Four Republicans — three of them women — have defied House GOP leadership and the White House in an effort to force a vote on a bill that would require the Justice Department to release all the information in the so-called Epstein files, with the exception of the victims’ personal information. Two more Republicans will need to defect from party leadership and join every House Democrat to force the vote.
Survivors and accusers of Jeffrey Epstein and his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, gathered on the Capitol lawn along with hundreds of supporters to demand the Trump administration provide transparency and accountability for what they endured as teenagers.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to quash the effort by putting forward his own resolution and arguing that a concurrent investigation by the House Oversight Committee is the best way for Congress to deliver transparency. Trump has repeatedly dismissed the matter as a “Democrat hoax.”
Meanwhile, Poland’s new president, Karol Nawrocki, arrived at the White House, looking to strengthen his relationship with President Donald Trump and make the case that the United States needs to maintain its robust military presence in his country.
Here's the latest:
Judge reverses Trump administration’s cuts of billions of dollars to Harvard University
A federal judge in Boston on Wednesday ordered the reversal of the Trump administration’s cuts to more than $2.6 billion in funding research grants for Harvard University.
U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs sided with the Ivy League school in ruling that the cuts amounted to illegal retaliation for Harvard’s rejection of White House demands for changes to its governance and policies.
▶ Read more about Harvard funding cuts
Voting rights group argues new USCIS policy makes voter registration harder for new citizens
The League of Women Voters is criticizing a new United States Citizenship and Immigration Services policy that blocks nongovernmental groups from helping new citizens register to vote at naturalization ceremonies.
The policy issued Friday says that only state and local election offices will now be allowed to register voters at these events. Previous policy allowed outside groups to do so.
The League of Women Voters’ impact at naturalization ceremonies had been significant. It reported registering some 37,000 voters at the ceremonies in 2022.
USCIS said that it had been an administrative burden to make sure that organizations registering voters at naturalization ceremonies were nonpartisan. It also said it will hand out voter registration applications when election offices can’t.
Celina Stewart, CEO of the League of Women Voters, called the move an attack on immigrants.
“By shutting out the League and other civic partners, USCIS is making it harder for new citizens to register to vote,” Stewart said in a statement.
US sees Rubio mission to Mexico as a grand success
The State Department has hailed Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s meeting with Mexico’s president on Wednesday as a success, extolling the virtues of what it said was a reaffirmation of already robust security cooperation in a fragile region now concerned with the prospect of greater U.S. military invention.
In a statement marking the end of Rubio’s talks with President Claudia Sheinbaum, the department said he had thanked her “for Mexico’s partnership to secure our shared border, helping the Trump Administration reach a historic low in border encounters with illegal immigrants.”
Rubio told reporters at a news conference that the level of U.S.-Mexico cooperation was at its highest level ever on fighting narcotics trafficking, transnational crime, ending illegal immigration and promoting prosperity and security.
The statement made only a brief mention of one issue causing friction between the two nations: President Donald Trump’s threat to impose massive tariffs on Mexican imports into the United States. The word “tariff” appeared only once in the statement and then in the context of Rubio emphasizing “the importance of resolving trade and non-trade barriers to further the prosperity of both of our nations.”
House Oversight Democrats call for inspector general investigation into Maxwell prison transfer
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are asking the independent watchdog at the Department of Justice to investigate the prison transfer for Ghislaine Maxwell.
Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse, appearing at a rally and news conference on Capitol Hill Wednesday, said they were especially affronted by the transfer last month to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas after she gave interviews to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.
Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime confidant and former girlfriend, is serving a 20-year prison sentence for luring teenage girls for him to abuse.
In a letter to the acting inspector general at the Department of Justice, William Blier, the Democratic lawmakers say that “the public perception that Maxwell has received exceptionally favorable treatment in exchange for misleading testimony is profoundly disturbing and insulting to the victims of her crimes.”
FBI director touts Ohio indictments over drugs used to cut fentanyl
The head of the FBI was in Cincinnati on Wednesday to help prosecutors and investigators announce a recent grand jury indictment targeting 22 Chinese suspects and four Chinese companies for allegedly shipping to the U.S. chemicals used to prepare fentanyl for sale.
FBI Director Kash Patel said he was in southern Ohio “to break the wheel of fentanyl trafficking in the United States of America.”
Authorities allege three people in Ohio were involved in obtaining several pounds of illegal cutting agents, which are used to increase the weight and potency of fentanyl. Indictments in the drug and money laundering case were handed up Tuesday.
It is unusual for an FBI director to travel outside of Washington to announce criminal charges, but Patel’s presence was meant to underscore how the fight against drug trafficking has emerged as a top law enforcement priority for the Trump administration.
