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Attempt to remove head of the office of special counsel is key test of executive branch's battle with US judiciary to reshape federal governmentDonald Trump's administration has asked the supreme court to approve the firing of the head of a federal agency dedicated to protecting whistleblowers in the first appeal of Trump's new term and a key test of his battle with the judicial branch.Hampton Dellinger, the head of the office of the special counsel (OSC), is among the fired government watchdogs who have sued the Trump administration, arguing that their dismissals were illegal and that they should be reinstated. Continue reading...

Staff at the Federal Aviation Administration receive emails saying they have been fired, upending rotas during period of busy air travel. This live blog is closedA US judge has scheduled a rare holiday court hearing on Monday, in a case brought by Democratic state attorneys general seeking to protect major federal agencies from Elon Musk's Doge team.US district judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington DC on Sunday called the hearing for Monday, the Presidents Day holiday when federal courts are closed. Continue reading...

For many, going to college is the very definition of the American dream. Relieved from familial burdens and toil work: it is a brief and precious period of freedomOne of the many guises in which the Trump-Musk duo presents itself to the American public, as they take office in the new administration, is as "employers-in-chief": seasoned businessmen entitled to give life advice to their fellow citizens on the basis of a purported real-life experience that cuts against received wisdom.It is in this guise that both Trump and Musk recurrently attack higher education institutions as one of the as yet unconquered bastions of the liberal America" they are now keen to tear down. Already during his first presidential bid in 2016, Trump famously stated that he loves the poorly educated". More recently, at a campaign rally in support of Trump's re-election bid, Musk stated that too many people spend four years in college, accumulate a ton of debt, and don't have any useful skills they can apply afterwards".Carlo Invernizzi-Accetti is executive director of the Moynihan Center and full professor of political science at the City College of New York. Continue reading...

The optimism that greeted Jim Ratcliffe's arrival as owner has given way to even more disappointment, with Sunday's defeat at Tottenham the latest example

US tax agency has received request for access to classified system containing personal financial records of US taxpayersThe US federal tax collection agency is reportedly preparing to give a team member of Elon Musk's department of government efficiency" (Doge), which has already gutted several federal agencies and sparked multiple lawsuits, access to personal taxpayer data.The New York Times and the Washington Post both reported early on Monday that the Internal Revenue Service had received a request for access to a classified system that contains sensitive personal financial records. Continue reading...

Britain used to solicit money that the US would not touch - but with oligarchs and fraudsters on the rise, it must now uphold the lawFive decades ago, the United States was in turmoil. A long and unpopular war was ending in defeat; inflation was high; and American politicians were accused of high-handed and illegal behaviour.If all this sounds remarkably similar to the last few years, that's because it is. But the mid-1970s was different in one crucial respect: how the US responded to it, and particularly how it responded to corruption. Major corporations had been giving bribes to win contracts in South Korea, Italy and Saudi Arabia; US politicians were appalled - and they acted to uphold values other than money.Oliver Bullough is the author of Butler to the World: How Britain Became the Servant of Tycoons, Tax Dodgers, Kleptocrats and Criminals, and Moneyland: Why Thieves and Crooks Now Rule the World and How to Take It BackDo 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...

Gabriel Basso says actors should shut the fuck up' and that they have no authority to publicly bestow political viewsThe actor who portrayed JD Vance in the Oscar-nominated film Hillbilly Elegy before the latter man became the vice-president of the US has said his fellow thespians should shut the fuck up" rather than express their political opinions.Gabriel Basso - now starring in the hit Netflix series The Night Agent - made those comments on a recent episode of the Great Company podcast, cutting a stark contrast with his director on Hillbelly Elegy, Ron Howard, who previously described himself as surprised and concerned" from the campaign that ultimately left Vance a heartbeat away from the US presidency. Continue reading...

On his first day, the president paused billions of dollars in funding for clean energy projects initiated by BidenMike Mullett strains to see through sheets of misty rain while driving through working-class neighborhoods of Columbus, a quaint town in southern Indiana.He's trying to find the senior center, multi-family homes and rent-assisted properties - more than 530 in total - that he and many other locals hope will receive $4.42m in federal funding for solar electricity projects. Continue reading...

