Hillary Clinton on Wednesday slammed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and accused the Trump administration of turning “the clock back” on public health.
Clinton expressed alarm about people in the country listening to “crackpot ideas” after a press conference Monday in which the Secretary of Health and Human Services and President Donald Trump made a series of unproven statements about Tylenol, childhood vaccines and autism.
“I mean, this is so crazy, it’s so wrongheaded, it’s so shortsighted. And it’s going to cause deaths,” she said during an appearance Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” ”These guys want to literally turn the clock back.”
Clinton, the former secretary of state and Trump’s 2016 Democratic opponent for president, said the statements would lead to confusion.
“When your president says something, when a Kennedy, who’s the secretary of HHS, says something, what are you supposed to believe?” she asked.
“You know, people are confused. And too many Americans are listening to this, you know, very destructive anti-science tirade that we’re hearing from this administration. And it’s going to cost lives. It already is costing lives.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Wall Street was poised to open with small gains Wednesday, a day after markets took a break from their relentless record-breaking rally.
Futures for the S&P 500 ticked up 0.1% before the bell, while Nasdaq futures rose 0.2%. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were unchanged.
Shares of Alibaba soared nearly 10% after the Chinese e-commerce giant announced a partnership with Nvidia and an expansion of data center operations into a handful of countries to bolster its artificial intelligence infrastructure. Alibaba is the latest in a string of companies announcing that they were plowing money into AI, many of which are also partnering with AI-chipmaker Nvidia.
U.S. markets paused from their recent rally on Tuesday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said stock prices were “fairly highly valued.”
In his first public remarks since the Fed cut its main interest rate last week for the first time this year, Powell said that the Fed is stuck in an unusual position because worries about the job market are rising at the same time that inflation has stubbornly remained above its 2% target.
Analysts said his comments reiterated his stance that there is no risk-free path.
“Essentially the Fed Chairman confirmed what we already knew, which is that the central bank remains somewhat ‘between a rock and a hard place’ when it comes to managing the risks of rising inflation and falling employment,” said Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade.
Fed officials have penciled in more cuts to rates through the end of this year and into next, but they are remaining wary because lower rates can also give inflation more fuel.
An update Friday will show how much prices are rising for U.S. households based on the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation, and economists expect it to show a slight acceleration for last month.
Elsewhere, in Europe at midday France’s CAC 40 slipped 0.6%, while the German DAX and Britain’s FTSE 100 each fell 0.2%.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 recouped morning losses to finish 0.3% higher at 45,630.31. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.9% to 8,764.50. South Korea’s Kospi dropped 0.4% to 3,472.14. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.4% to 26,518.65, while the Shanghai Composite gained 0.8% to 3,853.64.
NEW YORK — As medical professionals react with alarm to President Donald Trump’s unproven statements about Tylenol, childhood vaccines and autism, a different group of Americans is feeling vindicated.
For the “Make America Healthy Again” movement, a diverse coalition that includes supporters of health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., anti-vaccine activists and others who distrust the American health care system, Trump’s Monday announcement was a watershed moment.
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FORT PIERCE, Fla. — The man who was charged with attempting to assassinate Donald Trump at a Florida golf course last year tried to stab himself in the neck with a pen shortly after being found guilty of all counts on Tuesday.
Officers quickly swarmed him and dragged him out of the courtroom.
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NEW YORK — U.S. stock indexes are slipping on Tuesday as Wall Street takes a moment following a relentless rally.
The S&P 500 fell 0.5%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 69 points, or 0.2%, as of 1:30 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.7% lower.
It’s a breather for the indexes, which all set their latest all-time highs on Monday. After surging from a bottom in April, the broad U.S. stock market is facing criticism that it’s shot too high, too fast and become too expensive. Even the head of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, said on Tuesday that stock prices broadly look “fairly highly valued.”
Nvidia weighed on the market after giving back some of its big gain from the day before, when it announced a partnership with OpenAI to build out data centers. Wall Street’s most influential stock lost 2.7%.
AutoZone fell 1.2% after reporting a weaker profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected, as the auto parts retailer squeezed less earnings out of each $1 of revenue than it did a year earlier.
But a 1.8% rise for Boeing helped limit the market’s losses after Uzbekistan Airways agreed to buy 14 of its Dreamliner airplanes and said it may add eight more to the order.
Kenvue climbed 3% and recovered much of its drop from Monday, when it had sunk on worries that President Donald Trump would say its Tylenol product may increase the risk of autism in children. Trump did warn pregnant women about taking Tylenol, but he did not seem to cite any significant new research to back it up. Kenvue has disputed any link between the drug and autism.
Gold, meanwhile, continued its record-breaking rally and topped $3,800 per ounce. It’s soared nearly 45% so far this year, even more than the U.S. stock market, in part on expectations that the Fed will cut interest rates to help the slowing U.S. job market.
Worries about potentially high inflation because of White House influence on the Fed, along with mountains of debt for the U.S. and other governments, have also vaulted gold’s price higher.
Powell said again on Tuesday that the Fed is stuck in an unusual position because worries about the job market are rising at the same time that inflation has stubbornly remained above its 2% target. They were his first public remarks since the Fed cut its main interest rate last week for the first time this year.
