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With the US threatening unilateral withdrawal, even from the top Nato military post, five European nations must fill the vacuumIn the face of Vladimir Putin's aggression against Ukraine and Donald Trump's destabilisation of the Atlantic alliance, an embryonic European security council is taking shape on the hoof. Whether it will prove strong enough to protect Europe's liberal democracies and deter Russia without US military support may be tested all too soon.Nato was created under US leadership to keep the Soviet Union at bay while suppressing centuries-old rivalries among European powers. The alliance stayed united through the cold war and attracted new central European members after communist rule collapsed. But the spectre of US disengagement now threatens to leave Europe without its nuclear-armed protector.Paul Taylor is a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre Continue reading...

Donald Trump complained in a social media post about a portrait of him that has been hanging in the Colorado state capitol since 2019. The US president said that the painting 'was purposefully distorted to a level that even I, perhaps, have never seen before'. In the post, Trump blamed Colorado governor Jared Polis for the portrait and demanded it be taken down. However, a Republican senator had commissioned the portrait using fund from a GoFundMe campaign. Colorado Senate Republicans hosted an event alongside the artist in 2019 to hang the painting, which had been approved by the group

Catastrophic security leak sparks calls for investigations. Here is your roundup of key US politics stories from 24 March 2025Senior Trump administration officials have triggered bipartisan outrage after broadcasting classified military plans through a Signal group chat to which they had inadvertently added a prominent journalist.According to reporting in the Atlantic, the editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was accidentally invited into a Signal chat group with more than a dozen senior Trump administration officials including Vice-President JD Vance, the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, national security adviser, Mike Waltz, secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, and others. Continue reading...

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Security leak triggers bipartisan anger after Atlantic reveals officials inadvertently broadcast highly sensitive military plans

Even some Republicans have called president's public demand to remove the painting petty'Donald Trump critics aimed ridicule at the president after he publicly demanded the removal of his portrait at Colorado's state capitol building, calling it truly the worst".In a post on his Truth Social platform on Sunday, Trump shared an image of the portrait and complained about the painting, saying it was bad and blaming it on Colorado's governor, Jared Polis - whom the president insulted as being radically left". Continue reading...

Yunseo Chung, who partook in university's pro-Palestinian protests, called government's actions shocking overreach'A Columbia University student who took part in pro-Palestinian protests at the university is suing Donald Trump's administration for attempting to deport her.Attorneys for Yunseo Chung, a 21-year-old who has legally resided in the US since childhood, filed a complaint on Monday describing the government's actions as shocking overreach" and an unprecedented and unjustifiable assault" on her rights. Continue reading...

What we are currently living through is nothing less than an erasure of the building blocks of our republic - a distortion of what it means to be AmericanLess than seven weeks into Donald Trump's second term as president, his administration has set off a new wave of handwringing over what has by now become a familiar question: has the US entered a constitutional crisis?Triggering the latest iteration of that worry, the government hastily deported more than 200 Venezuelan immigrants to a notorious prison in El Salvador, without hearings or evidence and thus without anything even resembling due process of law, pursuant to the US president's proclamation signed in the dark on Friday evening" that they constituted an invasion by a foreign state. Continue reading...

Louis DeJoy led dramatic effort to restructure the US postal service over past five yearsThe US postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, who said earlier this month that he had asked the government efficiency team led by Elon Musk for assistance with a number of issues, is resigning effective on Monday, the agency said.DeJoy, who has headed the agency since 2020, in February said he had asked the US Postal Service (USPS) governing board to identify his successor but had given no indication in recent days that he planned to step down abruptly. Continue reading...

Tucker Challan, 16, was found on Sunday after triggering and being buried in an avalanche in Turnagain PassA teenager has died after triggering an avalanche, the fourth person killed in snow slides in Alaska this month.Alaska State Troopers said the body of 16-year-old Tucker Challan of Soldotna was recovered from the avalanche on Sunday by the Alaska mountain rescue group. Continue reading...

