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The Guardian - US
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Helen Livingstone (now); Léonie Chao-Fong, Chris Stein, Joanna Walters and Hamish Mackay (earlier)

Manhattan prosecutors dispute Trump claim that criminal conviction should be overturned – as it happened

Joe Biden Kamala Harris Gavin Newsom Nancy Pelosi United States Donald Trump America

This blog is closing now, but you can read our report on Harris’ meeting with Netanyahu. Here’s a rundown of the day’s key developments:

  • Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu met for talks on Thursday, as White House officials said Israel and Hamas were “closer now than we’ve been before” to reaching a ceasefire deal. Biden was expected to put pressure on Netanyahu to commit to at least the first stage of a three-part deal.

  • Netanyahu also met with Kamala Harris, who struck a sharper tone than Biden in her comments afterwards. She said she had told the Israeli prime minister she had “serious concerns” about the humanitarian situation in Gaza and that she would not “stay silent”. However analysts pointed out that her stance did not depart from the administration’s official policy of expressing concern for ordinary Palestinians while continuing to supply Israel with weapons for its assault.

  • Netanyahu said he also met with tech mogul Elon Musk after his address to Congress on Wednesday. Musk, who has a history of cosying up to far-right leaders, was Netanyahu’s guest at the address.

  • The Manhattan prosecutors who secured Donald Trump’s historic criminal conviction disputed the former US president’s claim that the verdict should be set aside in the wake of a US supreme court ruling on presidential immunity. In a court filing dated 24 July and made public on Thursday, the prosecutors said the supreme court’s ruling had no bearing on their case, which stemmed from hush money paid to a porn star.

  • Kamala Harris sought to bolster her pro-labor credentials on Thursday during an address to one of the US’s biggest unions, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) convention, in the latest in a blitz of appearances since Joe Biden endorsed her as his successor on Sunday.

  • Barack Obama is on the verge of publicly endorsing Kamala Harris as the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, after the pair spoke several times on the phone in recent days, according to a report.

  • Kamala Harris accused Donald Trump of trying to cancel the second presidential debate, which is scheduled for 10 September. “I’m ready to debate Donald Trump. I have agreed to the previously agreed upon September 10 debate. He agreed to that previously,” the vice-president said. In a statement late Thursday, the Trump campaign said arrangements for the debate could not be finalized until Harris was officially confirmed as the nominee.

  • The Harris for President campaign launched its first official video, capping a week during which Kamala Harris broke funding records and quickly clinched enough delegate support to become the presumptive Democratic party nominee.

  • New polling indicates Kamala Harris has re-engaged voters turned off by Joe Biden’s candidacy, and is vying closely against Donald Trump in crucial swing states.

  • A vast majority of Black Americans trust Kamala Harris and distrust Donald Trump – 71% compared to 5% – according to the largest-known survey of Black Americans since the Reconstruction era.

  • Elena Kagan, a member of the three-justice liberal minority on the supreme court, said she would support creating an enforcement mechanism for its recently adopted code of ethics, according to a report.

  • Prosecutors have asked a judge to reject Donald Trump’s appeal of his conviction in New York on charges related to falsifying business records to conceal hush-money payments.

  • Christopher Wray, the FBI director, raised questions during a hearing on Wednesday in Washington about whether Donald Trump was actually shot by a bullet during the assassination attempt against the former president earlier this month or whether he was instead struck by shrapnel.

Updated

Kamala Harris has responded to the Trump statement that said debate arrangements could not be finalized until her candidacy was official:

In case you missed it earlier, my colleague Alaina Demopoulos has written a fascinating look at Kamala Harris’ very particular way of speaking. Here’s an extract:

“What can be, unburdened by what has been” is a phrase Kamala Harris uses so often there are minutes-long supercuts available to watch on YouTube. It even has its own Wikipedia page. In other speeches, Harris has also expressed a belief in “the significance of the passage of time” and a desire to “honor the women who made history throughout history”.

Since becoming the presumptive nominee, Harris has invigorated the Democratic party. It’s not only that she’s a much younger candidate than Biden; she also has a stump speech style that embraces metaphor and a new age vernacular not often heard in national politics. The meme accounts love to quote it. It’s even led some to draw comparisons with Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s portrayal of Selina Meyer, the frothy politician in Veep. (In one episode, Meyer stumbles through a speech saying: “We are the United States of America because we are united … and we are states.”)

Although she has proven herself to be one of the most detail-oriented and precise speakers in the Democratic party, Harris also indulges in certain looser Kamalaisms – for example, her now famous anecdote about falling out of a coconut tree and “existing in the context of all in which you live” – which garner (satirical or otherwise) appreciation from supporters and jeering from her detractors. But what are the origins of Harris’s unique speaking style?

Read on below:

Biden pressed Netanyahu to finalize ceasefire deal, remove obstacles to Gaza aid, White House says

US President Joe Biden raised with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu the need to close gaps to reach a ceasefire in Gaza, finalize the deal as soon as possible, bring the hostages home, and reach a durable end to the war in Gaza, the White House has said in a readout from their meeting. The statement continued:

The President also raised the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the need to remove any obstacles to the flow of aid and restoring basic services for those in need, and the critical importance of protecting civilian lives during military operations.

It also said that Biden “reaffirmed the United States’ ironclad commitment to Israel’s security against all threats from Iran and its proxies, including Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis”.

Gabrielle Giffords, the former Democratic congresswoman who was grievously wounded in a 2011 shooting in her Arizona district, has been out on the campaign trail for Kamala Harris, the Associated Press reports.

Giffords’ husband, Senator Mark Kelly, has been touted as a potential running mate for Harris. The AP writes:

Giffords, speaking at the Salt & Light church in swing-state Pennsylvania, met with community activists in a predominantly Black section of Philadelphia hit by gun violence recently, including one over the weekend in which three people were killed and at least six others were wounded.

The event had long been planned, Giffords aides said, well before Giffords’ husband, US senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, and Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro entered the conversation to be Harris’ running mate, now that President Joe Biden ended his re-election bid and endorsed Harris.

Giffords spoke briefly about her long recovery from the shooting in 2011, which killed six people during a meeting with constituents at a Tucson grocery store.

Harris’ other surrogates, including Pennsylvania House Speaker Joanna McClinton, framed the November presidential contest as a choice between Harris, who would sign a ban on assault weapons, and more gun violence under Republican Donald Trump, who gun-rights groups back.

“We are overwhelmed with violence all across America from rural Pennsylvania to inner city neighborhoods like where we are today,” McClinton said. “We as voters can make a decision on having a more violent United States or safer communities in every part of America.”

