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Highly rated councilmember makes last-minute entry after endorsing former ally Karen Bass - can she build a campaign to win?Nithya Raman, a progressive urban planner, entered Los Angeles politics with a bang when she was elected to city council in 2020, defeating an incumbent Democrat endorsed by Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton.More than five years on, the 44-year-old is making waves again with her last-minute entry into the LA mayoral race. Raman filed to run just hours before the deadline - after recently endorsing Mayor Karen Bass for re-election - to the surprise of constituents, and political allies and opponents alike. Continue reading...

In the world being ushered in by Trump, power will prevail over cooperation. We will come to rue having taken this pathThe Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, inspired a wave of enthusiastic nodding among the cosmopolitan crowd gathered in Davos last month when he took to the podium and proclaimed that the world order underwritten by the United States, which prevailed in the west throughout the postwar era, was over.The organizing principle that emerged from the ashes of the second world war, that interdependence would promote world peace by knitting nations' interests together in a drive for common security and prosperity, no longer works. The US blew it up. Continue reading...

Many people have been sheltering at home. Protests have become part of the daily rhythm. Community networks continue to patrol and document agents' interactionsIn St Paul, Minnesota, Brittany Kubricky pulled into a school parking lot. Normally, she was there just to pick up her daughter. But today, two of her daughter's schoolmates also climbed into the backseat. Their mother had been sheltering at home for weeks, afraid of a run-in with federal immigration agents. So friends coordinated school pickup for her.In December, the Trump administration launched Operation Metro Surge, deploying a reported 3,000 agents to Minnesota to target undocumented immigrants with criminal records, officials said. But in two months, agents have instead detained thousands of people, regardless of legal status, including US citizens pulled out of their cars, taken from their homes and picked up while working. Agents have also killed two Minneapolis residents - and US citizens - Renee Good and Alex Pretti, while they were monitoring Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activities. Continue reading...

Former employees stepped up to create the National Public Health Coalition to advocate for public health after Trump's cuts to the agencyAbby Tighe thought she had landed her forever job. She joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in December 2023, managing a national youth substance abuse prevention program. The project focused on rural communities, and Tighe, whose family is from Appalachia, was proud to be using her public health training to support often-overlooked parts of the country. The CDC was different than anywhere else I've worked," says Tighe. People didn't care about their own ambitions as much as they cared about the larger mission. It was always my dream to work there."That dream ended a year ago, when Tighe received a form email on 14 February letting her know the Trump administration was firing her. Classified as a probationary worker, she was one of the first to lose her job in what quickly became a dramatic downsizing of the CDC workforce. To date, the current administration has either fired or is in the process of firing more than 4,000 CDC employees - a third of the agency. Continue reading...

Self-declared sleuths have inserted themselves into the search for Nancy Guthrie, compromising the investigation for views and clicksOn the 10th day of the search for Nancy Guthrie, reporters camped outside of the missing woman's home noticed a strange man strut right up to the front door. It had been more than a week since the mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie had disappeared, and authorities had just announced they had a new lead from Ring footage of what looked like a potential subject" attempting to tamper with the doorbell camera on the morning of her disappearance. So now who was this unknown person, clad in a gray top and black pants, carrying a large black bag and striding to the door?It was a Domino's delivery driver. Continue reading...

Weak connections known as bridge ties' cross the boundaries that normally structure our lives. We must restore this connective tissueThe first time a woman I'll call Shoshana went toBrandi Carlile's music festival, she arrived alone. She had just been through another unsuccessful round of IVF. During one of the songs, about motherhood, she began to cry in the middle of the crowd. Then two women she had never met stepped closer and wordlessly wrapped their arms around her until her breathing slowed.That's when I realized," Shoshana told me in an interview, this place isn't just about music."Eva M Meyersson Milgrom is a social scientist and professor emerita from Stanford University, where she was affiliated with the department of sociology, the Institute of Economic Policy, and the Graduate School of Business. She is working on a book on the importance of diversifying our social networks Continue reading...

