Closing summary
Our live coverage is ending now - we’ll be back on Tuesday. In the meantime, you can find all of our live US politics coverage here.
Here’s a summary of the key developments from today:
Donald Trump has ruled out a ceasefire in Ukraine as Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his European allies visited the White House to push for US-backed security guarantees as part of any long-term peace deal. The US president, who only last week warned Russia of “very severe consequences” if Vladimir Putin failed to agree to a halt to the fighting, made clear on Monday he had reversed his position. More here.
Missouri attorney general Andrew Bailey announced Monday that he will step down to become co-deputy director of the FBI. Bailey will share the role with deputy director Dan Bongino, as the FBI continues to draw headlines over the ongoing case tied to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Bailey said his last day in office will be 8 September. Missouri governor Mike Kehoe will announce his appointment for Bailey’s replacement on Tuesday.
Donald Trump on Monday announced that lawyers are drafting an executive order to eliminate mail-in voting, days after Vladimir Putin told him US elections were rigged because of postal ballots. In a White House meeting alongside Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump said: “We’re going to start with an executive order that’s being written right now by the best lawyers in the country to end mail in ballots because they’re corrupt.” More here.
Texas Democrats returned to their state on Monday as California lawmakers convened in the state capitol to kick off a rapid push to get voters to approve a new congressional map that could add as many as five Democratic seats in the US House. The California effort is in response to Texas’s push to redraw the congressional map there to add five Republican seats. On Friday, Texas’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott, called a second special session after Democrats remained out of the state for two weeks, denying Republicans a quorum to conduct legislative business. Here’s the full story.
In light of these efforts, governor Gavin Newsom applauded California Democrats introducing the legislation as part of an effort to counter a Republican redistricting proposal by creating new congressional maps in California. The plan, led by Newsom, would put redistricting before voters in a special election this fall. It would allow the legislature to bypass California’s independent redistricting commission and redraw congressional lines mid-decade.
The state department said on Monday that the American government played no role in the release of an Israeli official charged with soliciting sex electronically from a minor.
Tom Artiom Alexandrovich was one of eight people charged last week following an undercover operation “targeting child sex predators,” the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police said in a statement issued last week.
According to Reuters, Alexandrovich faces a felony charge of luring or attempting to lure a child or mentally ill person to commit a sex act “with use of computer technology.”
Israeli media said on Thursday that Alexandrovich, who they described as a senior department head in Israel’s National Cyber Directorate, was released by US authorities and is back in Israel.
The report that an Israeli official accused of a felony sex crime was allowed to return home drew a storm of speculation online.
Alexandrovich “did not claim diplomatic immunity and was released by a state judge pending a court date. Any claims that the U.S. government intervened are false,” the state department said via a post on X.
Texas lawmaker Collier refuses to comply with 'demeaning' abuse of power
I spoke with Texas state representative Nicole Collier about her decision to remain inside the House chamber rather than comply with new GOP-imposed requirements that Democrats sign “permission slips” authorizing an around-the-clock law escort by the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Collier said she refused to comply because the measure was both “demeaning” and an abuse of power.
“I refuse to be followed by DPS,” Collier said. “I refuse to take them off the beat of looking for criminals, looking for pedophiles and human traffickers. That’s where they need to be. And I’ve just had enough of them bullying us, telling us what to do.”
She said that requiring lawmakers to sign these documents goes beyond normal procedure. “For them to require us to sign papers, it goes too far in terms of respect and dignity,” Collier told me. “It’s demeaning to me as a person, as a human being.”
Her message to voters from inside the chamber was to resist and participate. “If there’s something that you don’t agree with in your government, you have to resist,” said the state representative from Fort Worth.
I asked how she’s holding up inside the chamber, and how she plans to manage until the Texas House reconvenes on Wednesday.
“I’m grateful for my Democratic colleagues who have come to provide refreshment and nourishment for me,” Collier said. “But I hadn’t thought it through. I’m not worried about that. I’m more worried about my voters, Black and Brown Texans, communities of color and marginalized communities whose rights are being ripped away right in front of our face.”
Updated
Missouri attorney general announces he will serve as co-deputy director of FBI
Missouri attorney general Andrew Bailey announced Monday that he will step down to become co-deputy director of the FBI.
“I am eternally grateful for the opportunity to serve as the Co-Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” Bailey said in a statement. “I extend my deepest gratitude to President Trump and U.S. Attorney General Bondi for the privilege to join in their stated mission to Make America Safe Again”.
Bailey will share the role with deputy director Dan Bongino, as the FBI continues to draw headlines over the ongoing case tied to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Bailey said his last day in office will be 8 September. Missouri governor Mike Kehoe will announce his appointment for Bailey’s replacement on Tuesday.
Updated
Washington has been informed about the intent for the national guard to be armed, though it has not received details about when that could happen or where armed guard members could be deployed in DC, the Associated Press reports.
The move would be a departure from what the Pentagon and army have said about the troops being unarmed. The army said in a statement last week that “weapons are available if needed but will remain in the armory”. Today, the Department of Defense issued the same statement.
Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson also said last week that troops won’t be armed.
In response to questions from the AP about whether guard members in Washington would be armed in the coming days, the District of Columbia national guard said troops “may be armed consistent with their mission and training”.
Updated
The Louisiana national guard said in a statement released on Monday that it was sending 135 members to Washington DC to “protect federal buildings, national monuments and other federal properties”.
