Donald Trump on Tuesday declared that his administration was “just getting started”, after a radical start to his presidency that has seen his administration slash the size of the federal workforce, upend longstanding American alliances and rattle markets with an escalating trade war.

“America is back,” Trump declared, opening the his primetime speech to a joint session of Congress, the first of his second term. Republicans broke into a boisterous chant of “USA”.

A jocular Trump touted his administration’s “swift and unrelenting action” and praised the work of his billionaire adviser, Elon Musk, who has led his administration’s efforts to dramatically downsize the federal government through his so-called “department of government efficiency”. “Thank you, Elon,” Trump said, gesturing to Musk, who was seated in the House gallery overlooking the chamber where Democrats held signs that read “Musk steals”. He said his administration was in the process of “reclaiming the Panama Canal” and repeated his threat to take control of Greenland: “One way or the other, we’re going to get it.”

Trump seized the high-profile moment to defend his actions to date, including nearly 100 executive orders and more than 400 executive actions, according to his tally. With performative flair, Trump offered a sampling of initiatives he said Musk’s team had identified as wasteful, among them the creation of an Arab Sesame Street, “making mice transgender” and promoting LGBTQ+ rights in Lesotho, the African country he said “nobody has ever heard of”.

“This is real,” he exclaimed, drawing laughs from the crowd.

Early in the night, as Trump bragged about the size of his electoral college and popular vote victory – “a map that reads almost completely red for Republican” – Democrats heckled and booed, prompting House Speaker Mike Johnson to bang his gavel and demand decorum. “You don’t have a mandate,” shouted Representative Al Green, Democrat of Texas, who was escorted out after refusing to be seated. Last month, Green filed articles of impeachment against Trump.

Trump claimed a mandate for “bold and profound change”, though his 1.5 point popular vote was the smallest margin of victory for any successful presidential candidate since Richard Nixon in 1968.

Trump’s address to Congress came just hours after he launched a trade war against three of its top trading partners that sent financial markets spiraling and raised fresh concerns of inflation. Just after midnight on Tuesday, the US slapped 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada and doubled to 20% the levy he imposed on Chinese products last month. Trump vowed a tit-for-tat retaliation – “whatever they tariff us, we tariff them” – and insisted the new levies would grow the economy and create jobs, even as economists warn the polices could harm consumers and make inflation worse.

“Tariffs are about making America rich again and making America great again,” Trump said, adding a caveat: “There’ll be a little disturbance, but we’re OK with that. It won’t be much.”

He blamed the soaring price of eggs on his predecessor’s energy policies while pledging his “National ENERGY Emergency” would help usher in a new era of domestic drilling.

In accordance with tradition, Trump’s arrival in the chamber was announced by the sergeant-at-arms. As he walked to the dais, Trump appeared to revel in the cacophonous applause of Congressional Republicans, who have declined to reign in the president even as he threatens their authority as an independent branch of government.

Seated behind Trump was his vice-president, JD Vance and Johnson.

Past presidents have used the first major speech as an opportunity to reach across party lines and appeal to their critics. But Trump did the opposite. He called Joe Biden the “worst president in American history” and claimed new tech investments wouldn’t have happened if Kamala Harris had won the 2024 election.

“Why not join us in celebrating so many incredible wins for America,” Trump chided Democrats, many of whom sat stone-faced in the chamber.

Trump ticked through many of his actions, from renaming the Gulf of Mexico to making English the official language of the United States and banning trans women from women’s sports.

“Our country will be woke no longer,” he declared.

The speech was riddled with falsehoods and misleading claims, including a riff about millions of centenarians aged “110 to 119” receiving social security benefits.

“We have a healthier country than I thought, Bobby,” he quipped, referencing Robert F Kennedy Jr, his recently installed secretary of Health and Human Services, who leads the vaccine-skeptical “Make America Healthy Again” movement.

The 15 guests who joined Melania Trump, the first lady, to watch the address included the widow and daughter of Corey Comperatore, the firefight who was killed at the campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where Trump survived an assassination attempt as well as Marc Fogel, the American teacher that Trump helped free from a Russian prison last month. Other guests were intended to highlight the administrations’ policies, including family members of Americans killed by men in the US without legal status and anti-trans advocates.

The House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, had encouraged his members to attend the address in order to demonstrate a “strong, determined and dignified Democratic presence in the chamber”. Many did attend, bringing fired federal workers and Americans who rely on social safety net programs threatened by Republicans’ budget proposal.

But several Democrats chose to skip the event, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who instead shared her live reactions to the speech on the social media platform BlueSky. Ahead of the address, several Congressional Democrats and elected officials joined a virtual pre-buttal, “Calling BS,” to slam the Trump administration’s actions so far.

“I don’t need to legitimize his lies by being in the room,” Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut said on the livestream, adding that Democrats need to make clear that the president is “transparently and brazenly lying to the American people”.

Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts said he plans to attend Trump’s speech as a way to show solidarity with Americans who are “rejecting Donald Trump’s hateful vising for our country”.

When the speech concludes, the newly elected Democratic senator Elissa Slotkin of battleground Michigan will deliver the party’s formal rebuttal after Trump speaks.

Trump is also likely to expand on his “America First” foreign policy vision, just days after a dramatic Oval Office meeting with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, spiraled out of control as Trump and Vance berated him over a perceived lack of respect.

With the future of US support for Ukraine hanging in the balance, Zelenskyy on Tuesday proposed a possible peace plan to end the war in Ukraine, saying he is willing to work “constructively” under Trump’s “strong leadership” and that his country was prepared to sign a deal granting the US access to its critical minerals.

In his remarks, Trump said the US would take “historic action to dramatically expand production of critical minerals and rare earths” and said he was working “tirelessly” to end the “savage conflict in Ukraine”.

Trump delivered the speech from the House chamber, where lawmakers scrambled for makeshift weapons as a mob of the president overran the Capitol and attempted to break down the doors on 6 January 2021. After his inauguration, the president issued pardons for 1,500 people involved in the attack, including those convicted of violently assaulting Capitol police officers.

House speaker Mike Johnson ordered Texas representative Al Green removed from the House chamber on Tuesday night after the congressman repeatedly interrupted Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress on Tuesday, shouting: “He has no mandate.”

