US president tasks secretary of state Marco Rubio with making immediate' progressDonald Trump has demanded free transit for American commercial and military ships through the Panama and Suez canals, tasking his secretary of state with making progress immediately".Trump has for months been calling for the United States to take control of the Panama canal but his social media post also shifted focus on to the vital Suez route. American ships, both military and commercial, should be allowed to travel, free of charge, through the Panama and Suez canals!" Trump posted on Saturday. Continue reading...
US president says after meeting that maybe Vladimir Putin doesn't want to stop the war'; Trump's US polling figures slide - key US politics stories from Saturday 26 April at a glanceDonald Trump spent his Saturday at the Vatican, attending the funeral of Pope Francis along with his wife Melania and leaders from more than 150 countries. Before the ceremony, the US president met with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for the first time since their heated Oval Office exchange in February.This time, the two men sat face to face on chairs drawn up in St Peter's Basilica, after huddling briefly with the French president, Emmanuel Macron. The results of the quiet conversation were apparent soon after, when Trump posted on his social media platform that there was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days. It makes me think that maybe he doesn't want to stop the war, he's just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently". Continue reading...
Las Vegas Review-Journal, owned by billionaire Miriam Adelson, condemns pardon of ex-lawmaker Michele FioreA Nevada newspaper owned by a Donald Trump mega-donor has savaged the US president's decision to pardon a Republican councilwoman who was convicted of using donations intended to fund a statue of a police officer to pay for cosmetic surgery.The Las Vegas Review-Journal, owned by the billionaire Miriam Adelson, described the decision as a debasement of presidential pardon power" in a scathing editorial published after Trump granted clemency to Michele Fiore, a former Las Vegas councilwoman and Nevada state lawmaker. Continue reading...
Trump scores poorly on economy and immigration as some fear he is exceeding powers' and focussed on wrong issuesAmericans, including some Republicans, are losing faith in Donald Trump across a range of key issues, according to polling released this week. One survey found a majority describing the president's second stint in the White House so far as scary".Along with poor ratings on the economy and Trump's immigration policy, a survey released on Saturday found that only 24% of Americans believe Trump has focussed on the right priorities as president. Continue reading...
US president's epiphany that Putin may not want to stop Ukraine war follows symbolic' talk with Zelenskyy in St Peter's BasilicaIt was a fitting moment for an epiphany, if that's what this was. Donald Trump sat in the morning light in St Peter's Basilica hunched over in conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as the assembled royalty and foreign leaders, the cardinals and bishops, and thousands of faithful gathered outside to prepare for the papal funeral.His revelation soon came in the guise of a Truth Social post. There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days," Trump mused. It makes me think that maybe [Putin] doesn't want to stop the war." Continue reading...
Governor Tony Evers takes aim at White House's dangerous rhetoric' as Republican Tony Wied demands Dugan resignThe FBI's arrest of Wisconsin judge Hannah Dugan has triggered strong reactions from Republican and Democratic politicians, as the Trump administration veered closer to direct confrontation with the judiciary over its crackdown on immigration.Following the Milwaukee county circuit judge's arrest on Friday, over allegations that she helped a man evade US immigration officers at her courthouse, Republicans have called for her removal while Democrats regard her arrest as a reflection of the administration's increasing disregard of judicial independence amid its push to deport immigrants on an enormous scale. Continue reading...
Family issue statement on alleged Jeffrey Epstein victim who said she was trafficked to Prince AndrewVirginia Giuffre has been hailed as an unflinching campaigner for survivors of sexual abuse, who took on the wealthy and the powerful during the course of her life.Virginia was a fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex trafficking. She was the light that lifted so many survivors," her family said in a statement confirming her death. Continue reading...
