The US President has threatened to invoke an 1807 law to give the National Guard powers of arrest and policing. Chicago is the latest city where Trump is sending the guard, despite vehement state and city opposition.
President Donald Trump appears poised to put his image on both sides of a commemorative $1 coin issued by the United States Mint – the country’s manufacturer of legal tender coinage that also produces commemorative coins.
On October 3, the White House re-shared an X post from US Treasurer Brandon Beach confirming reports that the Trump administration was seeking to put the president’s image on the front and back of a dollar coin commemorating the nation’s 250th anniversary.
list of 4 itemsend of list
US currency typically does not feature living people – or sitting presidents – but it’s not unprecedented.
“There have been times in the past where commemorative coins have been printed with the faces of living people,” White House National Economic Council chair Kevin Hassett said on CNN’s State of the Union on October 5.
He’s right. Several living people have been featured on US currency in both the recent and distant past, including one president.
Although the concept of a Trump coin runs counter to a longstanding tradition, there are no unscalable legal obstacles to establishing a US coin with Trump’s image on it.
Beach’s X post showed the coin’s front, featuring Trump’s side profile, and its flip side – an illustration of Trump pumping his fist after a 2024 assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. The phrase, “Fight Fight Fight” lines the coin’s perimeter, referencing a Trump rallying cry repeated after the assassination attempt. Trump was not president at the time of the assassination attempt.
At an October 3 White House press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “I’m not sure if he’s seen it, but I’m sure he’ll love it.”
Multiple pieces of coinage legislation enacted over the past few decades have included specific language banning living people from being portrayed on US-minted coins. In one case – a series of coins launched in 2007 honouring every president – the law’s text goes further to specify that no coin in the series may “bear the image of a living former or current president, or of any deceased former president during the two-year period following the date of the death of that president”.
That barrier on living presidents was specific to that particular presidential coinage series, however – not to the series that would include the proposed Trump coin.
The guidance governing the series the Trump administration is considering comes from legislation authorising a series of coins for the nation’s 250th anniversary, known as the Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of 2020.
Trump signed the measure into law in January 2021, during his first presidency, following unanimous passage by both chambers of Congress. It authorises the redesigns of quarters, half dollars and $1 coins in several sequential series, one of which is a 250th anniversary series to be launched in 2026.
The law for the 250th series refers specifically to the reverse of the coin: “No head and shoulders portrait or bust of any person, living or dead, and no portrait of a living person may be included in the design on the reverse of any coin” in the series. But it doesn’t rule out a portrait on the front of the coin.
That may not be a high bar for Trump to jump if he wants to mint a coin with his image on it.
Unless Congress acts, the process from here would involve only administration officials, meaning the president could maintain direct control. Even if the courts were inclined to block the proposal, experts said it’s uncertain whether anyone would be able to cite a direct harm from producing a Trump coin – a requirement for filing a lawsuit.
“It’s unclear who would have standing to sue here,” said Gabriel Mathy, an associate professor of economics at American University in Washington, DC, who has studied coinage issues.
Whether or not a Trump coin would be legal, numismatic experts – those who specialise in coins and related items – said there’s a longstanding tradition in the United States of not depicting living people on coins.
“Not featuring current presidents on coins is an important and enduring part of the United States’ history as a republic,” Mathy said. “Going back thousands of years, coins traditionally carried the image of the current monarch. This is still the case in the United Kingdom, where coins are minted with the face of the reigning monarch, as well as in some other monarchies.
“The United States was founded as a republic, and the founders wanted to avoid making the president into a monarch,” Mathy said. Putting a living president on a coin would be “inconsistent with a long tradition of American republicanism”.
Despite the norm, living people have sometimes appeared on US currency.
President Abraham Lincoln, his Treasury Secretary Salmon P Chase and US Army General Winfield Scott were among a small number of living figures to appear on US paper currency.
During the Civil War, Spencer Clark, an official with the federal office responsible for printing paper money, put his own image on a five-cent note. He did it by leveraging a legal loophole: Congress had approved a note featuring an image of William Clark, the explorer from the Lewis & Clark expedition of the Louisiana Territory, but lawmakers neglected to specify William Clark’s first name in the legislation, journalist Blake Stilwell wrote in Military.com.
