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      Wednesday briefing: What the latest wave of tariffs mean for the US, UK, Europe – and you

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      Good morning. According to Donald Trump, it’s “liberation day”: the advent of a new trade order in which Americans reap the benefit of massive tariffs on imports, and the rest of the world picks up the tab.Unsurprisingly, the United States’ trading partners tend to take a very different view. And they are doing everything they can to avoid being passive targets for the White House’s carnivorous vision of American exceptionalism.Trump will announce his plans at 4pm Eastern Time (9pm UK) in the White House’s Rose Garden – but it is still not clear whether a flat rate will be applied globally, or if the charge will vary by country instead. Even at the last minute, countries including the UK are hoping that they might win exceptions; political leaders, and financial markets, are on edge.For today’s newsletter, Guardian correspondents explain what the tariffs mean around the world – and when you can expect to feel the impact in your pocket. Here are the headlines.Five big stories

      Israel-Gaza war | Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz announced a major expansion of the military operation in Gaza on Wednesday, saying large areas of the enclave would be seized and added to the security zones of Israel. Follow the latest here.

      Israel-Gaza war | Some of the bodies of 15 Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers, killed by Israeli forces and buried in a mass grave in Gaza, were found with their hands or legs tied and had gunshot wounds to the head and chest, according to two eyewitnesses. The accounts add to evidence pointing to a potentially serious war crime on 23 March.

      UK news | More than 20 women have contacted police to say they fear they may have been attacked by the serial rapist Zhenhao Zou, with detectives fearing there may be even more victims to come. Zou, 28, was convicted last month of raping three women in London and seven in China between 2019 and 2024.

      US politics | Cory Booker, the Democratic US senator from New Jersey, has broken the record for longest speech ever by a lone senator by spending 25 hours and five minutes inveighing against Donald Trump in the chamber. Booker’s speech was intended to highlight the “grave and urgent” danger that Trump poses to democracy.

      Cinema | Val Kilmer, the actor best known for his roles in Top Gun, Batman Forever and The Doors, has died at the age of 65. His daughter Mercedes told the New York Times that the cause of death was pneumonia.
      In depth: Concessions, retaliation, ‘friendshoring’ – and a new mood of volatilityView image in fullscreenOn Monday, Donald Trump told reporters that he had “settled” on a tariff plan – but according to CNN, White House officials were still presenting him with options on Tuesday. And White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that he was “always up” for a phone call or negotiation with foreign leaders hoping to plead their case.That suggests the satisfaction Trump takes in the power he is able to exert through the United States’ economic might. And whereas in his first term he appeared sensitive to the markets giving his economic policies the thumbs down, he seems genuinely more bullish this time around. Even on the question of whether consumers will pay more, he has so far stuck to the line that the cost will be worth it in the end.“I couldn’t care less if they raise prices, because people are going to start buying American-made cars,” he said of tariffs on foreign cars on Sunday. And last month, of the tariffs on Canada and Mexico, he said: “We may have, short term, a little pain. People understand that.”Here’s what that stance means around the world.UK | What is Downing Street’s strategy?View image in fullscreenLast night, Pippa Crerar, Heather Stewart and Richard Partington reported that the UK is ready to offer a significant reduction in its digital services tax, a 2% levy on UK revenues that applies to big American tech firms including Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, eBay, and Apple.But while business secretary Jonathan Reynolds has insisted that the UK is in “the best possible position of any country to reach an agreement”, Downing Street acknowledges that it is unlikely to get a deal before tariffs come in on a global scale.“They’ve been aiming at an exemption ever since Trump was inaugurated,” Pippa, the Guardian’s political editor, said – one key reason that Peter Mandelson, a trade expert, was appointed as US ambassador. “Trump has talked about ‘being nice’ to countries that ‘haven’t made a fortune’ out of the US – they hope that’s aimed at us.”“They remain hopeful he’ll row back quickly because they say a trade deal is ready to go,” she added. “Despite what they say, the trade deal is as much or more about avoiding tariffs as having a brilliant economic relationship. So it’s a defensive move.”As well as the digital services tax, Trump appears to view VAT as unfair. “I just don’t see how they could change that,” Pippa said. “It’s paid by all companies, not just US ones. And there’s some anger within Labour that the US is trying to interfere with domestic taxation systems.”That speaks to some of the risks of caving to Trump’s demands. “They’re always thinking of the politics of it,” Pippa said. “But they believe that it’s worth a few bad headlines back home about sucking up to Trump to avoid the potential damage of a full blown trade war with the US which could cost our economy billions.”Markets | What kind of impact are we seeing?“We’ve had plenty of volatility already this year, partly because many analysts were complacent about how disruptive Trump would be,” said Graeme Wearden, who runs the Guardian’s daily business liveblog.“Several Wall Street firms have already cut their end-of-year forecasts for the US stock market in recent weeks, which shows that some of the recent drama is being priced in. But, having seen the US president announce tariffs against Mexico and Canada, and then delay them, investors probably won’t assume the Rose Garden announcement will be the end of the story.”MCSI’s index of global stocks showed a 4.5% fall in March, the biggest decline since September 2022. But that impact has not been evenly distributed. “There’s been a clear rotation out of US stocks this year, and into Europe,” Graeme said. “While the S&P 500 index of US shares is down 4.5% during 2025, the pan-European Stoxx 600 has jumped 6%.” The FTSE 100 has enjoyed its best quarter since 2022 as traders have looked for alternatives to US firms.If you’re looking for other signs that this is a nervous moment, the Cboe Volatility Index (Wall Street’s “fear gauge”), has climbed by a third in the last week – and is up 50% on a year ago. That is “a sign that investors expect volatile times”, Graeme said. But he added: “It was three times higher during the 2008 financial crisis, showing that a) investors aren’t in a full-blown panic, and b) there’s room for more volatility.”World | How are other countries responding?The UK is not the only country to seek carve-outs from Trump’s threatened universal tariffs: Japan, for example, has tried to persuade the US its manufacturers should be exempted from the 25% car tariff, and South Korea has sought an exemption from steel and aluminium exports.But the wider pattern is of major economic counterparts seeking to respond in kind. “Certainly the EU is expected to retaliate, and we’ve already seen Canada, for instance, hit back,” said economics editor Heather Stewart. “They’re most likely to try and pick up on specific products that hit the US without screwing up their own supply chains too much … Retaliation will tend to make the economic impact of tariffs worse; but politically, it’s understandable that countries want to look tough.”The other major plank of the global response has been an acceleration in moves towards “friendshoring” – the strategy of reorienting trade policies towards trusted allies with a more reliable approach. China, Japan and South Korea are holding talks over a new free trade deal, for example.“It was already happening to some extent,” Heather said, partly because of “renewed awareness of extended supply chains that came with Covid and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But I would definitely expect more deals that exclude the US.”Cost of living | When am I going to start feeling the impact?It’s still too early for the specific costs attached to tariffs to be felt in a major way by consumers – but “the price impact could already be beginning”, economics correspondent Richard Partington said. “Some economists reckon firms will raise their prices under the cover of tariffs, with the assumption that consumers think prices will rise – even if tariffs on those goods are never actually introduced.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionWhile that is hard to quantify, there is evidence from the US during Trump’s first term – when the cost of clothes dryers went up because of a tariff on imported washing machines – that it is a plausible path. Something similar might happen in the UK on goods sold from the US using components sourced from overseas, Richard said – but it’s also possible that “trade reallocation”, where countries send exports that might have gone to the US to other trading partners, could lead to price cuts.Consumers will be affected in other ways that are less direct – but no less real. There has been a marked impact on consumer confidence surveys, Richard said, and businesses are holding back on their spending plans. “The potential UK impact has been best spelled out so far by the OBR,” Richard said. “In the worst case scenario of global trade disputes escalating to include 20 percentage point rises in tariffs between the USA and the rest of the world, this could reduce UK GDP by a peak of 1%.”That would wipe out all of Rachel Reeves’ storied fiscal headroom by the fifth year of forecasts, making tax rises in the autumn inevitable. Uncertainty is another intangible but consequential factor, he added – “like a slow puncture on the global and UK economy”. You can keep juddering on – but it’s anybody’s guess when you’ll suddenly veer off the road.What else we’ve been readingView image in fullscreen

