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District judge calls payment of some of the $2bn owed to partners of USAid and state department concrete' first stepA federal judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to speed up its payment on some of nearly $2bn in debts to partners of the US Agency for International Development (USAid) and the state department, giving it a Monday deadline to repay the non-profit groups and businesses in a lawsuit over the administration's abrupt shutdown of foreign assistance funding.The US district judge Amir Ali described the partial payment as a concrete" first step he wanted to see from the administration, which is fighting multiple lawsuits seeking to roll back the administration's dismantling of USAid and a six-week freeze on USAid funding, which has forced US-funded organizations to halt aid and development work around the world and lay off workers. Continue reading...

Setback for Republican governor as economists also dismiss proposal to abolish property taxes as misguided'Radical plans by Florida's Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, to overhaul the state's financial machinery have hit turbulent waters, with party leaders pushing back on his Doge-style efficiency taskforce, and economists dismissing a proposal to abolish property taxes as essentially unworkable.DeSantis touted his handling of the economy in his state of the state" speech at the opening of Florida's spring legislative session on Tuesday, during which he insisted: We must continue to be a friend to the taxpayer." Continue reading...

151,000 jobs added to economy in February, up from January as unemployment unchanged from last monthThe US labor market continued to grow in February even as threats of mass layoffs in the federal government and uncertainty around Donald Trump's tariff policies rattle the US economy.In February, 151,000 jobs were added to the economy, up from an adjusted 125,000 jobs gained in January. The unemployment rate was 4.1%, little changed from 4% in January. Economists had been expecting 170,000 new jobs to be added over the month. Continue reading...

Spider' Martin's newly restored photos that documented firsthand the violence on 7 March 1965 are on view at Alabama exhibit Selma Is NowSixty years ago, on 7 March 1965, civil rights leaders and nonviolent activists attempted to march from Selma to Montgomery in a fight for African Americans' rights to vote. But as they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, they were met with unfounded brutal violence from Alabama state troopers. This day is commemorated as Bloody Sunday. Among the marchers was photojournalist Spider" Martin who worked for the Birmingham News; he documented the violence firsthand, shocking the nation with his revealing images of the reality of voter suppression.Though the march occurred six decades ago, Doug McCraw, a native son of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and producer of the exhibit Selma Is Now, on display in Montgomery, Alabama, until 1 June, argues that the fight for civil and voting rights continues today. McCraw writes in his co-produced book, Selma Is Now: The March for Justice Continues, sacrifices made by the marchers in March 1965 paved the way for the liberties we enjoy today, but the struggle for social justice continues."John Lewis on the ground, on the right, as he is attacked by a trooper with a billy club that resulted in a concussion and skull fracture. Continue reading...

Spouses of deceased Medicaid recipients report repayment demands for medical costs, trapping them in a cycle of debtAfter her husband of 44 years died two years ago from Covid-19-related respiratory complications, Susan thought she could begin to grieve the loss of her best friend.The cost of the medical care her husband incurred before he died, she was told, was not something she had to think about. Continue reading...

Fueled by deception, the Trump administration is abandoning millions worldwide. The changes hit me close to homeWhen we rang in the New Year, I wasn't remotely expecting politics to collide with my career, my family and me. In a matter of weeks, I had lost my job, my father and, I felt, my country.I spent a dozen years as a program officer for USAid, serving in countries in South America, Africa and Asia with my family. I loved my job working with governments and NGOs to improve the lives of those in need. Doing good and doing well, we said. I was helping to build an information system to improve aid transparency and efficiency when sudden news arrived. Continue reading...

