Nearly a decade after the United Kingdom (U.K.) voted to leave the European Union (EU) under Brexit and amid shifting relations with the U.S. under President Donald Trump, Britain and the EU significantly bolstered their trade and defense partnership on Monday. 

In what is the largest deal the bloc and the U.K. have agreed to since the controversial Brexit vote in 2016, the two economic powerhouses agreed to increase defense ties and slash red tape, making it not only easier for U.K. food and visitors to access the continent, but also granting fishing rights to EU vessels off of Britian’s coastline. 

The agreements have been described as a ‘reset’ and championed by U.K. Prime Minister Kier Starmer, who opposed Brexit, and EU leader, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who said, ‘At a time of global instability, and when our continent faces the greatest threat it has for generations, we in Europe stick together.’

While the U.K. talked down the Trump administration’s 25% ‘reciprocal’ tariffs earlier this month to limit the fees to 10% on up to 100,000 car exports to the U.S. – the U.K.’s chief export item to the States – the EU has reached no such agreement with Washington and faces 20% tariffs on all U.S. exports come July. 

While EU and U.S. officials are still working to find an agreement, reports on Monday suggested that even the existing 10% tariff slapped on the EU over the last 50 days has left a negative mark and the bloc anticipates a drop in growth for 2025.

However, it is not only Trump’s tariffs that have pushed Western allies to strengthen relations following his re-entry into the White House. 

Trump’s hardline push for increased NATO defense spending, along with his sharp break from the Biden administration on Ukraine aid, left European allies scrambling after his inauguration.

While the Trump administration has seemingly improved ties with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump’s refusal to outright condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin has resulted in stronger ties between top nations like the U.K., France and Germany, as well as within the EU bloc.

At the heart of the new defense agreement is the U.K.’s ability to access an EU defense loan program worth roughly $170 billion, expanding joint defense procurement opportunities. 

‘Britain is back on the world stage,’ Starmer said. ‘This deal is a win-win.’

Far-right conservatives in the UK like Nigel Farage, an ardent proponent of BREXIT, have condemned the recently announced deal. 

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s questions. 

Reuters contributed to this report. 

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian spoke over the weekend, reiterating Iran’s commitment to dialogue and desire for a civilian nuclear program.

The Iranian leader addressed navy officials in Bandar Abbas, discussing the ongoing negotiations for a deal with the United States.

‘We are not seeking war, we favor negotiation and dialogue, but we are not afraid of threats either, and we will in no way retreat from our legal rights,’ Pezeshkian said.

Compared to previous Iranian presidents, Pezeshkian has emerged as a more level-headed and reformist leader, aiming to reach new understandings with the West, according to Politico.

The United States and Iran have completed four rounds of indirect negotiations regarding Iran’s nuclear program, though the public has received mixed messages on the path forward. While officials from Washington and Tehran have expressed optimism about the conversations, a number of technical details have yet to be discussed, including the specifics surrounding uranium enrichment and stockpile levels. 

Iran is insisting they will continue to enrich uranium for civilian and research purposes, while the Trump administration is calling for all enrichment to end. Right now, Iran is enriching uranium to up to 60% purity, well beyond the confines of the 2015 nuclear deal that President Donald Trump withdrew from in 2018.

Over the weekend, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi commented on the current situation, saying that Iran has received no written proposal from the United States about an agreement.

‘Mark my words: there is no scenario in which Iran abandons its hard-earned right to enrichment for peaceful purposes: a right afforded to all other NPT signatories, too,’ Ataghchi said in a post on X.

In an interview with Fox News, Trump spoke about the ongoing talks with Iran, opening up the possibility of trade with the country, if the talks lead to a deal.

‘Iran wants to trade with us,’ Trump told Bret Baier. ‘And I’m OK with it.’

Trump wrapped up a four-day tour of the Gulf last week, pushing for new normalization deals and an agreement with Iran. Any deal with the United States is expected to lead to much-needed sanctions relief for Iran.

‘I’ve told Iran, we make a deal,’ Trump said, ‘you’re going to be very happy.’

House lawmakers are being summoned to Capitol Hill late Sunday night as Republicans’ self-imposed deadline to pass President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ looms just days away. 

The House Budget Committee is meeting at 10 p.m. for a vote on advancing the wide-ranging legislation toward a chamber-wide vote later this week.

