Appeals court upholds defamation lawsuit, ordering Trump to pay more than $80m
A federal appeals court in New York has upheld the defamation lawsuit filed by writer E Jean Carroll, and the $83.3m award, after Trump denied her claim that he raped her.
The panel of judges also rejected the administration’s argument that the president is protected by the supreme court’s immunity ruling last year.
The same appeals court awarded Carroll $5m in 2023, in a separate case that found Trump liable for defamation and sexual abuse.
Key events
Trump is now touting that DC is a “safe zone”, since the surge of federal law enforcement and takeover of the DC police. He adds that the “beautification” project for the DC will continue.
He goes on to say that DC mayor Muriel Bowser has been compliant with the administration’s efforts. “It wasn’t her ideology, but now maybe it is,” Trump says.
Trump previews order to ‘protect’ right to prayer in public schools
Trump is now speaking at the Museum of the Bible in DC. He just announced that the Department of Education will be issuing “new guidance protecting the right to prayer in our public schools.”
A short while ago the president brought up a 12-year-old California student who addressed the Religious Liberty Commission. He told a story about how he was “forced” to read “My Shadow is Pink” – a story book which explores how a young boy explores different parts of his identity that aren’t considered traditionally masculine.
“I knew this was not right, but I was afraid of getting in trouble. After my family spoke up, school treated us badly, and kids started bullying me and my brother because of our faith, and the school did nothing to stop it. It hurt a lot, but I kept trusting God,” she student said today, standing next to Trump.
The president went on to undermine trans rights. “Can you imagine men playing in women’s sports?,” Trump said. “Democrats don’t want to give it up.”
Appeals court upholds defamation lawsuit, ordering Trump to pay more than $80m
A federal appeals court in New York has upheld the defamation lawsuit filed by writer E Jean Carroll, and the $83.3m award, after Trump denied her claim that he raped her.
The panel of judges also rejected the administration’s argument that the president is protected by the supreme court’s immunity ruling last year.
The same appeals court awarded Carroll $5m in 2023, in a separate case that found Trump liable for defamation and sexual abuse.
Trump administration asks supreme court to allow foreign aid clawback to continue
The Trump administration filed an emergency request to the supreme court on Monday to block a lower court’s ruling, which stopped the administration from withholding billions of dollars in congressionally appropriated foreign aid.
An appeals court ordered the administration to spend the money, upholding the federal judge’s ruling last week, which ultimately prompted the request to the supreme court.
Last month, Trump announced that he did not intend to spend almost $5bn in foreign aid, using a rare tool known as the “pocket rescission”. This involves submitting a request to congress so close to the end of the fiscal year, that it effectively runs out the clock for the 45 days needed for lawmakers to review the request.
Marina Dunbar
For many Americans, the new Covid vaccine guidelines from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), spearheaded by health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr and his highly controversial Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, have added another layer of stress to an increasingly inaccessible healthcare system.
The agency authorized Covid vaccines for people 65 and older, who are known to be more at risk from serious illnesses from Covid infections, but younger people will only be eligible if they have an underlying medical condition that makes them particularly vulnerable.
For Madison Heckle, a 33-year-old attorney in the final stretch of wedding planning, the stakes feel personal. She has struggled with frequent illness ever since first contracting Covid in 2021.
“Ever since then, I just catch everything,” she said. Though she expressed her frustrations with a weakened immune system, she had her doubts that she would qualify for vaccine coverage under the new guidelines.
Her immediate worry is simple: not being bedridden on the day she says “I do”. “Weddings are expensive, and I don’t want to be sick that day if I can prevent it, and so I just want to get the vaccine,” she said. “I’ve gotten my booster every year.”
Yet the new rules have complicated what was once routine. Instead of stopping by CVS, as she has in past years, Heckle found herself on the phone with her insurer, navigating coverage questions and learning she’d need to go to a different pharmacy.
“I just am really hoping that I don’t have to risk being sick on my wedding day,” she said.
Read more about the new guidelines are causing fear for those with that their ageing or immunocompromised loved ones.
