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Jeb Boasberg instructs Trump administration to explain how refusal to return flights did not violate court orderA federal judge instructed the Trump administration on Thursday to explain why its failure to turn around flights carrying deportees to El Salvador did not violate his court order in a growing showdown between the judicial and executive branches.James Boasberg, the US district judge, demanded answers after flights carrying Venezuelan immigrants alleged by the Trump administration to be gang members landed in El Salvador after the judge temporarily blocked deportations conducted under an 18th-century wartime law. Boasberg had directed the administration to return planes that were already in the air to the US when he ordered the halt. Continue reading...

Edward James received three-drug lethal injection under death warrant signed in February by governor Ron DeSantisA Florida man who killed an eight-year-old girl and her grandmother on a night in which he drank heavily and used drugs was executed on Thursday.Edward James, 63, was pronounced dead at 8.15pm after receiving a three-drug injection at Florida state prison outside Starke under a death warrant signed in February by Governor Ron DeSantis. The execution was the second this year in Florida, which is planning a third in April. Continue reading...

US claims tattoos prove membership of Tren de Aragua gang but relatives describe tributes to God, family and Real MadridLike many Venezuelans of his generation, Franco Jose Caraballo Tiapa is a man of many tattoos.There is one of a rose, one of a lion, and another - on the left side of the 26-year-old's neck - of a razor blade that represents his work as a barber. Continue reading...

Badar Khan Suri, who teaches at Georgetown University, being held incommunicado in Louisiana staging center'A US district judge has barred Donald Trump's administration from deporting an Indian academic from Georgetown University after the Department of Homeland Security accused him of having ties to Hamas.On Thursday, US district judge Patricia Giles in Alexandria, Virginia, prohibited federal officials from deporting Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral fellow at the university, in an order that is to remain in effect until it is lifted by the court, Reuters reports. Continue reading...

Doubts that whatever remains of department can govern student debt as one in four US adults under 40 has loansDonald Trump ordered the dismantling of the US Department of Education on Thursday, prompting uncertainty for those holding student debt and questions about what happens next.Trump's press secretary told reporters earlier on Thursday what remained of the department would continue to govern student debt. Continue reading...

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday calling for the dismantling of the US education department, advancing a campaign promise to take apart an agency that has been a longtime target of conservatives

Masih Alinejad had incurred the wrath of Tehran by campaigning for Iranian women to reject strict dress codesTwo men have been found guilty of plotting to assassinate the Iranian American journalist Masih Alinejad at her home in New York City in a murder-for-hire scheme that prosecutors said was financed by the Iranian government.The verdict was returned at a federal court in New York on Thursday, ending a two-week trial that featured dramatic testimony from a hired gunman and Alinejad, an author, activist and contributor to Voice of America. Continue reading...

Donald Trump signed an executive order to undo the federal department on ThursdayDonald Trump has taken the overwhelming step of undoing the Department of Education on Thursday by signing an executive order to dismantle the agency in charge of the country's national education policy.With the stroke of a pen, Trump fulfills a campaign promise he made all the way back in 2016. Continue reading...

Pam Bondi said the three accused had caused of violent destruction' of Tesla cars and charging stationsThe US attorney general announced charges against three people she accused of violent destruction of Tesla properties", amid protests and controversy over Tesla owner Elon Musk's role in slashing US government staffing and budgets under Donald Trump.In a statement on Thursday, Pam Bondi said: The days of committing crimes without consequence have ended. Let this be a warning: if you join this wave of domestic terrorism against Tesla properties, the Department of Justice will put you behind bars." Continue reading...

The Not Invisible Act Commission's resource was historic for Native Americans. It's now been scrubbed from federal websites

Investigators say he ran mafia-like' enterprise and is charged with crimes including drug traffickingFederal authorities have taken into custody on Wednesday an alleged longtime leader of a Los Angeles street gang who investigators say ran a mafia-like" criminal enterprise that included murder, human trafficking and extortion while he also worked as an entertainment entrepreneur, officials announced.Eugene Henley Jr, known as Big U", was one of 18 members of the Rollin' 60s Neighborhood Crips charged in a federal complaint with a litany of federal crimes including drug trafficking, conspiracy and firearms offenses, the United States attorney's office said in a statement. Continue reading...

