3.00am BST
Closing summary This concludes our live coverage of the second Trump administration for the day. Here’s the latest:
Jamieson Greer , the US trade representative, announced that the Trump administration “is imposing tariffs on more than 80 countries for their failure to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor.”
The government of Brazil has rejected the Trump administration’s claim that it, and 84 other nations, failed to enforce a ban on forced labor, and called the new 12.5% US tariff on imports from Brazil “completely arbitrary and unjustified”.
Congresswoman Linda Sánchez , a California Democrat, denounced the pretext for the new tariffs as a sham. “President Trump isn’t serious about combating forced labor. He’s trying to make an end-run around the Supreme Court and Congress to reimpose his illegal tariffs,” Sánchez wrote on social media.
The Pentagon’s official online list of service members killed in the ongoing Iran war does not include the four soldiers who died during renewed fighting over the weekend, despite the fact that their names were included in a Pentagon press release on the formal transfer of their remains back to the United States on Wednesday.
The premier of Ontario, Doug Ford , said “it’s very hard to deal with President Trump when he changes his mind every single day. One day the prime minister is with him side by side, and next thing you know, President Trump turns on him like a rabid dog.”
2.57am BST
Mexican president chooses to not mention new tariffs in statement on meeting with US trade representative Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum , made no mention at all of the new US tariffs to be imposed on Mexican imports in a social media post about her meeting, on Thursday, with the US trade representative, Jamieson Greer , in Mexico City.
Instead, Sheinbaum posted photos of the meeting and described it as talks about “bilateral agreements for the benefit of both peoples” and a review of the free trade agreement between Mexico, the US and Canada, called the USMCA in the US, but known known in Mexico as T-MEC, shot for Tratado entre México, Estados Unidos y Canadá.
In his own statement, Greer also avoided the subject of the new tariffs he announced earlier in the day, describing the meeting as “the third bilateral negotiating round related to the Joint Review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.”
2.43am BST
Republican congressman attack Pentagon for 'absurd ruse' of lowering Iran war death toll Congressman Thomas Massie , a Kentucky Republican, suggested on Thursday that the reason the Pentagon death toll for the Iran war excludes the four soldiers killed in the past week is that the Trump administration claims that the war ended in June, when Donald Trump signed a temporary ceasefire with Iran over dinner at the palace of Versailles.
“Let me explain this absurd ruse: The Pentagon is pretending there have been two Iran wars separated by a brief cease-fire,” Massie wrote on social media. “The reality: By going more than 90 days without congressional authorization,” the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, “IS BREAKING THE LAW and must be held accountable.”
Earlier this month, Trump sent Congress a formal notification that hostilities against Iran had resumed on 7 July, a letter his administration framed as opening a new 60-day window for the use the military in Iran without congressional approval.
Updated at 2.50am BST
2.31am BST
We’ve just got a statement from Australia’s trade minister, Don Farrell , in response to the 12.5% tariffs to be levelled by the United States.
These tariffs are unjustified, inconsistent with our free trade agreement, and should be removed.
Australia’s measures to combat forced labour and modern slavery are among the strongest in the world, and we are recognised globally, including in the US, for our leadership.
1.29am BST
Ontario premier Doug Ford says 'it’s very hard to deal with President Trump when he changes his mind every single day' Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney , told reporters that “everything’s on the table” in response to new tariffs imposed on his country this week by Donald Trump.
Canada will do “whatever it takes to defend and support our families, our workers and our businesses,” he added.
The premier of Ontario, Doug Ford , was less diplomatic when asked if Canada has been “bringing a knife to a gun fight” so far” in responding to Trump’s trade war. “I wouldn’t say that,” Ford replied , “but it’s very hard to deal with President Trump when he changes his mind every single day. One day the prime minister is with him side by side, and next thing you know, President Trump turns on him like a rabid dog.”
Matthew Holmes , the Canadian Chamber of Commerce’s chief of public policy, said in a statement that it was suspicious that the US suddenly imposed tariffs on Canada for supposedly not doing enough on forced labor one day before a previous round of short-term tariffs is due to expire.
“Canada is a leader on this with a formal prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labour, more legislation coming to strengthen this regime, and businesses investing significantly in compliance, due diligence and supply chain transparency,” Holmes said. “Canada should not be targeted here.”
“If the intent is truly to address forced labour, the focus should be a coordinated approach through a multilateral mechanism. The timing of this is somewhat suspect as previous rounds of tariffs sunset,” he added.
Updated at 2.47am BST
1.10am BST
“Trump is hell-bent on raising your prices,” congressman Brendan Boyle , a Pennsylvania Democrat said in a statement on Donald Trump’s lastest tariffs on 85 countries. “His new tariffs are a nationwide sales tax that will only serve to make life harder for Americans just trying to make ends meet.”
