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President's culture war' crusade targets DEI and LGBTQ+ rights in bid to spread rightwing agenda, experts say

The Louvre's proposed two-tier fees are a better way to fund museums than iffy corporate sponsorship dealsIntroducing, five years on, another Brexit bonus: the chance to support the renovation of the Louvre. President Emmanuel Macron has proposed paying for the renaissance" of the Paris museum, in part, by increasing entrance fees for visitors from outside the EU.After some initial attempts to represent this as a direct insult - Brits will be forced to pay more than EU residents" (the Mail) - even the rabidly pro-Brexit press appears to have accepted that the scheme applies globally, to all non-EU visitors: an exceptionally cunning way of Brit-targeting, even for the French. Continue reading...

Justin Trudeau, Canada's prime minister, announces tit-for-tat 25% tariffs and warns of impeded access to vital goods critical to US security'The leaders of Canada and Mexico have hit back after Donald Trump signed an order authorizing drastic tariffs of up to 25% on their exports to the US, while China said it would complain to the World Trade Organization after it was also targeted by the president.Canada's prime minister, Justin Trudeau, on Saturday night made a televised address announcing concrete measures including a tit-for-tat 25% tariff phased in across C$155bn ($107bn) worth of American products. Trudeau said Trump had put at risk US consumers' and industries' access to much-needed Canadian critical minerals and resources including oil, energy and timber. The prime minister promised to work with Canada's provinces to review dealings with the United States. Continue reading...

Tariffs on imports mean higher costs for finishing fuels, much of which is likely to be passed on to consumersUS consumers will see higher prices at the gas pump from Donald Trump's decision on Saturday to apply tariffs on Canadian and Mexican oil, according to analysts and fuel traders.The likely hike in fuel prices reflects the double-edged nature of Trump's trade protections, which are designed to bolster domestic business and pressure US neighbors to curb illegal immigration and drug smuggling, but which will also run counter to his promises to tackle inflation. Continue reading...

Move would threaten life-saving global humanitarian aid programs, from HIV/Aids treatments to clean water accessThe website for the US Agency for International Development, or USAid, appeared to be offline on Saturday, as the Trump administration moves to put the free-standing agency, and its current $42.8bn budget for global humanitarian operations, under state department control.A message stating that the server IP address could not be found" appeared when attempts were made to access the website on Saturday. Continue reading...

The US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, indicated multiple jihadists were killed and no civilians were harmedThe US military has conducted airstrikes against Islamic State (IS) operatives in Somalia, the first attacks in the country during Donald Trump's second term as president.The strikes were carried out against IS-Somalia in the Golis Mountains, in Somalia's semi-autonomous northern Puntland region. In 2015, IS-Somalia splintered from al-Shabaab, a much larger and more widely known jihadist organisation affiliated with al-Qaida, which controls parts of southern Somalia. Continue reading...

Aviation experts say piloting Black Hawk helicopters is a complex challenge but army defends training operationsIn March 2023, two US army Black Hawk helicopters collided and crashed into a Kentucky farmer's field after a nighttime evacuation training mission, killing nine service members.That crash was among a dozen fatal crashes during army Black Hawk training missions since 2014 that claimed the lives of 47 service members and in April 2023 helped prompt Pentagon officials to temporarily ground and provide more training to all army aviators not involved in critical missions. Continue reading...

Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor chair to lead party still reeling from extensive lossesKen Martin, chair of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor party, won the crowded race to become the next chair of the Democratic National Committee on Saturday.The move provides Martin with a powerful perch to determine the messaging and trajectory of a party that is still reeling from its extensive losses in the November election and confronting four more years of Donald Trump's leadership. Continue reading...

Other swaps due to new rotation' include NPR for Breitbart, NBC for One America News and Politico for HuffPostThe Trump administration's program to shake up media representation at official briefings and press calls in Washington is set to affect the Pentagon, with credentialed media being rotated out of assigned workspaces for media newcomers.The conservative-leaning One America News Network will replace NBC News, Breitbart will be given space held by National Public Radio, the New York Post has been offered the New York Times' workspace and HuffPost will replace Politico. Continue reading...

