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      I spent decades at Columbia. I’m withdrawing my fall course due to its deal with Trump | Rashid Khalidi

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      Dear Acting President Shipman,I am writing you an open letter since you have seen fit to communicate the recent decisions of the board of trustees and the administration in a similar fashion.These decisions, taken in close collaboration with the Trump administration, have made it impossible for me to teach modern Middle East history, the field of my scholarship and teaching for more than 50 years, 23 of them at Columbia. Although I have retired, I was scheduled to teach a large lecture course on this topic in the fall as a “special lecturer”, but I cannot do so under the conditions Columbia has accepted by capitulating to the Trump administration in June.Specifically, it is impossible to teach this course (and much else) in light of Columbia’s adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. The IHRA definition deliberately, mendaciously and disingenuously conflates Jewishness with Israel, so that any criticism of Israel, or indeed description of Israeli policies, becomes a criticism of Jews. Citing its potential chilling effect, a co-author of the IHRA definition, Professor Kenneth Stern, has repudiated its current uses. Yet Columbia has announced that it will serve as a guide in disciplinary proceedings.Under this definition of antisemitism, which absurdly conflates criticism of a nation-state, Israel, and a political ideology, Zionism, with the ancient evil of Jew-hatred, it is impossible with any honesty to teach about topics such as the history of the creation of Israel, and the ongoing Palestinian Nakba, culminating in the genocide being perpetrated by Israel in Gaza with the connivance and support of the US and much of western Europe.The Armenian genocide, the nature of the absolute monarchies and military dictatorships that blight most of the Arab world, the undemocratic theocracy in Iran, the incipient dictatorial regime in Türkiye, the fanaticism of Wahhabism: all of these are subject to detailed analysis in my course lectures and readings. However, a simple description of the discriminatory nature of Israel’s 2018 Nation State Law – which states that only the Jewish people have the right of self-determination in Israel, half of whose subjects are Palestinian – or of the apartheid nature of its control over millions of Palestinians who have been under military occupation for 58 years would be impossible in a Middle East history course under the IHRA definition of antisemitism.It is not only faculty members’ academic freedom and freedom of speech that is infringed upon by Columbia’s capitulation to Trump’s diktat. Teaching assistants would be seriously constrained in leading discussion sections, as would students in their questions and discussions, by the constant fear that informers would snitch on them to the fearsome apparatus that Columbia has erected to punish speech critical of Israel, and to crack down on alleged discrimination – which at this moment in history almost invariably amounts simply to opposition to this genocide. Scores of students and many faculty members have been subjected to these kangaroo courts, students such as Mahmoud Khalil have been snatched from their university housing, and Columbia has now promised to render this repressive system even more draconian and opaque.You have stated that no “red lines” have been crossed by these decisions. However, Columbia has appointed a vice-provost initially tasked with surveilling Middle Eastern studies, and it has ordained that faculty and staff must submit to “trainings” on antisemitism from the likes of the Anti-Defamation League, for whom virtually any critique of Zionism or Israel is antisemitic, and Project Shema, whose trainings link many anti-Zionist critiques to antisemitism. It has accepted an “independent” monitor of “compliance” of faculty and student behavior from a firm that in June 2025 hosted an event in honor of Israel. According to Columbia’s agreement with the Trump administration, this “Monitor will have timely access to interview all Agreement-related individuals, and visit all Agreement-related facilities, trainings, transcripts of Agreement-related meetings and disciplinary hearings, and reviews”. Classrooms are pointedly NOT excluded from possible visits from these external non academics.The idea that the teaching, syllabuses and scholarship of some of the most prominent academics in their fields should be vetted by such a vice-provost, such “trainers” or an outside monitor from such a firm is abhorrent. It constitutes the antithesis of the academic freedom that you have disingenuously claimed will not be infringed by this shameful capitulation to the anti-intellectual forces animating the Trump administration.I regret deeply that Columbia’s decisions have obliged me to deprive the nearly 300 students who have registered for this popular course – as many hundreds of others have done for more than two decades – of the chance to learn about the history of the modern Middle East this fall. Although I cannot do anything to compensate them fully for depriving them of the opportunity to take this course, I am planning to offer a public lecture series in New York focused on parts of this course that will be streamed and available for later viewing. Proceeds, if any, will go to Gaza’s universities, every one of which has been destroyed by Israel with US munitions, a war crime about which neither Columbia nor any other US university has seen fit to say a single word.Columbia’s capitulation has turned a university that was once a site of free inquiry and learning into a shadow of its former self, an anti-university, a gated security zone with electronic entry controls, a place of fear and loathing, where faculty and students are told from on high what they can teach and say, under penalty of severe sanctions. Disgracefully, all of this is being done to cover up one of the greatest crimes of this century, the ongoing genocide in Gaza, a crime in which Columbia’s leadership is now fully complicit. – Rashid Khalidi