Initial plans to advance the bill on Friday morning were upended in a mutiny by four members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus – Reps. Chip Roy, R-Texas, Ralph Norman, R-S.C., Josh Brecheen, R-Okla., and Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., all joined Democrats in voting against the bill.

The fiscal hawks are opposed to aspects of the legislation’s crackdown on Medicaid, which Republicans have said they are only trimming for waste, fraud, and abuse. But Medicaid work requirements for able-bodied people are not set to kick in until 2029, and conservatives have argued that it was a large window of time for those changes to be undone, among other concerns.

They’re also pushing for a more aggressive effort to repeal green energy tax subsidies passed in the former Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). That push has pitted them against Republican lawmakers whose districts have businesses that have benefited from the tax relief.

Meanwhile House GOP leaders and the White House have held the bill up as the most significant fiscal reform in decades.

Holdouts were expected to negotiate with GOP leaders in Congress and the White House through the weekend.

‘I really need to see something in writing. You know, we’ve talked enough. They know where we are. And you know, before, if it’s just if it’s the same old thing, that we can’t get [a majority], we’re going to have to pretty much stick with what we have, I’ve got a problem,’ Norman told Fox News Digital on Sunday morning

He said he and other critics of the legislation were asked to meet with House GOP leaders at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday afternoon.

Republicans are working to pass Trump’s agenda via the budget reconciliation process, which allows the party controlling both Congress and the White House to pass vast pieces of legislation while completely sidelining the minority – in this case, Democrats.

It does so by lowering the Senate’s threshold for passage from 60 votes to 51, lining up with the House’s own simple majority. The legislation must adhere to a specific set of rules, however, including only items related to federal spending, tax, and the national debt.

Both the House and Senate are dealing with razor-thin margins. That extends to the House Budget Committee as well, where Republicans can only lose two of their own to still advance the legislation.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., was confident that Republicans could overcome their differences and stick to their timeline during an appearance on Fox News Sunday.

‘The plan is to move it to the Rules Committee by midweek, and to the House floor by the end of the week, as we meet our initial, our original Memorial Day deadline,’ Johnson said.

Johnson said Republicans also ‘have got to compromise’ on Medicaid work requirements, adding he was in contact with states ‘to make sure what the earliest possible date is.’

‘This is the biggest spending reduction in three decades, maybe longer,’ Johnson said.

Norman signaled that significant compromise was going to have to be made on leaders’ parts.

‘Let’s say they want it to kick in, in a year or six months. It ought to be now, but we’ll look at that. We’re not inflexible,’ he said. ‘But the main thing I want to relay, this isn’t the end-all-catch-all-be-all. Nobody would disagree that the tax cuts are good policy, and nobody would disagree with President Trump’s wanting to phase out Green New Deal scam credits. Anyone we want to do it on day one. So we’re carrying out his policies.’

Meanwhile Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought, a close ally of Roy’s, took to X in support of the bill after it failed Friday.

‘Critics have attacked the House’s One Big Beautiful reconciliation bill on fiscal grounds, but I think they are profoundly wrong. It is truly historic,’ Vought said. ‘The bill satisfies the very red-line test that House fiscal hawks laid out a few weeks ago that stated that the cost of any tax cut could be paid for with $2.5 trillion in assumed economic growth, but the rest had to be covered with savings from reform.’

Trump blasted the people holding up the legislation as grandstanders in a Truth Social post Friday.

Those rebels and their allies, however, have argued that they are only pushing to fully enact Trump’s agenda.

‘He campaigned on cutting the Green New Deal. But it’s really a scam…. But this bill to postpone phase-out for seven years, it’s just money we don’t have,’ Norman said.

Economic Policy Innovation Center founder Paul Winfree wrote on X Saturday, ‘Several of the Members of Congress negotiating on the OBBB this weekend are trying to make it even better. In fact, there is a significant group that has been fighting all along to make sure that [Trump] gets the biggest win possible.’

Moving ahead with Sunday night’s vote is a sign of confidence by House GOP leaders, but it’s not yet clear how it will play out. In addition to the Medicaid and IRA differences, Republicans must also reconcile current disagreements with blue state GOP lawmakers over State and Local tax (SALT) deduction caps. 

The legislation raised the current $10,000 cap to $30,000, but a handful of blue state Republicans rejected the compromise as insufficient.

Meanwhile, conservatives in redder districts are demanding deeper pay cuts if the SALT deduction cap was raised.

SALT Caucus member Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., suggested raising taxes on the highest earners to offset the cost – it would likely be an uphill battle to enact, though some conservatives have also signaled openness to the idea.

