
Closing summary
This brings our live coverage of the second Trump administration to an end on a day when the president veered sharply from just increasing tariffs on trading partners to suddenly demanding major political concessions from Brazil’s president. We will resume our chronicle on Thursday. Here are the day’s key developments:
Donald Trump released an intemperate letter to Brazil’s president imposing a 50% tariff and complaining about the prosecution of his friend, former president Jair Bolsonaro, for the crime of simply trying to stay in office despite losing an election and then inciting a riot by his supporters to derail the transfer of power.
Brazil’s current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, rejected Trump’s demand that the charges against Bolsonaro be dropped, and pointed out that Brazil has an independent judiciary and does not, in fact, have a trade imbalance with the US.
Brazilians mocked Bolsonaro’s potential successor for supporting Trump, by remixing video of him in a MAGA hat on social media.
Amid concerns that a wave of staff reductions threaten the core missions of Nasa, Trump announced that he is asking the transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, to also serve as interim administrator of the space agency.
Trump complimented the president of Liberia on his excellent English, revealing that he is unaware of that nation’s close ties to the United States, as a home for freed slaves.
The US supreme court maintained a judicial block on a Republican-crafted Florida law that makes it a crime for undocumented immigrants to enter the state.
Bolsonaro's son thanks Trump on social media, asks for sanctions against Brazilian offiicals
In a series of social media posts, Jair Bolsonaro’s son Eduardo, thanked Donald Trump for imposing a punitive 50% tariff on Brazilian exports to the United States in part because of the prosecution of the former president for allegedly plotting a coup to stay in power after losing his the 2022 election.
“THANK YOU PRESIDENT TRUMP - MAKE BRAZIL FREE AGAIN” Eduardo Bolsonaro wrote in a post on X, in which he also appealed for the imposition of sanctions on government officials in Brazil for supposedly violating his father’s human rights. “WE WANT MAGNISTKY!” he added, in reference to the US law known as the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.
Trump's tariffs on Brazil could help its leftist president get re-elected
While the imposition of 50% tariffs on Brazil’s exports to the US is undoubtedly terrible news for its beef industry, Trump’s attack on the nation’s economy, on behalf of its former president Jair Bolsonaro, could help Brazil’s current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, get re-elected.
“If Lula plays this right – and manages to frame the Bolsonaro family, who instigated Trump to impose these tariffs, as fundamentally unpatriotic and anti-Brazil – his chances of reelection next year may have just increased substantially,” Oliver Stuenkel, a professor at the School of International Relations at Fundação Getulio Vargas in São Paulo, observed. “Supporting sanctions against your own country is hardly an attractive policy proposal,” he added.
Pedro Abramovay, who worked in Brazil’s ministry of justice during Lula’s first two terms in office, made that argument on social media. “Bolsonaro sends his son to the US to ask Trump for help. The help comes in the form of punishment for Brazilians: 50% tariffs on our products,” Abramovay wrote. “In other words, Bolsonaro considers supporting his impunity more important than preserving jobs in Brazil.”
On Brazilian social media, opponents of Bolsonaro’s rightwing movement quickly started making memes using a video clip of one of his possible successors, Tarcísio Gomes de Freitas, the governor of São Paulo, posted of himself on 20 January, proudly putting on a red Make America great again cap and calling Trump’s return to office “a great day”.
They remixed the original video of the governor with super-imposed text underscoring that Trump had imposed a massive tax on Brazilian exports to the US.
Grande dia. pic.twitter.com/mFtZTNkYvb
— Leandro Demori (@demori) July 10, 2025
Quando @tarcisiogdf desfilava de boné "Make America Great Again", ninguém avisou que o paulista é quem pagaria a conta. Trump meteu 50% de tarifa no Brasil — e adivinha quem está na linha de frente do prejuízo? São Paulo. Cuidado com as bandeiras que você carrega! pic.twitter.com/ljRQSEidDI
— Márcio França (@marciofrancasp) July 9, 2025
Não vai falar "Grande dia", governador? pic.twitter.com/D8ZZz03xMu
— Carmelena Nassar (@NassarCarmelena) July 10, 2025
Updated
Trump puts transportation secretary Sean Duffy in charge of Nasa too
Amid concerns that a wave of staff reductions threaten the core missions of Nasa, Donald Trump just announced that he is asking the transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, to also serve as interim administrator of the space agency.
Trump announced the appointment hours hours after Politico reported that the agency plans to get rid of nearly 2,000 scientists, despite the fact that it still has no administrator.
Duffy has no scientific background, but does have experience with transportation, as a former contestant on the MTV reality TV game show Road Rules, a Winnebago driving event.
Updated
Brazil’s president rejects Trump's effort to use tariffs to extract political concessions
Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, firmly rejected Donald Trump’s demand that legal proceedings against former president Jair Bolsonaro be dropped and his claim that a 50% tariff on Brazilian imports was necessary to close a trade deficit that does not, in fact, exist.
In a statement posted on social media and his government’s website, the Brazilian president responded, point by point, to the claims made by Trump in a letter addressed to him earlier on Wednesday.
“Brazil is a sovereign nation with independent institutions and will not accept any form of tutelage,” Lula began.
He then pointed out that the charges against Bolsonaro, for allegedly plotting to remain in power after losing his bid for re-election, “fall exclusively under the jurisdiction of Brazil’s Judicial Branch and, as such, are not subject to any interference or threats that could compromise the independence of national institutions”.
The president also rejected Trump’s claim that Brazil’s efforts to regulate the operations of US social media platforms on its territory in accordance with its own laws are not, as Trump had claimed, a form of censorship.
“Brazilian society rejects hateful content, racism, child pornography, scams, fraud, and speeches against human rights and democratic freedom” Lula wrote. “In Brazil, freedom of expression must not be confused with aggression or violent practices. All companies—whether domestic or foreign—must comply with Brazilian law in order to operate within our territory.”
