Trump news at a glance: president's Washington DC takeover condemned
The US president claimed his actions were needed to 'rescue' Washington from a wave of lawlessness – but experts say his portrayal of crime there is rooted in false and misleading claims.
'We're going to take our capital back,' Trump said, adding he would also be 'getting rid of the slums'.
Trump warned that other major US cities with Democratic leadership could be next, including Chicago. 'Hopefully LA is watching.'
As he spoke, protesters against the move gathered outside the White House, while DC officials called his actions illegal.
Here are the day's key US politics stories at a glance.
Donald Trump has ordered the national guard to Washington DC and seized control of the city's police force, describing a 'lawless' city in ways that are sharply at odds with official crime statistics.
The US president's move was swiftly condemned as a 'disgusting, dangerous and derogatory' assault on the political independence of a racially diverse city. The federal takeover is expected to be in effect for 30 days, the White House confirmed to the Guardian.
Read the full story
The president has again delayed implementing sweeping tariffs on China, announcing another 90-day pause just hours before the last agreement between the world's two largest economies was due to expire.
Read the full story
Donald Trump has confirmed that he and Vladimir Putin will discuss 'land swapping' when they meet on Friday in Alaska for a high-stakes summit on the Russia-Ukraine war. But the US president expressed frustration with Volodymyr Zelenskyy for putting conditions on such a potential agreement.
Read the full story
The president has announced he is nominating EJ Antoni, the chief economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation, as the next commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The nomination comes after Trump fired the BLS commissioner, Erika McEntarfer, earlier this month following the release of a weak jobs report that he claimed, without evidence, had been 'rigged'.
Read the full story
Texas Democrats once again stymied a Republican effort to redraw the state's congressional maps at Donald Trump's behest and California governor Gavin Newsom urged the president to stand down and defuse the redistricting arms race that has spread across the country. Enough Texas Democrats remained outside of the state on Monday to deny the Republican-led state legislature the quorum necessary to proceed with Trump's desired congressional map.
Read the full story
The Department of Veterans Affairs has lost thousands of healthcare professionals deemed 'core' to the system's ability to function and 'without which mission-critical work cannot be completed', agency records show. The number of medical staff on hand to treat veterans has fallen every month since Trump took office.
Read the full story
The Trump administration's immigration policies are affecting workers and driving, in part, a decline in tourism to Las Vegas, according to workers and the largest labor union in the state of Nevada.
A federal judge has formally rejected the US justice department's request to release transcripts of pre-indictment, grand jury interviews with witnesses in the case of Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted sex trafficker and associate of Jeffrey Epstein.
Catching up? Here's what happened on 10 August 2025.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
15 minutes ago
- The Independent
Labour councillor ‘horrified' by own cutting throats comment at rally, jury told
A Labour councillor who called at an anti-racism rally for far-right activists' throats to be cut has told a jury he felt 'horrified' after realising what he had said. In the wake of rioting after the Southport murders last summer, Ricky Jones, 58, described far-right activists as 'disgusting Nazi fascists', his trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court heard. He told jurors on Wednesday that his comment did not refer to far-right protesters involved in the riots at the time, but to those who had reportedly left National Front stickers on a train with razor blades hidden behind them. A video showing Jones addressing the crowd in Walthamstow, east London, on August 7 last year, went viral on social media after the protest. Wearing a black polo top and surrounded by cheering supporters, the councillor said: 'You've got women and children using these trains during the summer holidays. 'They don't give a shit about who they hurt. 'They are disgusting Nazi fascists. We need to cut all their throats and get rid of them all.' He also drew his finger across his throat as he spoke to the crowd. Jones, who at the time worked as an official for the Transport Salaried Staff's Association (TSSA) union, later sent an edited version of his speech video to union members, the court heard. Asked by his defence barrister, Hossein Zahir KC, why he edited the video, Jones replied: 'When I had time to view the footage after the demonstration, I was shocked at what I had actually said. 'I was horrified. 'Under no circumstances did I want to portray that to anybody, so I edited that last bit out.' The unedited video was eventually posted on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, where it attracted millions of views, the trial heard. Jones told jurors he felt 'very emotional and very upset' after receiving pictures, the day before the rally, of National Front stickers that had been left on a train, which had razor blades hidden behind them – supposedly so that people who tried to remove the stickers would injure themselves. He had also received reports from union members that more razor blades had been found stuck between seats, Jones added. 'I was very concerned about what had happened on the train. 'I was thinking, this (the speech) is a good opportunity to raise what happened.' The father-of-four and grandfather described the mood in the crowd at the time as 'happy and joyful', adding: 'There clearly wasn't any upset or anger from any people in that scene, because they clearly knew it was about what happened on the train.' Prosecutor Ben Holt, cross-examining, told the defendant: 'Your words about slitting people's throats were not cheerful or happy.' Jones replied: 'I totally agree, I'm ashamed.' The defendant however denied intending to encourage violence towards far-right protesters. 'What violence could have anyone caused to those people in the train?' Jones said. 'It was nonsensical – I didn't believe there was a risk.' Jones, who has been a borough councillor in Dartford, Kent, since 2019, was suspended by the Labour Party the day after the alleged incident. He was arrested on August 8 last year and interviewed at Brixton Police Station that night. The demonstration had been organised in response to plans for a far-right march outside Waltham Forest Immigration Bureau. It followed the disorder in parts of the UK last summer after the Southport murders. Jones, of Dartford, denies one count of encouraging violent disorder. The trial continues.
