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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Lois Beckett, Amanda Holpuch and Martin Belam

Obama compares segregationist Jim Crow America to Trump's America – as it happened

Updated evening summary

Wrapping up tonight’s live politics news,

  • The morning began with the government’s announcement that the US economy shrank by an annual rate of 32.9% between April and June compared to the same time last year, its sharpest contraction since the second world war.
  • Shortly after the news broke, Donald Trump floated the idea of delaying November’s presidential election. He can’t do that. Republicans lawmakers said the election would not be delayed. More on the fact here.
  • The co-founder of the influential conservative Federalist Society said that Trump should be impeached over his “fascistic” tweet about delaying the election.
  • Senate Republicans took no action to extend federal unemployment benefits before they were slated to expire on Friday. No deal on an extension is in sight, though the $600 weekly payments have been a crucial lifeline for millions.
  • Herman Cain, a 2012 Republican presidential candidate and ardent supporter of Donald Trump, died from Covid-19. He was hospitalized less than two weeks after attending the US president’s campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on 20 June.
  • The funeral for the civil rights leader and congressmen John Lewis was held today in Atlanta, Georgia. Former US president Barack Obama inspired a standing ovation with his soaring eulogy for Lewis, who he said would “be a founding father of that fuller, fairer, better America” yet to be realized, and called on lawmakers to expand voting rights protections for all Americans in Lewis’ honor.
  • The New York Times also published an essay Lewis submitted two days before he died, which he asked to be published on the day of his funeral.

No ban on military recruiting on Twitch

An update from tech reporter Kari Paul, who has been following Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s attempt to block military recruiting on gaming platforms: it has failed.

Background on AOC’s effort from earlier today:

Report: DHS compiled "intelligence reports" on journalists covering Portland protest

The Department of Homeland Security compiled “intelligence reports” on two journalists who shared leaked internal documents about the department’s response to protests in Portland, Oregon, the Washington Post reported.

The move was troubling, current and former officials said, an abuse of a government system “meant to share information about suspected terrorists and violent actors,” the Post reported.

The creation of intelligence report on journalists is part of a broader pattern of aggressive tactics by the Department of Homeland Security in Portland. Some current government officials told The Post they worried that the department’s Intelligence and Analysis office, in particular, “is exceeding the boundaries of its authority in an effort to crackdown on ‘antifa’ protesters to please President Trump.”

“It’s not the sharing of my tweet that’s disturbing. It’s the construction of it as an intelligence report on a U.S. person that’s disturbing,” Benjamin Wittes, the editor of the Lawfare blog, and one of the two journalists reportedly targeted, told the Post.

Wittes tweeted that he was considering his legal options:

Trump’s election & voting claims: ‘He’s just trying to intimidate people’

At a White House press briefing on Thursday, Trump denied that he wants the election to be postponed but again questioned mail-in voting, insisting that he he does not “want to have to wait for three months and then find out that the ballots are all missing and the election doesn’t mean anything”.

He added: “Do I want to see a date change? No. But I don’t want to see a crooked election. This election will be the most rigged election in history, if that happens.”

Election experts say that all forms of voter fraud are rare. In 2017 the Brennan Center for Justice ranked the risk of ballot fraud at 0.00004% to 0.0009%, based on studies of past elections.

But analysts said the president’s chief objective is to sow doubt about the legitimacy of the outcome. Richard Painter, a former White House chief ethics lawyer, said: “He’s just trying to intimidate people. He wants to suppress the vote as much as he can and so he wants to discourage mail-in and, of course, he wants to complain about the election being rigged if he loses.

“He pulled this in 2016, he thought he was going to lose that and he said it was a rigged election. So this is just the same old Trump playbook but he cannot change the date of the election because it’s set by statute. Congress is not going to change the statute.”

Jon Meacham, a presidential biographer and historian, told the MSNBC network: “The delay thing may just be an entry point to an argument, largely emotional but nevertheless immensely disruptive, to setting up a November where he is crying foul and crooked election and fake news and fake president about Joe Biden if Biden wins.

“The other thing to watch is yes, those senators were saying the right thing today, but what if Trump begins to make the case to the Senate Republican caucus that if the Senate were to flip on November 3rd and subsequent days, it becomes in their interest to join him in questioning the legitimacy of an election that puts them out of work?”

No action from Republicans as unemployment benefits expire

For millions of Americans who have lost work during the pandemic, one source of basic security has been an additional $600 a week unemployment benefit from the federal government, on top of typical state unemployment benefits.

Experts say the extra money has been crucial to helping Americans stay afloat economically during the intense uncertainty of coronavirus-related shutdowns.

But that additional benefit program, passed in Congress in late March, expires on Friday and the senate has adjourned for the weekend without any deal to extend unemployment benefits at any level.

The White House chief of staff also said today that he was “not optimistic” about getting a comprehensive new relief bill completed even next week.

House Democrats passed a bill that would extend the $600 payments through January, but Republicans countered with a plan this week that would offer a much lower payment of $200 extra a week.

Trump said in his press conference today that he supported a plan to temporarily extend unemployment benefits while Congress continued to negotiate over the bigger picture bill, arguing that workers deserved support.

State lawmakers in California said they might be able to step in to keep the $600 additional payments going out to state residents if Congress does not act, but they’re waiting to hear what federal lawmakers actually decide to do.

Meanwhile, the last checks with $600 payments have already gone out, meaning Americans who are out of work are already facing a steep drop in the money they have coming in this week.

Trump on schools reopening: ‘Can you assure anybody of anything?’

After taking a few questions about his coronavirus response, Trump abruptly ended his press conference. He had few answers to offer.

Updated

Trump falsely claims that young people are ‘almost immune’

Asked about school re-openings, Trump falsely claimed that “young people are almost immune” to coronavirus, even as transmission of the disease among young people has become an area of increasing concern.

The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the opposite in a press conference just hours ago, CNBC reported.

“We have said it before and we will say it again, young people are not invincible,” the WHO Director-General said. “Young people can be infected, young people can die and young people can transmit the virus to others.”

In the United States, young people of color are disproportionately at risk from coronavirus, as my colleague Kenya Evelyn reported in early July.

