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If the Turkish strongman clashes with Israel over Syria he will be blamed for wrecking Trump's plans to pacify and disengage from the regionRecep Tayyip Erdoan has trodden a fine line between the west, Russia and China for more than two decades. Turkey has profited from helping both sides in Russia's war against Ukraine, extended its military reach and influence in Syria, Libya, the south Caucasus, the eastern Mediterranean and the Gulf, spread its soft power in Africa, central Asia and the western Balkans, and built a substantial national defence industry.When international relations experts assess this, they often fall back on the term balancing act". Turkish analysts prefer to speak of a quest for strategic autonomy" - the ability to defend the country's interests against all threats without being dependent on any outside power.Paul Taylor is a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre Continue reading...

President also signs order to eliminate gender radicalism in the military' and seeks to develop missile defense systemDonald Trump signed a series of executive orders on Monday that remove diversity, equity and inclusion from the US military, reinstate thousands of troops who were kicked out for refusing Covid-19 vaccines during the pandemic, and one that appeared to be aimed at transgender troops.Earlier on Monday, Pete Hegseth, who narrowly secured enough votes to become defense secretary, referred to the names of Confederate generals that were once used for two key bases during his remarks to reporters as he entered the Pentagon on his first full day on the job. Continue reading...

This blog has now closed. Read our latest story hereThe Senate is expected on Monday to vote on the confirmation of the billionaire hedge fund manager, Scott Bessent, as treasury secretary.On Saturday, the Senate voted 67-23 to advance Bessent's nomination. A final vote is scheduled to take place this evening at 5.30pm ET. Continue reading...

Memo said some actions in agency appeared to be designed to circumvent' Trump's orders and America First' policyThe Trump administration has put on leave about 60 senior career officials at the US Agency for International Development (USAid) workers, sources familiar with the matter said, after Washington put a sweeping freeze on US aid worldwide.The administration on Saturday urged the USAid staff to join the effort to transform how Washington allocates aid around the world in line with Trump's America First" policy. It also threatened disciplinary action" for any staff ignoring the administration's orders. Continue reading...

Acting attorney general says career officials could not be trusted to faithfully implement the president's agenda'Acting attorney general James McHenry on Monday fired more than a dozen federal prosecutors who worked on the two criminal cases against Donald Trump, saying they could not be trusted to implement the president's agenda for the justice department, two people familiar with the matter said.The precise extent of the firings were unclear because the department did not disclose names. At the time the cases were dismissed last year, after Trump won the election, special counsel Jack Smith had 17 prosecutors attached to his team. Continue reading...

Stewart Rhodes, ex-head of far-right group, had been banned from district and Capitol Hill without court consentA federal judge has rescinded an order barring Stewart Rhodes, the former leader of the far-right Oath Keepers group, and several other defendants charged in connection to the 6 January2021 attack on Congress, from entering Washington DC and the US Capitol without permission from a court.On Monday, the US district judge Amit Mehta stated in an order that while the court is declining to dismiss the supervised release terms entirely- as the justice department had requested - the defendants are no longer bound by the judicially imposed conditions of supervised release. Continue reading...

Utah nursing home resident Gideon Castro, 66, arrested and charged over death of Dawn Momohara, 16, in HonoluluPolice recently arrested a 66-year-old man at a nursing home in Utah on suspicion that he murdered a girl who attended his high school in Hawaii nearly five decades earlier - with modern DNA technology implicating him.Gideon Castro's arrest came in connection with the killing of Dawn Momohara, 16, who was found dead the morning of 21 March 1977 at the campus of McKinley high school in Honolulu. Continue reading...

TV personality embeds in one of several raids in US cities in what Tom Homan says are only beginning stages'

Senior leaders at agency told to await further guidance' in stoppage that upends expectations of extended withdrawalUS public health officials have been told to stop working with the World Health Organization (WHO), effective immediately.A US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) official, John Nkengasong, sent a memo to senior leaders at the agency on Sunday night telling them that all agency staff who work with the WHO must immediately stop their collaborations and await further guidance". Continue reading...

Sweeping review affects more than 1,200 courses used to train US diplomats and other foreign service personnelThe US state department's Foreign Service Institute has suspended access to more than a thousand training materials and courses, including the removal of more than 2,100 items related to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, according to an internal department announcement issued on Monday and seen by the Guardian.The sweeping review, which took effect on 22 January, affects more than 1,200 courses used to train American diplomats and other foreign service personnel and stems from recent executive orders. Continue reading...

