and historic winning pedigree, the feeling that Canada could be off its game is a perennial concern. But in 2025, it is particularly profound - mostly because of the Americans.Since the last time Canada played the US at an elite tournament in 2016, Canadians have watched the American program grow stronger and deeper, while Canada's own has lost focus. Among the most pressing going concerns has been goaltending. Canada - or Quebec more accurately - produced dominant goalies in excess for decades. No longer. They're all Americans now. Continue reading...
Nearly 50 years after it adopted the slam dunk contest from the ABA, perhaps it's time to once again for the NBA to look outward for a solution to its perpetual All-Star problemTo paraphrase a Nobel laureate on the perennial crises facing another form of live entertainment, the NBA All-Star Game is an institution that has been dying for 70 years but has yet to succumb. The complaints are persistent, well-documented, and mainly attributed to a single factor: players' lack of effort. An absence of defensive activity, in particular, is said to make All-Star Games almost unwatchable.For some players, the lack of effort is not an accident - the game falls in the middle of the NBA's All-Star Break, a six-day pause in competitive play that serves as the only meaningful time off during the league's 82-game regular season. Indeed, many of the players not named to All-Star teams use the break to go on holiday. Despite this tendency, however, the league's leadership regularly alters its All-Star Weekend program in an (often ineffective) effort to encourage competitive play. Continue reading...
Language can open eyes', Salman Rushdie wrote, yet still ideas of profanity are being used to silence dissenting voicesWhatever the attack was about, it wasn't about The Satanic Verses." So insists Salman Rushdie in Knife, his Meditations After an Attempted Murder", written after he almost lost his life in a ferocious assault in Chautauqua, a small town in upstate New York, where he had gone to give a talk in August 2022.As Rushdie rose to speak, a young man rushed towards him wielding a knife with which he inflicted terrible wounds to my neck, to my chest, to my eye, everywhere", excruciatingly severing the optic nerve of Rushdie's right eye. The talk he never gave was to have been about the importance of keeping writers safe from harm". Continue reading...
The betrayal of Ukraine is a final warning to the UK and its continental allies to put a lot more energy and money into rebuilding their defencesIt was, Sir Keir Starmer told members of his inner circle, one of his most meaningful visits abroad. In the middle of last month, he flew to Kyiv to double-down on the commitment to back Ukraine's struggle for freedom, a pledge he first made a defining feature of his leadership when Labour was in opposition. Hands were warmly clasped with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, wailing air raid sirens greeted a Russian drone attack, financial promises were made, and signatures were inscribed on a 100-year partnership treaty. The prime minister solemnly intoned the western mantra about backing the resistance to Russian tyranny for as long as it takes" for Ukraine to become free and thriving once again".All of which now sounds for the birds, thanks to Donald Trump. It was with his trademark contempt for his country's traditional allies that the US president blindsided them by announcing that he had initiated peace negotiations with Vladimir Putin over the heads of Ukraine and the European members of Nato. The UK received no more warning of this bombshell than anyone else. So much for the vaunted special relationship". The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, then unleashed another punch to the solar plexus of European security by publicly declaring that Ukraine would have to accept the surrender of large chunks of its territory and should forget about becoming a member of Nato. The future defence of Ukraine, he went on to declare, would be down to Europe, because the US wouldn't be sending any of its troops to sustain a security guarantee. Continue reading...
Principled, charismatic and humorous, the murdered Russian opposition leader was everything Vladimir Putin is notIt is exactly one year since Alexei Navalny, Russia's best-known opposition leader and anti-corruption activist, was murdered in an Arctic penal colony by Vladimir Putin's regime. Countless other political opponents, critics and dissidents have been killed, jailed or exiled since Putin first became president 25 years ago.All vestiges of an open society, democratic accountability, independent media and free speech in Russia have been eviscerated in that time. Accused of war crimes in Ukraine, which he invaded three years ago this month, Putin poses an undeniable threat to Europe and Britain - as well as to his own people. Yet this is the man with whom Donald Trump now wants to be friends.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission moves to withdraw cases that conflict with Trump order on two sexesThe US commission that enforces civil rights laws against workplace discrimination has moved to dismiss six cases it brought on behalf of workers alleging gender-identity discrimination, it was revealed on Saturday.The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), established via the Civil Rights Act of 1964, said in court papers it was looking to dismiss the cases in Illinois, Alabama, New York and California, because they now conflict with a Trump administration executive order to recognize only two immutable" sexes, male and female. Continue reading...
