Trump News for Tuesday, August 12, 2025

Mexico expels 26 alleged cartel members in latest deal with US

Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera English

The agreement comes as Mexico continues to negotiate with the Trump administration over its tariff threats.

Investigating claim Trump seeks to lower age of consent and marriage to 14

Jordan Liles, Snopes.com

Users claimed the president sought the measure to shield himself from charges for alleged crimes involving convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Is It Still ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ If All The Predictions Were Accurate?

Mike Brock, Techdirt

“Hysterical.” “Alarmist.” “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” “He’ll be constrained by institutions.” “There are adults in the room.” “You’re overreacting.” “The generals won’t let him.” “Stop being so dramatic.” Every single person who said we were being hysterica…

US sanctions DR Congo armed group over illicit mining, ceasefire tested

Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera English

The US is sanctioning the Pareco-FF armed group, as well as the Congolese mining company CDMC.

China raises concerns over Nvidia’s H20 chips with local firms: Report

Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera English

Authorities press companies including ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, to use domestic suppliers instead.

US report says India acts minimally, Pakistan rarely acts against rights abuses

Kanishka Singh, Yahoo Entertainment

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. government noted abuses in India and Pakistan in a shortened human rights report released on Tuesday that said India "took...

Trump official tells census workers Congress has final say over the count, not Trump

Hansi Lo Wang, NPR

Days after the president's call for a "new" census, the top official overseeing the Census Bureau told employees that Congress, not Trump, has final say over the tally, NPR has exclusively learned.

China’s Giving NVIDIA the Side-Eye — H20 AI GPUs Face Major Trust Issues As Beijing Authorities Urge Avoidance

c.cale.hunt@gmail.com (Cale Hunt) , Cale Hunt, Windows Central

Just when NVIDIA thought it was in the clear to resume sales of its H20 AI GPUs to China, a new report suggests that Beijing is putting pressure on its major firms to avoid the chips.

Will the iPhone 17 Cost More? All the Rumors About a Price Increase

Juli Clover, MacRumors

With Apple paying tariffs on imports from many of the countries where it sources devices and device components, there have been multiple rumors about possible price increases for the iPhone 17 models. The tariff situation has been in flux for most of the…

China Urges Firms To Avoid Nvidia H20 Chips After Trump Resumes Sales

BeauHD, Slashdot.org

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Beijing has urged local companies to avoid using Nvidia's H20 processors, particularly for government-related purposes, complicating the chipmaker's return to China after the Trump administration reversed an…

Key issues omitted in revised US State Department human rights report

Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera English

Rights groups allege manipulation of US report after firing of key staff and overhaul of human rights priorities.

Anthony Scaramucci Says Wall Street Fooling Itself On Trump Leaving In 2028: Who Builds A $200 Million Ballroom And 'Moves Out' In 3.5 Years

Ananya Gairola, Yahoo Entertainment

Anthony Scaramucci, former White House Communications Director, has challenged Wall Street’s assumption that President Donald Trump will leave office in...

Vegas' oldest hotel ditches live table games...

Graig Graziosi, The-independent.com

Vegas' oldest hotel ditches live table games... (Second column, 14th story, link) Drudge Report Feed needs your support!   Become a Patron

Trump's pick for BLS chief has floated pausing monthly jobs reports. Investors and economists say it's a terrible idea.

Allie Kelly,Juliana Kaplan,William Edwards,Madison Hoff, Business Insider

E.J. Antoni, President Trump's pick to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics, said it should suspend the monthly jobs report over accuracy concerns.

Bowen Yang Doesn’t Know If ‘SNL’ Will Exist in a Post-Colbert World

JM McNab, Cracked.com

It’s up to NBCUniversal/the Sheinhardt Wig Company

WATCH: 100-year-old World War II veteran flies same type of plane he flew in combat missions

ABC News

David Muir shares the story of World War II veteran Joseph Peterburs and the moment he was cleared for takeoff at the controls of the same type of plane he flew 125 combat missions in.

