Evelyn Reynolds

Donald Trump has told foreign companies that they must hire and train American workers and respect immigration laws, after a raid at a Hyundai Motor manufacturing facility in Georgia saw about 300 South Koreans detained.Nearly 500 workers in total were detained in the raid on Thursday, with US authorities releasing footage showing them restrained in handcuffs and ankle chains, loaded on to buses.The raid marked the largest single site sweep carried out under Donald Trump’s nationwide anti-immigration campaign and appeared to strain the longstanding diplomatic and economic relationship between the US and South Korea.“I am hereby calling on all Foreign Companies investing in the United States to please respect our Nation’s Immigration Laws,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday, adding “Your Investments are welcome, and we encourage you to LEGALLY bring your very smart people … What we ask in return is that you hire and train American Workers.”Trump made the post shortly after telling reporters he would look at what happened but that the incident had not harmed his relationship with South Korea.300 South Koreans detained at Hyundai plant in US to be released, says SeoulSouth Korea announced on Sunday that the roughly 300 of its nationals detained during an immigration raid in Georgia would be released and flown home.LG executive Kim Ki-soo flew to Georgia in an apparent effort to slow the fallout. “The immediate priority now is the swift release of both our LG Energy Solution employees and those of our partner firms,” Ki-soo reportedly said before boarding a plane.Read the full storyUS treasury secretary denies Trump tariffs are tax on AmericansUS treasury secretary Scott Bessent has refused to acknowledge that the sweeping trade tariffs imposed by Donald Trump around the world are taxes on Americans.In a new interview Bessent, a former billionaire hedge fund manager, dismissed concerns from major American companies including John Deere, Nike and Black and Decker who have all said that Trump’s tariffs policy will cost them billions of dollars annually.Bessent was asked: “Do you acknowledge that these tariffs are attacks on American consumers?” To which Bessent replied: “No, I don’t.”Read the full storyRepublican condemns Vance for ‘despicable’ comments on Venezuelan boat strikeThe Republican senator who heads the homeland security committee has criticized JD Vance for “despicable” comments apparently in support of extrajudicial military killings.“Killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military,” the vice-president said in an X post on Saturday, in defense of Tuesday’s US military strike against a Venezuelan boat in the Caribbean Sea, which killed 11 people the administration alleged were drug traffickers.Rand Paul condemned Vance’s comments, saying “Did he ever wonder what might happen if the accused were immediately executed without trial or representation? What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment it is to glorify killing someone without a trial.”Read the full storyCrowd greets Donald Trump with boos and cheers at US Open men’s finalDonald Trump was booed and cheered at the US Open during the national anthem before Sunday’s men’s final.Prior to the match, US Open broadcasters were asked not to show any negative crowd reactions to the president at the event.Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

Nine attorneys – who have represented approximately 50 Jeffrey Epstein survivors – have told the Guardian they have not been recently contacted by the justice department, despite the president’s promises to get to the bottom of the deceased financiers crimes.

As Chicago braced for an immigration enforcement crackdown and a possible national guard deployment, churches across the city have urged congregants to carry identification, stay connected to family and protest.
