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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...

Trump has teased two of the US's biggest trading partners with levies but has moved the goalpost at least three times in two weeksDonald Trump was in his element in the Oval Office this week. Surrounded by cameras, flanked by billionaire allies and confronted by a barrage of questions about whether he was really prepared to unleash a trade war on the US's closest neighbors, the president talked tough.By his telling, powerful economies were scrambling to bend to his will. Hours earlier, Mexico had announced a series of measures to shore up its border, prompting the White House to hastily postpone the imposition of 25% tariffs on all its goods; Canada would announce similar measures, and receive the same reprieve, later that day. Continue reading...

Project 2025 architects are among those behind the American Accountability Foundation and their blacklists targeting people of colorA rightwing non-profit group that has published a DEI Watch List" identifying federal employees allegedly driving radical Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives" is bankrolled by wealthy family foundations and rightwing groups whose origins are often cloaked in a web of financial arrangements that obscure the original donors.One recent list created by the American Accountability Foundation (AAF) includes the names of mostly Black people with roles in government health alleged to have some ties to diversity initiatives. Another targets education department employees, and another calls out the most subversive immigration bureaucrats". Continue reading...

Will Patrick Mahomes lead Kansas City to an unprecedented three-peat? Or will Jalen Hurts help Philadelphia complete unfinished businessWin the first downs. The Chiefs need to find a way to turn the Philadelphia Eagles into a dropback passing offense. If Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo can scheme up something to win the initial down, his front can take over on second- and third-downs. Oliver Connolly Continue reading...

The bromance may fade, but the two megalomaniacs could still reshape the US as long as Trump's fickle affections holdA picture is worth a thousand words - or, more precisely, $288m. That was the sum tech entrepreneur Elon Musk donated to Donald Trump's presidential election campaign. His reward was dramatically illustrated by the cover of this week's Time magazine: an image of Musk, coffee cup in hand, sitting behind the Resolute desk used by every US president since Jimmy Carter.Some speculated that the picture of President Musk" was designed to provoke the thin-skinned Trump, who is known to revere Time magazine and has twice been named its person of the year". The president reacted on Friday with a pointed joke: Is Time magazine still in business? I didn't even know that." Continue reading...

Netanyahu and Gallant could show up and contest the charges against them. Obstructing justice is not the answerDonald Trump's executive order reauthorizing sanctions against international criminal court (ICC) personnel reflects a disgraceful effort to ensure that no American, or citizen of an ally such as Israel, is ever investigated or prosecuted. Quite apart from this warped sense of justice - that it is only for other people - the president's limited view of the court's powers was rejected in the treaty establishing the court and repudiated by the Joe Biden administration and even the Republican party. But that didn't stop Trump.The US government traditionally has had no problem with two of the three ways that the court can obtain jurisdiction because it could control them. Washington is fine with the court prosecuting citizens of states that are members of the court because it has no intention of joining them. And it accepts that the United Nations security council can confer jurisdiction because it can exercise its veto to block prosecutions it doesn't like. Continue reading...

Stunned by Donald Trump's return, Dennis Johnson saw a chance to hit back by publishing official reports into shameful episodes in US historyA US publishing house has decided to publish official reports into sensitive matters in US politics and history against the backdrop of a new Donald Trump administration committed to a radical rightwing agenda of reshaping American government and fiercely aggressive against its opponents, especially in the media.The publisher, Melville House, will on Tuesday release The Jack Smith Report, a print and ebook edition of the special counsel's summation of his investigation of Donald Trump's attempt to overturn the 2020 election.The Jack Smith Report is published in the US on Tuesday Continue reading...

Here's how to catch the NFL's biggest game on Sunday on cable and streaming, plus what to know about kickoff time, the half-time show and moreFor the second time in three seasons, Philadelphia and Kansas City will face each other for the championship.Here's what to know about kickoff time, the host city, half-time performer and more.The Guardian will have live blog coverage of the Super Bowl on Sunday.The Guardian will cover the half-time show in our Everything but the Football live blog. Continue reading...

