Trump news at a glance: president wants Murdoch deposed in Epstein libel case within two weeks
The US president sued the publication and its owner over a 17 July article asserting that Trump's name was on a 2003 birthday greeting for Jeffrey Epstein, who was later a convicted sex offender.
Trump's lawsuit called the alleged birthday greeting 'fake' and said the Journal published its article to harm the president's reputation. In a court filing on Monday, Trump's lawyers said Trump told Murdoch before the article was published that the letter referenced in the story was fake, and Murdoch told Trump he would 'take care of it'.
'Murdoch's direct involvement further underscores Defendants' actual malice,' Trump's lawyers wrote, referring to the legal standard Trump must clear to prevail in his lawsuit.
His lawyers asked US district judge Darrin Gayles in Miami to compel Murdoch, 94, to testify within 15 days. Dow Jones, the Journal's publisher, has previously said the paper stood by its reporting and would vigorously defend against the lawsuit.
Here are the key Trump stories of the day:
Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted sex trafficker and associate of Jeffrey Epstein, has requested that the US supreme court overturn her conviction, saying she was unjustly prosecuted.
Maxwell's submission to the supreme court comes days after she met justice department officials, as discussions began to see whether she would turn into a US government cooperator. Observers have suggested Maxwell may be able to expose new information about Epstein's sex trafficking and the wealthy individuals who may have also been involved. It is not clear if Maxwell will become a US government cooperator and what she may receive in return.
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Donald Trump told Israel to allow 'every ounce of food' into Gaza as he acknowledged for the first time that there is 'real starvation' in the region.
During a visit to Britain, the US president contradicted Benjamin Netanyahu after the Israeli prime minister claimed it was a 'bold-faced lie' to say Israel was causing hunger in Gaza.
Trump is under increasing pressure to intervene in the humanitarian crisis, with dozens of Palestinians having died of hunger in recent weeks in a crisis attributed by the UN and other humanitarian organisations to Israel's blockade of almost all aid into the territory.
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The US Department of Justice is facing a federal lawsuit for refusing to release a legal memorandum that reportedly cleared the way for Donald Trump's acceptance of a $400m luxury aircraft from Qatar's government.
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Donald Trump's strategy of imposing sweeping tariffs on America's main trading partners will face a major test in the US courts on Thursday, four days after the president hailed the 'powerful deal' reached with the EU and just hours before a new round of punishing import duties is set to come into effect.
Trump has underpinned his tariff policy with an emergency power that is now being challenged as unlawful in the federal courts. On Thursday the US court of appeals for the federal circuit will hear oral arguments in the case, VOS Selections v Trump.
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The French prime minister, François Bayrou, said the EU had capitulated to Donald Trump's threats of ever-increasing tariffs, as he labelled the framework deal struck in Scotland on Sunday as a 'dark day' for the EU.
'It is a dark day when an alliance of free peoples, brought together to affirm their common values and to defend their common interests, resigns itself to submission,' Bayrou wrote on X on Monday.
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Donald Trump's timeline for a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine has sped up, the president said while visiting Nato ally Great Britain on Monday.
'I'm going to make a new deadline of about 10, 10 or 12 days from today,' Trump said in response to a question while sitting with the British prime minister, Keir Starmer.
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The Trump administration must continue reimbursing Planned Parenthood clinics for Medicaid-funded services, a federal judge ruled on Monday, in an escalating legal war between the reproductive health giant and the White House over Republican efforts to 'defund' Planned Parenthood.
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The US cannot sell any Virginia-class nuclear submarines to Australia without doubling its production rate, because it is making too few for its own defence, the navy's nominee for chief of operations has told Congress.
Twenty-one Senate Democrats are demanding Donald Trump immediately cut funding to a controversial Gaza aid organization they say has resulted in the killings of more than 700 civilians seeking food and violated decades of humanitarian law.
Republican congresswoman Nancy Mace has claimed she cruises the web for videos of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents dragging people into custody, saying she 'can think of nothing more American'.
