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Senate Democrats use obscure law in attempt to force disclosure of Epstein files

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Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee signed a so-called “five-member letter� to the Justice Department demanding the “full and unredacted� files from the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday.

Schumer said the letter will invoke a little-known law that forces the Justice Department to release the files, suggesting a potential legal battle if the administration ignores the request. Schumer said they are demanding an answer by Aug. 15.

“We are invoking federal law and using our authority as a check on the executive to compel transparency,� Schumer said at a news conference.

Reader question: Can the Trump administration repeal sanctions set in place by the EPA?

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Can the Trump administration actually repeal sanctions set in place by the EPA on its own? How?

Andrew G.

Hey, Andrew. Thanks for your question. In short: yes, the EPA can do this. But there’s a process. To break it down a bit more, we asked AP climate reporter Matthew Daly, who has covered the EPA for years. Here’s what he said:

The EPA under Trump has the ability to propose the rule change, but it has to go through the required legal process, including public comment, before the rule in finalized.

Here is where it gets tricky: The 2009 endangerment finding issued by the Obama administration was based on a 2007 Supreme Court ruling, in a case known as Massachusetts vs. EPA, that determined the EPA has legal authority to regulate greenhouse gases as air pollutants under the Clean Air Act.

Opponents of the rule change are virtually certain to challenge the Trump proposal in court. They say EPA is seeking to deny settled science and settled law by creating legal distinctions that have no basis in the law. Abigail Dillen, president of the environmental law firm Earthjustice, said EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and the EPA are “pretending that the pollution causing climate change is not hurting us, even as we suffer more devastating climate disasters every year.�

The Trump EPA said, in arguments it has used on other rule-making, that greenhouse gases — which contribute to global warming — don’t pose health dangers to people and, therefore, don’t qualify as air pollutants like smog or other known health risks.

There will be a lot of legal — and scientific — give-and-take over whether that is true.

US Treasury imposing sanctions on Brazil Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes

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The sanctions come over alleged suppression of freedom of expression and are linked to the trial of former President Jair Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro is accused of despite his 2022 election defeat to current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Moraes oversees that case.

“De Moraes is responsible for an oppressive campaign of censorship, arbitrary detentions that violate human rights, and politicized prosecutions — including against former President Jair Bolsonaro,� U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.

Wednesday’s move comes after Trump imposed , set to come into effect on Friday. In his letter on July 9, Trump directly linked the import tax to Bolsonaro’s trial, which he called a “witch hunt.�

Bolsonaro has been an ally to Trump. The U.S. president at his Mar-a-Lago resort when both were in power in 2020.

Trump administration freezes $108 million in federal funding for Duke University, source tells AP

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The National Institutes of Health halted the funding to the private university in North Carolina, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person spoke Wednesday on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

Earlier this week, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Education Department sent a joint letter alleging racial preferences in Duke’s hiring and admissions. Duke did not immediately comment.

The university is the latest institution to have its as the government investigates allegations of antisemitism and diversity, equity and inclusion policies the administration says are unlawful. It follows others including , , and .

Trump’s Wednesday schedule

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At 1:30 p.m., Trump will sign a bill in the Roosevelt Room.

At 4 p.m., he will deliver remarks on Making Health Technology Great Again.

Republican US Sen. Grassley says he was offended by Trump’s social media post on judicial nominations

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Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, walks from the Senate chamber as Senate Republicans vote on President Donald Trump’s request to cancel about $9 billion in foreign aid and public broadcasting spending, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley says he was “offended� by Trump’s social media post that called on him to end a longtime Senate practice that allows home state senators to approve or block some judicial nominees.

In a Truth Social post Tuesday, Trump called on Grassley to have the “courage� to stop using the forms known as blue slips that are submitted to the home state senators, regardless of party. Trump said the custom is now allowing only Democrats or “a weak and ineffective Republican� to be successfully nominated.

“Chuck Grassley, who I got re-elected to the U.S. Senate when he was down, by a lot, in the Great State of Iowa, could solve the “Blue Slip� problem,� Trump posted.

Grassley defended the practice Wednesday morning, saying he was “offended by what the president said, and I’m disappointed that it would result in personal insults.� Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., also defended blue, noting Republicans used them during former President Joe Biden’s tenure. “I don’t sense any rush to change it,� Thune said.

