Evelyn Reynolds

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    in US Politics

    Travelling to Trump’s US is a low-level trauma – here’s what Africans can do about it

    Hello and welcome to The Long Wave. This week, I reflect on the increasing difficulty of travel and immigration for many from the African continent, and how one country is plotting a smoother path.Parallel experiences of travelView image in fullscreenI have just come back from holiday, and I’m still not used to how different travel is when not using an African passport. My British citizenship, which I acquired about five years ago, has transformed not only my ability to travel at short notice but it has eliminated overnight the intense stress and bureaucratic hurdles involved in applying for visas on my Sudanese passport.It is difficult to explain just how different the lives of those with “powerful” passports are to those without. It is an entirely parallel existence. Gaining permission to travel to many destinations is often a lengthy, expensive and sickeningly uncertain process. A tourist visa to the UK can cost up to £1,000, in addition to the fee for private processing centres that handle much of Europe’s visa applications abroad. And then there is the paperwork: bank statements, employment letters, academic records, certified proof of ownership of assets, and birth and marriage certificates if one is travelling to visit family. This is a non-exhaustive list. For a recent visa application for a family member, I submitted 32 documents.It may sound dramatic but such processes instil a sort of low-level trauma, after submitting to the violation of what feels like a bureaucratic cavity search. And all fees, whatever the decision, are non-refundable. Processing times are in the hands of the visa gods – it once took more than six months for me to receive a US visa. By the time it arrived, the meeting I needed to attend for work had passed by a comically long time.Separation and severed relationshipsView image in fullscreenIt’s not only travel for work or holiday that is hindered by such high barriers to entry. Relationships suffer. It is simply a feature of the world now that many families in the Black diaspora sprawl across continents. Last month Trump restricted entry to the US to nationals from 20 countries, half of which are in Africa. The decision is even crueler when you consider that it applies to countries such as Sudan, whose civil war has prompted many to seek refuge with family abroad.That is not just a political act of limiting immigration, it is a deeply personal one that severs connections between families, friends and partners. Family members of refugees from those countries have also been banned, so they can’t visit relatives who have already managed to emigrate. The International Rescue Committee warned the decision could have “far-reaching impacts on the lives of many American families, including refugees, asylees and green card holders, seeking to be reunified with their loved ones”.A global raising of barriersView image in fullscreenThe fallout of this Trump order is colossal. There are students who are unable to graduate. Spouses unable to join their partners. Children separated from their parents. It’s a severe policy, but shades of it exist elsewhere by other means. The UK recently terminated the rights of foreign care workers and most international students to bring their children and partners to the country. And even for those who simply want to have their family visit them, access is closed to all except those who can clear the high financial hurdles and meet the significant burdens of proof to show that either they can afford to maintain their visitors or that they will return to their home countries.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionIt was 10 years before I – someone with fairly stable employment and a higher-education qualification – satisfied the Home Office’s requirements and could finally invite my mother to visit. I broke down when I saw her face at arrivals, realising how hard it had been for both of us; the fact that she had not seen the life I had built as an adult. Compare this draconian measure to some countries in the Gulf, such as Saudi Arabia, that have an actual visa category, low-cost and swiftly processed, for parental visits and residency.A new African modelView image in fullscreenBut as some countries shut down, others are opening up. This month, Kenya removed visa requirements for almost all African citizens wanting to visit. Here, finally, there is the sort of regional solidarity that mirrors that of the EU and other western countries.Since it boosts African tourism and makes Kenya an inviting destination for people to gather at short notice for professional or festive reasons, it’s a smart move. But it also sends an important signal to a continent embattled by visa restrictions and divided across borders set by colonial rule.We are not just liabilities, people to be judged on how many resources they might take from a country once allowed in. We are also tourists, friends, relatives, entrepreneurs and, above all, Africans who have the right to meet and mingle without the terror, and yes, contempt, of a suspicious visa process. If the African diaspora is being separated abroad, there is at least now a path to the option that some of us may reunite at home.

