Hosting G20 meeting, Bessent tries to rally allies on Iran as tariffs strain ties

31 August 2026 at 18:04

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is meeting with finance ministers of the world's largest economies this week at a time when the United States has disrupted the international order with aggressive tariffs on major allies and an unpopular war on Iran.

House lawmakers return to Capitol Hill as Republicans hope to pass stopgap spending bill – live

The Guardian

By: Shrai Popat (now) · Lucy Campbell and Tom Ambrose (earlier)

31 August 2026 at 20:50

The US House is back after a five-week recess; government funding is guaranteed through 30 September

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Chris Hippensteel

We’re watching today as Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, and Kevin Warsh, the chair of the Federal Reserve, deliver their opening remarks at the G20 meetings in Asheville, North Carolina.

As US-Canada tensions flare, who’s calling the shots in Trump’s trade team?

The Guardian

By: Robert Tait in Washington

31 August 2026 at 13:00

US trade representative Jamieson Greer has a level-headed reputation but commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and White House adviser Peter Navarro also have key roles

Having reportedly read Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, in French, during a military tour of duty in Iraq, Jamieson Greer considered himself an unlikely target for accusations of francophobia.

But Donald Trump’s US trade representative, hitherto one of the president’s less high-profile cabinet members, found himself in that uncomfortable position amid the acrimonious collapse of bilateral trade talks with Canada that now threatens to degenerate into an all-out trade war between the two close trading partners whose economies are tightly intertwined.

Trump’s ballroom construction can resume at White House, supreme court rules – as it happened

World news | The Guardian

By: Nick Robins-Early · Shrai Popat · Lucy Campbell and Tom Ambrose

1 September 2026 at 04:58

This live blog is now closed.

US supreme court allows Trump to keep building $400m White House ballroom

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Chris Hippensteel

We’re watching today as Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, and Kevin Warsh, the chair of the Federal Reserve, deliver their opening remarks at the G20 meetings in Asheville, North Carolina.

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