Closing summary
Our live coverage is ending now - we’ll be back on Tuesday. In the meantime, you can find all of our live US politics coverage here.
Here’s a summary of the key developments from today:
Donald Trump has ruled out a ceasefire in Ukraine as Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his European allies visited the White House to push for US-backed security guarantees as part of any long-term peace deal. The US president, who only last week warned Russia of “very severe consequences” if Vladimir Putin failed to agree to a halt to the fighting, made clear on Monday he had reversed his position. More here.
Missouri attorney general Andrew Bailey announced Monday that he will step down to become co-deputy director of the FBI. Bailey will share the role with deputy director Dan Bongino, as the FBI continues to draw headlines over the ongoing case tied to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Bailey said his last day in office will be 8 September. Missouri governor Mike Kehoe will announce his appointment for Bailey’s replacement on Tuesday.
Donald Trump on Monday announced that lawyers are drafting an executive order to eliminate mail-in voting, days after Vladimir Putin told him US elections were rigged because of postal ballots. In a White House meeting alongside Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump said: “We’re going to start with an executive order that’s being written right now by the best lawyers in the country to end mail in ballots because they’re corrupt.” More here.
Texas Democrats returned to their state on Monday as California lawmakers convened in the state capitol to kick off a rapid push to get voters to approve a new congressional map that could add as many as five Democratic seats in the US House. The California effort is in response to Texas’s push to redraw the congressional map there to add five Republican seats. On Friday, Texas’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott, called a second special session after Democrats remained out of the state for two weeks, denying Republicans a quorum to conduct legislative business. Here’s the full story.
In light of these efforts, governor Gavin Newsom applauded California Democrats introducing the legislation as part of an effort to counter a Republican redistricting proposal by creating new congressional maps in California. The plan, led by Newsom, would put redistricting before voters in a special election this fall. It would allow the legislature to bypass California’s independent redistricting commission and redraw congressional lines mid-decade.
The state department said on Monday that the American government played no role in the release of an Israeli official charged with soliciting sex electronically from a minor.
Tom Artiom Alexandrovich was one of eight people charged last week following an undercover operation “targeting child sex predators,” the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police said in a statement issued last week.
According to Reuters, Alexandrovich faces a felony charge of luring or attempting to lure a child or mentally ill person to commit a sex act “with use of computer technology.”
Israeli media said on Thursday that Alexandrovich, who they described as a senior department head in Israel’s National Cyber Directorate, was released by US authorities and is back in Israel.
The report that an Israeli official accused of a felony sex crime was allowed to return home drew a storm of speculation online.
Alexandrovich “did not claim diplomatic immunity and was released by a state judge pending a court date. Any claims that the U.S. government intervened are false,” the state department said via a post on X.
