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Uncertainty over pace of cuts

All eyes on Budget

Promoting policies like the “Global War on Terror”, former US Vice President Dick Cheney became the symbol of an outdated Republican Party that US voters would eventually reject. Cheney died at the age of 84.

Michaela Thompson, an unemployed mother in the San Fernando Valley, relies on federal assistance to afford the specialized baby formula her 15-month-old daughter needs because of a feeding disorder. At $47 for a five-day supply, it’s out of her reach otherwise.

But with the federal shutdown blocking upcoming disbursements of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits — previously known as food stamps — Thompson said she doesn’t know how she’s going to fill her daughter’s bottles.

“It feels like the world is kind of crumbling right now,” she said. “I’m terrified for my family and my daughter.”

Millions of low-income families who rely on SNAP benefits to put food on the table in California and across the country — about 1 in 8 Americans — are confronting similar fears this week, as federal and state officials warn that November funds will not be issued without a resolution to the ongoing federal shutdown and Congress shows no sign of a breakthrough.

Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta announced Tuesday that California is joining other Democrat-led states in suing the Trump administration to force SNAP payments through the use of contingency funds, but the litigation — even if successful — won’t prevent all the disruptions.

Army Spc. Jazmine Contreras, center, and Pfc. Vivian Almaraz, right, of the 40th Division Sustainment Brigade, Army National Guard, Los Alamitos, help workers and volunteers pack boxes of produce at the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank on Friday.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

It is already too late for some of the 5.5 million California residents — including 2 million children — who rely on such benefits to receive them in time to buy groceries after Friday, when many will have already used up their October benefits, state officials said. Advocates warned of a tidal wave of need as home pantries and CalFresh cards run empty — which they said is no longer a risk but a certainty.

“We are past the point at which it is possible to prevent harm,” said Andrew Cheyne, managing director of public policy at the organization End Child Poverty California.

About 41.7 million Americans were served through SNAP per month in fiscal 2024, at an annual cost of nearly $100 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

State officials, local governments and nonprofit organizations are scrambling to get the word out to families and to redirect millions of dollars in emergency funding to stock more food at local food banks or load gift cards for the neediest families, but many say the capacity to respond is insufficient — and are bracing for a deluge of need.

“People really don’t understand the scale and scope of what is happening and the ripple effect it will have on the economy and with people just meeting their basic needs,” said Angela F. Williams, president and chief executive of United Way.

Already, United Way is seeing an uptick in calls to its 211 centers nationwide from people looking for help with groceries, utility bills and rent, Williams said. “There’s a critical crisis that has been brewing for a while, and it’s reaching a fevered pitch.”

Cheyne said many families are well aware of the looming disruption to aid and scrambling to prepare, including by going to state food banks for groceries. Newsom has activated the National Guard to help handle that influx in California.

However, Cheyne said many others will likely find out about the disruption while standing in grocery store checkouts.

“We anticipate a huge surge in people extremely upset to find out that they’ve literally shopped, and the groceries are in their cart, and their kids are probably with them, and then they get to the checkout, and then it’s, ‘transaction denied: insufficient funds.’”

Children and older people — who make up more than 63% of SNAP recipients in California — going hungry across America is a dire enough political spectacle that politicians of both parties have worked aggressively to prevent it in the past, including during previous government shutdowns. But this time around, they seem resigned to that outcome.

Members of the military and their families receive food donated by Feeding San Diego food bank on Friday.

(Sandy Huffaker / AFP / Getty Images)

Republicans and Democrats have been unable to reach a deal on the budget impasse as Democrats fight Republicans over their decision to slash healthcare subsidies relied on by millions of Americans. With no end in sight to the nearly month-long shutdown, federal workers who are either furloughed or working without pay — including many in California — are facing financial strain and increasingly showing up at food pantries, officials said.

A deluge of SNAP recipients will only add to the lines, and some food bank leaders are becoming increasingly worried about security at those facilities if they are overwhelmed by need.

Pointing fingers

In a statement posted to its website Monday, the Department of Agriculture wrote that Senate Democrats had repeatedly voted not to restore the SNAP funds by passing a short-term Republican spending measure.

“Bottom line, the well has run dry,” it said. “We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats.”

The Trump administration had said Friday that it cannot legally dip into contingency funds to continue funding SNAP into November, even as it uses nontraditional means to pay for the salaries of active-duty military and federal law enforcement.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) walks through Statuary Hall at the Capitol on Tuesday.

(Samuel Corum / Bloomberg / Getty Images)

The administration has used tariff revenue to temporarily fund the Women, Infants and Children Nutrition Program, which serves about 6.7 million women and children nationally, though it is unclear how long it will continue do so. The California Department of Public Health said the state WIC program, which supports about half of all babies born in California, should “remain fully operational through Nov. 30, assuming no unexpected changes.”

On Capitol Hill, negotiations to end the shutdown have mostly ground to a halt. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) once again refused to call House members back into session this week, sparking criticism from Democrats and some Republicans who want to negotiate a deal to reopen the government. In the Senate, negotiations remain at a stalemate.

Senate Democrats, meanwhile, have relentlessly blamed President Trump and his administration for causing the disruption to food aid, just as they have blamed the president for the shutdown overall.

“Donald Trump has the power to ensure 40 million people don’t go hungry during the shutdown. But he wishes to inflict the maximum pain on those who can least afford it. He won’t fund food. But he’s happy to build a golden ballroom,” Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) wrote Monday on X.

Schiff was referring to a $250-million ballroom Trump has planned for the White House, which he recently set into motion by demolishing the historic East Wing.

A member of the U.S. Navy waits in line to receive food from volunteers with Feeding San Diego food bank.

(Sandy Huffanker / AFP / Getty Images)

State and local responses

States have responded to the looming cut in different ways. Some have promised to backfill SNAP funding from their own coffers, though federal officials have warned they will not be reimbursed.

Newsom has stood up the National Guard and directed tens of millions of dollars to state food banks, but has made no promises to directly supplement missing SNAP benefits with state dollars — despite advocacy groups calling on him to do so.

On Friday, dozens of organizations wrote a letter to Newsom and other state officials estimating the total amount of lapsed funding for November to be about $1.1 billion, and calling on them to use state funds to cover the total amount to prevent “a crisis of unthinkable magnitude.”

Carlos Marquez III, executive director of the County Welfare Directors Assn. of California, said counties and other local agencies are responding in a number of ways, including making contributions to local food banks and looking for ways to redirect local funds — and find matching philanthropic dollars — to directly backfill missing SNAP benefits.

Los Angeles County, which has about 1.5 million SNAP recipients, has already approved a $10-million expenditure to support local food banks, its Department of Children and Family Services has identified an additional $2 million to redirect, and its partners providing managed care plans to SNAP recipients have committed another $5 million, he said.

He said his group has advocated for Newsom to declare a statewide emergency, which would help equalize the response statewide and allow for mutual aid agreements between wealthier and poorer areas.

