Canada is striking back at the United States with retaliatory tariffs on about $20 billion worth of American goods, including steel, dairy products, appliances and farm equipment, as the trade war between the once-friendly neighbors escalates.
Sen. Darline Graham won the Republican nomination to replace her late brother, Lindsey Graham, on South Carolina’s general election ballot, notching another win for President Donald Trump after he threw his support behind the political novice. And Justice Department lawyers told a court that if Trump’s name does not appear somewhere on the Kennedy Center, then the cultural center may be “required to be taken down.”
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Trump says he’ll do something about the US beef processing ‘monopoly’
The president and Glenn Beck, a rancher as well as a conservative pundit, were having a freewheeling discussion on beef processing when Beck complained that a handful of companies control the U.S. industry and inflate prices.
“Is that just a question of regulation, do you think?” the president asked. He also asked Beck which agency is “controlling those regulations — the Department of Agriculture?”
Trump, who has been under intense pressure to reduce beef prices and recently angered U.S. suppliers by relaxing tariffs on beef imports, called the industry a “monopoly” as Beck claimed inspection standards prevent more processors from entering the market.
“I’m surprised the ranchers and the farmers haven’t done it, because they’re smart as hell,” Trump said. “That’s been going on a long time … before I got here.”
“This is a very big thing you just told, because you just gave me a very good idea,” Trump said, without elaborating.
Trump describes CIA director’s visit to Moscow as routine
The president said on Glenn Beck’s radio show that John Ratcliffe’s unannounced trip to Russia was “sort of semi-routine.”
Trump repeated that he wants to see the Russia-Ukraine war to end, and he indicated that he’s followed the rampant speculation about who Ratcliffe has been meeting with and why. But the president downplayed the significance of Ratcliffe going to Moscow.
“I hate to disappoint people,” he said.
Meta reaches $17 billion settlement with states over teen social media addiction
Meta has agreed to pay $17 billion and add child-safety measures to its Facebook and Instagram platforms to end a landmark trial over teen social media addiction and settle claims filed by 47 states, their attorneys general announced Wednesday.
California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey were among 29 states that sued the tech giant in 2023. This deal cuts short a federal trial that was expected to put CEO Mark Zuckerberg take the stand before a jury.
The agreement is worth $353 million in Virginia alone, but the total is just a fraction of the company’s 2025 revenue of $201 billion.
Trump continues to needle Canada in trade war
The president kept up his complaints about Canada, which is now embroiled in a full-scale trade war with the U.S.
Speaking on Glenn Beck’s radio show on Wednesday, Trump repeated his claim that Canada was one of the worst countries to deal with and that it had taken advantage of the U.S. when it comes to trade and tariffs. “I just said, we’re taking them on,” Trump said.
Trump orders flags lowered to honor Dolly Parton
“She was a nice person,” Trump said Wednesday during a live radio interview with conservative personality Glenn Beck.
Trump also said Parton, who died Tuesday of cancer at age 80, was ‘amazing’ and not “a very political person.”
He said his decision to order U.S. flags on federal property to fly at half-staff for a week in Parton’s honor was a “natural thing” to do.
How data center controversies have transformed the midterm elections
The snowballing opposition to data centers across the United States has transformed the midterm election landscape and has Trump defending the world’s richest companies.
Few people had even heard of a data center before the late 2022 debut of OpenAI’s ChatGPT ignited worldwide demand for chatbots and other generative AI products that typically require large amounts of computing power. Now Oracle, Meta, Google, Amazon and Microsoft expect to plunge more than $700 billion into data centers in the U.S. this year alone.
Trump continues to stick up for data centers, even as politicians from both parties run from them and many communities try to block them. His administration is pushing to help tech giants build and connect data centers to power plants and high-voltage power lines.
Trump champions data centers, but some Republicans are wary
Republicans as well as Democrats are turning data centers into a punching bag.
The president says AI development is key to competing against China, and Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said a federal pause on data center construction might be a “dangerous prospect.” But most registered voters oppose building a data center in their area, according to a July Fox News poll, including 60% of Republicans and 53% of MAGA voters.
Many Democratic leaders and candidates have withdrawn support for data centers. Now even Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has announced a halt on approval of new data centers until audits determine their impact on the state’s electrical grid.
Trump says tech companies “can use a little public relations help,” but he says data centers bring “jobs and lots of money and lower taxes.”
