Senate Republicans rammed through the first procedural hurdle on their road to confirming nearly 100 of President Donald Trump’s nominees on Wednesday. The move tees up a later vote on 97 of Trump’s picks and marks the third time Senate Republicans advanced a bloc of the president’s nominees since changing the confirmation rules in September. The final vote to confirm the latest tranche of picks is expected next week. Once Republicans clear this latest package,...
Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania condemned an attack against Erika Kirk, the widow of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, whose assassination shocked the world earlier this year. ‘It’s gross and dehumanizing to attack a widow with young children after just witnessing his public assassination,’ the senator noted in a post on X. ‘It shouldn’t be controversial to put our political views aside and extend the grace for a deeply traumatized family to grieve,’ he added....
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is coming under fire for allegedly becoming ‘one of the biggest engines driving woke corporate America’ amid the Trump administration’s battle to strip diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives from the fabric of industry and government, a conservative watchdog alleges. ‘Once a voice for small businesses and Main Street, the Chamber now advocates for DEI mandates, (environmental, social and governance) investment schemes, and radical climate policies that punish consumers,’ said...
A federal judge on Wednesday blocked President Donald Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles and ordered them returned to the control of California Gov. Gavin Newsom. The order, handed down by U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer, is a blow to the Trump administration, and comes six months after the president in June deployed thousands of federalized National Guard troops to the city in response to a wave of immigration protests. Breyer...
A federal judge has cleared the Justice Department to release secret grand jury transcripts from Jeffrey Epstein’s 2019 sex trafficking case on Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Richard Berman reversed his earlier decision to keep the transcripts under wraps, citing Congress’s recent action on the Epstein files. Berman had previously warned that the contents of the roughly 70 pages of grandjury materials contain little new information. The move comes just one day after Judge Paul Engelmayer...
Americans spent nearly $2.64 billion on OnlyFans in 2025, cementing the United States as the platform’s largest and most lucrative market, new analysis reveals. Finbold, using data published by analytics firm OnlyGuider, calculated the figures across the first 334 days of the year, and the scale of spending is extraordinary. On average, Americans collectively shelled out $237 million per month, $55 million per week, and $7.9 million every day on the London-based subscription platform. That...
A major US defence technology company is preparing to manufacture next-generation autonomous fighter drones for the British Army on the Isle of Wight, marking one of the most significant foreign defence investments in UK aerospace in years. California-based Anduril Industries, the fast-rising defence start-up valued at $30bn, has partnered with British engineering group GKN Aerospace to build components for the drones in Cowes. The plan hinges on winning a Ministry of Defence competition to produce...
Policy uncertainty in Westminster is weighing heavily on Britain’s small business sector, according to one of the City’s most influential bankers. Kunal Shah, co-head of Goldman Sachs International, warned that a lack of clarity over taxation and employment laws is creating an “overhang” that is discouraging entrepreneurs from investing and hiring. Speaking to The Times ahead of a House of Commons reception marking 15 years of Goldman’s 10,000 Small Businesses programme, Shah said founders were...
The UK’s long-running “risk premium” in financial markets appears to be unwinding, with economists claiming investors are regaining confidence in Rachel Reeves’ fiscal strategy — and that the shift could save taxpayers billions of pounds over the next five years. New analysis from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), a think tank with longstanding ties to Labour, shows gilt yields have fallen faster than those in the US and eurozone since September. The move...
Britain’s live events industry has issued a stark warning to the Prime Minister, urging an immediate review of the government’s new Business Rates system amid fears it will trigger widespread venue closures, job losses and higher ticket prices across the country. In a strongly worded letter sent to No 10, senior figures from the sector said the changes unveiled at the Budget — including steep revaluations by the Valuations Office Agency (VOA) and a higher...