McClinton — a Shapiro ally in the Pennsylvania statehouse who has rooted on social media for him to join Harris’ ticket — and Giffords batted away questions about the potential that Kelly or Shapiro could be Harris’ pick.

Asked whether she was thinking about becoming the second lady, Giffords said, “later, later.” For her part, McClinton said “I’m not making those decisions,” but then put in a plug for Shapiro as a “people’s champion when it comes to issues around public safety” while calling Kelly someone who “we all hold in high regard.”

After Harris accused Trump of “backpedaling” away from a previous agreement for a debate hosted by ABC News in September earlier on Thursday, the Trump campaign has put out a statement saying the debate cannot be finalized until Harris is officially confirmed as the nominee. The Associated Press reports:

Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement late Thursday that debate arrangements “cannot be finalized until Democrats formally decide on their nominee.”

“Democrats very well could still change their minds,” Cheung said.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he met with tech mogul Elon Musk after his address to Congress on Wednesday. Musk, who has courted far-right leaders around the world, attended the address at Netanyahu’s invitation.

He also met with Netanyahu during a visit to Israel last year, as he sought to quell accusations of antisemitism after personally endorsing a post on his social network X that claimed Jews hate white people.

In recent weeks, Musk has thrown his support behind Donald Trump’s election campaign and played a direct role in advising the former president to select the Ohio senator JD Vance as his running mate.

Analysts and commentators are pointing out that although Harris’ comments were sharper in tone that Biden’s have been towards Netanyahu, they do not mark a departure from the US administration’s official line of expressing concern about the humanitarian situation in Gaza while continuing to supply weapons for the Israeli offensive:

Another statement from the Harris campaign that has been making waves today is one titled “Statement on a 78-Year-Old Criminal’s Fox News Appearance” which came after Donald Trump appeared on the TV network.

The statement included lines such as “After watching Fox News this morning we only have one question, is Donald Trump ok?”; “Trump is clearly worried he made the wrong pick in JD Vance” and” Trump is old and quite weird?”

The Kamala Harris campaign has marked World IVF Day with a statement hitting out at Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance, who has been outspoken in his opposition to abortion and fertility treatment.

“Happy World IVF Day to Everyone Except JD Vance”, Harris’s campaign wrote in a statement posted to X. It continued:

True to form, JD Vance is marking World IVF Day by insulting couples struggling with infertility, demeaning women’s choices and their freedoms, and reminding voters about his and Donald Trump’s anti-IVF Project 2025 agenda.”

The statement comes after the recent resurfacing of 2021 comments by Vance in which he said Harris, Pete Buttigieg, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable”.

The resurfacing of the comments also prompted Friends actor Jennifer Aniston to put out a rare statement criticising Vance in which she said, “I truly cannot believe this is coming from a potential VP. All I can say is … Mr Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day”.

Some video of Kamala Harris’ meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu:

As the Harris campaign gains steam, the vice-president has now joined TikTok with a very short eight-second video as her first post in which a voice off-camera asks her, “Madam vice-president are you on TikTok?”. Harris looks at the camera and says:

I heard that recently, I’ve been on the For You Page, so I thought I’d get on here myself.

Updated

A few more comments from Kamala Harris following her meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu, courtesy of Associated Press, which writes:

Harris said after her meeting with Netanyahu that Israel’s war with Hamas is complicated and that “too often, the conversation is binary when the reality is anything but.”

The vice president said she supported Israel’s right to defend itself but also described widespread suffering among Gaza’s civilian population as fighting continues.

“We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies,” she said. “We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering.”

The vice-president also said she and Biden were “working every day” to bring home the US hostages being held in Gaza. AP reports further:

She recalled planting trees for Israel as a child and said that as a senator from California and as vice president she’s had an “unwavering commitment to the existence of the state of Israel” and its people. She said Israel has “a right to defend itself and how it does so matters.”

Updated

The Guardian’s Andrew Roth wrote a piece earlier this week about how Kamala Harris may differ from Joe Biden in her approach to the Gaza war. In it he writes:

Harris backers and insiders say that she is more likely to engage in public criticism of Netanyahu than Biden and to focus attention on the civilian toll among Palestinians from the war in Gaza – even if she would maintain US military aid and other support for Israel that has been a mainstay of Biden’s foreign policy.

“The generational difference between Biden and Harris is a meaningful difference in how one looks at these issues,” said Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of J Street, a liberal pro-Israel lobbying group that has endorsed Harris’s presidential bid.

“It isn’t necessarily as much a matter of policy as, I think it is of framing … there is a frame for people in the generation of Kamala Harris and younger that is much more recognising of the Palestinian side of the equation, and much more recognising of the need for both people’s fears and needs and rights to be part of this conversation.”

Harris has issued forceful calls for a ceasefire and criticised Israel’s prosecution of the war. At the same time, she has burnished her pro-Israel credentials, even as an aide confirmed that she would be absent when Netanyahu in Congress speaks on Wednesday. “Throughout her career, [Harris] has had an unwavering commitment to the security of Israel. That remains true today,” the aide said.

'I will not be silent' on Gaza, Harris says after meeting Netanyahu

Kamala Harris said she pressed Benjamin Netanyahu about her concerns about the humanitarian situation in Gaza in “frank” talks in Washington that are being closely watched for indications of how she might deal with Israel if she becomes president.

After speaking to the Israeli prime minister she said:

Israel has a right to defend itself. And how it does so matters ... I made clear my serious concern about the dire humanitarian situation there [in Gaza] .... I will not be silent.

Harris’s remarks, which were sharp and serious in tone, reflected what could be a shift from President Joe Biden in how she deals with Netanyahu, Reuters reported.

Hours earlier, Biden pressed for a ceasefire to the nine-month-old war in Gaza in his first face-to-face talks with Netanyahu since the president traveled to Israel days after Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel and pledged American support.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said gaps remained between Israel and the Hamas militants who run the Palestinian enclave in the drive for a ceasefire but “we are closer now than we’ve been before”.

“Both sides have to make compromises,” Kirby said.

Updated

The first comments coming out from Kamala Harris’s meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu are starting to come out via the wires. Harris said the pair had a “frank and constructive meeting” with Netanyahu and also reiterated her “unwavering commitment” to the US ally’s security, according to Reuters.

“Frank” is often diplomatic speak for “testy” or indicates that there were disagreements.

Updated

Kamala Harris is making an appearance on RuPaul’s Drag Race; the video was recorded a few weeks ago, before she announced her run for the presidency, NBC reported.

