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The violent repression of protests reflects a wider trend as Africa's younger voters lose faith in independence-era partiesThe bullet ripped through the young man's face, scattering his teeth in a pool of blood on the concrete floor. As more gunshots rang through the air, the joyous sounds of thousands of people who had gathered in central Maputo on 9 January turned to screaming. On my video camera, I continued filming, even as I too started running.We had known this might happen. Three months earlier, Mozambicans went to the polls in elections that have already changed the course of my country's history.Estevao Chavisso is a journalist based in Mozambique, where he is the coordinator of Lusa, Portugal's national news agency Continue reading...

A foreign billionaire is running the state through a shadow government without formal checks - the constitutional order, now, is largely window dressingIt's one of the humiliations of our historical moment that the constitutional order has been destroyed by such stupid and unserious people. On the trail with Donald Trump, the billionaire Elon Musk, who financed Trump's campaign to the tune of about $250m, pledged to cut $2tn from the federal budget, a project that promised to wreck the economy, destroy the nation's credit, eliminate programs and institutions that structure people's lives and create an international economic and leadership vacuum into which America's rivals - namely, China - could step.This would have been ominous enough on its own. But because Musk is a narcissist and a nerd - because he insists on discarding solemnity and being ostentatiously irreverent and carefree as he destroys people's lives - he named his new project the department of government efficiency," or Doge, a juvenile reference to a years-old internet meme featuring a Shiba Inu.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

The former quarterback been hit with the problem that often plagues great players: what is intuitive to him is not intuitive to everyone elseTom Brady will face one of the biggest tests of his career in the Super Bowl on Sunday. He is no longer charged with deciding games with his arm but he will be in the booth to analyze the game for an anticipated US audience of 120 million as Fox's lead analyst.For millions of those viewers, Sunday will be the first time they have heard from Brady since he played in a Super Bowl, was roasted on Netflix or was fodder for the tabloids. He will be tasked with navigating the longest broadcast of his career knowing that, with the Kansas City Chiefs chasing an unprecedented three-peat, his words will live in perpetuity. You can already foresee the social media outbursts and the heads slowly turning at your Super Bowl party: Is that what Tom Brady sounds like? He is not very good at this, is he?"There is a lot on the line this game for both clubs"I always hated playing defenses that played well"The last thing Commanders fans wanted there was a fumble"This game is about the games within the game"In the playoffs, things are tougher"This team needs more juice"What a stud"Now here is a stud"They just have more studs"The Eagles are playing with more juice"They don't have enough juice"In the playoffs, it's about the Jimmies and Joes"That's playoff football" Continue reading...

The monarch's new doc raises many questions. Why Amazon? Will it compete with Harry and Meghan - or Clarkson's Farm?So King Charles is working on a feature-length documentary for Amazon Prime Video, which will apparently detail his philosophy on how to transform people, places and ultimately the planet". Times have changed. Before, you waited years for a royal TV project - now they all come along at once.The royal documentary of old was a rare event, eagerly looked forward to, cherished and lovingly analysed - by royalists at least - for years to come: think of the BBC and ITV's Royal Family in 1969. Now they're ubiquitous, what with Harry and Meghan's Netflix programmes - including how to lay a dining table in someone else's house in California by Meghan - not to mention Channel 5's endless Saturday night royal documentaries.Stephen Bates is a former Guardian royal correspondent and author of Royalty Inc: Britain's Best-known Brand Continue reading...

If Trump executes his plans, it's because the media helped pave the way. It's beyond time for more of my colleagues to speak upThey make a desert and call it peace," said Tacitus, paraphrasing Calgacus.Israel, meanwhile, has made a graveyard of Gaza, and Donald Trump is calling it a real estate opportunity. The president, as you will know, has decided the US should just take over the Gaza Strip. As for the Palestinians who are inconveniently there at the moment? According to Trump, they can just be moved somewhere else. They can be dumped in Jordan or Egypt or Saudi Arabia. They won't mind. Those Arabs are all the same anyway. Continue reading...

Those who celebrate his defiance and sadism are as claimed by his logic as those who are paralyzed with outrageAs Trump delivers a series of devastating and appalling executive orders and public pronouncements every day, it has never been more important to avoid being captured by his obscenity and focus on how the issues are interconnected.It is easy to forget or sideline the executive orders of the previous week: bans on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and discourse as well as gender ideology" in all federally funded programing, as new obscenities flood the news cycle. Threats of deportation to international students who engage in legitimate protest; expansionist designs on Panama and Greenland and proposals to take over the total and forcible displacement of Palestinians in Gaza from their land are announced in quick succession. In each case, Trump makes the declaration as a show of power, testing to see whether it can take effect. The executive orders can be stopped by courts, but the deportation of immigrants has already begun, as has the re-opening of the grotesque camps of Guantanamo. Continue reading...

