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      Trump news at a glance: president tells Europe to ‘stop the windmills’ ahead of EU and UK trade talks

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      Donald Trump spent the night at his family-owned golf resort in Scotland but took time to criticise European leaders over wind turbines and immigration, claiming there won’t be a Europe unless they “get their act together”.“I say two things to Europe. Stop the windmills. You’re ruining your countries. I really mean it, it’s so sad. You fly over and you see these windmills all over the place, ruining your beautiful fields and valleys and killing your birds,” he said.“On immigration, you better get your act together or you’re not going to have Europe any more.”Intensive negotiations continued on Saturday between the EU and the US before a crunch meeting in Scotland between Trump and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, seeking to avert a costly trade war.Here’s more on this and the day’s other key Trump administration stories.Trump skips press meeting to play golf before US-EU talksDonald Trump abandoned a scheduled meeting with the press on Saturday morning for a round of golf at his seaside course in Turnberry, with music blaring from the buggy he drove.During what is billed as a four-day family visit to Scotland, Trump is meeting European leaders and the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, raising hopes of new and refined trade deals with the EU and the UK.On the prospects of an EU trade deal, the US president has said there are “20 sticking points”. When asked what they were, he said: “Well, I don’t want to tell you what the sticking points are.”He described Ursula von der Leyen as a “highly respected woman” and said the meeting on Sunday with the EU chief would be “good”, rating the chances of a deal as “a good 50-50”.Read the full storyDemocrats request copy of Epstein ‘birthday book’ House Democrats on Friday sent a letter to the attorneys representing the estate of Jeffrey Epstein requesting a copy of the so-called “birthday book” that reportedly contains a crude poem and doodle from Donald Trump in celebration of the late sex offender’s 50th birthday.In the letter, California congressmen Ro Khanna and Robert Garcia say the contents of the book may be “essential” to congressional oversight of the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein controversy. In the letter, they ask for a “complete and unredacted” copy of the book by 10 August.Read the full storyDoge reportedly using AI tool to create ‘delete list’ of federal regulationsThe “department of government efficiency” (Doge) is using artificial intelligence to create a “delete list” of federal regulations, according to a report, proposing to use the tool to cut 50% of regulations by the first anniversary of Donald Trump’s second inauguration.The “Doge AI Deregulation Decision Tool” will analyze 200,000 government regulations, according to internal documents obtained by the Washington Post, and select those it deems to be no longer required by law.Read the full storyTrump says Cambodia and Thailand agree to ‘immediate’ ceasefire talksThailand and Cambodia have agreed to “immediately meet” to work out a ceasefire, according to Donald Trump, who spoke to the leaders of both countries as he sought an end to clashes that continued for a third consecutive day.In social media posts, Trump said: “Both parties are looking for an immediate ceasefire and peace”, adding he would not negotiate a trade deal with either side until the fighting stopped.Read the full storyUnease as crowded Cotswolds braces for JD Vance’s summer holidayThe narrow lanes and honeyed stone walls of Stow-on-the-Wold are not the setting where one would expect to see an angry altercation. But could this charming UK town soon find itself at the heart of the angry US culture wars?According to reports, the US vice-president, JD Vance, will be holidaying in the Cotswolds with his family next month, and protesters are determined to let him know just how warm the welcome will not be in England’s chocolate box countryside.Read the full storyWoman who fled Cuba for asylum arrested at US immigration courtroomJenny, 25, entered the US legally, but Ice agents arrested her after a hearing, part of a growing trend of court detentions.Read the full storyMen freed from El Salvador mega-prison endured ‘state-sanctioned torture’, lawyers sayVenezuelans whom the Trump administration expelled to El Salvador’s most notorious megaprison endured “state-sanctioned torture”, lawyers for some of the men have said, as more stories emerge about the horrors they faced during capacity.Read the full storyCan a rural hospital on the brink survive Trump’s bill?Republican lawmakers voted for the “big beautiful bill” but cuts to Medicaid will hit hard in rural areas like Missouri’s poorest county, Pemiscot.The Pemiscot Memorial hospital has long been the destination for those who encounter catastrophe in this rural stretch of farms and towns. Yet its days of serving its community may be numbered.Read the full storyHundreds removed from ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ detention camp, DeSantis saysFlorida has begun deporting people from the notorious “Alligator Alcatraz” detention camp, the state’s governor said, and deportations are expected to increase in the coming weeks.At a press conference at the controversial facility, Ron DeSantis said “hundreds of illegals have been removed” from the facility. He later clarified that most of those were flown from Alligator Alcatraz to other detention facilities in the US.Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

      A debating opponent of the leftwing media figure Mehdi Hasan in a controversial viral YouTube video was previously the organizer of two violent far-right protests in Berkeley, California, in 2017, the Guardian can reveal.

