US news | The Guardian

President intervenes amid first signs of internal dissension as government departments push backDonald Trump has stepped in to defend Elon Musk from a mounting backlash in his own administration after some cabinet members told US federal workers to ignore the billionaire entrepreneur's demand that they write an email justifying their work.The US president was driven to intervene amid the first signs of internal dissension over the disruptive impact of Musk's so-called department of government efficiency" (Doge), which Trump has authorised to seek mass firings in the federal workforce and reduce supposed waste and corruption. Continue reading...

This liveblog is now closed.It's coming down to the wire for beleaguered House speaker Mike Johnson, who is trying to rally GOP holdouts behind his budget plan for enacting Donald Trump's agenda before the showdown vote this evening.Amid Republican opposition threatening to derail his bill, Johnson was up late last night locked in talks with holdouts from across his party who remain skeptical of his outline plan for tax and spending cuts - as well as border security, energy and defense policy - via a single reconciliation bill. Continue reading...

The US president said at the White House that his Ukrainian counterpart will visit Washington on Friday to sign an agreement on rare minerals in exchange for US military aid. He also attacked his predecessor, Joe Biden Continue reading...

Many shoes haven't hit market yet as authorities investigate at least 10 incidents targeting BNSF trains in remote areasThieves have targeted freight trains running through the deserts of California and Arizona in a string of audacious heists resulting in the theft of more than $2m worth of new Nike sneakers, including many that haven't hit the retail market yet, according to officials and court documents.In a 13 January robbery, suspects cut an air brake hose on a BNSF freight train traveling through a remote section of Arizona and made off with more than 1,900 pairs of unreleased Nikes worth more than $440,000, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Phoenix. Many of the shoes were Nigel Sylvester x Air Jordan 4s, which won't be available to the public until 14 March and are expected to retail at $225 per pair, the complaint states. Continue reading...

Move comes a day after administration won ruling allowing it to bar AP from the Oval Office and Air Force OneThe White House said it will take control over which news organizations and reporters are allowed into the presidential press pool covering Donald Trump.The White House press team in this administration will determine who gets to enjoy the very privileged and limited access in spaces such as Air Force One and the Oval Office," the White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a briefing on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Staff at foreign aid agency who were put on leave to be allowed 15 minutes to retrieve personal items from officeWorkers at the US Agency for International Development (USAid) have been invited back to its office to retrieve their personal belongings" as the Trump administration continues its bid to shut down the foreign aid agency.An email seen by the Guardian described how staff in Washington would be allowed to briefly return on Thursday or Friday of this week. They would be escorted to their workspace" and granted approximately 15 minutes" to gather their items, it said. Continue reading...

School district will ignore Trump executive order banning trans athletes from competing in women's sportsThe Philadelphia school district will reportedly ignore a rule directing schools to ban transgender athletes from participating in sports that match their gender identities, according to reporting from the Philadelphia Inquirer.The school district strives to ensure safety, equity and justice for all students regardless of gender identity or gender expression so that they can imagine and realize any future they desire", a spokesperson, Christina Clark, said in a statement on Tuesday to the Inquirer. Continue reading...

News comes as leading network star criticizes management for decision to cancel shows hosted by non-white anchorsMSNBC has told the majority of the employees who produce Rachel Maddow and Joy Reid's primetime evening news shows they are being let go as part of the network's programming overhaul with the option to apply for new roles, according to two people directly familiar with the matter.Maddow, the biggest star and highest-rated anchor at MSNBC, will get to keep her executive producer, Cory Gnazzo, and several other senior producers, the people said. Continue reading...

In siding with Russia at the UN, the US has laid bare the extent of the shift. Bilateral visits cannot disguise the underlying crisisThe rumblings prompted by Donald Trump's re-election soon gathered force. First came tariffs and threats of territorial annexation; then the greater shocks of JD Vance's Valentine's Day massacre of European values and Mr Trump's enthusiastic amplification of Kremlin lines on Ukraine.On Monday came another seismic moment. For more than a decade, the UN security council has been largely paralysed by the split between the five permanent members - Russia and China on one side; the US, France and Britain on the other. This time, when the US brought a resolution calling for an end to the war in Ukraine on the third anniversary of Russia's invasion, it did not criticise Moscow, demand its withdrawal or back Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. The result was that China and Russia backed the resolution - while the UK and France, having failed to temper it, abstained. Continue reading...