      The daily deluge of news has made many people turn off their televisions, unsubscribe from papers and avoid news websites. This phenomenon of news avoidance is growing across the board. Michael Savage takes a look at how newsrooms are responding. Nimo

      Oliver Wainwright’s writing on architecture is always compulsively enjoyable, and his review of a new student complex in Oxford meets those expectations. With “rhubarb and custard-coloured stonework” and a “bulbous roof of polygonal scales”, the overall effect is a “hallucinatory sense that you might have been swallowed into the belly of a cuddly toy”. Archie

      Reviewing culture has had an outsized influence on my decision-making: less than a 4.5 out of 5 rating and I likely won’t go to a restaurant or buy a product. But how helpful is it really? Chloë Hamilton asks what this level of “mutual surveillance” is doing to our lives. Nimo

      On the one hand, Daniel Lavelle has two degrees and two books to his name; on the other, he left education at 14 and started working life in a cotton mill. So where does he fit into Britain’s suffocating class system? His attempt to make sense of it all has the vital quality of thinking out loud, but no straightforward answers. Archie

      I recently started Benjamín Labatut’s novel The Maniac and I have never felt so engrossed in a book that focusses so closely on mathematics and physics. In this disquieting book that spans a century, Labatut examines the dark foundations of our modern world and the extraordinary and troubled minds behind it. Nimo
      SportView image in fullscreenFootball | Bukayo Saka scored the decisive goal in Arenal’s 2-1 win against Fulham seven minutes after coming off the bench on his return from injury. In the night’s other Premier League matches, Nottingham Forest beat Manchester United 1-0 and Wolves beat West Ham 1-0.Cricket | Charlotte Edwards has been named as the new England women’s head coach. The former England captain put her hat in the ring in February, when changes were expected after a disastrous tour of Australia last winter in which England lost the Ashes by 16 points to nil.Rugby | There remains a “high degree of uncertainty” over whether tens of millions of pounds paid to rugby union clubs and other sports teams during the Covid-19 pandemic will ever be repaid, a House of Commons committee has warned. The committee said that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has been “overly optimistic” about loans worth £474m.The front pagesView image in fullscreen“PM offers US tech firms tax cut in return for lower Trump tariffs” says the Guardian’s splash headline, while the Telegraph’s version is “Starmer’s 11th-hour bid to halt trade war”. It’s “Trump trade madness” and “CARnage” on the front of the Mirror while the Times has “Firms told to brace for impact of Trump tariffs”. The Daily Mail finds reason to be cheerful: “Trump’s tariffs threaten crisis for Reeves” and the Express runs with “Don’t provoke new trade war that ‘makes UK poorer’,” saying Kemi Badenoch doesn’t want Starmer to retaliate. In the i they’ve gone with “UK told to ‘prepare for the worst’ as Trump begins his global trade war”. In times like these, trust the Financial Times with your money: “Investors flock to gold as fears mount on eve of Trump tariff announcement”. “Student rapist: 23 more victims” is the top story in the Metro.Today in FocusView image in fullscreenCould Marine Le Pen’s guilty verdict help fuel the far right?The parliamentary leader of France’s far-right National Rally party, Marine Le Pen, has been banned from public office for five years for embezzlement, ruining her chance of a presidential run. Angelique Chrisafis reportsCartoon of the day | Pete SongiView image in fullscreenThe UpsideA bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all badView image in fullscreenJoy Ebaide, a Nigerian solo traveller, has embarked on many journeys across Africa, which all came with their own challenges. A heart-stopping encounter with a black mamba while riding her motorbike in Tanzania was terrifying, but it did not put her off travelling. Instead, it fuelled her desire to keep exploring. Ebaide embarked on a five-month solo journey from Mombasa to Lagos in 2024, riding a Tekken 250cc motorbike across Africa’s rugged terrains. Her travels, shared on social media, not only highlight the fun experiences but also shed light on the challenges faced by those with “weaker” passports.Ebaide is not alone in her pursuit of adventure despite these obstacles. Alma Asinobi, after facing visa refusals, set out to break a world record for visiting all seven continents. “The trip itself is a victory. Because historically, travelling as a black woman has an additional layer of complexity … I just want more women to know that you can do things, and it’s OK whether it works or not: just do things,” she says.Bored at work?And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow.

