Author: Imported Author 1932006

The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate climbed this week to its highest level in nearly a year, driving up borrowing costs for prospective homebuyers.

The benchmark 30-year fixed rate mortgage rate rose to 6.55% from 6.49% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. One year ago, the average rate was 6.75%.

Higher mortgage rates can add hundreds of dollars a month in costs for borrowers, limiting homebuyers’ purchasing power at a time when affordability challenges continue to sideline many aspiring homeowners.

Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, from the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy decisions to bond market investors’ expectations for the economy and inflation. They generally follow the trajectory of the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans.

Rates have been mostly rising this year as the war with Iran has driven crude oil prices sharply higher, stoking expectations of hotter inflation. That’s pushed up long-term bond yields relative to where they were before the conflict began in late February, causing mortgage rates to trend higher.

The 10-year Treasury yield was 4.57% at midday Thursday on the bond market, up from 4.54% a week ago. It was just 3.97% in late February, before the war broke out.

The average rate on a 30-year mortgage is now the highest it’s been since Aug. 28, when it was at 6.56%. As recently as late February, the average rate dropped slightly below 6% for the first time since late 2022.

Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, often sought by borrowers refinancing a home loan, also rose this week. That average rate increased to 5.93% from 5.82% last week. A year ago, it was at 5.92%, Freddie Mac said.

A report this week showing prices paid by consumers for gas, clothes and other goods cooled last month could help take pressure off the Federal Reserve, which is considering raising interest rates.

The central bank doesn’t set mortgage rates, but its decisions to raise or lower its short-term rate are watched closely by bond investors and can ultimately affect the yield on 10-year Treasurys.

That cooler inflation reading “is a step in the right direction, but until mortgage rates actually follow suit, buyers will keep feeling the pinch of stubbornly high borrowing costs even as other conditions improve,” said Hannah Jones, senior economist at Realtor.com.

While average long-term mortgage rates remain lower than they were at this time last year, their upward trajectory has weighed on home sales this year.

And the latest monthly tally of home purchase transactions that have yet to be finalized points to potentially more sluggish home sales this summer.

Pending U.S. home sales fell 5.4% in June from the previous months and were down 0.3% from June last year, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. There’s usually a month or two lag between a contract signing and when the sale is finalized, which makes pending home sales a near-term bellwether for the housing market.

Data on mortgage applications also signal that the upward trend in mortgage rates has given some would-be homebuyers reason to pause.

Mortgage applications, which include loans to buy a home or refinance an existing mortgage, fell 2.7% last week from the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The pullback was driven mainly by a 7% drop in applications to buy a home.

NEW YORK (AP) — Federal safety investigators looking into a runaway Tesla that killed a grandmother in her home say the driver had pressed the accelerator to full speed, suggesting the vehicle’s self-driving software was not to blame.

The driver had told police that he had the self-driving software turned on, but a report from the National Transportation Safety Board on Wednesday concluded that he had actually overridden that feature when he pushed hard on the pedal. Moments later the Tesla Model 3 raced down a residential street in Katy, Texas, at highway speeds, slammed into a brick home and killed a 76-year-old woman standing in the front room.

The crash last month drew national attention because Tesla CEO Elon Musk is seeking to reassure the public its self-driving feature is safe as he prepares to turn hundreds of thousands of Teslas already on the road into fully automatic vehicles and begin selling two-seated Cybercabs missing steering wheels and pedals.

The crash came two months after officials at a separate federal agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, announced it was elevating a 2024 investigation of the self-driving feature to new “engineering analysis” level, raising the possibility of a recall of 3.2 million Tesla vehicles.

That NHTSA probe was triggered by crashes where the self-driving feature failed to alert drivers to take control in fog and other poor visibility conditions.

The agency opened an investigation last year into 58 incidents in which Teslas reportedly violated traffic safety laws while using self-driving technology, leading to more than a dozen crashes and fires and nearly two dozen injuries.

Separate from the National Transportation Safety Board, NHTSA is also looking into the Tesla house crash in Texas, one of 46 “special crash” investigations of Tesla’s self-driving or driver-assistance technology in the past decade, according to the agency’s records. In more than a dozen of those crashes, at least one person — a driver, passenger or pedestrian — was killed.

Tesla had originally called its driver assistance software Full Self-Driving, or FSD, but auto experts and regulators complained it was misleading because drivers must always keep their eyes on the road and be ready to take over at any time.

