US Politics

CEO of UnitedHealth Group said his company will return profits earned from Affordable Care Act plans to customersExecutives from five of the country’s largest health insurance companies appeared before Congress on Thursday as lawmakers examined why healthcare has become increasingly harder for Americans to afford.In one effort to address the affordability crisis, the CEO of UnitedHealth Group, Stephen Hemsley, announced that the nation’s largest insurance company will rebate profits made this year from its Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans to customers, while adding it was a relatively small participant in the ACA individual market. Continue reading… More

Acquittal of Juan Espinoza Martinez in Chicago marks latest major federal prosecution to fall apart in courtA man accused of a murder-for-hire plot targeting a top US border patrol leader was found not guilty on Thursday in Chicago, the latest high-profile prosecution by the Department of Justice to fall apart in court.The government alleged that Juan Espinoza Martinez, 37, had offered a $10,000 bounty over Snapchat in October for the killing of Gregory Bovino, the border patrol official who has spearheaded aggressive immigration operations in cities across the country. Defense lawyers argued Espinoza Martinez was sharing an innocuous social media message that did not constitute a threat. Continue reading… More

It was supposed to give Gaza a future, but the US president is using it to attack the UN, international law and multilateralismOne glance at the logo of the Board of Peace tells you all you need to know. It is the globe and laurels of the UN – only gold, because this is Donald Trump’s initiative, and showing little of the world beyond North America.The charter of the board, formally launched in Davos on Thursday, suggests that this is less America First than Trump Always. It is not “the US president” but Mr Trump himself who is named as chair, for as long as he wishes. He can pick his successor, decide the agenda and axe whomever he chooses – even if they have coughed up the $1bn demanded for permanent membership. It is the institutional expression of his belief that he is bound not by law but “my own morality, my own mind”.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading… More

After a bombastic speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump backed away from his threat to impose tariffs on European countriesIn the past few days, Donald Trump turned the US presidency into a tool for his personal glory and vengeance. On Saturday, he threatened to impose tariffs of up to 25% on a bloc of European countries until Denmark agrees to sell Greenland to the US. The next day, Trump texted Norway’s prime minister, saying his failure to win the Nobel peace prize was one of the reasons he’s intent on seizing control of Greenland. After being snubbed for last year’s award, Trump said he no longer felt the need “to think purely of peace”.By Tuesday morning, as European leaders continued to absorb the shock of Trump’s threats and insults, the president posted an AI-generated meme that showed him planting a US flag on the island, flanked by his vice-president and secretary of state. “Greenland. US Territory. Est. 2026,” the image said. (Trump shared another image, also apparently edited by AI, that showed him sitting alongside a map of the US that includes Canada, Greenland and Venezuela, as he spoke with European leaders assembled at the White House.) Later on Tuesday, when he was asked at a press conference how far he was willing to go to acquire Greenland, Trump responded tersely: “You’ll find out.”Mohamad Bazzi is director of the Center for Near Eastern Studies, and a journalism professor, at New York University Continue reading… More

Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has led some people to take drastic measures to ensure their safetyIt was a normal Tuesday morning for Mohamed when he left his San Diego, California, house for his daily exercise in mid-January. But as he walked around the Colina del Sol park, four US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents approached and encircled the middle-aged father, who is using a pseudonym out of fear of retaliation from federal agents. The officers, Mohamed said, who wore jackets with ICE emblazoned on them and balaclavas that obscured their faces, asked for his green card before they began drilling him with questions about what he was doing in the park.“I was terrified,” Mohamed, a lawful permanent resident from Somalia, said through a translator. The ordeal ended shortly thereafter, but the experience has left a lasting impact on him. “I have high blood pressure,” Mohamed said about the encounter he believes was based on racial profiling. “I used to do my daily exercises; now I don’t even do that any more because I’m scared.” Continue reading… More

Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner spoke in Davos on Thursday about the ‘board of peace’ plans for Gaza’s postwar redevelopment at an event on the sidelines of the World Economic ForumDavos live – latest updates Continue reading… More

Think I’m exaggerating? Consider the copious amounts of evidenceWhich way, western man?That was the title of a racist tract published in 1978 by William Gayley Simpson, a former leftist Christian pastor turned one of the most influential neo-Nazi ideologues in American history. The book helped radicalize an entire generation of white supremacists in the US, with its vicious antisemitism, opposition to all forms of immigration and open praise for Hitler. The purpose of the book, wrote Simpson, was “to reveal organized Jewry as a world power entrenched in every country of the white man’s world, operating freely across every nation’s frontiers, and engaged in a ruthless war for the destruction of them all”.Mehdi Hasan is the editor-in-chief and CEO of Zeteo Continue reading… More

In today’s newsletter: What began as a temporary mechanism to oversee Gaza’s reconstruction is quietly mutating into a permanent system of external control, raising urgent questions about who​ will govern in PalestineGood morning. Donald Trump wants to be the supreme leader of the world.That may sound hyperbolic, but it is difficult to read the latest plans for his so-called “Board of Peace” as anything else. What was initially framed as a narrow mechanism to oversee Gaza’s reconstruction has quietly shifted into something far larger. In Trump’s most recent announcement, Gaza barely features at all.Davos | Donald Trump dropped his threat to impose tariffs on eight European countries, claiming he had agreed with Nato “the framework of a future deal” on Greenland. Danish, Greenlandic and other European officials pushed back on Trump’s claim, pointing out Nato has no authority to make such a deal.New Zealand | Emergency services in New Zealand are searching for several people, including a child, believed missing after a landslide hit a campsite during storms that have caused widespread damage across the North Island.Media | Prince Harry has accused the publisher of the Daily Mail of wanting to drive him “to drugs and drinking” by placing his life under surveillance, as he told the high court that it continued to “come after” him and his wife.Reform UK | Nigel Farage apologised for 17 breaches of the MPs’ code after failing to declare £380,000 on time, describing himself as an “oddball” who does not do computers.South Korea | Former PM Han Duck-soo has been sentenced to 23 years in prison for his role in an insurrection stemming from former president Yoon Suk Yeol’s failed martial law declaration. Continue reading… More