He said his group also is advocating for the state to begin using school lunch programs to direct additional food to families with younger children at home, and to work with local senior care facilities to make sure elderly SNAP recipients are also being helped.

What comes next?

Williams, of United Way, said the organization’s local chapters are “looking for partners on the ground” to provide additional support moving forward, as needs will persist.

“It seems like every day the needs just become more and more pressing, and I’m concerned, honestly, not only about the economic toll that is being taken on individuals, I’m concerned about the mental health and emotional toll this is taking on people,” Williams said. “My hope is that people from all sectors will step up and say, ‘How can we be good neighbors?’”

On Friday, National Guard troops began a 30-day deployment at the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, where they are sorting produce and packing food boxes. Due to “heightened concern” in the community about the military’s role in Trump’s immigration crackdown, the troops will be working in warehouses and not interacting directly with the public, said Chief Executive Michael Flood.

Flood said there has already been a surge in demand from laid-off federal workers in Los Angeles, but he’s expecting demand to increase markedly beginning Saturday, and building up distribution capacity similar to what was in place during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic — which seemed odd, considering “this is a man-made disaster.”

“It doesn’t have to happen,” Flood said. “Folks in D.C. can prevent this from happening.”

Sept. 29 (UPI) — The chances of a government shutdown increased on Monday after congressional leaders from both parties, during a meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office, weren’t able to agree on a stopgap funding bill less than 48 hours before the deadline.

Without the funding bill signed by Trump, the government will run out of money, starting after midnight Wednesday.

Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both serving New York, have said they won’t support any stopgap bill unless it protects healthcare programs. House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana and Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dajota, both Republicans, don’t want to restore recent Medicaid cuts, and it omits an extension of the currently enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits scheduled to expire.

The congressional leaders spoke separately with reporters outside the White House. Trump didn’t comment, including on Truth Social.

Schumer told reporters outside the White House’s West Wing that “there are still large differences between us.”

He added: “Their bill has not one iota of Democratic input.”

On Sept. 19, the House passed a seven-week stopgap funding bill that Senate Democrats rejected earlier this month.

“That is never how we’ve done this before,” Schumer said.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune accused Democrats of “hostage taking” in their demands

“Republicans are united,” Thune said. House Republicans, Senate Republicans, President Trump. The House has passed a clean funding resolution to fund the government until November the 21st. It’s clean, it’s bipartisan, and it is short-term, but it gives us enough time to finish the appropriations process, which is the way we should be funding the government.”

He held up a copy of the bill, saying: “This is sitting right now at the Senate desk. We could pick it up and pass it tonight, pick it up and pass it tomorrow before the government shuts down, and then we don’t have the government shut down. It is totally up to the Democrats, because right now, they are the only thing standing between the American people and the government shutting down.”

Thume said the Senate will vote on the House’s continuing resolution before negotiating a full-year appropriations bill. They have a 53-47 majority, but 60 votes are needed for passage.

Last week, a memo from the White House Office of Management and Budget sent to federal agencies said there will be mass firings without stopgap funding. The OMB asked the federal agencies to identify programs that would lose funding and have no other sources of funding.

Essential services, including Social Security and Medicare payments, and mail delivery, will continue, though new applications, loans and some regulatory functions can face delays. Air travel and law enforcement also remain in place.

Essential workers and those sent home won’t get paid initially, but they all will get the money when the government reopens.

Vice President JD Vance said the nation is headed into a shutdown “because the Democrats won’t do the right thing.”

“Look the principle at stake here is very simple,” Vance said. “We have disagreements about tax policy, you don’t shut that government down. We have disagreements about healthcare policy, but you don’t shut the government down. You don’t use your policy disagreements as leverage to not pay our troops and not have essentials for services.”

Vance took a more conciliatory tone than the Republicans, saying he favors further discussing the Democrats’ demand. “They had some ideas that I actually thought were reasonable, and they had some ideas that the President thought was reasonable,” he told reporters. “What’s not reasonable is to hold those ideas as leverage and to shut down the government unless we give you everything you want.”

Democrats are concerned about increased healthcare premiums and closure of rural hospitals. On July 4, Trump signed the legislation that is called “the Big Beautiful Spending Bill” of tax and spending policies.

“By his face and by the way he looked, I think he heard about them for the first time,” Schumer said, noting he told Trump some families could see monthly premiums for the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, will rise $400 if enhanced subsidies are allowed to expire at the end of the year.

The Democrats warn that many rural hospitals would close in the next year because of nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts.

Republicans also rejected a stopgap bill to last seven to 10 days.

Republicans have differed on how to handle subsidies to help healthcare, including rural hospitals.

Trump continues to criticize Democrats, including a joint news conference with Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu before the meeting with congressional leaders.

“They’re going to have to do some things because their ideas are not very good ones,” he said. “They’re very bad for our country, so we’ll see how that works out.”

The meeting was Trump’s first with top Democrats since he became president again on Jan. 20. Trump canceled a meeting scheduled for last week at the request of Johnson and Thune.

The meeting was announced late Saturday.

“I want to thank President Trump for the strong, solid leadership,” Johnson said. “He listened to the arguments and they just wouldn’t acknowledge the simple facts. If the Democrats make the decisions to shut the government down, the consequences are on them.”

Jeffries said, though “significant and meaningful differences remain,” they had a “frank and direct discussion” in the Oval Office.

The last U.S. government shutdown was 35 days, starting on Dec. 22, 2018, and ending on Jan. 25, 2019, when Trump was first president. Trump demanded $5.7 billion in federal funding for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border at that time.

The US government faces a partial shutdown from Wednesday unless Republicans and Democrats can agree on a spending bill.

United States President Donald Trump is set to meet with top Republicans and Democrats in Congress amid a looming deadline to keep funding the federal government.

Trump’s scheduled meeting with congressional leaders on Monday comes as the US government is facing a partial shutdown from midnight on Wednesday unless lawmakers can agree on a spending bill.

The standoff comes after Democrats in the US Senate earlier this month rejected a Republican-drafted stopgap spending bill to keep the government running until November 21.

Democrats have argued that any spending bill should include provisions to expand healthcare coverage, including by reversing cuts to Medicaid that were included in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Republicans argue that healthcare-related provisions should be addressed separately as part of negotiations for a comprehensive spending package.

While Republicans hold 53 seats in the 100-member Senate, at least 60 lawmakers must approve spending bills in the upper chamber.

In interviews on Sunday, Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer traded blame for the impasse.

“The ball is in their court,” Thune told NBC News’s Meet the Press. “There is a bill sitting at the desk in the Senate right now, we could pick it up today and pass it.”

Speaking on the same programme, Schumer described the meeting with Trump and his Republican counterparts as “only a first step” to resolving the issue.

“We need a serious negotiation,” Schumer said.

“Now, if the president at this meeting is going to rant, and just yell at Democrats, and talk about all his alleged grievances, and say this, that, and the other thing, we won’t get anything done. But my hope is it’ll be a serious negotiation.”