Puerto Rican rapper speaks at concert of Colon's influence after trombonist, vocalist and composer dies aged 75Tributes have poured in from stars including Bad Bunny for Willie Colon, the pioneering trombonist, vocalist and composer who died on Saturday aged 75.With more than 30m albums sold, multiple platinum records and 11 combined Grammy and Latin Grammy nominations, Colon is among the most successful salsa artists of all time. Continue reading...

From opposing apartheid in South Africa to supporting Palestinian rights, the US civil rights leader left his mark across the globeWhen Jesse Jackson called for the Democratic party platform to include Palestinian statehood, the pushback was fierce. While we had strong support from delegates at the convention, there was still a fear factor that the issue couldn't be discussed," recalls James Zogby, who was deputy manager of Jackson's presidential campaign. I was told by the [nominee Michael] Dukakis negotiators, if you even say the P-word, you'll destroy the Democratic party."Jackson's effort did not succeed at the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta. But 10 Democratic state parties had already passed resolutions in favour of Palestinian self-determination. And as the decades rolled by, more and more progressives came to share Jackson's stance. Zogby, founder of the Arab American Institute, reflects: He was way ahead of the base. Even the activists who supported Palestinians did not have the same depth of understanding." Continue reading...

Donald Trump doubles down on aggressive tariff policy with 15% global tax - key US politics stories from 21 February 2026 at a glanceDonald Trump raised the global duty on imports into the US to 15% on Saturday, doubling down on his promise to maintain his aggressive tariff policy a day after the supreme court ruled much of it illegal.Trump said on his Truth Social platform that after a thorough review of Friday's extraordinarily anti-American decision" by the court to rein in his tariff program, the administration was hiking the import levies to the fully allowed, and legally tested, 15% level". Continue reading...

Six additional skiers survived tragedy in Sierra Nevadas near Lake Tahoe, a popular winter sport destination

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New Jersey and other east coast areas brace for storm threatening more than 1ft of snow and 55mph wind gustsBlizzard warnings were issued Saturday for New York City, New Jersey and coastal communities along the east coast for a late-winter storm set to arrive on Sunday that could dump more than a foot of snow and bring wind gusts of more than 55mph.The blizzard warning for New York City is the first since 2017 and comes as parts of the city are still dotted with hillocks of ice - leftovers from the previous major snowstorm nearly a month ago. Continue reading...

President announced increase from 10% using different authority from mechanism that supreme court struck down on FridayDonald Trump announced on Saturday that he would raise a temporary tariff rate on US imports from all countries from 10% to 15%, less than 24 hours after the US supreme court ruled against the legality of his flagship trade policy.Infuriated by the high court's ruling on Friday that he had exceeded his authority and should have got congressional approval for the tariffs he introduced last year under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), the US president railed against the justices who struck down his use of tariffs - calling them a disgrace to the nation" - and ordered an immediate 10% tariff on all imports, in addition to any existing levies, under a separate law. Continue reading...

Agency statement comes one day after announcement of 6 March target for astronauts' mission to circle the moonNasa said in a blog post on Saturday it is taking steps to potentially roll back the Artemis II rocket launch after discovering an interrupted flow of helium.The agency said it is taking steps to roll the Artemis II rocket and Orion spacecraft back to the vehicle assembly building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Continue reading...

LAUSD provides resources to diverse schools in an effort to combat segregation - Pam Bondi's agency wants it to stopFor decades, the Los Angeles Unified School District has classified its schools based on the proportion of enrolled students who aren't white.In a city where more than two-thirds of residents identify as Hispanic, Black or Asian, that meant a vast majority were found to have extraordinarily diverse student bodies. And in an effort to combat segregation, the school district has afforded those diverse schools with smaller class sizes and other benefits. Continue reading...

A picture is emerging of one of the worst avalanche disasters in US history, and the women among a tight-knit group of friends who diedThe ringing of a phone echoed through the Nevada county, California, sheriff's office just before noon on 17 February.The 911 call brought devastating news: an avalanche had occurred on nearby Castle Peak - a 9,110ft (2,780-meter) mountain north of the Donner summit in the Lake Tahoe area. A group of backcountry skiers had been on the mountainside, returning home from a three-day expedition, during a heavy winter storm. While six had survived, more than half their group was missing. Continue reading...

