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:
-
Ken Paxton defeated four-term incumbent John Cornyn, winning the Republican nomination for Texas’s open US Senate seat after receiving Donald Trump’s endorsement last week. Paxton will face off against Democrat James Talarico in November’s general election. Recent polls have put Talarico, with his blend of faith-based populism, bipartisan appeal and generational energy, in a tight race that could see Texas unexpectedly elect a Democrat. In his concession speech, Cornyn said he will back Paxton in the general election.
-
Christian Menefee defeated Al Green to represent Texas’s newly redrawn 18th congressional district. Green, 78, had served 11 terms as a Democrat, earning a reputation as one of Donald Trump’s top critics, when he became the first member of Congress to call for his impeachment, as early as 2017. Menefee, 38, began serving in Congress earlier this year after he won a special election. The two Democrats faced off against each other in this year’s election after Republican redistricting saw their home districts near Houston redrawn.
-
Two Republican-led efforts to redraw congressional maps in Alabama and South Carolina hit setbacks. In Alabama, a federal court said the proposed map could not be used because it was drawn to intentionally discriminate against Black voters. The South Carolina Senate voted against redrawing the state’s congressional map due to political and administrative reasons.
-
Construction is under way on the White House lawn for a UFC arena that will host a cage-match next month to mark the United States’s 250th anniversary and Donald Trump’s 80th birthday. The mixed martial arts fight is planned for 14 June.
-
Donald Trump completed his annual physical after year of public attention to health issues. Trump, the oldest inaugurated president in US history, completed a physical exam on Tuesday at Walter Reed national military medical center, amid questions around his health. “Everything checked out PERFECTLY,” the US president declared in a social media post.
-
The Trump administration considered asking federal workers to sign NDAs. The goal of asking federal employees to sign nondisclosure agreements is to prevent them from sharing confidential information with journalists.
-
Uber and Lyft drivers in Massachusetts have become the first in the nation to certify a union for gig-economy workers of ride-hailing apps. On Friday, the Massachusetts Department of Labor Relations certified the App Drivers Union, which represents nearly 70,000 drivers classified as independent contractors.
-
Nasa announced ambitious plans for three uncrewed lunar missions this year to kickstart construction of a $20bn moon base, and said it had chosen the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, ahead of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, to conduct the first. The news came the same day that the United States Space Force awarded a $2.29 bn contract to SpaceX, which would see the tech billionaire’s aerospace and artificial intelligence company build a satellite communications network to connect military sensors and weapons platforms around the world.
Donald Trump wrote in a social media post on Tuesday it was “critically important” that the federal government retain control over the multibillion-dollar prediction market industry, as he cast a critical eye on state attempts to impose new restrictions.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) should retain “exclusive authority” over prediction markets, Trump said.
Prediction markets allow users to make speculative bets on the outcome of events. Their meteoric rise in recent years has attracted attention from state governments, who view trading on prediction markets as gambling by another name, which in many cases would subject the activity to state gaming laws.
Industry leaders such as Kalshi and Polymarket, which make money by charging fees on transactions, describe prediction markets as a form of derivatives trading. Derivatives are contracts that allow traders to make bets on the future value of an asset.
The federal government has agreed in practice, regulating them through the CFTC, a government agency that oversees derivatives markets with the goal of protecting consumers from fraud.
In his first ad of the general election, Texas Democrat James Talarico called Ken Paxton “the Most Corrupt Politician in America.” Talarico released the video just minutes after the Associated Press called the Republican nomination for Paxton, meaning the former attorney general will face off against Talarico in the state’s general election for its open US Senate seat this November.
In a separate post on social media, Talarico thanked John Cornyn, who represented Texas in the US Senate for four terms, and told his supporters “you have a place in our campaign.
“I want to thank Senator John Cornyn for his years representing our state,” Talarico wrote. “We don’t agree on everything, but we both still believe in public service.”
Cornyn will back Paxton
John Cornyn will back Ken Paxton in the general election, Cornyn said in his concession speech.
“After a public service career lasting more than four decades and 18 consecutive campaign wins, tonight we’ve come up short in this primary runoff,” he said.
Updated
With Ken Paxton positioned to face off against James Talarico in the November general election for John Cornyn’s former US Senate seat, the National Republican Senatorial Committee is trying to walk back fears that a Democrat could win the seat.
“A state President Trump won by nearly 14 points isn’t going to elect James Talarico — a radical leftist who thinks God is nonbinary and that Texas should be a welcome mat for illegals,” said regional press secretary Samantha Cantrell. “He is the most dangerous flank of the far left. Texas isn’t swapping brisket for open borders.”