      Quick crossword

      Cryptic crossword

      Wordiply More

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      in US Politics

      Wisconsin supreme court race: liberal Susan Crawford beats Musk-backed candidate

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      Susan Crawford won the race for a seat on the Wisconsin supreme court on Tuesday, a major win for Democrats who had framed the race as a referendum on Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s popularity.Crawford, a liberal judge from Dane county, defeated Brad Schimel, a former Republican attorney general and conservative judge from Waukesha county, after Musk and groups associated with the tech billionaire spent millions to boost his candidacy in what became the most expensive judicial contest in American history.“Today Wisconsinites fended off an unprecedented attack on our democracy,” Crawford said in a speech at her victory night event in Madison. “Wisconsin stood up and said loudly that justice does not have a price. Our courts are not for sale.”With more than 84% of the vote tallied, Crawford led Schimel by nearly 10 percentage points.In remarks on Tuesday night, Schimel said he and his team “didn’t leave anything on the field” and announced that he had conceded the race in a call to his opponent before taking the stage. When his supporters began to boo, Schimel stopped them. “No, you gotta accept the results,” he said, adding: “The numbers aren’t gonna turn around. They’re too bad, and we’re not gonna pull this off.”Musk said hours after the result that “The long con of the left is corruption of the judiciary” and that the most important thing was that a vote on the addition of voter ID requirements passed.The result means that liberals will keep a 4-3 ideological majority on the state supreme court. That majority is hugely significant because the court will hear major cases on abortion and collective bargaining rights. The court could also potentially consider cases that could cause the state to redraw its eight congressional districts, which are currently drawn to advantage Republicans.View image in fullscreenMilwaukee, Wisconsin’s largest city, reported “historic turnout” for a spring election, with election officials saying in a statement Tuesday evening that due to the “unprecedented high turnout,” seven polling places ran out of ballots. The city’s elections commission said it was working to replenish resources to voters during the evening rush.A combined more than $80m was spent on the race, topping the previous record of some $51m that was spent in the 2023 Wisconsin state supreme court race. Elon Musk and affiliated groups spent more than $20m alone. Musk reprised some of the tactics that he used last fall to help Trump win, including offering $100 to people who signed a petition opposing “activist judges” and offering $1 million checks to voters.Pointing to the potential to redraw House districts, Musk had said the race “might decide the future of America and western civilization”.Democrats seized on Musk’s involvement in the race to energize voters who were upset about the wrecking ball he and his unofficial “department of government efficiency”, or Doge, have taken to federal agencies. They raised the stakes of an already high-stakes contest by holding out Wisconsin as a test case for Musk, saying that if he succeeded, he would take his model across the country.“Growing up in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, I never thought I would be taking on the richest man in the world for justice,” Crawford said on Tuesday night. “And we won.”After Musk’s involvement became public, Democrats saw an explosion in grassroots donations and people “coming out of the woodwork” to get involved in the race, Ben Wikler, the state’s Democratic party chair, said last month. When the party tested its messaging, Wikler said, messages that highlighted Musk’s involvement in the race motivated voters who were otherwise disengaged from politics.Jeannine Ramsey, 65, voted in Madison on Tuesday for Crawford because she said the “Elon Musk-supported Brad Schimel” wouldn’t rule fairly on the issues most important to her.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“I think it’s shameful that Elon Musk can come here and spend millions of dollars and try to bribe the citizens,” Ramsey said. “I don’t think it should be allowed. He doesn’t live in our state, and I don’t think he should be able to buy this election. It makes me angry.”Trump won Wisconsin in the presidential election in November by less than 1 percentage point – the closest margin of any battleground state.Because turnout in a state supreme court election is lower than that of a typical election and those who vote tend to be highly-engaged, experts have cautioned against trying to read too much into the election results for national political sentiment. Still, there were encouraging signs for Democrats.“The hard work of reaching the voters who pay the least attention to politics is going to take years for Democrats to build that kind of communications strength that can puncture the Republican propaganda bubble,” Wikler said in March. “But for laying the groundwork for flipping the House and the Senate in 2026 and winning governorships and state legislative majorities, the supreme court race can really point the way.”Ken Martin, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, also celebrated the result.“Tonight, the people of Wisconsin squarely rejected the influence of Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and billionaire special interests. And their message? Stay out of our elections and stay away from our courts,” he said in a statement.In Madison, Crawford said she was ready to turn from the campaign trail, which she described as a “life-altering experience,” to the bench, where she promised to “deliver fair and impartial decisions”. Concluding her remarks, Crawford wished her mother, watching from home, a happy birthday and quipped: “I know how glad you are to see the TV ads end.”Jenny Peek contributed reporting from Madison, Wisconsin More