In the video she makes an appeal for voters to register:

Each day we are seeing our rights and freedoms under attack, including the right of everyone to be who they are, love who they love, openly and with pride. So as we fight back against these attacks, let’s all remember no one is alone. We are all in this together, and your vote is your power. So please make sure your voice is heard this November, and register to vote.

Video

Her message is set to appear on the season nine finale on Paramount+ on Friday.

This is Helen Livingstone taking over the blog from my colleague, Léonie Chao-Fong.

Updated

Summary of the day so far

  • Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu met for talks on Thursday, as White House officials said Israel and Hamas were “closer now than we’ve been before” to reaching a ceasefire deal. Biden was expected to put pressure on Netanyahu to commit to at least the first stage of a three-part deal. Netanyahu also met with Kamala Harris.

  • Kamala Harris sought to bolster her pro-labor credentials on Thursday during an address to one of the US’s biggest unions, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) convention, in the latest in a blitz of appearances since Joe Biden endorsed her as his successor on Sunday.

  • Barack Obama is on the verge of publicly endorsing Kamala Harris as the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, after the pair spoke several times on the phone in recent days, according to a report.

  • Kamala Harris accused Donald Trump of trying to cancel the second presidential debate, which is scheduled for 10 September. “I’m ready to debate Donald Trump. I have agreed to the previously agreed upon September 10 debate. He agreed to that previously,” the vice-president said.

  • The Harris for President campaign launched its first official video, capping a week during which Kamala Harris broke funding records and quickly clinched enough delegate support to become the presumptive Democratic party nominee.

  • New polling indicates Kamala Harris has re-engaged voters turned off by Joe Biden’s candidacy, and is vying closely against Donald Trump in crucial swing states.

  • A vast majority of Black Americans trust Kamala Harris and distrust Donald Trump – 71% compared to 5% – according to the largest-known survey of Black Americans since the Reconstruction era.

  • Elena Kagan, a member of the three-justice liberal minority on the supreme court, said she would support creating an enforcement mechanism for its recently adopted code of ethics, according to a report.

  • Prosecutors have asked a judge to reject Donald Trump’s appeal of his conviction in New York on charges related to falsifying business records to conceal hush-money payments.

  • Christopher Wray, the FBI director, raised questions during a hearing on Wednesday in Washington about whether Donald Trump was actually shot by a bullet during the assassination attempt against the former president earlier this month or whether he was instead struck by shrapnel.

Kamala Harris is now meeting with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in the vice-president’s ceremonial office.

Harris did not take questions from reporters ahead of their meeting, but told Netanyahu:

I look forward to our conversation. We have a lot to talk about.

“We do indeed,” Netanyahu replied.

Updated

Family members of American hostages being held captive in Gaza said they held “productive and honest” discussions with Joe Biden and Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, at the White House today.

Relatives said they “came today with a sense of urgency” and emphasized the need to reach a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas that could result in the release of their loved ones, AP reported. They said:

We got absolute commitment from the Biden administration and from prime minister Netanyahu that they understand the urgency of this moment.

They added that they were more optimistic about a deal than they have been in months.

Updated

Nikki Haley, in the CNN interview, criticized Republicans who have referred to Kamala Harris as a “DEI” candidate. “It’s not helpful,” the former South Carolina governor said.

There’s so many issues we can talk about when it comes to Kamala Harris that it doesn’t matter what she looks like. It matters what she’s said, what she’s fought for, and the lack of results that she’s had because of it.

Updated

Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor, offered no apologies for the “tough things” she said about Donald Trump during the Republican primary race, but said she did not doubt her decision to support the former president in the November election.

Haley, in her first interview since endorsing Trump, told CNN that she was not surprised by Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the race. “I didn’t take happiness in it,” Haley said.

There is an issue we have in DC, where people will go into office and they won’t let go. And then their staffers and their family keep propping them up, and it’s a problem for the American people.

She argued that the Democrats’ decision to put forward Kamala Harris as their nominee would give them “the weakest candidate they could put in”.

Harris “is much more progressive than Joe Biden ever was”, Haley said, adding:

The fact they put in Kamala Harris – kudos for putting in someone younger – the fact that you put in one of the most liberal politicians you probably could have put in, it’s going to be an issue.

Updated

Liberal justice Elena Kagan announces support for enforcing supreme court ethics code – report

Elena Kagan, a member of the three-justice liberal minority on the supreme court, said she would support creating an enforcement mechanism for its recently adopted code of ethics, Bloomberg Law reports.

The nation’s highest court last year adopted a code setting out “rules and principles that guide the conduct of members of the court” following media reports of connections between conservative justices and parties with cases before the judges. However, the code was criticized for having no enforcement mechanism, leaving the judges to essentially enforce it on themselves.

According to Bloomberg Law, Kagan told a judicial conference in California that if chief justice John Roberts creates “some sort of committee of highly respected judges with a great deal of experience and a reputation for fairness” to enforce the code, she would approve.

In the months since the code was adopted, conservative justice Samuel Alito was reported to have flown flags connected to rightwing causes at his property, sparking further uproar over the court’s impartiality.

Here’s a look back at when the ethics code was originally created:

Updated

Biden meets with Netanyahu and families of American hostages

Joe Biden greeted Benjamin Netanyahu this afternoon at the White House, the day after the Israeli prime minister addressed Congress in a speech boycotted and criticized by many of the president’s fellow Democrats:

“We’ve known each other for 40 years, and you’ve known every Israeli prime minister for 50 years. So, from a proud Zionist Jew to a proud Zionist Irish American I want to thank you for 50 years of public service and 50 years of support for the State of Israel. I look forward to discussing with you today thank you,” Netanyahu told Biden in the Oval Office.

He was the first foreign leader to meet the US president since he abandoned his bid for a second term.

The two leaders then met in private with the families of Americans taken hostage by Hamas in the 7 October attack. Kamala Harris is scheduled to meet separately with Netanyahu this afternoon.

Updated

In addition to catching up to Donald Trump in polls of voters nationwide, the Guardian’s Melissa Hellmann reports that Kamala Harris is much more trusted than the former president among African Americans:

A vast majority of Black Americans trust Kamala Harris and distrust Donald Trump – 71% compared to 5% – according to the largest-known survey of Black Americans since the Reconstruction era. The survey of 211,219 Black people across all 50 states showed that the presumptive Democratic nominee may have a higher chance of winning over Black voters than the Republican candidate.

