Category Archives: Donald Trump

Kremlin and Trump aides raise nuclear war fears after Ukraine drone strike

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Vladimir Putin has warned Russia will respond to Kyiv’s attacks on nuclear-capable aircraft at airfields

As Vladimir Putin pledges to retaliate against Ukraine for last weekend’s unprecedented drone attack, Kremlin advisers and figures around Donald Trump have told the US president that the risk of a nuclear confrontation is growing, in an attempt to pressure him to further reduce US support for Ukraine.

Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and an important intermediary between the Kremlin and Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, called the Ukrainian drone strike an attack on “Russian nuclear assets”, and echoed remarks from Maga-friendly figures warning of the potential for a third world war.

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China accuses US of ‘seriously violating’ trade truce

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Beijing says it will safeguard its interests after Donald Trump claimed it had ‘totally violated’ agreement

China has accused the US of “seriously violating” the fragile US-China detente that has been in place for less than a month since the two countries agreed to pause the trade war that risked upending the global economy.

China and the US agreed on 12 May to pause for 90 days the skyrocketing “reciprocal” tariffs that both countries had placed on the others goods in a frenzied trade war that started a few weeks earlier. Tariffs had reached 125% on each side, which officials feared amounted to virtual embargo on trade between the world’s two biggest economies.

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Vought says Trump may not need Congress’s approval to cut federal workforce

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Amid bipartisan opposition, director of management and budget office says Trump prefers to use ‘executive tools’

Russell Vought, the director of the office of management and budget (OMB), on Sunday cast doubt on the constitutional obligation of the White House to ask Congress to sign off on Donald Trump’s massive cuts to the federal workforce spearheaded by Elon Musk.

Vought indicated the White House preferred to rely on “executive tools” for all but a “necessary” fraction of the cuts instead of submitting the whole package of jobs and agency slashing that took place via the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge), to the congressional branch for its official approval.

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Why Trump is really going after Harvard

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If the US’s oldest university bends the knee, the door to authoritarianism opens and democracy fades, experts warn

In mortarboards and crimson-fringed gowns, thousands of students were joined by smiling families for the centuries-old ritual of graduation day. But this year was different.

Alan Garber, the president of Harvard University, received a standing ovation and welcomed graduates “from down the street, across the country and around the world”, drawing applause for the last words: “Around the world – just as it should be.”

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‘We’ll determine our defence policy’: Albanese responds to US push for huge rise in spending as Hegseth stokes China fears

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Prime minister also reaffirms policy on Taiwan while hitting back at Donald Trump’s doubling of tariffs on steel and aluminium imports

Anthony Albanese has responded to the United States’ calls for a huge rise in defence spending amid fears about China, while hitting back at Donald Trump’s move to double tariffs on steel and aluminium.

On Saturday US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, urged US allies in the region, including Australia, to “share the burden” and lift defence spending to 5% of GDP, warning that “Beijing is credibly preparing to potentially use military force to alter the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific”.

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UK trade secretary to seek exemption from US steel and aluminium tariffs

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Trump announced on Friday night that he planned to double rates on imported steel, piling more pressure on the industry

The UK’s trade secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, will meet his US counterpart next week to thrash out a timeline for exempting the UK from US steel and aluminium tariffs after Donald Trump announced he would double them.

British officials are seeking clarity on the implications of Trump’s announcement on Friday night that he planned to double the tariffs from 25% to 50% from Wedneday 4 June, piling further pressure on global steel trade.

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Russia seizes more Ukrainian territory amid fears of fresh ground offensive

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More than 200 settlements in Sumy region under evacuation orders after Russia take control of two villages

Ukrainian officials issued evacuation orders on Saturday for 11 more villages in the northern Sumy region after continued Russian gains led to fears that Moscow could be gearing up for a fresh ground offensive.

Russia advanced deeper into Ukrainian territory on Saturday, taking control of two more villages in Sumy and killing two people in a missile and drone barrage. More than 200 settlements in the region were already under evacuation orders.

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Trump claimed ‘tariffs are easy’ – he’s learning the hard way that’s not the case

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Time and time again over the past four months, reality has failed to match Trump’s rhetoric

“Tariffs are easy,” Donald Trump claimed in March. For his administration, and the world, they have proven anything but. Now an obscure New York court has blocked his signature trade policy, setting up a battle that looks sure to end up in the supreme court.

The plan was simple. For decades, Trump has made the case for tariffs. Now, in his second term, he would dramatically hike them on the world; raise trillions of dollars for the federal government; cut taxes for Americans; and lure manufacturers to the country’s industrial heartlands, creating millions of jobs.

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

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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’

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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

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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

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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

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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’

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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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