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In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Trump robustly defended his health after the first year of his second term in office raised growing questions. Key US politics stories from 1 January 2026Donald Trump has denied falling asleep while attending public meetings and robustly defended his health after the first year of his second term in office raised growing questions.Trump, who at 79 is the oldest person to assume the US presidency, told the Wall Street Journal my health is perfect" and expressed frustration with scrutiny of his wellbeing. Continue reading...

Trump called the actor and his wife, Amal, two of the worst political prognosticators of all time' after they were awarded French passportsGeorge Clooney has lashed out at US president Donald Trump for criticising France's decision to grant the Hollywood actor and his family French citizenship.The 64-year-old Oscar winner, his wife, Amal Alamuddin Clooney, and their two children became French citizens earlier this month after living on a property in southern France for years. Continue reading...

Toby Morton now owns trumpkennedycenter.org, which advertises new year performance by the Epstein dancers'Donald Trump may be remaking the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts into a pool of his self-reflection, but a writer for South Park, the TV series that better reflects the obsessions and tendencies of the administration than any political pundit, has purchased the rights to trumpkennedycenter.org.Toby Morton, a TV writer and producer who has worked on the long-running and joyfully offensive sitcom, said he purchased the domain in August after predicting the president would change the name from the Kennedy Center to the Trump Kennedy Center after he installed himself as chair and stocked the board with loyalists. Continue reading...

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President tells Wall Street Journal in interview that his doctors encouraged him to take lower dose but he declinedDonald Trump takes more aspirin" than his doctors recommend but says his health is perfect", according to an interview given to the Wall Street Journal after the outlet recently questioned the 79-year-old president's health.Trump told the Journal that the large dose of aspirin he take daily causes him to bruise easily and that doctors have encouraged him to take a lower dose - but he declined the advice because he has been taking it for 25 years. Continue reading...

Abortion was seen as one of Democrats' strongest issues in the 2024 election - new polls indicate that may be shiftingUp to seven states will vote on abortion rights this year. But recent polling indicates that Democrats may not be able to count on the issue in their efforts to drive votes in the 2026 midterms, after making abortion rights the centerpiece of their pitch to voters in the elections that followed the fall of Roe v Wade.In 2024, 55% of Democrats said abortion was important to their vote, according to polling from the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). But in October of this year, just 36% of Democrats said the same. By contrast, abortion remained about as important to Republicans in both 2024 and 2025, PRRI found. PRRI's findings mirror a September poll from the 19th and SurveyMonkey, which found that the voters who cared most about abortion are people who want to see it banned. Continue reading...

Sheldon Whitehouse, an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board, remains undeterred and determined to press on with his investigationThat's the tactic they use," said Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island senator, pondering whether Donald Trump might attach his name to the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. You float stuff and you float stuff and you float stuff until people get inured to what a stupid or outrageous thing it is that has been floated and then you pull the trigger."Whitehouse was sitting in his Senate office and speaking to the Guardian at 11am on Thursday 18 December. Two hours later, his words proved prophetic. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, announced on X that the Kennedy Center board had voted unanimously" to rename it the Trump-Kennedy Center. Continue reading...

President auctioned off portrait painted live onstage and said his new year's resolution was peace on Earth'Donald Trump welcomed 2026 with a glitzy bash at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach where he auctioned off a freshly painted portrait of Jesus Christ for $2.75m and said his new year's resolution was a wish for peace on Earth".The portrait of Jesus had been painted onstage by artist Vanessa Horabuena who, the president said, was one of the greatest artists anywhere in the world". Continue reading...

Complaint argues Trump administration denying coverage of gender-affirming care is sex-based discriminationThe Trump administration is facing a new legal complaint from a group of government employees who are affected by a new policy going into effect Thursday that eliminates coverage for gender-affirming care in federal health insurance programs.The complaint, filed Thursday on the employees' behalf by the Human Rights Campaign, is in response to an August announcement from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) that it would no longer cover chemical and surgical modification of an individual's sex traits through medical interventions" in health insurance programs for federal employees and US Postal Service workers. Continue reading...