AP poll tracker: Trump’s disapproval rating on trade has been steady

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About 6 in 10 U.S. adults disapprove of the way Trump is handling trade negotiations with other countries, according to an .

The shows response to Trump’s moves on trade has been steady since March, shortly after he took office and . The president’s approval rating on trade negotiations is much more positive among Republicans. About 7 in 10 Republicans approve of his approach, compared with about 3 in 10 independents and roughly 1 in 10 Democrats. A found that Trump’s loyal supporters help explain why views of the president are so stable, even when he pursues policies that most Americans do not support.

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Texas redistricting chair acknowledges effort to win five more seats for GOP

“Everything depends on performance,� said Republican state Rep. Cody Vasut, chair of the Texas House’s redistricting committee, on the new maps. “My understanding is that there is a path forward for a Republican to win five more of those seats.�

Vasut and other Republican lawmakers have spent the first few days of this special session fielding scathing criticism from Democrats who have questioned why new maps needed to be redrawn mid-decade. Hundreds of voters have testified at several Republican-led public hearings. Vasut had repeatedly denied the maps would harm Democratic voters.

Republicans, who hold commanding House and Senate majorities, are rushing to pass them in the 30-day session.

Democrats hope to counter Republican redistricting. Their options are limited

In New York, Democrats introduced a proposal this week to allow the state to redraw its congressional map ahead of schedule, like Texas is doing, but the process is convoluted. It would take years before new districts could emerge, underscoring the difficult spot Democrats are in ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

To amend the state Constitution, it would have to pass the state Legislature twice in two years and then be approved in a voter referendum, meaning that the soonest New York could have new lines would be in 2028.

“We can’t just sit there and watch,� said state Sen. Michael Gianaris, who is sponsoring the proposal. “This is not a battle that’s going to be over in a year.�

GOP mapmaker justifies new districts by touting their racial makeup

Adam Kincaid, executive director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust, which oversees GOP mapmaking, said the new map creates two new Black-majority seats — one in Dallas and the other in the Houston area — and one new majority Hispanic one.

“If you go through it, you’re going to see that a lot of the communities that were broken up in the previous map were put together in this one,� he said.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, won four of the five new GOP-friendly seats in the 2022 election.

Texas governor called special session to reshape the maps at Trump’s request

Gov. Greg Abbott and other Republicans hope the new Texas map will strengthen their chances of holding the U.S. House in 2026, and Trump officials have signaled their efforts may expand beyond the state, with similar pushes now underway in Missouri.

Asked by a Democratic lawmaker on Tuesday if all Texas districts would be withdrawn, Republican state Sen. Phil King said the GOP would be “trying to create more Republican districts to add support to the Republican majority in the U.S. Congress so that some of the really good policies that we’ve seen in the last seven months could continue and be furthered.�

Targeted House Democrat calls Texas GOP move illegal

Rep. Greg Casar says merging the 35th and 37th districts in Texas is an illegal gerrymander that will suppress Black and Latino votes.

“By merging our Central Texas districts, Trump wants to commit yet another crime — this time, against Texas voters and against Martin Luther King’s Voting Rights Act of 1965,� his statement says.

“If Trump is allowed to rip the Voting Rights Act to shreds here in Central Texas, his ploy will spread like wildfire across the country. Everyone who cares about our democracy must mobilize against this illegal map.�

Sen. Ted Cruz isn’t waiting on the NTSB to determine the collision’s cause

The Texas Republican introduced legislation Tuesday that would require all aircraft operators to use both forms of a technology known as ADS-B to broadcast their location data to other planes and air traffic controllers. It would require airlines to add more comprehensive ADS-B technology, and revoke an exemption for Department of Defense aircraft.

“There cannot be a double standard in aviation safety,� Cruz said. “We should not tolerate special exceptions for military training flights, operating in congested air space.�

NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said her agency has been recommending that move for decades as “an immediate and substantial contribution to safety, especially during operations in and around airports.�

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that while he’d like to discuss “a few tweaks,� the legislation is “the right approach.�

Animation shows helicopter and plane colliding

The NTSB hearing opened Wednesday with a video animation showing the locations of the helicopter and airliner leading up to the collision. It showed how the helicopter flew above the 200 feet (61 meters) altitude limit on the helicopter route before colliding with the plane.

