Closing summary
This concludes our live coverage of the second Trump administration for the day. Here are the latest developments:
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Two dozen mainly Democratic‑led states filed a fresh lawsuit to block Donald Trump’s executive order restricting mail voting in this year’s midterm elections.
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Lawyers for Lisa Cook wrote to the White House on Wednesday, rejecting a new attempt to force the Federal Reserve governor to resign for allegedly listing two properties as her primary residence on mortgage applications. The letter goes on to detail the numerous other individuals who have made the same mistake on mortgage forms, starting with Trump.
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The chief spokesperson for the US Secret Service and two other communications staffers are under investigation for “potential misconduct” and have been suspended, according to the agency and media reports.
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A geography professor alleges in a lawsuit filed this week in federal court in Manhattan that he was fired from his tenured position at the US Military Academy at West Point “because he taught that humans influenced climate change”.
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The US army announced on Wednesday that it has awarded to $2.2bn to five contractors “to own, construct and operate nuclear microreactors on military installations” in five states.
West Point geography professor says he was fired for resisting order to stop teaching climate change to future army officers
A geography professor alleges in a lawsuit filed this week in federal court in Manhattan that he was fired from his tenured position at the US Military Academy at West Point “because he taught that humans influenced climate change” and then protested an order “that this not be mentioned in his classes” as unethical.
As first reported by Stars and Stripes, a US government-funded news outlet that cover the US military, the geographer, Adam Kalkstein, says in the suit that he was rated as an “outstanding” professor during his 17 years as a civilian employee teaching climatology to future army officers.
According to the complaint, Kalkstein says he was called into on 11 September 2025 by Joel Radunzel, a lieutenant colonel who directs the geography program at West Point.
Radunzel, the complaint says, “relayed a verbal order that professors could no longer teach about anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change and that professors must remove all mention of human causes of climate change from their courses.”
During the same meeting, Radunzel also issued “a clear threat” that if anyone in the department went to the media or politicians over the ban, “the entire department would likely be dissolved.”
“At the time, plaintiff was teaching two sections of Climatology in which he taught that humans were responsible for much of the current planetary warming trend and presented the scientific evidence, consequences, and military impacts,” the complaint explained. “Learning how humans affect the atmosphere was a fundamental component of his course which he had been teaching for many years, and the concept that humans can alter Earth’s climate is a plainly established scientific fact.”
Two months later, Kalkstein said he confronted the dean of West Point’s academic board over how hard it was to teach in line with the directive.
“I just got out of Climatology class and it’s a struggle” he recalled, “because we’re leaving our essential information. We’re only telling cadets part of the story. We’re lying to them, deceiving them. It would be like trying to teach the law without being able to even mention the Constitution. The guiding principle of any school should be to the truth ... I’m supposed to be an educator and a scientist upholding Army values, but sir, right now, I’m a liar and a fraud. What we’re doing here is wrong. It’s immoral. It’s likely illegal”.
The Dean responded angrily, according to the complaint.
Sailor who jumped from USS Abraham Lincoln charged with being absent without leave - report
A US sailor who jumped overboard from the USS Abraham Lincoln this month amid a protracted deployment at sea has been charged by the navy with harming himself to avoid duty and being absent without leave, according to his wife and charging documents reviewed by the broadcaster MS NOW.
The sailor and his wife are both 19 years old, MS NOW reports, without revealing their identities.
According to the sailor’s wife, although he jumped off the ship in a suicide attempt, he has now been charged with violating two articles of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
The broadcaster reports:
The charging documents, which were reviewed by MS NOW, show that the sailor has been accused of violating Article 83 for “malingering,” which is defined as a service member “intentionally faking an illness or hurting themselves to avoid work, duty or service,” and Article 86 for “absence without leave,” which means a service member failed to be at their required place of duty without proper authority.
“I think they’re insane for doing this to people who need mental help,” the wife told MS NOW. “Instead of giving them help, this is just another huge stressor.”
Fed governor Lisa Cook's lawyers note that Trump and 'a third of his cabinet' had same mortgage status as her
Lawyers for Lisa Cook wrote to the White House on Wednesday, rejecting a new attempt to force the Federal Reserve governor to resign for allegedly listing two properties as her primary residence on mortgage applications.
“Governor Cook has never committed mortgage fraud or any intentional wrongdoing, and there is no legally cognizable cause for removing her from the Federal Reserve Board,” her lawyer, Abbe Lowell, wrote to in a letter to the White House Counsel, David Warrington.
Lowell cites the opinion of an expert in mortgage regulation and finance who argues that the Trump administration has failed to establish any intentional wrongdoing by Cook, “or that she benefited from the classification of either property as a ‘primary’ residence.”
The letter goes on to detail the numerous other individuals who have made the same mistake on mortgage forms, starting with Donald Trump.
The President should know firsthand that listing two properties as a ‘primary’ residence does not show intentional wrongdoing or demonstrate ‘unfit[ness] for office’. In 1993, President Trump reportedly acquired ‘primary’ residence mortgages for two different Florida homes just seven weeks apart. For each home, President Trump apparently signed a form attesting that he would occupy the property as his principal residence within 60 days and live there for at least a year. In reality, however, neither property was President Trump’s primary residence. He lived in New York and reportedly listed both Florida properties for rent.10 Surely the President does not believe himself ‘unfit for office’ because he signed these contradictory ‘primary’ mortgage documents.