A study shows the impact of feeding challenges on maternal mental health. With official help in short supply, it's time to support each otherAnyone who has struggled mentally knows it is often only with time and recovery that you can challenge the destructive thought patterns that once plagued you. That said, hindsight can also be a strange thing. While collecting Republic of Parenthood columns for a book, I spent time revisiting my old articles about my struggles with breastfeeding. I felt vindicated, as some of the things I wrote have since been confirmed.This week, the largest ever qualitative study on how difficulties with breastfeeding affects mothers' mental health has been published in Scientific Reports. More than 2,000 mothers were surveyed with 65% reporting difficulties with infant latching, which seemed to impact mental health".. Feeling like a bad mum" and like I had failed my baby" were some of the common reasons given by participants.Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
The actor announced the change on her podcast. Apparently this is international news - and it has a serious sideYou're going to want to sit down for this one, because there's a lot to digest. Gwyneth Paltrow, who has consciously uncoupled from multiple food groups in the past, is bringing pasta back into her life. And she can have a little bread and cheese, too, as a treat. Continue reading...
Residents of the Lower Ninth Ward say a huge industrial project will imperil its recovery from 2005's Hurricane KatrinaResidents ofNew Orleans' Ninth Ward, an area many declared dead after Hurricane Katrina, know their history - and the resurgent arts district that marks their comeback. They worry that a huge industrial project would bury the great resurrection. And it's only the latest crisis with which they have grappled.For all its grandeur and rocking street pageants, New Orleans faced another crisis after the New Year's Day terrorist attack killed 14 on its globally famed Bourbon Street. Would the killings turn away tourists? The city doubled down on security as it hosted the NFL's Super Bowl in February, with help from the state government. Lavish media coverage followed. The city rolled into Mardi Gras in early March, with crowded parades, nightclubs, restaurants and art galleries, a healthy boost for New Orleans's $8bn tourist economy. Continue reading...
David A Graham's latest book considers the vast far-right plan to change US politics - and why its architects are playing the long gameDavid A Graham doesn't say he read Project 2025 so you don't have to, but it might be inferred.The Atlantic staff writer's new book, The Project: How Project 2025 Is Reshaping America, is a swift but thorough overview of the vast far-right plan for a second Trump administration that achieved notoriety last year. Over just 138 pages, a passing dream next to the Heritage Foundation's 922-page doorstop, Graham considers the origins of Project 2025, its aims and effects so far.The Project is published in the US by Random House Continue reading...
Party eyes dramatic spending cuts to turn president's promises into reality - but not all lawmakers are on boardDonald Trump has made a simple request of Congress's Republican leaders: deliver one big, beautiful bill" that will turn his campaign promises into reality. By all indications, there will be little beautiful about the negotiations to come when Congress returns to session on Monday.The bill envisioned by the president will extend tax cuts enacted during his first term, fund more border defenses and mass deportations of undocumented immigrants and potentially include the president's vow to end the taxation of tips, overtime and social security payments. To pay for it, the GOP is eyeing dramatic reductions in government spending, and has targeted social safety net programs relied on by tens of millions of Americans. Continue reading...
The pro-Israel campaign to protect' Jews by punishing anti-Zionist speech often targets Jews. That is no surpriseThe Trump administration claims that its moves to defund universities, arrest and deport students and force schools to demote or monitor professors are meant to combat antisemitism, protect Jewish students and remove Hamas-supporting" foreign nationals from the country. American pro-Israel groups including the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Hillel International, Aipac and the Heritage Foundation have united behind Republican measures to crack down on higher education and its putative antisemitism. Religiously identified groups such as the Orthodox Union and Christians United for Israel have joined the chorus, celebrating the punishment of supposedly antisemitic students and professors. Whatever their varied pasts, today's pro-Israel groups are not about protecting American Jews. Instead, they are allies in Maga's war on free speech, academic freedom and the US's democratic society itself.To be clear: the pro-Israel campaign to protect" Jews by punishing anti-Zionist speech often targets Jews. After a student complaint about a tenured Jewish professor's Twitter post, Muhlenberg College fired her. The ADL has rewarded Muhlenberg by grading it better than most" colleges for fighting antisemitism". The ADL also accused Jewish Voice for Peace, a large, anti-Zionist Jewish group with chapters on many American campuses, of promot[ing] messaging" that can include support for terrorists". Under pressure from the Trump administration, Columbia University expelled a Jewish graduate student and United Auto Workers local president who demonstrated against the war in Gaza.Joshua Schreier is a professor of history and Jewish studies at Vassar College. Continue reading...
