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Acquittal of Juan Espinoza Martinez in Chicago marks latest major federal prosecution to fall apart in courtA man accused of a murder-for-hire plot targeting a top US border patrol leader was found not guilty on Thursday in Chicago, the latest high-profile prosecution by the Department of Justice to fall apart in court.The government alleged that Juan Espinoza Martinez, 37, had offered a $10,000 bounty over Snapchat in October for the killing of Gregory Bovino, the border patrol official who has spearheaded aggressive immigration operations in cities across the country. Defense lawyers argued Espinoza Martinez was sharing an innocuous social media message that did not constitute a threat. Continue reading...

Outrage mounts over ICE violence but seven Democrats vote with Republicans as funding bill passes 220-207House Republicans overcame widespread Democratic opposition on Thursday to approve a bill funding the Department of Homeland Security, the federal agency spearheading Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.The 220-207 vote, with seven Democrats joining nearly all Republicans, came amid mounting outrage over its heavy-handed and violent tactics in Minnesota and elsewhere. Continue reading...

US president alleges JP Morgan stopped offering him banking services in wake of January 6 attackDonald Trump has sued JPMorgan Chase and its CEO, Jamie Dimon, for at least $5bn after accusing America's largest bank of debanking" him.The US president alleged that the bank stopped offering him banking services in the wake of the Capitol riot on January 6. Earlier this month, he claimed it had incorrectly and inappropriately" discriminated against him. Continue reading...

Bank hails Dimon's exemplary leadership' as package for one of corporate America's best-paid bosses rose 10%JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon took home a total pay package of $43m last year, it has been disclosed.Dimon's total compensation rose 10% in 2025, according to a regulatory filing, cementing his status as one of the highest-paid bosses in corporate America. Continue reading...

Guardian analysis shows images are the same, with Nekima Levy Armstrong looking composed in original but sobbing after alterationThe White House posted a digitally altered image of a woman who was arrested on Thursday in a case touted by the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, to make it seem as if she was dramatically crying, a Guardian analysis of the image has found.The woman, Nekima Levy Armstrong, also appears to have darker skin in the altered image. Armstrong was one of three people arrested on Thursday in connection to a demonstration that disrupted church services in St Paul, Minnesota, on Sunday. Demonstrators alleged that one of the pastors, David Easterwood, was the acting field director of the St Paul Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office. Bondi announced the arrests on social media on Thursday morning. Continue reading...

Ex-special counsel testifies to Republican-led House panel that he followed law in holding president to account

Decision marks dramatic expansion of Mexico City policy', which abortion rights supporters call global gag rule'

Liam Ramos of Minnesota detained with father and flown to Texas, prompting Democrats to accuse ICE of cruelty

Storm expected to hit from south Rockies and plains into mid-south on Friday before spreading eastA powerful winter storm is set to sweep across much of the US this weekend, bringing potentially record-breaking cold, heavy snow and ice that forecasters warn could cause hazardous conditions, power outages and travel disruptions.The storm is expected to bring widespread heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain" from the southern Rockies and the plains into the mid-south on Friday, before spreading east to the mid-Atlantic and New England areas this weekend, according to the US National Weather Service. The impact in New England will potentially linger into Monday. Continue reading...

Appeal was raised on behalf of the boy's mother to pay for the legal costs of seeking Liam and her husband's releaseA fundraiser for the family of a five-year-old Minneapolis boy seized by immigration officers and transported with his father to a detention center in Texas had raised more than $110,000 on Thursday.The appeal, Help Bring 5-Year-Old Liam Home", was set up by a person named Sarai Orquiz, who said she was asked by the mother of preschooler Liam Ramos to create the fundraiser on her behalf to pay for the legal costs of seeking his release from custody. Continue reading...

Liam Ramos, a preschooler, is just one of a number of kids caught up in dystopian ICE surges in Minnesota and beyondAs symbols of the indiscriminate disproportionality of the Trump administration's militant anti-immigrant crusade in Minneapolis, the images are hard to surpass.One recent image shows the innocent figure of Liam Ramos, a five-year-old preschooler wearing a blue bobbled winter hat, standing next to a black vehicle with a dark-clad adult figure standing behind him, whose hand is proprietorially placed on his backpack. Continue reading...

