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Project Jes' targeted high-level figures including George Osborne and Mervyn King, emails suggestJeffrey Epstein deployed a consultant to push for Jes Staley to become Barclays' chief executive in 2012, a court was told on Tuesday, with the ultimately failed campaign - called Project Jes" - having targeted high-profile figures including the chancellor George Osborne and the Bank of England governor Mervyn King.The campaign's efforts were detailed as part of a landmark legal case launched by Staley against the UK regulator the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Staley is trying to overturn its 2023 decision to ban him from taking senior roles in the UK's financial sector for having allegedly misled the regulator over the depth of his relationship with the convicted sex offender Epstein. Continue reading...

Donald Trump's picks for top posts in his administration have tested the loyalty of Senate RepublicansSenate confirmation hearings are under way for Donald Trump's cabinet nominations.All cabinet-level positions require a majority vote of senators to be approved. With a current 53-seat Republican majority, Trump's more fraught nominees can only afford to lose three Republican senators, assuming Democrats are uniformly opposed. Continue reading...

A diet high in fibre from different food sources is far more effective for maintaining a healthy gut than supplements and online fads, experts sayThe emerging evidence of how our gut microbiomes influence our overall health has seen a surge in interest in how to achieve a healthy gut.Perhaps nowhere is that interest more manifest than TikTok's obsession - the hashtags #guttok and #guthealth show endless videos of influencers promising ways you can eliminate bloating!" or heal your gut". Continue reading...

Peter Navarro claims aluminium makers in Australia are undermining the US. Are they really?

Trump's levies won't bring factories home. But combined with infrastructure investment, protectionism can be a progressive boonIn the run-up to the 2024 election, a lot of people were ringing alarms about Donald Trump's tariffs. Kamala Harris called Trump's policies a tax on the American people" and warned of sky-high prices. According to the Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, they are very bad for America and for the world". His fellow Nobel laureate Paul Krugman called them small, ugly, and stupid" (seemingly unaware that he was invoking that joke in Annie Hall about the food being bad and the portions too small). More recently, the whirlwind tariff drama of the past two months - first a 25% tariff on Mexico and Canada, then a 30-day pause" on that policy, a plan to raise tariffs on steel, aluminum and agricultural goods, plus an across the board tariff hike on China - has generated yet more frenzied debate about the danger of tariffs.Observers aren't wrong to criticize the US president's policies. His proposed tariffs seem unlikely to improve what ails the US economy. Worse, applying tariffs as broadly as he's proposed, and without any supplementary industrial strategy, does risk needlessly raising prices while acting like a big corporate giveaway. Yet, despite what elite economists say, tariffs can be sound, and progressive, economic policy. Continue reading...

James Dennehy, who had vowed to dig in', says he was told to leave or be fired but was not given a reasonThe FBI's top official in New York was forced out on Monday, just weeks after he vowed to dig in" and resist the Trump administration's purge of agents who investigated the January 6 assault on the Capitol.In an email to staff on Monday, James Dennehy confirmed that he had been ordered to leave - or be fired, according to sources interviewed by NBC News. Continue reading...

Staff at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall alleged to have allowed or encouraged nearly 70 fights involving young detaineesThirty officers at a southern California juvenile detention facility have been charged for their role in facilitating so-called gladiator fights" between youth in their care, the state's attorney general said on Monday.A grand jury indictment alleges the officers at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Los Angeles county allowed and sometimes encouraged nearly 70 fights to take place between July 2023 and December 2023. More than 140 victims between the ages of 12 and 18 were involved. Continue reading...

