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Following the US election result, internet searches for how to move away from soon-to-be president Donald Trump’s America have spiked.

From Australia to Canada, voters concerned about some of his more divisive policies appear to be putting some genuine thought into finding a new home.

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But back in the UK, there’s one concerned mother who thinks heading back to the States might be the best option for her children.

Liana Fricker, who lives in Surrey, having moved from California more than 20 years ago, has two sons who are diagnosed with ADHD.

Aged 14 and 10, they attend a private school – one “very good” at working with young people with the condition.

But with fees set to climb 15.4% in January when the government scraps the VAT exemption on private schools, she claims she’ll soon be “priced out”.

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Liana says she’s been left with no option but to withdraw at least one of her sons from the school. It means sending him to a state school or heading back to the US, where she believes her family would have more choice.

“It’s ironic,” she says. “Because, yes, even with Donald Trump, I have to consider what’s the least bad option.”

In the US, she says the concept of government policy dictating her school choice is an alien one. Instead, there’s an idea “everyone is free to do what they want to do within the law and the Constitution”.

“If you send your children to private school, you get a tax rebate as a thank you for paying tax and not using the service.”

Liana is clear there are “great” state schools in her local area, but the trouble would be making sure her sons were accepted to one – ideally together.

Her 14-year-old is already studying for his GCSEs, and she’s concerned his education could be disrupted. He could have to study entirely new subjects if the same options aren’t offered.

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Private schools ‘will adapt’ to VAT tax

He stands to be one of the thousands of private school pupils who critics fear may be displaced by the government’s policy.

Labour claim the change will fund around 6,500 new teachers in state schools, and the Treasury says it does “not expect this policy to have a significant impact on the number of pupils attending private schools overall”.

But Liana says it will make “everything a lot harder”.

“I think the long-term viability of private education goes out the window,” she says, as parents mull just how long they can afford to keep up with the fees.

And it’s not just private school pupils who stand to feel the impact.

She’s worried children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) – like her sons’ ADHD – who are “priced out of private school” will now “have to go overstretch the resources in the other schools”.

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“If I was a parent in a state school, I would be raging because that’s what’s going to happen.”

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Children with SEN are only exempt from VAT on private school fees if they have a local authority funded Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) which places them in a particular school.

It does not account for children whose parents decide to enrol them in private schools due to their needs.

This is the case for Liana, who chose a particular school to suit her children.

“It’s not so much how the private school system helps you – it’s because it gives you choice,” she says.

Liana wants a “fair, impartial, transparent impact assessment across the country”, making sure ministers understand what the policy means for pupils and schools alike.

The government said an impact assessment has taken place, published with the budget at the end of October. It’s been accused of “rushing” the policy through, given the budget came just two months before it comes into effect.

But a source stressed the impact assessment used analysis from the Office for Budget Responsibility, which they consider fair, impartial, and transparent.

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A government spokesperson added: “We want to ensure all children have the best chance in life to succeed. Ending tax breaks on private schools will help to raise the revenue needed to break down the barriers of opportunity for children and young people across the country.

“We do not expect this policy to have a significant impact on the number of pupils attending private schools overall. The number of pupils in private schools has remained steady since 2000, despite around a 75% real term increase in private school fees since that time.”

For Liana’s children, that “best chance in life” may now be across the Atlantic.

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Donald Trump imposes sanctions against Russia’s two biggest oil companies as frustration grows with Vladimir Putin over the Ukraine war

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Donald Trump imposes sanctions against Russia's two biggest oil companies as frustration grows with Vladimir Putin over the Ukraine war

Donald Trump has imposed sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies – and spoke of his frustration with Vladimir Putin.

In a major policy shift, new restrictions have been unveiled against Rosneft and Lukoil – as well as dozens of subsidiaries – due to “Russia’s lack of serious commitment to a peace process to end the war in Ukraine”.

“Now is the time to stop the killing and for an immediate ceasefire,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.

“Given President Putin’s refusal to end this senseless war, Treasury is sanctioning Russia’s two largest oil companies that fund the Kremlin’s war machine. We encourage our allies to join us in, and adhere to, these sanctions.”

The move marked a significant change for the Trump administration, which has veered between pressuring Moscow and taking a more conciliatory approach aimed at securing peace in Ukraine.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent speaks to reporters at the White House. Pic: Reuters
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US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent speaks to reporters at the White House. Pic: Reuters

Trump frustrated with Putin

The US president has resisted pressure to impose energy sanctions on Russia, hoping that Putin would agree to end the fighting. But with no end in sight, he said he felt it was time.

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Mr Trump explained he has a “very good relationship” with his Russian counterpart, but felt he had to cancel their planned meeting as “it didn’t feel right to me”.

In a sign of growing frustration, he told reporters: “It didn’t feel like we were going to get to the place we have to get. So I cancelled it. But we’ll do it in the future.

“I have good conversations. And then, they don’t go anywhere. They just don’t go anywhere.”

He also hinted that the sanctions could be lifted if the Russian president was prepared to cooperate in peace talks.

“We hope that they [the sanctions] won’t be on for long,” he said in the Oval Office. “We hope that the war will be settled.”

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Putin-Trump talks: The view from Moscow

Trump wants Xi to help with Ukraine

Ahead of a meeting next week with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea, Mr Trump said he would like Beijing to help put pressure on Moscow to halt the fighting.

“I think he [Xi] can have a big influence on Putin. I think he can have a big influence … he’s a respected man. He’s a very strong leader of a very big country. And we will certainly be talking about Russia-Ukraine,” he said.

