Ahead of a vote by the senate judiciary committee on whether to advance Todd Blanche’s nomination to become US attorney general, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer attacked Blanche, saying he has “no intention of stopping Trump’s corruption,” adding that he has instead “spent his career enabling it.”
Amid threats from two Republican senators to block Blanche’s confirmation, Blanche rescinded his establishment of Trump’s “anti-weaponization fund.” John Cornyn and Thom Tillis said they would advance with their nomination.
Addressing this, Schumer said: “Instead of seeing Todd Blanche’s so-called deal for the sham that it is, Senate Republicans are once again taking Trump’s personal attorney at his word.”
“Blanche is still perfectly fine giving Trump a permission slip to commit tax fraud to the tune of millions of dollars,” Schumer added. “Is the GOP willing to go along with it?”
Ex-Trump prosecutor Jack Smith called to testify before Senate Judiciary Committee
Senate judiciary committee chair Chuck Grassley has asked Jack Smith, the former special counsel behind the criminal cases against Donald Trump, to appear before the committee on 22 September, according to an invitation reviewed by Politico. The request follows months of scrutiny from Grassley’s team into Smith and the investigations he oversaw.
Smith is the former federal prosecutor tapped by the justice department to lead inquiries into Trump’s handling of classified documents and his attempts to overturn the 2020 election, cases that were dropped after Trump’s 2024 election win. He testified before the House judiciary committee back in January.
Democratic Rep Daniel Goldman trades barbs with democratic Rep Ro Khanna online
Representative Daniel Goldman, who was absolutely crushed in his re-election bid for his New York seat by Brad Lander, said representative Ro Khanna from California’s opinion was “wrong” that an “unfair political and economy system” is what drove progressive victories in House democratic primaries.
“All three of us who lost in NYC had very progressive records (including supporting Medicare for All) and we all had the overwhelming support of actual working families — labor unions, public housing residents and immigrant communities,” Goldman wrote. “That’s because we all have gone to battle for those communities and offered practical and meaningful solutions that could actually get passed in a system that requires bipartisanship.”
“The voters in my district prioritized a different issue, and I respect their decision,” Goldman wrote, implying that his pro-Israel stance had been his electoral downfall.
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On Sunday, Max Miller’s ex father-in-law and Ohio senator Bernie Moreno issued a public statement against Miller, calling for his resignation.
In his statement, Moreno said that the “last two years have been pure hell for my wife Bridget, our daughter Emily, me, and our entire family in the aftermath of Emily’s divorce.”
Addressing reports of the abuse allegations as well as the public scrunity, Moreno said: “It has been horrific to watch this play out in full public view, all while knowing an innocent two-year-old girl is caught in the middle… Out of concern for the safety of my family, I hoped to keep this matter private but Max Miller’s increasingly erratic and dangerous behavior has made that impossible.”
He went on to join calls of resignation against Miller, saying: “If there are any basic standards of character required to hold elected office, Max Miller fails them. He should not serve in the House of Representatives. I believe Max Miller needs to seek professional help to end the clear pattern of abuse he has left in his wake. I believe he should not be free to continue endangering others until he does.”
Trump’s refusal to call for Max Miller’s resignation comes amid heightened scrutiny into the Ohio representative’s abuse allegations.
The Republican congressman, 37, who represents Ohio’s seventh congressional district, has denied accusations made by his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, and former girlfriend Stephanie Grisham, as he campaigns for re-election. On Sunday, Miller doubled down on his denial, saying: “I’m not getting out of this race, and I’m winning in November.”
Moreno, a conservative policy adviser, shares a two-year-old daughter with Miller. The pair have been engaged in a legal battle over custody of their child since 2024.
In one alleged incident, Miller “took hot water from a pan he had just cooked eggs in and threw it at me”, Moreno testified earlier this year amid a defamation lawsuit Miller filed against her. Moreno has also accused Miller of holding a gun to her head, the New York Times reported. The pair married in 2022.