Angry, rude and addicted to web troll-ery, the vice-president has the Make America Awful Again portfolio. Seems a perfect fitYou may well be aware that Backpfeifengesicht is the German word for a face that is worthy of being slapped. Even so, how has this not been internationalised? Or at the very least Americanised, where its dictionary definition would presumably be adorned by a picture of the face of US vice-president JD Vance - already faultlessly playing the role of worst American at your hotel. You can immediately picture him at breakfast, can't you? Every single other guest on the terrace with their shoulders up round their ears, just thinking: Where is he now? How unbearable is he being NOW?" Next, imagine breakfast lasting four years.I say the Backpfeifengesicht definition would be accompanied by JD Vance's face ... but then again, what is the face of JD Vance? The internet is awash with people suffering an acute case of not being able to remember it any more, having seen so many hideous comic distortions of Vance that those meme versions are not simply the only results on the first page of your own mental Google search, but stretch deep beyond the second and into the third. Somewhere on page four, where you might as well publish the nuclear codes or pictures of Taylor Swift giving cocaine to babies, is an unmodified snap of what JD Vance actually looks like. Or at least what he looks like with eyeliner. Continue reading...

Experts warn that cooling breaks and later kickoff times may be needed to cope with scorching temperatures when North America hosts the tournamentOver the course of a playing career that wound through Spain, Mexico and the sunbaked fields of Major League Soccer's summers, American midfielder Tab Ramos was never hotter than at the 1994 World Cup in the United States.The day before the United States men's national team opened its tournament against Switzerland in the Pontiac Silverdome, it had been 99F (37C) in Michigan. By the 11.30am kickoff on matchday, the temperature reached 90F (32C) again. Worse still, the Silverdome was an NFL stadium designed for winter - to keep heat in, rather than out. The first World Cup match played indoors was conducted in a dome without air conditioning. On the field, the temperature reached 106F (41C). The grass laid over the artificial turf had been watered so eagerly that, with the sun beating down on the stadium's fabric roof, the air turned soupy with humidity. Continue reading...

Constitution-building offers no headlines - but what it can do, history tells us, is stop hundreds of thousands of people dyingSyria is reportedly sliding back towards civil war, as its various factions demand devolved authority. It is at root the same issue, that of local autonomy, that led to regional unrest in Ukraine and splintered leadership in Palestine. It underlies the devastating conflicts in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. All these places are flush with guns, allies and bombast. What they lack are national constitutions that allow their citizens sufficient local control to live at peace with others in one nation. They lack the skills of political federation.The present Ukraine war followed the failure of peace accords reached in Minsk in 2014 and 2015; critically, they depended on the technical details of how self-determination was to be allowed in eastern Ukraine. A later failure was that of the Istanbul deal after the Russian invasion in 2022. It appeared to be the result of President Zelenskyy's reaction to Vladimir Putin's Bucha massacre. But the origins of failure go back to Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine's reaction to years of corrupt and oppressive rule from Kyiv. Similar dissent exists among Russian minorities in the Baltic states. Everywhere, localism matters.Simon Jenkins 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...

Party insiders are trying to make the case for doing nothing against Trump. That's a colossal mistakeIn a recent New York Times Op-Ed, Democratic super-consultant James Carville boldly called for the most radical thing [Democrats] can do" - nothing at all. Standing over the putrefying carcass of three-day-old road kill, thinking we don't notice the fur sticking to the bumper of his F-150, this man is pointing at the rotting heap and screaming Don't move!"His argument is simple and incredibly dangerous: give the Republicans enough rope to hang themselves and they will do it. Their inability to govern, he argues, is self-evident and when they shut down enough social programs, people will notice and Democrats can swoop in and save the day.Megan Romer is the national co-chair of the Democratic Socialists of America Continue reading...

Plenty of the league's teams are bad. But there are a select few for whom hopes of a turnaround in fortunes are a distant prospectFive years ago, we looked at the teams vying for the championship belt of incompetence. If a lesson came from the exercise - the Chargers, Commanders and Texans made the list - it's that a young franchise quarterback can transform a team's fortunes pretty quickly. The other lesson is that Woody Johnson is a consistently awful owner. Anyway, here's our latest list of woe. Continue reading...

