by Lois Beckett in Altadena, California on (#6V9V8)
The slogan has been appearing on posters, fliers and social media in support of the small and racially diverse suburbThe day after the Eaton Canyon wildfire, still reeling from the destruction of her home and her business, Gaby Murguia scrawled a message on the windows of her truck: Altadena is not for sale."In the month since historically destructive fires raged across Los Angeles, the same slogan has been appearing on posters at local protests, on fliers at restaurants and across new and old social media accounts in the small and racially diverse suburb of Altadena. Continue reading...
The US vice-president and the Ukrainian president were locked in bilateral discussions at the Munich Security Conference as part of Donald Trump's push for a negotiated peace agreement to end Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Zelenskyy referred to it as a 'good conversation' and both spoke of more talks to come
Global immunisation programmes are under risk as the US slashes its aid programme and the UK considers cutting fundingIt is easy to become so used to scientific and social advances that we take them for granted. But sometimes we should pause to celebrate - to feel genuine awe - at the wonders that we have seen. Amidall the wars, the disasters and the crimes of thelast half century, we have witnessed nothing shortof a miracle.Vaccination, in addition to clean water, sanitation and improved nutrition, has been one of the greatest contributors to global health. It is responsible for much of the astounding fall in child mortality, which plummeted by 59% between 1990 and 2022. It has saved more than 150 million lives, mostly of infants, since the Expanded Programme on Immunisation was launched by the World Health Organization in 1974. Initially designed to protect children against diseases including smallpox, tuberculosis, polio and measles, the scheme has since been extended to cover more pathogens. Then, in 2000, came the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (Gavi), a public-private organisationthat provides financial and technical support for vaccination in poorer countries and negotiates with manufacturers to lower costs. Continue reading...
Getting rid of separate best actor and best actress categories is not the answer to lack of diversity in the industryThe Guardian style guide advises writers to use the term actor" regardless of the performer's identity: avoid actress except when in name of award, eg Oscar for best actress". As the awards season is upon us, this instruction goes to the heart of a question that has been asked behind the scenes - should we still have separate best actor and actress categories? Or are they exclusionary and outdated? There's no Academy award for best female sound engineer.Last year, Variety magazine reported that the Academy was considering eliminating the separate awards, following the example of the Grammys in 2012 and other film and TV honours since, but that this was still in early exploration". The arguments in favour are that this would put male and female actors on an equal footing and include non-binary actors. Thecase against is the danger of fewer or no women at all being nominated: the Brits' decision to combine the best soloartist awards in 2022 was immediately followed byan all-male shortlist. Continue reading...
People from Afghanistan, Iran, China and other countries flown out as Trump's deportation effort intensifiesThe US has sent undocumented immigrants from several Asian countries whose governments have refused to accept them to Panama, in a move signalling an intensification of the Trump administration's deportation effort.A military plane carrying 119 immigrants from countries including Afghanistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, China, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Pakistan flew from California to Panama City on Wednesday in what was expected to be the first of three migrants flights to the country. Continue reading...
Many fear deportation back to Venezuela and an autocratic regime after the Trump administration ended protectionsThe Trump administration's decision to end temporary humanitarian protections for Venezuelans who came to the United States seeking refuge in recent years has plunged hundreds of thousands of people into uncertainty. Many worry they could be deported back to the autocratic regime they tried to flee.We lived in fear and we are still afraid," said Jesus, who fled Venezuela with his wife and children, crossing through Colombia, the Darien jungle in Panama and then Mexico, before arriving in Texas in 2021. His wife had worked as a civil servant in Venezuela, and had grown increasingly alarmed by the government's crackdown on free speech and resisted participating in pro-government demonstrations. That's when the couple began receiving threats. They even chased us into our home," Jesus said. Continue reading...
Experts' concern grows as communication breaks down among federal agencies responsible for tackling epidemicThe Trump administration has disrupted the US response to bird flu as the outbreak worsens, leading to confusion and concern among federal staff, state officials, veterinarians and health experts, 11 sources told Reuters.Since Donald Trump took office on 20 January, two federal agencies responsible for monitoring and responding to the epidemic have withheld bird flu reports and canceled congressional briefings and meetings with state health officials, the sources said. Continue reading...
