Category Archives: Donald Trump

Russia says Europe’s leaders don’t want peace in Ukraine as Vance says US will keep trying

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Russian foreign minister praises Trump’s effort and got defensive when asked if Putin was ‘stringing along’ Trump

Russia accused western European leaders on Sunday of not wanting peace in Ukraine, as Moscow’s most senior diplomat praised efforts by Donald Trump to end the war, while Vice-President JD Vance said the US would “keep on trying” to broker talks in the absence of a deal.

Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, made the comments during a sometimes contentious interview on NBC on Sunday morning, during which he denied his country had bombed civilian targets in Ukraine.

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Judge blocks White House from defunding 34 municipalities over ‘sanctuary’ policies

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Cities that limit cooperation with immigration authorities had sued Trump administration over funding freeze

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from cutting off federal funding to 34 “sanctuary cities” and counties that limit cooperation with federal immigration law enforcement, significantly expanding a previous order.

The order, issued on Friday by the San Francisco-based US district judge William Orrick, adds Los Angeles and Chicago, as well as Boston, Baltimore, Denver and Albuquerque, to cities that the administration is barred from denying funding.

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Texas prepares for final approval of Republican map as senator threatens to filibuster

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Carol Alvarado posted on social media: ‘Republicans think they can walk all over us. Today I’m going to kick back’

The Texas legislature preliminarily approved a redrawn congressional map on Friday that gives Republicans a chance to pick up as many as five congressional seats, fulfilling a brazen political request from Donald Trump to shore up the GOP’s standing before next year’s midterm elections.

The tentative map adoption passed in an 18-11 party-line vote.

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Maxwell transcripts bring some respite for Trump, but fail to quell Maga uproar

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Hundreds of transcript pages unlikely to pacify those who want to know more of president’s association with Epstein

For weeks, Donald Trump has been on the defensive over his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigative files and the extent of his own personal links to the late sex trafficker.

While Trump had promised to release files related to Epstein, his justice department announced in July there would be no more disclosures, prompting uproar among conspiracy-minded Maga adherents and many other of his supporters.

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Canada to drop counter-tariffs on some US goods one day after call with Trump

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Mark Carney says change will go into effect on 1 September but tariffs on steel, aluminum and autos will remain

Canada will drop its counter-tariffs on some American goods in the coming days, Mark Carney has said, as the country’s prime minister looks to end a protracted trade war with longtime ally the United States.

From 1 September, the Canadian government will remove some levies on US goods that comply with the North American free-trade pact, a move meant to “match” how the White House treated Canadian goods. Levies on steel, aluminum and autos will remain in place.

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Trump administration accused of wanting to revoke visas ‘based on speech, not conduct’ – US politics live

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State department reviewing records of more than 55 million US visa holders for potential revocation

The US vice-president, JD Vance, previewed in Georgia on Thursday the lines of attack candidates will use to defend the president’s signature One Big Beautiful Bill Act in the midterms next year, calling it “the biggest tax cut for families that this country has ever seen”.

Vance touted an increase in the child tax credit, the elimination of taxes on overtime and on tips in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act while speaking in a warehouse for ATLA Refrigeration in Peachtree City, Georgia.

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Fed chair Powell to give high-stakes speech at Jackson Hole amid Trump attacks

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Jerome Powell – who Trump has urged to resign – will address the economic outlook at a symposium in Wyoming

For months, the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, has ignored demands from Donald Trump to cut interest rates and defied the US president’s calls to resign.

On Friday, as Trump ramps up his extraordinary attack on the central bank’s independence, Powell will set out where he thinks the world’s largest economy is headed in a closely scrutinized speech at the Jackson Hole symposium in Wyoming.

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European leaders scrambled to shield Ukraine in high-stakes Trump talks – but did they?

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The shifting loyalties of the White House have inadvertently bound Europe closer together – how long can that unity last?

It was dubbed the “Great European Charm Offensive”.

Hours before Volodymyr Zelenskyy headed to Washington for a Monday meeting with Donald Trump, announcements came pouring in from across Europe, making it clear that the president of Ukraine would not be going alone.

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Russia says it must be part of international talks on Ukraine’s security

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Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov dismisses European diplomacy as ‘clumsy effort to sway Trump’

Moscow has said it must be part of any international talks on Ukraine’s security, as Russia continues to stall on Donald Trump’s push for a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said on Wednesday that Moscow must be included in any talks on Ukraine’s security guarantees, dismissing European diplomacy as “aggressive escalation” and a “clumsy effort to sway Trump”.

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Trump’s tariffs replace diplomacy as other US tools of statecraft are discarded

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Measures meant to rebalance America’s economy are wielded instead against the likes of Canada, India and Brazil ‘to compel loyalty to the president’

On the campaign trail, Donald Trump pledged to use tariffs to revitalise American industry, bringing jobs home and helping to make America great again. But more than six months into his administration, experts say the president’s trade war is increasingly being wielded as a political cudgel, in lieu of more traditional forms of diplomacy.

The president’s current target, India, has been unable to reach a trade agreement, and Trump appears ready to follow through with his threat to impose a further 25% tariff on Delhi – bringing the total to 50% – the joint highest levy on any country, along with Brazil.

