A major housing bill will go into effect at midnight on Saturday without Donald Trump’s signature, after the president said he would refuse to sign the legislation because Congress has not approved new restrictions on voting nationwide.
The measure, known as the 21st Century Road to Housing Act, is the biggest change to federal policy for buyers, renters and homebuilders in decades, and Congress approved it with large margins last month after lengthy negotiations between Democrats and Republicans.
But Trump has tied the bill to the Save America Act, which would impose a host of new restrictions on voters and state election officials nationwide ahead of November’s midterm elections, in which Republicans will be defending their majorities in the Senate and the House of Representatives. A version of the Save America Act passed the House in February, but it is opposed by Senate Democrats and lacks the votes in that chamber to overcome the filibuster.
Last month, Trump canceled a signing ceremony for the housing bill, denying his Republican allies an opportunity to publicly highlight their efforts to address housing affordability, which surveys indicate is a top concern among voters.
New York City has adopted a new rule that bans companies from using deceptive subscriptions to trap customers into paying for gym memberships, streaming services and other recurring charges, the city’s consumer protection office said.
The state of New York this week sued several companies over “forever chemicals,” a family of toxic chemicals that have commonly been used in consumer products.
Tensions between the Trump administration and the Smithsonian Institution have escalated after a White House report accused the National Museum of American History of promoting a "radical, activist ideology."
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir is planning to skip a UN police chiefs conference in New York this week amid legal pressure over his prison policies and “involvement in war crimes,” Israeli media reported.
An Israeli soldier’s photo of a Palestinian man from Gaza stripped to his underwear, blindfolded and bound face-down to an iron rod corroborates extensive reporting on Israeli torture of Palestinians in detention and itself may constitute a war crime, rights groups have said.
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a man killed by federal immigration agents during a traffic stop in Houston this week, was not the intended target of the “enforcement operation”, the Department of Homeland Security said on Thursday.