Afghanistan and Yemen excluded from list of 17 priority countries chosen by Trump administration to receive aid laden with demandsThe $2bn (1.5bn) of aid the US pledged this week may have been hailed as bold and ambitious" by the UN but could be the nail in the coffin" in changing to a shrunken, less flexible aid system dominated by Washington's political priorities, aid experts fear.After a year of deep cuts in aid budgets by the US and European countries, the announcement of new money for the humanitarian system is a source of some relief, but experts are deeply concerned about demands that the US has imposed on how the money should be managed and where it can go. Continue reading...

When I look at Mamdani, I don't see some radical departure. I see him an heir to the Yiddish socialism that helped build New YorkBillionaires raised fortunes against him. The president threatened to strip his citizenship. Mainstream synagogues slandered him as the spawn of Osama Bin Laden and Chairman Mao. But today, Zohran Mamdani became the first socialist mayor of New York City.For all the hysteria, when I look at Mamdani, I didn't see some radical departure from the past. I see him as the heir to an old and venerable Jewish tradition - that of Yiddish socialism - which helped build New York. Continue reading...

Democratic socialist mayor led historic push to lead New York, speaking on immigration, Trump and subway burritosZohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist who is now mayor of New York City, ran a campaign known for its soaring political rhetoric, its viral memes and its candidate's witty quips.Here are some of the quotes that came to define his historic push to lead one of the world's most important cities:New York will remain a city of immigrants: a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants, and, as of tonight, led by an immigrant. So hear me, President Trump, when I say this: to get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us.What I don't have in experience, I make up for in integrity. And what you don't have in integrity, you could never make up for with experience.No more will New York be a city where you can traffic in Islamophobia and win an election.It's pronounced cyclist'.I am young, despite my best efforts to grow older. I am Muslim. I am a democratic socialist. And most damning of all, I refuse to apologize for any of this.I don't think that we should have billionaires because, frankly, it is so much money in a moment of such inequality, and ultimately, what we need more of is equality across our city and across our state and across our country.I hear you. I see you. And if you're a burrito on the Q train, I eat you.If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him. So, if there is any way to terrify a despot, it is by dismantling the very conditions that allowed him to accumulate power. This is not only how we stop Trump, it's how we stop the next one. So, Donald Trump, since I know you're watching, I have four words for you: turn the volume up! Continue reading...

Today's newsletter looks at 10 superlative talents who are ready to take the next step in the coming 12 monthsAlara Sehitler, Bayern Munich and Germany (19): Sehitler's transition into Bayern Munich's first team has come as little surprise and the creative midfielder has established herself as a strong impact player for Jose Barcala's side. She has three Frauen Bundesliga goals this season and sparked Bayern's comeback against Arsenal in the Champions League. After making her senior debut for Germany in November 2024, she will be looking to establish herself as a regular for their upcoming 2027 World Cup qualifiers.Giulia Galli, Roma and Italy (17): Galli is widely regarded as one of the best young Italian talents to emerge for a long time and became Roma's youngest player to make her Serie A debut in May 2024, aged 16 and one month. Establishing herself in the senior squad this season, she scored her first club goal in September and has featured in the Champions League. After starring in Italy's sensational run to the semi-finals of last summer's Under-17 Euros, the talented forward played a significant role at the subsequent Under-17 World Cup, picking up the bronze boot. She will surely feature at this autumn's Under-20 World Cup. Continue reading...