The unitary executive' theory - backed by some conservative lawyers - is largely bogus. But it could wreak havoc on democracyWhile Democrats are dithering and debating with consultants about which anti-Trumpian strategy to adopt, courts are confronted with an unprecedented power grab by the president. Donald Trump and Elon Musk are simply not spending money appropriated by Congress, which in turn is unwilling to play its constitutional role and assert the power of the purse. Entire agencies are de facto dismantled - which is also unconstitutional - and civil servants protected from removal by a president keep getting pink slips.The illegality of it all seems so obvious that one would think defenders of democracy could relax and trust judges to do the right thing. But it's not just that some judges seem to be in the president's pocket - as evidenced by Trump, after his address to Congress, patting the supreme court's chief justice on the back and thanking him for a favor he won't forget, mafia-style. It is also that some jurists have been itching to defend a further concentration of presidential power - John Roberts likely among them.Jan-Werner Muller is a professor of politics at Princeton University and is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

The US president's new imperialism could make real the apocalyptic world depicted by cold war filmmakersIn 1965, the British government blocked the BBC from broadcasting The War Game, a pseudo-documentary film it had commissioned depicting just what a nuclear attack on the UK would entail. The film, the government judged, was simply too horrifying" for the public. Two decades after that, The War Game finally aired, prior to the release of the 1984 film Threads, which, in imagining the aftermath of a nuclear attack on the UK, was the first movie to deal with the scientific reality of nuclear winter.When I was 11, I had nightmares for a few weeks after seeing a trailer for a nuclear doomsday film (The Sum of All Fears) that ran prior to a cinema screening of The Fellowship of the Ring (I had just read the three Lord of the Rings volumes). The Nazgul were disturbing, of course, but they were not of the real world, unlike nukes. This January, I was confronted with The War Game at an exhibition on The Atomic Age at Paris's Museum of Modern Art; I finished the exhibit in near silence. A week later, I watched Threads; it ruined the remainder of my afternoon. Continue reading...

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Trump shelves Canada-Mexico tariffs; Musk says he is not to blame for mass firings of federal workers - key US politics stories from Thursday at a glanceDonald Trump has performed another reversal on tariffs, delaying duties on many goods from Canada and Mexico again. Trump said the reversal has nothing to do" with turbulence in the stock market in recent days, as investors weighed his economic plans. On Wall Street, the S&P 500 fell 1.8% on Thursday. I'm not even looking at the market," he claimed.It was also a day where the focus fell on the power wielded by Elon Musk and the president's plans for US consulates in Europe.

Democratic California governor faces backlash after saying trans women playing in female sports was deeply unfair'Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California believed to be eyeing a run for president in 2028, is facing fierce backlash from LGBTQ+ rights advocates after his suggestion that the participation of transgender women and girls in female sports was deeply unfair".In the inaugural episode of his podcast, This Is Gavin Newsom, the governor hosted conservative political activist and Maga darling Charlie Kirk. The co-founder and executive director of the rightwing Turning Point USA, a Phoenix-based organization that operates on school campuses, told Newsom: You, right now, should come out and be like: You know what? The young man who's about to win the state championship in the long jump in female sports - that shouldn't happen.' You, as the governor, should step out and say: No.'" Continue reading...

Person from Lea county had been unvaccinated and did not seek care but virus not yet confirmed as cause of deathAn adult who was infected with measles has died in New Mexico, state health officials announced Thursday, though the virus has not been confirmed as the cause of death.The person who died had been unvaccinated and did not seek medical care, a state health department spokesperson said in a statement. The person's exact age and other details were not immediately released. Continue reading...

State department launches AI-assisted reviews of accounts to look for what it perceives as Hamas supportersThe US state department will use artificial intelligence to revoke visas of foreign students who it perceives as supporters of Hamas, Axios reported on Thursday, citing senior state department officials.Donald Trump signed an executive order in January to combat antisemitism and has pledged to deport non-citizen college students and others who took part in pro-Palestinian protests that have been ongoing for months amid Israel's military assault on Gaza after Hamas's October 2023 attack. Continue reading...

