11 h. ago Belarus releases 123 prisoners including opposition leaders after US lifts sanctions

Nobel prize winner Ales Bialiatski and opposition figure Maria Kalesnikava among those freed after US talks with Alexander LukashenkoThe Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, freed 123 prisoners on Saturday, including Nobel peace prize winner Ales Bialiatski and leading opposition figure Maria Kalesnikava, after the US lifted sanctions on Belarusian potash, a key export.The announcement came after two days of talks with an envoy of the US president, Donald Trump, the latest diplomatic push since the Trump administration started talks with the autocratic leader. Continue reading...

Events

17 h. ago The Trump administration keeps picking fights with pop stars. It’s a no

By using music from SZA, Sabrina Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo in ICE videos, the government is playing a game of rage-baitLast week, as the Trump administration was engulfed in controversy over its illegal military strikes near Venezuela (among numerous other crises), a Department of Homeland Security employee – I picture the worst sniveling, self-satisfied, hateful loser – got to work on the official X account. The state-employed memelord posted a video depicting Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) officials arresting people in what appeared to be Chicago, celebrating the humiliation and incarceration of undocumented immigrants as some sort of patriotic achievement. The vile video borrowed, as they often do, from mainstream pop culture; in this case, a viral lyric from Sabrina Carpenter’s song Juno – “Have you ever tried this one?,” referring to sex positions – overlaid clips of agents chasing, tackling and handcuffing people, cheekily nodding to all the methods in ICE’s terr...

Politics

21 h. ago Deal or no deal? The inside story of the battle for Warner Bros

As Paramount, with close ties to the Trump administration, entered the bidding, experts predict any merger will ‘raise red flags’ among regulatorsOver the first 10 months of his second presidency, Donald Trump has not hidden his desire to control the US media industry – from encouraging TV networks to fire journalists, comedians and critics he dislikes to pushing regulators to revoke broadcast licences. Now he seems determined to set the terms for one of the biggest media deals in history.It’s a deal that could have repercussions not just in the US, but across the world, with not just the future of Hollywood at stake but also the landscape of news. Continue reading...

Events

23 h. ago Venezuela oil exports reportedly fall sharply after US seizure of tanker

The seizure of the Skipper on Wednesday marked the first US capture of Venezuelan oil cargo since sanctions were imposed in 2019Venezuelan oil exports have reportedly fallen sharply since the US seized a tanker this week and imposed fresh sanctions on shipping companies and vessels doing business with Caracas, according to shipping data, documents and maritime sources.The US seizure of the Skipper tanker off Venezuela’s coast on Wednesday was the first US capture of Venezuelan oil cargo since sanctions were imposed in 2019 and marked a sharp escalation in rising tensions between the Trump administration and the government of Nicolás Maduro. Continue reading...

Events

26 h. ago The TSA is providing airline passenger data to ICE to aid Trump’s deportation efforts, report says

The program comes as the Trump administration has sought to leverage data from across the government to speed up deportations

Politics

28 h. ago Justice Department asks appeals court to block judge's contempt inquiry in mass deportation case

The Justice Department has asked an appeals court to block a contempt investigation of the Trump administration for failing to turn around planes carrying Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador in March

Events

31 h. ago Noem confronted by deported veteran after insisting no former military forced out of country

Kristi Noem was confronted by a deported veteran after she insisted that no former US military personnel had been removed from the country under the Trump administration.

Events

32 h. ago Trump administration delays decision on federal protections for monarch butterflies

The Trump administration has delayed a decision on whether to extend federal protections to monarch butterflies indefinitely

Politics

33 h. ago Donald Trump is pursuing regime change – in Europe | Jonathan Freedland

The US made it clear this week that it plans to help the parties of the European far right gain power. Keir Starmer and his fellow leaders have to face this new realityWhen are we going to get the message? I joked a few months back that, when it comes to Donald Trump, Europe needs to learn from Sex and the City’s Miranda Hobbes and realise that “He’s just not that into you”. After this past week, it’s clear that understates the problem. Trump’s America is not merely indifferent to Europe – it’s positively hostile to it. That has enormous implications for the continent and for Britain, which too many of our leaders still refuse to face.The depth of US hostility was revealed most explicitly in the new US national security strategy, or NSS, a 29-page document that serves as a formal statement of the foreign policy of the second Trump administration. There is much there to lament, starting with the sceptical quote marks that appear around the sole reference to “climate change”, but the ...

