Trump to sign order creating Olympics task force ahead of 2028 games
The task force, made up of members from Trump's cabinet and government agencies, will coordinate federal, state and local government work on transportation, the official said.
It also will "streamline visa processing and credentialing for foreign athletes, coaches, officials, and media," the official said in an email.
The United States will host the Olympics in Los Angeles in three years. Trump, a Republican who lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden, has expressed pleasure that his second term will coincide with the Olympics and the 2026 soccer World Cup, which is being held across the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
"During his first term, President Trump was instrumental in securing America's bid to host the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The president considers it a great honor to oversee this global sporting spectacle in his second term," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement on Monday.
Last month organizers of the Los Angeles games released the first look at the Olympic competition schedule. The city also hosted the Olympics in 1932 and 1984.
"The creation of this task force marks an important step forward in our planning efforts and reflects our shared commitment to delivering not just the biggest, but the greatest Games the world has ever seen in the summer of 2028,' Casey Wasserman, the chair and president of LA28, said in a statement.
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Japan Times
an hour ago
- Japan Times
Putin doubts potency of Trump's ultimatum to end the war, sources say
Russian President Vladimir Putin is unlikely to bow to a sanctions ultimatum expiring this Friday from U.S. President Donald Trump, and retains the goal of capturing four regions of Ukraine in their entirety, sources close to the Kremlin said. Trump has threatened to hit Russia with new sanctions and impose 100% tariffs on countries that buy its oil — of which the biggest are China and India — unless Putin agrees to a ceasefire in Russia's war in Ukraine. Putin's determination to keep going is prompted by his belief that Russia is winning and by skepticism that yet more U.S. sanctions will have much of an impact after successive waves of economic penalties during 3½ years of war, according to three sources familiar with discussions in the Kremlin. The Russian leader does not want to anger Trump, and he realizes that he may be spurning a chance to improve relations with Washington and the West, but his war goals take precedence, two of the sources said. Putin's goal is to fully capture the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, which Russia has claimed as its own, and then to talk about a peace agreement, one of the sources said. "If Putin were able to fully occupy those four regions which he has claimed for Russia he could claim that his war in Ukraine had reached his objectives," said James Rodgers, author of the forthcoming book "The Return of Russia." The current talks process, in which Russian and Ukrainian negotiators have met three times since May, was an attempt by Moscow to convince Trump that Putin was not rejecting peace, the first source said, adding that the talks were devoid of real substance apart from discussions on humanitarian exchanges. Russia says it is serious about agreeing a long-term peace in the negotiations but that the process is complicated because the two sides' stances are so far apart. Putin last week described the talks as positive. Rescuers carry a fragment of Russian cruise missile outside a residential building in Kyiv on Aug. 1 | AFP-Jiji Moscow's stated demands include a full Ukrainian withdrawal from the four regions and acceptance by Kyiv of neutral status and limits on the size of its military — demands rejected by Ukraine. In a sign that there may yet be an opportunity to strike a deal before the deadline, Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to visit Russia this week, following an escalation in rhetoric between Trump and Moscow over risks of nuclear war. On Monday, Russia said it was no longer bound by a moratorium on short- and medium-range nuclear missiles. The Kremlin did not respond to a request for comment for this story. All the sources spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation. Trump, who in the past has praised Putin and held out the prospect of lucrative business deals between their two countries, has lately expressed growing impatience with the Russian president. He has complained about what he called Putin's "bulls---" and described Russia's relentless bombing of Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities as "disgusting." The Kremlin has said it noted Trump's statements but it has declined to respond to them. Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko last week called on the world to respond with "maximum pressure" after the worst Russian airstrike of the year killed 31 people in Kyiv, including five children, in what she called Russia's response to Trump's deadline. "President Trump wants to stop the killing, which is why he is selling American-made weapons to NATO members and threatening Putin with biting tariffs and sanctions if he does not agree to a ceasefire," White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in response to a request for comment. Forces advance The first source said Putin was privately concerned about the recent deterioration of U.S. ties. Putin still retains the hope that Russia can again befriend America and trade with the West, and "he is worried" about Trump's irritation, this person said. But with Moscow's forces advancing on the battlefield and Ukraine under heavy military pressure, Putin does not believe now is the time to end the war, the source said, adding that neither the Russian people nor the army would understand if he stops now. U.S. President Donald Trump's sanctions threat was "painful and unpleasant," but not a catastrophe, a Kremlin source said. | REUTERS Rodgers, the author, said Putin has invested his political reputation and legacy in the war in Ukraine. "We know from his previous writings and statements that he sees himself as part of a strong tradition of standing up to the West and the rest of world to defend Russia's interests," he said. The Kremlin leader values the relationship with Trump and does not want to anger him, however, "he simply has a top priority — Putin cannot afford to end the war just because Trump wants it," the second Russian source said. A third person familiar with Kremlin thinking also said Russia wanted to take all four regions and did not see the logic in stopping at a time of battlefield gains during Russia's summer offensive. Ukraine has suffered some of its biggest territorial losses of 2025 in the past three months, including 502 square kilometers in July, according to Black Bird Group, a Finland-based military analysis center. In total, Russia has occupied around a fifth of Ukraine. Russia's military General Staff has told Putin that the Ukrainian front will crumble in two or three months, the first person said. However, Russia's recent gains remain relatively minor in purely territorial terms, with only 5,000 square kilometers of Ukraine taken since the start of last year, less than 1% of the country's overall territory, according to a June report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank. Ukrainian and Western military sources, acknowledge that Russia is making gains, but only gradually and with heavy casualties. Russian war bloggers say Moscow's forces have been bogged down during its current summer offensive in areas where the terrain and dense urban landscape favored Ukraine, but assess that other areas should be faster to take. 'He's made threats before' Trump's sanctions threat was "painful and unpleasant," but not a catastrophe, the second source said. The third source said there was a feeling in Moscow that "there's not much more that they can do to us." It was also not clear if Trump would follow through on his ultimatum, this person said, adding that "he's made threats before" and then not acted, or changed his mind. The source also said it was hard to imagine that China would stop buying Russian oil on instructions from Trump, and that his actions risked backfiring by driving oil prices higher. As a consequence of previous rounds of sanctions, Russian oil and gas exporters have taken big hits to their revenues, and foreign direct investment in the country fell by 63% last year, according to U.N. trade data. Around $300 billion of central bank assets have been frozen in foreign jurisdictions. But Russia's ability to wage war has been unimpeded, thanks in part to ammunition supplies from North Korea and imports from China of dual-use components that have sustained a massive rise in weapons production. The Kremlin has repeatedly said that Russia has some "immunity" to sanctions. Trump has acknowledged Russia's skill in skirting the measures. "They're wily characters and they're pretty good at avoiding sanctions, so we'll see what happens," he told reporters at the weekend, when asked what his response would be if Russia did not agree to a ceasefire. The first Russian source noted that Putin, in pursuing the conflict, was turning his back on a U.S. offer made in March that Washington, in return for his agreement to a full ceasefire, would remove U.S. sanctions, recognize Russian possession of Crimea — annexed from Ukraine in 2014 — and acknowledge de facto Russian control of the territory captured by its forces since 2022. The source called the offer a "fantastic chance," but said stopping a war was much more difficult than starting it.
Nikkei Asia
2 hours ago
- Nikkei Asia
Trump says he will raise India tariffs in next 24 hours over Russia oil
U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are pictured in a mirror as they attend a joint press conference at the White House in Washington in February. © Reuters KEN MORIYASU WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Donald Trump said he is set to raise tariffs on India further in the next 24 hours in light of its continued purchases of Russian oil, which he said is "fueling the war machine."