An April survey by The Texas Public Opinion Research (TPOR) has Talarico ahead of both Cornyn and Paxton in one-on-one contests. According to the poll, which surveyed the intentions of 1,865 likely voters, Talarico has a five point lead – 46% to 41% over Paxton.
Paxton wins Republican nomination for Texas Senate seat
Ken Paxton has won the Republican nomination for Texas’s open US Senate seat, after receiving Donald Trump’s endorsement last week.
The scandal-ridden state attorney general was competing against four-term incumbent John Cornyn.
Paxton will face off against Democrat James Talarico in November’s general election. Recent polls have put Talarico, with his blend of faith-based populism, bipartisan appeal and generational energy, in a tight race that could see Texas unexpectedly elect a Democrat.
Polls have closed across all of Texas, as the clock strikes 7pm in the Mountain time zone.
Menefee beats Green for Texas congressional seat
Christian Menefee has defeated Al Green to represent Texas’s newly redrawn 18th congressional district.
Green, 78, had served 11 terms as a Democrat, earning a reputation as one of Donald Trump’s top critics, when he became the first member of Congress to call for his impeachment, as early as 2017.
Menefee, 38, began serving in Congress earlier this year after he won a special election. The two Democrats faced off against each other in this year’s election after Republican redistricting saw their home districts near Houston redrawn.
Although Menefee still has to win the November general election, he’s favored in the heavily Democratic district.
Updated
Donald Trump has appointed Pam Bondi to an advisory committee focused on artificial intelligence, Axios reports.
The news that the former US attorney general will join the Presidential Council of Advisors on Science and Technology comes about two months after Trump fired Bondi from her post as head of the justice department.
“Pam has been an enormously valuable asset to the president’s team, and I’m thrilled for her and for all of us that she’s going to remain involved in confronting some of the most important issues the administration faces,” JD Vance said in a statement.
Texas runoff polls mostly closed
The majority of polls in Texas, where Republican voters are considering whether to nominate Ken Paxton or John Cornyn for US Senate, have closed.
The state is spread across two time zones, Central and Mountain, meaning some polls in the Westernmost parts of the state will remain open one more hour.
Updated
A federal appeals court has temporarily blocked the re-detention of Mahmoud Khalil as his legal team prepares to petition his case with the US supreme court.
My colleague Maya Yang has the full story:
The decision on Tuesday from the third circuit court of appeals gives the 31-year-old activist and US green card holder a temporary reprieve as the broader legal fight over his detention and immigration status continues.
In a statement following the ruling, Brett Max Kaufman, senior counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Center for Democracy, said: “We’re grateful that the court recognized the irreparable harm Mahmoud would face if he were re-detained before the supreme court has a chance to review his case.
“Detention would serve only to cruelly separate him from his family and further chill his speech. We look forward to asking the supreme court to make clear that the government cannot use the threat of detention and deportation to silence dissent,” Kaufman added.
The case of Khalil, a Palestine-born recent Columbia University graduate, has become a flashpoint across the US over free speech and the Donald Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian activism across US campuses.
Protests continued on Tuesday outside an immigration detention center in New Jersey where US senator Andy Kim said he was pepper-sprayed by federal agents the day before during a demonstration against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) outside the facility.
As my colleagues José Olivares, Richard Luscombe and Victoria Bekiempis report:
Video posted on social media showed Kim, a Democrat representing New Jersey, receiving help from a volunteer on Monday, who is seen pouring water in his eyes outside Delaney Hall in Newark, where detainees have said they are staging a hunger strike against poor conditions and the denial of medical care.
Demonstrators had clashed with immigration officers who used batons and pepper spray over the weekend as they attempted to transfer a detainee who organized the hunger strike to another facility. On Tuesday, masked ICE officials forced people out of the way as vehicles moved in and out of the facility.
Kim, a senator from New Jersey, had joined the state’s governor, Mikie Sherrill, also a Democrat, at the protest to speak with relatives of some of those detained. He told USA Today that the incident in which he was sprayed by a chemical substance came shortly after he had been inside Delaney Hall to see conditions for himself.
Updated
Angela Paxton, the Texas state senator and wife of attorney general and US Senate hopeful Ken Paxton, has not endorsed her husband.
In a social media post today, Paxton endorsed candidates for state attorney general, railroad commissioner and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals – but made no mention of her husband, who received Donald Trump’s endorsement in his runoff bid for the Republican nomination last week.
