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As EU countries face multiple challenges in a new era, they must fight to preserve the continent's social model. That means a new economic approachMore than a year after the election that handed Donald Trump a decisive comeback victory, the Democratic party has still not released its postmortemanalysis. But last week, an influential progressive lobby group published its own. Kamala Harris's campaign, its authors argued, failed to connect with core constituencies because it did not focus enough on addressing basic economic anxieties. By prioritising the menace to democracy that Maga authoritarianism represented, progressives neglected the bread-and-butter issues that were uppermost in many people's minds.As the EU braces for a tumultuous period of politics between now and the end of the decade, that is a lesson that needs to be fully absorbed in Brussels, Paris and Berlin. The White House, as its recently published national security strategy makes clear, is hopeful that patriotic" parties in Europe will soon replicate Mr Trump's success. In the EU's Franco-German engine room, Marine Le Pen's National Rally (RN) and Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) lead the polls, backed by large swaths of blue-collar voters. But among mainstream leaders and parties, it is hard to discern a response that is adequate to troubling times. Continue reading...

President's statement blaming acclaimed director's death on his dislike of him described as disgusting' and vile'Celebrities and lawmakers from both of the US's major political parties are condemning Donald Trump after the president blamed the death of Rob Reiner on what he described as the acclaimed Hollywood director's dislike of him.After the apparent killings of Reiner, 78, and his 68-year-old wife, Michele, who were found dead at their home Sunday in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles, Trump took to social media to call the director tortured and struggling". Trump also claimed Reiner died due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind-crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME". Continue reading...

We want to hear from people about the news moments that were a ray of light in among the more difficult headlines and bad news storiesThough there have been many challenging news stories this year, we'd like to hear about the headlines that lifted your mood.What was a moment in 2025 that stood out for you as a ray of light? Do you have a story that gave you hope or brought you happiness? What is your favorite positive news story of the year? Continue reading...

Hilda Ramirez Sanan and her two US citizen children were illegally and forcefully detained', the lawsuit allegesA US immigrant with legal status and her two American children have filed a lawsuit against ICE, after they were hospitalized following a violent" and unlawful" detention in Massachusetts.Hilda Ramirez Sanan, a green card holder who has lived in the United States for more than 20 years, and her two US citizen children were illegally and forcefully detained", the lawsuit alleges. Continue reading...

FBI director said his agency helped detain person of interest' in Brown shooting - who was released hours laterKash Patel, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, is once again facing criticism for rushing to social media to tout his agency's work on tracking down a person of interest in a shooting prematurely.After a shooter killed two and injured nine at Brown University on Saturday, Patel, a lawyer and rightwing commentator before his job in the administration, posted on X that his agency had helped detain a person of interest in a hotel room" in Coventry, Rhode Island, acting off a lead from the Providence police. Continue reading...

Danny Ceisler's defeat in sheriff's race of incumbent who had signed an agreement to work with ICE sends a message on US's contentious debate around immigration policyOnly 40 miles north of Philadelphia, Bucks county has gained a reputation as the swingiest" county in the swing state of Pennsylvania and one of the most pivotal political bellwethers in the country.Party registration in the county is almost evenly split among Democrats and Republicans. Joe Biden won it in 2020, Donald Trump triumphed there in 2024. November's elections there were local - but a hot race for county sheriff drew much wider attention as a microcosm for America's contentious debate around immigration policy - and the result signaled a shake-up in how the county approaches enforcement. Continue reading...

Law enforcement and public health experts worry that potential cuts to resources that save lives and stop the flow of drugs into the state could raise overdose deathsThe Trump administration's proposed cuts in federal funding for law enforcement and public health agencies could have a devastating impact on Alaska, which a Guardian analysis found has struggled to curtail overdose deaths even amid a general decline in national overdose fatalities.Law enforcement and public health experts are sounding the alarm as the Trump administration has prioritized waging its war on drugs" outside US shores, including with a controversial bombing campaign of fishing boats off the coast of Venezuela. Continue reading...

