Supreme Court swings hit Trump as Venezuela rescue turns dire

The Supreme Court issued multiple major decisions affecting Trump’s agenda, voting rules, and federal privacy protections. At the same time, the U.S. is sending envoys to Qatar for Iran ceasefire talks as Venezuela’s earthquake rescue effort grows increasingly

For Trump, the Supreme Court’s latest batch of rulings arrives like a scoreboard no one can ignore: a bold “big win” in one case, a clear loss in another, and a set of decisions that tighten the government’s reach and widen the legal constraints around it.

On Monday, the justices issued four major decisions, and this week they followed with more opinions as the court prepares for summer recess. Tuesday was expected to bring additional rulings.

Two of the opinions centered on the firing of government officials. In one. the conservative-led justices ruled 6-3 along party lines that presidents have broad authority to remove federal agency heads. even though federal laws require cause and a prior decision nearly a century ago had limited executive power. Trump called that ruling a “big win.”.

In the second, the court went the other direction for the president. The justices ruled that Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook can keep her job while she fights Trump’s efforts to fire her over allegations of mortgage fraud. She has long denied any wrongdoing.

The court also declined to take up Trump’s attempt to throw out a jury’s $5 million finding that he sexually abused and defamed writer E. Jean Carroll, leaving that case standing.

Voting policy and election administration were another battleground. The justices ruled 5-4 that states can continue counting mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day. as long as the ballots are postmarked in time and the practice is part of state law. Trump has long questioned the validity of mail-in ballots and has continued challenging his 2020 election loss.

After the mail-in ballot decision, Trump used it to push for Congress to pass his SAVE America Act. He said the ruling gave people “more time to vote illegally. let’s say. ” and argued the SAVE Act was “even more important.” In his remarks. he described tighter rules tied to citizenship and voter ID by photo. and he said mail-in ballots would be limited to the military. disabled. people who are ill. or those away—including on vacation. He also promised, “we’ll have honest elections.”.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries praised the Supreme Court’s decision. saying it preserved states’ constitutional ability to manage voting by mail. He added that voting by mail had “never been a partisan issue” until Trump “peddle[d] conspiracy theories related to his own failures to win back in 2020.”.

The court also handed privacy advocates another win. It held that constitutional privacy protections extend to cellphone location information. The case stemmed from a 2019 bank robbery in which police obtained a geofence warrant and used it to locate cellphones near the bank around the time of the robbery—leading them to a suspect while also revealing other people’s information.

Still pending this week are additional rulings on birthright citizenship, a ban on transgender athletes, and a campaign finance decision.

The legal whiplash is unfolding against another volatile front overseas, where the U.S.-Iran ceasefire remains fragile. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said U.S. officials would be in Doha. Qatar. on Tuesday for “high-level meetings. ” even as Washington and Tehran gave conflicting updates on where negotiations stand.

Leavitt said Special Envoy Witkoff and Jared Kushner will be flying to Doha for high-level talks. and that technical discussions would take place on the sidelines. She said, “we continue to discuss the MOU,” and insisted the U.S. was “holding up our end of the ceasefire.” She added: “Violence will be met with violence.”.

Iran’s foreign ministry said no talks with the U.S. are scheduled in the coming days, while saying an Iranian delegation will travel to Doha later this week. Spokesman Esmail Baghaei said the U.S. delegation’s visit “has nothing to do with the Iranian delegation’s visit. ” and the talks were originally scheduled to take place in Switzerland.

Even as U.S. diplomacy moves into the next room, relief efforts in Venezuela have been forced into a harsher reality. The death toll from last week’s powerful twin earthquakes climbed again as rescue crews struggled to pull survivors from collapsed buildings and families reported that help was too slow.

National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez said the confirmed death toll has reached 1,719, with more than 5,000 injured and nearly 16,000 displaced. U.S. officials said among the dead are three Americans, and 12 more Americans remain missing.

Venezuela’s latest government tally shows nearly 200 buildings completely flattened, with several hundred more severely damaged. Experts said the disaster was likely worsened by years of poor building-code enforcement, weak licensing practices, and infrastructure neglect.

The United Nations coordinator in Venezuela said the organization is preparing for the death toll to rise significantly as excavations continue. Gianluca Rampolla Del Tindaro said: “At least 2,500 structures are affected, most of which fully collapsed. So. we are definitely looking at a number that is higher than the one already reported.” He said the U.N. is procuring body bags and that “10,000 body bags” were being agreed with authorities.

