Closing summary
This concludes our live coverage of the day in US politics. Here are the latest developments:
The US supreme court’s conservative majority struck down a major element of the Voting Rights Act which protects against racial discrimination in redistricting, in a ruling that paves the way for aggressive gerrymandering in states across the nation that could affect elections for years to come.
“Today, six Supreme Court justices closed their eyes to the continuing realities of racial discrimination, racial injustice, and inequity,” voting rights activist Bishop William Barber said. “In 2020, after Biden was elected President, with majorities in the House and Senate, many of us argued that COVID-19 relief to corporations shouldn’t pass without a renewal of the Voting Rights Act and a commitment to living wages. This did not happen, so here we are.”
The Florida Legislature approved a new congressional map intended to maximize Republicans’ advantage in the state as part of the national redistricting battle that Republicans launched ahead of this year’s midterms.
Outgoing Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said he will stay on as a central bank governor when his leadership term ends in just over two weeks.
The Department of Justice announced on Wednesday that three anti-ICE protesters have been charged with allegedly assaulting Savannah Hernandez, a rightwing video journalist who was shoved to the ground during a skirmish with three members of a family outside an immigration detention facility in St Paul Minnesota this month.
Trump threatens to withdraw US troops from Germany after chancellor's Iran war criticism
Two days after Germany’s chancellor said that the US “is being humiliated” by Iran’s “very skilled” negotiators, Donald Trump suggested on Wednesday that the US could withdraw some troops from that country.
“The United States is studying and reviewing the possible reduction of Troops in Germany, with a determination to be made over the next short period of time,” the president wrote on his social media platform.
“The Americans clearly have no strategy,” Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, told students on Monday. “The problem with conflicts like this is always that you don’t just have to go in; you also have to get out again. We saw that all too painfully in Afghanistan, for 20 years. We saw it in Iraq. So this whole affair is, as I said, ill-considered, to say the least.
Merz also suggested that Trump’s self-described genius for deal-making was nowhere to be seen in talks with Iran.
“The Iranians are obviously very skilled at negotiating, or rather, very skilful at not negotiating, letting the Americans travel to Islamabad and then leave again without any result,” Merz said. “An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership”.
Trump’s first response to Merz, in a social media post on Tuesday, was to repeat the same lie about the German chancellor he told recently about Pope Leo.
“The Chancellor of Germany, Friedrich Merz, thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon,” Trump wrote, despite the fact that the German leader was repeatedly said Iran should never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.
Updated
US plans to remove aircraft carrier from Middle East - report
A the stalemate in the strait of Hormuz drags on, a US aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R Ford, will leave the Middle East within days, bringing about 4,500 sailors who have been deployed for 10 months home, the Washington Post reports.
Although the Ford is reportedly leaving the Red Sea, the US will still have two aircraft carriers named for Republican presidents in the region, the USS George H W Bush and the USS Abraham Lincoln, to enforce the US blockade in the Arabian Sea against vessels carrying oil or goods from Iranian ports.
This month the Ford broke a record for the longest deployment of any aircraft carrier since the Cold War, reaching 295 days on 15 April. In March, a laundry fire broke out on the ship, which has also been plagued with plumbing problems.
Photographs of scant rations and mostly empty dinner plates on the USS Abraham Lincoln, shared with USA Today this month by family members of sailors and Marines on board, prompted concerns about how long their deployment to the region can last.
The mother of one sailor on the USS Abraham Lincoln told the newspaper she was worried that her son had lost 20 pounds since his deployment began, thanks to meals like one dry meat square on a small scoop of rice and off-color burger patty with a side of liquid nacho cheese.
Florida moves to redraw congressional maps to boost Republicans
The Florida Legislature approved a new congressional map intended to maximize Republicans’ advantage in the state as part of the national redistricting battle that Donald Trump launched ahead of this year’s midterms, the Associated Press reports.
The vote came just two days after Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, unveiled his proposal and the same day that the US supreme court rolled back a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. That decision makes it harder for Democrats to challenge Republican efforts to redraw congressional districts in ways that limit the influence of nonwhite voters.
DeSantis’ map could increase Republicans’ advantage in Florida’s House delegation to 24 to 4, up from the current split of 20 to 8. The potential four-seat gain is the same as what Virginia Democrats expect from a recent redistricting referendum , which is being challenged in state court there.
Florida’s new districts are certain to face lawsuits as well, especially because the state constitution prohibits redistricting for explicitly partisan purposes.
Civil rights activist William Barber condemns gutting of Voting Rights Act
Bishop William Barber, a veteran voting rights activist, lent his voice to the chorus of civil rights leaders condemning the US supreme court decision to effectively gut the Voting Rights Act of its protections for Black and Brown voters.
Barber, who helped start the Moral Mondays series of protests, was arrested at sit-ins at the offices of Democratic senators Krysten Sinema and Joe Manchin in 2021, while calling on the then Democratic majority in the Senate to create an exception to the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation.
In a statement, Barber said:
Just as June 25, 2013 – when the Supreme Court gutted Section 5 of the VRA – was a day of deep retrogression, today, April 29, 2026, will long be remembered in infamy.
Today, six Supreme Court justices closed their eyes to the continuing realities of racial discrimination, racial injustice, and inequity. In 2020, after Biden was elected President, with majorities in the House and Senate, many of us argued that COVID-19 relief to corporations shouldn’t pass without a renewal of the Voting Rights Act and a commitment to living wages. This did not happen, so here we are.
As Frederick Douglass said after the Dred Scott decision, this overreach must serve to intensify and embolden our agitation. Today must be a catalyst for the most massive turnout of Black, Brown, and white voters who believe in justice and equal protection under the law.
And anyone seeking the votes of Black and Brown people must be clear about how, if they have power, they will use it to overturn this gross retrogression of rights. In part, that means placing justices on the Supreme Court who will pay attention to the ongoing realities of racism and who believe in equal protection under the law – not justices who will use the legal system to undo gains of the past.
The protection and expansion of voting rights is a key moral issue in this moment of authoritarianism. Our future leaders need to treat it as such.
Trump claims Jerome Powell is staying on Federal Reserve board 'because he can’t get a job anywhere else'
With what might pass for restraint, for him, Donald Trump limited his response to the news that Jerome Powell will remain on the Federal Reserve board after his term as chair ends in May to just 21 insulting words.
In a brief post on his social media platform, the president said: “Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell wants to stay at the Fed because he can’t get a job anywhere else — Nobody wants him.”
Powell, whose term as a Fed governor runs until January 2028, could have retired after he is replaced as chair, but, having endured months of insults from the president for refusing to disregard the threat of inflation and lower interest rates, and a criminal investigation that appears off, for now, the central banker appears determined to deny the president the chance to replace him with a more pliant appointee.
Three anti-ICE protesters charged with assault for skirmish with Turning Point USA influencer in Minnesota
The Department of Justice announced on Wednesday that three anti-ICE protesters have been charged with allegedly assaulting Savannah Hernandez, a rightwing video journalist who was shoved to the ground during a skirmish with three members of a family outside an immigration detention facility in St Paul, Minnesota this month.
Hernandez, a former host for the far-right, conspiracy theory outlet Infowars who now creates content for Frontlines, a Turning Point USA streaming show, claimed that she was assaulted for merely reporting on the protest.
