Cody Balmer faces terror and arson charges after fire and 911 call voicing pro-Palestinian viewsThe man charged with setting fire to the Pennsylvania governor's mansion called emergency responders after the attack and made comments signaling support for Palestinians, the New York Times reports.According to a search warrant in the case, 38-year-old Cody Balmer identified himself by name in a 911 call and said that Pennsylvania's governor, Josh Shapiro, needs to know that he will not take part in his plans for what he wants to do to the Palestinian people'". Continue reading...
State department's R/Fimi hub closed after rightwing critics alleged it censored conservative American speechThe Trump administration is shuttering the state department's last remaining bastion to monitor foreign disinformation campaigns.Known as the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (R/Fimi) hub, the closure represents a huge victory for rightwing critics who had alleged that the office, despite only looking at foreign state-level disinformation attacks on other countries, was involved in censoring American conservative speech. It comes as part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to dismantle what it describes as government overreach in monitoring speech. Continue reading...
Illegal deportation of Maryland man has become a flashpoint as Trump tests limits of his executive powerThe ongoing legal saga of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man wrongly deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador, has become a flashpoint as Donald Trump tests the limits of his executive power and continues with his plans for mass deportations.On Tuesday, a federal judge sharply rebuked the Trump administration for taking no steps to secure Abrego Garcia's release despite a supreme court order last week ordering the administration to facilitate his return to the US. Continue reading...
by Stephen Starr in Bloomington, Indiana on (#6WNKK)
Xiaofeng Wang was fired by Indiana University on the same day as an FBI raid - but he hasn't been charged with anythingWhen FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents descended recently on two homes owned by Xiaofeng Wang, a Chinese national and cybersecurity professor at Indiana University, many in the idyllic college town of Bloomington were shocked.In December, Wang had been questioned by his employers about allegedly receiving undisclosed funding from China on a project that also received US federal research grants. On the same day of the home raids, Wang was fired from his longstanding post at Indiana University over email - a move that goes against the university's own policy. Continue reading...
Heist took place at Love Jewels in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday after thieves bore through levels of concreteBurglars tunneled through a concrete wall to gain access to a Los Angeles jewelry store, making off with at least $10m worth of watches, pendants, gold chains and other merchandise, police said.The heist happened around 9.30pm on Sunday at Love Jewels on Broadway in the heart of downtown, according to officer David Cuellar with the LA police department. Continue reading...
I've loved watching people perk up as the weather improves. It lifts the heart as much as any spring flowerI've always thought seasonal affective disorder, what with its convenient acronym and all, to be a load of tosh. But that's because I don't live with Sad. It's shamefully easy to dismiss something when you don't feel it in your own bones. Sad, me? No, I can be grumpy whatever the weather. Also, just as without despair there is no joy, the staggering beauty of a blue sky over the British Isles would be less staggeringly beautiful if it was always there. Blue skies all year round? Nah, not for me.In fact, I find dismal winter weather somewhat liberating. When the weather's good, the opportunities it presents are overwhelming. A paralysis of choice takes hold. So many places to go and things to do with the sun on your back. That urgent need to be out there. Every sunny day leaves me with this feeling that I haven't quite made the most of it. And much as I love my job, being in an office or a studio, I love it a little bit less when the sun is shining outside. In a way, life is more straightforward when it's grey, windy and wet, as then I can forgive myself for staying at home and being still and calm, essentially doing bugger all for a bit without feeling bad about it.Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster, writer and Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Justice department lawsuit escalates a battle over Title IX as Maine vows to fight federal funding cuts in courtThe Trump administration sued Maine on Wednesday for allowing transgender girls to compete in school sports, dramatically escalating a confrontation that has already seen threats to cut the state's education and school lunch funding.The attorney general, Pam Bondi, announced the lawsuit flanked by Riley Gaines, the former collegiate swimmer turned conservative commentator who has become the public face in opposition to transgender athletes. Continue reading...
