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US vice-president JD Vance said that the best way to protect Ukraine from another Russian invasion is to guarantee the US has a financial interest in Ukraine’s future.
“If you want real security guarantees, if you want to actually ensure that Vladimir Putin does not invade Ukraine again, the very best security guarantee is to give Americans economic upside in the future of Ukraine,” Vance said in the interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity which aired Monday night.
“That is a way better security guarantee than 20,000 troops from some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years,” he said.
More now from US Education Secretary and wrestling billionaire Linda McMahon after her Senate confirmation earlier on Monday.
She says that Trump has tasked the department with the ‘final mission’ to eliminate bureaucratic bloat at the Department of Education.
Her comment appears to be in line with reports that Trump is preparing an executive order instructing her to slash the department’s operations to the legal minimum while pushing Congress for its complete closure.
From Beijing, the outside world appears to be in flux. China’s claim to be the beacon of stability in a chaotic world is being bolstered by events. The presidents of the US and Ukraine are trading verbal blows live on television; the US-backed ceasefire deal in Gaza is on the brink of collapse.
China, save for a few headlines about tariffs, is staying out of the news. The tariffs themselves are generally far from the public consciousness, despite the fact that China is expected to impose another round of countermeasures on the US on Tuesday, after Donald Trump threatened Beijing with an extra 10% duty.
Following her Senate confirmation earlier on Monday, US Education Secretary and wrestling billionaire Linda McMahon has said that her “vision is aligned with President Trump’s to send education back to the states”.
Her comment appears to be in line with reports that Trump is preparing an executive order instructing her to slash the department’s operations to the legal minimum while pushing Congress for its complete closure.
The US Congress has approved $175bn in total assistance for Ukraine since Russia’s invasion nearly three years ago, according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. In December, right before leaving office, Joe Biden announced an additional $5.9bn in security and budget assistance.
US assistance to Ukraine includes military aid, budgetary assistance largely delivered through a World Bank trust fund, and other funds that had been delivered through the US Agency for International Development (USAid), which has been throttled by the Trump White House.
Some of the money sent by the US to Ukraine helps the country pay salaries of teachers and doctors, and keeps the government running, allowing it to focus on fighting Russia’s invasion.
The Trump administration has suspended delivery of all US military aid to Ukraine, according to US media reports, blocking billions in crucial shipments as the White House piles pressure on Ukraine to sue for peace with Vladimir Putin.
The decision affects deliveries of ammunition, vehicles, and other equipment including shipments agreed to when Joe Biden was president.
It comes after a dramatic blow-up in the White House on Friday during which Donald Trump told Volodymyr Zelenskyy that he was “gambling with” a third world war. The Ukrainian president was told to come back “when he is ready for peace”.
Vance says US economic interest in Ukraine would serve as security guarantee
More now on JD Vance’s comments in that pre-recorded Fox News interview.
Vance told Fox News on Monday that giving Washington an economic interest in the future of Ukraine will serve as a security guarantee for the country that Russia invaded in February 2022.
“If you want real security guarantees, if you want to actually ensure that Vladimir Putin does not invade Ukraine again, the very best security guarantee is to give Americans economic upside in the future of Ukraine,” Vance said in the interview.
“That is a way better security guarantee than 20,000 troops from some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years,” he added.
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“That’s called diplomacy, we used to have respect for that in Washington DC,” Vance says without irony.
Vance is making the case that the best way to guarantee security for Ukraine is to ensure America gains economically and has a long-term interest in the country, ie by signing a minerals deal.
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Vance says that Putin has said he is willing to talk peace.
“When the Ukrainians came to Washington on Friday, it was meant to be ceremonial,” Vance says.
“We couldn’t even get the Ukrainians to a place where they could talk about peaceful settlement,” Vance says.
Vance makes the case that the only way to have a conversation about a settlement with Putin is to have a relationship with him.
“Nobody is suggesting that you give the Nobel Peace Prize to Putin,” he says.
He says that Biden called Putin “every name in the book”.
He says that Trump says that the door is open to Zelenskyy as long as he is willing to “seriously talk peace”.
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“What is the actual plan here. You can’t just fund the war forever. The American people won’t stand for that,” Vance says.
This interview was recorded prior to the episode, it is unclear whether Vance is speaking knowing that the US would have paused aid by the time it aired.
He repeats, “We don’t want to fund the war indefinitely.”
Fox's Hannity airs interview with JD Vance
Fox host Sean Hannity’s interview with JD Vance is starting now.
Vance says Trump “tried to bend over backwards to “be nice” to Zelenskyy before what became an extraordinarily combative press conference in the Oval Office on Friday.
He says that Zelenskyy showed a “lack of respect” and a sense of entitlement.
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HHS previously warned employees that responses to Doge’s request may “be read by malign foreign actors.” The department sent two versions of its email on Monday, the second of which removed that reference.
The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents HHS workers, told members in an email seen by Reuters that they must comply with the agency’s choice to proceed with the “ill-advised exercise”. The union was not immediately available for comment.
Employees were told in HHS’s email to follow supervisor guidance on how to reply and respond in a way that would not identify grants, grantees, contracts or contractors, nor information that would identify the precise nature of scientific experiments, research or reviews.
“I feel I will spend the whole day writing these five bullets in a way that does not contain sensitive information while also providing information that my job is important. I don’t know if this can be called efficiency,” an FDA source who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal told Reuters.
Employees on leave, out of office due to work schedules, or who have signed a deferred resignation agreement are not required to respond, according to the email.
HHS employees told to comply with Doge request for information on accomplishments
More now on the US Department of Health and Human Services telling employees on Monday they could apply for early retirement over the next 10 days.
The message said they should respond to a request for information on their accomplishments of the past week, according to emails seen by Reuters.
The HHS told employees in an email that it received authorization on Monday from the US Office of Personnel Management to offer early retirement under the Voluntary Early Retirement Authority, which impacts agencies “that are undergoing substantial restructuring, reshaping, downsizing, transfer of function or reorganization.”
An HHS spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Employees were directed to OMP’s website, which says eligible employees must be at least 50 years old with 20 years of federal service, or any age with 25 years of service, among other requirements. The offer is valid until 14 March at 5pm EST, the email said.
Last week, the administration sent out a second round of emails asking employees to share five bullet points on their accomplishments of the past week.
