-Plan involves moving 600,000 people to Rafah near Egypt -Netanyahu asks for new blueprints -Far-right minister dismisses debate as 'spin' -Finance Minister says defence officials trying to sabotage plan

JERUSALEM, July 15 (Reuters) - An Israeli scheme to move hundreds of thousands of already uprooted Palestinians to a so-called "humanitarian city" in Gaza has led politicians to spar with the defence establishment, but officials say a practical plan has yet to be crafted.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Education Secretary Linda McMahon is expected to move quickly now that the Supreme Court has cleared the way for the Trump administration to continue unwinding her department.

The justices on Monday paused a lower court order that had halted nearly 1,400 layoffs and had called into question the legality of President Donald Trump’s plan to outsource the department’s operations to other agencies.

Now, Trump and McMahon are free to execute the layoffs and break up the department’s work among other federal agencies. Trump had campaigned on closing the department, and McMahon has said the department has one “final mission” to turn over its power to the states.

“The Federal Government has been running our Education System into the ground, but we are going to turn it all around by giving the Power back to the PEOPLE,” Trump said late Monday in a post on Truth Social. “Thank you to the United States Supreme Court!”

Department lawyers have already previewed McMahon’s next steps in court filings.

NEW YORK (AP) — As his supporters erupt over the Justice Department’s failure to release much-hyped records in Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking investigation, President Donald Trump’s strategy has been to downplay the issue.

His problem? That nothing-to-see-here approach doesn’t work for those who have learned from him that they must not give up until the government’s deepest, darkest secrets are exposed.

Last week, the Justice Department and the FBI abruptly walked back the notion that there’s an Epstein client list of elites who participated in the wealthy New York financier’s trafficking of underage girls. Trump quickly defended Attorney General Pam Bondi and chided a reporter for daring to ask about the documents.

The online reaction was swift, with followers calling the Republican president “out of touch” and demanding transparency.

On Saturday, Trump used his Truth Social platform to again attempt to call supporters off the Epstein trail amid reports of infighting between Bondi and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino over the issue. He suggested the turmoil was undermining his administration — “all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein.”

That did little to mollify Trump’s supporters, who urged him to release the files or risk losing his base. At least one follower responded to Trump’s post by saying it seemed as though the president was just trying to make the issue go away — but assured him it wouldn’t.

The political crisis is especially challenging for Trump because it’s one of his own making. The president has spent years stoking dark theories and embracing QAnon-tinged propaganda that casts him as the only savior who can demolish the “deep state.”

Now that he’s running the federal government, the community he helped build is coming back to haunt him. It’s demanding answers he either isn’t able to or does not want to provide.

“The faulty assumption Trump and others make is they can peddle conspiracy theories without any blowback,” said Matt Dallek, a political scientist at George Washington University. “The Epstein case is a neat encapsulation that it is hard to put the genie back in the bottle.”

NEW YORK (AP) — The lights are on at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau across the street from the White House, and employees still get paid. But, in practice, the bureau has been mostly inoperable for nearly six months. CFPB employees say they essentially spend the workday sitting on their hands, forbidden from doing any work by directive from the White House.

The bureau is supposed to be helping oversee the nation’s banks and financial services companies and taking enforcement action in case of wrongdoing. Instead, the situation is Kafkaesque: the main function seems to be undoing the rulemaking and law enforcement work that was done under previous administrations, including in President Donald Trump’s first term.

American consumers can no longer look to the bureau for help when it comes to their checking account, credit card, payday loan, auto loan or mortgage. Trump has neutered the watchdog, employees say, the culmination of a yearslong effort by Republicans who felt the agency often went overboard in its efforts.

One current employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the directive forbids staffers from speaking publicly about their jobs, said outsiders would be amazed at how little work is being done. Employees are reluctant even to talk to one another, out of fear that a conversation between two employees would be considered a violation of the directive.

-Trump threatens secondary sanctions on Russia in 50 days

• Says up to 17 Patriot batteries could be available 'very soon'
  

• Russian markets rise, suggesting relief over delay

KYIV/WASHINGTON, July 14 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump announced new weapons for Ukraine on Monday, and threatened sanctions on buyers of Russian exports unless Russia agrees a peace deal, a major policy shift brought on by frustration with Moscow's ongoing attacks on its neighbor.

But Trump's threat of sanctions came with a 50-day grace period, a move that was welcomed by investors in Russia where the rouble recovered from earlier losses and stock markets rose.

BEIRUT (AP) — Clashes between Bedouin tribes, government forces and members of a minority sect in Syria have left dozens dead and once again raised fears of a breakdown in the country’s fragile postwar order.

The country is deeply divided as it tries to emerge from decades of dictatorship and nearly 14 years of civil war.

Clashes have on several occasions broken out between forces loyal to the government and Druze fighters since the fall of President Bashar Assad in early December in a lightning rebel offensive led by Sunni Islamist insurgent groups, but Monday’s fighting threatened to escalate into a larger conflict.

Here are the main reasons the clashes expanded in recent days and background on the two sides:

The Druze and Syria’s new government

The Druze religious sec t is a minority group that began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. More than half the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981. In Syria, they largely live in the southern Sweida province and some suburbs of Damascus, mainly in Jaramana and Ashrafiyat Sahnaya to the south.

The transitional government has promised to include minorities, including the Druze, but the new 23-member government in Syria announced in late March only has one Druze member, Minister of Agriculture Amjad Badr.

Under the Assad family’s tight rule, religious freedom was guaranteed as the country then boasted about its secular and Arab nationalist system.

The Druze have been divided over how to deal with their issues with the new status quo in the country. Many Druze support a dialogue with the government while others want a more confrontational approach.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats and Republicans don’t agree on much, but they share a conviction that the government should help American manufacturers, one way or another.

