In a surprising and possibly unlawful act, five state legislators were denied entry Thursday into a taxpayer-funded migrant detention center deep in the Everglades, raising questions about what will happen behind the razor-wire fences that are being erected surrounding the controversial facility the state has named Alligator Alcatraz.

Armed only with state law and a growing list of humanitarian concerns, state Senators Shevrin Jones and Carlos Guillermo Smith, along with Representatives Anna V. Eskamani, Angie Nixon and Michele Rayner, arrived at the gates of the facility to conduct what they saw as a legally authorized inspection.

What they encountered instead was silence, locked doors and a bureaucratic wall. The state’s shifting justification for not letting them in — first a flat denial, then vague “safety concerns” — only fueled suspicions.

FlyUSA, a private aviation provider, gushed in a blog post that with final passage of the unpopular budget reconciliation package, "business jet ownership has never looked more fiscally attractive or more fun to explain to your accountant."

"A corporation purchasing a $50 million private jet could potentially deduct the entire $50 million from their taxes in the year of the purchase, rather than spreading the deduction over many years," Collins wrote. "This amounts to a massive taxpayer subsidy, as ordinary taxpayers pick up the tab for the private jet industry and billionaire high flyers."

The Supreme Court on Thursday afternoon cleared the way for the Trump administration to send a group of immigrants currently being held on a U.S. military base in the east African country of Djibouti to South Sudan. In a brief opinion, the justices made clear that their June 23 order, which paused an order by a federal judge in Massachusetts limiting the government’s ability to deport immigrants to countries that are not specifically identified in their removal orders, applies fully to the eight immigrants in U.S. custody in Djibouti.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented, in an opinion that was joined by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. She argued that Thursday’s order “clarifies only one thing: Other litigants must follow the rules, but the administration has the Supreme Court on speed dial.”

In mid-June, a federal judge issued a stinging rebuke to the Trump administration, declaring that its decision to cancel the funding for many grants issued by the National Institutes of Health was illegal, and suggesting that the policy was likely animated by racism. But the detailed reasoning behind his decision wasn't released at the time. The written portion of the decision was finally issued on Wednesday, and it has a number of notable features.

For starters, it's more limited in scope due to a pair of Supreme Court decisions that were issued in the intervening weeks. As a consequence, far fewer grants will see their funding restored. Regardless, the court continues to find that the government's actions were arbitrary and capricious, in part because the government never bothered to define the problems that would get a grant canceled. As a result, officials within the NIH simply canceled lists of grants they received from DOGE without bothering to examine their scientific merit, and then struggled to retroactively describe a policy that justified the actions afterward—a process that led several of them to resign.

While this governmentwide review will cut only a small fraction of .gov websites, some agencies are making more drastic cuts to their online presence than others.

The Small Business Administration, for example, is planning to eliminate more than half of its total websites. SBA is shuttering websites for defunct pandemic aid programs, and is consolidating some small-business certification websites into MySBA Certifications, a one-stop shop for federal contracting certifications.

The Department of Health and Human Services plans to eliminate more than 7% of its websites. Among them, HHS plans to eliminate vaccines.cdc.gov, a website that tracks the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s state-by-state investments “in achieving national immunization goals and sustaining high-vaccination coverage rates to prevent death and disability” from vaccine-preventable diseases.

Documents obtained by Federal News Network state that vaccines.cdc.gov “is no longer maintained.” HHS also plans to cut 18 webpages that are part of cancer.gov, but the main site would remain.

Dozens of people who help coordinate travel for complex inspections of foreign drug-making factories have been let go, and though some have since been rehired, inspectors said the ongoing strain of policing an industry spread across more than 90 countries has exhausted staff and could compromise the safety of medications used by millions of people.

For years, inspectors have uncovered dirty equipment, contaminated supplies and fraudulent testing records in some overseas factories — serious safety and quality breaches that can sicken or kill consumers. Last month, ProPublica reported that a generic immunosuppression drug for transplant patients could dissolve too quickly when ingested, increasing the risk of kidney failure. The drug was made at an Indian factory with a history of quality violations that was banned from the U.S. market. The company previously told ProPublica it believes the medication is safe.

On the number of potential detainees

Hurwitz: “ICE wants to increase their capacity from about 41,000 people a day to 100,000—that’s pretty significant. To put it in comparison, BOP’s population today is about 155,000. And ICE doesn’t have 122 prisons like BOP has.”

Cho: “This is an extraordinary number of people. ICE is rounding up people through home raids, workplace raids, court check-ins, courthouse arrests, arrests near schools, places of worship. The other thing is that ICE is refusing to release people from detention who have traditionally been released, people who may be eligible for bond and parole, people who are very medically vulnerable, and even people who have won their cases.”

On where the money might end up

Hurwitz: “Remember, ICE doesn’t own prisons. So my guess is the immediate effort will be in contracting with private prison companies or states and localities that have capacity to hold these people.”