Catching up? Here’s what happened on Saturday 6 September 2025. More

Donald Trump on Sunday issued what he called his “last warning” to Hamas, urging the Palestinian militant group to accept a deal to release hostages from Gaza.“The Israelis have accepted my Terms. It is time for Hamas to accept as well,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. “I have warned Hamas about the consequences of not accepting. This is my last warning, there will not be another one!”Hamas said in a later statement that it received some ideas from the US side through mediators to reach a ceasefire deal in Gaza.The group said it was discussing with mediators ways to develop those ideas, without giving specifics.Hamas also reiterated its readiness for negotiations to release all hostages in exchange for a “clear announcement of an end to the war” and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the enclave.“I think we’re going to have a deal on Gaza very soon,” Trump told reporters as he traveled back to Washington from New York, without offering any details. He added that he thought all the hostages would be returned, dead or alive. “I think we’re going to get them all.”On Saturday, Israel’s N12 News reported that Trump has put forth a new ceasefire proposal to Hamas.Under the deal, Hamas would free all the remaining 48 hostages on the first day of the truce in exchange for thousands of Palestinian prisoners jailed in Israel and negotiate an end to the war during a ceasefire in the enclave, according to N12.An Israeli official said Israel was “seriously considering” Trump’s proposal but did not elaborate on its details. More

The former US congressman John Burton, a salty-tongued and unabashedly liberal San Francisco Democrat who stood up for the working class and nurtured countless political careers, including that of Nancy Pelosi, died Sunday. He was 92.Burton died in San Francisco of natural causes, his family said in a statement.Tributes poured in from California’s top politicians, who recalled Burton as a fierce and tireless advocate for laborers, foster children and the environment. Over the years, Burton mentored Pelosi, former US senator Barbara Boxer, current US senator Alex Padilla and countless other California officials.“There was no greater champion for the poor, the bullied, the disabled, and forgotten Californians than John Burton. He was a towering figure – a legendary force whose decades of service shaped our state and our politics for the better,” said Governor Gavin Newsom, a former mayor of San Francisco, in a statement.Another former San Francisco mayor, Willie Brown, said that death had managed to separate him from a dear friend who was by his side for decades – as college students where they first met, as fellow newbies in the state Assembly and as influential members of California’s Democratic political machine.“John Burton may have been the best person with whom I served as a member of the legislature,” said Brown.Burton believed that government was at its best when it served those who needed it the most, and he never backed down from a fight, said state Democratic party chair Rusty Hicks.“The greatest way to honor John Burton is to keep fighting with the same grit, tenacity, and heart that defined his life,” Hicks said in a statement.“He cared a lot,” said Burton’s daughter, Kimiko Burton. “He always instilled in me that we fight for the underdog. There are literally millions of people whose lives he helped over the years who have no idea who he is.”John Lowell Burton was born on 15 December 1932, in Cincinnati, Ohio, and grew up in San Francisco with plans to teach history and coach high school basketball.But he followed his older brother, Phillip Burton, into politics and in 1964 was elected to the state assembly. A decade later, he moved on to the US House of Representatives, where he pushed legislation protecting wilderness areas in the Golden Gate national recreation area and condemning apartheid in South Africa.Burton stepped down in 1982 to address a cocaine addiction, but he didn’t stay gone for long.In 1988, he returned to the California assembly and in 1996 he won a state Senate seat, rising to become the chamber’s president. He retired from elected politics in 2004 – only to head up the California Democratic party from 2009 to 2017.After retiring, he founded a nonprofit dedicated to foster youth. A remembrance posted Sunday by John Burton Advocates for Youth quoted his exasperation with the lack of resources available for foster youth who aged out of the foster care system.“Emancipated from what? And into what?” he asked. “Into not being able to have a roof over their heads? Into being frozen out of a chance at higher education? Into unemployment? Into a life on the welfare rolls? Into homelessness? Into jail?”The organization has advocated successfully for more than 50 legislative reforms, including financial aid for college and extending foster care for some from age 18 to 21.Barbara Lee, a former US congresswoman and current Oakland mayor, said that in spite of his health challenges, Burton was determined to attend her public inauguration in June, and he did.“His life’s work reminds us that authentic leadership means having the courage to speak truth to power and never forgetting where you came from,” she said.In addition to his daughter, Kimiko, Burton is survived by two grandchildren, Juan and Mikala.Plans for a celebration of life are pending. The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations be made in his memory to the John Burton Advocates for Youth. More