Spurs have faced low moments in their history, and this is one of them. How will the club respond in the post-Daniel Levy era?

Representative says her son was let go once he showed ID as Trump ramps up operation targeting Somali population in MinneapolisDemocratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar told a Minneapolis broadcaster that her son had been stopped over the weekend by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, after Donald Trump ordered an operation targeting the Minnesota city's Somali population.Yesterday, after he made a stop at Target, he did get pulled over by [ICE] agents, and once he was able to produce his passport ID, they did let him go," Omar said on Sunday in an interview with WCCO. Continue reading...

A person who was taken into custody after two people were killed and several more critically injured was later releasedTwo people have been killed and several more critically injured in a shooting at Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island. Here's what we know so far:A person in their 20s was taken into custody on Sunday morning, but then released later in the day. Police chief Col Oscar Perez declined to say whether the person of interest was the same person seen in surveillance footage released by authorities on Saturday. Officials did not name the person. The person was later released without charge as the authorities said the evidence took the investigation in a different direction".A shooter dressed in black killed at least two people and wounded nine others at Brown University during final exams on the Ivy League campus.Brown University president Christina Paxson confirmed that the two people killed were students. A shelter-in-place in effect for the area was lifted on Sunday morning.Eight people with gunshot wounds were taken to Rhode Island hospital, where seven were in critical but stable condition, Paxson said on Sunday. One person remains in a critical condition, she added. One other student was discharged from hospital on Saturday night and left with their parents, Paxson said.Providence's mayor Brett Smiley said he had visited the victims of the attack in hospital, praising their resilience and the efforts of emergency medical staff who treated them.The two slain have been identified by loved ones as Ella Cook, a second-year Brown student from Alabama, and MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, an Uzbek national in his first year of studies at the Ivy League institution. Cook was vice-president of Brown's chapter of College Republicans of America, and Umurzokov had dreams of becoming a neurosurgeon, those who knew them have said.The university announced that all remaining classes, exams, papers and projects were cancelled for the rest of the semester.Officials refused to say whether a gun used in the attack had been found. A small Glock handgun with a laser sight attached and a revolver were found in a hotel room where the person of interest was apprehended, federal law enforcement sources have told CNN.Law enforcement agencies were seen at a Hampton Inn hotel in Coventry, Rhode Island, roping off rooms as part of the investigation into the shooting. An FBI agent said the person of interest had been arrested at the hotel, which is a short drive from Brown University.The FBI used cellphone data to locate the person of interest, the agency's director Kash Patel said.Donald Trump paid tribute to the victims in the attack. Speaking at the White House, the US president said: I want to just pay my respects to the people, unfortunately two are no longer with us, Brown University, nine injured and two are looking down on us right now from Heaven." The president added: So to the nine injured: get well fast. And to the families of those two that are no longer with us: I pay my deepest regards and respects, from the United States of America. Thank you very much. It's a very important thing to say, and we mean it."The shooting occurred in the Barus and Holley building, a seven-story complex that houses the School of Engineering and physics department. According to the university's website, the building includes more than 100 laboratories, dozens of classrooms and offices. Brown, one of the America's most prestigious colleges, has roughly 7,300 undergraduates and more than 3,000 graduate students. Continue reading...

Scott Yenor, who has offered views on women, marriage and LGBTQ rights, helped to found secretive fraternal orderThe Heritage Foundation, an influential rightwing thinktank currently mired in controversy over its president's apparent apology for extremism, has appointed as a director the founder of a secretive all-male network of Christian nationalist fraternal lodges.Scott Yenor, appointed as Heritage's new director of the B Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies, has also recently offered ultra-conservative opinions on women, marriage and LGBTQ rights in recent podcast appearances and speaking engagements. Continue reading...

Variety of agencies now deliberately provocative on social media, further inflaming discourse on serious issuesWhen Donald Trump posted during his first term on what was then called Twitter, his attacks and rants differed significantly from US federal agency staff's more cautious and traditional approach on social media.For example, in January 2017, in response to scrutiny of one of the president's executive orders, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posted: We are & will remain in compliance with judicial orders. We are & will continue to enforce @POTUS's EO humanely and with professionalism." Continue reading...