As young people take on a messy dating landscape, they've created their own lexicon to match. Here's like what phrases bird theory' and monkey branching' meanThis year marked a decade since the term ghosting" hit the mainstream. At the time, the idea that someone could abruptly cease communication with a lover without explanation seemed like the peak of indignity. How naive we were. In the 10 years since, finding a partner has only become more confounding - an oftentimes fruitless exercise in humiliation that is increasingly pigeonholed by social media jargon.Gen Z, a cohort who came of age during a loneliness epidemic, a masculinity crisis, and a coordinated attack on the rights of women and the LGBTQ+ community, faces a far messier landscape than their millennial predecessors could ever imagine. And so their dating glossary has grown longer and more deranged, with phrases like Shrekking" and monkey branching" testing the limits of your sanity.Red flags - Behavioral quirks indicating a potential partner is bad news. Examples include calling their exes crazy, subpar tipping habits, a love of Woody Allen films, a burgeoning DJ career ...Green flags - These quirks validate your decision to pursue a mate. Examples include checking in to make sure you got home safe after a date, low screen time, owning a bed frame ...Beige flags - These usually describe niche, mostly benign quirks. Examples include being an enthusiastic birdwatcher, still carrying around a pen in their purse, paying rent in cash ... Continue reading...

From freezing rents to free buses and municipal grocery stores - a recap of the policies that won Mamdani the officeZohran Mamdani was sworn into office as New York's 111th mayor at the stroke of midnight, the first Muslim mayor as well as the first to take office as a Democrat bearing the credentials of a democratic socialist.The 34-year-old was sworn in by Letitia James, the state attorney general, in a disused subway station beneath city hall that acts as turnaround for the local 5 train, to be followed by a first-of-its-kind public block party along Broadway's Canyon of Heroes". Continue reading...

Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as mayor of New York City soon after midnight in a private ceremony in an abandoned beaux-arts subway station - a prelude to daylong celebrations to include a second, public swearing-in and a block party outside city hall Continue reading...

On the heels of another sports year that was chock full of surprises, Guardian US contributors make their bold predictions for the months to comeHere are our bold predictions for 2025 in sports. Please note the bold (or should that be bold?) in bold predictions: these are mostly to be taken with a pinch of salt.*** Continue reading...

In a season defined by chaos and turnarounds, the award should go not to surprise, but to the coach who solved the hardest problemsThe NFL's Coach of the Year award is simple. It typically serves as a mea culpa. We're sorry our preseason predictions about your team were wrong.In theory, it's a straight line: the coach who oversaw the biggest turnaround is handed the award. In practice, it's a yearly argument about expectations and whether we're rewarding actual coaching or just the greatest surprise. Continue reading...

The new mayor embraces social justice, and rejects hate and nationalism. That's why we're so excited to see what he'll do in officeOn a cold Saturday morning, a little over a week before the New York City mayoral election in November, I was at a park in Queens to speak at a fundraiser for Asiyah Women's Centre, the oldest and largest shelter providing support for American Muslim female victims of domestic violence. Vendors selling everything from chai to embroidered Palestinian handicrafts turned out to support the fundraiser; a DJ blasted music and artists painted children's faces with the colours of Halloween.I chose the vendor with the most protein on offer because I lift and squat more than my bodyweight and must meet a daily goal. Our kebab is one of Zohran's favourites," the man at the King of Kebab stand told me, proudly and unprompted, as he piled my plate with meat.Mona Eltahawy writes the FEMINIST GIANT newsletter. She is the author of The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls and Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution Continue reading...

US military announces two separate strikes on boats it claims were transporting drugs in the PacificThe US Coast Guard was searching for survivors of a US military strike against a convoy of suspected drug vessels in the Pacific Ocean, officials said on Wednesday.In a statement, the US military's Southern Command said the military had carried out a strike against three vessels. Continue reading...

Trump abruptly announced attempts to impose troops in some cities, while reportedly freezing childcare payments to all states - key US politics stories from 31 December at a glanceThe Trump administration has pushed through a flurry of actions on the final day of 2025, including drastic reversals on two high key issues.Donald Trump has abruptly retreated from efforts to deploy federal troops in Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland. The move marks a significant U-turn after months of tension between the federal government and local authorities. Continue reading...

Colorado lawmaker, who pushed for Epstein files release, points to bill's unanimous passage through US House and SenateRepublican representative Lauren Boebert has fired back at Donald Trump for vetoing a bill that would have funded a drinking water project in her Colorado district, implying the president was playing at political retaliation.The bill was aimed at funding a decades-long project to bring safe drinking water to 39 communities in Colorado's eastern plains, where the groundwater is high in salt and wells sometimes unleash radioactivity into the water supply. Continue reading...