Although Paxton stood by her husband during his impeachment trial in 2023, she filed for divorce “on biblical grounds”, citing adultery, last year.
Updated
Another construction project takes shape on White House grounds
Construction is under way on the White House lawn for a UFC arena that will host a cage-match next month to mark the United States’s 250th anniversary and Donald Trump’s 80th birthday. The mixed martial arts fight is planned for 14 June.
Photos of cranes and other construction equipment on the White House lawn today show the beginnings of the temporary construction. Trump has said that the finished project will feature “a 5,000-seat arena right outside the front door of the White House.”
Trump first floated the idea of hosting a UFC fight on the White House grounds last year, during an appearance in Idaho on 4 July 2025 when he announced festivities planned to celebrate the United States’s 250th birthday on 4 July 2026.
“Think of this on the grounds of the White House. We have a lot of land there,” he said, originally adding that it would be a “full fight” with 20,000 to 25,000 people in attendance.
In December, Trump said the White House event would host “eight or nine championship fights – the biggest fights they’ve ever had.” But like the size of the crowd, the number of fights expected to be held on the White House lawn has shrunk. The fight card includes two title fights: a lightweight championship fight between Ilia Topuria and Justin Gaethje in the main event, and an interim heavyweight title fight between Alex Pereira and Ciryl Gane.
Trump has long been a fan of mixed martial arts, and is close friends with Dana White, the UFC’s president.
As construction began on the White House lawn, competitors at the Scripps National Spelling Bee navigated around it Tuesday. After 15 years at a convention center in Maryland, the spelling bee was relocated to Washington DC’s Constitution Hall. Families staying at the nearby J.W. Marriott would usually walk across the Ellipse to reach the hall, but with construction ongoing there, families are making a longer trek around. The parent of one speller, Rajeev Malhotra, described the scene as “two very disparate forms of entertainment.”
Updated
Nasa announced on Tuesday ambitious plans for three uncrewed lunar missions this year to kickstart construction of a $20bn moon base, and said it had chosen the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, ahead of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, to conduct the first.
The revelation by Nasa’s administrator, Jared Isaacman, at a press conference in Washington DC marked the first detailed public explanation of how and when the moon base will be built.
He said the three missions planned for 2026 would be followed by “more than a dozen” more in the coming years to test systems and equipment. He said the highly successful Artemis II mission last month that sent four astronauts around the moon for the first time since 1972 had been both a catalyst and incentive to advance the moon base plan.
“People are looking up again, believing in big things again, and paying attention as America returns to the moon again, and this time to stay,” he said.
He added, without mentioning any names, that the agency had been “having the tough conversations with those failing to meet expectations” since the Artemis splashdown on 10 April.
Today, Texans are voting for a Republican nominee for US Senate in a runoff election. Ken Paxton, the state attorney general, is competing against four-term incumbent John Cornyn.
The winner of the runoff will go up against Democrat James Talarico in November’s general election. Recent polls have put Talarico, with his blend of faith-based populism, bipartisan appeal and generational energy, in a tight race with Cornyn and Paxton.
Last week, Donald Trump endorsed Paxton, who Trump called “a true Maga warrior”. But Paxton has been embroiled in a series of controversies. He was acquitted in a 2023 impeachment trial on corruption charges. He also reached a deal in 2024 to end a long-running securities fraud case.
The Guardian follows the Associated Press in calling an election. We’ll bring you the results from Texas’s runoff election as the AP calls the races. Polls in Texas close at 7pm local time, with polls split across the Central and Mountain time zones.
Here’s more of our latest coverage of the runoff:
Brazilian senator Flávio Bolsonaro, son of the country’s former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, met with Donald Trump at the White House today, Reuters reports, citing Bolsonaro.
Flávio Bolsonaro is currently running for Brazil’s presidency against incumbent president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who met with Trump earlier this month. Bolsonaro has been trying to shore up his election bid after The Intercept published leaked messages showing the senator received millions in donations from a Brazilian banker accused of defrauding customers of millions of dollars.
Uber and Lyft drivers in Massachusetts have become the first in the nation to certify a union for gig-economy workers of ride-hailing apps. On Friday, the Massachusetts Department of Labor Relations certified the App Drivers Union, which represents nearly 70,000 drivers classified as independent contractors.
“It changes the game for ride-share workers across this country,” Massachusetts governor Maura Healey said at a rally with drivers and labor activists in Boston today. Labor leaders hailed the victory as the largest organizing win since Ford autoworkers unionized in 1941.