The president has also spent a fair amount of time on Truth Social today, most recently touting the impact of the surge of federal law enforcement in DC, and the takeover of the Metropolitan police department (MPD).
“Washington, D.C. IS A SAFE ZONE IN JUST A MATTER OF WEEKS. Thank you, President Trump. Who’s Next???,” Trump said, possibly alluding to his frequent threats to send federal agents and national guard troops to Chicago.
Meanwhile, attorney general Pam Bondi said today that since more federal law enforcement began assisting MPD, there have been more than 2,100 arrests in the capital in the last month, and 214 illegal firearms seized.
Trump says US is ready for second phase of Russian sanctions
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, the president said that he was ready for the second phase of sanctions against Russia. He didn’t elaborate on when those sanctions would take effect, or how severe they would be.
He later said that “no one has been tougher on President Putin” but went on to say that he’s not “thrilled” with the Moscow leader.
“Look, we’re going to get it done. The Russia, Ukraine situation. We’re going to get it done,” Trump added.
Trump trade adviser demands justice department to vindicate him from subpoena conviction
Hugo Lowell
Intent on vindication after spending four months in prison last year, Peter Navarro asked a federal appeals court on Sunday night to force Donald Trump’s justice department to explain why it would not defend his 2022 conviction for defying a January 6 committee subpoena.
The request to the US court of appeals for the DC circuit is fraught for the department as it would have to confront the appearance that it quietly dropped the case in order to shield Navarro after he was tapped as a senior adviser to the president.
Navarro’s 13-page filing also has the potential to set precedent for years to come over complicated immunity and separation of powers questions concerning the ability of White House advisers to defy congressional subpoenas without facing prosecution.
“The department’s abrupt withdrawal now deprives the court of transparency about the department’s current view concerning the landmark constitutional issues presented, undermines the fairness of the process, and burdens the defense with uncertainty,” the filing said.
Navarro was subpoenaed in 2022 by the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot for his involvement in a plan to delay Congress’s certification of the 2020 election results to change the outcome, including to recruit state lawmakers to join the effort.
We can expect to hear from Donald Trump at about 10.10am ET today. He’ll speak at the Museum of the Bible in DC, and deliver remarks to the White House religious liberty commission – which the president created via executive order in May.
Michael Sainato
US states that protect unions’ collective bargaining rights have experienced an increase in new union members, while states with anti-union “right to work” laws are responsible for declines in union members, a new report reveals.
The report on the state of unions by the Illinois Economic Policy Institute and the Project for Middle Class Renewal at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign found significant discrepancies between the 26 states in the US with “right to work” laws compared with the 24 states and Washington DC that protect collective bargaining rights.
The right-to-work states, concentrated in the south and central US, have a union density of 5.1%, compared with 14.2% for states with collective bargaining rights, concentrated on the coasts and in the north.
Workers in right-to-work states earn about 7% less in wages, accounting for local differences in the cost of living. According to the AFL-CIO, the US’s largest labor federation, states with right-to-work laws received 36% higher discrimination charges from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on average.
Right-to-work laws allow workers represented by unions to stop paying dues for the services and benefits they receive through union representation, depleting resources from labor unions. Public sector workers in all 50 states have also had their collective bargaining rights stripped through the imposition of right-to-work laws by the US supreme court’s 2018 decision Janus v AFSCME.
Florida plan to drop school vaccine mandates won’t take effect for 90 days
Florida’s plan to drop school vaccine mandates likely won’t take effect for 90 days and would include only chickenpox and a few other illnesses unless lawmakers decide to extend it to other diseases, like polio and measles, the health department said on Sunday.
The department responded to a request for details, four days after Florida’s surgeon general, Dr Joseph Ladapo, said the state would become the first to make vaccinations voluntary and let families decide whether to inoculate their children.
It’s a retreat from decades of public policy and research that has shown vaccines to be safe and the most effective way to stop the spread of communicable diseases, especially among children. Despite that evidence, Robert F Kennedy Jr, the health secretary, has expressed deep skepticism about vaccines.
Florida’s plan would lift mandates on school vaccines for hepatitis B, chickenpox, Hib influenza and pneumococcal diseases, such as meningitis, the health department said.