UK schools are coming under pressure to remove titles from their shelves. It's not coming from the place you might thinkFor all its talk of free speech, the Trump administration seems remarkably comfortable with censorship. Earlier this year, children studying at Pentagon schools (serving US military families) were prevented from accessing libraries for a week while officials reviewed their shelves for titles that might be related to gender ideology or discriminatory equity ideology topics". Trump's presidency has injected new energy into the book-banning movement that has been simmering for years on the US right. You might think that censoring school libraries would be totally unimaginable in Britain. You'd be wrong.I worked as a librarian for 10 years, and now I teach on the library and information studies master's programme at UCL. After the pandemic, I began noticing signs of an eerily similar trend. It erupted in the spring of 2022, when a Catholic school in Croydon invited Simon James Green, a prominent gay children's author, to give a talk. The US anti-LGBT website Catholic Truth ran a campaign encouraging readers to contact the school and protest against the event (one reader said, somewhat implausibly, that Green's visit to the school was 100% as much of an issue as the ongoing war in Ukraine"). The commission responsible for the school released a statement suggesting the event should be cancelled, teachers went on strike, and the story reached the national press.Alison Hicks is a lecturer in library and information studies at UCL Continue reading...
The dangers young people face online are all too clear. But the solution is pragmatism, not prohibitionThe latest hit Netflix show has surpassed 100m views and cracked the top five of the platform's all-time biggest English-language series - without CGI monsters, ornate gowns or Jenna Ortega. Instead, Adolescence is a four-episode limited series about a 13-year-old British boy accused of stabbing his female classmate to death. And as the story unfolds, the pernicious influence of cyberbullying and social media radicalization on the main character comes into focus.The show has sparked conversations about the much-discussed male loneliness epidemic and the pervasive influence of hypermasculine online personalities. It has set off public debate from India to Australia to the United States about how we raise boys in an era when social media increasingly serves as an endless trough of misogynist messaging. In the UK, where the series became the first streaming show to top the country's TV ratings, it has stirred intense conversations on news panels and in parliament. Even the prime minister jumped into the fray after watching the show with his teenage children.In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.orgKatrina vanden Heuvel is editorial director and publisher of the Nation, she is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and she has contributed to the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times Continue reading...
Carl Cowling says there is no logic' in why there would be inflation as east Asian suppliers seek alternatives to the USDonald Trump's tariff war is more likely to lead to price cuts than inflation for many retailers in the UK, according to the boss of WH Smith, as east Asian suppliers seek alternatives to the US.Many economists including those at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have suggested that increased barriers to trade could fuel inflationary pressures across the globe. Continue reading...
Chinese restrictions could affect more than a dozen defence and aerospace firms and give Beijing crucial advantage'America's advanced weapons manufacturers are likely to face a critical shortfall of key rare-earth minerals that they import from China as a consequence of Donald Trump's escalating trade war with Beijing.New export licensing restrictions imposed by China on seven rare earths are like to cause disruptions in supply to more than a dozen US defence and aerospace companies involved in the production of everything from fighter jets to submarines and drones, the Center for Strategic and International Studies said in a commentary. Continue reading...
A number of arrests were made and at least one protester was Tasered by police after interrupting the Georgia representative as she addressed a crowd of supporters. The meeting, held in Acworth, was attended by about 150 people, some of whom cheered as demonstrators were escorted and wrestled to the ground by police officers. Acworth police sergeant Eric Mistretta said he believed officers had responded with appropriate force to people who yelled at the far-right congresswoman and resisted removal Continue reading...
Donald Trump's budget could gut Medicaid, cut food assistance for millions and lead to 40,000 kids losing childcareWomen and children are under threat in America.Jocelyn Smith of Roswell, New Mexico, knows this too well. I'm disabled, taking care of my disabled daughter. I work, and I volunteer to help feed and house my community," she told me. Yet I need assistance affording meals for my family. Something is broken."Karen Dolan is a federal safety net expert and a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. Continue reading...
Pop the Balloon or Find Love is a YouTube sensation - but in a mainstream form, it's terrible. Why does this keep happening?If you threw Blind Date, the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan and the auction block into a blender, what you'd get is Pop the Balloon or Find Love, a weekly hour-long Black dating show on YouTube.The show was created by Arlette Amuli, an African American of Congolese origins, and her husband, Bolia BM" Matundu, a Black Brit also of Congolese descent (he had a previous life as a UK rapper and then as a Ndombolo musician). It has become an international sensation in an age where our fried attention spans have us addicted to short videos. The format is minimalist to the point of brilliance: each week, a line of eight or so balloon-clutching love hunters line up to court and be courted by a singleton of the opposite sex they have never met before.Nels Abbey is an author, broadcaster and the founder of Uppity: the Intellectual PlaygroundDo 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...
