The US flag bearer and first Black woman to win Winter Olympic individual gold carries the lessons of Special Forces into Sunday's 500m speed skating finalOn the ice, Erin Jackson is the picture of control - metronomic in her balance, rhythmic in her stride, a woman whose margins for error are blade thin. But all that control melted away when the speed skater glided on to Fox's Special Forces: World's Toughest Test reality TV series in fall 2023 for a taste of the grueling training that elite US troops endure.She was part of a motley cast that included former Dallas Cowboys star Dez Bryant, NBA clutch shooter Robert Horry and skier Bode Miller, a fellow Winter Olympic champion. But Jackson was less concerned with outshining her athletic peers than with confronting her own fears. To test her anxiety around swimming, Jackson was strapped into a mock helicopter, submerged in icy water and told to hold her breath for at least 15 seconds before freeing herself, grabbing a lifejacket, and paddling to safety. Continue reading...

His shameful stewardship of a once great title highlights how much we lose when private interest eclipses the public goodNot long after being made Time magazine's Person of the Year in 1999, Jeff Bezos told me: They were not choosing me as much as they were choosing the internet, and me as a symbol." A quarter of an increasingly dark century later, the Amazon founder is now a symbol of something else: how the ultra-rich can kill the news.Job cuts in an industry that has struggled financially since the internet came into existence and killed its business model is hardly new, but last week's brutal cull of hundreds of journalists at the Bezos-owned Washington Post marks a new low. The redundancies that were announced to staff on a video call, the axing of half its foreign bureau (including the war reporter in Ukraine) - not since P&O Ferries have layoffs been handled so badly. Former Post stalwart Paul Farhi described a decision that affected nearly half of the 790-strong workforce as the biggest one-day wipeout of journalists in a generation". Continue reading...

Epstein files release shows David Stern advised against mentioning being denied previously or criminal charges'An aide to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor advised Jeffrey Epstein to illegally hide his child sexual abuse conviction to obtain a visa to China, according to the latest Epstein files release.David Stern, who was a close associate of both Epstein and the then prince, was asked for his help after the disgraced financier's initial application for a visa was rejected. Continue reading...

Lawmakers left Washington for a long weekend without resolving an impasse over much-criticized agency's fundingThe Department of Homeland Security has begun a partial shutdown, after funding for the much-criticized agency expired, with a range of services, including domestic flights and the US Coastguard, now vulnerable to disruption.The shutdown was all but confirmed on Thursday, after the Senate failed to clear the 60-vote threshold needed to pass the DHS appropriations bill and lawmakers left Washington for a long weekend without resolving the impasse. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed.The annual rate of US inflation eased in January, according to the latest data consumer price index report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Over the last 12 months, the cost of goods has increased by 2.4% -down from 2.7% in last month's report.Lawmakers in the House and Senate left Washington on Thursday as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) heads for another shutdown, when stopgap funding lapses tonight. Nearly all Democrats blocked a second attempt to pass the annual DHS appropriations bill as negotiations for guardrails on federal immigration enforcement have stalled. Senator John Fetterman was the only lawmaker to break ranks with the party. Continue reading...

Strike appears to be first in Caribbean since November, with vast majority of recent strikes happening in the PacificThe US military's Southern Command, which oversees operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, said it had carried out its second deadly boat strike this week. The command said the latest strike killed three suspected drug smugglers in the Caribbean on Friday.Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations," the Southern Command said in a statement. The command included a video of the strike with its announcement, which shows a boat traveling through the water as it explodes into flames after being hit with what looks like a missile. Continue reading...

Democratic representative also condemns US capture of Nicolas Maduro, Trump's threats to annex Greenland and US support for Israel's war on Gaza - key US politics stories from Friday, 13 February at a glanceAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez has accused Donald Trump of tearing apart the transatlantic alliance with Europe and of seeking to introduce an age of authoritarianism", as she condemned his administration's foreign policy in front of its allies' top policymakers at the Munich security conference.Speaking at a panel on populism on Friday, the New York representative outlined what she called an alternative vision" for a leftwing US foreign policy, challenging the Trump administration's shift to the right in front an audience of US allies who have grown increasingly wary of the US's increasingly nationalist - and militaristic - global posture. Continue reading...

