Senate votes against resolutions to block arms sales to Israel even as it continues to starve Gaza – as it happened

The Senate just voted overwhelmingly against the first of two resolutions introduced by Bernie Sanders on Wednesday to block arms sales to Israel over its destruction of Gaza.

The measure, SJ Res41, would have stopped the sale of tens of thousands of fully automatic assault rifles to Israel.

The final tally was 70 votes against and 27 in favor.

Chuck Schumer, the Democratic minority leader from New York, and Cory Booker, a Democratic senator of New Jersey, voted against the measure, but progressives like Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, and Jeff Merkley of Oregon, were joined by moderates including Jon Ossoff of Georgia, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Tim Kaine of Virginia, and Dick Durbin of Illinois, in supporting the effort to cut off arms supplies to Israel.

Twelve of the Democrats who voted for the measure previously voted in April against a similar resolution, NBC reports.

A vote on a second resolution, to block the sale of $675.7m in bombs, is now in progress.

As the Senate begins to vote on resolutions introduced by Bernie Sanders that would stop arms sales to Israel, his Democratic colleague, Reverend Raphael Warnock of Georgia, said in a statement that he supports the measures.

It is wrong to starve children and other innocent civilians to death. Yet, whether through gross incompetence, woeful indifference, or some combination thereof, that is exactly what is happening right now in Gaza under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu and his government. It is a moral atrocity that cannot abide the conscience of those who believe in human dignity, freedom, and human thriving. That is why I will vote to support the Joint Resolution of Disapproval put before the Senate tonight.

I’ve made clear I support the state of Israel and its right to defend itself. Today, I urge the state of Israel, the United States, and the world to move as quickly as possible to get the people of Gaza the same nourishment and care that we would want for our own children.

I pray for a ceasefire and the return of the hostages home to their families, and look forward to resuming the work of securing peace and safety for all those in the region.

As the Senate continues to debate resolutions introduced by Bernie Sanders that would stop arms sales to Israel, ahead of a vote, Elizabeth Warren voiced her support for the measures.

“Donald Trump promised peace in Gaza, but he’s abandoned ceasefire talks while babies starve,” Warren wrote on Bluesky. “If Trump is too weak to act, then Congress must step up. No more US military support for Netanyahu to wage war in Gaza.”

As our colleague William Christou reports from Jerusalem, at least 48 Palestinians were killed and dozens were wounded on Wednesday while waiting for food at a crossing in Gaza, according to a local hospital that received the casualties.

The latest violence around aid distribution came one day after Donald Trump was praised for calling images of starving children there “terrible”, but also endorsed the chaotic Israeli-run system for aid distribution, with US support, that has led to the deaths of more than 1,000 Palestinians since May.

Israel’s ongoing military offensive and blockade have led to the “worst-case scenario of famine” in the coastal territory of some 2 million Palestinians, according to the leading international authority on hunger crises. A breakdown of law and order, since Israel insisted on replacing a functioning system of aid deliveries run by the United Nations for decades, has seen aid convoys overwhelmed by desperate crowds and live ammunition being fired at civilians seeking aid by Israeli forces and US contractors.

While Israel announced this weekend that it would allow more aid into Gaza, the new measures, which include daily pauses in the bombardment, as well as airdropped aid and humanitarian corridors for UN aid trucks, experienced aid workers have said that Israel has intentionally created the starvation crisis, which has seen 151 Palestinians die of hunger, more than half of whom died in the past month alone.

On Wednesday night, al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City said that the dozens who were killed and wounded were among crowds massed at the Zikim crossing, the main entry point for humanitarian aid to northern Gaza.

Associated Press footage showed bodies being ferried away from the scene of the shooting in ambulances and wooden carts, as well as crowds of people carrying bags of flour.

Senator Bernie Sanders just spoke on the Senate floor in support of two resolutions that would stop the sale of offensive weapons to Israel over its bombardment of the besieged civilian population of Gaza.

Ahead of a vote on the resolutions scheduled for Wednesday night, Sanders delivered his plea for the Senate to block $675.7m in bombs paid for by US taxpayers and the sale of tens of thousands of fully automatic assault rifles in front on images of starving Palestinian children. He also placed a large stack of papers on his desk with the names of 18,500 children who have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza published on Wednesday by the Washington Post.

“What the extremist Netanyahu government is doing now is not an effort to win a war; there is no military purpose in starving thousands and thousands of children,” Sanders said. “Let us be clear: this is not an effort to win a war; this is an effort to destroy a people.”

