Closing summary
We’re wrapping up our live coverage for the day, but we’ll be back on Tuesday. Here is a summary of today’s developments:
As oil prices surged amid the widening war with Iran, Donald Trump said that the conflict could be over “very soon” while threatening even more aggressive action if Tehran moved to cut off global energy supplies. During back-to-back appearances in Florida, Trump said the US had taken a “little excursion” to the Middle East “to get rid of some evil” but suggested the war, now in its second week, was ahead of schedule and near completion. More here.
Trump renewed his push for the Save America Act, a curtailment of voting access, after threatening on Sunday not to sign any bills until Congress approves the legislation. “All voters must show proof of citizenship in order to vote,” Trump said during remarks on Monday at a Republican event in Miami. “No mail-in ballots, except for illness, disability, military or travel.” More here.
Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, has said “there will be more casualties” in the US military from the Trump administration’s war in Iran after officials confirmed on Sunday that the number of US service members killed had climbed to seven. He portrayed Trump’s decision for the US to join Israeli attacks on the Middle East country as essential “to advance American interests, and protect American lives”. More here.
A golf club company backed by the sons of Trump is merging with drone manufacturer Powerus in a deal designed to take the drone technology company public. The merger with Aureus Greenway Holdings is the latest in Eric and Donald Trump Jr’s growing investments in the drone sector, following last month’s $1.5bn tie-up between Israeli drone maker XTEND and Florida-based JFB Construction Holdings. More here.
Claudia Sheinbaum has responded to Trump’s description of Mexico as the “epicenter of violence,” by calling on the US government to step up efforts to combat gun trafficking. “There is something that the US can help us a lot with: stop the trafficking of illegal weapons from the US to Mexico,” the president of Mexico said. “If they stopped the entry of illegal weapons from the United States into Mexico, then these groups wouldn’t have access to this type of high-powered weaponry to carry out their criminal activities.” More here.
Secretary of state Marco Rubio designated Afghanistan as a “state sponsor of wrongful detention” today and urged the Taliban to release two US citizens he said are “unjustly detained.”
“Today, I am designating Afghanistan as a State Sponsor of Wrongful Detention. The Taliban continues to use terrorist tactics, kidnapping individuals for ransom or to seek policy concessions. These despicable tactics need to end,” Rubio said in a statement.
“It is not safe for Americans to travel to Afghanistan because the Taliban continues to unjustly detain our fellow Americans and other foreign nationals,” he added.
Rubio also urged the Taliban to release Dennis Coyle, Mahmood Habibi and “all Americans unjustly detained in Afghanistan now and commit to cease the practice of hostage diplomacy forever.”
President Donald Trump warned Iran against blocking the strait of Hormuz, a crucial artery for the world’s oil industry, as the US-Iran war has brought shipping disruptions in the strait.
“If Iran does anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday.
“Additionally, we will take out easily destroyable targets that will make it virtually impossible for Iran to ever be built back, as a Nation, again — Death, Fire, and Fury will reign upon them — But I hope, and pray, that it does not happen!,” he added.
About 20 percent of global oil and gas passes through the narrow lane in the Gulf, but shipping traffic has been disrupted in the strait since the US and Israel’s coordinated military attacks against Iran started last month.
Two teen brothers who were members of a nationally recognized mariachi band in South Texas were released from immigration custody after a flurry of bipartisan criticism over their detainment.
Brothers Antonio Gámez-Cuéllar, 18, and Joshua, 14, were detained along with their 12-year-old brother and their parents on 25 February. They were held at a family detention center in Dilley, Texas, before their release on Monday.
The teenage boys were part of the McAllen High School Mariachi Oro band, which has visited the White House, performed at Carnegie Hall and won eight state championships.
Democratic representative Joaquin Castro visited the family at the detention center, marking his third visit to the detention center.
“The Gámez-Cuéllar family has been released. We are taking them now to reunite with their son Antonio,” Castro said in a post on X.
Javier Villalobos, McAllen’s Republican mayor, said he supported the family and said he continues to advocate for “responsible pathways for law abiding individuals who want to contribute to our economy, support their families, and become productive neighbors in McAllen.”
Earlier, we reported that Donald Trump once again pushed for the Save America Act, a curtailment of voting access, during an event in Miami today. The Guardian’s Rachel Leingang brings us more details about the bill’s wider implications:
The president, fixated on unsubstantiated claims that noncitizens are stealing US elections ahead of midterm elections that are expected to be bruising for Republicans, said on Truth Social Sunday that the Save America Act “must be done immediately” and “supersedes everything else”.
