According to the military, National Guard troops are now carrying weapons while they are obedient to President Donald Trump’s orders to patrol the country’s capital.
According to a statement from the Joint Task Force-DC, “service members began carrying their service-issued weapon” on August 24, 2025.
The statement stated that only the troops are permitted to use force “as a last resort and only as a response to an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm.”
The National Guard would either carry M17 pistols or M4 rifles, according to unnamed officials who spoke to Reuters.
One week after sending troops there, Trump made the announcement on Sunday, when he made the claim that there was “NO CRIME AND NO MURDER IN DC.”
Trump claimed in a similar post on Truth Social that he might “send in the “troops” to the Baltimore-arean community, which he described as “out of control” and “crime-ridden.”
Wes Moore, the governor of Maryland, invited Trump to visit Baltimore and walk its streets, and he responded, “I would much prefer that he clean up this Crime disaster before I go there for a “walk.”
However, Baltimore Police Department reports a double-digit decrease in gun violence in July compared to the previous year. According to Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, the city has experienced 84 homicides this year, the lowest number in more than 50 years.
Washington, DC, home to just over 700,000 people, is now home to tens of National Guard and federal law enforcement officers.
The National Guard is a reserve force that, according to the US Army, can be called on to respond to “counter-drug efforts,” foreign combat missions, and domestic emergencies.
During a rally along the U-Street corridor in northwest Washington, DC, on Saturday, people protest Trump’s use of federal law enforcement and National Guard troops.
Protests, fear and confusion from residents, as well as federal law enforcement officers, have been reported for their presence in the nation’s capital.
Despite the fact that official data indicates crime is down in the city, some Republican governors have sent hundreds of National Guard troops to Washington, DC, which the president has described as being in the grip of a crime wave.
The president has the authority to take over policing in the capital for up to 30 days because it is not a state.
The district’s designation as a state has long been a top priority for many residents. After passing a bill through the then-Democrat-controlled House of Representatives in 2020, Democrats did not pursue it further.
Meanwhile, Trump’s push to send troops to Chicago was rejected on Sunday by JB Pritzker, the Democratic governor of Illinois.
Lee Jae-myung, the president of South Korea, will make his first high-stakes visit to Donald Trump’s closest and most significant ally in Seoul.
After a one-day meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in Tokyo, Lee arrived in Washington, DC, on Sunday ahead of an official working-level meeting at the White House with Trump.
The two heads of state will hold their first official meeting.
Following a trade agreement in July, Washington agreed to reduce South Korea’s reciprocal tariff from the initial proposal’s 25% to 15%.
The meeting is crucial for South Korea, whose engagement with the Trump administration was disrupted by domestic political turmoil, ignited by the brief declaration of martial law announced in December by the country’s impeached former president, Yoon Suk-yeol.
The unwritten July trade agreement, in which South Korea agrees to buy $100 billion worth of US energy and invest $350 billion in US economy, will be the subject of discussion.
Trump has mentioned that the outcome of their discussions will be determined as to whether those staggering sums will be directly invested in the US or be expected from South Korean businesses.
Accompanied by first lady Kim Hea-kyung, Lee will lead a delegation formed by the heads of South Korean top conglomerates, including Samsung Electronics, SK Group, Hyundai Motor and LG Group.
According to the South Korean daily Maeil Business Newspaper, the four companies are the only ones known to have made a total of 126 trillion won ($91.02 billion) in direct investments in the US.
Lee and Trump need to be deliberate and direct in the discussions, according to Choi Yoon-jung, a principal research fellow at the Seoul Sejong Institute, because “South Korea is in a tough predicament in terms of trade with the US compared to the past.”
“It will be important for President Lee to explain how investments will be designed to serve US national interests and to remind Trump that the two nations are close trading partners who went through large ordeals to realise their Free Trade Agreement over two decades ago”, Choi told Al Jazeera.
The direction of the investment talks is likely to be “unpredictable,” according to Mason Richey, a professor of international politics at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS).
The White House’s investment portion of the agreement is likely to remain undetermined and subject to unanticipated adjustments, Richey told Al Jazeera. “Not only are the current 15 percent tariffs overwhelmingly likely to stay on,,” Richey said.
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers under construction at the Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering facility on Geoje Island, South Korea, on December 7, 2018]Ahn Young-joon/AP]
Shipbuilding is one area of Trump’s desire to play catch-up with China’s naval fleet, which is leading in terms of sheer numbers and is also developing technology, according to analysts.
A partnership worth about $150 billion to help rebuild the US shipbuilding industry would be a key component of the tariff agreement with Washington, according to Seoul-based officials.