Trump official says funds will be released only when states prove they are being spent legitimately'The Department of Health and Human Services is freezing all childcare payments to all states, an official for Donald Trump's administration told ABC News in a report published Wednesday. States' funds will be released only when states prove they are being spent legitimately".The report came a day after Jim O'Neill, the HHS deputy secretary, and Alex Adams, an HHS assistant secretary who oversees the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), appeared in a Tuesday evening video message. O'Neill declared that the department had activated our defend-the-spend system for all ACF childcare payments across America" and would now require justification, receipt or photo evidence before we make a payment". Continue reading...

Ex-special counsel testified in front of judiciary committee about aborted federal prosecution of Donald TrumpJack Smith, the former justice department special counsel who led the aborted federal prosecution of Donald Trump, told a congressional committee that he never spoke to Joe Biden about his cases, according to the transcript of a deposition released on Wednesday.In his behind-closed-doors testimony to the House judiciary committee earlier this month, Smith defended the charges he brought against Trump for allegedly possessing classified documents and attempting to overturn the 2020 election, while warning of the consequences of allowing election meddling to go unpunished. Continue reading...

Decision comes after DoJ stopped contesting California court's ruling to return control of guard to state's governorDonald Trump has staged a sudden climbdown from his attempts to impose federal troops in law enforcement roles on Democratic-run cities, announcing on Wednesday that he was ending attempted deployments from Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland.The unexpected shift came after justice department lawyers said they were no longer contesting a California court's ruling that returned the national guard troops to the authority of Gavin Newsom, the state's governor. It also followed a rare rebuke from the US supreme court, which blocked the White House's efforts to deploy national guards in Illinois. Continue reading...

Campaign will target rightwing ideologues to fill ranks to meet Trump deportation goals in 2026US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has reportedly planned a $100m, one-year media blitz for what it's calling wartime recruitment", targeting conservative radio show listeners, gun rights aficionados, military affairs followers and men's interests enthusiasts - among others in the Maga-verse - for jobs in the Trump administration's next phase of its mass deportation campaign.Want to deport illegals with your absolute boys?" one of the agency's ads says, directing interested readers to apply. Continue reading...

Resisted at first, the replacement for the subway token became an indelible symbol of the cityFirst, New Yorkers saw the elimination of subway token, which lasted for half a century. Now, its successor - the swipeable MetroCard, which lasted barely more than three decades - has seen its demise.At midnight on 1 January, the flexible credit card-sized pass used by millions of New Yorkers to get through subway turnstiles is being terminated from sale just as a new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, takes office. Continue reading...

Black and brown former employees from CBS, NBC and Teen Vogue talk about the effects of being let goTrey Sherman was traveling to work on the New York subway when he received an email from David Reiter, a CBS News executive, about an imminent meeting on 29 October. Sherman, an associate producer of CBS Evening News Plus at the time, suspected that he would be laid off. CBS News's parent company, Paramount, had closed a merger with the Hollywood studio Skydance in August, and planned to slash more than 2,000 jobs as part of corporate restructuring.Sherman, who is Black, and Reiter, who is white, had an amicable conversation, according to Sherman. Reiter told Sherman that he was being laid off because his show was being eliminated, Sherman said, and that Reiter was unable to assign the team to other positions. Sherman accepted the news and the two men wished each other good luck. Continue reading...

US president goes on racist tirade against lawmaker and Somali Americans, alleging fraud in industryDonald Trump took further aim at Minnesota's Democratic governor Tim Walz and the Somali American representative Ilhan Omar on Wednesday in the wake of his administration's decision to freeze federal childcare funding to their state.Much of the Minnesota Fraud, up to 90%, is caused by people that came into our Country, illegally, from Somalia," Trump alleged in a post on Truth Social, calling Omar an ungrateful loser who only complains and never contributes, is one of the many scammers". Continue reading...

