Trump promotes energy and tech investments at a summit in Pennsylvania

PITTSBURGH (AP) — President Donald Trump touted tens of billions of dollars of recent energy and technology investments Tuesday in Pennsylvania while boasting of a “true golden age for America” in energy policy and artificial intelligence.

Trump traveled to Pittsburgh at a summit helmed by Republican Sen. David McCormick that included dozens of top executives from companies aiming to make the city and the state a hot spot for advancements in robotics, artificial intelligence and energy. McCormick announced more than $90 billion of investments in the state — spurring tens of thousands of jobs — although some of the projects had already been in progress ahead of the summit.

“I think we have a true golden age for America. And we’ve been showing it, and it truly is the hottest country anywhere in the world,” Trump said at the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit, held at Carnegie Mellon University. “I’m honored to be in Pennsylvania, and I’m honored to be in Pittsburgh. And you’re going to see some real action here. So get ready.”

Trump has repeatedly pledged U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market, and Pennsylvania — a swing state critical to his wins in 2016 and 2024 — is at the forefront of that agenda, in large part due to its coal and gas industry that the Republican administration has taken steps to bolster.

Both the president and senior administration officials on Tuesday framed the investments as part of a race against China for the most advanced deployment of artificial intelligence, with Trump saying, “We are way ahead of China, I have to say.”

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UN finds rising child malnutrition in Gaza, where officials say Israeli strikes kill 93 people

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Malnutrition rates among children in the Gaza Strip have doubled since Israel sharply restricted the entry of food in March, the U.N. said Tuesday. New Israeli strikes killed more than 90 Palestinians, including dozens of women and children, according to health officials.

Hunger has been rising among Gaza’s more than 2 million Palestinians since Israel broke a ceasefire in March to resume the war and banned all food and other supplies from entering Gaza, saying it aimed to pressure Hamas to release hostages. It slightly eased the blockade in late May, allowing in a trickle of aid.

UNRWA, the main U.N. agency caring for Palestinians in Gaza, said it had screened nearly 16,000 children under age 5 at its clinics in June and found 10.2% of them were acutely malnourished. By comparison, in March, 5.5% of the nearly 15,000 children it screened were malnourished.

One strike in the northern Shati refugee camp killed a 68-year-old Hamas member of the Palestinian legislature, as well as a man and a woman and their six children who were sheltering in the same building, according to officials from the heavily damaged Shifa Hospital, where the casualties were taken.

One of the deadliest strikes hit a house in Gaza City’s Tel al-Hawa district on Monday evening and killed 19 members of the family living inside, according to Shifa Hospital. The dead included eight women and six children. A strike on a tent housing displaced people in the same district killed a man and a woman and their two children.

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Trump downplays possibility of sending Ukraine long-range weapons as it struggles to repel Russia

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday downplayed the possibility of sending Ukraine long-range weapons as Kyiv awaits an injection of U.S. weaponry that it hopes will help it beat back an intensifying Russian air offensive.

Trump offered a more cautious tone on what to expect after he threatened Russia a day earlier with steep tariffs if President Vladimir Putin doesn’t act within 50 days to end the three-year conflict. He also on Monday announced plans to bolster Kyiv's stockpile by selling American weapons to NATO allies who would in turn send arms to Ukraine.

Providing Ukraine with more long-range weaponry would give Kyiv the chance to strike further into Russian territory, a move that some in Ukraine and the U.S. have said could help push Putin toward negotiations to end the fighting.

Asked if he intended to supply Ukraine with weapons that could reach deeper into Russian territory, Trump replied, “We're not looking to do that.” He made the remarks to reporters before departing the White House for an energy investment event in Pittsburgh.

While Trump's threats of weapons, sanctions and tariffs mark the most substantive pressure he’s placed on Putin since returning to office nearly six months ago, some lawmakers said they remain concerned that the administration, with the 50-day deadline, is giving Putin time to grab even more Ukrainian territory.

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Trump to put tariffs of over 10% on smaller nations, including those in Africa and the Caribbean

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump told reporters Tuesday that he plans to place tariffs of over 10% on smaller countries, including nations in Africa and the Caribbean.

“We’ll probably set one tariff for all of them,” Trump said, adding that it could be “a little over 10% tariff” on goods from at least 100 nations.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick interjected that the nations with goods being taxed at these rates would be in Africa and the Caribbean, places that generally do relatively modest levels of trade with the U.S. and would be relatively insignificant for addressing Trump's goals of reducing trade imbalances with the rest of the world.

The president had this month been posting letters to roughly two dozen countries and the European Union that simply levied a tariff rate to be charged starting Aug. 1.

Those countries generally faced tax rates on the goods close to the April 2 rates announced by the U.S. president, whose rollout of historically high import taxes for the U.S. caused financial markets to panic and led to Trump setting a 90-day negotiating period that expired July 9.

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Federal grand jury indicts man accused of killing former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A man indicted Tuesday on charges he fatally shot the Democratic leader in the Minnesota state House and her husband, and wounded another lawmaker and his wife, confessed to the crimes in a rambling handwritten letter to FBI Director Kash Patel, but didn’t say why he targeted the couples, prosecutors said.

