US news | The Guardian

Department of government efficiency' head Elon Musk suggested $5,000 checks to US households if targets metDonald Trump has appeared to embrace a proposal to share a portion of the cuts in US government spending made by Elon Musk's department of government efficiency" (Doge) with all US households in the form of checks, intensifying concerns about inflation potentially rising again.Trump addressed the idea in a speech at an investment conference in Miami on Wednesday, telling attendees: There's even under consideration a new concept, where we give 20% of the Doge savings to American citizens, and 20% goes to paying down debt." Continue reading...

Kremlin whisperers' have the president's ear and dissenters are few - but a thin skin and self-interest are also at playDonald Trump's tarring of Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a dictator" who is to blame for the war with Russia, plunging Ukraine into a Darwinian struggle for its very existence, landed like a bombshell on the diplomatic landscape. But it did not come out of nowhere.The US president has left the already badly frayed western alliance in disarray with a devastating social media attack on his Ukrainian counterpart, just hours after he had already implicitly blamed Kyiv for Russia's invasion. Continue reading...

We'd like to hear from people in the US about how they view Trump's approach to Russia and Ukraine - as well as his stance towards EuropeWe would like to hear from US voters across the political spectrum about how you view president Donald Trump's foreign policy approach to Russia and Ukraine.This week has brought an unprecedented escalation of tensions between Kyiv and Washington after senior US and Russian officials met in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to discuss the war in Ukraine, as well as economic and political cooperation. Continue reading...

The point is not to deprive the government of funds. It's to expose the regime's criminalityPolitical power boils down to two things: votes and money. But when money buys presidents, senators and judges, votes are merely the sales receipts. What's left is money, and the purpose of power is to get more of it.Trump's non-billionaire followers appear thrilled that Elon Musk and his so-called department of government efficiency" are burning down the government. Imagine if Trump hadn't met and talked with Elon Musk that all this progress on efficiency may not be taking place or at such a fast pace needed before the midterms," comments holy666 on a Fox News story about the mass layoffs of federal employees. Continue reading...

Gutting of workforce will have far-reaching consequences as advocates warn of playing Russian roulette' with safetyYou wake up to dark clouds outside, so you check the weather on your phone: a storm is coming.That weather app uses data from the National Weather Service, a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a small organization which could see as much as 10% of its workforce cut this week. Continue reading...

The last-16 beckons, and there were plenty of storylines to digest. We hand out honours and dishonours from the latest round of actionFeyenoord Continue reading...

Bruce and Nancy Steele had a business that produced honey for the past 30 years before the Eaton fire destroyed itBruce Steele has always said he would die defending his house - and his beehives. Long before the Eaton fire began its destructive march through the California foothills last month, the beekeeper was already on perpetual alert: watering the flower garden of his family's house in Altadena, California, cleaning dry leaves out of the roof gutters and soaking the precious oak trees that surrounded the property.When the Santa Ana winds picked up, Nancy, Bruce's wife and business partner, was out of town, so their daughter, Clara, 35, rushed over to help. The two generations immediately started gathering family photos and mementoes. They scooped up a painting Bruce's sister made as a wedding gift. Other treasures included an old robot toy from the 1965 TV show Lost in Space, as well as a threadbare T-shirt from Occidental College, the school where Bruce and Nancy first met - and where he would go on to work for more than 35 years. Continue reading...

By centring the discourse on immigration, MPs have handed support to the far right - and hidden a ticking economic timebomb from votersThe candidates to lead Germany's next government are avoiding telling voters painful truths before Sunday's crucial general election about Russia's war in Ukraine, the coming disengagement of the US from Europe and the huge defence funding that is needed. Instead, the debate has largely focused on how to revive the ailing German economy after two years of recession and how to control migration, which has fuelled support for the far-right Alternative fur Deutschland.The conservative CDU/CSU leader, Friedrich Merz, has swerved speaking about the need for massive borrowing to pay for a surge in defence spending because many of his supporters oppose extra debt. The Social Democratic (SPD) chancellor, Olaf Scholz, is dodging discussion of sending German troops to Ukraine as part of a possible European security force if a ceasefire agreement is reached because part of his political base is either anti-militarist or Russia-friendly. After an emergency European summit on Ukraine in Paris on Monday, an irritable Scholz said talk of boots on the ground was highly inappropriate".Paul Taylor is a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre Continue reading...