Republican senator Lisa Murakowski introduces bill to require peak's name kept on US maps, laws and regulationsThe Alaska Republican US senator Lisa Murkowski has introduced legislation to officially rename North America's tallest mountain as Denali, a counter to Donald Trump's executive order to revert the peak's name to Mount McKinley.Murkowski's bill, which was co-sponsored by her fellow Republican senator for Alaska, Dan Sullivan, would require the peak to be referred to as Denali on any US maps, laws and regulations. Continue reading...
Jokes about the president's power grab at the Kennedy Center in Washington soon pale. This is a nakedly authoritarian moveDonald Trump's announcement that he was installing himself as the chair of the John F Kennedy Center, Washington DC's temple to the performing arts, might have been mistaken for something petty or trivial - another random, Pollock-esque splatter of the policy paintbrush against the canvas of the world. On his favoured social media site he posted an image, presumably AI-generated, of himself as a dinner-jacketed orchestral conductor - the macho maestro of the US. But this is more than personal: it is political, and points towards the president's wider project.To understand what is going on, it is necessary to consider Trump's favourite European authoritarian, Viktor Orban. Hungary's prime minister has chipped away at his country's constitution and judiciary. But a no less powerful tool has been his attention to parts of society often regarded as unimportant compared with a country's constitution. Alongside crushing independent media, Orban's government has co-opted the arts, appointing right-leaning directors to theatres, and instigating nationalist art exhibitions. Orban understands that culture creates the climate for emotion and memory, imprints national myths, and - often intangibly - acts on politics.Charlotte Higgins is the Guardian's chief culture writer Continue reading...
And despite having ample time to prepare for this moment, why do Europe and Britain's leaders seem so surprised?In the wake of Donald Trump's decision to instigate his Ukraine peace plan", it's great to hear from US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, that everything is on the table". Also: would President Putin like to keep the table? I get the feeling that Hegseth would be very willing to throw in the table, which is likely to be hewn by Saudi craftsmen. That's not a bone-saw euphemism: Trump says the putative peace talks could be hosted by the crown prince Mohammed bin Salman. For now, the world had to settle for Hegseth popping into a Nato defence ministers meeting in Brussels to announce: Make no mistake, President Trump will not allow anyone to turn Uncle Sam into Uncle Sucker." So this week offered an opportunity to watch Eisenhower quotes get Disneyfied by a defence secretary with a Crusades tattoo. Good times!Anyway: the peace plan. I expect this lesson is contained in Trump's seminal business text, The Art of the Deal, but one fairly reliable principle of negotiation is that if you say a number first, you end up negotiating down from it. If you get the other side to say a number first, you can negotiate up from that. For whatever reason, and supposedly before formal negotiations have even begun, Hegseth has already effectively surrendered most or all of the land taken by Russia since 2014, the possibility of Ukraine joining Nato, and the threat of any future European security being guaranteed by the US. I image Vladimir Putin will simply accept the terms by pointing at him and saying, You're hired!" Continue reading...
Organized labor could be Trump's kryptoniteCan anybody stop Trumpism? Progressives are understandably worried. Though federal judges may temporarily pause some of the new administration's most brazenly illegal executive orders, a hyper-conservative supreme court lies waiting in the wings. And looking ahead to 2028, it's hard to feel hopeful about defeating Maga given that the Democratic party continues to hemorrhage working-class voters.But there's no need to despair. A powerful force in our society has the legitimacy, resources and leverage to turn things around: organized labor. Unions can beat back Donald Trump's attacks, expose his sham populism, and - by uniting workers around their shared economic interests - help isolate his xenophobic scapegoating. Continue reading...
Judge challenges administration's dismantling of US foreign assistance and sets five-day deadline to prove complianceA federal judge has ordered Donald Trump's administration to temporarily lift a funding freeze that has shut down US humanitarian aid and development work around the world, and he has set a five-day deadline for the administration to prove it is complying.The judge's ruling late on Thursday cited the financial devastation that the near-overnight cutoff of payments has caused suppliers and non-profits that carry out much of US aid overseas. Continue reading...
Cameras are hidden in unmarked boxes on utility poles in a move residents and advocates call creepy' and corrosive'What appear to be cameras hidden in unmarked boxes have appeared on utility poles outside the Atlanta homes of some people connected to the movement against the police training center known as Cop City", raising constitutional concerns, the Guardian has learned.The development comes after several years of ongoing state surveillance of some Atlanta residents opposed to the $109m training center, including officers following people in patrol cars and blasting sirens outside bedroom windows at 3am. Continue reading...