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      in US Politics

      Cory Booker’s anti-Trump speech on Senate floor enters 21st hour – live

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      Cory Booker, the Democratic senator from New Jersey, has now spoken for 21 hours on the Senate floor in opposition to the Trump administration.Booker has used his speaking slot to decry the Trump administration’s spending cuts, its attempt to abolish the Department of Education, the president’s attempts to bypass the judicial system and the removal of people from the US who speak out against the administration.He began his speech at 7pm ET on Monday night and will pass the 21-hour mark at 4pm on Tuesday. Booker has had help from Democratic colleagues, who have been asking him questions that have allowed him to have a break without yielding the floor.Booker is getting close to the all-time Senate record. In 1957, Strom Thurmond spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes to filibuster the Civil Rights Act of the same year.During a Fox News interview this afternoon, Elon Musk made a last-minute appeal to Wisconsin voters in support of state supreme court candidate Brad Schimel.“A judge race, election in Wisconsin will decide whether or not the Democrats can gerrymander Wisconsin in order to remove two House seats from Republican to Democrat,” Musk said. “If you know people in Wisconsin, call them right now.”Republicans including Musk and President Donald Trump have backed Schimel, a former state attorney general, in hopes of turning the 4-3 supreme court conservative. Musk traveled to Wisconsin over the weekend, where he handed out $1m checks to two voters.A Pennsylvania man has filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk claiming the billionaire reneged on payments promised to canvassers during the 2024 election, the New York Times reports.Filed as a class action against Musk and his super PAC, the suit alleges Musk failed to pay the claimant $20,000 he was owed for collecting signatures.Musk told Pennsylvanians he’d pay $100 to those willing to sign petitions supporting free speech and gun ownership rights, and $47 for each signatory recruited, an amount raised to $100 in the final days of the election.Thousands are tuning in to watch Cory Booker hold the Senate floor as his marathon speech against the “grave and urgent” danger posed by the Trump administration closes in on the 22-hour mark.Just before 5pm ET more than 71,500 were watching along from Booker’s live feed on Youtube. Meanwhile, several news organizations, including AP, PBS, CBS – and of course the Guardian – had feeds of their own. Others tuned in through C-SPAN.Booker began speaking on Monday evening, vowing to remain on the Senate floor as long as he was “physically able”. His speech has already become one of the longest in Senate history.“These are not normal times in our nation,” Booker said as he launched into his speech. “And they should not be treated as such in the United States Senate. The threats to the American people and American democracy are grave and urgent, and we all must do more to stand against them.”National security leaders, including White House national security adviser Mike Waltz, conducted government business over personal Gmail accounts, the Washington Post reports.The Post cites documents it reviewed and interviews with three US officials that showed members of Donald Trump’s National Security Council had used the commercial email service, which is less secure than Signal, the service Waltz and other Trump administration officials used to coordinate a bombing attack on Yemen last week.“A senior Waltz aide used the commercial email service for highly technical conversations with colleagues at other government agencies involving sensitive military positions and powerful weapons systems relating to an ongoing conflict,” the Post reports. “While the NSC official used his Gmail account, his interagency colleagues used government-issued accounts, headers from the email correspondence show.”It continues: “Waltz has had less sensitive, but potentially exploitable information sent to his Gmail, such as his schedule and other work documents, said officials, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe what they viewed as problematic handling of information. The officials said Waltz would sometimes copy and paste from his schedule into Signal to coordinate meetings and discussions”We’ve been watching today as New Jersey senator Cory Booker enters his 21st hour of speaking during a marathon address designed to “disrupt” the “normal business of the United States Senate for as long as” he is physically able. Here’s what else is going on across the country.

      Voters are casting their ballots in Wisconsin and Florida in elections that may prove a symbol of Donald Trump’s popularity and Elon Musk’s clout.

      Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” is finalizing its shuttering of the US Agency for International Development, ordering the firings of thousands of local workers and US diplomats and civil servants assigned to the agency overseas.

      Thousands of Health and Human Services (HHS) employees across the country are being dismissed as the Trump administration began implementing its controversial workforce reduction plan. The plan could see 10,000 staff removed from the department.

      The firings at HHS have included staff who were working on the Food and Drug Administration’s bird flu response, Reuters reports.

      Congressman Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat, has issued a statement strongly condemning the Trump administration for cancelling $400m in federal grants and contracts to Columbia Universitybecause of what it alleged was the college’s repeated failure to protect students from antisemitic harassment.

      US attorney general Pam Bondi announced that she has directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, the man accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel in December.