      Authorities in Michigan are investigating after multiple people were stabbed at a Walmart in Traverse City, police said on Saturday.
      Catching up? Here’s what happened on 25 July 2025. More

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      Doge reportedly using AI tool to create ‘delete list’ of federal regulations

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      The “department of government efficiency” (Doge) is using artificial intelligence to create a “delete list” of federal regulations, according to a report, proposing to use the tool to cut 50% of regulations by the first anniversary of Donald Trump’s second inauguration.The “Doge AI Deregulation Decision Tool” will analyze 200,000 government regulations, according to internal documents obtained by the Washington Post, and select those which it deems to be no longer required by law.Doge, which was run by Elon Musk until May, claims that 100,000 of those regulations can then be eliminated, following some staff feedback.A PowerPoint presentation made public by the Post claims that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) used the AI tool to make “decisions on 1,083 regulatory sections”, while the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau used it to write “100% of deregulations”.The Post spoke to three HUD employees who told the newspaper AI had been “recently used to review hundreds, if not more than 1,000, lines of regulations”.During his 2024 campaign, Donald Trump claimed that government regulations were “driving up the cost of goods” and promised the “most aggressive regulatory reduction” in history. He repeatedly criticized rules which aimed to tackle the climate crisis, and as president he ordered the heads of all government agencies to undertake a review of all regulations in coordination with Doge.Asked about the use of AI in deregulation by the Post, White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said “all options are being explored” to achieve the president’s deregulation promises. Fields said that “no single plan has been approved or green-lit”, and the work is “in its early stages and is being conducted in a creative way in consultation with the White House”.Fields added: “The Doge experts creating these plans are the best and brightest in the business and are embarking on a never-before-attempted transformation of government systems and operations to enhance efficiency and effectiveness.”Musk appointed a slew of inexperienced staffers to Doge, including Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old who was previously known by the online handle “Big Balls”. Earlier this year, Reuters reported that Coristine was one of two Doge associates promoting the use of AI across the federal bureaucracy. More

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      ‘Hundreds’ of people have been removed from ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ detention camp, says Florida governor

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      Florida has begun deporting people from the notorious “Alligator Alcatraz” detention camp, the state’s governor said, and deportations are expected to increase in the coming weeks.At a press conference at the controversial facility, Ron DeSantis said “hundreds of illegals have been removed” from the facility. He later clarified that most of those were flown from Alligator Alcatraz to other detention facilities in the US. DeSantis, who has built a political career on his anti-immigration views, said 100 people had been deported from the US.“I’m pleased to report that those flights out of Alligator Alcatraz by [the Department of Homeland Security] have begun. The cadence is increasing,” DeSantis said. “We’ve already had a number of flights. … Hundreds of illegals have been removed from here,” De Santis said.He added: “We look forward to this cadence increasing.”Officials said two or three flights have so far departed, but didn’t say where those flights were headed.Last week, a number of non-profit organizations demanded the closure of the facility, which is based in the rural Everglades region, about 40 miles (64km) from Miami.The facility’s conditions are reportedly appalling, advocates said, with detained immigrants sleeping in overcrowded pods, along with sewage backups “resulting in cages flooded with feces”, and, in addition, “denial of medical care”. Advocates said the 39-acre camp, which was built in a matter of days, now holds more than 1,000 men in “flood-prone” tents.Donald Trump said the jail would be reserved for immigrants who were “deranged psychopaths” and “some of the most vicious people on the planet” who were awaiting deportation, but in mid-July it emerged that the jail contains hundreds of detainees with no criminal records or charges. Democrats have sued DeSantis, demanding access to the facility.Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida division of emergency management, said the facility had grown, in less than a month, to have a current capacity of 2,000 people. That will increase to 4,000, he said.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionGuthrie defended conditions inside the facility, claiming that “whether it’s Florida standard or national standard [of conditions and services in detention facilities], we meet or exceed the higher standard”.Since the jail opened in early July, the Trump administration and local officials have specifically touted the brutality of the facility, including its remote location in a wetland surrounded by alligators, crocodiles, pythons and swarms of mosquitoes. Officials have also seemed to revel in the crude name the facility has been given, echoing the long-shut and notoriously harsh Alcatraz prison in San Francisco Bay. More

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      ‘We need some hope’: can a rural hospital on the brink survive Trump’s bill?