European leaders to put pressure on US vice-president to involve them in talks over Ukraine's fate. Plus, Texas judge fines New York doctor for mailing abortion pillsGood morning.The US vice-president, JD Vance, is to meet the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and other European leaders in Munich, after widespread criticism of Donald Trump's statements on Ukraine.What's the reaction been in Ukraine? Anger and betrayal were common emotions among those the Guardian spoke to in Kyiv. Zelenskyy called the Putin-Trump call unpleasant" - but clearly cognizant of being unable to burn bridges, said the subsequent call he had with Trump was a very good conversation".How many hostages remain with Hamas? There are 76 people, though it is unclear how many are still alive. Continue reading...
The campaign against Claudine Gay, Harvard's first Black president, has become a blueprint increasingly wielded against women and scholars of colorJo Boaler, a professor of mathematics education at Stanford University, is not new to criticism of her work turning ugly. Boaler champions a reformist approach to teaching maths, arguing that strategies that emphasise reasoning over memorisation lead to more equitable outcomes. When she first moved to the US from Britain in the late 1990s, she was warned that her research would anger defenders of traditional methods. Backlash from some colleagues - including accusations of scientific misconduct" that the university dismissed - grew so personal that she briefly moved back to the UK.Back at Stanford two decades later, Boaler was tapped in 2019 by the California department of education with four other scholars to rewrite the state's mathematics pedagogical framework, a non-binding guide seeking to help educators improve outcomes for all students". Continue reading...
What happens when two comics artists meet on the page' to explore the tragedies of the Israel-Gaza war? Art Spiegelman, best known for his Pulitzer prize-winning Holocaust memoir Maus, and Joe Sacco, author of bestselling graphic reportage Palestine, grapple with the ongoing crisis Continue reading...
by Tom Phillips Latin America correspondent on (#6V9GN)
Homeland security chief Kristi Noem claims the US is shipping criminal alien murderers' to the Cuba naval base - but the immigrants' true stories remain enigmaticHandcuffed and shackled, the men appear in government propaganda photos being herded towards military cargo planes that will carry them to an uncertain future in an infamous land.These individuals are the worst of the worst that we have pulled off of our streets," Donald Trump's homeland security chief, Kristi Noem, thundered against the supposedly criminal alien murderers, rapists, child predators and gangsters" being packed off to Guantanamo Bay. Continue reading...
Trump's asylum offer to South Africa's white minority follows years of AfriForum lobbying on Elon Musk's behalfDonald Trump's offer of political asylum to South Africa's white minority, just days after blocking genuine refugees from travelling to the US, followed years of campaigning by an Afrikaner group that has promoted white genocide" conspiracy theories while also lobbying on behalf of Elon Musk's business interests.Last week, Trump issued an executive order that misrepresented a new South African law, the Expropriation Act, as a racist move to persecute white Afrikaners by seizing their farms without compensation. Continue reading...
We foresaw Kansas City getting to the Super Bowl but underestimated their superb opponents. One of us hit on the rise of a certain rookie though ...Congratulations to the 99% of NFL pundits and fans whose preseason predictions have long made their way through the garbage disposal. Unfortunately, the NFL writers for the Guardian have no such luck. Our villainous editors are forcing us to turn back the clock to early September to revisit our season predictions (you can read them in full here).While we'd love to take a victory lap and say we saw all the twists and turns coming, that's not exactly the case (though we did nail a few). So, let's rip off the Band-Aid and see how our prognostications panned out. Continue reading...
Big wall climber Sasha DiGiulian hopes to be remembered for establishing a new baseline for female climbers, including how they are recognized, treated and paidIn August 2013, Sasha DiGiulian traveled to the Dolomites to attempt Bellavista, a dream years in the making. After two weeks of working on the crux pitches, she climbed the entire route in a single push, becoming the first woman to climb a 5.14b big wall, breaking a major barrier in the sport.Then a sport climber, DiGiulian was incredibly strong on single-pitch routes, but unaccustomed to the complexity of big walls. I had climbed 5.14d, so I thought the 5.14b pitches wouldn't be so hard, but I learned how much the logistics, weather, and fatigue add up," she says. Continue reading...
