Education department gives ultimatum to stop using racial preferences' as factors in admissions or risk losing moneyThe Trump administration is giving the US's schools and universities two weeks to eliminate diversity initiatives or risk losing federal money, raising the stakes in the president's fight against wokeness".In a memo on Friday, the education department gave an ultimatum to stop using racial preferences" as a factor in admissions, financial aid, hiring or other areas. Schools are being given 14 days to end any practice that treats students or workers differently because of their race. Continue reading...
by Léonie Chao-Fong and Carter Sherman on (#6VC5S)
Order directs domestic policy council to suggest ways to aggressively' reduce cost of accessing in vitro fertilizationDonald Trump has signed an executive order to expand access to in vitro fertilization (IVF).The order directs the domestic policy council to make recommendations to aggressively" reduce the costs for accessing IVF, according to a White House fact sheet. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said on Twitter/X that the order was evidence of the president's promises kept" - even though the order does not directly change any policy and does not, on its own, fulfill Trump's campaign pledge to make the government or insurance companies cover IVF. Continue reading...
Denise Cheung resigns after Trump appointees demand she open grand jury investigation into EPA grantsA top federal prosecutor has quit after refusing to launch what she called a politically driven investigation into Biden-era climate spending, exposing deepening rifts in the US's premier law enforcement agency.Denise Cheung, head of criminal prosecutions in Washington, resigned on Tuesday after Trump appointees demanded she open a grand jury investigation into Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grants based largely on an undercover video, multiple people familiar with the matter told CNN. Continue reading...
President moves to cut Federal Aviation Administration workforce as critics say public safety could be endangeredThe Trump administration has begun firing hundreds of employees at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), including some who maintain critical air traffic control infrastructure, despite four deadly crashes since inauguration day.According to the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (Pass) union, several hundred" workers received termination notices on Friday. Continue reading...
Legal filing says billionaire Trump aide is not an employee of so-called department of government efficiency'Billionaire Elon Musk's role in Donald Trump's second presidential administration is as an Oval Office employee and senior adviser to the president - and is not an employee of the so-called department of government efficiency" (Doge) and has no decision-making authority, the White House said in a court filing on Monday.According to a filing signed by Joshua Fisher, director of the office of administration at the White House, Musk can only advise Trump and communicate the president's directives. Continue reading...
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said Moscow and Washington would explore geopolitical and economic cooperation once the war in Ukraine was brought to an end. Rubio, his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, and other senior officials from both countries met at Diriyah palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The talks and the promise of future collaboration mark a dramatic turn from the Biden administration's efforts to isolate Moscow
US talks with Russia over Ukraine's future, like the president's prescription for Gaza, highlights how business and foreign policy mergeThe Trump administration did not take red lines on Ukraine to its talks with Russia in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday: it cares about the bottom line. The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, underscored that when he said the two sides would create a team, not only to support Ukraine peace talks but also to explore the incredible opportunities" to partner with Moscow geopolitically and, frankly, economically" that might result.Kyiv and other European capitals are still reeling at the full extent of Donald Trump's cynicism when it comes to world affairs, and callous disregard for the people caught up in them. But it should be no surprise that business dealings were high on the agenda. Vladimir Putin would dearly love to end his country's economic isolation. Russia is making the case that American energy firms and others could profit handsomely by doing business with it again.Do 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...
Two others arrested in Maryland as group is linked to six killings, including a US border patrol agentA Maryland court on Tuesday ordered a blogger known as Ziz who allegedly leads a cult-like group connected to six killings held without bail.The blogger, Jack LaSota, 34, of Berkeley, California, was arrested on Sunday along with Michelle Zajko, 32, of Media, Pennsylvania; and Daniel Blank, 26, of Sacramento, California. They face charges including trespassing, obstructing and hindering and possession of a handgun in a vehicle. Continue reading...
