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US vice-president, JD Vance, has said his country won't be pulled into any more 'open-ended conflicts', and would stop making countries around the world comply with US values, in what he said is a major shift in US foreign policy. Vance was speaking at the graduation ceremony for the US naval academy where he said: 'We had a long experiment in our foreign policy that traded national defence and the maintenance of our alliances for nation building and meddling in foreign countries' affairs, even if those foreign countries had very little to do with core American interests'. He added: 'No more undefined missions, no more open-ended conflicts'

In Kosovo, Nato intervened in 1999 after mass killings and the threat of further ethnic cleansing. Why aren't Gazans being protected in the same way?On 20 May, the secretary-general for humanitarian affairs at the United Nations stated that 14,000 babies would be dead unless the blockade was lifted immediately. The day before, the former Knesset member Moshe Feiglin said: Every child in Gaza is the enemy." And now, world leaders in the UK and France threaten vague concrete actions" if Israel does not cease the renewed military offensive and lift its restrictions on humanitarian aid". But undefined concrete actions" are woefully insufficient. To those leaders I say: Gaza's children cannot eat statements.Bezalel Smotrich, the Israeli finance minister, declared last week: We are destroying everything in Gaza, the world isn't stopping us." So let's say what must be said, without apology: military intervention to defend Gaza is not only justified - it is required. It is humanitarian. It is overdue. Israel must be stopped. Continue reading...

Israel starving Palestinians, two killings at a Jewish museum: both are atrocities. But vanishingly few can see itI sat this week with Hussein Agha, a man who has given his working life to seeking peace between Israelis and Palestinians, negotiating from the Palestinian side of the table. He was gloomier than I have ever seen him, adamant that peace between the two sides can never, ever come. Because, Agha explained, this conflict was not about mere lines on a map or forms of words, the goods in which diplomats trade. This was about emotions, and specifically hatreds. Hatreds that, he feared, are becoming too murderous to contain. It's biblical," he said.What he had in mind was the fury that drove Hamas to slaughter around 1,200 Israelis on a sleepy Saturday morning nearly 20 months ago and the fury that has driven the government of Benjamin Netanyahu to bombard Gaza ever since, killing more than 50,000, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry, and, over the last 80 days, denying food to those who remain. He fears that the hatreds that fuelled these events, and that are fuelled by them, will grow larger and more venomous until nothing and no one is left. The whole land shall be laid waste and made desolate. Continue reading...

We'd like to hear from scholars and students from abroad in light of the Trump administration's attack on universitiesInternational students at Harvard University were ordered this week to transfer schools or lose their legal status following the Trump administration's revocation of the university's eligibility to enroll students from abroad.While that order was swiftly blocked by a judge, it is one of a series of events creating uncertainty on campuses across the US. It follows the US government's revocation of hundreds of student visas on various grounds, including minor infractions or participation in protests against the war in Gaza. (Some of those visas have been reinstated.) Academics have also felt the impact of funding cuts and subsequent hiring freezes, leading to hundreds looking to leave the US to work elsewhere. Continue reading...

Muppet created by University of Maryland alumnus Jim Henson encouraged the class of 2025 to find your people'Kermit the Frog knows it's not easy being green - or graduating from college and plunging into an adult world in tumult, where political turmoil, economic uncertainty and international wars rage.So the amphibious Muppet was at pains to encourage students in the graduating class of 2025 at the University of Maryland, where the Muppets' creator is an alumnus, as he delivered the ker-mencement speech on Thursday evening. Continue reading...

The group is in temporary custody of homeland security in Djibouti following challenges in court

This is the latest act of violence in a string of incidents that have affected Jewish, Arab and Muslim communities

Move is most severe escalation yet in weeks-long dispute. Plus, Trump seeks to end basic rights for child immigrants in custody

Princess Elisabeth has completed first year of master's degree but Trump administration's crackdown may jeopardise studiesPrincess Elisabeth, the 23-year-old future queen of Belgium, has just completed her first year at Harvard University but the ban imposed by Donald Trump's administration on foreign students studying there could jeopardise her continued attendance.The US president's administration revoked Harvard's ability to enrol international students on Thursday, and is forcing current foreign students to transfer to other schools or lose their legal status in the US, while also threatening to expand the crackdown to other colleges. Continue reading...

Masked men broke into US reality star's flat and held her at gunpoint in 2016, escaping with jewels worth 10mA Paris court will reach a verdict on Friday in the trial of 10 people alleged to have been involved in the theft of jewellery worth millions of euros from the American reality TV star Kim Kardashian when she attended Paris fashion week in 2016.Three pensioners and a man in his 30s are accused of breaking into a luxury residence in Paris, where they tied up Kardashian and held her hostage at gunpoint in her bedroom in the early hours of 3 October 2016. Continue reading...

