Power

• The Supreme Court ruled in Trump v. Slaughter, effectively endorsing the "unitary executive theory" and significantly expanding the legal powers of the U.S. president. • This judicial approval grants the executive branch greater autonomy and control over government functions, reducing the constraints previously placed on presidential authority. • Political science scholars warn that this shift is one of the most consequential constitutional developments in decades, as it threatens to upend traditional American governance and the system of checks and balances.

• The Supreme Court issued a series of rulings that delivered mixed results for President Trump's agenda, granting him some expansive powers while blocking other initiatives. • A key decision loosened campaign finance rules, which analysts suggest will provide a strategic advantage to Republicans over Democrats. • These legal developments occur as Trump faces low approval ratings and public frustration over elevated gas prices ahead of upcoming elections.

• The Supreme Court issued several rulings that resulted in legal losses for President Trump by determining his actions conflicted with federal law. • Despite these specific setbacks, a series of other decisions by the court's conservative majority significantly expanded the scope of presidential power. • This legal shift is critical as it alters the balance of authority between the executive branch and federal statutory constraints.

• The Supreme Court has issued several rulings that broaden presidential power, despite some setbacks regarding tariffs and birthright citizenship. • The court upheld the ability of immigration agents to turn asylum seekers away before they reach U.S. soil, effectively bypassing laws that allow individuals to apply for safety. • In a separate decision, the court sided with Vice President JD Vance and other Republicans to remove restrictions on electoral spending, permitting unlimited donations from wealthy donors to political parties.

• The U.S. Supreme Court concluded its nine-month term on July 1 by issuing rulings on three major cases, including a significant loss for Donald Trump regarding birthright citizenship. • The Court rejected Trump's attempt to narrow the definition of who is considered a U.S. citizen upon being born in the United States. • Conversely, the Court previously granted Trump a level of power that dissenting justices argued exceeded that of historical English monarchs.

• The Supreme Court has delivered a mixed set of rulings on President Trump's agenda, granting him more expansive powers while blocking specific initiatives. • In February, the court ruled against the president regarding his use of tariffs, prompting Trump to publicly label the dissenting conservative justices as "disloyal." • While Trump views tariffs as essential tools for global negotiations, polling suggests voters are less supportive of these policies.

• The Indian National Congress is considering the creation of a powerful new department designed to restructure and "rejig" the party's organizational framework. • This new management layer will be responsible for monitoring target achievement and identifying specific failures within the party's hierarchy to implement necessary fixes. • Senior leaders aim to complete these organizational changes within the current year to ensure a modernized approach for upcoming political contests.

• Europe and the Gulf states are seeking to increase their strategic autonomy to counter global "great-power chaos" and geopolitical instability. • The proposed collaboration focuses on three primary pillars: developing critical infrastructure projects, establishing free trade agreements, and securing scalable defense deals. • This partnership matters as both regions aim to reduce dependency on external superpowers by leveraging their complementary economic and strategic strengths.

• Meta's stock price rose 9% following the announcement of a new business venture to sell its excess AI compute power capacity. • The move allows Meta to monetize its massive infrastructure investments, addressing investor concerns regarding the company's high spending on AI hardware. • This strategy leverages the current global shortage of computing power, which has seen demand surge since the 2022 launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT.

• IDC reports that 84% of organizations are consolidating their security platforms, driving a shift toward AI-powered cybersecurity metrics. • Enterprises are urged to replace traditional activity-based metrics with AI-driven, business-focused intelligence to better manage risks. • This transition is critical as cyber threats evolve, highlighted by recent major security incidents targeting Iran’s banking sector.

