US news | The Guardian

President says America First ally will oversee operations amid concern about politicization of top US cultural centerDonald Trump has named longtime foreign policy adviser Ric Grenell as interim executive director of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, a move likely to raise concerns about the politicisation of the arts and potential for censorship.Grenell has been a vocal tribune of Trump's America First" ideology, and was not afraid to ruffle feathers during past spells as ambassador to Germany and acting director of national intelligence (he was the first openly gay person to lead the intelligence community). More recently, the 58-year-old has served as the president's envoy for special missions, and was involved in securing the release of Americans detained in Venezuela. Continue reading...

Lawmakers Elizabeth Warren and Maxine Waters join rally after Trump administration suspends all CFPB operationsChants of let us work!" rang out across the courtyard of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) blocks away from the White House on Monday, as hundreds of angry protesters rallied against the Trump administration's decision to suspend all operations at the US's top financial watchdog - an agency that has clawed back more than $21bn from Wall Street for defrauded consumers.The demonstration came after Russell Vought, Trump's newly installed acting director of the agency, ordered all CFPB staff to stand down and stay away from the office in what critics are calling a brazen attempt to defang financial industry oversight. Continue reading...

President directs DoJ to pause prosecutions under Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and issues pardon to Rod BlagojevichDonald Trump signed an executive order on Monday directing the US justice department to halt prosecuting Americans accused of bribing foreign government officials to win business.The order instructs the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, to pause prosecutions under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 until she issues revised enforcement guidance that promotes American competitiveness. Continue reading...

US government auditors find cuts have degraded USAid's ability to distribute and safeguard humanitarian assistance'Nearly half a billion dollars of food aid is at risk of spoilage following the decision of Donald Trump and Elon Musk's Doge" agency to make cuts to USAid, according to an inspector general (IG) report released on Monday.Following staff reductions and funding freezes, the US agency responsible for providing humanitarian assistance across the world - including food, water, shelter and emergency healthcare - is struggling to function. Continue reading...

John McConnell says administration had defied earlier order to resume disbursement of billions of dollarsA federal judge said on Monday that the Trump administration had defied his order to unfreeze billions in federal funding and issued a directive demanding that the government immediately restore frozen funding".In the order, US district judge John J McConnell Jr in Rhode Island instructed Donald Trump's administration to restore and resume federal funding in accordance with the temporary restraining order he issued in January, which halted the administration's freeze of congressionally approved federal funds. Continue reading...

Trump's defense secretary filed the memo in line with an executive order signed by the presidentThe US military will no longer allow transgender individuals to join the armed forces and will stop performing or facilitating procedures associated with gender transition for service members, according to a memo from defense secretary Pete Hegseth filed in court Monday.Hegseth's memo comes after Donald Trump signed an executive order in January that took aim at transgender troops in a personal way. The president's order had said that a man identifying as a woman was not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member". Continue reading...

Adam Schiff warns in letter to White House that Trump ally may use role to shield his companies from federal scrutiny'The California senator Adam Schiff has demanded answers about Elon Musk's potential conflicts of interest in his role leading the department of government efficiency" (Doge), as evidence grows of his complex business relationship with agencies now facing cuts.In a Monday letter to the White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, Schiff accused Musk of operating in a legal grey zone, noting that as a special government employee" Musk is subject to strict conflict-of-interest regulations while retaining significant financial interests in multiple private companies that benefit from federal government contracts". Continue reading...

Prosecutors begin case against Hadi Matar, charged with attempted murder and assault over festival attack in 2022Prosecutors began their case against Hadi Matar, the man accused of attacking the author Salman Rushdie, with a vivid and gruesome description of the stabbing they said came perilously close to killing him.Matar, a 27-year-old Lebanese American, is charged with attempted murder and assault over the stabbing attack on the author on stage at an arts festival in August 2022. The 77-year-old Rushdie was grievously injured in the attack and lost sight in one eye. Continue reading...

The US president's tariffs pose as worker protection, but they're a smokescreen - his bluster trades US credibility for a $4.6tn tax-cutting giveaway to the richIn 2020, Donald Trump scrapped the North American free trade agreement, replacing it with the United States Mexico Canada agreement", which he bragged was the fairest, most balanced, and beneficial" trade deal ever. That agreement between the three nations explicitly bans tariff hikes beyond what was agreed. Yet, on his return to the White House, Mr Trump immediately threatened steep levies on goods from Canada and Mexico - the US's key allies - retreating only after they made token concessions on drugs and illegal immigration. Now, he's vowing fresh steel and aluminum tariffs, a direct hit on Canada.Mr Trump is exploiting presidential emergency powers to push these tariffs with no real constraints. The bottom line is the US is breaking its word. Friends, such as the EU and the UK, as well as opponents like China are also under threat. Allies will think twice before signing deals with Washington, fearing future betrayals. Yet Mr Trump's administration doesn't care - it thrives on defying global norms. Skipping this year's G20 summit - citing host South Africa's focus on diversity, equality and climate action, alongside Elon Musk's fixation on white South African farmers - Mr Trump's team is mulling an exit from the IMF and World Bank. Continue reading...

