New details are continuing to emerge in the case of Nancy Guthrie, the mother of anchor Savannah Guthrie. Officials confirmed on Thursday that the blood found at the 84-year-old’s home was hers.
My colleagues Marina Dunbar and Sara Braun report that law enforcement chiefs in Arizona on Thursday confirmed that they found blood belonging to Nancy Guthrie, the mother of the TV anchor Savannah Guthrie, on the 84-year-old’s porch after she was reported missing from home at the weekend.
The sheriff of Pima county, Chris Nanos, said during a press conference authorities do not yet have a suspect in the apparent kidnapping.
But they believe Nancy Guthrie is “still out there” and their protocol in such a situation is to assume she is alive until there is any information otherwise “and we’re going to continue thinking that way until we find her”, Nanos said.
You can read the full report here:
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Here's a recap of the day so far
Karoline Leavitt doubled down on Donald Trump’s earlier defense of Tulsi Gabbard’s role in an FBI raid of an election center in Georgia. Earlier today, Trump said that Gabbard – the director of national intelligence – went at the urging of attorney general Pam Bondi. At today’s White House briefing, Leavitt said that it is a part of Gabbard’s role “to make sure that American elections are free of foreign interference, and that American elections are safe and secure”.
The White house also said today that the administration is willing to discuss “some” of the items on the list of demands by congressional Democrats as negotiations on a full year funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) continue. Leavitt said that some of the demands “don’t seem like they are grounded in any common sense, and they are non starters for this administration,” without elaborating on specifics.
The Trump administration moved Thursday to issue a rule that would make it easier to fire tens of thousands of federal workers. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) said it was reclassifying certain career civil service roles so agencies can “quickly remove employees from critical positions who engage in misconduct, perform poorly, or obstruct the democratic process by intentionally subverting Presidential directives”. The reclassification could also allow the administration to remove employees it views as disloyal.
The Pima county sheriff said that local authorities believe Nancy Guthrie, the mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie, is “still out there”. “We just want her home and find a way to get to the bottom of this,” sheriff Chris Nanos said, after the 84-year-old went missing almost five days ago.
Treasury secretary Scott Bessent has said that further US sanctions against Russia depend on talks aimed at ending its nearly four-year-old war in Ukraine. Bessent, who participated in talks with Russian officials and Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner in Miami on 31 January, said he would consider sanctions against Russia’s shadow fleet.
Meanwhile, Ukraine and Russia concluded a second day of US-led talks in Abu Dhabi on Thursday without a breakthrough towards ending Europe’s most deadly conflict since the second world war. The two sides agreed to a reciprocal exchange of 157 prisoners of war each, offering a rare concrete outcome from the discussions. But Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s special envoy involved in the talks, cautioned that “significant work remains” in the weeks ahead.
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Kamala Harris relaunches campaign social media account as progressive news hub
Brat summer faded long ago. But on Thursday, Kamala Harris relaunched her @KamalaHQ account on social media as “Headquarters”. She kept the green aesthetic that had saturated the strange, disorienting months after Harris stepped into the race to take on Donald Trump.
The rebranded “Headquarters” is a partnership between the former vice president and the liberal advocacy group, People for the American Way, that aims to be an organizing hub for Gen Z.
“Conservatives build permanent organizing infrastructure,” the press release states. “Progressives have historically built machines that dismantle after Election Day. Headquarters is the end of that cycle.”
In a video launched on the account, Harris describes Headquarters as a place “where you can go online to get the latest of what’s going on, and also to meet and revisit with some of our great and courageous leaders – be they elected leaders, community leaders, civic leaders, faith leaders, young leaders”.
Taking on her first official role since leaving the White House last year, Harris will serve as the chair emerita of Headquarters, and will be joined by many of her former campaign staff.
Encouraging young people to stay engaged in politics despite their disillusionment with the state of the world and the status quo has been a major focus of Harri’s post-vice presidency. In her public remarks, she has encouraged young people to “stay in the fight”.