The indictment of the Ostroushkos for allegedly assaulting Hernandez comes after a weeks-long campaign in the rightwing media to punish the protesters.
Three days after the incident, vice-president JD Vance said at a Turning Point USA event in Georgia that he had asked the FBI director, Kash Patel, what the administration was doing about it. Patel had assured him, Vance said, that multiple agents were already investigating.
“We’re going to us the video to try to go after the people who assaulted her and then try to defund the networks that fund those radicals who are going around assaulting activists,” Vance said, apparently sharing the perspective of anti-ICE protesters that Hernandez is a partisan activist rather than a nonpartisan journalist.
In a recent podcast interview, however, two of the three family members indicted by the federal grand jury, Chris and Deyanna Ostroushko blamed Hernandez for starting the violence. The melee began, they said, when Hernandez shoved her hand into the face of their daughter Paige Ostroushko, who was blowing a whistle at the influencer to disrupt her filming.
Hernandez’s viral clip of the incident does not show the start of the physical confrontation clearly, but another protester’s recording of the confrontation does.
That video, recorded by Oskar Quentin, seemed to show that Hernandez did shove Paige Ostroushko’s face twice, knocking the whistle out of her mouth, before the young woman took a swing at Hernandez and knocked her against a fence.
Quentin’s video also shows that when Hernandez got back up, she was confronted by Deyanna Ostroushko, and the two women exchanged blows. Moments later Chris Ostroushko was then filmed shoving the influencer to the ground. Hernandez then she got back up and appeared to punch Paige Ostroushko in the face before being tackled to the ground.
During an emotional interview with Laura Ingraham on Fox News after the incident, Hernandez claimed that she had been confronted and assaulted “for journalism” because protesters knew that she worked for Turning Point USA, the conservative political movement founded by the late Charlie Kirk.
In Hernandez’s video of the protest in Minnesota this month, which showed her arguing with protesters before the skirmish, another demonstrator could be heard shouting that she was “a paid agitator”.
While it is impossible to excuse assaulting anyone for filming a protest, it is not hard to see why anti-ICE activists do not consider Hernandez a nonpartisan reporter. She was previously celebrated on Fox News in the summer of 2020 as a political activist who had herself filmed holding up a sign that read “Police Lives Matter” during a Black Lives Matter protest that followed the murder of George Floyd.
Hernandez was invited to the White House twice last year. In February, she said she was one of a group of influencers who met there with Vance, Patel and then attorney general Pam Bondi and was handed a binder of previously released material on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In October, her profile was further elevated when Hernandez was one of 11 rightwing influencers who describe themselves as journalists invited to the White House to brief Donald Trump and his attorney general, FBI director, homeland security secretary and deputy attorney general on the supposed threat from antifascists. Eight of the 11 conservative content creators who called for a crackdown on leftwing protesters that day were current or former employees of Turning Point USA.
Hernandez, who has appeared regularly on Fox News, told the Columbia Journalism Review in January that she identifies as a “Trump supporter, absolutely.”
Updated
Kamala Harris: court ruling 'designed to give an upper hand to Trump’s Republican Party'
The US Supreme court decision to effectively gut the Voting Rights Act has been denounced as “motivated by politics” by Kamala Harris, the former vice-president who says she is contemplating another run for the presidency in 2028.
In a statement released on social media, Harris said:
Today’s Supreme Court ruling guts the Voting Rights Act and turns back the clock on the foundational promise of equality and fairness in our election systems.
Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act was one of the last remaining federal protections for Black and brown voters against maps deliberately drawn to dilute their political power. That protection has been stripped away.
It is an outrage. But it is not a surprise.
It is part of an agenda that conservatives set in place decades ago to steal power from everyday people and then cling to that power for generations. The court’s decision is motivated by politics and designed to give an upper hand to Donald Trump’s Republican Party, which faces the threat of losing the upcoming midterm elections.
The losing candidate in the 2024 presidential election went on to say that the fight now returns to the states, particularly those of the old confederacy, which are expected to redraw their congressional maps to dilute the power of votes cast by Black Americans in ways that would have been illegal before the court’s ruling.
“Their politically-motivated power grab is meant to protect elected Republicans from any consequences for their failure to make groceries, gas, health care, or housing more affordable for you and your family,” Harris wrote. “They want to cheat and choose their voters, instead of the voters deciding who they choose.”
Updated
Summary of the day so far: outrage as supreme court deals major blow to landmark voting law
Today, the supreme court’s conservative majority struck down a major element of the Voting Rights Act which protects against racial discrimination in redistricting, in a ruling that paves the way for aggressive gerrymandering in states across the nation that could affect elections for years to come.
As my colleague Sam Levine notes, at the heart of the case, Louisiana v Callais, was a question of how much lawmakers are allowed to consider race when they redraw districts to ensure that black voters are adequately represented.
In a 6-3 decision, split along partisan lines, the court struck down a majority-black congressional district in Louisiana, rendering ineffective section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the last remaining powerful provision of the 1965 civil rights law that prevents racial discrimination in voting. Section 2 has long been used to ensure minority voters are treated fairly in redistricting.
The ruling gives lawmakers permission to draw districting plans that weaken the influence of black and other minority voters. It comes as Donald Trump has pushed for red states to redraw their congressional maps in ways that would help Republicans win more seats in this year’s elections.
“Allowing race to play any part in government decision-making represents a departure from the constitutional rule that applies in almost every other context,” conservative Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority opinion. “Compliance with section 2 thus could not justify the state’s use of race-based redistricting here. The state’s attempt to satisfy the middle district’s ruling, although understandable, was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.”
In a dissenting opinion, liberal Justice Elena Kagan wrote the court had now accomplished a “demolition of the Voting Rights Act”.
Under the court’s new view of section 2, a state can, without legal consequence, systematically dilute minority citizens’ voting power. The majority claims only to be ‘updat[ing]’ our section 2 law, as though through a few technical tweaks. In fact, those ‘updates’ eviscerate the law.
Today’s decision renders section 2 all but a dead letter. The decision here is about Louisiana’s district 6. But so too it is about Louisiana’s district 2. And so too it is about the many other districts, particularly in the south, that in the last half-century have given minority citizens, and particularly African Americans, a meaningful political voice. After today, those districts exist only on sufferance, and probably not for long.
Reactions have poured in from lawmakers and civil rights groups, condemning the supreme court’s decision.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) called the ruling “a devastating blow to what remains of the Voting Rights Act” and “a major setback for our nation”. The ruling is “a license for corrupt politicians who want to rig the system by silencing entire communities”, president Derrick Johnson said in a statement. “The Supreme Court betrayed Black voters, they betrayed America, and they betrayed our democracy.”
Former president Barack Obama said the ruling “effectively gut[s] a key pillar of the Voting Rights Act” and frees “state legislatures to gerrymander legislative districts to systematically dilute and weaken the voting power of racial minorities - so long as they do it under the guise of ‘partisanship’ rather than explicit ‘racial bias’”.
“This is a day of tremendous loss. It’s a day of loss for our democracy,” said Janai Nelson, who leads NAACP LDF and argued the case at the supreme court. “It’s a day of loss for critical protections for the right to vote that have served our multiracial democracy for over six decades. It’s a day of loss for Black voters in Louisiana who have counted on fair maps to allow them representation that they have been denied for their entire existence in that state.”
