‘Deeply ashamed’ Larry Summers steps back from public life over Epstein links

Former treasury secretary steps away to ‘rebuild trust’ after severe backlash but will continue teaching Harvard classes

The Harvard professor and economist Larry Summers said he would be stepping back from public life after documents released by the House oversight committee revealed email exchanges between Summers and the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who called himself Summers’ “wing man”.

Politico reported on Monday that Summers, a former treasury secretary, expressed deep regret for past messages with Epstein.

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US electricity bills increased by 11% in Trump’s second term, data shows

New analysis prompts letter to Trump from Elizabeth Warren: ‘Your administration has no answers for families hit by high energy costs’

Donald Trump promised to slash US electricity bills, but they have increased by 11% since he retook the White House, new data shows.

Democratic lawmakers highlighted the figures in a letter sent to Trump on Friday. “Your administration has no explanations for its failures and no answers for American families that are hit hard by high energy costs, and it continues to actively pursue policies to make this cost crisis worse,” reads the missive, led by Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator.

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Democrats blast state department for lack of ‘basic oversight’ of controversial Gaza food organization

Letter by senior Democrats asks state department to reveal details behind financing of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation

Senior Democratic senators have called on the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, to reveal details behind the financing and oversight of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) amid concerns over rising death tolls near aid sites, the group’s apparent coordination with the Israeli army and its reported use of private military contractors linked to intelligence operations.

The letter, co-signed by senators Elizabeth Warren, Chris Van Hollen and Peter Welch, accuses the state department of an “inability to answer basic questions about GHF in a timely manner” and said that the department’s “overriding of internal protocol and staff warnings is particularly concerning given it is unlikely to be able to conduct basic oversight of the funds it provided to GHF”.

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Amazon reports better-than-expected earnings despite tumult of Trump tariffs

Company exceeds expectations for third quarter in a row as chief executive Andy Jassy admits uncertainty over tariffs

Amazon reported strong first-quarter earnings for the 2025 fiscal year on Thursday after the New York stock exchange closed – results that will be seen in the context of consumer resilience in the face of Donald Trump’s tariff wars.

Amazon reported $1.59 in earnings-per-share (EPS) and revenue of $155.67bn. Analysts had estimated that the company’s EPS would come in at $1.36 on revenue of $155bn. In particular focus: Amazon’s advertising business, which grew 19% in the first quarter of 2025, handily exceeding analyst expectations as well. The company has exceeded Wall Street’s expectations for the previous two quarters.

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Progressive Democrats accuse Trump and Musk of ‘a plutocratic coup’

Lawmakers point to shutting of USAid and accessing federal payment system as markings of ‘constitutional crisis’

Progressive lawmakers condemned Donald Trump and Elon Musk on Monday, pointing to the attempted shuttering of the foreign aid agency USAid and the accessing of the treasury department’s federal payment system as the markings of a “constitutional crisis”.

After Musk declared that he was working to shut down USAid, Democratic members of Congress tried to enter the agency’s Washington headquarters but said they were turned away on the orders of Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge). USAid staffers were also locked out of the building on Monday, as the White House confirmed plans to merge the agency with the state department.

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Elizabeth Warren denounces Biden administration over Gaza humanitarian situation

Massachusetts senator now joins Bernie Sanders in endorsing joint resolution of disapproval against Joe Biden

Elizabeth Warren, a leading progressive voice in the US Senate, has denounced the Biden administration’s failure to punish Israel over the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza and endorsed a joint resolution of disapproval in Congress.

The amount of aid reaching the territory has dropped to the lowest level in 11 months, official Israeli figures show. The White House last month gave Israel an ultimatum of 30 days to improve conditions or risk losing military support. As the deadline expired on Tuesday, international aid groups said Israel had fallen far short.

But the US state department announced it would not take any punitive action, insisting that Israel was making limited progress and was not blocking aid and therefore not violating US law. Warren condemned the Biden administration’s decision to continue supplying arms to its ally.