Figure represents significant expansion on earlier estimates as Democrats accuse Trump officials of hiding something'The US justice department is believed to be reviewing more than 5m pages of documents relating to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein - an effort that is drawing resources away from existing cases, according to the New York Times.The figure represents a significant expansion on earlier estimates, which drew on calculations based on 300 gigabytes of data, papers, videos, photographs and audio files held within FBI archives that relate to investigations in Florida and New York. Continue reading...

Appeals court reversed injunction blocking Trump administration's defunding of reproductive healthcare giantA US appeals court agreed on Tuesday to allow the Trump administration to strip Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood health centers in 22 states and Washington DC.The order from the three-judge panel of the Boston-based first US circuit court of appeals puts on hold an injunction issued by US district judge Indira Talwani. Talwani's injunction had blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a provision of its massive tax-and-spending bill that blocks Planned Parenthood from receiving reimbursements from Medicaid, the US government's health insurance program for low-income people, in the 22 states. Continue reading...

In Eating Behind Bars, author Leslie Soble details how food is used to further punish incarcerated people in the USAt best you get mystery meat". Or sour-smelling heaps" of macaroni. In the worst cases, it's undercooked chicken, spoiled milk and maggot-infested produce.In prisons and jails across the US, people are routinely fed unhealthy, tasteless or inedible meals. Many are left hungry and malnourished, with devastating long-term health consequences. The hidden crisis affecting millions of incarcerated people is the subject of Eating Behind Bars, a new book offering a disturbing account of how correctional institutions punish their residents through the food they provide and withhold. Continue reading...

Bylaws that would limit voting to Trump-appointed trustees appears to reveal long-held renaming planThe Kennedy Center reportedly adopted bylaws earlier this year that would limit voting to Donald Trump-appointed trustees - a controversial move that appears to reveal the long-held plan to install Trump's name to the center.The bylaws, in a possible breach of the institution's charter, were revised in May and specified that board members appointed by Congress, known as ex-officio members, could not vote or count towards a quorum, according to the Washington Post. Continue reading...

Costs, insurance delays and difficult-to-obtain mental health treatment plague the US health systemA record 23 % of Americans believe the United States healthcare system is in a state of crisis" and 47% think it has major problems," according to a recent poll from the West Health-Gallup Center on Healthcare in America.The poll also revealed that a record 29% of Americans see cost" as the most urgent health problem facing the US. Experts note that these two perceptions - that the healthcare system is in a state of crisis and that costs are an urgent health problem - are related. Continue reading...

Democrat Muhammad Akbar Ali joins the Georgia state house as a legislator representing an Atlanta suburbMuhammad Akbar Ali, a 21-year-old recent college graduate, won a runoff election for a state house seat in Atlanta's suburbs earlier this month, becoming the youngest Georgia state legislator serving today - perhaps the youngest ever.The key to the young Democrat's victory and his strategy moving forward? Experience. Continue reading...

The Body Coach app, launched in pandemic, will advertise on ITV's channels and video platform ITVX under dealThe broadcaster ITV has agreed to invest up to 3m into the health and fitness app The Body Coach, created by Joe Wicks, who shot to fame by getting people exercising in their living rooms during the Covid pandemic.It is the latest deal made through the group's media for equity investment fund ITV AdVentures Invest. As part of the agreement, The Body Coach will advertise on ITV's channels and its video platform ITVX. Continue reading...

The Danish American who doubted Covid shots is meant to lead drug regulation - but has focused on vaccinesAs the US continues making unprecedented changes to its vaccination recommendations, one figure appears unexpectedly: Tracy Beth Hoeg, a Danish American sports physician and epidemiologist who first made her name casting doubt on Covid vaccines in the pandemic and has focused upon possible deaths after Covid vaccination in her short tenure at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).Health officials planned to announce radical changes to the childhood vaccine schedule earlier this month, aligning the US with Denmark's immunization schedule, sources say - a major change that would put the US out of step with much of the world with no evidence for benefit. The announcement has been postponed until the new year. Continue reading...