Employees who may have to return home risk death or imprisonment at hands of authoritarian governmentsForeign workers at US government-backed media outlets being cut by the Trump administration say they face deportation to their home countries, where some risk imprisonment or death at the hands of authoritarian governments.Earlier this month, the Trump administration moved to defund the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), an independent federal agency that oversees the Voice of America (VoA), the US's largest and oldest international broadcaster, and provides grants to Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe and other news agencies. Staff have been placed on administrative leave and contractors have been fired. The agency had around 3,500 employees with an annual budget of $886m in 2024. Continue reading...

In apparent deal between three countries, Venezuelan official said country would resume accepting US deporteesA group of Venezuelan immigrants have been deported from the US to Honduras and then sent on to Venezuela, after an apparent deal between the three countries.The flights came one day after a Venezuelan government official announced on social media it would resume accepting deportees from the US. Deportations from the US to Venezuela, which have rarely taken place, have been a point of dispute for the Trump administration. Continue reading...

Suspect was previously convicted in fatal stabbing of her first spouse in 2000 and served nearly a decade in prisonA month after an official with California's department of forestry and fire protection (CalFire) was found slain at her home, the woman's wife has been arrested in Mexico on suspicion of murder, authorities said - marking the second time the suspect is accused of illicitly killing a spouse of hers.Yolanda Olejniczak Marodi's arrest came after she was named the prime suspect in the 17 February stabbing death of Capt Rebecca Marodi, 49, in Ramona, near San Diego. Continue reading...

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Legal saga over state's majority-Black districts could be vehicle for justices to further weaken the Voting Rights ActThe US supreme court appeared sharply divided on Monday on whether it should strike down Louisiana's congressional map because the state added a second majority-Black district.The case, Louisiana v Callais, arrived at the supreme court after years of legal wrangling over Louisiana's congressional map. It centers on the drawing of the state's sixth congressional district, a majority-Black district that stretches in a diagonal slash across the state and is currently being represented by a Democrat. Continue reading...

One minute Rachel and Phoebe are giving birth, the next they're perfectly groomed and having coffee with their mates. That's not a picture I recogniseI've started watching this great fantasy series from the mid-90s and early 00s - it's called Friends. It follows a group of humanoid characters who treat childbirth as a social occasion, wear full makeup postpartum and never look after their babies. The fantasy element is very clever - so subtle in fact that it is only now, watching it decades later, as a parent myself, that I even noticed it.Perhaps back in the 90s the otherworldly nature of Phoebe Buffay waiting to give birth to triplets in a room chock-full of her wise-cracking friends, despite it being a high-risk pregnancy, was understood. Maybe the way that Ross Geller's baby Ben is delivered under a sheet, by an obstetrician apparently working blind, was a well-known speculative fiction trope back then. Possibly when it originally aired, parents were simply amazed by the special effects involved when Rachel Green was shown sitting in a coffee shop gossiping about her love life, three weeks after giving birth, in full makeup and blow-dry, high heels, a pair of size 10 jeans - and entirely without her baby. Whatever was going on, no one at the time seemed fazed by this uncanny valley where babies breastfeed just once in their life, never get ill and are put behind glass in hospital nurseries to be glanced at by visiting relatives who then have sex in cupboards. Continue reading...

Despite losing their best player to injury and their head coach to a red card, Canada hardly lost a step as they beat their northern neighbors on their own turfAmerican positives from a particularly sobering Sunday afternoon at SoFi Stadium were in desperately short supply. To be fair, Americans in general had been in short supply there last week, with the abject turnout for both of the host nation's two games.One bright spot for the Americans, however, was that Jesse Marsch had been silenced. A second-half red card meant the Canada coach was barred from talking post-match. The dismissal came after an almighty touchline meltdown that spilled on to the playing area as he roared at referee Katia Itzel Garcia after back-to-back penalty appeals. Cameras trailed him through stadium gangways and tunnels as he raged on. Marsch madness' headlines were a layup. Continue reading...