Employees at HHS, which includes the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), had previously been told that they did not have to respond to Doge’s emails and there would be “no impact to your employment with the agency if you choose not to respond.” Multiple other US agencies had also told employees not to respond immediately to Doge’s demand, including the FBI and state department.
But in a Monday email seen by Reuters, HHS told employees to respond to DOGE’s email by midnight without revealing sensitive information, including the names of drugs and devices they are working on.
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US vice-president JD Vance will be appearing on Fox News host Sean Hannity’s show in 10 minutes’ time. We will bring you any important developments from that interview.
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Beneath a recent Los Angeles Times opinion piece about the dangers of artificial intelligence, there is now an AI-generated response about how AI will make storytelling more democratic.
“Some in the film world have met the arrival of generative AI tools with open arms. We and others see it as something deeply troubling on the horizon,” the co-directors of the Archival Producers Alliance, Rachel Antell, Stephanie Jenkins and Jennifer Petrucelli, wrote on 1 March.
Published over the Academy Awards weekend, their comment piece focused on the specific dangers of AI-generated footage within documentary film, and the possibility that unregulated use of AI could shatter viewers’ “faith in the veracity of visuals”.
On Monday, the Los Angeles Times’s just-debuted AI tool, “Insight”, labeled this argument as politically “center-left” and provided four “different views on the topic” underneath.
Representative Dan Goldman has called the pausing of US military aid to Ukraine “another extortion” of Zelenskyy following Trump’s impeachment for doing the same five years ago.
The New York Democrat made the comment on CNN on Monday night, shortly after Trump directed a “pause” to US assistance to Ukraine as he seeks to pressure Zelenskyy to engage in peace talks with Russia.
Goldman served as counsel to House Democrats in the first impeachment inquiry against Trump and was later elected to Congress.
Georgia senate blocks bills banning most gender-affirming care
Georgia’s Senate passed two bills Monday that would ban most gender-affirming care for minors and people incarcerated in state prisons, mirroring moves by Republicans across states and a handful of executive orders by President Donald Trump targeting transgender people.
The chamber voted 34-19 for a bill that would ban puberty blockers and most gender-affirming care for people under 18, including those already undergoing treatment.
Georgia lawmakers in 2023 banned most gender-affirming surgeries and hormone replacement therapies for transgender minors unless they were already receiving treatment.
A second bill sponsored by Senate Majority Whip Randy Robertson passed 37-15 and would ban most gender-affirming care for people incarcerated in state prisons.
Last month, the chamber passed bills to ban transgender people from playing in school sports and cut off public funding for gender-affirming care for adults. The four bills will now head to the House for debate
A little more detail on that response from Russia:
It is too early to talk about where the next round of talks between Russia and the US might take place, Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of President Vladimir Putin, told RIA state news agency in remarks published on Tuesday.
“It’s too early to talk about that,” Peskov said in response to a question about a possible place of the meeting, RIA reported.
Kremlin: too early to say when next round of US-Russia talks will take place
The Kremlin has told the Ria news agency that it is too early to say when the next round of Russia-US talks will take place, according to Reuters.
More now on the response from China’s commerce ministry, which has vowed countermeasures aimed at safeguarding its rights and interests, Reuters reports.
The US has “shifted the blame” and is using its problems with deadly drug fentanyl as an excuse to impose tariffs, the ministry said in a statement.
The US has argued that China supplies chemicals used in fentanyl production. China has denied wrongdoing.
China urges the US to “immediately withdraw” its unilateral tariff measures that are “unreasonable and groundless, harmful to others,” the ministry said.
China commerce ministry calls for immediate withdrawal of tariffs
A spokesperson from China’s commerce ministry has meanwhile responded to the US tariffs, urging the US to ‘immediately withdraw’ its unilateral tariff measures that it called unreasonable and groundless, and harmful to others while being beneficial to the US, Reuters reports.
The official added that it hoped the US side will return to the right track of properly resolving differences through dialogue on an equal footing as soon as possible.
Five years ago, Trump held up congressionally authorised assistance to Ukraine as he sought to pressure Zelenskyy to launch investigations into Joe Biden, then a Democratic presidential candidate. The moment led to Trump’s first impeachment.
Pause includes weapons in transit to Ukraine
Bloomberg reports that the pause applies to all US military equipment not currently in Ukraine and that this includes weapons in transit on aircraft and ships or waiting in transit areas in Poland.
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Pennsylvania Democratic representative Brendan Boyle, who is co-chair of the Congressional EU Caucus, has responded to the decision to pause funding, calling it, “reckless, indefensible, and a direct threat to our national security.”
“This aid was approved by Congress on a bipartisan basis – Republicans and Democrats alike recognized that standing with Ukraine is standing for democracy and against Putin’s aggression,” Boyle said in a statement.
“Yet, Trump, who has repeatedly praised Putin and undermined our allies, is now playing political games with critical military assistance.”
Department of Health and Human Services employees told they can apply for early retirement
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Monday told employees they can apply for early retirement by the end of the day 14 March under authority granted to agencies undergoing substantial restructuring or downsizing, according to an email seen by Reuters.
The Conservative blueprint Project 2025 says of the department that:
The Office of the Secretary should eliminate the HHS Reproductive Healthcare Access taskforce and install a pro-life taskforce to ensure that all of the department’s divisions seek to use their authority to promote the life and health of women and their unborn children.
Additionally, HHS should return to being known as the Department of Life by explicitly rejecting the notion that abortion is health care and by restoring its mission statement under the Strategic Plan and elsewhere to include furthering the health and wellbeing of all Americans “from conception to natural death.”
The Associated Press has this report on the US pausing aid to Ukraine:
Trump has directed a “pause” to US assistance to Ukraine after a disastrous Oval Office meeting as the US president seeks to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to engage in peace talks with Russia.
A White House official said Trump is focused on reaching a peace deal to end the more than three-year war sparked by Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine, and wants Zelenskyy “committed” to that goal.
The official added that the US was “pausing and reviewing” its aid to “ensure that it is contributing to a solution.” The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the assistance.
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White House official: 'We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution'
The official who spoke to Reuters said that the, “President has been clear that he is focused on peace. We need our partners to be committed to that goal as well. We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution. The official spoke to the news agency on the condition of anonymity.
Zelenskyy’s office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment outside office hours.
The decision comes after Trump upended US policy on Ukraine and Russia upon taking office in January, adopting a more conciliatory stance towards Moscow – and after an explosive confrontation with Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday in which Trump criticized him for being insufficiently grateful for the Washington’s backing in the war with Russia.