Investigators said Wednesday that the flight data recorder showed the helicopter was actually 80 feet to 100 feet (24 to 30 meters) higher than what the barometric altimeter the pilots relied upon showed they were flying. So the NTSB conducted tests on three other helicopters from the same unit in a flight over the same area and found similar discrepancies in their altimeters.

Previously disclosed air traffic control audio had the helicopter pilot telling the controller twice that they saw the airplane and would avoid it.

The animation ended with surveillance video showing the helicopter colliding with the plane in a fiery crash.

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford expects ‘some very uncomfortable conversations’ in NTSB crash hearing

on the over Washington in January have begun. The aim is to reveal new insights into what caused the crash between a passenger plane and an Army helicopter that killed 67 people.

The National Transportation Safety Board will question witnesses and investigators about how the actions of the Federal Aviation Administration and its air traffic controllers and the Army may have contributed to the nation’s deadliest plane crash since November 2001.

The collision between the American Airlines plane from Wichita, Kansas, landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport and a Black Hawk helicopter on a training mission was the first in an alarming and this year, even as statistics show flying remains the safest form of transportation.

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JD Vance-headlined fundraisers bring in $4 million for GOP

The vice president headlined fundraisers for the Republican National Committee on Tuesday in Jackson Hole, Wyoming and Big Sky, Montana, with each event bringing in $2 million, according to a person familiar with the events who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Vance, who also serves as finance chairman for the Republican National Committee, headlined a fundraiser last week on Massachusetts’ Nantucket island that raised $3 million.

Texas Republicans propose new US House map with more winnable GOP seats

Texas Republicans proposed a new U.S. House map Wednesday with more winnable GOP seats as Democrat-led states weigh counter measures.

Republicans currently hold 25 of the state’s 38 seats. The new map would raise the total they could win to 30 — all won by Trump in November by at least 10 percentage points — leading to conservative optimism they can hold them, even in what’s likely to be a tough midterm environment for the party.

The new map would:

1. make two Rio Grande Valley seats narrowly won by Democrats slightly more Republican

2. collapse two seats held by Democrats Lloyd Doggett and Greg Casar in the Austin and San Antonio area into a single liberal district

3. turn two Democratic-held seats in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area into GOP-majority ones

President Biden’s former senior advisor appears on Capitol Hill

Steve Richetti, one of Biden’s closest confidantes, took no questions as he entered the House Oversight Committee hearing room.

Richetti voluntarily appeared before the committee, in contrast to two former White House aides and Biden’s physician, who were issued subpoenas compelling their testimony.

Former White House chief of staff Ron Klain testified last week and answered Republicans’ questions about Biden’s mental state and the use of the autopen. Others have declined to answer questions, citing their Fifth Amendment rights.

The committee’s Republican chairman James Comer vowed on social media this week that if former staff continue to invoke their Fifth Amendment rights, “the likelihood of subpoenas going to Biden family members will only grow.�

Senate Democrats say Trump’s allies have violated the law by pushing House map redraw

They’re accusing senior Trump administration officials of illegally mixing campaign activity with official duties while urging states to give Republicans more advantages by redrawing congressional maps.

Sens. Alex Padilla, Dick Durbin, Adam Schiff and Sheldon Whitehouse have asked the Office of Special Counsel to investigate whether officials in the White House and Department of Justice broke the Hatch Act, which prohibits government officials from using their official roles to influence elections.

The law exempts the president, but not his aides or allies, from “impermissible partisan political activity.�

“The President and his allies have made their redistricting motivations clear — the goal is to advantage the Republican party in the 2026 midterms,� the senators wrote.

Federal Reserve likely to leave key interest rate unchanged Wednesday

Fed Chair Jerome Powell is expected to reiterate his view during a 2:30 p.m. Wednesday news conference that tariffs could push up inflation, and that the central bank wants to see how the economy evolves in the coming months before reducing its short-term rate.

Fed rate cuts can sometimes — — reduce other borrowing costs for things like mortgages, car loans, and credit cards.

Trump repeated his call for the rate cuts Wednesday morning, pointing to a report that the U.S. economy expanded at a healthy 3% annual rate in the second quarter. But the Fed typically cuts its short-term rate when it worries the economy is slowing, not in response to positive economic news.

