3 h. ago What will the new Pope be like? He’s chosen to be called Leo: that’s no accident | Catherine Pepinster

Popes who take that name tend to be progressive reformers. If Trump and JD Vance think they have an ally in the Vatican, I think not Catherine Pepinster is a former editor of The TabletWhat’s in a name? When it comes to a pope – everything. The white smoke from the Sistine Chapel earlier this evening told the world that a new pope to succeed Francis had been elected – and for the first time the pontiff is an American.But if Donald Trump and his Catholic convert Veep, JD Vance, are ready to cheer, then they should think again. Cardinal Robert Prevost has chosen the name Leo XIV – and if you’re a papal Leo, you tend to be a reformer at the progressive end of Catholicism. That Prevost has decided to become Leo XIV will make Catholics think immediately of the last Leo – Leo XIII – and his 1891 encyclical or teaching document, Rerum Novarum, which outlined workers’ rights to a fair wage, safe working conditions and the rights of workers to belong to trade unions. If Pope Francis was the ...

Politics

3 h. ago ‘We can’t let it go down the drain like Detroit’: Jon Voight is Trump’s Hollywood ally looking to save US production

Voight insists plan including movie tariffs got better reaction from industry than headlines would suggest

Politics

6 h. ago Trump ally and Mandelson laugh as Starmer references VE Day in US

Donald Trump’s commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and Peter Mandelson laughed as Sir Keir Starmer celebrated a UK-US trade deal coinciding with Victory in Europe Day’s (VE Day) 80th anniversary on Thursday, 8 May.

Politics

7 h. ago Bill Gates says his Foundation will close in 2045 and decries Musk for USAID cuts

Microsoft co-founder accuses Trump ally of ‘killing the world’s poorest children’ by slashing US aid fundingBill Gates announced plans on Thursday to shutter the Gates Foundation in 2045 and also strongly criticized Elon Musk for slashing funding to the US Agency for International Development (USAID), accusing the Tesla CEO of “killing the world’s poorest children” in new interviews.In an interview with the Financial Times published on Thursday, Gates condemned the sudden funding cuts to USAID by Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge), saying the cuts had led to life-saving food and medicines expiring in warehouses, and could result in the resurgence of diseases such as measles, HIV and polio. Continue reading...

Politics

52 h. ago Inside MAHA's secret plan for an American health utopia... but it comes at a huge price

The key to making America healthy again could be making it look more like Sweden, according to Dr Aseem Malhotra, trusted ally of the Trump administration and Robert F Kennedy Jr.

Society

6 d. ago Militarily cosying up to Trump in Yemen cannot end well for the UK | Paul Rogers

US foreign policy is turning it into a global pariah – yet Labour’s strike on the Houthis represents a new level of supportPaul Rogers is emeritus professor of peace studies at Bradford UniversityThis week’s RAF attack on Houthi rebels in Yemen was the first to be approved by the Labour government. It joined a major US military operation that started in March and has involved 45 days of airstrikes. Operation Rough Rider is a demonstration by the Trump administration that it will prosecute a vigorous war that is more intense than under Joe Biden, and has, according to the US, already seen more than 1,000 targets hit.The RAF operation reportedly targeted a plant manufacturing armed drones used in Houthi attacks on shipping transiting the Red Sea, and demonstrated that Keir Starmer has decided to be Donald Trump’s closest military ally.Paul Rogers is emeritus professor of peace studies at Bradford University Continue reading...

Events

9 d. ago Trump 100 days: from cornerstone of the west to unreliable ally

Trump has cut off Ukraine aid, brokered and lost a ceasefire in Gaza and took a sledgehammer to world commerce100 days of TrumpFor US foreign policy, Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office were the weeks when decades happened.In just over three months, the US president has frayed alliances that stood since the second world war and alienated the US’s closest friends, cut off aid to Ukrainians on the frontlines against Vladimir Putin, emboldened US rivals around the world, brokered and then lost a crucial ceasefire in Gaza, launched strikes on the Houthis in Yemen and seesawed on key foreign policy and economic questions to the point where the US has been termed the “unpredictable ally”. Continue reading...

