Scrutiny on the nine justices is about to reach a new level of intensity as Trump aggressively asserts executive power
Context may be everything in the precedent-shattering era of the current US supreme court.
For several years – since conservatives, gained a six-three majority on the bench thanks to Donald Trump’s nominations during his first presidency – the court has been delivering transformative rulings that have reverberated across the social and political landscape.
Continue reading...President said US would turn attention to drug trafficking happening on land during speech at navy ceremony
US forces on Saturday evening struck another vessel illegally carrying drugs off the coast of Venezuela, Donald Trump said on Sunday to thousands of sailors at a ceremony celebrating the US navy’s 250th anniversary. He added that the US would also start looking at drug trafficking happening on land.
Trump made the comment during a speech at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia, next to the Harry S Truman aircraft carrier. It was not immediately clear if he was referencing a strike announced on Friday by defense secretary Pete Hegseth.
Continue reading...Mike Johnson adds Trump does not want permanent job cuts as talks between parties stalled over weekend
The Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, accused Democrats of being “not serious” in negotiations to end the federal government shutdown, while the Democratic leader accused Republicans of driving the shutdown, now on its fifth day and expected to last at least through next week.
Talks between the opposing political parties stalled over the weekend, with no votes anticipated to end the standoff. A CBS poll found just 28% of Democratic voters and 23% of Republicans consider their party’s positions worth shutting down the government.
Continue reading...Singer jokes on SNL that everyone was happy about his planned half-time show, ‘even Fox News’
Bad Bunny responded to homeland security secretary Kristi Noem’s threats to send federal immigration enforcement agents to the Super Bowl next year, joking during Saturday Night Live that everyone was happy about his planned half-time performance, “even Fox News”.
The 31-year-old Puerto Rican singer who has criticized the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration policies hosted the season premiere of Saturday Night Live, using his opening monologue to address controversy around his 2026 Super Bowl performance.
Continue reading...Homeland security secretary takes aim at city’s mayor who has called deployment of national guard ‘unhinged’
Kristi Noem, Donald Trump’s homeland security secretary, called Chicago “a war zone” on Sunday after federal agents shot a woman and the governor of Illinois accused the administration of fueling the crisis rather than resolving it.
Speaking on Fox News Sunday morning, Noem took aim at the city’s mayor, Brandon Johnson, who has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration’s Ice raids and deployment of the national guard in Illinois, a measure he called “unhinged and unhealthy”.
Continue reading...Secretary of state says ‘we’ll know very quickly whether Hamas is serious or not’ about release of hostages from Gaza
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said on Sunday that the war in Gaza has not ended, despite Israel and Hamas both agreeing to aspects of Donald Trump’s plan for an end to the almost two-year conflict in Gaza.
“We will know very quickly whether Hamas is serious or not by how these technical talks go in terms of the logistics,” Rubio told NBC News’ Meet the Press about the release of hostages from Gaza.
Continue reading...The US president’s recent behavior is strange to many, from reposting a false AI video of himself to confusing comments during press conferences
To many observers, both in the US and abroad, Donald Trump has been behaving strangely recently. Especially online.
As a government shutdown loomed in the US last week, the president posted an AI video which depicted Hakeem Jeffries, the first Black House minority leader, wearing a sombrero and exaggerated moustache, with mariachi music playing in the background.
Continue reading...As well as embracing ‘beautiful coal’, the president has set about obliterating clean energy projects
Continue reading...Illinois governor JB Pritzker says administration is escalating ‘aggression against Illinois citizens and residents’
Donald Trump has moved to deploy the national guard in another city by authorizing 300 troops to protect federal officers and assets in Chicago, where the government said border patrol agents shot and injured a woman while firing at someone who tried to run them over.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson confirmed that the president had authorized using Illinois national guard members, citing what she called “ongoing violent riots and lawlessness” that local leaders have not quelled.
Continue reading...US district judge agrees with Oregon assertion that deployment would likely inflame rather than calm protests in city
A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from deploying the national guard to Portland, Oregon, according to court documents.
Donald Trump had announced on 27 September that he would deploy troops to Portland, “authorizing Full Force, if necessary”, ignoring pleas from local officials and the state’s congressional delegation, who suggested that the president was misinformed or lying about the nature and scale of a single, small protest outside one federal immigration enforcement office.
Continue reading...US treasurer says officials looking at drafts for country’s 250th anniversary featuring president with raised fist
To commemorate the 250th anniversary of the US’s independence, the treasury department is mulling production of a $1 coin displaying Donald Trump with a clenched first under an American flag and the words “fight, fight, fight”.
