WHCA says it was dropping Amber Ruffin's performance so the event's focus is not on the politics of division'Comedy is off the menu at the annual White House correspondents' dinner, a once convivial get-together for reporters to meet with federal governments officials that has become too fraught for light-heartedness amid the second Donald Trump presidency.The dinner, scheduled for 26 April, is organized by the White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA), and it typically features a post-meal comedic interlude where a comedian sets to work on the powerful. Beginning with Calvin Coolidge in 1924, every president has attended at least one WHCA dinner - except for Trump. Continue reading...

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Rare admonition from a sector that has largely been silent in the face of the second Trump administrationThe US biotech industry's main lobby group issued a rare warning following the forced and abrupt resignation of the nation's top vaccine official at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), saying the loss of his experienced leadership would erode scientific standards" and affect the development of transformative therapies to fight disease.The statement, issued on Saturday by John Crowley of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), followed the news a day earlier that Dr Peter Marks - who led the FDA division that ensured the safety of vaccines - had resigned over what he called misinformation and lies" from health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.Stephanie Kirchgaessner contributed reporting Continue reading...

America's Quad God lapped the field to win another world title with a record-tying six quadruple jumps, but his attention remains fixed on a standard just out of reachIlia Malinin had just finished defending his world title with another sensational performance including six quadruple jumps beneath the lights of a nearly sold-out TD Garden. But as he pounded the ice after his final pose, the gesture wasn't pure triumph like last year in Montreal. It was the frustration of a perfectionist falling short of a standard no one else is asking him to meet.That was definitely because I didn't land all seven," the 20-year-old American said afterward. It's still the one thing I want to accomplish - whether before the Olympics or sometime in my career - just to land them all and really maximize my technical ability, while also incorporating the rest of the program." Continue reading...

Key elections in Florida, Texas, Arizona and Wisconsin could offer a glimmer of hope to DemocratsSeveral elections on Tuesday will be a crucial test of the popularity of the chaotic and extremist first two months of Donald Trump's second term and the clout of his close ally, Elon Musk, the world's richest man who has been tasked with radically reforming the US federal government.They could also offer a glimmer of hope to Democrats - fresh off a surprise upset win in a local race in Pennsylvania last week - that their divided political party could be seeing a resurgence in its fortunes. Or, if they fail to land further blows on Republicans, it will be yet another sign that the party is destined for a long period in the wilderness amid historic lows of its popularity in recent polls. Continue reading...

Masih Alinejad is a vocal critic of Tehran who recently was pursued by hitmen for her advocacy of Iranian womenMasih Alinejad has long held fast fighting for women's rights in Iran despite ongoing threats from the regime.Alinejad, an Iranian American dissident, has for years been targeted by Tehran for her unrelenting criticism of Iran's government as a journalist, author and activist publicizing human rights abuses on social media - and calling for change. Continue reading...

Trump says tariffs on foreign-made cars would would lead to increased sales of US-made carsDonald Trump said on Saturday he did not warn car industry executives against raising prices as tariffs on foreign-made autos come into force, telling NBC News he couldn't care less" if they do.The president's comments came as the White House prepared to impose new tariffs on a range of consumer goods on 2 April, a move that has drawn criticism from international leaders and concerns about potential price increases for consumers.Guardian staff contributed reporting Continue reading...

The president - who believes he has been treated unfairly by the press - is squeezing the media in different ways than his first termOn Tuesday 4 March, Donald Trump stood in the House of Representatives to issue a speech to a joint session of Congress, the first of his second term.Near the beginning of what was to be a marathon address, the president declared: I have stopped all government censorship and brought back free speech in America. It's back." Continue reading...

GOP lawmakers and consumer advocates have found common ground in banning preservatives and chemicalsA West Virginia law signed this week bans synthetic dyes and preservatives in food - a first-in-the-nation consumer protection led by Republicans in the face of vociferous industry opposition.West Virginia's law is one of dozens of bills introduced across the country, as Republican state lawmakers get on board with one of the most powerful forces to emerge from the 2024 presidential campaign - the movement to make America healthy again" or Maha. Continue reading...

