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The resignations follow scholarship cancellations and probe into Harvard's work with blacklisted Chinese officialsAll 12 members of the prestigious Fulbright program's board have reportedly resigned in protest of what they describe as unprecedented political interference by the Trump administration, which has blocked scholarships for nearly 200 American academics.The board, according to a memo obtained by the New York Times, accused the state department of acting illegally by cancelling awards already approved for professors and researchers due to travel overseas this summer, following a year-long selection process that concluded over the winter. Continue reading...

President says disaster relief funds will be distributed from White House: We're going to give out less money'President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he planned to start phasing out" the Federal Emergency Management Agency after the hurricane season and that states would receive less federal aid to respond to natural disasters.Trump also said he planned to distribute disaster relief funds directly from the president's office. Continue reading...

Poll shows large decline in Mexico, Poland and Canada, with just 34% of people expressing some confidence in TrumpBarely one-third of people polled across 24 countries say they have confidence in Donald Trump as a world leader, with most describing the US president as arrogant" and dangerous", and relatively few as honest".The survey of more than 28,000 people by the Pew Research Center also found that opinions of the US had worsened over the past year in more than half the countries polled - including falls of 20-plus points in Mexico, Sweden, Poland and Canada. In the UK, the figure had dropped from 54% to 50%. Continue reading...

Woman in video appears unarmed as she walks alone before police shoot her near her residenceLaw enforcement officers have shot a woman with what appears to be less lethal" ammunition at close range while she was walking alone near her residence in Los Angeles, new footage shot during the recent protests reveals.The video, which was taken by another woman and shared on social media, shows the woman walking down a street alone. A line of law enforcement officers appear to tell her to leave the area. Continue reading...

For decades, LA has been at the center of the civil rights and immigrants' rights movements - and Trump's raids appear to be mobilizing a new generationLos Angeles is home to nearly a million undocumented immigrants, the largest number of any place in the US. For decades, the city has been a catalyst in the US immigrants' rights movement.So when federal agents began conducting raids at workplaces across Los Angeles last week, activists say it's not surprising that the city rose up in protest. Continue reading...

The president had been waiting for this made-for-TV clash that allows the administration to manufacture' a crisisDonald Trump is targeting Los Angeles, the biggest city in deep-blue California - a sprawling metropolis shaped by immigrant communities that the president described on Tuesday as a trash heap" - with a show of force many years in the making.After his first term, Trump expressed regret for not taking a more heavy-handed approach to the 2020 protests over George Floyd's murder by police. So when demonstrations against his immigration crackdown erupted last week in Los Angeles, he turned to the playbook he wished he had used then - federalizing the national guard and deploying hundreds of US marines to confront what Democratic officials insist was a manageable situation, escalated by a president who the state's governor, Gavin Newsom, has warned is increasingly behaving like a dictator". Continue reading...

From Newsmax to Charlie Kirk, outlets and podcasts are calling for hard actions', arrests and the Insurrection ActThere were unsavory scenes in Los Angeles over the weekend, as police used teargas and less-lethal munitions" on thousands of people gathered to protest against the arrest of undocumented people immigrants.The events playing out on rightwing TV channels and in the conservative podcasting realm were almost as miserable, as excitable media figures decried protesters as invaders", called for both the mass arrest of elected officials and the invocation of a two-century old laws and used the chaos to push racist conspiracy theories. Continue reading...

My Body, My Data Act is necessary to protect women from persecution in post-Roe era, lawmakers sayThree Democratic members of Congress are introducing a bill to limit companies' ability to hoover up data about people's reproductive health - a measure, they say, that is necessary to protect women from persecution in the post-Roe v Wade era.Representative of California, Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii and Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon on Wednesday will file the My Body, My Data Act in both the US House and Senate. The bill aims to block companies from collecting, using, retaining or disclosing information about someone's reproductive health unless that data is essential to providing a requested service. This provision would apply to information about pregnancy, menstruation, abortion, contraception and other matters relating to reproductive health. Continue reading...

