President-elect's plan to quash undocumented migration through mass deportations met with Democratic resistanceDonald Trump's vow to deport millions of undocumented immigrants has no price tag", the president-elect has said, setting the scene for a confrontation between his incoming administration and Democratic officials across the US.As Democratic state governors and mayors signalled their determination to resist the most extreme elements of his agenda, Trump promised that his campaign pledge to expel an estimated 11 million people - though Trump himself has given a figure as high as 21 million - would be implemented come what may. Continue reading...
Rob Bonta vows to defend state from president-elect's policies threatening immigrants, abortion rights and moreCalifornia was considered a leader in fighting the most extreme policies of Donald Trump's first administration, and after the Republican's decisive win this week, officials in the Golden state say they are more prepared to resist Trump's expected agenda for his second term.Rob Bonta, California's attorney general, will be a crucial figure in that effort, tasked with spearheading litigation and defending vulnerable Californians' rights in the courtroom. It's a tall order as the president-elect has promised policies that could threaten the state's immigrant population, LGBTQ+ residents, climate initiatives, gun safety measures, healthcare programs and abortion rights. Continue reading...
The last time was awful, but now that seems a mere dress rehearsal. From a public health crisis to the end of Nato, the threats are clearAre you ready for Trump unbound? You may have thought the former and future president was already pretty unrestrained, not least because Donald Trump has never shown anything but brazen disrespect for boundaries or limits of any kind. And you would be right. But, as an earlier entertainer turned president - and Trump combines the two roles - liked to say: You ain't seen nothing yet.That's because the 47th president will enter the Oval Office free of almost all constraints. He will be able to do all that he promised and all that he threatened, with almost nothing and no one to stand in his way.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
In an exclusive interview the first American woman to sailboat alone and nonstop around the globe discusses her mission to break down barriersAt only 30 years old she has already conquered the world. Petite, upbeat and outspoken, Cole Brauer recently sailed alone non-stop around the globe in just 130 days, closely documenting her trip on social media. As the only woman to take part in the Global Solo Challenge and the youngest participant, she came second out of 16, behind Frenchman Philippe Delamare.After a lot of chasing, the Guardian caught up with her for an exclusive interview at the Annapolis Sailboat Show on the Eastern Shore. Continue reading...
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz had an opportunity to win a demographic that swung toward Trump - but they didn't fight for it, says the authorIn the months leading up to election day, pollsters were fixated on one demographic: young men. This group, often elusive in political data, was showing signs of a notable swing toward Donald Trump and away from the progressive viewpoints of young women.Traditionally a policy wonk, Richard Reeves became an unlikely media mainstay this election cycle, sought after by those trying to decode the concerns and motivations of these gen Z male voters. Reeves is president of the American Institute for Boys and Men, which he started in 2023 to create research-based approaches to bettering the education, mental health, and work and family life of men. Many of the institute's policy proposals were outlined in Reeves's 2022 book Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do About It. Continue reading...
Project 2025 and other far-right groups have outlined a blueprint for Trump's second termAs Donald Trump prepares to move back into the White House, he'll have a host of rightwing groups trying to influence his staffing choices and policy proposals, including the group behind Project 2025, despite Trump's insistence they won't be involved.Democrats repeatedly ran attacks on Trump over Project 2025, the conservative manifesto that its writers want to guide a second Trump administration. Trump tried to distance himself from it and from the group behind it, the Heritage Foundation, one of DC's biggest thinktanks. Continue reading...
Also this week, Bezos, Musk and Zuckerberg change their mailing address to Donald Trump's RectumLooking back to Monday, the world seemed a quaint place - but by the end of the week it had become a lot darker. On Tuesday night, Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the United States, having served as the 45th (Grover Cleveland set the precedent for serving two non-consecutive terms in the White House), and in the first 48 hours there were new norms and proprieties to straighten out. For example: was it productive in the aftermath of the election to call the 72 million Americans who voted for Trump a bunch of idiots? Continue reading...
Russian leader expresses admiration for Trump as race for control of the House intensifies. Plus, why a movement calling for celibacy among straight women is going viral after Trump's winGood morning.Vladimir Putin has congratulated Donald Trump on his election victory and said Moscow was ready for dialogue, in a development that will deeply concern Kyiv and dial up unease across Europe.What has Trump said on Ukraine? He has claimed, with little substantiation, that he could bring peace to Ukraine within 24 hours" - leading to fears within Nato that his plan may just be to order Ukraine to surrender.Where are we up to in the House? The Democrats have 199 seats, while the Republicans are ahead at 211. There are still 25 races to call at the time of writing - but either side only needs 218 for a majority. Continue reading...