The planned gathering comes after Trump last week called off a meeting with Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, citing what he described as “unserious and ridiculous demands” by Democrats.

If Democrats and Republicans fail to pass a spending bill by the deadline, federal government employees will not receive pay during the shutdown period – though they will be eligible for backpay – and those who are not considered essential will be furloughed.

There have been 14 government shutdowns since 1980, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Most of those only lasted a few days. The longest shutdown in US history, which took place in late 2018 and early 2019, lasted 34 days.

WASHINGTON — President Trump plans to meet with the top four congressional leaders at the White House on Monday, one day before the deadline to fund the federal government or face a shutdown.

The meeting involving the top Republican leaders, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, as well as the Democratic leaders, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, was confirmed Saturday by a White House official and two other people familiar with the planning. They were granted anonymity to discuss a meeting that has not been announced.

Trump relented after initially refusing to meet with the top Democrats.

“President Trump has once again agreed to a meeting in the Oval Office. As we have repeatedly said, Democrats will meet anywhere, at any time and with anyone to negotiate a bipartisan spending agreement that meets the needs of the American people,” Schumer and Jeffries, both of New York, said in a joint statement Saturday night. “We are resolute in our determination to avoid a government shutdown and address the Republican healthcare crisis. Time is running out.”

The meeting was first reported by Punchbowl News.

The parties have been at a standoff for days as Democrats are pushing for healthcare protections as a condition of their support for the spending plan. Senate Democrats have refused to offer the necessary votes to pass a funding measure that would keep the government open beyond Tuesday.

Absent any action, a shutdown would begin at 12:01 a.m. ET on Wednesday.

Democrats had secured a meeting with Trump until Republican leaders intervened and the president called it off. But Schumer spoke privately with Thune (R-S.D.) on Friday, pushing the majority leader to get a meeting with the president scheduled because of the approaching funding deadline, according to an aide to Schumer.

“As rank-and-file Democrats begin to question their leadership’s unsustainable position, Sen. Schumer is clearly getting nervous,” Ryan Wrasse, a spokesman for Thune, responded Saturday night. “There’s an easy way out, and they’ll get a chance to take it next week.”

Democrats, believing they have leverage, have insisted on key healthcare provisions in exchange for their votes. They want an extension of subsidies that help low- and middle-income earners purchase insurance through the Affordable Care Act. Democrats are also insisting on reversing cuts to Medicaid that were included the GOP’s signature tax measure this summer.

Republicans say that those demands are nonstarters and that they are willing to have a conversation with Democrats on those issues separate from government funding talks. The GOP is asking for a straight extension of current funding for seven weeks.

Earlier last week, Johnson acknowledged he had encouraged Trump not to meet with the Democratic leaders.

“He and I talked about it at length yesterday and the day before. I said, ‘Look, when they get their job done, once they do the basic governing work of keeping the government open, as president, then you can have a meeting” with them, Johnson said on the “Mike & McCarty Show” in his home state of Louisiana. “Of course, it might be productive at that point, but right now, this is just a waste of his time.”

And Thune had said earlier in the week that he “did have a conversation with the president” and offered his opinion on the meeting, which he declined to disclose. “But I think the president speaks for himself, and I think he came to the conclusion that meeting would not be productive,” Thune said.

Democrats have expressed confidence that voters would blame Trump and Republicans for any disruptions in federal services, even though that is uncertain.

Republicans, on the other hand, had been heading toward the work week with plans in the Senate to keep showcasing Democrats’ refusal to agree to the stopgap measure, while the House GOP planned to stay away from Washington in a show of their own unwillingness to engage Democratic alternatives.

That too, came with potential political drawbacks for House Republicans, as Democrats hammered them for being, as Jeffries said, “on vacation.”

Kim and Mascaro write for the Associated Press.

Across the nation’s beloved national parks this summer, skeleton crews — whittled down by the Trump administration’s reduction of the federal workforce — have struggled to keep trash from piling up, latrines from spilling over and injured hikers from perishing in the backcountry.

They’ve mostly succeeded, but it has been a struggle.

Now, as bickering politicians in Washington, D.C., threaten to shut the government down and furlough federal employees as soon as next week if a budget deal isn’t reached, 40 former stewards of the nation’s most remote and romantic landscapes have sent an “urgent appeal” to the White House.

If the government shuts down, close the national parks to prevent a free-for-all inside the gates.

Pointing to the strain the parks are already enduring since the new administration fired or bought out roughly 24% of the workforce, the retired superintendents — including those from Yosemite, Joshua Tree, and Sequoia and Kings Canyon — warned of chaos.

If the parks stay open with no employees to manage them, “these nascent issues from the summer season are sure to erupt,” the former superintendents wrote to Doug Burgum, secretary of the Department of the Interior, on Thursday. “Leaving parks even partially open to the public during a shutdown with minimal — or no — park staffing is reckless and puts both visitors and park resources at risk.”

Unlike many federal agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health, whose once obscure and mundane day-to-day operations have become flash points in the nation’s toxic and polarizing culture war, the national parks remain a beloved refuge: a place where Americans of all stripes can unplug, exhale and escape.

In 2024 the parks set an attendance record with over 331 million visitors; that’s nearly two and a half times the number of people (136 million) who attended professional football, baseball, basketball and hockey games combined.

It’s not hard to understand the appeal. Exhausted by the bickering on cable news and social media feeds? Go climb Half Dome in Yosemite, or stroll among the giant trees in Sequoia, or camp beneath the stars in Joshua Tree.

But if the parks stay open with nobody around to maintain them, that cleansing experience will turn nasty the moment a bathroom door opens, according to the retired superintendents.

In previous shutdowns stemming from budget disputes or the COVID-19 pandemic, facilities inside the parks deteriorated at an alarming rate.

Unauthorized visitors left human feces in rivers, painted graffiti on once pristine cliffs, harassed wild animals and left the toilets looking like “crime scenes,” according to a ranger who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution.

“It’s just scary how bad things can get when places are abandoned with nobody watching,” she said.

In an interview Thursday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said a government shutdown was still “avoidable” despite sharp divisions ahead of Wednesday’s deadline to pass a funding bill.

“I’m a big believer that there’s always a way out,” the South Dakota Republican said. “And I think there are off-ramps here, but I don’t think that the negotiating position, at least at the moment, that the Democrats are trying to exert here is going to get you there.”

Thune said Democrats are going to have to “dial back” their demands, which include immediately extending health insurance subsidies and reversing the healthcare policies in the massive tax bill that Republicans passed over the summer. Absent that, Thune said, “we’re probably plunging forward toward the shutdown.”

After a shutdown in late 2018 and early 2019, park rangers in Death Valley returned to find mounds of feces and what they jokingly called “toilet paper flowers” scattered across the desert floor.

At Joshua Tree, officials found about 24 miles of unauthorized new trails carved across the desert by off-road vehicles, along with some of the park’s namesake trees toppled.