Florida’s plan to drop school vaccine mandates likely won’t take effect for 90 days and would include only chickenpox and a few other illnesses unless lawmakers decide to extend it to other diseases, like polio and measles, the health department said on Sunday.The department responded to a request for details, four days after Florida’s surgeon general, Dr Joseph Ladapo, said the state would become the first to make vaccinations voluntary and let families decide whether to inoculate their children.It’s a retreat from decades of public policy and research that has shown vaccines to be safe and the most effective way to stop the spread of communicable diseases, especially among children. Despite that evidence, Robert F Kennedy Jr, the health secretary, has expressed deep skepticism about vaccines.Florida’s plan would lift mandates on school vaccines for hepatitis B, chickenpox, Hib influenza and pneumococcal diseases, such as meningitis, the health department said.“The department initiated the rule change on September 3 2025, and anticipates the rule change will not be effective for approximately 90 days,” the state told the Associated Press in an email. The public school year in Florida started in August.All other vaccinations required under Florida law to attend school “remain in place, unless updated through legislation” including vaccines for measles, polio, diphtheria, pertussis, mumps and tetanus, the department said.Lawmakers don’t meet again until January 2026, although committee meetings begin in October.Ladapo, appearing Sunday on CNN, repeated his message of free choice for childhood vaccines.“If you want them, God bless, you can have as many as you want,” he said. “And if you don’t want them, parents should have the ability and the power to decide what goes into their children’s bodies. It’s that simple.”Earlier this week, Ladapo garnered criticism after he compared vaccine mandates to “slavery”. Speaking at a press conference alongside Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis who has also expressed deep vaccine skepticism, Ladapo said of the vaccine requirements: “Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery.”His comments drew outrage from lawmakers and health experts alike, with Democratic Florida state representative Anna Eskamani saying: “Ending vaccine mandates is reckless and dangerous. It will drive down immunization rates and open the door to outbreaks of preventable diseases, putting children, seniors and vulnerable Floridians at risk.”Meanwhile, John Moore, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, said: “Florida’s undertakers will now need to plan for the future by increasing their stocks of small coffins,” adding that all the preventable vaccines would increase in schools.Ladapo had previously altered data in a 2022 study by the state’s health department to exaggerate the risks of cardiac death for young men. The study had initially disclaimed any significant risk associated with the vaccines for young men. However, Ladapo replaced the language to claim that men between 18 and 39 years old are at high risk of heart illness from two Covid vaccines that use mRNA technology.Ladapo had also falsely claimed in 2023 that booster shots were not tested on humans and had “red flags.” The same year, the US Food and Drug Administration, as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, called Ladapo’s vaccine stances as harmful to the public.“It is the job of public health officials around the country to protect the lives of the populations they serve, particularly the vulnerable,” the federal letter said, adding: “Fueling vaccine hesitancy undermines this effort.”Florida currently has a religious exemption for vaccine requirements. Vaccines have saved at least 154 million lives globally over the past 50 years, the World Health Organization reported in 2024. The majority of those were infants and children.Dr Rana Alissa, chair of the Florida chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said making vaccines voluntary puts students and school staff at risk.This is the worst year for measles in the US in more than three decades, with more than 1,400 cases confirmed nationwide, most of them in Texas, and three deaths.Whooping cough has killed at least two babies in Louisiana and a five-year-old in Washington state since winter, as it too spreads rapidly. There have been more than 19,000 cases as of 23 August, nearly 2,000 more than this time last year, according to preliminary CDC data.Maya Yang contributed reporting More