Standing by one's identity makes sense in certain contexts. But there is a host of valid reasons for lawful demonstrators to remain anonymousDo protesters have a right to hide their faces? Donald Trump, who likes to show and see his own face as often as possible, clearly does not think so. One demand to universities has been that they outlaw masking at demonstrations; in response to protests in California, the US president demanded on social media that anyone wearing a mask be arrested immediately.Never mind the apparent double standard, as Ice agents refuse to take off face coverings and hide their name tags, defying any accountability; there is a widespread sense that standing by one's identity is a crucial part of standing up to unjust power. In fact, that intuition is at the core of civil disobedience. But it is not plausible in our present moment; what's more, there is a long countervailing tradition of validating citizens' right to anonymity. As recently as the mid-1990s, it was affirmed by none other than the supreme court. Continue reading...

The Connecticut senator is urging colleagues to take risks to confront Trump and show voters a less judgmental facePete Buttigieg. Ruben Gallego. JD Vance. All are young politicians who sport facial hair, perhaps in the belief that it confers gravitas. One headline writer even suggested: 2028 Might Be The Year Of The Beard For Presidential Hopefuls."Cue Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator who recently joined the ranks of the bearded. The 51-year-old's is flecked with white, perhaps implying a warrior weathered by battle. Murphy is one of the most outspoken voices in the Democratic opposition to Donald Trump. Continue reading...

The Georgia megachurch leader called for a #TargetFast over its DEI rollback. Now Dollar General is next, he says, as consumers mobilize against Trump's policiesOn 5 February, a month before lent, Jamal Harrison Bryant stepped up to the pulpit of his Atlanta area megachurch. Wearing a sweater bearing Muhammad Ali's likeness and standing behind a lectern branded with a Black power fist clutching a cross, the senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church railed against companies that rolled back their DEI initiatives to appease Donald Trump.Explicitly, Bryant, 54, singled out Target - which, among other things, had pledged to invest $2bn in Black-owned businesses by the end of 2025 as corporate reparations after the murder of George Floyd - for going back on its word. He urged the conscientious Christian community" to link arms with his 10,000 church members and commit to a 40-day fast" from the company starting on Ash Wednesday. Continue reading...

The Americans have now lost four matches in a row, and the World Cup is one year away. Serious questions are starting to emerge about their high-profile coachIf you're wondering why there seems to be so much hand-wringing over the US men's national team's current form, consider where head coach Mauricio Pochettino set the bar when he took over.We need to really believe and think of big things," he said in his introductory press conference in September. We need to believe that we can win, that we can win all [the] games. We can win the World Cup." Continue reading...

Protesters defy overnight curfew as California governor issues searing rebuke of administration. Plus, who is behind the hedonistic party palaces of New York's Fire Island?

Men's and women's leagues have announced plans for rapid growth. But secession and expansion have long been central elements of US sportsBetween this summer's Club World Cup, next year's World Cup, the enduring stature of the US women's national team, and MLS's steadily growing stable of teams and star attractions, soccer finally appears to be realizing its vast promise on US soil. Is there a limit to how much soccer America can handle? Several organizations are betting that the answer to that question is no". In late April, the National Women's Soccer League - the oldest and biggest first division professional women's league operating in the US today - announced plans to launch a second division, despite concerns over the first division's financial sustainability and the NWSL's slipping status in a women's club game increasingly dominated by Europe.That announcement came on the heels of news that the Women's Premier Soccer League, the longest-running active women's soccer league in the country, plans to launch WPSL Pro as a second-tier league late next year. Meanwhile the USL Super League, a first division rival to the more established NWSL, launched with eight teams in 2024; Sporting Club Jacksonville will become the league's ninth team when the second season starts this fall. There is nothing in the US Soccer Federation's rules to prevent multiple leagues from occupying the same division. From a single Division I competition two years ago, professional US women's soccer is now facing a future where it could very soon have two rival leagues at both first and second division level. Should all the proposed leagues launch as planned, there could be 50 women's professional soccer teams in the US by 2030. In 2023 there were just 12. Continue reading...

In its first months in office, the Trump administration enacted what could be called soft authoritarianism. Now we are in a second phaseOn Monday, the Pentagon sent 700 active-duty marines to Los Angeles and doubled the number of national guard troops deployed there to 4,000, to quell protests Donald Trump said on Sunday were already under control", still simmering ... but not very much".The same day, the US president used the word insurrectionists" to describe demonstrators against the unprecedentedly large and fierce immigration deportation raids by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) that started on Friday in that city. The remark echoed his long-held desire to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act, which would authorize him to send the military anywhere in the country to put down dissent. Continue reading...