“The department initiated the rule change on September 3 2025, and anticipates the rule change will not be effective for approximately 90 days,” the state told the Associated Press in an email. The public school year in Florida started in August.
The former US congressman John Burton, a salty-tongued and unabashedly liberal San Francisco Democrat who stood up for the working class and nurtured countless political careers, including that of Nancy Pelosi, died Sunday. He was 92.
Burton died in San Francisco of natural causes, his family said in a statement.
Tributes poured in from California’s top politicians, who recalled Burton as a fierce and tireless advocate for laborers, foster children and the environment. Over the years, Burton mentored Pelosi, former US senator Barbara Boxer, current US senator Alex Padilla and countless other California officials.
“There was no greater champion for the poor, the bullied, the disabled, and forgotten Californians than John Burton. He was a towering figure – a legendary force whose decades of service shaped our state and our politics for the better,” said Governor Gavin Newsom, a former mayor of San Francisco, in a statement.
Another former San Francisco mayor, Willie Brown, said that death had managed to separate him from a dear friend who was by his side for decades – as college students where they first met, as fellow newbies in the state Assembly and as influential members of California’s Democratic political machine.
“John Burton may have been the best person with whom I served as a member of the legislature,” said Brown.
Trump issues ‘last warning’ to Hamas to accept Gaza ceasefire deal
Donald Trump on Sunday issued what he called his “last warning” to Hamas, urging the Palestinian militant group to accept a deal to release hostages from Gaza.
“The Israelis have accepted my Terms. It is time for Hamas to accept as well,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. “I have warned Hamas about the consequences of not accepting. This is my last warning, there will not be another one!”
Hamas said in a later statement that it received some ideas from the US side through mediators to reach a ceasefire deal in Gaza.
The group said it was discussing with mediators ways to develop those ideas, without giving specifics.
Hamas also reiterated its readiness for negotiations to release all hostages in exchange for a “clear announcement of an end to the war” and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the enclave.
Victoria Bekiempis
The Republican senator who heads the homeland security committee has criticized JD Vance for “despicable” comments apparently in support of extrajudicial military killings.
“Killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military,” the vice-president said in an X post on Saturday, in defense of Tuesday’s US military strike against a Venezuelan boat in the Caribbean Sea, which killed 11 people the administration alleged were drug traffickers.
Vance added: “Democrats: let’s send your kids to die in Russia. Republicans: actually let’s protect our people from the scum of the earth.”
Donald Trump has vowed additional military action against purported traffickers, who are not military targets, after the boat strike, saying “there’s more where that came from”.
The controversial attack inflamed already-high tensions between the US and Venezuela. In August Trump dispatched war ships and marines to the Caribbean, which his supporters say is in aid of efforts to oust Venezuelan’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro. On Friday, reports revealed that Trump was sending 10 F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico to support US military action against drug traffickers.
US treasury secretary denies Trump tariffs are tax on Americans
Maya Yang
US treasury secretary Scott Bessent has refused to acknowledge that the sweeping trade tariffs imposed by Donald Trump around the world are taxes on Americans.
In a new interview on Sunday with NBC host Kristen Welker, Bessent, a former billionaire hedge fund manager, dismissed concerns from major American companies including John Deere, Nike and Black and Decker who have all said that Trump’s tariffs policy will cost them billions of dollars annually.
Addressing Welker, Bessent said: “You’re taking these from earnings calls, and on earnings calls, they have to give the draconian scenario. There aren’t companies coming out and saying, ‘Oh, because of the tariffs, we’re doing this.’”
He went on to add: “If things are so bad, why was the GDP 3.3%? Why is the stock market at a new high? Because, you know, with President Trump, we care both about big companies and small companies.”
As concerns continue to grow over American companies trying to pass on the cost of US tariffs on to everyday Americans, Welker asked: “Do you acknowledge that these tariffs are a tax on American consumers?” To which Bessent replied: “No, I don’t.”