The meeting, convened by Emmanuel Macron, comes as US officials prepare for talks in Riyadh with their Russian counterparts. Plus, the comprehensive ridiculing of New Zealand's tourism campaignGood morning.US officials are preparing to hold preliminary negotiations in Riyadh with Russia over Ukraine, as European powers meet in Paris to demand the inclusion of Kyiv and themselves in the talks.Who will attend the Paris summit? The French president, Emmanuel Macron, who is convening the talks, Germany's chancellor, Olaf Scholz, Poland's prime minister, Donald Tusk, and the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer.What role is the UK playing? An active one - Starmer on Sunday said he was prepared to put British troops on the ground in Ukraine to safeguard peace.How will this affect consumers? Expect to see rising prices, Stiglitz said, adding that almost all economists agree with this: it is just a question of magnitude. Continue reading...

Many feel JD Vance's speech in Munich shows Trump 2.0 is a far more disruptive and chaotic force than their worst fearsAs European leaders meet in Paris to prepare an answer to their apparent exclusion from the talks about Ukraine's future, the existential and all encompassing question of how to influence an unchained US president occupies every European leader.The Finnish president, Alexander Stubb, speaking at the Munich Security Conference, offered some Nordic advice. We Finns in these situations are cool, calm and collected so what we do first is have an ice bath and after that we go to the sauna and then we reflect." Faced by what he described as a cacophony" of het-up and shocked diplomacy, he suggested: We need to talk less and do more." Continue reading...

In slashing staff and disabling entire agencies the administration is lacerating the structures of US democracyDonald Trump and Elon Musk's radical drive to slash billions of dollars in annual federal spending with huge job and regulatory cuts is spurring charges that they have made illegal moves while undercutting congressional and judicial powers, say legal experts, Democrats and state attorneys general.Trump's fusillade of executive orders expanding his powers in some extreme ways in his cost-cutting fervor, coupled with unprecedented drives by the Musk-led so-called department of government efficiency" (Doge) to slash many agency workforces and regulations, have created chaos across the US government and raised fears of a threat to US democracy. Continue reading...

I'm far from certain that staying engaged will make a difference. What I do know is that if we all tune out, there's no hope at allIt's tempting in this dire moment to try and shut out the nightmare of what's happening in Washington DC.I'm waking up every day to a genuinely sick feeling in my stomach and a heavy feeling in my chest," my friend Laura, who follows the news closely, texted me recently. Continue reading...

A new book explores the nuanced history of a city in which Black athletes have been revered and discriminated against in equal measureWhen cricket gained popularity in Boston in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Black immigrants from the West Indies became some of the top players. Based in Boston and neighboring Cambridge, their teams competed against all-white squads in the Massachusetts Cricket League. By the early 20th century, Black teams were dominating the league. The 1931 final was played between two such teams - Windsor and Standard.Not exactly the narrative you may be accustomed to hearing in the land of Dunkin', Big Papi and Brady, eh? And perhaps not a narrative that fits easily into the story of race and Boston sport, with its recognizable highs (the Boston Celtics drafting the NBA's first Black player in Chuck Cooper in 1950, and making their longtime star Bill Russell the league's first Black coach in 1966) and lows (the Boston Red Sox being the last Major League Baseball team to integrate, with Pumpsie Green in 1959). Continue reading...

Some believe Kansas City's reign at the top of the NFL is over after they were thrashed in the Super Bowl. Who will dominate the league next?NFL fans are spoiled when it comes to dynasties this century. Just as Bill Belichick's New England Patriots ran out of gas after two decades of dominance, along came the Kansas City Chiefs to replace them. But the manner in which the Eagles destroyed those Chiefs in this year's Super Bowl - and the way in which general manager Howie Roseman has apparently set-up Philadelphia for long-term success - has called Kansas City's dominance into question. Here are a few candidates for the NFL's next dynasty. Continue reading...