Billionaires have sown a myth that citizens are losing at the expense of undocumented people. The real solution is to empower all workersOver the last few years, we have witnessed some leaders of the Democratic party retreat from delivering bold policies that would address people's struggles and aspirations, from a pathway to citizenship for all to a higher federal minimum wage, in favor of Republican-light talking points about the border and those seeking asylum - which only eroded trust with the American people.Right now, 60% of the country is living paycheck to paycheck. Families are drowning in debt, whether it be from trying to pay for unaffordable childcare, exorbitant student loans, costly medical bills or months of missed rent payments. Homelessness has skyrocketed. Millions are struggling to survive another day and are penny-pinching to be able to afford rent and groceries, while billions of our taxpayer dollars are being spent on turbocharging mass abductions of our neighbors through raids and deportations, all in service of filling detention centers that make the CEOs of companies like GeoGroup and CoreCivic richer by the minute. Continue reading...

Lisa Jeanine Findley pleads guilty after alleged threat to sell star's former home if Presley family did not pay $2.85mA Missouri woman said on Tuesday she was pleading guilty to a federal charge accusing her of concocting a brazen plot to defraud Elvis Presley's family by trying to auction off his Graceland mansion and property before a judge halted the mysterious foreclosure sale.During a change of plea hearing, Lisa Jeanine Findley told a federal judge in Memphis that she would plead guilty to a charge of mail fraud related to the scheme. She previously pleaded not guilty to the two-count indictment, which also includes a count of aggravated identity theft. Continue reading...

Richard Glossip's murder conviction unsafe, say justices, as prosecutors failed to turn over important evidenceThe US supreme court on Tuesday threw out the murder conviction and death penalty for Richard Glossip, an Oklahoma man who has steadfastly maintained his innocence and averted multiple attempts by the state to execute him.The decision marked an extraordinary turnaround for a death row prisoner who has faced nine execution dates set by Oklahoma and eaten three last meals". Glossip has also been married twice while awaiting execution. Continue reading...

The 78-year-old president is the ultimate comeback kid, but he is not a king and he is certainly not a god. As prices rise and consumer sentiment slumps, he may come to regret his election promisesEach new morn, new widows howl, new orphans cry and Donald Trump passes a wild executive order. Toliberally paraphrase Macbeth, every day seems to bring some new reason to scream into the void. The good news, however, is that even diehard Trumpers seem to be getting sick of all the chaos. A month into Trump's second act, there are signs that the honeymoon is over anda backlash may be brewing. For certain Republican voters, regret may be setting in.First, the polling. A Harvard CAPS/Harris survey published on Monday gave Trump a 52% approval rating. Meanwhile, three national polls show a decline in support for the president, with most Americans saying he hasn't done enough to lower prices and has overstepped his presidential powers. A CNN poll published on Thursday found that 47% of Americans approve of Trump's performance while 52% disapprove - and the numbers are trending downwards. Continue reading...

Associated Press analyzed canceled government contracts and found that 40% will produce no savings

UK and France need to convince US to align with them over Ukraine, while at the UN Trump openly sides with RussiaKeir Starmer, when he visits the White House on Thursday, will have to pick up the many loose threads left by another chaotic day of diplomacy in the US in which America voted with Russia at the UN to protect Vladimir Putin from criticism over the invasion of Ukraine, and then saw Trump make assurances that Putin was happy for European forces to enter Ukraine - only to be contradicted by Moscow hours later.Emmanuel Macron, the French president, has been working in lockstep with the UK in a way the two countries have failed to since Brexit, and the aim was for the two leaders of Europe's major military powers to use their visits this week to operate as a pincer movement pressing Trump to question Putin's trustworthiness and more broadly to accept that America's future still lay as a partner with Europe. Continue reading...

