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Core inflation rate hit 3.4% in May, highest since October 2023, Fed's preferred gauge shows

(CNBC) The Federal Reserve’s primary price gauge rose at its highest level since 2023, reinforcing the central bank’s recent tough talk on inflation. Excluding food and energy, the personal consumption expenditures price index showed a 3.4% annual rate after rising 0.3% for the month, both in line with Dow Jones consensus. The core reading was the highest since October 2023.

Dulcinea

The White House choreographed a victory lap. Trump veered off script.

(Politico) President Donald Trump was supposed to go to Capitol Hill on Wednesday and spike the football. Instead, he fumbled. The president abruptly scuttled plans to sign a bipartisan housing bill that would have been a boon to Republicans desperate for campaign trail affordability wins. Trump's announcement that he wouldn't sign it until the Senate passes voting overhauls that he's championed came after his own staff spent the morning taking a very public victory lap ahead of the housing bill's expected signing.

hookaleft

Judge blocks Trump order that would have let USPS refuse to deliver mail ballots

(Democracy Docket) A federal judge in Massachusetts Thursday blocked federal agencies from implementing President Donald Trump’s sweeping attack on mail voting and his attempt to create a national voter registration list before the midterm elections. District Judge Indira Talwani, an Obama appointee, found that major parts of Trump’s March 2026 anti-voting executive order were “legally void” for exceeding the president’s power and violating the separation of powers by encroaching on states’ authority to administer elections.

BumRushDaShow

Empty State Fair Revealed Moments Before Trump Took Stage

(Daily Beast) Numbers at President Donald Trump’s much-hyped Great American State Fair appeared underwhelming just moments before the president took the stage on Wednesday night. Reporting live from the event was CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, who spoke to Anderson Cooper from Washington D.C.’s National Mall. As O’Sullivan spoke to Cooper following Alexis Wilkins’ performance of the national anthem, a relatively sparse crowd could be seen in the background, with significant empty space directly behind O’Sullivan with slightly over twenty minutes to go before the president took the stage.

KS Toronado

Thursday's Condensed News Cartoons

Bennet Kelley

Donald Trump's Respect Deficit

(Bennet Kelley) One constant in the Trump political playbook is to describe the nation under Democrats in almost apocalyptic terms and then pivot to claim that he has or will deliver an amazing return to greatness. In his sole 2024 debate with President Biden, he claimed "we're no longer respected as a country. ... They don't respect the United States any more. We're like a Third World nation."

BumRushDaShow

Trump Administration Spent at Least $11 Billion Paying Federal Workers Not to Work

(Mediaite) The nonprofit consumer advocacy organization, Public Citizen, dug through publicly available data from the federal Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and found that Elon Musk and President Donald Trump’s DOGE cuts resulted in federal employees being paid “at least $11 billion – and likely much more – not to work.”

groundloop

In reversal, Senate votes to block war powers resolution, delivering Trump a win

(ABC News) Hours after President Donald Trump blasted Sen. Bill Cassidy for supporting a war powers resolution that narrowly passed the Senate on Tuesday, Cassidy helped to deliver Trump a victory by voting with the majority of Republicans late Wednesday to block a separate resolution aimed at reining in the president's war powers in Iran from advancing. The Senate voted 47-50-1 late Wednesday to block a war powers resolution led by Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine from moving forward. The resolution, which aims to limit Trump's ability to wage war in Iran but does not have the force of law, had narrowly advanced in a previous procedural vote.

LymphocyteLover

Federal agents track down Syracuse woman, demand she remove Instagram post about ICE

(Syracuse.com) Two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents issued a warning to a Syracuse woman Tuesday to remove a social media account they said threatens federal agents. Paigelynne Gonyea said she believes they are referring to a January post where she named the ICE agent who shot protester Renee Good. Gonyea was working as a poll worker Tuesday afternoon at the Central Library on Salina Street when agents called to meet with her. She said she invited them in. She said she did not want to meet them outside alone.

applegrove

Flu Outbreak Worsens at Air Force Training Hub

(Political Wire) “A flu outbreak at the Air Force’s basic training hub in San Antonio is worsening, according to two sources familiar with the situation,” ABC News reports. “The outbreak is unfolding just two months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made the annual flu shot optional for troops, scrapping the military’s requirement for it, which dates to 1945, a move breaking with longstanding public health directives.”

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Hard-liners grind House agenda to a halt over SAVE America Act demands

21 min ago - 06/25/26 12:54 PM ET A group of conservative hard-liners have effectively ground most House floor action to a halt until Congress acts on the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act, delivering a new challenge for Speaker Mike Johnson ... (The Hill)

UN agency pauses evacuation of ships through the Strait of Hormuz

54 min ago - Updated 3:10 PM EDT, June 25, 2026 DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A United Nations agency paused the evacuation of ships through the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday after the British military said a vessel was hit by a projectile off the coast ... (AP)

Pentagon restores mandatory flu shots for all recruits amid boot camp outbreak

1 hr ago - Thu 25 Jun 2026 09.38 EDT Last modified on Thu 25 Jun 2026 13.38 EDT The Pentagon has said that boot camps for all the military services are once again requiring the flu vaccination for all recruits after the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, made the ... (The Guardian/AP)

Apple stock plunges after raising prices on MacBooks, iPads amid global memory crisis