In the absence of park staff, local climbers volunteered to keep the bathrooms clean and stocked with toilet paper, and gently tried to persuade rowdy visitors to put out illegal fires and pick up their trash.

Some complied right away, climber Rand Abbott told The Times in 2019, but “70% of the people I’m running into are extremely rude,” he said. “I had my life threatened two times. It’s crazy in there right now.”

People weren’t the only unruly guests moving in and making themselves at home.

At Point Reyes National Seashore, along the Marin County coast, officials had to close the road to popular Drakes Beach during the shutdown. The absence of humans created an ideal opportunity for about 100 elephant seals to set up a colony, taking over the beach, a parking lot and a visitor center.

The seals didn’t just poop everywhere, they threw a full-scale bacchanal. As far as the eye could see, enormous, blubbery beasts — males can reach 16 feet long and weigh up to 7,000 pounds — were rolling in the sand and mating in broad daylight.

Females, which can weigh up to a ton themselves, wound up giving birth to something like 40 new pups. When the park reopened, flustered officials had little recourse but to open a public viewing area at a safe distance and send employees — primly referred to as “docents” — to explain what was happening on the once serene seashore.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Dragons are the first Welsh team in action when they travel to face Ulster in Belfast on Friday night.

The club have been the most vocal of the regions in criticising the plans to drop to two sides, stating “Welsh rugby deserves better and the WRU must rethink”.

Chair David Wright says the initial proposals “don’t add up” and that there was no way the Dragons could agree to them as they were.

Co-captain and Wales lock Ben Carter says it is a concern but has praised his squad on focusing on the rugby which he says is “the number one priority”.

His head coach Filo Tiatia agrees.

“What happens with the WRU, we’ll leave it with our chairman and CEO and they’ll fight the battle,” said the former All Black.

“What we can focus on is how we move forward with the current conditions and what we know.

“There’s talk of two teams, we can’t control that. We might as well not focus on the things because we’re burning energy.”

WASHINGTON — As a possible federal shutdown looms, the Democratic leaders of Congress are demanding a meeting with President Trump to negotiate an end to what they call “your decision” to shut government offices if no action is taken by the end-of-the-month deadline.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Saturday that Republicans, at Trump’s insistence, have refused to enter talks. Democrats are pushing to preserve healthcare programs as part of any deal to keep government running past the Sept. 30 funding deadline.

The New York Democrats’ remarks come after the House passed a spending bill Friday to avoid a shutdown but the Senate remained stalemated.

“We write to demand a meeting in connection with your decision to shut down the federal government because of the Republican desire to continue to gut the healthcare of the American people,” Schumer and Jeffries wrote.

“Democrats have been clear and consistent in our position,” they continued. “We are ready to work toward a bipartisan spending agreement that improves the lives of American families and addresses the Republican healthcare crisis.”

A Trump administration official, who was not authorized to comment on the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, was dismissive of the Democrats’ demand.

Congress, which is controlled by Republicans, failed to address the funding issue before lawmakers left town Friday for a break.

The House approved a Republican proposal to keep the federal government funded into November, but the measure failed in the Senate. A Democratic proposal that would have boosted healthcare funds also failed.

It all leaves Congress and the White House with no easy way out of the standoff that threatens a shutdown in less than two weeks when the current budget year and funding expire. Trump’s first term in office saw a monthlong shutdown, the longest in federal history, in 2018-19.

Trump predicted Friday that there could be “a closed country for a period of time.” He said the government will continue to “take care” of the military and Social Security payments in the event of a closure.

Republicans have contended that they are not to blame for any possible shutdown, blaming Democrats.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) have put forward the short-term measure, which is a typical way that Congress resolves such logjams. That would keep government operations running at current levels as talks get underway.

While the House was able to narrowly pass the temporary funding measure on a mostly party-line vote, in the Senate the process can require a higher 60-vote threshold, which means support is needed from Republicans and Democrats.

Democrats are working to protect healthcare programs. The Democratic proposal would extend enhanced health insurance subsidies set to expire at the end of the year, plus reverse Medicaid cuts that were included in Republicans’ massive spending and tax cut bill enacted in July.

Republicans have said the Democrats’ demands to reverse the Medicaid changes are a nonstarter, but they have also said there is time to address the health insurance subsidy issue in the months ahead.

Mascaro writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Aamer Madhani contributed to this report.

Australian PM Albanese fails to sign mutual defence pact a week after also failing to sign security deal with Vanuatu.

Australia has failed to secure a defence treaty with Papua New Guinea (PNG) that would have seen their militaries commit to defending each other in the case of an armed attack.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and PNG Prime Minister James Marape signed a “defence communique” in the capital Port Moresby on Wednesday instead of the anticipated mutual defence treaty.

Albanese’s failure to sign the defence deal with PNG, the largest Pacific Island nation, comes on the heels of last week’s failed attempt by the Australian prime minister to secure a security partnership with fellow Pacific nation Vanuatu.

Both security deals are seen as part of Australia’s push to counter China as a rising power in the Pacific region.

Waiting a little longer to sign the treaty with PNG was “perfectly understandable”, Albanese told reporters, adding that he expected it to be signed in the “coming weeks”.

“The wording has been agreed to. The communique today, as signed, outlines precisely what is in the treaty,” Albanese said, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

Joint communique between Papua New Guinea and Australia on a Mutual Defence Treaty, signed today. 🇵🇬🇦🇺 pic.twitter.com/rSUCHPLCJW

— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) September 17, 2025

Marape told reporters there was “no sticking point”, suggesting that the mutual defence treaty could be signed shortly.

Marape also said that China had no hand in delaying the signing of the deal with Australia.

The Australian prime minister said earlier that the delay was due to a meeting of the PNG cabinet failing to reach a quorum of members to endorse the treaty.

Vanuatu security partnership also delayed

Last week, officials in Vanuatu said that the government’s coalition partners required further scrutiny of the security partnership with Australia, worth some $500 million Australian dollars ($326.5m), as there were fears it could limit the country’s access to infrastructure funding from other countries.

China is Vanuatu’s largest external creditor and has provided loans for Chinese firms to undertake major infrastructure projects in the country.

PNG’s Marape struck a more optimistic tone on Wednesday, telling journalists that it was in his country’s and Australia’s mutual interests to work side by side on defence.

“I made a conscious choice that Australia remains our security partner of choice,” Marape said, according to the Reuters news agency.

Australia’s delays in sowing deeper defence ties with PNG and Vanuatu in the Pacific region come as the much-vaunted AUKUS submarine deal between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, remains under a cloud amid a review of the original 2021 deal by the Pentagon.

US defence officials have said they ordered the review to reassess if it was in line with President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda.

Despite the review, Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said in June that he was confident that the AUKUS plan to provide Australia with closely-guarded US nuclear propulsion technology, worth hundreds of billions of dollars, to build next-generation nuclear submarines would proceed.

In a tetchy exchange with an Australian reporter on Tuesday, Trump revealed that Albanese would be visiting him shortly in Washington, DC.