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Elizabeth Warren condemns Trump for ‘changing his tune’ on IVF

Democratic senator says Republican nominee trying to have it ‘both ways’ and adapting position to his audience

The US senator Elizabeth Warren has accused Donald Trump of trying to have it “both ways” with in vitro fertilization (IVF), two days after the former president vowed to force health insurance companies or the federal government to pay for the treatments if he is elected in November.

Speaking on MSNBC, Warren said Trump was simply adapting his positions according to what he perceived his audience’s preference to be.

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Swifties for Kamala rally raises nearly $140,000 for Harris

Fan group holds Zoom call featuring Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand and ‘original cat lady’ Carole King

Taylor Swift has yet to publicly endorse a candidate, but some of her fanbase are already mobilizing for Kamala Harris. The Swifties for Kamala Coalition officially launched on Tuesday, raising more than $138,000 for the Democratic candidate in a virtual rally featuring Carole King and the senators Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand.

Swift, who has no affiliation with the group, was not present on the Zoom call nor involved in the event. The group has amassed about 250 million followers on social media platforms since Joe Biden dropped out of the race in late July and endorsed the vice-president.

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Elizabeth Warren urges regulators to block Capital One’s takeover of Discover

Senator says $35bn deal merging two of the largest US credit card firms would ‘threaten financial stability’ and reduce competition

Senator Elizabeth Warren has urged regulators to block Capital One’s $35bn takeover of Discover Financial, arguing that combining two of the US’s largest credit card companies would harm consumers and challenge financial stability.

The blockbuster deal would inevitably lead to higher costs and fees for cardholders, according to the leftwing senator.

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Elizabeth Warren says Fed chair ‘failed’ and calls for inquiry into bank collapse

Progressive Democrat launches offensive on politicians on the left and the right who supported Trump-era deregulation of US banks

Political fall-out in the US from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank continued on Sunday when leftwing Senator Elizabeth Warren hit the morning talk shows and repeatedly called for an independent investigation into US bank failures and strongly criticised Federal Reserve finance officials.

The progressive Democrat from Massachusetts, who has positioned herself as a consumer protection advocate and trenchant critic of the US banking system, told CBS’s Face the Nation that she did not have faith in San Francisco Federal Reserve president Mary Daly or Fed chairman Jerome Powell.

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‘They set a torch to it’: Warren says court lost legitimacy with Roe reversal

Top Democrats again call for appointing additional justices to blunt conservative super-majority which made ruling possible

Leading Democrats on Sunday continued calling the supreme court’s legitimacy into question after it took away the nationwide right to abortion last week, and some again lobbied for appointing additional justices to the panel so as to blunt the conservative super-majority which made the controversial ruling possible.

The Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren suggested to ABC’s This Week that there was urgency to do that because supreme court justice Clarence Thomas indicated within Friday’s decision to overturn the landmark Roe v Wade ruling that he’s open to reconsidering precedents guaranteeing contraception, same-sex marriage rights and consensual gay sex.

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Senator and congressman condemn Amazon for promoting anti-vaxxer books

Elizabeth Warren and Adam Schiff have written to complain about search algorithms that appear to spread misinformation

American senator Elizabeth Warren has accused Amazon of “peddling misinformation about Covid-19 vaccines and treatments” through its search and bestseller algorithms, after the online retail giant pushed a book by an author the New York Times called “the most influential spreader of coronavirus misinformation online”.

Searching for Covid-19 on the site gives the top result as Joseph Mercola and Ronnie Cummins’s The Truth About Covid-19, a title that claims to reveal how the “effectiveness of the vaccines has been wildly exaggerated”, how the virus was lab-engineered in Wuhan, and how “safe, simple, and inexpensive treatment and prevention for Covid-19 have been censored and suppressed to create a clear path for vaccine acceptance”.

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Democratic national convention day three: Barack Obama & Kamala Harris lead speeches – watch in full

Democrats stage the third night of their online convention after formally nominating Joe Biden as the presidential candidate for November’s election. The main speakers on Wednesday include Barack Obama, Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi

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‘We are not in total control’: Fauci issues stark coronavirus warning – video

Dr Anthony Fauci, the White House infectious diseases expert gave a stark warning to the public of a dangerous surge in coronavirus cases in the US, particularly in the south and west.

