Trump fires top US general in Pentagon shakeup

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Weekend Briefing

From Reuters Daily Briefing

By Robert MacMillan, Reuters.com Weekend Editor

Welcome to the Weekend Briefing. See below for our coverage of the Friday-night purge at the Pentagon and our preview on Sunday's election in Germany. Our World News podcast examines Saudi Arabia's role in global diplomacy, and our latest edition of City Memo takes you to New Delhi. Before you read anything else, dive into this story about an unexpected flourishing of the arts under Syria's new Islamist government.

Trump fires top U.S. general in Pentagon shakeup

C.Q. Brown. REUTERS/Anna Rose Layden

Out: President Trump fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, and pushed out five other admirals and generals, including the first woman to lead the Navy. He said he would nominate former Lieutenant General Dan "Razin" Caine to succeed Brown. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in his most recent book questioned whether Brown would have gotten the job if he were not Black. The Pentagon said it would cut 5,400 jobs as part of Trump's drive to slash the federal workforce, a day after some Republican lawmakers faced jeers, boos and catcalls from constituents angry about the aggressive effort.
Chainsaw: Most Americans worry that Elon Musk's push to slash the government could hurt services their communities need, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. The IRS is preventing one of Musk's DOGE aides from getting access to individual taxpayer returns and other personal information. It also is firing about 6,000 employees. Trump said Musk was the head of DOGE after White House officials in a court filing earlier in the week said he wasn't.

The presidential deportation numbers

Early days? Trump's first month in office saw 37,660 deportations, far fewer than the monthly average of 57,000 during the last full year of the Biden administration. A Homeland Security spokesperson said the Biden numbers were artificially high. The acting head of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement was reassigned.
Money: The administration released $5.3 billion in frozen foreign aid, most of it for security and counternarcotics programs and little for humanitarian help. The freeze has upended the supply chain for medical products needed to fight the spread of HIV and malaria.

**Trump changes course on Ukraine, says Russia did invade**

Long week: Trump reversed course on Friday and said Russia did in fact invade Ukraine, though he suggested that it was Ukraine's fault. He also said Kyiv would soon sign a minerals agreement with the U.S. as part of efforts to end the war. Trump on Tuesday said Ukraine "should have never started" the war. He also called President Volodymyr Zelenskiy a dictator after Zelenskiy said Trump was trapped in a misinformation bubble. U.S. negotiators pressing for the minerals deal suggested cutting access to Musk's Starlink satellite Internet system as a pressure tactic after Zelenskiy rejected the U.S.' initial offer.
And in Germany: Snap elections are coming on Sunday after the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's three-way coalition. I usually prefer to read my news instead of look at it, but if you're wondering why you would care about German politics and how Germany got from the vanquishing of the Nazis to a point where people are taking the far-right AfD party seriously, this excellent graphic story will tell you what you need to know.

Israel and Hamas exchange prisoners and hostages

Latest: Hamas freed five hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees after Israel confirmed that a body handed over was that of hostage Shiri Bibas. Hamas' incorrect identification of a body it released earlier this week as Bibas threatened to derail the Gaza ceasefire deal. Hamas blamed Israel for the mistake, and said the hostages' bodies that they paraded in their coffins were killed in Israeli airstrikes. Israel's military said Hamas militants killed Bibas' young sons "with their bare hands."
Operations: Benjamin Netanyahu told the military to carry out an "intensive" campaign in the West Bank after explosions on buses close to Tel Aviv. And Arab nations are trying to come up with a diplomatic offensive to counter Trump's plan for a Gaza Strip riviera.

Before I forget…

Thai authorities are cracking down on scam centers on the border with Myanmar, where criminal gangs have forced hundreds of thousands of people to work in illegal online operations.
A South Korean court found four former government officials guilty of forcibly repatriating two North Korean fishermen in 2019, despite their intention to defect.
New Zealand's foreign minister said his country must "reset" its relationship with the Cook Islands after the Cooks signed agreements with China without consultation.
French far-right leader Jordan Bardella canceled his speech at a conservative conference in Washington after saying that former Trump adviser Steve Bannon made a Nazi salute during his own speech.

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