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:
Donald Trump announced he will deploy the national guard to Memphis during an Oval Office ceremony attended by the Tennessee governor Bill Lee. He added that he is considering sending national guard troops to “Chicago probably next” and floated cities such as St Louis may follow.
A US appeals court ruled that Lisa Cook can remain on the Federal Reserve board, denying Trump’s attempt to remove Cook from the body ahead of a policy meeting scheduled to begin tomorrow. Trump will likely appeal the ruling to the supreme court. Meanwhile, Reuters reported that the city of Ann Arbor, Michigan, has “no reason to believe” that Cook broke any tax rules involving a home she declared her primary residence.
The Senate voted to approve Stephen Miran to the Federal Reserve board in a narrow 48-47 vote largely along party lines. Miran, a Trump ally, currently serves as the White House’s chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. The vote comes just as the Fed is scheduled to gather for a two-day policy meeting where it is expected to vote on cutting interest rates.
JD Vance guest-hosted the late Charlie Kirk’s podcast today live from his office in the White House complex. Vance was joined by key conservative voices, and members of the Trump administration, including Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of policy and architect of the administration’s hardline immigration policy, press secretary Karoline Leavitt, chief of staff Susie Wiles and health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. Earlier in the day, secretary of state Marco Rubio doubled down on the administration’s pledge to deny and revoke visas for anyone perceived to be celebrating the killing of Charlie Kirk and FBI director Kash Patel has said that DNA evidence found by investigators links the man accused of killing Kirk to the fatal attack despite his alleged refusal to cooperate with authorities after his arrest. Later, House Speaker Mike Johnson held a prayer vigil for Kirk, which was widely attended by Republican lawmakers.
With Congress facing an end-of-the-month deadline to prevent a government shutdown, Trump encouraged Republicans to pass spending legislation without Democratic votes after the minority party’s leaders announced they would not support any bill that does not address their healthcare priorities.
Marco Rubio met Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem today. Rubio will travel to Qatar tomorrow.
Trump announced that the US military had conducted a strike on a second Venezuelan boat which he said was transporting narcotics. Trump said three men had been killed in the strike and that no US forces were harmed. Democratic lawmakers called for investigations into the legality of the strikes.
Treasury secretary Scott Bessent has said the commercial terms for a TikTok deal have been agreed upon between the US and China. The news comes just days before a deadline Donald Trump set for TikTok to find a non-Chinese buyer was set to expire. Trump is scheduled to speak with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Friday.
Donald Trump has threatened to call a national emergency and federalize Washington DC after the city’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, said its police would not cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), whose agents have been taking suspects into custody and have been accused of racially profiling people in doing so.
Maurene Comey, a former federal prosecutor who brought criminal cases against Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell and music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, has sued the Trump administration over her abrupt July firing, according to court records reviewed by Reuters.
Democratic leaders are criticizing the Trump administration’s strike on a second Venezuelan boat.
Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate armed services committee, said: “No president can secretly wage war or carry out unjustified killings – that is authoritarianism, not democracy.
“These reckless, unauthorized operations not only put American lives at risk, they threaten to ignite a war with Venezuela that would drag our nation into a conflict we did not choose. The American people deserve to know what is being done in their name and why,” Reed said in a statement. “Congress must demand answers, force transparency, and hold this administration accountable before it plunges us into another needless war.”
Senator Adam Schiff of California, said in a social media post that he is drafting a war powers resolution in response to the military strike.
“I’m drafting a resolution and forcing a vote to reclaim Congress’s power to declare war,” Schiff wrote. “Before Trump’s actions provoke one.”
Here’s more on the Trump administration’s recent attacks on Venezuelan boats:
Updated
Senate approves Trump ally Stephen Miran to Fed Board
The Senate voted to approve Stephen Miran to the Federal Reserve board in a narrow 48-47 vote largely along party lines. Miran, a Trump ally, currently serves as the White House’s chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. The vote comes just as the Fed is scheduled to gather for a two-day policy meeting where it is expected to vote on cutting interest rates.
Updated
Appeals court rules in favor of Fed governor Lisa Cook
A US appeals court ruled that Lisa Cook can remain on the Federal Reserve board, denying Donald Trump’s attempt to remove Cook from the body ahead of a policy meeting scheduled to begin tomorrow. Trump will likely appeal the ruling to the supreme court.
The news comes just one day before the Fed is scheduled to meet for a two-day policy meeting where it will discuss cutting interest rates.
Updated
The city of Ann Arbor, Michigan, has “no reason to believe” that Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook broke any tax rules involving a home she declared her primary residence, Reuters reports.
The news comes after the outlet requested the city’s property tax authority review records involving Cook’s home. Donald Trump is attempting to remove Cook from the Federal Reserve board by claiming that Cook committed mortgage fraud by declaring both her Ann Arbor home and a second Atlanta home as her primary residence.
Here’s more from my colleagues on the case:
Updated
Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Senate armed services committee, said he intended to investigate the legality of the Trump administration’s recent strike on a Venezuelan boat.
“I need more information,” Wicker told reporters, including the Associated Press. “I’m going to drill down and see what I can find out before I comment on that.”
The committee’s top Democratic senator, Jack Reed, said he was concerned the strike could have violated international law and that Congress needed more information from the Pentagon ahead of such strikes.
“We’re certainly not getting a definitive legal justification which would be necessary,” Reed said.
Here are my colleagues Hugo Lowell and Tom Phillips with more on the strike:
Updated
Following remarks by congresswoman Lisa McClain, a Republican from Michigan, House speaker Mike Johnson led lawmakers in a moment of silence before concluding with a prayer, where he called Kirk a “martyr”.
“Heavenly Father, we come to you this afternoon with a mixture of emotions in our hearts,” Johnson said. “We’re so deeply saddened by the untimely loss of our dear friend Charlie Kirk.” At the same time, he said, “we’re encouraged as well” knowing that “Charlie’s voice cannot be silenced”.
“As he was martyred for the principles he believed in. The principles of free speech and brotherly love,” Johnson said.
Updated
House speaker Mike Johnson was joined by other lawmakers at a vigil for Charlie Kirk today, including House majority leader, Louisiana Republican Steve Scalise, and House majority whip, Minnesota Republican Tom Emmer.
“Charlie’s legacy will live on and endure,” said Scalise. “Charlie Kirk started a movement, a movement that’s going to grow and thrive.”
Emmer denounced growing political violence, including recent attacks on Minnesota representative Melissa Hortman, Minnesota state senator John Hoffman and Donald Trump. “Let us all be clear. There is no place in our country for political violence,” he said.
Updated
House speaker Mike Johnson holds prayer vigil for Charlie Kirk
House Speaker Mike Johnson began a prayer vigil for far-right activist Charlie Kirk this evening saying that Americans across the country, including lawmakers gathered at the vigil, had been shaken by Kirk’s assassination.