Separately, Miller’s former girlfriend Grisham, who served as White House press secretary during Donald Trump’s first administration, has also accused him of abuse, an allegation he has denied. Grisham and Miller dated from 2019 to 2020.
In a 2021 Washington Post op-ed, Grisham – without naming Miller – wrote about a relationship that “turned abusive”, and of a former partner who was “physical” with her. Although she did not identify Miller in the article, he said it was widely understood that the op-ed referred to him. She later confirmed she was talking about Miller, according to the Times.
Trump attacks Jeanine Pirro over dropped Reflecting Pool vandalism case
In the most contentious part of the press conference, Trump lashed out at US Attorney Jeanine Pirro for dropping charges against former Olympic canoeist David Hearn, who was accused of vandalizing the newly renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
“I was disappointed with Jeanine Pirro. Really disappointed with Jeanine Pirro. She folded like an umbrella, and people get away with things. It’s a disgrace,” Trump said.
Pirro’s office had determined the damage stemmed from a “botched installation” rather than vandalism. Trump also blamed the judge overseeing the case for being “extremely unfriendly” to Pirro.
When a reporter asked if she was on the chopping block, Trump said: “you’re fake news. Don’t ever talk again.”
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'Leakers should be put in jail,' Trump says
Trump said leaks detailing the severity of a planned US attack on Iran ended up helping the Iranian government.
“Leakers should be put in jail,” Trump said, adding officials should “strengthen up the laws” against them. “Leakers helped [Iran] because they said the severity of the attack, and Iran knew it.”
Trump claimed the strike “was going to come last night” and would have continued “for a long time”, warning there would have been “essentially very little left” of Iran’s capabilities, adding, “there’d be nothing left.”
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Asked how soon Haitians who lose temporary protected status should face deportation, Trump pointed to the supreme court’s June ruling allowing the administration to end TPS for Haitians and Syrians, calling it “a big victory in court”. He said he largely defers to his team on timing, but acknowledged many TPS holders have lived in the US “12 years, 14 years” after fleeing disasters like hurricanes, adding, “something’s got to be done.”
A date to remember: TPS work permits for Ethiopia and South Sudan are set to expire on 6 August, one of the next deadlines in the wider rollback following the supreme court’s ruling.
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Trump says he spoke about drilling for oil to UK prime minister Andy Burnham, who 'sounded terrific on this subject'
Trump used the same exchange to press the UK to expand North Sea drilling, telling reporters, “You’re sitting on top of gold, better than gold, and you don’t do anything with it.” He said the UK “could give away free energy” if it reopened the fields, calling them “good for another 500 years, maybe more, probably 1,000 years.”
Trump said he had personally spoken with prime minister Andy Burnham (whom he didn’t actually name, aside from “your new prime minister”) about the issue, telling reporters “I spoke to him, and he sounded terrific on this subject,” and that the leader “sort of indicated to me” support for opening up drilling.
Trump argued Britain faces a stark choice, “you can be a wealthy country or a bankrupt country.” He also blamed past governments for scaling back Aberdeen’s oil industry, saying “then one day the liberals got in and they closed it,” which he linked to the UK’s reliance on Norwegian gas imports and prices that have “quadrupled”.
North Sea production has actually been running continuously since the 1970s and has never been shut down, though output has fallen well past its 1990s peak.
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Trump says Europe 'has to stop' illegal immigration when asked about Nigel Farage's Royal Navy proposal
Asked whether European nations writ large should use their militaries to stop migrant crossings over waterways, following Nigel Farage’s proposal to deploy the Royal Navy against migrant boats, Trump said bluntly: “You have to stop illegal immigration in Europe.” He added, “I know Europe better than anybody, better than the people that run it, and have great relationships.”
Trump went on to argue that immigration and energy are the two forces “killing” the continent, saying: “Your two things are killing Europe. Number one is immigration. Number two is energy.”