Last summer, Harris declined to run for governor, but has left the door open to another presidential run.
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Leavitt brushed off a question in the briefing room today about Steve Bannon’s comments that federal immigration agents will be present at election sites in the upcoming midterms. “You’re damn right we’re gonna have ICE surround the polls come November,” Bannon said on his War Room show on Tuesday.
In response, the White House press secretary said that she “can’t guarantee that an ICE agent won’t be around a polling location in November”.
“I mean, that’s frankly a very silly hypothetical question,” she added. “What I can tell you is I haven’t heard the president discuss any formal plans to put ICE outside of polling locations. It’s a disingenuous question.”
In today’s briefing, Leavitt said that the “softer touch” that Donald Trump referred to in his interview with NBC News on Thursday was increased cooperation between local and federal law enforcement.
“If the states in the local governments just turn over their illegal aliens to ICE at jails, as they should be doing, it requires one agent to deport that one illegal alien, who can then go on their way to their home country in a peaceful manner,” Leavitt said. “The escalation that we’ve seen take place in Minnesota is a direct result of the refusal of state and local officials to cooperate with the federal government and with ICE.”
However, as we have reported, there is no federal law that requires county jails to coordinate with federal law enforcement. Some sheriffs throughout the state have signed agreements to work with ICE, but many limit working with federal immigration enforcement as it can undermine trust between local officials and immigrant communities.
What’s more, jails are unable, under state law, from holding someone past their scheduled release date – a request known as an “ICE detainer”. Prisons, operated by the Minnesota Department of Corrections, already facilitate transfers of those convicted of felonies to federal custody.
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White House continues to defend Gabbard's role in FBI raid of Georgia election office
Karoline Leavitt doubled down on Trump’s earlier defense of Tulsi Gabbard’s role in an FBI raid of an election center in Georgia. Earlier today, Trump said that Gabbard – the director of national intelligence – went at the urging of attorney general Pam Bondi.
At today’s briefing, Leavitt said that it is a part of Gabbard’s role “to make sure that American elections are free of foreign interference, and that American elections are safe and secure”.
As the Guardian reported, Trump’s remarks earlier marked a departure from remarks in an interview with NBC News on Wednesday. “I don’t know,” Trump said when asked why Gabbard was present. The Guardian has also reported that Gabbard is conducting her own review of the 2020 election through her office with Trump’s approval – working separately from the justice department investigation – and that she was sent to observe the raid as part of that effort.
Leavitt did not clarify whether the president directed Gabbard to go to Fulton County for the seizure of almost 700 boxes of 2020 election documentation.
“It’s the media who has said that there’s Russian interference in American elections. You guys have been saying that for many saying that for many, many years,” the press secretary said. “I don’t understand why anyone in this room, considering you’re all American citizens I believe, and like to vote in our nation’s elections, should have any problem with that whatsoever.”
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When asked about Donald Trump’s comments in an NBC News about the federal government’s role in elections.
“What the president is suggesting, and I just spoke to him about this, is that Republicans and Democrats in Congress should pass the SAVE America act,” Leavitt said of the legislation that requires prospective voters to provide proof of citizenship, like a birth certificate or passport, when registering to vote.
Leavitt says that some DHS funding demands from Democrats are 'non starters'
Leavitt said today that the administration is willing to discuss “some” of the items on the list of demands sent by the Senate’s top Democrat Chuck Schumer and the House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries. “Others don’t seem like they are grounded in any common sense, and they are non starters for this administration,” Leavitt said.
She didn’t elaborate on which aspects are off the table, but many Republican remembers of Congress have said that some of the key demands from Democrats, like asking federal immigration agents to not wear masks and the need for judicial warrants to conduct raids, are untenable.
Of note, Leavitt says that the president will announce the unveiling of TrumpRx at 7pm ET on Thursday. This will be a new website that helps Americans buy prescription drugs directly from manufacturers.