Louisiana’s Governor says he welcomes federal troops in New Orleans
Republican Gov. Jeff Landry said he supports President Trump’s suggestion to send federal troops to the state.
“We will take President @realDonaldTrump’s help from New Orleans to Shreveport!” Landry said in an X post.
Landry has not responded to questions from The Associated Press about whether he requested that Trump send in federal troops.
New Orleans city council leaders and several mayoral candidates have rejected the need for federal troops, pointing to the city’s plummeting crime rate this year.
But the office of New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell and the city’s police released a joint statement thanking the federal government for its support.
“Our federal and state partnerships have played a significant role in ensuring public safety, particularly during special events for a world-class city,” the statement said. “The City of New Orleans and NOPD remain committed to sustaining this momentum, ensuring that every neighborhood continues to feel the impact of these combined efforts.”
Cantrell, a Democrat, was federally indicted last month for allegedly lying about a relationship with her bodyguard
Trump fundraising off plans for federal intervention in Chicago
The president’s political team sent out a fundraising email on Wednesday that said, “Chicago will be liberated” and “We’re going into Chicago.”
The email pitch repeats some of Trump’s remarks on Tuesday about his plans to order federal authorities to Chicago and then suggests people make a $15 donation “to join MAGA blitz.”
Trump administration agrees to restore health websites and data
Federal officials have agreed to restore health- and science-related webpages and data following a lawsuit settlement with doctors’ groups and other organizations.
The settlement was announced this week by the Washington State Medical Association, the lead plaintiffs in the case.
Soon after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, federal health officials deleted information on topics like pregnancy risks and opioid-use disorder. This was in response to a Trump executive order to stop using the term “gender” in federal policies.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has agreed to restore more than 100 websites and resource.
▶ Read more about health websites
Rubio dodges questions on details of Venezuela attack, says US has right to ‘eliminate threats’
Rubio dodged questions about if the people in the boat were warned before they were bombed, or if the government is concerned about raising the hackles of Latin American governments, some who perceive the strike as a shift back to the U.S. forcefully intervening in affairs in the region.
“We’re not going to sit back anymore and watch these people sail up and down the Caribbean like a cruise ship,” he said. “It’s not going to happen. It’s not going to happen anymore.”
Rubio added that Trump as commander-in-chief has the authority “under exigent circumstances to eliminate imminent threats to the United States.”
Effort to censure Rep. LaMonica McIver fails in House
The House has rejected a Republican resolution to censure Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey and remove her from the House Homeland Security Committee.
The House voted 215-207 to set aside the censure resolution, with a handful of Republicans joining with Democrats in rejecting the effort.
The vote came after Republicans sought to punish McIver for a confrontation with federal law enforcement during a congressional visit to a new immigration detention facility in her home state.
McIver has pleaded not guilty to federal charges accusing her of assaulting and interfering with immigration officers outside the facility in Newark in May.
Rubio defends US strike on alleged Venezuela drug cartels: ‘It will happen again’
Asked about details of the extraordinary strike that took place Tuesday, Rubio once again deflected operational details about how the U.S. confirmed it was a drug cartel in the boat or that they were heading toward the U.S. to the Pentagon.
But, Rubio went on to defend the operation, saying that previous U.S. interdiction efforts in Latin America have not worked.
“What will stop them is when you blow them up, when you get rid of them,” Rubio said, adding that it is just the beginning of a larger U.S. operation in the region.
Rubio credits drop in border crossings at southern border to ‘close cooperation’ with Mexico
“We have seen those numbers drop historically, and that would not have been possible without the close cooperation between our two governments,” Rubio told reporters Wednesday.
The positive tone and complimentary language toward Mexico reflects a shift for the Trump administration as it escalates its efforts to target drug cartels.
DC delegate appears in public after long absence during Trump’s law enforcement surge
Eleanor Holmes Norton, 88, has made very few public appearances during the surge of federal law enforcement authorities and the National Guard although her office has been active in introducing legislation to end the use of military personnel and surge.
At a time when the city’s authority to govern itself has been threatened, public pushback by its officials has been one of the few recourses to challenge Trump’s move.
Norton, who has been the representative for the district since 1991, made the rare appearance Wednesday to slam Trump’s takeover. She said the move has turned residents into “props in a political play to showcase his own power.”
Norton, long a champion of D.C. statehood and self-governance, was at the 1963 March on Washington as a 26-year-old Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee worker. She has been visibly slower in her public appearances this year.
As delegate, she is a non-voting member of Congress and requires close ties with allies in Congress.
House GOP launches new probe of the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack
House Republicans are standing up a select committee to re-investigate the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, as they continue to contest what happened after Trump sent a mob of supporters to fight the 2020 election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
The new panel, with eight members to be chosen by the House speaker, will have subpoena power to compel witness testimony. It is expected to produce a report of its investigation by Dec. 31, 2026.