The company has since changed the name to Full Self-Driving (Supervised).

Video of the Katy, Texas, accident shows the Tesla traveling at more than 70 mph (112.65 kilometers per hour), jumping a curb then tearing across a lawn before crushing through a brick wall of a home. A woman standing feet away, Martha Avila, was found amid piles of crumbling plaster, split beams and bits of furniture and rushed to a hospital but died.

Sales of Tesla cars still haven’t recovered fully from boycotts last year over Musk’s far-right political stands, but the stock is rising anyway as he has successfully shifted attention away from the sales figures. He says they matter less now that the company is on the cusp of major technological advances, such as turning Teslas into hands-free vehicles and having its Optimus robots take over for humans for tasks at home and work.

Tesla stock has risen 22% in the past year and is currently trading at 170 times expected annual earnings compared to 20 for the S&P 500.

For its second-quarter financial results out next week, financial analysts surveyed by FactSet expect earnings per share will barely budge — 32 cents versus 33 cents a year earlier — continuing a sixth quarter streak of flat or falling profits.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration has approved a first-of-its-kind pill that can drastically reduce cholesterol in a way that’s previously only been available with expensive, injectable drugs.

The drug from Merck was OK’d on Thursday for patients with artery-clogging cholesterol that persists even after taking statins, the standard medications for cutting heart attack risk. Merck will market its pill under the brand name Lipfendra.

It’s the first noninjectable medication that works by blocking a liver protein called PCSK9. That protein limits the body’s ability to clear cholesterol from the blood, and biotech injectables targeting it have been available from Amgen and other drugmakers for more than a decade. But patient access has been stymied for years by high prices, insurance restrictions and limited prescribing by doctors.

Statins block some of the liver’s production of cholesterol and are the cornerstone of treatment. But even at the highest doses, many people need additional help lowering their LDL, or bad, cholesterol enough to meet medical guidelines.

Merck, which has headquarters in Rahway, New Jersey, won approval based on two studies in high-risk patients who added the company’s pill to their standard treatment, including statins. In one study of 3,000 patients, those taking Lipfendra saw their levels of LDL cholesterol drop more than 55% after six months. In a second study, patients averaged a reduction of 59% compared with patients who received a dummy pill.

That benefit dropped only slightly over a year, and side effects — including dizziness and diarrhea — were similar between those taking the pill or a placebo, researchers found. One caveat: The pill must be taken on an empty stomach.

The FDA reviewed the drug under its program that promises ultra-fast reviews for promising medications that serve the public interest. The pathway was created by then-FDA chief Dr. Marty Makary, who resigned from the agency in May after months of pressure from drugmakers, patients and other outside groups.

Heart disease is the nation’s leading cause of death, and high LDL cholesterol, which causes plaque to build up in arteries, is a top risk factor for heart attacks and strokes. While an LDL level of 100 is considered fine for healthy people, doctors recommend lowering it to at least 70 once people develop high cholesterol or heart disease — and even lower for those at very high risk.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

There are as many handguns in the U.S. as there are adults. Perhaps none is more iconic than the .44 Magnum revolver.

“The most powerful handgun in the world,” Clint Eastwood says with a mix of pleasure and malice as detective “Dirty Harry” takes aim at a bank robber. The 1971 movie made the hefty steel pistol an icon for generations of modern lawmen and outlaws alike.

Dirty Harry is a protector of everyday people, yet he’s shackled by powerful forces out of his control. This urge to stand up to perceived tyranny — by any means necessary — is so ingrained in our national identity that the right to bear arms was given the No. 2 spot in the Constitution’s Bill of Rights.

Eastwood’s co-star was the Smith & Wesson Model 29, the first revolver to use powerful .44 caliber Magnum ammunition, which debuted in the mid-1950s. The American gunmaker has been in the revolver business since 1852.

Yet the long-barreled revolver has come a long way since the Wild West. Owning a gun, and having strong opinions about guns, are now high-voltage political issues.

For some, the obvious reason to keep a handgun is self-defense, home invasion, the fear of becoming a victim. (Rather than under his pillow, my father slept soundly with our guns in a secret compartment in the basement, but to each their own.)

The U.S. is infamous worldwide for our unique scourge of mass shootings with assault-style rifles. Yet when someone pulls the trigger, it’s usually a handgun. According to a Pew Research Center analysis for 2024, 53% of gun homicides involved a handgun. Rifles accounted for 3%. The rest were other or unspecified types of guns.

