3 d. ago As RFK Jr. promises answer to autism, Trump’s war on universities leaves research twisting in the wind: ‘It’s infuriating’

Cutting off grants for international collaborators, punishing universities and freezing their money has all created a situation of uncertainty. One researcher tells Eric Garcia ‘makes you feel like you're losing your mind’

Politics

4 d. ago Boycott the banquet, send a tweet. But ending the horror in Gaza still relies on the worst people in the world | Marina Hyde

This humanitarian catastrophe is barely of passing interest to Donald Trump. The curse of our times is how little we can do about itDay 222 of Donald Trump’s presidency, and Russia’s war in Ukraine – which he promised to end on day one – shows no sign of having got the memo. This was not a single-use Trump promise; he made it at least 53 times. Yet the US president has failed to keep it, either literally or in his favourite manner: figuratively. Can you figuratively end a war? Not even, apparently.What his most recent round of failure means, however, is that Trump is pivoting back to another war, the grotesquely horrifying and unlawful humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza. Not the way he’d phrase it, possibly. This week he swerved commenting on either Israel’s invasion of Gaza City or the mounting declarations that famine and starvation are clearly under way in the territory, and instead announced: “I think within the next two, three weeks, you’re going to have a pretty good, ...

Events

5 d. ago FACT FOCUS: Rural hospitals are expected to lose money from Trump's bill, despite RFK Jr.'s promise

Rural hospitals are bracing for financial losses due to President Trump's tax and spending cut bill

Politics

7 d. ago Republicans are trying to ensure we’ll never have another fair election | Judith Levine

From an executive order and redistricting to seeking to kill mail-in ballots, the party is conducting an all-out assault on voting rights“Christians, get out and vote, just this time,” Donald Trump exhorted the audience at a campaign event organized by the conservative Turning Point Action in July 2024. “In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good you’re not going to have to vote.”Since his defeat by Joe Biden in 2020, Trump has been building toward delivery on that promise, first by fomenting suspicion of widespread election fraud, then by trying to overturn the results via legal challenge and intimidation, and finally, on 6 January 2021, by force. Now the White House and Republicans both in Washington and the states are colluding more brazenly than ever to “fix it” – “it” meaning free and fair elections they might lose.Judith Levine is Brooklyn-based journalist, essayist and author of five books. Her Substack is Today in Fascism Continue reading...

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1 week ago Maxwell transcripts bring some respite for Trump, but fail to quell Maga uproar

Hundreds of transcript pages unlikely to pacify those who want to know more of president’s association with EpsteinFor weeks, Donald Trump has been on the defensive over his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigative files and the extent of his own personal links to the late sex trafficker.While Trump had promised to release files related to Epstein, his justice department announced in July there would be no more disclosures, prompting uproar among conspiracy-minded Maga adherents and many other of his supporters. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Trump promised to make DC safe. And then a reporter’s wallet was stolen at a JD Vance

The vice president was greeting troops deployed to deal with ‘vagrants’ at Washington’s Union Station when the alleged theft occurred

Politics

1 week ago ‘It would be a terrible loss’: Ukrainian frontline troops sceptical of ceding land

Near Dobropillia new trenches are visible, drone attacks continue and there is no sign of the fighting easingOver dinner on Monday, a simple barbecue of meat and roasted vegetables, the soldiers of Ukraine’s 150th reconnaissance and strike battalion have other things on their mind. Volodymyr Zelenskyy is in the White House and Donald Trump has just promised to give Ukraine “very good protection”.When this development is passed on to the group around, one of the soldiers pipes up “From who?” and laughs, such is the uncertainty about who the US really supports. But in reality the troops are not following the news closely. After three and half years, the war has its own momentum, technology and schedule. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Security promises, a suit jacket and no shouting: The key takeaways from Trump’s meeting with Zelensky

The meeting between the two leaders was more cordial than the shouting match that erupted in February

Politics

2 w. ago Can Europe’s leaders drag Trump’s Ukraine policy back on track? – Today in Focus Extra podcast

The Guardian’s senior international correspondent Julian Borger on why a ‘dream team’ of Europe’s leaders will flank Zelensky today as he travels to Washington. Can they convince Trump to listen to the Ukrainian president?Last week, the US president, Donald Trump, flew to Anchorage, Alaska, to meet the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. All guns blazing, Trump promised there would be consequences if he did not get the ceasefire he had come for. But after spending three hours in the subartic chill with Putin, a former KGB handler, he seemed to change. He said he agreed with Putin that a long-term peace settlement was more urgent than a ceasefire, and ruled out Ukraine joining Nato.Europe’s key leaders have responded by ripping up their schedules and insisting on joining Volodymyr Zelenskyy as he travels to Washington for his own meeting with Trump, the Guardian’s senior international correspondent Julian Borger explains. Helen Pidd asks what hope this “dream team” of leaders has of c...