On Monday Trump again said Zelenskyy should be more appreciative of American support after earlier responding angrily to an Associated Press report quoting Zelenskiy as saying the end of the war is “very, very far away.”
“This is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelenskyy, and America will not put up with it for much longer!” Trump wrote on Truth Social, using an alternative spelling of the Ukrainian leader’s name.
But Trump also suggested on Monday that a deal to open up Ukraine’s minerals to US investment could still be agreed despite his frustration with Kyiv, as European leaders floated proposals for a truce in Russia’s war with its neighbor.
The Trump administration views a minerals deal as America’s way of earning back some of the tens of billions of dollars it has given to Ukraine in financial and military aid since Russia invaded three years ago.
When asked on Monday if the deal was dead, Trump said at the White House: “No, I don’t think so.”
Trump described it as a “great deal for us” and said he would give an update on the situation on Tuesday night when he addresses a joint session of Congress.
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The day so far
The US will press ahead with steep tariffs on Canada and Mexico from Tuesday, Donald Trump has said, setting the stage for a trade war with his country’s two largest economic partners. The US president claimed there was “no room left” for a deal to avoid their imposition.
The CEO of a giant in the semiconductor chip industry joined Trump to announce the Taiwanese company’s new $100bn investment in production in the United States. CC Wei, the chief executive of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) said the new investment brings TSMC’s total investment in chip manufacturing in the US to $165bn.
The US is drawing up a plan to potentially give Russia sanctions relief as Trump seeks to restore ties with Moscow and stop the war in Ukraine, a US official and another person familiar with the matter told Reuters. The White House has asked the state and treasury departments to draft a list of sanctions that could be eased for US officials to discuss with Russian representatives in the coming days.
The US Senate has confirmed Linda McMahon as the nation’s next education secretary, entrusting the former wrestling executive with a department marked for dismantling by Trump. The 76-year-old billionaire businesswoman and longtime Trump ally was approved 51-45, reflecting deep divisions over her qualifications and the administration’s education agenda.
The US has paused all military aid to Ukraine following Trump’s clash with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week, according to two media reports on Monday. This has not yet been independently confirmed by the Guardian.
US stocks plunged Monday afternoon as selling intensified after Trump said there was “no room left” for tariff negotiations with Canada and Mexico. The ISM survey showed manufacturing PMI slipped to 50.3 last month from 50.9 in January.
A spokesperson for health and human services secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has resigned after two weeks on the job, reportedly over his handling of the measles outbreak in Texas. Politico reports that Thomas Corry stepped down as assistant secretary for public affairs amid tensions over the epidemic of the disease, which had been declared eliminated in the United States in 2000.
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US is pausing military aid to Ukraine – White House
The United States is pausing military aid to Ukraine, days after US President Donald Trump clashed with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, a White House official confirmed with Reuters on Monday.
The official said the US is pausing and reviewing aid to ensure it is contributing to a solution, Reuters reports.
The pause will last until Trump determines the country’s leaders demonstrate a good-faith commitment to peace, according to Bloomberg and Fox News reports.
“This is not permanent termination of aid, it’s a pause,” Fox News quoted a Trump administration official as saying.
Bloomberg reported that all US military equipment not currently in Ukraine would be paused, including weapons in transit on aircraft and ships or waiting in transit areas in Poland.
It added that Trump ordered Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to execute the pause.
The reports come hours after Trump told reporters at the White House that he had not discussed suspending military aid to Ukraine, but added that Zelenskyy “should be more appreciative” of Washington’s support.
Nearly three years into the war, Washington has committed billions of dollars in aid for Ukraine.
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White House official says Ukraine aid being paused
Reuters reports now that, according to an unnamed White House official, the US is pausing and reviewing Ukraine aid “to ensure that it is contributing to a solution”.
More shortly.
US pausing military aid to Ukraine – reports
The US has paused all military aid to Ukraine following Trump’s clash with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week, according to two media reports on Monday.
This has not yet been independently confirmed by the Guardian.
The pause will last until Trump determines the country’s leaders demonstrate a good-faith commitment to peace, according to reports in Bloomberg and Fox News.
“This is not permanent termination of aid, it’s a pause,” Fox News quoted a Trump administration official as saying.
This is Helen Sullivan taking over the Guardian’s live US politics coverage.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio and Omani foreign minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi discussed the state of the Middle East, including the situation in Gaza, during a call on Monday, the US State Department said in a statement.
“They discussed the state of the region, including the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, the need to secure the release of all hostages, efforts to sustain assistance flows into Gaza, Syria’s political future, and the cessation of hostilities in Lebanon,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said.
Linda McMahon, wrestling industry billionaire, confirmed as US education secretary
The US Senate has confirmed Linda McMahon as the nation’s next education secretary, entrusting the former wrestling executive with a department marked for dismantling by Donald Trump.
The 76-year-old billionaire businesswoman and longtime Trump ally was approved 51-45, reflecting deep divisions over her qualifications and the administration’s education agenda. McMahon, who previously led the small business administration during Trump’s first term, now faces the paradoxical task of running an agency while simultaneously working toward its potential elimination.
McMahon’s ascension comes amid reports that Trump is preparing an executive order instructing her to slash the department’s operations to the legal minimum while pushing Congress for its complete closure. During the confirmation process, she explicitly endorsed this vision, saying in her opening statement that she “wholeheartedly” supports Trump’s mission to “return education to the states, where it belongs”.
Critics have questioned McMahon’s qualifications, pointing to her limited educational background – a one-year stint on Connecticut’s state board of education and service as a trustee at Sacred Heart University – and lack of traditional experience in education policy or administration.
But the incoming education secretary currently chairs the America First Policy Institute, a Trump-aligned thinktank home to many of the education department’s nominees for senior-level positions – an indication that McMahon will have idealogical allies that will position her to implement sweeping changes with minimal internal resistance.
At her confirmation hearing, McMahon attempted to soften the administration’s hard-line stances, promising to maintain critical programs like Title I funding and Pell grants while acknowledging that only Congress holds the authority to eliminate the department entirely.
Read the full story by The Guardian’s Joseph Gedeon here:
In a letter sent Monday afternoon, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries encouraged his colleagues to attend President Donald Trump’s joint address tomorrow, Tuesday.
“The decision to attend the Joint Session is a personal one and we understand that members will come to different conclusions,” reads the letter.
“However, it is important to have a strong, determined and dignified Democratic presence in the chamber. The House as an institution belongs to the American people, and as their representatives we will not be run off the block or bullied,” he added.