Sanders added that, by one estimate, 70% of the cost of destroying Gaza has been paid for by American taxpayers. He also noted that the arms sales clearly violate two US laws: the Foreign Assistance Act and the Arms Export Control Act.

“Tonight we have the power to act,” Sanders said. “The power to force Netanyahu and his extremist government to end this slaughter.”

The two resolutions introduced by Sanders were supported by colleagues including his allies Peter Welch, Vermont’s junior senator, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the New York congresswoman who has toured the country with Sanders for “Fighting Oligarchy” rallies.

“The mass starvation in Gaza must end,” Welch said in remarks after Sanders spoke. “The forced displacement of 2 million Palestinians in Gaza must end.”

“It is unthinkable that at this moment, when a third of Gaza has not eaten in days, the Senate would green light the bombs, guns, and munitions that have already been used to kill 60,000 Palestinians,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement. “Today, every Senator has a choice to make: they can uphold US law by preventing the transfer of these weapons, or they can cower to Netanyahu and hand over the arms being used to perpetuate a genocide.”

In an interview with CNN on Tuesday night, Sanders was asked if Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was lying when he said there is no starvation in Gaza. “Of course he’s lying,” Sanders replied. “He is a disgusting liar.”

California Democrats who have already entered the race to be the state’s next governor praised former vice-president Kamala Harris on Wednesday after her decision not to run for the office, despite leading in the polls, made all of their lives a little easier.

Katie Porter, the former congresswoman who studied consumer law with Elizabeth Warren, called Harris “a principled leader” and added: “I’m proud of the work we accomplished together on consumer protection during the housing crisis and grateful for her service to California and our country.” When Harris was California’s attorney general, in 2012, she appointed Porter, a bankruptcy law expert, to monitor the state’s $18 billion mortgage settlement with major banks in the wake of the financial crisis.

Xavier Becerra, who succeeded Harris as California’s attorney general and then served as health secretary in the Biden-Harris administration, hailed her as “a trailblazing leader” who chose to channel her “formidable energy and experience” into “other endeavors”.

Antonio Villaraigosa, a former Los Angeles mayor, voiced his “deep respect for Vice President Kamala Harris and her decades of leadership and public service to the people of California and our nation.” In hi statement, Villaraigosa, who suggested in May that both Harris and Becerra should be asked whether they were part of “a systematic cover-up to keep Joe Biden’s mental decline from the public”, strongly hinted that Harris was likely passing up on the race to become California’s governor in 2027 so that she could run for president again in 2028. “Her decision not to enter the race for Governor reflects her continued commitment to serving at the highest levels of government”, he wrote.

Eleni Kounalakis, California’s current lieutenant governor, released a video statement in which she emphasized that she is close to Harris. “I got a call from my friend Kamala Harris. I’m very honored that she called me before any announcements were made to tell me of her plans”, Kounalakis said. “I have so much respect and so much gratitude for the vice president’s leadership.”

There was no immediate statement from another potential candidate, the former Republican real estate developer Rick Caruso, who registered as a Democrat and spent $100 million on his unsuccessful run for Los Angeles mayor in 2022.

Caruso teased a run for governor on Tuesday, when he posted Instagram images of himself meeting with Willie Brown, and looking at a photo of the California state assembly. Brown, who once dated Harris, had suggested in a recent podcast interview that Harris might not win a race for governor and talked up the prospects of Caruso instead.

Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that he has agreed to a new trade deal with South Korea that will subject imports to a 15% tariff rate. South Korean importers will pay no tariffs on US goods they purchase.

The new arrangement comes seven years after the president negotiated a slightly revised version of the existing US-Korea Free Trade Agreement, known as Korus, under which almost 95% of the goods traded between the two nations were free of tariffs. When that agreement was struck, Trump called the deal “fair and reciprocal” and praised it as a win for US auto-makers, since South Korea agreed to phase out a 25% tariff on US-made trucks.

Trump said that South Korea agreed to invest $350bn in the US and purchase $100bn in US energy products.

Writing on his social media platform, Trump claimed that the new agreement meant that “South Korea will be completely OPEN TO TRADE with the United States, and that they will accept American product including Cars and Trucks, Agriculture, etc.”

Brown University announced on Wednesday it “reached a voluntary agreement with the federal government to restore funding for the University’s federally sponsored medical and health sciences research and resolve three open reviews assessing Brown’s compliance with federal nondiscrimination obligations”.

As part of the agreement, signed by Christina H Paxson, the president of Brown, attorney general Pam Bondi, education secretary Linda McMahon and health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, Brown will pay $50m “to state workforce development organizations operating in compliance with anti-discrimination laws” over the next 10 years.