That same year, more Americans killed themselves with guns than ever before. And if a woman’s abusive partner has access to a gun, she is five times more likely to be killed, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

America is fascinated with guns. The world is watching.

They’re soaking up the stories we tell about ourselves — in crime thrillers, police dramas, cowboy movies and blockbuster action flicks — and buying the guns, too. Nearly a quarter million handguns were “Made in the USA” and exported in 2023, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

More than half a century ago, Dirty Harry used his .44 to blast away the line between protector and vigilante. As a nation, we haven’t looked back.

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Part of a recurring series, “American Objects,” marking the 250th anniversary of the United States. For more American objects, click here. For more stories on the anniversary, click here.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche met Thursday with accusers of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein following the demand by a Republican senator whose support is crucial to advancing his nomination to lead the Justice Department.

Blanche spent about an hour at Justice Department headquarters in Washington with the group of Epstein accusers, who have criticized the Trump administration’s handling of the disgraced financier’s investigation and a trove of files related to his sex trafficking case.

After the meeting, Blanche told reporters that he encouraged the accusers to come to the FBI with any information that could help investigators build cases against additional figures tied to Epstein.

But Blanche acknowledged he couldn’t assure them additional prosecutions could be brought. The Justice Department has repeatedly said it will investigate further if new information surfaces, but the government doesn’t currently have evidence to support prosecutions against others in Epstein’s orbit.

“It wasn’t all cordial,” Blanche said of Thursday’s meeting. “Because there’s something that they want that I don’t think I can give them, which is some form of justice. And I want to be able to give justice in the form of prosecutions, and maybe we can do a prosecution at some point,” Blanche said.

But Blanche added, “I don’t know.”

The political firestorm over Epstein has been a persistent headache for the Trump administration, which released millions of investigative documents over the last year in response to right-wing clamoring for answers about the disgraced financier’s crimes and connections to high-profile people.

One accuser is disappointed in Blanche meeting

One accuser, Dani Bensky, expressed frustration after the meeting, saying Blanche appeared to treat it as “a mere ‘check-the-box’ exercise intended to secure votes for his confirmation.”

“He danced around his wording, repeatedly interrupted us and could not commit to anything that would demonstrate good faith or begin to restore trust,” she said in an emailed statement. She said Blanche offered “no credible plan to investigate and pursue accountability” beyond Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein.

Earlier Thursday, Bensky told lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee that women harmed by Epstein repeatedly asked to meet with Blanche “through multiple channels and he never responded.”

“We deserve to be heard directly, not dismissed and ignored,” Bensky said.

Blanche has pushed back on suggestions that the Justice Department has been dismissive of the Epstein’s accusers, saying officials have spoken with more than 30 representatives of the women over the course of their sweeping review of the files.

“The Department of Justice will always meet with victims or their representatives, and if those victims or their representatives have evidence that anybody committed a crime — whether it has to do with Jeffrey Epstein or anybody else — we will of course move forward and investigate and prosecute,” Blanche told reporters.

Blanche needs key Republican support to get confirmed

The meeting came hours after Republican Sen. Thom Tillis said it needed to happen before Blanche could earn his vote.

Without Tillis’ support, Blanche’s nomination won’t make it through the Senate Judiciary Committee, which questioned Blanche for hours Wednesday about the Epstein files as well as the creation of a fund to compensate President Donald Trump’s allies, a tax immunity deal for the president and a slew of other issues.

Another Republican, Sen. John Cornyn, has also expressed concern over the fund and has said he remains undecided about his vote.

Tillis indicated during Blanche’s confirmation hearing Wednesday that he was leaning toward backing Blanche, who has been leading the department in an acting capacity since April. But after lawmakers heard Bensky’s testimony, Tillis said he expected a meeting between victims and Blanche to occur before he’s “willing to vote out of this committee.”

Tillis later Thursday commended Blanche for holding the meeting, writing in a social media post, “I appreciate his willingness to directly engage and listen to them.”

After missteps by then-Attorney General Pam Bondi that enraged Trump’s base, Blanche as deputy attorney general oversaw a massive review and the release of millions of files related to the investigation into Epstein. The case has captivated internet sleuths and conspiracy theorists for years, in part because of Epstein’s connections to other powerful individuals.