President signed executive order on day one ordering end to citizenship for children of non-legal permanent residents

President and Musk claim millions of centenarians are getting benefits. Here's how they are misrepresenting dataThe Trump administration is falsely claiming that tens of millions of dead people over 100 years old are receiving social security payments.Over the past few days,Donald Trump and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk have said on social media and in press briefings that people who are 100, 200 and even 300 years old are improperly getting benefits - a HUGE problem", Musk wrote, as his so-called department of government efficiency" (Doge) digs into federal agencies to root out waste, fraud and abuse. Continue reading...

Temperatures dipped to 0F (-17C) for Inter Miami's match on Wednesday. The Argentinian still found a way to make a differenceThe question, which in time has become less of a question and more of a cliche meme, is a variation of Andy Gray's comment: Sure, Lionel Messi is an all-time great. But can he do it on a cold rainy night in Stoke?This question is ridiculous and annoying. Of course he can - he's done it on rainy nights in Fort Lauderdale multiple times in just the last year and half. There are whole compilations of him doing all of his usual Messi things in terrible weather throughout his career. Even the dialog the question/meme supposedly replaces - let's see if Messi can overcome this piece of weather-based adversity! - seems pointless when the player in question has already, for all intents and purposes, completed football at the highest level. Continue reading...

Former prime minister says Britain is run by deep state' at rightwing conference in MarylandLiz Truss, the former British prime minister, told a rightwing conference in the US that her country was failing" and needed a Donald Trump-style Maga" movement to save it.Truss was speaking on Wednesday at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the National Harbor in Maryland, alongside rightwing populists from around the world planning deeper ties and cooperation. Continue reading...

The veteran defender has been a mainstay with the national team thanks to her versatility, but will now be asked to fill a leadership role for a new generationOn Thursday night in Houston, Emma Hayes and the reigning Olympic gold medalists play their first game of 2025. Colombia, then Australia and Japan await the USWNT, who will test their mettle with a mix of new names and trusted talent in the 10th SheBelieves Cup.Ahead of the game, one lasting veteran with a sharp wit, tenacious style, and too-often unsung impact will be honored for reaching 100 caps: 31-year-old Georgia native Emily Sonnett. Continue reading...

In Georgia, those who backed the president remain supportive - but they want prices to come down quicklyEstefany Frost still gets calls from people who heard her talk to Donald Trump at a campaign stop in Georgia last year about how difficult running her restaurant had become in an era of inflation.One month into the new administration, she and other conservatives here are still absorbing the whirlwind pace of change. While she remains supportive of Donald Trump's agenda, she said she's wrestling with some of the implications. Continue reading...

The president talks about trans athletes invading' women's sports, while doing nothing at all to elevate, fund or support women athletesEarlier this month, Donald Trump singled me out. In fact, I was the first example he gave of someone ruining women's sport.Last year", he said while announcing his Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports executive order, a male cyclist posing as a woman competed in the 800-mile Arizona Trail Race - a very big deal in cycling - and obliterated the women's course record by nearly five and a half hours." Continue reading...

The Trump administration announced it would cap indirect funding' from the National Institutes of Health at 15%Cuts imposed by the Trump administration on the world's largest funder of scientific research are just one way university leaders see the administration seeking to dismantle" higher education.Last week, the administration announced it would cap all indirect funding" from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) at 15% - money that typically keeps the lights on and equipment maintained in labs all over the country, particularly in colleges and universities. Continue reading...

