Senate votes down Iran war powers resolution
Senate Democrats were unsuccessful in getting a resolution passed to limit Donald Trump from single-handedly escalating the war with Iran.
The resolution was brought by Tim Kaine of Virginia and aimed to compel Trump to seek authorization from Congress before taking any further military action.
“Congress declares war,” Kaine said on the Senate floor on Friday. “Once declared, the president is the commander-in-chief.”
Despite nearly all Democrats backing the resolution, they still didn’t have the votes. The tally came in 53–47. One Republican, Rand Paul of Kentucky, voted with the Democrats, and one Democrat, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, voted against the resolution.
Trump said on Friday that Iran had halted its nuclear ambitions after the bombings by the US and Israel. But, he said, he would “absolutely” continue to bomb the country’s nuclear sites if he believed it was once again enriching uranium.
“Time will tell,” Trump said at the White House. “But I don’t believe that they’re going to go back into nuclear any time soon.”
Key events
-
Senate votes down Iran war powers resolution
-
Trump brings on Angolan journalist to praise him at White House event to mark Rwanda-DRC peace agreement
-
Agents blast way into California home of woman and small children, footage suggests
-
The day so far
-
Trump says he will set a new tariff rate for Canadian goods within next week
-
Trump says he would consider bombing Iran again and drops sanctions relief plan
-
Trump border czar once again calls for prosecution of anyone who impedes immigration enforcement, including lawmakers
-
Trump says US will terminate trade talks with Canada over technology tax
-
Trump officials to terminate temporary protected status for 500,000 Haitians in US
-
Summary of the day so far:
-
Trump says 9 July trade deal date is not fixed date
-
Trump thinks something will happen to ‘settle’ Russia’s war in Ukraine
-
Trump say US to get a lot of mineral rights from Congo
-
Trump to look at protected status for Salvadorians
-
Trump says it ‘would be great’ if Powell lowers rate
-
Trump reiterates that Iran wants to meet following strikes
-
Trump says he plans to send a letter soon telling countries their tariff rate
-
Supreme court likely to rule on birthright citizenship in October, says Bondi
-
Trump says he will ‘promptly file’ to press on with policies including effort to end birthright citizenship
-
Trump calls supreme court ruling on nationwide injunctions a ‘monumental victory’
-
‘It is killing people’: UN chief says US-backed Gaza aid operation is ‘inherently unsafe’
-
Supreme court rules against challengers to Texas law requiring pornography websites to verify age of users
-
Supreme court decision on nationwide injuctions a ‘travesty for rule of law’, says liberal justice
-
Trump to hold news conference following massive supreme court win on nationwide injunctions
-
Sotomayor accuses Trump administration of ‘gamesmanship’ in scathing dissent
-
US supreme court rules schools must let kids opt out of hearing LGBTQ+ books
-
Sotomayor: ruling on nationwide injunctions an ‘open invitation for the government to bypass the Constitution’
-
Supreme court rules key provision of Obamacare constitutional
-
Supreme court limits judges’ power on nationwide injunctions in apparent win for Trump
-
Supreme court limits federal judges’ power to issue nationwide injunctions
-
Supreme court begins releasing decisions on last day of term
-
Trump administration plans second deportation of Kilmar Ábrego García, but not to El Salvador
-
Cuomo to stay in NYC mayoral race despite Mamdani besting him in primary – report
-
Senate Republicans seek agreement as Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ in tatters one week out from 4 July deadline
-
Iranian woman, who has lived in US for 47 years, taken by Ice while gardening
-
US supreme court expected to issue rulings in six cases on last day of term
-
US-backed Gaza food distribution scheme is ‘slaughter masquerading’ as aid, says MSF
-
Mamdani’s NYC primary win sparks surge in anti-Muslim posts, advocates say
-
US supreme court expected to deliver ruling on birthright citizenship on last day of term
-
Briefing on Iran strikes leaves senators divided as Trump threatens new row
-
US supreme court set to deliver ruling on LBGTQ+ books in schools on last day of term
-
Several measures in Donald Trump’s legislation ‘cannot be included in current form’, says Senate parliamentarian
Two Senators jumped the aisle on Friday on the vote over whether to curb Donald Trump’s authority to wage war with Iran. Rand Paul, a republican from Kentucky voted to back the resolution. And John Fetterman, a democrat from Pennsylvania, voted against.
