The Guardian view on Trump and the Washington shooting: political violence and gun culture endanger all | Editorial

Forty-five years ago, John Hinckley Jr attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan as he left the Hilton hotel in Washington, injuring the US president and three others. Obsessed with the actor Jodie Foster, and seeking to gain her attention, the shooter had initially pursued Reagan’s Democratic predecessor, Jimmy Carter. On Saturday night, the hotel again rang…

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The Guardian view on Starmer’s Mandelson gamble: his political judgment faces scrutiny in pivotal week | Editorial

It is unlikely that events this week at the foreign affairs select committee will deliver a knockout blow to Sir Keir Starmer over his appointment of Peter Mandelson as Britain’s US ambassador. Westminster will instead see a stress test, forcing competing versions of events into the open – a risk for Downing Street if the story crystallises unfavourably….

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The Guardian view on Germany, Japan and the end of the postwar order: as US alliances crumble, a new world emerges | Editorial

When Donald Trump hosted Sanae Takaichi, the Japanese prime minister, last month, he could not resist a gratuitous reference to Pearl Harbor. The US president is impelled to trash longstanding alliances. He has done more than anyone to demolish the postwar global order. This week alone, the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, questioned whether the US…

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The Guardian view on Anthropic’s Claude Mythos: when AI finds every flaw, who controls the internet? | Editorial

Anthropic announced its latest AI model, Claude Mythos, this month but said it would not be released publicly, because it turns computers into crime scenes. The company claimed that it could find previously unknown “zero-day” flaws, exploit them and, in principle, link these weaknesses in order to take over major operating systems and web browsers….

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The Guardian view on blaming the civil service: the predictable refuge of failing governments | Editorial

The announcement of Peter Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador ensures that 20 December 2024 will be recorded as a fateful day in Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership. Less remarked on, but relevant in hindsight, is a speech that the prime minister made earlier that month to launch a “plan for change”. Sir Keir set out ambitions to…

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