Former Trump appointee condemns cuts at US education department
A former education department commissioner appointed by Donald Trump has condemned the recent massive cuts to the federal agency.
James Woodworth, who served as commissioner for the department’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) from 2018 to 2021, said the cuts to the agency made by the so-called department of government efficiency, led by Elon Musk, were made by someone “without knowing what they were doing”.
Woodworth told the Hechinger Report: “You’re talking about millions of dollars’ worth of investment just vanishing because someone canceled a contract too early without knowing what they were doing.”
Doge’s budget cuts to the DoE, which total nearly $1bn, have severely affected its research arm, the Institute of Education Sciences, which has historically garnered bipartisan support.
The National Center for Education Statistics, a part of the IES mandated by Congress to collect data on the state of public education, includes information about enrollment, student achievement, poverty, and other financial information.
The cancellation of many contracts means the maintenance of historical data, collection of new data, and publication of data has been made impossible.
It’s not clear what will happen to this data.
Woodworth said: “The NCES existed for over 100 years, before the Department of Education was ever founded, because one of the legitimate purposes of the federal government in education is collecting data so that people can see how schools are doing. We need to make data-driven decisions.”
Read Erum Salam’s full story here:
Defense secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered a US military base to revert to its former name, directing that Fort Moore in Georgia be renamed Fort Benning.
The decision is part of a broader Pentagon effort to reverse the Biden administration’s 2023 initiative to remove names honoring Confederate leaders from nine Army bases. To reinstate the previous names, officials must identify service members with the same names as the original Confederate figures.
Fort Benning was originally named after brigadier general Henry L. Benning, a Confederate officer who strongly opposed the abolition of slavery.
Federal authorities in Los Angeles have arrested and charged two alleged leaders of a criminal organization accused of smuggling more than 20,000 undocumented immigrants from Guatemala to the US over five years, including seven who died in a 2023 car crash, The Los Angeles Times reports.
Eduardo Domingo Renoj-Matul, also known as “El Jefe” and “Turko,” and Cristobal Mejia-Chaj were taken into custody last week and have pleaded not guilty to multiple smuggling-related charges. A federal judge ordered them jailed without bond, as both men are in the US illegally.
If convicted, the defendants face up to life in prison and the possibility of the death penalty, acting US attorney Joseph T. McNally said Monday.
Melania Trump called it “heartbreaking” to see teenagers, especially girls, suffer the consequences of malicious online content.
Speaking at a Capitol Hill roundtable on legislation to regulate revenge porn, the first lady urged the House to pass the bill and send it to president Donald Trump for approval.
She said that Congress must prioritize young people’s well-being to ensure they have a safe online space to express themselves without fear of exploitation or harm.
The Social Security Administration claims they have saved $800 million after cutting 7,000 positions from its workforce of about 60,000 as part of a cost-saving initiative, The Associated Press reports.
The agency is terminating office leases for Social Security sites across the country, a move detailed on the Department of Government Efficiency’s “Wall of Receipts” website.
According to the site, leases for dozens of offices in Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina, and other states have already ended or are scheduled for termination.
“We have spent billions annually doing the same things the same way, leading to bureaucratic stagnation, inefficiency, and a lack of meaningful service improvements,” said acting commissioner Lee Dudek. “It is time to change just that.”
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The National Science Foundation is rehiring about half of the 170 employees it laid off two weeks ago as part of a federal agency downsizing effort.
According to the foundation, 84 employees are being reinstated following a ruling by the Office of Personnel Management allowing agencies to retain workers with identified disabilities, veterans, and military spouses.
Disability inclusion is crucial for DEI efforts, workplace practices at risk as the Trump administration pushes to pass anti-DEI bills restricting access to education, employment, and public contracting opportunities.
Probationary employees will also return with back pay and no interruption in service, per an order from NSF director Sethuraman Panchanathan.
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Stocks plunge after Trump sets 25% tariffs, manufacturing data dips
US stocks plunged Monday afternoon as selling intensified after Donald Trump said there was “no room left” for tariff negotiations with Canada and Mexico, with new levies set to take effect tomorrow.
The ISM survey showed manufacturing PMI slipped to 50.3 last month from 50.9 in January, while the forward-looking new orders index contracted to 48.6 in February from 55.1 in January.
The dip in the PMI mirrored declines in other sentiment measures as investors worried about tariffs.
Brian Bryant, international president of the 600,000-member International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union, and David Chartrand, IAM Canadian general vice president, issued the following statement in response to President Trump’s decision to impose a 25% tariff on all Canadian imports:
“The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) Union strongly condemns the Trump administration’s reckless decision to impose a 25% tariff on Canadian imports. This harmful action threatens jobs, raises prices, and undermines the long-standing economic partnership between the United States and Canada,” the statement reads.
“The IAM has always supported trade policies that protect and grow jobs in both nations. But these tariffs are an unjustified attack on a trusted ally.”
Canada’s foreign minister Mélanie Joly said her country is ready to respond to the tariffs Donald Trump is imposing, Reuters reports.
“There’s a level of unpredictability and chaos that comes out of the Oval Office, and we will be dealing with it,” Joly told reporters.
Canada could place retaliatory tariffs on up to $155bn Canadian dollars in imports from the United States.
After a mere two weeks on the job, a spokesperson for health and human services secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has resigned, reportedly over his handling of the measles outbreak in Texas.
Politico reports that Thomas Corry stepped down as assistant secretary for public affairs amid tensions over the epidemic of the disease, which had been declared eliminated in the United States in 2000:
The sudden departure was prompted by growing disagreement with Kennedy and his principal deputy chief of staff, Stefanie Spear, over their management of the health department, said the two people, who were granted anonymity to speak candidly.
Corry had also grown uneasy with Kennedy’s muted response to the intensifying outbreak of measles in Texas, the people said. The outbreak has infected at least 146 people and resulted in the nation’s first death from the disease in a decade.
A longtime vaccine skeptic, Kennedy, during a Cabinet meeting last week, said measles outbreaks are “not unusual.” However, measles was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Kennedy has since emphasized that HHS is aiding Texas health officials with their measles response, but declined so far to explicitly call for people to get vaccinated.
