The Latest: Trump’s emergency order over DC is expiring

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Congress did not extend President Donald Trump’s Aug. 11 order that federalized the city’s police force and launched a surge of law enforcement into the city. But the National Guard and some other federal agencies will continue their deployment, and it’s not clear when that might end.

Also, this measure of control the city may be regaining comes the same day a House committee begins debating 13 bills that, if approved, would wrest away even more of the city’s governing ability.

Trump’s takeover of Washington, D.C.’s policing and Wednesday’s discussions by the House underscore how interlinked the nation’s capital is with the federal government and how much the city’s capacity to govern is beholden to federal decisions.

Meanwhile, Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, was shot and killed Wednesday at an event at Utah Valley University. Kirk's death, announced by Trump, comes amid a spike in political violence in the United States across all parts of the ideological spectrum.

Here's the latest:

Rep. James Walkinshaw, D-Va., has been sworn in one day after winning a special election to fill the seat of Rep. Gerry Connolly, who died of esophageal cancer in May.

He paid tribute to Connolly, his mentor, and then wasted little time being critical of the federal job cuts that have affected many of his constituents.

The scene encapsulated the political divides in the House as Republicans joined Democrats in applauding as Walkinshaw took his oath of office, but it was only the Democrats applauding his following remarks.

“In my district, everyone knows someone who has lost their job due to the agenda coming from the White House, and too often from this chamber,” Walkinshaw said. “If we do not change course, what is true in Northern Virginia today will soon be true in every district in this nation.”

Republicans now have a 219-213 majority in the House.

Trump wrote on his Truth Social site that he has ordered that all American flags across the U.S. be lowered to half-staff until 6 p.m. EDT Sunday.

Trump says Charlie Kirk has died after being shot at a college event in Orem, Utah, and Mayor David Young says the shooting suspect is still at large.

Authorities are not telling people to shelter in place, however.

A person who was taken into custody at Utah Valley University was not the suspect, according to a person familiar with the investigation who was not authorized to speak publicly.

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By Hannah Schoenbaum, Alanna Durkin Richer and Mark Sherman.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox posted on X that he spoke to Trump. He wrote that “we will bring to justice the individual responsible for this tragedy.”

He added that “we are praying for Charlie’s wife, daughter, and son.”

A South Korean charter plane has arrived in Atlanta to take home Korean workers detained in an immigration raid in Georgia last week, but airport officials said the return flight with the workers on board planned for Wednesday had been canceled.

After a high-level meeting between U.S. and South Korean officials Wednesday morning, there was no immediate word on when the workers would be able to leave. A spokesperson for Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport said Wednesday afternoon that a planned flight had been canceled and had not been rescheduled.

A total of 475 workers, more than 300 of them South Koreans, were rounded up in the Sept. 4 raid at the battery factory under construction at Hyundai’s sprawling auto plant. U.S. authorities released video showing some being shackled with chains around their hands, ankles and waists, causing shock and a sense of betrayal among many in South Korea, a key U.S. ally.

▶ Read more about detained Korean workers

Former Vice President Kamala Harris is joining the bipartisan condemnation of political violence.

“I am deeply disturbed by the shooting in Utah. Doug and I send our prayers to Charlie Kirk and his family,” she wrote on X, adding that “political violence has no place in America.”

Donald Trump’s White House recently ended Harris’ Secret Service protection, which had been extended under an order issued while Joe Biden was still president.

Even as President Donald Trump has signaled a National Guard deployment in Chicago isn’t imminent, Illinois leaders aren’t so sure.

Gov. JB Pritzker has fought back against the possibility of federal intervention in the nation’s third-largest city for weeks. Trump has continually changed his stance on where he’ll deploy troops next.

“I’m not convinced that we’re not going to see military troops on the ground,” Pritzker told reporters Wednesday. “We don’t know.”

The Trump administration is still planning an immigration crackdown in Chicago and has recently publicized more immigration arrests in the city.