      Rashid Khalidi is the Edward Said professor emeritus of modern Arab studies at Columbia University and author of The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine More

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      Joe Biden says US is facing ‘existential’ fight with marginalized groups ‘dramatically under attack’

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      Former United States President Joe Biden took the stage at the National Bar Association’s 100th Annual Awards Gala in Chicago to deliver remarks honoring the United States civil rights legacy, and the state of the country.Speaking amid continual scrutiny around his physical and mental health, Biden played up the importance of a strong judicial branch, and characterized the US as at a moment in time that “makes us confront hard truths.”“So many of you have fought to make this country live up to its highest ideals,” Biden said. “Not since the tumultuous days of the 1960s has this fight been so existential to who we are as a nation, with marginalized groups so dramatically under attack.”Founded in 1925, the National Bar Association is the largest and oldest network of Black law professors, judges, and lawyers in the US. Biden’s speech focused heavily on the contributions of Black lawyers to America’s civil rights history, and the need to continue that legacy, in light of an administration that he said “seeks to erase history, erase quality, erase justice itself.“We see the apparent glee of some of our politicians while watching immigrants who are in this country legally torn from the arms of their family, dragged away in handcuffs from the only home they’ve ever known,” Biden said. “My friends, we need to face the hard truths of this administration.”Law firms representing those opposing the Trump administration’s agenda have been targeted with executive orders by the administration. Some have capitulated to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. Federal judges, increasingly on the receiving end of harsh rhetoric and threats to their safety, have weighed creating their own security forces.“We see the law firms, bowing to pressure, bending to bullies, instead of staying rooted in justice of the law,” Biden said.The gala is not the first speaking engagement of the summer that Biden has used to take aim at current US President Donald Trump. In June, he offered oblique criticism of the Trump administration during a Juneteenth celebration service at the Reedy Chapel AME Church, one of the places in Texas where an order proclaiming the end of slavery was read on 19 June 1865.Earlier this month, Biden delivered a keynote address at the Society for Human Resource Management conference in San Diego. During a question and answer session, Biden said he was “working like hell” to finish a memoir of his presidency as he contends with his prostate cancer diagnosis.In his book, a reflection of the 46th president’s four years in office, Biden will probably attempt to shape his legacy – and to confront questions about his mental health and physical fitness that clouded his final years in office and ultimately forced to end his bid for re-election.While Biden heaped praise on former vice-president Kamala Harris during his speech, he did not reference his decision to step down mid-election.In sporadic public appearances since leaving the White House, Biden has hit back against new reporting that alleges a “cover up” by the then-president’s closest aides to hide his frailty and decline from an American public who polls showed believed he was too old to serve another four years.Biden’s speech did not directly address these allegations, although he did note his two of his claims to fame in US politics – being the youngest person ever elected to the US Senate, and the oldest person elected to the presidency.The White House and congressional Republicans have amplified the claims, opening investigations into whether Biden was in control when he made a series of notable clemency decisions at the end of his presidency. In an interview with the New York Times this month, Biden said he orally authorized every pardon and commutation issued during his term and called Republicans who said his staff abused the presidential autopen “liars”.Hours before Biden spoke, Mike Donilon, one of the former president’s top advisers and longest-serving aides, gave a closed-door interview to the House Oversight Committee as part of the Republican-led panel’s investigation into Biden’s cognitive decline. On Wednesday, Steve Ricchetti, another top adviser to the former president, also appeared before the committee. More