Director RaMell Ross details horrors behind Florida School for Boys that backdropped the moving film adaptationIt was one of the darkest, most shameful episodes in Florida's grotesque history of state-sanctioned racism: dozens of children, most of them Black, beaten or shot to death, or sexually abused in a decades-long reign of terror at a secretive and remote reform school.Early next month at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles, the horrors that befell the students of the notorious Arthur G Dozier School for Boys will be laid bare before the world, courtesy of a best picture nomination for the transcendentally moving and frightening film" Nickel Boys, and a best adapted screenplay nod for director RaMell Ross and his co-writer, Joslyn Barnes. Continue reading...
Native American activist moves to home imprisonment after Joe Biden commuted sentence at end of presidencyThe Native American activist Leonard Peltier - convicted in 1975 for the killings of two FBI agents - was released from federal prison on Tuesday after Joe Biden commuted his sentence at the end of his presidency in January.In a statement, Peltier said that he was finally free!" Continue reading...
Louis DeJoy, who has headed US Postal Service since 2020, warned in November of potential end of this organization'US Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said on Tuesday he has asked the US Postal Service (USPS) governing board to identify his successor.In November, DeJoy warned that the post office, which has lost more than $100bn since 2007, must continue to cut costs or will remain on the path to either a government bailout or the end of this great organization as we know it". Continue reading...
Trump, Musk and the Republican party are happily overriding parts of the constitution, and using means of questionable legality to cripple the federal governmentIt is humbling to realize, almost a decade into his tenure at the center of American politics and life, that Donald Trump still has the power to surprise us. As recently as inauguration day, the conventional wisdom on Elon Musk's role in the administration was that he'd been given a meaningless post at a powerless agency whose name itself was a joke. From the department of government efficiency", or Doge, it was said, Musk would issue easily ignored recommendations the gullible would take as evidence that Trump was streamlining the federal bureaucracy - a promise reliably made and broken by countless presidents. Instead, in a turn of events magazine cover artists have delighted in, Musk as a special government employee" has seemingly taken the reins of the executive branch - a de facto co-president or perhaps a vice, while JD Vance busies himself with his duties delivering social media clapbacks and jeremiads about wokeness to European leaders.For weeks now, the Doge's fleas have been hopping from agency to agency, gaining access to key administrative and financial systems, including databases filled with sensitive information on ordinary Americans and infrastructure at the treasury that disburses trillions in payments across the federal government. One member of the team Musk installed there, Marko Elez, resigned after it was revealed he had written posts supporting, in his words, Indian hate" and a eugenic immigration policy" as recently as December. After defenses from Vance and Trump, he was reinstated. Meanwhile, fired leaders across the government are now seeking employment; about 75,000 federal workers have accepted a buyout from the administration. USAid has been gutted, putting the health and sustenance of countless vulnerable people around the world in immediate jeopardy, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Department of Education are now under assault. Words and whole areas of inquiry are being banned for researchers; government-wide, anything that smacks even vaguely of diversity and equity recruitment and training isn't long for this world. What's more, all of this comes on the heels of Trump's extraordinary freeze on federal loans and grants - justified as a step towards rooting out Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies" in government - which threatened programs like Medicaid, Head Start and even Meals on Wheels before it was blocked in court.Osita Nwanevu is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...
Jim Jones, who joined Food and Drug Administration in 2023, says layoffs would make it fruitless' to continue in roleThe head of the food division at the US Food and Drug Administration has quit in protest over sweeping staff cuts that he warns will hamper the agency's ability to protect public health.Jim Jones, who joined the agency in September 2023, cited indiscriminate" layoffs to 89 staff members, including key technical experts. In his resignation letter to the acting FDA commissioner, Sara Brenner, seen by Bloomberg News, Jones said the cuts would make it fruitless" to continue in his role given the Trump administration's disdain for the very people" needed to implement food safety reforms. Continue reading...
Claudia Tenney's bill combining Flag Day with Trump's birthday could face steep odds of success in CongressA Republican congresswoman has proposed making Donald Trump's birthday a public holiday, in an effort probably doomed to failure in Congress but obviously intended to curry favor with the president.Claudia Tenney, a representative from New York's Finger Lakes region, introduced legislation on Friday aiming to combine the US annual commemoration of Flag Day with a new observance of Trump's birthday on 14 June, arguing that the president is the most consequential ... in modern American history". Continue reading...