The Brazilian president, a former trade unionist who leads a workers’ party, then corrected Trump’s false claim that the US runs a trade deficit with Brazil. “Statistics from the U.S. government itself show a surplus of $410 billion in the trade of goods and services with Brazil over the past 15 years,” Lula noted.
Any increase in tariffs by the US, he added, “will be addressed in accordance with Brazil’s Economic Reciprocity Law”.
That law, passed in April, was written specifically to prepare for the possibility that Trump would impose tariffs on Brazil. It authorizes the legislative branch, in coordination with businesses, to “adopt countermeasures in the form of restrictions to the importation of goods and services or measures to suspend concessions in the areas of trade, investments, and obligations related to intellectual property rights, as well as measures to suspend other obligations foreseen in any of the country’s trade agreements”.
The response from Brazil’s president came after an indirect exchange through the media earlier in the week. After Trump claimed on Sunday that BRICS, a group of emerging economies founded in 2009 by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, was an “anti-American” grouping he intended to demolish through tariffs, Lula was asked for his response at a BRICS summit in Rio. “The world has changed. We don’t want an emperor,” he said. “If he thinks he can impose tariffs, other countries have the right to impose tariffs too.”
Updated
The Trump administration plans to cut at least 2,145 high-ranking employees of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) with specialized skills or management responsibilities, according to documents obtained by Politico, the news outlet reported on Wednesday.
Most employees leaving are in GS-13 to GS-15 positions, senior-level government ranks, depriving the agency of decades of experience as part of a push to slash the size of the federal government through early retirement, buyouts and deferred resignations.
According to Politico, the documents indicate that 1,818 of the staff currently serve in core mission areas, like science or human space flight, while the others work in mission support roles including IT.
Asked about the proposed cuts, the agency’s spokesperson Bethany Stevens told Reuters: “Nasa remains committed to our mission as we work within a more prioritized budget.”
Since Trump returned to office in January, planning in the US space industry and Nasa’s workforce of 18,000 has been thrown into chaos by the layoffs and proposed budget cuts for fiscal year 2026 that would cancel dozens of science programs.
Last week, seven former heads of Nasa’s Science Mission Directorate signed a joint letter to congress condemning the Trump White House’s proposed 47% cuts to Nasa science activities in its 2026 budget proposal. In the letter, the former officials urged congress “to preserve U.S. leadership in space exploration and reject the unprecedented cuts to space science concocted by the White House’s Budget Director, Russ Vought.”
“The economics of these proposed cuts ignore a fundamental truth: investments in NASA science have been and are a powerful driver of the U.S. economy and technological leadership”, the former officials wrote to the House appropriations committee. “In our former roles leading NASA’s space science enterprise, we consistently saw skilled teams innovate in the face of seemingly impossible goals, including landing a car-sized rover on Mars with pinpoint precision, build a massive telescope that can unfold in the vacuum of space to unravel the mysteries of the cosmos, design and operate a spacecraft hardy enough to survive temperatures of many thousands of degrees at the Sun, inspiring young and old alike worldwide by the stunning images from the Hubble Space Telescope, and pioneering the use of small satellites for science.”
They also warned that the cuts threatened to cede US leadership to China. “Global space competition extends far past Moon and Mars exploration. The Chinese space science program is aggressive, ambitious, and well-funded. It is proposing missions to return samples from Mars, explore Neptune, monitor climate change for the benefit of the Chinese industry and population, and peer into the universe — all activities that the FY 2026 NASA budget proposal indicates the U.S. will abandon.”
Nasa also remains without a confirmed administrator, since the Trump administration abruptly withdrew its nominee, the billionaire private astronaut Jared Isaacman, in an apparent act of retaliation against Elon Musk, who had proposed his nomination.
In a social media post attacking Musk on Sunday, Trump wrote that he thought it would have been thought “inappropriate that a very close friend of Elon, who was in the Space Business, run NASA, when NASA is such a big part of Elon’s corporate life”.
Updated
Trump's letter to Brazil cites imaginary trade deficit
Leaving aside the heated political rhetoric, there is a glaring factual error in the letter Donald Trump released on Wednesday, imposing a 50% tariff on Brazilian imports, which is the claim that Brazil’s trade policies are causing the US to run “unsustainable Trade Deficits” with that nation.
In fact, the US runs a trade surplus with Brazil, thanks in part to a free-trade agreement expanded in 2020, during Trump’s first term.
Here is the latest data from the Brazil Trade Summary posted on the website of the United States trade representative, Jamieson Greer:
U.S. total goods trade with Brazil were an estimated $92.0 billion in 2024. U.S. goods exports to Brazil in 2024 were $49.7 billion, up 11.3 percent ($5.0 billion) from 2023. U.S. goods imports from Brazil in 2024 totaled $42.3 billion, up 8.3 percent ($3.2 billion) from 2023. The U.S. goods trade surplus with Brazil was $7.4 billion in 2024, a 31.9 percent increase ($1.8 billion) over 2023.
Updated
Trump demands Brazil drop charges against Bolsonaro, former president who tried to stay in office after election loss
Donald Trump’s enraged letter to his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, announcing that the US would impose a 50% tariff on imports from Brazil, said that the move was motivated in part by the treatment of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who was barred from running for office until 2030 and is on trial for allegedly plotting to remain in office after losing his bid for re-election in 2022.
The culmination of Bolsonaro’s efforts to hold on to power was a riot by his supporters in the nation’s capital who tried to prevent the transfer of power to the election’s winner, Lula, on 8 January 2023.
Given that Trump still maintains that he was within his rights to plot to remain in office himself, after losing his bid for re-election in 2020, and the efforts culminated in a riot by his supporters on January 6 2021, it is not hard to see why Trump seems to be so dedicated to the idea that Bolsonaro did nothing wrong.