Experts are split between concerns about future threats and present dangers. Both camps issued dire warningsI was a technophile in my early teenage days, sometimes wishing that I had been born in 2090, rather than 1990, so that I could see all the incredible technology of the future. Lately, though, I've become far more sceptical about whether the technology that we interact with most is really serving us - or whether we are serving it.So when I got an invitation to attend a conference on developing safe and ethical AI in the lead-up to the Paris AI summit, I was fully prepared to hear Maria Ressa, the Filipino journalist and 2021 Nobel peace prize laureate, talk about how big tech has, with impunity, allowed its networks to be flooded with disinformation, hate and manipulation in ways that have had very real, negative, impact on elections.Alexander Hurst is a Guardian Europe columnist Continue reading...
A superpower that once built alliances across the west is dramatically reorienting itself - and so too must its former alliesWrapped in a flag and clutching a beer, Marc Fogel looked understandably overwhelmed. The 63-year-old teacher from Pennsylvania was safe at last, freed via prisoner exchange from the Russian jail where he served three and a half years for possessing the marijuana his family says he took for back pain. His homecoming this week was just the kind of heartwarming scene Donald Trump needs to show ordinary Americans that cosying up to Vladimir Putin's murderous regime could pay off, and the president himself said he hoped it marked the beginning of a relationship where we can end that war" in Ukraine.Or to put it another way, hours later his new defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, was in Brussels dictating the effective terms of Ukraine's surrender, over Ukrainian heads and on terms that a former head of MI6 has called a golden opportunity" for Putin to walk away. Continue reading...
National monument commemorates 1969 riot led by trans women of color outside historic New York City barThe National Park Service eliminated all references to transgender people from its website for the Stonewall national monument on Thursday. The monument commemorates a 1969 riot outside New York City's historic Stonewall Inn, led by trans women of color, that ignited the contemporary gay rights movement.The move comes as federal agencies across the country seek to comply with an executive order Donald Trump signed on his first day in office, calling for the US government to define sex as only male or female. Continue reading...
Crowds, including undocumented people, take to streets in fierce show of resistance against immigration crackdownsCrowds of demonstrators including undocumented people took to the streets of downtown Manhattan on Thursday in a fierce show of resistance against Donald Trump's anti-immigration policies.The rally, which started at Foley Square and in front of the field office of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (Ice), came amid the Trump administration's nationwide immigration crackdowns. Continue reading...
Office of personnel management orders agencies to dismiss workers who had not yet gained civil service protectionThe Trump administration on Thursday intensified its sweeping efforts to shrink the size of the federal workforce, the country's largest employer, by ordering agencies to lay off nearly all probationary employees who had not yet gained civil service protection - potentially affecting hundreds of thousands of workers.In addition, workers at some agencies were warned that large workplace cuts would be coming. Continue reading...
New York's governor, Kathy Hochul, has rejected a request from Louisiana to extradite a doctor who was charged there with prescribing abortion pills to a pregnant minor. 'I will not be signing an extradition order that came from the governor of Louisiana,' Hochul said at a news conference in Manhattan. 'Not now, not ever' Continue reading...
by Emily Swanson in New York and agency on (#6V8PE)
Mayor says plan to re-establish Ice office under discussion despite New York law prohibiting such a moveIn a sign of increasing cooperation with Donald Trump's anti-immigration plans, the Republican administration's hardline so-called border tsar", Tom Homan, met with New York's Democratic mayor Eric Adams on Thursday as the White House pushes for more detaining and deporting of immigrants, especially those accused of crimes.The two resumed discussions on a controversial topic they had talked about in a previous meeting in December - re-establishing an office for the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (Ice) at the city's notorious Rikers Island jail. Continue reading...
