Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.<\/p>\n
US president Donald Trump said he ordered the Pentagon to scale back \u201cinappropriate and hostile\u201d military drills with South Korea, hours before the exercises began on Monday.<\/p>\n
The drills under Ulchi Freedom Shield, one of two major annual exercises held by South Korea and the US, start on Monday and run until 27 August.<\/p>\n
They were expected to involve about 18,000 South Korean troops, alongside US forces and personnel from 11 of the 18 member states of the United Nations Command (UNC), the multinational body that oversees the 1953 armistice that halted hostilities of the Korean war.<\/p>\n
However, on Sunday evening, the US president said he was \u201cnot happy\u201d with US participation \u201cbased on my very good relationship with Kim Jong-un\u201d. He added that they were costly and \u201csend a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile, to a country that, as long as Donald J Trump has been president, has been unthreatening and respectful\u201d.<\/p>\n
Trump added that it was too late to cancel the drills so he had ordered the defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, to \u201csubstantially reduce\u201d them. He also said South Korea had refused to help in the \u201cdenuclearisation of the Islamic republic of Iran\u201d.<\/p>\n
Cheong Seong-chang, vice-president of the Seoul-based Sejong Institute thinktank, said Trump could go further if he meets Kim again, potentially deciding to suspend the exercises altogether or reduce US troop levels without consulting South Korea.<\/p>\n
However, Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, cautioned that downsizing the exercise would \u201cslow the process of South Korea taking on greater responsibility for its own defence, and weaken deterrence against possible conflicts in Asia\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe cost savings from downsizing drills are marginal, while the diplomatic benefits for relations with North Korea are doubtful,\u201d he told Agence France-Presse.<\/p>\n
Lim Eul-chul, a North Korea expert at Kyungnam University, added that Pyongyang was unlikely to be moved by Trump\u2019s announcement. \u201cThe North will only view it as meaningful if the joint exercises are cancelled in their entirety rather than scaled back. It has little reason to see this as meaningful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andy Burnham exchanged messages with someone impersonating Donald Trump\u2019s chief of staff, the Guardian understands. The UK prime minister was in contact with an unknown individual pretending to be the senior White House aide Susie Wiles before concerns were raised about the incident. No messages of significance were sent and the suspicious activity was quickly reported to the appropriate authorities, it is understood.<\/p>\n
Donald Trump\u2019s son-in-law and envoy, Jared Kushner, held a rare meeting with Hamas\u2019s political chief on Sunday in Egypt, in a new diplomatic effort to make progress in the stalled Gaza ceasefire. Kushner will meet on Monday with Benjamin Netanyahu, who is under pressure after rejecting the new 15-point, US-backed road map.<\/p>\n
Republican senator Bill Cassidy \u2013 a medical doctor who voted to confirm anti-vaccine activist Robert F Kennedy as federal health secretary in early 2025 \u2013 on Sunday denounced Donald Trump\u2019s \u201ccrazy, stupid\u201d claims about the safety of the combined MMR vaccine for undermining faith in immunization.<\/p>\n
Democrats on Sunday intensified their demands for answers from the Trump administration over conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln as the aircraft carrier\u2019s nearly nine-month deployment continued fueling concern over crew morale, mental health and living conditions.<\/p>\n
US attorney general Todd Blanche on Sunday declined to assure that the federal justice department he helms would always act independently of the White House and Donald Trump. \u201cNo, I\u2019m not going to pledge that,\u201d he said when asked about the topic by NBC\u2019s Meet the Press host, Kristen Welker. \u201cAnd no attorney general should ever pledge that.\u201d<\/p>\n