“MUST GO TO THE FRONT OF THE LINE. I, as President, will not sign other Bills until this is passed, AND NOT THE WATERED DOWN VERSION – GO FOR THE GOLD,” he wrote.
He laid out a list of what he wanted in the bill, much of which is not currently in the proposal: showing voter ID and proof of citizenship, banning mail ballots except for a few instances, and, unrelated to voting, a ban on transgender people participating in women’s sports and gender-affirming surgeries for minors.
The White House previously confirmed that Trump was pushing for measures to be added to the voting bill on trans issues. The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said last week that Trump “added on some priorities” for the bill, including a ban on “transgender transition surgeries for minors”.
“We are not gonna tolerate the mutilation of young children in this country. No men in women’s sports,” she said. “The president putting all of these priorities together speaks to how common sense they are.”
Read Rachel’s full report here:
A new survey shows that a majority of voters oppose US military action against Iran, while nearly three-quarters do not want to see US ground troops sent into Iran.
The Quinnipiac University poll, released on Monday, states that 55 percent of survey takers do not think Iran posed an imminent military threat to the US before the Trump administration started launching airstrikes against Iran. About 1,000 self-identified registered voters nationwide were surveyed from 6 March to 8 March.
Meanwhile, 20 percent of respondents support the US sending troops into Iran, while 74 percent oppose it.
In an interview with the New York Post, Donald Trump said today that he’s “nowhere near” deciding whether to send US troops into Iran to secure the stockpile of highly enriched uranium there.
Donald Trump was pressed by reporters on Monday about his claims blaming Iran for the recent bombing of an all-girls school in southern Iran that killed more than 160 people.
“But whether it’s Iran or somebody else, the fact that a Tomahawk, a Tomahawk, is very generic. It’s sold to other countries, but that’s being investigated right now,” he said.
A reporter noted that no other US officials were making that claim, to which Trump replied: “Because I just don’t know enough about it. I think it’s something that I was told is under investigation.”
“Certainly, whatever the report shows, I’m willing to live with that report,” he added.
Democratic senators have filed a wave of new war powers resolutions as they call on Republicans to convene public hearings into the US hostilities with Iran or be forced to vote on continuing a conflict that polls show majorities of Americans do not support.
Late last week, Democrats Cory Booker of New Jersey, Tim Kaine of Virginia, Adam Schiff of California, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Chris Murphy of Connecticut filed resolutions under the War Powers Act that would force the US military to withdraw from the war with Iran unless Congress votes to authorize the engagement.
The GOP-controlled Senate and House of Representatives blocked similar resolutions last week, largely along party lines, as Republican leaders argued that Donald Trump was acting within his authority when the United States attacked Iran alongside Israel at the end of February.
Aides to the Democratic senators say the goal of these latest resolutions is to push the Senate majority leader John Thune into convening public hearings with cabinet secretaries involved in the war effort, or the chamber will be forced to debate and vote on the resolutions in the following weeks.
Read the full story:
Donald Trump said he would like to help people in Iran, but he claimed they cannot “behave.”
“I’d like to, if they can behave, but they’ve been very menacing,” he alleged. “They’re great people. They have an amazing population. It’s amazing, smart, brilliant, energetic.”
“I’d love to help them, but they have to be in a system that allows them to be helped, and right now they’re in a system that only allows failure, and I don’t want that,” he added. “We want a system that can lead to many years of peace, and if we can’t have that, we might as well get it over with right now.”
Donald Trump said he was “disappointed” that Iran named Mojtaba Khamenei to succeed his slain father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the supreme leader of the country.
“We think it’s going to lead to just more of the same problem for the country,” Trump told reporters at a press conference in Miami.
Donald Trump said Iran would “never be able to recover, ever” from potential US strikes.
“We’re putting an end to all of this threat once and for all, and the result will be lower oil prices, oil and gas prices for American families,” Trump said. “We’ve done that. We’ve done it. We’ve brought it very low. This was just an excursion into something that had to be done.”
His remarks come as oil prices have soared past $100 a barrel as a result of the US-Iran war.
