US news | The Guardian

Administration mired in scandal over president's previous links to sex offender in case that has rocked Maga base

Tokyo's failure to secure a US deal sooner had caused political unease and economic uncertainty in JapanDonald Trump has announced a trade deal with Japan, potentially resolving weeks of fraught negotiations between the two allies which had caused economic uncertainty in Tokyo and mounting speculation about the future of the prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba.We just completed a massive deal with Japan," the US president announced in a post online, adding: Japan will invest, at my direction, $550 billion dollars into the United States." Continue reading...

Anti-vaccine campaigns have targeted thimerosal for decades despite no evidence of ingredient causing harmRobert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, will formally require vaccine makers to remove thimerosal from vaccines.The ingredient has been the target of anti-vaccine campaigns and misinformation for decades. Arguments against the preservative culminated in June, when a key federal vaccine advisory panel, remade with Kennedy's ideological allies, recommended against the preservative. Continue reading...

Families spoke of grief as the court heard how DNA and video footage helped link Bryan Kohberger to the crimesBryan Kohberger was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday for the murders of four University of Idaho students, a crime that shocked the quiet college town of Moscow nearly three years ago.The sentencing hearing allowed the families of Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin and Kaylee Goncalves to speak publicly about the devastation they've endured since 13 November 2022, the day their loved ones were found fatally stabbed in an off-campus home. Continue reading...

Dahud Hanid Ortiz, convicted in Venezuela of triple homicide in Madrid, is one of 10 US nationals flown to TexasA Venezuelan American murderer and ex-US marine, who killed three people in Spain in 2016, was released to the US during last Friday's high-profile prisoner swap between the US, El Salvador and Venezuela, according to media and NGO reports.Dahud Hanid Ortiz, who was convicted last year in Venezuela of a triple homicide in Madrid, is one of the 10 US nationals that arrived in Texas last Friday. Continue reading...

Video shows William McNeil Jr being beaten by police after being stopped for allegedly driving without lights onA Black college student shown on video being punched and dragged from his car by Florida law enforcement officers during a traffic stop faces a long recovery from injuries that include a concussion and a lip punctured by one of his teeth, his lawyers said on Wednesday.At a news conference in Jacksonville, 22-year-old William McNeil Jr spoke softly as he made a few brief comments with his family and civil rights attorneys by his side. Continue reading...

Footage shows the pedophile at Trump's 1993 wedding and the two attending a Victoria's Secret fashion event in 1999Newly uncovered photos and video footage published by CNN show more links between the notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump, including Epstein's attendance at Trump's wedding to Marla Maples at the Plaza hotel in New York in 1993.The media organization said on Wednesday that Epstein's attendance at the wedding ceremony was not widely known. Continue reading...

Zia S' translated for US troops in Afghanistan before fleeing Taliban takeover in 2021 and arriving stateside legallyAn Afghan wartime translator granted a US immigration visa after risking his life to help US troops has been detained by masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents, in the latest sign that the Trump administration is willing to flout legal agreements and promises to allies in pursuit of its unprecedented immigration crackdown.Identified only as Zia S, the 35-year-old husband and father of five who entered the US in October 2024 with a visa issued by American authorities was arrested and taken away in a van last week after a routine biometrics appointment for his green card in East Hartford, Connecticut, according to his attorney, members of Congress and human-rights advocates. Continue reading...

The state house member seemed like an unlikely aspirant for the US Senate battle, but an appearance on Rogan sparked the question: can he turn Texas blue?

Office of ex-president says allegations of attempted coup are attempt at distraction'. Plus, why are people opting out of traditional funerals?

No Greater Love strained to serve hungry patrons in Maine, New England's most food insecure state. Then they lost more than 1,000lb of federally funded goodsOne Sunday in June, it's 20 minutes before opening time at the No Greater Love food pantry in Belfast, Maine, two hours north of Portland. A line of cars stretches down the block and curls around the corner. I lean into a car window and ask the driver if he will speak with me.Nah," he says, I'd rather not." Continue reading...