Sophia Lin Lakin, the director of the ACLU Voting Rights Project, called the ruling “a profound betrayal of the civil rights movement”. Today’s decision in Callais renders Section 2 moot as “it will be difficult, if not impossible, to enforce in the vast majority of cases,” she said.
Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi called the ruling a “new blow” against the “sacred right to vote”. “The consequences will be felt across the country: fewer voices heard, fewer communities represented and a democracy diminished,” she said.
Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, said, the “awful” decision represented “another step towards resurrecting the Jim Crow south”. The ruling, he said, “opens the floodgates for states across the south to redraw their Congressional districts and make voters of color essentially invisible in our democracy”. The court, he said, was “trying to give Republicans a leg up, an illegitimate leg up, in future elections”.
His House counterpart, Hakeem Jeffries, called the decision “corrupt”. “Voter suppression is a way of life for Donald Trump and far right extremists on the Supreme Court,” he said. “Republicans know they cannot win a free and fair election in November and so they are desperate to rig it. We will never let them succeed.”
Georgia senator Reverend Raphael Warnock said the decision “further ravaged” the Voting Rights Act and left the country “at a crossroads where politicians are picking their voters”. “Clearly, we are straying further from the core voting principles that helped create the diverse body that people see representing them today,” he said. “We must restore the Voting Rights Act and ban gerrymandering. Our democracy is on the line.”
Representative Troy Carter, whose predominately black congressional district encompasses New Orleans, said “the consequences of the high court’s decision will be “immediate and severe” and that Louisiana’s two majority-black congressional districts are now at risk of being dismantled. “Without the protections of the Voting Rights Act, there is no evidence to suggest that Black voters in our state will be able to elect candidates of their choice,” he said.
New Orleans mayor Helena Moreno, a Democrat who represents the largest city in Louisiana’s other predominantly black congressional district, said the supreme court’s ruling was “a step backward”. “Striking down a district that reflected diversity suppresses voices and weakens our democracy. We should be working to expand representation, not roll it back,” she said.
Lauren Groh-Wargo, executive director of Fair Fight Action, said the supreme court’s decision “guts” voting rights protection while “pretending to uphold it”. “It allows states, counties and cities to shield their discriminatory maps by claiming they are advancing their own partisan interests, ignoring that race and party are highly correlated in places across the country, particularly the south,” she said.
For more reaction to this landmark decision, please read my colleague Fabiola Cineas’s piece here:
Updated
Trump administration's legal attacks are 'battering' the Fed, Powell says
Asked about his decision to stay on as a Fed governor, Powell said his concern was about “the series of legal attacks on the Fed, which threaten our ability to conduct monetary policy without considering political factors”.
He said he doesn’t mind verbal criticism by elected officials, but said the administration’s legal attacks on him “are unprecedented in our 113-year history, and there are ongoing threats of additional such actions”.
I worry that these attacks are battering the institution and putting at risk the thing that really matters to the public, which is the ability to conduct monetary policy without taking into consideration political factors.
Powell also congratulated Kevin Warsh on his advancement towards being confirmed as his successor as Federal Reserve chair by the Senate.
Powell described the Senate vote as “an important step”, adding: “I wish him well as that process continues.”
More now from outgoing Fed chair Jerome Powell, who said that while he US economy is expanding, “inflation has moved up with growing global energy prices”.
“Developments in the Middle East are contributing to high levels of uncertainty,” he said.
Consumer sentiment was “resilient” though, he added, and “economic activity has been expanding at a solid pace”.
Barack Obama: court ruling frees states to 'systematically weaken voting power of racial minorities'
Former president Barack Obama has issued this statement in reaction to the supreme court’s landmark decision today to “effectively gut a key pillar of the Voting Rights Act”.
He said the ruling frees “state legislatures to gerrymander legislative districts to systematically dilute and weaken the voting power of racial minorities - so long as they do it under the guise of ‘partisanship’ rather than explicit ‘racial bias’”.
And it serves as just one more example of how a majority of the current Court seems intent on abandoning its vital role in ensuring equal participation in our democracy and protecting the rights of minority groups against majority overreach.
The good news is that such setbacks can be overcome. But that will only happen if citizens across the country who cherish our democratic ideals continue to mobilize and vote in record numbers - not just in the upcoming midterms or in high profile races, but in every election and every level.
Updated
I asked Sophia Lin Lakin, the ACLU’s top voting rights lawyer, and Janai Nelson, the NAACP LDF lawyer who argued in defense of Louisiana’s map at the supreme court, whether or not there was any pathway for continuing to bring Section 2 claims in federal court after today’s decision.
“Theoretically, yes, there are still some possibilities there ... academically speaking there are some pathways there,” Nelson said. “But I think that those require conditions that I don’t see present based on current demographics, voting patterns and what has become an increasingly hyper polarized partisan landscape.”
Lakin added that non-partisan elections are one area where plaintiffs might have some additional remaining leeway to bring Section 2 claims.
Powell to stay on as Fed governor after term as chair ends
Outgoing Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said he will stay on as a central bank governor when his leadership term ends in just over two weeks.
“After my term as chair ends on May 15, I will continue to serve as a governor for a period of time to be determined,” Powell said, adding that he planned to “keep a low profile” as a governor.
Powell noted US attorney Jeanine Pirro’s announcement on Friday, ending the criminal investigation against him but also cautioning that she could reopen it.
The move cleared a hurdle for Trump’s pick Kevin Warsh to be confirmed, as GOP senator Thom Tillis had said he wouldn’t vote to confirm him until the probe into Powell was dropped. The Fed’s inspector general has instead been asked to look into potential “building cost overruns” in the central bank’s renovation of its Washington DC headquarters, Pirro said.
He said he would not be leaving the Fed’s board of governors until the DOJ’s investigation into him is “well and truly over”.
I’ve said that I will not leave the board until this investigation is well and truly over with transparency and finality, and I stand by that.
He added: “I’m encouraged by recent developments, and I’m watching the remaining steps in this process carefully. My decisions on these matters will continue to be guided entirely by what I believe is in the best interest of the institution and the people we serve.”
Updated
Trump was then asked a follow-up question about the ruling. The president asked again when the ruling came out (this morning!), before asking the reporter if it was a win for Republicans. Told that it was, he said:
I love it! I want to read it. Wow!
He was asked if he believed more Republican governors should pursue redrawing their congressional maps following the ruling, given that early voting in some places begins on Saturday.
Trump said it would depend on the state and whether they have time to do it, but generally they should do it.
Updated
Trump says 'that’s the kind of ruling I like' when asked about supreme court decision
Donald Trump was also asked for his reaction to today’s supreme court ruling on the Voting Rights Act – to which the president said he didn’t know about it.
“You have to tell me, when did the ruling come out?” he asked the reporter, adding he’s been meeting with the astronauts and with contractors trying to get his ballroom built.
When he was told that the ruling might help Republicans gain more congressional seats in the south, the president responded:
That’s good, that’s the kind of ruling I like.
He then asked when this happened, and was told this morning.
Updated
Just before we get to that, Donald Trump has been taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office following his meeting with the Artemis II astronauts.
The president said he had a “very good conversation” with Vladimir Putin today about Ukraine and Iran.
“I think he’d like to see a solution, and that’s good,” he said, though it wasn’t clear if he was talking about Ukraine or Iran, or both (unlikely).
