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Trump diplomacy

Today

Trump and Putin discuss peace in Ukraine – without Zelensky

The US and Russian presidents’ first phone call since Donald Trump returned to the White House signals a dramatic turnaround in the Washington-Moscow relationship.

  • 22 mins ago
  • Matthew Cranston
Former US Senator for West Virginia Joe Manchin with former Australian treasurer Joe Hockey. Mr Manchin will join Mr Hockey’s Bondi Partners as a senior adviser.

This US senator stole Joe Hockey’s boots. Now they’ve joined forces

Joe Manchin says Australia will always be a valued ally even if it does not feel that way in the frenzied early days of Donald Trump.

  • 52 mins ago
  • Jessica Gardner
Israeli army troops are seen on the Israeli-Gaza border during a ground operation in the Gaza Strip. in November.

Israel calls up reservists as fears for fragile Gaza ceasefire rise

Concern that the truce will collapse is growing as fury mounts in the Arab world over President Donald Trump’s plan for the United States to take over Gaza.

  • James Mackenzie, Jana Choukeir and Maha El Dahan

Yesterday

Peter Navarro.

‘Australia killing US aluminium’: Trump’s top trade adviser

Peter Navarro has become a red flag for Australian negotiators trying to secure an exemption from the president’s tariffs on steel and aluminium.

  • Matthew Cranston
James Packer before the Israel prime minister’s address to Congress last year.

Packer moves in with billionaire Mar-a-Lago residents

The Australian businessman has picked up a two-year lease, putting him ever closer to the US president.

  • Mark Di Stefano
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This Month

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters as he signs executive orders in the Oval Office at the White House, Monday, Feb. 10, 2025, in Washington.

No guarantees for Trump’s unlikely tariff buddy

A relieved Anthony Albanese managed to persuade the president to at least consider exempting Australia from the 25 per cent tariffs on US steel and aluminium imports. Can that reprieve last?

  • Jennifer Hewett
Relatives of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip protest in Tel Aviv.

Trump says ‘all’ Israeli hostages must be released by Saturday

The US president says “all hell is going to break out” if the remaining Israelis are not freed after Hamas threatened to delay the deal.

  • Updated
  • Zeke Miller and Sam Magdy
  • Analysis
  • AI
Sam Altman immediately rebuked Elon Musk’s OpenAI buyout plans.

Musk probably won’t take over OpenAI, but investors should still worry

Elon Musk’s attempts to buy OpenAI is the latest in a flood of potentially market-shaking events, which make the fortunes of the world’s biggest companies anyone’s guess.

  • Paul Smith
Colin Tyler of OC&C.

Trump-fuelled policy uncertainty to act as brake on M&A deals in 2025

The White House’s frenetic policymaking will dampen merger and acquisition activity this year, according to consultancy executives.

  • Edmund Tadros
A major steel mill in China’s Tangshan, Hebei Province.

Why China is to blame for Trump’s metals tariffs

Existing American taxes already restrict steel and aluminium shipments from the Asian nation, which is now flooding other markets with its exports instead.

  • Updated
  • Keith Bradsher
Congressman Joe Courtney with Australia’s ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd.

Trump’s tariff plan attacked in Congress as ‘insult to Australians’

At least one US legislator has lambasted the president’s intention to slug Australian steel and aluminum imports into America.

  • Updated
  • Matthew Cranston

D-Day looms for Woodside’s massive North West Shelf gas project

It’s either crucial to energy security, or a climate disaster in the making. Labor will have to decide whether to let the LNG operation run another 50 years.

  • Mark Wembridge, Angela Macdonald-Smith and Tom Rabe
Anthony Albanese and Donald Trump

Trump lumps allies in with enemies in tariff chaos

US tariffs on steel and aluminium look likely to embroil Australia. What’s an under-pressure Anthony Albanese to do when a president doesn’t care about impact on allies?

  • Jennifer Hewett
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One.

PM to go head-to-head with Trump on tariff threat

Australian exports to the US could be hit by taxes after the American president announced a duty on metals coming in from every other nation.

  • Updated
  • Phillip Coorey and Simon Evans
A US Virginia class nuclear-powered submarine berths in Western Australia in 2024.

‘Absolute mess’: Musk to cut billions from defence, shipbuilding

Donald Trump said he would seek to cut billions of dollars from the Pentagon budget as the next target, while a top adviser described huge shipbuilding waste.

  • Gram Slattery
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French President Emmanuel Macron is one of the hosts of the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris.

Trump’s ambition, China’s DeepSeek overshadow Paris AI summit

The event aims to address how to harness the potential of artificial intelligence so that it benefits everyone, while containing the technology’s myriad risks.

  • Sylvie Corbett and Kelvin Chan
Penny Wong and Marco Rubio.

There is a compelling case maintaining US-Australia free trade

It is up to the Australian government and business leaders to keep showing up and demonstrating how the relationship makes America safer, stronger, and more prosperous.

  • April Palmerlee
Trump’s defence secretary pick Pete Hegseth made a strong rebuttal of the allegations against him at the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Pete Hegseth confirmed as US defence secretary after historic tie-break

Donald Trump-backed Pete Hegseth narrowly secured enough votes on Saturday to become the next US defence secretary in what was only the second time in history a cabinet nominee needed a tie-break to be confirmed.

  • Updated
  • Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali and Patricia Zengerle
President Donald Trump meets with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in the Oval Office.

Trump wants to slash the US trade deficit with Japan

The president said he believes that a resolution can be found without the need for punitive action, though he’s keeping tariffs are on the table for now.

  • Aamer Madhani and Mari Yamaguchi
This week, Trump’s 48-hour trade war stunned markets and boardrooms across the world.

Will ‘muzzle velocity’ backfire on Trump?

This week reminded critics and supporters of the chaos of Trump’s first term, when a propensity for wild ideas meant little to show for his four years in power.

  • Matthew Cranston

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/trump-diplomacy-1m2u