James Watt, 26, sentenced to three years of probation after earning over $1.3m worth of bitcoin for false documentsAn Indiana man has been sentenced to three years of probation for making fake IDs after being caught working for a website that publicly declared: Your #1 Trusted Source for Fake IDs".James Watt, 26, pleaded guilty to unlawful production of document or authentication feature and money laundering, after the US attorney's office of the southern district of Indiana accused him of manufacturing and mailing 30,000 fake driver's licenses and other forms of false identification. Continue reading...

Vice-president accused of threatening constitution after saying judges have no right to restrain president's agendaJD Vance, the US vice-president, has been accused of threatening the US constitution after telling judges who have issued rulings temporarily blocking some of Donald Trump's most contentious executive orders that they aren't allowed" to control the president's legitimate power".Vance's intervention came after Judge Paul Engelmayer, a US district court judge, issued an injunction stopping Elon Musk's department of government efficiency" (Doge) unit from accessing the treasury department's central payment system in search of supposed corruption and waste. Continue reading...

Another individual, aged 23, was arrested for criminal trespassing during NFL game in New OrleansA performer in Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl half-time show was ejected after unfurling a combination Sudanese-Palestinian flag with Sudan" and Gaza" written on it - but he is not going to face legal charges, police said.The National Football League confirmed the person was part of the 400-member field cast who performed alongside Lamar at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. A statement from the New Orleans police department said the performer in question was detained" and ejected from the stadium after the incident", but no arrest [was made] nor summons was issued". Continue reading...

Even his most ridiculous executive orders have an ugly affect on politics around the world. We can't just ignore the US president. But nor can we succumb to the momentum of the rightThe problem with Trump's America is that everything happens so fast, and across too many categories. There are moves so stupid and trivial that you can lose hours wondering whether there is a long game or if it's all just trolling: renaming the Gulf of Mexico, bringing back plastic straws. There are moves so inhumane, causing so much deliberate suffering, that they are hard to fathom. The cancellation of USAid is so consequential that reaction has almost frozen in place, as the world figures out which immediate humanitarian crisis to prioritise, and waits for some grownup, like the constitution, to step in. Into that baited silence steps Elon Musk, with a hoax about the agency having been a leftwing money-laundering organisation. Then everyone hares off to react to that, first debunking, then considering, what it might mean, for a man of such wealth and power to have come so completely unstuck from demonstrable reality. This is not an accident - and yet it has no meaning. So why is he doing it? To galvanise a base, or make a public service announcement that observable reality can't help you now, so get used to having it overwritten by fantasy? It's an understandable thing to worry about.Then there are the chilling direct legislative moves against sections of US society: banning the use of any pronouns that are not male or female in government agencies, defunding gender-affirming medical care, signalling a ban on transgender people in the military with an executive order that says being trans conflicts with a soldier's commitment to an honourable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one's personal life". There's the assault on immigrant rights, which is vivid and wide-ranging, from the resurrection of Guantanamo Bay as a for ever holding-house, to the shackled people deported to Punjab, to the reversal of a convention that schools, churches and hospitals would not be raided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Continue reading...

Observers have jokingly pointed to Cooper DeJean as a diversity hire for the NFL champions. But they have succeeded by challenging outdated ways of thinkingBy now, those who watched Sunday's Super Bowl have most likely forgotten about the house ads promoting racial and cultural unity. That's no doubt because a much stronger statement was delivered midway through the second quarter when a pass by the Kansas City Chiefs' Patrick Mahomes was intercepted and returned for an touchdown by Philadelphia's Cooper DeJean.DeJean, the first white player to start at cornerback in a Super Bowl in 24 years, has cheekily been described by media figures such as Bomani Jones as the league's ultimate DEI hire. But while those comments have been made with tongues firmly planted in cheeks, there is some merit in describing the Eagles' victory as a win for diversity, equity and inclusion - something that suddenly finds itself under attack in America. Continue reading...

Philly fans took to the streets after their team's 40-22 shellacking of the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday night. The city is famous for its rowdy sports culture and fans were exuberant after they cruised home in a game many expected would swing the Chiefs' way.Fans climbed light poles, garbage trucks and bus stops as they celebrated their team's second Super Bowl title in less than a decade. We captured some of the best images. Continue reading...