Fauci said the current figures ‘speak for themselves’ in the middle of his testimony to the US Senate in response to Senator Elizabeth Warren’s questioning on the spread of the virus as states reopened

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Veep impact: battle to be Joe Biden’s running mate plays out in public

The presumptive Democratic nominee has said his No2 will be a woman and Warren, Abrams, Harris, Whitmer and Klobuchar lead the contenders

Traditionally, American presidential candidates pick vice-presidential running mates largely in secret, outside the view of the public or even members of their own party so as to maximize news value – and not offend those passed over for the job.

But in 2020 – during a campaign already driven mostly online due to the coronavirus pandemic – Joe Biden’s quest to make a vice-presidential pick has been an unusually open, vocal and public audition, both within the campaign and outside it.

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Coronavirus US live: Andrew Cuomo slams Senate leader Mitch McConnell over ‘reckless’ state bankruptcy proposal

Dr Deborah Birx reportedly had to convince Trump to come out against Georgia’s plan to start reopening non-essential businesses this Friday.

Trump said during yesterday’s press conference that he disagreed “strongly” with Georgia governor Brian Kemp’s reopening plan, which many public health experts have warned is dangerously hasty.

At a meeting before Wednesday’s briefing, task force members discussed the likelihood of being asked about [Kemp’s] controversial move to open up many businesses such as nail salons and bowling alleys, [a White House] source added. ...

During the meeting, Dr. Anthony Fauci and other task force members said if the scientists were not in agreement with Trump on the Georgia issue during the news conference it would pose a problem.

Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer said she would likely extend the state’s stay-at-home order while looking at allowing some activties with restrictions in place, emphasizing that the state’s reopening would take place in waves.

“It will permit some activity if our numbers continue to go down and our testing continues to go up,” the Democratic governor told MSNBC this morning. “But It’s too early to say precisely what each wave looks like and when it happens.”

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says reopening has to be "strategic and thoughtful": "I've heard governors across the country, on both sides of the aisle, say it's not going to be like flipping a light switch, we're not just going to go back to pre-Covid 19 posture" pic.twitter.com/6gGHbUkFPC

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Trump campaign sues CNN for ‘false’ statements about Russia and 2020 election – live

  • Campaign files libel lawsuit seeking ‘millions of dollars’
  • Sanders reiterates that he believes his rival Biden can beat Trump
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Oof, that’s a gut-punch to the Trump campaign’s efforts to sue media outlets it doesn’t like over some articles......but not others....

Yet another Trump lawsuit against a news organization, but still no action against the NYT for story that accused Trump in so many words of the crime of tax fraud. That’s beginning to look like a confession, isn’t it? https://t.co/RJep7HRhIC

Mr. Trump did not offer an outright denial of the facts in the report, such as that the money he made during his decades in real estate came from tax schemes of dubious legality, the existence of records of deception in documenting the family’s financial assets, and that the beginning of the president’s so-called self-made fortune dates back to his toddler years when, by the time he was 3 years old, Mr. Trump earned $200,000 a year in today’s dollars from his father.

CNN’s media expert Brian Stelter says libel lawsuits like the one Donald Trump’s re-election campaign just filed against CNN, and prior suits vs the New York Times and the Washington Post won’t succeed and are just a political strategy.

Trump‘s war on the media enters the “performative lawsuit” phase—just in time for 2020. https://t.co/xmrNTzefJA

It’s the latest of a series of libel suits by the campaign aimed at media outlets’ opinion articles on issues linked to Russia. Over the last few weeks, the campaign has also sued the New York Times and the Washington Post, alleging similar motives.

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‘We still have a problem with female authority’: how politics sets a trap for American women

Elizabeth Warren’s departure shines light on a system that is rife with sexism but rejects candidates who address it

“Gender in this race?” Senator Elizabeth Warren said outside her home on Thursday. “You know that is the trap question for every woman. If you say, ‘Yeah! There was sexism in this race,’ everyone says, ‘Whiner!’ And if you say, ‘No, there was no sexism, about a bazillion women think, ‘What planet do you live on?’”

She added: “I promise you this. I will have a lot more to say on that subject later on.”

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