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    in US Politics

    How Trump has supercharged the immigration crackdown – in data

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Web,Guardian Headline Full,Georgia,serif;font-weight:700}body.ios .article__header .meta__misc .byline__author a,body.android .article__header .meta__misc .byline__author a{font-weight:700}body.ios .article figure.element-image .figure__inner,body.android .article figure.element-image .figure__inner{height:auto!important}body.ios .article figure.element-atom+p,body.android .article figure.element-atom+p{margin-top:0}:root{–gv-custom-color-dark: #121212;–gv-custom-color-active: #ff4e36;–gv-custom-color-light: #606060;–gv-custom-color-border: #333333;–gv-custom-text-light: #999999;–article-background: var(–gv-custom-color-dark);–article-meta-lines: var(–gv-custom-color-border);–straight-lines: var(–gv-custom-color-border);–article-text: #fff;–headline-colour: #fff;–subheading-text: #fff;–standfirst-text: #fff;–textblock-text: #fff;–mobile-color: var(–gv-custom-text-light);–sub-meta-label-text: var(–gv-custom-text-light);–dateline: var(–gv-custom-text-light);–series-title-text: var(–gv-custom-color-active);–byline: var(–gv-custom-color-active);–byline-anchor: var(–gv-custom-color-active);–article-link-border: var(–gv-custom-color-border);–article-link-text: var(–gv-custom-color-active);–article-link-border-hover: var(–gv-custom-color-active);–article-link-text-hover: var(–gv-custom-color-active);–sub-meta-text: var(–gv-custom-color-active);–share-button: var(–gv-custom-color-active);–standfirst-link-text: var(–gv-custom-color-active);–standfirst-link-border: var(–gv-custom-color-border);–share-button-border: var(–gv-custom-color-border);–sub-meta-background: var(–gv-custom-color-dark);–share-button-hover: var(–gv-custom-color-dark);–interactive-block-background: var(–gv-custom-color-dark);–caption-text: var(–gv-custom-text-light);–article-section-background: #fff;–section-background: #fff}article,main >section:nth-child(3),main >section:nth-child(4){–article-border: var(–gv-custom-color-border)}#maincontent{margin-top:0}#maincontent h2{padding-bottom:10px;max-width:620px}#maincontent hr{background-color:var(–gv-custom-color-border);max-width:620px;width:100%}#maincontent figcaption{margin-top:10px}#maincontent figcaption span:has(svg){display:none}#maincontent hr+h2+p{font-family:Guardian Text Sans Web,Helvetica Neue,Helvetica,Arial,Lucida Grande,sans-serif;font-size:15px;margin-bottom:20px}[data-gu-name=media] >div{max-width:100%}[data-name=placeholder] >div{background-color:var(–section-background)}[data-gu-name=lines]{margin-top:20px}@media (min-width: 61.25em){[data-gu-name=lines]{margin-top:0}}@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark){article,main >section:nth-child(3),main >section:nth-child(4){background-color:var(–gv-custom-color-dark)!important}article #maincontent figure{background-color:var(–gv-custom-color-dark)}}@media (min-width: 71.25em){#article-body >div .content–interactive-grid .content__standfirst,.content–interactive >div .content–interactive-grid .content__standfirst,#comment-body .content–interactive-grid .content__standfirst,[data-gu-name=body] .content–interactive-grid .content__standfirst,#feature-body .content–interactive-grid .content__standfirst{padding-bottom:14px}}[data-link-name=”Across the Guardian”] div,[data-link-name=”Across the Guardian”] span{–article-text: #121212}[data-link-name=”Across the Guardian”] h4{color:var(–article-text)}[data-link-name=”most popular”] span{–article-text: #121212;color:#121212}
    /**
    * Data font stack
    *
    * @group typography
    */
    /**
    * Serif font stack
    *
    * @group typography
    */
    /**
    * Headline font stack
    *
    * @group typography
    */
    /**
    * Sans serif text font stack
    *
    * @group typography
    */
    /**
    * Sans serif headline font stack
    *
    * @group typography
    */
    /**
    * Default font scale settings
    * See font-scale.html and font-scale.png for visual representations
    *
    * @group typography
    */
    /**
    * Grab all levels of a font the font-scale
    *
    * @param {String} $name – Name of the font-scale matrix (eg: headline)
    * @param {Map} $font-scale ($font-scale)
    *
    * @example
    * font-size: get-scale(header);
    *
    * @requires {variable} $font-scale
    *
    * @return {Map}
    *
    * @group typography
    */
    /**
    * Grab info for a particular level of a font-scale
    *
    * @param {String} $name – Name of the font-scale in the matrix (eg: headline)
    * @param {Number} $level – Level in the matrix
    * @param {Map} $font-scale ($font-scale)
    *
    * @example
    * font-size: get-scale-level(header, 1);
    *
    * @requires {variable} $font-scale
    * @requires {function} get-scale
    *
    * @return {Map}
    *
    * @group typography
    */
    /**
    * Get a font-size for a level in the font-scale matrix
    *
    * @param {String} $name – Name of the font-scale in the matrix (eg: headline)
    * @param {Number} $level – Level in the matrix
    * @param {Map} $font-scale – Configuration
    *
    * @example
    * font-size: get-font-size(header, 3);
    *
    * @requires {variable} $font-scale
    * @requires {function} convert-to-px
    * @requires {function} get-scale-level
    *
    * @return {Number}
    *
    * @group typography
    */
    /**
    * Get a line-height for a level in the font-scale matrix
