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She was the youngest ever US figure skating champion at 13 before leaving it all behind. Now Alysa Liu is back at this week's world championships with a renewed purposeAlysa Liu looks back on the ice as rotates on her left foot, picking up speed before she completes her triple flip-triple toe combination. A group of high schoolers on a field trip sitting in the stands erupts into applause. She gives a smile and small bow as she skates away. It's a recovery day for her, starting with dynamic stretching and cardio before moving onto the ice with her jumps, spins, and footwork. She drives herself to the rink for a two-hour skating session. Later this afternoon, she plans to attend her brother's basketball game.If you had asked Liu a year and a half ago if she would be preparing for another figure skating world championships, she would have told you that you were crazy. Continue reading...

Under a $6m US deal, hundreds of migrants from Colombia and Ecuador were deported back to their home countriesOutside the Lajas Blancas migrant camp in southern Panama, wooden shops are boarded up. A bed of cold ash lies in an iron drum barbecue which once served meat skewers to hungry migrants.Six months ago, hundreds of people would pass through the camp every day, emerging from the jungles of the Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama to receive humanitarian aid, before continuing their journey north towards the US. Continue reading...

The youthful energy of street protest is breathing life back into failing progressive parties - and it's a model that could be applied everywhere

In today's newsletter: After a blunder exposes top officials sharing war plans on a private group chat, questions are being asked about secrecy, protocol ... and sheer incompetenceGood morning. Look, it could happen to anyone: I well remember, for example, the time I added my mum to a thread with my siblings discussing what to get her for Christmas. On the other hand, I don't have a secure communications facility in my house for when I need to get something out on the family group chat. Also, we rarely digress from pictures of cute kids to setting out war plans for an imminent set of airstrikes on the Houthis in Yemen.So perhaps the latest Trump administration hullabaloo isn't that relatable, after all. Two days after the Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg revealed that he had been mystifyingly added to a thread on Signal - an encrypted WhatsApp-like instant messaging app - in which vice-president JD Vance, defence secretary Pete Hegseth, and a host of others chatted about a highly sensitive operation, there are as many questions as answers. How on earth did Goldberg get added in the first place? Why didn't anybody realise the error? Are White House officials doing this all the time? And how vulnerable are their communications to interception from America's adversaries?Spring statement | Rachel Reeves will make additional welfare cuts in her spring statement on Wednesday after the Office for Budget Responsibility rejected her estimate of savings from the changes announced last week. The chancellor is expected to announce an additional 500m in benefits cuts to make up part of the 1.6bn shortfall.Ukraine | Russia and Ukraine have agreed to eliminate the use of force" in the Black Sea, though the Kremlin said it was conditional on sanctions relief for its agricultural exports. The warring parties also agreed to implement a previously announced 30-day halt on attacks against energy networks.Assisted dying | The introduction of assisted dying in England and Wales is likely to be pushed back by a further two years in a delay that supporters fear could mean the law never comes into force. The delay marks the latest major change to the proposals, which have proven deeply contentious in the Commons and beyond.Gaza | Press freedom organisations have condemned the killing of two journalists in Gaza on Monday by the Israeli armed forces. Hossam Shabat, a 23-year-old correspondent for the Al Jazeera Mubasher channel, and Mohammed Mansour, a correspondent for Palestine Today, died in separate targeted airstrikes.Society | Non-monogamous people are just as happy in their relationships as those with only one partner but are not significantly" more sexually satisfied, research suggests. The authors of a new study said their findings challenged what they called a prevailing one-size-fits-all approach to relationships". Continue reading...