Blanche has also defended the department’s staggered release of the Epstein files, a process beset by problems, including redaction errors that left exposed nude photos showing the faces of potential victims.

Blanche said during his confirmation hearing Wednesday that he takes responsibility for mistakes that were made, but noted that department lawyers were given a “herculean task” to quickly review millions of files for release. Blanche said department lawyers took pains to protect the women involved, and quickly fixed any errors that were found.

“I am sorry that in about 1% of the documents mistakes were made,” Blanche said Wednesday. “But what I will say on top of that is we put tons of resources to rectifying those mistakes immediately, including pulling down documents within minutes of being informed that there were mistakes.”

NEW YORK (AP) — Drops for computer chipmakers and other winners of the artificial-intelligence boom dragged down stock markets worldwide on Thursday.

The S&P 500 fell 0.6%, even though more stocks rose within the index than fell. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 182 points, or 0.3%, with an hour remaining in trading, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.4% lower.

Seven out of every 10 stocks rose within the S&P 500 after more of the country’s biggest companies reported better earnings for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

Abbott jumped 10.2% after the healthcare company delivered a fatter profit than expected and raised its forecast for earnings over the full year. J.B. Hunt Transport Services climbed 7% after the freight company likewise topped analysts’ expectations for the latest quarter.

But a 1% move for Nvidia’s stock packs more punch on the S&P 500 than a 1% move for any other company because it’s the largest on Wall Street by value.

And Nvidia fell 2.5%, making it the heaviest weight on the index. Other AI winners also sank, giving back some of their stellar gains.

Micron Technology fell 6.3% to shave its gain for the year so far below 200%. Sandisk fell 12.8% but is nevertheless up 493% for the year so far. Western Digital sank 10.8% but is still up 166% for the year so far.

Such stocks have been under pressure for weeks because of worries that their prices shot too high and that voracious demand for computer memory and processors may not be sustainable if AI ends up not producing as much profit and productivity as promised.

The losses came even though Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., a bellwether of the chip industry, reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Its stock in Taiwan rose 1.2%, but its stock that trades in the United States fell 3%.

In South Korea, drops for AI winners like Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix dragged the Kospi index down 6.4%. It’s been among the world’s shakiest markets in recent weeks because of how dominant the two AI winners are in it.

The day before, the Kospi jumped 6.2%, but it’s had drops of 8.9%, 7.8% and 5.3% in the last two weeks.

A hike to interest rates by the Bank of Korea also weighed on stocks in Seoul, the first by the bank since 2023.

Higher interest rates can keep a lid on inflation, but they also slow the economy and hurt prices for all kinds of investments. And worries are rising that the Federal Reserve and other central banks around the world may have to raise rates to rein in the effects of expensive oil.

Oil prices are near their highest in a month because of worries that the war with Iran will keep oil tankers out of the Strait of Hormuz and prevent shipments of crude from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude briefly climbed above $86 per barrel in the morning but later erased the gain and fell back to settle at $84.23, down 0.8% from the day before.

In the bond market, the 10-year Treasury yield edged up to 4.56% from 4.55% late Wednesday and just 3.97% before the war with Iran began. Higher yields have already sent the average 30-year mortgage rate to its highest level in nearly a year.

Reports on the U.S. economy came in mixed, which added to the eddies swirling through the bond market. One report said shoppers spent less at U.S. retailers last month than economists expected. But after ignoring sales at gasoline stations, spending by U.S. consumers remained resilient.

A separate report said fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, an indication of a solid job market, while a third report said manufacturing in the mid-Atlantic region is better than economists expected.

In stock markets abroad, indexes fell across much of Europe and Asia, including drops of 1.8% in Shanghai and 2.8% in Tokyo.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was an outlier and rose 1.3%. Alibaba rose after China’s cyberspace regulator said Wednesday it had approved the Apple Intelligence AI tool for use in China. An Alibaba spokesperson said its Qwen model will be integrated into Apple Intelligence.

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AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump is set to address the nation Thursday at 9 p.m. ET on topics he said will include elections and voting machines, suggesting he could revisit long-debunked conspiracy theories about his 2020 defeat to Democrat Joe Biden. The speech comes as he’s escalated his calls for Republicans to pass tighter federal voting rules ahead of November’s midterm elections.