Five current or former members of Trump’s cabinet have reportedly signed the same sort of mortgage application forms, Cook’s lawyer adds: Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary: Todd Blanche, the attorney general; Sean Duffy, the transport secretary and reality TV actor; Lee Zeldin, the EPA administrator; and Lori Chavez-DeRemer, the former labor secretary.
Lowell and his co-counsel, Norm Eisen, a former ethics adviser to the Obama administration, said in a statement:
“For the second time in a year, we have explained why there is no legal basis for President Trump to remove Governor Cook for cause. An inadvertent error is not fraud, as the President and a third of his cabinet should know because they reportedly did the same thing. These attacks on Governor Cook are not about real estate paperwork; they are an attempt by President Trump to force the Federal Reserve to bend to his will. Our response should put this matter to rest once and for all, but, if necessary and in keeping with the Supreme Court’s ruling, we are prepared to challenge any illegal attempt to remove Governor Cook.”
Cook, the first Black woman to serve on the central bank’s board, was appointed by then president Joe Biden in 2022 to a term that lasts until 2038.
Trump first tried to fire her last year, in a case that ended with the 5-4 US supreme court ruling, this summer, that the president does not have the authority to remove a Federal Reserve governor without cause.
Despite that loss at the nation’s highest court, Trump’s former golf caddy and social media adviser, Dan Scavino, now White House deputy chief of staff, wrote to Cook earlier this month to demand that she reply by Wednesday to a letter laying out the case for her removal.
Cook, who has called the administration’s effort to force her out a pretext to gain more power over interest rates, remains on the board.
Reuters contributed reporting
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has rejoined the Democratic Socialists of America after not renewing her membership for seven years, amid speculation that she might run for president in 2028.
The 36-year-old New York representative and one of the country’s most prominent democratic socialists renewed her membership in the group’s national organization after reports emerged earlier this month that it had lapsed. Ocasio-Cortez initially joined the group in 2018.
In a statement on Tuesday night, the DSA announced: “Democratic Socialists of America confirms Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a member in good standing of our organization, having recently rejoined in August 2026,” according to a report in City & State New York.
It added: “Previously, the representative joined DSA in 2018 with a one-year membership, which DSA’s national leadership recently noticed had lapsed, in 2019. She has since renewed her membership as of this month.”
The DSA said it decided to disclose Ocasio-Cortez’s membership details amid reports that she could run for president in the next election cycle.
Interest in the congresswoman’s status comes as the organization has seen its ranks grow exponentially across the country, following a string of election victories from New York to Florida.
“While it is atypical for DSA to address the membership status of individuals, ongoing discussions about the 2028 presidential campaign have prompted this release … With chapters and members campaigning to draft Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a potential Presidential Primary candidate, we believe that the status of her membership is essential information for members to have in their deliberations and discussions,” the statement said, City & State New York reported.
US Secret Service spokesman and two aides under investigation for 'potential misconduct' – reports
The chief spokesperson for the US Secret Service and two other communications staffers are under investigation for “potential misconduct” and have been suspended, according to the agency and media reports.
The spokesperson, Anthony Guglielmi, “is cooperating fully” withe the investigation, his lawyer told CNN, which first reported the news.
“Three non-law enforcement personnel at the US Secret Service have been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into potential misconduct,” the agency said in a statement. “Per policy, this incident is being investigated by the Office of Professional Responsibility. We are unable to comment further at this time.”
The investigation comes amid an FBI leak inquiry into how the New York Times discovered that the Secret Service had raised concerns over Donald Trump using a Qatari-gifted luxury jet without the same security capabilities as older Air Force One jets to travel to Turkey for a Nato summit last month.
As a result of those concerns, the Washington Post reported, Trump was secretly flown out of the country on a military plane, and an older Air Force One was used as a decoy, amid a supposed plot by Turkey’s neighbor, Iran, to kill the president.
Guglielmi, a former chief spokesperson for the Baltimore and Chicago police departments, is being represented by Gregg Bernstein, Baltimore’s former chief prosecutor.
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Oregon pledges to resist Trump's attempt to undermine its fully vote-by-mail system
In Oregon, which was the first US state to conduct fully vote-by-mail elections, governor Tina Kotek has released a statement of support for the lawsuit filed in federal court by the state’s attorney general, Dan Rayfield, seeking to block the US Postal Sertvuice with implementing Donald Trump’s executive order to restrict mail voting.
Kotek said:
“The U.S. Constitution gives power to the states to run elections. In Oregon, we uplift the right to vote and have worked hard to strengthen and expand our system to ensure everyone has a voice and that every election is safe and secure. I stand in strong support of Attorney General Rayfield’s fight against President Trump’s unconstitutional, undemocratic attempt to silence people’s voices. We’re doing everything in our power to protect Oregonians’ right to vote.”
US army to spend $2.2bn to build nuclear 'microreactors' on 5 military bases in US
The US army announced on Wednesday that it has awarded to $2.2bn to five contractors “to own, construct and operate nuclear microreactors on military installations” in five states.
“Awarding these contracts accelerates our ability to deliver safe, reliable baseload power directly to our installations,” the army secretary, Dan Driscoll, said. “We are building the energy resilience necessary to project combat power globally, without relying on potentially vulnerable external grids.”
The Pentagon statement said that it “expects more than 20 total nuclear microreactors will be built and operated” on US military installations as part of the project it calls the Janus Program, including additional private sector funding.
