The Latest: Trump announces travel ban affecting a dozen countries set to go into effect Monday

President Donald Trump is resurrecting the travel ban policy from his first term, signing a proclamation Wednesday night preventing people from a dozen countries from entering the United States.

In addition to the ban, which takes effect on Monday, there will be heightened restrictions on visitors from seven other countries.

Here’s the latest:

A travel ban reminiscent of Trump’s first term

Some but not all of the 12 countries banned in the new proclamation also appeared on the list of banned countries in Trump’s first term.

Trump issued an executive order in January 2017 banning travel to the U.S. by citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries — Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.

The ban was retooled amid legal challenges until a version was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018. Trump appears to be on firmer ground with the bans this time after the Supreme Court sided with him.

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Trump releases video on new travel ban

In a video released on social media explaining the travel restrictions, Trump tied them to the recent attack in Boulder, Colorado, in which police say an Egyptian man injured a dozen people assembled to raise attention for Israeli hostages in Gaza.

Trump said the attack underscored the dangers posed by some foreign nationals and visitors who overstay visas. Federal authorities have said the Boulder attack suspect has been living in the U.S. illegally. Egypt is not on Trump’s restricted list.

Trump said the severity of the restrictions on each country depended on how strong the threat was. He said the list could be updated to reflect improvements or additional threats around the world.

The list of countries impacted by Trump’s travel ban

People from a dozen countries will be banned from entering the United States under Trump’s ban. Those countries include Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

There will also be heightened restrictions on visitors from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

“I must act to protect the national security and national interest of the United States and its people,” Trump said in his proclamation.

Ten of the 19 countries under the bans and restrictions are in Africa, nine of those from majority-Black African countries. Several of those, including Sierra Leone, Togo and Equatorial Guinea, are not known for hosting armed groups that pose a major threat to the West.

Trump moves to block US entry for Harvard-bound foreigners

In an executive order signed Wednesday, Trump declared that it would jeopardize national security to allow Harvard to continue hosting foreign students on its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. International students account for a quarter of the university’s student body.

It’s his latest attempt to choke the Ivy League school and stems from Harvard’s refusal to submit to a series of demands made by the federal government.

▶ Read more about Trump’s move to block foreigners from Harvard

Trump orders investigation into Biden’s actions as president, alleging cover-up of cognitive decline

Trump is ordering his administration to investigate former President Joe Biden’s use of an autopen to sign pardons and other documents.

An autopen is a mechanical device that is used to replicate a person’s authentic signature, and presidents have used them for decades. Trump has frequently suggested that some of Biden’s actions are invalid because his aides were usurping presidential authority to cover up what Trump claims is Biden’s cognitive decline.

The memo Wednesday came after House Republicans requested transcribed interviews with five former Biden aides, alleging that they had participated in a cover-up concerning “Biden’s cognitive state and who was calling the shots.”

Biden and members of his family have vigorously denied the claims, and Democrats have dismissed the effort as a distraction.

▶ Read more about the investigations

Trump announce

s travel ban affecting a dozen countries

Trump is again banning people from countries his administration deems dangerous from coming to America.

The travel ban issued Wednesday is a repeat of an order of his first administration that led to widespread confusion at airports. This version includes Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

Trump’s first travel ban was issued in 2017 and banned travel to the U.S. by citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries. Trump has said the ban was aimed at protecting the country.

▶ Read more about the new ban

Trump muses about third term during White House event

After Trump finished speaking at the event for political appointees, the crowd chanted, “Eight more years!”

A third term would breach a constitutional limit on how long presidents can remain in office.

He referred to the political appointees as “patriots” and said, “We have the hottest, most talked-about country anywhere in the world.”

Trump also suggested that a future president could be among them.

“There’s greatness in this crowd,” he said.

Letter outlines drastic cuts at Voice of America

Sharp job cuts at the state-run Voice of America have been outlined in a letter to Congress that was obtained by The Associated Press.

The cuts would reduce personnel at the state-run service that provides news to other countries from more than 1,000 to 81, according to the letter.

