US Politics

Clayton had said AI was a ‘gamechanger’ but also posed ‘a threat’ during his confirmation hearingDonald Trump on Sunday named Jay Clayton, the director of national intelligence, to also serve as the new White House AI czar.Clayton, who leads the US’s 18 intelligence agencies, previously served as the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan and led the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump’s first term. Continue reading… More

In a district shaken by deaths of 11 workers, Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez faces a stiff challenge to keep her seatOn a misty morning in May in south-west Washington state, Laura Oltmann, a 41-year-old dietitian, had barely clocked in when an unfamiliar overhead announcement echoed through the hospital.“We get overhead pages for different types of emergencies. But this one, we don’t get very often,” recalled Oltmann. Continue reading… More

Considered Republican frontrunner for presidential election, Vance is cozying up to the movement – as it splitsJD Vance, widely considered to be the Republican frontrunner for the presidential election in 2028, is aligning himself with the Make America Healthy Again (Maha) movement as some say it is shedding its grassroots supporters in favor of political and corporate interests.The US vice-president has positioned himself as the inheritor of Make America Great Again (Maga), and attaching himself to Maha, which many in the Trump administration believe helped to win the 2024 election, signals a greater overlap between the two movements as the administration’s popularity plummets amid the war in Iran and rising prices. Continue reading… More

Democratic and Republican administrations have taken different tacks in addressing campus sexual assaultAmid renewed concerns about sexual assault on US college campuses following allegations that a student was gang-raped at a Cornell University fraternity, the Trump administration last week formally reversed measures from recent Democratic presidents concerning how schools should investigate such claims.A federal judge had already in January 2025 struck down Biden-era regulations that expanded Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in education. The Democratic president tried to undo regulations established during Trump’s first term that, contrary to guidance from the Obama administration, required schools to adjudicate sexual misconduct claims through live hearings. Continue reading… More

The US president has taken credit for far-right victories across Latin America, but those wins have had more to do with fears of gang crime than his meddlingDonald Trump has enjoyed very few foreign policy victories since returning to power. From failed wars to failed peace processes, his second term in office has been marked by one costly blunder on the world stage after another. In Latin America, though, the US president has a different story to tell.His administration’s national security strategy outlined how the US wanted to “restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere”. It was a brazen document, laying out how his government would interfere in the political life of countries it considered part of its sphere of influence, rewarding governments and movements that are “broadly aligned with our principles and strategy”. Continue reading… More

Network at receiving end of White House press ban recently chose red state to host fan event as part of broader outreachIn 2024, Donald Trump and JD Vance carried Tarrant county, Texas, by 42,125 votes. So why, on the afternoon of 26 September, was the arena at the University of Texas-Arlington filled with nearly 5,000 super fans cheering for liberal media darlings Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell like they were rock stars?After two years of hosting the network’s annual fan event in dark blue New York City, MS Now (formerly MSNBC) got wind that something was happening in Texas. The state, which hasn’t elected a Democrat to the US Senate in 37 years, might do so next month, when 37-year-old James Talarico, Texas state representative, goes up against the Republican nominee, Ken Paxton, a well-known but controversial figure who ousted incumbent John Cornyn in the party’s primary with Donald Trump’s backing. Continue reading… More

US president urges Americans to call Tom Cotton to support bill to make daylight saving time permanentDonald Trump on Saturday put pressure on the US senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas to support a bill to make daylight saving time permanent, urging Americans to call what appeared to be the personal cellphone number of his fellow Republican and the chair of the Senate intelligence committee.The Sunshine Protection Act passed the House in July, but it faces roadblocks in the Senate, where some Republicans are strongly opposed to it. Proponents, including the president and his administration, argue that the change would provide more daylight during the times that Americans are most active. Detractors said permanent daylight saving time would lead to darker and potentially more hazardous winter mornings when children will be waiting for school buses and parents will be driving to work in darkness. Continue reading… More

Mariann Budde gained national attention for calling on US president to consider immigrants and LGBTQ+ peopleRev Mariann Edgar Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington DC who gained national attention when she called on Donald Trump to “have mercy” on the country’s immigrants and LGBTQ+ community after his second inauguration, is resigning.Budde shared in her resignation letter that she will be leaving her post on 3 June 2028 after the consecration and ordination of the new diocesan bishop. Continue reading… More