US trade official downplays Canada trade war: ‘It’s more their emergency than ours’ – live

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House speaker Mike Johnson will launch a floor vote to pass the stopgap funding bill designed to keep the federal government fully funded through early December, removing the possibility of a shutdown before the midterm elections.

“The first thing is we’ve got to make sure this government gets funded and we don’t have another Democratic shutdown,” he told reporters as he prepared to open the chamber for business.

The short-term funding bill underwent some significant changes in the Senate, which made it more palatable for Democrats.

It delays a proposed rule from the Office of Management and Budget that would give political appointees more power over the distribution of federal grants. It also includes language to ensure the administration cannot transfer funds to the Border Patrol.

But a provision that delays for one month a federal ban on intoxicating hemp THC products has prompted criticism from many GOP lawmakers.

As a result, GOP leaders will probably place the bill on a fast-track process that avoids a separate procedural vote, bypassing any Republican efforts to block or stall the legislation.

Suspension bills require a two-thirds vote to pass, meaning a significant number from both parties need to support the measure for it to pass and advance to Trump’s desk. The funding vote will most likely take place later today.

In other developments:

The Supreme Court allowed Donald Trump to continue building his $400m White House ballroom project. In a 5-4 decision along political lines, the justices found that a group issuing a legal challenge against the ballroom did not have standing to bring their case. Trump celebrated with a post on his Truth Social platform while Democrats criticized the decision.
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is stepping down from his role after 18 months on the job, leaving another top military position vacant. Driscoll and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had reportedly butted heads for some time.
Trump vowed further strikes on Iran and called it a “failed nation”. The remarks came as Washington and Tehran exchanged their first military strikes in a month.
JD Vance gave a speech in Michigan that included an attacked against Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. “There’s something about Abdul El-Sayed that is very, very evil,” Vance told the crowd.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent accused Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney of turning their trade dispute into a “political shouting match”. Carney had rejected the Trump administration’s terms that would have given the US government extensive power over Canada’s trade policy.
California Governor Gavin Newsom vowed to block the appointment of election denier Tina Peters, who was convicted in 2024 in relation to a plot to chase pro-Trump election conspiracies. Newsom announced he would take measures to prevent Peters from working as an election consultant for Northern California’s Shasta county.

Donald Trump this month announced plans to rescind a landmark rule that has protected old-growth forests in the US for 25 years. If finalized, the rollback is expected to benefit the companies that Tom Schultz, chief of the US Forest Service, represented in his previous roles as a timber industry lobbyist and executive, according to research by consumer advocacy non-profit Public Citizen.

The Roadless Area Conservation Rule, more commonly known as the “roadless rule”, was adopted in 2001 to limit development in roughly 45m acres of national forest. Industry interests and Republican representatives have long lobbied for the rule’s rescission, which would open up those swaths of untouched land to road construction, drilling and logging.

In a statement, Schultz described the move as “the best way to restore the balance, reduce wildfire risk, and secure the long-term health of our forests and neighboring communities”. But studies suggest it could put 400 threatened and endangered species at risk and imperil ecosystems.

Industry interests will be the main beneficiaries of the change, advocates fear.

In an emailed statement, a Forest Service spokesperson, who did not provide their name, noted that Schultz had also held positions in Idaho and Montana government.

“Chief Schultz’s appointment reflects the administration’s recognition that the Forest Service’s current challenges require leadership with broad federal land management experience, not just internal tenure,” the person said.

Schultz is the first-ever Forest Service chief who did not previously work within the agency itself. Before Trump tapped him for the job, he served as president of the Federal Forest Resource Coalition, a trade association representing companies that purchase timber from the federal government, and was also vice-president of resources and government affairs at Idaho Forest Group, a major lumber manufacturer.

House Republicans are investigating several US labor unions based on claims from far-right nonprofits alleging union dues are being used for illegal political funding.

Republicans on the House’s education and workforce committee opened the investigation this summer after multiple reports from the conservative thinktanks targeted unions and their spending, claiming that unions are using member dues to support Democratic causes.

While unions are allowed to advocate for political causes, they are prohibited from using union dues to directly fund specific candidates or political action committees (Pacs). Union members can voluntary donate to labor union’s political action committees.

The unions under investigation include the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), United Auto Workers, United Steelworkers, Smart Transportation Division (Smart-TD), Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), and the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division (BMWED).

The allegations come from research reports by the American Accountability Foundation (AAF), a “dark money” nonprofit that counts Project 2025 architect the Heritage Foundation as a donor, and the Freedom Foundation, a conservative thinktank whose chairman once protested against Labor Day, claiming “I can’t think of a problem in society that can’t be traced in some way back to the abuses of organized labor.”

Thousands of American service members are about to descend on eastern Thailand, as the USS Abraham Lincoln makes a port call near the city of Pattaya.

The aircraft carrier sailed past Singapore over the weekend on its way back to the US after a lengthy deployment in the Middle East as part of the US war against Iran.

The Lincoln is expected to dock at a port in Chonburi province this week, according to Thai officials.

More than 5,000 American service members are onboard and many are expected to visit Pattaya, according to the city’s Mayor Poramet Ngampichet, who hopes the port call will boost the local economy. He said destroyer USS Frank E Petersen Jr will dock at a different port.

“For Pattaya to be seen as an important vacation spot is something that we have aimed for,” Poramet said. “We welcome more visits of the troops in the future, whether for a drill or a vacation, before they go back to the US.”

Generational ⁠change is on the ballot ⁠in Massachusetts on Tuesday as Democratic voters choose whether to renominate 80-year-old progressive senator Ed Markey or replace him on the ballot with 47-year-old representative Seth ⁠Moulton.

Markey, who has served in Congress for nearly 50 years, is backed by leading progressives such as senator Bernie Sanders and representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as well ⁠as most members of the state’s congressional delegation, including senator Elizabeth Warren.

No members of the delegation have endorsed Moulton, a moderate US Marine Corps veteran ‌whose supporters include New Jersey ‌Governor Mikie Sherrill and the Democratic organization VoteVets, Reuters reported.

The Boston Globe’s editorial board is also behind Moulton, casting ‌him as a necessary agent of change with “proven leadership skills” and positions on key issues that align with most voters.

Markey has a nearly $2m fundraising advantage over Moulton, and Markey has led in recent polls by a double-digit margin. The primary winner is heavily favored to win in November.

Democrat Kamala Harris carried the state by nearly 25 percentage points in 2024.