Closing summary
Our live coverage is ending for the day. Thanks for reading along with us. Here is a summary of the key developments from today:
The Texas legislature preliminarily approved a redrawn congressional map on Friday that gives Republicans a chance to pick up as many as five congressional seats, fulfilling a brazen political request from Donald Trump to shore up the GOP’s standing before next year’s midterm elections. The tentative map adoption passed in an 18-11 party-line vote. To get final approval, the state legislature’s upper chamber will take a vote, which is forecasted to happen this weekend, the Texas Tribune reports. However, a Houston Democratic state senator has plans to delay the final passage. More here.
The US Department of Justice has released the transcript and audio recording of an interview conducted by Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, with the convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In a post on X, Blanche said the materials were being released “in the interest of transparency”, providing links to the transcript and to audio files. The release includes documentation from a two-day interview conducted on 24 and 25 July. The materials comprise redacted transcripts for both days, along with multiple audio recordings – seven separate parts plus test recordings for day one, and four parts plus test recordings for day two. More here.
The FBI raided the home of Donald Trump’s former national security adviser turned critic John Bolton early on Friday morning and later also turned up at Bolton’s office. The federal search of Bolton’s house in the Washington DC area was understood to be part of an investigation involving the handling of classified documents, the Associated Press reported, citing a person familiar with the matter. A government source confirmed the raid to the Guardian, but did not disclose further details. More here.
Donald Trump has threatened to take his federal crackdown on crime and city cleanliness to New York and Chicago, as the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, ordered that national guard troops patrolling the streets of Washington DC under federal control will now be armed. The US president talked to reporters in the Oval Office and said: “When ready, we will start in Chicago … Chicago is a mess.” He added that then the administration “will help with New York”, amid the controversial and aggressive federal efforts to control leading Democratic-voting cities, each of which has a Black mayor. More here.
The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has fired a general whose agency’s initial intelligence assessment of damage to Iranian nuclear sites from US strikes angered Donald Trump, according to two people familiar with the decision and a White House official. Lt Gen Jeffrey Kruse will no longer serve as head of the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly. The firing is the latest upheaval in the US military and intelligence agencies, and comes a few months after details of the preliminary assessment leaked to the media. More here.
Kilmar Ábrego García has been freed on Friday from criminal custody in Tennessee so he can rejoin his family in Maryland while awaiting trial on human smuggling charges, after a court ordered his release. Magistrate judge Barbara Holmes issued an order allowing the father of two to leave custody for the first time since his return to the US in June, following his wrongful deportation to El Salvador earlier this year. In a statement following his release, Ábrego’s lawyer, Sean Hecker said: “Today, Kilmar Ábrego García is free. More here.
Canada will drop its counter-tariffs on some American goods in the coming days, Mark Carney has said, as the country’s prime minister looks to end a protracted trade war with longtime ally the United States. From 1 September, the Canadian government will remove some levies on US goods that comply with the North American free-trade pact, a move meant to “match” how the White House treated Canadian goods. Levies on steel, aluminum and autos will remain in place. The announcement comes one day after Carney and Donald Trump spoke on the phone. More here.
The Trump administration on Friday ordered all construction to stop on Revolution Wind, a $4bn offshore wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island.
The project, developed by the Danish company Orsted, had secured all necessary permits under the Biden administration and was expected to power more than 350,000 homes in Rhode Island and Connecticut by next spring.
“The project is 80% complete with all offshore foundations installed and 45 out of 65 wind turbines installed,” Orsted said in a statement. The company said it is “evaluating all options to resolve the matter expeditiously”.
“In particular, BOEM is seeking to address concerns related to the protection of national security interests in the United States,” Bureau of Ocean Energy Management acting director, Matthew Giacona, said in a letter.
He said that the company “may not resume activities” until the agency has completed a review of the project.
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