US Politics As It Happened: Argentina’s president makes new claim on UK territory

There's a lot to take in here.

One of Trump's cabinet secretaries has posted a very strange AI-generated image on his official X account.

Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr posted an image of himself appearing to feed a smiling JD Vance a forkful of sauerkraut.

In the background, Secretary of State Marco Rubio looks on, clutching a Pop-Tart. 

The image is captioned: "Join the party, Secretary Rubio".

It comes after Vance credited Kennedy with helping him lose weight at a press conference earlier on Friday.

Sirens sounded in Kuwait early on Thursday, where air defences intercepted missiles and drones during a “blatant Iranian aggression,” the Defence Ministry said in a post on X.

It came after US allies Bahrain and Jordan said their air defence systems also intercepted several Iranian air attacks Wednesday.

Fighting between the U.S. and Iran has increased this week after the US hit Iranian rocket launchers on an island in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday.

Argentina's President Javier Milei has inflamed tensions with the UK about the Falkland Islands.

In a televised address, Milei re-asserted the Falkland Islands are Argentinian territory.

He announced he would sanction any oil companies working off the coast of the islands.

"The Falklands are our future - we need to recover these islands which are nationally relevant," Milei said.

The islands, known as the Islas Malvinas in Argentina, have long been a UK territory.

But Argentina's claims to the island have grown more strident in recent years after the discovery of oil off the coast.

In a referendum held in 2013, 99.8 per cent of Falkland Islanders voted to remain as an overseas territory of the UK.

Just three voters opted against staying in the UK.

The two nations went to war in 1982 over the islands, in a two-month conflict that resulted in a British victory.

Vice President JD Vance could provide neither a timeline for the Iran war to end nor a date when gas prices might sink below pre-war levels during a White House appearance Thursday, suggesting instead it was up to Iran to conclude the conflict that began with joint US-Israeli airstrikes six months ago.

The current hostilities shouldn’t even be called a “war,” Vance argued, since “active combat operations” ended months ago.

“Right now, there is no active shooting,” Vance insisted, despite three consecutive days this week when the US and Iran exchanged fire, including around the Strait of Hormuz.

US President Donald Trump raised doubts about whether the United States would support Britain in another conflict over the Falkland Islands in an interview with a British broadcaster aired Thursday, injecting new tension into the long-standing dispute over the British-controlled archipelago also claimed by Argentina.

Trump’s comments came as his ideological ally, Argentine President Javier Milei, prepared to deliver a televised national address about what his government has described as diplomatic progress over the islands that lie about 480 kilometres (300 miles) off Argentina’s coast in the South Atlantic.

When asked in an interview with British television channel GB News whether the US would “come to the aid” of Britain in a new conflict over the territory, Trump avoided answering directly.

“Well, look, I was there when they had the first war,” Trump said of the 10-week conflict that erupted in April 1982, when Argentina’s waning military dictatorship invaded the islands and then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher sent British naval forces across the Atlantic to retake them.

The war killed 649 Argentine troops, 255 British service members and three islanders.

“That was a long time ago and I watched it so carefully, and you comported yourselves very well,” Trump added.

“You took it back pretty strongly.”

Donald Trump has taken aim at journalists reporting that US stocks of critical air-defence missiles are falling critically low.

Taking to Truth Social, Trump described the reporters as “treasonous SCUM” and said that the US has “virtually unlimited amounts of mid to high grade ammunition”.

“We are producing munitions at levels never seen before. We are stockpiling and preparing for any contingency that could happen,” he wrote.

The post then concluded with a jab at former president Joe Biden, who he accused of giving away munitions to Ukraine.

“The Biden Administration gave far more Munitions away to Ukraine, at no cost to them, whatsoever, than we have used in Iran,” he said.

“Hundreds of Billions of Dollars was given to Ukraine and NATO, free of charge, that Europe would have paid for — If they were only asked, but we will be asking for that money, though somewhat belatedly!”

The Trump administration said Thursday that excavation work will start over the next two weeks on the site where it plans to build a towering, gilded arch, a project that is facing a lawsuit and that critics say will disrupt historic sightlines in Washington, D.C.

The proposed arch is one of several projects the Republican president is pursuing to leave his lasting imprint on Washington, including renaming and renovating the Kennedy Centre, building a huge new White House ballroom, refurbishing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and rebuilding a golf course in East Potomac Park that could significantly reduce the public’s access to running and biking paths.

“This will be one of the Great Pieces of American Architecture,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum wrote on X, “befitting the most powerful Capital in the World.”

Along with the announcement on X, Burgum posted artistic mockups of the planned 250-foot-tall (76-meter) memorial arch, which will stand between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.

US President Donald Trump has doubled down on his criticism of Harry and Meghan, less than a day after he said he was “happy” that they had left America.

In an interview with GB News, Trump said he thought comments made by Harry in his book Spare were “terrible”, and if he were king, he would never speak to them again.

“Personally, I would not have taken him back,” Trump told the network.

He added that “bad things had been said” and that there was “too much hate”.

The comments come soon after Trump was asked about Harry and Meghan’s return to the UK, where he told reporters in the Oval Office he was happy they were gone.

“I’m happy about it,” Trump told reporters yesterday.

“I was not a fan. And I thought they treated the royal family with great disrespect.”

Welcome to our coverage of the Middle East war and US politics.

US President Donald Trump has doubled down in his criticism of Harry and Meghan, telling the BBC the couple treated the Royal Family with “great disrespect”.

Meanwhile, observers have been shocked by the rusty appearance of the USS Abraham Lincoln when it pulled into port in Thailand on Wednesday.Thank you for reading.