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Donald Trump is seeking final approval Wednesday in the US Congress for his marquee tax and spending bill, with Republicans pinning their hopes on a narrow victory that will help seal the president’s legacy.The party’s senators passed the sprawling package by a tie-breaking vote Tuesday after a bruising 27 hours of infighting over provisions set to balloon the national debt while launching a historic assault on the social safety net.It was originally approved by the House of Representatives in May but must return for a rubber stamp of the Senate’s revisions — and success is far from guaranteed.House Speaker Mike Johnson is facing down rebels on all sides of his fractious party, and the voting timetable has been thrown into doubt by thunderstorms in Washington that are threatening attendance.”This bill is President Trump’s agenda, and we are making it law,” Johnson said in a statement, projecting confidence that Republicans were “ready to finish the job.”The package honors many of Trump’s campaign promises, boosting military spending, funding a mass migrant deportation drive and committing $4.5 trillion to extend his first-term tax relief.But it is estimated to pile an extra $3.4 trillion over a decade onto the country’s ballooning debt, while forcing through the largest cuts to the Medicaid health insurance program since its 1960s launch.Fiscal hawks in the House, meanwhile, are chafing over spending cuts that they say fall short of what they were promised by hundreds of billions of dollars.Johnson has to negotiate incredibly tight margins, and can likely only lose three lawmakers among more than two dozen who have declared themselves open to rejecting the bill.- Canceled flights -Lawmakers were aiming to return from recess Wednesday morning to begin voting, although they have a cushion of two days before Trump’s self-imposed July 4 deadline.But severe weather prompted the cancelation of more than 300 flights into Reagan National Airport in the 24 hours before Congress gaveled in, according to the flight-tracking service FlightAware.Several lawmakers booked alternative flights or embarked on long road journeys to the US capital, but Johnson has warned that travel issues could still push back the vote to Thursday.The 887-page text only passed in the Senate after a flurry of tweaks that pulled the House-passed text further to the right.Republicans lost one conservative who was angry about adding to the country’s $37 trillion debt burden and two moderates worried about almost $1 trillion in health care cuts.Some estimates put the total number of recipients set to lose their health insurance at 17 million, while scores of rural hospitals are expected to close.Meanwhile changes to federal nutrition assistance are set to strip millions of the poorest Americans of their access to the program.Republicans Chip Roy and Ralph Norman — angry over provisions adding to the deficit and softening of cuts to clean energy tax credits — voted against the bill as it narrowly passed the powerful Rules Committee overnight.Johnson will be banking on Trump leaning on waverers, as he has in the past to turn around contentious House votes that were headed for failure.Desperate for what might end up being the only landmark legislative achievement of his second term, the president has spent weeks cajoling Republicans torn between angering welfare recipients at home and incurring his wrath.The president pressured House Republicans to get the bill over the line in a post on his Truth Social platform Wednesday that set out what he saw as the sky-high stakes.”Our Country will make a fortune this year, more than any of our competitors, but only if the Big, Beautiful Bill is PASSED!” he said.House Democrats have signaled that they plan to campaign on the bill to flip the chamber in the 2026 midterms, pointing to analyses showing that it represents a historic redistribution of wealth from the poorest Americans to the richest.”Shame on Senate Republicans for passing this disgusting abomination,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters.