Fed officials have penciled in more cuts to rates through the end of this year and into next, but they are remaining wary because lower rates can also give inflation more fuel.
An update on Friday will show how much prices are rising for U.S. households based on the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation, and economists expect it to show a slight acceleration for last month.
A preliminary report suggested activity at U.S. businesses is still growing, but at a slower pace as tariffs raise prices for them. Companies may be finding it difficult to pass those higher costs fully on to customers because of “weaker demand and stiff competition,” according to S&P Global.
The numbers suggest that inflation could moderate for U.S. households, but not by so much that it drops below the Fed’s 2% target in the coming months, according to Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence.
In the bond market, Treasury yields ticked lower. The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.12% from 4.15% late Monday.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed amid modest moves across much of Europe and Asia.
France’s CAC 40 rose 0.5%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.7% for two of the bigger moves. Japan’s stock market was closed for a national holiday.
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AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.
UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. General Assembly’s yearly meeting of world leaders is here — and with it, an array of acronyms, abbreviations, titles and terms. Here is some key vocabulary, decoded.
UNGA: Shorthand (often pronounced “UN’-gah”) for the U.N. General Assembly’s “High-level Week,” when presidents, prime ministers, monarchs and other top leaders of all 193 U.N. member countries are invited to speak to the world and each other. New Yorkers sometimes just use “General Assembly” to describe what many experience mainly as a week of street closures and whizzing motorcades, but the assembly isn’t just this meeting. It’s a body that discusses many global issues and votes on resolutions throughout the year.
GENERAL DEBATE: The centerpiece of the week, it gives each country’s leader (or a designee) the mic for a state-of-the-world speech. This year’s theme is “Better Together,” emphasizing unity, solidarity and working collectively. But speakers use their 15 minutes — or more, since the time limit is ”voluntary” — to opine on the planet’s biggest issues and hotspots, spotlight domestic accomplishments and needs, air grievances, and project statesmanship. While the “debate” is more a series of speeches than an interactive discussion, rebuttals are allowed at the end of each long day, and some embittered neighbor nations routinely go multiple rounds.
BILATERAL (or “bilat,” for short): Private meetings between high-ranking officials of two countries. Many UNGA veterans argue that the gathering’s real value lies in these tête-à-têtes and other personal, off-camera encounters among decision-makers.
MINISTERIAL: Applies to meetings of cabinet-level officials, such as foreign ministers, from different countries.
SECURITY COUNCIL: The U.N.’s most powerful component, charged with maintaining international peace and security. The 15-member council can enact binding (though sometimes ignored) resolutions, impose sanctions and deploy peacekeeping troops. While this week is the Assembly’s show, the council generally also holds a high-wattage meeting or two. This year features a session on artificial intelligence.
P5: The Security Council’s five permanent members with veto power. Under a structure set up in 1945, they are China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
E10: The Security Council’s 10 elected, non-permanent members. The General Assembly elects them for two-year terms in seats allocated by region. Calls for council reform are an UNGA staple. One major complaint is the lack of permanent members from Africa and the Latin America-Caribbean region, though some other nations also have angled for years for a permanent presence.
G77: Stands for the “Group of 77 and China,” a developing-countries interest group that formed within the U.N. in 1964. Despite its name, it actually now has 134 members.
1.5 DEGREES: A crucial climate threshold. Under the 2015 Paris climate accord, countries agreed to work to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial times. The earth already has warmed 1.3 degrees (2.3 degrees Fahrenheit) since the mid-1800s, according to the U.N.
SIDS: At the U.N., this stands for some 39 “small island developing states.” UNGA is an important platform for them to elevate concerns such as climate change and the existential threat they face from projections of rising seas and intensifying storms, often a painfully timely subject at a meeting that falls in the thick of the Atlantic hurricane season.
BRICS: A developing-economies coalition that initially included Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. It has since added others, including Indonesia, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates. There are many international groups centered around regional, economic, defense or other ties, but BRICS has gotten attention as a growing venue for Chinese-Russian influence as those powers have increasingly tangled with the West.
NGO: “Non-governmental organization,” such as an advocacy group, charitable foundation or nonprofit relief organization.
LDCs: Very poor nations that are known at the U.N. as “ least-developed countries.” Forty-four nations currently meet the criteria, which include a gross national income of $1,088 or less per person per year.
IFIs: International financial institutions, including the so-called Bretton Woods institutions — the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which were established at a 1944 U.N. conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. Critics see the Bretton Woods duo as sclerotic entities that have badly failed poor and developing countries. The institutions have defended their work while saying they are trying to evolve.
MULTILATERALISM: Global or near-global partnership that is united and collectively develops enduring rules and shared norms. The idea undergirds the U.N. itself, though many warn it’s under threat.
MULTIPOLAR: A scenario in which there are several different and sometimes competing centers of power, not a single superpower or two.
MULTISTAKEHOLDER: An approach to big projects and problem-solving that incorporates not only governments but businesses, NGOs and possibly others. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres is a fan, seeing this concept as key to the future of world cooperation. But some progressive groups view it as a sell-out to big corporations and other powers that be.