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      When her severely allergic toddler, Josie, began gasping for breath in the middle of the night, Krissy Cunningham knew there was only one place she could get to in time to save her daughter’s life.For 74 years, Pemiscot Memorial hospital has been the destination for those who encounter catastrophe in Missouri’s poorest county, a rural stretch of farms and towns in its south-eastern Bootheel region. Three stories of brown brick just off Interstate 55 in the town of Hayti, the 115-bed hospital has kept its doors open even after the county’s only Walmart closed, the ranks of boarded-up gas stations along the freeway exit grew, and the population of the surrounding towns dwindled, thanks in no small part to the destruction done by tornadoes.For many in Pemiscot county, its emergency room is the closest available without taking a 30-minute drive across the Mississippi river to Tennessee or the state line to Arkansas, a range that can make the difference between life and death for victims of shootings, overdoses or accidents on the road. In the wee hours of one spring morning, it was there that Josie received the breathing treatments and a racemic epinephrine shot that made her wheezing subside.“There is no way I would have made it to one of the farther hospitals, if it wouldn’t have been here. Her airway just would have closed off, and I probably would have been doing CPR on my daughter on the side of the road,” recalled Cunningham, a nurse who sits on the hospital’s board.View image in fullscreenYet its days of serving its community may be numbered. In May, the hospital’s administration went public with the news that after years of struggling with high rates of uninsured patients and low reimbursement rates from insurers, they may have to close. And even if they do manage to navigate out of their current crisis, Pemiscot Memorial’s leaders see a new danger on the horizon: the “big, beautiful bill” Republicans pushed through Congress earlier this month, at Donald Trump’s request.Centered around an array of tax cuts as well as funds for the president’s mass deportation plans, the bill will mandate the largest funding reduction in history to Medicaid, the federal healthcare program supporting low-income and disabled Americans. That is expected to have ripple effects nationwide, but will hit particularly hard in Pemiscot county and other rural areas, where hospitals tend to have frail margins and disproportionately rely on Medicaid to stay afloat.“If Medicaid drops, are we going to be even collecting what we’re collecting now?” asked Jonna Green, the chairwoman of Pemiscot Memorial’s board, who estimated 80% of their revenue comes from Medicaid as well as Medicare, another federal health program primarily for people 65 and older. “We need some hope.”The changes to Medicaid will phase in beginning in late 2026, and require enrollees to work, volunteer or attend school 80 hours a month, with some exceptions. States are also to face new caps on provider taxes, which they use to fund their Medicaid programs. All told, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office forecasts that 10 million people nationwide will lose their healthcare due to the bill, which is nonetheless expected to add $3.4tn to the federal budget deficit through 2034.Trump carried Missouri, a midwestern state that has veered sharply away from the Democratic party over the past three decades, with more than 58% of the vote last November. In Pemiscot county, where census data shows more than a quarter of residents are below the poverty line and the median income is just over $40,000 a year, he was the choice of 74% of voters, and Republican lawmakers representing the county played a notable role in steering his tax and spending bill through Congress.Senator Josh Hawley publicly advocated against slashing the healthcare program, writing in the New York Times: “If Republicans want to be a working-class party – if we want to be a majority party – we must ignore calls to cut Medicaid and start delivering on America’s promise for America’s working people.” He ultimately supported the bill after a $50bn fund to help rural hospitals was included, but weeks later introduced legislation that would repeal some of the very same cuts he had just voted for.“I want to see Medicaid reductions stopped and rural hospitals fully funded permanently,” the senator said.View image in fullscreenJason Smith, whose district encompasses Pemiscot county and the rest of south-eastern Missouri, oversaw the crafting of the measure’s tax provision as chairman of the House ways and means committee, and has argued they will bring prosperity rural areas across the state. Like others in the GOP, he has said the Medicaid cuts will ferret out “waste, fraud and abuse”, and make the program more efficient.It’s a gamble for a state that has seen nine rural hospitals close since 2015, including one in a county adjacent to Pemiscot, with a further 10 at immediate risk of going under, according to data from the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform policy group.The Missouri Budget Project thinktank estimates that the bill will cost 170,000 of the state’s residents their health coverage, largely due to work requirements that will act as difficult-to-satisfy red tape for Medicaid enrollees, while the cap on provider taxes will sap $1.9bn from the state’s Medicaid program.“There’s going to be some really hard conversations over the course of the next five years, and I think that healthcare in our region will look a lot different than what it does right now,” said Karen White, CEO of Missouri Highlands Health Care, which operates federally qualified health centers providing primary and dental care across rural south-eastern Missouri. She forecasts 20% of her patients will lose Medicaid coverage through 2030.As the bill was making its way through Congress, she contacted the offices of Smith, Hawley and Missouri’s junior senator, Eric Schmitt, all politicians she had voted for, asking them to reconsider cutting Medicaid. She did not hear back.“I love democracy. I love the fact that we as citizens can make our voices heard. And they voted the way that they felt they needed to vote. Maybe … the larger constituency reached out to them with a viewpoint that was different than mine, but I made my viewpoint heard,” White said.Spokespeople for Schmitt and Smith did not respond to requests for comment. In response to emailed questions, a spokeswoman for Hawley referred to his introduction of the legislation to partially stop the Medicaid cuts.Down the road from the hospital lies Hayti Heights, where there are no businesses and deep puddles form in the potholes and ditches that line roadways after every thunderstorm. Mayor Catrina Robinson has a plan to turn things around for her 500 or so residents, which involves bringing back into service the water treatment plant that is the town’s main source of revenue. But that is unlikely to change much without Pemiscot Memorial.“Half of those people that work at the hospital, they’re my residents. So how they gonna pay their bills? How they gonna pay their water bill, how they gonna pay their light bill, how they gonna pay rent? This is their source of income. Then what will they do?” Robinson said.View image in fullscreenTrump’s bill does include an array of relief aimed at the working-class voters who broke for him in the last election, including tax cuts on tips and overtime pay and deductions aimed at senior citizens. It remains to be seen if whatever financial benefits those provisions bring to the workers of Pemiscot county will outweigh the impact of the stress the Medicaid cuts place on its healthcare system.“The tax relief of server’s tips and all that, that’s not going to change the poverty level of our area,” said Loren Clifton, the hospital’s administrative director. “People losing their healthcare insurance absolutely will make it worse.”Work can be found in the county’s corn, wheat, soybean and rice fields, at a casino in the county seat Caruthersville and at a shipyard along the banks of the Mississippi . But Green questions if those industries would stick around if the hospital goes under, and takes with it the emergency room that often serves to stabilize critical patients before transferring them elsewhere.View image in fullscreen“Our community cannot go without a hospital. Healthcare, employment, industry – it would devastate everything,” Green said.The board is exploring partnerships with other companies to help keep the hospital afloat, and has applied for a federal rural emergency hospital designation which they believe will improve their reimbursements and chances of winning grants, though that will require them to give up other services that bring in revenue. For many of its leaders, the stakes of keeping the hospital open are personal.“This is our home, born and raised, and you would never want to leave it. But I have a nine-year-old with cardiac problems. I would not feel safe living here without a hospital that I could take her to know if something happened,” said Brittany Osborne, Pemiscot Memorial’s interim CEO.One muggy Wednesday morning in July, Pemiscot’s three county commissioners, all Republicans, gathered in a small conference room in Caruthersville’s courthouse and spoke of their resolve to keep the hospital open.“It’s 50-50 right now,” commissioner Mark Cartee said of the hospital’s chances of survival. “But, as long as we have some money in the bank of the county, we’re going to keep it open. We need healthcare. We got to have a hospital.”They were comparatively sanguine about the possibility that the Medicaid work requirements would harm the facility’s finances down the line.“We got a guy around here, I guess he’s still around. He’s legally blind but he goes deer hunting every year,” commissioner Baughn Merideth said. “There’s just so much fraud … it sounds like we’re right in the middle of it.”A few blocks away, Jim Brands, owner of Hayden Pharmacy, the oldest in the county, had little doubt that there were those in the county who took advantage of Medicaid. He also believed that fewer enrollees in the program would mean less business for his pharmacy, and more hardship overall.View image in fullscreen“Just seeing this community, the situation it’s in, the poverty, we’ve got to get people to work. There are a ton of able-bodied people that could work that choose not to,” he said.“To me, there’s got to be a better way to weed out the fraud and not step on the toes of the people who need it.” More