US treasury secretary Scott Bessent has refused to acknowledge that the sweeping trade tariffs imposed by Donald Trump around the world are taxes on Americans.In a new interview on Sunday with NBC host Kristen Welker, Bessent, a former billionaire hedge fund manager, dismissed concerns from major American companies including John Deere, Nike and Black and Decker who have all said that Trump’s tariffs policy will cost them billions of dollars annually.Addressing Welker, Bessent said: “You’re taking these from earnings calls, and on earnings calls, they have to give the draconian scenario. There aren’t companies coming out and saying, ‘Oh, because of the tariffs, we’re doing this.’”He went on to add: “If things are so bad, why was the GDP 3.3%? Why is the stock market at a new high? Because, you know, with President Trump, we care both about big companies and small companies.”As concerns continue to grow over American companies trying to pass on the cost of US tariffs on to everyday Americans, Welker asked: “Do you acknowledge that these tariffs are attacks on American consumers?” To which Bessent replied: “No, I don’t.”Bessent’s latest interview follows a ruling by a federal appeals court which found that Trump had overstepped his presidential authority when he imposed sweeping tariffs on dozens of countries earlier this year that sent shockwaves across global markets.The tariffs established a 10% baseline for nearly all of the US’s trading partners. Trump also imposed so-called “reciprocal” tariffs imposed on countries that he accused of unfairly treating the US in trade. Lesotho, a south African nation of 2.3 million people faced a 50% tariff, while Trump also imposed a 10% tariff on a group of uninhabited islands home to penguins near Antarctica.In response to the federal appeals court’s decision, the Trump administration has recently asked the US supreme court to overturn the ruling.Speaking on whether the Trump administration would be prepared to offer rebates if the supreme court rules against the administration, Bessent said: “We would have to give a refund on about half the tariffs which would be terrible for the treasury… There’s no ‘be prepared.’ If the court says it, we’d have to do it.”Nevertheless, Bessent remained confident that the conservative-majority supreme court would side with the Trump administration, saying: “I am confident that we will win at the supreme court. But there are numerous other avenues that we can take. They diminish president Trump’s negotiating position … This isn’t about the dollars. This is about balance. The dollars are an after amount.”Bessent’s comments also came on the heels of newly released data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics which revealed that in August, 12,000 manufacturing jobs were lost, marking a total loss of 42,000 jobs since April when Trump made his tariff announcement.“Are these numbers proof that the tariffs are failing to produce the manufacturing jobs that President Trump promised?” Welker asked Bessent, to which he replied: “It’s been a couple of months. And with the manufacturing sector … we can’t snap our fingers and have factories built.”Bessent went on to add that he believes “by the fourth quarter, we’re going to see a substantial acceleration”.In addition to a decline in manufacturing employment since April, job openings and hires have fallen by 76,000 and 18,000, respectively, according to the Center for American Progress.According to economists, Trump’s tariffs are expected to cost American households $2,400 annually while wage growth among manufacturing workers remain stagnant under the tariffs.In August, manufacturing workers earned an hourly average of $35.50, marking only a 10-cent increase from July, the center reported. More

Donald Trump was booed and cheered at the US Open during the national anthem before Sunday’s men’s final. When stadium monitors showed him saluting as a member of West Point performed The Star-Spangled Banner, a burst of cheers sprang up and was quickly drowned out by boos, at which point the president offered a brief smirk. After the first changeover, he reappeared on the big screen and stayed up there for a while – causing fans to boo even longer until the camera cut away.Trump’s return to the US Open marked his first time at the tournament since 2015, when he was booed after leaving a match between Serena and Venus Williams. Invited to this year’s tournament by Rolex, he sat in a suite next to a winner’s trophy among a welter of cabinet and family members. He arrived more than an hour before the scheduled start of the match and raised a triumphant fist for the cameras.Meanwhile, thousands of fans were left trickling into the match because of the heightened security around the president’s visit. The stadium was not yet at its expected capacity 45 minutes into the match, at which point Carlos Alcaraz already had a 6-2 lead over Jannik Sinner.In a statement, the Secret Service said that protecting the president “required a comprehensive effort” that “may have contributed to delays for attendees.”Trump’s return to the Open is somewhat of a homecoming. He was once a fixture at the tournament, styling himself as a celebrity to dwarf all others from New York or Hollywood. During that time, he was often shown on the big screen and booed.But after he kicked off his 2015 presidential campaign with a fiery announcement speech hitting out at immigrants and foreign allies, the prevailing attitude toward Trump in New York shifted negatively.The reception Trump received from the crowd on Sunday was in marked contrast to the enthusiasm that went up for the match’s other prominent attendees. During a changeover in the second set, the camera cut to Bruce Springsteen, who has been the target of a fusillade of Trump criticism. The crowd cheered deliriously.The US Tennis Association, which organizes the US Open, had emailed broadcasters requesting reactions to Trump not be shown. Despite that, Trump’s appearance during the anthem was briefly shown on ESPN in the US.A scattering of protestors stood outside the grounds before the match. Among them was Emma Kaplan, a 33-year-old executive assistant from Brooklyn, distributing flyers that read “The Fall of the Trump Fascist Regime.” She was joined by three members of RefuseFascism.org, one hoisting a poster that declared “GAME, SET, MATCH! NOV 5, FLOOD DC. TRUMP MUST GO!”; another’s sign demanded the shutdown of “the whole Trump fascist regime.”Some fans nodded quietly in approval. Others made their opposition clear.