On Thursday, a 22-year-old from Iowa was arrested in the murders of three women he had no connection toAt a trailhead not far from the sprawling red cliffs and canyons of Utah's Capitol Reef national park, two men went looking for their wives who were overdue to return from a hike on Wednesday afternoon.They came upon a grisly scene. Natalie Graves, 34, and her aunt, 65-year-old Linda Dewey, had been killed and left in a parched creek bed, according to court documents. A Bureau of Land Management ranger responding to the area noted spent shell casings near their bodies. The white Subaru they had come in was missing. Continue reading...
The US head coach has built a deep and talented pool of players as next summer's tournament in Brazil approachesThe US women's national team won the SheBelieves Cup on Saturday, capping the three-game friendly tournament with a 1-0 win over Colombia. Alyssa Thompson finally broke the deadlock in a game largely dominated by the hosts.The Chelsea winger sent an inch-perfect shot into the upper corner in the 81st minute to notch her fourth international goal. Continue reading...
As the Iran disaster escalates, Starmer should treat the US president as someone whose actions threaten the lawful, democratic way of life everywhereNine days in, the conduct of the unjustified, illegal US-Israel war against Iran grows ever-more disproportionate, dishonourable and deranged. The torpedoing of an Iranian navy ship off Sri Lanka by a US submarine demonstrated that for reckless Donald Trump, the whole world is his battlefield. Diplomacy, treacherously sabotaged by Washington, has been replaced by unceasing airstrikes that are murdering and maiming hundreds of Iranian civilians. Trump's White House increasingly resembles a madhouse. War aims shift daily. A clueless, rambling president insists he must help pick Iran's next ayatollah. Meanwhile, his secretary for war", Pete Hegseth, rants manically about killing without mercy.Nine days in, it's clear Iran's leaders, those who survive, are not going to roll over in a repeat of Trump's Venezuela coup. Their forces, though drastically outgunned, are succeeding in spreading pain across the Middle East, inundating defences with waves of drones and missiles. That's no surprise. Iran warned of a region-wide conflict if attacked again. Trump is now at war with US allies, too, having adopted George W Bush's crude Iraq war for us or against us" maxim. The Gulf Arabs - and cruelly battered Lebanon - just want it to stop. Britain and Europe mostly want no part of it, but are being sucked in anyway. The global economy is tumbling into crisis. In Trump's war on the world, there are no heroes, only victims. Spain's defiant leader, Pedro Sanchez, is one exception. Continue reading...
Parnas, who worked with Rudy Giuliani to find or manufacture dirt on Joe Biden in Ukraine, says he woke up'Lev Parnas, a Ukrainian American businessman who served a 20-month sentence for campaign contributions to Republican politicians, including Donald Trump, that secretly came from a Russian oligarch, has announced a bid to unseat Maria Elvira Salazar, a Cuban American Republican who is in her third term as representative for Florida's 27th congressional district.Parnas rose to national attention during Trump's first impeachment trial in 2019, when it emerged that he had been the first to ask Trump to remove the US ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, and then worked with former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani to press Ukrainian officials to make false claims about corruption by Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. Continue reading...
A huge column of fire and smoke could be seen rising from an oil depot in the Iranian capital in video shared on social media.Footage from central Tehran shows fires across the skyline as the US and Israel hit five oil facilities in overnight strikes in and near the city, an official told state TV.A fresh wave of Iranian strikes hit the Gulf on Sunday, with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait all reporting attacks
The US was an oligarchy well before Trump's first term. Recognizing this reality is essential to building a true democracySince Donald Trump returned to the White House, American political life has taken on a familiar rhythm. Each week brings another court ruling framed as a breaking point, another election cast as the last real one, another executive order described as the moment it all finally tips over the edge, another person murdered by a government that's finally gone too far. Democratic party fundraising emails promise to save the Republic". Commentators warn that the guardrails are giving way. Anxious citizens refresh their screens, waiting for the collapse of American democracy.This state of permanent panic rests on what Sigmund Freud called an illusion: a belief embraced not because it reflects reality, but because it satisfies a psychological need. The illusion in this case is that the United States still has a democracy to lose. The more unsettling truth is that Americans are not living under threat of future democratic breakdown; we are living inside the aftermath of one that has already occurred.Eric Reinhart is a political anthropologist, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Continue reading...