At Trump’s last primetime presidential address in April, he said the U.S. would accomplish its Iran war objectives “very shortly.” But days of back-and-forth attacks by the U.S. and Iran across the Middle East and in the Strait of Hormuz have shredded the interim deal to pause the fighting. U.S. strikes intensified early Thursday against a widening set of targets, including a ship it accused of breaking its blockade on Iranian ports. Iran retaliated by firing on U.S. allies in the region.

Here’s the latest:

US military launches another day of strikes on Iran

The U.S. military has begun a sixth day of strikes on Iran, a statement from U.S. Central Command announced Thursday.

The statement offered few details about what the military was targeting beyond the new wave being an effort to “further degrade Iranian military capabilities.”

However, U.S. strikes have been intensifying in recent days as the military has taken to hitting targets away from Iran’s coastal regions, including areas around Iran’s capital, Tehran, for the first time in this latest round of violence. American forces also fired into a ship it accused of trying to break its naval blockade on the Islamic Republic.

Iranian officials said Wednesday that U.S. strikes have killed more than 35 people and wounded more than 300 others.

Leavitt says ICE is still stopping vehicles after Trump opposed agents not doing so

“Vehicle stops are continuing. Verbal guidance has been given to all field offices across the country by the Department of Homeland Security,” Leavitt said.

She added that such stops “are a necessary tool that ICE agents need in order” to continue what she calls “their deportation campaign of the worst of the worst.”

Trump posted on his social media site on Wednesday that ICE agents should keep pulling over vehicles – just a day after officials said they’d be suspending most such stops.

ICE’s enforcement tactics are coming under renewed criticism after three people died during encounters with federal officers within a week.

Leavitt urges live coverage of Trump’s speech and suggests it’s still a work in progress

Under persistent questioning about the remarks set for 9 p.m. EDT, Leavitt said there’ve been discussions about Trump addressing a range of topics beyond the 2020 election, “and that could very well be possible tonight.”

“Again, this is all more reason for all of you to carry the speech live, and for the American people to tune in tonight so they can hear directly from the American president and draw their own conclusions,” she said.

It remains unclear how television networks will handle the speech.

Leavitt won’t say whether Trump will accept midterm results; Vance says administration will

Leavitt declined to answer when asked if Trump’s upcoming speech on “election integrity” meant the president might not be willing to accept the results of November’s midterms.

But Vance was far more definitive.

Asked by reporters on Capitol Hill on Wednesday about November, Vance said, “Of course we’re gonna support the results of the midterm elections.”

“We think we’re going to win. But ultimately that’s up to the American people,” the vice president said then. “But we also think we have to do everything that we can to discourage cheating.”

Trump and Vance have jointly pushed for approval of the Save Act, which is stalled in Congress. Even if it were to pass, however, the proposal wouldn’t affect the midterms.

Leavitt says Trump administration isn’t sending mixed signals on Iran

The press secretary was asked about Trump saying the U.S. couldn’t negotiate with Iran because they lie, even as Vice President JD Vance has expressed frustration about being criticized by hawkish elements while he’s sought to negotiate with Iran.

Leavitt said that was no contradiction, adding, “I can tell you the president and vice president are on the exact same page about where we are right now in this conflict.”

Pressed separately on Trump continuing to insist that the U.S. military wasn’t responsible for striking an Iranian girl’s school at the start of the war, Leavitt said, “That’s the president’s opinion” only, suggesting what he said wasn’t a fact.

She also said that, at the Defense Department, “the investigation continues” into the incident.

Leavitt says cuts at CDC and FDA haven’t affected response to parasite outbreak

Asked about a surge in infections from the diarrhea-causing parasite cyclospora, Leavitt said the administration is “closely monitoring the situation” and tracing the outbreak’s source.

States are reporting record numbers of cases of infections, and health officials have not yet definitively identified what’s causing the spike.

It comes after the administration made significant cuts to food safety programs at the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last year. Asked if those cuts have slowed the government’s response, Leavitt said no.

“We’ve talked to the CDC and FDA specifically about that, and not at all,” she said. “They have the resources they need to make sure that Americans are fully informed and protected from this illness during this time.”

Leavitt says White House staffer accused of profiting off position is on unpaid leave

Asked about reports that a teleprompter operator for Trump is accused of placing online bets using inside knowledge from his job, Leavitt said the employee has been put on unpaid leave.

“I’m aware of the report; the president is too. I spoke with him about it. He believes it’s deeply unfortunate and, frankly, a disgrace,” Leavitt said Thursday.