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      Trump to build ‘beautiful’ $200m ballroom at White House

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      The White House will soon begin construction of a new $200m ballroom to be ready before Donald Trump’s term ends in early 2029.Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the building will be 90,000 sq ft (8,300 sq metres) and will hold up to 650 seats.It will be the latest change introduced to what’s known as “the People’s House” since the Republican president returned to office in January. It also will be the first structural change to the executive mansion itself since the addition of the Truman Balcony in 1948.The White House is currently unable to hold large-scale events, given the 200-person capacity in the White House’s East Room. In a phone interview with NBC News, Trump pointed to the White House’s set-up for large-scale events, which necessitates ferrying guests to tents set up on the South Lawn.“When it rains or snows, it’s a disaster,” Trump said, noting that tents are currently set up “a football field away from the White House”.From Trump’s view, a new ballroom has long been in demand.“I’m doing a lot of improvements,” Trump said to NBC. “I’ll be building a beautiful ballroom. They wanted it for many, many years.”Levitt said funding for the addition will come from Trump, as well as other “patriot donors”, according to the White House website, leading Trump to label the project as “his gift to the country”.McCrery Architects has been chosen to complete the design, with Clark Construction as the construction lead, and AECOM handling engineering. The ballroom will be separate from the White House’s main building, and will take the place of the current East Wing.The project fits nicely in the wheelhouse of America’s real-estate magnate president, who has taken the presidential tradition of redecoration a step further. While Trump’s past changes, such as paving portions of the Rose Garden and layering gold filigree throughout the White House, are easily reversible, a new ballroom building would last long after Trump leaves office. More

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      Jess Glynne feels ‘sick’ over use of Jet2 song to promote US deportations

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      It is the internet meme of the summer, sparking laughter and thousands of wry smiles at the pitfalls of a British summer holiday.But the journey of the viral Jet2 holiday advert – with its promotional voiceover played out over cheerless summer holiday footage, including water-slide disasters and images of pouring rain – took a darker turn this week when it was used by the White House in a post on X to promote Ice (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) deportations.Jess Glynne – whose 2015 single Hold My Hand accompanies the advert – responded to the post on Wednesday, saying she felt “sick” that her music was being used to spread “division and hate”.She told the Guardian on Thursday: “I’m devastated to see my song used in this way. Hold My Hand was written about love, support, and standing by someone through everything – it’s meant to offer hope and empowerment. Using it to promote something I fundamentally disagree with goes completely against the message of the song.”On Thursday afternoon Jet2 also condemned the post, saying it was “disappointed to see our brand being used to promote government policy such as this”.The official White House account posted a clip on X on Wednesday evening showing people wearing handcuffs and being taken out of cars and on to planes, captioned: “When Ice books you a one-way Jet2 holiday to deportation. Nothing beats it!”In the six months since Donald Trump took office, the US president has supercharged the country’s immigration enforcement, overseeing a sweeping mass arrest and incarceration scheme, which resulted in a record number of arrests by immigration officers in June, according to Guardian analysis.The post delighted Trump supporters but was decried as disgusting, embarrassing and unchristian by critics. Glynne, who has previously joined in with the fun spirit of the Jet2 holidays meme by posting a TikTok video miming the voiceover, expressed her disapproval of the White House’s appropriation of the trend on Instagram.“This post honestly makes me sick,” she wrote. “My music is about love, unity and spreading positivity – never about division or hate.”Jet2 had previously appeared to welcome the extra publicity generated by the meme, launching a challenge that offered a £1,000 holiday voucher as a prize.A spokesperson said the company welcomed the “good humour” of the viral phenomenon, but not the White House’s contribution. “We are of course aware of a post from the White House social media account,” they said. “This is not endorsed by us in any way, and we are very disappointed to see our brand being used to promote government policy such as this.”The advert’s voiceover actor, Zoë Lister, said she would never condone her voiceover “being used in promotion with Trump and his abhorrent policies”.She told the BBC: “The Jet2 meme has spread a lot of joy and humour around the world, but the White House video shows that Trump has neither.”The White House Ice deportation post is the latest example of an unorthodox digital communications strategy that has veered away from previous administrations’ traditional – and relatively sedate – use of social media platforms.In February, the White House used X to promote Trump’s congestion pricing policy, posting a fake Time magazine front cover portraying the president as a monarch, along with the phrase: “CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!”The post was described as “revoltingly un-American” by Adam Keiper, the executive editor of the conservative Bulwark news site, while New York state’s Democratic governor, Kathy Hochul, said: “New York hasn’t laboured under a king in over 250 years and we sure as hell are not going to start now.”The administration also faced criticism after Trump shared an AI-generated video that showed him in a transformed, glittering Gaza, topless and sipping a cocktail with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. After criticism, the administration recently posted on X: “Nowhere in the constitution does it say we can’t post banger memes.”Last month the Trump administration appeared to be on track to oversee one of the deadliest years for immigrant detention after the deaths of two men – one from Cuba and another from Canada – while in federal custody.Human rights experts have raised concerns about the detention of children with their parents at the newly recommissioned “family detention centres” in Texas, and while Trump has repeatedly claimed his administration is trying to arrest and deport “dangerous criminals”, analysis shows that most of the people Ice is now arresting have never been convicted of a crime. More