As our colleague Tiago Rogero reported last month, Bolsonaro denied masterminding a far-right coup plot during testimony in his trial before Brazil’s supreme court, but did admit to taking part in meetings to discuss “alternative ways” of staying in power after his defeat in the 2022 election.
In just over two hours of questioning, the 70-year-old said that after the electoral court confirmed Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s election victory, “we studied other alternatives within the constitution”.
Those options included the deployment of military forces and suspension of some civil liberties, Bolsonaro said, but he argued that such discussions could not be considered an attempted coup.
During his first term in office, it was obvious that Trump saw then president Bolsonaro – a far-right, climate-change denier – as a kindred spirit, and Bolsonaro’s son, Eduardo, cultivated close ties to Trump’s inner circle, and family, during visits to the US.
Shot show is a place to meet important people.Thanks Royce Gracie for introducing me to Donald Trump Jr @DonaldJTrumpJr son of the US President.We had the opportunity to talk about our intentions for 2018 and also about the constant attacks that our families suffer from fake news pic.twitter.com/xBt1lL6BTI
— Eduardo Bolsonaro🇧🇷 (@BolsonaroSP) January 23, 2018
It was a pleasure to meet STEVE BANNON,strategist in Donald Trump's presidential campaign.We had a great conversation and we share the same worldview.He said be an enthusiast of Bolsonaro's campaign and we are certainly in touch to join forces,especially against cultural marxism. pic.twitter.com/ceHoui6FH5
— Eduardo Bolsonaro🇧🇷 (@BolsonaroSP) August 4, 2018
A nova coluna:
— Caio Blinder (@caioblinder) July 12, 2019
Família acima de tudo (nepotismo de norte a sul)https://t.co/7TEDVBGEpl pic.twitter.com/tsDkGqhO2y
Eduardo Bolsonaro took leave from his post as a congressman in Brazil and has been living in the US since March, lobbying Trump and Republican politicians to impose sanctions on Brazil.
Updated
Brazil's currency plunges over Trump's punitive 50% tariff to avenge Bolsonaro
Brazil’s currency, the real, fell over 2% against the dollar late on Wednesday after Trump posted a letter online imposing a 50% tariff on imports and scolding the nation for its supposed mistreatment of its former leader, Jair Bolsonaro, who stands accused of trying to overturn his 2022 election loss through a coup.
Trump’s letter said his administration will start collecting the 50% tariff on products imported to the US from Brazil, “separate from all sectoral tariffs”, starting on 1 August.
Updated
Trump imposes 50% tariff on Brazil, citing 'Witch Hunt' against Bolsonaro
Donald Trump announced a 50% tariff on imports from Brazil in a letter posted on social media in which he began by complaining about the the prosecution of his ally, the former president Jair Bolsonaro.
Until now, Trump’s tariff letters have been nearly identical, changing little more than the names of countries and leaders and the tariff rates, but the intemperate letter addressed to Brazil’s current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, was markedly different, beginning with a diatribe about the supposed “international disgrace” of the “Witch Hunt” against Bolsonaro, who is now standing trial before the country’s supreme court for his role in an alleged coup attempt on 8 January 2023, following his election defeat.
The pro-Bolsonaro riots at the seat of Brazil’s federal government in Brasília that day closely echoed the pro-Trump riot at the US capitol on January 6 2021.
“The way that Brazil has treated former President Bolsonaro, a Highly Respected Leader during his Term , including by the United States, is an international disgrace. This Trial should not be taking place. It is a Witch Hunt THAT should end IMMEDIATELY!”, Trump wrote, employing the idiosyncratic writing style of his social media posts in a formal letter.
“Due in part to Brazil’s insidious attacks on Free Elections, and the fundamental Free Speech Rights of Americans (as lately illustrated by the Brazilian Supreme Court, which has issued hundreds of SECRET and UNLAWFUL Censorship Orders to U.S. Social Media platforms, threatening them with Millions of Dollars in Fines and Eviction from Brazilian Social Media market),” Trump added, “starting on August 1, 2025, we will charge Brazil a Tariff of 50% on any and all Brazilian products sent into the United States, separate from all Sectoral Tariffs.”
In addition to his outrage over the prosecution of Bolsonaro, over the failed coup attempt, Trump’s letter referred to the country’s decision to ban the former president from running in the next election, and to a dispute over a Brazilian supreme court judge ordering Truth Social, Trump’s social media platform, and Rumble, a video-sharing platform JD Vance invested in, to remove the US-based accounts of a leading supporter of Bolsonaro.
As the Guardian reported in February, Trump’s company and Rumble, which is backed by the far-right tech billionaire Peter Thiel, sued the Brazilian supreme court justice Alexandre de Moraes over the orders in federal court in Florida.
Updated
'I want a deal, but not at any price,' says Netanyahu following Trump meetings
In brief remarks to the press earlier, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that following his second meeting with Donald Trump in two days: “President Trump and I have a common goal: we want to achieve the release of our hostages, we want to end Hamas rule in Gaza, and we want to make sure that Gaza does not pose a threat to Israel any more.”
On the ceasefire negotiations, the Israeli leader, who was at the US Capitol for meetings with lawmakers, went on:
President Trump wants a deal, but not at any price. I want a deal, but not at any price.
Israel has security requirements and other requirements, and we’re working together to try to achieve them.
Donald Trump earlier told reporters there is a “very good chance” of a ceasefire in Gaza this week or next. He said
There’s a very good chance of a settlement this week on Gaza. We have a chance this week or next week.
Trump made it clear several times that his priority was achieving “peace” and getting the hostages back, but – like Netanyahu – he made no mention of other urgent matters like the desperate need to safely get aid to starving Palestinians in the strip.
