11 h. ago Senate holds vote marathon on amendments to Trump’s ‘one big beautiful bill’ – US politics live

Senators vote on potentially long list of amendments; White House confirms negotiations will restart after tech tax scrappedThom Tillis says he will not seek re-election after Trump clashNearly 300 current and recently terminated employees of the US Environmental Protection Agency published a declaration of dissent today, outlining five major concerns about how the Trump administration’s politicization of science and severe job cuts were undermining the agency’s mission.The declaration to administrator Lee Zeldin was sent as another expected round of staff reductions looms and as the agency undergoes a major reorganization, including the dissolution of its office of research and cancelling of billions of dollars in grants.Your decisions and actions will reverberate for generations to come. EPA under your leadership will not protect communities from hazardous chemicals and unsafe drinking water, but instead will increase risks to public health and safety. Continue reading...

Politics

12 h. ago Liz Kendall ignores call from Labour MP for welfare bill to be withdrawn – UK politics live

Andy McDonald says MPs are being asked to vote without vital evidence but work and pensions secretary says employment support programmes are being improvedThe Department for Work and Pensions has just published an analysis saying that, allowing for the concesssions announced last week, the welfare cuts will still push an extra 150,000 people into relative poverty.Here is the key chart from the document. Continue reading...

Economics

13 h. ago Senate kicks off final debate on Trump’s ‘one big beautiful bill’; US to restart Canada trade talks immediately – live

Senators will vote on potentially long list of amendments; White House confirms negotiations will restart after tech tax scrappedThom Tillis says he will not seek re-election after Trump clashNearly 300 current and recently terminated employees of the US Environmental Protection Agency published a declaration of dissent today, outlining five major concerns about how the Trump administration’s politicization of science and severe job cuts were undermining the agency’s mission.The declaration to administrator Lee Zeldin was sent as another expected round of staff reductions looms and as the agency undergoes a major reorganization, including the dissolution of its office of research and cancelling of billions of dollars in grants.Your decisions and actions will reverberate for generations to come. EPA under your leadership will not protect communities from hazardous chemicals and unsafe drinking water, but instead will increase risks to public health and safety. Continue reading...

Politics

14 h. ago Liz Kendall makes statement to MPs about welfare bill concessions – UK politics live

Work and pensions secretary speaks to parliament as No 10 disputes figures showing benefit cuts to push 150,000 more into povertyThe Department for Work and Pensions has just published an analysis saying that, allowing for the concesssions announced last week, the welfare cuts will still push an extra 150,000 people into relative poverty.Here is the key chart from the document. Continue reading...

Politics

15 h. ago Trump’s justice department issues directive to strip naturalized Americans of citizenship for civil offenses

Memo says those subjected to civil proceedings are not entitled to an attorney like they are in criminal casesUS politics live – latest updatesThe Trump administration has codified its efforts to strip some Americans of their US citizenship in a recently published justice department memo that directs attorneys to prioritize denaturalization for naturalized citizens who commit certain crimes.The memo, published on 11 June, calls on attorneys in the department to institute civil proceedings to revoke a person’s United States citizenship if an individual either “illegally procured” naturalization or procured naturalization by “concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation”. Continue reading...

Politics

15 h. ago Trump’s justice department issues directive to strip naturalized Americans of citizenship for criminal offenses

Memo says those subjected to civil proceedings are not entitled to an attorney like they are in criminal casesUS politics live – latest updatesThe Trump administration has codified its efforts to strip some Americans of their US citizenship in a recently published justice department memo that directs attorneys to prioritize denaturalization for naturalized citizens who commit certain crimes.The memo, published on 11 June, calls on attorneys in the department to institute civil proceedings to revoke a person’s United States citizenship if an individual either “illegally procured” naturalization or procured naturalization by “concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation”. Continue reading...

