The world’s richest man looks to move Canada to the right as the beleaguered prime minister prepares to departThe decision by the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, this week to resign as head of the Liberal party has set in motion a leadership race against the backdrop of a looming general election, which will be held amid political turmoil triggered by Donald Trump’s America First economic nationalism. It has also given Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, an opportunity to inject himself into yet another country’s political turmoil.Since Trudeau’s resignation on Monday, Musk has posted repeatedly about Canadian politics on X – the platform formerly known as Twitter he bought in 2022 for $44bn. He has praised clips of Pierre Poilievre, the leader of Canada’s Conservative party, while relishing in Trudeau’s downfall and engaging with rightwing Canadian influencers. Continue reading...

Politics

Donald Trump hopes agreement will take place before his inauguration amid renewed optimismThe White House is working to reach a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas before president-elect Trump’s inauguration, William Burns, the director of the CIA, has suggested.“Negotiations going on right now are quite serious and do offer the possibility, at least, of getting this done in the next couple of weeks,” Burns said in an interview with National Public Radio on Friday. “This administration worked very hard at that right up until 20 January. I think the coordination with the new administration on this issue has been good. President-elect Trump has made clear his interest in trying to get a deal, you know, before his inauguration.” Continue reading...

Economics

LA Department of Water and Power says it is working to restore power; Los Angeles county sheriff says death toll expected to rise; police say looters posed as firefighters coming out of housesFull report: international crews arrive to battle raging wildfiresPoliticians quibbling as LA burns: Gavin Newsom’s latest beef with TrumpDetails emerge about the LA fire victimsAs is noted in our news report on the California wildfires, at least 20 arrests have been made for looting. Officials have imposed a mandatory curfew in evacuation zones as well as in the city of Santa Monica, which is next to Pacific Palisades.“Looting is an issue, the number of arrests is continuously growing,” Capt Mike Lorenz of the Los Angeles Police Department said yesterday. Continue reading...

Events

Melania ended up wearing a £5,500 powder blue cashmere dress and bolero by Ralph Lauren to her husband's 2017 inauguration - one of few designers who offered to create an outfit.

Culture

Brexit bankroller and Nigel Farage pal Arron Banks is unable to attend his own £150,000 party celebrating Donald Trump's return to the White House after being denied US entry

Politics

Amid deepening debt and an onslaught by the president-elect, Labour must calm the markets, then think big economicallyIt’s certainly not 2008, nor even Truss 2022, but the men and women who move the financial markets are suddenly darkly pessimistic. Some of the private emails and WhatsApp messages circulating last week matched any efforts by Cassandra. The mood has turned against Britain.It is not one single thing, but a toxic mix. There is the prospect of a long period of stagflation, the consequence, as even the markets recognise, of 14 years of epic misgovernment. The problem now is partly that Labour does not have a plausible growth story, partly that the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is painted as having an economic tin ear that douses capitalist animal spirits, and partly because Trump’s arrival has exposed just how dependent an indebted, economically wounded Britain is on the kindness of strangers. It’s not yet a crisis – the stock market has held up – but without some skilful e...

Politics

Gavin Newsom has been accused of 'passing the buck' in his latest attempts to defend his response to the devastating 'Palisade Fire' which continues to rage.

Events

At Jimmy Carter's funeral, Mike Pence's wife, Karen, sparked speculation of a deliberate snub when she remained seated and ignored Donald and Melania Trump while warmly greeting Bushes.

Politics

LA Department of Water and Power says it is working to restore power as Los Angeles county sheriff says death toll expected to riseFull report: international crews arrive to battle raging wildfiresPoliticians quibbling as LA burns: Gavin Newsom’s latest beef with TrumpDetails emerge about the LA fire victimsHere is video of Los Angeles residents returning to their homes to assess the damaged left by the devastating fires which raged through multiple areas of the city:34,646 homes and businesses in Los Angeles are now without electricity, according to Poweroutage.us, an outage monitor that tracks blackouts across the US.San Bernardino: 8,333Riverside: 7, 152Santa Barbara: 2,081 Continue reading...

Events

California governor calls president-elect’s claim that water is being withheld from southern California ‘delusional’Gavin Newsom, California’s Democratic governor, appeared briefly to put his long-running feud with Donald Trump to one side on Friday, when he invited the president-elect to Los Angeles to survey devastation from the wildfires and meet with first responders, firefighters and the “Americans” affected.“In the spirit of this great country, we must not politicize human tragedy or spread disinformation from the sidelines,” Newsom wrote in a letter to Trump on Friday. “Hundreds of thousands of Americans – displaced from their homes and fearful for the future – deserve to see all of us working in their best interests to ensure a fast recovery and rebuild.” Continue reading...