Michelle King opts to retire after 30 years rather than grant request by department of government efficiency'The acting head of the Social Security Administration (SSA) left the agency after she refused to give billionaire Elon Musk and the so-called "department of government efficiency" (Doge) access to sensitive information about beneficiaries.The SSA processes retirement and disability benefits for more than 71 million Americans - and it uses sensitive personal information, such as banking information and tax information, to do so. Continue reading...
Five people charged with murder in Sam Nordquist's death in upstate New York also identified as LGBTQ+, say officialsAuthorities investigating the alleged torture and murder of Sam Nordquist in upstate New York say they have found no evidence the transgender man's killing was a hate crime, pointing out that five people recently charged in connection with the slaying also identified as LGBTQ+.We urge the community not to speculate into the motive behind the murder as we work to find justice for Sam," authorities said over the weekend in a joint press release from the Ontario county district attorney's office and New York state police. At this time, we have no indication that Sam's murder was a hate crime." Continue reading...
Fellow Democrats are riled by the Pennsylvania maverick who now denounces the sort of politician he once wasYou can't work' with crazy," John Fetterman wrote. You must call it what it is. Anything less is spineless appeasement."It was mid-2016, and Fetterman, then running in the Democratic primary for a US Senate seat in Pennsylvania, was responding to a Politico article about how Democrats may work with Donald Trump. Continue reading...
A new poll also found that four in 10 Americans have shifted spending to align with moral views in recent monthsAmericans are changing their shopping habits and even dumping their favorite stores in a backlash against corporations that have shifted their public policies to align with the Trump administration, according to a poll exclusively shared with the Guardian.Four out of 10 Americans have shifted their spending over the last few months to align with their moral views, according to the Harris poll.31% of Americans reported having no interest in supporting the economy this year - a sentiment especially felt by younger (gen Z: 37%), Black (41% v white: 28%) and Democratic consumers (35% v 29% of independents and 28% of Republicans).A quarter (24%) of respondents have even stopped shopping at their favorite stores because of their politics (Black: 35%, gen Z: 32%, Democratic: 31%). Continue reading...
Proposal calls on company to prepare reports on macroeconomic costs' of health insurer's practicesUnitedHealth Group is attempting to swat down a non-binding shareholder proposal that asked the company to prepare reports on the costs of delayed and denied healthcare.The proposal, filed by members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), represents a new frontier in seeking to hold insurance companies accountable for the macroeconomic costs" of denied care - arguing they eventually hurt the bottom line of large investors. Continue reading...
Miami's bid for domestic, continental, and global glory is over a decade in the making, but it must happen this yearInter Miami begin the most important season in their short history with opportunity abound, but a narrowing window to capitalize on all the club has built towards. The club can win up to five trophies this year, and the journey towards two of them starts this week.Lionel Messi's side begin their Concacaf Champions Cup campaign against Sporting Kansas City on Wednesday night, commencing a season when they will also compete in the 32-team Fifa Club World Cup, the MLS-Liga MX Leagues Cup, while gunning for a repeat of last year's Supporters' Shield honor and a maiden MLS Cup triumph. Continue reading...
Emma Hayes' latest US squad lacks some of the biggest names from last summer's Olympic triumph, but there are still plenty of intriguing selectionsThe Olympic gold medalists are back to competitive soccer, though the United States women's national team might look a bit different than you remember them if the last match you saw was the final in Paris.All three of the famed Triple Espresso frontline - Trinity Rodman, Mallory Swanson and Sophia Wilson (nee Smith) - are sitting out this competition. The first woman to cost a $1m transfer fee, Naomi Girma, is also taking a break, as is Rose Lavelle. Goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher has retired from international competition, with Jane Campbell and Mandy McGlynn getting the opportunity to compete for the No 1 shirt. Continue reading...