Politics

16 h. ago No 10 disputes figures showing benefit cuts to push 150,000 more into poverty – UK politics live

No 10 spokesperson says ‘poverty modelling is subject to uncertainty’ and cites investment in health and care systemThe Department for Work and Pensions has just published an analysis saying that, allowing for the concesssions announced last week, the welfare cuts will still push an extra 150,000 people into relative poverty.Here is the key chart from the document. Continue reading...

Politics

17 h. ago DWP says 150,000 more people pushed into poverty by benefit cuts, not 250,000 as forecast said before U

Analysis says, allowing for concessions to welfare bill announced last week, cuts will still push people into relative povertyThe Department for Work and Pensions has just published an analysis saying that, allowing for the concesssions announced last week, the welfare cuts will still push an extra 150,000 people into relative poverty.Here is the key chart from the document. Continue reading...

Politics

17 h. ago Judge grants Palestine Action urgent hearing to try to stop ban taking effect

Co-founder of protest group to be given opportunity to apply for ‘interim relief’ to prevent proscription orderUK politics live – latest updatesPalestine Action has been granted an urgent high court hearing on Friday to try to prevent a banning order against it from coming into effect.An order was laid before parliament on Monday that would proscribe the group as a terrorist organisation, making being a member of or inviting support for Palestine Action a criminal offence carrying a maximum sentence of 14 years in jail. Continue reading...

Events

20 h. ago BBC response to Bob Vylan’s IDF chants at Glastonbury ‘not good enough’, says minister

Jacqui Smith says live broadcast should have been pulled, but rapper stands by performance calling for ‘change in foreign policy’UK politics live – latest updatesOn-screen warnings issued by the BBC about discriminatory language during Bob Vylan’s Glastonbury set were “not good enough”, a minister has said.The BBC is facing questions after the musician Bobby Vylan – of the punk-rap duo Bob Vylan – led crowds at the festival’s West Holts stage in chants of “Free, free Palestine” and “Death, death to the IDF [Israel Defense Forces]” on Saturday. Continue reading...

Politics

21 h. ago Benefits rebellion LIVE: Liz Kendall to face MPs ahead of major PIP welfare vote

In a dramatic climbdown last week after a major revolt by over 100 Labour MPs, Keir Starmer agreed to protect all existing claimants from losing Personal Independence Payments

Politics

3 d. ago US supreme court rules key provision of Obamacare constitutional

Case challenged how members of an obscure but vital healthcare committee are appointedUS politics live – latest updatesThe US supreme court has ruled that a key provision of “Obamacare”, formally known as the Affordable Care Act, is constitutional. The case challenged how members of an obscure but vital healthcare committee are appointed.The committee, the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), is a panel of 16 volunteer health experts who determine which evidence-based preventive health services private insurance companies must cover without cost for patients. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago US attacks on Iran redraw calculus of use of force for allies and rivals around globe

Perceived readiness of US to employ force instead of negotiations could have knock-on effects around the worldUS politics live – latest updatesFor US allies and rivals around the world, Donald Trump’s strikes on Iran have redrawn the calculus of the White House’s readiness to use force in the kind of direct interventions that the president said he would make a thing of the past under his isolationist “America First” foreign policy.From Russia and China to Europe and across the global south, the president’s decision to launch the largest strategic bombing strike in US history indicates a White House that is ready to employ force abroad – but reluctantly and under the extremely temperamental and unpredictable leadership of the president. Continue reading...

Events

3 d. ago US supreme court limits federal judges’ power to block Trump orders

Ruling to limit nationwide injunctions could see president’s order to ban birthright citizenship partially implementedUS politics live – latest updatesThe US supreme court has supported Donald Trump’s attempt to limit federal judges’ power to block his orders on a nationwide basis, in a controversial ruling on an emergency appeal related to the birthright citizenship case that has wide implications for the executive branch’s power and which Trump claimed as a “giant win”.The decision represents a fundamental shift in how US federal courts can constrain presidential power. Previously, any of the country’s more than 1,000 judges in its 94 district courts – the lowest level of federal court, which handles trials and initial rulings – could issue nationwide injunctions that immediately halt government policies across all 50 states. Continue reading...