The fighter won't be Irish president any time soon, but the Trumpocracy seems to think it can shift the country's politics by endorsing himMiddle Ireland feels grievously insulted by the US president. On St Patrick's Day, when the globe traditionally turns green, Donald Trump's official guest at the White House was not the taoiseach bearing a bowl of shamrock, but an unelected stooge recently found by a civil court jury liable for the rape of a woman in a Dublin hotel. Fear and loathing of the mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor, who is facing civil trial in the US for alleged sexual assault of another woman in Florida, is one of middle Ireland's most unifying forces.We couldn't think of a better guest to have with us on St Patrick's Day," gushed Trump's press secretary Karoline Leavitt on 17 March, rubbing salt in the wound. McGregor was given access to the Pentagon, met the defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, the health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, and the national security adviser, Mike Waltz. In the Oval Office, McGregor and his family posed for photographs with the US president, a man also found liable for sexual assault. Prominent in the photographs was Elon Musk, the world's richest individual and Trump's unelected jobs slasher. McGregor presented Musk with a box of his own brand cigars. Four days later, the Dubliner, self-styled the notorious", announced he intends to contest the Irish presidential election later this year.Justine McCarthy is a journalist, author and an Irish Times columnist Continue reading...

Signal chat including the top editor of the Atlantic causes White House chaos. Here's your roundup of key US politics stories from 25 March 2025Donald Trump's national security adviser, Mike Waltz, said he took full responsibility for a stunning leak of military plans in a Signal chat, while Trump intervened to defend him, saying it was the only glitch in two months".I take full responsibility. I built the group. My job is to make sure everything is coordinated," Waltz said in an interview with Fox News, in which he conceded: it's embarrassing". Continue reading...

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Trump adviser says he can't explain how Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg's number was included in the group chatDonald Trump's national security adviser, Michael Waltz, said on Tuesday he takes full responsibility" for the group chat of senior administration officials that inadvertently included a journalist and leaked highly sensitive information about planned airstrikes in Yemen.Waltz's comments came one day after Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of the Atlantic, revealed that he was added to a group on Signal, a private messaging app, that included vice-president JD Vance, defense secretary Pete Hegseth, secretary of state Marco Rubio and other high-profile figures discussing operational details" of planned attacks on the Houthis in Yemen. Continue reading...

White House blocked from deporting Yunseo Chung, green card holder and student who sued Trump administrationA federal judge in Manhattan blocked immigration officials from detaining Yunseo Chung, a Columbia University student and legal permanent resident the Trump administration is trying to deport for taking part in Gaza solidarity protests.The 21-year-old green card holder, who has lived in the US since she was seven years old, filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Monday, arguing the government is attempting to use immigration enforcement as a bludgeon to suppress speech that they dislike". Continue reading...

Officials look into death of Stephanie Brinson, who's second person in a year to die during family visit at Ione facilityPrison officials are investigating the death of a woman who was strangled during an overnight visit with her husband at a California prison last year.Stephanie Diane Dowells, 62, also known as Stephanie Brinson, was killed in November, becoming the second person in a year to die during a family visit at Mule Creek state prison in Ione, the Los Angeles Times reported. Continue reading...

Families of victims of two deadly 737 Max plane crashes hail opportunity for justice' as trial date set in criminal caseA US judge ordered a 23 June trial date in the Department of Justice's criminal fraud case against Boeing over the American planemaker's alleged misrepresentations to regulators about a key system on the 737 Max.Families of the victims of two deadly Max crashes, which claimed 346 lives, hailed an opportunity for justice" on Tuesday. Boeing said it was in good faith discussions" with the justice department. Continue reading...

Signal blunder likely to put strain on Five Eyes as it weighs how Trump administration handles classified informationCanada's prime minister, Mark Carney, has said the inadvertent leak of classified military plans by senior US officials means that allied nations must increasingly look out for ourselves" as trust frays with a once-close ally.Speaking a day after it was revealed that a journalist was accidentally included in a group chat discussing airstrikes against Yemeni rebels, Carney said the intelligence blunder was a serious, serious issue and all lessons must be taken". He said it would be critical to see how people react to those mistakes and how they tighten them up". Continue reading...