In Connecticut, “more than 23% of new patients were between 20 and 29,” the Hartford Courant reported this week, citing state public health statistics.

Trump on mail-in ballots vs. the facts

Asked about his tweet about delaying the election, Trump pivoted again into talking about a range of concerns about mail-in ballots, and about his frustration that the results of the 2020 election might not be available immediately.

My colleague Sam Levine has a comprehensive explainer about Trump’s comments today versus the facts, including what logistical hurdles Americans might anticipate when it comes to a larger number of mail-in ballots during the pandemic.

Updated

Federalist Society co-founder calls for Trump's impeachment

“Until recently, I had taken as political hyperbole the Democrats’ assertion that President Trump is a fascist,” Steven Calabresi, a law professor and co-founder of the Federalist Society, an influential conservative organization, writes in a new op-ed in the New York Times.

But President Trump’s tweet this morning seeking a postponement of the 2020 election “is fascistic and is itself grounds for the president’s immediate impeachment again by the House of Representatives and his removal from office by the Senate,” Calabresi wrote.

“President Trump needs to be told by every Republican in Congress that he cannot postpone the federal election. Doing so would be illegal, unconstitutional and without precedent in American history. Anyone who says otherwise should never be elected to Congress again,” he added.

Trump supports ‘temporary extension’ of unemployment benefits

The president appeared to endorse a last-minute plan by some Republican senators to temporarily extend a $600 a week addition to unemployment benefits funded by the federal government, to give Congress more time to negotiate on a longer-term plan.

The $600 a week, on top of state unemployment benefits, has been a crucial lifeline to millions of Americans who have been laid off during the pandemic.

Republicans senators including Mitt Romney and Susan Collins are pitching the temporary extension plan, Yahoo News reported. The additional benefits program expires tomorrow, and the final checks under the program hav already gone out.

Trump did not discuss specifics but said he did want a temporary extension to the benefits to help American workers. “This wasn’t anybody’s fault,” he said, adding later, “It wasn’t our workers fault.”

A standout line from this Trump press conference so far:

Trump presser: condolences and an argument things aren’t so bad

Trump opened the press conference with a note of condolence for Herman Cain, a former presidential candidate and “dear friend”, as well as for the 150,000 other Americans who have now died from coronavirus.

Trump then shifted to talking about a rise in coronavirus cases in other countries he suggested had done well on coronavirus, and then saw increases in case numbers, including Israel, Japan and Australia, and suggested that coronavirus cases in Latin America are being undercounted.

The context for these comments appears to be arguing that the United States, which has the highest number of confirmed coronavirus deaths in the world, is not an outlier in its current struggle to contain the virus after Trump encouraged states to reopen their economies earlier in the spring.

Updated

This is Lois Beckett in our California office taking over tonight’s live politics coverage.

Donald Trump is expected to speak shortly at a news conference at 5.30 EST.

The president’s comments will come after a day in politics that has focused on voting rights, and threats to voting rights. In his eulogy for civil rights hero John Lewis at his funeral today in Atlanta, Barack Obama argued that the best way to honor Lewis’ memory would be to take action to safeguard the voting rights of all Americans, including formerly incarcerated people.

Trump, meanwhile, floated the idea of delaying November’s presidential election (which he cannot do) and then claimed he wasn’t serious. My colleagues offered more context on Trump’s ongoing assault on mail-in voting.

Updated

Evening summary

People gesture outside of Ebenezer Baptist church in Atlanta, Goergia during the memorial service of late US Congressman John Lewis
People gesture outside of Ebenezer Baptist church in Atlanta, Goergia during the memorial service of late US Congressman John Lewis Photograph: Elijah Nouvelage/Reuters

Guardian US senior political correspondent, Lauren Gambino, has the full write up of John Lewis’s funeral today:

“Today we witness with our own eyes, police officers kneeling on the necks of black Americans,” Obama said, never mentioning his successor. “George Wallace may be gone, but we can witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators.”

“Preach,” a voice rang out from the pews, where mourners sat apart in observation of safety protocols during the coronavirus pandemic.

In perhaps his most explicitly political speech since leaving office, Obama assailed Donald Trump’s false attacks on voting by mail, which Democratic officials have pushed to expand in light of the coronavirus pandemic. He called the filibuster, a Senate rule requiring a supermajority of the chamber to pass legislation, which Republicans used to block his agenda, “another Jim Crow relic”.

Singling out members of Congress who issued statements calling Lewis a “hero” but oppose legislation that would restore the protections afforded under the Voting Rights Act Lewis struggled for in the sixties, a law then granted under Lyndon Johnson but since weakened by a supreme court ruling in 2013, Obama said: “You want to honor John? Let’s honor him by revitalizing the law that he was willing to die for.”

Okay and now Donald Trump is suggesting he wasn’t serious when he floated the idea of delaying the election, which he can’t do.

Luckily for Trump, the Guardian US actually has a voting rights desk. If you would like to read more about mail-in voting, a sliver of that reporting is collected in the live blog post linked here.

US senator Martha McSally, a Republican from Arizona, is asking Congress to extend the $600 per week expansion to unemployment insurance for one week while they work out a replacement for the program.

The payments technically concluded this past weekend because of how unemployment payments are allocated, though the program’s official expiration date is 31 July. The end of the program will create an income cliff for unemployed Americans who will suddenly have $600 less each week for rent, utilities and food.

Senate Republicans unveiled their replacement for the program on Monday, though there are internal divisions about the contents of the plan.

Democrat leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi are set to meet at 8pm tonight with the White House’s lead negotiators for the next coronavirus stimulus, chief of staff Mark Meadows, and Treasury secretary, Steve Mnuchin.

The US government backed down from its effort to block the publication of a book by Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.

In a lawsuit, Cohen said the book, to be published before the November election, would characterize Trump as racist and include details about “the president’s behavior behind closed doors.”

Cohen has completed one year of a three-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to campaign finance charges and lying to Congress after attempting to arrange payouts during the 2016 presidential race to keep two women from making public claims of extramarital affairs with Trump. Trump has denied their claims.

Earlier today, the entire Washington-based federal appeals court said it would in August take up the Justice department’s request to dismiss the criminal case against Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

A three-judge panel of that court last month ordered the case dismissed in a 2-1 ruling, but this move could undo the decision.

Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about conversations he had with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition. He also cooperated with the special counsel Robert Mueller as he took over the investigation of Russian election interference and links between Trump and Moscow.

Kentucky election officials rejected 32,349 mail-in ballots during the state’s June 23 primary election, according to an analysis of state data obtained by the Guardian.

Even though the number of rejected ballots is just a small fraction of the more than 1m votes cast in Kentucky’s June primary, they still illuminate a potential problem for November, when the state has a closely-watched US senate race between Amy McGrath and Mitch McConnell.

A significant chunk of the ballots were rejected because of a problem with the inner envelope on the absentee ballot, according to an analysis of the data by Michael McDonald, a professor at the University of Florida. Kentucky requires voters to fill out and sign both an inner envelope - which they put their actual ballot in - and then an outer envelope, which they put the inner envelope in.

“We’re over a quarter of the ballots that are being rejected for some issue that seems to be a major design flaw with this inner envelope,” McDonald said. “We’re already at 9,000 ballots that are being rejected now. We could be looking at close to 20,000 if that US senate race is close, that could be determinative of the election outcome.”

The inner envelope contains a perforated flap that voters have to sign, but 3,932 ballots were rejected because the flap was unattached when it was returned. 3,332 ballots were rejected because the inner envelope was unsealed and another 1,484 ballots went uncounted because they didn’t have a required signature on the inner envelope. In total, 27% of the ballots that were rejected in Kentucky were rejected because of a problem with the inner envelope.

McDonald noted the inner envelope issue could have caused even more ballots to be rejected. Another 11,670 ballots were rejected because of a signature issue, but local election officials did not include whether the signature defect was on the inner or outer envelope.

A handful of other states use inner envelopes to ensure the secrecy of a voter’s ballot, but McDonald said in most other states the voter did not have to do anything with the inner envelope and just had to sign the outer one.

“There is no clear purpose for signing the inner envelope other than to trip up voters and provide an excuse to reject their absentee ballots,” he wrote in his analysis.

The rejections underscore a worry that many voters could have their ballots rejected this fall for technical reasons, even though they are eligible voters. States can disqualify ballots for a number of reasons, including problems with a signature, or if a voter forgets to include information.

Mail-in ballot rejections typically don’t get a lot of attention, but there’s concern that as more people vote by mail for the first time, more people will have their ballots thrown out. Research has shown that first time voters, young people, and minorities are more likely to have their mail-in ballots rejected.

Updated

Obama is now on a rush about the importance of voting. “We have to be honest with ourselves that too many of us do not exercise the right to franchise,” Obama said.

He says cynicism is a prime tactic used by those who want to keep people from voting.

Obama has used the eulogy to call for election day to be a national holiday, for Washington DC and Puerto Rico to get statehood, for there to be automatic voter registration and possibly doing away with the “Jim Crow relic” filibuster.

“He was a good and kind and gentle man and he believed in us, even when we don’t believe in ourselves,” Obama said.

Former president Barack Obama delivers a eulogy during the funeral for the late John Lewis
Former president Barack Obama delivers a eulogy during the funeral for the late John Lewis Photograph: Alyssa Pointer/AP

Obama concludes the eulogy: “What a gift John Lewis was. We are all so lucky to have had him walk with us for awhile and show us the way. God bless you all, God bless America, God bless this gentle soul who pulled it closer to his promise.”

Judging by the rousing applause from the crowd, the eulogy was very well-received. Obama puts his face mask on before exiting the church with his secret service detail.

Updated

Obama compares segregationist Jim Crow America to Trump's America

“Bull Connor might be gone but today with our own eyes we witness police officers kneeling on the necks of Black Americans,” Obama says in the eulogy.

“George Wallace may be gone but we can witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators. We may no longer have to be able to guess the number of jelly beans in a jar to cast a ballot, but even as we sit here there are those in power doing their darnedest to discourage people from voting by closing polling locations and targeting minorities and students with restrictive ID laws and attacking our voting rights with surgical precision. Even undermining the postal service in the run-up to an election that’s going to be dependent on mail-in ballots so people don’t get sick” Obama said.

“I know this is a celebration of John’s life, there are some who might say we shouldn’t dwell on such things. But that’s why I am talking about them. John has devoted his time on this earth to the very attacks on democracy and what’s best in America, we’re seeing circulate right now.”

“He knew that every single one of us has a god given power and that the fate of this democracy depends on how we use it,” Obama said. “That the fate of this democracy is not automatic.”

Obama advises people to vote. “We don’t have to choose between protest and politics, it’s a both/and situation.”

If politicians want to honor Lewis, Obama says, “there is something better than a statement calling him a hero. Let’s honor him by revitalizing the law that he was willing to die for.”

Updated

Obama: 'John Lewis will be a founding father of that fuller, fairer, better America'

“The life of John Lewis was in so many ways exceptional. It vindicated the faith in our founding, redeemed that faith. That most American of ideas, the idea that any of us ordinary people without rank or wealth or title or fame can someone point out the imperfections of this nation and come together and challenge the status quo and decide that it is in our power to remake this country.”

He brought this country “closer to our highest ideals,” Obama says.

“John Lewis will be a founding father of that fuller, fairer, better America.”

Obama says he knows later in Lewis’s life, his staff was stressed by thing like his overnight sit-in in Congress.

“He kept getting himself arrested,” Obama says. “As an old man, he didn’t sit out any fight.”

Updated

Obama speaks about Lewis’s work in the Civil Rights movement, including the Nashville sit-in campaign and as one of the first Freedom Riders.

“Sometimes we read about this and we kind of take it for granted. Or at least we act as if it was inevitable, imagine the courage of two people Malia’s age – younger than my oldest daughter – on their own to challenge an entire infrastructure of oppression. John was only 20-years-old, but he pushed all of those 20 years to the center of the table, betting everything…”

Obama continues to emphasize the youth of Lewis when he took on such difficult battles.

“At the ripe old age of 25, John was asked to lead the march from Selma to Montgomery,” Obama said. “He was warned that governor Wallace had ordered troopers to use violence.”