Politics

9 d. ago Trump brags that he hurt MAGA ally Pierre Poilievre in Canada election — as Liberals grab win

Canada’s incumbent Liberal Party is staying in power thanks to a wave of anti-American feeling catalyzed by Donald Trump’s policies

Politics

1 week ago Trump’s justice department appointees remove leadership of voting unit

Section is responsible for enforcing laws designed to prevent voter discrimination, raised alarm about voting rights enforcementUS politics live – latest updatesDonald Trump’s appointees at the Department of Justice have removed all of the senior civil servants working as managers in the department’s voting section and directed attorneys to dismiss all active cases, according to people familiar with the matter, part of a broader attack on the department’s civil rights division.The moves come less than a month after Trump ally Harmeet Dhillon was confirmed to lead the civil rights division, created in 1957 and referred to as the “crown jewel” of the justice department. In an unusual move, Dhillon sent out new “mission statements” to the department’s sections that made it clear the civil rights division was shifting its focus from protecting the civil rights of marginalized people to supporting Trump’s priorities. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Contender to succeed Jay Powell blames Fed for ‘systematic errors’

Donald Trump ally Kevin Warsh says US central bank failed to contain worst inflationary bout in a generation

Politics

2 w. ago How a Medicaid scandal could upend the Florida governor’s race and benefit a Trump ally

State Republicans allege that millions in a Medicaid settlement were funneled through a nonprofit overseen by governor’s wife Casey DeSantis

Politics

2 w. ago Kristi Noem says purse – and $3,000 in cash – stolen from DC restaurant

Passport, driver’s license and keys also reportedly taken but not clear if theft was random or if Trump ally was targetedA purse belonging to Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem, that contained $3,000 in cash, her passport, driver’s license and her apartment keys was stolen while she ate dinner at a restaurant in downtown Washington on Sunday night.The secretary revealed the theft to reporters at the White House Easter egg roll on Monday. Noem said the incident remained unresolved. Continue reading...

Economics

2 w. ago Trump ally pushes DoJ unit to shift civil rights focus, new messages show

Internal mission statements from Harmeet Dhillon pivots division’s priorities away from marginalized groups’ rightsThe justice department’s civil rights division is shifting its focus away from its longstanding work protecting the rights of marginalized groups and will instead pivot towards Donald Trump’s priorities including hunting for noncitizen voters and protecting white people from discrimination, according to new internal mission statements seen by the Guardian.The new priorities were sent to several sections of the civil rights division this week by Harmeet Dhillon, a Trump ally who was confirmed a little more than two weeks ago to lead the division. Several of them only give glancing mention to the statutes and kinds of discrimination that have long been the focus of the division, which dates back to the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Several of the mission statements point to Trump’s executive orders as priorities for the section. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Elon Musk’s SpaceX frontrunner to build Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’ missile shield

Elon Musk has been a close ally of US president Donald Trump since backing him on the campaign trail in 2024

Events

3 w. ago Conor McGregor's bid to become Ireland's president is boosted by Tucker Carlson as the men discuss country's immigration problems at the MMA fighter's packed pub, surrounded by supporters

The 36-year-old has received endorsements from Andrew Tate and Trump ally Elon Musk, and his anti-immigration stance has seen him welcomed with open arms by the MAGA movement.

Politics

3 w. ago Donald Trump ally Marjorie Taylor Greene made huge stock market moves BEFORE tariffs were halted

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on warpath after it was revealed Trump devotee Marjorie Taylor Greene bought large amounts of stock just hours before president's tariff pause.

Politics

3 w. ago Trump hits Special Relationship: Brits see themselves as having more in common with the FRENCH than Americans

Some 34 per cent of Brits view the US as more of a threat than an ally - up from just 16 per cent at the time of the presidential election last November.

Politics

3 w. ago Kennedy Center director snipes at musician for ‘vapidness’ over DEI concerns

Trump ally Richard Grenell sends series of hostile emails to Yasmin Williams despite saying he was ‘too busy’ to do soThe Kennedy Center’s interim executive director, Richard Grenell – a staunch ally of Donald Trump – accused a professional musician of “vapidness” after she emailed him over concerns of the now Trump-controlled center’s rollbacks on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.Earlier this week, Yasmin Williams, an award-winning musician who has performed multiple times at the Washington DC-based performing arts center, emailed Grenell regarding the center’s DEI plans, pointing to the cancellations of a concert by the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington as well as Finn, a children’s musical about a shark who feels different from other sharks. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Tesla stops taking orders in China for two models imported from US

Carmaker removes ‘order now’ buttons for Model S saloon and Model X SUV on its Chinese website amid tariffs warBusiness live – latest updatesTesla has stopped taking orders in China for two models it previously imported from the US, as companies scramble to adapt to prohibitive tariffs imposed in Donald Trump’s trade war.The manufacturer, run by Trump’s close ally Elon Musk, removed “order now” buttons on its Chinese website for its Model S saloon and Model X sports utility vehicle. Continue reading...

Politics

last month Bombshell poll shows what Brits now think of US after Donald Trump's tariff chaos

Eye-opening data shows 15% of UK voters now view the US as an enemy, while just 43% believe Washington is an ally as alarm grows over Donald Trump's swingeing tariffs

Events