The US has provided $65.9bn in military support to Kyiv since Russia's February 2022 invasion

A whole political and cultural era is passing, and who better than the Duchess of Sussex as a symbol of all we have left behindAre peonies a life philosophy? Are life philosophies" even philosophy? I have to hold on to the idea that they aren't, even in the face of a decade or so of Instagram blitzkrieg, most currently in the form of Duchess Meghan's eight-part new TV show, which dropped on Netflix first thing this morning. With Love, Meghan seems to have migrated fully formed from Mark Zuckerberg's social media platform on to Ted Sarandos's streaming service, powered by the hashtags that bypass the need for joined-up sentences, let alone thinking. Or as Her Grace explains: Everyone's invited to create wonder in every moment." This is an offer not even promised by most major religions.The mildest way to describe this show is as a ghastly artefact of a particular cultural era that recently met its apocalypse. But more on that later. To anyone who says, It's just meant to be fun": bullshit. Netflix reportedly paid $100m (78m) to Prince Harry and the manic pixie dream duchess for an overall deal, so for the streamer it's meant to make back at least a small amount of the big amount of money they've lost, when audiences failed to connect with the Sussex-authored documentaries about global justice activists and polo. For Meghan, it's supposed to assist her transformation into domestic guru. If you don't mind arching an eyebrow at the lifestyle lunacies of fellow Montecito resident Gwyneth Paltrow, then at least have some consistency and give yourself a pass on this one. This show is sensationally absurd and trite, and if you watch it, you know it. Continue reading...

Trump is set to lay out agenda for his second term in address at 9pm ET. Here's what to know and how to watchPresident Trump will give an address to a joint session of Congress tonight in Washington, his first major speech since returning to the White House in January. It's an opportunity for Trump to lay out his agenda and talk about key policy objectives.Here's what to know and how to watch the address.The Guardian will have a live feed of the address and a team of reporters will be covering and fact-checking Trump's speech. Continue reading...

Decision affects ammunition, vehicles and other equipment including weapons in transit

Michael Better compared himself favorably with Micah Parsons and Patrick Mahomes in a new documentary seriesThree-time Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes may not be done being pitted against the USA men's flag football team, whose reigning world champion members are bidding to represent the country when the sport debuts at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.During an interview on a new Hard Knocks-styled documentary set to begin streaming Tuesday, USA men's flag team starting pass rusher Michael Better said he'd rather rush Patrick Mahomes any day" instead of Darrell Doucette Jr, the quarterback who led the Americans to a world title in Finland in August. Continue reading...

Berating our president, and now pausing arms - the US has shown itself to be an unreliable partner. But it still has a role to playA few days before the Munich Security Conference, one of the Ukrainian military officers fighting on the eastern Ukrainian border told me about intercepts of the Russian army talks their unit had obtained. Russian middle-level commanders were instructing their subordinates to hold on for a bit as with Donald Trump in the office", their goals would finally be met, and the fight would be over soon". The Ukrainians pointed out that it was not a unique intercept, and the idea that the new American president was good for Moscow troops was being widely expressed by the Russians.Recently, I asked Ukrainian frontline soldiers what they thought about the negotiations. Those in action are too busy fighting to follow everyday news from Munich, Riyadh, Washington and Kyiv. Yet they generally feel that Donald Trump is heading in the wrong direction". Today, as Trump pauses" all military aid, they will know those instincts were right.Nataliya Gumenyuk is a Ukrainian journalist and CEO of the Public Interest Journalism LabDo 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...

Keir Starmer has said we face the greatest threat to our national security since the cold war. Such hyperbole helps nobodyIs Vladimir Putin another Adolf Hitler? The western world seems to think so. In which case is Donald Trump another Neville Chamberlain and Ukraine another Czechoslovakia? Is history bunk, or is it a wise old man leaning on the gate as Europe storms into its latest crisis?Godwin's law holds that the longer a political argument continues, the nearer it gets to Hitler. This reductio ad Hitlerum distorts the issue under discussion and diminishes the exceptional horror of Hitler and the Holocaust. A variant of Godwin's law goes further. It asserts that having to call Hitler in aid means that you have already lost the argument.Simon Jenkins is a 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...