Cracks are appearing as the podcaster's friends turn against him and Elon Musk. How long before he changes his mind?Sam Harris is the kind of guest Joe Rogan loves to have on his podcast: he dresses awkwardly in a sport coat with jeans; he undertook a PhD in neuroscience after a transformative experience with MDMA; his tone is accessible yet patronising; he has a sense of academic authority which belies a set of controversial views that include calling Islam uniquely uncivil" and almost unfettered support for Israeli attacks on Gaza; he made an app called Waking Up, which promises to be a new operating system for your mind". Rogan has hosted Harris on his podcast many times and the pair call each other good friends.But even Harris seems perturbed by Rogan's more wholehearted embrace of Musk and Maga. He's in over his head on so many topics of great consequence," Harris told his listeners of his own podcast last week. He'll bring someone in to shoot the shit on how the Holocaust is not what you think it was' or maybe Churchill was the bad guy in world war two' ... or he'll talk to someone like Trump or Tucker Carlson, who lie as freely as they breathe, and doesn't push back against any of their lies ... It is irresponsible, and it's directly harmful." Continue reading...
Experts warn that a specific brand of Christianity will be prioritized and lead to a further dismantling' of institutionsThe Trump administration's promotion of white Christian nationalists and prosperity gospel preachers to key government roles will lead to the further dismantling of government institutions" and the chilling of free speech, experts have warned.Donald Trump announced the creation of an anti-Christian bias" taskforce and a White House Faith Office (WHFO) in February, saying it would make recommendations to him regarding changes to policies, programs, and practices" and consult with outside experts in combatting anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, and additional forms of anti-religious bias". Continue reading...
Exclusive: Some aren't even fraud but rather known attempts by states to protect victims of identity theft, former top official saysIn a series of late-night posts on X last week, Elon Musk and his so-called department of government efficiency" revealed the seemingly startling findings of their initial survey" into unemployment benefits.They cited examples of claimants who were deceased, between one and five years old, or not born yet. They even cited one case of someone with a listed birthday in 2154 allegedly claiming $41,000. Continue reading...
Former president accuses Trump in first speech since leaving office. Plus, deadly Israeli strike hits second Gaza hospital this weekGood morning.In his first speech since leaving the White House, Joe Biden accused Donald Trump and Elon Musk yesterday of taking a hatchet" to social security, which he called a sacred promise" that 73 million Americans rely on each month.What else did Biden say? In the 90 years since Franklin Roosevelt created the social security system, people have always gotten their social security checks. They've gotten them during wartime, during recessions, during a pandemic. No matter what, they got them. But now for the first time ever, that might change. It'd be a calamity for millions of families."What is the humanitarian toll of Sudan's civil war? The consequences for Sudan's 51 million people have been devastating. Tens of thousands are reportedly dead. Hundreds of thousands face famine. Almost 13 million people have been displaced, 4 million of whom went to neighbouring countries. Almost half the population - 24.6 million people - do not have enough food. Continue reading...
A Palestinian student at Columbia University was detained by US immigration authorities in Vermont as he was attending a naturalisation interview. Mohsen Mahdawi's arrest comes four days after a US judge ruled that his fellow Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil could be deported from the US for his beliefs. Mahdawi's name adds to the growing list of students and scholars residing in the US on visas or green cards who have been detained and threatened with deportation
Wrestling is a brutal but beautiful sport. So why are its brightest stars drawn to the US president? The answer lies in marginalization and the need to be seenEvery March, I tune in to the NCAA Division I Men's Wrestling Championships, a ritual I associate with the arrival of spring. It also reminds me of my own athletic tenure. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and started wrestling when I was five, and went on to compete at the Division I level in college.This year's championships were compulsive viewing. Penn State's Carter Starocci became the first five-time D-I national champion, and Oklahoma State's Wyatt Hendrickson stunned Olympic champion, Gable Steveson, in the heavyweight final. Oh. And Donald Trump was there. Joining him were Elon Musk, former wrestler turned Republican Ohio congressman Jim Jordan, and other political allies. Continue reading...