“This has been a very difficult week in America,” Johnson said. He called Kirk’s killing, “heinous political violence, an assassination”.
Johnson said he’d also encouraged young people to advance Kirk’s principles and his approach. “Charlie was a happy warrior,” Johnson said. “He never hated anyone.”
“Scripture reminds us that we should not be overcome by evil, but we should overcome evil with good. That is the legacy of Charlie Kirk,” he said.
Updated
House speaker Mike Johnson is expected to host a prayer vigil for Charlie Kirk, the far-right political activist killed last week, shortly. We’ll bring you updates from that once it begins.
Updated
Donald Trump appeared unfamiliar with the name of Minnesota congresswoman Melissa Hortman, who was murdered in her home in June, during an Oval Office press conference today.
When asked why he did not order flags to be flown at half mast after her assassination, as he did after far-right political activist Charlie Kirk’s killing last week, Trump said no one had asked him to.
Trump said that if Democratic Minnesota governor Tim Walz had made such a request, he might have granted it: “Had the governor asked me to do that, I would have done that gladly,” Trump said.
In fact, Trump refused to speak to Walz in June, saying it would be a “waste of time” and called Walz “whacked out” and “a mess”.
Updated
Congressman Greg Casar, a Democrat from Texas who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, denounced JD Vance’s commentary while hosting the late Charlie Kirk’s podcast today.
While hosting Kirk’s podcast, Vance said: “It is a statistical fact that most of the lunatics in American politics today are proud members of the far-Left.”
In a statement responding to those comments, Casar wrote: “This is craven, cynical, and very dangerous. Political violence is a crisis in this country -- which is why Americans deserve leaders who want to actually solve it, not weaponize it against their political opponents.”
The murder of Charlie Kirk was a heinous crime. The murder of Rep. Melissa Hortman was a heinous crime. The attack on Paul Pelosi was a heinous crime. January 6th was a heinous crime. Any politician who’s only concerned by one is playing politics with a genuine crisis.
For years, Donald Trump has wanted to weaponize the government against his political opponents. And by pardoning January 6th offenders, he has shown he does not care about preventing political violence. He cannot be allowed to use the horrible murder of Charlie Kirk as pretext to go after peaceful political opposition.”
Donald Trump answered other questions from reporters about various developing stories after announcing his decision to deploy the national guard to Memphis.
On Charlie Kirk’s assassin: Trump told reporters he did not know if the suspect had acted alone but that he appeared to have been radicalized “over the Internet”.
On antifa: Trump said he would favor labeling the “anti-fascist” movement as a domestic terrorist organization. “I would do that, 100%,” he said. “Antifa is terrible.”
On US strikes on a Venezuelan boat: “We have proof. All you have to do is look at the cargo that was spattered all over the ocean – big bags of cocaine and and fentanyl all over the place.”
On congresswoman Ilhan Omar: “I think she’s a disgraceful person. A loser. It’s amazing the way people vote. I know it’s people from her area, maybe of the world. They got here and they vote her in. It’s hard to believe. But I think she’s a disgusting person.”
On Charlie Kirk’s funeral: “I guess I’ll say a few words, I don’t know, but I guess I will,” Trump said. He predicted the far-right political activist would draw a full stadium to his Arizona funeral on Sunday.
On Melissa Hortman, the Minnesota state representative assassinated on 14 January: “I’m not familiar. The who?”
Updated
Trump announces he will send national guard to Memphis, with Chicago ‘probably next’
Donald Trump announced he will deploy the national guard to Memphis during an Oval Office ceremony attended by the Tennessee governor Bill Lee.
Last week, Trump said “Memphis is deeply troubled” and teased that he wanted to “fix that just like we did Washington”, referring to his decision to deploy national guard troops to Washington DC last month in an effort to “crack down” on crime in the nation’s capitol. Violent crime was already at a 30-year low in the city.
Lee has welcomed Trump’s offers of federal troops and thanked the president during today’s announcement.
Trump added that he is considering sending national guard troops to “Chicago probably next” and floated cities such as St Louis may be next. “We want to save these places,” he said.
“Chicago is a great city,” Trump added. “We’re going to make it great again very soon.”
Illinois’ Democratic governor, JB Pritzker, has vehemently opposed the idea of federal troops deploying to Chicago.
Memphis, Chicago and St Louis are among the cities with the largest percentage of Black residents in the United States.
Trump said law enforcement agents from agencies including the FBI, ATF, DEA, ICE and Homeland Security will join the national guard in Memphis.
My colleauge George Chidi conducted this helpful analysis of crime rates in cities Trump has named over the past month. Although Trump has called Chicago “the most dangerous city in the world”, crime in large cities in the aggregate is lower in states with Democratic leadership. While the four cities of populations larger than 100,000 with the highest murder rates in 2024 are in Republican states.
Here’s more:
Updated
The Senate’s Republican leader John Thune indicated that he hoped an agreement could be reached to stop a shutdown as soon as this week, while criticizing Democrats’ insistence on negotiating over healthcare cuts.
“We will be putting forward a clean resolution to ensure there is no reason for Democrats to oppose this bill and delay passage. My hope would be that we could get this done as soon as this week and then continue bipartisan work on appropriations bills,” he said. The bill would likely extend funding through mid-November, to allow lawmakers time to reach agreement on 12 appropriations bills to, in theory, keep the government funded through 2026.
He went on to accuse the Democrats of behaving irresponsibly by threatening a shutdown if their demands are not met: “Democrats seem to be looking to shut down the government. That’s right, at least a portion of their base seems eager to pick a fight with the Trump administration, and congressional Democrats, or at least congressional Democrat leadership, seem to be following along. I can’t imagine what Democrats think they’re going to gain from this. Do they think that hard working Americans are going to thank Democrats for shutting down the government?”
Speaking on the floor a few minutes later, the Senate’s Democratic minority leader Chuck Schumer accused Thune and the GOP of refusing to negotiate on issues that will impact millions of Americans.
“We want to have a conversation with Donald Trump and Republicans about things we’ve been talking about for months, like healthcare, Medicaid and the cost of living,” Schumer said. “And the American people know this. They know that if Donald Trump refuses to talk, even to talk about democrats, it’ll be him shutting things down. They know he needs to negotiate. They know he needs to compromise. He’s not a dictator, as much as he thinks he’d like to be.”
Updated
With Congress facing an end-of-the-month deadline to prevent a government shutdown, Donald Trump on Monday afternoon encouraged Republicans to pass spending legislation without Democratic votes after the minority party’s leaders announced they would not support any bill that does not address their healthcare priorities.
“Congressional Republicans, including Leader John Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson, are working on a short term ‘CLEAN’ extension of Government Funding to stop Cryin’ Chuck Schumer from shutting down the Government,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“Democrats want the Government to shut down. Republicans want the Government to OPEN. Democrats love CRIME, Republicans make our Country SAFE — WE HATE CRIME. FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION.”