As political depression' enters public discourse, therapists are encouraging people to engage with their communitiesWhen Rebecca McFaul woke up in her small farmhouse in Logan, Utah, on a cold January day, she felt the same way she'd been feeling for months: A certain kind of terror and horror at it all." Most of her family lives in Minnesota, and for weeks, she'd watched from afar as families were taken by agents, activists were shot and tear gas hung in the air.A music professor at Utah State University, she'd spent the day with her students, but struggled to focus. Then she came home and read more bad news, this time, a piece in the newspaper about two Maga influencers railing against the dangers of compassion in response to the detainment of 5-year-old Liam Ramos in Minneapolis. It was such a betrayal on every level," McFaul said. Of sisterhood, of motherhood, of decency." Continue reading...
Critics say brash, bombastic Fox News host out of his depth to guide US military through murky new Middle East conflictBrash and bellicose, he sounded more like a cartoon bully than a sombre statesman. Death and destruction from the sky all day long," Pete Hegseth, wearing a red, white and and blue tie and pocket square, bragged to reporters at the Pentagon near Washington. This was never meant to be a fair fight, and it is not a fair fight. We are punching them while they're down, which is exactly how it should be."Hegseth, 45, a former Fox News TV host who now commands the world's most powerful military, has this week become the face of Donald Trump's war in Iran. That has set off for alarm bells for critics who warn that the Secretary of Defense - pointedly rebranded Secretary of War" - has rapidly transformed the Pentagon into the staging ground for an ideological and religious crusade. Continue reading...
Founder of family-owned firm says it will pause acquisitions after takeover of 15 Compass Coffee stores in USCaffe Nero will continue opening new shops in the UK and overseas, but has warned coffee prices are likely to keep rising as the war in Iran and higher staffing costs feed through.The family-owned business, which has just bought the 15-store Compass Coffee based in Washington DC to convert to its main brand, is aiming to open as many as 30 UK stores and between 50 and 70 more this year across the 10 other countries it operates in. Continue reading...
Deployment of US ground troops could be discussed later on and would be a great thing' says president Trump. Key US politics stories from 7 March at a glanceAs the war in the Middle East rages on, US president Donald Trump has acknowledged that deploying ground troops in Iran in future is not off the table.Pressed by the Guardian on whether he would send in troops to secure the enriched uranium, believed to be stored at Iranian nuclear sites that the United States bombed in Operation Midnight Hammer last year, Trump suggested that was a possibility. Continue reading...
US president attends dignified transfer' of remains of soldiers killed in Kuwait drone strike wearing USA' golf capDonald Trump on Saturday joined the families of six US soldiers killed in the war in the Middle East during a dignified transfer ritual at Dover air force base.A dignified transfer" is when the remains of US service members killed in action are returned to the US. Continue reading...
In Miami, president calls for regional cooperation to counter Chinese economic and political interestsDonald Trump changed the channel from Iran to the western hemisphere on Saturday, convening a gathering of Latin American leaders at his Miami-area golf club to discuss regional interests and establishing what he called a counter-cartel coalition".Just as we formed a coalition to eradicate Isis, we now need a coalition to eradicate the cartels," he told 12 regional leaders gathered at what the White House called the Shield of the Americas" summit. Continue reading...
California state superintendent says mother and sons arrested during ICE check-in and deported to ColombiaCalifornia's superintendent is calling for the return of a hearing-impaired six-year-old after he, his mother and his five-year-old sibling were detained on Tuesday while reporting for their check-in at an ICE office in San Francisco and deported to Colombia.Lesly Rodriguez Gutierrez and her sons were arrested during their visit to ICE's Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (Isap), said Alameda County Immigration Legal and Education Partnership (ACILEP). A relative who was waiting outside for Gutierrez and her sons was unable to hand off the assistive devices necessary for the six-year-old, who is deaf and has a cochlear implant. Continue reading...
The attorney general faces a subpoena over the Epstein files. She won't say much - but Democrats are calling for her ousterAfter spending $220m of taxpayer money on an advertising campaign in which she demanded migrants self-deport, Kristi Noem is now being forced to make a hasty exit of her own. On Thursday, Donald Trump announced that his luxury-jet-loving homeland security secretary was being shipped off to become special envoy for the Shield of the Americas", a new security" summit that Trump has dreamed up. Markwayne Mullin, a former mixed-martial artist and Republican senator, will replace her.Noem's ouster was a long time coming. But it's worth stressing that she doesn't seem to have lost her job because of the many controversies that have plagued her tenure, including the killing of two US citizens by immigration agents. Rather, she committed the cardinal sin of making Trump look stupid. Which, to be fair, isn't hard.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
The Guardian spoke to adults now in their 20s, 30s, and 40s to reflect on the lasting impact of family separation in the USJesus usually came home from school to a raucous scene: the family TV blaring, his mom loudly cooking dinner and his two young sisters fighting about nothing in particular. When his dad came home from work, they'd all gather around the kitchen table for dinner.But this day was different. Continue reading...