The US private sector unexpectedly lost jobs in June, according to data from payroll firm ADP on Wednesday, a potential sign of labor market weakness amid uncertainty from President Donald Trump’s tariffs.It was the first such decline in recent years, in data that will be scrutinized ahead of government employment numbers due to be released a day later.As companies grapple with uncertainty from Trump’s shifting tariff policies — alongside supply chain disruptions and added cost pressures — analysts are watching for signs that the world’s biggest economy may be less solid than expected.Private sector employment declined by 33,000 last month, ADP said, while job growth in May was revised lower to 29,000.”Though layoffs continue to be rare, a hesitancy to hire and a reluctance to replace departing workers led to job losses last month,” ADP chief economist Nela Richardson said in a statement.But she maintained that the hiring slowdown “has yet to disrupt pay growth.”The losses came about in areas like professional and business services, alongside education and health services.But sectors like leisure and hospitality, alongside manufacturing, showed gains, ADP said.Meanwhile, pay growth held steady, according to the report.For those who remained in their jobs, annual pay gains were little-changed at 4.4 percent. Increases for those who changed jobs was 6.8 percent in June, slowing slightly.The last massive contraction in private sector employment came about during the pandemic, while ADP historical data indicates a smaller loss in early 2023.Analysts have cautioned that the ADP data sometimes differ significantly from official numbers.But the decline still marked a concerning development, they said.Since returning to the presidency, Trump has imposed a sweeping 10 percent tariff on almost all US trading partners and higher levels on imports of steel, aluminum and autos.The president’s approach of unveiling, then adjusting or pausing duties, has also sent shocks through supply chains.- ‘Startling’ -“The ADP headline figure is well below market expectations, and the optics of a decline is startling,” said Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics.”Whether this report is accurate or not, traders and investors will read today’s number as a dark result for trading today,” he added in a note.Among different types of companies, the decline in June was riven by smaller and medium-sized businesses, ADP data showed.”We could be in for a downside surprise in Thursday’s official jobs report,” warned LPL Financial chief economist Jeffrey Roach.While he believes ADP’s forecasting value is “minimal on a monthly basis,” it can be helpful in determining long term trends.Adam Sarhan from 50 Park Investments said it is the first time in recent months that the US jobs market has disappointed and contracted.”That is worrisome because up until now unemployment has been low and jobs have been strong and growing,” Sarhan said.Weinberg cautioned that companies are likely to respond to the chances of a tariff-induced hike in costs by “becoming more aggressive about trimming their workforces.””This may be the tip of an iceberg, but it also could be a false start,” he said.

Australia has cancelled US rapper Kanye West’s visa over his song glorifying Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, the government said Wednesday.The 48-year-old musician, who has legally changed his name to Ye, released “Heil Hitler” on May 8, the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.West — whose wife Bianca Censori is Australian — has been coming to Australia for some time because he has family in the country, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said.”He’s made a lot of offensive comments. But my officials looked at it again once he released the ‘Heil Hitler’ song and he no longer has a valid visa in Australia.”Burke said the rapper’s cancelled visa was not intended for holding concerts.”It was a lower level, and the officials still looked at the law and said: You’re going to have a song and promote that sort of Nazism — we don’t need that in Australia,” he told public broadcaster ABC.Asked if it was sustainable to bar such a popular figure, the minister said: “I think what’s not sustainable is to import hatred.”But he said immigration officials reassess each visa application.- ‘Importing bigotry’ -Australian citizens have freedom of speech, Burke added.”But we have enough problems in this country already without deliberately importing bigotry.”Kanye West’s “Heil Hitler” song stirred public opposition last week in Slovakia when it was announced he would be playing a concert there in July.More than 3,000 people signed a petition against West’s performance in the Slovak capital.The rapper — a vocal supporter of US President Donald Trump — is “repeatedly and openly adhering to symbols and ideology connected with the darkest period of modern global history”, two groups behind the petition said.”Kanye West’s concert in our city and our country is an insult to historic memory, a glorification of wartime violence and debasement of all victims of the Nazi regime,” the petition read.In the “Heil Hitler” clip, dozens of Black men — wearing animal pelts and masks, and standing in a block formation — chant the title of the song, as West raps about being misunderstood and about his custody battle with ex-wife Kim Kardashian.The song ends with an extract of a speech by the Nazi dictator.West has also publicly endorsed fellow rapper and music mogul Sean Combs, who has been tried in New York for alleged sex trafficking and racketeering. The jury in that case is considering its verdict.