Joe Biden has accused Donald Trump and Elon Musk of 'taking a hatchet' to the social security administration after they moved at warp-speed to dismantle large swaths of the federal government. In his first public remarks since leaving office, the former president avoided any explicit mention of Trump - his predecessor and successor - but was sharply critical of the new administration for threatening social security, which Biden called a 'sacred promise' that more than 70 million Americans relied on every month
She helped bankroll Trump, backs Israel's war in Gaza and traded away Luka Doni. Dallas fans are furious - and they're not aloneIn the NBA, villainy rarely looks like chaos. It often arrives in the form of billionaires who believe their power serves a greater good. The NBA's old guard of terrible owners - Donald Sterling, Glen Taylor and Robert Sarver - have mostly exited the stage, having offloaded their controlling stakes in recent years. Even James Dolan, long regarded as the autocratic overlord of the New York Knicks, has begun to loosen his grip on basketball operations. Yet as the league evolves, the absence of these figures creates a vacuum - one in which a new archetype of villainous owner can emerge. And from where I stand, Miriam Adelson is the No 1 example.Adelson, the widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, is worth around $27bn, making her one of the world's richest women. Her fortune primarily stems from gambling her majority ownership in the Las Vegas Sands casino and resort company. In late 2023, she purchased majority ownership of the Dallas Mavericks from Mark Cuban for $3.5bn. In a little over two years in charge, she has alienated large parts of the team's fanbase by allowing the trade of a generational superstar, Luka Doni, who took the team to the NBA finals last season. Continue reading...
By claiming that any regulation is censorship, the White House is bullying Britain to abandon online safety laws and digital taxesCompared with many countries around the world, the US is still a great democracy, but a much lesser one than it was four months ago. The constitution has not been rewritten. Checks and balances have not been dissolved. The difference is a president who ignores those constraints, and the impotence of the institutions that should enforce them.Which is the true US, the one enshrined in law or the one that smirks in contempt of law? If the latter, should Britain welcome its embrace as a kindred nation? That is an existential question lurking in the technical folds of a potential transatlantic trade agreement.Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
I think back to my 20-year-old self and my sister, lost in her imagined worlds, and I feel compassion for us bothWhen my sister was 21, she was diagnosed with dementia. She had survived a malignant brain tumour diagnosis when she was 10, but her cancer was inoperable and sat directly on her hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for memory formation.My sister moved in and out of what I would call reality". She spent days talking to people I couldn't see, laughing at jokes I couldn't hear. I would cajole her into playing Scrabble with me, and after a couple of hours she might say something normal", like, How are you, Jackie?" She just needed mental stimulation, I would think. If I could play Scrabble with her every day, she would come back to me. Continue reading...
by Gabrielle Canon, Lucy Campbell, Léonie Chao-Fong on (#6WMGQ)
This live blog is now closed.Former US President Joe Biden is expected to return to the national stage later today as he delivers his first major post-presidency speech.The 82-year-old Democrat, who reluctantly dropped out of the presidential race last year amid concerns about his cognitive functioning, will talk about how social security is being threatened by the policies of the Trump administration. Continue reading...
In first speech since leaving office, ex-president spoke of destruction' current administration has wroughtJoe Biden on Tuesday accused Donald Trump and his billionaire lieutenant, Elon Musk, of taking a hatchet" to the social security administration as they moved at warp-speed to dismantle large swaths of the federal government.In his first public remarks since leaving office, the former president avoided any explicit mention of Trump - his predecessor and successor - but he was sharply critical of the new administration for threatening social security, which Biden called a sacred promise" that more than 70 million Americans rely on each month. Continue reading...
Judge considers whether officials are in contempt of court in deportation case; Obama backs Harvard in funding face-off - key US politics stories from Tuesday 15 April at a glanceA federal judge has sharply rebuked the Trump administration and is evaluating whether officials are in contempt of court for failing to secure the return of a man wrongly deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador.The US supreme court last week ordered that the Trump administration to facilitate the release and return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a refugee who has legally lived in the US for 25 years. Continue reading...
Chris Van Hollen warns of constitutional crisis' and says he hopes to report back to family on Maryland man's conditionDemocratic senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland will travel to El Salvador on Wednesday and attempt to visit Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a constituent whose deportation and incarceration in the Central American country, he warns, has tipped the United States into a constitutional crisis.In an interview with the Guardian on Tuesday, Van Hollen said he hopes to learn of Abrego Garcia's condition and convey it to his family, who also live in the state he represents. Continue reading...
