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The country's so-called political centre has licensed a new era of authoritarianism - to the AfD's delightA crackdown on political dissent is well under way in Germany. Over the past two years, institutions and authorities have cancelled events, exhibitions and awards over statements about Palestine or Israel. There are many examples: the Frankfurt book fair indefinitely postponing an award ceremony for Adania Shibli; the Heinrich Boll Foundation withdrawing the Hannah Arendt prize from Masha Gessen; the University of Cologne rescinding a professorship for Nancy Fraser; the No Other Land directors Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham being defamed by German ministers. And, most recently, the philosopher Omri Boehm being disinvited from speaking at this month's anniversary of the liberation of Buchenwald.In nearly all of these cases, accusations of antisemitism loom large - even though Jews are often among those being targeted. More often than not, it is liberals driving or tacitly accepting these cancellations, while conservatives and the far right lean back and cheer them on. While vigilance against rising antisemitism is no doubt warranted - especially in Germany - that concern is increasingly weaponised as a political tool to silence the left.Hanno Hauenstein is a Berlin-based journalist and author. He worked as a senior editor in Berliner Zeitung's culture department, specialising in contemporary art and politicsDo 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...

The administration has proposed no realistic settlement, leaving a void for Netanyahu. This is foolishness gone wildWhen I wrote an opinion piece for the Guardian a few months ago, anticipating Donald Trump's foreign policy regarding the Middle East, I made a big mistake.I thought that there would be diplomacy involved, even if it was ill-conceived. Instead, the complete lack of diplomatic rendering in this administration's foreign policy is already pointing in dangerous directions, especially regarding Israel, the Palestinians, Jordan and Egypt. Saudi Arabia, the sleeping giant that's in a key position to provide a roadmap to a fair resolution for both Israelis and Palestinians, seems to be sitting on the sidelines now. Continue reading...

US president imposes two-tier rate on island of Ireland, raising concerns over impact on 1998 peace pact

Tariffs will hit developing and wartorn nations particularly hard. Plus, Australia records hottest 12 months on recordGood morning.Donald Trump announced wide-ranging tariffs on the US's major trading partners on Wednesday, a move that puts the world at risk of a global trade war and that sent stocks and the dollar tumbling.How has Europe responded? Using its strongest weapon remains a last resort", the head of the European parliament's international trade committee has said. This refers to the anti-coercion instrument - a law passed in 2023 that allows the EU to impose commerce and investment sanctions.Have classified details been shared on Signal? The administration has insisted nothing classified was shared in the chat revealed by the Atlantic - but the former state department attorney Brian Finucane says operational details, such as launch times for jets and missiles, would typically be classified. Continue reading...

With lucrative NIL deals and championships to chase, the biggest names in the NCAA have something to think about being turning professionalOn UConn's senior night in February 2024, inside a packed Gampel Pavilion, Paige Bueckers took the mic. I know everybody wants me to address the elephant in the room," she told the crowd. Unfortunately, this will not be my last senior night here at UConn." With that, she confirmed her decision to return for a fifth and final year with the Huskies.Bueckers' extended eligibility comes from NCAA rules that grant student-athletes five years to compete in four seasons, with an additional year for those who played in 2020-21 due to the Covid-19 waiver. And a 2022 injury that led to a redshirt year gave Bueckers yet another season. While many speculate she stayed for lucrative NIL deals - estimated at around $1.5m this season - Bueckers insists her decision is rooted in loyalty to UConn, her teammates, and her coaches. Family camaraderie, loving it here, loving my teammates, and loving my coaches," she says. Continue reading...

Doctors in states with abortion bans say patients were not told of abortion care as option for fear of legal consequencesDoctors who practice medicine in states with abortion bans have described in a new study how three of their pregnant patients died, but likely could have been saved, if they had been able to receive abortion care.The doctors, who treat lung, respiratory and other critical illnesses, never raised abortion, including the option of traveling out of state for the procedure, out of fear of legal repercussions, according to interviews with the doctors in the study, which was published in Chest Pulmonary, a medical journal. No other information about the patients who died was published. Continue reading...