As the president started his speech by discussing his electoral victory, Democrats heckled and booed. When Green refused to sit down, Johnson directed the sergeant-at-arms to remove him. Republican lawmakers responded by chanting “Hey Hey Hey Goodbye”.

The 78-year-old Green, who filed articles of impeachment against Trump last month, was then forcibly removed as Trump continued his speech.

The removal of an elected politician by the sergeant-at-arms during either a joint address to Congress or a State of the Union address appears to be an extremely rare, if not unprecedented, event in modern congressional history.

A veteran congressman from Houston, Green has long been a critic of Trump, becoming the first member of Congress to call for his impeachment as early as 2017.

Representing a predominantly African American district, Green has been a vocal advocate for civil rights and presidential accountability throughout Trump’s tenure.

During Trump’s speech some other Democrats held up signs that read slogans such as “Musk steals” – in reference to Elon Musk, the tech billionaire tasked by Trump with slashing the federal government – and “false” and “save Medicare”.

One other Democrat, congresswoman Melanie Stansbury, held up a sign that said simply: “This is not normal.” Lance Gooden, Republican congressman from Texas, grabbed the sign and threw it in the air.

Even after his ejection, Green remained defiant.

“It’s worth it to let people know that there are some people who are going to stand up” to Trump, Green told the White House press pool, adding that he wasn’t sure if he’d face any formal punishment for his protest.

Trump’s first address to Congress since returning to the White House marks his first major speech six weeks into a presidency that has seen the president empowering Elon Musk to dramatically downsize the federal workforce, threatening American’s allies with tariffs and coddling longtime American foes.

His administration has initiated sweeping mass layoffs of federal employees, mobilized officers from nearly every federal law enforcement agency and the US military to carry out his campaign promise of mass deportations, and rattled Europe with his pursuit of a peace deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine on terms preferential to Moscow.

Arab leaders have endorsed a $53bn (£42bn) plan to rebuild Gaza under the future administration of the Palestinian Authority (PA), in a rushed attempt to present an alternative to Donald Trump’s idea for a property development-style plan.

Trump’s suggestion involved a relocation of the Palestinian population that has been widely criticised as effectively endorsing ethnic cleansing.

The prospect of the PA governing Gaza remains far from certain, however, with Israel having ruled out any future role for the body, and Trump having closed the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) liaison office in Washington during his first term while stepping up support for Israel.

In response, the Israeli foreign ministry said the reconstruction plan “failed to address” the realities of the situation following Hamas’ 7 October attack, adding that it did not mention the killing and kidnapping of Israelis during the attack or criticise Hamas.

Hamas, however, called for provision of the means to ensure the plan’s success and considered the summit a “step forward” for Arab and Islamic support behind the Palestinian cause.

The new proposal, presented at an Arab League summit in Cairo, focused on emergency relief, rebuilding shattered infrastructure and long-term economic development.

The Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, said in opening remarks at the summit that his government’s reconstruction plan would ensure Palestinians can “remain on their land”. Later, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said the world body stood ready to “fully cooperate”.

In a final communique, the summit announced the adoption of a “comprehensive Arab plan”, urging the international community to offer its support.

It said that “all these efforts are proceeding in parallel with the launch of a political track” towards Palestinian statehood, which Israeli leaders have opposed.

The summit called on Palestinian representation to be unified under the PLO, an umbrella group that is the dominant political force within the PA – and which excludes Hamas.

In a 112-page document, the Egyptian government presented colourful AI-generated images of housing developments, gardens and community centres, with plans for a commercial harbour, a technology hub, beach hotels and an airport.

What the Egyptian proposal did not fully address was who would run the devastated territory, with a draft communique only mentioning what it called support for a Palestinian administrative committee.

Critically, it has also not received backing from Gaza’s occupying power: Israel. Previous economic plans for Gaza failed after they were stifled by Israel, which has blockaded and bombed the strip for years. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said he wants permanent, overarching control over all land in the Palestinian territories.

Meanwhile, inside the coastal strip, the Hamas group has been battered by 16 months of war but remains a political force, and is unlikely to agree to a process that excludes it.

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said the group rejected any attempt to impose projects on Palestinians.

“We are keen for the success of the summit, and we hope that there will be a call to reject the displacement and to protect the right of our people in resisting the occupation and governing itself away from any custodianship and intervention,” he added.

Hamas also released a statement on Tuesday calling for the Arab League summit in Cairo to “thwart” the relocation of Palestinians from Gaza.

“We look forward to an effective Arab role that ends the humanitarian tragedy created by the occupation in the Gaza Strip … and thwarts the [Israeli] occupation’s plans to displace [Palestinians],” it said.

The Egyptian plan did acknowledge the challenge posed by armed factions in Gaza but said the issue could be resolved through a “credible political process” that restores Palestinian rights and offers a clear path forward.

The military regime in Cairo and many other Arab states are outspoken on Israel’s violence but consider Islamist Hamas a threat. Cairo has long maintained a blockade on Gaza in coordination with Israel.

The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, who runs the western-backed Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank, attended the summit, although he has limited influence in Gaza.

Egypt’s plan also garnered backing from the United Nations secretary general, Guterres, who had previously warned of ethnic cleansing after Trump released his “Riveria of the Middle East” plan.

“I welcome and strongly endorse the Arab-led initiative to mobilise support for Gaza’s reconstruction, clearly expressed in this summit,” Guterres said at the summit. “The UN stands ready to fully cooperate in this endeavour.”

Guterres also called for the resumption “without delay” of negotiations on continuing a fragile ceasefire in Gaza. Israel has killed nearly 50,000 people while Hamas, which killed approximately 1,200 people during an attack that sparked the latest war, still holds Israeli hostages.

While the ceasefire remains in place, Arab states have rushed to present an alternative to Trump’s plan, which they fear would destabilise the entire region, especially if Palestinians in Gaza are forcibly ejected.

Trump has called for the US to effectively colonise Gaza and for its population to be displaced to neighbouring countries, including Jordan and Egypt, while the territory is “developed”.

“The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too,” he said. “We’ll own it.”

Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has proposed a possible peace plan to end the war in Ukraine, saying he is willing to work “constructively” under Donald Trump’s “strong leadership” and to sign a deal giving the US access to his country’s mineral wealth.