    *
    * @param {String} $name – Name of the font-scale in the matrix (eg: headline)
    * @param {Number} $level – Level in the matrix
    * @param {Map} $font-scale – Configuration
    *
    * @example
    * font-size: get-line-height(header, 3);
    *
    * @requires {variable} $font-scale
    * @requires {function} convert-to-px
    * @requires {function} get-scale-level
    *
    * @return {Number}
    *
    * @group typography
    */
    /**
    * Turn any value into pixels
    *
    * @param {Number} $value
    *
    * @example
    * font-size: convert-to-px(14); // 14px
    *
    * @return {Number}
    *
    * @group typography
    */
    /**
    * Default typography settings, to be included as soon as possible in the HTML
    * 1. Make type rendering look crisper
    * 2. Set relative line spacing to 1.5 (16px * 1.5 = 24px)
    *
    * @param {String} $font-family ($f-serif-text) – Default global font
    *
    * @requires {variable} $f-serif-text
    *
    * @group typography
    */
    /**
    * Font-size and line-height shorthand
    *
    * @param {Number} $size
    * @param {Number} $line-height ($size)
    *
    * @example
    * @include font-size(18, 24);
    *
    * @requires {function} convert-to-px
    *
    * @group typography
    */
    /**
    * Font styling shorthand
    * Note: prefer the usage of the font-scale mixins to stick to the font scale
    *
    * @param {String} $family
    * @param {String} $weight
    * @param {Number} $size
    * @param {Number} $line-height ($size)
    *
    * @example
    * @include font(arial, bold, 18, 24);
    *
    * @requires {mixin} font-size
    *
    * @group typography
    */
    /**
    * Header family and weight properties.
    *
    * @requires {variable} $f-serif-headline
    *
    * @group typography
    */
    /**
    * Header typography settings.
    *
    * @param {Number} $level
    * @param {Boolean} $size-only
    *
    * @example
    * // Output all properties (font-size, line-height, family, weight)
    * @include fs-header(3);
    *
    * // Output font-size and line-height only
    * @include fs-header(3, $size-only: true);
    *
    * @requires {function} get-font-size
    * @requires {function} get-line-height
    * @requires {mixin} font-size
    * @requires {mixin} f-header
    *
    * @group typography
    */
    /**
    * Healdine family and weight properties.
    *
    * @requires {variable} $f-serif-headline
    *
    * @group typography
    */
    /**
    * Headline typography settings.
    *
    * @param {Number} $level
    * @param {Boolean} $size-only
    *
    * @example
    * // Output all properties (font-size, line-height, family, weight)
    * @include fs-headline(3);
    *
    * // Output font-size and line-height only
    * @include fs-headline(3, $size-only: true);
    *
    * @requires {function} get-font-size
    * @requires {function} get-line-height
    * @requires {mixin} font-size
    * @requires {mixin} f-headline
    *
    * @group typography
    */
    /**
    * Body Heading family and weight properties.
    *
    * @requires {variable} $f-serif-text
    *
    * @group typography
    */
    /**
    * Body Heading typography settings.
    *
    * @param {Number} $level
    * @param {Boolean} $size-only
    *
    * @example
    * // Output all properties (font-size, line-height, family, weight)
    * @include fs-bodyHeading(3);
    *
    * // Output font-size and line-height only
    * @include fs-bodyHeading(3, $size-only: true);
    *
    * @requires {function} get-font-size
    * @requires {function} get-line-height
    * @requires {mixin} font-size
    * @requires {mixin} f-bodyHeading
    *
    * @group typography
    */
    /**
    * Body Copy family property.
    *
    * @requires {variable} $f-serif-text
    *
    * @group typography
    */
    /**
    * Body Copy typography settings.
    *
    * @param {Number} $level
    * @param {Boolean} $size-only
    *
    * @example
    * // Output all properties (font-size, line-height, family)
    * @include fs-bodyCopy(3);
    *
    * // Output font-size and line-height only
    * @include fs-bodyCopy(3, $size-only: true);
    *
    * @requires {function} get-font-size
    * @requires {function} get-line-height
    * @requires {mixin} font-size
    * @requires {mixin} f-bodyCopy
    *
    * @group typography
    */
    /**
    * Data family property.
    *
    * @requires {variable} $f-data
    *
    * @group typography
    */
    /**
    * Data typography settings.
    *
    * @param {Number} $level
    * @param {Boolean} $size-only
    *
    * @example
    * // Output all properties (font-size, line-height, family)
    * @include fs-data(3);
    *
    * // Output font-size and line-height only
    * @include fs-data(3, $size-only: true);
    *
    * @requires {function} get-font-size
    * @requires {function} get-line-height
    * @requires {mixin} font-size
    * @requires {mixin} f-data
    *
    * @group typography
    */
    /**
    * Text Sans family property.
    *
    * @requires {variable} $f-sans-serif-text
    *
    * @group typography
    */
    /**
    * Text Sans typography settings.
    *
    * @param {Number} $level
    * @param {Boolean} $size-only
    *
    * @example
    * // Output all properties (font-size, line-height, family)
    * @include fs-textSans(3);
    *
    * // Output font-size and line-height only
    * @include fs-textSans(3, $size-only: true);
    *