The US president's plan to expel 2 million Palestinians from Gaza clashes with his desire to be a dealmaker. He should push for a Palestinian state insteadDonald Trump's proposal to expel all 2 million or more Palestinians from Gaza is so mind-bogglingly outrageous that it seems designed to stun us into paralyzed acquiescence. It is the latest example of the US president's tendency to normalize the unthinkable, to bring ideas that were rightly considered beyond the pale and force them into the realm of policy discussion. Yet there are plenty of reasons to overcome our shock and reject this appalling scheme.It does have its supporters. The Israeli far right is salivating at the proposition. It has long sought to solve" the Palestinian problem by getting rid of the Palestinians. No wonder Benjamin Netanyahu, sitting next to Trump during their White House press conference, could barely contain his glee. Continue reading...

Benjamin Netanyahu called it groundbreaking' thinking, but it isn't. It is idiocy that will make a bad situation worse

Class action also alleges prison officials knew of Dr Scott Lee's abuse of incarcerated women for years, but did not act

This blog has now closed. Read our latest story hereDonald Trump will sign an executive order to prevent transgender athletes from competing in women's sports at 3pm today, the White House said.Dubbed No Men in Women's Sports", the order will change how the administration interprets Title IX, a civil rights law that addresses sex discrimination at schools that receive federal funding, including in athletics. Continue reading...

Meeting on Wednesday underscores political tightrope Gavin Newsom must walk to secure assistance for stateGavin Newsom met with Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday, as the California governor seeks federal disaster aid for the Los Angeles communities devastated by recent wildfires.The Oval Office meeting, less than two weeks after the president pledged, during a visit to survey the damage in Los Angeles, to help the city rebuild, underscores the political tightrope Newsom must walk to secure desperately needed assistance for his state at a moment when his party - and many of his constituents - are demanding their leaders take a stronger stand against the new administration. Continue reading...

Attorney general Rob Bonta tells Guardian that health providers have duty to provide gender-affirming treatment amid Trump attacksAs Donald Trump seeks to block transgender youth healthcare across the country, California's attorney general has sent a clear message to providers, reminding them of their duty to provide gender-affirming treatment under the state's nondiscrimination laws.The law requires [hospitals] to continue to provide gender-affirming care to our transgender community," Rob Bonta, a Democrat who heads the California justice department, told the Guardian on Wednesday. We will have the transgender community's back. We will fight for their rights, for their protections, for their freedoms." Continue reading...

News comes after nearly a thousand contractors laid off or furloughed, and USAid website and X account removedThousands gathered at the US Capitol on Wednesday after the shock announcement on Tuesday evening that the US Agency for International Development (USAid) was putting nearly all of its employees on leave and recalling thousands of officers from their postings abroad.The news came only days after nearly a thousand contractors were laid off or furloughed, the USAid website was taken down, and its X account was deleted. Continue reading...

Samy Arbid's home was spared by the Altadena fire, but he returned to find it was occupied by a black bearFor those lucky enough to have homes to return to in Altadena, going home meant dealing with unfinished chores left behind when the Eaton fire forced them to evacuate. For some, that meant paying overdue bills or cleaning out freezers filled with rotting food, all in the midst of trauma and toxic surroundings.For Samy Arbid, who had moved into a home just a block from the fire line in November, there was a different kind of obstacle: a 525lb black bear. Continue reading...

Order to reinterpret anti-discrimination rules is latest move by Trump administration to roll back trans rightsDonald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday banning transgender athletes from participating in women's sports, the latest in a slew of moves rolling back the rights of trans people.The order establishes stricter mandates on sports and gender policy, directing federal agencies, including the Department of Justice, to interpret federal Title IX rules as the prohibition of transgender girls and women from participating in any female sports categories. Continue reading...

For those lucky enough to have a place to return to in Altadena, going home meant dealing with unfinished chores left behind when the Eaton fire forced them to evacuate. For Samy Arbid, who had moved into a property just a block from the fire line in November, there was a different kind of challenge: a 525lb (240kg) black bear. It had moved into the crawl space under the house before the fire and was still sheltering there when Arbid and his wife returned. The California wildfire department stepped in to help, luring the bear out with treats after deciding it was too big to tranquillise. The bear's new home is much more appropriate: the Angeles national forest Continue reading...