The US supreme court ruled against the president. Let's hope the court removes its pro-Trump glasses on other issues and stands up for the rule of lawThere's no denying that the US supreme court's long-awaited ruling that overturned Donald Trump's global tariffs is important, and if the ruling turns out to be a harbinger that the court is ready to abandon its startling sycophancy toward the US president, it could prove hugely important. The ruling this Friday is the first time during Trump's second term that the justices have struck down one of his policies. Not only that, the policy they struck down is Trump's signature economic policy - he has used tariffs to bash, lord over and terrorize dozens of other countries and make himself the King of the Economic Jungle.In the court's main opinion, joined by three conservative justices and three liberals, chief justice John Roberts used some sharp language to slap down Trump's tariffs, writing that the constitution specifically gives Congress, not the president, the power to impose taxes and tariffs. (Roberts noted that tariffs are indeed taxes.)Steven Greenhouse is a journalist and author, focusing on labour and the workplace, as well as economic and legal issues Continue reading...

Recent incidents involving Anderson Cooper and Stephen Colbert suggest things are not well at the network after the acquisition financed by Trump supporter Larry EllisonAnderson Cooper decides to walk away from broadcast TV's most prestigious news show, 60 Minutes. Stephen Colbert takes his interview with a rising Democratic politician to YouTube instead of his own late-night show. The CBS Evening News anchor presents a misleading version of the network's own exclusive reporting on Ice arrests. And a news producer writes a farewell note to her CBS News colleagues blaming the loss of editorial independence.If you connect the dots, the picture of what's happening at CBS becomes all too clear. That picture comes into even sharper focus once you recall an underlying factor: the network's parent company is trying to get a big commercial deal done and needs the help of the Trump administration to bring it over the finish line.Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture Continue reading...

The civil rights trailblazer imagined a future for America in which the marginalized became the center of US politicsReverend Jesse Jackson, the civil- and human-rights trailblazer who died on 17 February, imagined a version of America where the marginalized became the center. His was a much more progressive vision than what the Democratic party thought possible after the civil rights movement, and through Jackson's National Rainbow Coalition - launched after his first presidential campaign in 1984 - he laid the groundwork for a new era.This Rainbow Coalition is the embodiment of a national politics that is radically inclusive," Charles McKinney, a professor of history at Rhodes Collegesaid. He was like: I've got something for the middle class, I've got something for the elite, and I also have something for working-class folks. To me, that was the embodiment of his politics." Continue reading...

Banner at justice department just the latest example of how president has imposed himself on daily US lifeYou wouldn't be alone if you feel that the US more closely resembles North Korea these days - with giant images of the dear leader scowling down on the citizenry, and his name inscribed everywhere from public buildings to street signs, transportation hubs and self-aggrandizing monuments.Thursday's unfurling of a massive banner bearing the visage of Donald J Trump, the 47th US president, on the exterior of the Washington headquarters of the federal justice department was only the latest example of how he has imposed himself on every facet of American life. Some critics have called it dictator vibes". Continue reading...

History shows that when called to testify about difficult things - Monica Lewinsky, Benghazi - Bill and Hillary excelFor political connoisseurs of a certain vintage, it feels like deja vu all over again.To anyone who witnessed Bill Clinton's presidency in the 1990s, the once unimaginable spectacle of a sitting president testifying under oath over sexual misconduct allegations levelled on a wave of Republican antipathy became so familiar as to seem almost routine. Continue reading...

Arab Americans in Dearborn and beyond are being swept up by ICE at places of worship and work, with devastating consequencesLorenda Lewis is so tired she can barely keep her head straight. Surrounded by her six young children at a cafe in Dearborn, Michigan, she recounts the nightmare of the past four months that saw her husband, Abdelouahid Aouchiche, an Algerian national, taken away.It was still dark when, at about 5.15am last October, her 61-year-old husband and 12-year-old son, Abdullah, arrived at the Furqan mosque for morning prayers. Abdullah recalls his father being approached by two men outside the mosque, grabbing him and asking for his papers. After a brief conversation, he says he was allowed to call his mother and told to go inside the mosque by the agents. When she arrived minutes later, her husband and the agents were gone. Continue reading...