The Trump administration is appearing to step back from the possibility of a promised National Guard deployment in Chicago anytime soon.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday accused leaders in Illinois of being uncooperative.

“We want Chicago to ask us for the help and they’re not going to do that,” she told reporters after an unrelated event in suburban Chicago where federal agents seized vaping products.

A night earlier President Donald Trump said he was poised to name another city where local leaders would welcome federal intervention.

The Republican’s administration has also promised an largescale immigration crackdown in Chicago and recently stepped up arrests around the city.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other administration officials are vowing to crack down on deceptive drug ads, but they may encounter some major obstacles.

President Donald Trump signed a memo Tuesday directing the FDA and other agencies to enforce transparency in pharmaceutical promotions. The FDA plans to issue warnings to drugmakers over misleading ads.

Among the agency’s challenges: likely legal pushback and staffing cuts. The administration also says it wants to reverse a 1997 rule allowing brief summaries of drug risks in TV ads, but that process could take years. The agency also has long struggled to police social media promotions.

Massachusetts advocates said ICE operations had been “eerily quiet” in the state after U.S. immigration enforcement began its “Patriot 2.0” campaign in Boston over the weekend.

“It feels like waiting for the other shoe to drop,” said Robin Nice, a local immigration attorney.

Elizabeth Sweet, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, said her team had seen an increase in ICE vehicles patrolling in the greater Boston area, but it wasn’t clear if that had translated to more arrests.

“The threat of this is really increasing the fear in communities, which is already incredibly high,” she said.

The Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday detailed the arrests of seven immigrants since Saturday, which Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said represent “the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens” living in Massachusetts.

The seven individuals arrested by ICE included a 38-year-old man from Guatemala who had previously been arrested on assault-related charges.

Trump posted on social media urging that, “we must all pray for Charlie Kirk.”

“A great guy from top to bottom. GOD BLESS HIM!” the president wrote.

Condemnation of the shooting spread across the political spectrum.

“The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible,” Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom posted on X.

Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, was shot Wednesday at an event at a Utah college, Turning Point said.

“We are confirming that he was shot and we are praying for Charlie,” said Aubrey Laitsch, public relations manager for Turning Point USA.

Kirk was attending an event at Utah Valley University.

The shooting comes amid a spike in political violence in the United States across all parts of the ideological spectrum. The attacks include the assassination of a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband at their house in June, the firebombing of a Colorado parade to demand Hamas release hostages, and a fire set at the house of Pennsylvania’s governor, who is Jewish, in April. The most notorious of these events is the shooting of President Donald Trump during a campaign rally last year.

▶ Read more about shooting at Charlie Kirk shooting

▶ Read more about shooting at Charlie Kirk shooting

Vice President JD Vance posted on X asking followers to pray for Charlie Kirk.

“Say a prayer for Charlie Kirk, a genuinely good guy and a young father,” Vance said.

Attorney General Pam Bondi was asked at a news conference about Trump’s call for the death penalty for Decarlos Brown Jr, the man charged with killing Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee, on a North Carolina train.

“There can be no other option!!!” the president wrote on social media.

Bondi said the death penalty “is certainly on the table” but a decision won’t be made until after he is formally indicted.

The case has become latest flashpoint in the debate over whether cities such as Charlotte are adequately addressing violent crime, mental illness and transit safety.

“Immigration enforcement is not what MPD does,” Mayor Muriel Bowser said at an event Wednesday, using an acronym for the local police department. With the emergency ending overnight Wednesday, “it won’t be what MPD does in the future.”

The district’s local police have been drawn into hundreds, if not thousands of federal law enforcement operations during the last 30 days, the result of President Donald Trump’s executive order declaring a crime emergency in the city. Many of the arrests made have been immigration related.

Bowser has expressed her concern on multiple occasions about the immigration enforcement and talked about the fear it was causing among the community.

The Trump administration is appealing a ruling blocking the president from immediately firing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook as he seeks more control over the traditionally independent board.

