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More flights, staffing shortages and mounting safety questions may have played a role in deadly air collision

Non-profit alleges Grants Pass shelters are inaccessible and that many have no legal option for their continued survival'The small Oregon city at the heart of a major US supreme court ruling last year that allowed cities across the country to fine and jail unhoused people sleeping outside is facing a fresh lawsuit over its anti-camping rules.Disability Rights Oregon sued Grants Pass on Thursday, accusing it of violating a state law requiring cities' camping regulations to be objectively reasonable". Continue reading...

Advocates report harassment and loss of gender-affirming care as trans women face transfers to men's prisonsTransgender women incarcerated in federal prisons have been placed in isolation, told they will be transferred to men's prisons and advised they will lose access to gender-affirming medical treatments in response to Donald Trump's executive order defending women from gender ideology extremism", according to civil rights advocates and people behind bars.LGBTQ+-rights lawyers say the moves will have major consequences for the health and safety of trans people in federal custody, and blatantly violate federal laws and a range of constitutional protections. Continue reading...

Three-week-old program to curb vehicle emissions received approval from Biden administration, which Trump may pullDonald Trump's administration is reportedly considering putting a stop to New York City's three-week-old congestion pricing program, which aims to curb emissions from auto vehicles.The program received crucial federal approval from the Biden administration last year. Trump's transportation department is weighing the possibility of pulling that authorization, the New York Times reported, which would probably incite a legal battle between state and federal officials and could put a stop to the program. Continue reading...

More than 60 people are believed to have died after an American Airlines regional passenger jet collided with a US army helicopter

Trump's health secretary pick transferred ownership of Maha slogan application to anti-vaccine ally Del BigtreeRobert F Kennedy Jr, the anti-vaccine activist and conspiracy theorist nominated for US health secretary by Donald Trump, recently applied to trademark his own Make America Healthy Again" slogan for use in marketing potential products including food supplements, vitamins, essential oils - and vaccines.Documentation filed with the Office of Government Ethics lists $100,000 earned from a licensing agreement to use Maha brand marks". Continue reading...

Two new bills could secure higher pay and add support, but advocates say they're only the beginning of reforms neededFirefighters from across the US fought side by side to quell the firestorm in Los Angeles this month, working tirelessly together in dangerous and chaotic conditions. But there was one glaring difference among them: federal firefighters are paid just a fraction of what state and local crews make doing the same work.It's a problem that's long plagued the federal crews who play a crucial role in protecting the country when catastrophes unfold. Continue reading...

The president wants to detain thousands of people at a site that is notorious for its secrecy and history of abuseIt has been denounced as America's gulag": a secretive, abuse-ridden Caribbean prison camp for terror suspects that Donald Rumsfeld once said contained the worst of the worst".All of us have scars in our souls, deformities, from living at Guantanamo," a former Yemeni inmate recalled of his time at the notorious military detention facility in south-east Cuba. Continue reading...

Handover delayed by jostling crowd in Khan Younis, Gaza, with Netanyahu suspending release of Palestinian prisoners Middle East crisis - live updatesThree Israelis and five Thai citizens held in Gaza have been freed, as Donald Trump's Middle East envoy met hostages' relatives, reportedly telling them he was optimistic the ceasefire would hold to allow the return of all the living and the dead.The handover on Thursday of seven hostages in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, was delayed by a chaotic crowd surging towards the group, despite an escort of heavily armed militants, jostling and blocking their passage to waiting Red Cross vehicles. Continue reading...

Exchange between six governors and Senate minority leader exposes divisions in party over opposition approach

Sha'Nya Bennett, 23, gave birth to son Dallas in parking lot of doughnut chain during historic snowstormA newborn baby may not be able to eat doughnuts but one has been supplied with a year's worth of the treats after being born in the parking lot of a Krispy Kreme outlet in Alabama.Sha'Nya Bennett, 23, gave birth to her new son, Dallas, on Krispy Kreme property in Dothan, Alabama, on 22 January after a historic snowstorm prevented her and her partner, Keon Mitchell, Dallas's father, from reaching hospital in time. Continue reading...