Review of FDA records by the Environmental Working Group reveals firms are exploiting rule to send new chemicals in food systemMore than 100 substances widely used in common US foods, supplements and beverages underwent no health and safety review by the US Food and Drug Administration, a new analysis of federal records finds.The review of FDA records by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) non-profit reveals that diverse products across the food pyramid, such as Capri Sun drinks, Kettle and Fire organic broth, Acme smoked fish, and Quaker Oats snack bars, use a range of substances that have not undergone review by regulators. Continue reading...
Takeshi Ebisawa, sentenced to 20 years in prison last week, believed he was selling weapons-grade plutonium to IranA plot to supply Iran's nuclear weapons program, heroin from the Golden Triangle, Burmese ethnic insurgents and rocket launchers were the subject in courtroom 24A in New York's federal courthouse last week when a man described as a leader in Japan's Yakuza organized crime syndicate was sentenced to 20 years in prison.The transnational plot, which the US Drug Enforcement Administration had been investigating since 2019, involved Japanese organised crime leader Takeshi Ebisawa, who along with three Thai men, had been arrested in New York in 2022. Continue reading...
The administration has been accused of failing to comply with hundreds of orders. The courts must not be paper tigersLate last month, a Minnesota federal court judge, Patrick Schiltz, issued an opinion detailing hundreds of instances in which the Trump administration has failed to comply with court orders. He threatened to find it in contempt and to impose penalties.Schiltz and other federal judges have made such threats before, but they have not followed through. It is time they did, lest they turn their courts into paper tigers. Continue reading...
Senate blocks war powers measure and House follows suit - now president can bomb Iran free from congressional interferenceBefore US troops invaded Iraq, George W Bush asked Congress to pass a resolution authorizing military force against Washington's longtime nemesis, a request that lawmakers obliged.Twenty four years later, the United States is at war with a different Middle Eastern rival - Iran - under a different Republican president - Donald Trump. But this time, the president did not bother to seek permission from the Senate and House of Representatives before joining Israel in launching the air and naval campaign. And far from objecting, Congress's Republican majorities have simply stepped aside. Continue reading...
Mickey says his stint as a handyman transformed into a lucrative sex business due to the region's self-denial'A western Texas fracker starring in a podcast about how his attempted moonlighting as a handyman turned into lucrative sex work largely solicited by distracted oil industry professionals' housewives says he believes his region's repressive sexual attitudes gave his side gig an opening to flourish.There's an inherent kind of self-denial," the subject of The Handyman of West Texas, identified only as Mickey, said in a recent interview. We all have these thoughts. But we lie to ourselves and try to conform to ... how you're supposed to be repressing your own pleasure." Continue reading...
White House wages online propaganda campaign with aggressive and tasteless videos seemingly designed for young rightwing American menRap and EDM. Clips from action movies. Heads-up displays from video games.As the war with Iran approaches its second week, the White House has leaned into an online propaganda campaign that seems less about intimidating Iran or projecting US strength abroad than it is about reaching a rather niche domestic audience: young rightwing American men who spend a lot of time online. Continue reading...
Regime change, nuclear threat - or something else? US officials seem unable to land on one coherent reason for warWhen the United States launched Operation Epic Fury last Saturday, the Trump administration had a major communications question to figure out: how to explain to the American public, Congress, and the world why it had just started a war with Iran.During war time, talking points and propaganda reflexively fly in every direction, but the Trump administration still hasn't been able to land on one coherent answer. Continue reading...
by Gwyn Topham Transport correspondent on (#742N3)
Restart of operations will be a relief to those stranded but may not dispel doubts raised by past week about key transit hubAfter nearly a week of uncertainty, airspace closures and very limited flights, news that hundreds of thousands of passengers around the world were hanging on for emerged: the Gulf-based carrier Emirates was restarting operations in earnest despite the US-Israel war on Iran.Those relieved by the restart will include the UK's Foreign Office, after its travails in organising delayed rescue flights out of neighbouring Oman. Continue reading...
Asif Merchant accused of trying to recruit people in 2024 plan to target Trump, Biden and other politicians in retaliation for killing of Qassem SuleimaniA Pakistani man has been convicted of planning to kill Donald Trump and other prominent US politicians two years ago at the behest of Iran.Asif Merchant was accused of trying to recruit people in the US in a plan targeting Trump and others in retaliation for the killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Suleimani in 2020, during Trump's first term as president. Continue reading...
