Democrats respond to FBI agreement to locate Texas lawmakers: ‘We will not be intimidated’
Democrats have responded to the news earlier that the FBI has agreed to assist local law enforcement to track down Democratic lawmakers who left the state to break quorum in protest of the state’s GOP-drawn congressional map.
It comes after Republican Senator John Cornyn’s statement earlier, praising FBI director Kash Patel for his support.
Hakeem Jeffries lambasted the move in a post on X.
“The Trump administration continues to weaponize law enforcement to target political adversaries,” the House minority leader wrote. “We will not be intimidated.”
Meanwhile, Illinois governor JB Pritzker underscored on a podcast on Wednesday that Texas lawmakers hadn’t broken any laws. He also said that any arrests by FBI agents would be “unwelcome” in his state.
“They’re grandstanding, there’s literally no federal law applicable to this situation,” he added.
Key events
As Trump’s latest tariffs snap into effect, countries scramble to respond
Lisa O’Carroll
More than 60 countries around the world are scrambling to respond to the latest wave of US tariffs announced by Donald Trump, which came into force on Thursday.
The Brazilian government said it was planning a state aid plan for companies affected. The president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said the duties were “unacceptable blackmail”.
Switzerland said it was seeking new talks with the US after a last-gasp mission to Washington by its president, Karin Keller-Sutter, failed to stop a 39% tariff blow that industry group Swissmem described as a “horror scenario”.
In a statement after an emergency meeting with Keller-Sutter, the Swiss cabinet said the tariffs would “place a substantial strain on Switzerland’s export-oriented economy”.
“For the affected sectors, companies and their employees, this is an extraordinarily difficult situation,” Keller-Sutter told reporters.
Despite a last minute reprieve from Trump for Lesotho with tariffs dropping from 50% to 15%, the impoverished African nation said it was already hurting.
Textile industry players in the country – which produces jeans and other garments for US companies including Levi and Walmart – said the uncertainty around tariffs over the past few months had already devastated the sector, with orders cancelled and jobs cut.
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Federal judge orders temporary halt to ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ construction
A federal judge in Miami has ordered a temporary halt to the construction of the detention centre being built in the Florida everglades – known as ‘Aligator Alcatraz’.
The temporary injunction, which lasts for 14 days, states that the facility can continue to operate and hold detainees, but any further construction must stop while any environmental threats to the wetlands are assessed.
The plaintiffs – which comprise environmental groups and Florida’s Miccosukee Tribe – argue that the detention center’s construction ultimately violates the National Environmental Policy Act.
US federal courts say they have been targeted by cyber-attacks
The federal judiciary said on Thursday that it would be taking “additional steps” to strengthen protections for sensitive case documents after “recent escalated cyber-attacks” on its case management system.
Politico first reported the news of a hack that hit the federal courts’ filing system.
“Enhancing the security of its systems is a top priority for the Judiciary,” the Federal Courts system wrote in a statement. They didn’t offer any immediate information about who was behind the cyber-attacks.
My colleagues are reporting on the latest developments following Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks that he intends to take military control of all of Gaza, before eventually handing it over to Arab forces that will govern it properly.
The Israeli prime minister’s statement comes after special envoy Steve Witkoff visited the region last week to assess the ongoing humanitarian crisis, increase the flow of US aid to Gaza.
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Democrats respond to FBI agreement to locate Texas lawmakers: ‘We will not be intimidated’
Democrats have responded to the news earlier that the FBI has agreed to assist local law enforcement to track down Democratic lawmakers who left the state to break quorum in protest of the state’s GOP-drawn congressional map.
It comes after Republican Senator John Cornyn’s statement earlier, praising FBI director Kash Patel for his support.
Hakeem Jeffries lambasted the move in a post on X.
“The Trump administration continues to weaponize law enforcement to target political adversaries,” the House minority leader wrote. “We will not be intimidated.”
Meanwhile, Illinois governor JB Pritzker underscored on a podcast on Wednesday that Texas lawmakers hadn’t broken any laws. He also said that any arrests by FBI agents would be “unwelcome” in his state.