Asked by a reporter whether pushing out Palestinians to third countries they have no connection to will make Israel safer in the long run, Netanyahu said:
We’re not pushing out anyone, and I don’t think that’s President Trump’s suggestion. His suggestion was giving them a choice.
He claimed Palestinians should have “freedom of choice” to leave Gaza, “no coercion, no forcible dislocation. If people want to leave Gaza they should be able to do so,” he said of the besieged territory, much of which his military has flattened to rubble.
Israel stands accused of committing genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza, and has made clear its intention to seize parts of the territory and remain there indefinitely.
Updated
Supreme court declines to let Florida enforce immigration crackdown
The US supreme court has maintained a judicial block on a Republican-crafted Florida law that makes it a crime for immigrants in the US illegally to enter the state.
The justices denied a request by state officials to lift an order by Florida-based US district judge Kathleen Williams that barred them from carrying out arrests and prosecutions under the law while a legal challenge plays out in lower courts. Williams ruled that Florida’s law conflicted with the federal government’s authority over immigration policy.
Florida’s attorney general James Uthmeier and other state officials filed the emergency request on 17 June asking the supreme court to halt the judge’s order. Williams found that the Florida law was likely unconstitutional for encroaching on the federal government’s exclusive authority over US immigration policy.
The state’s request to the justices was backed by America First Legal, a conservative group co-founded by Stephen Miller, a senior aide to Donald Trump and a key architect of the administration’s hardline immigration policies.
Florida’s immigration measure was passed by the state’s Republican-controlled legislature and signed into law in February by governor Ron DeSantis. It made Florida one of at least seven states to pass such laws in recent years, according to court filings.
The American Civil Liberties Union in April sued in federal court to challenge the law. Bacardi Jackson, executive director of the ACLU of Florida, in a statement issued after the challenge was filed said that Florida’s law “is not just unconstitutional - it’s cruel and dangerous”.
Williams issued a preliminary injunction in April that barred Florida officials from enforcing the measure.
The Atlanta-based 11th US circuit court of appeals in June upheld the judge’s ruling, prompting the Florida officials to make an emergency request to the supreme court.
On the same day that Florida’s attorney general filed the state’s supreme court request, Williams found him in civil contempt of court for failing to follow her order to direct all state law enforcement officers not to enforce the immigration measure while it remained blocked by the judge.
Williams ordered Uthmeier to provide an update to the court every two weeks on any enforcement of the law.
Senate votes to confirm Trump's pick to head Federal Aviation Administration
The Senate has voted 53 to 43 approve Republic Airways CEO Bryan Bedford to head the Federal Aviation Administration.
Bedford, the head of the regional air carrier nominated by Donald Trump and approved for a five-year-term, will oversee $12.5bn in funding over five years to remake the aging US air traffic control system passed by Congress last week.
Bedford has also pledged to maintain tough oversight of Boeing, which came under harsh criticism from the National Transportation Safety Board last month for a mid-air emergency involving a new Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 missing four key bolts.
Fema should be 'eliminated as it exists today,' Kristi Noem says
The Federal Emergency Management Agency should be eliminated in its current form and reformed so it responds more effectively to disasters, homeland security secretary Kristi Noem said at a meeting on reforming Fema on Wednesday.
Speaking at a review council discussing reforms of Fema, Noem said the “entire agency needs to be eliminated as it exists today, and remade into a responsive agency”.
Noem’s comments were a restatement of her thinking on Fema’s future but notable given that Fema personnel have been deployed to Texas to help in search and rescue efforts following flash floods on 4 July that have killed at least 119 people, with scores more still unaccounted for.
Noem, who chairs the Fema Review Council, noted that the agency had provided resources and supported the search and recovery efforts in Texas, but criticized the agency for what she called past failures to respond to disasters effectively.
“It has been slow to respond at the federal level,” Noem said. “That is why this entire agency needs to be eliminated as it exists today, and remade into a responsive agency.”
Defenders of the agency have said the Trump administration is seeking to politicize a vital agency that helps states both prepare for natural disasters like hurricanes and floods and clean up in the aftermath.
Updated
Trump says five west African nations unlikely to face US tariffs
Further to my earlier post on this, Donald Trump said that five west African nations are going to lower their tariffs and that the United States treats the continent better than China does.
At a meeting with the leaders of Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania and Senegal at the White House, Trump added that he did not think those countries at the gathering were likely to see any US tariffs.
Donald Trump also said that his administration will reach a deal with Harvard University.
“Harvard’s been very bad - totally antisemitic. And, yeah, they’ll absolutely reach a deal,” he told reporters at the White House.
Earlier we reported that his administration had escalated its feud with Harvard, declaring the Ivy League school may no longer meet the standards for accreditation and that it would subpoena it for records about its international students.
Updated
Trump says Gaza ceasefire possible this week or next
Donald Trump said there is a “very good chance” of a ceasefire in Gaza this week or next, after meeting Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday for the second time in two days to discuss the situation.
“There’s a very good chance of a settlement this week on Gaza,” Trump told reporters. “We have a chance this week or next week.”
He made it clear several times that his priority was achieving “peace” and getting the hostages back, but made no mention of other matters like the desperate need to safely get aid to starving Palestinian people in the strip.
Donald Trump said he would release more letters to countries notifying them of higher US tariff rates today and tomorrow, including Brazil.
“Brazil, as an example, has not been good to us, not good at all,” Trump told reporters at the event with west African leaders at the White House. “We’re going to be releasing a Brazil number, I think, later on this afternoon or tomorrow morning.”
Trump said the tariff rates announced this week were based on “very, very substantial facts” and past history.
Updated
Trump says he would like to visit Africa at 'some point'
Donald Trump earlier told a table of west African leaders that he would like to travel to Africa “at some point”.