Attack follows Ukrainian leader's claim Trump is in a Russian disinformation bubble'. Plus, first Egyptian pharaoh's tomb uncovered since 1922Good morning.Donald Trump intensified his attacks on Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday, labeling the Ukrainian president a dictator" in an unparalleled deterioration of relations between Kyiv and Washington.How is this being received in Europe? The French prime minister, Francois Bayrou, said on Thursday that the risk of war has never been so high since 1945". Denmark said it would rapidly increase defense spending.What will happen to Gaza? Arab leaders will meet in Saudi Arabia on Friday to counter Trump's plan for a US takeover of Gaza. Continue reading...

We say the defining question is this: do nations work for peace and order or embrace the notion of power by force?

As Elon Musk tries to drive them out, federal workers are initiating a short squeeze on the broligarchyThe most ferocious response to Elon Musk's coup in the US is also the most disciplined. It's a sustained act of civil disobedience by the civil service. Amid the malignant lies of the current regime, federal workers are steadily telling the truth.This strategy is more methodical than it at first seems. Yes, the distress and anger among federal workers is palpable. But the more anarchy Donald Trump's executive orders and Musk's so-called department of government efficiency" (Doge) operation loose upon the world, the firmer the federal employees are standing. Their protest might even be seen as a political short squeeze. Continue reading...

As Trump empowers Russia and the far right, he is laying the foundation for undermining democracies around the worldSince the end of the second world war, liberal democracies have stuck together - led by the US. On the opposite side have been authoritarian states, led mainly by the Soviet Union, followed, after the demise of the Soviet Union, by Russia and China.But all this is rapidly changing. Russia and China have morphed into oligarchies, run by small groups of extraordinarily wealthy people. Continue reading...

The 2025 MLS season kicks off this week. We convened a panel of writers to discuss what they're most looking forward to this yearSeeing more really good soccer in 2025. Over the last few years, it feels like the quality of the average coach in MLS has noticeably increased. Only a handful of MLS teams are still holding on to the let's play a 4-2-3-1 and defend in a mid-block" era with both hands. Pretty much every team has a distinct, observable style. JW Continue reading...

If the country holds out against the Trump-assisted AfD, it shows rightwing populism can be resisted in Europe's heartlandEven in less stressed times, Britain always pays too much attention to the US and too little to Germany. In today's torrid circumstances, that imbalance is perhaps excusable. After all, Donald Trump, it now turns out, really means it. He is more interested in US plunder and profit from places like Gaza, Ukraine and Greenland than in upholding a just peace or good order.Even so, the inattention towards Germany needs to end. Britain's politicians, like German politicians, are rewiring their worldviews amid a political gale. But Germany, though no longer a great power, is nevertheless a great nation. Indeed, it may be more than ever the essential European nation now, after the Trump administration's very public trashing of the entire Atlantic alliance seemed to leave Europe to its own devices. Continue reading...

Heidi Reichinnek's speech went viral on TikTok - and sparked a surge of support from voters who reject the mainstream's xenophobiaI was shopping for groceries the other day in Berlin's neglected northern outskirts, when I remembered a joke. A banker, a social welfare recipient and an asylum seeker are sitting at a table. There are 12 cookies in front of them. The banker takes 11 cookies and says to the social welfare recipient: Watch out, the refugee wants your cookie."It came back to me as I witnessed a young white mother completely losing it at the checkout. At first I thought it was the prices that had caused her fury, though there was no indication of that; I was probably just projecting my own anxieties about money on to the woman's tantrum. It took me a moment to realise that she was accusing another woman, also a mother but not white, of standing in her way on purpose. She shouted that this was her country and we should all step out of her way and that soon we would see. Two people told her to be quiet and one older woman went to calm her down, but there was no chance. The young white mother chose to stay loud and angry, and she knew exactly at whom.Fatma Aydemir is a Berlin-based author, novelist, playwright and a Guardian Europe columnistDo 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...

