Category Archives: US Politics

‘No guidance and no leadership’: chaos and confusion at CDC after mass firings

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On 1 April, thousands of workers at HHS and agencies like the CDC were let go, leaving those left to piece together the cuts and mourn the research that can’t go forward

For the past two months, members of the Elon Musk-led “department of government efficiency” (Doge) have stalked the halls of the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) Atlanta headquarters.

Several employees told the Guardian that if a Doge staffer walked through their offices and saw a badge at an untended workstation, its owner would be fired promptly. Firing someone for a security violation gave Doge an excuse to circumvent the defenses of civil service protection, or performance reviews, or seniority.

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Netanyahu discusses Gaza and tariffs with Trump at White House meeting

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President says the pair had a ‘great discussion’ while prime minister says Israel will eliminate trade deficit with US

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, met with Donald Trump on Monday for the second time since the US president’s return to office, marking the first effort by a foreign leader to negotiate a deal after Trump announced sweeping tariffs last week.

Speaking alongside Trump in the Oval Office, Netanyahu said Israel would eliminate the trade deficit with the US. “We intend to do it very quickly,” he told reporters, adding that he believed Israel could “serve as a model for many countries who ought to do the same”.

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Rightwing group backed by Koch and Leo sues to stop Trump tariffs

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New Civil Liberties Alliance says president’s invocation of emergency powers to impose tariffs is unlawful

A libertarian group backed by Leonard Leo and Charles Koch has mounted a legal challenge against Donald Trump’s tariff regime, in a sign of spreading rightwing opposition to a policy that has sent international markets plummeting.

The New Civil Liberties Alliance filed a suit against Trump’s imposition of import tariffs on exports from China, arguing that doing so under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) – which the president has invoked to justify the duties on nearly all countries – is unlawful.

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Trump threatens additional 50% tariffs on China over retaliatory levies

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President poised to further impose taxes after Beijing announced a 34% tariff on US imports as global markets fall

Donald Trump has threatened to impose an additional 50% tariff on imports from China on Wednesday unless the country rescinds its retaliatory tariffs on the United States by Tuesday.

The news comes on the third day of catastrophic market falls around the globe since Trump announced his trade war last Wednesday with tariffs on the US’s trading partners.

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Caribbean is friend of US, not an enemy, tariff-hit regional leaders tell Trump

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Barbados PM and Caricom chair calls on Washington to engage in talks to ‘keep prices down for all of our people’

The Caribbean is a friend, not an enemy, leaders in the region have told Donald Trump after the US president’s imposition of worldwide import tariffs.

The prime minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, invited Trump to talk with leaders in the region and “work together to keep prices down for all of our people”, adding: “I say simply to President Trump: our economies are not doing your economy any harm in any way. They are too small to have any negative or distorted impact on your country.”

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Labour: changes to EV rules will have ‘negligible’ impact on UK emissions

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Transport secretary says overhaul in response to Trump tariffs supports car firms and climate goals

Labour’s changes to electric vehicle (EV) rules in response to Donald Trump’s tariffs will have a negligible impact on emissions, the transport secretary has said.

Keir Starmer has confirmed plans to boost manufacturers, including reinstating the 2030 ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars.

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US attorney general says Trump likely ‘going to be finished’ after second term

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Pam Bondi, Trump loyalist and top law enforcement official, expresses skepticism about recent third-term talk

Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, has expressed skepticism about the idea of Donald Trump serving a third term in the White House, saying that when her boss’s current presidency ends on 20 January 2029, he is probably “going to be finished”.

Bondi’s comments come just a week after Trump gave his most blunt indication yet that he was seriously considering trying for a third term to follow up ones that began in 2017 and this past January – despite the clear prohibition against doing so enshrined in the US constitution.

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DoJ lawyer put on leave after not backing erroneous deportation of Maryland man

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Erez Reuveni no longer on Kilmar Abrego Garcia case after not ‘vigorously’ defending Trump administration

A federal justice department attorney has been placed on leave by the Trump administration for purportedly failing to defend the administration vigorously enough after it says it erroneously deported a Maryland man to El Salvador, which a US judge called a “wholly lawless” detention.