Events

3 d. ago Starmer says welfare concessions are ‘common sense’ but dodges funding question – UK politics live

No 10 has offered significant concessions to the rebels amid fears over Tuesday’s voteNo 10 climbs down over welfare billStephen Kinnock, the care minister, was the government voice on the airwaves this morning. Here are the main points he made about the welfare bill U-turn.Kinnock rejected claims that the U-turn was a sign of weakness. When it was put to him on the Today programme that this move, coming after the U-turns on winter fuel payments and a national inquiry into grooming gangs, showed that if Keir Starmer was pushed, he would give in, Kinnock replied:I think if you talk to people out there in the country, they respond very positively to politicians listening, engaging, recognising that you don’t get everything right from day one every time, and making the adjustments and the changes that are needed.And this prime minister will always put the country first. He puts country before party, and he does the right thing for the country.He defended having a “staggered” approach t...

Politics

3 d. ago Several key provisions in Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ must be reworked, says Senate parliamentarian – US politics live

Elizabeth MacDonough rejects several major provisions, leaving GOP leaders scrambling to try to save legislation before 4 July deadlineby Joseph Gedeon and Robert Tait in WashingtonRepublican and Democratic senators have offered starkly contrasting interpretations of Donald Trump’s bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities after a delayed behind-closed-doors intelligence briefing that the White House had earlier postponed amid accusations of leaks. Continue reading...

Politics

4 d. ago Republicans in turmoil after Senate parliamentarian rejects Medicaid cuts in Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’ – live

Some Republicans call for Elizabeth MacDonough, who enforces Senate rules, to be fired after she rejects slew of major provisions Supreme court paves way for states to defund Planned ParenthoodBy taking military action, Trump “created the conditions to end the war, decimating, obliterating Iran’s nuclear capabilities”, Hegseth says, contrary to early US intelligence findings reported yesterday that suggested US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites did not destroy two of the sites and only set program back by months.Hegseth starts off by praising Trump’s “game-changing” and “historic” achievement in getting most of the Nato allies to raise the defense spending to 5%. Continue reading...

Politics

4 d. ago UK politics: ‘Bungling Badenoch’ under fire after suggesting Starmer wrong to miss PMQs for Nato summit – as it happened

Liberal Democrats say Conservative leader focused on ‘cheap point scoring’ and her MPs are in ‘open revolt’In his final answer Starmer explained how he thought government and business should work together.A true partnership is not two people or two bodies trying to do the same thing. It’s two people or bodies realising they bring different things to the table.Government shouldn’t try to run businesses. It’s done that in the past and it doesn’t work particularly well. Continue reading...

Politics

4 d. ago ‘Bungling Badenoch’ under fire after suggesting Starmer wrong to miss PMQs for Nato summit – UK politics live

Liberal Democrats say Conservative leader focused on ‘cheap point scoring’ and her MPs are in ‘open revolt’In his final answer Starmer explained how he thought government and business should work together.A true partnership is not two people or two bodies trying to do the same thing. It’s two people or bodies realising they bring different things to the table.Government shouldn’t try to run businesses. It’s done that in the past and it doesn’t work particularly well. Continue reading...

Politics

4 d. ago Supreme court paves way for South Carolina and other states to defund Planned Parenthood

Decision could embolden red states in US to block clinics that provide abortions from receiving Medicaid fundsUS politics live – latest updatesThe US supreme court has paved the way for South Carolina to kick Planned Parenthood out of its Medicaid program over its status as an abortion provider, a decision that could embolden red states across the country to effectively “defund” the reproductive healthcare organization.The case, Medina v Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, centers around a 2018 executive order from South Carolina’s governor, Henry McMaster, that blocked clinics that provide abortions from receiving Medicaid reimbursements. “Payment of taxpayer funds to abortion clinics, for any purpose, results in the subsidy of abortion and the denial of the right to life,” McMaster said at the time, even though the reimbursements could not be used for abortions. Abortions are also now banned in South Carolina after six weeks of pregnancy.More details soon Continue reading...

Events