The selected companies and bases are: Antares Nuclear at Fort Bragg in North Carolina; BWX Technologies at Fort Campbell in Kentucky; General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems at Fort Hood in Texas; Radiant Industries at Fort Benning in Georgia; and Westinghouse Government Services at Fort Drum in New York.
The project is part of a Trump administration’s push to incentivize nuclear power, which includes billions in loans for large nuclear reactors to meet increased power demand from AI datacenters and a pilot program to boost advanced reactor designs and projects for military and civilian use. No such nuclear microreactors are supplying power to the commercial electric grid in the United States today.
During the Biden administration, the US Department of Energy published an explanatory article, headlined What is a Nuclear Microreactor?, which outlines three key features:
Factory fabricated: All components of a microreactor would be fully assembled in a factory and shipped out to location. This eliminates difficulties associated with large-scale construction, reduces capital costs and would help get the reactor up and running quickly.
Transportable: Smaller unit designs will make microreactors very transportable. This would make it easy for vendors to ship the entire reactor by truck, shipping vessel, airplane or railcar.
Self-adjusting: Simple and responsive design concepts will allow microreactors to self-adjust. They won’t require a large number of specialized operators and would utilize passive safety systems that prevent any potential for overheating or reactor meltdown.
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The Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, criticized the appointments of three pro-Israel House Democrats to the foreign affairs committee.
As we reported earlier, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a representative from Florida, and the Missouri representative Wesley Bell will join the committee, while Jared Moskowitz, also from Florida, becomes the Democrats’ ranking member on the subcommittee for the Middle East and north Africa.
“We are deeply concerned by the appointment of three of the Israeli government’s most committed and consistent enablers,” said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, Cair’s deputy director, in a statement. “Members of Congress who want to continue giving the Netanyahu government American taxpayer money knowing it will be used to oppress and kill Palestinian men, women and children are, by definition, anti-Palestinian and out-of-step with the American people.”
Several progressives who have been critical of Benjamin Netanyhu’s leadership and the influence of the pro-Israel lobby on recent elections have won their races in recent months – most notably Abdul El-Sayed in the Democratic primary in Michigan.
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Four of the nation’s leading livestock and agricultural organizations have also joined together to urge Donald Trump to reverse the proposed plan to temporarily pause higher tariffs on foreign beef imports, in an attempt to reduce grocery costs for Americans ahead of the midterm elections.
“Flooding the market with discounted foreign beef is not the way to rebuild the American cattle herd, strengthen food security, or lower grocery bills in a lasting way,” the groups write in a letter. “This announcement will discourage investment in the US cow herd and undo the progress producers have made.”
They add: “We are deeply concerned that this import strategy sacrifices long-term food security for a short-term solution. Americans deserve safe and wholesome beef free from any market distorting actions.”
This week, I’ve been reporting on the growing backlash to policy, including from several Republicans in states with sizable cattle industries who have issued rare rebukes of the president’s decision.
Federal judge lifts injunction on Trump's mail-in voting executive, paving way for further legal challenges
The federal judge who issued the injunction blocking parts of Donald Trump’s executive order curbing mail-in voting has lifted her block, after the supreme court said on Monday that the challenge from mainly Democratic-led states was premature, saying they lacked standing.
However, Judge Indira Talwani said that she would consider further challenges now that the US Postal Service had published its rule outlining how it will refuse to deliver mail-in ballots in states that refuse to give the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies access to lists of voters.
As I reported earlier, a coalition of states filed a fresh lawsuit on Wednesday to challenge the USPS policy.
And a reminder that the constitution confers control over elections to states and Congress, not the executive.
“Congress has not afforded USPS any authority whatsoever to set rules for federal elections or mail voting, even though Americans have cast ballots by mail for generations,” the states argue in the new lawsuit.
They also said although the deadline to submit mail voter lists to USPS “is still several weeks away”, the new rule “is already causing acute harm”.
“Plaintiff states or their subdivisions must immediately redesign their ballot envelopes and seek USPS review at significant costs to states,” they added.
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On Truth Social, Donald Trump said that Ralph Norman, the South Carolina representative who lost the Republican primary for Senate to Darline Graham on Tuesday, had “the look” of a good congressman, but “ruined his career when he endorsed Nikki Haley”.
Trump backed Graham, after her brother, the late senator Lindsey Graham, died last month. Norman was shunned by the president as the only member of Congress to endorse Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, over Trump in the 2024 election.
The race to replace Lindsey Graham on the ballot became a stress test of the president’s support, and how effectively his endorsement can carry a candidate in deep-red pockets of the country to victory.
A federal judge has, for a second time, struck down a Texas state law banning drag performances in settings where children may be present.
In a ruling issued on Tuesday, the US district judge David Hittner said Texas cannot enforce its drag show ban. He said that the measure improperly restricts speech and violates the first amendment of the US constitution.
The Texas ban, known as Senate Bill 12, was passed in March 2023 and bans drag performers from dancing suggestively or wearing certain prosthetics on public property or in front of children, or “sexually oriented performance” presented on the premises in the presence of an individual younger than 18 years of age.
Advocacy groups sued the state after the bill’s passage, arguing the ban on “sexually oriented performance” infringed on constitutional rights. Texas’s move was just one across several states in 2023, driven by a rightwing backlash to increasing queer and transgender rights and equality. Hittner initially declared the ban unconstitutional in September 2023, but it was unblocked by the fifth US circuit court of appeals in 2025, which returned the case to the judge.