TWO-STATE SOLUTION: A concept for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by establishing an independent Palestinian nation living in peace alongside Israel. The framework was set down in the 1993 Oslo Accords and embraced by the U.N., but progress toward implementing it stalled long before the nearly two-year-old war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
SOUTH-SOUTH COOPERATION: Collaboration among countries, organizations and people in what’s known as the Global South — a term that refers to developing nations that are largely, though not exclusively, in the Southern Hemisphere. Its aims include amplifying their voice in their own development and in international affairs.
UNILATERAL COERCIVE MEASURES: A usually critical way of describing sanctions imposed by one country in hopes of spurring some action in another.
WASHINGTON — Tech giant Oracle will receive a copy of the algorithm powering TikTok to operate for U.S. users, according to a senior official in President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday.
Determining next steps for the algorithm, currently owned by the Beijing-based ByteDance, has been one of the most closely watched issues during negotiations over TikTok’s future.
The Trump administration official, who insisted on anonymity to discuss the emerging deal, said they believe the plan will satisfy national security concerns if TikTok divests from its Chinese parent, ByteDance. President Joe Biden signed bipartisan legislation before leaving office requiring the Chinese company to sell its assets to an American company or face a ban.
American officials have previously warned the algorithm that fuels what users see on the app is vulnerable to manipulation by Chinese authorities, who can use it to shape content on the platform in a way that’s difficult to detect.
“It wouldn’t be in compliance if the algorithm is Chinese. There can’t be any shared algorithm with ByteDance,” said a spokesperson for the House Select Committee on China.
Oracle would receive a copy of the algorithm and oversee the app’s security operations.
The algorithm would be “fully inspected and retrained,” the senior White House official said Monday. In a call with reporters, the official later emphasized that the content recommendation formula would be retrained only on U.S. data in order to make sure the system is “behaving appropriately.” It is currently unclear if retraining the U.S. copy of the algorithm on local data would essentially create a separate TikTok experience just for domestic users.
“What the president will sign later this week is an executive order, essentially declaring that the terms of this deal meets America’s national security needs,” the White House official said. He notes that China is expected to sign and approve a framework deal for TikTok’s divestment by the end of the week, upon which Trump will issue a 120 day reprieve, giving both nations time to get necessary agreements finalized.
Full details on investors have not been released. However, the official confirmed that the U.S. operations will be a new joint venture with a board of directors that will have a majority of American members — Oracle and Silver Lake, a private equity firm, are the only confirmed consortium participants so far.
The White House official also said that under the preliminary deal — which still requires Chinese officials to sign off on a framework agreement — the United States will not take equity stake in the new venture or have representation on the controlling committee.
Trump, a Republican, has extended the deadline several times as he worked to reach a deal to keep TikTok available. He spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday.
NEW YORK — The Trump administration has barred Iranian diplomats based in or visiting New York from shopping at wholesale club stores like Costco and purchasing luxury goods in the United States without specific permission from the State Department.
In notices to be published this week in the Federal Register, the department’s Office of Foreign Missions determined that diplomatic memberships in wholesale club stores as well as diplomats’ ability to buy items such as watches, furs, jewelry, handbags, wallets, perfumes, tobacco, alcohol and cars are a “benefit” requiring U.S. government approval.
However, the only country whose diplomats were specifically targeted is Iran. Stores like Costco have been a favorite of Iranian diplomats posted to and visiting New York because they are able to buy large quantities of products not available in their economically isolated country for relatively cheap prices and send them home.
The move is another step in the Trump administration’s crackdown on visas, including for leaders and diplomats seeking to serve as representatives at the United Nations. While world leaders are gathering this week for the high-profile annual meeting at the international body, the new U.S. restrictions permanently apply to any Iranian diplomats representing their country at the U.N. year-round.
The determinations, which were posted online Monday and to be printed Tuesday, said Iranian diplomats and their dependents must “obtain approval from the Department of State prior to: obtaining or otherwise retaining membership at any wholesale club store in the United States, to include but not limited to Costco, Sam’s Club, or BJ’s Wholesale Club, and acquiring items from such wholesale club stores through any means.”
In addition, Iranian diplomats in the U.S. must also receive permission to purchase luxury items valued at more than $1,000 and vehicles valued at more that $60,000, said Clifton Seagroves, the head of the Office of Foreign Missions.
The items defined as “luxury goods” include watches, leather apparel and clothing accessories, silk apparel and clothing accessories, footwear, fur skins and artificial furs, handbags, wallets, fountain pens, cosmetics, perfumes and toilet waters, works of art, antiques, carpets, rugs, tapestries, pearls, gems, precious and semi-precious stones or jewelry containing them, precious metals, electronics and appliances, recreational sports articles, musical instruments, cigarettes and cigars, wine, spirits and beer.
Earlier this month, U.S. officials said they were considering the restrictions, which Seagroves signed on Sept. 16 and 18.
The Trump administration has already denied visas for Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and his large delegation to attend the U.N. General Assembly. In addition to Iran, the administration also was considering restrictions to be imposed on delegations from Sudan, Zimbabwe and Brazil.
BEIJING — The United States wants to improve military-to-military ties with China, a U.S. lawmaker leading a bipartisan congressional delegation said Monday in a meeting with China’s defense minister in Beijing.