Experts says rounding up protesters and taking control from universities goes beyond McCarthy's witch-huntsDonald Trump campaigned on the promise that he would crack down against pro-Palestinian student protesters.Over the past few weeks, he has forcefully followed through. Continue reading...

Priyanka Shetty combines personal and political in #Charlottesville, a play that explores the deadly 2017 white supremacist rallyShe had moved from India to live the American dream. Priyanka Shetty came to study acting at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, a liberal place of clipped lawns and classical architecture rated in one survey as the happiest city in America.But what she found was isolation and discomfort because of her race and, as the era of Donald Trump dawned, a nation on the cusp of hostility towards immigrants like her. Then came a white supremacist march through Charlottesville and an explosion of racist violence that left one woman dead. Continue reading...

Normally staid historians sound alarm at authoritarian grasping for control of the premier US museum complexIn a brightly lit gallery, they see the 66m-year-old skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex. In a darkened room, they study the flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the national anthem. In a vast aviation hanger, they behold a space shuttle. And in a discreet corner, they file solemnly past the casket of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Black boy lynched for allegedly whistling at a white woman in the US south.Visitors have come in their millions to the Smithsonian Institution, the world's biggest museum, education and research complex, in Washington for the past 178 years. On Thursday, Donald Trump arrived with his cultural wrecking ball. Continue reading...

The push to end sexual violence has sparked a revenge campaign setting fire to women's rights and pushing young men to the right. But organizers can learn from the movement's lossesDressed in his trademark sunglasses and a skintight black T-shirt, Andrew Tate strode into a Las Vegas arena like a returning king. He was there to watch Power Slap, a UFC offshoot where people slap each other in the face with such force that doctors say it could lead to brain damage and death.Days earlier, Tate and his brother Tristan had been in Romania, their assets seized, awaiting trial on human trafficking charges. But following reported conversations between Romanian officials and the Trump administration, the Romanian government lifted a travel ban on the brothers. Now, as a heavily male crowd watched men slap one another so hard they collapsed, the UFC president, Dana White, warmly embraced the Tates. White, a Meta board member who was once caught on camera slapping his own wife, smiled at the Tates, looked them in the eyes, and told them: Welcome to the States, boys." Continue reading...

Trump and congressional Republicans attempting to exert control over mostly Democratic capital cityWashington DC has found itself in the crosshairs of Donald Trump and congressional Republicans in recent weeks, with efforts by both to exert more control over the overwhelmingly Democratic capital city.The president on Thursday signed an executive order he said would make Washington DC safe, beautiful, and prosperous" by stepping up crime fighting, arrests of undocumented immigrants and the processing of permits to carry concealed weapons. Trump separately directed JD Vance to remove improper ideology" from the Smithsonian Institution, which has many museums in and around the city. Continue reading...

Scale of cuts undermines US president's own promises of ending stateside terrorism and curtailing antisemitismDonald Trump's administration has ended funding for a slew of counter-terrorism research projects, in a move experts say will hinder future law enforcement abilities to predict and prevent attacks on the public, especially from the far right.The cuts, affecting multiple agencies and departments, come after the US president granted unconditional" pardons to about 1,500 people involved in the January 6 attacks on Capitol Hill and the appointment of the Trump ultra-loyalist Kash Patel to the helm of the FBI. Continue reading...

At rallies, town halls and protests, voters are unleashing their fury with Donald Trump, stoking what some believe is a populist backlashDemocrats are furious. And they want their leaders to get mad, too.I wish you'd be angry," a constituent told representative Gil Cisneros, a Democrat of California, at a recent town hall. At an event in Minnesota featuring a panel of Democratic attorneys general, an activist voiced a similar sentiment: Get angry, man," punctuating the message with a profanity. Continue reading...

Ono was blamed for splitting the Beatles and taking John Lennon from his true calling. Let's hope things are getting easier for women who date famous musiciansMore than 50 years after John Lennon and Yoko Ono's 1969 bed-in, protesting against war, Ono finally gets her love-in. David Sheff's biography Yoko, published last week, seeks to put the record straight about her stellar achievements as aninternationally renowned conceptual artist.In recent years there havebeen retrospectives, including one at London's Tate Modern. Kevin Macdonald's docufilm, One To One: John And Yoko, is released in the UK next month. Ono, 92, is seeing reputational rehabilitation on a global scale, and all a long time coming. Continue reading...

