US news | The Guardian

It will take a new movement of responsible readers and benefactors to protect independent mediaWhen Disney announced yet another round of layoffs at ABC News last week, it came on the heels of a year in which almost 15,000 media jobs were lost - and capped off a quarter-century in which we've seen thousands of independent publications shut down or merged with larger conglomerates.The upshot is that Americans now find ourselves trapped in an information environment more tightly controlled than ever by a handful of oligarchs.Katrina vanden Heuvel is editorial director and publisher of the Nation, she is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and she has contributed to the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times Continue reading...

The 2025 NWSL season kicks off this week. We convened a panel of writers to discuss what they're most looking forward to this yearSeeing if the Orlando Pride's 2024 is repeatable in any way, shape or form. I'm a firm believer that last year's Shield and Championship winning team delivered the most impressive season in the history of the NWSL. Last week, Marta herself said it best that in 2025 everyone will hunt us." Seeing how Orlando will carry themselves as defending champions will be fascinating. TLH Continue reading...

London, Manchester, Cardiff, Birmingham - I have favourite early-morning memories from each of themI've had enough of city living. London has been my home on and off since I came to university in 1986. I'm tired of it. But there's one bit I still love. That's when I find myself right bang in the middle of town early in the morning. I feel the same way about all the other cities in which I ply my trade: Birmingham, Cardiff and Manchester, mainly. At about 6am, all cities have a similar character.I write this in a cafe on Old Compton Street in Soho, in central London, at 6.30am. Here more than anywhere, it feels as though you're in the eye of a storm. There aren't many people about because the people, millions of them, are all jammed up on the roads and crammed on to public transport, getting in each other's way, trying to get here. So for another hour or so we have it to ourselves. We" being the early starters and a few late finishers. Continue reading...

Guardian data analysis shows administration transformed immigration enforcement in only a few weeksUS immigration enforcement officials arrested more people in the first 22 days of February 2025 than in any month over the last seven years, according to a Guardian review of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) data.The Guardian review, which analyzed DHS data from the first month of Donald Trump's presidency, in addition to interviews with immigration lawyers, advocates and former Ice officials, show how the administration has transformed immigration enforcement in the US within just a few weeks. Continue reading...

Key factors will drive the Kremlin's decision. Can Russia fight on and for what? Or is there more benefit in allying with Donald Trump?At this stage of the crisis, it is important to be clear-sighted. The US-Ukraine meeting in Jeddah was a damage-control operation. Both parties reset relations that had been damaged, largely by Washington's impatience. The US reversed its previous decisions in exchange for something Ukraine was ready to provide anyway: privileged access to Ukraine's natural resource wealth and a willingness to start a peace process.It is encouraging to see renewed US-Ukraine dialogue to end the war. As Churchill said, the only thing worse than fighting with allies is fighting without them. The public mugging in the Oval Office, calling Volodymyr Zelenskyy a dictator and the pause in military and intelligence support were hard to fathom. Ukrainians wondered why President Trump was putting the blame and the pressure on the victim, and protecting the aggressor. Trump's beautiful" deal involved bullying the weaker and reassuring the stronger. He finds it more natural to put pressure on allies, be it Ukraine or Canada, and relax it on adversaries. Continue reading...

Tax-exempt special interest groups like lobbyists and non-profits are exercising power with little democratic oversightThe repression that began under the Biden administration has accelerated under Trump. Mahmoud Khalil's detention by federal agents - reportedly Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers - despite his legal, permanent resident status will probably have its intended effect. People will speak up less; their fear of the irreversible harm meted out by a vengeful state is justified. Now we are all left to contend with the wreckage of the first amendment to the US constitution, which used to guarantee the right to speech in this country.Responsibility for the erosion of our rights is attributable - in part - to the bipartisan embrace of the non-governmental, non-profit sector. That's because from the 1940s onward, the federal government has ceded much state authority to philanthropies and non-profits. Those groups, in turn, have acted to craft policy - everything from how to develop equitable housing or the benefits of inoculating children to ensuring that speech targeting Israel is punishable by law. Continue reading...