The unpopular legislation that set to clear the House Thursday is substantially more expensive than the version the chamber's Republicans approved in May, and it includes roughly $300 billion more in cuts to Medicaid. The bill now heads to the desk of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly pledged not to cut Medicaid.

Analysts estimate that over the next 10 years, roughly 17 million Americans will lose health coverage under the GOP package, both due to the measure's Medicaid cuts and its failure to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies set to expire at the end of the year.

According to new court documents filed on Wednesday as part of a lawsuit his wife brought against the Trump administration, Mr Ábrego García and 20 other detainees were repeatedly beaten when they arrived at El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Centre, or Cecot.

Once there, according to the documents, Mr Ábrego García and 20 other deported inmates "were confined to metal bunks with no mattresses in an overcrowded cell with no windows, bright lights that remained on 24 hours a day, and minimal access to sanitation".

Mr Ábrego García has also alleged that he and the other prisoners were "forced to kneel" from 9 PM to 6 AM, "with guards striking anyone who fell from exhaustion".

At one point, guards allegedly threatened to confine him with gang members who would "tear" him apart.

His mistreatment led to him losing 30lbs (14kg) within the first two weeks of his incarceration in El Salvador, according to the complaint.

A federal judge Wednesday ruled as unlawful an executive order by President Donald Trump that barred asylum by claiming an “invasion” at the southern border and the need to protect states.

“The President cannot adopt an alternative immigration system, which supplants the statutes that Congress has enacted,” District of Columbia U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss wrote in his opinion.

“Here, nothing in the (Immigration and Nationality Act) or the Constitution grants the President or his delegees the sweeping authority asserted in the Proclamation and implementing guidance,” continued Moss, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama.

The order from Moss also prevents the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from enforcing the executive order.

He also agreed to certify a class for potential asylum-seekers, which comes after last week’s Supreme Court ruling that curtailed nationwide injunctions from lower courts. Certifying a class was suggested by the court to give judges an avenue to make an order broader.

The Federal Communications Commission will no longer enforce a rule capping the price of prison phone calls, according to an announcement made Monday by FCC Chairman Brendan Carr.

The move suspends a 2024 FCC decision that capped the price of in-state phone calls at 6 cents minute for prisons and large jails and 7 cents per minute for medium-sized jails. Before the decision, a 15-minute phone call could cost as much as $11.35 at large jails in some states. Under the 2024 rules, those same phone calls would cost 90 cents.

“He didn’t even have to ask me. He has my approval,” Trump said during a roundtable discussion at the immigration detention center in the Everglades.

Unlike federal judges, who work for the judicial branch and are independent of the President, immigration judges work under the direction of the U.S. Attorney General. Because the detention center is built on an old airstrip, DeSantis and others have also said it will speed up the deportation process by allowing the federal government to fly migrants out of the site.

On Tuesday, Senate Republicans passed President Donald Trump’s intensely contested budget bill for the coming fiscal year, returning it to the House in a form that would slash $93 billion from annual federal Medicaid spending across the next decade, require states to implement Medicaid work requirements for adults (with limited exemptions), and strip health insurance from approximately 12 million people.

Trump’s success in attacking Medicaid represents a change from 2017, when disability advocates were able to convince politicians not to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which expanded Medicaid to low-income adults in the 40 states that implemented it. The new bill will undo much of that work in order to fund tax cuts that principally benefit the ultra-rich, with extreme consequences for millions of Americans kicked off insurance rolls.

A U.S. appeals court on Thursday allowed President Donald Trump to remove a Democratic member from a federal labor board while his administration appeals a ruling that said her firing was illegal and had reinstated her.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit paused the lower court decision pending the appeal, saying a law shielding members of the Federal Labor Relations Authority from being removed at will likely violated Trump's broad powers to control the executive branch.

For the past several years, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has been under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for potential foreign corruption violations related to its activities in China and Mexico, according to the company’s financial filings.

But that appears to have changed after the Trump administration tapped Pam Bondi — previously an outside legal counsel for Pfizer — to lead the Justice department as attorney general.

In the company’s most recent annual report, filed three weeks after Bondi took office in early February, there was no longer any reference to the Justice Department investigations into the company’s potential violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practice Act. A quarterly report in May also contains no reference to these investigations.

Speaking on Tuesday on a panel of central bankers organised by the European Central Bank (ECB) in Portugal, Powell said the Fed was waiting to assess the inflationary impact of the president’s trade policies.

“In effect we went on hold when we saw the size of the tariffs,” Powell told the event in Sintra. “Essentially all inflation forecasts for the United States went up materially as a consequence of the tariffs. We didn’t overreact, in fact we didn’t react at all, We’re simply taking some time.”

Asked if the Fed would have cut its key Fed funds rate further, from the current target range of 4.25-4.5%, if it wasn’t for tariffs, Powell said: “I think that’s right.”

