The US House member says president’s rhetoric about her and Somali Americans could have dangerous consequences

US congresswoman Ilhan Omar has warned that Donald Trump’s repeated personal attacks and dehumanising rhetoric are fuelling a climate of political violence that could have dangerous consequences.

Speaking days after the president called for her to be thrown out of the country, Omar said Trump’s incendiary language reaches “the worst humans possible” and encourages them to act.

The former first lady paid tribute on Jimmy Kimmel Live to ‘some of the most decent, courageous people you ever want to know’ as Jerry Seinfeld also writes of debt to Reiner
• Reiner changed Hollywood for ever

Michelle Obama said that she and her husband Barack were due to meet Rob and Michele Reiner the same day that the couple were found dead.

Obama was speaking on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Monday and told Kimmel: “We were supposed to be seeing them that night – last night.” Obama did not clarify what their plans had been, but the Reiners are known to have attended a Christmas party hosted by comedian Conan O’Brien on Saturday along with their son Nick, who has been arrested on suspicion of murder.

The Zen-like US representative from Minnesota has had the highest level of death threats of any congressperson because of the president’s attacks

“That’s Teddy,” said Tim Mynett, husband of the US representative Ilhan Omar, as their five-year-old labrador retriever capered around her office on Capitol Hill. “If you make too much eye contact, he’ll lose it. He’s my best friend – and he’s our security detail these days.”

The couple were sitting on black leather furniture around a coffee table. Apart from a sneezing fit that took her husband by surprise, Omar had an unusual Zen-like calm for someone who receives frequent death threats and is the subject of a vendetta from the most powerful man in the world.

Region struggling with drought now threatened by energy-hungry facilities – but some residents are fighting back

The sign outside Tom Hermes’s farmyard in Perkins Township in Ohio, a short drive south of the shores of Lake Erie, proudly claims that his family have farmed the land here since 1900. Today, he raises 130 head of cattle and grows corn, wheat, grass and soybeans on 1,200 acres of land.

For his family, his animals and wider business, water is life.

US says talks with Ukraine in Berlin have resolved 90% of difficult issues – but no sign Putin willing to compromise

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said proposals negotiated with US officials on a peace deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine could be soon finalised, after which American envoys will present them to the Kremlin.

After two days of talks in Berlin, US officials said on Monday they had resolved “90%” of the problematic issues between Russia and Ukraine, but despite the positive spin it is not clear that an end to the war is any closer, particularly as the Russian side is absent from the current talks.

Mia Tretta has advocated for gun-violence prevention since being shot as a high school student in California in 2019

As federal and local authorities in Providence, Rhode Island, continue searching for the person who killed two Brown University students and injured nine others on Saturday, campus members and the broader community are grieving and dealing with a shattered sense of safety.

But for 21-year-old Brown University junior Mia Tretta, it’s familiar territory.

I am in awe of the children and their parents as they live through raids. How can you call an operation targeted when it blankets a city in fear?

There is snow on the ground, but for some Chicago families, this is a moment of unfreezing. ICE is still out there, but Commander Gregory Bovino and his strike force have moved on. After months, Operation Midway Blitz has quieted.

In places like the elementary school where I am principal, some parents who were hiding are poking their heads out doors. Children holding their breath since September are beginning to exhale.

Michaela’s husband is away 14 hours a day amid Trump’s ban on remote work, the threat of layoffs is ever-present and their health premiums are set to multiply

Michaela felt a sharp pain shoot from her hip while she bent over to water some plants in early May 2025. Then she fell over and couldn’t get back up.

Her husband called an ambulance and she spent the night in a hospital, where, at 57, she found out she had a mass on her spine. It was metastatic breast cancer.

The president continues to preach austerity and hate to people struggling to make ends meet. No wonder voters are turning on him

Trump gave what was billed as a “Christmas speech” in rural Pennsylvania this past week that began with his “wishing each and everyone one of you a very merry Christmas, happy New Year, all of that stuff” and boasting that now, under his presidency: “Everybody’s saying ‘merry Christmas’ again.”

