US president says he called Russian leader and agreed to have teams start negotiations immediately
Donald Trump has said that he and Vladimir Putin have spoken directly and agreed to begin negotiations to broker a ceasefire to the war in Ukraine.
In a social media post, Trump said that held a “lengthy and highly productive phone call” with Putin and that they agreed to “have our respective teams start negotiations immediately”.
Continue reading...US defence secretary says Europe should lead in defending Ukraine and that restoring pre-2014 borders is unrealistic
Donald Trump’s newly appointed defence secretary told allies on his first international trip that the US was no longer “primarily focused” on European security and that Europe would have to take the lead in defending Ukraine.
Pete Hegseth, speaking to defence ministers at a lunchtime meeting in Brussels, said Europe had to provide “the overwhelming share” of future military aid to Kyiv – and recognise that restoring Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders was unrealistic.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Dozens of congressional Democrats urge president to reconsider threatened import duties on US’s two largest trading partners
Pressing ahead with steep tariffs on Canada and Mexico risks exacerbating the US housing crisis and threatening the broader economy, dozens of congressional Democrats have warned Donald Trump.
The US president, after threatening to hit imports from the US’s two biggest trading partners with a 25% tax, is weighing how to proceed after approving a one-month delay.
Continue reading...Paul Martin, an independent inspector general and Biden appointee, warned of drastic effects of shuttering USAid
Donald Trump reportedly fired the federal watchdog responsible for overseeing the US Agency for International Development (USAid) on Tuesday, one day after the independent inspector general issued a damning report detailing the impact of the president’s sudden dismantling of the agency.
Paul Martin, who was appointed by Joe Biden in December 2023, was dismissed in an email from Trent Morse, deputy director of the White House office of presidential personnel, seen by the Washington Post.
Continue reading...President claims release of Pennsylvania teacher Marc Fogel, held in Russia since 2021, could be an important part of ending the Ukraine war
A US teacher who has been held in Russia since 2021 has been greeted at the White House by Donald Trump, who claimed the release could be an “important part” of ending the Ukraine war and that another, unidentified person would be released on Wednesday.
Marc Fogel, who arrived in the US on a flight from Moscow on Tuesday, said: “I feel like the luckiest man on earth right now. I’m a middle-class school teacher who’s now in a dream world.”
Continue reading...Exclusive: Tom Cotton, Senate intelligence chair, risks angering key Trump ally with harsh words for ‘tech titans’
In a new book, the Arkansas senator Tom Cotton condemns Elon Musk for “chasing Chinese dollars” and having “shamefully supplicated China’s Communist rulers”, in order to advance his own interests as chief executive of companies including Tesla and SpaceX.
It’s an explosive charge from the Republican chair of the powerful Senate intelligence committee, given that Musk, the world’s richest person, is a major donor and close adviser to Donald Trump, now working at the heart of the president’s administration to slash costs and reshape the federal government.
Continue reading...Nations try to reassure citizens as Trump threatens unprecedented crackdown but scale remains unclear
Nations across the Caribbean have been attempting to reassure their citizens at home and in the US after misinformation spread on social media channels caused widespread panic over Donald Trump’s plans for trade tariffs and mass deportations.
Alarming stories claiming that 5,000 Jamaicans had already been given final removal orders or that more than 1 million undocumented people were on federal enforcement lists, have caused concern across the region.
Continue reading...Modified US duties will be enforced ‘without exceptions’, said president, in controversial bid to boost economy
Donald Trump announced 25% tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum on Monday, ramping up his controversial bid to boost the US economy by hiking taxes on imports from overseas.
The modified US duties will be enforced “without exceptions or exemptions”, the president declared, dashing the hopes of countries that hoped to avoid them.
Continue reading...Bloc’s leaders also pledge to protect EU interests after US president announces escalation in aggressive trade policy
Europe will not hesitate to retaliate if Donald Trump imposes any new tariffs, the European Commission and EU national leaders have said, after the US president announced another escalation of his aggressive trade policy at the weekend.
Trump said he would announce on Monday 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports that would affect “everybody”, adding that reciprocal tariffs on all countries that tax imports from the US would follow on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Continue reading...People will have ‘no alternative’ but to leave territory after destruction left by Israel, US president said in Fox interview
Donald Trump has said that his plan to “take over Gaza” would not include a right of return for the more than 2 million Palestinians that he has said have “no alternative” but to leave because of the destruction left by Israel’s military campaign.
The remarks are the latest effective endorsement of ethnic cleansing by the US president, who announced his plan last week during a summit with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to the outrage of the Arab world and the surprise of even his closest aides.
Continue reading...Trump tells the New York Post that he has a plan to end the war but declined to go into details
Donald Trump has said he held talks with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, over a negotiated end of the three year Russia-Ukraine war, indicated that Russian negotiators want to meet with US counterparts.