He called on the GOP to pass a “Clean CR”, or continuing resolution, which is a shortterm government funding bill that would prevent a shutdown without making major changes to appropriations: “In times like these, Republicans have to stick TOGETHER to fight back against the Radical Left Democrat demands, and vote “YES!” on both Votes needed to pass a Clean CR this week out of the House of Representatives.”
Under pressure from their base to stand up to Trump using whatever leverage they have, top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries last week vowed not to vote for any bill unless it includes some concessions on healthcare. They were vague on what exactly they wanted, but pointed to looming increases in premiums for Affordable Care Act health plans and Medicaid cuts mandated by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
While the GOP can get spending legislation through the House with a simple majority, Democrats can use the filibuster to block bills in the Senate, meaning the two sides almost certainly have to find a compromise to prevent a shutdown. Responding to Trump’s insistence that Republicans should go it alone, Jeffries said: “Donald Trump and House Republicans are destroying Medicaid and Medicare, healthcare premiums are skyrocketing, millions of Americans are losing coverage and hospitals, nursing homes and community-based health clinics are closing throughout the country. House Democrats will not support a partisan Republican spending bill that continues to gut the healthcare of the American people. That’s what this shutdown fight is all about, Mr. President.”
Updated
Summary
Today So Far
Thank you for joining our US politics coverage today so far. Here are the top headlines we’ve followed and are continuing to watch:
JD Vance guest-hosted the late Charlie Kirk’s podcast today live from his office in the White House complex. Vance was joined by key conservative voices, and members of the Trump administration, including Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of policy and architect of the administration’s hardline immigration policy, press secretary Karoline Leavitt, chief of staff Susie Wiles and health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.
In an interview on Fox News, the secretary of state Marco Rubio doubled down on the administration’s pledge to deny and revoke visas for anyone perceived to be celebrating the killing of Charlie Kirk.
FBI director Kash Patel has said that DNA evidence found by investigators links the man accused of killing Kirk to the fatal attack despite his alleged refusal to cooperate with authorities after his arrest.
Marco Rubio met Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem today. Rubio will travel to Qatar tomorrow.
Treasury secretary Scott Bessent has said the commercial terms for a TikTok deal have been agreed upon between the US and China. The news comes just days before a deadline Donald Trump set for TikTok to find a non-Chinese buyer was set to expire. Trump is scheduled to speak with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Friday.
Donald Trump has threatened to call a national emergency and federalize Washington DC after the city’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, said its police would not cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), whose agents have been taking suspects into custody and have been accused of racially profiling people in doing so.
Maurene Comey, a former federal prosecutor who brought criminal cases against Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell and music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, has sued the Trump administration over her abrupt July firing, according to court records reviewed by Reuters.
Updated
In a post on his social media platform, Donald Trump said that the United States military struck a second Venezuelan boat early Monday morning.
Trump identified the ship as belonging to “positively identified, extraordinarily violent drug trafficking cartels and narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility” and said the strike “occurred while these confirmed narcoterrorists from Venezuela were in International Waters transporting illegal narcotics (A DEADLY WEAPON POISONING AMERICANS!) headed to the U.S.”
Trump said three men had been killed in the strike and that no US forces were harmed.
Earlier this month, my colleague Tom Phillips reported on a similar strike that killed 11 people. Here’s more on that first strike:
Updated
Rubio says Netanyahu has full support of US over plans to destroy Hamas
in Jerusalem
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has put the Trump administration’s full support behind Benjamin Netanyahu in a visit to Jerusalem, saying Washington’s priorities were the liberation of Israeli hostages and the destruction of Hamas.
In public remarks standing alongside Netanyahu, Rubio did not mention the possibility of a ceasefire and did not repeat his earlier criticism of Israel for carrying out an airstrike last week in Doha, aimed at Hamas leaders the capital of another close US ally, Qatar.
The state department announced that Rubio would make a stop in Doha on Tuesday on his way to London, as the Trump administration seeks to limit the damage to US relations in the Gulf caused by the Israeli strike last Tuesday.
“At the end of the day, no matter what has happened or happens, the objective remains the same, and that is all 48 of those hostages, both living and deceased, need to be home. They need to be returned,” Rubio said.
“Hamas needs to cease to exist as an armed element that can threaten the peace and security of the region. And the people of Gaza deserve a better future. But that better future cannot begin until Hamas is eliminated.”
Rubio warned that the intended recognition of Palestine by several US allies, including the UK, France, Canada, Belgium and Australia, would make peace less likely.
“It actually makes it harder to negotiate … because it emboldens these groups,” he said, referring to Hamas and other Palestinian militants. He added that the Trump administration had warned states preparing to recognize Palestine “there will be an Israeli counter reaction to those moves” – in what may have been a reference to a possible Israeli move to annex occupied areas of the West Bank.
Rubio refrained from commenting on the planned Israeli ground offensive on Gaza City. Before that offensive, the Israel Defense Forces have been destroying buildings across the city, and ordering its inhabitants to evacuate, drawing international condemnation.
Updated
DNA evidence links suspect to killing of Charlie Kirk, FBI director says
Kash Patel, the director of the FBI, has said that DNA evidence found by investigators links the man accused of killing rightwing political activist Charlie Kirk to the fatal attack despite his alleged refusal to cooperate with authorities after his arrest.
Speaking on the conservative-friendly Fox News network this morning, Patel said that DNA found on a towel wrapped around the rifle believed to have been used to kill Kirk matches that of the suspect in custody, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson.
Robinson’s arrest was announced on Friday, two days into a search set off by Kirk’s killing during an event at Utah Valley University (UVU). Robinson ultimately turned himself over to investigators after a relative recognized him in suspect photos released by investigators after Kirk’s killing.
Patel also said that additional DNA found on a screwdriver recovered from the roof of a building on the UVU campus has been “positively processed for the suspect in custody”.
The rifle itself, Patel added, is currently being processed at the federal Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) laboratories in Maryland.
Updated
Washington Post columnist says she was fired over posts after Kirk’s killing
Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah says she has been fired from the newspaper over social media posts about gun control and race in the aftermath of far-right commentator Charlie Kirk’s killing.
Attiah, 39, recounted in a Substack post that she had been dropped as a Post columnist after 11 years for “speaking out against political violence, racial double standards, and America’s apathy toward guns”.
The Post, she wrote, accused “my measured Bluesky posts of being ‘unacceptable, gross misconduct’ and of endangering the physical safety of colleagues – charges without evidence, which I reject completely as false”.
Attiah continued: “They rushed to fire me without even a conversation. This was not only a hasty overreach, but a violation of the very standards of journalistic fairness and rigor the Post claims to uphold.”
The columnist’s job was understood to be in jeopardy after she clashed with Post opinion editor Adam O’Neal, formerly of the Economist and the Wall Street Journal, who has reportedly offered buyouts to writers whose work does not fit with the editorial mix of the newspaper owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos.