Trump then said that he “suggested a little bit of a ceasefire” to Putin “and I think he might do that”. He then asked the reporter if Putin had announced it yet (spoiler: he hasn’t).
And with that, Jerome Powell is due to shortly give what will likely be his last press conference as chair of the Federal Reserve.
I’ll be watching and will bring you any key lines that come out of that.
Fed leaves interest rates unchanged in defiance of Trump’s calls for cuts
The US Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged after its latest board meeting, defying once again Donald Trump’s call for a cut as the central bank prepares for a leadership shake-up next month.
Today, Fed officials continued to cite elevated inflation, slow job growth and uncertainty in the Middle East as reasons why rates were left untouched.
“Jobs gains have remained low, on average, and the unemployment rate has been little changed in recent months. Inflation is elevated, in part reflecting the recent increase in global energy prices,” the board said in a statement.
While only one of the board’s 12 voting members voted against leaving the rate unchanged, the Fed board also signaled growing dissent within its ranks: three members supported maintaining the current rate, but did not agree with the Fed suggesting it will lower rates later this year.
The Fed’s meeting ended hours after the US Senate banking committee confirmed former Fed governor Kevin Warsh, clearing a procedural path for the whole Senate to confirm him as new chair of the central bank.
Warsh is expected to be more amenable to Trump’s calls for a rate cut than current chair Jerome Powell, who has been the target of hostile attacks toward himself and the central bank over its rates agenda. But with just one vote of 12 on the Fed’s rate-setting board, Warsh can’t deliver cuts without the support of his fellow board members.
Questions still remain over whether Powell will stay on the Fed board after his term ends 15 May. Powell can stay on the board until his term as a Fed governor is up in 2028. Though it would be unprecedented in modern history for a Fed chair to stay on, Powell has suggested it’s still a possibility.
Updated
Supreme court appears inclined to back Trump's push to end TPS for Haitian and Syrian immigrants
The supreme court appeared inclined to back Donald Trump’s push to strip temporary protected status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands of Haitians and Syrians in the United States, as part of his harsh crackdown on immigration rights.
The case will likely have broader implications for the Trump administration’s wider push to end legal protections for migrants fleeing war and natural disaster, which could potentially effect up to 1.3 million people from over 17 countries, exposing them to possible deportation.
The justices earlier heard arguments in the administration’s appeal of rulings by federal judges in New York and Washington DC, halting its actions to terminate TPS previously provided by the government to allow more than 350,000 people from Haiti (following a major earthquake there in 2010) and 6,100 from Syria (after the country descended into civil war in 2012) to remain and work in the US.
The court last year allowed the administration to end TPS for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans.
Today, several of the conservative justices appeared sympathetic toward the administration’s arguments that the law limits what courts can do on the government’s decision to end or extend protections.
Meanwhile, liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson suggested that the decision to end the program was racially motivated, citing Trump’s inflammatory, racist language about Haitian people during his last election campaign.
The decision will likely come down to the votes of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett. A decision is expected in late June or early July.
Bondi to appear before House oversight panel over Epstein files
The House oversight and government reform committee said earlier that former attorney general Pam Bondi will now appear before the panel on 29 May to answer questions about the Department of Justice’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation and its release of the Epstein files.
The announcement of the date came shortly after the Democrats on the committee announced that they had filed a civil contempt resolution against Bondi after she did not appear for her deposition earlier this month.
This morning, Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the committee, announced the contempt resolution, saying in a statement that Bondi had “illegally defied our committee, skipped her deposition, and has refused to cooperate”, adding that Democrats had introduced the contempt measure “to hold her accountable”.
Read Anna’s full report here:
Updated
Has King Charles salvaged the US-UK so-called “special relationship” with his charm offensive on Donald Trump?
In the latest edition of our Today in Focus podcast, Helen Pidd speaks to Guardian columnist and host of Politics Weekly America Jonathan Freedland to unpack the British royals’ state visit so far.
Back at Pete Hegseth’s appearance before the House armed services committee, representative Sara Jacobs of California had a tense back and forth with the defense secretary, going through Donald Trump’s unhinged social media posts over recent months.
It started when Jacobs asked how he would be able to explain Trump’s mental state, after he demanded in Truth Social posts that Iran “open the fucking strait” and “A Whole Civilization Will Die Tonight”. In return, Hegseth asked whether she asked Joe Biden those same types of questions.
“How do you explain to your constituents what happened on October 7, or what happened, or what happened when the troops were left? How did you explain that to the Marines that didn’t get medal? We restored their medals because Joe Biden was asleep at the wheel,” Hegseth said.
Jacobs then pulled out the post the president shared that included an AI-generated image depicting himself as a Christ-like figure – which Christian supporters of the president decried as “disgusting”, and which Trump ended up deleting after the backlash.
Hegseth brushed off the questions as someone digging for better ratings.
“Mr Secretary, if you think that this is what ratings looks like, then maybe we should be questioning your mental stability,” Jacobs said.
Updated
'Very, very deeply disappointed': plaintiff in voting rights case speaks after supreme court loss
Press Robinson, the lead plaintiff in an earlier lawsuit that struck down Louisiana’s congressional map leading to the creation of a second majority-Black district told reporters “I can’t say that I am surprised by the supreme court’s decision, but I’m very, very deeply disappointed.”
“As a citizen of Louisiana and living in a state where 1/3 of the population of people of color. I see that our state legislature, the governor, all of the main offices in the state, or super majority follow the Republican Party, and they are determined to see to it that we not have a voice at all,” Robinson said.
Updated
Meanwhile, the Associated Press is reporting from Alexandria that the former FBI Director James Comey has made a brief appearance in court. The AP reports:
His appearance kick starts a criminal case against him that legal experts say presents significant hurdles for the prosecution and will likely be a challenge for the Justice Department to win.
Comey was indicted in North Carolina on Tuesday on charges of making threats against President Donald Trump related to a photograph he posted on social media last year of seashells arranged in the numbers “86 47.”
The Justice Department contends those numbers amounted to a threat against Trump, the 47th president. Comey says he did not interpret the numbers as a call to violence against the Republican president. Comey did not enter a plea Wednesday in Virginia.
NAACP official calls supreme court ruling on voting 'a day of loss for critical protections'
The Guardian’s Sam Levine is on a press call with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the ACLU, who represented those defending Louisiana’s existing maps.
“There’s no mincing words here. This is a day of tremendous loss. It’s a day of loss for our democracy,” Janai Nelson, who leads NAACP LDF and argued the case at the supreme court, told reporters.
“It’s a day of loss for critical protections for the right to vote that have served our multiracial democracy for over six decades. It’s a day of loss for Black voters in Louisiana who have counted on fair maps to allow them representation that they have been denied for their entire existence in that state.”
“The implications are as bad as we thought they could be,” Nelson said.
Sophia Lin Lakin, the director of the ACLU Voting Rights Project, says today’s decision in Callais renders Section 2 moot as “it will be difficult, if not impossible, to enforce in the vast majority of cases.”
“Today’s decision is a profound betrayal of the civil rights movement,” she said.
Updated
James Comey surrenders amid justice department charges over social media post
Former FBI director James Comey on Wednesday surrendered to law enforcement at federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia, according to CNN, citing a source familiar.