He then claimed – contrary to the experience of nearly everyone in the crowd – that he had gotten them “lower prices” and “bigger paychecks”. He also asserted that anyone having difficulty making ends meet should just cut back on buying stuff. “You can give up certain products. You can give up pencils … Every child can get 37 pencils. They only need one or two,” he said, adding: “You don’t need 37 dolls for your daughter. Two or three is nice. You don’t need 37 dolls.”

Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist and his newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com. His new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, is out now

President claims broadcaster ‘intentionally, maliciously and deceptively’ edited 6 January speech before Capitol attack

The BBC has vowed to defend itself against the $10bn lawsuit that the US president, Donald Trump filed against it.

In a complaint filed on Monday evening, Trump sought $5bn in damages each on two counts, alleging that the BBC defamed him, and that it violated Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.

Flight logs reveal three British women onboard who were allegedly trafficked by convicted sex offender, according to BBC

Nearly 90 flights linked to Jeffrey Epstein reportedly arrived at and departed from UK airports, some with British women onboard who allege they were abused by the convicted child sex offender.

Analysis by the BBC found three British women who were allegedly trafficked appear in Epstein’s records of flights in and out of the UK and other documents related to the late disgraced billionaire.

Dr Susan Monarez to head PHNIX, a response to Trump administration’s dismantling of public health safeguards

Gavin Newsom, the California governor, announced the appointment of two prominent scientists who left the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in recent months over conflicts with the Trump administration to state positions.

Dr Susan Monarez, the former director of the CDC, will lead California’s new public health initiative, the Public Health Network Innovation Exchange (PHNIX).

First new treatments for sexually transmitted disease in decades approved by US Food and Drug Administration as number of cases worldwide surge to 82m

The first new treatments for gonorrhoea in decades could be a “huge turning point” in efforts to combat the rise of superbug strains of the bacteria, researchers have said.

Gonorrhoea is on the rise around the world, with more than 82m infections globally each year and particularly high rates in Africa and countries in the World Health Organization’s Western Pacific region, which reaches from Mongolia and China to New Zealand. Cases in England are at a record high, and rates in Europe were three times higher in 2023 than in 2014.

US Southern Command says boats were ‘engaged in narco-trafficking’

The US military has launched a fresh round of deadly strikes on foreign vessels suspected of trafficking narcotics, killing eight people.

The US Southern Command posted footage of the strikes on social media on Monday, announcing it had hit three vessels in international waters.

President accuses corporation of ‘intentionally, maliciously and deceptively’ editing speech in Panorama broadcast

Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against the BBC over its editing of a speech he made to supporters in Washington before they stormed the US Capitol in 2021, requesting up to $10bn in damages.

The US president alleged the broadcaster “intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively” edited his 6 January speech before the insurrection, in an episode of Panorama just over a year ago.

Tension mixes with grief and frustration at Brown University in Rhode Island as police search for suspect

• What we know so far about the attack in Providence, Rhode Island

Tension mixed with grief and frustration in Providence on Monday around the Brown University campus, after authorities said they were still searching for a suspect who killed two students.

Nine additional students were injured in Saturday’s shooting on the Ivy League campus in Rhode Island, which is woven into the heart of the city’s East Side neighborhood, a community that to many feels more like a small town than the capital city of the smallest state in the US.

Startup valuation, likely to go public at $800bn, will bolster Musk’s wealth to an estimated $677bn, according to Forbes

Elon Musk on Monday became the first person ever worth $600bn, according to Forbes. The news comes on the heels of reports that his SpaceX startup was likely to go public at a valuation of $800bn.

Musk, who was the first to surpass $500bn in net worth in October, owns an estimated 42% stake in SpaceX, which is preparing to go public next year. No other person has hit the $500bn mark.