Trump has never visited the continent in an official capacity, and his signaling that he’s open to doing so is no doubt tied to his view of the many commercial opportunities for the US in African countries.
Trump’s guests today include the leaders of Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania and Senegal, and has so far concentrated on his “trade, not aid” policy.
With all of these countries facing 10% tariffs on goods exported to the US, they seem keen to try to negotiate this rate down. Indeed several leaders have sought to flatter Trump as a “peace-maker” and said they want him to get a Nobel Peace Prize, while also touting their countries’ wealth in assets such as critical minerals and rare earths and their strategic importance in terms of migration and maritime security.
Updated
South Sudan says eight deportees from the US are under government care
War-torn South Sudan has said it is holding a group of eight men controversially deported from the United States.
Only one of them is from South Sudan. The rest comprise two people from Myanmar, two from Cuba, and one each from Vietnam, Laos and Mexico.
The Trump administration is trying to move unwanted migrants to third countries as some nations refuse to accept returnees. Administration officials said the men had been convicted of violent crimes in the US. The decision has been fought in US courts.
“They are currently in Juba under the care of the relevant authorities, who are screening them and ensuring their safety and wellbeing,” the South Sudanese foreign ministry said in a statement late on Tuesday.
It did not give details, but said the “careful and well-studied decision” was part of “ongoing bilateral engagement”.
“South Sudan responded positively to a request from the US authorities as a gesture of goodwill, humanitarian cooperation and commitment to mutual interests,” it added.
The deportations have raised safety and other concerns among some in South Sudan.
“South Sudan is not a dumping ground for criminals,” said Edmund Yakani, a prominent civic leader.
United Nations experts, appointed by the UN Human Rights Council but who do not speak on behalf of the UN, have criticised the move.
“International law is clear that no one shall be sent anywhere where there are substantial grounds for believing that the person would be in danger of being subjected to … torture, enforced disappearance or arbitrary deprivation of life,” 11 independent UN rights experts said in a statement.
Updated
As Donald Trump approaches six months in office as president, his administration’s agenda has shaken every corner of US life.
According to research from Harris Poll, Americans are reconsidering major life events including marriage, having children and buying a home amid economic anxiety under the Trump administration.
Six in 10 Americans said the economy had affected at least one of their major life goals, citing either lack of affordability or anxiety around the current economy.
We want to hear from you. Have you been delaying major life decisions amid economic and political anxieties? When did things begin to feel destabilized? What effect in particular has delaying life decisions had on your household?
Find the link to take part here:
EU trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič has not had his scheduled call with US trade representative Jamieson Greer yet, so those on standby for a possible announcement by Donald Trump today on a deal with the bloc may have some time to wait.
Updated
USAID review raised ‘critical concerns’ over Gaza aid group days before $30m US grant - CNN
An internal government assessment seen by CNN shows USAID officials raised “critical concerns” last month about the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s ability to protect Palestinian peoeple and to deliver them food – just days before the state department announced $30m in funding for the controversial organization.
CNN reports that the “scathing” 14-page document outlines a litany of problems with a funding application submitted by the GHF, a US and Israeli-backed group established to provide aid following an 11-week Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip – despite grave concerns from international human rights organisations that it risks “aiding and abetting or otherwise being complicit in crimes under international law, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide”.
Hundreds of starving Palestinian people seeking aid have since been killed by Israeli forces in chaotic scenes around private aid sites, including those operated by GHF.
Per CNN’s report:
The assessment flags a range of concerns, from an overall plan missing “even basic details” to a proposal to potentially distribute powdered baby formula in an area that lacks clean water to prepare it.
A USAID official came to a clear conclusion in the report: “I do not concur with moving forward with GHF given operational and reputational risks and lack of oversight.”
“The application was abysmal… it was sorely lacking real content,” a source familiar with the application told CNN.
Trump administration and Israeli officials have consistently downplayed and rejected criticisms about GHF.
The 14-page document outlining USAID’s outstanding questions and concerns was not sent to GHF before the funding was approved, according to another source familiar with the matter who spoke to CNN.
Instead, secretary of state Marco Rubio and the top political appointee for foreign assistance, Jeremy Lewin, pressed for the approval for US funding to be fast-tracked, the two sources said. It is unclear whether top political leadership read the full 14-page document. One of the sources said USAID staff had voiced concerns internally about working with GHF, especially given the humanitarian principle of ‘do no harm’.
In an internal memo dated 24 June – four days after the date listed on the assessment – a top political appointee at the state department, Kenneth Jackson, recommended that Lewin “waive the various criteria given the humanitarian and political urgency of GHF’s operations”. Both Lewin and Jackson were initially installed into government roles by Elon Musk’s Doge.
The state department announced the award two days later and sent GHF a document conveying requirements for the funds, including some related to concerns raised by USAID. Tranches of the $30m award will be released when GHF completes key tasks – including many typically required before funding is approved, like registering in the government system, pre-vetting partners and providing evidence of external audits.
As of last week, the funding had not yet been disbursed, state department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said.
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US agriculture secretary says Medicaid recipients can replace deported farm workers
The US agriculture secretary has suggested that increased automation and forcing Medicaid recipients to work could replace the migrant farm workers being swept up in Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign, despite years of evidence and policy failures that those kinds of measures are not substitutes for the immigrant labor force underpinning American agriculture.
Speaking at a news conference with Republican governors on Tuesday, Brooke Rollins said the administration would rely on “automation, also some reform within the current governing structure”, and pointed to “34 million able-bodied adults in our Medicaid program” as potential workers.
“There’s been a lot of noise in the last few days and a lot of questions about where the president stands and his vision for farm labor,” Rollins said. “There are plenty of workers in America”.