The White House said Tuesday it is halting some key weapons shipments to Ukraine that were promised under the Biden administration for Kyiv’s battle against the Russian invasion.Stopping the delivery of munitions and other military aid including air defense systems likely would be a blow to Ukraine as it contends with some of Russia’s largest missile and drone attacks of the three-year-old war. “This decision was made to put America’s interests first following a DOD (Department of Defense) review of our nation’s military support and assistance to other countries across the globe,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly told AFP in an email.The curtailment of military aid signals a possible shift in the priorities of US President Donald Trump, who has pressed for Russia and Ukraine to speed up stalled peace talks. The Republican has moved on to playing a greater role in orchestrating a possible ceasefire in Gaza and toning down Iran-Israel tensions after a deadly 12-day conflict between the arch foes.The Pentagon review determined that stocks had become too low on some previously pledged munitions, and that some pending shipments now would not be sent, said a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity, according to Politico, which first reported the halt of military aid.”The strength of the United States Armed Forces remains unquestioned — just ask Iran,” Kelly said, making a reference to the recent US bombings and missile strikes against the Islamic republic’s nuclear facilities.Politico and other US media reported that missiles for Patriot air defense systems, precision artillery and Hellfire missiles are among the items being held back.Michael McFaul, who was the US ambassador to Russia from 2012 until just before the Crimea conflict began in 2014, said on X: “The Trump administration is even stopping delivery of Patriots? So disgusting and embarrassing as the ‘leader of the free world.’ I guess we are done with that.”Last week at a NATO summit in the Netherlands, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with Trump and appeared to get a vague response from the US leader on Patriot air defense systems.”We’re going to see if we can make some available,” Trump said of the missiles that Kyiv desperately seeks to shoot down Russian attacks. “They’re very hard to get,” Trump added.- Thousands of drones -A Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s Kharkiv region killed one person and wounded another, its governor said early Wednesday.The attack follows Ukrainian drone strikes which killed three people and wounded dozens in the Russian city of Izhevsk on Tuesday, striking more than 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) from the front line — one of the deepest attacks inside Russia to date.An AFP analysis published Tuesday found that Russia dramatically ramped up aerial attacks in June, firing thousands of drones as Ukraine’s stretched air defense systems and exhausted civilian population felt the Kremlin’s increased pressure.An April report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) found that Ukraine is being outgunned by Russia, despite spending more of its GDP on defense than any other country in the world.Ukraine’s military expenditure in 2024 was $64.7 billion, SIPRI said, and Kyiv has relied heavily on its allies in Europe and the United States for weapons and aid. Russian leader Vladimir Putin blamed the West for fanning the flames of war with that support, telling French president Emmanuel Macron Tuesday that the West has “for many years ignored Russia’s security interests.”The White House’s tone has openly shifted on Ukraine with the Trump presidency. Back in 2022, then president Joe Biden affectionately embraced Zelensky at the White House as his administration announced another $2 billion in weapons for Ukraine.During Zelensky’s Washington visit earlier this year, he was belittled on-camera by Trump and Vice President JD Vance during an Oval Office meeting, who ganged up to accuse the Ukrainian leader of ingratitude. Asked by AFP for comment on the halt of shipments and why it was occurring, the Pentagon did not respond directly. But its chief spokesman Sean Parnell said “America’s military has never been more ready and more capable thanks to President Trump and Secretary (Pete) Hegseth’s leadership.”

