2 h. ago Trump administration briefing: Zelenskyy rejects US minerals demand; bomb threat sent to anti

From a fight over a $500bn minerals deal to Trump ‘surrendering to the Russians’ – here are the key US politics stories from Sunday at a glanceAs Ukraine prepared to mark the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of the country, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he would be willing to step down if it meant peace or membership of Nato, something the US and some other Nato member states oppose. Zelenskyy insisted he wanted good, “friendly” relations with America – a “strategic partner” – and shrugged off Trump’s bruising description of him as a “dictator” for not holding elections during wartime.But he also said that he would not sign a $500bn minerals deal proposed by the US. He said the figure was far higher than the US’s actual military contribution of $100bn. Continue reading...

Events

4 h. ago Trump administration eliminating 2,000 USAid positions in US, notice says

All but handful of agency’s personnel around world to be placed on paid leave, according to notice sent to workersThe Trump administration on Sunday said it was placing all but a handful of USAid personnel around the world on paid administrative leave and eliminating about 2,000 of those positions in the US, according to a notice sent to agency workers and posted online.“As of 11:59 p.m. EST on Sunday, February 23, 2025, all USAid direct hire personnel, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and/or specially designated programs, will be placed on administrative leave globally,” the notice said. Continue reading...

Politics

6 h. ago USAID bloodbath as Trump fires two thousand workers and puts thousands more on leave

The Trump administration continued its bloodbath gutting of the U.S. Agency for International Development, cutting 2,000 workers and placing all but a fraction of other staffers on leave.

Events

7 h. ago Trump administration is firing 2,000 USAID workers and putting thousands of others on leave

The Trump administration says it's eliminating 2,000 posts at the U.S. Agency for International Development and placing all but a fraction of others worldwide on leave

Politics

9 h. ago Political guru predicts Trump White House will COLLAPSE within 30 days

The veteran Democratic strategist said that Trump's popularity is sinking, and he believes the administration will implode from a lack of public support.

Politics

13 h. ago Trump halts medical research funding in apparent violation of judge’s order

Health department orders NIH to hold Federal Register submissions – critical step in process for funding studiesThe Trump administration has blocked a crucial step in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) process for funding medical research, likely in violation of a federal judge’s temporary restraining order on federal funding freezes.The NIH has stopped submitting study sections – meetings in which scientists peer review NIH grant funding proposals – to the Federal Register after the Trump administration paused health agency communications. By law, study sections must appear on the register 15 days in advance of meetings. Continue reading...

Politics

13 h. ago ‘We are pissed’: opposition to Trump, slow to energize, now shakes off its slumber

The slash-and-burn approach of Trump and his ‘Doge’ head Elon Musk has reinvigorated resistance to the Republican administrationOn a bright winter’s day this week, a group of protesters fanned out along a palm tree-lined thoroughfare in the picturesque city of Palm Desert to demand that their Republican congressman stand up to Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s slash-and-burn effort to reshape the American government. “You work for us, not Musk!” read one sign. “Remember your oath,” another warned, as a mobile billboard circled nearby, featuring the president and the billionaire tech mogul, with the message: “When he’s snooping through your bank accounts, you dump him.”The group, dozens strong, cheered wildly when the driver of a white Tesla turned the corner and laid on his horn. A smaller contingent of constituents had attempted to secure a meeting with the congressman, Ken Calvert, but found the door of his regional office locked and the blinds drawn. Continue reading...

Politics

13 h. ago ‘Heinous actions’: opposition to Trump, slow to energize, shakes off its slumber

The slash-and-burn approach of Trump and his ‘Doge’ head Musk has reinvigorated resistance to the administrationOn a bright winter’s day this week, a group of protesters fanned out along a palm tree-lined thoroughfare in the picturesque city of Palm Desert to demand that their Republican congressman stand up to Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s slash-and-burn effort to reshape the American government. “You work for us, not Musk!” read one sign. “Remember your oath,” another warned, as a mobile billboard circled nearby, featuring the president and the billionaire tech mogul, with the message: “When he’s snooping through your bank accounts, you dump him.”The group, dozens strong, cheered wildly when the driver of a white Tesla turned the corner and laid on his horn. A smaller contingent of constituents had attempted to secure a meeting with the congressman, Ken Calvert, but found the door of his regional office locked and the blinds drawn. Continue reading...