Voice of America has been largely silent since mid-March, when the administration put most of its staff on administrative leave and terminated the arrangements of contract workers. Trump says he believes the service speaks with a liberal bias.

An employee who is suing the government to keep the service operational says it’s absurd to think it can run with these staffing levels.

▶ Read more about the cuts

Army leaders defend parade and border spending

Army leaders are defending spending as much as $45 million to add a parade to the service’s 250th birthday celebration on June 14, saying it will help boost recruitment.

They are responding to members of Congress who argue that the money could be better spent on troops’ barracks or other priorities.

Members of the House Armed Services Committee also said during Wednesday’s hearing they are concerned that the Defense Department is shifting about $1 billion from a variety of accounts — including base housing — to cover the costs of shoring up the defense of the southern border.

▶ Read more about spending for the parade and border

Trump administration violated a settlement to provide legal advice to families separated at the border, judge says

A federal judge in San Diego says the Trump administration violated a settlement to provide legal advice to thousands of families that were separated at the border.

American Civil Liberties Union attorney Lee Gelernt says the legal advice could be critical for families as they seek to renew humanitarian parole, which began expiring in May 2024 under the settlement.

Justice Department attorneys argued that a new service from its immigration courts fulfills its obligations, but the ACLU countered that they failed to show even a single person signed up. The ACLU wants the government to rehire the Acacia Center for Justice, whose contract for the free legal advice was ended in April.

U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw said he would likely decide on concrete steps by early next week.

GOP senators say ‘failure is not an option’ on budget bill

Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters that Republican senators had a “very positive discussion about the path forward” with Trump on his “big, beautiful” bill.

Thune said Republicans were moving “in the same direction to get this across the finish line.”

He did not offer details about the hour-plus discussion with the president but said: “Failure is not an option.”

Justice Department pushes to unseal FBI’s surveillance records of Martin Luther King Jr.

A federal judge is weighing a request from the Trump administration to unseal records of the FBI’s surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr. — files that the civil rights leader’s relatives want to keep in the national archives.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington, D.C., said during a hearing Wednesday that he wants to see an inventory of the records before deciding whether the government can review them for possible public release.

Justice Department attorneys have asked Leon to end a sealing order for the records nearly two years ahead of its expiration date. A department attorney said the administration is only interested in releasing files related to King’s assassination.

▶ Read more about the administration’s request to unseal the records

House panel expands inquiry into Biden’s health in office

The House Oversight Committee is requesting interviews with members of former President Joe Biden’s innermost circle as Republicans ramp up their investigation into the final moves of the Biden administration.

Oversight Chairman James Comer of Kentucky requested transcribed interviews with five former Biden aides, alleging that they had participated in a cover-up over “Biden’s cognitive state and who was calling the shots.”

Comer also requested interviews with Biden’s physician and four other senior aides.

He cited a new book that details concerns and debates inside the White House and Democratic Party over Biden’s mental state and age. Biden and members of his family have vigorously denied the book’s claims.

▶ Read more about the inquiry into Biden’s condition

Trump once promised green cards to international students. Now, they feel targeted

To attract the brightest minds to America, Trump proposed a novel idea while campaigning: If elected, he would grant green cards to all foreign students who graduate from U.S. colleges.

“It’s so sad when we lose people from Harvard, MIT, from the greatest schools,” Trump said in June, during an interview with the podcast “All-In.”

Trump was asked if he could promise to give companies more ability “to import the best and brightest” students.

“I do promise,” Trump answered. Green cards, he said, would be handed out with diplomas to any foreign student who gets a college or graduate degree.

That promise never came to pass. Instead, international students have found themselves at the center of an escalating campaign to kick them out or keep them from coming to the U.S. Trump’s administration has merged a crackdown on immigration with an effort to reshape higher education.

▶ Read more about how international students say it feels to study in America

Migrants sent to El Salvador prison must get a chance to challenge their removal, judge says

Chief Judge James Boasberg ruled Wednesday that the administration has to give people a way to contest their deportations under an 18th-century wartime law. He said they must also be able to dispute allegations that they are members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

The ruling is the latest milestone in a monthslong legal saga over the fate of deportees imprisoned at El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center.