Democratic President Joe Biden handed out subsidies to chipmakers and electric vehicle manufacturers. Republican President Donald Trump is building a wall of import taxes — tariffs — around the U.S. economy to protect domestic industry from foreign competition.

Yet American manufacturing has been stuck in a rut for nearly three years. And it remains to be seen whether the trend will reverse itself.

The U.S. Labor Department reports that American factories shed 7,000 jobs in June for the second month in a row. Manufacturing employment is on track to drop for the third straight year.

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — A wildfire raging along the Grand Canyon’s North Rim that leveled a historic lodge erupted over the weekend after burning for more than a week, raising scrutiny over the National Park Service’s decision not to aggressively attack the fire right away.

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs called for a federal investigation into the Park Service’s handling of the fire, which was sparked by lightning July 4.

“Arizonans deserve answers for how this fire was allowed to decimate the Grand Canyon National Park,” the governor said in a social media post Sunday. “The federal government chose to manage that fire as a controlled burn during the driest, hottest part of the Arizona summer.”

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia met with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Monday, as anticipation grew over a possible shift in the Trump administration’s policy on the three-year war.

Trump last week said he would make a “major statement” on Russia on Monday. He was due to meet with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in Washington. Rutte also planned to hold talks with U.S. Defense Secretary Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as well as members of Congress.

Trump made quickly stopping the war one of his diplomatic priorities, and he has increasingly expressed frustration about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s unbudging stance on U.S-led peace efforts.

Trump has long boasted of his friendly relationship with Putin, and after taking office in January repeatedly said that Russia was more willing than Ukraine to reach a peace deal. At the same time, Trump accused Zelenskyy of prolonging the war and called him a “dictator without elections.”

But Russia’s relentless onslaught against civilian areas of Ukraine wore down Trump’s patience. In April, Trump urged Putin to “STOP!” launching deadly barrages on Kyiv, and the following month said in a social media post that the Russian leader “ has gone absolutely CRAZY!” as the bombardments continued.

"I am very disappointed with President Putin, I thought he was somebody that meant what he said,” Trump said late Sunday. “He’ll talk so beautifully and then he’ll bomb people at night. We don’t like that.”

Zelenskyy said he and Trump’s envoy, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, had “a productive conversation” about strengthening Ukrainian air defenses, joint arms production and purchasing U.S. weapons in conjunction with European countries, as well as the possibility of tighter international sanctions on the Kremlin.

“We hope for the leadership of the United States, because it is clear that Moscow will not stop unless its ... ambitions are stopped by force,” Zelenskyy said on Telegram.

BUSRA AL-HARIR, Syria (AP) — Israel’s army said Monday it has struck military tanks in southern Syria as Syrian government forces and Bedouin tribes clashed with Druze militias there.

Dozens of people have been killed in the fighting between local militias and clans in Syria ’s Sweida province. Government security forces that were sent to restore order Monday also clashed with local armed groups.

Syria’s Interior Ministry has said more than 30 people died and nearly 100 others have been injured in that fighting. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitor, reported at least 64 dead, including two children, a woman and six members of the security forces.

The clashes in Syria initially broke out between armed groups from the Druze and Sunni Bedouin clans, the observatory said, with some members of the government security forces “actively participating” in support of the Bedouins.

Interior Ministry spokesperson Noureddine al-Baba said government forces entered Sweida in the early morning to restore order.

“Some clashes occurred with outlawed armed groups, but our forces are doing their best to prevent any civilian casualties,” he told the state-run Al-Ikhbariya TV.

An estimated 1 in 3 teens and preteens, ages 12 to 17, have prediabetes, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC data means an estimated 8.4 million young people -- or 32.7% of the U.S. adolescent population -- had prediabetes in 2023, the most recent data available.

With prediabetes, blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not high enough for a Type 2 diabetes diagnosis.

• Businessman heads Congo trip to try to free U.S. prisoners
  

• Team of three runs foul of the authorities and has to flee
• Venture shows how Washington works with unofficial envoys

DAKAR, July 11 (Reuters) - An Israeli-American businessman, a former State Department official and a decorated Green Beret pitched up in the Democratic Republic of Congo in March with a message for President Felix Tshisekedi from the Trump administration.

Two days later, they fled the country in fear of arrest.

The three envoys had come with an offer from Washington: release three American prisoners on death row and, in return, President Donald Trump will accept your minerals-for-security proposal.

The trip started well with a police motorcycle escort from the airport, but a frosty first meeting with Tshisekedi's security adviser, some ill-advised late-night target practice by some of the envoys and a Congolese general with an axe to grind put paid to the mission.

Reuters pieced together the course of events by speaking to the three Americans on the trip, a State Department official involved in the initiative, and two people the trio met during their brief stay in Congo's capital Kinshasa.

The story of the ill-fated venture, which has not previously been reported, provides a glimpse of how the Trump administration is prepared to work through unconventional channels in pursuit of deals to bring Americans home, a top priority for the president.

"We want to work with folks who have the right connections, but more importantly, have the positive relationships that can help influence a decision-maker's thinking ... so it's not uncommon for us to do that," Dustin Stewart, Trump's deputy special envoy for hostage affairs, who was involved in discussions on the initiative, told Reuters.

"We thought they had enough sway to talk to the right people. Obviously, that proved incorrect," he said.

President Tshisekedi's office did not respond to requests for comment for this article.

Congo has become a focus of U.S. diplomatic efforts to end the decades-long conflict in the east and help American companies access critical minerals, making the country ripe territory for endeavours such as this mission.

"Trump gave every indication right from the beginning that he was going to be purely transactional," said Ebenezer Obadare, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. "He's thrown out the old playbook. He's not going through normal diplomatic channels."