Provisions in Trump's beautiful bill' include plans to cut billions of dollars in food and health benefits to the poorAdvocacy groups associated with the left are urging some Republicans not to go along with a plan to cut health and food benefits to the poor.The lobbying campaign comes as Democrats are nearly powerless to stop the One Big Beautiful Bill" act - a 1,100-page package of Donald Trump's legislative priorities, from deporting migrants to building a border wall. Republicans hold majorities in both the House and Senate. Continue reading...

Students will need to move schools to keep legal status, as US universities reel from funding cuts and Trump ordersThe Trump administration's announcement on Thursday that it would revoke Harvard University's eligibility to enroll international students marked the most severe escalation yet in its weeks-long showdown with the university.The move, which the university is likely to challenge in court, would force more than 6,000 currently enrolled students to transfer to other universities or lose their legal status, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The announcement sent shock waves through US universities already reeling from funding cuts and executive efforts to bring them in line with the administration's agenda, but it will also add yet another element of uncertainty for international students after the administration abruptly terminated the legal status of thousands in recent weeks - a move it partially walked back but that has nonetheless disrupted students' education and upended their lives. Continue reading...

Unit closures, reduced hours of operation and exam backlogs reported after Trump administration reductionsThe Department of Veterans Affairs, the nation's largest integrated healthcare system, has been plunged into crisis amid canceled contracts, hiring freezes, resignations, layoffs and other moves by the Trump administration and Elon Musk's so-called department of government efficiency" (Doge), internal agency documents obtained by the Guardian show.The documents paint a grim picture of chaos across the department's sprawling network of 170 veterans affairs (VA) hospitals and more than 1,300 outpatient clinics, which serve 9 million US military veterans. Continue reading...

Exclusive: A rightwing activist behind a current supreme court challenge has spent decades railing against homosexual behavior'Steven Hotze, a Republican donor from Texas, has spent decades fighting against LGBTQ+ rights, with campaigns seeking to roll back protections for people he has deemed termites", morally degenerate" and satanic".The Houston-area physician is not well-known in mainstream politics, and his efforts targeting queer and trans people have generally been local, with limited impact. Continue reading...

Americans are gradually turning against the president over his handling of immigration. Republicans will have to answer for itIf you can bear to hear it, there are still more than 1,300 days remaining in the Trump administration. That's an interminably long time given all the havoc the president has been able to wreak since January alone; the chaos and cruelty of the term so far also happen to have used up his political capital remarkably quickly. The New York Times average of polls, which found him at 52% approval on inauguration day, had him at 51% disapproval on Wednesday. That collapse is less a problem for Trump specifically - assuming, perhaps optimistically, that he won't appear on a ballot again - than it is for the Republican party, which will have to answer for the mess he's made in next year's midterms and beyond. And one of the challenges they seem likely to face is a changed public opinion landscape on immigration - a strength that Trump's barbarism, just as in his first term, seems to be turning into a liability.While it remains his strongest issue, polls have shown the public's confidence in Trump on immigration declining steadily since January - averages suggest the public is newly and evenly split on his handling of it and some polls taken around the 100-day mark even found an outright majority of Americans disapproving. It's no mystery why. The shock-and-awe campaign the administration is waging against immigrants legal and not has produced a steady stream of headlines that sound awful to all but Stephen Miller and the nativist fanatics driving Trump's agenda. The deportation of a four-year-old citizen suffering from a rare form of cancer. The end of temporary protected status for 9,000 Afghan refugees even as the administration welcomes Afrikaners supposedly fleeing white genocide", a myth most voters who don't frequent white supremacist forums are probably unfamiliar with. The use of the immigration enforcement apparatus to pursue and persecute critics of Israel's war in Gaza. Even as voters succumbed to a panic over the migrant surge under Biden, moves like this under Trump and a public backlash to them were inevitable.Osita Nwanevu is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Members of Congress are accused of hiding out when workers have sought answers on why their jobs were axedWorkers hit by the Trump administration's sweeping cuts of federal government jobs, programs and services turned to congressional Republicans for help. But Republicans don't want to talk about it, according to people who have tried to reach the politicians.Sabrina Valenti, a former budget analyst for the Coastal Wetland Planning, Protection, and Restoration Act at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), was fired in February, then reinstated, and fired again weeks later. Continue reading...