The whole horror show seems so predictable now, doesn't it? Just like it did the last time ...My husband knows masses more about US politics than me, so do imagine how much he enjoyed me spending the best part of the past two years telling him Trump's going to win", simply because I felt it in my vibes. However, earlier this year, he started to agree with me, which I had to concede meant a lot because he was basing it on actual information, and had the first clue what he was talking about. Scrolling back through my text messages to him, I am reading things such as: Sorry, Harris is selling joy'???? Please tell me the election anywhere in history that was won on joy because I would LOVE to hear about it." (Sidenote: I can see from reviewing the data that I've really over-leaned into the sassy question mark this year.)Anyway, there's plenty more in this vein. I don't believe all this polling, I just think it's all some massive cope?" Yet when I was asked on the afternoon of election day who I predicted would win it, I promptly said Kamala Harris?" Later that night, on the phone, my husband wondered mildly why I had abandoned the conviction of long months of kitchen rants and annoyingly punctuated text messages. I don't know," I replied. I guess I just ... forgot?"Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
The Democrats must learn to speak to voters who don't believe in the politics of old and aren't interested in returning to itThe ever-splenetic HL Mencken once wrote that democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard". He was no liberal, but it's a line many Democrats today would be taken with. On Tuesday, the first wave of election postmortems have lamented, the American people took the full measure of Donald Trump - oaf, cheat, bigot and fascist - and re-elected him under no illusions, in full cognizance of what another Trump term would mean for the country.One can quibble with this just a bit: there's a lot that emerged over the course of this campaign that most voters probably didn't know much about, from a plan to invade Mexico that Trump may well have forgotten himself to late breaking news on the depth of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Still, frustrated Democrats are directionally correct here on the whole. Trump won this election fairly, squarely and soundly as a well-known quantity - a former president and the most widely discussed man in the world, who will return to the White House in his 10th year at the center of American life.Osita Nwanevu is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...
by Ramon Antonio Vargas and David Hammer of WWL Louis on (#6S2NB)
Move follows church's 2020 bankruptcy filing, hundreds of allegations and a standoff with survivorsIn a gesture of reconciliation to victims of its decades-old clergy molestation scandal, the Roman Catholic archdiocese of New Orleans has tentatively agreed to publicly release the confidential personnel files of priests and deacons faced with substantial allegations of child sexual abuse.Church officials on Thursday announced the plan to disclose clergy files as one of several non-monetary commitments in the US's second-oldest Catholic archdiocese efforts to settle a costly federal bankruptcy reorganization first filed in 2020. Continue reading...
The party, increasingly divorced from workers, leaned too much on an activist base instead of a voting baseI turned on MSNBC after the election results came in and this, verbatim, was the commentary I heard: This really was a historic, flawlessly run campaign. She had Queen Latifah [who] never endorses anyone! She had every prominent celebrity voice, she had the Taylor Swifties, she had the Beyhive. You could not run a better campaign in that short period of time." Democrats, it seems, are already blaming their defeat this week on a host of contingent factors and not on their own shortcomings.It's, of course, true that inflation has hurt incumbents across the world. But that doesn't mean that there was nothing that Joe Biden could have done to address the problem. He could have rolled out anti-price-gouging measures early, pushed taxes on corporate super profits and more. Through well-designed legislation and the right messaging, inflation could have been both mitigated and explained. That's what president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador offered his supporters in Mexico and his governing coalition enjoyed commanding support. Continue reading...
Revealed: new book by far-right Kevin Roberts calls for conservatives to burn away the rot' of US institutionsA new book by the chief architect of Project 2025, a hugely controversial policy plan for a second Trump term, repeatedly employs imagery of fire and burning, including calling for rightwingers to burn away the rot" of American institutions and organizations deemed opposed to conservative aims.The news comes after a White House address on Thursday, two days after Donald Trump beat Kamala Harris in the US presidential election, when Joe Biden called on Americans to bring down the temperature" after months of heated political battle. Continue reading...