“We are a nation of law and order,” governor Jeff Landry said in a post on X. “Our capital is a reflection of our nation’s respect, beauty, and standards.”
“We cannot allow our cities to be overcome by violence and lawlessness,” Landry added.
The announcement comes after Donald Trump mobilized some 800 District of Columbia national guard members to the nation’s capital, which he claims is necessary to get crime under control. Trump has also taken over DC’s Metropolitan police department.
According to the justice department, violent crime hit a 30-year low in DC last year.
Updated
The US air force chief of staff announced on Monday that he planned to retire in the coming months, according to a statement, but did not provide a reason.
Gen David Allvin will have served just two years out of the typical four-year assignment by the time he retires.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity to serve as the 23rd Air Force Chief of Staff and I’m thankful for (Air Force) Secretary Meink, Secretary Hegseth and President Trump’s faith in me to lead our service,” Allvin said.
Allvin said he will retire on or about 1 November.
It was unclear whether Allvin chose to retire or was asked to by Pentagon leaders such as defense secretary Pete Hegseth.
Allvin’s retirement isn’t the first surprise departure at the Pentagon. In April, Joe Kasper, Hegseth’s first chief of staff, unexpectedly left his post after the firing of three senior aides.
Updated
Donald Trump called his Monday meeting with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European partners “very good” and said he began arrangements for a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelenskyy after a subsequent call with Putin.
In a post on Truth Social, he said security guarantees for Ukraine – provided by the European countries with coordination with the US – was discussed during the meeting.
“At the conclusion of the meetings, I called President Putin, and began the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelenskyy,” Trump said.
The US president added that Vice President JD Vance, secretary of state Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff would make arrangements between the two countries.
Updated
After Texas Democrats returned to their state following the two-week quorum break, several Texas lawmakers released a joint statement calling their efforts against the state’s gerrymandering plan a “fire of resistance”.
“When Texas House Democrats denied quorum, they lit the match that sparked a national movement”, reads the statement signed by Texas congressmembers Marc Veasey, Lizzie Fletcher, Sylvia Garcia, Al Green, Vicente Gonzalez, Julie Johnson, Veronica Escobar, Joaquin Castro, and Henry Cuellar. “At a time when people saw no way to fight back against Trump and the Republicans’ racial gerrymandering scheme, Texas Democrats sparked the fire of resistance and gave us hope”.
“Make no mistake: Texas was just the opening act”, they added. “Trump and his allies are attempting to dismantle democracy one district at a time, from Florida to Indiana. Texas House Democrats won this battle — it’s on the rest of us to finish what they started”.
Following today’s talks between Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders at the White House, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said in a post on X Monday that they were there “as allies and friends, for peace in Ukraine and in Europe”.
“This is an important moment, as we continue to work on strong security guarantees for Ukraine and a lasting and durable peace,” she added.
Attached to the post was a picture of several European leaders, including Von der Leyen, and the US president.
Updated
ICYMI: The Guardian’s Luke Harding reports on which European leaders accompanied Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s at the White House today:
European leaders gathered in Washington on Monday for Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s meeting with Donald Trump in the Oval Office, in a show of support for the Ukrainian president. Their presence came amid expectations that Trump would try to bully Zelenskyy into accepting a pro-Russia “peace plan” that would include Kyiv handing territory to Moscow. The Europeans have been described as Zelenskyy’s “bodyguards”, with memories fresh of the mauling he received in February during his last Oval Office visit. So, who are they?
Mark Rutte – Secretary general of Nato
Rutte has a proven record of flattering Trump for strategic purposes, using language that some allies find cringe-making. In June he referred to the capricious US president as “Daddy” in an attempt to avoid disastrous outbursts at the Nato summit. Rutte has repeatedly praised Trump in public, including in a recent interview on Fox News, and credits him for pushing Nato members to spend 3.5% of their GDP on defence. The US had carried the burden of European security for too long, Rutte has said – music to Trump’s ears.
Ursula von der Leyen – President of the European Commission
Von der Leyen is a staunch supporter of Ukraine who backs Kyiv’s EU membership. For Trump, she is a reminder of Europe’s combined importance as an economic bloc. The US struck a trade deal with the EU three weeks ago, and Trump hailed the relationship as “the biggest trading partnership in the world”. On Sunday she hosted Zelenskyy in Brussels. She said a post-peace-deal Ukraine had to become “a steel porcupine, indigestible for potential invaders”, with no limits on its armed forces.
Here’s the full story on Zelenskyy’s European “bodyguards”:
Updated
Newsom praises California redistricting package as chance to 'fight back' against Republican gerrymandering
Governor Gavin Newsom praised California lawmakers for introducing a legislative package that, if passed, would allow Californians to respond to actions taken by president Donald Trump in Texas and other Republican-led states.
California Democrats introduced the legislation on Monday as part of an effort to counter a Republican redistricting proposal by creating new congressional maps in California.
The plan, led by Newsom, would put redistricting before voters in a special election this fall. It would allow the legislature to bypass California’s independent redistricting commission and redraw congressional lines mid-decade. The package includes a proposed state constitutional amendment and calls for a special election on 4 November.
“California and Californians have been uniquely targeted by the Trump administration, and we are not going to sit idle while they command Texas and other states to rig the next election to keep power – pursuing more extreme and unpopular policies,” Newsom said in a statement.
“This proposal would give Californians a choice to fight back – and bring much needed accountability and oversight to the Trump administration.”