Protests against Donald Trump's immigration policies continued in Los Angeles for a fifth day even as local authorities ordered a curfew in parts of the city. The California governor, Gavin Newsom, delivered a rebuke of the Trump administration, accusing it of 'pulling a military dragnet' across LA and warning 'other states are next'. Trump had ordered the deployment of nearly 5,000 troops, including national guard and marines, to the nation's second-largest city Continue reading...

US commerce secretary expresses optimism that deal will resolve concerns about rare earths and magnets

Journalists condemn slew of incidents and call on authorities to ensure press freedom is respected'Several journalists covering the protests in Los Angeles against the Trump administration's immigration crackdown have reported being attacked by law enforcement over the last several days, prompting condemnation and a call on authorities to do more to ensure press freedom is respected".Some were struck by rubber bullets and fired at with pepper balls while one crew was briefly detained while broadcasting live. Continue reading...

A message tucked into an old book serves as a reminder that the assault on the institution is part of a long-planned effortOn the shelf in my library, I have an autographed copy of a book written by a former Republican congressman from New York, John LeBoutillier, titled Harvard Hates America: The Odyssey of a Born-Again American. It was published in 1978, two years before LeBoutillier was elected to Congress - and decades before the Trump administration's assault on the institution. But its message is familiar in 2025.The book is a scathing criticism of Harvard University, in large part over its supposed left-leaning professors who allegedly indoctrinate their undergraduates. Its thrust is straightforward: Harvard is America's problem.Long after I had graduated from Harvard and was a freshman member of Congress, I realized just how terrible some of the people educating our young are; they are not only liberals, but they use their power" over their students to preach an anti-American leftist point of view. And this is not confined to Harvard. Indeed, this is a disease spreading throughout the academic world.I believe that this politicalization of education threatens this country. And, coupled with a bias so obviously evident in the media, makes it difficult for we conservatives to get our message across.Bernard E Harcourt is a professor of law and political science at Columbia University in New York City and a directeur d'etudes at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. He is the author most recently of A Modern Counterrevolution" in The Ideas Letter Continue reading...

LA police issue warning to groups that continue to congregate in curfew area after California governor launches blistering attack on US president

California's governor issued a warning to other states as he decried Trump's decision to deploy the National Guard without his support. Key US politics stories from Tuesday 10 June at a glanceThe California governor, Gavin Newsom, has declared that democracy is under assault" in a blistering evening address in which he accused Donald Trump of pulling a military dragnet" across Los Angeles.On another day of mass protests over immigration raids and the federal deployment of military forces to the state, Newsom said Trump's immigration crackdown had gone well beyond arresting criminals and that dishwashers, gardeners, day labourers and seamstresses" are among those being detained. Continue reading...

In a blistering address against the Trump administration, California governor Gavin Newsom warned democracy is 'under assault before our eyes'. President Donald Trump's decision to deploy the National Guard in Los Angeles was 'a brazen abuse of power', that has 'inflamed a combustible situation', Newsom said after Trump ordered the deployment of thousands of troops, including National Guard and Marines, to the nation's second-largest city as demonstrations against ICE immigration raids unfolded. Newsom warned the situation unfolding in California was just the beginning

Karen Bass institutes 8pm-6am curfew for downtown LA as California governor urges people to not give in' to president

Demonstrations in New York, Chicago, Atlanta and elsewhere in protest at Ice raids and deployment of troopsProtests against the Trump administration's newly intensified immigration raids, centered on Los Angeles, spread across the country on Tuesday, with demonstrations in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Omaha and Seattle.Thousands attended a protest against the federal government's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) in New York City's Foley Square.

Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass has declared a local emergency and issued a curfew for downtown Los Angeles 'to stop the vandalism and stop the looting'. The curfew will be in place from 8pm until 6am and will be in an area of one square mile. Bass called on non-residents to avoid the area. Bass will consult with police about the continuation of the curfew but expects it to go for several days

The president declined at Fort Bragg to hum a tune of virtue and valor - instead it was a tour of his darkest horizons

Sherrill emerges from crowded field of rivals on strength as Navy pilot and ex-prosecutor who is a vocal Trump criticUS representative Mikie Sherrill won the Democratic primary in New Jersey's race for governor, emerging from a crowded field of experienced rivals on the strength of her biography as a navy pilot and former prosecutor who has been a vocal critic of Donald Trump.Sherrill defeated five rivals, including a fellow House member, the mayors of the state's two biggest cities, a former top state legislator and the head of the influential teacher's union. She will face the Republican nominee, Jack Ciattarelli, in the November general election. Continue reading...

