Trump’s 50% tariffs on India come into force as president puts pressure on country over buying Russian oil – US politics live

Trump’s 50% tariffs on India come into force as president puts pressure on country over Russian oil supplies

Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. My name is Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.

We start with news that president Donald Trump’s doubling of tariffs on goods from India to as much as 50% took effect as scheduled on Wednesday, escalating tensions between the world’s two largest democracies and strategic partners.

A punitive 25% tariff imposed due to India’s purchases of Russian oil adds to Trump’s prior 25% tariff on many products from India. It takes total duties to as high as 50% for goods such as garments, gems and jewellery, footwear, sporting goods, furniture and chemicals – among the highest imposed by the US and on par with Brazil and China.

India and the US have held five rounds of discussions since April to reach a trade agreement, but differences over the opening up of India’s vast farm and dairy sectors, and its purchases of Russian oil led to a breakdown of talks.

The new tariffs threaten thousands of small exporters and jobs, including in prime minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat, Reuters reported.

An Indian commerce ministry official said on condition of anonymity that exporters hit by tariffs would receive financial assistance and be encouraged to diversify to markets such as China, Latin America and the Middle East.

In other developments:

Donald Trump held a televised, three-hour cabinet meeting, in which various secretaries seemed to compete to praise him in more effusive terms, and he took questions from reporters from partisan outlets.
Trump told reporters that “I think, maybe in my own mind, I have somebody that I like” to take the place of the Federal Reserve governor he is trying to force out, Lisa Cook, who is fighting to keep her place.
Two reporters for pro-Trump outlets offered testimony about crime in Washington DC to support the president’s claims.
Texas’s redrawn congressional maps have drawn a lawsuit from the NAACP, accusing the state of committing a racial gerrymander with its maps that strip Black voters of their political power.
A whistleblower complaint alleges that Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) copied and uploaded the sensitive Social Security data of hundreds of millions of Americans to a vulnerable cloud server, potentially violating federal privacy laws. One of the Doge staffers accused in the complaint is Edward Coristine, whose recent assault in Washington DC provided the pretext for Trump’s federal takeover.
In a deeply partisan press release, Sean Duffy, the former Republican congressman and Fox host serving as Donald Trump’s transportation secretary, announced the cancellation of $175m in funding for four projects related to what he called “California’s High-Speed Rail boondoggle”.
The Trump administration retaliated against some Federal Emergency Management Agency staffers who signed a letter of dissent about the agency’s leadership, the Washington Post reports.
A local television outlet in Washington DC recorded video of “a full busload of National Guard members … picking up trash in Lafayette Park, just outside the White House”.
Cracker Barrel announced that it is scrapping its new logo, and returning to its old one, hours after Donald Trump joined the conservative backlash to the change.

Updated at 05.39 EDT

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Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday that “everything is on the table” in trade talks with China and that he will be meeting again with his Chinese counterpart at the end of October or beginning of November.

“It’s a very complicated relationship,” he said in an interview on Fox Business’ Mornings with Maria program.

“We are moving very deliberately on this. Both sides have approached it with great respect.”

Journalists in Lebanon have demanded an apology from a senior US envoy after he told them to “act civilized” and not be “animalistic”.

As reporters shouted questions after the US delegation’s meeting with the Lebanese president, Joseph Aoun, on Tuesday, Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria, stepped up to the podium in the packed room and said: “We’re going to have a different set of rules … please be quiet for a moment.

“The moment that this starts becoming chaotic, like animalistic, we’re gone,” he said.

“Act civilised, act kind, act tolerant, because this is the problem with what’s happening in the region,” added Barrack, who has recently been leading talks with Lebanese officials.

US envoy tells Lebanese journalists to ‘act civilised’ – video

The Lebanese presidency in a statement on X expressed regret at “remarks made inadvertently from its podium by one of its guests”, affirming its appreciation for the journalists and media representatives.