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Four teams dominated the regular season but the playoffs are notoriously fickle. Our writers make their picks for the upcoming battle for the titleThe elites. Orlando, Washington, Gotham and Kansas City were the best teams in the regular season. And there was a 16-point gap between fourth-placed Kansas City and North Carolina, who finished fifth in the table. Collectively, the top four were responsible for 46% of the wins and 40% of the goals scored in the 14-team league. The players, owners and off-field developments associated with these squads formed most (but not all) of the league's most fascinating storylines. It will be exciting to see which of them, if any, survive the playoffs. AA Continue reading...
by Nadia Khomami Arts and culture correspondent on (#6S2JN)
Scottish actor went viral for his disdain of president-elect during TV appearance alongside Boris JohnsonArtists need to keep the flag of truth flying" after Donald Trump's election victory, the legendary Scottish actor Brian Cox has said.Cox, who played Logan Roy in the hit HBO series Succession, also said the world has never been in a more dangerous place than it is at the moment" as he reflected on the US election campaign and a second impending Trump presidency. Continue reading...
With Germany's government collapsing and Europeans so divided in their response to Trump, unity is essential yet elusiveThe first victim of Donald Trump's second term as US president is likely to be Ukraine. The only people who can avert that disaster are us Europeans, yet our continent is in disarray. Germany's coalition government chose the day we woke up to news of Trump's triumph, of all days, to fall apart in bitter rancour. Unless Europe can somehow rise to the challenge, not just Ukraine but the whole continent will be left weak, divided and angry as we enter a new and dangerous period of European history.In Ukraine itself, people have been trying to find a silver lining in that orange cloud rapidly approaching Washington. After all, they were increasingly frustrated with the self-deterrence of Joe Biden's administration. This slender new hope was perfectly captured in a text message sent to me by a frontline Ukrainian commander. Trump, he wrote, is a surprise-man, maybe things will get better".Timothy Garton Ash is a historian, political writer and Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Close races in states where counting is still underway called in to question as claims of fraud in presidential vote quietenActivists are using Donald Trump's decisive victory to further question the 2020 election results and sow doubts about close US senate races where ballots are still being counted.While they've been quiet about fraud in the presidential election this year, activists pointed to the unofficial total number of votes cast, noting that 20m more ballots had been cast in 2020. Ignoring the reality that there are millions of votes still being counted in states like California, Arizona and Nevada, they suggested the incomplete number was somehow evidence there were fake ballots in 2020. Continue reading...
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Guardian analysis suggests Harris underperformed compared with 2020 - but in the states that mattered most it was Trump's gains that won him the White HouseNationwide, the US election was primarily a story of Democratic underperformance rather than huge Republican gains compared to 2020 - but in the swing states that ultimately decided the victor, it was the opposite story, with Trump's gains far outstripping Harris's losses.Across the US, Democrats lost more total votes overall compared with 2020 than Republicans gained: Harris attracted 1.4m fewer votes than her Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, did, while Trump attracted 1.1m more than he did in the previous election. Continue reading...
Kamala Harris did not escape blame for the decisive loss to Donald Trump, but a failure to distance herself from Joe Biden was held up as a cause by some
The Biden administration has confirmed that the US will keep sending aid to Ukraine before Donald Trump becomes president in January. 'That's not going to change. We're going to surge and get that out there to Ukraine. We understand how important it is to make sure they have what they need', said White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre. President-elect Donald Trump, who won the US election this week, has been critical of Joe Biden's assistance for Ukraine in its fight against Russia
by Gabrielle Canon in Oakland and Anna Betts on (#6S1ZC)
Mountain fire in Ventura county has destroyed 132 homes and damaged 88, and fire is 5% contained, officials sayA wind-driven wildfire roared through rural and residential communities north-west of Los Angeles, charring more than 20,500 acres and leveling scores of homes.The Mountain fire in Ventura county, California, continued to burn on Thursday morning, as footage showed dozens of structures turned to smoldering ruins now lining the streets where neighborhoods once stood. Continue reading...
Wiles, 67, who stressed discipline as Trump re-election chief, to become first ever female presidential chief of staffSusie Wiles, who was named Donald Trump's new White House chief of staff, will be the first woman in US history to serve in the role as gatekeeper to the president, a position that typically wields great influence.The chief of staff position is usually the first appointee that a president-elect names, and may oversee the transition from one administration. Once Trump is sworn in as president, Wiles will also be in charge of all White House policy, serving as a confidante and adviser and managing day-to-day affairs. Continue reading...
