UK News
JD Vance says Trump ‘pushing forward’ with Golden Dome as he addresses Air Force Academy – US politics live | US politics
Support for the military is why Trump ‘is insistent on increasing defense budget to $1.5tn’, says JD Vance
Vance also brought up Trump’s golden dome during his speech.
You should expect some things out of your civilian leadership, out of the president, the Vice president, the Secretary of war. This is why we’ve pushed forward with Agenda 47 and the Golden Dome, and any number of new and advanced technologies. It’s why the president has made improving military quality of life such a central focus, why he’s insistent on increasing the defense budget to $1.5 trillion, and why he’s proud to support pay raises, new barracks, new hospitals and new schools on base.
Key events
George Chidi
An anti-crime taskforce ordered by Donald Trump on to the streets of Memphis has been accused of targeting community observers with widespread intimidation including “immense force”.
Agents have been “retaliating against, intimidating, and harassing” observers attempting to monitor the federal taskforce’s activity, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Tennessee, which alleges that officials have tailed cars, surveilled homes and even “falsely arrested” a community observer.
The ACLU filed a lawsuit this month against Tennessee state and federal officials administering the anti-crime initiative.
Additional declarations filed on Thursday by six community observers detail “cowboy tactics” they say have been used in recent months, from bumper-riding their cars in unmarked vehicles and pretextual traffic stops to an arbitrary arrest.
The taskforce was launched last September by Tennessee’s Republican governor, Bill Lee, following an executive order by Trump, who cited the persistently high rate of violent crime in Memphis. Lee promptly activated the national guard and flooded his state’s second-largest city with more than 2,000 state and federal police officers.
Wendy Frew
US vice-president JD Vance on Thursday told reporters that Washington was “not there yet” with Iran but he said the parties were close, adding that the US was in a position where it could substantially set back Tehran’s nuclear program.
Earlier, Iran’s Tasnim news agency, citing a source close to the negotiating team, said the text of a potential memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the two countries had not yet been finalised or confirmed.
Donald Trump has circulated a draft peace agreement for the war with Iran among allies including Israel as both sides try to prevent fresh breaches of the ceasefire escalating out of control and scuppering any deal.
The US vice-president told reportersthere were a couple of sticking points in talks with Tehran about its enriched uranium stockpile and the question of enrichment.
“It’s hard to say exactly when or if the president is going to sign the MOU. We’re going back and forth on a couple of language points,” Vance said.
“I can’t guarantee that we’re going to get there, but right now I feel pretty good about it,” he said.
Anti-ICE protesters, including Afghanistan War veteran, found guilty of conspiracy to ‘impede or injure a federal officer’
A jury in Spokane, Washington found an Afghanistan War veteran and two others guilty of federal conspiracy charges on Thursday for their part in a protest last June outside the city’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility.
The US military veteran, Bajun Mavalwalla, told the Guardian in March that he had refused to plead guilty and was ready to face justice.
The right to protest is “supposed to be fundamentally American”, he said.
“It’s among the rights that when I joined the military, I thought I was joining to protect,” he said. “You can’t do it violently. You can’t do it in a way that harms other people, but you have a right to stand up for what you believe in.”
Mavalwalla, 36, now faces six years in prison, three years supervised release and a $250,000 fine for conspiring to “impede or injure a federal officer” when he joined other demonstrators who sought to block the transport of two Venezuelan immigrants who had been arrested by ICE at a routine immigration hearing in Spokane in June 2025.
Young MC, the Commodores, C+C Music Factory and Milli Vanilli follow Morris Day in saying they will not play in Trump’s Freedom 250 bash
At least five of the nine featured musical acts recruited to play on the National Mall in Washington DC this summer, in a concert series planned by the Trump administration to mark the nation’s 250th anniversary, have dropped out of the concert series, just one day after the lineup was announced.
The first to drop out, hours after the announcement, was Morris Day, who called his scheduled participation a baseless “rumor”.
Later on Wednesday, Young MC posted a message that began: “I have informed my agents that I will not be performing at the Freedom 250 event”.