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      Canada braces as tariff deadline looms and talks with US ‘chaos machine’ drag

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      After months of tariff threats from the US and escalating trade tensions that have sowed anger in Canada and fractured a once-close alliance, the country is now fast approaching a 1 August deadline to reach a deal with the Trump administration – which has shown no signs of backing down.And observers are keeping a close eye on negotiations this week to determine whether too large a chasm has grown between the countries, resulting in what could be an explosive end to what was decades of free-flowing trade.Canada is also in a highly vulnerable position, as it has closely intertwined its economy with the US’s, and is extremely reliant on a low-barrier trade environment, said William Huggins, an assistant professor in economics at McMaster University in Ontario.“Canada has tried to negotiate sort of forcefully from a position of not acquiescing to every demand, but by the same token, has also realised it’s not in the strongest position to do so … We’ve had to navigate carefully,” said Huggins.The Canadian public is also anxiously awaiting the deadline to strike up a deal. Economists and political scientists say the country’s prime minister, Mark Carney, was elected on the belief that he’s the right person to be at the helm of negotiations and lead Canada through a tenuous period with their southern neighbour.His successes or failures in this arena could affect public perception – as he has characterised his government as being the most adept in the crisis around its sovereignty due to the tariffs and Donald Trump’s persistent claims that he’d like to make Canada the 51st state.“[Carney] is in a situation where he doesn’t hold all the cards and whoever we put in was going to have to figure out a way through this … [His] ability to plan is severely limited by the chaos machine that is operating south of the border,” said Dennis Pilon, the chair of the politics department at York University in Ontario.On Monday, Carney said at a news conference on Prince Edward Island that the trade negotiations are at an “intense pace” and that they are “complex”. But he projected tentative optimism, stating that the negotiations are “tough” because the government is standing up for Canadian interests.“There is a landing zone that’s possible but we have to get there. We’ll see what happens,” he told reporters.But Trump spoke of the negotiations flippantly when asked by reporters outside the White House last Friday. “We haven’t really had a lot of luck with Canada … Canada could be one where there’s just a tariff, not really a negotiation,” he said.So far, much of the talks have happened behind closed doors. There was a glimpse into what could be the dynamic between Carney and Trump when the prime minister had his first meeting with the president in the Oval Office in early May. There were positive tones in both initially offering praise for each other, but the encounter quickly grew tense as Trump repeated his annexation claims, which were subsequently rebuffed by Carney.Since March, Trump has imposed several tariffs on Canadian goods and energy resources. There is a 25% tariff on all goods, excluding potash and energy products. But there’s separately a 10% tariff on energy resources, including potash. Additionally, there’s a further 50% tariff on steel and aluminum imports and a 25% tariff on autos and auto parts.At this stage, the tariffs have seemingly not delivered a significant blow to Canada’s economy, but that could change quickly. The Royal Bank of Canada noted in its June forecast that nearly 90% of Canadian goods are exempt from tariffs under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the free trade deal that replaced Nafta in 2020 and which provides a degree of insulation.In an assessment published by the Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) on Tuesday, it reported that energy exports have not been significantly affected by the tariffs, as most exports are compliant under the USMCA, and are therefore exempt from tariffs.Some of the insulation so far from tariffs could be from opening Canada up to other markets. TD said that in the past four months, Canadian businesses rapidly moved to reorient supply chains and export to non-US markets. Now about 30% of exports go outside the US – a level not seen since the pandemic, when TD notes there was disorientation in trade.But TD also warned that the negative effects of the tariffs might be beginning to emerge. It said that Canadian exports to the US are “generally underperforming” in tariff-targeted industries, particularly steel and automaking. Canada’s auto exports fell to levels not seen since late 2022, following the April imposition of tariffs. Automakers have also “slashed” production in response, it said.Andrea Lawlor, an associate professor of political science at McMaster University, said that while there haven’t been many layoffs or a complete reorientation of production lines yet, industries targeted by tariffs are preparing to do so.Lawlor also said that Carney has been prudent in his negotiation strategy so far, and right in waiting for deals to be brokered between the US and other nations, as they were this month with Japan and the EU, to help inform Canada’s strategy.