Leavitt said she does not know of other White House employees accused of similar allegations, adding that the White House has “extremely strict, ethical guidelines with respect to issues like this.”

Reports from ABC News and other outlets say Gabriel Perez, a technical assistant to the president, is in talks with federal regulators to settle allegations that he used inside knowledge from Trump’s speeches to win more than $100,000 on the predictions market Kalshi.

White House press secretary punts on who Trump wants to win the World Cup

Asked if Trump will be cheering for Argentina given the hard feelings he has toward Spain, Karoline Leavitt answered a reporter’s question with, “It’s a really good question.”

“And I’m disappointed in myself for not asking the president before I came out here, knowing you would probably ask,” she said at her briefing Thursday. “I haven’t talked to him about it. But we’ll get you an answer on that. You’re welcome to ask him yourself at some point before the game. I’m sure you’ll see him, and I’m sure he’ll have a fun answer for you on it.”

Leavitt teases Trump’s primetime address and World Cup visit

She kicked off the briefing with a scheduling update, highlighting Trump’s national address planned for Thursday evening.

“President Trump will deliver a major address to the nation on protecting the integrity of our elections. And we encourage every American to tune in,” Leavitt said.

She added that Trump will head to New York City on Friday for a FIFA reception at Trump Tower ahead of his appearance at the World Cup final between Spain and Argentina on Sunday.

Tech troubles before White House briefing

The White House planned to use TV screens ahead of the daily briefing, but technical issues got in the way, and the screens were removed before White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt came to the lectern.

An aide was working on a laptop to get the screens going before the briefing began and looked relatively stressed as the start of the briefing was delayed. Eventually, four aides — two of them on cellphones — tried to resolve the situation without success.

Eventually, the screens were removed from behind the lectern, and Leavitt appeared for her first briefing since giving birth and going on parental leave.

Leavitt holds her first briefing since returning from maternity leave

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is back at the briefing room podium on Thursday, the first time since she went on maternity leave earlier this year.

Leavitt last held a briefing on April 24 before taking leave and giving birth to a daughter on May 1. She returned to work at the White House in late June.

While she was away, the White House leaned on a rotating cast of cabinet members to fill in, including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Leavitt’s return comes ahead of a national address Trump is scheduled to deliver Thursday evening. The president has said he will discuss topics including elections and voting machines.

House Democratic leader says Trump is ‘conspirator in chief’ over election claims

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries said, “None of the things that Trump has said — or may say later on today — with respect to election interference have any merit.”

Ahead of Thursday’s speech, Jeffries was asked whether China may have interfered in U.S. elections. The Democratic leader said he drew from the work of the House Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, whose op-ed published Thursday in The New York Times restated the findings of U.S. intelligence after recent elections.

Himes wrote that U.S. intelligence said that there are “no indications that any foreign actor attempted to interfere in the 2020 U.S. elections by altering any technical aspect of the voting process.” Himes warned that Trump may try to cherry-pick unverified information and present it as explosive new theories of election wrongdoing.

Jeffries said Trump is “the one fanning the flames of conspiracy theories.”

Trump administration revives rule that may deny green cards to immigrants using public benefits

President Donald Trump’s administration is reviving a rule that could deny green cards to immigrants who use public benefits, including food stamps, Medicaid, housing vouchers and others.

The policy, known as “public charge,” appeared in the Federal Register on Thursday and will be formally published on July 20.

The policy was first implemented in February 2020 as one of Trump’s moves to limit legal immigration during his first administration. But it was reversed after Democratic President Joe Biden took office.

Its return comes when the Republican administration is implementing a hardline policy to curb both illegal and legal immigration, and when the cost of healthcare and food is rising.

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It’s unclear if TV networks plan to air Trump’s speech or to what extent

Messages to ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel and MS NOW asking about coverage plans weren’t returned.

Democrats warned that Trump was trying to revive false claims of past stolen elections in order to delegitimize the upcoming 2026 midterm elections, in which Trump’s Republican Party is facing headwinds.

US government designates 2 new Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations

They are the Juárez Cartel, on the border with Texas, and Los Viagras, a criminal group from the western state of Michoacán. The Federal Register, the U.S. government’s gazette, published the designation Thursday.

They joined six other Mexican criminal organizations the U.S. considers terrorist groups, including the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. Gangs in other Latin American countries, including Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador and El Salvador, also have been designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the Trump administration.

