The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has confirmed the first human case of the New World screwworm parasite in the United States in decades. The case was identified in Maryland in an individual who recently traveled from Guatemala and El Salvador, countries currently experiencing outbreaks of this flesh-eating parasite. The New World screwworm, a parasitic fly larva that feeds on living tissue, primarily affects warm-blooded animals such as cattle but can infect humans in rare instances. The parasite has raised concerns due to its potential impact on public health and the livestock industry, particularly the cattle market, as outbreaks have been spreading north from Central America. The infected patient has reportedly recovered, and there is no evidence of further transmission to other people or animals in the U.S. The last detection of the parasite in U.S. animals was in the Florida Keys in 2017. Meanwhile, Mexico has reported a 53% increase in flesh-eating screwworm cases in animals since July 2025, with over 5,000 cases recorded by mid-August, highlighting the ongoing regional spread of the parasite. Health officials emphasize awareness and monitoring to minimize risks associated with this rare but potentially serious parasitic infection.

U.S. presidential envoy Tom Barrack made an unannounced visit to Jerusalem on Sunday, holding talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Washington’s demand that Israel scale back its military strikes in Lebanon, according to Israeli and American officials familiar with the discussions. Barrack also conferred with Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar. The envoy underscored the Trump administration’s view that continued cross-border attacks risk regional escalation and could complicate U.S.-backed negotiations aimed at ending Syria’s civil conflict. In separate public remarks later this week, Barrack said he had urged Netanyahu to “give Lebanon a break,” warning that unchecked operations could “backfire.” He added that Washington sees no alternative to supporting Syria’s new president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, and confirmed that two unprecedented meetings have already been held between Syrian and Israeli representatives after three decades without direct dialogue.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States has assembled a new coalition with Ecuador, Paraguay, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and, most recently, Argentina to step up joint operations against Latin American drug cartels. Speaking at a Cabinet meeting with President Donald Trump, Rubio said the group marks the first time in the modern era that Washington is “truly on offense” against organizations he accused of flooding American cities with lethal narcotics. The announcement follows an expanded U.S. naval deployment in the southern Caribbean aimed at disrupting maritime trafficking routes. According to officials familiar with the operation, the guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Erie and the nuclear-powered attack submarine USS Newport News will join three previously deployed warships, surveillance aircraft and other assets as early as next week. About 4,000 sailors and Marines are expected to participate. U.S. commanders say the buildup targets networks such as Venezuela’s Cartel de los Soles, which Washington designated a terrorist organization last month and for which it has offered a $50 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. Rubio added that the United States is recording record drug seizures and that the new South American partners “are all joining us, trying to support us in this.”

The United States has informed European allies that it is ready to supply air power and advanced intelligence capabilities to a European-led security force that would move into Ukraine after a peace agreement, the Financial Times reported, citing senior European officials. Washington’s offer covers intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms, command-and-control networks and air-defence systems—what officials call “strategic enablers”—while ruling out the deployment of U.S. ground troops. The American support would underpin a contingent of roughly 6,000-10,000 European soldiers, a figure scaled back from an earlier 30,000-troop concept. The proposal represents a shift in President Donald Trump’s stance and is viewed in Kyiv and NATO headquarters as a step toward credible long-term security guarantees. A Quinnipiac poll released this week showed 62% of Americans back providing air support if it helps seal a deal to end the war. European governments still face domestic resistance to sending forces. Surveys cited by the Wall Street Journal found 56% of Germans, 68% of French voters and nearly 60% of Poles oppose deploying troops without a formal peace accord, underscoring the political hurdles to assembling the mission. Meanwhile, Ukraine said it has amassed a vast trove of battlefield data—including millions of hours of drone footage—and is shaping policy to share the information with partners, illustrating the growing importance of intelligence cooperation in any post-war security architecture.

The U.S. Department of Commerce said Thursday that the United States is "cementing our role as the blockchain capital of the world," underscoring the Biden administration’s effort to expand the technology’s domestic footprint. Secretary Lutnik delivered the remark as the department outlined plans to deepen public- and private-sector collaboration on distributed-ledger projects. While no additional policy details were disclosed, the statement marks one of the strongest endorsements of blockchain from a U.S. cabinet agency, hinting at potential regulatory clarity and investment incentives intended to keep development and talent onshore.