Workers at US African Development Foundation refused to let Doge operatives enter, though they later gained accessMembers of Elon Musk's so-called department of government efficiency" (Doge) unit were barred from entering a small, independent federal agency promoting economic development in Africa on Wednesday after a tense standoff with federal staff they had been sent to fire.Workers at the US African Development Foundation (USADF), which Donald Trump has ordered to be closed, refused to allow Doge operatives to enter after they arrived at its Washington headquarters on Wednesday afternoon. But the Doge team returned on Thursday, accompanied by agents with the US Marshals Service and Peter Marocco, the acting director of the now-shuttered US Agency for International Development, according to a government official familiar with the situation. This time, they were able to gain access to the building, the official said, and no staff was present. Continue reading...

The remarks could trigger alarm bells in capitals from Europe to Asia, where leaders were already worried about a withdrawal of US security supportUS President Donald Trump has cast doubt on his willingness to defend Washington's Nato allies, saying that he would not do so if they are not paying enough for their own defense.It's common sense, right," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. If they don't pay, I'm not going to defend them. No, I'm not going to defend them." Continue reading...

Companies claim this is fair use'. I think it's a digital heist

State department also looks into merging some bureaus in Washington amid Trump effort to slash US governmentThe US state department is preparing to shut down a number of consulates that are mainly in western Europe in the coming months and looking to reduce its workforce globally, multiple US officials said on Thursday.The state department is also looking into potentially merging a number of its expert bureaus at its headquarters in Washington that are working in areas such as human rights, refugees, global criminal justice, women's issues and efforts to counter human trafficking, the officials said. Continue reading...

Judge orders reinstatement of Gwynne Wilcox to National Labor Relations Board after her removal by US presidentA federal court ruled that Donald Trump's abrupt firing of a former senior official at the top US labor watchdog was illegal, and ordered that she be reinstated.Gwynne Wilcox was the first member of the National Labor Relations Board to be removed by a US president since the board's inception in 1935. Continue reading...

President's decree claims white South Africans being unjustly discriminated against and orders end to foreign aidThe state department has ordered an immediate pause on most US foreign assistance to South Africa, according to a cable seen by the Guardian, officially implementing a contentious executive order by Donald Trump.The directive, issued on Thursday, implements Executive Order 14204 targeting what the administration called egregious actions" by South Africa. It orders all state department entities to immediately suspend aid disbursements, with minimal exceptions. Continue reading...

US president paused tariffs on Mexican products covered by USMCA and later stayed tariffs on many Canadian imports

Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform by Lunar Outpost landed near the moon's south pole after eight daysA small but rugged robotic moon rover developed by a Colorado company became the first commercial exploration vehicle to touch down on the lunar surface on Thursday.Mission managers were unable to immediately confirm that the landing of the spacecraft it was traveling in had been fully successful. Continue reading...

Groups sue National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) after president bars funds for promotion of gender ideology'Several arts organizations are suing the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) over its new requirements following Donald Trump's executive order barring the use of federal funds for the promotion of gender ideology".The groups, which are seeking funding for projects that support art about or are made by transgender and non-binary people, say they have in effect been unconstitutionally blocked from receiving grants from the agency that was built to promote artistic excellence, despite having received funds for similar projects in the past. Continue reading...

Billionaire Trump ally and Greg Abbot tweet about Frank Zamora, who was let go after refusing to remove pronounsThe Texas governor, Greg Abbott, and, later, Elon Musk showed support on Wednesday for the firing of a state employee who refused to remove his pronouns from his work email signature.Frank Zamora, 31, was let go from his job as a program manager at the Texas real estate commission (TREC) last month because he refused to comply with a mandate from the organisation to employees to remove gender pronouns from email signatures. Continue reading...

Donald Trump has deliberately picked a fight with its northern neighbour. This malign strategy must be stoppedIt is two months since Justin Trudeau announced his resignation as Liberal party leader and Canada's prime minister. After a decade in power, Mr Trudeau had become increasingly unpopular. Two out of three Canadians thought he was doing a bad job. The opposition Conservatives led in almost every poll. With the Liberals staring a 2025 general election defeat in the face, Mr Trudeau's ministers forced him out. His successor will be chosen this Sunday.But then came Donald Trump. Mr Trump wants to strengthen the US at the expense of its neighbours. His hostility to Canada is thus visceral and deep. Without any justification, he promised illegal 25% tariffs on all Canadian and Mexican imports. As a figleaf for his intentions, he falsely claimed that Canada's 5,000-mile border with the US was an open door for migrants and drugs. He talked, repeatedly and deliberately, of annexing Canada and making it the 51st state. He mocked Mr Trudeau, referring to him as merely a state governor. Continue reading...