We want to hear from federal workers and others whose area of work has been impacted by the Trump administration's policiesSince inauguration on 20 January, the Trump administration has sought to move quickly across a swathe of policy areas.From radically reducing the civil service, immigration, education, health, taxes and tariffs, aid, foreign policy and more, Donald Trump has sought to remake US policy, signing 92 executive orders in 2025 - the most in a president's first 100 days for decades. Continue reading...

A vote expected to be tense, tight and protracted turned out to be one-sided and extraordinarily brief, ending with Kirsty Coventry's election as IOC presidentIn addition to the seven candidates a total of eight IOC members will not be allowed to vote in the first round. They are using an electronic voting process that involves some kind of smart card, which are currently being distributed.All of the important procedural stuff are in the preamble or at the bottom of this page. Continue reading...

Justin Eichorn, 40, faces federal charge after allegedly trying to meet with underage girl found through sex adA Minnesota state lawmaker who is accused of trying to buy sex from an underage girl resigned from the state senate on Thursday before his colleagues were set to vote to expel him.Justin Eichorn, a Republican, was charged with a felony in federal court on Wednesday for attempted coercion and enticement of a minor after responding to online sex ads and trying to arrange a meetup with a 17-year-old. Continue reading...

Wendell Grissom, executed for fatally shooting a woman, will be one of four people put to death in US this weekOklahoma executed a man on Thursday for fatally shooting a woman during a home invasion and robbery 20 years ago.Wendell Grissom, 56, was declared dead by lethal injection at the Oklahoma state penitentiary in McAlester at 10.13am, a prison official told the Associated Press. It was Oklahoma's first execution of 2025. Continue reading...

Senate and House committee chairs warn against plan for US to relinquish command of Nato forces in EuropeRepublicans on Capitol Hill are threatening a revolt against a defence shake-up reportedly planned by the Trump administration that could see the US relinquish its command of Nato forces in Europe.The two top Republicans on the Senate and House of Representatives armed services committees, Roger Wicker and Mike Rogers, signaled their opposition in an extraordinary joint statement warning that the change would risk undermining American deterrence around the globe". Continue reading...

Johnathan Buma, who said his concerns about Rudy Giuliani were ignored, charged with disclosing classified informationA veteran FBI agent who blew the whistle on alleged political bias during Donald Trump's first presidency was arrested at New York's JFK airport moments before boarding an international flight.Johnathan Buma, a 15-year counterintelligence officer and eventual whistleblower, now faces charges of illegally disclosing classified information through a prospective tell-all book about his career. Continue reading...

Here's how to catch the college basketball's most chaotic three weeks on television and streaming, plus what to know about tip-off time, the Final Four and more Continue reading...

Israel's PM wants to transfer' Palestinians from Gaza, purge his traditional domestic rivals - and keep the right wing in power for ever

Political scientist Mneesha Gellman on the deportees' fates, dire prison conditions and Bukele-Trump parallelsThe Trump administration has flown 238 Venezuelans to an El Salvador prison that human rights groups say is designed to disappear people.Despite a judge's order temporarily blocking the move, the US government flew more than 200 men that it had accused of gang membership to the Terrorism Confinement Center", or Cecot - a draconian mega-prison that has become central to the promise of the Salvadorian president, Nayib Bukele, promise to rid his country of crime. Continue reading...

The Computer & Communications Industry Association named Australia's News Media Bargaining Incentive in its submission

Gaza health officials say hundreds have been killed since Israeli bombing shattered the ceasefire. Plus, Trump and Zelenskyy share call over partial Ukraine ceasefire

Americans are struggling to reconcile Trump's campness and cruelty - but comedy has always been a tool for authoritariansEvery night on a new Broadway production of Cabaret, Adam Lambert waits to see how the audience will react to one of the show's biggest numbers, If You Could See Her. The song sees Lambert's Emcee dancing with a performer in a gorilla costume and finishes with him looking into the ape's eyes singing: If you could see her through my eyes / She wouldn't look Jewish at all."The line is supposed to represent the normalisation of bigotry, demonstrating how the Kit Kat Club, once the most immoderate, carefree cabaret club in Berlin, has amended its routines in order to placate the new Nazi patrons. The moment used to provoke gasps from audiences. But during this run, which spanned the US general election campaign and second Trump presidency, there have been many nights when the cast have heard guffaws in the crowd. Continue reading...