The visit is the first from the House of Representatives to China since 2019, and comes as tensions have risen between the two countries over trade, technology and opposing views on global conflicts. A group of U.S. senators visited Beijing in 2023.
The current delegation is led by Rep. Adam Smith, a Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee. The group met with Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun and separately, with Vice Premier He Lifeng, after holding talks with Premier Li Qiang on Sunday.
“We want to open up better the lines of communication between our two countries in general, in particular between our defense (structures),” Smith told Dong ahead of their meeting.
He added that he believed both China and the U.S. wanted to uphold global peace and security, which made it important for the sides to maintain open communication lines.
“And we have disagreements, without question, but I think it makes it all the more important that we have open discussions about how to resolve those differences,” he added.
Dong said the lawmakers’ visit “shows a good phase in strengthening China-U.S. communications,” which “is the right thing to do.”
U.S. and China military communications were suspended for over a year starting in August 2022, following a visit by then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan. The visit angered Beijing, which claims self-ruled Taiwan as its own territory, to be annexed by force if necessary.
The sides restored military dialogue in November 2023, after a rare meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and then-U.S. President Joe Biden.
President Donald Trump said he would meet with Xi at a regional summit taking place at the end of October in South Korea and will visit China in the “early part of next year,” following a lengthy phone call between the two on Friday.
The congressional delegation also includes Michael Baumgartner, a Republican member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, as well as Ro Khanna and Chrissy Houlahan, both Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee. The lawmakers are in China until Thursday.
TOKYO — Asian shares finished mostly higher Monday, cheered by a record finish last week on Wall Street, but European indexes were declining in early trading.
France’s CAC 40 slipped 0.1% in early trading to 7,844.36, while the German DAX lost 0.6% to 23,504.07. Britain’s FTSE 100 was little changed, inching up less than 0.1% to 9,225.17. U.S. shares were set to drift lower with Dow futures down 0.3% at 46,524.00. S&P 500 futures shed 0.2% to 6,707.00.
Earlier in Asia, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 jumped 1.0% to finish at 45,493.66, rebounding from the decline late last week over concerns about the Bank of Japan’s selling its holdings. Such concerns abated as markets began to see any move as gradual.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.4% to 8,810.90. South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.7% to 3,468.65. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 0.8% to 26,344.14, while the Shanghai Composite rose 0.2% to 3,828.58.
The recent Wall Street rally has come on expectations the Federal Reserve will continue to cut interest rates in order to give the economy a boost. The central bank lowered them for the first time this year on Sept. 17.
If the Fed keeps cutting interest rates, that could give the struggling housing market a boost. But the growing expectations mean the market could be in for a disappointment and drop sharply if the Fed does not cut as much as traders expect.
Fed officials have said more rate cuts are likely this year and next. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said last week that the central bank may have to react quickly because inflation is remaining stubbornly high in the American economy while the job market is slowing, all the while as President Donald Trump’s tariffs threaten to push inflation higher.
“Every time the market seems to be running out of momentum, it fools most of us by pushing to higher heights,” said Jay Woods, chief market strategist at Freedom Capital Markets.
“As traders continue to monitor new highs on a daily basis, they are really focused on what Fed officials will have to say as they make the speaking rounds this week.”
In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude rose 63 cents to $63.04 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, added 15 cents to $66.83 a barrel.
In currency trading, the U.S. dollar fell to 147.87 Japanese yen from 147.91 yen. The euro cost $1.1766, up from $1.1745.
President Donald Trump and his supporters are paying tribute to conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a memorial service in Arizona. They’re praising the slain political conservative activist as a singular force whose work they must now advance. Trump credits Kirk…
By JONATHAN J. COOPER, EUGENE GARCIA, AAMER MADHANI and MEG KINNARD – Associated Press
President Donald Trump said Saturday that he will award Ben Carson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, the third such award he’s announced this month.
“Congratulations, Ben. He didn’t know this,” Trump said in a speech during an event at Mount Vernon for American Cornerstone Institute, founded by Carson. “He didn’t know it. I hope he’s happy.”
A former neurosurgeon who ran against Trump for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, Carson, 74, went on to serve as Housing and Urban Development secretary during Trump’s first administration.
The one-time rivals developed a strong bond, and Carson — seen at one point as among the top contenders for Trump’s running mate in the 2024 campaign — served as Trump’s national faith chairman during last year’s race.
A staunch social conservative who has opposed abortion rights and same-sex marriage, Carson has become a popular conservative speaker and author.
The Medal of Freedom, established in 1963, is awarded to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, or cultural or other significant public endeavors.
Trump bestowed the honor on 24 people during his first term and has already announced two other recipients since his return to the White House. Trump mentioned no date for giving the honor to Carson, but other honorees are already in the pipeline.
During a Sept. 11 commemoration event at the Pentagon, Trump announced that he would posthumously give the award to conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated earlier this month and whose memorial service Trump plans to attend Sunday in Arizona.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Saturday that he would be nominating senior White House aide Lindsey Halligan to serve as the top federal prosecutor for the Virginia office that was thrown into turmoil when its U.S. attorney was pushed out Friday.
