Category Archives: Donald Trump

Zelenskyy repeats vow to wait in Turkey for face-to-face talks with Putin

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Ukrainian president says if Russian leader does not arrive it will indicate ‘that he does not want to end the war’

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has doubled down on his promise to wait in Turkey on Thursday for face-to-face talks with Vladimir Putin, calling it a test of Russia’s willingness to pursue peace.

Speaking to journalists in Kyiv on Tuesday, Zelenskyy said he planned to wait for Putin in Ankara alongside the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, adding that he would travel to Istanbul if Putin opted to hold the meeting there.

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Brazil’s president seeks ‘indestructible’ links with China amid Trump trade war

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Remark comes as Brazil, Colombia and Chile’s leaders fly to Beijing amid international uncertainty generated by Trump

The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has heralded his desire to build “indestructible” relations with China, as the leaders of three of Latin America’s biggest economies flew to Beijing against the backdrop of Donald Trump’s trade war and the profound international uncertainty his presidency has generated.

Lula touched down in China’s capital on Sunday for a four-day state visit, accompanied by 11 ministers, top politicians and a delegation of more than 150 business leaders.

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‘Just wildly illegal’: top Democrats push to censure Trump’s plan to accept Qatar jet

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Four senators, including Cory Booker, say they will press for vote against president’s plan to take $400m gift from Qatar

Top Democrats in the US Senate are pushing for a vote on the floor of the chamber censuring Donald Trump’s reported plan to accept a $400m luxury jet from the royal family of Qatar for use as Air Force One and later as a fixture in the Trump’s personal presidential library.

Four Democratic members of the Senate foreign relations committee said on Monday that they would press for a vote later this week. They said that elected officials, including the president, were not allowed to accept large gifts from foreign governments unless authorized to do so by Congress.

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Netanyahu must now work for support of US as Trump tires of Israel’s war in Gaza

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The US president will not visit Israel on a trip to the Middle East and his envoy has reportedly said Netanyahu’s government is drawing out the war

Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff didn’t mince his words. In a meeting late on Sunday with former hostages and relatives of those still held in Gaza, he told them Israel is drawing out a war the US wants to end, local media reported.

On the eve of the release of Edan Alexander, the last living American being held by Hamas, Witkoff spelt out the gulf between his boss and the government of Benjamin Netanyahu.

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India has only ‘paused’ military action against Pakistan, Modi says

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Indian PM says he is ‘monitoring every step of Pakistan’ as ceasefire holds

Narendra Modi has said India has only “paused” its military action against Pakistan and would “retaliate on its own terms” to any attacks, after a ceasefire brought escalating hostilities between the two countries to a standstill at the weekend.

In his first address since attacks began between India and Pakistan – culminating in both sides launching missiles at each other’s key military bases and airfields on Saturday – the Indian prime minister said he was “monitoring every step of Pakistan”.

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Trump administration offers refugee status to 49 white South Africans

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Group, including families and small children, departed for US after Trump order created relocation program

A group of 49 white South Africans departed their homeland on Sunday for the United States on a private charter plane having been offered refugee status by the Trump administration under a new program announced in February.

The group, which included families and small children, was due to arrive at Dulles international airport outside Washington DC on Monday morning local time, according to Collen Mbisi, a spokesperson for South Africa’s transport ministry.

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Trump says planned gift of luxury plane from Qatar is a very ‘transparent’ deal

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News of present known as ‘flying palace’ from royal family to replace Air Force One has ignited accusations of bribery and corruption

Donald Trump has indicated he is ready to accept a luxury plane being offered to the US president as a gift from Qatar’s royal family, almost immediately igniting accusations of bribery and corruption as well as commensurate criticism.

A statement from Qatar on Sunday acknowledged it had held discussions with the US about “the possible transfer” of a plane to be used temporarily by Trump as his presidential aircraft, usurping Air Force One. The emirate’s statement denied a final decision over the transfer had been made – or that it was a gift.

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Trump complains the US media aren’t bending to his will. Aren’t they?

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Despite owners and networks forsaking journalistic independence, Trump continues to threaten journalists

In the telling of Donald Trump and his Republican colleagues, the US media is fake news, stocked with “radical-left monsters” who are guilty of “illegal” reporting on the president.

The reality is different.

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Trump to embark on Middle East trip to meet Gulf allies

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President eager to discuss trade and investment but no plans to visit Israel amid tensions over Gaza war

Donald Trump this week will embark on the first foreign trip of his second administration with a tour of the Middle East, as he looks to secure investment, trade and technology deals from friendly leaders with deep pockets amid turbulent negotiations around numerous regional conflicts, including Israel’s war in Gaza.

The tour through the Middle East is largely a repeat of his first international trip in 2017, when he was feted in the region as a transactional leader eager to secure quick wins and capable of providing support for the regional monarchies’ economic and geopolitical interests.

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Trump claims ‘total reset’ in US-China trade relations after tariff talks in Geneva

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US president praises ‘very good’ discussions as top US and Chinese officials meet over trade war triggered by Trump’s tariff blitz

Donald Trump has hailed a “total reset” in US-China trade relations after the first day of talks between top American and Chinese officials in Geneva aimed at defusing a trade war sparked by his tariff rollout.