I've always believed the people are powerful. Now we know the world's richest man does tooOn Saturday morning, I woke up to a nightmare of notifications. On Sunday, it got worse. Elon Musk had tweeted and amplified inflammatory lies about me and Tesla Takedown, a growing national grassroots movement peacefully protesting at Tesla showrooms that I'm proudly a part of. Musk tweeted: Costa is committing crimes."As a longtime local activist and organizer in Seattle, I'm accustomed to some conflict with powerful forces. The intention of the Tesla Takedown movement is to make a strong public stand against the tech oligarchy behind the Trump administration's cruel and illegal actions, and to encourage Americans to sell their Teslas and dump the company's stock. Protests like these - peaceful, locally organized, and spreading across the world - are at the heart of free speech in a democracy and a cornerstone of US political traditions. So it's telling that the response from so-called free speech absolutist" Musk has been to single out individuals - and spread lies about us and our movement. The harassment that's followed his post has been frightening. Continue reading...

We are seeing a pale version of military Keynesianism, and for what? That money would be better spent fighting the climate crisisThings could be worse for Rachel Reeves, but not much. The economy is stagnant. Donald Trump has decided the UK will not be exempt from tariffs on steel and aluminium exports to the US. Stock markets have taken fright and share prices are tumbling.Five years on from the start of the Covid-19 lockdown, the scars of the pandemic have proved to be deep and long-lasting. The spring statement on the economy that Reeves will deliver later this month will announce cuts to welfare in order to prevent the government breaking its own borrowing rules.Larry Elliott is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

The government's move to abolish diversity, equity and inclusion policies is a naked attempt to appeal to prejudice - but it may well backfireAlmost a decade ago, I started a business called Rent-A-Minority, which enabled companies to hire a minority ethnic person whenever they needed an injection of diversity to boost their image. I had a variety of inclusivity-enriching hires available, including an ethnically ambiguous" category and a selection of smiling Muslim women (guaranteed not to support Islamic State or your money back).Like every good startup, Rent-A-Minority posted testimonials from clients and influencers on its website. I made up all the blurbs, because that is the Silicon Valley way: fake it till you make it. One of those fake comments was from Donald Trump, who was still considered a long shot for the presidency in January 2016, when my business launched. When I'mpresident, I'll shut this site down," Trump's blurb read. Continue reading...

Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider harmful effects of pollution; justice department demands shelter release names of migrants - key US politics stories from Wednesday at a glanceDonald Trump has previously called the climate crisis a hoax" and dismissed those concerned by its worsening impacts as climate lunatics", but now the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has gone even further under his authority, issuing an extraordinary cavalcade of pollution rule rollbacks.The agency has announced it would potentially scrap a landmark 2009 finding by the US government that planet-heating gases, such carbon dioxide, pose a threat to human health. Continue reading...

Republicans only have 52 yes votes and senator says Democrats won't help get to the 60 votes needed for the bill to pass. This blog is now closed.Congressional brinkmanship, including repeated near-misses with shutdowns and over the nation's $36 trillion in debt, has contributed to global ratings agencies' moves to downgrade the US federal government's once-pristine credit rating, reports Reuters.Democrats have long chided Republicans for threatening or voting for government shutdowns, and Republicans were quick to call them out for considering votes that could risk one. Continue reading...

Canadian government says it will follow dollar-by-dollar' approach and institute 25% tariffs on US importsCanada announced retaliatory tariffs on nearly C$30bn worth of American imports after US tariffs on steel and aluminum imports went into effect on Wednesday.The Canadian government said it will be following a dollar-by-dollar" approach and institute 25% tariffs on American imports, including steel, computers and sports equipment. Continue reading...

We are about to get a painful global lesson in why we should listen to, rather than denigrate, experts. No one wins a trade war

Senate minority leader says Democrats will not provide votes for stopgap measure and calls for bipartisan effortSenator Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, said on Wednesday that Democrats would not provide the necessary votes to pass a stopgap funding bill, dramatically raising the risk of a partial government shutdown at the end of the week.Announcing the decision in a speech on the Senate floor, Schumer urged Republicans to consider a shorter funding extension that would give congressional negotiators more time to consider a bipartisan path forward. Continue reading...

Baher Azmy, director of Center for Constitutional Rights, said: 'Mr Khalil's detention has nothing to do with security. It is only about repression.' Khalil, who is a student at Columbia University, was arrested by immigration officials on Saturday over his role in the college's encampment protests against Israel's war on Gaza. Although he is a legal permanent US resident and green card holder, he currently sits in Ice detention in Louisiana

US president said of Senate minority leader: He's not Jewish any more. He's a Palestinian'Donald Trump has been condemned by a leading US Muslim civil rights group for seeking to use the word Palestinian" as an insult when he attacked the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, as not Jewish any more".President Trump's use of the term Palestinian' as a racial slur is offensive and beneath the dignity of his office," said Nihad Awad, the national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or Cair. Continue reading...