‘The One Big Beautiful Bill has stalled—and it needs wind in its sails. Allowing the top tax rate to expire—returning from 37% to 39.6% for individuals earning over $609,350 and married couples earning over $731,200—breathes $300 billion of new life into the effort,’ LaLota wrote on X Saturday.

‘It’s a fiscally responsible move that reflects the priorities of the new Republican Party: protect working families, address the deficit, fix the unfair SALT cap, and safeguard programs like Medicaid and SNAP—without raising taxes on the middle class.’

President Donald Trump’s nominees consistently engage with Democrats who challenge them in increasingly viral hearing moments that analysts say are not intended as gifts to the media, but red meat for their base.

The media understands Democrats have little power on a Republican-dominated Capitol Hill, according to Bill D’Agostino, senior analyst for the Media Research Center.

‘If you were to watch any given night on CNN or MSNBC evening shows, you’ll find a couple of panel discussion segments that are basically just Democratic strategists and the host talking shop,’ he told Fox News Digital in a Thursday interview.

‘The discussion has focused almost entirely on how can Democrats show their voters that they’re trying to fight this, that they’re trying to make a difference, that they’re resisting the Trump administration.’

Partisan politics has come to a point, D’Agostino suggested, where constituents send Democrats to Washington to stop Trump at every turn, regardless of ideological alignment or differences.

‘Obviously, as the minority party, there’s not much action they can actually offer. So instead, their political futures basically rest on how hard they’re trying to stop Trump.’

One of the most contentious exchanges occurred during FBI Director Kash Patel’s January confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., dug into granular language used by Patel after the Capitol riot in regard to a song released by inmates that featured Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

Patel told Schiff he stood by prior testimony that he had had nothing to do with the recording of the song, while the Burbank Democrat grilled him over a comment to former Trump adviser Stephen Bannon about ‘what we thought would be cool… captur[ing] audio’ for the song.

Schiff asked why he said that, and Patel incredulously shot back ‘that’s why it says, ‘we’ [as opposed to I] as you highlighted.’ Patel denied participating in the digitizing of the song.

The exchange was compared to former President Bill Clinton’s grammatical comments about the word ‘is’ during the Monica Lewinsky affair.

During Attorney General Pam Bondi’s confirmation, Schiff was at the fore again, demanding she disclose whether she might prosecute former special counsel Jack Smith over his Trump probe. Bondi repeatedly said she wouldn’t answer hypothetical, and dinged Schiff in response for focusing on Smith while his own California is rife with violent crime.

Bondi also snapped back at Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., after a grilling on the Fourteenth Amendment and citizenship, saying, ‘I’m not here to do your homework and study for you.’

During Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s hearing, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., delved into Hegseth’s multiple marriages and allegations of untoward behavior.

Kaine said Hegseth had ‘casually cheated’ on a former wife shortly after his daughter Gwendolyn was born. Hegseth countered that the situation had been investigated and that Kaine’s claims were ‘false charges.’

‘You’ve admitted that you had sex at that hotel in October 2017. You said it was consensual, isn’t that correct?’ Kaine went on, probing further.

Hegseth also made headlines when he interrupted Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., mid-sentence as she criticized the revolving door among military generals, Pentagon chiefs, and defense contractors.

‘I’m not a general, senator,’ he said, prompting laughter in the gallery.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., also had several similar moments, including when Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., opened his remarks by speaking about the measles and telling the nominee bluntly, ‘You frighten people.’

Kennedy also rejected a line of questioning from Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., claiming that he had compared the Atlanta-based CDC’s work to Nazi death camps.

Outbursts and grilling continued in recent oversight hearings, including this past week when Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., got into a tiff with DHS Secretary Kristi Noem about Salvadoran deportee Kilmar Garcia. At one point, Swalwell informed Noem he has a ‘bull—t detector.’

Mark Bednar, a former top aide to ex-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was one of many ‘sherpas’ tasked with guiding nominees through the confirmation process, including meetings with senators.

Bednar assisted EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin through his process, which, by comparison to others, was mild.

Zeldin’s hearing actually included some bipartisan joking – like when Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., riffed that Zeldin’s cell phone rang unexpectedly because ‘the fossil fuel industry’ was calling him after a line of questioning on the matter.

Bednar recounted a loud protester in the hall who remained for some time, offering conjecture that the disruptive woman hadn’t yet crossed any legal lines like protesters actually inside hearing rooms like during Kennedy’s confirmation.