US bank, world's biggest bullion dealer, says it will deliver raw material against contracts that will expire in FebruaryUS banking giant JPMorgan plans to deliver $4bn of gold bullion weighing more than 937 tons to New York this month, before an anticipated escalation of Donald Trump's trade-rebalancing tariff moves planned for Saturday.The US bank, the world's biggest bullion dealer, said it would deliver the hefty raw material, weighed as 30m troy ounces of gold, or 1.875m lbs, against contracts that will expire in February. Continue reading...

The loss of the young figure skaters whose lives were cut tragically short in the American Eagle flight 5342 crash has ripped a hole in the tightly knit world of figure skatingEveryone agreed it was the best camp they'd ever been to. The most fun. There was an interpretive dance class. Successful jump drills were met with high-fives all around. On the day of the Chinese new year, the kids all went out for hot pot. And parents and coaches, regardless of athlete rivalries, intermingled in camaraderie; when one parent noticed a coach's voice grow hoarse, they pulled a ginger shot from out of their purse, handing it to her with a smile.National development camps, such as the one that took place following the US figure skating championships in Wichita last week, are held for the highest performing juvenile, intermediate and novice skaters. The young athletes with the greatest potential are offered this chance to watch the stars of their sport compete, and then learn from some of the most elite coaches in the country. Continue reading...

Campaign ally sowed trail of enmity during first Trump presidency and allegedly was present at January 6 riotThe Trump administration's evisceration of US overseas aid has been presided over by a campaign ally who sowed a trail of enmity at multiple agencies during the first Trump presidency and has been publicly identified as allegedly having been present at the January 6 insurrection when rioters stormed the US Capitol.Peter Marocco has accumulated power in the office of foreign assistance, informally called F", that traditionally has helped coordinate US foreign aid programs. But under Marocco, it has enforced a full-scale freeze on overseas aid and a stop-work order that has in effect halted operations and already led to hundreds of layoffs in the United States and overseas. Continue reading...

The blazes killed 29 people and are estimated to have caused more than $250bn in damagesThe Palisades and Eaton wildfires, which killed at least 29 people and burned across about 60 sq miles (155 sq km) around Los Angeles, have been fully contained.California's department of forestry and fire protection's announcement on Friday came more than three weeks after the two blazes battered this highly populated area of southern California, laying waste to entire neighborhoods - including Pacific Palisades and Altadena. Containment refers to how much of a perimeter has been established around a fire to prevent it from growing, according to NBC News. Continue reading...

Magnificent, irreplaceable 20th-century architecture made with craft and imagination was destroyed in the Palisades wildfiresPacific Palisades and its surrounding neighbourhoods, which have burned so ferociously over the past three weeks, happen to be the location of some beautiful and magnificent 20th-century architecture. Or were, as the fire has taken a terrible toll.Houses by the emigre Austrian modernist Richard Neutra have gone, as have most of the Park Planned Homes of 1948, an idealistic experiment in affordable modern living by the architect Gregory Ain. Stone chimney stacks are all that remain of the scaled-up cabin that was Will Rogers' ranch house. His 30-horse stables, in their centre a rotonda like an equine chapter house, are ashes. Continue reading...

Some 18,000 employees across the country were poised to walk out after union negotiations stalledA strike that would have seen some 18,000 workers at Costco around the US walk off the job at midnight was averted on Saturday, with the Teamsters union reaching a tentative agreement just before the deadline.Full terms of the deal have not yet been disclosed publicly. Continue reading...

After the 2022 Dobbs decision, the anti-abortion movement's sights are now set on medication abortionDozens of anti-abortion activists streamed into the conference room of a Washington DC hotel. They jostled for seats as speakers, dotted throughout the room, blasted a song about the need to be a little more like Jesus, a little less like me".By the time a trio of advocates, assembled on a dais at the front of the room, started to talk about the Future of Chemical Abortion in America", the title of one of the first seminars at the National Pro-Life Summit, it was standing room only. Continue reading...

When asked about his plans to visit the crash site, Trump made a joke: The water? You want me to go swimming?'Every day, the world seems to get stupider and stupider and our leaders seem to get nastier and nastier. Nobody expects empathy or accuracy from Donald Trump but, even by the extremely low standards to which he is held, his reaction to the tragic mid-air collision in Washington DC that killed 67 people on Wednesday night was shocking. Continue reading...

Scholars warn of president's lawlessness in actions such as federal funding freeze and birthright citizenship orderDonald Trump's rapid-fire and controversial moves that have ranged from banning birthright citizenship to firing 18 inspectors general means the US president has shown a greater willingness than his predecessors to violate the constitution and federal law, some historians and legal scholars say.These scholars pointed to other Trump actions they say blatantly broke the law, such as freezing trillions of dollar in federal spending and dismissing members of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), even though they were confirmed by the Senate and had several years left in their terms. Continue reading...

