Cryptocurrency’s biggest Pac spent more than $10m for their candidates, only to be defeated by those who are anti-crypto
The cryptocurrency industry spent big and lost often in this week’s Illinois primaries.
As the industry prepares to make massive donations in the 2026 midterm elections to replicate its success in 2024, the Illinois losses mark an early setback for firms that are trying to establish themselves as power players in American politics.
Continue reading...The detention of Dylan Lopez Contreras, 20, of Venezuela, a freshman in the Bronx, sparked national outrage
A New York high school student who was detained at an immigration courthouse in May last year, sparking national outrage, was released on Wednesday.
Dylan Lopez Contreras, 21, of Venezuela was a freshman at Ellis Prep academy, a Bronx public school dedicated exclusively to students who have recently arrived in the US. It was the first widely known instance of a public school student being arrested by federal immigration agents.
Continue reading...Republicans block resolution to take up the measure, which Democrats vow to bring up ‘again and again and again’
Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked a measure that aimed to rein in Donald Trump’s power to wage war against Iran without congressional authorization.
The 53-47 vote against taking up the measure fell almost completely along party lines, with no movement from earlier this month when Republicans blocked Democrats’ bid to limit Trump’s war-making power in the days after the joint US-Israeli strikes, known as Operation Epic Fury, began across Iran.
Continue reading...Steady UK opposition to the war and the US president’s insults mean MPs are finding it easier to point out the obvious
When is a U-turn definitely a U-turn? To the consternation of politicians through the ages, this is rarely something within their control, but decided instead by the herd. And thus it is with Kemi Badnoch over Iran and Donald Trump.
The Conservative leader would very much like it to be known that she had not changed her stance on the US-Israeli attacks on Iran, or on the US president.
Continue reading...Beijing seeks to decipher effect of Iran war on US midterms and best way to apply pressure when Trump meets Xi
The White House said on Wednesday that China had agreed to postpone Donald Trump’s visit to Beijing, as war in the Middle East rages on, complicating the US president’s position at home and abroad.
China has not yet commented on the delay to the highly anticipated trip, in which Trump and the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, will meet in person for the first time since October. Trump previously said he hoped to delay the trip, originally scheduled to run from 31 March to 2 April, for “five or six weeks”.
Continue reading...$11.3bn more than enough to fund EPA or National Cancer Institute, where administration sought to slash budgets
The US spent $11.3bn on just the first week of its military assault on Iran. This huge expenditure dwarves the annual budgets of many of the public health and scientific agencies the Trump administration has sought to cut, raising stark questions about the country’s priorities.
In the six days that followed the US and Israel’s joint attack on Iran on 28 February, $11.3bn was spent on American taxpayer-funded bombs that hit the country and caused hundreds of deaths, the Pentagon has told lawmakers. This figure does not capture the full cost of the conflict, such as deployment of forces, and will now be far higher given the ongoing nature of the war.
Continue reading...Senate Democrats sent counteroffer on Monday aimed at resolving budget standoff
Negotiations for Congress to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – which oversees airport security officers – remained ongoing as the airport in Atlanta, the world’s busiest, dealt with long security lines on Tuesday.
A White House official confirmed that Senate Democrats sent a counteroffer on Monday aimed at resolving a budget standoff that led to a DHS shutdown into its second month. A Trump administration official confirmed to the Guardian that the offer by Democrats was under review, though Republican lawmakers were quick to dismiss the proposal.
Continue reading...The University of Florida campus group says the suspension over an off-campus post violated free speech
A dispute among student Republican groups in Florida over alleged antisemitic behavior is heading for a courtroom after a chapter at the state’s flagship university was suspended for an online post featuring two people giving Nazi salutes.
On Saturday, University of Florida (UF) blocked campus operations of the school’s College Republicans after the group’s state leadership said it had disbanded the chapter for engaging in “a pattern of conduct that violated its rules and values, including a recent antisemitic gesture”.
Continue reading...Arrest of asylum seeker Elvis Joel TE and his two-year-old, without a warrant, had sparked widespread outrage
A federal judge ruled on Friday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) must release a Minneapolis man and asylum seeker who has been unlawfully detained for 50 days.
The man, identified as Elvis Joel TE in court filings, was arrested on 22 January at the height of ICE’s aggressive raids in Minneapolis. The case sparked widespread outrage as Elvis TE was detained with his two-year-old daughter while they were returning home from the store, and ICE quickly flew both of them to Texas despite a court order barring their transfer out of Minnesota.
Continue reading...Democrat says Congress ‘doing nothing’ may embolden president to attack countries such as Cuba and North Korea
Democratic US senator Cory Booker has criticized both his own political party as well as its Republican counterpart for being “feckless” in ceding congressional war powers to Donald Trump, saying that their decision could embolden the president to unilaterally attack Cuba, North Korea and other countries.
“I’m going to be one of those Democrats [who] say I think both parties have been feckless in allowing the growth of the power of the presidency,” Booker said on Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union.