When asked whether it was appropriate for a president to have so many business dealings, Trump told the ABC reporter that he was “hurting” relations between the US and Australia.

“You’re hurting Australia. In my opinion, you are hurting Australia very much right now, and they want to get along with me,” Trump told the reporter.

“You know, your leader is coming over to see me very soon. I’m going to tell him about you. You set a very bad tone,” Trump said, before sharply telling the reporter to be “quiet”.

Albanese is scheduled to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York next week.

HIKING gambling taxes at the Budget would “backfire” and push punters to the unsafe black market, the sector has said.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been warned not to press ahead with proposals to introduce a single remote betting tax amid the damage to horse racing.

Enormous damage would be caused if the 15 per cent tax paid by bookmakers is brought into line with online gaming which is taxed at 21 per cent.

Horse racing will go on strike next Wednesday when four race meetings are put on hold in protest at the proposed changes.

The horse racing industry would be dealt a £66 million a year hit and threaten thousands of jobs.

Ministers have been warned that any such move will have be catastrophic for racing’s fragile finances with punters also being driven to illicit markets.

A spokesperson for the Betting and Gaming Council said: “Hiking gambling taxes would backfire spectacularly.

“Far from boosting the Treasury, it will push punters towards the unsafe black market, which pays no tax, backs no sport and has zero standards.”

They add that it would shrink the legal market and damage sport.

The industry says it already pays £4 billion in taxes, supports 109,000 jobs and pumps £6.8 billion into the economy.

Ex-PM Gordon Brown has called for an increase on gambling taxes to help take children out of poverty.

The Treasury has previously said: “We are consulting on bringing the treatment of online betting in line with other forms of online gambling to cut down bureaucracy – it is not about increasing or decreasing rates, and we welcome views from all stakeholders including businesses, trade bodies, the third sector and individuals.”

1

Background / Context
The 2015 Iran nuclear deal between Tehran and six world powers curbed Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief. The agreement has largely unraveled since the U.S. withdrawal in 2018, and with key provisions set to expire on Oct. 18, France, Britain and Germany ,the so-called E3,  have warned they may trigger the reimposition, or “snapback,” of U.N. sanctions unless Iran resumes compliance.

What Happened
Senior Iranian and E3 officials are scheduled to meet in Geneva on Tuesday.

The E3 have set conditions: a resumption of inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), accounting for Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium, and renewed diplomatic engagement.

They have said they will decide by the end of August whether to revive sanctions, though a short extension remains possible if Iran shows progress.

The talks come after U.S. and Israeli strikes in June destroyed or damaged Iranian enrichment sites. Iran has since barred IAEA inspectors, citing safety concerns, and the status of its uranium stockpile remains unclear.

Why It Matters
The outcome could determine whether Iran faces the return of broad U.N. sanctions, deepening its economic isolation, or whether limited diplomacy revives the stalled nuclear framework. Western officials fear Tehran is edging closer to weapons-grade enrichment. Iran, while denying it seeks a bomb, had enriched uranium to 60% and held enough stock for several potential weapons before the strikes.

Stakeholder Reactions

E3 official: “We are going to see whether the Iranians are credible about an extension or whether they are messing us around. We want to see whether they have made any progress on the conditions we set.”

Iranian official: “Due to the damage to our nuclear sites, we need to agree on a new plan with the agency and we’ve conveyed that to IAEA officials.”

Western diplomats: Privately suspect Tehran is buying time and dragging talks out.

Tehran: Warned of a “harsh response” if sanctions are reimposed.

IAEA: Says it cannot confirm Iran’s program is peaceful, but has no credible indication of a coordinated weapons effort.

What’s Next
The Geneva talks will test whether Iran is prepared to resume inspections and engage diplomatically or risk a snapback of sanctions before the Oct. 18 deadline. The E3 are expected to decide by the end of this week whether to move forward with sanctions, grant a short extension, or continue talks.

With information from Reuters.

The new account comes as Trump has three times delayed implementing a ‘sell or ban’ law for the Chinese-owned app.

The White House has launched an official TikTok account, even as the future of the Chinese-owned social media app in the United States remains uncertain due to legislation passed by the US Congress last year.

The official White House account’s first post on Tuesday was a 27-second video featuring a voiceover from President Donald Trump, saying: “Every day I wake up determined to deliver a better life for the People all across this nation. I am your voice.”

The account’s description read: “Welcome to the Golden Age of America”.

TikTok, which remains owned by Chinese technology company ByteDance, is popular among young people, and has an estimated 170 million users in the US.

Trump has so far delayed the implementation of a 2024 law that ordered TikTok to either to sell to non-Chinese buyers or be banned in the US, with three 90-day extensions.

The US House of Representatives voted 352 to 65 in favour of the “sell or ban” bill in March 2024, with widespread support from both Republicans and Democrats.

The latest extension delaying the ban is due to expire in early September.

“My Administration has been working very hard on a Deal to SAVE TIKTOK, and we have made tremendous progress,” Trump posted on the Truth Social network, which he owns, in April.

Few representatives questioned the bill to ban TikTok at the time it was passed, although then-Democratic representative Barbara Lee asked why only one company was being singled out in an attempt to address problems that relate to social media companies more broadly.

“Rather than target one company in a rushed and secretive process, Congress should pass comprehensive data privacy protections and do a better job of informing the public of the threats these companies may pose to national security,” Lee had posted on the social media platform X.

Although the vast majority of both Democratic and Republican representatives supported the “sell or ban” bill, many members of both parties have used the TikTok platform for campaigning and official communications.

Both Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and Republican nominee Trump used the app to campaign in the 2024 Presidential election.

On Tuesday, the US state of Minnesota joined a wave of states suing TikTok, alleging the social media giant preys on young people with addictive algorithms that trap them into becoming compulsive consumers of its short videos.

Minnesota is also among dozens of US states that have sued Meta Platforms for allegedly building features into Instagram and Facebook that addict people. The messaging service Snapchat and the gaming platform Roblox are also facing lawsuits by some other states alleging harm to children.

Air Canada, the country’s largest airline, started suspending flights on Thursday morning ahead of a potential strike by its flight attendants.

Hundreds of flights are expected to be cancelled by the end of the week if the flight attendants walk off their jobs as expected.

Air Canada and the flight attendants’ union have struggled to agree upon a deal that would increase compensation for the airline workers.

Here is what we know about the labour dispute and its potential consequences:

What is happening to Air Canada?

The Montreal-based airline has reached an impasse with the union representing more than 10,500 flight attendants in a dispute over compensation, despite eight months of negotiations. Both the company and the union have issued notices that disruptions to the airline’s services will begin on Saturday.

What services will be affected, and when?

Air Canada said it will reduce flights gradually over three days, starting with dozens of cancellations on Thursday and about 500 more by Friday evening. By 1am Toronto time (05:00 GMT) on Saturday, all flights will be halted.