Every night I hurl them off the bed. Every morning they are replaced. Off, on, off, on, for ever. Serving no purpose whatsoever.Scatter cushions and bedspreads. Why? What for? If it wasn't for the waste and environmental impact, I'd make a huge pile and torch them all. You'd see the fire from the moon. Alternatively, pick them apart and make something useful out of them. I'd collect them by means of a national scatter cushion and bedspread amnesty. Post them to a facility and leave the rest to me.Let's take bedspreads first. Big, heavy, useless. Especially the one on the bed at my mum's house. I can't always summon the strength to drag it off the bed and leave it in a heap on the floor. If I do, along with leaving no floor space for anything else, this earns me a fierce bollocking. I am commanded to heave it out of the bedroom and hang it on the bannister, which creaks beneath its formidable weight. Then, when my stay is over, I have to wrangle the bedspread back on to the bed, as it is far too heavy for her to handle. I always ask what purpose it serves. I've never had an answer. Continue reading...

Have you or anyone you know encountered any problems at the border, and are you changing your planned trip to the US?Following a French scientist being denied entry to the US after immigration officers searched his phone and found messages in which he had expressed criticism of the Trump administration, we're interested in finding out more about any issues that people have experienced at the US border.Other reports at the US border include a German national, who is a permanent US resident and was detained by US border officials. A Canadian citizen was also detained by US border authorities for almost two weeks over an incomplete visa. Continue reading...

Who are the players to watch? Will injuries cost Duke? Our writers pick the winners, sleepers and upsets in both NCAA Tournament bracketsPJ Haggerty, a 6ft 3in redshirt sophomore guard, is already on his third college team, Memphis, after brief stints at Tulsa and TCU. Haggerty was third in Division I in scoring this year, averaging 21.8 points per game, and he scored 83 points in three games to boost the No 5-seeded Tigers to the American Athletic Conference title. DC Continue reading...

The surprise move by California's Democratic governor is either gutsy' or insane', but each episode makes headlinesOn the latest episode of This Is Gavin Newsom, the California governor interviewed his Minnesota counterpart, the 2024 Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz. Thanks for having me," Walz said, flashing a cheeky smile. I'm kinda wondering where I fall on this list of guests."Walz was not only the first Democrat to make an appearance on Newsom's splashy new podcast, but also the first participant who had not cast doubt on the 2020 presidential election results or expressed sympathy for the mob that stormed the capitol on January 6. Continue reading...

For speaking up for Palestine, I have been targeted - and have seen colleagues and students face arrest and sanctions

The Celtic defender's star has risen alongside his country's soccer fortunes as they prepare for a potential Nations League clash with the USThe style and system Jesse Marsch has moulded for the Canadian men's national team is predicated on pressure; hemming in and harrying opponents until they are deprived of options. It is lovingly labelled the maplepress,' and it turns out its principles also apply to wedding planning.Alistair Johnston, one of the spiritual leaders of Marsch's rapid Canadian revolution over these past 10 months, will tie the knot this summer. When his fiancee Peyton Pesavento looked for time, she was immediately hemmed in. I only had one date that I could give her in the next two calendar years!" the Celtic defender says with a smile. Continue reading...

