In interviews with community leaders, lawyers, security specialists and bereaved relatives, the Guardian pieces together how an operation targeting a criminal gang left 122 people dead last OctoberWarning: contains graphic imagesVisual investigation: how Rio’s deadliest police raid unfoldedThe Long Wave newsletter: ‘It doesn’t shock that it’s Black people getting killed’Juliana Conceição startled awake as the first shots of an infamous day were fired in the Complexo da Penha, the labyrinthine Rio favela where she was born and raised.It was 4.30am on 28 October. Thousands of police had surrounded the community’s barricaded entrances and were preparing to swarm up its streets on foot and in black armoured personnel carriers with firing ports and bullet-cracked ballistic windows. Continue reading...

11 Feb 2026 10:00 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

As AI job losses rise in the professional sector, many are switching to more traditional trades. But how do they feel about accepting lower pay – and, in some cases, giving up their vocation?California-based Jacqueline Bowman had been dead set on becoming a writer since she was a child. At 14 she got her first internship at her local newspaper, and later she studied journalism at university. Though she hadn’t been able to make a full-time living from her favourite pastime – fiction writing – post-university, she consistently got writing work (mostly content marketing, some journalism) and went freelance full-time when she was 26. Sure, content marketing wasn’t exactly the dream, but she was writing every day, and it was paying the bills – she was happy enough.“But something really switched in 2024,” Bowman, now 30, says. Layoffs and publication closures meant that much of her work “kind of dried up. I started to get clients coming to me and talking about AI,” she says – some even brazen enough to tell her how “great” it was “that we don’t need writers any more”. She was offered work as an editor – checking and altering work produced by artificial intelligence. The idea was that polishing up already-written content would take less time than writing it from scratch, so Bowman’s fee was reduced to about half of what it had been when she was writing for the same content marketing agency – but, in reality, it ended up taking double the time. Continue reading...

11 Feb 2026 05:00 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

ICE lawyers in New York City earn more than $100,000 a year, enjoy generous benefits and post about rich social lives. Their work is vital to Trump’s deportation agendaOne morning last June in an immigration courtroom in New York City, a lawyer named Estefani Rodriguez looked as if she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She was a prosecuting attorney for the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE). Her job was to present immigration judges with motions to kick non-citizens out of the United States – to switch on the deportation machine.Rodriguez is in her late 30s, with long hair and full cheeks. According to the website of the Dominican Bar Association, her parents are immigrants from the Dominican Republic. In online photos, she sports a wide smile. But on this day, as she covered one of some 60 immigration courtrooms housed in labyrinthine federal buildings in lower Manhattan, she seemed to churn with angst. Repeatedly she touched her hands to her mouth, then under her glasses, then back to her mouth, and then she rubbed and rubbed her eyes. Continue reading...

11 Feb 2026 13:00 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Cancelled flights and petrol shortages are disrupting daily life across the island. We want to hear from people living in Cuba about what it’s like right nowSevere fuel shortages are disrupting daily life across Cuba after the US tightened its oil blockade on the island. International flights have been cancelled and petrol stations have closed with people reportedly struggling to access fuel.The US has threatened any country that sends oil to Cuba with increased tariffs, claiming the island’s government is a threat to US national security and comes amid wider tensions between Havana and the Trump administration. Continue reading...

11 Feb 2026 10:23 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

We want to hear how the fall in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and ether are impacting peopleBitcoin sank to its lowest value in more than a year this week, faling to $63,000 on Thursday, about half its all-time peak of $126,000 in October 2025It’s part of a wider shock to crypto prices. The second-largest cryptocurrency, ether, has faced losses of more than 30% this year alone. Continue reading...

06 Feb 2026 12:39 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

We would like to hear from people who have used chatbots for companionship or mental health supportAI Chatbots are now a part of everyday life. ChatGPT surpassed 800 million weekly active users in late 2025. Some people are forming relationships with these chatbots, using them for companionship, mental health support, and even as therapists. Has a chatbot helped you get through a difficult period in life? If so, we’d like to hear about it.If you’re having trouble using the form click here. Read terms of service here and privacy policy here. Continue reading...

20 Jan 2026 14:45 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

We’d like to hear from independent retailers about how changes to online searches has affected them. We’d also like to find out from customers about how easy it is to track down independent retailers We’d like to find out more about how your business has been affected by changes to online searches amid the rise of AI.Independent businesses have traditionally relied on online advertising for increased visibility and sales, even if they are based on the high street. However, with the introduction of AI mode and AI Overview summaries on Google, and the proliferation of LLMs such as ChatGPT or Google Gemini, people are altering their search habits, which may affect the online visibility of small businesses. Continue reading...

19 Dec 2025 15:57 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN