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Termination notices sent to Department of Education and CFPB as Musk pushes to delete entire agencies'

School district says expanded immigration enforcement diverts resources and causes decreased attendanceThe Denver public school system (DPS) on Wednesday became the first US school district to sue the Trump administration over its policy of allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents in schools.Colorado's largest public school district argues in the federal lawsuit that the policy has forced schools to divert vital educational resources and caused attendance to plummet. Continue reading...

We would like to hear from people who have been denied access to care as a patient with the UnitedHealthcare Medicare advantage planAn October 2024 investigation by the US Senate permanent subcommittee on investigations found that UnitedHealthcare had ramped up its denials of post-acute care coverage for seniors following strokes, falls and injuries.We would like to hear from you about your experience, or the experience of a loved one, of having been denied coverage or access to care at a nursing home facility as a patient with the UnitedHealthcare Medicare advantage plan. We are interested in hearing about the experiences of short- and long-term nursing home residents. You can share your story below. Continue reading...

The knockout stages are here, and there were plenty of storylines to digest. We hand out honours and dishonours from the latest round of actionFeyenoord Continue reading...

As the US and its European allies head to the Munich security conference, Europe must learn from its tragic history and oppose appeasementDonald Trump's appeasement of Vladimir Putin makes Neville Chamberlain look like a principled, courageous realist. At least Chamberlain was trying to prevent a major European war, whereas Trump is acting in the middle of one. Trump's Munich" (synonymous in English with the 1938 deal in which Britain and France sold out Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany) comes on the eve of the big security conference in today's Bavarian capital, where his emissaries will meet western allies. That Munich security conference must be the beginning of a decisive European response, learning from our own tragic history in order to avoid repeating it.The next step Trump proposes is in effect a new Yalta" (referring to the February 1945 US-Soviet-UK summit in the Crimean resort of Yalta, which has become synonymous with superpowers deciding the fate of European countries over their heads). In this case, his proposal is that the US and Russia should decide the fate of Ukraine with marginal if any involvement of Ukraine or other European countries. But this time the occupants of the White House and the Kremlin should meet first in Saudi Arabia, then in their respective capitals, while it seems the actual Yalta, in the Crimea, is to be ceded to Russia. For in the brave new world of Trump and Putin, might is right and territorial expansion is what great powers do, be it Russia to Ukraine, the US to Canada and Greenland - or China to Taiwan.Timothy Garton Ash is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Social media driving demand for US products containing banned additives linked to cancer and behaviour issuesIllegal imported sweets that contain banned additives linked to cancer and behavioural problems are flooding UK high streets", councils have said.The warning first came from the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI), which said that demand for American confectionery was being driven by influencers on social media platforms. Continue reading...

There's no sign of the mass protests of his first term - but Democrats are building a less flashy politics of oppositionIn January 2017, the day after Donald Trump was first inaugurated as US president, hundreds of thousands of protesters descended on Washington for a Women's March" that was actually a broader-based vessel for popular rage. Not that the atmosphere was uniformly angry: I covered the march for a US radio network and found pockets of joy among the crowd. It's really exciting," a teenager from New York told me. It's democracy in action."The march, and parallel events around the country, was emblematic of what came to be known as the #Resistance, a loud liberal movement in opposition to Trump that took the form not only of mass protests, but court fights, adversarial media coverage (and increased consumption thereof) and grassroots organising. The movement made cult figures (not to mention merchandise) of figures seen as standing up for institutions, from the Trump-probing special counsel Robert Mueller to the supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.Jon Allsop is a freelance journalist. He writes CJR's newsletter The Media Today Continue reading...