Jurors in the trial of music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs head back into deliberations Wednesday, aiming to reach a unanimous decision on the case’s most serious charge of leading a criminal organization.The New York jury of eight men and four women have already come to agreement on four of the five charges — those that pertain to sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution — but told the court Tuesday there were “unpersuadable opinions on both sides” concerning the first count of racketeering.That charge paints Combs as the boss of a decades-long criminal group who directed loyal employees and bodyguards to commit myriad offenses at his behest.The alleged crimes include forced labor, drug distribution, kidnapping, bribery, witness tampering and obstruction, arson, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.To find Combs guilty of racketeering, jurors would need to find the existence of a criminal enterprise and that the organization committed at least two of the offenses.Days ahead of the July Fourth holiday weekend jurors announced the partial verdict — but Judge Arun Subramanian instructed them to keep working to complete it.He reiterated instructions that they had a duty to carefully consider the case as a team.Only jury members know the verdicts they’ve reached on counts two, three, four and five.Combs, once one of the most powerful figures in the music industry, vehemently denies all charges.- ‘Remarkably efficient’ -Jurors began deliberating on Monday late morning after the judge read them nearly three hours of instructions on how to apply the mountain of evidence and testimony in the case to the law.Up until Tuesday afternoon, all the jury notes concerned legal questions, and a request for portions of testimony.The note announcing a partial verdict brought new tension to the courtroom. Legal teams scrutinized it before it was read aloud. The defense team was seen huddling around a visibly anxious Combs.He alternated between hanging his head, staring straight ahead and rubbing his temples with his hand shielding his eyes.That jurors have reached a verdict on four of the five accounts is “remarkably efficient,” as defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo put it in court after the note was read aloud.The seven-week trial included at-times disturbing testimony along with thousands of pages of phone, financial and audiovisual records.Combs is charged with sex trafficking two women: singer Casandra Ventura and a woman who testified under the pseudonym Jane.Both were in long-term relationships with the entrepreneur and hip hop powerhouse, and they each testified about abuse, threats and coercive sex in wrenching detail.They both said they felt obligated to participate in Combs-directed sexual marathons with hired men.Combs’s lawyers insist that sex was consensual. They concede domestic violence was a feature of his relationships — one harrowing example of him beating and dragging Ventura was caught on security footage that has been widely publicized.Yet while disturbing, that doesn’t amount to sex trafficking, the defense says.But prosecutors in their final argument tore into Combs’s team, who they said had “contorted the facts endlessly.””In his mind he was untouchable,” prosecutor Maurene Comey told the court. “The defendant never thought that the women he abused would have the courage to speak out loud what he had done to them.”

A week before US President Donald Trump reimposes steep tariffs on dozens of economies, including the EU and Japan, many are still scrambling to reach a deal that would protect them from the worst.The tariffs taking effect July 9 are part of a package Trump imposed in April citing a lack of “reciprocity” in trading ties.He slapped a 10 percent levy on most partners, with higher customized rates to kick in later in countries the United States has major trade deficits with.But these were halted until July to allow room for negotiations.Analysts expect countries will encounter one of three outcomes: They could reach a framework for an agreement; receive an extended pause on higher tariffs; or see levies surge.- ‘Framework’ deals -“There will be a group of deals that we will land before July 9,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent last Friday on CNBC.Policymakers have not named countries in this group, although Bessent maintains that Washington has been focused on striking deals with about 18 key partners.”Vietnam, India and Taiwan remain promising candidates for a deal,” Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) vice president Wendy Cutler told AFP.Without a deal, Vietnam’s “reciprocal tariff” rises from the baseline of 10 percent to 46 percent, India’s to 26 percent and Taiwan’s to 32 percent.Josh Lipsky, international economics chair at the Atlantic Council, cited Indian negotiators’ extension of their US trip recently in noting that it “seems like a frontrunner.””Japan was in that category, but things have set back a little,” Lipsky said, referring to Trump’s criticism Monday over what the president called Japan’s reluctance to accept US rice exports.The deals, however, will unlikely be full-fledged trade pacts, analysts said, citing complexities in negotiating such agreements.Since April, Washington has only announced a pact with Britain and a deal to temporarily lower tit-for-tat duties with China.