Difficult news conveyed compassionately and sensitively doesn't alter the facts but does change the patient experienceCan I get your professional opinion?" my friend asks. In the 30 years since medical school, we have exchanged many opinions but a constant has been the curveball questions thrown up by patient care. Questions that don't have a clear answer that nonetheless test us.A new patient from last week has unexpectedly returned a biopsy showing cancer. The man typically defers his appointments, citing an inflexible work schedule. His first visit was delayed by a month and he doesn't intend to return for the results any time soon. But suddenly, he doesn't have the luxury of time. To plan treatment, the tumour board will need specialised tests. The tests can hardly be ordered without the patient knowing why. Continue reading...

With the mothers of his kids begging for his attention on social media, he makes much of pronatalism'. Is that just a fancy word for bad parenting?If only Elon Musk could impregnate humans at the same rate he's giving them the ick. Alas, polls show the efficiency tsar's US approval rating dwindling towards levels he has enjoyed for quite some time among the UK public. And as a country that lived through the Boris Johnson era, I think we have to warn the Americans that if a government figure can't or won't answer the basic question how many kids do you have?", then he's probably going to turn out to be a disappointment. And it might even have been a warning sign. If the WhatsApp group of his exes is bigger than Mumsnet and 10 times as pissed off, then it's just possible you could be dealing with a guy you're going to end up feeling betrayed by.Is Musk that guy? Who among us can say, certainly considering the sheer number and ferocity of the lawyers Mister Free Speech employs? I do know Elon is something called a pronatalist", but I increasingly wonder whether that's just a fancy new word for a very old form of shittiness. Consider the spectacle of his ex, Grimes, coming on to the social media platform Musk owns and outright begging him to get in touch for his input concerning a medical crisis" for one of their shared children. I'm not giving any details but he won't respond to texts call or emails and has skipped every meeting and our child will suffer lifelong impairment if he doesn't respond asap, so I need him to fucking respond and if I have to apply public pressure then I guess that's where we are at." These posts were either deleted or are now inaccessible, while one user suggested she had been shadowbanned". Silly Grimes. If she had put a rape threat or some antisemitism in her APB, it would have stayed up.Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

The unique fireplace tiles were once a feature of Altadena's homes - can they be rescued before the bulldozers move in?The mission is clear: retrieve the pristine tiles from a field of ash and rubble.With a hammer and chisel, Cliff Douglas taps on the perimeters of a decorative tile etched with the image of a peacock until it comes loose in his hands. Continue reading...

Speakers at Principles First summit warned of peril Trump and allies posed, urging people to be in the streets'Michael Fanone, the former police officer who defended the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, looked out at the attendees of the Principles First summit and denounced Donald Trump in the strongest possible terms for pardoning roughly 1,500 people who participated in the insurrection.He pardoned them because he wants people to know that if you commit crimes on his behalf, he's got your back," Fanone said on Saturday. They are operating under the assumption that, if they commit violent criminal acts on Donald Trump's behalf, that he will pardon them for future violence." Continue reading...

US and French presidents disagree over aid and efforts to secure a lasting peace in Ukraine. Plus, are airships the future again?

Abbas Shafii says he plans to travel, invest and share Powerball prize with non-profits close to [his] heart'What would you do if you won hundreds of millions of dollars playing the lottery? A 79-year-old man from Beaverton, Oregon, gets to answer that question after recently collecting a $328.5m Powerball jackpot drawn on 18 January.Abbas Shafii issued a statement saying he plans to spend the third-largest such prize in his state's history traveling, making investments and sharing his good fortune with non-profit organizations that are close to [his] heart". Continue reading...

The allure of the Club World Cup, which will be held in the US this year, is convincing Mexican teams to push for a wider audienceIn just his second month in Liga MX, James Rodriguez will match the number of games he played with Rayo Vallecano, the La Liga club he signed for last summer after being named the best player at the 2024 Copa America.Maybe he just needed to be back in the Americas. Continue reading...