Ditching DEI initiatives will curry favour in the Oval Office. It will also alienate the workforces bosses rely onThe mask has slipped and the gloves are off. A company which in 2022 boasted that it had exceeded its target, spending $1.26 billion with US certified diverse suppliers", is now ending diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.That company is Meta (formerly known as Facebook), whose chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, announced DEI dismantling shortly before he had a prominent seat at Donald Trump's recent inauguration. Perhaps from that privileged spot he was able to imbibe some of the masculine energy" he says he wants to see at work.Stefan Stern is co-author of Myths of Management and the former director of the High Pay Centre. His latest book is Fair or Foul: the Lady Macbeth Guide to Ambition Continue reading...
Ed Martin was lawyer for three January 6 defendants and was also in charge of dismissing Capitol attack charges as interim US attorneyA conservative activist who has consistently defended the January 6 storming of the Capitol has been nominated by Donald Trump to serve as the permanent top federal prosecutor in the city where it happened.Trump named Ed Martin for US attorney for the District of Columbia, the top prosecutor for all serious local crimes by adults in the district. His appointment must be confirmed by the US Senate. Continue reading...
We look back at seven ex-NBA stars who contributed a great deal to the league, but whose stories also risk being lost to time thanks to vanishing modern attention spansHave you ever opened up a social media page with a clear intention of what you're doing and then instantly become distracted? You end up fiddling around and then closing the page and realizing you didn't even do what you'd originally logged on for? Yes, the internet is a place full of distractions. TikTok, Instagram, whatever Twitter (X) is? It's hard to remember what you had for breakfast some days. The same, of course, goes for NBA history.If you go online today to read about basketball, it can seem like the league or the sport itself was created in the 21st century. That anything before Kobe Bryant never actually existed. As a result, fans sometimes need a history lesson. And that's exactly what we wanted to do today. To examine the careers of seven former NBA stars who contributed a great deal to the league but whose stories also risk being lost to time thanks to our modern attention spans. Continue reading...
by Nathalie Tocci, Yanis Varoufakis, Rokhaya Diallo, on (#6VBN4)
The vice-president's attack on European values signalled a historic realignment. Should the continent seek rapprochement or go its own way? Continue reading...
Trump's orders will cause hardship but it could allow small nations to face up to their dependence on a coercive oligarchyFor generations, many in the Caribbean grew up believing that the United States was the world's great benefactor - a beacon of freedom, prosperity and boundless opportunity. Carefully cultivated through cinema, television, magazines, newspapers and radio, this perception reinforced the idea that the US was a land where hard work could secure a better life.It was the dream destination for countless Caribbean migrants seeking to escape economic hardship and limited opportunities. But that illusion has crumbled, as historical distortions have become clear. Continue reading...
The Reform leader and Kemi Badenoch have struck the wrong alliances at the wrong time. Ukrainian sovereignty is a cause close to rightwing heartsTiming is everything in politics. So when the leader of the opposition realised she was due to be making a speech heaping praise on Donald Trump, just as the president plunged her own country into a national security crisis, you might think even she would have hesitated.But seemingly nothing can keep Kemi Badenoch from a culture war, not even the threat of an actual war. So, at a rightwing conference in London on Monday morning, she duly ripped into corporate diversity policies, climate activism, Keir Starmer taking the knee four and a half years ago, and various other imagined threats to western civilisation that are not forcing Britain to consider deploying troops against them, before concluding triumphantly that when people ask her what difference a change of leader makes, her answer is, Take a look at President Trump."Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Jack LaSota, who publishes blog under the name of Ziz', appears to be leader of group of anarchist computer scientistsThe apparent leader of a cultlike group known as the Zizians has been arrested in Maryland along with another member of the group, Maryland state police have said.Jack LaSota, 34, was arrested on Sunday along with Michelle Zajko, 33, of Media, Pennsylvania. They face multiple charges including trespassing, obstructing and hindering and possession of a handgun in the vehicle, police said on Monday. Continue reading...