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      She fled Cuba for asylum – then was snatched from a US immigration courtroom

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      Jerome traveled a thousand miles from California to El Paso, Texas, so he could accompany Jenny to her immigration hearing. He and his wife had promised to take her after she had fled Cuba last December, after the government there had targeted her because she had reported on the country’s deplorable conditions for her college radio station.Everything should have been fine. Jenny, 25, had entered the United States legally under one of Joe Biden’s now-defunct programs, CBP One. By the end of the year, she could apply for a green card.But a few days before her hearing, Jerome started to feel like something was off. Jenny’s court date had been abruptly moved from May to June with no explanation. Arrests at immigration courthouses peppered the news.And when Jenny went before the court, the government attorney assigned to try to deport her asked the judge to dismiss her case, arguing vaguely that circumstances had changed.View image in fullscreenInstead, the judge noted that Jenny was pursuing an asylum claim and scheduled her for another court date in August 2026 – the best possible outcome.“She turned around and looked at me and smiled. And I smiled back, because she understood that she was free to go home,” Jerome said.But as Jenny left the courtroom and approached the elevator to leave, a crowd of government agents in masks converged on her and demanded she go with them. Just before she disappeared down a corridor with the phalanx of officers, she turned back to look at Jerome, her face stricken, silently pleading with him to do something.“I said, ‘She’s legal. She’s here legally. And you guys just don’t care, do you? Nobody cares about this. You guys just like pulling people away like this,’” Jerome recalled telling the agents. “And nobody said a word. They couldn’t even look me in the eye,” he told the Guardian.Footage of her apprehension was taken by those advocating for her and shared with the Guardian.Now Jenny is languishing in immigration custody. Her hearing for August 2026 has been replaced with a date for next month when the government attorney might once again attempt to dismiss her case, and her case been transferred from a judge who grants a majority of asylum applications to one with a less than 22% approval rate.“There’s no heart, there’s no compassion, there’s no empathy, there’s no anything. [It’s] ‘We’re just going to yank this woman away from you, and we don’t care,’” Jerome said. The Guardian is not using his or Jenny’s full name for their safety.Similar scenes have played out again and again at immigration courthouses across the country for weeks, as people following the federal government’s directions and attending their hearings are being scooped up and sent to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention.The unusual tactics are happening while Donald Trump and his deputy chief of staff for policy, Stephen Miller, push for Ice to make at least 3,000 daily arrests – a tenfold increase from during Biden’s last year in office. Ice agents have suddenly become regulars at immigration court, where they can easily find soft targets.At first, the officers appeared to focus arrests on a subset of migrants who had been in the US for fewer than two years, which the Trump administration argues makes them susceptible to a fast-tracked deportation scheme called expedited removal. Ice officers seem to confer with their agency’s attorneys, who ask the judge to dismiss the migrants’ cases, as they did with Jenny. And, if judges agree, the migrants are detained on their way out of court so that officials can reprocess them through expedited removal, which allows the federal government to repatriate people with far less due process, sometimes without even seeing another judge.View image in fullscreenBut reporting by the Guardian has uncovered how Ice is casting a far wider net for its immigration court arrests and appears also to be targeting people such as Jenny whose cases are ongoing and have not been dismissed. The agency is also snatching up court attendees who have clearly been in the US for longer than two years – the maximum timeframe that according to US law determines whether someone can be placed in expedited removal – as well as those who have a pathway to remain in the country legally.After the migrants are apprehended, they’re stuffed into often overcrowded, likely privately run detention centers, sometimes far from their US-based homes and families. They’re put through high-stakes tests that will determine whether they have a future in the US, with limited access to attorneys. And as they endure inhospitable conditions in prisons and jails, the likelihood of them having both the will to keep fighting their case and the legal right to stay dwindles.“To see individuals who are law-abiding and who have received a follow-up court date only to be greeted by a group of large men in masks and whisked away to an unknown location in a building is jarring. It breaks my understanding and conception of the United States having a lawful due process,” said Emily Miller, who is part of a larger volunteer group in El Paso trying to protect migrants as best they can.One woman Miller saw apprehended had come to the US legally, submitted her asylum petition the day of her hearing, and was given a follow-up court date by the judge before Ice detained her.“My physical reaction was standing in the hallway shaking. My body just physically started shaking, out of shock and out of concern,” Miller said. “I have lived in other countries where I’ve been a stranger in a strange land and did not speak the language or had limited language abilities. And as a woman, to be greeted by masked men is something we are taught to fear because of violence that could happen to us.”Elsewhere in Texas, at the San Antonio immigration court earlier this month, a toddler dressed in pink and white overalls ran gleefully around the drab waiting room. Far more chairs than people lined the room’s perimeter, as if more attendees had been expected. A constantly multitasking employee at the front window bowed her head in frustration as the caller she was speaking to kept asking more questions. Self-help legal pamphlets hung on the wall – a reminder that the representation rate for people in immigration proceedings has plummeted in recent years, and the vast majority of migrants are navigating the deportation process with little to no expert help.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionIn one of the courtrooms, a family took their seats before the judge. Their seven-year-old boy pulled his shirt over his nose, his arms inside the arm holes. The government attorney sitting with a can of Dr Pepper on her desk promptly told the judge she had a motion to introduce, even as the family filed their asylum applications. She wanted to dismiss their cases, she said, as it was no longer in the government’s best interest to proceed.The judge said no. She scheduled the family for their final hearings just over a year later. And she warned them, carefully, that Ice might approach them as soon as they left her courtroom. What happened next, she said, was not in her control.Her last words to the family: “Good luck.”Men in bulletproof vests were hanging around in the hallway, but the family safely made it into the elevator and left the courthouse for the parking lot. Stephanie Spiro, associate director of protection-based relief at the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC), said that for the most part, Ice is leaving families with children alone (with notable exceptions). It’s “single adults” they’re after, people who often have loved ones in the US depending on them, but whose immigration cases involve them alone, she said.A few days later, two such adults – a man and a woman – separately went before a different immigration judge in San Antonio, whose courtroom had signs encouraging people to “self-deport”, the Trump administration’s phrase for leaving the country voluntarily before being removed.The government attorney that day moved to dismiss both the man’s and the woman’s cases, which the judge granted, dismissing the man’s case even before the government attorney had given a reason why.Using a Turkish interpreter, the judge then told the man it was likely that immigration authorities would try to put him into expedited removal – despite the fact that he had entered the US more than two years earlier.Soon after, the woman – who had been in the country for nearly four years – went before the court without a lawyer. The judge tried to explain to her what might happen if her case were dismissed, but as he finished, she admitted in Spanish: “I haven’t understood much of what you’ve told me.”View image in fullscreenThe woman went on to say that she was deep in the process of applying for a visa for victims of serious crimes in the US – a visa that provides a pathway to citizenship. But the judge was upset with her for not also filing an asylum application, and he threatened to order her repatriated. It was the government attorney who “saved” her, the judge said, by requesting the case be dismissed instead.As soon as the woman walked out of the courtroom, agents approached her and directed her out of the hallway, into a small room. Around the same time, outside the building, men wearing gaiters over their faces ushered a group of people into a white bus, presumably to be transported to detention.Spiro of the NIJC, meanwhile, works in Chicago and said she and fellow advocates have documented Ice officers in plainclothes coming to immigration court there with a list of whom they’re targeting – and court attendees are apprehended whether or not their case is dismissed.“People are getting detained regardless,” Spiro added. “And once they’re detained, it makes it just so much harder to put forth their claim.”Migrants picked up at the court in Chicago have been sent to Missouri, Florida and Texas – to detention spaces that still have capacity, but also to where judges are more likely to side with the Trump administration for speedier deportations. Many of them end up far from their loved ones, and a lag in Ice’s publicly accessible online detainee locator has meant some of them have at times essentially disappeared.As word of mouth has spread among immigrant communities in Chicago about these arrests, the once bustling court has gone eerily quiet, Spiro said. That, in turn, could have its own serious consequences, as no-shows for hearings are often ordered deported.“They don’t want to leave their house because of the detentions that are happening,” Spiro said of Chicago’s immigrants. “So to go to court, and to go anywhere – they don’t want to come to our office. To go anywhere where there’s federal agents and where they know Ice is trying to detain you is just terrifying beyond, you know, most people’s imagination.” More