The victory comes as drivers say they’re contending with rising gas, insurance and other costs, alongside the rise of self-driving vehicles. Similar efforts to unionize ride-share drivers are under way in California and Illinois.
The winning plan to rebuild Penn Station features Donald Trump’s name and preferred architectural style throughout, according to documents obtained by the New York City news site Gothamist.
Trump’s transportation department took control of the Penn Station rebuild alongside Amtrak last year, saying it would save taxpayers money and champion a public-private partnership in the redesign. Earlier this year, the White House proposed renaming Penn Station as “Trump Station”, Gothamist reported in February.
Last week, the transportation department announced it had chosen Penn Station Partners as the “master developer” for the station. Gothamist reports that “New York elected officials criticized the bidding process for a lack of transparency. The details of Amtrak’s request for proposals, as well as the three final bidders’ plans for Penn, were kept under wraps.”
Internal documents obtained by Gothamist include a rendering of the station’s proposed new Eighth Avenue entrance, which includes a large plaque with Donald Trump’s name etched into marble alongside a presidential seal. The renderings also show gold-accented railings throughout the station and American flags at the entrance, echoing designs for the new White House ballroom.
The United States Space Force has awarded a $2.29 bn contract to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which would see the tech billionaire’s aerospace and artificial intelligence company build a satellite communications network to connect military sensors and weapons platforms around the world.
SpaceX has previously won several military contracts for work on satellite communications. Here’s more of our previous reporting on the subject:
Vice President JD Vance held a roundtable for state attorneys general on anti-fraud initiatives Tuesday afternoon. Democratic attorneys general declined, reported the Washington Examiner, claiming it was not a good-faith effort.
About two dozen Democratic lawmakers wrote a letter to Vance, saying:
“While we would appreciate the opportunity to engage in serious discussions, the invitation was provided with less than one business day’s notice with no agenda. This short notice does not match the spirit of collaboration that has long defined our joint efforts with federal partners. Accordingly, we respectfully decline to attend at this time.”
Updated
Here's a recap of the day so far:
-
Trump urges Texas Republicans to vote for Ken Paxton in runoff election. As Texas heads to the polls for the primaries, Trump reminded his supporters to vote for Attorney General Paxton, who is running against John Cornyn, the incumbent.
-
Two Republican-led efforts to redraw congressional maps in Alabama and South Carolina hit setbacks. In Alabama, a federal court said the proposed map could not be used because it was drawn to intentionally discriminate against Black voters. The South Carolina Senate voted against redrawing the state’s congressional map due to political and administrative reasons.
-
Trump completes annual physical after year of public attention to health issues. Trump, the oldest inaugurated president in US history, completed a physical exam on Tuesday at Walter Reed national military medical center, amid questions around his health. “Everything checked out PERFECTLY,” the US president declared in a social media post.
-
Trump administration considers asking federal workers to sign NDAs. The goal of asking federal employees to sign nondisclosure agreements is to prevent them from sharing confidential information with journalists.
-
Iran says US broke ceasefire with overnight strikes, with impact on peace talks unclear. Further to that, while Donald Trump continues to insist that a peace deal is close, Iran has accused the United States of violating the ceasefire after conducting what the US called “self-defense” strikes overnight.
Updated
The goal of asking federal employees to sign nondisclosure agreements is to prevent them from sharing confidential information with journalists.
The office of personnel management (OPM), the human resources office for the US government, released a draft nondisclosure agreement designed for federal agencies to use with new and existing employees. Under the draft agreement, the administration could pursue civil and criminal penalties against employees who violate it. The US government would be entitled to all “royalties” that employees receive from disclosing information that violates the agreement, according to the draft.
The OPM did not immediately offer further explanation.
The draft form is the latest step in the president’s effort to exert more control over US government workers and the flow of information to the public.
“This move is rooted in concerns that unauthorized disclosures of sensitive government information are disrupting agency operations and eroding trust across government,” an OPM spokesperson, McLaurine Pinover, said in an email to Reuters.
Former government employees would need “written permission from an authorized agency official” to speak to journalists about information the Trump administration deems “confidential” after leaving their jobs, according to the draft. Former employees who violate that rule could be subject to civil and criminal penalties.
South Carolina Senate rejects Trump's push to reshape congressional districts
The South Carolina Senate voted against redrawing the state’s congressional map in order to gain an additional Republican seat, the AP reported.