In an attempt to mend fences with Washington after Trump abruptly suspended supplies of military aid, Zelenskyy said on Tuesday he was “ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible”.

“I would like to reiterate Ukraine’s commitment to peace,” he wrote on X.

In an extraordinary turnaround, late on Tuesday both sides appeared to be close to signing a critical minerals deal that the White House has indicated is a precursor to peace talks, Reuters reported, underlining the chaotic nature of the relationship between Kyiv and Washington under Donald Trump.

Alarmed European leaders reaffirmed their backing for Kyiv on Tuesday as it emerged that Ukraine’s Nato allies had not been told in advance of the suspension of US aid.

A spokesperson for the Polish foreign ministry said Trump’s announcement “was made without any information or consultation, neither with Nato allies nor with the Ramstein group which is involved in supporting Ukraine”.

Meanwhile, Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, announced proposals to increase EU defence spending, which she said could raise up to €800bn ($848bn). “This is a moment for Europe, and we are ready to step up,” she said.

In his comments, Zelenskyy sketched out a plan for how the war might stop. The “first stages” could include a release of prisoners and a ban on missiles and long-range drones used to attack energy and civilian infrastructure. This “truce in the air” might be applied to the sea as well, he said, “if Russia will do the same”.

Zelenskyy’s post came hours after the Trump administration said it was blocking all deliveries of ammunition, vehicles and other equipment, including shipments agreed when Joe Biden was president.

He acknowledged his meeting on Friday with Trump and the US vice-president, JD Vance, “did not go the way it was supposed to”. He said: “It is regrettable it happened this way. It is time to make things right. We would like future cooperation and communication to be constructive.”

But his conciliatory comments appear to fall short of the grovelling apology demanded by the White House. Trump has accused Zelenskyy of disrespect, and the US president’s aides have claimed Zelenskyy provoked the row by insisting any peace deal had to come with security guarantees. Vance also repeatedly accused Ukraine’s president of ingratitude.

By way of response on Tuesday, Zelenskyy thanked Trump for providing Kyiv with Javelin missiles during his first presidential term. “We really do value how much America has done to help Ukraine maintain its sovereignty and independence,” he said.

On Tuesday, Vance denied that Trump wanted a public apology from Zelenskyy despite media reports to the contrary, saying that the “public stuff” did not matter as much as Ukrainian engagement toward a “meaningful settlement”.

“We need the Ukrainians privately to come to us and say: ‘This is what we need. This is what we want. This is how we’re going to participate in the process to end this conflict,’” Vance told reporters on Capitol Hill. “That is the most important thing, and that lack of private engagement is what is most concerning.”

US officials have said Zelenskyy and an adviser, Andriy Yermak, had sought the White House meeting despite the concerns of some Trump advisers who had said there was the potential for a clash. But there are also suspicions the White House was looking for a pretext to distance itself from Ukraine.

At a joint session of Congress on Tuesday evening, Trump is expected to propose plans to “restore peace around the world”. A White House official told Fox News he would “lay out his plans to end the war in Ukraine”, as well as plans to negotiate the release of hostages held in Gaza, the outlet reported.

Ukraine and the US were supposed to sign a minerals deal that would have resulted in the US investing in Ukraine’s underdeveloped minerals and mining sector. Trump has said the presence of US workers in Ukraine would be enough to deter Putin from future acts of aggression, with no further security promises needed.

Asked whether he believed there was still hope for the minerals deal, Vance responded: “Yeah, I certainly do.” He added: “And I think the president is still committed to the mineral deal. I think we’ve heard some positive things, but not yet, of course, a signature from our friends in Ukraine.”

Kyiv was ready to sign the deal “in any time and in any convenient format”, Zelenskyy indicated. “We see this agreement as a step toward greater security and solid security guarantees, and I truly hope it will work effectively,” he wrote.

“It’s a temporary pause and it’s to do a reset,” Mike Johnson, the speaker of the US House of Representatives, said of the suspension of US military aid. “I am heartened by the development that President Zelenskyy has indicated that he does want to do this deal after all … I certainly encourage that to happen and he needs to come and make right what happened last week – the shocking developments in the Oval Office – and if he does that then I think this is the win-win-win scenario for everyone involved.”

Moscow celebrated Trump’s decision to suspend military aid as “the best possible step towards peace”, with the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, saying the US had been “the main supplier of this war so far”.

Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, told a cabinet meeting in Warsaw that Europe faced unprecedented risks, including “the biggest in the last few decades when it comes to security”. Tusk said his government would have to make some “extraordinary” decisions. “A decision was announced to suspend the US aid for Ukraine, and perhaps start lifting sanctions on Russia. We don’t have any reason to think these are just words,” he said.

“This puts Europe, Ukraine, Poland in a more difficult situation,” Tusk said, adding that Warsaw was determined to “intensify activities in Europe to increase our defence capabilities” while maintaining the best possible relations with the US.

France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, said the US decision meant it was vital Europe helped Ukraine hold the frontline against Russia, which he said was “the first line of defence for Europe and France”. The time had come for Europe to drop its dependency on US weapons, he added. “We are faced with a choice that is imposed on us, between effort and freedom, or comfort and servitude,” he told MPs.

The French prime minister, François Bayrou, said the US decision to suspend weapons aid in wartime signalled that Washington was “abandoning Ukraine and letting the aggressor win” and that it was Europe’s responsibility to replace them.

Bayrou told parliament that Europeans “are going to have to think about our model, about our priorities and to look at the world differently … We have seen it is more dangerous than we had though, coming from those we thought were allies.”

Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, said: “Two things are now essential for peace through strength: additional aid – military and financial – for Ukraine, which is defending our freedom. And a quantum leap to strengthen our EU defence.”

EU leaders are scheduled to meet on Thursday to discuss a five-part, €800bn (£660bn) plan presented by the European commission to bolster Europe’s defence industry, increase military capability and help provide urgent military support for Ukraine.

• A Russian drone attack late on Tuesday killed one person and caused power, water and heating cuts in Odesa for the second day running, said the regional governor, Oleh Kiper. A 77-year-old woman died of shrapnel wounds on the outskirts of the city, he said, and drone strikes damaged critical infrastructure, leaving neighbourhoods without services.

