47 h. ago Members of British Jewish body suspended after criticising Israel to launch appeal

Board of Deputies representatives hit by disciplinary action say they remain ‘deeply concerned’ about Gaza warMiddle East crisis – live updatesThirty-six elected representatives to the UK’s largest Jewish organisation are to appeal against disciplinary action taken against them after they criticised the Israeli government’s operations in Gaza, and have said they remain “deeply concerned” about the war.The Board of Deputies of British Jews announced on Tuesday that five of the group would be suspended for two years and 31 would be reprimanded for breaching its code of conduct after a two-month investigation. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago ‘The best thing I’ve seen in my life’ – your top TV of 2025 so far

From the gothic noir of Dept. Q to the continued cool of Andor and a miraculous show about a fungus that can heal all illnesses, here are Guardian readers’ favourite shows of the year to date(Disney+) Andor is a cool, intelligent look at how fascism grows and the cost of resistance. It may be set in a galaxy far far away, but it is in an entirely different universe to any other Star Wars production. No lightsabers; no magic space wizards; barely a stormtrooper in sight – until the grim and horrifying mid-season climax. Who knew committee meetings and wedding parties could be so gripping? It’s as though George Lucas placed the keys to his kingdom in the hands of John le Carré instead of Disney. Remember that fizz of excitement you got as an eight-year-old heading in to see A New Hope? Andor makes this 55-year-old feel the same way. Russell Jones, Cheshire Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Why is the media ignoring growing resistance to Trump? | Margaret Sullivan

Protest actions like ‘Hands Off’ and ‘No Kings’ are sweeping across the US. But the media is barely paying attentionWhen hundreds of thousands of Americans gathered across the US on 5 April for the “Hands Off” events protesting Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s governmental wrecking ball, much of the news media seemed to yawn.The next day, the New York Times put a photograph, but no story, on its print front page. The Wall Street Journal’s digital homepage had it as only the 20th-most-prominent story when I checked. Fox News was dismissive; I stopped counting after I scanned 40 articles on its homepage, though there was a video with this dismissive headline: “Liberals rally against President Trump.”Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Why are the media ignoring growing resistance to Trump? | Margaret Sullivan

Protest actions like ‘Hands Off’ and ‘No Kings’ are sweeping across the US. But the media are barely paying attentionWhen hundreds of thousands of Americans gathered across the US on 5 April for the “Hands Off” events protesting Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s governmental wrecking ball, much of the news media seemed to yawn.The next day, the New York Times put a photograph, but no story, on its print front page. The Wall Street Journal’s digital homepage had it as only the 20th-most-prominent story when I checked. Fox News was dismissive; I stopped counting after I scanned 40 articles on its homepage, though there was a video with this dismissive headline: “Liberals rally against President Trump.”Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Troops are now patrolling Los Angeles. This is a disaster waiting to happen | Kenneth Roth

Troops are trained for war, where they can shoot to kill. Asking troops to police is an invitation to brutalityThis was the moment that Donald Trump was waiting for. A Democratic city, Los Angeles. A Democratic state, California. His most popular issue, immigration. And protests where occasional violence could be spotlighted endlessly on social media. What better time to summon the troops and burnish the president’s tough-guy image.But Trump should be careful what he wishes for. The spectacle of needlessly calling in 4,000 national guard troops and 700 Marines may be red meat for his Maga base, but for most everyone else it is a bright warning sign of Trump’s autocratic tendencies. Rather than quell the protests, he is provoking more, not only in LA but in at least two dozen cities across the US. Even if this is not yet the mass mobilization that such repression has sparked in other countries, it is making Trump’s true colors clear.Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Ri...

Events

2 w. ago Trump is deliberately ratcheting up violence in Los Angeles | Moustafa Bayoumi

The president is escalating the situation to justify greater force and repression. Now he’s talking about sending ‘troops everywhere’Donald Trump was on his way to Camp David for a meeting with military leaders on Sunday when he was asked by reporters about possibly invoking the Insurrection Act, allowing direct military involvement in civilian law enforcement. Demonstrations against Trump’s draconian immigration arrests had been growing in Los Angeles, and some of them had turned violent. Trump’s answer? “We’re going to have troops everywhere,” he said.I know Trump is “a delusional narcissist and an orange-faced windbag”, to borrow the words of the Republican senator Rand Paul, and that this president governs using misdirection, evasion, and (especially) exaggeration, but we should still be worried by this prospect he raises of sending “troops everywhere”.Moustafa Bayoumi is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Politics

4 w. ago Jewish organizers are increasingly confronting Trump: ‘The repression is growing, but so is the resistance’

As the administration continues to exploit antisemitism to arrest protesters and curb academic freedoms, more American Jews are saying ‘not in my name’On the morning of Columbia University’s commencement last week, an intergenerational group of Jewish alumni gathered in the rain outside the Manhattan campus’s heavily policed gates, wearing keffiyehs and shirts emblazoned with the words “not in our name”. Two had graduated more than 60 years earlier, and one spoke of having fled the Nazis to the US as a child. Others recalled participating in Columbia protests of the past, including those that led the university to divest from apartheid South Africa.They spoke as alumni and as Jews to condemn the university’s investments in Israel, its repression of pro-Palestinian speech, and its capitulation to the Trump administration’s assault on academic freedom in the name of fighting antisemitism on campus. They had planned to burn their Columbia diplomas in protest, but the rain got in their ...

Politics

last month Trump’s lawlessness is emboldening El Salvador’s brutal regime | Noah Bullock and Amrit Singh

The detention of a leading human rights lawyer is part of a wave of repression sweeping the country under Nayib BukeleThe Trump administration’s agreement with President Nayib Bukele to detain US migrants deported to El Salvador without due process seems to have emboldened Bukele’s autocratic regime. Last week, in a troubling sign of escalating repression, Salvadorian police detained Ruth López Alfaro, a prominent Salvadorian human rights lawyer at Cristosal, an organization fighting for human rights in Central America.Last year, the BBC recognized Ms López Alfaro as one of the 100 most inspiring and influential women in the world, describing her as “an outspoken critic of the country’s government and institutions” who “conducted a broad social media campaign to promote political transparency and public accountability overseen by the citizens themselves”. This year, on 18 May, Salvadorian security forces detained her at her residence on embezzlement charges and held her incommunicad...

Politics