▶ Read more about the ruling

Trump names nominees to take over Middle East and Africa commands

Trump is nominating Vice Adm. Brad Cooper to take over as the top U.S. military commander in the Middle East, the Pentagon said Wednesday.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a statement that Trump also is nominating Air Force Lt. Gen. Dagvin Anderson to head U.S. Africa Command.

Cooper is currently deputy commander of U.S. Central Command and has extensive experience serving and leading troops in the Middle East.

It’s a crucial role as the region has been shaken by conflict, with the Trump administration pushing to broker a ceasefire deal after 20 months of war in Gaza and holding nuclear talks with Iran.

▶ Read more about the nominees

US vetoes UN Security Council resolution demanding Gaza ceasefire

The United States on Wednesday said the move was because the immediate and permanent ceasefire wasn’t linked to the release of hostages.

The resolution before the U.N.‘s most powerful body also didn’t condemn Hamas’ deadly attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which ignited the war, or say the militant group must disarm and withdraw from Gaza — two other U.S. demands.

The 14 other members of the 15-nation council voted in favor. The resolution described the humanitarian situation in Gaza as “catastrophic” and called on Israel to lift all restrictions on the delivery of aid.

Acting U.S. Ambassador Dorothy Shea said the resolution would undermine the security of Israel and diplomatic efforts to reach a ceasefire, while emboldening Hamas.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren agrees with the president on the debt ceiling; and Elon Musk on the Trump tax bill

After the president took to his Truth Social platform Wednesday to say he agrees with Sen. Elizabeth Warren that “the Debt Limit should be entirely scrapped to prevent an Economic catastrophe,” Warren issued a statement calling for Republicans to scrap the statutory debt ceiling.

“I’ve argued for years that a default on the national debt would be an economic catastrophe that must be avoided by getting rid of the debt limit permanently,” Warren said. “If Republicans in Congress were serious about preventing that economic disaster, they would scrap the debt limit entirely like President Donald Trump has called for — not increase it by $4 trillion dollars to finance tax cuts for billionaires and billionaire corporations.”

Citing the Congressional Budget Office’s analysis released Wednesday of Trump’s big bill — which estimates a spike in deficits by $2.4 trillion over the next decade and would leave some 10.9 million more people without health insurance — Warren said “that’s a disgusting abomination, as Elon Musk made clear.”

Homeland Security investigating whether Egyptian man’s family knew of attack

The Homeland Security Secretary says the department is investigating what the family of an Egyptian man arrested in the Colorado firebombing attack knew about the attack ahead of time.

Kristi Noem said in a statement Wednesday that they’re also looking into whether the family provided any support to the attack.

Noem said Immigration and Customs Enforcement has taken Mohamed Sabry Soliman’s wife and five children into custody and is processing them so they can be removed from the country.

Homeland Security said his wife was a 41-year-old Egyptian citizen and that he had three daughters and two sons. The Department said all of them are Egyptian citizens and arrived with him when he arrived in the U.S. Aug. 27, 2022.

Government goes after Columbia’s accreditation

The Education Department is pressuring Columbia University’s accreditor to take action against the Ivy League school over findings that it failed to protect Jewish students from harassment.

The department on Wednesday told the Middle States Commission on Higher Education that Columbia should face action because it has been found in violation of antidiscrimination laws.

Accreditors work on behalf of the federal government to decide which colleges can accept federal financial aid. Without an accreditor’s seal of approval, Columbia could no longer accept students’ federal grants or loans.

“Just as the Department of Education has an obligation to uphold federal antidiscrimination law, university accreditors have an obligation to ensure member institutions abide by their standards,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement.

The announcement says the accreditor must take action against Columbia if it doesn’t come into compliance.

Columbia and its accreditor did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Bishop who stood up to Trump preaches hope and joy at World Pride

Mariann Budde, Bishop of Washington, on Wednesday decried leaders “trying to turn back the clock” on LGBTQ+ rights and urged people to embrace hope and joy amid hardship as they come to the nation’s capital for World Pride during a time of mounting political anxiety for LGBTQ+ Americans.