Updated
Agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins said the department will no longer support solar and wind projects on productive farmland.
In a post on X, Rollins added that the department of agriculture is also “ENDING the use of panels made by foreign adversaries like China”.
The decision marks the latest step in the Trump administration’s push to curb wind and solar development, which Trump says are unreliable, expensive, and dependent on Chinese supply chains. The USDA has provided over $2bn for renewable energy projects, such as solar and wind, through its Rural Energy for America Program.
“Millions of acres of prime farmland is left unusable so Green New Deal subsidized solar panels can be built. This destruction of our farms and prime soil is taking away the futures of the next generation of farmers and the future of our country,” Rollins said on X.
Updated
The justice department has agreed to provide Congress with documents from the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation, a House lawmaker said Monday.
The records are slated to be delivered starting Friday to the House oversight committee, which earlier this month issued a broad subpoena to the justice department about the high-profile criminal case.
“There are many records in the DoJ’s custody, and it will take the Department time to produce all the records and ensure the identification of victims and any child sexual abuse material are redacted,” Kentucky representative James Comer, the Republican committee chair, said in a statement. “I appreciate the Trump Administration’s commitment to transparency and efforts to provide the American people with information about this matter.”
The committee’s subpoena sought all documents and communications from the case files of Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. It also demanded records about communications between former Democratic president Joe Biden’s administration and the justice department regarding Epstein, as well as documents related to an earlier federal investigation into Epstein in Florida that resulted in a non-prosecution agreement in 2007.
The investigation has long drawn public attention, recently unsettled senior levels of Donald Trump’s administration, and remains a frequent target of conspiracy theories.
Updated
As the president meets with European leaders and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, here's a recap of the day so far
Donald Trump doubled down on his baseless claims that mail-in voting is fraudulent and inaccurate. In his press conference with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president went on a lengthy detour, expanding on his earlier threats to end mail-in voting and the use of voting machines. “We’re going to start with an executive order that’s being written right now by the best lawyers in the country to end mail-in ballots because they’re corrupt,” he said. The constitution gives the president no power in setting federal elections standards and courts have already blocked a March executive order seeking to unilaterally change election practices.
Also today, the president met with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and had a press spray that was considerably more cordial than the Ukrainian leader’s last White House visit in February. My colleagues are bringing you the latest here. It all comes after Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska that resulted in very few tangible steps to ending the war in Ukraine. For his part, Zelenskyy had back up with several European leaders in tow for a hastily organised summit.
The Texas house achieved quorum today for the first time in two weeks, since state Democrats staged a walkout in protest of a gerrymandered congressional map drawn by Republicans. Today’s quorum now paves the way for the new map to pass the Texas legislature – and for the redistricting battle across the country to continue. State lawmakers in California are set to return from recess today to get to work in considering a special election in November, and approving a new congressional map to offset the Democratic losses in Texas.
The conservative outlet Newsmax has agreed to pay $67m to Dominion voting systems to settle a defamation suit over lies about voting in the 2020 election. The settlement came as the case was headed to trial. Earlier this year, Delaware superior court judge Eric Davis ruled that Newsmax had defamed the voting technology by broadcasting false claims about its equipment after the 2020 election. A jury would have considered whether Newsmax was liable for damages. Dominion had sued the outlet for $1.6bn.
As the Trump administration’s takeover of the DC police enters its second week, Tate Reeves, Mississippi’s Republican governor, announced that he approved the deployment of about 200 Mississippi national guard troops to Washington DC. This is the fourth state to send troops to the nation’s capital: GOP governors from Ohio, South Carolina and West Virginia all sent additional soldiers to support the president’s “crime crackdown”.
Updated
Twenty-one attorneys general sue Trump administration for withholding funds for crime victims
The Democratic attorneys general for 20 states and DC have filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration today, arguing that it is withholding funding for crime victims if states don’t comply with “unrelated immigration enforcement efforts”.
The suit, filed in Rhode Island, alleges the justice department is not releasing more than $1bn in congressionally appropriated funds (provided through the Victims of Crime Act) in order to “strong-arm States into supporting the Administration’s immigration policies”.
“The department tasked with ensuring justice for all is targeting victims and survivors as they attempt to navigate some of the most difficult times of their lives,” the Rhode Island attorney general Peter Neronha said in a statement. “We can and must support crime victims, and support must not be illegally tethered to federal policies. We are on the right side of the law here, and we will prevail.”
Updated
Attorney general Pam Bondi said that over the weekend “137 arrests were made and 21 illegal firearms were seized” by federal law enforcement officers in DC.
“In total, there have been nearly 400 arrests—and we are not slowing down,” she wrote on X. “We are committed to making DC safe again!”
Trump addresses press with European leaders
The president has wrapped his meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and is now speaking in the East Room, joined by several European leaders and the Ukrainian president.
“We also need to discuss the possible exchanges of territory, taking into consideration the current line of contact,” Trump said. “We’re going to try and get a a three party meeting, maybe as soon as we can, and have a feeling you and President Putin are going to work something out.”
A reminder that my colleague, Lucy Campbell, is covering the latest on our Europe blog below.
Updated
Oklahoma’s top education official is reportedly introducing a new assessment for teachers coming from California and New York that will gauge their alignment with the so-called Sooner state’s conservative values.
Oklahoma’s public education superintendent, Ryan Walters, told USA Today and CNN that the 50-question certification exam – which is reportedly set to roll out in the coming days – will ask about topics such as the “biological differences between males and females”, freedom of religion and US history.