“The artists were never told about any political involvement with the event,” he added, before casting doubt on the claim from the Trump-appointed organizer that the series was nonpartisan.
So far on Thursday, the Commodores, C+C Music Factory and Milli Vanilli have all either dropped out or expressed surprise that they were ever booked.
“The Commodores will not be performing”, the group said in a statement. “Our music has always been our voice and we choose not to publicly affiliate with any single political party.”
Freedom Williams, C + C Music Factory’s lead rapper, said in a video statement apparently recorded in a bathroom that he had been blindsided by texts from friends and fellow celebrities horrified that he was “doing the Trump Freedom show” and “fucking with Trump”.
“I’m like, ‘What? What are you talking about?’” Williams said he replied to people “I’ve know for years, who know I don’t fuck with Trump”.
“I’m God Cipher Divine, I know where I stand. I know who the fuck I am,” he added, before explaining that his agent had not mentioned any connection with Donald Trump when he pitched the show.
After going online to research the series on Wednesday, Williams said, he told his agent he was out.
Williams went on to attack Trump, saying, as a New Yorker, “I know the type of fucking anarchy he creates” and singled out the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis by an ICE officer. But Williams reserved his most intense anger for Democrats who threatened to cancel him if he did not drop out of the series. He went on to also attack Barack Obama and covid vaccines, before suggesting that he might still change his mind and perform with the “Maga crew” out of spite, even though the event was in honor of “250 years of motherfucking capitalism and death; it’s 250 years of straight murder.”
Milli Vanilli singer Jodie Rocco told the Associated Press that no one had even asked her or her sister Linda Rocco or anyone else in the current group to perform. “My sister and I were shocked to see our name, ‘Milli Vanilli’, as one of the performers”, Rocco wrote to the AP in an email.
The poster for the Freedom 250 series included an image of Milli Vanilli’s former frontman, Fab Morvan, who just lip-synched the band’s hits and has been performing apart from the group.
At least one of the featured performers, Vanilla Ice, said in an Instagram video that he was still in. “I’m super honored to do this concert with everybody”, he said, on the apparent assumption that he will not, in the end, be performing alone. The rapper has performed at multiple New Year’s Eve shows at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago beach club.
Last December, as the deadly immigration crackdown by federal ICE agents ramped up, the two leaders of the effort, Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem, were filmed singing along with the rapper to his hit 1990 “Ice, Ice Baby.”
New Jersey health inspector denied full access to Delaney Hall immigration detention center in Newark, governor says
New Jersey’s governor, Mikie Sherrill, said that state health inspectors were denied full access to the privately run Delaney Hall immigration detention center in Newark, where detainees are staging a hunger and labor strike over health and sanitary conditions, and protesters rallying outside have been tased, pepper-sprayed and detained.
“The New Jersey Department of Health today sought to conduct a health inspection of Delaney Hall, but it was denied full access and was allowed to inspect only a limited part of the facility,” Sherrill, a Democrat elected last year in a landslide said.
“As I’ve said repeatedly, refusing to provide full access raises serious questions about what ICE is trying to hide from public view,” she continued. “New Jersey believes in the rule of law, will uphold the Constitution, and Delaney Hall should be closed down. I am calling for ICE to immediately de-escalate the situation as I continue working to keep New Jersey residents safe.”
The Department of Homeland Security tried to push back on reports, like one this week from our Guardian colleagues José Olivares and Julius Constantine Motal, that document complaints from 300-400 Delaney Hall strikers over inedible food containing worms, a lack of air conditioning and proper ventilation, a persistent flu and other viruses spreading throughout the facility, delayed medical care and lags in their immigration cases.
In privately-run ICE detention centers nationwide, detainees perform cooking, cleaning and laundry work, getting paid as little as $1 an hour.
In response to reports about harsh conditions at the center, Markwayne Mullin, the DHS secretary, recorded a social media video in which he scoffed at the concerns of Democratic elected officials, including the governor and senator Andy Kim, who was pepper-sprayed by masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel outside the facility this week.