That allowed Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, who is locked in a race for a US Senate seat against Democrat James Talarico, to resume enforcing the law earlier this year.
The new ruling prevents Paxton from enforcing the law. Paxton said he would appeal the decision. “This is a profoundly flawed decision that endangers our children and is an affront to Texas values,” Paxton on X.
In his ruling, Hittner advised anyone “who find[s] such activities as described in this case offensive” to “just don’t go”.
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Here's a recap of the day so far
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Trump insists that CIA director John Ratcliffe’s surprise visit to Russia is “semi-routine”, despite mounting speculation. The purpose of the visit is not yet clear, but Trump sought to temper concerns in an interview with conservative commentator Glen Beck on Wednesday. The last time a CIA director visited Moscow was in November 2021, when William Burns – Ratcliffe’s predecessor – traveled to Russia to warn against an invasion of Ukraine, which ultimately took place months later.
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Democratic states sue to block postal service from carrying out Trump’s mail-in voting order. Two dozen Democratic‑led states on Wednesday filed a fresh lawsuit to block Donald Trump’s executive order restricting mail voting in this year’s midterm elections. The challenge comes days after the supreme court’s conservative majority lifted one injunction from a federal judge blocking parts of the president’s order.
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New data shows a record number of arrests and deportations of immigrants in the US. The Trump administration arrested and deported a record number of immigrants in July, according to newly released government data – apprehending an average of 1,500 people and removing 1,100 people daily. Despite the administration’s insistence that it is targeting criminals, a record number of people caught in the surge of arrests in July had no prior criminal history. This confirms attorney and immigrant advocate concerns that that Trump administration is quietly ramping up its operations.
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Trump touted his involvement in primary runoffs after his endorsed Republicans won elections in South Carolina and Oklahoma. The president took a moment to congratulate himself and the two candidates he backed on Tuesday – Darline Graham and Mike Mazzei. “I supported and ENDORSED two so-called ‘underdogs’ yesterday, one from South Carolina, and the other from Oklahoma, and they BOTH WON. Two great people!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
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US designates Palestinian Action group a terrorist organization. The US treasury department has designated Palestine Action as a global terrorist group and imposed expanding US financial sanctions against the British-based organization. “Far-left extremists, their fronts and their enablers should be on notice: we will bring the full weight of our economic tools to bear,” said Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary.
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Three pro-Israel Democrats will hold key roles on House foreign affairs panel. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a representative from Florida, and Wesley Bell, from Missouri, will join the committee, while Jared Moskowitz, also from Florida, becomes the Democrats’ ranking member on the subcommittee for the Middle East and north Africa (Mena). These appointments to the House foreign affairs committee follow a succession of wins in party primaries for progressive candidates who put criticism of Israel and its actions in Gaza at the core of their campaign messages.
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ICE has quietly enacted new rules to keep officers involved in deadly-force cases off the streets and on desk duty until an investigation is fully completed and they are formally cleared, the Atlantic reported last night, citing two senior ICE officials.
Previously, officers involved in such incidents – which involve firing a gun or using a chokehold, for example – could return to their regular work in the field within three days.
Per the Atlantic’s report: “The change, which has not been publicly announced, means that officers who fire their guns, choke someone, or use some other form of deadly force – even if no one is killed – will potentially be limited to performing administrative duties for much longer periods. Acting ICE Director David Venturella and other senior ICE leaders ordered the change late last month, the two senior officials said.”
Since Trump took office last year, ICE has opened fire on at least 30 people, according to Trace, a US outlet tracking such shootings. Four of these incidents were fatal.
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Three pro-Israel Democrats gain key roles on House foreign affairs panel
Keely Aouga
Three pro-Israel Democrats gained key roles on the House foreign affairs committee today, with one joining as a leading Democrat in a subcommittee that oversees US-Middle East policy.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a representative from Florida, and Wesley Bell, from Missouri, will join the committee, while Jared Moskowitz, also from Florida, becomes the Democrats’ ranking member on the subcommittee for the Middle East and north Africa (Mena).
These appointments to the US House of Representatives foreign affairs committee follow a succession of wins in party primaries for progressive candidates who put criticism of Israel and its actions in Gaza at the core of their campaign messages.
All three recently defeated primary challengers who targeted them for their pro-Israel positions, shining a light on a potential split among establishment Democrats and new Democrats as the party works towards redefining itself.
My colleague Robert Tait has the story:
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Days before he was removed by Pete Hegseth as army chief of staff without explanation, Gen Randy George was advised by another general – who is now vying to replace him as the army’s top officer – to halt the military’s investigation into an unauthorized helicopter flyby of Kid Rock’s Tennessee estate, the Washington Post (paywall) reports, citing three people familiar with the matter.
According to the Post’s report, George “felt it was important to follow typical protocol and determine whether any safety regulations had been violated during the March 28 flyby”.
Per the report, “General Chris LaNeve, the Army’s No 2 officer, told George that Hegseth didn’t want the investigation to proceed, one person told the paper. The two others said George later confided in colleagues that he seemed troubled by the encounter with LaNeve, who suggested it would be best if the review was scuttled.”
The defence secretary reportedly requested in April that George retire immediately. Since assuming leadership at the Pentagon, he has dismissed more than a dozen high-ranking officers.