More than 30 bodies reportedly recovered so far after American Airlines flight collides in midair with Black Hawk helicopter

At least 30 bodies were recovered from the Potomac River, local media reported, after a passenger jet collided with a military helicopter on Thursday. The American Airlines plane was carrying 64 people - 60 passengers and four crew members - and three service personnel were onboard the US army Black Hawk helicopter. All takeoffs and landings from Reagan national airport in Washington were halted as emergency services searched the river for survivors. The world champion Russian figure skaters Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were confirmed to be on the passenger flight

Residents worry about leaving their homes, but many in the city are organizing legal aid, workshops and virtual servicesSome corners of Chicago have been unnervingly quiet this week.Residents who have lived in the city for decades without immigration documents have been worried about leaving their homes. Undocumented parents have been signing powers of attorney to ease custody issues if they are detained and separated from their children. Business owners are deputizing employees to take care of their affairs if anything happens. Continue reading...

NIH fellows say policy changes including funding freeze would severely limit' researchers' ability to do their workA union representing about 5,000 researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has issued a legally binding demand to bargain over Donald Trump's sweeping policy changes, including a funding freeze, a communications blackout and a staff travel ban.The NIH is the largest biomedical institution in the world, providing more than $40bn annually to fund health research, providing grants to more than 300,000 researchers at more thab 2,500 universities, medical schools and other research institutions globally, with nearly 6,000 scientists performing research in its own labs. Continue reading...

These new initiatives are not about shrinking the size of the federal government. They're about centralizing control in Trump's handsChaos on a huge scale.On Wednesday, Trump rescinded an order he had made late on Monday night that froze up to $3tn in federal grants and loans.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His newest book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading...

Democrats' current approach to political messaging is broken - and party leaders have no conception of how to fix itAs Donald Trump stood in the Capitol Rotunda last week, blundering his way through his second oath of office, online liberals were preoccupied with debating another matter: who will be the first Democrat to call Republicans the R-word? Setting aside the question of whether they should a term widely considered an ableist slur, that very debate was revealing, for a number of reasons.The former and now current president's narrow but nonetheless triumphant victory in November made clear that America's so-called wokeness movement" is in an advanced stage of decay. And if Trump's first week back in the White House serves as any indication, he intends to further accelerate the process.Peter Rothpletz is a freelance writer Continue reading...

To say the relationship is symbiotic is an understatement. Trump has the political power; Musk has endless moneyTwo men, two huge egos, two quests for endless amounts of power and money - joined, for now, in the pursuit of those common goals. That's the story behind the tight relationship between Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the billionaire who hangs out in the West Wing of the White House and has the ear of the president.But there are cracks in the facade of closeness, and - based on Trump's past intolerance for anything but total loyalty among his allies - one must wonder how long it will last. And should the bromance come apart, it is likely do so with a bang heard 'round the world.Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture Continue reading...

Confirmation hearing was a spectacle as Democrats tried to hold a mirror to nominee, only for him to step right throughRobert F Kennedy Jr's testimony was a through the looking glass" moment for some senators, as lawmakers questioned one of the nation's most influential vaccine critics for a job as the top US health official.The hearing was a testament to how quickly Republicans have integrated Make America Healthy Again" rhetoric into their own, lauding Kennedy, who was called a predator" only hours earlier in a letter by his own cousin, as the correct man to head the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Continue reading...

Abrupt decision to pause all foreign aid could exacerbate violence in region already struggling with organized crimeThe Trump administration's abrupt decision to immediately pause all US foreign aid programmes could exacerbate violence in Latin America, driving more migration from a region already struggling with the rise of organised crime, experts have warned.The world's largest aid provider by far, the US disbursed $1.5bn (1.2bn) to South American countries in the 2023 financial year, funding a broad range of projects, including humanitarian, military, environmental and economic aid. Continue reading...