Is it worth me writing jokes about Trump's US? It looks like they are targeting even their mildest visa-carrying criticsDuring the Brexit era, it became obvious many comments under these columns were being placed by Russian trolls, with slightly strange grasps of idiomatic English, cut-and-pasting blocks of approved pro-Putin and anti-EU texts to change the direction of the discourse. Their posts read like the computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey, but trained on 90s MTV Europe presenters' accents and Russia Today op-eds.I began to bait the bots by inserting deliberately incomprehensible, but also somehow provocative, sentences into my pieces, culminating in the following paragraph, from the summer of 2016, after which point the Russian provocateurs left me alone: Continue reading...

The US president's rapid dismantling of democratic norms has sent scholars scrambling for global precedentsIt reads like an inventory of Donald Trump's first two months back in the White House.A newly elected demagogic president, renowned for his rabble-rousing rallies and provocative stunts, makes a whirlwind start on taking office. Continue reading...

Arrests, blacklists and deportations are chilling reminders of the red scare that transformed AmericaGold, mister, is worth what it is because of the human labor that goes into the finding and getting of it." It's a line spoken by Walter Huston in the 1948 film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, a story about greed and moral corruption directed by his son, John Huston. That line was to have appeared on screen at the beginning of the film. It didn't, on orders from the studio, Warner Bros. It was all on account of the word labor'," John Huston later reflected. That word looks dangerous in print, I guess."It was a relatively insignificant moment in the drama of America's postwar red scare. McCarthyism proper had still to take flight. Yet, so deep ran the fear already that a single, everyday word could create consternation in Hollywood. Continue reading...

I'm with Lauren Laverne: surviving the disease can lead to a newfound resilience and love of simply being aliveLauren Laverne says she loves her life more now that she's had cancer. I know exactly what she means. Imagine you're diagnosed with cancer. Do you think you'd look back on the moment as one of the best of your life?It sounds bonkers if you've not been through it, but it's how I feel. My wedding day beats it. As does Stuart Pearce's penalty against Spain in Euro '96, Nottingham Forest getting promoted at Wembley and Oasis reuniting. But those are in everyone's top five, so let's set them aside. Continue reading...

His foolish foreign trip and the response to the Signal chat leak reflect the irresponsibility of White House teamNot for the first time, JD Vance, America's outspoken vice-president, has made a public fool of himself. He insisted on visiting Greenland despite unequivocal statements by the territory's leaders and Denmark's government that he was not invited and not welcome. Vance's trip was confined to a remote Arctic base, where he briefly spoke to a few Americans. Plans to make a wider tour and speak to Greenlanders were cancelled - because Greenlanders did not want to speak to him.Such hostility is entirely understandable, given the repeated, provocative and disrespectful declarations by Vance's boss, Donald Trump, that the US plans to annex Greenland and may do so illegally and by force. Greenland is a semi-autonomous territory within the kingdom of Denmark. Election results this month showed the vast majority of local people back expanded self-rule or outright independence. They do not want to be Americans. Continue reading...

More than 200 demonstrations take place from Australia to Switzerland; senior FDA official resigns citing RFK Jr's misinformation and lies' - key US politics stories from 29 March 2025People around the world joined protests against Elon Musk and his attempts to dismantle the US federal government on Saturday, gathering outside Tesla showrooms from Australia to Switzerland and California.Protest organizers asked people to do three things: don't buy a Tesla, sell off Tesla stock and join the Tesla Takedown" movement. Hurting Tesla is stopping Musk," reads one of the group's taglines. Stopping Musk will help save lives and our democracy." Continue reading...