Kennedy is a vaccine skeptic who has little experience managing a department as large as health and human services. Politico reports that Corry’s resignation raised concerns about the influence of Spear, his chief of staff:
Trump officials and even some Kennedy allies have also privately voiced concerns about the influence of Spear, who has long served as Kennedy’s most trusted confidant. They have worried that her close relationship with Kennedy would grant her extraordinary control over the secretary’s priorities and allow her to freeze out other senior aides.
The two people familiar with the matter pointed to that dynamic as a central factor in Corry’s departure.
Corry was “the one adult in the room that I saw unfortunately,” said a third person familiar with the matter, an HHS employee, who was granted anonymity to describe the internal dynamics.
Trump administration guts office responsible for spurring semiconductor investment – report
Even as he touts a big semiconductor investment by Taiwan’s TSMC, Bloomberg News reports that Donald Trump’s policies have led to an exodus of staff from the office responsible for implementing a landmark law intended to support the industry.
The office administers the 2022 Chips Act, which was passed under Joe Biden with bipartisan support in Congress and intended to help the United States regain its edge in the manufacturing of the components, which are crucial to computing and cutting-edge technologies like AI. Bloomberg reports that dozens of staffers have left or are on track to depart, all because of Trump’s effort to thin out the federal government. Here’s more:
The US government office responsible for a marquee $52 billion chip subsidy program will lose about two-fifths of its staff as President Donald Trump slashes the federal workforce, according to people familiar with the matter.
The reduction includes around 20 employees who accepted a voluntary deferred resignation and left the Chips Program Office last week, the people said. There also are about 40 who are considered probationary and will be terminated Monday, according to one of the people. Probationary employees are those who started their jobs, including promotions, in the past one to two years.
The terminations threaten to hamper implementation of the Chips and Science Act, a bipartisan law signed by President Joe Biden in 2022. Designed to boost domestic chipmaking after decades of production shifting to Asia, the program includes $39 billion in manufacturing grants to companies like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Intel Corp., plus $11 billion for research and development. It has prompted well over $400 billion in promised private investment, including chip factory spending and supply chain projects.
A representative for the Commerce Department, which oversees the office, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The previous administration built an office of about 140 people to oversee the manufacturing spending, on top of staff responsible for R&D funding. Those officials allocated the vast majority of factory incentives before Biden left office, but only a small portion of that money has actually gone out the door. Under the negotiated contracts, companies receive payments when they reach construction and production milestones.
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Trump says 'no room left' for Canada and Mexico to avoid tariffs
Donald Trump shut the door on the possibility of a last-minute reprieve for Canada and Mexico from the tariffs he plans to impose, saying he will allow the duties to go into effect at midnight.
“No room left for Mexico or for Canada,” the president told reporters at the White House. “The tariffs, you know, they’re all set. They go into effect tomorrow.”
Trump has ordered 25% import duties on all products from Canada and Mexico beginning tomorrow, along with an increase in tariffs on Chinese products to 20%. By way of explanation for the duties that will disrupt trading with America’s biggest partners, Trump said, “vast amounts of fentanyl have poured in.”
Trump announces $165b semiconductor investment in US
Donald Trump says Taiwanese semiconductor giant TSMC will invest $165bn to build new factories in the United States, and create an estimated thousands of new jobs.
The investments continue a drive that began under Joe Biden to ramp up domestic production of the chips that are crucial to modern electronics.
“The most powerful AI chips in the world will be made right here in America, and it’ll be a big percentage of the chips made by his company,” Trump announced at the White House, saying TSMC would build five “cutting-edge” facilities in Arizona that would employ thousands.
“In total, today’s announcement brings Taiwan semiconductor investments to about $165bn. They’ve started already, among the largest new foreign direct investments in the United States,” the president added.
Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick argued that the Trump administration was more effective than Biden’s in attracting semiconductor investment because of its use of tariffs.
“Under the Biden administration, TSMC received a $6bn grant, and that encouraged them to build $65bn. So, America gave TSMC 10% of the money to build here,” Lutnick said.
“And now you’re seeing the power of Donald Trump’s presidency, because TSMC, the greatest manufacturer of chips in the world, is coming to America with $100bn investment. And of course, that is backed by the fact that they can come here because they can avoid paying tariffs.”
Trump administration considering easing sanctions on Russia
The White House is planning to ease sanctions on Russia, despite not yet reaching its desired agreement to end the war in Ukraine, Reuters reports.
Such a move by the Trump administration would reverse the aggressive stance Joe Biden took against Moscow after it invaded its neighbor in 2022. Reuters reports that it is unclear what Donald Trump wants in return for easing the sanctions, though the move is still being planned. Here’s more:
The White House has asked the State and Treasury departments to draft a list of sanctions that could be eased for U.S. officials to discuss with Russian representatives in the coming days as part of the administration’s broad talks with Moscow on improving diplomatic and economic relations, the sources said.
The sanctions offices are now drawing up a proposal for lifting sanctions on select entities and individuals, including some Russian oligarchs, according to the sources.
So-called options papers are often drafted by officials working on sanctions, but the White House’s specific request for one in recent days underscores Trump and his advisers’ willingness to ease Russian sanctions as part of a potential deal with Moscow.
It was not immediately clear what Washington could specifically seek in return for any sanctions relief.
Donald Trump’s cozying up to Russia and skepticism of Ukraine’s cause may not be that popular with Americans, a new poll finds. Here’s more, from the Guardian’s Edward Helmore:
A US poll taken before the diplomatic meltdown in the Oval Office on Friday between Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy found that only 4% surveyed Americans are backing Russia after its 2022 invasion of Ukraine – but a large minority of 44% said they do not support the invaded country either.
The CBS News/YouGov poll, conducted over three days beginning on 26 February, also found that a relatively slim majority – 52% – said they “personally support” Ukraine.
Support for Russia was highest among Republicans – whose party is led by Trump – at 7%. A 56% majority of those Republican said they didn’t have a preference between the two, and 37% supported Ukraine.
The polling found that – overall – 11% believed Trump’s actions and statements have favored Ukraine, and 46% said Russia.
Asked if they approved or disapproved ofthe way Trump was handling the current conflict between Russia and Ukraine, 51% approved and 49% said they didn’t. The same percentages supported or opposed military aid to Ukraine.
Trump yet to decide on whether to allow new tariffs to go into effect - report
Donald Trump has not yet made up his mind on whether to allow new tariffs on Canada and Mexico as well as an increase in levies on China to go into effect at midnight, Canada’s CBC reports.