The US president and his allies spent 2025 attacking the Federal Reserve amid a rollercoaster year for the US economyIn the bowels of the US Federal Reserve this summer, two of the world's most powerful men, sporting glistening white hard hats, stood before reporters looking like students forced to work together on a group project.Allies of Donald Trump had spent weeks trying to manufacture a scandal around ongoing renovations of the central bank's Washington headquarters and its costs. Now here was the US president, on a rare visit, examining the project for himself. Continue reading...

US-made device planned by end of year hit by recent government shutdown affecting shipmentsTrump Mobile, the phone company launched by Donald Trump's family business, has pushed back plans to deliver a $499 (371) gold-coloured smartphone by the end of the year.The Trump Organization licensed its name to launch a mobile service and the device in June, in the latest monetisation of his presidency by a family business empire now run by Trump's sons. Continue reading...

Forty-seven men killed by states operating death penalty - almost double last year's numberUS executions have surged in 2025 to the highest level in 16 years, as Donald Trump's campaign to reinvigorate judicial killings, combined with the US supreme court's increasing refusal to engage in last-minute pleas for reprieve, have taken a heavy toll.A total of 47 men - they were all male - have been killed by states operating the death penalty in the course of the year. That was almost double the number in 2024, amounting to the greatest frenzy of capital punishment bloodletting in America since 2009. Continue reading...

It was a tough year (again) and we met it all with a shrugIt's the end of another year, which means a deluge of dire looks back on the various atrocities of the last go around the sun. As is my duty, I have to add to the pile. But does it all have to be quite so sad? Do we have to dutifully trawl through the muck to find some elusive meaning to what we've been forced to endure? Unfortunately, yes. It was a tough year (again) and we met it all with a shrug. As we've all been made punishingly aware, Dictionary.com's word of 2025 is 6-7," a viral meme slogan which is technically two words. Pretty cheeky of the Dictionary to cheat on their own assignment.How tragically emblematic of the year we just witnessed. We're all too apathetic to even complain about getting swindled by a gaggle of word snobs. Apathy" would have been a better choice for word of the year, considering how we've collectively shrugged at every dispiriting development of the last 12 months. Nicki Minaj popped up at the Turning Point USA conference to kiki with Erika Kirk and the most I could muster was I guess she'll do a concert at the Trump-Kennedy Center soon."Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist

As the millennial superstars near the end, an international generation reshapes the league. The question is whether an American can still carry the crownThat the NBA is reckoned in seasons is apt. To measure a legacy this way is as much existential as it is symbolic. Martin Heidegger argued that time is not something we pass through, but the condition of our being - less a pathway than a pressure. Heavy stuff, yes, but the NBA has always operated under similar weight.The millennial superstars who stabilized the league for two decades are now entering their twilight: LeBron James (who turned 41 on Tuesday), Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden and Chris Paul. In their wake comes something genuinely new. For the first time, the league's next dominant generation is unmistakably international. The NBA's gen Z elite now emerge from Slovenia, Serbia, Greece, Canada and France. Continue reading...

Officials claim to find rampant fraud' in childcare funding, but prosecutions began in Biden era and Tim Walz says we've spent years cracking down on it'The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it is freezing federal funding for childcare programs in Minnesota after allegations of fraud - first exposed and prosecuted during the Biden administration - recently became the focus of conservative influencers and media outlets.Jim O'Neill, the deputy secretary of health and human services, said in a video statement that the funding freeze was in response to what he called blatant fraud that appears to be rampant in Minnesota and across the country ... We have turned off the money spigot and we are finding the fraud." Continue reading...

More musical acts pull out of performances after Trump slaps his name on the building - key US politics stories from 30 December at a glanceThe list of musical artists canceling gigs at the Kennedy Center, which Donald Trump has attempted to rename the Trump-Kennedy Center", in Washington DC continues to grow.A second jazz band has pulled out of a New Year's Eve gig, giving just two days' notice before the event was set to take place. Continue reading...