The notice of appeal came hours after the U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb handed down the ruling late Tuesday.

The White House insists Trump has the right to fire Cook over mortgage fraud allegations from before she joined the Fed.

Her lawsuit denies the allegations and says the firing was unlawful.

The case could soon reach the Supreme Court, which has allowed Trump to fire members of other independent agencies but suggested that power has limitations at the Federal Reserve.

Data from President Donald Trump’s federal law enforcement operation in Washington shows that more than 40% of the arrests made in its first 30 days were immigration related.

Trump has portrayed the operation as focused on crime. The data, analyzed by The Associated Press, underscores that the administration continued to advance its hardline immigration agenda in the D.C. operation.

▶ Read more about D.C. intervention

Three high-ranking FBI officials were fired last month in a “campaign of retribution” carried out by a director who knew better but caved to political pressure from the Trump administration so he could keep his own position, according to a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday that seeks reinstatement of the agents.

The complaint asserts that Director Kash Patel indicated directly to one of the ousted agents, Brian Driscoll, that he knew the firings were “likely illegal” but was powerless to stop them because the White House and the Justice Department were determined to remove all agents who helped investigate President Donald Trump. It quotes Patel as having told Driscoll in a conversation last month “the FBI tried to put the president in jail and he hasn’t forgotten it.”

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Driscoll, Steve Jensen and Spencer Evans, three of five agents known to have been fired last month in a purge that current and former officials say has unnerved the workforce. It represents a legal challenge from the top rungs of the FBI’s leadership ladder to a flood of departures under Trump’s Republican administration that has wiped out decades of experience.

Fired agents have leveled unflattering allegations of a law enforcement agency whose personnel moves are shaped by the White House and guided more by politics than by public safety.

▶ Read more about Fired FBI officials

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth held calls with their counterparts in China.

It comes as Washington and Beijing have expressed interest in U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping meeting later this year or early next year.

Rubio on Wednesday emphasized in a call with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi the importance of open and constructive communication on a range of issues, the State Department said.

A day earlier, Hegseth made clear to Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun that the U.S. does not seek conflict with China nor is it pursuing regime change but has vital interests in the Asia-Pacific, the Pentagon said.

China’s official Xinhua news agency said Dong told Hegseth by video call Tuesday that Beijing firmly opposes certain countries’ “infringement and provocation” and “deliberate incitement.”

Congress did not extend President Donald Trump’s Aug. 11 order that federalized the Washington, D.C., city police force and launched a surge of law enforcement into the city.

The takeover will end at midnight, according to Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office.

In practical terms, what citizens see might not change much: D.C. guard members’ orders have been extended through December, and they are under the president’s direct command, unlike in the states, where governors command their National Guard contingents.

Meanwhile, a House committee has begun debating 13 bills that, if approved, would wrest away even more of the city’s governing ability. Republicans argue that continued federal intervention is needed to bring safety to the nation’s capital and is justified by D.C.’s unique status as subject to the authority of Congress.

Trump’s takeover of D.C.’s policing and Wednesday’s discussions by the House underscore how interlinked the nation’s capital is with the federal government and how much the city’s capacity to govern is beholden to federal decisions.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries declined to directly address newly released an excerpt from former Vice President Kamala Harris’s forthcoming book, in which she writes that Joe Biden’s decision to run for a second term “should have been more than a personal decision.”

But Jeffries did make clear that he supported Biden’s eventual withdrawal from the race.

“I’m not in a position to comment, having not read the excerpt and certainly not having read the book,” Jeffries said. “Joe Biden made the correct decision not to seek reelection.”

Interior Sec. Doug Burgum on Wednesday proposed cancelling a public lands management rule that put conservation on equal footing with development.

The move is in line with the Republican administration’s agenda to open more taxpayer-owned tracts to drilling, logging, mining and grazing.