“We’re looking to keep the oil prices down. We went artificially up because there’s excursion into a very positive thing,” Trump said. “This was an excursion that a lot of people wouldn’t have done. I knew oil prices would go up if I did this, and they’ve gone up probably less than I thought they’d go up.”
Trump touts Iran operation: 'we wiped every single force'
At a press conference on Monday, Donald Trump said that the US government has “carried out some of the most powerful and complex military strikes and maneuvers the world has ever seen.”
“We wiped every single force in Iran,” he said. “Most of Iran’s naval power has been sunk. It’s on the bottom of the sea.” Trump noted that the US military has so far destroyed 51 ships.
“We’ve struck over 5,000 targets to date, some of them very major targets, and we’ve left some of the most important targets for later,” he said.
“We think they should put a president in, or the head of the country, and that’s going to be able to do something peacefully for a change,” he added.
Updated
Trump claims Democrats 'probably won’t win an election for 50 years' if strict voter ID bill passes
Donald Trump laid out a set of restrictions for the Save America Act, which aims to change voting requirements ahead of the midterm elections, as he delivered remarks at a Republican event in Miami.
“All voters must show proof of citizenship in order to vote,” he says. “No mail-in ballots, except for illness, disability, military or travel.”
He claimed that, if the bill were to pass, Democrats “probably won’t win an election for 50 years and maybe longer.”
Updated
During an event in Florida, Donald Trump said Iran was “looking to take over the Middle East.”
“We have pretty good proof,” Trump said. “They were going to attack us, 100% they were ready. They had all these missiles, far more than anyone thought, and they were going to attack us, they were going to attack all the Middle East and Israel.”
“They had all of those missile sites and all those launches that we got rid of,” he added.
Donald Trump is delivering remarks at his golf resort in Miami for the House Republicans’ annual retreat.
“The representatives in this room provided the pivotal votes in securing a record $1 trillion for the United States military this year,” Trump said. “Now the world is witnessing the importance of that investment with one of the most complex and stunning operations ever conducted. That’s Operation Epic Fury.”
“The world respects us right now more than they have ever respected us before,” he added. “We’re the strongest military anywhere in the Earth, and now everybody understands it.”
“Together with our Israeli partners, we’re crushing the enemy in an overwhelming display of technical skill and military force. Iran’s drone and missile capability is being utterly demolished,” Trump said.
Donald Trump told CBS News reporter Weijia Jiang that the war against Iran could be over soon.
“I think the war is very complete, pretty much,” Trump said, according to a post on X by Jiang, senior White House correspondent at CBS.
“They have no navy, no communications, they’ve got no Air Force,” Trump said, according to Jiang.
She also asked the US president about Iran’s new Supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, whom Trump has criticized before.
“I have no message for him. None, whatsoever,” he said, according to Jiang. Trump said he has someone in mind to replace Khamenei, but he did not elaborate.
Here's a recap of the day so far
Donald Trump has threatened to not sign any new legislation into law until a key voter ID bill is passed on Capitol Hill. On Truth Social, Trump said that lawmakers must pass the SAVE America act “immediately” as it “supersedes everything else”. A reminder, the bill would require proof of citizenship at voter registration and significantly curtail mail-in voting, but is struggling to clear the Senate.
Two teenagers were charged on Monday with offenses, including terrorism and using a weapon of mass destruction, after they allegedly threw improvised explosive devices outside the residence of New York mayor Zohran Mamdani. The incident took place on Saturday during an anti-Islam protest by rightwing agitators outside Gracie Mansion on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Mamdani and his wife were not at home. According to a criminal complaint, unsealed on Monday, both defendants declared allegiance to the Islamic State terror group.
Donald Trump has said the selection of Mojtaba Khamenei as the the next supreme leader of Iran is a “big mistake”. Speaking about the late ayatollah’s son, he told NBC News: “I think they made a big mistake. I don’t know if it’s going to last. I think they made a mistake.” Earlier, he told the New York Post that he is “not happy” with Khamenei.
Andy Ogles, a Republican congressman for Tennessee’s fifth district, wrote on social media that “Muslims don’t belong in America”. His racist and xenophobic post on Monday is the latest instance of Ogles denigrating the Muslim faith. He has also said that Islam is “incompatible” with American value, and proposed legislation that would ban immigration from several Muslim-majority countries. Democratic lawmakers were quick to rebuke Ogles, and called on congressional Republicans to condemn his remarks.