McCormick ousts incumbent Democratic Bob Casey after contentious and expensive race, widening party's majorityThe Republican Dave McCormick won the Senate race in the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Thursday, denying the Democratic incumbent, Bob Casey, a fourth term and expanding his party's majority in the upper chamber. Despite the call from the Associated Press, Casey has refused to concede the race, as the top state election official reported that tens of thousands of ballots remained uncounted.When the AP called the race at 4.09pm ET on Thursday, two days after polls closed in Pennsylvania, McCormick led by 0.5 points. The narrow margin raised the possibility of a recount, although Casey faces an uphill climb in overcoming McCormick's lead of roughly 30,000 votes.Trump wins the presidency - how did it happen?Full presidential election results and mapAbortion ballot measure results by stateRepublicans retake control of the SenateSenate, House and governor results Continue reading...
A wind-driven wildfire roared through rural and residential communities north-west of Los Angeles, charring more than 10,000 acres (4,000 hectares) and levelling scores of homes. Hundreds of firefighters battled the blaze through the night using ground resources and helicopters, according to the Ventura county fire department. At least two people were injured and several structures were damaged or destroyed by the fire in Ventura County, the fire department has reported.
Trump has been a persistent critic of the Fed, which lowered rates for the second time in a row as inflation continues to easeUS Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said he would not resign if he received any pressure from Donald Trump's new administration to step down as the central bank lowered interest rates by a quarter-point Tuesday afternoon.Trump has been a persistent critic of the Fed and its independence, calling its officials boneheads" in his last administration and arguing that he should have a role in setting interest rates. Continue reading...
Chokwe Antar Lumumba, Jackson's Democratic mayor, says he never accepted a bribe' after reported indictmentThe mayor of Mississippi's capital city said on Wednesday that he had been indicted in an alleged bribery operation, and he said it was a political prosecution" to hurt his 2025 campaign for re-election.My legal team has informed me that federal prosecutors have, in fact, indicted me on bribery and related charges," Chokwe Antar Lumumba, the Jackson mayor, said in a video statement on Wednesday, WJTV and other news outlets reported. To be clear, I have never accepted a bribe of any type. As mayor, I have always acted in the best interests of the city of Jackson." Continue reading...
Prosecutors argue case falls under Idaho's crime statutes while Bryan Kohberger's lawyers declare it unconstitutionalBryan Kohberger, the man accused of murdering four University of Idaho students in 2022, appeared at a hearing in Idaho on Thursday as his lawyers attempt to eliminate the possibility of the death penalty if he is convicted.Kohberger, who sat in court wearing a suit on Thursday, has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder and burglary for the deaths of Madison Mogen, 21; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20, who were stabbed to death in an off-campus residence in Moscow, Idaho, two years ago on 13 November 2022. He has pleaded not guilty. Continue reading...
At least 200 people gathered outside the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago to protest against Donald Trump's re-election as US president. In footage posted to social media, protesters could be seen holding banners reading 'end the Trump era' and calling for an end to the war in Gaza
by George Chidi, Alice Herman, Adam Gabbatt, Sam Levi on (#6S26B)
Democrats are coming to terms with a new political reality for America while some - but not all that we spoke to - Republicans look ahead with excitement
The media will be under siege, but former Washington Post editor Marty Baron has some ideas for what journalists can doEverything we know about the next US president suggests that the press in America will be under siege in the next four years as never before.After all, Donald Trump has portrayed the media as the enemy of the people", has suggested that he wouldn't mind seeing journalists get shot, and, in recent months, has sued CBS News and the Pulitzer prize organization.Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture Continue reading...
The US president told citizens he would 'ensure a peaceful and orderly transition' to the White House after the former Republican president Donald Trump won the 5 November election. Biden confirmed he had spoken to Trump to congratulate him. He added that the US election system 'can be trusted' - a reference to Trump's baseless insistence Biden had lost in 2020
The so-called heterodoxy' endorsed the Republican's hyper-masculine promise. Their young male fans listenedLate on Tuesday night, when it became clear that Donald Trump would be re-elected as president of the United States, the so-called heterodoxy" was elated.For years, these male podcasters, influencers and public figures had marketed themselves as free-thinking pundits who evaded the bounds of political classification. Their political views could once have been described as libertarian," Anna Merlan wrote for the Guardian in August; the word used to describe them pointed to the same, derived from the Greek heteros, meaning other, and doxa, meaning opinion. Continue reading...
