Author: Robert Jones

Seventeen Democratic officials accused President Donald Trump’s administration of unlawfully intimidating health care providers into stopping gender-affirming care for transgender youth in a lawsuit filed Friday.The complaint comes after a month in which at least eight major hospitals and hospital systems — all in states where the care is allowed under state law — announced they were stopping or restricting the care. The latest announcement came Thursday from UI Health in Chicago.Trump’s administration announced in July that it was sending subpoenas to providers and focusing on investigating them for fraud. It later boasted in a news release that hospitals are…

Facebook Tweet Email Link President Donald Trump has said that tariffs won’t lead to higher prices. But the United States economy seems to disagree: Inflation, which has remained fairly tame, is slowly creeping up because of tariffs. Trump’s latest round of higher taxes on imports, which goes into effect next week, will immediately make imported goods from impacted countries more expensive in the United States. And while businesses have tried to shoulder part of the cost, they now may be forced to pass along some of those expenses to consumers. That means higher prices for Americans. Here’s what could get…

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that the BRICS alliance does not respond to threats and does not target its efforts against other countries, following President Donald Trump’s announcement of new tariffs on several BRICS nations.”That is not the purpose of BRICS,” Peskov told Russian state news agency Tass.Peskov said the bloc, comprised of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, was founded to foster cooperation among emerging economies, not to confront or oppose other states.”The purpose of BRICS is to develop cooperation in areas of mutual interest for mutual benefit,” he added.Why It MattersCertain tariffs are set to go…

President Donald Trump on Friday said that he ordered two nuclear submarines “to be positioned in the appropriate regions” in response to warnings made to the United States this week by high-ranking Russian official Dmitry Medvedev.Medvedev in a social media post on Monday wrote that each new ultimatum that Trump makes about Russia to force an end to its war on Ukraine “is a threat and a step towards war.””Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with his own country,” Medvedev wrote on X that day.Trump earlier Monday had said he was cutting from 50 days to less than two weeks…

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes said Friday that the country’s top court will not yield to sanctions or foreign pressure over the trial of former President Jair Bolsonaro, which is expected to take place later this year.De Moraes, who is overseeing the criminal case against Bolsonaro, did not mention the United States or Donald Trump in his remarks, but tensions between the U.S. and Brazil escalated this week.On Wednesday, the U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions against De Moraes for alleged suppression of freedom of expression, and Trump signed an executive order imposing a 50%…

One of Donald Trump’s top trade advisers believes the president’s policies could earn him a nomination for the world’s most prestigious economics award.”A lot of people talk about Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize,” Peter Navarro, the White House Senior Counselor for Trade and Manufacturing, told Fox Business on Thursday morning.”I’m thinking that, since he’s basically taught the world trade economics, he might be up for the Nobel in economics.”Why It MattersAs Navarro noted, Trump has already been tapped to receive nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize, most recently by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Were Trump to receive…

NEW YORK (AP) — Democrats are launching a nationwide summer blitz designed to force vulnerable Republicans to defend President Donald Trump’s big tax breaks and spending cuts bill — especially Medicaid cuts that will leave millions of Americans without health care coverage.Republican leaders in Washington, meanwhile, have encouraged their members to promote more popular aspects of the bill during smaller controlled appearances where GOP officials are less likely to face difficult questions or protests.The Democratic National Committee’s “Organizing Summer” will feature events in all 50 states, beginning with Alaska, Texas, Colorado and California over the coming week. The party’s message…

Facebook Tweet Email Link If news about inflation, trade, the Federal Reserve and jobs has you confused and you’re not sure what to make of the US economy, don’t worry: You’re in good company. But this week offered a ton of information that provided a more focused — if not exactly crystal clear — picture of what’s happening with America’s economy. We got reports on inflation, gross domestic product, jobs and consumer sentiment, a Fed rate decision and a flurry of trade announcements, all of which removed varying degrees of uncertainty about where the economy has been heading. If you’re…

Former President Barack Obama would defeat President Donald Trump by a double-digit margin if both were eligible to run for a third term, according to a new hypothetical poll.Why It MattersThe polling could offer a view of Americans’ attitudes toward Obama and Trump, both of whom remain hugely influential in their parties and national politics despite both being barred constitutionally from future presidential bids.The survey comes at a time of ongoing debate over presidential term limits and feature both figures as hypothetical contenders in a race precluded by the 22nd Amendment.These results also speak to the highly polarized nature of…

Ghislaine Maxwell attends day 1 of the 4th Annual WIE Symposium at Center 548 on September 20, 2013 in New York City.Laura Cavanaugh | Getty ImagesGhislaine Maxwell, the sex offender accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein, has been moved from a low-security federal prison in Florida to a less restrictive federal lockup in Texas, her attorney confirmed to NBC News on Friday.Maxwell’s transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons minimum security camp in Bryan, Texas, came after two days of meetings she and her lawyer had last week in Tallahassee, Florida, with a top Justice Department official.Mawell’s lawyer did not explain why…