Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Vivian Ho in San Francisco (now) and Lauren Gambino in Washington (earlier)

Iran: Trump announces new, 'hard-hitting' sanctions – as it happened

Evening summary

White House declines invitation to make Kellyanne Conway available to testify

Carrying on in a longstanding tradition of this administration, the White House sent oversight committee chairman Elijah Cummings a letter today declining “the invitation to make Ms. Conway available for testimony before the Committee”.

President Trump had more to say to the Hill on the sexual assault allegations against him from journalist and advice columnist E Jean Carroll:

The article on journalist and advice columnist E Jean Carroll’s sexual assault allegations against President Trump mysteriously disappeared on the New York Post website on Friday afternoon; the wire story by the Associated Press was also scrubbed.

Today, CNN is reporting that former editor-in-chief Col Allan - a longtime Trump supporter and “old lieutenant of Rupert Murdoch who returned to the conservative tabloid as an adviser in early 2019” - ordered that the story be removed.

Hundreds of migrant children moved out of poor conditions at Border Patrol station

Hundreds of children were moved out of a Texas Border Patrol station where they were held with inadequate food, water and sanitation for weeks. At this station, a legal team interviewed 60 children and documented kids forced to take care of kids, no clean clothing, weeks of no baths and poor nutrition.

Updated

In 2016, President Obama announced the creation of Stonewall National Monument outside the Stonewall Inn in New York, site of the 1969 riot that launched the gay rights movement. It was the first-ever national monument for the LGBT community.

Since Obama left office, however, the Trump administration has been fighting to keep the rainbow gay pride flag off of federal lands, according to a cache of internal emails gathered by E&E News.

So though Stonewall National Monument remains a national historical landmark recognized by the National Parks Service, the flagpole and rainbow pride flag that still fly outside Stonewall Inn are not technically on federal land.

Read the full story here.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi revealed what she told President Trump in asking him to delay the immigration raids:

Read here about what the last two years have been like for the children in these communities:

Presidential candidate Marianne Williamson had to tweet out a statement on vaccines today after calling mandatory vaccinations “too draconian” and “too Orwellian” - and then lightly walking that back the next day on the View by expressing a mistrust in “big pharma”.

Former Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs noted Williamson appeared to tweet out and delete another version of the statement that began with “Marianne Williamson’s views on vaccines has been misrepresented in the press”.

Hey all, Vivian Ho on the west coast taking over for Lauren Gambino. Happy Monday.

Monday afternoon politics summary

  • Donald Trump slapped a fresh round of sanctions on Iran in response to the downing of a US surveillance drone last week. Tensions remain high even as Trump insists he does not want war with Iran.
  • Bernie Sanders has proposed a new higher education plan that would eliminate virtually all student loan debt.
  • The Treasury Department inspector general will investigate why a decision to put Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill was delayed.

The US Treasury Department inspector general will investigate the delay in putting abolitionist Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill.

Harriet Tubman
A design of the $20 bill featuring abolitionist Harriet Tubman. Photograph: HANDOUT/AFP/Getty Images

The review followed a request by Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, who asked the inspector general to look at whether the Trump administration had political motivations for slow-walking the change.

Tubman would replace Andrew Jackson, the controversial seventh American president and a political “hero” of Trump’s. As president, Jackson supported slavery and implemented the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which forced Native Americans off their land and led to what would later be known as the “Trail of Tears”.

Donald Trump has signed an executive order that aims to increase transparency for the cost of health services.

The order directs the Department of Health and Human Services to require hospitals and insurers to disclose negotiated rates for services and to provide patients with an explanation of out-of-pocket costs before receiving their services.

“This is a truly big action,” Trump said of the executive order. “Some people say bigger than health care itself.”

He added that the order was “bigger than anything we’ve done in this realm” and that it would “fundamentally” change the healthcare marketplace.

The plan is likely to face resistance from insurers and hospitals.

With 10 candidates on one debate stage, the evening will be less like a debate and far more like a lightening round of questions and answers.

Among the topics we expect the candidates to be asked about are their healthcare plans, how they would combat climate change and why a candidate believes he or she can beat Trump.

Here’s what we hope the moderators don’t ask.