At a virtual press conference on Thursday afternoon, the Black-led innovation thinktank Black Futures Lab, revealed findings from its 2023 Black Census, which was conducted with the help of 50 Black-led grassroots organizations and national partners across the country from February 2022 to October 2023. The latest survey garnered seven times the respondents from the first census in 2018, which received 30,000 responses. Two-thirds of the respondents were women, a majority were from the south, and nearly half were from 45 to 64 years old. Black Futures Lab believes that the census results will help inform voter mobilization efforts ahead of presidential and local elections.

“For us to be powerful in politics, we must control the agenda,” said Black Futures Lab’s field director Natishia June at the press conference. “This is why the Black Census is crucial.”

New York prosecutors ask judge to uphold Trump's hush-money conviction

Prosecutors have asked a judge to reject Donald Trump’s appeal of his conviction in New York on charges related to falsifying business records to conceal hush-money payments, the Associated Press reports.

Lawyers for the former president earlier this month appealed his conviction, saying a recent supreme court decision shielding presidents from prosecution for official acts applies to his conviction in the case brought by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg.

In a response filed today, prosecutors said that was not the case. Here’s more, from the AP:

The Manhattan district attorney’s office said in a court filing that the high court’s opinion “has no bearing” on the hush money case and does not support vacating the jury’s unanimous verdict or dismissing the case.

Prosecutors said Trump’s lawyers failed to raise the immunity issue in a timely fashion and that, even so, the case involved unofficial acts — many pertaining to events prior to his election — that are not subject to immunity.

Lawyers for the former president and current Republican nominee are trying to get the verdict — and even the indictment — tossed out because of the Supreme Court’s July 1 decision. It gave presidents considerable protection from prosecution.

The ruling came about a month after a Manhattan jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business records to conceal a deal to pay off porn actor Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election. At the time, she was considering going public with a story of a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump, who says no such thing happened. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Here’s more on what the former president’s lawyers are arguing:

Updated

Harris accuses Trump of 'backpedaling' on presidential debate planned for September

In remarks to reporters as she deplaned after returning to Washington DC, Kamala Harris accused Donald Trump of trying to cancel the second presidential debate, which is scheduled for 10 September.

“I’m ready to debate Donald Trump. I have agreed to the previously agreed upon September 10 debate. He agreed to that previously,” the vice-president said.

“Now, here he is backpedaling and I’m ready and I think the voters deserve to see the split screen that exists in this race on a debate stage. And so, I’m ready to go.”

The polls published by the New York Times and Siena College over the past year have been among the most talked about surveys in US politics – perhaps because they have typically shown Joe Biden struggling to match Donald Trump’s support.

In an analysis of their latest batch of data, which is the first with Kamala Harris as the Democratic contender, Nate Cohn, the Times’s chief political analyst, writes that this poll is much different than those that came before it. Here’s why:

Mr. Trump hits a high in popularity. Overall, 48 percent of registered voters say they have a favorable view of him, up from 42 percent in our last poll (taken after the debate but before the convention and assassination attempt). It’s his highest favorable number in a Times/Siena poll, which previously always found his favorable ratings between 39 percent and 45 percent.

Ms. Harris is surging. In fact, her ratings have increased even more than Mr. Trump’s. Overall, 46 percent of registered voters have a favorable view of her, up from 36 percent when we last asked about her in February. Only 49 percent have an unfavorable view, down from 54 percent in our last measure. As important, her favorable rating is higher than Mr. Biden’s. In fact, it’s higher than his standing in any Times/Siena poll since September 2022, which so happens to be the last time Mr. Biden led a Times/Siena national poll of registered voters.

The national political environment is a little brighter. The share of voters who say the country is on the “right track” is up to 27 percent – hardly a bright and smiley public, but still the highest since the midterm elections in 2022. Mr. Biden’s approval and favorable ratings are up as well. The ranks of the double haters have dwindled: With both Ms. Harris and Mr. Trump riding high, the number of voters who dislike both candidates has plunged to 8 percent, down from 20 percent in Times/Siena polls so far this year.

He concludes with:

With all of these underlying changes in the attitudes about the candidates, there’s no reason to assume that this familiar Trump +1 result means that the race has simply returned to where it stood before the debate. For now, these developments have mostly canceled out, but whether that will still be true in a few weeks is much harder to say.

Updated

Polls show Harris catching up to Trump in voter support

New polling indicates Kamala Harris has re-engaged voters turned off by Joe Biden’s candidacy, and is vying closely against Donald Trump in crucial swing states.

While it’s unclear if the vice-president has the overall advantage, the data is a reversal of fortune for the Democrats, who had grown nervous after months of polling had showed Biden at best tied, or at worst trailing, Trump nationally and in the states along the Great Lakes and in the southern Sun belt whose voters are set to decide the election.

The closely watched New York Times/Siena College poll found that among likely voters nationwide, Trump has only a one-point lead. In their previous survey following the Trump-Biden debate, the former president led by six points:

Emerson College found that Trump leads in most swing states, albeit narrowly and with Wisconsin tied:

However, that data was far better than Biden’s numbers in those states the last time Emerson polled voters on his candidacy.

“Harris has recovered a portion of the vote for the Democrats on the presidential ticket since the fallout after the June 27 debate,” said executive director of Emerson College Polling Spencer Kimball. “Harris’ numbers now reflect similar support levels to those of Biden back in March.”

Updated

Some Democratic and labor leaders from battleground states joined the DNC press call today, and reported genuine and widespread enthusiasm for Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign.

“There’s a lot of excitement on the ground,” said Yolanda Bejarano, chair of the Arizona Democratic party. “We are seeing just a lot of folks coming out, trying to find out what they can do to volunteer, to help get Vice-President Harris elected.”

Ron Bieber, president of the Michigan AFL-CIO, described the environment in the battleground state as “electric” and echoed Harris’s message that Americans “won’t go back” to a time of fewer rights.

“Trump was devastating to the auto industry and auto workers here in Michigan. They are not going to go backwards. We’re moving forward,” Bieber said.

“President Biden and Vice-President Harris have been the biggest supporters of union workers and the auto industry here in Michigan, and people are fired up. I’ve been doing this stuff a long time now, and I’ve never seen the energy and excitement as I am right now.”

Updated

The Democratic national committee held a press call today to attack Donald Trump and JD Vance for their “anti-worker” agenda, after Republicans spent much of their convention pitching themselves as economic populists.

“It’s more of that trickle-down economic fairytale that has never worked. It has gutted so much of our economy. It’s hurt working people; it’s hurt the labor movement,” said Congressman Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania.

“It’s been great for big corporations and billionaires and Wall Street. It is fiscally irresponsible, and we can’t let it happen again.”

Touting the legislative accomplishments of the Biden administration, Deluzio argued Kamala Harris would continue the president’s pro-labor record if she wins in November.