Why doubts have been raised about sustainability of US artificial intelligence boom

We can give the Greenlanders a McDonald's, KFC and a Taco Bell ... I will nuke Nuuk if necessary, but I'd rather not'Keir Starmer: Good afternoon, your most serene Excellency.Donald Trump: Who is this? Continue reading...

Union leader claims Trump-created organization is corrupt' as X owner posts vague request for applicationsElon Musk's department of government efficiency" (Doge) has been accused by a leading labor union of an absolutely illegal" breach of federal regulations after posting a vague request for job applications.The Trump administration's much-vaunted but ill-defined program to reshape the federal government announced it was recruiting full-time, salaried positions" for software engineers, information security engineers and other technology professionals" on its official website. Continue reading...

Lawmakers halt his planned crackdown and move on with their own proposals in spirit and letter' of Trump's policiesRepublicans in the Florida legislature on Monday delivered a humiliating rebuke to Ron DeSantis by shutting down the governor's planned crackdown on immigration in the state and moving ahead with their own proposals.Lawmakers in the Florida House and Senate abruptly gaveled out" a special legislative session that DeSantis had called to seek their approval for measures he drew up in support of Donald Trump's hardline immigration agenda. Continue reading...

Orders will also reinstate troops kicked out for refusing Covid vaccines during pandemic, says defense secretaryDonald Trump will soon sign executive orders removing diversity, equity and inclusion from the military and reinstating thousands of troops who were kicked out for refusing Covid vaccines during the pandemic, the defense secretary Pete Hegseth said on Monday.Hegseth, a former Fox News personality and decorated veteran, narrowly secured enough votes to become the next defense secretary, a major victory for Trump after fierce opposition from Democrats and even some Republicans to his controversial nominee. Continue reading...

Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist calls fellow tech titan super-smart' but guilty of overreach'Bill Gates has labelled Elon Musk's embrace of far-right politicians and attempt to interfere in the politics of other countries - including the UK - as insane shit".Musk has in recent weeks launched a series of unfounded smears at British politicians for supposedly covering up a rape scandal over a decade ago. The UK is currently preparing a new online safety law that would restrict some of Musk's businesses, including the social media site X. Continue reading...

Rain may help firefighters reining in fires after weeks of dry weather but also boosts risk of toxic ash runoffRain eased on Monday after southern California's first significant storm of the season brought weekend downpours that aided firefighters but caused ash, mud and debris to flow across streets in wildfire burn areas.

Council including defense and homeland security secretaries will report within 180 days on future of agency

Videos about Tuskegee Airmen and civilian female pilots were not shown in basic training in Texas pending a review

The current leadership is seen as either absent or illegitimate. A postwar plan must not simply repackage it

Monkeys lived in South Carolina woods for two months and were lured out with peanut butter and jelly sandwichesAuthorities in South Carolina say that the last four of 43 escaped monkeys were recaptured after two months of living in the woods, weathering a rare snowstorm and being tempted back into captivity by peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.The rhesus macaque monkeys, all females, made a break for it after police say an employee did not fully lock their enclosure at Alpha Genesis, a facility that breeds them for medical research - known to locals as the monkey farm". Continue reading...

US president's tariff threats, Nato spending demands and Greenland ambitions keep leaders on edge

With Trump promising the US will be crypto capital of the planet', experts say the industry's poised for laxer oversightWith Donald Trump tapping top regulators with cryptocurrency ties and promising to make the US the crypto capital of the planet", the controversial and scandal-plagued industry is poised for laxer oversight and faster growth, which ethics watchdogs and ex-prosecutors fear could pose dangers for investors and spur potential criminal abuses.The president's pro-crypto stances have come as he wooed crypto companies to ratchet up their campaign contributions to help him win the White House. Although in 2021 Trump called Bitcoin a scam", he also announced last fall that he and his sons were helping launch a new crypto business, dubbed World Liberty Financial, they can profit from. Continue reading...

Revealed: fossil fuel billionaire's Americans for Prosperity vows herculean undertaking' to renew and deepen tax cutsAmericans for Prosperity (AFP), the flagship political arm of the rightwing network formed by the fossil fuels billionaire Charles Koch and his late brother David, is launching a multimillion-dollar campaign backing Donald Trump's plans to extend tax cuts and roll back federal regulations.A private fundraising letter from AFP to its secretive list of donors, seen by the Guardian, outlines the organization's strategy for the first six months of the new Trump administration. Continue reading...