The resolution failed to pass the Senate, ending in a 53 – 47 tally. The aim of the resolution was to compel Trump to seek authorization from Congress before taking military action. It came with the backdrop of Trump backing Israel and ordering bomb strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities earlier this month.
Fetterman explained his “No” vote to reporters on Thursday, saying, “I’m going to vote ‘no’ on that simply because I would never want to restrict any future president, Republican or Democrat, to do this kind of military exercise.”
On the Senate floor on Friday, Paul said the reason he was backing the resolution was because the power to declare war is only meant for Congress. “The Constitution is clear – Congress, not the President, has the authority to declare war,” Paul said.
Tim Kaine, a Virginia democrat who sponsored the resolution, also harkened back to the founders’ drafting of the constitution when he spoke to his colleagues on Friday. He spoke about how George Washington was president at the time.
“As much as they respected leaders like George Washington, they said war is too big a decision. It’s too big a decision for one person,” Kaine said. “So, they wrote a constitution that said the United States should not be at war without a vote of Congress.”
Senate votes down Iran war powers resolution
Senate Democrats were unsuccessful in getting a resolution passed to limit Donald Trump from single-handedly escalating the war with Iran.
The resolution was brought by Tim Kaine of Virginia and aimed to compel Trump to seek authorization from Congress before taking any further military action.
“Congress declares war,” Kaine said on the Senate floor on Friday. “Once declared, the president is the commander-in-chief.”
Despite nearly all Democrats backing the resolution, they still didn’t have the votes. The tally came in 53–47. One Republican, Rand Paul of Kentucky, voted with the Democrats, and one Democrat, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, voted against the resolution.
Trump said on Friday that Iran had halted its nuclear ambitions after the bombings by the US and Israel. But, he said, he would “absolutely” continue to bomb the country’s nuclear sites if he believed it was once again enriching uranium.
“Time will tell,” Trump said at the White House. “But I don’t believe that they’re going to go back into nuclear any time soon.”
Rachel Leingang
Melissa and Mark Hortman, and their dog Gilbert, lay in state in the Minnesota state capitol rotunda on Friday.
Their wooden caskets, and Gilbert’s golden urn with pawprints on it, were surrounded by trees and ferns, a nod to the greenery Melissa, an avid gardener and advocate for the environment, held dear in her personal life and in her governance.
The Hortmans were killed by a politically motivated assassin who posed as a police officer and came to their home, and the homes of other lawmakers, injuring another and his wife. The killings and subsequent manhunt unsettled the state.
On Friday, Minnesotans lined up by the hundreds outside and inside the state capitol to pay their respects. One by one, they moved toward the rotunda. Many wiped away tears. Others did the sign of the cross. Some put their hands on their hearts. The mourners included former president Joe Biden.
Read more:
Donald Trump’s praise of a female reporter from Angola echoes a similar interaction with an Irish reporter during his first term.
On Friday, the president hosted an event at the White House with top diplomats to sign a peace agreement between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But it started off with the interaction between Trump and the reporter.
Trump had invited the reporter, whose name is Hariana Veras and who works for the national broadcaster of Angola, to stand next to him and speak to the room. She went on to compliment him and the work he was doing to bring peace.
“You are beautiful,” Trump responded. “I’m not allowed to say that, you know, that could be the end of my political career but I said it anyway.”
