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The Minnesota United coach was at Old Trafford under Solskjaer, Rangnick and Ten Hag - now he is branching out on his own in MLSI felt like my personality was well suited to it," Eric Ramsay says, explaining why he jumped into coaching as a teenager. There is drive and inquisitiveness to the Welshman, who was on the backroom staff at Manchester United before moving to the USA to become Minnesota United's manager last March. Before the real stuff begins, Ramsay wants to know about life at the Guardian. Is this the interviewee putting the interviewer at ease? Or evidence of someone who knows how to connect with strangers?Ramsay has the leadership gene. He grew up in a small market town in rural Wales and was a busy type, captaining the county team and putting on coaching sessions for local children. At 14 or 15 I could get a feel for what my coaching voice was," he says. What was he like? More self-conscious. You trip, you stumble. But I felt like I was making enough of a mark with kids for it to grab me. From 16 or 17 almost everything I did was geared towards that pathway." Continue reading...

Records obtained by Guardian give details about events leading to death of Manuel Paez Teran, shot dead in 2023Previously unavailable records obtained by the Guardian shed light on the killing of environmental and social activist Manuel Paez Teran during a police operation aimed at clearing out less than two dozen people from an Atlanta-area forest as they protested against a training center planned to be built nearby known as Cop City".The incident was the first of its kind in US history, and Georgia authorities have released scant information about what happened during the police operation two-plus years ago. None of the Georgia state patrol officers involved were wearing body cams, so no video evidence of the shooting exists. Continue reading...

The R1 chatbot has sent the tech world spinning - but this tells us less about China than it does about western neurosesThe arrival of DeepSeek R1, an AI language model built by the Chinese AI lab DeepSeek, has been nothing less than seismic. The system only launched last week, but already the app has shot to the top of download charts, sparked a $1tn (800bn) sell-off of tech stocks, and elicited apocalyptic commentary in Silicon Valley. The simplest take on R1 is correct: it's an AI system equal in capability to state-of-the-art US models that was built on a shoestring budget, thus demonstrating Chinese technological prowess. But the big lesson is perhaps not what DeepSeek R1 reveals about China, but about western neuroses surrounding AI.For AI obsessives, the arrival of R1 was not a total shock. DeepSeek was founded in 2023 as a subsidiary of the Chinese hedge fund High-Flyer, which focuses on data-heavy financial analysis - a field that demands similar skills to top-end AI research. Its subsidiary lab quickly started producing innovative papers, and CEO Liang Wenfeng told interviewers last November that the work was motivated not by profit but passion and curiosity".James Vincent was previously a senior editor at the Verge where he specialised in AI. His first book, Beyond Measure: The Hidden History of Measurement, was published in 2022 Continue reading...

Marion Bowman Jr has been caged in a tiny execution watch' cell since September, waiting to be killed: I won't let the prison turn me into an animal'For 135 days, Marion Bowman Jr has been locked in a solitary cell narrower than his arm span, cut off from nearly all human interaction, counting down the days until the state of South Carolina executes him.The 44-year-old is scheduled to be killed by lethal injection on Friday, the third man on South Carolina death row to be executed in rapid succession as the state aggressively revives capital punishment. The cases have sparked outrage over concerns about wrongful convictions, the racist application of the death penalty and the painful, drawn-out method of killing. Continue reading...

Businesses like Suay Sew Shop are trying to salvage piles of damaged textiles - and warn of the dangers of climate impact and overconsumptionAt Suay Sew Shop in Los Angeles's arts district, mounds of clothes are piled high in a warehouse. The T-shirts, socks, jackets and denim are surplus donations from the LA wildfires that community groups across the city were unable to distribute because they had too much already, or because the items were dirty, damaged or poorly made.Instead of letting the clothes go to a landfill, where they can cause a host of environmental problems, Suay has rescued 50,000lbs of textiles so they can be cleaned, sorted and upcycled by professional designers and sewers. Since LA currently has no permanent textile recycling or collection, it's up to groups like Suay to save as many textiles as possible before they get dumped or exported. Continue reading...