The Pentagon has identified the seventh US service member killed in the war with Iran as 26-year-old army Sgt Benjamin N Pennington, who is a resident of Glendale, Kentucky. In a statement on Monday the defense department said Pennington died on Sunday from injuries sustained during an Iranian strike on the Prince Sultan airbase in Saudi Arabia on 1 March.
The Pentagon has identified the seventh US service member killed in the war with Iran as 26-year-old army Sgt Benjamin N Pennington, who is a resident of Glendale, Kentucky.
In a statement on Monday the department said Pennington died on Sunday from injuries sustained during an Iranian strike on the Prince Sultan airbase in Saudi Arabia on 1 March. The incident is under investigation, the statement said.
Pennington was assigned to first space battalion, first space brigade, Fort Carson, Colorado, the Pentagon said. The brigade is part of the army space and missile defense command.
US Central Command announced the death on Sunday, but did not identify the service member. In its statement, US Central Command said that the service member had been “seriously wounded” when the Saudi military base was struck on 1 March and had “passed away from injuries”.
“The US Army Space and Missile Defense Command is deeply saddened by the loss of Sgt. Pennington,” Lt Gen Sean A Gainey, USASMDC commanding general, said. “He gave the ultimate sacrifice for the country he loved. That makes him nothing less than a hero, and he will always be remembered that way. We extend our heartfelt condolences to his family and friends.”
Per my last post, it’s also worth remembering that Ogles wrote to attorney general Pam Bondi and called on the justice department to pursue denaturalization proceedings against Zohran Mamdani, while he was running to be mayor of New York in 2025.
“Zohran ‘little muhammad’ Mamdani is an antisemitic, socialist, communist who will destroy the great City of New York,” Ogles wrote in June last year. “He needs to be DEPORTED.”
Ogles’ comments about Mamdani and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (in which he called the New York lawmaker a “dime store Barack Obama) were all part of a censure resolution that House Democrats introduced last year.
Republican congressman says that 'Muslims don't belong in American society'
Andy Ogles, a Republican congressman for Tennessee’s fifth district, wrote on social media that “Muslims don’t belong in America”.
His racist and xenophobic post on Monday comes hours after officials in New York said that the improvised explosive device thrown outside Gracie Mansion – as part of a counter-protest to a white supremacist march – is being investigated as an act of “Isis inspired terrorism”.
Ogles has repeatedly denigrated the Muslim faith, insisting that it is “incompatible” with American values. His Islamophobic espousals have manifested in a piece of proposed legislation that would ban immigration from several Muslim-majority countries, including Iran, Syria and Libya. The bill mimicks Donald Trump’s so-called “Muslim ban” executive order during his first term in office.
In response, several Democrats have assailed Ogles’ comments. The House’s top Democrat, Hakeem Jeffries, called the Republican representative “a malignant clown and pathological liar” who has fabricated his whole life story”. A reminder that Ogles’ career has received immense scrutiny from local news outlets.
“Disgusting Islamophobes like you do not belong in Congress or in civilized society. And that’s why House Democrats will defeat you in November,” Jeffries said of Ogles in a statement.
Gavin Newsom’s office called on congressional Republicans to Denounce Ogles’ posts on social media. GOP House speaker Mike Johnson did not immediately respond to the Guardian’s request for comment.
Democratic congressman Eric Swalwell, whose district is adjacent to San Francisco, questioned how many Muslim live in Ogles’ constituency. “I know there are tens of thousands in mine,” Swalwell said in a post on X. “They are parents. Entrepreneurs. Police officers. The firefighter-paramedic giving CPR to save your life…They are American.”
Other Democratic lawmakers pushed back against Ogles’ comments on social media. “Maybe it’s YOUR values that don’t belong in American society,” said Shri Thanedar, who represents a large Muslim population in the Detroit area. While Don Beyer of Virginia, said that Ogles “seems unable to comprehend the basic values the United States was founded on – like religious freedom under the First Amendment”.
Updated
Trump calls selection of Mojtaba Khamenei as Iran’s supreme leader a ‘big mistake’
In further comments, Donald Trump has said the selection of Mojtaba Khamenei as the the next supreme leader of Iran is a “big mistake”.
He told NBC News: “I think they made a big mistake. I don’t know if it’s going to last. I think they made a mistake.”
The US president has previously said the late ayatollah’s son would be an “unacceptable” choice (see here), while Israel vowed to target any successor (see here).