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      Trump news at a glance: president dismisses continued Epstein and Maxwell furore as ‘not a big thing’

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      Donald Trump continued to face questions about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein as he landed in Scotland ahead of meeting British prime minister Keir Starmer and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen.The US president denied reports that he was briefed about his name appearing in the Epstein files after landing on Friday evening local time. He was also asked about the justice department’s questioning of Ghislaine Maxwell and suggestions he might offer her clemency.Trump: “I don’t know anything about the conversation, I haven’t really been following it.”“A lot of people have been asking me about pardons [for Maxwell]. Obviously, this is no time to be talking about pardons” he went on. “You’re making a very big thing over something that’s not a big thing.”Here are the key US politics stories today:Trump deflects Epstein questions as he arrives in Scotland The furore over Donald Trump’s ties with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein continued on Friday as new revelations about the pair’s relationship threatened to mire the president’s golfing trip to Scotland, where he arrived late on Friday.After landing at Glasgow Prestwick airport at about 8.30pm local time, the US president denied reports that he had been briefed about his name appearing in files pertaining to the case against the late Epstein. He also said he had not “really been following” the justice department’s interview with Epstein’s convicted associate, Ghislaine Maxwell.Read the full storyVon der Leyen to meet Trump as EU and US close in on trade dealThe EU appears to be on the verge of signing a trade deal with Donald Trump after the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, announced she would meet the US president on Sunday during his four-day trip to Scotland.Trump landed in Scotland on Friday evening before the opening of his new golf course in Aberdeenshire. He said he was also planning to meet the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, on Saturday.Read the full storyGhislaine Maxwell interviewed again The deputy US attorney general, Todd Blanche, held a second in-person meeting on Friday with Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted sex trafficker and longtime associate of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.Blanche had confirmed the two met behind closed doors in Tallahassee, Florida, on Thursday, at the federal prosecutor’s office within the federal courthouse in the state capital, and they met again on Friday.Read the full storyA teenage US citizen secretly recorded his brutal arrestKenny Laynez-Ambrosio was driving to his landscaping job with his mother and two male friends when they were pulled over by the Florida highway patrol. In one swift moment, a traffic stop turned into a violent arrest.Video of the incident captured by Laynez-Ambrosio, an 18-year-old US citizen, appears to show a group of officers in tactical gear working together to violently detain the three men. The video has put fresh scrutiny on the harsh tactics used by US law enforcement officials as the Trump administration sets ambitious enforcement targets to detain thousands of immigrants every day.Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