Industry and agriculture groups were bitterly opposed to the Biden-era rule and lobbied Republicans to reverse it. Supporters argued that conservation was a long-neglected facet of the Bureau of Land Management’s mission under the 1976 Federal Lands Policy Management Act.

The bureau oversees about 10% of the land in the U.S. — an area larger than Texas.

The District of Columbia’s budget would get a boost under changes the White House is seeking as part of a stop-gap spending measure Congress must pass this month to avoid a government shutdown.

In March, Congress omitted standard language regarding the city’s budget, which resulted in the District keeping funding at 2024 levels. At the time, city officials projected the omission would lead to significant cuts to police, education and other services.

The White House request just submitted to Congress clarifies the district has the authority to spend in fiscal year 2026 the money it raises through local taxes.

The request is part of an 18-page list of adjustments that the White House wants including in any stopgap funding bill. It’s a positive signal for the district after the Republican-led House had declined for months to take up a DC funding fix.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer is forcing a vote on a measure to force the Department of Justice to release the case files on the late Jeffrey Epstein.

Schumer, a New York Democrat, is proposing an amendment to the Senate’s annual military authorization bill that would force Attorney General Pam Bondi to release the Epstein files. Congressional Democrats have been hammering on the issue for weeks as President Donald Trump has resisted releasing the information.

“We’re going to keep fighting until these files are fully released,” Schumer said in a video on social media shortly after he filed the amendment.

The Senate will vote on the defense bill this week, but the timing of the vote on Schumer’s amendment was unclear.

“What’s with Russia violating Poland’s airspace with drones? Here we go!” Trump said in a posting on his Truth Social platform late Wednesday morning.

White House officials did not immediately respond to queries about Trump’s first comments after Poland announced that several Russian drones entered its territory over the course of many hours and were shot down with help from NATO allies.

Trump was scheduled to speak on Wednesday with Polish President Karol Nawrocki.

The president on Wednesday night is hosting the second gathering at what he’s dubbed the “Rose Garden Club,” where he paved over the lawn of the White House Rose Garden and installed tables and chairs.

Wednesday’s guests are set to include members of the president’s Cabinet and White House staff, according to two White House officials who were not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Last week, Trump hosted Republican members of Congress in the space for a dinner.

Democratic Rep. Lateefah Simon, who represents Oakland, Calif., critiqued the White House for shuttering its Office of Gun Violence prevention and ceasing funds for some community service programs meant to promote public safety with precautionary measures.

“If we want safe communities, we will fully fund teachers in the city of Washington, DC, there are a limited amount of fully funded services for young people with mental health issues, so let’s fully fund that,” Simon said. “Let’s fully fund job programs for every young person.”

“You can’t incarcerate your way out of out of substance abuse disorder,” said Democratic Rep. Wesley Bell, who represents Ferguson, Mo. Bell introduced an amendment that would boost funding for addiction remediation programs and other anti-crime efforts.

“If you send somebody with mental health to jail, they’re just going to come out with a worse problem and they’re likely to graduate to violent crime.”

Republicans in Charlotte say the stabbing death of a woman on a commuter train signals it’s long past time local residents vote out Democrats leading North Carolina’s largest city. GOP candidates for mayor and city council joined state party officials for a news conference at a light rail station the day after the city’s primary election.

Police say Iryna Zarutska was fatally stabbed on a train Aug. 22. A man with a lengthy criminal record has been charged with murder.

Four-term Democratic Mayor Vi Lyles easily won her primary Tuesday and will face Republican Terrie Donovan in November’s general election. Republicans have accused Lyles and other Democrats of failing to keep the transit system safe and for other loose criminal justice policies.

“This is no longer a matter of voting red or voting blue. This is a matter of voting for common sense,” Donovan said at the news conference. “We don’t just deserve change, we demand change.”

There hasn’t been a GOP mayor in Charlotte since 2009. Success for Donovan and other GOP candidates likely will depend on the city’s large bloc of unaffiliated voters.