Updated

As more Democrats call for impeachment, congresswoman Frederica Wilson makes the case against it.

“America: Allow Democrats to investigate, subpoena & expose all. We can beat him @ the ballot box & when he leaves office, justice will prevail,” she writes.

Jason Miller, a former top campaign aide and a close advisor to Donald Trump, has left his job at the consulting firm Teneo just days after calling a top-ranking House Democrats a “fat f**k” on Twitter. The post has since been deleted but it appears the damage was done.

“I have parted ways with Teneo by mutual consent and look forward to formally announcing my next move in the coming weeks,” Miller said in a statement to The Daily Beast. “Teneo is an incredible firm and without a doubt the premier CEO consultancy on the planet. They have always been great to me and I’m proud to have called them teammates for the past two and a half years.”

What is it they say about life imitating art?

The first Democratic presidential debates are right around the corner and the candidates are spending every spare moment prepping.

Well, most candidates. The New York Times reported that Bernie Sanders is among the candidates “least interested in participating in intensive pre-debate drills”.

Aides told the Times that Sanders has been reading policy briefings but has “little patience” for mock debates.

But for everyone else, especially those lower-polling Democrats hoping for a breakout moment, it’s all about the pre-debate prep. Kirsten Gillibrand is practicing mock debates with aides standing in for the other candidates. Biden is preparing to be ganged up on by the other candidates. Cory Booker is making sure he’s mentally – and physically – fit, adding some pushups between practice sessions.

Bill DeBlasio, meanwhile, is seeking advice from his son, Dante.

Updated

Henry Kerner, the chief of the White House’s Office of Special Counsel, who recommended Conway be removed for what the office said was repeated violations of the a law barring federal employees from politicizing their posts.

“Her conduct hurts both federal employees, who may believe that senior officials can act with complete disregard for the Hatch Act, and the American people, who may question the nonpartisan operation of their government,” Kerner will tell a congressional panel, according to his testimony obtained by the The Daily Beast .

“Ms. Conway’s conduct reflects not a misunderstanding of the law, but rather a disregard for it,” the testimony adds.

Interesting figures on the changing racial make up of state legislatures:

E Jean Carroll, the celebrated advice columnist who has accused Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her in the mid-1990s, has said she is considering bringing a complaint to the New York police department, the Guardian’s Ed Pilkington writes.

In a lengthy interview with CNN on Monday, Carroll said she would be open to working with the NYPD in a criminal investigation into the attack she alleges happened in the Manhattan store of Bergdorf Goodman in late 1995 or early 1996.

“I would consider it,” she said. However, she added that lawyers had advised her that the statute of limitations deadline by which such a complaint would have had to be brought has expired.

Carroll is one of more than a dozen women to accuse Trump of sexual assault and misconduct.

A House panel will vote on a subpoena to compel White House counselor Kellyanne Conway to testify about Office of Special Counsel recommendation that she be removed from her posting after repeated violations of the a law barring federal officials from engaging in partisan politics.

But that’s not the only effort to hold Conway accountable.

Conway has claimed allegations by the independent government agency that she violated the Hatch Act were politically motivated.

“You know what they’re mad about?” Conway said during an appearance on Fox & Friends on Monday. “They want to put a big roll of masking tape over my mouth because I helped as the campaign manager for the successful part of the campaign.”

It’s going to be quite a show, folks.

The ‘fiber arts’ strike back.

According to the Associated Press, an “8-million strong social network for knitters, crocheters and others in the fiber arts has banned talk of President Donald Trump and his administration.”

“The new policy on Ravelry.com was posted Sunday. The post says the site took the action because it can’t provide a space “inclusive of all and also allow support for open white supremacy.” The post went on to say that support of the Trump administration is “undeniably support for white supremacy.”

It remains unclear what prompted the site to take action. Since Trump’s election, knitting has become a popular pastime among members of the so-called “resistance”. There most visible protest was the pink knit “pussy hats” worn during Women’s Marches around the world.

The AP recently reported on the alarming conditions that children are being kept in. At a border patrol station in McAllen, Texas, lawyers who had visited the children and adolescents said they were very sick with high fevers, coughing, and “wearing soiled clothes crusted with mucus and dirt after their long trip north.”