Catching up? Here's what happened 27 July 2025.
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Daily Mail
11 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Terrifying two-word text mother received just moments before her son mysteriously disappeared
A teen mysteriously disappeared while traveling with his cousins in Florida, just moments after he texted his mother, 'Mom help.' Giovanni Pelletier, 18, disappeared last Friday in the early hours of the morning while traveling on an interstate with his cousins in Englewood, a city about 45 minutes south of Sarasota, according to the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office. He was in the car with his cousins on his father's side when he 'suddenly began to act erratically before exiting the vehicle and walking away near SR70,' the sheriff's office said. The Charlotte County and Brevard County Sheriff's Offices have launched an investigation to locate the missing teen, but his family says they haven't heard from him since. Giovanni's phone and backpack were abandoned on the side of the highway, leaving his family with countless questions. His mom, Bridgette, 34, told People that she saw the chilling text messages when she woke up at around 6:20 am on Friday. Giovanni texted his mother twice, pleading for help, and tried to FaceTime and call her before 2 am. The teen had also texted his aunt and father, asking for help when his mom didn't reply. Bridgette told the publication that she also received a missed call from one of Giovanni's cousins, who was in the car with him when he vanished. 'He only called me that one time,' she said. 'And then no effort was made to communicate with me. No effort was made to come back to the house to let me know.' Bridgette told People that Giovanni is from North Carolina, but was visiting his dad's side of the family in Florida. His parents were never married, but he was born in Florida and lived there until he was four years old. When he turned 18, Bridgette said he wanted to get to know his father's family. 'He was craving the culture and the background from his dad's side of the family, and I couldn't give that to him,' she said. Bridgette added that there has been little communication with Giovanni's relatives and that they haven't helped them look for her son. After he disappeared, she said his paternal grandfather left her a message that there was an altercation on the side of the road between the cousins, and to 'let him know when I found Giovanni.' Bridgette said that one of Giovanni's cousins told her that they were smoking marijuana, and he started to panic. The cousin claimed Giovanni pulled out a knife on the side of the road, which Bridgette said was unlike her son. Giovanni's aunt, Desiree, shared on Facebook that he was with three boys when he disappeared, whom he had never met in person. Desiree posted a video on social media pleading for the public's help, and dismissing theories that her nephew was a runaway. Giovanni's family has launched a GoFundMe to raise money for a reward and resources for the search. 'Giovanni is smart, kind, and full of life. He didn't deserve this,' the description reads. 'Our family is devastated, terrified, and doing everything in our power to bring him home — but we're receiving very little help from officials, and we are being forced to search on our own.' According to a missing persons poster shared by his family, Giovanni was last seen driving in a white Chevrolet Malibu to Mims. He was wearing a Carhartt beanie, a white tank top, and black sweatpants. Giovanni is about 5'11 and weighs 140 lbs. The family is offering a reward for tips that lead to locating Giovanni. Anyone with information on Giovanni's whereabouts is asked to contact their local law enforcement agency, which will relay it to the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office. Daily Mail reached out to local law enforcement for an update on the case.