Politics

14 h. ago Kash Patel tells FBI staff to ignore Elon Musk request to list their achievements

Agency reportedly seeking guidance from DoJ as Musk’s demand sparks confusion across key government agenciesThe new FBI director, Kash Patel, has told his agency employees to hold off on responding to an email from the Donald Trump administration asking them to list their accomplishments in the last week as tech billionaire Elon Musk expands his crusade to slash the federal government’s size.Hundreds of thousands of federal workers had been given little more than 48 hours to explain what they achieved to the office of personnel management (OPM), sparking confusion across key agencies that included the US’s top law enforcement agency. Continue reading...

Events

23 h. ago Kash Patel tells FBI staff to ignore Elon Musk’s productivity email as signs of power struggles emerge in D.C.: reports

Elon Musk’s DOGE email ultimatum to federal workers may have revealed internal tensions in Trump administration

Events

23 h. ago Kash Patel tells FBI staff to ignore Elon Musk’s productivity email as signs of power struggles emerge in D.C.

Elon Musk’s DOGE email ultimatum to federal workers may have revealed internal tensions in Trump administration

Events

30 h. ago Cartels thriving despite Donald Trump labelling them all 'terror organisations'

Mexican drug cartels are either in denial about Trump's administration or are underestimating what is truly going to happen, according to experts as Trump toughens up on the gangs

Events

37 h. ago Trump administration shuts down national database documenting police misconduct

Database, first proposed by Trump in 2020 and created by Biden administration in 2023, is now offlineDonald Trump’s second presidential administration shut down a national database that tracked misconduct by federal police, a resource that policing reform advocates hailed as essential to prevent officers with misconduct records from being able to move undetected between agencies.The National Law Enforcement Accountability Database (NLEAD), which stored police records documenting misconduct, is now unavailable, the Washington Post first reported. Continue reading...

Politics

38 h. ago US supreme court temporarily blocks firing of head of federal whistleblower protection office

Trump administration is seeking to oust Hampton Dellinger, head of the office of special counselThe US supreme court on Friday temporarily kept on the job the head of the federal agency that protects government whistleblowers, in its first word on the many legal fights over the agenda of Donald Trump’s second presidency.The justices said in an unsigned order that Hampton Dellinger, head of the office of special counsel, could remain in his job at least until Wednesday. That’s when a lower-court order temporarily protecting him expires. Continue reading...

Events

39 h. ago Fired rangers warn of chaos at national parks as Musk’s sweeping cuts remove vital services

The Trump administration laid off 1,000 National Park Employees last week, a move rangers say will cause chaos across the country.

Events

43 h. ago Culture wars: Trump’s takeover of arts is straight from the dictator playbook

US president’s attempt to control or dismantle cultural institutions plays into a long history of authoritarians using arts to push their agendaIn 1937, leaders of Germany’s Third Reich hosted two simultaneous art exhibitions in Munich. One, titled the Great German Art Exhibition, featured art viewed by the regime as appropriate and aspirational for the ideal Aryan society – orderly and triumphant, with mostly blond people in heroic poses amid pastoral German landscapes. The other showcased what Adolf Hitler and his followers deemed “degenerate art” (“Entartete Kunst”). The works, chaotically displayed and saddled with commentary disparaging “the sick brains of those who wielded the brush or pencil”, were abstract, profane, modernist and produced by the proclaimed enemies of the Reich – Jewish people, communists or those suspected of being either.The Degenerate Art exhibition, which later toured the country, opened a day after Hitler declared “merciless war” on cultural disintegrati...

Politics

47 h. ago Donald Trump sued by AP for banning journalists from White House and Mar

The Associated Press sued three Trump administration officials on Friday after the organisation's journalists were banned from Mar-a-Lago, Air Force One and even the White House for refusing to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the 'Gulf of America.'

Events

48 h. ago Federal judge blasts Trump administration for dodging order to resume USAID funding after freeze

Department of Justice continues to drag its feet on court orders

Politics

53 h. ago Trump administration restores legal aid for unaccompanied immigrant children

A stop-work order had been issued to government-funded attorneys to cease counsel for about 26,000 minorsThe Trump administration has rescinded its decision to cut off legal aid for unaccompanied immigrant children, just three days after it ordered government-funded attorneys across the country to immediately stop their work.The Acacia Center for Justice and the Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef) confirmed that the stop-work order affecting non-profits that provide legal counsel for about 26,000 unaccompanied minors had been lifted. Continue reading...

Events

53 h. ago National Park Service restores some jobs of fired employees, pledges to hire 7,700 seasonal workers

The Trump administration is restoring jobs for dozens of fired National Park Service employees and hiring nearly 3,000 additional seasonal workers, following an uproar over an aggressive plan to downsize the agency

Society