Charges dropped against two Venezuelan men over January shooting as investigation opened into agents' conductFederal authorities have opened a criminal investigation into whether two immigration officers lied under oath about a shooting in Minneapolis last month, as all charges were dropped against two Venezuelan men.ICE director Todd Lyons said on Friday that his agency opened a joint investigation with the justice department after video evidence revealed sworn testimony provided by two separate officers appears to have made untruthful statements" about the shooting of one of the Venezuelan men during the Trump administration's immigration crackdown across the Minneapolis area. Continue reading...

New York congresswoman criticizes unconditional' US aid and calls for enforcement of Leahy lawsAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez said during a Munich security conference panel on Friday on the future of foreign policy that the Democratic party's next presidential nominee should reconsider the country's military aid to Israel.Hagar Shezaf of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz asked the US congresswoman if she thought the Democratic presidential candidate in the 2028 elections should re-evaluate military aid to Israel". Continue reading...

In a floor speech, Ro Khanna, a Democratic representative, revealed identities of six men after seeing unredacted filesRo Khanna, the US congressman, publicly revealed the names of six men whose identities were redacted from the Jeffrey Epstein files, including Leslie Wexner, a billionaire retail magnate, whom the FBI appeared to have labeled as a co-conspirator.Four of the six men had no connection to Epstein whatsoever and were simply part of a photo lineup assembled by law enforcement, according to reporting from the Guardian. Two of the men who spoke to the Guardian strongly denied knowing Epstein and said they had been arrested by NYPD for unrelated crimes in the past, which likely explains how their photos ended up in the array. Continue reading...

President insists he will also restrict mail-in voting, even if Congress fails to pass the Save America actDonald Trump threatened on Friday to impose a requirement that US voters present photo identification before being allowed to cast ballots in the upcoming midterm elections.Trump insisted he will push for the change even if Congress fails to pass the Save America act, which cleared the House earlier this week but faces an uphill battle in the Senate. The bill would impose a national photo identification requirement to vote, in addition to requiring proof of citizenship to register and drastically limiting mail-in voting. Continue reading...

President of Protect Our Care issues one-word statement to US health and human services secretary: Resign'A prominent healthcare advocacy group is calling for the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, to step down from his post after he downplayed Covid risks by saying: I'm not scared of a germ. I used to snort cocaine off of toilet seats."Kennedy, who was appointed secretary of the federal health and human services (HHS) department despite his avowed anti-vaccine activism, made that remark on the 12 February episode of Theo Von's podcast This Past Weekend. Continue reading...

Matt Weston wins gold for Great Britain in the men's skeleton and Ilia Malinin finishes in a shock eighth place in the men's figure skating finalItalian biathlete Rebecca Passler will be able to participate in the Winter Olympics despite failing a doping test, the Italian skiing federation (Fisi) said on Friday. Italy's anti-doping body (Nado) upheld her appeal against a provisional suspension that followed a positive test for the banned substance Letrozole on 26 January.Nado's Court of Appeal acknowledged the possibility of unintentional ingestion or unknowing contamination of the substance. Passler will rejoin her teammates starting Monday, February 16, when she will be available to the coaching staff for the subsequent competitions on the Olympic programme," Fisi said in a statement. Continue reading...

Men appeared in photo lineup assembled in New York and had no apparent connection to late sex offenderRo Khanna, a California Democratic representative, read a list of six names on the House floor earlier this week and said they were wealthy, powerful men that the DoJ hid" in the recently released files related to Jeffrey Epstein. After questions from the Guardian, the Department of Justice said that four of the men Khanna named have no apparent connection to Epstein whatsoever, but rather appeared in a photo lineup assembled by the southern district of New York (SDNY).Khanna, along with Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican representative, pushed the justice department to unredact names in the files, arguing that some names were being unlawfully redacted. Massie claimed credit on X earlier this week for forcing the justice department to remove redactions on a file that listed 20 names, birthdays and photos, including those of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Khanna then read some of those names on the House floor. Continue reading...

Former CNN anchor said he was working as a journalist when he was arrested at protest during church serviceFormer CNN host turned independent journalist Don Lemon pleaded not guilty on Friday to federal civil rights charges connected to his coverage of a protest at a Minnesota church where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official is a pastor. Four others also pleaded not guilty in the case.Lemon did not comment to reporters as he entered the courthouse accompanied by his attorney Joe Thompson, but he later issued a statement stating his refusal to be intimidated by the Trump administration and vowing to fight these baseless charges". Continue reading...