Ron Klain tells author Chris Whipple that Biden opted for Annie Leibovitz shoot at critical moment in campaignIn the aftermath of the disastrous debate against Donald Trump that ultimately ended his political career, Joe Biden skipped a White House meeting with the congressional Progressive caucus in favor of a Camp David photoshoot with the fashion photographer Annie Leibovitz, a new book says.You need to cancel that," Ron Klain, Biden's former chief of staff and debate prep leader, told the president, as he advocated securing the endorsement of the group of powerful progressive politicians perhaps key to his remaining the Democratic nominee. Continue reading...

There I was, lying in bed and worrying I'd lost a basic life skill. Can you blame me for putting it to the test?When I was in the first year at middle school, in Miss Hale's class, my parents returned from a parents' evening looking disappointed. My nine-year-old self picked up on this. It wasn't my schoolwork: that was OK. It was that the teacher had revealed that in PE I was the only one in the class who couldn't do a forward roll.This was true. It wasn't that I was physically incapable - I was in the school football team and, without wishing to boast, probably the ninth-quickest runner. I just had this mental block. I couldn't bring myself to do it. The idea of the world momentarily going upside down was too much for me. The prospect of such disorientation was unbearable. If only Miss Hale had taken me to one side and said: Look, you're overthinking this - and, believe you me, if you let it, overthinking will blight your life." But she didn't, because teachers didn't talk like that then (and probably don't do so now, either). Continue reading...

US president Donald Trump yesterday produced a chart of all the new tariffs he was announcing, affecting trade with countries across the world. Here is the list as he displayed itThe president displayed the top of his list from a podium in the White House Rose Garden, and later published a longer version. Note that the tariffs charged to the USA" in Trump's formulation include trade barriers" so don't necessarily align with the tariffs published by countries concerned. Continue reading...

Leftwing policies have mass appeal - what's needed is a figurehead who can bring back alienated voters and dodge culture warsTony Blair's devotees always had a stock response for their leftwing critics, and it went like this: your desire for political purity will render Labour unelectable, and the poorest will pay the price. A Labour party led by sensible moderates" may not be your first choice, but it is the only hope for the most vulnerable.As Labour imposes poverty on at least 250,000 people through cuts to disability benefits, according to estimates by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, this argument is submerged under a tidal wave of misery. The government has already robbed many pensioners of their winter fuel payments, and not only voted to keep a Tory two-child benefit cap that imposes squalor on hundreds of thousands of children, but suspended those Labour MPs who opposed it. A Labour party that knowingly imposes hardship on disabled people, pensioners and children has filed for moral and political bankruptcy.Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Donald Trump has upended decades of US foreign policy by bringing in a vast array of tariffs that threaten to disrupt international trade. Here are some initial key points

It seems to me that whatever the charges facing the activists at the Quaker meeting house raid, their fundamental crime is dissentThe faces are different, but it's the same authoritarianism. Keir Starmer's team might not look or sound like Donald Trump's, but its policies on protest and dissent are chillingly similar. So is the reason: coordinated global lobbying by the rich and powerful, fronted by rightwing junktanks.Last week, six young women were having tea and biscuits in the Quaker meeting house in Westminster. Twenty police officers forced open the door and arrested them on conspiracy charges. Had the police discovered a plot to blow up parliament or to poison the water supply? No. It was an openly advertised, routine meeting of a protest group called Youth Demand, discussing climate breakdown and the assault on Gaza.George Monbiot is a Guardian columnistThe Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism, by George Monbiot and Peter Hutchison, was published in paperback last weekDo 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...

The US president's new tariff regime on every country threatens to unleash a global trade war. Here we explore how the world is responding

Australian prime minister surprised after external territories - including tiny Norfolk Island and remote islands home to penguins - targeted by US presidentA group of barren, uninhabited volcanic islands near Antarctica, covered in glaciers and home to penguins, have been swept up in Donald Trump's trade war, as the US president hit them with a 10% tariff on goods.Heard Island and McDonald Islands, which form an external territory of Australia, are among the remotest places on earth, accessible only via a two-week boat voyage from Perth on Australia's west coast. They are completely uninhabited, with the last visit from people believed to be nearly 10 years ago. Continue reading...

Trump announces reciprocal' tariffs on largest US trading partners; Elon Musk may leave government role at end of 130-day cap. Here's your roundup of key US politics stories from 2 April 2025Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on some of its largest trading partners on Wednesday, upending decades of US trade policy and threatening to unleash a global trade war on what he has dubbed liberation day".Trump said he will impose a 10% universal tariff on all imported foreign goods in addition to reciprocal tariffs" on a few dozen countries, charging additional duties onto countries that Trump claims have cheated" America. Continue reading...

