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The top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee took the rare step Wednesday of publicly announcing a hold on the Trump administration’s $2.8 billion plan to sell 40,000 one-ton bombs to Israel.

Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), the ranking member of the panel, said in a statement posted to X that he remains firmly committed to Israel’s security and its ability to defend itself, but raised concern about the risk to civilian lives, given the high death tolls throughout Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, and against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“I therefore will not clear this sale at this time. The decision does not diminish Congressional support for Israel’s legitimate defense needs; it reflects Congress’s responsibility to ensure that U.S.-funded weapons are used lawfully, responsibly, and with meaningful safeguards for human life.”

Meeks’s decision to publicize his opposition, which generally takes place behind the scenes and with an effort toward compromise, represents Democrats’ frustration with the Trump administration and toward the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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After a brief reprieve earlier in the week, President Donald Trump’s approval rating resumed its decline, falling to a new second-term low in the latest Marquette University Law School poll.

The poll, released Tuesday, Sept. 15, found that 37% of Americans approved of Trump’s job performance, down three percentage points from Marquette’s July poll.

The president’s approval rating in Tuesday’s poll marks his lowest in Marquette University’s tracking since his return to the White House in early 2025. Before Sept. 15, Trump’s previous low was in June, when the poll recorded a 38% approval rating.

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The artist Finneas and three other supporting acts quit Ed Sheeran's tour on Tuesday, after the US rapper Macklemore was removed for his pro-Palestine comments on stage.

Finneas, Irish acts Aaron Rowe and Beoga, and Lukas Graham of Denmark all posted statements announcing they were quitting Sheeran's "Loop Tour" in solidarity with the rapper and Palestinian people.

"Artists must not be silenced when they speak up for the oppressed,” Finneas said in a statement on social media.

His statement came after Irish singer Aaron Rowe published a statement, announcing that he had decided to withdraw as a support act for the British singer.

"Ed has been a friend to me and has changed my life," he said. "But as Irish people we know all too well about genocide, forced famine and violent occupation. I cannot stand by and allow billionaires to use their position of power to silence the rightful voices of those who speak up against Israeli genocide and who highlight the savage murder of children."

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In a statement shared on Instagram, US rapper Macklemore confirmed that “Ed Sheeran and his team” had dropped him from the tour after he said “Free Palestine”.

The campaign to remove Macklemore from the tour was driven by billionaire Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots and Gillette Stadium, who threatened to block Sheeran and his team from using his stadium.

Kraft also rallied other stadium owners across the country to stop the tour from proceeding.

“Ed told me that Kraft said I would not be allowed to perform in his stadium,” Macklemore wrote.

“Ed also told me that Kraft had rallied some of the other stadium owners and collectively they gave him an ultimatum: 'If Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues.'”

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Russia’s intelligence services are plotting to carry out targeted killings in the United States and in European nations supporting Ukraine, federal authorities said Tuesday as they announced charges against five people who remain at large.

An indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court said a network of the intelligence services had paid and attempted to pay individuals in the United States and in other countries to surveil targets to be killed with plans to then kill them.

The associates recruited in the network also had been solicited to carry out acts of terrorism against civilian and military infrastructure in European countries that were perceived to be aligned with Ukraine, the indictment said.

James Barnacle Jr, head of New York’s FBI office, said the FBI disrupted the plans “through relentless work” as members of the Russian intelligence services and their affiliates “conspired to intimidate, threaten, or murder people on US soil and around the world”.

Darren Cox, head of the Washington DC office of the FBI, cited “extraordinary work by multiple FBI field offices, components, and partner agencies that collectively disrupted Russia’s attempts to conduct violent acts in our nation’s capital and throughout the United States”.

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The Trump administration is planning to deliver powerful 2,000lb bombs to Israel as part of an upcoming arms deal, weapons that prompted such concerns about the possibility of mass casualties in Gaza that the Biden administration paused their delivery two years ago.

The $2.8bn package includes 40,000 bombs, made up of 20,000 MK-84s and 20,000 BLU-117s, according to two US officials and a person familiar with the plan who spoke on Tuesday on condition of anonymity to discuss the package, which is not yet final.

Congress has been informally notified about the pending deal, most of which is to be paid for with foreign military financing – in which US taxpayer dollars are given to Israel to turn around and buy the weapons from the United States.

The proposed sale is just the latest in a series of Trump administration steps to improve Israeli’s military capacity. The war on Gaza has left tens of thousands of Palestinians dead and has decimated the territory. The US had brokered a fragile ceasefire, but it has been violated several times.

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Herlain, a registered nurse who was born in Haiti, barely leaves her house these days.

The few times she has, she was terrified. She instructed her family members about how to record on their phones in case she gets detained by federal immigration authorities.

"You would think I was on the run," she told NPR. "Who am I on the run from? This is crazy!"

Even at home she fears strangers and refused to open the door to a salesman who requested water on a humid Florida day during a recent heatwave.

"That's not me. I'm a nurse, I help people," she recounted through tears.

Herlain, along with nearly 350,000 other Haitian migrants, lost her temporary protected status, or TPS, in July. She asked NPR to only use her first name because of her immigration status.

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New York City officials have selected Brooklyn-based company it’s electric to expand the city's curbside electric vehicle charging network to 700 charging points from the current 88, the company announced Tuesday.

The transportation department’s buildout will target more than 10 neighborhoods with high concentrations of taxi and rideshare drivers and limited off-street parking, including Washington Heights, Forest Hills and the Upper West Side.

According to the DOT, the deal comprises two contracts: one for installation at $55.3 million, and one for operating at $4.9 million. Each station will feature at least two charger posts with two charging points each, the DOT said.

The city gave New Yorkers until Sept. 30 to share their thoughts on the proposed locations and suggest others through an online portal.

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