On top of the human cost, the US's soft power and influence is disappearing. Russia and China will fill the voidAmid the daily troubling news coming from the United States are the ongoing and increasingly damaging efforts by President Donald Trump, supported by secretary of state Marco Rubio and Elon Musk, to shut down the US Agency for International Development (USAid). Musk has called it a criminal organization" and said that it was time for it to die". The agency website is down, so little official information is available. But in the week since funding to the agency was frozen, and the majority of staff placed on leave, thousands of public health and development programmes worldwide have been thrown into turmoil, and now face an uncertain future.USAid is the main federal agency that works to provide foreign aid assistance to the poorest countries and people in the world. On Friday, a US judge prevented around 2,000 USAid employees from being placed on leave, and ordered the reinstatement of about 500 more. But Trump and Musk appear to want to move forward with a plan that would see its global workforce reduced from about 10,000 staff and contractors, to just over 600.Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh

Does the death penalty - a life for a life' - really help victims' families achieve closure? A new documentary finds outFor almost 20 years, Aaron Castro was certain about what had to happen. John Ramirez had to die.Ramirez's execution was the only way to ensure he got the justice he deserved. And it was the only way that Castro, the son of Ramirez's victim, could staunch his bleeding heart, soothe the constant anger boiling inside him, and achieve what had been eluding him for two decades: closure. Continue reading...

President causes alarm in rush to secure peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv, saying Ukraine unlikely' to get much land back or join Nato. Plus, how dating apps ignore reports of rape

Legal experts warn the administration's illegitimate power grab upends democratic checks for a slide in to dictatorshipThe deceptively legalistic camouflage rendered the words almost banal - while still clearly communicating their ominous undercurrent.Judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power," wrote vice-president JD Vance, a graduate of Yale law school, on X as he waded into an escalating tug-of-war between his boss, Donald Trump, and the US federal courts. Continue reading...

The Berlinale opens today to an industry thriving on EU funds. But where is the money going - and are audiences benefiting too?European film is booming. Really. In spite of the disruption caused by the pandemic to production and release schedules, film productions on the continent have increased by more than 50% over the past decade. Some of these new films will premiere at the Berlin film festival, which opens today, or Cannes and Venice later in the year. Those who don't manage to get a slot at the big three" can still hope for red-carpet treatment: the submission platform FilmFreeway records more than 600 new European film festivals for this year alone.There is a less shiny flipside to the golden decade of European film, however. Since 2011, the growth in film productions has not been matched by a similar growth in audiences, meaning fewer moviegoers per film. In economics, increasing choices through product differentiation - offering more options to cater to diverse tastes - usually boosts demand. But for European cinema, the increase in production has not translated into more ticket sales. The French director Jacques Audiard's Emilia Perez feels like a symptomatic film in this regard, irrespective of the recent controversy around its star's social media comments. It was a jury-prize winner at Cannes, hyped as an arthouse-to-mainstream crossover hit with a triumphant night at the European film awards - and has mostly left cinemagoers cold.Moritz Pfeifer is a film critic and research fellow at Leipzig University's Institute of Economic Policy Continue reading...

With other former Dortmund stars thriving, the midfielder's unlucky and ill-timed run of injuries shows no sign of slowingGio Reyna looked serene, or maybe it was just the carefully cultivated light and airiness bouncing off him in Peleton's Manhattan headquarters, where we had met up for an interview last summer. Either way, he was healthy and happy for the first time in a while, after his half-season loan to Nottingham Forest had been a bust. He was still only 21 but seemed to have matured. He had just gotten engaged. The beef with US national team coach Gregg Berhalter was behind him - that whole sordid deal when Gio's parents sparked a civil war within American soccer with ugly allegations against Berhalter around the 2022 World Cup.He had dazzled, finally reemerging as the Reyna of old, at the Concacaf Nations League Finals in March, where he was named player of the tournament after guiding the US to a third straight title. He seemed perfectly positioned to make his mark on the Copa America. Instead the tournament turned into a debacle for the US. Reyna played plenty, but the host country eventually faced a group-stage elimination-cum-humiliation. Continue reading...

The USC point guard, self-described introvert and Clairo fan has lifted a dormant program back to relevancy and become one of LA's brightest sports stars. And she's still only 19It's a Tuesday night outside of downtown Los Angeles and I'm in a half-empty Galen Center on the University of Southern California campus. The whole place smells like movie-theater popcorn, sticky spilled soda, and, vaguely, sweat. The cheerleaders jumping up and down on the court, attempting to amp up the somewhat sleepy crowd, look like they could pass for middle schoolers. This is, in unmistakable and almost caricatured fashion, a college campus. But there's a certain player on the floor, with an oversized bulbous bun atop her head, who is sparkling a little differently than everyone around her. She moves so fluidly, gets to her spots on the floor with such ease. It's, frankly, just so very clear that she is operating in a different echelon than her peers. Even if you didn't tell me JuJu Watkins was a budding superstar, I'd know it.This year in particular, JuJu (government name: Judea Skies) Watkins' stardom is markedly transitioning from bud to full bloom. You'd be hard-pressed to find a stretch of road in Los Angeles without the USC sophomore's image on a Nike billboard, or a commercial block during a national NBA broadcast without her State Farm ad spot. With Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese having moved onto the WNBA last year, she's arguably the biggest remaining name in college basketball, men's or women's, and her resume is already impressive: Gatorade National Player of the Year, McDonald's All-American Game MVP, Unanimous First-Team All American, WBCA Freshman of the Year, the list goes on and on. Continue reading...

Figures who backed rights of religious minorities in Trump's first term fall silent as vital work halted on the groundDuring the first Trump administration, Mike Pence, the vice-president, pledged hundreds of millions of dollars, mostly through USAid and the state department, to help Christians and other religious minorities who were persecuted by Islamic State and - in the case of the Yazidis - suffered a genocide.But under the second Trump administration, the same figures who championed the rights of religious minorities have fallen silent or actively participated in the destruction of USAid, cutting crucial aid to support the same communities they once helped - who now feel abandoned by the US. Continue reading...

The Indian Ocean island is an integral part of France and the EU - but the aftermath of a devastating cyclone has highlighted its neglectImagine waking up to horrifying images of a region of France reduced to ruins after an extreme overnight weather event. We don't have to imagine it, because it happened in December. Tropical cyclones don't usually strike in Europe, but this one levelled a French departement. France's colonial history made that possible.Mayotte, situated in the Indian Ocean between Mozambique and Madagascar, is part of the former French colonial empire. It has been a French overseas collectivity since the 1970s and was made a department of France in 2011. As such it is an integral part of the EU, too. Continue reading...

The president's protectionist policies, ripe with potential global repercussions, show how exposed Washington feels to China's growing powerThe opening shots have been fired in a trade war. Multilateralism is on its last legs. Globalisation is being rolled back. It is less than a month since Donald Trump arrived back in the White House and he is a man in a hurry.Since being sworn in as president, Trump has been busily reshaping the world order. His decision to use tariffs to reduce the US trade deficit has grabbed most of the headlines, but is only half the story. He has pulled out of the World Health Organization and has gutted the US aid department. There is talk in Washington that he might even withdraw the US from the World Bank - a body the US helped to create at the end of the second world war.Larry Elliott is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on Wednesday that the Trump administration was suing New York State over its migrant policies, accusing state officials of choosing 'to prioritize illegal aliens over American citizens'. Bondi said she was out to end New York's 'green light' law, which allows people in the state to get a driver's license without citizenship or legal residency status. Although the suit is civil, not criminal, Bondi caused confusion by saying that the justice department had 'filed charges' against the state of New York

US president backs defense secretary who said Ukraine's Nato membership was not practical'; Tulsi Gabbard sworn in as national intelligence chief. This blog is now closed.Several Democratic state attorneys general warned that the country was in the grip of a full-blown constitutional crisis, as they battle Donald Trump in court over actions they argue are lawless and in some cases brazenly unconstitutional.We are on the brink of a dictatorship, and America has never been in a more dangerous position than she is today," Kris Mayes, the attorney general of Arizona, said at a press conference in Los Angeles on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Attorney general Pam Bondi targets state law allowing people to get driver's licenses without legal residencyThe US attorney general announced on Wednesday that the Trump administration is suing New York state over its immigration policies, accusing state officials of choosing to prioritize illegal aliens over American citizens".Standing in front of federal agents who have been tasked with helping in Trump's immigration crackdown, Pam Bondi echoed the president's rhetoric as she vowed the justice department would take on communities that thwart federal immigration efforts. Continue reading...