At least two people were killed and nine others injured in Saturday attack that occurred in engineering building on Providence, Rhode Island campusA person of interest detained after a mass shooting at Brown University that killed two students and injured nine has been released after the investigation took law enforcement authorities in a different direction", officials said Sunday night.

In at least half a dozen states, librarians have joined forces with civil rights groups to oppose book bans, often facing personal and professional repercussionsFor decades, libraries served as a safe haven for many queer and marginalized youths in eastern Texas, says former county library director Rhea Young. Unlike the school cafeteria, the library was a space where they could explore and find acceptance in who they wanted to be.There were books where they can find characters like them, and realize it's okay to be who they are," Young said. There needs to be more places like that, not fewer." Continue reading...

Thousands of Jamaican workers who come to the US on an H-2A visa aren't sure if they'll be able to return from one year to the nextFarm worker Owen Salmon has picked apples in upstate New York for almost a decade, some 1,500 miles (2,400km) from home. In the midst of harvest season this year, Hurricane Melissa, a record-breaking category 5 hurricane, made landfall in Jamaica.It was terrifying," said Salmon, whose wife and two children were at home near Black River, a town on the country's south-western coast. For days, I couldn't hear from them. When I finally did, I heard my roof was completely gone. My wife and kids had to run for their lives, but thank God they're alive." Continue reading...

Federal funds helped Bogalusa address the deep roots of crime - but with the grant pulled, has momentum been lost for ever?Before the street outside her mother's home filled with gunfire, before panicked partygoers sprinted through the front yard, before she discovered that the body on the ground was a young man she had watched grow up, Khlilia Daniels knew something in Bogalusa had to change.It was December of 2022, and Daniels had spent the year watching her home town on Louisiana's border with Mississippi become a steadily more frightening place. Murders, once rare, now seemed to be happening almost every month, shootings every other week, and in a city of just over 10,000 people, that violence felt close, the losses personal. The victims and perpetrators were predominantly Black, usually young and too often cousins, neighbors or the children of friends, people whom Daniels would see around, until suddenly they were gone. Continue reading...

One alleged shooter was known previously to security agencies, the Australian PM said. Plus, what we know about the Assad family's new life after fleeing Syria last year

Congress must work to stop the president from leading us further into a South American quagmireDonald Trump seems determined to have a military confrontation with Venezuela. He has deployed a massive military arsenal in and around the Caribbean Sea and taken a series of provocative actions off the Venezuelan coast, justifying it as necessary to stem the flow of drugs into the United States.The Council on Foreign Relations says that deployment includes an aircraft carrier, destroyers, cruisers, amphibious assault ships, and a special forces support ship. A variety of aircraft have also been active in the region, including bombers, fighters, drones, patrol planes, and support aircraft." This is the largest display of American military might in the western hemisphere since we invaded Panama in 1989.Austin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell professor of jurisprudence and political science at Amherst College, is the author or editor of more than 100 books, including Gruesome Spectacles: Botched Executions and America's Death Penalty Continue reading...

The Colts quarterback was coaching high school football before his surprise return. And he showed brains are almost important as brawn at his positionIs quarterback the most demanding position in sports? It's close enough to make no difference: players must memorize a complicated playbook, orchestrate an entire offense, scan for open receivers while 280lb opponents sprint toward them with violent intent, and then thread a pass to a target who could be 30 yards downfield amid a crowd of defenders. Now try doing all that as a 44-year-old grandfather, exactly 1,800 days since you last started an NFL game.Philip Rivers broke that historic streak for the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday. The longest layoff before then belonged to another 44-year-old quarterback who returned to action after years out of the game, and some time in coaching - Steve Deberg for the Atlanta Falcons in 1998. Continue reading...