“We’re going to take more strong action to bring home offshore jobs, to bring home more manufacturing, to defend the ability and the freedom for folks to form and join the union,” Deluzio said. “That’s the backbone of the union way of life.”

Updated

Republican congressman who examined Trump's ear insists it was struck by bullet

Republican congressman and former White House doctor Ronny Jackson accused the FBI director, Christopher Wray, of making a “politically motived move” when he told Congress that it was not yet clear if the former president was hit by a bullet or shrapnel after a gunman opened fire at his rally in Pennsylvania.

Following the assassination attempt, Jackson issued a memo offering some details of the wound Trump suffered. Before we get into what he said about the FBI director, it’s worth noting that Jackson denied that Trump had contracted Covid-19 back in 2020, before being refuted by an official in the then-president’s administration.

Anyway, here’s the tweet:

Donald Trump has moved further to turn his survival of an assassination attempt into mythology by putting the memorable images of the incident on the cover of his latest book, due out next month.

The dramatic news picture, taken by the Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci, captured a defiant and bloodied Trump pumping his fist and mouthing “fight, fight, fight” to the crowd moments after the failed attempt on his life by a 20-year-old gunman at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on 13 July.

Now the photo will be used on the front of the Republican presidential nominee’s new tome, Save America, a book mainly of pictures, which goes on sale on 3 September, Axios reported.

Updated

Joe Biden, ahead of his meeting with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office, was asked by a reporter if he had dropped out of the race because of his health.

Per pool report, Biden appeared to shake his head in response to the question.

Updated

Joe Biden is meeting with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, at the White House to discuss a potential ceasefire in the nine-month-old conflict in Gaza.

Biden and Netanyahu spoke briefly in front of reporters ahead of talks, during which the US president is expected to put pressure on Israel to commit at least to the first stage of a three-part deal that would release some of the hostages still being held captive in Gaza in exchange for a temporary ceasefire.

Netanyahu, addressing Biden, said:

From a proud Jewish Zionist to a proud Irish-American Zionist, I want to thank you for 50 years of public service and 50 years of support for the state of Israel.

Kamala Harris is scheduled to meet separately with Netanyahu later today when she returns from Houston, Texas, after addressing the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) convention.

Updated

The mother of Kamala Harris’s stepchildren, Kerstin Emhoff, has slammed sexist critics who called the vice-president “childless,” saying she is a “loving” and “always present” stepmother.

In the statement to CNN, Emhoff, a film producer and ex-wife to the second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, said:

These are baseless attacks. For over 10 years, since Cole and Ella were teenagers, Kamala has been a co-parent with Doug and I. She is loving, nurturing, fiercely protective, and always present. I love our blended family and am grateful to have her in it.

Ella Emhoff, 25, shared her mother’s statement in an Instagram post that asked:

How can you be ‘childless’ when you have cutie pie kids like Cole and I?

She added: “I love my three parents.”

The post was in reaction to comments made by the Republican vice-presidential nominee, JD Vance, who said in 2021 that the country was being run by “childless cat ladies” who don’t have a stake in its future.

Harris has said her stepchildren refer to her as “Momala.”

Lloyd Austin, the defense secretary, said Kamala Harris has been a “key player” on many critical national security decisions.

Harris has played an important role in the administration’s decisions including on Ukraine and strikes to defend US troops in the Middle East, Austin said at a Pentagon press conference, AP reported. He added:

She’s represented this country in the international arena on the international stage a number of times and done so in a very, very professional and effective manner.

The day so far

Kamala Harris remains on the campaign trail, telling members of the American Federation of Teachers in Houston that Joe Biden “showed what true leadership looks like” in his Oval Office address last night, where he elaborated on his decision to end his campaign for a second term. The vice-president has already received the support from the delegates necessary to become the Democratic party’s presidential nominee, but is reportedly set to receive another big endorsement: that of former president Barack Obama. Back in Washington DC, the House passed a resolution condemning Harris’s handling of immigration in her role as “border czar” – even though she never really had that job. Later on today, Biden and Harris will separately meet with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who controversially addressed Congress yesterday.

Here’s what else happened today so far:

  • Donald Trump claims a bullet struck his ear when an assassin opened fire at his rally earlier this month, but the FBI director said he is not sure about that.

  • Protesters yesterday burned an American flag not far from the Capitol as Netanyahu visited, prompting condemnation from top lawmakers and the vice-president.

  • The Progressive Change Campaign Committee’s members are much more enthusiastic about Harris’s candidacy than they were about Biden’s after his debate debacle, according to polling shared exclusively with the Guardian’s US politics live blog.

Updated

Progressive group reports surge in enthusiasm among members after Harris entered race

Kamala Harris’s ascension as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has caused enthusiasm among the party’s potential voters to surge, a top progressive group found in a survey shared exclusively with the Guardian’s US politics live blog.

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) reported that in the period following Joe Biden’s disastrous debate against Donald Trump, which led to the president abandoning his re-election campaign, and Harris’s entry into the race, members saying that they were very enthusiastic about the nominee rose from 34% to 78%. Those saying they were not enthusiastic at all dipped from 33% to 5%.

“Our PCCC membership generally tracks with Democratic voter sentiment broadly. This spike in enthusiasm is a key indicator in a year when base turnout could be determinative to who wins the White House,” said Ethan Jasny, a quantitative analyst for the committee.

The poll also found that members considering supporting a third-party candidate fell by about half to 8% in that period, while those very worried Democrats would lose the White House plunged from 66% after the debate to 27% once Harris became the presumptive nominee.

The PCCC regularly surveys about 5,000 of its members for its internal use, but shared these results with the Guardian.

Updated

After paying homage to Joe Biden, Kamala Harris launched into a speech where she accused Republicans of pursuing extremist policies that will take the country backwards.

That message is not too different from what the president was telling voters in the months before his bid for a second term came to a sudden end. Harris, of course, is putting her own spin on it. Here’s what she said, in her now-concluded remarks to the American Federation of Teachers convention in Houston:

And while you teach students about our nation’s past, these extremists attack the freedom to learn and acknowledge our nation’s true and full history, including book bans. Book bans in this year of our Lord 2024! And on these last two issues, on these last two issues, just think about it. So, we want to ban assault weapons, and they want to ban books. Can you imagine?

Updated

Harris said Biden 'showed what true leadership looks like' in Oval Office address

Kamala Harris just spoke before the convention of the American Federation of Teachers, which swiftly endorsed her after she entered the presidential race.

The vice-president began her remarks by commenting on Joe Biden’s speech to the nation last night from the Oval Office, in which he said he was dropping his bid for a second term so that younger generations will have a chance to lead.

