Spain announced it was installing a 500-meter-long (1,600-foot) containment barrier on the sea border between its North African territory of Ceuta and neighboring Morocco after between 50,000 and 60,000 migrants breached the frontier earlier this week.

The death toll climbed to 67, including some who drowned and others who were killed in a stampede to cross a breakwater barrier, the Spanish government said Saturday.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez slammed the reaction of some other European Union leaders to the events in Ceuta, saying calls for Spain to be suspended from the EU’s borderless Schengen zone were “driven by prejudice, fake news, ignorance, or political interest.”

Donald Trump has been losing his own battle to cut interest rates.

The president likes to vilify high rates as an affront to the size and strength of the U.S. economy, saying that America deserves the cheapest borrowing costs in the world. Trump for months publicly pressured the Federal Reserve to slash its benchmark rates, claiming it would be “Rocket Fuel!” for growth and make housing more affordable.

But since the war in Iran began at the end of February, borrowing money has become more expensive, meaning fewer families can afford mortgages or auto loans. The government is getting squeezed, too — as it has spent $827 billion so far this fiscal year to service the national debt, more than it has devoted to national defense.

Prominent Fox News hosts have expressed concern, bewilderment and frustration over US objectives in Iran

Throughout his two presidencies, Donald Trump has leaned on reliable support from the conservative opinion wing of his favorite cable news channel, Fox News.

But, like a broad swathe of the American public, several traditionally supportive commentators on the channel have recently expressed concerns about whether the war on Iran is succeeding, suggesting that Trump is on increasingly dicey footing in the conservative media world he relies on for backing.

While he isn’t close to losing the support of hosts such as Sean Hannity or Jesse Watters, Trump has received scrutiny from one of the network’s top personalities, Laura Ingraham, who has regularly questioned whether the US has achieved the tactical wins it has claimed in Iran. He has also faced reliable skepticism from one of the network’s most prominent commentators about the armed forces, Johnny “Joey” Jones, a contributor and retired Marine Corps staff sergeant who lost both his legs in combat in Afghanistan.

Whey protein, a key infant formula ingredient, is in growing demand, partly linked to rising use of weight-loss drugs

The rise of “proteinmaxxing” – a trend in which consumers try to eat as much protein as possible – could lead to higher prices for infant formula, experts warn.

Whey protein, a key ingredient in infant formula, has surged in popularity over the past year as health professionals emphasise the benefits of protein.

The growing use of GLP-1 weight-loss medications, which suppress appetite, has also boosted demand for concentrated whey protein – often found in protein shakes and bars – as users seek to preserve muscle mass while losing weight.

Federal government plan outlines cuts of roughly 40% to California, Arizona and Nevada but fix is likely to be only temporary

The US government released its anxiously awaited plan for how to manage the Colorado River crisis on Friday, which includes the potential for harsh cuts in water supplied to California, Arizona and Nevada.

Under the proposal, the so-called lower basin states stand to lose up to 3m acre-feet (3.7bn kiloliters) a year – enough water annually to serve more than 25 million people and roughly 40% of their collective total. The so-called upper basin states – Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming – were spared from mandates restricting their supply.

The Colorado River supplies roughly 40 million people in seven states, two countries and dozens of tribes, and also irrigates 5.5m acres (2.2 hectares) of farmland. The federal government has limited jurisdiction over state-based water policy but is responsible for managing the dams at Lake Powell and Lake Mead, the two key reservoirs that lower basin supplies flow through.

Donald Trump said Thursday he may pull acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s nomination for the full-time post to avoid conceding to Senate Republicans’ demands over a sweeping tax audit immunity deal benefiting the president and members of his family.

After failed negotiations forced the delay of a committee vote to advance Blanche’s nomination, Trump suggested he was holding firm against pressure from Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Thom Tillis. They have expressed concerns about the controversial settlement of Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service, which a judge denounced as an exercise in self-dealing.

The senators said the Justice Department seemed interested in reaching an agreement with them, but the White House wouldn’t budge to aid the confirmation of Trump’s loyal former personal attorney, who has aggressively pursued the administration’s priorities as acting attorney general. Instead, Trump said in a social media post that he might pull Blanche’s nomination and resubmit it after Cornyn and Tillis leave office next year.

Some drowned and others got caught up in crush, official says, as incident prompts criticism by other EU nations

At least 34 people have died trying to reach the Spanish enclave of Ceuta after more than 40,000 migrants entered the tiny territory from Morocco in a matter of hours, triggering a political crisis for the Madrid government and unleashing a barrage of criticism from other EU countries.

The large influx of people arriving in Ceuta by swimming across from neighbouring Morocco or scaling the high border fence has caught the city of 85,000 off guard and resulted in what one local police association has called a “serious humanitarian crisis”.

Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, who arrived in Ceuta on Friday, described the influx as “a violation of Spain’s territorial integrity” and said he would use all the state resources at his disposal to guarantee the safety of the people of Ceuta.

Senior Democrats accused Republicans in the US Congress of becoming “gelatinous blobs” who won’t stand up to Donald Trump and “rubber stamps” for his war on Iran.

Elizabeth Warren, a US senator for Massachusetts, and Chris Van Hollen, a US senator for Maryland, argued that the Republican-controlled Congress had surrendered its constitutional authority to the president.

In interviews with the Guardian, the senators urged their Republican colleagues to stand with Democrats and assert Congress’s authority as a separate branch of the federal government – with power over declaring war.

“The Republicans have all had their spines surgically removed,” Warren said in Michigan, while stumping for the Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. “I mean, they’re just gelatinous blobs that kind of make it through the United States Senate.”

Strike on Terminal Autonomy plant appears to be first time in the war that Moscow has targeted a US company

A drone factory in Kyiv destroyed by a Russian ballistic missile on Friday was owned by a US corporation registered in Delaware, in what appears to be the first time Moscow has targeted a US company in the conflict.

Terminal Autonomy makes precision “deep-strike” drones with guidance systems that are resistant to Russian jamming signals, according to a person familiar with the company.

The phrase “terminal autonomy” refers to the final phase of a kamikaze drone’s attack in which AI takes over control of the weapon after the defending force jams radio waves or mobile service.

Black voters in south motivated to turn out by Republican push to redraw maps after supreme court ruling

A new analysis of Black voters in the south indicates that Republican attempts to dilute their political power is driving them to the polls in larger numbers and shifting their counties further left.

After the supreme court effectively gutted section 2 of the Voting Rights Act protections in late April, Republican legislatures across the south rapidly pushed to disenfranchise Black voters by redrawing congressional maps. Louisiana, Florida, Tennessee and Alabama all immediately worked to pass new maps, while the Mississippi governor has said that he wants legislators to redraw maps before the upcoming midterm elections.

The analysis by VoteHub, a data-focused election organization, indicates that the efforts have only motivated Black voters in the 78 Black belt counties it tracked. All but one shifted left in partisan turnout compared with 2024. Further, majority-Black counties that voted after Louisiana v Callais, the landmark supreme court decision that triggered the Republican-led redistricting efforts, had a surge in voter participation.

Last Wednesday, Lux Claridge planned to speak out against a proposed 1,000 acre data center in their town of Emporia, Kansas. They left in handcuffs after a city commissioner ordered them arrested for clapping.