Replacement

Leavitt’s departure three months before midterms raises questions over who will communicate Trump’s messages as his approval rating falls to record low, says YouGov pollingHello and welcome to the US politics live blog.White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s decision to step down from the role comes less than three months before the midterm elections.The two most senior members of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, secretary of state Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, flew out of last month’s Nato summit in Turkey on what was effectively a decoy plane after an Iranian threat, while Trump was secretly moved to a smaller military jet, a senior US official said Wednesday. Continue reading...

• Manchester City is reportedly targeting Lille and Morocco midfielder Ayyoub Bouaddi as a potential long-term replacement for Rodri. • Bouaddi is regarded as one of the top young talents globally, making him a high-priority target for the Premier League champions. • The move is strategically significant as City seeks to secure a high-caliber successor to maintain their midfield dominance.

• CBS Sports announced on Friday that lead NFL color commentator Tony Romo has been placed on indefinite leave. • Former NFL star JJ Watt, a three-time Defensive Player of the Year with 114.5 career sacks, has been named as Romo's replacement. • This sudden transition marks a significant shift in the network's primary broadcasting team for NFL coverage.

• Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has died suddenly at the age of 71, leaving Congress in mourning. • His death creates a critical vacancy for Senate Republicans, who currently hold a narrow 52-47 majority amid ongoing uncertainty regarding Mitch McConnell's health. • The loss is particularly impactful for acting attorney general Todd Blanche, who relied on Graham's support for his Senate judiciary committee confirmation hearing this Wednesday.

Deutsche Bahn widely criticised after hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded in operator’s latest setbackGermany’s rail network ground to a halt late on Tuesday as a result of maintenance work that went wrong, leaving hundreds of thousands of passengers unable to get home as the national operator faced widespread criticism over the chaos.The Deutsche Bahn (DB) meltdown was initially thought to have been caused by a cyber-attack, but it later emerged that it was likely to have been triggered by a scheduled attempt to replace an ageing component in the railway’s internal communication network, without which the trains are unable to run. Continue reading...

• J. Ricardo Martins argues that the "Geneva fiasco" demonstrates the danger of replacing professional diplomats with business-oriented dealmakers in international relations. • The author contends that these dealmakers mistakenly viewed compromise as weakness, which escalated a negotiable crisis into an active conflict with Iran. • This shift is framed as a broader geopolitical risk, threatening the traditional American diplomatic strengths of credibility, predictability, and professional competence.

• The "Geneva fiasco" highlights the risks of replacing professional diplomats with business dealmakers who misinterpret diplomatic compromise as weakness. • This shift in approach transformed a negotiable crisis into an active conflict with Iran, undermining traditional diplomatic strategies. • The situation signals a broader geopolitical decline in American diplomacy, which has historically relied on credibility, predictability, and professional competence.