Development of a joint defence shield would be politically explosive for Keir Starmer. But it's an idea whose time has comeThe startling contempt for Europe's intensifying security concerns displayed by Donald Trump and his henchmen has brought an old, controversial question back to the fore: should Britain and France pool their nuclear weapons capabilities and create a Europe-wide defensive nuclear shield to deter Vladimir Putin's Russia, if the US reduces or withdraws its support?Trump has not so far explicitly threatened to cut US nuclear forces based in Europe. But speaking last week, the president said he wanted to halve the US's defence spending, especially on nuclear weapons. Trump often denigrates Nato, keystone of European security. Last year, he encouraged Russia to do whatever the hell they want" to member states that, in his view, spend too little on defence. Continue reading...

This mortifying dilemma goes to the very soul of the region - and its leaders have brought it on themselvesArab states are in a bind. King Abdullah of Jordan squirmed in the Oval Office last week, as the press asked him and Donald Trump about the latter's Gaza plan. He is in a tight spot, wanting to keep Trump onside while at the same time not agreeing to the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. Immediately after, anonymous Egyptian security sources" - not parties prone to leaking without strategic direction from President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi - said that Sisi would not accept an invitation to visit Washington as long as the Gaza displacement plan was on the agenda. Now, this was probably more for the Egyptian public's consumption than for Trump's benefit - Egypt is in no position to make an enemy of the new administration - but it nonetheless shows how hard it is for Trump to secure the acquiescence of even the US's closest allies.Saudi Arabia also postponed a visit to the US once Trump announced his intentions for Gaza. And in a remarkable change of tune, Saudi, which before 7 October 2023 was en route to normalisation with Israel and is not usually a country to make heated statements, lost its patience. When Benjamin Netanyahu quipped that maybe it would like to take Palestinians from Gaza (they have a lot of territory", he said), Saudi state media unleashed a storm of invective against him. When Trump announced his plan, Saudi Arabian authorities immediately put out a statement rejecting it. So keen was the government to signal that rejection that it released the statement at 4am local time. Continue reading...

Event co-founded by Jordan Peterson will bring together global rightwing figures including senior US RepublicansInfluential rightwingers from around the world are to gather in London from Monday at a major conference to network and build connections with senior US Republicans linked to the Trump administration.The UK opposition leader, the Conservatives' Kemi Badenoch, and Nigel Farage of the Reform UK party, her hard-right anti-immigration rival, will compete to present themselves as the torchbearer of British conservatism. Continue reading...

Positions cut also appeared to focus on agency's centers for tobacco products, including oversight of e-cigarettesThe Trump administration's effort to slash the size of the federal workforce reached the Food and Drug Administration this weekend, as recently hired employees who review the safety of food ingredients, medical devices and other products were fired.Probationary employees across the FDA received notices on Saturday evening that their jobs were being eliminated, according to three FDA staffers who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Continue reading...

Ninth person dies from harsh winter weather in Georgia as bone-chilling cold predicted for northern plainsMuch of the US faced another round of biting winter weather on Sunday, with torrential rains causing intense flooding in Kentucky and resulting in multiple deaths.The Kentucky governor, Andy Beshear, on Sunday said at least eight people were dead amid the inundation, with the number possibly increasing. Continue reading...

President posted he who saves his country does not violate any laws' quote attributed to French emperorCritics rounded on Donald Trump on Sunday for likening himself to Napoleon in a dictatorial" social media post echoing the French emperor's assertion that he who saves his country does not violate any laws".The post came at the end of another tumultuous week early in Trump's second presidency, during which acolytes questioned the legitimacy of judges making a succession of rulings to stall his administration's aggressive seizure or dismantling of federal institutions and budgets. Continue reading...

Family of Martin Luther King Jr says Trump mandate could revive J Edgar Hoover's efforts to discredit revered activistThe family of Martin Luther King Jr has expressed concern over Donald Trump's executive order to release records surrounding the civil rights leader's assassination, saying the president's mandate could revive efforts to discredit the revered activist with the public.Speaking to Axios, a friend of the King family said: We know J Edgar Hoover tried to destroy Dr King's legacy, and the family doesn't want that effort to prevail," referring to the late former FBI director and his agency's years-long surveillance of King as well his associates. Continue reading...