“Last night, our president addressed the nation, and he showed once again what true leadership looks like. He really did. His words were poignant,” Harris told the crowd in Houston.

She continued:

He thinks and talks about his work and our country, understanding what it means in terms of what we do now and how that will impact the future. He thinks about our history in the context of the importance of the work we do now. And over the past three-and-a-half years, and over his entire career, Joe has led with grace and strength and bold vision and deep compassion.

And as he said, in the next six months, he will continue to fight for the American people, and I know we are all deeply, deeply grateful for his continued service to our nation.

Though Kamala Harris was never named the Biden administration’s “border czar” that hasn’t stopped Republicans from attacking her.

This week, Donald Trump held a call with reporters to slam Harris’s record on immigration and label her as a far-left liberal on border policy, and congressional Republicans have joined in.

“While Democrats and their allies in the media rush to excuse vice-president Harris’ catastrophic failure to end the crisis she and president Biden created, Congress has shown with this resolution that we want the American people to know the truth,” said House homeland security chair Mark Green.

The just-passed House resolution is pure politics and has no chance of being taken up by the Democratic-controlled Senate.

House passes factually wobbly Republican resolution condemning Harris's immigration policies

The House just approved a Republican-backed resolution condemning Kamala Harris for her handling of immigration, and specifically her actions as the Biden administration’s “border czar” – despite the fact that she never really held that job.

In the days since Joe Biden stepped aside and Harris announced her bid for the presidency, Republicans have sought to steer the ire of voters uncomfortable with undocumented migrants towards the vice-president, by saying she was given the job of securing the southern border.

But as PolitiFact notes, the president in fact tasked Harris with addressing root causes of migration in Central American nations, not stopping migrants from entering the United States. From their fact check:

The Republican National Committee said Biden appointed Harris “to be his border czar to deal with illegal immigration ... Harris was put in charge of stopping illegal immigration.”

Biden tasked Harris with addressing the root causes that drive migration to the United States. He did not task her with controlling who and how many people enter the southern US border. That’s the Homeland Security secretary’s responsibility.

Experts say that seeing the results of addressing root causes driving people out of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras – violence, economic insecurity and corruption – takes time.

The statement contains an element of truth, but it ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. We rate it Mostly False.

The resolution passed with 220 votes in favor and 196 opposed. Six Democrats voted for it, all of whom represent swing districts.

Updated

Harris condemns flag burning, 'dangerous hate-fueled rhetoric' at protests against Netanyahu speech

Kamala Harris has condemned the protesters who burned an American flag and sprayed pro-Hamas graffiti outside Union Station in Washington DC, as Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to Congress at the Capitol nearby:

Yesterday, at Union Station in Washington DC we saw despicable acts by unpatriotic protesters and dangerous hate-fueled rhetoric.

I condemn any individuals associating with the brutal terrorist organization Hamas, which has vowed to annihilate the State of Israel and kill Jews. Pro-Hamas graffiti and rhetoric is abhorrent and we must not tolerate it in our nation.

I condemn the burning of the American flag. That flag is a symbol of our highest ideals as a nation and represents the promise of America. It should never be desecrated in that way.

I support the right to peacefully protest, but let’s be clear: antisemitism, hate and violence of any kind have no place in our nation.

Updated

The House has put together a bipartisan taskforce to investigate the assassination attempt against Donald Trump, the Associated Press reports. Perhaps that will get to the bottom of what hit his ear:

The House voted on Wednesday to form a taskforce to investigate the security failures surrounding the assassination attempt against Donald Trump earlier this month.

The vote underscores the bipartisan outrage over the shooting at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Trump came within inches of losing his life. One rally-goer was killed and two others were severely injured. Lawmakers have responded quickly with hearings and widespread calls for accountability.

The legislation passed by a vote of 416-0.

The taskforce will be composed of 13 members and is expected to include seven Republicans and six Democrats. It will be tasked with determining what went wrong on the day of the attempted assassination and will make recommendations to prevent future security lapses. It will issue a final report before 13 December and has the authority to issue subpoenas.

The bill is sponsored by Republican congressman Mike Kelly, whose home town of Butler was the site of the shooting. Kelly was at the rally with his wife and other family members.

“I can tell you that my community is grieving,” Kelly said. “They are shocked by what happened in our backyard. The people of Butler and the people of the United States deserve answers.”

With Kamala Harris now all but certain to become the Democratic presidential nominee, the party is looking ahead to its convention set to begin on 19 August in Chicago.

While the Democrats plan to nominate Harris virtually sometime in early August, they plan to use the convention to rally voters around the vice-president’s candidacy.

For those who know their history, the fact that Chicago is playing host to the convention is an eyebrow-raising coincidence. The city was in the same position in 1968, when the Democratic president, Lyndon B Johnson, declined to seek re-election, leading to a contested convention that attracted massive anti-Vietnam war protests – and police violence – outside, and failed to prevent the Republican Richard Nixon from winning the presidency.

Much has changed in the past 56 years, but the fact is, Democrats will once again convene in Chicago in the wake of an incumbent president ending his re-election bid, in this instance Joe Biden. Axios heard from the influential South Carolina congressman Jim Clyburn about how he thinks the convention should go; he said Democrats “need to go into Chicago together. Go there, have a lovefest, hold ourselves out to the American people as someone who knows how to get along with each other.”

Clyburn warned that the party would lose momentum, if it held “a big argument on the [convention] floor, do that for four days ... and then go out to the American people and say, ‘I’m ready to bring the country together, though I couldn’t get together at my convention.’”

Updated

FBI director raises questions about whether Trump was hit by bullet during assassination attempt

Shortly after a gunman opened fire at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Donald Trump said the projectile that hit his ear and caused it to bleed was a bullet.

But in testimony before the House judiciary committee yesterday, FBI director Christopher Wray said it was not clear if that was indeed the case, or if Trump was struck by shrapnel:

Trump has been criticized for not being forthcoming about his health following the assassination attempt, which left one rally-goer dead and others wounded.

He released a memo about his recovery from the shooting from the former White House doctor and current Republican congressman Ronny Jackson, but has not allowed the medical professionals who treated him to talk publicly about his condition.

Updated

From the Guardian’s Andrew Roth and Robert Tait, here’s a look back at Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to a joint session of the US Congress yesterday, which drew criticism for his bellicose statements and boycotts from many lawmakers:

Benjamin Netanyahu lauded US support for Israel’s war in Gaza but offered few details on ceasefire negotiations as he addressed a raucous joint session of US Congress that was boycotted by dozens of Democratic lawmakers and protested by thousands outside the US Capitol.