Trump told the New York Post that he had spoken to Putin, remarking that “I better not say” just how many times.
Continue reading...Trump has teased two of the US’s biggest trading partners with levies but has moved the goalpost at least three times in two weeks
Donald Trump was in his element in the Oval Office this week. Surrounded by cameras, flanked by billionaire allies and confronted by a barrage of questions about whether he was really prepared to unleash a trade war on the US’s closest neighbors, the president talked tough.
By his telling, powerful economies were scrambling to bend to his will. Hours earlier, Mexico had announced a series of measures to shore up its border, prompting the White House to hastily postpone the imposition of 25% tariffs on all its goods; Canada would announce similar measures, and receive the same reprieve, later that day.
Continue reading...Veterans of May and Johnson governments share lessons from their experiences with unpredictable US president
It was just a few mangled sentences spoken in the darkness on an airport tarmac. But Donald Trump’s comments this week – his most significant yet regarding the UK – were enough to give heart to people in Downing Street and the Foreign Office.
“UK is out of line. But I’m sure that one, I think that one, can be worked out,” Trump said to reporters travelling with him at the Joint Base Andrews air force facility in Maryland. “Prime Minister Starmer has been very nice. We’ve had a couple of meetings, we’ve had numerous phone calls, we’re getting along very well.”
Continue reading...Leaders praise each other at White House but president warns Japan could face tariffs if it doesn’t cut US trade deficit to zero
The Japanese prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, and the US president, Donald Trump, struck a warm tone at their first meeting on Friday, with Tokyo avoiding tariffs that Trump has slapped on other allies – for now.
Heaping praise on each other at the White House, the two leaders pledged to stand together against Chinese “aggression” and said they found a solution for a blocked deal for troubled US Steel.
Continue reading...Prime minister says US president covets northern neighbour’s vast resources as Canadians rally against threat
Donald Trump’s recent fixation on absorbing Canada is “a real thing”, Justin Trudeau has told business leaders, warning that the US president wants access to his northern neighbour’s vast supply of critical minerals.
The outgoing prime minister was in Toronto for a hastily called summit of business and labour leaders, seeking to coordinate a response Trump’s looming threat of a 25% tariff on all Canadian imports.
Continue reading...President halts plan to put tariffs on low-value packages but says he will impose duties on more countries next week
Donald Trump halted a key part of his tariff attack on China on Friday, as he threatened to impose new US duties on goods from many more countries next week.
Plans to ensure shipments from China to the US worth less than $800 still face tariffs – removing the longstanding duty-free status of low-cast packages – have been delayed to give more time to federal agencies to prepare for the change.
Continue reading...US had made inroads against Chinese influence in Panama, but Trump’s demands could help Beijing expand its regional power
When Panama’s then president Juan Carlos Varela was invited to the White House in June 2017, Donald Trump said the Panama canal was doing “pretty well” and described the bilateral relationship as “very strong”.
Just days earlier, Varela had broken ties with Taiwan to establish diplomatic relations with China, but there was no indication that this snub to a key US ally had clouded the meeting.
Continue reading...Though heavily dependent on US aid, Amman and Cairo face political calamity at home should they comply
International outrage in recent days has focused on Donald Trump’s proposal that the US take “ownership” of Gaza, and that more than two million Palestinians be displaced to allow the territory to be transformed from “a demolition site” into a “riviera” in the Middle East.
In Jordan and Egypt, the demand that both countries accept huge numbers of Palestinians from Gaza – potentially on a permanent basis – has prompted equal concern. Leaders of both countries immediately rejected the proposal, and the Jordanian king, Abdullah II, and the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, are heading to Washington in an attempt to convince Trump to change course.
Continue reading...President says territory would be ‘turned over’ to US by Israel as it emerges idea was not discussed with aides
Donald Trump has restated his proposal to take over Gaza amid widespread opposition – even from his own supporters – saying the territory would be “turned over” to the US by Israel after it concludes its military offensive against Hamas.
Trump reinforced his commitment to the idea in a rambling post on his Truth Social network on Thursday, even as it emerged that the proposal – announced without warning during a White House visit by Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister – was purely his own and had not been subject to detailed discussion with aides.
Continue reading...President José Raúl Mulino denies making a deal that US ships can transit the canal free of charge
The president of Panama, José Raúl Mulino, has accused the US of peddling a “quite simply intolerable falsehood” about the Panama canal, as Donald Trump’s pledge to “take back” the waterway continued to poison relations between the two countries and cause alarm around Latin America.
The US state department claimed late on Wednesday the Central American country had agreed to no longer charge US government vessels to pass through its canal – a move that would supposedly save Washington millions of dollars a year.
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