12.53am BST
Pentagon casualty list does not include 4 soldiers killed last weekend The Pentagon’s official online list of service members killed in the ongoing Iran war does not include the four soldiers who died during renewed fighting over the weekend, despite the fact that their names were included in a Pentagon press release on the formal transfer of their remains back to the United States on Wednesday.
A review of the current list on the Pentagon’s Defense Casualty Analysis System website shows that, despite having been last updated on Wednesday, the number of US military personnel killed during Operation Epic Fury, the Pentagon’s name for the US-Israeli war on Iran Donald Trump launched on 28 February, remains at 14.
A separate “Names of the Fallen” list on the same Pentagon casualties site currently includes just 13 service members.
According to a New York Times report , the Pentagon website listed 18 American service members had been killed during the war on Iran on Wednesday, but was changed on Thursday to exclude three service members killed last Friday, Saturday and Sunday as Iran retaliated for new US strikes with an attack on a base used by US forces in Jordan. The list also excluded was a fourth soldier who was killed during a controlled detonation of an Iranian drone at Erbil air base in Iraq.
By Thursday, the Defense Department had lowered that number, reporting that 14 American troops had been killed in the war.
Three military officials told the Times “that one reason behind the change was that the Trump administration decided to remove four service members killed this past weekend from the list … because their deaths occurred after President Trump declared a cease-fire in the war in April.”
A Pentagon spokesman disputed that contention, telling the Times that the decreased total of war dead was die to “temporary data disruptions” that would be quickly fixed.
The reported removal of the recent war dead from the Pentagon list comes one day after Trump traveled to Dover air force base in Delaware to salute the remains of the four soldiers killed in the past week and as he continues to demand credit for the number of dead being so much lower than in years-long conflicts like the US wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.
On Wednesday, Trump posted a chart on his social media platform comparing the death toll of 18 in his Iran war with those previous wars, which misstated the number killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, with the caption: “These are the real facts. REPORT THEM!”
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, on his way to what the Pentagon calls the “dignified transfer” of the killed service members’ remains, Trump claimed that the dead soldiers had supported his claim that the war on Iran is necessary to prevent that nation from developing a nuclear weapons – an effort US intelligence assessed Iran abandoned in 2003.
“We’re going to Dover,” Trump said, “to honor our heroes and they’re indeed great heroes. All of them said, very strongly, that we can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon”.
At an event on Thursday, Trump again argued that the death toll from his war on Iran was low compared to that of Vietnam, the war he did not serve in as a young man.
“You know, we were in Vietnam for 20 years, lost thousands and hundreds of thousands of lives,” Trump said , inflating the actual death toll of US troops, 58,220.
“We were in Afghanistan for years. We were in all these wars that you heard about for years and years,” Trump added. “Well, we’re in for four months and we- I had a very sad day yesterday; I went to Dover, four great American patriots killed. That’s 18 … and one is too many, but it’s 18. Whereas in Vietnam, we lost 200,000.”
Updated at 2.49am BST
12.02am BST
Donald Trump has suggested in a social-media post that damage caused to shipping by Iranian attacks could be paid for using Tehran’s assets frozen overseas.
Please let this statement serve to represent, until further notice, that from this point forth, any and all damages done to Ships, Cargo, or anything related thereto, will be paid for by Iranian Money that the United States has in its possession, and controls.
It’s unclear whether the US would be able to use frozen assets in such a way; any move would probably be challenged.
Europe has faced an array of issues in its attempts to use Russian frozen assets to fund Ukraine.
11.42pm BST
House Democrat calls Trump's new tariffs 'an end-run around the Supreme Court and Congress', not an attempt to end forced labor As soon as the Trump administration announced its new tariffs on 85 countries, for supposedly failing to crack down on forced labor, the office of the US trade representative, Jamieson Greer , turned its official, government social media account into a political battering ram: posting past statements against forced labor from 15 senators and members of Congress of both parties, in a transparent attempt to head off their criticism of the new tariffs.
One of those lawmakers, congresswoman Linda Sánchez , a California Democrat, denounced the pretext for the new tariffs as a sham anyway.
“President Trump isn’t serious about combating forced labor. He’s trying to make an end-run around the Supreme Court and Congress to reimpose his illegal tariffs,” Sánchez wrote on social media.
She continued:
If he was serious, he would not be applying the same tariff rate to China, one of the worst forced labor abusers in the world, as he does to countries like Australia. Then again, unlike China, Australia, doesn’t manufacture any Trump corporation products.
This is the same administration that gutted funding to combat forced labor through cuts to the Bureau of International Labor Affairs and rolled back worker protections here at home, while encouraging companies to profit off some of the world’s worst forced labor abusers through his proposed US-China Board of Trade.
We need to take forced labor seriously. But that includes addressing our problems here at home, including by taking on the export of goods made with American prison labor. Slapping more tariffs on every country that upsets the president isn’t the way to do it.
