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      The Guardian view on Europe’s payments problem: sovereignty starts at the till | Editorial

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      Donald Trump’s leverage over Visa and Mastercard highlights a blind spot in Europe’s ‘independence’ strategy. Emulating India’s response might helpWhen the centre-left French politician Aurore Lalucq posted a warning last Wednesday that Donald Trump could cut off Europe from international payment systems, the clip went viral. To many, her message made sense. After all, if Mr Trump was prepared to test allies’ boundaries over Greenland, it is not far-fetched to imagine Visa and Mastercard becoming used against a recalcitrant Europe.The US can turn off payment systems it controls. Russia learned this first-hand after sanctions were rightly applied for its invasion of Ukraine. As up to 60% of Russian retail transactions depended on Visa and Mastercard for authorisation, the ban left many ordinary people stranded without access to funds and unable to buy goods. Under Mr Trump, America’s goal is to “help Europe correct its current trajectory”. Given such talk, Ms Lalucq, who chairs the European parliament’s economic and monetary affairs committee, is not wrong in calling for an “Airbus of European payments” to protect the EU. Continue reading… More

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      Trump’s not the first US president to fall in love with war. History shows where this is going | Peter Beinhart

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      In his fresh intoxication with global conquest, Trump is following an established pattern – one that promises disasterTo many observers, Donald Trump’s open bellicosity – his threats to attack Greenland and Iran, and his recent kidnapping of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro – looks like an ideological reversal. “Donald Trump betrayed his MAGA base today [by] launching a war of choice to bring regime change in Venezuela,” tweeted Democratic congressman Ro Khanna on 3 January. The day before, former Republican representative Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote: “President Trump threatening war and sending in troops to Iran is everything we voted against in ‘24.” On 20 January, National Public Radio reported that “Trump supporters share confusion and anger over the president’s focus on Greenland”.The sense of whiplash is understandable. As a candidate, Trump often denounced war. Now he is infatuated with it. But while Trump seems uniquely set on dismantling the postwar order in the service of his quest for global domination, there is precedent for his transformation. Continue reading… More

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      ‘Emotionally devastating’: Iranians in US on regime’s deadly protest crackdown

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      US readers said they were feeling anxious and helpless as authorities’ brutal crackdown has left thousands deadRecent protests in Iran have created the most serious and deadliest unrest in the country since the 1979 revolution, prompting eyes from all around the globe to shift to the Middle East.The Guardian asked Iranians living outside the country to share their views on the current situation in the country and about the possibility of US intervention. Continue reading… More

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      Trump’s Greenland brinkmanship leaves leading Republicans rattled

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      With midterms looming some in Congress have dissented from the president – but it still falls well short of a rebellionDonald Trump pulled back from the brink on Greenland but not before causing untold damage to the Nato alliance. The US president’s sabre-rattling may also have shaken the faith of his own Republican party.Trump’s fleeting threat to conquer the Danish territory prompted the most strident Republican opposition to anything he has done since taking office a year ago. It came on the heels of challenges to his authority over military powers, healthcare legislation and the Jeffrey Epstein files. Continue reading… More

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      Democratic congressman punched in racist attack at Sundance film festival

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      Maxwell Alejandro Frost says attacker ‘told me Trump was going to deport me’ as police say suspect arrestedThe Florida congressman Maxwell Alejandro Frost said he was assaulted by a man who said Donald Trump would deport him at a party during the Sundance film festival in Utah.“Last night, I was assaulted by a man at Sundance Festival who told me that Trump was going to deport me before he punched me in the face,” Frost said in a Saturday post on X. “He was heard screaming racist remarks as he drunkenly ran off. The individual was arrested and I am okay.” Continue reading… More

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      Schumer: Democrats will block funding package if it includes homeland security money

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      Announcement comes as anger toward DHS – which oversees ICE – intensifies after Alex Pretti fatally shotIn the wake of another fatal shooting of a US citizen in Minnesota by a federal officer, the Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, said his party would block a funding package next week if it includes money for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).The announcement, which dramatically escalates the potential for another partial government shutdown, comes as anger towards homeland security, which oversees ICE, intensifies among the party after a group of federal agents violently restrained and then fatally shot 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Continue reading… More

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      Alex Pretti did not brandish gun, witnesses say in sworn testimony

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      Pair testify that Pretti did not hold weapon and was trying to help woman federal agents had shoved to the groundTwo witnesses to the killing of Alex Pretti have said in sworn testimony that the 37-year-old intensive care nurse was not brandishing a weapon when he approached federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday, contradicting a claim made by Trump administration officials as they sought to cast the shooting of a prone man as an act of self-defense.Their accounts came in sworn affidavits that were filed in federal court in Minnesota late Saturday, just hours after Pretti’s killing, as part of a lawsuit brought by the ACLU on behalf of Minneapolis protesters against Kristi Noem and other homeland security officials directing the immigration crackdown in the city. Continue reading… More

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      Trump news at a glance: groundswell of anger at second fatal shooting by federal agents in weeks

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      Protests erupt across US after American citizen Alex Pretti shot dead, as video shows he had been holding a phone and not a gun, contradicting federal claims – key US politics stories from 24 JanuaryUS federal law enforcement officers fatally shot an American citizen in Minneapolis in the second such killing in less than three weeks, sparking major protests in cities across the country.Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old registered nurse living in Minneapolis, was shot dead after being sprayed with a chemical agent and wrestled to the ground by federal agents when he appeared to come to the aid of a person being shoved to the ground by an officer. Continue reading… More