WATCH: After rare manatee sighting in New England waters, scientists standing by for rescue

ABC News

Scientists want to monitor its condition to see if a rescue is necessary before it succumbs to the cold water or lack of food.

Argentina’s Javier Milei launches group to boost Israel-Latin America ties

Al Jazeera Staff, Al Jazeera English

The Argentinian president will dedicate his $1m Genesis Prize to a new diplomatic initiative called the 'Isaac Accords'.

Zelensky rules out ceding Donbas region as Russians make fresh advance

BBC News

The Ukrainian leader was speaking ahead of a meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday.

Breaking down claims Trump could arrest Putin at Alaska summit on Ukraine war

Yahoo Entertainment

Exile Economics: If Globalisation Fails

Ferdinand Mount, London Review of Books

It is the least convincing cliché of the age that ‘globalisation has passed its sell-by date.’ On the contrary,...

Trump’s Dreams for D.C. Could Soon Hit Reality

Toluse Olorunnipa, The Atlantic

The president will likely find that broad emergency powers do not give him free rein.

Beijing doesn't want Nvidia's H20s anywhere near sensitive government workloads

Tobias Mann, Theregister.com

Don't need to give Uncle Sam any more reason to think kill switches are a good idea Nvidia may have the Trump administration's blessing to resume shipments of its H20 AI accelerators to China, but in Beijing, government officials are now pressuring companies …

Gutfeld Once Again Proves He’s the True King of Late Night By Boosting Jimmy Fallon’s Ratings, Too

Opheli Garcia Lawler, Cracked.com

Fallon will probably continue to cater to right-wing audiences

Trump is bringing in so much revenue from tariffs that it’s seriously reducing the $37 trillion national debt

Nick Lichtenberg, Yahoo Entertainment

It’s the equivalent of a new payroll tax or a 17% cut in the size of the military, according to a top think tank.

TX AG Paxton asks judge to jail Beto O'Rourke for fundraising Dems' walkout...

By Kayla Guo, The Texas Tribune

TX AG Paxton asks judge to jail Beto O'Rourke for fundraising Dems' walkout... (Second column, 5th story, link) Drudge Report Feed needs your support!   Become a Patron

Trump’s Use of Troops for Policing Hasn’t Been Seen Since America Was Ruled by a King

Nick Turse, The Intercept

“The ability to use the military anywhere, anytime, for any purpose — it’s absolutely unprecedented.” The post Trump’s Use of Troops for Policing Hasn’t Been Seen Since America Was Ruled by a King appeared first on The Intercept.

Move over, ChatGPT: Perplexity bids $34.5 billion for Google Chrome

Mark Hachman, PCWorld

As a federal antitrust investigation into Google’s Chrome browser wraps up, rivals are striking: Perplexity has launched an unsolicited bid to buy Chrome for a whopping $34.5 billion, according to reports. Bloomberg reported the proposed deal, confirmed …

Scott Jennings Stunned Into Silence by Brutal Trump Receipts

Eboni Boykin-Patterson, Daily Beast

CNN’s resident conservative pundit Scott Jennings struggled for a response when he was confronted with receipts on Donald Trump’s record with cops. Jennings ...

Trump deploys US National Guard to DC amid crime emergency claims

Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera English

Mayor Bowser disputes Trump's emergency narrative, citing crime decline; critics call deployment a political power play.

Top Russia-US diplomats hold phone call before Trump-Putin Alaska meet

Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera English

Russia says both sides affirm intention for Putin-Trump meet in Alaska on Friday, where Ukraine war set to be discussed.

Assaults by Israeli soldiers become a daily reality in West Bank’s Sebastia

Delaney Nolan, Al Jazeera English

A Sebastia resident’s ordeal highlights Israel’s escalating campaign of humiliation, violence, and land appropriation.