A lot of people say they just don't care about politics', and I'm sure that would make for an easier life. But Kamala Harris was right: we must carry on the fightWith wailing woe in the small hours, many of you shared that wrenching despair when the US election result extinguished hope. Beyond reason, beyond reckoning, a nation that was once the beacon of the democratic world has knowingly elected a dangerous, racist demagogue, a pussy-grabbing" criminal who tried to overthrow the government, a wild conspiracy spreader, a squalid, reckless beast of fathomless vanity and corruption. Caligula, Commodus, Nero, Domitian ... This is the way a civilisation dies: by suicide not murder.Donald Trump could now command both houses of Congress and the supreme court, with no steadying countervailing instinct for national self-preservation. America first" means no allies, no special relationships", tariffs for all. Encourage Russia to do whatever the hell they want", Nato be damned. He will send in the military to force mass deportations of millions of migrants. He threatens the justice system with revenge, with protesters and opponents branded the enemy within". This democratically elected self-described dictator" can do whatever he wants. And the tides will carry this poison across the Atlantic, invigorating Europe's hard right from Nigel Farage to Viktor Orban, Geert Wilders to Marine Le Pen, the Alternative fur Deutschland to the Sweden Democrats.Polly Toynbee 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...
Experts say many don't know what to do now that Trump can carry out vow to run biggest deportation in US history'Fear is rippling through undocumented communities across the US as Donald Trump prepares to take the White House, promising record deportations after an election campaign filled with hate speech against migrants and a first term marked by anti-immigration crackdowns.In the final run-up to the presidential election, Areli Hernandez traveled to Phoenix to talk to voters about what mass deportations and, for many, a new form of family separation could mean for millions. Continue reading...
A Kamala-Harris-like fate could await Keir Starmer unless he becomes more class conscious - even populistWhatever determinedly positive things centre-left leaders around the world have said about Donald Trump's victory in public, in private they must have greeted it with a shudder. Not just because of the dark and chaotic prospect of another Trump presidency, but because in many ways the defeated Kamala Harris is just like them. She is a hard worker, a patient reformer, a reasonably good communicator, an instinctive mover towards the ideological centre, a supposed antidote to rightwing populism, and yet also an incumbent, in an era when such perceived protectors of the status quo are widely despised.Keir Starmer may have particular cause to worry. On her campaign website, Harris promised to bring together" trade unions and business, grow the economy" and increase both basic pay rates and employment. She said she had voted for legislation creating hundreds of thousands of high-quality clean-energy jobs", and ensuring America's energy security". She said she would cut red tape" to build more housing". She pledged tough, smart solutions to secure the border ... and reform our broken immigration system." Above all, she presented her rightwing opponent as cruel", dangerous" and unfit to lead". Continue reading...
Residents advised to keep doors and windows locked as police use thermal imaging cameras to search for animalsThese monkeys went bananas: 40 monkeys escaped from a research facility in South Carolina, and local authorities on Wednesday warned residents to stay away.Residents are strongly advised to keep doors and windows secured to prevent these animals from entering homes," the Yemassee police department said on Facebook this week. If you spot any of the escaped animals, please contact 911 immediately and refrain from approaching them." Continue reading...
There were boosts for Liverpool and Manchester United (by proxy). We hand out honours and dishonours from the latest round of actionLiverpool Continue reading...
Former New York City mayor ordered to report to court after date passed to surrender valuables as part of $148m defamation judgementRudy Giuliani will appear in a New York City courtroom on Thursday to explain to a federal judge why he has not surrendered his valuables as part of a $148m defamation judgment.Lewis Liman, a US district judge, ordered the former New York City mayor to report to court after lawyers for the two former Georgia election workers who were awarded the large judgment visited Giuliani's Manhattan apartment last week only to discover it had been cleared out weeks earlier. Continue reading...
Americans believe firmly in democracy, and Trump winning is not an endorsement of authoritarianismDemocracy requires faith of various kinds. It requires faith in the wisdom of the people, in the durability of its institutions and in a future that we cannot foresee.As one commentator aptly puts it, we must recognize that democracy is a process and not a destination". Continue reading...
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