Family planning in sports is no longer taboo, but elite female athletes like Kaillie Humphries and Maria Sharapova believe more open conversations should be taking placeThe cold sterility of a gynecologist's office is about as far removed as you can get from a tennis court, a basketball gym, or a bobsled run. The crinkling white paper, the flimsy open-face gown that leaves patients vulnerable and freezing, the intimidating silver instruments laid out neatly on a table - it's hardly an environment that feels empowering.Yet some of the highest highs and lowest lows of women's lives take place in such rooms, just as they do on clay courts, snowy terrain or hardwood floors. It's no small thing that women's peak fertility coincides with their peak athletic performance. It's a cruel twist of fate that just as professional female athletes must begin asking themselves whether they want to have children - and, if so, when and how - they are also focused on pushing their bodies to their limits for as long as possible. Continue reading...

The phallic term caused a round of applause for the popular Western Australian leader, who is headed to the polls this weekendWith a one-word answer to a four-word question, the Australian politician Roger Cook set off a flurry of headlines he may hope does not catch the White House's attention.During a game of finish the sentence" with a journalist on Tuesday, the premier of Western Australia was asked: JD Vance is a ..." Continue reading...

The man who wrote Hillbilly Elegy would have recognised the old eastern Europe. But he's attacking the democratic order we yearned forEven before the shocking treatment of Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, the US had voted with Russia in the UN. Alarm bells about the security threat now facing Europe were already ringing during JD Vance's speech in Munich in February, when he questioned the point of defending Europe's liberal democracies from Russia.For the countries surrounding Russia, this is not just about impertinence or failing diplomacy but about potentially being wiped off the map.Karolina Wigura is a Polish historian and co-author of Post-Traumatic Sovereignty: An Essay (Why the Eastern European Mentality is Different)Jarosaw Kuisz is editor-in-chief of the Polish weekly Kultura Liberalna and the author of The New Politics of Poland: A Case of Post-Traumatic SovereigntyDo 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...

This live coverage has ended. You can find all of the latest US politics stories here.Donald Trump will lay out his priorities tomorrow evening in a prime-time speech to Congress, his first since returning to the White House.He's doing some expectation setting this morning, posting on Truth Social:TOMORROW NIGHT WILL BE BIG. I WILL TELL IT LIKE IT IS! Continue reading...

Vice-president says best way to prevent another Russian invasion is to give Americans economic upside in the future of Ukraine'US vice-president JD Vance said that the best way to protect Ukraine from another Russian invasion is to guarantee the US has a financial interest in Ukraine's future.If you want real security guarantees, if you want to actually ensure that Vladimir Putin does not invade Ukraine again, the very best security guarantee is to give Americans economic upside in the future of Ukraine," Vance said in the interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity which aired Monday night. Continue reading...

China and Canada retaliate after tariffs come into effect - key US politics stories from Monday at a glanceDonald Trump has paused military aid to Ukraine following his clash with the country's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, last week, according to US media reports.Vance told Fox News in an interview recorded before the announcement on Monday that giving Washington an economic interest in the future of Ukraine will serve as a security guarantee for the country that Russia invaded in February 2022.

Email says employees eligible to take voluntary retirement and directs workers to share accomplishments of past weekThe US health department told employees on Monday they could apply for early retirement over the next 10 days and should respond to a request for information on their accomplishments of the past week, according to emails seen by Reuters.Republican president Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, who oversees the so-called department of government efficiency", are spearheading an unprecedented effort to shrink the federal bureaucracy, including through job cuts. Continue reading...

Singer, who met Dean when she was 18, says words can't do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years'Carl Dean, devoted husband of Dolly Parton and also the inspiration behind Parton's iconic hit Jolene, died on Monday. He was 82.According to a statement provided to the Associated Press by Parton's publicist, Dean died in Nashville, Tennessee, and will be laid to rest in a private ceremony with immediate family attending. Continue reading...

