Trump administration live updates: President departs for first foreign trip; China and U.S. agree on tariffs pause
President Donald Trump departed on the first major foreign trip of his second term this morning, heading first to Saudi Arabia and then Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
The United States and China have agreed to a 90-day pause on most of the tariffs they have imposed on each other since last month, a big step toward easing the trade war between the two countries.
Trump signed an executive order that aims to lower prescription drug prices, and discussed the measure at a news conference with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Trump mocked Democratic backlash over his administration's decision to accept a Boeing super luxury jet, estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, from Qatar to use as Air Force One.
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The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Putin may be mocking Trump over Ukraine – but the US president won't do anything about it
European leaders have redoubled their efforts to prise Donald Trump away from Russia by warning that the US president is being 'mocked' by Vladimir Putin, alleging that Moscow is using chemical weapons in Ukraine and demanding that the US restore weapons supplies to Kyiv. The move came after Ukraine said it had endured the biggest overnight air attack of the entire war, with swarms of 500 drones and missiles intended to overwhelm already stretched air defences. Radek Sikorski, Poland's foreign minister, called for the US to end its suspension of air defence missiles and other weapons – most of which are on standby for delivery to Poland –and derided Trump's fruitless efforts to secure a ceasefire. 'Mr Trump, Putin is mocking your peace efforts,' said the Oxford-educated Sikorski. In addition, the Dutch and German governments said their intelligence services had evidence of widespread use of chemical choking agents (teargas) against Ukrainian trenches by Russian troops. These have been used to force soldiers into the open where they could be shot by Putin's forces. 'This intensification is concerning because it is part of a trend we have been observing for several years now, where Russia's use of chemical weapons in this war is becoming more normalised, standardised, and widespread," said the Dutch defence minister Ruben Brekelmans. With the recent US focus on its attacks on Iran in support of Israel, Russia has been gradually stepping up efforts against Kyiv. Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has been warning for weeks that his country faces a critical shortage of defensive weapons, so the announcement that the US is suspending promised weapons such Patriot air defence missiles will inevitably entrench the already strong belief that Trump has taken Putin's side after Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and that the US is no longer a real ally in the defence of Europe. Pentagon officials suggested the suspension was a 'pause' in delivery of Patriots, precision artillery and Hellfire missiles mounted on Ukrainian F-16 aircraft as part of a review of US supplies worldwide. But the US has not declared a pause in supply to any other nation. Israel is the largest recipient of US military aid by far and has recently enjoyed an uptick in supplies of bombs and missiles even as it stands accused by the United Nations of 'ethnic cleansing' and its prime minister has been indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court. Trump has been trying to secure a ceasefire in the Ukraine war for months. Despite Kyiv offering a 30-day pause in fighting, Putin has repeatedly made it clear that Russia is not interested while it pursues a summer offensive to carve out the east of Ukraine. Trump has suggested he is frustrated by Putin but has threatened the Russian president with no definitive sanctions. Kyiv, however, has endured having its intelligence feed from the US blinded during the Russian counterattacks to retake Kursk, seen military aid suspended, been offered no new promises of support, and forced into a mineral deal that trades future US weapons for mining profits. In March, Trump said he was very angry and 'pissed off' after the Russian president continued to swerve his attempts to get Moscow to agree a ceasefire. The pair spoke again at length on Thursday in what turned out to be, from the Oval Office perspective, another unsatisfactory call. When asked if he had any success with Putin on Ukraine, Trump was clear: 'No, I didn't make any progress with him today at all... I'm not happy about that. I'm not happy about that.' But again there was still no sign that the US was going to lift its suspension of military aid to Ukraine, let alone increase it to try to force Russia to negotiate a workable ceasefire. So Russia continues its grinding offensive, claiming this week to have captured all of Luhansk province, which it has already illegally annexed. As a precondition to any ceasefire, Putin has demanded he keep at least Luhansk, Crimea, Kherson, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia provinces. The US has largely accepted this position as a 'given' and further insisted that in any long-term peace deal Ukraine is prevented from joining Nato and will not get security guarantees from the US to defend its future borders. So Nato's European and Canadian members are now planning, training and producing weapons to fill an American void that is widening. Kyiv has held on in spite of the massive air attacks and 'meat grinder' Russian land assaults, largely because of its superiority in drone technology. But Moscow has now forged ahead with the development of long-range wire-guided first-person view (FPV) drones and is developing AI weapons. For the last year or so Russian drone pilots have been using civilians in Kherson as target practice on training operations, with FPV drones killing several people most weeks. 