The Independent
15 minutes ago
- The Independent
Don Jr says his family got into crypto after banks refused to do business after Jan 6 ‘nonsense'
Donald Trump Jr. says his family 'didn't have a choice' but to get into crypto because banks didn't want to do business with them after January 6, 2021, referring to the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol as 'all the nonsense.' 'We got into crypto because we didn't have a choice,' the president's eldest son said on Fox & Friends Wednesday morning while discussing his family's cryptocurrency business's $1.5 billion digital coin deal. The Trump family's crypto business, World Liberty Finance, announced Monday that technology firm ALT5 Sigma would make a big purchase of its digital coin, $WLFI. ALT5 said it would sell $1.5 billion worth of shares, then use that money to purchase the Trump signature digital coin, which the family founded last year. 'Every major banking institution, the people that, two weeks before we were debanked, we could've called and gotten a loan in five seconds. They disappeared. We were left high and dry,' he said. 'Basically, during the first term, certainly after the…let's call it January 6… all the nonsense, it got significantly worse,' he said, referring to the deadly mob of his father's supporters who stormed the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. Five people, including one police officer, died and several more were injured when the pro-Trump mob breached the Capitol building. The president granted roughly 1,500 people convicted of January 6-related crimes pardons immediately after taking office in January. 'We weren't even early crypto guys, but we figured, if they can debank the Trump Organization, if they can debank us, who can't they go after? And more importantly, who won't they go after?' he continued. Trump Jr. said that instead of going home and 'go cry in a corner,' they decided to launch World Liberty Financial, which he described as the future of banking. 'What we're doing with World Liberty Financial, I think, is going to shake up the entire banking system. It is literally the future of finance,' he said. Joining Trump Jr. on the segment was his brother, Eric Trump, and World Liberty Financial's co-founder and CEO Zach Witkoff, who said they were looking to 'democratize' the financial system. 'Put power back in the hands of the people, instead of the big boogy man behind the curtain,' Witkoff said. Following the Fox appearance, the three men went to ring Nasdaq's opening bell to celebrate the closing of ALT5's $1.5 billion offering.