Green Bay's Sean Rhyan just lost out on $2m because over two missed snaps. But he is far from the only football player to deal with contract quirksAs contract clauses go, this one is pretty painful: Packers guard Sean Rhyan missed out on $2m after falling two snaps shy of picking up a bonus. The NFL has a built-in bonus pool designed to reward late draftees who see the field early in their careers. One of those performance benchmarks is a player's volume of snaps. If they cross the 35% mark, they receive a chunky bonus. But Rhyan fell two snaps shy of that mark last season, missing the chance to see his base salary more than double.The performance escalator is one of the quirks of the league's Collective Bargaining Agreement. With the CBA, rookie pay scale and hard salary cap, the NFL is typically a less chaotic contractual league than others in North America. There are none of the odd riders in players' contracts - the unlimited sushi, 30-year contracts, or Springsteen guarantees - that litter other sports. Careers are short. Leverage is fleeting. The language is standardized. However, Rhyan's situation is far from a one-off.Bryant would be followed by a three-person security detail whenever he was away from the Cowboys' training base.He would be driven to and from practice by Cowboys personnel.He would attend two mandated counselling sessions a week.He was banned from drinking alcohol.He was barred from attending strip clubs, given a midnight curfew, and only allowed to attend clubs where veteran Cowboys security staffers moonlighted as door staff. Continue reading...

In this new climate, having an enviable job, while not being a straight white man, is grounds for suspicionWayne Brown was a trailblazer, a man who made his own small piece of history by becoming Britain's first black fire chief.He worked his way up as a young firefighter, rising through the ranks, serving the public through dark times including the 2005 London terror attacks and the Grenfell fire.Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnistIn the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.orgDo 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...

Detained Palestinian activist granted contact by judge who blocked Trump administration's efforts to separate familyMahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate and detained Palestinian activist, was finally allowed to hold his infant son for the first time Thursday - one month after he was born - thanks to a federal judge who blocked the Trump administration's efforts to keep the father and infant separated by a Plexiglass barrier.The visit came before a scheduled immigration hearing for Khalil, a legal permanent resident who has been detained in a Louisiana jail since 8 March. Continue reading...

Detained Palestinian activist allowed contact after federal judge blocks Trump administration from separating family. This blog is now closed.Israel's foreign minister, Gideon Sa'ar, has accused unnamed European officials of toxic antisemitic incitement" he blamed for a hostile climate in which the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington took place, Reuters reports.Israel has faced a blizzard of criticism from Europe of late as it has intensified its military campaign in Gaza, where humanitarian groups have warned that an 11-week Israeli blockade on aid supplies has left the Palestinian territory on the brink of famine. Continue reading...

Other images displayed by Trump during meeting with South African president Cyril Ramaphosa were false or misleadingThe evidence of supposed mass killings of white South Africans presented by Donald Trump in a tense White House meeting on Wednesday were in some cases images from the Democratic Republic of Congo, while footage shown during the meeting was falsely portrayed as depicting burial sites".These are all white farmers that are being buried," said Trump, holding up a print-out of an article accompanied by a picture during the contentious Oval Office meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. Continue reading...

Homeland security secretary Kristi Noem accuses Harvard of fostering violence' on its campus. Key US politics stories from Thursday 22 May 2025

Flores Settlement Agreement limits how long children can be detained and requires they be provided with food, water and clean clothesThe Trump administration is trying to end a cornerstone immigration policy that requires the government to provide basic rights and protections to child immigrants in its custody.The protections, which are drawn from a 1997 consent decree known as the Flores Settlement Agreement, limit the amount of time children can be detained by immigration officials. It also requires the government to provide children in its custody with adequate food, water and clean clothes. Continue reading...

Sound Talent Group says three employees killed as officials investigate what caused Cessna 550 plane to crashSeveral people have died, including the co-founder of a music agency, after a small aircraft crashed in a neighborhood in San Diego early on Thursday morning, clipping one home and damaging several vehicles.Sound Talent Group, which has represented artists such as Sum 41 and Vanessa Carlton, confirmed on Thursday that three of its employees died on the private plane. Among those who died was the agency's co-founder Dave Shapiro, who was listed as the owner of the plane and has a pilot's license, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Continue reading...

Committee says newest vaccines should be updated and formalizes rules that limit vaccine access for AmericansThe Food and Drug Administration's advisory committee unanimously recommended that newest vaccines for Covid should be updated to target a variant of strains currently on the rise, during a meeting on Thursday - the first since the Trump administration took office.The meeting focused on selecting a Covid strain to target in upcoming vaccines as well as formalizing new FDA rules that limit vaccine access to Americans. Continue reading...

