7 h. ago Monty Python star says he’d be in ‘select company’ if thrown out of Trump’s America

‘It’s very scary now because they’re stopping comedians at the border,’ said the star

Politics

16 h. ago ‘I’d be proud to be thrown out of America!’ Eric Idle on Trump, life after Python and not talking before lunch

Ahead of his UK tour, the former Monty Python star responds to questions from Catherine Zeta-Jones, David Mamet, Janet Suzman, Steve Coogan, Bill Oddie and othersWhen news broke in 2021 that Eric Idle had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, dismay was followed by relief when he survived to get the all-clear. Now 83, Idle is thriving and about to embark on his first UK tour since 1973.Over haddock and chips in London last month, a gentle and friendly Idle answered questions submitted by readers and fellow writers, actors and comedians about his time as a Python, Broadway smash Spamalot – his musical adaptation of Monty Python and the Holy Grail – as well as selfies, Peter Cook and why he feels sorry for the royals. Continue reading...

Politics

22 h. ago US state department announces plan to lay off nearly 15% of its domestic staff

Several hundred bureaus will be merged or eliminated after supreme court sided with Trump administrationThe US state department has announced that it plans to move forward with mass layoffs as part of the most significant restructuring of the country’s diplomatic corps in decades. Officials say the cuts will align their mission with Donald Trump’s vision of America first.The layoffs, which are commonly called reductions in force (or RIFs), along with voluntary redundancies, will affect nearly 15% of the state department’s domestic staff. A senior state department official said that was close to 1,800 people. The restructuring will also see several hundred bureaus merged or eliminated entirely. The department advises the president and leads the US in foreign policy issues. Continue reading...

Politics

32 h. ago Bhutan tried to erase us. Now, Trump’s America is helping | Lok Darjee

The administration has deported over two dozen refugees back to the very nation that tried to erase us. Democrats must speak upIn mid-March 2025, I sat quietly in the back of a small, crowded room at the Asian Refugees United center in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, surrounded by members of the Bhutanese diaspora. The silence was heavy, thick with fear and uncertainty. This modest office, once a vibrant hub for refugee youth, cultural celebrations, and literary competitions, had become an impromptu crisis center, where community leaders scrambled to make sense of the Trump administration’s escalating immigration crackdown on Bhutanese refugees across the country.Robin Gurung, the organization’s executive director, briefly outlined our legal rights. Another organizer then read aloud the names of those detained, awaiting deportation – or worse, already deported to Bhutan, the very country that once expelled them. Continue reading...

Politics

49 h. ago ‘Ridiculous prices’ blamed for slump in Las Vegas visitor numbers

International arrivals at the Harry Reid International Airport were down 8.7 percent in May

Politics

4 d. ago Tesla shares slump amid Elon Musk’s America Party and President Trump drama

Tesla shares have dropped seven per cent following Musk’s America Party ‘launch’

Politics

4 d. ago Trump clashes with Musk and threatens additional tariffs on countries with ‘anti

Musk says he is setting up America party to challenge Republican and Democratic ‘Uniparty’Trump says tariffs are delayed until 1 August, sparking confusionThe president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said she had a “good exchange” with Donald Trump on Sunday, a Commission spokesperson told reporters during a daily press briefing this morning.The spokesperson said:We want to reach a deal with the US (by 9 July). We want to avoid tariffs. We believe they cause pain. We want to achieve win-win outcomes, not lose-lose outcomes. Continue reading...

Politics

4 d. ago Trump calls Elon Musk’s new political party ‘ridiculous’ and ‘confusing’

President Donald Trump slammed Elon Musk’s plan to launch a new political party, calling it “ridiculous” and insisting the US has always been a “two-party system.” (6 July)

Politics

4 d. ago Voices: Elon Musk’s latest Trump spat could end the Maga saga for good

If the ‘train-wreck’ Tesla boss goes through with launching the America Party – bankrolling a new presidential candidate with his almost limitless wealth – it would do more than just derail Trump’s second term, asks Sean O’Grady

Politics

4 d. ago Trump says Musk is ‘off the rails’ and calls his new political party ‘ridiculous’

US president railed against his former adviser online after tech billionaire said he will start and bankroll America partyDonald Trump called Elon Musk’s decision to start and bankroll a new US political party “ridiculous” on Sunday. “Third parties have never worked, so he can have fun with it but I think it’s ridiculous,” the president told reporters traveling with him back to the White House from his New Jersey golf club.He then elaborated, at great length, in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social. “I am saddened to watch Elon Musk go completely ‘off the rails,’ essentially becoming a TRAIN WRECK over the past five weeks,” the president wrote. “He even wants to start a Third Political Party, despite the fact that they have never succeeded in the United States”. Continue reading...