Ed Martin, interim US attorney for DC appointed by Trump, threatens law school over diversity initiatives in letter

All-staff email is latest Trump-led assault on agency that runs safety-net program for 73 million AmericansEmployees at the Social Security Administration have been banned from reading news websites on work devices, in the latest assault on the beleaguered agency by the Trump administration and Elon Musk.The all-staff email sent on Thursday morning said that effective today" Social Security Administration (SSA) staff would be prevented from accessing certain websites including online shopping", general news" and sports". Continue reading...

Fires broke out in southern Appalachia this week as a storm from California took casualties in Mississippi and NebraskaExtreme weather conditions continue to threaten parts of the southern plains and midwest on Thursday, after six people were killed earlier this week in a powerful storm that wreaked havoc across multiple states.As damage assessments continued in the south, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) warned of critical fire conditions for parts of south-east New Mexico and western Texas on Thursday. Continue reading...

Investigation is part of a flurry of recent cases brought by new disciplinary committee against students who have expressed criticism of Israel

Dividing household tasks fairly and upending some gender norms along the way is good for everyoneMany moons ago, when I was much less cynical than I am now, I wrote a story for a newspaper about a marriage in which the man stayed home to look after the kids and household while the woman stayed in her higher-paying job.It was a financial decision that made obvious sense for this couple - they'd both had good jobs but had together decided her career was the more promising in the long term, so he stepped back because they wanted an at-home parent while the kids were little, and because they could afford it. It was deemed newsworthy" in a soft kind of way, because in the 1990s it went well against the norm - it was a good illustration of what was possible when you start with a negligible gender pay gap, mutual disrespect for gender norms, and ego-free assessment of which career is best going to provide for the family unit. Continue reading...

Reuters interviews with 11 federal judges in multiple districts reveal mounting concern over their security

Most respondents in Germany, France, Spain, Italy and UK also say Kyiv's exclusion from peace talks is unacceptable

State's Black caucus faces ire of advocates as they demand urgent implementation given hostile political climateAmid the Trump administration's full throated attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion, Black lawmakers in California introduced a package of reparations bills to start the new legislative session.Black legislators say these attacks on racial equity make it even more imperative to implement reparations in California, the first state in the US to undertake such a process, which has become a blueprint for other state-level reparations programs. Continue reading...

Social security is a highly efficient safety net. But the president's crypto plans and job cuts leave Americans holding the bagElon Musk said on Joe Rogan's show last week that social security is the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time".Rubbish. In a Ponzi scheme, a con artist lures investors into a fake investment project, pockets the cash, and then gets new investors" to funnel cash to the older ones - until new recruits slow down and the whole thing collapses. Suckers are left holding worthless bags. Continue reading...

Harrowing story of ES', fleeing persecution to seek safety in US, shines light on judges who grant claims at exceptionally low rates - or not at allAt an immigration court in Pearsall, Texas, in front of a judge, government attorneys and a court interpreter, ES shakily recounted the darkest moments of his life.He explained how he had been arrested seven years ago in Turkey, amid his government's crackdown on followers of Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen. The police officers who detained him accused him of being involved in a terrorist movement, and demanded he reveal the names of his associates, he said. Continue reading...

Member states must stop squabbling over trivial matters - and a firmer stance against states that promote Putin's and Trump's agenda is needed too

Comments by China's foreign ministry mark an escalation in rhetoric following Donald Trump's imposition of tariffs. Plus, Trump posts fresh ultimatum to HamasGood morning.China's ministry of foreign affairs has warned that China will fight to the end" against the US in a tariff war, trade war or any other war" in a stark escalation of rhetoric.How has China responded to US tariffs? It is imposing duties of up to 15% on a range of US agricultural products.What else has the US done? After pausing military aid to Ukraine this week, the US stopped sharing intelligence with Kyiv. Continue reading...