Karoline Leavitt holds White House press briefing
Karoline Leavitt kicked off today’s White House press briefing noting that she and Donald Trump were watching the press conference about the search for 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie, the mother of Today show anchor Savannah Guthrie. Leavitt described the situation as “heartbreaking” and noted that she spoke with the FBI directly about the ongoing investigation today.
More than 26,000 people without criminal records in ICE detention
My colleagues Will Craft and Andrew Witherspoon have collated the latest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) data, and report that there are more than 26,000 people with no criminal record in ICE detention. For context, this is up from 2,760 when Donald Trump returned to office last year.
You can read the full report here:
Arizona sheriff says Savannah Guthrie's mother is 'still out there' as search continues
Chris Nanos, the Pima county sheriff, said today that local authorities believe 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie, the mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie, is “still out there” following her disappearance almost five days ago. “We just want her home and find a way to get to the bottom of this,” Nanos said.
The FBI is now supporting Pima county authorities on the investigation, and Nanos added that officials did not yet have a suspect, when he addressed the press on Thursday. “We’re not there yet,” he said.
Donald Trump also said today that he had “productive” discussions with Keir Starmer regarding Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands, which he said was “of great importance to the National Security of the United States”.
Trump, who has previously called the UK PM’s Chagos deal “an act of great stupidity” and linked it to his own ambition to acquire Greenland, said today in a post on Truth Social that he understood it was “the best deal he [Starmer] could make”.
“However,” he went on, “if the lease deal, sometime in the future, ever falls apart, or anyone threatens or endangers U.S. operations and forces at our Base, I retain the right to Militarily secure and reinforce the American presence in Diego Garcia.”
Last week, Starmer said that US intelligence agencies disagreed with Trump’s newly found opposition to the deal, as he underlined how the US administration had supported the deal as it bolstered their defences.
Donald Trump has said that Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi had his “total endorsement” ahead of a legislative election in Japan on Sunday, adding that they would meet on 19 March at the White House.
“Prime Minister Takaichi is someone who deserves powerful recognition for the job she and her Coalition are doing,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
“Therefore, as President of the United States of America, it is my Honor to give a Complete and Total Endorsement of her, and what her highly respected Coalition is representing.”
Takaichi is widely expected to win in the snap election this Sunday.
Revealed: private jet owned by Trump friend used by ICE to deport Palestinians to West Bank
Harry Davies, Alice Speri and Sufian Taha
On the morning of 21 January, Israeli authorities left eight Palestinian men at a West Bank checkpoint. Disoriented and cold, they were dressed in prison-issued tracksuits and carried their few belongings in plastic bags.
Hours earlier, they had been sitting with their wrists and ankles shackled on the plush leather seats of a private jet owned by the Florida property tycoon Gil Dezer, a longtime business partner of Donald Trump.
Dezer is also a Trump donor, friend of Donald Trump Jr and member of the Miami branch of Friends of the Israel Defense Forces.
His sleek Gulfstream jet – which he has called “my little rocket ship” – was used to transport the men from an airport near a notorious removal centre in Arizona to Tel Aviv. The jet made three refuelling stops en route: in New Jersey, Ireland and Bulgaria.
A Guardian investigation has established the flight was part of a secretive and politically sensitive US government operation to deport Palestinians arrested by ICE to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
One of those deported on the January flight was Maher Awad, a 24-year-old originally from the West Bank, who had lived in the US for nearly a decade. Speaking to the Guardian in the town of Rammun, Maher shared photos of his girlfriend and newborn son in Michigan.
“They dropped us off like animals on the side of the road,” Awad said. “We went to a local house, we knocked on the door, we were like: ‘Please help us out.’”
You can read the full investigation here:
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US job openings dropped to a five-year low in December 2025, report shows
US job openings dropped to the lowest level in more than five years in December and data for the prior month was revised lower amid a softening in labor market conditions at the end of 2025.