Artists might cancel shows, donors withdraw and audiences flee. It all plays into the hands of his authoritarian projectIn Washington, Donald Trump's takeover of the Kennedy Center - the US's imposing national centre for the performing arts - presents a bizarre, unnerving and, at times, bleakly comical spectacle. Last month, he announced himself its new chair, replaced 13 board members, and inserted a new interim president, foreign policy adviser Richard Grenell. On Monday this week, the president's motorcade disgorged him at the building - which contains an opera house, theatre, concert hall and a plethora of smaller venues off its towering, chandelier-hung foyers. By this point, his and Melania Trump's portraits, alongside those of vice-president JD Vance and his wife Usha, had been screwed to the wall beside the concert hall stage door.Trump and his new trustees - who include Usha Vance and Fox presenter Laura Ingraham - then discussed changes to the Kennedy Center Honors, founded in the 1970s to recognise the greatest figures in American cultural life. Trump called previous honorees, who have ranged from Fred Astaire to Francis Ford Coppola, radical left lunatics". Men such as singer Andrea Bocelli, who has performed at Mar-a-Lago, and Sylvester Stallone, who recently called Trump a second George Washington", were floated for future honours. With the truculence of a slighted schoolboy, Trump opined that he had never much cared for Hamilton - this, after the news that the musical has withdrawn from a 2026 run at the centre. He also complained about an infestation of mice. All this, the day before he was due to speak to Russian president Vladimir Putin to haggle over Ukraine's future. It is enough to give you a political-cultural attack of the bends.Charlotte Higgins is the Guardian's chief culture writer Continue reading...

Recent Four Nations competition, which excluded Russia, clearly got beneath the skin of hockey-loving strongmanAmid the somewhat murky details emerging from Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin's call on Tuesday - the two leaders discussed a halt on attacking energy infrastructure, then Russia immediately bombed Ukraine's energy infrastructure - one deal, at least, was clear: the US and Russia would resume playing ice hockey.Although benign enough on the face of it, the idea of organised games in the US and Russia, between players of both countries, was yet another concession to Putin from Trump. Unlike the US president's previous gifts - pre-emptively allowing Russia to keep the territory it has illegally invaded, refusing to give any security guarantees to Ukraine, and strongly hinting US sanctions would soon be lifted - this was soft power, wrapped in a pair of skate laces. Continue reading...

Britain, France and Germany are closing ranks to bolster Nato as the unreliable US president marches to his own drumAn Atlantic alliance without the United States? It sounds like a contradiction in terms - Hamlet without the prince. Yet this is the improbable, disjunctive world we now inhabit. It is the one in which our children and grandchildren will live their lives. Like it or not, the systemic shock launched by Donald Trump is our new reality. Absolutely nothing about Trump's latest phone call with Vladimir Putin on Tuesday has changed that.Europe's scramble to respond to Trump's return to power was driven initially by the urgency of maintaining support for Ukraine. Most of the focus was diplomatic: keeping US military aid and intelligence flowing, shoring up damaged channels between Washington and Kyiv, engaging quietly with both Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy to both encourage and deter, while moving very publicly to take up more of the security burden. Continue reading...

The verdict in North Dakota state court came after two days of deliberations in a trial where company Energy Transfer accused Greenpeace of defamation and orchestrating criminal behaviour to disrupt the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline. The project is located near the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's reservation. Deepa Padmanabha, Greenpeace's senior legal adviser, said Greenpeace will appeal the decision.

Administration reportedly working to fulfill a conservative dream: create buffer zone to be occupied by US troopsThe Trump administration is working on a plan to create what conservatives have long demanded: a militarized buffer zone along the southern border in New Mexico that would be occupied by active-duty US troops, empowered to detain migrants who cross into the United States unlawfully, the Washington Post reports.According to the Post, recent internal discussions have centered on deploying troops to a section of the border in New Mexico that would be turned into a kind of military installation, which would give the soldiers a legal right to detain migrants who trespass" on the elongated base. Unauthorized migrants would then be held until they can be turned over to immigration officers. Continue reading...

Relatives of deported Venezuelan migrant say he is innocent, as US Federal Reserve keeps interest rates on hold amid tariff uncertainty - key US politics stories from Wednesday at a glanceDonald Trump's White House has described the Venezuelan migrants deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador as heinous monsters" and terrorists who rape, maim and murder for sport".But relatives of Francisco Javier Garcia Casique, a 24-year-old from the city of Maracay, say he was a hairdresser, not a crook. Continue reading...