Whether in Gaza or the Chagos Islands, denying a people's identity and rights paves the way to robbing them of their autonomy to governSovereignty matters. Except when it doesn't. And it doesn't when another people's sovereignty gets in the way of your nation's needs. Then sovereignty (for any other country or people, at least) becomes so much dust blowing in the storm. It is something to which the peoples of the Chagos Islands and Gaza can attest.Last year, Britain finalised an agreement to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, a shabby deal at the end of a sordid history of British rule. Much of the criticism of the deal is equally shabby. Continue reading...

National Institutes of Health said the $4bn loss will affect indirect' funding of buildings, equipment and staffThe Trump administration is cutting billions of dollars in medical research funding for universities, hospitals and other scientific institutions by reducing the amount they get in associated costs to support such research.The National Institutes of Health (NIH) said that it was reducing the amount of indirect" medical research funding going to institutions, which will cut spending by $4bn a year. Continue reading...

By his destructive, vindictive, illegal and irrational actions, the US president sets himself beyond the paleThe 47th president of the United States is a danger to his country, Britain and the world. Who would have thought that sentence would ever be written? And yet, less than three weeks into Donald Trump's second term, it is barely controversial to many people looking on from shell-shocked democracies beyond America's shores. By his destructive, vindictive, illegal and irrational actions, Trump sets himself beyond the pale. In place of American exceptionalism, the world must now learn to manage, and if necessary confront, a gross American objectionablism.Proof of these assertions is to be found in the White House's daily outpourings. Seeking revenge against those who tried to punish his attempted 6 January 2021 electoral coup, Trump is weaponising the justice department by executive order. Political opponents, FBI agents, prosecutors, media outlets and journalists are in his sights. In contrast, about 1,500 convicted Capitol Hill rioters have been pardoned. He has even had the gall to withdraw the security clearance of his predecessor, Joe Biden, citing mental incapacity.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...

Governor signs laws assigning half for state's justice department and half for legal groups defending immigrantsGavin Newsom, the California governor, signed laws on Friday setting aside $50m to help the state protect its policies from challenges by the Trump administration and defend immigrants amid the president's mass-deportation plans.One of the laws allocates $25m for the state's department of justice to fight legal battles against the federal government, and another sets aside $25m in part for legal groups to defend immigrants facing possible deportation. During his first presidency, Trump sparred with California over climate laws, water policy, immigrant rights and more, and the state filed or joined more than 100 legal actions against the administration. The same fights are re-emerging in the early days of Trump's second term. Continue reading...

Trump's attendance at the Super Bowl on Sunday in New Orleans stands to offer more evidence that the sporting climate has shifted from resistance to acceptanceAs a 2016 presidential candidate and White House occupant, Donald Trump lambasted NFL players for kneeling during the national anthem in protest at civil rights abuses. Now, set to become the first incumbent president to attend a Super Bowl, it appears that the US's most popular sport is genuflecting before him.Trump will reportedly attend the clash between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday in New Orleans as a guest of Gayle Benson, the owner of the New Orleans Saints. A pre-recorded interview conducted by a Fox News anchor will also air during the pre-game show of an event that last year was viewed by more than 123m Americans. And while he watches the action, Trump will not have to stare at a message inspired by the kind of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) strategies that he is intent on bulldozing. Continue reading...

Inquiry uncovered health problems in neighborhood near Monterrey-area plant that processes US hazardous wasteMexican environmental regulators say they have discovered 30,000 tons of improperly stored material with hazardous characteristics" in the yard of a Mexican plant that is recycling toxic waste shipped from the US.The authorities ordered urgent measures" to get the materials into proper storage as part of inspections they are conducting in response to an investigation from the Guardian and Quinto Elemento Lab, which raised questions about contamination around the plant, located in the Monterrey metro area. Continue reading...