In today’s newsletter: A country already in crisis since the removal of its leader earlier this year by the US, now has to find a way to rebuild with little state presence in evidenceThe shaking seemed to come from nowhere. In a moment captured by fishers off Venezuela’s Caribbean coast, two earthquakes struck seconds apart. Plumes of dust appear where buildings once stood in the recording as the camera rises and falls with the swell. The men rapidly head for the shore in search of their families. “I’m shaking,” says the cameraman.Since the quakes struck last Wednesday, the search for missing loved ones has not stopped for scores of Venezuelans. Officially, more than 1,700 people have died. But tens of thousands remain missing: desperate relatives are walking up and down streets lined by rubble and collapsed buildings with photos of those they cannot find, asking for help.World news | A child has been rescued from the rubble in Venezuela, six days since the country was hit by devastating twin earthquakes.UK politics | Andy Burnham will have to find an extra £4.7bn for defence in his first budget, after Keir Starmer announced a £298bn defence investment plan (Dip) without having fully identified how it will be funded.US politics | The US supreme court has upheld the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship, affirming that nearly all people born on US soil are American citizens and rejecting a central pillar of Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda.UK news | The European media group Axel Springer has completed its £575m takeover of the Telegraph, ending years of uncertainty over the future ownership of the 171-year-old titles.US news | Nine matches in the World Cup group stage were played amid potentially dangerous heat and humidity, a Guardian analysis shows. Continue reading...

• NASA has announced new lunar landing contracts for the Artemis Moon Base program and proposed a potential new mission called PROMISE. • The PROMISE mission aims to send a spare nuclear-powered Mars rover to the lunar surface to test its capabilities in a different environment. • This initiative demonstrates NASA's willingness to pursue high-risk, "near impossible" goals to maximize the utility of existing advanced hardware.

• The U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling in the Slaughter case that critics argue grants the presidency expanded, untrammeled power. • The decision is framed as a dangerous precedent that could allow a president to weaponize regulatory and law enforcement agencies against political opponents. • This legal shift is compared to democratic backsliding seen in other nations, such as Israel, where the Supreme Court recently intervened to protect the Attorney General from political interference by Benjamin Netanyahu.

• The US Supreme Court concluded its term with a series of rulings that provided significant advantages to Donald Trump and the Republican Party. • The court loosened campaign finance restrictions and spending limits, potentially benefiting the GOP, which holds over $125 million compared to a debt-ridden Democratic Party. • In April, six conservative justices struck down a key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, ruling that congressional districts designed to increase minority voting power are unconstitutional.

• Germany's domestic intelligence service, the BfV, has warned that the country faces escalating threats from both foreign powers and domestic extremists. • The report identifies specific risks from Moscow-recruited saboteurs, Chinese spies, Iran-backed Islamist militants, and violent neo-Nazis. • These actors are allegedly engaging in sabotage, disinformation campaigns, illicit political interference, and assassination operations to destabilize the nation.

• The Supreme Court issued several rulings regarding Donald Trump's agenda, balancing the expansion of presidential authority with significant legal setbacks. • The Court rejected the government's attempt to fire Federal Reserve official Cook, ruling that doing so would improperly transform "for-cause protection" into "at-will employment" and threaten central bank independence. • In a separate decision, the Court ruled that states may count mail-in ballots cast by Election Day even if they arrive later, dismissing a GOP challenge to Mississippi's specific ballot laws.

• The Pastef party, holding 130 of 165 National Assembly seats, is proposing constitutional reforms to reduce the powers of President Bassirou Diomaye Faye. • Pastef claims the changes are intended to strengthen the separation of powers between Senegal's executive, legislature, and judiciary. • Opposition members have condemned the move as political revenge orchestrated by former prime minister Ousmane Sonko, who maintains strong influence over the parliamentary majority.

• A severe heatwave moving east across Europe caused power outages in Ukraine on Monday and left thousands of homes without electricity in the Paris region. • Extreme temperatures led to new record-highs in Slovakia and a record 40°C in Vienna, Austria, on Sunday. • The crisis is particularly acute in Ukraine, where the energy network was already severely strained by repeated Russian attacks.