Secret Service: suspicious packages 'declared safe' and lockdown over

Updated

Congressman Jim Himes has announced his support for beginning an impeachment inquiry.

Until this year, Himes was the head of the New Dems coalition, a group of moderate lawmakers that includes many of the newest members of the majority. These are the members who Democratic leaders fear will be hurt by a political backlash to impeachment.

In a series of tweets on Monday, Himes explained his decision: “Impeachment is divisive. The politics of impeachment are messy and uncertain, and might, in the short run, serve the President’s narrow political interests. But look at where we are today. Republicans in this chamber cheer or justify or stand woefully silent in the face of behavior for which they would have impeached a Democratic president many times over. Our best and most proven ideas cannot get even a hearing in the Senate. Unless we restore respect for the law, respect for truth and respect for common decency, we cannot hope to solve any of our other pressing problems.”

He concludes: “There are moments for careful calculation. For weighing political expediency and conflicting interests. And there moments for clarity and conviction. This is that moment.”

Mnuchin: Iranian Foreign Minister to be added to sanctions list

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is providing additional details on the sanctions on Iran.

Updated

Trump imposes "hard hitting" sanctions

The Trump administration has imposed “hard hitting” new sanctions on Tehran partly in response to Iran’s downing of an American surveillance drone last week.

Trump signed an executive order that he said would continue to squeeze the economy in an effort to bring Tehran to the negotiating table.

“These measures represent a strong and proportionate response to Iran’s increasingly provocative actions,” he said.

Last week, Trump approved military strikes after the country shot down an unmanned drone but that he pulled back after determining the attacks was “not proportionate.”

“A lot of restraint has been shown by us,” Trump said before signing the order in the executive office. “That doesn’t mean we’re going to show it in the future but I felt that we want to give [diplomacy] a chance ... I think Iran has a phenomenal future.”

Trump added that, being from New York, he has plenty of Iranian friends who he said want to see the country prosper.

“Who knows what’s going to happen. I can only tell you that we cannot ever let Iran have a nuclear weapon,” he said.

The president also accused Iran of responsibility for explosions last week that damaged oil tankers in the vital Strait of Hormuz. Iran has denied its involvement.

Updated

Trump turned 73 on June 14th. He has previously said that he and Kim Jong Un “fell in love” and they enjoy sending each other snail mail in the form of “beautiful” and “excellent” letters.

Updated

White House pool reporter John Fritze of USA Today sends this update: “Reporters were ushered into the briefing room at around 11:15 a.m. and the door to the briefing room is now locked. Pool can see a dog sweeping the North Lawn, but not much else is visible.”

Updated

And then there were ... 25. Yes, 25 Democrats are seeing their party’s nomination as of Sunday when former Pennsylvania congressman Joe Sestak
announced his presidential campaign.

Have you been sleeping on mass movement to draft Sestak into the race? Is there a great clamoring for yet another member of Congress to join the fray?

No and no.

Maybe this will help explain. From the Washington Post: “Sestak first drew national attention in 2010 when he waged a primary challenge against then-Sen. Arlen Specter, who had switched parties to run for reelection as a Democrat. The Obama White House, in an effort to dissuade Sestak from running, dispatched former president Bill Clinton to offer Sestak an unpaid position on a presidential advisory board if he dropped out of the race. Sestak said no. He bested Specter in the primary and later lost to Republican Pat Toomey in the general election. Sestak pursued another Senate bid against Toomey in 2016, during which he walked alone across the state of Pennsylvania.”

Former Vice President Joe Biden is also out with a new plan.

In an op-ed for the Miami Herald, headlined: Our Latin America policies are morally bankrupt. Mine reflect American values, Biden lays out his vision for immigration reform. The broad strokes of his plan includes: extending citizenship to “Dreamers” – young Americans who came to the US as children, strengthening border security by investing in screening procedures and new technology – as opposed to a wall – and easing the migrant crisis by addressing the root causes of poverty, violence and a lack of opportunity throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.

Last week gave us more evidence that President Trump’s morally bankrupt re-election strategy relies on vilifying immigrants to score political points while implementing policies that ensure asylum seekers and refugees keep arriving at our border,” Biden writes.