Don Farrell says placing a tariff on a country where there is a trade deficit doesn't make any sense' after US president announced blanket 25% duty

Prosecutors said Brad Lunsford, found guilty of voluntary manslaughter, shot Presley Eze at point-blank range in 2022A former police officer was found guilty on Wednesday of voluntary manslaughter in the killing of Presley Eze during a 2022 confrontation at a New Mexico gas station.Brad Lunsford, who is white, had pleaded not guilty in the fatal shooting of Eze, who was Black. The former Las Cruces officer's attorney, Jose Coronado, said he would ask the judge to review the verdict for its legal sufficiency. Continue reading...

Private plans, such as State Farm, required to give to Fair plan so all residents have access to fire insuranceCalifornia's home-insurance safety net does not have enough money to pay all of the claims from damage caused by the Los Angeles wildfires and has asked private insurers to contribute $1bn toward those claims.All private insurers operating in California are required to contribute to the Fair plan, a plan of last resort established so all Californians would have access to fire insurance. More than 450,000 California homeowners got their insurance through the Fair plan in 2024 - more than double the number in 2020. As of 4 February, the plan had received more than 4,700 claims from the Palisades and Eaton fires, almost half of which were for total losses". Continue reading...

Legal victory for Republican president is significant progress following string of courtroom setbacksDonald Trump's buyout program for federal employees can proceed, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday. The move paves a path forward for the 65,000 government workers who have volunteered to resign under the president's plan to shrink the federal workforce.The US district judge George O'Toole Jr in Boston - who halted the so-called Fork in the Road" program last week, before its 6 February deadline, to assess whether it was legal - found that the unions who had sued on behalf of their employees did not have legal standing to challenge the resignation offer because it would not directly affect them. O'Toole did not rule on the legality of the program itself. Continue reading...

Fremont adopts sweeping law that bans camping on public property and makes aiding, abetting' encampments illegalA northern California city passed a law targeting unhoused people that will ban camping on public property and make permitting, aiding, [or] abetting" encampments illegal - a provision that has caused worry among non-profits and advocates.The city council in Fremont, California, adopted the sweeping new ordinance - which has been described as one of the strictest in the state - on Tuesday with Fremont's mayor arguing such action was necessary to ensure residents' health and safety in the Bay Area community of 226,000. City officials were insistent that the law would not be used to target aid workers, but declined to clarify that point in the ordinance itself. Continue reading...

Quizzed on whether he opposes Nato membership for Ukraine, US president Donald Trump appeared to give backing to comments from defense secretary Pete Hegseth that 'he thinks it is unlikely or impractical'. 'I think that's probably true,' Trump said. He added: 'And I'm OK with that... It certainly would seem that most people have said that that is something that's not going to happen. '

Eaton fire destroyed more than 9,400 structures in the neighborhood and residents mourn loss of communityAfter the Eaton fire tore through Altadena last month, residents of the historically Black Los Angeles neighborhood - many of whom had purchased their homes decades earlier - began putting up signs declaring: Altadena is not for sale."However, it appears that the first burned-down property put up for sale is in escrow, just more than a week after the fire reached containment. The sale is expected to close Friday, says Brock Harris, a real estate agent, who adds that he's received lots of calls from people also looking to sell". Continue reading...

President accepts great honor' after terminating Biden appointees and installing loyalist as interim leaderDonald Trump has been named the chair of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC following a vote by its board on Wednesday.The center, which receives federal funding, is one of America's leading arts venues with a huge cultural profile in America's capital and has long enjoyed bipartisan support. Continue reading...

