Trump threatens to widen tariffs with warning against EU – US politics live | US news

Two US senators who will vote this week on whether to advance Robert F Kennedy Jr’s nomination as the top US health official demanded on Monday that he recuse himself from all agency matters related to vaccines.

Sen Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sen Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said that Kennedy has unscientific views about their safety and stands poised to benefit financially from such decisions.

Reuters reports the pair also asked that Kennedy, Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, pledge not to engage in lawsuits involving vaccines for at least four years after leaving office.

Dutch prime minister Mette Frederiksen on Monday reiterated Denmark’s position that Greenland is “not for sale”, despite Donald Trump’s repeated suggestion that it be acquired by the US for strategic reasons.

Speaking in Brussels ahead of an European leaders meeting, Reuters reports Fredriksen said “Greenland is today a part of the kingdom of Denmark. It is part of our territory, and it’s not for sale.”

US secretary of state Marco Rubio said last week Trump’s interest in acquiring the island was “not a joke”.

Greenland harbours some of the largest deposits of rare-earth metals. Denmark granted the island limited self-government in 1979, 26 years after it was incorporated into the country by the Danish constitution.

NBC News has reported overnight that dozens of Education department employees who attended a diversity training course during Donald Trump’s first term has president have been put on leave.

A letter to the affected employees obtained by the news network said they would continue to receive their full salaries and benefits and wouldn’t be required to do any work-related tasks.

Citing union sources, Yamiche Alcindor reported that “at least 55 employees had been placed on leave as of Friday evening.”

Sheria Smith, president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, which represents hundreds of Education Department employees, said:

It looks like they’re entrapping people, because they encouraged people to take these trainings. [They are] now maybe using these trainings as a basis to put them on administrative leave.

South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa has rejected Donald Trump’s claim that the country is confiscating land.

AFP reports that Ramaphosa said he was ready to explain his government’s land reform policy to his US counterpart.

“South Africa is confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Sunday.

“I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!” Trump wrote.

“The recently adopted Expropriation Act is not a confiscation instrument,” Ramaphosa’s statement said in response on Monday.

It is a “constitutionally mandated legal process that ensures public access to land in an equitable and just manner as guided by the constitution”.

“We look forward to engaging with the Trump administration over our land reform policy and issues of bilateral interest,” it said.

The recently passed act stipulates the South African government may, in certain circumstances, offer “nil compensation” for property it decides to seize in the public interest.

Land redistribution policy in South Africa has long been contentious.

Most farmland in the country is still owned by white people three decades after the end of apartheid.

Conservatives have for years opposed attempts to redress the inequality. Donald Trump’s wealthy unelected adviser Elon Musk was born in the country.

US President Donald Trump has asserted South Africa is “confiscating” land and “treating certain classes of people very badly” as he announced he was cutting off all future funding to the country pending an investigation.

“I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social media platform.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa last month signed a bill that stipulates the government may, in certain circumstances, offer “nil compensation” for property it decides to expropriate in the public interest.

Trump’s unelected billionaire adviser Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, was born in South Africa.

Read more here: Trump says he is cutting off funding to South Africa over land ‘confiscations’

The director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) has appealed to leaders to pressure the Donald Trump administration to reverse its decision to pull out of the UN’s health agency.

“Bringing the US back will be very important,” Associated Press reports Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told attenders of a budget meeting. “And on that, I think all of you can play a role.”

The US has been WHO’s biggest donor by far, with one official telling Associated Press that “the roof is on fire” with regard to the agency’s budget.

Among other health crises, WHO is working to stop outbreaks of Marburg virus in Tanzania, Ebola in Uganda and mpox in Congo.

A budget document presented at the meeting said responses in the Middle East, Ukraine and Sudan were at risk, in addition to hundreds of millions of dollars lost by polio-eradication and HIV programs.

The director-general said the agency is still providing US scientists with some data.

“We continue to give them information because they need it,” Tedros said, urging member countries to contact US officials. “We would appreciate it if you continue to push and reach out to them to reconsider.”

US secretary of state Marco Rubio has threatened Panama over what he said was Chinese influence over the operation of the Panama Canal.

Rubio told Panama’s president José Raúl Mulino that Donald Trump believed China’s presence in the canal area may violate the treaty that handed control of the waterway to Panama in 1999. That treaty calls for the permanent neutrality of the canal, which was built by the US.

“Secretary Rubio made clear that this status quo is unacceptable and that absent immediate changes, it would require the US to take measures necessary to protect its rights under the treaty,” the state department said in a summary of the meeting.

The read-out from the Panama side was less blunt, with Mulino telling reporters Rubio made “no real threat of retaking the canal or the use of force.”

He said his talks with Rubio were “respectful” and “positive”.