According to USA Today, the test also includes questions related to false claims that electoral fraudsters handed the 2020 presidential race to Joe Biden at the expense of Donald Trump, who returned to the White House in January.
Walters said that the test – which he has dubbed the “America First” certification, invoking a favored slogan of the Republican president – is intended to ensure that teachers from the two largest Democrat-led states “are not coming into our classrooms and indoctrinating kids”.
He told CNN that while the test will apply to teachers coming from California and New York, it could expand in the future to applicants from up to eight states who want to work in public education in Republican-led Oklahoma.
Walters believes that California and New York have required teachers to “do things that are antithetical to our standards and values as a state” and that the assessment will help ensure “that these teachers agree to teach what is required in the state of Oklahoma”.
Updated
Also in my last post, I cited the former Maricopa County recorder – Stephen Richer. A little reminder Richer is a Republican whose refused to agree with the president’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen. He was in charge of election operations in Arizona’s largest county until 205.
In his post on X, takes a number of the president’s other claims about mail-in voting and machines and debunks them one by one.
From watermark paper:
This is a way of authenticating that the ballot is legitimate. It is NOT a way of counting the ballot. The watermark ballot would still have to be counted either by tabulators or by hand. Watermark has no impact on speed. This makes no sense.
To how voting machines actually work:
Most “voting machines” are simply scanners that read the ovals that you hand marked on your ballot. These work the same way that scanners work when you took standardized tests in high school and college.
Richer also reiterated how, legally, the decision to end mail-in voting, and overhaul the way states conduct their elections is not up to the executive branch:
Article 1 Section 4 Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution gives states authority over the “Times, Places, and Manner” of election administration.
Updated
Trump doubles down on baseless claims that mail-ballots are ‘corrupt’
In his press conference with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Donald Trump has spent a chunk of time answering a question about his earlier threats to end mail-in voting and the use of voting machines. He said today that “we’re going to start with an executive order that’s being written right now by the best lawyers in the country to end mail-in ballots because they’re corrupt.”
It was a winding detour where he repeated a conspiracy that Democrats prefer mail-in voting because it’s “the only way they can get elected”, and to promote what he described as “transgender for everybody”, “open borders” and crime – which he says is a “new thing they [Democrats] love”.
The president’s remarks included a number of false claims. Namely that the US is “just about the only country in the world” that uses mail-in ballots. Dozens of western democracies use mail-in voting, including Canada, the UK, and Germany. Most European countries offer some form of mail voting, and over 100 countries let their citizens vote by mail when living abroad, according to data from International IDEA. The president has, in the past, voted by mail.
Trump also said that voting machines are inefficient and costly, adding that paper ballots allow for results to be released “the same night”. Election officials and experts routinely say this is inaccurate. Stephen Richer, the former recorder of Maricopa county in Arizona, debunked a number of the president’s falsehoods about voting machines.
Richer characterised machines as “highly accurate. And fast. And cheap,” in a post on X today responding to the president’s earlier comments. Similarly, a recent report from the Brennan Center for Justice found that “hand counts are not only less accurate, they take more time than machines, which delays election results.” The report adds that voting machines also save tax payers money.
Updated
Per my last post, my colleague Lucy Campbell is covering the president’s meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House in detail.
She reports that Trump doesn’t rule out future security guarantees in the form of US troops. He added earlier that “it’s never the end of the road. People are being killed and we want to stop that.”
For Zelenskyy’s part, Lucy reports that when Ukraine’s leader is asked if he’s prepared to agree to “redraw the maps” (i.e. cede territory to Russia), Zelenskyy highlights Russia’s continued attacks ahead of today’s talks and emphasises the need to stop the war, stop Russia, by way of diplomacy.
Zelenskyy returns to White House for crucial talks with Trump alongside European allies
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has arrived at the White House for high-stakes talks with Donald Trump and European allies. He was greeted by the US president, both men stopped for pictures by the press before moving swiftly inside.
Zelesnkyy notably appeared to be wearing a suit, thus removing at least one previous point of contention from his last visit in February.
Tate Reeves, Mississippi’s Republican governor, announced that he approved the deployment of about 200 Mississippi national guard troops to Washington DC.
“I’ve approved the deployment of approximately 200 Mississippi National Guard Soldiers to Washington, DC, to support President Trump’s effort to return law and order to our nation’s capital,” he said in a statement today. “Crime is out of control there, and it’s clear something must be done to combat it. Americans deserve a safe capital city that we can all be proud of. I know the brave men and women of our National Guard will do an excellent job enhancing public safety and supporting law enforcement.”
The deployment is part of the Trump administration’s effort to overhaul policing in DC through a federal crackdown on crime and homelessness.
The move comes as protesters pushed back as federal law enforcement and national guard troops flooded the city following Trump’s executive order federalizing local police forces and activating about 800 DC national guard members.
Updated
Texas house achieves quorum as Democrats return to statehouse
The Texas house achieved quorum today for the first time in two weeks since state Democrats staged a walkout in protest of a gerrymandered congressional map drawn by Republicans.
“Let me also be clear about where we go from here. We are done waiting. We have a quorum. Now is the time for action. We will move quickly, and the schedule will be demanding until our work is complete,” said Texas house speaker Dustin Burrows, a Republican. Burrows added that members who left the state, and for whom civil arrest warrants were issued, will only be given permission to leave the legislature if they agree to have a state trooper assigned to them to make sure they return.