Former President Barack Obama, delivers the eulogy during the funeral for the late John Lewis
Former President Barack Obama, delivers the eulogy during the funeral for the late John Lewis Photograph: Alyssa Pointer/AP

Lewis has said he thought he was going to die that day, when law enforcement knocked him to the ground and struck him on the head, beating him and leaving him with a skull fracture.

Obama gets an enthusiastic response from the audience after saying: “The troopers thought they had won the battle.”

Obama said Lewis made sure that after he woke up from the hospital the public would see a movement that, quoting scripture, was: “hard pressed on every side but not crushed, perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed.”

Barack Obama begins by describing John Lewis as a “man of pure joy and unbreakable perseverance.”

“I’ve come here today because I like so many Americans owe a great debt to John Lewis and his forceful vision of freedom,” Obama said.

“This country is a constant work in progress. We’re born with instructions to form a more perfect union, explicit in those words is the idea that we’re imperfect. That what gives each new generation purpose it to take up the unfinished work of the last and carry it further than any might have thought possible.”

“John was born into modest means, that means he was poor. In the heart of the Jim Crow south to parent’s who picked somebody else’s cotton. Apparently he didn’t take farmwork. On days when he was supposed to help his brother and sisters with their labor, he’d hide under the porch and make a break for the school bus when it showed up.”

Jennifer Holliday is singing Take My Hand, Precious Lord, after a string of tributes were delivered at John Lewis’s funeral. After her song, Barack Obama is scheduled to deliver the eulogy.

Before this song, Reverend Raphael Warnock, who is officiating the memorial service, read a letter from president Jimmy Carter, who could not attend the ceremony.

Civil rights leader, Xernona Clayton, said when people read about “this wonderful man” in the newspapers, to honor him by acting in accordance with the values he fought for. She concluded her tribute by telling people to vote.

Bill Campbell, Atlanta’s former mayor, said he first met Lewis 40 years ago, when he came to his hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina as an activist. Campbell’s father was the president of the local chapter of the NAACP.

“John Lewis wasn’t on the right side of history, history was on the right side of John Lewis,” Campbell said.

Campbell said in his last visit to Lewis, the congressman told him to make sure people vote in this election, because it is the most important ever.

Jamila Thompson, deputy chief of staff for congressman Lewis, speaks during the funeral for the Civil Rights leader
Jamila Thompson, deputy chief of staff for congressman Lewis, speaks during the funeral for the Civil Rights leader Photograph: Alyssa Pointer/AFP/Getty Images

Jamila Thomspon, Lewis’s deputy chief of staff, said the congressmen would want her to tell the crowd that they look “good” and “beautiful.”

“He got all into our business,” Thompson said, laughing. “And was there in spirit or in person for the big moments.”

Lewis’s niece, Sheila Lewis O’Brien, said: “Let’s continue this celebration of life by taking up the top he has now laid down and endeavor to get into good trouble, necessary trouble.”

Christine Pelosi, House majority speaker Nancy Pelosi’s daughter, posted photos of the memorial book for the service. The book is embossed with Lewis’s quote: “If not us, then who? If not now, then when?”

John Lewis’s funeral at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta

Civil Rights leader, Xernona Clayton, delivers a tribute to John Lewis. Clayton is also the godmother of Lewis’s son John-Miles Lewis
Civil Rights leader, Xernona Clayton, delivers a tribute to John Lewis. Clayton is also the godmother of Lewis’s son John-Miles Lewis Photograph: Alyssa Pointer/Reuters
People watch on a large screen outside the Celebration of Life service for civil rights leader John Lewis at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia.
People watch on a large screen outside the Celebration of Life service for civil rights leader John Lewis at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. Photograph: Chris Aluka Berry/EPA
Former candidate for Georgia governor, Stacey Abrams, waits for the program to start, during the funeral of late Civil Rights leader John Lewis
Former candidate for Georgia governor, Stacey Abrams, waits for the program to start, during the funeral of late Civil Rights leader John Lewis Photograph: Alyssa Pointer/AFP/Getty Images

Hogan Gidley, the national press secretary for Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign, said the president was “raising a question” in a Tweet earlier this morning about delaying the election because Democrats have promoted mail-in voting during the pandemic.

“They are using coronavirus as their means to try to institute universal mail-in voting, which means sending every registered voter a ballot whether they asked for one or not,” Gidley said in a statement.

The Guardian US’s voting rights team, editor Ankita Rao and reporter Sam Levine, have done some really excellent work about Donald Trump’s ongoing assault on mail-in voting. That context is very useful today

Domingo Garcia, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said these assaults could have a chilling effect, in this deeply-reported piece examining why these attacks are taking place. “President Trump is using his bully platform to try to discourage people from voting and to try to stop people from voting by mail,” Garcia said.

There is also significant concern about his attacks on mail-in voting which downplay the threat of coronavirus. In this article, Levine clarifies this and the Trump campaign’s other misleading claims about mail-in voting.

And this piece is a very important reminder that the presidential election results will not be ready the night of the election.

Reverend James Lawson Jr, an activist and teacher in nonviolent action, said he has read a lot of books about the Civil Rights movement. “Most of the books are wrong about John Lewis,” Lawson said.

Lawson said the malignancy of racism is what moved himself, Lewis and other activists - prominent and less prominent - in the Civil Rights movement. “Many of us had no choice but to do, what we had to do,” Lawson said.

Lawson disputed the more measured remarks made by the politicians who spoke just before him. Lawson said:

We do not need bipartisan politics if we are going to celebrate the life of John Lewis. We need the constitution of the United States to be alive.

Lawson said to honor Lewis, people must commit to not be quiet “as long as our nation continues to be the most violent culture in the history of humankind,” and as long as “our economy is shaped by plantation capitalism.”

Lawson ends by quoting Langston Hughes’s I Dream a World:

I dream a world where no human, no other human will scorn. Where love will bless the earth and peace its path adorn. I dream a dream where all know sweet freedoms way, where greed no longer saps the soul nor avarice blights our day. A world I dream where black and white and yellow and blue and green and red and brown, whatever your race may be will share the bounties of the earth. And where everyone woman and man and boy and girl is free. Where wretchedness hangs it head Where wretchedness will hang its head and joy, like a pearl, attends the needs of all mankind – of such I dream, my world!