Wednesday’s better-than-expected economic growth report followed a negative reading of 0.5% in the first three months of the year, and most economists focused on an average of the two, for a more modest underlying growth rate of about 1.25%.

One of the Fed governors, Trump appointee Christopher Waller, has said he supports a rate cut because he worries the economy is slowing, with overall sluggish growth a sign of weakness. Waller is expected to dissent from today’s decision to keep rates unchanged.

FDA vaccine chief leaving agency after less than 3 months

The Food and Drug Administration’s polarizing vaccine chief is leaving the agency after a brief tenure that drew the ire of biotech companies, patient groups and conservative allies of Trump.

Dr. Vinay Prasad “did not want to be a distraction� and was stepping down as the FDA’s top vaccine regulator “to spend more time with his family,� a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement late Tuesday.

Chinese foreign ministry sees ‘no winners in a tariff war’

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said Thursday that Beijing hopes the U.S. side would follow through on the “important consensus� reached between Trump and Xi in a phone call to promote stable relations between the world’s two largest economies.

But Guo reiterated China’s stance on U.S. objections to its purchases of oil and gas from Russia, which U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent raised during the talks in Stockholm, threatening more tariffs.

“China will take reasonable measures to ensure energy security in accordance with its national interests,� Guo said. “There are no winners in a tariff war. Coercion and pressure will not solve the problem. China will resolutely safeguard its sovereignty, security and development interests.�

China remains one of the biggest trade challenges for the Trump administration

The inconclusive trade talks in Stockholm left open the question of higher tariffs on Chinese exports to the United States.

Many analysts had expected a resolution extending current tariff levels — 30% on Chinese goods and 10% on U.S. products — but that didn’t happen either.

The politburo meeting headed by Chinese leader Xi Jinping reiterated a need to “unleash domestic demand� which has lagged, leading to a surge of exports by industries unable to find growth at home, and to prevent a “large scale relapse into poverty.�

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China promises to help companies slammed by tariffs as US trade remains in limbo

China’s top leaders have pledged to help companies slammed by higher U.S. tariffs but held back on major moves after with the U.S. this week kept businesses and planners in limbo.

At their summer economic planning meeting, the powerful Politburo of the ruling Communist Party pledged to stabilize foreign trade and investment through measures such as export tax rebates and free trade pilot zones.

“We must assist foreign trade enterprises that have been severely impacted, strengthen financing support, and promote the integrated development of domestic and foreign trade,� the official Xinhua News Agency said in reporting on the closed door meeting.

Trump says Friday’s tariff deadline is firm

Friday is the day the Trump administration set to launch revised tariffs on products Americans import from multiple countries.

Trump’s original deadline was July 8. He said there won’t be any more extensions, declaring this in an all-caps post on his social media site just before he announced a 25% import tax on India.

“THE AUGUST FIRST DEADLINE IS THE AUGUST FIRST DEADLINE — IT STANDS STRONG, AND WILL NOT BE EXTENDED. A BIG DAY FOR AMERICA!!!�

Trump’s big bill chisels back Medicaid 60 years after its creation

On this day in 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson that launched Medicaid, creating a health care safety net for millions of low-income Americans, one of the crowning achievements of his domestic legacy.

A year earlier, he did the same for food stamps, drawing on President John F. Kennedy’s to develop “a positive food and nutrition program for all Americans.�

This summer, with , President Donald Trump began to .

The Republican Party’s delivered not just $4.5 trillion in for Americans. It also will cut more than $1 trillion over a decade from , largely by imposing work requirements and shifting federal costs onto the states.

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French president: ‘To be free, you have to be feared’

Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday that Europe “does not see itself sufficiently� as a global power in reaction to the European Commission’s acceptance of 15% tariffs under a new trade framework with the United States.

“We have not been feared enough,� he told his cabinet. There is a greater urgency than ever to accelerate the European agenda for sovereignty and competitiveness.�

For now, he said, the agreement offers short-term visibility and predictability for businesses in the EU’s 27 member states. “It preserves French and European interests: customs duty exemptions for some of our major export sectors, including aeronautics; no concessions for our agricultural sectors; no questioning of our regulatory autonomy or our health and environmental standards,� he said. “This is not the end of the story, and we will not stop here.�

Trump brags about economic growth numbers

“WAY BETTER THAN EXPECTED!� Trump wrote on Truth Social, using the better-than-expected growth to pressure Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to cut benchmark interest rates.

