The US in brief: The Fed holds its nerve, and its rate
The administration made a dizzying array of trade announcements in advance of its invented deadline, set for tomorrow, for countries to sign trade deals with America or face high(er) tariffs. It trumpeted deals with South Korea, Cambodia and Thailand. Mr Trump increased levies on many Brazilian goods from 10% to 50%, citing the ' extraordinary threat ' its government poses to America. He also threatened India with tariffs of 25% on its goods and an unspecified 'penalty' because it imports Russian oil and weapons. And certain copper products, including pipes and cables, will face tariffs of 50% from tomorrow.
Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee used an arcane law to demand that the Justice Department release documents related to the late Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted child molester. The 'rule of five' allows a group of five committee members to request information relevant to its remit from federal agencies. The provision, introduced in 1928, has seldom been used, so its effectiveness is unclear.
The Senate voted 52-44 to confirm Joe Kent as head of the National Counterterrorism Centre. Mr Kent, a former Green Beret and CIA agent, has served as an aide to Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence. Democrats objected to his nomination because of his association with far-right figures and track record of promoting the 'Fedsurrection' conspiracy theory, which holds that the FBI initiated the storming of the Capitol on January 6th 2021.
Republicans in Texas's legislature unveiled a proposal to redraw the boundaries of the state's electoral districts to help them win five extra seats in America's House of Representatives at the midterms in 2026. Republicans have a majority in both chambers of the Texas legislature, but Democrats have in the past fled the state, making the legislature inquorate, to block similar efforts. Texas's gambit has sparked talk about other states, both Republican- and Democrat-controlled, doing the same.
Kamala Harris said she would not run to be California's governor in 2026. Despite her defeat in the presidential election in 2024, it had been widely presumed that the former vice-president would both bid to lead her home state and be the strong favourite. Her decision blows the Democratic primary wide open. Gavin Newsom, the current Democratic governor, cannot serve a third term.
Fix up, look sharp
Initially Mr Trump was keen to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which oversees disaster relief. After a flood in Texas in early July killed more than 135 people, he softened. Now his administration talks of making FEMA more 'efficient'. Read our story on how America is remaking its disaster-relief system and trying to get rid of perverse incentives.
A view from elsewhere
'Trump is extractive, not transactional as the lazy cliché goes,' wrote Prashant Jha in the Hindustan Times, an Indian newspaper. 'It is not about a give and take; it is predominantly about take, with a little bit of give.' He gets away with it because America 'is very powerful and the costs of a retributive Trump are very high'. And 'no one believes in the only other option, which is collective resistance.'
Figure of the day
Up to $500m, the amount that Harvard University is reportedly prepared to pay to get the Trump administration off its back. Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania have both already paid up, and yesterday the administration succeeded in shaking down Brown University. Read our story about what the president is teaching America's richest university.
Today's poll
Every week YouGov polls Americans on behalf of The Economist. Yesterday the administration said it would revoke the 'endangerment finding', a declaration by the EPA in 2009 that greenhouse gases are a risk to health. Yet a plurality (37%) of Americans want government restrictions on greenhouse-gas emissions expanded, and 21% want them kept the same. Only 24% wanted restrictions reduced or eliminated.
Daily Quiz
From Monday to Thursday we'll quiz you on all things American. To mark Mr Trump's visit to his Scottish golf courses, this week's questions are on previous presidents who have shared his passion for the links.
Thursday: Which president was the first to install a putting green on the White House lawn?
Wednesday: An ancestor of George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush gives his name to one of golf's oldest international tournaments, held on the Old Course at St Andrews since 1922. What is it called?
See how to take part in the quiz at the bottom of this page.
If you enjoyed this week's questions, play Dateline, The Economist' s history game.
Seen on Truth Social
'Wow! Canada has just announced that it is backing statehood for Palestine. That will make it very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them. Oh' Canada!!!'
—Donald Trump invents another reason to impose tariffs on America's trading partners.
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The Guardian
34 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Gavin Newsom may call special election to redraw California congressional maps
California's governor, Gavin Newsom, may call a special election in November to begin the process of redrawing the state's congressional maps in response to Texas's plans to change its own maps to help Republicans keep their majority in the House of Representatives. Donald Trump is pushing Texas and other Republican-dominated states to carry out mid-decade redistricting that will favor the GOP and potentially stop Democrats from retaking control of the House in next year's midterm elections. Governors in Democratic-led states have responded by warning they will move to redo their own maps if Texas goes ahead with its plans, which could create an additional five Republican-leaning districts. California is viewed as the best opportunity for Democrats to pick up seats through gerrymandering, but voters will first have to approve changes to an independent redistricting commission that was given the power to draw congressional districts in 2010. Speaking at a Thursday press conference, Newsom said 'a special election would be called, likely to be the first week of November' to approve the changes. 'We will go to the people of this state in a transparent way and ask them to consider the new circumstances, to consider these new realities,' the governor added. The party out of power typically regains control of the House in a president's first midterm election, as the Republicans did under Joe Biden in 2022 and Barack Obama in 2010, and Democrats did during Trump's first term in 2018. Newsom argued that another two years of unified Republican control of Congress would be especially harmful for California, noting that Los Angeles residents were still waiting for lawmakers to approve aid from the wildfires that ravaged the region earlier this year. 'They're doing a midterm rejection of objectivity and independence, an act that we could criticize from the sideline, or an act that we can respond to in kind – fight fire with fire,' Newsom said. While Republicans could gain the most seats by redrawing Texas's maps, Ohio, another red state, must also redraw its maps before next year's election, and there's talk of redistricting to the GOP's advantage in Missouri and Indiana. Democrats are seen as having a more difficult path to improving their odds of winning the House majority through redistricting, often due to their states' embrace of independent commissions intended to draw fair congressional amps. Voters created the California citizens redistricting commission in 2008 to draw its legislative maps, and in 2010 expanded its powers to congressional districts. Newsom said, 'We're not here to eliminate the commission,' but rather to respond to what he described as 'the rigging of the system by the president of the United States. 'And it won't just happen in Texas. I imagine he's making similar calls all across this country. It's a big deal. I don't think it gets much bigger,' Newsom said.