Updated at 11.51pm BST
11.16pm BST
Brazil announces plans to impose retaliatory tariffs on US in response to 'arbitrary and unjustified' claims about forced labor The government of Brazil has rejected the Trump administration’s claim that it, and 84 other nations, failed to enforce a ban on forced labor, and called the new 12.5% US tariff on imports from Brazil “completely arbitrary and unjustified”.
In a statement provided to Brazilian news outlets, including O Globo , president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s government said that it would immediately trigger a process of imposing retaliatory tariffs on US goods.
“Lacking a domestic legal basis to support its protectionist trade policy,” the Brazilian government said, the Trump administration “chose to manipulate an issue central to human rights and the struggle of workers worldwide in order to accuse 59 countries and the European Union of unfair practices”.
Brazil also noted that it had cooperated with the investigation by the US trade representative’s office, and provided “extensive” documentation of Brazilian legislation and actions taken by customs authorities to curb imports of goods produced using forced labor.
“The United States bans certain imports from China produced by forced labor. In effect, the Trump administration wants to globalize this ban,” Monica de Bolle, a Brazilian economist and senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, wrote on Friday. “Brazil is one of the US targets, posing a problem since China is one of its biggest trading partners. But one thing is clear. This dispute is not about forced labor. None of the remedies being sought would do anything to address any forced labor conditions anywhere. No, this action is about the Trump team’s effort to use any legal stratagem to wage its trade war and to single out Brazil for punishment.”
“Virtually every US ally – including the European Union, Canada, and Mexico – received materially identical USTR findings on the same day. Using slave labor as a bogus justification for a trade war becomes obvious when you realize that the tariff is being threatened against some 60 economies simultaneously,” she added.
Updated at 11.49pm BST
10.31pm BST
US releases list of 85 countries subject to new tariffs As nations are scrambling to find out if they are subject to the new tariffs imposed on Thursday by the Trump administration, for supposedly failing to crack down on forced labor, the US trade representative’s office has provided a list of nations or economic blocs supposedly guilty of a “Failure to Impose and Effectively Enforce a Prohibition on the Importation of Goods Produced with Forced Labor”.
According to a draft version of the Federal Register Notice:
On June 2, 2026, the Trade Representative determined that, in each of the 60 investigations, certain of the acts, polices, and practices of the economy at issue are actionable under sections 301(b) and 304(a) of the Trade Act. The Trade Representative also issued a comprehensive report, Acts, Policies, and Practices of Various Economies Related to the Failure to Impose and Effectively Enforce a Prohibition on the Importation of Goods Produced with Forced Labor (Report).
Specifically, the Trade Representative determined that:
• The following 54 economies have failed to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor: Algeria; Angola; Argentina; Australia; the Bahamas; Bahrain; Bangladesh; Brazil; Cambodia; Chile; China, People’s Republic of; Colombia; Costa Rica; Dominican Republic; Egypt; El Salvador; Guatemala; Guyana; Honduras; Hong Kong, China; India; Iraq; Israel; Japan; Jordan; Kazakhstan; Kuwait; Libya; Malaysia; Morocco; New Zealand; Nicaragua; Nigeria; Norway; Oman; Peru; the Philippines; Qatar; Russia; Saudi Arabia; Singapore; South Africa; South Korea; Sri Lanka; Switzerland; Taiwan; Thailand; Trinidad and Tobago; Türkiye; United Arab Emirates; United Kingdom; Uruguay; Venezuela; and Vietnam.
• The following six economies have failed to effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor: Canada, Ecuador, the European Union, Indonesia, Mexico, and Pakistan.
The list treats China and Hong Kong, which is part of China, as separate economies, and describes the 27-nation bloc of the European Union as one economy. So a total of 85 nations are subject to the new US tariffs which go into effect on Friday.
Updated at 11.45pm BST
10.17pm BST
Trump administration announces new tariffs on more than 80 countries Jamieson Greer , the US trade representative, just announced that the Trump administration “is imposing tariffs on more than 80 countries for their failure to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor.”
Citing legal authority from Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, Greer said that the new tariffs come after investigations by his office.
The new tariffs, at Donald Trump ’s direction, are the president’s latest effort to restore a regime of near-global import taxes after after the US supreme court struck down his “Liberation Day” tariffs of 10% to 50% imposed last year under a national emergencies law the court said did not apply.
Trump initially responded to that ruling by imposing a temporary 10% tariff for 150 days which expires on Friday.
In a statement, Greer called the new tariffs a response to human rights abuses, one day after the Trump administration struck a nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia, which has been described by rights groups as one of the worst human rights offenders in the world.
The kingdom, Human Rights Watch reported , has invested in “high-profile sports and entertainment events domestically and internationally” in order to “whitewash the country’s abysmal human rights record. “Migrant workers, including on projects and companies linked to the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, “face widespread abuses across employment sectors”.
“President Trump recognizes that decades of moral suasion have not eradicated forced labor from global supply chains. The United States has had a forced labor import ban for nearly a century, and rigorously enforces it; it’s well past time for our trading partners to do the same,” Greer said in his statement on the new tariffs. “Today’s action will begin to correct what is both a human rights abuse and distortive trade practice to improve the welfare of workers everywhere.”