A pod of orcas swam close to shore and amazed onlookers in Seattle. The pod of Bigg's killer whales visited Elliott Bay apparently for a hunt just off Seattle's maritime industrial docks. Kersti Muul, who runs a WhatsApp whale alert system for the Seattle area, recorded video as the whales appeared just below a lookout point showing interest in a bird. Eventually one of the whales takes the bird below water, sparking a reaction from onlookers. Bigg's killer whales are orcas that usually prey on marine mammals like sea lions or porpoises. They visit the waters of Seattle occasionally Continue reading...

US Senate confirmed Trump ally and ex-wrestling executive as chief of department president wants dismantledThe US Senate has confirmed Linda McMahon as the nation's next education secretary, entrusting the former wrestling executive with a department marked for dismantling by Donald Trump.The 76-year-old billionaire businesswoman and longtime Trump ally was approved 51-45, reflecting deep divisions over her qualifications and the administration's education agenda. McMahon, who previously led the small business administration during Trump's first term, now faces the paradoxical task of running an agency while simultaneously working toward its potential elimination. Continue reading...

Donald Trump said a deal ending Russia's war on Ukraine 'could be made very fast' but 'if somebody [Volodymyr Zelenskyy] doesn't want to make a deal, I think that person won't be around very long'. Zelenskyy has not refused to make peace, but has pointed to many past example of Vladimir Putin breaking ceasefires with Ukraine. The Ukrainian president has insisted Kyiv needs security commitments from the US and Europe to enable a fair and lasting peace

Vast human smuggling ring was responsible for deaths of seven, including a four-year-old child, prosecutors sayTwo alleged leaders of a criminal organization suspected of smuggling 20,000 people without permanent legal residency into the US from Guatemala have been arrested in Los Angeles, federal prosecutors said on Monday.Eduardo Domingo Renoj-Matul, known as Turko", and his lieutenant, Cristobal Mejia-Chaj, were taken into custody Friday and have pleaded not guilty to multiple charges related to smuggling migrants across the border over five years, the US attorney's office said. A federal judge ordered the men, who themselves are in the country illegally, jailed without bond until their trial in April. Continue reading...

Announcement leads to sharp sell-off on Wall Street as Trump also vows tariffs on farm products starting in AprilThe US will press ahead with steep tariffs on Canada and Mexico from Tuesday, Donald Trump has said, setting the stage for a trade war with his country's two largest economic partners.Hours before his administration was due to hit America's closest neighbors with sweeping import duties, the US president claimed there was no room left" for a deal to avoid their imposition. The announcement led to a sharp sell-off on Wall Street. Continue reading...

James Woodworth, former NCES commissioner, says cuts to key agency made without knowing what they're doing'A former education department commissioner appointed by Donald Trump has condemned the recent massive cuts to the federal agency.James Woodworth, who served as commissioner for the department's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) from 2018 to 2021, said the cuts to the agency made by the so-called department of government efficiency," led by Elon Musk, were made by someone without knowing what they were doing". Continue reading...

President says TSMC won't have to pay tariffs and encourages other semiconductor companies to build in USThe CEO of a giant in the semiconductor chip industry joined Donald Trump on Monday to announce the Taiwanese company's new $100bn investment in production in the United States.CC Wei, the chief executive of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) announced the investment at the White House alongside the president, the US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, and David Sacks, a Trump adviser on AI and crypto. He said the new investment brings TSMC's total investment in chip manufacturing in the US to $165bn. Continue reading...

Jessica Brosche has spent more than a month in detention center after being denied entry at San Diego from MexicoA German tourist is fighting to be released from an immigration detention center after she was denied entry at the San Diego border and taken into custody by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) last month.Jessica Brosche, a 26-year-old German tattoo artist, is being indefinitely detained by US Customs and Border Protection after she tried to enter San Diego on 25 January from Tijuana, Mexico, with her American best friend, Amelia Lofving. The two were traveling with tattoo equipment. Continue reading...