      The White House has announced that it will release $5.5bn in frozen education funds back to US states. That announcement came on Friday after Donald Trump’s administration decided to abruptly withhold the congressionally approved funds a day before their 1 July release for the 2025-26 school year.

      South Park co-creator Trey Parker had the briefest response to anger from the White House over this season’s premiere, which showed a naked Trump in bed with Satan.

      Two high-ranking officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were placed on administrative leave on Friday, fueling speculation that the Trump administration was retaliating against them for actions taken during the president’s first term.
      Catching up? Here’s what happened on 24 July 2025. More

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      Trump says it’s ‘no time to be talking about pardons’ for Ghislaine Maxwell as he lands in Scotland ahead of UK and EU talks – live

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      Speaking to reporters at Prestwick airport, Trump denied reports that he was briefed about his name appearing in the Epstein files.Asked about the justice department’s questioning of Ghislaine Maxwell, Trump said: “I don’t know anything about the conversation, I haven’t really been following it.”“A lot of people have been asking me about pardons [for Maxwell]. Obviously, this is no time to be talking about pardons” he went on. “You’re making a very big thing over something that’s not a big thing.”He then deflects further, suggesting the media should talk about Clinton and the ex-president of Harvard, but “don’t talk about Trump”.Donald Trump has arrived at his Turnberry golf resort on the coast of Ayrshire, in south-west Scotland.His motorcade, escorted by Police Scotland vehicles and ambulance crews, drove past a small group of protesters, and at least one supporter.While Trump has spoken fondly of Scotland, where his mother was born and raised, the country has not always returned his warmth.During a previous visit, in 2018, Trump was greeted at his Turnberry resort by a Greenpeace activist who paraglided directly over his head trailing a banner that read: “Trump: Well Below Par”.Ahead of his visit, one local newspaper, the National, which supports independence for Scotland, ran a preview of the visit with the headline: “Convicted US felon to arrive in Scotland – Republican leader, who was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation, will visit golf courses”.In his remarks to reporters at Prestwick airport earlier, Donald Trump was asked about his scheduled talks with UK prime minister Keir Starmer, which the White House has used to portray his mainly golf-themed truip as a working visit.“Can you explain”, a reporter asked Trump on the tarmac outside Air Force One, “what is missing in the UK deal that you have to work out?”“Nothing”, Trump replied. “I think it’s more of a celebration than a workout. It’s a great deal for both, and we’re going to have a meeting on other things, other than the deal. The deal is concluded”.Trump previously suggested that the talks were to “refine” the US-UK trade deal. Starmer told Bloomberg News in an interview on Thursday that the UK is still pressing for “full implementation” of the deal with the US.The sticking point appears to be that while Trump agreed to cut US tariffs on steel imports from the UK that currently stand at 25%, the tariffs have not yet been lifted.In response to the House ethics committee’s report into Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s attendance of the Met Gala four years ago, her chief of staff Mike Casca said:“The Congresswoman appreciates the Committee finding that she made efforts to ensure her compliance with House Rules and sought to act consistently with her ethical requirements as a Member of the House. She accepts the ruling and will remedy the remaining amounts, as she’s done at each step in this process.”The House ethics committee has ordered progressive Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to pay nearly $3,000 to resolve an investigation into her attendance of the 2021 Met Gala in New York City.The inquiry began in 2022 following an allegation that Ocasio-Cortez accepted impermissible gifts when she attended the annual gala wearing a white floor-length gown with “Tax the Rich” written on the back.In its bipartisan report released today, the ethics committee determined that despite making “significant attempts” to comply with congressional rules around accepting gifts, Ocasio-Cortez failed to do so “fully” by “impermissibly” accepting free admission to the gala for her partner, and did not pay full market price for some of what she wore to the event.The committee found that a former campaign staff member tried to lower the congresswoman’s costs for attending the gala and made late payments to vendors involved. While it faulted Ocasio-Cortez for not properly supervising the staffer, the committee “did not find evidence that she intended to seek to lower the cost of goods provided to her or to delay payment for those goods and other services received.”The committee determined that they will close the matter and Ocasio-Cortez will not face sanctions if she donates the $250 cost of her partner’s meal, and pays $2,733.28 to the designer from which she rented the dress and accessories.A former Department of Justice lawyer has provided evidence to a justice department watchdog corroborating explosive claims that Emil Bove and other top officials wilfully and knowingly defied court orders, according to Whistleblower Aid, a non-profit representing the person.A top department official and Donald Trump’s former defense attorney, Bove is currently being considered for a lifetime seat on the federal bench.Whistleblower Aid said it was not identifying its client. They said the person had turned over “ substantive, internal DoJ documents” to the justice department’s inspector general. The evidence, the organization said, corroborate allegations from Erez Reuveni, a fired DoJ employee, who has publicly said that Bove told DoJ lawyers to defy the courts.