Congressperson says US president and Marco Rubio are tearing apart transatlantic allianceAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez has accused Donald Trump of tearing apart the transatlantic alliance with Europe and of seeking to introduce an age of authoritarianism", as she condemned his administration's foreign policy in front of its allies' top policymakers at the Munich Security Conference.Speaking at a panel on populism on Friday, Ocasio-Cortez outlined what she called an alternative vision" for a leftwing US foreign policy, challenging the Trump administration's shift to the right in front an audience of US allies who have grown increasingly wary of the US's increasingly nationalist - and militaristic - global posture. Continue reading...

Protests in Buenos Aires, Lindsey Vonn crashes at the Winter Olympics and Bad Bunny performs at Super Bowl LX - the past seven days as captured by the world's leading photojournalists Continue reading...

School district says students will return next week after teachers demanded higher wages and more health benefitsSan Francisco teachers who staged their first strike in decades over wages and family health benefits have reached a tentative agreement with the school district.The San Francisco unified school district (SFUSD) announced on Friday schools would reopen to staff immediately, and to students on Wednesday, after two holidays. Continue reading...

Kevin Taylor allegedly accepted trips and lavish dinners for help in selling a mobile panic alert system' to city schoolsA New York police leader tasked with protecting the city's schoolchildren allegedly accepted bribes to help a businessman sell his mobile panic alert system" to schools in 2023, Manhattan federal prosecutors have alleged.Kevin Taylor, former commanding officer of the New York police department's school safety division, repeatedly abused his authority and considerable influence ... by soliciting or demanding bribes in two bribery schemes" - allowing him to enjoy lavish travel and luxe eateries, an indictment against him alleged. Continue reading...

EU's head of foreign policy claims Board of Peace' is personal vehicle for Donald Trump that removes accountability to Palestinians or UNA bitter dispute between Europe and the US over the future of Gaza has broken out into the open, with the EU's head of foreign policy, Kaja Kallas, warning that Donald Trump's Board of Peace" was a personal vehicle for the US president that removed any accountability to Palestinians or the United Nations.Spain's foreign minister, Jose Manuel Albares, also accused Trump of trying to bypass the original UN mandate for the board, and said Europe, one of the chief funders of the Palestinian Authority, had been excluded from the process. Continue reading...

Kristi Noem announced end of TPS for Yemenis, saying protections were against US national interest'The Trump administration has ended temporary protected status (TPS) for Yemeni nationals in the US, the secretary of homeland security, Kristi Noem, said on Friday, the latest move targeting immigrants.The decision to end humanitarian protections that grant deportation relief and work permits to more than a thousand Yemenis in the US was taken after determining that it was against the US national interest", Noem said. Continue reading...

State agencies are now mandated to protect the big cats, which have been increasingly vulnerable due to habitat lossMore than 1,400 mountain lions across California are now protected by the state's Endangered Species Act, the state's fish and game commission announced on Thursday.The commission unanimously voted to list six groups of central coast and southern California mountain lions under the California Endangered Species Act, meaning the agency determined that they are likely to become extinct without intervention. The affected species can be found from the Bay Area all the way down to the Mexican border. Continue reading...

Leqaa Kordia was taken into custody last March, nearly a year after being arrested at a protest at ColumbiaCalls are mounting for the release of a Palestinian woman who has been held in immigration detention for nearly a year following her arrest at a pro-Palestine protest last year, with several elected officials weighing in after a medical emergency renewed attention to her case.Leqaa Kordia, a 33-year-old originally from the West Bank, was arrested in April 2024 at a protest against Israel's war in Gaza outside Columbia University. (She was not a student there.) The charges against her were dismissed the following day, but last March, nearly a year after the protest, she was taken into custody when she checked into an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in New Jersey. She had a pending asylum application at the time, her attorney said. Continue reading...

Out-of-state investors buy cheap homes in the city, leaving working residents struggling with substandard housing

Democrats questioned White House about immigration policies exacerbating childcare shortages and costsDemocratic lawmakers, led by the senators Elizabeth Warren and Tammy Duckworth and the representative Mike Quigley, are demanding answers about how Donald Trump's immigration policies are exacerbating childcare shortages and costs in the US.About 20% of the childcare workforce in the US are immigrants - and as high as 70% in some regions of the US - and the president's immigration policies could reduce the childcare workforce by an estimated 15%, according to a letter sent today by 48 lawmakers to the Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families (ACF). Continue reading...