Japan Times
5 hours ago
- Japan Times
With federal funds frozen, wealthy U.S. universities capitulate to Washington
As a growing number of the wealthiest U.S. colleges capitulate in their battles with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, the strain from lost and frozen federal funding is putting pressure on the remaining holdouts to cut a deal. Universities targeted by Trump's crackdown on diversity programs and other policies he says show a liberal bias are essentially bleeding at the negotiating table after taking on debt, laying off hundreds of staff and slashing spending. As the fall semester approaches, they may be increasingly eager to ink accords that will stanch the flow. Cornell and Northwestern, both of which announced steps to address major budget shortfalls this year after the federal government suspended research funds, are now close to agreements with the White House. Brown, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania reached accords over the past month. But amid those settlements, new universities are being targeted. Most recently, the University of California at Los Angeles and Duke joined Harvard, Northwestern, Princeton and others in losing access to federal grants that are the financial lifeblood of large research institutions. It all adds up to an unprecedented pressure campaign that's roiling the world of higher education, reverberating through faculty, student and alumni groups and clouding the outlook for the type of medical and scientific research that takes place at the colleges. The multitrillion-dollar tax law signed last month also hikes the tax on income from endowments for some of the wealthiest private schools. As the Trump administration gains leverage, colleges' bruised budgets could drive them toward making agreements quicker. "It seems like they want to get deals done now,' said Brendan Cantwell, a professor at Michigan State University who focuses on the political economy of higher education. "It's almost like a dam is broken. I would not be at all surprised if we saw a cascading set of agreements.' The Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on July 2 | Sophie Park / The New York Times Federal funding has been used as a cudgel by the Trump administration, which has criticized what it says is a failure by academic institutions to crack down on antisemitism during campus protests over Israel's war in Gaza. The moves also come amid a broader campaign against diversity efforts and accusations of political bias. The fallout has already started. Northwestern said it would cut more than 400 jobs to save 5% on labor costs, with university officials calling the past few months some of the most difficult in its 174-year history. The Trump administration in April paused $790 million in research funding for the Evanston, Illinois-based school because of claimed potential civil rights violations. At Cornell, leaders in June warned that drastic financial austerity measures were on the table after hundreds of millions of dollars in federal research contracts were terminated or frozen. "The spring semester was unlike anything ever seen in higher education,' they wrote in a letter to students and staff. "We have been using institutional resources to try to plug these funding holes in the short term, but these interim measures are not sustainable.' Late last month, the government froze $108 million in research funding to Duke University, or about 20% of its federal revenue, three Trump administration officials said. Duke is in talks with government officials on a settlement, according to an administration official. Duke's press office didn't provide a comment on the funding loss or the status of government talks. A Duke official, who asked not to be identified discussing internal deliberations, said the school is reconsidering its budget amid the funding loss, but that it hopes an end to the freeze will come soon. Cornell and Northwestern have declined to comment on any settlement talks. On July 23, Columbia University agreed to pay $221 million in a deal that was promptly criticized for infringing on academic freedom at the school. Brown announced a deal on July 30, agreeing to give $50 million over 10 years to workforce development organizations in its home state of Rhode Island in exchange for the reimbursement of at least $50 million in unpaid federal grants. Shortly before reaching the deal, Brown took out a $500 million loan — a sign of how strained the school's finances had become. Brown, the least wealthy of the Ivy League schools with an endowment of $7.2 billion, had previously warned in June of "significant' cost-cutting measures to offset the federal funding. U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington on July 30 | REUTERS The Trump administration's higher-education crackdown has exposed just how dependent some of the elite, research-focused universities are on the government. They're essentially "major federal contractors' and stopping the stream would be catastrophic for many of them, according to Cantwell. "Think about Booz Allen or Raytheon,' Cantwell said. "If they said, 'All your federal funding will be frozen for 9 months,' you can imagine how those firms might react.' The Trump administration has dealt a harsher financial blow to Harvard than any other university in its crosshairs, freezing billions of multiyear research grants and contracts. The school estimates that the moves by the administration, as well as the endowment tax increase, will cost about $1 billion annually. Harvard's Kennedy School already cut staff. "The unprecedented challenges we face have led to disruptive changes, painful layoffs, and ongoing uncertainty about the future,' Harvard President Alan M. Garber said in a letter to the campus. Garber has told faculty that a settlement with the government isn't imminent and the university is considering resolving its dispute through the courts, the Harvard Crimson reported Monday. Larry Ladd, who served as Harvard's budget director and now advises schools at the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, said he can't criticize any college for coming to a deal with the Trump administration given what's at stake for their campuses. "Schools are likely facing pressure to use endowment and tuition revenue, which are typically used to support students, to support some of their research enterprise instead,' Ladd said. "They don't want to do that because they want to continue to support students. There's that pressure as well.' Lynn Pasquerella, president of the American Association of Colleges and Universities, said campus leaders are being put in an "untenable position' and worries that federal funds will continue to be weaponized by the Trump administration, even if schools make deals. "The concern is the more we capitulate through making these agreements, the more the administration will be empowered to continue along these lines,' she said.