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Trump declines to call for Max Miller's resignation amid abuse allegations
Trump stopped short of calling on Rep Max Miller to resign Monday, saying he would “let the families figure that out”.
Asked whether the Ohio Republican should step down following allegations of domestic abuse from his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, Trump said he has always known Miller as “a good person” and called the situation “a very sad thing.”
The abuse allegations, which include physical abuse of Moreno and their two-year-old daughter, alleging in police reports that he threw her against a wall, previously held a gun to her head, and threw hot water on her. Miller denies all the claims and is suing his ex-wife for defamation.
The accusations have drawn calls for resignation from Emily Moreno’s father, Republican senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio, as well as several Democratic lawmakers, amid a bitter custody dispute over the couple’s young daughter.
Trump said the matter comes down to “accusations” that the families involved should resolve themselves.
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Key event
On immigration, Trump said “we had an open border a year and a half ago. We had the worst border in the history of our country. Now we have the best border.”
He also went so far as to say “not one person has come in through our southern border illegally,” saying he’s seen charts about it. “Now that’s pretty amazing,” he quipped.
Key event
Trump said Monday that talks with Iran are “going on right now,” despite earlier denials from Tehran (and US officials, according to CBS) that any negotiations were taking place.
Trump said the US had been “set to go” on a strike “harder than any attack” since World War Two, but held off after Iran, along with Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar, requested talks. “This is a last chance,” Trump said, adding the negotiations center on “the denuclearization of Iran,” a goal he argued previous administrations failed to pursue for “50 years”.
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Trump riffed that “as you know, we had a conflict with Venezuela, worked out very well, and we have a conflict with Iran, and that’s working out very well, very, very well.”
After some testimony by committee members, along with secretary Pete Hegseth, Trump signed the executive order to applause.
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Before Trump signed an executive order on Monday establishing what he called “the first ever presidential military spouse commission”, he said support for military families was something “we’ve been working on for a long time”.
The commission will be chaired by Jennifer Hegseth, wife of Pentagon secretary Pete Hegseth, with Desiree Thompson Sayle as executive director and Christy Mullin, wife of homeland security secretary Markwayne Mullin, among its members.
Trump said the panel would “provide recommendations for improving the quality of life for military spouses”, covering “housing, employment, healthcare, education, child care, and just about everything else”. He argued military strength depended on families, saying “we cannot have the strongest military in the world without the love and devotion of our remarkable military spouses.”
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Trump set to sign executive order creating military spouse commission
The executive order Donald Trump is set to sign momentarily is on establishing a new President’s Military Spouse Commission, according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
The commission would “advise the president on policies affecting military spouses and families and provide annual recommendations to improve their quality of life while strengthening military readiness” Leavitt wrote in a post on social media.
Cyclosporiasis is an intestinal infection that’s usually picked up by eating contaminated food or water, and is rarely life-threatening.
Federal data shows 6,707 confirmed cases across the US as of 28 July, with over 11,500 more suspected infections still being reviewed, numbers expected to grow as states finish confirming cases.
Former CDC officials and food safety researchers say recent staffing reductions at federal health agencies have made it harder to track and respond to outbreaks like this one. Wade Syers of Michigan State University Extension said pinpointing the contamination source is now critical to stopping further illness.
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First deaths reported in largest US cyclosporiasis outbreak
Michigan’s health department said on Monday that two people have died after contracting cyclosporiasis, marking the first fatalities in what has become the largest US outbreak of the parasitic illness.
An FDA investigation has linked the outbreak, now spanning nine states, to iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms operations in central Mexico, though officials are still probing other possible sources. Officials noted both patients were already dealing with serious health issues that the infection and resulting dehydration may have made worse
Michigan reported 11,234 outbreak-linked cases as of Monday, up 461 since Friday, with 193 hospitalizations. Wayne county has the most infections, and adults aged 30 to 39 have been hit hardest.