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionAnd despite concerns about marred relationships with First Nations people, pushing forward controversial infrastructure legislation and his quick scrapping of Canada’s digital services tax – which many, including top former diplomats, viewed as fawning capitulation toward Trump – the prime minister is still enjoying fairly positive polling in his term’s infancy.Abacus Data reported at the end of June that 52% of Canadians surveyed approve of the Carney government. The research firm states it shows that his post-election honeymoon period is “far from over”.Lawlor said the best outcome for Carney in the negotiations is a favourable trade deal – however, there has been signalling from Carney, in his discussion of “tough” talks so far, that Canadians may have to accept a baseline of tariffs.“Many Canadians just simply will not be satisfied if that is the outcome,” she said. But due to Carney facing limited criticism of his interactions with the Americans so far, Lawlor said she believes the prime minister will not face extreme negative blowback if he doesn’t trounce tariffs for good this week.But he will be more vulnerable if the tariffs start to place downward pressure on multiple industries, she said.As Canadians are waiting and watching for the Friday deal deadline, the real fears are around the cementing of a new world order and whether long-term business and consumer decisions need to be made in response, said Preetika Joshi, an assistant professor at McGill University in Quebec that specialises in taxation.“If you were a business owner and you knew Trump is going to be in power for only three, four years, would you necessarily make big, significant changes in your supply chain … or would you just wait it out?” she said.But given some grim messaging from those close to Carney – Canadians might be facing tough decisions. Dominic LeBlanc, the federal minister responsible for Canada-US trade, said last week there’s a lot of work ahead of them and minimised the 1 August deadline.“We’re going to continue to work toward the 1 August deadline,” said LeBlanc to reporters in Washington. “But all of these deadlines are with the understanding that we’ll take the time necessary to get the best deal,” he said.Deal or no deal, the negotiations might reveal that there isn’t a best-case scenario, said Joshi.“What we were used to before Trump, where there were very little tariffs, that reality is slightly over,” she said. “We’ll have to wait and see … but the reality is that there are going to be some tariffs.” More

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      Brown University reaches deal with Trump administration to restore $50m in funds

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      Brown University has reached an agreement with the Trump administration that will reinstate nearly $50m in research funding and close several federal investigations into the institution, university president Christina Paxson announced in a campus-wide email on Wednesday.The settlement follows the Trump administration’s threat in April to freeze $510m in federal support to Brown. This makes Brown the third Ivy League school to reach a resolution with the federal government this month.Under the terms of the agreement, Brown will commit to nondiscrimination in both admissions and campus programs, and will grant federal officials access to its admissions data. The arrangement brings to an end investigations led by the Departments of Health and Human Services, Education and Justice.A statement from the institution said that the “voluntary agreement will reinstate payments for active research grants and restore Brown’s ability to compete for new federal grants and contracts, while also meeting the core imperative of preserving the ability for our students and scholars – both domestic and international – to teach and learn without government intrusion”.The agreement between Brown and Trump does not require the university to admit any wrongdoing. And unlike Columbia University, which agreed to pay a $200m settlement, Brown’s deal does not involve any financial penalty. The email stated that “the government does not have the authority to dictate teaching, learning and academic speech”.The education secretary, Linda McMahon, had previously described the Columbia settlement as a “roadmap”, predicting it would “ripple across the higher education sector and change the course of campus culture for years to come”.In addition to a pledge to “reaffirm compliance with nondiscrimination laws” in admissions and programs, the deal also prevents Brown from administering gender-affirming surgeries to minors or prescribing puberty blockers.The university has also agreed to implement the Trump administration’s definitions of male and female (as outlined in a January executive order) for women’s athletics, student programs, campus facilities and housing. More