“What we’re seeing here is something I never thought would be possible on such a wide scale: federal prosecutors appointed by the Trump Administration intentionally presenting dubious if not outright false evidence to a court of jurisdiction in cases that impact a person’s fundamental rights not only under our constitution, but their natural rights as humans,” said Andrew Bakaj, chief counsel at Whistleblower Aid.“Our client and Mr Reuveni are true patriots – prioritizing their commitment to democracy over advancing their careers.”Trump also said a trade deal with the European Union would be a big agreement and repeated his view that there was a “good 50-50 chance” for it.“With the European Union, we have a good 50-50 chance,” he told reporters. “That would be the biggest deal of them all if we make it.”He is due to meet with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday to discuss trade.Speaking to reporters at Prestwick airport, Trump denied reports that he was briefed about his name appearing in the Epstein files.Asked about the justice department’s questioning of Ghislaine Maxwell, Trump said: “I don’t know anything about the conversation, I haven’t really been following it.”“A lot of people have been asking me about pardons [for Maxwell]. Obviously, this is no time to be talking about pardons” he went on. “You’re making a very big thing over something that’s not a big thing.”He then deflects further, suggesting the media should talk about Clinton and the ex-president of Harvard, but “don’t talk about Trump”.The US president was greeted by Scottish secretary Ian Murray as he walked off Air Force One at Prestwick airport.The pair could be seen shaking hands at the bottom of the aircraft stairs before Donald Trump walked across to a group of journalists to answer questions.Air Force One has just landed in Scotland. I’ll bring you any key lines here if Donald Trump speaks to the media.Disgraced former US representative George Santos reported to a federal prison in New Jersey earlier today to begin serving a seven-year sentence for the fraud charges that got him ousted from Congress.The federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed to the Associated Press that the New York Republican was in custody at the Federal Correctional Institution in Fairton, in southern New Jersey.Santos pleaded guilty last summer to federal wire fraud and aggravated identity theft charges for deceiving donors and stealing people’s identities in order to fund his congressional campaign.Lawyers for Santos didn’t respond to phone and email messages seeking comment.The ever-online Santos, 37, hosted a farewell party for himself on X last night.“Well, darlings … The curtain falls, the spotlight dims, and the rhinestones are packed,” he wrote in a post afterwards. “From the halls of Congress to the chaos of cable news what a ride it’s been! Was it messy? Always. Glamorous? Occasionally. Honest? I tried … most days.”In a Thursday interview with Al Arabiya, a Saudi state-owned news organization, Santos said he’ll serve his sentence in a minimum-security prison “camp” that he described as a “big upgrade” from the medium-security lockup he was initially assigned to.In April, a federal judge declined to give Santos a lighter two-year sentence that he sought, saying she was unconvinced he was truly remorseful. In the weeks before his sentencing, Santos said he was “profoundly sorry” for his crimes, but he also complained frequently that he was a victim of a political witch hunt and prosecutorial overreach.Santos lied extensively about his life story both before and after entering the US Congress, where he was the first openly LGBTQ+ Republican elected to the body. He was ultimately convicted of defrauding donors.He has apparently been holding out hope that his unwavering support for Donald Trump might help him win a last-minute reprieve.The White House said this week that it “will not comment on the existence or nonexistence” of any clemency request.A senior justice department official has told NBC News that attorney general Pam Bondi is still healing from a torn cornea, but it has not prevented her from doing day-to-day work and meeting with staff.The update comes after Bondi abruptly canceled a scheduled appearance on Wednesday at CPAC’s anti-trafficking summit in Washington, citing recovery from a health issue.As all the political firestorm over the Epstein saga continues to dominate the news cycle and consume Washington, there has been much online chatter about Bondi’s whereabouts.She was last seen on Tuesday morning swearing in the new DEA administrator Terry Cole at the justice department.NewsNation reports that following the conclusion of the DOJ interviews, David Oscar Markus, Ghislaine Maxwell’s attorney, said they were “very grateful” for the opportunity.Markus said:
      This was a thorough, comprehensive interview by the deputy attorney general. No person and no topic were off-limits. We are very grateful. The truth will come out.
      Some more detail on that from the Tallahassee Democrat.David Oscar Markus, Ghislaine Maxwell’s attorney declined to say whether Donald Trump was the focus of any of the Department of Justice’s questions during the interviewing sessions that have taken place behind closed doors at the federal courthouse in Tallahassee over the last two days.“I’m just not going to talk about the substance,” Markus said.Deputy attorney general Todd Blanche had asked Maxwell “every possible question”, Markus said. “He did a really good job and asked her a lot of things.” More

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      Trump deflects Epstein questions as he arrives in Scotland for trade talks