Politics

5 d. ago Elon unveils clever plan to sabotage Trump as 'America Party' shocks GOP

The rollercoaster of a relationship between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk's has hit a new level.

Politics

5 d. ago Butler by Salena Zito review – how Trump won America’s heartland

From the site of the failed assassination comes a sharp-eyed account of Trump’s political gains – and Democrats’ failings The Democrats’ famed blue wall is more the stuff of nostalgia than reality. On election day 2024, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin voted for Donald Trump for the second time in three elections. Barack Obama’s upstairs-downstairs coalition lies in ruins, as Democrats struggle to connect with working-class voters across racial and ethnic lines.Last November, Trump came within just three points of winning a majority of Latino voters. Such Americans walked away from their presumed political home – in droves. A Trump endorsement by Roberto Clemente Jr, son of the late Pittsburgh Pirates baseball star, was a harbinger. Likewise, Trump posted double-digit gains among Catholics and Jews, once core constituencies in the Democratic party of FDR.Butler is published in the US by Hachette Continue reading...

Politics

5 d. ago Massive place gets new name as Google bows down to Donald Trump

In efforts to remain 'consistent' with 'longstanding practices' Google has adopted a geographical name change that Donald Trump believes will restore pride in America

Politics

5 d. ago Elon Musk faces glaring hurdle as he forms new America Party after Trump feud

The former 'First Buddy' announced the foundation of the new party on his X social media platform on Saturday.

Politics

5 d. ago Elon Musk claims he has ‘formed’ his own political party after fallout with Trump: ‘Give you back your freedom’

Elon Musk says he is forming the ‘America Party’ as he feuds with Trump over the ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’

Politics

6 d. ago Huge spike in 'Trumpugees' fleeing America... but they'll quickly regret it

Progressive Americans who are trying to flee Trump's hardline policies are eying a move to liberal European countries - but they could be in for a rude awakening.

Politics

6 d. ago Elon Musk declares new America Party is 'formed' with dig at Donald Trump

Elon Musk gave hundreds of millions of dollars to Donald Trump in the last race for the White House but their alliance has fractured - and Musk is now starting his own party

Politics

6 d. ago Elon Musk starts 'America Party' as he goes against President Trump after fall

The announcement comes after the pair fell out . . . made up and then fell out again last week, which saw Donald Trump confirm that he would take a look at deporting Elon Musk from the US

Politics

6 d. ago ‘The damage is terrifying’: Barbara Kingsolver on Trump, rural America and the recovery home funded by her hit novel

Demon Copperhead, the author’s retelling of Dickens during Virginia’s opioid crisis, was a global success. Now she has used royalties from the novel to open a recovery residenceIn the spotless kitchen of a white clapboard house in the Appalachian mountains, a retired deacon, a regional jail counsellor and I form an impromptu book club. The novel under discussion is Barbara Kingsolver’s bestselling, Pulitzer prize-winning Demon Copperhead, which is set in this area, Lee County, Virginia, during the 1990s, at the beginning of the opioid epidemic. I say that I loved the novel, that it was vivid and brilliant, heart-warming and tragic. Their reaction is more complex – there’s a real sadness behind it. Julie Montgomery-Barber, the jail counsellor, tells me she found the book “hard to read”. The Rev Nancy Hobbs agrees that reading it was painful, “because I felt like: I knew these people. At every level, from foster care to the football coaches to Demon. I knew Demon.”Hobbs and Montg...

Events

6 d. ago Trump’s China tariffs may threaten the future of America’s fireworks festivals

Industry insiders warn the full effects of Trump’s tariffs may be felt by 2026, in time for the 250th anniversary of America’s founding

Events