Courts are currently backlogged with 3.7m cases as US president demands more deportationsThe Trump administration fired 20 immigration judges without explanation, a union official said on Saturday amid sweeping moves to shrink the size of the federal government.On Friday, 13 judges who had yet to be sworn in and five assistant chief immigration judges were dismissed without notice, said Matthew Biggs, president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, which represents federal workers. Two other judges were fired under similar circumstances in the last week. Continue reading...
Cuts to nuclear security workforce were made on Thursday - but agency can't find workers to offer them their jobs backThe US agency charged with overseeing nuclear weapons is looking to contact workers who were fired on Thursday as part of the Trump administration's federal cost-cutting measures, but are now needed back.Officials with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) attempted to notify some probationary employees who had been let go that they are due to be reinstated - but they struggled to find them because their contact information was missing. Continue reading...
Agencies say Trump's latest push to trim government could impede firefighting efforts and create crises at national parksThe US Forest Service is firing about 3,400 recent hires while the National Park Service is terminating about 1,000 workers under Donald Trump's push to cut federal spending and bureaucracy, according to a report on Friday.The terminations target employees who are in their probationary employment periods, which includes anyone hired less than a year ago, according to Reuters, and will affect sites such as the Appalachian trail, Yellowstone, the birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr and the Sequoia national forest. Continue reading...
US president's announcement prompts government to publish green paper weeks ahead of scheduleThe government has rushed forward plans for a 2.5bn investment in the UK steel industry after Donald Trump announced 25% tariffs on all imports of steel and aluminium into the US.The business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, will publish a green paper entitled Plan for Steel on Sunday - several weeks before schedule - in a sign of how Trump's tariffs are sending shock waves through a UK government desperate to kickstart economic growth. Continue reading...
Republicans will need Democrats' help to pass funding bill by 14 March as hard-right lawmakers push to cut costsWith the US federal government expected to shut down in one month unless Congress approves a funding bill, Democratic lawmakers are wrestling with just how far they are willing to go to push back against Donald Trump's radical rightwing agenda that has thrown American politics into turmoil.Specifically, Democrats appear divided on the question of whether they would be willing to endure a shutdown to demonstrate their outrage over the president's attempted overhaul of the federal government. Continue reading...
The ramifications of the president's appeasement of Russia will be felt widely, not least in the alliance he recklessly underminedIn Graham Greene's 1955 novel, The Quiet American, Alden Pyle, a CIA agent, reckons he has all the answers to conflict in colonial era Vietnam. Pyle's ignorance, arrogance and dangerous scheming, intended to bring peace, result instead in the deaths of many innocents and ultimately his own. In today's too-real, nonfiction world, Donald Trump is Pyle. Except he's The Noisy American.He thinks he's a great deal-maker. Henever stops trumpeting his brilliance. Yet his North Korea deal of the century" was a fiasco. He handed Afghanistan to the Taliban on a plate. Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu runs rings around him. Now Trump-Pyle proposes another rubbish deal - selling out Ukraine. America's very own surrender monkey is Vladimir Putin's usefulidiot. No matter how officials spin it, Trump's concessions, made before ceasefire talks with Russia even begin, are calamitous, primarily for Ukraine but also for Europe's security, the transatlantic alliance, and other vulnerable targets, such as Taiwan. As stated, Trump's giveaways - accepting the loss of sovereign Ukrainian territory to Russian aggression, denying Nato membership to Kyiv, withholding US security guarantees and troops - are shameful appeasement, amounting to betrayal. Continue reading...
George Orwell's publishers thought his parable was too specific. They needn't have worried, 80 years on it's as salient as everI feel sorry for the old horse," my son said, drinking his Coke in the interval.We all feel sorry for the horse," I replied. Continue reading...
Ruling enables providers to offer procedure, which voters enshrined in state constitution after fall of Roe in 2022In a massive victory for abortion rights supporters, a Missouri judge on Friday blocked a licensing requirement for abortion clinics that providers said prevented them from offering the procedure.Planned Parenthood announced shortly after the judge's ruling that its clinics would once again perform abortions in Missouri. Continue reading...
