• Washington: National Guard troops in D.C., deployed as part of President Trump’s crackdown, have begun carrying weapons. More than 2,200 Guard troops were in the city as of yesterday.
• China Evergrande: The company has been removed from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Its 2021 collapse exposed the weak points of China’s economy.
• Ukraine: Russia’s top diplomat said that there was no meeting planned between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, a blow to Trump’s efforts to mediate an end to the war.

By Evan Gorelick

I’m a writer for this newsletter.

• Corruption: Trump ordered the government to stop enforcing a law that makes it illegal for U.S. companies to bribe foreign governments. (He said the law hurts American firms.) The attorney general told the Justice Department not to worry about a law requiring foreign lobbyists to disclose their activities. During Trump’s first term, prosecutors had invoked it to bring charges against several of his allies.
• Civil rights: As part of his effort to root out D.E.I., Trump told government offices to stop enforcing many civil rights provisions. A Labor Department office, for instance, will no longer investigate employers who allegedly underpaid women or awarded promotions based on race. The administration has abandoned hundreds of cases under the fair housing law, meaning it won’t prosecute landlords who keep out gay people or owners who refuse to sell to people of a different faith. Trump also instructed the government to nix the “disparate-impact” test, which looked at whether minority groups were affected differently by criminal background checks, credit checks, zoning regulations and more.
• Climate: Trump has ordered federal agencies to stop fighting climate change, which means ignoring the statutes that mandate such efforts. Coal plants have skirted pollution limits under the Clean Air Act by asking the E.P.A. nicely over email. In May, Trump told the Energy Department not to enforce what he called “useless” water-conservation rules for things like sinks and showers.

• Taxes: Trump culled a quarter of the I.R.S. work force and wants to reduce its funding by nearly 40 percent next year. Taxes account for almost all of the government’s revenue. But Trump’s cuts could limit enforcement and cost the government hundreds of billions of dollars, according to the nonpartisan Tax Law Center. Tax evaders, who tend to be America’s highest earners, may get off easy.
• Crypto: The Trump administration moved staff members responsible for enforcing crypto regulations at the S.E.C. into other roles. It also disbanded the Justice Department office responsible for investigating cryptocurrency crimes. (Trump and his family have invested in crypto ventures that stand to benefit from weaker oversight.)
• Vulnerable consumers: Since Trump installed the White House’s budget director as acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency has halted nearly all its enforcement actions and tried to fire 90 percent of its workers. Congress created the bureau in 2010 to watch over predatory businesses and the big banks that brought on the mortgage crisis.

• The Supreme Court said in 2020 that laws prohibiting sex discrimination in the workplace also apply to sexual orientation and gender identity, and the Biden administration brought such cases on behalf of trans workers. But Trump told the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to stop.
• Compared with the Biden administration, which filed 30 cases against polluters in its first six months, the Trump administration has filed 11, according to a Times analysis of federal data.

• As part of Trump’s D.C. crackdown, federal cases are being made out of low-level arrests. Read about some of them here, including one involving an open container of alcohol.
• Trump threatened to investigate the former New Jersey governor Chris Christie over a 2013 political scandal known as “Bridgegate,” after Christie criticized his use of the Justice Department.
• Trump is expected to meet with the new leader of South Korea today. Washington’s increasing focus on China is straining the two countries’ decades-old alliance.
• For most college students, Trump’s fight with elite colleges barely registers: Many are enrolled in community colleges while juggling work or child care.
• Columbia was able to strike a deal with the government to get most of its research funding back. However, nationally, the outlook for federal science funding is still bleak.

• The Chinese consulate in Manhattan has mobilized community groups to sink the careers of local politicians who oppose China’s government, a Times investigation found.
• Evergrande, now delisted from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, is a symbol of China’s real estate boom and bust — the country’s housing crisis has been grinding on for five years.

• While many militaries remove pregnant soldiers from combat, Ukrainian women usually serve until their seventh month.
• For Trump, consistency is less important than the trappings of leader-to-leader diplomacy. The result is a strategic muddle, David Sanger writes.
• Read about what’s next for Ukraine, on and off the battlefield.

• Ultra-Orthodox Israelis, exempt for decades from military service, are now being drafted. Their rage is dividing Israel.
• Israel’s approval of a settlement in the occupied West Bank that had been delayed for decades shows how far Benjamin Netanyahu has gone in dashing Palestinian aspirations, Isabel Kershner writes.

• Why are Americans worried about global trade? The lack of a comprehensive social safety net, Peter Goodman writes.
• As part of Kim Jong-un’s modernization plans, North Korea has started to imitate Western brands like IKEA and Starbucks. See videos taken inside the country.
• SpaceX postponed the critical 10th test flight of its Starship, the rocket that Elon Musk hopes to use to take people to Mars.
• Krispy Kreme is struggling: Competitors like Dunkin’ are everywhere and consumers are increasingly embracing wellness.

• Young people, fueled by documentaries and podcasts, pushed for the release of Lyle and Erik Menendez, who murdered their parents 36 years ago. Parole commissioners took a harder line.
• Draw boundaries, protect your peace: Emma Goldberg asks whether today’s self-help is teaching everyone to be a jerk.