The Trump administration’s immigration policies hearken back to the racist 1924 Immigration Act, meant to whiten the US
On 14 January, the Trump administration announced a stop on issuing immigrant visas for applicants from 75 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as 10 countries from eastern Europe. The Department of Homeland Security justified the decision by claiming that immigrants from these countries are at “high risk” of reliance on welfare and becoming a “public charge”.
As an immigration scholar, I was immediately struck by the falsehood of this economic justification. The vast majority of immigrants have been legally disqualified from cash welfare since 1996. Those who do qualify for benefits like Snap and Medicaid use them at much lower rates than non-immigrants. Through their taxes, immigrants are net contributors – especially undocumented immigrants who are excluded from federal benefits.
Despite injuries, walkers and pet dog continue trek to promote ‘peace, loving kindness and compassion’ in the US
A group of Buddhist monks has passed the halfway mark on a 2,300-mile Walk for Peace, as they seek to raise awareness of “peace, loving kindness and compassion” in the US and the world.
The 18 monks, two of whom are following a Buddhist practice of never lying down during the three-month journey, were in North Carolina on Saturday, their 83rd day on the road. Led by the Venerable Bhikkhu Paññākāra, who is conducting the walk barefoot, they have already overcome a serious injury to one member of the group as they head towards Washington DC.
Focusing on the ex-president won’t distract Americans from the Trump administration’s foot-dragging on the Epstein files
I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that, somewhere in a makeshift situation room in Mar-a-Lago, there’s a whiteboard with “very high IQ strategies to distract everyone from Jeffrey Epstein” written on the top.
We asked some of those who have family in Iran to tell us their views on the current crisis
Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s former shah, has called on the west to help unseat Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader.
Speaking on Friday at a news conference in Washington, Pahlavi said: “The Iranian people are taking decisive action on the ground. It is now time for the international community to join them fully.”
Kaden Rummler and Britain Rodriguez tell KTLA and LA Times of being shot at close range during California protest
Two protesters have been blinded by so-called “less-lethal” munitions deployed by federal officers during an anti-ICE protest last week in Santa Ana, California, according to reports.
The blindings come amid rising scrutiny of federal authorities’ use-of-force policies, after the fatal shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer set off nationwide protests.
‘Hands off Greenland’ rallies have been organised in Copenhagen, Aarhus, Aalborg, Odense and Nuuk
What do people in Greenland think of Donald Trump and his threats to take over the island? The Guardian’s Miranda Bryant and Lauren Hurrell take a look.
Reuters estimated that thousands of protesters attended the “Hands Off Greenland” rallies around Denmark on Saturday, chanting “Greenland is not for sale” and waving Greenland’s red and white “Erfalasorput” flag.
Strong media presence in Minneapolis has ensured Renee Good’s shooting, and its fallout, has received wide coverage
After a federal immigration agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with grisly videos quickly going viral on social media, news organizations from around the state, country and world dispatched correspondents and anchors to the scene.
In the days since, that media presence has ebbed and flowed – though a well-resourced local news corps and many national journalists have remained, including reporters for the Guardian, covering additional clashes between police and protesters.
Mark Davis, running in Florida, says he bought domain because Republican party had gone ‘full fascist’
A Florida congressional candidate says he bought the online domain nazis.us and set it up to redirect visitors to the US Department of Homeland Security, under whom federal agents have been carrying out brutal immigration crackdowns at the behest of the Trump administration.
Mark Davis, who is running for Republican Vern Buchanan’s seat in November’s midterms, took responsibility for the ploy in a Friday X post – as polling showed most Americans believe the killing of Minneapolis woman Renee Nicole Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent demonstrated problems with the way ICE has been operating.
In historic speech to mark UN’s 80th anniversary, secretary general makes impassioned plea for multilateralism and international law amid drastic US funding cuts
The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, will warn on Saturday of the peril posed by “powerful forces lining up to undermine global cooperation” in an address to mark the 80th anniversary of the UN’s first major meeting.
Speaking in London’s Methodist Central Hall – the site where eight decades earlier delegates from 51 countries came together for the inaugural session of the general assembly – the UN head will make an impassioned plea for the virtues of multilateralism and international law to prevail during a period of deepening global uncertainty.
Artemis II mission could launch on 6 February, sending astronauts on a 685,000-mile journey
Nasa is preparing to roll out its most powerful rocket yet before a mission to send astronauts around the moon and back again for the first time in more than 50 years.
The Artemis II mission is scheduled to launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida as early as 6 February, taking its crew on a 685,000-mile round trip that will end about 10 days later with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
Colvin, who died this week, made a stand on an Alabama bus nine months before Rosa Parks. When we met, her message about the struggle was clear
“In life, there’s the beginning and the end,” John Carlos, the African American sprinter who raised his fist in a black power salute from the podium of the 1968 Olympics, once told me. “The beginning don’t matter. The end don’t matter. All that matters is what you do in between – whether you’re prepared to do what it takes to make change. There has to be physical and material sacrifice. When all the dust settles and we’re getting ready to play down for the ninth inning, the greatest reward is to know that you did your job when you were here on the planet.”
