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The Ukrainian president said in a press conference on Wednesday that without future security for Ukraine there would be no 'just peace ... we will not have a ceasefire, what Trump spoke about'. He added that his trip to visit Donald Trump on Friday had yet to be confirmed

Lawyers push for charges to be dropped over leaked internal DoJ correspondence about the New York mayorThe New York City mayor, Eric Adams, asked a federal judge to toss out the corruption case against him on Wednesday, alleging prosecutorial misconduct, even as the justice department seeks dismissal of the charges on the Democrat's behalf.In papers filed in Manhattan federal court, his lawyers alleged that the misconduct occurred when the government publicly leaked a letter that the then US attorney Danielle Sassoon wrote to the attorney general, Pam Bondi, explaining why charges should not be dropped. Continue reading...

The athlete hopes his arrest after excoriating the Maga movement in a city council meeting will inspire others to resistLast week the former NFL player Chris Kluwe was arrested at a city council meeting in his home town of Huntington Beach, California, for approaching councilmembers after making an impassioned speech likening the Maga movement to nazism. This came after the council approved a plaque commemorating the city library's 50th anniversary. Writ largest on the plaque are the words Magical Alluring Galvanizing Adventurous" - an acrostic of Maga.Kluwe ranked among the NFL's top punters while playing for the Minnesota Vikings in the early 2000s. During his career he was as well known for calling out NFL immorality and championing civil rights causes like same-sex marriage and racial justice as he was for pinning the opposition against their own goalline with his booming right leg. Continue reading...

US president says new visa program would be open to Russian oligarchs, some of whom are very nice people'

As families move away to avoid deportation, excruciating goodbyes leave teachers feeling completely empty'A soccer ball covered in signatures from classmates. A handwritten letter telling a child of their worth. A T-shirt bearing a school emblem meant to remind a newcomer how much they were loved in a place they once called home.These are among the items teachers have given their multilingual learners - students who learn in more than one language - whose families fled their school districts rather than risk being detained by immigration agents. Continue reading...

Wall of receipts' drops five largest savings claimed by department of government efficiency' after debunking

The lifelong atlanticist was frank after his election victory: Nato is on the brink, and Germany must reassess its core beliefs on defenceIt is hard to overstate the importance of Friedrich Merz's urgent message to the nation after his win in the German elections. This, after all, is the beginning of a new, dangerous era in European security. It would be his absolute priority", Merz said, immediately after victory for the CDU/CSU was confirmed, to create unity in Europe as quickly as possible, so that, step by step, we can achieve independence from the US". He added: I never thought I would have to say something like this on a television programme."Indeed. For the leader of the conservative CDU, a lifelong believer in the transatlantic security alliance, this is a significant reversal. And it is highly personal for Merz: there is hardly a more pro-American politician in Germany than the man who worked for the investment company BlackRock and was the long-serving chairman of the influential lobbying group Atlantik-Brucke (Atlantic Bridge).Jorg Lau is an international correspondent for the German weekly Die Zeit Continue reading...

Manufacturer says city has not taken up its offer to inspect - and, if necessary, repair - blockade at no costAfter the deadly truck ramming attack on New Orleans's Bourbon Street early on New Year's Day, local police said they had intentionally left down a hydraulic barrier meant to prevent such violence because it had a history of malfunctioning - prompting the blockade's manufacturer to contact the city with an urgent offer of free inspection and maintenance, according to recently obtained emails.We would like to bring out a technician for no charge in order to inspect all the Delta Scientific barriers in New Orleans and ensure they are functional and offer any solutions for maintenance or repairs needed," Dianne Kennedy, the company's assistant to general counsel and manager of contracts, wrote to the office of the New Orleans mayor, LaToya Cantrell. Continue reading...

Cynical actors exploit the legal ambiguities around targeting healthcare facilities, as seen in Gaza. Unequivocal protections are neededHospitals in Gaza have turned into battlegrounds", the World Health Organization's representative for the West Bank and Gaza stated at the UN security council in January. He warned that the healthcare system was being systematically dismantled and driven to the brink of collapse".Israel's attacks on medical centres in Gaza have prompted widespread condemnation from civil society, academics and news agencies, many labelling these strikes as breaches of international law or war crimes. WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus posted that: Any attack of healthcare facilities is a violation of international humanitarian law." Continue reading...

