45 h. ago Donald Trump wants celebrities to kiss the ring. Bill Maher did: who’ll be next? | Emma Brockes

After the apparent defanging of the once critical talkshow host, can the president get more stars onside? Some nuts will be tougher to crack than othersIf President Trump invited you to the White House, would you go? This is the question US hacks and other media personalities have been asking themselves since the inauguration, an American version of that self-flattering British perennial: when Buckingham Palace calls, will you be buying a fascinator to accept the OBE? In both cases, no matter how pluckily anti-establishment an individual may have been to that point, the answer is often a resounding: you bet!First, the rationalisations. In the US context, respect for the “office of the president”, for which there is no British equivalent that doesn’t prompt sniggering, is taken seriously enough that if the president calls, you don’t turn him down. There’s the standard argument in favour of engagement over boycott as a more constructive path to account-holding. And there is, for hacks...

Politics

7 d. ago Senate Democrat meets Ábrego García in El Salvador as legal battles continue – US politics live

Visit by Maryland’s Chris Van Hollen comes as a federal appeals court rules against the Trump’s administration’s efforts to block return to the USThe Democratic senator from New Jersey, Cory Booker, plans to travel to El Salvador, a source familiar with his itinerary said, as Democrats seek to pressure the Trump administration to return Kilmar Ábrego García, the wrongly deported Maryland resident.Booker’s trip to the Central American country would come after the Maryland senator Chris Van Hollen traveled there this week to meet with his constituent.The Supreme Court was clear: the Trump administration must act to facilitate the return of Kilmar Ábrego García to the United States. There is no room for debate – yet Trump is refusing, in defiance of a lawful court order.Every member of Congress should be standing up for the Constitution and demanding that the administration act to return Mr. Ábrego García to the U.S. and to his family.” Continue reading...

Politics

8 d. ago Cory Booker to visit El Salvador in effort to return wrongly deported man to US

Democrats press Trump administration to follow supreme court order to bring back Kilmar Ábrego GarcíaWho is Kilmar Ábrego García, the man wrongly deported to El Salvador?Cory Booker plans to travel to El Salvador, a source familiar with the New Jersey senator’s itinerary said, as Democrats seek to pressure the Trump administration to return a wrongly deported Maryland resident.Booker’s trip to the Central American country would come after the Maryland senator Chris Van Hollen traveled there this week to meet with his constituent Kilmar Ábrego García, a Salvadorian national deported last month in what the Trump administration acknowledged was an “administrative error”. Despite a supreme court ruling saying his administration must “facilitate” Ábrego García’s return, Trump has refused to take steps to do so, and El Salvador’s government on Wednesday denied Van Hollen a meeting with the deportee. Continue reading...

Politics

8 d. ago It's the economic end times, so obviously I'm thinking about my takeaway coffee | Emma Brockes

The true scale of what’s happening is hard to grasp, so our irrational brains reach for measly acts of self-denialMost of us, confronted with daily forecasts of recession and economic downturn, have an emotional response that expresses itself in a range of behaviours. Big purchases may be deferred or cancelled. Travel plans are revisited. We might review our childcare spend and wonder if we should go out less – all rational decisions in the face of the rising cost of living. Then there are the irrational gestures, those that have little meaning financially but offer us, via small acts of self-denial, an opportunity to feel we’re doing something morally rigorous. It’s these, in my case, that have lately been triggered.For me, the barometer has always been coffee, a small but ineradicable source of guilt that has only grown as the price of a single flat white creeps up towards £4. Forgoing this small pleasure neither damages my day, nor, on the other hand, does anything significant to...