      Republican House speaker Mike Johnson failed to block a bipartisan effort to change House rules to allow new parents in Congress to vote remotely after the birth of a child. The proxy vote resolution has been led by Anna Paulina Luna of Florida and Democratic congresswoman Brittany Pettersen of Colorado.
      Cory Booker, the Democratic senator from New Jersey, has now spoken for 21 hours on the Senate floor in opposition to the Trump administration.Booker has used his speaking slot to decry the Trump administration’s spending cuts, its attempt to abolish the Department of Education, the president’s attempts to bypass the judicial system and the removal of people from the US who speak out against the administration.He began his speech at 7pm ET on Monday night and will pass the 21-hour mark at 4pm on Tuesday. Booker has had help from Democratic colleagues, who have been asking him questions that have allowed him to have a break without yielding the floor.Booker is getting close to the all-time Senate record. In 1957, Strom Thurmond spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes to filibuster the Civil Rights Act of the same year.First lady Melania Trump spoke at the International Women of Courage Award ceremony on Tuesday where she spoke about courage as “a strength that is based in love”.Trump, during a rare public appearance at the state department, recognized eight women from around the world for bravery, including an Israeli woman who was held hostage by Hamas. She said:
      I have harnessed the power of love as a source of strength during challenging times. Love has inspired me to embrace forgiveness, nurture empathy and exhibit bravery in the face of unforeseen obstacles.
      Congressman Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat, has issued a statement strongly condemning the Trump administration for cancelling $400m in federal grants and contracts to Columbia Universitybecause of what it alleged was the college’s repeated failure to protect students from antisemitic harassment.The administration announced on Monday that a federal antisemitism taskforce is also reviewing more than $255m in contracts between Harvard University and the federal government, as well as $8.7bn in grant commitments to Harvard and its affiliates.“I strongly condemn former President Trump’s latest attacks on higher education cloaked under the guise of fighting antisemitism,” Nadler said in his statement on Tuesday.
      Withholding funding from Columbia and, potentially, Harvard will not make Jewish students safer … Make no mistake. Trump’s actions are not rooted in genuine concern for combatting hate.
      Nadler noted that the president’s record “is stained by praise for neo-Nazis, Holocaust deniers, and white nationalists”, adding:
      I call on our nation’s universities to reject President Trump’s demands and to fight back against these hostile acts. If necessary, these issues must be litigated in federal court to put an end to the illegal and unconstitutional actions taken by the Trump Administration.
      From Sam Levine in New York and Ashley Spencer in Daytona Beach, Florida:Andrew Julius, a veteran, cast his vote for Josh Weil, a Democrat, at the John Dickerson Community Center on Tuesday in a special election to determine who will replace Mike Waltz, the US national security adviser.
      I’m actually a fan of Josh Weil. I listened to him talk. I actually went to one of his town halls a couple of weeks ago at the church and I was like, all right, he seems like an educated person. He’s a teacher, level headed, doesn’t have those crazy conspiracy thoughts.
And so I felt comfortable saying, okay, I can vote for this guy instead of not voting at all.
      A former sonar technician in the navy, Julius said he was concerned over the recent disclosure that top Trump administration officials had used Signal to communicate about sensitive bombing plans in Yemen. He said:
      I had a top secret security clearance with my job in the Navy because I was a sonar tech. So we had to have a security clearance, and if I would have done just a fraction of a mistake or what was done with this whole Signal-gate fiasco, I would have been court martialed. I would have been court martialed, kicked out of the Navy, lost rank, lost pay.
      “It’s really concerning that no one has even taken responsibility like, hey, we messed up. That was a mistake. We shouldn’t have done that,” he added.The district is solidly Republican, and the GOP candidate, Randy Fine, is still the favorite to win. But recent polling has shown that the race may be closer than expected, prompting some Republican skittishness.Republican House speaker Mike Johnson tried – and failed – to block a bipartisan effort to change House rules to allow new parents in Congress to vote remotely after the birth of a child.The House, in a 206-222 procedural vote, fell short of the votes needed to adopt a rule that included language blocking a proxy vote resolution led by Republican congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna of Florida and Democratic congresswoman Brittany Pettersen of Colorado.“If we don’t do the right thing now, it’ll never be done,” said Luna, who gave birth to her son in 2023.Pettersen, with a diaper over her shoulder and her four-month-old son in her arms, pleaded with House colleagues. “It is unfathomable that in 2025 we have not modernized Congress,” she said. “We’re asking you to continue to stand with us.”Elon Musk’s cost-cutting team is finalizing the dismantlement of the US Agency for International Development, ordering the firings of thousands of local workers and US diplomats and civil servants assigned to the agency overseas, two former top USAID officials and a source with knowledge of the situation said on Tuesday.On Friday, Congress was notified that almost all of USAID’s own employees were being fired by September, all of its overseas offices shut, and some functions absorbed into the state department.The latest move by Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” will in effect eliminate what is left of the agency’s workforce.The Trump administration has fired staff who were working on the Food and Drug Administration’s bird flu response as part of its mass layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services, Reuters reports.Among those fired today were leadership and administrative staff at the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine, the news agency writes, citing a source.The center’s Veterinary Laboratory Investigation and Response Network tests raw pet food for bird flu. In recent weeks, the FDA has issued several pet food recalls after detecting bird flu contamination.The move will bring operations at the laboratory network to a halt, the source told Reuters.As egg prices have reached record highs, about a third of American consumers have stopped buying them in response to the rising costs, a new study suggests.According to research from Clarify Capital, 34% of Americans have stopped purchasing eggs as prices for the breakfast staple are becoming less affordable. On average, these consumers say they won’t begin buying eggs again until costs come down to $5 or less for a carton.The report compared the average price of eggs across all US states, observing a significant jump in 2018, when the average was $1.49. In 2025, that figure is sitting at about $5.18.The study found that nearly 95% of Americans have noticed the significant rise in egg prices, with shoppers reporting their perceived average as $7 a dozen. The average American said they would stop buying eggs when prices hit $8 a dozen.A comedian whose skit for White House reporters was canceled for fear of upsetting Donald Trump skewered the journalists who dropped her in a biting late-night talk show routine mocking their perceived subservience to the president.“I thought when people take away your rights, erase your history and deport your friends, you’re supposed to call it out. But I was wrong,” Amber Ruffin said during a brief appearance Monday on NBC’s Late Night With Seth Meyers.
      Glad to find that out now, because if they had let me give that speech, ooh baby… I would have been so terrifically mean.
      Ruffin was dropped at the weekend from the 26 April White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner when the group decided its “focus is not on the politics of division”.As a comedy writer for Meyers and host of her own chat show on Peacock, Ruffin has frequently mocked or criticized Trump and his actions.When asked about more possible dismissals in the federal government, White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said:
      “The President has given the responsibility to his Cabinet secretaries to hire and fire at their respective agencies, and they reserve that right. You saw the Secretary of Health and Human Services announced more layoffs today. This is all part of the administration’s effort for a mass reduction in force in the federal bureaucracy here in Washington DC, to save American taxpayers money.”
      Ashley Spencer reports on the ground from Florida:At the Church of Christ in Daytona Beach, voters lined up to vote in Florida’s special election to replace Rep. Mike Waltz after he was appointed Trump’s national security advisor. At the church, Trump bumper stickers dotted the parking lot. But the campaign for Democratic candidate Josh Weil had a more robust table set up with flyers and resources than that of Republican Randy Fine, who is favored to win.“Calling all immigrants or noncitizens ‘illegal’ or calling them ‘criminals’ is insane,” said Victor Valentin, who volunteered for a political campaign for the first time and on behalf of Weil. “I’m a Hispanic man from Puerto Rico, and those are my fellow Hispanic folks also. These are great people that come here to work hard. They come here to educate their kids.”Meanwhile, a Fine campaign volunteer wore a shirt with Trump’s mugshot that said Never Surrender. The former Democrat said he supported Trump and key ally Elon Musk. “I want him to do what he’s trying to do,” he said of Musk. “Anybody who’s not happy with him is either brainwashed or a crook.”California attorney general Rob Bonta sent letters to 15 insurance companies reminding them that under AB 571, they cannot deny, cancel, or increase premiums on malpractice insurance for medical providers who offer abortion, contraception, or gender-affirming care in California.The letter sent to insurers requests proof of compliance, and Bonta also issued a general industry alert.“California has been and remains committed to protecting the right to choose and the right of individuals to access necessary medical care,” said Bonta. “Licensed providers that offer reproductive and gender-affirming care too often face significant obstacles in securing malpractice insurance — the California Legislature passed, and the Governor signed into law, AB 571 to tear down those barriers.”Leavitt was asked about the error regarding a Salvadoran national with protected legal status who was deported to El Salvador last month, despite his legal protections. The Trump administration acknowledged in court that his deportation was due to an “administrative error”.
      “The error you’re referring to was a clerical error,” Leavitt said on Tuesday. “It was an administrative error. The administration maintains the position that this individual, who was deported to El Salvador and will not be returning to our country, was a member of the brutal and vicious MS-13 gang.” More