Analysis finds products contain at least one moderately hazardous ingredient, and most contain multipleA new analysis finds 80% of more than 4,000 beauty products marketed toward Black women contain at least one moderately hazardous ingredient - and most contain multiple.The analysis follows a 2016 study with similar findings, and the authors suspect the chemical load in products like hair straighteners and skin lightening creams probably contributes to elevated rates of some diseases in Black women, including uterine and breast cancers. Continue reading...

All-male elections at the African Union highlighted the exclusion of talented women from power. The continent cannot thrive like thatWhat does it mean to be African? Is it simply being one of the 1.5 billion people from the continent? Does African mean the same as black? If you are a descendant from the UK, US, Brazil or Cuba, are you still African? Are only black Africans African, or does this include white Zimbabweans and Arab Egyptians? Or is Africa merely a western invention"?These questions are passionately debated. To be African is to inhabit an identity shaped by a complicated history, politics and geography. Yet there is one aspect of this identity that receives far less discussion: namely, do we see Africans as male?Minna Salami is the author of Can Feminism be African? and founder of the MsAfropolitan blogDo 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...

Memes and Nightmares is an unconventional, offbeat documentary that acts as a love letter to an online community brought together by basketballNBA Twitter is a space unlike any other, the Black Twitter-adjacent arena where basketball fans traffic in gossip and hope (however false) while expressing their passion for the game. It's the internet EKG that relates consumer confidence in real time, revealing an attraction to chatter that would seem to outpace TV viewing interest in NBA games. And the readings are hardly restricted to the hardwood.Like a judicious point guard who knows just when to pass or shoot, NBA Twitter was the organ that circulated the news last Thursday that San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama would miss the rest of the season over blood-clotting fears - and it was also the organ where many sports fans, myself included, first learned that Joe Biden had dropped out of the 2024 presidential race. There's even speculation now about ESPN's Stephen A Smith or Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, NBA Twitter OGs, making a presidential run in 2028. It's probably the most vital and essential sports community on the planet," says Josiah Johnson, undisputed king of NBA Twitter. It's a lot of immensely talented people who just carved out a lane." Continue reading...

The NCAA has ruled only women assigned female at birth can compete in college sports. We spoke to some of those affected by the banOn 5 February 2025 - coinciding with Women and Girls in Sports Day - Donald Trump signed an executive order barring trans athletes from competing in women's sports. The move marked yet another aggressive shift of his legislative agenda, as he doubled down on anti-trans rhetoric, in which he has vowed to eliminate what he calls transgender insanity".The next day college sports' main governing body, the NCAA, said only women assigned female at birth would be able to participate under its umbrella. The organization oversees more than 500,000 athletes. Last year the NCAA's president, Charlie Baker, said he knew of only 10 transgender athletes competing in the organization. Continue reading...

Macron and Trump disagree over aid and securing a lasting peace after US president says Russian counterpart has no problem' with European forces in UkraineEmmanuel Macron, the French president, has warned Donald Trump against a surrender" of Ukraine as the US president said Russia's leader Vladimir Putin wants to make a deal" that could include European peacekeepers.The transatlantic rift over the war was apparent on Monday as Trump and Macron - the first European leader to visit the White House since Trump regained power - disagreed over aid and efforts to secure a lasting peace in Ukraine. Continue reading...

From the latest in Musk's fight to fire federal workers to concern over appointment of Dan Bongino - key US politics stories from Monday at a glanceConfusion continued on Monday over the demands made by Elon Musk of federal workers. Just hours after the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) had directed agencies that responses to its email were optional, Musk again threatened federal workers.

Coast Guard ends search for Vernon Glasford, 52, missing after boat capsized off Queens on Sunday, killing threeThree people died, two others were hospitalized and one was presumed dead after a boat sank in New York City on Sunday, according to the US Coast Guard.One of the hospitalized people was in critical condition on Monday morning, police said, a day after the speedboat took on water 5 miles (8km) south-east of Breezy Point, a neighborhood at the tip of Queens' Rockaway peninsula. Continue reading...

