Trump updates: King Charles invites US president for second UK visit

Washington: In a subdued visit to the White House, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has warned against granting concessions to Russia as the US negotiates a peace deal in Ukraine: “History must be on the side of the peacemaker, not the invader.”

President Donald Trump, meanwhile, said that the US was “very well advanced” on a peace deal and played up his impending meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday.

He also expressed optimism about a prospective deal to gain access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals, saying Americans would be “ digging our hearts out” in the Eastern European country.

Starmer delivered an invitation from King Charles III for Trump to visit the UK, which he immediately accepted.

Workers at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) had a 15-minute window to clear out their offices, as Trump and his adviser Elon Musk move to shutter the agency.

Musk has used his social media platform to attack telecommunications company Verizon, saying its technology is putting systems of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) at risk.

The Washington Post has reported that the FAA may cancel a contract with Verizon in favour of Musk’s satellite communications company Starlink.

The US Social Security Administration is preparing to lay off at least 7,000 people from its workforce of 60,000, The Associated Press has reported, citing an anonymous source.

The layoffs are part of the Trump administration’s intensified efforts to shrink the size of the federal workforce through the Elon Musk-run Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

On a page on its website called a “Wall of Receipts”, DOGE has listed the termination of office leases for dozens of Social Security sites across Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina and other states.

It’s unclear how the layoffs would impact benefits for the 72.5 million US recipients of social security benefits, which include retirees and children. Advocates and Democratic lawmakers have warned that the layoffs will reduce the agency’s ability to serve recipients in a timely manner.

Some say cuts to the workforce effectively amount to a cut in benefits.

“The Social Security Administration is already chronically understaffed. Now, the Trump Administration wants to demolish it,” Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, an advocacy group for the popular public benefits programme, said.

It’s expected that Zelenskyy will sign this minerals deal, a deal that Ukrainians hope will appease Donald Trump.

Trump in the news conference today said that the deal will be signed, and he sees that as being the foundation of a lasting relationship with Ukraine and a massive stepping stone to initiating some sort of peace initiative.

But there are a whole host of questions that still need to be answered, certainly with respect to the kinds of concessions that the Americans are expecting the Russians to make, chief of which would be territorial concessions.

We’ve heard repeatedly over the last couple of days – including yesterday from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during meetings in Qatar – that any discussion of territorial concessions being held by Europeans who are pushing Trump on that was nothing short of deceit.

We heard today from the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov saying exactly the same thing, that this was not to be discussed and that these areas are Russian now.

A vast majority of Ukrainians are sceptical of this peace deal. On the one hand, people are desperate for peace after three years of war. But there is also this vague awareness that there is this show going on behind them – trying to push for some sort of peace – that they feel that they are being left out of.

It was a muted visit to the White House for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, as he and Trump revisited the topic of peace in Ukraine, while avoiding the prospect of contradicting each other in public.

Starmer, a former human rights lawyer, did emphasise that his government would not back a peace that “ rewards the aggressor” – in this case, Russia.

Trump, meanwhile, underscored the importance of negotiating with “both sides” in the pursuit of a ceasefire. Here are some images from their visit together.