A Guardian data analysis provides a detailed picture of surging arrests and a detention system that's stretched beyond capacityIn the six months since Donald Trump took office, the US president has supercharged the country's immigration enforcement apparatus - pushing immigration officials to arrest a record number of people in June.A Guardian analysis of arrest and deportation data has revealed that Trump is now overseeing a sweeping mass arrest and incarceration scheme.In June this year, average daily arrests were up 268% compared with June 2024.Ice is increasingly targeting any and all unauthorized immigrants, including people who have no criminal records.Despite Trump's claims that his administration is seeking out the worst of the worst", the majority of people being arrested by Ice now have no criminal convictions.Detention facilities have been increasingly overcrowded, and the US system is over capacity by more than 13,500 people.The number of deportations, however, has fluctuated as the administration pursues new strategies and policies to swiftly expel people from the US.The US government has deported more than 8,100 people to countries that are not their home country. Continue reading...

The entertainer, who has struggled to recall the names of all his offspring, has struck marketing gold. What next - Lauren Sanchez on budgeting advice?If you Google What does Nick Cannon actually do?", 17 professions, ranging from rapper to businessperson, pop up. Which is just a few more gigs than the entertainer has kids: these days Cannon is most identifiable as the father of 12 children by six women. I really think I'm a king," Cannon, who has said he has been diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder, mused in June during an appearance on the influencer Bobbi Althoff's podcast. Kings, he explained, need a lot of children for their courts. In the same podcast, King Cannon struggled to recall the names of all 12 of his children. But that's what the court nannies are for, eh?Cannon clearly enjoyed his chat with Althoff because he recently announced that he is starting his own podcast. It will be called Nick Cannon @ Night and he's going to be giving relationship advice. When it comes to his personal life, Nick has never shied away, unapologetically leaving the world curious about his views on dating, fatherhood and modern relationships. So, who better to offer advice?" the press release states. Clearly this is rage-bait designed to get people screaming: Who better? Anyone who knows how a condom works would be better!" And you know what? It's worked. Everyone is now roasting Cannon online and giving the podcast free publicity.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...

Active clubs that use martial arts to espouse far-right, fascist ideologies are proliferating in the US and abroadMore than a dozen men wearing black masks and sunglasses - obstructing any open source investigators from easily identifying them - appeared in a Telegram video in front of city hall in London, Canada, in June.Mass deportations now," the men yelled in unison, holding up banners with the same slogan. No blood for Israel." Continue reading...

If our overlords can't handle being joked about on late-night TV, we don't need new shows. We need new leadersLast week - just a few days after Stephen Colbert called out his parent company for paying Donald Trump millions of dollars - CBS canceled the Late Show With Stephen Colbert.Maybe now people will finally stop saying Trump is good for comedy. Continue reading...

Men from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Yemen and Cuba to be temporarily held in kingdomCivil society and opposition groups in Eswatini have expressed outrage after the US deported five men to the country, with the largest opposition party calling it human trafficking disguised as a deportation deal".The men, from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Yemen and Cuba, were flown to the small southern African country, an absolute monarchy, last week as the US stepped up deportations to third countries" after the supreme court cleared them last month. Continue reading...

Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, called an early recess as Democrats push for a vote to release the Epstein files. Key US politics stories from Tuesday 22 July at a glanceMounting pressure over President Donald Trump's alleged ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has reportedly rattled and divided Republican congress members so deeply that the House speaker called an early recess on Tuesday.Democrats had pushed for a vote to release files related to Epstein as Trump fends off questions over his relationship with the financier, who died by suicide in his jail cell in 2019. Now the House will break up on Wednesday instead of Thursday in what Democrats say is a way to dodge the vote. Continue reading...

