
Trump taps Kentucky lawyer for judgeship after scrapped Biden nomination
He described Meredith, who previously served as Kentucky's solicitor general and has worked as a litigation attorney in Ohio since 2021, as "highly experienced and well qualified."
"Chad is a courageous Patriot who knows what is required to uphold the Rule of Law, and protect our Constitution," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Meredith has held various roles in the legal field in Kentucky, including chief deputy general counsel for the state's governor. He also clerked for a judge serving on the same circuit he's being nominated to, according to his LinkedIn page.
U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell, who represents Kentucky, praised Trump's decision to nominate Meredith to the bench. He called him "an outstanding choice" with a stellar resume and distinguished record of public service.
During his first administration, Trump vetted Meredith for a judicial nomination but later dropped him from consideration, according to The Courier-Journal.
Joe Biden, who succeeded Trump as president, also considered nominating Meredith, who has defended abortion restrictions, but he decided against doing so after progressives and abortion-rights supporters came out strongly against the nominee.
Trump has so far announced 12 judicial nominees in his second term, after securing Senate confirmation in his first term of 234 judicial nominees.
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Trump to start TikTok sale talks with China, he says, with deal ‘pretty much' reached
Donald Trump has said he will start talking to China on Monday or Tuesday about a possible TikTok deal. The United States president said the US 'pretty much' had a deal on the sale of the TikTok short-video app. 'I think we're gonna start Monday or Tuesday ... talking to China – perhaps President Xi or one of his representatives – but we would, we pretty much have a deal,' Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Friday. Trump also said he might visit Xi Jinping in China or the Chinese leader may visit the US. The two leaders last month invited each other to visit their respective countries. Trump last month also extended a deadline to 17 September for China-based ByteDance to divest the US assets of TikTok, a social media app with 170 million users in the US. A deal had been in the works this spring to spin off TikTok's US operations into a new US-based firm, majority-owned and operated by US investors, but it was put on hold after China indicated it would not approve it following Trump's announcements of steep tariffs on Chinese goods. Trump said on Friday the US would probably have to get a deal approved by China. Asked how confident he was that Beijing would agree to a deal, he said: 'I'm not confident, but I think so. President Xi and I have a great relationship, and I think it's good for them. I think the deal is good for China and it's good for us.' Trump's June extension was his third executive order to delay the ban or sale of TikTok and gave ByteDance another 90 days to find a buyer or be banned in the US. Trump's first executive order giving TikTok a reprieve came on his first day in office – just three days after the supreme court ruled to uphold the ban. Trump issued the second executive order in April. The deadline for the sale or ban was then set for 19 June. Now, TikTok has until September. In a statement issued the same day, TikTok thanked Trump and JD Vance. 'We are grateful for President Trump's leadership', the statement said, and TikTok would 'continue to work with Vice President Vance's Office' to come to an agreement. Democratic senator Mark Warner, vice-chair of the Senate intelligence committee, accused Trump of sidestepping the law with an executive order. With reporting by Dara Kerr


ITV News
an hour ago
- ITV News
Hamas says it has given 'positive' response to Gaza ceasefire proposal
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In a statement late on Friday, Hamas said it 'has submitted its positive response' to Egyptian and Qatari said it is 'fully prepared to immediately enter into a round of negotiations regarding the mechanism for implementing this framework.' It did not elaborate on what needed to be worked out in implementation. A Hamas official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorised to discuss the response with the press, said the ceasefire could start as early as next week. However, he said talks were needed first to work out how many Palestinian prisoners would be released in return for each freed Israeli hostage and to specify the amount of aid that will enter Gaza during the truce. Hamas has said it wants aid to flow in greater quantities through the United Nations and other humanitarian agencies. The official also said that negotiations would start from the first day of the truce on a permanent ceasefire and full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza in return for the release of remaining hostages. He said that Trump has guaranteed that the truce will be extended beyond 60 days if needed for those negotiations to reach a deal. There has been no confirmation from the United States of such a guarantee. Previous rounds of negotiations have run aground over Hamas demands of guarantees that further negotiations would lead to the war's end, while Netanyahu has insisted Israel would resume fighting to ensure the destruction of the militant group.'We'll see what happens. We're going to know over the next 24 hours,' Trump told reporters on Air Force One late Thursday when asked if Hamas had agreed to the latest framework for a ceasefire. Hamas's statement came as Israeli airstrikes killed 15 Palestinians in Gaza early on Friday, while a hospital said another 20 people died in shootings while seeking UN human rights office said it has recorded 613 Palestinians killed within the span of a month in Gaza while trying to obtain aid. Most were killed while trying to reach food distribution points run by Israeli-backed American organisation the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), while others waited for aid trucks connected to the United Nations or other humanitarian groups, it said. Since GHF began distributions in late May, witnesses have said almost daily that Israeli troops open fire toward crowds of Palestinians on the roads leading to the food centres. To reach the sites, people must walk several miles through an Israeli military zone where troops control the Israeli military has said previously it fires warning shots to control crowds or at Palestinians who approach its troops. The GHF has denied any serious injuries or deaths on its sites and says shootings outside their immediate vicinity are under the purview of Israel's Friday, in reaction to the UN rights agency's report, it said in a statement that it was investigating reports of people killed and wounded while seeking aid. It said it was working at 'minimising possible friction between the population' and Israeli forces, including by installing fences and placing signs on the witnesses have said Israeli troops open fire toward crowds of Palestinians who gather in military-controlled zones to wait for aid trucks entering Gaza for the UN or other aid organizations not associated with Friday, 17 people were killed waiting for trucks in eastern Khan Younis in the Tahliya area, officials at Nasser Hospital survivors told the Associated Press they had gone to wait for the trucks in a military 'red zone' in Khan Younis and that troops opened fire from a tank and drones. It was a 'crowd of people, may God help them, who want to eat and live,' said Seddiq Abu Farhana, who was shot in the leg, forcing him to drop a bag of flour he had grabbed. 