Liberal senator says in interview Trump was right to crack down on fentanyl, making sure our borders are stronger'

Appeal argues US judge William Alsup can't force executive branch to rehire some 16,000 probationary employees

In a special mailbag edition of our newsletter, Jonathan Wilson answers your questions on playmaker keepers, weird player huddles and Declan Rice

Parents explain the financial burden childcare places on them and how it hampers their families' futures

Post-Eaton fire, congregants who want a quick rebuild are met with a question: how long are they allowed to grieve?Before the Masjid Al-Taqwa, a mosque in Altadena, was reduced to rubble in the Eaton fire in January, it was a space that belonged to all its worshippers. When the urge for prayer stirred the soul during off-hours, a faithful follower could borrow the key and have the place to pray.Now without a mosque during Ramadan, members are worshipping in diaspora. The weekly communal prayer services are temporarily held in a park community room. After hours at a Muslim elementary school, members break their fast together. It's a fragmented spiritual existence. Continue reading...

The president thinks tariffs are the greatest thing ever invented' - but his trade war seems based on fiat and whimI've been writing about manufacturing in the US since the 1980s, and it's been heart-wrenching to report on dozens of factory closings and the devastation they have done to workers and communities. As the nation grasped for ways to slow these plant closings, I also wrote about Washington's use of carefully employed trade measures, like targeted tariffs, and how they helped save some plants and jobs, especially in the steel industry.Carefully targeted tariffs can be a winning strategy, but Donald Trump's obsession with tariffs - especially across-the-board ones that are neither careful, nor targeted - has already shown itself to be a lose-lose strategy. Perhaps it's too generous to use the word strategy to describe what the president is doing, because his tariffs seem based on fiat and whim, not on thoughtful planning. Continue reading...

Former US House member of Utah and daughter of Haitian immigrants had received recent treatment for brain cancerMia Love, a daughter of Haitian immigrants who became the first Black Republican woman elected to Congress, died on Sunday.The former US House member of Utah was 49. Continue reading...

Sarah Silverman, John Mulaney, Will Ferrell and others pull no punches at first signature event at cultural center since Trump took overLeading comedians have defied Donald Trump's takeover of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in a show that one described as the most entertaining gathering of the resistance, ever".Trump did not attend Sunday's Mark Twain Prize for American Humor honouring Conan O'Brien for lifetime achievement in comedy. But his ears may have been burning as comics and celebrities joked at his expense in what became a rallying cry for freedom of artistic expression. Continue reading...

Emory University put Umaymah Mohammad through one of the most dehumanizing' experiences of her life as a new front opens in the silencing of pro-Palestinian voicesUmaymah Mohammad has wanted to be a doctor for as long as she remembers. She traces her ambition to the story of her mother, one of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by Israel to Jordan in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, and who contracted polio as a toddler. Despite living with the debilitating disease, Mohammad's mother went on to raise five children and obtain a graduate degree in the US.It's the story of a woman who overcame unbearable medical circumstances", Mohammad said. It also taught the Palestinian American about the sociological determinants of health", she said, as Mohammad believes displacement contributed to her mother catching the disease, due to the poor sanitary conditions entire communities of Palestinian refugees faced at the time. Continue reading...

Experts say US president's expansionism is threatening rules-based global order in place since 1945. Plus, measles cases already higher than in all of 2024

Families are taking out lines of credit, working second jobs, commuting for hours and forgoing careers. It doesn't need to be this way, experts sayAlmost 20 years ago, Danielle Atkinson was invited to interview for a job on a national political campaign. It was a dream role, and although it would mean leaving Michigan, Atkinson felt the opportunity was worth it.Then, she learned she was pregnant. It was a surprise - she and her husband had planned to focus on their careers before starting their family - but one that was welcome and exciting. But once she learned how expensive it would be to enroll her baby in full-time care, Atkinson made a difficult decision. I was like: Oh, my God, I've got to be near a support system,'" she said, recalling her decision to decline the interview and remain in Michigan, where her extended family could help with care. I had to take a step back from my career to have the baby." Continue reading...

The former Democratic VP nominee's tour around the US is part brand redemption, part Democratic catharsis, part rallyTim Walz is trying to regroup to help Democrats fight the Trump administration, but he's still trying to figure out why he and his party lost in November.I knew it was my job to try and pick off those other swing states, and we didn't," he said about the 2024 election. I come back home to lick my wounds and say, goddamn, at least we won here." Continue reading...

