13 hours ago Trump plans to ‘flood the zone’ with immigration executive orders. Civil rights groups are bracing for them

Immigrants and advocates are expecting a blitz of actions that gut legal immigration pathways and swiftly reverse Biden-era policies, Alex Woodward reports

Events

14 hours ago Environmental group blasts Trump’s plan to roll back auto emissions regulations: ‘Everyone with lungs will pay the price’

Vehicles that run on gas emit greenhouse gases that warm the planet, resulting in drought and other consequences of climate change

Politics

22 hours ago IMF sees steady global growth, but warns that Trump tariff, tax and deportation plans cloud outlook

The International Monetary Fund expects the world economy to grow a little faster and inflation to keep falling this year

Events

17 hours ago Washington DC residents flee ahead of Trump inauguration: ‘I can’t be here’

Republicans and conservatives meanwhile are pouring in for celebrations with hotels being nearly 70% bookedAlejandra Whitney-Smith has plans for president-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration next week: spend a week in a cabin without technology.“It [inauguration weekend] coincides with my birthday weekend, which I usually do spend in DC, but when the election happened, I told myself, ‘Oh, no, I can’t be here,’” said Whitney-Smith, whose mother was working at the Library of Congress during the January 6 attack on the US Capitol in 2021. “I just remember that feeling of fear for her and then also just concern for me being in the city. I just knew for me – I didn’t want to be around that sort of hostile negative energy.” Continue reading...

Politics

25 hours ago ‘It’s going to be rough’: what Trump’s response to LA fires portends for future climate disasters

Big oil executive plans to celebrate Trump’s inauguration as California burns – though experts say climatic conditions are only getting more extremeDonald Trump’s response to the catastrophic wildfires in Los Angeles has provided a stark prologue to how his US presidency will likely handle the growing threat of such disasters – through acrimony, brutal dealmaking and dismissal of a climate crisis that is spurring a mounting toll of fires, floods and other calamities.As of Thursday, four fires, whipped up by wind speeds more typically found in hurricanes, have torched 63 sq miles (163 sq km) of Los Angeles, a burned area roughly three times the size of Manhattan, destroying more than 12,000 homes and businesses and killing at least 25 people. The Palisades and Eaton fires, the largest of the conflagrations that have turned entire neighborhoods to ash, are still to be fully contained. Continue reading...

Events

19 hours ago Trump to head indoors for inauguration bucking outdoor ceremony to avoid frigid temps

Instead of plans to ‘go hard,’ as the Trump-Vance transition team said when releasing their official portraits, the incoming leaders may have to go inside

Politics

20 hours ago A crypto council? Trump plans to make cryptocurrency a national priority with executive order

Federal agencies filed more than 100 enforcement actions against the crypto industry in the last few years

Politics

21 hours ago US TikTok ban to go ahead on Sunday hours before Donald Trump's inauguration

Social media app TikTok will be banned in the US just hours before Donald Trump takes over in office. The US Supreme Court said the ban will go ahead on the weekend

Politics

21 hours ago Trump’s border policy tore apart many families. Nobody knows what happens to them now

Number of families that are still separated remains unclear, and a previous ruling offers separated families few protections from future deportationIn summer 2017, the Trump administration began quietly separating families at the US-Mexico border. Under the “zero-tolerance” policy formally announced months later, federal immigration authorities removed children as young as four months old from parents or adults who were seeking asylum. The administration didn’t announce any plans for reunification.As Trump 2.0 grows closer and closer, so does the unease of the lawyers and advocates who have spent years locating, representing and reuniting these families. Organizations Justice in Motion, Kids in Need of Defense and the Women’s Refugee Commission, along with the global private law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, formed a court-appointed steering committee after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed the 2018 class action lawsuit Ms L v US Immigration an...

Politics

21 hours ago ‘Get those rocket ships going’: where will Trump’s space odyssey lead Nasa?

Donald Trump and SpaceX owner Elon Musk have ambitious plans in space. Are they shooting for the moon?As Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House next week with Elon Musk at his side, the pair are planning to write the next chapter in US spaceflight history with an ambitious agenda that includes the first human footprints on Mars.How many of their grandiose aspirations get cemented into official US space policy and what gets left on the launchpad remains to be seen. But analysts envision a lively few years from the partnership between Musk, the enthusiastic billionaire founder of SpaceX, and Trump, who exploited US achievements in space during his first term for some jingoistic flag-waving. Continue reading...

Politics

24 hours ago ‘We are ready’: the ACLU is prepared to fight Trump’s attacks on civil liberties

Organization faces arguably its biggest test with Trump’s return to power with deportation, free speech and immigration on the agendaThe American Civil Liberties Union, a leading defender of rights and freedoms enshrined in the US constitution, has drafted several major lawsuits it is prepared to file should Donald Trump try to wield excessive or unlawful power at the start of his second presidency, which starts on Monday.Cecillia Wang, the ACLU’s recently appointed national legal director, said the organisation was fully set, with plaintiffs lined up and legal complaints already written. The incoming president’s plans to mass-deport millions of undocumented immigrants, his threats to pursue vendettas against his political enemies and his talk of mobilising the military for domestic purposes, are all squarely in the ACLU’s sights. Continue reading...

Politics