Cargo services will also be affected, but Air Canada Express regional flights will operate as usual, as they rely on contracts with other airlines.

However, these partners handle only about 20 percent of Air Canada’s daily passengers. Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge, a subsidiary that offers low-cost flights, carry roughly 130,000 passengers a day.

In response to the walkout anticipated for early Saturday, Air Canada has announced its own “lockout”, a strategy that prevents employees from coming into work in order to force them to the negotiating table.

The airline has warned that once the lockout begins, about 1:30am Toronto time (05:30 GMT), it may not be able to quickly restore flights.

Mark Nasr, the chief operations officer for Air Canada, explained that a restart, “under the best circumstances, will take a full week to complete”.

Why are flight attendants striking?

Wages are the main sticking point in the negotiations.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) said its negotiators are unhappy with Air Canada’s proposed wage hikes and other compensation terms, and they have therefore turned down an offer to move the contract discussions into arbitration.

“For the past nine months, we have put forward solid, data-driven proposals on wages and unpaid work, all rooted in fairness and industry standards,” said Wesley Lesosky, president of the Air Canada component of CUPE, in a statement. “Air Canada’s response to our proposals makes one thing clear: they are not interested in resolving these critical issues.”

According to the union, the airline declined to raise flight attendant pay to meet industry standards, keep pace with inflation or match the federal minimum wage.

Since 2000, starting wages for flight attendants with Air Canada have risen only $3 per hour, while inflation has climbed 69 percent over the same period, the union explained.

We stand in solidarity with Air Canada flight attendants who are done with unpaid work and poverty wages!
📢 Fair pay. Dignity on the job. No more excuses!
Read more → https://t.co/YqVQEwTbpC#aircanadastrike

— CUPE Ontario (@CUPEOntario) August 12, 2025

Air Canada, however, said the union turned down a proposal sent on Monday that included a 38-percent pay increase over four years, along with other benefits and protections.

But the union disputed the benefits of that deal. Instead, it explained that the flight attendants suffered a 9-percent cut in their last contract, meaning that an 8-percent increase over the first year of the new deal is inadequate to recoup the costs.

“It is, in effect, a pay cut,” CUPE said in its statement.

The union also argues that Air Canada does not currently offer “ground pay”, an industry term that describes compensation given for all the services provided before a plane’s doors close.

That work can include assistance given to travellers in the airport, baggage handling and helping travellers get settled in their seats as the plane prepares to push back from the airport gate.

“[For] any of our federally regulated safety checks, which we do an hour before boarding, we are not compensated. We are not compensated for boarding and deplaning,” Shanyn Elliott, the chair of the CUPE strike committee, told the news outlet Global National.

“It averages about 35 hours a month that we are at work not paid.”

The union said that it is seeking full pay for all hours worked, along with cost-of-living increases.

Ground pay, also called “boarding pay”, has been a key issue in negotiations at US airlines as well, since many carriers do not compensate flight attendants at their hourly rate during crucial periods before or after the flight.

How many passengers will be affected, and what will they get in return?

The airline, which serves 64 countries with a fleet of 259 aircraft, said the shutdown poses “a major risk” to both the company and its employees. The disruption could impact 130,000 passengers each day, including 25,000 Canadians, during the height of the summer travel season.

Air Canada has nearly 430 daily flights between Canada and the US, reaching more than 50 US airports. It also provides domestic service to 50 Canadian airports and averages more than 500 daily flights.

The airlines said that passengers whose flights are cancelled will be notified and can receive a full refund online.

The airline has also arranged with other Canadian and international carriers to offer alternative travel options where possible. But it emphasised that some flight alternatives may not be feasible.

“Given other carriers are already very full due to the summer travel peak, securing such capacity will take time and, in many cases, will not be immediately possible,” the airline explained.

How has the government responded?

Air Canada has said it has sought government-directed arbitration to resolve the situation.

Under Canada’s Labour Code, the government’s labour minister has the power to intervene and trigger the imposition of a deal through the Canada Industrial Relations Board.

That, in turn, could force flight attendants back to work. The union has asked Canada’s PM Mark Carney “to refrain from intervening”. It argued that government action would tip the negotiations in Air Canada’s favour.

“Why would any employer bother negotiating if they know the government is going to bail them out when negotiations get tough?” the union wrote in a letter posted to social media.

Canada’s Labour Minister Patty Hajdu urged both sides to return to the bargaining table. “To be clear: deals that are made at the bargaining table are the best ones,” Hajdu said.

“I urge both parties to put their differences aside, come back to the bargaining table and get this done now for the many travellers who are counting on you,” she added.

Please see my statement on the latest development between CUPE Flight Attendants at Air Canada and Air Canada: pic.twitter.com/hqQJ5JDYkN

— Patty Hajdu (@PattyHajdu) August 14, 2025

Attendants union says there is still time to reach an agreement, as airline warns 100,000 passengers affected by Friday.

Air Canada says it is at an impasse with its negotiations with the union representing its flight attendants and has announced that it will be pausing all its flights on Saturday morning.

Air Canada said on Thursday it expects to cancel several dozen flights by day’s end and approximately 500 flights by the end of Friday, affecting 100,0000 passengers, in advance of a planned Saturday strike by its unionised flight attendants.

The Air Canada executives were speaking at a news conference that ended abruptly due to protests by union members donning placards.

Mark Nasr, chief operations officer at Air Canada, said the complexity of the carrier’s network, which operates more than 250 aircraft on flights to more than 65 countries, requires it to start winding down service now.

A strike would hit the country’s tourism sector during the height of summer travel and poses a new test for the governing Liberal government under Prime Minister Mark Carney, which has been asked by the carrier to intervene and impose arbitration.

Air Canada and low-cost carrier Air Canada Rouge carry about 130,000 customers a day. Air Canada is also the foreign carrier with the largest number of flights to the US.

US carrier United Airlines, a code-share partner of Air Canada, said it has issued a travel waiver to help customers manage their travel plans.

Half of hourly rate for hours worked

The dispute hinges on the way airlines compensate flight attendants. Most airlines have traditionally paid attendants only when planes are in motion.

But in their latest contract negotiations, flight attendants in North America have sought compensation for hours worked, including for tasks like boarding passengers and waiting around the airport before and between flights.

The union said Air Canada had offered to begin compensating flight attendants for some unpaid work, but only at 50 percent of their hourly rate.

The airline said it had offered a 38 percent increase in total compensation for flight attendants over four years, with a 25 percent raise in the first year.

Restarting Air Canada’s operations would take a week to complete, Nasr told reporters in Toronto.

“It’s simply not the kind of system that we can start or stop at the push of a button,” he said. “So in order to have a safe and orderly wind down, we need to begin down.”

FlightAware data shows Air Canada has, thus far, cancelled only four flights as of Thursday morning.

Earlier in the day, Canadian Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu urged the country’s largest carrier and union to return to the bargaining table to reach a deal that could avert disruptions.

