US issues sanctions against Francesca Albanese, UN official investigating abuses in Gaza

Trump administration targets special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, in latest action against critics of Israel’s war

The Trump administration announced on Wednesday it was issuing sanctions against an independent official tasked with investigating human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories, the latest effort by the United States to punish critics of Israel’s 21-month war in Gaza.

The state department’s decision to sanction Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, comes after a recent US pressure campaign to force the international body to remove her from her post failed.

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Trump sues California over transgender athletes in girls’ school sports

Justice department says state policy violates Title IX, which offers legal protection against sex discrimination

The Trump administration has sued California over its policies allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls’ school sports, alleging that their participation violates federal anti-discrimination laws.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, claims that California’s policies violate Title IX, which affords legal protection against sex discrimination.

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Kennedy touts ultra-processed meals he once called ‘poison’

Health secretary backs company criticized for selling junk-laden meals to Medicaid patients on ‘Make America healthy again’ tour

Health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr promoted a company whose meals contain ultra-processed ingredients – which he has repeatedly railed against – on his “Make America healthy again” tour.

Kennedy appeared at an enormous food plant in Oklahoma for a company called Mom’s Meals, which makes 1.5m “medically tailored” meals each week and ships them all over the country.

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Travelers no longer required to take off shoes for security at some US airports

TSA ends screening check in place for almost 20 years after Richard Reid’s failed attempt to take down flight in 2001

For the first time in almost 20 years, travelers are no longer be required to take off their shoes during security screenings at certain US airports, Kristi Noem, the Department of Homeland Security secretary, announced on Tuesday.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has abandoned the additional security step that has for years bedeviled anyone passing through US airports, according to media reports.

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US supreme court clears way for Trump officials to resume mass government firings

Justices lift lower court order that froze ‘reductions in force’ federal layoffs while litigation in case proceeded

The US supreme court has cleared the way for Donald Trump’s administration to resume plans for mass firings of federal workers that critics warn could threaten critical government services.

Extending a winning streak for the US president, the justices on Tuesday lifted a lower court order that had frozen sweeping federal layoffs known as “reductions in force” while litigation in the case proceeds.

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Texas floods: more than 100 people dead and at least 161 still missing

Texas governor Greg Abbott said many people staying in state’s Hill Country still unaccounted for as questions mount over official response to disaster

Rescue crews continued on Tuesday to comb through parts of the Texas Hill Country devastated by catastrophic flash flooding over the Fourth of July weekend, but with more than 100 dead and hope fading for survivors, efforts have increasingly turned to search and recovery.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the death toll across the six affected counties surpassed 100. Most of the deaths were in Kerr county, where officials said 87 bodies had so far been recovered, including 56 adults and 30 children. Identification was pending for 19 adults and seven children with one additional person still unidentified, county sheriff Larry Leitha told a news conference.

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Netanyahu nominates Trump for Nobel peace prize at White House meeting

US leader upbeat on Gaza ceasefire prospects but does not share any additional details on preparations

Benjamin Netanyahu told Donald Trump that he would nominate him for the Nobel peace prize on Monday, as the two leaders met for the first time since the US launched strikes on Iran’s nuclear program as part of a short-lived war between Israel and Iran.

Trump was expected to press Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire in Israel’s 21-month-old war against Hamas in Gaza amid an outcry over the humanitarian cost of an offensive that has led to nearly 60,000 deaths, most of them Palestinian.

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Trump ends deportation protections for people from Honduras and Nicaragua

DHS said it would terminate temporary protected status for an estimated 72,000 Hondurans and 4,000 Nicaraguans

The Trump administration has ended temporary protections for people from Honduras and Nicaragua in the latest phase of its effort to expel undocumented people from the US.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced it would end temporary protected status (TPS) for an estimated 72,000 Hondurans and 4,000 Nicaraguans in moves that will come into effect in about 60 days.

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Tony Blair thinktank worked with project developing ‘Trump Riviera’ Gaza plan

Staff at former UK PM’s institute took part in calls as proposal led by US consulting firm and Israeli business people evolved

Tony Blair’s thinktank worked with a project developing a postwar Gaza plan that included the creation of a “Trump Riviera” and a manufacturing zone named after Elon Musk.

The project, led by Israeli business people and using financial models developed by the US consulting firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG), was developed against the backdrop of Donald Trump’s vision of taking over the Palestinian territory and transforming it into a resort.

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Boxer Julio César Chávez Jr was a cartel henchman, Mexican prosecutors claim

Prosecutors say Chávez treated gang rivals ‘like a punchbag’ after Ice arrested the former world champion in California

The Mexican boxer Julio César Chávez Jr was a henchman for the Sinaloa drugs cartel and used his skills to pummel rival gang members “like a punchbag” before his recent arrest in the US, prosecutors in Mexico have alleged.

Chávez, 39, son of legendary world boxing champion Julio César Chávez Sr and himself a former middleweight titleholder, was arrested in California on Tuesday by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents, who cited cartel affiliations, multiple criminal convictions and an active arrest warrant in Mexico for weapons trafficking and organized crime.

