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Drop the pretence: instead of parading a love of highbrow literature, just enjoy the books you want to readToughen up. It's the end of the line for soft, middle-class authors. Lefty-baiting headteacher Katharine Birbalsingh has declared that gentle parenting" advice books by middle-class writers are sabotaging families by insisting adults become friends with their children.She's probably got a point - most mums and dads have watched with a cocked eyebrow as a Boden-clad parent has tranquilly informed little Johnny that punching another child in the face while playing in the sandpit might not be what they like" - but I say Birbalsingh is not going far enough. Why stop with theparenting books? Why not fillet the whole damn bookcase of toxically middle-class ideas? Visionaries such as Chairman Mao have tried it before - with, admittedly, mixed results - but this time we'll do it right. Continue reading...

Cargo aircraft caught fire after striking bird shortly after departure from Newark, New Jersey, on Saturday morningA FedEx cargo airplane caught on fire after striking a bird shortly after the plane's departure from Newark, New Jersey, on Saturday morning, according to officials.There were no injuries reported onboard, and the plane made an emergency return to Newark Liberty international airport. Continue reading...

Trump and Vance, I think, never really intended to have a conversation with Zelenskky. Instead, they wanted to look tough on TVThe last time Donald Trump did this, it was in secret, and he got impeached over it. In 2019, Donald Trump, on a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, demanded that the Ukrainian president produce - or fabricate - evidence of wrongdoing by Hunter Biden, the son of Trump's eventual opponent in the 2020 election, in exchange for continued US military aide.At the time, Russia had already seized control of the Ukrainian region of Crimea, and was funding violent insurgent groups in the country's east; it was increasingly clear that a full-scale Russian invasion was coming, as it finally did in 2022. Since the end of second world war, it has been America that checks Russian expansionist ambitions in Europe - America that provided the backstop to the Nato alliance, America that secured the independence of eastern Europe. Trump wanted to condition that longstanding role on Zelenskyy doing him a personal political favor. The international order could be ended, he suggested, if those who depended on him didn't do enough to indulge his vanity, self-interest and impulsive whims.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

The showdown between the US president and the Ukrainian leader dumbfounded various outlets and politicosOne television star turned president visits another far more powerful one on a stage set and attempts to introduce a plot twist of sorts. What could go wrong?The high-stakes White House showdown that unfolded on Friday after the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, demanded US security guarantees was deemed a damaging setback to Donald Trump's goal of forging a peace deal - and a win for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin - by some US political commentators. Continue reading...

The USA manager probably wasn't thrilled with the Americans losing the SheBelieves Cup, but there were significantly more positives than negativesThe United States women's national team did not win the 2025 SheBelieves Cup, but this was the first time that failure to lift the trophy didn't make for a disappointing tournament. While Emma Hayes probably wasn't thrilled with her team's performance in a 2-1 defeat to Japan, there were significantly more positives to take away from the competition than negatives.Central midfield was the area of the pitch where Hayes likely learned the most about her players, and came away with the most optimism for the future. That's where 17-year-old Lily Yohannes and 19-year-old Claire Hutton both turned in excellent performances. And just as important as their individual level, they looked as if they could form a perfect partnership in the future.[Yui] Hasegawa in the middle of the park is probably the best pivot in the world at both the domestic and international level, and our pivot is 17 years of age and has played in three caps. So we have to be patient too, in our expectations. Continue reading...

In a fast-moving crisis, the EU hasn't been nimble enough. The onus must fall on coalitions of the willing' to stop a US-Putin carve-upAt moments of great crisis, national leaders and governments generally put their countries' (and their own) interests first. Transnational geopolitical, economic and security alliances are all very well. But if such organisations do not or cannot rise to the urgent challenges of the day, they risk being bypassed, ignored or shunted aside. This is the predicament now facing the European Union.After Donald Trump's appalling treatment of Volodymyr Zelenskyy in full view of the watching world on Friday night, all agree that the US president's betrayal of Ukraine, sickening embrace of Russia and his blunt demand that Europe henceforth defend itself represent just such an extraordinary challenge, and one that must be swiftly addressed. Continue reading...