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Texas Democrats tear ‘permission slips’ imposed by Republican house speaker

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Lawmakers refuse to vacate house chamber to protest surveillance after they left state over GOP attempt to redraw maps

Texas Democrats are tearing up “permission slips” they signed in order to leave the chamber, joining state representative Nicole Collier ahead of Wednesday’s vote on the controversial Texas congressional redistricting maps.

The slips are part of new surveillance protocols set by Texas Republicans in the house chamber, stating that Democrats would “be granted written permission to leave only after agreeing to be released into the custody of a designated [Texas department of public safety] officer” who would ensure their return to the chamber.

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White House launches official TikTok account after Trump vowed ban in 2020

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US president was concerned over app’s Chinese ownership, but has softened after believing it won him 2024 election

The White House launched an official TikTok account on Tuesday, as Donald Trump continues to permit the Chinese-owned platform to operate in the US despite a law requiring its sale.

“America we are BACK! What’s up TikTok?” read a caption on the account’s first post, a 27-second clip, on the popular video-sharing app.

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Zelenskyy gave Ukraine war veteran’s golf club as gift to Trump

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US president handed Ukrainian leader symbolic keys to the White House in return during meeting in Washington

Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave Donald Trump a golf club during his visit to Washington this week that had belonged to a serviceman fighting Russia’s invasion, Kyiv said on Tuesday.

Trump, an avid golfer who owns several courses, accepted the gift and presented Zelenskyy with symbolic keys to the White House in return, the Ukrainian leader’s office said.

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Florida man who fatally stabbed friend over Trump convicted of second-degree murder

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Donald Jamesbrown Henry and Shawn Popp got into a fight over ‘Trump going bankrupt’ when the latter was attacked

A Florida man who fatally stabbed a friend during an argument in 2022 over Donald Trump’s businesses having gone bankrupt, is facing possibly spending the rest of his life in prison after being convicted of murder.

Donald Jamesbrown Henry, 38, awaits a sentencing hearing tentatively scheduled for October after jurors found him guilty on Friday of second-degree murder in the killing of Shawn Popp, whose death came to be regarded by some as an example of the havoc that politics can wreak on interpersonal relationships in the US.

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Zelenskyy’s new outfit was not a response to difficult first White House visit, says designer

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Ukrainian designer Viktor Anisimov said outcome of crucial meeting with Trump was more important than fashion

On Monday evening, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, garnered compliments from Donald Trump and the White House press pool for his formal jacket and trousers.

But for the ensemble’s designer, Viktor Anisimov, the outcome of the meeting, not the verdict on the outfit, was of more concern.

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Trump tells Zelenskyy ceasefire not needed for Russia-Ukraine peace deal

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President reverses ceasefire position but says US will give Ukraine security help and expresses hope for trilateral talks

Donald Trump has ruled out a ceasefire in Ukraine as Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his European allies visited the White House to push for US-backed security guarantees as part of any long-term peace deal.

The US president, who only last week warned Russia of “very severe consequences” if Vladimir Putin failed to agree to a halt the fighting, made clear on Monday he had reversed his position.

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Zelenskyy’s European ‘bodyguards’: which leaders joined Trump talks in Washington?

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Presidents, PMs and heads of Nato and European Commission accompany Ukraine’s leader at White House

European leaders gathered in Washington on Monday for Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s meeting with Donald Trump in the Oval Office, in a show of support for the Ukrainian president. Their presence came amid expectations that Trump would try to bully Zelenskyy into accepting a pro-Russia “peace plan” that would include Kyiv handing territory to Moscow. The Europeans have been described as Zelenskyy’s “bodyguards”, with memories fresh of the mauling he received in February during his last Oval Office visit. So, who are they?

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Zelenskyy accuses Russia of ‘cynical’ attacks before Washington talks

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Ukrainian president says latest strikes have killed at least 10 people and intended to ‘humiliate diplomatic efforts’

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of trying to humiliate Ukraine and Europe by “deliberately killing civilians” before talks with Donald Trump in the White House to be attended by Ukraine’s president and a group of European leaders.

Zelenskyy described the latest strikes by Moscow on four Ukrainian cities as “demonstrative and cynical”. At least seven people were killed in a drone attack on Kharkiv, including a small girl, while three were killed in another bombing in Zaporizhzhia, he said.

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Rubio says both Russia and Ukraine ‘have to make concessions’ for peace deal

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US secretary of state says talks between Putin and Trump had ‘made progress’ but ‘big areas of disagreement’ remain

In a combative series of interviews on Sunday, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said that “both sides are going to have to make concessions” for there to be a peaceful resolution to the war that erupted when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

“You can’t have a peace agreement unless both sides make concessions – that’s a fact,” the Trump administration’s top diplomat said Sunday on ABC’s This Week. “That’s true in virtually any negotiation. If not, it’s just called surrender. And neither side is going to surrender. So both sides are going to have to make concessions.”

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European leaders including Starmer to join Zelenskyy in Washington for meeting with Trump

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Emmanuel Macron, Friedrich Merz and others will aim to push back against ceding of Ukraine territory in ‘peace plan’

European leaders including Britain’s Keir Starmer will join Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, at a White House meeting on Monday with Donald Trump, in an extraordinary joint effort to push back on a US-backed plan that would allow Russia to take further Ukrainian territory.

As well as the UK prime minister, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, Italy’s PM, Giorgia Meloni, and the Finnish president, Alexander Stubb, will all accompany Zelenskyy in the Oval Office.

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