Donald Trump has defended members of his national security team after the embarrassing leak of messages from a Signal group chat by the Atlantic editor, Jeffrey Goldberg. Goldberg said he was mistakenly added to the Signal group, which included the national security director, defence secretary and vice-president, as they deliberated on a plan to strike Yemen's Houthi group

Millions of citizens could become disenfranchised in farthest reaching' executive action targeting immigration

US vice-president JD Vance later says he will join unsolicited visit to Arctic island, which Mette Frederiksen says is not what Greenland needs or wants'Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, has accused the US of putting unacceptable pressure" on Greenland - which she has vowed to resist - before an unsolicited visit to the Arctic island by members of the Trump administration.Later, just hours after her comments, the White House sprang a fresh surprise, as the US vice-president, JD Vance, announced he would join his wife on a trip to the territory this week. Continue reading...

California university makes changes amid slashes to research funding and investigation over campus protestsThe University of Southern California announced an immediate hiring freeze for all staff positions, with very few critical exceptions" in a letter to faculty and staff on Tuesday.The letter, from USC's president, Carol Folt, and provost, Andrew Guzman, said the hiring freeze was one of nine steps to cut the school's operating budget amid deep uncertainty about federal funding - given sweeping cuts to scientific research, the reorganization of student loans, and an education department investigation accusing the university of failing to protect Jewish students during protests over Israel's destruction of Gaza following the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023. Continue reading...

Bulletin sent on 18 March said Russian hackers could access messages as Trump officials now downplay blunder

How Columbia responds to this attack will determine whether universities remain independent or end up serving as extensions of an authoritarian stateTo the Columbia University administration,As journalists who were trained by Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, and who are steeped in America's long traditions of free speech and academic freedom, we write to you to express our horror at the events of the past week. Continue reading...

Painting of Trump was commissioned by Republicans, though president blamed Colorado's Democratic governorA portrait of Donald Trump that was commissioned by fellow Republicans - but which he evidently came to believe had been purposefully distorted" - was removed from a wall at the Colorado state capitol where it had been since 2019.After Trump posted complaints about the painting on his Truth Social platform, Colorado's senate minority leader, Paul Lundeen, a Republican, asked that it be taken down and replaced with one that depicts his contemporary likeness". Colorado Republicans had raised more than $10,000 to commission the oil painting that was the target of the president's ire. Continue reading...

A staggering blunder points to the wider failings of the careless and amateurish Trump administrationIt is jaw-dropping that senior Trump administration figures would accidentally leak war plans to a journalist. But the fundamental issue is that 18high-ranking individuals were happy discussing extremely sensitive material on a private messaging app, highlighting the administration's extraordinary amateurishness, recklessness and unaccountability.The visceral hostility to Europe spelt out again by the vice-president, JD Vance, was glaring. So was the indifference to the potential civilian cost of the strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, designed to curb attacks on Red Sea shipping. The Houthi-run health ministry said that 53 people including five children andtwo women were killed. The response by the national security adviser, Michael Waltz, to the attacks was to post emojis: a fist, an American flag and fire. The lack of contrition for this security breach is also telling. Individually and together, these are far more than a glitch", in Donald Trump's words. They are features ofhis administration. Continue reading...

Democratic senators grilled CIA director, John Ratcliffe, and national security director, Tulsi Gabbard, during a Senate hearing, over a leak of the Trump administration's Yemen war plans to the Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg

Briton is looking a tougher athlete but can still learn lessons from her quarter-final opponent, Jessica PegulaJessica Pegula began her professional tennis journey with a head start on most of her peers. In a sport as prohibitively expensive as elite tennis, her family wealth - her billionaire parents own several sports franchises, including the NFL's Buffalo Bills - afforded her unfettered access to equipment and knowledge. Her career, however, has come to signify something else altogether.At the age of 22, Pegula was still fluttering in and out of the top 150, stuck on the lower rungs of the ITF circuit and simply trying to figure things out. Pegula did not break into the top 100 until a couple of weeks before her 25th birthday in February 2019 and even then it seemed as if she was light years away from ever becoming a top player. She failed countless times before she began to soar. Continue reading...