To that end, after visiting the White House, Lee will head to Philadelphia to visit the Philly Shipyard, which was bought by the South Korean company Hanwha Group last year.
Additionally, according to analysts, South Korea has shown an interest in becoming a partner in battery production and semiconductors, two other industries where Trump has clearly set goals to increase US capacity.
According to Choi, the South Korean government is also willing to take an active role in the “modernization” of its relationship with the US, which might include making more money to protect the region’s security and development.
Another major discussion point will be Seoul and Washington’s defence posture regarding the growing threats from North Korea, as well as the development of a strategic alliance to address the changing international security and economic environment.
The demand for US forces’ involvement in the Korean Peninsula to change has been growing for years, according to Jenny Town, director of the research program 38 North at Washington, DC.
Town noted that this evolution was especially significant as China’s power supply increased.
“The Trump administration is focused on how to maximise resources for US interests and priorities, so it is likely that some changes will be made during this term”, Town said.
According to her, “a number of factors will affect how drastic or dramatic these changes will be,” including the state of the domestic political system in the US, which provides checks and balances for executive decisions.
A US Senate defense policy bill for the fiscal year 2026 prohibits the use of funds to reduce the number of USFK troops to the 28, 500 currently serving members.
“This makes it unlikely that there will be an immediate change in troop deployment numbers in South Korea”, Choi said.
The main point of contention will therefore be how to match US interests with the troops’ job assignments. I believe that Trump might ask South Korea to participate in the Taiwan-related conflict by playing a bigger role in regional security.
Financial negotiations between Trump and Lee may also tip into security details, as the US president has regularly called for South Korea to pay more for the US troops stationed on its soil.
Since his first term as president, Trump has called the same question.
South Korea also paid the entire cost of building Camp Humphreys, the largest US base overseas, located 64 kilometers (39 miles) south of Seoul, which is located at an additional $1 billion.
Trump has said that he wants defence spending to reach closer to 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) for all US allies.
South Korea’s defense budget currently accounts for 3.5% of GDP.
Seoul and Washington have long been at odds with one another about the transfer of wartime operational command, which refers to the transfer of control of South Korean forces from the US to South Korea during the Korean War.
Under the Lee administration’s five-year governance plan, Seoul hopes to have the transition happen by 2030.
On July 24, 2025, US President Donald Trump visits the Federal Reserve in Washington, DC.
Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister recently dismissed Washington and Seoul’s stated intentions to restart diplomacy in order to end Pyongyang’s nuclear program. The Trump-Lee meeting follows this.
Kim Yo Jong said that Seoul could never be a “diplomatic partner” with Pyongyang.
According to Town, Kim Yo Jong’s statements had “interesting nuances.”
“Her statements did open the door for the US to engage North Korea in order to improve overall relations,” Town said, “though she did reject any kind of denuclearization narrative as the basis for negotiations.”
“Kim suggested that there’s a reason for two countries with nuclear weapons to avoid confrontational relations. This raises the question of whether the US is actually interested in establishing a different relationship with North Korea without imposing denuclearization, and how its allies would interpret such a plan, Town said.
In terms of influence and security, the possibility of “Trump bypassing Lee in diplomacy with North Korea” poses a significant risk for South Korea in the future.
In contrast to today’s lack of contact between Washington and Pyongyang, Trump’s first presidential term featured a suspension of US military exercises with South Korea and three separate meetings between the US president and North Korea’s Kim.
Trump might also have a reason to give Kim a US hand in the friendship process by pursuing his Nobel Peace Prize.
The president of South Korea visits the White House annually for 11 days along with annual, extensive, large-scale joint military exercises between the US and South Korea.
During a visit to North Korea’s most advanced warship last week, Kim denounced the drills as rehearsals for an invasion of North Korea and “an obvious expression of their will to provoke war”.
A North Korean missile base that is undocumented is located 25 kilometers (15. 5 miles) from the Chinese border, according to Beyond Parallel, a project of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, which is likely carrying intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of reaching the US.
Town added that this summit could feature Russia on its own.
“Lee may bring up the issue of how Russia’s relations with North Korea, especially their military cooperation, poses potential dangers to the alliance’s security interests”, she said.
Talks could be turned toward whether Russian President Vladimir Putin’s relationship with Trump might help to ease the situation, she said.
These international relations are strengthened by North Korea’s recent dealings with Russia, as reciprocal military exchanges for food, cash, weapons, and other goods have established a stable strategic partnership between Moscow and Pyongyang.
Furthermore, North Korea has shown an interest in strengthening ties with another of the US’s biggest rivals – China.
In the end, Choi said, “I believe Trump will keep making offers toward North Korea.”
