Category Archives: US News

El Salvador offers to hold deportees and incarcerated US citizens in its jails

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Human rights groups alarmed as Marco Rubio, US secretary of state, meets with Nayib Bukele during overseas trip

El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, has offered to accept deportees from the US of any nationality and hold them in his jails, including “dangerous American criminals”, Marco Rubio said on Monday.

The US secretary of state, who this week made his first overseas trip as the top US diplomat, visited El Salvador on Monday as part of a wider trip through Central America and the Caribbean.

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Trump says Palestinians have ‘no alternative’ but to leave Gaza

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President in effect endorses ethnic cleansing of territory before hosting meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu

Donald Trump has said Palestinians have “no alternative” but to leave Gaza due to the devastation left by Israel’s war on Hamas, in effect endorsing ethnic cleansing of the territory over the opposition of Palestinians and neighbouring countries.

Speaking as he prepared to host Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Tuesday, Trump repeated the suggestion that Gaza’s population should be relocated to Jordan and Egypt – something both countries have firmly rejected.

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Trump administration says it has begun deporting migrants to Guantánamo Bay

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Press secretary says at least two deportation flights to Cuban base of undocumented immigrants ‘under way’

The Trump administration has begun flying undocumented immigrants from the US to a military detention facility at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said on Tuesday.

Leavitt told Fox Business Network that at least two deportation flights were “under way”, but gave no further details.

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Panama court is asked to cancel Hong Kong firm’s contract to run canal ports

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Complaint by local lawyers to supreme court follows US demands to reduce China’s alleged influence on waterway

Two Panamanian lawyers have lodged a lawsuit with the country’s supreme court in an attempt to cancel a Hong Kong-based company’s concession to operate two ports at either end of the Panama canal.

Their complaint – filed a day after the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, told Panama’s president, José Raúl Mulino, to reduce China’s alleged influence on the canal – argues that the contract for the two ports is unconstitutional.

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China has reacted in kind to Trump’s tariffs, but a deal may still emerge

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Beijing will defend its core interests, but its initial response is more cautious than when Trump imposed levies in 2018

Moments after Donald Trump introduced tariffs of 10% on Chinese goods, Beijing retaliated with countermeasures.

China’s finance ministry put tariffs of 10-15% on imports of a range of US goods and its anti-trust regulator announced an investigation into Google. Several US companies were also added to China’s “unreliable entity” list, potentially restricting their ability to conduct business in the country.

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Netanyahu hoping to ‘redraw map’ of Middle East in Washington DC ceasefire talks with Trump – Israel-Gaza war live

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Israeli PM in Washington for talks with US president as Hamas says it is ready to discuss details of second phase of ceasefire and hostage releases

We have some voices from some of the people affected by the Israeli operation in the Jenin refugee camp.

Khalil Huwail, 39, is a father of four and has been forced to leave the area with his family.

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Ukraine open to exchanging minerals for US military aid, says Zelenskyy

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Germany’s Olaf Scholz criticises Trump’s transactional foreign policy as ‘very selfish, very self-centred’

Ukraine is open to “investment” from allies as long as they help it fight Russia, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says, after Donald Trump demanded Kyiv supply the US with rare earth resources – critical elements used in electronics – in exchange for military aid.

The US president’s proposal has been criticised as exploiting Russia’s invasion for material gain, with the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, calling the plan “selfish”. However, Ukrainian media reported that the idea may have originated in Kyiv as an incentive to keep weapon shipments flowing into the country.

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Johnnie Walker owner Diageo says Trump tariffs could hit profits by $200m

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UK drinks company considering possible price rises as shares fall despite strong Guinness sales

Diageo, the company behind Smirnoff vodka and Johnnie Walker whisky, has said US tariffs could damage a nascent recovery in its sales and result in a $200m (£161m) hit to profits, with its tequila portfolio and Canadian whisky most affected.

The UK drinks company returned to sales growth in the latest half year, as strong performances for Guinness and tequila offset weakness in other spirits – but Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports could stop this recovery in its tracks, analysts said.

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Donald Trump Jr accused of killing protected bird in Venice lagoon

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Video posted online is said to show Trump Jr with a ruddy shelduck while on hunting trip

Donald Trump Jr has been accused of killing a protected duck while hunting in the Venice lagoon.

Andrea Zanoni, a regional councillor in Veneto, said a video of a hunting trip in northern Italy showed Trump Jr with the body of a rare ruddy shelduck (Tadorna ferruginea).

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‘It’s been madness’: US federal workers reeling over Trump-Musk takeover

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Office of personnel management workers say anxiety is palpable amid intimidation and threat of dismissal

US government workers are describing an atmosphere of “fear” and “madness” as they grapple with a barrage of executive orders issued by Donald Trump and threats to their jobs from the office of personnel management, the agency tasked with managing the federal civil service, which has been taken over by the billionaire Elon Musk.

Weeks before the administration transition, federal worker unions reported low morale among workers in anticipation of pushes for intimidation, mass firings and harassment.

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‘Shame on them’: anger and dismay from survivors over Saints clergy-abuse emails

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Clergy abuse survivors and their supporters express pain over sports officials’ efforts to soften coverage of scandal

Survivors of Catholic clergy abuse and their supporters expressed disgust, pain and disbelief after the Guardian and WWL Louisiana’s investigation on Monday into hundreds of emails showing officials with the NFL’s Saints and NBA’s Pelicans aided New Orleans’ Roman Catholic archdiocese efforts to soften critical media coverage about the church’s management of a clerical molestation scandal.