Texas judge says he cannot approve deal between families who won suits over false remarks about 2012 mass shootingA bankruptcy judge has blocked a proposed settlement between the families of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting victims who sued conspiracy theorist Alex Jones over his false remarks about the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school.On Wednesday, judge Christopher Lopez of the US bankruptcy court for the southern district of Texas said he was unable to approve the proposed settlement between the families and Jones's bankruptcy trustee. Lopez claimed that their efforts to divide Jones's assets exceeded his court's authority. Continue reading...

Two-week strike begins as union for King Soopers alleges surveillance of workers and pushes to gut health benefitsTen thousand workers at Kroger-owned King Soopers grocery stores in Colorado begin a two-week unfair labor practice strike on Thursday.The union, United Food and Commercial Workers local 7, whose contract expired last month, voted 96% in favor of authorizing the strike. Continue reading...

President's plan for US to take over Gaza Strip and move Palestinians out also rejected by allies Saudi Arabia and Jordan

Judge rules Trump's executive order discriminates against trans people and violates their constitutional rightsA US judge has temporarily blocked federal prisons from transferring transgender women to men's facilities and barring their access to hormone therapy, halting one of Donald Trump's executive orders seeking to erode trans rights behind bars.A lawsuit filed last week by three incarcerated trans women challenged Trump's anti-trans order, which directed the US bureau of prisons to make sure males are not detained in women's prisons or housed in women's detention centers" and that no federal funds go to gender-affirming treatment or procedures for people in custody. Continue reading...

Arab Americans for Trump' group rebrands itself while activists also criticize Biden and Harris's support of Israel

Senior figures have reservations over agreement to cede sovereignty over islands to Mauritius, Labour sources saySenior Downing Street figures have concerns about the government's deal to cede sovereignty over the Chagos Islands, Labour sources have told the Guardian.Ministers are under fire over an agreement to hand control of the islands, including Diego Garcia, which houses a joint US-UK airbase, to Mauritius. Under the terms of the deal, the base would remain under UK control on a 99-year lease. Continue reading...

The US's former allies must not normalise or legitimise the president's lawless concept of international deal-makingNothing about Donald Trump's notion that Gaza should come under US control makes sense according to established laws and norms of international relations. But the current White House regime despises the old way of doing things and intends to reshape the world so drastically that restoration of a pre-Trumpian order will be impossible.The absurd incoherence of Mr Trump's proposal that the US take over" Gaza doesn't make it any less sinister. The requirement that 2.2 million Palestinians be forcibly resettled in neighbouring Arab states amounts to unambiguous endorsement of a criminal atrocity - ethnic cleansing. Continue reading...

Lawsuit claims Trump's orders violate the constitution and cause confusion and disruptions on college campusesHigher education groups, including college professors and university diversity officers, are suing the Trump administration over its executive orders eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) positions in government and the president's threats to suspend funding to institutions because of their DEI policies.Education officers and organizations are teaming up with non-profits and local governments to challenge the executive orders. The basis of the lawsuit filed on Monday is the stance that Trump's orders violate the US constitution. Continue reading...

Move comes amid Trump's overturn of Title IX guidance, limiting schools' liability in sexual misconduct cases

Judge said no US court had endorsed Trump's reading of the 14th amendment and her court will not be the first'

Gwynne Wilcox says her dismissal from National Labor Relations Board was blatant violation' of lawA former member of the top US labor watchdog has sued Donald Trump over her firing last week, describing it as an unprecedented and illegal" attempt to strip the agency of its independence.Gwynne Wilcox said her removal from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) was a blatant violation" of the National Labor Relations Act in a lawsuit against the president and Marvin Kaplan, whom Trump installed to chair the watchdog. Continue reading...

Plane departed Texas and landed in Amritsar as Washington prepares to welcome Indian PM Narendra ModiA US military plane carrying 104 deported people has landed in India as part of the Trump administration's policy of deploying the armed forces to enforce its trumpeted mass deportation programme.The migrants, the first to be flown to India by military aircraft, were sent on a C-17 aircraft from San Antonio in Texas to the northern Indian city of Amritsar. Continue reading...

One person was killed and five injured in what police call a targeted type of attack' near ColumbusAuthorities in Ohio on Wednesday arrested a suspect they said killed at least one person and injured five others during a shooting on Tuesday night at a warehouse in a Columbus suburb.New Albany police said Bruce Reginald Foster was detained when officers executed a search warrant at a residence in the Weinland Park neighborhood of the city at about 10am. The police chief, Greg Jones, said Foster was a worker at the cosmetics warehouse. Continue reading...