One provision of the agreement stipulates that “Brown shall not maintain programs that promote unlawful efforts to achieve race-based outcomes, quotas, diversity targets, or similar efforts”. Defining the effort to bring diversity to campuses as a form of illegal discrimination against white students is a core element of the Trump administration’s ideological war on higher education.

“Accordingly,” the agreement adds, “Brown will provide a timely report to the United States summarizing its compliance with this obligation, including an assurance that Brown has acted responsibly to ensure its programs do not promote unlawful DEI goals.”

Another provision, which might seem to be at odds with the ban on promoting diversity, is a commitment from the university to combat antisemitism by taking actions “to support a thriving Jewish community, research and education about Israel, and a robust Program in Judaic Studies, through outreach to Jewish Day School students to provide information about applying to Brown, resources for religiously observant Jewish community members, renewed partnerships with Israeli academics and national Jewish organizations, support for enhanced security at the Brown-RISD Hillel, and a convening of alumni, students, and faculty to celebrate 130 years of Jewish life at Brown”.

The education secretary called the agreement as evidence that the Trump administration “is successfully reversing the decades-long woke-capture of our nation’s higher education institutions”.

Donald Trump just spoke at the start of what’s billed as a Making Health Technology Great Again event at the White House, to unveil a new private health tracking system that asks Americans to share their personal health data and medical records with private tech companies.

While privacy advocates have raised alarms about the plan, Trump announced that what he called “the CMS Digital Health Tech Ecosystem” would “give healthcare providers, insurers and software companies the tools they need to empower Americans with a 21st Century experience on health.”

Before inviting his health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, to speak, Trump also recited a series of boasts about how well things are going under his leadership that have become a regular part of his remarks in all settings.

One of them was his claim that “the king of Saudi Arabia” told him on a recent visit to the Middle East that “one year ago, your country was dead, and today yo have the hottest country anywhere in the world.”

As we noted last week when Trump recited this story at an AI summit, Trump was not hosted on his trip by King Salman of Saudi Arabia, the 89-year-old monarch who has largely retreated from public life and took no part in the lavish ceremonies and meetings Trump attended in Riyadh.

Instead, Trump met with crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, who approved the 2018 murder of the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to a US intelligence report made public three weeks after the end of Trump’s first term.

Here are some of the latest developments we’re tracking in our continuing live coverage of the second Trump administration on Wednesday:

• The US Federal Reserve elected to hold its benchmark interest rate steady at between 4.25 and 4.5%, a rate it has maintained since the end of 2024. Two Trump-appointed officials on the central bank dissented.

• Kamala Harris, the former vice-president and 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, announced on Wednesday that she will not run for governor of California, or any elected office, “For now” – fueling speculation that she could run for the 2028 Democratic nomination.

• Donald Trump signed an executive order which adds a further 40% tariff to Brazilian imports – bringing the total to 50%. The order exempts hundreds of products that form a large share of Brazilian goods imported by the US, but not coffee.

• Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer outlined a new attempt to force attorney general Pam Bondi to release the files related to the federal investigations of Jeffrey Epstein.

• The treasury department announced sanctions against Alexandre de Moraes – the Brazil supreme court judge leading the prosecution of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, for allegedly attempting to launch a coup after losing the 2022 Brazilian election.

The executive order issued by Donald Trump on Wednesday, imposing 50% tariffs on goods imported from Brazil – to punish the South American nation for supposedly “persecuting” its former president, Jair Bolsonaro, for attempting to stay in power despite losing an election – exempts hundreds of products, including certain metals, aircraft parts, wood pulp, energy and energy products, and fertilizers.

The long list of exemptions included in an annex to the order on the White House website does not, however, include coffee, one of the main items American companies import from Brazil.

The Jeffrey Epstein files weren’t the only business of the day on Capitol Hill today. Legislation sponsored by Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri gained approval from a key committee today.

The bill was initially named the Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments (PELOSI) Act, which would bar elected members of Congress from buying, owning or selling individual stocks.

The bill’s original name takes a pointed jab at Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi – who has been criticised for her stock holdings. Democrats have since negotiated for the legislation to be renamed as the “Honest Act”.

In a statement today, Pelosi said:

I welcome any serious effort to raise ethical standards in public service. The HONEST Act, as amended, rightly applies its stock trading ban not only to Members of Congress, but now to the President and Vice President as well. I strongly support this legislation and look forward to voting for it on the Floor of the House.

However, since the legislation stipulates that the law doesn’t start until an elected official’s new term in office, it exempts Donald Trump and JD Vance.

Donald Trump signed an executive order which adds a further 40% tariff to Brazilian imports – bringing the total to 50%.