Attacks on key US institutions seek to stifle dissent, exact revenge and subordinate them to the president, experts say

I definitely can't match her sense of adventure - and I find real pleasure in my daily routines. But it is time to escape my hummus-tinged comfort zoneAs part of my puny striving towards personal growth, I am choosing not to feel personally attacked by learning about York resident Sally Millington, who has been doing 52 new things a year since 2018. Millington's 400-plus experiments span standup, bee-keeping, cliff-camping, jazz dance and busking dressed as a turkey (choose your own worst nightmare from that list). She's clearly a force of nature and it's an admirable commitment to getting out of your comfort zone. Why not?" she told Radio York, explaining that her adventures helped to fuel her creative and critical thinking and forge connections with amazing people I would never have ordinarily have met".I struggled to stem the rising tide of inadequacy this threatened to unleash in me though, because I doubt I've done five new activities since 2018. I'm still struggling with the aftershocks of my regular supermarket closing and an adventure" is trying a new brand of hummus. I did that this week - big mistake. Continue reading...

SoFi Stadium will host the US for two of its World Cup group games, but it was barren for their two lackluster gamesMauricio Pochettino looked sullen. Occasionally, he would shake his head in despair. Mostly, he just looked on with a frown.The United States men's national team manager understood that there would be a lot of recriminations to go around. Following a second competitive loss in four days in the Concacaf Nations League finals, it was hard to pinpoint where, exactly, to lay the blame for a dispiriting international window for the USA. Continue reading...

The Canadians were described by basketball's inventor as his sport's finest team. And they competed at a time when female athletes were often dismissedIt takes sustained excellence to win a college basketball title. But it is hard to believe that even the greatest March Madness teams could ever compile a winning record superior to that of the Edmonton Grads.The Grads took part in more than 400 games between 1915 and 1940 and lost only 20, giving them a win ratio in excess of 95%, according to M Ann Hall, the author of the definitive account of the team. Continue reading...

The American striker has been in splendid form at club level, but that has yet to translate to his national teamIt's not too warm or too bright for Josh Sargent. He's parked in a chair on the patio of the US men's national team hotel in Manhattan Beach, Los Angeles. He's facing the horizon and embracing the sun, the moment. There are possibilities ahead, including in the Nations League finals that were then due to take place in a couple days.Sargent arrived for his second camp under Mauricio Pochettino as a safe bet to be the starting striker for the US men's national team after Ricardo Pepi and Folarin Balogun were left off the Concacaf Nations League Finals due to injuries. Prior to the semifinal against Panama, he wasn't feeling the heat. Continue reading...

With the US president now warmer to Moscow than to Ottawa, it's little surprise Canadians I met rolled their eyes at the decline of the special relationshipAs wealthy but lightly defended countries have often learned, being close to a much more powerful state - geographically or diplomatically - can be a precarious existence. All it takes is an aggressive new government in the stronger state and a relatively equal relationship of economic and military cooperation can suddenly turn exploitative, even threatening.Since Donald Trump's second inauguration, this realisation has been dawning across the west, but nowhere more disconcertingly than in Canada. Its border with the US is the longest in the world: 5,525 miles of often empty and hard to defend land, lakes and rivers. Canada's two biggest cities, Toronto and Montreal, are only a few hours to the north, were you to approach them in a US army tank.Andy Beckett is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