The Guardian
33 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Trump threatens to ‘federalize' DC after attack on Doge staffer
Donald Trump is threatening to strip Washington DC of its local governance and place the US capital under direct federal control, citing what he described as rampant youth crime following an alleged assault on a federal employee who worked for the so-called 'department of government efficiency' (Doge). In a post on his Truth Social platform, the president said he would 'federalize' the city if local authorities failed to address crime, specifically calling for minors as young as 14 to be prosecuted as adults. 'Crime in Washington, D.C., is totally out of control,' Trump wrote. 'If D.C. doesn't get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City, and run this City how it should be run.' The threat received backing from Elon Musk, after the billionaire described an incident in which a member of the Doge team was allegedly 'severely beaten to the point of concussion' while defending a woman from assault in the capital. 'A few days ago, a gang of about a dozen young men tried to assault a woman in her car at night in DC,' Musk posted on X. 'A @Doge team member saw what was happening, ran to defend her and was severely beaten to the point of concussion, but he saved her. It is time to federalize DC.' The victim was identified by friends and the police as Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old known as 'Big Balls', one of Doge's most recognizable staffers who joined Doge in January. He reportedly left in June, and is currently employed at the Social Security Administration. According to a police report obtained by Politico, Coristine was assaulted at approximately 3am on Sunday by about 10 juveniles near Dupont Circle. Police arrested two 15-year-olds from Maryland, a boy and a girl, as they attempted to flee the scene, and charged them with attempted carjacking. A black iPhone 16 valued at $1,000 was reported stolen during the incident. Trump's post, which included images of a bloodied and shirtless Coristine, concluded: 'If this continues, I am going to exert my powers, and FEDERALIZE this City. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!' Washington DC currently operates under 'home rule', established in 1973, which grants the city an elected mayor and council while maintaining ultimate congressional oversight. No president has attempted to revoke this arrangement since its creation. Trump's threat could theoretically take several forms. The constitution grants Congress broad authority over the federal district, though completely suspending local governance would probably require congressional legislation. Trump could also deploy federal law enforcement officers or national guard troops under executive authority, as he did during 2020 protests when federal forces cleared Lafayette Square outside the White House over local officials' objections. But fully stripping the city's home rule would probably face fierce Democratic opposition in Congress. Any such move would require congressional legislation that Democrats could block or attempt to challenge in federal courts. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion The president targeted DC's juvenile justice system specifically. 'The Law in D.C. must be changed to prosecute these 'minors' as adults, and lock them up for a long time, starting at age 14,' he wrote, referring to alleged attackers he described as 'local thugs' and putting the word 'youths' in quotation marks. Washington DC, with a population of about 700,000, has seen violent crime decline in the first half of 2025 compared with the previous year, and 2024 marked a 30-year low, according to a pre-Trump January report by the Department of Justice. The Democratic-controlled city has frequently clashed with Trump over federal interventions and has long sought statehood, which would grant it full self-governance and congressional representation – which Republican lawmakers have opposed. The office of the DC mayor, Muriel Bowser, declined a request for comment.
The Independent
41 minutes ago
- The Independent
Harvard scientists say research could be set back years after funding freeze
Harvard University professor Alberto Ascherio's research is literally frozen. Collected from millions of U.S. soldiers over two decades using millions of dollars from taxpayers, the epidemiology and nutrition scientist has blood samples stored in liquid nitrogen freezers within the university's T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The samples are key to his award-winning research, which seeks a cure to multiple sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases. But for months, Ascherio has been unable to work with the samples because he lost $7 million in federal research funding, a casualty of Harvard's fight with the Trump administration. 'It's like we have been creating a state-of-the-art telescope to explore the universe, and now we don't have money to launch it,' said Ascherio. 'We built everything and now we are ready to use it to make a new discovery that could impact millions of people in the world and then, 'Poof. You're being cut off.'' Researchers laid off and science shelved The loss of an estimated $2.6 billion in federal funding at Harvard has meant that some of the world's most prominent researchers are laying off young researchers. They are shelving years or even decades of research, into everything from opioid addiction to cancer. And despite Harvard's lawsuits against the administration, and settlement talks between the warring parties, researchers are confronting the fact that some of their work may never resume. The funding cuts are part of a monthslong battle that the Trump administration has waged against some the country's top universities including Columbia, Brown and Northwestern. The administration has taken a particularly aggressive stance against Harvard, freezing funding after the country's oldest university rejected a series of government demands issued by a federal antisemitism task force. The government had demanded sweeping changes at Harvard related to campus protests, academics and admissions — meant to address government accusations that the university had become a hotbed of liberalism and tolerated anti-Jewish harassment. Research jeopardized, even if court case prevails Harvard responded by filing a federal lawsuit, accusing the Trump administration of waging a retaliation campaign against the university. In the lawsuit, it laid out reforms it had taken to address antisemitism but also vowed not to 'surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights.' 