69 m. ago US officials tried to lobby against Marine Le Pen election ban, French judge says

Magali Lafourcade says the two envoys were convinced the far-right leader’s corruption trial had been politicalEurope live – latest updatesA French magistrate has said two Trump administration emissaries approached her seeking to lobby against an election ban on the French far-right leader Marine Le Pen.Magali Lafourcade, the secretary general of France’s human rights commission (CNCDH), an independent body that advises the government, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) she had reported the content of the meeting to the French foreign ministry immediately, fearing a potential “manipulation of the public debate in France”. Continue reading...

Politics

84 m. ago AI boss says chip sales to China ‘like selling nuclear weapons to North Korea’

Anthropic CEO says Trump administration’s approval has ‘incredible national security implications’

Events

90 m. ago Supreme court justices push Trump lawyer on how allegations against Fed governor Cook could harm the public – live

Court considers Trump administration’s bid to fire Lisa Cook, asking lawyer to provide evidence for alleged mortgage fraudHouse Republicans are starting a push on Wednesday to hold former president Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress over the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, opening the prospect of the House using one of its most powerful punishments against a former president for the first time.The contempt proceedings are an initial step toward a criminal prosecution by the Department of Justice that, if successful, could send the Clintons to prison.They’re not above the law. We’ve issued subpoenas in good faith.For five months we’ve worked with them. And time’s up. Continue reading...

Society

18 h. ago Scammers duped billionaires with bogus tickets for access to Trump officials at Davos: report

The USA House is a venue just outside the Davos security boundary where billionaires can rub shoulders with Trump administration officials attending the event

Politics

20 h. ago US forces in Caribbean seize seventh sanctioned oil tanker linked to Venezuela

U.S. forces have boarded and taken control of a seventh oil tanker connected with Venezuela as the Trump administration continues its efforts to take control of the oil in the South American country

Events

20 h. ago Doctors in Minnesota decry fear and chaos amid Trump administration's immigration crackdown

Doctors say immigrant patients are missing key medical appointments, afraid to come to medical clinics amid the Trump administration’s sweeping Minnesota immigration crackdown

Politics

21 h. ago China meets initial soybean purchase goal, but Trump's shifting trade policy could disrupt deal

The Trump administration says China has fulfilled its initial commitment to buy 12 million metric tons of soybeans, but it’s not clear if the trade agreement announced in October can withstand President Donald Trump’s ever-shifting trade policy as American farmers are still dealing with high production costs

Politics

25 h. ago Why the Trump administration’s demand for a list of Jews at Penn is so dangerous | Sigal Ben

If history teaches us anything, it is that making lists of Jews, no matter the ostensible purpose, is often a prelude to their and others’ persecutionThis month, a judge ordered the University of Pennsylvania to justify its refusal to collect and disclose the names and personal contact information of Jewish faculty, staff and students to the federal government. Late last year, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) sued Penn to force compliance with this chilling demand, made in the name of fighting antisemitism. Jewish and non-Jewish community members at Penn and beyond have united to support the university’s resistance to compiling and releasing data about members of campus Jewish organizations, the Jewish studies department, and individuals who participated in confidential listening sessions and surveys about antisemitism.That such a diverse array of organizations, including Penn’s Hillel and Meor chapters, AAUP-Penn, the Association for Jewish Studies, the American C...

Politics

27 h. ago Catholic cardinals warn US foreign policy under Trump risks global suffering

Church leaders cite Greenland threats, Venezuela action and aid cuts as undermining human dignity and peaceThree cardinals in the US Catholic church have criticized the Trump administration’s foreign policy, saying its push to obtain or otherwise seize Greenland, recent military action in Venezuela, and cuts to humanitarian aid risk “destroying international relations and plunging the world into incalculable suffering”.“Our country’s moral role in confronting evil around the world, sustaining the right to life and human dignity, and supporting religious liberty are all under examination,” said a joint statement from Blase Cupich, Robert McElroy and Joseph Tobin, respectively the archbishops of Chicago, Washington DC and Newark, New Jersey.The Associated Press contributed Continue reading...

Events

27 h. ago Might is right: US ‘foreign policy’ held hostage to mad king Trump’s whims

Increasingly unpopular at home, a president obsessed by his legacy has turned his scattergun on the world stageOne year into the second Trump administration, an actual US foreign policy remains just a nice idea. Instead, the world has been forced to adapt to the world according to Donald Trump: one increasingly shaped by his erratic shifts and unpredictable decisions, his fury at perceived slights and his growing desire to stamp his legacy in the model of an imperial leader from centuries past.Think of it as the mad king’s court, where every day is a carnival. Continue reading...

Events

30 h. ago Economic blackout day planned in Minnesota to protest ICE surge

Unions, faith groups and local leaders urge residents not to work, shop or go to school after killing of Renee GoodLabor unions, community leaders and faith groups are calling for an economic blackout in Minnesota on Friday to protest the surge of federal immigration agents in the state and mourn Renee Good.Organizers are urging Minnesotans not to work, shop or go to school. The Trump administration has dispatched some 3,000 federal agents to the state, in what it claims amounts to its largest enforcement operation thus far, amid a broader crackdown on immigration. Continue reading...