The US president announced tariffs on its two biggest trading partners last month, before imposing a one-month reprieve that ends at 11.59pm today. He could take action to further delay those levies, as well as an increase in duties on Chinese imports to 20%, but a White House official told CBC he has not done so, and the tariffs will go into effect without his action.
Trump says tariffs on 'external' agricultural product to come next month
Donald Trump announced that his administration will level tariffs on “external” agricultural products beginning on 2 April. Writing on Truth Social, the president said:
To the Great Farmers of the United States: Get ready to start making a lot of agricultural product to be sold INSIDE of the United States. Tariffs will go on external product on April 2nd. Have fun!
It’s unclear if the message is an announcement of a new tariff proposal, or simply a restatement of his promise to impose “reciprocal” levies equal to what countries who trade with the United States have put on American goods. Here’s more on that:
Updated
Trump to speak about Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC investment
Donald Trump is expected to announce shortly that the Taiwanese chipmaking giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) plans to invest $100bn in the US.
TSMC, the world’s biggest semiconductor manufacturer, produces chips for companies including Apple, Intel and Nvidia.
Trump is expected to make the announcement at 1.30pm ET in the Roosevelt Room.
Updated
The UN human rights chief has warned of a “fundamental shift” in the US and sounded the alarm over the growing power of “unelected tech oligarchs”.
In a stinging rebuke of Washington weeks into Donald Trump’s presidency, Volker Türk said there had been bipartisan support for human rights in the US for decades but said he was “now deeply worried by the fundamental shift in direction that is taking place domestically and internationally”.
Without referring to Trump by name, Türk, an Austrian lawyer who heads the UN’s rights body, criticised the Republican president’s measures to overturn longstanding equity and anti-discrimination policies, as well as repeated threats against the media and politicians.
“In a paradoxical mirror image, policies intended to protect people from discrimination are now labelled as discriminatory. Progress is being rolled back on gender equality,” Türk said in comments to the UN human rights council in Geneva.
“Disinformation, intimidation and threats, notably against journalists and public officials, risk undermining the work of independent media and the functioning of institutions,” he added. “Divisive rhetoric is being used to distort, deceive and polarise. This is generating fear and anxiety among many.”
Zelenskyy says Ukraine 'very much hopes' for US support
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has issued a statement saying that Kyiv “very much hopes[s] on US support on the path to peace”.
“We continue our work with partners. We have already had talks and other steps to come soon,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.
It is very important that we try to make our diplomacy really substantive to end this war the soonest possible.
We need real peace and Ukrainians want it most because the war ruins our cities and towns. We lose our people. We need to stop the war and to guarantee security.
We are working together with America and our European partners and very much hope on US support on the path to peace. Peace is needed as soon as possible.
Here’s more from commerce secretary Howard Lutnick’s CNN interview earlier today, during which he said Donald Trump does not want Volodymyr Zelenskyy to step down as Ukraine’s president.
No, he’s not weighing into Ukrainian politics,” Lutnick replied when asked if Trump wants Zelenskyy to resign.
“What he wants is to be a peace maker,” he added.
Trump is going to “consider what to do and how to respond”, he said, adding:
[He] is going to figure out what are the tools that he can use on Russia, and what are the tools that he can use on Ukraine, to get them to the table.
The day so far
Donald Trump appears ready to impose tariffs on two of the United States’s biggest trading partners, Canada and Mexico, but unanswered questions remain. In recent interviews, commerce secretary Howard Lutnick said they may not be the 25% duty initially proposed, while also crediting both countries with making progress on stopping migrants from entering the US. Meanwhile, Trump has kept up his feud with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, accusing him of not “wanting there to be peace”, days after a disastrous Oval Office argument. The president is presumably busy getting ready for tomorrow evening, when he will make his first address to a joint session of Congress since returning to the White House, and has promised to “tell it like it is”.
Here’s what else is going on today:
A top economic thinktank warned that US tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China would amount to “the largest tax increase in at least a generation”. The Treasury secretary disagrees.
Robert F Kennedy Jr is known for doubting the well-established efficacy of vaccines, but suggested they may be the best way to fight the Texas measles epidemic.
Trump suggested that protesters at Republican lawmakers’ town halls were “paid”, but provided no evidence.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, spoke to his UK counterpart, foreign secretary David Lammy, today to discuss the leaders’ summit on Ukraine that took place over the weekend.
“The secretary thanked Foreign Secretary Lammy for the UK’s role in encouraging Europe to provide for its own defense and push for peace in Ukraine,” Tammy Bruce, a spokesperson for the state department, said in a statement.
“The secretary confirmed the United States is ready to negotiate to end the Ukraine-Russia conflict and will continue working with the UK towards peace in Ukraine.”
Yesterday, Rubio chided the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for his attitude toward Donald Trump in the Oval Office last week, even as the US president attracted widespread criticism for his own behavior during the meeting.
“What Zelensky did, unfortunately, is that he found every opportunity to try to ‘Ukraine-splain’ on every issue,” Rubio told ABC News.
Trump says Zelenskyy 'doesn't want there to be peace'
Donald Trump has again attacked Volodymyr Zelenskyy, after the Ukrainian president said an end to his country’s war with Russia “is still very, very far away”.
Writing on Truth Social, Trump seized on the comment to accuse the Ukrainian leader of not being interested in negotiating a peace agreement:
This is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelenskyy, and America will not put up with it for much longer! It is what I was saying, this guy doesn’t want there to be Peace as long as he has America’s backing and, Europe, in the meeting they had with Zelenskyy, stated flatly that they cannot do the job without the U.S. – Probably not a great statement to have been made in terms of a show of strength against Russia. What are they thinking?
The US president’s statement comes days after a testy exchange in the Oval Office with Zelenskyy that rattled America’s allies and raised fears that Washington was ready to side with Russia. It’s also worth noting that in his Truth Social post, Trump cited the Associated Press’s reporting on Zelenskyy’s comments – an ironic choice, because he banned the outlet from the Oval Office.
Here’s more on the increasingly fractious US-Ukraine relationship:
Vaccine skeptic RFK Jr notes importance of vaccines in fighting Texas measles epidemic
Robert F Kennedy Jr, the health and human services secretary who before getting the job was best known for his anti-vaccine views, has written an op-ed noting the importance of inoculations in fighting measles, which has broken out in parts of Texas.
“The decision to vaccinate is a personal one. Vaccines not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity, protecting those who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical reasons,” Kennedy wrote in the piece published by Fox News.