The Bezos-owned Amazon contributed $1m to the fund for the inauguration of the second presidency of Donald Trump, for whom Kirk was a close ally. And the Post decided to forego endorsing a candidate in the November election won by Trump, a Republican, after the newspaper’s editorial board had voted to endorse Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
Updated
Earlier, we reported comments made by vice-president JD Vance claiming that “people on the left are much likelier to defend and celebrate political violence”.
“The data is clear,” Vance said, hosting an edition of the Charlie Kirk Show. “This is not a both-sides problem. If both sides have a problem, one side has a much bigger and malignant problem, and that is the truth.”
The poll Vance is citing actually notes that it is far more common on both sides to be unsupportive of violence. YouGov’s polling shows that Americans overall are far more likely to say it’s always or usually unacceptable to be happy about the death of a public figure they oppose, than they are to say this is acceptable (77% v 8%).
The poll also found that liberal Americans were more likely than conservatives to defend feeling joy about the deaths of political opponents – 16% of liberals say this is usually or always acceptable, including 24% of those who say their ideology is very liberal and 10% who say they are liberal but not very liberal. That compares with 4% of conservatives and 7% of moderates.
But even among the very liberal, the share who say it’s unacceptable to feel joy about the deaths of political opponents outnumbers those who say it’s acceptable by a ratio of more than two to one (56% v 24%).
Younger Americans are also about twice as likely as older Americans to defend feeling joy at political opponents’ deaths, but even among this group most people say this is unacceptable.
But there is evidence of a rise in support for violence to achieve political goals on both sides, support for violence and actually committing violence are two different things. And the ideology of those who do commit violence don’t right-left align neatly at all.
Robert Pape, who directs the Chicago Project on Security and Threats, which studies terrorism and conflict, noted in a recent piece in the New York Times that his research has found rising support among both left- and right-leaning Americans for the “use of force” to achieve political means.
The May survey was “the most worrisome yet”, he wrote. “About 40 percent of Democrats supported the use of force to remove Mr. Trump from the presidency, and about 25 percent of Republicans supported the use of the military to stop protests against Mr. Trump’s agenda. These numbers more than doubled since last fall, when we asked similar questions.”
If you zoom out over time, political violence is more commonly done by the far-right, said Luke Baumgartner, a research fellow at George Washington University’s program on extremism. But today’s violent actors are “much more ideologically diffuse, and they don’t strictly adhere to a single ideology”.
“People don’t start their journey as a violent extremist expert on a given ideology,” Braniff said. “There are underlying risk factors in their lives. Those risk factors go unaddressed … Ideology is often a lagging indicator for someone who’s gravitating towards violence.”
Updated
Trump 'making the world a more dangerous place', say top Democrats
The top Democrats on three key House committees accused Donald Trump of “making the world a more dangerous place” through his policies towards adversaries like Russia and Venezuela, as well as his handling of domestic unrest.
Jim Himes, the ranking member of the House intelligence committee, along with his counterparts Adam Smith of the armed services committee and Greg Meeks of the foreign affairs committee, said:
From literally rolling out the red carpet for Vladimir Putin during his disastrous summit, to enacting steep tariffs against allies and partners, and driving India and other countries into the waiting arms of Russia, China, and North Korea, he is weakening America, not making it stronger.
The president “is undermining our national security and making the world a more dangerous place”, the trio wrote. In addition to Trump’s outreach to Putin, they cited his decision to send national guard troops onto the streets of Los Angeles and Washington DC, his deadly strike on a boat alleged to be transporting drugs off the coast of Venezuela and his order to rechristen the Department of Defense into the Department of War.
“Trump’s brazen disregard for the law and our coequal branches of government along with his bumbling attempts to exert strength by lashing out at those he views as insufficiently loyal at home and abroad have allowed existing conflicts around the world to worsen and new conflicts to arise,” they wrote.
We stand for returning the United States to a place that supports our international partners and allies, rejects autocratic and authoritarian regimes, respects the rule of law and the separation of powers at home, and prioritizes the prosperity and security of all Americans, not the ego of a fragile and weak President.
Updated
The Rev William Barber, a left-leaning social activist, has condemned last week’s murder of Charlie Kirk and also called for a more general denunciation of political violence and “public violence” arising from policy choices.
His comments came during an online event commemorating the 62nd anniversary of one of the most notorious acts of political violence of the 1960s, the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Street church in Birmingham, Alabama on 15 September 1963 by members of the Ku Klux Klan, which killed four Black school girls.
“This past week, there was a brutal, ugly on-camera assassination of brother Charlie Kirk and we must all despise it,” said Barber. He went on:
Despise that it left him dead, his wife heartbroken without a husband, and his children without a father. All of us should be bothered. I know about what it means to have folk say they want to kill you or assassinate you. All of us should denounce it and pray for the family and stand against this viciousness and violence of his murder.
But if you didn’t get bothered by the political death that’s happening in this country, the political violence and the public violence, until the other day, his must be challenged too, according to our deepest faith tradition.
Because the Prophet says our trouble is rooted in policy violence. We must cry out against the 800 people that are dying every day from poverty and low wealth. You can’t ignore that.
Barber, founding director of Yale Divinity School’s centre for public theology, has led a series of Moral Monday organized by Repairers of the Breach, a group committed to social justice.
Updated
'Call them out, call their employer': Vance urges people to go hard against anyone 'justifying or celebrating' Kirk's killing
To close out as guest host of Charlie Kirk’s podcast, JD Vance went hard against what he called the far left and an increased tolerance for violence on it, saying the administration would be working to dismantle those who celebrate Kirk’s death and political violence against their opponents.
Vance said that after he left Kirk’s family in Arizona, he read a story in the Nation, a leftwing publication, where the author detailed Kirk’s views and, he said, took a quote about a supreme court justice out of context to imply it applied to all Black women.
The magazine was not a “fringe blog” but a “well-funded, well-respected magazine whose publishing history goes back to the American civil war. George Soros’s Open Society Foundation funds this magazine, as does the Ford Foundation and many other wealthy titans of the American progressive movement,” Vance said, hinting at the organizations the administration might target in the aftermath of Kirk’s murder. Vance later mentioned that the foundations that helped fund the magazine are tax-exempt, a sign that the government could go after that status.
“Charlie was gunned down in broad daylight, and well-funded institutions of the left lied about what he said so as to justify his murder,” Vance claimed. “This is soulless and evil, but I was struck not just by the dishonesty of the smear, but by the glee over a young husband’s and young father’s death.”
Vance said Erica Kirk asked his wife, Usha, for advice on how to tell her children that their father had been murdered on the vice-president’s visit to escort Kirk’s remains back to Arizona. As she was asking for that advice, Vance said, “there were people dancing on that father’s grave”.