In the video, Mullin claimed that the detentions were necessary because of the alleged violent crimes committed by a list of eight foreign nationals the department has arrested “recently”.
The secretary appeared to have some trouble making it through his prepared text in the video, however. There were 21 edits in the first 35 seconds of the published video, to cover apparent flubs in delivery, and Mullin so badly mispronounced the name of one country he said a detained man came from, “Wallamala”, that it was only possible to parse his meaning by consulting the on-screen text, which read: Guatemala.
Hakeem Jeffries, the top US House Democrat, has said a $250 bill with the president’s portrait is a “hard no,” on a post on X. He said:
Get over yourself. The upcoming July 4th anniversary is not about a wannabe King. It’s about celebrating the American journey.
Here’s a recap of the day so far:
-
Trump shared a draft Iran peace deal with Israel and other allies. Trump circulated a draft peace agreement for his war with Iran among allies including Israel, as both sides try to prevent fresh breaches of the ceasefire escalating out of control and scuppering any deal.
-
The Bureau of Economic Analysis released the latest Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index, excluding food and energy. The PCE price index rose in April at an annual rate of 3.8% – that is an increase from 3.5% in March and 2.8% in February.
-
Support for the military is why Trump “is insistent on increasing defense budget to $1.5tn”, says JD Vance during his commencement address at the US Air Force Academy. Vance also brought up Trump’s golden dome and the use of AI in warfare, during his speech.
-
Scott Bessent held White House press briefing in which he said “I don’t think there’s anything untoward about having the president’s face on the 250th anniversary bill.”
-
Trump refiles $10bn defamation suit against Wall Street Journal over its reporting on his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. A judge threw out an earlier version of the suit over legal deficiencies. The lawsuit is one of several that the president has brought in his personal capacity against news organizations.
Political appointees at the Treasury Department told staff at the agency’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing to prepare prototypes of the $250 bill with the president’s portrait, according to current and former employees of the Department, the Washington Post reported Thursday.
At a press briefing Thursday afternoon, Treasure Secretary Scott Bessent said legislation would have to be passed by the Senate, to produce the bill because “no living person can be on US currency,” according to law.
If the proposed legislation is passed, this would be the first appearance of a living person on a US currency in over 150 years.
Bessent said the decision with the $250 bill is not up to the president or the Treasury Department, in fact, “it’s all up on Capitol Hill.”
The Department does “prepare for everything if it gets passed,” he said.
Meanwhile, the US Mint said that Trump’s gold coins won’t be ready before celebrations of the 250th anniversary begin, The Hill reported. The Mint is still designing the coin, and there is no official sell date yet.
The AI executive order that Trump almost signed last week called for AI companies to voluntarily consult with the US government regarding their latest models, reported Politico Thursday.
Companies would allow the federal government to preview the models before they are launched.
Since the delay in signing the order, three camps have formed in the White House about how to regulate AI.
The first favors less regulations to help the industry compete with China – this includes AI leader David Sacks. It was Sacks who urged the president to delay the order last week.
The second camp want there to be more barriers to Mythos-type models – they are concerned that the technology could be used by China. This camp includes Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his undersecretary Emil Michael.
The third camp including chief of staff Susie Wiles and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent are standing in the middle ground, they want the AI companies to voluntarily provide the government a glance at their new models, according to the Politico’s reporting.
When asked about California governor Gavin Newsom’s 100% tax on money from Trump’s anti-weaponization fund, Bessent said: “There’s no cure for stupid.”
That ended this week’s press briefing.
On sanctions on Russia, Bessent said that Biden’s sanctions on the country were “mild” and that “no one has done more sanctions that the Trump administration on Russian oil.”
‘I don’t think there’s anything untoward about having the president’s face on the 250th anniversary bill,’ says Scott Bessent
When asked for a third time about Trump’s face on the $250 bill, Bessent said “we prepare for everything if it gets passed,” but added that the decision is up to House and Senate, not the treasury department. He added:
I don’t think that there’s anything untoward about having the President of the United States’ face on the 250th anniversary bill.