Networks' shakeup continues after Joy Reid departure as host Rachel Maddow criticizes indefensible' changesNBC's Lester Holt is stepping down as anchor of its Nightly News show, while MSNBC host Ayman Mohyeldin is losing his weekend evening show as the networks' owners continue a major programming shakeup.MSNBC has announced significant changes to its lineup in recent days. A day after news broke that MSNBC had canceled the longstanding anchor Joy Reid's show, The ReidOut, the liberal network revealed further changes to its schedule. Continue reading...

OPM says failure to respond to email will not be considered resignation but Trump ally digs in and threatens job lossesThe US government's human resources office has walked back an ultimatum issued by Elon Musk that would have forced its workers to resign if they did not submit a bullet-point list of their recent accomplishments, in one of the first signs of internal pushback to the Tesla billionaire's campaign to downsize the federal workforce.The demand, made in an email sent to millions of government employees over the weekend and quickly sued over by a coalition of labor and advocacy groups, represented the latest salvo by the department of government efficiency" (Doge), the Trump-sanctioned cost-cutting initiative Musk chairs. Continue reading...

During a day of talks between the two leaders,TrumpandMacronshowed a friendly rapport based on years of good ties. ButMacronmade clear he disagreed withTrumpon some key issues as they marked three years since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022

This blog is now closed. Here's our latest politics storyHere's a little more on Dan Bongino, the Maga podcaster Donald Trump has named as deputy director of the FBI and who will oversee the bureau alongside newly appointed director Kash Patel.The president announced the appointment on Sunday night in a post on his Truth Social platform, praising Bongino as a man of incredible love and passion for our country". He called the announcement great news for law enforcement and American justice".Kash Patel should have been a redline. Bongino is what you get when R Senators fail to do their jobs and say no to Patel. The Trump Admin is turning federal law enforcement over to unqualified, unprincipled, partisan henchmen. It's unacceptable and conservatives need to say so. Continue reading...

Ed Martin condemned for X post that directly contradicts federal oath of office he swore to support constitutionThe interim US attorney for Washington DC Ed Martin has explicitly declared himself and other federal attorneys to be the president's lawyers rather than an independent, law-abiding officer sworn to uphold the constitution.As President Trumps' [sic] lawyers, we are proud to fight to protect his leadership as our President and we are vigilant in standing against entities like the AP that refuse to put America first," the US attorney's office posted in a image on X, signed by Martin. Continue reading...

US-based nonprofit Dawn also accuses ex-secretary of state Antony Blinken and ex-Pentagon chief Lloyd AustinA US-based nonprofit organization has urged the international criminal court to investigate former president Joe Biden and two of his cabinet members for complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.The request, submitted by the Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn) last month but made public by the group on Monday, urges the ICC to investigate Biden, as well as former secretary of state Antony Blinken and former defense secretary Lloyd Austin, for their accessorial roles in aiding and abetting, as well as intentionally contributing to, Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza". Continue reading...

Hill received awards and was promoted for actions that day but for decades blamed himself for then president's deathClint Hill, the Secret Service agent who leapt on to the back of John F Kennedy's limousine after the then president was shot, then was forced to retire early because he remained haunted by memories of the assassination, died on Friday. He was 93.Hill died at home in Belvedere, California, according to his publisher, Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. A cause of death was not given. Continue reading...

City officials at flag raising ceremony gave speeches in support of Ukraine and Zelenskyy after his spat with TrumpNew York City officials, foreign dignitaries and members of the city's Ukrainian community gathered in New York on Monday to raise the Ukrainian flag above lower Manhattan, marking three years since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.The anniversary this year follows escalating tensions between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Last week, the US president falsely claimed that Ukraine started the war and labeled Zelenskyy as a dictator", while the Ukrainian president expressed frustration over being excluded from US-Russia negotiations to end the war and accused Trump of living in a Kremlin disinformation bubble". Continue reading...

