A federal appeals court has reversed a lower court's ruling, clearing the way for the Trump administration to cut billions in foreign aid funding this year. In a 2-1 decision Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit overruled a lower court's decision that prohibited the Trump administration from making drastic cuts to USAID funding that had already approved by Congress.
Monthly U.S. inflation data is under increased scrutiny after President Donald Trump removed the head of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, a move that could undermine confidence in the $2.1-trillion market for Treasury debt designed to protect against inflation. The Consumer Price Index, which will be released on Tuesday, will test investors' trust in the integrity of U.S. economic data after Trump fired the BLS head this month, accusing her of manipulating jobs numbers.
The U.S. government's budget deficit grew nearly 20% in July to $291 billion despite a nearly $21 billion jump in customs duty collections from President Donald Trump's tariffs, with outlays growing faster than receipts, the Treasury Department said on Tuesday.
The deficit for July was up 19%, or $47 billion, from July 2024. Receipts for the month grew 2%, or $8 billion, to $338 billion, while outlays jumped 10%, or $56 billion, to $630 billion, a record high for the month.
The Trump administration's claim that it is saving billions of dollars through DOGE-related cuts to federal contracts is drastically exaggerated, according to a new POLITICO analysis of public data and federal spending records. Through July, DOGE said it has saved taxpayers $52.8 billion by canceling contracts, but of the $32.7 billion in actual claimed contract savings that POLITICO could verify, DOGE's savings over that period were closer to $1.4 billion.
ICE's data infrastructure makes misidentification permanent. Officers are supposed to document citizenship investigations, but they aren't required to update a person's status in ICE databases, even after confirming U.S. citizenship. Read more
Aug 12, 2025
Donald Trump just got embarrassed as a reporter dropped a salacious bombshell on his Homeland Security Chief Kristi Noem ... Read more
Israel always boasted that it was the only country in the region to support press freedom. That boast rang hollow even before the current war. Now, it's not even pretending. On Sunday, Israel openly and brazenly killed six journalists as they were sheltering in a tent that housed reporters and media workers. Israel accuses one of those journalists " Al Jazeera's Anas al-Sharif " of being a terrorist. It has not said what crime it believes the others have committed that would justify killing them. The laws of war are clear: journalists are civilians. To target them deliberately in war is to commit a war crime.
Donald Trump's child sex-trafficking friend Ghislaine Maxwell appears to be eligible for work release assignments outside the minimum security "camp" she was transferred to after meeting with Trump's former defense lawyer, who is now a top Department of Justice official. Maxwell's Bureau of Prisons classification shows her custody status as "OUT," which normally would mean she is permitted to work outside the federal prison camp in Bryan, Texas, where she is being held. That is a privilege that convicted sex offenders are not permitted under the bureau's own rules. Read more
Alligator Alcatraz, Florida's secretive new immigration detention center, has already drawn scrutiny over claims of inhumane conditions, questions about its legal authority, and recently, allegations about an "outbreak of a serious illness" inside the facility. But if an infectious disease like, say, COVID-19, is spreading among detainees at the remote site, the state refuses to say so. On August 7, attorneys Eric Lee and Chris Godshall-Bennet issued a statement on behalf of their client, 38-year-old Venezuelan Luis Manuel Rivas Velsquez, who they say recently suffered a "serious health emergency" while being held at the hastily constructed detention center. According to the statement, Rivas Velasquez, who was previously in good health, collapsed while sitting inside a tent at the facility and "found himself unable to breathe." He was transported to HCA Florida Kendall Hospital, where he was diagnosed with a respiratory infection, the lawyers say.
The US has taken into custody 26 fugitives from Mexico facing a range of federal and state criminal charges relating to drug-trafficking, hostage-taking, kidnapping, illegal use of firearms, human smuggling, money laundering, and murder. Among the fugitives are leaders and managers of dangerous drug cartels, designated as FTOs and SDGTs, including the Sinaloa Cartel, Crtel de Jalisco Nueva Generacin (CJNG), and Crtel del Noreste (formerly Los Zetas). These fugitives are collectively alleged to have imported into the US tonnage quantities of dangerous drugs, including cocaine, methamphetamine, fentanyl, and heroin. The cartel figures were put on planes after the Justice Department agreed not to seek the death penalty against any of the defendants or against any cartel leaders and members sent to the US in February. Read more
The director of the agency that produces the nation's jobs and inflation data is typically a mild-mannered technocrat, often with extensive experience in statistical agencies, with little public profile. But like so much in President Donald Trump's second administration, this time is different.
Russian intelligence agents arrested Vyacheslav Solovyov in a rare extradition operation in a Dubai shopping center on 5 Aug. He is the former chief executive of a state-run leasing company who fled Russia nearly a decade ago. Following his detention, Solovyov was taken to the Russian Embassy in Dubai and flown to Moscow the next day. The oligarch now faces charges of espionage, which carry a prison term of 10 to 20 years, as well as fraud. Russian security agencies had known Solovyov's whereabouts for more than a year. But extradition from the UAE is unusual, as the Gulf nation typically refuses to hand over fugitives wanted in Russia. Months of negotiations took place in the lead-up to the arrest. General Filatov, who oversaw the Dubai operation, heads the SVR's elite Zaslon unit, responsible for protecting top Russian officials during overseas visits and safeguarding key diplomatic missions. Read more
The location allows Putin to evade an ICC arrest warrant over war crimes associated with Russia's actions in Ukraine.
An ex-DOGE staffer Edward Coristine (19) AKA "Big Balls" could receive the highest civilian honor in the US, placing him in the company of luminaries such as Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Mother Teresa, and the late Pope Francis. Two weeks after Coristine was allegedly assaulted during a 3AM carjacking in the gay neighborhood of Dupont Circle, Washington DC, the White House says it would consider giving the junta puppet a Presidential Medal of Freedom for his bravery. This Felon Musk disciple is a GG-15, the highest federal appointment without US Senate confirmation that pays a robust salary. "Big Balls' is now working at the SSA. Coristine's maternal grandfather, Valery Martynov, was a KGB Lieutenant Colonel executed by the USSR for being a double agent. AI video of this potential affront: AI Horror Show. Read more
WASHINGTON (AP) " President Donald Trump'stax and spending law will result in less income for the poorest Americans while sending money to the richest, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported Monday.
Boar's Head plans to reopen the Jarratt, Virginia, facility at the center of a deadly Listeria outbreak last year despite federal inspections continuing to find sanitation violations at three of the food company's other facilities, according to federal records obtained by The Associated Press.