President's deliberate deluge of policies overwhelms resistance as he aims to weaken the legislature, analysts sayDonald Trump was barely into his second week back in the White House when he declared that his latest presidency already heralded the golden age of America". Others reached for more ominous characterisations of the barrage of orders from the new administration that have rocked the US government: blitzkrieg, shock and awe, criminal.Trump came out of the starting gate fast with a crowd-pleasing" crackdown on undocumented immigrants, the cancellation of federal diversity programmes and the wholesale dismissal of independent anti-corruption inspectors from a raft of federal agencies. Continue reading...

Yet more evidence shows that we will only rely on it more as time goes on. It's time to debate it without toxic rhetoricBritain needs immigrants. According to the Office for National Statistics this week, Britain's indigenous" population in the 2030s will be static and ageing. Growth in population will be buoyed only by immigrants, their number predicted to rise by 5 million over the next seven years. Thank goodness, surely, for them.As this debate lurches back into public discourse, it is cursed by the ease with which xenophobia delivers political gain. The fact is that Britons have turned massively in favour of immigration over the past half century. In the 1950s and 1960s, roughly 80%-90% wanted it to stop. Then the inflow was under 250,000 a year and Enoch Powell could forecast rivers of blood". Net migration was below zero.Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Only 35% of Punxsutawney Phil's winter predictions are accurate, while Staten Island Chuck's forecasts have 85% accuracyScientists have cast doubt on the reliability of America's most celebrated rodent forecaster - whose apparent knack of predicting how long winter will last forms a hallowed tradition in the US.Punxsutawney Phil, made famous by the 1993 film Groundhog Day, attracts thousands of visitors every 2 February to the Pennsylvania town from which he takes his name. Continue reading...

Sending only some teams to the 111-year-old competition shows that MLS increasingly only cares about parts of the game it can controlFor the second year running, Major League Soccer will break with standard practice by sending only a portion of its teams to its federation's domestic cup competition, the US Open Cup. But unlike last year, the move comes without significant uproar or repercussions from the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) which runs the tournament.Tuesday's Open Cup news was part of a larger announcement, detailing which MLS teams would be taking part in which tournaments outside the 2025 MLS regular season and playoffs. These tournaments include the US Open Cup, Concacaf Champions Cup (the confederation's championship), Leagues Cup (MLS's joint venture with Mexico's Liga MX), and Canadian Championship (The Open Cup equivalent for Canada). Continue reading...

His second term seems to represent an unassailable victory for conservative white men - but soon he'll be another incumbent in an anti-incumbent worldWhy exactly is Donald Trump's new presidency so disorienting? So far, explanations have tended to focus on its manic pace, contempt for political conventions and blatant subversion of supposedly one of the world's most robust democracies.But all these elements were also present in his first presidency. Meanwhile, other features of both his terms, such as his cult of personality, scapegoating of immigrants and accusation that liberal elites have caused national decline, are standard practice for hard-right strongmen, and have been for at least a century.Andy Beckett is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Trump's pretense as king has quickly devolved into his strutting insult routine. He will always exploit tragedy to display his self-regardOutrages of Donald Trump's rancid character topple over each other so rapidly and in such volume that they long ago became banal. His vileness is unremarked upon, his rottenness unworthy of further commentary. Trump's offensiveness is an unspoken assumption. Rules and norms exist for him to break. More, he is rewarded. Meta, after discarding monitoring of hateful content and disinformation on Facebook, is paying him $25m in tribute to settle his lawsuit against it for having banned him after his attempted coup on January 6 and his potential instances of violence" and threats to public safety". All is forgiven, if not forgotten. There are no gates; there are no gatekeepers. Let the bad times roll.But Trump crashed through a new boundary after an army helicopter collided with an airliner about to land at Washington's Reagan National airport on 29 January with the loss of 67 lives. While police and firefighters were still recovering bodies from the Potomac River, before any report from the National Transportation Safety Board and evidence was fully gathered, Trump went on TV to spew blame against enemies within and to deflect responsibility. Continue reading...