In a social media post just after he departed the White House for an event at Mount Vernon, Trump wrote he was nominating Halligan as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, writing that she “will be Fair, Smart, and will provide, desperately needed, JUSTICE FOR ALL!”
The announcement came as Trump pressed Attorney General Pam Bondi to move forward with pursuing cases against some of his political opponents, part of a vow for retribution that has been a theme of his return to the White House.
The nomination would place one of the president’s legal defenders in charge of an office in tumult over political pressure by administration officials to criminally charge New York Attorney General Letitia James, a longtime foe of Trump, in a mortgage fraud investigation.
The Justice Department has spent months investigating, and there’s been no indication that prosecutors have managed to uncover any degree of incriminating evidence necessary to secure an indictment. James’ lawyers have vigorously denied any allegations and characterized the investigation as an act of political revenge.
Halligan has been part of Trump’s legal orbit for the last several years, including serving as one of his attorneys in the early days of the FBI’s investigation into Trump’s retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. She has more recently been enlisted in a White House effort to remove what the administration contends is “improper ideology” from Smithsonian properties.
Earlier Saturday, Trump posted to social media what appeared to be somewhat of an open letter to Bondi, saying he had “reviewed over 30 statements and posts” that he characterized as criticizing his administration for a lack of action on investigations, including the one into James’ dealings. Trump’s message mentioned former FBI Director James Comey, Trump’s longtime foil whom he fired during his first term amid the Russia election interference investigation.
The FBI acknowledged this summer that it was investigating Comey, who was interviewed by the Secret Service after an Instagram post that Republicans insisted was a call for violence against Trump. Comey has said he did not mean the post as a threat and removed it once he realized how it was being interpreted.
Asked as he departed the White House if he was criticizing Bondi, Trump said he just wanted action.
“We have to act fast — one way or the other,” Trump said. “They’re guilty, they’re not guilty — we have to act fast. If they’re not guilty, that’s fine. If they are guilty or if they should be charged, they should be charged. And we have to do it now.”
In announcing Halligan’s nomination soon after on social media, Trump said that Bondi was “doing a GREAT job.”
The selection of Halligan came just hours after another conservative lawyer, Mary “Maggie” Cleary, said in an email to staff that she had been named acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, according to a copy viewed by The Associated Press.
“While this appointment was unexpected, I am humbled to be joining your ranks,” Cleary, a conservative lawyer who has said she was falsely accused of being at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, told employees in the email.
While Siebert said in an email to colleagues Friday evening that he had submitted his resignation, Trump said in a social media post: “He didn’t quit, I fired him!” Trump noted he was backed by the state’s two Democratic senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, adding: “Next time let him go in as a Democrat, not a Republican.”
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Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is ending the federal government’s annual report on hunger in America, stating that it had become “overly politicized” and “rife with inaccuracies.”
The decision comes two and a half months after President Donald Trump signed legislation sharply reducing food aid to the poor. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the tax and spending cuts bill Republicans muscled through Congress in July means 3 million people would not qualify for food stamps, also known as SNAP benefits.
The decision to scrap the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Household Food Security Report was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
In a press release Saturday, the USDA said the 2024 report, to be released Oct. 22, would be the last.
“The questions used to collect the data are entirely subjective and do not present an accurate picture of actual food security,” the USDA said. ”The data is rife with inaccuracies slanted to create a narrative that is not representative of what is actually happening in the countryside as we are currently experiencing lower poverty rates, increasing wages, and job growth under the Trump Administration.”
The Census Bureau reported earlier this month that the U.S. poverty rate dipped from 11% in 2023 to 10.6% last year, before Trump took office.
Critics were quick to accuse the administration of deliberately making it harder to measure hunger and assess the impact of its cuts to food stamps.
“Trump is cancelling an annual government survey that measures hunger in America, rather than allow it to show hunger increasing under his tenure,” Bobby Kogan, senior director of federal budget policy at the left-leaning Center for American Progress, said on social media. “This follows the playbook of many non-democracies that cancel or manipulate reports that would otherwise show less-than-perfect news.”
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday signed a proclamation that will require a $100,000 annual visa fee for highly-skilled foreign workers and rolled out a $1 million “gold card” visa as a pathway to U.S. citizenship for wealthy individuals, moves that face near-certain legal challenges amid widespread criticism he is sidestepping Congress.
If the moves survive legal muster, they will deliver staggering price increases. The visa fee for skilled workers would jump from $215. The fee for investor visas, which are common in many European countries, would climb from $10,000-$20,000 a year.
H-1B visas, which require at least a bachelor’s degree, are meant for high-skilled jobs that tech companies find difficult to fill. Critics say the program is a pipeline for overseas workers who are often willing to work for as little as $60,000 annually, well below the $100,000-plus salaries typically paid to U.S. technology workers.
Trump on Friday insisted that the tech industry would not oppose the move. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said “all big companies” are on board.
Representatives for the biggest tech companies, including Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta, did not immediately respond to messages for comment on Friday. Microsoft declined to comment.
Lutnick said the change will likely result in far fewer H-1B visas than the 85,000 annual cap allows because “it’s just not economic anymore.”