Senators interrogate US intelligence community after Atlantic editor was added to group chat on Yemen war plans

Annual report says Beijing making steady but uneven' progress on capabilities to capture TaiwanChina remains the United States' top military and cyber threat, according to a new report by US intelligence agencies that said Beijing was making steady but uneven" progress on capabilities it could use to capture Taiwan.China has the ability to hit the United States with conventional weapons, compromise US infrastructure through cyber-attacks, and target its assets in space, as well as seeking to displace the US as the top AI power by 2030, the Annual Threat Assessment by the intelligence community said. Continue reading...

Justice department avoids providing US judge information on expulsions of Venezuelan immigrants to El SalvadorThe Trump administration invoked the state secrets" privilege to avoid providing more information to a federal judge regarding this month's highly contentious immigrant expulsions to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act.The administration's invocation of the privilege is a further escalation in Donald Trump's immigration-related battle against the federal judiciary. Continue reading...

Amid protests, White House officials close ranks around the Tesla owner leading efforts to slash federal jobsEscalating reports of vandalism at Tesla dealerships and charging stations across the US have prompted the FBI to create a taskforce to target the perpetrators.The development, announced by Kash Patel, the bureau's director, comes as White House officials close ranks around Elon Musk, the Tesla owner and world's richest person who has been leading efforts to slash federal jobs and budgets as head of the department of government efficiency" (Doge). Continue reading...

Members of the Trump administration, including the defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, and the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, routinely vilified Hillary Clinton's use of a private server for classified emails, before and after Trump defeated her in the 2016 presidential election. Hegseth and Rubio, as well as CIA director, John Ratcliffe, and national security advisor, Mike Waltz, were all in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen to which a journalist for the Atlantic was inadvertently added. Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton reacted to the leak by saying on X: 'You have got to be kidding me'

President says national security adviser Mike Waltz, suspected of adding journalist to chat, has learned a lesson'Donald Trump defended his embattled national security adviser on Tuesday and said the leak of highly classified military plans was the only glitch in two months", as scrutiny intensified into how top US officials shared operational details for bombing Yemen in a group chat.In an interview with NBC, Trump said, Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he's a good man," as Democrats called for an investigation into the sharing of the plans for this month's major airstrikes in Yemen on the Signal app. Continue reading...

Los Angeles wildlife center staff working around clock to care for 47 eggs and 12 chicks, all double-crested cormorantsDozens of bird eggs and chicks were rescued from nests in a single wind-damaged eucalyptus tree that was dangerously close to collapsing in a California park.Now staff at the International Bird Rescue's Los Angeles wildlife center have been working around the clock to care for the 47 eggs and 12 chicks, all double-crested cormorants, in hopes that they will be able to be released back into the wild in a few months. Continue reading...

The news website calls the lawsuit meritless and a transparent attempt to ... silence the independent press'A top campaign manager for Donald Trump's victorious 2024 presidential bid has filed a defamation lawsuit against the Daily Beast, alleging the news outlet fabricated claims about his campaign compensation and deliberately damaged his professional reputation.Chis LaCivita's lawsuit, filed on Monday in the US district court for the eastern district of Virginia, centers on a series of articles published in October 2024 claiming that he received up to $22m from the campaign and associated political action committees. Continue reading...

Trump administration is accused of inciting climate of repression' and stifling free speech on campuses, including Columbia UniversityUS academic groups have sued the Trump administration in an effort to block the deportation of foreign students and scholars who have been targeted for voicing pro-Palestinian views and criticism of Israel.The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the Middle East Studies Association (Mesa) filed a lawsuit at a US federal court in Boston on Tuesday accusing the administration of fomenting a climate of repression" on campuses and stifling constitutionally guaranteed free speech rights. Continue reading...

