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Meant as a cautionary leftwing tale, Report from Iron Mountain had a real-world impact that is still playing outWe live in a blizzard of fake news, disinformation and conspiracy theories. It's tempting to blame this on social media - which does indeed exacerbate the problem. And AI deepfakes promise to make the situation even worse. But at root this is not about technology: it's about how humans think, as an astonishing case that long predates the internet reveals. This is an amazing story - about the perils of amazing stories.In November 1967, at the height of the war in Vietnam, a strange document was published in New York. Report from Iron Mountain was the work of a top-secret special study group" recruited by the Kennedy administration to scope out what would happen to the US if permanent global peace broke out. It warned the end of war, and of the fear of war, would wreck America's economy, even its whole society. To replace the effects, extreme measures would be required - eugenics, fake alien scares, pollution, blood games. Even slavery. The report was so incendiary it had been suppressed, but one of the study group leaked it, determined that the public learn the truth. It caused a furore. The worried memos, demanding someone check if this document was real, went all the way up to President Johnson. Continue reading...

The employers of the estate agent who sued them for unfair constructive dismissal would do well to read MachiavelliNiccolo Machiavelli had an important piece of advice about office politics: If an injury has to be done to a man," he writes in The Prince, it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared." Most of us can relate to that.It's likely that whoever accidentally insulted Nicholas Walker, the take-no-prisoners manager of the Rickmansworth branch of Robsons Estate Agents, by giving him a second-rate desk, hadn't read Machiavelli's 1532 tract. Because Walker, no doubt thinking of Machiavelli's subsequent invocation - it is safer to be feared than loved because ... fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails" - immediately dragged his ashen-faced employers to an employment tribunal where he successfully sued them for unfair constructive dismissal. They probably really regret giving him that desk.Holmes and Moriarty, the new authorised Sherlock Holmes novel by Gareth Rubin, is out now Continue reading...

Using the 227-year-old law to argue a Venezuelan gang's activities amount to an invasion is unprecedented', according to the Congressional Research Service

District judge orders planes be turned around after Trump deploys obscure act against Venezuelans; strikes ordered on Houthis in Yemen - key US politics stories from Saturday at a glanceA federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from using an obscure, 227-year-old law designed primarily for use in wartime to deport five Venezuelan nationals from the US.District judge James Boasberg, responding to a lawsuit brought by two civil liberties organizations, issued an immediate halt and ordered any planes already in the air be turned around, saying the government was already was flying migrants it claimed were newly deportable to be incarcerated in El Salvador and Honduras. Continue reading...

Trump had invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport five Venezuelans, but order halted by judge

Chaotic weekend sees blizzard warnings in midwest, wildfires in southern plains and dust storms in Texas. At least 26 tornadoes were reported but not confirmed as a low pressure system drove powerful thunderstorms across parts of Arkansas, Illinois, Mississippi and Missouri. The Storm Prediction Center said fast-moving system could spawn twisters and hail as large as baseballs, but the greatest threat would come from straight-line winds near or exceeding hurricane force, with gusts of 100mph (160km/h) possible.

Meta's attempt to silence ex-employee Sarah Wynn-Williams has drawn attention to its work on stifling freedom of expression in ChinaThere's nothing more satisfying than watching a corporate giant make a stupid mistake. The behemoth in question is Meta, and when Careless People, a whistleblowing book by a former senior employee, Sarah Wynn-Williams, came out last week, its panic-stricken lawyers immediately tried to have it suppressed by the Emergency International Arbitral Tribunal. This strange institution obligingly (and sternly) enjoined Wynn-Williams from making orally, in writing, or otherwise any disparaging, critical or otherwise detrimental comments to any person or entity concerning [Meta], its officers, directors, or employees'". To which her publisher, Macmillan, issued a statement that could succinctly be summarised thus: Get stuffed."Clearly, nobody in Meta has heard of the Streisand effect, an unintended consequence of attempts to hide, remove or censor information, where the effort instead increases public awareness of the information". The company has now ensured that Wynn-Williams's devastating critique of it [see our review inthe New Review] will become a world bestseller. Continue reading...

The Russian president has responded to a plan for a 30-day truce with Ukraine by issuing a set of tough conditions You can buy a copy of this cartoon Continue reading...