The house began a second special session, after ending the first early, on Friday. Today’s quorum now paves the way for the new map to pass the Texas legislature – and for the redistricting battle across the country to continue. State lawmakers in California are set to return from recess today to get to work in considering a special election in November, and approving a new congressional map.
This is part of the overall redistricting race that California governor Gavin Newsom pushed for in order to offset Texas’s map, which could see the GOP pick up five US House seats.
Updated
A federal judge in Miami heard arguments on Monday that detainees at the remote immigration jail in the Florida Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz” are routinely subjected to human rights abuses and denied due process before being deported.
The lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), is one of two separate actions before the courts that could lead to the closure of the controversial facility celebrated by Trump for its harsh conditions.
District court judge Kathleen Williams is expected to rule this week in the other case, brought by an alliance of environmental groups and a Native American tribe, claiming that the immigration jail has inflicted irreversible damage to the fragile wetlands.
Earlier this month, Williams issued a temporary restraining order against the state of Florida halting new construction and expansion of the tented camp, although its operations for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (Ice) were allowed to continue.
The jail currently holds an estimated 700 detainees.
European leaders have begun arriving at White House. Mark Rutte, Nato’s secretary general, was the first to arrive, followed by Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, and Keir Starmer, the prime minister of the United Kingdom.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to be last to arrive.
Updated
Democratic lawmakers in Texas have returned to the state, ending a walkout that broke quorum and blocked Republican efforts to redraw congressional maps at the behest of Trump.
Texas house minority leader Gene Wu, chair of the Texas house democratic caucus, said in a statement that Democrats had returned and had “rallied Democrats nationwide to join this existential fight for fair representation.”
But Texas governor Greg Abbott on Friday already called a second special legislation session in another attempt to rework the state’s congressional maps in an effort to give Republicans another five seats in Congress.
Texas house Democrats left the state earlier this month to deny Republicans the quorum needed to vote on redistricting legislation, a tactic taken several times but is usually unsuccessful.
Gavin Newsom, California’s Democratic governor, unveiled his own redistricting plan on Thursday that he said would give Democrats there five more congressional seats.
Updated
Newsmax to pay $67m to Dominion to settle 2020 election defamation lawsuit
The conservative outlet Newsmax has agreed to pay $67m to Dominion voting systems to settle a defamation suit over lies about voting in the 2020 election.
The settlement came as the case was headed to trial. Earlier this year, Delaware superior court judge Eric Davis ruled that Newsmax had defamed the voting technology by broadcasting false claims about its equipment after the 2020 election. A jury would have considered whether Newsmax was liable for damages. Dominion had sued the outlet for $1.6bn.
“We are pleased to have settled this matter,” Dominion said in a statement to CNN.
In a lengthy statement of its own, Newsmax was defiant, saying it chose to settle not because it was admitting wrongdoing, but because it believed Davis wouldn’t give the company a fair trial.
“Newsmax believed it was critically important for the American people to hear both sides of the election disputes that arose in 2020,” the company said in a statement. “We stand by our coverage as fair, balanced, and conducted within professional standards of journalism.”
Dominion obtained a $787.5m defamation settlement from Fox in 2023 on the eve of a defamation trial in Delaware.
Newsmax agreed to pay $40m to settle a defamation case against Smartmatic, another voting equipment company, last year. One America News, another far right outlet, also settled a defamation case with Smartmatic last year.
Fox is currently defending itself in a pending defamation suit against Smartmatic.
Trump comments to end mail-in voting are part of a strategy to 'sow distrust', says ACLU
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) – one of the country’s largest civil rights organisations – has issued a statement criticising the the president’s posts to social media that threaten to end mail-in voting and end the use of voting machines. They deem his attacks as “part of his strategy to sow distrust in our elections and prevent voters from holding him accountable”.
Here’s the full statement from Sophia Lin Lakin, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project:
“Mail-in voting remains a vital safeguard of our democracy. It ensures that voters with disabilities, those without transportation access, and others who rely on its flexibility and access can exercise their right to vote. President Trump’s attempts to undermine a safe, proven, and reliable method of voting — that he himself uses — along with his attacks on voting technology, are just another part of his strategy to sow distrust in our elections and prevent voters from holding him accountable. We are prepared to protect mail-in voting in court against unfounded and unconstitutional attacks, as we have in Pennsylvania, Mississippi, and other states. Access to mail-in voting is necessary to a fair and inclusive electoral process.”
Ahead of a busy afternoon at the White House, here’s a list of the European leaders arriving shortly. They’ll also take part in a larger meeting with Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen
Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni
French president Emmanuel Macron
UK prime minister Keir Starmer
German chancellor Friedrich Merz
Finnish president Alexander Stubb
NATO secretary general NATO Mark Rutte
Updated
DC's mayor shows signs of pushback since federal takeover
In recent days, DC mayor Muriel Bowser has shown small but concerted signs of pushback against the Trump administration following last week’s federal takeover of the Metropolitan police department (MPD), and deployment of national guard Troops.
Over the weekend, Bowser posted on X: “American soldiers and airmen policing American citizens on American soil is #UnAmerican”.
This came just a day after the DC attorney general Brian Schwalb filed a lawsuit against the Trump White House, alleging a “hostile takeover” of the city’s police when drug enforcement administrator Terry Cole was named “emergency police commissioner”. The justice department ultimately agreed to keep DC police chief Pamela Smith in charge, after a federal judge threatened to block the order.
