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Over two dozen Senate Democrats are demanding that the Trump administration lead an independent investigation into the killing of Palestinian American Sayfollah Musallet by Israeli settlers earlier this month, calling out the U.S. government’s historic failure to act on other Israeli killings of Americans like Shireen Abu Akleh and Ayșenur Ezgi Eygi.

In a letter sent to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday, the lawmakers note that Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank has reached new heights amid Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The Trump administration has not only refused to condemn such violence, but has fueled it, empowering settler groups previously sanctioned by the Biden administration.

Since 2022, at least seven American citizens have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank, but the U.S. government has refused to investigate those deaths, instead deferring to Israel’s own shoddy probes into the killings.

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The United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy will hold an emergency call on Friday to talk about the deteriorating conditions in Gaza as more than 100 aid groups warn mass starvation is fast approaching, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Thursday.

"The suffering and starvation unfolding in Gaza is unspeakable and indefensible. While the situation has been grave for some time, it has reached new depths and continues to worsen. We are witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe," Starmer said.

"We will discuss what we can do urgently to stop the killing and get people the food they desperately need while pulling together all the steps necessary to build a lasting peace. We all agree on the pressing need for Israel to change course and allow the aid that is desperately needed to enter Gaza without delay," Starmer said.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday, "It is essential to build the State of Palestine, ensure its viability, and enable it, by accepting its demilitarization and fully recognizing Israel, to contribute to the security of all in the Middle East."

"There must be an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages, and massive humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. It is also necessary to ensure the demilitarization of Hamas, secure and rebuild Gaza," Macron continued.

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President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday submitted a new bill that would restore the independence of Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies in an effort to defuse tensions following his approval earlier this week of a controversial law that weakened their autonomy.

The previous bill was seen as undermining the agencies’ independence and sparked a public outcry and protests, the first major demonstrations since the war began, as well as sharp criticism from the European Union.

Zelenskyy said parliament would review the new bill, which “guarantees real strengthening of Ukraine’s law enforcement system, the independence of anti-corruption bodies, and reliable protection of the legal system from any Russian interference.”

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Donald Trump apparently isn’t the only president that sent a birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein. “The biggest name in the album” was Bill Clinton, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The ex-president’s letter appeared alongside nearly 50 others, including other prominent celebrities and executives.

Last week, the Journal reported that Trump had authored a “bawdy” letter to Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 after he was arrested on federal sex-trafficking charges. The letter was included in an album Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell compiled on the occasion of his 50th birthday in 2003. Trump has sued Rupert Murdoch, two Wall Street Journal newspaper reporters and the newspaper’s publisher Dow Jones for libel and slander over the reporting.

In Thursday’s article, the Wall Street Journal provided additional details on the album, including names of some of the nearly 50 people who wrote to Epstein. They reportedly include billionaire investor Leon Black, fashion designer Vera Wang, billionaire media owner Mortimer Zuckerman, billionaire former Victoria’s Secret owner Les Wexner, attorney Alan Dershowitz, model scout Jean-Luc Brunel and billionaire former Microsoft executive Nathan Myhrvold.

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US President Donald Trump has spent months attacking the head of the US central bank on social media and in remarks to reporters, calling Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell names like "numbskull".

On Thursday, the dishttps://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1ljlvg1e7eopute played out in person, with cameras rolling, as the two men clashed over the cost of building renovations.

The tense moment came as Trump has been escalating his pressure on Powell, who Trump says is moving too slowly to cut interest rates.

He has repeatedly floated the possibility of firing Powell, only to quickly disavow the idea, which analysts say would rock financial markets and spark a legal battle.

Trump's visit to the Federal Reserve is the first by a sitting president in roughly two decades.

It comes ahead of the Fed's meeting in Washington next week, where policymakers are widely expected to vote to leave interest rates unchanged.

Speaking to reporters at the start of his tour, Trump said that the administration was "taking a look at what's happening" at the Fed's $2.7bn (£1.8bn) renovation.

"It looks like it's about $3.1bn," Trump said, as Powell shook his head.

"I'm not aware of that," Powell shot back. "I haven't heard that from anybody at the Fed."

Trump then produced a document from his jacket pocket, which Powell briefly read and brusquely handed back to the president, saying that Trump was "adding a third building" to the total.

"It's a building that's been built," Trump said.

Powell responded: "It's a building that was built five years ago... it's not new."

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New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor, Alina Habba, on Thursday said she would continue on in the position despite a judicial decision declining to extend her interim status and instead opting to replace her.

She doubled down in her first remarks since the decision, declaring that she is now the state’s acting U.S. attorney.

“Donald J. Trump is the 47th President. Pam Bondi is the Attorney General. And I am now the Acting United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey,” Habba said in a statement posted to the social platform X. “I don’t cower to pressure. I don’t answer to politics. This is a fight for justice. And I’m all in.”

A Justice Department official said that Trump withdrew her nomination to be the state’s U.S. attorney and she was appointed first assistant U.S. attorney, meaning she becomes acting U.S. attorney because the position is now vacant.

The announcement comes hours after Desiree Grace, the attorney tapped by the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey judges to succeed Habba, said she was prepared to assume the role, elevating the standoff to new heights.

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The Supreme Court on Thursday halted an appeals ruling that prevents private groups from challenging election maps under the Voting Rights Act in seven states.

Neither the majority nor the three public dissenters — conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch — explained their reasoning.

The case arose from a lawsuit brought by two Native American tribes, who argue that North Dakota’s state legislative map denied them an equal opportunity to elect their candidates of choice. 

The case entered the national spotlight after an 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled 2-1 that the tribes and other private parties have no legal right to enforce Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. It mimicked an earlier 8th Circuit ruling concerning a redistricting case in Arkansas.Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. It mimicked an earlier 8th Circuit ruling concerning a redistricting case in Arkansas.

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French President Emmanuel Macron announced Thursday that France will recognize Palestine as a state, in a bold diplomatic move amid snowballing global anger over people starving in Gaza. Israel denounced the decision.

Macron said in a post on X that he will formalize the decision at the United Nations General Assembly in September. “The urgent thing today is that the war in Gaza stops and the civilian population is saved,” he wrote.

The mostly symbolic move puts added diplomatic pressure on Israel as the war and humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip rage. France is now the biggest Western power to recognize Palestine, and the move could pave the way for other countries to do the same. More than 140 countries recognize a Palestinian state, including more than a dozen in Europe.

he Palestinians seek an independent state in the occupied West Bank, annexed east Jerusalem and Gaza, territories Israel occupied in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel’s government and most of its political class have long been opposed to Palestinian statehood and now say that it would reward militants after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

‘’We strongly condemn President Macron’s decision,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. ‘’Such a move rewards terror and risks creating another Iranian proxy, just as Gaza became. A Palestinian state in these conditions would be a launch pad to annihilate Israel — not to live in peace beside it.”

The Palestinian Authority welcomed it. A letter announcing the move was presented Thursday to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Jerusalem.

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