Legal aid group says most students contacting them are Palestinian, Arab Muslim and other students of colorEK was completing a take-home exam on 6 March when the dean of student conduct at Swarthmore College emailed her about an urgent Zoom meeting. On the video call, she said, the dean told her that she would be suspended for one semester for staging a protest at the college's trustees' dinner in December 2023. Using a bullhorn, EK had interrupted the event to demand that the school divest from products that fuel Israel's war on Gaza.A panel of students and school employees had found her responsible for assault, among other code of conduct violations for the incident. EK, a final-semester senior who is using a pseudonym out of fear of retaliation, recalled being in shock: I've been really distraught by all of this," EK said. I used to be unhoused before I came to Swarthmore, so to be put into this situation again is very disturbing." Continue reading...
Senior officials unsure who to believe after aides fired and chief of staff quits amid look into Panama canal media leakDefense secretary Pete Hegseth's orbit has become consumed by a contentious leak investigation that those inside the Pentagon believe is behind the firing of three senior aides last week, according to five people involved in the situation.The secretary's office has been marked for weeks by ugly internal politics between chief of staff Joe Kasper, who left the department on Thursday, and the three ousted aides, including senior adviser Dan Caldwell, deputy chief Darin Selnick and chief to the deputy defense secretary Colin Carroll. Continue reading...
Annual event likely to prove gloomy affair amid Trump attacks on press and rise of Maga media ecosystemIt is no laughing matter. The annual dinner for journalists who cover the White House is best known for American presidents trying to be funny and comedians trying to be political. But this year's edition will feature neither.Instead the event in a downtown Washington hotel on Saturday night will, critics say, resemble something closer to a wake for legacy media still trying to find an effective response to Donald Trump's divide-and-rule tactics and the rise of the Maga media ecosystem. Continue reading...
Some, especially within the US, see the conclave as an opportunity to establish a more conservative leaderFor Catholics who cherished Pope Francis's relentless defence of the dignity of migrants and minorities, the footage of his deeply awkward meeting with JD Vance on Easter Sunday made for unsettling viewing. During his 12 years in St Peter's chair, Francis railed against Christian complicity with America first"-type nationalist movements across the west. Here, looming over him on what turned out to be the eve of his death, was the White House embodiment of the insular, bullying politics he spent so much energy fighting against.What now? The pope from the ends of the earth" will be laid to rest on Saturday in an unadorned tomb in Rome's Santa Maria Maggiore basilica, after a funeral attended by about 50 heads of state and 130 delegations from around the world. Progressives inside and outside the church will hope that encounter with the US vice-president was not an ominous portent. Continue reading...
Coming from Egypt, I know a dictatorship when I see one. The same can't be said for the white voters who brought Trump to powerWhat's he done now?" My parents live in Cairo and I'm in New York City. We FaceTime once a week and that question is like a game we play. My parents ask about Donald Trump and I ask about Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, whom Trump calls my favourite dictator". Aren't we Egyptian-Americans lucky - a dictator for each side of our hyphen.Tellingly, the he" my parents ask about has dominated our conversations lately.Mona Eltahawy writes the FEMINIST GIANT newsletter. She is the author of The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls and Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual RevolutionDo 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...