• Kiper said fragments from downed drones had damaged private houses and started fires in outlying city districts. A missile strike had destroyed an empty sanatorium near the town of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, south of Odesa, he added.

• East of the capital, Kyiv, drones targeted a multi-storey apartment building near the town of Boryspil, smashing windows and triggering a fire in a business. Local officials reported no casualties.

• Zelenskyy has proposed a peace plan to end the war, saying he is willing to work “constructively” under Donald Trump’s “strong leadership” and to sign a deal giving the US access to Ukrainian mineral wealth. In an attempt to mend fences with Washington after Trump abruptly suspended supplies of military aid, Zelenskyy said on Tuesday he was “ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible … I would like to reiterate Ukraine’s commitment to peace”.

• Keir Starmer, the British prime minister, welcomed Zelenskyy’s “steadfast” commitment to securing peace in a phone call between the two leaders on Tuesday, his office said. Starmer told Zelenskyy “it was vital that all parties worked towards a lasting and secure peace for Ukraine as soon as possible”.

• The British defence minister, John Healey, will meet the US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, in Washington on Thursday to discuss a peace plan, according to Britain’s Ministry of Defence.

• The British foreign minister, David Lammy, on Tuesday said he had spoken to counterparts in France, Germany, Poland, Italy and Spain and that their determination to strike a peace deal remained clear. “We will step up and we are stepping up – together.”

• Germany’s likely next chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said on Tuesday that his CDU/CSU party and the Social Democrats would propose an unprecedented package of billions of euros in extra spending on defence and infrastructure. Merz also said he wanted to get immediate approval for a €3bn aid package for Ukraine that has been held up for weeks.

• Merz’s proposals would also mark a “sea change” and “a major loosening of Germany’s fiscal straitjacket”, said the Berenberg bank economist Holger Schmieding, noting the country’s longstanding avoidance of large public debts. Merz’s promise of “whatever it takes” recalled the pledge made in 2012 by the then president of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, during the sovereign debt crisis. Schmieding described Merz’s plans as “a really big bazooka”, the phrase used to describe the ECB’s interventions under Draghi.

• The German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, on Tuesday welcomed European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen’s plans to raise European defence funds as “an important first step”. “Two things are now essential for peace through strength: additional aid – military and financial – for Ukraine, which is defending our freedom. And a quantum leap to strengthen our EU defence,” Baerbock said.

Ukraine has been stockpiling arms and ammunition since before Donald Trump’s election victory last November, but over time the US president’s halting of military aid will be felt in air defence and other high-value weapons systems the US is uniquely placed to supply.

“They got a lot of kit in before the inauguration,” said a senior western official, adding that it would be enough to keep Ukraine in the fight “well beyond” what they described as the period during which ceasefire negotiations were expected to last.

A defence expert in Kyiv said Ukraine had a “safety margin of about six months” and could survive at least in the short term without US military assistance. “It will, of course, be much more difficult,” said Fedir Venislavsky, a Ukrainian MP and member of the Verkhovna Rada defence committee.

Though US military aid previously ran dry in early 2024 – because Republicans in the House of Representatives were declining to vote through new funding – a bumper package was voted through in April last year that allowed stockpiles to be built up during the final months of the Biden administration.

But the sheer size of US military aid since February 2022 means its absence will be felt. Since the start of the war, that has amounted to $31.7bn (£24.8bn) in arms and ammunition from stocks – plus additional funding for Ukraine to buy US-made weapons, taking the total to $65.9bn.

The aid has included everything from 500m rounds of ammunition for guns, small grenades, up to three Patriot air defence systems and 300 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, according to figures released by the White House on the last day of the Biden administration.

European military aid has been at similar levels, at €62bn (£51bn) since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and its current proportion has, according to Ukrainian military sources, increased to 25%, a greater proportion than the 20% from the US. The remainder is either made in Ukraine or bought directly by Ukraine.

However, “the cream” of the military aid, the western official said, came from the US. The most notable were Patriot air defence systems and their missiles, which are designed and made in the US. Once stocks of the interceptors dwindle, they will be impossible to replace, putting cities and strategic locations in Ukraine at risk.

Other critical areas could also be affected if the Trump administration goes further by halting the supply of long-range reconnaissance data to Ukraine, which is critical in helping Kyiv get early warnings of incoming glide bomb attacks, and to identify targets for deep strikes inside Russia.

Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service also provides day-to-day frontline communications for Ukraine via a contract with the Pentagon. This is critical to Ukraine’s war effort, for example linking up drone crews in networks of dugouts to each other and back to command centres, although it may be possible to replace it with a similar service from Europe’s Eutelsat.

In other areas, European military support is comfortably beyond that of the US. Europe is this year expected to produce 2m artillery shells for Ukraine, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies thinktank, compared with 850,000 from the US. But even with the US supply included, this is still below the anticipated 4m shells produced by Russia.

The question is whether such discrepancies will be decisive in Moscow’s favour. Russia’s seizure of Avdiivka on the eastern front in early 2024 was achieved with a 5 to 1 artillery advantage, according to the Institute of the Study of War – while its advance towards Pokrovsk stalled after the summer, partly after that advantage was reduced to 1.5 to 1.

Russia is advancing modestly at multiple points on the frontline, though the number of its casualties killed and wounded is in excess of 1,000 a day. Its rate of progress is now likely to increase, although in 2024, which included four months when Ukraine received no US military aid, Russia’s territorial gain amounted to 4,168 sq km (1,609 sq miles) of open fields and small towns – about 0.6% of the whole country.

On the frontline Ukraine and Russia make extensive use of drones, for surveillance and to carry out strikes. Ukraine’s drone production is now likely to increase further. Speaking last week, on the third anniversary of Moscow’s invasion, Ukraine’s defence minister, Rustem Umerov, said his country had become the “biggest drone manufacturer in the world”.

Small, home-assembled FPV drones and DJI Mavic drones from China are at the heart of Ukraine’s day-to-day war effort. It says it produces nearly 200,000 drones a month, with Russia at similar levels, and it is important to Kyiv that it maintains component supply, which comes largely from China.