The U.S. economy grew at a 3.3% annualized pace in the second quarter, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis reported in its second estimate. The reading surpasses the initially reported 3.0% and the 3.1% consensus forecast, delivering the strongest quarterly performance since the third quarter of 2023 and following a first-quarter contraction. The revision reflects a sharper rebound in non-residential fixed investment and a substantial contribution from net exports. Consumer spending was raised to a 1.6% gain from 1.4%, while stronger corporate outlays on equipment and intellectual property helped lift overall growth. Price pressures remained subdued. The GDP price index held at 2.0%, and the core personal consumption expenditures price gauge, the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure, was steady at 2.5%. Treasury yields edged higher and the dollar slipped after the release as investors assessed whether the data alter expectations for a potential Fed rate cut next month.

The U.S. stock market has reached its highest valuation levels in history, surpassing the peaks seen during the 2000 Dot-Com Bubble and the 1929 run-up to the Great Depression. Key valuation metrics have hit record highs: the S&P 500 Shiller Price-to-Earnings (P/E) ratio stands at 38.7 to 39 times, the highest in 25 years and well above its long-term average of 17.6. The S&P 500 Price-to-Sales ratio reached a record 3.4 times, exceeding the Dot-Com peak. The S&P 500 Price-to-Book ratio hit 5.3 times, surpassing the 2000 peak of 5.1. Market concentration is also unprecedented, with the top 10 stocks accounting for 40% of the S&P 500, compared to 27% during the Dot-Com Bubble, despite generating only 30% of the index's earnings. The NASDAQ market capitalization relative to U.S. GDP has reached 127%, nearly double the Dot-Com peak, and its market cap relative to the M2 money supply hit a record 176%. The overall U.S. stock market capitalization to GDP ratio, often referred to as Warren Buffett’s indicator, stands at 211%, a record high and 70 percentage points above the Dot-Com peak. Forward P/E ratios for the S&P 500 are also elevated at 22.5 times, the second-highest since 2000. Analysts warn that these valuations suggest lower-than-average future returns. Concurrently, the U.S. housing market has become the most unaffordable in history, with homeownership costs at their highest since the 1980s. This surge in unaffordability is attributed to aggressive Federal Reserve interest rate hikes, which pushed mortgage rates from around 2.5-3% to approximately 7%. Despite a recent dip in the 30-year mortgage rate to a 10-month low, affordability remains strained. Additionally, U.S. home prices have entered what some describe as the largest housing bubble in history. Market dynamics also show a widening gap in net long positions between the NASDAQ and the Russell 2000 indexes, indicating concentrated investor positioning in tech stocks.

The U.S. Treasury has been actively repurchasing its own debt in recent weeks, with buybacks totaling $7.4 billion over the past two weeks. This includes a $2 billion purchase reported initially, followed by additional repurchases amounting to $6 billion within one week. More recently, the Treasury bought back $4 billion in debt, and then an additional $1.4 billion, bringing the cumulative total to $7.4 billion. These repurchases are part of an ongoing buyback program and have been noted as occurring without the implementation of quantitative easing (QE). Market observers have linked these buybacks to potential bullish effects on cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and altcoins. Some analysts have described the Treasury's buyback activity as resembling a form of stealth QE, although no official QE program has been announced. The Treasury's debt repurchase efforts coincide with broader fiscal management activities, including debt maturity renewals, which have helped stabilize currency dynamics.

The U.S. Treasury has conducted a buyback of $4 billion of its own debt, marking one of the largest Treasury buybacks in history. This move is seen as a form of quantitative easing (QE) executed without the Federal Reserve's involvement, effectively introducing a new mechanism for injecting liquidity into the financial system. The buyback reflects the Treasury's efforts to manage the country's debt amid record-high interest expenses. Over the past 12 months, the U.S. government paid approximately $1.2 trillion in interest on public debt, averaging about $3.3 billion per day, the highest amount ever recorded. Interest payments have become the second-largest government expenditure, surpassed only by Social Security. Projections indicate that if interest rates remain steady, annual interest expenses could reach $1.4 trillion in 2026, underscoring the Treasury's need to control borrowing costs. Additional reports indicate a separate $2 billion debt buyback by the Treasury, reinforcing the ongoing strategy to manage debt servicing costs without relying on traditional Fed-led QE.