Behind closed doors at a New York City federal building, people are confined after being seized by officers on their way out of immigration court on the 12th floor. This rare look inside a closely guarded space captures part of Donald Trump's anti-immigration crackdown. The footage, shared by the New York Immigration Coalition, shows one of several rooms at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan on the building's 10th floor, where accounts have emerged of people being detained in unsuitable conditions with few basic provisions. Ice maintains that the 10th floor is not used for detention

US president makes announcement to congressional Republicans on Tuesday, without divulging more details. This blog is now closed.House Republicans are busy during this press conference so far touting the Trump administration's so-called successes on immigration and the sweeping tax and spending megabill, but they're very much glossing over the fact that they have lost control of the floor over their Jeffrey Epstein blow-up, and they're struggling to chart a path out of the crisis", per Politico.GOP leaders are talking with Trump administration officials, searching for ways to appease Republican members incensed over the lack of public information and speaker Mike Johnson's handling of the matter broadly." Continue reading...

Footage shows people sleeping on floor next to toilets in facility that agency says is not a detention siteTwo videos have surfaced shedding light on what is happening behind closed doors at a New York federal building where people are being confined after being seized by officers on their way out of immigration court on the 12th floor, with the footage offering a rare look inside a controversial and closely guarded space that is part of Donald Trump's anti-immigration crackdown.The filming, shared by the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), captures one of several rooms at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan, on the building's 10th floor, where accounts have emerged of people being detained in wholly unsuitable conditions with few basic provisions, but there had been no public access to direct evidence. Continue reading...

Olympic and Paralympic committee tells federations it has obligation to comply' with executive order issued by TrumpThe US Olympic and Paralympic committee has in effect barred transgender women from competing in women's sports, telling the federations overseeing swimming, athletics and other sports it has an obligation to comply" with an executive order issued by Donald Trump.The new policy, announced on Monday with a quiet change on the USOPC's website and confirmed in a letter sent to national sport governing bodies, follows a similar step taken by the NCAA earlier this year. Continue reading...

Office of ex-US president breaks precedent and warns that allegations of attempted coup' are attempt at distraction'Barack Obama has broken his silence on calls from Donald Trump for him to be prosecuted by unequivocally rejecting his successor's accusations that he tried to engineer a coup" following Trump's 2016 election victory by manufacturing" evidence of Russian interference.Obama's office took the unusual step of issuing an emphatic refutation after Trump told reporters that his predecessor had [tried] to lead a coup" against him and was guilty of treason" over intelligence assessments suggesting that Russia had intervened to help Trump defeat Hillary Clinton in the campaign. Continue reading...

Justice department retaliates by removing career prosecutor named as Habba's replacementAlina Habba, Donald Trump's defence lawyer during a defamation case brought by the writer E Jean Carroll, has lost her bid to become New Jersey's top federal prosecutor, with the clock running out on her interim status on Tuesday.According to an order from New Jersey's district court, a panel of judges declined to permanently appoint Habba to be the state's US attorney, signaling a rebuke against the Trump administration. Continue reading...

After inquiry, school says sanctions include probation, suspensions, expulsions and revocation of degreesColumbia University said on Tuesday that it was disciplining dozens of pro-Palestinian student protesters who seized part of the school's main library during a demonstration in early May that led to multiple arrests.Following the protest, the university began an investigation into rules violations, banned participants from the campus and placed them on interim suspension, it said. It issued its final determinations on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Republican introduces motion to compel Maxwell, a close associate of Epstein who is serving 20 years, to testify

Chiropractor Mahdi Khanbabazadeh still in detention after being seized by masked agents in daycare parking lotNew video has been released showing masked immigration officers taking an Oregon father into custody while dropping off his child at a Portland-area preschool last week.In four clips obtained and verified by Oregon Public Broadcasting, Mahdi Khanbabazadeh, a 38-year-old chiropractor, can be seen asking US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents to wait for three minutes" because there is a baby in the car". Minutes later, after the child exited the vehicle, the video shows Ice officers breaking the driver's side window of the car. Continue reading...

US health secretary posed for photos in sweat-drenched T-shirt while hiking up Arizona mountain on 107F dayRobert F Kennedy Jr has promoted contrarian ideas around issues such as vaccines but another, more sartorial, choice has also raised eyebrows - an insistence on wearing jeans while exercising.On Saturday, the US health secretary took a strenuous hike up Camelback Mountain, situated near Phoenix, Arizona. Despite the temperature rising above 90F (32C) on the morning of his hike - Phoenix hit 107F (41C) later that day - Kennedy conducted the hike in dark blue jeans, posing for pictures along the way in a sweat-drenched green T-shirt. Continue reading...