The information minister, Paul Morcos, in a statement also expressed regret at the remarks “by a member of the foreign delegation towards media representatives at the presidential palace”.

The photojournalists’ syndicate called Barrack’s comments “a direct insult” that set “a serious and totally unacceptable precedent”.

ShareAnna Betts

A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed an unprecedented lawsuit filed by the Trump administration earlier in the summer against all 15 judges serving on Maryland’s federal district court – a case that opposed pausing some deportations from the state.

In a 37-page ruling, US district judge Thomas Cullen of Virginia’s western district – who was nominated and confirmed to his position during Donald Trump’s first presidency – wrote that “any fair reading of the legal authorities cited by defendants leads to the ineluctable conclusion that this court has no alternative but to dismiss”.

“To hold otherwise,” Cullen added, “would run counter to overwhelming precedent, depart from longstanding constitutional tradition, and offend the rule of law.”

The Trump administration had challenged an order issued by Maryland’s chief district judge that temporarily barred the government from deporting undocumented immigrants for two business days if they filed challenges to their detention. Trump’s justice department argued that the order exceeded the court’s authority and violated federal law.

But Cullen, who was nominated to the bench by Trump in 2020 and was assigned the case because all Maryland district judges were named as defendants, wrote that the judges were “absolutely immune” from lawsuits over their judicial actions. And Cullen said that instead of suing, the administration should have challenged the order though other legal channels, such as appealing against the order.

ShareGeorge Chidi

Texas’s redrawn congressional maps have drawn a lawsuit from the NAACP, which accuses the state of committing a racial gerrymander with its maps that strip Black voters of their political power.

The lawsuit, joined by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, names Texas’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott, and secretary of state, Jane Nelson, as defendants.

It asks a federal judge for a preliminary injunction preventing the use of the redrawn maps, arguing that the redistricting violates the US constitution by improperly reducing the power of voters of color. It also argues that the maps violate section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

“We now see just how far extremist leaders are willing to go to push African Americans back toward a time when we were denied full personhood and equal rights,” the president of the Texas NAACP, Gary Bledsoe, said in a statement.

“We call on Texans of every background to recognize the dangers of this moment. Our democracy depends on ensuring that every person is counted fully, valued equally and represented fairly. We are prepared to fight this injustice at every level. Our future depends on it.”

Texas Republicans passed a redrawn map on Saturday, with the expected result of an increase in Republican representation by five seats in the next Congress. Democratic state legislators are a minority in both chambers of the Texas legislature, leaving them with few options to block it.

A group of state house representatives spent nearly a month away from the state to deny Republicans a quorum. That maneuver ended last week, after California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, and the state legislature began a process to counter the Republican gerrymander with a Democratic gerrymander of their own.

Updated at 07.32 EDT

Anna Betts

Donald Trump said on Tuesday that his administration “wants nothing less than $500m from Harvard” as a condition for restoring billions of dollars in federal funding to the Ivy League university.

“Don’t negotiate with them, they’ve been very bad,” Trump told his education secretary, Linda McMahon, in a cabinet meeting.

Trump’s comments came amid reports that his administration and Harvard are moving toward a potential settlement that could bring an end to their months-long battle over the government’s allegations that Harvard has not done enough to crack down on antisemitism tied to pro-Palestinian protests.

In April, Harvard became the first – and so far only – university to sue the Trump administration over the funding cuts. It sued again the following month over the government’s efforts to block the school from enrolling international students.

Harvard has argued that the administration unlawfully slashed $2.6bn in research funding from the university in retaliation for the school’s refusal to comply with a series of demands laid out in an 11 April letter from a federal antisemitism taskforce. Those demands related to campus protests, academic policies and admissions practices.

A US district judge heard arguments from both Harvard and the Department of Justice last month.

Updated at 07.29 EDT

Trump administration pulls another $175m from California’s high-speed rail

The Trump administration is cancelling another $175m in funding for California’s high-speed rail, marking another setback for the state’s much-delayed project.