The president has replaced the good guys' myth with unapologetic brute force and greed - it could be a major mistakeDonald Trump's attempt to seize Ukraine's natural resources is another morbid symptom of the decline of US power. This may seem counterintuitive. Demanding half of all the revenues - not simply profit - flowing from Ukraine's minerals, oil, gas and infrastructure, worth a staggering 400bn, sounds like the behaviour of a bully defined by swagger and brawn. It has rightly been described as reducing Ukraine to the status of an economic colony of the US.But it epitomises the total discarding of one of the three central pillars of US hegemony. The first was military supremacy. This was shattered by the calamities of Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, which associated the US military with atrocities, violent chaos and humiliating strategic defeat. The US-backed defence of Ukraine can now be added to that list. The second was economic supremacy, which remains, but which was severely weakened by the 2008 financial crash and the longstanding failure of the US model to deliver a sustained rise in real wages. And the third - the remnants of which Trump is scattering to the four winds - was moral supremacy. This was always a fiction, but an important means of legitimising US dominance. It is now ash.Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

US president issues order aimed at preventing taxpayer dollars supporting illegal immigration and another designed to get rid of regulationsDonald Trump has signed an executive order aimed at ending federal benefits for people in the country illegally, his latest in a blizzard of moves to crack down on immigration.The White House said the order seeks to end all taxpayer-funded benefits for illegal aliens" but it was not clear which benefits will be targeted. People in the country illegally generally do not qualify except for emergency medical care. Children are entitled to a free K-12 public education regardless of immigration status under a 1982 supreme court ruling. Continue reading...

From the Trump administration's latest moves to Donald Trump's latest feuds - key US politics stories from Wednesday at a glanceThe Guardian is tracking Donald Trump and his administration's latest moves with several stories, features and analyses each day. Here are some of the biggest stories in US politics that happened Wednesday, 19 February.***Speaking at the Future Investment Initiative, a global finance conference in Miami organized by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, Trump said the United States is back and open for business" and that the dark days of high taxes, crushing regulations, rampant inflation, flagrant corruption, government weaponization ... and total incompetence will be gone for ever."Illinois governor JB Pritzker delivered a searing state-of-the-state address, likening Trump's stunning power grabs to the rise of Nazism in 1930s Germany.In a blistering statement after asking a federal judge to dismiss the corruption case against New York mayor Eric Adams, the acting deputy attorney general Emil Bove invited justice department officials and prosecutors who disagreed with the decision to quit.The Internal Revenue Service will fire 6,700 people as early as Thursday, kicking off mass layoffs just as tax season begins. Further reductions in the size of the agency are expected. Continue reading...

This blog is now closing. You can read our latest story hereAs Donald Trump's administration continues to fire thousands of federal workers and radically slash federal spending, some Republicans are growing unnerved, Axios reports.As the cuts start to hit GOP lawmakers' districts and states, some have told Axios there is a larger conflict brewing over the constitutional issue of whether the president can bypass Congress on such decisions.I think you're going to see a clash when they ... start abolishing [agencies]. Say like USAid, right? We authorized that. That's a creature of Congress. If they try to do something like that, then you're going to get into a constitutional argument or crisis.Before making cuts rashly, the administration should be studying and staffing to see what the consequences are. Measure twice before cutting. They have had to backtrack multiple times.We all want efficiencies, there is a way to do it, and the way these people have been treated has been awful in many cases. Awful.Dozens of Alaskans - potentially over 100 in total - are being fired as part of the Trump administration's reduction-in-force order for the federal government.Many of these abrupt terminations will do more harm than good, stunting opportunities in Alaska and leaving holes in our communities. We can't realize our potential for responsible energy and mineral development if we can't permit projects. We will be less prepared to manage summer wildfires if we can't support those on the front lines. Our tourism economy will be damaged if we don't maintain our world-class national parks and forests.Congress can't do anything except complain about it. Continue reading...

