Sean Spicer’s new pro-Trump seniors coalition aims to keep Social Security and Medicare promises front and center, while pushing tax breaks and lower drug prices for 2026.

Longtime college basketball coach Bill Courtney died at the age of 55, officials said on Tuesday. He was recently serving as an assistant for Temple.

Neel T. Kashkari, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, defended Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair, in an interview. He also said interest rates should be held steady this month.

© Jenn Ackerman for The New York Times

Félix Plasencia, an envoy of the interim government, will travel to the United States on the day the opposition leader María Corina Machado is to meet President Trump.

© Cristian Hernandez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

“Everything’s on the table,” an executive at JPMorgan Chase said, as the industry seeks to head off President Trump’s effort to cap interest rates.

© Eduardo Munoz/Reuters

We look at how the actions of federal agents in Minneapolis are impacting life in the city.

© David Guttenfelder/The New York Times

A little-known and rarely enforced law prohibits ball games on some Los Angeles streets and sidewalks. The local council has begun the process of repealing it.

© Daniel Dorsa for The New York Times

Some renters are constantly left without heat or hot water during the winter, leading them to bundle up in layers of clothing or risk fires by using space heaters.

© Elias Williams for The New York Times

Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., reportedly faces a federal probe after her participation in a video encouraging service members to "refuse illegal orders."

Mike Tannenbaum defended the New York Jets’ choice to keep Aaron Glenn as head coach despite the availability of top coaches such as Mike Tomlin and Kevin Stefanski.

Teachers union sends inflammatory message after ICE shooting, calling Trump administration a "regime" and characterizing activist's death as "murder."

Experts explain why reheated pasta creates resistant starch that acts like fiber, potentially reducing blood sugar and feeding good gut bacteria, and how to get the most out of the trick.

Claims of a mysterious "sonic weapon" used in Venezuela fuel speculation about exotic U.S. military technology, though experts point to known devices.

Senate Democrats who once demanded stronger action against Nicolás Maduro are now warning about consequences of U.S. military action in Venezuela after President Trump took action.

A Florida paraglider miraculously survived a 500-foot plunge into ocean waters near Singer Island. Lifeguards and beachgoers rescued the uninjured man safely.

During an interview on "CBS Evening News," President Donald Trump teased anchor Tony Dokoupil that he "wouldn't have this job" if he didn't win the 2024 election.

The U.S. attorney says a probe into Fed Chair Jerome Powell is about accountability, not politics, after Powell accused investigators of threatening the central bank’s independence.

A new report from economists highlights the impact of the "dramatic changes in immigration policy" during the first year of the second Trump administration.

Sen. Josh Hawley is pushing for a federal watchdog to investigate alleged child assistance fraud across the country following revelations in Minnesota.

In June 2025, the Fed finally lifted a $1.95 trillion asset cap imposed in 2018 after the Wells Fargo fake accounts scandal, where employees opened millions of unauthorized accounts to hit sales targets.

Ministers have rolled back central element of digital ID plans, possibly allowing people to use other forms of identification to prove their right to work

Here are extracts from three interesting comment articles about the digital ID U-turn.

Ailbhe Rea in the New Statesman in the New Statesmans says there were high hopes for the policy when it was first announced.

I remember a leisurely lunch over the summer when a supporter of digital IDs told me how they thought Keir Starmer would reset his premiership. Alongside a reorganisation of his team in Number 10, and maybe a junior ministerial reshuffle, they predicted he would announce in his speech at party conference that his government would be embracing digital IDs. “It will allow him to show he’s willing to do whatever it takes to tackle illegal immigration,” was their rationale.

Sure enough, Starmer announced “phase two” of his government, reshuffled his top team and, on the Friday before Labour party conference, he duly announced his government would make digital IDs mandatory for workers. “We need to know who is in our country,” he said, arguing that the IDs would prevent migrants who “come here, slip into the shadow economy and remain here illegally”.

In policy terms, I don’t think you particularly gain anything by making the government’s planned new digital ID compulsory.

One example of that: Kemi Badenoch has both criticised the government’s plans to introduce compulsory ID, while at the same time committing to creating a “British ICE” that would go around deporting large numbers of people living in the UK. In a country with that kind of target and approach, people would be forced to carry their IDs around with them in any case! The Online Safety Act, passed into law by the last Conservative government with cross-party support and implemented by Labour, presupposes some form of ID to work properly.

Here is the political challenge for Downing Street: the climbdowns, dilutions, U- turns, about turns, call them what you will, are mounting up.

In just the last couple of weeks, there has been the issue of business rates on pubs in England and inheritance tax on farmers.

We welcome Starmer’s reported U-turn on making intrusive, expensive and unnecessary digital IDs mandatory. This is a huge success for Big Brother Watch and the millions of Brits who signed petitions to make this happen.

The case for the government now dropping digital IDs entirely is overwhelming. Taxpayers should not be footing a £1.8bn bill for a digital ID scheme that is frankly pointless.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Parliament Live

© Photograph: Parliament Live

© Photograph: Parliament Live

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