In 2017, in a similar event, Trump was speaking on the phone with Ireland’s newly elected taoiseach, Leo Varadkar. Reporters from the Irish media were with Trump in the Oval Office. During the call, Trump told Varadkar that he had “a lot of these beautiful Irish press” in the room.
He then singled out Caitríona Perry, asking her to come forward. While still on the phone with Varadkar, Trump said: “She has a nice smile on her face, so I’m sure she treats you well.”
In his second term in office, Trump has stacked the press core with favorable reporters. This is a stark departure from White House briefing room tradition. His administration now mandates which reporters can attend Oval Office events and it has packed White House briefings with pro-Trump outlets, including One America News, Turning Point USA and the Daily Wire.
Trump brings on Angolan journalist to praise him at White House event to mark Rwanda-DRC peace agreement
Donald Trump hosted top diplomats from Rwanda and DR Congo for the signing of a peace agreement between the two countries on Friday. The African nations have been in a conflict since 2021 that has led to the deaths and displacement of thousands.
While Trump called the peace agreement “a glorious triumph”, the war reportedly shows little signs of abating on the ground, according to a report by NBC earlier this month.
Trump has touted the US’s role as a peacemaker and said the agreement today was ushered through by Massad Boulos, a senior adviser for Africa for the state department and the father-in-law of his daughter Tiffany Trump. The president said on Friday that the US stands to get “a lot of the mineral rights from the Congo” for its efforts.
The event, which took place at the White House, kicked off with an unusual start. Trump asked Karoline Leavitt, his press secretary, to introduce a friend. Leavitt said she knew a reporter from the “continent of Africa”, who had a “story to share”. Trump then invited the reporter to stand next him, saying “Why don’t you come up here and talk, so they can see.”
The reporter is Hariana Veras, who works for the national broadcaster of Angola. Veras praised Trump for his work on the peace agreement and said that African presidents have told her he should be nominated for a Nobel peace prize.
When Veras was done speaking, Trump told her that Leavitt had said she was beautiful. He then added: “You are beautiful … I wish I had more reporters like you”.
Immediately after, the White House clipped a video of Veras’s comments and posted it to its social media account on X.
Agents blast way into California home of woman and small children, footage suggests
Federal agents appear to have blasted their way into a residential home in Huntington Park, California. A video released by the local NBC station shows what appear to be border patrol agents setting up an explosive device near the house and then detonating it – causing a window to be shattered. Then around a dozen agents charged toward the home.
Jenny Ramirez, who lives in the house with her one-year-old and six-year-old kids, told NBC through tears that it was one of the loudest explosions she heard in her life.
“I told them, ‘You guys didn’t have to do this, you scared by son, my baby,’” Ramirez said.
Ramirez said she and her children are all US citizens. The agents were reportedly searching for Ramirez’s boyfriend who was reportedly involved in a car crash with a truck carrying federal agents last week. He also lives in the home and is a US citizen, according to NBC.
The day so far
-
Donald Trump has abruptly cut off trade talks with Canada over its new digital services tax coming into effect on Monday that will impact US technology firms and said that he would set a new tariff rate on Canadian goods within the next week.
-
Trump said he had not ruled out attacking Iran again and said he has abandoned plans to drop sanctions on Tehran.
-
The supreme court, in a 6-3 ruling, delivered Trump a major victory by ruling that individual district court judges lack the power to issue nationwide injunctions, which Trump has complained have blocked federal government policies nationwide including his executive order purporting to end the right to automatic birthright citizenship.
-
Speaking from the bench, liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor called the decision “a travesty for the rule of law” and “an open invitation for the government to bypass the Constitution” in a scathing dissent.
-
Trump called the ruling “a monumental victory for the Constitution, the separation of powers, and the rule of law in striking down the excessive use of nationwide injunctions interfering with the normal functions of the executive branch”. He said his administration “can now promptly file to proceed” with policies that had been enjoined nationwide. One of these cases would be ending birthright citizenship, he says, “which now comes to the fore”.