- Extended pause -Bessent has also said that countries “negotiating in good faith” can have their tariffs remain at the 10 percent baseline.But extensions of the pause on higher rates would depend on Trump, he added.”With a new government, (South) Korea looks well positioned to secure an extension,” Cutler of ASPI said.Lipsky expects many countries to fall into this bucket, receiving an extended halt on higher tariffs that could last until Labor Day, which falls on September 1.Bessent earlier said that Washington could wrap up its agenda for trade deals by Labor Day, a signal that more agreements could be concluded but with talks likely to extend past July.- Tariff reimposition -For countries that the United States finds “recalcitrant,” however, tariffs could spring back to the higher levels Trump previously announced, Bessent has warned.These range from 11 percent to 50 percent.Cutler warned that “Japan’s refusal to open its rice market, coupled with the US resistance to lowering automotive tariffs, may lead to the reimposition of Japan’s 24 percent reciprocal tariff.”Trump himself said Tuesday that a trade deal was unlikely with Japan and the country could pay a tariff of “30 percent, 35 percent, or whatever the number is that we determine.”Lipsky believes the European Union is at risk of having tariffs snap back to steeper levels too — to the 20 percent unveiled in April or the 50 percent Trump more recently threatened.An area of tension could be Europe’s approach to digital regulation.Trump recently said he would terminate trade talks with Canada — which is not impacted by the July 9 deadline — in retaliation for the country’s digital services tax, which Ottawa eventually said it would rescind.This week, EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic is in Washington in a push to seal a trade deal, with the EU commission having received early drafts of proposals that officials are working on.

The United States, Japan, India and Australia pledged Tuesday to work together to ensure a stable supply of critical minerals, as worries grow over China’s dominance in resources vital to new technologies.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio welcomed his counterparts from the so-called “Quad” to Washington in a shift of focus to Asia, after spending much of his first six months on the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and on President Donald Trump’s domestic priorities such as migration.The four countries said in a joint statement that they were establishing the Quad Critical Minerals Initiative, aimed at “collaborating on securing and diversifying” supply chains.They offered little detail but made clear the goal was to reduce reliance on China, which has used restrictions as leverage as the United States in turn curbs its access to semiconductors and as Trump threatens steep tariffs — including on Quad countries.”Reliance on any one country for processing and refining critical minerals and derivative goods production exposes our industries to economic coercion, price manipulation and supply chain disruptions,” the statement said.The ministers were careful not to mention China by name but voiced “serious concerns regarding dangerous and provocative actions” in the South China Sea and East China Sea that “threaten peace and stability in the region.”China holds major reserves of several key minerals including the vast majority of the world’s graphite, which is crucial for electric vehicles.In brief remarks alongside the other ministers, Rubio said he has “personally been very focused” on diversifying supply chains and wanted “real progress.”- US refocus on Asia -The four-way partnership was first conceived by late Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, who saw an alliance of democracies surrounding China — which has repeatedly alleged that the Quad is a way to contain it.Rubio had welcomed the Quad foreign ministers on January 21 in his first meeting after Trump’s inauguration, seen as a sign the new administration would prioritize engagement with like-minded countries to counter China.But to the surprise of many, China has not topped the early agenda of Trump, who has spoken respectfully about his counterpart Xi Jinping and reached a truce with Beijing to avoid a wider trade war between the world’s two largest economies.Trump is expected to travel to India later this year for a Quad summit. Both the Indian and Japanese foreign ministers said that they wanted the Quad to focus on a “free and open Indo-Pacific” — a phrasing that is a veiled allusion to opposing Chinese dominance in Asia.”It is essential that nations of the Indo-Pacific have the freedom of choice, so essential to make right decisions on development and security,” Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said.At Jaishankar’s urging, the Quad condemned a May attack on the Indian side of Kashmir that killed mostly Hindu civilians and called for “the perpetrators, organizers and financiers of this reprehensible act to be brought to justice without any delay.”India in May launched air strikes in Pakistan, which it blamed for the attack. Pakistan denied responsibility and responded with its own attacks on the Indian military.In a key concern for Japan, the Quad condemned North Korea for its “destabilizing launches” of missiles and insisted on its “complete denuclearization.”Trump, in one of the most startling moves of his first term, met with North Korea’s reclusive leader Kim Jong Un, helping ease tensions but producing no lasting agreement.Despite common ground on China, Quad members have differed on other hotspots, with the joint statement not mentioning Ukraine or Iran.India has maintained its long relationship with Russia despite the invasion of Ukraine, while both India and Japan also have historically enjoyed cordial ties with Iran.

