President Donald Trump speaks during an inspection of border wall prototypes in San Diego, California. The trip to the "Golden State" was largely upstaged by his own announcement that he had sacked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Mandel Ngan / AFP
President Donald Trump speaks during an inspection of border wall prototypes in San Diego, California. The trip to the "Golden State" was largely upstaged by his own announcement that he had sacked SeShow more

Trump White House shake-ups expected to continue



US president Donald Trump is giving no signs of curbing his White House shake-ups, as he builds an administration in his own freewheeling image.

Following a series of high-profile departures, including the sacking of Rex Tillerson on Tuesday, analysts predict further turmoil and the removal of more members of the administration.

Iran expressed concern on Wednesday that the changes brought Mr Trump closer to his goal of abandoning the 2015 nuclear agreement.

“The United States is determined to leave the nuclear deal, and changes at the State Department were made with that goal in mind - or at least it was one of the reasons,” Iranian deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said, according to It is a semi-official news agency ISNA.

Meanwhile more details have emerged of Mr Tillerson’s removal.

He was fired in a tweet soon after returning from a trip to Africa where he was struck down by food poisoning.

It followed Mr Trump’s announcement last week that he would meet North Korean's Kim Jong Un, a decision made without consulting his chief diplomat – a move that frustrated Mr Tillerson and privately pleased a president who told aides he found the process easier without his secretary of state, according to the Washington Post.

Mr Tillerson was woken up at 2 am by a telephone call from John Kelly, the White House chief of staff, who relayed Mr Trump’s displeasure and reportedly told him the president wanted him out.

In the aftermath, Mr Trump revealed that a difference in worldviews was to blame.

“I'm really at a point where we're getting very close to having the Cabinet and other things that I want,” he said.

Officials say more changes could come this week.

According to Washington speculation, the next in line could be David Shulkin - the veteran affairs secretary who misused taxpayer money during a trip to Europe last year - or HR McMaster, the national security adviser whose briefing style has irked the president.

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Read more:

Comment: The dissenting voices have been silenced in the White House 

Editorial: The end of Tillerson's ineffectual tenure comes as no surprise

Mike Pompeo: From soldier and spy chief to diplomat

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Rich Galen, a veteran Republican strategist, said Jeff Sessions, the embattled attorney general, was also vulnerable.

“Trump is becoming more comfortable with the expanse of his powers and the idea that he can fire anyone he wants at any time he wants,” he said.

“There’ll be more of this in the next months and he can say he is preparing for re-election, or the mid-terms, or North Korean talks.”

Mr Tillerson’s departure follows that of Gary Cohn, a former Goldman Sachs banker who resigned from his post as chief White House economic adviser after Mr Trump pressed ahead with populist plans to impose tariffs on imports of aluminium and steel.

Governments around the world are now trying to understand the impact of the changes.

The Kremlin said it hoped for a constructive and sober approach to relations between Russia and the United States, while the Turkish foreign minister said he wanted a “"mutually respectful" relationship.

In Iran, the Javan newspaper, believed to be close to the Revolutionary Guard, also said the removal of Mr Tillerson signalled the end of the 2015 nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Either way, analysts suggested it meant moderates were losing ground in the Trump administration.

Reva Goujon, vice-president of geopolitical intelligence platform and publisher Global Analysis at Stratfor wrote: "even if the nuclear deal survives on European life support, Iran can clearly see that the pragmatists in the administration advocating a more balanced approach to the JCPOA are on the decline while hawks like Pompeo and US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley are on the rise.”

The same goes for American observers although there is hope that Mr Pompeo’s close alliance with the president could help the State Department regain ground lost under Mr Tillerson.

"Tillerson’s ouster is a sign of continued turbulence in US foreign policy,” said Jessica Chen Weiss, a Cornell University professor. “A potential silver lining is that the State Department will fare better under someone who has Trump's ear.”

The smuggler

Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple. 
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.

Khouli conviction

Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.

For sale

A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.

- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico

- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000

- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950

Tuesday's fixtures
Group A
Kyrgyzstan v Qatar, 5.45pm
Iran v Uzbekistan, 8pm
N Korea v UAE, 10.15pm
It's Monty Python's Crashing Rocket Circus

To the theme tune of the famous zany British comedy TV show, SpaceX has shown exactly what can go wrong when you try to land a rocket.

The two minute video posted on YouTube is a compilation of crashes and explosion as the company, created by billionaire Elon Musk, refined the technique of reusable space flight.

SpaceX is able to land its rockets on land  once they have completed the first stage of their mission, and is able to resuse them multiple times - a first for space flight.

But as the video, How Not to Land an Orbital Rocket Booster, demonstrates, it was a case if you fail, try and try again.