“If you’re going to train people, you’re going to train Americans.” Lutnick said on a conference call with reporters. “If you have a very sophisticated engineer and you want to bring them in … then you can pay $100,000 a year for your H-1B visa.”
Trump also announced he will start selling a “gold card” visa with a path to U.S. citizenship for $1 million after vetting. For companies, it will cost $2 million to sponsor an employee.
The “Trump Platinum Card” will be available for a $5 million and allow foreigners to spend up to 270 days in the U.S. without being subject to U.S. taxes on non-U.S. income. Trump announced a $5 million gold card in February to replace an existing investor visa — this is now the platinum card.
Lutnick said the gold and platinum cards would replace employment-based visas that offer paths to citizenship, including for professors, scientists, artists and athletes.
Critics of H-1Bs visas who say they are used to replace American workers applauded the move. U.S. Tech Workers, an advocacy group, called it “the next best thing” to abolishing the visas altogether.
Doug Rand, a senior official at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services during the Biden administration, said the proposed fee increase was “ludicrously lawless.”
“This isn’t real policy — it’s fan service for immigration restrictionists,” Rand said. “Trump gets his headlines, and inflicts a jolt of panic, and doesn’t care whether this survives first contact with the courts.”
Lutnick said the H-1B fees and gold card could be introduced by the president but the platinum card needs congressional approval.
Historically, H-1B visas have been doled out through lottery. This year, Amazon was by far the top recipient of H-1B visas with more than 10,000 awarded, followed by Tata Consultancy, Microsoft, Apple and Google. Geographically, California has the highest number of H-1B workers.
Critics say H-1B spots often go to entry-level jobs, rather than senior positions with unique skill requirements. And while the program isn’t supposed to undercut U.S. wages or displace U.S. workers, critics say companies can pay less by classifying jobs at the lowest skill levels, even if the specific workers hired have more experience.
As a result, many U.S. companies find it cheaper to contract out help desks, programming and other basic tasks to consulting companies such as Wipro, Infosys, HCL Technologies and Tata in India and IBM and Cognizant in the U.S. These consulting companies hire foreign workers, often from India, and contract them out to U.S. employers looking to save money.
First lady Melania Trump, the former Melania Knauss, was granted an H-1B work visa in October 1996 to work as a model. She was born in Slovenia.
In 2024, lottery bids for the visas plunged nearly 40%, which authorities said was due to success against people who were “gaming the system” by submitting multiple, sometimes dubious, applications to unfairly increase chances of being selected.
Major technology companies that use H-1B visas sought changes after massive increases in bids left their employees and prospective hires with slimmer chances of winning the random lottery. Facing what it acknowledged was likely fraud and abuse, USCIS this year said each employee had only one shot at the lottery, whether the person had one job offer or 50.
Critics welcomed the change but said more needs to be done. The AFL-CIO wrote last year that while changes to the lottery “included some steps in the right direction,” it fell short of needed reforms. The labor group wants visas awarded to companies that pay the highest wages instead of by random lottery, a change that Trump sought during his first term in the White House.
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Ortutay reported from Oakland, Calif. Associated Press writers Adriana Gomez Licon in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report.
FORT PIERCE, Fla. — A man accused of trying to assassinate President Donald Trump at his Florida golf course last year told a federal judge on Friday that prosecutors haven’t proven that an assassination attempt occurred. But the judge denied his motion for acquittal, meaning jurors will eventually decide the man’s fate.
Prosecutors rested their case against Ryan Routh Friday afternoon following testimony from 38 witnesses over seven days. After jurors were dismissed for the weekend, Routh, who is representing himself, made a motion for acquittal directly to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on four of the five counts against him, excluding the charge of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.
Prosecutors have said Routh spent weeks plotting to kill Trump before aiming a rifle through the shrubbery as Trump played golf on Sept. 15, 2024, at his West Palm Beach country club.
Routh argued Friday afternoon that prosecutors haven’t proven any attempt to assassinate Trump.
“They maybe proved that someone was outside the (golf course) fence with a gun, but the gun was never fired,” Routh said.
Routh said the area outside the Trump International Golf Club was a public right of way for a public road, and anyone had a right to be there with a weapon.
Prosecutors responded that Routh took multiple substantial steps in his attempt to kill Trump, including aiming a loaded gun with its safety off through the fence.
“This is as far from peaceful assembly as you can get,” Assistant U.S. Attorney John Shipley said.
Cannon denied Routh’s motion, explaining that a juror could reasonably find that prosecutors had met their burden of proof. That means the next step is for the defense to begin its case Monday morning. Routh has indicated he plans to call three witnesses: a firearms expert and two character witnesses. He hasn’t said whether he plans to testify himself. He told the judge Friday that his case should take about half a day.
Cannon said attorneys should be prepared to deliver their closing arguments on Tuesday, giving each side one hour and 45 minutes. Jurors will begin deliberating after that. Cannon had initially blocked off more than three weeks for the trial at the Fort Pierce federal courthouse, but Routh’s relatively short cross examinations have led to a quicker pace than anticipated.
