Administration plans to end funding to Gavi, a global health organization that helps provide life-saving care for childrenThe Trump administration is planning to end funding for Gavi, a global health organization that helps provide vaccines and other life-saving care to developing countries.A 281-page spreadsheet obtained by the New York Times lists the Trump administration's plans for thousands of foreign aid programs, including financial cuts to the organization that buys vaccines for children, as well as scaling back on programs that combat malaria in developing countries. Continue reading...
Officer intercepted message of encouragement slipped into socks going to accused killer of UnitedHealthcare CEOSomeone tucked a heart-shaped note of encouragement into socks packed for Luigi Mangione to wear to court recently in the case surrounding the killing of UnitedHealthcare's CEO, prosecutors said in a court document released on Wednesday.Writings and words on bullets recovered from the scene reflected Mangione's alleged hostility toward health insurers and corporate America. The case has made him something of a cult celebrity to people frustrated with corporate health insurers in the US. Others, including elected officials, decry what they see as glorifying violence and vigilantism. Continue reading...
The US director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, has said that the invitation extended to journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to join a Signal chat group with senior US security officials discussing an attack on Yemen's Houthis was 'inadvertent' and 'a mistake', but insisted again that nothing classified was shared. Speaking at a Senate hearing, Gabbard said: 'The conversation was candid and sensitive, but as the president and the national security advisor stated, no classified information was shared'
Nathan Hochman ends progressive predecessor's moratorium as legal advocates condemn move as cruel'Los Angeles district attorney Nathan Hochman is allowing county prosecutors to seek the death penalty again, reversing a ban put in place by his predecessor and making good on a campaign promise.The county prosecutorial office said on Monday the death penalty will be pursued only in exceedingly rare cases" and the most egregious". Continue reading...
Ride-share drivers held demonstrations from San Francisco to San Diego amid ongoing negotiations affecting 250,000Ride-share drivers in Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego held demonstrations in front of city hall buildings on Wednesday as California state attorney General Rob Bonta, city attorneys and attorneys representing ride-share drivers continue negotiations next week with Uber and Lyft to settle thousands of claims of wage theft for drivers.At least 250,000 individual ride-share drivers in California who drove for the apps between 2016 and 2020 are estimated to be eligible for the settlement for wage theft claims of tens of billions of dollars, according to Rideshare Drivers United in California. Continue reading...
James Malone triumphed in a district that voted for Trump over Harris by more than 15 points in last NovemberA Democrat won a state senate seat in a Pennsylvania district that overwhelmingly voted for Donald Trump, offering a ray of hope for the party as it continues to struggle nationally with its response to the Trump administration.James Malone triumphed on Tuesday in the 36th senatorial district, which voted for Trump over Kamala Harris by more than 15 points in last November's presidential election, in a victory that Democratic party leadership said should put Republicans on edge". Continue reading...
The problem isn't just Schumer's strategy - it's his perception of reality. He is conducting business as usual while the US burnsIn just two months, Donald Trump has launched an assault of staggering ferocity on America's values, laws and people. The Democratic party faces a choice: does it lead the fight against authoritarianism and billionaire capture, or does it hunker down and hope the president implodes on his own? After last week's legislative debacle, we've concluded that if Democrats want to fight, they need to replace the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, with someone who understands the stakes.Since November, our grassroots movement, Indivisible - led by regular people organizing nationwide - has been fighting back. Indivisible groups have pushed members of Congress, attended town halls, protested Elon Musk, and organized locally against Trump's agenda. Everywhere we go - red, blue or purple - people ask why Democratic leadership doesn't share their urgency. Continue reading...
Despite the diversity of pro-Palestinian demonstrators, officials go after non-white visa and scholarship holders to create a wedge in solidarity'For more than a year, students at US colleges and universities have participated in protests in support of Palestine, as Israel's war has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023. Students have faced suspensions and expulsions over encampment demonstrations and other actions, as schools crack down on participation.Now, at least five students and academics of color at US universities have been targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), as a part of the Trump administration's ongoing punishment on Palestinian support. Continue reading...
Aimee Lou Wood's natural smile stands out amid Hollwood's dazzling veneers. But let's not get carried awayStraight, expensive, blindingly white. No, I'm not talking about Donald Trump's vision for America; I'm talking about teeth. Namely the sort of teeth you see on American TV shows - and, since many US politicians seem to love cosmetic surgery - the evening news. Everyone from Z-list influencers to Taylor Swift to Trump himself seems to have perfect teeth.Americans have always been invested in their smiles, but an increasing number of British people are also shelling out for veneers. You need sunglasses to watch the telly these days, everyone's smile is so bright. Continue reading...