“They’re grandstanding, there’s literally no federal law applicable to this situation,” he added.
Trump to announce Azerbaijan-Armenia peace deal on Friday – report
We’re getting word that Donald Trump will announce a peace deal between Azerbaijan and Armenia on Friday 8 August, according to reports from both Reuters and CBS News.
The respective leaders of both Azerbaijan and Armenia, Ilham Aliyev and Nikol Pashinyan, will attend events at the White House tomorrow, despite decades-long tension between the two countries.
Part of the peace deal would include rights for the US to develop a strategic transit corridor through the South Caucasus, officials told Reuters.
Tomorrow’s meeting comes as the president sets to position himself as a perpetual peacemaker, and will happen on the same day as Trump’s deadline for Russia to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine, or face fresh sanctions.
The White House says that the vice-president, JD Vance, will meet with the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, tomorrow, 8 August.
Vance and his family are currently on vacation in the Cotswolds. The vice-president plans to meet Lammy at his countryside residence, Chevening House, in Kent.
Suspect in shooting of Minnesota lawmakers pleads not guilty in federal court
The suspect in the assassination of Minnesota’s house speaker and her husband, and the attempted murder of a state senator and his wife, pleaded not guilty to numerous charges in federal court on Thursday, Reuters reports.
Vance Luther Boelter, 58, of Green Isle, Minnesota, led police on a two-day manhunt after the 14 June shootings in New Hope, Minnesota. He appeared before US magistrate judge Dulce Foster on Thursday and waived the reading of his six-count indictment, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.
He entered a plea of not guilty in the murders of speaker emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, and the shooting of state senator John Hoffman and his wife.
Boelter’s attorney, Manny Atwal, could not immediately be reached for comment. There was no immediate statement from acting US attorney for Minnesota, Joseph Thompson.
Thompson in a previous statement said Boelter planned and carried out the targeted political assassinations “the likes of which have never been seen in Minnesota”.
During the attacks at the homes of the two lawmakers, Boelter is accused of disguising himself as a police officer and wearing a silicone mask while driving an SUV with a license plate that simply read: “Police.”
Two of the federal charges carry the possibility of the death penalty. Prosecutors have not made a decision whether to pursue a capital sentence, which would require the approval of US attorney general Pam Bondi.
Boelter also faces state charges including two counts of second-degree intentional murder and two counts of second-degree attempted intentional murder. Boelter’s state case has been paused as his federal proceedings continue.
Trump calls for new US census that excludes undocumented immigrants
Joseph Gedeon
Donald Trump announced today that he’s ordered the commerce department to conduct a new census that would exclude undocumented immigrants from the official count.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the census would be “based on modern day facts and figures” and use “results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024”. He added that “people who are in our country illegally will not be counted”.
The US census has historically counted all residents regardless of citizenship or immigration status, as required by the 14th amendment’s “whole number of persons” provision. Trump’s directive contradicts this constitutional requirement despite there being no evidence of problems with the 2020 census.
The move would fulfil a longstanding rightwing talking point that undocumented immigrants should not influence congressional representation or electoral votes. Far-right figures have long claimed that states like California gain unfair political advantage by counting non-citizens. The political activist Charlie Kirk, for example, argued in 2020 that “California gets an extra 9 electoral votes because of counting illegals.”
Census data determines congressional representation, electoral college apportionment and the distribution of federal funding for schools, hospitals and other essential services. States with large non-citizen populations – particularly California, Texas, Florida and New York – could see their political influence and federal resources sharply reduced under Trump’s proposed changes.
Legal and immigration advocates have also long stressed that restricting the census to citizens could depress participation among legal immigrants, who are alreadyundercounted because they may be more reluctant to engage with government authorities.
US medical student suspended for Gaza remarks sues university for ‘intentional discrimination’
Timothy Pratt
Umaymah Mohammad, perhaps the only student in the US to be suspended from medical school for remarks about Israel and Gaza, has filed a federal lawsuit against Atlanta’s Emory University, alleging discrimination under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, as well as additional complaints under state law.