The Milan star's nine-episode docuseries is most notable in that it reveals anything at allDeep into the third and most recent episode of the Paramount+ docuseries on Milan and United States men's national team star Christian Pulisic - with the very does-exactly-what-it-says-on-the-tin title of Pulisic - a remarkable sight unfolds: Pulisic, coaxed by his girlfriend, reveals something of himself.In that scene, Pulisic and Alexa Melton, a golfer on the second-tier Epson Tour, sit at a table in his house in Italy playing a card game. He looks uncomfortable. What feelings are hard for you to communicate to me and how can I make it easier?" Melton asks, reading off a card. Continue reading...

Anger over blown calls is as old as baseball itself. But in Spring Training this year, players can ask technology for a little helpFor the first time ever this month, major league players who disagree with an umpire's rendering of the strike zone can do something about it. Something other than an exaggerated pantomime of disbelief or a testy reply liable to get them thrown out of the game entirely. They can do something effectual, productive, process-based. They can appeal to a higher power, one that has become revered within the sport for its ability to optimize anything and everything: Technology.Major League Baseball is testing the challenge system version of the Automated Ball-Strike System (ABS) in roughly 60% of Spring Training games this preseason. In layman's terms: this spring, players can ask robot umps to review pitch calls. Continue reading...

The massacre in Bucha, the mass graves in Izium - it is as if these atrocities never happened. Now the truth is being taken out and shotOrders and statements from the new US president come at us daily now, with unremitting speed, and international politics is reduced to an endless series of justifications and denials of unfounded accusations.It's hard to believe, but Ukrainian activists have had to write explainers for a global audience, reminding them who the true dictator is, that it was not Ukraine that started the war with Russia and that we are actually just trying to defend what is ours. And, you know, to survive a little bit. Continue reading...

Three times in the postwar era Germany made strategic choices that benefited Europe - with the US at its side. Now it must do it in opposition to TrumpThree times in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany, its chancellors have made strategic choices that opened the door to a better future for Europe. Today there's not just an opportunity but an urgent need for a fourth such historic moment. If the country's new coalition government under Friedrich Merz manages to seize the chance of this crisis, both Germany and Europe will go forward. If it fails, then by the end of the 2020s both may have fallen backwards farther and faster than most of us could have imagined in our worst nightmares.The big difference with those three earlier pivotal moments is this: in 1949, 1969 and 1989 the Federal Republic's policy was fundamentally aligned with that of the United States. This time, Germany has to build up a stronger, free, democratic and Ukraine-supporting Europe against the current policy of the US. The most staggering moment of Sunday's election evening was when the lifelong Atlanticist Merz declared that Europe must really achieve independence from the US". (When compared with Emmanuel Macron's almost British sycophancy in the White House the next day, Germany's prospective chancellor is sounding more robustly Gaullist than the French president.)Timothy Garton Ash is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Vote passes 217-215 in win for president as Democrats assail proposal over planned cuts to social safety-net programsRepublicans unified behind a budget blueprint on Tuesday evening, just barely scraping together the votes to advance Donald Trump's sprawling tax-cut and immigration agenda over unanimous Democratic opposition and widespread concern that it would slash social safety net programs.The House approved the plan in a vote of 217-215, with the representative Thomas Massie, a prominent fiscal hawk, as the lone Republican voting in opposition. No Democrats supported the measure, which they have cast as a betrayal of middle and low-income voters on behalf of billionaire donors" like Trump's chief lieutenant, Elon Musk. Continue reading...

President says I hear he's coming on Friday' amid reports that terms of US-Ukraine aid exchange have been reachedDonald Trump has said that Volodymyr Zelenskyy is likely to visit the White House on Friday to sign a rare earth minerals deal to pay for US military aid to defend against Russia's full-scale invasion.The announcement followed days of tense negotiations between the US and Ukraine in which Zelenskyy alleged the US was pressuring him to sign a deal worth more than $500bn that would force 10 generations" of Ukrainians to pay it back. Continue reading...