Key inflation gauge remains elevated during Iran war and ongoing US trade fights
An inflation measure closely watched by the Federal Reserve was unchanged last month, in the latest sign that many Americans are still struggling with higher costs.
The Commerce Department’s Wednesday report showed that prices rose 3.7% in July compared with a year earlier. Inflation has worsened since the Iran war began in late February, when it stood at 2.9%. It remains noticeably above the Fed’s target of 2%.
Stubbornly high prices are shaping up to be a key issue in the midterm elections, particularly as the Iran war keeps gas prices high, Trump is threatening new tariffs on Canada and China, and spending on AI infrastructure has pushed up the cost of computers, gaming consoles, and semiconductors.
Analysts predict an eventual US-Canada trade war compromise
The U.S. and Canada have ramped up their trade war with steep new tit-for-tat tariffs, but analysts are betting the longtime allies will eventually strike a deal to end a conflict neither side really wants. “If there is political will, there is an off ramp,’’ said former U.S. trade negotiator Wendy Cutler.
The prospects for compromise appear bleak right now with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney reacting to Trump’s new 50% U.S. tariffs on certain Canadian goods by taxing about $20 billion in American products including steel, dairy products, appliances and farm equipment.
“You’re at war when you get attacked. We got attacked,’′ Carney, who came to power last year on the promise that he’d stand up to Trump.
Three Secret Service officials have been placed on administrative leave pending investigation
Three U.S. Secret Service officials were placed on administrative leave Tuesday, pending the outcome of an investigation by the agency’s professional standards office.
The three were operating in non-law-enforcement capacities and were being investigated for potential misconduct, the agency’s public information office reported. However, the cause for the action remained unclear as the Office of Professional Responsibility was beginning its review.
The Secret Service has been under scrutiny as Trump has been the subject of at least three assassination plots in the past two years. In April, police said an armed man breached security at the Washington Hilton during the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, which Trump was attending.
Kennedy Center risks financial ruin without Trump’s name, Justice Department argues
Justice Department attorneys argued that if Trump’s name does not appear somewhere on the Kennedy Center, then the money from donors for renovations would shrivel up and the “decrepit, dilapidated” cultural center may be “required to be taken down.”
That came from a court filing late Monday on the long-running saga over whether the president’s name can be added to the cultural institution and venue meant to honor John F. Kennedy after his assassination. The original attempt to add “Donald J. Trump” on the building’s facade was halted by the court in May following a lawsuit from Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty, an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center.
The center’s Trump-aligned board of trustees then voted again this month to get the president’s name back on the cultural institution in a different way: by appending “Renovated and Restored By President Donald J. Trump” under the title on the building’s facade. Another phrase, “Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund” would be a possible addition, as well as renaming the plaza in front of the Kennedy Center to honor the president.
Darline Graham wins South Carolina GOP nomination to replace her late brother in US Senate
U.S. Sen. Darline Graham won the Republican nomination to replace her late brother on South Carolina’s general election ballot, notching another win for President Donald Trump after he threw his support behind the political novice.
Graham defeated U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman in Tuesday’s special Republican primary runoff, two weeks after they were the top two finishers in a 10-way primary.
Despite being a political unknown, Graham bested some of South Carolina’s top political names in the special election spun up after Lindsey Graham’s sudden death last month. She was appointed by Gov. Henry McMaster to serve out the remaining months of her late brother’s current term and swiftly won an endorsement from Trump, who encouraged her to enter the race for a full term and campaigned for her in the state last week.
Graham will face Democratic nominee Annie Andrews in November.
Canada strikes back at US with retaliatory tariffs as trade war escalates
Canada struck back at the United States on Tuesday with retaliatory tariffs on about $20 billion worth of American goods, including steel, dairy products, appliances and farm equipment, as the trade war between the once-friendly neighbors escalated sharply.
The confrontation threatened one of the world’s largest trading relationships and further strained ties between the United States and a country long considered one of its closest allies. A prolonged dispute could raise costs for American businesses and consumers less than 2½ months before the midterm elections.
The new tariffs extended well beyond industrial goods, hitting everyday purchases such as seafood, cheese, clothing, cosmetics and toilet paper, with some facing duties as high as 50%.
“We did not choose this conflict, but when our economic integration is used as a weapon rather than the foundation for a win-win partnership, we need to stand up,” Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said in French, calling the situation “an unprecedented challenge imposed on Canada.”
