Unusual sight in White House Christmas display, call for Hegseth to testify over deadly boat strike

The White House has unveiled its Christmas display, featuring 75 classic Christmas wreaths, 51 Christmas trees and a Lego portrait of Donald Trump.

Welcome to our coverage of US politics from Tuesday, Australia time. For more recent events see our US blog from Wednesday.

America, including its president, have returned from their thanksgiving holidays stuffed full of turkey.

Also returning to public view has been Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. There had been rumours he had fled the country after Donald Trump reportedly told him to leave or face military action. He reportedly refused and appeared in Caracas on Sunday local time.

But Mr Trump is now said to have summoned his top military advisers to an Oval Office meeting on Monday which could lead to military action against the Latin American nation.

An unusually close election is occurring in the state of Tennessee on Tuesday, US time, where a Republican almost always win. The Democrat candidate for a seat in Congress is just a few percentage points away from her Trump backed rival.

A win for the Democrats would heap further pressure on Mr Trump already reeling from a string of Republican election defeats last month.

A stinging report given to the US Senate about the FBI has said the critical agency is “all f***ed up” under the leadership of Trump loyalists Kash Patel and Dan Bongino.

The FBI is “rudderless” the reports stated with Mr Patel, although genial, out of his depth and creating a “culture of mistrust”.

Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff will meet Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday, local time, to discuss efforts to end its war in Ukraine. It follows a meeting between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Ukrainian officials in Miami on Sunday.

There remains doubt as to whether Moscow and Kyiv will be able to bridge the gap between both their demands.

Read on for more updates from Tuesday.

Originally published as Unusual sight in White House Christmas display, call for Hegseth to testify over deadly boat strike