The push to redraw the map had come from Trump but senators had political concerns with the new boundaries – they didn’t think the new boundaries would guarantee Republican success.
Additionally, there were administrative concerns; with primaries only about a month away and early voting starting even sooner, new maps would mean conducting another statewide primary for US House races in August.
Trump’s push for South Carolina comes as other states are also redrawing their maps in the hope of impacting election results.
Thomas Massie, the conservative Kentucky congressman filed to run again for the US House of Representatives in 2028, less than a week after losing to Donald Trump’s handpicked challenger, Ed Gallrein, 55-45 in a bruising primary.
The US president celebrated last week as Massie – a Republican thorn in his side – became the latest to be ousted from office by his political operation. “He deserves to lose,” claimed Trump.
But Massie, who has seven months left in Congress, has made clear he plans to remain engaged.
“I filed with FEC for the 2028 House race,” he wrote on social media on Monday. “This allows me to raise funds to continue my political operations supporting my position as a current office holder and as a potential candidate for federal office. I haven’t made a final decision about which office to seek, if I run.”
Discussion has emerged about Massie’s potential as a US presidential candidate in a post-Trump political environment, despite his loss last Tuesday.
The National Redistricting Foundation applauded the federal court’s blocking of Alabama’s attempt to bring back a 2023 congressional map.
Marina Jenkins, the executive director of the Foundation, said:
“Alabama must use its 2023 court-adopted map—a map with two Black opportunity districts—in this year’s elections. Make no mistake, the fight for justice is far from over in states across the country where politicians are enacting gerrymanders on top of gerrymanders to erase equal representation for communities of color. The message from this panel is clear: courts must fulfill their independent duty to protect voters’ rights, not just rubber-stamp state officials’ efforts to use the Supreme Court’s Callais decision as an excuse to draw Black voters out of a say in our democracy.”
Trump says medical check-up went 'perfectly'
Donald Trump has said “everything checked out perfectly” following his 6-month physical examination at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. He wrote on Truth Social:
Just finished my 6 month physical at Walter Reed Military Medical Center. Everything checked out PERFECTLY. Thank you to the great Doctors and Staff! Heading back to the White House. President DJT
Last month a Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll found that less than half of US adults think Trump has the mental sharpness or physical health to serve effectively.
“I think concern for the president’s physical health is probably at an all-time high, and I think advanced physical age is the No. 1 concern,” Dr Jeffrey Kuhlman, who served as a White House physician under former presidents Barack Obama, George W Bush and Bill Clinton, told the Associated Press.
Kuhlman said a complete physical would include advanced heart testing, screening for common cancers and a cognitive assessment . The White House had not disclosed what Trump’s check-ups would entail.
“President Trump is the sharpest and most accessible President in American history who is working nonstop to solve problems and deliver on his promises, and he remains in excellent health,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in a statement issued to the AP ahead of the check-up.
Updated
Iran says US broke ceasefire with overnight strikes, with impact on peace talks unclear
Further to that, while Donald Trump continues to insist that a peace deal is close, Iran has accused the United States of violating the ceasefire after conducting what the US called “self-defense” strikes overnight.
Iran’s foreign ministry said US strikes in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province, where Iranian media reported sounds of explosions in the early hours of Tuesday, represented a “gross violation” of the tenuous ceasefire that has been in place for nearly seven weeks.
The US airstrikes are a sign of “bad faith and unreliability” as negotiations continue, the ministry said, as it warned: “The Islamic Republic of Iran will leave no act of aggression unanswered.”
The US military said it acted with restraint in defensively targeting missile launch sites and boats placing mines.
The development leaves progress on a peace deal murky, and we’ll bring you any updates throughout the day as we get them.
Both sides had previously indicated progress on a memorandum of understanding that could halt the war and restart shipping through the blockaded strait of Hormuz, while giving negotiators 60 days to negotiate more complex issues including Iran’s nuclear programme.
Iranian media reported that Iran’s negotiators had also been pushing for the memorandum to include the release of billions of frozen assets at talks in Qatar.
You can also follow our Middle East live blog for more coverage:
Updated
US strikes Iran as Trump faces backlash over ‘disastrous’ peace deal plan - podcast
The United States has launched fresh strikes on Iran despite suggestions that a peace deal could be within reach. Donald Trump faces growing criticism from Republicans over the proposed plan to end the war, which reportedly contained major concessions from Washington. But could an agreement still be imminent?
In today’s edition of The Latest podcast, Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour.
