Trump says nuclear submarines are 'in the region' amid tension with Russia

Trump says nuclear submarines are 'in the region' amid tension with Russia

WASHINGTON −President Donald Trumpsays the nuclear submarineshe said he was deployingin response to threatening comments from Russia's former president are "in the region." Trump also signaled that he's preparing to hit Moscowwith economic sanctionsover its war against Ukraine. "I've already put out a statement, the answer is, they are in the region," Trump told reporters traveling with him in New Jersey before he boarded Air Force One. Trump ordered two nuclear submarines to the "appropriate region" on Aug. 1 after former Russian President Dmitry Medvedevreferenced Soviet-era nuclear strike capabilitiesin a social media post that heightened tension with the U.S. leader. The dispute stemmed from Trump's ultimatum to Russia last month: make peace with Ukraine orbrace for sanctions and secondary tariffsaimed at choking off the country's oil revenue. He gave Russian PresidentVladimir Putina 50 day-deadline, whichhe later revisedto Aug. 8. Trump offers Putin an ultimatum:Senate pressure builds to sanction Russia The president told reporters on Aug. 3 that if the deadline arrives and Russia has not agreed to a ceasefire, "there'll be sanctions." "But they seem to be pretty good at avoiding sanctions," he added. "You know, they're wily characters. ... So we'll see what happens." Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff had been expected to visit Russia before the deadline, but the president signaled to reporters that trip had not yet taken place. He said Witkoff is currently focusedon addressing starvation in Gaza, but could go to Russia later in the week. Trump says he ordered 2 nuclear subs:They're heading to 'appropriate regions' after Russia nuclear threats The president stressed the need for a deal in Ukraine in which people stop being killed. "And now we're adding towns, where they're being hit by missiles," Trump said. Medvedevserves asdeputy chairman of Russia's Security Council. He said in a July 28post on Xthat Trump should remember that "each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war. Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with his own country." Trump hit back in a Truth Social post that said: "Tell Medvedev, the failed former President of Russia, who thinks he's still President, to watch his words. He's entering very dangerous territory!" After Medvedev said Trump should remember "how dangerous the fabled 'Dead Hand' can be," in a post on the messaging app Telegram that referenced the Soviet Union's doomsday nuclear system, the U.S. president said he would reposition the submarines. Calling the comments "highly provocative," Trump said on Truth Social that he was taking action, "just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that." This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Trump deploys nuclear submarines amid tension with Russia

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August 03, 2025

Trump says nuclear submarines are 'in the region' amid tension with Russia

Trump says nuclear submarines are 'in the region' amid tension with Russia WASHINGTON −President Donald Trumpsays the nuclear submar...

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Texas Republicans say 'hunt down' Democrats who are leaving state over redistricting

Texas Republicans say 'hunt down' Democrats who are leaving state over redistricting

