44 h. ago Musk’s Doge to fire all local workers and US diplomats from USAID, sources say

Unofficial Trump adviser’s cost-cutting team to finalize shuttering the foreign aid agency on which millions dependUS politics live – latest updatesElon Musk’s cost-cutting team is finalizing the dismantlement of the US Agency for International Development, ordering the firings of thousands of local workers and US diplomats and civil servants assigned to the agency overseas, two former top USAID officials and a source with knowledge of the situation said on Tuesday.On Friday, Congress was notified that almost all of USAID’s own employees were being fired by September, all of its overseas offices shut, and some functions absorbed into the state department. Continue reading...

Politics

51 h. ago ‘Is it “woke” to care about the environment?’: how Trump’s cuts are dismantling global conservation work

Hundreds of projects supported by USAID have been thrown into doubt, as fears grow of an increase in crimes such as poaching and traffickingWhen the guns finally fell silent in 1992, little was left alive in Gorongosa national park. During the 15 years of Mozambique’s civil war – in which more than a million people died – the country’s wildlife also paid a terrible price. Poaching for meat and ivory was so intense that the small surviving elephant population rapidly evolved to lose their tusks. Leopards, wild dogs and spotted hyenas had all disappeared. Populations of zebra, buffalo and other herbivores had collapsed.In the following years, a huge effort to restore the park took shape. Led by the philanthropist Gregory Carr and Mozambique’s government, it was the start of the park’s journey to becoming one of Africa’s most celebrated wildlife conservation success stories. Today, elephants, lions, hippos, antelope, painted wolves, hyenas and leopards all thrive in the park once again...

Politics

3 d. ago Wrexham guilty of hypocrisy as Ryan Reynolds' pledge undermined by 37

Wrexham took a short-haul flight on a private jet to a game against Wycombe four days before Ryan Reynolds visited the United Nations to trumpet the club signing up to an environmental pledge

Politics

6 d. ago Fossil fuel companies get direct email line to Trump for exemption requests

EPA sets up email address where ‘regulated community’ can request exemption to evade air pollution rulesDonald Trump’s administration has offered fossil fuel companies an extraordinary opportunity to evade air pollution rules by simply emailing the US president to ask him to exempt them.Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has set up a new email address where what it calls the “regulated community” can request a presidential exemption from their requirements under the Clean Air Act, which is used to regulate dangerous toxins emitted from polluting sources. Continue reading...

Politics

6 d. ago EPA offers industrial polluters a way to avoid rules on mercury, arsenic and other toxic chemicals

As part of a push to roll back dozens of environmental regulations, the Trump administration is offering coal-fired power plants and other industrial polluters a chance to receive exemptions from rules requiring them to reduce emissions of toxic chemicals, including mercury, arsenic and benzene

Events

7 d. ago US wine sellers and bars nervously wait for tariff decision: ‘It’s a sad situation’

Many winemakers halt shipments on chance White House makes good on threat of 200% markup on European goodsAs the threat of exorbitant US tariffs on European alcohol imports looms, a warehouse in the French port city of Le Havre awaits a delivery of more than 1,000 cases of wine from a dozen boutique wineries across the country.Under normal circumstances, Randall Bush, the founder of Loci Wine in Chicago, would have already arranged with his European partners to gather these wines in Le Havre, the last stop before they are loaded into containers and shipped across the Atlantic. But these wines won’t be arriving stateside anytime soon. Continue reading...

Politics

7 d. ago US wine importers and bars nervously wait for tariff decision: ‘It’s a sad situation’

Many importers halt shipments on chance White House makes good on threat of 200% markup on European goodsAs the threat of exorbitant US tariffs on European alcohol imports looms, a warehouse in the French port city of Le Havre awaits a delivery of more than 1,000 cases of wine from a dozen boutique wineries across the country.Under normal circumstances, Randall Bush, the founder of Loci Wine in Chicago, would have already arranged with his European partners to gather these wines in Le Havre, the last stop before they are loaded into containers and shipped across the Atlantic. But these wines won’t be arriving stateside anytime soon. Continue reading...

Politics

7 d. ago US could see return of acid rain if pollution rules are quashed, says scientist who first discovered it

Gene Likens, who first identified acidic rainwater in 1960s, said the Trump administration’s ‘rollbacks are alarming’The US could be plunged back into an era of toxic acid rain, an environmental problem thought to have been solved decades ago, due to the Donald Trump administration’s rollback of pollution protections, the scientist who discovered the existence of acid rain in North America has warned.A blitzkrieg launched by Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) upon clean air and water regulations could revert the US to a time when cities were routinely shrouded in smog and even help usher back acid rain, according to Gene Likens, whose experiments helped identify acidic rainwater in the 1960s. Continue reading...

Politics

7 d. ago US could see return of acid rain due to Trump’s rollbacks, says scientist who discovered it

Gene Likens, who first identified acidic rainwater in 1960s, said the Trump administration’s ‘rollbacks are alarming’The US could be plunged back into an era of toxic acid rain, an environmental problem thought to have been solved decades ago, due to the Donald Trump administration’s rollback of pollution protections, the scientist who discovered the existence of acid rain in North America has warned.A blitzkrieg launched by Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on clean air and water regulations could revert the US to a time when cities were routinely shrouded in smog and even help usher back acid rain, according to Gene Likens, whose experiments helped identify acidic rainwater in the 1960s. Continue reading...

