Democratic lawmakers in the House introduced a war powers resolution on Wednesday seeking to stop the Trump administration’s boat strikes.

The US military has killed at least 227 people in 68 strikes in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific since last year as part of a campaign against what it describes as “narcoterrorists” to stop the flow of drugs into the US.

The UN and other humanitarian groups have said the attacks are extrajudicial killings.

Lawmakers Gregory W Meeks, Adam Smith, Jim Himes and and Bennie G Thompson, the group that introduced the resolution, said in a statement that people have been killed “without due process or a credible national-security justification”. Congress has never authorized the attacks, the group wrote.

“A year later, the administration has little to show for this lawless campaign except a mounting body count, a massive price tag, and a stain on the American conscience,” the lawmakers said.

“Time and again, this administration has refused to use the military responsibly or consult with Congress, even though the American people have made clear they do not want their tax dollars being spent on more endless military campaigns. It’s time for this failed campaign to end.”

The Pentagon has introduced guidelines for the mandatory new ⁠testosterone deficiency screening required for service members age 30 and older, a policy introduced by Pete Hegseth last month.

The defense secretary announced the mandate in July, stating that the program would “[ensure] you have the right testosterone levels to operate at your absolute best”.

The guidance will go into effect immediately and require testosterone blood tests for men 30 and older. The guidance does not require the tests for younger men or women of any age, though Reuters reports it calls for screening of symptoms, including disrupted menstrual cycles, that are linked to hormonal dysregulation.

Doctors have questioned the scientific basis for the policy.

Senator Richard Blumenthal has pushed back against a statement from the US Postal Service about its new system to screen millions of mail-in ballots for the upcoming midterm elections.

This week it emerged a whistleblower told Congress that the system was hastily thrown together and that a single glitch in scanning could result in whole ballot batches being turned away. Blumenthal said the system, which came after Donald Trump’s executive order tightening federal control over mail-in voting, was “perilously rushed and potentially unlawful”.

In response, the postal service said it was “carefully reviewing the concerns”, but that it had spent months developing the federal ballot mail portal and it was done “in a manner consistent with court orders”.

Blumenthal said on Wednesday that “absolutely nothing” in the statement “denies or contradicts the deeply disturbing details of the whistleblower’s disclosure”.

“Most importantly, it does nothing to directly address the fears of voters that USPS will refuse to deliver their ballots based on the output of a shoddy computer system they started building four months ago,” he said. “‘Just trust us’ is not acceptable.”

Congressman James Comer said the US Department of Justice is investigating Ilhan Omar and her “entire family”.

In an interview with the rightwing podcaster Benny Johnson, the chair of the House oversight committee referenced a “discrepancy” on a financial disclosure form and said the Minnesota congresswoman was seeking “earmarks for things that would have benefited the Somali community that have already been identified in committing fraud in Minnesota”.

Omar has long been the subject of attacks and criticism from the politicians on the right, including JD Vance, who have accused the representative of immigration fraud, among other accusations. The Democrat has also frequently faced xenophobic attacks from Donald Trump.

Earlier this year a man sprayed her with vinegar as while was speaking at an event. She told the Guardian in December 2025 that she faced no death threats during Joe Biden’s presidency, but that changed when Trump returned to office.

“Now they are back up, and so there is a clear correlation between [Trump’s] presidency and the political violence that we see and the political danger that a lot of members of Congress and electeds feel across the country,” she said at the time.

Patagonia, the outdoor clothing and gear company, has joined a lawsuit challenging Donald Trump’s decision to significantly reduce the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah, removing protections from nearly 3m acres.

In July, the president approved the reduction of the sites by 90%, clearing the way to open the land to oil and gas companies. He argued in his proclamations that doing so would allow lands to be “put to a higher-priority use” and that they contained critical minerals important to “ resource independence …[and] national security”.

Patagonia said it was joining the lawsuit to put a stop to what it described as illegal orders that “betray Tribal sovereignty”.

“We will not stand idly by while anti-public lands crusaders attempt to exploit these lands for their extractive-industry friends or disrespect tribal nations,” Ryan Gellert, the company’s CEO, said in a statement.

