House ending session early as Republicans clash over Epstein vote
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Mike Johnson is rebuffing pressure to act on the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, instead sending members home early for a month-long break from Washington after the week’s legislative agenda was upended by Republican members who are clamoring for a vote.
Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, said Tuesday morning that he wants to give the White House “space” to release the Epstein information on its own, despite the bipartisan push for legislation that aims to force the release of more documents.
“There’s no purpose for the Congress to push an administration to do something they’re already doing,” Johnson said at his weekly news conference, his last before lawmakers depart Washington on Wednesday for their traditional August recess.
The speaker’s stance did little to alleviate the intra-party turmoil unfolding on Capitol Hill as many of President Donald Trump’s supporters demand that the administration meet its promises to publicly release a full accounting of the sex trafficking investigation into Epstein, who killed himself in his New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial. Under pressure from right-wing online influencers, as well as voters back home, rank-and-file Republicans are demanding that the House intervene in the matter.
“The public’s not going to let this die, and rightfully so,” said Rep. Ralph Norman, a South Carolina Republican.
Trump rehashes years-old grievances on Russia investigation after new intelligence report
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump rehashed longstanding grievances over the Russia investigation that shadowed much of his first term, lashing out Tuesday following a new report from his intelligence director aimed at casting doubt on long-established findings about Moscow’s interference in the 2016 election.
“It’s time to go after people,” Trump said from the Oval Office as he repeated a baseless claim that former President Barack Obama and other officials had engaged in treason.
Trump was not making his claims for the first time, but he delivered them when administration officials are harnessing the machinery of the federal government to investigate the targets of Trump’s derision, including key officials responsible for scrutinizing Russia’s attempts to intervene on Trump’s behalf in 2016.
The backward-looking inquiries are taking place even as the Republican administration’s national security agencies are confronting global threats. But they have served as a rallying cry for Trump, who is trying to unify a political base at odds over the Jeffrey Epstein case, with some allies pressing to disclose more information despite the president’s push to turn the page.
Trump’s attack prompted a rare response from Obama’s post-presidential office.
Trump says Philippines will pay 19% tariffs in deal struck with leader Marcos
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said he has reached a trade agreement with Philippine leader Ferdinand Marcos Jr., following a meeting Tuesday at the White House, that will see the U.S. slightly drop its tariff rate for the Philippines without paying import taxes for what it sells there.
Trump revealed the broad terms of the agreement on his social media network and said the U.S. and the Philippines would work together militarily. The announcement of a loose framework of a deal comes as the two countries are seeking closer security and economic ties in the face of shifting geopolitics in the Indo-Pacific region.
Marcos’ government indicated ahead of the meeting that he was prepared to offer zero tariffs on some U.S. goods to strike a deal with Trump. The Philippine Embassy did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Marcos’ three-day visit to Washington shows the importance of the alliance between the treaty partners as China is increasingly assertive in the South China Sea, where Manila and Beijing have clashed over the hotly contested Scarborough Shoal.
Washington sees Beijing, the world’s No. 2 economy, as its biggest competitor, and consecutive presidential administrations have sought to shift U.S. military and economic focus to the Asia-Pacific in a bid to counter China. Trump, like others before him, has been distracted by efforts to broker peace in a range of conflicts, from Ukraine to Gaza.
Ozzy Osbourne, who led Black Sabbath and became the godfather of heavy metal, dies at 76
Ozzy Osbourne, the gloomy, demon-invoking lead singer of the pioneering band Black Sabbath who became the throaty, growling voice — and drug-and-alcohol ravaged id — of heavy metal, died Tuesday, just weeks after his farewell show. He was 76.
“It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning. He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time,” a family statement from Birmingham, England, said. In 2020, he revealed he had Parkinson’s disease after suffering a fall.
Either clad in black or bare-chested, the singer was often the target of parents’ groups for his imagery and once caused an uproar for biting the head off a bat. Later, he would reveal himself to be a doddering and sweet father on the reality TV show “The Osbournes.”
Black Sabbath’s 1969 self-titled debut LP has been likened to the Big Bang of heavy metal. It came during the height of the Vietnam War and crashed the hippie party, dripping menace and foreboding. The cover of the record was of a spooky figure against a stark landscape. The music was loud, dense and angry, and marked a shift in rock ‘n’ roll.
The band’s second album, “Paranoid,” included such classic metal tunes as “War Pigs,” “Iron Man” and “Fairies Wear Boots.” The song “Paranoid” only reached No. 61 on the Billboard Hot 100 but became in many ways the band’s signature song. Both albums were voted among the top 10 greatest heavy metal albums of all time by readers of Rolling Stone magazine.
Trump envoy Steve Witkoff to visit the Middle East in push for a ceasefire in Gaza
President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, was heading to the Middle East as the U.S. tries once again to reach a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, a breakthrough that has eluded the administration for months as conditions worsen in Gaza.
Tammy Bruce, the State Department spokesperson, told reporters Tuesday that Witkoff was going to the region with a “strong hope” that the U.S. can deliver a ceasefire deal as well as a new humanitarian corridor for aid distribution.
“I would suggest that we might have some good news, but, again, as we know, this could be a constantly changing dynamic,” Bruce said.
Bruce didn’t have other details about where Witkoff would be going or what he had planned. It comes as Gaza saw its deadliest day yet for aid-seekers in over 21 months of war, with at least 85 Palestinians killed while trying to reach food Sunday.
The Israeli army has said it fired warning shots, but says the reported death toll was greatly inflated. The United Nations’ food agency accused Israeli forces of firing on the crowd of Palestinians seeking humanitarian aid.