Despite a pledge that life-saving assistance would be exempt from the USAid freeze, countless groups providing critical care have been forced to stop workWah K'Ler Paw, a 30-year-old refugee from Myanmar, survived for about two weeks without dialysis after US president Donald Trump suspended foreign aid.She never complained about what she was going through," says her husband, Thaw, from the Mae La refugee camp along the Thai-Myanmar border, where the couple had lived with their two-year-old daughter, Thaw Wah. Continue reading...

Musk's Doge demands wreak havoc in federal agencies and its cost-cutting impact may be having less impact than he claims - key US politics stories from Tuesday at a glanceMore than 20 staffers of Elon Musk's so-called department of government efficiency" (Doge) stepped down on Tuesday, saying in a joint letter they refused to use their expertise to dismantle critical public services".The mass resignations are the latest rebuke to the billionaire entrepreneur's hard-handed approach to slashing jobs and resources from federal government agencies. Musk had demanded federal workers email his office with five things they did the week prior to justify their positions. Continue reading...

President intervenes amid first signs of internal dissension as government departments push backDonald Trump has stepped in to defend Elon Musk from a mounting backlash in his own administration after some cabinet members told US federal workers to ignore the billionaire entrepreneur's demand that they write an email justifying their work.The US president was driven to intervene amid the first signs of internal dissension over the disruptive impact of Musk's so-called department of government efficiency" (Doge), which Trump has authorised to seek mass firings in the federal workforce and reduce supposed waste and corruption. Continue reading...

This liveblog is now closed.It's coming down to the wire for beleaguered House speaker Mike Johnson, who is trying to rally GOP holdouts behind his budget plan for enacting Donald Trump's agenda before the showdown vote this evening.Amid Republican opposition threatening to derail his bill, Johnson was up late last night locked in talks with holdouts from across his party who remain skeptical of his outline plan for tax and spending cuts - as well as border security, energy and defense policy - via a single reconciliation bill. Continue reading...

The US president said at the White House that his Ukrainian counterpart will visit Washington on Friday to sign an agreement on rare minerals in exchange for US military aid. He also attacked his predecessor, Joe Biden Continue reading...

Many shoes haven't hit market yet as authorities investigate at least 10 incidents targeting BNSF trains in remote areasThieves have targeted freight trains running through the deserts of California and Arizona in a string of audacious heists resulting in the theft of more than $2m worth of new Nike sneakers, including many that haven't hit the retail market yet, according to officials and court documents.In a 13 January robbery, suspects cut an air brake hose on a BNSF freight train traveling through a remote section of Arizona and made off with more than 1,900 pairs of unreleased Nikes worth more than $440,000, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Phoenix. Many of the shoes were Nigel Sylvester x Air Jordan 4s, which won't be available to the public until 14 March and are expected to retail at $225 per pair, the complaint states. Continue reading...

Move comes a day after administration won ruling allowing it to bar AP from the Oval Office and Air Force OneThe White House said it will take control over which news organizations and reporters are allowed into the presidential press pool covering Donald Trump.The White House press team in this administration will determine who gets to enjoy the very privileged and limited access in spaces such as Air Force One and the Oval Office," the White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a briefing on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Staff at foreign aid agency who were put on leave to be allowed 15 minutes to retrieve personal items from officeWorkers at the US Agency for International Development (USAid) have been invited back to its office to retrieve their personal belongings" as the Trump administration continues its bid to shut down the foreign aid agency.An email seen by the Guardian described how staff in Washington would be allowed to briefly return on Thursday or Friday of this week. They would be escorted to their workspace" and granted approximately 15 minutes" to gather their items, it said. Continue reading...

School district will ignore Trump executive order banning trans athletes from competing in women's sportsThe Philadelphia school district will reportedly ignore a rule directing schools to ban transgender athletes from participating in sports that match their gender identities, according to reporting from the Philadelphia Inquirer.The school district strives to ensure safety, equity and justice for all students regardless of gender identity or gender expression so that they can imagine and realize any future they desire", a spokesperson, Christina Clark, said in a statement on Tuesday to the Inquirer. Continue reading...

