Kamala Harris says she won’t run for California governor, saying ‘for now’ she won’t be in elected office – US politics live | US news

The executive order issued by Donald Trump on Wednesday, imposing 50% tariffs on goods imported from Brazil – to punish the South American nation for supposedly “persecuting” its former president, Jair Bolsonaro, for attempting to stay in power despite losing an election – exempts hundreds of products, including certain metals, aircraft parts, wood pulp, energy and energy products, and fertilizers.

The long list of exemptions included in an annex to the order on the White House website does not, however, include coffee, one of the main items American companies import from Brazil.

The Jeffrey Epstein files weren’t the only business of the day on Capitol Hill today. Legislation sponsored by Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri gained approval from a key committee today.

The bill was initially named the Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments (PELOSI) Act, which would bar elected members of Congress from buying, owning or selling individual stocks.

The bill’s original name takes a pointed jab at Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi – who has been criticised for her stock holdings. Democrats have since negotiated for the legislation to be renamed as the “Honest Act”.

In a statement today, Pelosi said:

I welcome any serious effort to raise ethical standards in public service. The HONEST Act, as amended, rightly applies its stock trading ban not only to Members of Congress, but now to the President and Vice President as well. I strongly support this legislation and look forward to voting for it on the Floor of the House.

However, since the legislation stipulates that the law doesn’t start until an elected official’s new term in office, it exempts Donald Trump and JD Vance.

Donald Trump signed an executive order which adds a further 40% tariff to Brazilian imports – bringing the total to 50%.

The White House says that the tariffs are a penalty for the Government of Brazil’s politically motivated persecution of former President Jair Bolsonaro and his supporters. The administration maintains that these punitive tariffs are part of the President’s plans to protect “the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States from a foreign threat.”

This comes after the earlier move from the Treasury Department to issue sanctions against the high court judge overseeing Bolsonaro’s attempted coup trial.

Kamala Harris announces she won’t run for California governor

Lauren Gambino

Kamala Harris, the former vice-president and 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, announced on Wednesday that she will not run for governor of California – a highly anticipated decision that leaves the contest to lead the country’s largest blue state wide open.

In a statement Harris said:

For now, my leadership – and public service – will not be in elected office. I look forward to getting back out and listening to the American people, helping elect Democrats across the nation who will fight fearlessly, and sharing more details in the months ahead about my own plans.

Powell adds that today’s Federal Reserve meeting was “quite good” but there were two dissenters at the meeting.

And on the impact of tariffs, Powell says there has been “substantial amount of tariff revenue collected” each month. But he adds that the process with “probably be slower than expected at the beginning, but we never expected it to be fast, and we think we have a long way to go.”

Powell underscores the Fed’s reasoning:

The labor market looks solid. Inflation is above target. And even if you look through the tariff effects we think it’s still a bit above target.

Jerome Powell said that while the interest rate will remain steady today, there will be two rounds of jobs and inflation data by the time of the next meeting in September.

He did add, however, that they have made “no decisions about September,” but they will be taking that interim information into consideration ahead of the next decision.

Jerome Powell is outlining the Federal Reserve’s decision to keep the interest rate steady.

“Our obligation is to keep longer term inflation’s inflation expectations well anchored, and to prevent a one time increase in the price level from becoming an ongoing inflation problem,” he said.

The US Federal Reserve has elected to hold its benchmark interest rate steady at between 4.25 and 4.5%, a rate it has maintained since the end of 2024.

The divided Federal Reserve voted to keep the rate steady despite a barrage of criticism from Trump and dissents from two officials.

“Although swings in net exports continue to affect the data, recent indicators suggest that growth of economic activity moderated in the first half of the year. The unemployment rate remains low, and labor market conditions remain solid. Inflation remains somewhat elevated,” a press release following the decision states.

The decision was met with opposition from governors Michelle Bowman and Christopher Waller, with both advocating for the Fed to start easing in acknowledgement that inflation is under control and the labor market could weaken soon. This marks the first time since 1993 that multiple governors cast no votes on a rate decision.