President says he has been promised ads and programming days after network cancels Stephen Colbert's showDonald Trump has claimed that the future owner of the US TV network CBS will provide him with $20m worth of advertising and programming - days after the network canceled The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.The US president recently reached a $16m settlement with Paramount, the parent of CBS News, over what he claimed was misleading editing of a pre-election interview with the Democratic candidate for president, Kamala Harris. Continue reading...

Republicans say last votes will take place on Wednesday, a day earlier than scheduledRepublicans announced Tuesday that the House of Representatives will call it quits a day early and head home in the face of persistent Democratic efforts to force Republicans into voting on the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.The chamber was scheduled be in session through Thursday ahead of the annual five-week summer recess, but on Tuesday, the Republican majority announced that the last votes of the week would take place the following day. Democrats in turn accused the GOP of leaving town rather than dealing with the outcry over Donald Trump's handling of the investigation into the alleged sex trafficker. Continue reading...

The plan would limit RV parking and remove vehicles used as homes, despite lack of affordable housing in the citySan Francisco is set to ban homeless people from living in RVs by adopting strict new parking limits the mayor says are necessary to keep sidewalks clear and prevent trash buildup.The policy, up for final approval by San Francisco supervisors on Tuesday, targets at least 400 recreational vehicles in the city of 800,000 people. The RVs serve as shelter for people who cannot afford housing, including immigrant families with kids. Continue reading...

Edith Chapin's announcement comes after Congress approves Trump bill to cancel all federal funding for public broadcasters

After watching the comedian's smart and incisive assessment of America's daily chaos for years, there's something major to be mourned as he leaves the airLast Thursday, when Stephen Colbert announced on air that CBS had decided to cancel The Late Show, its flagship late-night comedy program, after 33 years in May of next year, I was shocked.For the better part of six years, I have watched every late-night monologue as part of my job at the Guardian (hello, late-night roundup), and though I often grumble about it, The Late Show has become a staple of my media diet and my principle source of news; as a millennial, I haven't known a television landscape without it. There are many bleaker, deadlier things happening daily in this country, and the field of late-night comedy has been dying slowly for years, but the cancellation of The Late Show, three days after Colbert called out its parent company for settling a lawsuit with Donald Trump, felt especially and pointedly depressing - more a sign of cultural powerlessness and corporate fecklessness in the face of a bully president than the inevitable result of long-shifting tastes. Continue reading...

As Maga supporters revolt over the Epstein scandal, figures like Tucker Carlson are now a gadfly of the White House's handling of the controversyAs Donald Trump tries to contain an ugly rift with his own supporters about the Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking scandal, influential media personalities in the Maga movement face a tricky dilemma.Should they close ranks with the US president - who has denounced demands for more information on Epstein as a waste [of] Time and Energy" about somebody that nobody cares about" - or pick at a political wound that the Trump administration desperately wants to scab over? Continue reading...

Family was hiking when big cat attacked child, who was later airlifted to hospital and is in satisfactory conditionA mountain lion bit a four-year-old child on Sunday while the child hiked with family on Hurricane Ridge in Washington state's Olympic national park, authorities said.The child's father reportedly saved the minor's life by pulling the child from the creature's jaws. Continue reading...

The department said in a statement that Ice never arrested or deported Luis Leon to Guatemala, and that the reports were a hoax'Confusion swirled around the fate of a Chilean resident of the US after the Department of Homeland Security called reports of his deportation to Guatemala a hoax".On 18 July, the Morning Call newspaper of Allentown, Pennsylvania, reported that the family of the man, Luis Leon, said he was handcuffed after showing up at to immigration office on 20 June to report a lost green card. They said he was first sent to a detention facility in Minnesota, then to Guatemala, where they said a Chilean relative informed them he was in a hospital. Continue reading...

