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Eleventh-hour negotiations fell apart ahead of Friday's deadline, and President Trump's 50% tariffs on roughly $28 billion in Canadian goods took effect overnight. Prime Minister Mark Carney suspended talks, accusing Washington of "unfair" last-minute changes, and announced dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs. Trade chief Jamieson Greer says Canada walked away from "the best deal" it was ever going to get.
A federal judge struck down Secretary of State Marco Rubio's directive ordering immigrant visa denials for applicants from 75 countries, ruling he lacked the statutory authority. The court blasted the policy's reasoning as "Orwellian," reopening a pipeline the administration had frozen. An appeal is widely expected.
Treasury data shows the national debt crossed $40 trillion, with the fiscal-year deficit near $1.8 trillion through ten months. Secretary Scott Bessent doubled long-end debt buybacks to $4 billion starting September 9 to calm yields, while Trump argued growth alone can outrun the debt. Consumer sentiment slid almost 8% in August to 51.
The human-caused Hawk Fire has burned more than 13,000 acres outside Reno since erupting Saturday, with zero containment and roughly 1,000 homes threatened. Governor Joe Lombardo declared a state of emergency for Washoe County and mobilized the National Guard for aerial firefighting and evacuations. Tens of thousands of residents were urged to leave.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is set to announce today what he calls "the single greatest financial offensive ever marshaled against an adversary," targeting Iran's oil buyers, shippers, banks and airlines. The package hits Tehran's new Persian Gulf Strait Authority, which has been charging tolls for Hormuz passage — what Bessent labels "maritime extortion." Iran's national security chief vows to "retaliate in a seismic manner."
Mossad Director Roman Gofman and Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani held high-level talks Sunday after Israel bombed the Abu al-Duhur airbase in northern Syria. The flashpoint is a possible Turkish military presence, with Defense Minister Israel Katz warning Erdogan not to test Israel's resolve. Washington says a de-escalation process is in place but still being refined.
A mountain of garbage at a major landfill in Conakry, Guinea gave way after heavy rain, sliding onto homes built at its base. At least 30 people were killed and rescuers are still digging for survivors. The site had long been flagged as unstable by residents living in its shadow.
Five-year clinical trial data on Merck and Moderna's personalized mRNA melanoma vaccine shows a 49% reduction in recurrence or death versus standard immunotherapy alone. The shot is custom-built to each patient's tumor mutation profile. It's among the strongest long-horizon results yet for individualized cancer vaccines.
Trump will award the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canada's Jeremy Hansen on August 28 at Johnson Space Center. The crew reached 252,756 miles from Earth on their lunar flyby, breaking the human distance record Apollo 13 set in 1970. NASA is separately targeting its first three uncrewed moon-base missions before year's end.
A dig in Villa Celimontana park near the Colosseum has uncovered a nearly 2,000-year-old building with mosaics and painted decoration, five of its eight rooms now fully exposed. Officials believe it belonged to the Fifth Cohort of the Vigiles — Rome's firefighting force. It would be a rare physical trace of the empire's emergency services.