Kennedy initially downplayed the outbreak of measles, before reversing course and saying the issue is a “top priority” for his department:
Commerce secretary says Canada, Mexico made progress against migrants, but more to be done on fentanyl
Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick told CNN in an interview this morning that Canada and Mexico are “doing a good job” of stemming the flow of migrants into the United States, but Donald Trump wants to see more action on curbing fentanyl trafficking.
The comments come as the Trump administration threatens to impose tariffs on the two US trading partners beginning at midnight. Trump has accused Canada and Mexico of not doing enough to stop undocumented migrants and illegal drugs from crossing into the United States, sending both governments scrambling to head off the economically damaging import duties.
It’s unclear if Lutnick’s comments indicate that Trump is considering yet another last-minute reprieve for the two countries, after delaying previous rounds of tariffs:
Canada’s CBC reports that the Trump administration has not yet told Ottawa that tariffs will be imposed, raising the question of yet another last-minute reprieve for the top US trading partner.
While there’s no requirement that the US notify Canada before impsoing levies, they have done so in the past, CBC says.
The Guardian’s Robert Tait reports that Democrats have also invited federal workers who lost their jobs at the hands of Elon Musk to attend Donald Trump’s address to tomorrow’s joint session of Congress:
Workers fired in Donald Trump’s mass purge of the federal government will attend his address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday at the invitation of Democrats seeking to display the human costs of the president’s radical policies.
Senior Democrats, including the party’s leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, have invited laid-off military veterans as their guests in an attempt to embarrass Trump over the unbridled assault on the federal bureaucracy spearheaded by Elon Musk and his so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) team.
In moves supposedly aimed at rooting out waste and corruption, Musk – the billionaire tech entrepreneur who has emerged as a central figure in Trump’s administration – has shuttered USAid and laid off at least 200,000 workers in multiple other agencies.
In the weeks since Donald Trump took office, Republican lawmakers holding town halls in their districts have faced constituents angry about his administration’s actions.
In a post on Truth Social, the president has accused the constituents of being “paid” by Democrats:
Paid “troublemakers” are attending Republican Town Hall Meetings. It is all part of the game for the Democrats, but just like our big LANDSLIDE ELECTION, it’s not going to work for them!
Trump offered no evidence, as he often does. Meanwhile, the backlash to his presidency does seem real, though how long it will last or if it will translate to improved fortunes for the beleaguered Democrats remains to be seen:
Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick has backed changing the methodology behind a key economic statistic in a way that could obscure the disruptions of Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency”, the Associated Press reports:
Howard Lutnick, the US commerce secretary, said on Sunday that government spending could be separated from gross domestic product reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by the billionaire businessman Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) could possibly cause an economic downturn.
“You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.”
Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because changes in taxes, spending, deficits and regulations by the government can affect the path of overall growth. GDP reports already include extensive details on government spending, offering a level of transparency for economists.
Musk’s efforts to downsize federal agencies could result in the layoffs of tens of thousands of federal workers, whose lost income could potentially reduce their spending, affecting businesses and the economy at large.
The commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Musk’s arguments made on Friday on X that government spending doesn’t create value for the economy.
“A more accurate measure of GDP would exclude government spending,” Musk wrote on his social media platform. “Otherwise, you can scale GDP artificially high by spending money on things that don’t make people’s lives better.”
Democrats can do little but sit and watch Donald Trump’s speech to Congress tomorrow, after losing control of the Senate and failing to win back the House of Representatives in last November’s election.
But they’ll do their best to steer public anger towards the president’s policies, including his proposal for deep cuts to Medicaid, the federal health insurance program for poor and disabled Americans. Democratic senator Andy Kim told CNN he will bring as a guest to the speech a constituent who relies on the program:
I will bring, as my guest, someone from … my home county that has disabilities. Someone who is dependent upon Medicaid for so much of his ability to survive. And I really think that that’s where we need to hone in on. You know, I really do think that what we see with this reconciliation bill is disastrous for the Republicans ahead. And we have to show the American people the damage and the harm to them. And I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to get that message out there
Trump promises to 'tell it like it is' in first speech to Congress of new term
Donald Trump will lay out his priorities tomorrow evening in a prime-time speech to Congress, his first since returning to the White House.
He’s doing some expectation setting this morning, posting on Truth Social:
TOMORROW NIGHT WILL BE BIG. I WILL TELL IT LIKE IT IS!
The speech acts as an unofficial State of the Union address, and you can expect the president to hold forth on everything from immigration to tariffs to his newly destabilized relationship with Ukraine.
Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, called the Peterson Institute’s warning that Donald Trump’s tariff plan would amount to a major tax hike on Americans as “alarmist”.
“I respect my friends at the Peterson Institute, I think they’re a bit alarmist,” Bessent told CBS News on Sunday.
“I think a lot of their supporters are anti-tariffs, so they take an anti-tariff position. And look, we have the experience of President Trump’s first term, where the tariffs did not affect prices. And it’s a holistic approach, that there will be tariffs, there will be cuts in regulation, there will be cheaper energy.”
Updated
Trump tariffs could amount to 'largest tax increase in at least a generation', thinktank warns
Donald Trump’s plan to impose tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China could force American consumers to pay an average of $1,200 more per year, a prominent economic thinktank warns.
An analysis from the Peterson Institute for International Economics found that the tariffs would prompt retaliation from foreign governments, harming economic growth and leading to higher import costs that would be passed on to American households. Here’s more:
This past weekend, President Donald Trump announced the largest tax increase in at least a generation (since 1993 or before), with the imposition of 25 percent tariffs on most goods from Canada and Mexico (aside from Canadian energy, which faces a 10 percent tariff), alongside a 10 percent increase in tariffs on goods from China. The direct cost of these actions to the typical, or median, US household would be a tax increase of more than $1,200 a year.
These announcements mark the first wave of tariffs expected to come from the new Trump administration. Trump has threatened the entire world with tariffs. Further, governments abroad will retaliate; both Canada and Mexico have already announced retaliatory measures. Future waves of US tariffs and retaliation will increase these substantial consumer costs alongside the other economic harms of tariffs: reduced economic growth, a shrinking export sector, and supply chain disruption. …
While exchange rate movements or declines in exporter prices could reduce consumer harm, prior evidence is clear that exchange rate effects have only a partial dampening effect (with any alleviation coming at the expense of the export sector). Careful analysis of the 2018–19 trade war with China consistently found that foreign exporters to the United States did not lower prices when hit with US tariffs; US buyers of imports bore the tax burden.