The ‘South Park’ Twitter Account Is the Secret Star of Season 27

Keegan Kelly, Cracked.com

‘South Park’ can’t stop ratioing the White House and its cronies

Gunman who attacked CDC aimed to send message against COVID-19 vaccine

Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera English

Investigators say the suspect blamed the COVID vaccine for his health issues ahead of a deadly shooting in Atlanta.

WATCH: Widows of professional hockey player brothers speak out

ABC News

The widows of brothers Matthew and Johnny Gaudreau are speaking out about their grief nearly one year after their husbands were killed by an alleged drunk driver.

WATCH: Drivers seriously injured by rocks thrown from Las Vegas overpass, state police say

ABC News

Two drivers were seriously injured and taken to a hospital after suspects threw or dropped large rocks from a pedestrian overpass onto an interstate highway in Las Vegas, according to police.

WATCH: Stolen Labubus recovered in major California bust

ABC News

Approximately $30,000 worth of stolen Labubu dolls were recovered by police at a home in Upland, California.

DOJ accuses George Washington University of indifference to anti-Semitism

Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera English

Trump administration claims GWU failed to address or remedy anti-Semitic abuses despite student and faculty complaints.

Consumer prices increase in July amid tariff driven economic uncertainty

Andy Hirschfeld, Al Jazeera English

Prices on goods affected by tariffs saw biggest surges while prices less contingent on foreign imports saw decreases.

The Boston Globe’s Prescient 2016 View of Our Trumpist Future

Jason Kottke, kottke.org

On April 9, 2016, several months before Donald Trump was elected President for the first time, the Boston Globe ran an editorial e

D.C. has been under tighter federal control before. Here's what it looked like

Rachel Treisman, NPR

Trump's expansion of federal authority over Washington, D.C., is in many ways unprecedented, but calls to mind other times the city has been under tighter federal control.

Ukraine sends reserves to stop Russian advance in east amid diplomatic push

Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera English

The Kremlin is pushing to seize more territory in Donetsk region ahead of Trump-Putin talks on Friday in Alaska.

After Another Delay, Trump's China Tariffs Look Even Less Like a Legitimate 'Emergency'

Eric Boehm, Yahoo Entertainment

The words national emergency are not a magic spell that presidents can utter to unlock unlimited legislative powers for themselves.

We Asked Pete Hegseth if Women Should Have the Right to Vote. The Answer Was Unsettling.

Molly Olmstead, Slate Magazine

We really, really didn't expect this.

UFC Boss Says Cage Fight Is Seriously Coming to the White House

Bruce Gil, Gizmodo.com

UFC CEO Dana White confirmed the plans after signing a new multibillion-dollar deal with Paramount.

Trump threatens ‘major lawsuit’ against Federal Reserve Chief Jerome Powell

Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera English

US president has pressured Powell to lower interest rates and criticised him for the Federal Reserve's renovation costs.

Laura Loomer and Marjorie Taylor Greene Are Ripping Each Other to Shreds

Danielle Han, Jezebel

After MTG accused Loomer of being a MAGA treasonist, Loomer spent Monday night calling MTG a “rabid dog,” a "Jezebel" (shoutout!), and a “lying fake Christian whore.”

Conservative Host Ends On-Air Interview After Guest Brings Up Jan. 6

Corbin Bolies, Daily Beast

A NewsNation host couldn’t bear it when a guest brought up Donald Trump’s lack of interest in Washington, D.C. crime during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol—...