Departures follow justice department shelving charges widely seen as reward for Eric Adams helping Trump administrationFour deputies to New York's mayor, Eric Adams, resigned on Monday as the growing chaos following a justice department request to drop corruption charges against him, widely seen as a reward for his help with Donald Trump's immigration agenda, engulfs his three-year-old administration.According to reports, four of Adams' deputies - first deputy mayor Maria Torres Springer, deputy mayor for operations Meera Joshi, deputy mayor for health and human services Anne Williams-Isom, and deputy mayor for public safety Chauncey Parker - said they were stepping down. Continue reading...
Britain's prime minister, Keir Starmer, has called on the US to provide a 'backstop' to deter Russia from attacking Ukraine again after meeting with European leaders for emergency talks on the war. Starmer said Donald Trump's comments asking Europe to step up 'should not come as a surprise', and repeated that he is prepared to consider committing British forces on the ground alongside others.
Victims reportedly posted death to Arabs' on social media after shooting while suspect held on attempted murder chargesA Jewish man in Miami Beach is facing charges of attempted murder following accusations that he opened fire on two men he believed were Palestinians but reportedly turned out to be Israeli visitors.According to arrest documents, at 9.30pm on Saturday surveillance video appeared to show Mordechai Brafman, 27, getting out of his truck and opening fire with a semiautomatic handgun at a vehicle as it passed. Brafman allegedly fired 17 times, striking one victim in the left shoulder and grazing the other's left forearm. Continue reading...
Israeli PM urges US to help finish the job' as Washington makes early maximalist demand over Tehran's programmeBenjamin Netanyahu has vowed that, with Donald Trump's support, his government will finish the job" of neutralising the threat from Iran, amid US reports that Israel is considering airstrikes against Iranian nuclear sites in the coming few months.Trump has said he would prefer to make a deal with Tehran, but also made clear that he was considering US military action if talks failed, and his administration has laid down an early maximalist demand: Iranian abandonment of its entire nuclear programme. Continue reading...
Emmanuel Macron, Kier Starmer and others discuss Trump, Russia and Ukraine at hastily arranged conferenceEmmanuel Macron: Bienvenu a Paris.Keir Starmer: Bonjour, Monsieur le President. Thank you for organising this once-in-a-generation" summit at such short notice. Continue reading...
The US president's bullying of allies and partners is short-termist and will boost Beijing's power, not Washington'sDonald Trump's return to the White House is so far proving more nightmarish for US allies and friends than adversaries. China certainly doesn't relish a trade war with the US, but it was better prepared than others for Mr Trump's tariffs, and both sides appear to be leaving room for a potential deal. And, though China's leader, Xi Jinping, is poised for worse to come, the second Trump term is bringing Beijing opportunities aswell as problems.International respect for the US plummeted under his last administration. As the US president turns the screws on long-term partners, China is looking to take advantage. Colombia quickly caved to MrTrump on the matter of migrant returns, but China's ambassadorhas been celebrating the best moment" inrelations between Bogota and Beijing. Under pressure from the Trump administration, Panama announced that it would allow its participation in China's global infrastructure plan, the belt and road initiative (BRI), to expire. Yet behind-the-scenes arm-twisting had already begun tilting Panama back towards the US. MrTrump's attempts to humiliate and bully may backfire there and across the region. Continue reading...
The truth is paralysing. But after JD Vance met the far-right leader Alice Weidel in Germany, it is time to be clear about what we are seeingJD Vance's decision, while in Germany, to meet the far-right AfD leader, Alice Weidel, yet decline a meeting with the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, would have caused more alarm, I feel, if it hadn't come accompanied by so much other signalling. The vice-president of a nation engaged in tearing down its own institutions lectured the whole of Europe on its project to destroy democracy", which is absolutely textbook: he's describing black as white, openly turning observable reality on its head. It's unsettling, for sure, but that's because it's audacious, not because it's complicated. It's the simplest move of statecraft ever - show the world who you are, dare them to call you on it.Meeting Weidel was the second simplest move - show the world who your allies are, dare them to mention it, or see if instead they turn themselves in knots trying to bring the AfD back into the fold, rather than accept that the postwar consensus has folded. Continue reading...
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...
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