Mark Paoletta, also a close associate of Justice Clarence Thomas’s, has been named by President Trump to lead the National Capital Planning Commission.

© Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times

Dr. Adam Kalkstein is suing the U. S. Military Academy, where he was a professor of geography and the only climate scientist, after being fired.

© Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times

Will Scharf has proved his loyalty to President Trump, even filming a TV ad in which he blows away documents from the president’s legal cases. His new role will be to provide in-house legal advice.

© Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

The agency’s top spokesman is among those on leave, according to two Trump administration officials. The agency said three people faced a misconduct investigation.

© Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

A California judge suspended criminal proceedings against the man, a former Marine, who had been arrested days before the president was set to visit for a fund-raiser.

© Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

A judge found that Democratic lawmakers had not followed proper procedures in passing a redistricting amendment, but the state Supreme Court will have the final say.

© Michelle Gustafson for The New York Times

Senator Darline Graham has spoken far more about her desire to support President Trump’s agenda than she has talked about her brother’s political goals — or her own.

© Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

President denies visit was to gain support for Iran sanctions or due to fears that Putin plans to ‘test Nato resolve’

• US politics live – latest updates

Donald Trump has downplayed a visit to Moscow by the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, as “semi-routine” after he turned up in the Russian capital unannounced, triggering a wave of speculation about the reasons for his trip.

Ratcliffe was reported to have flown to Moscow on a government transport plane on Tuesday in a rare visit after taking off from the Andrews air force base in Maryland.

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© Photograph: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images

© Photograph: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images

© Photograph: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images

The US president expected Ottawa to bow to tariff demands, but Canada is striking back – and it could cost Americans

• This was originally published in This Week in Trumpland. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday

Earlier this year, a survey found that Canada, along with Switzerland, was the best-liked country in the world. We all know this kind of polling is about as scientific as a high school popularity contest, but at least anecdotally, Canadians have a reputation for being friendly and welcoming, respectful and polite. Many people would find it difficult to dislike Canadians.

But not Donald Trump, who in a “hold my beer” moment this week demonstrated that he, at least, finds it easy to resent Canadians. The US president called the country “difficult and unreasonable”, and in a particularly hysterical moment, threatened to rename a lake, after trade talks collapsed.

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© Photograph: Saul Loeb,andrej Ivanov/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Saul Loeb,andrej Ivanov/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Saul Loeb,andrej Ivanov/AFP/Getty Images

The order came amid a spate of legal challenges, including one by Democratic state attorneys general, that could still result in the rules being blocked.

© Philip Cheung for The New York Times

The conflict with Iran is uniquely salient to the Virginia Beach voters deciding which party will win a critical House contest.

© Kristen Zeis for The New York Times

The president came to see Lindsey and Darline Graham as part of his own political legacy.

© Sean Rayford for The New York Times

Dean Roy, 15, will appear on the ballot in November as a third-party candidate. He said his generation’s concerns, like affordability and climate change, have been ignored for too long.

© Anna Watts for The New York Times

In this episode of Guardian Australia’s US politics podcast Decoding America, co-hosts Jonathan Yerushalmy and Reged Ahmad explore why datacentres in the US have provoked such anger – and whether that could harm Republicans in the midterms given Donald Trump is such a supporter of the growing industry.

They also look at why the US and Canada are fighting over tariffs. The Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, is pushing back and both countries could be on the cusp of a full-blown trade war.

Finally: why does the Trump administration’s secretary of transportation, Sean Duffy, have his very own YouTube show – and is he the only one?

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Canada announces retaliatory tariffs on wide range of US goods

Trump-backed Ken Paxton unveils ‘Texas first’ datacenter plan aimed at ‘negative impact’

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© Composite: Guardian Design

© Composite: Guardian Design

© Composite: Guardian Design

Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s high representative for Gaza, criticized Israel for its ongoing strikes on what it says are Hamas targets, after it rejected a plan to disarm the group.

© Saher Alghorra for The New York Times

They should ask the question Reagan asked at the end of his debate against Jimmy Carter: ‘Are you better off now than you were before this presidency?’

The midterm elections are already upon us, and every Democrat and independent running against a Republican should ask voters the question Ronald Reagan asked on 28 October 1980, at the end of his televised debate against Jimmy Carter: “Are you better off now than you were before this presidency?”

Unless you’re very, very rich, the answer is obviously: “No, I’m worse off.”

Energy bills have increased three times faster than the rate of inflation while Trump has been president. The national average monthly utility bill reached $280 in early 2026, a 12% increase since the end of 2024, just before the second Trump administration took office.

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© Photograph: Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images

The Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led armed group that has lost territory and authority in recent months, will integrate with the country’s military.

© Delil Souleiman/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Administration moved away from high-profile raids that defined immigration enforcement approach last year but still deported record number of people

The Trump administration arrested and deported a record number of immigrants in July, according to newly released government data – apprehending an average of 1,500 people and removing 1,100 people daily.

This latest data confirms what attorneys and immigrant advocates have been seeing across the US – although the administration has moved away from the high-profile, militarized raids that came to define its immigration enforcement approach last year, it is quietly ramping up its operations.

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© Photograph: Blake Fagan/AFP via Getty Images

© Photograph: Blake Fagan/AFP via Getty Images

© Photograph: Blake Fagan/AFP via Getty Images

The quiet-spoken Canadian prime minister has spoken unutterable truths

Is it perhaps a sign of the times that Mark Carney, the prime minister of Canada, has become a thrilling orator? A sober banker, he speaks calmly, without many vocal inflections. We expect Canadians to be somewhat flat; even a little boring, and yet Carney has already delivered two remarkable speeches in 2026, and the year is far from over.

The first, at Davos, described a “rupture in the world order”, and “the end of a pleasant fiction”. By that, he meant that the world could no longer depend on the United States to lead the Pax Americana that has largely kept the peace since the end of the second world war.

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© Photograph: Andrej Ivanov,saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Andrej Ivanov,saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Andrej Ivanov,saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

Paper products among hardest-hit sectors after trade negotiations broke down, with 25-50% tariffs estimated

• Are you a Canadian boycotting US products? We’d like to hear from you

Using the bathroom or having a cry is about to become more expensive for North Americans as the US and Canada enter a full-fledged trade war that threatens to flush away decades of peaceful trading between the two nations.

After trade negotiations broke down between the two countries last weekend, Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, vowed to match US tariffs “dollar for dollar” and unveiled a list of nearly 900 American goods that will face 25% to 50% tariffs starting on 8 September.

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© Photograph: NurPhoto/Getty Images

© Photograph: NurPhoto/Getty Images

© Photograph: NurPhoto/Getty Images

After facing low approval ratings and endorsement setbacks, the president made a show of force in lifting Darline Graham to the Republican nomination for Senate in South Carolina.

© Alex Kent/The New York Times

Business owners are preparing for financial pain after the latest U.S.-Canada trade talks collapsed. But many Canadians are embracing a show of resistance.

© Nick Iwanyshyn/The Canadian Press, via Associated Press

Everyone can see that the Iran war has been a strategic disaster for the US, while a failing president pretends he is winning

Now is the twilight of Donald Trump’s supremacy. The US is still the richest and most heavily armed nation on Earth. That status is secure. The current president, contemptuous of law and indulged in lawlessness by a supine Congress, enjoys even greater power than the constitution allows.

With those advantages it takes a special talent for incompetence to look as thwarted and impotent as Trump does with more than two years of his second term still to run.

Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist

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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

The former state senator, who was endorsed by President Trump, spent millions of dollars of his own money on the race.

© Jake Ramsey/Oklahoma Watch, via Associated Press