US secretary of defence Pete Hegseth says Ukraine would have to cede territory, alarming Kyiv and European allies

Website of Doge' includes information published by thinktank CEI, which claims to fight climate alarmism'

If Trump simply ignores the high court, is that the end of law?He is the most lawless president in American history.As Donald Trump's law-breaking continues, America's last defense is the federal courts.It appears that OMB sought to overcome a judicially imposed obstacle without actually ceasing the challenged conduct. The court can think of few things more disingenuous.It has become ever more apparent that, to our president, the rule of law is but an impediment to his policy goals. The rule of law is, according to him, something to navigate around or simply ignore, whether that be for political or personal gain.Within the past few years ... elected officials from across the political spectrum have raised the specter of open disregard for federal court rulings. These dangerous suggestions, however sporadic, must be soundly rejected.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His newest book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading...

No 2 US oil firm aims for $3bn in cost cuts through 2026 and seeks to simplify business after production challengesChevron will lay off 15-20% of its global workforce by the end of 2026, the US oil company said on Wednesday as it seeks to cut costs, simplify its business and complete a major acquisition.The No 2 US oil producer has faced production challenges including cost overruns and delays in a large Kazakhstan oilfield project. Its $53bn deal to acquire oil producer Hess and gain a foothold in Guyana's lucrative oilfield is in limbo due to a court battle with its larger rival Exxon Mobil, which has more aggressively expanded its own production. Continue reading...

Spending public money carefully is a virtue in itself, but running down the public sector can cause huge problems later onSlash-and-burn government is back in vogue. Whether it is ElonMusk and his engineers taking the axe to US agency spending, the Conservative leader, KemiBadenoch, wishing she had her own mini-Musk, or Sir Keir Starmer complaining about the tepid bath of managed decline", the complaint is that bureaucracy is bloated and needs to be cut down to size.

Street art will mark 60 years since US civil rights leader's trip to Smethwick shortly before his assassinationIt was a moment that united the US civil rights movement with the anti-racist movement in Britain, helping to change the country - and to mark its 60th anniversary it will be commemorated with a mural.On 12 February 1965, the black American activist Malcolm X visited Smethwick, in the West Midlands after what is remembered as the most racist election campaign the UK has ever seen. Continue reading...

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They are young and seizing the reins of government on their master's behalf with an imperial swagger. It will end in many tearsYou would be forgiven for thinking we were back at the Bullingdon Club, in the company of Jonty, Munty, Stiffy, Kipper, Chugger and, to use the polite version, Pig Botherer - only in this case it's Big Balls and a guy with a history of racist tweeting. This is the sudden, startling emergence into American political life of a type deeply recognisable to Brits: that is, jaunty young men with juvenile nicknames and a firm belief they should be running the world.This being America, the class signifiers are slightly different from those in Britain. But in most regards, the cohort of young men hired by Elon Musk for his cost-cutting taskforce, the department of government efficiency (Doge), will be familiar to anyone who lived through the era of Boris Johnson's weapons-grade flippancy or reports of David Cameron's youthful hijinks. (Donald Trump is very flippant, of course, but his style skews locker room rather than debate chamber - or, in this case, maths olympiad.) And while politics has always run on young, volunteer energy, less common in the US, perhaps, is the imperial swagger, the sheer frivolous entitlement accompanying a crowd that has seemingly been given the keys to the kingdom.Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Senate approves nomination of former Democrat as Mitch McConnell is sole Republican to vote against Trump pick

The president repeatedly claimed he would lower prices during the election campaign, but that's not an easy taskAs tens of millions of Americans prepared to watch the Super Bowl this weekend, Donald Trump sat for the customary pre-game presidential interview.Trump was elected after pledging to bring down prices fast as much of the country grappled with the cost of living after years of heightened inflation. So when the Fox News anchor asked would families start to feel the impact, the president changed the subject. Continue reading...