The US president unveiled the board with a gold logo whose resemblance to the UN emblem sparked European criticismDonald Trump's newly launched board of peace" already has a logo - and perceptive eyes have noted its close resemblance to the United Nations emblem, except reworked in Trump fashion: all in gold, and focused squarely on the US.Launched this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the initiative was first endorsed back in November by the UN security council, on the understanding that it would focus on brokering a ceasefire in Gaza. Since then, however, Trump has positioned it as a global body tasked with resolving international conflicts of all stripes, and to be chaired by Trump himself, in what appears to be part of the administration's latest effort to reshape the postwar global order. Continue reading...

President again disparages allies and tells Fox News he is not sure' Nato would come to US's defenceDonald Trump has again disparaged America's Nato allies, claiming that troops from allied nations stayed a little back, a little off the frontlines" while fighting in Afghanistan in support of the US campaign against the Taliban.The only time Nato has ever invoked its mutual defence clause - stating that an attack on one member represents an attack on all - came after the terrorist attacks of September 11, when member states deployed thousands of troops to Afghanistan. Continue reading...

It was supposed to give Gaza a future, but the US president is using it to attack the UN, international law and multilateralismOne glance at the logo of the Board of Peace tells you all you need to know. It is the globe and laurels of the UN - only gold, because this is Donald Trump's initiative, and showing little of the world beyond North America.The charter of the board, formally launched in Davos on Thursday, suggests that this is less America First than Trump Always. It is not the US president" but Mr Trump himself who is named as chair, for as long as he wishes. He can pick his successor, decide the agenda and axe whomever he chooses -even if they have coughed up the $1bn demanded for permanent membership. It is the institutional expression of his belief that he is bound not by law but my own morality, my own mind".Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

US president holds signing ceremony at World Economic Forum amid concerns new body seeks to replace UNDonald Trump has claimed the world is richer, safer and much more peaceful than it was just one year ago" as he hosted a launch event for his board of peace" initiative at the World Economic Forum in Davos.At a signing ceremony for the new organisation, the US president said it would be one of the most consequential bodies ever created in the history of the world". Continue reading...

Trump administration's immigration crackdown has led some people to take drastic measures to ensure their safetyIt was a normal Tuesday morning for Mohamed when he left his San Diego, California house for his daily exercise in mid-January. But as he walked around Colina del Sol park, four US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents approached and encircled the middle-aged father, who is using a pseudonym out of fear of retaliation from federal agents. The officers, Mohamed said, who wore jackets with ICE emblazoned on them and balaclavas that obscured their faces, asked for his green card before they began drilling him with questions about what he was doing in the park.I was terrified," Mohamed, a lawful permanent resident from Somalia, said through a translator. The ordeal ended shortly thereafter, but the experience has left a lasting impact on him. I have high blood pressure," Mohamed said about the encounter he believes was racial profiling. I used to do my daily exercises; now I don't even do that anymore because I'm scared." Continue reading...

Every deal in the WSL, NWSL, Liga F, Frauen-Bundesliga, Premiere Ligue and Serie A Femminile as well as a club-by-club guide

There's no shame in not knowing what he'll say next: neither does he. But that didn't stop many claiming to make sense of itIn weeks like this, the mask slips somewhat. Politicians love the illusion of control. It's the special power that differentiates them from us lower orders. They are the ones pulling all the levers. Nothing ever happens that takes them unawares. They are the ones with answers to everything. They need it to be this way. Not just for their own psyches but for ours. It's somehow comforting.And then along comes Donald Trump and our emperors have no clothes. Their limitations on view to everyone. Scrabbling around just to stand still. Trying to make sense of the world in real time, just like the rest of us. Making it up as they go along. Continue reading...