Trump administration withdraws from UNESCO again, only 2 years after US rejoined
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The Trump administration announced Tuesday that it will once again withdraw from the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO, an expected move that has the U.S. further retreating from international organizations.
The decision to pull U.S. funding and participation from UNESCO comes two years after the Biden administration rejoined following a controversial, five-year absence that began during President Donald Trump’s first term. The White House cited similar concerns as it did in 2018, saying it believes U.S. involvement is not in its national interest and accusing the agency of promoting anti-Israel speech.
The decision, which won’t go into effect until December 2026, will deal a blow to an agency known for preserving cultural heritage through its UNESCO World Heritage Sites program — which recognizes significant landmarks for protection, ranging from the Taj Mahal to Egypt’s pyramids of Giza and the Grand Canyon National Park. The agency also empowers education and science across the globe.
It is the Trump administration’s latest move to pull support for U.N. agencies under a larger campaign to reshape U.S. diplomacy. Under the “America First” approach, the administration has pulled out of the U.N. World Health Organization and the top U.N. human rights body, while reassessing its funding for others. This has left the U.N., which is in the process of its own massive overhaul, reevaluating core programs and initiatives and what the international body would look like without support from the U.S. — its largest donor.
State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement that the withdrawal was linked to UNESCO’s perceived agenda to “advance divisive social and cultural causes.”
Smoking or oxygen machine may have caused deadly fire at Massachusetts assisted-living home
FALL RIVER, Mass. (AP) — A fire that killed 10 people at a Massachusetts assisted-living facility was unintentionally caused by either someone smoking or an electrical issue with an oxygen machine, investigators said Tuesday.
The state’s deadliest blaze in more than four decades has highlighted the lack of regulations governing assisted-living facilities that often care for low-income or disabled residents. So far, investigators have remained mum on the possibility of criminal charges related to the fire at Gabriel House in Fall River, and declined to answer when asked during a Tuesday press conference.
The Massachusetts fire marshal, Jon Davine, said the presence of medical oxygen contributed to the fire’s spread on the night of July 13. The blaze left some residents of the three-story building hanging out windows and screaming for help.
“Please, there’s truly no safe way to smoke. But smoking is especially dangerous when home oxygen is in use,” Davine told reporters on Tuesday.
Investigators are still collecting evidence on numerous aspects of the case, including whether the facility’s sprinkler system worked as it should, said Thomas Quinn, the district attorney for Bristol County. He told reporters there was no sign that electrical outlets, lights, heaters or cooking appliances sparked the fire.
Trump likes renaming people, places and things. He’s not the first to deploy that perk of power
History, it has been said, is written by the winners. President Donald Trump is working that lever of power — again.
This time, he’s insisting that Washington’s NFL team change its name from the Commanders back to the Redskins, a name that was considered offensive to Native Americans. Predictably, to Trump’s stated delight, an internet uproar ensued.
It’s a return to the president’s favorite rebranding strategy, one well-used around the world and throughout history. Powers-that-be rename something — a body of water, a mountain in Alaska, St. Petersburg, Istanbul, Mumbai, various places in Israel after 1948 — in line with “current” political and cultural views. Using names to tell a leader’s own version of the nation’s story is a perk of power that Trump is far from the first to enjoy.
A name, after all, defines identity and even reality because it is connected to the verb “to be,” says one brand strategist.
“A parent naming a child, a founder naming a company, a president naming a place … in each example, we can see the relationship of power,” Shannon Murphy, who runs Nameistry, a naming agency that works with companies and entrepreneurs to develop brand identities, said in an email. “Naming gives you control.”
Hunter Biden lashes out at George Clooney, other Democrats, over Joe Biden’s 2024 campaign
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Joe Biden’s son Hunter, seen by some as the problem child of the Democratic Party for legal and drug-related woes that brought negative attention to his father, is lashing out against Democratic “elites” and others over the way he says his father was treated during last year’s presidential campaign.
Hunter Biden spoke publicly in recent interviews about last year’s election, when Joe Biden ultimately dropped his bid and Donald Trump won the White House. In a three-hour, expletive-filled online interview with Andrew Callaghan of Channel 5, he directed ire toward actor and Democratic Party donor George Clooney for his decision to call on the elder Biden to abandon his 2024 reelection bid.
He also ranted against longtime Democratic advisers he accused of making money off the party and trading off previous electoral successes, but not helping candidates’ current efforts.
The lengthy screed made plain the younger Biden’s feelings that his father was mistreated by those around him in the waning days of his candidacy and administration. He also laid bare critiques of the party’s operation and operatives that, he says, aren’t well-serving its opposition to Trump and the Republican Party.
Here’s a look at some of the moments in Hunter Biden’s interview:
What to know about soda sweeteners as sugar returns to American Coke
President Donald Trump teased the announcement last week, but the Coca-Cola Co. confirmed it Tuesday: a cane sugar-sweetened version of the beverage maker’s trademark soda will be released in the U.S. this fall.
For decades, Coke and the makers of other soft drinks have generally used high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners in their products manufactured in the U.S. But American consumers are increasingly looking for food and drinks with fewer and more natural ingredients, and beverage companies are responding.
PepsiCo and Dr Pepper have sold versions of their flagship sodas sweetened with cane sugar since 2009. Coca-Cola has sold Mexican Coke — which uses cane sugar — in the U.S. since 2005, but it’s positioned a trendy alternative and sold in glass bottles. Coke with cane sugar will likely be more widely available.
Here are some frequently asked questions about the sweeteners in U.S. sodas:
Many consumers know that consuming too many sweets can negatively affect their health, but soda drinkers sometimes debate if either cane sugar or high fructose corn syrup is better (or worse) than the other.
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