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Report: There are no new talks happening with Iran, US officials say
Despite Trump insisting that talks with Iran begin on Monday afternoon, officials tell CBS News there’s nothing new to announce after all, just the same negotiations, run through mediators by envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
This morning, Trump posted on social media that Iran asks “for a meeting, some would say ‘beg’ talks begin, with more scheduled n the immediate future, and they say, openly and proudly they’re not having any discussions.”
Later in that post, he said “Nothing gets through to Iran, unless we want it to, and nothing will get through, unless a Deal, or Total Surrender, is accomplished.”
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Murray said the bill blocks the administration from shifting funds toward border patrol, stops a White House plan to let officials cancel federal grants at will and “rejects Trump’s frivolous war spending wishlist”.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House appropriations committee, both praised the agreement. But by backing a “clean” stopgap at existing funding levels, the Democrats now hand Republicans continuity without a fight – a trade-off critics in similar stand offs since Trump’s second term began have argued squanders the leverage a shutdown standoff could bring.
Collins, facing a tough Maine re-election race, is casting the deal as proof of her bipartisan dealmaking.
“This measure gives Congress the time we need to continue our work on bipartisan appropriations bills, which are always my strong preference for handling annual government funding,” she said in a statement.
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Senate leaders reach bipartisan deal to fund the government
Senate leaders have reached a bipartisan agreement to fund the government through 11 December, avoiding a shutdown that would otherwise begin 1 October.
The deal, announced by appropriations committee chair Susan Collins, a Republican, and vice-chair Patty Murray, a Democrat, buys Congress time to negotiate a longer-term funding package after the midterm elections. A Senate procedural vote is scheduled today, with leaders aiming to pass the bill before the August recess.
Something to note: the house has already passed its own version funding the government through 4 December, leaving the two chambers to reconcile the difference when they return in September.
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Donald Trump calls Iran's leadership 'unbelievably duplicitious'
After Iran’s leaders insisted that Tehran was not planning any talks with Washington – contradicting Trump’s own comments on Sunday – the US president has said that the country’s leadership is “unbelievably duplicitous”.
“They ask for a meeting, some would say ‘beg’, talks begin, with more scheduled in the immediate future, and they say, openly and proudly, that they’re not having any discussions, that nothing is being talked about, and they’re only dealing with ‘Oman’,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
He went on to reject Iran’s claims that the country is ultimately in control of the strait of Hormuz. “Nothing gets through to Iran, unless we want it to, and nothing will get through, unless a deal, or total surrender, is accomplished,” Trump added.
My colleague Lucy Campbell has more here.
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US federal employees and their families are joining a class-action lawsuit against the Trump administration for blocking insurance coverage of gender-affirming healthcare.
The Human Rights Campaign Foundation (HRCF) and the DC-based law firm Correia & Puth filed the lawsuit on Monday morning against the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), arguing that the prohibition violates Title VII, which protects against sex discrimination.
The Trump administration has been “fixated” on ending gender-affirming care, said Cynthia Cheng-Wun Weaver, HRCF’s senior director of litigation.
“A lot of the criticism and attack on this care is for treating minors, but this exclusion is for all ages,” she said.
Federal insurance plans cover about 8.3 million people in America – not just employees and retirees themselves but also their partners and other family members.
Health insurance coverage for gender-affirming care is no longer covered by federal insurance plans as of January, with the exception of mental health counseling, including faith-based counseling.
There was also an exception for those who are in “mid-treatment”, though it didn’t detail which treatments exactly qualified. And a subsequent letter in March eliminated this exception beginning in 2027.
At least 39,400 enrollees will be affected by the prohibition on gender-affirming care coverage, according to a recent estimate from the UCLA School of Law Williams Institute.
“Healthcare access should never be weaponized to advance discrimination – and the denial of coverage for critical healthcare based simply on who you are blatantly violates the rights of all of us,” said Kelley Robinson, the HRCF president, in a statement.