While Vance said he “desperately” wants national unity and appreciated the many condolences he received from Democratic friends and colleagues, he said there is no unity without confronting the truth. “The data is clear, people on the left are much likelier to defend and celebrate political violence,” he said. “This is not a both-sides problem. If both sides have a problem, one side has a much bigger and malignant problem, and that is the truth.”
He acknowledged that political movements are like pyramids, made up of activists, influencers, politicians and organizations, and most of the members of those groups would not commit murder. But, he said, many are creating an environment where these acts of violence are more likely. He said that during a visit earlier this year to Disneyland with his family, people shouted at his kids and told them to disown their father.
“Are these women violent? Probably not. Are they deranged? Certainly,” Vance said. “And while our side of the aisle certainly has its crazies, it is a statistical fact that most of the lunatics in American politics today are proud members of the far left.”
He said the nation can only get to a point of unity with “people who acknowledge that political violence is unacceptable and when we work to dismantle the institutions that promote violence and terrorism in our own country”. The Trump administration would be working to do that in the coming months and will “explore every option to bring real unity to our country and stop those who would kill their fellow Americans because they don’t like what they say”, he said.
“When you see someone celebrating Charlie’s murder, call them out. Hell, call their employer. We don’t believe in political violence, but we do believe in civility, and there is no civility in the celebration of political assassination,” Vance said.
Updated
Former federal prosecutor Maurene Comey sues Trump administration over firing
Maurene Comey, a former federal prosecutor who brought criminal cases against Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell and music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, sued the Trump administration on Monday over her abrupt July firing.
Comey, the eldest daughter of former FBI director and longtime Trump adversary James Comey, said in a lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court against the justice department and the executive office of the President that she was not provided any cause for her removal.
“Defendants fired Ms Comey solely or substantially because her father is former FBI Director James B Comey,” Maurene Comey’s lawyers wrote in the lawsuit. A justice department spokesperson declined to comment.
Reuters notes that Comey’s lawsuit could test the administration’s ability to swiftly fire line prosecutors, as the president’s critics warn that he is seeking to politicize the DoJ. The department has been firing prosecutors who have worked on cases involving Trump or his political allies.
Trump fired James Comey during his first term and has attacked the former FBI director for his role in investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, which Trump won.
Line prosecutors like Maurene Comey are not politically appointed, and their careers with the DoJ frequently span both Republican and Democratic administrations. Comey is asking a judge to reinstate her in her former role as a prosecutor with the Manhattan US attorney’s office, where she worked for 10 years.
On 16 July, just two weeks after the verdict in Combs’s two-month trial, Comey said she received an email from the justice department’s human resources director informing her she had been terminated. The email did not provide a reason for her firing, but cited article II of the US constitution which lays out the president’s powers, her lawsuit said.
Comey said she then asked Manhattan US attorney Jay Clayton – Trump’s pick for the role – why she was fired. “All I can say is it came from Washington,” Clayton said, according to Comey’s lawsuit.
A spokesperson for the Manhattan US attorney’s office declined to comment.
Updated
More high-profile Trumpworld guests are joining JD Vance as he guest-hosts a two-hour podcast in Charlie Kirk’s stead.
Robert F Kennedy Jr said Kirk was a “spiritual soulmate” to him after Kirk invited him on his show in 2021 to speak freely about vaccines. Kennedy endorsed Trump at a Turning Point rally in Arizona amid fireworks and sparklers on stage, which was “Charlie’s orchestration”. Kirk helped shepherd him into his role as health secretary, Kennedy said, and also helped his daughter-in-law get a role in the administration.
Susie Wiles, Trump’s chief of staff, praised Kirk and Turning Point for delivering Trump to the White House and for not joining calls during the election to oust Wiles from the Trump campaign.
Wiles said Kirk advocated for bringing in different political factions in key administration roles to expand the Maga movement. Those groups became Trump voters, she said, but now the Trump team had three and a half years to “coach voters to being Republicans so that in 2028 we can take the White House, the House and the Senate”.
Vance put it plainly: “If it weren’t for Charlie Kirk, I would not be the vice-president of the United States.” Kirk was perhaps the “most important person” in getting the Trump campaign over the finish line and getting Vance on the ticket, other than the president himself, he said.
Vance said he was not sure how Kirk’s role in the movement gets filled. Turning Point’s infrastructure on college campuses and in the conservative youth movement is strong, he said, but Kirk was “genuinely irreplaceable” as a talent. “How do you find a person who goes into these places, who takes very difficult questions, sometimes very hostile questions, and to your point, is actually engaging with them?”
Updated
Netanyahu informed Trump before Israel bombed Qatar – report
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed Donald Trump last Tuesday morning that Israel planned to attack Hamas leaders in Qatar shortly before last week’s strike occurred, Axios is reporting, citing three Israeli officials with direct knowledge.
The White House has repeatedly said it was notified that morning by the US military and only after missiles were in the air, giving Trump no opportunity to oppose the strike – but the White House knew earlier, even if the timeline to stop it would have been tight, seven Israeli officials have told Axios.
Updated
As we continue to bring you the latest from the edition of the Charlie Kirk Show being hosted by JD Vance today, this is a noteworthy observation from the New York Times:
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, just appeared on Charlie Kirk’s podcast that vice-president JD Vance is guest hosting today. With Stephen Miller also coming on, this is what seems to be happening now: Senior officials in the federal government have taken over a conservative media entity to talk about a crackdown on anti-conservative thought and speech, and they are introducing the idea that a vast leftwing movement directly led to Kirk’s assassination.
This comes as officials are still trying to discern the gunman’s motive.
Updated
Tucker Carlson and JD Vance are talking about how Charlie Kirk would often work to keep the right wing aligned despite ideological disagreements, most recently over foreign policy decisions in Israel and Iran.
Carlson said he would often use “ugly language” himself to describe these disagreements privately, which Kirk would never participate in. “He just never forgot there was a person behind those views and that inspired me, and God commands that of us,” Carlson said.
Vance shared how Kirk would express his disagreements with the Trump administration on immigration and foreign policy. Kirk wanted to see more deportations and was questioning the administration earlier in the year on why the numbers weren’t higher. Now, Vance said, Trump has ramped up deportations. “Part of that success comes from people like Charlie applying pressure,” Vance said. “Pressure is a friend, pressure is somebody who cares deeply about the issue.”
Carlson said Kirk faced pressure from Turning Point donors over his foreign policy positions but did not relent despite “enormous pressure”.
On foreign policy, Kirk reached out to Vance in advance of Iran strikes this summer, saying he was concerned about the US getting involved in a regime change war in the Middle East again. In those intra-party disagreements, Vance said, Kirk showed how to disagree on the issue but not lose the broader political alignment.
“That’s something I’m going to try to take from Charlie’s legacy is not that we’re always right, not that we can’t take criticism, but that we all should try to work together,” Vance said.