News comes as leading network star criticizes management for decision to cancel shows hosted by non-white anchorsMSNBC has told the majority of the employees who produce Rachel Maddow and Joy Reid's primetime evening news shows they are being let go as part of the network's programming overhaul with the option to apply for new roles, according to two people directly familiar with the matter.Maddow, the biggest star and highest-rated anchor at MSNBC, will get to keep her executive producer, Cory Gnazzo, and several other senior producers, the people said. Continue reading...

In siding with Russia at the UN, the US has laid bare the extent of the shift. Bilateral visits cannot disguise the underlying crisisThe rumblings prompted by Donald Trump's re-election soon gathered force. First came tariffs and threats of territorial annexation; then the greater shocks of JD Vance's Valentine's Day massacre of European values and Mr Trump's enthusiastic amplification of Kremlin lines on Ukraine.On Monday came another seismic moment. For more than a decade, the UN security council has been largely paralysed by the split between the five permanent members - Russia and China on one side; the US, France and Britain on the other. This time, when the US brought a resolution calling for an end to the war in Ukraine on the third anniversary of Russia's invasion, it did not criticise Moscow, demand its withdrawal or back Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. The result was that China and Russia backed the resolution - while the UK and France, having failed to temper it, abstained. Continue reading...

Billionaires have sown a myth that citizens are losing at the expense of undocumented people. The real solution is to empower all workersOver the last few years, we have witnessed some leaders of the Democratic party retreat from delivering bold policies that would address people's struggles and aspirations, from a pathway to citizenship for all to a higher federal minimum wage, in favor of Republican-light talking points about the border and those seeking asylum - which only eroded trust with the American people.Right now, 60% of the country is living paycheck to paycheck. Families are drowning in debt, whether it be from trying to pay for unaffordable childcare, exorbitant student loans, costly medical bills or months of missed rent payments. Homelessness has skyrocketed. Millions are struggling to survive another day and are penny-pinching to be able to afford rent and groceries, while billions of our taxpayer dollars are being spent on turbocharging mass abductions of our neighbors through raids and deportations, all in service of filling detention centers that make the CEOs of companies like GeoGroup and CoreCivic richer by the minute. Continue reading...

Lisa Jeanine Findley pleads guilty after alleged threat to sell star's former home if Presley family did not pay $2.85mA Missouri woman said on Tuesday she was pleading guilty to a federal charge accusing her of concocting a brazen plot to defraud Elvis Presley's family by trying to auction off his Graceland mansion and property before a judge halted the mysterious foreclosure sale.During a change of plea hearing, Lisa Jeanine Findley told a federal judge in Memphis that she would plead guilty to a charge of mail fraud related to the scheme. She previously pleaded not guilty to the two-count indictment, which also includes a count of aggravated identity theft. Continue reading...

Richard Glossip's murder conviction unsafe, say justices, as prosecutors failed to turn over important evidenceThe US supreme court on Tuesday threw out the murder conviction and death penalty for Richard Glossip, an Oklahoma man who has steadfastly maintained his innocence and averted multiple attempts by the state to execute him.The decision marked an extraordinary turnaround for a death row prisoner who has faced nine execution dates set by Oklahoma and eaten three last meals". Glossip has also been married twice while awaiting execution. Continue reading...

The 78-year-old president is the ultimate comeback kid, but he is not a king and he is certainly not a god. As prices rise and consumer sentiment slumps, he may come to regret his election promisesEach new morn, new widows howl, new orphans cry and Donald Trump passes a wild executive order. Toliberally paraphrase Macbeth, every day seems to bring some new reason to scream into the void. The good news, however, is that even diehard Trumpers seem to be getting sick of all the chaos. A month into Trump's second act, there are signs that the honeymoon is over anda backlash may be brewing. For certain Republican voters, regret may be setting in.First, the polling. A Harvard CAPS/Harris survey published on Monday gave Trump a 52% approval rating. Meanwhile, three national polls show a decline in support for the president, with most Americans saying he hasn't done enough to lower prices and has overstepped his presidential powers. A CNN poll published on Thursday found that 47% of Americans approve of Trump's performance while 52% disapprove - and the numbers are trending downwards. Continue reading...