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      Kamala Harris says she won’t run for California governor, saying ‘for now’ she won’t be in elected office – US politics live

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      Kamala Harris, the former vice-president and 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, announced on Wednesday that she will not run for governor of California – a highly anticipated decision that leaves the contest to lead the country’s largest blue state wide open.In a statement Harris said:
      For now, my leadership – and public service – will not be in elected office. I look forward to getting back out and listening to the American people, helping elect Democrats across the nation who will fight fearlessly, and sharing more details in the months ahead about my own plans.
      Brown University announced on Wednesday it “reached a voluntary agreement with the federal government to restore funding for the University’s federally sponsored medical and health sciences research and resolve three open reviews assessing Brown’s compliance with federal nondiscrimination obligations.”As part of the agreement, signed by Brown president Christina H. Paxson, attorney general Pam Bondi, education secretary Linda McMahon and health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, Brown will pay $50 million “to state workforce development organizations operating in compliance with anti-discrimination laws” over the next 10 years.One provision of the agreement stipulates that “Brown shall not maintain programs that promote unlawful efforts to achieve race-based outcomes, quotas, diversity targets, or similar efforts.” Defining the effort to bring diversity to campuses as a form of illegal discrimination against white students is a core element of the Trump administration’s ideological war on higher education.“Accordingly,” the agreement adds, “Brown will provide a timely report to the United States summarizing its compliance with this obligation, including an assurance that Brown has acted responsibly to ensure its programs do not promote unlawful DEI goals.”Another provision, which might seem to be at odds with the ban on promoting diversity, is a commitment from the university to combat anti-semitism by taking actions “to support a thriving Jewish community, research and education about Israel, and a robust Program in Judaic Studies, through outreach to Jewish Day School students to provide information about applying to Brown, resources for religiously observant Jewish community members, renewed partnerships with Israeli academics and national Jewish organizations, support for enhanced security at the Brown-RISD Hillel, and a convening of alumni, students, and faculty to celebrate 130 years of Jewish life at Brown”.The education secretary called the agreement as evidence that the Trump administration “is successfully reversing the decades-long woke-capture of our nation’s higher education institutions.”At the start of his remarks, before touting what he called the supposed benefits of helping Americans to access their medical records on their phones, health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr took a moment to praise the way Donald Trump has changed the White House since January.As Kennedy recalled visiting the Oval office when his uncle, John F Kennedy, was president, he said that the White House had become, over time, drab. He then thanked Trump for making it now “the opposite of drab”, a compliment that brought a massive smile to the face of the president.Donald Trump just spoke at the start of what’s billed as a Making Health Technology Great Again event at the White House, to unveil a new private health tracking system that asks Americans to share their personal health data and medical records with private tech companies.While privacy advocates have raised alarms about the plan, Trump announced that what he called “the CMS Digital Health Tech Ecosystem” would “give healthcare providers, insurers and software companies the tools they need to empower Americans with a 21st Century experience on health.”Before inviting his health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, to speak, Trump also recited a series of boasts about how well things are going under his leadership that have become a regular part of his remarks in all settings.One of them was his claim that “the king of Saudi Arabia” told him on a recent visit to the Middle East that “one year ago, your country was dead, and today yo have the hottest country anywhere in the world.”As we noted last week when Trump recited this story at an AI summit, Trump was not hosted on his trip by King Salman of Saudi Arabia, the 89-year-old monarch who has largely retreated from public life and took no part in the lavish ceremonies and meetings Trump attended in Riyadh.Instead, Trump met with crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, who approved the 2018 murder of the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to a US intelligence report made public three weeks after the end of Trump’s first term.Here are some of the latest developments we’re tracking in our continuing live coverage of the second Trump administration on Wednesday:

      The US Federal Reserve elected to hold its benchmark interest rate steady at between 4.25 and 4.5%, a rate it has maintained since the end of 2024. Two Trump-appointed officials on the central bank dissented.