On Truth Social today, Donald Trump has railed against polling which shows his approval rating stuck in the low end. According to a recent survey by AP-Norc, only 33% of Americans said they approved of the president’s job performance – slightly below where he stood at this point in his first term.
“My REAL Polling Numbers, not those made up by the Fake News Media, are the best they have ever been,” he wrote.
“Why wouldn’t they be with the biggest tax cuts and employment numbers EVER, the biggest outside Investment in America in World history, a totally secure Border, a giant Victory in Venezuela, the Denuclearization of Iran, unparalleled respect and success throughout the World, and much more? Don’t believe the Radical Left’s Fake Poll numbers.”
Holdouts for Trump's attorney general pick say they will vote in favor of his nomination
Republican senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis, two key holdouts on Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination – now say they will vote to advance him to the full Senate.
The outgoing lawmakers, who have repeatedly clashed with Trump over the past year, said their concerns were resolved after “successful negotiation of a legally enforceable document” that formally ends the $1.8bn “anti‑weaponization fund” and makes clear that Trump and his family will not receive indefinite protection from audits of future tax filings. Both issues had been deal‑breakers for Cornyn and Tillis. In the document Blanche released on Sunday, the acting attorney general did say that the sweeping immunity offered to the president and his family for their past conduct does not change.
“We are pleased that the Department of Justice has issued a formal order terminating the anti-weaponization fund. Additionally, the department has acknowledged in a binding written order that the audit settlement is limited to the plaintiffs and the scope does not extend beyond the defendants in the lawsuit, the IRS and the Treasury, addressing concerns that multiple of our Republican colleagues share,” the pair wrote in a statement. “We look forward to voting to advance his nomination out of the Senate judiciary committee soon.”
The panel is set to vote on Blanche’s nomination on Tuesday.
Michigan voters prepare for closely watched primaries
On Tuesday, we’ll bring you the latest from Michigan where voters will head to the polls for competitive primaries in Senate and House races.
The most closely watched competition is the Democratic primary for the US Senate, where congresswoman Haley Stevens is up against former public health official Abdul El-Sayed. They’re vying to ultimately win the seat of outgoing senator Gary Peters in November. The race has now turned into a proxy battle for the future of the Democratic party. Establishment-backed Stevens has received support from party leaders and her race has been buoyed by millions from the pro-Israel lobby. Meanwhile the insurgent El-Sayed has built a strong grassroots movement and is endorsed by progressives lawmakers in the Democratic caucus.
There are also several competitive House primaries tomorrow –mirroring the same choice in the Senate race – where more moderate Democratic candidates will face off against progressives who reflect the changing face of the party.
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Kay Granger, first Republican congresswoman from Texas, dies at age 83
Kay Granger, a former Republican representative, who was the first woman to win a US House seat from Texas, has died at age 83.
Granger served in the house from 1997-2025, and was the first female chair of the House appropriations committee. Before her role in federal office, she was the first woman elected mayor of Fort Worth, Texas.
In a tribute on social media, Republican House speaker Mike Johnson said that Granger “broke barriers for women in public service”.
My colleague Ramon Antonio Vargas previously reported that Granger largely disappeared from the public eye after she announced her plans to retire when her term ended in early 2025.
Granger’s son later reportedly told the Dallas Morning News that Granger was “having some dementia issues” and had moved into an independent senior living center with a memory care community on the same property. However, he disputed that she was being treated at the memory care community and said she was a resident of the independent living side of the property.
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Homeland security officials under the Trump administration have quietly attempted to subject at least 10 hunger strikers in US immigrant detention to involuntary medical procedures, including force-feeding, a Guardian investigation has found.
In 2025 and 2026, officials had definitely performed the procedures on at least three detained immigrants and probably subjected two more to the forced treatment – widely considered torture by human rights groups. The other five people gave in and broke their hunger strike at the last minute as force-feeding procedures loomed.