Researchers looking at mass sunflower sea star die off in Puget Sound found the two impacted growth of young onesMicroplastics and a widely used pesticide are helping kill off sea star populations in Washington state's Puget Sound, new research shows.The findings come as researchers look into what has caused a mass sunflower sea star die off in the region. Though it's not yet clear whether the toxic substances are at the die off's root, the study found that microplastics and the pesticide have detrimental impacts on young sea stars, which could prevent the population from rebounding. Continue reading...
A Tennessee chapter of the National African American Gun Association (Naaga) is teaching their community self-defense as more Black adults in US become firearm ownersIn the middle of a strip of industrial, single story buildings, it's easy to miss the offices of 901 Brothers Sisters Keeper gun club, the Memphis chapter of the National African American Gun Association (Naaga).Inside the office multiple flags hang: the Black Lives Matter flag; the thin green line flag, which is often used by members and supporters of the US military; an American flag; and the Naaga flag, a red, black and green version of the country's flag that reads: community engagement", tactical training", safe storage", kid's gun safety", self defense" and mentoring" - tenets of the organization. Continue reading...
To generate the scale of resistance necessary to win, the two Democratic socialists need to convince attenders to organizeThank goodness Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have ignored the advice of Democratic operatives to roll over and play dead". Their anti-oligarchy mass rallies have brought out record-breaking numbers, testifying to a widespread popular desire to fight back against Elon Musk and Donald Trump.Filling the void left by Chuck Schumer and his ilk, AOC and Bernie are becoming leaders not just of leftist activists, but of the Democratic party's mainstream liberal base. The hard question now is how to harness all this energy into a movement capable of actually defeating Musk, then Trump.For those asking, yes these [rallies] are tied to action. All have been in or near GOP-held swing districts and we are following up with specific actions to pressure their Member to vote NO on any Medicaid cuts or billionaire tax breaks - or else face electoral consequences.Eric Blanc is assistant professor of labor studies at Rutgers University. He is the author of We Are the Union: How Worker-to-Worker Organizing is Revitalizing Labor and Winning Big Continue reading...
Trump signed executive orders aimed at firms challenging his administration's priorities, roiling the legal communityDonald Trump's executive orders targeting law firms and attorneys who challenge his priorities are roiling the legal community, with some capitulating to the administration's demands amid mounting pressure the US's biggest firms to speak out.The president signed an executive order on Tuesday targeting the firm Jenner & Block over its previous employment of Andrew Weissman, a prosecutor who worked on Robert Mueller's investigation into Trump's connections to Russia. The order came after Trump issued similar executive orders targeting three other firms - Covington and Burling, Perkins Coie, and Paul, Weiss - over their representation of his political rivals. Continue reading...
Both parties are responsible for the mess facing Columbia and other institutions. It's time for their leaders to take a standDonald Trump trying to cow higher education institutions into submission using the power of the purse. The administration has withheld $400m in federal funds from Columbia University and has vowed to remove even more if its demands are not met.Columbia has an endowment of $14.8bn and an annual operating budget of $6.6bn. The cuts amount to roughly 6% of its annual budget - a non-trivial share. In order to keep it, Columbia was instructed to adopt a number of illiberal measures: it must put its Middle East, South Asia and Africa Studies department into academic receivership; change its admissions policies to reduce admits of people from those regions and admit more Jewish students;and grant campus police more power to surveil, detain and remove people from campus without following the usual due process. It must accept permanently heightened restrictions on campus protest and speech and comply with unlawful federal orders to arrest and expel green card holders who have committed no crime, such as Mahmoud Khalil.Musa al-Gharbi is a sociologist in the School of Communication and Journalism at Stony Brook University. His book, We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite, is out now with Princeton University Press. He is a Guardian US columnist
Donald Trump's national security adviser, Mike Waltz, has said 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, the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic, revealed that he was added to a group on the Signal ,private messaging app that included the vice-president, JD Vance, defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and other high-profile figures discussing 'operational details' of planned attacks on the Houthis in Yemen. Waltz accepted responsibility for making the Signal group, though he continued to deflect blame, insulted Goldberg and said he could not explain how the mistake had occurred
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...
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...
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...
by Callum Jones in New York and agencies on (#6W5VV)
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...
by Leyland Cecco in Toronto and Eva Corlett in Wellin on (#6W5VG)
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
by Miranda Bryant Nordic correspondent on (#6W5FP)
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...
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...
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...
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