Category Archives: US Politics

Trump officials ask supreme court to permit national guard in Illinois

Posted on by

Justice department submits emergency filing as Trump pushes to expand use of military in Democratic-led cities

The Trump administration on Friday asked the US supreme court to permit the deployment of national guard troops to Illinois, as the president pushes to expand the domestic use of the military in a growing number of Democratic-led cities.

In an emergency filing, the justice department urged the court to overturn a lower court ruling that halted the deployment of several hundred national guard troops to the Chicago area. The district judge had raised doubts about the administration’s justification for sending troops, questioning its explanation in light of local conditions.

Continue reading...

Trump claims Maduro willing to give ‘everything’ to ease US tensions

Posted on by

President says Venezuelan counterpart ‘doesn’t want to fuck around with the United States’

Donald Trump used an expletive to threaten the Venezuelan leader, Nicolás Maduro, on Friday, claiming that the leftist autocrat had offered major concessions to appease the US.

The US president was speaking to reporters at the White House on Friday during a meeting with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Continue reading...

Trump to pay Ice and border agents amid shutdown as other federal workers go unpaid

Posted on by

Administration reportedly promises ‘supercheck’ covering shutdown pay for law enforcement officers across DHS

The Trump administration has promised tens of thousands of federal agents carrying out his immigration crackdown that they will be paid during the government shutdown, according to emails seen by Reuters, even as other federal workers go without pay.

The pay plan was communicated to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) and US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) staff on Wednesday in separate internal emails seen by Reuters.

Continue reading...

Ex-Trump adviser John Bolton surrenders after indictment

Posted on by

Trump critic also expected to appear in court to face charges that he mishandled classified information

John Bolton, the former national security adviser to Donald Trump who has since become one of the US president’s biggest Republican critics, surrendered to authorities on Friday to face criminal charges that he mishandled classified information. He was expected to make an initial appearance in court later in the day.

The justice department filed federal charges against Bolton in federal court in Maryland on Thursday, accusing him of transmitting and retaining highly classified information under the Espionage Act.

Continue reading...

US anti-vax stance to blame for continent-wide surge in measles, say experts

Posted on by

The disease was eliminated across the Americas in 2024, but urgent vaccination drives are now under way as cases rise from Mexico to Bolivia after outbreaks farther north

Governments across Latin America are stepping up efforts to vaccinate their populations against measles, as outbreaks in North America drive a 34-fold increase in the number of cases reported in the region this year.

Measles cases have surged worldwide to a 25-year high, due to low vaccine coverage and the spread of misinformation about vaccine safety. However, there is added concern in parts of Latin America over unequal access to healthcare and the worrying situation in the US, which is facing its worst measles outbreak in decades following a reversal of vaccine policy led by Donald Trump’s health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr.

Continue reading...

Ex-Trump adviser John Bolton indicted on charges of mishandling classified information

Posted on by

Eighteen-count indictment handed down by federal grand jury in Maryland as US president calls former ally a ‘bad guy’

The justice department filed federal charges against John Bolton, the former national security adviser to Donald Trump who turned into one of his biggest critics, accusing him of transmitting and retaining highly classified information under the Espionage Act.

The 18-count indictment was handed up by a grand jury in federal district court in Maryland on Thursday. Bolton has been charged with sending diary entries to two unnamed individuals about his day-to-day activities when he was national security adviser, many of which contained highly classified information.

Continue reading...

Trump moves to push employers on IVF coverage and lower fertility drug costs

Posted on by

President says plans will lead to ‘many more beautiful American children’ but unclear if companies will sign up

The Trump administration announced on Thursday that it is urging US employers to create new fertility benefit options to cover in vitro fertilization (IVF) and other infertility treatments.

In an announcement from the Oval Office, Donald Trump also said his administration had cut a deal with the drug manufacturer EMD Serono to lower the cost of one of its fertility drugs and list the drug on the government website TrumpRx.

Continue reading...

Former Bush adviser charged with amassing top secret files

Posted on by

Indian-American Ashley Tellis allegedly obtained US military data and passed envelopes to Chinese officials

A prominent Indian-American academic and former US government adviser has been arrested and charged with the unlawful detention of national security information, including thousands of pages of top secret documents that were found at his home in Virginia.

Ashley Tellis, 64, who served on the national security council of the former US president George W Bush and is credited for helping to negotiate the US-India nuclear deal, was arrested and charged over the weekend.

Continue reading...

75% of Americans report soaring prices as Trump claims inflation ‘over’

Posted on by

Exclusive poll: Inflation remains a concern despite president’s pledge to reduce prices on ‘day one’

Nine months after Donald Trump took office, promising to reduce prices on “day one”, a clear majority of Americans say their monthly costs have risen by between $100 and $749, according to an exclusive new poll conducted for the Guardian.

The president has continued to insist that there is “virtually no inflation”. “Prices are ‘WAY DOWN’ in the USA,” Trump wrote on social media in late August.

Continue reading...

Trump says he authorized covert CIA operations in Venezuela as Maduro decries the move as ‘coups d’etat’

Posted on by

Move marks escalation in Maduro pressure campaign as president says US mulling strikes on Venezuelan territory

Donald Trump said on Wednesday he had authorized the CIA to carry out covert operations in Venezuela, marking a sharp escalation in his administration’s pressure campaign against Nicolás Maduro’s government.

Trump further suggested he was considering strikes on Venezuelan territory, a dramatic step that would go beyond a series of recent lethal attacks on boats in the Caribbean, which Democrats and United Nations experts have forcefully condemned as unlawful.

Continue reading...