This liveblog is now closed. For continued coverage on the tariffs, head to the live business blog.Donald Trump's planned tariffs will be negative across the world, with the damage depending on how far they go, how long they last and whether they lead to successful negotiations, the European Central Bank head, Christine Lagarde, said on Wednesday.The Trump administration on Wednesday is set to announce reciprocal tariffs" targeting nations that have duties on US goods. That move would come after it slapped new import levies on products from Mexico, China and Canada - the top US trading partners - as well as on goods including steel and autos.Wisconsin beat the billionaire.Wisconsin cannot be bought. Our democracy is not for sale. And when we fight, we win. Congratulations, @CrawfordForWI Continue reading...

Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on some of the US's largest trading partners, upending decades of US trade policy and threatening to unleash a global trade war on what he has dubbed 'liberation day'. The president said he will impose a 10% universal tariff on all imported foreign goods in addition to 'reciprocal tariffs' on a few dozen countries, charging additional duties onto countries that Trump claims have 'cheated' the US

Trump pledged to liberate the nation from higher prices, and is betting tariffs won't raise them too high, for too longFor weeks, Donald Trump and his aides sought to brand Wednesday as liberation day" in America. Many in the US could be forgiven for wondering what exactly they've just been liberated from.After much hype, the president unveiled his plan for a new era in global trade: a blanket 10% tariff on goods imported into the US starting Saturday, and higher reciprocal" tariffs (of up to 49%) on countries taxing US exports starting next Wednesday. Continue reading...

Lawsuit alleges department's ending of wide array of grants is unlawful' and poses serious harm to public health'Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia are suing the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, alleging the abrupt terminations of $11bn in public health funding were harmful" and unlawful".The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Rhode Island, says that in March 2025, HHS unexpectedly ended a wide array of grants supporting immunizations, infectious disease tracking, and mental health and substance abuse services. The federal government justified the cuts by claiming that the funds were no longer necessary" because their limited purpose" had ended along with the Covid-19 pandemic. Continue reading...

President to impose reciprocal' tariffs on largest trading partners and says new charges will bring about golden age'

President promised liberation yet may have plunged the US into recession and the world into an economic scrambleDonald Trump is finally making good on his campaign promises to build that wall" - but instead of steel fencing along the Mexican border, it will be constructed from tariffs, and will enclose the entire United States.In his pugnacious and typically rambling speech on the White House lawn on Wednesday, Trump set out plans for across-the-board import taxes, ranging from 10% to more than 40%. Continue reading...

Retaliation may not be needed as Britain likely to be front of the queue' in agreeing deal to redraw trade relationshipWhat is the best way to respond to Donald Trump and his sweeping tariffs? Keir Starmer thinks the answer is to tread softly, softly - while engaging in intensive negotiations behind the scenes.There are signs that this strategy is bearing fruit. On Wednesday night, the president announced reciprocal tariffs on countries throughout the world" including a 10% import tax on UK exports to the US - crucially, lower than the 20% imposed on the EU. The 10% rate was the lowest rate Trump announced and applied to several other countries including Australia, Singapore and Brazil.100 days of Trump's presidency, with Jonathan Freedland and guests Continue reading...

Britain gets off comparatively lightly but US president's action could still cost billions in lost growth

While the president has identified the need to do things differently, his strategy risks a slump, hitting the very Americans he claims to championIt would be liberation day" in the US, the White House announced. Well, we shall see. Yet even if one puts the noise and nastiness that accompany a Donald Trump announcement to one side - in this case tonight's pronouncement that there will be an executive order announcing reciprocal tariffs on countries throughout the world", a 10% tariff on the UK and 20% on the EU - the significance of the theatre is hard to miss. Whether they presage the US's liberation, or instead the disintegration of the global trading order, Trump's tariffs add up to an attempt to transform a badly broken economic model. And that is something that affects us all.Trump's announcement was awash with insult and rambling nonsense. The rest of the world had looted, raped and pillaged, had scavenged and ransacked America - shocking claims if they had come from any other US president, yet water off a duck's back today. But the hard core was there all the same: tariffs on the whole of the rest of the world. The shutters were up.Martin Kettle is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Republicans in Florida couldn't re-create Trump's November margins, while Musk's efforts in Wisconsin failedDonald Trump and the Republicans ought to be wary of a possible blue wave in next year's midterms. On Tuesday, voters in Florida and Wisconsin signaled dissatisfaction with Elon Musk, the GOP and the president. On the surface, the results spelled political equipoise. No seats changed hands.A closer look, however, reveals possible headaches for Donald Trump and his party. Continue reading...