'It won't be long before we see people being hunted through the streets of Kyiv by AI drones in swarms. We need to defeat Russia before that happens,' said a senior officer in Ukraine's drone warfare operations.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Israel launches airstrikes targeting Yemen's Houthi-controlled ports
Israel 's military launched airstrikes early on Monday targeting ports and facilities held by Yemen 's Houthi rebels, with the rebels responding with missile fire targeting Israel. The attacks came after an attack on Sunday targeting a Liberian-flagged ship in the Red Sea that caught fire and took on water, later forcing its crew to abandon the vessel. Suspicion for the attack on the Greek-owned bulk carrier Magic Seas immediately fell on the Houthis, particularly as a security firm said it appeared bomb-carrying drone boats hit the ship after it was targeted by small arms and rocket-propelled grenades. The rebels' media reported on the attack but did not claim it. A renewed Houthi campaign against shipping could again draw in US and Western forces to the area, particularly after president Donald Trump targeted the rebels in a major airstrike campaign. The ship attack comes at a sensitive moment in the Middle East, as a possible ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war hangs in the balance and as Iran weighs whether to restart negotiations over its nuclear program following American airstrikes targeting its most sensitive atomic sites amid an Israeli war against the Islamic Republic. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was also traveling to Washington to meet with Mr Trump. The Israeli military said it struck Houthi-held ports at Hodeida, Ras Isa and Salif, as well as the Ras Kanatib power plant. 'These ports are used by the Houthi terrorist regime to transfer weapons from the Iranian regime, which are employed to carry out terrorist operations against the state of Israel and its allies,' the Israeli military said. The Israeli military also said it struck the Galaxy Leader, a vehicle-carrying vessel that the Houthis seized back in November 2023 when they began their attacks in the Red Sea corridor over the Israel- Hamas war. 'Houthi forces installed a radar system on the ship and have been using it to track vessels in the international maritime arena to facilitate further terrorist activities,' the Israeli military said. The Bahamas-flagged Galaxy Leader was affiliated with an Israeli billionaire. It said no Israelis were on board. The ship had been operated by a Japanese firm NYK Line. The Houthis acknowledged the strikes, but offered no damage assessment from the attack. Their military spokesman, Brig Gen Yahya Saree, claimed its air defense forces 'effectively confronted' the Israelis without offering evidence. The Houthis then responded with an apparent missile attack on Israel. The Israeli military said it attempted to intercept the missile, but it appeared to make impact, though there were no immediate reports of injuries from the attack.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Trump's DOJ issues final verdict on Jeffrey Epstein in attempt to silence swirling conspiracy theories
The FBI and the Department of Justice under Donald Trump have determined Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide and the fabled 'client list' does not exist. Sentiment was widely shared online that Epstein's 2019 death was made to look like a suicide, but was actually a murder meant to prevent him from revealing his client list or co-conspirators in the pedophilic sex trafficking conspiracy. Now, the administration is publishing a memo and plans to release a video showing their findings, backing Epstein's death as ruled by the medical examiner as a suicide by hanging. To prove that, they will put out a 'raw' and 'enhanced' video clip they say shows that nobody entered Epstein's cell at the Metropolitan Detention Center on the night he died. Investigators looked at footage from the night of August 9, 2019 at 10:40pm, when Epstein was locked in his cell until the next morning at around 6:30am, when he was found unconscious. 'The FBI enhanced the relevant footage by increasing its contrast, balancing the color, and improving its sharpness for greater clarity and viewability,' the memo reads. They also saw 'no credible evidence' that the billionaire pedophile had blackmailed 'prominent individuals' and found no 'client list.' Elon Musk had infamously alleged that Trump was 'in the Epstein files' during his wild crash-out feud with the president. No 'further disclosure' of any Epstein information 'would be appropriate or warranted,' according to the memo obtained by Axios. They said they don't want the child sex abuse material and details of Epstein's victims to meet the public. 