… However, Andrew Giuliani, executive director of the White House’s World Cup task force, said the United States could consider making a bid to host the 2038 World Cup and would be able to “handle it” if expanded to 64 teams. …
Extreme heat has forced the temporary closure of the White House’s signature Great American State Fair on the National Mall, among a series of events marking the July Fourth holiday in Washington, DC. …
… Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and top U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, dispatched to the region for what the White House had billed as “high-level” talks, did not attend the sessions, according to a source who spoke on condition of anonymity. …
… The White House filed a lawsuit to block publication of the book, arguing that it contained classified information and had not been properly vetted. …
The White House has asked lawmakers to approve $87.6bn (£66.5bn), mostly for “urgent needs” connected with the US war on Iran, a day after Congress passed a resolution rebuking the military action. …
The White House has asked lawmakers to approve $87.6bn (£66.5bn), mostly for “urgent needs” connected with the US war on Iran, a day after Congress passed a resolution rebuking the military action. …
President Trump gave tens of thousands of dollars in cash gifts to executive assistant Natalie Harp, communications adviser Margo Martin, deputy director Chamberlain Harris, and director of Oval Office operations Walt Nauta, raising federal ethics concerns since government employees are generally barred from receiving compensation beyond their salaries. The White House says the gifts complied with ethics rules.
President Trump gave tens of thousands of dollars in cash gifts to executive assistant Natalie Harp, communications adviser Margo Martin, deputy director Chamberlain Harris, and director of Oval Office operations Walt Nauta, raising federal ethics concerns since government employees are generally barred from receiving compensation beyond their salaries. The White House says the gifts complied with ethics rules.
The US has imposed import bans on Canadian products including alcoholic spirits, dairy goods, and motorbikes through executive orders, effective 29 September, in retaliation for Canada's tariffs on American goods. Trade negotiations between the countries collapsed in late August, and both nations have expressed concerns about rising prices and falling customer numbers.
The US Mint launched a commemorative $1 coin featuring Donald Trump's portrait to celebrate America's 250th anniversary, making him the first living president to appear on US currency in a century. Federal law typically bars printing US money with images of living persons, though Trump allies in Congress have introduced legislation to make an exception.
Gabriel Perez, a former White House teleprompter operator, has been ordered to pay $172,000—comprising $107,539.02 in surrendered profits and a $65,000 civil penalty—after using inside knowledge of Donald Trump's speeches to place bets on a prediction markets platform between December 2025 and February 2026. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission found he had misappropriated prior knowledge in breach of his duty of trust, and he has been banned from trading for three years.
US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America, effective immediately. The move follows collapsed trade talks and new 50% US tariffs on C$28bn of Canadian goods, which Canada plans to counter with "dollar for dollar" tariffs; Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney rejected the change, stating the lake's name dates back over 400 years.
A US district judge ruled the Department of Defence acted unlawfully in designating AI startup Anthropic a supply chain risk, after the company refused to allow the military to use its models for surveillance or autonomous weapons. The judge said invoking national security "is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics."
U.S. President Donald Trump called on Congress to pass the Clarity Act, legislation crypto companies say would provide clearer legal definitions for the sector. The bill has stalled in the Senate despite support from Trump and top crypto executives who gathered for a White House event.
South Korea and the United States will reduce their annual joint military drills from 11 to five days and scale back field training after President Donald Trump ordered a substantial reduction in U.S. participation. The Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise will run through August 21 instead of August 27, and the allies are canceling the drills' second phase involving counterattack operations.
Liberia has agreed to accept up to 1,200 third-country deportees from the United States over the next 12 months, with the first group of 20 expected to arrive on Thursday. The deportees are individuals the U.S. cannot legally send to their home countries after immigration judges determined they faced risk of torture or abuse there; they will be received as guests who can apply for Liberian asylum.
The White House reported that more than 40 countries, including Canada, India, Mexico, Japan and South Korea, routed Chinese exports through their borders to sidestep US tariffs, costing American jobs and billions in revenue through transshipping. China's embassy said trade wars have no winners and opposed the tariff measures.
The White House said more than 40 countries, including Canada, India, Mexico, Japan and South Korea, have helped China sidestep US tariffs by routing exports through nations with lower American import duties. According to government and private sector estimates, between $30 billion and roughly $300 billion in goods have been moved through this process, known as transshipping.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, 28, is stepping down at the end of the month to spend time with her young children. Trump said she will become one of his top outside advisors, while Leavitt cited the demands of the role alongside her responsibilities as a mother of two as her reason for departing.
British prosecutors are urging a US court to deny bail for influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan ahead of extradition proceedings. The brothers have been held in Florida since arrest in July and face 59 charges including rape and sex trafficking; prosecutors argue they are a flight risk and may interfere with witnesses.
