Donald Trump to meet UK prime minister Keir Starmer in Scotland with trade deal on the agenda – US politics live

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The national congress of Palau has said it “cannot accept” a United States proposal for the Pacific Islands nation to accept asylum seekers from third countries, as its president holds annual funding talks in Washington.

Palau’s national congress wrote to president Surangel Whipps Jr earlier this month urging him to reject the request by the Trump administration.

A letter signed by Senate president Hokkon Boules and House of Delegates speaker Gibson Kanai, viewed by Reuters, said the congress strongly supports Palau’s partnership with the United States, but “cannot accept this specific proposal”.

Palau, with a population of 17,000, has a compact of free association with the United States providing economic assistance in return for allowing the US military access to its territory.

“We advise against proceeding further on this matter only because of the practical issues that the introduction of refugees would raise in our society,” said the letter, dated 21 July.

Top US and Chinese economic officials will begin the latest round of trade negotiations in Stockholm on Monday afternoon local time at the Rosenbad government office, a source familiar with the planning of the talks said.

Discussions are continuing regarding any tariff exemptions for the wines and spirits sectors in the framework trade deal between the European Union and United States, a senior European Commission official said on Monday.

The official added that talks in this regard were more advanced in the spirits sector, as opposed to the wines sector.

Trump and Starmer to meet in Scotland with trade deal on the agenda

Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.

We start with the news that president Donald Trump will host the British prime minister Keir Starmer at his golf resort in western Scotland on Monday for talks ranging from their recent bilateral trade deal to the worsening hunger crisis in Gaza, the two governments said.

Trump, riding high after announcing a huge trade agreement with the European Union late on Sunday, said he expected Starmer would also be pleased, Reuters reported.

“The prime minister of the UK, while he’s not involved in this, will be very happy because you know, there’s a certain unity that’s been brought there, too,” Trump said. “He’s going to be very happy to see what we did.”

Starmer had hoped to negotiate a drop in U.S. steel and aluminium tariffs as part of the talks, but Trump on Sunday ruled out any changes in the 50% steel and aluminium duties for the EU, and has said the trade deal with Britain is “concluded”

British business and trade minister Jonathan Reynolds told the BBC the talks with Trump offered Britain a good chance to advance its arguments, but he did not expect announcements on the issue on Monday.

Trump and Starmer were expected to meet at 12pm BST (7am ET) at Trump’s luxury golf resort in Turnberry, on Scotland’s west coast, before travelling on together later to a second sprawling estate owned by Trump in the east, near Aberdeen, where he is due to arrive at 5.25pm.

Hundreds of police officers were guarding the perimeter of the Turnberry course and the beach that flanks it, with a helicopter hovering overhead, although there was no sign of protesters outside the course.

Starmer was arriving from Switzerland, where England on Sunday won the women’s European football championship final.

In other developments:

• Donald Trump has announced a tariff deal with the European Union to end months of difficult negotiations between Washington and Brussels after meeting the European Commission chief, Ursula von der Leyen, at his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland. “This is really the biggest trading partnership in the world so we should give it a shot,” the president said before the private meeting started.

• US House speaker Mike Johnson said he would have “great pause” about granting a pardon or commutation to Ghislaine Maxwell while Kentucky Republican representative Thomas Massie said a pardon should be on the table for the jailed Epstein confidante if she were to give helpful information around the Epstein case.

• A top US medical body has expressed “deep concern” to Robert F Kennedy Jr over news reports that the health secretary plans to overhaul a panel that determines which preventive health measures, including cancer screenings, should be covered by insurance companies. The letter from the the American Medical Association comes after the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Kennedy plans to overhaul the 40-year old US preventive services task force because he regards it as too “woke”, according to sources.

• Thai and Cambodian leaders will meet on Monday for talks to end hostilities, Thailand said, after pressure from Donald Trump to end a deadly border dispute.