Umerov said Ukrainian engineers were working intensively to expand the “kill zone” – the distance in which kamikaze drones could fly before hitting an enemy target. This included long-range drones used to destroy military facilities deep inside Russia to a depth of 1,700km (1,055 miles) – which is a cost-effective alternative to US-supplied Himars rocket artillery and Atacms missiles.

However, last month analysts at the International Institute for Strategic Studies concluded that Russia had the resources to continue fighting at current levels for at least another year without ordering a fresh mobilisation, even though Moscow has lost at least 172,000 troops killed and 611,000 wounded since the start of its invasion of Ukraine.

At the same time, Ukraine’s population is a third the size of Russia’s, and it has increasingly struggled with military recruitment as the war has dragged on. Ukraine has already lost 45,100 soldiers, with at least a further 12,340 civilians killed (this does not include figures for those who died at Mariupol during the Russian siege in 2022 or others who died in occupied areas).

Ukraine’s military capability will inevitably be dented by Trump’s decision to withdraw aid, but it still has the means to defend itself, with continuing European support. The result though is that the country is likely to suffer more casualties at a faster rate.

In the Four Quartets TS Eliot wrote “humankind cannot bear very much reality”.

At moments in history like these, when there is simply too much head-spinning change and too many postwar assumptions being ripped from their moorings, it sometimes appears too much for any human to absorb, let alone offer a response.

In particular in the weeks between JD Vance’s speech to the Munich security conference to the moment when Donald Trump cut off all US military aid to Ukraine, a concept is being tested – and possibly to destruction: that the US president remains open to European persuasion.

For many, the consequences of viewing Trump as more allied with Russia than Europe has simply been too momentous to contemplate. The belief in a close relationship between western Europe and the US that has dominated government policy in, for instance, Berlin, Helsinki, London and Rome is being put under intolerable strain.

The pressure is especially acute for Keir Starmer, much lauded for the calmness with which he has tried to retain focus on the essential objective of keeping the US in alliance with Europe over the sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.

The task is so difficult because the British military, political, intelligence and foreign policy establishment has made practical support for Ukraine a centrepiece of its Russian policy for over a decade. Now Britain’s greatest ally seems set on the destruction of that decade’s work. For the Foreign Office this is not just disorientating, but akin to suddenly living in a world without maps.

When Starmer was asked on Monday afternoon by the Scottish National party MP Stephen Flynn about reports that Trump was about to withdraw aid from Ukraine, the British prime minister replied he had not seen those reports, assuring “that is not their position”.

Not many hours later, Trump’s supposed confidant in Europe was on the phone to the US president – and Downing Street will not say whether he informed Starmer of his plan even then. Moreover, reports started appearing that the US was about to lift some sanctions on Russia, a step that would lift the siege on the Russian economy so painfully constructed over the past three years.

Trump’s steps are an undeniable reverse for Starmer, for the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and for all those cast in the role of “Trump whisperer” or bridge between Europe and Washington. But even now they insist there is no alternative but to remain engaged, and to urge Trump to understand his hectic timetable to a ceasefire benefits only Russia.

Yet late last week it appeared as if advocates of engagement were winning, since the Starmer trip to Washington had gone as well as possible. The theatrical production of an envelope containing an invitation from King Charles to a state visit and the promise to raise defence spending by 2027 was met with the suggestion of a free trade deal that would probably put the UK in a better position than the EU. The holy grail – known as the benefit of Brexit – had finally been found.

But like Emmanuel Macron, who had travelled to Washington two days before, the unhappy truth was that Trump had evaded Starmer’s central request to provide a US military backstop to a European force operating inside Ukraine after a ceasefire. The only security guarantee that was needed, Trump insisted, was the guarantee that the US would have an economic stake in the future of Ukraine’s rare earth and energy resources.

No amount of summit optics could avoid Trump’s refusal to commit US military assets. Nor was it possible to overlook that US diplomats on the day of Macron’s visit twice voted with Russia at the UN, both at the general assembly and the security council.

As Bronwen Maddox, the Chatham House director, pointed out: this was the first time the US had voted against Europe on a matter of European security since 1945.

The abuse administered to Volodymyr Zelenskyy two days after Starmer’s visit – although a diplomatic disaster best avoided – was merely a confirmation that Trump will let nothing and no one stand in the way of his strategic aim of restoring relations with Vladimir Putin.

The abandonment of Ukraine, fuelled by Trump’s personal animosity to Zelenskyy and the cost of the war to the US, has become a means to the greater end, a new relationship with Russia.

It is here – according to the interpretation of Russia – that tensions with Europe are at breaking point. Where Trump draws on his personal relations with Putin to insist Russia will abide by a ceasefire, Europe instead looks at Russia’s practice of breaking agreements, the point Zelenskyy sought to make in the Oval Office with disastrous effect.

Where Trump sees a convivial leader an ocean away, Europe sees a tyrant on its borders. Where Trump sees peace, Europe sees subjugation. These are not perceptions that Starmer can square.

Take Finland, a new member of the Nato alliance that is sharing a border with Russia. Speaking at Chatham House on Tuesday, its foreign minister, Elina Valtonen, laid out with calm precision that for all Finland’s Atlanticist instincts, it could not accept a peace that meant submission.

“There can be no sustainable peace in Ukraine without a strong and sovereign Ukraine,” she said.

“This is not just the political reality, it is a moral imperative. Rushing to a deal at the cost of its content, and without due consideration of the consequences, would endanger not only Ukraine, but also Europe – and, by extension, the United States for generations to come.

“We Finns know Russia. Russia shares a land border with 14 countries. Only one of them has constantly remained an independent democracy through the second world war and the cold war, and that’s Finland.

“History has taught us that Russia respects only strength and resolve. Russia’s current war is based on imperialistic ambitions that go beyond Ukraine. The Kremlin’s appetite does not diminish when fed, it only grows.

“Take it from us. Whatever happens in this war, Russia will remain a long-term strategic threat to Euro Atlantic security, rather than encouraged.”

Valtonen said there was a need to be open for re-engagement in the future, if Russia starts to adhere to international law again. “But going forward, it would be a mistake to let go about deterrence or rebuild strategic dependency on Russia, and this goes for all of Europe.”