Launch of competitor to OpenAI's ChatGPT wiped $1tn off the US stock market. Plus, Trump reinstates unvaccinated troops to military

A pregnant mother from Venezuela responds to Trump's executive order that would render her baby statelessOn his first day in office, Donald Trump signed an order ending constitutionally recognized right of birthright citizenship. Thousands of expecting parents across the US suddenly had to consider that their babies would be born into a legal limbo.Among them is Monica, a woman expecting her first child after escaping political persecution in Venezuela. If Trump's order stands, Monica's baby will be born stateless. Continue reading...

The teenager will play college basketball at Arizona. But the jury is out on whether he has the skills to follow the family professionWhen news broke earlier this month that Bryce James had signed on to play basketball at the University of Arizona in the fall, many wondered: Who is Bryce James? For a family that seemed to promote their eldest son Bronny early and often, to find out that parents LeBron and Savannah James also have another son who is a talented athlete may have surprised some of even the most ardent NBA followers. Let's explore the young career of the budding star, whose high school regular season career winds down this week.Born on 14 June 2007, in Cleveland, Ohio, right around the time LeBron was playing in his first NBA finals, Bryce is the middle child in the James family. He is seven years older than his sister Zhuri (who already boasts more national television commercials than Bryce) and three years younger than brother Bronny. The two brothers, however, play much different positions. The 6ft 2in Bronny, who made his debut for the Los Angeles Lakers earlier this season, is a defensive-minded point guard. Bryce, who looks far more like a typical NBA player at 6ft 6in, is a slashing shooting guard with a slick jumper and strong finishing skills at the rim. Continue reading...

Andrew Taake, 36, assailed police with bear spray at the US Capitol and in 2016 was charged with a third-degree felonyA convicted US Capitol attacker who was freed from prison by Donald Trump's decision to pardon essentially every participant in the January 6 uprising must now grapple with an unresolved charge of having solicited a minor.At the center of the case in question is Andrew Taake, 36, of Houston, Texas, who assailed police with bear spray and a metal whip when a mob of Trump supporters descended on the Capitol in early 2021 in a desperate attempt to keep him in office at the end of his first presidency, according to prosecutors. Continue reading...

As a former Libyan foreign minister, I urge the world not to let Syria become another cautionary tale of a nation left to crumble under the weight of global apathy and splintered leadershipIn December, the world watched in awe as Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria imploded. But as Syria rejoices, I bear a warning: we cannot let Syria's power vacuum fester into another civil war, as the international community did in Libya.As Libya's first female foreign minister, I am painfully aware of what is at stake. When images of our own dictator's dead body were broadcast to the world in 2011, we believed Libya had been liberated. But the euphoria of revolutions often gives way to darker realities. Continue reading...

Inspectors general dismissed by president sound alarm and say moves pave way for appointment of political lackeys'Independent watchdogs summarily dismissed by Donald Trump have denounced the move as illegal and a threat to democracy that paves the way for the appointment of political lackeys" and widespread institutional corruption.The sacking of the 18 inspectors general from federal agencies last Friday, including the departments of defence, energy and state, has also been widely condemned as illegal, and as part of the Project 2025 plan for a rightwing authoritarian takeover of government. Continue reading...

Despite the ceasefire, Benjamin Netanyahu is capitulating to extremists who have no problem with ethnic cleansing. And they've found an ally in Donald TrumpThe ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas has now entered its second week. Over the past two weekends, Hamas has handed over seven Israeli hostages in exchange for the release of nearly 300 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, and preparations are already under way for a double exchange next weekend. But it hasn't been without hitches.Two days in, Israeli soldiers opened fire on Palestinian civilians as they sought to return to their homes near Gaza's southern border, killing a child. This weekend, Hamas opted to release only soldiers, despite having agreed to first release all remaining civilian women and children. Israeli forces then delayed the return of hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians to northern Gaza, while Hamas dragged its feet on informing Israel how many of the remaining hostages to be exchanged were alive or dead. Continue reading...

