Trump and Vance are courting Europe’s far right to spread their political gospel

US vice-president’s speech and meeting with Germany’s AfD chief signal administration’s wider plans for continent

The Trump administration is making a big bet on Europe’s hard right.

Speaking at a conference of Europe’s leaders in Munich on Friday, the US vice-president JD Vance stunned the room by delivering what amounted to a campaign speech against Germany’s sitting government just one week before an election in which the anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim AfD is set to take second place.

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Trump agrees to ‘friendly meeting’ with Keir Starmer after making surprise call

President phoned while PM was with Mark Burnett, the Apprentice producer appointed as ‘special envoy’ to UK

Donald Trump has spoken to Keir Starmer again after what appears to have been a spur-of-the-moment phone call from the US president that was not expected by the British prime minister and his team.

News of the call, which took place on Thursday evening, emerged in a Downing Street statement about Starmer’s meeting with Mark Burnett, the British TV producer whom Trump has appointed as special envoy to the UK.

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Zelenskyy tells Vance Ukraine needs ‘security guarantees’ before any Putin talks

Ukrainian leader appears reassured after Munich bilateral, having feared he could be bounced into peace negotiations

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said during a meeting with the US vice-president, JD Vance, that his country wants “security guarantees” and a joint US-Ukrainian peace plan before he enters into any talks with Vladimir Putin to end the war in his country.

Both men agreed after an hour-long discussion on Friday on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference that further talks were required to see if they could reach a common understanding.

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Latest Israeli hostages to be freed named amid uncertainty over truce

Iair Horn, Sasha Troufanov and Sagui Dekel-Chen due to be exchanged for 369 Palestinian prisoners

Palestinian militant groups have named the three hostages they plan to free on Saturday in return for the release of 369 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, raising hopes that the January ceasefire agreement will survive its latest crisis.

However, the longer-term prospects of the truce remain in doubt and the uncertainty has been deepened by the US president, Donald Trump, who made surprise territorial claims over Gaza.

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Trump administration sparks outcry as it continues to gut federal workforce – US politics live

Worker groups condemn moves to fire thousands of probationary employees as CDC and housing department also announce staff cuts

Donald Trump’s campaign to dismantle USAid faced a setback in court last night, after a judge blocked efforts to freeze funding to the agency and gave his administration five days to comply. Here’s more on the development, from the Associated Press:

A federal judge has ordered Donald Trump’s administration to temporarily lift a funding freeze that has shut down US humanitarian aid and development work around the world, and he has set a five-day deadline for the administration to prove it is complying.

The audit will also review the past two years of the system’s transactions as it relates to Musk’s assertion of ‘alleged fraudulent payments’, according to a letter from Loren J Sciurba, treasury’s deputy inspector general, that was obtained by the Associated Press.

The audit marks part of the broader effort led by Democratic lawmakers and federal employee unions to provide transparency and accountability about Doge’s activities under President Donald Trump’s Republican administration. The Musk team has pushed for access to the government’s computer systems and sought to remove tens of thousands of federal workers.

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US deports 119 immigrants of varying nationalities to Panama

People from Afghanistan, Iran, China and other countries flown out as Trump’s deportation effort intensifies

The US has sent undocumented immigrants from several Asian countries whose governments have refused to accept them to Panama, in a move signalling an intensification of the Trump administration’s deportation effort.

A military plane carrying 119 immigrants from countries including Afghanistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, China, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Pakistan flew from California to Panama City on Wednesday in what was expected to be the first of three migrants flights to the country.

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Some federal workers given just 30 minutes to leave amid Trump layoffs

As many as 200,000 US workers slated to be affected by mass terminations as Musk leads crusade to slash spending

Some federal employees who have been laid off under the Trump administration’s unprecedented plan to slash the federal workforce were reportedly given only 30 minutes to pack their belongings and vacate federal offices.

Federal agencies were ordered by Donald Trump to fire mostly probationary staff, with as many as 200,000 workers set to be affected and some made to rush off the premises, the Washington Post reported. More layoffs are expected on Friday, Reuters reported, as thousands of employees have already been terminated and the purge is widening.

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Trump disrupting US bird flu response as outbreak worsens

Experts’ concern grows as communication breaks down among federal agencies responsible for tackling epidemic

The Trump administration has disrupted the US response to bird flu as the outbreak worsens, leading to confusion and concern among federal staff, state officials, veterinarians and health experts, 11 sources told Reuters.

Since Donald Trump took office on 20 January, two federal agencies responsible for monitoring and responding to the epidemic have withheld bird flu reports and canceled congressional briefings and meetings with state health officials, the sources said.

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‘In Alaska, it’s Denali’: senators move to counter Trump’s mountain name order

Republican senator Lisa Murakowski introduces bill to require peak’s name kept on US maps, laws and regulations

The Alaska Republican US senator Lisa Murkowski has introduced legislation to officially rename North America’s tallest mountain as Denali, a counter to Donald Trump’s executive order to revert the peak’s name to Mount McKinley.

Murkowski’s bill, which was co-sponsored by her fellow Republican senator for Alaska, Dan Sullivan, would require the peak to be referred to as Denali on any US maps, laws and regulations.

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The heartlessness of the deal: how Trump’s ‘America first’ stance sold out Ukraine

The US president does not care who controls east Ukraine, so long as he can access the rare earth minerals underneath

In Donald Trump’s world, everything has its price.

There is no place for sentiment in his politics. Common values cannot secure loans for military aid. And the US president does not care who controls the blood-soaked soils of east Ukraine, so long as he can access the rare earth minerals that lie beneath.