Meanwhile in Washington DC, Republican senators are facing questions about the president’s suggestion to delay the election. There is pretty widespread rejection of the comments – even in his own party.

The visibly emotional House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, listed the other Congress members in attendance at John Lewis’s memorial service, including representatives Bill Clyburn, a Democrat from South Carolina, and Steny Hoyer, a Democrat from Maryland, who like Pelosi has worked with Lewis for thirty years.

Pelosi says Lewis was “so revered” in Congress and referenced Lewis leading the Democrats sit-in demanding action in gun control.

She said while being great at politics, he was also funny and mischievous.

“He loved to dance, he loved to make us laugh, sometimes while he was dancing,” Pelosi said.

Pelosi said once her granddaughter asked Lewis if he was ever asked to sing during the Civil Rights movement. And Lewis told her they asked him to sing solo, solo so they couldn’t hear him. That got some laughs from the crowd.

Pelosi concluded: “We always knew he worked on the side of the angels, and now he is with them.”

Updated

At the podium, Bill Clinton makes a special mention of Keisha Lance Bottoms, the Atlanta mayor who has been sued by Georgia’s governor because she put a mask mandate in place in the city. Clinton acknowledged that Bottoms, who is at the service, has faced obstacles lately. “You have faced them with candor and dignity and honor,” he said.

Clinton, like Bush, reflected on Lewis’s work while Clinton served as president.

“John Lewis was a walking rebuke to people who thought well, we ain’t there yet, we have been working a long time, isn’t it time to bag it? He kept moving.”

Former president Bill Clinton speaks during the funeral service for the late John Lewis
Former president Bill Clinton speaks during the funeral service for the late John Lewis Photograph: Alyssa Pointer/AP

“No matter what, John always kept walking to reach the beloved community,” Clinton said. “He got into a lot of good trouble along the way, but let’s not forget he also had an absolutely uncanny ability to calm troubled waters.”

Clinton referenced an essay Lewis recently wrote, and submitted to the New York Times two days before he died, requesting it be published on the day of his funeral. Clinton said: “It’s so fitting on the day of his service, he leaves us his marching orders: keep moving.”

The church’s senior pastor, reverend Raphael Warnock, welcomed three presidents to the service.

In attendance was George W Bush, who he noted was president “last time we renewed the voting rights act,” Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

Bush spoke first at the funeral, relating a story Lewis told him about his family’s chickens, who he cared for so deeply that he preached to them. Bush said Lewis also noted the chickens were much more productive than Congress. “At least they produced eggs,” Lewis told Bush.

“He’s been called an American saint, a believer willing to give up everything,” Bush said of Lewis.

Bush acknowledged the two occasionally disagreed, adding: “In the America John Lewis fought for, and the America I believe in, differences in opinion are evidence of Democracy in action.”

Reverend Bernice King, the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr, just delivered a prayer at John Lewis’s funeral. “We praise you, oh God, for this non-violent warrior,” King declared.

In the prayer, King implored Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act, which includes voting protections Lewis spent his life defending and seeking to restore after they were taken away by the supreme court seven years ago. She also called for an end to the school-to-prison pipeline and other social justice causes Lewis campaigned for in his life.

“Grant us, dear god, a double portion to get in to Good Trouble until white supremacy around the world is uprooted and dismantled,” King said.

Funeral for civil rights leader John Lewis begins in Atlanta

The funeral for civil rights leader John Lewis has just begun at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia.

The church’s senior pastor, reverend Raphael Warnock, is leading the service, which has dozens of attendees who are keeping social distance and wearing masks.

“Here lies a true American patriot,” Warnock said.

This morning, the New York Times published a powerful essay Lewis submitted two days before he died from pancreatic cancer at age 80.

The Guardian’s Ed Pilkington writes:

The essay rehearses several of the key moments that for Lewis shaped his life in non-violent protest and what he called “good trouble”. He said he was inspired into the movement against America’s brutal history of race discrimination by the lynching in Mississippi of Emmett Till, aged 15, in 1955 – when Lewis was himself just 14.

“Emmett Till was my George Floyd. He was my Rayshard Brooks, Sandra Bland and Breonna Taylor,” he writes.

He recalls how in his childhood in Alabama, the white supremacist threat was a fact of everyday life. “Unchecked, unrestrained violence and government-sanctioned terror had the power to turn a simple stroll to the store for some Skittles or an innocent morning jog down a lonesome country road into a nightmare.

Updated

The Guardian’s world affairs editor, Julian Borger, is watching secretary of state Mike Pompeo testify before the Republican-led Senate Foreign Relations committee.

Mike Pompeo has been questioned on the decision announced yesterday to pull nearly 12,000 US troops out of Germany, bringing 6,400 of them back to the US, and how that squared with Pompeo’s claims to be leading a tough policy towards Russia. He confirmed the state department was “very involved at the strategic level” but argued that bringing the troops home did not mean they were “off the field”

“These units will participate in rotational activity. They’ll be forward deployed. They won’t be stationed or garrisoned. But make no mistake about it they will be fully available to ensure that we can properly prosecute the challenges we have from the global powers.”

Senator Jeanne Shaheen asked him whether the impact on relations with Germany had been taken into account, to which Pompeo replied: “This is personal for me I fought on the border of East Germany when I was a young soldier I was stationed there.”

Pompeo was stationed in West Germany as an army lieutenant in the late eighties. There was no fighting there.

Mitt Romney, who continues to be the only Republican senator to seriously challenge the administration, picked up the issue in his own remarks, saying: “I have heard from the highest levels of the German government that this is seen by them as an insult to Germany, and I can’t imagine, at a time when we need to be drawing in our friends and allies so that we can collectively confront China, we want to insult them.”

Pompeo was also questioned about Donald Trump’s suggestion that the election might be delayed.

Senator Tom Udall asked the secretary of state: “Will you respect the results of the certified election as the State Department typically does throughout the world?”

Pompeo replied: “Senator I’m not going to speculate. You had about 15 ‘ifs’ in there.. I’ve said repeatedly to this committee I will follow the rule of law, follow the Constitution. I’ve endeavored to do that in everything I’ve done and I’ll continue to do that every day.”