Karen Newton was in America on the trip of a lifetime when she was shackled, transported and held for weeks on end. With tourism to the US under increasing strain, she says, If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone'When Karen Newton left home in late July 2025, she knew that international travellers were being locked up in immigration detention centres in the US. I was aware," she nods. But I never thought it would have any impact on my holiday." Karen, 65, had a British passport and a tourist visa. She hadn't been abroad for eight years, and was keen for some guaranteed sun. Ireally just wanted to get away from the house."She and her husband, Bill, 66, had an ambitious itinerary that would take them through California, Nevada, Wyoming, Montana and then on to Canada over two months. Las Vegas wasn't to Karen's taste: Way too commercialised." She much preferred Yellowstone, where they saw Old Faithful, the famous geyser, as it shot boiling water into the air, and got up close with some extraordinary wildlife. There was a bison right next to the car. Another time, a wolf walked past." Her eyes sparkle at the memory. It was just amazing." Continue reading...

As the war enters its fifth year, it's time for Europe to take the fight to Putin on its own terms and tell Trump to get lostViewed from Europe, the US's failure to defend the people of Ukraine against Russian aggression is the greatest and most consequential of a host of recent American betrayals. It's not just the sickening subservience shown to Vladimir Putin, an indicted war criminal and mass killer. It's not only the victim-blaming and bullying of Kyiv into making concessions. It's not even Donald Trump's crass attempts to monetise the war and milk the misery of millions for Nobel glory, while undercutting Nato allies and trampling sovereign rights.What really shocks, and hurts, is the sheer bad faith shown by a country that Europeans always counted a friend. As the 18th-century English gothic novelist Ann Radcliffe noted, few circumstances are more afflicting than a discovery of perfidy in those whom we have trusted". To echo Trump's dark warning after he was rebuffed over Greenland: Europe will remember. Continue reading...

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Trump called justices fools' and disgrace to the nation' after their rebuke of his aggressive trade tactic - key US politics stories from 20 February 2026 at a glanceDonald Trump experienced a rare moment in his second term as president Friday: a loss from the nation's highest court.The US supreme court declared many of Donald Trump's tariffs illegal in a sharp rebuke that topples a key pillar of the president's aggressive economic agenda. Continue reading...

Move brings total number of people killed in US strikes on suspected boats since September to at least 148The US military launched a strike on an alleged drug smuggling boat in the eastern Pacific on Friday, killing three men in its second strike this week.Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations," US Southern Command, which oversees operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, said on Twitter/X. Continue reading...

Shooting death of Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, in Texas was not publicly disclosed by Department of Homeland SecurityNewly released records show a US citizen was shot and killed in Texas by a federal immigration agent last year during a late-night traffic encounter that was not publicly disclosed by the Department of Homeland Security.The death of Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, would mark the earliest of at least six deadly shootings by federal officers since the start of a nationwide immigration crackdown in Donald Trump's second term. On Friday, DHS said the shooting on South Padre Island last March occurred after the driver intentionally struck an agent. Continue reading...

President calls six justices a disgrace to the nation' while praising three justices who dissented

A man, 23, drove a car full of weapons through gate of power facility before shooting himself in the head, officials saidA 23-year-old man drove from New York to a Las Vegas suburb and crashed a rented Nissan Sentra through a gate and into a pile of heavy wire reels at a power substation before shooting himself in the head, local police said on Friday, describing the incident as a suspected act of terrorism.The suspect, Dawson Noah Maloney, died of the self-inflicted shotgun wound, the Las Vegas sheriff, Kevin McMahill, said at a press conference on Friday. He was wearing soft body armor when police discovered him. Continue reading...

Rightwing Trump ally tells Tucker Carlson Israel has biblical right to land from wadi of Egypt to the great river'The US's ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has contended to the podcaster Tucker Carlson that Israel has a biblical right to take over the entire Middle East - or at least the lion's share of it.It would be fine if they took it all," Huckabee said to Carlson during an interview posted on Friday. The Trump administration appointee and former Arkansas governor discussed with Carlson interpretations of Old Testament scripture within the US Christian nationalist movement. Continue reading...