    * @requires {function} get-font-size
    * @requires {function} get-line-height
    * @requires {mixin} font-size
    * @requires {mixin} f-textSans
    *
    * @group typography
    */
    /**
    * Headline Sans family property.
    * Is not currently integrated into our font scale matrix,
    * hence no `fs-` mixin; currently we’re just using it as a
    * replacement font in a few places.
    *
    * @requires {variable} $f-sans-serif-headline
    *
    * @group typography
    */
    @font-face {font-family:”Guardian Headline Full”;src:url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Light.woff2”) format(“woff2”), url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Light.woff”) format(“woff”), url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Light.ttf”) format(“truetype”);font-weight:300;font-style:normal;
    }
    @font-face {font-family:”Guardian Headline Full”;src:url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-LightItalic.woff2”) format(“woff2”), url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-LightItalic.woff”) format(“woff”), url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-LightItalic.ttf”) format(“truetype”);font-weight:300;font-style:italic;
    }
    @font-face {font-family:”Guardian Headline Full”;src:url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Regular.woff2”) format(“woff2”), url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Regular.woff”) format(“woff”), url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Regular.ttf”) format(“truetype”);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;
    }
    @font-face {font-family:”Guardian Headline Full”;src:url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-RegularItalic.woff2”) format(“woff2”), url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-RegularItalic.woff”) format(“woff”), url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-RegularItalic.ttf”) format(“truetype”);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;
    }
    @font-face {font-family:”Guardian Headline Full”;src:url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Medium.woff2”) format(“woff2”), url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Medium.woff”) format(“woff”), url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Medium.ttf”) format(“truetype”);font-weight:500;font-style:normal;
    }
    @font-face {font-family:”Guardian Headline Full”;src:url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-MediumItalic.woff2”) format(“woff2”), url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-MediumItalic.woff”) format(“woff”), url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-MediumItalic.ttf”) format(“truetype”);font-weight:500;font-style:italic;
    }
    @font-face {font-family:”Guardian Headline Full”;src:url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Semibold.woff2”) format(“woff2”), url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Semibold.woff”) format(“woff”), url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Semibold.ttf”) format(“truetype”);font-weight:600;font-style:normal;
    }
    @font-face {font-family:”Guardian Headline Full”;src:url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-SemiboldItalic.woff2”) format(“woff2”), url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-SemiboldItalic.woff”) format(“woff”), url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-SemiboldItalic.ttf”) format(“truetype”);font-weight:600;font-style:italic;
    }
    @font-face {font-family:”Guardian Headline Full”;src:url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Bold.woff2”) format(“woff2”), url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Bold.woff”) format(“woff”), url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Bold.ttf”) format(“truetype”);font-weight:700;font-style:normal;
    }
    @font-face {font-family:”Guardian Headline Full”;src:url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-BoldItalic.woff2”) format(“woff2”), url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-BoldItalic.woff”) format(“woff”), url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-BoldItalic.ttf”) format(“truetype”);font-weight:700;font-style:italic;
    }
    @font-face {font-family:”Guardian Headline Full”;src:url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Black.woff2”) format(“woff2”), url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Black.woff”) format(“woff”), url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Black.ttf”) format(“truetype”);font-weight:900;font-style:normal;
    }
    @font-face {font-family:”Guardian Headline Full”;src:url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-BlackItalic.woff2”) format(“woff2”), url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-BlackItalic.woff”) format(“woff”), url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-BlackItalic.ttf”) format(“truetype”);font-weight:900;font-style:italic;
    }
    @font-face {font-family:”Guardian Titlepiece”;src:url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-titlepiece/noalts-not-hinted/GTGuardianTitlepiece-Bold.woff2”) format(“woff2”), url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-titlepiece/noalts-not-hinted/GTGuardianTitlepiece-Bold.woff”) format(“woff”), url(“https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-titlepiece/noalts-not-hinted/GTGuardianTitlepiece-Bold.ttf”) format(“truetype”);font-weight:700;font-style:normal;
    } More

