Harris poll for Guardian finds 76% believe officials care more about self-enrichment than helping everyday Americans

Government corruption has emerged as a top issue in the upcoming US midterm elections, with an overwhelming majority of Americans saying US government officials use their public office for personal financial gain, according to an exclusive Harris poll for the Guardian.

Nearly nine out of 10 Americans said that government corruption, as defined as elected officials putting their own or their donors’ financial interests ahead of the public’s, is a problem, according to the survey.

As the US midterm elections approach, we take a look at data to see a true picture of the US economy under Trump

With the midterm elections fast approaching, many Americans have the economy on their minds.

US voters are exhausted by years of higher prices. Donald Trump won the presidency in 2024 on promises to lower inflation and undo the damage he said the Biden administration had inflicted on the economy.

Paper products among hardest-hit sectors after trade negotiations broke down, with 25-50% tariffs estimated

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Using the bathroom or having a cry is about to become more expensive for North Americans as the US and Canada enter a full-fledged trade war that threatens to flush away decades of peaceful trading between the two nations.

After trade negotiations broke down between the two countries last weekend, Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, vowed to match US tariffs “dollar for dollar” and unveiled a list of nearly 900 American goods that will face 25% to 50% tariffs starting on 8 September.

Suspicious wagers on the US-Israel war in Iran are creating huge windfalls and raising concerns among lawmakers

Sixteen bets made $100,000 each accurately predicting the timing of the US airstrikes against Iran on 27 February. Later, a single user would make over $550,000 after betting that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would topple, just moments before his assassination by Israeli forces. On 7 April, right before Donald Trump announced a temporary ceasefire with Iran, traders bet $950m that oil prices would come down. They did.

These bets and other well-timed wagers accurately predicted the precise timing of major developments in the US-Israel war with Iran, creating huge windfalls and raising concerns among lawmakers and experts over potential insider trading.

Dow closed 450 points down and S&P dipped 1.7% while Nasdaq fell 2.3% into correction territory

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US markets saw their biggest slump since the start of the US-Israel war with Iran on Thursday as Donald Trump said the conflict’s impact on oil prices had not been as bad as he expected.

The Dow closed 450 points down, while the S&P 500 dipped 1.7%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 2.3%, plunging into correction territory, which happens when an index falls at least 10% below its most recent peak.

Move comes as president attempts to mitigate rising price of oil while carrying out war on Iran

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Donald Trump is trying to make it easier for foreign tankers to move around the US, temporarily allowing foreign-flagged ships carrying oil and gas to travel between US ports, the White House announced Wednesday.

The move comes as the president tries to manage a delicate balancing act, attempting to mitigate the increasing price of oil while also carrying out the US-Israel war on Iran.

Markets settled after Trump claimed US-Israel war with Iran is ‘very complete’, bringing oil prices down to $85 a barrel

• How high could oil prices go – and what might the global economic fallout be?

US stock markets closed on a high after oil prices swung wildly on Monday, reaching a four-year high in the morning that rattled Asian and European markets before settling down once Donald Trump said the US-Israel war with Iran is “very complete”.

After surging past $100 a barrel on Monday morning, oil prices came down to $85 a barrel by the time that US stock markets closed in the afternoon. US stocks leaped at a report from a CBS News reporter that Trump thinks “the war is very complete, pretty much” because “they have no navy, no communications, they’ve got no air force”.

FTSE 100 on track for its worst day in 11 months, while Japan’s Nikkei and South Korea’s Kospi also fall

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• Middle East crisis – live updates

The war in the Middle East has plunged financial markets around the world into turmoil for a second day, with oil and gas prices surging and share indices plummeting days after the US-Israel attack on Iran.

After a calm Monday, US stocks fell sharply after trading opened on Tuesday, with the Dow dropping more than 2% before paring back those losses. At Tuesday’s closing, the Dow had dropped 400 points, or 0.8%, while S&P and Nasdaq saw similar dips.

The White House says the president is ‘not involved’ in running his businesses. Ethics experts remain concerned

Donald Trump has been accused of “corruption, plain and simple” after it was revealed that a member of the Emirati royal family was behind a $500m investment into the Trump family’s cryptocurrency company.