Kevin Young has been absent since 14 March, weeks before president's order taking aim at anti-American' content

Watching the New Jersey senator hold court for 25 hours felt radical and catharticOne of the problems beleaguering political opponents of Donald Trump has been finding a form of protest that, given the scale of his outrages, doesn't seem entirely futile. You can parade outside a Tesla showroom. You can hold up dumb little signs during Trump's address to Congress inscribed with slogans such as This is not normal" and Musk steals". You can, as Democrats appear to have been doing since the election, play dead.Alternatively, you can go for the ostentatious, performative gesture. On Monday evening, Cory Booker, the Democratic senator for New Jersey who carries himself like someone who'd have been happier in an era when men wore capes, started speaking on the floor of the Senate and carried on for 25 hours and five minutes, breaking the chamber's record by almost 50 minutes and delivering - finally - a solid, usable symbol of rebellion.Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

US president's erratic approach has fuelled a dizzying array of tariff measures, before pausing or changing them, prompting a chaotic series of responses

Former Biden health secretary and state attorney general enters race as speculation swirls over Kamala Harris's plans

Democrats seize on result as a referendum on Musk and an emphatic repudiation of Trump's richest supporter and allyDemocrats were tasting unfamiliar triumphalism on Wednesday after the election for a vacant Wisconsin supreme court seat turned into an emphatic repudiation of Elon Musk, Donald Trump's richest supporter and key ally.Musk endured a wave of gloating on Twitter/X, his own social media platform, after Brad Schimel, a Trump-endorsed judge that he spent $25m supporting lost by 10 percentage points to Susan Crawford, whose victory sustained a four-three liberal majority on the court. Continue reading...

Democrats motivated by deep anger from voters who say party isn't doing enough to coalesce around a strategy

Latest security flap again focuses scrutiny on Waltz after he earlier added journalist to Yemen war-planning chat

Judge said Trump officials' push to have case dropped smacks of a bargain' over immigration enforcementA US federal judge on Wednesday dismissed the Department of Justice's corruption case against New York City's embattled mayor, Eric Adams, after weeks of scandal about the Democratic mayor bowing to pressure from the Trump administration to cooperate on immigration crackdowns while trying to get out from under the criminal charges.Despite the judge's decision, he said the Trump administration's grounds for having the case dropped smacks of a bargain". Continue reading...

Texas volunteers had prepared welcome for family fleeing Taliban now stranded in Pakistan in fear of being deportedThe 24-year-old Afghan woman wants to become a surgeon - and she had set her sights on training in the US.She wants to care for other women and girls, so they don't have to be afraid to visit the doctor - so at least in one crucial aspect of their lives they won't have to endure the unwanted advances, dismissive comments and blatant disrespect that she's experienced from many of the men who have always surrounded her, first in her native Afghanistan and now in legal limbo in Pakistan. Continue reading...

Liberal judge says victory is against unprecedented attack on our democracy' after defeating Brad Schimel in the most expensive judicial election in US historySusan Crawford won the race for a seat on the Wisconsin supreme court on Tuesday, scoring a major victory for Democrats who had framed the race as a referendum on Elon Musk and Donald Trump's popularity.Crawford, a liberal judge from Dane county, defeated Brad Schimel, a former Republican attorney general and conservative judge from Waukesha county, after Musk and groups associated with the tech billionaire spent millions to boost his candidacy in what became the most expensive judicial contest in American history. Continue reading...

The Reserve Bank says they are cautious about the outlook. Caution is fine, but indolence in the face of a challenging world is notLife is like a box of chocolates," said Forrest Gump, who had clearly never looked at the label descriptions on the box. You never know what you're gonna get." And so it was for the RBA on Tuesday when they announced that it was keeping the cash rate steady at 4.1%.Not the actual decision - we all knew they were not going to cut rates. The market on Tuesday morning rated it about a 10% chance but no one was about to go bet their mortgage on it happening. No, the uncertainty was all about what was in the Reserve Bank's statement and what they think is about to come next. Continue reading...