Updated at 10.30pm BST
10.09pm BST
At Dodgers event, Trump praises late Yankees owner George Steinbrenner In his prepared remarks at the Rose Garden event to honor the Los Angeles Dodgers for winning back-to-back World Series championships , Donald Trump ran through the highlights of the Dodgers’ championship-winning games and then veered off script to praise the real heroes: the team’s owners.
Having done so, Trump then praised the late George Steinbrenner , who bought the New York Yankees in 1973.
“If they manage to repeat this year, they would become the first team to win three in a row since the days of the legendary baseball dynasty, the 1990s New York Yankees. And I was there for a lot of those games with George Steinbrenner. He was a friend of mine, and he was the guy he liked winning. He would do anything to win.”
Trump did not mention that the year after Steinbrenner bought the Yankees, he pled guilty to violating federal campaign finance law in a scheme to make illegal contributions to Richard Nixon ’s re-election campaign, and instructing his employees to lie to the FBI and a grand jury in a failed attempt to hide his crime.
In 1989, Ronald Reagan pardoned Steinbrenner for his crimes.
Updated at 10.38pm BST
9.52pm BST
Trump begins Dodgers event by boasting about his changes to White House and gratuitous jab at Biden Donald Trump has taken the stage and started speaking at an event to honor the Los Angeles Dodgers. Before mentioning the team, the president boasts about what he calls his improvements to the White House, including paving over the Rose Garden lawn and adding letters to the outside of the building, reading “The Rose Garden,” and creating what he calls the “Presidential Walk of Fame”, which features insults to his predecessors, Barack Obama and Joe Biden apparently penned by Trump himself.
“You see the right up there,” Trump said pointing the words “The Rose Garden” in brass letters on the wall of the West Colonnade of the White House
“I had them put that up, looks very nice,” Trump said. “Do you think Biden would do that? I don’t think so. I don’t think Biden would do it.”
“And we created the Presidential Walk of Fame,” he went on. “That wall for 150 years had absolutely nothing on it. And it always used to amaze me. I said, ‘What are we going to put on that wall now?’”
“We did from Washington to Trump and people love it,” Trump said. “And they read, they study the plaques. And generally speaking, I was very nice to the people up there. A couple of them probably not as nice as I could have been .”
9.33pm BST
Los Angeles Dodgers visit paved-over White House Rose Garden The Los Angeles Dodgers, or most of them, have arrived at the White House to celebrate their World Series victory with Donald Trump. The players are arrayed on stage behind a podium, waiting for Trump.
As the LA Times columnist Gustavo Arellano notes , the only two players who announced they’re skipping the visit to the Trump White House are Mookie Betts and Kiké Hernández.
“The latter, a native of Puerto Rico, endeared himself to the Dodger faithful last year during the height of the immigration raids with an Instagram post that read , ‘I cannot tolerate watching our community continue to be violated, attacked, abused and separated. ALL people deserve to be treated with respect, dignity and their human rights,’” Arellano writes.
This year, Hernández told the LA Times he’s not going so he can focus on a rehabilitation stint. “I’d rather take a day off than do team activities,” he told the paper.
“Nice way to rhetorically strike out, Kiké,” Arellano commented.
The Rose Garden lawn was paved over by Trump to make a patio more closely resembling that at his Florida beach club, Mar-a-Lago.
Updated at 9.37pm BST
9.14pm BST
A Secret Service agent assigned to JD Vance’s protective detail is “the subject of an administrative investigation, and potential criminal inquiry, involving allegations of compromising operational and information security”, according to the Secret Service chief of communications.
The agent came under suspicion after allegedly providing information that appeared in an MS Now report about the vice-president’s planned Marine Corps helicopter trip with his son to a golf lesson, a source told CNN .
The report also claimed there was a “building morale problem” among the agents assigned to protect Vance and his family. The trip was ultimately called off due to severe thunderstorms.
The source said the publication of those travel plans triggered unease among the Secret Service, the FBI and White House officials, who “fumed over operational details being described in the press”. A second source told CNN that investigators identified the individual they believe was responsible for leaking the information.
The Secret Service confirmed the investigation in a statement shared with the Guardian, but did not specify what information the agent is accused of disclosing.
Related: Secret Service agent on Vance’s detail under investigation
9.00pm BST
Here's a recap of the day so far On Capitol Hill, lawmakers in the House passed a war powers resolution for the second time to curb the Trump administration’s military action in Iran , ahead of the lower chamber’s August reccess. Four Republicans, Brian Fitzpatrick, Warren Davidson, Tom Barrett and Thomas Massie, voted yes, alongside all Democrats. A reminder that both chambers passed war powers resolutions in June, which the White House has ignored.
Meanwhile, the Senate voted down its own war powers resolution by a vote of 49-47. Democrat John Fetterman joined Republicans to vote against the resolution, while GOP senator Susan Collins joined Democrats to vote in favor of it.