Democratic statehouse legislators are planning to leave Texas on Sunday in order to break the quorum of a special legislative session in which Republican state legislators are aiming to pass a new congressional map that could create up to five new GOP seats. The move comes after a marathon public hearing on the plan in the state Capitol on Friday and less than a week after state Republican legislators proposed the new maps. Republicans hold a majority in the Texas state legislature; Democrats had said they would consider all options to stop the maps from being passed, although their options for striking back have been limited. "We're not walking out on our responsibilities; we're walking out on a rigged system that refuses to listen to the people we represent. As of today, this corrupt special session is over," state Rep. Gene Wu, who chairs the House Democratic Caucus, said in a statement. MORE: GOP success with new Texas House map could hinge on Latino voters: ANALYSIS After news broke of Democratic legislators breaking quorum, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote in a post on X that Democrats who left should be arrested and brought back to the state capitol. "Democrats in the Texas House who try and run away like cowards should be found, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol immediately," he wrote. "We should use every tool at our disposal to hunt down those who think they are above the law." Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott issued a blistering statement Sunday evening, accusing the House Democrats who fled the state and prevented quorum of doing so for illegitimate reasons. He said their premeditated decision could result in forfeiture of elected state office and demanded they must return when the statehouse reconvenes for special session at 3:00 p.m. CT on Monday or risk losing their jobs. "This truancy ends now. The derelict Democrat House members must return to Texas and be in attendance when the House reconvenes at 3:00 PM on Monday, August 4, 2025. For any member who fails to do so, I will invoke Texas Attorney General Opinion No. KP-0382 to remove the missing Democrats from membership in the Texas House," part of Abbott's statement read. The walkout itself cannot stop the passage of the bill, but Democrats aim to run out the clock on the 30-day special legislative session, which would mean Abbott would have to call another one. Texas House Democrats previously broke quorum in 2021 to try to stop an elections bill and in 2003 to try to stop a similar redistricting effort by Republicans. Republicans eventually managed to pass the bills both times. President Donald Trump has previously said he wanted Texas legislators to draw five new Republican districts. More than 51 legislators are leaving the state, denying the state House the two-thirds majority out of 150 legislators it needs to have a quorum. An exact number of how many of the 62 Democratic legislators from the state House were leaving was not immediately available. MORE: Eric Holder backs Democratic response to Texas redistricting plan Democrats who break quorum risk accruing a $500-a-day fine, according to the state House rules, and potential legal action. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, speaking with "War Room" host and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, said on Thursday, "The House rules and the Senate rules both allow for these people to be arrested if they leave ... The challenge is, if they go out of state, we lose jurisdiction, and that -- it's been a challenge in the past, but in the end, as long as the governor is willing to keep calling sessions, ultimately they have to come home." Paxton also said he was not worried about defending the maps in court: "We've got, we've got good maps. And the legislature has the right to draw the maps they want. They're politically based, not race-based. And if they're politically based, then they're defensible." MORE: Eric Holder backs Democratic response to Texas redistricting plan Some of the Democratic legislators fleeing the state will appear on Sunday evening with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker at a press conference. Pritzker has been a staunch supporter of Texas Democrats and has floated the possibility of getting Illinois' own congressional maps redrawn if Texas redraws its maps. Illinois' maps have been criticized by outside observers as highly partisan in favor of Democrats. In late June, the chair of the Texas Democrats, Kendall Scudder, flew from Dallas to Oklahoma to see Pritzker, who was giving remarks at the state Democratic Party's dinner. The pair had a private meeting during that time to talk about the possibility of lawmakers fleeing the state to Illinois -- and if they were to flee the state, that they would have a place they would feel safe and supported. Since then, Pritzker and Texas Democrats have been in touch, and a small group of them traveled to Chicago in July when members of the delegation left for Illinois and California for brief meetings. Pritzker and his team have been helping behind the scenes to help find hotels in the area for the Democrats, help their operation, and grease the wheels so things go smoothly for them as they head to Illinois. The bill containing the maps had been scheduled to be taken up on the state House floor on Monday.

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August 03, 2025

Texas Republicans say 'hunt down' Democrats who are leaving state over redistricting

Texas Republicans say 'hunt down' Democrats who are leaving state over redistricting Democratic statehouse legislators are planning ...

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Asian markets are mixed after Wall St tumbles following poor US jobs report