Issa was first elected to Congress in 2001 to represent a district that was recently reconfigured due to Prop 50Republican representative Darrell Issa, whose southern California district was reconfigured following the passage of Proposition 50, has decided not to run for re-election.After a quarter-century in Congress - and before that, a quarter-century in business - it's the right time for a new chapter and new challenges," he said in a statement on Friday, the last day he would have been able to file as a candidate. Continue reading...
Roofs torn off and trees knocked down in Union City as more than 7m Americans at risk of severe weatherThree people have been killed and three were taken to a hospital after a tornado hit a southern Michigan town on Friday, authorities said.Powerful storms ripped across the state, tearing the roof off a home improvement store, sending parts of a storage building flying and knocking down trees as warnings were issued across the southern part of the state. Continue reading...
Friday saw US and Israel carry out some of the heaviest bombardments so far in the conflict - key US politics stories from 6 March at a glanceDonald Trump said on Friday that only Iran's unconditional surrender" will bring an end to the offensive launched seven days ago, as the US and Israel carried out some of the heaviest bombardments so far in the conflict.There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, when US strategic bombers were in action over Iran and intensive Israeli strikes in Lebanon forced more than 1 million people to flee their homes. Continue reading...
Former US representative who broke barriers as first woman president of state senate dies after five-month cancer battleFormer US representative Colleen Hanabusa, who was the first woman to serve as president of the Hawaii state senate, has died. She was 74.Hanabusa died early on Friday after a five-month battle with cancer, said Mike Formby, her friend and former chief of staff in the US House. Continue reading...
Vinay Prasad to leave in April after decisions involving vaccine reviews and specialty drugs for rare diseasesThe top vaccine official at the Food and Drug Administration, Dr Vinay Prasad, is once again leaving the agency - the second time in less than a year that he's departed after decisions involving the review of vaccinations and specialty drugs for rare diseases.FDA commissioner Marty Makary announced the news to FDA staff in an email late Friday, saying Prasad would depart at the end of April. Makary said Prasad would return to his academic job at the University of California, San Francisco. Continue reading...
Estefany Rodriguez Florez of Nashville Noticias, who had produced reports that were unflattering to ICE, was arrested during traffic stopUS Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested a Spanish-language Tennessee news outlet's reporter who had done stories critical of the agency - but agents didn't have a warrant, according to court documents filed recently by her lawyer.A court filing Friday by ICE disputes the assertion that the reporter was arrested without a warrant. Continue reading...
Aaron Spencer would not be able to serve if he is convicted, and maintains he acted within the law to protect his childAn Arkansas man accused of killing his teenage daughter's alleged abuser recently won the Republican nomination for local sheriff while waiting to stand trial for murder in his rural county, where he ran on a message of seeing the failures of law enforcement.Aaron Spencer defeated Lonoke county sheriff John Staley in a primary election Tuesday, according to unofficial results posted by the Arkansas secretary of state. He would not be able to serve if he is convicted of killing Michael Fosler, 67, who at the time was out on bond after being charged with numerous sexual offenses against Spencer's then 13-year-old daughter. Continue reading...
Crisis in the Middle East, Ramadan in Gaza, a blackout in Havana and Stella McCartney at Paris fashion week - the past seven days as captured by the world's leading photojournalists Continue reading...
In refusing to sing the national anthem these athletes have placed themselves in grave danger while Gianni Infantino sides with the American war machineA small but telling detail from a vast and baffling chain of events. You probably saw the footage of Donald Trump's declaration of war on Iran two weeks ago, a piece of history played out in real time, a moment where the inevitable violent deaths of thousands of people were in effect announced.In the video Trump is shown propped up at his plinth, using that sing-song intonation he employs to appear cod-statesmanlike, faux-grave, but sounding instead like a semi-sentient robot vacuum cleaner in the seconds before it runs out of battery life. To the great people of Iran. America is backing you. Don't go outside. It's very dangerous out there. We will for the foreseeable future be bombing you to freedom. Continue reading...
by Presented by Nosheen Iqbal with Chris Michael ; pr on (#742A4)
Donald Trump has fired his controversial US homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, after weeks of bipartisan complaints about her leadership. As the public face of an aggressive immigration crackdown that prompted lawsuits and nationwide anti-ICE protests, Noem's year-long tenure was plagued by multiple controversies, including accusing two US citizens killed by immigration agents of domestic terrorism'. What exactly led to Noem's firing and what do we know about her replacement? Nosheen Iqbal speaks to the Guardian US live news editor Chris Michael Continue reading...