Green-card holder Mohsen Mahdawi, 34, arrested at appointment where he was meant to take citizenship testThe Trump administration is justifying its efforts to deport a student at Columbia University by saying that his activities could potentially undermine" the Middle East peace process.In a memo from the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, reviewed exclusively by the New York Times, the administration asserts that Mohsen Mahdawi, 34, a green-card holder and student who led pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia, had undermined the Middle East peace process and threatened the US goal to peacefully" resolve conflict in Israel and Gaza. Continue reading...
Winner bought ticket in San Luis Obispo, getting prize with odds of one in 2,047,423, according to California LotteryAn unhoused man in California won $1m from a lottery ticket that he bought from a liquor store on the state's central coast.The winner, who has not been publicly identified, purchased the scratcher ticket from Sandy's Deli-Liquor in San Luis Obispo, where he has been a customer for years, according to media reports. Continue reading...
by Hugo Lowell and Léonie Chao-Fong in Maryland on (#6WN67)
Administration will have to share under oath how it's trying to get Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to US, says district judgeA federal judge sharply rebuked the Trump administration and scolded officials on Tuesday for taking no steps to secure the return of a man wrongly deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador, as the US supreme court had ordered in a contentious ruling last week.The US district judge Paula Xinis said that Donald Trump's news conference with El Salvador's president, Nayib Bukele, where the leaders joked that Kilmar Abrego Garcia would not be released, did not count as compliance. Continue reading...
Order instructs health department to work with Congress on changing law that allows Medicare to negotiate drug pricesDonald Trump directed his health department on Tuesday to work with Congress on revamping a law that allows Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices, seeking to introduce a change the pharmaceutical industry has lobbied for.Drugmakers have been pushing to delay the timeline under which medications become eligible for price negotiations by four years for small molecule drugs, which are primarily pills and account for most medicines. Continue reading...
Lawsuit argues that culling library books prevents children from learning about health, hygiene, biology and abuseTwelve students studying in Pentagon schools in the US and around the world are suing the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, over the book bans he has instigated to remove titles on race and gender from their libraries.A lawsuit lodged on the students' behalf by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Tuesday argues that their first amendment rights are being irreparably harmed. The complaint says that the censorship has been applied system-wide across Pentagon schools, and was endangering children by preventing them from learning critical information about health, hygiene, biology and abuse. Continue reading...
US secretary of state Marco Rubio also spoke with foreign minister about strengthening countries' tiesThe United States has removed sanctions on a close aide of the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orban, the state department said, adding that the punitive measures had been inconsistent with US foreign policy interests".Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, spoke on Tuesday with his Hungarian counterpart, the foreign minister Peter Szijjarto, and informed him of the move, state department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement. Continue reading...
Dan Caldwell reportedly removed from building over unauthorized disclosure' amid scandal over recent leaksOne of US defense secretary Pete Hegseth's leading advisers, Dan Caldwell, was reportedly put on leave and removed from the Pentagon on Tuesday following a Department of Defense investigation into leaks.Caldwell was escorted out of the Pentagon after being identified during the investigation and subsequently placed on administrative leave for an unauthorized disclosure", a source told Reuters. Continue reading...
Records offer details of Cody Balmer, 38, who is accused of setting fire to Pennsylvania governor's mansionThe man accused of setting fire to the Pennsylvania's gubernatorial mansion early on Sunday morning while the governor, Josh Shapiro, and his family were asleep inside was due in court three days later on allegations that he assaulted his wife and stepson after trying to take his own life.Those records help provide a more complete picture of Cody Balmer, 38, of the Pennsylvania capital of Harrisburg, who was denied bail on Monday on charges of attempted murder, terrorism, aggravated assault and aggravated arson in connection with the governor's mansion blaze. Continue reading...
County to cut budget by almost $90m as it tackles nearly $2bn in fire-related costs and cuts to federal fundingLos Angeles county is experiencing unprecedented financial challenges amid growing costs from the historic wildfires that ravaged the region earlier this year and a $4bn sex abuse case settlement, the county CEO said this week.The region faces roughly $2bn in expenses related to January's fires, which killed 30 people and destroyed nearly 17,000 structures. Earlier this month the county announced it had a $4bn agreement to settle thousands of claims of sexual abuse in juvenile facilities dating back 1959 - the largest such settlement in US history. Continue reading...