When asked about an update on an investigation about who is funding Antifa, Bessent said significant progress has been made and there’s going to be a lot to report in the coming weeks and months.
On sanctions on the Cuban government, Bessent said the answer lies with the Cuban government.
That’s going to be up to the Cuban government. They can go up, they can go down. We tried to get humanitarian aid in and the regime rejected because they wanted to go through their corrupt system, so they could go up, they could go down.
On the skirmishes and ceasefire violation that have been ongoing this week, Bessent said “President Trump always prefers a peace deal, so everything we have done thus far has been defensive, and at present that is what we will continue doing.”
He said: “We can’t talk about reconstruction in Iran until we reach a peace deal.”
On rising oil prices, Bessent said these are short-term challenges and oil prices have already come down “substantially.”
Bessent said the Trump administration inherited “the worst budget deficit in history, when we were not in a recession or not at war”. He said it was at 6.7% and this administration brought that down to about 5.5% or 5.4% this year.
On the peace deal with Iran, Bessent said “it’s always a mistake to get out ahead of the president, so it is all going to be the president’s decision.” He said as he understand there could be no deal without Iran giving up its highly enriched uranium and nuclear program, and that is what the president is working towards.
The family of Shaun Burton, say they are “devastated” by the loss.
Source link
Key events
In the opening half an hour against Cape Verde, Mikel Oyarzabal, the centre-forward, did not get a single touch.
Kyle Green gets in touch: “Your highlighting of Lalas and his absurdity is something that has prevented me from wanting to watch the coverage on Fox. While every channel has its pros and cons I just can’t.
“I’m 45 and probably the youngest of anyone who remembers him as a player instead of an opinionated insert insult here. As for the match this could be more competitive than it looks on paper Spain need a win the pressure is on them. Saudi Arabia could hold out for a draw and see what happens in their last match. “
News from the England camp, and it seems to be good news on Declan Rice.
“I’m ready and fit, raring to go. I was feeling a little bit of neural pain in my hamstring, which I was managing from after Christmas with Arsenal for a very long time. Obviously, not a lot of people would have known that. It was all behind-the-scenes stuff but it was a smart decision.
“In the end, that last 20 minutes is probably where you pick up the most, and it’s where you play a 70-minute match. But that last 20 is where you really feel your body going for it. And I think it was a smart decision because the last few days I felt really, really good.”
Alex Reid has penned today’s weekend special Football Daily.
Portugal v Uzbekistan on Tuesday enticingly pits the incredibly nice, incredibly 41-year-old-superstar-tolerant Roberto Martínez against Fabio Cannavaro, who’s won a Ballon d’Or as a player and the Chinese Super League as a coach. While the fixture following that game really does see the dream of Thomas Tuchel – in his first international job with England – taking on Queiroz, who is in charge of his ninth national side with Ghana.
The expected formations are 4-2-3-1 for Spain, and 5-3-2 for the Saudi Arabians.
The Saudi team features two Donis changes: Ali Lajami, a defender, and Nasser Al Dawsari, a midfielder, are preferred to Mohammed Abu Al Shamat and Mohamed Kanno. You may recall Salem Al Dawsari, the Saudi captain, as the man who scored the winner against Argentina.
An entertaining read, even for those of us who have just seen the clips.
In a conversation where his co-panelist is casually reminiscing about his days playing alongside Messi or exchanging shirts with Ronaldo Nazário at the World Cup, what exactly is Lalas going to talk about – coming on as a second-half substitute for Earnie Stewart in a friendly against Scotland in 1998? Helping the Kansas City Wizards finish last in the 1999 MLS Western Conference? Did Lalas enjoy an elite playing career? No. But does he do the background reading that could compensate for his relative lack of standing in a conversation with titans like Henry and Zlatan? Also no. But is he charming or funny or charismatic or otherwise magnetic on screen? Eh, no.
For the record, I once interviewed Alexi Lalas on the challenge of playing against Romario in the 1994 World Cup. He had this to say:
“He could kill you in so many different ways. If you remember from that World Cup, he scored so many types of goals. That ranged from solo adventures to an outside-of-the-right-foot half-volley off a corner kick. Romario was both the most difficult to play against and the best that I have faced.