“I understand this dispute is causing a great deal of frustration and anxiety to Canadians who are travelling or worrying about how they will get home,” she said in a statement posted on X. “I urge both parties to put their differences aside, come back to the bargaining table and get this done now for the many travelers who are counting on you.”

A spokesperson for the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents the carrier’s 10,000 flight attendants, said Air Canada negotiators are not bargaining and have not responded to a proposal they made earlier this week.

“We believe the company wants the federal government to intervene and bail them out.”

CUPE has previously said it opposes binding arbitration.

Arielle Meloul-Wechsler, chief human resources officer at Air Canada, said the carrier never left the table.

“We are still available to bargain at any time on the condition that the negotiation has substance,” she said.

WASHINGTON — Around 2 a.m., noisy revelers emerging from clubs and bars packed the sidewalks of U Street in Washington, many of them seeking a late-night slice or falafel. A robust but not unusual contingent of city police cruisers lingered around the edges of the crowds. At other late-night hot spots, nearly identical scenes unfolded.

What wasn’t apparent in Friday’s earliest hours: any sort of security lockdown by a multiagency flood of uniformed federal law enforcement officers. That’s what President Trump had promised Thursday, starting at midnight, in the administration’s latest move to impose its will on the nation’s capital.

In short, that law enforcement surge to take control of the District of Columbia’s streets did not appear to unfold on schedule. A two-hour city tour, starting around 1 a.m. Friday, revealed no overt or visible law enforcement presence other than members of the Metropolitan Police Department, the city’s police force.

That might change in the coming evenings as Trump puts into action his long-standing plans to “take over” a capital city he has repeatedly slammed as unsafe, filthy and badly run. According to his declaration last week, the security lockdown will run for seven days, “with the option to extend as needed.” In an online post Saturday, the Republican president said the Democratic-led city would soon be one of the country’s safest and he announced a White House news conference for Monday, though he offered no details.

On Friday night, a White House official said Thursday night’s operations included arrests for possession of two stolen firearms, suspected fentanyl and marijuana. The official was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The official said more than 120 members of various federal agencies — the Secret Service, the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service — were to be on duty Friday night, upping the complement of federal officers involved.

“This is the first step in stopping the violent crime that has been plaguing the streets of Washington, D.C.,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

Mayor Muriel Bowser, who publicly faced off against Trump in 2020 when he called in a massive federal law enforcement response to disperse crowds of protesters denouncing police brutality and racial profiling, has not said a public word since Trump’s declaration. The Metropolitan Police Department has gone similarly silent.

A crackdown came after an assault

The catalyst for this latest round of takeover drama was an assault Aug. 3 during an attempted carjacking on a high-profile member of the White House’s government-slashing team known as the Department of Government Efficiency, formerly headed by Elon Musk.

Police arrested two 15-year-olds and were seeking others. Trump quickly renewed his calls for the federal government to seize control.

“If D.C. doesn’t get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City, and run this City how it should be run, and put criminals on notice that they’re not going to get away with it anymore,” Trump wrote in a post on his social media site.

He later told reporters he was considering a range of alternatives, including repealing Washington’s limited “home rule” autonomy and “bringing in the National Guard, maybe very quickly,” as he did in Los Angeles in response to protests over his administration’s immigration crackdown.

The threats come at a time when Bowser’s government can tout a reduction in the number of homicides and carjackings, both of which surged in 2023. The number of carjackings overall dropped significantly in 2024, from 957 to just under 500, and is on track to decline again this year, with fewer than 200 recorded so far.

The proportion of juveniles arrested on suspicion of carjacking, though, has remained above 50%, and Bowser’s government has taken steps to rein in a recent phenomenon of rowdy teenagers causing disarray and disturbances in public spaces.

Emergency legislation passed by the D.C. Council this summer imposed tighter youth curfew restrictions and empowered Police Chief Pamela Smith to declare temporary juvenile curfew zones for four days at a time. In those areas, a gathering of nine or more people younger than 18 is unlawful after 8 p.m.

Within presidential authority

Trump is within his powers in deploying federal law enforcement assets on D.C. streets. He could deploy the National Guard, although that is not one of the dozen participating agencies listed in his declaration. The first Trump administration called in the National Guard during Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 and again on Jan. 6, 2021, when his supporters overran the Capitol in a failed attempt to overturn his election defeat.

Further steps, including taking over the Police Department, would require a declaration of emergency. Legal experts believe that would most likely be challenged in court. Such an approach would fit the general pattern of Trump’s second term in office, when he has declared states of emergency on issues ranging from border protection to economic tariffs. In many cases, he moved forward while the courts sorted it out.

Imposing a full federal takeover of Washington would require a congressional repeal of the Home Rule Act of 1973. It’s a step that Trump said his administration’s lawyers are examining.

That law was specific to Washington, not other communities in the United States that have their own home rule powers but generally retain representation in their state legislatures, said Monica Hopkins, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia.

Signed into law by President Nixon, the measure allowed D.C. residents to elect their own mayor, council and local commissioners. The district had been previously run by federally appointed commissioners and members of Congress, some of whom balked at having to deal with potholes and other details of running a city of 700,000 residents.

So far, Trump’s criticisms of Washington can be felt most directly in the actions of the National Park Service, which controls large pieces of land throughout the capital. In Trump’s current administration, the agency has stepped up its clearing of homeless encampments on Park Service land and recently carried out a series of arrests of people smoking marijuana in public parks.

The agency said last week that a statue of a Confederate military leader that was toppled by protesters in 2020 would be restored and replaced, in line with an executive order.

Khalil and Whitehurst write for the Associated Press. AP writers Mike Pesoli, Michael Kunzelman and Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.

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Banco Sabadell shareholders unanimously backed the sale of its UK subsidiary TSB to Banco Santander at an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday.

The deal, valued at a minimum of £2.65 billion (around €3.05 billion), represents a notable gain against the acquisition price. In 2015, Sabadell bought TSB for £1.7 billion, equivalent today to around €1.95 billion.

The approval of this divestment comes at a particularly sensitive time, as the Catalan bank is the target of a hostile takeover bid by BBVA. For this reason, the board of directors needed to obtain the explicit approval of the shareholders before closing any strategic operation of this calibre.

TSB, focused on the UK mortgage market, has been one of the key assets in Sabadell’s defence against the proposed hostile takeover.

The sale of TSB is part of Sabadell’s strategy to strengthen its independent position in the face of the takeover bid launched by BBVA. By divesting TSB, the Catalan bank seeks to reduce its international exposure, simplify its structure and generate liquidity to remunerate its shareholders.

The plan includes an extraordinary dividend of €2.5 billion in 2026, which must be approved this afternoon, plus additional ordinary payments.

This increases the attractiveness of maintaining the bank as an autonomous entity and complicates BBVA’s takeover attempt.

The proposed acquisition has sparked political controversy in Spain and in Brussels. Last month, the European Commission sent Spain a legal warning after the government sought to impose conditions on the merger.

President Donald Trump has warned that he would impose sanctions on Russia if Moscow does not agree to a ceasefire.