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UK government to ‘wait and see’ in the face of Trump tariffs announcement

The US president announced what he called ‘reciprocal tariffs’ on all other countries on Thursday

The UK government will “wait and see” whether tariffs announced by Donald Trump “actually come to pass”, a senior minister said.

The US president announced what he called “reciprocal tariffs” on all other countries on Thursday evening, claiming it was “fair to all”.

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Stars pull out of shows and positions at Kennedy Center after Trump takeover

Issa Rae, Ben Folds and Shonda Rhimes among those who chose not to associate with the institution and president

Donald Trump’s takeover of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington has generated outcry from performers and members, with several stars pulling out of engagements or associations.

Trump purged the board of the arts foundation last week, clearing the group of appointees by Joe Biden. Stacked with Trump loyalists, the new board terminated the center’s president, Deborah Rutter, and installed Trump as chair. The board then named Richard Grenell, who served as ambassador to Germany during the first Trump administration, as interim president.

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Trump proposes nuclear deal with Russia and China to halve defense budgets

‘We’re all spending a lot of money that we could be spending on other things,’ the US president said

Donald Trump said that he wants to restart nuclear arms control talks with Russia and China and that eventually he hopes all three countries could agree to cut their massive defense budgets in half.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump lamented the hundreds of billions of dollars being invested in rebuilding the nation’s nuclear deterrent and said he hopes to gain commitments from the US adversaries to cut their own spending.

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Pete Hegseth says ‘everything is on the table’ to end Ukraine war

US defence secretary suggests cutting number of American troops in Europe could even be part of a deal with Russia

The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, has said “everything is on the table” to bring peace to Ukraine and suggested reducing the number of American troops in Europe could be part of any deal.

European leaders are reeling from several abrupt US moves since Wednesday in relation to the Ukraine war and the continent’s security, which has been underpinned by the US since Nato was formed at the end of the second world war.

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EU failed to Trump-proof Europe and now faces humiliation over Ukraine

As Putin’s actions again disrupt the start of a Munich security conference, Brussels largely has itself to blame

The start of the Munich security conference has a habit of being disrupted by a display of power by Vladimir Putin. In 2022, the transatlantic security establishment gathered in the knowledge that Putin was days from launching his attack on Kyiv. In February 2024, the opposition leader Alexei Navalny died in disputed circumstances in a Russian jail and this year Russia’s leader is on the brink of opening talks with Donald Trump that many analysts predict will end with Russia not just gaining Ukrainian territory but dismembering Ukraine as a sovereign independent state.

For Europe it is a humiliation. And yet little that Trump or his defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, said on Wednesday about their approach to a ceasefire including the US’s refusal to commit further resources to Ukraine could have come as a shock. Indeed Europe largely has only itself to blame.

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‘No to ethnic cleansing’: over 350 rabbis sign US ad assailing Trump’s Gaza plan

Jewish creatives and activists also sign New York Times ad after US president’s proposal to ‘take over Gaza’

More than 350 rabbis, alongside additional signatories including Jewish creatives and activists, have signed an ad in the New York Times in which they condemn Donald Trump’s proposal for the effective ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza.

The ad, which was signed by rabbis including Sharon Brous, Roly Matalon and Alissa Wise, as well as Jewish creatives and activists including Tony Kushner, Ilana Glazer, Naomi Klein and Joaquin Phoenix, says: “Trump has called for the removal of all Palestinians from Gaza. Jewish people say no to ethnic cleansing!”

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USAid cuts sow feeling of betrayal among Yazidis, 10 years after IS genocide

Figures who backed rights of religious minorities in Trump’s first term fall silent as vital work halted on the ground

During the first Trump administration, Mike Pence, the vice-president, pledged hundreds of millions of dollars, mostly through USAid and the state department, to help Christians and other religious minorities who were persecuted by Islamic State and – in the case of the Yazidis – suffered a genocide.

But under the second Trump administration, the same figures who championed the rights of religious minorities have fallen silent or actively participated in the destruction of USAid, cutting crucial aid to support the same communities they once helped – who now feel abandoned by the US.

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Caught in the middle: UK firms brace for fallout from Trump’s global trade war

While UK may not be in direct line of fire, knock-on effects on global trade has British businesses worried

“We’re vulnerable at the moment,” says Fiona Conor, the managing director of Trust Electric Heating, a Leeds-based radiator manufacturer, who has been considering expanding into the US market.

After a predictably unpredictable start to Donald Trump’s second term as US president, Conor is worried her options could be limited, as businesses across the UK brace for a global trade war.

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No lasting peace in Ukraine without European role in talks, leaders say after Trump-Putin call

Statement from countries including France, Germany and UK comes after US president says he and Putin are ready to begin talks

European powers, including Britain, France and Germany, have said they have to be part of any future negotiations on the fate of Ukraine, underscoring that only a fair accord with security guarantees would ensure lasting peace.

“Our shared objectives should be to put Ukraine in a position of strength. Ukraine and Europe must be part of any negotiations,” seven European countries and the European Commission said in a joint statement after a foreign ministers meeting in Paris.

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X to pay Donald Trump $10m to settle lawsuit over Capitol attack – report

President brought suit under X’s previous leadership after he was banned from platform following January 6 events

Elon Musk’s social media platform X will pay Donald Trump $10m to settle a lawsuit the president filed after he was banned from the platform following the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, according to a report.

The lawsuit was filed against X under the leadership of its previous CEO, Jack Dorsey. After Musk purchased X, reinstated Trump’s account, began developing a relationship with the president and spent $250m on his re-election campaign, Trump’s legal team considered abandoning the lawsuit, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the case.

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