Jannik Sinner continued his title defence, Naomi Osaka won a tetchy contest and qualifier Nikola Bartunkova shocked Belinda BencicCilic has punched his ticket into round three for the first time since 2022, with the 37-year-old and 2014 US Open champ taking out the 21st seed Shapovalov in straight sets. Decent win, that. He'll face the winner of Casper Ruud v Jaume Munar.Stan is still alive! He's broken Gea in the final game of the fourth set to snatch it 7-5, finishing off with a vicious backhand winner down the line. It's got to be one of the most devastating shots in tennis hasn't it? I don't think even Federer's single-handed backhand quite had the equal beauty and brutality that Wawrinka's does. They're going to a fifth. Continue reading...

Audrey Denney is trying to win a House seat twice - first in a special election, and then again after the district is redrawnInside an old Craftsman on the northern end of California's Sacramento valley, Audrey Denney is spending the day on the phone - calling constituent after constituent to discuss rising healthcare costs, wildfire insurance premiums and cuts to benefits - and to solicit donations.It's the mundane way in which an epic, and uphill, battle for control of the US Congress is being fought. Continue reading...

Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate says campaign launched last year has attracted dozens of new partnersStacey Abrams, the former Georgia gubernatorial candidate, will announce on Thursday that the campaign she launched last year to fight authoritarianism in the US has attracted dozens of new partners, representing millions of voters, to form a coalition.Abrams, a Yale-trained lawyer and former minority leader of the Georgia house, was the first Black woman to win a major party nomination for a gubernatorial race in 2018. After her second loss to Brian Kemp in 2022, she receded from the spotlight, taking a teaching position at Howard University in 2023. In the wake of Donald Trump's re-election, she launched 10 Steps, an initiative to organize and mobilize opposition to the threat to democracy posed by authoritarian policies in the administration and the Republican party. Continue reading...

From food stalls to revitalised downtowns, Venezuelans have shaped midwestern towns, but new US policy threatens their futureAt a former Coca-Cola bottling plant in downtown Indianapolis, Venezuelans Juan Paredes Angulo and his mother, Andreina, five years ago delivered on a decades-long dream to open a food stall, sharing regional Venezuelan food with a part of America better used to Tex-Mex and Chinese takeout for international cuisine.Hearing of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro's capture by US forces in an overnight military raid earlier this month came as a complete shock. Continue reading...

Exclusive: sources say powerful figures in the regime secretly pledged US and Qatari officials they would welcome Maduro's departureBefore the US military snatched Venezuela's president, Nicolas Maduro, earlier this month, Delcy Rodriguez and her powerful brother pledged to cooperate with the Trump administration once the strongman was gone, four sources involved at high levels with the discussions told the Guardian.Rodriguez, who was sworn in on 5 January as acting president to replace Maduro, and her brother Jorge, the head of the national assembly, secretly assured US and Qatari officials through intermediaries ahead of time that they would welcome Maduro's departure, according to the sources. Continue reading...

Jeson Nelon Presilla Flores, charged with stalking armored truck in 2022, allowed to self-deport to South AmericaFederal immigration authorities allowed a suspect in a $100m jewelry heist believed to be the largest in US history to deport himself to South America in December, a move that stunned and upset prosecutors who were planning to try the case and send him to prison.Jeson Nelon Presilla Flores was one of seven people charged last year with stalking an armored truck to a rural freeway rest stop north of Los Angeles and stealing millions worth of diamonds, emeralds, gold, rubies and designer watches in 2022. Continue reading...

International coalition of legal groups focuses on political intimidation of lawyers and judges in US - once a role modelThe US has been awarded a new dubious distinction: it has been selected as this year's focus of an international coalition of legal groups and bar associations as a country where lawyers and judges are so politically intimidated that the rule of law is under threat.The decision to put the spotlight on the US for Thursday's International Day of the Endangered Lawyer" underlines how rapidly America has plummeted in global esteem. For decades the US has been held up as a role model of a democratic judicial system. Continue reading...

The president's scramble to win back voter affection after negative polls has led him to spew incoherent proposalsA vote for Trump means your groceries will be cheaper," Donald Trump promised Americans on the eve of the presidential election. During the US president's first year back in office, however, food prices rose faster than they did during Joe Biden's last.Facing negative poll numbers, Trump is taking a tack that few Republicans have dared contemplate before: spewing out a rain of often incoherent proposals to signal he feels voters' pain, in order to recapture their affection. Continue reading...

