Trump praises Elon Musk for ‘colossal change’ as Doge adviser says farewell

US president presents top ally with golden key as Musk says Doge unit ‘will only grow stronger over time’

Donald Trump saw Elon Musk off from the White House on Friday, as the Tesla chief concluded his more than four months leading the so-called department of government efficiency’s disruptive foray into federal departments that achieved far fewer cost savings than expected.

Standing alongside Trump in the Oval Office, Musk, who faced a 130-day limit in his tenure as a special government employee that had ended two days prior, vowed that his departure “is not the end” of Doge.

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Anthony Weiner says female politicians ‘judged much more harshly than men’

Weiner makes comment as he campaigns for New York City council seat years after sexting scandal

Anthony Weiner says politicians such as him and Donald Trump can survive scandals while qualified candidates including Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton lose elections because “women get judged much more harshly than men do”.

“I do believe that,” Weiner said Friday on ABC’s The View amid his run for a New York City council seat years after he crashed out of Congress in the wake of a sexting scandal that some argue aided Trump in clinching his first presidency in 2016.

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Supreme court allows White House to revoke temporary protected status of many migrants

Ruling reverses hold on Trump administration’s ending humanitarian parole of Venezuelan migrants and others

The US supreme court on Friday announced it would allow the Trump administration to revoke the temporary legal status of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan, Cuban, Haitian and Nicaraguan migrants living in the United States, bolstering the Republican president’s drive to step up deportations.

The court put on hold Boston-based US district judge Indira Talwani’s order halting the administration’s move to end the immigration humanitarian “parole” protections granted to 532,000 people by Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, potentially exposing many of them to rapid removal from the country, while the detailed case plays out in lower courts.

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Google and Home Depot drop Pride Toronto sponsorship amid Trump’s DEI war

Organizer points to president’s anti-diversity push as companies join Adidas and Clorox in withdrawing support

In another blow to one of the largest celebrations of LGTBQ+ people in North America, Pride Toronto has unexpectedly lost two more major corporate sponsors, just weeks before the festival in a setback the festival’s organizer says is direct result of Donald Trump’s campaign to eradicate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the US.

Google and Home Depot both announced their plans to abandon the festival in the form of one-line emails, said Kojo Modeste, the executive director of the Canadian event.

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China has ‘totally violated’ its trade agreement with the US, says Trump

President took to social media to denounce Beijing in the latest development in his ongoing tariff war

Donald Trump declared that China has “totally violated its agreement” against the US on trade just two weeks after the countries reached a deal, raising fears that the trade war will continue to rattle the global economy.

“I made a FAST DEAL with China in order to save them from what I thought was going to be a very bad situation,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday morning. “Everybody was happy! That is the good news!!! The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US.”

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Woman’s life-saving treatment delayed by Trump cuts to NIH: ‘Cancer shouldn’t be political’

Natalie Phelps, who has stage 4 colorectal cancer, has raised the alarm over how patients in the agency’s clinical trials are facing setbacks in treatment

A 43-year-old woman and mother of two with advanced cancer says she is experiencing life-or-death delays in treatment because of the Trump administration’s cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Natalie Phelps, who has stage 4 colorectal cancer, has spoken publicly, raising the alarm about a setback in care for herself and others who are part of clinical trials run by the agency. Her story has made it into congressional hearings and spurred a spat between a Democratic senator and the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr. Behind the scenes, she and others are advocating to get her treatment started sooner.

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Donald Trump commutes sentence of former Chicago gang leader

Larry Hoover, 74, ex-chief of Gangster Disciples in Chicago, had been serving multiple life sentences for over 50 years

Donald Trump has commuted the sentence of Larry Hoover, a former Chicago gang leader, who had been serving multiple life sentences for more than five decades.

Hoover, 74, is the co-founder of Gangster Disciples, a gang described in court documents as “large and vicious” that sold “great quantities of cocaine, heroin, and other drugs in Chicago”.

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Musk is pivoting from DC and Doge’s failures – and wants investors to know

The billionaire mogul is signaling far and wide that he’s back to business, and even criticizing Trump’s tax bill

Elon Musk really wants the public – and investors – to know that he’s leaving Washington DC behind.