-
US attorney general Pam Bondi said the birthright citizenship question will “most likely” be decided by the supreme court in October but said today’s ruling still “indirectly impacts every case in this country”, which the administration is “thrilled” about.
-
United Nations secretary-general António Guterres said that the US-backed Israeli aid operation in Gaza is “inherently unsafe”, giving a blunt and grave assessment: “It’s killing people.” Guterres said UN-led humanitarian efforts are being “strangled”, aid workers themselves are starving and Israel – as the occupying power – is required to agree to and facilitate aid deliveries into and throughout the Palestinian enclave.
-
Guterres’s intervention followed calls earlier today from Médecins Sans Frontières for the scheme to be immediately dismantled and for Israel to end its siege on Gaza, calling the Israeli-US food distribution scheme “slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid”. Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire on crowds heading toward desperately needed food, killing hundreds of starving Palestinian people in recent weeks. The Israeli military has launched an investigation into possible war crimes following growing evidence that troops have deliberately fired at Palestinian civilians gathering to receive aid in Gaza.
-
The Trump administration is planning to deport Kilmar Ábrego García for a second time, but does not plan to send him back to El Salvador, where he was wrongly deported in March, a lawyer for the administration told a judge yesterday. It is not clear when the deportation might occur or whether it would happen before the criminal case accusing him of smuggling migrants into the United States is complete. The justice department said there are no “imminent plans” to remove Ábrego García from the United States.
-
The supreme court ruled in favor of Christian and Muslim parents in Maryland who sued to keep their elementary school children out of certain classes when storybooks with LGBT characters are read in a landmark case involving the intersection of religion and LGBT rights. The justices in a 6-3 ruling overturned a lower court’s refusal to require Montgomery County’s public schools to provide an option to opt out of these classes. Our story is here.
-
The supreme court also ruled against challengers to a Texas law that requires pornographic websites to verify the age of users in an effort to protect minors after the adult entertainment industry argued that the measure violates the free speech rights of adults. Story here.
-
The supreme court also preserved a key element of the Obamacare law that helps guarantee that health insurers cover preventive care such as cancer screenings at no cost to patients. Read more here.
Trump says he will set a new tariff rate for Canadian goods within next week
As well as abruptly cutting off trade talks with Canada over its new tax that will impact US technology firms, Trump said that he would set a new tariff rate on Canadian goods within the next week.
“We will let Canada know the Tariff that they will be paying to do business with the United States of America within the next seven day period,” he wrote on Truth Social.
The move plunges US relations with its second-largest trading partner back into chaos after a period of relative calm – only last week Canadian prime minister Mark Carney said he had agreed with Trump that their two nations should try to wrap up a new economic and security deal within 30 days.
Canada is the US’s second-largest trading partner after Mexico, buying $349.4bn of US goods last year and exporting $412.7bn to the US, according to US Census Bureau data.
In Trump’s surprise announcement that he was terminating trade talks with Canada, he accused Ottawa of “copying the European Union” with an “egregious” digital services tax on US tech firms.
He wrote on Truth Social: “They are obviously copying the European Union, which has done the same thing, and is currently under discussion with us, also. Based on this egregious Tax, we are hereby terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada, effective immediately.”
We’ve yet to hear Canadian PM Mark Carney’s reaction to Trump’s outburst, which imperils a trading relationship that, according to the office of the US trade representative, totalled about $762bn last year.
The tax, which will take effect on 30 June and be applied retroactively from 2022, will impact both domestic and international companies, meaning American giants Amazon, Google, Meta, Airbnb and Uber will have to start payments from Monday.
Last week Ottawa refused to delay the tax in the face of mounting pressure and opposition from the Trump administration during trade negotiations.
Trump says he would consider bombing Iran again and drops sanctions relief plan
At the press conference earlier, Donald Trump sharply criticized Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, dropped plans to lift sanctions on Iran and said he would consider bombing Iran again if Tehran is enriching uranium to worrisome levels.