Competing interests and rivalries between regional powers threaten hopes of change after the fall of Bashar al-AssadPreviously undisclosed Pentagon plans for withdrawing 2,000 US troops from eastern Syria received scant attention last week, overshadowed by Donald Trump's surreal Gaza pantomime. The troops help local Syrian Kurdish forces contain the residual threat posed by Islamic State jihadists, 9,000 of whom are held in prison camps. If the US leaves, the fear is of a mass breakout and, over time, a reviving IS terrorist threat to Europe, Britain and the west.The mooted American pullout is one piece in a complex Syrian jigsaw puzzle that is challenging friends and foes alike following December's toppling of Bashar al-Assad's dictatorship. Unlike Trump, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states - competing for influence - want to get more involved in Syria, not less. Europe wants a stable, democratic state to which refugees can safely return. Israel, aggressively paranoid, sees only potential threats, while vanquished Russia and Iran seek to regain a foothold.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...

Don't be distracted by the president's calculated bluster - it's his unelected sidekick who's taking over the US governmentWay back in 2019, Steve Bannon, then a Trump consigliere, outlined in a TV interview a strategy for managing information. The opposition party is the media," he said, And because they're dumb and they're lazy, they can only focus on one thing at a time... All we have to do is flood the zone. Every day we hit them with three things. They'll bite on one, and we'll get all of our stuff done. Bang, bang, bang."Since his re-election, Donald Trump has been following this script to the letter, and the media, not to mention the entire world, are feeling punch-drunk. Which is, as Bannon pointed out, enabling other members of the Trump crew to get their stuff done. Really bad stuff too, to which the world has not been paying enough attention. Continue reading...

Politics have sunk so low since Emmanuel Macron's snap election, we're just grateful when foretold catastrophes don't materialiseHoura! Or rather, hurrah! On Monday, the French government, led by Francois Bayrou, our fourth prime minister in a year, did not fall. Our expectations have sunk so low since the July 2024 snap elections derailed our politics that we are grateful when catastrophes foretold don't materialise. When Michel Barnier's government fell before Christmas, it had been in power for just three months and had not managed to pass any sort of legislation. It was the first time since 1962 that a government had been toppled after a vote of non-confidence.The current government did not fall again last week thanks to the Socialists, who seem to be finally decoupling" from the chaos-hungry far left of Jean-Luc Melenchon. The Socialists are now the kingmakers and quite enjoy the limelight. Let's hope they will continue to think with their head and not be tempted by futile revolutionary impulses. France needs a little pragmatism, for a change. Bayrou, a centrist and smooth operator, has achieved one thing: France now has a budget. And even if this budget doesn't tackle the huge public deficit (6% of GDP), at least it exists. Now we can all return to ourfavourite pastime: feelingmorose. Continue reading...

Victim support groups call for investigation into whether Saints flouted NFL's own commitments to prevent abuseClergy sexual abuse survivor support groups have called on the National Football League to investigate whether leaders of the New Orleans Saints flouted the NFL's goals by campaigning alongside the city's Roman Catholic archdiocese to soften critical media coverage of how the church handled its clerical molestation scandal.A statement from the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (Snap) pointed out how the NFL's website expresses a commitment to addressing and preventing domestic violence and sexual assault". Yet emails first reported on Monday morning by the Guardian, its reporting partner WWL Louisiana, the Associated Press and the New York Times establish how the Saints - owned by the devout New Orleans Catholic Gayle Benson - and team executives were far more involved in helping its local archdiocese spin media coverage of the abuse scandal than the organizations had previously acknowledged. Continue reading...

Elon Musk's crew, most of whom can't rent a car without paying the under 25' fee, have access to our sensitive personal dataSay what you like about the Trump administration - it's got big balls. Unfortunately, I mean this quite literally: a 19-year-old called Edward Coristine, whose online history includes a LinkedIn account where he called himself bigballs", appears to be one of our unelected overlords. Continue reading...