Richard Windmann said it was “disturbing” to see the emails mention his decision to go public about his abuse as a child at the hands of a priest and janitor at Jesuit high school in New Orleans in the 1970s.

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First Thing: China announces retaliatory tariffs after Trump’s take effect

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China also announced an investigation into Google in an apparent retaliation. Plus, the Senate confirms a fracking executive as energy secretary

Good morning.

Donald Trump has fired the opening salvo of his trade war, imposing tariffs on China on Tuesday that prompted instant retaliation from Beijing and fears about the global economic repercussions.

What could be the impact on ordinary Americans? Economists have warned Trump’s tariff plans risk raising prices for millions of Americans just weeks after he pledged, upon taking office, to “rapidly” bring them down.

How much does the US trade with China? China is the US’s third-largest trading partner, behind Mexico and Canada, making up 11.3% of total trade and more than $50bn for November last year alone.

What have the lawmakers said about Musk’s behavior? The senator Elizabeth Warren said it “threatens the privacy and economic security of every American”. The congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez described it as “a plutocratic coup”, and the congresswoman Ilhan Omar said “this is what the beginning of dictatorship looks like”.

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Trump personally ordered firings of special counsel prosecutors

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Exclusive: move to purge those who worked for Jack Smith came from Trump, sources say, in show of unchecked power

The US justice department fired more than a dozen prosecutors who worked on the criminal cases against Donald Trump hours after the president directly ordered it from the Oval Office, according to two people familiar with the intervention.

The move to purge people who worked for former special counsel Jack Smith had ostensibly come from the acting attorney general, James McHenry, who sent the formal termination notices that said they could not be trusted to implement Trump’s agenda.

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Scientists brace ‘for the worst’ as Trump purges climate mentions from websites

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Trump administration pulling references online ‘won’t make crisis’ stop affecting Americans’ lives, say experts

Donald Trump’s administration has started to remove or downgrade mentions of the climate crisis across the US government, with the websites of several major departments pulling down references to anything related to the climate crisis. Climate scientists said they were braced “for the worst”.

A major climate portal on the Department of Defense’s website has been scrapped, as has the main climate change section on the site of the Department of State. A climate change page on the White House’s website no longer exists, nor does climate content provided by the US agriculture department, including information that provides vulnerability assessments for wildfires.

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Killer Mike sues security firm over Grammys arrest, alleging ‘public humiliation’

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Rapper alleges assault, false arrest and more when he was detained shortly after winning three awards at 2024 ceremony

Killer Mike, the hip-hop artist known for his solo work as well as the duo Run the Jewels, has sued a private security company after he was arrested at last year’s Grammys.

The rapper, real name Michael Render, won three awards at the ceremony, for best rap album, best rap song and best rap performance. But shortly after his wins, as he moved backstage towards the red carpet area, he was arrested and detained after an altercation with what Render later described as “an overzealous security guard”.

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Trump advisers weigh actions to dismantle education department – report

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Officials are discussing executive order as part of efforts by Musk’s Doge team to seize control of federal spending

The Trump administration is weighing executive actions to dismantle the US education department as part of efforts by Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) to seize control of federal spending and slash the size of the government workforce, the Wall Street Journal reported.

US officials have discussed an executive order that would shut down all functions of the education department that are not written explicitly into statute, or move certain functions to other departments, according to the paper, citing sources.

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot in the works with Sarah Michelle Gellar returning to the titular role

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Oscar-winning director – and longtime Buffy fan – Chloé Zhao is onboard to direct, with Dolly Parton as executive producer

A sequel reboot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is reportedly in the works, with Sarah Michelle Gellar expected to return to the titular role and the Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao to direct the pilot episode.

On Tuesday Deadline reported sources close to the project confirming that the streaming service Hulu is “near a pilot order”, with lifelong Buffy fan Zhao onboard to direct the episode, written by the Poker Face writers Nora and Lilla Zuckerman.

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State Farm seeks emergency 22% rate hike in California after LA wildfires

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State’s largest home insurer, which has paid customers over $1bn, claims fires put firm under increased financial strain

State Farm General, California’s largest home insurer, is seeking an emergency rate increase for homeowners following the Los Angeles wildfires last month. If approved, the hike would average a 22% increase for policyholders.

The insurance giant claims that the fires have put the company under increased financial strain. The company has already received at least 8,700 claims and paid more than $1bn to customers and expects to pay out “significantly more”, according to a press release.

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Progressive Democrats accuse Trump and Musk of ‘a plutocratic coup’

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Lawmakers point to shutting of USAid and accessing federal payment system as markings of ‘constitutional crisis’

Progressive lawmakers condemned Donald Trump and Elon Musk on Monday, pointing to the attempted shuttering of the foreign aid agency USAid and the accessing of the treasury department’s federal payment system as the markings of a “constitutional crisis”.

After Musk declared that he was working to shut down USAid, Democratic members of Congress tried to enter the agency’s Washington headquarters but said they were turned away on the orders of Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge). USAid staffers were also locked out of the building on Monday, as the White House confirmed plans to merge the agency with the state department.

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Over the moon: Billie Eilish sports 188-year-old Yorkshire wool brand at Grammys

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The singer paid tribute to her home city wearing an LA Dodgers baseball cap crafted by English woollen mill Moon

When Billie Eilish took to the stage at the 67th Grammy awards wearing a hat with the branding of the baseball team the Los Angeles Dodgers, few would have noticed the much smaller logo on the side with two tiny union flags and the word “Moon”.

But in a small town in West Yorkshire, Moon is a household name, as one of the last surviving woollen mills in the UK.

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