Agriculture secretary commits to ‘waiving red tape’ to allow ranchers to process and sell their own beef
Brooke Rollins, the president’s agriculture secretary said there would be “big announcements” next week in order to facilitate Donald Trump’s pledge to allow ranchers and farmers the ability to process their own food and avoid the “nasty monopoly” of large processing plants.
Rollins said it was a “matter of national security” that the US is able to “feed and fuel ourselves”. She outlined that her department would waive “red tape in processing” and expand ranchers ability to “sell across state lines”, as well as other measures.
The agriculture secretary previously defended the president’s decision to pause higher tariffs on 300,000 metric tons of foreign beef.
Earlier this week she called the move “a very short-term fix” to “get lower cost beef on to American plates” in an interview with Spectrum News. However, Rollins admitted that she did not know where the beef would be imported from. “I am actually not part of any of those conversations, so I am not sure what that looks like. I think we’ll know very soon,” she said.
Key events
As we reported earlier, Fed chair Kevin Warsh indicated today that the US Federal Reserve is not done fighting high inflation, emphasizing, in his first major speech in the role, that it was “the Fed’s job to deliver stable prices”.
Warsh didn’t indicate where the Fed will take interest rates in the coming months, despite US inflation remaining stubbornly above the central bank’s 2% target amid Donald Trump’s war against Iran. But his speech was taken by markets as a signal that rates may rise in the coming months, a move that may put him at odds with the president, who has aggressively called for rates to be cut.
My colleague Gaya Gupta has the story:
Trump announces he will sign an order to create a US Space Academy
In his remarks, Donald Trump said he will sign an executive order to create a US Space Academy, a new institution modeled on West Point and other top US military service academies.
“It’s clear that we need to educate and train an entire generation of skilled service members, engineers, civil operators,” Trump said during a visit to Nasa’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, “and that’s why in a few moments we’re going to get an executive order to begin the process of creating a new national academy. It’s called the US Space Academy.”
He went on:
You think of West Point, and you think of Annapolis, and you think of the Air Force Academy, and you think of the Coast Guard Academies. Great, they’re all great, but we’re going to have now the Space Force. We’re going to have an academy for what the people in this room love the most.
The president added: “A nation cannot be first on Earth if we’re going to be second in space. Just not going to happen. Somehow, it just doesn’t work that way.”
Trump also said Nasa has begun work on what he called the first nuclear-powered interplanetary spacecraft, which he said was expected to launch on a mission to Mars in 2028. He said the vessel could be the first in a larger US fleet aimed at making space travel more routine.
Donald Trump is in Houston, Texas, today. He is about to present the four Nasa Artemis II crew members with the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.
We’ll bring you the latest lines.
Melody Schreiber
Anti-vaccine activists are trying to track down the families of two people, including at least one newborn, who died after contracting measles in Pennsylvania, as Governor Josh Shapiro tangles with Robert F Kennedy Jr over his “inaccurate and misleading claims”.
Kennedy, the secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), suggested late on Wednesday that the deaths in the state may have been “fabricated” after a Republican coroner – an elected political office in Lancaster county – claimed one of the measles-associated deaths was unrelated to the virus, although the given cause would be consistent with measles.
Brian Hooker at Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine organization that until recently was led by Kennedy, said in a recent video that the organization is “trying to get boots on the ground” and “do outreach” in Pennsylvania.
Kennedy is “an anti-vaccine activist in the role of the most powerful public health person in this country”, said Paul Offit, an infectious diseases physician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “It’s like the world’s turned upside down.”
It would be helpful to know the deceased patients’ ages and more information about their deaths, he added. “By not having that information, it allows fertile ground for the kind of conspiracy theory that RFK Jr puts out there, where he said in some posts that these weren’t measles deaths.”
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a Thursday post on X that it was “working to determine what actually occurred”, including “whether the two reported deaths were caused by measles”. The HHS did not respond to the Guardian’s questions about whether Kennedy recommends the vaccine or whether the newly confirmed CDC director, Erica Schwartz, would make a statement about the outbreak and the need for vaccination.
Tom Tiffany, the Republican nominee for Wisconsin governor, pushed back on the president’s executive order to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America”.
“The Great Lakes are Great Lakes, and we should leave them that way,” Tiffany, who currently serves as a congressman and was endorsed by Donald Trump in his gubernatorial race, said at a campaign event in Green Bay.
A reminder that on Wednesday Trump signed an order directing the federal government to rename Lake Ontario, making it Lake America, amid his escalating trade war with Canada. However, Trump has no authority to rename Canada’s portion of the lake, nor to compel Canada, international legal bodies, international mapmakers or the rest of the world to adopt a new name.