Critics of Israel's atrocious conduct in Gaza should be clear that their focus is the authors of that violence - not Israeli civiliansIsrael's campaign of bombing and starving Palestinian civilians in Gaza is inexcusable. It reflects a massive war crime, as the international criminal court has already charged, and arguably genocide. But it in no sense justifies the murder of two young Israeli embassy workers in Washington by a man who then chanted: Free, free Palestine". Nothing justifies violence against civilians.The killing of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim occurred on Wednesday evening outside the Capital Jewish Museum, where the American Jewish Committee was hosting a reception for young diplomats. The suspect, identified as Elias Rodriguez of Chicago, was detained shortly after the shooting. His social media accounts indicated that he had been involved in pro-Palestinian activism.Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch (1993-2022), is a visiting professor at Princeton's School of Public and International Affairs. His book Righting Wrongs: Three Decades on the Front Lines Battling Abusive Governments was published by Knopf and Allen Lane in February. Continue reading...

Meme coin buyers may have gotten dinner with president, but they lost millions, Guardian analysis revealsDonald Trump will host the top holders of his cryptocurrency at a gala tonight at his private golf club near Washington DC. Though the president has called the $Trump token The Greatest of them all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!", nearly half the gala's guests suffered losses from purchasing it, according to a Guardian analysis of their public cryptocurrency wallets.The attendees are winners of the US president's meme coin competition. Last month, Trump announced that the 220 crypto wallets with the largest holdings of $Trump between 23 April and 12 May would win a ticket to a private dinner at the Trump National golf club. The top 25 holders would also be invited to a Private VIP Reception" with the president beforehand. The news caused the coin to spike more than 50%. Continue reading...

US attorney general says Chicago-based suspect believed to have acted alone in killing of couple at Jewish museum

Media Matters faces government inquiry into whether it helped advertisers coordinate to pull ad dollars from XThe US Federal Trade Commission has demanded documents from Media Matters about possible coordination with other media watchdogs accused by Elon Musk of helping orchestrate advertiser boycotts of X, according to a document seen by Reuters on Thursday.The civil investigative demand seen by Reuters seeks information about Media Matters' communications with other groups that evaluate misinformation and hate speech in news and social media, including a World Federation of Advertisers initiative called Global Alliance for Responsible Media. X has ongoing lawsuits against both organizations. Continue reading...

Report ignores common dangers to children, focuses on Kennedy's favored topics - and will be forcefully opposedDonald Trump's health secretary and long-time vaccine skeptic, Robert F Kennedy Jr, presented a highly anticipated report on children's health this week.The Maha commission" report, referring to the Make America healthy again" movement, was required by a presidential executive order in February. The report focuses on chronic disease among children. Continue reading...

Advocates say families with children among those detained in LA, Phoenix, New York, Seattle, Chicago and TexasFederal authorities have arrested people at US immigration courts from New York to Arizona to Washington state in what appears to be a coordinated operation, as the Trump administration ramps up the president's mass deportation campaign.On Tuesday, agents who identified themselves only as federal officers arrested multiple people at an immigration court in Phoenix, taking people into custody outside the facility, according to immigrant advocates. Continue reading...

Homeland security secretary Kristi Noem posts copy of department's letter to university on X

Slight drop in hate groups does not signify declining influence, Southern Poverty Law Center report saysThe number of white nationalist, hate and anti-government extremist groups in the US has dropped not because of their declining influence, but because many of their proponents feel their beliefs have become normalized in government and mainstream society, according to a new report by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).The SPLC's annual Year in Hate and Extremism report, published on Thursday, said it documented 1,371 hate and extremist groups across the country in 2024, down from 1,430 groups in 2023. Continue reading...

Maha report ignores leading causes of death for children, firearms and crashes, and focuses on lifestyle and vaccinesA new report led by the health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, lays out a dark vision of American children's health and calls for agencies to examine vaccines, ultra-processed foods, environmental chemicals, lack of exercise and overmedicalization".Kennedy has made combatting the chronic disease epidemic" a cornerstone of his vision for the US, even as he has ignored common causes of chronic conditions, such as smoking and alcohol use. Continue reading...

Mauricio Pochettino faces an uphill battle to change the USMNT's culture without their most important players.If the 2022 World Cup was the debutante ball for a shiny new generation of United States men's national team players, the 2025 Gold Cup was supposed to be a general rehearsal for the big dance: next summer's World Cup.Instead, still-somewhat-newish US manager Mauricio Pochettino will go into this summer tournament for the continental title shorn of a great many of his leading players. As such, his first and only chance to work with his team for an extended period of time before the start of the 2026 World Cup will present all kinds of challenges. Continue reading...

