Donald Trump has said he thinks Sir Keir Starmer has “done a very good job” so far and said the pair will speak over the phone “over the next 24 hours”.
The US president said he and the prime minister “get along well” despite Sir Keir being “liberal, which is a little bit different from me”.
“But I think he’s a very good person,” Mr Trump said. “I think he’s done a very good job thus far.
“He’s represented his country in terms of his philosophy. I may not agree with his philosophy but I have a very good relationship with him.”
Sir Keir previously met Mr Trump for dinner at Trump Tower in New York in September, before he was elected president for a second time, and has held two pre-inauguration calls with him.
Image: Sir Keir Starmer. Pic: PA
Mr Trump told reporters on Air Force One that his first international trip could be to the UK or Saudi Arabia – the first country he travelled to as president during his first term.
The US president said “traditionally it could be UK”, but last time he travelled to Saudi Arabia because it agreed to buy billions of dollars of US merchandise.
“If that offer were right, I’d do that again,” he said.
Mr Trump’s warm remarks about Sir Keir were at odds with those of billionaire Elon Musk, who has played a starring role in his second presidency so far, and has repeatedly called for the prime minister to be replaced.
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Prime minister sends message to Trump for inauguration
Reversal of Biden’s halt on 2,000lb bombs for Israel
Mr Trump also said he had instructed the US military to reverse an order from former president Joe Biden halting the supply of heavy 2,000lb bombs to Israel.
“They paid for them and they’ve been waiting for them for a long time,” Mr Trump said about the munitions.
Mr Biden had paused delivery of the bombs to Israel over concerns about the impact they could have on civilians during Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
Trump says Egypt and Jordan should take more Palestinians from Gaza
Mr Trump also said Egypt and Jordan should take more Palestinians from Gaza and when asked if it was a temporary or long-term suggestion, he replied: “Could be either.”
Speaking of his call to Jordan’s King Abdullah on Saturday, the president said: “I said to him I’d love you to take on more because I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now and it’s a mess, it’s a real mess. I’d like him to take people.”
“I’d like Egypt to take people,” he added, saying he would speak to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al Sisi on Sunday.
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He said the Palestinian enclave was “literally a demolition site, almost everything is demolished and people are dying there”, adding: “So I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing at a different location where they can maybe live in peace for a change.”
President fires inspectors general at several agencies
Mr Trump also confirmed he had fired 17 independent inspectors general at several government agencies and said he would “put good people in there that will be very good”.
Inspectors generally act as an independent check on mismanagement and abuse of power inside US government agencies, and while they are appointed by the president, they are expected to be nonpartisan and some serve presidents from both parties.
It comes after the US State Department ordered a freeze on new funding for almost all American foreign development assistance following an executive order issued by Mr Trump.
A Mexican navy ship has hit the Brooklyn Bridge during a promotional tour in New York City.
The New York Fire Department said authorities were responding to injuries but had no details about how many people might have been hurt or whether they were on the vessel or on the bridge.
Sky’s US partner network NBC News reports that at least three people were seriously injured in the incident.
The Mexican navy said in a post on X that the Cuauhtemoc, an academy training vessel, was damaged in the accident, which has prevented it from continuing its voyage.
Eyewitness video of the collision posted online showed the mast of the ship, which was flying a large Mexican flag, scraping the underneath of the bridge.
Image: Pic: AP
The vessel then drifted toward the edge of the river as onlookers scrambled away from shore.
The Mexican navy said the status of personnel and material was under review by naval and local authorities, which were providing assistance.
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The Cuauhtemoc is about 297ft long and 40ft wide, according to the Mexican navy. It sailed for the first time in 1982.
Image: Pic: AP
Each year, it sets out at the end of classes at the naval military school to finish cadets’ training.
It left the Mexican port of Acapulco, on the Pacific coast, on 6 April with 277 people onboard, the navy said at the time.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
One person has died in a bomb explosion near a reproductive health clinic in California, authorities have said.
The incident took place in Palm Springs, a city two hours east of Los Angeles, and is being investigated as a possible car explosion.