“Roberto Baggio was doing his thing, but in terms of consistency and living up to the hype, he [Romario] was the best. As with all stars, there was a moment when the fans sit up in their seats, and that was a feeling I got with Romario. When it got close to him and the potential for his involvement in a play was there, everybody sat up in their seat. They knew that something spectacular would be happening.”
Saturday’s match reports here.
The Saudi Arabia coach, and Blackburn legend, Georgios Donis, spoke about the challenges facing his team: “Spain is not the same team when Yamal or Williams are on the bench.
“While they still have plenty of possession, they lack the individual one-on-one penetration when these two are missing. I’m not saying it’s a problem for Spain, but when those players are missing, they play in a different way. We saw this very clearly against Cape Verde.
“We are playing against one of the best teams in the world, and it’s very important that when you play against these kinds of teams, you should enjoy the experience and respect the opponent, but not too much.
“It is very hard for any team playing against Spain to have any time in possession. So what we must do is to be more in control of our movement and compact, and when the ball goes through the lines, be able to defend dynamically.
“It’s nice to see miracles in football, and we’ve seen favourites losing against underdogs. Of course, it’s great for Saudi football to have a great memory of the result against Argentina, but we aren’t drawing anything from that.
“I think we’ll feel more pressure in that [Cape Verde] game than we will against Spain.”
The Spain coach, Luis De La Fuente had this to say in his Saturday press conference: “This generation of footballers is highly competitive and really fired up… It’s going to be a completely different story,” he said at his pre-match press conference on Saturday. There is no drama or crisis. The bottom line is simply that we need to win tomorrow.”
Four changes for Spain: Lamine Yamal, Pedro Porro, Dani Olmo and Alex Baena also come into the side with Marcos Llorente, Fabian Ruiz, Ferran Torres and Gavi dropping out.
The teams – Lamine Yamal starts
Spain: Simon, Porro, Cubarsi, Laporte, Cucurella, Gonzalez, Rodri, Yamal, Olmo, Baena, Oyarzabal. Subs: Raya, Joan Garcia, Pubill, Grimaldo, Eric Garcia, Llorente, Merino, Torres, Fabian, Gavi, Pino, Williams, Zubimendi, Munoz, Iglesias.
Saudi Arabia: Al Owais, Abdulhamid, Tambakti, Lajami, Al Amri, Al Harbi, Nasser Al Dawsari, Al Khaibari, Al Juwayr, Al Buraikan, Salem Al Dawsari. Subs: Al Aqidi, Al Kassar, Majrashi, Yahya, Al Shehri, Al Boushal, Kadesh, Al Johani, Al Ghannam, Al Hajji, Al Hamdan, Mandash, Kanno, Thakri, Abu Al Shamat.
Referee: Raphael Claus (Brazil)
Perhaps one of the Saudi -players can write themselves into this high-grade selection?
Perhaps it can be their goalkeeper.
Madrid screening of Spain v Saudi Arabia cancelled due to heat
The public screening of Spain’s World Cup match against Saudi Arabia in Madrid on Sunday has been cancelled because of extreme heat forecast for the Spanish capital, officials said.
The match, due to kick off at 6pm local time on Sunday, had been scheduled to be shown on a giant screen installed by the Spanish football federation (RFEF) at a fan zone in Plaza de Colón in central Madrid.
Madrid city council and the federation decided to cancel the screening after national weather agency AEMET issued an orange heat warning – the second-highest level – for the Madrid region, with temperatures forecast to reach 40C.
“The decision has been taken with the aim of protecting the health of attendees, event staff and support services involved in the event,” Madrid city hall said in a statement, apologising for any inconvenience.
Officials urged supporters to watch the match indoors in air-conditioned spaces and avoid prolonged exposure to the heat.
Large parts of Spain are experiencing unusually high temperatures for June as a mass of hot air from North Africa moves across the Iberian Peninsula.
