Trump makes gaffe during press conference with Japan’s PM; revokes Biden’s security clearance: Live updates – UK Times

The Taliban have signalled their willingness to start afresh with the US administration of Donald Trump but claimed ownership of the military equipment and vehicles the American and Nato forces left behind.

Abdul Qahar Balkhi, the Taliban’s spokesperson for the foreign ministry, spoke to CBS News on Wednesday and said that the group controlling Afghanistan was ready to establish a new diplomatic chapter on engagement with the US.

“We would like to close the chapter of warfare and open a new chapter,” Mr Balkhi.

Here’s Arpan Rai’s report.

Attempting to shrug off a recent Time cover showing Elon Musk sitting behind the Resolute Desk as president, Donald Trump mockingly asked whether the magazine was “still in business” while claiming he hadn’t seen the latest issue.

The president’s dismissive snipe at Time comes just weeks after he boasted about being named the magazine’s 2024 Person of the Year, an honor he’s long coveted and first received after winning the presidential election in 2016.

Justin Baragona has the story.

Vice President J.D. Vance encouraged Musk to “bring back” Marko Elez, a 25-year-old programmer who posted his support for a “eugenic immigration policy” and called to “normalize Indian hate,” among other racist statements uncovered by The Wall Street Journal on Thursday.

Alex Woodward has the story.

Andrew Feinberg writes that Democrats didn’t see Joe Biden’s frail physicality as a political liability — they appear to be making the same mistake again…

Katie Hawkinson looks at what happened.

President Donald Trump on Friday continued to push his plan for the United States to take control of the Gaza Strip and threatened a host of new tariffs against American allies to be rolled out at a press conference next week.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office during a bilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Trump said he’d be announcing the trade actions — which amount to a unilateral tax increase on Americans — as part of his program for ensuring what he has called “reciprocal” trade with American allies.

Andrew Feinberg reports from Washington, D.C.

President Donald Trump’s administration is working to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development — the very agency that the president’s wife and daughter promoted seven years ago.

The president has threatened to end USAID, which provides humanitarian assistance around the globe. Earlier this week, Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency and Trump’s “First Buddy,” took aim at the agency, calling it a “criminal organization.”

Pennsylvania Democratic Senator John Fetterman, who has shown an increasing willingness to break with his party in recent months, has revealed that he will not be supporting the nominations of two of Donald Trump’s most controversial cabinet nominees: Robert F Kennedy Jr and Tulsi Gabbard.

President Donald Trump’s unprecedented power grabs within his first three weeks in office have provoked an opposite and equal reaction in the form of an avalanche of lawsuits.

Now, how far the president can plunge the United States into a constitutional crisis could depend on a handful of federal judges.

Americans should be prepared for the administration to ignore them, “unless and until there’s real enforcement, either by law enforcement or by the Supreme Court,” says Ty Cobb, a former White House counsel during Trump’s first administration.

“The real question is, will Trump honor those orders?” Cobb tells The Independent.