The words overtly reference what Trump said immediately after narrowly surviving an assassination attempt four months before he won a second presidency.
Continue reading...Homeland security chief also excoriates NFL for selecting Bad Bunny to perform during game’s half-time break
Kristi Noem, Donald Trump’s homeland security secretary, has said that only Americans should attend next year’s Super Bowl and warned that Ice agents “will be all over” the event.
Speaking to the rightwing podcaster Benny Johnson on Friday, Noem also said the NFL will “not be able to sleep at night” over its decision to choose Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican rapper who has criticized the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration policies, as its half-time performer.
Continue reading...The move comes as GLP-1 drug prices have soared as supply continues to be increasingly limited
Costco has struck an agreement with drugmaker Novo Nordisk to make anti-obesity GLP-1 medications such as Ozempic and Wegovy available to its members at roughly half the usual cost.
Through the store’s prescription program, members with a valid prescription can buy a four-week supply of the injectables for $499. The offer is available only to those paying out of pocket, since many insurers still do not cover these medications.
Continue reading...A 13-year-old and a four-year-old died in shooting as police say all parties involved have been detained
Two children were killed and two more were critically injured in a shooting early on Saturday near the Houston suburb of Angleton, Texas, authorities said.
The Brazoria county sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post that deputies responded to reports of the shooting and found two children, ages 13 and four, fatally shot. Two other children, aged eight and nine, were flown by medical helicopter to a hospital and were in critical condition.
Continue reading...Anthony Salisbury displayed chat about deployment of 82nd airborne division on cell phone while in Minnesota
A senior White House official accidentally leaked details of plans to send an elite army unit to Portland, in the latest intelligence leak by the Trump administration.
Anthony Salisbury, a top deputy to Stephen Miller, the influential White House policy adviser, was observed using Signal in a public place to discuss a plan to deploy the army’s 82nd airborne division to Portland, the Democratic-run Oregon city which Donald Trump has repeatedly castigated as being “war-ravaged”.
Continue reading...Justices’ order puts on hold lower-court ruing that found officials had wrongly ended temporary protected status
The US supreme court on Friday allowed Donald Trump’s administration to strip legal protections from more than 300,000 Venezuelan migrants.
The justices issued an emergency order, which will last as long as the court case continues, putting on hold a lower-court ruling by US district judge Edward Chen in San Francisco that found the president’s administration had wrongly ended temporary protected status (TPS) for the Venezuelans. The three liberal justices dissented.
Continue reading...Police thought bottle contained drugs and arrested Kapil Raghu, who was then taken into custody by Ice
An Arkansas man, who was detained for a month by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) after authorities mistook his bottle of perfume for opium, is seeking to have his visa status restored after the charges were dropped.
Kapil Raghu, an Indian national married to an American woman and working towards American citizenship, was detained on 3 May after police officers in Benton, a suburb of Little Rock, pulled him over for having a non-moving traffic violation, according to his attorney, Mike Laux.
Continue reading...Pentagon chief says strike – fourth by US military in recent weeks – targeted boat with ‘substantial amounts’ of drugs
The United States carried out a strike against an alleged drug-trafficking boat on Friday that killed four people, US defense secretary Pete Hegseth said, a day after the Trump administration told Congress it was entering a new “non-international armed conflict” with cartels.
The strike, which Hegseth said he directed on Donald Trump’s orders, appears to be at least the fourth in recent weeks. Hegseth gave few details about the boat or the evidence that it was carrying narcotics, other than saying the US had confirmed it was carrying drugs.
Continue reading...Removal comes after Emmy-winning Salvadorian reporter was arrested while covering ‘No Kings Day’ protest
Journalist Mario Guevara’s imprisonment by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (Ice) ended with deportation to El Salvador on Friday, his family announced on social media.
Guevara has been a media mainstay in the Atlanta area for about 20 years, after fleeing El Salvador to escape leftwing militias in 2004. Though he has a work permit and two of his children are American citizens, he has operated under the “administrative closure” of deportation orders for much of that time.
Continue reading...Rapper to be sentenced on two counts that each carry maximum 10-year term – what might the judge decide?
Sean “Diddy” Combs is scheduled to be sentenced on Friday morning by a federal judge in New York, following his conviction earlier this year on federal prostitution-related charges.
Here’s a recap of his criminal case: what he was indicted for, what happened at trial, and what might happen next.
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