‘My vote is my voice’: protesters fight for democracy as Trump casts shadow

Posted on by

Outside the supreme court, protesters invoked the legacy of civil rights giants with a key Voting Rights Act plank at stake

Wearing a T-shirt proclaiming “We won’t Black down”, Wanda Mosley had made the trip from Atlanta. “I had to be here because the Voting Rights Act is on life support,” the 55-year-old explained. “Today the court will synthesise the arguments and decide if they’re going to kill it – or allow it to live.”

Mosley was among a few hundred protesters who gathered in warm October sunshine outside the supreme court on Wednesday. Inside the building, whose facade was obscured by scaffolding, justices were weighing arguments in a case involving Louisiana electoral districts and section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

Continue reading...

Trump threatens to cut US aid to Argentina if Milei loses election

Posted on by

US president says ‘we will not be generous’ if leader fails to win key midterms after promising $20bn to prop up struggling economy

Donald Trump has warned he could cut financial aid to Argentina if his ally Javier Milei loses crucial legislative elections later this month.

“If he loses, we are not going to be generous with Argentina,” the US president said as Milei visited the White House to seek the Republican’s political and economic support. “I’m with this man because his philosophy is correct. And he may win and he may not win – I think he’s going to win. And if he wins we are staying with him, and if he doesn’t win we are gone.”

Continue reading...

Trump says six were killed in US strike on another boat allegedly carrying drugs near Venezuela

Posted on by

UN has condemned US strikes on small boats it believes to be trafficking drugs as extrajudicial executions

Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that the United States has struck another small boat that he accuses of carrying drugs in waters off the coast of Venezuela, killing six people aboard.

“The strike was conducted in International Waters, and six male narcoterrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the strike,” Trump said in a statement on his Truth Social social media platform. “No U.S. Forces were harmed.”

Continue reading...

US revokes visas of at least 50 Mexican officials in Trump’s drug cartel crackdown

Posted on by

The administration’s sweeping visa cancellations extend to Mexico’s political elite, alarming allies and rivals alike

The US government has revoked the visas of at least 50 politicians and government officials in Mexico amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on drug cartels and their suspected political allies, according to two Mexican officials.

The move has sent quiet shock waves through Mexico’s political elite, who regularly travel to the US. It also marks a significant broadening of US anti-narcotics action, with the Trump administration targeting active politicians usually seen as too diplomatically sensitive.

Continue reading...

US Congress committee investigating Musk-owned Starlink over Myanmar scam centres

Posted on by

Provision of internet access to scam centres being investigated as Starlink swiftly becomes Myanmar’s biggest internet service provider

A powerful bipartisan committee in the US Congress says it has begun an investigation into the involvement of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite business in providing internet access to Myanmar scam centres, blamed for swindling billions from victims across the world.

The move comes as it was revealed that large numbers of Starlink dishes began appearing on scam-centre roofs in Myanmar around the time of a crackdown in February that was supposed to eradicate the centres, according to a investigation by Agence France-Presse

Continue reading...

Obama takes aim at companies cutting deals with Trump: ‘We have capacity to take a stand’

Posted on by

Universities, law firms and businesses that have changed course should have stood by convictions, says ex-president

Barack Obama took aim at institutions and businesses who made deals or worked out settlements with the Trump administration, noting on a new podcast episode: “We all have this capacity, I think, to take a stand.”

In a talk with Marc Maron on the comedian’s last edition of his long-running WTF With Marc Maron, the former US president said institutions – including law firms, universities and businesses – that have changed course during the Trump administration should have stood by their convictions.

Continue reading...

Majority of special education staff in US education department laid off – report

Posted on by

Layoffs ‘decimating’ office responsible for protecting rights of infants, children and youth with disabilities, says worker

The majority of staff in the education department handling special education has been laid off, according to multiple reports.

Friday’s total of 466 layoffs across the education department also impacted the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, which oversees programs that support millions of children and adults with disabilities nationwide, according to sources speaking to various outlets.

Continue reading...

Republican and Democratic senators dig in heels over government shutdown

Posted on by

Lindsey Graham says closure won’t push him to meet Democrats’ demands on Obama-era healthcare subsidies

Republican and Democratic senators Lindsey Graham and Mark Kelly have dug their heels in over the government shutdown – which is now approaching two weeks, with the former saying that the closure won’t push him to meet Democrats’ demands for a restoration of Obama-era healthcare subsidies.

Graham said on NBC News’s Meet the Press on Sunday that he was in favor of the Senate voting to reopen the government and prepared to “have a rational discussion” with Democrats – but not with the government shut down.

Continue reading...

US Smithsonian museums and National Zoo close due to government shutdown

Posted on by

Washington DC-based institution says it’ll temporarily close museums and research centers in response to shutdown

Smithsonian museums and the National Zoo closed their doors on Sunday in response to the ongoing government shutdown.

In a statement over the weekend, the Washington DC-based Smithsonian Institution announced that it was temporarily closing its museums, research centers and its zoo due to the government shutdown which has now entered the third week.

Continue reading...

Trump ‘looking at all options’ amid threats to invoke Insurrection Act, Vance says

Posted on by

Vice-president calls crime ‘out of control’ in US cities as Trump faces legal battles for use of federal forces

The White House is talking about invoking the Insurrection Act that would allow the deployment of military troops on US soil to quell domestic unrest amid legal challenges over the moves, JD Vance confirmed on Sunday.

Vance was asked on NBC News’s Meet the Press whether Donald Trump was seriously considering invoking the emergency power to deploy national guard forces and even the US military in domestic settings.

Continue reading...