Political leaders increasingly caution that we are facing a historical inflection point'. Are we?In 1919, at the height of a global crisis that resulted from the turmoil of the Russian Revolution, the devastation of the first world war, and the collapse of Europe's great continental empires, Irish writer William Butler Yeats penned his famed warning to humanity, mourning the end of the old world: Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world."His words were recently invoked by Joe Biden, addressing the United Nations general assembly. Today, just as then, he warned, the world is facing a critical historical juncture: I truly believe we are at another inflection point in world history where the choices we make today will determine our future for decades to come." Continue reading...

If the Turkish strongman clashes with Israel over Syria he will be blamed for wrecking Trump's plans to pacify and disengage from the regionRecep Tayyip Erdoan has trodden a fine line between the west, Russia and China for more than two decades. Turkey has profited from helping both sides in Russia's war against Ukraine, extended its military reach and influence in Syria, Libya, the south Caucasus, the eastern Mediterranean and the Gulf, spread its soft power in Africa, central Asia and the western Balkans, and built a substantial national defence industry.When international relations experts assess this, they often fall back on the term balancing act". Turkish analysts prefer to speak of a quest for strategic autonomy" - the ability to defend the country's interests against all threats without being dependent on any outside power.Paul Taylor is a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre Continue reading...

President also signs order to eliminate gender radicalism in the military' and seeks to develop missile defense systemDonald Trump signed a series of executive orders on Monday that remove diversity, equity and inclusion from the US military, reinstate thousands of troops who were kicked out for refusing Covid-19 vaccines during the pandemic, and one that appeared to be aimed at transgender troops.Earlier on Monday, Pete Hegseth, who narrowly secured enough votes to become defense secretary, referred to the names of Confederate generals that were once used for two key bases during his remarks to reporters as he entered the Pentagon on his first full day on the job. Continue reading...

This blog has now closed. Read our latest story hereThe Senate is expected on Monday to vote on the confirmation of the billionaire hedge fund manager, Scott Bessent, as treasury secretary.On Saturday, the Senate voted 67-23 to advance Bessent's nomination. A final vote is scheduled to take place this evening at 5.30pm ET. Continue reading...

Memo said some actions in agency appeared to be designed to circumvent' Trump's orders and America First' policyThe Trump administration has put on leave about 60 senior career officials at the US Agency for International Development (USAid) workers, sources familiar with the matter said, after Washington put a sweeping freeze on US aid worldwide.The administration on Saturday urged the USAid staff to join the effort to transform how Washington allocates aid around the world in line with Trump's America First" policy. It also threatened disciplinary action" for any staff ignoring the administration's orders. Continue reading...

Acting attorney general says career officials could not be trusted to faithfully implement the president's agenda'Acting attorney general James McHenry on Monday fired more than a dozen federal prosecutors who worked on the two criminal cases against Donald Trump, saying they could not be trusted to implement the president's agenda for the justice department, two people familiar with the matter said.The precise extent of the firings were unclear because the department did not disclose names. At the time the cases were dismissed last year, after Trump won the election, special counsel Jack Smith had 17 prosecutors attached to his team. Continue reading...

Stewart Rhodes, ex-head of far-right group, had been banned from district and Capitol Hill without court consentA federal judge has rescinded an order barring Stewart Rhodes, the former leader of the far-right Oath Keepers group, and several other defendants charged in connection to the 6 January2021 attack on Congress, from entering Washington DC and the US Capitol without permission from a court.On Monday, the US district judge Amit Mehta stated in an order that while the court is declining to dismiss the supervised release terms entirely- as the justice department had requested - the defendants are no longer bound by the judicially imposed conditions of supervised release. Continue reading...

Utah nursing home resident Gideon Castro, 66, arrested and charged over death of Dawn Momohara, 16, in HonoluluPolice recently arrested a 66-year-old man at a nursing home in Utah on suspicion that he murdered a girl who attended his high school in Hawaii nearly five decades earlier - with modern DNA technology implicating him.Gideon Castro's arrest came in connection with the killing of Dawn Momohara, 16, who was found dead the morning of 21 March 1977 at the campus of McKinley high school in Honolulu. Continue reading...