His targeting of foreigners with residencies or work visas was inevitable: to achieve his aims, more and more people must be disenfranchisedThe imperial boomerang effect is the theory that techniques developed to repress colonised territories and peoples will, in time, inevitably be deployed at home. Repressive policing, methods of detention and controlling dissent, forcing humans to produce goods and services for overlords in the metropolis, or even mass enslavement and killing: all boomerang" back into that metropolis. First, they are used against those who are seen as inferior; then, they are deployed even against those citizens with full rights and privileges if they dare to question authority. In short, the remote other eventually becomes the intimate familiar.Donald Trump's second term has so far been a case study in how systems built for those whose rights have been diluted or taken away eventually devour those who were assumed to be safe from such violations. There are three ways in which this process of rebounding happens. The first is through the creation of a domestic caste system that mirrors the one outside a country's borders, as demonstrated in the recent treatment of those foreigners with permanent US residency and valid work visas who expressed dissenting views on Gaza.Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Possible shift in taxpayer data use aligns with more aggressive Trump immigration policies - key US politics stories from Sunday at a glanceThe US Internal Revenue Service is reportedly nearing a deal to allow immigration officials to use tax data to support Donald Trump's deportation agenda.Under the proposed data-sharing agreement, said to have been in negotiations for weeks, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) could hand over the names and addresses of undocumented immigrants to the IRS, raising concerns about abuse of power from the Trump administration and the erosion of privacy rights. Continue reading...

Mauricio Pochettino's side lost 2-1, their second straight defeat against regional competition in underwhelming fashionAfter winning four consecutive matches under new coach Mauricio Pochettino, the United States face a crossroads 15 months before joining Canada and Mexico as co-hosts of the 2026 World Cup.Canada took third place in the Concacaf Nations League with a 2-1 victory at SoFi Stadium on Sunday. The US defeat, which came 72 hours after a 1-0 loss to Panama in Thursday's semi-finals, meant the home side finished fourth in a competition it won in its three previous editions. Continue reading...

The US's disappointing Nations League is complete after defeat to Les Rouges in Los Angeles1 min: We are underway from Los Angeles!The crowd, once again, is incredibly sparse for a US game at home. The stadium PA countdown is reverberating off a LOT of empty seats. Continue reading...

South Carolina governor declares emergency as North Carolina announces mandatory evacuation in Polk countyThree major wildfires that broke out in one North Carolina county still recovering from Hurricane Helene have exploded to burn more than 3,000 acres combined as South Carolina's governor declared an emergency in response to a growing wildfire in the Blue Ridge mountains.The North Carolina department of public safety announced a mandatory evacuation starting at 8.20pm on Saturday for parts of Polk county in western North Carolina about 80 miles (129km) west of Charlotte. Continue reading...

The recently appointed Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, called a snap election for 28 April, saying he needed a strong mandate because the country was facing 'the most significant crisis of our lifetimes' as a result of Donald Trump's 'unjustified trade actions and his threats to our sovereignty'. Carney, a former central banker, became the Liberal leader two weeks ago by persuading party members he was the best person to tackle the challenges posed by the US president. Polls suggest the Liberals, who have been in power since 2015 and trailed the Conservative opposition at the start of the year, are slightly ahead of their rivals

Victims identified in shooting that occurred at a park after an altercation between two groups of people', police sayPolice have arrested three people in connection with a mass shooting on Friday night at an unsanctioned car show" in Las Cruces, New Mexico that left three people killed and at least 15 others injured.Local police said the shooting occurred at around 10pm on Friday at Young Park following an altercation between two groups of people". There were approximately 200 people at the park when the shooting occurred. Continue reading...

Immigration officials could give names and addresses to IRS amid concerns over Trump administration's abuse of powerThe US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is reportedly nearing a deal to allow immigration officials to use tax data to support Donald Trump's deportation agenda, according to reports by the Washington Post.Under the proposed data-sharing agreement, said to have been in negotiations for weeks, Immigration And Customs Enforcement (Ice) could hand over the names and addresses of undocumented immigrants to the IRS, raising concerns about abuse of power from the Trump administration and the erosion of privacy rights. Continue reading...

Murphy, who lived to 33, took in a rock in 2023 and tried to hatch it, captivating hearts and later fostering two eagletsMissouri lost an ambassador, role model and community pillar in the violent storms that swept the country on 15 March: a 33-year-old bald eagle named Murphy.Murphy captivated hearts far beyond the midwest and gained national attention in 2023 when he incubated a rock, attempting to hatch it, in a stunt the internet loved. The World Bird Sanctuary in Valley Park, Missouri, where he lived, rewarded his instincts, allowing him to foster an eaglet that he nurtured back to health. Another eaglet was placed into his care, and is expected to be released midway through the summer. Continue reading...