His hearing was set to begin at 1pm EST. Trump’s justice department filed has charged Comey with making threats against the president, stemming from a picture he posted on Instagram while on vacation last year in which sea shells were arranged to say “86 47”.
Comey said in a video message on Substack on Tuesday that he is “still innocent”.
Updated
Warsh clears key Senate hurdle to replace Fed chair Powell
Earlier today, Kevin Warsh, Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Reserve, cleared a key procedural hurdle on Wednesday, opening the way for him to succeed Jerome Powell next month amid the White House’s unprecedented efforts to exert control over the world’s most powerful central bank.
Warsh’s nomination was approved in a 13 to 11 vote, strictly along party lines with Republicans supporting the nomination, setting up a confirmation vote in the US Senate in the coming days.
All 13 Republicans on the panel voted in support of Warsh after Thom Tillis, a North Carolina senator, dropped his opposition following the Department of Justice’s decision on Friday to end a criminal investigation into Powell that Tillis viewed as a threat to the Fed’s political independence.
The panel’s 11 Democrats, who say they doubt Warsh’s promise to set policy without regard to the president’s wishes, voted against him.
In a statement before the vote, Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic senator and ranking member of the Senate’s banking committee, repeated her concern that Warsh will be a “sock puppet” for Trump.
Updated
Republican lawmakers are celebrating the ruling. Here’s a few reactions:
“Great news,” Utah senator Mike Lee said on X. “Race-based gerrymanders have no place in our country.”
“Huge,” senator John Cornyn of Texas cheered.
Updated
'A democracy diminished': Pelosi urges Congress to act after supreme court voting decision
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the supreme court’s ruling in Louisiana v Callais a “new blow” against the “sacred right to vote”.
“The consequences will be felt across the country: fewer voices heard, fewer communities represented and a democracy diminished,” Pelosi said.
She urged Congress to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights act, which would modernize the Voting Rights Act of 1965 but has been repeatedly blocked by Republicans.
“Congress must urgently pass the John R Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to restore the full strength of the Voting Rights Act before this latest blow becomes fatal,” Pelosi.
The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, said the “Supreme Court just turned its back on one of the most sacred promises in American democracy—the promise that every voice counts”.
Updated
Democratic senator Chris Coons said the supreme court’s ruling in Louisiana v Callais “has told the nation that some voices and votes are worth less than others”.
He wrote in a thread on X:
Generations of Americans marched, served, protested, and died for the promise of our democracy. Today, the Supreme Court continues its steady march to forget that sacrifice and undo that promise.
By restricting Americans’ ability to choose candidates that represent their communities, the Supreme Court has told the nation that some voices and votes are worth less than others.
The Voting Rights Act was a declaration that our democracy belongs to all of us. I still believe in the promise of our democracy, and I will keep fighting to make it real and to make sure your voice and vote matter.
Hegseth attacks Democrat for calling war on Iran 'a quagmire'
Pete Hegseth further defended the Iran war in fiery remarks to Congress, insisting that the unpopular conflict is not a quagmire.
“You call it a quagmire, handing propaganda to our enemies? Shame on you for that statement,” Hegseth told Democrat John Garamendi, claiming that that language “undermines the mission”.
Garamendi had said Trump’s war strategy was one of “astounding incompetence”, describing it as a “serious self-inflicted wound to America” and highlighting the thousands of civilians and 13 US service members killed.
The blocking of the strait of Hormuz was “foreseeable”, he added, telling the defense secretary:
You have been lying to the American public about this war from day one, and so has the president.
He noted that the Iranian regime is intact, along with Iran’s missile and drone systems, and that the war has strengthened Iran’s coordination with China, Russia and North Korea. Trump is “stuck in a quagmire” of another war in the Middle East, Garamendi said.
Hegseth lambasted Garamendi’s statement as “reckless”. “Your hatred for President Trump blinds you,” he said.
Back at Pete Hegseth’s hearing at the House armed services committee earlier, the defense secretary got into a heated exchange with ranking member Adam Smith when he was asked how the government plans to end the nuclear threat from Iran.
“It is worth noting that every president prior to this one, including President Trump in his first term, also prevented Iran from getting a nuclear weapon without actually having to go to war in Iran,” Smith said.
He then asked Hegseth why the United States attacked Iran in February if the operation last summer had successfully “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program, as Donald Trump claimed, and questioned if there was an imminent threat that made the war necessary.
When Hegseth repeated that claim that Iran’s nuclear facilities were “obliterated” underground, Smith chimed in: “You just said 60 days ago … the nuclear weapon was an imminent threat. Now you’re saying that it was completely obliterated.”
Hegseth said Iran’s nuclear ambitions had not been eliminated but argued that its nuclear program had been.
Updated
US senator for Georgia Reverend Raphael Warnock said the decision “further ravaged” the Voting Rights Act and left the country “at a crossroads where politicians are picking their voters”.
“Today’s Supreme Court decision marks a profound defeat for American democracy and will pave the way for partisan politicians to pick their voters,” the Democrat said in a statement.
“Clearly, we are straying further from the core voting principles that helped create the diverse body that people see representing them today. We must restore the Voting Rights Act and ban gerrymandering. Our democracy is on the line.”
US representative Troy Carter, whose predominately black congressional district encompasses New Orleans, said in a statement:
This ruling is about far more than lines on a map — it’s about whether Black Louisianians will have a meaningful opportunity to make their voices heard.
Carter said the consequences of the high court’s decision will be “immediate and severe” and that Louisiana’s two majority-black congressional districts are now at risk of being dismantled.
Without the protections of the Voting Rights Act, there is no evidence to suggest that Black voters in our state will be able to elect candidates of their choice.
This decision will embolden efforts to dismantle majority-Black districts and fracture communities that have finally begun to see themselves reflected in their government. This isn’t just about federal representation. This decision will also impact state and local governments, impacting Black representation in state capitols and city council chambers across the country. It sends a dangerous signal that the progress we have made can be undone under the guise of legal theory.
The mayor of New Orleans, Helena Moreno, a Democrat who represents the largest city in Louisiana’s other predominantly black congressional district, said the supreme court’s ruling was “a step backward”.
For decades, the Voting Rights Act has served as a critical safeguard to ensure every voice, especially those historically marginalized, has a meaningful opportunity to be heard.
Striking down a district that reflected diversity suppresses voices and weakens our democracy. We should be working to expand representation, not roll it back.
Lauren Groh-Wargo, executive director of Fair Fight Action, a Georgia-based voting rights group founded by Democrat and former US representative Stacey Abrams, said the supreme court’s decision “guts” voting rights protection while “pretending to uphold it”.
She said the court rewrote the law to require a showing of intentional discrimination. That’s after Congress in the early 1980s specifically rewrote the Voting Rights Act to overturn an earlier supreme court decision in an Alabama case that tried to do the same thing.
At the time, Chief Justice John Roberts was a justice department attorney advocating for a showing of intentional discrimination.
She said:
It allows states, counties and cities to shield their discriminatory maps by claiming they are advancing their own partisan interests, ignoring that race and party are highly correlated in places across the country, particularly the South.
Indeed, the ruling could open the door for Republican-led states to eliminate Black and Latino electoral districts that tend to favor Democrats and affect the balance of power in Congress. Donald Trump has already sparked a nationwide redistricting battle to boost the GOP’s chances.
