US news | The Guardian

As the US rips up its rules-based order and threatens sovereign nations, this is the time to make allies. Reparations might helpImagine this: a continent scarred by centuries of violence and exploitation, now standing united to demand justice. This weekend, the African Union (AU) is kicking off its annual summit with a bold, historic declaration: 2025 will be the year of Justice for Africans and People of African Descent Through Reparations. This marks the first time in its history that the AU has placed reparations front and centre.At first, you might wonder: is this really the right moment? Former colonial powers have shown little interest in addressing their past, and global leaders like the US president, Donald Trump, are actively dismantling international institutions. But maybe this is exactly the right moment for Africa to demand accountability, and for Europe's democracies to finally offer a meaningful response. As the world grapples with shifting power dynamics, Africa's call for justice is more urgent than ever. Continue reading...

I lost my own husband at a young age. It's rare (and v.g.) to see a heroine trying to live joyfully despite her griefBridget Jones is back and once again blazing a new path, this time as a widow. In Mad About the Boy, our eternally chaotic but lovable everywoman is navigating single parenthood, dating apps and grief. But unlike most widows in romcoms, she's not here to wither away in a beige cardigan, politely mourning until society deems it acceptable for her to love again. Instead, she's in bed with a 29-year-old park ranger named Roxster, proving that healing doesn't have to be quiet reflection - it can also look like great sex with a younger man.This is where Bridget breaks the mould. In most romantic comedies, women's grief is pitched as a problem to be solved. We must undergo a period of deep self-reflection before we are allowed back into the world of desire. We must heal, learn and then - maybe - we can be kissed under some twinkly lights at the end of the movie. Hilary Swank's character in P.S. I Love You waits for divine permission from her dead husband's letters before even thinking about dating again, whereas poor Demi Moore in Ghost is emotionally tied to Patrick Swayze for ever, choosing to simulate foreplay with a memory over intimacy with the living. Continue reading...

Trump had said defense bureau was high on list of world's richest man's federal budget and personnel slashing teamMembers of Elon Musk's department of government efficiency" arrived at the Pentagon Friday, in what appeared to be their first meeting with defense department staff, a US official told Reuters. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.Donald Trump has said the Pentagon would be an early target of Musk's government budget and personnel slashing team and that he expects the tech billionaire to find hundreds of billions of dollars in fraud and abuse in the department. Continue reading...

Workers for Consumer Financial Protection Bureau describe chaos and fear as lawsuits and basic functions grind to a haltThe termination email for a score of employees at the top US consumer watchdog arrived in the late hours of the night.Unfortunately, the Agency finds that you are not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge and skills do not fit the agency's current needs," dozens of probationary staffers at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) were informed on 11 February. Continue reading...

This blog has now closed. You can read our latest story here

Veteran official puts name to withdrawal of corruption charges to avert further mass resignations by prosecutorsUnder immense pressure from Donald Trump's justice department leadership, prosecutors in Washington have asked a federal judge to dismiss the criminal corruption case against Eric Adams, the New York mayor, rather than see the entire public integrity office be fired.The prosecutors, Edward Sullivan and Antoinette Bacon, filed the request on Friday night to withdraw the charges against Adams that included bribery, fraud and soliciting illegal foreign campaign contributions. Continue reading...

US vice-president's speech and meeting with Germany's AfD chief signal administration's wider plans for continentThe Trump administration is making a big bet on Europe's hard right.Speaking at a conference of Europe's leaders in Munich on Friday, the US vice-president JD Vance stunned the room by delivering what amounted to a campaign speech against Germany's sitting government just one week before an election in which the anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim AfD is set to take second place. Continue reading...

In a chastising speech on Friday that openly questioned whether current European values warranted defence by the US, the US vice-president painted a picture of European politics infected by media censorship, cancelled elections and political correctness. Vance accused European leaders of suppressing free speech, failing to halt illegal migration and running in fear from voters' true beliefs

Andrew Lester pleaded guilty to lesser charge in shooting of Black honor student who mistakenly rang his doorbellAn 86-year-old Kansas City man has pleaded guilty to a lesser charge in the 2023 shooting of Ralph Yarl, a Black honor student who was then 16 and rang the man's doorbell by mistake.Andrew Lester's plea on Friday came days before he was supposed to stand trial on charges of first-degree assault and armed criminal action in the shooting of the teenaged student. Lester pleaded guilty to second-degree assault as part of a deal with prosecutors that averted the trial. Continue reading...

News agency, which has declined to use Gulf of America' name in stories, also barred from Air Force OneThe White House has announced that it is indefinitely blocking Associated Press journalists from accessing the Oval Office and Air Force One amid a growing standoff between Donald Trump's administration and the news agency over the Gulf of Mexico's name.The White House deputy chief of staff, Taylor Budowich, made the announcement on X, saying: The Associated Press continues to ignore the lawful geographic name change of the Gulf of America. This decision is not just divisive, but it also exposes the Associated Press's commitment to misinformation." Continue reading...

President phoned while PM was with Mark Burnett, the Apprentice producer appointed as special envoy' to UKDonald Trump has spoken to Keir Starmer again after what appears to have been a spur-of-the-moment phone call from the US president that was not expected by the British prime minister and his team.News of the call, which took place on Thursday evening, emerged in a Downing Street statement about Starmer's meeting with Mark Burnett, the British TV producer whom Trump has appointed as special envoy to the UK. Continue reading...

US vice-president meets with AfD leader Alice Weidel as Trump administration courts European populist partiesJD Vance has met with the leader of Germany's far-right Alternative fur Deutschland party, breaking a taboo in German politics as the Trump administration continues to court and promote far-right populist parties across Europe.At the meeting in Munich on Friday, the US vice-president and AfD leader, Alice Weidel, reportedly discussed the war in Ukraine, German domestic politics and the so-called brandmauer, or firewall against the right", that prevents ultra-nationalist parties like AfD from joining ruling coalitions in Germany. Continue reading...

Treasury inspector general to launch audit as judge mulls whether access to sensitive data was unconstitutionalA government watchdog is to launch an inquiry into security over the US treasury's payments system as a judge on Friday considered whether access by Elon Musk's department of government efficiency" (Doge) to the highly sensitive data base was unconstitutional.Amid mounting court cases concerning Doge's activities, the treasury department's inspector general said it would launch an audit after Democrats complained about the access gained to a 25-year-old Musk associate, Marko Elez, who was briefly granted edit access within the system, meaning he had the potential to change entries. The access was later rescinded by an interim court ruling. Continue reading...

Transport safety board said recording suggests crew missed directive before crashing into passenger plane, killing 67The crew of the helicopter that collided in midair with an American Airlines jet near Washington DC's Ronald Reagan National airport might not have heard instructions from the air traffic controller to pass behind the plane, investigators said on Friday.The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) chair, Jennifer Homendy, said the recording from the Black Hawk helicopter cockpit suggested the crew may have missed the key instruction just before the 29 January collision, in which all 67 people onboard the two aircraft were killed. Continue reading...

US vice-president questions whether European values are worth defending as he rails against threat from within'

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...

State's surgeon general presents illness-preventing jabs as personal choice in move that experts call infuriating'

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...

Which US firms have ditched the diversity and inclusion policies opposed by Donald Trump and will UK follow suit?

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...

Macron leads chorus of politicians demanding US adopt coordinated approach at security talks in Munich

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...

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...

China could pick up the slack' and increase its influence in the region after Doge funding freeze

This blog is now closed. You can find all of our live US politics coverage here

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...

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...