Job openings, a measure of labor demand, decreased by 386,000 to 6.542m by the last day of December, the lowest level since September 2020, the labor department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics said in its Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report, today.
Data for November was revised down to show 6.928m job openings instead of the previously reported 7.146m. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 7.20m unfilled jobs. Hiring increased by 172,000 positions to a still-low 5.293m in December.
The data came as other numbers showed a larger-than-expected increase in Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits last week, but the underlying trend remained consistent with a stable labor market.
Here’s the full story:
Bessent says further Russian sanctions depend on peace talks
Treasury secretary Scott Bessent has said that further US sanctions against Russia depend on talks aimed at ending its nearly four-year-old war in Ukraine.
Bessent, who participated in talks with Russian officials and Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner in Miami on 31 January, said he would consider sanctions against Russia’s shadow fleet.
“We will see where the peace talks go,” Bessent said, noting that the Trump administration’s sanctions against Russian oil majors Rosneft and Lukoil had helped bring Russia to the negotiating table in the peace talks.
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Trump administration issues rule that makes it easier to fire federal workers
The Trump administration moved Thursday to issue a rule that would make it easier to fire tens of thousands of federal workers. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) said it was reclassifying certain career civil service roles so agencies can “quickly remove employees from critical positions who engage in misconduct, perform poorly, or obstruct the democratic process by intentionally subverting Presidential directives”.
Traditionally, only political appointees – roughly 4,000 positions – can be dismissed “at will”.
Under the new rule, many nonpartisan roles would be shifted into a category called “Schedule Policy/Career,” effectively treating them as political appointees. That reclassification could allow the administration to remove employees it views as disloyal. The rule – set to be published in the Federal Register on Friday – also states that “personal or political loyalty tests as a condition of employment” are prohibited.
Critics argue the change would open the door to politically motivated purges. “We have successfully fought this kind of power grab before, and we will fight this again. We will return to court to stop this unlawful rule and will use every legal tool available to hold this administration accountable to the people,” said Skye Perryman, CEO of Democracy Forward.
The largest union representing federal workers called the rule “a direct assault on a professional, nonpartisan, merit-based civil service.” In a statement, American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) president Everett Kelley said OPM is “rebranding career public servants as ‘policy’ employees, silencing whistleblowers, and replacing competent professionals with political flunkies without any neutral, independent protections against politicization and arbitrary abuse of power.”
Trump briefly enacted a similar change at the end of his first term through an executive order known as “Schedule F,” which Joe Biden rescinded upon taking office in 2021. Stripping civil service protections has also been a central plank of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 blueprint.
In a statement Thursday, anticipating the rule’s release, OPM director Scott Kupor said the reclassification would bring “much-needed accountability to career policy-influencing positions in the Federal government.”
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At least two cases of measles have been confirmed at a major immigration detention center for children and their parents in Texas as cases of the dangerous virus in South Carolina, Arizona, Utah and other US states continue growing and alarming experts.
In January alone, the US saw 25% of the total confirmed in all of last year, and the outbreak shows no sign of slowing as federal officials stay silent on vaccination.
The vast majority of patients are not vaccinated, but there have been no national campaigns announced or recent statements from leaders such as Robert F Kennedy Jr, secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Last year, Kennedy positioned measles vaccines as a personal choice and recommended unproven treatments for the highly contagious illness.
The measles outbreak is “frightening” and “very worrisome”, said Jason Bowling, professor of infectious diseases at UT Health San Antonio and director of hospital epidemiology at University Health.
“I unfortunately do not see this slowing down across the United States,” said Anna-Kathryn Burch, division director of pediatric infectious diseases at Prisma Health Children’s hospital in the Midlands in South Carolina. What’s happening in South Carolina could happen anywhere the vaccination rate dips too low, Burch said. “It’s not a matter of if, but more likely when.”