Think I'm exaggerating? Consider the copious amounts of evidenceWhich way, western man?That was the title of a racist tract published in 1978 by William Gayley Simpson, a former leftist Christian pastor turned one of the most influential neo-Nazi ideologues in American history. The book helped radicalize an entire generation of white supremacists in the US, with its vicious antisemitism, opposition to all forms of immigration and open praise for Hitler. The purpose of the book, wrote Simpson, was to reveal organized Jewry as a world power entrenched in every country of the white man's world, operating freely across every nation's frontiers, and engaged in a ruthless war for the destruction of them all".Mehdi Hasan is the editor-in-chief and CEO of Zeteo Continue reading...

Gains come after US president says he will not use military force to acquire territory and cites framework deal'European markets rose on Thursday after Donald Trump cancelled plans to impose fresh tariffs on eight European countries, in what analysts said was a return of the Trump Always Chickens Out" (Taco) trade.The FTSE 100 gained 0.8% to a high of 10,225 points, while Germany's Dax and France's Cac were up 1.4%. The pan-European Stoxx 600 was also up 1.4% and Wall Street is forecast to open higher on Thursday. Continue reading...

One of the Broncos, Rams, Seahawks and Patriots will claim the championship in a few weeks. Here are the factors that will help decide the resultA month ago, the Rams looked like a near-complete team. Special teams aside, they had answers everywhere. Coaching. Quarterback. Playmakers. A defense that could steal a game if necessary. They're still a formidable opponent, but cracks have started to emerge. Continue reading...

In today's newsletter: What began as a temporary mechanism to oversee Gaza's reconstruction is quietly mutating into a permanent system of external control, raising urgent questions about who will govern in PalestineGood morning. Donald Trump wants to be the supreme leader of the world.That may sound hyperbolic, but it is difficult to read the latest plans for his so-called Board of Peace" as anything else. What was initially framed as a narrow mechanism to oversee Gaza's reconstruction has quietly shifted into something far larger. In Trump's most recent announcement, Gaza barely features at all.Davos | Donald Trump dropped his threat to impose tariffs on eight European countries, claiming he had agreed with Nato the framework of a future deal" on Greenland. Danish, Greenlandic and other European officials pushed back on Trump's claim, pointing out Nato has no authority to make such a deal.New Zealand | Emergency services in New Zealand are searching for several people, including a child, believed missing after a landslide hit a campsite during storms that have caused widespread damage across the North Island.Media | Prince Harry has accused the publisher of the Daily Mail of wanting to drive him to drugs and drinking" by placing his life under surveillance, as he told the high court that it continued to come after" him and his wife.Reform UK | Nigel Farage apologised for 17 breaches of the MPs' code after failing to declare 380,000 on time, describing himself as an oddball" who does not do computers.South Korea | Former PM Han Duck-soo has been sentenced to 23 years in prison for his role in an insurrection stemming from former president Yoon Suk Yeol's failed martial law declaration. Continue reading...

Nato chief Mark Rutte says there is a lot of work to be done', as some Danish MPs voice concern at Greenland apparently being sidelined in US president's talksDonald Trump's announcement of a framework of a future deal" that would settle the issue of Greenland after weeks of escalating threats has been met with profound scepticism from people in the Arctic territory, even as financial markets rebounded and European leaders welcomed a reprieve from further tariffs.Just hours after the president used his speech at the World Economic Forum to insist he wanted Greenland, including right, title and ownership," but backed away from his more bellicose threats of military intervention - Trump took to social media to announce the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland" and withdrew the threat of tariffs against eight European countries. He later called it a concept of a deal" when he spoke to business network CNBC soon after Wall Street closed. Continue reading...