Chris Nanos was accused of bypassing federal analysts as search for Today show host's mother nears two weeksThe Arizona sheriff investigating the abduction of NBC Today show host Savannah Guthrie's mother pushed back Friday on an accusation he had withheld crucial forensic evidence from the FBI, as the search for the missing 84-year-old reached close to two weeks.Chris Nanos, the Pima county sheriff leading the investigation in Tucson, has been accused of bypassing federal analysts, according to an unnamed source at the FBI who spoke to Reuters. Continue reading...

As LLCs snap up thousands of homes, tenants face rising rents, fees and deteriorating living conditionsExecutive Towers boasts a gym, a swimming pool and heated underground parking. Built in 1963 by the country's top contructor of luxury apartments, its excellent access to Ohio's downtown Toledo and the neighborhoods beyond made it an attractive place to live.It was for all of these reasons and more that Kwiona Sprott moved into Executive Towers with her teenage son last July, paying $851 a month. Continue reading...

The Guardian has reviewed figures from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection since Trump's inaugurationDonald Trump campaigned on a platform of mass deportation. Since he took office, his administration has reshaped immigration enforcement across the country. The Guardian, using data published every two weeks by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is tracking the number of people the administration has arrested, detained and deported. Continue reading...

Economists predicted a slight easing of inflation, although it's unclear whether Fed will again cut interest ratesUS inflation moderated in January to 2.4%, an easing after Donald Trump's tariffs triggered price fluctuations last year.Prices rose 0.2% from December to January, according to data released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday measuring the consumer price index (CPI), which measures the price of a basket of goods and services. Core CPI, which strips out the volatile food and energy industries, went up 0.3% over the month. Continue reading...

Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem's exit as group chair and CEO follows pressure after publication of emailsThe boss of the P&O Ferries owner, DP World, has left the company after revelations over his ties with the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein forced the ports and logistics company to take action.Dubai-based DP World, which is ultimately owned by Dubai's royal family, announced the immediate resignation of Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem as the group's chair and chief executive on Friday. Continue reading...

Army in turmoil after Xi Jinping placed top general under investigation for suspected corruption last monthThe CIA (the US's Central Intelligence Agency) has published a Mandarin-language recruitment video aimed at Chinese soldiers, in an apparent attempt to capitalise on the recent instability in the People's Liberation Army (PLA) after a series of high-level purges.The video, published on the CIA's YouTube channel on Thursday, is titled The Reason for Stepping Forward: To Save the Future. Continue reading...

The Colombian icon joined the MLS side in a short-term deal with an eye toward fitness for the 2026 World CupTwo weeks ago, few could've expected that the most notable international acquisition of the MLS offseason would be made by Minnesota United.The team's marquee import until last week was Finland striker Teemu Pukki, with honorable mentions for Colombian playmaker Darwin Quintero and ex-Porto midfielder Ibson. The Loons aren't known for paying sizable transfer fees, and their wage bill last year was the league's fifth-smallest. Continue reading...

Obama says rollback will make Americans less safe'. Plus, Thundercat on funk and being fired by Snoop (possibly)

Bad boy Heathcliff is described as ethnically ambiguous and dark' in the novel, yet is played by a pretty straightforward white Australian ElordiTired of movies for kids? Superhero capes and flatulent animated squirrels? Me too. Fortunately, you and I are in luck. This weekend brings the wide release of Saltburn director Emerald Fennell's adaptation of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. As is befitting Fennell's established style, the movie offers over-the-top sexual titillation (though, crucially, zero nudity) and elaborate production design. Plus, a contemporary pop soundtrack from Charli xcx. A horny film version of a 19th-century novel is as adult-skewing as it gets at the box office these days.Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi suck face and stand around in the rain in expensive costumes for over two hours in a movie that Fennell proudly declares a loose translation from the page. It excises a large portion of the book's story and focuses its eye primarily on the illicit romance between Cathy Earnshaw and swarthy Heathcliff. Crucially, it should be pointed out that Heathcliff is technically Cathy's foster brother, which allows Wuthering Heights to fit comfortably into one of the most popular genres of online video in the world.Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist Continue reading...

