Trump says Pretti and Good were ‘not angels’ while signalling ‘softer touch’ on immigration crackdown – US politics live

President addresses deaths in Minneapolis during NBC interview, claiming ‘nobody feels worse about shootings than ICE agents’Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.Donald Trump said the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis were both sad incidents that “should not have happened,” but nobody feels worse about both shootings than ICE agents.The second day of US-brokered talks between negotiators from Moscow and Kyiv have been taking place in Abu Dhabi. The discussions come amid increased Russian attacks on Ukraine’s power grid and a continuing war of attrition.The Trump administration says it wants to create a critical minerals trading bloc with its allies and partners in order to counter China’s stronghold. This would use tariffs to shore up supplies of critical minerals needed for electric vehicles, missiles and other hi-tech products.The British prime minister Keir Starmer has apologised to Epstein victims for giving Peter Mandelson the US ambassador job. Starmer says Mandelson portrayed Epstein as someone he barely knew. He expressed regret for believing Mandelson’s lies and appointing him.The US Justice Department is under fire for revealing information about Epstein’s victims, and hiding the identities of alleged perpetrators, CNN reports. Survivors have accused the DoJ for “botching” the release of the three million documents which came out last week. Continue reading...