“We’re not in the 1960s and 70s anymore,” Budde, who is a bishop within the Episcopal church, told a crowd at World Pride.

Ahead of her Wednesday remarks at World Pride, Budde told The Associated Press she’d leave the calls to action to activists and organizers and would instead focus on “love, joy and community as the antidotes to fear.”

“It prevents us from being so paralyzed by fear that we forget who we are and our history in the struggle for equal rights,” she said.

Judge tosses Democratic committees’ lawsuit over the Federal Election Commission’s independence

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit that sought to block Trump’s administration from implementing an executive order that Democratic Party officials claim could undermine the independence of the Federal Election Commission.

U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali in Washington ruled late Tuesday that there’s insufficient evidence that the Republican administration intends to apply a key portion of Trump’s executive order to the FEC or its commissioners.

“This Court’s doors are open to the parties if changed circumstances show concrete action or impact on the FEC’s or its Commissioners’ independence,” the judge wrote.

The Democratic Party’s three national political committees sued after Trump signed the executive order in February. The order was intended to increase his control of the entire executive branch, including over agencies such as the FEC, a six-person bipartisan board created by Congress to independently enforce campaign finance law.

▶ Read more about Federal Elections Commission

Trump renegotiating CHIPS Act awards

The Trump administration is renegotiating some grants previously awarded to companies under a law design to reinvigorate semiconductor manufacturing in the United States, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick confirmed in a hearing Wednesday.

When asked at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing about delays in doling out CHIPS Act funding awarded to some companies, Lutnick said they have been reworking some agreements to try and generate additional domestic investment.

“Are we renegotiating? Absolutely, for the benefit of the American taxpayer, for sure,” Lutnick said. “All the deals are getting better. And the only deals that are not getting done are deals that should have never been done in the first place.”

The CHIPS Act, a law passed in 2022 with bipartisan support, was designed to revive U.S. semiconductor manufacturing while sharpening the U.S. edge in military technology and minimizing future supply chain disruptions.

But recent tariffs and export limitations paired with the administration’s threats against the CHIPS Act, could dramatically slow its goal of ensuring the U.S. maintains a competitive edge in artificial intelligence development.

Homeland Security says its cracking down on visa overstays after attack left several injured in Boulder, Colorado

The Department of Homeland Security says it will be going after people who stay in the U.S. once their visas expire after an Egyptian man who overstayed his visa was charged with injuring several people in Boulder, Colorado.

Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, is among hundreds of thousands of people known to overstay their visas each year in the United States.

In a statement Wednesday, Homeland Security said that U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services are ramping up their reviews of immigration records.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem warned that anyone aiming to come to America and “advocate for antisemitic violence and terrorism” was not welcome and would be prosecuted.

Trump says he spoke about Iran with Putin and they agreed the country ‘cannot have a nuclear weapon’

Trump says part of his call with Putin was focused on Iran and “the fact that time is running out on Iran’s decision pertaining to nuclear weapons, which must be made quickly!”

Trump said in a post on his social media site that he told Russia’s president “that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and, on this, I believe that we were in agreement.”

He said Putin suggested “that he will participate in the discussions with Iran” and could perhaps “be helpful in getting this brought to a rapid conclusion.”

Trump previously boasted that a major announcement on Iran was coming, but none has materialized.

He suggested in his latest post that Iran has been slow-walking their decision “and we will need a definitive answer in a very short period of time!”

British Prime Minister says deal exempting UK from US metals tariffs will be in place before deadline

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says he is confident a trade deal exempting the U.K. from U.S. metals tariffs will be in force before a July 9 deadline set by Trump.

Starmer and Trump announced a trade agreement May 8 that will eliminate import taxes on U.K. steel and aluminum, but it has yet to come into force. Trump raised the tax on imported steel and aluminum from 25% to 50% starting Wednesday but said it would stay at 25% for the U.K.

He reserved the right to hike the rate if the deal isn’t in force by July 9.

Starmer told lawmakers in the House of Commons that the agreement would be implemented “in just a couple of weeks.”

“We are the only country in the world that isn’t paying the 50% tax on steel and that will be coming down,” Starmer said. “We are working on it to bring it down to zero, that is going to happen.”