Luigi Mangione expressed gratitude on new website to people writing him, saying they transcend class divisions'The 26-year-old golf club heir charged with murdering UnitedHealthcare's chief executive officer in an ambush outside a Manhattan hotel in December has touted receiving support that has transcended political, racial and even class divisions" in a rare public statement.I am overwhelmed by - and grateful for - everyone who has written me to share their stories and express their support," Luigi Mangione said in a statement posted to a website launched on Friday by his defense team. Continue reading...
Police search for member currently on the lam from charges linked to killings across the countryThe killing of US border patrol agent David Maland near the Canadian border in January and five other homicides in Vermont, Pennsylvania and California have been tied to a cultlike group.Interviews and online postings reveal how young computer scientists described by those who know them as highly intelligent appear to have become increasingly violent. Continue reading...
More Black people are leaving religion, challenging tradition and redefining communityIn 2015, Mandisa Thomas faced a harrowing confrontation while tabling for Black Nonbelievers Inc, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and increasing visibility for Black atheists. The event, hosted by the Atheist Alliance of America, coincided with the Women of Color and Ministries Conference in the same hotel.There was one Black woman in particular who came up to our table," Thomas recalls. She became very belligerent, even though I was polite to her. She told me that she could not believe I had the nerve to identify as an atheist in front of white devils. She said I had a slave mentality and that she was going to bathe me in the blood of Jesus. She [said she] felt sorry for my mama and my kids. It was just absolutely mind-boggling." Continue reading...
Thousands of Ukrainians who call Cleveland home are in limbo as fate of temporary protected status remains murkyMykola Vashchuk may be thousands of miles from Kyiv, his home town, but life has never been busier.He runs pierogi food businesses here in Cleveland and back in Ukraine, works part-time for a local charity, while studying for a law degree at Cleveland State University. His wife works at a daycare and the couple is raising two sons. He and his family have built a new life on the shores of Lake Erie, having fled Ukraine after a Russian bomb blew out two windows of their Kyiv apartment in December 2022. Continue reading...
Reading fiction fosters empathy in a polarized world. I've learned how arts organizations can do the sameOn 12 August 2022, I was about to begin interviewing Salman Rushdie at the Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York when he was attacked. Now, more than two years later, the trial of the attacker has begun.I was on stage as co-founder of City of Asylum in Pittsburgh, part of an international organization inspired by Rushdie to protect exiled, endangered writers in long-term residencies. Shortly after the attack, I wrote about how the audience - an intentional community of readers - rushed to the stage to subdue the attacker. I called this the reader effect", a response based on empathy that comes from reading fiction.Henry Reese is a retired entrepreneur, who in 2004 co-founded City of Asylum Pittsburgh with his wife, the artist Diane Samuels Continue reading...
Republican-run states may see worst fallout from slashes to NIH medical funding as maternal mortality climbs in USOn Tuesday, a few days after the Trump administration announced its plan to slash billions of dollars in funding for biomedical and behavioral research, an investigator at a maternal health research center in Pennsylvania told Dr Meghan Lane-Fall that the cuts may lead her to leave academia altogether.Lane-Fall urged her not to make any sudden moves. It's not like nothing has happened. No one's threatened her job," said Lane-Fall, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. But if she looks six months down the line, it looks uncertain." Continue reading...
Paul Sheehy and Chris Dunlavey trumpet health of US league and say producing American players is keyLike the rest of Washington, the rugby field on the National Mall was covered with snow this week. But Old Glory DC were safely indoors, preparing for the return of Major League Rugby, the US professional rugby union competition that kicks off year eight this weekend.It's about 73 degrees inside" the St James, the sports, wellness and entertainment complex" in Springfield, Virginia, where Old Glory train, said Paul Sheehy, with a laugh. Continue reading...
Doge wreaks havoc on HHS and CDC as Trump seeks to grant committee sweeping governmental powersThe department of government efficiency", the Donald Trump-created program known as Doge and headed by the billionaire Elon Musk, has accessed or requested access to sensitive systems at multiple health agencies as the US president attempts to grant the committee sweeping powers within the federal government.The bid for access comes amid an unprecedented effort to halt government spending, despite multiple court orders to unfreeze funds and reverse staff suspensions. Continue reading...