With the Super Bowl on the horizon we pick the outstanding players, coaches and moments from the 2023 season in the NFLJosh Allen, QB, Buffalo Bills. Take your pick between transcendent quarterbacks: Allen or Lamar Jackson. Neither answer is wrong. I edge towards Allen here, for the sole reason that he hasn't won the award before. That's not right; it's not fair. But it's the only way to split the fine margins between the two. Continue reading...

There are rational explanations for the continent's muted response to US threats - but that's not how you deal with this presidentDonald Trump's antics over the past week have put paid to the refrain, often heard in Europe, that the president should be taken seriously but not literally". It turns out that Trump literally wants Greenland. He doubled down on his aggressive rhetoric in a raging 45-minute call with the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, a few days ago, threatening crippling tariffs unless she agreed to sell the autonomous territory to the US. In response to Denmark's sharp increase in military spending for the Arctic, including ships and drones, he derided Copenhagen's dog-sled" defences for Greenland, the world's largest non-continental island, which pale in comparison with the strength of the US military base there.The threat to take over the territory of a European country by force is something that Europeans now know all too well. Russia has repeatedly threatened east European countries, making good on those threats by invading Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine since 2014. Yet many Europeans are gobsmacked that such a threat is now coming from its greatest ally. Continue reading...

An American Airlines passenger jet collided with a military helicopter while landing at Ronald Reagan national airport near Washington DC. Video from an observation camera at the nearby Kennedy Center shows two sets of lights consistent with aircraft appearing to conjoin in a fireball. The American Airlines Flight 5342 departed from Wichita, Kansas, according to the FAA. According to American Airlines' website, the jet has a capacity for up to 65 passengers

This blog has now closed. Read our latest story hereTim Walz, the Minnesota governor and former Democratic vice-presidential nominee, argued that Donald Trump's federal funding freeze closely mirrors many of the proposals included in Project 2025.We were preparing for it. They wrote it out. If you go back and look at that now, you'll see this go step by step," Walz told MSNBC on Tuesday night. Continue reading...

The facility has in the past two decades been used to deal with prisoners accused of terrorism-related offences with few ever charged or convictedAs part of his administration's crackdown on illegal immigration, US president Donald Trump has announced that the United States will hold migrants at the notorious Guantanamo military detention facility in Cuba.Known primarily for holding suspects accused of terrorism-related offences, Trump ordered the preparation of a 30,000-person migrant facility" that he said would be used to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people." Continue reading...

The neighbourhood sure isn't what it used to be

Order asks agencies to explore ways to deport activists, including students with visas, who engaged in protestsDonald Trump has signed an executive order to combat antisemitism" that asks agencies to explore ways to deport pro-Palestinian activists, including student protesters.The US president's order instructs federal agencies to identify available civil and criminal authorities in order to combat antisemitism", specifically by deporting resident aliens - such as students with visas - who were found to have broken the law during protests. Continue reading...

Lawyers avert trial after reaching agreement on how money should be disbursed, two years after devastating fireA last-minute deal reached between lawyers representing victims of a deadly Hawaii wildfire has averted the need for a trial to determine how to split a $4bn settlement.The unusual trial had been expected to delve into difficult questions about survivors' losses. Some victims were ready to take the witness stand, while others submitted pre-recorded testimony, describing pain made all the more fresh by the recent destruction in Los Angeles. Continue reading...

Press secretary insists administration isn't backing down on fight to curb what they consider government waste

Democrats confront Trump's pick for health secretary over his seemingly contradictory statements

Robert F Kennedy Jr, Donald Trump's pick for health secretary, appeared to U-turn on previously made comments about the safety of vaccines and his views on abortion during Senate confirmation hearing. RFK Jr was grilled by senators, who put his previous comments back to him

Organizations find posts censored, removed or made difficult to find in days after Trump return to White HouseOver the last week, the accounts of some major organizations that help Americans find abortion pills had their Instagram posts censored, were removed or, at least one group said, became difficult to find through searching - a practice known as shadow-banning".Censorship of abortion-related content on social media is a longstanding issue. In the days and weeks after the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade in June 2022, several abortion rights groups had their Instagram and TikTok posts removed or accounts suspended, while Instagram and Facebook deleted the posts of users who mentioned abortion pills. Continue reading...