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    in US Politics

    Should Democrats pursue progressivism or moderation? That’s a false choice | Michael Massing

    “How the Democrats lost the working-class vote”, ran the headline on the New York Times’s front page on 6 January. According to the Times, the Democrats’ estrangement from the working class was decades in the making. The party’s enthusiastic embrace of trade and globalization led to the closure of factories across industrial America, eliminating jobs that had been a prime source of stability, identity and prestige.While many Democrats attributed Trump’s success to the left’s embrace of “woke” language and causes like transgender rights, the Times observed, the economic seeds of his victories “were sown long ago”. A longtime AFL-CIO official was quoted as saying that “one of the things that has been frustrating about the narrative ‘the Democrats are losing the working class’ is that people are noticing it half a century after it happened”.Given the long incubation of this development, one might say the Times itself was late in recognizing it. But the question remains: how can Democrats win back those working-class voters?One key question has dominated: should the party move to the left or tack toward the center? Should it stress progressivism or moderation? In a way, though, it’s a false choice. The Democrats could combine both approaches in a policy of pragmatic populism, fusing the insurgent ideas and galvanizing fire of an Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with the plainspoken bread-and-butter appeal of a Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, an auto-repair shop owner who represents a rural district in Washington state.Pragmatic populism would offer sweeping solutions to the economic anxiety facing so many American families but without the polarizing rhetoric. It would avoid labels like “oligarch” and “tycoon”, drop references to socialism and redistribution and refrain from saying that billionaires should not exist (even though a strong case can be made for that proposition).Instead, pragmatic populists would adopt a message of “let us join together to create a more perfect union”. They would promote the idea of a social contract, founded on the notion that those who have surged ahead economically have an obligation to help those who have been left behind. They would argue that the .01% have thrived thanks to an economic system built over decades of public investment in schools, roads, ports, communications, regulatory agencies, the police and the courts, and that the very wealthy need to “give back” (as super-rich philanthropists are fond of saying) so that ordinary working people can share fully in the fruits.To consider how this would work, take the issue of childcare. A pragmatic populist would say: “The skyrocketing cost of childcare is crushing families across the country. In New York City, the typical family is spending a quarter of its income on such care, and many parents, especially mothers, have to quit the workforce to look after their kids. And childcare providers earn so little that many are leaving the industry. We need to provide parents more in tax credits and providers more in wage subsidies. The cost will not be negligible, but such a policy would not only ease the struggles of parents but also make them more productive workers. So we’re going to ask corporations and the very wealthy to contribute somewhat more in taxes to help make that happen.”Or take dental care. While food deserts have gotten a lot of attention, dentistry deserts have not. According to the CDC, nearly 60 million Americans live in areas in which dental services are in short supply. Even where such services are available, the cost of root canals, implants and crowns can be prohibitive, especially for the working class. Two-thirds of the shortages are in rural America, and a program to expand the Affordable Care Act to include dental insurance could help the Democrats make inroads in a part of the US they have all but lost.Small businesses offer another ripe constituency. Such enterprises (defined as having revenues of less than $40m and workforces of under 500) make up more than 99% of all firms in the country. Many of them are hampered by fines, fees and red tape. The Democrats have long been seen as indifferent or even hostile to this sector. In a promising sign of change, the New York mayoral candidate, Zohran Mamdani, has proposed creating a “mom-and-pop czar” to help ease the regulatory burden on the city’s bodegas, pharmacies, barber shops and beauty salons.These businesses also have a hard time getting credit. Most are too small to interest the mega banks that dominate the US financial system. The thousands of small banks in the country that do cater to this community are themselves under tremendous strain. The Democrats could propose ways of easing the availability of credit for small-business owners, especially Black and Latino ones, who often lack the necessary credit records and collateral.The hemorrhaging of Black and Latino voters is among the most troubling developments for Democrats. Many complain that the party shows up every four years asking for their vote, then forgets about them. During the recent election, Trump’s surge among Latinos in Texas’s Rio Grande valley offered a stinging rebuke to a party that had long counted on their support. “I think Democrats have historically taken the Rio Grande valley for granted,” Beto O’Rourke, the former senatorial candidate, told the Guardian last summer. “Republicans saw an opportunity, they’re hungry, and they’ve gone after it, investing money and running strong candidates with resources behind them.” The Democrats have by contrast spent heavily on Washington-based consultants and lobbyists, starving local operations of funds and hollowing out the party’s infrastructure on the ground.Where the Democrats are present, they have a reputation for being bad listeners given to lecturing people about what’s good for them. This has to change. Here are some recommendations for Democrats – politicians and otherwise:

    Don’t ask what’s the matter with Kansas.

    Don’t ask how Trump voters can vote against their interests.

    Don’t ask evangelical Christians how they can support someone like Trump.

    Don’t claim that the facts and science are on your side.

    Don’t claim that Trump voters are victims of disinformation.

    Don’t blame the Democrats’ unpopularity on Fox News and other rightwing outlets.

    Don’t campaign with celebrities.

    Don’t sermonize when discussing climate change.

    Don’t call Trump supporters stupid.
    That last suggestion might pose the greatest challenge of all. Even after the accumulation of so much evidence about the resentment that blue-collar Americans feel at the hands of white-collar liberals, condescension remains rampant. This was clear from the more than 2,000 reader comments posted on the Times article about the Democrats’ loss of the working class.Some samples: “They’re just dumb, bitter jerks who were looking for permission to be as resentful and judgmental in public as they were in private.” “The working class has, by and large, left the 4th estate for the purveyors of disinformation.” “I have to live with trump as president the next 4 years and possibly the rest of my life because of these ‘working class’ idiots who vote against their own interests.” “Most working class people are not reading the NYT, or any conventional news sources—this goes double for the Trump supporters amongst them. They are ignorant.”In the end, such an outlook is neither pragmatic nor populist.