Caspar Veldkamp, the foreign minister of the Netherlands, resigns after failing to impose sanctions on Israel for the atrocities committed in Gaza.
Slovenia imposed an arms embargo on Israel earlier this month along with Spain and Belgium.
Germany partially retaliated by stopping the sale of weapons to Israel that could be used in Gaza until “further notice.”
Italy suspended all new military exports to Israel in October, while the Netherlands also imposed a partial ban on parts for Israeli fighter jets.
Questions are raised, however, by Caspar Veldkamp’s recent resignation as Dutch Foreign Minister after his government refused to ratify sanctions against Israel.
Will this one decision cause the 27-nation bloc to experience broader political unrest?
Presenter:
Adrian Finighan
Guests:
Mpanzu Bamenga, a member of the Dutch Parliament and a champion for human rights,
According to a spokesperson for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the US ambassador Charles Kushner was summoned after he allegedly complained to President Emmanuel Macron that Paris had failed to do enough to stop anti-Semitic violence.
Kushner addressed the open letter to The Wall Street Journal on Sunday, focusing on France’s criticism of Israel, which has been accused by prominent human rights organizations of staging a genocide in Gaza, and its plans to grant a Palestinian state.
He wrote that “publications that disparage Israel and encourage extremists, fuel violence, and put a Jewish community in France at risk” Anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism, to put it simply, in today’s world.
The ambassador received a prompt response from Paris.
France “strongly refutes these most recent allegations,” according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry on Sunday. The ambassador’s claims are untrue, the ambassador said.
According to the ministry, France is “fully committed” to combating anti-Semitism.
Kushner’s comments were also made against international law, with particular reference to diplomatic personnel’s obligation to refrain from interfering with state affairs, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry.
Additionally, they fall short of the trust that should be built between allies as a result of France and the United States’ transatlantic relationship.
The US State Department later responded, saying it supports Kushner’s assertions.
Ambassador Kushner represents the US government in France, according to US State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott in a statement.
Israel has repeatedly displaced Palestinians in Gaza, where it has been systematically destroying the enclave of 2 million people, killing dozens of people each day.
France and other Western countries have made plans to recognize a Palestinian state in recent weeks while preserving their trade, diplomatic, and security ties with Israel.
Israel and its main ally, the US, have been infuriated by the decision, though.
Kushner, who was the father of former adviser Jared Kushner and son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, was pardoned by Trump during his first term after being found guilty of tax evasion and witness tampering in 2005.
The ambassador’s letter comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week addressed a similar statement to Macron that also linked anti-Semitism to France’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state.
The office of the French president quickly retaliated against Netanyahu, calling his allegations “abject” and “erroneous” and promising that they “will not go unanswered.”
The French presidency stated that “this is a time for seriousness and responsibility, not conflation and manipulation,” adding that France “protects and will always protect its Jewish citizens.”
On Monday, August 25, 2018, this is how things are going.
Fighting
One person was killed in Kostiantynivka when Russian forces shelled the Donetsk region of Ukraine 23 times in a day, according to Governor Vadym Filashkin’s post on Telegram on Sunday.
One person was killed and two others were injured in the Kherson region of Ukraine, according to Governor Oleksandr Prokudin’s post on Telegram on Sunday.
In a post on Telegram, Ukrainian governor Serhiy Lysak reported the death of a 47-year-old woman in the Dubovykivska community in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine.
According to Pavel Filipchuk, the newly appointed head of the Kakhovka district, a Ukrainian attack on a bridge in a Russian-occupied area of Ukraine’s Kherson region killed a woman and an 11-year-old child.
Oleksandr Syrskii, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, wrote on Facebook that Ukrainian forces had driven Russian troops out of the Donetsk region’s villages Mykhailivka, Zeleny Hay, and Volodymyrivka.
Meanwhile, the Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region was reported on Sunday by the Russian Ministry of Defense as evidence of Russian military capture of Filiya.
In Russia, officials claimed that Ukraine had ignited the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), which is located close to Ukraine’s border, in response to the accusations.
After Russia claimed it had reduced the reactor unit’s power “due to auxiliary transformer damage” and put out a fire, with no injuries, the UN nuclear watchdog, IAEA, announced that its monitoring had confirmed “normal radiation levels near Kursk NPP” and that it had detected “normal radiation levels near Kursk NPP.”
Overnight, 95 Ukrainian drones were shot down by Russian forces over Russian regions, according to a report released by the country’s state news agency, TASS.
diplomacy and politics
Following mediation by the United Arab Emirates, the Russian Defense Ministry and the Ukrainian president said 146 prisoners of war were exchanged between Russia and Ukraine on Sunday.
