10 h. ago He was the EU’s great Brexit survivor. Can Maroš Šefčovič now pull off a trade deal with Trump?

EU’s longest-serving commissioner faces arguably his sternest test with the clock ticking before 9 July deadlineIn May 2019 Maroš Šefčovič was travelling with Donald Trump and his entourage to a liquefied natural gas export terminal in Hackberry, Louisiana. The then European Commission vice-president in charge of energy had flown with Trump onboard Air Force One, calling his wife as the privilege of a first-time flyer on the presidential plane. Once at the facility, Trump gave a typically rambling speech, in which he name-checked Šefčovič from the stage, pointing into the crowd like a gameshow host: “Maroš, thank you very much. Thank you.”“Of course,” recalled someone familiar with the day, “when Trump pronounced his name it was a bit of a disaster”. But for a top-ranking official of a multilateral organisation, this warm welcome was probably as good as it gets when it comes to the US president. Continue reading...

Politics

25 h. ago Planned Parenthood may not survive the Trump administration | Moira Donegan

The Trump administration has made repeated cuts targeting the organization’s clinics. Now the US supreme court has struck another blowPlanned Parenthood, the massive, 108-year-old network of women’s and reproductive health clinics that operates almost 600 health centers across the United States, may not survive the Trump administration. Long a hated symbol on the right, and unable to summon enthusiastic support from the left, the medical network has nevertheless remained a symbolic and material cornerstone of women’s equality, serving millions of patients – many of them indigent or low-income – each year, and housing one of the biggest feminist and pro-choice lobbying and litigation shops in America, in addition to being one of the nation’s largest healthcare providers.Since returning to power in January, the Trump administration has made repeated cuts targeting Planned Parenthood’s clinics, excluding the group from the vast Title X family planning program, on the pretext of scurril...

Politics

2 d. ago This national monument is ‘part of the true history of the USA’. Will it survive Trump 2.0?

Sáttítla Highlands, with its unique lava-flow landscape, feels like ‘another planet’, but its protected status, granted by Joe Biden, is now threatenedIt’s easy to get lost in the Sáttítla Highlands in remote north-eastern California. There are miles of rolling lava fields, untouched forest and obsidian mountains. At night, the darkness and silence stretch on indefinitely.This is one of America’s newest national monuments. It’s also one of the most threatened. Continue reading...

Politics

5 d. ago Supreme Court allows states to cut Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood

Medicaid patients who sought affordable care from one of two clinics in South Carolina will no longer be reimbursed

Events

6 d. ago Supreme court paves way for South Carolina and other states to defund Planned Parenthood

Decision could embolden red states in US to block clinics that provide abortions from receiving Medicaid fundsUS politics live – latest updatesThe US supreme court has paved the way for South Carolina to kick Planned Parenthood out of its Medicaid program over its status as an abortion provider, a decision that could embolden red states across the country to effectively “defund” the reproductive healthcare organization.The case, Medina v Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, centers around a 2018 executive order from South Carolina’s governor, Henry McMaster, that blocked clinics that provide abortions from receiving Medicaid reimbursements. “Payment of taxpayer funds to abortion clinics, for any purpose, results in the subsidy of abortion and the denial of the right to life,” McMaster said at the time, even though the reimbursements could not be used for abortions. Abortions are also now banned in South Carolina after six weeks of pregnancy.More details soon Continue reading...