The government has not publicly acknowledged the practice of involuntary medical procedures on striking detainees, as the number of people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) increases nationwide.
More people have gone on hunger strike in ICE detention centers to protest against conditions and demand resolutions to legal cases.
The investigation, based on hundreds of pages of court records and interviews with multiple sources, reveals a clearer picture of the federal government’s response to hunger strikes within secretive ICE facilities.
In the cases reviewed by the Guardian, the involuntary procedures included force-feeding, where medical staff coercively insert a tube through a hunger striker’s nose and down their throat then pump in nutritional shakes – an agonizing and traumatizing procedure that experts say can cause significant harm to the nose, esophagus and body organs. Other procedures included intravenous forced hydration, involuntary blood draws and the collection of urine samples.
Read the breakdown of the Guardian’s investigation here:
A reminder that my colleagues are covering the latest out of the Middle East at our dedicated live blog. This includes the latest drop in oil prices, since Trump walked back his threats to strike Iran on Sunday.
Brent crude, the international benchmark, was trading 5% lower at $83.50 a barrel by mid-morning, after falling as low as $81.55 a barrel.
As we reported earlier, Republican senator Bernie Moreno has now publicly called for Representative Max Miller, his ex-son-in-law, to step down from Congress amid allegations of domestic and child abuse.
Trump, when asked about the allegations on Sunday on Air Force One, said he was “looking at” the claims against Miller.
“I’m gonna look at it. I mean, so far, it’s accusations,” the president added.
Miller and Emily Moreno, were in the middle of an acrimonious custody battle this year, when Miller filed a defamation against his former wife earlier this year.
On Sunday, Miller posted a video on social media, and continued to deny the allegations.
“I categorically deny abusing my former wife,” the Republican congressman said.
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Donald Trump will be in Washington today. He’ll spend most of the day in meetings, but we’ll hear from him at 1.30pm ET when he signs an executive order in the Oval Office.
We’ll bring you the latest lines as that gets under way.
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President Donald Trump said new talks to wind down the war in Iran will start Monday afternoon, after announcing he is holding off on new massive strikes he had threatened to unleash on the country.
The talks will seek to end the conflict and revive stalled cargo traffic through the strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway through which about a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed before the war.
Iranian state media quoted the country’s foreign ministry as saying Tehran was not currently holding negotiations with the United States.
RFK Jr tells US families to vaccinate children against measles amid outbreak
Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, on Sunday told American parents that they should get their children vaccinated against measles, as the surge in infections has reached numbers not seen in the past 35 years.
Kennedy, a leading vaccination skeptic who has spent years amplifying misinformation about vaccines, including the shot that protects against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), made his call in the course of a contentious interview with CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday morning.
His remark came as the incidence of measles crossed a milestone – the US has now officially recorded 2,371 confirmed infections so far this year, surpassing the total tally in 2025 of 2,289.
Taken together, the past two years have seen more measles infections in the US than the rest of the 21st century combined. The last time a greater number of measles cases were recorded in a single year was in 1991.
Kennedy’s statement was extracted from him by Dana Bash, CNN’s host, who invited him to use his “bully pulpit” to talk directly to parents as the new school year approached. She urged him to tell families that they should vaccinate for measles “because it is safe and it will help them save their children’s lives”.
The pastor of a historically Black church on St Louis’s north side, Rodrick Burton has watched with bewilderment as the congressional race in his district has drawn national attention not about the bloodshed in his community, but rather in Gaza.
“As a pastor who’s had eight members murdered, violence over there is terrible,” Burton said of the conflict in the Middle East.
“We have to deal with the problems right in our metropolitan area,” Burton added. “While there’s kinship and stuff … you’re talking about blood overseas, blood on the TV. We got blood right here in our metropolitan area.”