Times
an hour ago
- Times
Gestures are not enough — we need a coherent strategy for Ukraine
In the run-up to the presidential election in 2024, Donald Trump often expressed his confident belief that he could stop the war between Russia and Ukraine within 24 hours. In the months since, despite the US president's frequent oscillations between flattery of Vladimir Putin and exasperation, the latter has done everything possible to disabuse Mr Trump of his initial assumption. Indeed, in recent months Moscow has escalated its offensive with thousands of drones and missiles. In Scotland on July 28, Mr Trump warned Russia that it had a new deadline of 'ten or 12 days' to reach a peace deal with Ukraine or face tough new sanctions. Mr Putin was not slow to give his reply. Last Thursday morning, just three days later, Kyiv was surveying the grotesque aftermath of a seven-hour Russian aerial bombardment which killed at least 31 people and injured more than 150: the deadliest attack on the city in a year. Mr Trump's early tensions with President Zelensky, the flashpoint of which was a notoriously ill-humoured meeting in the Oval Office in February, have given way to his growing public frustration with Mr Putin. That anger has translated in modern-day gunboat diplomacy with Mr Trump deploying two nuclear submarines nearer to Russia. In April, after a Russian air attack killed 12 people in Kyiv, Mr Trump pleaded in a social media post 'Vladimir, STOP!'. In May, after a weekend of Russian drone and missile assaults upon Ukraine, he observed that Mr Putin had 'gone absolutely CRAZY'. • Peace deadline shows Trump has run out of patience with Putin Following the most recent outrage, the US president's rhetoric has hardened, to describe Russia's actions as 'disgusting' and warn that 'we're going to put sanctions' on Russia. For a man whose abiding creed is the 'art of the deal' this much must now be glaringly apparent to Mr Trump: the US has already made significant concessions with Russia on Ukraine, and received nothing in return. Not least among these were the indications by Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, that Ukraine could not expect to reclaim the land which Russia has seized since 2014, and nor would it be permitted to join Nato. Given Mr Putin's unwillingness to compromise, the time for heavy US sanctions against Russia is long overdue. Without decisive action, Mr Trump will increasingly resemble a spurned and insulted King Lear, threatening, 'I will do such things — what they are yet I know not, but they shall be the terrors of the earth!' Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, recently openly ridiculed Mr Trump's shifting deadlines and ultimatums. So did the excitable former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, who also verbally menaced the US leader with a Russian Cold-War era nuclear system known as the 'Dead Hand'. Beyond such symbolic gestures as moving the submarines, a much more cool-headed and coherent US approach to Russian aggression is needed. Mr Trump has spoken of sanctions and 'secondary tariffs', suggesting penalties on countries that trade strongly with Russia, such as India, China and Turkey. He has also announced an unspecified 'penalty' on India for its commerce with Moscow in energy and arms. Yet there remain many other potential moves, including pressuring other countries over Russia trade; ramping up the supply of weapons for Ukraine; reaching agreement with Kyiv for the joint production of advanced drones; and encouraging Europe to transfer £230 billion of frozen Russian state assets to Ukraine. A bipartisan bid in the US Congress to provide $54.6 billion in aid to Ukraine over the next two years also deserves widespread support. The US envoy Steve Witkoff is reportedly being dispatched, yet again, to Moscow. He has little thus far to show for his many chats with Mr Putin. If the US itself is not to be irrevocably weakened on the world stage, he must show that he, and his boss in the White House, finally mean business.
Daily Record
2 hours ago
- Daily Record
'Russia stunned into silence' by Donald Trump's nuclear subs move
Donald Trump announced the deployment of two nuclear submarines following "foolish and inflammatory statements" by former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev Russia has been left seemingly speechless after US President Donald Trump's decision to deploy two nuclear submarines in response to Moscow's rhetoric. The move, which saw the subs dispatched to "in appropriate regions" came after "foolish and inflammatory statements" by Russia 's ex-President Dmitry Medvedev. Mr Trump refrained from disclosing the exact location of the submarines or clarifying if they were nuclear-powered or armed. BBC's Russia Editor Steve Rosenberg reported a lack of immediate response from Russian officials, noting on BBC News: "Interestingly, there has been no reaction so far from the Kremlin, from the Foreign Ministry, from the Defence Ministry - anyone here, really. "I think everyone is trying to work out what on earth is going on and what, if anything, has changed in relations to where these nuclear subs are being positioned." Rosenberg observed that the announcement had unsettled Moscow's stock market, following over three years of "bombastic and provocative" commentary from Medvedev, reports the Express. He further noted: "There has been reactions from the Moscow stock market, which has fallen sharply. Judging by the reactions in the local media here, Russians are surprised to say the least by President Trump's post. "I suspect that nobody is more surprised than Dmitry Medvedev himself, because for more than three years he has been tweeting and posting some very bombastic and provocative social media posts - most of which have gone unnoticed, I have to say. "But now suddenly he has been noticed and he has gone under the skin of the President of the United States in a big way." Mr Trump revealed the submarine deployment on his Truth Social platform. He posted: "Based on the highly provocative statements of the Former President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, who is now the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, I have ordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that. "Words are very important, and can often lead to unintended consequences, I hope this will not be one of those instances. Thank you for your attention to this matter!". This followed Medvedev's warning to the US president about Russia's Soviet-era nuclear strike capabilities that could be deployed as a final option.