The prosecution’s final witness spent about six hours over Thursday and Friday tying together about a week’s worth of testimony. FBI Supervisory Special Agent Kimberly McGreevy used cellphone records, location data, text messages, bank records, internet searches, security video and various store receipts to illustrate Routh’s actions and movements over the month prior to the attempted attack and to show that he began trying to acquire a gun, despite being a convicted felon, nearly six months before his arrest.
Evidence showed that Routh traveled to South Florida about a month before the assassination attempt, McGreevy said. He lived out of a black Nissan Xterra, normally parked at a western Palm Beach County truck stop, while routinely traveling to the areas around Palm Beach International Airport, Trump International Golf Course and Trump’s primary residence at Mar-a-Lago, the agent said.
“He was living at that truck stop and conducting physical and electronic surveillance and stalking the president, then-former President Trump,” McGreevy said.
Recounting the alleged attack at the golf course, a Secret Service agent testified last week that he spotted Routh before Trump came into view. Routh aimed his rifle at the agent, who opened fire, causing Routh to drop his weapon and flee without firing a shot, the agent said.
Law enforcement obtained help from a witness who testified that he saw a person fleeing the area after hearing gunshots. The witness was then flown in a police helicopter to a nearby interstate where Routh was arrested, and the witness said he confirmed it was the person he had seen.
Just nine weeks earlier, Trump had survived an attempt on his life while campaigning in Pennsylvania. That gunman had fired eight shots, with one bullet grazing Trump’s ear. The gunman was then fatally shot by a Secret Service counter sniper.
WASHINGTON — Over the span of 14 days, nearly 200 people marched from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., in defense of democracy.
From children to the elderly, members of the We Are America march arrived in the nation’s capital on a warm and sunny Friday afternoon, tired but joyous, where they were greeted with hugs and cheers from supporters and members of Congress.
The mission of their sprawling walk was to unite a movement strong enough to hold America’s leaders accountable in the face of mass firings at government agencies, the federal takeover of the District of Columbia’s law enforcement and myriad disagreements with actions made by the Trump administration and the president himself.
Marchers from across the country gathered in Philadelphia, then trekked through Newark, New Jersey; Wilmington, Delaware; Baltimore and beyond. Along the way they were housed in churches, where they slept in pews, or at people’s homes. One night the group camped outdoors.
Founding member Maggie Bohara said the marchers were warmly greeted in every community they entered, given food, water and shelter.
“It really showed that there are people who believe in what we believe in and that we’re not alone in this,” Bohara said.
80-year-old Dianne Shaw-Cummins and her son Ted Regnaud were members of the march. Shaw-Cummins, who lives in Arizona but spends the summer in Minnesota with Regnaud, said one morning her son asked how she felt about walking from Philadelphia to Washington, to which she replied, “I can do that.”
“I want better for my grandchildren. I want better for my children. I want better for all people that live and breathe in the United States of America,” she said.
Speaking to the marchers shortly after their arrival, Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, likened the march to Bloody Sunday, the day in 1965 when civil rights activists marched from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, and were attacked by law enforcement on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
“You marched on 160 miles, and today you are now bringing the Edmund Pettus Bridge moment to Washington, D.C. You’re bringing it to fruition,” Green said.
The marchers carried a version of the U.S. Constitution with them that was created by children from across the country. They gifted it to Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., after they arrived in Washington. Van Hollen sprang into the national spotlight in April when he flew to El Salvador to meet with his constituent, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly deported by the Trump administration in March.
Founding We Are America member MJ Tune said they carried the Constitution to remind elected officials of their oath to defend it against enemies, both foreign and domestic.
“We also wanted to build a sense of community on this March. Right now we feel like so many people in America have lost a sense of community, and community is essential to creating a movement that can sustain long-term nonviolent action, which is our ultimate goal,” Tune said.
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has moved to block a Massachusetts offshore wind farm, its latest effort to hobble an industry and technology that President Donald Trump has attacked as “ugly” and unreliable compared to fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, filed a motion in federal court Thursday seeking to take back its approval of the SouthCoast Wind project’s “construction and operations plan.” The plan is the last major federal permit the project needs before it can start putting turbines in the water.
SouthCoast Wind, to be built in federal waters about 23 miles south of Nantucket, is expected to construct as many as 141 turbines to power about 840,000 homes in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
The Interior Department action is the latest by the Trump administration in what critics call an “all-out assault” on the wind energy industry.
The moves are a complete reversal from the Biden administration, which approved construction of 11 large offshore wind projects to generate enough clean energy to power more than 6 million homes. The projects now face uncertain futures under Trump.
Last week, the Interior Department asked a federal judge in Baltimore to cancel a previous approval by BOEM to build an offshore wind project in Maryland. The ocean agency has concluded that its prior weighing of the project’s impacts was “deficient” and intends to reconsider that analysis to make a new decision, the department said.
Developer U.S. Wind has not yet begun construction, but plans for the Maryland Offshore Wind Project call for up to 114 turbines to power more than 718,000 homes.
BOEM had approved SouthCoast’s operations plan on Jan. 17, 2025, three days before Trump’s second term began.
“Based on its review to date, BOEM has determined that the COP approval may not have fully complied with the law” and “may have failed to account for all the impacts that the SouthCoast Wind Project may cause,” Interior said in its legal filing. The agency asked a federal judge to allow reconsideration of the project.