    Michael Massing is the author of Fatal Discord: Erasmus, Luther, and the Fight for the Western Mind. He is writing a book about money and influence More

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    Eswatini opposition attacks US deal as ‘human trafficking disguised as deportation’

    Civil society and opposition groups in Eswatini have expressed outrage after the US deported five men to the country, with the largest opposition party calling it “human trafficking disguised as a deportation deal”.The men, from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Yemen and Cuba, were flown to the small southern African country, an absolute monarchy, last week as the US stepped up deportations to “third countries” after the supreme court cleared them last month.Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, is landlocked by South Africa and Mozambique and has a population of about 1.2 million. It is Africa’s last absolute monarchy and has been ruled by King Mswati III since 1986.The government estimated the five men would be held for about 12 months, a spokesperson, Thabile Mdluli, said, adding: “It could be slightly less or slightly more.”She said Eswatini was ready to receive more deportees, depending on the availability of facilities and negotiations with the US, which has also deported eight people to South Sudan after holding them for weeks in a shipping container in Djibouti, and more than 200 Venezuelans to El Salvador.Officials have said the men, who were put in solitary confinement, were safely imprisoned in Eswatini. However, they have refused to disclose the terms of the deal, other than to say the US was footing the costs of keeping the men locked up and that they would work with international organisations to deport them to their home countries.View image in fullscreenMany civil society organisations and politicians were not convinced. “This action, carried out without public consultation, adequate preparation, or community engagement, raises urgent questions about legality, transparency, and the safety of both the deported individuals and the people of Eswatini, especially women and girls,” said a coalition of seven women’s groups.The organisations delivered a petition to the US embassy on Monday calling for the US to take back the deportees, for the deportees’ human rights to be respected, and for Eswatini not to become a “dumping ground for unresolved problems from elsewhere”.The groups’ leaders held a protest outside the US embassy on Friday, where they sang, danced and held up signs with messages including: “Whose taxpayers?”, “Eswatini is not a prison for US rejects” and “Take the five criminals back to the US!!”Eswatini’s largest opposition party, the People’s United Democratic Movement (Pudemo), said in a statement: “Pudemo vehemently condemns the treacherous and reckless decision by King Mswati III’s regime to allow the United States of America to dump its most dangerous criminals on Swazi soil.“This is not diplomacy but human trafficking disguised as a deportation deal. It is an insult to all Emaswati who value peace, security, and the sanctity of our homeland.”The coordinating assembly of NGOs, an umbrella group, said the situation was “deeply alarming” and condemned the “stigmatising and dehumanising language used by US officials”. It called for the Eswatini-US agreement to be made public and to be suspended pending “genuine public consultation and transparent national dialogue”.View image in fullscreenTricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary at the US Department of Homeland Security, said in a post on X on 16 July that the men, who she said had been convicted of crimes including child rape, murder and burglary, were “so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back”.She added: “These depraved monsters have been terrorising American communities but … they are off of American soil.”Eswatini’s prime minister, Russell Dlamini, told local media on Friday that the government was confident it would safely manage the prisoners. “Eswatini is currently holding inmates who have committed more dangerous crimes than those attributed to the five deportees,” he said.A prison service spokesperson, Baphelele Kunene, said the country’s citizens should not be afraid. “We can confirm that the five inmates in question have been admitted to one of our high-security centres where they are responding very well to the new environment,” he said. “Even though they come from the US, there is no preferential treatment for them as they are guided by the same prison regulations, eat the same food as others and are also expected to exhibit the same and equal amount of respect for prison protocols.”The US state department’s most recent human rights report on Eswatini, in 2023, said there were “credible reports of: arbitrary or unlawful killings, including extrajudicial killings; torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by the government; serious problems with the independence of the judiciary; [and] political prisoners or detainees”.Political parties are banned from taking part in elections, which the system’s advocates argue makes MPs more representative of their constituents. In September, Pudemo’s leader, Mlungisi Makhanya, was allegedly poisoned in South Africa. The party said it was an assassination attempt, which Eswatini’s government has denied.The Department of Homeland Security has been contacted for comment. More

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    Trump news at a glance: US House breaks early for summer recess as Republicans feel the heat over Epstein