Karoline Leavitt said today that the US-Saudi Arabia nuclear deal is “contingent” on the kingdom on joining the Abraham Accords – a recent demand that Donald Trump announced earlier today . When pressed on why the administration didn’t announce that condition when the deal was announced on Wednesday, Leavitt said that it is “something that he has mentioned on numerous occasions going back”.
The Trump administration will also unveil the latest stage of his aggressive trade policy on Thursday, the White House has said, amid reports the US president is preparing a fresh wave of sweeping tariffs. Asked about Trump’s plan on Thursday, Leavitt said Jamieson Greer, the US trade representative, would announce next steps “later today”. This comes as the 10% global duty the president implemented in February (after the supreme court ruled many of Trump’s initial tariffs were illegal) is due to expire on Friday.
The justice department has withdrawn its subpoeanas to three New York Times journalists for their reporting on the security concerns about Trump’s new Qatari-donated jet – valued at almost $400m. Government lawyers sought to compel the Times reporters to reveal confidential sources who revealed that the new plane, which the Trump administration had retrofitted, lacked some of the advanced security features of the older Air Force One aircraft, including antimissile capabilities.
8.32pm BST
US prosecutors to withdraw subpoeanas against New York Times journalists over story revealing Qatari jet security concerns The justice department has now withdrawn its subpoeanas to three New York Times journalists for their reporting on the security concerns about Donald Trump’s new Qatari-donated jet – valued at almost $400m.
Government lawyers sought to compel the Times reporters to reveal confidential sources who revealed that the new plane, which the Trump administration had retrofitted, lacked some of the advanced security features of the older Air Force One aircraft, including antimissile capabilities. Today, a federal judge slammed the DoJ’s attempts to get the journalists to identify their contacts.
More to come …
Updated at 9.01pm BST
7.58pm BST
Donald Trump is now speaking at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) about the ratepayer protection pledge, which would ensure big tech companies absorb the cost of new electricity generation to power their energy-guzzling datacenters.
Alongside a handful of Republican governors, executives from utilities and tech companies are sitting alongside the president today.
7.17pm BST
Democrats have accused the US House of Representatives judiciary committee of a “baseless” and “vindictive” attack on former special prosecutor Jack Smith after it referred him for criminal prosecution for allegedly lying to Congress over his investigation into Donald Trump ’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
The committee chair, Jim Jordan , an Ohio Republican, wrote to the acting US attorney general, Todd Blanche, on Wednesday night, asserting Smith “made willfully and intentionally false statements of material fact” during testimony about obtaining phone records of a number of Republican lawmakers.
Smith, Jordan claimed in the letter, falsely told the panel that his team had no access to privileged text messages when he testified in December that they had only “toll records” containing numbers, not content.
US justice department documents presented to the panel on 14 July, Jordan said, showed that Smith’s investigators actually had access to the text messages of 44 members of Congress.
“Based on this new information, there is cause for investigation to determine whether Mr Smith knowingly made false statements to obstruct the Committee’s oversight,” Jordan wrote.
Smith’s lawyers Lanny Breuer and Peter Koski, in their own letter to Blanche , said their client “provided truthful, responsive answers” during closed-doors questioning by the panel in December , and again during an open session in January.
“This referral reflects a chilling eagerness to weaponize the justice system by attacking a career, nonpartisan public servant who faithfully and fearlessly performed his duties by following the facts and the law,” they wrote.
Related: Republican-controlled committee refers former Trump prosecutor Jack Smith for criminal investigation
6.59pm BST
Earlier, I reported that the Senate health, education, labor and pensions (Help) committee were planning to vote on the nominations of Erica Schwartz to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Keith Sonderling to lead the labor department.
However, those votes have now been postponed due to concerns about attendance. They’ve been rescheduled for next week.
6.37pm BST
Man who killed Minnesota state lawmaker and husband receives two life sentences Vance Boelter , the man who pleaded guilty to murdering Melissa Hortman , a Democratic Minnesota lawmaker, and her husband was sentenced to two consecutive life terms plus 40 years in prison today .
Boelter, 59, pleaded guilty to shooting Hortman, the former Minnesota House speaker, and her husband, Mark, at in June 2025.
During the federal court proceedings last month, Boelter – a registered Republican –said that he spent months identifying and stalking his targets, before driving to their homes in the middle of the night, disguised as a police officer, with the intention of killing them. By pleading guilty and agreeing to the maximum sentence, Boelter avoided the death penalty.
He also pleaded guilty to shooting Democratic state senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette.
6.15pm BST
Earlier today, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt noted that Trump’s “patience is running out” with Senate majority leader John Thune . Asked about where the president stands at Thursday’s briefing, Leacitt added that the president wants to see “as much of the Save America [act] passed as possible by the August recess”.