UBC and others report spike in interest from US citizens as Trump withholds funds and revokes foreign student visasMore students living in the United States are applying to Canadian universities or expressing interest in studying north of the border as Donald Trump cuts federal funding to universities and revokes foreign student visas.Officials at the University of British Columbia's (UBC) Vancouver campus said the school reported a 27% jump in graduate applications as of 1 March from US citizens for programs starting in the 2025 academic year, compared with all of 2024. Continue reading...
Trump proposed that homegrown criminals' should be deported, an idea that experts say is clearly illegalThe US attorney general declined on Tuesday to say whether Donald Trump's suggestion of removing US citizens to El Salvador was legal, in alarming remarks about what experts think is an obviously illegal idea.Trump proposed the idea on Monday in the Oval Office during a visit with El Salvador's president, Nayib Bukele, who has been accepting people deported from the US and imprisoning them in a gigantic facility notorious for human rights abuses. Continue reading...
The trip leaned on a vision of women's empowerment that is light on substance and heavy on a childlike, girlish sillinessThere are some spectacles of US decadence and decline that almost seem too on the nose - the sort of orgies of vulgar provocation or fantastic lack of self-awareness that exceed the limits of parody, so that if they were in a novel, you'd think the writer was laying it on a little thick. Among these is the all-female flight by Blue Origin, the Jeff Bezos-owned rocket tourism company, which on Monday launched a phallically shaped pod full of women - including the pop star Katy Perry and Bezos's partner, Lauren Sanchez - on a brief trip into space.The flight, which was promoted for months in advance, was touted as a triumph of feminism, a win for science and an embrace of the kind of expansive, curious human spirit of striving and possibility that once animated both. Instead, the flight served as a kind of perverse funeral for the America that once enabled both scientific advancement and feminist progress - a spectacle that mocked these aspirations by appropriating them for such an indulgent and morally hollow purpose. Continue reading...
It may be a turning point in the White House's attempt to gut allegedly liberal universities and punish law firmsIt might come to be seen as the moment the woke liberal empire" of Donald Trump's most fevered imaginings struck back.Harvard University, the world-renowned institution emblematic of the elitism that Trump and his coterie hold in contempt, received an extortive demand from the administration that it surrender the core of its academic freedoms - and promptly told it to get lost. Continue reading...
Musk's Doge team announced in March it had canceled about $577m in grants for programs it labeled America last'Labor groups have filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's abrupt termination of international labor rights programs aimed at ending child labor and other abuses.The Solidarity Center, Global March Against Child Labour, and the American Institutes for Research (AIR), filed the lawsuit on Tuesday seeking to stop the cuts, enacted by Elon Musk's so-called department of government efficiency" (Doge), and arguing the programs were authorized by Congress and that the secretary of labor has no authority to cancel the funds. Continue reading...
Steve Witkoff's switch from saying low-level production could continue seen as example of chaotic US foreign policyDonald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, has announced Iran must totally eliminate its nuclear programme, seeming to reverse the policy he had articulated on Fox News only 12 hours earlier that would have allowed Iran to enrich uranium at a low level for civilian use.The switch to a more hardline policy is likely to make it much harder for the US to reach a negotiated agreement with Tehran, bringing back the threat of an attack on Iran's nuclear sites. Continue reading...
The US is retreating behind chokepoints and tariffs. It remains determined to invent the future but is struggling to ensure its controlGlobalisation is out; reshoring is the new realism. Intel's half-built Ohio campus and Nvidia's US supercomputer plan demonstrate the very different routes taken by Joe Biden and Donald Trump in the search for homegrown tech dominance. Mr Biden relied on institutions: grants, land and investment incentives. That approach has stalled after last year's election, rendering Intel's plant idle. Mr Trump prefers court politics: flattery, pressure and tariff threats. Nvidia's move seems driven less by design than executive ultimatum. Industrial strategy lives on - but, and this is a concern, increasingly through presidential menace, not policy.There's another important message in the Nvidia announcement. In an era where ideas spread freely, power lies not in invention but in chokepoints, such as artificial intelligence supercomputer fabrication, that determine who can scale those ideas into global platforms. Remember that as the US braces for a backlash over the breakdown of the old trade order. Continue reading...
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