Gareth Stace, head of the industry body U.K. Steel, said Trump’s decision to keep tariffs on British steel at 25% was a “welcome pause” but warned that continuing uncertainty was making American customers “dubious over whether they should even risk making U.K. orders.”

Trump says Putin told him Russia will respond to Ukrainian attack on airfields

Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin told him “very strongly” in a phone call Wednesday that he will respond to Ukraine’s weekend drone attack on Russian airfields.

The U.S. president said in a social media post that “It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace.”

The call that lasted for an hour and 15 minutes was Trump’s first known with Putin since May 19.

▶ Read more about Russia’s war in Ukraine

African history classes are safe if they teach ‘both sides,’ McMahon says

Education Secretary Linda McMahon made the comment Wednesday while facing questions by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

Asking about the Trump administration’s push to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs, Democratic Rep. Summer Lee asked if courses on African American history should be permitted.

“I do not think that African studies or Middle East studies or Chinese studies are part of DEI if they are taught as part of the total history package,” McMahon said. “If you’re giving the facts on both sides, of course they’re not DEI.”

Lee responded, “I don’t know what both sides of African American history would be.”

Lee posed the same question about lessons on the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. “I’d have to get back to you on that,” McMahon said.

Former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has a book coming out this fall

The book promises a close look at President Joe Biden’s decision not to run for reelection and calls for thinking beyond the two-party system.

Jean-Pierre herself has switched her affiliation to independent after working in two Democratic administrations, according to Legacy Lit, a Hachette Book Group imprint that will publish “Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines” on Oct. 21.

Wednesday’s announcement from Legacy Lit says she’ll take readers “through the three weeks that led to Biden’s abandoning his bid for a second term and the betrayal by the Democratic Party that led to his decision.”

▶ Read more about Karine Jean-Pierre’s upcoming book

House Speaker Mike Johnson says he called Elon Musk to discuss his posts criticizing tax bill

“I called Elon last night and he didn’t answer, but I hope to talk to him today,” Johnson told reporters Wednesday, adding, “I hope he comes around. I’d love to talk to him this week and I hope he calls me back today.”

Johnson said he and Musk spoke at length Monday about the bill.

“Elon was encouraged by that conversation. We had a great, it was a very friendly, very fruitful conversation together, and he and I talked about the midterm elections, and he said, ‘I’m going to help,’” Johnson said.

“Then yesterday, you know, 24 hours later, he does a 180 and he comes out and opposed the bill and it surprised me, frankly,” he added.

A Democrat responds to the Congressional Budget Office’s forecast on Trump’s tax bill

“Republicans cry crocodile tears over the debt when Democrats are in charge — but explode it when they’re in power,” said Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee.

“In the words of Elon Musk,” Boyle said, reviving the billionaire and former Trump aide’s criticism of the package, “this bill is a ‘disgusting abomination.’”

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise criticizes the Congressional Budget Office

At a news conference Wednesday with House leadership, Scalise said the office has continuously failed to take economic growth into account.

“You don’t need to go back that far to see how wrong the CBO has been,” Scalise said. “When it comes time to make prognostications on economic growth, they’ve always been wrong.”

Asked later if the budget office should be done away with, Scalise did not shoot down the idea.

“I think it’s very valid to raise these concerns that CBO has missed the problems that come with making false estimates,” he said. “Economic growth has been their Achilles’ heel.”

Pennsylvania sues the USDA over cutting funding to $1 billion food aid program

The state says the agency under Trump illegally cut off funding to it through a program designed to distribute more than $1 billion in aid to states to buy food from farms for schools, child care centers and food banks.

The lawsuit in federal court was announced by Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, and comes three months after states received notices of termination from the Department of Agriculture saying the pandemic-era assistance program no longer reflects agency priorities.

“I don’t get what the hell their priorities are if not feeding people and taking care of our farmers,” Shapiro said at a news conference at a food bank warehouse in Philadelphia.

The loss to Pennsylvania is $13 million under a three-year contract, money the state planned to use to buy food from farms to stock food banks. States also use the money to buy food from farms for school nutrition programs and child care centers.