The city’s mayor Ron DeHarte said one person died in the blast, adding that the bomb was “either in or near” a vehicle. The deceased’s identity is not known, Palm Springs police said.
Dr Maher Abdallah, who runs the American Reproductive Centers clinic, told the Associated Press his facility was damaged but all staff were safe and accounted for.
The explosion damaged the office space where the practice conducts patient consultations, but the IVF lab and stored embryos were unharmed, he added.
“I really have no clue what happened,” he said. “Thank God today happened to be a day that we have no patients.”
Image: Debris covers the ground after the explosion. Pic: ABC7 Los Angeles/AP
In a statement posted on Facebook the clinic said it was “heartbroken” to learn someone died in the explosion and added: “Our deepest condolences go out to the individuals and families affected.”
It continued: “Our mission has always been to help build families, and in times like these, we are reminded of just how fragile and precious life is.
“In the face of this tragedy, we remain committed to creating hope – because we believe that healing begins with community, compassion, and care.
The clinic will be fully operational on Monday, it added.
“This moment has shaken us – but it has not stopped us. We will continue to serve with strength, love, and the hope that brings new life into the world,” the statement concluded.
Image: Pic: ABC7 Los Angeles/AP
The Palm Springs city government said in a post on Facebook that the explosion happened on North Indian Canyon Drive, near East Tachevah Drive, before 11am local time (6pm GMT).
A burned-out car can be seen in a parking lot behind the building in aerial footage.
The blast caved in the clinic’s roof and blew debris across four lanes of the road.
Another person said he was inside a cannabis dispensary nearby when he felt a massive explosion.
Nima Tabrizi said: “The building just shook, and we go outside and there’s massive cloud smoke.”
Investigators from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are travelling to the scene to help assess what happened.
California governor Gavin Newsom has been briefed on the explosion, his press office said.
A former FBI director has been interviewed by the US Secret Service over a social media post that Republicans say was a call for violence against President Donald Trump.
James Comey, who led the FBI from 2013 until he was fired in 2017 by Mr Trump during his first term in office, shared a photo of seashells appearing to form the numbers “86 47”.
Image: James Comey later removed the Instagram post. File pic: AP
He captioned the Instagram post: “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.”
Some have interpreted the post as a threat, alleging that 86 47 means to violently remove Mr Trump from office, including by assassination.
What does ’86 47′ mean?
The number 86 can be used as a verb in the US. It commonly means “to throw somebody out of a bar for being drunk or disorderly”.
One recent meaning of the term is “to kill”, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, which said it had not adopted this meaning of 86 “due to its relative recency and sparseness of use”.
The number has previously been used in a political context by Matt Gaetz, who was President Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general but withdrew from consideration following a series of sexual misconduct allegations.
Mr Gaetz wrote: “We’ve now 86’d…” and listed political opponents he had sparred with who ended up stepping down.
Meanwhile, 47 is supposedly representing Mr Trump, who is the 47th US president.
Mr Comey later removed the post, saying he thought the numbers “were a political message” and that he was not aware that the numeric arrangement could be associated with violence.
“I didn’t realise some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me, but I oppose violence of any kind, so I took the post down,” Mr Comey said.
Mr Trump rejected the former FBI director’s explanation, telling Fox News: “He knew exactly what that meant. A child knows what that meant… that meant assassination.”
Donald Trump Jr accused Mr Comey of “casually calling for my dad to be murdered”.
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US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed in a post on X that Mr Comey had been interviewed as part of “an ongoing investigation” but gave no indication of whether he might face further action.
The Secret Service is part of the Department of Homeland Security.
White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich said Mr Comey had put out “what can clearly be interpreted as a hit on the sitting president of the United States”.
“This is deeply concerning to all of us and is being taken seriously,” Mr Budowich wrote on X.
Another White House official James Blair said the post was a “Clarion Call (…) to terrorists & hostile regimes to kill the President of the United States as he travels in the Middle East”.
Mr Trump fired Mr Comey in May 2017 for botching an investigation into 2016 democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, the White House said at the time.
While Mr Comey was the director of the FBI, the agency opened an investigation into possible collusion between the Trump 2016 presidential campaign and Russia to help get Mr Trump elected.