At a press conference on Friday, Bowser said she was “encouraged” by the administration’s decision to renege on the management of the MPD. She also described last week’s federal takeover as “unsettling and unprecedented” in a letter to residents published on social media. Bowser also characterised the administration’s actions as an “authoritarian push”, having taken a measured approach to the president’s invocation of Section 740 of the Home Rule Act.
Updated
Trump is continuing to rail against his critics on Truth Social, repeating his common refrain that the war in Ukraine would have “never happened” if he were president in 2022.
“I am doing wrong on the Russia/Ukraine MESS, that is Sleepy Joe Biden’s war, not mine,” he wrote. “Despite all of my lightweight and very jealous critics, I’ll get it done — I always do!!!”
The president has just posted on Truth Social ahead of today’s meetings with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a key group of European leaders at the White House. In his post, he raged against the “fake news”, saying they wouldn’t credit him even if he got Russia to “surrender”.
Here’s his post in full:
I am totally convinced that if Russia raised their hands and said, ‘We give up, we concede, we surrender, we will GIVE Ukraine and the great United States of America, the most revered, respected, and powerful of all countries, EVER, Moscow and St. Petersburg, and everything surrounding them for a thousand miles, the Fake News Media and their Democrat Partners would say that this was a bad and humiliating day for Donald J. Trump, one of the worst days in the history of our Country.’ But that’s why they are the FAKE NEWS, and the badly failing Radical Left Democrats. Thank you for your attention to this matter!!!
My colleague, Jakub Krupa, is covering the lead-up to these crucial meetings in detail.
Updated
Trump's plans to target mail-in ballots and voting machines have little legal standing
Donald Trump said on Monday that he will lead a movement to get rid of mail-in ballots, but as president, there’s little he can legally do to take on the practice.
The US constitution gives states the power to regulate the “The Times, Places and Manner” of federal elections. Congress can override those rules by passing federal laws. The constitution gives the president no power in setting federal elections standards and courts have already blocked a March executive order seeking to unilaterally change election practices.
Perhaps previewing a legal argument, Trump said on Truth Social on Monday “the States are merely an ‘agent’ for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes.” That is not what the constitution says and is not an interpretation of the law that courts have ever endorsed.
Trump also suggested on Monday he would end the use of voting machines, but offered few details about what the alternative would be. He said he would replace them with “watermarked paper”. Several localities in the US have tried using hand counts to verify ballot totals, but have found them to be costly, take more time and less accurate than using voting tabulators. Nearly all of the ballots cast in the 2024 election were cast on paper.
Updated
Texas House to reconvene second special session today
As California plans to fight back against Texas’s efforts to redraw their maps, Democrats who left the Lone Star state to break quorum in protest have now returned home from various blue states.
In a statement, Texas House minority leader Gene Wu, who is also chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, said: “We killed the corrupt special session, withstood unprecedented surveillance and intimidation, and rallied Democrats nationwide to join this existential fight for fair representation — reshaping the entire 2026 landscape”
The Texas House is set to reconvene and attempt to achieve quorum at 12pm CT today. The state’s governor, Greg Abbott, immediately called a second special session on Friday, saying that House Democrats were “delinquent” and that he will “continue to use all necessary tools to ensure Texas delivers results for Texans”.
Meanwhile, over the weekend, a Texas judge barred former congressman Beto O’Rourke and his political organization from sending money out of the state after it fundraised for the Democratic state lawmakers who left Texas.
Updated
Washington DC restaurants suffer sharp drop in diners since Trump crackdown
The number of people eating at restaurants in Washington DC has plummeted since Donald Trump deployed federal troops to the city, according to data, as the president’s purported crackdown on crime continues.
Research by Open Table found that restaurant attendance was down every day last week compared with 2024, with the number of diners dipping by 31% on Wednesday, two days after Trump ordered the national guard to patrol Washington.
Trump announced the move on 11 August, claiming that Washington had been “overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged out maniacs and homeless people”. His claims contradicted official statistics which show that violent crime in the capital is at a 30-year low.
Data from Open Table shows that the number of people making online reservations dropped by 16% on Monday compared with the previous year. The number fell by 27% on Tuesday and 31% on Wednesday, as military vehicles and armed troops were deployed to the city.
On Friday, Democrats introduced a joint resolution to end what they described as “egregious attacks on DC home rule”, stating that Trump was overreaching in his actions in Washington.
Updated
California legislature to consider special election and new map proposals
State lawmakers in California are set to return from recess today to get to work in considering a special election in November, and approving a new congressional map.
This is part of the overall redistricting race that California governor Gavin Newsom pushed for in order to offset Texas’s efforts to redraw their own map and pick up five more GOP house seats in the process.
Legislators have a deadline for the end of this week – 22 August – to approve these bills.
Updated
My colleague, Jakub Krupa, is bringing you the latest developments as Volodymyr Zelenskyy travels to the White House today for a meeting with the president, as well as a wider sit-down with Trump and a cadre of European leaders.
The president is set to welcome those leaders at 12pm ET at the White House, Trump will then greet Zelenskyy at 1pm ET, before holding a bilateral meeting with him at around 1:15pm ET. We can then expect a photo opportunity with all the leaders and the president at around 2:30pm ET, followed by a wider meeting at 3pm ET.
