US president had faced widespread criticism of his decision to install a controversial ally, Bill Pulte
Donald Trump has nominated Jay Clayton, former head of the top US markets watchdog, to be the country’s leading intelligence official.
The US president faced widespread criticism of his decision to install a controversial ally, Bill Pulte, as acting director of national intelligence while searching for a permanent candidate.
Continue reading...Government urged to reconsider proposal for 1,100 Afghans, currently stranded in Qatar, who worked with US forces
Dozens of US lawmakers urged the Trump administration on Thursday to roll back any plans to ship to unsafe third countries Afghan nationals who worked with US forces during the war in their homeland.
In a letter seen by Reuters, more than 80 House of Representatives members, including at least three Republicans as well as Democrats, appealed to secretary of state, Marco Rubio, to reconsider plans for 1,100 Afghans who have been stranded in Qatar awaiting relocation.
Continue reading...With some matches being held in nearby Miami, a Cuban response to US military action could mar the tournament
As Cuba crumbles under a nearly five-month-long US oil blockade, many on the island hope that the World Cup might save the island from US attack – or at least offer a respite until the competition ends on 19 July.
“The beginning of the World Cup will make it more difficult for the United States to carry out a military action in Cuba,” said Carlos Alzugaray, Cuba’s former ambassador to the EU. “Cuba is very close to the US, and can hit many targets inside the US, especially in south Florida, with drones or other weapons.”
Continue reading...Federal prosecutors unsealed indictment against activists trying to force the school to cut financial ties to Israel
Federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment on Wednesday against eight pro-Palestinian activists who are accused of conspiring to run a criminal intimidation campaign against University of Michigan officials while trying to force the school to cut financial ties to Israel.
The indictment also describes vandalism against some companies that operate in Michigan and against the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit.
Continue reading...A cycle of threat, detente and deadlock repeats itself wearisomely as the president’s war in Iran drags on
As the story of the US-Iran war is written direct to social media, Donald Trump may be the genre’s premier unreliable narrator.
Since the war began, Trump has again and again threatened Iran with fearsome consequences if Tehran doesn’t come to the table and sign a peace deal that the US president said was imminent weeks ago. And he has also repeatedly claimed that an Iran deal is “close” – without any result. (A CNN tally put the number of times he’s claimed it at 38.)
Continue reading...US defense secretary continues ramp-up of pressure against country including sanctions and devastating oil blockade
Pete Hegseth has warned Cuba against acquiring weapons that could threaten the United States, during a visit to the US military base at Guantánamo Bay.
Washington has ramped up pressure against Cuba with sanctions and a devastating oil blockade, and Donald Trump has repeatedly signaled that the Cuban government could be the next after Venezuela to fall to US pressure.
Continue reading...A Guardian analysis reveals how most of 39 countries facing US entry restrictions are most vulnerable environmentally
Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown is largely targeting people from the countries most vulnerable to displacement from climate-driven disasters, a Guardian analysis shows.
As the Trump administration pushes policies to boost planet-heating fossil fuels, millions of people are being forced to flee their homelands due to storms, floods and droughts worsened by the climate crisis.
Continue reading...Exclusive: poll across 15 countries finds ‘deep mistrust’, with majority doubting US would come to their aid in an attack
European confidence in an American “security guarantee” has hit a historic low, a survey suggests, with only one in 10 people across 15 countries seeing the US as an ally and majorities in all doubting it would come to their aid if they were attacked.
The survey, published on Wednesday by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) thinktank before critical G7 and Nato summits in France and Turkey over the coming weeks, revealed “deep European distrust in the US”, the authors said.
Continue reading...Southern Poverty Law Center releases report as US government pursues federal fraud charges against group
A new report from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) finds hard-right groups have increasingly expanded their influence across the US government, which is pursuing a federal fraud case into the civil rights organization.
Tuesday’s report – which identified 1,263 hate and anti-government groups in operation throughout 2025 – comes less than two months after it was indicted by the government it says the hard right has infiltrated.
Continue reading...Acting in the role since April, Blanche faces Senate confirmation after controversial DoJ moves
Donald Trump nominated Todd Blanche to serve permanently as attorney general on Monday, lining up his former personal lawyer to be the country’s top law enforcement officer.
The US president suggested earlier this week that Blanche, who was appointed on an acting basis in April after the president fired Pam Bondi, was set to receive the nod. “He’s a very talented guy,” Trump told a podcast.
Continue reading...David Rush, who was arrested in May, stole millions from US government through ‘special access program’, officials say
A former executive intelligence agent who is accused of stealing more than $40m in gold bars from the CIA reportedly created a fake spy program to siphon money, the latest on his fraudulent activity, the Washington Post first reported.