Updated
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, told JD Vance on the Charlie Kirk Show that Kirk’s strategies inform how she approaches her job. As a college student, she had inquired about starting a Turning Point USA chapter on her campus, she said.
Vance asked Leavitt how critical Kirk was to Trump’s victory, adding that Kirk would always tell Vance not to worry about Arizona going for Trump because Turning Point had the ground game solidified there.
Leavitt said that Trump winning over more young Americans was “in no small part because of the efforts of Charlie Kirk and Turning Point USA” because Kirk could relay the president’s messages to young people on social media, on college campuses and through his podcast.
“The president loved Charlie deeply. You know that, Mr Vice-President, and I know that, and I know he deeply is hurt by this loss, because Charlie played an instrumental role in returning the president to the Oval Office,” she said.
Updated
Rubio doubles down on pledge to deny or revoke visas from people 'celebrating' Kirk's killing
Secretary of state Marco Rubio doubled down today on the administration’s pledge to deny and revoke visas from anyone perceived to be celebrating the killing of Charlie Kirk.
“We should not be giving visas to people who are going to come to the United States and do things like celebrate the murder, the execution, the assassination of a political figure,” he said in an interview with Fox News today.
“And if they’re already here, we should be revoking their visa. Why would we want to bring people into our country they’re going to engage in negative and destructive behavior?”
CNN notes that “the state department has not responded to questions on whether any visas have actually been revoked or how many officials are working on this initiative. It is unclear under what legal authorities the state department would revoke the visas. The agency has said free speech is a priority.”
It follows Rubio’s deputy, Christopher Landau, announcing on X last week that “foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country” and said he had directed consular officials to “undertake appropriate action” against those deemed to be “praising, rationalizing, or making light of” Kirk’s death on social media.
Landau also invited X users to bring such cases to his attention in the comments of his post, which he said would be monitored by consular officials.
Updated
Miller again vows to 'dismantle and destroy' what he calls 'domestic terror movement' in wake of Kirk's death
Vance is now talking with Miller about “about all of the ways that we’re trying to figure out how to prevent this festering violence that you see on the far left from becoming even more and more mainstream”.
First, Miller shared how Charlie Kirk was ever-present after Trump won last November. Kirk was in the campaign or transition office daily, getting into the weeds of policy ideas, Miller said.
He was so excited about all of us being here, and we would be talking about every executive order, every new regulation, every new policy plan.
Since Kirk’s killing, Miller said he had been feeling “incredible sadness, but there’s incredible anger” and will be focusing his “righteous anger” toward the “organized campaign that led to this assassination, to uproot and dismantle these terrorist networks”.
Detailing what he believes is a “vast domestic terror movement”, Miller mentioned “organized doxing campaigns, the organized riots, the organized street violence, the organized campaigns of dehumanization, vilification, posting people’s addresses, combining that with messaging designed to trigger, incite violence, and the actual organized cells that carry out and facilitate the violence”.
“With God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy these networks,” Miller said, adding that they would do this “in Charlie’s name”.
Updated
After the Charlie Kirk Show’s first commercial break, vice-president JD Vance has returned with Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of policy and considered the architect of the administration’s hardline immigration policy.
JD Vance said in the days since Charlie Kirk’s killing, he has received messages from people who Kirk spoke to in the lead-up to Vance being selected as vice-president advocating for Vance.
Vance shared how he flew to Utah to take Kirk’s remains back to Arizona, saying he was welcomed into the Kirk inner circle during this time of grief. He said Erica Kirk, Kirk’s wife, told him how Kirk never raised his voice or was cross with her.
“I took for that moment that I needed to be a better husband and I needed to be a better father,” Vance said, saying it was the way he would honor his friend. But he would also, he said, honor his friend by carrying forward his political work, something Erica Kirk stressed the importance of. And that includes dismantling the “incredibly destructive movement of left wing extremism,” Vance said.
Vance: 'Charlie was the smartest political operator I’ve ever met'
Vice-president JD Vance is hosting the late Charlie Kirk’s podcast today, telling people to “join me as I pay tribute to my friend”.
The show started with a montage of Kirk speaking at Turning Point USA events and Trump rallies, on college campuses and with his family. “Dear Charlie, Thank you,” the broadcast, livestreaming on Rumble, said.
Vance is hosting the show live from his office in the White House complex, he said at the top of the show.
“Every single person in this building, we owe something to Charlie,” Vance said, noting that Kirk was a critical part of getting Vance the VP role and Trump elected to the White House. “Charlie was the smartest political operator I’ve ever met.”
Maurene Comey, a former federal prosecutor who brought criminal cases against Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell and music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, has sued the Trump administration over her abrupt July firing, according to court records reviewed by Reuters.
Vance to host Charlie Kirk show
Vice-president JD Vance announced on X that he will host today’s episode of the Charlie Kirk Show.
“Please join me as I pay tribute to my friend,” Vance wrote. The vice-president last week brought Kirk’s casket to Phoenix on Air Force Two.
The episode is set to be posted at noon ET.
China to review TikTok-related tech exports in accordance with law
The Chinese government will review and approve matters related to TikTok’s technology exports and the licensing of intellectual property rights in accordance with law, an official from China’s cyberspace regulator told Reuters in Madrid after trade talks with the US delegation.
China will not reach a deal with the US at the expense of its own principles and Chinese companies’ interests, said the country’s top trade negotiator, Li Chenggang.
The two sides had reached a basic framework consensus on resolving issues related to TikTok through cooperation, Li said.
Senate to vote today on Trump's nominee to Fed board
The Senate is set to vote this afternoon on the confirmation of Stephen Miran, Trump’s nominee to fill a vacant seat on the Federal Reserve board of governors.
Miran, a staunch Trump ally, is the chairman of the council of economic advisers, and has taken on a lead role in shaping Trump’s tariff policy.
He was nominated to fill the remainder of former governor Adriana Kugler’s term, which was set to expire in January but opened up after she announced her early resignation.
If confirmed, Miran would join the crucial two-day interest rate-setting Fed meeting, which gets under way tomorrow.
NBC News notes that Miran has also sparked controversy for saying that if confirmed, he does not plan to leave his White House role. Instead, he said he would take an unpaid leave of absence.
Updated
In preparation for Trump’s state visit, the UK is planning for its biggest and most extensive security operation since King Charles’s coronation in 2023, British authorities have said.
With the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk last week, as well as the attempted assassination of Trump last year, the consideration of potential threats has intensified and, the New York Times reports, heightened security efforts will include deploying drones, snipers, mounted police and boat teams in the River Thames.
Analysis: Trump’s UK state visit arrives at awkward moment after Mandelson exit
For Donald Trump, the priority was to avoid any distractions. But as he heads for his second state visit to the UK – an unprecedented honour for a US president – the crisis engulfing Keir Starmer’s government threatens to overshadow the proceedings.
The circumstances of that crisis are especially awkward. Peter Mandelson was unceremoniously sacked as the UK’s ambassador to Washington on Thursday after emails were published in which he had urged his friend Jeffrey Epstein to fight for early release from prison in 2008.
