Robert Mueller has asked the FBI to probe allegations that a woman was offered up to $20,000 to make false accusations of sexual harassment against him. In a rare public statement from the office of the man investigating Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign, said it had been notified of the accusations last week, apparently by journalists.

Donald Trump  has reportedly decided to end the US’s funding and training of so-called moderate Syrian rebels opposed to Bashar al-Assad - something that has long been requested by Moscow. The plan to train and equip rebels opposed to Mr Assad was started in 2013 under the administration of Barack Obama, as an effort to try and put pressure on the Syrian leader to step aside. While most of the heavy weapons and cash were provided by Saudi Arabia, the CIA took the lead in the training.

Tillerson said Mr Trump pushed Putin on the issue and that Mr Putin stood firm in his denial. “I think the president is rightly focused on how do we move forward from something that may be an intractable disagreement at this point,”  Mr Tillerson said. In his own briefing to reporters, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said Mr Trump accepted Putin's assurances that Russia did not meddle in the election.

The proposal to cancel the programme, which was established in 2009 to try and address a shortfall in specialised skills and language capabilities, was contained within a memo from Pentagon officials to  Defence Secretary James Mattis. The memo, obtained by NPR, cites concerns about security and inadequate vetting of recruits. Ms Stock, who now works as a lawyer in Anchorage, Alaska, said the decision would not only deny the military of a source of applicants with specialised skills, but was an act of bad faith.

Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has reportedly been identified as a “person of interest” in the ongoing investigation into possible ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s campaign. The Washington Post said a senior adviser to Mr Trump was among people investigators wanted to speak to. A New York magazine reporter then said the person in question was Mr Kushner, 36, who is married to Mr Trump’s eldest daughter and who flew out of Washington on Friday night to accompany the President on his first official foreign trip.