Economics

1 week ago Cory Booker calls for insider trading hearings after Trump’s tariff backtrack

‘Not to have hearings, not to do any kind of oversight, undermines the faith we have in our government,’ senator says

Politics

1 week ago Democrat Gretchen Whitmer tries to distance herself from Oval Office visit

Michigan governor criticized for appearance, including for blocking her face with binders while her photo was takenThe Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer – considered to be a 2028 White House Democratic contender – was trying to distance herself from a recent Oval Office appearance alongside Donald Trump, which saw her get photographed while blocking her face with binders.Whitmer visited the Republican president on Wednesday alongside a bipartisan delegation to discuss a northern Michigan ice storm, the state’s defense assets and tariffs, among other issues. Following the meeting, Whitmer was brought into the Oval Office where she – as the New York Times described – “stood glumly” during a press conference that saw Trump sign several executive orders that targeted his political opponents. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Moment Donald Trump brutally snubs handshake with RFK Jr's actress wife Cheryl Hines at UFC 314

Actress Hines stood alongside her husband - Trump's secretary of health - as the president arrived at Kaseya Center in Miami and made his way to his seat.

Politics

2 w. ago Cory Booker spoke for 25 hours and didn’t mention Gaza once. That’s no surprise | Judith Levine

US politicians and the media are focused on our domestic crisis. But we cannot close our eyes to the outside worldSeven and three-quarters hours into his 25-hour speech on the Senate floor, the New Jersey Democrat Cory Booker uttered the word “Gaza”. He was not talking about the war. He stepped nowhere near the 50,000 Palestinians killed by the Israeli armed forces since 8 October 2023, or the US’s military and political support of the genocide.Rather, Booker was searching for a particularly ludicrous lie from a presidential administration that has told thousands. “There are lies about USAID, like, I don’t know, 5 million condoms going to Gaza or something outrageous,” he said. Considering the other outrageous things Trump has said about Gaza – such as his plan to “clean out” the strip to make room for luxury resorts – the remark felt trivializing.Judith Levine is a Brooklyn journalist and essayist, a contributing writer to the Intercept and the author of five books Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Cory Booker urges action in first event since historic speech: ‘This is a moment for America’

Democratic senator calls on voters to get creative in pushing back against Trump at town hall in New JerseyThe Democratic senator Cory Booker took a version of his record-breaking Senate floor speech on the road Saturday to a town hall meeting in a New Jersey gymnasium, calling on people to find out what they can do to push back against Donald Trump’s agenda.Booker took questions at suburban New Jersey’s Bergen Community College the same day that more than 1,200 “Hands Off” demonstrations took place around the country. The town hall event was punctuated both by celebratory shouts of “Cory, Cory” as well as at least a half-dozen interruptions by protesters. Continue reading...

Culture

3 w. ago The Guardian view on Donald Trump’s tariff ultimatum: tribute for access to America’s empire | Editorial

As the White House retools US imperialism with import duties, others must resist dependency – deepening regional ties and reducing exposure to chokepointsWhen Donald Trump stood before union auto workers in the Rose Garden he declared “Liberation Day”, promising to stand up for Main Street. Whether that pledge will be fulfilled is moot. He will declare victory either way. What the US president offered was not just an economic programme, but an imperial one.Mr Trump’s logic, if it exists, lies in the 397-page report on “foreign trade barriers” he brandished on Wednesday. Its message is brutally simple: you may sell your goods to Walmart shoppers, but only if you let US cloud services hoover up your data, US media flood your screens and US tech monopolies operate on their terms – not yours. TikTok is the test case for Trump’s platform nationalism: only US firms may mine data, reap profits and rule the digital empire. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Where is our Tiananmen square ‘Tank Man’ who can stand up to Trump? | Corey Robin

The reason we don’t see that person is because we’re asking the wrong questionEveryone’s waiting for that one person to stand up to Donald Trump. Not just that one person. There are a lot of such people. You can read about them in every newspaper. But that one person with real power who’s willing to risk something costly in defiance. That one university president who’ll say, fuck you and your money. That one Democrat who’ll say, fuck you and your threat to my re-election or that of my party. Everyone’s looking for our Tank Man, staring down a column of tanks, all by himself, in Tiananmen Square.Why don’t we see that person? Where is our Tank Man? (And, no, I don’t think Cory Booker doing a marathon-length filibuster counts.)When you’re thinking of becoming a hero, you feel like a slob. You feel, do you really have a right to do that?Corey Robin is the author of The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Donald Trump and a contributing editor at Jacobin. This piece origi...

