26 h. ago Obama and Yale faculty back Harvard as Trump cuts $2bn, alleging antisemitism

Harvard faces a funding freeze as elite universities warn of growing threats to free inquiry and civil rightsUS politics live – latest updatesBarack Obama, Yale and other academic institutions have come out in support of Harvard after the Trump administration elected to cut $2bn of its federal grants after the Ivy League school in Massachusetts rejected what it said was an attempt at “government regulation” of the university.“Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions – rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking concrete steps to make sure all students at Harvard can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect,” said a statement from Obama, the US president from 2009 to 2017. “Let’s hope other institutions follow suit.” Continue reading...

Politics

48 h. ago I’m a comedian – this is why Saturday Night Live’s jokes about Aimee Lou Wood’s teeth didn’t work | Athena Kugblenu

There’s funny, there’s mean, and there’s mean and funny. But unfunny and mean will always die a deathIn these partisan times, when all is binary and everyone must pick a side, I have chosen mine. Aimee Lou Wood, she of The White Lotus and thus now instantly recognisable worldwide, is absolutely right to call out Saturday Night Live, the legendary US entertainment and satire show, for making jokes about her teeth. The special relationship is under enough strain without having to lean into old stereotypes about British gnashers. I am still reeling from the Big Book of British Smiles gag in The Simpsons and I continue to floss every day because of it.The SNL joke, if you are yet to see it, is part of a wider sketch making fun of the Trump administration. (Because if one thing has been proven to quell the march of the right, it’s parody.) A White Lotus character is mashed up with someone adjacent to Robert F Kennedy, he mentions fluoride, and a Wood-esque character says “What’s that?”At...

Politics

53 h. ago Music can lift mood, foster community and even rewire brains – but does it need to have a purpose?

The therapeutic role music can play is the focus of a string of new books and even an entire BBC radio station. But why can’t we just listen to music for music’s sake?Growing up, I never questioned the intrinsic value of classical music. My father practising classical and jazz guitar was the aural wallpaper to my childhood, and at my rural state school I took lessons on the recorder, the violin, the cello, the trombone, the piano. The after-school clubs on offer included, somewhat implausibly, an ocarina ensemble. Music was art, and wasn’t art the point of it all, when you got right down to it? The reason to live, after we cater for all our basic needs? It was certainly what led me to become first a classical musician, and then a music historian.But when my dad died unexpectedly in 2019, it threw my relationship with music into sharp relief. All of a sudden, I couldn’t bear listening to it. It was too painful, or it grated on my nerves and made me angry. I started to question how an...

Politics

8 d. ago Supreme Court backs Trump over Venezuelan deportations but insists on due process: Live

Decision allows president to continue summarily deporting alleged gang members to El Salvador

Politics

8 d. ago Supreme Court lifts order blocking deportations under 18th century wartime law

The Supreme Court has lifted a court order blocking the Trump administration from deporting Venezuelan migrants under an 18th century wartime law

Events

1 week ago As markets melt down, Trump touts $5m gold card for wealthy immigrants (featuring his face)

‘For $5 million, this could be yours,’ Trump says of card available to wealthy immigrants to buy a right to live and work in the U.S.

Economics

1 week ago Joe Rogan breaks with Trump, calling Venezuelan deportations ‘horrific’

Influential podcast host and prominent Trump supporter criticizes administration for removal of gay makeup artistJoe Rogan, the influential podcast host and prominent supporter of Donald Trump, has criticized the president’s administration over the deportation of a professional makeup artist and hairdresser to a prison in El Salvador, calling it “horrific”.Andry José Hernández Romero, who is gay, had sought asylum in the US, telling officials he faced persecution because of his sexual orientation and political views. But US immigration officers argued the crown tattoos on his wrists were proof he was part of Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan gang, despite Hernández Romero telling them he was not. Last month, he was flown from Texas to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, a facility that his lawyer said was “one of the worst places in the world”. His removal comes as the administration undertakes what Trump has pledged would be a mass deportation campaign. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago French far right calls for nationwide protests against Marine Le Pen ban

National Rally president says French electorate ‘must be outraged’ at judgment that would ‘rob’ them of a voice Europe live – latest updatesFrance’s far-right National Rally (RN) party is calling for nationwide demonstrations against a court decision to ban Marine Le Pen from public office for five years, seemingly wrecking her hopes of becoming president in 2027.Jordan Bardella, the RN president, said French people “must be outraged” after what he called a “disproportionate, political and partisan” judgment that would rob them of a voice in the election. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Judge blocks Trump from stripping deportation protections for 350,000 Venezuelans: ‘Smacks of racism’

Judge Edward Chen blasts administration’s ‘false stereotypes’ about Venezuelans seeking shelter in the United States