Trump was impeached for inciting the 2021 insurrection at the Capitol, but later acquitted.
Despite initial hostilities, Rubio says Mexico cooperation with US is key to combatting crime
While in Mexico City, Rubio said he was happy to see “the level of commitment” between U.S. and Mexico in combatting crime after meeting with President Sheinbaum.
“There are no other governments cooperating more” than the U.S. and Mexico in combatting crime,” Rubio said during a press conference Wednesday. “It’s the closest cooperation we’ve ever had, maybe between any country, but definitely between the U.S. and Mexico.”
US, Mexico reaffirm cooperation on combating cartels
The U.S. and Mexican governments announced Wednesday that they were reaffirming their commitment to work together to strengthen security, combat cartels and stop trafficking along the border and fuel theft.
It comes as U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was visiting Mexico City, meeting with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and holding a news conference with Foreign Secretary Juan Ramón de la Fuente.
The leaders stopped short of initially announcing a formal agreement, which Sheinbaum has spent weeks pushing for. The governments said they established a “high-level implementation” to make sure new commitments were fulfilled. Mexico and the U.S. were already working together closely to combat cartels and fentanyl trafficking.
They said their relationship is “based on the principles of reciprocity, respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, shared and differentiated responsibility, as well as mutual trust.”
Trump will speak to Zelenskyy
A White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity said Trump was referring to Zelenskyy earlier.
Trump in the Oval Office told reporters, “I’m having a conversation with him very shortly,” regarding the Russia-Ukraine war, but it wasn’t clear if he meant Zelenskyy or Putin.
New Orleans leaders say federal troops are not needed
New Orleans city leaders recoiled at the notion of sending federal troops into the Big Easy, as President Trump suggested on Wednesday.
“It’s ridiculous to consider sending the National Guard into another American city that hasn’t asked for it,” said City Council President J.P. Morrell. “Marching troops into New Orleans is an unnecessary show of force in effort to create a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.”
While Trump said New Orleans has a “crime problem,” city leaders point out that crime rates have dropped considerably this year. Violent crime is down 20% compared to last year, according to the New Orleans Police Department.
Republican Gov. Jeff Landry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Last year, Landry established a state police force to operate in New Orleans. He also convened a special legislative session focused on combating crime, leading to harsher penalties.
New York City’s top cop says she told Bondi the city doesn’t need the National Guard
New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch says she was “very direct” with the attorney general about her opposition to an enhanced federal law enforcement presence in the city.
“My message was we got this. We don’t want or need the help of the National Guard in New York City,” Tisch said in an interview on a local ABC station Wednesday.
Tisch added that a federal deployment “creates real safety problems for us at the NYPD” and that “our National Guard are not trained to handle street crime in New York City.”
President Donald Trump this week said he’s ready to order federal authorities to mobilize and combat crime in Chicago and Baltimore, following similar actions in Washington D.C. and Los Angeles.
Crime is down in New Orleans
While President Trump referred to New Orleans as having a “crime problem,” city leaders swiftly pointed out that crime rates have dropped significantly so far this year.
Violent crime is down 20% compared to last year, the New Orleans Police Department reported in May. And murders had been reduced by a third, even when including the 14 victims of a Jan. 1 truck attack.
New Orleans leaders bristle at prospect of federal troops in the city
New Orleans City Council Vice President Helena Moreno condemned any notion of sending federal troops to New Orleans.
“This is about scare tactics and politicizing public safety,” said Moreno, the frontrunner in the mayor’s race. “Ultimately leading to the misuse of public funds and resources to attempt to score political points. We cannot allow this and I will fight to prevent any federal takeover of New Orleans.”
Councilmember Oliver Thomas, another mayoral candidate, told The Associated Press via text message that he had not heard anything about federal troops coming to the city and this would be a “major overreaction!”
City Councilmember Joe Giarrusso said any suggestion of bringing federal troops into New Orleans would be a “slap in the face” to local and state law enforcement.
Landry’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hegseth says other traffickers could ‘face same fate’ as Venezuelan boat
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the strike on a boat carrying drugs from Venezuela shows that the U.S. will not tolerate drug trafficking in the Western Hemisphere.
He would not say when asked Wednesday on Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends” if the operation was a drone strike or how it was conducted.
“President Trump is willing to go on offense in ways that others have not been,” Hegseth said, calling it “a new day.”
“And it won’t stop with just this strike. Anyone else trafficking in those waters who we know is a designated narco-terrorist will face the same fate,” he said.
Asked about regime change in Venezuela, Hegseth said “that’s a presidential decision.”
