The Guardian

US justice department’s website shows the disgraced former CEO petitioned Donald Trump over fraud conviction Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes has asked Donald Trump to commute her sentence after she was convicted of defrauding investors in her now-defunct blood-testing startup that was once valued at $9bn, a notice on the US Department of Justice website showed. The justice department’s office o…

Culture secretary says national institutions will receive £600m but they must extend influence outside London London-based museums need to ensure they reach every part of the country, according to Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, who on Wednesday announced a landmark £1.5bn funding package for the arts meant to restore national pride. National museums including the British Museum and the Nation…

Commons will now have to consider Tory-led amendment, which is likely to be supported by Labour MPs As a parent – and a Conservative – I know that banning social media for under-16s is the right thing to do The House of Lords has voted decisively for a ban on social media for under-16s in a move that puts pressure on Keir Starmer to bring in Australian-style restrictions. Peers voted by 261 to 15…

US president claims ‘framework’ of agreement in the works after ‘very productive’ meeting with Nato secretary general Donald Trump has walked back his threat to impose sweeping US tariffs on eight European countries, claiming he had agreed “the framework of a future deal” on Greenland . Four days after vowing to introduce steep import duties on a string of US allies over their support for Greenla…

Scale and speed of president’s moves have stunned observers of authoritarian regimes – is the US in democratic peril? Three hundred and sixty-five days after Donald Trump swore his oath of office and completed an extraordinary return to power, many historians, scholars and experts say his presidency has pushed American democracy to the brink – or beyond it. In the first year of Trump’s second ter…

Immigration enforcement has sent a surge of federal agents to the fishing state, with about 50 arrests so far The Trump administration has begun another targeted immigration crackdown, sending a surge of federal personnel to Maine, an ocean fishing state, in a plan dubbed by the government Operation Catch of the Day. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ( ICE ) is aiming the push at Somali immigra…

One offshore e-casino posted Instagram promotion featuring AO logo despite no affiliation with tournament Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Offshore gambling operators are using the Australian Open to promote their illegal services, sparking calls for sweeping bans on the unlicensed websites. Australian regulators and sporting professionals have expressed rising concern…

US president singles out Mark Carney day after prime minister warned world is undergoing geopolitical ‘rupture’ Donald Trump has said Canada should be “grateful” for the “freebies” it gets from the US, a day after its prime minister, Mark Carney , warned the world was undergoing a geopolitical “rupture”. Speaking those attending the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Switzerland, the US presi…

Analysts warn that Trump will probably demand more action from Mexico to counter drug-trafficking groups Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum has defended the latest transfer of 37 Mexican cartel operatives to the US as a “sovereign decision”, as her government strives to alleviate pressure from the Trump administration to do more against drug-trafficking groups. It was the third such flight in t…

Temperatures to climb to 40C in Melbourne and Adelaide. Follow updates live Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Australians to perform acts of kindness on national day of mourning for Bondi terror attack victims Thousands of Australians are expected to perform acts of kindness on Thursday to commemorate the victims of last month’s Bondi terror attack, as the Jewish tradit…

Opponents say proposal to end sick notes issued over phone would fill up doctors’ waiting rooms unnecessarily A German proposal to end the right to get short-term sick leave from a doctor over the telephone as a means of cracking down on skiving has met with outcry from labour groups and the medical profession. Germans enjoy some of the most generous employee illness policies in Europe, a fact th…

Brief encounter set off chain of events ending with a public rebuff to the US president from Keir Starmer When Kemi Badenoch met Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, on Monday evening, she pressed him on two issues: the Chagos Islands deal and North Sea oil drilling. Neither participant was part of their respective executive branch, and neither issue was at the ce…

Author discusses changes made to Lindsay Gordon novels from 80s and 90s to prepare for their rerelease The crime writer Val McDermid has revealed she was assigned a “sensitivity reader” to remove language that could cause offence from her earlier works. The Scottish author has sold more than 19m novels worldwide and is known for the authenticity of the dialogue in her work. Continue reading...

US president’s tirade against Somali Americans and insults to European leaders were of a piece with Miller’s worldview Donald Trump turned up in Davos wielding an insult bazooka. He mocked Emmanuel Macron’s aviator sunglasses , chided Mark Carney (“Canada lives because of the United States”), asserted that the Swiss are “only good because of us” and had a dig at Denmark for losing Greenland “in s…

US military says it has transported ‘IS fighters’ to Iraq after Kurdish-controlled prisons and camps changed hands Concerned western officials said they were closely monitoring the deteriorating security situation in north-east Syria amid fears that Islamic State militants could re-emerge after the Kurdish defeat at the hands of the Damascus government. The US military said it had transported “15…