Trump's tariff retreat should lull nobody into dropping their guard. The EU must join forces with Canada, Japan and other like-minded countriesEU leaders would do well to meditate on the seminal lesson that the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, delivered at this year's World Economic Forum.In an incisive analysis of the new age of predatory great powers, where might is increasingly asserted as right, Carney not only accurately defined the coarsening of international relations as a rupture, not a transition". He also outlined how liberal democratic middle powers" such as Canada - but also European countries - must build coalitions to counter coercion and defend as much as possible of the principles of territorial integrity, the rule of law, free trade, climate action and human rights. He spelled out a hedging strategy that Canada is already pursuing, diversifying its trade and supply chains and even opening its market to Chinese electric vehicles to counter Donald Trump's tariffs on Canadian-made automobiles.Paul Taylor is a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre Continue reading...

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Trial of Adrian Gonzales in Corpus Christi was the first over the hesitant law enforcement response to the 2022 attackA former Uvalde schools police officer was acquitted Wednesday of charges that he failed in his duties to confront the gunman at Robb Elementary during the critical first minutes of one of the deadliest school shootings in US history.Jurors deliberated for more than seven hours before finding Adrian Gonzales, 52, not guilty in the first trial over the hesitant law enforcement response to the 2022 attack, in which a teenage gunman killed 19 fourth-graders and two teachers. Had he been convicted, he faced up two years in prison on more than two dozen charges of child abandonment and endangerment. Continue reading...

Superintendent says Liam Ramos and his father were taken into custody while in their driveway and sent to TexasUS Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained a five-year-old Minnesota boy on Tuesday as he returned home from school and transported him and his father to a Texas detention center, according to school officials.Liam Ramos, a preschooler, and his father were taken into custody while in their driveway, the superintendent of the school district in Columbia Heights, a Minneapolis suburb, said at a press conference on Wednesday. Liam, who had recently turned five, is one of four children in the school district who have been detained by federal immigration agents during the Trump administration's enforcement surge in the region over the last two weeks, the district said. Continue reading...

Trump told Davos attendees the US won't use military force to take Greenland but demanded immediate negotiations' - key US politics stories from Wednesday 21 January at a glanceIt was quite a day in Davos.Donald Trump began his time at the World Economic Forum Wednesday with a rambling, racism-drenched speech in which he attacked European leaders and reasserted his demand to acquire Greenland. But hours later, the US president backed down and eased off his threats to impose tariffs on several allied nations, claiming he had reached the framework of a future deal" concerning the US's involvement in the Danish territory. Continue reading...

Woman who's eight months pregnant sent to Colombia by ICE, despite belated court order to keep her out of the airA 21-year-old woman who is eight months pregnant and in a state of medical distress was deported Wednesday afternoon, a human rights attorney said, despite a court order, issued too late, to keep her out of the air.We are trying to get her the medical attention she needs immediately," said Anthony Enriquez, vice-president of US advocacy and litigation at the Kennedy Human Rights Center, whose client, Zharick Daniela Buitrago Ortiz, was sent back to Colombia. Continue reading...

Ruling presents Democrats with opportunity to pick up another US House seat in November electionsNew York must redraw its congressional map, a state judge ruled on Wednesday, handing Democrats another key opportunity to pick up another US House seat before this fall's midterm elections.The ruling from Jeffrey Pearlman, a New York state supreme court justice, comes after a Democratic-aligned law firm challenged the boundaries of New York's 11th congressional district, which includes the borough of Staten Island and portions of south Brooklyn. The district is currently represented by Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican, the only GOP member representing New York City in Congress. Continue reading...

US justice department's website shows the disgraced former CEO petitioned Donald Trump over fraud convictionTheranos founder Elizabeth Holmes has asked Donald Trump to commute her sentence after she was convicted of defrauding investors in her now-defunct blood-testing startup that was once valued at $9bn, a notice on the US Department of Justice website showed.The justice department's office of the pardon attorney lists the status of her commutation request, which was made last year, as pending. Continue reading...

Immigration enforcement has sent a surge of federal agents to the fishing state, with about 50 arrests so farThe Trump administration has begun another targeted immigration crackdown, sending a surge of federal personnel to Maine, an ocean fishing state, in a plan dubbed by the government Operation Catch of the Day.Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is aiming the push at Somali immigrants living in the north-eastern state, according to reporting by the New York Times. Continue reading...