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      US House Democrat blasts Trump for using ‘antisemitism’ to attack universities

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      The representative Jerry Nadler of New York has slammed Donald Trump’s crackdown on American universities in the name of fighting antisemitism, saying that withholding federal funding from schools will “not make Jewish students safer”.In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Democratic representative said he condemned Trump’s “latest attacks on higher education cloaked under the guise of fighting antisemitism”.“Once again, the president is weaponizing the real pain American Jews face to advance his desire to wield control over the truth-seeking academic institutions that stand as a bulwark against authoritarianism,” Nadler said.Last month, the Trump administration pulled $400m in federal grants and contracts from Columbia University over what it alleged to be the college’s failure to protect students from antisemitic harassment on campus tied to the pro-Palestinian campus protests of the last 18 months.Several weeks later, the university agreed to a series of changes put forth by the Trump administration as a pre-condition for restoring the funding.In recent weeks, the Trump administration has warned at least 60 other universities of possible action over alleged failure to comply with federal civil rights laws regarding antisemitism. On Monday, it announced a review of $9bn in federal contracts and grants awarded to Harvard University, over similar allegations that it failed to address issues of antisemitism on campus.In his statement on Tuesday, Nadler said that “withholding funding from Columbia and, potentially, Harvard will not make Jewish students safer”.“Cutting funding to programs that work to cure cancer and make other groundbreaking discoveries will not make Jewish students safer,” he said. “Impounding congressionally appropriated funding will not make Jewish students safer.”“Trump’s ‘review’ is part of a larger effort to silence universities and intimidate those who challenge the Maga agenda,” the representative added, describing it as “a dangerous and politically motivated move that risks stifling free thought and academic inquiry”.Nadler continued: “Make no mistake. Trump’s actions are not rooted in genuine concern for combatting hate. If Trump were truly committed to fighting antisemitism, he would not have crippled the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, the only agency specifically tasked with enforcing anti-discrimination laws at our nation’s educational institutions.”The administration’s campaign to weaken universities perceived as bastions of leftism, along with Columbia’s apparent willingness to accept Trump’s terms for restoring funding, has prompted anxiety that academic freedom in the US is facing an unprecedented crisis.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“We cannot allow Trump’s authoritarian tactics to prevail – this is not the America we want to live in, nor is it the America we need,” Nadler’s statement said.He urged US universities to reject demands from the Trump administration and to “fight back against these hostile acts”. Experts have pointed out that Columbia had strong grounds to sue in order to stop the cuts, and have expressed surprise that the university opted not to pursue them.“If necessary, these issues must be litigated in federal court to put an end to the illegal and unconstitutional actions taken by the Trump administration,” Nadler said. More