European papers express deep alarm at declaration of an ideological war', while the NYT says Putin may soon realise his dream'This year's Munich security conference exposed the chasm in core values separating the Trump administration from most Europeans and sparked deep alarm at US efforts to control the Ukraine peace process and exclude European governments from it.Here is what some of the main European and US newspapers had to say about it. Continue reading...

Four months ago, I took an emergency response course. Then the wildfires came, and I realised, in an era of disasters, how vital trained neighbors areKelley McIntosh is the kind of person who gives her friends fire extinguishers as housewarming gifts. In other words, my kind of person: as a climate journalist who's spent eight years reporting on adaptations critical to life in our burning, storming, fevered world, I've been known to gift-wrap prepper items, too. Loved ones have sighed and nodded as they opened solar lanterns, flashlights and emergency radios none of us quite understand how to crank".Shockingly for two hypervigilants, neither Kelley nor I had ever actually pulled the pin and shot a fire extinguisher until the day we met last September in Los Angeles. Continue reading...

Ukrainian president tells NBC's Meet the Press that Putin's next targets may be Poland and LithuaniaVolodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday predicted Russia would wage war against Nato" if the US stepped back from its support of Ukraine - and that he had seen intelligence suggesting that the Russian dictator, Vladimir Putin, was building up troops for a possible military invasion of another European country.The Ukrainian president made the claim on the NBC show Meet the Press in a wide-ranging interview ahead of an emergency summit of European leaders in Paris to discuss Russia's war on Ukraine - and peace talks between US and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia. Continue reading...

Police in upstate New York say Sam Nordquist, 24, who was from Minnestoa, endured weeks of tortureFive people in New York have been charged with subjecting a transgender man from Minnesota to repeated acts of violence and torture" before murdering him, according to police.The allegations come after the discovery of human remains believed to be those of Sam Nordquist, 24, in a field near Canandaigua in upstate New York on 13 February. Continue reading...

Republican Bill Cassidy calls state surgeon general's halt to promotion of mass vaccination a disservice to parentsBill Cassidy, the Republican US senator, has said his home state of Louisiana's recent decision to cancel the promotion of mass vaccination against preventable diseases is a disservice to parents who want to keep their children healthy.Nonetheless, before those remarks, the medical doctor-turned-politician who has clashed with Donald Trump joined 51 of his fellow Republicans in voting to confirm anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F Kennedy Jr as secretary of the US's health and human services department. Cassidy had also previously voted to advance Trump's nomination of Kennedy as national health secretary from the committee level to the full Senate. Continue reading...

Mountain communities in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee were among the hardest hit by the deadly storm but residents have found strength and solace through helping each other

Thus far, the administration has pursued appeals. But remarks from JD Vance and Elon Musk echo authoritarians worldwideWill the Trump administration defy the courts?JD Vance's tweet last weekend that judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power" has sparked widespread concern that the Trump administration might become the first in US history to do so. At least at this stage, it is not clear that it will come to that, notwithstanding the president's proclivity for asserting limitless executive power. But as other countries' experiences show, if he were to adopt the position of the US vice-president, Trump would be crossing perhaps the most fundamental line demarcating constitutional democracy from autocracy.Amrit Singh is a law professor and executive director of the Rule of Law Impact Lab at Stanford Law School. David Cole is a professor at Georgetown Law and former legal director of the ACLU Continue reading...

The president's full-court press to dominate media and control cultural institutions is straight out of the authoritarian playbookBigger than the Super Bowl, claimed Donald Trump, sitting in a big leather chair beside a big map. Then came an announcement over the public address system. Air Force One is currently in international waters," declared the flight crew of the US presidential jet, for the first time in history flying over the recently renamed Gulf of America."As his aides clapped and whooped, Trump gloated: Isn't that nice? We're about Make America Great Again', right? That's what we care about." He proceeded to sign a proclamation declaring 9 February Gulf of America Day" as Air Force One flew over the body of water previously known as the Gulf of Mexico. Continue reading...