Scale and speed of president's moves have stunned observers of authoritarian regimes - is the US in democratic peril?Three hundred and sixty-five days after Donald Trump swore his oath of office and completed an extraordinary return to power, many historians, scholars and experts say his presidency has pushed American democracy to the brink - or beyond it.In the first year of Trump's second term, the democratically elected US president has moved with startling speed to consolidate authority: dismantling federal agencies, purging the civil service, firing independent watchdogs, sidelining Congress, challenging judicial rulings, deploying federal force in blue cities, stifling dissent, persecuting political enemies, targeting immigrants, scapegoating marginalized groups, ordering the capture of a foreign leader, leveraging the presidency for profit, trampling academic freedom and escalating attacks on the news media. Continue reading...

House committee opens prospect of using one of its most powerful punishments against an ex-president for first timeHouse Republicans advanced a resolution on Wednesday to hold former president Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress over the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, opening the prospect of the House using one of its most powerful punishments against a former president for the first time.The Republican-controlled House oversight committee approved the contempt of Congress charges, setting up a potential vote in the House. It was an initial step toward a criminal prosecution by the Department of Justice that, if successful, could send the Clintons to prison in a dispute over compelling them to testify before the House oversight committee. Continue reading...

After covering Trump's immigration policies from Chicago and LA, the Twin Cities operation feels like a marked escalationThe Minneapolis Star Tribune editorial board described the Trump administration's immigration enforcement operation in the Twin Cities as a military occupation". Local leaders have used words like siege" and invasion". After a week of reporting in Minneapolis and St Paul, I wouldn't know how else to describe the scene.I've been covering the administration's immigration policies since Donald Trump's inauguration on 20 January last year. I was in Chicago in January last year, when the administration assigned hundreds of federal agents to conduct enhanced targeted operations" in the city. I was in Los Angeles last summer, when agents began seizing workers at car washes and garment warehouses, grabbing bicyclists and raiding churches. Continue reading...

Donald Trump stepped up his demands about taking Greenland but said the US would not use military force during a long and rambling speech to thousands of business and political leaders at the World Economic Form in Switzerland.Guardian reporter Jakub Krupa explains what we learned from Trump's Davos address and what this means for European leadersTrump said he would be dropping his idea to add a 10% tariff on goods to eight European countries who opposed his ambition to take over Greenland. He said he had spoken to Nato's secretary general and 'formed the framework' for a future deal with on Greenland Continue reading...

In victory for Trump administration, appeals court has temporarily lifted injunction as JD Vance set to visit stateAn appeals court has temporarily lifted restrictions from a federal judge in Minnesota that blocked ICE agents from pepper-spraying and arresting peaceful protesters.In a victory for the Trump administration, the eighth US circuit court of appeals on Wednesday granted the justice department's request for an administrative stay of a preliminary injunction issued last Friday by Judge Katherine Menendez. Continue reading...

Governor's office says US pavilion bowed to pressure and pulled scheduled fireside chat' with Fortune magazineThe office of Gavin Newsom, the California governor, said his appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos was canceled under pressure from the Trump administration.Newsom had been scheduled to sit down with Fortune at an event sponsored by USA House, the country's official headquarters at the annual gathering of world and economic leaders. But before the talk was due to begin, his team says, the USA House bowed to political pressure from the Trump administration and denied the governor entry. Continue reading...

Brandon Wright alleges criticism of the homeland security secretary is protected by the first amendmentA former employee of the Department of Homeland Security who was fired after video circulated of him on a date criticizing the agency's head, Kristi Noem, sued the department on Monday, alleging the termination violated his first amendment rights.Brandon Wright, who worked at DHS for eight years in IT, said in a federal lawsuit that his time at the agency came to an abrupt end" because of the yellow journalism tactics" deployed by an unidentified woman he met on the dating app Bumble. Continue reading...

Scott Bessent's maladroit efforts to calm European anger and Americans' puzzlement over Greenland have fallen flat