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      Capitol Hill hearing on ‘censorship industrial complex’ under Biden based on ‘fiction’, says expert

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      A Capitol Hill hearing held to explore supposed government censorship under Joe Biden was based on a “fiction”, a leading expert on countering online disinformation told members of Congress on Tuesday.Nina Jankowicz, head of the American Sunlight Project, a pro-democracy organization, went on the offensive at a House of Representatives foreign relations subcommittee meeting held to examine the existence of an alleged “censorship industrial complex”, which Republicans claim was established to stifle rightwing views on social media, rather than combat foreign propaganda, as officially stated.Having been labeled a “spearhead” and “tsarina” of such efforts by the committee’s Republican chair, Bill Huizenga, Jankowicz – who briefly led the Department of Homeland Security’s disinformation unit under the Biden administration – said the hearing was being held at a time when Donald Trump was attempting aggressive free speech restrictions.“The premise of this hearing, the so called censorship industrial complex, is a fiction that has not only had profound impacts on my life and safety, but on our national security,” she said in her opening statement at a fractious hearing that exposed the width of the chasm between Republicans and Democrats on the issue.“More alarmingly, this fiction is itself suppressing speech and stymieing critical research that protects our country.“I want to acknowledge the irony that we’re having this discussion as we witness an assault on the first amendment we have not seen in decades. The Trump administration has directed far more egregious violations of our constitution than the imagined actions of the Biden administration on which this hearing is premised.”She singled out the detention and attempted deportation of Rumeysa Ozturk, a doctoral student at Tufts University, who wrote an opinion article critical of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, which she compared to the actions of authoritarian regimes in Russia, Belarus and Hungary.Republicans have used their control of the House and Senate to stage a series of hearings in different congressional committees on the alleged existence of a censorship complex – whose name derives from the military industrial complex described by president Dwight Eisenhower in his farewell speech before leaving the White House in 1961. Opponents dismiss the notion as a conspiracy theory.The committee hearings have coincided with the Trump administration’s dismantling of safeguards designed to stop the spread of influence and disinformation in cyberspace by Russia in particular, but also widely attributed to China and Iran.Even before Trump returned to office, the Republican-controlled Congress declined last December to renew the mandate of the state department’s global engagement center (GEC), the leading government agency fighting Russian and Chinese propaganda.Huizenga, a representative from Michigan, called on two other witnesses, Matt Taibbi and Benjamin Weingarten, to support the Republican contention that the body had been subverted to instead suppress rightwing opinion in America.As evidence, Taibbi, a former Rolling Stone journalist who was among the recipients of the so-called “Twitter files” released by Elon Musk, the platform’s owner, to show evidence of alleged censorship, cited the case of Alex Berenson, a former New York Times journalist.Berenson had been expelled from platform following White House pressure after posting that the Covid-19 vaccine did not prevent infection or the virus’s transmission, Taibbi claimed.Weingarten, a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute, a rightwing thinktank, condemned the GEC as a “truth squad … designed to suppress any information that countered national policy and to identify people who may have had opinions that were controversial or unwanted as foreign inspire”.Democrats lined up to denounce the hearing as “hypocrisy” and “waste of taxpayers money” in light of the Trump administration’s attempts to deport foreign students who had expressed pro-Palestinian views, moves that Jankowicz said violated the US constitution first amendment, which protects free speech.Sydney Kamlager-Dove, the subcommittee’s ranking Democrat, said the hearing was “out of touch with the concerns of everyday Americans.“I’ve been to the state department, and I do have concerns about censorship – – censorship of the employees who are terrified to say the wrong thing, to say anything, or have the wrong word in their job title and be terminated by an administration that publicly relishes punishing people for their speech,” she said. “If we want to talk about censorship, we should begin with Trump’s unprecedented assault on the first amendment and rule of law.”Keith Self, a Republican representative from Texas, provoked anger among Democrats by appearing to liken the Biden administration’s anti-disinformation efforts to steps by the Nazi to construct public opinion in 1930s Germany.“A direct quote from Joseph Goebbels [the Nazi propaganda minister]: ‘It is the absolute right of the state to supervise the formation of public opinion,’ and I think that may be what we’re discussing here,” he said. More

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      House revolt over Republican bid to stop new parents from voting by proxy