So Spencer Clark, having the same surname, inserted his own image instead of William Clark’s. Clark also produced a separate note that featured then-US Treasurer Francis E Spinner.
By the Civil War’s end, “Congress had time to pay attention to what the Bureau of Engraving and Printing was up to,” Stilwell wrote.
So in 1866, Congress passed a law saying no portrait or likeness of a living person would appear on “bonds, securities, notes, fractional or postal currency of the United States”.
The law doesn’t mention coins, however. Living figures – and even one living president, Calvin Coolidge – have occasionally been featured on coins, including some in recent years.
In 1921, the US released a commemorative coin to mark Alabama’s centennial, featuring side views of William Bibb, the state’s first governor, and Thomas Kilby, its governor during the centennial. “This coin was the first ever created by the Mint to carry a living person’s portrait,” the Mint’s website says.
In 1926, during the nation’s sesquicentennial celebration, Congress authorised the minting of a commemorative coin. The designers settled on a joint portrait of George Washington and Coolidge, who was president during the sesquicentennial.
The coin proved unpopular; of 1 million half dollars that were minted, more than 850,000 were returned to the Mint and melted.
The other two examples we could find of a living figure minted on coins are more recent.
The Mint created a congressionally authorised coin to commemorate the 1995 Special Olympics World Games. Congress didn’t dictate the design, but the front of the coin featured Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who founded the Special Olympics for people with intellectual disabilities. She died in 2009.
On February 6, 2016, the Mint released a congressionally authorised coin for former President Ronald Reagan and former First Lady Nancy Reagan, tied to the late president’s 105th birthday. Nancy Reagan died one month later, on March 6, 2016.
In 2025, the West African nation of Liberia produced a $1, one-ounce silver commemorative coin with Trump’s image on the front, crowned by a laurel leaf in gold as if he were a Roman emperor. The motto read, “In Don We Trust.”
Under blazing skies at a tea plantation in India’s northeastern state of Assam, worker Kamini Kurmi wears an umbrella fastened over her head to keep her hands free to pluck delicate leaves from the bushes.
“When it’s really hot, my head spins and my heart begins to beat very fast,” said Kurmi, one of the many women employed for their dextrous fingers, instead of machines that harvest most conventional crops within a matter of days.
Weather extremes are shrivelling harvests on India’s tea plantations, endangering the future of an industry renowned for beverages as refreshing as the state of Assam and the adjoining hill station of Darjeeling in West Bengal state, while reshaping a global trade estimated at more than $10bn a year.
“Shifts in temperature and rainfall patterns are no longer occasional anomalies; they are the new normal,” said Rupanjali Deb Baruah, a scientist at the Tea Research Association.
As changing patterns reduce yields and stall output, rising domestic consumption in India is expected to shrink exports from the world’s second-largest tea producer.
While output stagnates in other key producers such as Kenya and Sri Lanka, declining Indian exports, which made up 12 percent of global trade last year, could boost prices.
Tea prices at Indian auctions have grown by just 4.8 percent a year for three decades, far behind the 10 percent achieved by staples such as wheat and rice.
The mildly warm, humid conditions crucial for Assam’s tea-growing districts are increasingly being disrupted by lengthy dry spells and sudden, intense rains.
Such weather not only helps pests breed, but also forces estate owners to turn to the rarely used practice of irrigating plantations, said Mritunjay Jalan, the owner of an 82-year-old tea estate in Assam’s Tinsukia district.
Rainfall there has dropped by more than 250mm (10 inches) between 1921 and 2024, while minimum temperatures have risen by 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit), the Tea Research Association says.
The monsoon, Assam’s key source of rain, as summer and winter showers have nearly disappeared, brought rainfall this season that was 38 percent below average.
That has helped to shorten the peak output season to just a few months, narrowing the harvesting window, said senior tea planter Prabhat Bezboruah.
Patchy rains bring more frequent pest infestations, leaving tea leaves discoloured, blotched brown, and sometimes riddled with tiny holes.
These measures, in turn, add to costs, which are already rising at 8 to 9 percent a year, driven up by higher wages and prices of fertiliser, said Hemant Bangur, chairman of the leading industry body, the Indian Tea Association.
