64 h. ago The global south has lost its pope. The world has lost its conscience | Nathalie Tocci

He was no liberal, but Francis embodied a spirit of international solidarity that is in alarmingly short supplyPope Francis died hours after meeting the US vice-president, JD Vance. If that wasn’t a bad enough omen, the Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, Donald Trump’s acolyte and self-styled “Christian nationalist”, appeared to welcome the pope’s death as a sign of “evil” being “defeated”.In fact, despite a series of clashes with the Trump White House, Francis was no liberal. While refraining from judging homosexuality, he explicitly disapproved of the liberalising synodal path embarked on by the Catholic church in Germany, which ruled in 2023 that church employees could not be sacked for entering same-sex relationships or remarrying after divorce. On abortion, euthanasia, women and LGBTQ+ rights, Francis betrayed the high hopes that liberals and progressives had bestowed upon him. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Trump’s tech tariffs are total chaos – and everyone’s paying the price

From iPhone airlifts to Nintendo delays, Trump’s trade war has thrown the tech world into confusionHello, and welcome to TechScape. Today’s news: Donald Trump’s tariffs spread confusion like a germ, tech takes two kinds of environmental tolls, Meta faces an antitrust trial, and I’ve been watching two excellent pieces of serialized fiction on Instagram and TikTok.OpenAI countersues Elon Musk over ‘unlawful harassment’ of companyFederal workers fear Musk’s ‘efficiency’ agency is using AI to spy on them: ‘They are omnipresent’ Continue reading...

Economics

1 week ago El Salvador president refuses to order return of wrongly deported US man

Trump officials claim they’re not legally bound to bring Kilmar Abrego García back despite supreme court rulingThe president of El Salvador said in a meeting with Donald Trump in the White House on Monday that he would not order the return of a Maryland man who was deported in error to a Salvadorian mega-prison.“The question is preposterous,” Nayib Bukele said in the Oval Office on Monday, where he was welcomed by Trump and spoke with the president and members of his cabinet. “How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? I’m not going to do it.” Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago El Salvador president refuses to return wrongly deported man with US protected status

Trump officials claim they’re not legally bound to bring Kilmar Abrego García back despite supreme court rulingThe president of El Salvador said in a meeting with Donald Trump in the White House on Monday that he would not order the return of a Maryland man who was deported in error to a Salvadorian mega-prison.“The question is preposterous,” Nayib Bukele said in the Oval Office on Monday, where he was welcomed by Trump and spoke with the president and members of his cabinet. “How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? I’m not going to do it.” Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Former Trump aide says he knows exactly when president's bromance with Elon Musk will implode

The former White House staffer Anthony Scaramucci, who spent an infamous 11 days in Trump's first administration spoke to the Welcome to MAGAland podcast on Friday. Listen now.

Politics

2 w. ago Donohoe: EU will engage with US in ‘constructive way’ during 90

Paschal Donohoe welcomed Mr Trump’s decision to pause the so-called reciprocal tariffs.

Politics

2 w. ago How many grandchildren does Donald Trump have? President's daughter throws baby shower

The president’s family is set to welcome another member, with Tiffany Trump’s due date fast approaching

Politics

2 w. ago Saturday’s Trump protests weren’t perfect. But they brought a glimmer of hope | Moira Donegan

The Hands Off event proved Americans with a slew of different priorities can still form a broad left-liberal coalitionWhat is the point of street protest? This is the question I asked myself as I rode the bus downtown to San Francisco city hall, where activists were hosting a rally and march for Hands Off, a national day of action meant to collect a broad range of resistance to the Trump regime under one banner.During the first Trump administration, I’d gone to these a lot. I’d attended the Women’s March in Washington in January of 2017, and felt myself crushed between the bodies of the hundreds of thousands of attenders; I’d held a sign at JFK airport, chanting “Immigrants are welcome here”, a few weeks later, when Trump instituted his travel ban. In 2020, I’d marched in Black Lives Matter protests, trying to avenge the horror I had felt when I’d seen videos of police officers killing Black men, often as they begged for their lives, played over and over again on the tiny screen of ...

Politics

2 w. ago Ohtani, Betts and World Series champion Dodgers visit Trump at the White House

President Donald Trump welcomed Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and the reigning champion Los Angeles Dodgers to the White House on Monday to congratulate them for winning the World Series last season

Politics

2 w. ago ‘There is no ceasefire. Attacks are ongoing’: how Putin’s envoy played US over Ukraine

White House welcome for key member of Russian president’s inner circle raises fears over America’s commitment to peaceKirill Dmitriev’s meetings with US officials in the White House last week went largely below the radar. And deliberately so.The dapper investment envoy to Russian president Vladimir Putin, who also serves as a key negotiator for Moscow on Ukraine, posted an image of his flight plan on social media to make the point that a senior sanctioned Russian official was being welcomed by the Trump administration. Otherwise, details of what was discussed remain opaque. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago ‘Hope in my heart’: big Texas welcome for displaced Afghans on hold as Trump freezes refugee programs

Texas volunteers had prepared welcome for family fleeing Taliban now stranded in Pakistan in fear of being deportedThe 24-year-old Afghan woman wants to become a surgeon – and she had set her sights on training in the US.She wants to care for other women and girls, so they don’t have to be afraid to visit the doctor – so at least in one crucial aspect of their lives they won’t have to endure the unwanted advances, dismissive comments and blatant disrespect that she’s experienced from many of the men who have always surrounded her, first in her native Afghanistan and now in legal limbo in Pakistan. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Trump welcomes idea of running for a notional third term against Obama: ‘I’d love that’

In a hypothetical, and nearly impossible, third-term matchup the president said he’d ‘love’ to run against Obama

Politics

3 w. ago Trump welcomes Kid Rock to White House for order targeting ticket scalpers

President Donald Trump invited Kid Rock into the Oval Office and signed an executive order that he says will help curb ticket scalping and bring “commonsense” changes to the way live entertainment events are priced

Events

3 w. ago Donald Trump says he is ‘not joking’ over possible third term – US politics live

President tells NBC ‘there are methods’ in securing a third term despite constitutional barriersGood morning, and welcome to our US politics blog amid news that Donald Trump is “not joking” about a possible third term.The comments on Sunday are the clearest indication yet he is considering ways to breach a constitutional barrier against continuing to lead the country after his second term ends at the beginning of 2029.“There are methods which you could do it,” Trump said in a telephone interview with NBC News from Mar-a-Lago. And he told host Kristen Welker: “I am not joking.” He elaborated later to reporters on Air Force One from Florida to Washington that “I have had more people ask me to have a third term, which in a way is a fourth term because the other election, the 2020 election, was totally rigged.” Trump lost that election to Joe Biden. Still, Trump added: “I don’t want to talk about a third term now because no matter how you look at it, we’ve got a long time to go.”Donald ...

Politics