She warned: “One of our foremost diplomats and later president, [Juho Kusti] Paasikivi, was on several occasions on the other side of the table from Stalin and Molotov when our existence as an independent country was on the line in the 1930s and 1940s.

“He summed it up well: ‘The constant policy of the Russians is to get what they can with as little as possible and then come back asking for more … they never sacrifice their immediate interests for future objectives … they are immune to any ethical, human or abstract legal factors.’

“This is the Finnish experience. The Ukrainians know from their own experience that Russia has broken every single commitment they have ever made on Ukraine’s sovereignty. No agreement with Moscow can stand without the will and the means to enforce it.”

But despite this clear-eyed assessment of Russia, shared by the Baltic nations, Valtonen, like Starmer and indeed many European politicians, is still reluctant to criticise Trump in public.

Valtonen admits this is because Europe may not yet have the strength to act alone. “We need the Americans. We need the Americans militarily, but especially also to keep up the sanctions pressure, because the worst thing that could happen now is that the US says ‘let’s get off the sanctions’ and starts engaging with Russia economically, because that would be exactly the wrong cause of action now,” she said.

Diplomats admit that the speed with which Trump is moving in comparison with deliberative Europe is a problem.

Quite how a coalition of the willing – led by one leader long committed to Europe’s autonomy and another committed to the primacy of the Atlantic alliance – can develop is unclear.

The addition to the coalition leadership of an incoming German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, means the trajectory is moving slowly towards a European preparedness to try to help Ukraine survive without the US. Germany has a leading role in providing air defence systems to Ukraine and Merz’s remarks so far suggest he wants to take a more robust stance than his SDP predecessor, Olaf Scholz.

If so it is possible the advocates of engagement with Trump are losing the internal arguments as the decisions and insults pile up. Some of this is human emotion and the hand of history.

The New Zealand high commissioner, Phil Goff, recalls Winston Churchill famously denouncing Neville Chamberlain, saying: “You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, and you will have war.” Goff then added: “Trump has restored the bust of Churchill to the Oval Office, but do you think he really understands history?”

Or take the anger of the Lithuanian politician Vytautas Landsbergis at the treatment of Zelenskyy: “They called the guest in, beat him up, spat on him, and threw him out the door.” What would he have done? “I would have listened silently to everything they said and said one word at the end: liars.”

But it is also the accumulation of decisions being taken by Trump towards Russia, including the end of cyber operations against Russia, and other steps to make the lives of Russian oligarchs easier. It has led both London and Paris to conclude it is now very unlikely the US will provide a military backstop.

Starmer and Europe then have to decide if they have the resources to help save Ukraine without US help. Much of what the EU will discuss at its summit on Thursday will help with Europe’s defence in four year’s time, but what matters is what help can be provided to Ukraine in four months when US supplies and spares run out.

The threat to seize Russian state bank assets either now or if Russia breaches the terms of a ceasefire remains one of the few cards Europe can play without Trump, and by offering a ceasefire himself, Zelenskyy has also tried to kill the Trump claim that he wants endless war. But Starmer’s hope that Trump if not reliable was biddable seems to be dying.

Justin Trudeau has claimed the aim of a “dumb” trade war launched by Donald Trump is to usher in the “complete collapse” of the Canadian economy and make it easier for the United States to annex Canada.

Speaking hours after the US slapped 25% taxes on Canadian and Mexican goods – and a 10% levy on Canadian energy exports – the prime minister announced retaliatory tariffs on US exports and said his country would remain defiant against the aggression.

“We’ve been in tough spots before … but we have not only survived, we have emerged stronger than ever, because when it comes to defending our great nation, there is no price we all aren’t willing to pay, and today is no different,” he said.

Trudeau, who will step down as prime minister after the ruling Liberal party chooses a new leader on Sunday, said the spat between allies is “exactly what our opponents around the world want to see”.

“Today the United States launched a trade war against Canada,” he said. At the same time, the Trump administration was “talking about working positively with Russia, appeasing Vladimir Putin, aligning with a murderous dictator”.

Trudeau also rejected Trump’s repeated taunts that Canada should cede its sovereignty and join the US: “That is never going to happen. We will never be the 51st state.”

Canada’s retaliatory response includes matching tariffs on C$155bn (US$107bn) worth of US goods. The first tranche of taxes applies to C$30bn worth of goods and the remaining C$125bn would kick in within 21 days, giving Canadian companies the chance to amend supply chains.

At one point Trudeau directed his comments at US voters, saying: “We don’t want to see you hurt. But your government has chosen to do this to you. As of this morning, markets are down, and inflation is set to rise dramatically all across your country. Your government has chosen to put American jobs at risk at the thousands of workplaces that succeed because of materials from Canada or because of consumers in Canada.”

He said: “Americans will lose jobs. Americans will pay more for groceries, for gas, for cars, for homes.”

Addressing Trump directly, Trudeau said: “Even though you’re a very smart guy, this is a very dumb thing to do.”

Trump has claimed that the tariffs were a response to Canada’s failure to stop fentanyl smuggling into the US, an argument Trudeau called “completely bogus, completely unjustified, completely false”. Although some drugs do cross the border, in both directions, so little fentanyl enters the US from Canada that the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) does not even mention the country in a report from 2020.

Posting on social media, Trump later raised the prospect of further escalation with a warning that any retaliatory levies by Canada would prompt further measures from the US.

Trump’s aggressive tactics have prompted a groundswell of patriotism, uniting provincial leaders across the political spectrum.

Ontario’s premier, Doug Ford, the leader of Canada’s most economically powerful province, said his government would “make sure Americans feel pain”.

Ford, who recently won re-election on a pledge to fight US taxes, says he will impose a 25% export tax on electricity it supplies to three US states if the American tariffs on Canadian goods “persist”.

Ontario also pulled all American spirits and wines from its shelves, barred US companies from bidding on procurement contracts and tore up a deal with Elon Musk’s Starlink company.

Ford said he felt “terrible” about Canada’s response, citing his close relationship with American governors, but said the moves were necessary to send a strong message to the White House.

“The stock market will go downhill faster than the American bobsled team,” he said. “When the market drops, that’s the people speaking. Isn’t this a shame.