“Oh my bad, I voted for him,” one man muttered.Kaplan brushed off the jeers. “Trump has historically been booed here,” she said. “He should be booed everywhere he goes. And on 5 November we’re calling for millions of people to come to Washington DC. They might try to silence our boos, but they can’t silence our rage.” More

The Republican senator who heads the homeland security committee has criticized JD Vance for “despicable” comments apparently in support of extrajudicial military killings.“Killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military,” the vice-president said in an X post on Saturday, in defense of Tuesday’s US military strike against a Venezuelan boat in the Caribbean Sea, which killed 11 people the administration alleged were drug traffickers.Vance added: “Democrats: let’s send your kids to die in Russia. Republicans: actually let’s protect our people from the scum of the earth.”Donald Trump has vowed additional military action against purported traffickers, who are not military targets, after the boat strike, saying “there’s more where that came from”.The controversial attack inflamed already-high tensions between the US and Venezuela. In August Trump dispatched war ships and marines to the Caribbean, which his supporters say is in aid of efforts to oust Venezuelan’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro. On Friday, reports revealed that Trump was sending 10 F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico to support US military action against drug traffickers.Some fear the developments presage full military conflict between Venezuelan and US service members. Last month, the US offered a $50m bounty for Maduro, twice what it offered for Osama bin Laden, and in July signed a secret mandate approving military action against Latin American cartels deemed terrorist organizations, such as the Venezuelan group Cartel de los Soles (Cartel of the Suns), which Trump officials have claimed Maduro leads.Trump also framed the boat attack as military activity against “terrorists” in subsequent statements on his social media platform, Truth Social.“The strike occurred while the terrorists were at sea in international waters transporting illegal narcotics, heading to the United ​States,” he said. “The strike resulted in 11 terrorists killed in action. No US Forces were harmed in this strike … Please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America. BEWARE!”The Republican senator Rand Paul, who chairs the Senate committee on homeland security and government affairs, condemned Vance’s comments.“JD ‘I don’t give a shit’ Vance says killing people he accuses of a crime is the ‘highest and best use of the military.’ Did he ever read To Kill a Mockingbird?” Paul wrote on X, alluding to Harper Lee’s 1960 novel about a wrongly convicted Black man who is killed as he tries to escape prison.“Did he ever wonder what might happen if the accused were immediately executed without trial or representation? What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment it is to glorify killing someone without a trial.” More

A Democratic lawmaker in Arizona who is facing calls for expulsion for resharing an Instagram post warning of immigration enforcement activity near an elementary school said that state senate Republicans “absolutely are trying to make an example out of me”.Analise Ortiz, a Democratic state senator in Arizona, shared an Instagram post from a community organization that warned, in text only, that immigration enforcement agents were near a local elementary school.“Alert/Alerta: ICE activity near Southwest Elementary,” the post in early August said, adding the cross streets of the school. “ICE is present. La migra esta presente.”That post is at the center of an ethics complaint filed this week against Ortiz and a viral rightwing campaign against her.“The ethics complaint very clearly says that they want to stop other people from sharing this type of information,” she said, calling it “a stunning escalation of intimidation”.The controversy began when Libs of TikTok, the X account known for going after liberals online, posted about Ortiz’s reshare, claiming she was “actively impeding and doxxing ICE by posting their live locations on instagram” and that law enforcement officials should “charge her”.No photos of agents were shared, nor were names or other identifying information about agents.