Planters say government incentives are insufficient to spur replanting, crucial in Assam, where many colonial-era tea bushes yield less and lose resilience to weather as they age beyond the usual productive span of 40 to 50 years.
India’s tea industry has flourished for nearly 200 years, but its share of global trade could fall below the 2024 figure of 12 percent, as the increasing prosperity of a growing population boosts demand at home.
Domestic consumption jumped 23 percent over the past decade to 1.2 million tonnes, far outpacing production growth of 6.3 percent, the Indian Tea Association says.
While exports of quality tea have shrunk in recent years, India’s imports have grown, nearly doubling in 2024 to a record 45,300 tonnes.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in chemistry to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M Yaghi for their work in the development of metal-organic frameworks (MOF).
The three scientists, who won the award on Wednesday, come from the universities of Kyoto in Japan, Melbourne in Australia and Berkeley in the United States, respectively.
list of 3 itemsend of list
The three have created “molecular constructions with large spaces through which gases and other chemicals can flow”, read a statement from the Nobel Prize. Such constructions can be used to harvest water from desert air, capture carbon dioxide, store toxic gases or brake down traces of pharmaceuticals in the environment.
“Metal-organic frameworks have enormous potential, bringing previously unforeseen opportunities for custom-made materials with new functions,” said Heiner Linke, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.
According to Olof Ramström, a member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, the new form of molecular architecture can be compared to the handbag of fictional Harry Potter character Hermione Granger: small on the outside but very large on the inside.
The chemists, working separately but adding to each other’s breakthroughs, devised ways to make stable metal organic frameworks — which may be compared to the timber framework of a house.
These structures can absorb and contain gases inside these frameworks, with many practical applications today — such as capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or sucking water out of dry desert air.
The first step into what would have been a decades-long journey was in 1989 when Robson tested atoms’ properties in a new way, combining positively charged copper ions with a four-armed molecule. This had a chemical group that was attracted to copper ions at the end of each arm, reads a description in the Nobel Prize’s statement.
When they were combined, they formed a shape similar to a diamond filled with cavities. But the crystal would collapse easily. That is when Kitagawa and Yaghi entered the frame. Working separately between 1992 and 2003, they made a series of discoveries to make the metal frameworks stable. Kitagawa showed that they could be made flexible while Yaghi discovered that they can be modified using rational design.
The 2024 prize was awarded to David Baker, a biochemist at the University of Washington in Seattle, and to Demis Hassabis and John Jumper, computer scientists at Google DeepMind, a British-American artificial intelligence (AI) research laboratory based in London.
The three were awarded for discovering powerful techniques to decode and design novel proteins, the building blocks of life. Their work used advanced technologies, including AI, and can potentially transform how new drugs and other materials are made.
The first Nobel of 2025 was announced Monday. The prize in medicine went to Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Dr. Shimon Sakaguchi for their discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance.
Tuesday’s physics prize went to John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis for their research on the weird world of subatomic quantum tunneling that advances the power of everyday digital communications and computing.
This year’s Nobel announcements continue with the literature prize Thursday. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced Friday and the economics prize next Monday.
Ethiopia has accused Eritrea’s government of working with an opposition group based in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region to prepare for a military offensive, underscoring concerns of renewed conflict in the region.
Ethiopia’s Foreign Minister Gedion Timothewos made the claim in a letter appealing to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, cited by the AFP news agency and Ethiopian media on Wednesday.
list of 3 itemsend of list
In the letter, Timothewos claims there is clear “collusion” between Eritrea’s government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a once-dominant political force in Ethiopia that fought a two-year civil war with Addis Ababa, ending in 2022.
“The collusion between the Eritrean government and the TPLF has become more evident over the past few months,” said the letter, quoted by AFP. “The hardliner faction of the TPLF and the Eritrean government are actively preparing to wage war against Ethiopia.”
In the letter, Addis Ababa also accuses Asmara and the TPLF of “funding, mobilising and directing armed groups” in the northern Amhara region, where the federal army has been facing rebels for several years.
The message speaks to deteriorating relations between neighbouring Ethiopia and Eritrea, which have a decades-long bloody history.
After Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993, a border war erupted between the two Horn of Africa countries from 1998 to 2000, leaving tens of thousands dead.
