MMA was once used to curry favor with Putin. Now, Trump is using the UFC to project a nationalist cult of masculinity

Ten years ago – before I became an investigative journalist – I found myself working as a color commentator for a Russian mixed martial arts organization bankrolled by an oligarch deep in Vladimir Putin’s orbit.

The job took me around the Russian Federation and its neighboring states, allowing me to pursue unique stories that would otherwise have been out of my reach. I met a Latvian fighter who escaped a black magic cult run by his coach, attended an MMA show with the president of Ingushetia (now Russia’s deputy minister of defence) and knocked back vodka shots with ex-KGB officers and Russian oligarchs.

President also says he may visit Xi Jinping or Chinese leader could come to US after Trump last month extended app sale deadline for third time

Donald Trump has said he will start talking to China on Monday or Tuesday about a possible TikTok deal.

The United States president said the US “pretty much” had a deal on the sale of the TikTok short-video app.

US is on the brink of launching a trade assault on dozens of countries as 90-day pause on tariffs is set to end on 9 July

When Donald Trump unveiled his “liberation day” tariffs in the spring, only to pull the plug days later as panic tore through global markets, his officials scrambled to present the climbdown as temporary.

Three months of frenetic talks would enable the Trump administration to strike dozens of trade agreements with countries across the world, they claimed. “We’re going to run,” the White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told Fox Business Network. “Ninety deals in 90 days is possible.”

As the president’s attacks are met with a distinct lack of resistance, critics warn that freedom of the press is eroding in plain sight

Bernie Sanders, the venerable democratic socialist senator from Vermont, was not in a mood to pull punches.

“Trump is undermining our democracy and rapidly moving us towards authoritarianism, and the billionaires who care more about their stock portfolios than our democracy are helping him do it,” he fumed in a statement last week.

To truly understand the president’s style of rule, we must go beyond Scandinavian sagas and Sicilian crime lore

Ever since Donald Trump returned to power, pundits have struggled to find apt analogies for his style of governance. Some liken his loyalty demands, patronage networks and intimidation tactics to the methods of a mafia don. Others cast him as a feudal overlord, operating a personality cult rooted in charisma and bound by oaths, rewards and threats rather than laws and institutions. A growing number of artists and AI creatives are depicting him as a Viking warrior. And of course, fierce debates continue over whether the moment has arrived for serious comparisons with fascist regimes.

While some of these analogies may offer a degree of insight, they are fundamentally limited by their Eurocentrism – as if 21st-century US politics must still be interpreted solely through the lens of old-world history. If we truly want to understand what is unfolding, we must move beyond Scandinavian sagas and Sicilian crime lore.

David Van Reybrouck is philosopher laureate for the Netherlands and Flanders. His books include Congo: The Epic History of a People and Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World

Bill slashes federal safety-net programs and increases funds for aggressive immigration enforcement

Donald Trump signed his sweeping spending package into law on Friday during a Fourth of July picnic at the White House, significantly cutting back on federal safety-net programs and increasing funds for aggressive immigration enforcement.

During the picnic, Trump gloated about the bill’s passing. “It’s the most popular bill ever signed in the history of the country,” Trump said, while standing next to his wife, Melania Trump. “What we’ve done is put everything into one bill. We’ve never had anything like that before.”

EU says it ‘favours a negotiated solution’ but is prepared for potential trade war with retaliatory duties

Donald Trump threatened to impose 17% tariffs on food and farm produce exports from Europe during talks in Washington this week, it has emerged.

Such tariffs would hit everything from Belgian chocolate to Kerrygold butter from Ireland and olive oil from Italy, Spain and France, all big sellers in the US.