Xi and Putin have formed a strategic alliance between their countries.

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Why Tomahawks are off the table

Ukraine denied Tomahawk missiles

However, Mr Trump warned he is not prepared to provide Ukraine with long-range Tomahawk missiles, which Kyiv has requested.

He explained it would take the Ukrainians up to a year to learn how to use the “highly complex” weapons.

“The only way a Tomahawk is going to be shot … is if we shot it. And we’re not going to do that.

“It takes a year of intense training to learn how to use it, and we know how to use it, and we’re not going to be teaching other people.”

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Pete Hegseth makes Al Qaeda claim as US strikes eighth alleged drug boat

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Pete Hegseth makes Al Qaeda claim as US strikes eighth alleged drug boat

The US has launched its eighth strike against an alleged drug vessel – this time in the Pacific.

The US defence secretary Pete Hegseth revealed the “lethal kinetic” strike on social media.

In a video shared by Mr Hegseth, a small boat carrying brown packages explodes after being struck.

According to the US war secretary, the action killed two “narco-terrorists”, taking the death toll from all the strikes to at least 34 people.

“Yesterday, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel being operated by a designated terrorist organisation and conducting narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific,” said Mr Hegseth.

“There were two narco-terrorists aboard during the strike, which was conducted in international waters. Both terrorists were killed, and no US forces were harmed.”

Mr Hegseth likened the alleged drug traffickers to the group behind the September 11 attacks, Islamist terror organisation Al Qaeda.

Pete Hegseth, pictured addressing a meeting at NATO on October 15, has revealed another strike on an alleged drug boat. Pic: AP
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Pete Hegseth, pictured addressing a meeting at NATO on October 15, has revealed another strike on an alleged drug boat. Pic: AP

Read more:
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Survivors reported after US military strike

“Just as Al Qaeda waged war on our homeland, these cartels are waging war on our border and our people,” Mr Hegseth said. “There will be no refuge or forgiveness – only justice.”

The seven previous US strikes had all targeted vessels in the Caribbean.

Amid a US military build up in the region and anxiety that Mr Trump may order military action against Venezuela, which the US president accuses of narcoterrorism, President Nicolas Maduro.has denied any connection to drug smuggling and said the boat strikes were a pretext for regime change.

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Putin-Trump Budapest meeting in doubt as official says ‘no plan for immediate future’

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Putin-Trump Budapest meeting in doubt as official says 'no plan for immediate future'

There are no plans for Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin to meet in person in the near future, according to a White House official.

The US leader later shed further light on the issue when asked why his planned summit in Hungary had been put on hold.

He said he did not want to have a wasted meeting, telling reporters in the Oval Office he had not made a determination about the talks he had wanted to hold.

The presidents last week agreed to meet in Budapest after a phone call Mr Trump called “extremely frank and trustful”.

The US leader suggested it was possible it could happen within a fortnight, though no date was set.

However, it appears that’s now off the table – and there are fears the meeting could be shelved altogether due to Russia‘s rigid stance on the Ukraine war.

The White House official, speaking to Sky’s US partner network NBC, said secretary of state Marco Rubio and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov had spoken on Tuesday.

The call was described as “productive” but the official added there was no plan for the presidents to meet “in the immediate future”.

The last Trump-Putin meeting was in Alaska in August, but it ended without any meaningful progress towards a ceasefire.

The Budapest plan was announced shortly before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy travelled to Washington last Friday to try to get approval for long-range Tomahawk missiles.

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Why Tomahawks are off the table

Mr Zelenskyy accused the Russian leader of acting out of fear Ukraine could get the green light and the ability to hit targets far deeper into Russia.

In his nightly address on Tuesday, he said Russia “almost automatically became less interested in diplomacy” after it became clear Mr Trump had backed away from any decision on the Tomahawks.

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Professor Michael Clarke answers your questions on the Ukraine war.

Two US officials told Reuters that plans for the Budapest meeting had stalled over Russia’s insistence any peace deal must give it control of all of the Donbas region.

Those terms are said to have been reiterated over the weekend in a private communique known as a “no paper”.

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The Kremlin’s refusal to budge effectively rejects Mr Trump’s latest assessment that the frontlines should be frozen as they are.

The president shifted position last week after previously telling the UN General Assembly that Ukraine could win back all the land it has lost.

Read more:
Putin’s ‘not so secret weapon’ | Ukraine war Q&A
UK ‘ready to spend over £100m’ on possibly sending troops to Ukraine

Ukraine and European nations issued a joint statement on Tuesday insisting “international borders must not be changed by force” and accusing Russia of “stalling tactics”.

But, in an apparent effort to keep the US leader onside, it added: “We strongly support President Trump’s position that the fighting should stop immediately, and that the current line of contact should be the starting point of negotiations.”

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Trump: ‘We can end this war quickly’

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov gave the impression his country was in no rush to arrange another Trump-Putin meeting, saying on Tuesday “preparation is needed, serious preparation”.

Such talk is likely to increase concerns Russia does not want to stop fighting and is “playing” President Trump – all while continuing to launch drone barrages at Ukrainian cities.

Russia currently holds about a fifth of Ukraine after its invasion in February in 2022. It also annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014.

Meanwhile, NATO’s secretary general Mark Rutte is travelling to Washington to meet with President Trump on Wednesday.

He will “discuss various aspects related to NATO’s support to Ukraine and to the US-led efforts towards lasting peace”, an official for the alliance said.

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