This comes after much of the House passed defense spending legislation this week, which includes funding for parts of the sweeping voter-ID bill. The lower chamber also passed a budget resolution that paves the way for the creation of a reconciliation bill, which would also to attempt to pass the Save America Act into law. However, as my colleague Chris Stein notes, this will probably be stripped out by the Senate if it were to advance in the upper chamber.
Thune, however, fired back at the press secretary’s comments today, and told reporters: “She [Leavitt] or somebody else ought to get on the phone and get the votes, right?”
5.58pm BST
Senate votes down war powers resolution on Iran The Senate has voted down a war powers resolution on the war against Iran, with 49 senators voting against it and 47 voting in favor .
The resolution, which needed a simple majority to pass, would direct the removal of US Armed Forces from hostilities within or against Iran that have not been authorized by Congress.
Democrat John Fetterman joined Republicans to vote against the resolution, while GOP senator Susan Collins joined Democrats to vote in favor of it.
Republicans Katie Britt, Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski and Rand Paul missed the vote.
Updated at 9.03pm BST
5.53pm BST
Trump won't block Tate brothers' extradition, says White House Donald Trump will not stop the extradition of influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan to the UK on sex crime charges, the White House said on Thursday.
Self-professed misogynist Tate and his younger sibling were detained by US authorities in Miami on Saturday in a move their lawyer called “politically motivated”.
The Tates are challenging their extradition.
“No,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told a news briefing when asked if Trump or the administration planned to intervene in the Tates’ extradition process.
Secretary of state Marco Rubio has also distanced the administration from the case.
“There’s no role for us to play at this moment or maybe ever in that regard,” he told reporters in the Philippines on Wednesday.
The Tate brothers are avid supporters of Trump and were part of the hyper-masculine “manosphere” that contributed to the Republican’s 2024 US presidential election victory.
Andrew Tate also tried to cultivate relationships in the past with Trump’s sons Don Jr and Barron, US media reported.
The Tates were arrested after British prosecutors announced new charges of rape, sex trafficking and assault. They now face 59 charges in total – 42 against Andrew and 17 against Tristan.
Their lawyer said on Monday that they were innocent and would fight extradition.
“It’s politically motivated. There’s no question about it,” lawyer Joseph McBride told reporters outside a Miami court after a hearing on the case.
In Romania, where they have been based in recent years, the Tates face allegations of trafficking minors, sexual intercourse with a minor and money laundering.
In March 2025, the US state of Florida launched a criminal investigation against the brothers. The status of that investigation is unclear.
5.31pm BST
Trump considering 'massive attack' on Iran - report The president also gave an interview to Axios on Thursday in which he said he was “considering a massive attack” on Iran .
“ I am considering a massive attack. Bigger than ever before. I am close to making a decision. We are all set for it ,” Donald Trump said.
Trump added that Israel “would join in two minutes if I ask them to,” but added that “we don’t need anybody” to launch a new operation against Iran.
“ They haven’t received enough pain yet ,” he said of Iran .
Related: Trump considering ‘massive attack’ on Iran, says report – Middle East crisis live
Updated at 5.32pm BST
5.25pm BST
As we’ve been reporting, Donald Trump has said that the US-Saudi nuclear deal is subject to the kingdom joining the Abraham Accords, which normalises ties with Israel .
Leavitt was asked at the briefing whether Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had requested this provision.
She replied: “Not to my knowledge, no. Again, as I told you, this was an idea the president has long had. It was the president and his team in the first term that began and signed the Abraham Accords with several countries in the region between those countries and Israel, and the president obviously wants to expand on that historic accomplishment from his first term.”
Updated at 5.30pm BST
5.08pm BST
Leavitt says that tariff announcement is coming 'later today' On Friday, the 10% global tariff the president implemented under Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act will expire. In order to keep these in place beyond the 150-day statutory limit Donald Trump would need Congress to approve an extension.
When asked about the president’s thinking, Leavitt said that Jamieson Greer – the US trade representative – will be announcing next steps “later today”.
“I don’t want to get ahead of him, so I would just tell you to stay tuned for more details,” the press secretary added.
4.59pm BST
When pressed about the Saudi government’s stance that any relationship with Israel would require recognition of Palestinian statehood, Leavitt said that she “didn’t want to get ahead of the president’s conversations”.
She added that the kingdom’s participation in the Abraham Accords “is something that [Trump] feels very strongly about and has spoken about it in the past and will continue to uphold”.
Updated at 5.02pm BST
4.52pm BST
Leavitt added that Trump has not had a call with Mohammed bin Salman , the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, since he issued his statement on Truth Social that the newly inked nuclear deal is “totally subject” to the kingdom joining the Abraham Accords.
“This is something that [Trump] has raised in previous conversations and has also said many times in the past,” the press secretary said.
Updated at 4.56pm BST
4.46pm BST
Leavitt underscores that Saudi Arabia nuclear deal is 'contingent' on joining Abraham accords The press secretary said today that the US-Saudi Arabia nuclear deal is “contingent” on the kingdom on joining the Abraham Accords – a recent demand that Donald Trump announced earlier today .