Decision over sale of Autonomy comes a year after death of tech tycoon in accident involving his superyacht

Homan vows to escalate Ice operations after off-duty officer allegedly shot by undocumented person in New York CityThe Trump administration is targeting sanctuary cities in the next phase of its deportation drive after labelling them sanctuaries for criminals" following the shooting of an off-duty law enforcement officer in New York City, allegedly by an undocumented person with a criminal record.Tom Homan, Donald Trump's hardline border czar, vowed to flood the zone" with Immigration, Customs and Enforcement (Ice) agents in an all-out bid to overcome the lack of cooperation he said the government faced from Democrat-run municipalities in its quest to arrest and detain undocumented people. Continue reading...

Experts say switching corn syrup for cane sugar does not make the drink healthierCoca-Cola has laid out plans to launch a product made with US cane sugar this year, days after Donald Trump claimed the company had agreed to replace high-fructose corn syrup.The company announced the change in a quarterly earnings report released on Tuesday.The Associated Press and Reuters contributed Continue reading...

Assistant chief constable says force will use an engaged approach' as US president prepares to open new golf courseThe senior officer in charge of the policing plan for Donald Trump's visit to Scotland this weekend has underlined her force's immense experience" in successfully managing US presidential visits as she countered concerns raised by the policing union about unfair pressure on staff.Trump will open a new 18-hole golf course at his resort on the North Sea coast at Menie, north of Aberdeen, named in honour of his mother, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump, who was born on the Isle of Lewis. He is also expected to meet the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, during his visit. Continue reading...

Convicted trafficker could share evidence against others as backlash grows over halted Epstein probeGhislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned sex trafficker linked to dead financier Jeffrey Epstein, is meeting with justice department officials - including Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, who will see if Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims".The announcement of Maxwell's meetings with justice department officials come as the Trump administration faces backlash from Democrats and Trump supporters alike for its recent handling of the Epstein case. Continue reading...

NYC office found covered in red paint after AOC voted no' on defense bill that included over $600m in aid for IsraelA Bronx office of US House member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was vandalized early Monday, according to New York City police, who say they are investigating.The vandalism occurred as the progressive Democratic congresswoman grapples with threats on [her] life", as her campaign manager put it, after a recent US House vote involving American aid to Israel. Continue reading...

Hungry Palestinians must enter evacuation zones patrolled by Israeli forces, where centres open and close within minutes. Plus, one woman's fight for justice for her sonGood morning.Raed Jamal sends the message shortly after he returns, empty-handed, from a food distribution point to his tent in the al-Mawasi displacement camp in south-west Gaza. The tanks came and started firing. Three boys near me were martyred," says the 36-year-old, who has four children. I didn't even get anything, just two empty boxes."What is the GHF and what happened to the former aid sites? GHF, a startup organisation with no experience of distributing food in complex conflict zones, employs US mercenaries at the sites, which opened in May. They replaced 400 non-militarised aid points run under a UN system that Israel claimed had to be shut down because Hamas was diverting aid from it. No evidence for this has been provided.Has Trump been accused of anything? Law enforcement agencies have not accused the president of any wrongdoing related to Epstein, and he has never been named as a target of any investigation. Continue reading...

White House cites Unesco's focus on divisive social and cultural causes' in latest withdrawal from global bodiesThe US will quit the United Nations' culture and education agency Unesco, the US state department has said, as Donald Trump continues to pull out of international institutions.Unesco works to advance divisive social and cultural causes and maintains an outsized focus on the UN's sustainable development goals, a globalist, ideological agenda for international development at odds with our America First foreign policy," a state department spokesperson, Tammy Bruce, said. Continue reading...

The Times says Trump punished the Wall Street Journal over Epstein reporting in a move that endangers free speechThe New York Times is defending the Wall Street Journal after the Trump administration decided to bar the global outlet from the White House press pool following its investigative coverage of ties between Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein.In the public statement, a Times spokesperson said the White House's actions represented simple retribution by a president against a news organization for doing reporting that he doesn't like", warning that such actions deprive Americans of information about how their government operates". Continue reading...