Plymouth showed the world's oldest football competition still has life but Arne Slot won't be too worried despite his team winning just five of their last 11 games

President also plans to remove clearance for Letitia James and Alvin Bragg, New York officials who prosecuted him

This was the biggest test yet in the former New England Patriots quarterback's fledgling television career, and the results were not prettyThe weeks leading up to this Super Bowl saw a predictable swirl of questions about the on- and off-field direction of America's big game. Could the Philadelphia Eagles neutralize the golden arm of Patrick Mahomes? Would Travis Kelce commit elder abuse against Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid again? How would the crowd react to the presence of the first sitting president to attend a Super Bowl? Might half-time show headliner Kendrick Lamar use the big stage to provide further insight into the content of Drake's character? And would Sunday night cap the successful conclusion of Tom Brady's years-long search for a personality, or would he remain the same on-screen plank who's shout-talked his way through his first season as Fox's top football analyst?As ever, however, a bigger question hung over these small opportunities for speculation: would it be any good? As a game, as a spectacle, as a raw demonstration of American ingenuity and might, would Super Bowl LIX have the juice? Continue reading...

Advocates warn the chilling effect' of fearful parents keeping children home from school sidetracks their livesAs Donald Trump mounts escalating attacks on immigrants in the US in the first weeks of his second term, schools are increasingly in the crosshairs.He has already revoked protective status for schools and churches, so that immigration authorities can make arrests on school grounds, sending teachers scrambling to figure out ways to protect their students. Continue reading...

The president has made big statements. But securing real peace will involve a mix of global diplomacy, threats and sweeteners Christopher S Chivvis is a senior fellow and director of the Carnegie Endowment's American statecraft programmeAmid the maelstrom of executive orders, appointments, tariffs, threats and other initiatives of the last few weeks, Donald Trump is still promising to negotiate a rapid end to the war in Ukraine, and on Friday said he had already spoken to Vladimir Putin about it. It's the right thing to do and he has a workable strategy, but getting there will be tough. The stakes are high, and if he fails, the war will get even more deadly - especially if he adopts a strategy of malign neglect towards Ukraine or, God forbid, attacks Russian forces directly.The war has devastated both countries' economies, armies and populations. Estimates put the death toll in the hundreds of thousands. Ukraine's population has fallen by a quarter - 10 million people - since Russia's invasion. This is a stalemate ... a protracted and bloody conflict" that needs to end, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, recently acknowledged.Christopher S Chivvis is a senior fellow and director of the Carnegie Endowment's American statecraft programme Continue reading...

In Dearborn, a largely Arab American town where Trump made gains, his plan to take over Gaza is met with disgust'For Palestinian Americans in Dearborn, Michigan, like Zaynah Jadallah and her family, displacement and loss have become central elements of her family heritage.Her family members were teachers in Al-Bireh in what is now the occupied West Bank during the 1948 Nakba, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced from their homes and land by Zionist paramilitaries, and then the Israeli army, in the war surrounding Israel's creation. Continue reading...

A liberal arts community finds itself hosting the closely-watched trial of man accused of stabbing novelist in 2022The author Salman Rushdie will this week come face-to-face with the man accused of trying to take his life in a frenzied knife attack during a 2022 literary festival near the snowy, lakeside New York community that finds itself hosting the closely-watched trial.Hadi Matar's twice-delayed trial kicks off with opening arguments on Monday in what may prove to be a face-off between the religious forces that sought to destroy Rushdie, 77, since a fatwa was issued by Iran's late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini following publication of The Satanic Verses in 1988. Continue reading...

The president has said America pays $200bn a year 'essentially in subsidy' to Canada and that if the country was the 51st state of the US 'I don't mind doing it', in an interview broadcast before the Super Bowl in New Orleans

Seven years after winning their first Vince Lombardi trophy, the Philadelphia Eagles are back on the NFL mountaintop. Behind a MVP performance from quarterback Jalen Hurts and a defensive masterclass that harried, hit and harassed Patrick Mahomes into one of the worst games of his career, the Eagles roared to a 40-22 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs in New Orleans on Sunday night in a contest that wasn't as close as the scoreline suggests.

World's richest man has unleashed a flurry moves ranging from compromising Americans' private data to nearly upending USAid. Where does it stop?In 2022, the Pentagon proudly announced a committee on diversity and inclusion, with a Marine veteran and senior director at Tesla, serving as a member. The same person, who spent nearly six years at Tesla, also helped push Elon Musk to make Juneteenth a company-wide holiday. But Musk is a notorious recipient of lucrative government contracts and changes with the winds of presidential administrations.Now in 2025, as a special government employee" heading up the department of government efficiency" (Doge), Musk is going to war with those kinds of government diversity and inclusion programs and slashing whatever he sees as a waste" of public coffers. Continue reading...

The Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement is the best way to show solidarity with our liberation struggleEgyptian and Greek mythologies mention a phoenix rising from ashes. Palestinians in Gaza have shown this is not entirely a myth. With the shaky ceasefire barely holding, hundreds of thousands of genocide survivors have emerged from the carnage in this land, whose civilization goes back 4,000 years, marching to north Gaza with hope, despite knowing that almost all their homes, roads, services, schools and hospitals have been wiped out. The real aspiration of most of them is to keep marching home, to where their families had been ethnically cleansed during the 1948 Nakba. Palestinians, it seems, have presciently responded to Donald Trump's plan" even before he spat it out.Despite his sinister side, the US president has mastered the skill of dominating the airwaves and cyberspace through manufacturing dissent. With one outrageous statement after another, he has managed to preoccupy the minds of most nations, leaving almost everyone guessing what his next unhinged" move may be. But he is not the first to indulge in pretending he is crazy." Richard Nixon did too. They subscribe to a madman theory", creating the perception of insanity, to achieve two simultaneous goals: throwing friends and foes alike off balance, to the edge, as a means of extracting from them prized concessions and normalizing the patently abnormal: an unmasked might makes right order. Continue reading...

Working in finance, I was unhappy and surrounded by greed. Then I embraced my passion for cooking, produce and nature

That's 30g of protein within half an hour of waking, then a spot of low-intensity" cardio. Doesn't sound so bad, does it? Don't be fooledIn my continued quest for self-optimisation via silly wellness stuff, I was intrigued by a Vogue article on a new morning routine: 30/30/30. That's 30g of protein within 30 minutes of waking, then 30 minutes of low-intensity" cardio. Apparently, it has gained serious traction on social media".Why not try it out? Well, for a start - and in fairness, Vogue mentioned this - it was devised by Gary Brecka, a biohacker" (sigh) and Make America Healthy Again (Maha) enthusiast, who recently called Robert F Kennedy Jr a true force of nature". I suppose he is, like a tornado or aplague of locusts. Continue reading...

The Chiefs may well contend for the championship again next season. But Sunday's loss to the Eagles exposed problems that had been there all yearSome losses sting. Others echo throughout a career. The Philadelphia Eagles pummeled the Kansas City Chiefs 40-22 in Super Bowl LIX on Sunday, ending any hope of a historic three-peat. It was a humbling. A humiliation. A beatdown for the ages. Most jarring of all, the Chiefs didn't threaten for a moment.Even the final score is misleading. Late in the third quarter, the Eagles held a 34-0 lead, the largest lead in a Super Bowl since 2014. The Eagles were dunking Gatorade on their head coach Nick Sirianni while the Chiefs were still trying to find a way into the game. By the fourth quarter, there was a sighting of Eagles backup quarterback Kenny Pickett, the human victory cigar. Continue reading...

As an erratic president imposes his international doctrine, countries are forging more stable alliances. His US will be weaker, not strongerOne of the ways in which Donald Trump's regime obscures and distracts is by drawing our eyes constantly to the US - its raw power to intimidate and bully other nations, and its vast financial heft in wielding soft power through organisations such as USAid.But at the same time as Trump projects his agenda on to the world stage, he is withdrawing the US from the world and reducing its role to its bare bones - an imperial power that blatantly picks and chooses how to engage based on its alliances and interests. American taxpayer money is ever so precious on the one hand, but on the other can be profligately spent on proposals to take over an entire territory in Gaza and send billions in aid to Israel. This is not isolationism, it is unilateralism. Continue reading...

Philadelphia Eagles win the Super Bowl LIX against the Kansas City Chiefs at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana Continue reading...

While the game goes ahead, it's a big night for culture with a much-anticipated half-time show, a string of big name ads and a returning role for Taylor Swift

Almost an event in themselves, the most expensive ad slots of the year featured Meg Ryan, Billy Crystal, Sydney Sweeney, Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Pratt, Kris Jenner, Greta Gerwig, Charli xcx, Martha Stewart, Sean Evans, Kevin Bacon, Matthew McConaughey and more.