Claudette Colvin, who died earlier this week in a hospice in Texas, did her job while she was here on the planet, although it was several decades before her physical and material sacrifice was acknowledged. On 2 March 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, aged just 15, Colvin took a stand and refused to give up her bus seat to a white woman.
Gary Younge is a professor of sociology at the University of Manchester
Parts suppliers ‘put production on hold’ amid mounting confusion as China restricts purchase of the chips and US puts 25% roundabout tariff on their sale
Suppliers of parts for Nvidia’s H200 have paused production after Chinese customs officials blocked shipments of the newly approved artificial intelligence processors from entering China, according to a report.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report, which appeared in the Financial Times citing two people with knowledge of the matter. Nvidia did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment made outside regular business hours.
PM’s visit to Beijing seen as a welcome reset to relations in a ‘new world order’ but critics worry what trade deal could mean for Canadian workers
Mark Carney’s trip to Beijing this week secured what he described as a “preliminary but landmark” trade deal and a recognition – welcomed by Beijing – that countries are operating in a “new world order”.
Carney’s visit is the first time in nearly a decade that a Canadian prime minister has been welcomed in Beijing. It comes after years of a deep freeze in the relationship between Ottawa and Beijing that Carney wants to thaw, in order to reduce his country’s precarious reliance on the United States.
Governor Tim Walz says ‘weaponizing the justice system is an authoritarian tactic’ as he and Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey reportedly will be subpoenaed
The US justice department is investigating Minnesota’s political leaders for allegedly conspiring to obstruct the Trump administration’s controversial immigration crackdown there, according to multiple reports.
The investigation, which CBS News first reported, marks an extraordinary use of federal power to challenge two of the crackdown’s most vocal Democratic critics, including the state’s governor, Tim Walz, and the mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey.
White House says seven-strong board, chaired by Trump, will steer Gaza through next phase of reconstruction
Donald Trump has appointed the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and former British prime minister Tony Blair to a newly created Gaza “board of peace”, a body he claims will steer the next phase of reconstruction and governance in the war-ravaged territory.
The White House said the seven-strong “founding executive board” will also include Trump’s special envoy, the property developer Steve Witkoff; the World Bank president, Ajay Banga; and the president’s son-in-law and long-time adviser Jared Kushner. Trump himself will serve as chair, with further appointments expected in the coming weeks.
Taking drug in pregnancy does not raise chances of autism, ADHD or intellectual disability, ‘gold standard’ review finds
Taking paracetamol in pregnancy does not increase the chance that the child will be autistic, or have ADHD or an intellectual disability, a “gold standard” review of the evidence has found.
The findings debunk Donald Trump’s claims last September that the painkiller causes autism, which were condemned by medical, women’s health and scientific organisations around the world.
Grand jury in Ohio charged Michael David McKee, 39, with aggravated murder and burglary for fatal shootings
An Ohio grand jury has indicted an Illinois surgeon in the double homicide of his ex-wife and her dentist husband, who were killed in their Columbus home in December in a case that initially generated nationwide mystery.
Court records show a Franklin county grand jury charged Michael David McKee on 16 January with aggravated murder and aggravated burglary while using a firearm suppressor.
Wanda Vázquez Garced, who accepted plea deal over campaign finance violation, endorsed Trump in 2020
Donald Trump reportedly intends to pardon Puerto Rico’s former governor Wanda Vázquez Garced, who was indicted in 2022 on federal corruption charges surrounding her earlier gubernatorial campaign.
In addition to Vázquez, Trump plans to pardon her co-defendants including Julio Martín Herrera Velutini, founder of Britannia Financial Group; as well as Mark Rossini, a former FBI agent who served as a consultant for Herrera, according to CBS, which first reported the development on Friday.
Astrid Tuminez will step down as Utah Valley University president in May as school still reckons with Kirk’s murder
Astrid Tuminez, Utah Valley University’s seventh president, will step down at the end of the semester. She announced the decision on Wednesday during a State of the University address, speaking to a packed audience of students and faculty.
Tuminez, 61, said in an interview that the decision to step down had been building for some time. “There’s never a good time,” she said. “I love UVU so much.” The choice, she explained, came with a mix of grief and relief. “It is a swirl of emotion. I am heartbroken on one hand, but also happy and excited on the other, because life has its rhythms.
Ads to be placed alongside answers as OpenAI looks to beef up revenue for flagship AI product
ChatGPT will start including advertisements beside answers for US users as OpenAI seeks a new revenue stream.
The ads will be tested first in ChatGPT for US users only, the company announced on Friday, after increasing speculation that the San Francisco firm would turn to a potential cashflow model on top of its current subscriptions.
The US president wants Americans to believe they are facing an emergency. The real danger is from his administration
In Minnesota, armed and masked agents are ripping families apart. They are seizing parents while they wait with their child at a bus stop, going door to door seeking undocumented migrants and breaking car windows to drag people out. Last Wednesday an officer shot dead Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old American citizen. Her killing is a tragedy for all who loved her, and most of all for the three children left motherless. It also marks her country’s crossing of a Rubicon.
Where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) once preferred to keep a low profile, it now seeks publicity and confrontation – pumped up on billions of dollars in funding, the aggression and brazenness of the administration and the licensing of bigotry.
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
Connexion