Economics

41 h. ago ‘The struggle continues’: MLK Day celebrated amid tense political climate

Holiday marked with parades and services but tempered by anxieties over racial and social equality under TrumpMartin Luther King Jr Day was marked with parades and services across the US on Monday. But the celebration for the achievements of the slain 60s civil rights leader was tempered by contemporary anxieties over racial and social equality and Trump administration’s crackdown in Minneapolis.At a rally in Harlem, the Rev Al Sharpton referred to Renee Good, the 37-year-old mother of three who was killed by an immigration officer in Minneapolis earlier this month. Continue reading...

Politics

49 h. ago Noem backtracks on ICE pepper spray denial amid tension in Minneapolis

US justice department announced it is investigating protesters in Minnesota who disrupted church servicesKristi Noem first denied that federal agents were using chemical agents against protesters, then after being shown video footage turned to blaming the protesters themselves, as tensions continued to run high amid the Trump administration’s surge of federal officers into Minneapolis.The head of homeland security, who has acted as spearhead for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation in the city – known as “Operation Metro Surge” – told the CBS show Face the Nation on Sunday that her department had not used pepper spray against crowds. Continue reading...

Events

49 h. ago ‘Gestapo tactics’: Bruce Springsteen condemns Trump team’s ICE crackdown

New Jersey musician said during concert in home state that US core values ‘have never been as endangered’ as nowBruce Springsteen used a Saturday concert to decry what he called the “Gestapo tactics” of the Trump administration’s surge of immigration officers and said the country’s founding values “have never been as endangered as they are right now”.While performing in his home state of New Jersey, Springsteen dedicated his 1978 song The Promised Land to Renee Good, the 37-year-old woman who was shot and killed by an ICE officer in Minnesota. Continue reading...

Politics

52 h. ago Rightwing influencer with White House ties turns focus to Minnesota

Critics draw ‘direct line’ between content by Nick Sortor and similar figures and violent actions of federal agentsA rightwing influencer, who appeared to admit that he recently drove his truck at protesters in Minneapolis, has for years cooperated with the Trump administration even while he has been repeatedly accused of escalating conflict for video content he pumps out to 1.2 million followers on X.Nick Sortor has received full-throated support of the Trump administration after an October arrest in Portland, and attended an October 2025 White House influencer roundtable on “antifa”. Continue reading...

Events

53 h. ago Who is on the frontline of Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown?

These are the federal agencies detaining people across the US – mostly, but not all, under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland SecurityWhen the Trump administration ordered a surge of armed federal immigration enforcement personnel on to the streets of Minneapolis, the Department of Homeland Security declared it the largest operation in its history and the liberal midwestern city became Donald Trump’s latest chosen hotspot.Such escalations mark the US president’s agenda of mass arrests and deportations from the US interior. The highest-profile efforts involve officers from multiple agencies rushing to prominent Democratic-led US cities, against local leaders’ wishes. But coast to coast, federal officers have been raiding homes, businesses, commercial parking lots – even schools, hospitals and courthouses. The efforts have delighted the president’s hardcore Make America Great Again voter base, but are also tearing families apart and spreading fear and even death on the streets...

Politics

53 h. ago From Trump’s rejected treaties to our daily lives, we’re building walls around ourselves | Anand Pandian

Martin Luther King Jr knew that ‘whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly’. But we Americans are denying that realityThe United States seems determined to turn its back on the rest of our planetary neighbors. The Trump administration’s recent decision to withdraw from 66 international treaties, conventions and organizations is striking for the range of its rejections. Everything from the global treaty on climate change to multilateral efforts to address migration and cultural heritage, clean water and renewable energy, and the international trade in timber and minerals has been summarily dismissed as “contrary to the interests of the United States”.It’s no surprise that an administration hellbent on physical walls around the United States would also put up such walls of indifference, as if all of these longstanding collective efforts were simply “irrelevant” to our interests as a country, as the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, put it in a public statement. And yet, a...

Politics

54 h. ago I’m a White House reporter. Here’s the side of the Trump administration you don’t see on TV

The Independent’s White House reporter Andrew Feinberg looks back on a year of overhaul in the White House press briefing room — and how Trump II flipped the script in handling the media

Politics

59 h. ago What ICE is doing on US streets looks terrifying, but don’t forget: it could happen anywhere | Nesrine Malik

This shocking moment is the outcome of a political, institutional and media environment that is not far off Britain’sThere is not much that can still shock about Donald Trump’s second administration. But the killing of Renee Good earlier this month by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer, as well as the regular, often violent confrontations that ICE stages on US streets, show so much that is unravelling in plain sight. The rule of law, the freedom to protest, and even the right to walk or drive in the streets safely without being assaulted by the state, seems to exist no longer in the towns and cities where ICE has made its presence felt. The most disturbing aspect of all this is how quickly it has happened. But for a government agency such as ICE to become the powerful paramilitary force that it is, several factors need to be in play first. Only one of them is Donald Trump.ICE may look as if it came out of nowhere, but the sort of authoritarianism that results in th...

Events

65 h. ago Starmer tells Trump it is ‘wrong’ to impose tariffs on Nato allies

The prime minister will face questions on the government’s approach to dealing with the increasingly volatile US administration in the wake of Donald Trump’s fresh tariff threats

Politics