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Musk should stay out of politics, treasury secretary says after ‘America’ party news

Scott Bessent suggests Musk focus on business a day after tech billionaire announced his new political party

Elon Musk should focus on running his companies and keep himself out of politics, Donald Trump’s treasury secretary said on Sunday, a day after the world’s richest person – and a former White House adviser – announced the formation of a new political party.

“The principles of Doge were very popular – I think if you looked at the polling Elon was not,” Scott Bessent said on CNN’s State of the Union, referring to the so-called “department of government efficiency” that Musk temporarily headed after Trump’s second presidency began in January.

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‘I want my vote back’: Trump-voting family stunned after Canadian mother detained over immigration status

Family of Cynthia Olivera reconsiders support for president after Ice detained her at green card interview

The family of a Canadian national who supported Donald Trump’s plans for mass deportations of immigrants say they are feeling betrayed after federal agents recently detained the woman in California while she interviewed for permanent US residency – and began working to expel her from the country.

“We feel totally blindsided,” Cynthia Olivera’s husband – US citizen and self-identified Trump voter Francisco Olivera – told the California news station KGTV. “I want my vote back.”

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‘Blatant misinformation’: Social Security Administration email praising Trump’s tax bill blasted as a ‘lie’

Previously apolitical agency lauds Trump’s spending bill with false statements about federal taxes, experts say

An email sent by the US Social Security Administration (SSA) that claims Donald Trump’s major new spending bill has eliminated taxes on benefits for most recipients is misleading, critics have said.

The reconciliation bill – which the president called the “one big, beautiful bill” before signing it on Friday after Republicans in Congress passed it – includes provisions that will strip people of their health insurance, cut food assistance for the poor, kill off clean energy development and raise the national debt by trillions of dollars.

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US judge clears path for eight immigrants to be deported to South Sudan

Justice department says the men – including nationals from Vietnam, South Korea, Mexico, Laos, Cuba and Myanmar – will be flown to South Sudan

Eight migrants lost their last-ditch effort to halt their deportation to South Sudan by the Trump administration on Friday, clearing the way for their imminent transfer after a judge in Massachusetts denied their request.

Lawyers for the justice department said the men were scheduled to be flown to South Sudan on Friday at 7pm Eastern Time after two courts considered the request on an emergency basis on 4 July, when courts were otherwise closed for the Independence Day holiday.

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Trump has ‘good conversation’ with Zelenskyy after heavy bombardment of Ukraine by Russia

US munitions slated for Ukraine held up over shortage as Trump ‘disappointed’ by Putin’s refusal to make concessions

Donald Trump spoke with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on Friday as the US president appears increasingly disheartened over his chances of fulfilling a campaign pledge to end the war between Russia and Ukraine.

The call with Zelenskyy comes as Washington has halted its latest shipment of military aid to Ukraine including Patriot air defense missiles and other crucial munitions meant to support the country’s defenses.

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A ceasefire in Gaza appears to be close. Here’s why it could happen now

A weakened Hamas plus Israel’s war with Iran have given Netanyahu a boost, raising hopes of a pause in fighting

After nearly 21 months of bloody war, it now appears a question of when rather than if a new ceasefire brings a pause to the fighting that has devastated Gaza, destabilised the region and horrified onlookers across the world.

On Friday, Donald Trump said he expected Hamas to agree within 24 hours to a deal that Israel has already accepted. Analysts predict a formal announcement after Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, arrives in Washington on Monday on his third visit to the White House since Trump began his current term.

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El Salvador’s president denies that Kilmar Ábrego García was abused in notorious prison

Nayib Bukele disputed claims of Ábrego García’s lawyers that he was tortured and deprived of sleep while in custody

The president of El Salvador has denied claims that Kilmar Ábrego García was subjected to beatings and deprivation while he was held in the country before being returned to the US to face human-smuggling charges.

Nayib Bukele said in a social media post that Ábrego García, the Salvadorian national who was wrongly extradited from the US to El Salvador in March before being returned in June, “wasn’t tortured, nor did he lose weight”.

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Trump says US to start sending tariff rates letters to trading partners

Letters to be sent to countries without a deal in place before end of 90-day pause on 9 July

Donald Trump has said the US will start sending letters to trading partners setting out tariff rates that countries will have to pay from the beginning of next month.

The US president told the media that about “10 or 12” letters would be sent out on Friday, with further letters sent out over the “next few days”.

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Trump’s big bill achieved what conservatives have been trying to do for decades

The Republican fantasy of lower taxes and hard-to-access social safety net programs will now be a reality

For decades, Republicans have argued that the US would be better off if taxes were low, and programs to help low-income Americans were harder to access. With Donald Trump’s marquee tax and spending bill now set to become law, the country will find out what it’s like to live under that sort of system.

The massive legislation that Trump plans to sign Friday will make his campaign promises a reality by extending tax cuts enacted during his first term, and creating new deductions aimed at the working-class voters who backed his re-election.

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US supreme court clears way for deportation of migrants to South Sudan

Court halts ruling that allowed migrants to challenge removal to countries where they could be in danger

The supreme court has allowed the Trump administration to deport the eight men who have been held for weeks at an American military base in Djibouti to war-torn South Sudan, a country where almost none of them have ties.

Most of the men are from countries including Vietnam, South Korea, Mexico, Laos, Cuba and Myanmar. Just one is from South Sudan.

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