The Trump administration on Wednesday imposed sanctions on four additional officials of the International Criminal Court, escalating its campaign against the Hague-based tribunal. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the court poses “a national security threat” and accused it of conducting “lawfare” against the United States and its ally Israel. The designations target two judges—Kimberly Prost of Canada and Nicolas Yann Guillou of France—and deputy prosecutors Nazhat Shameem Khan of Fiji and Mame Mandiaye Niang of Senegal. According to the State Department, Prost authorized an investigation of U.S. personnel in Afghanistan, while Guillou presided over the panel that approved arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant. Khan and Niang were cited for continuing to support the warrants. The sanctions freeze any U.S. assets the officials hold and bar Americans from doing business with them. The ICC called the measures “a flagrant attack” on its independence, and France and the United Nations urged Washington to withdraw the penalties, warning they undermine international justice. Netanyahu, by contrast, praised the move as a “firm measure” against what he described as a smear campaign targeting Israel. Wednesday’s action follows a similar round of sanctions in June and stems from a February executive order that authorises penalties against ICC personnel involved in cases against Americans or Israelis. Neither the United States nor Israel recognises the court’s jurisdiction, while 125 countries are party to its statute.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has issued a temporary administrative injunction blocking the federal government from completing a land swap with Rio Tinto and BHP that is required to build the Resolution Copper mine in Arizona. The transfer of federally owned forest land had been scheduled for this week but will remain on hold while the court reviews an emergency motion filed by the San Carlos Apache tribe and conservation groups. The Apache argue that the proposed underground mine would destroy Oak Flat, a site they consider sacred, and threaten local water supplies and the environment. The court said it takes no position on the merits of the case but ordered expedited briefing, with all filings due by 14 October, effectively delaying the transfer for at least two months. President Donald Trump condemned the ruling in a Truth Social post, calling the panel a "radical left court" and warning that the delay jeopardises roughly 3,800 jobs and the nation’s supply of a critical industrial metal. Trump’s comments followed a White House meeting with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and the chief executives of Rio Tinto and BHP, who sought support for the long-stalled project. Resolution Copper, 55 % owned by Rio Tinto and 45 % by BHP, is designed to operate more than 2 km underground and, according to the companies, could supply about a quarter of U.S. copper demand for up to four decades. The project has been in permitting and litigation for nearly twenty years; final environmental approval was granted in June, but opponents secured the latest injunction on 19 August. Rio Tinto and BHP said they remain confident the land transfer will ultimately be upheld, while tribal leaders urged the administration to reconsider what they called a giveaway of U.S. mineral resources to foreign companies. The appeals court has not yet set a date for oral arguments.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said on 19 Aug 2025 that it is adding steel, copper, lithium, caustic soda and red dates to the high-priority enforcement list under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. The decision subjects imports of those products, especially from China’s Xinjiang region, to automatic detention unless importers can provide clear evidence they were not produced with forced labour. Customs and Border Protection has already detained more than 16,700 shipments valued at almost $3.7 billion since the law came into force in mid-2024, and has denied entry to over 10,000 of them. The expanded list widens scrutiny of supply chains for critical minerals used in batteries and renewable-energy technologies, industries in which China remains the dominant global supplier. “The use of slave labor is repulsive and we will hold Chinese companies accountable,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement, describing the crackdown as both an economic and national-security imperative. The move follows bipartisan pressure on the Trump administration to curb reliance on Chinese materials and tighten human-rights enforcement. U.S. lawmakers are simultaneously pushing to increase domestic output of critical minerals. A new academic study suggests that reprocessing waste from existing mines could cover most of the nation’s needs without opening new pits, while Representative Young Kim this week highlighted efforts to scale production at California’s Mountain Pass rare-earth facility.