TV personality embeds in one of several raids in US cities in what Tom Homan says are only beginning stages'

Senior leaders at agency told to await further guidance' in stoppage that upends expectations of extended withdrawalUS public health officials have been told to stop working with the World Health Organization (WHO), effective immediately.A US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) official, John Nkengasong, sent a memo to senior leaders at the agency on Sunday night telling them that all agency staff who work with the WHO must immediately stop their collaborations and await further guidance". Continue reading...

Sweeping review affects more than 1,200 courses used to train US diplomats and other foreign service personnelThe US state department's Foreign Service Institute has suspended access to more than a thousand training materials and courses, including the removal of more than 2,100 items related to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, according to an internal department announcement issued on Monday and seen by the Guardian.The sweeping review, which took effect on 22 January, affects more than 1,200 courses used to train American diplomats and other foreign service personnel and stems from recent executive orders. Continue reading...

Why doubts have been raised about sustainability of US artificial intelligence boom

We can give the Greenlanders a McDonald's, KFC and a Taco Bell ... I will nuke Nuuk if necessary, but I'd rather not'Keir Starmer: Good afternoon, your most serene Excellency.Donald Trump: Who is this? Continue reading...

Union leader claims Trump-created organization is corrupt' as X owner posts vague request for applicationsElon Musk's department of government efficiency" (Doge) has been accused by a leading labor union of an absolutely illegal" breach of federal regulations after posting a vague request for job applications.The Trump administration's much-vaunted but ill-defined program to reshape the federal government announced it was recruiting full-time, salaried positions" for software engineers, information security engineers and other technology professionals" on its official website. Continue reading...

Lawmakers halt his planned crackdown and move on with their own proposals in spirit and letter' of Trump's policiesRepublicans in the Florida legislature on Monday delivered a humiliating rebuke to Ron DeSantis by shutting down the governor's planned crackdown on immigration in the state and moving ahead with their own proposals.Lawmakers in the Florida House and Senate abruptly gaveled out" a special legislative session that DeSantis had called to seek their approval for measures he drew up in support of Donald Trump's hardline immigration agenda. Continue reading...

Orders will also reinstate troops kicked out for refusing Covid vaccines during pandemic, says defense secretaryDonald Trump will soon sign executive orders removing diversity, equity and inclusion from the military and reinstating thousands of troops who were kicked out for refusing Covid vaccines during the pandemic, the defense secretary Pete Hegseth said on Monday.Hegseth, a former Fox News personality and decorated veteran, narrowly secured enough votes to become the next defense secretary, a major victory for Trump after fierce opposition from Democrats and even some Republicans to his controversial nominee. Continue reading...

Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist calls fellow tech titan super-smart' but guilty of overreach'Bill Gates has labelled Elon Musk's embrace of far-right politicians and attempt to interfere in the politics of other countries - including the UK - as insane shit".Musk has in recent weeks launched a series of unfounded smears at British politicians for supposedly covering up a rape scandal over a decade ago. The UK is currently preparing a new online safety law that would restrict some of Musk's businesses, including the social media site X. Continue reading...

Rain may help firefighters reining in fires after weeks of dry weather but also boosts risk of toxic ash runoffRain eased on Monday after southern California's first significant storm of the season brought weekend downpours that aided firefighters but caused ash, mud and debris to flow across streets in wildfire burn areas.

Council including defense and homeland security secretaries will report within 180 days on future of agency

Videos about Tuskegee Airmen and civilian female pilots were not shown in basic training in Texas pending a review

The current leadership is seen as either absent or illegitimate. A postwar plan must not simply repackage it

Monkeys lived in South Carolina woods for two months and were lured out with peanut butter and jelly sandwichesAuthorities in South Carolina say that the last four of 43 escaped monkeys were recaptured after two months of living in the woods, weathering a rare snowstorm and being tempted back into captivity by peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.The rhesus macaque monkeys, all females, made a break for it after police say an employee did not fully lock their enclosure at Alpha Genesis, a facility that breeds them for medical research - known to locals as the monkey farm". Continue reading...