300 South Koreans detained at Hyundai plant in US to be released, says Seoul
Victoria Bekiempis
South Korea announced on Sunday that the roughly 300 of its nationals detained during an immigration raid in Georgia would be released and flown home, as the sudden detention of workers appeared to strain the longstanding diplomatic and economic relationship between the two nations.
Nearly 500 workers, among them at least 300 South Koreans and at least 23 Mexicans, were arrested at the Hyundai-LG battery plant in the city of Ellabell on Thursday.
US authorities released footage of the raid, which showed detained workers, restrained in handcuffs and ankle chains, loaded on to buses. The raid marked the largest single site sweep carried out under Donald Trump’s nationwide anti-immigration campaign.
“As a result of the swift and united response … negotiations for the release of the detained workers have been concluded,” Kang Hoon-sik, chief of staff to South Korea’s president Lee Jae Myung, told reporters.
“Only administrative procedures remain. Once these are completed, a chartered flight will depart to bring our citizens home,” he said.
LG executive Kim Ki-soo flew to Georgia in an apparent effort to slow the fallout. “The immediate priority now is the swift release of both our LG Energy Solution employees and those of our partner firms,” Ki-soo reportedly said before boarding a plane.
Trump tells foreign companies to ‘respect’ immigration law after Hyundai Ice raid
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I’ll be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next couple of hours.
We start with news that Donald Trump has told foreign companies that they must hire and train American workers and respect immigration laws, after a raid at a Hyundai Motor manufacturing facility in Georgia saw about 300 South Koreans detained.
Nearly 500 workers in total were detained in the raid on Thursday, with US authorities releasing footage showing them restrained in handcuffs and ankle chains, loaded on to buses.
The raid marked the largest single site sweep carried out under Trump’s nationwide anti-immigration campaign and appeared to strain the longstanding diplomatic and economic relationship between the US and South Korea.
“I am hereby calling on all Foreign Companies investing in the United States to please respect our Nation’s Immigration Laws,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday, adding “Your Investments are welcome, and we encourage you to LEGALLY bring your very smart people … What we ask in return is that you hire and train American Workers.”
Trump made the post shortly after telling reporters he would look at what happened but that the incident had not harmed his relationship with South Korea.
Meanwhile, Hyundai Motor advised staff who were about to go on business trips next week to the US to delay them unless considered indispensable, a South Korean newspaper reported on Monday.
And in other developments:
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US treasury secretary Scott Bessent has refused to acknowledge that the sweeping trade tariffs imposed by Donald Trump around the world are taxes on Americans. In a new interview Bessent, a former billionaire hedge fund manager, dismissed concerns from major American companies including John Deere, Nike and Black and Decker who have all said that Trump’s tariffs policy will cost them billions of dollars annually.
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The Republican senator who heads the homeland security committee has criticized JD Vance for “despicable” comments apparently in support of extrajudicial military killings. “Killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military,” the vice-president said in an X post on Saturday, in defense of Tuesday’s US military strike against a Venezuelan boat in the Caribbean Sea, which killed 11 people the administration alleged were drug traffickers.
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President Trump on Sunday suggested a Gaza deal could come soon to secure the release of all the hostages held by Hamas, after earlier issuing what he called his “last warning” to the Palestinian militant group. Trump, speaking to reporters after landing in the Washington area on Sunday evening following a brief trip to New York, said he had been discussing the issue on the plane.
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Trump was booed and cheered at the US Open during the national anthem before Sunday’s men’s final. Prior to the match, US Open broadcasters were asked not to show any negative crowd reactions to the president at the event.
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Nine attorneys – who have represented approximately 50 Jeffrey Epstein survivors – have told the Guardian they have not been recently contacted by the justice department, despite the president’s promises to get to the bottom of the deceased financier’s crimes.
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As Chicago braced for an immigration enforcement crackdown and a possible national guard deployment, churches across the city have urged congregants to carry identification, stay connected to family and protest.
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Trump said on Sunday that individual European leaders would visit the United States on Monday or Tuesday to discuss how to resolve the Russian-Ukraine war. Speaking to reporters, Trump also said he would speak to Russian president Vladimir Putin soon.
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