This blog has now closed. You can read more of our US politics coverage hereDemocratic congressman Glenn Ivey told constituents at a town hall meeting in his Maryland district that Chuck Schumer, the Senate's Democratic minority leader, should step down from his position after a bitter intraparty fight over government funding last week, HuffPost reports.Ivey is the first member of Congress to say Schumer should leave his leadership position, after the leader supplied enough votes to pass a Republican-backed government funding bill through the Senate. House Democrats had near-unanimously rejected the measure, and many in the party believe Schumer, who argued the bill was better than allowing a shutdown that could be exploited by Donald Trump and Elon Musk, gave up leverage he could have used against the administration. Continue reading...

Ice-cream brand's board says David Stever has been removed' for refusing to oversee the dismantling' of its values

Brother of Francisco Javier Garcia Casique spotted him in a video showing scores of Venezuelan prisoners being taken to notorious El Salvador prisonDonald Trump's White House has described the Venezuelan migrants deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador as heinous monsters" and terrorists who rape, maim and murder for sport".But relatives of Francisco Javier Garcia Casique, a 24-year-old from the city of Maracay, say he was a hairdresser, not a crook. Continue reading...

Alvaro Bedoya points to interesting coincidence' that he was dismissed after criticizing Amazon's Jeff BezosA day after his abrupt firing by Donald Trump from the Federal Trade Commission, Alvaro Bedoya raised questions about the US president's relations with some of the country's richest men.Appearing at a hearing of the joint judiciary committee of the state legislature in Colorado on Wednesday, the ousted Democratic commissioner said it was an interesting coincidence" his final public statement in post had blasted Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder. Continue reading...

President Michael Drake also directs campuses to cut costs, such as delaying maintenance and reducing business travelThe University of California has imposed a system-wide hiring freeze and made additional cuts, its president said on Wednesday, as part of efforts to mitigate the expected impact of sharp cuts in federal funding under the Trump administration.In a letter to staff and students, the school's president, Michael Drake, said he had also directed all UC locations to implement cost-saving measures, such as delaying maintenance and reducing business travel, to help conserve funds. Continue reading...

Federal Bureau of Prisons told to transfer women back and provide hormone therapy treatment for gender dysphoriaA judge on Wednesday ordered the federal Bureau of Prisons (BoP) to transfer two incarcerated transgender women back to federal women's prisons after they had been sent to men's facilities after Donald Trump's executive order that truncated transgender protections.US district judge Royce Lamberth in Washington DC issued a preliminary injunction after the women were added as plaintiffs in ongoing litigation over the impact of the president's executive order on trans women in federal prisons. Continue reading...

France's research minister said the scientist was traveling to Houston for a conference when his phone was searchedFrance's research minister said a French scientist was denied entry to the US this month after immigration officers at an airport searched his phone and found messages in which he had expressed criticism of the Trump administration.I learned with concern that a French researcher" on assignment for the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) who was traveling to a conference near Houston was denied entry to the United States before being expelled", Philippe Baptiste, France's minister of higher education and research, said in a statement on Monday to Agence France-Presse published by Le Monde. This measure was apparently taken by the American authorities because the researcher's phone contained exchanges with colleagues and friends in which he expressed a personal opinion on the Trump administration's research policy," the minister added. Continue reading...

The Columbia graduate and green-card holder, held in Louisiana by immigration agents, dictated this letter to family and friendsMy name is Mahmoud Khalil and I am a political prisoner. I am writing to you from a detention facility in Louisiana where I wake to cold mornings and spend long days bearing witness to the quiet injustices under way against a great many people precluded from the protections of the law.Who has the right to have rights? It is certainly not the humans crowded into the cells here. It isn't the Senegalese man I met who has been deprived of his liberty for a year, his legal situation in limbo and his family an ocean away. It isn't the 21-year-old detainee I met who stepped foot in this country at age nine, only to be deported without so much as a hearing. Continue reading...

Press secretary says judge who weighed legality of Trump deportation order does not have that authority'The White House on Wednesday labeled the federal judge challenging the Trump administration on whether it defied his court order to halt flights deporting migrants without a hearing a Democrat activist".The press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, singled out by name at a White House press briefing federal judge James Boasberg, who weighed the legality of Donald Trump's deportation of suspected Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act, and is now evaluating the government's compliance. Continue reading...