US news
Subterms
More stories
- in US Politics
Some experts say the new US dietary guidelines have ‘conflicting messaging’. Here’s who will be affected most
It will take years for changes to take effect, but children who eat school meals and seniors served by Meals on Wheels will feel the DGA ripple effectsMost Americans ignore the country’s dietary guidelines, but millions will be directly affected by upcoming changes to these recommendations.On 6 January, after months of proclamations about seismic improvements to the country’s dietary recommendations, the US Department of Health and Human Services and the US Department of Agriculture released those updated Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA). This document – once visually presented to millennial schoolchildren as a food pyramid and to today’s zoomers and gen Alpha as a segmented lunch plate – synthesizes the latest nutritional research and offers revamped eating advice every five years. Continue reading… More
- in Elections
Tulsi Gabbard running solo 2020 election inquiry separate from FBI investigation
Exclusive: Trump endorsed national intelligence director’s sweeping review by sending her on Georgia raid last weekTulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, is running her own review into the 2020 election with Donald Trump’s approval, working separately from a justice department investigation even as she joined an FBI raid of an election center in Georgia last week.Her presence at the raid drew criticism from Democrats and former intelligence officials, who questioned why the country’s top intelligence officer with no domestic law enforcement powers would appear at the scene of an FBI raid. Continue reading… More
- in US Politics
The criminalizing of protest and dissent has a long history in America
Trump administration is accusing protesters of ‘domestic terrorism’ but this brazen tactic is as old as the country itselfWhen federal immigration agents shot and killed ICU nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on 23 January, the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, wasted no time claiming to the press, without credible evidence, that Pretti had been engaged in “domestic terrorism”. Though the administration seems to be trying to soften that initial response after fierce backlash, it’s an accusation that members of the Trump administration have been leveling at wide swaths of people beyond Pretti – including Renee Nicole Good, another Minnesotan killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents two and a half weeks prior, and Marimar Martinez, who survived being shot by ICE agents in Chicago in October – as part of an ongoing strategy to criminalize dissent.It’s a claim ICE agents themselves have started to make directly in confrontations with citizens, seemingly to try and intimidate legal observers, sometimes known as ICE watchers. In one recent video from Portland, Maine, an ICE officer told an observer to stop recording him on her phone, and when she wouldn’t, he took her information down and said: “We have a nice little database … and now you’re considered a domestic terrorist.” Continue reading… More
- in US Politics
Here’s why US household energy bills are soaring – and how to fix it | Mark Wolfe
Trump has prioritized fossil fuel companies over consumers, hitting the lowest-income families hardestDonald Trump promised to cut energy prices by 50%. Instead, average electricity prices over the past year have risen by about 6.7%, while natural gas prices have increased by 10.8%. Energy prices are influenced by many factors beyond any president’s direct control, including market conditions, weather-driven demand, regional infrastructure constraints and the rapid growth of energy-intensive datacenters that are driving new system costs. Policy choices do not determine prices on their own, but they do shape market outcomes, and the direction of this administration’s energy policy has been clear.From his first days in office, President Trump made clear that his energy agenda would prioritize fossil fuel producers over consumers. His administration moved to expand US liquefied natural gas exports, increasing exposure to volatile global markets. At the same time, it froze wind power projects that provide some of the cheapest new electricity, intervened to keep costly coal plants running, and backed the elimination of energy-efficiency tax credits that lower household energy bills.Mark Wolfe is executive director of National Energy Assistance Directors Association, co-director of the Center on Energy Poverty and Climate and adjunct faculty at the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy at George Washington University Continue reading… More
- in US Politics
Never forget Epstein’s little helpers – the powerful men who knew about his crimes, and helped him out anyway | Marina Hyde
I’m sorry, but this is not just a political scandal. Time to refocus on the horrific mistreatment of women and girls, and the role of these ghoulsLike a lot of women, I do vaguely care about the latest political implosion of Peter Mandelson – but I think we’re all massively more obsessed with the fact that there really was a network of incredibly famous and powerful men trying to help a known ex-con minimise and wave away his underage sex crimes. Amirite, ladies? Sure, I’m crying my eyes out about some Gordon Brown adviser having his asset-sale memo forwarded in 2009 … but at the same time I’m a whole lot more concerned about the actual Sex Bilderberg. Which, even now, our eyes seem to keep being conveniently dragged away from. Can we refocus?We are, naturally, talking about the Jeffrey Epstein files. Since the latest lot dropped, I’ve been collating the emails from extremely famous men who actively sought to help the since-deceased underage sex trafficker trivialise his crimes in the years after his jail release in 2009. Richard Branson, Noam Chomsky, Steve Bannon, Mandelson, Andrew (obviously) – all of these men offer strategic advice, or media training, or chummy solidarity. Or, in the case of Chomsky, all of the above plus a drive-by on the notion of female victimhood. According to text signed under his first name that Epstein sent to a lawyer and publicist in February 2019, months after the Miami Herald had run an explosive series of articles laying out the scale of Epstein’s serial underage sexual abuse and the perversion of justice that covered it up, Chomsky sneered at “the hysteria that has developed about abuse of women”. Wow. Never mind Manufacturing Consent – have a read of Not Giving A Shit About Consent. I thought Chomsky cared about power and exploitative elites? Still, nice photo of him laughing it up with Steve Bannon. Continue reading… More
- in US Politics
Judge blocks Trump administration plan to strip protected status for Haitians in US – as it happened
This live blog is now closed.Trump news at a glance: Trevor Noah’s Grammys joke hit a sour note for TrumpHouse speaker Mike Johnson is set to swear in Christian Menefee, a Democrat who recently won a runoff election for a reliably blue seat in Texas.Menefee’s victory, however, means the margin in the House is even more slim: 218 Republicans to 214 Democrats. His current term will end at the end of the year, and he’ll have to start campaigning almost immediately for the 2026 midterms. But this time, it will be for a new district, after the GOP-controlled legislature successfully gerrymandered the state’s congressional map. Continue reading… More
- in US Politics
Trump news at a glance: Trevor Noah’s Grammys joke hit a sour note for Trump
President threatens to sue comedian over joke about Epstein island – key US politics stories from Monday 2 February at a glanceSouth African comedian Trevor Noah told a joke as he hosted the Grammy awards on Sunday.The former Daily Show host said the song of the year award was “a Grammy that every artist wants – almost as much as Trump wants Greenland, which makes sense because Epstein’s island is gone, he needs a new one to hang out with Bill Clinton”. Continue reading… More