Families start returning home after first major crisis of ceasefire overcomeGood morning.Palestinians displaced from their homes in northern Gaza began to return to the region early on Monday, the territory's interior ministry said, after the first major crisis of the truce between between Israel and Hamas.What has Donald Trump said about Gaza? In comments strongly rejected by the Palestinians, Egypt, and Jordan, for fear that Israel will not let refugees return, he said Gaza's people should at least temporarily be resettled elsewhere.What have others said about the firings? Republican senator Lindsey Graham brushed off their unlawfulness. He acknowledged that Trump violated the law (telling Meet the Press that technically yeah", he did), before adding: I'm not losing a whole lot of sleep that he wants to change the personnel out." Continue reading...

Trump and his supporters would like to buck the tide of history, but they could end up pulled further into it, and have no way to stop itAfter years of strife over what his rise means, Donald Trump's inaugural address on assuming the presidency a second time clarified everything: he is the symptom of imperial decline who purports to be the cure.His first inaugural, of course, dwelled on national decline: American carnage. The opening of Trump's second speech, however, began with the myth of the golden age - an almost idyllic picture of an end to America's time of troubles, when the country elicits envy and respect it once enjoyed among the powers of the earth. And, far more clearly than in his first inaugural and term, Trump's speech and stratagems indicate a vision not just of competition but of return to comparative ascendancy. He wants America to bask in the sun of its former victory in the competition of empires. It will be a a thrilling new era of national success."Samuel Moyn teaches history at Yale. Continue reading...

If they capitulate to Maga, the government folds, and we all go down with itLess than a week in office, Donald Trump gagged all public communications from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and the Food and Drug Administration. Pending review by his administration, the agencies are prohibited from issuing health data updates and public safety alerts, including those concerning the H5N1 avian flu, which is spreading in poultry flocks, dairy herds, pet cats and people. Bird flu can be fatal to humans, according to the World Health Organization, from which Trump has withdrawn the US.As precursor to his mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, the president halted asylum applications and canceled appointments already on the books. The Department of Homeland Security announced that it will raid hospitals, churches and schools, sites long off limits to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. But don't blame the feds if law-abiding immigrants are swept up too, said Trump's border czar, Tom Homan. There's going to be more collateral arrests in sanctuary cities because they forced us to go into the community and find the guy we're looking for." The Department of Justice is threatening to bring criminal charges against local officials or employees who don't cooperate.Judith Levine is a Brooklyn journalist and essayist, a contributing writer to the Intercept and the author of five books

US senator adds to chorus of criticism of president, who fired inspectors at departments including state and defenseDonald Trump's firing of more than a dozen independent federal government watchdogs late on Friday was a clear violation of law", says US senator Adam Schiff, one of the president's fiercest political opponents.Yeah, he broke the law," the California Democrat said Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press. And not just any law - but a law meant to crowd out waste, fraud and abuse." Continue reading...

As the grandchild of a survivor, I'm proud to keep his testimony alive, in the hope that people never forget the horrors humanity is capable ofYesterday, I watched A Real Pain in the cinema. The film is a beautiful representation of two cousins, united in love and grief for their grandma, exploring their family history on a heritage trip to Poland. This experience is familiar to so many Jews I know - whether attending a trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau or visiting Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, the idea of a poignant pilgrimage to see where our ancestors lived, died, survived and escaped from, is commonplace.I've certainly had these experiences. When I was 12, my paternal grandparents, Ann and Henry Ebner, took me to Vienna, where Henry fled from the Nazis with his parents when he was two, arriving as a refugee in the UK just weeks before the start of the second world war. In the same year, my maternal grandma, Anna (Panni), took me to Budapest, to see where she and her husband, my grandpa, George Garai (Gyuri), had lived. Panni was six when Hitler's troops invaded Hungary in 1944, and she survived by being hidden in an orphanage. The memories shared with me on this pilgrimage were painful ones; being separated from her parents, returning home after the war and sitting by the window waiting to see which family members would come back - and so many never did. Continue reading...

Despite recent praise from Trump, No 10 insiders know how risky dealing with the unpredictable president canbeThe sight of Donald Trump signing a flurry of executive orders with his black Sharpie in front of the Maga faithful after his inauguration inspired envy and concern in equal measure inside the UK government.Cabinet ministers have been impressed by the new US president cracking on" with bold - and often controversial - election promises. We could do with a bit more of that here," one told the Guardian. Continue reading...