The action against justice department lawyer Erez Reuveni came after US district judge Paula Xinis had ordered that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran immigrant who lived in the US legally with a work permit, be returned to Maryland despite the Trump administration’s position that it cannot return him from a sovereign nation.

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Senior Trump officials give conflicting lines on tariffs after markets turmoil

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Commerce secretary insists on CBS that tariffs will ‘stay in place’ as treasury secretary tells NBC negotiation is possible

Senior officials within Donald Trump’s administration gave conflicting messages on Sunday about the US president’s global tariffs that have caused a meltdown in stock markets, prompted warnings of a world recession and provoked rare expressions of dissent from within his Republican party.

Cabinet members fanned out across Sunday’s political talk shows armed with talking points on Trump’s 10% across-the-board tariff on almost all US imports, with higher rates targeted at about 60 countries. If the intention was to calm nerves with a clear statement of intent, then it backfired as top officials gave starkly contrasting signals.

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Senior Trump officials give conflicting lines on tariffs after markets turmoil

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Commerce secretary insists on CBS that tariffs will ‘stay in place’ as treasury secretary tells NBC negotiation is possible

Senior officials within Donald Trump’s administration gave conflicting messages on Sunday about the US president’s global tariffs that have caused a meltdown in stock markets, prompted warnings of a world recession and provoked rare expressions of dissent from within his Republican party.

Cabinet members fanned out across Sunday’s political talk shows armed with talking points on Trump’s 10% across-the-board tariff on almost all US imports, with higher rates targeted at about 60 countries. If the intention was to calm nerves with a clear statement of intent, then it backfired as top officials gave starkly contrasting signals.

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Cory Booker urges action in first event since historic speech: ‘This is a moment for America’

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Democratic senator calls on voters to get creative in pushing back against Trump at town hall in New Jersey

The Democratic senator Cory Booker took a version of his record-breaking Senate floor speech on the road Saturday to a town hall meeting in a New Jersey gymnasium, calling on people to find out what they can do to push back against Donald Trump’s agenda.

Booker took questions at suburban New Jersey’s Bergen Community College the same day that more than 1,200 “Hands Off” demonstrations took place around the country. The town hall event was punctuated both by celebratory shouts of “Cory, Cory” as well as at least a half-dozen interruptions by protesters.

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‘Hands Off’ protests take off across US and Europe to oppose Trump agenda – as it happened

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Protesters gather at more than a thousand events across the US and in cities abroad, such as London, Berlin and Paris. This blog is now closed.

Hundreds of protesters gathered in central London on Saturday as part of global demonstrations against Donald Trump’s administration.

Crowds gathered in Trafalgar Square with banners that read “No to Maga hate” and “Dump Trump”. The rally is one of hundreds of so-called “Hands Off” demonstrations around the world – including in cities across the US, Paris and Berlin.

We see the foundations of our society, social security, Medicare, Medicaid, the very safety nets that people have fought for, for generations, to ensure that our country lives up to its promise, are being targeted by the billionaires and the oligarchs and the corporations.

This insidious rise of authoritarianism is fueled by corrupt billionaires and mega corporations who believe that they have the right to control every aspect of our lives, our healthcare, to our schools, to our thoughts, to our very free speech under the false banner of patriotism and freedom …

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Ted Cruz warns of midterm ‘bloodbath’ if Trump tariffs cause a recession

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Texas senator’s comments another sign of Republican unease over ‘reciprocal tariffs’ and stock market plunge

Ted Cruz, the US senator from Texas, has warned that his fellow Republicans risk a “bloodbath” in the 2026 midterm elections if Donald Trump’s “liberation day” tariffs cause a recession.

Cruz also warned that the president’s tariffs, if they stay in place for long and are met by global retaliation on American goods, could trigger a full-blown trade war that “would destroy jobs here at home, and do real damage to the US economy”.