Appeals Court Affirms ICE Can’t Arrest People Just For Looking Latino; ICE Immediately Ignores Ruling

Tim Cushing, Techdirt

Three weeks ago, California federal court judge Maame E. Frimpong issued an order blocking ICE from pretending looking a bit foreign was reasonably suspicious enough to justify stops, much less the mass arrests ICE officers have been carrying out regularly in…

There’s a big, important limit on Trump’s power to seize control of DC’s police

Ian Millhiser, Vox

On Monday, President Donald Trump released an executive order invoking a rarely used federal law that allows him to temporarily seize control over Washington, DC’s police force. Later the same day, DC’s Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser seemed to concede that th…

Blackwater’s founder would like to sell you a privacy phone made in the USA

Dominic Preston, The Verge

Unplugged, a company cofounded and backed by Erik Prince, who is also the founder of infamous private military contractor Blackwater, has just released a new version of its "privacy-first" UP Phone that will be made in the US - at some point. The original UP …

AGENTS DETAIN BOY WITH SPECIAL NEEDS AT SCHOOL...

Angelique Brenes, KTLA Los Angeles

Los Angeles Unified School District leaders are calling for limits on immigration enforcement near campuses after a 15-year-old boy with disabilities was pulled from a car, handcuffed, and briefly detained outside Arleta High School on Monday in what official…

Fact-checking Trump’s claim that crime in Washington is out of control

Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera English

Trump claimed DC crime is surging to deploy the National Guard, however, the city's preliminary data proves otherwise.

What is Trump’s Washington, DC security takeover plan?

Al Jazeera English

Donald Trump announced a federal takeover of Washington, DC’s police and the deployment of 800 National Guard troops.

White: UFC fight at White House 'going to happen'

ESPN

UFC CEO Dana White said a fight night at the White House on the Fourth of July next year is "absolutely going to happen."

The John Oliver/Dean Cain Feud Is Officially On

Matt Solomon, Cracked.com

By Matt Solomon Published: August 12th, 2025

Donald Trump Teases Announcement Of Next Kennedy Center Honorees

Ted Johnson, Deadline

Donald Trump said that the slate of honorees for this year’s Kennedy Center Honors will be announced on Wednesday. This will be the first awardees announced since Trump ousted board members and ensured that he would become chairman of the Kennedy Center. That…

A bad experience with an edible? You may be part of the challenge facing the cannabis drinks industry

hbullock@insider.com (Hallam Bullock), Business Insider

Cannabis-infused drinks are struggling to make it big.

Trey Parker Never Wanted People to Compare ‘South Park’ to ‘SNL’ — But That’s Exactly What’s Happening

JM McNab, Cracked.com

Remember when Alec Baldwin saved America from Donald Trump?

Trump extends China tariff deadline for the second time. What does it mean?

Alex Kozul-Wright, Al Jazeera English

US president extends deadline on higher Chinese tariffs hours before agreement was due to expire.

The twisted reason why the Trump administration claims to care about eagles

Benji Jones, Vox

The Trump administration is worried, it would seem, about eagles — like, the big birds of prey with sharp talons and famously good eyesight.  Earlier this month, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who oversees endangered species, wrote on X that wind-energy proj…

CPI: Core inflation rises by most in six months, stoking tariff-driven price concerns

Allie Canal, Yahoo Entertainment

Inflation ticked higher in July as investors stay alert to how much President Trump’s tariffs are starting to affect consumer costs.

Do direct Putin-Trump talks in Alaska signal ‘symbolic victory for Russia’?

Niko Vorobyov, Al Jazeera English

Mixed feelings in Moscow before Friday's summit as analysts are sceptical that peace in Ukraine will be secured.

Inflation remains elevated as Trump's tariffs take hold

Scott Horsley, NPR

Inflation remained elevated last month as President Trump's tariffs continued to make their way into the prices that consumers pay. The average cost of living in July was up 2.7%.

Inflation rises by most in six months, stoking tariff-driven price concerns

Allie Canal, Yahoo Entertainment

Inflation ticked higher in July as investors stay alert to how much President Trump’s tariffs are starting to affect consumer costs.

Inflation held steady in July, defying expectations for hotter price growth as tariffs come into effect

Madison Hoff, Business Insider

The inflation rate stayed at 2.7% in July after it climbed more than expected in June.