In a fiery speech in the House chamber, Netanyahu called for “total victory” in the nine-month-old war, dashing hopes among some that he would announce progress toward a ceasefire and the return of Israeli hostages before his meetings with Joe Biden at the White House on Thursday.

“We’re not only protecting ourselves. We’re protecting you … Our enemies are your enemy, our fight is your fight, and our victory will be your victory,” Netanyahu shouted, as House and Senate Republicans rose to their feet to applaud the Israeli prime minister.

House leaders condemn American flag burning during Netanyahu protests in Washington

During yesterday’s protests in Washington DC as Benjamin Netanyahu addressed Congress, a group lit an American flag on fire outside Union Station, the main passenger rail hub in the city:

Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives who led the push to have Netanyahu speak, later that evening went to the station, which is right across from the Capitol, to restore the flags:

This morning, Democratic House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, also condemned the flag burning in a statement:

Defacing public property, desecrating the American flag, threatening Jews with violence and promoting terrorist groups like Hamas is not acceptable under any circumstance.

There is a difference between lawful expression and disorderly conduct. Anyone who violates the law must be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.

Updated

Kamala Harris to meet Benjamin Netanyahu in separate meeting from Biden

Kamala Harris will meet Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in Washington today in a separate get together from his rendezvous with Joe Biden in the Oval Office.

The US vice-president and Democratic presidential candidate is flying to Houston, Texas, to address the second largest teachers union at their conference and then returning to DC for a meeting the Netanyahu.

The Israeli leader is due at the White House to see the US president at midday and will see Harris later.

He controversially was invited to address a joint session of the US Congress yesterday and spoke to defend Israel’s war in Gaza. He drew protests outside and inside the Capitol, and many lawmakers boycotted the event, while others gave him a standing ovation.

Our live blog from London has more on the Washington meetings today and all the news from Gaza and Israel, here.

Updated

Kamala Harris heads to Houston, Texas, this morning to give the keynote speech at the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) national convention.

Delegates for the AFT, the second largest US teachers union with 1.7 million members, voted on Monday to endorse Harris’s bid to become the first woman and second African American to serve as president of the United States. Harris has received a flurry of endorsements from many of the country’s largest labor unions since she announced her candidacy for president.

With less than a 100 days to the presidential election, high-profile endorsements could prove pivotal in helping maintain the momentum that Harris campaign has enjoyed among Democrats since she entered the race less than a week ago.

She is due to speak at the AFT event at 11am ET and then will fly back to Washington, DC to meet with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Updated

Obama to endorse Harris nomination soon – report

The former US president Barack Obama is expected to add his endorsement soon for the vice-president, Kamala Harris, to become the Democratic nominee for president in the 2024 election, according to the latest report.

Obama was America’s first Black president when he was elected to office in 2008 in a historic victory for the Democrats, and his endorsement is crucial for the US vice-president who is now attempting to become America’s first female president and first woman of color to occupy the White House.

Obama privately has fully supported Harris’s candidacy and has been in regular contact with her, a report by NBC said, citing people familiar with the discussions.

Aides to Obama and Harris also have discussed arranging for the two of them to appear together on the campaign trail, though no date has been set,” the report said and Reuters has reported.

With no one stepping up to challenge Harris for the nomination, she won the backing of party delegates on Monday, a day after Joe Biden announced that he was dropping his re-election bid, following which he gave a speech to the nation on Monday night from the Oval Office.

The Obama Foundation, the former president’s charitable organization, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters, the news wire further reported.

Updated

The Harris for President campaign has launched its first official video, less than a week after US President Joe Biden announced he was dropping out of the race.

The ad caps a week during which Harris also broke funding records and quickly clinched enough delegate support to become the presumptive nominee in an election that is now just over 100 days away.

Harris memes are everywhere - but will tweets and TikToks turn into votes?

“kamala IS brat,” pop star Charli xcx declared on Sunday, a reference to her new album released last month that has launched countless memes declaring it the season of the brat. A brat, in the British singer’s own words, is “that girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things sometimes, who feels herself, but then also maybe has a breakdown, but kind of parties through it”.

Brat was having a moment, Kamala was having hers, and the two came together in cultural union via a tidal wave of posts – largely from younger Americans – like videos with the pop star’s music over clips of the vice-president’s frequently shared coconut tree remarks.

Harris’s campaign quickly embraced the memes, adopting a lime green Twitter/X background in the same aesthetic of the Brat album. The internet went wild.

Now the question is what it might mean for Harris’s chances come November. Will tweets and TikToks turn into votes?

Republican attacks on Harris to get ‘as ugly and bigoted as they can’

For Barack Obama there was “birtherism” and a name they said sounded like a specific Middle East terrorist. For Hillary Clinton there was “Lock her up” and merchandise that said, “Trump that bitch”, “Hillary sucks but not like Monica” and “Life’s a bitch: don’t vote for one.”

Rightwing playbooks deployed in past election campaigns are being dusted off for an all-out assault against Vice-President Kamala Harris, the de facto Democratic nominee aiming to become the first Black woman and first person of south Asian descent to be US president.

“It’s obvious that the Republicans are going to play the race and gender card, which we’ve seen already in some of the attacks on social media,” said Tara Setmayer, a Black woman who is co-founder and chief executive of the Seneca Project, a women-led super political action committee. “It may be catnip for their Maga base but it will be a turnoff for the moderate voters in the battleground states that will determine this election.”

Harris’s sudden ascent after 81-year-old Joe Biden’s decision not to seek re-election has upended the race for the White House, giving Democrats a much-needed jolt of energy and instantly turned the tables on Republicans on the question of age: Donald Trump, 78, is now the oldest presidential nominee in history.

Having built a campaign against Biden, Republicans are hastily recalibrating and racing to define Harris, 59, before she can define herself. They intend to tie her to Biden’s immigration policy, which they say is to blame for a sharp increase last year in the number of people crossing the southern border with Mexico illegally.

A second line of attack will revolve around the economy. Public opinion polls consistently show Americans are unhappy with high food and fuel costs as well as interest rates that have made buying a home less affordable.

Read on here:

Away from DC, Kamala Harris delivered on Wednesday what has become the core of her stump speech to more than 6,000 members of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Incorporated.

Harris’s 15-minute address at the Black sorority’s biannual meeting in Indianapolis outlined what she described as some of the key accomplishments of the Biden-Harris administration: eliminating some student loan debt – a mention met with resounding cheers – capping the cost of insulin, expanding lower-cost and no-cost healthcare to new mothers in 46 states, cutting child poverty in half and removing medical debt from the calculus behind credit scores.