The victorious CDU leader is likely to be more proactive on the European stage. He will also need to forge broad alliances at home to see off the far rightFriedrich Merz, the leader of Germany's centre-right Christian Democratic Union party (CDU), has a reputation for being blunt. On Sunday evening, as it became clear that the CDU had won the snap election triggered by the outgoing Social Democrat chancellor, Olaf Scholz, he did not disappoint. For me," said MrMerz in a post-election television debate, the absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA."As recently as a fortnight ago, such a statement from a German chancellor-elect would have been inconceivable. But these are new and extraordinary times. A convinced transatlanticist, Mr Merz has previously played down the dangers to western unity posed by Donald Trump. But crude electioneering on behalf of the extreme right Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) by the US president's outriders, and the sidelining of Europe and Kyiv from negotiations over the future of Ukraine, have forced a handbrake turn. Continue reading...

The government's consultation was weighted towards big tech. Now is the time for a rethinkIt's a seductive promise: let our computers scrape the internet for ideas, images, forms of words, stories, music, jokes ... and our industry will make your country rich. For a UK government desperate for economic growth, the demands of tech companies for copyright laws to be relaxed - in order that their artificial intelligence (AI) systems can access as muchonline content as possible without having to payor seek permission - have been hard to resist. The US and China are the global leaders of this new tech race. But the UK has a chance to compete that ministersare desperate nottomiss.To AI businesses, copyright is an irritant. Three years ago, it appeared that their lobbyists were on the verge of getting their way when a government agency, the Intellectual Property Office, recommended an exemption for data mining. This would grant bots free rein and - so the argument went - provide an incentive for tech companies to invest in the UK. Continue reading...

Wyoming woman still in hospital while Ohio man released after facing respiratory and non-respiratory symptoms'Two people, in Wyoming and Ohio, have been hospitalized with H5N1 bird flu, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a routine flu update on Friday.The person from Wyoming is still in hospital, while the Ohio patient has been released, according to the report. Both patients experienced respiratory and non-respiratory symptoms", the report said, without detailing those symptoms. Continue reading...

Dan Bongino's installation in high-ranking law enforcement role sparks concern in both Republicans and DemocratsFears over the future direction of the FBI have intensified after Donald Trump announced that a far-right podcaster, Dan Bongino, who has never served in the bureau, would become its next deputy director.Bongino, a former New York police officer and Secret Service agent who provided security to Presidents George W Bush and Barack Obama, is best known as a conservative commentator who has vocally supported Trump's false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Continue reading...

Education department and OPM prevented from sharing sensitive information in widest-ranging judicial check yet

Mikel Arteta's team have suffered unfortunate injuries but they also have far less self-belief than a Liverpool side who look destined to win the Premier League

In all similar democracies, left and right are having versions of the same argument: does electable' mean centrist or radical?As the German election results land, a lot of people are looking on the bright side: nearly 80% of Germans won't entertain voting for Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD). A nanosecond ago, however - as recently as Saturday - the idea that voters might go this far-right, in these kinds of numbers, for the first time since the second world war was terrifying. Some are calling this a victory over Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who vocally supported the AfD; others are calling it a victory for them.Nobody is puzzling much over the decline in support for Olaf Scholz's Social Democratic party - down 9%, almost equal to the AfD's gains, although the numbers on switchers have yet to be crunched - because it was so long expected. The CDU/CSU alliance has won, with 28.5%, pretty much as the polls predicted. It's an incredibly German story in its labyrinthine and laborious coalition possibilities, but it's also a common story these days. The two main parties hand power to one another in a kind of disillusionment relay; the populist right gets a dispiritingly good show; the populist or eco left is less populist, less popular, and can pick a fight with itself in a paper bag, so it looks even smaller than it is. Continue reading...

Layoffs are largest in company history, though warehouse, roasting and store employees are not part of cutsStarbucks plans to lay off 1,100 corporate employees and close several hundred open of vacant job positions, the company announced on Monday. The layoffs are the largest in the company's history.Our intent is to operate more efficiently, increase accountability, reduce complexity and drive better integration," CEO Brian Niccol wrote in a letter to staff. Continue reading...