Some will insist debatable calls were to blame for another heartbreaker for Buffalo. But they have to contend with a great footballing dynasty every yearFrom 1967 through 1975, the Oakland Raiders were the most successful team in professional football ... in the regular season. They compiled a record of 95-24-7, and that winning percentage of .798 was a full 70 percentage points higher than the second-best team, the Dallas Cowboys. Those Raiders were packed with future Hall of Famers, and they had John Madden, one of the NFL's best coaches, for most of that span.And throughout that time, they were stopped from winning the big one by several different dynasties. They lost Super Bowl II to the Green Bay Packers, and were crossed off in successive seasons in the playoffs by the Miami Dolphins and the Pittsburgh Steelers - two more all-time teams. Oakland's 7-8 postseason record tended to render everything else irrelevant. It wasn't until 1976, when the Raiders went 13-1 in the regular season and poleaxed the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl XI, that they finally got that albatross of their backs. Continue reading...

I couldn't help but love the woman who brought light back into our lives - and now I feel so lucky to have my big blended familyWhen my mother died, I didn't think my stepfather would ever find someone else to love. She met him when visiting New York and he moved to Paris to live with us. He'd always ask: How'd this gorgeous French-Brazilian woman pick me?" They shared 16 beautiful years together. On the night of her death, he told me he'd lost 40 years", the years of them growing old together.As much as I wanted him to be happy, I never imagined their connection could be replaced, it just seemed too strong. So when, one spring evening over dinner, he said I went on a date last night" to my little sister and me, my eyes grew wide in shock. I was pleased for him, but devastated for myself. It felt like another era was coming to an end.Iman M'Fah-Traore is a writer. She is working on her first book, a memoir Continue reading...

There is no way to rationalise the horrors inflicted on Gaza's innocent children. Now is the time to mourn them fullyFor the past week, Palestinians in Gaza have been returning to their homes, now mostly reduced to rubble - and to their dead who still lie beneath. It is only now that we will start to get a fuller picture of the true toll of this war - only now that any kind of grieving or mourning can begin, a process that has been physically and emotionally denied to the Palestinians throughout the past 15 months. Once the final tally becomes clear, what will probably emerge is a colossal death toll of children.Already, indications point to it being children that have made up the majority of casualties. UN analysis of verified deaths during a five-month period confirmed that of those who died, 44% were children. Most often, those children were five- to nine-year-olds; 80% of them killed in their own homes. Continue reading...

US president had called for retaliatory measures' after Colombia's president, Gustavo Petro, blocked two military aircraft carrying deporteesThe US and Colombia pulled back from the brink of a trade war on Sunday after the White House said the Colombians had agreed to accept military aircraft carrying deported migrants.Donald Trump, the US president, had threatened tariffs and sanctions on Colombia to punish it for earlier refusing to accept military flights carrying deportees amid his sweeping immigration crackdown. Continue reading...

Executive order comes two days after visit to LA, which has been devastated by wildfires that burned over 35,000 acresDonald Trump on Sunday issued an executive order directing the federal government to override the state of California's water management practices if they are found to be ineffective.The order comes two days after the president visited the Los Angeles region, which has been devastated by a series of wildfires that have killed at least 28 people and burned more than 35,000 acres. Continue reading...

Ice confirms enhanced targeted operations' in a city on edge after Trump officials warned of enforcement actionsUS federal authorities have begun immigration raids in Chicago, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) statement confirmed on Sunday, just days after incoming border czar" Tom Homan said officials were reconsidering" after details leaked into the press.In a statement, Ice said its agents, along with the FBI, ATF, DEA, CBP and the US Marshals Service, had begun conducting enhanced targeted operations" in Chicago to enforce US immigration law and preserve public safety and national security by keeping potentially dangerous criminal aliens out of our communities". Continue reading...

Memo offers further guidance to stop-work' directive and how to achieve Trump's America first policyDonald Trump urged US Agency for International Development (USAid) workers to join the effort to transform how the federal government allocates aid around the world in line with his America first policy. His administration threatened disciplinary action" for any staff ignoring the its orders, issued days into Trump's second presidency.A sharply-worded memo sent Saturday to more than 10,000 staff at USAid offered further guidance to Friday's stop-work" directive that effectively put a sweeping freeze on US foreign aid worldwide. The memo, reviewed by Reuters, laid out expectations for the workforce on how to achieve Trump's goals. Continue reading...

