40 h. ago CHRISTOPHER BUCKTIN: 'Rand Paul has the last shred of decency in the Republicans after Trump swipe'

Rand Paul became the unexpected moral compass of the Republican Party... showing us something has gone catastrophically wrong, after tearing into Donald Trump's birthday parade

Politics

54 h. ago Netanyahu says his attack on Iran was to avert an existential threat. He may have made it worse | Jonathan Freedland

Israel has eliminated many of the brains behind Tehran’s nuclear programme. But don’t expect the regime to back downThis is a war 30 years in the making. Benjamin Netanyahu was talking about the threat of an Iranian nuclear bomb back in the 1990s and he has scarcely let up since. For decades he has believed that a nuclear Iran would represent the one truly existential threat to Israel and that military force is the only sure way to prevent it. Several times during the many years in which Netanyahu has sat in the prime minister’s chair, an all-out strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities has been weighed up, debated and planned for. In the early hours of this morning, it finally happened.Netanyahu will be pleased with the early results, including the elimination of key Iranian military commanders and nuclear scientists. But the ultimate consequences could look very different. By his actions, he may only have accelerated the very danger he has feared for so long.Jonathan Freedland is a Gua...

Events

54 h. ago Netanyahu attacked Iran to avert an ‘existential threat’. He may have made it worse | Jonathan Freedland

Israel has eliminated many of the brains behind Tehran’s nuclear programme. But don’t expect the regime to back downThis is a war 30 years in the making. Benjamin Netanyahu was talking about the threat of an Iranian nuclear bomb back in the 1990s and he has scarcely let up since. For decades he has believed that a nuclear Iran would represent the one truly existential threat to Israel and that military force is the only sure way to prevent it. Several times during the many years in which Netanyahu has sat in the prime minister’s chair, an all-out strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities has been weighed up, debated and planned for. In the early hours of this morning, it finally happened.Netanyahu will be pleased with the early results, including the elimination of key Iranian military commanders and nuclear scientists. But the ultimate consequences could look very different. By his actions, he may only have accelerated the very danger he has feared for so long.Jonathan Freedland is a Gua...

Events

3 d. ago I was a Republican – the party I believed in no longer exists | Paolina Milana

I didn’t leave the Republican party lightly. I left because it left meI’m writing this not as a Democrat or an Independent, but as someone who, for most of her life, was a proud Republican.I voted for Ronald Reagan and admired his belief that “character counts”. I believed in personal responsibility, faith and country – and the Republican party seemed to reflect those values. I even rooted for George W Bush during the chaotic “hanging chads” recount in 2000, not because I thought he was perfect, but because I believed he would lead with decency and conviction.Paolina Milana is a first-generation Sicilian American with journalistic roots and the author of several books, including the memoirs The S Word and Committed, and most recently, The Caregiver Chronicles Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Obama says Republicans are putting millions of Americans’ healthcare at risk

Rare intervention from former president urges people to call their senators to oppose Trump tax billBarack Obama has warned that Congress is putting millions of Americans at risk of losing healthcare coverage, in a rare intervention from the former president as the Republican party advances legislation that would gut major provisions of the Affordable Care Act.“Congressional Republicans are trying to weaken the Affordable Care Act and put millions of people at risk of losing their health care,” Obama posted on social media. “Call your Senators and tell them we can’t let that happen.” Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago 'Alien' UFO covered in weird writing is proof 'humans don't control everything'

An unusual object inscribed with script and rune-like writing has caused division among scientists and members of the public who believe it's a further step in being sure about the existence of extraterrestrials

Politics

2 w. ago Charles has pushed the boundaries of politics as king – and got away with it | Martin Kettle

Right now, the monarch’s political leanings appear in sympathy with the mood of Britain. But what if the public moves further to the right?It requires an effort to keep reminding yourself of the sheer historical oddity of monarchy’s healthy survival into the modern democratic age. Yet so rooted is the monarchy in the mental furniture of Britain that most people in our politics barely think about it. This week, however, the modern British monarchy has stood up and demanded to be counted, doing something new and perhaps genuinely consequential.Judged by any yardstick, Charles III’s visit to Canada was an audaciously disjunctive event. The idea that a vibrant democracy such as Canada, with a highly sophisticated sense of its own complex identity, might summon an elderly hereditary monarch from across the ocean to provide a focal point for its resistance to Donald Trump’s existential threat takes some believing. Yet that was exactly what played out this week, when the king travelled to ...

Politics

2 w. ago In Canada, Charles pushed the boundaries of politics as king. So far, he has gotten away with it | Martin Kettle

Right now, the monarch’s political leanings appear in sympathy with the mood of Britain. But what if the public moves further to the right?It requires an effort to keep reminding yourself of the sheer historical oddity of monarchy’s healthy survival into the modern democratic age. Yet so rooted is the monarchy in the mental furniture of Britain that most people in our politics barely think about it. This week, however, the modern British monarchy has stood up and demanded to be counted, doing something new and perhaps genuinely consequential.Judged by any yardstick, Charles III’s visit to Canada was an audaciously disjunctive event. The idea that a vibrant democracy such as Canada, with a highly sophisticated sense of its own complex identity, might summon an elderly hereditary monarch from across the ocean to provide a focal point for its resistance to Donald Trump’s existential threat takes some believing. Yet that was exactly what played out this week, when the king travelled to ...