Associated Press analyzed canceled government contracts and found that 40% will produce no savings

UK and France need to convince US to align with them over Ukraine, while at the UN Trump openly sides with RussiaKeir Starmer, when he visits the White House on Thursday, will have to pick up the many loose threads left by another chaotic day of diplomacy in the US in which America voted with Russia at the UN to protect Vladimir Putin from criticism over the invasion of Ukraine, and then saw Trump make assurances that Putin was happy for European forces to enter Ukraine - only to be contradicted by Moscow hours later.Emmanuel Macron, the French president, has been working in lockstep with the UK in a way the two countries have failed to since Brexit, and the aim was for the two leaders of Europe's major military powers to use their visits this week to operate as a pincer movement pressing Trump to question Putin's trustworthiness and more broadly to accept that America's future still lay as a partner with Europe. Continue reading...

Difficult news conveyed compassionately and sensitively doesn't alter the facts but does change the patient experienceCan I get your professional opinion?" my friend asks. In the 30 years since medical school, we have exchanged many opinions but a constant has been the curveball questions thrown up by patient care. Questions that don't have a clear answer that nonetheless test us.A new patient from last week has unexpectedly returned a biopsy showing cancer. The man typically defers his appointments, citing an inflexible work schedule. His first visit was delayed by a month and he doesn't intend to return for the results any time soon. But suddenly, he doesn't have the luxury of time. To plan treatment, the tumour board will need specialised tests. The tests can hardly be ordered without the patient knowing why. Continue reading...

With the mothers of his kids begging for his attention on social media, he makes much of pronatalism'. Is that just a fancy word for bad parenting?If only Elon Musk could impregnate humans at the same rate he's giving them the ick. Alas, polls show the efficiency tsar's US approval rating dwindling towards levels he has enjoyed for quite some time among the UK public. And as a country that lived through the Boris Johnson era, I think we have to warn the Americans that if a government figure can't or won't answer the basic question how many kids do you have?", then he's probably going to turn out to be a disappointment. And it might even have been a warning sign. If the WhatsApp group of his exes is bigger than Mumsnet and 10 times as pissed off, then it's just possible you could be dealing with a guy you're going to end up feeling betrayed by.Is Musk that guy? Who among us can say, certainly considering the sheer number and ferocity of the lawyers Mister Free Speech employs? I do know Elon is something called a pronatalist", but I increasingly wonder whether that's just a fancy new word for a very old form of shittiness. Consider the spectacle of his ex, Grimes, coming on to the social media platform Musk owns and outright begging him to get in touch for his input concerning a medical crisis" for one of their shared children. I'm not giving any details but he won't respond to texts call or emails and has skipped every meeting and our child will suffer lifelong impairment if he doesn't respond asap, so I need him to fucking respond and if I have to apply public pressure then I guess that's where we are at." These posts were either deleted or are now inaccessible, while one user suggested she had been shadowbanned". Silly Grimes. If she had put a rape threat or some antisemitism in her APB, it would have stayed up.Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

The unique fireplace tiles were once a feature of Altadena's homes - can they be rescued before the bulldozers move in?The mission is clear: retrieve the pristine tiles from a field of ash and rubble.With a hammer and chisel, Cliff Douglas taps on the perimeters of a decorative tile etched with the image of a peacock until it comes loose in his hands. Continue reading...

Speakers at Principles First summit warned of peril Trump and allies posed, urging people to be in the streets'Michael Fanone, the former police officer who defended the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, looked out at the attendees of the Principles First summit and denounced Donald Trump in the strongest possible terms for pardoning roughly 1,500 people who participated in the insurrection.He pardoned them because he wants people to know that if you commit crimes on his behalf, he's got your back," Fanone said on Saturday. They are operating under the assumption that, if they commit violent criminal acts on Donald Trump's behalf, that he will pardon them for future violence." Continue reading...

US and French presidents disagree over aid and efforts to secure a lasting peace in Ukraine. Plus, are airships the future again?