Politics

33 h. ago Admiral hands over leadership of command overseeing the Trump administration's boat strikes

A U.S. Navy admiral who oversees military operations in Latin America has handed off command responsibilities as scrutiny increases over the Trump administration’s deadly strikes on alleged drug boats in the region

Politics

38 h. ago Trump sanctions Maduro’s nephews after White House confirms oil tanker crew will be released: Latest

President Donald Trump’s administration ratchets up pressure on Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro

Events

45 h. ago The facts are stark: Europe must open the door to migrants, or face its own extinction | George Monbiot

Plummeting birth rates mean that without attracting immigration, many countries are sliding towards collapseI know what “civilisational erasure” looks like: I’ve seen the graph. The European Commission published it in March. It’s a chart of total fertility rate: the average number of children born per woman. After a minor bump over the past 20 years, the EU rate appears to be declining once more, and now stands at 1.38. The UK’s is 1.44. A population’s replacement rate is 2.1. You may or may not see this as a disaster, but the maths doesn’t care what you think. We are gliding, as if by gravitational force, towards the ground.Civilisational erasure is the term the Trump administration used in its new national security strategy, published last week. It claimed that immigration, among other factors, will result in the destruction of European civilisation. In reality, without immigration there will be no Europe, no civilisation and no one left to argue about it.George Monbiot is a Guard...

Events

46 h. ago Planning to visit the US? Take it from this American citizen – don’t | Eleanor Limprecht

I love many things about the land of my birth but Donald Trump’s America has become an unwelcoming country of deep divisions and waning trustI’m in the US right now, but if I didn’t have family here (and a US passport), I wouldn’t be. My teenagers and I flew over the week of Thanksgiving from Australia, preparing ourselves for long lines and extra questions at customs. It took less than five minutes in the US citizens’ line.With the news this week of the Trump administration planning to implement new invasive requirements for travellers from 42 countries, including Australia, that would require five years of social media history for visas, I would simply not travel here on another passport. There are plenty of places which welcome visitors without trawling their political opinions and family history. Continue reading...

Politics

46 h. ago Why is Trump going after Venezuela? His administration has so far floated these three reasons for its pressure campaign

Trump said that “other things are happening” in addition to the U.S. military’s seizure of a Venezuelan oil tanker

Politics

47 h. ago Noem confronted by deported veteran after insisting no former military were forced out of country

Kristi Noem was confronted by a deported veteran after she insisted that no former US military personnel had been removed from the country under the Trump administration.

Events

49 h. ago Putin phones Venezuelan president to offer Russia's support after Trump seizes oil tanker off coast

Putin called Maduro a day after United States forces seized control of an oil tanker in Venezuela as part of an escalation in tensions between the Trump administration and Maduro's government.

Politics

49 h. ago Federal judge orders FEMA to restore billions in canceled disaster mitigation funding

A federal judge in Massachusetts has ordered the Trump administration to restore billions in canceled FEMA disaster mitigation funding

Events

53 h. ago ICE issues deportation order for Belarusian woman extradited by FBI

Yana Leonova faces multiple charges including fraud and conspiracy for smuggling US aviation parts to RussiaAn ongoing FBI investigation into a Belarusian woman accused of smuggling US aviation parts and electronics to Russia is teetering on the brink of collapse after being caught in what one judge called a “Kafkaesque” case brought on by the Trump administration’s attempts to deport her before she faces trial.Federal prosecutors had worked for over a year to secure the extradition of Yana Leonova, who faces multiple charges including fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering. But their efforts unraveled when immigration officials abruptly issued an order to detain and deport her soon after she was flown into the US last month, a move that plunged the case into legal chaos. Continue reading...

Events

54 h. ago Trump administration creates new militarized zone in California along southern US border

Trump hands 760 acres of California public land to the navy for a new defense zone, deepening border militarizationThe US’s southern border is poised to become more militarized following an announcement by Trump administration officials that armed forces would now oversee 760 acres of public land for a three-year period.The US Department of Interior said in a statement that jurisdiction over this acreage – located in California’s San Diego and Imperial counties – would be transferred to the US navy “to establish a National Defense Area to support ongoing border security operations”. Continue reading...

Events

55 h. ago US national park gift shops ordered to purge merchandise promoting DEI

The Trump administration is expanding its crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion by ordering national parks to remove certain items from gift shops

Politics