Updated
As the new academic year is about to begin at most universities across the United States, many international students are navigating a mix of anxiety and uncertainty as the Trump administration’s crackdown on higher education and immigration continues.
The Guardian asked international students studying in the US to share how they are feeling as they prepare to return to campus. Some described how policy shifts have derailed their academic plans, while others said that they were now reconsidering whether the US is a place where they want to pursue their academic futures.
“Leaving the US after I receive my degree is increasingly a top priority,” said Andre Fa’aoso, a 20-year-old student from Auckland, New Zealand, who is entering his third year at Yale University.
“I have not been thinking too far into the future because I know policy settings are subject to change overnight, and I might wake up to find Yale at the center of a feud with the administration, with my right to study and remain in the US used as a pawn to leverage concessions from universities.”
While Fa’aoso is looking forward to resuming his studies, he said that his return to the US “is shadowed by a genuine nervousness about what it may be like to go through the US border in just over two weeks”.
“I am remaining optimistic that I will go through without a hitch,” he said, adding: “But a part of me has been preparing for what might happen if I get pulled into secondary screening or detained for some arbitrary reason, and I’m not alone in that thought process.”
Trump says he will sign order targeting mail-in ballots, voting machines ahead of 2026 elections
Donald Trump said on Monday he would sign an executive order ahead of next year’s midterm elections, saying he would lead “a movement” targeting mail-in balloting and voting machines across the country.
“I am going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS, and also, while we’re at it, Highly Inaccurate, Very Expensive, and Seriously Controversial VOTING MACHINES,” he wrote in a social media post
Updated
The US special envoy to Lebanon said Monday that his team would discuss the long-term cessation of hostilities with Israel, after Beirut endorsed a US-backed plan for the Hezbollah militant group to disarm.
Tom Barrack, following a meeting with Lebanese president Joseph Aoun, also said Washington would seek an economic proposal for post-war reconstruction in the country, after months of shuttle diplomacy between the US and Lebanon.
Barrack is also set to meet with prime minister Nawaf Salam and speaker Nabih Berri, who often negotiates on behalf of Hezbollah with Washington.
Updated
An aid group that coordinates medical care in the United States for badly injured children from Gaza has said it is “distressed” by the US state department’s decision to stop issuing visitor visas for Palestinians after a far-right influencer complained directly to the secretary of state about their work.
Laura Loomer, who has previously described herself as a “proud Islamophobe”, told the New York Times that she had spoken to Marco Rubio on Friday night to warn the secretary of state of what she called the threat posed by “Islamic invaders”.
The aid group, Heal Palestine, said in a statement that it was “an American humanitarian nonprofit organization delivering urgent aid and medical care to children in Palestine, including sponsoring and bringing severely injured children to the US on temporary visas for essential medical treatment not available at home”.
“After their treatment is complete, the children and any accompanying family members return to the Middle East,” the charity added, to rebut Loomer’s false claim that the visitors were part of a secret wave of “Islamic immigration”.
“This is a medical treatment program, not a refugee resettlement program,” the aid group stressed.
Republican Stacy Garrity seeks to challenge Josh Shapiro's re-election bid
Stacy Garrity, Pennsylvania’s two-term elected state treasurer, said Monday that she will seek the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic governor Josh Shapiro’s re-election bid.
Garrity said in a statement that she will “will bring jobs back, strengthen our economy and make Pennsylvania more affordable for families in every corner of the state”.
Some top Pennsylvania Republicans support Garrity in the 2026 race for governor and hope she’ll see a clear primary field, although those hopes have been buffeted in recent weeks by 2022’s losing gubernatorial candidate, Doug Mastriano, suggesting that he will run again, AP reports.
Garrity has hinted at a run for months and stepped up her criticism of Shapiro. In campaign fundraising appeals, she accused Shapiro of being soft on law and order and hostile to her “pro-worker, pro-energy, pro-America agenda”.
Shapiro has returned fire, blasting her for supporting president Donald Trump‘s big tax break and spending cut package. Shapiro said it would hurt rural hospitals and people who rely on Medicaid, drive up the cost of energy and blow up the federal deficit.
Updated
Vance will attend Trump-Zelenskyy meeting, ABC News reports
JD Vance will attend the Monday meeting between Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump in Washington, ABC News reported on Monday, citing a source familiar with the plans.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
Updated
Donald Trump is waging a war on truth by firing top officials who present facts he finds unpalatable, while he banks on key loyalists at executive agencies to bolster his policies and powers by “rewriting history’s narrative” and squelching dissent, say scholars and former officials.
Trump’s penchant for rejecting facts in an authoritarian style was especially revealed in August by his sudden firing of the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner, charging without evidence that her latest report was “totally rigged”, just hours after she released data undercutting his rosy economic boasts, say critics.
The firing was emblematic of Trump’s expanding battle against people and policies that challenge the US president’s often conspiratorial views about truth such as his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden, which Trump last fall falsely blamed again on “fraud”.
From the justice department to the Environmental Protection Agency to other key agencies, Trump loyalists have pushed falsehoods and taken radical steps to promote Trump’s policies and what a Trump adviser in 2017 dubbed “alternative facts”. In doing so, Trump and his top allies are acting in an authoritarian style by revising history, rejecting facts and widely accepted science, critics add.
“The irony in firing the widely respected economist and BLS commissioner Erika McEntarfer is that the commissioner has very little to do with the actual production of the figures Trump says were ‘rigged’,” said Peter Shane, who teaches constitutional law at New York University.