A son of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has agreed to plead guilty to drug trafficking in the United States as part of a plea deal, court documents show.Ovidio Guzman is accused of conspiring to ship cocaine, fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana into the United States, via a faction of the notorious Sinaloa Cartel founded by his father.Federal court documents dated June 30 and signed by Ovidio Guzman, alias “Raton” (Mouse), say he wishes to plead guilty to settle the case and to waive trial in Illinois, where he is being held. According to documents from the Chicago court hearing his case, a plea hearing is scheduled for July 9 before Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman. After that hearing, the judge will sentence him at a date yet to be determined.US authorities accuse Ovidio and his three brothers of leading Los Chapitos, a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel designated by the Trump administration as a global “terrorist” organization. The United States accuses the four of trafficking fentanyl into the United States, where the opioid epidemic is linked to tens of thousands of deaths.Ovidio Guzman was extradited to the United States in 2023 to face narcotics charges, joining his father, one of the world’s most infamous drug traffickers, who is serving a life sentence in a US prison.The Sinaloa cartel is one of six Mexican drug trafficking groups designated terrorist organizations by US President Donald Trump.Another son, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, was arrested after arriving in the United States last July in a private plane with cartel co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, who claimed he had been kidnapped.The arrests sparked cartel infighting that has left more than 1,200 people dead and 1,400 missing in Sinaloa state, located in northwestern Mexico.On Monday, the bodies of 20 people, several of them decapitated, were found on a highway bridge in a part of Mexico where factions of the Sinaloa drug cartel are fighting, authorities said.

A jury reached a partial verdict Tuesday in the sex trafficking trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs, but the panel was as of yet unable to agree on the most serious charge facing the music mogul — racketeering.Judge Arun Subramanian instructed the 12 New Yorkers considering Combs’s fate to keep working on that charge, and in the meantime the verdicts on the other counts will remain under wraps and only known to the jurors themselves.”We have reached a verdict on counts 2, 3, 4 and 5. We are unable to reach a verdict on count 1 as we have jurors with unpersuadable opinions on both sides,” the jury of eight men and four women said in a note read aloud in court.The jury will return to the deliberation room on Wednesday morning.It was a dramatic development in a case that jurors only began considering together midday Monday. They must reach a unanimous decision to either acquit or convict.Before the note was read aloud in court, the defense team huddled around Combs, who looked visibly anxious, alternating between hanging his head, staring straight ahead and rubbing his temples with his hand shielding his eyes. At times his fingers shook, and at one point he turned to wave to his daughters, one of whom waved back.And Combs — who was once one of the most powerful figures in the music industry — stared at the jurors intently as they filed into the courtroom to hear the judge’s response to their note, which was agreed upon by both parties.Count One is the racketeering charge and accuses Combs of being the ringleader of a decades-long criminal organization that saw him direct loyal employees and bodyguards to commit myriad crimes at his behest.Those alleged crimes include forced labor, drug distribution, kidnapping, bribery, witness tampering and obstruction, arson, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.To find Combs guilty of racketeering, jurors would need to find the existence of a criminal enterprise and that the organization commited at least two of the offenses listed above.A conviction would carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.”It is your duty as jurors to consult with one another and to deliberate with a view to reaching an agreement,” the judge told jurors, in repeating the instructions he gave them on Monday.”Each of you must decide the case for himself or herself, but you should do so only after a consideration of the case with your fellow jurors, and you should not hesitate to change an opinion when convinced that it is erroneous.”