The lawsuit, filed on Monday morning in federal district court on Mohammad’s behalf by the Council on Islamic-American Relations in Georgia (Cair-Ga), centers on Emory’s alleged “intentional discrimination and retaliation” during disciplinary proceedings against the medical-sociology dual degree student last year. It names the university, its board of trustees and John William Eley, a dean at the medical school, as defendants.
It has been filed in pursuit of “accountability and justice … [and] has potential repercussions for how student activists have been treated over the last two years in this country”, said Azka Mahmood, executive director of Cair-Ga.
If successful, the lawsuit could lead to “stopping disciplinary proceedings for protected expression – and that this becomes more of a policy moving forward” – both at Emory and elsewhere, said Keon Grant, one of the Cair-Ga attorneys who filed the complaint.
The school declined to provide comment to the Guardian on pending litigation.
FBI fires two high-ranking officials – report
The FBI has fired two senior officials, according to a report from The New York Times.
Brian Driscoll, who served as interim director before Kash Patel was confirmed, and Walter Giardiana, who was involved in a number of FBI investigations related to the president, have both been forced out per The Times’ sources.
Driscoll’s removal was not immediately clear, according to The Times. But the Times also reports that neither Driscoll nor Giardina is eligible to retire, and Giardina’s wife died last month of cancer.
Trump to sign order forcing universities to hand over admissions data – report
The president is expected to sign a memorandum today, ordering universities to hand over their admissions data to the federal government, in order to prove they aren’t engaging in affirmative action and secure funding, according to a report by The Daily Caller.
According to fact sheet obtained by The Daily Caller, the order will also direct the secretary of education Linda McMahon to expand the type of data that universities need to submit to the administration in order “to fully asses their practices”.
In 2023, the US supreme court effectively ended affirmative action, when it ruled against the use of race in college admissions at universities and colleges across the country.
Indiana state representative Matt Pierce, a Democrat, said in an interview with CNN today that Democrats in the state will “use every procedural manoeuvre available” to push back against redistricting efforts. “We have to have a national fight about this, and we have to preserve democracy. We shouldn’t be rigging the election for one way or the other,” Pierce added.
This comes as vice-president JD Vance meets with Indiana governor Mike Braun and state Republicans to apply pressure on them to redraw the states congressional map – as a redistricting battle plays out across the country.
In order to redraw Indiana’s map, Braun would need to call a special session of the state legislature. My colleague, Sam Levine, notes that the GOP already has control over seven of Indiana’s nine congressional seats, but Republicans also have complete control of state government, which would allow them to redraw the map to pick up more seats.
Oliver Milman
Across the US’s fabled but overstretched national parks, unusual scenes are playing out this summer – following budget cuts by Donald Trump’s administration.
Archeologists are staffing ticket booths, ecologists are covering visitor centers and the superintendents of parks are even cleaning the toilets.
The National Park Service (NPS), responsible for maintaining cherished wildernesses and sites of cultural importance from Yellowstone to the Statue of Liberty, has lost a quarter of its permanent staff since Trump took office in January, with the administration seeking to gut the service’s budget by a third.
But the administration has also ordered parks to remain open and accessible to the public, meaning the NPS has had to scramble remaining staff into public-facing roles to maintain appearances to the crowds of visitors. This has meant much of the behind-the-scenes work to protect endangered species, battle invasive plants, fix crumbling infrastructure or plan for the future needs of the US’s trove of natural wonders has been jettisoned.
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Senator Cornyn says FBI grants request to locate state lawmakers
Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas said today that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has approved his request for the agency to help locate and arrest Democratic state lawmakers, who left the state last week to break quorum in protest over a GOP-drawn congressional map.
“I thank President Trump and Director Patel for supporting and swiftly acting on my call for the federal government to hold these supposed lawmakers accountable for fleeing Texas. We cannot allow these rogue legislators to avoid their constitutional responsibilities,” Cornyn said in a statement. The FBI declined the Guardian’s request for comment.
Cornyn wrote a letter to FBI director Kash Patel earlier this week, imploring him to help round up and arrest the state legislators – many of whom are waiting out the remainder of Texas’ special session in blue states.