A SpaceX mission was launched to replace two Nasa astronauts who have been stuck at the International Space Station for nine months. The stuck astronauts are scheduled to depart the station on 19 March after the Crew-10 astronauts arrive on 19 March

The G7 meeting in Canada was a vital show of unity that put the ball firmly in Russia's court. There's not a shred of ambiguity about thatIn diplomacy, focus is often on where we disagree. But Britain and our partners are stronger when we stand together. Last week's G7 meeting made that clear.We arrived in Canada with real momentum. Our Ukrainian and American friends deserve a lot of credit for the breakthrough at Jeddah - with British diplomacy, from the prime minister down, making a big difference behind the scenes. Continue reading...

After just a few weeks in the White House, the self-appointed peace-giver has stoked war, accelerated the nuclear arms race and alienated US alliesIf Robert K Merton, the founding father of American sociology, were alive today, he'd be fascinated by the Donald Trump phenomenon. Scarcely more than 50 days into his second presidential term, hapless Trump provides daily proofs of Merton's universal law of unintended consequences".Rooted in ignorance, error, wilful blindness and self-defeating prediction, Trump's rash actions produce contradictory, harmful and often opposite results to those he says he wants. The ensuing chaos characterises what may become the briefest honeymoon in White House history. Continue reading...

President denounced CNN and MSNBC as illegal' and instructed VoA's parent agency to be eliminatedDonald Trump expanded on his threats to the media on Friday, suggesting actions of the press should be deemed illegal and subject to investigation.I believe that CNN and MS-DNC, who literally write 97.6% bad about me, are political arms of the Democrat [sic] party and in my opinion, they're really corrupt and they're illegal, what do they do is illegal," the president said during a contentious speech at the Department of Justice. Continue reading...

If Sam Altman's new model were a creative writing student, you probably wouldn't stop them pursuing other job prospectsLike all parents who pretend to be impressed by their children's terrible art, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman proudly announced to the world that the company's new AI model is gifted at creative writing. This is the first time I have been really struck by something written by AI," he enthused on X.The prompt was to write a metafictional literary short story about AI and grief. The story closely follows the instructions. The individual sentences mostly make sense. But - with the greatest respect to Jeanette Winterson, who called the story beautiful and moving" - it is an atrocious piece of writing. Continue reading...

Panel halts block on day-one executive order directing government agencies to end diversity grants and contractsAn appeals court on Friday lifted a block on executive orders seeking to end government support for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, handing the Trump administration a win after a string of setbacks from dozens of lawsuits.The decision from a three-judge panel allows the orders to be enforced as a lawsuit challenging them plays out. The appeals court judges halted a nationwide injunction from US district judge Adam Abelson in Baltimore. Continue reading...

New memo lists 41 countries - including Afghanistan, Cuba and Syria - that could face new restrictions, evoking first-term Muslim banThe Trump administration is considering issuing travel restrictions for the citizens of dozens of countries as part of a new ban, according to sources familiar with the matter and an internal memo seen by Reuters.The memo lists a total of 41 countries divided into three separate groups. The first group of 10 countries, including Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Cuba and North Korea, among others, would be set for a full visa suspension. Continue reading...

UK prime minister accuses Putin of trying to delay peace and calls for guns to fall silent'Keir Starmer has called for the guns to fall silent in Ukraine" and said military powers will meet next week as plans to secure a peace deal move to an operational phase".The UK prime minister said Vladimir Putin's yes, but" approach to a proposed ceasefire was not good enough, and the Russian president would have to negotiate sooner or later". Continue reading...

The significance of the Trump administration's arrest and threat to deport the Palestinian activist cannot be overstatedIt's 2027 and you're doom-scrolling in your apartment while eating a single egg for dinner. (Eggs are now $30 a dozen.) You fire off a few angry tweets about abortion rights and go to bed. In the middle of the night armed police break down your door and arrest you for destabilizing the security of the state. You are detained and then - if you hold citizenship elsewhere - deported. Continue reading...

Keith Kellogg, Trump's special envoy, has written op-eds and reports questioning Ukraine's role in negotiations