An Oregon coalition is sourcing food locally and offering it free of charge - with no questions about immigration statusAs wildfires swept through southern Oregon in 2020, killing at least 11 people, destroying thousands of homes and burning more than 1m acres of land, the region's farm workers faced a brutal choice: stay and work through the growing haze of smoke and the approaching blaze, or lose out on their daily wages.Farm workers across the US are on the frontlines of the climate crisis, feeling its effects - from natural disasters to heat - first and, often, the worst. Continue reading...

How a mercurial run helped put Kansas City on the world's map while changing the life of one Chiefs superfanFor years, the Chiefs most recognizable fan operated in the shadows. A regular at games since 1983, Matt Black cheered on KC through very little thick and and a whole lot of thin, an era marked mostly by a series of sports tragedies overseen by then head coach Marty Schottenheimer. Then, on one ordinary day in 2018, Black decided to shave his customary goatee leaving behind a mustache. He gazed into his bathroom mirror, and suddenly it wasn't Black, a professional opera singer by trade, looking back at him. Instead, it was Chiefs head coach Andy Reid.It was purely by accident," Black told the Guardian via video chat, while donned in full Chiefs regalia, sitting in front of a press conference backdrop that would fool just about anyone into thinking you were speaking to the HC himself. I had no idea that I looked similar to coach Andy Reid. My wife had booked some tickets for us for a Halloween ball and everybody started coming up to me taking pictures. And I thought, Well, that's interesting.'" Continue reading...

The spouse of former football player Jason Kelce is spotlighting women in a male-dominated sphere and giving her real' take on parentingTwo women have earned the illustrious moniker the people's princess". The first is the global icon and beloved royal family member, Diana, Princess of Wales. The other is a high school girls' field hockey coach in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania. Both were reluctantly pulled into the spotlight by their husbands' fame. Both have rocked a Philadelphia Eagles letterman jacket. But Kylie Kelce, the 32-year-old wife of the former Eagles center Jason Kelce, is the only princess of the two to figure out how to freely divulge what she wants to the people about motherhood, relationships and media.If you're gonna talk about our family, if you're gonna talk about me, you might as well hear it from me," Kelce declared in the inaugural episode of her podcast Not Gonna Lie (NGL), which launched this past December. Kelce's impetus to podcast isn't hollow: a lot of people are talking about her. Through a fortuitous blend of athleticism (Jason is one of the most celebrated offensive lineman in recent NFL history; his brother Travis Kelce has similar bragging rights as tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs) and charisma (Jason's 2018 speech at the Super Bowl parade cemented him as a Philadelphia folk hero; Travis's girlfriend, a little-known performer by the name of Taylor Swift, has only boosted his appeal), the Kelce boys have garnered a lot of old-fashioned goodwill from the American public. Continue reading...

There are 64 million freelancers and there's no way the IRS or Department of Labor can track them - but they tryThe US seems to have it in for gig workers and those who use them.California - the fifth-largest economy in the world - has significantly curtailed the ability of companies located there to hire independent contractors and freelancers in lieu of employees. The US Department of Labor has issued updated rules that address worker classifications, which have forced more companies to reclassify their independent contractors as employees in order to be in compliance. New rules from the Internal Revenue Service will now require payment-processing firms to provide additional reporting on the payments made on 1099 forms, the document commonly used to report a freelancer's earnings. Continue reading...

Patrick Mahomes can become the first quarterback to win four titles before turning 30 while Saquon Barkley has a shot at breaking the postseason rushing recordA spectre of inevitability hangs over New Orleans in the final run-up to America's high holy day. The Kansas City Chiefs, having spent the past half-decade as the National Football League's most dominant force, are on the verge of something never before seen: a third successive Super Bowl title.Theirs is a kind of supremacy that feels almost unnatural in the modern NFL, an era defined by salary caps and roster churn and parity-by-design, where success is intended to be fleeting in the best interests of the revenue-sharing collective. Yet here they are again, winners of 17 games so far and one more from a three-peat no team in the six-decade Super Bowl era has even come within 60 minutes of accomplishing. Continue reading...