When pressed why the administration didn’t announce that condition when the deal was announced on Wednesday, Leavitt said that it is “something that he has mentioned on numerous occasions going back”.
She reiterated that if Saudi Arabia doesn’t join the accords “the deal is off”.
Updated at 9.01pm BST
4.37pm BST
In response to the House passing a continuing resolution to keep the government funded until 4 December, Leavitt noted that the White House will continue to have discussions with Senate leadership on “the best path forward” to ensure the legislation is passed in the upper chamber.
“I don’t want to get ahead of those conversations, but the most important thing for the American people to know is that this president and this White House wants the government to remain open,” Leavitt said, while continuing to blame Democrats for the government shutdowns over the past 10 months.
4.29pm BST
Karoline Leavitt has started her press briefing at the White House. We’ll bring you the latest lines.
4.20pm BST
$1.15tn defense policy bill will face pushback in Senate After the House passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), it now heads to the Senate, where it will need to overcome the 60-vote threshold in order to pass.
Last week, Senate Democrats blocked a version of the bill from coming up for a vote in response to the ongoing war in Iran.
Since the House version of the NDAA includes Donald Trump’s prized voter ID legislation – it will face an uphill battle to convince any Senate Democrats to advance the legislation as it stands. Chuck Schumer , the minority leader, has called the Save America act – which also enforces a ban on mail-in ballots and requires proof of citizenship in order to register to vote – “dead on arrival” in the upper chamber.
3.59pm BST
As I noted earlier, the Senate will also hold its own war powers resolution vote today . This will be a similar, but separate measure.
While these resolutions aren’t seen as enforceable, they’re symbolic rebukes from Congress to show the lack of support for the war in Iran.
3.26pm BST
House passes war powers resolution By a vote of 214-208 lawmakers in the House passed a war powers resolution to curb the Trump administration’s military action in Iran, ahead of the lower chamber’s August reccess.
Four Republicans, Brian Fitzpatrick, Warren Davidson, Tom Barrett and Thomas Massie , voted yes, alongside all Democrats.
This is first vote on a resolution since the fragile ceasefire between Washington and Iran collapsed earlier this month.
A reminder that both chambers passed war powers resolutions in June , with little acknowledgment from the White House. This week, Pete Hegseth said that Donald Trump had complete authority to continue the conflict with Iran, while he asked Congress for supplemental funding for the war.
“Let me be clear: This body has already spoken. The War Powers Resolution passed with bipartisan support in the House and the Senate. The Trump administration was required to end its hostilities against Iran. It has not,” said Representative Gregory Meeks , the top Democrat on the House armed services committee, ahead of the latest measure passing.
Meanwhile, the Senate is also preparing to hold a vote on its own war powers resolution today.
Updated at 5.58pm BST
2.44pm BST
Global oil prices have risen to more than $100 per barrel for the first time since May as violence escalates in the Middle East.
Brent crude, the global benchmark, increased by more than 6% after Iran’s Houthi allies attacked shipping in the Red Sea.
Donald Trump said he would exact “major military punishment” against the Yemen-based group as well as Iran, which he said bears responsibility for the Red Sea attack.
Related: US-Saudi nuclear deal relies on it recognising Israel, says Trump – Middle East crisis live
2.35pm BST
In a short while the Senate health, education, labor and pensions committee will also vote on Erica Schwartz to be new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The chaos-ridden agency hasn’t had a dedicated leader since its last director, Susan Monarez , was pushed out by health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr in August last year.
The committee will also vote on Keith Sonderling to be the new labor secretary, after Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned amid a series of misconduct allegations – including having an affair with a subordinate and drinking on the job.
Provided the committee confirms their nominations, consideration for Schwartz and Sonderling will then head to the wider Senate for a full vote.
Updated at 6.55pm BST
2.14pm BST
We’ll also hear from White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt , when she will hold a briefing for reporters at 11am ET.
We’ll bring you the latest lines as that gets under way.
2.07pm BST
Donald Trump is in Washington today. He’ll be at the Environmental Protection Agency at 2:30pm ET to talk about the ratepayer protection pledge – an agreement signed a pledge by major tech companies that says they will bear the cost of the electricity generation required to power their datacenters. Experts, however, have called the pledge “toothless” and question how it will be enforced.
Later, the president will welcome the Los Angeles Dodgers , the World Series baseball champions, to the White House at 4:30pm ET .
1.33pm BST
Donald Trump says US will 'hold Iran responsible' for attacks by Houthis Trump also said the US will “hold Iran responsible” for any actions the Houthis take against shipping.
He said the Houthis had acted “very professionally and smart” until they attacked Saudi Arabian ships in the Red Sea last night .