'Through this review, we found no basis to revisit the disclosure of those materials and will not permit the release of child pornography,' it adds. The memo from the FBI and DOJ announced that no one involved in the Epstein case will follow former right-hand woman Ghislaine Maxwell to prison, as no further charges will be filed. Epstein's death led to several conspiracy theories and a general hunger for knowledge regarding his crimes. Pam Bondi began what she called 'phase one' of releasing the long-awaited, mysterious files related to pedophile financier in February . The first wave of documents have largely been circulating in the public domain for years and so far are yet to include any new bombshells, leading to great disappointment from the public. 'What you're going to see, hopefully tomorrow, is a lot of flight logs, a lot of names, a lot of information,' Bondi previewed on Fox Wednesday. 'But, it's pretty sick what that man did, along with his co-defendant,' referring to Ghislaine Maxwell. The officially declassified material included flight logs, Epstein's infamous contact book, an evidence list and a masseuse list in ten different links posted to the Department of Justice website. The contact list, which has previously circulated in various forms, shows redacted information for dozens of the Hollywood, political and fashion elite and was purportedly compiled by Epstein and his longtime confidante Maxwell. Personal contact information was redacted throughout the list. FBI Director Kash Patel had been a skeptic of the official findings behind Epstein's death, however, he told Joe Rogan that since he'd taken over the bureau, he hadn't found 'what you want,' which he described as 'some guy or gal committing felonies.' 'If I had it, I'd be the first guy to bring this case hard and fast,' Patel claimed. He added that his team at the FBI has viewed everything they have been given lawful access to from the infamous island. Epstein's 'pedo island' aka Little Saint James in the US Virgin Islands was a focal point of his horrific child-sex-trafficking operation. It has long been believed that Epstein hosted a wide array of rich and famous clients at the island. Patel said that the bureau is doing the best that they can and encouraged anyone with information to get in touch. 'I got here 100 days ago. I can't be held to account for 20 years of failures,' he said. Though Patel claimed that his FBI will 'give you everything we can' he does have some boundaries set around Epstein's victims. 'Remember, we're not gonna' re-victimize women. We're not gonna' put that s*** back out there. It's not happening because then, he wins.' Epstein took his own life in jail on August 10, 2019, awaiting trial for sex trafficking and other heinous crimes. The well-connected financier and Maxwell kept a wide circle of friends from fellow billionaires to politicians like Trump and Clinton, and entertainment icons. Maxwell herself is the daughter of the late British media tycoon Robert Maxwell, who once owned the New York Daily News. Epstein flew numerous well-heeled friends to his private Caribbean island, Little Saint James, where some of them sexually abused children. Many Americans have been waiting for the lengthy FBI investigation files to be released publicly after Trump promised to do so. Over the years, thousands of pages of records have been released through lawsuits, Epstein´s criminal dockets, public disclosures and Freedom of Information Act requests. In January 2024, a court unsealed a trove of documents that had been collected as evidence in a lawsuit filed by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre. The unorthodox move followed other Trump Administration efforts to empower fringe social media figures and highly partisan outlets that enthusiastically support him, at the expense of the more critical mainstream media. President Trump signed an executive order in January calling on agencies to create plans to release and distribute top-secret documents including on Epstein as well as the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights maverick Martin Luther King Jr. Lawyers for Epstein have disputed the ruling as public skepticism over his death grew in recent years, resulting in numerous conspiracy theories. The possibility of pursuing criminal charges died along with Epstein, so a judge dismissed the case on August 29, 2019 – less than three weeks after he was found hanging in his jail cell. British socialite Maxwell had a decades-long association with Epstein and was convicted in 2021 on federal charges for sex trafficking after she recruited young girls for the pedophilic ring, as well as child sex abuse and prostitution Her procurement for Epstein included bringing into the folds of the conspiracy a 14-year-old girl. Epstein had a private jet that he logged 600 flying hours on each year, usually with guests on board as part of the manifest. The Boeing 727 was nicknamed the Lolita Express by locals in the Virgin Islands because of its frequent arrivals allegedly with young girls on board. Lolita has multiple meanings, including a term for a young girl.