During a visit to Kyiv on Sunday, where he met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to express his support for Ukraine’s demands for security guarantees as part of a potential peace agreement with Russia.
Carney said at a press conference that the guarantees could include international participation: “In Canada’s opinion, the strength of the Ukrainian Armed Forces… needs to be buttressed and reinforced.
The US special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, and Carney and Zelenskyyyyi, both attended a ceremony to celebrate Ukrainian independence Day in central Kyiv.
Yulia Svyrydenko, the prime minister of Ukraine, and Kellogg met with her, according to Kellogg. They discussed security guarantees as well as the Ukraine-US minerals agreement.
Russia has made “significant concessions” toward a negotiated resolution of its conflict with Ukraine, according to US Vice President JD Vance.
They have acknowledged that Kyiv will not be able to install a puppet regime. That was, of course, a significant demand at the beginning. Importantly, they have acknowledged that the territorial integrity of Ukraine will be subject to some security guarantees,” Vance said.
Sergey Lavrov, the Russian minister of foreign affairs, stated in an interview that UN Security Council members should be the security guards for Ukraine.
Since beginning its occupation of Gaza City on August 6 and burying hundreds of people under the rubble, Israel has completely destroyed more than 1, 000 structures in the Zeitoun and Sabra neighbourhoods, according to the Palestinian Civil Defense.
The organization claimed in a statement on Sunday that numerous rescue and aid operations are being hampered by persistent shelling and restricted access.
Hospitals are overburdened by the number of missing people, the report continued, adding that emergency personnel are unable to respond to numerous reports of missing people.
The Civil Defense expressed grave concerns about Israeli forces continuing to enter Gaza City at a time when field workers are unable to deal with the intensity of Israeli attacks.
“In the Gaza Strip, whether in the north or the south, there is no safe area where shelling continues to target civilians at their homes, shelters, and even in their displacement camps,” he said.
As Israel occupies Gaza City to the fullest, forcing close to 1 million Palestinians there southward, Israeli tanks have been egressing into the Sabra neighborhood.
The claim of the Civil Defense confirms rumors that Israel plans to completely destroy Gaza City, as it did with Rafah, a campaign that rights activists claim could endanger all Palestinians in the area.
According to a source in the emergency and ambulance department of the enclave, at least three people, including a child, were among the latest victims of an attack on a residential apartment in Gaza City.
Over the past few weeks, Israeli bombardment has been relentless in the area where famine has been declared. Residents of the ravaged Jabalia refugee camp reported constant explosions echoing through the neighborhoods, and several buildings were also blown up further north.
According to medical sources, 24 aid seekers and 27 people were killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza on Sunday, according to medical sources.
Eight more people have died from Israeli-induced hunger in Gaza, according to the ministry of health in the region, as hunger spreads, killing 289 people, including 115 children, since the war started.
As they try to secure the meager aid packages at the contentious, Israeli-backed GHF sites, Israeli forces have been regularly opening fire on hungry Palestinians.
It’s “impossible” to remain alive.
The UNRWA director, Philippe Lazzarini, said that famine is the “last calamity” hitting Gaza, where people are experiencing “hell in all shapes.” In response, Lazzarini criticized the humanitarian situation’s worsening.
“Never Again” has purposefully gone back to being “once more.” We will be haunted by this. The most obscene sign of dehumanization is denial, Lazzarini wrote on X.
He added that foreign journalists should be permitted into the enclave and that aid organizations should be permitted by the Israeli government.
Despite heavy bombardment, Gaza’s Ministry of Interior rebuffed Israeli plans to forcibly relocate residents from Gaza City and the northern governorates.
The ministry advised residents to remain in their neighborhoods or relocate to nearby communities only if threatened.
We urge residents of Gaza City to stay in the area’s central and Khan Younis governorates and refrain from responding to the occupation’s threats and terrorism.
The occupation, which falsely claims there is no safe place in any of the governorates of the Gaza Strip, commits the most heinous crimes every day, bombing the tents of displaced people’s camps in areas it falsely claims are safe or humane.
According to Al Jazeera’s reporter from Deir el-Balah, Palestinians are still escaping Gaza City because of frequent Israeli airstrikes and quadcopter attacks.
According to Khoudary, “we met a few of these families, and they said it was [nearly] impossible for them to stay alive because quadcopters were opening fire on whatever was moving in that area.”
Some Palestinians escaped with their lives and were able to flee, but others were confined to those same areas and are now unable to leave, she continued.
Israel is accused of carrying out a genocide in Gaza, according to leading human rights organizations and UN experts.
