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    US lawmakers seek release of double amputee from Georgia ICE detention

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    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

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      Trump’s global tariffs have finally been overturned. What next? | Steven Greenhouse

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      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

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      Smokejumper and union leader aims to win in Montana by focusing on workers

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      Sam Forstag, who parachutes from planes to fight wildfires, believes pro-worker polices can flip district from Trump allySam Forstag is used to launching himself into heated territory.As a smokejumper, his job is to jump out of airplanes 3,000 feet in the air and parachute down into the Montana wilderness. Going by air is often the easiest way to access the remote wilderness and combat the wildfires that burn an average of 7.2m acres a year in the state. Continue reading… More

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      Trump’s bid to name Penn Station after himself looks like a presidential shakedown | Mohamad Bazzi

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      The US president’s relentless self-aggrandizement spree continues amid hypocrisy and shifting explanationsAs a real estate developer, Donald Trump built his empire on ostentatious displays of wealth, substantial tax breaks – and lots of free publicity. As president, he has deployed the power of the state to expand his personal brand, adding his name to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the US Institute of Peace, a class of new navy warships, and even investment accounts for millions of children.Trump is now eyeing yet more grandiose targets in his self-aggrandizement spree. He wants Congress to rename New York’s Penn Station and Washington Dulles international airport in his honor. But there’s a catch: Trump reportedly told Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, that he would unfreeze billions of dollars in federal funding for a major infrastructure project in the north-east – if Schumer supported renaming the two sites.Mohamad Bazzi is director of the Center for Near Eastern Studies, and a journalism professor, at New York University Continue reading… More

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      Trump news at a glance: president’s ‘board of peace’ set to meet, minus some key US allies

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      Some European leaders have criticised the organisation’s murky funding and political mandate – key US politics stories from Wednesday 18 February at a glanceDozens of world leaders and national delegations will meet in Washington DC on Thursday for the inaugural meeting of Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, as major European allies declined to join the group and criticised the organisation’s murky funding and political mandate.The White House has indicated that the summit for his new ad hoc council at the renamed Donald J Trump Institute of Peace will heavily function as a fundraising round, with Trump announcing on social media that countries have pledged more than $5bn toward rebuilding Gaza, which has been devastated in the war with Israel and remains in a humanitarian crisis. Continue reading… More

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      Democratic senators launch inquiry into EPA’s repeal of key air pollution enforcement measure

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      Senators said repeal was ‘particularly troubling’ and was counter to EPA’s mandate to protect human healthMore than three dozen Democratic senators have begun an independent inquiry into the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) following a huge change in how the agency measures the health benefits of reducing air pollution that is widely seen as a major setback to US efforts to combat the climate crisis.In a regulatory impact analysis, the EPA said it would stop assigning a monetary value to the health benefits associated with regulations on fine particulate matter and ozone. The agency argued that the estimates contain too much uncertainty. Continue reading… More

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      Limited government shutdown likely to linger for at least 10 days as Congress takes break

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      13% of federal civilian workforce is affected, although DHS – which spurred budget standoff – remains fundedA limited US government shutdown came into effect on Saturday – the third of Donald Trump’s second term – after negotiations between the White House and Democrats in Congress failed to agree on new restrictions for federal immigration agents.The shutdown affects about 13% of the federal civilian workforce and is confined to agencies under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which screens airline passengers. Continue reading… More

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      Who are the six men named in the unredacted Epstein files?

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      In a floor speech, Ro Khanna, a Democratic representative, revealed identities of six men after seeing unredacted filesRo Khanna, the US congressman, publicly revealed the names of six men whose identities were redacted from the Jeffrey Epstein files, including Leslie Wexner, a billionaire retail magnate, whom the FBI appeared to have labeled as a co-conspirator.Four of the six men had no connection to Epstein whatsoever and were simply part of a photo lineup assembled by law enforcement, according to reporting from the Guardian. Two of the men who spoke to the Guardian strongly denied knowing Epstein and said they had been arrested by NYPD for unrelated crimes in the past, which likely explains how their photos ended up in the array. Continue reading… More

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      House passes Save America Act, Trump-backed bill to impose new voting rules

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      Bill that requires proof of citizenship and would limit mail-in voting passes 218-213 but faces uphill battle in SenateThe House on Wednesday passed the Save America Act, which would dramatically change voting regulations by requiring proof of citizenship at voter registration and significantly curtail mail-in voting.The legislation, which passed 218 to 213, faces an uphill battle in the Senate, close observers say. Continue reading… More