Trump signed legislation Friday creating the first federally mandated work requirements for Medicaid recipients, set to take effect by the end of 2026. Medicaid is a healthcare safety net program that currently covers pregnant women, mothers, young children and the disabled, with 40 states having expanded coverage to working poor families earning up to 138% of the federal poverty level.
However, agricultural experts and economists have repeatedly warned that neither automation nor welfare reforms can realistically replace the migrant workforce that dominates American farming.
According to USDA data, more than half of US farm workers are undocumented immigrants, and just under 70% are foreign-born.
And a March report from the Urban Institute found that most Medicaid recipients are either already working, exempt or face some sort of instability.
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More on Trump's latest tariff notices set to take effect on 1 August
Donald Trump had been scheduled to hike tariffs on dozens of countries today. But earlier this week he announced a delay to 1 August and has started announcing new rates that countries would face unless they strike a deal with the White House.
After announcing plans on Monday for US tariffs of up to 40% on goods imported from 14 countries, including Bangladesh, Japan and South Korea, Trump wrote to the leaders of a further six countries on Wednesday.
“These Tariffs may be modified, upward or downward, depending on our relationship with your Country,” Trump wrote.
A string of delays and rate changes have frustrated businesses in the US and around the world.
Updated
The latest Truth Social social media posts come after Trump vowed to issue trade announcements pertaining to “a minimum of 7 Countries” today. It appears he might be one short of his stated goal, but more announcements may come later in the day.
Trump issues tariff letters to six more countries
But before he meets with west African leaders, Donald Trump is now announcing more trade notices to several countries on Truth Social.
The US president is posting copies of separate letters addressed to Brunei, the Philippines, Iraq, Algeria, Moldova and Libya. Each country’s letter has its own tariff rate:
30% on Algeria
25% on Brunei
30% on Iraq
30% on Libya
25% on Moldova
20% on the Philippines
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Trump to host west African leaders after region grapples with sweeping US aid cuts
Donald Trump will host five west African leaders at the White House for a lunch meeting on Wednesday after his administration took significant steps to reshape the US’s relationship with Africa.
The meeting will include leaders from Liberia, Senegal, Gabon, Mauritania and Guinea-Bissau. It comes after sweeping US aid cuts and the dismantling of USAID, a federal agency that provided civilian foreign aid and development assistance.
Wednesday’s lunch should include discussions about economic development, security and democracy, according to the Associated Press. The Trump administration has said it wants to shift from aid to partnerships with nations that can help themselves.
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In other political news, the Associated Press (AP) reports that Edward DiPrete, a former Republican governor of Rhode Island who was later jailed for corruption, died on his 91st birthday, his former chief of staff said.
DiPrete, a Republican, served as the state’s 70th governor from January 1985 until January 1991. But later he became the first and only former Rhode Island governor to go to prison after pleading guilty to bribery, extortion and racketeering charges from his time as the state’s chief executive, according to the AP. He served one year in prison.
After his 1999 release, DiPrete said he hoped Rhode Islanders would still remember his accomplishments as governor.
“I hope historians 25 years from now will say that was a good period in time from a person who did make some mistakes, no question, and did some things he paid dearly for,” he told the AP at the time.
Senate committee advances Trump's pick for CDC director with party-line vote
A Senate committee advanced Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention (CDC), Susan Monarez, bringing her one step closer to final confirmation, The Associated Press (AP) reported.
The health committee voted 12-11, along party lines with Democrats in opposition, to poise Monarez to become the first CDC director to pass through Senate confirmation following a 2023 law, according to the AP. She was named acting director in January and then tapped as the nominee in March after Trump abruptly withdrew his first choice, David Weldon.
Prior to the CDC, Monarez was largely known for her government roles in health technology and biosecurity.
The committee’s action comes after months of turmoil at the CDC due to no leader at the helm of the agency tasked with tracking diseases and responding to health threats. The CDC has also been hit by widespread staff cuts, resignations and controversy over longstanding vaccine policies upended by health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.
“Unfortunately, Dr. Monarez — who has served as Trump’s acting CDC director — has done nothing to stand in the way” of Kennedy’s actions, senator Bernie Sanders said Wednesday.
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Dr. Kevin O’Connor, the former White House physician for Joe Biden, refused to answer questions from a Republican-led House committee that is investigating the former president’s health in while in office, The Associated Press reports.
O’Connor invoked the fifth amendment and doctor-client privilege on Wednesday while appearing before the House oversight committee, according to the doctor’s attorneys.
Republicans are conducting an investigation into Biden’s actions in office, questioning whether the former president’s use of an autopen may have been invalid. Biden has strongly denied that he wasn’t in a clear state of mind at any point while in office, calling the accusations “ridiculous and false.”
Los Angeles joins ACLU lawsuit against Trump's immigration raids
The city of Los Angeles and other southern California municipalities are joining a lawsuit against Donald Trump’s administration aimed at halting immigration raids that have spread panic among immigrant communities and sparked widespread protests.
The lawsuit, filed last week by the American Civil Liberties Union, accuses federal agents of using unlawful police tactics such as racial profiling to meet immigration arrest quotas set by the administration.
The legal action by Los Angeles marks its first formal effort to halt the raids after the administration sued the city in June for limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
“These unconstitutional roundups and raids cannot be allowed to continue,” Los Angeles city attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto told reporters last night, flanked by officials from municipalities joining the lawsuit including Los Angeles County, Pasadena, Santa Monica, Culver City, Pico Rivera, Montebello, Monterey Park and West Hollywood.
Trump infamously called national guard troops and US marines into Los Angeles in June in response to protests against the immigration raids, marking an extraordinary use of military force to support civilian police operations within the US.
Troops have continued to work alongside federal agents, with national guard forces on Monday sweeping through MacArthur Park near downtown Los Angeles in an operation criticized by the city’s mayor Karen Bass.