Politics

2 w. ago FBI to reinvestigate 2023 White House cocaine find and leak of supreme court Dobbs draft

Agency also announced new inquiry into pipe bombs found outside Democratic and Republican offices in 2021The FBI will launch new investigations into the 2023 discovery of a bag of cocaine at the White House during Joe Biden’s term, as well as into pipe bombs discovered at Democratic and Republican party headquarters before the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot by supporters of Donald Trump, and the leak of the supreme court’s draft opinion before the historic overturning of national abortion rights with the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that overturned Roe v Wade in 2022.Dan Bongino, a rightwing podcaster turned deputy director of the FBI, made the announcement on X, where he said he had requested weekly briefings on any progress in looking into the old cases. The incidents have been popular talking points on America’s political right wing and among conspiracy theorists. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago Trump’s barbarism is turning his biggest strength into a liability | Osita Nwanevu

Americans are gradually turning against the president over his handling of immigration. Republicans will have to answer for itIf you can bear to hear it, there are still more than 1,300 days remaining in the Trump administration. That’s an interminably long time given all the havoc the president has been able to wreak since January alone; the chaos and cruelty of the term so far also happen to have used up his political capital remarkably quickly. The New York Times average of polls, which found him at 52% approval on inauguration day, had him at 51% disapproval on Wednesday. That collapse is less a problem for Trump specifically – assuming, perhaps optimistically, that he won’t appear on a ballot again – than it is for the Republican party, which will have to answer for the mess he’s made in next year’s midterms and beyond. And one of the challenges they seem likely to face is a changed public opinion landscape on immigration – a strength that Trump’s barbarism, just as in his firs...

Politics

3 w. ago Trump announces $25bn in funding for Golden Dome missile defense project – US politics live

Funding for Trump’s missile defense shield idea to protect the US from long-range strikes included in tax bill facing opposition from some RepublicansThese are challenging days for Florida governor Ron DeSantis, the man who would have been king. Barely two and a half years since his landslide re-election and anointment as “DeFuture” of the Republican party in a fawning New York Post cover, he stands isolated from the national political stage, feuding with his once blindingly loyal Florida legislature, and limping towards the finish line of his second term with an uncertain pathway beyond.It has been, in the view of many analysts, a fall of stunning velocity and magnitude. And while few are willing to completely rule out a comeback for a 46-year-old politician who was the darling of the Republican hard right until he dared to challenge Donald Trump for his party’s 2024 presidential nomination, it is also clear that everything has changed.He’s lost the ability to push things through. ...

Events

3 w. ago Trump appears to have failed to get Republican holdouts behind tax bill – US politics live

Trump reportedly also told House Republicans ‘don’t fuck around with Medicare’; RFK Jr and Marco Rubio grilled by Senate commitees These are challenging days for Florida governor Ron DeSantis, the man who would have been king. Barely two and a half years since his landslide re-election and anointment as “DeFuture” of the Republican party in a fawning New York Post cover, he stands isolated from the national political stage, feuding with his once blindingly loyal Florida legislature, and limping towards the finish line of his second term with an uncertain pathway beyond.It has been, in the view of many analysts, a fall of stunning velocity and magnitude. And while few are willing to completely rule out a comeback for a 46-year-old politician who was the darling of the Republican hard right until he dared to challenge Donald Trump for his party’s 2024 presidential nomination, it is also clear that everything has changed.He’s lost the ability to push things through. He’s lost that lust...

Politics

3 w. ago RFK Jr pressed on defunded medical research in tense Senate hearing – live

Trump’s health secretary earlier called for other nations to withdraw from the World Health OrganizationThese are challenging days for Florida governor Ron DeSantis, the man who would have been king. Barely two and a half years since his landslide re-election and anointment as “DeFuture” of the Republican party in a fawning New York Post cover, he stands isolated from the national political stage, feuding with his once blindingly loyal Florida legislature, and limping towards the finish line of his second term with an uncertain pathway beyond.It has been, in the view of many analysts, a fall of stunning velocity and magnitude. And while few are willing to completely rule out a comeback for a 46-year-old politician who was the darling of the Republican hard right until he dared to challenge Donald Trump for his party’s 2024 presidential nomination, it is also clear that everything has changed.He’s lost the ability to push things through. He’s lost that luster he had that at one time ...

Science

3 w. ago Ron DeSantis’s fall from grace: ‘He’s completely crashed to the ground’

Florida governor stands isolated from Trump and is feuding with Republicans at home – is he drifting to irrelevance?These are challenging days for Florida governor Ron DeSantis, the man who would have been king. Barely two and a half years since his landslide re-election and anointment as “DeFuture” of the Republican party in a fawning New York Post cover, he stands isolated from the national political stage, feuding with his once blindingly loyal Florida legislature, and limping towards the finish line of his second term with an uncertain pathway beyond.It has been, in the view of many analysts, a fall of stunning velocity and magnitude. And while few are willing to completely rule out a comeback for a 46-year-old politician who was the darling of the Republican hard right until he dared to challenge Donald Trump for his party’s 2024 presidential nomination, it is also clear that everything has changed. Continue reading...

Events