Earlier that week, Hegseth had also announced that the army personnel who piloted the two AH-64 Apache helicopters near Kid Rock’s home in Nashville would not be suspended, and he closed the investigation into the incident. Rock – real name Robert Ritchie – is a vocal Trump supporter.
In a statement to the Post, Hegseth didn’t directly address the report and instead focused on LaNeve, describing him as “precisely the kind of leader the US Army needs right now”, interested in strengthening the Army, and “not interested in playing politics in Washington”.
“He is a back-to-basics, no politics, no-nonsense General – exactly what President Trump expects,” Hegseth said. “The critics coming after him are the same out-of-touch so-called insiders who’ve spent years undermining our military with woke policies and endless wars. They hold deep grudges against any commander willing to put America and our troops first, but their days of influence are over.”
Defense department spokesperson Sean Parnell said the report amounted to a “regurgitating” of a “tired, old story simply to manufacture drama”.
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Democratic states sue to block postal service from carrying out Trump's mail-in voting order
Two dozen states and the District of Columbia filed a fresh lawsuit on Wednesday to block Donald Trump’s executive order restricting mail voting in this year’s midterm elections.
The challenge comes days after the supreme court’s conservative majority lifted one injunction from a federal judge blocking parts of the president’s order.
In their new filing against the US Postal Service (USPS), the states point to concrete steps the administration has taken to carry out Trump’s directive – including a final USPS rule on ballot delivery posted Friday night.
The states said that the USPS policy is part of “a broader effort” by the Trump administration “to rewrite federal election law and usurp the authority of the states and Congress”.
And a reminder, that the constitution confers control over elections to states and Congress, not the executive.
On Monday, the supreme court did not rule on the legality of Trump’s order, but said that the states’ litigation was premature, effectively making room for further legal challenges.
A reminder that there is also a second nationwide injunction that still prevents the postal service from enforcing the order, though the justice department has argued that block should now be lifted in light of the supreme court’s ruling.
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Democratic nominee for Iowa governor shuns campaign support from Joe Biden and Kamala Harris
Rob Sand, the Democratic nominee for Iowa governor, has dismissed any possible support from former president Joe Biden and vice-president Kamala Harris, as he vies to become flip the governor’s mansion blue in November.
Latest polling forecasts a tight race between Sand, a state auditor, and his Republican rival, businesman Zach Lahn. If Sand is victorious, he’d be the first Democratic governor elected in twenty years – since Chet Culver.
In an interview with Politico, Sand eschewed campaign bolstering from Biden and Harris, who unsuccessfully ran for president in 2024.
“No thanks. Let’s move on. We need some new leadership,” Sand said.
The Democratic nominee also said that he doesn’t think that Harris should mount a presidential bid in 2028.
“I think that we have a fundamentally broken two-choice political system. I don’t think that either the Democratic or the Republican parties to solve enough problems deserve special legal privileges in order to force us to pick between the lesser of two evils,” he said. “My inclination is I want it to be shaken up.”
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US designates Palestinian Action group a terrorist organization
The US treasury department has designated Palestine Action as a global terrorist group and imposed expanding US financial sanctions against the British-based organization.
“Far-left extremists, their fronts, and their enablers should be on notice: We will bring the full weight of our economic tools to bear,” said Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary. “Political terrorism has no place in our society, and we will continue to cut the financial lifelines of these groups until they are eliminated.”
This comes after the UK also deemed Palestine Action as a terrorist group last year, which means that any involvement or support for the organization is considered a criminal offense in Britain.
For some context, the last time a CIA director visited Moscow was in November 2021, when William Burns – Ratcliffe’s predecessor – traveled to Russia to warn against an invasion of Ukraine, that ultimately took place months later.
In a briefing after the meetings, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the BBC that he had “nothing to add” about the talks.
“How much this will impact the overall process of recovering our bilateral relations from the profound crisis they’re currently in, it is premature to say,” Peskov said.
The president also spent time blasting Canada again after collapsed trade talks over the weekend has led to a back-and-forth of tariffs from both countries.
“They have taken advantage of the United States for many decades,” Trump said in his interview with Glen Beck. “They take advantage of us as though they were a state, and they’re not a state. And they’ve taken our car industry and they’ve taken our agriculture industry.”
He also repeated his threat to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America”.
“You know, people thought I was kidding. Maybe I wasn’t because the last one you saw was the Gulf of Mexico,” the president said, referring to an executive order he signed last year to rename the body of water the “Gulf of America”.
Trump insists that Ratcliffe's surprise visit to Russia is 'semi-routine' despite mounting speculation
The president claimed that CIA director John Ratcliffe’s surprise visit to Moscow this week is “semi-routine”.
Reports surfaced today, although the Trump administration had not formally announced the trip, and various outlets captured the flight tracking data of the US government jet and the Kremlin later confirmed the meeting – but noted that Ratcliffe did not hold talks with Vladimir Putin, who was informed of the meeting. The purpose of the visit is not yet clear, but Trump sought to temper concerns. “I hate to disappoint people,” he said.
“Rumors are saying Putin is going to test Nato resolve all the way,” Glen Beck said on his program. But the president, in the live radio interview, dismissed any speculation that the meeting was in regard to a possible escalation from Russia.