In the early hours of 24 April the realisation dawned: Putin will get a deal that humiliates Ukraine - or continue to slaughter our civiliansDay 1,156 of the invasion; 24 April 2025. Thirty hours after the end of Russia's fake Easter ceasefire". It is 6.21am: feeling anxious, I call my father. He is travelling by train from the western part of Ukraine to Kyiv, due to arrive in 40 minutes. He picks up the phone, and from his cheerful tone I gather that he has not yet heard the news. I ask if the train is running late. My father says everything is fine, he can already spot familiar places in the Kyiv region. He wants to know why I doubt the arrival time. I tell him that sadly Russia has been shelling the country all night long. In Kyiv, I say, we have lived through one of the worst nights. I'm jumping in a taxi," I add. I'll see you soon."Those who survive shelling often imitate the sounds of explosions when they talk about the experience. I instantly think of this when an early morning roll call of how are you?" starts in the friends' group chat. Whoosh. Whiz. Boom. Bang. The only thing I can write is the sounds of what came flying at us the during the night. Like a child learning to talk. Or a person who has lost the ability to speak. Continue reading...
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Pam Bondi, US attorney general, says conduct of federal employees who leak information to media is treasonous'. This blog is now closed.Apple is reportedly planning to switch assembly of all iPhones for the US market to India as the company seeks to reduce its reliance on a Chinese manufacturing base amid Donald Trump's trade war.The $3tn (2.3tn) technology company aims to make the shift as soon as next year, the Financial Times reported. Continue reading...
FBI director Kash Patel accuses judge Hannah Dugan of helping an illegal alien' evade arrest - key US politics stories from 25 April at a glanceThe Trump administration's war on the judiciary deepened on Friday as the FBI arrested a county circuit judge on charges of obstruction, accusing her of helping a man evade immigration authorities as they sought his arrest at her courthouse.The judge, Hannah Dugan, was apprehended in the courthouse where she works in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a spokesperson for the US Marshals Service confirmed to the Guardian. Kash Patel, the Trump-appointed FBI director, wrote on X that he believed Dugan intentionally misdirected federal agents away from" Eduardo Flores Ruiz, who he called an illegal alien". Agents chased down" the man and arrested him later, he added. Continue reading...
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Hannah Dugan apprehended in courthouse where she works after agency says she helped man evade authoritiesThe FBI on Friday arrested a judge whom the agency accused of obstruction after it said she helped a man evade US immigration authorities as they were seeking to arrest him at her courthouse.The county circuit judge, Hannah Dugan, was apprehended in the courthouse where she works in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at 8.30am local time on Friday on charges of obstruction, a spokesperson for the US Marshals Service confirmed to the Guardian. Continue reading...
DoE investigation revives reports that UC Berkeley failed to disclose Chinese funding for a now severed partnershipThe Trump administration launched an investigation into the University of California, Berkeley, on Friday centered on foreign funding, making it the latest university to be targeted by the federal government.The investigation revives criticism from several years ago about the university's partnership with China's Tsinghua University. It comes after Donald Trump earlier this week signed a series of executive orders focused on universities that he views as liberal adversaries to his political agenda. Continue reading...
Memo from attorney general about criminal leak investigations calls conduct of leakers treasonous'Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, has revoked a Biden administration-era policy that restricted subpoenas of reporters' phone records in criminal investigations.An internal memo, first reported by ABC News, shows Bondi rescinding protections issued by her predecessor, Merrick Garland, for members of the media from having their records seized or being forced to testify in the course of leak investigations. Continue reading...
Shabtai, a Jewish society based at Yale, hosted the extremist far-right politician convicted of supporting terrorism. Why did Yale allow this?Let me start with a statement that should be obvious: deliberately starving 2 million people - half of whom are children - is indefensible. It is not complicated, it is not a nuanced situation that requires a PhD to parse. It is not an unfortunate and unavoidable part of war. It is quite simply indefensible. I would say that it is also very much prohibited by international human rights law, but that doesn't seem to exist any more, does it?As I write this, no food, water or medicine has been allowed into Gaza for almost two months. It is impossible to know just how bad the situation really is because Israel has imposed a media blackout on the region. However, aid organizations have said: The Gaza Strip is now likely facing the worst humanitarian crisis in the 18 months" since the war began. Thousands of children are malnourished. Childhood malnutrition, I can't stress enough, has long-term consequences. An entire generation's future has been violently stolen from them. Continue reading...
