Trump to host Armenia and Azerbaijan peace treaty signing; D.C. sees stepped up federal law enforcement

Trump later today will host a ceremony at the White House that includes the signing of a peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The deal establishes the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity through the South Caucasus region. A senior Trump administration official said they have received calls from nine different operators, including three American companies interested in operating the route, since the announcement yesterday.

“What this will do for American businesses, and frankly, for energy resources across Europe will be enormously powerful. The losers here are China, Russia and Iran. The winners here are the West,” a senior administration official told reporters on a call previewing the deal.

Anna Kelly, White House deputy press secretary, said Trump will also sign agreements between the U.S. and each country that span “energy, technology, economic cooperation, border security, infrastructure and trade.”

Vice President JD Vance acknowledged in a meeting in the United Kingdom with Foreign Minister David Lammy that the U.S. is working to iron out any “disagreements” about humanitarian aid to Gaza after Israel announced intentions to occupy Gaza City.

“We’ve been in constant negotiations and conversations in the last 24 hours about how to get more aid into Gaza, about how to solve that humanitarian problem, and also how to get Hamas to a position where they can’t continue to threaten the citizens and recipients of Israel,” Vance told reporters. “So there’s a lot of work to do there. There’s a lot of common objectives here. There is some, I think, disagreement about how exactly to accomplish this common objective.”

Vance and Lammy also previewed some of the other subjects they planned to discuss, including the war in Ukraine, and economic ties between the U.S. and U.K.

Texas’ acting comptroller today said that he supports suspending direct deposit for Texas Democratic lawmakers who have fled the state to deny a quorum for a special session in the statehouse as their GOP counterparts seek to enact mid-cycle redistricting for congressional seats.

“I fully support the decision to suspend direct deposit for members who abandon their responsibilities to break quorum. The people of Texas expect their elected officials to show up, do the work, and be accountable,” acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock said in a statement. “The Speaker has taken a firm and appropriate step to enforce that expectation, and our office will uphold this policy without exception. Members who want to be paid need to show up to work at the Capitol—plain and simple.”

Texas Democratic lawmakers are currently huddling in Illinois and elsewhere and are facing $500-a-day fines while they’re absent from Texas. State lawmakers only make $600 a month when the Legislature is in session, meaning fines have already surmounted the lawmakers’ pay. Many of them have also temporarily left their nonlegislative day jobs while they’re out of the state.

Other Democrats have jumped in to aid the Texas lawmakers with fundraising efforts to help cover the costs of their absences, including lodging, airfare and missed work.

The Japanese government said the Trump administration had promised to amend a “regrettable” oversight that imposed overlapping tariffs on some of its goods.

“It is extremely regrettable that the presidential order on reciprocal tariffs was issued and put into effect in a manner that was not in line with the agreement between Japan and the United States, due to internal administrative procedures on the U.S. side,” Hayashi said. “On this point, U.S. Cabinet members have also indicated that the procedures taken by the U.S. were regrettable.”

The new 15% U.S. tariff rate applies to all Japanese goods, reducing a previous 27.5% on Japanese automobiles and auto parts, rather than being placed on top of those auto duties, the top spokesman for the Japanese government, Yoshimasa Hayashi, said.

The U.S. said it would amend the July 31 presidential order and refund any excessive tariffs collected after they went into effect yesterday. It also confirmed that it would reduce auto tariffs to 15% from 27.5% in a separate executive order in accordance with the U.S.-Japan trade agreement, Hayashi said.

Trump said in a post on Truth Social last night that he plans to host the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan at the White House today for the signing of a peace treaty to end their decades-long war.

“These two Nations have been at War for many years, resulting in the deaths of thousands of people,” the president wrote. “Many Leaders have tried to end the War, with no success, until now, thanks to ‘TRUMP.'”

The leaders, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, will also sign economic agreements with the United States, “so we can fully unlock the potential of the South Caucasus Region,” Trump said.

Federal agents are expected to have a much stronger and visible presence on the streets of Washington starting Friday following several days of President Donald Trump’s bashing the city’s crime rate.

“President Trump has directed an increased presence of federal law enforcement to protect innocent citizens,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Thursday, calling the city “plagued by violent crime for far too long.”

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott vowed to call “special session after special session after special session” in response to Democratic lawmakers who have fled the state to block redistricting legislation, saying they’ll have to stay out of Texas for years to prevent it becoming law.

“We are in the process as we speak right now of searching for, preparing to arrest Democrats who may be in Texas, may be elsewhere,” Abbott, a Republican, told NBC News in an interview at the governor’s mansion Thursday evening.

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