“Trump threatened the imminent deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants just hours after his State Department confirmed it was cutting off aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras — the very countries from which most migrants are fleeing. It’s clear Trump is only interested in using his policies to assault the dignity of the Hispanic community and scare voters to turn out on Election Day, while not addressing the real challenges facing our hemisphere.”

In 2018, small dollar donations to Democratic candidates and causes skyrocketed thanks in part to a fundraising platform called ActBlue.

Republicans today announced their rebuttal: WinRed.

According to Politico: “The new tool is intended to reshape the GOP’s fundraising apparatus by creating a centralized, one-stop shop for online Republican giving, which the party has lacked to this point.”

‘WinRead’ wasn’t everyone’s favorite name for the new platform.

“The most unexpected stumbling block surrounded the initial decision to dub the new product ‘Patriot Pass.’ The name was abruptly dropped after New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft told the president that the processor sounded too much like his football team,” Politico reported.

There’s a flurry of Supreme Court decisions this morning:

Updated

Senator Bernie Sanders is out with a new plan that would eliminate the entire $1.6tn of student debt in the United States.

The proposal comes days ahead of the first Democratic debate and as Sanders loses ground to his progressive presidential primary rival, senator Elizabeth Warren, who has captured voter attention with her litany of policy proposals. Warren has introduced a plan that would forgive $640 billion in student debt.

According to a preview of Sanders’ plan in the Washington Post, Sanders would eliminate student debt held by 45 million Americans as part of a new proposal that would make public universities, community colleges and trade schools tuition-free.

How would he pay for it? WaPo’s Jeff Stein says he would pay for these plans with a “tax on Wall Street that his campaign says will raise more than $2 trillion over 10 years, though some tax experts give lower revenue estimates.”

Sanders will introduce the package today alongside progressive House members, including congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Pramila Jayapal.

Updated

Trump to Iran: 'No nuclear weapons!'

Hello and welcome to Monday’s live politics coverage. Donald Trump has been busy tweeting, telling Iran he has two “very simple” requests: “No nuclear weapons and no further sponsoring of terror.”

In an early-morning flurry, Trump also told other countries to protect their own Gulf oil shipments, and claimed the US has only limited interest in the region.

He also declared that the US is now the world’s biggest energy producer. He wrote: “Why are we protecting the shipping lanes for other countries (many years) for zero compensation? All of these countries should be protecting their own ships on what has always been a dangerous journey.”

He went on: “The US request for Iran is very simple – No Nuclear Weapons and No Further Sponsoring of Terror!”

Iran insists it does not have a nuclear weapons program. It signed the nuclear deal in 2015, which limited its nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief. Trump pulled the United States out of the deal in 2017.

In a later tweet, Trump criticized the Federal Reserve for raising interest rates and claimed it “doesn’t know what it’s doing”.

Updated

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Hawaii residents sick of early crowing and aggressive pecking could be allowed to kill wild chickens
Hawaii lawmakers are weighing tougher ways to deal with feral chickens, as residents complain about noise, mess, and growing flocks
The Independent UK
The Independent UK
RuPaul's Drag Race Is So Hard To Watch This Season, And I'm Not Sure Who Is To Blame
What's going on here?
Cinemablend
Cinemablend
Rumer Willis Reveals She Has To Work Four Jobs Despite Famous Parents Bruce Willis And Demi Moore
Rumer responded to those who believe her life is easier because she has a famous last name.
Bored Panda
Bored Panda
TikToker says Texas Roadhouse hides cameras to watch diners eat, but the restaurant shuts it down
The truth is a lot less exciting
We Got This Covered
We Got This Covered
“This Is Satanic”: Lady Gaga’s “Demonic” Look At A Concert Slammed By Fans
Lady Gaga’s "demonic" concert visuals and recent mentions in the Epstein files have sparked a massive online clash over her artistry.
Bored Panda
Bored Panda
Good news for Trump before midterms: he’s still more popular than cockroaches
Trump’s disapproval rating indicates he’s less popular with Americans than some insects like ants. Will it mean anything in November?
The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.
Download on the AppStore Get it on Google Play