Relations thawed in 2018 after Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power, with the Eritrean army supporting Ethiopian federal forces in the 2020-2022 Tigray War.
Since the conflict ended, relations have again taken a belligerent turn, with Asmara accusing its landlocked neighbour of eyeing the Assab port on the Red Sea in southeastern Eritrea.
Abiy has repeatedly expressed hopes for Ethiopia to regain sea access, lost legally after Eritrea’s independence.
Timothewos, in his letter to Guterres, said Addis Ababa wants “to engage in good faith negotiations with the government of Eritrea” and has a vision of “shared prosperity through integration that preserves the territorial integrity and sovereignty of both states”.
He accused Asmara of trying “to justify its sinister machinations against Ethiopia by claiming that it feels threatened by Ethiopia’s quest to gain access to the sea”.
Novak Djokovic threw up, Alexander Zverev poured sweat out of his shoe, and Emma Raducanu quit her match with dizziness – and the bad news for the world’s top tennis players is that more baking weather awaits them in China this week.
Denmark’s Holger Rune called the temperatures of more than 30C (86F) and humidity soaring past 80 percent at the Shanghai Masters “brutal”.
list of 4 itemsend of list
“Do you want a player to die on court?” Rune was heard asking this week in the fierce conditions.
The 24 Grand Slam winner Djokovic labelled it “very challenging physically” on Tuesday as he battled the heat and an ankle injury scare to reach the quarterfinals.
The ailing 38-year-old crouched over frequently in between rallies against Spain’s Jaume Munar and vomited on court.
After one unforced error, Djokovic dropped to the court and remained splayed out as a medic rushed over, before regathering himself to win in three battling sets.
The draw has opened up for the Serb after world number one Carlos Alcaraz withdrew before the tournament to rest, and defending champion Jannik Sinner retired from his match on Sunday with cramp.
Zverev, ranked three in the world, was beaten on Monday, having had to pause during his defeat to change his shoes because sweat was pouring out of them.
Spectators at the centre court wafted fans and wore cool packs on their foreheads to counter the suffocating humidity.
The main court in Shanghai has a roof, but it remains open and would only be closed if it rains – there is no prospect of that for the remainder of the tournament.
Rune called on the men’s governing body, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), to introduce a heat rule at events such as the Shanghai Masters.
The ATP said in a statement that player safety was its top priority, and it was considering such a policy.
Currently, decisions affecting play to do with weather conditions, including heat, lie with the on-site ATP supervisor, in coordination with on-site medical teams and local authorities, it said.
Conditions felt marginally less oppressive on Wednesday in Shanghai, but forecasts were still for highs of 29C (84F).
Temperatures are set to rise again in the coming days and peak on Sunday, the day of the final, at an estimated 32-33C (90-91F).
France’s Arthur Rinderknech, who reached the quarterfinals on Wednesday, said it was not only the players who were suffering.
“It was as hard for the ball boys, for the umpire, for the fans, everybody was always like this – blowing air to the face because it was really hot,” he said.
The conditions are equally punishing in Wuhan, central China, where top women’s players are competing.
Temperatures are above average for this time of year in both cities.
Scientists have consistently warned that human-driven climate change is resulting in more frequent and intense weather events worldwide.
The difference between Wuhan and Shanghai is that the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) has a heat policy.
At the WTA Wuhan Open on Tuesday, former Grand Slam champions Emma Raducanu and Jelena Ostapenko retired from their matches.
Raducanu had her blood pressure and other vitals checked before retiring with dizziness from her first-round match.
World number two Iga Swiatek called on organisers to take player safety into account when scheduling matches on the outdoor courts, where there is no roof.
“On centre court, I think it’s a little bit cooler with the air conditioning and everything,” she said.
“But I hope the other matches will be scheduled at a time where girls can compete, rather than just die on the court.”
Temperatures above 30C forced organisers to put the WTA’s heat rule into effect on Monday, as play was suspended on the outside courts.
The heat rule was also in effect for part of Tuesday.
The policy allows players to take a 10-minute break between the second and third sets, and means the tournament can partially or fully close the centre-court roof to protect players.
The rule looks set to come into play repeatedly this week in Wuhan, where highs above 30C are forecast all week, including for Sunday’s final.