Neil Jacobs was acting Noaa chief and came under fire after Trump altered a projected hurricane impact map in 2019Donald Trump has nominated Neil Jacobs to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, turning to the man who was his acting Noaa chief in 2019 when Trump altered an expected hurricane impact map in what became known as the Sharpiegate" scandal.After Alabama meteorologists had contradicted an earlier Trump tweet warning of the state being in a storm's path, the Jacobs-led agency chastised them. That eventually drew criticism of Jacobs and his political higher-ups in a Department of Commerce inspector general's report on Sharpiegate. Continue reading...

Europe's biggest firm, whose sales of Wegovy almost doubled, feels it can meet demands' of US administrationEurope's biggest company, Novo Nordisk, has rebuffed fears of a hit to its business from Donald Trump's threatened tariffs as sales of its weight-loss drug Wegovy almost doubled.Since the US president took office, he has imposed tariffs on Mexico and Canada - since paused for a month - and China, and has said levies of imports from the EU will definitely happen". Continue reading...

Representatives of department of government efficiency' set sights on latest target in federal agency overhaul

'We remain here, even if it means living on the rubble of our homes,' said one Palestinian in Rafah, as Gaza residents condemned Trump's proposal for the US to take long-term ownership of the strip.

A court has allowed one of state's largest centers to resume operations, weeks after reports Ice wants to build new onesAs the Trump administration scrambles for space to hold detained immigrants, California - the country's largest sanctuary state - is in the crosshairs.Last week, a court ruling allowed one of the state's largest detention centers to resume holding immigrants, reversing a pandemic-era decision that reduced its population to just two people. That ruling came weeks after reports emerged that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) was seeking to establish a new facility in northern California, even as allegations of abuse at the privately run sites continue to accumulate. Continue reading...

President's comments, which in effect endorsed ethnic cleansing, have been condemned globally. Plus, CIA reportedly offers to buy out its staff

The president's appalling threat to seize Gaza and drive out its people imperils global stability, even if he never deploys a single US soldierThe comments were brazen, swaggering, jaw-dropping, audacious, and, to many, simply outrageous. Stupefaction mondiale" was how the French paper Liberation responded on Wednesday morning. The sober-sided New York Times contented itself with improbable". A US senator gave voice to what will surely become a drumbeat charge across the Middle East and beyond in the hours and days to come, that what Donald Trump had said about Gaza amounted to ethnic cleansing by another name".On Tuesday, at the end of his White House meeting with Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, President Trump declared that the US should seize control of the Gaza Strip and permanently remove its 2.2 million Palestinian inhabitants to resettlement in places such as Egypt and Jordan. The US would own it and be responsible", said Trump. We'll take it over and develop it," he added. There would be unlimited numbers of jobs and housing" for the people of the area" - though which people they would be was not specified. Gaza would be turned into the Riviera of the Middle East". Continue reading...

The Maga kingpin has only been president for a couple of weeks, but the chaos he has unleashed is already much worse than I thought it could be. I'm genuinely frightenedThe day after Donald Trump won the election, everyone in my liberal corner of Philadelphia seemed shell-shocked. At preschool drop-off, a mom burst into tears. At the playground, a gay parent I know told me that they were aggressively downsizing in case they had to flee the country. Meanwhile, I felt oddly sanguine and thought people were being a tad dramatic. I rolled my eyes about Ellen DeGeneres relocating to England. I was optimistic that Trump 2.0, while horrific, wouldn't actually be the end of US democracy.This was an unusual attitude for me, because catastrophising is one of my main pastimes. I spent about 10 minutes this morning staring at a red dot that has appeared on my nose, wondering if it meant I was dying. But when Trump won the election, I was already too emotionally drained from a year of watching Joe Biden help turnGaza into an unliveable hellscape to worry about things gettingeven worse. Continue reading...

Kim Caldwell was back on the sideline days after childbirth. But experts say the decision of when to return to work is a personal oneTennessee's women's basketball head coach Kim Caldwell didn't manage to beat South Carolina on 27 January (but truly: who can?). But she did manage to surprise a lot of people by choosing to return to the sidelines just a week after giving birth to her first child (and after having battled the flu at the same time).Caldwell, who is in her first year of coaching the Lady Vols, told reporters she would be back for the game in a press conference the day before. She had missed the team's 23 January game against Texas, something she said was not great." Continue reading...

