US president suggests Russia-Ukraine deal is close
US President Donald Trump says he believes “the confines” of a deal between Russia and Ukraine are in place.
Trump and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have announced a programme to build a “sixth generation” fighter jet that will be known as the F-47.
How Trump’s attacks on the Houthis split his Republican base
On the final day of his re-election campaign, Trump stood in front of a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and made a pledge: “I will restore peace in the world.”
But since Saturday, Trump — now two months into his second term — has carried out a series of large-scale military actions against the Houthi armed group in Yemen, killing at least 53 people in the initial volley of air strikes.
The attacks have exposed a fracture within Trump’s base.
On one hand, the Republican Party has long promoted a muscular foreign policy that leans towards aggressive action abroad. On the other, there is a vocal constituency among Trump’s voters, many on the far right, who seek to withdraw the US from costly entanglements abroad.‘None of these efforts will help our classrooms’: Democrat
Democratic Congressman Adam Smith rebukes Trump’s plan to have other agencies take over the tasks of the Education Department.
Smith hit out at shifting programmes related to nutrition and students with disabilities to the Health and Human Services Department, which is headed by Robert Kennedy Jr, a vaccine sceptic.
“None of these efforts will help our classrooms [sic] more effective at instructing students, nor will it make our government more efficient,” Smith wrote in a social media post. “Our students deserve the best, regardless of their abilities when they step into the classroom.”
Despite Trump’s optimism, key questions remain on any Ukraine-Russia deal
We know that teams from both Ukraine and Russia will be in Saudi Arabia for discussions on Monday. They’ll be held in separate rooms, and effectively, the US negotiators will shuttle between both of them
Of course, the Ukrainians have agreed to a 30-day ceasefire. The Russians provisionally agreed to stop attacking infrastructure and energy facilities, but none of that has materialised.
And so, the first priority will be to get a ceasefire of some kind, and then Donald Trump says that they are close to a “contract” – as he calls it – being negotiated, which he has previously said would mean dividing up land.
This has been a red line for the Ukrainians. They say that they’re not prepared to reward Russia for its aggression.
Certainly, it is something that Vladimir Putin has talked about, how perhaps if the front lines were frozen in place now, then the Russians could take control of the four provinces in Ukraine it currently controls.
US official says ‘ready’ to take student loan portfolio from Education Dept
Kelly Loeffler, the head of the Small Business Administration (SBA), expresses gratitude for Trump after he shifted responsibility from student loans to her agency as part of his effort to dismantle the Education Department.
“The SBA stands ready to take the lead on restoring accountability and integrity to America’s student loan portfolio,” Loeffler wrote in a social media post.
US weather agency cutting back balloon launches after Trump cuts
The National Weather Service says it is limiting the number of weather balloon launches across the US, citing the Trump administration’s staffing cuts.
Weather balloons carry devices that measure temperature, dew point, humidity, barometric pressure, wind speed and direction, allowing officials to closely monitor and forecast conditions.
Before cuts to hundreds of jobs at the agency under the Trump administration, the National Weather Service had launched balloons twice a day from more than 100 locations.
In an update, the agency said launches would be cancelled in Omaha, Nebraska, and Rapid City, South Dakota. The number of launches in Colorado, Wisconsin, Michigan and Wyoming will also be reduced.