Defence secretary, US vice-president and senior Trump advisers wrote openly about the strikes on Yemen

We absolutely won't tolerate leaks, they said before looping in a journalist to top secret war plans. Feel safe? Me neitherOnce again, we find ourselves having an anguished debate about mobile phones and online safety, in this case asking: should we ban the devices for US national security advisers under the age of 60? Do you know what your national security adviser is doing on his device? Is he using it to stay in touch with other guys in the big-man-osphere to talk about bombing Hooters? Or did he maybe add the editor-in-chief of a leading general interest magazine to a Signal group in the crucial hours running up to a highly sensitive US military operation in Yemen, seemingly committing so many alleged crimes that he should have a full-body orange jumpsuit tattooed on him for ever?By now, you will have caught up with the tale of one of the most idiotic breaches of security imaginable - executed, regrettably, by the actual US national security adviser. Mike Waltz seems to have been aided and abetted in his full-spectrum fatuity by other ultra-senior figures, including the vice-president, JD Vance, and the defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, who shared detailed operational and strategic information in a chat to which Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg had been accidentally invited. Is Hegseth OK? Has he returned to being - how to put this delicately? - someone you probably don't want to give important tasks to after lunch"?Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Denmark's prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said the US was exerting 'unacceptable pressure' on Greenland, ahead of an unsolicited visit by a US delegation to the semi-autonomous Danish territory. The visit will be led by Usha Vance, the wife of US vice-president, JD Vance, and includes the White House national security adviser, Mike Waltz, and the energy secretary, Chris Wright. President Donald Trump has reiterated his suggestion that the US should take over Greenland numerous times since he took office in January. 'The visit is clearly not about what Greenland needs or wants,' said Frederiksen. 'President Trump is serious. He wants Greenland. Therefore, [this visit] cannot be seen independently of anything else' Continue reading...

Minor visa infractions have seen tourists detained, shackled and deported by overzealous US border staff. There are many more welcoming places to go on holidayDo you like being shackled and strip-searched? Absolutely no judgment if so, but anyone who isn't into that sort of thing may want to avoid a holiday to the US at the moment. Although I'm sure I don't need to tell you that. Unless you've been hiding under a news-blocking rock (in which case: what's the address? And can I join you?), you'll have noticed that Donald Trump's America hasn't exactly been rolling out the red carpet for visitors. There have been a number of recent incidents where white westerners - people who aren't normally targeted by overzealous US immigration authorities - have been detained, deported or denied entry for obscure reasons.Take the 28-year-old Welsh artist Rebecca Burke, for example. She was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) for 19 days in what her father described as horrendous conditions". Now, to be fair, Burke had the wrong paperwork: she hadn't realised that she needed a working visa instead of a tourist visa in order to exchange domestic chores for accommodation with a host family. But getting imprisoned for almost three weeks over a mix-up and then being led on to a deportation flight - in chains! - back to a country that is supposedly a close ally, is obviously extreme. A Canadian woman also made headlines after being detained by Ice for two weeks when immigration enforcement officers flagged her visa application paperwork. And two German tourists were similarly held for almost two weeks in a detention centre. Continue reading...

Hostile intelligence agencies are likely to pore over details revealed in chat group planning for Yemen strikes

They are the children of the Black Panther party - the self-styled Panther cubs. Born into the 1970s revolutionary movement for Black equality and self-determination, they have lived in the shadows of a promised land that was never attained. We join them as they continue to wrestle, 50 years later, with the dichotomy of their extraordinary childhoods: the enormous pride and love it gave them as members of the Black Panther family, and the booming loss they endured - of parents, of security, and of the hope for radical change that did not materialise. That hope lives on in the cubs, and their reflections on America's current crisis offers burning lessons for today Continue reading...