DC Mayor announces deal meant to beef up police numbers as Trump’s crime surge continues
Mayor Muriel Bowser’s announcement comes as the nation’s capital looks to emerge from President Trump’s federal takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department.
Bowser’s deal with the city’s police officers includes a 13% pay increase as well as other incentives such as cost-of-living increases and an expanded take-home car program. Bowser has sought to add at least 500 officers for years, often publicly struggling with the D.C. Council over the issue. The department currently contains 3,188 sworn officers, with Bowser looking to boost that number up to around 4,000.
Last week, Bowser publicly acknowledged that Trump’s decision to take over the MPD and flood the city with hundreds of federal law enforcement agents and National Guard troops has succeeded in driving down violent crime numbers. But she has also stated a belief that similar results could have been achieved simply by having more MPD officers in service.
“We’ve always believed that getting back to 4,000 officers was our goal,” she said Wednesday. “We don’t need a presidential emergency.”
Authorities seize chemicals bound for Mexican drug cartel
Federal authorities on Wednesday announced they had seized more than 661,000 pounds (300,000 kilograms) of chemicals used to produce methamphetamine and intended for labs run by the Sinaloa drug cartel in Mexico.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, the top federal prosecutor in Washington, along with Todd Lyons, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, traveled to Houston to announce the seizure.
Standing in a federal warehouse in suburban Houston containing 1,300 barrels filled with the chemicals, Pirro told reporters the material had been seized last week from two vessels on international waters. Pirro declined to say specifically where the chemicals were intercepted but they had originated from China. After their seizure, the chemicals were brought to the Port of Houston.
The Trump administration has designated eight Latin American crime organizations, including the Sinaloa drug cartel, as “foreign terrorist organizations.” This gave Pirro’s office the authority to execute the seizure under the terrorism forfeiture provision.
Pirro said authorities were still working on making arrests in the case.
Trump again suggests he will soon have answer on whether Putin and Zelenskyy will hold talks
“I’m having a conversation with him very shortly, and I’ll know pretty much what we’re going to be doing,” Trump said. He did not clarify if he was talking about Putin or Zelenskyy.
The president again reiterated that he thought bringing an end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict would be “much easier” than it has proven to be.
Still, he said that the bloodshed in eastern Europe has to end, and expressed confidence that he’ll be able to bring the conflict to a close.
“Not since the second World War has there been anything even close to this,” Trump said. He added, “They not soldiers from my country. This is my country. But I have a power to end things.”
Trump suggests he may deploy troops to New Orleans
After saying he was prepared to send the National Guard into New Orleans and Baltimore to help fight crime, Trump is now saying he’s mulling doing similar in New Orleans.
“So we’re making a determination now, do we go to Chicago?” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “Do we go to a place like New Orleans, where we have a great governor, Jeff Landry, who wants us to come in and straighten out a very nice section of this country that’s become quite, you know, quite tough, quite bad.”
State and local officials, many of whom are top Democrats, have sharply opposed troop presence in Chicago and Baltimore. Landry, though, is a Republican.
The president added “you have New Orleans, which has a crime problem. We’ll straighten that out in about two weeks.”
Khanna, Greene cite bipartisan Epstein files release effort
Wrapping up Wednesday’s news conference, Khanna said a silver lining of the Epstein case might be its ability to bring together Democrats and Republicans.
“They’re bringing us together as a country,” Khanna said, of the stories of accusers, gesturing toward Greene with a smile. “I’ve never done a press conference with Marjorie before.”
Speaking next, Greene echoed Khanna’s comments denouncing what both portrayed as a widespread effort to protect Epstein’s crimes from detection, to the accusers’ detriment.
Massie ended with a plea for Americans to call their representatives and demand support for legislative efforts to release the files.
Earlier Wednesday, the lawmakers said four Republicans had signed onto a bill on the files’ release.
Rubio and Mexico’s president meet
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has started his meeting with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who has voiced fears of the U.S. encroaching on Mexican sovereignty.
Their meeting Wednesday in Mexico City comes a day after President Donald Trump dramatically stepped up his administration’s military role in the Caribbean with what he called a deadly strike on a Venezuelan drug cartel.
Earlier Wednesday, Sheinbaum again rejected Trump’s suggestion that she is afraid of confronting Mexico’s cartels because they have so much power.
“We respect a lot the Mexico-United States relationship, President Trump, and no, it’s not true this affirmation that he makes,” she said.
Speaking to reporters before the Rubio meeting, she said what her administration planned to agree to with the United States is a “cooperation program about border security and the application of the law within the framework of our (respective) sovereignties.”