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Trump loyalists to consider purge of potentially thousands of agents as senior bureau executives also under threatDonald Trump's political appointees at the justice department will consider in the coming weeks whether to purge a large number of FBI agents who worked on the criminal cases against the president and cases against rioters who stormed the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.The move comes as the justice department on Friday also told FBI leadership that eight senior executives at the bureau - including those overseeing national security, cybersecurity and counter-terrorism - needed to be fired, unless they retired beforehand. Continue reading...

Internal email says agency is reviewing' programs and contracts that promote or incubate gender ideology'Several federal government websites went dark while others were edited to remove mentions of gender on Friday evening as agencies scrambled to meet a deadline to scrub their websites, emails and contracts of gender ideology".The office of personnel management also directed agencies to disband employee resource groups, terminate grants and contracts related to the issue and replace the term gender" with sex" on government forms. Continue reading...

Mark Warner criticizes the Trump administration's decision to fire top FBI officials; Census and FAA websites appear to be down Friday evening. This blog is now closed.

This live blog is now closed. For the latest on the DC plane crash, read our full report:

Flight data and cockpit voice recorder in good condition' despite collision with American Airlines jet, official saysThe National Transportation Safety Board has recovered the flight black box" from the US military Black Hawk helicopter involved in Wednesday's deadly crash with a commercial airliner, and it appears to be undamaged, NTSB member Todd Inman said Friday.The black box - containing a flight data and cockpit voice recorder - was in good condition" despite its accident with an American Airlines jet in Washington DC, Inman said. But, he said, the NTSB would not be releasing information from the device immediately as investigations into the crash that killed 67 people aboard both aircraft continued. Continue reading...

Top bureau officials in five cities in line of fire with dozens of agents who worked on Trump investigations facing axeThe FBI launched a wide-ranging round of staff cuts on Friday as Donald Trump's administration moved to swiftly shake up the US's leading law enforcement agency, three sources familiar with the matter told the Reuters new agency.At least five top FBI officials in major US cities - Miami, Philadelphia, Washington, New Orleans and Las Vegas - were ordered to resign or be fired, one of the sources told Reuters. Continue reading...

US neighbors hit with 25% tariff and China with 10% as Trudeau pledges forceful but reasonable' responseDonald Trump has vowed to impose sweeping tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China starting this weekend, potentially setting the stage for a damaging trade war between the US and three of its biggest trading partners. Trump also threatened to follow up with a further wave of tariffs against the European Union.Goods exported from Canada and Mexico to the US will be hit with a 25% tariff, while products from China face a 10% levy, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told reporters on Friday. Continue reading...

An American Airlines passenger jet with 64 people onboard was coming in to land at Reagan National airport when it collided with a military helicopter. Here is a video timeline of the incident

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced the US would be imposing 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada, and a 10% tariff on China. Leavitt corrected a report by Reuters that the US wouldn't put sanctions in place against its northern and southern neighbours until March, saying they would be in place by Saturday

IRS handbook containing mentions of taxpayers' inequity' and inclusion' have been wiped, WSJ reportsAs the Trump administration continues to get rid of diversity programs throughout the government, it is deleting any mention of the words diversity," equity" and inclusion".That meant that in the Internal Revenue Service's procedural handbook for employees, the terms were wiped out when referring to finances and tax procedures rather than actual DEI programs, the Wall Street Journal reported. Continue reading...

Schools and universities must revert to Title IX guidance on sexual misconduct complaints from first Trump termSchools and universities responding to complaints of sexual misconduct must return to policies created during Donald Trump's first term, with requirements for live hearings and more protections for those students accused, according to new guidance issued on Friday by the education department.In a memo to education institutions across the nation, the agency clarified that Title IX, a 1972 law barring discrimination based on sex, will be enforced according to a set of rules created by the former education secretary Betsy DeVos. The rules govern how complaints of misconduct are investigated and how to settle cases where students present differing accounts. Continue reading...

Without Fews Net, recognised as a vital life-saving tool' for preventing food crises, people will die, experts warnThe system for monitoring global food crises appears to have been suspended after President Donald Trump's executive order froze US foreign aid.The website for the US-funded famine early warning systems network (Fews Net) was not accessible on Friday. A banner said reports and data were currently unavailable" without elaborating. Continue reading...