Abbas Shafii says he plans to travel, invest and share Powerball prize with non-profits close to [his] heart'What would you do if you won hundreds of millions of dollars playing the lottery? A 79-year-old man from Beaverton, Oregon, gets to answer that question after recently collecting a $328.5m Powerball jackpot drawn on 18 January.Abbas Shafii issued a statement saying he plans to spend the third-largest such prize in his state's history traveling, making investments and sharing his good fortune with non-profit organizations that are close to [his] heart". Continue reading...

The allure of the Club World Cup, which will be held in the US this year, is convincing Mexican teams to push for a wider audienceIn just his second month in Liga MX, James Rodriguez will match the number of games he played with Rayo Vallecano, the La Liga club he signed for last summer after being named the best player at the 2024 Copa America.Maybe he just needed to be back in the Americas. Continue reading...

Analysis finds products contain at least one moderately hazardous ingredient, and most contain multipleA new analysis finds 80% of more than 4,000 beauty products marketed toward Black women contain at least one moderately hazardous ingredient - and most contain multiple.The analysis follows a 2016 study with similar findings, and the authors suspect the chemical load in products like hair straighteners and skin lightening creams probably contributes to elevated rates of some diseases in Black women, including uterine and breast cancers. Continue reading...

All-male elections at the African Union highlighted the exclusion of talented women from power. The continent cannot thrive like thatWhat does it mean to be African? Is it simply being one of the 1.5 billion people from the continent? Does African mean the same as black? If you are a descendant from the UK, US, Brazil or Cuba, are you still African? Are only black Africans African, or does this include white Zimbabweans and Arab Egyptians? Or is Africa merely a western invention"?These questions are passionately debated. To be African is to inhabit an identity shaped by a complicated history, politics and geography. Yet there is one aspect of this identity that receives far less discussion: namely, do we see Africans as male?Minna Salami is the author of Can Feminism be African? and founder of the MsAfropolitan blogDo 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...

Memes and Nightmares is an unconventional, offbeat documentary that acts as a love letter to an online community brought together by basketballNBA Twitter is a space unlike any other, the Black Twitter-adjacent arena where basketball fans traffic in gossip and hope (however false) while expressing their passion for the game. It's the internet EKG that relates consumer confidence in real time, revealing an attraction to chatter that would seem to outpace TV viewing interest in NBA games. And the readings are hardly restricted to the hardwood.Like a judicious point guard who knows just when to pass or shoot, NBA Twitter was the organ that circulated the news last Thursday that San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama would miss the rest of the season over blood-clotting fears - and it was also the organ where many sports fans, myself included, first learned that Joe Biden had dropped out of the 2024 presidential race. There's even speculation now about ESPN's Stephen A Smith or Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, NBA Twitter OGs, making a presidential run in 2028. It's probably the most vital and essential sports community on the planet," says Josiah Johnson, undisputed king of NBA Twitter. It's a lot of immensely talented people who just carved out a lane." Continue reading...

The NCAA has ruled only women assigned female at birth can compete in college sports. We spoke to some of those affected by the banOn 5 February 2025 - coinciding with Women and Girls in Sports Day - Donald Trump signed an executive order barring trans athletes from competing in women's sports. The move marked yet another aggressive shift of his legislative agenda, as he doubled down on anti-trans rhetoric, in which he has vowed to eliminate what he calls transgender insanity".The next day college sports' main governing body, the NCAA, said only women assigned female at birth would be able to participate under its umbrella. The organization oversees more than 500,000 athletes. Last year the NCAA's president, Charlie Baker, said he knew of only 10 transgender athletes competing in the organization. Continue reading...

Macron and Trump disagree over aid and securing a lasting peace after US president says Russian counterpart has no problem' with European forces in UkraineEmmanuel Macron, the French president, has warned Donald Trump against a surrender" of Ukraine as the US president said Russia's leader Vladimir Putin wants to make a deal" that could include European peacekeepers.The transatlantic rift over the war was apparent on Monday as Trump and Macron - the first European leader to visit the White House since Trump regained power - disagreed over aid and efforts to secure a lasting peace in Ukraine. Continue reading...