In a series of interviews and social media posts this week, Musk has criticized Donald Trump’s marquee tax bill and emphasized his recommitment to leading SpaceX, Tesla and the artificial intelligence company xAI. The world’s richest person claimed that he was back to working around the clock at his companies – to the point of sleeping in conference rooms and factory offices once again.

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RFK Jr offers to save Canadian ostriches with suspected bird flu and move them to US

Trump officials offer to move 300 birds to Mehmet Oz’s Florida ranch after Canada’s kill order over avian flu fears

Senior officials in the Trump administration have intervened in attempt to save more than 300 ostriches on a farm in British Columbia which the Canadian government had ordered to be killed over fears the flock is infected with avian flu.

Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, and Mehmet Oz, a physician and former TV host appointed by Trump as the director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, have offered to move the birds to Oz’s ranch in Florida – despite the kill order imposed by Canadian health authorities.

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World faces new danger of ‘economic denial’ in climate fight, Cop30 head says

Exclusive: André Corrêa do Lago says ‘answers have to come from the economy’ as climate policies trigger populist-fuelled backlash

The world is facing a new form of climate denial – not the dismissal of climate science, but a concerted attack on the idea that the economy can be reorganised to fight the crisis, the president of global climate talks has warned.

André Corrêa do Lago, the veteran Brazilian diplomat who will direct this year’s UN summit, Cop30, believes his biggest job will be to counter the attempt from some vested interests to prevent climate policies aimed at shifting the global economy to a low-carbon footing.

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Trump to pardon reality TV stars Julie and Todd Chrisley

Couple was found guilty in 2022 of conspiring to defraud community banks out of more than $30m and tax evasion

The White House said on Tuesday that Donald Trump plans to pardon reality TV stars Julie and Todd Chrisley, the couple famous for Chrisley Knows Best, which followed their tightly knit family and extravagant lifestyle.

A jury in 2022 found them guilty of conspiring to defraud community banks out of more than $30m in fraudulent loans. The Chrisleys were also found guilty of tax evasion.

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Trump indicates ‘positive’ progress in US-EU trade talks

Wall Street up in early trading after US president commends bloc for calling to ‘quickly establish meeting dates’

Donald Trump has indicated there has been progress in US trade talks with the EU, helping send share prices rising on Wall Street, after he commended the bloc for calling to “quickly establish meeting dates”.

“I have just been informed that the EU has called to quickly establish meeting dates. This is a positive event, and I hope that they will,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday, saying the EU would be “very happy and successful” if it agreed a deal.

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Trump warns Putin he is ‘playing with fire’ after Russian attack on Ukraine

US president launches fresh criticism of Russian counterpart and suggests US sanctions could be increased

Donald Trump has warned Vladimir Putin that he is “playing with fire”, launching a fresh broadside at his Russian counterpart over stalled Ukraine peace efforts.

Trump’s latest comments came after he called the Kremlin leader “CRAZY” over the weekend following a mass Russian air attack on Kyiv, and warned that Moscow risked new sanctions.

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Gaza influencer, 11, among dozens of children killed by recent Israeli strikes | First Thing

Yaqeen Hammad is one of dozens of minors killed by Israeli attacks. Plus, US faces another summer of extreme heat

Good morning.

Eleven-year-old Yaqeen Hammad, Gaza’s youngest social media influencer, is among the dozens of children killed by Israel in recent strikes as its forces intensify their military offensive across the Palestinian territory.

How has Israel intensified its attacks on Gaza in recent days? Israeli airstrikes killed at least 52 people on Monday, including 31 in a school turned shelter that was struck as people slept, igniting their belongings, according to local health officials.

What is the latest with Israel’s aid blockade? A US-backed group tasked with delivering supplies said it had begun operations on Monday, in a plan endorsed by Israel but rejected by the UN.

How are Israel’s allies responding? The UK, France and Canada have called for Israel to end the siege of Gaza, with the British foreign secretary calling Israeli actions “monstrous”. But, as Patrick Wintour explains in Today in Focus, allies have not yet used all the tools at their disposal.

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Tuesday briefing: Trump’s statements about Putin have changed. Will his actions catch up?

In today’s newsletter: As the US president becomes more disillusioned with Vladimir Putin, a look at how his stance towards the Russian leader is – and isn’t – shifting

Good morning. Nobody is more surprised than Donald Trump, but he is starting to think that Vladimir Putin is not a straight shooter. “I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him,” he wrote on Truth Social on Sunday. “He has gone absolutely CRAZY! I’ve always said that he wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that’s proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia!”