A total of 13 of Spain’s 17 regions are on orange alert for heat on Sunday, while the northern Basque Country bordering France is on red alert, the highest level.
Authorities advised residents and visitors to take precautions during the heatwave, including drinking water regularly, staying in cool environments, limiting outdoor physical activity during the hottest hours of the day and taking extra care of vulnerable people. AFP
Can Saudi Arabia repeat the magic of 2022?
Argentina arrived in Qatar on a 36-game unbeaten run. When Lionel Messi opened the scoring from the penalty spot after 10 minutes, a comfortable afternoon seemed in the offing. Saleh al-Shehri and Salem al-Dawsari had other ideas, Argentina had three goals disallowed for offside in the space of 13 minutes and the greatest comeback in Saudi Arabia football history was made. Argentina went on to lift the trophy, while defeats to Poland and Mexico meant the Saudis did not reach the knock-out stage.
Unai Simon over David Raya is a controversial choice for De la Fuentes. The Arsenal keeper could lay claim to being Europe’s best this season.
“Those at the Champions League final had a few more days, so I got there on the Wednesday night,” Raya says. “I arrived a bit before Fabián [Ruiz]. I was saying hello to some of the others in reception when he arrived. I went to say congratulations; that was almost the first thing I did. I couldn’t really talk [to him] after the final; I just didn’t have it in me. The next day we talked about the game properly. Just two mates chatting … I was happy for him that he could lift the trophy for a second time.”
A high pressure game for the European champions, as Sid Lowe reports.
“If we had scored one, the game would have changed,” Martín Zubimendi said. Immediately after the game, De la Fuente had offered a simple analysis: when the ball doesn’t want to go in it doesn’t want to go in, he insisted. Spain had racked up 27 shots, after all. Ferran Torres had hit the bar and seen another clear opportunity saved. Vozinha, the 40-year-old goalkeeper who stopped that, saved six more and was named the man of the match. “There’s nothing to reproach the team for,” Rodri said. “We generated chances but couldn’t put it away; the good thing is they created almost nothing.”
We wait to see what role Lamine Yamal will play today. His coach would surely like to be able to use him.
The worst mistake we could make would be to compare him to anyone. He is the midst of a process. He has exceptional footballing maturity and lives it all with total naturalness. He has great serenity and strength. We have to let him follow his path but those players who have something different are ready for that. They’re geniuses, like Dalí [who] can paint a picture, or Michelangelo. They’re different. What is exceptional to us, isn’t to them. In those extremes, they feel comfortable. Why? Because they are different. What we think is exceptional, they consider normal.
Preamble
Spain’s campaign did not get off to a flying start, and Luis de la Fuentes may wake up in the night to visions of Cape Verde’s Vozinha. He will have Georgia on his mind ever since Monday. Saudi Arabia are no pushovers and gave Uruguay a scare in their opening match. Memories of downing Argentina four years ago still abound, and so Spain might beware. They can ill afford to go into the final game with Uruguay at a disadvantage. All eyes on Lamine Yamal, whose fitness situation remains opaque, though Spain need their other forwards to come to the party.
Kick-off 5pm UK, 1pm ET, 2am AEST. Join me.
A topless man can be seen driving erratically in Edinburgh before abandoning his car and attacking a black man and a delivery rider.
Source link
-
Business & Technology3 weeks agoHSBC UK & Visa test AI shopping with live payments
-
Business & Technology3 weeks agoValarian lands USD $50 million backing for sovereign AI
-
Oxford Events4 weeks agoHenley Festival 2026 highlights: Five nights of unforgettable performances and festival moments
-
Oxford united FC3 weeks agoOxford United three players who be kept after transfer ban
-
Business & Technology2 weeks agoSlice golf bar swings to new heights after successful launch
-
Business & Technology4 weeks agoZYMIX uses Henley event to pitch social app to Gen Z
-
Business & Technology4 weeks agoOde launches free AI voice service for poem recommendations
-
Business & Technology3 weeks agoUK AI firms raise record GBP £4.56bn in Q2 funding