Over the weekend, negotiations between Washington and Ottawa collapsed and the US imposed a 50% tariff on several Canadian imports, with Trump threatening another round of 50% duties on Canadian steel, trucks, cars and auto parts to take effect in the new year. Carney hit back with 25-50% tariffs on hundreds of US goods.
Trump to forego visit to ground zero for 25th anniversary of 9/11 – report
Donald Trump will mark the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks by delivering remarks at the Pentagon instead of visiting ground zero, according to a report by CNN.
Citing two unnamed sources briefed on the plan, CNN reports that the president is not attending the ceremony at the World Trade Center, in part, because he wants to speak on the occasion, and there is a longstanding policy that politicians are not permitted to speak at the anniversary event in New York.
Trump will be at the Pentagon, which was the site of another attack on the same day, while vice-president JD Vance will attend the memorial in Manhattan, according to CNN’s sources.
Ed Pilkington
Autism groups and researchers have reacted with alarm to a federal research roadmap drawn up by advisers handpicked by the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, fearing it will promote unproven fringe therapies at the expense of promising genetic research.
A slew of scientific bodies and groups within the autism community are warning that the 336-page plan risks deflecting federal dollars away from potentially groundbreaking genetic research in favor of unreliable alternative therapies.
There is little or no evidence, they say, that many of the proposed treatments work, or that they even fit the definition of autism.
“So much of the plan is fringe science that is absolutely not ready for prime time,” said Helen Tager-Flusberg, an emeritus professor at Boston University and founder of the Coalition of Autism Scientists.
Alliances of autistic people are especially worried that the plan could make it easier for them to be sent to institutions. The plan calls for government agencies to try out “supported-living models” such as “farmstead or campus-based communities”, which the groups fear could revive forms of institutional confinement.
The strategic plan is the work of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC), a body that for 25 years has advised US health secretaries on federal efforts related to autism.
In January, Kennedy overhauled the panel, replacing prominent experts with several anti-vaccine advocates who have promoted dangerous remedies for autism including the heavy-metal removal process known as “chelation therapy” and the use of industrial bleach.
The strategic plan completed its public consultation last week, inviting comments from the autism community, researchers and clinicians. Those comments will now be considered before a final version is crafted.
Warsh says Fed will have ‘work to do’ on high inflation unless prices ease
Kevin Warsh has warned that there are concerning signs that US inflation is running too high, meaning the Federal Reserve may have “work to do” unless price pressures ease.
In his speech to the Jackson Hole symposium today, the chair of the Federal Reserve pointed to signs that some prices are rising rather faser than the central bank’s 2% target.
Warsh indicated that he is more concerned about inflation, than the labor market, declaring that “the Fed’s predominant focus right now should be on prices.”
My colleagues are covering the latest here:
Agriculture secretary commits to ‘waiving red tape’ to allow ranchers to process and sell their own beef
Brooke Rollins, the president’s agriculture secretary said there would be “big announcements” next week in order to facilitate Donald Trump’s pledge to allow ranchers and farmers the ability to process their own food and avoid the “nasty monopoly” of large processing plants.
Rollins said it was a “matter of national security” that the US is able to “feed and fuel ourselves”. She outlined that her department would waive “red tape in processing” and expand ranchers ability to “sell across state lines”, as well as other measures.
The agriculture secretary previously defended the president’s decision to pause higher tariffs on 300,000 metric tons of foreign beef.
Earlier this week she called the move “a very short-term fix” to “get lower cost beef on to American plates” in an interview with Spectrum News. However, Rollins admitted that she did not know where the beef would be imported from. “I am actually not part of any of those conversations, so I am not sure what that looks like. I think we’ll know very soon,” she said.
A reminder that we are covering the latest out of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where Kevin Warsh – the new chair of the Federal Reserve – will deliver his first speech as the head of the US central bank at the annual economic policy symposium.
As my colleagues note, Warsh is under pressure to provide clarity on how the Federal Reserve should handle with inflation if price pressures don’t abate.
A reminder that inflation in the US cooled slightly in July as the annualized inflation rate dipped down to 3.4%, though prices still remain higher than levels seen before the war with Iran. Price increases hit a three-year high in May, with annual inflation reaching 4.2%.
Maya Yang
More than 400 endangered animal and plant species could face accelerated extinction after the Donald Trump administration’s decision to rescind a rule that has protected old-growth forests for more than two decades.
According to a new report from the Center for Biological Diversity, the rollback of the Bill Clinton-era “roadless rule” could put 7.4m acres of endangered-species habitat and nearly 1,800 miles of protected rivers and streams at risk, while opening more than 45m acres of national forests to roads, drilling and logging.