She spoke of unfinished work that she would take on as president, including making childcare and eldercare more affordable, securing universal paid maternity leave and signing into law a bill that would restore and protect the right to abortion, which was eliminated by the conservative-dominated supreme court in 2022.

Harris also described her likely opponent’s plank as a set of grim, retrogressive ideas, which are detailed in the nearly 1,000-page policy treatise known as Project 2025. Donald Trump has denied any connection to the document, but several of its chief architects served in his first administration. What’s more, elements of the policy were included in the 2024 Republican party platform, as well as in speeches from this month’s Republican national convention.

“I believe that we face the choice between two different visions for our nation: one focused on the future, the other focused on the past,” Harris said on Wednesday. “And with your support, I am fighting for our nation’s future.”

Read Janell Ross’s full report here:

Updated

Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress was filled with combative remarks, as well as claims about the war in Gaza, now almost in its tenth month.

My colleague Ruth Michaelson has factchecked some of those claims here:

On his third day in Washington, Benjamin Netanyahu finally got the attention he so desperately wanted in the US capital.

Republicans and their guests in the House chamber stamped their feet and whistled as a joint session was gaveled into order, while the Democrat lawmakers who chose not to boycott someone whom colleagues had called a “war criminal” looked on in sullen silence. In a 56-minute speech punctuated with 50 rounds of applause, the Israeli prime minister dashed hopes of a quick end to the war in Gaza and dispensed red meat to the Republican faithful, blasting anti-war protest culture and vowing to fight until “total victory”.

For two days, Netanyahu had mostly been ignored at the Watergate hotel, passed over for the spectacle of a US political cycle averaging a West Wing season finale a week. Joe Biden had dropped out of the presidential race amid rumours of his cognitive decline, endorsing the vice-president, Kamala Harris, weeks before the convention and reinvigorating the Democratic party overnight. A bullet had grazed Donald Trump’s ear in an assassination attempt just 11 days ago, sparking comparisons to the resurrection of Lazarus and Jesus Christ. America has been living decades in just weeks; was there even room on the cable TV schedule for Netanyahu to deliver another incendiary speech?

But the House speaker, Mike Johnson, a Republican, had put Netanyahu on the schedule on 24 July and neither the US political tumult nor Biden’s bout of Covid-19, nor a requested international criminal court warrant accusing him of “crimes against humanity” would deter Israel’s prime minister from coming to Washington to make his case before Congress for a record fourth time (once more than Winston Churchill).

So when he had his moment, Netanyahu stood up to give a speech filled with verve but absolutely devoid of details: when and how Israel’s war in Gaza would come to an end and the 120 remaining hostages kidnapped by Hamas on 7 October would be brought home.

Read on here:

Biden and Netanyahu to hold talks

Joe Biden will meet with Benjamin Netanyahu later today as the Israeli prime minister seeks to shore up US support for the ongoing war in Gaza.

Biden will also meet with families of Israelis taken hostage in Gaza.

On Wednesday, Netanyahu gave a speech – arranged weeks ago and instigated by the Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson – to US Congress.

This was met with protests inside and out of the building, with Democrats declining to attend and thousands protesting in the streets.

With tensions over Israel’s nine-and-half-month war on Gaza running high, police mounted a huge security operation to seal off the US Capitol from protesters.

Streets in Washington’s downtown area were closed to traffic, while officers experienced in dealing with mass protests were drafted in from the New York police department. The Capitol building itself was ring-fenced off.

“Shut it down,” a large group of protesters chanted as they marched toward the Capitol after blocking a nearby intersection, adding “Bibi, Bibi, we’re not done!” Capitol police deployed pepper spray at protesters they claimed had crossed the police line.

In a roughly 10-minute speech, Biden pointed to the threat that he says Donald Trump poses to democracy in the US.

“When Ben Franklin was asked,” Biden said, “as he emerged from the convention going on, whether the founders have given America a monarchy or a Republic, Franklin’s response was: a republic, if you can keep it.”

“Whether we keep our republic is now in your hands,” Biden said.

Here are my colleague Coral Murphy Marcos’s key takeaways from that speech:

Updated

Analysis: Biden’s address was a moving piece of political theatre and a rebuke of Trump

There was 6 January 2021, and a violent coup attempt by a president desperately trying to cling to power. Then there was 24 July 2024, and a president explaining why he was giving up the most powerful job in the world.

Joe Biden’s address on Wednesday night was a moving piece of political theatre, the start of a farewell tour by “a kid with a stutter from modest beginnings” who entered politics in 1972 and made it all the way to the Oval Office. For diehard Democrats it was a case of: if you have tears, prepare to shed them now.

The speech was also a rebuke of his predecessor Donald Trump’s authoritarian impulses in both word and deed. Although he never mentioned his predecessor by name, Biden laid out two radically different visions of the US presidency set to clash again in November.

Last Sunday the 46th president bowed to a chorus of fellow Democrats questioning his age and mental acuity and announced that he would drop out of the presidential election. On Wednesday, recovered from the coronavirus, the 81-year-old made his first public remarks to explain why.

Speaking against the backdrop of window, two flags, gold curtains and family photos including his late son Beau, Biden began by citing the Oval Office portraits of former presidents Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt.

“I revere this office but I love my country more,” he said. “It’s been the honour of my life to serve as your president. But in the defence of democracy, which is at stake, I think it’s more important than any title.”

It was a definitive rebuke of Trump, a man who has slapped his name on countless buildings and for whom the title is everything. Backed by the conservative Heritage Foundation thinktank, the Republican nominee is intent on an expansion of presidential power. But by giving power away – in what Hillary Clinton described “as pure an act of patriotism as I have seen in my lifetime” – Biden demonstrated he will always be the bigger man.

Senior Democrats praise Biden after address to nation

Welcome back to our live US political coverage.

Senior Democrats have rallied round Joe Biden after the president, in an address to the nation, set out in detail his reasons for stepping down as a candidate in November’s election.

Biden delivered a reflective and hopeful message about the need to begin a new chapter in America’s story.

I believe my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for America’s future all merited a second term, but nothing – nothing – can come in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition.

So I’ve decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation. It’s the best way to unite our nation. You know, there is a time and a place for long years of experience in public life. There’s also a time and a place for new voices, fresh voices – yes, younger voices. And that time and place is now.

You can read our full report on that address here:

After his speech, senior Democrats including Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi and Gavin Newsom took to social media to show their support and gratitude.

Harris posted:

Other messages included:

Updated

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