US president's tariff threats, Nato spending demands and Greenland ambitions keep leaders on edge

With Trump promising the US will be crypto capital of the planet', experts say the industry's poised for laxer oversightWith Donald Trump tapping top regulators with cryptocurrency ties and promising to make the US the crypto capital of the planet", the controversial and scandal-plagued industry is poised for laxer oversight and faster growth, which ethics watchdogs and ex-prosecutors fear could pose dangers for investors and spur potential criminal abuses.The president's pro-crypto stances have come as he wooed crypto companies to ratchet up their campaign contributions to help him win the White House. Although in 2021 Trump called Bitcoin a scam", he also announced last fall that he and his sons were helping launch a new crypto business, dubbed World Liberty Financial, they can profit from. Continue reading...

Revealed: fossil fuel billionaire's Americans for Prosperity vows herculean undertaking' to renew and deepen tax cutsAmericans for Prosperity (AFP), the flagship political arm of the rightwing network formed by the fossil fuels billionaire Charles Koch and his late brother David, is launching a multimillion-dollar campaign backing Donald Trump's plans to extend tax cuts and roll back federal regulations.A private fundraising letter from AFP to its secretive list of donors, seen by the Guardian, outlines the organization's strategy for the first six months of the new Trump administration. Continue reading...

Families start returning home after first major crisis of ceasefire overcomeGood morning.Palestinians displaced from their homes in northern Gaza began to return to the region early on Monday, the territory's interior ministry said, after the first major crisis of the truce between between Israel and Hamas.What has Donald Trump said about Gaza? In comments strongly rejected by the Palestinians, Egypt, and Jordan, for fear that Israel will not let refugees return, he said Gaza's people should at least temporarily be resettled elsewhere.What have others said about the firings? Republican senator Lindsey Graham brushed off their unlawfulness. He acknowledged that Trump violated the law (telling Meet the Press that technically yeah", he did), before adding: I'm not losing a whole lot of sleep that he wants to change the personnel out." Continue reading...

Trump and his supporters would like to buck the tide of history, but they could end up pulled further into it, and have no way to stop itAfter years of strife over what his rise means, Donald Trump's inaugural address on assuming the presidency a second time clarified everything: he is the symptom of imperial decline who purports to be the cure.His first inaugural, of course, dwelled on national decline: American carnage. The opening of Trump's second speech, however, began with the myth of the golden age - an almost idyllic picture of an end to America's time of troubles, when the country elicits envy and respect it once enjoyed among the powers of the earth. And, far more clearly than in his first inaugural and term, Trump's speech and stratagems indicate a vision not just of competition but of return to comparative ascendancy. He wants America to bask in the sun of its former victory in the competition of empires. It will be a a thrilling new era of national success."Samuel Moyn teaches history at Yale. Continue reading...

If they capitulate to Maga, the government folds, and we all go down with itLess than a week in office, Donald Trump gagged all public communications from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and the Food and Drug Administration. Pending review by his administration, the agencies are prohibited from issuing health data updates and public safety alerts, including those concerning the H5N1 avian flu, which is spreading in poultry flocks, dairy herds, pet cats and people. Bird flu can be fatal to humans, according to the World Health Organization, from which Trump has withdrawn the US.As precursor to his mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, the president halted asylum applications and canceled appointments already on the books. The Department of Homeland Security announced that it will raid hospitals, churches and schools, sites long off limits to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. But don't blame the feds if law-abiding immigrants are swept up too, said Trump's border czar, Tom Homan. There's going to be more collateral arrests in sanctuary cities because they forced us to go into the community and find the guy we're looking for." The Department of Justice is threatening to bring criminal charges against local officials or employees who don't cooperate.Judith Levine is a Brooklyn journalist and essayist, a contributing writer to the Intercept and the author of five books

US senator adds to chorus of criticism of president, who fired inspectors at departments including state and defenseDonald Trump's firing of more than a dozen independent federal government watchdogs late on Friday was a clear violation of law", says US senator Adam Schiff, one of the president's fiercest political opponents.Yeah, he broke the law," the California Democrat said Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press. And not just any law - but a law meant to crowd out waste, fraud and abuse." Continue reading...