Trump justifies lethal US strike on Venezuelan vessel
The president pushed back when sked why the U.S. carried out a lethal strike on a Venezuelan drug-carrying vessel on Tuesday instead of interdicting it and capturing the alleged smugglers.
Trump said the strike would lead to drug smugglers thinking twice about trying to move drugs into the United States.
“There was massive amounts of drugs coming into our country to kill a lot of people, and, everybody fully understands that,” Trump said. He added, “Obviously, they won’t be doing it again. And I think a lot of other people won’t be doing it again. When they watch that tape, they’re going to say, ‘Let’s not do this.’”
Trump decries Epstein scandal as a ‘Democrat hoax’ and says, ‘Really, I think it’s enough’
The president said that “thousands and thousands of documents” had been released but that the “Democratic hoax” would continue.
“No matter what you do it’s going to keep going,” Trump said. He added, “Really, I think it’s enough.”
Democrats, but also some Republicans in Congress have pushed for more transparency on the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. And, while numerous documents have been released as part of the Epstein investigations, the majority contained information that was already public.
Trump’s comments came after Epstein accusers held news conferences on Capitol Hill. One victim asked Trump to come meet her at the Capitol so she could explain while the issue wasn’t a hoax.
Trump says he’s going to ‘find out’ how good relations are after Chinese summit that included leaders of Russia and India
Speaking to reporters, Trump said his relationship with the heads of China, India and Russia are “very good” but “We’re going to find out how good it is over the next week or two.”
Trump called the ceremony at the summit hosted by China “very, very impressive” and “beautiful,” and that Chinese Leader Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin “were hoping I was watching.”
He said he felt the United States was slighted by China by not getting more of an acknowledgment for its role in winning World War II. China held a parade to recognize the 80th anniversary of the war ending.
US sanctions Chinese firm for manufacture of opioids
The U.S. sanctioned a Chinese firm and its representatives on Wednesday, accusing them of involvement in making and selling synthetic opioids to Americans.
The firm Guangzhou Tengyue has also sold dangerous analgesic chemicals often used as cutting agents that are mixed with synthetic opioids and other illicit drugs, according to Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which coordinated with the DEA and FBI in an investigation.
“Illicit opioids coming from China are destroying American lives, families, and communities,” said Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John Hurley. “We will use all of the tools at our disposal — including sanctions and prosecutions by our law enforcement partners — to stop this epidemic.”
China-based chemical companies are the primary source of fentanyl precursor chemicals and other illicit opioids entering the United States, regularly through Mexico.
Epstein accusers implore Trump to ‘help us’
People identifying themselves as Epstein accusers are calling on Trump for his help in making public remaining documents in the case.
Taking the microphone one by one following the lawmakers in Washington, several women referenced Trump’s “power” and “influence,” calling on him to “help us, and let our voices be heard.”
The political clash over calls for releasing the files has flummoxed House Republican leadership and been a sticking point for the Trump administration.
Tensions boiled over in July when the Justice Department and FBI issued a two-page statement saying that they had concluded that Epstein did not possess a “client list,” even though Attorney General Pam Bondi had intimated in February that such a document was sitting on her desk, and had decided against releasing any additional records from the investigation.
The House Oversight Committee on Tuesday publicly posted the files it has received from the Justice Department, but they mostly contain information already publicly known.
ACLU and White House react to Trump’s loss in Alien Enemies Act case
The appellate court agreed with immigrant rights lawyers and lower court judges who said the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 was not intended to be used against gangs such as Tren de Aragua, which Trump cited as justifying the deportation of Venezuelans to a Salvadoran prison.
Lee Gelernt, who argued for the ACLU, said the use of “a wartime statute during peacetime to regulate immigration was rightly shut down by the court. This is a critically important decision reining in the administration’s view that it can simply declare an emergency without any oversight by the courts.”
To Trump’s Department of Homeland Security, it was another decision in which “unelected judges are undermining the will of the American people. This ruling will not be the final say on this matter. We are confident in our position, and we have the law, the facts, and common sense on our side.”
Trump gives Nawrocki a warm welcome with a jet flyover
The U.S. leader greeted his Polish counterpart at the South Portico of the White House with a hearty shoulder slap and exchange of big smiles.
The two stood side-by-side as four F-35 fighter jets flew over the White House, followed by another formation of four F-16s.
Trump and Nawrocki then went inside together.
Trump says Hamas must ‘IMMEDIATELY’ give back hostages
The president said in a post on his social media network that if Hamas gives back all 20 hostages the group is holding, “things will change rapidly. IT WILL END!”
He did not offer any additional comment.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy seeks ‘sanctions, tariffs, any pressure’ on Russia
Zelenskyy said Wednesday that Ukrainian officials will “try to connect” with President Trump to hear about new ways to increase pressure on Russia.