An anti-gay slur's at San Diego FC's home debut prompted a strong response from the club. They're not the first ones forced to address a tired tropeIt all started as a bit of a joke, just not a funny one. Now infamous enough to be known as the chant' or the p-word' even in English, historical accounts say the homophobic chant that has remained persistent in Mexican soccer began in Guadalajara. Atlas fans were infuriated by goalkeeper Oswaldo Sanchez's departure from their team and his eventual return to their rivals Guadalajara. That's when they tweaked a traditional gridiron football ritual, building up noise before belting out an anti-gay slur whenever Sanchez took a goal kick.The chant appeared again - this time with more venom - at a game between USA and Mexico in a 2004 pre-Olympic tournament in Guadalajara. Mexico fans were still smarting from El Tri's loss to the US at the 2002 World Cup. That led to 60,000 Tapatios directing the slur at US goalkeeper DJ Countess during Mexico's 4-0 win. The ugly trend has continued, and grown, despite campaigns from the Mexican football federation, Fifa fines, and efforts from Liga MX, who named a full season after an alternative chant in 2021. Continue reading...

Sports stars have stayed silent about the policies of the new administration. I spoke to someone who knows all about the power - and price - of protestSince Donald Trump took office for his second term, he has taken a blowtorch to America. He has pardoned January 6 rioters, started the gutting of the federal government, eliminated diversity, equity and inclusion programs, insulted who we thought were the country's allies, and vilified immigrants.While there have been voices of dissent in the sports world - such as former NFL punter Chris Kluwe and soccer coach Jesse Marsch - athletes have largely stayed silent on Trump's policies, a stark contrast to his first term in power. In recent months, Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce spoke of their pride in playing in front of Trump at the Super Bowl, while the Philadelphia Eagles are reportedly keen to visit the White House to celebrate their NFL title, a decision supported by Charles Barkley, who believes boycotts make the nation more divided. Continue reading...

To counter the crisis caused by Trump, Friedrich Merz has little choice but to abandon decades of military and economic cautionIn February 1945, three world leaders - Winston Churchill, Franklin D Roosevelt and Josef Stalin - met in Crimea for the Yalta conference, to discuss the new world order they would implement after the soon-to-end second world war.Smaller nations were given no say in deciding their fate. The Soviet sphere of influence would infest eastern Europe for decades and US foreign policy dominated the second half of the 20th century. Churchill resisted the end of the UK's global empire and independence for Britain's colonies came piecemeal; they were let go with bitterness.Catherine De Vries is professor of political science at Bocconi University in Milan Continue reading...

If European leaders want to truly support Ukraine they must seize the moment by seizing $220bn in assetsIt is now clear that Donald Trump's administration will betray Ukraine in its fight to resist Russian aggression. Trump himself is either a victim of disinformation or he is a willing participant in an effort to deceive Americans about the causes and consequences of the war.Trump's lies include claiming that Ukraine is equally to blame for the war; that Volodymyr Zelenskyy doesn't have the cards" to end the conflict on favourable terms; and that Ukraine could not have defended itself without US help. Yet the whole world knows that Russia launched an unprovoked invasion, and we all remember the initial weeks, when Ukrainians valiantly defended an 1,800-mile frontline against a supposedly superior army, long before deliveries of western artillery, armoured vehicles and air defence systems arrived. Continue reading...

Democrats introduce resolutions on Senate floor, as Trump veterans affairs chief defends plans to cut 80,000 staffDonald Trump and Justin Trudeau will speak today, Reuters reports, citing a source with knowledge of the matter.The Canadian prime minister condemned Trump's imposition of levies on his country yesterday, saying he was looking to make its economy collapse as part of a plan to incorporate it into the United States. Trump responded with insults, and a warning that he may tighten levies further next month. Continue reading...