The White House says that the tariffs are a penalty for the Government of Brazil’s politically motivated persecution of former President Jair Bolsonaro and his supporters. The administration maintains that these punitive tariffs are part of the President’s plans to protect “the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States from a foreign threat.”

This comes after the earlier move from the Treasury Department to issue sanctions against the high court judge overseeing Bolsonaro’s attempted coup trial.

Kamala Harris, the former vice-president and 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, announced on Wednesday that she will not run for governor of California – a highly anticipated decision that leaves the contest to lead the country’s largest blue state wide open.

In a statement Harris said:

For now, my leadership – and public service – will not be in elected office. I look forward to getting back out and listening to the American people, helping elect Democrats across the nation who will fight fearlessly, and sharing more details in the months ahead about my own plans.

Jerome Powell is outlining the Federal Reserve’s decision to keep the interest rate steady.

“Our obligation is to keep longer term inflation’s inflation expectations well anchored, and to prevent a one time increase in the price level from becoming an ongoing inflation problem,” he said.

The US Federal Reserve has elected to hold its benchmark interest rate steady at between 4.25 and 4.5%, a rate it has maintained since the end of 2024.

The divided Federal Reserve voted to keep the rate steady despite a barrage of criticism from Trump and dissents from two officials.

“Although swings in net exports continue to affect the data, recent indicators suggest that growth of economic activity moderated in the first half of the year. The unemployment rate remains low, and labor market conditions remain solid. Inflation remains somewhat elevated,” a press release following the decision states.

The decision was met with opposition from governors Michelle Bowman and Christopher Waller, with both advocating for the Fed to start easing in acknowledgement that inflation is under control and the labor market could weaken soon. This marks the first time since 1993 that multiple governors cast no votes on a rate decision.

Trump is taking questions now, and is resolute that interest rates must drop.

“We’re keeping the rates high, and we’re hurting people from buying houses,” he says.

Taking another jab, in a long series of them, at Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, Trump says “he’s done a bad job.”

The president says that Powell is always “too late”, and adds that Powell probably won’t cut the interest rate today for reasons that “nobody knows.”

In response to the new congressional map released by Texas Republicans today, Democrats in the state and beyond have wasted no time rebuking it.

The Texas House Democrats said in a statement:

These maps are a corrupt, racially motivated gerrymander designed to steal the voices of Black and Latino Texans so Donald Trump can send five new hand-picked allies to Washington.

Similarly, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) said that it anticipates Texas will land itself a lawsuit, and believes “the map will get struck down”.

They added that they plan “to recruit aggressively to unseat every single newly vulnerable Republican who went along with this corrupt scheme”.

The treasury department announced sanctions today against Alexandre de Moraes – the high court judge overseeing the investigation into disgraced former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro – who is on trial for allegedly attempting to launch a coup after losing the 2022 Brazilian election.

Earlier this month secretary of state Marco Rubio said on social media that he ordered a visa revocation for De Moraes.

The US accuses De Moraes of “arbitrary pre-trial detentions and suppress freedom of expression”.

In a statement treasury secretary Scott Bessent added:

De Moraes is responsible for an oppressive campaign of censorship, arbitrary detentions that violate human rights, and politicized prosecutions—including against former President Jair Bolsonaro.

Today marks the first of three days of hearings investigating the plane collision in DC that killed 67 people in January.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is holding the hearings after an American Airlines passenger jet collided midair with a Black Hawk helicopter earlier this year. The crash killed all aboard both aircrafts. It is also the US’s deadliest air disaster since November 2001.

NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said the three days will be a “fact finding proceeding”, and today’s hearing opened with a video animation of where both aircrafts were leading up to the collision.

At the Capitol, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer is outlining his attempt to force attorney general Pam Bondi to release the files related to the investigation of disgraced financier and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

“We’re invoking federal law and using our authority as a check on the executive to compel transparency,” Schumer said.

“Today’s letter matters. It’s not a stunt, it’s not symbolic, it’s a formal exercise of congressional power under federal law, and we expect an answer from DoJ by August the 15th. That’s what accountability looks like. This is what oversight looks like, and this is what keeping your promises to the American people look like.”

He noted that both Bondi and Donald Trump had previously said they want the case file’s released:

This is not complicated. After promising full transparency for years, every single time Trump, his administration, Republican leaders have had a chance to be transparent about the Epstein files, they’ve chosen to hide. The evasions, the delays, the excuses, they are not just odd, they’re alarming. It begs the question, if there’s nothing to hide, why all the evasiveness?

Trump should stop hiding from the truth, he should stop hiding from the American people.