Andrew Lester, who is white, was charged with assault after Ralph Yarl, who survived, rang doorbell by mistake in 2023An 86-year-old Missouri man died just days after pleading guilty to a lesser charge in the 2023 shooting of Ralph Yarl, a Black honor student who rang the white man's doorbell by mistake, prosecutors announced on Wednesday.Andrew Lester of Kansas City had been charged with first-degree assault and armed criminal action in the shooting of the then 16-year-old, who survived and is now a freshman at Texas A&M. Before his trial was scheduled to begin, Lester had pleaded guilty on Friday to a lesser charge of second-degree assault, which carries up to seven years behind bars. He had been scheduled to be sentenced on 7 March. Continue reading...

Zheng Lijuan fled Panama City hotel as 170 of deported migrants were transported to dense, lawless regionPolice are searching for a Chinese woman who escaped from a downtown Panama City hotel where she was being held following her deportation from the US under Donald Trump's intensified campaign against immigrants.Zheng Lijuan was one of 299 migrants - from China, Afghanistan, Iran and other countries with which the US lacks extradition agreements - who have been flown in shackles to Panama since last Wednesday. Panamanian authorities say they believe that Zheng was aided by locals who had been prowling" outside the Decapolis hotel in the capital city where the deportees had been held. Continue reading...

US president made comparison after administration rescinded New York City's congestion pricing planDonald Trump is receiving widespread backlash after he likened himself to a king" on social media following his administration's decision to rescind New York City's congestion pricing program.On Wednesday, following a letter issued by his transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, to the New York governor, Kathy Hochul, that ended the transportation department's agreement with New York over a new congestion pricing program for Manhattan, Trump wrote on Truth Social: Continue reading...

Black bear weighing 500lb found in crawlspace in Pasadena, two weeks after Altadena man discovered unfamiliar tenantTwo 500-plus pound black bears have laid claim to homes evacuated during the destructive Eaton fire in southern California.Last month, when Samy Arbid returned to his Altadena home, he found Barry" - a 525lb black bear - living under the house. This week, another Californian reported a different unexpected visitor living in his house's crawlspace in neighboring Pasadena: another 500 to 600lb bear. Continue reading...

Emil Bove, Trump's acting deputy attorney general, was sole team member to appear at hearing over New York mayorIn front of a packed Manhattan courtroom on Wednesday afternoon, a federal judge grilled Donald Trump's acting deputy attorney general, Emil Bove, about his motion to dismiss a lengthy corruption indictment against the New York City mayor, Eric Adams.The hearing followed weeks of tense meetings inside the justice department and public resignations from senior prosecutors, who had refused demands from Bove and top Trump justice leaders to dismiss the case, citing concerns that it amounted to a quid pro quo in exchange for Adams's collaboration with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Continue reading...

As Europe innovates to boost defence without public service cuts, Britain clings to fiscal restraint - an unaffordable risk in an unstable worldWhen settling wars rewards lawlessness, displaces populations and fuels lasting grievances, the result is more war. That was the former foreign secretary WilliamHague's verdict on Donald Trump's approach to peacemaking, drawing lessons from the Balkans, the second world war and the Middle East. A more insecure world will require Britain to increase defence spending. The UK currently could not sustain major troop deployments in Ukraine, undermining the idea itcould provide Kyiv with security guarantees".This is a dilemma faced across Europe, leading the EU to see deficit-financed defence spending as the answer. In contrast, Britain remains seemingly bound by economic orthodoxy, prioritising fiscal discipline over borrowing. The UK Treasury has apparently asked unprotected public services - excluding health, education and defence - to prepare for real-terms cuts of up to 11% ahead of June's spending review, as funds are diverted to the military. This would be a mistake.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

The order doesn't fulfill campaign pledges, but does cement the administration's reputation for promoting childbearingDuring Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign, as support for reproductive rights mounted, the president promised to force insurance companies to pay for in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments. On Tuesday, Trump signed an executive order that, the White House said, expands access to in vitro fertilization".PROMISES MADE. PROMISES KEPT," Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, posted in all-caps on Twitter/X. Continue reading...