For Trump, whose own friendship with Epstein has exposed him to damaging scrutiny, including from his own support base, there is no subject he wants to revisit less.
“Both sides will want to move on from Mandelson’s departure from Washington,” said Michael Martins, a former US official who worked at the embassy during Trump’s last state visit. “For President Trump, the most important thing will be the optics. He wants to look very presidential; he will make a big deal of meeting with the king and the monarchy more generally. First and foremost, he wants that element of imagery.”
There will be no shortage of the pomp and circumstance that Trump loves over his two-day visit. He and Melania will be greeted with a ceremonial welcome and a guard of honour at Windsor Castle, where they will be hosted by King Charles, Queen Camilla, Prince William and Catherine, the Princess of Wales.
Trump will address a state banquet with tech bosses and senior cabinet ministers on Wednesday evening before travelling to Chequers on Thursday for a business reception, working lunch and press conference with the prime minister.
There will be military displays including a Red Arrows flypast, and fanfare over investment deals, including a US-UK technology partnership and civil nuclear agreement.
Donald Trump will make an Oval Office announcement at 4pm ET today, but we don’t yet have an idea what it will be regarding. The president will then depart on his unprecedented second state visit to the UK tomorrow until the end of the week.
Updated
Confirming an earlier report I brought you from Reuters, secretary of state Marco Rubio is set to travel to Qatar after his visit to Israel, a senior state department official said.
Bessent says US and China 'have a framework for TikTok deal', days before ban deadline
US treasury secretary Scott Bessent has said the commercial terms for a TikTok deal have been agreed upon between the US and China.
“We have a framework for a TikTok deal,” Bessent told reporters in Madrid after talks between the two sides. He declined to comment on the details, saying they were private negotiations. He added that “getting to this framework was made possible by President Trump”.
Ahead of the call between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping on Friday, Bessent said the deal was subject to the leaders’ approval: “They will have to confirm the deal,” he said.
Trump earlier this morning said that trade talks with China had gone very well and hinted that a deal has been reached to resolve issues the US has over TikTok ownership.
My colleagues on the business live blog are covering this in more detail:
Updated
JD Vance to host edition of Charlie Kirk's podcast to 'pay tribute to my friend'
As the killing of Charlie Kirk continues to dominate political conversation in Washington, Politico notes that vice-president JD Vance will take the extraordinary step of guest-hosting Kirk’s podcast, live on the Rumble platform at 12pm ET.
It is the latest in a string of unprecedented moves from the Trump administration in the wake of Kirk’s death, after Trump ordered flags across the nation to be hung at half-staff within hours of the shooting and later announced Kirk is to posthumously receive a Presidential Medal of Freedom.
A prayer vigil for Kirk last night at the Kennedy Center was attended by many of the most senior figures in the administration including press secretary Karoline Leavitt, HHS Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, DNI Tulsi Gabbard; and House speaker Mike Johnson.
There will be further memorial events in Congress. And Trump will fly on Air Force One to Kirk’s funeral at the State Farm stadium in Glendale, Arizona this coming weekend, Politico notes, in what will to be an enormous test for law enforcement, particularly the US Secret Service.
Updated
Donald Trump has called for Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell to enact a “bigger” cut to benchmark interest rates and pointed to the housing market in a social media post ahead of the US central bank’s meeting this week.
“‘Too Late’ MUST CUT INTEREST RATES, NOW, AND BIGGER THAN HE HAD IN MIND. HOUSING WILL SOAR!!!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, referring to Powell.
It comes after Reuters reported this morning that the US would go ahead with a ban on TikTok if China doesn’t drop demands for reduced tariffs and technological restrictions as part of a divestiture deal, citing a senior US official with knowledge of negotiations.
US and Chinese delegations are discussing the divestment from TikTok by Chinese owner Bytedance as part of a round of broader talks on tariffs and economic policy taking place in Madrid. TikTok faces being shut down as early as 17 September (Wednesday) in the US unless it moves to US ownership.
The Chinese delegation came to the Madrid talks with a fundamental misunderstanding of the US position on TikTok, said the US official.
Speaking to reporters earlier, US treasury secretary Scott Bessent and US trade representative Jamieson Greer said China wanted concessions on trade and technology in exchange for agreeing to divest from the popular social media app.
“Our Chinese counterparts have come with a very aggressive ask,” Bessent said, adding: “We are not willing to sacrifice national security for a social media app.”
Updated
Trump hints TikTok deal reached and will speak to Xi Jinping on Friday
Donald Trump has said that trade talks with China had gone very well and hinted that a deal has been reached to resolve issues the US has over TikTok ownership.
Trump also said he would be speaking to Chinese president Xi Jinping on Friday.
“The big Trade Meeting in Europe between The United States of America, and China, has gone VERY WELL! It will be concluding shortly,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“A deal was also reached on a ‘certain’ company that young people in our Country very much wanted to save. They will be very happy! I will be speaking to President Xi on Friday. The relationship remains a very strong one!!!”
Updated
Marco Rubio to travel to Qatar after visit to Israel - report
Secretary of state Marco Rubio will travel to Qatar on Tuesday, the Washington Post is reporting, after holding talks with Benjamin Netanyahu today in Israel.
As my colleague Julian Borger writes: “Part of [Rubio’s] mission on this two-day visit is to convey Donald Trump’s irritation at the Israeli missile strike on Doha that was aimed at Hamas leadership but killed their aides and a Qatari security officer.
“Rubio, before his departure on Sunday, discussed the Qatar strike with reporters. ‘Obviously, we’re not happy about it. The president was not happy about it. Now we need to move forward and figure out what comes next,’ Rubio said. He added, however, that the incident was “not going to change the nature of our relationship with the Israelis”.
You can follow all the latest from the Middle East over on our live blog here:
Updated
Bronx congressman Ritchie Torres plans to introduce a bill this week directing the Department of Homeland Security to study the feasibility of using drones to prevent assassination attempts, Axios is reporting.
In a statement to Axios, the Democrat said:
Common sense dictates that drone technology should be harnessed to scan every elevated structure with a line of sight to a target.
If drones can enable the early detection and prevention of assassination attempts, why not use them? Better to have vigilant eyes in the sky than to remain blind to would-be assassins.
His statement comes after the killing of the far-right commentator Charlie Kirk at a speaking event on a college campus in Utah, which has given fresh urgency to the question around security measures at events.
Updated
The US secretary of state Marco Rubio has met Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem and is currently participating in a press conference with him.
Rubio told reporters on Monday that Washington would provide “unwavering support” to Israel in achieving its goals in Gaza as he called for the eradication of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group.
It comes as Arab leaders hold a summit in a show of support for Qatar after Israel attempted to kill Hamas leaders with an airstrike on the capital Doha last week.