In a statement, developer Ocean Winds said the company “intends to vigorously defend our permits in federal court.”
“Stable permitting for American infrastructure projects should be of top concern for anyone who wants to see continued investment in the United States,” the statement said.
Jason Walsh, executive director of the BlueGreen Alliance, a coalition of labor unions and environmental groups, said Trump “is threatening good jobs while he pursues his senseless vendetta against offshore wind.”
But Trump’s efforts to dismantle the offshore wind industry are much more extensive than the way Biden targeted fossil fuels, said Kristoffer Svendsen, assistant dean for energy law at the George Washington University Law School. He thinks offshore wind developers will now see the U.S. as too risky.
“They have plenty of options. They can invest in Europe and Asia. There are good markets to invest in offshore wind. It’s just the U.S. is not a good market to invest in,” he said.
The Danish energy company Orsted is building Revolution Wind. The Danish government owns a majority stake in the company.
Besides SouthCoast, the Trump administration has said it is reconsidering approvals for another wind farm off the Massachusetts coast, New England Wind. It previously revoked a permit for the Atlantic Shores project in New Jersey.
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U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney in California issued the temporary restraining order against the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday, and said a hearing would be held next month to determine if a longer-term prohibition is necessary.
Chesney found that states were likely to succeed in their argument that the personal data can only be used for things like administering the food assistance program, and that it generally can’t be shared with other entities. The states said they feared that the data would be used to aid mass deportation efforts.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, is a social safety net that serves more than 42 million people nationwide. Under the program formerly known as food stamps, the federal government pays 100% of the food benefits, while the states determine who is eligible for the benefits and then issue them to enrollees.
The Trump administration has worked to collect data on millions of U.S. residents through various federal agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, sharing the information with the Department of Homeland Security to support deportation efforts. The USDA warned states in July that if they failed to turn over the information about people enrolled in the federal food assistance program, SNAP funding would be cut off.
In response, the coalition of states sued, saying they feared the data would be used to aid mass deportations. They told the judge that the federal SNAP Act requires states to safeguard the information they receive from SNAP applicants, only releasing it for limited purposes related to administering or enforcing the food assistance program.
In Thursday’s ruling, Chesney said the states’ argument was likely to succeed, and that the USDA had already announced it planned to share the data with other entities and use it for purposes not allowed by the SNAP Act.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on March 20 directing agencies to ensure “unfettered access to comprehensive data from all state programs” as part of the administration’s effort to stop “ waste, fraud and abuse by eliminating information silos.”
The case is at least the second lawsuit filed over the USDA’s attempt to collect SNAP information. Privacy and hunger relief groups and a handful of people receiving food assistance benefits filed a similar lawsuit in Washington, D.C., in May, but the federal judge in that case declined to issue a preliminary injunction to stop the data collection.
Some states have already turned over the data. ___ Associated Press reporter Kimberly Kindy contributed.
WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department is moving closer to making President Donald Trump’s “ no tax on tips ” promise a reality. But new guidance released Friday tends to limit the number of tipped workers who will be able to claim the benefit.
The agency on Friday submitted proposed regulations to the Federal Register that includes greater detail on the occupations covered by the rule and who will qualify and what counts as a “qualified tip.”
The “no tax on tips” provision in Republicans’ massive tax and spending law signed by Trump in July eliminates federal income taxes on tips for people working in jobs that have traditionally received them and allows certain workers to deduct up to $25,000 in “qualified tips” per year from 2025 through 2028. The deduction phases out for taxpayers with a modified adjusted gross income over $150,000.
To qualify as a tip, the tips must be must be earned in an occupation on Treasury’s list of qualified occupations. Among the jobs exempted from tax on tips are sommeliers, cocktail waiters, pastry chefs, cake bakers, bingo workers, club dancers, DJs, clowns, podcasters, influencers, online video creators, ushers, maids, gardeners, electricians, house cleaners, tow truck drivers, wedding planners, personal care aides, tutors, au pairs, massage therapists, yoga instructors, skydiving pilots, ski instructors, parking garage attendants, delivery drivers and movers.
The tip must be voluntarily given, so mandatory tips or auto-gratuities would not qualify for the “no tax on tips” benefit. However, tip pools and similar arrangements qualify, so long as they are reported to the IRS and voluntary. The benefit is not available to married individuals who file their taxes separately.
The tip must be given in cash, check, debit card, gift card or any item exchangeable for a fixed amount of cash, unlike digital assets. And any amount received for illegal activity, prostitution services, or pornographic activity does not qualify as a tip, according to the Treasury Department.
The “no tax on tips” provision will be implemented retroactively to Jan. 1, 2025.
The Yale Budget Lab estimates that there were roughly 4 million workers in tipped occupations in 2023, which amounts to roughly 2.5% of all jobs.
Congressional budget analysts project the “No Tax on Tips” provision would increase the deficit by $40 billion through 2028. The nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation estimated in June that the tips deduction will cost $32 billion over 10 years.
Only tips reported to the employer and noted on a worker’s W-2, their end-of-year tax summary, will qualify. Payroll taxes, which pay for Social Security and Medicare, would still be collected along with state and local taxes.