Updated
Donald Trump’s blitz on federal science agencies has increased the risk of endangered species going extinct, fired government experts have warned.
The new administration, and its so-called “department of government efficiency”, led by the billionaire Elon Musk, has fired thousands of employees at science agencies, with funding halted at the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.
Nick Gladstone, a cave biologist for nearly a decade, was a lead recovery biologist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service for 15 federally endangered cave and subterranean invertebrates – including rare beetles and spiders – in central Texas. He is one of more than 400 probationary employees fired at the agency this month.
“Without my position filled, these species will be neglected for years to come,” Gladstone said. He said his firing left these species, among the most at risk under the Endangered Species Act, in particular danger due to the difficulty in finding and protecting them as their habitats face threats from development.
Republicans in red states across the US have been pushing a slew of anti-LGBTQ+ measures targeting same-sex marriages with an aim of ultimately securing a supreme court ban on the federally protected right.
The recent wave of Republican-led bills targeting same-sex marriage comes amid a second Donald Trump presidency in which his administration has taken on more emboldened attacks against LGBTQ+ communities across the country, as seen through a flurry of executive orders he signed, assailing various LGBTQ+ rights.
Numerous Republican lawmakers across red states have followed suit in both rhetoric and the introduction of bills, sparking concerns across LGBTQ+ and civil rights organizations over their social and political effects.
In Oklahoma last month, a day after Trump’s inauguration, the Republican state senator Dusty Deevers introduced a series of bills targeting LGBTQ+ rights, among them the Promote Child Thriving act.
A natalist conference featuring speakers including self-described eugenicists and promoters of race science, apparently including the man behind a previously pseudonymous race-science influencer account, and the founder of a startup offering IQ screening for IVF embryos, will be held at a hotel and conference venue operated by the public University of Texas, Austin.
Details of the conference have emerged as a prominent supporter of pro-natalist positions, tech billionaire Elon Musk, lays waste to US government agencies under the banner of his “Doge” initiative, with the blessing of Donald Trump.
Natalism in its current often rightwing iteration encourages high birth rates, and Musk has been a vocal proponent. He also maintains a large compound home near Austin, where reportedly he plans to house some of his children and two of their mothers.
The Natal conference website embeds a Musk post on X, reading: “If birth rates continue to plummet, human civilization will end.” Musk, who reportedly has at least 13 children by four mothers, was in recent days confronted on X by musician Grimes and rightwing influencer Ashley St Clair over his alleged neglect of the children he has fathered with them.
US Congress nowhere close to deal to avert shutdown ahead of 14 March deadline
With less than two weeks to go before a 14 March deadline, Republicans and Democrats in the US Congress appear to be nowhere close to a deal to avert a government shutdown that would throw Washington into deeper turmoil, Reuters reported.
The talks have been complicated by Donald Trump, who has ignored spending laws passed by Congress, suspended foreign aid and fired tens of thousands of federal workers.
Both sides say his actions are the biggest sticking point as they seek to reach a deal that would provide government funding beyond 14 March, when it is due to expire.
Democrats say they are trying to secure guarantees that would prevent Trump and his budget-slashing point person, billionaire Elon Musk, from firing more workers or cancelling more government programs.
“We will continue to make clear that the law has to be followed,” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters late last week.
Republicans say Democrats are trying to undo Trump’s actions, which they call a nonstarter.
“The bigger issue is the Democrats’ insistence on putting poison pills into the bill that would restrict the president’s abilities,” Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine told reporters last week.
Collins said she is “very close” to an agreement with Democrats that would fund the government at current levels until 30 September, the end of the fiscal year. Trump has said on social media that he supports that approach.
Updated
Several major Republican donors are throwing their financial support behind the primary opponent of Ed Gainey, who became Pittsburgh’s first Black mayor in 2022 and now faces a difficult re-election fight this year, in a seemingly concerted effort to oust the progressive leader.
The Democratic primary battle between Gainey and Corey O’Connor, the Allegheny county controller, is shaping up to be one of the biggest tests of the progressive movement since Donald Trump’s victory last November. The victor of the 20 May primary is widely expected to win the general election, and with few major races on the ballot this year, Gainey’s re-election could provide a morale boost for progressives still reeling from Democrats’ losses in the 2024 races.
The mayoral race may also offer insight into the broader political environment in Pennsylvania, a pivotal battleground state that Trump won by roughly 2 points last year. While Trump made marginal gains in Philadelphia and its surrounding counties, his performance in Allegheny county, which covers Pittsburgh, remained virtually unchanged from four years earlier. Trump won just 22% of the Pittsburgh vote, while 77% went to Kamala Harris.
Freed Israeli hostage Eli Sharabi has been invited to Washington to meet Donald Trump this week, his brother told Israeli media on Sunday.
Sharabi, who was released from Gaza after 16 months in captivity, expects to meet Trump with other freed hostages on Tuesday, after the US president watched him describe the severe hunger and violence he endured on Israeli television.
Excerpts from Sharabi’s moving interview on Israel’s Channel 12 “were shown to Trump, with English subtitles, and he was shocked once again, but also expressed great sympathy for those who survived captivity”, his brother Sharon said, according to a translation from the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
Israeli advocacy groups, including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), have posted subtitled versions of the interview online.
When Sharabi and two other hostages, Or Levy and Ohad Ben Ami, were released on 8 February alongside after nearly 500 days in captivity, their physical condition outraged Israelis, and Trump. Sharabi was at home in Be’eri kibbutz with his British-born wife and their two teenage daughters when Hamas attacked on 7 October 2023.
US tariffs on Canada and Mexico coming Tuesday but may not be 25%, commerce chief says
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. My name is Tom Ambrose and I’ll be bringing you the latest news lines over the next few hours.
We start with news that Donald Trump’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, said on Sunday that US tariffs on Canada and Mexico will go into effect on Tuesday, but the president would determine whether to stick with the planned 25% level.
“That is a fluid situation,” Lutnick told the Fox News program Sunday Morning Futures. “There are going to be tariffs on Tuesday on Mexico and Canada. Exactly what they are, we’re going to leave that for the president and his team to negotiate.”
Lutnick’s comments were the first indication from Trump’s administration that it may not impose the full threatened 25% tariffs on all goods from Mexico and non-energy imports from Canada.
He said the two countries have “done a reasonable job” securing their borders with the United States, though he maintained the deadly drug fentanyl continues to flow into the country.
To read our full report on this story, see below.