Despite drastic cuts by the Trump administration, Native American coaches are teaching and defending traditionsLong before Michael Jordan changed the sport of basketball, another Jordon transformed the National Basketball Association's (NBA) history by breaking the league's racial barrier as its first Native American player.In 1956, Phil the Flash" Jordon, a descendant of the Wailaki and Nomlaki tribes, was drafted by the New York Knicks and played 10 seasons in the league. Though he may not carry the same cultural cache as other hoopers throughout professional basketball's century-plus existence, Jordon embodies a longstanding Native American fixation on the sport - especially at the community level. Throughout the years, Native Americans have embraced basketball and made it their own. One way they're doing so today is with rez ball", a lightning-fast style of basketball associated with Native American teams. Continue reading...

PM told to be as robust as Canada with the US president as the UK stages last-ditch talks to strike trade dealKeir Starmer should fight back strongly against Donald Trump if he imposes punitive tariffs on British exports, senior UK and EU diplomats said on Saturday night, amid heightened fears that the US president could trigger a global trade war with devastating effects on the UK economy.British government officials in London and Washington are working frantically this weekend to try to persuade Trump not to slap duties on more key UK industries on what he is calling liberation day" on Wednesday. The US president has already announced plans for 25% levies on imports of cars, steel and aluminium to the US. Continue reading...

If I reduced my existence to a series of ChatGPT prompts, the act of my living is only shorter - not betterAs much as I have the general vibe of a luddite (strange hobbies, socially maladjusted, unfathomable fashion choices, etc) I have to hand it to automation: it's nice that computers have made some boring things in our lives less boring.I side with the writer and philosopher John Gray, who in his terrifying work of eco-nihilism Straw Dogs balances the fact that human beings are a plague animal who are wrecking the biosphere that supports them with the idea that we have made our lives easier through technology. Gray, in particular, calls anaesthetised dentistry an unmixed blessing". Continue reading...

The US administration believes it can divide public attention until there is a new scandal. It may be a winning strategyWhen it comes to Trump-era scandals, the shameless responses to Signalgate", in which top administration officials discussing details of an impending strike in Yemen in a group chat without noticing the presence of a prominent journalist, should set alarm bells ringing for its brazenness and incompetence.In a particularly jaw-dropping exchange, Tulsi Gabbard, the United States' director of national intelligence, was forced to backtrack during a house hearing after she had said that there had been no specific information in the Signal chat about an impending military strike. Then, the Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg published the chat in full, contradicting Gabbard's remarks that no classified data or weapons systems had been mentioned in the chat. Continue reading...

My own trip to Nuuk showed me you can't just rock up and attempt to bend all that bleak, rugged terrain to your willIn August 2018, I did something that JD Vance and his wife, Usha, can only dream of: I went to Greenland, and I didn't cause a national outcry against my presence. The not-causing-a-national-outcry part of that was easy. All I had to do was show up and not be a thinly veiled agent of Trumpian expansionism while pretending to care about dog sled races.The other part - going to Greenland in the first place - is harder to explain. I'm not an explorer, a sailor or a climate scientist. I don't belong to any of the vanishingly few occupations with legitimate reasons to visit the Arctic Circle. I was there, inexplicably, as a literary journalist. Continue reading...

In his final column, the Observer's foreign affairs commentator says America under Trump is not the first time it has caused trouble for alliesAmerica spells trouble for Britain. That's undoubtedly true in the age of Trump - but maybe it's always been so. The White House's undisguised contempt for loyal allies in the UK and Europe necessitates a robust reciprocal rethink. How healthy - and desirable - is this partnership? Has it caused more problems than it's worth?Those, myself included, who throughout their professional lives have taken close transatlantic ties for granted, face some awkward questions. Is the US-UK special relationship" an embarrassment, even a strategic liability? Today's America is evidently not a trustworthy, disinterested friend. Was it ever? Continue reading...

Authorities say 39-year-old suffered an injury after jumping a fence when fleeing police and later died in the hospitalA rapper signed to fellow lyricists Future and Waka Flocka Flame died on his 39th birthday in his home town of Atlanta after injuring his leg while running from police and jumping fences, according to authorities as well as multiple media reports.The death of 39-year-old Young Scooter, born Kenneth Edward Bailey, was confirmed by Atlanta's Fulton county medical examiner's office, as Variety first reported. Continue reading...