President signs executive order instructing preparation of facility to house 30,000 immigrants at US naval base in Cuba

Claim was first made in press conference, prompting Fox host to say condoms were also being used to bomb IsraelSpeaking at the White House on Wednesday, Donald Trump boasted that his administration had stopped $50m being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas", doubling down on a claim first made by his press secretary which appears to be contradicted by the facts.As the Guardian reported on Tuesday, a comprehensive report issued in September by the US Agency for International Development (USAid), not a penny of the $60.8m in contraceptive and condom shipments funded by the US in the past year went to Gaza. In fact, the accounting shows, there were no condoms sent to any part of the Middle East, and just one small shipment, $45,680 in oral and injectable contraceptives, was sent to the region, all of it distributed to the government of Jordan. Continue reading...

Democrat from New Jersey was found guilty in July on 16 charges including bribery and fraudThe Democratic former US senator Bob Menendez was sentenced in federal court on Wednesday to 11 years in prison over his 2024 conviction for taking bribes, including receiving gold bars in exchange for doing favors for Egypt and for New Jersey businessmen.Last year he also became the first former senator to be convicted of acting as a foreign agent. Continue reading...

Trump brought suit against firm over allegations in dossier written by Christopher Steele, but claim was thrown outDonald Trump has refused to pay 290,000 ($360,000) in legal fees after his English lawsuit against a private investigations firm was dismissed, a court in London has heard. Trump brought a data protection lawsuit against Orbis Business Intelligence over allegations in a dossier written by its co-founder, Christopher Steele, but his claim was thrown out in February last year.The Steele dossier alleged ties between Trump's 2016 election campaign and Russia as well as other salacious allegations, all of which Trump denied. Continue reading...

Government employees' union says offer pressures career workers to quit and will cause chaos in federal programsThe Trump administration has offered buyouts to almost all of the roughly 3 million people who work for the US government if they leave their jobs by 6 February, as the White House attempts to gut the civil service.The US office of personnel management (OPM), the government's human resources agency, sent an email to the entire federal workforce on Tuesday evening with four directives that it says Trump is mandating. They included a full-time return to the office for most employees. Continue reading...

President's move has convulsed Washington in a manner arguably unseen since the Saturday Night Massacre of 1973For its potential to provoke a constitutional crisis, Donald Trump's attempted freezing of trillions of dollars of federal funds - rescinded on Wednesday in what appeared to be a panicked retreat in the face of an angry backlash - evoked the darkest days of Watergate.Monday's memo from the White House office of management and budget (OMB) ordering a temporary pause" on a vast array of spending activities across the US federal government convulsed official Washington in a manner arguably unseen since the Saturday Night Massacre of 1973. Continue reading...

New law mandates detention of undocumented immigrants charged with theft-related crimes, among other provisions

Phyllis Fong had told colleagues that she intended to stay after the White House terminated her on FridaySecurity agents escorted the inspector general of the US Department of Agriculture out of her office on Monday after she refused to comply with her firing by the Trump administration, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.Phyllis Fong, a 22-year veteran of the department, had earlier told colleagues that she intended to stay after the White House terminated her on Friday, saying that she did not believe the administration had followed proper protocols, the sources said. Continue reading...

Health secretary nominee once identified as pro-choice' but said he agrees with Trump every abortion is a tragedy'Robert F Kennedy Jr, Donald Trump's nominee for health secretary, faced questions about his about-face on reproductive rights in a US Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday.Kennedy identified as pro-choice" during his presidential campaign as a Democrat, but said repeatedly in Wednesday's hearing for secretary of health and human services (HHS) that he agreed with Trump that every abortion is a tragedy". Continue reading...