In Tuesday’s Democratic congressional primary, voters in Missouri’s deep-blue first congressional district will decide whether to give pro-Israel incumbent Wesley Bell a second term, or replace him with Cori Bush, a former progressive congresswoman who accuses Israel of perpetrating genocide in Gaza. Along with a heated primary in Michigan, the contest has become a proxy battle over the Democratic party’s role in supporting Israel’s military before the November midterm elections, which will determine which party holds the majority in both chambers of Congress.
After losing to Bell two years ago, Bush is vying for her seat back, and a Super Pac linked to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) has so far spent more than $3m to try to keep her out.
In recent weeks, Democratic voters in New York City and Denver ousted incumbents in favor of candidates who promised they would take a hard line against support for Israel. In Congress, large shares of Democrats have voted for unsuccessful efforts to block arms sales to the country’s security forces, and progressives hope that a win by Bush will underscore their movement’s momentum.
Trump attorney general pick says has reached deal with senators after standoff
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
Acting US attorney general Todd Blanche issued a formal order late on Sunday terminating Donald Trump’s $1.8bn “anti-weaponization fund” to compensate his political allies.
The move follows weeks of negotiations with two Republican senators who were blocking his nomination to become attorney general.
While Blanche has repeatedly said publicly that the fund was dead, the justice department had resisted formally confirming that in writing. That had drawn concern from lawmakers that it could be revived in some form, especially after Trump expressed continued support for the idea.
A spokesperson for Texas Senator John Cornyn, one of the senators holding up Blanche’s nomination, confirmed the agreement. The other GOP senator, North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis, did not have immediate comment.
The announcement comes ahead of a Senate judiciary committee vote on Blanche, which is scheduled for Tuesday.
“My team and I have met with committee members and Senators over the past several weeks and addressed any concerns or outstanding questions,” Blanche said in a post on X. “We have enjoyed good faith discussions, and as a result issue the following order.”
The order says that “although the acting attorney general has repeatedly advised Congress through testimony, including under oath, as well as in written responses, that the Fund is not moving forward, and the Department has repeatedly represented to district courts that the Fund is not moving forward, today’s Order officially rescinds the May 18, 2026 Order.”
The document released by Blanche on Sunday night also limits the scope of another provision of the settlement that provided broad immunity for Trump and members of his family from tax audits. It clarifies that the tax audit immunity agreement “applies only retroactively” to claims open at the time of the settlement and does not protect the president from examination of future tax filings.
Read the full story here:
In other developments:
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Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, on Sunday told American parents that they should get their children vaccinated against measles, as the surge in infections has reached numbers not seen in the past 35 years. Kennedy, a leading vaccination skeptic who has spent years amplifying misinformation about vaccines, including the shot that protects against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), made his call in the course of a contentious interview with CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday morning.
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Donald Trump has said he cancelled planned military strikes against Iran on the basis of “rapidly” reaching a deal on its nuclear programme and the full reopening of the strait of Hormuz. The president paused the strikes in expectation of a breakthrough and in response to requests from Iran and other countries in the region, he claimed on his Truth Social platform on Saturday.
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Marcy Kaptur is being treated for non-life-threatening injuries after a car crash in Toledo, Ohio, on Sunday, the Democratic US representative’s office said. Kaptur, 80, was a passenger in the vehicle and on her way to church, her office said. Toledo police did not respond to a request from Reuters for comment.
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Republican senator Bernie Moreno on Sunday publicly called for Representative Max Miller, his ex son-in-law, to step down from Congress amid allegations of domestic and child abuse. As recently as Friday, the Ohio senator had avoided giving his opinion directly on accusations made by his daughter, Emily Moreno, against the congressman.
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The family of a Haitian immigrant who froze to death in early March at a bus shelter in Pittsburgh after she was dropped off in the city by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is poised to file a lawsuit this month against the United States and “multiple other governmental and non-governmental entities”, the Guardian has learned.