The Ukrainian leader, speaking at a news conference in Denmark, recalled how he and Trump had previously discussed ways the United States could put pressure on Russia to lead President Vladimir Putin to engage in political negotiations over the war in Ukraine.
Zelenskyy recalled that he’d asked Trump to put “sanctions, tariffs, any pressure” he could on Russia if Putin didn’t agree to a “diplomatic format of dialogue, not the dialogue by weapon.”
“When we speak about pressure, we mean air defense, we mean weapon deals, we mean drone production, and of course, of course, sanctions,” the Ukrainian leader said at a news conference alongside Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.
“Such signals we gave (the) president of the United States. He said ‘couple of weeks’, and he will answer on this,” Zelenskyy said of Trump. “’Couple of weeks’, in my understanding, it’s two weeks or maximum three weeks. This Monday, two weeks ended.”
Attorney calls for careful redaction of remaining Epstein documents
Attorneys for some alleged victims of Epstein and Maxwell also appeared alongside the lawmakers, in support of the discharge petition.
The lawyers, along with the lawmakers, stressed their view that pursuit of the release “is a nonpartisan issue.” Attorney Brittany Henderson implored authorities charged with redacting accusers’ names from anything that is ultimately released to protect identities of women who don’t want to be known publicly.
Just ahead of the news conference, women who identified themselves as victims in the case held their own news conference, calling for release of remaining documents. Some stood behind the attorneys and lawmakers as they spoke.
Along with Massie and Greene, fellow House Republicans Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Nancy Mace of South Carolina have also signed the discharge petition.
Khanna and MTG seek more GOP support for Epstein files release
A bipartisan set of House lawmakers has appealed to their colleagues to support a discharge petition that could force a House vote requiring the Department of Justice to release its Epstein files.
Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California said Wednesday during a Washington news conference that four Republican representatives have joined the effort, and that just two more GOP signatures are needed to cross the threshold for likely passage.
“There is something that is rotten in Washington,” Khanna said. “We’ve got to stop the partisanship on this issue.”
The lawmakers spoke a day after the House Oversight Committee publicly posted the files it has received from the Justice Department on the sex trafficking investigations into Jeffrey Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. The files mostly contained information that was already publicly known or available, but the release showed lawmakers’ eagerness to act on the issue, quickly reviving a political clash that has flummoxed House Republican leadership and roiled the Trump administration.
Khanna was joined by Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, another proponent of the petition, along with Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Plans underway for a ‘midterm convention’ ahead of next fall’s congressional elections
House Speaker Mike Johnson says when Trump called him recently to discuss the novel idea he thought: “That’s genius.”
The idea is to give Republicans a chance to make their case to voters, who tend to reject the party in power during midterm cycles. Republicans are struggling to hold onto their majority in Congress.
Besides, the speaker added, Trump “loves a big show.”
They’re working with Senate Republican Leader John Thune to make it happen.
“I think that’s a done deal now,” he said.
Putin says Trump is ‘not without a sense of humor’ after social media post
Russian President Vladimir Putin brushed off a social media post by Trump on Wednesday that said he was conspiring with the leaders of North Korea and China against the United States.
Asked about the post at a news conference in Beijing, the Russian leader told journalists “the President of the United States is not without a sense of humor.”
“Over these four days, during negotiations of all kinds, both in formal and informal settings, no one has ever expressed any negative judgments on the current American administration,” Putin said.
Putin arrived in China on Sunday for a four-day visit. He took part in a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, held extensive talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, as well as a number of bilateral meetings with other leaders, and attended a military parade marking 80 years since the end of World War II. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was also present at the parade. Kim and Putin held talks after the event.
The Russian leader also said everyone with whom he had spoken during his visit to China had “supported our meeting in Anchorage,” and expressed their hope that negotiations would end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Don’t call it the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’
House Republicans emerged from a private meeting with White House officials rebranding Trump’s signature bill: The Working Families Tax Cuts Act.
“We’re so excited about that,” Speaker Mike Johnson said after the meeting.
Polling shows Americans have panned the big bill. Half of U.S. adults expect the new tax law will help the rich, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Most — about 6 in 10 — think it will do more to hurt than help low-income people.
Hundreds of people gathered outside the Capitol for push to release the Epstein files
The gathering comes as a bipartisan group of lawmakers calls for the House to take up their bill that would force the Department of Justice to release its investigation into the late Jeffrey Epstein.
It’s an unusual grouping of lawmakers, including Republicans Reps. Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene and Democrat Ro Khanna. They’re trying to use a rarely-used legislative maneuver to force a vote on their bill against the wishes of House Republican leadership.
