Republican | Pakistan

A Republican-led US House of Representatives committee on Tuesday said it released more than 33,000 pages of files on the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as party leadership looked to end a push by a bipartisan pair of lawmakers to force a vote on the matter. The case of Epstein, who died by suicide in prison in 2019, has caused a political headache for Republican President Donald Trump, after many of his supporters embraced a slew of conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein. A July Reuters/Ipsos poll found that majorities of Americans and of Trump’s Republicans believe the government is hiding details on the case. The files released on Tuesday largely included court documents and other previously released information. “Nearly everything Republicans just supposedly ‘released’ … has already been released,” said Democratic US Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts in a post on X. Republican US Representative Thomas Massie and Representative Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, ...

President Donald Trump’s signature tax and spending bill was in limbo early Thursday as Republican leaders in the US Congress scrambled to win over a group of rebels threatening to torpedo the centrepiece of the president’s domestic agenda. Trump is seeking final approval in the House of Representatives for his Senate-passed “One Big Beautiful Bill” — but faces opposition on all sides of his fractious party over provisions set to balloon the national debt while launching a historic assault on the social safety net. As midnight (9am PKT) struck, House Speaker Mike Johnson was still holding open a key procedural vote — the bill’s last hurdle before it can advance to be considered for final approval — more than two hours after it was first called. With no clear sign of the stalemate breaking, his lieutenants huddled in tense meetings behind the scenes with the rebels who had either voted no or had yet to come to the House floor. “We’re going to get there tonight. We’re working on it and very, very positive about...