'Make no mistake: Harvard rejects antisemitism and discrimination in all of its forms and is actively making structural reforms to eradicate antisemitism on campus," the university said in its legal complaint. 'But rather than engage with Harvard regarding those ongoing efforts, the Government announced a sweeping freeze of funding for medical, scientific, technological, and other research that has nothing at all to do with antisemitism.' The Trump administration denies the cuts were made in retaliation, saying the grants were under review even before the demands were sent in April. It argues the government has wide discretion to cancel federal contracts for policy reasons. The funding cuts have left Harvard's research community in a state of shock, feeling as if they are being unfairly targeted in a fight has nothing to do with them. Some have been forced to shutter labs or scramble to find non-government funding to replace lost money. In May, Harvard announced that it would put up at least $250 million of its own money to continue research efforts, but university President Alan Garber warned of 'difficult decisions and sacrifices' ahead. Ascherio said the university was able to pull together funding to pay his researchers' salaries until next June. But he's still been left without resources needed to fund critical research tasks, like lab work. Even a year's delay can put his research back five years, he said. Knowledge lost in funding freeze 'It's really devastating,' agreed Rita Hamad, the director of the Social Policies for Health Equity Research Center at Harvard, who had three multiyear grants totaling $10 million canceled by the Trump administration. The grants funded research into the impact of school segregation on heart health, how pandemic-era policies in over 250 counties affected mental health, and the role of neighborhood factors in dementia. At the School of Public Health, where Hamad is based, 190 grants have been terminated, affecting roughly 130 scientists. 'Just thinking about all the knowledge that's not going to be gained or that is going to be actively lost," Hamad said. She expects significant layoffs on her team if the funding freeze continues for a few more months. "It's all just a mixture of frustration and anger and sadness all the time, every day." John Quackenbush, a professor of computational biology and bioinformatics at the School of Public Health, has spent the past few months enduring cuts on multiple fronts. In April, a multimillion dollar grant was not renewed, jeopardizing a study into the role sex plays in disease. In May, he lost about $1.2 million in federal funding for in the coming year due to the Harvard freeze. Four departmental grants worth $24 million that funded training of doctoral students also were cancelled as part of the fight with the Trump administration, Quackenbush said. 'I'm in a position where I have to really think about, 'Can I revive this research?'' he said. 'Can I restart these programs even if Harvard and the Trump administration reached some kind of settlement? If they do reach a settlement, how quickly can the funding be turned back on? Can it be turned back on?' The researchers all agreed that the funding cuts have little or nothing to do with the university's fight against antisemitism. Some, however, argue changes at Harvard were long overdue and pressure from the Trump administration was necessary. Bertha Madras, a Harvard psychobiologist who lost funding to create a free, parent-focused training to prevent teen opioid overdose and drug use, said she's happy to see the culling of what she called 'politically motivated social science studies.' White House pressure a good thing? Madras said pressure from the White House has catalyzed much-needed reform at the university, where several programs of study have 'really gone off the wall in terms of being shaped by orthodoxy that is not representative of the country as a whole.' But Madras, who served on the President's Commission on Opioids during Trump's first term, said holding scientists' research funding hostage as a bargaining chip doesn't make sense. 'I don't know if reform would have happened without the president of the United States pointing the bony finger at Harvard," she said. 'But sacrificing science is problematic, and it's very worrisome because it is one of the major pillars of strength of the country.' Quackenbush and other Harvard researchers argue the cuts are part of a larger attack on science by the Trump administration that puts the country's reputation as the global research leader at risk. Support for students and post-doctoral fellows has been slashed, visas for foreign scholars threatened, and new guidelines and funding cuts at the NIH will make it much more difficult to get federal funding in the future, they said. It also will be difficult to replace federal funding with money from the private sector. 'We're all sort of moving toward this future in which this 80-year partnership between the government and the universities is going to be jeopardized,' Quackenbush said. 'We're going to face real challenges in continuing to lead the world in scientific excellence.'