She told dozens of Washington residents attending the hearing that safety concerns justify expanding military deployments in cities across the country, following Trump’s surge of federal troops and law enforcement agents into the nation’s capital.

“You know it because in your communities, you know people and you witness it, there’s drive by shootings, there’s drug deals, and the youths of this community are being done wrong, absolutely being done wrong,” the Georgia Republican said, repeating dystopian rhetoric about public safety in the capital and other cities.

“And I, 100%, and some of my colleagues, 100% support the use of the National Guard to clean up the crime and stop the criminals from murdering and raping and stealing and making cities unsafe,” said Greene. “And that’s the reality of where we are today. And so this debate can continue back and forth, but it is ridiculous. Fighting for criminals is a losing argument.”

“This body is full of lap dogs doing exactly what the President wants, when he wants. It’s not pushing back,” said Rep. Maxwell Frost, a Florida Democrat and the youngest member of Congress.

Frost accused his Republican colleagues on the Oversight Committee of hypocrisy as they try to undo home rule in the nation’s capital, contrary to GOP rhetoric about “a party that’s supposed to be about states’ rights and local rule and people the consent of the governed, which is fundamental to our Constitution and this country.”

Frost then called for DC statehood, saying city residents “want to be represented by the government that they pay taxes to.”

Several dozen attendees wearing “FREE DC” shirts and hats clapped and cheered at his remarks.

Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, DC’s non-voting member of Congress, said that several bills being debated on the House Oversight Committee would limit Washington’s ability to govern itself in the limited manner afforded to it by federal law.

“This bill disparages DC and perpetuates the misinformation and disinformation the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress have spread about the safety and beauty of DC,” Norton said. “I encourage tourists to continue to visit DC, and businesses and people to continue to move this wonderful city. DC is a world-class city, full stop.”

Comer said the “Make the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful Act” would benefit residents by establishing a commission charged with administering the city. The legislation also would codify Trump’s executive order federalizing the city’s police force and supplant municipal policies.

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser and congressional Democrats have called for greater autonomy — and voting rights in Congress. But House Republicans say the Constitution provided otherwise.

“There is no other municipality addressed in Article I, Section VIII of the Constitution,” said Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona. He argued that residents should understand and accept the city’s unique constitutional situation. “You chose to live in it,” he said.

“It was clearly recognized that DC was going to have a unique role to play for the entire republic and the citizens of the envisioned capital would enjoy a special access to government to be uniquely represented,” said Rep. Clay Higgins, a Louisiana Republican.

The District of Columbia is a federal district. While Congress delegated much of the city’s day-to-day operational authority to the local government under the Home Rule Act of 1973, Congress reserves the power to reinforce its authority over the city, and federal laws passed by Congress itself govern how interventions by Capitol Hill or the White House are carried out.

This access to lawmakers effectively removed the residents’ need for other forms of representation, Higgins argued. “This is the way the nation’s capital governance was envisioned.”

Oversight Chairman James Comer accused local officials of allowing crime to “flourish” in Washington, D.C. before opening debate on “several pieces of legislation to reinforce President Trump’s efforts to make Washington, D.C. safe again.”

Ranking member Robert Garcia, a Democrat, called it a “blatant power grab” by Republicans who are “hijacking authority” from local leaders and residents.

The Oversight Committee is working a slate of bills related to D.C. that it aims to send to the GOP-led House for votes.

They say the GOP is misleading the public while failing to support law enforcement with more funding in a state budget that the Republican-controlled General Assembly was supposed to approve months ago.

The U.S. Senate campaign of Democrat Roy Cooper points to what it considers his long history fighting crime as governor and attorney general.

Cooper’s likely Senate rival, the former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Whatley, tried to link the violence to Cooper’s creation of a task force on solutions to racial bias in the criminal justice system. But Cooper never gave the task force any authority to release state prisoners.