But his victory lap needs context: GDP recovered after falling 0.5% during the first quarter, as companies pulled forward their imports to avoid tariffs. The second-quarter snapback indicates an annual growth rate of less than 1.3% for the first half of 2025, well below the 2.8% gains in 2024.

Also, private investment fell at a 15.6% annual pace, biggest drop since COVID-19 slammed the economy. A drop in inventories — as businesses worked down goods they’d stockpiled in the first quarter — shaved 3.2 percentage points off second-quarter growth.

European economy sees only 0.1% growth as scramble to get ahead of US tariffs goes into reverse

Europe’s economy barely grew in the April-June quarter as frantic earlier efforts to ship goods ahead of new U.S. tariffs went into reverse and output fell for the continent’s biggest economy, Germany.

GDP grew an anemic 0.1% compared to the previous quarter in the 20 countries that use the euro currency, the EU statistics agency Eurostat reported Wednesday. And near-term prospects are mediocre, given the 15% tax on European goods that U.S. importers must pay under announced Sunday. The higher costs must either be passed on to U.S. consumers or swallowed in the form of lower profits.

“With the 15% U.S. universal tariff likely to subtract around 0.2% from the region’s GDP, growth is likely to remain weak in the rest of this year,� said Franziska Palmas, senior Europe economist at Capital Economics.

US economy rebounds a surprisingly strong 3% in the second quarter

The U.S. economy expanded at a surprising 3% annual pace from April through June, bouncing back at least temporarily from a first-quarter drop that reflected disruptions from . Economists had expected 2% second-quarter growth.

America’s gross domestic product — the nation’s output of goods and services — rebounded after falling 0.5% from January through March, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. The first-quarter drop was mainly caused by a surge in imports — which are subtracted from GDP — as businesses scrambled to bring in foreign goods ahead of Trump’s tariffs.

From April through June, a drop in imports added more than 5 percentage points to growth. Consumer spending came in at a weak 1.4%, though it was an improvement over the first quarter.

Trump announces 25% tariff on India starting Friday, penalties for buying Russian energy

Trump says he’ll impose a 25% tariff on goods from India, plus an additional import tax because of India’s purchasing of Russian oil.

Trump said on Truth Social on Wednesday that India “is our friend� but its “Tariffs are far too high� on U.S. goods.

The Republican president added that India buys military equipment and oil from Russia, enabling the war in Ukraine. As a result, he said he intends to charge an additional “penalty� starting on Friday as part of the launch of the administration’s revised tariffs on multiple countries.

Trump’s latest tariff deadline is approaching

The clock is ticking closer to Trump’s latest tariff deadline of Aug 1. And while several more deals — or at least frameworks for deals — have been reached since his last tariff deadline of July 9 came and went, trade talks with many countries are still in flux.

Trump unveiled sweeping import taxes on goods coming into the U.S. from nearly every country back in April. That included heightened so-called reciprocal rates for certain countries, the bulk of which have since been postponed twice.

The arrived in an apparent effort to quell and facilitate country-by-country negotiations.

But three months later, only two deals emerged. And by early July, Trump began sending warning letters that higher tariffs would be imposed against dozens of countries on Aug. 1.

Since then, the U.S. has announced trade frameworks with the European Union, Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia. But, key details remain sparse — or not immediately captured in writing.

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Trump says US will partner with Israel to run additional food centers in Gaza, but details are scant

said Tuesday that the U.S. will partner with Israel to run new food centers in to address the , but he and U.S. officials offered few additional details about the plan or how it would differ from existing food distribution centers.

Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he returned from a trip to Scotland that Israel would preside over the new food centers “to make sure the distribution is proper.�

“We’re going to be dealing with Israel, and we think they can do a good job of it,� Trump said.

The opaque details come as the Trump administration is and abroad to do more to address . The U.S.’s close ally, Israel, is at the center of an international outcry as more images of emaciated children continue to emerge.

The White House described it as “a new aid plan� to help people in Gaza obtain access to food and promised that details would emerge. It did not elaborate.

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