Updated
Lindsey Graham advises Israel to be 'cautious' about strike targets
Republican senator, and noted Iran hawk, Lindsey Graham commended Israel for its “amazing capability” to weaken “the murderous regime in Iran”.
However, he urged Israel forces to “be cautious about what targets you select”, following the strikes on Iranian oil facilities.
Israel struck at least five energy sites in and around Tehran over the weekend, while disruptions to the oil supply chain has caused the price per barrel to jump. Energy secretary Chris Wright pledged that the US would not target Iranian energy infrastructure, as Iran’s regime vowed retaliatory attacks on oil facilities across the Gulf region.
“Our goal is to liberate the Iranian people in a fashion that does not cripple their chance to start a new and better life when this regime collapses,” Graham added. “The oil economy of Iran will be essential to that endeavor.”
Updated
A reminder that my colleagues are covering the latest developments out of the Middle East at our dedicated live blog.
My colleague Lucy Campbell just reported on Trump’s latest comments to the New York Post about Mojtaba Khamenei, the late ayatollah’s son who was chosen to lead Iran.
Asked about his plans for Khamenei, Trump told the paper: “Not going to tell you. Not going to tell you. I’m not happy with him.”
It followed overt threats from the president ahead of Khamenei’s election, after Trump made clear he considered him an “unacceptable” choice. On Sunday, he told ABC News that the new leader “is not going to last long” if “he doesn’t get approval from us”.
Trump told Axios last week that “Khamenei’s son is a lightweight” and that he must be involved in the selection of the new supreme leader “like with Delcy [Rodriguez] in Venezuela”.
Donald Trump has announced that he will hold a news conference at 5.30pm ET today from the ballroom at Trump National Doral Miami before he heads back to DC from Florida.
As the US-Israeli war on Iran enters its second week, the president said in his post on Truth Social that there have been “many important meetings and phone calls taking place today”.
This will be his first official press conference since the war began, and we’ll be covering all of it here later.
Updated
Trump 'nowhere near' deciding to send troops to Iran to secure nuclear stockpile
In an interview with the New York Post, Donald Trump said today that he’s “nowhere near” deciding whether to send US troops into Iran to secure the stockpile of highly enriched uranium there.
“We haven’t made any decision on that. We’re nowhere near it,” Trump said when asked about reported discussions between Israel and the United States on possibly deploying special forces to Isfahan to seize and secure the material.
Trump claimed last month – without evidence – that Tehran was beginning to rebuild the nuclear program that he claimed had been “obliterated” by US strikes in June last year.
Iran denies seeking a nuclear arsenal, saying its enrichment of uranium is strictly for civilian use.
A reminder that my colleague Tom Ambrose is covering all the latest on the US-Israeli war on Iran here:
Trump says Australia has 'taken care of' some Iranian women soccer players
Further to that last post, Donald Trump has said in an update that he’s spoken to Australia’s prime minister Anthony Albanese about granting members of the Iranian national women’s soccer team amid fears they could be punished if they return to Iran.
The US president said on Truth Social:
He’s on it! Five have already been taken care of, and the rest are on their way.
Australia’s SBS News earlier said five players had “broken free” after the team was eliminated from the Asian Cup tournament and were now under the protection of the federal police, seeking assistance from the government.
Trump went on:
Some, however, feel they must go back because they are worried about the safety of their families, including threats to those family members if they don’t return.
He ended by praising Albanese: “In any event, the Prime Minister is doing a very good job having to do with this rather delicate situation.”
Updated
Trump urges Australia to grant asylum to five players on Iranian women's football team
Donald Trump has urged the Australian government to grant asylum to five members of the Iranian women’s football team, amid reports that they refused to return home following the team’s elimination from the Women’s Asian Cup and were taken into the protection of Australian police.
As my colleague Martin Farrer reports, speculation had mounted for days that some of the players would try to seek asylum in Australia they had been called “traitors” for refusing to sing their national anthem before their opening game of the tournament last week.
On Monday night it was reported that five of the players had slipped their regime minders and were being sheltered by the Australian federal police.
Trump said that the players would “most likely be killed” if forced to return to Iran.
“Don’t do it, Mr. Prime Minister, give ASYLUM,” he wrote on Truth Social, referring to Australian leader Anthony Albanese. “The US will take them if you won’t.”