    Mounting pressure over President Donald Trump’s alleged ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has reportedly rattled and divided Republican congress members so deeply that the House speaker called an early recess on Tuesday.Democrats had pushed for a vote to release files related to Epstein as Trump fends off questions over his relationship with the financier, who died by suicide in his jail cell in 2019. Now the House will break up on Wednesday instead of Thursday in what Democrats say is a way to dodge the vote.Here’s the what’s happened today:House speaker says calls for an Epstein files vote ‘political games’ Republicans downplayed the decision to cut short the workweek, while arguing that the White House has already moved to resolve questions about the case. Last week, Trump asked the attorney general, Pam Bondi, to release grand jury testimony, although that is expected to be only a fraction of the case’s documents.The House speaker, Mike Johnson, dismissed the calls for a vote as “political games” and also argued that Congress must be careful in calling for the release of documents related to the case, for fear of retraumatizing his victims.Read the full storyCongress to subpoena Ghislaine MaxwellCongress will subpoena Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned sex trafficker who was a close associate of Epstein, to testify amid a political firestorm over the Trump administration’s decision not to release its remaining Epstein files.Read the full storyTrump claims new CBS owner will give him airtimeTrump has claimed the future owner of the US TV network CBS will provide him with $20m worth of advertising and programming – days after the network cancelled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The US president recently reached a $16m settlement with Paramount, the parent of CBS News, over what he claimed was misleading editing of a pre-election interview with the Democratic candidate for president, Kamala Harris.Read the full storyTrump pulls US out of UnescoThe US will quit the United Nations’ culture and education agency Unesco, the US state department has said, as Donald Trump continues to pull out of international institutions. The move is a blow to the Paris-based global organization, founded after the second world war to promote peace through international cooperation in education, science and culture.Read the full storyObama breaks silence on Trump’s ‘outrageous’ call to prosecute himBarack Obama has broken his silence on calls from Trump for him to be prosecuted by unequivocally rejecting his successor’s accusations that he tried to engineer a “coup” after Trump’s 2016 election victory by “manufacturing” evidence of Russian interference.His office called the accusations “nonsense”, “misinformation”, “outrageous” and “a weak attempt at distraction”.Read the full storyTrump announces Japan trade deal after weeks of fraught negotiationsTrump has announced a trade deal with Japan, potentially resolving weeks of fraught negotiations between the two allies which had caused political uproar and economic uncertainty in Tokyo. While he gave few details of the deal, he described it as “massive” in a social media post, adding that “Japan will invest, at my direction, $550 Billion Dollars into the United States.”Read the full storyCoca-Cola to launch Coke with cane sugar in the US after Trump postCoca-Cola has announced it will launch a product made with US cane sugar this year, days after Trump claimed the company had agreed to replace high-fructose corn syrup. But the company said that the drink would be an additional product rather than a replacement for the drink containing corn syrup.Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

    General Motors announced that Donald Trump’s tariffs knocked $1.1bn off its operating income in its last quarter.

    The New York Times defended the Wall Street Journal after the Trump administration decided to bar the outlet from the White House press pool.

    Stephen Colbert declared to Donald Trump that “the gloves are off” in his first broadcast since his Late Show was cancelled amid a political firestorm.
    Catching up? Here’s what happened on 21 July 2025. More

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    Videos reveal harsh conditions inside Ice’s New York City confinement center

    Two videos have surfaced shedding light on what is happening behind closed doors at a New York federal building where people are being confined after being seized by officers on their way out of immigration court on the 12th floor, with the footage offering a rare look inside a controversial and closely guarded space that is part of Donald Trump’s anti-immigration crackdown.The filming, shared by the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), captures one of several rooms at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan, on the building’s 10th floor, where accounts have emerged of people being detained in wholly unsuitable conditions with few basic provisions, but there had been no public access to direct evidence.The footage in question shows about two dozen men confined in bare rooms, some lying on the floor wrapped in aluminum emergency blankets while others sit on benches, the City reported on Tuesday.One clip shows two toilets just feet away from where people sleep, separated by a low wall. The video was secretly recorded by a man who had been detained after an immigration court appearance last week, according to the City, which first obtained the footage from the NYIC.The man who filmed the scenes had reportedly managed to have a phone in his possession despite the usual protocol by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) of confiscating personal items at arrest. Reports of people being held for protracted periods in deprived conditions in the Manhattan building have followed weeks of controversy about Ice officers turning up at immigration courts across the country, where they are usually not present, and apprehending people. The footage shows people held in the same building as one of the main immigration courts in New York City. It was sent to state assembly member Catalina Cruz’s office. Until now, photos or videos from the 10th floor have not emerged in public.“The American dream,” the unseen and unnamed detainee says as he films. “Immigration, 26 Federal Plaza.”In a separate audio message also shared with the City , the same man adds: “They haven’t given us food, they haven’t given us medicine. We’re cold. There are people who’ve been here for 10, 15 days inside. We’re just waiting.”Concerns about what goes on inside the federal building had been growing. Advocates, attorneys and immigrants themselves have described the 10th floor as overcrowded, with no beds, showers, or adequate access to food or healthcare.“Ice is kidnapping so many people from New York’s immigration courts that they had to create a new detention facility on the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza. But instead of sharing the truth with the public, Ice has skirted accountability by consistently lying about what’s happening on the 10th floor, and breaking the law by not allowing Congress members to view the conditions,” said Murad Awawdeh, president of the NYIC, in a statement.“The 10th floor detention facility must be shut down immediately, and regularly inspected to ensure that Ice adheres to federal guidelines as mandated by law,” Awawdeh added.The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in earlier statements about the facility that “any claim that there is overcrowding or sub-prime conditions is categorically false”.Ice also maintains that the 10th floor is not used for detention. Officially, the agency describes the space as a processing center, and therefore not subject to congressional inspection rules that apply to detention facilities, where national lawmakers have to be allowed to visit. “26 Federal Plaza is not a detention center. It is a federal building with an Ice law enforcement office inside of it,” said McLaughlin.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionBut data from Ice detention logs analyzed by the City revealed that from September 2023 through late June this year, people were held there in what Ice calls the “NYC Hold Room” for an average of 29 hours. Some stayed for several days.The space remains off-limits to both journalists and lawmakers, even though members of Congress are supposed to be allowed to make unannounced visits to detention sites. Several Democrat representatives have been denied entry.Detainees and advocates continue to speak about grim conditions, including sparse food offerings, no showers or clothing changes, and people crammed into a single room with only the floor or hard benches to rest on, according to Gothamist.Meanwhile, Ice has been granted a huge budget boost. Trump’s so-called “big, beautiful bill” dedicates roughly $170bn for immigration and border-related operations – a sum that would make Ice the most heavily funded law enforcement agency in the federal government. More