Giorgia Meloni says it is her responsibility to defend transatlantic unity in face of looming US leviesItaly's prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has called for a reasoned" approach to an escalating tariff war between the EU and the US and repeated the importance of transatlantic unity.The US president, Donald Trump, has announced sweeping tariffs on his country's allies and adversaries, including a 25% levy on car imports starting next week, and a 200% tariff on champagne, wine and other alcoholic drinks from the EU. Continue reading...

Defense secretary, already under fire for chat group blunder, faces new scrutiny for having wife in high-level meetingsThe wife of the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, attended two meetings with foreign defense officials during which sensitive information was discussed, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal.The Journal's report on Hegseth arrived late on Friday as he faced scrutiny for detailing plans of a military strike in a group chat on Signal, made public by a journalist at the Atlantic who was added to the chat. Multiple Democrats have called for his resignation while a bipartisan group of senators sent a letter to the defense department calling for an inquiry into the group chat. Continue reading...

Carlos Watson was on way to begin serving 10-year sentence when news reached him of his presidential commutationHours before he was scheduled to report to prison and begin serving a nearly 10-year sentence for a federal fraud conviction, former talkshow host and media executive Carlos Watson received clemency from Donald Trump, sparing him from the punishment Friday.Watson was traveling to the Lompoc, California, federal correctional institution when he learned of the presidential commutation afforded to him, as CNBC reported. He published a statement which thanked the president and insulted the Trump-appointed federal judge who sentenced him, Eric Komitee, as conflicted and unethical". Continue reading...

After a two-year retirement prompted by burnout and fatigue, the American skater found her way back to the ice - and became the world champion no one saw comingAlysa Liu hadn't even checked her phone. She didn't know who had called, who had texted or who had screamed at their television when her gold-medal score flashed onto the screen. But she knew exactly who she wanted to call first.My siblings," she said, laughing. They have no idea [what] is happening." Continue reading...

Grants Pass was at heart of supreme court ruling allowing cities to ban sleeping outside even if shelters are lackingAn Oregon judge issued a preliminary injunction on Friday blocking the city at the heart of a US supreme court ruling on homeless encampments from enforcing its camping rules unless it meets certain conditions, as part of a lawsuit filed by advocates.Under the decision by Josephine county circuit court judge Sarah McGlaughlin, Grants Pass must increase capacity at city-approved sites for camping and ensure they are physically accessible to people with disabilities. Continue reading...

Both flights received corrective instructions to avoid possible collision two months after crash killed 67 at same airportA passenger flight preparing to take off near Washington DC and an incoming US military jet received instructions to divert and prevent a possible collision on Friday, officials said.The close call at Ronald Reagan Washington National airport came about two months after a passenger jet and US army helicopter collided near the airport, killing all 67 people onboard both aircraft. The earlier crash - on 29 January - prompted federal investigators to recommend a ban on some helicopter flights in that area. Continue reading...

The university had a history of being a home for cutting-edge discourse on Palestine - until it capitulated to the administration's demandsLast week, Columbia University announced that it would cave to demands by the Trump administration and adopt sweeping measures against pro-Palestinian activity on campus, including new restrictions on protest and the takeover of an academic department from faculty control.The news sent shock waves across higher education institutions nationwide for what appeared a stunning capitulation to attacks on academic freedom and the independence of the department of Middle Eastern, south Asian and African studies, or Mesaas, which became a scapegoat for what the administration viewed as a pro-Palestinian climate on campus. It was also a remarkable turn of events for a university that had for years been a home for cutting-edge academic discourse on Palestine, beginning with the scholarship of Edward Said, a leading Palestinian intellectual. Continue reading...

Trump's executive order supposedly expanding IVF access offered nothing concrete beyond a weird nickname for himselfDonald Trump has clearly been spending far too much time with Elon-I-offer-my-sperm-to-everyone-who-crosses-my-path-Musk. It seems like the creepy billionaire's insemination obsession has rubbed off on Trump: the legally defined sexual predator is now calling himself the fertilization president". Continue reading...

Robert F Kennedy, Trump's health secretary, said he will be laying off nearly 20,000 workers, imperiling crucial servicesMassive job cuts planned for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will pave the way for takeover of crucial services by the private sector, imperiling the US in future health emergencies, health experts and Democratic politicians warn.Health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr announced the department would layoff 20,000 workers from its roughly 82,000-person workforce on Thursday, or nearly a quarter of the department's headcount. Continue reading...

