US politics live: Pete Hegseth warns NATO it ‘can’t be reliant’ on US, Germany pushed to bolster army

A nation has been told it must urgently expand its army, as ambiguous warnings from the US continue to send a ripple through Europe.

Welcome to our live coverage of US politics.

US President Donald Trump signed a new travel ban banning people from 12 countries to “protect Americans from dangerous foreign actors”, the White House said.

The ban targets nationals of Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, it said in a statement.

President Trump said he had signed the ban because of an attack on a Jewish protest in Colorado that authorities blamed on a man they say was in the country illegally.

“The recent terror attack in Boulder, Colorado has underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted,” he said in a video message.

Follow on for more updates.

Originally published as US politics live: Pete Hegseth warns NATO it ‘can’t be reliant’ on US, Germany pushed to bolster army