The Dilley family detention center in south Texas, one of two immigration facilities for children in the US, reported two measles cases on Friday. “We are aware of the cases and are assisting by providing doses of measles vaccine as requested by ICE,” said Chris Van Deusen, director of media relations at the Texas department of state health services, referring to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Amid the various winding comments throughout Trump’s speech today, he said that the Department of Education will officially issue its new guidance to protect the right to prayer in public schools today.
“Now the Democrats will sue us, but we’ll win it,” Trump said, eliciting some laughs from the audience at the National Prayer Breakfast. “They’ll sue us. They sue us for everything. I’m the most sued human being in history.”
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The president is now rattling off a number of states who, he says, have cooperated with federal law enforcement. But has now launched into a tirade on Minnesota.
“They won’t work with us,” Trump said, while claiming that he would be able to drive crime down further without the “horrible governor and this horrible fake mayor Frey”.
Trump announced there will be a national prayer event on the National Mall on 17 May. “We’re going to rededicate America as one nation under God,” Trump added.
Trump praises Gabbard for joining FBI search on Georgia election offices
During his speech today, Trump praised Tulsi Gabbard – the director of national intelligence – for her role in the FBI’s search of the Fulton county election offices in Georgia last week. Here agents seized almost 700 boxes of 2020 election documentation.
“She took a lot of heat two days ago because she went in at Pam’s insistence,” the president said. “They say, ‘why is she doing it’… because Pam [the attorney general] wanted her to do it. And you know why? Because she’s smart.”
Earlier this week, the Guardian reported that Gabbard is running her own review into the 2020 election with Donald Trump’s approval, working separately from the justice department investigation.
“Her position has to do with international,” Trump added today.
He went further:
They’ve been saying ‘Russia, Russia, Russia has been screwing our elections’. OK, so let’s assume Russia had something to do with it. They said, ‘no, no, Russia didn’t’… so now they’re saying Russia had nothing to do with it. Because if I say Russia, that it’s perfectly fine. But you could add China and about five other countries.
Trump’s meandered during his remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast today. He’s denigrated Thomas Massie, the Republican congressman and his frequent target who co-sponsored legislation to release the full tranche of Epstein files, and voted against the most recent funding bill package that the president signed into law on Tuesday. “There’s something wrong with him,” Trump said. “ They love voting ‘no’. They think it’s good politically.”
The president also touted the military operation in Venezuela, which resulted in the capture of the now deposed leader Nicolás Maduro. “We’re getting along fantastically with leadership,” Trump said of the interrim president Delcy Rodriguez.
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One note, ahead of the president’s address today, we heard from Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador, and a noted Trump ally.
Bukele has worked closely with the Trump administration to accept flights of undocumented immigrants, who they allege are convicted criminals, and hold them in El Salvador’s mega-prison, known as CECOT.
Bukele has described himself as the “world’s coolest dictator” and has overseen one of the largest crackdowns on crime in his country. Critics have branded him an authoritarian leader, that has done away with due process.
Today he called the gangs that he’s worked to eliminate from El Salvador as “satanic”.
“Some of those gangs are here in the United States,” he added. “If God did this for El Salvador he can do this for countries all over the world.”
Donald Trump is in Washington today. As we noted earlier, we’ll hear from the president shortly when he attends the National Prayer Breakfast.
Later today we’ll also hear from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, when she holds a 1pm ET briefing for reporters.
Mass layoffs at the Washington Post have prompted backlash from employees, who have been on “edge” for weeks over the future of the publication.
On Wednesday the publication announced it would be laying off one-third of its workforce, and would be scaling back coverage of sport and foreign news.
“This ranks among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organizations,” the Post’s celebrated former editor-in-chief Marty Baron said in a statement.
The Guardian’s Jeremy Barr reports that staffers at the Post have been worried for weeks about the rumoured cuts, which the publication would not confirm or deny. “It’s an absolute bloodbath,” said one employee, not authorized to speak publicly.