The US last invaded Panama in 1989, in what was then the biggest US military operation since the Vietnam war.

Unelected billionaire Elon Musk has said that he has discussed the future of the US Agency for International Development (USAid) with president Donald Trump, who has agreed “we should shut it down.”

Associated Press reports that during a call on the social media platform that Musk owns, X, Musk said:

It became apparent that its not an apple with a worm it in. What we have is just a ball of worms. You’ve got to basically get rid of the whole thing. It’s beyond repair. We’re shutting it down.

On Sunday Musk had written on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “USAid is a criminal organization. Time for it to die.”

The agency’s website vanished Saturday without explanation, and the president said on Sunday night that it had been “run by a bunch of radical lunatics.”

The agency has a budget of over $50bn and is one of the largest foreign aid agencies in the world.

On 26 January the state department issued a statement saying that it was “pausing all US foreign assistance … for review.”

It said that newly appointed secretary of state Marco Rubio was “initiating a review of all foreign assistance programs to ensure they are efficient and consistent with US foreign policy under the America First agenda.”

Senior USAid officials put on leave after denying access to Musk’s Doge team

Andrew Roth

Andrew Roth in Washington reports for the Guardian:

Two senior security officials at the US Agency for International Development (USAid) have been put on administrative leave after they blocked efforts by members of Elon Musk’s department of government efficiency (Doge) to access sensitive data from the agency, five current and former USAid officials have told the Guardian.

The demands led to a tense standoff during which a senior deputy to Musk threatened to call the US marshals in to grant access to the building. The officials said John Voorhees, USAid’s director of security, and a deputy blocked efforts by Doge members to physically access restricted areas.

The confrontation and Voorhees’ suspension was first reported by CNN and confirmed by USAid officials. The Doge officials gained control over the access control system, which would allow them to lock out employees and read emails. They also sought personnel files and turnstile data, two people said.

Musk’s deputies may also have sought access to Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities, or SCIFs, and servers used to access sensitive cables with top-secret classifications. Four members of Doge have been granted regular access to USAid as the administration has suspended dozens of senior staff and furloughed hundreds more at the bureau for humanitarian assistance who help the agency respond to urgent crises around the world.

Read more from Andrew Roth’s report here: Senior USAid officials put on leave after denying access to Musk’s Doge team

Shares in some of the biggest European carmakers slumped on Monday.

Reuters reports some analysts believe that Donald Trump’s tariffs on Mexico could be more damaging for European carmakers and their suppliers than any direct tariffs on EU goods.

Reuters has gathered together some European reaction to Donald Trump’s imposition of trade tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China.

France’s central bank governor François Villeroy de Galhau told France Info the tariffs “will increase economic uncertainty” and were a worrying development.

A government spokesperson in the UK said Britain has a “fair and balanced” trading relationship which “benefits both sides of the Atlantic”, describing the US as “an indispensable ally and one of our closest trading partners.”

On Sunday the British prime minister Keir Starmer told reporters “It is early days. What I want to see is strong trading relations. In the discussions that I have had with president Trump, that is what we have centered on, a strong trading relationship. So it is very early days.”

Trump has appeared to take a softer line on the UK, citing his relationship with Starmer while saying tariffs still “might happen”.

“The UK is out of line but I’m sure that one, I think that one can be worked out,” Trump said. “Prime minister Starmer’s been very nice, we’ve had a couple of meetings, we’ve had numerous phone calls, we’re getting along very well, we’ll see whether or not we can balance out our budget.”

US markets expected to show drop as world reacts to Trump trade war tariffs

Graeme Wearden

European stock markets are a sea of red in early trading, after Donald Trump rattled investors by signing off on tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico last weekend. The US stock market is also heading for heavy falls when it opens later.

The UK’s blue-chip FTSE 100 index, which tracks the one hundred largest companies listed in London, has fallen by 1.25% at the start of trading.

Metal prices have also fallen today, as president Trump’s 10% tariff on imports from China rattles the markets.

The developments follow a day of turmoil on Asian markets. Japan’s Nikkei 225 share index has closed for the day down 2.66%. Shares of Japanese and South Korean automakers and their suppliers led declines in Asia.

The US dollar shot to a record high against the Chinese yuan in offshore trading, and its highest against the Canadian dollar since 2003 and the strongest against the Mexican peso since 2022.

Richard Hunter, Head of Markets at interactive investor said:

February seems likely to begin with a Trump tariff tantrum, with very early futures prices signalling declines of more than 600 points for the Dow Jones, and declines of 2% or more for the benchmark S&P500 and Nasdaq indices.

Welcome to the Guardian’s rolling coverage of US politics news for Monday. Here are the headlines …