Events

6 d. ago States can cut off Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood, the Supreme Court rules

The Supreme Court is allowing states to cut off Medicaid money for Planned Parenthood amid a wider Republican-backed push to defund the organization, the country’s largest abortion provider

Events

1 week ago The Minnesota shootings illuminate the character of the Trump era | Sidney Blumenthal

The attacks on lawmakers and a US senator’s callous reaction tell a dark tale of modern AmericaIn the early morning of 14 June, according to authorities, Vance Luther Boelter, disguised as a police officer and wearing body armor and a face mask, drove his black Ford Explorer SUV, equipped with flashing lights, to the home of the Minnesota state senator John Hoffman. There, he shot Hoffman nine times, critically wounding him, and shot his wife eight times as, relatives say, she threw her body over her daughter to shield her. He next drove to the home of the former house speaker Melissa Hortman, forced his way in, and killed her and her husband, officials say.The police arrived and Boelter fled, abandoning his car. In it they allegedly discovered a “kill list” of dozens of federal and state Democratic officials, mostly from Minnesota but also prominent Democrats in other midwestern states, and the sites of women’s healthcare centers and Planned Parenthood donors. He left behind notebo...

Politics

2 w. ago ‘Ice raids while the wealthy party next door’: the migrants living in the shadow of Mar

Five residents of Lake Worth Beach – just 10 miles from Trump’s Maga fortress – share their stories of survival as an immigration crackdown takes its toll Lake Worth Beach, a small coastal city of about 45,000, sits in the shadows of Donald Trump’s Florida residence, Mar-A-Lago. A 10 minute drive from “Maga” HQ, it is sometimes optimistically referred to as “mini San Fran”, with a largely progressive, white middle class occupying its beachfront bungalows and a local economy built on tourism, retail and construction.It is also home to many undocumented and temporary visa migrants, who work at fruit farms and restaurants, landscape gardens and support the area’s affluent households. Though data on undocumented people is notoriously hard to collect, the 2024 census estimates that nearly half of the city’s residents are Hispanic and include Guatemalans (many of whom are Indigenous Maya), Mexicans and Venezuelans. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago US abortion clinics are closing even in states where abortion is legal. More cuts could be coming

Three years after the fall of Roe v. Wade, the funding system for abortions is battered

Politics

2 w. ago Congestion pricing has transformed New York City streets – but can it survive Trump?

The first of its kind in the US, a new traffic toll in Manhattan has produced impressive early results while facing looming challengesEvery week, Stan Avedon drives across lower Manhattan, moving bikes between the two NYC Velo shops he’s managed for the last 15 years. What used to be a grinding crawl through some of the world’s worst traffic is noticeably less painful lately. “It’s like night and day,” he said.Avedon’s transformed commute is the result of the most ambitious policy to hit New York in recent memory. Starting 5 January, drivers entering lower Manhattan began paying a $9 congestion toll aimed at deterring drivers and raising desperately needed funds for the city’s deteriorating public transit system. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Tuna, beans, Spam: Trump’s tariffs threaten the canned foods millions rely on to survive

The US president vowed to cut food costs, but experts warn metal tariffs may raise prices in a matter of monthsCanned foods make up a big part of 20-year-old Cale Johnson’s diet: tuna, corned beef hash, beans, chicken soup, Spam and fruit. They’re affordable and have a long shelf life, which is essential for many people in the US like Johnson, who earns a low income and works two part-time jobs in addition to being a full-time student in Omaha, Nebraska.In the days after Donald Trump’s recent decision to double tariffs on steel and aluminum, Johnson says he’s worried. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago Montana Supreme Court declares 2021 abortion restrictions unconstitutional

Montana’s Supreme Court has upheld a lower court ruling that struck down as unconstitutional several laws restricting abortion access

Events

last month At least 20 Planned Parenthood clinics shutter amid political turbulence

The reproductive health giant is navigating a loss of federal funding and fresh threats from multiple directionsAt least 20 Planned Parenthood clinics across seven states have shuttered since the start of 2025 or have announced plans to close soon – closures that come amid immense financial and political turbulence for the reproductive health giant as the United States continues to grapple with the fallout from the end of Roe v Wade.The Planned Parenthood network, which operates nearly 600 clinics through a web of independent regional affiliates and is overseen by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, is facing a number of threats from the Trump administration. A Guardian analysis has found that Planned Parenthood closures have occurred or are in the works across six affiliates that maintain clinics in Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Utah and Vermont. Continue reading...

Politics