3 d. ago Is Starmer’s reluctance to criticise Trump smart tactics – or the sign of a man without a plan? | Rafael Behr

The PM won’t call out Trump over Venezuela, and won’t commit to Europe. His refusal to choose leaves vital choices for Britain to be made by others For an inveterate liar, Donald Trump is remarkably honest. The best guide to what he thinks is what he says. When forecasting his likely course of action, start with his declared intentions – removing the president of Venezuela, for example – and assume he means it. When he says the US must take possession of Greenland, he is not kidding.The motives are sometimes muddled but rarely hidden. Trump likes making deals, especially real estate deals, and money. He wants to be great and to have his greatness affirmed with praise and prizes. He craves spectacle. The world as he describes it doesn’t always resemble observable reality, but there is an effortless, sociopathic sincerity to his falsehoods. The truth is whatever he intuits it to be in the moment to advance his interests and manipulate his audience.Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist C...

Politics

4 d. ago Europe tells Trump to back off Greenland as leaders sign off on 'binding commitment' to protect Ukraine from Russian attacks: Live updates

LIVEBLOG: Follow the latest developments from Paris where Ukraine's allies meet for talks about the country's security and a potential ceasefire with Russia.

Politics

2 w. ago Why are drug prices so high in America? Trump doesn’t have the right answer | Susi Geiger and Théo Bourgeron

Americans are not paying high prices because of other western countries. Pharmaceutical companies are to blame When Donald Trump spoke about drug prices on 19 December, he struck a familiar note. Americans, he said, were paying far too much for medicines – and it was everyone else’s fault.There would be no talk of reining in private insurers or pharmaceutical profits. Instead, Trump blamed foreign governments for getting a better deal. Countries like France, Germany and Japan, he argued, were piggybacking on the United States by keeping their drug prices low.Susi Geiger and Théo Bourgeron are the authors of Peak Pharma: Toward a New Political Economy of Health (Oxford University Press) Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago ‘I want that escape route’: once a sign of disloyalty, Americans seek dual citizenships under Trump

Some US citizens, grappling with issues from LGBTQ+ rights to the economy, are looking to the countries their families once left behindDaniel Kamalić was born and raised in New York City, where he spent his summers riding his bike around Brighton Beach before pedaling home to his “Brooklyn Jewish” mother and his “smooth talker” father. He went out for Cub Scouts and soccer before realizing, during his time studying at MIT, that he loved sailing most of all. Now 48, he is a professional tenor with the opera, performing in and around New York.Kamalić never considered that he might want to be anything but American – why would he? His life was shaped by the freedoms and opportunities that his father, Ivan Kamalić, risked everything for. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago More drug companies sign on to Trump’s health exchange that promises to lower prescription prices

Administration officials say the ‘Trump Rx’ website should be up and running next month

Politics

3 w. ago ‘A black hole’: families and police say tech giants delay investigations in child abuse and drug cases

US law enforcement officers say Meta and Snapchat routinely delay or reject warrants. The companies disagreeMax Osterman was 18 when he connected with a drug dealer on Snapchat who used the handle skyhigh.303. Max would message him whenever he wanted to buy Percocet, and they would meet. After about a year, and just days after their last exchange, Max collapsed. The pills he ordered had been laced with fentanyl. He died from the overdose in February 2021 at his home in Broomfield, Colorado.The dealer continued selling prescription painkillers until 2023, when he was jailed on two drug distribution convictions. When handing down the sentence, the judge said he was responsible for four deaths, yet he never faced charges for supplying the pills that killed Max. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago One day after controversial vote, Trump’s name is added to Kennedy Center

One ex officio member of the center’s board said she was muted on the call when the name change was discussed

Politics

3 w. ago Howard Lutnick addresses Trump’s ‘mathematically impossible’ claim he’s cutting drug prices by 600% during Fox News grilling

Trump claimed he has negotiated with drug companies to cut prices by ‘as much as 400, 500 and even 600 percent’

