Evelyn Reynolds

The Guardian US reviewed figures from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection since Trump’s inaugurationDonald Trump campaigned on a platform of mass deportation. Since he took office, his administration has reshaped immigration enforcement across the country. The Guardian US, using data published every two weeks by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is tracking the number of people the administration has arrested, detained and deported. Continue reading… More

Residents have had to adjust how they’re living – staying home, carrying passports – since Trump launched his attackOn Tuesday morning, just a few stalls were open among the dozens that normally sell food, rugs, clothing and jewelry at Karmel mall, a Somali community hub in Minneapolis. Longtime Minnesotans said they had never seen the mall as quiet as it has been in recent days, almost jarringly still.The bustle was replaced by unease and fear over the Trump administration’s menace toward Somalis and increased immigration agents in the city, tasked with targeting Somalis for deportation. Continue reading… More

Donald Trump has loomed large over Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s meeting with European leaders, after the US president took aim at the Ukrainian leader once again. It comes in the wake of a new White House national security strategy that has caused fear in Europe, but drawn praise from the Kremlin. Lucy Hough speaks to our Europe correspondent Jon Henley. Continue reading… More

Donald Trump could walk away from the Ukrainian war, the US president’s oldest son has said in comments to a Middle East conference. Donald Trump Jr said the US was no longer going to be ‘the idiot with the chequebook’US may end support for Ukraine war effort, says Donald Trump Jr Continue reading… More

House Democrats released a handful of photos and videos from Jeffrey Epstein’s private Caribbean island, offering a rare glimpse into a secretive place where Epstein is alleged to have trafficked young girls. The materials were from law enforcement authorities in the US Virgin Islands. They were taken in 2020, the year after Epstein died by suicide in jail. The images and videos released on Wednesday do not reveal anything new but they appear to be an effort from Congress to keep the pressure on the Trump administration before a 19 December deadline for the justice department to release the filesHouse Democrats release new images of Epstein’s private Caribbean island Continue reading… More

President Donald Trump has said he didn’t know anything about a second strike on an alleged Venezuelan drug boat on 2 September. He also stood by his defence secretary, saying Pete Hegseth didn’t know a US navy admiral had ordered a second strike. Hegseth also denied knowledge of it, but stated the admiral ‘had the complete authority’ to launch itUS politics live Continue reading… More

The condition of two West Virginia national guard members shot on Wednesday near the White House in Washington is unclear after the state governor received “conflicting reports” and Donald Trump said they were critically wounded.The incident happened near the Farragut West metro station and comes amid a controversial deployment of troops to the US capital city ordered by the Trump administration. While Patrick Morrisey, West Virginia’s governor, had said both soldiers were killed in the shooting, he later posted an update clarifying that more information was needed.“We are now receiving conflicting reports about the condition of our two Guard members and will provide additional updates once we receive more complete information,” wrote Morrisey on X, minutes after first posting that they were killed.A task force of an estimated 2,375 national guard troops are currently activated in Washington, with West Virginia making up the second largest contingent at 416 troops, only behind DC’s national guard at 949 troops. Some units in Washington are armed with their service-issue handguns and others with rifles, a defense official told the Guardian in August.Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) wrote on X shortly before 3pm local time that the scene is secured and one suspect is in custody.Donald Trump, in a post on Truth Social, said earlier that both national guardsmen were “critically wounded” and the shooter is “also severely wounded” and “will pay a very steep price”.Emergency vehicles were seen responding to the area. Earlier, the MPD said that a “critical incident” occurred. “MPD is on the scene of a shooting at 17th and I Street, NW. Please avoid the area. Updates to come,” the post said.Witnesses reported seeing several National Guard troops running across the square. Office buildings in the square were put under lockdown, with workers told to leave by rear door if they wished to leave the premises. The Guardian’s Washington office, located on Farragut Square Park, was under lockdown. Law enforcement officers also ordered staff in the buildings to stay away from glass doors adjoining the square.The White House was also locked down.National guard troops have been positioned across Washington since August, when the Trump administration declared a “crime emergency” in the city and ordered them in to support federal and local law enforcement.The other states that sent their national guard to Washington include South Carolina, Ohio, Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi, though several state officials told the Associated Press in October they plan to end their deployments by 30 November.The deployment has been extended multiple times, and was reportedly ordered to continue through February 2026. A federal judge has since ruled the deployment illegal, but put the ruling on hold for 21 days, leaving the Guard remains in place while the administration decides whether to appeal. More

The case against Donald Trump and his co-defendants in Georgia ended on Wednesday with a filing for dismissal by the state prosecutor who took over after the removal of Fani Willis, the Fulton county district attorney.Pete Skandalakis, the prosecutor and the executive director of the prosecuting attorneys’ council of Georgia, confirmed to the Guardian that “it’s over”after superior court judge Scott McAfee issued a one-page order on Wednesday dismissing the 2020 racketeering case. Skandalakis said he would be making no further comments about the matter.“The political persecution of President Trump by disqualified DA Fani Willis is finally over,” Trump’s attorney Steve Sadow wrote in a message posted to X. “This case should never have been brought. A fair and impartial prosecutor has put an end to this lawfare.”On Wednesday afternoon, Trump posted on Truth Social about the dismissal, saying: “This case should have never been brought in the first place… We have to hold responsible those who attempted to destroy our Legal System and Nation itself as they tried to use it to silence and imprison Political Opponents for protecting our Country, and exercising our FIRST AMENDMENT Rights. The few remaining Democrat Witch Hunts will soon meet the same embarrassing end.”In the long-winded post, Trump also lambasted Willis, Nathan Wade, Joe Biden and, as referenced above, the Democratic party.A grand jury in Atlanta indicted Trump and 18 others in August 2023, using the state’s anti-racketeering law to accuse them of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to illegally overturn Trump’s narrow 2020 loss to Biden in Georgia.The dismissal means that Trump no longer faces prosecution after his call in which he asked the Georgia secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to “find 11,780 votes” and overturn the US election results in Georgia.Special counsel Jack Smith had charged Trump with federal crimes of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election and hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Smith dropped both cases after Trump won the White House last year, citing longstanding justice department policy against the indictment of a sitting president. Smith himself is now the target of a Hatch Act investigation by the office of special counsel at the Department of Justice.Trump’s conviction on felony charges in New York for making hush-money payments to the porn actor Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election resulted in an unconditional discharge by the court after his election, sparing him any punishment.The justice department attempted to indict the New York attorney general, Letitia James, on charges of bank fraud and making false statements in Virginia; a federal judge threw out the criminal cases against James and James Comey on Monday, concluding that the prosecutor handling the cases was unlawfully appointed.The Georgia case remained the only criminal prosecution of Trump still standing, but Willis’s disqualification by the Georgia supreme court doomed the effort. The court ruled that her romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, revealed in dramatic court filings in January 2024, created an impermissible appearance of a conflict of interest.Georgia’s supreme court sent the case to Skandalakis with instructions to find a new prosecutor, but that proved to be a struggle. With a 14 November deadline to act set by McAfee looming and no willing takers, Skandalakis appointed himself.Despite the dismissal, four people pleaded guilty before the case imploded. Trump had pleaded not guilty, but was also protected from state-level prosecutions while president. Fourteen other defendants remained subject to prosecution.Trump pardoned 77 people associated with the fake electors affair, including his 18 co-defendants in the Georgia case. None of them faced federal charges, rendering the move largely symbolic. He did not pardon himself. More