The president delights in being attacked, since it keeps the focus on him. The press should handle him like parents with an ornery childTwo weeks into the Trump administration, I'm still being asked by foreigners about the new president's political vision".Some of them, especially the French and the British, might be excused for excessive politeness toward a country that in many respects they still envy and admire. But on most of the news programs and podcasts to which I've been invited, I'm still encountering earnest interviewers struggling to understand Trump from a conventional political perspective, no matter how contradictory, irrational, or stupid his statements and actions may be. How can this be and what does it augur? Continue reading...

It was once a left-field choice but now, like the Aperol spritz before it, my favourite pint has lost its lustre. Anyone for a Murphy's?I'm not sure I can remember exactly when I sensed it. Maybe it was when some of the more gimmicky London pubs introduced stamp cards" to ration out Guinness after news of a shortage; maybe it was when I was served the 500th London Guinness rating video by my Instagram algorithm. Regardless of the precise moment the notion arrived, however, I have felt for a while that we are heading for a change when it comes to the pint du jour. For a few years now, Guinness has been the fashionable choice for millennial and gen Z drinkers, swept up in the aesthetic renaissance of the Good Old-Fashioned Bloody Pub. But I think the tide is turning. This will probably be the year that the Irish stout stops being cool.I'm pretty sure that what will finally usher the Guinness hype train back into the station will be the same thing that came for Aperol spritzes and truffle: overexposure. The Aperol, once a genuinely trendy, vaguely Sex and the City-ish aperitivo-style drink is now a cultural behemoth in its own right - delicious, certainly, but definitely no longer cool". And truffle, well ... would you like a side of truffle fries for that truffle mac and cheese garnished with truffle oil?Lauren O'Neill is a culture writer Continue reading...

The US president's real-estate fantasies rely on the erasure of Gaza's people and culture. Now we must act to preserve themIt might already be too late to save the homes where many of the people of Gaza have been living and have memories of lives spent there. Or the recollections of people in Ramallah who spent their honeymoons in Gaza by the Mediterranean. Like many others, I too have strong and beautiful experiences of time spent in Gaza. Yet, at this time of almost unimaginable destruction of homes and lives, I turn my mind to the destruction of cultural heritage such as the Great Omari mosque, opened in the seventh century and also known as the Great Mosque of Gaza, whose minaret was partially destroyed and parts of its structure severely damaged. Or the historic Greek Orthodox Saint Porphyrius church, one of the oldest churches in the world, which narrowly escaped destruction for a second time after being struck by an Israeli missile that did not detonate. The fact that consideration is not given to their reconstruction only points to how readily it is accepted that Palestinians in Gaza are not a people who deserve to have their heritage preserved, but a pariah group who can be shunned with impunity.Donald Trump's announcement is a continuation of Benjamin Netanyahu's policy of destroying the Gaza Strip pursued during the past 16 months. During Joe Biden's term as president, the US supported Israel with arms and ammunition; now Trump is supporting it by proposing ethnic cleansing of its people. Without a country of their own, the Palestinians are deemed disposable and stateless, people who have no country and belong to no land, and have no memories and no attachments. If proof were needed of the Palestinians' attachment to their land, the sight of tens of thousands of them returning to their destroyed homes in the north as soon as they were allowed without a moment's hesitation, despite knowing that they were returning to devastation and ruin, should suffice. They were aware of Israel's objective to forcibly remove them from the north and relocate them, and by their immediate return were collectively expressing their refusal to allow this to happen.Raja Shehadeh is a Palestinian lawyer and writer, and founder of the human rights organisation Al-Haq. He is the author of What Does Israel Fear From Palestine?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...