Trump FCC Installs Babysitter At CBS To Ensure The Network Kisses King Donald’s Ass

Karl Bode, Techdirt

With the cowards at CBS/Paramount having paid their $16 million bribe, Trump’s FCC was quick to rubber-stamp its approval to the company’s $8 billion merger with Skydance (owned by Trump’s billionaire friends in the Ellison family). Part of that deal involves…

Trump Administration Forced To Resume $5 Billion EV Charger Funding After Losing 14-State Lawsuit

staff@jalopnik.com (Ryan Erik King), Jalopnik

The new USDOT guidance that accompanied the resumption removes requirements that ensured underserved areas have access to public charging stations.

Ford is doubling down on EVs — the timing is awful

Andrew J. Hawkins, The Verge

On Monday, Ford introduced an innovative new manufacturing process that it says will help make its EVs more sustainable, more desirable, and more importantly, more affordable. The timing couldn't have been worse. EV tax credits were set to expire at the end o…

Spirit Airlines warns it may not survive another year after huge losses

Pete Syme, Business Insider

Spirit Airlines said there was "substantial doubt" about its ability to continue as a going concern, as travel demand has weakened and losses mounted.

D.C. residents express concern over crime crackdown. And, Ford invests big in EVs

Brittney Melton, NPR

Washington, D.C., residents express concerns over what Trump's crime crackdown could mean for them. And, Ford plans to invest billions in building a new, cheaper electric truck

Teachers Have Become AI Super-Users

Lila Shroff, The Atlantic

The chatbot takeover of education is just getting started.

Trump Is Right That D.C. Has a Serious Crime Problem

Charles Fain Lehman, The Atlantic

But he has the wrong answer for how to fix it.

China AI Chips, A China Chip Control Framework, Whither HBM

Ben Thompson, Stratechery.com

President's Trump plan for the U.S. to get paid by Nvidia and AMD for China exports is dubious, but overall policy is headed in the right direction.

How Jensen Huang successfully lobbied Trump to restart H20 sales to China; US officials had not vetted Trump's 20% pay-to-play proposal when Trump offered it (Wall Street Journal)

Techmeme.com

Wall Street Journal: How Jensen Huang successfully lobbied Trump to restart H20 sales to China; US officials had not vetted Trump's 20% pay-to-play proposal when Trump offered it  —  Jensen Huang tried diplomacy to sell chips in China, but it took a last-minu…

The Best Way to Fix the Senate? Abolish It.

Osita Nwanevu, Slate Magazine

It’s a profoundly antidemocratic institution. Why do we put up with it?

Ukraine's borders must not be changed by force, EU leaders say

BBC News

The EU says "the people of Ukraine must have the freedom to decide their future."

Trump's remarks on homelessness in DC spark concerns among homeless advocates

Meredith Deliso, ABC News

President Donald Trump vowed this week to rid Washington, D.C., of homeless encampments, though what those plans will look like are unclear.

A Palestinian activist was killed by the violence he sought to stop

Eleanor Beardsley, NPR

Awdah Al Hathaleen was shot during a clash with an Israeli settler. His West Bank village hoped No Other Land, the Oscar-winning film about settler violence that he worked on, might help protect them.

Trump's Washington, D.C. takeover targets a host of groups, many of them vulnerable

Brian Mann, NPR

Some residents are skeptical President Trump's use of tough police tactics will work to solve complex social ills.

Tropical Storm Erin expected to strengthen soon, become hurricane. See latest spaghetti models

Cheryl McCloud, USA TODAY NETWORK - Florida, Naples Daily News

Tropical Storm Erin continues to move quickly west, and is expected to become the first hurricane of the Atlantic season.

Russia makes sudden advance in Ukraine before Trump-Putin summit, maps show

Andrew Osborn, Yahoo Entertainment

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian forces have made a sudden thrust into eastern Ukraine near the coal mining town of Dobropillia, a move that may be designed to...