Trump dismissed concerns that lowering interest rates could ultimately increase inflation. “Well, if that happens, you just raise them,” he said.

Trump is taking questions now, and is resolute that interest rates must drop.

“We’re keeping the rates high, and we’re hurting people from buying houses,” he says.

Taking another jab, in a long series of them, at Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, Trump says “he’s done a bad job.”

The president says that Powell is always “too late”, and adds that Powell probably won’t cut the interest rate today for reasons that “nobody knows.”

President Trump is now in the Roosevelt Room signing a bill that provides relief to veterans and their families who have fallen behind on mortgage payments.

In response to the new congressional map released by Texas Republicans today, Democrats in the state and beyond have wasted no time rebuking it.

The Texas House Democrats said in a statement:

These maps are a corrupt, racially motivated gerrymander designed to steal the voices of Black and Latino Texans so Donald Trump can send five new hand-picked allies to Washington.

Similarly, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) said that it anticipates Texas will land itself a lawsuit, and believes “the map will get struck down”.

They added that they plan “to recruit aggressively to unseat every single newly vulnerable Republican who went along with this corrupt scheme”.

The treasury department announced sanctions today against Alexandre de Moraes – the high court judge overseeing the investigation into disgraced former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro – who is on trial for allegedly attempting to launch a coup after losing the 2022 Brazilian election.

Earlier this month secretary of state Marco Rubio said on social media that he ordered a visa revocation for De Moraes.

The US accuses De Moraes of “arbitrary pre-trial detentions and suppress freedom of expression”.

In a statement treasury secretary Scott Bessent added:

De Moraes is responsible for an oppressive campaign of censorship, arbitrary detentions that violate human rights, and politicized prosecutions—including against former President Jair Bolsonaro.

Today marks the first of three days of hearings investigating the plane collision in DC that killed 67 people in January.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is holding the hearings after an American Airlines passenger jet collided midair with a Black Hawk helicopter earlier this year. The crash killed all aboard both aircrafts. It is also the US’s deadliest air disaster since November 2001.

NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said the three days will be a “fact finding proceeding”, and today’s hearing opened with a video animation of where both aircrafts were leading up to the collision.

At the press conference, when asked about whether Democratic senators would be comfortable with redactions, minority leader Chuck Schumer said lawmakers “wouldn’t force any agreements that have been broken”, but added that he believes “almost everything can come out”.

Schumer also said that he wants the files to be made available to the public and members of Congress, and that Democratic members are working to get some Republican colleagues on board to help make the files public. “It should be bipartisan,” he said. “But if not, there’s recourse in the courts. This is the law.”

Gary Peters, the top Democrat on the Senate homeland security committee, shared more about how the letter works, and what it demands.

“We are using very unique statutory authority that is granted only to our committee, to homeland security and government affairs. The statute that we are invoking requires the administration to hand over documents … requested by any five members of the Senate committee,” Peters said.

“This letter demands that the justice department produce documents that attorney general Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel have publicly already confirmed they have in their possession. We all know in fact that the attorney general said, quote, she said they’re sitting on her desk. It should be pretty easy to turn over documents that are sitting on the attorney general’s desk.”

At the Capitol, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer is outlining his attempt to force attorney general Pam Bondi to release the files related to the investigation of disgraced financier and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

“We’re invoking federal law and using our authority as a check on the executive to compel transparency,” Schumer said.

“Today’s letter matters. It’s not a stunt, it’s not symbolic, it’s a formal exercise of congressional power under federal law, and we expect an answer from DoJ by August the 15th. That’s what accountability looks like. This is what oversight looks like, and this is what keeping your promises to the American people look like.”

He noted that both Bondi and Donald Trump had previously said they want the case file’s released:

This is not complicated. After promising full transparency for years, every single time Trump, his administration, Republican leaders have had a chance to be transparent about the Epstein files, they’ve chosen to hide. The evasions, the delays, the excuses, they are not just odd, they’re alarming. It begs the question, if there’s nothing to hide, why all the evasiveness?

Trump should stop hiding from the truth, he should stop hiding from the American people.