“A nation that allows rich and powerful men to traffic and abuse young girls without consequence is a nation that has lost its moral and spiritual core,” Khanna said.
Around the news conference, a large crowd gathered with signs that said, “Believe the survivors,” and “Unlock the Epstein files.”
Trump’s team huddles with House GOP at the Capitol
White House officials headed to Capitol Hill to huddle privately with House Republicans, sharing polling from Trump’s political team as they frame their public messaging ahead of a busy fall session.
Attendance was mandatory at the basement session, a sign of Trump’s grip on the GOP.
Despite their legislative success in passing Trump’s big tax breaks and spending cuts bill into law, Republicans held few town hall meetings this summer as they retool their pitch to voters.
Leaders gathering in China may be simply looking out for their own interests
The images from China offer a striking, maybe even sinister, message that there could be a new reconfiguration of rising power in Eurasia, an “Axis of Upheaval,” as one U.S. analyst has called it.
But there’s also evidence that the events in Beijing are simply more of the self-interested, high-level jockeying that has marked regional power politics for decades:
Xi needs cheap Russian energy and a stable border with North Korea, his nuclear-armed wildcard neighbor.
Putin is hoping to escape Western sanctions and isolation over his war in Ukraine.
Kim wants money, legitimacy and to one-up archrival South Korea.
Modi is trying to manage his relationship with regional heavyweights Putin and Xi, at a moment when ties with Washington are troubled.
The leaders of China, North Korea and Russia stand shoulder to shoulder
They’re watching high-tech military hardware and marching soldiers fill the streets of Beijing to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
Two days earlier, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping huddled together at a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
The gatherings in China could be read as a defiant message to the United States and its allies. At the very least, they offered yet more evidence of a burgeoning shift away from a U.S.-dominated, Western-led world order, as Trump withdraws America from many of its historic roles and roils economic relationships with tariffs.
“Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against The United States of America,” Trump posted in a social media message to Xi.
The American labor market continues to cool
U.S. employers posted 7.2 million job vacancies in July, down from 7.4 million in June, the Labor Department reported Wednesday.
The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) also showed that layoffs rose slightly, and that the number of Americans quitting their jobs — a sign of confidence in their ability to find better pay, opportunities or working conditions elsewhere — was almost unchanged from June at 3.2 million.
The U.S. job market has lost momentum this year, partly due to the lingering effects of 11 interest rate hikes by the inflation fighters at the Federal Reserve and partly because Trump’s trade wars have created uncertainty that is paralyzing managers making hiring decisions. The economy has been generating 85,000 jobs a month this year, down from 168,000 last year and an average 400,000 a month during the hiring boom of 2021-2023.
Survivors of Epstein’s abuse rally in front of Capitol
Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking and their families are rallying in front of the Capitol as they press Congress to force more disclosure in the criminal investigation into the late financier.
A political clash is unfolding in the House over how Congress should proceed in a matter that has rattled both House Republican leadership and the Trump administration. On Wednesday, speakers at the rally often grew emotional as they recounted how they were lured into Epstein’s abuse, and they demanded government accountability for the actions of Epstein and his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.
“Our demands are clear,” said Sky Roberts, whose late sister Virginia Giuffre was an outspoken survivor. “Ghislaine Maxwell must remain in a maximum security prison for the rest of her life. No leniency. No deals. No special treatment.”
Survivors also demanded that the Epstein files be released publicly and that anyone complicit be held accountable.
Missouri GOP also wants to frustrate voter initiatives
The special session agenda set by Kehoe also includes proposed changes to Missouri’s ballot measure process.
One key change would make it harder for ballot initiatives to succeed. If approved by voters, Missouri’s constitution would be amended so that all future ballot measures would need not only a majority of the statewide vote but also a majority of the votes in each congressional district in order to pass.
If such a standard had been in place last year, an abortion-rights amendment to the state constitution would have failed. That measure narrowly passed statewide on the strength of “yes” votes in the Kansas City and St. Louis areas but failed in rural congressional districts.
Missouri GOP wants to map another House seat for Trump
Missouri lawmakers are meeting in a special session to redraw the state’s congressional map in ways that could improve the Republicans’ chances of retaining control of Congress next year. The session was called by Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe and should run at least a week.
Missouri is the third state to pursue mid-decade redistricting for partisan advantage. Republican lawmakers in Texas, prodded by Trump, was the first, approving a new map that increases the Republicans advantage in five more districts.
Democratic-led California fought back, asking voters to approve in November a plan to give Democrats a chance at winning five more seats.
