Pentagon head hails military with ‘no fatties, no trannies, no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals’ in anti-DEI rant Send us your questions about how the Iran war will affect US voters in the midterms The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has confirmed plans to cut 20% of generals and a

A year after his explosive tenure at Doge, the SpaceX CEO is back in the Trump administration’s good graces Pete Hegseth announced on Wednesday that Elon Musk will co-lead a government project to study the future of warfare, marking the SpaceX CEO’s first return to government since he ran the ch

‘The era of writing blank checks to international bureaucracies is over,’ state department spokesperson says Donald Trump ’s administration has withdrawn the United States from the Council of Europe’s anti-corruption monitoring body, arguing that paying to belong to the multilateral group no

Support for white Afrikaners, anti-communism and others reveals how US redefining what qualifies as human rights With hours left before the funding expires, the Trump administration is pushing to direct more than $175m of the state department’s flagship human rights fund to a slate of awards that

World’s biggest economies release lists of products in latest move away from trade war – but no strategic goods are included The US and China have released reciprocal lists of goods worth about $30bn each on which they plan to cut tariffs, ranging from consumer electronics and agricultural produ

David Perdue’s remarks come after a Taiwanese minister spoke of the ‘severe’ military threat posed by Beijing to the self-ruled island Donald Trump offered to sell weapons to China while hosting its leader, Xi Jinping, last week, the US ambassador to China said on Sunday. David Perdue told Fox

The US’s oil deal with Venezuela faces multiple legal and logistical problems, including questions about whether it can be implemented Donald Trump has long coveted the oilfields of other nations and declared an agreement with Venezuela to be “the biggest oil deal in world history”. But the de

Iran’s seven-day timetable would restart nuclear talks, but will the US be willing to deliver on terms that include reining in Israel in Lebanon? Iran’s seven-day timetable to reopen the strait of Hormuz and start talks on its nuclear programme has been pitched as a deal that could rapidly extri

Xi is expected to depart Washington after touring the nation’s vault of records, where the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are held Sign up for US Breaking News emails In our second live discussion ahead of the elections, Joseph Gedeon, Dara Kerr and Chris Stei

The US press corps stood up to Donald Trump this week after he banned three organisations he doesn’t like from the White House. But when it came to the leader of one of the US’s oldest adversaries – China – well, Trump literally rolled out a very long red carpet. Jonathan Freedland speaks to

Xi Jinping’s visit heavy on symbolism but no sign closed-door meeting yielded breakthroughs on thorny issues such as AI, trade, Taiwan and Iran Donald Trump welcomed Xi Jinping to the White House on Thursday, with talks on AI, trade and a growing US-China strategic rivalry expected to feature on a

GOP stymies House-passed war powers resolution as conflict passes 200-day mark with 19 US service members killed Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked a Democratic effort to end the US war with Iran, voting down a House-passed war powers resolution as the conflict that has killed 19 American servic