Asian markets are mixed after Wall St tumbles following poor US jobs report

BANGKOK (AP) — Shares in Asia are mixed after Wall Street had its worst day since May following the release ofweak U.S. jobsdata. Markets in Asia had already reacted on Friday to U.S. PresidentDonald Trump's announcement ofsweeping tariffson imports from many U.S. trading partners, posting moderate losses. The newtariffsare set to take effect on Thursday. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index lost 1.6%, bouncing back from bigger losses, to 40,134.97. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong edged 0.2% higher, to 24,589.21, while the Shanghai Composite index was nearly unchanged at 3,562.18. In South Korea, the Kospi surged 0.7% to 3,140.92. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.2% to 8,643.00. Investors' worries about a weakening U.S. economy deepened after the latest report on job growth in the U.S. showed employers added just 73,000 jobs in July. That is sharply lower than economists expected. The Labor Department also reported that revisions shaved a stunning 258,000 jobs off May and June payrolls. "The labor market, once a pillar of resilience, is now looking more like a late-cycle casualty, as soft data begin to replace soft landings in market discourse," Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary. U.S. futures edged 0.3% higher, however, early Monday. On Friday, the S&P 500 fell 1.6%, its biggest decline since May 21 and its fourth straight loss. It closed at 6,238.01, posting a 2.4% loss for the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.2% to 43,588.58, while the Nasdaq composite fell 2.2% to finish at 20,650.13. Internet retail giantAmazonfell 8.3%, despite reporting encouraging profit and sales for its most recent quarter. Technology behemothApplefell 2.5% after also beating Wall Street's profit and revenue forecasts. Both companies face tougher operating conditions because of tariffs, withAppleforecasting a $1.1 billion hit from the fees in the current quarter. Trump's decision to order the immediate firingof the head of the government agency that produces the monthly jobs figures raised concern over whether there might be interference in future data. The surprisingly weak hiring numbers led investors to step up their expectations the Federal Reserve may cut interest rates in September. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.21% from 4.39% just before the hiring report was released. That's a big move for the bond market. The yield on the two-year Treasury, which more closely tracks expectations for Fed actions, plunged to 3.68% from 3.94% just prior to the report's release. The Fed has held rates steady since December. A cut in rates would give the job market and overall economy a boost, but it could also risk fueling inflation, which is hovering stubbornly above the central bank's 2% target. An update on Thursday forthe Fed's preferred measure of inflationshowed that prices ticked higher in June, rising to 2.6% from 2.4% in May. TheFed held rates steadyagain at its most recent meeting this week. Fed Chair JeromePowell has been pressured by Trumpto cut the benchmark rate, though that decision isn't his to make alone, but belongs to the 12 members of the Federal Open Market Committee. Businesses, investors and the Fed have been operating under acloud of uncertaintyfrom Trump's tariff policy. Companies have been warning investors that unpredictable policies, with some tariffs already in effect while others change or get extended, make it difficult to plan ahead. Walmart, Procter & Gamble and many others also have warned about import taxes raising costs, eating into profits andraising prices for consumers. In other dealings early Monday, U.S, benchmark crude oil lost 18 cents to $67.15 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 23 cents to $69.44 per barrel. The U.S. dollar rose to 147.80 Japanese yen from 147.26 yen. The euro weakened to $1.1577 from $1.1598.

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August 03, 2025

Asian markets are mixed after Wall St tumbles following poor US jobs report

Asian markets are mixed after Wall St tumbles following poor US jobs report BANGKOK (AP) — Shares in Asia are mixed after Wall Street had it...

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Trump says he will announce new labor statistics official in 3 or 4 days

Trump says he will announce new labor statistics official in 3 or 4 days

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday he will announce a new head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics within three or four days. He fired BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer after accusing her of faking jobs numbers, without providing any evidence of data manipulation. (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Tom Hogue)

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August 03, 2025

Trump says he will announce new labor statistics official in 3 or 4 days

Trump says he will announce new labor statistics official in 3 or 4 days WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday he...

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Texas Democrats leave the state to prevent vote on GOP-drawn congressional map