California’s Democratic governor Gavin Newsom has indicated he may push to redraw his state’s congressional maps if Texas Republicans approve new maps that could net the GOP five more House seats.

Writing on X after Texas Republicans released their proposal for redistricting the state’s House seats, Newsom said:

Donald Trump asks for 5 seats and Greg Abbott automatically bends the knee. The 2026 election is being rigged. California won’t sit back and watch this happen.

If California Democrats want to redraw their congressional maps in the party’s favor, they will first have to ask voters to cancel a constitutional amendment that created an independent redistricting commission – potentially a tall ask.

Top Senate Democrats will hold a press conference in a few minutes about their attempt to use a rarely-invoked law to force attorney general Pam Bondi to hand over the Epstein files.

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer is due to speak, as well as Gary Peters, the ranking member of the homeland security committee, and other Democrats on the panel. We will let you know what they have to say.

Texas Republicans have released their new proposed congressional map today. It could add up to five Republican seats if passed.

Donald Trump has pressured lawmakers in the state to redraw the map in order to protect the slim majority that Republicans hold in the House as the 2026 midterms loom.

Currently, Republicans hold 25 of Texas’s 38 congressional seats, while Democrats hold 12.

Democratic strongholds like California and Maryland have threatened to redraw their maps in response.

While Senate Democrats are on Capitol Hill and pressing for the Epstein files release, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries is in Austin, Texas, for closed-door meetings with state Democrats, according to Politico.

This comes as Donald Trump pushes Republican legislators in Texas to redraw their congressional district map earlier than usual. Normally, Texas would reconfigure its map every 10 years – aligned with the census.

Per Politico, Jeffries will hold a press conference in Texas tomorrow, along with a number of media appearances across cable TV.

Announcing the tariff on Truth Social today, Donald Trump said that “while India is our friend, we have, over the years, done relatively little business with them.”

Trump added that India will also pay a “penalty” for their role as a substantial buyer of Russian military equipment and energy. “At a time when everyone wants Russia to STOP THE KILLING IN UKRAINE,” he wrote.

Our colleagues are providing live updates here.

The US GDP grew at a faster rate than expected this quarter – 3%. That’s higher than the 2.3% Dow Jones estimate for this April to June period.

For more up-to-date news, follow our Business Live blog here.

On Capitol Hill today, Senate Democrats – led by minority leader Chuck Schumer – will hold a press conference at 12pm ET to discuss their plans to push the justice department to release the full and un-redacted Epstein files.

Democrats are using a rare and little-known law, known colloquially as the “rule of five”, which requires government agencies to provide relevant information if at least five members of the committee request it. In this case, all Democrats on the homeland security and governmental affairs committee signed a letter to attorney general Pam Bondi yesterday.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that Russia had developed an “immunity” to sanctions, Reuters reports.

The comments came after Donald Trump said on Tuesday he would start imposing tariffs and other measures on Russia “10 days from today” if Moscow did not make progress toward ending the war in Ukraine.

Peskov told reporters:

We have been living under a huge number of sanctions for quite a long time, our economy operates under a huge number of restrictions.

Therefore, of course, we have already developed a certain immunity in this regard, and we continue to note all statements that come from President Trump, from other international representatives on this matter.

The Justice Department says in support of its request to unseal grand jury transcripts of proceedings that led to the sex trafficking indictments of New York financier and sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell that they include the testimony of just two law enforcement witnesses, reports the Associated Press (AP).

In a filing late on Tuesday in Manhattan federal court, officials describe the grand jury witnesses in a memorandum in response to a call from judges presiding over both cases to provide more details about their request earlier this month. Judges would have to approve any request to unseal records.

The papers filed on Tuesday cite a 1997 second US Circuit court of appeals ruling that said judges have wide discretion and public interest alone can justify releasing grand jury information.

The Epstein grand jury heard only from an FBI agent when it met in June and July of 2019, while the Maxwell grand jury heard from the same FBI agent and a New York police department detective when it met in June and July of 2020 and in March of 2021, according to the submission.

The memorandum was signed by Jay Clayton, US attorney for the Southern District of New York, and included the names of attorney general Pam Bondi and Deputy attorney general Todd Blanche.

After the request to unseal grand jury records, two former prosecutors in Manhattan told the AP the transcripts would be relatively short and contain only the testimony of law enforcement witnesses talking about evidence that tracks information in the indictments.

In its filing on Tuesday, the Justice Department further dampened expectations the grand jury transcripts would contain new revelations when it said “certain aspects and subject matters” contained in them became public during Maxwell’s trial.