Program is apparently being closed according to email from former Tesla engineer installed in GSAAn Elon Musk ally installed in the US government said in a late night email going into Saturday that the office behind a popular free online tax filing option would be shuttered - and its employees would be let go.The 18F office within the General Services Administration (GSA) created the IRS Direct File program that allows for free online tax filings. It has been a frequent target of Musk, and one of the billionaire businessman's close associates who holds a key position in the GSA informed staffers that the agency would close 18F in an email to staffers that arrived around 1am on Saturday morning. Continue reading...

As his goons root through the innards of the US government, Tesla sales are plummeting, the cars are being defaced and owners are ashamedExtreme wealth has always played a role in democracies. Money has always talked, especially in the US. Years ago, Lawrence Lessig, the great legal scholar, calculated that most of the campaign funding for members of Congress and aspiring politicians came from one-twentieth of the richest 1% of Americans - about 150,000 people. This is about the same number as those who are named Lester" and explains the title of his book: The USA Is Lesterland.But that particular corruption of American politics only involved billionaires like the Koch brothers playing organ-grinders to congressional monkeys. The obscene wealth generated by the tech industry has catapulted a new organ-grinder into the heart of the machine. He was able to pay his way in with a spare quarter of a billion dollars that he happened to have lying around. And now the wretched citizens of the US find themselves living in Muskland. Continue reading...

Asking federal staff to bullet point their achievements would be easier to scorn, were my own to-do tallying not so compulsiveWatching Keir Starmer with President Trump in Washington last week was a bit like watching an indulgent grandparent deal with a miscreant child. When the prime minister produced his invitation from King Charles - This is unprecedented!" he said delightedly, of what will be Don's second state visit to the UK - I half expected him to follow up with a Lego model of the White House, or a special Trump Pez dispenser and a year's supply of cola-flavoured sweets for it.Alas, I'm unable to be equally scornful of Elon Musk's edict to federal employees that they tell him in an email of five things they accomplished in the last week. Oh yes, it's silly. Who'll look through these, and how will they check the enclosed bullet points aren't the work of the office satirist? But as a compulsive list-maker myself, my outrage is on the muted side. Sheepishly, I shuffle my notebooks, their closely written pages so replete with determination, wild ambition and pathos, I come off like some tragic hybrid of Adrian Mole and Martha Stewart. Continue reading...

Seven people have been arrested over horrific' death of Sam Nordquist, 24. A similar case in Wyoming once helped fuel the LGBTQ+ rights movementA body discarded in a field. Cold weather. Signs of torture.So far, seven people have been charged with the murder of Sam Nordquist, a 24-year-old Black transgender man who was tortured and murdered in western New York state last month. It was a case that Capt Kelly Swift of the state police's bureau of criminal investigation said was one of the most horrific crimes I have ever investigated". Continue reading...

To pay for $4.5tn in tax cuts and mass deportations, the GOP plans to roll back the federal healthcare insurance programAt the age of 62, Marya Parral knows that her, and her husband's, years of being able to care for their two developmentally disabled sons are numbered, and so they have done everything they can to ensure their children can continue to live independently.For their oldest, Ian, that's meant placing him in a program on an organic farm that caters to people diagnosed with autism. For Joey, their youngest, who has both autism and Down syndrome, Parral has found a caregiver who can help him deliver newspapers and run errands around their community of Ocean City, New Jersey. Continue reading...

Art Museum of the Americas' abrupt cancellation after anti-diversity order is how fascism unfolds', curator says

Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told Fox News on Friday that he respected the US president, Donald Trump, and the American people after a clash between the two leaders at the White House earlier in the day. He admitted the public argument was 'not good' but seemed confident that his relationship with Trump could recover

Killing of Matthew Huttle, 42, during traffic stop legally justified' and will not lead to criminal charges, lawyers sayThe pardoned US Capitol attacker who was shot to death by an Indiana sheriff's deputy during a traffic stop in January had first told the officer, I'm shooting myself," before attempting to retrieve a gun from his car, according to officials as well as newly released video of the encounter.Matthew Huttle's killing by the deputy - whose body-worn and dashboard cameras captured video of the traffic stop - was legally justified" and would not lead to any criminal charges, prosecutors said in a statement published on Thursday. Continue reading...