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    Obama breaks silence on Trump’s ‘outrageous’ call to prosecute him

    Barack Obama has broken his silence on calls from Donald Trump for him to be prosecuted by unequivocally rejecting his successor’s accusations that he tried to engineer a “coup” following Trump’s 2016 election victory by “manufacturing” evidence of Russian interference.Obama’s office took the unusual step of issuing an emphatic refutation after Trump told reporters that his predecessor had “[tried] to lead a coup” against him and was guilty of “treason” over intelligence assessments suggesting that Russia had intervened to help Trump defeat Hillary Clinton in the campaign.“Out of respect for the office of the presidency, our office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response,” the statement said. “But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one. These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction.”The statement went on to criticize claims made in an 11-page document released last week by Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, who said she was passing evidence of what she claimed was a “treasonous conspiracy” among Obama national security officials to the justice department, recommending their prosecution.“Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes,” it said.“These findings were affirmed in a 2020 report by the bipartisan senate Intelligence Committee, led by then-Chairman Marco Rubio.”Obama’s response followed a fusillade of accusations by Trump in the White House as he was meeting the president of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, the son of the country’s former autocratic president, who was ousted in a popular “people’s power revolution” in 1986.Asked by a reporter who should be the main target of the criminal investigation recommended in Gabbard’s report, Trump said: “Based on what I read, and I read pretty much what you read, it would be President Obama. He started it, and Biden was there with him. And [James] Comey [the former FBI director] was there, and [James] Clapper [the former director of national intelligence], the whole group was there.“It was them, too, but the leader of the gang was President Obama, Barack Hussein Obama. Have you heard of him?”He went on: “This isn’t like evidence. This is like proof, irrefutable proof that Obama was sedatious [sic], that Obama … was trying to lead a coup, and it was with Hillary Clinton, with all these other people, but Obama headed it up.“He’s guilty. This was treason. This was every word you can think of. They tried to steal the election. They tried to obfuscate the election. They did things that nobody’s ever even imagined.”Trump said Gabbard had told him she had “thousands of additional documents coming”.“It’s the most unbelievable thing I think I’ve ever read. So you want to take a look at that and stop talking about nonsense,” he said, in what appeared to be a coded appeal for supporters to drop their demands for the release of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier who was found dead in his prison cell in 2019 as he awaited trial on sex-trafficking charges.But the Gabbard report, which accused the Obama administration of forcing spy agencies to alter their conclusions, conflated and misrepresented different issues to discredit the intelligence community’s assessment in 2017 that Russia sought to simultaneously help Trump and damage Clinton.The assessment concluded that Russia did not engage in cyber-attacks against election infrastructure to change vote tallies, but found Moscow hacked and leaked documents from the Democratic National Committee to damage the Clinton campaign.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe Gabbard report used that first conclusion to suggest that a broader Russian influence operation did not occur, and cited Obama’s presidential daily brief in December 2016 that concluded there were no Russian hacks of election systems being pushed back as evidence of political interference in the assessment.Assertions of Russian interference were subsequently borne out in the report published by the special counsel Robert Mueller, in 2019, and the bipartisan Senate intelligence committee report published the following year, led by Rubio, now secretary of state in Trump’s administration.A former CIA analyst and national intelligence officer, Fulton Armstrong, told the Guardian in an email that Gabbard’s paper “was obviously written with a pre-ordained conclusion”.“Even a quick read shows how the confusion between confidence and probability [over intelligence assessments] – even if not deliberate – leads to sloppiness and manipulation,” Armstrong said.“The bigger problem is that Tulsi’s paper is such shit. Her reference to ‘deep state officials’ is amateurish, silly, and undercuts the whole damned document.“She’s clever to use crappy precedents and confusion to make her case, but an issue like Russian manipulation of US elections, with so many analysts from diverse organizational cultures, is almost certainly going to leave enough offal on the floor that anyone who wanted to make a one-sided political slam job can find enough to fill an 11-page paper.” More