A city councilman in Virginia was seriously injured Wednesday when a man stormed into his office at a local magazine, doused him in gasoline and set him on fire — an attack that authorities say was rooted in a personal dispute, not politics. … Investigators stressed that the motive appeared personal and unrelated to Vogler’s work as a public official. Still, the assault added to growing unease over violence and harassment aimed at elected officials across the country, particularly as the boundaries blur between their public roles and private lives.

While Donald Trump was going about his business on Tuesday, attempting to shut down the “Jeffrey Epstein Hoax” he perpetuated, he inadvertently revived an old conspiracy about himself. A C-SPAN cameraman zoomed in on the president’s hand while he was speaking with reporters before heading to Pittsburg on Tuesday, revealing a weird patch of poorly matched makeup caked on the back of his right hand.

Under previous administrations, FEMA quickly coordinated search and rescue teams to assist communities facing catastrophes. But new spending rules require the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to personally sign off on expenses over $100,000. Her approval for responding to the Texas disaster didn’t come until Monday, delaying the agency’s response, according to reporting by CNN’s Gabe Cohen and Michael Williams.

At the same time, acting FEMA administrator David Richardson was notably absent on the ground in Texas, in the press, and even within his agency. By Wednesday, July 9, Richardson had yet to make a single internal or public remark about the flooding, according to reporting by Marisa Kabas, who runs the independent news outlet, The Handbasket.

“It is unprecedented for the leader of FEMA to be absent from the public response to a disaster that has killed over 100 Americans,” Samantha Montano, associate professor of emergency management at Massachusetts Maritime Academy, told The Handbasket.

Since taking office, Trump and members of his administration have declared their desire to reduce federal disaster support and to eliminate FEMA. Disaster assistance from FEMA was hard to come by for states hit by tornadoes in spring 2025.

Writing on X, the Republican politician said she was creating legislation that would make "the injection, release, or dispersion of chemicals or substances into the atmosphere for the express purpose of altering weather, temperature, climate, or sunlight intensity" a felony.

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"I am introducing a bill that prohibits the injection, release, or dispersion of chemicals or substances into the atmosphere for the express purpose of altering weather, temperature, climate, or sunlight intensity," she wrote. "It will be a felony offense."

She added: "We must end the dangerous and deadly practice of weather modification and geoengineering."

• ICE raids on farms risk food supply chain disruption

• Farmworkers illegally in the US are in hiding

• Crops are unharvested and rotting

As the Trump administration's "big, beautiful bill" grinds its way through the U.S. Senate, incentives are growing for foreign investors to diversify out of U.S. Treasuries losing sheen from prospects of deficit spending and inflation-boosting tariffs.

President Donald Trump's sweeping tax cut and spending measure will boost U.S. debt by $3.3 trillion, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates, while runaway deficits and swelling debt led Moody's to cut its credit rating in May.

"The framework conditions in Europe are not ideal, but they are stable."

Roessner's comments are indicative of a trend that has taken hold in recent months: Investors and companies are increasingly turning to Europe, drawn by an infrastructure- and defence-led spending push that offers stability at a time when Trump's erratic tariff policies have made the U.S. market a less safe bet, according to more than a dozen interviews with executives and fund managers.

Palestinians in northern Gaza reported one of the worst nights of Israeli bombardment in weeks after the military issued mass evacuation orders on Monday, while Israeli officials were due in Washington for a new ceasefire push by the Trump administration.

On June 30, 1934, Adolf Hitler launched his “blood purge” of political and military rivals in Germany in what came to be known as the “Night of the Long Knives.”

A man armed with a rifle started a wildfire Sunday and then began shooting at first responders in a northern Idaho mountain community, killing two firefighters and wounding a third during a barrage of gunfire over several hours, authorities said.