Trump accuses Tim Walz and Ilhan Omar of using ICE protests to distract from massive state fraud





© Saher Alghorra for The New York Times

Five exchange-traded funds have been launched by Trump Media, owner of the president’s social media platform Truth Social
The word “Truth” was plastered all around the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday morning. At 9.30am, when the market opened, a small crowd stood on the balcony above the trading floor to ring in the day.
The group was celebrating the launch of five exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, that are tied to Truth Social, Donald Trump’s social media platform that has spun into a menagerie of products over the last few years.
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© Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP

© Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP

© Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP

Demonstrations against the Iraq war proved protest works. Now we must halt destruction before it more powerfully starts
In spring 2004, Gen Anthony Zinni uttered about Iraq the dreaded words in US politics: “I spent two years in Vietnam, and I’ve seen this movie before.” A year after George W Bush’s declaration of “mission accomplished” – when the war had hit its peak popularity at 74% – the invasion had descended into quagmire, marked by a raging insurgency, the Abu Ghraib torture scandal and US casualties nearing 1,000. For the first time, a majority of Americans judged the war a “mistake”. In this, they echoed what millions of Americans, predicting fiasco, had been saying since before its start.
By the summer of 2005, with Iraq exploding in civil war, public support further eroded. Vietnam comparisons abounded. Running against the war, Democrats had blowout wins in the 2006 midterms. The new Congress empaneled the bipartisan Iraq study group, which concluded that the war had to end. Its fate was sealed by the election of Barack Obama, who made good on his pledge to withdraw US troops (though US forces later returned to take on the Islamic State).
Jeremy Varon is the author of Our Grief Is Not a Cry for War: The Movement to Stop the War on Terror (University of Chicago Press, 2025)
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© Photograph: Shawn Baldwin/AP

© Photograph: Shawn Baldwin/AP

© Photograph: Shawn Baldwin/AP
Mid-level and senior officials uncomfortable with award
Fifa says it still ‘strongly’ supports the peace prize
There is a growing sense of embarrassment among mid-level and senior officials within Fifa over the awarding of its peace prize to Donald Trump. The US president was handed the award at the World Cup draw in Washington DC in December with the Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, telling Trump: “We want to see hope, we want to see unity, we want to see a future. This is what we want to see from a leader and you definitely deserve the first Fifa Peace Prize.”
Since then, the US has launched airstrikes across Venezuela and captured the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, and flown them to the US, where he was put in jail. Maduro appeared in court on 5 January, pleading not guilty to drugs, weapons and “narco-terrorism” charges. Trump has also threatened to invade Greenland because he said the US needs the territory “very badly”.
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© Photograph: Chris Carlson/AP

© Photograph: Chris Carlson/AP

© Photograph: Chris Carlson/AP
Elissa Slotkin, under investigation over Pentagon video, says president using ‘well-worn playbook’ to silence debate
Donald Trump is borrowing a strategy from authoritarian regimes to intimidate potential critics and discourage them from speaking out, according to a senator under investigation by his administration.
Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat from Michigan, faces questioning after she organised and appeared in a video with other Democrats imploring military service members to refuse “illegal orders”. Fellow senator Mark Kelly and three Democrats from the House of Representatives are also being investigated.
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© Photograph: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images

© Photograph: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images

© Photograph: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images


© Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times

© Taiwo Aina for The New York Times
Vice-president has emerged as key defender of Maga flame – and is backed by big tech billions. Is this the heir apparent?
“We did not have a lot of money,” said JD Vance, placing hand on heart as he recalled his childhood in Middletown, Ohio in the 1990s. “I was raised by a woman who struggled often to put food on the table and clothes on her back.”
There was an earnest cry from the audience. “Mamaw!” shouted a man.
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© Composite: The Guardian/Getty Images

© Composite: The Guardian/Getty Images

© Composite: The Guardian/Getty Images
The leaders of Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK issue joint statement ahead of EU ambassadors meeting
The United States will also suffer if president Donald Trump implements threats to impose tariffs on European countries opposing his plans to acquire Greenland, a French minister said on Sunday.
“In this escalation of tariffs, he has a lot to lose as well, as do his own farmers and industrialists,” French agriculture minister Annie Genevard told broadcasters Europe 1 and CNews.
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© Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

© Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

© Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Independent media, civil society, the rule of law – these are the things that Iranians truly need. And there are ways for the west to help secure them
Soon after becoming president in 2017, Donald Trump ordered an attack on an Islamic State (IS) underground complex in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province. The strike involved the first-ever use in combat of a GBU-43 massive ordnance air blast (Moab) “bunker buster” bomb – the US’s most powerful conventional weapon. The bombing killed about 90 insurgents but failed to crush IS. It also made zero long-term difference to the US’s losing battle with the Taliban.
Yet that was not the point. Inexperienced Trump, who had famously avoided military service, was keen to show he was in charge, a commander-in-chief unafraid to make tough calls and send troops into harm’s way. He craved a big bang – a spectacular demonstration of unmatched US power. Like a teenager who unexpectedly obtains the keys to the family gun cabinet, he could not resist the temptation to play with all those shiny new Pentagon weapons.
Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator
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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Donald Trump will lead the largest US delegation ever at the World Economic Forum, as others plan a fightback against his policies including his latest tariff threats
“A Spirit of Dialogue”: the theme for this year’s World Economic Forum, the gathering of the global elite in the sparkling Alpine air of Davos, seems a heroic stretch, when star guest Donald Trump has spent the past year smashing up the world order.
The president will touch down alongside the snowcapped Swiss mountains with the largest US delegation ever seen at the WEF, including the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, the commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, and the special envoy Steve Witkoff.
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© Composite: Artwork by Alex Mellon and Guardian Design. Source Photographs by Getty Images

© Composite: Artwork by Alex Mellon and Guardian Design. Source Photographs by Getty Images

© Composite: Artwork by Alex Mellon and Guardian Design. Source Photographs by Getty Images
Many believed a US president would – for the first time – rescue them but now people can only despair after mass arrests and brutality
When Donald Trump, said he would “rescue” protesters if Iranian authorities started shooting, Siavash Shirzad believed the US president.
The 38-year-old father had seen protests rise up before, only to be brutally crushed by authorities.
But this was the first time in his life that the president of the United States had promised to help demonstrators. Reassured, Shirzad took to the streets, ignoring his family’s warnings and joining the growing crowds.

© Photograph: Nicola Marfisi/Agf/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Nicola Marfisi/Agf/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Nicola Marfisi/Agf/Shutterstock
Prime minister and opposition politicians condemn threat to impose 10% tariff unless deal reached to buy the Arctic island
Keir Starmer has said Donald Trump’s decision to impose 10% tariffs on the UK and seven other European countries over Greenland was “completely wrong”.
The US president said on Saturday that the levies would apply from 1 February to Nato members – including the UK, France and Germany – who have deployed troops to the territory in response to growing uncertainty over its future.
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© Photograph: Leon Neal/Reuters

© Photograph: Leon Neal/Reuters

© Photograph: Leon Neal/Reuters

© Eric Lee for The New York Times

© Saher Alghorra for The New York Times