The US Secret Service employs various deception strategies to protect presidents, including switching between decoy and actual aircraft and vehicles during travel. In one example, President Trump was secretly moved via catering truck from Air Force One to a separate military aircraft at a NATO summit, with decoys remaining on the original plane unaware of the switch.
The White House imposed a 15% tariff and price floors on polysilicon, the raw material used in semiconductors and solar panels primarily produced by China, aimed at supporting domestic chip and solar supply chains to compete with Beijing on artificial intelligence and energy. The United States has two polysilicon factories.
U.S. House Democrats are developing an investigative strategy targeting companies and financial firms surrounding President Trump, using hearings, subpoenas, and document requests rather than pursuing immediate impeachment. Democrats say this approach, informed by lessons from Trump's first term, aims to build evidence of whether Trump used his power to benefit himself, allies, or donors.
The U.S. Treasury Department announced new guidance expanding incentives for employers to offer paid family leave by allowing them to claim a tax credit if they pay insurance premiums to cover leave costs, broadening eligibility beyond employers that pay wages directly during leave.
Donald Trump's administration has paid back $100bn in "Liberation Day" tariff refunds to businesses, representing roughly 60% of all tariff revenue collected under the policy, following a February Supreme Court ruling that the import tariffs were unlawful. Nearly $29bn in potential refunds is under review and another $1.6bn remains unpaid due to missing banking details from importers.
Chinese military researchers have used outputs from leading U.S. artificial intelligence models developed by OpenAI and Anthropic to train domestic AI systems to advance China's defence capabilities, according to a Reuters review of more than 80 Chinese academic papers and patents. The documents show widespread use of "model distillation," in which outputs from a powerful AI system are used to train smaller, specialised models that can be deployed locally.
US President Donald Trump held separate meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, described by the White House as "positive and productive." Zelensky said Trump agreed to grant Ukraine licences for domestic production of Patriot interceptor missiles, which Kyiv says are needed to defend against Russian drone and ballistic missile attacks.
Iran launched multiple ballistic missiles in an attempted surprise attack on US forces in the Middle East on Tuesday, with the US military saying all missiles were successfully intercepted. The strike broke a three-day lull in hostilities between the two countries, which had been intended to restart negotiations.
US President Donald Trump said "there are very friendly negotiations going on" about the conflict with Iran after the warring sides did not exchange strikes for a third straight day, expressing optimism that "something could happen," though he warned Washington would resume strikes if talks fail. Tehran denied that direct negotiations are taking place.
US President Donald Trump has paused attacks on Iran for the second night in a row to give diplomacy space, according to US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz. Iran's army spokesperson said Tehran had also halted "retaliatory" attacks in response, as Iran and Oman held technical talks on managing the Strait of Hormuz.
A US Secret Service agent assigned to Vice-President JD Vance has been suspended and is under investigation over allegations of leaking sensitive information that could compromise operational and information security. The suspension comes as Secret Service Director Sean Curran warned the agency faces the most dangerous threat environment of his 24-year career, with nearly 10,000 threat investigations opened since January.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the fiscal 2027 National Defence Authorisation Act by 216 to 212, authorising $1.15 trillion in military spending. Democrats opposed the bill over its cost, an ongoing war with Iran that has cost $37.5 billion, and a provision expanding military technology cooperation with Israel.
A White House science and technology adviser has accused China's Moonshot AI of carrying out a "large-scale" effort to steal capabilities from top US AI models, including Anthropic's Fable AI, through a process known as distillation. The adviser also alleged that Moonshot gained access to restricted Nvidia servers to train its models.
The US and Saudi Arabia are expected to announce a deal allowing the Gulf kingdom to develop a civilian nuclear programme, with the arrangement potentially allowing Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium on its soil at a US-built facility. Nuclear experts and non-proliferation campaigners have expressed concern that the agreement could enable Saudi Arabia to develop nuclear weapons, distinguishing it from a 2009 US-UAE agreement under which the UAE does not produce its own fuel.
The United States and China will hold talks over artificial intelligence in September to address risks from each other's increasingly powerful frontier models, five sources told Reuters. The talks, an outcome of the Trump-Xi summit in May, are expected to take place before Chinese President Xi Jinping's planned September 24 visit to the U.S., and will likely be led by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
US President Donald Trump has imposed a 50% tariff on a wide range of goods imported from Canada in retaliation for what he called "unequal treatment" of US cars, dairy and alcohol. Prime Minister Mark Carney said he had spoken to Trump and both leaders agreed to "intensify" trade talks, but warned "all options" were on the table in terms of how Canada could respond.
Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth told the Senate Appropriations Committee that the war with Iran has cost the US $37.5bn, an increase of nearly $8bn since May, and sought $87bn in congressional funding for his department, with $67bn destined for Middle East operations.