As ever with Trump, a part of you admires the chutzpah: the idea that Trump has long been troubled by Putin’s imperial ambitions is, of course, an absolutely warped version of the real history. But – even if Trump also criticised Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, grumbling that “everything out of his mouth causes problems” – there does seem to be a sense that the US president is becoming more seriously disillusioned with Putin as a partner, and seeking ways to avoid blame for the consequences.

Israel-Gaza war | The UK must impose sanctions on the Israeli government and its ministers and also consider suspending it from the UN to meet its “fundamental international legal obligations”, more than 800 lawyers have said. Signatories to a letter to the prime minister include former supreme court justices, court of appeal judges and more than 70 KCs.

UK news | Liverpool FC’s Premier League victory parade descended into chaos on Monday evening after a car collided with pedestrians in the city centre, injuring nearly 50 people. A 53-year-old man was arrested at the scene of the incident, which is not being treated as terrorism.

The race report | Senior figures in British business have described a chilling effect on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, saying they are being “rebranded” to avoid attracting unwanted political attention.

Cost of living | Food inflation in the UK has risen for the fourth month in a row, figures show, driven by increases in the cost of fresh produce, including steak. The annual rate of food price rises hit 2.8% this month, after a 2.6% rise in April.

Gender guidance | Formal guidance on how organisations should implement the supreme court ruling on gender may not be fully signed off for months, officials and MPs have said. The warnings come amid increasing worries about the capability of the government’s equalities watchdog following criticisms of its chair, Kishwer Falkner.

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EU hopes for quick deal to resolve US trade war after Trump delays 50% tariffs

European leaders call for ‘lowest possible’ border taxes after levies postponed from 1 June to 9 July

EU leaders have expressed hopes for a quick deal to resolve the trade war with the US after Donald Trump announced he was delaying his threatened 50% tariffs for the bloc until 9 July.

The US president said on Sunday he would pause the border tax due to be imposed on 1 June, which he had announced two days earlier, after what he called a “very nice call” with Ursula von der Leyen.

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EU president secures tariffs delay after talk with Trump

Enactment of 50% tariffs postponed until July so both sides can ‘reach a good deal’ after pressure from European leaders

Donald Trump has announced that he will pause his threatened 50% tariffs on the European Union until 9 July, after a “very nice call” with EU chief Ursula von der Leyen.

The European Commission president announced in a social media post that she had spoken with Trump and secured the delay to give the two sides more time to negotiate.

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Top Republicans threaten to block Trump’s spending bill if national debt is not reduced

Prominent US senators warn Trump to ‘get serious’ about addressing budget deficit or they will block ‘beautiful bill’

Donald Trump has been warned by fiscal hawks within his own party in the US Senate that he must “get serious” about cutting government spending and reducing the national debt or else they will block the passage of his signature tax-cutting legislation known as the “big, beautiful bill”.

Ron Johnson, the Republican senator from Wisconsin who rose to prominence as a fiscal hardliner with the Tea Party movement, issued the warning to the president on Sunday. Asked by CNN’s State of the Union whether his faction had the numbers to halt the bill, he replied: “I think we have enough to stop the process until the president gets serious about spending reduction and reducing the deficit.”

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Record number of Americans are seeking residency in UK, according to Home Office

Nearly 2,000 applications for British citizenship submitted since since January, when Donald Trump took office

During the 12 months leading up to March, more than 6,000 US citizens have applied to either become British subjects or to live and work in the country indefinitely – the highest number since comparable records began in 2004, according to data released on Thursday by the UK’s Home Office.

Over the period, 6,618 Americans applied for British citizenship – with more than 1,900 of the applications received between January and March, most of which has been during the beginning of Donald Trump’s second US presidency.

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Any trade deal with US must be based on ‘respect not threats’, says EU commissioner

Maroš Šefčovič’s remarks come after pace of talks prompted Trump to propose 50% tariff on goods from bloc

The European Union’s trade chief has struck a defiant tone after Donald Trump threatened to place a 50% tariff on all goods from the bloc, saying any potential trade deal between Brussels and Washington must be based on “respect not threats”.

The US president made his announcement after voicing frustration with the pace of progress on a trade agreement with the EU. The new rates would come into effect from 1 June.

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