Largest US grocery chain says Rodney McMullen's conduct was unrelated to business as interim CEO and chair namedKroger's chair and chief executive officer, Rodney McMullen, has resigned after an internal investigation into his personal conduct.Kroger, the nation's largest grocery chain, said on Monday that the investigation into McMullen's personal conduct was unrelated to the business, but was found to be inconsistent with its business ethics policy. Continue reading...

Poll conducted before meeting with Trump and Zelenskyy says 52% of respondents personally support' UkraineA US poll taken before the diplomatic meltdown in the Oval Office on Friday between Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, found that only 4% of surveyed Americans are backing Russia after its 2022 invasion of Ukraine - but a large minority of 44% said they do not support the invaded country either.The CBS News/YouGov poll, conducted over three days beginning on 26 February, also found that a relatively slim majority - 52% - said they personally support" Ukraine. Continue reading...

President also signed executive order making English the US's official language. Here's what Trump got up to between 24 February and 2 MarchDuring his sixth week back in office, Donald Trump and the vice-president, JD Vance, hosted Ukrainian president for what devolved into a shocking and explosive meeting.Trump accused Volodymyr Zelenskyy of gambling with world war three" while Vance berated the Ukrainian president in a storm of accusations and falsehoods about Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Continue reading...

We would like to hear from those working in diversity, equity and inclusion and how they feel about Trump's rollbacksDonald Trump has signed two executive orders aimed at unwinding the federal government's decades-long push to ensure an inclusive workplace that reflects American society.The Trump administration ordered all US federal employees working in diversity offices to be put on paid leave and their programs ended, although a judge recently blocked the orders. Continue reading...

Los Angeles paper's Insights' tool comes after months of public debate between opinion staff and billionaire ownerSome Los Angeles Times opinion pieces will now be published with an artificial intelligence-generated rating of their political content, and an AI-generated list of alternative political views on that issue, the paper's biotech billionaire owner announced on Monday.The new AI Insights" feature will only be applied to a range of opinion content in the paper, not its news reporting, according to a public letter announcing the change from Patrick Soon-Shiong, the medical entrepreneur who bought the Los Angeles Times in 2018. Continue reading...

With 10 archival files, Trace/s upends simplistic narratives about New York's history with enslavementThe truth is often hiding in plain sight.Not until the shutdown during the pandemic did I even notice the farmhouse in Brooklyn's Prospect Park, nestled behind shrubbery, trees, and wrought iron fencing. It was home to the Lefferts family, descendants of the Dutch settlers who had first arrived in 1624 in what would become New York. Continue reading...

Perhaps the Ozempic was making people light-headed, or the stars felt they should stay silent. Either way, there was a notable lack of politicsThe Oscars ceremony on Sunday night was long and boring, as it has been for a few years, but this year its shortcomings landed differently. Hollywood's waning influence, which registered most glaringly last month in the large number of American nominees who showed up in London for the Baftas - not something they were inclined to do in better times - gave the ceremony a sense of low-stakes irrelevance that was frankly a relief from the rest of the news cycle. Still, the question lingers as to why the actors and presenters largely, and mercifully in my view, stayed away from mention of Donald Trump.After the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles in January, the classy thing to have done this year would've been to cancel or at least radically downsize the Oscars ceremony, but of course no one involved was going to vote for that. Instead, audiences were treated to a muted spectacle celebrating movies with record-breakingly small box-office returns, including The Brutalist, in which Adrien Brody relived the US postwar construction boom in real time, and Anora, one of the lowest-grossing best pictures of all time, about an exotic dancer who marries a rich Russian. (What could be behind the deep and abiding fascination of straight male directors - and novelists, and podcasters - with the sex worker community"? That's right, it's altruism.)Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Invitations are attempt to embarrass Trump over effort spearheaded by Elon Musk and his so-called department of government efficiency'

Top Democrat calls Trump's move to retreat from fight against Russian cyber threats a critical strategic mistake'A senior US Democrat has hit out at Donald Trump's attempt to reset relations with Russia following revelations that the president's administration is retreating from the fight against Russian cyber threats, calling the reported move a critical strategic mistake".In a statement on Sunday making reference to the Russian leader, New York's Chuck Schumer - the US Senate's Democratic minority leader - said Trump was so desperate to earn the affection of a thug like Vladimir Putin he appears to be giving him a free pass as Russia continues to launch cyber operations and ransomware attacks against critical American infrastructure, threatening our economic and national security". Continue reading...