South Korea win gold and silver in women's speed skating as new champions were crowned in men's freeski, men's aerials, men's biathlon and women's ski cross.The first person down the half pipe was world champ, Finley Melville Ives, who lost a ski mid-air and is languishing at the bottom of the leader board.Ah, here comes Gus Kenworthy, he of the the urinated fuck ICE' snow message, and silver medallist in the 2014 ski slopestyle for the US, before switching to Team GB. He's a brave guy, and has received death threats since his protest. Continue reading...

6-3 ruling against unilateral imposition of tariffs without congressional approval labelled a disgrace' by Trump

The US president says he will impose a 10% global tariff after the supreme court found his current use of tariffs illegal blocked it. Trump called the decision a disgrace Continue reading...

The arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Ramadan in Gaza, Russian airstrikes in Odesa and flooding in France - the past seven days as captured by the world's leading photojournalists Continue reading...

Criminal investigation into possible sex trafficking at Zorro Ranch follows Guardian report on lack of federal actionNew Mexico will reopen its investigation into Jeffrey Epstein's Zorro ranch in the state following a public pressure campaign for a fuller accounting of the role the location it played in the late financier's sex-trafficking conspiracy.The New Mexico department of justice's announcement came less than two weeks after the Guardian reported that federal agents did not appear to have ever searched Zorro Ranch. Continue reading...

As aid trickles into Gaza, Washington channels $10bn into a body chaired by the president. Peace in the region rests on law and sovereignty, not ego and brinkmanshipIn Gaza, aid still trickles in at levels relief agencies say are far below what is required. Temporary shelters are scarce. Reconstruction materials are restricted by Israel's controls on goods entering the territory. Conditions, say the UN, remain dire". The violence has not stopped: Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed about 600 people since the ceasefire began. The announcement that the US would transfer $10bn to President Donald Trump's newly convened Board of Peace is hard to reconcile with the reality on the ground. Even worse is that Washington has paid only a fraction of its UN arrears - $160m against more than $4bn owed.This raises the obvious question: why is a private initiative being capitalised so heavily while existing UN mechanisms remain severely cash-strapped? Funnelling state funds into a body chaired by Mr Trump suggests foreign policy is serving private interests, not the public good. The board has ambitious plans. Rafah is to be rebuilt within three years with skyscrapers. Gaza is to become self-governing within a decade. An International Stabilisation Force is expected to begin deployment, eventually numbering 20,000 troops. These are dramatic claims. But their delivery is largely notional.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...

Protesters were outside hotel in Washington demanding the release of political prisoners in AzerbaijanBodyguards traveling with the Azerbaijani president, who was visiting Washington for the inaugural meeting of Donald Trump's Board of Peace, punched, kicked and chased protesters outside a Washington hotel on Thursday, video footage shows.Demonstrators calling for the release of political prisoners were driven from the street near the motorcade of Ilham Aliyev, the Azerbaijani leader. Continue reading...

After stepping away from figure skating, the US star climbed back on her own terms. Her journey culminated in a medal, but it was about much more than thatAlysa Liu made her way through a mixed zone teeming with hundreds of reporters at a quarter past midnight early Friday morning, an Olympic gold medal draped around her neck, the sequins in her color-coordinated dress glimmering beneath the klieg lights and crush of television cameras. The 20-year-old from West Oakland had just become the first American woman to win figure skating's biggest prize in 24 years, drilling seven clean triples to leapfrog a pair of Japanese rivals from third place after Tuesday's short program and gatecrash her sport's most rarefied air. But to hear Liu tell it, her second gold in 12 days was merely a passing footnote in a Milan fortnight she doesn't want to end.Liu's carefree mindset should and will be studied in the weeks, months and years after these Olympics - especially these Olympics - as a counterpoint to the results-obsessed mindsets that have shattered the mental wellbeing of so many athletes thrust into the pressure-cooker of the world's biggest sporting event. She spoke candidly and insightfully on how her unique journey from child prodigy to burnout case to second-act skater gave rise to an indifference to scores or placements. All she wanted in the end was a chance to make the US team and share her artistry on the world stage. Continue reading...

GDP grew 1.4% last quarter, down from economists' forecast of 3%, though AI and tax cuts could boost growth this year