Politics

8 d. ago Trump’s ‘climate’ purge deleted a new extreme weather risk tool. We recreated it

The Guardian has recreated a searchable climate future risk tool developed by Fema but then deleted When Donald Trump won November’s election, a small team working on a key new US government tool charting impacts of the climate crisis scrambled into action. They hastily renamed the resource to remove the word “climate” and quietly released it without fanfare in December, before Trump’s return to the White House. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Greenpeace loss will embolden big oil and gas to pursue protesters: ‘No one will feel safe’

As Trump pushes ‘drill, baby, drill’ agenda, Greenpeace verdict offers startling outlook for environmental activismA pipeline company’s victory in court over Greenpeace, and the huge damages it now faces, will encourage other oil and gas companies to legally pursue environmental protesters at a time when Donald Trump’s energy agenda is in ascendancy, experts have warned.On Wednesday a North Dakota jury ruled that three Greenpeace entities collectively must pay Energy Transfer, which was co-founded by a prominent Trump donor, more than $660m, deciding that the organizations were liable for defamation and other claims after a five-week trial in Mandan, near where the Dakota Access pipeline protests occurred in 2016 and 2017. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago Black farmers face setbacks over Trump budget cuts: ‘We are in survival mode’

A consortium of Black farmers in the north-east take financial hits as harsh USDA cuts threaten their operationsFor the last several weeks, Jocelyn Germany has been asking herself “is it safe for us to exist” as Black farmers?, since US Department of Agriculture cuts have put her work in jeopardy.Germany is the farmer advocate of Farm School NYC (FSNYC), an urban agriculture education center focused on food sovereignty and social, economic and racial justice. Around 85% of Farm School NYC’s funding comes from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Pentagon reportedly planning to cut workforce by at least 50,000 – US politics live

Cuts are expected to come from hiring freezes, dismissing some probationary workers and by people taking up an offer to resignDonald Trump’s zeal to roll back environmental regulations could have real impacts on health in the United States, reports the Guardian’s Oliver Milman, Dharna Noor and Aliya Uteuova:A push by Donald Trump’s administration to repeal a barrage of clean air and water regulations may deal a severe blow to US public health, with a Guardian analysis finding that the targeted rules were set to save the lives of nearly 200,000 people in the years ahead. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Judge blocks Trump administration from terminating $14 billion in 'green bank' grants

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from terminating $14 billion in grants awarded to three climate groups by the Biden administration

Economics

2 w. ago DOGE's bitter blow after massive USAID shuttering is rejected as 'unconstitutional' by Obama

A U.S. judge has ordered the Trump administration and billionaire Elon Musk from further dismantling USAID as DOGE looks to make cuts across the federal government.

Politics

2 w. ago Trump environmental rollbacks would boost pollution and endanger lives, former EPA heads say

Three former Environmental Protection Agency leaders say rollbacks proposed by the Trump administration endanger the lives of millions of Americans and abandon the agency’s mission to protect the environment and human health

Politics

3 w. ago Trump officials decimate climate protections and consider axeing key greenhouse gas finding

EPA takes aim at almost every major pollution rule in what environmentalists call act of ‘malice toward the planet’Donald Trump’s administration is to reconsider the official finding that greenhouse gases are harmful to public health, a move that threatens to rip apart the foundation of the US’s climate laws, amid a stunning barrage of actions to weaken or repeal a host of pollution limits upon power plants, cars and waterways.Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued an extraordinary cavalcade of pollution rule rollbacks on Wednesday, led by the announcement it would potentially scrap a landmark 2009 finding by the US government that planet-heating gases, such carbon dioxide, pose a threat to human health. Continue reading...

Society

3 w. ago Trump officials to reconsider whether greenhouse gases cause harm amid climate rollbacks

Activists horrified as EPA reverses pollution laws and reviews landmark finding that gases harm public healthDonald Trump’s administration is to reconsider the official finding that greenhouse gases are harmful to public health, a move that threatens to rip apart the foundation of the US’s climate laws, amid a stunning barrage of actions to weaken or repeal a host of pollution limits upon power plants, cars and waterways.Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued an extraordinary cavalcade of pollution rule rollbacks on Wednesday, led by the announcement it would potentially scrap a landmark 2009 finding by the US government that planet-heating gases, such carbon dioxide, pose a threat to human health. Continue reading...

Society

3 w. ago US will be ‘central’ to climate fight even without Trump, says Cop30 president

André Corrêa do Lago suggests US organisations can play a constructive role even if government limits participationThe US will be “central” to solving the climate crisis despite Donald Trump’s withdrawal of government support and cash, the president of the next UN climate summit has said.André Corrêa do Lago, president-designate of the Cop30 summit for the host country, Brazil, hinted that businesses and other organisations in the US could play a constructive role without the White House. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Trump’s USAid cuts will have huge impact on global climate finance, data shows

Campaigners say funding halt is a ‘staggering blow’ to vulnerable nations and to efforts to keep heating below 1.5CDonald Trump’s withdrawal of US overseas aid will almost decimate global climate finance from the developed world, data shows, with potentially devastating impacts on vulnerable nations.The US was responsible last year for about $8 in every $100 that flowed from the rich world to developing countries, to help them cut greenhouse gas emissions and cope with the impacts of extreme weather, according to data from the analyst organisation Carbon Brief. Continue reading...

Politics