▶ Read more about Missouri’s efforts to change its maps mid-decade
Students without legal status lose in-state tuition
Tens of thousands of college students without legal status are losing access to in-state tuition as part of Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Florida’s tuition waiver law was a bipartisan effort championed by then-state Rep. Jeanette Nuñez, a Miami Republican who went on to become Gov. Ron DeSantis’ lieutenant governor. That a decade later Nuñez would support dismantling one of her signature achievements shows how much politics have shifted.
More than 6,500 students qualified for the waiver in Florida before DeSantis signed the bill revoking it as of July 1. At the University of Florida, a state resident pays about $6,380 in tuition, compared with about $30,900 for a nonresident. Housing, transportation and other expenses can add another $17,000 or more.
Now some of these students have switched to online programs to finish their degrees, and staying at home to avoid being detained.
▶ Read more about how tuition waiver revocations are affecting these students
Mexico demands respect as Trump asserts dominance
Rubio is in Mexico City as President Claudia Sheinbaum was convening a security forum of all 32 Mexican governors, the army, navy, federal prosecutor’s office and security commanders. “Under no circumstance will we accept interventions, interference or any other act from abroad that is detrimental to the integrity, independence and sovereignty of the country,” she said Monday in her State of the Nation address.
Sheinbaum had been talking up a comprehensive security agreement with the State Department that would protect Mexican sovereignty while combatting the flow of fentanyl north and weapons south. Sheinbaum sought to lower expectations Tuesday, saying it would be more like a memorandum of understanding to share intelligence.
“It is a relationship of respect and at the same time collaboration,” Sheinbaum said.
Trump suggested otherwise last month, saying: “Mexico does what we tell them to do.”
Marco Rubio is in Latin America to talk security, sovereignty, tariffs, trade, drugs and migration
All these hot-button issues for the Trump administration and its neighbors will top the secretary of state’s agenda this week on his third trip to Latin America since becoming chief U.S. diplomat.
The trip comes as the Trump administration has dramatically stepped up operations against drug cartels in the Caribbean, including military deployments and what it said was a lethal strike on a suspected drug-carrying vessel.
In talks with leaders in Mexico and Ecuador on Wednesday and Thursday, Rubio will make the case that broader, deeper cooperation with the U.S. is key to improving health, safety and security. But Trump has alienated allies in the region with persistent demands, threats of sweeping tariffs and massive sanctions.
Vance heading to Minnesota to pay his respects to church shooting victims
Vice President JD Vance is heading to Minneapolis on Wednesday to pay his respects to victims of the Annunciation Catholic Church shooting.
Vance and his wife, second lady Usha Vance, also plan a series of private meetings “to convey condolences to the families of those affected by the tragedy,” the vice president’s office said in a statement.
What to know about the law limiting Trump’s use of troops in US cities
Trump’s recent actions have sparked debate over the Posse Comitatus Act, a law from 1878 that prevents military involvement in domestic affairs unless bypassed by Congress or under the Insurrection Act.
The president has tested the law’s limits in the first few months of his second term as he expands the footprint of the U.S. military on domestic soil.
Lawsuits have followed, and a judge ruled Tuesday that the Trump administration violated federal law by sending troops to accompany federal agents on immigration raids this summer in Los Angeles.
Experts say the law’s enforcement has clear limitations and remains largely untested. Trump administration attorneys have argued the law doesn’t apply because the troops were protecting federal officers not enforcing laws.
▶ Read more about what to know about the Posse Comitatus Act
Trump: US military strike on vessel in southern Caribbean targeted Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang, killed 11
Trump says the U.S. has carried out a strike in the southern Caribbean against a drug-carrying vessel that departed from Venezuela that was operated by the Tren de Aragua gang.
The president said 11 were killed in the operation.
“The strike occurred while the terrorists were at sea in International waters transporting illegal narcotics, heading to the United States,” Trump said in a social media posting Tuesday. “No U.S. Forces were harmed in this strike. Please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America.”
US media quickly forced to revisit a thorny question: How should a president’s health be covered?
At President Trump’s news conference Tuesday, Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked something that surely baffled those who avoided social media over Labor Day: “How did you find out over the weekend that you were dead?”
Doocy referred to questions about Trump’s health that swirled through social media over the weekend. With a 50-minute appearance, Trump certainly put to rest rumors that he was dead or seriously ill. But for the news media, it quickly renewed questions about whether they were being diligent enough in investigating questions over a president’s health, a year after they dealt with the same issues with his predecessor, Joe Biden.
Trump, who turned 79 in June, is the oldest person to be inaugurated as president. Pictures showing him with bruises on his hands and apparent swelling in his legs circulated online recently, as did clips of misstatements in public. The White House has said Trump was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, which means veins in the legs can’t properly carry blood back to the heart, causing it to pool in the lower legs. It’s a fairly common condition for older adults.
▶ Read more about how the press is covering Trump’s health
The Associated Press