Former presidential candidate Herman Cain dies from Covid-19

Former presidential candidate Herman Cain, 74, has died from Covid-19 after contracting the illness nearly one month ago.

His official Twitter account, which had been providing updates on Cain’s hospitalization due to Covid-19, posted an announcement of his death on Thursday morning.

Cain, the co-chair of Black Voices for Trump, had attended Donald Trump’s rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma in June, where he did not wear a mask.

“We’re heartbroken, and the world is poorer,” said a post on Cain’s website, which provided insight into his Covid-19 infection.

“There were hopeful indicators, including a mere five days ago when doctors told us they thought he would eventually recover, although it wouldn’t be quick,” the post said. “We were relieved to be told that, and passed on the news via Herman’s social media. And yet we also felt real concern about the fact that he never quite seemed to get to the point where the doctors could advance him to the recovery phase.”

Updated

More on the staggering drop in GDP figures from the Guardian US’s business editor, Dominic Rushe:

The fall came as large parts of the US economy shutdown in March in an attempt to halt the spread of the coronavirus across the US. The closures led to a historic number of layoffs and sent unemployment soaring to levels unseen since the 1930s Great Depression.

Lexie Testa, 26, from Lansing, Michigan lost her hotel job at the end of May and waited two months to receive her first unemployment payment. While her husband has retained his job, she said it had been a struggle since her layoff and that she was wary about finding new work as the virus continues to spread.

Testa said it was too early to cut benefits given how hard it remains to find work and the fact that the virus is still spreading. “I know a lot of people who aren’t really comfortable returning to work with children in their home and actually I have a few friends that cannot because they have no child care,” she said.

“I am lucky enough that I have a grandmother who usually babysits for me but I just am not really comfortable yet as I have always worked in the food service industry and I see places in my city of Lansing shut down and reopen due to Covid cases often.”

The Guardian’s voting rights report, Sam Levine, notes that the president can’t unilaterally change the election date.

This is why people are speculating one of the reasons Trump asked whether the election should be delayed this morning is to distract from the very bad economic news this morning.

Government figures revealed Thursday morning that the US economy shrank by an annualized rate of 32.9% between April and June, its sharpest contraction since the second world war.

Secretary of state Mike Pompeo is appearing before the Senate foreign relations committee for the first time in more than a year, in what is already a particularly contentious hearing.

The ranking Democrat, Bob Menendez said the Trump administration had “at worst simply abetted Putin’s efforts” to undermine the US, and said the state department was “at risk of catastrophic failure.”

Menendez started his questioning on Trump’s admission on Wednesday that he had not confronted Vladimir Putin with intelligence reports that Russia was paying bounties to Taliban fighters for killing US soldiers in Afghanistan and asked Pompeo whether he had raised the issue with his counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.

Pompeo’s reply avoided confirming the reports, which Trump called “fake news”, but claimed that if it was true, he raised it.

“Anytime there was a tactical threat on the lives for the health of the safety and security or our assets in place, we have raised this with our Russian counterparts not only at my level but Ambassador Sullivan [US ambassador to Moscow], and every one of our team that interacts with the Russians we’ve made very clear our expectations.”

One thing undermining Donald Trump’s ongoing quest against mail-in voting is that he and his officials have used it in the past.

Mother Jones reporter Ari Berman notes that at least 16 Trump officials have either voted by mail or requested absentee ballots, including the president himself. Others include attorney general William Barr, adviser and president’s daughter Ivanka Trump and White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany.

McEnany has voted by mail in every Florida election she has participated in since 2010, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

When asked about this in late May, McEnany said: “Absentee voting has the word absent in it for a reason. It means you’re absent from the jurisdiction or unable to vote in person. President Trump is against the Democrat plan to politicize the coronavirus and expand mass mail-in voting without a reason, which has a high propensity for voter fraud. This is a simple distinction that the media fails to grasp.”

Nasa successfully launches Perseverance mission to Mars

On a brighter note, and sticking to their timetable, Nasa appears to have successfully launched the Perseverance mission, the third and final Mars launch from Earth this summer. China and the United Arab Emirates got a head start last week, but all three missions should reach their destination in February.

Nasa’s science mission chief, Thomas Zurbuchen, pronounced the launch the start of “humanity’s first round trip to another planet.”

“Oh, I loved it, punching a hole in the sky, right? Getting off the cosmic shore of our Earth, wading out there in the cosmic ocean,” he said. “Every time, it gets me.”

This Nasa photo shows a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover onboard as it launches from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
This Nasa photo shows a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover onboard as it launches from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Photograph: Joel Kowsky/NASA/AFP/Getty Images

“There’s a reason we call the robot Perseverance. Because going to Mars is hard,” Nasa Administrator Jim Bridenstine said just before liftoff. “It is always hard. It’s never been easy. In this case, it’s harder than ever before because we’re doing it in the midst of a pandemic.”

The US is the only country to safely put a spacecraft on Mars, and is seeking its ninth successful landing on the planet

Trump appears to call for delay to November election over his mail-in voting fears

Donald Trump has ratcheted up his claims that increased mail-in voting will lead to election fraud, and appears to be making a call to delay November’s presidential election.

Even by Trump’s standards, it is truly unprecedented for a sitting American president to call a US election “the most inaccurate & fraudulent election in history” in advance and float the idea that the country cannot carry them out safely.

There were mixed reviews for the tech giant CEOs that appeared before Congress yesterday - and for the people who posed them questions.

Matt Stoller, the author of Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy, writes for us today, saying “Congress forced Silicon Valley to answer for its misdeeds. It was a glorious sight”

Over and over, the CEOs had similar answers. I don’t know. I’ll get back to you. I’m not aware of that. Or long rambling attempts to deflect, followed by members of Congress cutting them off to get answers to crisp questions. I learned two things from the surprisingly wan responses of these powerful men. First, they had not had to deal with being asked for real answers about their business behavior for years, if ever, and so they were not ready to respond. And two, antitrust enforcers for the last 15 years, stretching back to the Bush and Obama administrations, bear massive culpability for the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of these corporations.