BreakingNews.ie
16 minutes ago
- BreakingNews.ie
At least 25 killed by Israeli gunfire while seeking aid, say health officials
Israeli gunfire killed at least 25 people seeking aid on Wednesday, health officials and witnesses said, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will 'allow' Palestinians to leave during an upcoming military offensive in Gaza. Mr Netanyahu wants to realise US President Donald Trump's vision of relocating much of Gaza's population of more than two million people through what the prime minister refers to as 'voluntary migration' – and what critics have warned could be ethnic cleansing. Advertisement 'Give them the opportunity to leave! First, from combat zones, and also from the Strip if they want,' Mr Netanyahu said in an interview aired on Tuesday with i24, an Israeli TV station, to discuss the planned offensive in some of the territory's most populated areas including Gaza City. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP) 'We are not pushing them out but allowing them to leave.' Witnesses and staff at Nasser and Awda hospitals, which received the bodies, said people were killed on their way to aid distribution sites and while awaiting convoys entering the Gaza Strip. Israel did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Advertisement Efforts to revive ceasefire talks have resumed after apparently breaking down last month. Hamas and Egyptian officials were set to meet on Wednesday to discuss efforts to stop the war, according to Hamas official Taher al-Nounou. Israel has no plans to send its negotiating team to talks in Cairo, the prime minister's office said. Israel has said it will widen its military offensive against Hamas to the areas of Gaza that it does not yet control, where most of the territory's residents have sought refuge. Advertisement Those plans have sparked international condemnation and criticism within Israel, and could be intended to raise pressure on Hamas to reach a ceasefire. Israeli soldiers use binoculars to look at damaged buildings in the Gaza Strip, from southern Israel (Ariel Schalit/AP) The militants still hold 50 hostages taken in the October 7 2023 attack that sparked the war. Israel believes around 20 of them are alive. Mr Netanyahu was asked by i24 News if the window had closed on a partial ceasefire deal and he responded that he wanted all of the hostages back, alive and dead. Advertisement Egyptian foreign minister Badr Abdelatty told reporters that Cairo is still trying to advance an earlier proposal for an initial 60-day ceasefire, the release of some hostages and an influx of humanitarian aid before further talks on a lasting truce. Hamas has long called for a comprehensive deal but says it will only release the remaining hostages in return for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. The militant group has refused to lay down its arms as Israel has demanded. Israel and South Sudan are in talks about relocating Palestinians to the war-torn East African nation, The Associated Press (AP) reported on Tuesday. Advertisement The office of Israel's deputy foreign minister Sharren Haskel said on Wednesday that she was arriving in South Sudan for a series of meetings in the first visit by a senior government official to the country, but she did not plan to broach the subject of moving Palestinians. Damaged humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza scattered on the ground next to the border with the Gaza Strip near the Kissufim crossing in southern Israel (Ariel Schalit/AP) In a statement on Wednesday, South Sudan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs called reports that it was engaging in discussions with Israel about resettling Palestinians baseless. The AP previously reported that US and Israel have reached out to officials of three East African governments to discuss using their territories as potential destinations for moving Palestinians uprooted from Gaza. Among those killed while seeking aid on Wednesday were 14 Palestinians in the Teina area approximately 3km away from a food distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), according to staff at Nasser hospital. Hashim Shamalah, who was trying to reach the sites, said Israeli troops fired towards them as people tried to get through. Many were shot and fell while fleeing, he said. Five other Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire while trying to reach another GHF distribution site in the Netzarim corridor area, according to Awda hospital and witnesses. The US and Israel support the GHF, an American contractor, as an alternative to the United Nations, which they say allows Hamas to siphon off aid. The UN, which has delivered aid throughout Gaza for decades when conditions allow, denies the allegations. Trucks carrying humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza move along the border with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel (Ariel Schalit/AP) The GHF said there were no incidents at or near its sites on Wednesday. There are aid convoys from other groups that travel within 100 metres (328ft) of GHF sites and draw large crowds attempting to loot them. An overwhelming majority of violent incidents over the past few weeks have been related to those other aid convoys, the organisation said, noting it has provided more than one million meals to aid seekers. At least six other people were killed by Israeli fire waiting for aid trucks close to the Morag corridor, which separates parts of southern Gaza, Nasser hospital said. The UN and food security experts have warned starvation and malnutrition in Gaza are at the highest levels since the war began. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Tuesday reported the warning from the World Food Programme and said the Gaza Health Ministry told UN staff in Gaza that five people died over the previous 24 hours from malnutrition and starvation. Gaza's Health Ministry says 106 children have died of malnutrition-related causes during the war and 129 adults have died since late June when the ministry started to count deaths among this age group. The UN and its humanitarian partners are doing everything possible to bring aid into Gaza, Mr Dujarric said, but still face significant delays and impediments from Israeli authorities who prevent the delivery of food and other essentials at the scale needed. A Palestinian boy after collecting water from a distribution point in Gaza City (Jehad Alshrafi/AP) Hamas-led militants abducted 251 people and killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the 2023 attack. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals. Israel's air and ground offensive has since displaced most of Gaza's population, destroyed vast areas and pushed the territory towards famine. The offensive has killed more than 61,700 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters or civilians but says around half were women and children. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The UN and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on war casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own.