Texas Democrats leave the state to prevent vote on GOP-drawn congressional map

Texas House Democrats left the state Sunday to prevent a vote on the Republican effort backed by President Donald Trump to rewrite the state'scongressional map. The redistricting, if passed, could potentially eliminate five Democratic US House seats ahead of the 2026 midterm elections as the GOP seeks to hold on to its slim House majority. The Texas politicians are expected to arrive in Chicago and Albany, New York, on Sunday evening after a decision that state House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu said was not made lightly but with "absolute moral clarity." States typically redraw congressional district boundaries once every 10 years following the release of updated population data from the United States census. A mid-decade revision of the map would be an extraordinary move — one that Democrats contend is a nakedly partisan effort aimed at bolstering Republicans prospects of retaining control of the House. Two-thirds of the Texas House is required for a quorum, the minimum amount of legislators to vote on bills. Democrats in the legislatureattempted the same movein 2021 to block a bill that would have imposed new voting restrictions. After that unsuccessful effort, new rules were put in place to fine members $500 a day if a member is absent, including "for the purpose of impeding the action of the House." Ken Paxton, Texas' attorney general and a candidate for US Senate, said Sunday evening that "Democrats in the Texas House who try and run away like cowards should be found, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol immediately." "We should use every tool at our disposal to hunt down those who think they are above the law," he continuedin a post on X, though he did not specify which tools could be used. Texas Republicans argue the redistricting is necessary over concerns that the current maps are unconstitutional and racially gerrymandered. Democrats havesaid it would suppressthe votes of people of color. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott "is using an intentionally racist map to steal the voices of millions of Black and Latino Texans, all to execute a corrupt political deal," Wu said in a statement. "Apathy is complicity, and we will not be complicit in the silencing of hard-working communities who have spent decades fighting for the power that Trump wants to steal." Democrats nationwide have threatened to respond to the GOP's efforts at redistricting in Texas with the same tactics in Democratic-controlled states like California and New York. National Democratic Redistricting Committee Chairman Eric Holder, a longtime critic of partisan gerrymandering, says it may be time for Democrats to change their approach. "We have to understand that the nature of the threat that has been put upon the country through what they're trying to do in Texas has really increased the danger to our democracy. And as a result of that, we've got to do things that perhaps in the past, I would not have supported," he said on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday. Holder, a former attorney general, said Democrats would still pursue avenues including raising voter awareness and bringing litigation against the state. The Texas Democrats' departure comes as Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has plotted for more than a month with party officials in the Lone Star State to potentially provide safe harbor for the lawmakers, a source with knowledge of the Democratic governor's involvement told CNN. Pritzker quietly met with the chair of the Texas Democratic Party at an event for the Oklahoma Democratic Party on June 28. There, the two discussed rumors that Abbott could include calls to redraw the state's congressional map in a newly announced special legislative session, the source said. Pritzker at the time said Texas lawmakers could come to Illinois if they fled to block a quorum. In mid-July, Pritzker hosted eight Texas lawmakers and held a meeting to further discuss the planning. In the background, Pritzker's staff was working with Texas Democrats to provide logistical support, including finding places where they could stay and work while in the state, the source added. Pritzker will join Texas Democrats arriving in Illinois at a news conference later Sunday evening. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who is set to hold an event Monday with the lawmakers who left for her state, said in a statement to CNN that "We won't sit on the sidelines while Republicans try to rig the system to give Donald Trump more unchecked power. Texas Democrats are standing up for the future of democracy and I'm proud to stand with them in the fight against disenfranchisement." Former US Rep. Beto O'Rourke said his fellow Texas Democrats are doing "exactly what the country needs." "If Trump succeeds in stealing these five congressional districts, if he holds on to the House of Representatives, then the consolidation of authoritarian power in America may be unstoppable," O'Rourke told CNN on Sunday after he held a rally in Indianapolis. O'Rourke said his political action committee, Powered By People, will raise money to support the House Democrats, who could face $500-per-day fines and are barred from using campaign funds to pay them. Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin also praised the Texas Democrats, saying in a statement Sunday, "We will fight alongside them to stop this anti-democratic assault. And, after this fight is done, we're coming full force for the Republicans' House majority." CNN's Gloria Pazmino and Eric Bradner contributed to this report. This story has been updated with additional developments. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account atCNN.com

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August 03, 2025

Texas Democrats leave the state to prevent vote on GOP-drawn congressional map

Texas Democrats leave the state to prevent vote on GOP-drawn congressional map Texas House Democrats left the state Sunday to prevent a vote...

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