Politics

2 w. ago Trump’s promise of a US manufacturing renaissance leaves experts scratching their heads

Economists doubt US duties will bring about a resurgence of US factory jobs, notably due to Trump’s erratic tariff rolloutDonald Trump’s hugely disruptive trade war is setting the stage for a manufacturing renaissance in the US, administration officials say. Outside the White House, many economists are skeptical.Global trade experts point to many reasons they believe the president’s tariffs will fail to bring about a major resurgence of manufacturing, among them: Trump’s erratic, constantly changing policies, his unfocused, across-the-board tariffs, and his replacing Joe Biden’s carrot-and-sticks approach to brandish sticks at the world. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Trump is promising a US manufacturing renaissance. Many experts are dubious

Economists doubt US duties will bring about a resurgence of US factory jobs, notably due to Trump’s erratic tariff rolloutDonald Trump’s hugely disruptive trade war is setting the stage for a manufacturing renaissance in the US, administration officials say. Outside the White House, many economists are skeptical.Global trade experts point to many reasons they believe the president’s tariffs will fail to bring about a major resurgence of manufacturing, among them: Trump’s erratic, constantly changing policies, his unfocused, across-the-board tariffs, and his replacing Joe Biden’s carrot-and-stick approach to brandish sticks at the world. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Nicola Jennings on Trump’s promise of ‘big progress’ on Russia – cartoon

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Politics

2 w. ago How dare the public be told to tackle criminals... when politicians have left them to roam with impunity: By retired policeman NORMAN BRENNAN

Last week, Donald Trump deployed National Guard soldiers to Washington DC, to enact his promise of 'historic action to rescue our nation's capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse'.

Events

2 w. ago Trump reportedly backs Ukrainian land concession in peace plan with Putin – live

Putin in return offered ceasefire across Ukraine and written promise to not attack again, according to senior officialsZelenskyy to meet Trump on Monday after Putin summit briefingAt the Alaska summit, Putin demanded Ukraine withdraw from Donetsk and Luhansk as a condition for ending the war, but offered Trump a freeze along the remaining frontline, two sources with direct knowledge of the talks told the Guardian.Although Luhansk is almost entirely under Russian control, Ukraine still holds key parts of Donetsk, including the cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk and heavily fortified positions whose defence has cost tens of thousands of lives. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Donald Trump parrots Kremlin views after Putin 'runs rings' round him at summit

There was no sign of a ceasefire from Russia - or the "severe consequences" Trump promised if Putin failed to agree one - and he has agreed with another long-held Kremlin position

Politics

2 w. ago Putin calls North Korea’s Kim to promise ‘closer contact’ ahead of Trump summit

Russian president Vladimir Putin held a phone call with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to reaffirm their “friendship” ahead of his summit with Donald Trump in Alaska on Friday.

Politics

2 w. ago Trump live: White House promises to make DC the safest city in the world as the National Guard arrives

The president has placed the DC Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control – but is already facing a backlash

Politics

3 w. ago Judge rejects Trump administration request to unseal Ghislaine Maxwell grand jury transcripts

Judge wrote transcripts from case of Jeffrey Epstein associate couldn’t be released because it would risk ‘unraveling secrecy’ of grand juryDismissing it as little more than a “diversion,” a federal judge in New York has formally rejected the Trump-led US justice department’s request to release transcripts of pre-indictment, grand jury interviews with witnesses in the case of Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted sex trafficker and associate of Jeffrey Epstein.Judge Paul Engelmayer wrote that the transcripts could not be released publicly – “casually or promiscuously” – as Donald Trump’s government had pushed for because it would risk “unraveling the foundations of secrecy upon which the grand jury is premised”. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Zelenskyy welcomes European leaders’ demand peace talks must include Kyiv

Europe promises to ‘stand firmly’ with Ukraine as Trump and Putin prepare to meet for summit on FridayThe Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has welcomed a statement from European allies that insists the “path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine”, before a planned summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.In a joint statement issued on Saturday night, leaders from the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Poland and Finland, along with the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, stressed Kyiv must be included in any peace talks with Russia. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Trump’s sweeping bill looms large over Democrats and Republican as they head for recess

Republicans see it as the epitome of Trump keeping his promises, while for Democrats it’s an opportunity to return from the political wildernessEarlier this summer, Republican lawmakers gathered around Donald Trump and applauded as he sat before a desk outside the White House and put his signature on what he calls his “one, big, beautiful bill”.But there were few claps for Mike Flood this week when the Republican congressman appeared before an auditorium of his Nebraska constituents to extol the tax and spending legislation’s benefits – just boos and jeers. Continue reading...

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