Summary
Closing summary
Our live coverage is ending now. In the meantime, you can find all of our live US politics coverage here. Here is a summary of the key developments from today:
Wisconsin and Florida held special elections for a state supreme court seat and two open spots in the House of Representatives, in the first elections since Donald Trump’s election in November. In Wisconsin, liberal judge Susan Crawford won her race, despite tech billionaire Elon Musk’s millions in donations in support of her opponent. Meanwhile, in Florida, Republicans maintained control of the two seats vacated by national security adviser Mike Waltz and former congressman Matt Gaetz.
Senator Cory Booker, the Democrat from New Jersey, broke the record for the longest speech given on the Senate Floor after he concluded a 25 hour and 5 minute address denouncing the Trump administration and its budget cuts.
Thousands of Health and Human Services (HHS) employees across the country were dismissed as the Trump administration began implementing its controversial workforce-reduction plan. The firings have included staff members who were working on the Food and Drug Administration’s bird flu response, and shuttered at least five of Head Start’s regional offices.
The US attorney general Pam Bondi announced that she had directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, the man accused of murdering the UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel in December.
A group of Democratic-led states have sued the Trump administration over its decision to cut $11bn in federal funds that they were allocated during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” is finalizing its shuttering of the US Agency for International Development, ordering the firings of thousands of local workers, US diplomats and civil servants assigned to the agency overseas
Delivering her victory speech in Madison, Judge Susan Crawford thanked Wisconsin voters for electing her to the state’s supreme court.
“I never could have imagined that I’d be taking on the richest man in the world,” she said, a nod to tech billionaire Elon Musk’s significant spending on her opponent’s campaign.
“My promise to Wisconsin is clear: I will be a fair, impartial justice on the Wisconsin supreme court.”