Politics

3 w. ago Cory Booker didn’t go to the bathroom for 25 hours. Is that OK?

The Democrat delivered the longest Senate speech in history. We asked urologists one pressing question about itOn Monday evening, Cory Booker, a Democratic senator for New Jersey, took the floor to denounce the harm he believes Donald Trump and his administration have inflicted on the United States. “Our country is in crisis,” he said, decrying the economic chaos, mass layoffs and tyrannical acts of the administration’s first 71 days. He stopped speaking 25 hours and five minutes later, making it the longest Senate speech in history.Many praised Booker for the rousing political act. Some were also impressed by a particular physical feat: namely, he seemingly didn’t pee once the whole time. (A rep for Booker confirmed to TMZ that he did not wear a diaper during his speech.) Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago ‘Did you stand up?’: read part of Cory Booker’s blockbuster 25

I rise tonight because silence at this moment of national crisis would be a betrayal of some of the greatest heroes of our nationEditor’s note: the following is an excerpt from Cory Booker’s 25-hour marathon speech on the US Senate floorTonight, I rise with the intention of getting in some good trouble. I rise with the intention of disrupting the normal business of the United States Senate for as long as I am physically able.Cory Booker is a US senator from New Jersey Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Trump goes full gameshow host to push his tariff plan – and nobody’s a winner

There were charts and scores, as if The Price Is Right had come to Washington. The big prize? A global trade warIt was Jeopardy!, or The Price Is Right, come to Washington.On an unseasonably chilly day in the White House Rose Garden, Donald Trump stood with a giant chart listing which reciprocal tariffs he would impose on China, the European Union, the United Kingdom and other hapless contestants. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Cory Booker reveals how he managed to not use bathroom during record

Cory Booker has revealed how he was able to not use the bathroom during his record-breaking 25-hour filibuster.

Politics

3 w. ago After months of surrender, the Democrats have finally stood up to Trump – thank you, Cory Booker | Emma Brockes

Watching the New Jersey senator hold court for 25 hours felt radical and catharticOne of the problems beleaguering political opponents of Donald Trump has been finding a form of protest that, given the scale of his outrages, doesn’t seem entirely futile. You can parade outside a Tesla showroom. You can hold up dumb little signs during Trump’s address to Congress inscribed with slogans such as “This is not normal” and “Musk steals”. You can, as Democrats appear to have been doing since the election, play dead.Alternatively, you can go for the ostentatious, performative gesture. On Monday evening, Cory Booker, the Democratic senator for New Jersey who carries himself like someone who’d have been happier in an era when men wore capes, started speaking on the floor of the Senate and carried on for 25 hours and five minutes, breaking the chamber’s record by almost 50 minutes and delivering – finally – a solid, usable symbol of rebellion.Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist Continue readi...

Politics

3 w. ago Who is Cory Booker as he breaks record for longest Senate speech with fiery Trump condemnation?

US Senator Cory Booker delivers a record-breaking 25-hour speech in the Senate, criticising Donald Trump's agenda and highlighting Democratic efforts to challenge the president

Politics

3 w. ago Cory Booker sparks TikTok memes, songs and praise with record

The New Jersey Democrat took to the Senate floor on Monday evening, saying he would remain there as long as he was ‘physically able’

Culture

3 w. ago Watch moment Cory Booker breaks record for longest Senate speech in history after incredible 25 hour marathon

This is the moment New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker broke the record for the longest Senate speech in history.

Culture

3 w. ago Booker makes a stand against Trump – and doesn’t stop for 25 hours

Democrats have appeared lame and leaderless for 72 days, but then Cory Booker stood up and did something“Would the senator yield for a question?” asked Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.Senator Cory Booker, who on a long day’s journey into night had turned himself into the fighter that many Democrats were yearning for, replied with a wry smile: “Chuck Schumer, it’s the only time in my life I can tell you no.” Continue reading...

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