Friday, July 18, 2025
All civic learning topics for this day
Today's Topics
Gabbard threatens jail for Obama's intelligence chiefs
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced July 18, 2025, she would refer Obama administration officials to DOJ for prosecution, claiming declassified documents prove they "manufactured" intelligence about Russian interference in 2016. Gabbard threatened criminal charges against officials including potentially former CIA Director John Brennan and FBI Director James Comey for their roles in investigating Trump-Russia connections.
Trump demands 20% tariffs on European Union imports
President Trump told European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on July 18, 2025, that he wants 20% baseline tariffs on all EU goods from German cars to French wine, the Financial Times reported. European Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis warned of immediate retaliation targeting bourbon, motorcycles, and agricultural exports from Republican states.
Fed Chair Powell defends $2.5 billion luxury renovation costs
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell responded July 18, 2025, to White House criticism over the Fed's $2.5 billion headquarters renovation—10 times original estimates—that features Italian marble and gold-plated fixtures. President Trump and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt attacked the project as wasteful while cutting food stamps, with Trump appointees on the Fed board having approved the luxury upgrades in 2023.
UK grants 1.5 million 16-year-olds the right to vote
Britain's Parliament voted July 18, 2025, to lower the voting age to 16, adding 1.5 million young voters to electoral rolls starting with 2026 local elections. Prime Minister Keir Starmer championed the measure after successful youth voting trials in Scotland and Wales showed 16-year-olds vote at similar rates to adults. The expansion puts pressure on U.S. states where teens work and pay taxes but cannot vote.
House grants Trump power to rescind $9 billion
On July 18, 2025, the U.S. House of Representatives narrowly agreed to the Senate-amended Rescissions Act of 2025 by a 216–213 vote, authorizing President Donald Trump to rescind $7.9 billion in foreign aid and $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (rollcall.com, en.wikipedia.org). This marks the first presidential rescission package Congress has approved since fiscal year 1999, when it accepted $16.8 million of President Bill Clinton’s proposals under the expedited process created by the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (gao.gov). House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries led the opposition alongside all Democrats, while two moderate Republicans—Brian Fitzpatrick and Michael R. Turner—joined them in voting no, but fell short of blocking the measure (jeffries.house.gov, rollcall.com). The bill now heads to President Trump for signature, cementing the executive branch’s newfound authority to unilaterally claw back previously authorized funding, a shift critics warn undercuts Congress’s power of the purse (reuters.com).