Trump reacted sternly to Khamenei’s first remarks after a 12-day conflict with Israel that ended when the US launched strikes last weekend against Iranian nuclear sites.
Khamenei said Iran “slapped America in the face” by launching a – largely symbolic and forewarned – attack against a major US base in Qatar following last weekend’s US bombing raid. He also said Iran would never surrender.
Trump said he had spared Khamenei’s life. US officials told Reuters on 15 June that Trump had vetoed an Israeli plan to kill the supreme leader. In a Truth Social post, he said:
His Country was decimated, his three evil Nuclear Sites were OBLITERATED, and I knew EXACTLY where he was sheltered, and would not let Israel, or the U.S. Armed Forces, by far the Greatest and Most Powerful in the World, terminate his life. I SAVED HIM FROM A VERY UGLY AND IGNOMINIOUS DEATH.
Trump also said that in recent days he had been working on the possible removal of sanctions on Iran to give it a chance for a speedy recovery. He told reporters today he has now abandoned that effort.
I get hit with a statement of anger, hatred, and disgust, and immediately dropped all work on sanction relief, and more.
Trump said he did not rule out attacking Iran again. When asked about the possibility of new bombing of Iranian nuclear sites if deemed necessary at some point, he replied:
Sure, without question, absolutely.
Trump border czar once again calls for prosecution of anyone who impedes immigration enforcement, including lawmakers
Ankita Rao
Trump’s border czar Tom Homan spoke at the end of the morning session at the Faith & Freedom Conference in Washington DC to applause and a standing ovation as he called for the prosecution of anyone who impeded his immigration enforcement, including lawmakers.
Homan opened up by describing immigration enforcement as a moral duty – meant to stop the deaths, sexual assault and drug trafficking at the border. “In my 40 years I’ve seen a lot of terrible things,” he said. “Secure the border, save lives.”
In a wide ranging, off the cuff speech, Homan touted his deportation figures and the lack of crossings at the border while defending Ice raids against non-criminals. “They’re in the country illegally so they’re on the table too,” he said. He attributed some of those arrests to sanctuary cities, where he said the lack of ability to arrest undocumented people in jail led to the increase of collateral arrests when Ice searched for them on the streets.
Homan poked at protests, calling the Los Angeles protests misguided and misinformed and applauding Trump’s decision to deploy the national guard. He also called the protestors in his lake house town “morons” – those protests were followed by Ice releasing a family.
Homan spent a good amount of his speech denouncing Biden’s policies and calling for the prosecution of anyone, including lawmakers who attempted to intervene with Ice enforcement. He said Alejandro Mayorkas, the head of the Department of Homeland Security under Joe Biden, should “go to jail”.
You can hate Ice, you can hate me, I don’t give a shit. You can not agree with our priorities, but you better not cross that line.
At the en,d Homan turned to his personal relationship with Trump, saying he respected the president as much as he does his own father.
Lawyers for Kilmar Ábrego García have asked the judge to keep him in jail over deportation concerns. Prosecutors have agreed with a request by Ábrego García’s lawyers to delay his Tennessee jail release.
Ábrego García’s lawyers asked a judge for the delay Friday because of “contradictory statements” by the Trump administration over whether he’ll be deported upon release. A judge in Nashville has been preparing to release Ábrego García to await trial on human smuggling charges. The judge has been holding off over concerns immigration officials would try to deport him.
The justice department says it intends to try Ábrego García on the smuggling charges. A justice department attorney said earlier there were plans to deport him but didn’t say when. The Maryland construction worker previously was mistakenly deported to El Salvador.
US representative Nydia Velázquez from New York called the supreme court ruling that individual district court judges lack the power to issue nationwide injunctions “an attack on the very foundation of our nation”. She wrote on X:
“The Supreme Court just opened the door for Trump’s assault on birthright citizenship. As Justice Sotomayor warned in her dissent, ‘No right is safe in the new legal regime the Court creates.’ This ruling is an attack on the very foundation of our nation.”