But Bednar said that many of the other nominees faced Democrats who would rather make a show than ‘be diplomatic and deliberative over policy.’

‘I think that is a big indicator to me that the left has no substantive answers for rebuttals to President Trump’s agenda or Republicans’ agenda. And that, to me, is a sign that if you’re a Republican, that that’s encouraging — the public’s on your side, and the far left has been unable to formulate a rational, level-headed response, much less not even be able to articulate one.’

Fox News Digital reached out to other sherpas but did not hear back.

Meanwhile, Bednar said that it has been interesting to watch the hearing disruptions evolve into larger scenes with similarly little substance or long-term gain.

I thought I was very rich and pun intended, that Cory Booker delivered a record-breaking speech that the Democrats were basically just grasping for anything to kind of count as a win, even though it didn’t really amount to anything,’ he said, after the New Jersey Democrat held an unofficial filibuster – as there was no legislation being held up – for more than a day.

That speech, however, precipitated several fundraising emails from the left, Bednar said, which bolstered D’Agostino’s claim about playing to the base.

‘If it’s a session day in D.C., and Republicans are in charge, there’s going to be liberal agitators protesting; as the sky is blue,’ Bednar quipped.

Fox News Digital reached out to Schiff for comment but did not receive a response by press time. 

President Donald Trump called himself the ‘fertilization president’ during Women’s History Month, but some experts cited claims that ‘baby bonuses,’ such as the $5,000 plan Trump floated, have been tried in the past and had mixed results.

Singapore, Hungary and Australia are three examples of countries where such programs have been instituted.

Singapore has been subsidizing parenthood for decades, with the latest endowment per child reaching S$ 11,000 (US $8,000) as of 2023, but the tiny Asian nation still has one of the lowest birth rates in the world.

Gabriella Hoffman, an official at the Independent Women’s Forum, wrote on social media that baby bonuses did not work in Hungary.

‘Why would we replicate this here?’ she asked. 

That country, led by Trump-favored President Viktor Orban, also incentivizes its residents to have more kids, including through tax breaks for families with three or more offspring. Hungary’s birth rate rose slightly about a decade ago but returned to and remains close to one.

Australia’s program began in 2004 and indexed to inflation in 2008 what was then an A$ 5,000 (US $3,180) for parents per birth. The government’s self-reported birthrate statistic was about 1.5 as of 2023.

Paula Lantz, a social demographer from the University of Michigan, told the Guardian that in the U.S., the percentage of families having more than one child has dropped and that ‘there is something else going on’ – including non-financial considerations like quality of life effects.

An official at the liberal Center for American Progress told the outlet she had a child a few months ago and that the promised $5,000 credit ‘wouldn’t do much’ even with good insurance and paid occupational family leave.

Andrea Ippolito, founder of maternal health tech platform SimpliFed, told Fox News Digital that while the $5,000 is a ‘nice boost,’ the initiative ‘just lightly scratches the surface of the support that is needed for families, especially in the early years with childcare and healthcare support that is largely missing from the postpartum care experience.’

‘In order to increase the birth rate, much more is needed to support and ensure that both mom and baby’s health is prioritized,’ Ippolito said. ‘That means both physical health needs (which are not right now as demonstrated with doubling the preeclampsia rate doubling) and mental health needs.’

On the other hand, Emily and Nathan Berning – co-founders of crisis-pregnancy support site LetThemLive.org, said that the baby bonus touted by Trump ‘is a positive step, but it doesn’t go far enough.’

‘Financial aid after delivery is helpful, but the real need is stability throughout pregnancy—rent, food, counseling, and emotional support,’ the Bernings said. ‘If we want to raise birthrates and protect children, we must act earlier and ensure no woman feels forced into a decision out of fear or isolation.’

They touted the benefits of pregnancy clinics that are founded by both pro-life and pro-choice advocates, saying that is how to prioritize ‘compassion over politics.’

Meanwhile, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, introduced a proposal for the feds to provide $1,000 in an account for each American child.

The ‘Invest America Act’ would create ‘a private tax-advantaged account,’ and Cruz said in a statement last week the investments can be placed in a broad, low-cost fund that tracks the S&P 500, growing tax-deferred until the individual reaches age 18. Distributions after age 18 would be taxed at the capital gains rate.

Fox News Digital reached out to Cruz for any comment on claims from critics that past iterations of the accounts have not been successful.

Fox News Digital also reached out to the White House for comment on criticisms.