Mayor Vi Lyles posted an open letter on social media late Monday, calling the refugee’s death a “tragic failure by the courts and magistrates.”

“Our police officers arrest people only to have them quickly released, which undermines our ability to protect our community and ensure safety,” Lyles added. “We need a bipartisan solution to address repeat offenders who do not face consequences for their actions and those who cannot get treatment for their mental illness and are allowed to be on the streets.”

Caine told attendees at the Billington Cybersecurity Summit in Washington that there are a “number of serious and simultaneous events” including conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine and escalating tensions in Asia and the Western hemisphere. With such upheaval in the world, sharing information is even more critical, he said.

“It’s always been a frustration from our allies and partners, and understandably so,” Caine said of the flow of defense information from the U.S. “I think we’re doing a good job at that. We could always do better.”

Caine told the crowd of mostly tech industry insiders that the Pentagon must also improve its relationship with the private sector to make it easier for start-ups and established companies to do business with the government, and to ensure America’s military is equipped with the latest technology.

Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says the U.S. must improve its sharing of intelligence and information with key allies as global tensions rise and America’s adversaries grow more technologically sophisticated.

Caine was speaking at a cybersecurity conference on Wednesday when he said the U.S. and its allies have improved their technical cooperation in the face of threats from China, Russia and Iran.

But technological innovations by adversaries as well as enhanced cyber threats show more must be done, Caine said. Autonomous systems, cyber warfare and artificial intelligence mean information about weapons, tactics and capabilities is more important than ever, he said.

The National Park Service had until July 18 to flag “inappropriate” signs, exhibits and other material, according to a document shared with the AP by the National Parks Conservation Association, which obtained internal information from an anonymous source within the Interior Department. The public was also encouraged to participate.

And the administration said it would remove all “inappropriate” material by Sept. 17, according to The New York Times, citing internal agency documents.

“Pretending that the bad stuff never happened is not going to make it go away,” said Alan Spears, a senior director with the National Parks Conservation Association, a nonpartisan group separate from the national parks system that advocates for it. “We need to be able to talk about these things if we’re going to have any hope of bringing people together.”

▶ Here’s a look at some of the material flagged for review

Does the Everglades National Park represent a slight to development in America? Does mentioning missionaries, who sought to destroy the language and culture of Alaska Natives, cast American history in a negative light? How about the memoir of an enslaved girl for sale in a park’s bookstore?

These are some of dozens of items National Park Service employees flagged as potentially “disparaging” to Americans, according to screenshots shared with The Associated Press.

Trump ordered park employees to flag any public materials that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living,” and instead “focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people or, with respect to natural features, the beauty, abundance, and grandeur of the American landscape.”

Sean Duffy also threatened to pull federal funding if his department’s investigation finds security problems in the North Carolina city’s mass transit system.

Duffy and Trump are pointing to last month’s killing of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a train last month as evidence that cities led by Democrats aren’t doing enough to combat crime.

Duffy blamed her death on the “soft on crime policies” of local leaders and said this continues to put the traveling public at risk. His department said there have been six attacks on transit workers in Charlotte this year, up from just one last year, and higher than the national average.

Two unions representing millions of school employees nationwide are joining a federal court challenge of the Trump administration, saying immigration arrests near schools are terrorizing children and teachers, leading some students to drop out.

A day after he took office, Trump rescinded a Department of Homeland Security memo that urged immigration agents to steer clear of schools and churches.

The American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association say the move was illegal. The unions are joining an ongoing lawsuit filed by a farmworker union and a group of churches. The amended lawsuit was filed Tuesday in a federal court in Eugene, Oregon.

The U.S. president will speak on Wednesday with Polish President Karol Nawrocki, according to a White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Trump has not yet made any public comments yet about Poland’s report Wednesday that it shot down Russian drones that violated its airspace.

The ruling Tuesday by a federal judge, which almost certainly will be appealed, is a blow to the Trump administration’s efforts to assert more control over the U.S. central bank, which is traditionally independent from day-to-day politics so that it can better achieve its congressionally mandated goals of stable prices and maximum employment.