Events

2 w. ago Marine Le Pen barred from running for French presidency in 2027

Far-right leader found guilty of embezzlement of European funds and immediately barred from running for officeEurope live – latest updatesThe French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has been barred from running for president in 2027 after a court found her guilty of a vast system of embezzlement of European parliament funds and banned her from running for public office with immediate effect.The decision was a political earthquake for Le Pen, the leader of the far-right anti-immigration National Rally (RN) party, who had hoped to mount a fourth campaign to become president. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago After the End of History: British Working Class Photography 1989

Stills, Edinburgh; Photographers’ Gallery, LondonFrom loneliness in Norfolk to vibrant Indian culture in Leicester, a touring show captures a riot of contradictions. Elsewhere, Leeds is lent an otherworldly air by a colour photography pioneerGiven that we live in a time defined by the rise of far-right populism and a widespread indifference to traditional party politics, the idea of a unified “working class” seems almost romantic, a throwback to an age when Labour was synonymous with socialism rather than centrism. In this context, the Hayward Gallery’s touring exhibition After the End of History is a defiant statement, though it’s less a celebration of shared values and traditions than a series of revealing glimpses of what curator Johny Pitts describes as the “complex and counterintuitive expressions of working-class life”.The show’s high-flown title refers to the political scientist Francis Fukuyama’s controversial assertion that history of a kind ended with the collapse of the S...

Culture

2 w. ago Donald Trump moves to end union rights for many government agency employees – US politics live

White House signs executive order limiting numerous federal workers from unionisingTrump news at a glance: judge orders now-infamous Signal chat be retainedFor beleaguered and divided congressional Democrats desperate to find an effective line of attack against Donald Trump, news that the US president’s national security team discussed plans to bomb Yemen on a widely available messaging app in the presence of a journalist came at just the right time.The leak has put the White House and the Republicans on the defensive, generated multiple days of aggressive media coverage and forced top officials to publicly twist themselves in knots as they seek to explain – or downplay – the blunder. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Human rights groups rebuke Kristi Noem’s visit to El Salvador prison: ‘political theatre’

Homeland security chief went to infamous prison holding deported Venezuelans as White House targets immigrantsUS politics live – latest updatesHuman rights organizations on Thursday denounced the US homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem’s, visit to the notorious prison in El Salvador that is holding hundreds of Venezuelans deported from the US earlier this month without a hearing, calling her actions “political theatre”.Critics condemned Noem’s visit as just the latest example of the Trump administration’s aim to spread fear among immigrant communities, as the cabinet member stood in a baseball hat in front of a line of caged men bare from the waist up. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Human rights groups rebuke Kristi Noem’s visit to El Salvador prison: ‘political theater’

Homeland security chief went to infamous prison holding deported Venezuelans as White House targets immigrantsUS politics live – latest updatesHuman rights organizations on Thursday denounced the visit by the US homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, to the notorious prison in El Salvador that is holding hundreds of Venezuelans deported from the US earlier this month without a hearing, calling her actions “political theater”.Critics condemned Noem’s visit as just the latest example of the Trump administration’s aim to spread fear among immigrant communities, as the cabinet member stood in a baseball hat in front of a line of caged men bare from the waist up. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Trump administration official visits El Salvador prison where deported Venezuelans are held

US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited the Terrorist Confinement Center in Tecoluca

Politics

2 w. ago Appeals court won't halt order barring Trump administration from deportations under wartime law

A federal appeals court won’t lift an order barring the Trump administration from deporting Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador under an 18th century wartime law

Events

3 w. ago Judge wildly claims Nazis got better treatment during WWII than Venezuelan migrants deported by Trump

A U.S. appeals court judge said that Nazis were given more rights to contest their removal from the United States during World War Two than Venezuelan migrants deported by the Trump administration.

Events

3 w. ago Appeals court panel appears divided on Trump's deportation of immigrants under wartime law

A panel of appeals court judges appeared divided Monday on a Trump administration push to lift an order blocking deportation of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador under an 18th century wartime law

Events

3 w. ago ‘Nazis got better treatment’: Appeals court judges skeptical of Trump arguments to deport Venezuelans

Judges question whether government can deport alleged Tren de Aragua members without chance to challenge removal

Events

3 w. ago Nazis had more rights than Venezuelan migrants to contest removal, US judge claims

Court rejects use of Alien Enemies Act of 1798, ruling accused migrants must get hearings firstUS politics live – latest updatesAn appeals court judge claimed on Monday that Nazis were given more rights to contest their removal from the United States during the second world war than Venezuelan migrants deported by the Trump administration.The comments came during a contentious hearing shortly after a lower court thwarted the Trump administration’s effort to deport the immigrants under a roughly 225-year-old war powers law. Continue reading...

Events