According to the ACLU lawsuit, federal immigration authorities have carried out illegal actions in southern California that include warrantless arrests by masked, anonymous agents and denying legal counsel to people held in a “dungeon-like” facility.
Trump administration sues California over transgender athletes in schools
The US justice department has sued California over state policies allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls’ school sports, alleging that allowing them to do so violates federal anti-discrimination laws.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, claims that California’s policies violate Title IX, which affords legal protection against sex discrimination.
“This Department of Justice will continue its fight to protect equal opportunities for women and girls in sports,” attorney general Pam Bondi said in a statement.
Trump says US interest rate is at least 3 points too high
Donald Trump has yet again called on the Federal Reserve to lower the federal benchmark interest rate by at least 3 percentage points, renewing his call for the US central bank to lower rates to help reduce the cost to service the nation’s debt.
He wrote on his Truth Social platform:
Our Fed Rate is AT LEAST 3 Points too high. “Too Late” is costing the U.S. 360 Billion Dollars a Point, PER YEAR, in refinancing costs. No Inflation, COMPANIES POURING INTO AMERICA. “The hottest Country in the World!” LOWER THE RATE!!!
He attacked Fed chair Jerome Powell not by name but by referring to him only as “Too Late”. In a post half an hour before the one above, Trump wrote:
ANYBODY BUT “TOO LATE.”
Trump has repeatedly attacked and called on Powell to lower interest rates, calling him everything from a “major loser” to a “numbskull” to “an average mentally person” (sigh), to which the Fed has said it takes independent economic decisions.
Trump has called for Powell to resign several times. He wrote on Truth Social last Wednesday: “‘Too Late’ should resign immediately!!!”
Last week Powell confirmed that the central bank would likely have already cut interest rates this year had it not been for the economic shock caused by Trump’s tariff policies.
He told a central banking conference in Portugal:
In effect, we went on hold when we saw the size of the tariffs and essentially all inflation forecasts for the United States went up materially as a consequence of the tariffs.
In response, Trump personally attacked Powell once again during his tour of the highly controversial new detention facility in the Florida Everglades dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz”. Asked if he intended to announce his pick for the next Fed chair, Trump said:
Anybody would be better than Jay Powell. He’s costing us a fortune because he keeps the rate way up.
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EU on standby for announcement of deal with Trump as early as tonight
The EU is on standby standby for an announcement of a deal with Donald Trump tonight or tomorrow night, reports my colleage Lisa O’Carroll from Brussels.
The draft agreement in principle, which ran to just three pages on Monday night when shared with ambassadors, is expected to involve headline pacts on cars, medical devices and possibly steel. It will also include an acceptance in the EU of a new baseline tariff on almost all exports of 10%, five times the pre-Trump average.
While a 10% tariff will involve pain for all member states, EU capitals say it will suffice, at the moment, to get a deal which can prove a starting point for all other trade issues.
Initially the EU was hard-balling, assuming it could best the UK’s thin deal, because of its economic might. Now it accepts a bare bones deal is the best it will get, despite objections from prominent MEPs on the European parliamentary trade committee who say they will fight the 10% import duty.
Italian MEP Brando Benefei says accepting the deal will “paralyse” the EU and show Trump he has won, enabling him to come back to “double” the tariff at a later stage.
Last night Trump said the EU was just 48 hours away from a “letter” on tariffs, but it is understood this is now not the case.
“The EU does not expect to receive a letter the same way that South Korea and Japan over the last few days, the deal is going to be different,” said Olof Gill, official trade spokesperson for the
European Commission.
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Trump administration threatens Harvard's accreditation and seeks records on foreign students
Donald Trump’s administration has escalated its feud with Harvard University, declaring the Ivy League school may no longer meet the standards for accreditation and that it would subpoena it for records about its international students.
It is the latest in a series of actions the administration has taken against Harvard, which sued the federal government after it terminated billions of dollars in grants awarded to the school and moved to bar it from admitting international students.
The administration claims it is trying to force change at Harvard and other top-level universities across the US, contending they have become bastions of leftist thought and antisemitism.
Trump on 20 June said that talks with Harvard were under way that could soon produce a settlement. But as of Wednesday, when the latest actions by the administration were announced, talks had stalled, and the parties were “far from an agreement”, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
“Harvard remains unwavering in its efforts to protect its community and its core principles against unfounded retribution by the federal government,” Harvard said in a statement.
The US Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services said on Wednesday that they formally notified Harvard’s accreditor, the New England Commission of Higher Education, that Harvard had violated a federal antidiscrimination law by failing to protect Jewish and Israeli students on campus.
The agencies said there was “strong evidence to suggest the school may no longer meet the commission’s accreditation standards”, after the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights last month concluded that Harvard had violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
Education secretary Linda McMahon in a statement said her agency expects the commission to “keep the department fully informed of its efforts to ensure that Harvard is in compliance with federal law and accreditor standards”.
The commission, a nonprofit accreditor, is not slated to comprehensively evaluate Harvard again until mid-2027. It confirmed it received a letter from the departments and said the federal government cannot direct it to revoke a school’s accreditation and that a university found to run afoul of its standards can have up to four years to come into compliance.
The departments’ announcement came shortly after the homeland security department said it would issue administrative subpoenas seeking records concerning the “criminality and misconduct” of student visa holders on Harvard’s campus.
Harvard argues the administration is retaliating against it and trampling on its free-speech rights under the US Constitution’s First Amendment after it refused to meet the Trump administration’s demands to cede control over the school’s curriculum and admissions.
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EU hopes to 'soon finalise our work' on 'foundational framework' for US tariffs deal, trade chief tells lawmakers
EU trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič told the lawmakers in the European parliament that the bloc “has made good progress” in trade talks with the US as their negotiations “intensified considerably” in the last few days.