“[Ratcliffe] is not in there for any of the things that you said,” Trump said. “Now something may come out of it. We’re working very hard to get that war [in Ukraine] ended.”
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Donald Trump is now speaking with Glen Beck, the conservative radio host.
He started by paying a tribute to the late country star Dolly Parton. “To lose her, it’s like you lose a member of the family,” Trump said. “She wasn’t a very political person. She really liked me.”
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Trump touts primary success after Republicans win elections in South Carolina and Oklahoma
The president also took a moment to congratulate himself and the two candidates he backed in run-off elections on Tuesday – Darline Graham and Mike Mazzei.
“I supported and ENDORSED two so-called ‘underdogs’ yesterday, one from South Carolina, and the other from Oklahoma, and they BOTH WON. Two great people!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Mizzei won the GOP primary in the Oklahoma governor’s race, after the president threw his race behind the former state lawmaker and businessman. Trump’s support, however, was as much about pushing Mazzei to secure a victory as it was ensuring that his opponent Gentner Drummond, the Oklahoma attorney general, lost.
Trump has blasted Drummond throughout the race – calling him a “fake Republican” – after he sued to block construction on the president’s prized aluminium smelter in the state.
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Donald Trump is in Washington today, and we’ll hear from him shortly when he takes part in a live radio interview with conservative commentator Glen Beck at 9am ET. He’ll then spend much of the day in closed-door meetings.
ICE agent charged with shooting in Minnesota could be released from Texas jail
An ICE agent charged in Minnesota with firing his gun through a house door, striking a man in his leg, and then lying to justify the shooting, could walk out of a South Texas jail on Thursday if a federal judge does not intervene.
Christian Castro, an agent for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is charged in Minnesota with assault and falsely reporting a crime in the 14 January wounding of 24-year-old Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis.
Minnesota authorities have been seeking to have him extradited since his arrest, but he remains in custody in Brownsville, Texas, a city bordering Mexico, AP reported.
Texas law says he must be released after 90 days of detention, which is Thursday.
Minnesota’s governor and attorney general filed a lawsuit asking a judge to compel Texas to return Castro to their state and to keep the Cameron County sheriff from releasing him until his extradition.
The Trump administration has approved two new datacenter chemicals to which exposure can result in “sudden death” and a range of other serious health risks, like cancer, eye corrosion, neurological damage and reproductive harm, a new lawsuit warns.
The two compounds approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for import and immediate use in facilities across the US are photoacid generators that also appear to be Pfas “forever chemicals”, though it is unclear because much of the EPA documents are redacted. Some Pfas are commonly used in the production of semiconductors.
The EPA acknowledged in its approvals that it does not know the level at which the chemicals are “acutely lethal” or cause other serious health damage, but the agency still approved them anyway, said Jonathan Kalmuss-Katz, an attorney with the Earthjustice nonprofit, which filed the suit.
In consent orders approving the chemicals that were reviewed by the Guardian, the EPA also concedes that the chemicals present an “unreasonable risk” to workers and the public, but still approved them.
That violates the law, Kalmuss-Katz said. If there is an “unreasonable risk”, then the Toxic Substances Control Act requires the EPA to “prohibit or limit the manufacture, processing, distribution in commerce, use, or disposal of such substance or to prohibit or limit any combination of such activities to the extent necessary to protect against an unreasonable risk”.
New data shows record number of arrests and deportations of immigrants in the US
The Trump administration arrested and deported a record number of immigrants in July, according to newly released government data – apprehending an average of 1,500 people and removing 1,100 people daily.
This latest data confirms what attorneys and immigrant advocates have been seeing across the US – although the administration has moved away from the high-profile, militarized raids that came to define its immigration enforcement approach last year, it is quietly ramping up its operations.
“The way that people are being detained is far less flashy, but we are still continuing to see arrests,” said Melissa Shepard, director of legal services at the southern California-based immigrant services group ImmDef. “It’s just on a quieter scale instead of, you know, 10, 12 officers making one arrest, you have a handful of officers pulling someone over.”
Overall, 49,571 people were arrested last month, according to government data obtained by the Deportation Data Project – the highest number since October 2022, and a 15% increase from the previous record set in June of this year.
Despite the administration’s insistence that it is targeting criminals, a record number of people caught in the surge of arrests in July had no prior criminal history. July was the first month during the second Trump administration that the majority of people – 51% of arrestees – had no criminal convictions or charges, according to the Guardian’s analysis.
A US military strike on an alleged drug trafficking boat in the Caribbean on Tuesday killed four people, officials said.
US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) said in a post on X that the strike targeted a vessel “operating along established narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean.”
“Confirmed intelligence revealed the vessel’s active involvement in narco-trafficking,” it added.
Black-and-white video footage accompanying the post showed a boat moving through the water moments before a large explosion, AFP reported.
US Senate Democrats have urged Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to rein in a “surge” of violence by West Bank settlers and mass arrests of Palestinians by Israeli security forces in the occupied territory, Reuters reported.
In the letter to Netanyahu, seen by Reuters and signed by 42 of the Senate’s 47-member Democratic caucus, the lawmakers noted increasing levels of “fatal violence by settlers”.
They also appealed to Israel’s leader to step up investigations into the deaths of nine American citizens they said have been killed by settlers or security forces in the West Bank since 2022.
The “significant surge” of violence in recent weeks has resulted in “a large-scale response by Israeli security forces, mass arrests of Palestinians, and reported attacks by settlers on mosques,” the letter stated.