By voting in favor of nominees they knew should never be approved, Republican senators became Trump's subjectsFirst, before Elon Musk came for everyone, Donald Trump came for the US Senate. When he returned to office, the House of Representatives was already under his heel. Many of the House Republican leaders had been his sidekicks during January 6, and one, Mark Johnson, had since become the speaker. The Senate, however, still retained, for the most part, its club-like atmosphere where the members considered themselves powers unto themselves. Senators with a toga complex have always looked down on House members as rabble. Trump viewed the independent character of the upper body as a thorn in his side. The subservience of the House of Representatives was the model that Trump envisioned for the Senate. It could no longer pretend to be the greatest deliberative body of legislators in the world, but a vassal fiefdom subject to his whims.Trump's opportunity to crush the Senate appeared at once. As soon as he made his nominations for his cabinet, the Senate would hold confirmation hearings. His misfit nominees gave him his chance. In any previous time, just a tincture of the alcoholism, serial sexual abuse, playing footsie with a Russian-backed despot, hawking of snake oil, doodling enemies lists and bilking non-profit organizations, quite apart from plain incompetence, would have been enough to knock them out before they ever approached a seat in a hearing room. Continue reading...

Canadians have been booing the US anthem for weeks over Trump's proposed tariffs. But it's no wonder that tensions boiled over when the US finally met Canada on the iceAs usual, Canadians approached the latest international hockey tournament, the 4 Nations Face-Off, with worry. Despite top-tier talent and historic winning pedigree, the feeling that Canada could be off its game is a perennial concern. But in 2025, it is particularly profound - mostly because of the Americans.Since the last time Canada played the US at an elite tournament in 2016, Canadians have watched the American program grow stronger and deeper, while Canada's own has lost focus. Among the most pressing going concerns has been goaltending. Canada - or Quebec more accurately - produced dominant goalies in excess for decades. No longer. They're all Americans now. Continue reading...

Nearly 50 years after it adopted the slam dunk contest from the ABA, perhaps it's time to once again for the NBA to look outward for a solution to its perpetual All-Star problemTo paraphrase a Nobel laureate on the perennial crises facing another form of live entertainment, the NBA All-Star Game is an institution that has been dying for 70 years but has yet to succumb. The complaints are persistent, well-documented, and mainly attributed to a single factor: players' lack of effort. An absence of defensive activity, in particular, is said to make All-Star Games almost unwatchable.For some players, the lack of effort is not an accident - the game falls in the middle of the NBA's All-Star Break, a six-day pause in competitive play that serves as the only meaningful time off during the league's 82-game regular season. Indeed, many of the players not named to All-Star teams use the break to go on holiday. Despite this tendency, however, the league's leadership regularly alters its All-Star Weekend program in an (often ineffective) effort to encourage competitive play. Continue reading...

Language can open eyes', Salman Rushdie wrote, yet still ideas of profanity are being used to silence dissenting voicesWhatever the attack was about, it wasn't about The Satanic Verses." So insists Salman Rushdie in Knife, his Meditations After an Attempted Murder", written after he almost lost his life in a ferocious assault in Chautauqua, a small town in upstate New York, where he had gone to give a talk in August 2022.As Rushdie rose to speak, a young man rushed towards him wielding a knife with which he inflicted terrible wounds to my neck, to my chest, to my eye, everywhere", excruciatingly severing the optic nerve of Rushdie's right eye. The talk he never gave was to have been about the importance of keeping writers safe from harm". Continue reading...