Palestinians in Gaza remain steadfast after the US president suggested that Palestinians should leave the territory and move to neighbouring nations. Donald Trump told reporters on Saturday: 'You're talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing.' 'I'd like Egypt to take people. And I'd like Jordan to take people,' he added. In response, former Palestinian Authority minister Ghassan Khatib said: 'I think that the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank and everywhere, together with the Jordanians and the Egyptians, will definitely reject this proposal.' In a press conference on Sunday, the Jordanian foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, said: 'Our rejection of displacement is firm and unwavering'

Conversation on Sunday was the two leaders' first call since the inauguration of the new US presidentPresident Donald Trump and the prime minister, Keir Starmer, have spoken over the phone and agreed to meet soon".The two leaders spoke for 45 minutes on Sunday in their first call since Trump's inauguration. According to Downing Street's readout of the call, they discussed trade and the economy and security in the Middle East. Continue reading...

Official cites review of course curriculum at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, where new recruits get basic trainingDonald Trump's order halting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives has led the US air force to suspend course instruction on a documentary about the first Black airmen in the US military, known as the Tuskegee Airmen, a US official said on Saturday.The famed Black aviators included 450 pilots who fought overseas in segregated units during the second world war. Their success in combat helped pave the way for Harry Truman's decision to desegregate the armed forces in 1948. Continue reading...

Eighty years after the Nazi death camp was freed, the testimony of survivors is as crucial as everMemory is fragile. A decade ago, 300 survivors gathered at Auschwitz to commemorate the Nazi death camp's liberation. On Monday, 50 will assemble for the 80th anniversary. The median age of Holocaust survivors was estimated at 86 in a study published last year. At 97, Esther Senot is still keeping the promise she made to her dying sister Fanny, whose last wish was that she tell what happened to us ... so that we are not forgotten by history." Almost 1 million of the 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust were killed at the complex in German-occupied Poland, along with smaller numbers of Poles,Roma and Sinti, Soviet prisoners of war, gay men, political prisoners and others. Its name has become synonymous with evil.The Auschwitz museum's decision to ban speeches by politicians this year may be in part pragmatic. Holocaust memory has too often been a battleground in Poland. The museum's mission stands above politics, yet cannot be wholly insulated from global affairs. Vladimir Putin has attended in the past, but there will be no Russian presence this time. Earlier thismonth, Poland's deputy foreign minister appearedto suggest that authorities would be obliged to arrest the Israeli prime minister if he travelled to the ceremony, because the international criminal court hasissued a warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu's arrest for alleged war crimes in Gaza. The Polish prime minister, DonaldTusk, insisted Mr Netanyahu would be able to attend safely, though Israel's delegation is not expected to include him.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...

Senator Lindsey Graham says pardoning violent offenders is a mistake' and could spur more violenceJD Vance on Sunday tried to offer a rationale to a record number of executive orders and controversial policy shifts enacted by Donald Trump during the first five days of the latter man's second presidency, claiming without evidence that the moves accomplished more than Joe Biden" and his administration did in the last four years.But one of those moves - Trump's blanket pardons for about 1,500 people who attacked the US Capitol in early 2021 - was labeled a mistake" by a prominent fellow Republican of the president and Vance: US senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who feared the clemency could end up spurring more violence. Continue reading...

Trump began his inauguration day encircled by a bevy of oligarchs, but ended it giving favor to his mobThe most sacred ceremony conducted at the Trump inauguration undoubtedly for Donald Trump personally, with its mystical meaning elevating him to his greatest height as an emperor, was the prayer for Fred Trump. Father Frank Mann, a retired priest from Brooklyn, offered a blessing to the ruthless real estate operator who made his fortune in the borough and bankrolled his son's pilgrimage over the Queensboro Bridge into Manhattan to blow a half-billion dollars through six bankruptcies and the financial collapse of the Taj Mahal Hotel and Trump Castle casino in Jersey City, and a blessing for Fred's wife, too, without whom this day would never be the miracle that has just begun".Father Frank had struck up a relationship with Donald after he sent him a photograph of how he had weeded the Trump family gravesite at the Lutheran All Faiths Cemetery. A single tombstone marks not only Donald's parents, but also Fred's father and mother, Donald's original immigrant grandparents - Friedrich deemed an undesirable in Germany - and Fred Jr, subject of Fred's abuse that helped drive him into alcoholism and his early spot in the family plot. From their place in heaven," intoned Father Frank, may they shield their son from all harm by their loving protection and give him the strength to guide our nation along the path that will make America great again".Sidney Blumenthal is a Guardian US columnist. He is a former senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, has published three books of a projected five-volume political life of Abraham Lincoln: A Self-Made Man, Wrestling With His Angel and All the Powers of Earth Continue reading...