The detention facility is a worldwide symbol of American hypocrisy. It's majorly expanding againNine days into the country's 47th presidency, Donald Trump issued an executive memorandum that contained his latest mass deportation plan. The three-paragraph, 148-word order called for a migrant facility located at the US Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to be expanded to full capacity". The US president later said the camp would house 30,000 migrants.Troop deployments quickly followed and on 4 February, the first planes carrying a few dozen migrants arrived at Guantanamo, with officials sending more each day. Continue reading...
Hit drama The Years has seen audience members fainting hysterically. Perhaps if we dispensed with the red flags, people would enjoy this fine play moreIf your Valentine disappointed you this weekend, spare a thought for the protagonist of The Years, the explosive WestEnd play based on the writings ofthe French novelist and Nobel laureate Annie Ernaux. A teenager is thrilled to discover she has attracted the temporary attention of an older man at summer camp. After he painfully takes her virginity, she gradually realises that he has told half the resort. She finds the word whore" scribbled across her bathroom mirror. Still she yearns for the validation of his returning desire.The play takes as its subject the full range of life experiences contingent on embodied womanhood. Like the Ernaux memoir from which it draws its name, its heroine tells her story in the plural we" and speaks for a generation of war-born French women. To the frustration of its artists, however, one of those experiences has captured all the headlines. Continue reading...
The UK is now a secular nation and the Church of England should no longer be one of the central pillars of stateThe national church of England" has been meeting this week in London and is in turmoil. Does it matter, other than to the 1.7% of the population of England who still worship under its roofs? Since the Church of England continues with an established" role in the life of the nation, the answer is yes.The argument within the C of E over safeguarding seems endless. It has brought the downfall of one archbishop and is vexing his successor. The church is divided over how to police abuse in future, whether through an independent agency or through internal discipline. This in turn reflects whether it sees itself as a dignified institution of state or just another religious sect.Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist
As the US rips up its rules-based order and threatens sovereign nations, this is the time to make allies. Reparations might helpImagine this: a continent scarred by centuries of violence and exploitation, now standing united to demand justice. This weekend, the African Union (AU) is kicking off its annual summit with a bold, historic declaration: 2025 will be the year of Justice for Africans and People of African Descent Through Reparations. This marks the first time in its history that the AU has placed reparations front and centre.At first, you might wonder: is this really the right moment? Former colonial powers have shown little interest in addressing their past, and global leaders like the US president, Donald Trump, are actively dismantling international institutions. But maybe this is exactly the right moment for Africa to demand accountability, and for Europe's democracies to finally offer a meaningful response. As the world grapples with shifting power dynamics, Africa's call for justice is more urgent than ever. Continue reading...
I lost my own husband at a young age. It's rare (and v.g.) to see a heroine trying to live joyfully despite her griefBridget Jones is back and once again blazing a new path, this time as a widow. In Mad About the Boy, our eternally chaotic but lovable everywoman is navigating single parenthood, dating apps and grief. But unlike most widows in romcoms, she's not here to wither away in a beige cardigan, politely mourning until society deems it acceptable for her to love again. Instead, she's in bed with a 29-year-old park ranger named Roxster, proving that healing doesn't have to be quiet reflection - it can also look like great sex with a younger man.This is where Bridget breaks the mould. In most romantic comedies, women's grief is pitched as a problem to be solved. We must undergo a period of deep self-reflection before we are allowed back into the world of desire. We must heal, learn and then - maybe - we can be kissed under some twinkly lights at the end of the movie. Hilary Swank's character in P.S. I Love You waits for divine permission from her dead husband's letters before even thinking about dating again, whereas poor Demi Moore in Ghost is emotionally tied to Patrick Swayze for ever, choosing to simulate foreplay with a memory over intimacy with the living. Continue reading...
Trump had said defense bureau was high on list of world's richest man's federal budget and personnel slashing teamMembers of Elon Musk's department of government efficiency" arrived at the Pentagon Friday, in what appeared to be their first meeting with defense department staff, a US official told Reuters. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.Donald Trump has said the Pentagon would be an early target of Musk's government budget and personnel slashing team and that he expects the tech billionaire to find hundreds of billions of dollars in fraud and abuse in the department. Continue reading...
Workers for Consumer Financial Protection Bureau describe chaos and fear as lawsuits and basic functions grind to a haltThe termination email for a score of employees at the top US consumer watchdog arrived in the late hours of the night.Unfortunately, the Agency finds that you are not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge and skills do not fit the agency's current needs," dozens of probationary staffers at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) were informed on 11 February. Continue reading...
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