Texas A&M University is the latest school to end women's and gender studies programs and teaching race. We know whyLast week, we learned of the decision of the Texas A&M University board of regents to end women's and gender studies programs as well as the teaching of divisive concepts" such as race. A&M was not the first university to do this. Florida's New College made the move in 2023. Other red state legislatures have passed similar requirements and their public universities (in North Carolina, Ohio and Kansas) have followed suit.The move to cancel gender studies is explicitly justified as a way to comply with Donald Trump's executive order of last year titled Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government. That document makes the biological reality of sex" a matter not of science but of law. Continue reading...

Agency says application rejected due to lack of adequate and well controlled' trial, but experts say they're just coming up with reasons'A senior US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) official says Moderna's clinical trial on a new, potentially more effective flu vaccine was a brazen failure" and that the FDA is now calling it into question.The FDA unexpectedly refused to consider Moderna's application for a flu shot based on messenger RNA (mRNA) technology in a decision that experts say is already having a chilling effect on vaccine development. Continue reading...

The danger around the Portland star is that in making crucial debates into arguments about basketball, we lose sight of what is really importantThere's a weird, psychological tension around basketball fouls. Not unlike a trial. A single rubbered heartbeat thumps in our collective throats. In basketball litigation, the verdict is televised and delivered in public by the referee's whistle. Deni Avdija faced more trials than a career criminal in early January, when he scored 41 points in the Portland Trail Blazers' win over the Houston Rockets. Twenty-eight came from the field. The other 13 were handed to him at the stripe.The online response was immediate, echoing the criticism that has followed the Israeli all season: he's a free-throw merchant. It's a specific kind of hoops pejorative - not quite cheating, but a kind of outsourcing, farming points out to the refs. After the game, Rockets forward Tari Eason was asked what makes Avdija so difficult to guard. His answer was one word: Zebras." Continue reading...

The final stretch of the JP Morgan Chase chief's career is a bumpy one, as Trump himself demands prosecutors investigate Epstein's ties to Dimon's bank Continue reading...

SemiCab platform by Algorhythm, previously considered a penny stock', sparks category 5 paranoia' across sectorShares in trucking and logistics companies have plunged as the sector became the latest to be targeted by investors fearful that new artificial intelligence tools could slash demand.A new tool launched by Algorhythm Holdings, a former maker of in-car karaoke systems turned AI company with a market capitalisation of just $6m (4.4m), sparked a sell-off on Thursday that made the logistics industry the latest victim of AI jitters that have already rocked listed companies operating in the software and real estate sectors. Continue reading...

On game day, where fashion has become a huge part of athlete identity, professionals are reaching for codified displays of their wealth Don't get Fashion Statement delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereOn Sunday night the Seattle Seahawks beat the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX, Bad Bunny put on a spectacular half-time show, and multiple players all walked down the tunnel from the car park to the dressing rooms carrying the same logo'd bag. The bag in question, by luxury French brand Goyard, isn't part of any official uniform - and isn't really known outside of its 0.1% customer base. But it has become as ubiquitous a status symbol among American football players as their AirPods Max headphones and Richard Mille watches - and is part of a brave new world of tunnel fits.Most primetime NFL games' coverage start hours before kick-off, as photographers, fans and pundits alike pore over players' sartorial choices just as they would their missed tackles and spectacular catches. Continue reading...

Prosecutor says newly discovered evidence' in case against Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna and Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis materially inconsistent with the allegations against them'Federal prosecutors in Minneapolis have moved to drop felony assault charges against two Venezuelan men, including one shot in the leg by an immigration officer, after new evidence emerged undercutting the government's version of events.In a filing on Thursday, the US attorney's office for the district of Minnesota said newly discovered evidence" in the criminal case against Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna and Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis is materially inconsistent with the allegations against them" made in a criminal complaint and a court hearing last month. Continue reading...

European leaders divided over how far to accommodate Trump's wrecking ball' politics and foreign policyUS Democrats will use a security summit this weekend to urge European leaders to stand up to Donald Trump, with the continent divided over how to keep the unpredictable US president on side.Democrats at the annual Munich Security Conference will include some of Trump's most outspoken critics, such as the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, the New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Arizona senator Ruben Gallego and the Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer. Continue reading...