The religious festival is a month of fasting, prayer and community - not consuming and comparing ourselves with one another

Little-noticed order that gives US president powers far beyond mere oversight denounced as breathtaking'

Vance snaked his way in first to the row between Trump and Zelenskyy, his second intrusion this month after Munich

The former French PM says the US is no longer an ally of Europe - but has joined Russia and China as an illiberal superpower'

New Mexico town shocked by deaths of actor, wife and dog - but answers to critical questions may take time to emergeAs New Mexico authorities investigate the deaths of Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, their adopted home town of Santa Fe is grappling with the mystery of what happened to the couple.Hackman, a Hollywood legend with two Academy Awards picked up over a 60-year career, and Arakawa, a classical pianist, had lived in the area for decades and had embraced the close-knit community that is New Mexico's capital city. Continue reading...

Classified papers seized in 2022 were returned, a spokesperson told favorable reporters picked by White House aboard Air Force One. This blog is now closed.US aid cuts have forced the UN children's agency Unicef to suspend or scale back many programmes in Lebanon, with more than half of children under the age of two experiencing severe food poverty in the country's east, a Unicef official said on Friday.We have been forced to suspend or cut back or drastically reduce many of our programmes and that includes nutrition programmes," Unicef's deputy representative in Lebanon, Ettie Higgins, told reporters in Geneva via video link from Beirut, Reuters reports. Continue reading...

Ukraine president expresses regret over contentious meeting but says relationship with Trump can be salvaged

A tense and angry exchange between Trump and Zelenskyy played out with the media in the front row - key US politics stories from Friday at a glanceAn extraordinary day in Washington with US military support for Ukraine now hanging in the balance and talks over a minerals deal collapsing following a disastrous White House summit.US president Donald Trump received the Ukrainian president on Friday to discuss a controversial mineral resources deal that Trump had said was the first step toward a ceasefire agreement that he is seeking to broker between Russia and Ukraine. Continue reading...

Talks between US president and Ukrainian leader degenerate into shouting match before being cut short

Kay Ivey says Robin Rocky' Myers, who maintains he was innocent, will serve life in prison without paroleThe Alabama governor, Kay Ivey, on Friday commuted the death sentence of Robin Rocky" Myers to life in prison after noting questions about his case.Ivey said Myers, who was facing execution this spring, will instead spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. She noted that was the sentence jurors at his 1994 trial had recommended. A judge overruled that recommendation and imposed a death sentence, a maneuver that has since been outlawed in Alabama, according to the human rights advocacy organization Amnesty International. Continue reading...

For the Ukrainian leader, there's no coming back from the debacle. His country's best hope now lies with EuropeNo matter their position on the Russia-Ukraine war, people who view the televised encounter between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office will likely be shocked. It didn't morph into a full-on screaming match, but it came close.The meeting might have gone sideways anyway, but JD Vance's presence ensured that it became ugly - and quickly. The vice-president spoke over Zelenskyy, accused him of ingratitude for the assistance provided by the United States (Have you ever said thank you?") and of disrespecting Trump, his host, and, for good measure, scolded him for litigating his country's case in public. That raised the temperature - a lot. Continue reading...

Meeting between US and Ukraine presidents descends into chaos at White House - here's what they said, word for wordA meeting between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy veered sharply off track in front of the television cameras as the US president berated his Ukrainian counterpart then abruptly called off a minerals deal with that he had said would be the first step towards a ceasefire with Russia.Here are the highlights, word-for-word, of the conversation between Trump, Zelenskyy and Vice-President JD Vance in the Oval Office. Continue reading...