Major security leak sparks calls for investigations. Plus, Tesla's European sales drop 44%Good morning.A major security leak is triggering bipartisan outrage after the Atlantic revealed that senior Trump administration officials accidentally broadcast highly sensitive military plans through a Signal group chat with a journalist reading along.The leak has shocked people across the political spectrum. The minority Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, called it one of the most stunning breaches of military intelligence I have read about in a very, very long time". He urged Republicans to seek a full investigation.What did Hegseth say? On Monday Hegseth said that nobody was texting war plans" and attacked Goldberg as deceitful and highly discredited" without refuting any specifics from the Atlantic story.What does the administration claim? That the Alien Enemies Act, which permits deportation of foreign nationals during wars or invasions, is applicable because the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua's activities constitute an invasion". But they have not provided solid evidence that those deported are even gang members: one a 23-year-old gay makeup artist with no apparent gang affiliations. Continue reading...

My wireless sleep headphones let me enter a one-woman sensory deprivation chamber every night. HeavenI'm having a night-time love affair. A blinding, unwashed, entirely distracting relationship that I turn to when everyone else in my house is asleep. My new bedmate whispers in my ear when I'm supposed to be sleeping and leaves imprints on my neck in the morning. That's right: I'm talking about my new sleep mask with built-in wireless speakers.When I got pregnant last year, my body appeared to forget, entirely, how to sleep. Which was fun, as everyone around me started to joke rather grimly about precisely how tired I was about to make myself for the next 18 years. But then my husband presented me with a small, padded strip of grey velvet fabric, through which I can play precisely the sort of soporific audio that quells even my most brutal insomnia. Continue reading...

They are the children of the Black Panther party - the self-styled Panther cubs. Born into the 1970s revolutionary movement for Black equality and self-determination, they have lived in the shadows of a promised land that was never attained. We join them as they continue to wrestle, 50 years later, with the dichotomy of their extraordinary childhoods: the enormous pride and love it gave them as members of the Black Panther family, and the booming loss they endured - of parents, of security, and of the hope for radical change that did not materialise. That hope lives on in the cubs, and their reflections on America's current crisis offers burning lessons for today Continue reading...

The striker is in the middle of his best club season since a traumatic injury, and his national team is benefittingWatching him score dazzling free kicks, pull off handsprings and other acrobatics in his goal celebrations, and lift the trophy for best player in the Concacaf Nations League Finals, it is easy to forget Raul Jimenez ever suffered a serious injury of any type. Or that less than five years ago, there were questions about if he'd ever play the sport again, period.Yet there Jimenez was, with two goals in Mexico's semifinal against Canada and another two in the final against Panama, joking about enjoying a few tequilas in celebration of El Tri's first-ever Nations League triumph. A sleek headband is the only visible reminder of his November 2020 collision with Arsenal's David Luiz - an incident that fractured his skull and caused a brain bleed, and which could have cost him his life without the proper and timely medical interventions he received. Continue reading...

The independent senator from Vermont has been rallying the resistance on a cross-country Fight Oligarchy' tourBernie Sanders said Donald Trump has absolutely" created a constitutional crisis in the United States and is pushing the country very rapidly toward an authoritarian form of society".The independent senator from Vermont has been rallying the anti-Trump resistance on a cross-country Fight Oligarchy" tour, drawing some of the largest crowds of his decades-long political career as he taps into rising anger over the president's stunning power grabs. Continue reading...

Many believed Steph Curry's Golden State were past it in 2022 before they won the championship. This time around, Jimmy Butler has given them new lifeIt felt like the end, again.The Golden State Warriors missed the playoffs in 2020 and 2021, but they stormed back from the abyss in 2022 to beat the Boston Celtics in the NBA finals. Steph Curry was 33 for most of that season. Draymond Green and Klay Thompson were 31. The Warriors' return to the pinnacle of basketball had the whiff of a last hurrah, and indeed, their championship core faded for a second time after that: a second-round exit in 2023, a play-in tournament flatlining in 2024. Curry and his four-time championship-winning teammates continued to get older in the way athletes do. Continue reading...

South Korean carmaker plans to create 14,000 full-time jobs and expand links with US firms on tech including AI

In extraordinary blunder top Trump cabinet members added Atlantic editor to chat discussing strikes on Houthis