Houston made a generous offer to its own fans, while a DC United youngster stunned ChicagoWhen the Houston Dynamo learned that Lionel Messi did not travel with Inter Miami ahead of the teams' game on Sunday, they proceeded with a now-familiar playbook. Just like Chicago Fire and Vancouver Whitecaps did in similar Messi-less situations, the team apologized to their ticketholders, then bargained with them. Continue reading...

Looming end of TPS could wreak havoc in Ohio urban areas revitalised by immigrants from the Caribbean country

Howard Lutnick's remarks echo Elon Musk, who says government spending doesn't create value for US economy

Firefighters work to contain blaze in Carolina Forest as south-eastern states face increased fire dangerCrews on Sunday made progress containing a wildfire in South Carolina's Carolina Forest, where residents had been ordered to evacuate several neighborhoods, according to Horry county fire rescue.Video showed some people running down the street as smoke filled the sky. But by late Sunday afternoon, the fire department announced that evacuees of Carolina Forest - which is west of the coastal resort city of Myrtle Beach - could return home.Associated Press contributed reporting Continue reading...

The recent wave of GOP-led bills comes as Trump becomes emboldened in orders against LGBTQ+ communitiesRepublicans in red states across the US have been pushing a slew of anti-LGBTQ+ measures targeting same-sex marriages with an aim of ultimately securing a supreme court ban on the federally protected right.The recent wave of Republican-led bills targeting same-sex marriage comes amid a second Donald Trump presidency in which his administration has taken on more emboldened attacks against LGBTQ+ communities across the country, as seen through a flurry of executive orders he signed, assailing various LGBTQ+ rights. Continue reading...

Jean-Noel Barrot says pause could test whether Vladimir Putin is acting in good faith. Plus, Anora sweeps Oscars Don't already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up hereGood morning.The French foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, has suggested that a month-long truce in Ukraine could test whether the Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, was acting in good faith.What has Zelenskyy said since? Zelenskyy has tried to move on from Friday's turbulent meeting in the Oval Office, saying it was best left to history", as he signalled Ukraine's inclination to sign a minerals deal with the US and hoped for constructive" talks with Washington in future.What else has happened in the region? A 70-year-old man was killed and others injured in a knife attack in the northern Israeli city of Haifa on Monday morning. Continue reading...

The world's most admired democracy is being held hostage by a clique of far-right thugs. It would be a mistake to placate themIt's not only about Donald Trump. It's not just about saving Ukraine, or defeating Russia, or how to boost Europe's security, or what to do about an America gone rogue. It's about a world turned upside down - a dark, fretful, more dangerous place where treaties and laws are no longer respected, alliances are broken, trust is fungible, principles are negotiable and morality is a dirty word. It's an ugly, disordered world of raw power, brute force, selfish arrogance, dodgy deals and brazen lies. It's been coming for a while; the US president is its noisy harbinger.Take the issues one at a time. Trump is a toxic symptom of the wider malaise. For sure, he is an extraordinarily malign, unfeeling and irresponsible man. He cares nothing for the people he leads, seeing them merely as an audience for his vulgar showmanship. His undeserved humiliation of Ukraine's valiant leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, was, he crowed, great television". As president, Trump wields enormous power and influence. But Potus is not omnipotent. America's vanquished Democrats are slowly finding their voice. Connecticut senator Chris Murphy shows how it should be done. Don't bite your lip. Don't play by rules Trump ignores. When Trump tried to blame diversity hiring policies for January's deadly Potomac midair collision, Murphy hit back fiercely.Simon Tisdall is the Observer's foreign affairs commentator Continue reading...