Trump latest: Satellite firm pulls Ukrainian access following pressure from US; Trump says Russia has 'all the cards'

We're pausing our live coverage now after a day of more diplomacy done the Donald Trump way.

Kicking off with an unexpected news conference from the Oval Office - which he still managed to be more than an hour late to - Trump said he finds it easier dealing with Moscow.

It's "difficult" with Kyiv, he said, acknowledging his decisions to halt military aid and stop sharing intelligence have caused Russia to "hit harder".

But he insists he's determined to agree a peace deal - which he said won't come before security guarantees for Ukraine - and he made a rare public rebuke of Russia, warning he's considering further sanctions.

Meanwhile, he defended his use of tariffs in recent weeks, telling reporters there will always be "changes and adjustments" as he tried to explain why they appear to flicker between on again and off again every other day.

And yet, this may have been one of the quieter days in Trump's second term so far - that extraordinary meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy was only a week ago.

If you want more on some of the other big issues in and around his presidency, our US team took your questions in a live Q&A earlier today.

Catch up on that in the link below...

Donald Trump has had a fair bit to say on the Ukraine war again today, telling reporters he finds it more difficult dealing with Kyiv than with Moscow (see our 17:23 post).

That comes as European leaders continue to make plans in a bid to mitigate any impact on Ukraine as much as possible.

Sir Keir Starmer and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron are among those at the forefront of efforts on the continent, and they have spoken today to "compare notes" on their work for a lasting peace.

That's according to Downing Street, which said the pair have been leading efforts to form a "coalition of the willing" to protect Ukraine.

South Africa won't engage in "megaphone diplomacy" after Donald Trump cut all funding for the country.

The president had already signed an executive order to cut all US financial assistance last month, and today he announced all federal funding will now be halted.

Trump - along with ally and billionaire Elon Musk - has been critical of South Africa's land policy and genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

"To go a step further, any Farmer (with family!) from South Africa, seeking to flee that country for reasons of safety, will be invited into the United States of America with a rapid pathway to Citizenship," Trump wrote in a social media post.

This process will begin immediately, he said.

Spokesperson to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Vincent Magwenya, told Reuters news agency the country is "not going to partake in a counterproductive megaphone diplomacy".

For context: White landowners still own three quarters of South Africa's freehold farmland, while only 4% is owned by black people.

According to the latest land audit in 2017, that's despite black people making up 80% of the population, while white people account for 8%.

Ramaphosa signed a law in January allowing the state to expropriate land "in the public interest", in some cases without compensating the owner, partly in an effort to redress this imbalance.

US assistance to South Africa came in at $323.4m last year, according to government data.

A tetchy exchange to bring you now from the White House.

Ahead of an order on a World Cup task force (see the post below) a reporter from our US partner network NBC News asked Donald Trump about reports of a clash between Elon Musk and Marco Rubio, the secretary of state.

It's been said the pair disagreed at a Cabinet meeting over cuts overseen by Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which aims to save hundreds of billions of dollars in the government budget.

Trump was not happy with the question.

"No one clashed, I was there, you're just a troublemaker - and you're not supposed to be asking that question because we're talking about the World Cup," he said.

"Elon gets along great with Marco, and they're both doing a fantastic job. There is no clash."

He then asked who the reporter is with, and when he responded "NBC" Trump replied: "Oh, no wonder, that's enough."

Just before he wrapped up his remarks at the crypto summit a few minutes ago, Donald Trump signed yet another executive order.

Appearing alongside FIFA president Gianni Infantino, he officially created a task force to prepare for the World Cup next year, which will be held in North America.

The tournament will be hosted across the US, Canada and Mexico, with millions of tourists expected on the continent.

"It's a great honour for our country to have it," Trump said of the World Cup, adding he'd like to attend multiple games.

Speaking now at the White House crypto event, Donald Trump says his administration will "end the federal bureaucracy's war on crypto".

He adds they will "pave the way for groundbreaking innovations and institutional finance".

"And we are ending operation choke point 2.0," he says.

Yesterday, he signed an order to form a strategic bitcoin reserve, which officials described as a "digital Fort Knox for digital gold".

This order also created a separate stockpile of digital assets.

As we mentioned in a post a little earlier, Donald Trump was expected to speak during the crypto summit at the White House (see 19:54).

He's now up for his second media appearance of the day. Watch in the live stream below, or stay with us for relevant updates.

Russia, according to Donald Trump, is "bombing the hell out of Ukraine" - and he acknowledged his pause in intelligence sharing is allowing Moscow to start "hitting harder".

As a result of Trump's order, Maxar Technologies, an aerospace company providing satellite imagery, has disabled access for Kyiv.

In a statement, the firm said it has contracts with the US government and dozens of allied nations, and "each customer makes their own decisions on how they use and share that data".

"The US government has decided to temporarily suspend Ukrainian accounts in GEGD," Maxar said, referring to the Global Enhanced GEOINT Delivery programme, which gives access to satellite imagery collected by the US.

Five words - all beginning with R - explain Donald Trump's view of the world.

That's according to former US deputy national security advisor Matt Pottinger, who spoke to us about the president's thinking - and how it's shaking up the world order.

The elite from the cryptocurrency industry are gathering at the White House to discuss Donald Trump's vision to make the US the "crypto capital of the world".

He's expected to speak tonight - we'll bring you the latest if and when he does - and he may well elaborate on an executive order he signed only yesterday.

That order was to form a strategic bitcoin reserve, which officials described as a "digital Fort Knox for digital gold".

Fort Knox, for those who aren't aware, is the country's traditional home of a large part of the country's gold reserves.

This order also created a separate stockpile of digital assets, which would address some of the concerns voiced by participants ahead of the summit about the prospect of creating a single multi-coin strategic reserve.

Two sets of rules

Treasury secretary Scott Bessent and commerce secretary Howard Lutnick will be allowed to "develop budget-neutral strategies for adding to that [bitcoin] reserve".

Just as gold has been treated as a strategic asset held without worrying about price fluctuations, so too will the administration not worry about short-term movements in the price of bitcoin, according to officials.

But the rules are different for the digital asset stockpile, which will hold positions in cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin - and the Treasury may not purchase additional holdings for this stockpile.