A US federal appeals court has ruled that most of president Donald Trump’s tariffs are illegal, describing the levies as “unbounded in scope, amount and duration”.
The ruling, which will take effect on 14 October, is the biggest blow yet to Trump’s tariff policy and will likely mean the supreme court will have to rule on whether Trump has the legal right as president to upend US trade policy.
Reacting to the decision on social media, the president said: “ALL TARIFFS ARE STILL IN EFFECT!” If allowed to stand, the ruling would “literally destroy the United States of America”, he added.
The president on Friday also revoked Secret Service protection for the former vice-president and 2024 election rival Kamala Harris after it was extended by Joe Biden before he left office. The move has been slammed by some as “another act of revenge”.
Here are the key stories:
Most of Trump’s tariffs are illegal, federal court rules
Donald Trump overstepped his presidential powers with most of his globe-rattling tariff policies, a federal appeals court in Washington DC ruled on Friday.
US law “bestows significant authority on the president to undertake a number of actions in response to a declared national emergency, but none of these actions explicitly include the power to impose tariffs, duties, or the like, or the power to tax”, the court said.
Many of Trump’s steep tariffs “are unbounded in scope, amount and duration”, the ruling added, and “assert an expansive authority that is beyond the express limitations” of the law his administration has leaned on.
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Trump revokes Kamala Harris’s Secret Service detail extended by Biden
Donald Trump has revoked Secret Service protection for the former vice-president and 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, Kamala Harris.
The letter, dated on Thursday and titled “Memorandum for the Secretary of Homeland Security”, instructs the Secret Service to “discontinue any security-related procedures beyond those required by law” effective 1 September 2025.
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US denies visas to Palestinian Authority leaders for UN general assembly
The US has begun denying and revoking visas from members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) ahead of the United Nations general assembly meeting in September, the state department said on Friday.
“The Trump administration has been clear: it is in our national security interests to hold the PLO and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments, and for undermining the prospects for peace,” it said in a statement.
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Trump bypasses Congress to cancel $4.9bn in foreign aid
Donald Trump has told the House speaker, Mike Johnson, that he won’t be spending $4.9bn in congressionally approved foreign aid, in effect cutting the budget without going through the legislative branch.
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RFK Jr peddles dubious health claims amid CDC crisis
In a week of chaos at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Donald Trump’s health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, has continued to make questionable medical and health claims – and has been slammed for them by experts and lawmakers alike.
After the deadly mass school shooting in Minneapolis this week where two children were killed and 17 others injured, Kennedy suggested that psychiatric drugs may be contributing to the rise in gun violence across the country.
This week, Kennedy also suggested that he could identify “mitochondrial challenges” in children at airports just by looking at them.
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Trump looks to tighten visa durations for foreign students and journalists
The Trump administration aims to tighten the duration of visas for students, cultural exchange visitors and members of the media, according to a proposed government regulation issued on Wednesday, part of a broader crackdown on legal immigration.
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Mother of boy, 15, held at gunpoint by US immigration agents files $1m claim
The mother of a 15-year-old boy who was detained at gunpoint by federal immigration agents is seeking $1m in damages and accusing the Trump administration of false imprisonment and “unconstitutional racial profiling”.
The teenager, a US citizen with disabilities, was in a vehicle with his mother outside Arleta high school in Los Angeles on 11 August when masked immigration agents surrounded them and pulled them from the vehicle. They said the boy was a suspect in a crime and handcuffed him for several minutes until they realized they had the wrong person, the Los Angeles Times reported.
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What else happened today:
Catching up? Here’s what happened 28 August 2025.