The letter marks the latest sign of growing friction between Democrats in Congress and the Israeli government over its handling of the West Bank, with many in the party also calling for curbs on US military aid to Israel over its conduct of the war in Gaza.
It was drafted by senator Adam Schiff of California, Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York – long one of Israel’s most prominent supporters in Congress – and Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey.
The senators urged Netanyahu to issue clear instructions to Israeli police and military to prevent and intervene in violent West Bank confrontations “regardless of the perpetrators”.
An Ecuadorian mother and daughter were arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at a hospital after a car crash in central Florida.
On 20 August, Grace Stephanie Calero Cabanilla, 39, and her daughter, Giulianna Mía Carriel Calero, 19, were involved in a car crash in Poinciana, Florida, according to arrest reports reviewed by multiple news outlets.
According to Jonathan Bravo, Calero Cabanilla’s cousin, who spoke to Newsweek, she was driving to work with her daughter when another vehicle struck the passenger side of their car, in which the pair “almost died” after the car flipped over four times.
Pictures of the crash posted by Bravo on a fundraiser showed a black SUV with damage to both the front and rear.
After Calero Cabanilla and her daughter were transported by ambulance to HCA Florida Poinciana hospital, they were placed in separate rooms, Bravo told Newsweek. He said a Polk county sheriff’s deputy then began asking Calero Cabanilla about her immigration status.
Video posted online by Gia Calero, Calero Cabanilla’s sister, and published by CNN showed the two women embracing in tears on a hospital bed as law enforcement officers attempted to separate them. The video also showed officers with Calero Cabanilla’s hands behind her back as she cried out while they escorted her from the hospital room. A person who appeared to be filming the video could be heard asking: “Where’s the paper? Where’s the arrest warrant?”
Trump threatens to demolish Kennedy Center if $250m renovation not done
The John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts could be demolished if repairs are not carried out, the Trump administration warned in a court filing on Monday.
Lawyers for the US president said the national arts complex in Washington DC must undergo a $250m renovation or risk facing the wrecking ball.
“Without those efforts, the Center will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down, with a determination to follow on what to build on the site, such as a large outdoor amphitheater overlooking the Potomac River that has been proposed, by some, for many years,” they argued.
The warning came as Donald Trump leaves a trail of destruction in Washington, demolishing the East Wing of the White House to make way for a $600m ballroom and ordering a renovation of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool that resulted in algae blooms and a peeling liner.
The court filing represented the first time that Trump’s allies have raised the prospect of knocking down the Kennedy Center – a 100ft-high complex with a concert hall, opera house and theatre – as the dire alternative to closing it for two years of improvements. Such an aggressive move would be sure to face legal challenges, protests and an outcry from historic preservation groups.
The threat emerged on Monday as the administration urged a federal judge to reject a fresh legal challenge to Trump’s efforts to put his name on the Kennedy Center. The dispute has become part of a months-long battle over the president’s attempt to alter the memorial created by Congress in honour of John F Kennedy, the 35th US president, who was assassinated in 1963.
Stanley Druckenmiller, a billionaire investor, said he used artificial intelligence to pen his viral Wall Street Journal op-ed in which he sharply criticized the interference of Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, in the US bond market.
Many news outlets, including the Guardian, covered the editorial, highlighting Druckenmiller’s rebuke of his former mentee, Bessent. As the story circulated online, some readers questioned rhetorical choices that resembled AI-generated text.
On Tuesday, Druckenmiller admitted to using the technology. “I’m not embarrassed by it,” he told Notus.
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page editor, Paul Gigot, defended Druckenmiller in a statement.
“The question for us is whether what we publish from contributors reflects an author’s original argument, and if the author has the standing and credibility to make it. In Stan Druckenmiller’s case, we have had a relationship with him for many years, and nobody can doubt that his op-ed is his genuine opinion,” Gigot said.
He also called AI “a fact of modern life”.
US halts all immigrant visa applications amid tightening restrictions
All US immigrant visa applications have been paused by the Trump administration as the state department moves to tighten restrictions and limit access to applicants who they deem could end up relying on US assistance, a state department official confirmed Tuesday.
The agency launched the initiative at all embassies and consulates in early August, according to the official and visa appointments had to be adjusted to accommodate “in-depth training”, according to the official. The state department has been working on updated guidance and training since early this year, “to ensure all consular officers are fully equipped to evaluate every visa applicant comprehensively and consistently”, they added.
Financial Times reports that applicants with interviews already scheduled were sent emails that their appointments had been canceled and that they would be informed of a new date and time.
Agency officials claim this will ensure visa applicants will not end up relying on US public benefits. But it’s part of a slate of strategies the Trump administration has employed to crack down on both lawful and undocumented immigration and create a more selective process for who can gain entry into the system.
This week the Trump administration also announced plans to revoke visas from asylum seekers who initially entered the country for tourism or business. Up to 200,000 people currently seeking asylum could be impacted, marking what would end up being the largest mass pulling of visas in the history of the US. The action is being taken in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security.
USS Abraham Lincoln will stop in Thailand on its way home from lengthy deployment in Middle East
The US aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln will make a stop in Thailand after its deployment in the Middle East, Thai officials said.
The Lincoln was supporting the US war against Iran, and its deployment included a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea of more than 250 days, AP reported.