Politics

Donald Trump has finally broken his silence over the Los Angeles fires that have consumed the west coast city

Events

Outrage over the handling of the devastating Los Angeles fires is heating up amid reports that city leaders failed to prepare local reservoirs while power grids struggled hours before the blazes.

Politics

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex stood next to the wife of the Democrat California Governor Gavin Newsom who has come under increasing pressure for his response to the raging wildfires.

Events

Peter Kyle is set to unveil the Government’s AI action plan on Monday.

Politics

Los Angeles county sheriff says death toll expected to rise, with firefighters racing to contain Palisades fireFull report: international crews arrive to battle raging wildfiresPoliticians quibbling as LA burns: Gavin Newsom’s latest beef with TrumpDetails emerge about the LA fire victimsCalifornia attorney general Rob Bonta has warned that it is illegal to engage in price gouging, looting or scamming of any kind and those who do in response to the fires will be held accountable by the law.“We’ve seen businesses and landlords jack up the price,” he told journalists at a press conference yesterday. “It’s called price gouging. It is illegal. You cannot do it. It is a crime punishable by up to a year in jail and fines.” Continue reading...

Events

The Hague prosecutor was appointed to oversee federal criminal investigations into the president-elect

Politics

The mood on the ground here is the same mix of rage and grief I've seen in Ukraine after a Russian missile strike or a particularly bloody battle. And almost everyone believes it was avoidable.

Events

Greenland's leader, Múte Egede, expressed his willingness to engage in negotiations with President-elect Trump.

Politics

The mood on the ground here is the same mix of rage and grief I've seen in Ukraine after a Russian missile strike or a particularly bloody battle. And almost everyone believes it was avoidable.

Events

A transatlantic row has broken out over the possible fate of ‘Isis bride’ Shamima Begum with Trump’s incoming counterterrorism adviser claiming he has been misrepresented

Politics

Palisades and Eaton fires start coming under control as fierce winds ease but forecasters predict another red flag warning for MondayFull report evacuation orders expand as Santa Ana winds set to pick upHow the climate crisis fuels devastating wildfiresLos Angeles fires: the damage in maps, video and imagesThe LA fire department issued a new immediate evacuation order at 7pm local time on Friday for the Palisades fire. It affects the following areas:It covers Sunset Boulevard north to Encino Reservoir and from the 405 Freeway west to Mandeville Canyon.The fires, coupled with strong winds, have severely degraded air quality by releasing hazardous smoke and particulate matter, posing immediate and long-term risks to public health. Continue reading...

Events

Questions about the viability of a female presidential candidate rise after a crushing presidential defeatDemocrats are harboring strong feelings of stress and gloom as the new year begins. And many are questioning whether their party’s commitment to diverse candidates – especially women – may lead to further political struggles as Donald Trump is sworn in for a second presidency on 20 January.A recent poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that a significant number of Democrats believe that it may be decades before the United States will get its first female president. Continue reading...

Politics

The president-elect is obsessed with drilling for fossil fuels, not to mention taking control of Canada and Greenland and renaming the Gulf of MexicoYou can buy a copy of this cartoon Continue reading...

Events

Countries that cherish democratic values need to take a stand against the president-elect’s throwback to unabashed American expansionismWatching politicians promise one thing, then do another, is a common experience in all democratic countries. Situations in which voters do not expect a politician to keep his word, and in many instances fervently hope and pray he will not, are rarer. Donald Trump, the US president-elect, fits this latter category. When Trump threatens to subjugate Canada, a Nato ally, by force, unilaterally annex Greenland, the autonomous territory of a friendly EU state, and override Panama’s sovereignty for bogus security reasons, most people assume he is not serious and his remarks carry little real significance. This response, while comforting, is a mistake.It’s entirely possible that Trump, pumped with hype, hot air and testosterone in the lead-up to his 20 January inauguration, is being gratuitously disruptive. He likes to shake things up. It amuses his Make A...

Politics

Profits are poised to dominate in a new era shorn of years of hard-won regulatory restrictionsWhen some of the biggest banks on Wall Street reveal their full-year earnings this week, they will have more to celebrate than just rising profits.Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration on 20 January – scheduled the Monday after US bank results week – will raise the curtain on a period of looser regulation, lower corporation tax, and weak climate commitments. Continue reading...

Events

Between Elon Musk, a free-for-all Facebook and Donald Trump, truth and decency are likely to have a hard time of it in 2025How did we get to a week in which the world’s richest man could label our safeguarding minister and women’s rights campaigner Jess Phillips a “rape genocide apologist”, and the boss of the world’s biggest social platforms could abandon moderating even the most despicable content in the US?Let’s go back 30 years. It’s 1995, cargo pants were slung low, Oasis were riding high. We were all going to Live Forever. And then the New York supreme court ruled against a long-forgotten company called Prodigy, which hosted online message boards. An unknown user had posted a message that the brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont (which had inspired The Wolf of Wall Street) had committed fraud. Stratton Oakmont sued for defamation and a crucial question was asked: was the site that hosted the comment responsible for it, in the way a traditional publisher would be for a comment on it...