      Kamala Harris, the former vice-president and 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, announced on Wednesday that she will not run for governor of California, or any elected office, “For now” – fueling speculation that she could run for the 2028 Democratic nomination.

      Donald Trump signed an executive order which adds a further 40% tariff to Brazilian imports – bringing the total to 50%. The order exempts hundreds of products that form a large share of Brazilian goods imported by the US, but not coffee.

      Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer outlined a new attempt to force attorney general Pam Bondi to release the files related to the federal investigations of Jeffrey Epstein.

      The treasury department announced sanctions against Alexandre de Moraes – the Brazil supreme court judge leading the prosecution of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, for allegedly attempting to launch a coup after losing the 2022 Brazilian election.
      The executive order issued by Donald Trump on Wednesday, imposing 50% tariffs on goods imported from Brazil – to punish the South American nation for supposedly “persecuting” its former president, Jair Bolsonaro, for attempting to stay in power despite losing an election – exempts hundreds of products, including certain metals, aircraft parts, wood pulp, energy and energy products, and fertilizers.The long list of exemptions included in an annex to the order on the White House website does not, however, include coffee, one of the main items American companies import from Brazil.The Jeffrey Epstein files weren’t the only business of the day on Capitol Hill today. Legislation sponsored by Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri gained approval from a key committee today.The bill was initially named the Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments (PELOSI) Act, which would bar elected members of Congress from buying, owning or selling individual stocks.The bill’s original name takes a pointed jab at Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi – who has been criticised for her stock holdings. Democrats have since negotiated for the legislation to be renamed as the “Honest Act”.In a statement today, Pelosi said:
      I welcome any serious effort to raise ethical standards in public service. The HONEST Act, as amended, rightly applies its stock trading ban not only to Members of Congress, but now to the President and Vice President as well. I strongly support this legislation and look forward to voting for it on the Floor of the House.
      However, since the legislation stipulates that the law doesn’t start until an elected official’s new term in office, it exempts Donald Trump and JD Vance.Donald Trump signed an executive order which adds a further 40% tariff to Brazilian imports – bringing the total to 50%.The White House says that the tariffs are a penalty for the Government of Brazil’s politically motivated persecution of former President Jair Bolsonaro and his supporters. The administration maintains that these punitive tariffs are part of the President’s plans to protect “the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States from a foreign threat.”This comes after the earlier move from the Treasury Department to issue sanctions against the high court judge overseeing Bolsonaro’s attempted coup trial.Kamala Harris, the former vice-president and 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, announced on Wednesday that she will not run for governor of California – a highly anticipated decision that leaves the contest to lead the country’s largest blue state wide open.In a statement Harris said:
      For now, my leadership – and public service – will not be in elected office. I look forward to getting back out and listening to the American people, helping elect Democrats across the nation who will fight fearlessly, and sharing more details in the months ahead about my own plans.
      Powell adds that today’s Federal Reserve meeting was “quite good” but there were two dissenters at the meeting.And on the impact of tariffs, Powell says there has been “substantial amount of tariff revenue collected” each month. But he adds that the process with “probably be slower than expected at the beginning, but we never expected it to be fast, and we think we have a long way to go.”Powell underscores the Fed’s reasoning:
      The labor market looks solid. Inflation is above target. And even if you look through the tariff effects we think it’s still a bit above target.
      Jerome Powell said that while the interest rate will remain steady today, there will be two rounds of jobs and inflation data by the time of the next meeting in September.He did add, however, that they have made “no decisions about September,” but they will be taking that interim information into consideration ahead of the next decision.Jerome Powell is outlining the Federal Reserve’s decision to keep the interest rate steady.“Our obligation is to keep longer term inflation’s inflation expectations well anchored, and to prevent a one time increase in the price level from becoming an ongoing inflation problem,” he said. More