I found the history of the world there, told through the medium of pots. The orgy of earthenware was bafflingHaving lived in London since 1986, it was to my shame and discredit that I'd never been to the British Museum. I was not proud of the fact. This wasn't a one-man boycott over the Parthenon marbles or anything like that. I'd just never got round to it. And this wasn't good enough. So last week, at the ripe old age of nearly 58, I paid the British Museum a visit.Ah, Mr Chiles," exclaimed no one when I walked in, about time!" But there must have been something trepidatious about me, because a nice chap asked if I needed any help. I stammered something about looking for room 41. A friend had told me room 41 was special, so it seemed as good a place as any to start. This room tells the story of Europe from AD300. Which was amazing and all that, except it was a story told mainly through the medium of pots. Urns, pots and assorted drinking vessels of all shapes and sizes. I moved from room 41 to other rooms, going backwards and forwards in time and to all points of the compass, and found yet more pots, urns and drinking vessels. Ornate pots, rustic pots, arty pots, functional pots. Continue reading...

School voucher bill likely to benefit wealthier families, allowing $10,000 of taxpayer dollars per student per yearDonald Trump's executive order on school choice last month may soon be wholly embraced by the state of Texas.Earlier this month, the Texas governor, Greg Abbott, announced school choice as an emergency item during his State of the State address, and just last week, the Texas senate easily passed a school voucher bill (known as senate bill 2 or SB2), which House Republicans expect to pass imminently. Continue reading...

US defence secretary says Europe should lead in defending Ukraine and that restoring pre-2014 borders is unrealistic

City had not deployed mobile 700lb steel barriers on night of deadly Bourbon Street truck attackNew Orleans plans to protect large sections of its Mardi Gras parade routes with mobile 700lb steel barriers that are designed to prevent intentional vehicle rammings - but which were not deployed on the night that the city endured the deadly Bourbon Street truck attack at the beginning of the year, according to the blockades' manufacturer.The Meridian Rapid Defense Group announced that the city would expand its renewed use of the company's Archer 1200 barriers in a recent statement issued after the firm's chief executive officer indicated time was running out to be able to get the blockades where they needed to be for Carnival celebrations culminating in Mardi Gras on 4 March. Continue reading...

The director of a US group of 1,000 medical providers dedicated to LGBTQ+ health equity addresses the falloutDonald Trump's executive order attacking transgender youth healthcare has unleashed chaos inside medical institutions across the country, with providers forced to cancel vital treatment and facing threats to their careers and clinics as they fight to serve their patients.The president's 28 January policy declared federal funding should be revoked from centers that provide gender-affirming care, including hormone therapy and puberty blockers, to youth under the age of 19. While the majority of trans healthcare providers have maintained services, institutions in New York, Colorado, Virginia, California and Washington DC announced immediate pauses on youth treatment. Continue reading...

Press organization submitted legal filing about missing video related to case against Glen SimonAttorneys representing a collection of news organizations said in a legal filing submitted on Tuesday that video evidence used during the sentencing of a rioter involved in the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol had vanished from an online government platform.Nine videos related to the case against Glen Simon, who pleaded guilty to a count of disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, have disappeared and are no longer available in the database, according to the filing. Continue reading...

The US's decision to to resume 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium imports will fuel inflation and create a 'lose-lose scenario', the EU trade commissioner, Maro efovi, told the European parliament on Tuesday. He added that the EU 'will be responding in a firm and proportionate way by countermeasures'.The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, told the Bundestag the EU would react in unison to US tariffs but he hoped that path could be avoided because, 'in the end, trade wars always cost both sides prosperity'. Hong Kong's chief secretary, Eric Chan, said Hong Kong would file a complaint about recent US tariffs imposed on it to the World Trade Organization.The tariffs are scheduled to take effect on 12 March. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when signing the executive order that the tariffs would be imposed 'without exceptions or exemptions' and it was 'the beginning of making America rich again'

Consumer price index rose by 3% in January as president has yet to fulfill pledge of tackling high cost of livingInflation ticked higher in the US in January as Donald Trump returned to office with a pledge to rapidly reduce prices.The consumer price index rose by 3% last month - up slightly from December's annualized 2.9% reading. Continue reading...