Harvard is leading the pushback because it can afford to fight. Others are realising that they can't afford not toEnfeebling universities or seizing control is an early chapter in the authoritarian playbook, studied eagerly by the likes of Viktor Orban in Hungary. Would-be authoritarians and one-party states centrally target universities with the aim of restricting dissent," Jason Stanley, a scholar of fascism at Yale, wrote in the Guardian in September. Last month, he announced that he was leaving the US for Canada because of the political climate and particularly the battle over higher education.It is not merely that universities are often bastions of liberal attitudes and hotbeds for protest. They also constitute one of the critical institutions of civil society; they are a bulwark of democracy. The Trump administration is taking on judges, lawyers, NGOs and the media: it would be astonishing if universities were not on the list. They embody the importance of knowledge, rationality and independent thought. Continue reading...
Would the legendary American writer have welcomed the publication of her therapy notes? It seems unlikelyJoan Didion entered the fray on the publication of Ernest Hemingway's unfinished final manuscript in an essay titled Last Words in 1998: You think something is in shape to be published or you don't, andHemingway didn't," she wrote. You believe a writer's unpublished work is fair game after their death or you don't, and Didion - it would seem - didn't.Debate about the ethics of posthumous publication has been ignited once more, this time with Didion at its centre. After the writer's death in 2021, about 150 pages were found in a file next to her desk. These were meticulous accounts of sessions with her psychiatrist, from 1999 to 2003, focused mainly on her adopted daughter Quintana, who was spiralling into alcoholism. Addressed to her husband, screenwriter John Gregory Dunne, this journal has been published under the title Notes to John. No restrictions were put on access," we are told in a brief, anonymous introduction, presumably the ghostly hand of her literary estate. Continue reading...
President's international engagements have set stage for explosive confrontations and Pope Francis's funeral comes at an especially fraught momentA spectre is haunting Europe: the spectre of Donald Trump flying to the Vatican this weekend and publicly feuding with international leaders in front of St Peter's Basilica in the midst of the sombre rituals and rites that will mark the funeral of Pope Francis.The US leader's first international trip of his second term comes at one of the most politically fractious and fraught moments in recent memory, as his America first" project sets fire to US alliances and trade relationships around the world. Between international tariffs, the wars in Ukraine and in Gaza, the Trump team's open antipathy toward Europe and its hard line on immigration from Central and South America, the papal funeral could prove to be a minefield of international diplomacy. Continue reading...
Jim McGovern and Ayanna Pressley exhort authorities to free Rumeysa Ozturk, calling her treatment repression'A group of high-profile Democratic lawmakers has called on the Donald Trump administration to immediately release the Tufts University graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk, praised her unwavering spirit" and warned that the White House is engaging in repression".In a New York Times essay published on Friday morning, the US senator Ed Markey and representatives Jim McGovern and Ayanna Pressley, who all represent Massachusetts, where Tufts is based, shared more details from their visit to Ozturk this week at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention center in Louisiana, where she has been held since her arrest last month. Continue reading...
Crews still working to contain one the state's largest ever wildfires, amid warm temperatures and dry conditionsWith crews still working to contain one of New Jersey's largest wildfires on record, fire danger remains elevated across the state and into eastern Pennsylvania, the National Weather Service warned on Friday.There is an increased risk for rapid fire spread this afternoon across portions of New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania," the NWS said. Continue reading...