Concerns have grown about the Lincoln’s lengthy deployment following reports of deteriorating mental health among the crew and shortages of supplies including food and hygiene products.
Thai defense ministry spokesperson Surasant Kongsiri said that the Lincoln will stop in Thailand next week for rest and recovery before returning to its US base.
“The stop in Thailand is a chance for the crew to go ashore and relax,” he told reporters at a news conference in Bangkok.
Two Dan Sullivans to appear on Alaska’s US Senate ballot in November’s midterm elections
Republican senator Dan S Sullivan will be joined on the November ballot in Alaska by a challenger with a nearly identical name from the same party, election officials confirmed on Tuesday, adding a twist to what is expected to be one of the most hotly contested races of the midterms.
The Republican senator is running for a third term against Democrat Mary Peltola, a former US House representative whom polls show is neck-and-neck with him in a state that hasn’t sent a Democrat to the Senate since 2008.
Alaska holds nonpartisan primaries in which the top four vote-getters advance to the general election. The Associated Press reported that with 85% of the ballots counted, Dan J Sullivan, a retired school teacher and US Forest Service employee running as a Republican, would appear on the ballot alongside incumbent Dan S Sullivan and Peltola, with a fourth candidate yet to be announced.
The other Sullivan entered the race earlier this year, with the incumbent senator condemning him as a “sham” candidate who is running at the behest of Democrats to confuse his supporters and split their votes.
In June, Alaska election officials disqualified the other Sullivan from the election, but the state supreme court ordered him restored. The two were listed next to each other among the 16 candidates on primary ballots, but the senator had “registered Republican” and “incumbent” next to his name, while his similarly named challenger was unadorned.
It’s unclear how much of a threat the other Sullivan may pose to the senator’s chances of winning re-election. His 2.5% of the vote is much less than the more than 48% received by Peltola and almost 43% senator Sullivan won in last week’s primary.
Abortion rights group endorses Democrat Troy Jackson in critical Maine Senate race
One of the oldest abortion rights groups in the US is endorsing Troy Jackson, the Democratic nominee in Maine’s critical US Senate race, according to details first shared with the Guardian.
Reproductive Freedom for All is supporting Jackson, the former state senate president, in challenging Susan Collins – the five‑term Republican incumbent who has been dogged on the campaign trail for her role in overturning abortion access in the US.
Collins voted in 2018 to confirm conservative justice Brett Kavanaugh to the supreme court. In 2022, Kavanaugh joined the majority opinion overturning Roe v Wade, a landmark abortion rights protection. In the aftermath, more than a dozen states enacted near‑total abortion bans. This year’s midterm elections mark the first time Collins is on the ballot since the decision.
“Flipping the Maine Senate race is a critical path to winning a Senate majority, and we do not restore a federal right to abortion without flipping the Senate majority,” said Mini Timmaraju, the group’s president.
Timmaraju will join Jackson on Wednesday in Brunswick for the launch of the campaign’s Women for Troy coalition.
Darline Graham wins South Carolina GOP nomination to replace her late brother in US Senate
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
Senator Darline Graham has won the Republican nomination to replace her late brother, Lindsey, on South Carolina’s general election ballot.
Her success marks another win for president Donald Trump after he threw his support behind the political novice.
Graham defeated US representative Ralph Norman in Tuesday’s special Republican primary runoff, two weeks after they were the top two finishers in a 10-way primary.
With nearly all of the ballots counted, Graham had received 52.4% of the vote, according to the Associated Press, ahead of Norman’s 47.6%.
Lindsey Graham, a US senator for more than two decades, won the party’s primary in June, but died the next month. Days later, Darline Graham, was appointed to serve out the remainder of her brother’s Senate term.
“The critics say I shouldn’t run for the Senate,” she told a rally audience Friday. “They say I’m not a politician. You know what I say? Guilty as charged.”
Graham will face the Democratic nominee Annie Andrews, a Charleston-area pediatrician, in November. Andrews faces steep historical odds; the last Democrat to win a statewide race in South Carolina was state superintendent Jim Rex in 2006.
Trump recommended the appointment of Darline Graham, a career civil servant who was head of South Carolina’s Commission for the Blind, then encouraged her to run for a full term – upending a Republican scramble to select a new Senate nominee.
“What I really want you to do is pretend – please – that I’m on the ballot,” Trump said at a rally in Myrtle Beach on Friday. “Just come and vote.” Trump’s Maga Inc Super Pac spent more than $800,000 in support of Graham during the campaign.
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In other developments:
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The US supreme court lifted one of two injunctions that block the Trump administration from pressing ahead with a sweeping effort to restrict mail voting
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The court’s decision “needlessly injects chaos and uncertainty into the upcoming midterm elections”, justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote in a blistering dissent.
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The NAACP, which sued in April to block the order to restrict mail-in voting, said that Republicans are trying to make it harder to vote in November because they “know full well that they are unpopular and will lose in a free and fair election”.
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The Trump administration is preparing to revoke the visas of up to 200,000 foreigners who have applied for asylum status in the United States, according to US state department documents obtained by the Associated Press.
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Donald Trump responded to criticism of his new tariffs on Canadian imports from the premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, by comparing him unfavorably to his late brother, Rob Ford, a former mayor of Toronto best known for smoking crack.
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US treasury secretary Scott Bessent announced that the US has begun an “unprecedented” sanctions campaign against Iran “and its enablers”.