• Internal power struggles within the Iranian regime have intensified as rival factions clash over the direction of the country's nuclear talks. • The conflict has escalated beyond foreign policy disagreements, evolving into a bitter battle for political influence at the highest levels of government. • These regime divisions are coinciding with public protests that continue to challenge the stability of the existing political system.

Today is the final day for the supreme court to lay out the last rulings of its nine-month termHello, and welcome to the US politics live blog.In a significant victory for the president on Monday, the court granted him the ability to fire leaders of some independent US agencies at will, in a move one advocacy group called “disastrous.” Continue reading...

• The Supreme Court has issued a ruling allowing President Donald Trump to fire agency heads, marking a significant expansion of presidential executive power. • Separately, federal law enforcement is coordinating a massive security operation in Washington D.C. to protect hundreds of thousands of visitors attending the America 250 celebrations. • These security measures are heightened due to rising political violence and recent assassination attempts targeting the president.

• President Trump praised a recent Supreme Court ruling that expands presidential authority over the executive branch. • The decision allows the president to remove executive branch officers and agency appointees, overturning previous legal precedents. • This shift significantly increases the president's control over federal agencies and the personnel who lead them.

• The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that President Donald Trump cannot currently fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook from her position. • The court returned the "Cook Lawsuit," which challenged her suitability for the Federal Reserve Board, based on strictly procedural grounds. • Trump responded on Truth Social, stating he will take "appropriate action immediately" to ensure those who have committed wrongdoing do not make vital national decisions.

• Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath launched a sharp attack on the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Congress during an event in Pilibhit. • Yogi claimed the public has rejected the SP, asserting that their governance leads to riots, curfews, and threats to the security of women and traders. • He attributed the Partition of India to the Congress party's "lust for power," arguing that a firmer stand against Jinnah could have prevented the country's division.

Health secretary announces move after Amos review finds childbirth and neonatal care in need of ‘urgent reform’Analysis: Transparency, standards and a new commissioner – but does maternity review go far enough?A powerful maternity commissioner will be appointed to push through an urgent transformation of childbirth care in England after a major review concluded that it had multiple failings.Ministers have bowed to growing pressure by agreeing to recruit the UK’s first commissioner for maternity and neonatal care. Whoever takes on the role will pursue hospitals over persistent failures in care, ensure wide-ranging improvements are made and try to restore the faith of families in a maternity system in England that has been rocked by a series of scandals.Maternity triage services – the childbirth equivalent of A&E – need an urgent overhaul, including more staff on duty, so that women’s concerns are acted on more quickly.Families should get the right to seek a fresh, independent investigation when things go wrong if they are not happy with the hospital’s own inquiry.The NHS’s “brutal” and “cruel” system of agreeing compensation with harmed and bereaved families should be replaced by a new process in which hospitals admit errors immediately.The NHS must root out racism and discrimination that is “embedded throughout the maternity and neonatal system”. Continue reading...

• Liberal Supreme Court justices issued a blistering dissent against a ruling that expands the president's authority to fire regulators, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor comparing the power to that of the "English crown." • The decision sparks concerns over the independence of federal agencies, though Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook emphasized that the central bank must remain free from political interference to ensure sound economic stewardship. • In a separate victory for Democrats, the Court ruled in Watson v. Republican National Committee that ballots mailed on time can be counted even if they arrive after Election Day.

• The Supreme Court issued twin rulings clarifying the extent of President Trump's authority to remove independent regulators from their positions. • The Court ruled that the President may fire certain independent regulators for any reason, significantly expanding executive power over administrative agencies. • However, the justices affirmed the independence of the Federal Reserve, ruling that its governors cannot be dismissed at will.

• Andy Burnham will deliver a speech on Monday outlining a 10-year plan to transform the economy by shifting decision-making power to local communities and regions. • The proposal aims to achieve "good growth in every postcode" and serves as a "circuit-breaker" to address low public trust in national politics. • Burnham has indicated that his economic strategy will adhere to the fiscal rules established by Chancellor Rachel Reeves.