While rescue teams work. another kind of search is unfolding for relatives of more than 100 Venezuelans deported by the U.S. government just hours before the quakes. The family members said they are trying to find loved ones after the hotel where they were staying—located in the hardest-hit state of La Guaira—collapsed. Officials said some of the 146 deportees, including 19 women and 7 children, made it out, but many remain trapped under the rubble.

Back at home, Trump also faced new political arithmetic over housing and voting legislation. He cast doubt on whether he will sign a bipartisan affordable housing bill as the House advances the voter ID law known as the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act.

The president put the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act in limbo last week when he canceled the signing hours before it was set to take place. He said he would not approve it until Congress passes the unrelated SAVE Act, which imposes new restrictions on voter registration and mail-in voting.

When asked this week if he would sign the housing bill, Trump called it “so unimportant compared to the SAVE America Act,” describing the SAVE Act as “saving America from crooked elections” and calling the housing bill “a big yawn.”

The housing bill aims to lower the cost of buying a home by building more housing and restricting large corporations from buying single-family homes to convert them into rental properties. It passed Congress last Tuesday.

Even after Trump’s dismissive comments, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said he knows Trump won’t veto it. Johnson said the president will either sign it or allow 10 days to pass, at which point it will automatically become law.

Johnson also plans to wrap the SAVE America Act—tough-to-pass legislation—with a must-pass defense bill, the National Defense Authorization Act. That maneuver now goes to the House floor for consideration.

On technology policy. the House advanced a children’s online safety package. passing the Kids Internet and Digital Safety (KIDS) Act in a bipartisan vote of 267-117. Supporters said it would give parents more control over kids’ online activity. require new safety features. and limit how minors’ data can be used. The bill would also create rules for AI chatbots and online games and require age verification on pornography sites.

But the House version is narrower than the Kids Online Safety Act the Senate previously passed. House lawmakers removed a “duty of care” provision that supporters said was among the most important parts of the Senate bill.

Criticism has come from both sides. Digital rights and tech groups warned the bill could threaten privacy, free expression, and online anonymity. Sen. Richard Blumenthal called the House version “dead in the Senate,” while Sen. Ted Cruz said he is open to negotiations. The bill now heads to the Senate, where the path is less certain.

The week’s news stream also carried a smaller, separate kind of rescue—one far from courtrooms and emergency rooms. Feliks. a year-old eastern imperial eagle from Serbia. was brought back home after poachers captured him and put him up for sale in WhatsApp groups used to sell illegally trapped wild birds.

His journey began last year. when he set off on his first migratory flight from Serbia across North Macedonia. Greece. and Turkey before his tracking signal was lost over Syria. Michel Sawani, who leads the Lebanese Association for Migratory Birds, helped track Feliks down. Sawani described a complicated mission. including clashes on the borders and a storm that left the river separating Lebanon from Syria too high. forcing his team to wait nine days. He said the smugglers managed to get Feliks across in a potato box.

Feliks was sold in Lebanon, then resold back into Syria before Sawani’s network retrieved him. Getting him out took its own ordeal: after three failed attempts to get him home. the Serbian army helped bring him back on a military transport plane on June 22. Feliks is now in quarantine at a zoo in northern Serbia. where experts said he will need a new transmitter before he can fly freely again.

And for many Americans, the strains of national policy are personal in a quieter way. The middle class has been forced to live with uncertainty even as earnings climb. Jennifer Bringle. a 47-year-old freelance writer in Greensboro. North Carolina. and her husband. a 49-year-old wheelchair-services worker. said their combined annual income has averaged about $110. 000 in recent years. reaching $160. 000 in their best year. Bringle told Straight Arrow she feels frustrated because with their money, “we should be in a different position.”.

She said: “If I’m not living paycheck to paycheck, I feel like I’m almost there,” and added they are “one catastrophic event away from being in a really terrible state financially.”

That sense of being pulled toward the edge—whether the crisis is legal. political. diplomatic. or natural—threads through the week’s biggest developments. In one courtroom, presidents win and lose. In another region, rescue teams run out of time. And for families both here and abroad. the consequences are measured not in opinions. but in the moments that come after decisions are handed down.

MISRYOUM Supreme Court Trump Lisa Cook Federal Reserve E. Jean Carroll mail-in ballots SAVE America Act voting cellphone location privacy Iran ceasefire Doha Qatar Venezuela earthquakes Jorge Rodríguez rescue efforts housing bill Kids Internet and Digital Safety Act KIDS Act