Read more:

House Democrats rejected a constitutional amendment proposed by Republicans to ensure the size of the supreme court is permanently capped at nine justices. It failed 212-206.

As Reuters pointed out, the proposal was part of a Republican effort to make the supreme court a campaign issue ahead of the November midterms. The GOP was quick to seize on the issue with the National Republican Congressional Committee claiming in a statement that House Democrats “want to pack the Supreme Court with liberal justices so they can follow through on their radical socialist agenda”.

“Give House Democrats an ounce of power, and they’ll use every bit of it to fundamentally transform America into an unrecognizable socialist hellscape,” spokesperson Mike Marinella said.

Congressman Jamie Raskin argued Republicans were seeking to “cement their stacked and packed MAGA Supreme Court majority into the Constitution and strip away yet another basic power the Framers gave to Congress”.

“After sycophantically surrendering to Donald Trump our war powers, spending powers, tariff powers, and powers over federal buildings, to name a few, now they want to give up a power we have had since the Republic was founded: the power to decide how many Justices will be on the Supreme Court.”

Donald Trump celebrated the news that Apple had fulfilled his request to rename Lake Ontario to “Lake America” for Maps app users in the US following an executive order that came amid rising trade tensions between the US and Canada.

“Apple Maps has just announced that it has changed the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America, so now that very important change of names, between Google Maps and Apple Maps, is complete, ratified, and binding,” Trump said in a post online on Wednesday afternoon.

It’s unclear what the president meant by “ratified” and “binding”.

Read more on Apple’s decision here:

Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva has slammed new border wall construction near Quitobaquito Springs on the Tohono O’odham Nation’s ancestral lands.

“This morning, bulldozers are tearing through protected lands to make way for Trump’s second border wall — just 0.7 miles east of Quitobaquito Springs and getting closer,” Grijalva said in a statement, which included a link to video apparently showing this construction. “This is tribal land. It does not belong to Trump.”

Grijalva said that authorities and private contractors had gone onto sovereign tribal lands despite objections from the Tohono O’odham Nation.

“This level of disrespect is shameful and will go down as a stain on our nation’s history and its treatment of Indigenous Peoples,” Grijalva’s statement also said. “This isn’t just about a wall.

“It’s about erasing people, cultures, and bulldozing over tribal sovereignty.”

Department of Homeland Security secretary Markwayne Mullin said he was on a plane that made an emergency landing.

Mullin’s disclosure was in an X post on Wednesday that shared another account’s description of this incident.

“A Coast Guard aircraft has landed safely at DCA after declaring an emergency in the air C101 had lost its right engine mid-flight and diverted to Reagan Airport for an immediate landing. All 14 members on board have landed safely,” @TheDMVLive posted just before 2 pm local time.

Just over an hour later, Mullin posted: “The United States Coast Guard pilots made the single engine landing feel routine. No panic, just straight professionalism. After we landed, the pilots told me that was a first for them! We could not have been in better hands.”

The Trump administration rejected New York’s request for help related to a major snowstorm that caused $168m in damage, governor Kathy Hochul said.

“Another day, another denial of critical federal assistance for New York by the Trump Administration,” Hochul said in a statement Wednesday. “Just one day after calling out President Trump and Secretary Mullin for continuing to withhold $87 million in counterterrorism funding, my Administration was informed today that FEMA has officially denied our appeal for a Major Disaster Declaration following the February blizzard that caused more than $168 million in damages and placed a serious financial burden on communities across New York City, Long Island and the Mid-Hudson.”

“This storm met every FEMA threshold for federal assistance, yet the Trump Administration continues to play political games and betray every New Yorker who believes that the federal government is there to protect and support them,” Hochul also said. “By refusing to intervene and grant our request, President Trump has told every New Yorker who weathered this major storm and the first responders, utility crews and emergency management staff who worked tirelessly to keep our communities safe that you do not matter to him.”

“But let’s be clear, Republican members of Congress across New York are also enabling this neglect,” Hochul also said. “Their continued silence and refusal to break with the President is a direct betrayal of the communities they were elected to serve.”

“It is past time these members of congress demand that the President grant this disaster declaration and deliver every dollar of relief their constituents are owed.”

The Guardian has reached out to The White House and FEMA for comment.