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The release of the Guard members comes a day after the Associated Press reported that the top military commander in charge of the task force troops asked whether 200 could be returned to wildfire fighting duty, two U.S. officials told the AP. National Guard members perform a variety of duties, including helping to prevent and fight wildfires through Joint Task Force Rattlesnake.

"At the recommendation of Gen. Gregory M. Guillot, Commander, U.S. Northern Command, and approved by the Secretary of Defense, Task Force 51 will release approximately 150 members of the California National Guard from the Federal Protection mission today," U.S. Northern Command said in a statement. "USNORTHCOM and Task Force 51 are still appropriately sourced to conduct our Federal Protection Mission."

Activation of the National Guard in response to the immigration enforcement protests drew opposition from local and state leaders, including Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. The Guard is usually activated by the governor at the request of local leaders.

Cuts to the weather service by Trump and the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) have left NWS local forecast offices critically understaffed throughout this year’s heightened severe weather. In April, an internal document reportedly described how cuts could create a situation of “degraded” operations – shutting down core services one by one until it reaches an equilibrium that doesn’t overtax its remaining employees.

The changing climate is also making simultaneous weather disasters more likely, such as overlapping tornadoes and flash floods – creating emergency preparedness difficulties and compounding the effects of funding cuts.

Now, additional meteorologists are being remanded from research roles – where they would normally be working to improve techniques and make advances for future years – into the forecasting frontlines in an attempt to fill the staffing gaps.

“The world’s example for weather services is being destroyed,” wrote Chris Vagasky, a meteorologist at the University of Wisconsin, on social media earlier this spring after a round of major changes were announced.

"One of the things I think that is exciting about this is, we're offering up our National Guard and other folks in Florida to be deputized to be immigration judges. We're working with the Department of Justice for the approvals. I'm sure Pam [Bondi] will approve," DeSantis said as Trump nodded his head and said, "Yep."

DeSantis didn't elaborate on who the other "folks" would be.

DeSantis continued, "But then...I'll have a National Guard judge advocate here. Someone has a notice to appear, Biden would tell them to come back in three years and appear. Now, you'll be able to appear in like a day or two. So, they're not going to be detained, hopefully, for all that long."

The Education Department began discontinuing the grants in April, claiming that schools diversifying their pool of psychologists are misusing the funds. President Donald Trump’s January executive order called on programs that foster diversity, equity and inclusion in schools to be cut.

The lawsuit asks the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle to declare the grant terminations unlawful, reinstate the funding and prevent the Education Department “from imposing similar ideological conditions moving forward,” according to a news release from New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Musk wanted legislators to pass new laws that would make it faster and easier for homeowners to install backup power generators, like the kind Tesla makes, on their properties. He wanted them to create new crimes so people who fly drones or interfere with operations at his rocket company SpaceX can be arrested. And he wanted to change who controlled the highway and public beach near SpaceX’s South Texas site so he can launch his rockets according to his timeline.

Musk got them all.

In a Capitol where the vast majority of bills fail to pass, all but three of Musk’s public priorities will become law. The two bills his lobbyists openly opposed are dead, including a measure that would have regulated autonomous vehicles.

But even though the land sales proposal was defeated, experts say federal lands face a slew of other threats from President Donald Trump’s administration. Agency leaders have proposed rolling back the “Roadless Rule” that protects 58 million acres from logging and other uses. Trump’s Justice Department has issued a legal opinion that the president is allowed to abolish national monuments. Regulators have moved to slash environmental rules to ramp up logging and oil and gas production. And Trump’s cuts to the federal workforce have gutted the ranks of the agencies that manage federal lands.

“This is not over even if the sell-off proposal doesn’t make it,” said John Leshy, who served as solicitor for the U.S. Department of the Interior during the Clinton administration. “The whole thing about leasing or selling timber or throwing them open to mining claims, that’s a form of partial privatization. It’s pretty much a giveaway.”

That’s thanks to a new law signed by Gov. Greg Abbott that requires autonomous vehicle companies to get state approval before operating without a driver — and gives the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles authority to revoke that approval if companies don’t follow safety standards.

“Over the past several weeks, I’ve spent a lot of time listening to members of the community, local leaders and stakeholders across the country,” Lee wrote on the social platform X on Saturday. “While there has been a tremendous amount of misinformation — and in some cases, outright lies — about my bill, many people brought forward sincere concerns.”

The provision would have required the Bureau of Land Management to sell as much as 1.225 million acres of public property in 11 Western states. Proponents had argued that the region has a severe shortage of affordable housing and that developers could build new homes on these tracts.

In his post, Lee said that, because of the strict rules governing the budgetary process that Republicans are using to pass the bill, he was “unable to secure clear, enforceable safeguards to guarantee that these lands would be sold only to American families — not to China, not to BlackRock, and not to any foreign interests.”