Ethics experts say the deal – struck just days before the US president’s inauguration last January – amounts to a deep conflict of interest for the White House, amid calls for a congressional investigation into the transaction.

Trump nominated Kevin Warsh, an ex-Fed governor, for the role as the White House continues to attack Jerome Powell

The US Federal Reserve requires “strong, sound and steady leadership”, according to Donald Trump. The president found a man to lead the central bank who would “provide exactly that type of leadership”, he declared.“He’s strong, he’s committed and he’s smart.”

This is not how Trump described Kevin Warsh, the former Fed governor whom he unveiled as his new nominee to chair the central bank on Friday – but how he hailed Jerome Powell, the current Fed chair, when nominating him for the job about eight years ago.

Pick of former Fed governor to replace Jerome Powell comes as White House seeks to tighten grip on central bank

Donald Trump has announced Kevin Warsh as his nomination for the next chair of the Federal Reserve, selecting a candidate who has been an outspoken critic of the US central bank.

The move ends months of speculation about who the president would pick to replace Jerome Powell, as he waged an extraordinary campaign to influence policymaking at the Fed by repeatedly calling for interest rate cuts. Powell’s second term as chair is due to end in May.

Choice of former Fed governor to succeed Jerome Powell comes amid attack on central bank’s independence

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Donald Trump is expected to nominate the former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh as its next chair amid an extraordinary attempt by the president to tighten his grip on the US central bank and flout its longstanding independence.

Trump told reporters on Thursday that he planned to announce his choice for chair of the Federal Reserve on Friday morning, hinting that “a lot of people think that this is somebody that could have been there a few years ago”.

Fed voted to pause cuts to interest rate, which currently sits between 3.5% and 3.75%, after slashing it three times in fall

The US Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged after its first rate-setting meeting of the year on Wednesday, resisting enormous pressure from the White House to lower rates.

A majority of members in the Fed’s federal open market committee (FOMC) voted to pause interest rate cuts after slashing rates three times in the fall. Rates currently sit at a range of 3.5% to 3.75%.

US president alleges JP Morgan stopped offering him banking services in wake of January 6 attack

Donald Trump has sued JPMorgan Chase and its CEO, Jamie Dimon, for at least $5bn after accusing America’s largest bank of “debanking” him.

The US president alleged that the bank stopped offering him banking services in the wake of the Capitol riot on January 6. Earlier this month, he claimed it had “incorrectly and inappropriately” discriminated against him.

US president claims ‘framework’ of agreement in the works after ‘very productive’ meeting with Nato secretary general

• Trump news at a glance: at Davos, president rambles, backs down and touts ‘future deal’ on Greenland

Donald Trump has walked back his threat to impose sweeping US tariffs on eight European countries, claiming he had agreed “the framework of a future deal” on Greenland.

Four days after vowing to introduce steep import duties on a string of US allies over their support for Greenland’s continued status as an autonomous Danish territory, the president backed down.

Five exchange-traded funds have been launched by Trump Media, owner of the president’s social media platform Truth Social

The word “Truth” was plastered all around the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday morning. At 9.30am, when the market opened, a small crowd stood on the balcony above the trading floor to ring in the day.

The group was celebrating the launch of five exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, that are tied to Truth Social, Donald Trump’s social media platform that has spun into a menagerie of products over the last few years.

Country is ‘uninvestable’ today, president told, but CEOs signal they are ready to spend with support

Donald Trump promised oil giants “total safety, total security” in Venezuela in an effort to persuade them to invest $100bn in the country’s infrastructure after US forces toppled Nicolás Maduro from power.

At a roundtable press conference at the White House on Friday afternoon with more than a dozen oil executives, including leaders from Chevron, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhilips, the US president doubled down on claims that Maduro’s arrest presents American oil companies with an unprecedented opportunity for extraction.

The US president and his allies spent 2025 attacking the Federal Reserve amid a rollercoaster year for the US economy

In the bowels of the US Federal Reserve this summer, two of the world’s most powerful men, sporting glistening white hard hats, stood before reporters looking like students forced to work together on a group project.

Allies of Donald Trump had spent weeks trying to manufacture a scandal around ongoing renovations of the central bank’s Washington headquarters and its costs. Now here was the US president, on a rare visit, examining the project for himself.