Representative Mark Takano of California expressed similar alarm. He wrote on X:
“Today’s troubling ruling by the Supreme Court means that Trump’s un-Constitutional executive order denying many Americans their birthright citizenship will go into effect for anyone without the means to file a lawsuit to protect themselves.”
Trump says US will terminate trade talks with Canada over technology tax
Trump has accused Canada of a “direct and blatant attack” on the US after being informed that the country plans to tax US technology companies. Trump says the US will be “terminating all discussions on trade with Canada” as a result.
Trump wrote on Truth Social:
“We have just been informed that Canada, a very difficult Country to TRADE with, including the fact that they have charged our Farmers as much as 400% Tariffs, for years, on Dairy Products, has just announced that they are putting a Digital Services Tax on our American Technology Companies, which is a direct and blatant attack on our Country.
They are obviously copying the European Union, which has done the same thing, and is currently under discussion with us, also. Based on this egregious Tax, we are hereby terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada, effective immediately. We will let Canada know the Tariff that they will be paying to do business with the United States of America within the next seven day period.”
Environmental groups have filed a federal lawsuit to block the “Alligator Alcatraz” migrant detention center being built on an airstrip in the heart of the Florida Everglades.
The lawsuit, filed Friday on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity and the Friends of the Everglades organization, seeks to halt the project until it undergoes a stringent environmental review as required by federal law. The lawsuit filed in Miami federal court says there is also supposed to be an opportunity for public comment.
Florida governor Ron DeSantis said Friday on Fox and Friends that the detention center is set to begin processing people who entered the US illegally as soon as next week.
Trump officials to terminate temporary protected status for 500,000 Haitians in US
The Trump administration is moving to terminate Temporary Protected Status for half a million Haitians, claiming that Haiti is a “safe” country to return to, despite the reality that large portions of the country have been overcome by gangs and civil governance has collapsed.
The Department of Homeland Security said on Friday that conditions in Haiti have improved, and Haitians no longer meet the conditions for Temporary Protected Status, which grants deportation protections and work permits to people from countries experiencing turmoil.
“This decision restores integrity in our immigration system and ensures that Temporary Protective Status is actually temporary,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement. “The environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home.”
Summary of the day so far:
-
The supreme court, in a 6-3 ruling, appears to have delivered Trump a major victory by ruling that individual district court judges lack the power to issue nationwide injunctions, which Trump has complained have blocked federal government policies nationwide including his executive order purporting to end the right to automatic birthright citizenship.
-
Speaking from the bench, liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor called the supreme court’s majority decision “a travesty for the rule of law”, and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson delivered a scathing dissent.
-
Trump called the supreme court’s decision “a monumental victory for the Constitution, the separation of powers, and the rule of law in striking down the excessive use of nationwide injunctions interfering with the normal functions of the executive branch”.
-
Trump said his administration “can now promptly file to proceed” with policies that had been enjoined nationwide. One of these cases would be ending birthright citizenship, he says, “which now comes to the fore”.
-
In a press briefing US attorney general Pam Bondi was asked whether the administration is going to try to implement Trump’s order banning birthright citizenship in states where there isn’t a legal challenge. Bondi said the birthright citizenship question will “most likely” be decided by the supreme court in October but that Friday’s ruling still “indirectly impacts every case in this country”, adding that the administration is “thrilled” about this.
-
Former New York governor Andrew Cuomo reportedly plans to run as an independent candidate in New York City’s mayoral race, days after finding himself bested in the Democratic primary by progressive insurgent candidate Zohran Mamdani.
-
The Trump administration is planning to deport Kilmar Ábrego García for a second time, but reportedly does not plan to send him back to El Salvador, where he was wrongly deported in March.
-
Trump reiterated that Tehran wants to meet following US strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities last weekend, but gave no further details.