- ‘Remarkably efficient’ -In addition to racketeering, Combs faces two charges of sex trafficking and two charges of transportation for purposes of prostitution.That jurors have reached a verdict on four of the five accounts is “remarkably efficient,” as defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo put it in court after the note was read aloud.The seven-week trial included at times disturbing testimony along with thousands of pages of phone, financial and audiovisual records.Combs is charged with sex trafficking two women: Ventura and a woman who testified under the pseudonym Jane.Both were in long-term relationships with Combs, and they each testified about abuse, threats and coercive sex in wrenching detail.But while his lawyers have conceded that Combs at times beat his partners, they insisted the domestic violence does not amount to sex trafficking, and vehemently deny that Combs led a criminal conspiracy.Agnifilo scoffed at the picture painted by prosecutors of a violent, domineering man who fostered “a climate of fear.”Combs is a “self-made, successful Black entrepreneur” who had romantic relationships that were “complicated” but consensual, Agnifilo said.The defense dissected the accounts of Ventura and Jane and at times even mocked them, insisting the women were adults making free choices.But in their final argument, prosecutors tore into the defense, saying Combs’s team had “contorted the facts endlessly.”Prosecutor Maurene Comey told jurors that by the time Combs had committed his clearest-cut offenses, “he was so far past the line he couldn’t even see it.””In his mind he was untouchable,” Comey told the court. “The defendant never thought that the women he abused would have the courage to speak out loud what he had done to them.””That ends in this courtroom,” she said. “The defendant is not a god.”

The University of Pennsylvania has agreed to ban transgender athletes from its women’s sports teams, settling a federal civil rights case stemming from the furor around swimmer Lia Thomas, the US government said Tuesday.The US Department of Education said in a statement that UPenn had entered into a resolution agreement vowing to comply with Title IX, the federal law which prohibits sex-based discrimination in any educational program.It follows an investigation by the department’s Office for Civil Rights which found the university had violated Title IX by allowing transgender swimmer Thomas to compete in women’s competitions in 2021-2022.US President Donald Trump, who campaigned on the issue of trans athletes, has worked to prohibit them from competing in girls and women’s sports since returning to office.Trump issued an executive order in February aimed at banning transgender athletes, allowing federal agencies to halt funding to any institution that does not consider birth-assigned genders in determining sex.US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement on Tuesday the resolution of the UPenn case marked a “great victory for women and girls … across our nation.””The Department commends UPenn for rectifying its past harms against women and girls, and we will continue to fight relentlessly to restore Title IX’s proper application and enforce it to the fullest extent of the law.”Under the terms of the settlement, UPenn will restore all individual swimming records and titles to female athletes affected by Thomas’s participation.The university will also send a “personalized letter of apology” to each swimmer impacted by the case.The college will also be required to issue a public statement specifying it will “not allow males to compete in female athletic programs” or use Penn Athletics facilities for women, such as locker rooms.Thomas became a lightning rod around the debate of transgender athletes in women’s sport after competing in female collegiate competitions in 2022. She had earlier swam on UPenn’s men’s team while undergoing hormone replacement therapy. Her participation in women’s events sparked widespread outrage, with critics and some fellow swimmers saying she should not have been allowed to compete due to an unfair physiological advantage. Her supporters argued she should be allowed to compete as a woman.One of Thomas’s competitors, Riley Gaines, welcomed Tuesday’s announcement.Gaines has been a long-time critic of Thomas’s participation in women’s collegiate swimming, and tied for fifth place with her in the 200-yard freestyle at a national collegiate meeting in 2022.”It is my hope that today demonstrates to educational institutions that they will no longer be allowed to trample upon women’s civil rights, and renews hope in every female athlete that their country’s highest leadership will not relent until they have the dignity, safety, and fairness they deserve,” Gaines said in a statement.