“Every country is very, very aware that if the American government is willing to do this to their own closest neighbour, ally and friend, everyone is vulnerable to a trade war.”

Depending on how long the tariffs persist – and if they increase – the effects on the Canadian economy would be catastrophic.

The Quebec premier, François Legault, warned on Tuesday his province could lose up to 160,000 jobs over the next few months.

“We must be able to make Mr Trump pay the price for decisions that do not make sense, even for Americans,” he said in an interview with Radio-Canada.

Tim Houston, the Nova Scotia premier, called ​​Trump a “shortsighted man” who “wields his power just for the sake of it”.

In a statement soon after the tariffs went into effect, Houston said it was “impossible to properly describe the uncertainty and chaos” that the trade war was causing for Canadians.

In neighbouring Newfoundland and Labrador, staff at the province’s liquor stores were ordered to pull all American products.

“Now, more than ever, we should be supporting local and Canadian-made products where possible,” the outgoing premier, Andrew Furey, said in the release.

Alberta’s rightwing populist premier, Danielle Smith, who has previously resisted calls to cut oil exports to the US, called Trump’s action “an unjustifiable economic attack on Canadians and Albertans” and said the move was “both foolish and a failure in every regard”.

Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, has caused alarm among pediatricians, vaccine experts and lawmakers with an opinion piece that focuses on vitamin A and nutrition as treatments for measles.

In response to a measles outbreak in Texas, which resulted in the first American measles death in nearly a decade, Kennedy wrote for Fox News about the benefits of “good nutrition” and vitamin A – but did not explicitly recommend highly effective vaccines.

“In fact, relying on vitamin A instead of the vaccine is not only dangerous and ineffective, but it puts children at serious risk,” Dr Sue Kressly, the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, told the Washington Post.

Measles is one of the most infectious diseases in the world. Infections kill one to three people for every 1,000 infected and can cause severe brain swelling, called encephalitis, in one in 1,000 cases. The disease also causes general misery, including a characteristic top-down rash, fever, runny nose, and red and watery eyes. The measles vaccine is 97% effective at preventing the disease.

At least 146 people have been sickened in Texas, primarily in unvaccinated communities in the South Plains region. More than 20 people have been hospitalized, and an unvaccinated school-aged child died – the first American measles death since April 2015.

Kennedy’s initially muted response to the outbreak has drawn intense criticism. Kennedy erroneously said in a cabinet meeting that the outbreak killed two people in Texas, and then, “it’s not unusual” to have outbreaks. In fact, measles sickened 285 people in the entirety of 2024. The Texas outbreak alone accounts for nearly half of last year’s total relatively early in the year.

Over the weekend, Kennedy then penned an opinion piece in Fox News in which he argued vaccination was a “personal choice”, said vitamin A could “dramatically reduce measles mortality” and stopped short of explicitly recommending measles vaccination.

“Good nutrition remains a best defense against most chronic and infectious illnesses,” Kennedy wrote. “Vitamins A, C, and D, and foods rich in vitamins B12, C, and E should be part of a balanced diet.”

Although studies have shown that vitamin A could be an effective supportive therapy for children already infected with measles, most research has been conducted in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in Africa, where measles death rates and malnutrition are more common.

“It could lead to the impression of a false equivalency,” Dr Peter Hotez, the dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and the co-director of Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, told the Post. “To make the best decision for your children, you can either vaccinate or give vitamin A … That would be highly misleading.”

Kennedy’s actions also sparked outrage from Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic Massachusetts senator who demanded Kennedy clarify his “intentions” for US vaccine policy in a Monday letter.

“These are dangerous times for public health,” Warren wrote, according to CNN, citing a difficult flu season and the dangers of the H5N1 strain known as bird flu. “Your irresponsible and reckless efforts to undermine the nation’s vaccine policy threaten to fan the flames of disaster.”

Measles was declared eliminated from the US in 2000. However, the victory was short-lived. Around the same time, the former British doctor Andrew Wakefield published a fraudulent study linking vaccines to autism. The claims, despite being widely and repeatedly debunked, have been circulated widely by groups such as Children’s Health Defense. Kennedy headed the non-profit for nearly a decade. The group is considered one of the world’s leading disseminators of anti-vaccine misinformation.

As health secretary, Kennedy has also raised alarm for canceling meetings of influenza experts at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), issued a stop-work order on contracts meant to develop new vaccines, and is “re-evaluating” a $590m contract with the vaccine-maker Moderna to develop a bird flu vaccine.

The US is in the midst of the worst flu season in 15 years. Although not considered a threat to the general public, avian flu has also ravaged agriculture in the US, and provoked concerns about a new pandemic.

The attorney general of Florida has opened a criminal investigation of Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan after the pair were able to fly into the state last week despite facing trial in Romania on charges of rape, sex with a minor, people trafficking and money laundering.

James Uthmeier, appointed to be the state attorney general by Florida governor Ron DeSantis, said on Tuesday he had begun an “active criminal investigation” of the brothers and was prepared to use the “full force of law” in his examination of their conduct.

“These guys have themselves publicly admitted to participating in what very much appears to be soliciting, trafficking, preying upon women around the world,” Uthmeier said. He added: “Many of these victims are coming forward, some of them minors. People can spin or defend however they want, but in Florida, this type of behavior is viewed as atrocious. We’re not going to accept it.”

Self-styled “misogynist influencer” Andrew Tate and his brother arrived in Fort Lauderdale last week after flying from Bucharest to the US in a private jet, as prosecutors suspended their travel ban and a court lifted a precautionary seizure on some of their assets.

The pair, who are dual US-UK citizens, were arrested in Romania in 2022 and still face trial there. As they arrived in Florida last week, Uthmeier said: “Florida has zero tolerance for human trafficking and violence against women. If any of these alleged crimes trigger Florida jurisdiction, we will hold them accountable.”

On Tuesday, Uthmeier said that they had chosen to come to Florida and he would “pursue every tool we have within our legal authority to hold them accountable” and had that day secured and executed subpoenas and warrants as part of “an active criminal investigation”.

DeSantis last week criticized the brothers. But the Tate brothers are outspoken supporters of Donald Trump and several members of the US president’s inner circle have spoken out publicly against their treatment in Europe, including Donald Trump Jr, who described their detention as “absolute insanity”.