Musk's team is targeting diversity initiatives and research, which amount to pennies compared with the real spending concernsThe so-called department of government efficiency" (Doge) recently made headlines by touting $80m in Pentagon budget cuts, claiming it is eliminating wasteful spending". But while these cuts focus on politically charged programs like diversity initiatives and academic research, they ignore the real sources of financial waste in the Department of Defense - waste that costs taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars annually.If the cuts were genuinely an effort to balance the budget and not a direct attack on programs that focus on equity and social justice, and if the goal is truly to trim unnecessary expenditures while preserving national security, then Congress and watchdog agencies should focus on where the real money is disappearing: failed weapons programs, an over-reliance on private contractors, unnecessary nuclear expansion and a Pentagon budget so massive that it has never passed an audit.It has over 800 unresolved design flaws, including engine failures, software glitches and fuel system malfunctions.The cost per plane continues to escalate, with each unit now costing from $80m to over $100m - even before accounting for expensive maintenance costs.The program has been so ineffective that the air force has considered developing a new fighter jet to replace it - while taxpayers remain on the hook for the original purchase.Significantly higher costs: contractors are frequently paid far more than military personnel for the same jobs.Lack of oversight: many contracts go unchecked, leading to fraud, over-billing and waste.Conflicts of interest: many Pentagon officials move directly into high-paying defense contractor jobs after leaving government service, perpetuating a cycle of over-reliance on private firms.Katerina Canyon is a poet, human rights and peace activist, and the executive director of the Peace Economy Project. She holds a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy (MALD) from the Fletcher School at Tufts University and advocates for the reallocation of military spending toward social and community investments. Continue reading...

As defense secretary shifts focus to culture war, some fear he is neglecting future of warfare' for US military

The math doesn't work in the president's economic promises, which will create a giant upward transfer of wealthDonald Trump apparently believes his tariffs will bring so much money to the US treasury that the US will be able to afford another giant Trump tax cut.But Trump's tariffs - and the retaliatory tariffs already being imposed on American exports by the nation's trading partners - will be paid largely by the American working class and poor.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading...

The administration is cutting funds and threatening what it sees as liberal bastions, such as Columbia University, where it detained Mahmoud Khalil for his pro-Palestinian activismIf Donald Trump thought few Americans would care about the deportation of an Arab student protest leader accused of supporting terrorism and antisemitism at an elite university then he was wrong on several counts.Trump accused the student, Mahmoud Khalil, of being pro-Hamas" and hailed his detention by immigration officers, in front of his pregnant American wife as she waved her husbands permanent residence card, as the first arrest of many to come". Continue reading...

Amid anger over dysfunctional politics and alleged corruption, Aleksandar Vui faces a harsh spotlight, inside and outside SerbiaFrom the streets of Belgrade, the cracks in President Aleksandar Vui's near-decade-long authoritarian grip on power have become impossible to ignore. After more than four months of largely peaceful student-led protests, frustration with the regime appears to have reached breaking point.The country is gearing up for a massive anti-government protest today, as thousands of students and citizens prepare to rally against the Serbian administration. Many residents describe the capital as feeling under siege", with the authorities implementing extreme measures that critics argue are designed to intimidate and prevent people from attending the demonstration. Continue reading...

Wildly differing views about cosleeping and products like baby pods abound online. I admire those who offer clear, sensible supportThe first night we brought my son home from the hospital to our empty flat, we sat up far longer than needed, unmoored by a new, overwhelming responsibility to keep him alive. That some babies stop breathing in their sleep, and scientists still don't really know why, terrified me when I'd just been primally rewired towards his survival. All you can do, you are told, is try to minimise risk.And so you commit the guidelines to memory: For the first 12 months (adjusted for prematurity), the baby should be placed on its back in their own clear, flat, firm separate sleep space (eg a cot or moses basket) in the same room as you. They should not get too hot, and it should be a smoke-free environment."Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist and author. She is the author of a novel, The Tyranny of Lost Things, and a memoir, The Year of the Cat Continue reading...

The idea of Moscow as a paragon of Christian nationalism has penetrated the party of Reagan - and the lurch in US policy has huge implications for the global order

Our continent must be prepared to defend itself, by combining the best of its two most influential traditionsShould we all be Gaullists now? In the language of France's most important European partner, the answer is Jein!" (a German word combining ja for yes and nein for no). Yes, Emmanuel Macron has been right to warn us ever since he became France's president in 2017 that, discerning a long-term trend of US disengagement, Europe should be ready to defend itself. Now, confronted with Donald Trump, a rogue US president putting in question an 80-year-old American commitment to the defence of Europe against Russia, lifelong Euro-Atlanticists like me must acknowledge that we need not just a Europe with more hard power - something for which I have always argued - but also the real possibility of European strategic autonomy". Oui, Monsieur le President, you were right.Yet en mme temps (at the same time), to deploy Macron's signature trope, we should answer Non". For De Gaulle, a great man of his time, believed that defence should be the exclusive province of the nation state; that the emerging European Community should be a Europe of states (a disunited version of the European Union to which today's hard-right populist nationalist parties dream of returning); that Britain should be excluded from the European project (hence his famous Non!" to British membership in that emerging community); and that Europe should be constructed as a counterweight to the US, having close relations with Russia and China.Timothy Garton Ash is a historian, political writer and Guardian columnistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Democrats dismayed after some help Republicans avert government shutdown; Trump vents about prosecutions while taking DoJ victory lap - key US politics stories from Friday at a glanceThe US Senate averted a government shutdown just hours before a Friday night deadline after 10 Senate Democrats joined nearly all Republicans to clear a key hurdle that advanced the six-month stopgap bill.The vote deeply dismayed Democratic activists and House Democrats who had urged their Senate counterparts to block the bill, which they fear would embolden Donald Trump and Elon Musk's overhaul of the US government. Continue reading...