Foreign nationals caught up in Trump's immigration dragnet are transported sometimes thousands of miles away to an isolated network of lockups and courtsBehind the reinforced doors of courtroom number two, at a remote detention centre in central Louisiana, Lu Xianying sat alone before an immigration judge unable to communicate.Dressed in a blue jumpsuit that drooped from his slight frame, he waited as court staff called three different translation services, unable to find an interpreter proficient in his native Gan Chinese. Continue reading...

New College of Florida fired Kevin Wang, a professor who sought asylum and is authorized to work in the USThe New College of Florida has fired a Chinese language professor under a state law that restricts Florida's public universities from hiring individuals they deem to be from countries of concern".On Friday, Suncoast Searchlight reported the firing of Kevin Wang, a professor who has sought asylum in the US and is authorized to work in the country. According to the outlet, Wang had been teaching classes in Chinese language and culture for nearly two years when he was fired on 12 March. Continue reading...

Roberto Lugo and other artists of color are now feeling heat from Trump's attack on diversity and efforts to rewrite truth of the US's pastArtists, academics and politicians have shared their outrage in reaction to the Trump administration's latest executive order targeting the Smithsonian Institution, the world's largest museum network.Late on Thursday, Trump announced that his administration had ordered a large reshaping of the Smithsonian in an attempt to eliminate what he described as improper, divisive or anti-American ideology". Continue reading...

We're afraid the baseless theory spread by the president stigmatises our kids - and could affect access to careIt was a moment when Donald Trump's larger-than-life presence on the global stage became unexpectedly personal.Near the end of his one-hour, 40-minute speech to a joint session of Congress on 4 March, the US president diverted from his favoured themes of a new golden age of American greatness and grievances against his adversaries to address a more unlikely topic: autism. Continue reading...

I could never have imagined that writing a critical piece about the government could put me at risk of deportationWhen I moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, less than a year ago, I could never have imagined that writing a critical piece about the US government could put me at risk of deportation, threatening the life and career I've built here. But today, that threat is very real.Just this week, Rumeysa Ozturk, a doctoral student at Tufts University, was arrested mere blocks from where I live after publishing an op-ed in her university newspaper describing Israel's military campaign in Gaza as genocide. That was the full extent of her activism, yet despite having all her documentation in order, she was taken abruptly and transported to Louisiana, over 1,000 miles from her home.Berna Leon is a visiting fellow at Harvard University, where he teaches political theory. His doctoral dissertation investigated the democratic oversight of intelligence services in the US and UK Continue reading...

The discussion revealed unserious people who don't know when to keep quiet, with Stephen Miller as the real bossOn 13 March, Donald Trump's national security adviser, Michael Waltz, who was the policy director for two secretaries of defense and was a member of the House intelligence committee, sent a message on the commercial Signal app: Team - establishing a principles group for coordination on Houthis, particularly for over the next 72 hours." The Houthis PC small group" would oversee a US air attack on the Houthis in Yemen.Despite Waltz's extensive professional background, he misspelled principals" as principles" - perhaps an ordinary typo, but symptomatic of the shambles to come. Although the secretaries of defense, state and treasury, the director of national intelligence, the CIA director, the vice-president, and the president's chief of staff were among the 18 people included, neither the chair of the joint chiefs of staff, who is a statutory member of the principals committee of the National Security Council, nor any military designee was invited into this group. Instead, the editor of the Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, was sent a link. Waltz noted: Joint Staff is sending this am a more specific sequence of events in the coming days." Continue reading...

We should be talking about how we help everyone enjoy sport, but instead players are being targeted in a dehumanising wayThe hateful language" directed at Orlando Pride's Barbra Banda during their 2-0 defeat of Gotham FC last Sunday, understood to be transphobic and racist in nature, is part of an alarming trend, with several non-white athletes targeted for not fitting westernised standards of femininity.The language directed at Banda from the stands was directly addressed" by stadium security, said the hosts, Gotham FC, in a statement, and the situation was monitored for the remainder of the match". Continue reading...