Updated
President Trump raised the cap on refugee admissions for the current year by 10,000, a move aimed at allowed more white South Africans into the US, a signed presidential determination seen by Reuters disclosed.
White South Africans of Afrikaner ethnicity are in dire circumstances in the majority-Black country, because of ‘incitement of racially motivated violence’ by the South African government and political parties, said the document which was dated May 21.
Trump halted refugee admissions from around the globe when he took the presidential oath in 2025, but soon launched a program that specifically brought white South Africans into the US.
The total cap on the number of white South African refugee admissions into the US for the 2026 fiscal year is now 17,500.
The Supreme Court won’t intercede in an discrimination lawsuit that Brian Flores, the Miami Dolphins head coach, filed against the NFL, the AP reported Tuesday.
The NFL had appealed to the Court, asking that the case be handled through an arbitration process instead of open court in New York.
Flores filed his lawsuit against the league and three teams in February 2022, claiming that the league is “rife with racism,” with regards to its hiring of Black coaches. At least two more Black coaches joined his lawsuit later.
Federal court blocks new Republican-friendly voting map in Alabama
Alabama cannot use a new Republican-friendly map in this year’s midterm elections because it was drawn to intentionally discriminate against Black voters, a panel of three federal judges ruled on Tuesday.
The decision blocks Alabama from using a congressional map lawmakers passed in 2023 but never went into effect because the same court found it was drawn with intent to discriminate. Alabama was eventually ordered to adopt a map with two majority-Black districts that both elected Democrats After the US supreme court gutted a major provision of the Voting Rights Act in April, Alabama took the extraordinary step of moving its imminent congressional primary and sought to use the 2023 congressional map this year.
The state is likely to appeal to the US supreme court.
But Tuesday’s ruling is significant because the judges said the supreme court’s landmark ruling on the Voting Rights Act did not permit Alabama to use the map.
“We cannot see our way clear to requiring Alabamians to cast their votes in the 2026 elections under a districting plan tainted by intentional race-based discrimination,” the court wrote in its opinion.
Updated
While the Senate race between Republican Senator John Cornyn and Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general is generating a lot of attention, especially after the President endorsed Paxton, there are several other important races in Texas today:
One race is between Representative Al Green, 78, who has served 11 terms as a Democrat and Christian Menefee, 38, who has been serving his first term as a representative since earlier this year when he won a special election.
The two sitting members of Congress are opposing each other because the recent Republican redistricting shuffled their districts.
Previously Green represented Texas’ ninth district and now he’s racing for a nomination from the 18th. Green has long been among Trump’s top critics, and was the first member of Congress to call for his impeachment, as early as 2017. He used to represent a majority African American district and has long fought for civil rights.
Menefee and Green have stood apart on their stance on crypto. While Green has opposed pro-crypto bills, in a January questionnaire, Menefee told Stand With Crypto:
“We should make sure the next generation of blockchain innovation is built in America.”
Within a month, a crypto Pac had donated more than $1.5m to his campaign – a boost of roughly 60%.
Trump administration considers asking federal workers to sign NDAs
President Trump’s administration floated a plan to ask federal workers to sign non-disclosure agreements, according to a government document released Tuesday, Reuters reported.
This is not the first time the administration has brought up non-disclosure agreements with federal workers.
Last year, after the administration fired federal workers in mass amounts for “poor performance,” they were asked to sign confidentiality agreements, but refused, the Guardian reported.
Updated
Trump urges Texas Republicans to vote for Ken Paxton in runoff election
As Texas heads to the polls for the primaries, Trump reminded his supporters to vote for Attorney General Ken Paxton, amid other posts Tuesday Morning.
“Texas, Vote for Ken Paxton, our Country’s BEST Attorney General!” Trump posted.
Updated
Donald Trump and his motorcade have left the White House for his scheduled doctor’s visit at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
The White House described the visit as an annual preventative medical and dental checkups, AP reported.
This is Trump’s fourth visit to to Walter Reed since he returned to office for a second term, and comes as he is trying to project strength ahead of midterms.
Updated
US immigration enforcement flights are producing hundreds of thousands of metric tonnes of climate-damaging carbon emissions as officials shuttle unprecedented numbers of people to detention centers far from home and deport them to countries across the world.
Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign has spurred at least an 80% increase in such flights year over year, accelerating the climate crisis by emitting massive amounts of carbon dioxide, according to data analysis shared exclusively with the Guardian.
