US Politics

Weak connections known as ‘bridge ties’ cross the boundaries that normally structure our lives. We must restore this connective tissueThe first time a woman I’ll call Shoshana went toBrandi Carlile’s music festival, she arrived alone. She had just been through another unsuccessful round of IVF. During one of the songs, about motherhood, she began to cry in the middle of the crowd. Then two women she had never met stepped closer and wordlessly wrapped their arms around her until her breathing slowed.“That’s when I realized,” Shoshana told me in an interview, “this place isn’t just about music.”Eva M Meyersson Milgrom is a social scientist and professor emerita from Stanford University, where she was affiliated with the department of sociology, the Institute of Economic Policy, and the Graduate School of Business. She is working on a book on the importance of diversifying our social networks Continue reading… More

Democrats accuse DHS of ‘kneecapping’ programs that help speed registered travelers through security lines The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is suspending the TSA PreCheck and Global Entry airport security programs as a partial government shutdown continues.The programs are designed to help speed registered travelers through security lines. Suspending them could cause headaches for passengers. Continue reading… More

Arab and Islamic governments issue joint statement denouncing the comments made on Tucker Carlson podcastArab and Islamic countries jointly condemned remarks by the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, who suggested Israel had a biblical right to a vast swath of the Middle East.Huckabee, a former Baptist minister and a fervent Israel supporter, was speaking on the podcast of Tucker Carlson. Continue reading… More

Donald Trump doubles down on aggressive tariff policy with 15% global tax – key US politics stories from 21 February 2026 at a glanceDonald Trump raised the global duty on imports into the US to 15% on Saturday, doubling down on his promise to maintain his aggressive tariff policy a day after the supreme court ruled much of it illegal.Trump said on his Truth Social platform that after a thorough review of Friday’s “extraordinarily anti-American decision” by the court to rein in his tariff program, the administration was hiking the import levies “to the fully allowed, and legally tested, 15% level”. Continue reading… More

President announced increase from 10% using different authority from mechanism that supreme court struck down on FridayDonald Trump announced on Saturday that he would raise a temporary tariff rate on US imports from all countries from 10% to 15%, less than 24 hours after the US supreme court ruled against the legality of his flagship trade policy.Infuriated by the high court’s ruling on Friday that he had exceeded his authority and should have got congressional approval for the tariffs he introduced last year under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), the US president railed against the justices who struck down his use of tariffs – calling them a “disgrace to the nation” – and ordered an immediate 10% tariff on all imports, in addition to any existing levies, under a separate law. Continue reading… More

Congress members write to Kristi Noem to express ‘grave concern’ over detention of Georgia barber Rodney TaylorRepresentative Pramila Jayapal and 20 members of Congress are seeking the release of Rodney Taylor from Stewart detention center in Georgia, several weeks after the one-year anniversary of when agents seized the double amputee outside his suburban home in Loganville, about 40 miles north-east of Atlanta.The representatives sent a two-page letter on 17 February to Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, and Todd Lyons, the acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), drawing extensively from the Guardian’s reporting and quoting several stories in detail with “grave concern” due to Taylor’s “extreme hardship in detention and [because] his health is continuing to deteriorate”. Continue reading… More

More than a hundred lawsuits were filed against the Trump administration over the past year. Four people explain why it’s important to protect rights and fight backDonald Trump’s second term has been marked by a rollback of civil liberties.He has terminated all federal diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility offices and positions. He has declared that the government will only refer to individuals by their biological “sex” instead of their gender identity. He has also set a sweeping anti-immigration agenda, attempting to end birthright citizenship, pausing refugee admissions and increasing immigration enforcement operations around the country. Continue reading… More

The US supreme court ruled against the president. Let’s hope the court removes its pro-Trump glasses on other issues and stands up for the rule of lawThere’s no denying that the US supreme court’s long-awaited ruling that overturned Donald Trump’s global tariffs is important, and if the ruling turns out to be a harbinger that the court is ready to abandon its startling sycophancy toward the US president, it could prove hugely important. The ruling this Friday is the first time during Trump’s second term that the justices have struck down one of his policies. Not only that, the policy they struck down is Trump’s signature economic policy – he has used tariffs to bash, lord over and terrorize dozens of other countries and make himself the King of the Economic Jungle.In the court’s main opinion, joined by three conservative justices and three liberals, chief justice John Roberts used some sharp language to slap down Trump’s tariffs, writing that the constitution specifically gives Congress, not the president, the power to impose taxes and tariffs. (Roberts noted that tariffs are indeed taxes.)Steven Greenhouse is a journalist and author, focusing on labour and the workplace, as well as economic and legal issues Continue reading… More