Bill to avert shutdown passes 54-46 but furious progressives accuse yes-vote senators of acquiescing to TrumpThe Senate on Friday approved a Republican bill to fund federal agencies through September, averting a government shutdown hours before the midnight deadline after Democrats relented.The bill passed the Senate in a 54-46 vote, overcoming steep Democratic opposition. It next goes to Donald Trump to be signed into law. Continue reading...

British steelmakers lobby for government to set limit to compete with France and GermanyThe British steel industry has called for capped energy prices for heavy industry in order to match France and Germany, as companies grapple with the fallout from Donald Trump's trade war.UK Steel, a lobby group, has proposed the government set a maximum price for energy through a contract for difference (CfD), before an announcement of a new steel strategy. Continue reading...

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Family of Monica Cameroni De Adams, 65, files $50m damages claim as lawyer accuses city of burying her alive'An unhoused woman living out of her van in San Diego was towed away by authorities, who did not realize she was inside the car until she was discovered dead in the vehicle a month later, according to a legal claim and autopsy records made public this week.Monica Cameroni De Adams, 65, was inside her parked Honda minivan at about 1am on 5 November 2023 when a driver crashed into her vehicle and another parked car, lawyers for her children outlined in a wrongful death claim against the southern California city. Continue reading...

In hourlong victory lap, president railed against Biden officials and their bullshit' case while boosting his lawyers

Sprawling storm system to affect vast swath of territory from Canada to Texas with tornadoes threatening in southThe National Weather Service has predicted extreme weather across a vast swath of the US encompassing more than 100 million people, with powerful winds gusts up to 80mph (130km/h) being forecast from the border with Canada to Texas.A sprawling storm system crossing the US on Friday overturned semitrucks on highways and fanned wildfires in Texas and Oklahoma, where officials called for evacuations in at least one town. Tornado threats loomed for the Mississippi valley into the night and the deep south on Saturday. Continue reading...

The video, recorded by his wife Noor Abdalla, who is eight months pregnant, shows immigration agents confronting Khalil and informing him that he is going to be under arrest' and ordering him to stop resisting'. The agents then handcuff Khalil and take him into a car, refusing to give Abdalla their names when she asks for them. Khalil, a legal US resident and a green card holder, was sent to an immigration detention centre in Louisiana and is being threatened with deportation over his participation in pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University

Swedish company's valuation jumped 24% in 2024 as buy now, pay later' market is projected to top $160bn by 2032The Swedish fintech firm Klarna disclosed on Friday that its revenue jumped 24% in 2024 as the buy now, pay later" (BNPL) pioneer made public its filing for a much-anticipated US stock market listing.The company, which reshaped online shopping through its short-term financing model, drew investor attention as its valuation soared from $5.5bn to $46.5bn in just two years, fueled by three funding rounds between mid-2020 and 2021. Continue reading...

As a divided Congress and Democrats spar over a funding bill, here's what to expect from a government shutdownThe US stands hours away from a partial government shutdown as Democrats decide whether to play ball with Republicans on the first major legislative hurdle in Trump's second administration.The House approved a stopgap funding measure called a continuing resolution last week, and the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, has urged Democrats in the Senate to pass the measure in the upper chamber.A 21-day partial closure in 1995 over a dispute about spending cuts between President Bill Clinton and the Republican speaker, Newt Gingrich, that is widely seen as setting the tone for later partisan congressional struggles.In 2013, when the government was partially closed for 16 days after another Republican-led Congress tried to use budget negotiations to defund Barack Obama's signature Affordable Care Act, widely known as Obamacare.A 34-day shutdown, the longest on record, lasting from December 2018 until January 2019, when Trump refused to sign any appropriations bill that did not include $5.7bn in funding for a wall along the US border with Mexico. The closure damaged Trump's poll ratings. Continue reading...