Culture is not immune from the advances of the hard right - but it isn't too late for resistanceInto the pale stone wall of the Kennedy Center, above its elegant terrace on the edge of the Potomac river, are carved bold and idealistic sentiments. This country cannot afford to be materially rich and spiritually poor. To further the appreciation of culture among all the people, to increase respect for the creative individual, to widen participation by all the processes and fulfillments of art - this is one of the fascinating challenges of these days." Those are the words of John F Kennedy, after whom the US's national performing arts centre is named. The impulse to build it came from Dwight D Eisenhower; it was given JFK's name after his assassination; and it opened in 1971, to the music of Leonard Bernstein and the choreography of Alvin Ailey, in the presidency of Richard Nixon. The Kennedy Centre, in short, was designed to be bipartisan, a place of gathering for Democrats and Republicans alike, a proud showcase of the best of America's dance, opera and music.For 50 years it carefully trod that line, its board balanced by members of Congress from both sides of the political divide. But it turns out it can take just months to unravel half a century of high-minded purpose.Charlotte Higgins is the Guardian's chief culture writer Continue reading...

The director and actor, who has been found dead at home with wife Michele Singer Reiner, had a celebrated career spanning Stand By Me, All In The Family, The Princess Bride, This is Spinal Tap and the beloved romcom When Harry Met Sally

Donald Trump addressed shooting as politicians urged action to improve gun controls - key US politics stories from Sunday at a glanceDonald Trump on Sunday paid his respects to two people killed and nine who were injured in a shooting at Brown University.Before we begin, I want to just pay my respects to the people, unfortunately two are no longer with us, Brown University, nine injured and two are looking down on us right now from Heaven," the president told guests at a holiday reception at the White House. Continue reading...

Trump praises Vince Haley, his ex-speechwriter tasked with creating Arc de Triomphe knockoff amid affordability crisisAmid concerns that he has failed to address a worsening affordability crisis, with health insurance premiums about to spike dramatically for over 20 million Americans, Donald Trump revealed on Sunday that his domestic policy chief's main priority is building a triumphal arch for Washington DC.Speaking at a White House holiday party, the president praised Vince Haley, his former speechwriter and a longtime aide to Newt Gingrich who now leads the White House Domestic Policy Council. Continue reading...

As federal agents target families, teens are left to care for siblings - from accessing bank accounts to medical recordsVilma Cruz, a mother of two, had just arrived at her newly leased Louisiana home when federal agents surrounded her vehicle in the driveway. She had just enough time to call her oldest son before they smashed the passenger window and detained her.The 38-year-old Honduran house painter was swept up in an immigration crackdown that has largely targeted Kenner, a New Orleans suburb with a large Hispanic population, where some parents at risk of deportation had rushed to arrange emergency custody plans for their children in case they were arrested. Continue reading...

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JetBlue pilot calls incident outrageous' and says US military refueling tanker didn't have transponder turned onA JetBlue flight from the small Caribbean nation of Curacao halted its ascent to avoid colliding with a US air force refueling tanker on Friday, and the pilot blamed the military plane for crossing his path.We almost had a midair collision up here," the JetBlue pilot said, according to a recording of his conversation with air traffic control. They passed directly in our flight path ... They don't have their transponder turned on, it's outrageous." Continue reading...

Senator Bill Cassidy urges collaboration between Democrats and his party after Senate rejected dual healthcare billsUS senator Bill Cassidy said on Sunday that there's a deal to be had" on tackling the rising cost of healthcare, suggesting he remained optimistic over bipartisan cooperation on the issue despite the recent failure of two competing proposals in the Senate.Speaking on CBS's Face the Nation, the Louisiana Republican and chair of the Senate healthcare committee encouraged collaboration, saying there has to be a meeting of the minds between Democrats" and members of his party. Continue reading...

The US president's claims to have ended eight conflicts look shakier than ever as conflict reignites in south-east Asia and the Democratic Republic of CongoWhen the hastily confected Fifa world peace prize was bestowed on Donald Trump last week, the ceasefire in the Thai-Cambodian border dispute was among the achievements cited. Mr Trump also boasted of having ended war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He brags of having brought eight conflicts to a close and has just had the US Institute of Peace renamed in his honour.Yet the truce between Thailand and Cambodia has already fallen apart. Half a million residents along the border have fled renewed fighting and civilians are among at least 27 people killed. Meanwhile, in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, at least 200,000 people have fled the advance of Rwanda-backed M23 rebels - days after a peace deal was signed in Washington. Continue reading...