Rafael Caro Quintero arraigned in New York over federal agent's death after years as one of US's most wanted menAfter years as one of US authorities' most wanted men, the Mexican drug cartel boss Rafael Caro Quintero was brought into a New York courtroom on Friday to answer charges that include orchestrating the 1985 killing of a US federal agent.Caro Quintero pleaded not guilty to running a continuing criminal enterprise. Separately, so did Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, the leader of another cartel. Carrillo is accused of arranging kidnappings and killings in Mexico but not accused of involvement in the death of the DEA agent Enrique Kiki" Camarena. Continue reading...

Email offers up to $25,000 but employees note severance and unused leave compensation would add up to more

Republican senator and close ally of US president Donald Trump has called on Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to 'resign and send somebody over we can do business with or change' in a press briefing after Trump and Zelenskyy's meeting descended into a bitter argument

US president said his horrific blow-up would make great television' - the White House has never seen anything like it

A meeting at the White House between Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US president Donald Trump descended into a bitter argument in front of the press in extraordinary scenes as Trump demanded that Zelenskyy show more gratitude to his administration, while accusing him of 'disrespecting the US'. Trump told Zelenskyy that he was 'gambling with world war three' while US vice president JD Vance told him he was wrong and ordered him to 'say thank you' to Trump.

Second federal appeals court declines to lift order blocking executive order signed by president on 20 JanuaryDonald Trump's effort to curtail automatic birthright citizenship nationwide as part of his hardline immigration crackdown suffered another legal setback on Friday when a second federal appeals court declined to lift one of the court orders blocking the Republican president's executive order.The Richmond, Virginia-based 4th US circuit court of appeals on a 2-1 vote rejected the Trump administration's request for an order putting on hold a nationwide injunction issued by a federal judge in Maryland who concluded the order was unconstitutional. Continue reading...

Russian bombs hit Ukraine, protests in Greece, prayers for the Pope and Milan fashion week: the past seven days as captured by the world's leading photojournalists

United States has never had national language at a federal level, with hundreds of languages spoken across country

Pete Hegseth viewed his political odds as being unchanged in pushing Trump to fire Gen Charles Brown

Trump's first defence secretary James Mattis among five to express alarm at reckless' dismissals of top military figures

Exclusive: state department memo directs officers to bar those deemed to misrepresent birth sex on applicationsThe US state department has ordered officials worldwide to deny visas to transgender athletes attempting to come to the US for sports competitions and to issue permanent visa bans against those who are deemed to misrepresent their birth sex on visa applications.The 24 February state department cable obtained by the Guardian instructs visa officers to apply Immigration and Nationality Act section 212(a)(6)(C)(i) - the permanent fraud bar" - against trans applicants. Unlike regular visa denials, this section triggers lifetime exclusion from the United States with limited waiver possibilities. Continue reading...

Forget about inflation. Now it's all about cutting waste' in the form of jobs and our already paltry social safety netDuring his presidential campaign, Donald Trump never missed an opportunity to harp on inflation, promising that on day one" he would end inflation" and lower the costs of groceries, cars and other common goods.Well, it's day 40, and inflation saw its largest increase in over a year. Blink and you might have missed that Trump and his fellow Republicans have largely abandoned their concerns about inflation to focus on government waste". Continue reading...

Unearthed emails detail concerns about injuries and work duties in utilizing devices that might have prevented New Year's terrorist attackAt least some public safety officials in New Orleans evidently remain skeptical of easily deployable, 700lb steel barriers designed to prevent intentional vehicle ramming attacks - even after one carried out on the city's most famous street on New Year's Day killed 14 people and injured 67 others, according to a trove of government emails obtained by the Guardian.Received through a public records request, the emails detail how the inventor of so-called Archer barriers - which the city had bought but kept in storage on the day of the deadly Bourbon Street attack - encountered a measure of resistance when he traveled to New Orleans with his company of his own volition to train local authorities on how to expeditiously deploy the barricades. Continue reading...