In a post on Truth Social, he said:
A year ago the United States of America attacked, very powerfully, the Houthis, for their interference with commerce and trade, by shooting at ships. Since that time, and during our conflict with Iran, they have acted very responsibly. Unfortunately, now they are starting up again, shooting at two Saudi Arabian ships last night. Please let this TRUTH serve to represent that if they do this again, the U.S. will hold Iran responsible , in that the Houthis are a Surrogate and/or Proxy of Iran, and major military punishment will be inflicted upon Iran and, of course, the Houthis, themselves, who I am very disappointed with in that they have, until now, acted very professionally and smart.
My colleague Taz Ali has more on our Middle East liveblog here:
Related: Yemen’s Houthis claim attacks on Red Sea tankers as US launches 12th night of strikes on Iran – Middle East crisis live
1.15pm BST
Donald Trump says nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia is 'totally subject' to country joining the Abraham accords Donald Trump has posted on Truth Social that the landmark nuclear deal the US signed with Saudi Arabia yesterday is “totally subject” to Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham accords.
The president wrote: “The Civil Nuclear Deal (There will be no enrichment of material!) being made between the United States Department of Energy and Saudi Arabia, which pertains only to non-military use such as the ones that Iran and UAE (and others) already have, will be approved, but is totally subject to Saudi Arabia joining the very respected and successful Abraham Accords. The United States is not opposed to Civil (Non-Enriched) Nuclear Facilities.”
12.56pm BST
In addition to passing the National Defense Authorization Act – a key plank of the president’s plan to spend $1.5tn on the military in the 2027 fiscal year – House Republicans on Wednesday agreed to begin the process of writing a $95bn bill to fund the war with Iran .
The passage of this budget resolution paves the way for the creation of a reconciliation bill , which can advance through the Senate under special rules that circumvent the Democratic filibuster and requires only a simple majority to pass.
Like the NDAA, the budget resolution will also likely be used by the House administration committee to pass the Save America Act into law, which will ban mail-in ballots nationwide and impose enhanced strict identification requirements on voters when they cast ballots and register.
The Guardian’s Chris Stein has more here:
Related: House Republicans to write $95bn bill to fund Iran war and aid farmers
12.28pm BST
The House passed the National Defense Authorization Act in a 216-212 vote, with all but six Democrats opposing its passage and seven Republicans breaking ranks to oppose the measure.
These are the Democrats that voted for NDAA :
Henry Cuellar of Texas
Donald Davis of North Carolina
Jared Golden of Maine
Vicente Gonzalez of Texas
Adam Gray of California
Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington
These are the Republicans that voted against it:
Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma. “While I support providing for a robust national defense, I could not in good conscience vote for this legislation as it authorizes a $263.4bn (29.6%) increase over the authorized level for the previous fiscal year,” Brecheen posted on X .
Tim Burchett of Tennessee
Elijah Crane of Arizona
Harriet Hageman of Wyoming
Anna Paulina Luna of Florida
Thomas Massie of Kentucky
Chip Roy of Texas
The bill now goes to the Senate .
12.08pm BST
Outcry over the $1.15tn defense policy bill passed in the House Hello and welcome to our live coverage of US politics.
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) typically passes in Congress each year with bipartisan margins. But the $1.15tn defense policy bill passed in a near-party-line vote in the House of Representatives on Wednesday has lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in an uproar.
That’s because the NDAA’s path to enactment this year has been complicated by the president’s decision to join Israel in attacking Iran without first seeking authorization from Congress – a war that has already cost $37.5bn , according to defense secretary Pete Hegseth . Last week, Senate Democrats blocked the advancement of that chamber’s version of the NDAA in protest of the war.
“While millions of Americans are struggling to afford basic necessities, Congress is choosing to authorize over $1tn for the Pentagon, once again funneling billions of taxpayer dollars to defense contractors instead of investing in the needs of working people,” Ilhan Omar , a Democratic representative from Minnesota, posted on X.
She continued : “The American people are sick and tired of funding atrocities abroad and want this war with Iran to end. Yet year after year, the Pentagon fails its audit with virtually no accountability, while Congress continues to increase military spending.”
Further complicating matters, Mike Johnson , the Republican House speaker, acceded to the demands of rightwing lawmakers and inserted into the legislation the Save America Act , a Trump-backed proposal to ban mail-in ballots and impose new identification restrictions on voters at the polls and when they register. “This budget resolution is our best shot at enacting as much of the Save America Act into law as possible,” Johnson - posted on X .
“This means the NDAA is now tied to Trump’s attempt to steal elections by making it more difficult for millions of Americans to vote,” Jerry Nadler , a Democratic representative from New York, posted on X . “The NDAA is a costly, bad bill that funds an illegal war and undermines our democracy.”
Section 219 of the NDAA – which establishes the US-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative – also had Republican representatives protesting the bill’s passage. “Section 219 is a betrayal of our sovereignty,” Kentucky conservative Thomas Massie said on X . Far-right firebrand Lauren Boebert also said she sat out on the NDAA vote because of Section 219 .
More to come.