Keith Self, Republican chair of a US House subcommittee, adjourned the hearing after he was challenged for misgendering Sarah McBride, the first openly transgender member of Congress. McBride, a first-term Democratic congresswoman from Delaware, elected last November, shot back at the chair by responding: 'Thank you, Madam Chair.' She was joined by Bill Keating, a Massachusetts Democrat, who defended her saying: 'This is not decent'

Subpoena issued to Manhattan hotel asks for a list of full names of aliens currently residing' at the siteFederal prosecutors have sent a criminal subpoena to a Manhattan hotel housing undocumented immigrants through a New York City program providing shelter to asylum seekers, according to a copy of the filing obtained by the Guardian.The subpoena issued on Wednesday asks the hotel to provide a list of full names of aliens currently residing" at the site as well as any corresponding identifying information", including dates of birth, nationality and identification numbers. The subpoena also asks the hotel to give evidence about an alleged violation" of federal immigration law. Continue reading...

Court document claims potentially serious foreign policy consequences' amid outcry over Palestinian activist's arrestThe US government is relying on a rarely used provision of the law to try to deport a prominent Palestinian activist who recently completed his graduate studies at Columbia University, where he was a leader in last year's campus protests.A government charging document addressed to Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent US resident and green card holder who is currently being held in a Louisiana detention center, said that secretary of state Marco Rubio has reasonable ground to believe that your presence or activities in the United States would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States". Continue reading...

The US president, Donald Trump, says a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia is 'getting close' after Ukraine agreed to accept a 30-day break in fighting. Trump says he has people on the way to Russia and is hopeful Moscow will accept the deal. However he also makes veiled threats that Russia could face 'devastating' financial repercussions if it decides to continue the warWe have people going to Russia right now,' says Trump as Zelenskyy hopes for strong steps' if Russia rejects ceasefire - Europe live Continue reading...

For now Keir Starmer can say there is a middle way, but Donald Trump will soon force Britain to pick a sideNo country can avoid the economic impact of DonaldTrump's aggressive trade policy. There are no exceptions to the president's global tariff on aluminium and steel and no escaping the general volatility and constant uncertainty provoked by a capricious regime. But Britain is lucky not to be a direct target.Mr Trump has no border-related grievance against the UK, as he does with Mexico and Canada. The balance of bilateral trade is neutral enough for Britain to avoid being listed among the nations that sell more to the US than they buy from it. The White House sees that asymmetry as a devious scam, for which tariffs are a form of retribution.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...

More than 1,300 dismissals seem first step toward quashing US agency entirely as education secretary touts efficiency'The Trump administration has decimated the US Department of Education, firing more than 1,300 employees in a single day in what looks to be the first step toward abolishing the agency entirely.The mass dismissal - delivered by email after most staff had left for the day on Tuesday - has slashed the department's workforce by half. Along with voluntary departures and probationary firings, the agency that started 2025 with 4,133 staff now operates with an estimated 2,100 employees two months into Donald Trump's presidency. Continue reading...

Health secretary, under fire for his response to the measles outbreak, attacked seed oils in Sean Hannity interviewRobert F Kennedy Jr, the health secretary, appeared with a cheeseburger and fries in a nationally televised interview on Fox News - a highly unusual move for a federal health official.The appearance, in which he endorsed the decision of the burger chain Steak n Shake to cook its fries in beef tallow, comes as Kennedy has attacked seed oils and made claims about the measles vaccine that lack context. Continue reading...

McLaurine Pinover made posts at work as personnel management office enforced Trump and Musk's layoffsThe chief spokesperson for the agency overseeing mass firings as Donald Trump and Elon Musk slash the federal workforce used her office to record fashion influencer videos even as thousands of workers were losing their jobs.McLaurine Pinover, communications director at the US office of personnel management (OPM), posted several Instagram videos during business hours in which she posed in different outfits, CNN reported. Continue reading...