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      An attempt by Republican leaders to stop new parents from voting by proxy sparked a bipartisan mutiny in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, during which a small group of GOP lawmakers joined with all Democrats to obstruct a key procedural motion and paralyze the chamber.The revolt was the first legislative setback Republicans have faced since Donald Trump returned to the White House with the GOP holding a slim majority in Congress’s lower chamber. It also delayed consideration of House speaker Mike Johnson’s legislative agenda for the week, which included a bill to stop federal judges from issuing nationwide injunctions – as several have done for Trump’s executive orders – and to require proof of citizenship to vote.Fueling the split was an attempt by the Republican Anna Paulina Luna and the Democrat Brittany Pettersen to force consideration of a measure allowing new parents to temporarily designate someone else to vote in their place. House leaders attempted an unusual parliamentary tactic to prevent the proposal from going forward, but were blocked by the votes of all 213 Democrats and nine Republicans.“I think that today is a pretty historical day for the entire conference. It’s showing that the body has decided that parents deserve a voice in Washington,” Luna said after the vote, though it remains unclear when the chamber will consider allowing proxy voting.Cradling her infant son, Pettersen referred to a fellow lawmaker who just announced she was pregnant: “I’m really excited to think that she will not go through what we went through on trying to make sure that we’re representing our constituents and taking care of our baby.”“It’s all worth it – changing Congress for the better,” the Colorado lawmaker added.The House’s then Democratic leadership allowed lawmakers to vote remotely after Covid broke out, but Republicans ended that policy after they took control of the chamber two years ago. In an interview with National Public Radio last week, Johnson described himself and the GOP as “pro-family” but said he opposed a return of proxy voting.“We want to make it as easy as possible for young parents to be able to participate in the process,” the speaker said. “But proxy voting, in my view, is unconstitutional.”Pettersen and Luna had managed to attract 218 signatures, including 12 Republicans, to a discharge petition, which forces a vote on a bill even if leadership objects. In response, GOP lawmakers on Friday inserted language blocking the petition in a rule that would have to pass the House in order to begin consideration of the bills targeting nationwide injunctions and requiring proof of citizenship to vote.“Congress is defined as ‘act of coming together and meeting’. I’ve never voted by proxy, because I believe it undermines the fabric of that sacred act of convening,” said the Republican Virginia Foxx, the chair of the rules committee, who added she feared the measure would pave the way for a return of universal proxy voting if Democrats retake control.“I know there’s a new laptop class in America that seems to operate increasingly in a virtual space, but that’s simply not a fact of life for most American workers, and I believe Congress should live by that standard.”Elected in 2022 to a Florida gulf coast district, Luna was a member of the far-right House Freedom caucus, but reportedly left on Monday after several of her counterparts backed leadership’s efforts to block her petition. In a speech on the House floor, Luna called herself “one of the most conservative members of this body” but said she viewed the issue as important enough to risk upending the House’s business for the week.“For almost two years now in this cause, I’ve met with leadership, and I’ve exhausted all tools in my legislative toolkit to to be able to bring this to the floor,” she said. “For a while we’ve had the majority, and we’ve had the ability to bring legislation to the floor on election integrity and also to call out rogue judges, and yet they chose at this point in time to tie this discharge petition killer to this rule that would also permanently paint me and the members supporting it.”The episode was reminiscent of the infighting that gripped the House GOP during Joe Biden’s presidency, which climaxed when a small group of Republicans collaborated with the Democrats to oust Kevin McCarthy as House speaker.Democratic lawmakers, who are still reeling from their party’s underwhelming performance in last November’s elections, broke into applause in the House chamber after the rule was voted down. The House then announced that no further votes were expected for the remainder of the week, though Pettersen said that her petition must be voted on by Thursday, raising the possibility that lawmakers will reassemble. More

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      Cory Booker holds marathon Senate speech to warn of Trump’s ‘harmful’ policies

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      Cory Booker, the Democratic US senator from New Jersey, has embarked on a marathon speech on the Senate floor to warn of what he called the “grave and urgent” danger that Donald Trump’s presidential administration poses to democracy and the American people.Booker began his speech at 7pm on Monday night and passed the 20-hour mark with barely a break in speaking at 3 pm on Tuesday afternoon.“I rise with the intention of disrupting the normal business of the United States Senate for as long as I am physically able,” Booker said near the start of his speech. “I rise tonight because I believe sincerely that our nation is in crisis.”Booker said that he has heard endless stories of “pain and fear” from constituents who are both Democrats and Republicans due to the Trump administration’s policies.“Institutions that are special in America, that are unique in our country are being recklessly – and I would say unconstitutionally – affected, attacked and even shattered,” Booker said.“In just 71 days the president of the United States has inflicted so much harm on Americans’ safety, financial stability, the core foundations of our democracy and even our aspirations as a people for, from our highest offices, a sense of common decency.“These are not normal times in America and they should not be treated as such. I can’t allow this body to continue without doing something. The threats to America’s democracy are grave and urgent.”Booker’s speech is not technically a filibuster as he is not trying to run down the Senate’s time to prevent a piece of legislation from passing.Instead, he has used his speaking slot to decry the Trump administration’s spending cuts, its attempt to abolish the Department of Education, the president’s attempts to bypass the judicial system and the removal of people from the US who speak out against the administration.Booker’s speech has been supported with reams of quotes from speeches by the late American politicians John McCain and John Lewis, as well as excerpts from newspaper articles.Some of the senator’s fellow Democrats have helped support him during his monologues, with several asking questions that have allowed Booker to have a break without yielding the floor.The Democratic Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, was the first to pose a question to his New Jersey colleague, and he praised Booker for his “strength and conviction”.“You’re taking the floor tonight to bring up all these inequities that will hurt people, that will so hurt the middle class, that will so hurt poor people, that will hurt America, hurt our fiscal conditions, as you document,” Schumer said in his own question to Booker.“Just give us a little inkling of the strength – give us a little feeling for the strength and conviction that drive you to do this unusual taking of the floor for a long time to let the people know how bad these things are going to be.”At one point, Booker spoke about the need for bipartisanship and mentioned a recent dinner he had with Ted Cruz, the arch-conservative Republican senator from Texas. Cruz is no stranger to marathon speeches, having spoken for more than 21 hours in 2013 in an attempt to filibuster an expansion of Medicaid eligibility. At one point, Cruz read from Green Eggs and Ham, the Dr Seuss children’s book.Around his 20th hour of speaking, Booker offered an apology to his fellow Democrats for the current political climate, saying: “I confess that I’ve been inadequate. That the Democrats have been responsible for allowing the rise of this demagogue.”Booker is getting close to the all-time Senate record. In 1957, Strom Thurmond spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes to filibuster the Civil Rights Act of the same year. More