The US president praised the “very good” discussions and deemed them “a total reset negotiated in a friendly, but constructive, manner”.

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‘From all sides’: universities in red states face attacks from DC and at home

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As universities begin to push back on Trump’s policies, those in Republican-led states face multiple threats

Days after the University of Michigan president, Santa Ono, announced that he was leaving his post to lead the University of Florida, his name was quietly removed on Wednesday from a letter signed by more than 600 university presidents denouncing the Trump administration’s “unprecedented government overreach and political interference” with academic institutions.

As Ono is set to become the highest-paid public university president in the country, in a state that has often been at the forefront of the rightwing battle against higher education, the reversal, first reported on by Talking Points Memo, underscored the challenges of standing up against the government’s sweeping attacks on education in solidly red states.

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Vladimir Putin rejects ceasefire ultimatum proposed by European leaders

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Leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Poland told Russian president to accept unconditional 30-day ceasefire by Monday or face increased sanctions and weapons transfers to Ukraine

Vladimir Putin has rejected an ultimatum by European leaders to agree to a ceasefire with Ukraine or face increased sanctions, but has proposed holding direct negotiations with Kyiv this week.

The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Poland told the Russian president either to sign up to an unconditional ceasefire by Monday or face increased sanctions and weapons transfers to Ukraine.

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Chinese and US officials meet in Geneva for ‘de-escalation’ trade talks

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World Trade Organization hails ‘constructive step’ as senior figures come together to discuss tariffs

Senior US and Chinese officials held talks early on Saturday in Geneva in a tentative first step towards defusing a trade war that is disrupting the global economy, according to China’s state-owned news agency and people close to the talks.

China’s vice-premier, He Lifeng, and the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, met after weeks of growing tensions as duties on imports between the world’s two largest economies have risen above 100%.

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Whiplash reversals mean Trump’s erratic trade policy is as clear as mud

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The specifics of the administration’s economic masterplan – from strollers to movies to China – change by the day

Decades of economic orthodoxy failed millions of Americans, according to Donald Trump, who marched back into the White House promising to shred the status quo. But the specifics of his alternative – exactly how his administration claims it will make America great again – change by the day.

The US president declared this week to be a key milestone of his second term, as he unveiled his first major trade deal since returning to office following accelerated talks with the UK.

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Mayor of Newark arrested for trespassing at Ice detention center

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Ras Baraka, who has spoken out against Trump’s immigration policies, was at the center with Democratic members of Congress

The mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, was arrested for trespass at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention center in New Jersey on Friday as Democratic members of Congress also attempted to conduct what they say was a visit to the controversial facility to conduct “federal oversight”.

News of Baraka’s arrest at Delaney Hall was reported on X by Alina Habba, the acting US attorney for the district of New Jersey, and a former personal attorney and adviser to Donald Trump.

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US considers special status for Greenland amid Trump push for control

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Officials float idea of compact of free association (Cofa), used by US to keep close ties with Pacific Island nations

US officials are discussing a plan to pull Greenland into America’s sphere of influence using a type of agreement that the United States has used to keep close ties with several Pacific Island nations, according to two US officials and another person familiar with the discussions.

Under the plan being considered, the Trump administration would propose to Greenland’s leaders that the island enter into a so-called compact of free association, or Cofa, with the United States.

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Immigrants set for Libya deportation sat on tarmac for hours, attorney says

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Any Trump administration efforts to send non-Libyans to the north African country would violate a prior court order

Immigrants in Texas who were told they would be deported to Libya sat on a military airfield tarmac for hours on Wednesday, unsure of what would happen next, an attorney for one of the men has said.

The attorney, Tin Thanh Nguyen, told the news agency Reuters that his client, a Vietnamese construction worker from Los Angeles, was among the immigrants woken in the early morning hours and bussed from an immigration detention center in Pearsall, Texas, to an airfield where a military aircraft awaited them.

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Mexico sues Google over changing Gulf of Mexico’s name for US users

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President Claudia Sheinbaum says lawsuit has been filed after US lawmakers voted on name change

Mexico has sued Google for changing the Gulf of Mexico’s name to “Gulf of America” for Google Maps users in the United States, Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s president, said on Friday.

“The lawsuit has already been filed,” Sheinbaum said at her morning news conference, without saying where and when it was submitted.

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Trump floats cutting Chinese tariffs from 145% to 80% before weekend talks

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Meeting aimed at de-escalating trade war after Chinese exports beat expectations despite slump in trade

Donald Trump has floated cutting tariffs on China from 145% to 80% before a weekend meeting as he looks to de-escalate the trade war.

Top US officials are expected to meet a high-level Chinese delegation this weekend in Switzerland in the first significant talks between the two nations since Trump provoked a trade war with stiff tariffs on imports.

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Noaa to stop tracking cost of climate crisis-fueled disasters: ‘Major loss’

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US agency will no longer update major weather database in latest showing of Trump’s influence on climate resources

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) will no longer track the cost of climate crisis-fueled weather disasters, including floods, heatwaves, wildfires and more. It is the latest example of changes to the agency and the Trump administration limiting federal government resources on climate change.

Noaa falls under the US Department of Commerce and is tasked with daily weather forecasts, severe storm warnings and climate monitoring. It is also parent to the National Weather Service.

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