The Trump administration moved last week to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, citing “outdated restrictions [that] have kept tens of millions of forested acres off-limits to the very treatments that improve forest health and reduce wildfire risk to our communities”.
Conservationists have criticized the decision. “Our national forests are home to some of America’s most iconic animals, from grizzlies to hellbenders. These forests provide clean drinking water to countless communities. Bulldozing more roads through them will mean dirtier water, fragmented wildlife habitat and greater wildfire risk,” said Randi Spivak, public lands policy director at the Center for Biological Diversity.
Read more:
Trump to authorize ranchers and farmers to process their own food amid backlash over foreign beef imports
Donald Trump said today that he will authorize cattle ranchers and farmers to process their own food.
This comes after the president’s interview with conservative commentator Glenn Beck, where the radio host implored Trump to “look at “the meat processing cartel” and suggested easing regulations for ranchers to slaughter their own cattle. The president has faced backlash in recent days from his own party for suspending higher tariffs on 300,000 metric tons of foreign beef to lower grocery store prices. Several Republicans and industry leaders say this is a short-term solution that will hinder cattle ranchers from building out their herd, amid a 75-year low.
“I have heard that they have had a tremendous problem with the Big Processors, who many say are a nasty Monopoly,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “There are, essentially, 4 of them, a very non competitive number, and they make life miserable for our wonderful Farmers and Ranchers, and I can’t let that happen.”
Donald Trump is still in Houston, Texas. Today, he’ll present the congressional Space Medal of Honor at 11am ET, and then he’ll call the International Space Station at 12pm ET, before traveling back to Washington.
We’ll bring you the latest lines as that gets under way.
Jonathan Freedland speaks to Dan Alexander of Forbes about how Donald Trump made so much money last year at the same time trade wars, military wars and a rising national debt hurt the US economy.
Listen/watch here:
Tom Perkins
Every day $1bn worth of goods crosses the river dividing Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario, two largely blue-collar US and Canadian cities that have come to act as one in the creation of North America’s auto industry.
News this week of Donald Trump’s escalating trade spat with Canada has everyone worried. Political and economic leaders and observers labeled the move an act of “hubris”, blamed Trump’s “ego”, and called the escalation “insanity”.
“We don’t need Canada, they need us,” Trump declared.
But many are hoping that Trump’s plans to impose 50% tariffs on Canadian goods from 1 January, covering everything from automobiles to honey to hockey sticks, will prove another empty threat and cite the upcoming midterm elections as a pivotal reason the plan may be scrapped.
Control of the US Congress hangs in the balance and will almost certainly be decided by several close Michigan races. It also comes just two months after polling highlighted Michiganders’ fatigue with and opposition to the president’s unprecedented tariff program.
By a 63%-31% margin, residents here oppose tariffs on Canadian goods, according to a June Epic-MRA poll, including 35% of Republicans. Meanwhile, nearly 75% of Michiganders said the tariffs are fueling high prices.
US civil rights leaders and politicians to march on Washington for voting protections
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and senator Bernie Sanders are due to take part in the 63rd anniversary of the March on Washington later today.
The original march, in 1963, was to advocate for social justice and civil rights for Black Americans, culminating in Martin Luther King Jr’s I Have a Dream speech.
This year’s event is due to focus on voting rights in the wake of the United States supreme court’s decision to overturn section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, with attendees also expected to include Al Sharpton, Martin Luther King III, Arndrea Waters King and congressional black caucus chair Yvette Clarke.
“Defending the vote means defending the foundation of our democracy,” Martin Luther King III said in a statement to the Associated Press. “Sixty-three years after my father stood at the Lincoln Memorial, we are called to march again, not only in remembrance, but in action.”
In April, the supreme court struck down Louisiana’s congressional map and substantially rewrote section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, dismantling key protections against racial gerrymandering.
Campaign organisers told the AP that the decision had intensified a long-running fight over Black political representation. They describe the 28 August action as part of “the same call our elders answered” more than 60 years ago on their campaign website, and have planned a symbolic return to the Lincoln Memorial where King addressed voters during the peak of the civil rights movement.
“We return to the ground where a quarter million Americans once stood for jobs and freedom, and we carry their unfinished work into a new generation,” organisers said.
Pentagon’s blacklisting of Anthropic was unlawful, US judge rules
A US federal judge ruled Thursday that sanctions imposed in February by the Trump administration against AI giant Anthropic were illegal, finding that the government had punished the artificial intelligence company for publicly criticising the Pentagon.
“The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics,” Judge Rita Lin said in a 59-page decision.