You learn so much when you're forced to clop around town in a great big boot. And you make so many friends ...I've long had a soft spot for the achilles tendon, my own and everyone else's. This goes back to middle school where we read a book called Greeks and Trojans by Rex Warner, which I greatly enjoyed, although my engagement with the classics went no further. It related the story of the demise of the hero whose name the tendon bears. Also, my initial and my surname have been known to autocorrect to the name of the great warrior/tendon. We have a connection.The achilles is the tendon connecting the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles in the calf to an insertion point at the calcaneus. Or, in English, it's the worryingly cable-like thing running down the back of your ankle to your heel. The Greek Achilles was fatally wounded in the heel while fighting in the Trojan war. My own (non-fatal) achilles wound was sustained a long way from the gates of Troy, at a leisure centre in Stourbridge. I did it playing pickleball. Not especially heroic, I appreciate, but for someone who'd never picked up a pickleball paddle before, I was thought to be half-decent. Given the pain I've been in ever since, I doubt I'll be back for more. And with his vulnerability in the heel area, I can't imagine pickleball would have much suited the original Achilles either.Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster, writer and Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Pepper, a nine-month-old sea lion, has mesmerised her carers by performing intricate rhythmic gymnastics-style circles through the waters at Point Defiance zoo and aquarium in Tacoma, Washington. Noelle Tremonti, a biologist at the aquarium, says the strips help the pup learn how to interact with kelp, which grow in abundance in the animal's natural environment, and how to explore her environment using her mouth. Pepper was the first sea lion born at the facility's its 120-year history

Break in talks comes as Trump escalates trade war with Canada and threatens its sovereigntyThe United States has paused negotiations with Canada on a key water-sharing treaty as Donald Trump continues both his threats to annex his northern neighbour and to upend major agreements governing relations between the two counties.British Columbia's energy ministry said officials south of the border were conducting a broad review" of the Columbia River Treaty, the 61-year-old pact that governs transnational flood control, power generation and water supply. Continue reading...

As the US ramps up enforcement, scenes of family separation and despair from Trump's first term are repeatedThe United States has resumed placing immigrant families in detention, re-embracing harrowing operations where scenes unfold such as toddlers learning to walk under the supervision of private prison corporations and children marking their birthdays at government facilities they can't leave.If the Obama and first Trump administrations are anything to go by, parents will have to watch their little ones go hungry without familiar foods, the kinds families cook if their children aren't stuck in so-called baby jails". Continue reading...

The Russian president remains unwavering in his demands, making wider sanctions and tariffs ineffective

Secretary of state's visit has backdrop of trade war between US and allies and Trump's threats to take over CanadaMarco Rubio has said he is not planning to discuss Donald Trump's threat to take over Canada" during a visit to Quebec, as Washington's top diplomat arrives to the backdrop of a raging diplomatic crisis and trade war.The US secretary of state is flying on Wednesday for a two-day summit with other foreign ministers from allied G7 countries at the river resort of La Malbaie, the first such gathering since Trump retook power with his America first" agenda. Continue reading...

Brussels countermeasures to target 26bn of US goods from April while UK takes pragmatic' approach; US tariffs cover wide range of household goods such as tin foil

The Palestinian student's arrest at Columbia University is a harbinger of what's to come on college campusesOn 8 March, Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia University, was apprehended from university housing by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents. Khalil, a Palestinian and student leader at the Columbia encampments last year, was told by the arresting officers that his green card had been revoked", an action that only an immigration judge can decide. It has since been revealed that he is in Ice custody in La Salle, Louisiana, a detention site notorious for abuse.On Truth Social, Donald Trump celebrated the apprehension of Khalil, whom he called a Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student" and bragged of more arrests to come. Continue reading...

As the new league year gets underway, we take a look at the best and worst moves heading into the 2025 seasonThe Vikings letting Sam Darnold walk was the headline-grabber, but they had more intel on him than any other franchise and were happy to turn the keys over to JJ McCarthy rather than bring back the former Jets quarterback on what would have been a manageable contract. It's the team's work elsewhere that's most intriguing, though. The Vikings retained starting cornerback Byron Murphy and fortified both sides of the line of scrimmage with tasty, affordable signings. They brought in center Ryan Kelly and guard Will Fries from the Colts. The duo are one of the most switched-on, savvy interior tandems in the league. They never bust a protection and will give McCarthy a semblance of security during his first season as starter. Continue reading...