Major aviation groups urge Congress in a joint letter to take action for more air traffic control technology and staffingThe US aviation sector on Wednesday called for robust emergency funding" from Congress for air traffic control technology and staffing after a series of crashes that have raised alarm.Airlines for America, the Aerospace Industries Association, International Air Transport Association and others, including major aviation unions, urged Congress in a joint letter to take action, noting the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) faces serious technology needs and is about 3,500 air traffic controllers short of targeted staffing levels. Continue reading...

President's move to clean house' comes as attorney general works to implement administration's political agenda

Executive power grab would affect Securities and Exchange Commission and Federal Trade Commission

Agency works to rehire employees shortly after touting plan to optimize workforce' by cutting staff with help of MuskThe United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) said it accidentally fired several employees working on the H5N1 avian influenza, or bird flu, outbreak and is now trying to rehire them.The about-face came after the USDA touted its plans to optimize its workforce" by firing workers and terminating contracts, actions aided by billionaire Elon Musk's unofficial agency, the department of government efficiency" (Doge), NBC News reported on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Sitting side by side like a couple announcing their engagement, the world's most powerful man and Donald Trump gushed about their relationship to Sean HannityThe British dancer Debbie McGee was once asked in an interview: What first ever attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?" Hopefully some day Donald Trump will be asked in an interview: What first ever attracted you to the billionaire far-right sympathizer Elon Musk?"Alas, the question was not put by the Fox News host Sean Hannity when he conducted a joint interview with the world's most powerful man and Trump at the White House on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Foreign posts told to end all non-mission critical' news subscriptions in Trump directive that will endanger lives'The state department has reportedly ordered its outposts around the world to cancel all subscriptions to news and media outlets that are supposedly non-mission critical" in another extraordinary Trump administration crackdown on normal information channels.An email memo was circulated to embassies and consulates earlier this month explaining that the move was a further effort to cut costs by the federal government, the Washington Post reported late on Tuesday. Continue reading...

A new poll has found that some Americans are changing their shopping habits to align more with their moral or political views. Share your views with usAs large parts of corporate America align with the Trump administration's attacks on diversity programs, a new poll has found that four in 10 Americans have shifted spending in protest.A Harris poll found 31% of Americans reported having no interest in supporting the economy this year and a quarter (24%) of respondents have even stopped shopping at their favorite stores because of their politics. Continue reading...

The CDU is a big player in the European parliament, but its predicted win this Sunday won't change Germany's inward focusWhat a difference four years makes. In 2021, the world watched the German elections to see who would succeed the EU's uncrowned queen". Angela Merkel had become a symbol of liberal democracy in the era marked by the first Trump administration. In Germany, two colourless figures explicitly vied to replace her. Deep down everyone knew that German leadership in Europe was coming to an end. But no one could have foreseen how steep the fall would be.Today, Germany is a country struggling with itself, increasingly sidelined in Europe and the world. The second Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 largely destroyed Merkel's rosy legacy, exposing her opportunistically soft approach to authoritarian leaders such as Vladimir Putin and the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orban. Under Merkel's Social Democratic party (SPD) successor, Olaf Scholz, the country has become as pale and uninspiring as the chancellor himself.Cas Mudde is the Stanley Wade Shelton UGAF professor of international affairs at the University of Georgia, and author of The Far Right Today Continue reading...

In decades spent convincing world leaders to protect human rights, I've learned a thing or two about working with his type

Fourteen Democratic-led states had sought temporary restraining order against body involved in worker layoffsA federal judge refused on Tuesday to immediately block Elon Musk and the so-called department of government efficiency" (Doge) from accessing government data systems or participating in worker layoffs.The US district judge Tanya Chutkan found that there were legitimate questions about the billionaire's authority but said there was not enough evidence of grave legal harm to justify a temporary restraining order. Continue reading...

A proposal to start a new top-tier league in the United States will only work if the competition embraces what makes soccer in the country differentWhen the men's World Cup comes to the United States - alongside Canada and Mexico - in 2026, it will be played in NFL-sized stadiums in major metropolitan areas throughout the country. The final, played just a few miles from New York City, will no doubt leave a lasting impression.The United Soccer League saw an opportunity in this, but not where you might think. Continue reading...