Politics

Not a shot fired, not a snowball thrown... if President Donald Trump is genuine in his blustering threats to seize Greenland for the United States, military experts believe it could be easily done.

Events

President Joe Biden said he still believes he would have won the US election if he stood against Donald Trump.

Politics

Every barrel of oil, every cubic meter of gas, and every ton of coal burned brings us closer to environmental catastropheApocalyptic flames and smoke are raging through southern California in the worst fire in Los Angeles county’s history. At least seven people have died. Thousands of structures have been destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes. The private forecaster AccuWeather estimates initial damage and economic loss at more than $50bn and has the potential to be the costliest wildfire disaster in American history. The impacts of the disruption and loss faced by community members is incalculable.While some media outlets are discussing the link between the LA fires and climate crisis, the president-elect Donald Trump and rightwing media are using this devastating event to foster misinformation including denying the role of climate crisis.Tzeporah Berman is a Canadian environmental activist, campaigner and writer Continue reading...

Events

President-elect Donald Trump doubled down on making Canada the 51st state, but expanding the U.S. to the north could be disastrous for Republicans in Washington, DC.

Politics

Zuckerberg’s appointment of the UFC supremo to Meta’s board appears to be a calculated move to solidify ties with Trump through one of his most influential alliesIn the four months since Donald Trump accused Mark Zuckerberg of conspiring against him during the 2020 presidential election and threatened him with life imprisonment, the Meta CEO has gone to great lengths to curry favor with the incoming president.Shortly after Trump’s victory in November, Zuckerberg traveled to Mar-a-Lago to dine with the president-elect and his transition team, even donating $1m to Trump’s inauguration fund. He has also culled Meta’s third party fact-checking program, lifting restrictions on topics like immigration and gender. And this week, Zuckerberg took his efforts to align with the incoming administration a step further by appointing Dana White – the CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and a close Trump ally – to Meta’s board of directors. Continue reading...

Events

EXCLUSIVE: An expert has weighed in on 'deranged' Donald Trump's repeated desire to own Greenland, highlighting the eerie similarities to 'Germany in the 1940s'

Politics

Mel Gibson, who won two Oscars for his work on Braveheart, lost his luxury pad in Malibu, California, during the devastating wildfires raging through parts of the state

Events

Questions about the viability of a female presidential candidate also rise after a crushing presidential defeat Democrats are harboring strong feelings of stress and gloom as the new year begins. And many are questioning whether their party’s commitment to diverse candidates – especially women – may lead to further political struggles as Donald Trump is sworn in for a second presidency on 20 January.A recent poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that a significant number of Democrats believe that it may be decades before the United States will get its first female president. Continue reading...

Politics

A former Green Beret behind a clandestine invasion of Venezuela in 2020 to try and overthrow Nicolás Maduro says in court filings that he had authority from the highest levels of the government for the amphibious raid that ended with several combatants killed and two of his U.S. Special Forces colleagues in prison

Events

Mark Zuckerberg sat down with podcaster Joe Rogan for three hours on Friday and barely mentioned his newfound support of President-elect Donald Trump. Could this be Zuck 2.0?

Politics

Officials say five people killed in Palisades fire and six in Eaton fire as Gavin Newsom announces investigation into water supplyAfter the fire, the insurance battles: new ordeals to comeFleeing the LA fires alone on a wheelchair: ‘I had to take my chances’Californians: have you been affected by the wildfires?An update on the Hurst fire from the US forest service has increased the acreage burned to 771 and is 37% contained.477 personnel were assigned to the fire. Continue reading...

Events

Exclusive: Nigel Farage is set to host ‘the biggest inauguration party’ in Washington DC with Donald Trump, the president-elect’s family, Elon Musk, senior Republicans and the UK’s new ambassador to the US Lord Mandelson all expected to attend

Politics

Many in Youngstown, Ohio, believe the president-elect will tackle the town’s decline this time. Others are worried about his character flaws. Their concerns help explain how he returned to power – and how his second term might play outThe last time Donald Trump was president, he travelled to Youngstown, Ohio, among the most depressed of America’s rust belt cities, and promised voters the impossible.The high-paying steel, railroad and car industry jobs that once made Youngstown a hard-living, hard-drinking blue collar boom town were coming back, he said. “Don’t move. Don’t sell your house,” he crowed to a rapturous crowd in 2017. “We’re going to fill up those factories – or rip ”em down and build brand new ones.” Continue reading...

Politics