13 h. ago President Xi has never enjoyed such global prestige – thanks to Trump’s wrecking ball to the West

Trump’s moves to undermine the West have not only made Xi look good - but make him more powerful, writes world affairs editor Sam Kiley

Politics

14 h. ago Why Trump’s undermining of US statistics is so dangerous | Daniel Malinsky

From the firing of the labor statistics chief to plans for a new census, the president’s moves serve to entrench authoritarianismIn 1937, Joseph Stalin commissioned a sweeping census of the Soviet Union. The data reflected some uncomfortable facts – in particular, the dampening of population growth in areas devastated by the 1933 famine – and so Stalin’s government suppressed the release of the survey results. Several high-level government statistical workers responsible for the census were subsequently imprisoned and apparently executed. Though the Soviet authorities would proudly trumpet national statistics that glorified the USSR’s achievements, any numbers that did not fit the preferred narrative were buried.A few weeks ago, following the release of “disappointing” jobs data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Donald Trump fired the commissioner of labor statistics, Dr Erika McEntarfer, and claimed the numbers were “rigged”. He also announced his intention to commission a...

Politics

37 h. ago Trump’s war on Fed is ‘serious danger’ to world economy, says ECB head

Undermining independence of central bank will affect the US and other countries, says Christine LagardeBusiness live – latest updatesDonald Trump’s attempt to influence the US Federal Reserve could pose a “very serious danger” for the world economy, the head of the European Central Bank has warned.Christine Lagarde, the president of the ECB, said Trump undermining the independence of the world’s most powerful central bank would have an impact for the US and other countries. Continue reading...

Politics

9 d. ago Don’t let Donald Trump undermine your faith in the climate fight | Gina McCarthy

The president’s fossil-fuel obsession can’t stop global progress, writes the former Environmental Protection Agency headOver the past decade, the United States has turned technologies into tools that strengthened our economy, delivered good-paying union jobs, cleaned up our air and water, conserved our precious natural resources, and saved families money all across our country. Yet now the country is choosing to cede that leadership, letting China dominate and control the clean-energy market across the world. It’s no surprise that people are scratching their heads, wondering what happened.Our president is obsessed with fossil fuels. He wants to resuscitate what everyone knows is a dying coal sector while turning a blind eye to the health, environmental, and economic downsides of the climate crisis. Coupled with inconsistent threats of increased tariffs against virtually all our allies, he has isolated the US and amplified threats to global security.Gina McCarthy is the managing co-c...

Politics

2 w. ago UK drivers warned to check their vehicles as road users being put at 'serious risk'

The shocking statistics put law-abiding road users in danger, according to industry experts

Events

3 w. ago In Trump’s America, vaccination rates are declining and measles is spreading | Katrina vanden Heuvel

Trump and RFK Jr have made every effort to undermine one of the major civilizing advances of the 20th century – our public health infrastructureNew data from the CDC suggests a grim back-to-school tradition emerging: in 2024, kindergarten vaccination rates declined for the fifth consecutive year. Meanwhile, vaccine exemptions reached a record high.These statistics became all the more disturbing last fall when, shortly after 286,000 children began their educations without proof of full immunity against measles, a man who has bragged about never getting a flu shot was re-elected to the presidency. Since then, the US has contended with its largest measles outbreak in three decades, while the leaders who should be stamping out this crisis are instead fanning the flames. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Trump’s attempts to distance himself from the Epstein files are failing | Sidney Blumenthal

The president has tried to distract from the Epstein story – but his ill-conceived Mar-a-Lago tale has undermined himOne of Trump’s preternatural abilities is his apparent animal instinct to lie on the spot whenever he senses he might be cornered. His initial Pavlovian training by his mob lawyer Roy Cohn and subsequent experience in more than 4,000 lawsuits and countless scandals seem to have ingrained in him that lying, the more outrageous the better, buys him time, plays to his credulous followers as insouciant defiance, and wears down his accusers.When Trump’s distractions failed to distract from the Jeffrey Epstein files, he offered a story without missing a beat to distance himself from any taint. In his tale, he was traduced by Epstein. Trump was taken advantage of, violated, despoiled. There could be no guilt by association; Trump was a victim, too. Continue reading...

Politics

4 w. ago I was the US labor secretary. Trump’s latest firing undermines a key agency | Robert Reich

The firing of Erika McEntarfer, head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, destroys the credibility of essential informationI spent much of the 1990s as the secretary of labor. One unit of the labor department is the Bureau of Labor Statistics.I was instructed by my predecessors as well as by the White House, and by every labor economist and statistician I came in contact with, that one of my cardinal responsibilities was to guard the independence of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Continue reading...

Politics

4 w. ago Trump firing of labor statistics chief ‘undermines credibility’, ex

Former commissioners call on Congress to act after Trump fires Erika McEntarfer over ‘rigged’ employment dataThe former Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) commissioners and non-partisan economic groups have criticized Donald Trump’s shock firing of BLS commissioner Erika McEntarfer after the July jobs report data revealed jobs growth stalled this summer.Trump, without any evidence to back his claims, alleged McEntarfer “faked” employment numbers in the run-up to the 2024 election to boost Kamala Harris’s chances and said that the recent data was “rigged” to make Trump and Republicans look bad. Continue reading...

Politics