Questions linger for director of counterintelligence nominee, Joe Kent, over ties to white nationalists and employment with shadowy military contractorDonald Trump's pick for the head of US counterintelligence has advocated for the FBI to surveil antifa" groups, and has lingering questions over millions of dollars in campaign finances, his employment with a shadowy military contractor and links to far-right figures.Joe Kent, twice an unsuccessful congressional candidate in south-west Washington state and a former Green Beret and CIA operative, has also been criticized for his proximity to white nationalist activists such as Nick Fuentes, and for the revolving cast of far-right activists his campaigns employed. Continue reading...

This moral failure and sends a clear message - the government prioritizes deterrence over dignity and cruelty over compassionIn a move that has reignited outrage, the president, Donald Trump, signed an executive order to expand the Migrant Operations Center at Guantanamo Bay, aiming to detain up to 30,000 immigrants labeled as high-priority criminal aliens". For many, including myself, this decision is a painful reminder of the facility's dark history - a history marked by torture, indefinite detention and systemic dehumanization.Guantanamo Bay, a name synonymous with human rights abuses, was first repurposed in 2002 under then president George W Bush and defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld as a detention center for individuals branded as the worst of the worst". I was among those detainees - abducted, shackled and transported like cargo, blindfolded and unaware of my fate. The memories of roaring military planes, soldiers barking orders and the growls of attack dogs still haunt me.Mansoor Adayfi is the author of Don't Forget Us Here Continue reading...

US president has already caused trouble abroad and at home with incoherent ideas about Middle East politics

Kansas City have all the ingredients needed for bad guys: victories, dubious calls and unlikable players. But they're also exactly what sports needThe term Chiefs fatigue, already in heavy use throughout the season, has only become more common the closer we get to Sunday's Super Bowl. The team's pursuit of a three-peat with a quarterback on pace to break all sorts of records for some reason doesn't do it for most people outside Kansas City.That so many teams (ahem, the Bills) have come so close to unseating the Chiefs only to head home in despair, means frustration and anger is naturally directed at the winner. But is it really fair to cast Kansas City as the NFL's leading villain? Continue reading...

The LSU star and one of America's most media-savvy athletes drew criticism for her call for more maximum scores. But she promises she has the sport's best interests at heartLivvy Dunne is worried about the future of women's college gymnastics. The NIL powerhouse, who has scored major brand deals with Vuori and American Eagle, among others, has started her final season with the national champion LSU Tigers. But she's made the biggest splash in this young season on social media by posting on X over her concerns over the popularity of gymnastics.I'm sitting here watching NCAA gymnastics and the empty seats are concerning," she wrote in a note on X last week. If you want fans to enjoy the sport and increase viewership, you have to look at what makes the crowds go crazy! People understand what a perfect 10 is and want people who do things that look great to be rewarded." Continue reading...

In the White House's venerable East Room, it became clear that Trump 2.0 is entering a dangerously expansionist phase

Nothing prepared me for the reality of mothering without my extended family to help. How have western women managed like this for so long?I hear the baby crying in my sleep. My mother hands him to me. I sit up to breastfeed without opening my eyes then I hand him back. I know that when I am ready to get out of bed, there will be fruits and katogo, a meal of plantain mixed with all the fatty meat cuts my mother could lay her hands on, waiting for me. Or I could choose to have porridge. It is sacrilege to have a nakawere (new mother) in the house and not have a flask of hot porridge available for her all day. Nakawere ... the syllables are pronounced slowly, and the word must roll off your tongue with awe at the woman who just went through the remarkable ordeal of bringing life.Replaying my new mum experience became my favourite pastime when I moved from Uganda to Switzerland in May last year. I moved with my husband and two children, aged six and 12, because I found my dream job in health advocacy. I was not ready for the parenting nightmare that came with it. While I had lived in Europe before, including in the UK in my 20s, I had never had to live outside Uganda with my family. Nothing prepared me for the reality of mothering without the extended family to help take care of you, and the nonchalance with which the western world treats mothers. Continue reading...

With Trump back in the White House, politicians on both sides of the Channel need to acknowledge the urgency of closer tiesFive years since leaving the European Union, Britain is still negotiating Brexit. This time next year, Britain will still be negotiating Brexit. And for every foreseeable year after that.That isn't a comment on the scope of the reset" in relations that Starmer outlined at a Brussels summit this week. It is a statement of fact that Britain is tethered to the EU by forces of geography, economics and geopolitics, and those factors didn't cease to exist when membership of the club was terminated. And since the European project is always evolving in response to global events, Britain will also continually seek adjustment to the terms of the relationship.Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Trump hopes to secure rare earth resources from Ukraine as part of a deal for US aid