This presidency places authoritarian ambition above all - and now the people of Ukraine are paying the priceTo see the true face of Donald Trump, look no further than Ukraine. Laid bare in his handling of that issue are not only his myriad weaknesses, but also the danger he poses to his own country and the wider world - to say nothing of the battered people of Ukraine itself.Don't be fooled by the mild, vaguely theatrical rebuke Trump issued to Vladimir Putin on Thursday after Moscow unleashed a deadly wave of drone strikes on Kyiv, killing 12 and injuring dozens: Vladimir, STOP!" Pay attention instead to the fact that, in the nearly 100 days since Trump took office, the US has essentially switched sides in the battle between Putin's Russia and democratic Ukraine, backing the invaders against the invaded.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist and the host of the Politics Weekly America podcast100 days of Trump's presidency, with Jonathan Freedland and guests. On 30 April, join Jonathan Freedland, Kim Darroch, Devika Bhat and Leslie Vinjamuri as they discuss Trump's presidency on his 100th day in office, live at Conway Hall London and livestreamed globally. Book tickets here or at guardian.live Continue reading...
At the scene of the deadliest attack on our capital this year, I see the war on Ukraine is still very real - and Putin shows no signs of ending itWar teaches you to believe only in what happens, rather than what is merely said or promised. A day after the peace talks" in London, which the US secretary of state Marco Rubio didn't even turn up for, Ukrainians were not anxiously waiting for the results of a possible deal, which looked unfeasible anyway. Instead, they were counting their dead.According to Ukraine's air force, in the early hours of Thursday morning Russia launched 11 Iskander ballistic missiles, 37 KH-101 cruise missiles, six Iskander-K cruise missiles, 12 Kalibr cruise missiles, 4 KH-59/KH-69 missiles and 145 drones. For Kyiv and Kharkiv residents that night, this was not just a case of reading numbers on a news feed, but hearing and feeling explosions rock their cities. It turned out to be the deadliest night for the Ukrainian capital this year.Nataliya Gumenyuk is a Ukrainian journalist and CEO of the Public Interest Journalism Lab
There are valid arguments for the quarterback falling out of the first round. But it came after anonymous backstabs and the harsh glare of the spotlightThe NFL draft can be cruel. Shedeur Sanders, a polarizing prospect in a weak class whose profile was magnified by the fact that he is the son of Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, had to sit and wait for his name to be called in Thursday night's first round. He waited. And waited. By night's end, Sanders had fallen out of the first round entirely.Only two quarterbacks were selected on Thursday. After Miami's Cam Ward was selected No 1 overall, the QB-needy teams at the top of the board opted to punt on quarterbacks in favor of chasing defensive studs or linemen who could protect their eventual starter. Continue reading...
I'm scared about the health secretary's vow to find the cause behind the so-called autism epidemic'I always knew my parents operated on a different wavelength than most.For one, they are both exceptionally smart. My mother is a former mathematician, who studied the various levels of infinity as part of her master's thesis. My father is a computer programmer who, at 17 years old, was one of the youngest people to ever be able to communicate with ships in morse code. They met at a party for members of Mensa, a club for the highly intelligent. Continue reading...
The president has a chance to make good on his reputation as a dealmaker as Iran moves closer to a nuclear weaponIn May 2018, Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the Iran nuclear deal and reimposed American sanctions that crippled the Iranian economy. Trump tore up the 2015 agreement, which had taken years for Iran to negotiate with six world powers, under which Tehran limited its nuclear program in exchange for relief from international sanctions. Trump insisted he would be able to negotiate a better pact than the one reached by Barack Obama's administration.Today, in his second term as president, Trump is eager to fix the Iran deal he broke nearly seven years ago.Mohamad Bazzi is the director of the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern studies and a journalism professor at New York University. Continue reading...
Murder suspect, charged separately in state court, could face death penalty if convicted over Brian Thompson deathLuigi Mangione is scheduled to appear in Manhattan federal court on Friday for arraignment on charges that he tracked and murdered the UnitedHealthcare chief executive, Brian Thompson, late last year.Mangione, 26, could face the death penalty in a case that shocked America for the killing of a top business executive on New York's streets but also triggered an outpouring of anger against America's for-profit healthcare industry. Continue reading...