U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb ruled that Cook’s challenge would likely prevail. A Trump appointee accused Cook of mortgage fraud, saying she simultaneously claimed two properties she bought before joining the Fed were her “primary residences,” which could have resulted in lower down payments and mortgage rates.

But the judge said such allegations don't legally justify her firing, since by law, Fed governors can only be removed “for cause,” which Cobb said was limited to actions taken during a governor’s time in office.

The department’s producer price index — which captures inflation in the supply chain before it hits consumers — showed that wholesale inflation decelerated by 0.1% in August after advancing 0.7% in July. It’s a possible sign that retailers and wholesalers are absorbing the cost of Trump’s sweeping taxes on imports, and it makes it even more likely that the Fed will cut its benchmark interest rate next week for the first time this year.

Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core producer prices also fell 0.1% from July and were up 2.8% from a year earlier.

The numbers were lower than economists had forecast. Trump’s tariffs were widely expected to send prices higher, but so far their impact has been muted. “The big picture remains that tariff effects are feeding through only slowly,’′ economist Stephen Brown of Capital Economics wrote in a commentary.

A Democratic former school board member who garnered attention for defeating a future cofounder of Moms for Liberty has announced her 2026 bid for the U.S. Senate in Florida.

Jennifer Jenkins unseated Tina Descovich on the Brevard County School Board in 2020 in a county that Trump had carried by nearly 20 points. Now she’s challenging Republican Sen. Ashley Moody, who faces a special election to hold on to her seat after Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed her to succeed Marco Rubio, who was tapped by Trump to become secretary of state.

“Ashley Moody doesn’t know what it’s like to struggle paying for food, housing, health care and day care. But I do,” Jenkins said in a campaign launch video.

The president in a post on his social media network Wednesday morning referred to the suspect in the stabbing death of a Ukrainian woman on a train in Charlotte, N.C. as an “ANIMAL” and said he should be tried quickly “and only awarded THE DEATH PENALTY.”

“There can be no other option!!!” he wrote.

The suspect, Decarlos Brown Jr., had served time in prison, been briefly committed for schizophrenia and was arrested earlier this year after repeatedly calling 911 from a hospital. Then a judge released him without bail.

The justices will hear the case in November, a lightning-fast timetable by the court’s typical pace. The tariffs will stay in place in the meantime.

The court agreed to take up an appeal from the Trump administration after lower courts found most of his tariffs illegal. The small businesses and states that challenged the tariffs on goods from almost every country in the world say they have driven businesses nearly to bankruptcy.

Trying to walk a delicate line following Israel’s attack on Hamas officials in Doha, he said he was “not thrilled” about the strike while stopping short of condemning Israel for carrying out an audacious military operation on the soil of another major U.S. ally.

Qatar has played a key role mediating between the U.S. and Iran and its proxies, including during talks with Tehran-backed Hamas as the war with Israel in Gaza grinds on.

▶ Read more about Trump, Qatar and Israel

After House Democrats released a picture of a birthday message, which features the drawing of a curvaceous woman, purportedly signed by Trump for Jeffrey Epstein, Republicans rushed to support the president’s assertions that he had nothing to do with the letter.

Trump on Tuesday said he wouldn’t “comment on something that’s a dead issue.” Trump sued the Wall Street Journal and its owner over a report that described such a page in detail.

The meeting between Marco Rubio and South Korea’s Foreign Minister Cho Hyun is set for the White House Wednesday morning.

A total of 475 workers, more than 300 of them South Koreans, were rounded up in the Sept. 4 raid at the battery factory under construction at Hyundai’s sprawling auto plant west of Savannah. Some were shown being shackled with chains around their hands, ankles and waists in video released by U.S. authorities.

Hyun traveled to Washington tasked with bringing them home. South Korean media reported that a charter plane left for the U.S. to bring them back.