New Jersey is asking the US supreme court to consider whether states can regulate sports betting that takes place on prediction markets such as Kalshi.

According to Reuters, New Jersey asked the court to overturn a lower court’s ruling that the US Commodity Futures ​Trading Commission(CFTC) has sole ‌jurisdiction over sports-related contract trading on Kalshi.

Kalshi and other prediction market concerns let users make trades, and profit, from predictions on developments such as elections and sports. States such as New Jersey contend that these businesses are allowing gaming without proper licenses, per Reuters.

“These companies have no right to offer their sports bets without ⁠following state law, which is why dozens of ​states across ​the ideological spectrum have ​opposed them,” New Jersey’s attorney general ​Jennifer Davenport reportedly said.

Donald Trump’s CFTC maintains these companies’ position on regulation--that the CFTC has sole jurisdiction over these platform, Reuters notes.

President Trump’s suggested renaming of the strait of Hormuz has prompted criticism from Democratic leadership.

“No need for more renaming bodies of water here. Americans already call this entire fiasco TRUMP’S WAR,” Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said on X. “Trump cares more about feeding his ego than helping the American people who are crying out for help. They want lower health care costs, lower gas prices and grocery bills, and for our troops to come home.”

Schumer’s post included a link to Trump’s Truth Social missive earlier today where he said: “Now that we have it under U.S.A. control, should we change the name Hormuz Strait to TRUMP STRAIT???”

Trump also said: “Like America itself, it would be ‘hotter’ than ever before!”

Donald Trump has invited a group of Republican legislators for dinner Wednesday at the White House amid GOP hopes that he will distribute some of his $400m war chest before the midterms, Politico reported.

GOP candidates are both contending with newly competitive races and political blowback from the war in Iran and worsening affordability crisis. Republican incumbents are seeking money to fund their campaigns as Democrats continue to hammer them on these issues.

Trump’s “political operation” MAGA Inc., however, “has used little of its $400 million war chest to support GOP lawmakers,” Politico said. One notable exception is Darlene Graham, with MAGA Inc. doling out more than $800,000 for campaign texts and calls.

The planned dinner will be held in the Rose Garden, Politico also said.

And Kentucky representative James Comer, the GOP chair of the House oversight committee, has given Fox News his take:

Hakeem Jeffries has declared himself the leader, and he doesn’t want anyone having differing opinions. That’s what happens when you have socialism and communism ... that’s the difference in the Democrats and Republicans. Republicans are open-minded, free will ... the Democrats … want to rule with an iron fist.

Here’s the clip.

Regarding the two Democrats who voted with Republicans to advance a resolution condemning socialism yesterday, House speaker Mike Johnson has told Punchbowl News:

I didn’t know how many Democrats would vote, but I knew we’d get the votes on the rule one way or the other, as we always do, and we were gonna have to work it hard on our side.

Leader Jeffries has a serious problem, a serious problem, in his caucus. He is being overwhelmed by communists and Marxists on one side, and on other members on the other. I have no idea about getting out of that thicket.

Asked whether the Republicans who voted against the rule be punished, Johnson replied: “We don’t do that.”

As tensions flare in the mideast with American military forces resuming strikes on Iran, Donald Trump has taken to social media to discuss his ballroom project.

“We have hundreds of happy construction workers in D.C. busily doing their job building the finest Ballroom/Military complex anywhere in the World,” Trump said in a truth social post Wednesday morning. “There is nothing like it, and never will be! It was a long, hard, fight in the Court System, but the winner is, as always under ‘TRUMP,’ the U.S.A.”

“Also, it is important to remember, the Ballroom is a 400 Million Dollar gift to America! President DJT,” he also said.

On Monday, the US supreme court ruled 5-4 to allow Trump to keep building his White House ballroom. The court allowed Trump’s request to halt a lower court decision that had stopped above-ground construction while a lawsuit brought by preservationists was pending.

Trump demolished the historic East Wing of the White House in 2025 to make space for this project.

With many Americans facing soaring prices on essentials ranging from housing to healthcare to food, some Democrats think that focusing on this affordability crisis could flip Republican seats in red districts.