Some seemed nonplussed and said it would make no difference, while others expressed support for Trump's planDonald Trump's liberation day" - his plan to overturn decades of US free trade policy - was getting a mixed reaction in New York on Tuesday.With Trump planning to unleash tariffs on global trading partners on Wednesday, many said the price rises economists are predicting would make no difference because they were already out of reach of pinched pocketbooks. Others said they would accept short-term price hikes for longer-term US economic well-being. Continue reading...

About 134,000 trans veterans live in the US, with many now blocked from life-saving gender-affirming careWhen Savannah Blake joined the air force at 22 years old, she was looking for stable employment and a way out of poverty. For the last few years of her service, she worked as a cyberdefense operator in the intelligence squadron. But the work, which involved overseeing computers operating drone surveillance, eventually took a toll on her mental health.If I had to watch any more of this, I was going to not be alive anymore," Blake said, who says she experienced suicidal ideations. I just felt like the bad guy. I felt evil." Continue reading...

The temporary restraining order is another setback in less than a week for Trump's immigration crackdownA federal judge in California has ordered the Trump administration to temporarily restore legal aid to tens of thousands of migrant children who are in the United States without a parent or guardian.The Republican administration on 21 March terminated a contract with the Acacia Center for Justice, which provides legal services for unaccompanied migrant children under 18 through a network of legal aid groups that subcontract with the center. Eleven subcontractor groups sued, saying that 26,000 children were at risk of losing their attorneys; Acacia is not a plaintiff. Continue reading...

Why is the moral panic only ever about younger generations? It's time we heard what confuses or worries them about usEvery generation looks at the next generation, and the one after that, with bafflement and concern. There's probably a name for this phenomenon. That's not to say we (the olds) aren't right to be more worried than ever about what they (the young) are up to. There's a lot for us to be worried about and confused about in equal measure. The TV drama Adolescence got at this. Even having had its emojis and red pills - and emojis of red pills - patiently explained to me, I remain concerned and confused. Mainly confused. It's all decidedly mysterious - and not in a good, exciting way.This intergenerational bewilderment seems only to work in one direction: down, rather than up. We flail around trying to make sense of what's going on with the young. If you are young, this is relevant to you, too, because you will soon be feeling like this about those coming up behind you. What I want to know is what, if anything, baffles the young about the old. Do they get together to express despair and confusion at the conduct of the olds? Is there stroking of chins, scratching and shaking of heads, as they ask: What's going on with elderly people today? I can hardly understand a thing they're saying. I don't know what's going to become of them, I'm sure." Continue reading...

Comments come after it was revealed judge ignored DoJ recommendations against expelling survivors from panelClergy abuse survivors who were ousted from a committee trying to negotiate a settlement resolving the New Orleans Catholic archdiocese's bankruptcy say they have lost their confidence in the judge presiding over the case.Their comments come after it was revealed that Judge Meredith Grabill ignored US justice department recommendations against expelling the survivors from the group, delivering the latest twist in the child sexual abuse scandal roiling one of America's oldest Roman Catholic dioceses. Continue reading...

It is a factually inaccurate and totally, utterly wrong to say that undocumented people are illegal' and are criminals'On 29 January, the second Trump administration held its first White House press briefing. Of the 3,500 arrests Ice has made so far since President Trump came back into office, can you just tell us the numbers?" asked a reporter in the front row. How many have a criminal record versus those who are just in the country illegally?"All of them," responded the new White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, making her debut in the briefing room, because they illegally broke our nation's laws, and, therefore, they are criminals, as far as this administration goes." She continued: I know the last administration didn't see it that way, so it's a big culture shift in our nation to view someone who breaks our immigration laws as a criminal. But that's exactly what they are."Mehdi Hasan is a broadcaster and author, and a former host on MSNBC. He is also a Guardian US columnist and the editor-in-chief of Zeteo Continue reading...

Ron Klain tells author Chris Whipple then president could not focus and obsessed about foreign leaders, ahead of debate that ended his campaignIn a new book, Joe Biden's former White House chief of staff paints a devastating picture of the then US president's mental and physical state before the debate with Donald Trump that sent his 2024 campaign into a tailspin, resulting in his relinquishing the Democratic nomination to Kamala Harris.Ron Klain served Biden from 2021 to 2023, then returned to his side last June, to run debate preparation as he had for numerous Democratic presidents before. Continue reading...