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Barack Obama calls on Americans to defend democratic values in face of Trump agenda

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‘It is up to all of us to fix this,’ former president said in speech at Hamilton College in New York

Barack Obama has called on US citizens, colleges and law firms to resist Donald Trump’s political agenda – and warned Americans to prepare to “possibly sacrifice” in support of democratic values.

“It has been easy during most of our lifetimes to say you are a progressive or say you are for social justice or say you’re for free speech and not have to pay a price for it,” Obama said during a speech at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, on Thursday.

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Senate approves Republican plan for trillions in tax breaks and spending cuts

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Vote fell mostly along party lines and now goes to the House, where it could be voted on as soon as next week

Senate Republicans plugged away overnight and into early Saturday morning to approve their multitrillion-dollar tax breaks and spending cuts framework, hurtling past hardened Democratic opposition toward what Donald Trump calls the “big, beautiful bill” that is central to his agenda.

The vote, 51-48, fell along mostly party lines, but with sharp dissent from two prominent GOP senators. It could not have come at a more difficult political moment. The US economy is churning after the president’s vast tariff scheme sent stocks plummeting, and experts are warning of soaring costs for consumers at home and threats of a potential recession. Republican senators Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky both voted against the bill.

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Trump officials quietly move to reverse bans on toxic ‘forever chemicals’

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EPA bids to change chemical risk evaluations, which could expose public to higher levels of PFAS and other pollutants

The Trump administration is quietly carrying out a plan that aims to kill hundreds of bans on highly toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” and other dangerous compounds in consumer goods.

The bans, largely at the state level, touch most facets of daily life, prohibiting everything from bisphenol in children’s products to mercury in personal care products to PFAS in food packaging and clothing.

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George Santos prosecutors seek seven-year prison term for campaign fraud

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Disgraced Republican congressman ‘made a mockery’ of election system and merits long sentence, US officials say

Prosecutors are seeking more than seven years in prison for disgraced former congressman George Santos after he pleaded guilty to federal fraud and identity theft charges.

The US attorney for the eastern district of New York argued in a court filing on Friday that a significant sentence was warranted because the New York Republican’s “unparalleled crimes” had “made a mockery” of the country’s election system.

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Federal judge rules return of Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador prison

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White House has said US courts can’t order return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose wife has been protesting outside court

A federal judge on Friday afternoon ordered the US to return a Maryland man mistakenly deported to an El Salvador prison after a Trump administration attorney was at a loss to explain what happened.

The wife of the man, who was flown to a notorious Salvadoran prison had earlier joined dozens of supporters at a rally before a court hearing on Friday, where his lawyers had asked the judge – Paula Xinis – to order the Trump administration to return him to the US.

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She’s a waitress raised on a farm – can Rebecca Cooke win a key Wisconsin seat?

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Moderate Democrat believes she can unseat Republican Derrick Van Orden, who was at the Capitol on January 6

Wisconsin’s third congressional district has voted for Donald Trump every time he’s been on the ballot, but the moderate Democrat Rebecca Cooke, a waitress who grew up on a dairy farm, thinks she can flip the state’s most competitive seat next year.

Last year, Cooke outperformed other Democrats when she tried to unseat incumbent Derrick Van Orden, a retired US Navy Seal who attended the January 6 “Stop the Steal
” rally at the Capitol and shouted “lies” during Joe Biden’s 2024 state of the union address. She lost the race by less than three points.

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Democrats decry reported dismissal of NSA director Tim Haugh

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Lawmakers say dismissing head of US Cyber Command puts country at risk at a time of ‘unprecedented cyber threats’

Top congressional Democrats are protesting against the reported firing of Gen Tim Haugh as director of the National Security Agency (NSA), with one lawmaker saying the decision “makes all of us less safe”.

Haugh and his civilian deputy at the NSA, Wendy Noble, have been dismissed from their roles, the Washington Post reported late on Thursday, with CNN reporting likewise, both outlets citing multiple unnamed officials and other senior sources close to the matter who had requested anonymity.

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