Continue reading...Tehran wants ceasefire but terms ‘not good enough yet’, US president claims, as both sides launch new waves of strikes
Donald Trump has warned he is not ready to seek a deal to end the US-Israeli offensive against Iran, saying that though he thought Tehran was keen to negotiate a ceasefire, the US would fight on for better terms.
Trump’s comments came as Iran launched fresh missile and drone attacks on countries in the Gulf and on Israel, and Israeli and US warplanes launched new waves of strikes on Iran.
Continue reading...US Central Command says crash followed unspecified incident, and second refueling tanker landed safely in Israel
The names of the six US service members who died when a military refueling aircraft crashed over Iraq on Thursday have been released.
The Pentagon on Saturday identified the crew members as Maj John “Alex” Klinner, 33, of Auburn, Alabama; Capt Ariana Savino, 31, of Covington, Washington; Tech Sgt Ashley Pruitt, 34, of Bardstown, Kentucky; Capt Seth Koval, 38, of Mooresville, Indiana; Capt Curtis Angst, 30, of Wilmington, Ohio; and Tech Sgt Tyler Simmons, 28, of Columbus, Ohio.
Continue reading...Brendan Carr posts that he may cancel spectrum permits of ‘mainstream news’ outlets for ‘misleading’ coverage
The Trump administration’s communications licensing tsar fired a warning shot over the US broadcasting industry Saturday, threatening to cancel the spectrum permits of broadcasters pushing what he termed “hoaxes and news distortions”.
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chair Brendan Carr posted on social media that broadcasters running “fake news – have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up. The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not.”
Continue reading...White House contends with reality of shoddy preparations for war and unclear conditions for victory
As US and Israeli jets descended to deliver the opening salvos of the war in Iran, Donald Trump’s back-of-the-envelope plan for regime change in Tehran was about to run into the reality of the largest US intervention in the Middle East since the start of the Iraq war in 2003.
That reality came quickly.
Continue reading...Drivers in Detroit are unhappy with the spike in gas prices, even if reactions are mixed to the US-Israel war on Iran
On a rainy Detroit afternoon at a gas station off Interstate 75, Victor Rodriguez watched the pump tally tick up as he filled up his F-250 diesel pickup truck for $4.19 per gallon. It totaled $110. “Ridiculous,” he said.
The US-Israel war on Iran has crippled major portions of the oil supply chain, sending gas prices soaring as the conflict enters its third week. Rodriguez said he supports “getting rid of this thug”, referring to Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed by the US, but the cost is too high.
Continue reading...Oscar, Ana and their children fled violence for safety in the US. Now Oscar, afraid and alone, is back in Honduras – ‘at the mercy of God and his will’
As soon as Oscar’s deportation flight landed at the La Lima airport in Honduras, he put on his baseball cap. On the airport shuttle toward the terminal, he pulled his cap even lower – trying to obscure his face at various police checkpoints.
His parents picked him up in a car, and drove him to a lodging they had arranged for him – miles away from his family home. He has hardly stepped outside since. “Because I can’t trust anyone – not the authorities, not the government, not a police officer,” he said. He has visited his mother a handful of times since the US deported him three weeks ago, and only under the cover of night. “They will kill anyone here. There is death everywhere.”
Continue reading...Comments in books, speeches and videos shed new light on defense secretary’s personal commitment to war on Iran
The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has expressed a violent antipathy towards Iran for years in books, Fox News broadcasts, educational videos and a 2018 speech to an Israeli media conference in Jerusalem, a Guardian review has revealed.
In a 2020 book, for example, Hegseth wrote that Iran’s leaders were “actively seeking the military means – especially nuclear weapons – to bring the West to its knees”. And in a 2017 video for PragerU, the hard-right media platform, Hegseth described Iran as “America’s mortal enemy”.
Continue reading...Comments in books, speeches and videos shed new light on defense secretary’s personal commitment to war on Iran
The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has expressed a violent antipathy towards Iran for years in books, Fox News broadcasts, educational videos and a 2018 speech to an Israeli media conference in Jerusalem, a Guardian review has revealed.
In a 2020 book, for example, Hegseth wrote that Iran’s leaders were “actively seeking the military means – especially nuclear weapons – to bring the West to its knees”. And in a 2017 video for PragerU, the hard-right media platform, Hegseth described Iran as “America’s mortal enemy”.
Continue reading...Vast release of emergency crude reserves fails to quell mounting fears around energy supply crunch, rattling global markets
Oil prices again topped $100 a barrel on Thursday as widespread Iranian attacks on Middle Eastern energy facilities overshadowed a vast release of government reserves.
As Donald Trump vowed to “finish the job” and press ahead with the US-Israel war on Iran, the country’s regime stepped up retaliatory strikes on economic targets across the region.
Continue reading...Vast release of emergency crude reserves fails to quell mounting fears around energy supply crunch, rattling global markets
Oil prices again topped $100 a barrel on Thursday as widespread Iranian attacks on Middle Eastern energy facilities overshadowed a vast release of government reserves.
As Donald Trump vowed to “finish the job” and press ahead with the US-Israel war on Iran, the country’s regime stepped up retaliatory strikes on economic targets across the region.
Continue reading...