Washington's grey skies matched the sombre mood at the site of the killing of two people hours earlier

An aircraft crashed in the Murphy Canyon neighbourhood near the Montgomery-Gibbs executive airport on Thursday morning, clipping one home and damaging several vehicles, San Diego police department said. The San Diego assistant fire chief Dan Eddy said the crash had killed the plane's passengers. The aircraft could hold up to 10 people but it is not yet known how many were onboard. No one on the ground in the military housing neighbourhood was injured

Justices' 4-4 ruling leaves intact lower court's decision that blocked establishment of Oklahoma schoolThe US supreme court on Thursday blocked an attempt led by two Catholic dioceses to establish in Oklahoma the nation's first taxpayer-funded religious charter school in a major case involving religious rights in American education that challenged the constitutional separation of church and state.The 4-4 ruling left intact a lower court's decision that blocked the establishment of St Isidore of Seville Catholic virtual school. The lower court found that the proposed school would violate the US constitution's first amendment limits on government involvement in religion. Continue reading...

Police said a suspect was in custody after the shooting near the Capital Jewish Museum

What happened, who were the victims, who was arrested and what has been the reaction?Two staff members of the Israeli embassy in Washington - a young couple on the verge of becoming engaged - were fatally shot on Wednesday evening at about 9.15pm while leaving an event at a Jewish museum.The suspect yelled Free, free Palestine" after he was arrested, police said. Continue reading...

When future generations read about Gaza with horror and wonder how we allowed a livestreamed genocide to happen, what will you say?Now, when Israel is executing a final solution" in Gaza, when it is far too late for dissent to make any difference, the tide is slowly starting to turn. Now that Gaza is flattened, turned into mass graves and rubble, people who have kept quiet for the past 19 months are slowly starting to speak up. Now that Israel and the US are not even trying to pretend that they aren't intent on emptying Gaza and the West Bank of Palestinians, of taking control" of all of the land, some criticism has started to trickle in.Over in the UK, they've pulled out the e" word. After 19 months of genocidal violence and almost three months of a starvation campaign the UK has decided to describe the situation as egregious. The UK, along with France and Canada have threatened - and I'm sure Israel's leaders are quaking in their boots over this - that there might be a concrete" response if the mass killing and starvation continues. Continue reading...

Maine Coalition for Palestine to join Veterans for Peace, as well as college and university students on shorter strikesA group of Maine residents were set to begin a 40-day hunger strike on Thursday, joining a national wave of similar actions protesting Israel's blockade of Gaza and the skyrocketing levels of hunger in the territory.The Maine Coalition for Palestine announced this week that 25 people would strike to draw attention to the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Continue reading...

The two victims of the Washington shooting, the engaged couple Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, were leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum when the suspect approached a group of four people and opened fire. The suspect, identified as Elias Rodriguez, 30, of Chicago, was seen pacing outside the museum before the shooting. He walked into the museum after and was detained by event security. Social media footage shows the suspect shouting: 'Free, free Palestine' after being arrested

Politicians took to social media to express shock and sorrow over killings of staffers outside Jewish museum in DCDonald Trump, Republicans and Democrats have condemned antisemitism in the shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC on Wednesday night.These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!" Trump wrote on social media in response to the shooting. Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!" Continue reading...

Tax relief contained within One Big Beautiful Bill Act would expire when president leaves office - what happens then?Congressional Republicans passed a massive spending bill on Thursday morning that, for some taxpayers, may deliver the golden age" Donald Trump has promised - but only while he is president.The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed narrowly with 215-214 votes, is centered on permanently extending tax cuts enacted during Trump's first term, while also creating new deductions to make good on his campaign promise of providing relief to the working class and families. Continue reading...

From DDG to Tory Lanez, a male celebrity is accused of abuse - and his supporters reverse the roles of victim and offenderThere's a new formula for punishing women who speak out about abuse by high-profile figures, and it usually goes like this: woman alleges abuse, woman seeks recourse through the justice system, woman's accusation is made public - and then a tidal wave of fans of her abuser come together to help deny the abuse, attack her credibility and reverse the roles of victim and offender.If this sounds familiar it's because Darvo - the deny, attack, reversevictim and offender" method of manipulating abuse victims - has existed for forever. But social media has given it a whole new dimension, and powerful people now have an army of rabid fans ready to do that work for them. Continue reading...