AI chatbots have a tendency to exaggerate, but their verbose nature feels well-suited to the highly associative task of dream analysisSome say that talking about your dreams is boring, but personally I think otherworldly nocturnal escapades provide far richer fodder for small talk than the footy season or this unseasonal weather. Sadly, not everyone agrees. That's why, when I hear about an AI dream interpretation app, I'm seduced by the potential for a captive, preternaturally intelligent assistant to help me decipher the more baffling corners of my psyche.AI chatbots such as ChatGPT have a well-known tendency to riff and exaggerate with alarming confidence, but their verbose nature feels well-suited to the free form and highly associative task of dream analysis. Admittedly, trading little understood fragments of our slumbering minds to a tech startup in return for spiritual guidance sounds like the foreboding premise of a terrifying sci-fi horror movie. But the app's fine print promises that dreams are stored safely and privately". Who am I to let an intuitive aversion to welcoming the machine into the last private vestiges of my consciousness get in the way of a good story? Continue reading...
The US president does not care who controls east Ukraine, so long as he can access the rare earth minerals underneathIn Donald Trump's world, everything has its price.There is no place for sentiment in his politics. Common values cannot secure loans for military aid. And the US president does not care who controls the blood-soaked soils of east Ukraine, so long as he can access the rare earth minerals that lie beneath. Continue reading...
President's directive placed on hold after families and medical providers sue over access to gender-affirming careA federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked Donald Trump's recent executive order aimed at restricting gender-affirming healthcare for transgender people under age 19.The ruling was a victory for trans and non-binary youth and their families who filed a lawsuit after their healthcare was abruptly canceled due to the president's order. Trump's policy, one of a slew of anti-LGBTQ+ orders during his first month in office, dictated that federal funding should be revoked from hospitals and clinics that provide gender-affirming care to youth under the age of 19. Continue reading...
Senate voted on Thursday to confirm the controversial anti-vaccine campaigner's nomination as health secretary. After taking the oath, Kennedy said Trump had been sent to him by God and called him a 'pivotal historical figure'
by Lauren Aratani and Callum Jones in New York on (#6V015)
The US president has repeatedly threatened to tax imports at the same rate those countries impose on US goodsDonald Trump has once again threatened to impose a wave of tariffs on US imports, stepping up his bid to overhaul the global economic order.On Thursday, the US president said he plans to introduce reciprocal" tariffs, ensuring the US imposes the same taxes on its imports from the rest of the world that American goods face in other countries. Continue reading...
by Guardian staff and agencies in Washington on (#6V92A)
We're all spending a lot of money that we could be spending on other things,' the US president saidDonald Trump said that he wants to restart nuclear arms control talks with Russia and China and that eventually he hopes all three countries could agree to cut their massive defense budgets in half.Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump lamented the hundreds of billions of dollars being invested in rebuilding the nation's nuclear deterrent and said he hopes to gain commitments from the US adversaries to cut their own spending. Continue reading...
Danielle Sassoon, Republican who was interim US attorney in New York, leaves post in face of justice department orderThe top federal prosecutor in Manhattan resigned on Thursday rather than obey a justice department order to drop corruption charges against the New York City mayor, Eric Adams.The resignation of Danielle Sassoon, a Republican who was the interim US attorney for the southern district of New York, was confirmed by a spokesperson for the office. Continue reading...
Republican attorney general files suit claiming - without evidence - coffee chain's hiring policies cause higher pricesMissouri has sued Starbucks for discrimination because its workforce has become more female and less white".Filed on Tuesday by the state's Republican attorney general, the lawsuit accuses the coffee chain of engaging in systemic racial, sexual, and sexual orientation discrimination" through its diversity, equity and inclusion policies, including hiring quotas, advancement opportunities and board membership. Continue reading...
The Ukrainian president has said peace negotiations cannot be left to Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin alone, after the two leaders had a phone conversation on the future of the war on Wednesday. He said it was 'unpleasant' that Trump had spoken to Russia before Ukraine
Ruling reinstates Hampton Dellinger to office of special counsel as president targets bureaucrats with mass layoffsA judge blocked Donald Trump's attempt to fire the head of a body that protects whistleblowers and investigates corruption.Late on Wednesday Judge Amy Berman Jackson reversed the White House order sacking Hampton Dellinger as head of the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), and reinstated him in his post pending a court hearing set for 26 February. Continue reading...
School district says expanded immigration enforcement diverts resources and causes decreased attendanceThe Denver public school system (DPS) on Wednesday became the first US school district to sue the Trump administration over its policy of allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents in schools.Colorado's largest public school district argues in the federal lawsuit that the policy has forced schools to divert vital educational resources and caused attendance to plummet. Continue reading...
US news | The Guardian