Sam Forstag, a Democrat vying for Montana’s west Congressional district, is thought to be among the candidates who could potentially win the seat held by retiring Republican representative Ryan Zinke, according to The New York Times.

The firefighter and union leader, who The Times said is “running as an unapologetic progressive,” has emphasized the skyrocketing cost of living in Montana, where out-of-state residents have contributed to increasing housing costs.

“No one can afford a damn roof over their head,” Forstag reportedly said.

For The Times, Forstag’s candidacy might touch on Democrats’ potential viability outside of decidedly blue areas.

“The race in one of the country’s most sprawling congressional districts will test whether Democrats can unwind years of losses in rural areas, or whether once-purple places like Montana are gone for good,” the newspaper said.

As Republicans face potential political consequences over the Iran war in upcoming midterm elections, US military activity has once again ramped up in the region.

The US announced yesterday that it was resuming strikes on Iran following alleged attempted attacks on commercial shipping in the strait of Hormuz. Trump threatened “much harder” action if Iran retaliated, saying “it will not be the biggest attack of them all, that is waiting in the wings and, when it is over, there will be very little left of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Iran subsequently attacked US bases in the Middle East, according to reports. Iran also accused the US of a war crime for allegedly striking a wedding party.

My colleague Taz Ali has the latest in our Middle East coverage here:

Ayanna Pressley, a Democrat representative from Massachusetts, celebrated colleague senator Ed Markey’s victory in the state’s Democratic primary for US Senate.

“Congratulations to my friend and partner, Senator Ed Markey, on his decisive victory as the Democratic nominee for Senate from Massachusetts. Massachusetts voters have once again chosen a senator who gives a damn – who shows up for our communities, fights like hell to lighten their load, and has never wavered in his commitment to workers and families in every corner of the Commonwealth,” Pressley said in a Tuesday night statement.

“Senator Markey is steady, authentic, proven, and consistent. He’s been a committed partner in the fight for justice – from standing up for our LGBTQ+ siblings and immigrant neighbors and advancing fare-free transit, to fighting for racial justice, climate justice, criminal legal reform, housing justice, and more,” she also said. “He centers the people and fights for transformative policies. He is proven and steady.”

Pressley also commented: “With Trump and Republicans moving with malice and enacting widespread harm, Massachusetts sent a clear message: we want Democrats who will defend our communities and never back down.”

Markey’s victory over representative Seth Moulton has raised questions about the perception of politicians’ ages among voters. Moulton tried to push out Markey by claiming that he was too old at age 80 to properly serve.

Markey nonetheless had broad support among his fellow Democrats and is expected to best his Republican challenger in November. The win may prompt questions about how much age matters if voters feel they’re supporting the right candidate.

Two of the Democratic representatives who defected and joined the Republicans in voting in favor of a resolution condemning socialism and the Democratic Socialists of America organisation have defended their actions on social media.

Democratic leaders in the US House had sharply criticized the representatives for defecting and joining with Republicans in order to advance a procedural vote.

“The decision by two of our colleagues to blindside the entire House Democratic Caucus and join with the Republican majority to pass a procedural rule on the brink of failing represents a significant breach of trust,” Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, whip Katherine Clark and Pete Aguilar, the caucus chair, said in a statement.

“It is an action that necessitates a serious response, and we have asked the Committee on Caucus Rules to take this up in short order.”

The statement was referring to moderates Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and Jared Golden. The bills included a resolution condemning socialism, which also called for the enactment of Trump’s SAVE America Act, that eight Democrats voted to pass.

Congressman Golden wrote on X:

I just voted to fund government through December 11, preventing a shutdown in October. The bill passed the House 370-48. In an election season without a budget deal, the risk of political games is high. This CR removes the ability for either party to hold the government hostage and gives Congress time to negotiate an appropriations deal.

Representative Gluesenkamp Perez also said:

Working America is hanging on by a thread, trying to feed our families without being beholden to big government or big business. Standing around pointing fingers, debating -isms and making people photocopy their birth certificate every time they cast a ballot is not the job.

The other six Democrats to vote in favor of the resolution were Kathy Castor, Henry Cuellar, Don Davis, Vicente Gonzalez Jr, Darren Soto and Gabe Vasquez.