United States special envoy Steve Witkoff has arrived in Moscow, days before the White House’s deadline for Russia to reach a peace deal with Ukraine or face economic penalties.

President Donald Trump has warned that he would impose sanctions on Russia if Moscow does not agree to a ceasefire in its war on Ukraine before Friday.

The White House has not outlined specific actions it plans to take, but Trump has previously threatened to impose “secondary tariffs” against Russia’s trade partners, such as India and China.

After arriving in Moscow on Wednesday, Witkoff was met by presidential special representative Kirill Dmitriev, Russian state news agency TASS said.

Dmitriev had played a key role in direct peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul in recent months, as well as discussions between Russian and US officials.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov welcomed on Monday Witkoff’s visit. “We consider (talks with Witkoff) important, substantive and very useful,” he said.

The Kremlin has not said whether Witkoff will meet President Vladimir Putin during his visit.

When reporters asked Trump on Monday what Witkoff’s message would be to Moscow, and if there was anything Russia could do to avoid the sanctions, Trump replied: “Yeah, get a deal where people stop getting killed.”

Witkoff, a real estate billionaire, has had several long meetings with Putin. He had no diplomatic experience before joining Trump’s team in January, and critics have portrayed him as over his head for such tasks.

Three previous rounds of peace talks in Istanbul in an attempt to broker a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine have failed to make headway.

Putin, who has consistently rejected calls for a ceasefire, said on Friday that he wants peace but that his demands for ending the nearly three-and-a-half-year offensive were unchanged. Moscow has demanded that Ukraine cede more territory and renounce Western support, including seeking NATO membership.

Kyiv is calling for an immediate ceasefire, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week urged his allies to push for “regime change” in Moscow.

As United States President Donald Trump blasts his way through tariff announcements, one thing is clear, experts say: Some level of duties is here to stay.

In the past few weeks, Trump has announced a string of deals – with the European Union, Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines – with tariffs ranging from 15 percent to 20 percent.

He has also threatened Brazil with a 50 percent tariff, unveiled duties of 30 percent and 35 percent for major trading partners Mexico and Canada, and indicated that deals with China and India are close.

How many of Trump’s tariff rates will shake out is anybody’s guess, but one thing is clear, according to Vina Nadjibulla, vice president of research and strategy at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada: “No one is getting zero tariffs. There’s no going back.”

Trump’s various announcements have spelled months of chaos for industry, leaving businesses in limbo and forcing them to pause investment and hiring decisions.

The World Bank has slashed its growth forecasts for nearly 70 percent of economies – including the US, China and Europe, and six emerging market regions – and cut its global growth estimate to 2.3 percent, down from 2.7 percent in January.

Oxford Economics has forecast a shallow recession in capital spending in the Group of Seven (G7) countries – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the US – lasting from the second quarter to the third quarter of this year.

“What we’re seeing is the Donald Trump business style: There’s lots of commotion, lots of claim, lots of activity and lots of b*******,” Robert Rogowsky, professor of international trade at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, told Al Jazeera.

“That’s his business model, and that’s how he operates. That’s why he’s driven so many of his businesses into bankruptcy. It’s not strategic or tactical. It’s instinctive.”

Rogowsky said he expects Trump to push back his tariff deadline again, after delaying it from April to July, and then to August 1.

“It’s going to be a series of TACO tariffs,” Rogowsky said, referring to the acronym for “Trump Always Chickens Out”, a phrase coined by Financial Times columnist Robert Armstrong in early May to describe the US president’s backpedalling on tariffs in the face of stock market turmoil.

“He will bump them again,” Rogowsky said. “He’s just exerting the image of power.”

Trump’s back-and-forth policy moves have characterised his dealings with some of the US’s biggest trade partners, including China and the EU.

China’s tariff rate has gone from 20 percent to 54 percent, to 104 percent, to 145 percent, and then 30 percent, while the deadline for implementation has shifted repeatedly.

The proposed tariff rates for the EU have followed a similar pattern, going from 20 percent to 50 percent to 30 percent, and then 15 percent following the latest trade deal.

The EU’s current tariff rate only applies to 70 percent of goods, with a zero rate applying to a limited range of exports, including semiconductor equipment and some chemicals.

European steel exports will continue to be taxed at 50 percent, and Trump has indicated that new tariffs could be on the way for pharmaceutical products.

Despite the trade deals, many details of how Trump’s tariffs will work in practice remain unclear.

Whether Trump announces more changes down the track, analysts agree that the world has entered a new phase in which countries are seeking to become less reliant on the US.

“Now that the initial shock and anger [at Trump policies] has subsided, there is a quiet determination to build resilience and become less reliant on the US,” Nadjibulla said, adding that Trump was pushing countries to address longstanding issues that had been untouchable before.

Canada, for instance, is tackling inter-provincial trade barriers, a politically sensitive issue historically, even as it looks elsewhere to increase exports, said Tony Stillo, director of Canada Economics at Oxford Economics.

“It would be foolhardy not to provide to the US, seeing as it’s our largest market, but it also makes us more resilient to provide to other markets as well,” Stillo told Al Jazeera.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has reached out to the EU and Mexico and indicated his wish to improve his country’s strained relations with China and India.

This month, Canada expanded its exports of liquified natural gas beyond the US market, with its first shipment of cargoes to Asia.

To mitigate the fallout of Trump’s tariffs, Ottawa has been offering relief to Canadian businesses, including automakers, and has instituted a six-month pause on tariffs on some imports from the US to give firms time to re-adjust their supply chains.

There is also “some relief” in the fact that other countries “don’t seem to be imitating the Trump show [by levying their own tariffs]. They’re witnessing this attempt to strong-arm the rest of the world, but it doesn’t seem to be working,” Mary Lovely, the Anthony M Solomon senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE), told Al Jazeera.

But the world is watching how the tariffs will affect the US economy, as “that will also be instructive to other countries”, Lovely said.

“If we see a slowdown, as we expect, it becomes a cautionary tale for others.”

Although the US stock market is near an all-time high, it is heavily weighted towards the “magnificent seven”, said Lovely, referring to the largest tech companies, and that reflects just one part of the economy.

Re-emergence of industrial policy

Trump’s tariffs come on top of other growing challenges for exporters the world over, including China’s subsidy-heavy industrial policy that allows its businesses to undercut its competitors.

“We’ve entered a period of global economic alignment with the reintroduction of industrial policies,” Nadjibulla said, explaining that more and more governments are likely to roll out support for their domestic industries.

“Each country will have to navigate these and find ways to de-risk and reduce overreliance on the US and China.”

Still, countries seeking to support their homegrown industries will have to do so while reckoning with the World Trade Organization and rules-based trade agreements such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, Nadjibulla said.

“It will take some tremendous leadership around the world to corral this wild mustang [Trump] before he breaks up the world order,” Rogowsky said.

“But it will break because I do think Donald Trump will drive us into a recession.”