Patel has signalled he isn't interested in pursuing insurrectionists amid resurgence of extremist groupsWith Kash Patel officially appointed as the new FBI director and Dan Bongino as his number two, experts are warning the fate of federal law enforcement investigations into the far right faces a grim future.Patel taking the reins of the FBI also coincides with a resurgence of the Base, an accelerationist neo-Nazi group with terrorism designations around the world, along with other emboldened extremists connected to the January 6 attacks on the Capitol. Continue reading...

Elon Musk's senseless cuts and email ultimatum have left federal workers scrambling, unsure who to listen toIf you work for the federal government, it has become clear that Elon Musk thinks that he is your boss. The world's richest man and patron of far-right causes worldwide has taken on his bizarre and extra-constitutional role in the Trump administration with an unexpected enthusiasm, enlisting a small squadron of college-aged boys to drastically cut spending across vast swaths of the sprawling US bureaucracy. His efforts have led to public health and safety crises in America, humanitarian emergencies abroad, economic devastation in families and communities that depend on federal employment, and the end of large amounts of American scientific and medical research. He has helped cut off funding for cancer research and Ebola prevention; he has ended services for disabled children, abused women and victims of consumer fraud.Musk has said that he aims to cut the federal budget by $2tn, though he has dramatically overstated the amount of spending cuts that he has achieved thus far - and does not seem to understand that some of these expenditures, such as the ones that prevent mass injury or disease, may in fact save the government money. Congress, for its part, is playing along. On Tuesday, House Republicans passed a budget resolution that dramatically cuts funding to Medicaid, the federal program that provides healthcare coverage to low-income Americans. But much of Musk's slash-and-burn project to eliminate the functioning of the government comes from firing federal workers - which he seems to think he has the authority to do at will. Continue reading...

During talks with UK's Keir Starmer, Trump also suggests Britain will be exempt from US tariffs. Plus, can the sharing of personal stories help counter vaccine skepticism?

Cats in two states tested positive after eating raw food from Wild Coast Raw, which issued voluntary recallAs the bird flu outbreak continues gaining force in the US, a second company selling raw pet food issued a voluntary recall after cats from two different households in Oregon contracted H5N1 from the tainted meat earlier this month.Two more cats in different households in Washington state have tested positive for bird flu after eating the same brand of raw pet food nearly two weeks after the recall, officials announced on Wednesday. One cat was euthanized, while the other remains under veterinary care. Continue reading...

Nothing I have done is more impactful than a day's work in this battleground in the south, the graveyard of politicians' abandoned promisesThe tentacles of disinformation have already claimed its first young victim. This week, an unvaccinated child in Texas died of measles - an entirely preventable disease. Right now, the state is seeing its largest measles outbreak in more than 30 years. Yet at a White House briefing, secretary of health and human services, Robert F Kennedy Jr, falsely noted it is not unusual", and did not offer any plans for containment.I am a pediatrician in Texas, and I can assure you the situation is so abnormal that most younger physicians have never seen a case of measles, thanks to successful vaccination campaigns.Seema Jilani is a pediatric physician based in Texas, a first-generation American, and a member of the Council of Foreign Relations Continue reading...

US-based activists sneak ad in journal promising to mitigate reputational risks' of investing in liquefied natural gas

The new administration are targeting trans people because they think they can be bullied without great political pushbackIn the video, she sounds exasperated. Hunter Schafer, a 26-year-old actor best known for her roles on the HBO series Euphoria and in the Hunger Games film The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, appeared in an eight-minute video last Friday in which she revealed that due to a Trump administration order, she had been assigned a passport with the gender marker male".Schafer, who is trans, began living as a girl in her early teens; she has lived as a woman for her entire adult life. In her video, she says that her IDs have been marked female" for just about as long as she has had them. But after her passport was stolen in a car break-in in Barcelona, she has been issued a government identity document that represents a fiction that she is a man. Every time she travels now, she will have to present this document, she will have to account for the discrepancy between what it says about her, and what she clearly is.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...