“I was not there,” Ortiz said. “There were no pictures of anybody taken. It was simply a post that said Ice presence is possible outside of an elementary school. And I think that the fact that they are outside of sensitive locations where kids should be able to learn in peace is something that people should know about. They should know how the government is acting on their behalf.”The Libs of TikTok post went viral, leaving Ortiz with an inbox full of harassing and threatening messages. The mischaracterization that she “doxed” agents had led to the vast majority of the threats she had received, she said.Jake Hoffman, a Republican state senator, and a handful of other Republican leaders in the chamber filed a formal ethics complaint that seeks to expel Ortiz from the chamber or, failing a vote to expel, remove her from all committees and take away her office and administrative staff. The ethics committee chair also referred the complaint to the US attorney’s office in Arizona for a potential investigation, saying Ortiz’s actions “may implicate federal law”.After the ethics complaint was filed, Libs of TikTok egged on Arizona senate Republicans. “Make an example out of her! Enough is enough,” the account tweeted.“What surprised me about the ethics complaint was the level of punishment they want to inflict upon me for simply exercising my first amendment right,” Ortiz said.As immigration enforcement agents have ramped up activity across the country, activists have shared locations where they see raids or Ice agents as a way to warn people to avoid the area. In Arizona, a southern border state, fear of deportations – and of detaining people who are in the US legally – is a facet of daily life in the second Trump administration. Ortiz said she had heard from constituents who are terrified to drive without a passport on hand because they fear law enforcement won’t believe they are US citizens if they are pulled over.Ortiz said she would not be intimidated by the ethics inquest or attempts to criminalize her sharing of information.“If the United States of America is going to continue as a free and fair democracy, it demands that people speak out against constitutional violations,” she said. “It demands bravery, so I am going to continue to be brave in this moment.”Hoffman claimed Ortiz’s reshare was “reckless” and “dangerous”, saying that “by publicly posting alerts about federal law enforcement activity, she actively tipped off individuals being pursued by Ice, jeopardizing the safety of officers and law-abiding citizens”. He wanted the committee to investigate her for “behavior unbecoming of an elected official and embarrassing to the entire Arizona legislature on a state and national stage”.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionHoffman was charged for his role as a fake elector after the 2020 election. Earlier this year, he was pulled over for driving 89mph in a 65mph zone in his Tesla Cybertruck emblazoned with the word “Freedom” on the back, though he was not cited because of a legal provision called legislative immunity.The ethics complaint details how Ortiz did not back away from her reshare after Libs of TikTok posted about it. Instead, she wrote that she would alert her community to stay away when Ice is around and that she was “not fucking scared of you nor Trump’s masked goons”. After Hoffman wrote on X that he would bring an ethics complaint and wanted her expelled, she said: “Bring it on, Jake.”Warren Petersen, the Republican state senate president, previously asked for a federal investigation into Ortiz’s reshare, claiming she may have broken a federal law that prevents “assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers or employees”.The US attorney’s office in Arizona did not respond to a request for comment.Ortiz said Republican lawmakers want to deprive her legislative district of its voice in the senate and silence her and others who want to stand against deportations.“The fact they are trying to escalate it and are blatantly lying about my actions proves that this is really about authoritarianism and wanting to have a system where masked men carry out police operations in secret, and that should really concern anyone who cares about the United States constitution,” Ortiz said.Free speech experts and other elected officials, including the state’s Democratic attorney general, have spoken out against the attacks on Ortiz for her post, which they say is well within her first amendment rights.“Senator Ortiz’s post is clearly protected speech under the first amendment,” Arizona’s attorney general, Kris Mayes, said in a statement. “This ethics complaint is nothing more than a pathetic attempt to intimidate and silence a democratically elected legislator. Warren Petersen and Jake Hoffman should be ashamed of themselves for weaponizing the ethics process just because they disagree with Senator Ortiz politically.”The ethics committee has not met yet this year and does not have operating rules in place, but will consider the complaint once those are established, said its chair, Shawnna Bolick, a Republican. An expulsion would require a two-thirds vote of the chamber, an unlikely prospect.Ortiz previously faced an ethics investigation after she and another Democratic lawmaker shouted “shame” and protested on the state house floor against their Republican colleagues over an abortion vote in 2024. She was found to have violated house rules for conduct, but no official action was taken against her. More