Trump dominates Oval Office discussion with Starmer

Hello. US President Donald Trump is hosting UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the White House. My colleagues bring you first impressions of their meeting and the latest from their news conference. After controversial influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan landed in Florida, Mike Wendling explains what links the pair, who deny various criminal charges that they face in the UK and in Romania, to the White House. And finally, scientists discover how the Vesuvius eruption in 79 AD turned a man's brain into glass.

TOP OF THE AGENDA

Key topics in Starmer's White House visit

Starmer handed Trump an invitation from King Charles to a "historic second state visit", which he gladly accepted. Credit: Reuters

President Trump and Prime Minister Starmer exchanged warm cordialities as they met reporters ahead of their meeting, but it was clear Trump dominated the conversation. It's a pattern we've now seen six times with foreign leaders at the White House, writes Bernd Debusmann Jr, in which Trump takes the opportunity to get across his own messages on both domestic and international issues. Asked if he still thought Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky was a dictator, Trump replied: "Did I say that? I can't believe I said that". Regardless of the outcome of talks about the war in Ukraine, Starmer might be able to claim at least one win. Trump suggested he would support the UK's plan to give up control of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius while keeping a shared UK-US military base there.

GET UP TO SPEED

YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

The White House's links to Tate brothers

Romanian prosecutors say their case has not been dropped - and the brothers are expected to return to the country. Credit: BBC

Brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate have landed in Florida, after Romanian prosecutors agreed to their request to leave. The brothers were arrested in Romania in 2022 and face trial on allegations of rape, trafficking minors and money laundering - all of which they deny. The dual British and American citizens are facing separate, unrelated charges of rape and human trafficking in the UK, which they also deny.

Why is this happening now?

Today’s news was preceded by a diplomatic effort on behalf of Donald Trump’s White House. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Trump said he knows nothing about the Tate brothers' release. But US officials had brought up the case with the Romanian government earlier this month, as first reported by the Financial Times. And Trump envoy Richard Grenell raised the issue again a little over a week ago, at a security conference in Munich.

How did the case reach the White House?

One of Tate’s lawyers now works in the White House as a liaison to the US Justice Department. Paul Ingrassia was part of a team representing the Tate brothers in a defamation lawsuit they filed against several of their alleged victims. But Ingrassia also acted as Andrew Tate’s publicist and says he got the self-described misogynist influencer onto a show hosted by Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host.

How have the Tate brothers' alleged victims reacted?

Four women who allege they were sexually abused by Andrew Tate have said they are in "disbelief and feel re-traumatised" by the news. In a joint statement, they said: "It is clear that he will now not face criminal prosecution for his alleged crimes in Romania; he will use it as an opportunity to harass further and intimidate witnesses and his accusers, and he will continue to spread his violent, misogynistic doctrine around the world." Their lawyer Matthew Jury told the BBC the Trump administration was "interfering in due process" in Romania and the UK.

And finally... in Herculaneum

Nearly 2,000 years after a young man died in the Vesuvius volcanic eruption, scientists have discovered that his brain was preserved when it turned to glass in an extremely hot cloud of ash. Fragments as big as 2cm were found during an excavation in 2020. Take a look.