Read it here: Matt Stoller – Congress forced Silicon Valley to answer for its misdeeds. It was a glorious sight

Over at Slate, however, Aaron Mak’s ire last night was reserved not for the CEOs, but for the people posing the questions:

While it is true that tech employees do often have liberal leanings, there is little to suggest that these companies’ products, algorithms, and policies are designed to tilt the political scales. If anything, digital platforms are biased toward emotional and sensational content that will get the most clicks and drive ad dollars. And Republicans’ suspicion would seem to elide the fact that conservative figures and publications dominate the rankings for the most-engaged pages on Facebook. Despite the lack of substantive evidence that there is actually an anti-conservative cabal controlling Silicon Valley, Republican lawmakers were intent on using their limited time to present lawmakers with questionable and often nonsensical examples of censorship.

Read it here: Slate – Republicans are too fixated on “bias” to conduct actual oversight of tech

Mike Pompeo appears before the Senate foreign relations committee

Mike Pompeo is up before the Senate foreign relations committee right now, and they haven’t wasted any time in criticising his failure to appear since April 2019. You should be able to watch the session here in the blog by pressing play above - you may have to refresh the page to get the video to appear.

Updated

Grim GDP and jobless figures reveal extent of Covid-19 damage to economy

We’ve just had two bits of key economic data out. Jobless claims were up again by 12,000, with over 1.4m Americans making initial claims.

Unsurprisingly yesterday the bureau reported that unemployment rates were higher in June 2020 than in June 2019 in 388 of the 389 metropolitan areas it measured.

The GDP numbers were out too, and the US economy suffered its worst quarter since the second world war, as GDP shrunk by 32.9%. Here’s our full report:

There will be more market reaction to come, for sure, and we’ll have that on our business live blog

Biden posts video with Obama criticising administration over approach to schools during Covid-19 crisis

The Joe Biden campaign has just put out a video on Twitter where Biden and former president Barack Obama phone a teacher to discuss the re-opening of schools during the coronavirus crisis.

In truth it is Obama not Biden who does most of the heavy-lifting in the video, telling Beth, who teaches eighth grade, that:

It’s a tough spot for you to be in. There used to be some boundaries around which you just didn’t politicise certain things. You didn’t politicise public health. You didn’t politicise school safety. Right? There were there were some things where it really didn’t matter what the party was.

Obama promises that, if Biden and he do their campaign jobs right, then more consistency and help would be on its way to schools. It is typical of Obama’s approach to be obliquely critical of the current administration without directly naming Donald Trump. He did much the same when appearing on his wife Michelle Obama’s new podcast earlier this week.

For her part, the teacher in the video suggests that, compared to previous generations going back to the 1990s, the current crop of children coming through schools are “the most politically active group of kids” she’s ever taught.

Updated

The almost constant war of diplomatic words between China and the US continued today, this time with China’s ambassador to London, Liu Xiaoming, who accused the US of starting a trade war and stoking a new cold war with China. He said that there would be no winner from such an approach.

While he did not mention anybody by name, he said some US politicians were doing and saying anything to get elected.

“It is not China that has become assertive. It’s the other side of the Pacific Ocean who want to start new cold war on China, so we have to make response to that,” Liu told reporters. “We have no interest in any cold war, we have no interest in any war. We have all seen what is happening in the United States, they tried to scapegoat China, they want to blame China for their problems. We all know this is an election year.”

Away from earthly political concerns, Nasa are a few minutes away from launching the Perseverance mission which will be seeking life on mars. You can watch the lift-off here.

Rep. John Lewis' final essay published on day of his funeral

Rep. John Lewis’ funeral will take place today at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. Barack Obama is expected to deliver a eulogy, and former president George W. Bush is also expected to attend.

A state trooper stands next to a picture of the late congressman John Lewis in Atlanta
A state trooper stands next to a picture of the late congressman John Lewis in Atlanta Photograph: Elijah Nouvelage/Reuters

This morning the New York Times has published a short essay written by Lewis shortly before his death on 17 July, with the instructions for it to be published upon the day of his funeral.

It begins with a powerful opening, typical of the man’s oratory skill, and challenges the current generation to be the one that lays down the “heavy burdens of hate”.

While my time here has now come to an end, I want you to know that in the last days and hours of my life you inspired me. You filled me with hope about the next chapter of the great American story when you used your power to make a difference in our society. Millions of people motivated simply by human compassion laid down the burdens of division. Around the country and the world you set aside race, class, age, language and nationality to demand respect for human dignity. That is why I had to visit Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, though I was admitted to the hospital the following day. I just had to see and feel it for myself that, after many years of silent witness, the truth is still marching on.

It is well worth reading Lewis’ final words in full: John Lewis – Together, you can redeem the soul of our nation

John Lewis (1940-2020)
John Lewis (1940-2020) Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Of course, it doesn’t help if the conspiracy theories and misinformation are coming from the top.

In comments that are being widely reported this morning, Texas Republican congressman Louie Gohmert, who has tested positive for Covid-19, told KETK his local news station:

I can’t help but wonder if by keeping a mask on and keeping it in place if I might have put some of the virus onto the mask and breathed it in. I don’t know. But I got it, we’ll see what happens from here. The reports of my demise are very premature.

Yesterday the CEOs of four of the biggest tech companies were up before members of the House judiciary’s antitrust subcommittee to face intense questioning over whether they have too much power. The question of distributing fake news and conspiracy theories was just one aspect of the quizzing.

My colleague Poppy Noor has been looking at this for us today - speaking to experts and asking whether suppressing online conspiracy theorists works.

One of the those she spoke to, Russell Muirhead, points to the erosion of gatekeeping functions in the social media ecosystem:

The more likely a claim is to be judged false, the less likely the editor will decide to put it in the paper or on the air. What’s happened with Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter is the gatekeeping function has been displaced: anybody can say anything to anyone in the whole world, pretty much for free.

It’s a fascinating look at an area that is only likely to become more fraught as the November election looms. Last week Twitter announced it would stop promoting content associated with QAnon.

Read it here: Does suppressing online conspiracy theorists work? Experts weigh in

Ohio House set to vote to remove Republican speaker Larry Householder

Nine days after federal officials released details of a $60 million bribery probe, the Ohio House is preparing for an historic vote on whether to remove Republican speaker Larry Householder, who is alleged to have led the scheme.