Trump ordered the deployment of 4,000 national guard and 700 marines to LA amid Ice protests - here's what to knowDonald Trump's administration has ordered the deployment of 4,000 national guard members and 700 marines in response to protests against deportation operations in Los Angeles.The deployment of soldiers into the city comes despite the objections of local officials and the California governor, and appeared to be the first time in decades that a president activated a state's national guard without a request from its governor. Continue reading...

The US president reiterated falsehoods and misleading statements to troops at the North Carolina military baseAs Los Angeles braced for the arrival of new federal troops, Donald Trump on Tuesday reiterated a slew of falsehoods and misleading statements about the tensions in the US's second-largest city.In an address to troops at the Fort Bragg military base in North Carolina, Trump spread conspiracy theories, maligned California's Democratic leaders and misleadingly portrayed protesters as part of a foreign invasion". Continue reading...

Attention comes in wake of ex-employees' allegations that insurer paid nursing homes to reduce hospital transfers and used improper tactics to gain Medicare Advantage enrolleesUS lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are raising concerns and seeking investigations in the wake of Guardian reporting on whistleblower claims about practices within UnitedHealth Group's nursing home partnership programs.One US senator has announced he is launching an investigation and two US representatives are now calling on the US Department of Justice to expand its reported investigations of the nation's largest healthcare conglomerate. Others said they are troubled by whistleblower allegations reported by the Guardian - including claims that UnitedHealth paid bonuses to nursing homes to help reduce residents' hospital transfers and used improper sales tactics to get nursing home residents to sign up for the company's Medicare Advantage plans. Continue reading...

Mike Huckabee suggested any future Palestinian state should be carved out of a Muslim country'Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, has said that the US is no longer pursuing the goal of an independent Palestinian state, marking what analysts describe as the most explicit abandonment yet of a cornerstone of US Middle East diplomacy.Asked during an interview with Bloomberg News if a Palestinian state remains a goal of US policy, he replied: I don't think so." Continue reading...

US defense secretary defends president's decision to dispatch 2,700 military personnel due to Ice protests

Perimeters of safety around graduation sites' aim to prevent any immigration enforcement action

House speaker said the California governor is a participant, an accomplice' in the city's ongoing civil unrest

We would like to hear from people in Los Angeles about their thoughts on the recent events in the cityLos Angeles is reeling after a series of immigration raids led to widespread protests over the weekend and Donald Trump took the extraordinary step of ordering thousands of US military troops to descend on the city, a move that California leaders have decried as inflammatory".Raids on Friday in areas of the city with large Latino populations led to mainly peaceful demonstrations, but the protests turned violent when federal immigration authorities used flashbang grenades and teargas against demonstrators. Over the weekend, fiery and chaotic scenes played out in downtown LA, Compton and Paramount, with dozens of people arrested. Continue reading...

Despite the ongoing crackdown on protesters in Los Angeles, the US constitution (for now) provides far more freedom of speech than there is in the UKHello from the US where, if you're a fan of things such as civil liberties and not getting shot in the leg by masked thugs sporting law enforcement badges, the situation is somewhat suboptimal. Over in Los Angeles, national guard troops have been brought in to rough up protesters who are demonstrating against immigration raids. There were at least 27 attacks on journalists by law enforcement recorded at the protests between 6 and 8 June, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF).One of the most alarming things about the crackdown against protesters in LA is the memo greenlighting it. It acts pre-emptively, a first in the US, authorising the military to be deployed in locations where protests are likely to occur". Scarier still, Donald Trump has said he won't rule out invoking the Insurrection Act: an 1807 law that empowers the president to deploy the military inside the US and use it against Americans. All this, of course, comes amid a wider crackdown on campus protests and free speech (particularly pro-Palestine speech). Continue reading...