In an economy that rewards confession and self-labeling, pain is no longer something to survive - but something to brand, sell, and curateIn March 2023, Dr Gabor Mate, a retired family physician and among the most respected trauma experts in the world, boldly diagnosed Prince Harry with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), during a live interview.Having read the Duke of Sussex's ghost-written memoir, Spare, Mate said that he had arrived upon several diagnoses" that also included depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. These were not evidence of disease per se, Mate went on to elaborate. Rather, he said: I see it as a normal response to abnormal stress." Continue reading...

The coming tech boom is about to launch a boom in people who do things with their hands and mindsWhen I was in college and didn't know what to do with my life, my dad offered this career advice: be a certified public accountant. Why?Because," he said. People will always need their taxes done. They'll always need financial advice. With a CPA license, you can always hang out a shingle and put food on the table." Continue reading...

With cheap drinks and friendly locals, Jimmy's Corner is a New York institution. But a real-estate developer has ordered its closure - can it survive?Founded by Jimmy Glenn, a former boxer turned trainer, in 1971, Jimmy's Corner has stood, defiantly unchanged, as Times Square has boomed around it.The neighborhood bar, a New York City institution which attracts locals and tourists alike, has had the same pictures on the walls for decades - some of the bar's regulars have been coming almost as long - kept the same furniture, and maintained remarkably low pricing. In a perhaps unintentional nod to its history, there is also several years' accumulation of dust in some areas. Continue reading...

Agency added Mary Carole McDonnell to Most Wanted list for loan fraud tied to phony heiress storyWhen Nigel Bellis went to work as a show runner for Bellum Entertainment in 2017, a friend gave him a warning: They have a habit of not paying on time."Bellis spent the next several months in New Orleans, helping churn out more than 50 episodes of a true-crime TV show called Murderous Affairs. Though his payments came late, they always arrived. So when the company's owner, Mary Carole McDonnell, offered him a new role in Los Angeles, he took it. Continue reading...

At least two people were killed and nine others wounded at Brown University in the US on Saturday, after a man dressed in black opened fire during final exams at one of the country's most prestigious colleges.Hundreds of police spent the night scouring the campus in Rhode Island and nearby neighbourhoods as the suspect remained at large Continue reading...

The president announces non-existent emergencies to invoke extraordinary powers - and neutralizes the oppositionThis month, we learned that, in the course of bombing a boat of suspected drug smugglers, the US military intentionally killed two survivors clinging to the wreckage after its initial air assault. In addition, Donald Trump said it was seditious for Democratic members of Congress to inform members of the military that they can, and indeed, must, resist patently illegal orders, and the FBI and Pentagon are reportedly investigating the members' speech. Those related developments - the murder of civilians and an attack on free speech - exemplify two of Trump's principal tactics in his second term. The first involves the assertion of extraordinary emergency powers in the absence of any actual emergency. The second seeks to suppress dissent by punishing those who dare to raise their voices. Both moves have been replicated time and time again since January 2025. How courts and the public respond will determine the future of constitutional democracy in the United States.Nothing is more essential to a liberal democracy than the rule of law - that is, the notion that a democratic government is guided by laws, not discretionary whims; that the laws respect basic liberties for all; and that independent courts have the authority to hold political officials accountable when they violate those laws. These principles, forged in the United Kingdom, adopted and revised by the United States, are the bedrock of constitutional democracy. But they depend on courts being willing and able to check government abuse, and citizens exercising their rights to speak out in defense of the fundamental values when those values are under attack.David Cole is the Honorable George J Mitchell professor in law and public policy at Georgetown University and former national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union. This essay is adapted from his international rule of law lecture sponsored by the Bar Council. Continue reading...