The US transportation department said on Tuesday it was withdrawing $175m for grade separation, over-crossing and design work and to build a high-speed rail station in Madera. The move follows the cancellation earlier this summer of $4bn in federal grants for the state’s ambitious but long-overdue plans.

California in July sued to challenge the withdrawal of funding, calling the decision illegal.

The funding cuts are another hurdle for the 16-year effort to link Los Angeles and San Francisco by a three-hour train ride, a project that would deliver the fastest passenger rail service in the United States.

The rail system, whose first $10bn bond issue was approved by California voters in 2008, has built more than 50 major railway structures, including bridges, overpasses, under-crossings and viaducts, and completed 70 miles (113km) of guideway.

The project has also faced numerous delays and spiraling costs, with no section of the railway currently operational and a completion date still years away.

The San Francisco-to-Los Angeles route was initially supposed to be finished by 2020 at a cost of $33bn; the projected cost has since risen from $89bn to $128bn, with the start of service along a portion of the line in the Central valley only expected by 2033. On Monday, state lawmakers suggested the project would require a $1bn-per-year investment to continue in light of the federal funding cuts.

Updated at 07.24 EDT

Fed governor’s lawsuit could be filed today, CNBC reports

US Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook’s lawsuit against Donald Trump could be filed as soon as today, CNBC reported on Wednesday citing sources.

More to follow on this as we get it.

Updated at 07.10 EDT

The US transportation department said Wednesday it plans to reclaim management of Washington DC’s Union Station.

In March, the White House forced Stephen Gardner, the CEO of US passenger railroad company Amtrak, to step down after president Donald Trump sought the changes.

Trump this month deployed hundreds of national guard troops to Washington.

Updated at 07.07 EDT

62% of Americans support sanctions on Russia’s trading allies, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds

Most Americans support a bid to sanction Russia’s trading partners as a way to put pressure on Moscow to end its war with Ukraine, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.

The three-day poll, which concluded on Sunday, showed 62% of respondents back sanctioning Russia’s trading partners, a strategy that US president Donald Trump has partially embraced and has threatened to expand to include China.

Trump has in recent weeks engaged in intense diplomacy, meeting Russian president Vladimir Putin in Alaska but so far failing to stop the conflict, a goal he had pledged to accomplish on his first day in office.

ShareIndia hopeful US will review extra 25% tariff for Russian oil purchases, Indian government source says

India is hopeful that the US will review the additional 25% tariff imposed on Indian goods as penalty for its Russian oil purchases, a government source told reporters on Wednesday.

The Indian government is holding talks with exporters to increase shipments of textiles, leather, gems and jewellery to other countries, and is likely to provide financial assistance to affected businesses, the source said.

The US Transportation Department said Tuesday it will withhold federal funding from California, Washington State, and New Mexico unless they adopt English proficiency requirements for commercial truck drivers.

The administration of president Donald Trump has taken a series of steps to address concerns about foreign truck drivers who do not speak English, and last week secretary of state Marco Rubio said the United States was immediately pausing the issuance of all worker visas for commercial truck drivers.

In April, Trump signed an executive order directing enforcement of a rule requiring commercial drivers in the US to meet English proficiency standards.

Transportation secretary Sean Duffy said the department could withhold about $50 million in federal funding if the states do not comply in 30 days and could take further action.

Washington State said its state patrol was currently reviewing the matter with its state transportation partners and will have a detailed response soon.

New Mexico’s transportation department did not immediately respond, Reuters reported.

The Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing next week to consider president Donald Trump’s nomination of White House economic adviser Stephen Miran as a Federal Reserve governor, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

ShareSome Fema staff are put on leave after signing dissent letter

Some employees of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) who signed a public letter of dissent earlier this week were put on administrative leave Tuesday evening, according to documents reviewed by the Associated Press.