Trump aide Elon Musk responded to a suggestion from Andrew Tate that he would “run for prime minister of the UK” by saying “he’s not wrong.” Paul Ingrassia, a lawyer for Tate’s, is the White House liaison official for the US Department of Justice.

Last week Andrew Tate said: “We’ve no criminal record anywhere on the planet ever.”

The attorney general of Florida has opened a criminal investigation of Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan after the pair were able to fly into the state last week despite facing trial in Romania on charges of rape, sex with a minor, people trafficking and money laundering.

James Uthmeier, appointed to be the state attorney general by Florida governor Ron DeSantis, said on Tuesday he had begun an “active criminal investigation” of the brothers and was prepared to use the “full force of law” in his examination of their conduct.

“These guys have themselves publicly admitted to participating in what very much appears to be soliciting, trafficking, preying upon women around the world,” Uthmeier said. He added: “Many of these victims are coming forward, some of them minors. People can spin or defend however they want, but in Florida, this type of behavior is viewed as atrocious. We’re not going to accept it.”

Self-styled “misogynist influencer” Andrew Tate and his brother arrived in Fort Lauderdale last week after flying from Bucharest to the US in a private jet, as prosecutors suspended their travel ban and a court lifted a precautionary seizure on some of their assets.

The pair, who are dual US-UK citizens, were arrested in Romania in 2022 and still face trial there. As they arrived in Florida last week, Uthmeier said: “Florida has zero tolerance for human trafficking and violence against women. If any of these alleged crimes trigger Florida jurisdiction, we will hold them accountable.”

On Tuesday, Uthmeier said that they had chosen to come to Florida and he would “pursue every tool we have within our legal authority to hold them accountable” and had that day secured and executed subpoenas and warrants as part of “an active criminal investigation”.

DeSantis last week criticized the brothers. But the Tate brothers are outspoken supporters of Donald Trump and several members of the US president’s inner circle have spoken out publicly against their treatment in Europe, including Donald Trump Jr, who described their detention as “absolute insanity”.

Trump aide Elon Musk responded to a suggestion from Andrew Tate that he would “run for prime minister of the UK” by saying “he’s not wrong.” Paul Ingrassia, a lawyer for Tate’s, is the White House liaison official for the US Department of Justice.

Last week Andrew Tate said: “We’ve no criminal record anywhere on the planet ever.”

CK Hutchison Holdings, the Hong Kong-based logistics giant, announced plans to sell a majority stake in a business that controls ports in Panama to investors including the US financial giant BlackRock in a deal worth almost $23bn.

The sale of a 90% interest in Panama Ports Company, which holds the contract to run the ports of Balboa and Cristóbal until 2047, is part of a wider deal for Hutchison Port’s global business. The deal comes at a time Donald Trump has piled on pressure to end what he sees as China’s influence and control over the Panama canal.

The deal – one month after US secretary of state Marco Rubio’s visit to Panama City – represents a swift and significant victory for the US president’s aggressive negotiations towards Panama.

Following his conversations with Panamanian president José Raúl Mulino, Rubio declared that “control of the Chinese Communist party over the Panama Canal” was unacceptable and that the US would use “measures necessary to protect its rights”.

CK Hutchison insisted the deal was unrelated to Trump’s vow to “take back” the canal. “I would like to stress that the Transaction is purely commercial in nature and wholly unrelated to recent political news reports concerning the Panama Ports,” said co-managing director Frank Sixt.

Few in Panama believe this.

In the past two weeks Panama has also taken in third-country migrants deported from the US, as part of an agreement made with Rubio, and greenlit a contentious dam project that would provide more water to the Canal.

Mauricio Claver-Carone, Trump’s special envoy to Latin America had previously told Politico that the canal risked becoming “obsolete” due to Panama’s failure to properly maintain the canal and tackle low water-levels that limited transits.

“Trump aimed at the heart of the country, the Panama canal,” says Nehemías Jaén, a former Panamanian diplomat. “He never intended to take it. Every concession that Panama makes is a win for him.”

Few Panamanians will mourn the departure of Panama Ports. In recent months, clips of the comptroller general announcing that the company had not paid “one cent” to the government over the last three years, have gone viral on social media.

Many Panamanians believe that corrupt politicians struck sweetheart deals for operation of the port.

“This is good for Panama and for the world,” says Mario Perez Balladares, director of a transshipment company, adding that he expected container volumes to increase at the ports in the wake of the decision.

But there could be a long term negative impact on Panama’s image, according to Jaén. Just six days ago, the attorney general said he considered the contracts for the Balboa and Cristobal ports to be unconstitutional, opening the possibility that the contracts could be rescinded by Panama’s supreme court.

With the purchase of Panama Ports by a US company, that legal case now looks unlikely to proceed, giving the impression that Panamanian institutions bend to US pressure rather than their own laws.

“This is creating a very negative perception of Panama in terms of investor protection,” says Jaén. “Panamanians don’t want to be considered a US colony again.”

Nasa’s two stuck astronauts are just a few weeks away from finally returning to Earth after nine months in space.

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have to wait until their replacements arrive at the International Space Station next week before they can check out later this month.

They’ll be joined on their SpaceX ride home by two astronauts who launched by themselves in September alongside two empty seats.

Speaking from the space station on Tuesday, Williams said the hardest part about the unexpected extended stay was the wait by their families back home.

“It’s been a roller coaster for them, probably a little more so than for us,” she said.

Wilmore and Williams expected to be gone just a week or so when they launched last June aboard Boeing’s new Starliner capsule, making its crew debut after years of delay. The Starliner had so many problems getting to the space station that Nasa ruled it too dangerous to carry anyone and it flew back empty.

Their homecoming was further delayed by extra completion time needed for the brand new SpaceX capsule that was supposed to deliver their replacements.

Last month, Nasa announced the next crew would launch in a used capsule instead, pushing up liftoff to 12 March. The two crews will spend about a week together aboard the space station before Wilmore and Williams depart with Nasa’s Nick Hague and the Russian Space Agency’s Alexander Gorbunov.

Wilmore and Williams – retired Navy captains and repeat space fliers – have insisted over the months that they are healthy and committed to the mission as long as it takes. They took a spacewalk together in January.