Netanyahu, who relies on the US for weapons and diplomatic cover to continue his assault on Gaza, has accused Qatar of harbouring terrorists and has suggested he reserved the right to continue attacks in the future.
You can read more about the latest developments in the Middle East in our live blog.
Updated
South Korea to review whether there were rights violations during US raid
Donald Trump has said foreign workers sent to the US are “welcome” and he doesn’t want to “frighten off” investors, just over a week after hundreds of South Koreans were arrested at a work site in Georgia.
About 475 people, mostly South Korean nationals, were arrested at the construction site of an electric vehicle battery factory, operated by Hyundai-LG, in the south-eastern US state of Georgia on 4 September.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials alleged South Koreans had overstayed their visas or held permits that didn’t allow them to perform manual labor.
Though the US decided against deportation, images of the workers being chained and handcuffed during the raid caused widespread alarm in South Korea. Seoul repatriated the workers last week.
The South Korean government said on Monday it would review whether there were any human rights violations involved in the immigration raid.
Some of the workers told local media about appalling conditions during their arrest, including alleging they were held without being informed of their rights.
“Both our side and the US are checking if there were any shortcomings in the measures taken and companies are also looking into it,” presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung told a press briefing earlier today.
“Together with the company concerned, we are conducting a more thorough review into possible human-rights infringements.”
Updated
Kathy Hochul backs Zohran Mamdani in race for New York City mayor
Adam Gabbatt is a writer and presenter for Guardian US, based in New York
Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York, has endorsed Zohran Mamdani in his run for mayor of New York City, a major boost for the democratic socialist.
Writing in a New York Times opinion piece, Hochul said: “In the four years since I took office, one of my foundational beliefs has been the importance of the office of New York governor working hand in hand with the mayor of New York City for the betterment of the 8.3 million residents we both represent.”
“The question of who will be the next mayor is one I take extremely seriously and to which I have devoted a great deal of thought. Tonight I am endorsing Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani.”
In a post on X linking to the column she wrote: “New York City deserves a mayor who will stand up to Donald Trump and make life more affordable for New Yorkers. “That’s @ZohranKMamdani.”
You can read the full story here:
In mid-June, Donald Trump extended a deadline for TikTok to find a (non-Chinese) buyer or face a ban in the US. That extension is due to expire on Wednesday.
US ’very close’ to TikTok deal with China, treasury secretary says
The US is “very close” to a deal with China to settle their dispute over TikTok, the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said earlier today.
“On the TikTok deal itself, we’re very close to resolving the issue,” he told reporters as he arrived at Spain’s foreign ministry for the second day of talks with Chinese officials.
Congress has approved a US ban on the popular video-sharing platform unless its parent company, ByteDance, sold its controlling stake.
After initially calling for TikTok to be banned during his first term, Trump has so far extended the deadline three times during his second term.
A federal law requiring TikTok’s sale or a ban on national security grounds was due to take effect the day before Trump’s inauguration on 20 January.
But the Republican president, whose 2024 election campaign relied heavily on social media and who has said he is fond of TikTok, put the ban on pause.
China and the US – the world’s two biggest economies – have agreed to several 90-day pauses on a series of increasing reciprocal tariffs, staving off an all-out trade war.
Donald Trump said on Friday he’ll send the National Guard to address crime concerns in Memphis, Tennessee, his latest test of the limits of presidential power by using military force in American cities.
Speaking on Fox News, Trump said “the mayor is happy” and “the governor is happy” about the pending deployment. Calling the city “deeply troubled,” he said “we’re going to fix that just like we did Washington.”
WATCH: President Trump announces the National Guard will be going to Memphis: "We're going to fix that like we did Washington." pic.twitter.com/qjeWEXapI0
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 12, 2025
Paul Young, the Democratic Memphis mayor, had signaled the intervention was coming. “Earlier this week I was informed that the government and the president were considering deploying the national guard,” he said on Thursday, while requesting “financial resources for intervention and prevention” rather than military deployment.
“I did not ask for the National Guard and I don’t think it’s the way to drive down crime,” Young, who ran for office on a tough-on-crime platform, told a news conference the following day.
The Guardian US’ democracy editor, Kira Lerner, has explored the ways in which Trump’s Washington takeover led to the indiscriminate detention of immigrants, the rise of racial profiling and the arrests of large numbers of people for low-level crimes. Here is an extract from her story, published on 10 September 2025, the day Trump’s direct control of Washington DC’s police force ended:
A White House official said on Monday that 2,120 people have been arrested since the start of Trump’s takeover, 20 known gang members had been arrested and 214 firearms had been seized. Although violent crime has decreased during this period, Washington residents say the impact has not been worth the overbearing law enforcement presence.
Federal agents with numerous agencies, including Immigrations and customs enforcement (Ice), Customs and Border Protection, Federal Bureau of Investigation, US Park Service, Secret Service, Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the US marshals service have all been activated across the city. Often a single arrest will involve officers from multiple agencies and the local Metropolitan police department (MPD).
Though the deployment of national guard troops from six states was the most high-profile aspect of the 30 days, the camo-clad troops, who are now armed, were largely focused on patrolling tourist sites and Union Station, the city’s main train station. With little work to be done, some were instructed to do landscaping and other “beautification” tasks …
Washington DC residents have pushed back against what many call an occupation, which is deeply unpopular in the largely Democratic city. On Saturday, thousands marched from Malcolm X park in Northwest DC to the White House in an event organized by Free DC, a community organization working to protect the city’s Home Rule that has trained thousands of people since 11 August.
Updated
Trump threatens to declare a national emergency in Washington DC over Ice dispute
Welcome to our live coverage of US politics.
Donald Trump has threatened to call a national emergency and federalize Washington DC after the city’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, said its police would not cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), whose agents have been taking suspects into custody and have been accused of racially profiling people in doing so.
The US president took charge of the city’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) on 11 August for 30 days, activating the National Guard and deploying federal officers in what he framed as a crackdown on crime and homelessness but what was widely seen as another example of federal overreach.
It is true that Washington DC has struggled with the scourge of gun violence, but its violent crime rate is at a 30-year low, much lower than that of cities in many red states.
Trump’s 30-day emergency declaration has expired but over 2,000 national guard troops are patrolling the district – reportedly including several hundred sent from Republican-run states. It is unclear when their mission will end.
Bowser issued an executive order at the beginning of the month requiring ongoing coordination between local law enforcement and various federal partners, though Ice was notably excluded.
Trump blamed “Radical Left Democrats” for pressuring Bowser to inform the government about the non-cooperation with Ice, adding that if the police halted cooperation with Ice, “Crime would come roaring back.”
He said: “To the people and businesses of Washington, D.C., DON’T WORRY, I AM WITH YOU, AND WON’T ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN. I’ll call a National Emergency, and Federalize, if necessary!!!”
We will have more on this and other US politics stories throughout the day so stick with us.
Updated