The American president's sabre-rattling over Greenland should alert member states to the need for solidarity and a resetEuropean leaders, Sir Keir Starmer among them, will gather on Monday in Brussels to informally discuss defence and security issues five years after Britain left the EU. When the meeting was set last year, few expected US aggression toward a European nation to be on the agenda. But initial incredulity at Donald Trump's bellicose claims on Greenland, a Danish territory, has been followed by shocked expressions of solidarity with Denmark's prime minister, Mette Frederiksen. A bullying 45-minute phone call between Mr Trump and Ms Frederiksen was described as horrendous".So it begins. As Europe reacquaints itself with MrTrump's aggressive America First" brand of diplomacy, further such provocations can be guaranteed. Fighting talk emanating from the White House will sometimes be a prelude to eventual compromise. But there can beno doubt that the challenges raised by the president's second coming aresubstantial and wide-ranging.Do 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...

Journalist and ex-host of Meet the Press played a key role in pushing back on prominent Republican hire last yearChuck Todd, the NBC journalist and former host of Meet the Press who was a key figure in pushing the network not to hire a prominent Republican operative last year, said on Friday he is leaving NBC News.There's never a perfect time to leave a place that's been a professional home for so long, but I'm pretty excited about a few new projects that are on the cusp of going from pie in the sky' to near reality,'" Todd said in a memo to staffers. So I'm grateful for the chance to get a jump start on my next chapter during this important moment." Continue reading...

Richard Grenell's visit prompts fresh speculation of rapprochement between Washington and CaracasA Donald Trump special envoy has flown to Venezuela to hold talks with its authoritarian leader, Nicolas Maduro, fuelling fresh speculation of a possible deal between the two governments.Richard Grenell, a prominent Maga cheerleader and diplomat who was the US ambassador to Germany during Trump's first term, was set to land in Caracas on Friday, according to CNN. Continue reading...

Candidates seem to agree Democratic party needs to move in a new direction but have squabbled over best strategiesMembers of the Democratic National Committee will elect their next chairperson on Saturday, as the party grapples with how to rebuild itself after devastating losses in the November elections and reckons with the tumultuous return of Donald Trump to the White House.The winner of the DNC chair race will help shape the message and priorities of the Democratic party, giving them a crucial role in the party's efforts to win back the House of Representatives in 2026. The race has attracted a large field of candidates, but two state party chairs - Ken Martin of Minnesota and Ben Wikler of Wisconsin - have emerged as the frontrunners. Continue reading...

Rwandan-backed M23 rebels are seizing control of areas within the DRC. This will only escalate unless western governments actAs if this world needs more bloodshed, here comes another major war knocking on the door of the crumbling international order. This week's ferocious assault and capture of the largest city in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) by rebels backed by troops from its tiny neighbour, Rwanda, marks an escalation with far reaching consequences beyond Africa. It also exposes the complacency of western governments, who many Congolese accuse of paving the way for this crisis.The rebellion, known as the M23, has been snowballing since 2021. In recent months, M23 seized swathes of territory as it encircled Goma, a city nestled below a group of volcanoes facing the Rwandan border. This week, the UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, called for Rwanda to stop supporting M23 and to remove its troops from Congolese territory, adding that the conflict had inflicted a devastating toll" on civilians, millions of whom need aid. In DRC's capital, Kinshasa, angry protesters lit fires and attacked the Rwandan, French and US embassies.Dino Mahtani is an independent researcher and writer Continue reading...

Court papers seen by the Guardian mean Jes Staley's appeal against FCA ruling will demand answers on links to sex offenderThe former chief executive of Barclays, Jes Staley, is gearing up for an explosive trial next month, that will force him to address evidence suggesting he hid the depth of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the sex offender he referred to as family".Court documents seen by the Guardian reveal myriad allegations made by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), including that Epstein messaged Staley about sex, women and foreign holidays, while working behind the scenes to bolster Staley's career by liaising with government officials, business leaders and royalty. Continue reading...

As Florida's attorney general, Bondi had laws restricting firearm access, leaving some worried about their gun rightsAs Pam Bondi awaits Senate confirmation to be US attorney general, one part of Trump's coalition isn't happy about her nomination: second amendment activists.Bondi, a longtime Trump ally, was attorney general of Florida when 17 high school students and staff members were killed in Parkland, Florida, in 2018. After the shooting, she banned gun sales to people younger than 21 and enacted a red flag law, allowing law enforcement to petition a judge to temporarily confiscate the guns of someone deemed to be a threat to themselves or someone else. Continue reading...