President Trump began to extend the terrorist label to Latin American cartels in February 2025 to allow U.S. authorities to take more aggressive action against them or against anyone the U.S. sees as aiding the groups.

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As Iran war expands, Rubio hosts world leaders for conference on ‘far-left political terrorism’

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio convened more than 60 governments to address what he described a growing increase of left wing violence around the globe. Rubio opened the conference by making sweeping statements about the issue and noting that the U.S. and most of the world has spent the last few decades focusing on Islamic terrorism.

“For far too long, however, our counterterrorism doctrine has had a blind spot, a blind spot when it comes to extremist violence from the political left,” he said.

Rubio added that the U.S. plans to make more terrorist designations against groups like antifa.

2 of 8 men charged in thwarted attack on UFC cage-fighting show at White House plead not guilty

Two of the eight men indicted on murder and terrorism conspiracy charges for their alleged roles in a thwarted drone and sniper attack on the UFC cage-fighting show at the White House last month pleaded not guilty Thursday.

Tycen Proper, 19, of Danville, Ohio, and Chandler Scaggs, 21, of Chapmanville, West Virginia, entered the pleas before U.S. District Court Judge Edmund Sargus Jr. in Columbus, Ohio. Each is charged, as are the six others, with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and conspiracy to commit murder on federal government territory and to murder a federal government official.

Sargus set their trial date for Sept. 14.

A message seeking comment was left with Proper’s attorney. Scaggs’ lawyer declined to comment.

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DHS finds itself back in the headlines after 3 fatal ICE encounters, in a test for Secretary Mullin

When Markwayne Mullin took over as Homeland Security secretary from fired Kristi Noem, he pledged to get the department responsible for carrying out the Trump administration’s mass deportations policy out of the headlines.

But just months into Mullin’s time in office, the department is squarely in the center of controversy again after three people were killed in encounters with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in the span of less than a week.

The events are the first major test for Mullin, who promised a steady hand for a department roiled by his predecessor’s conduct and the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

As he navigates the uptick in violence, he’s being forced into a balancing act that has him juggling pressures from a White House eager to carry out mass deportations and his former colleagues in Congress seeking answers — all while attempting to ease tensions in American cities over the deaths.

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After six years, Trump brings his election obsession to primetime at the White House

In the weeks after Trump lost to Joe Biden in 2020, the people Trump appointed to run the Department of Justice, cybersecurity agencies and intelligence departments all said the same thing — the election was fair, legitimate and free of major fraud or foreign interference.

In his second term, Trump has tried to use the levers of power to rewrite that well-settled history, something he’s expected to try again Thursday night with an address to the nation.

He’s already appointed loyalists who’ve echoed his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen and made clear he expects everyone to follow his lead.

In an indication of how fealty to Trump’s lies has become a litmus test for his administration, many of his nominees have steadfastly refused to directly answer the question of who won in 2020, preferring to tersely note that Biden became president.

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Trump is taking longer to approve disaster aid and denying Democratic states more frequently

When major disasters strike, Americans are routinely waiting weeks — or even months — to receive presidential approval for aid. And if they live in a state that didn’t support President Trump, chances are greater that aid will be denied.

Since taking office last year, Trump has approved about 65 requests for major disaster declarations and denied more than two dozen others from states, tribes or territories seeking federal financial assistance following hurricanes, tornadoes, storms, floods and fires.

Trump has taken longer on average to approve disaster requests than any other president, according to an Associated Press analysis of data dating back to 1989, when a federal law setting new parameters for disaster determinations was implemented. And no other president has such a disparity in denials between states that supported him politically and those that did not.

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Trump is expected to make election conspiracies a focus of his national address

President Donald Trump is set to address the nation Thursday night on topics he said will include elections and voting machines, suggesting he’s likely to revisit some of the unproven claims he’s previously made about Republican losses, particularly his own in 2020.

Trump’s fixation on his loss to Democrat Joe Biden six years ago and the long-debunked theories he’s circulated about it are something he still brings up regularly when discussing other subjects. But elevating the deeply political and conspiratorial topics to a presidential primetime address underscores the lengths to which Trump has used his second term to both blow past norms and fixate on old grievances.

Trump has offered only vague details about the address, scheduled for 9 p.m. When asked by a reporter Tuesday if it would concern “election machines and integrity,” Trump said it would “concern that subject” and “we’ll have a couple of other things to say also.”

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