Germany said on Monday that the US would have to follow through on agreed lower tariffs on Europe-made cars before a wider agreement on trade can be finalised in writing.
“In particular, car tariffs must be reduced quickly as agreed. We are also aware of the considerable burden on the export-orientated economy. ... Our role here is to continue to fully support the European Commission in this process,” a German government spokesman said in a press conference.
The EU and the US struck a framework trade deal in late July with many key details yet to be clarified.
Updated
Donald Trump’s hugely disruptive trade war is setting the stage for a manufacturing renaissance in the US, administration officials say. Outside the White House, many economists are skeptical.
Global trade experts point to many reasons they believe the president’s tariffs will fail to bring about a major resurgence of manufacturing, among them: Trump’s erratic, constantly changing policies, his unfocused, across-the-board tariffs, and his replacing Joe Biden’s carrot-and-sticks approach to brandish sticks at the world.
“I think [Trump’s tariffs] will reduce the competitiveness of US manufacturing, and will reduce manufacturing employment,” said Michael Strain, an economist at the conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI). “They’re raising the costs of production to US manufacturing companies, and that makes manufacturers less competitive. There will be some winners and some losers, but the losers will outnumber the winners.”
The president and his aides insist that higher tariffs on more than 100 countries – making goods imported from overseas more expensive – will spur domestic manufacturing. “The ‘Made in USA’ label is set to resume its global dominance under President Trump,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai claimed recently.
But few economists see that happening. Ann E Harrison, an economics professor and former dean of the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, said the erratic, on-again-off-again rollout of Trump’s tariffs has already gone far to doom the president’s hopes of inspiring a huge wave of manufacturing investment.
Taiwan is an internal matter for China, Beijing’s foreign ministry said on Monday, in response to US president Donald Trump saying Chinese president Xi Jinping told him he will not invade the island while Trump is in office.
Trump made the comments in an interview with Fox News, ahead of talks in Alaska with Russian president Vladimir Putin over Moscow’s war with Ukraine.
Asked about Trump’s remarks at a daily news briefing in Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory.
“The Taiwan issue is purely an internal affair of China, and how to resolve the Taiwan issue is a matter for the Chinese people,” she said.
“We will do our utmost to strive for the prospect of peaceful reunification. But we will never allow anyone or any force to separate Taiwan from China in any way.”
China views Taiwan as its own territory and has vowed to “reunify” with the democratic and separately governed island. Taiwan vehemently opposes China’s sovereignty claims.
Trump-Zelenskyy meeting to take place at 1.15pm ET
Donald Trump’s bilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will take place at 1.15pm ET on Monday at the White House, the White House said in a press guidance statement on Sunday.
Trump will participate in a multilateral meeting with European leaders visiting Washington at 3pm.
It comes as Trump on Sunday urged Zelenskyy to come to a negotiated settlement in the three-and-a-half-year-old conflict with Russia.
“President Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
“No getting back Obama given Crimea...and NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE. Some things never change!!!”
Updated
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said India’s purchases of Russian crude were funding Moscow’s war in Ukraine and has to stop, while adding that New Delhi was “now cozying up to both Russia and China.”
“If India wants to be treated as a strategic partner of the US, it needs to start acting like one,” Navarro wrote in an opinion piece published in the Financial Times, adding that it was risky for US companies to transfer cutting-edge military capabilities to India.
Updated
Three states to deploy hundreds of national guard troops to Washington DC
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news lines.
We start with news that three states have moved to deploy hundreds of members of their national guard to the US capital as part of the Trump administration’s effort to overhaul policing in Washington through a federal crackdown.
West Virginia said it was deploying 300 to 400 troops, while South Carolina pledged 200 and Ohio said it would send 150 in the coming days.
The moves announced on Saturday came as protesters pushed back on federal law enforcement and national guard troops fanning out in the heavily Democratic city following Donald Trump’s executive order federalizing local police forces and activating about 800 District of Columbia national guard members.
West Virginia governor Patrick Morrisey’s office said in a statement that the deployment was “a show of commitment to public safety and regional cooperation” and the state would provide equipment and “approximately 300-400 skilled personnel as directed”.
The statement came after Trump ordered hundreds of Washington DC national guard troops to mount a show of force and temporarily took over the city’s police department to curb what the president depicts as a crime and homelessness emergency in the nation’s capital.
Data compiled by the DC police department shows that violent crime was actually at a 30-year-low when Trump returned to office in January, and has declined a further 26% since then.
Read the full story here:
In other developments:
In a combative series of interviews on Sunday, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said that “both sides are going to have to make concessions” for there to be a peaceful resolution to the war that erupted when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. “You can’t have a peace agreement unless both sides make concessions – that’s a fact,” the Trump administration’s top diplomat said Sunday on ABC’s This Week.
A Texas judge has expanded a restraining order against former congressman Beto O’Rourke and his political organization over its fundraising for Democratic state lawmakers who left Texas to prevent a legislative session on congressional redistricting.
The US state department announced on Saturday that it would stop issuing visas to children from Gaza in desperate need of medical care after an online pressure campaign from Laura Loomer, a far-right influencer close to Donald Trump who has described herself as “a proud Islamophobe”.
When Donald Trump’s Department of Justice requested the release of grand jury transcripts in criminal proceedings against sex-traffickers Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, the move did little to quiet an ever-growing chorus of critics frustrated by the US president’s backtracking over disclosing investigative files. Read the full story here.
Updated
