The increased presence of local and federal law enforcement officers in Washington, D.C. has intensified in the days following President Donald Trump’s unprecedented announcement that his administration would take over the city’s police department for at least a month. Troops are expected to start more missions in Washington on Thursday.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to London on Thursday in a show of support for Ukraine as Trump prepares for his
summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska. Both Zelenskyy and the Europeans have worried that the bilateral summit would leave them and their interests sidelined.
Here's the Latest:
The Labor Department reported Thursday that its producer price index — which measures wholesale inflation before it hits consumers — was up 0.9% last month from June and 3,3% from a year earlier.
The numbers were much higher than forecasters had expected.
The wholesale inflation report two days after the Labor Department reported that consumer prices rose 2.7% last month from July 2024, same as the previous month and up from a post-pandemic low of 2.3% in April. Core consumer prices rose 3.1%, up from 2.9% in June. Both figures are above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.
The new numbers suggest that slowing rent increases and cheaper gas are at least partly offsetting the impacts of Trump’s tariffs. Many businesses are also likely still absorbing much of the cost of the duties instead of passing them along to customers via higher prices.
The White House says Attorney General Pam Bondi is effectively in charge of the police department in Washington, D.C. But the city’s police force already has a Pam at the helm — Chief Pamela Smith — and she says she only reports to the mayor.
D.C. and federal officials say they are working together, but the unusual arrangement is raising questions about who gets to make decisions about police resources, personnel and policy.
The judge has yet to rule after a three-day trial over whether the administration broke the law by sending Guard troops to accompany immigration agents on raids in Southern California.
The state argued that the deployment violated the Posse Comitatus Act, which generally prohibits military enforcement of domestic laws. Lawyers for the administration said the law does not apply because Trump called up the Guard under an authority that allows separate authority.
It’s happening where East meets West, in a place familiar to both countries as a Cold War front line of missile defense, radar outposts and intelligence gathering.
Whether it can lead peace in Ukraine after more than 3 1/2 years of war remains to be seen.
It takes place Friday at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson outside Anchorage, according to a White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning. It played a key role in the Cold War in monitoring and deterring the Soviet Union.
It’s Putin’s first U.S. trip since 2015, for the U.N. General Assembly in New York. Because the U.S. isn’t a member of the International Criminal Court, which has issued a warrant for Putin on war crimes accusations, it’s under no obligation to arrest him.
▶ Read more on things to know about the meeting between Trump and Putin
— Dasha Litvinova and Michelle L. Price
National Guard officials say they expect troops to start doing more missions as orders and plans are being developed and more troops stage at the Guard's armory.
Neither Army nor District of Columbia National Guard officials have been able to describe the training backgrounds of the troops who have reported for duty so far.
While some Guard members are military police, and thus better suited to a law-enforcement mission, others likely hold jobs that would have offered little training in dealing with civilians or law enforcement.
Officials said the number of National Guard troops will ramp up and federal officers will be out around the clock after the president made the unprecedented announcement that his administration would take over the police department for at least a month.
Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser is walking a political tightrope. She has called the takeover an “authoritarian push” but also framed the infusion of officers as a boost to public safety.
Hundreds of federal law enforcement and city police officers who patrolled Tuesday night made 43 arrests, compared with about two dozen the night before. Councilmember Christina Henderson downplayed these as “a bunch of traffic stops” and said the administration is seeking to disguise how unnecessary the intervention is.
“I’m looking at this list of arrests, and they sound like a normal Saturday night in any big city,” Henderson said.
▶ Read more about the intervention