David Rush, who was a senior-level employee of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for 17 years, was arrested in May after FBI agents discovered Rush had taken 303 bullion bars, each about 2.2lbs, dozens of luxury watches, and more than $2m in foreign currency from his government office.
Continue reading...Democratic congressman issues qualified defense of Maine candidate in his bid to unseat Republican Susan Collins
Progressive Democratic congressman Ro Khanna issued a qualified defense of Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner on Sunday, saying “his actions were misogynistic, they were shameful, they were wrong, but they didn’t come as a surprise to a lot of the folks in Maine.”
The former Marine-turned-oyster farmer, who is campaigning to unseat the state’s Republican senator Susan Collins in November, has been hit with successive waves of accusation about his past actions, including sending sexually explicit messages he sent to women while married and being stenciled with a Nazi-themed tattoo.
Continue reading...Potential proposal would secure control of Diego Garcia base amid stalled UK plans to cede sovereignty of territory
Donald Trump is reportedly weighing a plan to buy the Chagos Islands from Mauritius amid stalled plans from the UK to cede sovereignty of the territory, the Telegraph first reported.
The White House did not respond to the Guardian’s request for comment on the report about the potential plan.
Continue reading...The moderate Republican, an advocate of abortion rights, resigned in 1995 amid accusations of sexual harassment
Former US senator Bob Packwood, a moderate Oregon Republican whose reputation as a champion of abortion and women’s rights was spoiled at the end of his career by allegations of sexual harassment, has died. He was 93.
Packwood’s death on Saturday was announced in an obituary sent to media outlets by his family.
Continue reading...US president says ‘I’d pay the kind of money they deserve’ amid questions over his administration establishing fund
Donald Trump declined on Sunday to definitively rule out compensating individuals who were charged with assaulting police officers when his supporters attacked the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 toward the end of his first presidency.
Trump did that in an interview on NBC News’s Meet the Press, where he spoke in support of what his administration calls an “anti-weaponization” fund, arguing that people who entered the Capitol while Congress was preparing to certify Joe Biden’s victory over him in the 2020 presidential election had been treated unfairly by prosecutors and should receive compensation.
Continue reading...Plan backed by Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary had footprint reduced but concerns remain over its health impacts
Utah residents have teamed up with a progressive non-profit organization to sue over an under-development AI datacenter backed by celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary, claiming the planned Stratos project facility “irrevocably” cuts off citizens’ rights by not allowing sufficient public input.
Filed by the Alliance for a Better Utah and five unnamed residents of the Box Elder county area where the center is being developed, the lawsuit comes as Shark Tank co-host O’Leary agreed to scale back the physical footprint for the project.
Continue reading...Democrat denies reports of physical intimidation towards women, saying his past has been ‘weaponized’
The Democratic US Senate candidate Graham Platner on Friday predicted that Maine’s voters would support him four days later in his party primary despite a string of controversies – including recent negative headlines about his treatment of women that he said had been “weaponized”.
In a 25-minute speech before supporters in Bar Harbor, the oyster farmer and US marine combat veteran addressed the controversies about his personal conduct, which escalated on Thursday with a New York Times report in which three former romantic partners described disturbing behavior, including being physically intimidated by him.
Continue reading...Iran attacks American bases in Gulf states after Washington shoots down drones and strikes Iranian radar sites
Bahrain has said Iran fired ballistic missiles and drones at it and Kuwait, hours after the US and Iran exchanged strikes over the Gulf, the latest in a series of flare-ups that threatened to break the fragile ceasefire.
Air raid sirens rang out on Saturday in Bahrain and people were told to move to a safe location and await further instructions. Kuwait’s military said it was intercepting drones and missiles launched at the country.
Continue reading...Vice-president and state department look to push far-right idea that mass migration is causing civilisational decline
In the state department of past administrations, how to respond to an incendiary event such as the murder of the British student Henry Nowak would have required deliberations, memos and meetings. Given how it has roiled the UK and inflamed tensions over migration and race, the cautious diplomats at Foggy Bottom probably would have said nothing at all.
Now they tweet from the hip. “Ideological conditioning and two-tiered policing are glaring symptoms of civilizational decline,” the department’s official account posted on Thursday. “They must be rejected across the West.”
Continue reading...Prime minister’s office responds after JD Vance blames British teenager’s death on mass migration
Keir Starmer has suggested the US is trying to interfere in British democracy after JD Vance, the US vice-president, blamed the murder of the British teenager Henry Nowak on mass migration.
The prime minister’s office responded after the senior Republican politician claimed in a post on X that Nowak would be alive “if the last few generations of European elites had stood their ground against the politics of self-hatred and the mass invasion of migrants, many of whom despise the West and the people who love it”.
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