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      The furore over Donald Trump’s ties with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein continued on Friday as new revelations about the pair’s relationship threatened to mire the president’s golfing trip to Scotland, where he arrived late on Friday.After landing at Glasgow Prestwick airport at about 8.30pm local time on Friday, the US president denied reports that he had been briefed about his name appearing in files pertaining to the case against the late Epstein. He also claimed he had not “really been following” the justice department’s interview with Epstein’s convicted associate, Ghislaine Maxwell.“A lot of people have been asking me about pardons” for Maxwell, Trump said. “Obviously, this is no time to be talking about pardons.“You’re making a very big thing over something that’s not a big thing.”Trump’s name appeared on a contributor list for a book celebrating Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003, according to reporting from the New York Times, lending further weight to reports that the president participated in the leather-bound collection of messages, drawings and accolades – even though he denied that he contributed a signed and sexually suggestive note and drawing, as reported by the Wall Street Journal earlier this month.Trump’s name is listed among Epstein’s friends and acquaintances who contributed birthday messages for the professionally bound book which reportedly had multiple volumes, the New York Times reported. The tome opens with a handwritten letter, also reviewed by the outlet, from the disgraced financier’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year federal prison sentence for conspiring to sexually traffic children.Maxwell had a second meeting on Friday with the US deputy attorney general and Trump’s former personal criminal defense attorney, Todd Blanche, in Florida, where she is serving her prison term – following an initial face-to-face on Thursday.Trump was asked about Maxwell on Friday morning as he departed for Scotland with the shadow of the rumbling Epstein scandal hanging over the visit.Maxwell is appealing her conviction and the US president did not get into detail when asked about possible clemency for the disgraced British socialite and daughter of the late newspaper proprietor Robert Maxwell. Trump cited the ongoing investigation, while confirming he had the power of the presidential pardon, which can be used for federal or national level crimes but not state level.“I’m allowed to do it, but it’s something I have not thought about,” Trump told reporters outside the White House as he prepared to depart Washington DC.When he arrived in Scotland, a large crowd was on hand, and some looking on reportedly applauded him.He was greeted by Scottish secretary of state, Ian Murray, as he walked off Air Force One. The pair were seen shaking hands at the bottom of the aircraft stairs before Trump walked across the tarmac to a group of journalists to answer questions.Trump planned to spend the weekend at one of his golf properties near Turnberry. Early next week, he will be visiting Aberdeen, where his family has one golf course and is getting ready to open a second course soon.Trump plans to meet with the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, to talk trade, amid his continual threats of imposing steep tariffs on US trading partners.But none of that could overshadow Epstein, whose birthday gift collection includes about five dozen contributions from public figures and unknown acquaintances, according to documents reviewed by the Times and the Wall Street Journal, and was assembled before Epstein’s first arrest in 2006.The birthday book controversy has deepened anger over the decision by Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, and FBI director, Kash Patel, to backtrack on promises to release the Epstein investigative files.Trump has responded to the growing backlash from his usually loyal supporters – and Democrats – over the U-turn with mounting fury, claiming that news reports over the birthday book were fake news.Last week, Trump sued Journal’s billionaire owner, Rupert Murdoch, publisher Dow Jones and two Journal reporters for libel and slander over claims that he sent Epstein a signed lewd letter and sketch of a naked woman as part of the birthday book.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“A pair of small arcs denotes the woman’s breasts, and the future president’s signature is a squiggly ‘Donald’ below her waist, mimicking pubic hair,” the Journal reported of the alleged drawing. The letter allegedly concluded: “Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret.”Trump followed the lawsuit, which seeks $10bn in damages, by barring Journal reporters from this weekend’s trip to Scotland.He also called for relevant grand jury testimony in the prosecution of Epstein to be publicly released, insisting that he had nothing to hide. On Wednesday, a district judge in Florida denied a request by Trump’s Department of Justice to unseal the transcripts.Congress was sent home early for summer recess by the House speaker and Trump loyalist, Mike Johnson, in an effort to quell Democratic party demands for a vote on the Epstein files.But Trump’s desire to play down his relationship with Epstein has been repeatedly thwarted by a steady drip of evidence – photos, videos, books and witnesses – that strongly suggest his name could appear in the files.Earlier this week, CNN published newly uncovered photos and videos that show Epstein at Trump’s 1993 wedding to Marla Maples, and the pair at a Victoria’s Secret event in 1993, seemingly joking with Trump’s future wife, Melania Trump.The New York Times then reported that even before the birthday anthology, Trump had written another gushing note to Epstein in 1997. “To Jeff – You are the greatest!” reads an inscription in a copy of Trump’s book Trump: The Art of the Comeback that belonged to Epstein, which the Times said it had reviewed.And the Journal reported more details on the birthday book, which Epstein’s brother Mark Epstein recalls Maxwell putting together.The contents page was organized into categories, with Trump and Bill Clinton listed under the “Friends” group, according to the Journal. A message in Clinton’s distinctive handwriting reportedly read: “It’s reassuring isn’t it, to have lasted as long, across all the years of learning and knowing, adventures and [illegible word], and also to have your childlike curiosity, the drive to make a difference and the solace of friend.”Also listed as a friend is the Labour politician and current UK ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson, whose tribute, the Journal reported, included photos of whiskey and a tropical island, and referred to Epstein as “my best pal”.Clinton has previously said that he cut ties with Epstein more than a decade before his 2019 arrest and didn’t know about Epstein’s alleged crimes. In 2023, Mandelson told the Journal that he “very much regrets ever having been introduced to Epstein”.A House committee on Wednesday voted to subpoena the justice department for the Epstein investigation files, with three Republicans voting alongside Democratic members. Democratic representative Ro Khanna of California has said he will subpoena Epstein’s estate to hand over the book. More