US military to remove 2,000 National Guard troops from Los Angeles

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the removal of half of the 4,000 National Guard troops who had been sent to Los Angeles to protect federal property and personnel during a spate of protests last month, the Pentagon said on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said the decision was due to the success of the mission.

"Thanks to our troops who stepped up to answer the call, the lawlessness in Los Angeles is subsiding," Parnell said in a statement.

"As such, the Secretary has ordered the release of 2,000 California National Guardsmen from the federal protection mission," he added, according to Reuters.

 

US consumer prices rise in June as tariff pass-through begins

U.S. consumer prices increased by the most in five months in June amid higher costs for some goods, suggesting tariffs were starting to have an impact on inflation and potentially keeping the Federal Reserve on the sidelines until September, Reuters reported.

Softening demand as consumers hunker down, however, is limiting price increases for services like airline fares and hotel and motel rooms, keeping underlying inflation muted for now. That trend, if sustained, could ease concerns of a broad-based rise in price pressures from tariffs.

Nonetheless, economists generally expect the tariff-induced rise in inflation to become more evident in the July and August CPI reports, arguing that businesses were still selling merchandise accumulated before President Donald Trump announced sweeping import duties in April. They also noted that when Trump slapped tariffs on washing machines in 2018, it took several months for the duties to show up in the inflation data.

Trump last week announced higher duties would come into effect on August 1 for imports from a range of countries, including Mexico, Japan, Canada and Brazil, and the European Union, according to Reuters.

Europeans open to buying US arms for Ukraine under Trump plan but need details

Several European countries said on Tuesday they were willing to buy U.S. arms for Ukraine under a scheme announced by U.S. President Donald Trump, although arrangements still needed to be worked out, Reuters reported.

Trump said on Monday that Washington will supply Patriot air defence systems, missiles and other weaponry to Ukraine for its war against Russia’s invasion and that the arms would be paid for by other NATO countries.

But much remains undisclosed, including the amounts and precise types of weapons to be provided, how quickly they would be supplied and how they would be paid for.

U.S. officials have suggested that European countries will be willing to give up some of their own stocks of weapons for Ukraine and then buy replacements from the United States. But some of the countries involved say they still don't even know what is being asked of them, according to Reuters.

Putin, unfazed by Trump, will fight on and could take more of Ukraine

President Vladimir Putin intends to keep fighting in Ukraine until the West engages on his terms for peace, unfazed by Donald Trump's threats of tougher sanctions, and his territorial demands may widen as Russian forces advance, three sources close to the Kremlin said, Reuters reported.

Putin, who ordered Russian troops into Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting in country's east between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian troops, believes Russia's economy and its military are strong enough to weather any additional Western measures, the sources said.

Trump on Monday expressed frustration with Putin's refusal to agree a ceasefire and announced a wave of weapons supplies to Ukraine, including Patriot surface-to-air missile systems. He also threatened further sanctions on Russia unless a peace deal was reached within 50 days.

The three Russian sources, familiar with top-level Kremlin thinking, said Putin will not stop the war under pressure from the West and believes Russia - which has survived the toughest sanctions imposed by the West- can endure further economic hardship, including threatened U.S. tariffs targeting buyers of Russian oil, according to Reuters.