As the grandchild of a survivor, I'm proud to keep his testimony alive, in the hope that people never forget the horrors humanity is capable ofYesterday, I watched A Real Pain in the cinema. The film is a beautiful representation of two cousins, united in love and grief for their grandma, exploring their family history on a heritage trip to Poland. This experience is familiar to so many Jews I know - whether attending a trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau or visiting Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, the idea of a poignant pilgrimage to see where our ancestors lived, died, survived and escaped from, is commonplace.I've certainly had these experiences. When I was 12, my paternal grandparents, Ann and Henry Ebner, took me to Vienna, where Henry fled from the Nazis with his parents when he was two, arriving as a refugee in the UK just weeks before the start of the second world war. In the same year, my maternal grandma, Anna (Panni), took me to Budapest, to see where she and her husband, my grandpa, George Garai (Gyuri), had lived. Panni was six when Hitler's troops invaded Hungary in 1944, and she survived by being hidden in an orphanage. The memories shared with me on this pilgrimage were painful ones; being separated from her parents, returning home after the war and sitting by the window waiting to see which family members would come back - and so many never did. Continue reading...

Despite recent praise from Trump, No 10 insiders know how risky dealing with the unpredictable president canbeThe sight of Donald Trump signing a flurry of executive orders with his black Sharpie in front of the Maga faithful after his inauguration inspired envy and concern in equal measure inside the UK government.Cabinet ministers have been impressed by the new US president cracking on" with bold - and often controversial - election promises. We could do with a bit more of that here," one told the Guardian. Continue reading...

Some will insist debatable calls were to blame for another heartbreaker for Buffalo. But they have to contend with a great footballing dynasty every yearFrom 1967 through 1975, the Oakland Raiders were the most successful team in professional football ... in the regular season. They compiled a record of 95-24-7, and that winning percentage of .798 was a full 70 percentage points higher than the second-best team, the Dallas Cowboys. Those Raiders were packed with future Hall of Famers, and they had John Madden, one of the NFL's best coaches, for most of that span.And throughout that time, they were stopped from winning the big one by several different dynasties. They lost Super Bowl II to the Green Bay Packers, and were crossed off in successive seasons in the playoffs by the Miami Dolphins and the Pittsburgh Steelers - two more all-time teams. Oakland's 7-8 postseason record tended to render everything else irrelevant. It wasn't until 1976, when the Raiders went 13-1 in the regular season and poleaxed the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl XI, that they finally got that albatross of their backs. Continue reading...

I couldn't help but love the woman who brought light back into our lives - and now I feel so lucky to have my big blended familyWhen my mother died, I didn't think my stepfather would ever find someone else to love. She met him when visiting New York and he moved to Paris to live with us. He'd always ask: How'd this gorgeous French-Brazilian woman pick me?" They shared 16 beautiful years together. On the night of her death, he told me he'd lost 40 years", the years of them growing old together.As much as I wanted him to be happy, I never imagined their connection could be replaced, it just seemed too strong. So when, one spring evening over dinner, he said I went on a date last night" to my little sister and me, my eyes grew wide in shock. I was pleased for him, but devastated for myself. It felt like another era was coming to an end.Iman M'Fah-Traore is a writer. She is working on her first book, a memoir Continue reading...

There is no way to rationalise the horrors inflicted on Gaza's innocent children. Now is the time to mourn them fullyFor the past week, Palestinians in Gaza have been returning to their homes, now mostly reduced to rubble - and to their dead who still lie beneath. It is only now that we will start to get a fuller picture of the true toll of this war - only now that any kind of grieving or mourning can begin, a process that has been physically and emotionally denied to the Palestinians throughout the past 15 months. Once the final tally becomes clear, what will probably emerge is a colossal death toll of children.Already, indications point to it being children that have made up the majority of casualties. UN analysis of verified deaths during a five-month period confirmed that of those who died, 44% were children. Most often, those children were five- to nine-year-olds; 80% of them killed in their own homes. Continue reading...

US president had called for retaliatory measures' after Colombia's president, Gustavo Petro, blocked two military aircraft carrying deporteesThe US and Colombia pulled back from the brink of a trade war on Sunday after the White House said the Colombians had agreed to accept military aircraft carrying deported migrants.Donald Trump, the US president, had threatened tariffs and sanctions on Colombia to punish it for earlier refusing to accept military flights carrying deportees amid his sweeping immigration crackdown. Continue reading...