'There was direct firing.' UN human rights office spokeswoman, Ravina Shamdasani, said the agency was not able to attribute responsibility for the killings. But she said 'it is clear that the Israeli military has shelled and shot at Palestinians trying to reach the distribution points' operated by Shamdasani said that of the total tallied, 509 killings were 'GHF-related,' meaning at or near its distribution a statement on Friday, the GHF cast doubt on the casualty figures, accusing the UN of taking its casualty figures 'directly from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry' and of trying 'to falsely smear our effort.'Ms Shamdasani said that the data "is based on our own information gathering through various reliable sources, including medical, human rights and humanitarian organisations". World Health Organisation representative Rik Peeperkorn said Nasser Hospital, the biggest hospital operating in the south of Gaza, receives dozens or hundreds of casualties every day, most coming from the vicinity of the food distribution sites. The International Committee of the Red Cross also said in late June that its field hospital near one of the GHF sites has been overwhelmed more than 20 times in the previous months by mass casualties, most suffering gunshot injuries while on their way to the food distribution Health Ministry in Gaza said the number of Palestinians killed in the territory has passed 57,000. The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking roughly 250 hostages. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, but says more than half of the dead are women and children. 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Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
America is now the deportation nation
Ever since he glided down a golden escalator more than a decade ago to announce his bid for the White House, Donald Trump's political career has been defined by immigration. Identifying the widening chasm between elite consensus and public opinion on the issue, he was denounced as a 'populist' for refusing to accept that the illegal entry of millions of people into the United States was somehow an economic and political inevitability. When his Republican rivals offered amnesties, he offered a border wall. But for all the Democratic hysterics, Trump's first term was mostly 'business as usual' on immigration. The border wall was only partially built, 'Big Farm-a' continued to employ off-the-books illegal labour, and deportation levels remained stable. That's no critique of the president: genuine action against mass migration was always going to require a total rewiring of the system, the creation of a 'deportation state'. Well, look out America, because your deportation state is nearly here. Among all of the huge changes that will be brought on by the passing of Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill', the allocation of funding to immigration enforcement may perhaps be the most extraordinary. In the next four years, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) will end up with a budget larger than the US Marshals Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Administration – and the FBI. Detention capabilities will also be greatly expanded, which may allow ICE to approximately double the number of migrants it can detain. That's not even considering the money allocated to buying more planes for deportation and vastly expanding training and employment for specialised officers. There will be more money allocated to ICE than to any federal enforcement agency in America's history. The logistics of the deportation state go beyond mere funding. In the first 100 days of the administration, illegal border encounters totally collapsed. This trend has continued, now resulting in eerily quiet border towns and the seeming disappearance of undocumented workers in local hospitality and agricultural work. This disappearance is only partly thanks to the work of ICE, with merely the threat of being rounded up and deported to unfamiliar climes – El Salvador, South Sudan – apparently enough to push thousands of migrants into 'self-deporting', to borrow a term from the glossy Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. Up-and-coming Republican state officials also know that the best way to boost their Maga credentials is to be seen helping the president in his efforts. James Uthmeier, the Florida State Attorney General, won immense credit with the administration for his role in organising the creation of a new deportation holding centre dubbed 'Alligator Alcatraz', constructed and put into operation in a manner of days. Not every Republican is happy, of course. The old GOP business establishment has been lobbying to pause raids on farms, hotels and restaurants (with some success – ICE de-proritised these locations for raids a few months ago). But they know that any more overt displays of disloyalty will be harshly punished. The negative response to the expansion of deportation efforts can be just as useful to the administration: images from the recent LA riots, with protesters waving giant Mexican flags next to burnt-out cop cars, seemed to show the public precisely how committed to America some recent entrants to their nation really felt. Public opinion will be vital to the ongoing success of the deportation state, with Trump betting that citizens won't be too unhappy with some mistakes being made if the broader effort appears effective. So far, that bet seems to be paying off. There will be chaos and disruption, and no doubt a fair share of simple policy failures. But the scope of Trump's ambition on mass migration can no longer be questioned. The work of figures like Stephen Miller has sought to put intellectual ballast behind the president's rhetoric and actions on immigration. Yes, they want to restore borders, but also to strip away arguably outdated ideas like birthright citizenship and challenge the reflexive acceptance of multiculturalism over integration. There will be no going back, no way of treating 2016 as an aberration as in 2020. This is Maga institutionalising itself.