Events

3 w. ago Cloud lifts over cannabis companies' future amid push to reclassify the drug

Cannabis companies like Tilray Brands and Canopy Growth could soon face a more mellow path ahead following President Donald Trump’s move to help reclassify the drug’s status

Events

3 w. ago Susie Wiles interview might be a useful distraction from how poorly things are going for Americans

The incendiary quotes don’t disguise how dissatisfied people are about jobs, inflation or the cost of livingThis was originally published in This Week in Trumpland; sign up to receive it in your inbox every WednesdaySo it appears Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, agrees with many of us: she thinks Donald Trump’s cabinet is bonkers.From that bombshell Vanity Fair interview, which featured some truly terrifying close-up photos, we learned that Wiles considers JD Vance to have been “a conspiracy theorist for a decade”. She believes Elon Musk to be an “odd, odd duck”. Russell Vought, head of the Office of Management and Budget, is, in Wiles’ view, “a right-wing absolute zealot”.“If we’re judging by these numbers, Americans are completely dissatisfied with the way things are happening in this country.” Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Why young people are the big losers in Europe’s dysfunctional housing system

The EU has unveiled its first-ever housing strategy, but is it enough to see off the far right and rescue a generation shut out of affordable living?Don’t get This Is Europe delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereDonald Trump may rage about Europe being a multicultural hell facing “civilisational” collapse. As a proud real estate guy, however, he must be impressed by one feature of European life: the house prices, and the extent to which even progressive governments have abandoned housing to the markets.Since 2010, average sale prices in the EU have surged by close to 60%. In some countries, such as the Netherlands, house prices have doubled in a decade. Rents, meanwhile, have increased by almost 30% on average in the last 15 years. The rent average masks dramatic spikes experienced in some countries: 208% in Estonia, 177% in Lithuania, 108% in Ireland and 107% in Hungary. If property has been a lucrative bet for wealthy investors, the cost of a home is a financial ordeal for millions...

Politics

3 w. ago When will the Epstein Files will be released? World awaits horrors hidden inside

Donald Trump was forced to sign a bill that would see the Epstein Files released within just a few days, with eyes across the world ready to see what secrets they contain

Events

3 w. ago Dentists to be paid more to see urgent patients under new reforms for sector

It comes as a report suggests dental vouchers worth £150 a year should be introduced in a bid to ‘end the postcode lottery’ of care.

Science

4 w. ago Trump lawyers argue president being forced to use sign language interpreters could hurt his ‘image’

The Justice Department has appealed a November order requiring interpreters at many events

Politics

4 w. ago Donald Trump wants a Europe in chaos – a sure sign for Britain to shore up its democracy | Polly Toynbee

With the US threatening to support ‘patriotic’ parties here, we need better defences, starting with tough new rules about political donationsThe new threat is so dizzyingly bizarre that Europe, and especially Britain, is slow to believe it. The US declares itself our enemy. Europe emerges as its main adversary in the US national security strategy. Russia is its friend, not us. Everything that looked solid since the second world war is turned upside down; the land of the free becomes the destroyer of democratic values. Appeasement fails.He may ramble, but Donald Trump speaks plainly. He means what he says, and he hates everything European. Except its emerging “patriotic” parties, which he wants to support. His strategy warns of “civilizational erasure”, claiming Europe will soon “become majority non-European” and parroting the racist conspiracy known as the great replacement theory. Describing Europeans as “weak”, “decaying” and “destroying their countries”, with “real stupid” leader...

Politics

last month US is the best place for drug companies to invest, says boss of London

Emma Walmsley’s praise for US pharmaceutical market piles pressure on UK governmentBusiness live – live updatesThe chief executive of GSK has declared that the US is the best place for pharmaceutical companies to invest.Emma Walmsley said the US led the world in launches of drugs and vaccines and, alongside China, was the best market for business development. Continue reading...

Economics