President Donald Trump meets Thursday with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has heaped praise on him and is hoping to avoid tariffs that Trump has ordered for imports from other countries. The White House said Trump would sign a new order ahead of their meeting that could impose reciprocal tariffs across the global economy. European anger over changing U.S. policy on the Russia-Ukraine war will be on display at Thursday’s NATO meeting. At the Capital, Robert F. Kennedy’s nomination for health secretary reaches a final Senate vote. And shockwaves continue throughout the federal workforce as Elon Musk’s DOGE team works to dismantle much of government.
Here’s the latest:
The U.S. vice president will visit the Dachau concentration camp memorial ahead of talks with Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are due to sit down Friday with the Ukrainian president at the Munich Security Conference to discuss Trump’s intensifying push for Ukraine and Russia to negotiate an end to Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II.
But first Vance is stopping at the memorial, a powerful reminder of the Nazis’ World War II-era atrocities and the U.S. and Western allies’ slowness to take decisive action to confront Adolf Hitler and the rise of his violent nationalist ideology.
Dachau was established the year Hitler took power. More than 200,000 people from across Europe were held there in horrendous conditions; more than 40,000 of them died.
▶ Read more about Vice President JD Vance in Europe
U.S. wholesale prices came in hotter than expected last month at a time when progress against inflation appears to have stalled, undercutting expectations for lower interest rates this year.
The Labor Department reported Thursday that its producer price index — which tracks inflation before it reaches consumers — rose 0.4% from December and 3.5% from January 2024. Forecasters had expected a 0.2% change month over month and 3.2% year over year.
Inflation flared in 2021 as economies rebounded from the COVID-19 pandemic, then began tumbling — from a four-decade high 9.1% in June 2022 to a low of 2.4% in September. The Fed was satisfied enough to repeatedly cut interest rates. Then, the improvement stopped: Year-over-year consumer prices have risen for four straight months.
▶ Read more about U.S. inflation
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, expressed surprise that U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and U.S. President Donald Trump had listed what appeared to be concessions to Russia even before talks have begun in earnest.
“We shouldn’t take anything off the table before the negotiations have even started, because it plays to Russia’s court,” she said.
“Why are we giving them everything that they want even before the negotiations have been started? It’s appeasement. It has never worked.”
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said it is crucial that the “peace deal is enduring, that Putin knows that this is the end, that he can never again try to capture a piece of Ukraine.”
Several NATO allies are stressing that Ukraine and Europe must not be cut out of any peace negotiations. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said after Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s lengthy phone call that his country cannot accept ‘any agreements without us.’ U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, meanwhile, denied that the United States is betraying the war-ravaged country.
European governments are reeling after the Trump administration signaled that it is planning face-to-face talks with Russia on ending the Ukraine war without involving them, insisted that Kyiv should not join NATO, and said it’s up to Europe to protect itself and Ukraine from whatever Russia might do next.
“There can be no negotiation about Ukraine without Ukraine. And Ukraine’s voice must be at the heart of any talks,” U.K. Defence Secretary John Healey told reporters at NATO headquarters as the organization’s 32 defense ministers met for talks on Ukraine.
▶ Read more on NATO’s view of Trump’s moves on Russia-Ukraine war
The president posted on social media that his executive order increases U.S. tariffs to the rates other countries charge on imports.
“TODAY IS THE BIG ONE: RECIPROCAL TARIFFS!!!” Trump said on his social media site Truth Social. “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”
A dramatic hike on tariffs could send shockwaves through the world economy, possibly depressing growth while causing inflation to intensify. Trump has maintained that such tariffs will help to create domestic factory jobs, but most economists say they would effectively be a tax increase on U.S. consumers that would add to inflationary pressures.
Trump has not specified yet how he defines the term “reciprocal” and whether his order would apply only to matching tariffs or to address other foreign taxes he views as barriers to American exports.
▶ Read more on Trump and tariffs
The Senate is expected to vote Thursday on the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent lawyer and vocal vaccine critic, as the nation’s health secretary, controlling $1.7 trillion in spending for vaccines, food safety and health insurance programs for roughly half the country.
Despite several Republicans expressing deep skepticism about his views on vaccines, Kennedy is expected to win confirmation, absent any last-minute changes.
But with the backing of Republican President Trump, Kennedy believes he is “uniquely positioned” to revive trust in those public health agencies, which include the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes for Health.
Republican senators have largely embraced Kennedy’s vision, reciting his newly hatched slogan to “Make America Healthy Again” in speeches.
▶ Read more about RFK Jr.’s expected confirmation
Trump has just started his second term, his last one permitted under the U.S. Constitution. But he’s already started making quips about serving a third one.
Over the years, Trump and his supporters have often joked about him serving more than his two constitutionally permitted terms. But his musings often spark alarm among his critics, given that he unsuccessfully tried to overturn his 2020 election loss and has since pardoned supporters who violently attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
But Trump, who will be 82 when his term ends, has repeatedly said that this will be his last term. Trying for another also would flatly violate the Constitution.
▶Read more about Trump’s occasional comments about a third term
Carrie Muniak joins a rally in front of the Office of Personnel Management, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Since Trump began his second term last month, he has focused on dramatically reducing the federal workforce at a breakneck pace.
From dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development to offering a mass deferred resignation plan, Trump’s Republican administration has released executive orders and memos aimed at substantially reshaping the size of government and where its employees work.
A federal judge on Wednesday removed a key legal hurdle stalling President Donald Trump ’s plan to downsize the federal workforce with a deferred resignation program.
The Boston-based judge’s order in the challenge filed by a group of labor unions was a significant legal victory for the Republican president after a string of courtroom setbacks.
▶ Read more about the federal workforce, its job protections and the process of cutting back on its ranks
T rump is expected to meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has heaped praise on him and is hoping to avoid tariffs that the new administration has slapped on other countries in its opening weeks.
Modi is a nationalist and has talked up his warm relationship with Trump during his first term while cheering his winning back the White House. The Indian leader is looking to improve relations with Washington and the West overall, which have been frosty lately after Modi refused to condemn Russia for its war on Ukraine.
The White House visit isn’t likely to be all smiles, though.
Trump has already imposed tariffs on China and says more are coming against the European Union, while threatening similar against Canada and Mexico and expanding tariffs on steel and aluminum he initially imposed during his first term.
Trump has repeatedly dubbed India a “tariff king.” In response, New Delhi has shown a willingness to buy more American oil while lowering its own tariffs on U.S. goods, including on some Harley-Davidson motorcycles, from 50% to 40%.
▶ Read more about what to expect in Trump and Modi’s meeting
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