The White House could end UK's decade-long fight to bust encryption

Connor Jones, Theregister.com

Home Office officials reportedly concede Brit government on back foot as Trump moves to protect US Big Tech players Analysis The Home Office's war on encryption – its most technically complex and controversial aspect of modern policymaking yet – is starting t…

Zelenskyy says Putin 'definitely' not preparing to end war despite Trump summit

David Brennan, ABC News

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed on Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is preparing for "new offensive operations."

OpenAI and SpaceX are making it big without an IPO. That's bad news for young investors.

Rebecca Torrence, Business Insider

The hottest tech stocks are only trading behind closed doors. Gen Z wants in.

China, Brazil can be models of ‘self-reliance’ for Global South, Xi says

Al Jazeera Staff, Al Jazeera English

China's Xi and Brazil's Lula discuss cooperation amid fallout of US President Donald Trump's trade war.

Mark Cuban is lauding Trump for how the POTUS has handled China and Nvidia

Kwan Wei Kevin Tan, Business Insider

Nvidia and AMD are expected to pay the US government 15% of their China chip sales revenues.

Ukraine makes small territorial gains in Sumy ahead of Trump-Putin summit

Reuters, Yahoo Entertainment

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that Kyiv and Moscow will both have to cede land to end the war in Ukraine and this week's talks with Russian...

Trump's Washington police takeover echoes history of racist narratives about urban crime

MATT BROWN, Yahoo Entertainment

President Donald Trump has taken control of the District of Columbia's law enforcement and ordered National Guard troops to deploy onto the streets of the...

Why is Trump sending US National Guard to Washington, DC?

Al Jazeera Staff, Al Jazeera English

President is deploying National Guard in response to what he calls a crime emergency, with 800 troops to be sent to DC.

Trump names conservative economist to lead labour statistics agency

John Power, Al Jazeera English

US president's nomination comes after firing of agency head raised concerns about integrity of US government statistics.

Migrant sentenced to life for murdering Maryland mum in case invoked by Trump

BBC News

The victim's mother told the court: "The brutality of her murder will haunt us for the rest of our lives."

Commissioner for Bureau of Labor Statistics appointed

Nathan Yau, Flowingdata.com

Molly Smith reports for Bloomberg on the appointing of EJ Antoni to head the BLS. Antoni has been vocal about recent estimate revisions. Antoni came on Bannon’s podcast shortly after the latest job…

Seventh Circuit Shuts Down Indiana’s Unconstitutional Police Buffer Zone Law

Tim Cushing, Techdirt

Although the Supreme Court has yet to say so itself (and probably won’t any time soon, given its current composition), it’s generally accepted that citizens have the right to film public officials performing their public duties. Law enforcement officers, howe…

Zelenskyy says Putin readying for ‘new offensive’ in Ukraine, not ceasefire

Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera English

Russian President Putin 'is definitely not preparing for a ceasefire or an end to the war' in Ukraine, Zelenskyy says.

Trump says he may reclassify cannabis as less dangerous drug

Al Jazeera Staff, Al Jazeera English

Cannabis stocks soar after US president says he is 'looking at' reclassification.

Harper Steele, Star Of Emmy-Nominated Documentary ‘Will & Harper,’ To Be Honored By City Of West Hollywood

Matthew Carey, Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: Harper Steele, who co-stars with Will Ferrell in the Emmy-nominated documentary Will & Harper, will receive an official proclamation from the city of West Hollywood honoring “her advocacy and continued efforts to uplift the transgender community.” …

The data is in: Many Canadians are still avoiding travel to the US

Kelsey Vlamis, Business Insider

Canadians traveling to the US was down year-over-year in July for the seventh straight month. The travel decline started at the beginning of the year.

Trump admin live updates: Trump signs 90-day extension for trade truce with China

Kevin Shalvey, Alexandra Hutzler, Sarah Beth Hensley, ABC News

Ahead of the trade truce, the current tariff rate on Chinese imports was 145%.

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,265

Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera English

Here are the key events on day 1,265 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.