The betrayal of Ukraine is a final warning to the UK and its continental allies to put a lot more energy and money into rebuilding their defencesIt was, Sir Keir Starmer told members of his inner circle, one of his most meaningful visits abroad. In the middle of last month, he flew to Kyiv to double-down on the commitment to back Ukraine's struggle for freedom, a pledge he first made a defining feature of his leadership when Labour was in opposition. Hands were warmly clasped with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, wailing air raid sirens greeted a Russian drone attack, financial promises were made, and signatures were inscribed on a 100-year partnership treaty. The prime minister solemnly intoned the western mantra about backing the resistance to Russian tyranny for as long as it takes" for Ukraine to become free and thriving once again".All of which now sounds for the birds, thanks to Donald Trump. It was with his trademark contempt for his country's traditional allies that the US president blindsided them by announcing that he had initiated peace negotiations with Vladimir Putin over the heads of Ukraine and the European members of Nato. The UK received no more warning of this bombshell than anyone else. So much for the vaunted special relationship". The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, then unleashed another punch to the solar plexus of European security by publicly declaring that Ukraine would have to accept the surrender of large chunks of its territory and should forget about becoming a member of Nato. The future defence of Ukraine, he went on to declare, would be down to Europe, because the US wouldn't be sending any of its troops to sustain a security guarantee. Continue reading...

Principled, charismatic and humorous, the murdered Russian opposition leader was everything Vladimir Putin is notIt is exactly one year since Alexei Navalny, Russia's best-known opposition leader and anti-corruption activist, was murdered in an Arctic penal colony by Vladimir Putin's regime. Countless other political opponents, critics and dissidents have been killed, jailed or exiled since Putin first became president 25 years ago.All vestiges of an open society, democratic accountability, independent media and free speech in Russia have been eviscerated in that time. Accused of war crimes in Ukraine, which he invaded three years ago this month, Putin poses an undeniable threat to Europe and Britain - as well as to his own people. Yet this is the man with whom Donald Trump now wants to be friends.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission moves to withdraw cases that conflict with Trump order on two sexesThe US commission that enforces civil rights laws against workplace discrimination has moved to dismiss six cases it brought on behalf of workers alleging gender-identity discrimination, it was revealed on Saturday.The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), established via the Civil Rights Act of 1964, said in court papers it was looking to dismiss the cases in Illinois, Alabama, New York and California, because they now conflict with a Trump administration executive order to recognize only two immutable" sexes, male and female. Continue reading...

Courts are currently backlogged with 3.7m cases as US president demands more deportationsThe Trump administration fired 20 immigration judges without explanation, a union official said on Saturday amid sweeping moves to shrink the size of the federal government.On Friday, 13 judges who had yet to be sworn in and five assistant chief immigration judges were dismissed without notice, said Matthew Biggs, president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, which represents federal workers. Two other judges were fired under similar circumstances in the last week. Continue reading...

Cuts to nuclear security workforce were made on Thursday - but agency can't find workers to offer them their jobs backThe US agency charged with overseeing nuclear weapons is looking to contact workers who were fired on Thursday as part of the Trump administration's federal cost-cutting measures, but are now needed back.Officials with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) attempted to notify some probationary employees who had been let go that they are due to be reinstated - but they struggled to find them because their contact information was missing. Continue reading...

Agencies say Trump's latest push to trim government could impede firefighting efforts and create crises at national parksThe US Forest Service is firing about 3,400 recent hires while the National Park Service is terminating about 1,000 workers under Donald Trump's push to cut federal spending and bureaucracy, according to a report on Friday.The terminations target employees who are in their probationary employment periods, which includes anyone hired less than a year ago, according to Reuters, and will affect sites such as the Appalachian trail, Yellowstone, the birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr and the Sequoia national forest. Continue reading...

US president's announcement prompts government to publish green paper weeks ahead of scheduleThe government has rushed forward plans for a 2.5bn investment in the UK steel industry after Donald Trump announced 25% tariffs on all imports of steel and aluminium into the US.The business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, will publish a green paper entitled Plan for Steel on Sunday - several weeks before schedule - in a sign of how Trump's tariffs are sending shock waves through a UK government desperate to kickstart economic growth. Continue reading...

Republicans will need Democrats' help to pass funding bill by 14 March as hard-right lawmakers push to cut costsWith the US federal government expected to shut down in one month unless Congress approves a funding bill, Democratic lawmakers are wrestling with just how far they are willing to go to push back against Donald Trump's radical rightwing agenda that has thrown American politics into turmoil.Specifically, Democrats appear divided on the question of whether they would be willing to endure a shutdown to demonstrate their outrage over the president's attempted overhaul of the federal government. Continue reading...