The Guardian · US newsThe league’s emphasis on youth development has seen its place in the careers of US national team players shift dramatically
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When the United States men’s national team traveled to France for the 1998 World Cup, they did so with 16 Major League Soccer players on their 22-man roster. This was very much by design. MLS had kicked off in 1996 as a fulfilled promise made to Fifa by US Soccer for the right to host the 1994 World Cup. The new league then set about hoarding as many national team players as it could.
In a winless and mirthless tournament in 1998, fraught by a fractious camp, the Americans started an MLS player 21 times in their three group-stage matches, for an average of seven per starting lineup. That number has trended down ever since. In the 2002 run to the World Cup quarter-finals, setting the program’s modern high-water mark, an average of 5.4 MLS players made a start in the USA’s five matches. In 2006, it was 3.33. By 2010, that number had sunk to two; and in 2022, it was only one. In Qatar, the USMNT’s final group stage match against Iran was, in fact, the first time the team had started no MLS players at all at a World Cup since the league’s founding.
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Leander Schaerlaeckens · Wed, Apr 15, 2026, 4:00 AM
The Guardian · US newsFormer US Fed chair says lowering rates to reduce debt service cost can lead to inflation getting out of control
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The former US Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen has attacked Donald Trump’s push for lower interest rates, comparing it to the actions of a “banana republic”.
The US president has repeatedly urged the central bank to slash interest rates, in the hope of cutting the government’s borrowing costs on its $39tn (£29tn) debt.
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Heather Stewart · Wed, Apr 15, 2026, 3:51 AM
The Guardian · US newsThe president’s attack on the head of the Catholic church and the AI depiction of himself as a Christ-like figure have not gone down well with one of the largest groups of swing voters in the US
Poor persecuted Donald Trump has frequently portrayed himself as a modern messiah. Some of his supporters, meanwhile, have compared him directly to Jesus. And, to be fair, while the son of God didn’t eat Big Macs on a private jet and encourage his followers to buy AI stocks, there are similarities between the two figures. Namely the miracle-working. The US president may not be able to turn water into wine, but he’s turned public office into a personal goldmine. This week, Trump also managed to transform a staunch atheist (me) into a defender of the Catholic church.
I’m not defending everything, mind you, just Pope Leo XIV’s recent condemnations of war. “God does not bless any conflict,” the pope wrote on X on Friday. “Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who … drop bombs.” During Saturday prayers, the pope also called out the “delusion of omnipotence”. While Leo didn’t name names, his statements were widely interpreted as a rebuke of the Trump administration, which has repeatedly framed its warmongering in religious terms.
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Arwa Mahdawi · Wed, Apr 15, 2026, 3:28 AM
The Guardian · US newsBob McCaffrey, whose wife Gayle has never been found, to face murder charges over New Jersey killing of Lisa McBride
A man who was convicted in connection with his wife’s 2012 disappearance in South Carolina has been arrested over the murder of another woman in New Jersey 22 years earlier.
Bob McCaffrey Jr, 54, was apprehended in North Carolina, where he had been residing, on suspicion of the 1990 killing of Lisa Marie McBride, 27, in New Jersey, authorities said in a statement.
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Ramon Antonio Vargas · Wed, Apr 15, 2026, 3:00 AM
The Guardian · US newsThe United States tolerates Trump’s behavior because of our warped definition of strength
The strongest men I’ve known didn’t behave anything like Donald Trump.
They were capable of restraint, first off. They may have spoken loudly, but they never used volume to enforce authority. None of them thought domination equaled leadership. How silly that would be.
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Jamil Smith · Wed, Apr 15, 2026, 3:00 AM
The Guardian · US newsOrganizers unveil new drive to reverse decline in union membership as workers seek to combat growing wealth inequality
Leaders of some of the largest unions in the US have unveiled a drive to jumpstart the country’s ailing labor movement and combat growing wealth inequality under Donald Trump.
To make it easier for workers to join a union, and strengthen the hand of new unions negotiating with powerful businesses, a string of prominent organizers joined together to launch Union Now, a non-profit designed to increase labor union density.
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Michael Sainato in New York · Wed, Apr 15, 2026, 3:00 AM
The Guardian · US newsThere is no justification for a regressive system in which the super-rich contribute less than the rest of us
Today, we have more income and wealth inequality than ever before. New York City’s average household income is $131,000. Without extreme inequality, residents could live reasonably well. Instead, a few people at the top of the income ladder capture enormous wealth, while millions of others struggle just to get by. Some simply can’t make it. For them, New York has become fundamentally unaffordable.
This outsized level of inequality has enormous economic, political and social consequences. It undermines social and political cohesion, erodes trust in institutions and leads people to conclude, correctly, that the system is rigged.
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Joseph Stiglitz, Gabriel Zucman and Zohran Mamdani · Wed, Apr 15, 2026, 3:00 AM
The Guardian · US newsAs Americans race to file their federal taxes before today’s deadline, new analysis breaks down where the money goes
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Many US households spent hundreds more tax dollars on the military last year, according to new analysis, as Donald Trump’s plans to dramatically increase federal defense spending faces growing scrutiny.
Millions of Americans will race to file their taxes today, the final day for federal returns, amid concern over rising living costs and government spending.
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Anna Betts in New York · Wed, Apr 15, 2026, 3:00 AM
The Guardian · US newsDeal will create pensions and savings group with 16 million customers and £480bn of assets, while Aegon focuses on US
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The Dutch financial services group Aegon has struck a £2bn deal to sell off its almost 200-year-old UK arm to Standard Life, as part of a US push in which the group will be rebranded as Transamerica.
Standard Life, previously known as Phoenix Group, said the deal to buy Aegon UK would create a pensions and savings group with 16 million customers and £480bn of assets under administration.
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Mark Sweney and Kalyeena Makortoff · Wed, Apr 15, 2026, 2:23 AM