Daniel Noboa, who is seeking re-election, announced the partnership with Erik Prince, a supporter of Donald TrumpEcuador's president, Daniel Noboa, has announced a strategic alliance" with the Donald Trump-supporting founder of the private military firm Blackwater to supposedly reinforce his controversial war" on crime.Noboa, the rightwing heir to a South American banana empire, announced the partnership with Erik Prince on social media on Tuesday night. Continue reading...

Zahra Tabatabai's Back Home Beer features select Middle Eastern flavors, and she's looking to expand its reach nationallyBusiness heats up for Zahra Tabatabai in March, the month of Nowruz, the 13-day Persian new year festival, which begins this year on 20 March. The Iranian American Brooklynite's craft beers are infused with Middle Eastern flavors such as sumac and sour cherry, and packaged in design-forward cans featuring poetry in intricate Farsi lettering.Tabatabai's grandfather used to make his own beer with ingredients from his garden in Shiraz, before the Iranian government instituted a ban on alcohol consumption in 1979. More recently, her grandmother longed to taste her husband's beer again, so Tabatabai set out to satisfy her yen. During the Covid-19 pandemic, while working as a freelance writer and overseeing the home schooling of her son, who is now 11, she started looking at recipes and enrolled in a home-brewing class, and began watching YouTube videos about the art of making beer. Continue reading...

Max Miller of Ohio, appointed by Trump to a Holocaust committee, was privately infuriated' by repeated racist liesA Jewish Republican congressman whom Donald Trump appointed to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council compared Trump and his running mate JD Vance's extremist attacks on Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, during last year's presidential campaign to the target[ing]' of Jews", a new book reports.After Trump endured a difficult debate against Kamala Harris in Philadelphia on 10 September - attracting widespread ridicule for his claim that Haitian migrants were eating people's pets - the former president was determined to campaign in Springfield", the Axios reporter Alex Isenstadt writes. Continue reading...

Europe has said it will impose counter-tariffs on US goods. Plus, Ukraine agrees to 30-day ceasefire, placing onus on Russia to reciprocate

The VCU guard's thoughts are often on the conflict back in his home country but he has been cheered by the support he has received from his team and fansThousands of blue and yellow Ukrainian flags waved proudly inside the Stuart C Siegel Center during Virginia Commonwealth University's final home game of the regular season, all in honor of Max Shulga.The gesture on senior night meant a great deal to Shulga, making him feel at home in Richmond, Virginia despite being far from his native Ukraine, as the country continues to experience unrest three years following Russia's invasion. Continue reading...

Joey from Friends' has gone viral for his lack of drive. This is what the world needs - someone who's happy with nothing rather than everythingNothing will come of nothing," King Lear said. He was totally wrong, I'm afraid. The truth is, a lot can come from nothing. More specifically: great life satisfaction can come from doing very little.You know who is well aware of that? Matt LeBlanc (AKA Joey from Friends), the king of 90s primetime TV. A TikTok featuring resurfaced interviews in which LeBlanc extols the joys of sloth is generating enormous enthusiasm online. The TikTok pulls from a 2018 interview in which LeBlanc gushed about how much he enjoyed taking time off after Friends and then cuts to a 2017 interview in which he said: Ishould be a professional nothing." Speaking to Conan O'Brien, LeBlanc explained: Because I think I would like to do not a fucking thing. That's what Iwould like to do. Just nothing. Nothing. Zero." (Same, Matt, same.)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...

The Trump administration is not interested in combating antisemitism. It just wants to silence its opponents insteadOn Saturday night, agents of the Department of Homeland Security arrested and detained the Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil. He is still in Ice custody in a remote Louisiana lockup known for extreme human rights violations, from denial of food and water to medical care" verging on torture.Khalil, a Palestinian Syrian, emerged as a leader in Columbia's Gaza solidarity encampment last year and a level-headed negotiator with university officials on behalf of the student protesters. Married to a US citizen, he holds a green card. Neither his American wife, who is eight months pregnant, nor his lawyers were warned of the arrest or told where he would be held. Continue reading...

By turning his back on US allies and global institutions, Trump will help Xi Jinping advance his plan for a China-centric worldIs Donald Trump China's worst nightmare or a dream come true? He is both, but not in equal measure. In the near-term, his tariff-led approach to trade will cause problems for Beijing. However, in just a few weeks he has done more damage to the liberal international order, the cohesion of the democratic west, and the US's global standing, than all the combined efforts to undermine them in the entirety of the cold war. This goes beyond the wildest dreams China's leaders could have had.The tariffs already levied are serious enough, and Beijing cannot but see them as a harbinger of more to come. Unlike during his first term, this time Trump seems prepared to deliver the threats he makes. With China's economy already misfiring, an intensified trade war is the last thing Beijing needs, despite the bravado of its diplomats.Steve Tsang is director of the China Institute at Soas University of London and co-author of The Political Thought of Xi Jinping Continue reading...

Greenland has voted for a complete overhaul of the its government in a shock result in which the centre-right Democrat party more than tripled its seats after a dramatic election campaign fought against the backdrop of Donald Trump's threats to acquire the Arctic island. Tuesday's election, in which the Democrats replaced Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA), the party of the outgoing prime minister, Mute B Egede, as the biggest party in Inatsisartut, the Greenlandic parliament, also led to a doubling of seats for Naleraq - the party most open to US collaboration and which supports a snap vote on independence - making them the second-biggest party. Both the Democrats and Naleraq favour independence from Denmark, but they differ on the pace of change

Von der Leyen hits back at unjustified trade restrictions' after US metals levies come into force

In today's newsletter: After Ukraine and the United States agree to a 30-day ceasefire plan, Moscow faces key decision on how to respondGood morning. Just 11 days after Donald Trump kicked Volodymyr Zelenskyy out of the White House for being insufficiently grateful, negotiations over a ceasefire in Ukraine have taken on a new complexion again.After day-long talks in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, officials from Kyiv and Washington declared that they had agreed on an immediate 30-day ceasefire plan and called on Russia to do the same. The United States will now lift restrictions on military aid and intelligence sharing. And the deal to give the United States a 50% stake in revenues from Ukrainian minerals is back on the table.Trump tariffs | Donald Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminum imports took effect on Wednesday with no exceptions or exemptions", as his campaign to reorder global trade norms in favour of the US stepped up. In chaotic developments on Wednesday, the US threatened to double tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminium but then reversed course.UK news | A BBC presenter whose family were murdered by a misogynist with a crossbow has said he hopes women can be inspired by how his daughter ended her relationship with her killer. On the day that Kyle Clifford was sentenced to a whole-life order for the triple murder last year, John Hunt described the former soldier as a psychopath disguised as an ordinary human being.North Sea collision | A 59-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter in connection with the shipping collision in the North Sea. Humberside police said they had opened a criminal investigation into the collision, in which one seaman is believed to have died.Phillipines | The former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte has left Manila on a plane headed to The Hague, hours after he was served with an arrest warrant from the international criminal court over the killings resulting from his war on drugs".Climate crisis | Climate whiplash is already hitting major cities around the world, bringing deadly swings between extreme wet and dry weather as the climate crisis intensifies, a report has revealed. Dozens more cities, including Lucknow, Madrid and Riyadh, have suffered a climate flip" in the last 20 years. Continue reading...

European Commission announces countermeasures after sweeping US levies of 25% come into force without any exemptions

The EU has its Trojan horses and Nato's cornerstone has crumbled. But European allies, including the UK, are bound by an urgent shared purposeMoscow's immense military mobilisation is clearly not aimed just at Ukraine. Unless Vladimir Putin accepts a ceasefire with meaningful security guarantees there will be no end in sight to the war. If anything, we could see the extension of Russia's aggression beyond Ukraine. The bleak reality is that Europe still faces an unprecedented threat and notwithstanding signs of progress for Ukraine at talks in Jeddah, we face it alone.Worse, we now have to confront it with the US working against us. Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump appear to share a plan: a Vichy-like regime in Ukraine and a European continent split into spheres of influence, which Russia, the US (and perhaps China) can colonise and prey upon. Most European publics sense this. A critical mass of European leaders gets it too. They are beginning to act.Nathalie Tocci is a Guardian Europe columnist Continue reading...

US betrayal of Ukraine is the rehearsal for a grander bargain with Moscow and an assault on continental solidarityA prime time current affairs programme; a discussion about Donald Trump's handling of the war in Ukraine. He's doing excellent things," says a firebrand politician on the panel, before listing White House actions that have belittled Volodymyr Zelenskyy and weakened his battlefield position - military aid suspended; satellite communications obstructed; intelligence withheld. Do we support this?" It is a rhetorical question.We support it all. Absolutely," the celebrity host responds. We are thrilled by everything Trump is doing."Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...