The House will convene Thursday after a secret vote taken Tuesday by the Republican caucus during a closed-door meeting indicated enough support to remove him, report the Associated Press. Democrats have also called for him to be removed.

Larry Householder sits at the head of a legislative session as Speaker of the House, in Columbus last year
Larry Householder sits at the head of a legislative session as Speaker of the House, in Columbus last year Photograph: John Minchillo/AP

Remaining members of Householder’s leadership team said in a statement that he deserves the presumption of innocence but “has lost the trust of his colleagues and the public” and can’t effectively lead the House.

Householder was one of five defendants identified in a July 21 federal affidavit as allegedly taking part in a scheme involving money secretly funnelled to them in exchange for helping to pass House Bill 6 to financially bail out two FirstEnergy nuclear plants. Householder was one of the driving forces behind the legislation, which included a fee to every electricity bill in the state. Householder could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted. He and his attorney have ignored or declined requests for comment about the allegations and about his plans.

Bipartisan support for removing him as speaker has accumulated, with Rep. Niraj Antani, a Dayton Republican, described that move as “the first step to restoring integrity to the House.”

House Democratic leaders labeled the last week as “a dark time for our state” and asked the GOP “to do the right thing”.

“We refuse to let the latest GOP scandal derail the Ohio House of Representatives from the pressing work that needs to be done,” they said in a statement. “We do not need these distractions; we need to work to solve the critical issues facing working people and families in our state.”

Removing Householder as speaker would take 50 votes; expelling him from the House altogether would take 66. Republicans hold 61 seats, and Democrats have 38.

There’s a useful backgrounder on Householder and the case here: Are you just learning about Larry Householder following his arrest? Those in Ohio political circles know all about him

We are within days of finding out who Joe Biden is going to pick to be his running mate for the November election. It’s a crucial appointment, not least because Biden is attempting to become the oldest person to take on their first-term as president. A successful VP might expect to automatically be in pole position for the Democratic Party presidential nomination in 2024.

Biden has promised to pick a woman, and there is no shortage of options in the Democratic ranks. But, as my colleague Daniel Strauss in Washington reports, no single candidate will be able to satisfy all the interest groups and sectors of the party.

It’s possible Biden will infuriate varying sectors of the Democratic party depending on who he picks. If he picks a Caucasian women, Biden risks disappointing the African American community. If Biden picks a centrist he could disappoint the progressive wing of the party and depress turnout among activists in that wing. If Biden picks a progressive, he might turn off moderates and Republicans the campaign and its allies have been working to woo.

Read more here: Joe Biden’s running mate - none will satisfy all sections of the party

Police make arrest after arson attack on Arizona and Maricopa County Democratic HQ

Authorities have announced an arrest after a fire destroyed much of the Arizona and Maricopa County Democratic Party headquarters last Friday, according to a report from the Associated Press.

Phoenix police said 29-year-old Matthew Egler was booked on one count of arson of an occupied structure.

Phoenix Police block the entrance outside the Arizona Democratic Party headquarters following the 24 July fire
Phoenix Police block the entrance outside the Arizona Democratic Party headquarters following the 24 July fire Photograph: Matt York/AP

In charging documents obtained by KPNX-TV in Phoenix, police said Egler had been a volunteer for the Maricopa County Democratic Party but was banned for behavioural reasons. Investigators say the fire was retaliation after being recently rejected as a volunteer again.

A booking photo provided by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office in Phoenix shows Matthew Egler, arrested on one count of arson
A booking photo provided by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office in Phoenix shows Matthew Egler, arrested on one count of arson Photograph: AP

“We are deeply saddened and shocked by today’s news, but appreciate the swift action by law enforcement to ensure that the suspect is in custody,” state and county Democratic leaders said in a statement.

Police in the charging documents also mention that Egler discussed starting the fire and his “discontentment” with county Democratic officials in a Twitter account.

The blaze occurred early Friday in a business district a few miles north of downtown Phoenix. Investigators said evidence indicated it was an act of arson. The building is the longtime home of both the state and county Democrats.

Steven Slugocki, the county chair, confirmed that the fire destroyed computers, tablets, phone-banking equipment, campaign literature and years of candidate and organizing information. It also burned political memorabilia accumulated over decades, including campaign materials for John F. Kennedy, he said.

Good morning, and welcome to what looks like a very busy day in US politics, with a lot of things scheduled. Here’s a quick run-down of where we are, and what we might expect.

  • Yesterday the US passed 150,000 coronavirus deaths amid a fresh surge in cases. The country has now seen more than 4.3 million infections in total. 28 states - plus Puerto Rico and Washington DC - are still seeing rising case numbers
  • Representatives and staff must now wear masks on the House floor, after Texas congressman Louie Gohmert, one of several Republicans who have resisted masks, tested positive for coronavirus
  • Civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis will be laid to rest at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. Former president Barack Obama is expected to deliver a eulogy
  • Mike Pompeo will finally turn up to a Senate foreign relations committee session, for the first time since April 2019. It could prove contentious if he is asked about the firing of inspector general Steve Linick, who had an investigation of Pompeo in his sights. House speaker Nancy Pelosi warned back in May that the firing could be ‘unlawful if it’s retaliation’
  • There’s also a Senate armed services committee confirmation hearing for retired army Brig. Gen. Anthony Tata to become under secretary of defence for policy. Tata has previously called Obama a Muslim and a “terrorist leader”, which may derail his appointment
  • Donald Trump will be visiting the American Red Cross national headquarters in Washington, where he will hold a roundtable on donating plasma
  • After a last-ditch legal defeat, we may see the unsealing of what are described as “extremely personal” documents in the Ghislaine Maxwell case
  • We’ll get the first estimate of US GDP figures for the second quarter, and new unemployment figures, which will indicate just how deep the impact of Covid-19 has been on the economy that Trump had hoped would sweep him forward to November victory
  • Oh, and Nasa is shooting for Mars - where they might discover “lyfe”

I’m Martin Belam, I’ll be with you for the next few hours, and you can get in touch with me at martin.belam@theguardian.com

Updated

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