The Trump administration's immigration raids in the California city prompted mostly peaceful protests, which escalated when the president sent in the national guard - and then the US marinesAfter a series of immigration raids across the city of Los Angeles on Friday inspired mostly peaceful protests involving a few hundred people, the situation escalated on Saturday when the US president, Donald Trump, took the unprecedented step of mobilizing the national guard - the country's military reserve units - claiming the demonstrations amounted to rebellion" against the authority of the US government. The governor of California, Gavin Newsom, called the decision purposefully inflammatory". Here's a look at what actually happened on the streets.Most of the events took place in downtown Los Angeles, in a fairly localized area. The vast majority of the gigantic metropolis was not affected. Continue reading...

State department to take control of US foreign assistance programs in mass restructuring by 30 SeptemberThe Trump administration will eliminate all USAID (United States Agency for International Development) overseas positions worldwide by 30 September in a dramatic restructuring of remaining US foreign aid operations.In a Tuesday state department cable obtained by the Guardian, secretary of state Marco Rubio ordered the abolishment of the agency's entire international workforce, transferring control of foreign assistance programs directly to the state department. Continue reading...

Health officials, scientists and vaccine researchers sound alarm after health secretary fires 17 advisory membersRobert F Kennedy's clean sweep" of a critical vaccine advisory panel spread shock and dismay among health experts, as many warned the health secretary's decision would erode trust in the US vaccine approval system.The secretary fired all 17 members of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) advisory committee for immunization practices (ACIP) - a group of scientific experts who recommend how vaccines should be administered and distributed. Continue reading...

Mark Ruffalo, Kehlani, Pedro Pascal and Doechii among figures reacting to president's mobilisation of militaryCelebrities have reacted to the ongoing tension in Los Angeles, calling out Ice officials and praising those protesting against them.After a series of crackdowns targeting immigrant communities in the city, tensions reached fever pitch over the weekend with thousands of community members taking to the streets. Donald Trump has since mobilised marines and national guard members in a move that has further enraged locals. Continue reading...

The Tesla boss wields power no one person should have. But there's a way to fix the problemAs the world watches Donald Trump and Elon Musk publicly fight over the sweeping legislation moving through Congress, we should not let the drama distract us. There is something deeper afoot: unprecedented wealth concentration - and the unbridled power that comes with such wealth - has distorted our democracy and is driving societal and economic tensions.Musk, the world's richest man, wields power no one person should have. He has used this power to elect candidates that will enact policies to protect his interests and he even bought his way into government. While at the helm of Doge, Musk dramatically reshaped the government in ways that benefit him - for instance, slashing regulatory agencies investigating his businesses - and hollowed out spending to make way for tax cuts that would enrich him.Gabriel Zucman is professor of economics at the University of California Berkeley and the Paris School of Economics Continue reading...

Trump tried to force out Kim Sajet, calling her highly partisan and a strong supporter of' of diversity initiativesThe Smithsonian Institution has rebuffed Donald Trump's attempt to fire the director of its National Portrait Gallery, with the museum's governing board asserting its independence in a direct challenge to the president.In a statement issued after an emergency meeting Monday, the Smithsonian's board of regents declared that all personnel decisions are made by and subject to the direction of the secretary, with oversight by the board" - turning away Trump's claim of authority over the institution's staffing. Continue reading...

One man told his parents he thought he signed for a Covid test but feared he had accidentally consented to deportationSome Angelenos rounded up by federal immigration agents have already been deported, according to a new report, as a fuller picture emerges of the immigrants arrested during raids in Los Angeles that have triggered a wave of protests there and in other cities across the US.The Trump administration has not released a count - but the parents of a 23-year-old member of Mexico's Indigenous Zapotec community told the Washington Post they had received a phone call from their son telling them he had been dropped off at the US-Mexico border and told to cross over. Continue reading...

US president's son posted photo mocking the current unrest' in LA by referring to Rooftop Korean' from 1992 riotsAn association of Korean Americans in Los Angeles has criticised Donald Trump Jr, the son of the US president, for reckless" comments on social media and urged him not to exploit a riot that devastated their community 33 years ago.The Korean American Federation of Los Angeles also said an operation by the US administration to round up suspected undocumented immigrants lacked due legal procedures". Continue reading...