GOP congressman says administration needs to take rising gas prices 'seriously'
In response to the news that oil prices surged past $100 a barrel for the first time since 2022, Republican congressman Mike Lawler said that the the price hike at the pump “needs to be a focus of the administration” in an interview with CNN.
According to AAA, the average price for a gallon of gasoline rose to $3.47 on 9 March, – a 16% increase in the last week.
Lawler noted that when as Venezuela’s oil reserves “come back online into the open marketplace”, it might mitigate the oil supply crisis, but the administration “needs to take it seriously and be aggressive on it”.
Rubio honors US service members killed in Operation Epic Fury, reaffirms that Iran's capabilities are depleting
Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, honored the seven “incredibly brave Americans” who have lost their lives during the US-Israel war on Iran. “We all are all in awe of their service, of their bravery, of their courage, and our hearts and our support extend out to their families in this very difficult moment,” Rubio said during a hostage and wrongful detainee flag raising ceremony at the Department of State.
He reiterated the administration’s stance that the Iranian regime’s military capabilities are depleting. “I want everyone to know your military is getting the job done, and every single day, this regime in Iran has less missiles, has less launchers, their factories work less and their navy is being eviscerated,” the secretary of state added. “The world is going to be a safer and a better place when this mission is accomplished.”
Defense secretary Pete Hegseth has said “there will be more casualties” in the US military from the Trump administration’s war in Iran, after officials confirmed on Sunday that the number of US service members killed had climbed to seven.
Hegseth made the statement during an appearance Sunday night on CBS’s 60 Minutes, during which he portrayed Donald Trump’s decision for the US to join Israeli attacks on the Middle East country as essential “to advance American interests, and protect American lives”.
Asked about the deaths of seven army reservists in a retaliatory Iranian drone strike on a US base in Kuwait a week ago, Hegseth said: “The president’s been right to say there will be casualties. Things like this don’t happen without casualties. There will be more casualties.
“No one is, I mean, especially our generation knows, knows what it’s like to see Americans come home in caskets. But that doesn’t weaken us one bit. It stiffens our spine and our resolve to say this is a fight we will finish.”
Hegseth at one point promised “death and destruction from the sky all day long”. Those comments were made four days after Iranian officials said at least 175 people were killed in an airstrike on an Iranian girls’ school that military investigators believe was carried out by US forces.
Mamdani noted today that the right to peacefully protest is “sacred”.
“It does not belong only to those we agree with,” he said at today’s press conference. “It belongs to everyone. I will defend that right every day that I am mayor, even when those protesting say things that I abhor.”
The mayor publicly praised New York police department chief Aaron Edwards and sergeant Luis Navarro, who “ran towards the danger so that others could run to safety” during the attack.
“Let me say this plainly anyone who comes to New York City to bring violence to our streets will be held accountable in accordance with the law,” Mamdani added.
Explosive thrown outside mayor’s mansion investigated as act of ‘Isis‑inspired’ terrorism, say New York police
New York’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, addressed the clash between anti-Islam demonstrators and counter-protesters on Saturday, outside his official residence.
During the “Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City”, an improvised explosive device was thrown outside Gracie Mansion, as part of a counter-protest. Neither the mayor, nor first lady, Rama Duwaji, were home at the time.
Mamdani noted that while many “met this display of bigotry peacefully”, two men – Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi – “traveled from Pennsylvania and attempted to bring violence to New York City”.
Today, police commissioner Jessica Tisch said the pair would be prosecuted in federal court in Manhattan, and the attack is “being investigated as an act of Isis inspired terrorism”.
Tisch added that the police does “not have any information that connects this investigation to what’s going on overseas in Iran”, but noted she will be able to speak more freely about the details of the case once the complaint is unsealed later today.
Updated
Trump vows to not sign any new legislation until SAVE America act is passed
The president has threatened to not sign any new legislation into law until a key voter ID bill is passed on Capitol Hill.
On Truth Social, Trump said that lawmakers must pass the SAVE America act “immediately” as it “supersedes everything else”.
Trump added that he did not want the “watered down version” to advance. A reminder, the bill would require proof of citizenship at voter registration and significantly curtail mail-in voting, but is struggling to clear the Senate. The president, however, remained resolute on social media:
GO FOR THE GOLD: MUST SHOW VOTER I.D. & PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP: NO MAIL-IN BALLOTS EXCEPT FOR MILITARY - ILLNESS, DISABILITY, TRAVEL: NO MEN IN WOMEN’S SPORTS: NO TRANSGENDER MUTILIZATION FOR CHILDREN! DO NOT FAIL!!!