2 hrs ago - The global memory shortage has finally come for Apple (AAPL). The company on Thursday raised the prices of its MacBooks and iPads in an effort to offset the impact of skyrocketing memory and storage ... (Yahoo Finance)

Iran estimates $40 billion windfall from reopening Hormuz with Gulf states

2 hrs ago - 2h MANAMA, Bahrain—Iran is pushing to make billions of dollars from the Strait of Hormuz as the regime positions itself to manage the global oil artery it severed at the start of the war. The Islamic Republic estimates that charging for security ... (msn/WSJ)

Data center energy bill hits speed bump

2 hrs ago - 06/25/2026 08:02 AM EDT A call from a powerful House Democrat to impose a nationwide moratorium on new data center development exposed new divisions in Congress over how aggressively to regulate the fast-moving industry — and whether to act at a ... (Politico)

Harvey Weinstein Rape Case Dropped After Second Hung Jury

3 hrs ago - New York Brief Harvey Weinstein Rape Case Dropped After Second Hung Jury June 25, 2026, 11:00 AM EDT Mike Vilensky Senior Correspondent Harvey Weinstein, former co-chairman of the Weinstein Co., at Manhattan criminal court in New York, US, on Thursda ... (Bloomberg Law)

Obama calls Trump obsession with him 'strange': 'I obviously have a room in his head'

4 hrs ago - Thursday 25 June 2026 06:43 EDT Former president Barack Obama has said he finds Donald Trump’s “obsession” with him and his achievements in office “strange,” claiming: “I obviously have a room in his head.”. Obama w ... (The Independent)

Police charge driver who struck protester outside Delaney Hall, authorities say

5 hrs ago - A driver who hit a protester outside Delaney Hall during a demonstration on Sunday has been charged by police, Newark Public Safety Director Emanuel Miranda announced Wednesday. The 38-year-old Newark man was charged with assault by auto and issued a ... (NJ.com)

Bayer Wins US Legal Shield From Roundup Warning-Label Suits

5 hrs ago - June 25, 2026 at 10:03 AM EDT Updated on June 25, 2026 at 10:49 AM EDT The US Supreme Court shielded Bayer AG from tens of thousands of claims that its Roundup herbicide should have been labeled as a cancer risk in a ruling that will help end a decad ... (Bloomberg)

Federal court blocks Trump's executive order limiting mail ballots

5 hrs ago - June 25, 2026 at 10:53 a.m. EDT A federal judge Thursday blocked key portions of an executive order from President Donald Trump that sought to limit who can receive mail ballots, delivering a setback to the president as he tries to rewrite voting rul ... (Washington Post)

Supreme Court strikes down Hawaii's 'vampire rule' for gun owners

5 hrs ago - June 25, 2026, 10:09 AM EDT / Updated June 25, 2026, 10:41 AM EDT WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a Hawaii gun restriction that limits when people can carry firearms on certain private properties open to the public, saying ... (NBC News)

Supreme Court allows Trump to end TPS for Haitian, Syrian immigrants

5 hrs ago - Posted 10 minutes ago and last updated 8 minutes ago The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the Trump administration can proceed with ending temporary protected status for hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Syria and Haiti. In a six to three ru ... (Scripps News)

Supreme Court clears way for Trump administration to revive restrictive immigration policy

6 hrs ago - Updated 10:22 AM EDT, June 25, 2026 WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court cleared the way Thursday for the Trump administration to potentially revive an immigration policy once used to turn back migrants seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border. ... (AP)

Tulsi Gabbard, her guru and the mysterious messages that helped shape her political career

6 hrs ago - I obtained hundreds of confidential memos detailing politics and policy guidance for Gabbard from her years in Congress, then embarked on a quest to identify who was behind them. ... (WaPo, no paywall)

Empty State Fair Revealed Moments Before Trump Took Stage

6 hrs ago - Updated Jun. 25 2026 6:00AM EDT Published Jun. 24 2026 11:38PM EDT Numbers at President Donald Trump’s much-hyped Great American State Fair appeared underwhelming just moments before the president took the stage on Wednesday night. Reporting ... (Daily Beast)

Federal agents track down Syracuse woman, demand she remove Instagram post about ICE

6 hrs ago - Two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents issued a warning to a Syracuse woman Tuesday to remove a social media account they said threatens federal agents. Paigelynne Gonyea said she believes they are referring to a January post where she n ... (www.syracuse.com)

Trump admin scraps ICE detention warehouse plans after controversy

7 hrs ago - June 25, 2026, 5:08 a.m. ET In the first three months of 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement purchased nearly a dozen commercial warehouses as part of an effort to rapidly expand its detention space. Now, following intense backlash from lo ... (USA Today)

In reversal, Senate votes to block war powers resolution, delivering Trump a win

7 hrs ago - Hours after President Donald Trump blasted Sen. Bill Cassidy for supporting a war powers resolution that narrowly passed the Senate on Tuesday, Cassidy helped to deliver Trump a victory by voting with the majority of Republicans late Wednesday to blo ... (ABC News)

AP Exclusive: Sen. Van Hollen backs El-Sayed for Michigan Senate in break from Democratic leadership

7 hrs ago - WASHINGTON (AP) — Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen is backing progressive Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary, breaking with party leadership and intensifying a battle over the party’s direction in one of the most impo ... (AP)