Apparent rejection of new offer to free US-Israeli hostage dashes hopes of progress but will please Tel AvivThe Trump administration has accused Hamas of making entirely impractical" demands and stalling on a deal to release a US-Israeli hostage in exchange for an extension of the Gaza ceasefire.Hamas is making a very bad bet that time is on its side. It is not," the office of Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff and the US national security council said in a statement. Hamas is well aware of the deadline, and should know that we will respond accordingly if that deadline passes," it said, adding that Trump had already vowed Hamas would pay a severe price" for not freeing hostages. Continue reading...

College president says she is heartbroken' by latest escalation in Trump attack on US campuses

Addicted to Fox News and outlets even more extreme, the president finds support and justification for actions disastrous to Americans and the worldNot content with shattering the post-1945 international order, which delivered prosperity and power to his country for eight long decades, Donald Trump is seemingly set on destroying the US economy. And he's doing it because he, and the American right, have lost their ability to grasp reality.Start with the economic vandalism, unfolding in real time and mesmerising to watch. For weeks, you could see the US stock market falling and falling until on Thursday the S&P index passed an unwanted milestone: it stood more than 10% down from the peak it had reached less than a month earlier, a fall that meets the Wall Street definition of a correction". In other words, even if the market eventually rallies, this is no blip. Continue reading...

We would like to hear your views on President Donald Trumps's second termSince taking office in January, US president Donald Trump has issued a flurry of executive orders and made a series of policy moves that have dominated the global news agenda.They range from imposing and threatening international trade tariffs and trying to force through a ceasefire deal between Ukraine and Russia; establishing the Department of Government Efficiency; suspending the refugee resettlement programme, and declaring a national emergency on the southern US border; putting an end to birthright citizenship and ending diversity programmes in federal government, to exiting the Paris Climate agreement and cuts to USAid. Continue reading...

Trump should reverse his misguided effort to deport Mahmoud KhalilThe Trump administration's threatened deportation of Mahmoud Khalil seems to reflect a dangerous disregard for freedom of expression - a blatant example of official censorship to curb criticism of Israel.Khalil was a recent graduate of Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. He holds a green card, giving him permanent residence status, and is married to a US citizen. They are expecting their first child soon. Immigration agents arrested him last week in his university housing and sent him for detention from New York City to Louisiana. He had been a leader of protests against Israeli war crimes in Gaza. Continue reading...

US and Israel reportedly contacted officials in Sudan, Somalia and SomalilandSudanese officials say they have rejected a request from the US to discuss taking in Palestinians displaced from Gaza under Donald Trump's plan to turn the territory into a Riviera on the Mediterranean".According to an Associated Press report, the US and Israel contacted officials in Sudan, Somalia and Somaliland about resettling uprooted Palestinians. The contacts suggested both countries are determined to press ahead with Trump's proposal despite international outrage and massive practical difficulties - or at least use the plan to force other actors in the region to come up with their own ideas for Gaza when hostilities finally end. Continue reading...

Lawyers demand in updated lawsuit that Columbia University graduate be released from custodyMahmoud Khalil felt as though he was being kidnapped when he was handcuffed and shackled and rushed from New York to immigration detention in Louisiana last weekend, his lawyers wrote in an updated lawsuit demanding that the Columbia University graduate be released from custody immediately.The activist has told his lawyers that agents who arrested him at his university housing last Saturday night, in front of his eight-month pregnant wife, never identified themselves. Continue reading...

I don't think we should give him oxygen on any platform, ever, anywhere,' Kentucky governor Andy Beshear saysOne potential future Democratic presidential candidate hit out at another on Thursday, as Andy Beshear, the governor of Kentucky, criticized Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, for welcoming far-right provocateur Steve Bannon on to his podcast.I think that Governor Newsom bringing on different voices is great; we shouldn't be afraid to talk and to debate just about anyone," Beshear said at a House Democratic retreat in Virginia. But Steve Bannon espouses hatred and anger, and even at some points violence, and I don't think we should give him oxygen on any platform, ever, anywhere." Continue reading...

News outlet was sued by Smartmatic over claims that voting equipment company hacked 2020 electionThe conservative news outlet Newsmax agreed to pay the voting equipment company Smartmatic $40m last year as part of a settlement in a defamation suit over Newsmax's decision to broadcast false claims about the 2020 election, a new filing revealed.The parties did not reveal details of the settlement when it was reached in September, but Newsmax disclosed the settlement amount in a public 7 March financial filing. The news outlet said it had also offered Smartmatic the option to buy stock in the company and that it had paid $20m of the settlement amount so far. Continue reading...