Updated
'A devastating blow': NAACP says supreme court ruling is 'a major setback for our nation'
Meanwhile, Derrick Johnson, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the nation’s oldest civil rights group, said the high court’s decision in Louisiana v Callais delivers “a devastating blow to what remains of the Voting Rights Act”.
The ruling is “a license for corrupt politicians who want to rig the system by silencing entire communities”, Johnson said in a statement today.
He went on:
The Supreme Court betrayed Black voters, they betrayed America, and they betrayed our democracy.
This ruling is a major setback for our nation and threatens to erode the hard-won victories we’ve fought, bled, and died for. But the people still can fight back. Our democracy is crying for help.
Updated
White House hails supreme court ruling that undermines key provision of Voting Rights Act
The White House has hailed the supreme court’s decision to effectively demolish a key provision of the Voting Rights Act which prevented racial discrimination in a landmark decision that Louisiana will have to redraw its congressional map.
“This is a complete and total victory for American voters,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said.
“The color of one’s skin should not dictate which congressional district you belong in. We commend the court for putting an end to the unconstitutional abuse of the Voting Rights Act and protecting civil rights,” she said.
Updated
US war on Iran has cost $25bn so far, Pentagon official says
Answering questions from ranking Democrat Adam Smith, defense department official Jules Hurst told the committee that the federal government has spent about $25 billion on the war so far, providing the first official estimate of the war’s cost.
“Most of that is in munitions, there’s part of that that’s obviously O&M [operations and maintenance] and equipment replacement” as well, said Hurst, who is performing the duties of the comptroller.
“I’m glad you answered that question because we’ve been asking for a hell of a long time and no one’s given us the answer,” Smith replied.
Updated
Back to the House armed services committee hearing, Pete Hegseth said the president’s request for $1.5tn for the Pentagon “reflects the urgency of the moment”.
This is an “historic” and “warfighting budget”, he said, and his department needed to get back on a “wartime footing” after what he called years of underinvestment under the Biden administration.
In his opening remarks, General Dan Caine called the budget request “a historic downpayment for future security” as he argued that “global risk is scaling”.
All of those ways that are now manifesting themselves on the battlefields around the world require a higher end of capital investment.
Supreme court rules Louisiana must redraw its congressional map in landmark case
The US supreme court has ruled that Louisiana will have to redraw its congressional map, in a landmark decision that effectively guts a major section of the Voting Rights Act.
In a 6-3 decision along partisan lines, the court rendered ineffective section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the last remaining powerful provision of the 1965 civil rights law that prevents racial discrimination in voting. Section 2 specifically has long been used to ensure minority voters are treated fairly in redistricting.
“Allowing race to play any part in government decision-making represents a departure from the constitutional rule that applies in almost every other context,” Justice Samuel Alito, a conservative, wrote for the majority opinion. “Compliance with section 2 thus could not justify the state’s use of race-based redistricting here. The state’s attempt to satisfy the Middle District’s ruling, although understandable, was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.”
In a dissenting opinion, Justice Elena Kagan wrote the court had now accomplished a “demolition of the Voting Rights Act”.
At the heart of the case, Louisiana v Callais, was a thorny question of how much lawmakers are allowed to consider race when they redraw districts to ensure that Black voters are adequately represented. The supreme court initially heard oral arguments in the case last March, but took the unusual step of asking lawyers to re-argue the case last fall. In setting the case for a re-argument, the justices raised the stakes of the case, asking lawyers to focus on whether section 2 of the Voting Rights Act was constitutional.
The decision comes after years of legal wrangling over the boundaries of the map.
Here’s Sam’s full report:
Supreme court hearing on whether protected status of Haitians and Syrians can be revoked begins
US supreme court oral arguments have begun in a case that will ultimately decide whether the Trump administration can strip temporary protected status (TPS) from hundreds of thousands of Haitians and Syrians living in the United States.
The hearing was supposed to begin at 10am ET, but it started late as the court released decisions, including a major ruling that Louisiana will have to redraw its congressional map (more on that to follow).
As my colleague José Olivares wrote in this preview, people with TPS are given the permission to live and work in the US because the government has deemed their home countries to be unsafe due to war, political instability or natural disasters.
In the past year, the Trump administration has attempted to cut the program for various countries, opening the door to the removal of hundreds of thousands of protected immigrants in the US.
Last year, the supreme court allowed the administration to strip TPS status for more than 300,000 Venezuelans under the court’s emergency docket. Now, the court will hear arguments challenging the Trump administration’s efforts to remove the same protections from Syrians and Haitians.
If the supreme court sides with the Trump administration in its effort to cut the program for Syrians and Haitians, analysts say the administration would likely seek to end the TPS program for all countries. Nearly 1.3 million people were TPS holders at the start of the second Trump administration.
Pete Hegseth defends war on Iran as he appears before House armed services committee
In his opening statement, Pete Hegseth defended the war on Iran, saying of the US-Israeli war:
Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb. We are proud of this undertaking.
“The biggest challenge, the biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless, feckless and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans,” he added.
Updated
'Where is this going?': top Democrat on committee slams administration's strategy on Iran
In his opening remarks, ranking member Adam Smith praised the US military before expressing concern about the Pentagon’s budget request given the state of the national debt.
The Democrat then went on to call Pete Hegseth’s past comments about how the US military strategy is based on realism “absurd”. “It is the exact opposite of realism,” he said.
Starting wars in the Middle East that get out of control and lead us to have far greater costs with the benefits, is one of the cornerstones of the unrealistic strategy that this administration has criticized over and over and over again. And yet, here we are in a full scale Middle East war, and we’ve seen the costs of that.
Running through some of those costs, Smith underlined the human cost in thousands of civilian deaths, the deaths of 13 US service members, other countries being “dragged into the war”, gas prices at home, and the cost of fertilizer.
He then moved to a big question for Hegesth today, which is what is the US’s endgame in Iran, given that fundamentally nothing has changed in Iran despite the war?
One of the big questions that we need to get answered today is, where is this going? What is the plan to achieve our objectives? We’ve seen the cost, and the cost is very, very high. All we keep hearing on the objectives is we keep seeing all of the targets that we have struck …
We’re in this to fundamentally change Iran. And as we sit here today, Iran’s nuclear program is exactly what it was before this war started. They have not lost their capacity to inflict pain. They still have a ballistic missile program. They’re still able to blockade the strait of Hormuz and have the ships that are capable of doing that. What is the plan to get that to change? And most disturbingly, the president keeps telling us that it’s over.
Smith also criticized the administration’s harsh treatment of Nato for not joining the war, highlighting that Nato supported the US by invoking article 5 after 9/11 and adding:
There’s nothing realistic about starting a war in the Middle East, going it alone and pushing aside all diplomacy.
In his final point, Smith stressed the need for answers regarding the strike on the Iranian girls’ school that killed at least 175 people, most of them children:
There is absolutely no question at this point what happened. We made a mistake and that happens in war. We identified this target based on earlier charts. And yet two months after it happened, we refuse to say anything about it, giving the world the impression that we just don’t care.
Updated
Hegseth to face questions from lawmakers for first time since US-Israeli war on Iran began
Pete Hegseth is finally due to appear before the House armed services committee at 10am ET, giving lawmakers their first opportunity to publicly question the defense secretary since the US and Israel launched war on Iran over two months ago.