World Pride opening speaker says she was denied entry to US ahead of human rights conference

Just days before she was set to give opening remarks at World Pride’s human rights conference in Washington, Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, the co-founder of UK Black Pride widely known as Lady Phyll, said she was denied entry to the U.S. after her visa was revoked due to her travels to Cuba earlier this year.

Many LGBTQ+ travelers have expressed concerns or decided to skip the gathering due to anxieties about safety, border policies and a hostile political environment. Several countries, including Denmark, Finland and Germany, issued cautions for LGBTQ+ travelers visiting the U.S. for World Pride.

Speaking over a livestream, Opoku-Gyimah said she applied immediately for a nonimmigrant visa, but the earliest date she was given was in September.

“I’ve called. I’ve written. I’ve pleaded,” she said. “And the answer was a cold, bureaucratic ‘No.’”

Budget office estimates increase of 10.9 million people without health insurance under Trump’s bill

That would include 1.4 million who are in the country without legal status in state-funded programs. The package would reduce federal outlays, or spending, by $1.3 trillion over that period, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said.

Trump’s big bill will cut taxes by $3.7T and add $2.4T to deficit, nonpartisan budget office says

The analysis comes at a crucial moment as Trump is pushing to have the final product on his desk by Fourth of July.

The White House and GOP leaders have been sowing doubt on the Congressional Budget Office’s work. But its findings as the official scorekeeper of legislation will be weighed by lawmakers and others seeking to understand the budgetary effects of the sprawling 1,000-page plus package.

▶ Read more about Trump’s bill in Congress

Wall Street stalls following a potentially discouraging report on the US job market

U.S. stocks are drifting in tentative trading following a potentially discouraging signal on the job market and economy.

The S&P 500 edged up 0.2% Wednesday and lost some momentum after a big rally drove it back within 3% of its all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 53 points, and the Nasdaq composite added 0.3%.

The action was stronger in the bond market, where Treasury yields fell after a report suggested employers outside the government hired far fewer workers than expected last month. That could bode ill for Friday’s more comprehensive jobs report coming from the Labor Department.

Wall Street ticks quietly higher in premarket as Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs due to kick in

Futures for the S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq all rose 0.2% in light trading before the bell Wednesday morning.

The European Union’s top trade negotiator, Maroš Šefčovič, met Wednesday with his American counterpart, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, on the sidelines of a meeting of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Šefčovič said talks were “advancing in the right direction at pace.”

There’s been no official update on the status of the steel and aluminum tariffs as of early Wednesday morning. Those tariffs are expected to hit a broad range of businesses hard and likely push up prices for consumers.

▶ Read more about the financial markets

Ukraine’s backers meet to drum up arms and ammo. The Pentagon chief is absent

Senior officials from nearly 50 nations gathered Wednesday, with the Pentagon’s chief absent for the first time since the group organizing the military aid was set up three years ago.

The Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting at NATO headquarters is going to be chaired by the United Kingdom and Germany. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth would only arrive in Brussels after it’s over. He’ll participate in a meeting of NATO defense ministers Thursday.

His absence is the latest in a series of steps Washington has taken to distance itself from Ukraine’s efforts to repel Russia’s full-scale invasion, which began Feb. 24, 2022.

Before Wednesday’s meeting, the U.K. said it plans a tenfold increase in drone production to help Ukraine. Drones have become a decisive factor in the war.

▶ Read more about efforts to support Ukraine

Europe and the US are meeting in Paris to negotiate a settlement of a tense tariff spat

The European Union’s top trade negotiator, Maroš Šefčovič, met Wednesday with his American counterpart, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, on the sidelines of a meeting of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

“We’re advancing in the right direction at pace,” Šefčovič said at a news conference. He said ongoing technical meetings between EU and U.S. negotiators in Washington would be soon followed by a video conference between himself and Greer to then “assess the progress and charter the way forward.”

Brussels and Washington are unlikely to reach a substantive trade agreement in Paris. The issues dividing them are too difficult to resolve quickly.

▶ Read more about tariff negotiations between the U.S. and Europe