While acting on your moral convictions can be risky, it can also feel profoundly goodIn the eleven months since Donald Trump took office - during which he has unleashed unprecedented assaults on the checks and balances of American democracy - there has been a wave of warnings and advice from activists, writers and scholars who have either fought against authoritarian regimes or studied them closely. A common thread runs through much of their guidance: Americans, especially those in positions of power, must find the courage to stand up for what is right, even when doing so carries personal risk.Yet few have addressed the harder questions: how does one become courageous? How much of courage is innate, and how much is learned? And what can we do to help people find the courage to act?Yaqiu Wang is a Chinese human rights researcher and advocate. She is currently a fellow at University of Chicago's Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression. Continue reading...

Exclusive: group behind notorious Florida immigration detention center created bid for reconstruction dealTrump administration insiders and well-connected Republican businesses have been jostling to dominate pending humanitarian aid and reconstruction logistics in the shattered Gaza Strip, according to sources and documents reviewed by the Guardian.With three-quarters of Gaza's structures damaged or destroyed by two years of Israeli strikes, the rebuilding effort to come - estimated at $70bn by the United Nations - could be a rich prize for companies that specialize in construction, demolition, transportation and logistics. Continue reading...

National Labor Relations Board, the federal watchdog for workers' rights, has been rendered toothless as employees grapple with corporationsOn a cold January day in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, workers at a Whole Foods Market store in the heart of the city made history. Organizers won a vote to form a union for the very first time in one of the grocery chain's 530 US stores.Whole Foods is owned by Amazon, which has spent years quashing unionization efforts within its sprawling empire. This result amounted to another blow in the tech giant's armor. Continue reading...

Mia Tretta was shot in the abdomen in 2019 at a school near LA and Zoe Weissman witnessed a Florida shooting in 2018

This live blog is now closed. You can read more on this story herePolice said no weapons were recovered from the scene and the last sighting of the suspect was him leaving the Hope Street side of the building on foot.Timothy O'Hara, a deputy police chief, told a press conference that the suspect is a male dressed in black" who exited the complex at Brown University. Continue reading...

Cuban officials denounce the US seizure of the Skipper oil tanker off Venezuela's coast. Key US politics stories from 13 December 2025Cuban officials have denounced the US seizure of the Skipper oil tanker off Venezuela's coast on Wednesday, calling it an act of piracy and maritime terrorism", as well as a serious violation of international law" that hurts the Caribbean island nation and its people.The tanker, which was reported now to be heading for Galveston, Texas, was believed to loaded with nearly 2m barrels of Venezuela's heavy crude, according to internal data from the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, as reported by the New York Times. Continue reading...

The jailing of a Sudanese militia leader is an anomaly in a world where Putin, Netanyahu and yes, Hegseth, act without fear of international lawIt was a rare success for international courts struggling to resist a rising tide of official lawlessness. Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-al-Rahman, a leader of the notorious, government-backed Janjaweed militia that committed genocide in Sudan's Darfur region from 2003 to 2005, was jailed for 20 years last week by the international criminal court (ICC). He had been found guilty on 27 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.Although hundreds of militia were involved, Abd-al-Rahman, also known as Ali Kushayb, is the first person to be convicted of atrocities in Darfur, now again the scene of terrible violence in Sudan's civil war. The ICC has charged Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's president at the time, with genocide and war crimes. Ahmad Harun, a former minister, faces similar charges. But both men have evaded arrest. Continue reading...

Mayor of Providence, Rhode Island, says shooter' still at large, as officials embark on widespread manhunt

Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation signed deal in October, but president says tribe is now trying to exit contractA Native American tribe in Kansas is facing criticism from other tribal groups after its economic development subsidiary secured a $29.9m federal contract from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to design potential Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities.The development entity of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation signed the contract to design the detention facilities in October, leading to criticism that the tribal group, which was uprooted from the Great Lakes region to reservation lands north of Topeka, Kansas, in the 1830s, was itself benefiting from forced removals under the Trump administration. Continue reading...