She barred the federal agencies named in the lawsuit from enforcing President Donald Trump’s order to stop using the tools of Anthropic – creator of the Claude AI models – and overturned defense secretary Pete Hegseth’s designation of the company as a “supply chain risk”, a status previously reserved for foreign firms.
The ruling makes permanent the temporary suspension of sanctions ordered by the judge in March and takes effect immediately. The government may appeal.
“We welcome the court’s ruling that this supply chain risk designation was unlawful,” an Anthropic spokesperson said.
Hegseth’s unprecedented move, which followed Anthropic’s refusal to allow the military to use AI chatbot Claude for US surveillance or autonomous weapons, blocked Anthropic from certain military contracts. Anthropic executives have said it could cost the company billions of dollars in lost business and reputational harm.
Trump had lashed out at the company after its refusal, describing it in a February social media post as “a radical left, woke company” and “out-of-control”.
Trump official faces inquiry over claims he diverted wildfire resources to his own property
Anna Betts
Donald Trump’s administration is facing calls to launch an investigation into allegations that Michael Boren, a senior official who oversees the US Forest Service, pressed agency staff to deploy additional resources to fight a fire burning near his Idaho ranch.
Three Democratic senators accused Boren of “inappropriate interference” in a letter seen by the Guardian, demanding answers from Brooke Rollins, US agricultural secretary. Boren serves as undersecretary of agriculture for natural resources and environment.
Senators Ron Wyden, Amy Klobuchar and Martin Heinrich expressed “serious concern” over reports that Boren used his federal government position in July to remove firefighting personnel and resources from active fires elsewhere to tackle a fire near his private ranch in Idaho.
“We request a full investigation into the nature and extent of Boren’s involvement in response to the Cabin Creek Fire and a detailed accounting of the safeguards the agency has implemented or plans to implement to prevent political interference and conflicts of interest in wildfire response,” they wrote.
Their letter follows a report from the Washington Post earlier this month, in which several forest service officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that Boren – who reportedly owns a 480-acre ranch in the Sawtooth national recreation area – contacted forest service officials multiple times in mid-July to question why more aircraft were not being used to fight the Cabin Creek fire in Idaho, which spread across several acres in Idaho’s Sawtooth national forest.
Judge again blocks Trump mail ballot executive order in ruling likely to be appealed
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
A federal judge has halted, at least temporarily, attempts to implement Donald Trump’s executive order limiting mail voting.
The president’s directive stalled for a second time about a week before the first mail ballots are due to be sent out for the rapidly approaching midterm elections.
In the US district court, judge Indira Talwani placed a 14-day hold on the government implementing the order in a case that could be headed back to the supreme court, which on Monday overturned an earlier ruling of hers that had blocked Trump’s order from taking effect.
Talwani wrote in her ruling:
Plaintiff states have neither time nor funds to design new mail ballots, seek approval of the new designs, order production of mail ballots, update their own election management systems, train election officials to use the USPS portal and upload citizen data to the portal, all before the midterms.
The latest ruling came in advance of a 3 September hearing after Democrats and voting rights groups refiled their lawsuits to comply with the recent supreme court decision.
The high court’s conservative majority did not rule on the legality of Trump’s executive order. Still, it said the legal challenges against it that led Talwani to initially freeze it were filed too soon. Since then, the administration has issued a formal rule intended to govern whether the US Postal Service will deliver states’ mail ballots – effectively restarting the legal fight.
The president has long targeted mail voting, which he falsely blames for his 2020 election loss even though he himself uses it to cast his ballot. A report by the Brookings Institution published in 2025 found that mail voting fraud occurred in only about four cases out of every 10 million mail ballots cast.
The legal battle has major ramifications for the midterms. Nearly one-third of Americans vote by mail and election officials contend there is not enough time to revise their systems to comply with the new postal service directives.
Read the full story here:
In other developments:
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Documents obtained by the Guardian and interviews with military leadership show the war in Iran has depleted the US Navy’s budget.
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A senior Democratic senator is calling for a criminal investigation into the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, following reporting by the Guardian that indicated he lied during Senate confirmation hearings last year.
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Trump called the media into the Oval Office to watch him sign an executive order to rename Lake Ontario “Lake America”.
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“The name Lake Ontario comes from the Wendat word Ontari’io, which, appropriately, means ‘the lake is beautiful, the lake is big’, Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney noted. “The name is more than 400 years old, predating both the Confederation of Canada and the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America.”
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Three journalists who were fired by the Pentagon from a US government-funded news outlet sued the US Department of Defense in federal court in Washington DC on Thursday arguing that their dismissals were illegal and violated their first amendment rights to free speech.