Vance Boelter also wrote in the letter that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz had approached him about killing the state’s two U.S. senators, fellow Democrats Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith.

Asked by a reporter if all that was a fantasy, acting U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson replied: “Yes, I agree.”

“There is little evidence showing why he turned to political violence and extremism,” Thompson said. “What he left were lists: politicians in Minnesota, lists of politicians in other states, lists of names of attorneys at national law firms.”

The indictment handed up murder, stalking and firearms charges against Boelter. The murder counts in the deaths of former Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, could carry the federal death penalty. The indictment also charged Boelter with shooting and wounding a state senator and his wife, and attempting to shoot their adult daughter.

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A lockout is looming over MLB in December 2026, with a salary cap fight possibly at the center

ATLANTA (AP) — Looming over baseball is a likely lockout in December 2026, a possible management push for a salary cap and perhaps lost regular-season games for the first time since 1995.

“No one’s talking about it, but we all know that they're going to lock us out for it, and then we’re going to miss time," New York Mets All-Star first baseman Pete Alonso said Monday at the All-Star Game. “We're definitely going to fight to not have a salary cap and the league’s obviously not going to like that.”

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred and some owners have cited payroll disparity as a problem, while at the same time MLB is working to address a revenue decline from regional sports networks. Unlike the NFL, NBA and NHL, baseball has never had a salary cap because its players staunchly oppose one.

Despite higher levels of luxury tax that started in 2022, the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets have pushed payrolls to record levels. The last small-market MLB club to win a World Series was the Kansas City Royals in 2015.

After signing outfielder Juan Soto to a record $765 million contract, New York opened this season with an industry-high $326 million payroll, nearly five times Miami's $69 million, according to Major League Baseball's figures. Using luxury tax payrolls, based on average annual values that account for future commitments and include benefits, the Dodgers were first at $400 million and on track to owe a record luxury tax of about $151 million — shattering the previous tax record of $103 million set by Los Angeles last year.

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2 dead in New Jersey after floodwaters carry away vehicle during heavy rains that hit Northeast

NEW YORK (AP) — Two people in New Jersey were killed after their vehicle was swept up in floodwaters during a storm that moved across the U.S. Northeast overnight, authorities said Tuesday.

Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, noted the deaths occurred in the northern New Jersey city of Plainfield, where there were two storm-related deaths July 3. A third person was killed in North Plainfield during that previous storm.

“We’re not unique, but we’re in one of these sort of high humidity, high temperature, high storm intensity patterns right now,” Murphy told reporters after touring storm damage in Berkeley Heights. “Everybody needs to stay alert.”

The names of the two latest victims were not immediately released Tuesday. Local officials said the vehicle they were riding in was swept into a brook during the height of the storm.

“Emergency personnel responded quickly, but tragically, both individuals were pronounced dead at the scene,” according to a statement the city posted online.

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With Epstein conspiracy theories, Trump faces a crisis of his own making

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.

“I don't understand what the interest or what the fascination is,” Trump told reporters Tuesday.

His problem? That nothing-to-see-here approach doesn’t work for those who've learned from him 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 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.

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Pentagon ends deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Pentagon said Tuesday it is ending the deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops in Los Angeles, accounting for nearly half of the soldiers sent to the city to deal with protests over the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.

Roughly 4,000 National Guard soldiers and 700 Marines have been in the city since early June. It wasn't immediately clear what prompted the 60-day deployment to end suddenly, nor was it immediately clear how long the rest of the troops would stay in the region.

In late June, the top military commander in charge of troops deployed to LA had asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for 200 of them to be returned to wildfire fighting duty amid warnings from California Gov. Gavin Newsom that the Guard was understaffed as California entered peak wildfire season.

The end of the deployment comes a week after federal authorities and National Guard troops arrived at MacArthur Park with guns and horses in an operation that ended abruptly. Although the U.S. Department of Homeland Security wouldn’t explain the purpose of the operation or whether anyone had been arrested, local officials said it seemed designed to sow fear.

“Thanks to our troops who stepped up to answer the call, the lawlessness in Los Angeles is subsiding," Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement in announcing the decision.

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Senate votes to move ahead with Trump's request for $9 billion in spending cuts

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans on Tuesday advanced President Donald Trump's request to cancel some $9 billion in previously approved spending, overcoming concerns from some lawmakers about what the rescissions could mean for impoverished people around the globe and for public radio and television stations in their home states.

The Senate vote was 50-50, with Vice President JD Vance breaking the tie.

A final vote in the Senate could occur as early as Wednesday. The bill would then return to the House for another vote before it would go to Trump's desk for his signature before a Friday deadline.

Republicans winnowed down the president's request by taking out his proposed $400 million cut to a program known as PEPFAR. That change increased the prospects for the bill's passage. The politically popular program is credited with saving millions of lives since its creation under then-President George W. Bush to combat HIV/AIDS.

The president is also looking to claw back money for foreign aid programs targeted by his Department of Government Efficiency and for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

News from © The Associated Press, 2025