Since the war began, Hegseth and General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have only given press conferences and haven’t testified before Congress. Caine is also set to testify today. They are both also due to appear before the Senate armed services committee tomorrow.
Today’s appearance is formally billed as a routine hearing on the Pentagon’s budget request (the administration is requesting a record $1.5tn in defense spending, and the request was put together before the war), and comes amid intensifying questions over the rate at which the department is depleting weapon stockpiles.
Hegseth is also likely to face scrutiny over civilian casualties in the war on Iran – not least the horrendous strike on an Iranian girls’ school that killed at least 175 people, most of them children. We can also expect questions on the US’s strategic rationale for the war, the effectiveness of the US-Israeli bombing campaign, the US’s preparedness for retaliatory strikes from Tehran, the strait of Hormuz crisis, his abrupt firings of senior defense officials, and more.
“Pete Hegseth’s got a lot to answer to from this disastrous war,” Jason Crow, a Democratic representative on the House committee, told Politico. “How much is this costing? What’s the end game?”
Pennsylvania Democrat Chris Deluzio told the outlet that Hegseth has been “dodging congressional questions about the Iran war since day one”.
We’ll be watching the hearing and will you bring you all the key lines here.
Updated
James Comey expected to self-surrender to law enforcement, CNN reports
Former FBI director James Comey is expected to self-surrender to law enforcement at federal court in the eastern district of Virginia today, CNN (paywall) is reporting, citing a federal official familiar.
It comes after the US justice department filed new criminal charges against Comey yesterday, in what appears to be the latest instance of the DOJ wielding its power to target Donald Trump’s political adversaries.
A reminder that Comey was this time charged over a picture he posted on Instagram last year while on vacation, showing seashells arranged to say “86 47”. The post was read as a threat to Trump, the 47th president, as the number 86 can be used as shorthand for getting rid of something. Comey had captioned the image: “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.”
Comey then deleted the post and apologized, saying he had not realized the numbers were associated with violence. “It never occurred to me, but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down,” he wrote on Instagram.
The charges against Comey, approved by a grand jury in the eastern district of North Carolina where he allegedly took the photo of the shells, include making a threat against the president and transmitting a threat, via social media, across state lines, according to court documents.
According to the indictment, the seashell numbers are something a reasonable person “would interpret as a serious expression of an intent to do harm to the President of the United States”.
Comey published a video of himself yesterday saying:
Well, they’re back. This time, about a picture of seashells on a North Carolina beach a year ago. And this won’t be the end of it, but nothing has changed with me. I am still innocent. I am still not afraid. And I still believe in the independent federal judiciary. So, let’s go.
It’s really important that all of us remember – this is not who we are as a country, this is not how the Department of Justice is supposed to be, and the good news is we get closer every day to restoring those values. Keep the faith.
The justice department previously indicted Comey, who has long been the subject of Trump’s wrath, last year and charged him with lying to Congress. That case was thrown out when a judge in the eastern district of Virginia ruled that the prosecutor overseeing the case had been wrongfully appointed.
Updated
Trump tells aides to prepare for extended blockade of Iran, WSJ reports
Donald Trump has told aides to prepare for an extended blockade of Iranian ports, the Wall Street Journal (paywall) reported last night, citing US officials.
Trump has reportedly said in recent meetings that he prefers the blockade over other methods to increase the pressure on Iran as peace talks stall and Tehran keeps the critical strait of Hormuz closed.
According to the WSJ’s report, Trump believes that his other options, such as resuming bombing or walking away from the war, would carry greater risks than maintaining the blockade.
The US military has been preventing ships from entering and departing Iranian ports since 13 April, after direct talks with Iran failed to yield results.
Updated
Fed likely to leave rates unchanged at what may be Powell's last meeting
The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to hold interest rates steady on Wednesday after a key policy meeting, likely the last chaired by central bank chief Jerome Powell, a frequent target of president Donald Trump’s ire.
Policymakers will weigh the risks of surging energy prices and snarled supply chains due to the US-Israel war on Iran, with analysts widely expecting a third pause in a row as the effects of the conflict ripple through the world’s largest economy.
All eyes will be on Powell’s future plans at what could be his final press conference as head of the Fed on Wednesday afternoon, AFP reported.
While the central bank chief’s tenure as chair ends 15 May, his term as a member of the board of governors continues until January 2028.
Since returning to power last year, Trump has frequently criticized and insulted Powell for not cutting interest rates – a policy that would turbocharge economic activity but could fuel inflation.
An attempt by the Trump administration to gain access to Arizona’s detailed voter records was thwarted by the courts on Tuesday, when a federal judge dismissed the US justice department’s lawsuit against the state.
The ruling marks the latest legal setback in an unprecedented nationwide effort by the administration before the midterm elections to collect sensitive information about tens of millions of Americans. The DoJ has sued at least 30 states and the District of Columbia seeking to force release of the data, which includes dates of birth, addresses, driver’s license numbers and partial social security numbers.
The US district judge Susan Brnovich, a Trump appointee, ruled that Arizona’s statewide voter registration list was “not a document subject to request by the Attorney General” under federal law. The judge dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice because, she wrote, “amendment would be legally futile”.
At least 13 states have either handed the information over voluntarily or promised to provide their detailed voter registration lists to the department, according to the Brennan Center for Justice and Associated Press reporting: Alaska, Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming.
In addition to Arizona, judges have ruled against the administration in Rhode Island, California, Massachusetts, Michigan and Oregon. In Georgia, a judge dismissed a DoJ lawsuit because it had been filed in the wrong city, prompting the government to refile elsewhere.
US lawmakers to grill Pentagon chief on Iran war
US defense secretary Pete Hegseth will face tough questions from lawmakers about the Iran war on Wednesday during his first testimony to Congress since the start of the conflict.
Hegseth’s appearance before the House Armed Services Committee – for a hearing on president Donald Trump’s $1.5tn defense budget request – comes with the war still unresolved and the economic fallout from it continuing around the globe.
Lawmakers from both parties have previously expressed dissatisfaction with the information provided in classified briefings on the war, setting up a potentially fiery public hearing in which top US military officer general Dan Caine is also set to testify, AFP reported.
“Finally, Secretary Hegseth will come before the House Armed Services Committee this week. It is time to answer for this war of choice,” Representative Maggie Goodlander, a Democratic member of the committee, said in a post on X.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has thanked King Charles for his speech in Washington yesterday.
He said:
I thank His Majesty King Charles III, royal family, the United Kingdom, and all valiant American hearts for this clarion call for unity in support of Ukraine across the Atlantic.
This is exactly what is needed to bring dignified and lasting peace to Ukraine and all of Europe. The people of Ukraine deeply appreciate all the support provided by the United Kingdom and the United States. Thank-you.
Iran 'better get smart soon' warns Trump in social media post
US president Donald Trump has warned Iran that “they better get smart soon” and sign a non-nuclear deal, in his latest social media post.
Trump shared an image of himself, wearing sunglasses and carrying a gun, set against the backdrop of – presumably – Middle Eastern towns and villages being bombed, with the caption “No more Mr Nice Guy”.