“We’ve seen a staggering increase of all US immigration [enforcement] flights,” including “the number of flights as well as the locations that the flights are going to,” said Savitri Arvey, director of research and analysis for refugee and immigrant rights at Human Rights First (HRF), the US advocacy group.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) air operations pumped into the air an estimated 335,876 tonnes (37,0240 US tons) of carbon emissions in 2025, up 88% from the year before. And the first four months of 2026 show the federal agency is on track to contribute even more to global heating this year from such flights, the Guardian can reveal.
Those emissions exacerbate the climate crisis, a driver of irregular migration in itself, while polluting the air in local communities used as flight hubs, such as Phoenix, El Paso and Harlingen in Texas, and Alexandria in Louisiana.
The Congressional Black Caucus on Tuesday called on major corporations across the US, including those that previously expressed support for voting rights and racial justice, to oppose redistricting efforts by Republican-led states that seek to eliminate majority-Black US House districts.
In a letter sent to more than 250 companies, members of the Black Caucus urge them to condemn the redistricting efforts, which the lawmakers describe as “coordinated efforts to silence Black voices at the ballot box.”
Some of the companies had co-signed their own message to Congress five years ago urging lawmakers to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, a Democratic proposal to restore and update the Voting Rights Act.
That 2021 coalition, Business for Voting Rights, was backed by many of the country’s most valuable and influential companies, including Apple, Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Tesla, Salesforce, Target, PayPal, Intel and Starbucks.
Analysis: Texas Senate runoff sees surge of anti-Muslim rhetoric in campaign ads
Tyler Hicks
In the bitter and expensive US Senate runoff between John Cornyn, the incumbent, and Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, the state’s Muslim community has been a frequent target for campaign ads and legal challenges.
Both candidates have tried to portray the other as either too soft on the supposed threat of Islam or insufficiently aggressive toward Muslim institutions.
“Every time it’s an election year, this is one of the favorite cards that the GOP plays to get votes,” said Shehla Faizi, a Texas Muslim running for state comptroller as a member of the Green party. “We have a boogeyman, the boogeyman are Muslims, and we’re going to use that to make people afraid and force them to vote for us.”
Yet the many experts and advocates interviewed for this story all agreed that the frequency and vitriol of this year’s anti-Islam attacks seems to have reached a fever pitch – an observation backed up by data.
Specifically, Paxton and Paxton-allied groups ran ads accusing Cornyn of supporting “Muslim mass immigration” and having “a special place in his heart for radical Islam”. Cornyn, meanwhile, has responded by emphasizing his record “fighting radical Islamic extremism” and drafting a bill aimed at “[stopping] the spread of Sharia Law in the U.S.”
Even though the Senate campaign will come to an end with the 26 May election, Texas Muslims say Republican politicians are fanning the flames of anti-Muslim bigotry that’s already been at the center of many racist incidents in Texas.
Updated
Nearly 200,000 US truck drivers are at risk of losing their commercial driver’s licenses after the US Department of Transportation (DOT) issued a new rule that disqualifies many foreign-born truck drivers from getting or renewing their licenses.
Tens of thousands of immigrant drivers are stuck in a limbo after the rule took effect in March, and lawsuits challenging the rule are still being reviewed by federal courts.
The rule restricts licenses to immigrants who have specific employment authorization statuses, disqualifying those with other authorizations, including asylum seekers, refugees and those with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) status.
The rule has shaken immigrant drivers who have spent years dedicated to the industry.
Sarabjeet Singh, a truck driver from India who has worked in central California for the past 12 years, said he attempted to renew his license last month when it expired but was turned away.
Kavita Patel, Singh’s wife, said the loss of his license has been devastating for their whole family.
“This not only affected us financially, but this is a huge burden mentally, emotionally, physically,” she said. “People think you can just find another job, but your entire skill set [and] experience has been built around driving this big rig.”
“It’s kind of a fear and helplessness that comes from waking up one day and realizing, ‘Oh, guess what, your career that you built is suddenly all gone in one night,’” she added.
Trump scheduled to see doctors for his annual physical
President Donald Trump is scheduled to get a medical exam on Tuesday, putting his health under renewed public scrutiny after he has worked to dismiss concerns over his age and stamina.
The 79-year-old president is scheduled to visit Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for what the White House described as annual preventative medical and dental checkups, AP reported.
It will be Trump’s fourth publicly disclosed medical exam since he returned to office for a second term, and comes as he tries to project strength ahead of midterm elections that will test his sway with voters.