Howard Lutnick testified at his US Senate confirmation hearing for his nomination to head commerce department

President has made clear he wants rates to fall as benchmark interest rate now sits at a range of 4.25% to 4.5%Federal Reserve officials decided on Wednesday to hold interest rates steady as uncertainty over Donald Trump's impact on the US economy looms and inflation remains above the central bank's target levels.This is the first time Fed policymakers have met since the president, who has made clear he wants rates to fall, returned to the White House. The benchmark interest rate now sits at a range of 4.25% to 4.5%. Continue reading...

If you're an out-of-towner, it's tempting to urge Californians to get the hell out. But please don't do thatWhy don't you just leave? It's always an incendiary question.When you ask it of people in bad romances or miserable careers, they can be forgiven for ghosting. The word just" is the poison. As if leaving were simple. It is never simple. The reasons to stay in a job or a relationship - children, money, comfort, love - can be every bit as compelling as the reasons to hit the road. Continue reading...

Western resource-hunger has fuelled a vast humanitarian crisis. Donors must now press Rwanda to pull back from this warThere are bodies on the streets, hundreds of thousands of civilians fleeing and overwhelmed hospitals draining fuel from ambulances to keep respirators running. The rapidly escalating conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) - which has seen rocketing sexual violence, the execution of children and the displacement of 400,000 people this year alone - has just exploded with the M23 rebel group's seizure of Goma, in the east.Their advance comes thanks to backing from Rwanda, despite the coyness of the Rwandan president, Paul Kagame. Mr Kagame suggests that M23 is defending the country's Tutsis, victims of Rwanda's 1994 genocide, against an armed group set up by former genocidal killers. But the threat those fighters pose appears greatly exaggerated: analysts believe the real aim is to seize mineral-rich territory. There is a striking parallel with Russia's tactics in eastern Ukraine in 2014. On Wednesday, Rwandan troops were seen heading towards Bukavu, another key city, with the M23 fighters.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...

Advocates say email sent to 3 million employees offering resignations is dangerous and of questionable legality'

Heading for kick-off in March, Women's Elite Rugby releases names and logos for six inaugural teamsIlona Maher may be dominating headlines in women's rugby union with her stint with Bristol in England but things are also stirring in the star's native US, where on Wednesday the Women's Elite Rugby semi-professional league took another step towards kick-off in March with the release of team names, crests and colors.Katherine Aversano, vice-president of the new league and a historian of the US women's game, said: Rugby, its athletes, and fans are not one thing - each is multifaceted and may discover the game in a different way. Our six team identities resonate with that modern complexity but are visually rooted in the bold American sports landscape." Continue reading...

New DHS secretary Kristi Noem ends extension that allows people to stay if they cannot return safely to home countryThe Trump administration has revoked an extension of deportation protections that the previous Biden administration granted to more than 600,000 Venezuelans already in the United States.The homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, on Tuesday rescinded an 18-month extension of the temporary protected status (TPS) program, which allows for people to temporarily stay in the US if they cannot return safely to their home country. Continue reading...

The actress sobbed her way through a video about the president's deportations. The right was furious - so were progressivesOne certainty we can rely on in these distressing and turbulent times is that while every right-thinking person is looking with horror towards Donald Trump, many of us also reserve significant side-eye for each other. What is a political opposition without instant, feverish infighting, the pettier the better? I refer you to Selena Gomez's now-deleted Instagram video on Monday in which the actor sniffled and wept about Trump's immigration crackdown. The 32-year-old was instantly trolled by Trump-loving monsters, but there were plenty of sighs and tuts coming at her from Trump haters, too. Gomez had Done the Wrong Protest and would have to pay.The difficulty of course is that Trump's flood the zone" approach in his first week of office has made organising a response to him incredibly hard, not just collectively but at the individual level. What is the right reaction to a president who, five minutes into his tenure, launches a crypto coin in his own name, appoints a TV host to run the US military and attempts to freeze billions of dollars in federal funding - and that's before you get to his interesting take on the 14th amendment?Emma Brockes 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...