Donald Trump is in Miami, Florida today.
We’re due to hear from the president at a roundtable event at 4:30pm ET, before he delivers remarks at the House Republican policy meeting at 5:35pm ET. We’ll bring you the latest lines, particularly on Trump’s updates on the US-Israel war on Iran, the soaring price of oil, and the GOP’s legislative priorities.
Trump says when to end war will be ‘mutual’ decision with Netanyahu – report
Donald Trump has said a decision on when to end the war with Iran will be a “mutual” one he’ll make together with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Times of Israel has reported.
It said Trump also claimed in a brief telephone interview on Sunday that Iran would have destroyed Israel if he and Netanyahu had not been around. The US president said:
Iran was going to destroy Israel and everything else around it … We’ve worked together. We’ve destroyed a country that wanted to destroy Israel.
The report said Trump was asked whether he alone would decide when the war with Iran ends or if Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, would also have a say. Trump responded:
I think it’s mutual … a little bit. We’ve been talking. I’ll make a decision at the right time, but everything’s going to be taken into account.
The report said that when Trump was asked whether Israel could continue the war against Iran even after the US decided to halt its strikes, he said he declined to entertain the possibility before adding: “I don’t think it’s going to be necessary.”
Hakeem Jeffries says change of leadership at DHS not enough to resume funding
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries has said that leadership change is not enough to reopen the government and starting to fund the Department of Homeland Security again.
It comes as Republican Senator Thom Tillis said he believes White House adviser Stephen Miller “should go” and that his role in the Trump administration has been a “big problem”.
The senior senator representing North Carolina, when asked on CNN’s State of the Union if he thinks Miller should go, during a conversation about the administration’s immigration crackdown, responded to host Jake Tapper stating “Oh, of course I do.”
“He is not worried about substance. He’s more worried about form, but I also think that he has an outsized influence over the operations of the cabinet. And I believe we’ve got qualified cabinet members there that sometimes are doing less than what they want to, because of his direction and his outsized influence. He’s a big problem in this administration. He has been from the beginning,” said Tillis.
Tillis affirmed support for Department of Homeland Security Secretary pick Markwayne Mullin to replace Kristi Noem, claiming he believes Mullin will be independent from Miller’s influence, even though Mullin repeated similar falsehoods about the killings by federal agents of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
Tillis, who is not seeking re-election this year, was the first Republican to call for the resignation or firing of DHS secretary Noem.
But Jeffries said on NBC’s Meet the Press with Kristen Welker that leadership change alone is not enough.
“What we want is a situation where ICE is actually conducting itself like every other law enforcement agency in the country as opposed to using taxpayer dollars to brutalize or in some cases kill American citizens,” Jeffries said.
Read the full story here:
In other developments:
Fox News used old video of Donald Trump in multiple reports on Saturday and Sunday, concealing from viewers that the commander-in-chief wore a golf hat throughout a ceremony on Saturday in which he saluted six flag-draped transfer cases carrying the remains of the first US troops to die in his war on Iran.
Global oil prices surged past $100 (£74, AU$142) a barrel for the first time since 2022 as fallout from the US-Israel war with Iran continued to wipe 20m barrels of oil from the market each day. A weekend of escalating violence in the Middle East intensified concerns around a sustained supply crunch, propelling oil prices to their highest level in four years and triggering a deep stock market selloff.
The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, has spoken to Donald Trump and discussed their military cooperation through the US use of RAF bases “in support of the collective self-defence of partners” in the Middle East, Downing Street has said.
The Trump administration has so radically transformed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) independent watchdog teams that thousands of cases related to conditions in immigration detention, deaths in custody and officers’ use of force are not being investigated, according to court records reviewed by the Guardian.
Lev Parnas, a Ukrainian-American businessman who served a 20-month sentence for campaign contributions to Republican politicians, including Donald Trump, that secretly came from a Russian oligarch, has announced a bid to unseat María Elvira Salazar, a Cuban-American Republican who is in her third term as representative for Florida’s 27th congressional district.
By rolling back a bedrock climate legal determination, the Trump administration has undercut its attacks on a groundbreaking state climate accountability law, green groups have argued in court.
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