We have made good progress on the text of the joint statement or agreement in principle, and I hope we can soon finalise our work.
If you recall what I said earlier about “a deal” potentially meaning many things to the Trump administration, Šefčovič on the other hand is very clear that the agreement that is being finalised is, in his view, is a “foundational framework” that will “pave the way for future fully fledged EU-US trade agreement”.
I hope to reach a satisfactory results, potentially even in the coming days.
The agreement in principle we are striving to finalise is not the end, but rather the start of the new beginning.
It would provide a framework upon which we can continue to build defining the exact parameters of the later agreement.
In other words, I see it as a foundational framework that paves the way for future fully fledged EU-US trade agreement.
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Trump to potentially visit his Scottish golf courses in coming weeks - Sky News
Plans are being drawn up for Donald Trump to potentially visit his golf courses in Scotland in the coming weeks, Sky News reports, likely at the end of July or beginning of August.
Police Scotland confirmed to Sky News it was preparing for a “potential visit ... later this month”. Senior sources told Sky News the trip could last “more than a couple of days”.
His son, Eric Trump, previously said his father would attend the official opening of a new golf course in Aberdeenshire this summer. The family also owns owns the Turnberry resort in Ayrshire.
The trip would mark Trump’s first visit to Scotland since he won the election in November. His last visit as president in 2018 sparked a security operation with thousands protesting in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and beyond.
Police Scotland’s assistant chief constable Emma Bond told Sky News: “Planning is under way for a potential visit to Scotland later this month by the president of the United States.
“While official confirmation has not yet been made, it is important that we prepare in advance for what would be a significant policing operation.”
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EU optimistic deal can be reached before Trump's tariff deadline
Sources in the European Union, which Donald Trump said could expect a letter regarding its tariff deal in the next 48 hours, said they believed a framework agreement would be reached this week. The agreement is expected to include headline tariff arrangements for a limited number of sectors including cars, steel and medical devices.
The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, told the Bundestag today: “I am cautiously optimistic that we can succeed in reaching an agreement with the US in the next few days, by the end of the month at the latest.”
Merz said he was in “close contact” with the US government, Trump and the European Commission, and hoped to secure a deal as quickly as possible that linked “mutual trade between the US and the European Union with the lowest possible tariffs”.
Diplomats in Brussels say the EU’s need to restore calm in the wider transatlantic relationship and keep the US tied into the bloc’s defence and security is also driving the desire for a quick deal.
The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, told MEPs today it was ready for contingencies in the event of a collapse in talks.
“We stick to our principles, we defend our interests, we continue to work in good faith, and we get ready for all scenarios,” she told the European parliament.
Copper prices in US hit record high after Trump announces 50% tariff
Copper prices hit a record high in the US after Donald Trump’s announcement yesterday that he would impose a 50% tariff on the industrial metal, in the latest escalation of his trade war.
Trump said before a cabinet meeting on Tuesday: “Today we’re doing copper,” proposing a 50% tariff rate for imports. He also threatened to impose a 200% border tax on pharmaceuticals but in a year or a year and a half’s time.
The comments added to the confusion around the president’s ever-changing tariffs after he sent letters on Monday setting rates of up to 40% for more than a dozen countries but coming into effect from 1 August rather than a previously reported 9 July date.
Hours after saying his latest deadline for a new wave of steep duties was “not 100% firm”, Trump wrote on social media that “no extensions” would be granted beyond the August deadline.
In another post on his Truth Social site on Tuesday night, he also promised to release tariff details for a further seven countries on Wednesday morning. Trump added that details on more would be revealed in the afternoon.
Copper futures in the US jumped by more than 10% to $5.682 (£4.18) a pound on the tariff threat overnight, hitting an all-time high. The metal has since been pared back to $5.662.
Conversely, prices elsewhere in the world fell amid fears that Trump’s threatened levy could reduce US appetite for the metal and hit demand globally. On the London Metal Exchange, copper prices fell by as much as 2.4% at the open, before easing to change hands at $9,653 a tonne.
It’s been 90 days since Donald Trump’s “original tariff bonanza”, notes Politico, and today – 9 July – was supposed to mark “the deadline by which time 90-or-so new trade deals were to be agreed; or else punishing new tariffs would kick in.” But after much confusion and flip-flopping yesterday, that deadline has been pushed back once more, this time to 1 August, giving the administration more time to get deals done.
But “a deal” can mean many things, Politico highlights. “The trade framework with the UK was a ‘deal’. The vague handshake with Vietnam last week was a ‘deal’. The detente with China was a ‘deal’. ‘A letter means a deal,’ Trump said, helpfully, during his Cabinet meeting yesterday. ‘The deals are mostly my deal to them.’” So it will be interesting to see where on this spectrum the nature of trading terms Trump is going to unveil today will fall.
More trade announcements expected as Trump defends tariffs
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of US politics today.
Donald Trump said there would be more trade-related announcements this morning after defending his tariffs on Truth Social.
In a post on Tuesday evening, the president said:
We will be releasing a minimum of 7 Countries having to do with trade, tomorrow morning, with an additional number of Countries being released in the afternoon. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
That post came shortly after he wrote that “Tariffs have had ZERO IMPACT on Inflation” and – yet again – called for Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell to cut interest rates.
On Tuesday, Trump vowed to escalate his trade wars, my colleague Callum Jones reported, threatening US tariffs of up to 200% on foreign drugs and 50% on copper amid widespread confusion around his shifting plans.
An example of Trump’s shifting plans: shortly after saying his latest deadline for a new tariffs was “not 100% firm” yesterday, he declared “no extensions will be granted” beyond 1 August.
Stick with us today as we bring you the latest lines on the Trump administration, tariffs, and everything else in US politics.
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