He wrote:
Iran can’t get their act together. They don’t know how to sign a nonnuclear deal. They better get smart soon! President DJT
Updated
In his state dinner speech King Charles appeared to suggest to president Trump that the purpose of his state visit was to “put the ‘special’ back into our relationship” – just as Queen Elizabeth II did almost 70 years ago.
Charles spoke about the ties between Britain and the US, and implied it mirrored events in the aftermath of the 1956 Suez crisis, when Elizabeth toured the US to help repair relations.
Britain was left humiliated when the US refused to support its campaign with France to regain control of the Suez canal from Egypt, and the brief conflict marked the end of the UK’s role as a global military power.
Charles told the dinner guests, who included the Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, and the golfer Rory McIlroy: “And yes, we have had our moments of difficulty, even in more recent history. When my mother visited in 1957, not the least of her tasks was to help put the ‘special’ back into our relationship after a crisis in the Middle East.”
Some of the guests laughed when the king said: “Nearly 70 years on, it is hard to imagine anything like that happening today…”
Updated
King Charles to visit New York to commemorate 9/11 victims
Britain’s King Charles and his wife Queen Camilla arrive in New York on Wednesday to commemorate victims of the 11 September terror attacks on the city.
The king and queen’s scheduled arrival in New York follows a packed day in Washington on Tuesday, when Charles delivered a speech to Congress, held private meetings with president Donald Trump amid tensions between the US and UK over the Iran war and sat down with leaders of the US tech industry, Reuters reported.
Charles and Camilla will begin their day in New York with a ceremony at the 9/11 memorial in lower Manhattan, where the twin towers of the World Trade Center were destroyed by al-Qaeda suicide bombers on 11 September, 2001. Charles is expected to meet with New York City’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, at the ceremony.
The king will then head to Harlem to visit a grassroots community organization that created a sustainable after-school urban farming initiative in an effort to combat food insecurity, according to local media.
Meanwhile, Camilla will celebrate the 100th birthday of AA Milne’s fictional character Winnie the Pooh on behalf of her charity, The Queen’s Reading Room, which Buckingham Palace is calling a “literary engagement” event.
US supreme court to hear whether protected status of Haitians and Syrians can be revoked
The supreme court will hear oral arguments on Wednesday over whether the Trump administration can strip the temporary protected status (TPS) of hundreds of thousands of Syrians and Haitians, under a program that has protected them from deportation due to safety concerns in their home countries.
People with TPS are given the permission to live and work in the US because the government has deemed their home countries to be unsafe due to war, political instability or natural disasters. In the past year, the Trump administration has attempted to cut the program for various countries, opening the door to the removal of hundreds of thousands of protected immigrants in the US.
Last year, the supreme court allowed the administration to strip TPS status for more than 300,000 Venezuelans under the court’s emergency docket. Now, the court will hear arguments challenging the Trump administration’s efforts to remove the same protections from Syrians and Haitians.
If the supreme court sides with the Trump administration in its effort to cut the program for Syrians and Haitians, analysts say the administration would likely seek to end the TPS program for all countries. Nearly 1.3 million people were TPS holders at the start of the second Trump administration.
The TPS program, established in 1990, does not offer a pathway to citizenship but allows citizens from designated countries to live and work in the US if they are unable to return safely to their home countries. TPS designations can be extended by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Haitians have been protected from deportation under the TPS program since 2010 and Syrians have been protected since 2012. Earlier this month, the House passed legislation to extend the protection for Haitian immigrants under the TPS program for three years.
A flick of Oscar Wilde here, a nod to Henry Kissinger there, a sprinkling of Charles Dickens here, a dollop of Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt there. Job done!
The British monarch mobilised an elite squad of dead white men, leavened with humour and subliminal politicking, on Tuesday in a charm offensive aimed over Donald Trump’s head and squarely at the US Congress. Judging by the cheers and minute-long applause he received at the end, the soft power flex worked a treat and the special relationship lives to fight another day.
But the king’s central message – of two great nations entwined in destiny – was also an inadvertent reminder of two empires that look increasingly shabby these days with rightwing populists on the march and the ghost of the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein hovering in the shadows.
Charles became the first British king to address the Congress almost exactly 250 years after the US denounced his fifth great-grandfather as a tyrant and declared its independence. “You’ll be back,” predicted George III in Hamilton and yet cricket, damp and a lack of air conditioning never clinched the deal.
What would America’s founding fathers have made of seeing George III’s direct descendant speak to their successors? Donald Trump mused at the White House on Tuesday: “They might be absolutely shocked but probably only for a moment. Surely they would be delighted that the wounds of war healed into the most cherished friendship.”
Well, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and co would surely be more shocked to discover that they now have their own mad king in the White House. If Charles spots signs saying “No kings” on his travels, he shouldn’t take it personally.
King Charles visits New York after Trump says UK monarch ‘agrees with me’ on Iran
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
Britain’s King Charles will use a trip to New York today to showcase cultural and economic ties between the UK and the US at a time when the so-called “special relationship” is under strain.
It is the third day of a four-day state visit, clouded by tensions over the Iran war, that began in Washington with president Donald Trump greeting the monarch and his wife, Queen Camilla, AFP reported.
The New York leg will first see the royals take part in a wreath-laying ceremony at the 9/11 memorial to mark 25 years since the terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. The city’s mayor Zohran Mamdani is not expected to meet Charles privately but will join him for the ceremony.
“This atrocity was a defining moment for America and your pain and shock were felt around the whole world,” Charles told the US Congress on Tuesday.
“We stood with you then. And we stand with you now in solemn remembrance of a day that shall never be forgotten,” he added in a speech that called for unity among western powers.
It comes as Trump said Charles agrees with him that Iran should never be allowed nuclear weapons. The president’s comments are likely to cause some embarrassment to royal aides that his views have been made public.
Trump said in his speech at the white-tie event on Tuesday evening:
We’re doing a little Middle East work right now … and we’re doing very well. We have militarily defeated that particular opponent, and we’re never going to let that opponent ever, Charles agrees with me even more than I do, we’re never going to let that opponent have a nuclear weapon.
They know that, and they’ve known it right now, very powerfully.
A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said:
The king is naturally mindful of his government’s longstanding and well-known position on the prevention of nuclear proliferation.
In other developments:
Todd Blanche, the former defense lawyer for Donald Trump now serving as acting US attorney general, announced two charges against James Comey, the former FBI director and deputy attorney general for allegedly “knowing and willfully making a threat to kill” the president of the United States in a social media post.
Patrick Fitzgerald, a former US attorney for the northern district of Illinois who now represents James Comey, said that his client, “vigorously denies the charges” filed against him.
US defense secretary Pete Hegseth will face tough questions from lawmakers about the Iran war on Wednesday during his first testimony to Congress since the start of the conflict.
President Trump will welcomes the Artemis II astronauts to the White House later today. The capsule returned to Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday, almost a month after blasting off on humanity’s first lunar trip in more than a half century.
The supreme court will hear arguments Wednesday over the Trump administration’s push to end legal protections for migrants fleeing war and natural disaster, one in a series of immigration cases the high court is considering against the backdrop of the president’s far-reaching immigration crackdown.
The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to hold interest rates steady on Wednesday after a key policy meeting, likely the last chaired by central bank chief Jerome Powell. Policymakers will weigh the risks of surging energy prices and snarled supply chains due to the US-Israel war on Iran, with analysts widely expecting a third pause in a row.