Trump turns 80 next month and was the oldest person elected US president. His predecessor, former president Joe Biden, was 82 when he left office, dropping out of the 2024 presidential race because of widespread concerns he was too old for the job.
A Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted in April found that less than half of US adults think Trump has the mental sharpness or physical health to serve effectively as president.
Updated
America’s ugliest primary? Texas Republican infighting could hand Senate seat to Democrat
Ken Paxton, the state attorney general, takes on four-term incumbent John Cornyn on Tuesday in the ugliest primary election of the year. The winner of the Republican Senate runoff in Texas will contest November’s general election against Democrat James Talarico.
Paxton and Cornyn have spent months coveting the most valuable endorsement in Republican politics: Donald Trump. Last week, scandal-plagued Paxton got it, with the US president describing him as “a true Maga warrior”.
Supporters in McKinney, Texas, agree. “Paxton is more conservative,” said Jim Tubbesing, 77, strolling in Paxton’s home town, a tranquil vision of Americana with cute antique shops, trendy bistros and a walkable historic downtown exuding 19th-century charm.
“He has been good for Texas. I vote for the policy, not the fact that he’s alleged to have done something.” Tubbesing, calling Cornyn a “Rino: Republican in name only.”
The runoff is not fundamentally about policy, since Cornyn and Paxton would vote the same way on almost every piece of legislation. It is more about vibe and style, and has huge implications for Texas, control of the US Senate, and the future direction of the Republican party.
Cornyn, a former Texas attorney general and state supreme court justice, is widely seen as a last gasp of the Republican establishment. In a primary on 3 March, he narrowly beat Paxton, a far-right hardliner who has been impeached and indicted. But those aggressive stances on immigration and culture war issues appeal to the party’s base. But both men qualified for the runoff.
Updated
Cornyn tries to hold on to Texas Senate seat in runoff with Trump-backed Paxton
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
Texans are voting for a Republican nominee for US Senate in Tuesday’s runoff election, following Donald Trump’s late bid to influence the race in his latest effort to rid the GOP of figures who are less devoted to him.
The president’s endorsement of state attorney-general Ken Paxton over four-term senator John Cornyn gave the challenger a late boost, leaving Cornyn at risk of becoming the first Republican senator in Texas history to seek the party’s nod and lose.
It comes despite Cornyn’s campaign and allied groups spending roughly $90m in advertising since last year, the vast majority of it attacking Paxton, AP reported.
It’s the latest GOP contest where Trump has sought to punish a Republican he sees as insufficiently loyal. This month, he has successfully backed challengers to incumbents in Louisiana, Kentucky and Indiana - a sign of his enduring influence among primary voters.
Paxton’s campaign and a pro-Paxton super PAC began airing ads promoting the endorsement within 24 hours of Trump’s announcement. Cornyn acknowledged Trump’s move would have an impact but said he wasn’t giving up.
“I know who gets to choose our senators, and it’s the people of Texas,” he said hours after the endorsement. The winner will run in November against the Democratic candidate James Talarico.
Tuesday’s runoffs also will decide Democratic US House nominees for districts in Dallas and Houston that overwhelmingly support Democrats and a San Antonio-area seat the party hopes to flip.
In other developments:
-
Iran has poured cold water on suggestions that a deal with the US is imminent, pointing to the confusion in US positions and Israeli interference as reasons why an agreement is proving difficult to secure. Speaking at the weekly foreign ministry press briefing, Esmail Baghaei, the spokesperson for Iran’s negotiating team, also said future management of the strait of Hormuz was a matter for Oman and Iran to agree on, and that it was not tolls that were being proposed but “fees for navigational services”.
-
By contrast, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said that a deal was still possible, adding that the strait of Hormuz would open “one way or another”. “There were some talks going on in Qatar today, so we’ll see if we can make progress. I think it’s a lot of talking back and forth going on about specific language in the initial document,” Rubio told reporters in Jaipur during an official visit to India.
-
A Trump Tower planned for the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, is to be built on land currently part-owned by the son of the US-sanctioned leader of the country, according to official records. The proposed skyscraper, a joint venture between a local consortium and the Trump Organization, which is managed by the US president’s sons, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, will be on a plot whose current registered owner is the International Charity Fund Cartu.
-
Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, said on Monday her government agreed to allow the Iranian national football team to stay in Mexico during the World Cup, adding that the United States did not want to host the team. Sheinbaum said football’s governing body Fifa approached her government after the US said it did not want Iran’s squad to stay in the country throughout the tournament, despite Iran playing all three of its group matches there.
Updated