Rodney Taylor, whose legs were amputated as a toddler, just one of many people with disabilities at risk from detentionIn his three months locked up at Stewart detention center in Lumpkin, Georgia, Rodney Taylor has missed meals and showers, lived with increasing pain in his hips, developed a swollen thumb on his right hand and blisters on the stumps where his two legs were amputated when he was a toddler.Taylor's mother brought him to the US from Liberia on a medical visa as a small child. He went through 16 operations and is a double amputee. He has two fingers on his right hand. Now 46, he has lived in the US nearly his entire life, works as a barber, is active in promoting cancer awareness in his community, and recently got engaged. Continue reading...
The Trump administration is working overtime to intimidate funders from supporting racial and gender justice but this is the time for everyone to do what we can with what we haveWhen Jair Bolsonaro rose to power and moved to dismantle Brazil's democracy, he faced a formidable foe. A powerful wave of Black women were at the forefront of the resistance that led to his defeat.Beyond defeating an authoritarian, Black women helped elect a tranche of new officials, including record numbers of women and trans leaders. As the vanguard of a young, diverse, representative government, they epitomise Brazil's best future as a thriving democracy. A future that Bolsonaro came close to foreclosing. Continue reading...
Martin O'Malley says Elon Musk's incursions could result in disruption to benefit payments that 70 million depend onSocial security, the sacred cow of the US welfare system dating back to Franklin Roosevelt's 1930s New Deal, faces significant threat as it reels under the stress of Elon Musk's aggressive incursions, its former head has said.Martin O'Malley, former commissioner of the social security administration (SSA) under Joe Biden, said such a breakdown could result in disruption to benefit payments on which more than 70 million Americans depend, sending shock waves across the economic and social landscape and posing a political challenge to Donald Trump, who has repeatedly vowed that social security will be left untouched in his radical remake of US government. Continue reading...
The region has grappled with dictatorships, coups and inequality. But its democratic spirit remains vital - and offers a lesson for the USInspiration on how to beat back authoritarianism is in short supply, but those searching for hope in these dark times might consider Latin America.It's not the first place that comes to mind when thinking about democracy, associated as it is with coups, death squads, dictatorships, inequality, drug violence and now a country, El Salvador, offering itself up to Donald Trump as an offshore prison colony for deportees. Continue reading...
In today's newsletter: The new US hardline policies have sparked widespread fear and controversy, as families, students, and tourists face arbitrary detentions and deportationsGood morning. A student arrested in the street for accusing Israel of genocide; a father of an autistic son, deported by mistake only for the authorities to say there was no way to bring him back; tourists held in solitary confinement with no explanation; and a scientist expelled for daring to be critical of Donald Trump. As the consequences of the White House's hardline immigration policies unfold, they increasingly look like the behaviour of a police state.The lawlessness is the point," Greg Sargent wrote for the New Republic: these errors,' as you might have gathered by now, appear to be fully part of the design." But it is also true that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) has been criticised for its treatment of immigrants for a long time.Ukraine | Donald Trump has issued a rare rebuke to Moscow for an air attack that killed 12 people in Kyiv, telling the Russian president in a social media post: Vladimir, STOP!" The US president's remarks come as he makes a renewed push to end the Ukraine war, reportedly on terms favourable to Russia.UK news | Cyclists who kill pedestrians by dangerous cycling could face life imprisonment in England and Wales under new amendments to the crime and policing bill.World news | India's army chief was set to lead a high-level security review in Srinagar on Friday, days after militants opened fire on tourists in Indian-held Kashmir, killing 26 civilians in one of the worst such attacks in years. The Indian Army has launched sweeping search-and-destroy" operations, deployed surveillance drones, and ramped up troop numbers across the Kashmir Valley. A manhunt is underway for three suspects - one Indian national and two Pakistanis.Economy | Consumer confidence in the UK has fallen to the lowest level for more than a year amid concern that Donald Trump's trade wars could further drive up living costs for British households.Emergency services | Ambulance staff are facing horrendous" levels of violent assault and abuse as incidents rise to the highest on record, according to new data. Continue reading...
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