NFL replaces End Racism' written into end zone with Choose Love' before Trump's arrival at Louisiana stadium

President targets education department and military in pre-Super Bowl chat and repeats wish for Canada to be 51st stateDonald Trump said that he expects Elon Musk to find billions" of dollars of abuse and fraud in the Pentagon during an interview with Fox News's Bret Baier that aired before the Super Bowl on Sunday.I'm going to tell him very soon, like maybe in 24 hours, to go check the Department of Education. ... Then I'm going to go, go to the military. Let's check the military," the US president told the host from the rightwing Fox News, adding: We're going to find billions, hundreds of millions of dollars of fraud and abuse." Continue reading...

Protesters in Colorado express solidarity with the undocumented after dramatic raids throughout DenverThousands took to the streets on Wednesday and Saturday last week following a series of dramatic raids by agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) throughout Denver as protesters expressed solidarity with the undocumented and rage at Donald Trump's war on immigrants.We're here to fight for our neighbors, to stand together and say no to the threats from the Trump administration," Amanda Starks, a local artist at a rally on Saturday who's been handing out literature to immigrants on their legal rights. Continue reading...

Russell Vought is now acting head of CFPB, created in wake of 2008 financial crash to supervise financial companiesRussell Vought, Donald Trump's newly installed acting head of the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, announced on Saturday he had cut off the agency's budget and reportedly instructed staff to suspend all activities including the supervision of companies overseen by the agency.Reuters and NBC News reported that Vought wrote a memo to employees saying he had taken on the role of acting head of the agency, an independent watchdog that was founded in 2011 as an arm of the Federal Reserve to promote fairness in the financial sector. Continue reading...

Danette Colbert was known to police before meeting Adan Manzano, who died last week in a New Orleans-area hotelThree years before she was linked to the death of a journalist covering Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans, Danette Colbert reportedly faced charges of drugging a man as well as stealing $100,000 in cash, jewelry, upscale luggage and casino chips from his Las Vegas hotel room.Colbert made bond - then allegedly drugged another man and stole his $60,000 watch, casino chips and credit cards after he invited her to his hotel room in Las Vegas. Continue reading...

Mayor Andre Dickens is turning to Atlanta's own land and resources to create new development opportunitiesShortly after his election as mayor of Atlanta in 2021, Andre Dickens realized one of his core campaign promises - to create 20,000 new units of affordable housing - might be hard to keep. Estimates from his staff showed the city would fall more than 4,000 units short.His options seemed limited. The low-income housing tax credit supports the building or restoration of much affordable housing in America, but the federal tax incentive is curbed by volume caps each year, and voters are often skeptical of other potential sources of funding, such as bonds. Continue reading...

Trump tells the New York Post that he has a plan to end the war but declined to go into detailsDonald Trump has said he held talks with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, over a negotiated end of the three year Russia-Ukraine war, indicated that Russian negotiators want to meet with US counterparts.Trump told the New York Post that he had spoken to Putin, remarking that I better not say" just how many times. Continue reading...

The Bidwell mansion was a symbol for the city of Chico, but for some it was a reminder of colonization and genocideIn the early - morning darkness on 11 December, a police dispatcher at California State University, Chico, smelled the distinctive odor of smoke, a trigger in this fire-prone part of far northern California.She began combing through roughly 500 cameras on campus to find its source. Soon it became clear: the Bidwell mansion, a pink 26-room Victorian building dating to 1865 and one of the oldest buildings in the region, was on fire. Continue reading...

Older people don't want to get married; youngsters aren't dating. But maybe there's more to life than being in a coupleSorry, Valentine's Day is cancelled: we're in a relationship recession. Analysis of demographic data by the Financial Times shows a dramatic decline in married or cohabiting young adults, with tanking relationship formation" rates in countries as diverse as Thailand, Finland, Peru, South Korea and Turkey. In the US, the marriage rate fell by 54% between 1900 and 2022, while younger people aren't even dating: the percentage of 16- to 18-year-olds who report having dated has dipped under 50%, the Atlantic reports, with the decline particularly steep in the past few years".My immediate thought is: well, obviously. The resurgence of the far right, accelerating climate collapse, geopolitical instability and deep economic precarity aren't exactly Marvin-Gaye-and-oysters vibes. As relationship red flags go, isn't getting horny amid imminent global catastrophe one of the biggest, reddest ones? Ijusthave to imagine Elon Musk and I'm ready to be walled up inananchorite's cell.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...

Asylum seekers and others have better access to their legal rights after a court temporarily lifts a stop-work orderImmigrants and asylum seekers caught up in Donald Trump's mass enforcement crackdown will at least have a better chance at knowing their legal rights - for now - after a court intervened to restore some vital advice services.Last month, the federal government issued a stop-work order targeting programs that provide information and guidance to people facing deportation, via services such as independent legal help desks. Continue reading...