During a morning meeting announcing the changes, the editor in chief, Matt Murray, told employees that the Post was undergoing a “strategic reset” to better position the publication for the future, according to several employees who were on the call.
Murray acknowledged that the Post had struggled to reach “customers” and talked about the need to compete in a crowded media marketplace. “Today, the Washington Post is taking a number of actions across the company to secure our future,” he said, according to an audio recording of the meeting.
The affected employees include Caroline O’Donovan, who primarily covers Amazon, the company founded by the Post owner, Jeff Bezos. Other staffers, including the sports journalist Neil Greenberg, have also announced that they were affected.
Read the full report below.
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Trump set to deliver remarks at national prayer breakfast
President Donald Trump is set to attend and deliver remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast later today, a spokesperson from the White House confirmed.
The event is held annually in Washington DC on the first Thursday of every February. It aims to bring together leaders in political, social and business sectors from around the country to an event that merges prayer and networking.
“Today, President Trump will unite our country through the power of prayer at the 74th National Prayer Breakfast,” a White House spokesperson said.
“President Trump has made unprecedented strides to protect our God-given rights and has delivered on his promise to reverse Joe Biden’s divisive policies that weaponized the federal government against men and women of faith. President Trump has secured major victories for religious freedom – from defending innocent life to restoring biological truth and protecting parents’ fundamental rights.”
Fox News reports that the president first attended the National Prayer Breakfast in 2017 and returned last year, using his remarks to pledge action against what he called anti-Christian bias tied to the Biden administration.
“While I’m in the White House, we will protect Christians in our schools, in our military, in our government, in our workplaces, hospitals and in our public squares, and we will bring our country back together as one nation under God, with liberty and justice for all,” he said during last year’s event.
According to the outlet, other notable attenders set to appear at the 2026 event include house speaker Mike Johnson and attorney general Pam Bondi.
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Trump says Pretti and Good were ‘not angels’ while signaling ‘softer touch’ on immigration
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
Donald Trump said the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis were both sad incidents that “should not have happened,” but nobody feels worse about both shootings than ICE agents.
“He was not an angel, and she was not an angel,” Trump said of Pretti and Good in a new interview with NBC News. “Still, I’m not happy with what happened there. Nobody can be happy, and ICE wasn’t happy either.
“But I’m always going to be with our great people of law enforcement,” he continued. “We have to back them. If we don’t back them, we don’t have a country.”
This comes as the White House border czar, Tom Homan, says 700 federal agents will leave Minnesota. In the interview, Trump suggested using a “softer touch” in carrying out his aggressive immigration crackdown.
However, Chuck Schumer, the US Senate minority leader, said the reduction of 700 agents wasn’t enough. “ICE’s abuses go beyond the headlines. Residents are afraid to go to schools, to grocery stores, to even step outside. Agents are patrolling the streets like a military operation,” he said. “All of ICE needs to leave Minneapolis now.”
In other developments:
The second day of US-brokered talks between negotiators from Moscow and Kyiv have been taking place in Abu Dhabi. The discussions come amid increased Russian attacks on Ukraine’s power grid and a continuing war of attrition.
The Trump administration says it wants to create a critical minerals trading bloc with its allies and partners in order to counter China’s stronghold. This would use tariffs to shore up supplies of critical minerals needed for electric vehicles, missiles and other hi-tech products.
The British prime minister Keir Starmer has apologised to Epstein victims for giving Peter Mandelson the US ambassador job. Starmer says Mandelson portrayed Epstein as someone he barely knew. He expressed regret for believing Mandelson’s lies and appointing him.
The US Justice Department is under fire for revealing information about Epstein’s victims, and hiding the identities of alleged perpetrators, CNN reports. Survivors have accused the DoJ for “botching” the release of the three million documents which came out last week.
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