More than 180 current and former Fema employees signed the letter sent to the Fema Review Council and Congress on Monday critiquing recent cuts to agency staff and programs, and warning that Fema’s capacity to respond to a major disaster was dangerously diminished.

Thirty-five signed their names while 141 signed anonymously for fear of retribution.

The Associated Press has confirmed that at least two of the signatories received notices Tuesday evening informing them they would be placed on leave indefinitely, with pay and that they must still check in every morning confirming their availability. It was unclear what the status was for other signatories.

The notice said the decision “is not a disciplinary action and is not intended to be punitive.”

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that US colleges would struggle without Chinese students, amid a backlash from his base after he suggested he could let 600,000 Chinese college students into the country as part of trade talks with the economic rival.

Guo Jiakun, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, said on Wednesday that the ministry hoped the US would follow through on Trump’s statement welcoming Chinese students and stop the “unprovoked harassment, interrogation, and deportation” of Chinese students.

Denmark’s foreign minister has summoned the top US diplomat in Copenhagen over Danish intelligence reports that US citizens have been conducting covert influence operations in Greenland, the ministry said on Wednesday.

Public broadcaster DR cited unnamed sources as saying the government believed at least three US nationals with ties to president Donald Trump’s administration had been involved in influence operations aimed at promoting Greenland’s secession from Denmark to the United States.

“We are aware that foreign actors continue to show an interest in Greenland and its position in the Kingdom of Denmark,” foreign minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in a statement.

“It is therefore not surprising if we experience outside attempts to influence the future of the Kingdom in the time ahead,” Rasmussen said.

Neither the broadcaster nor the ministry named the individuals flagged in the intelligence reports. The US embassy in Copenhagen did not immediately respond to a request for comment, Reuters reported.

ShareEuropean Union mulls removing US tariffs this week, Bloomberg News reports

The European Union is aiming to expedite legislation to remove all tariffs on US industrial goods by the end of the week, a demand made by president Donald Trump before the US will lower its duties on the bloc’s automobile exports, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday.

Reuters could not immediately confirm the report.

ShareTrump’s 50% tariffs on India come into force as president puts pressure on country over Russian oil supplies

Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. My name is Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.

The new tariffs threaten thousands of small exporters and jobs, including in prime minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat, Reuters reported.

In other developments:

Donald Trump held a televised, three-hour cabinet meeting, in which various secretaries seemed to compete to praise him in more effusive terms, and he took questions from reporters from partisan outlets.
Trump told reporters that “I think, maybe in my own mind, I have somebody that I like” to take the place of the Federal Reserve governor he is trying to force out, Lisa Cook, who is fighting to keep her place.
Two reporters for pro-Trump outlets offered testimony about crime in Washington DC to support the president’s claims.
Texas’s redrawn congressional maps have drawn a lawsuit from the NAACP, accusing the state of committing a racial gerrymander with its maps that strip Black voters of their political power.
A whistleblower complaint alleges that Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) copied and uploaded the sensitive Social Security data of hundreds of millions of Americans to a vulnerable cloud server, potentially violating federal privacy laws. One of the Doge staffers accused in the complaint is Edward Coristine, whose recent assault in Washington DC provided the pretext for Trump’s federal takeover.
In a deeply partisan press release, Sean Duffy, the former Republican congressman and Fox host serving as Donald Trump’s transportation secretary, announced the cancellation of $175m in funding for four projects related to what he called “California’s High-Speed Rail boondoggle”.
The Trump administration retaliated against some Federal Emergency Management Agency staffers who signed a letter of dissent about the agency’s leadership, the Washington Post reports.
A local television outlet in Washington DC recorded video of “a full busload of National Guard members … picking up trash in Lafayette Park, just outside the White House”.
Cracker Barrel announced that it is scrapping its new logo, and returning to its old one, hours after Donald Trump joined the conservative backlash to the change.

Updated at 05.39 EDT

Trump’s 50% tariffs on India come into force as president puts pressure on country over buying Russian oil – US politics live | US politics

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