Mueller testimony: expectation builds in Washington for ‘explosive’ hearing – live

The special counsel will make an opening statement in his appearance before Congress tomorrow to discuss the Trump-Russia investigation

Here’s where things stand:

In his comments to the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, Trump praised the incoming British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage.

Trump notes that Nigel Farage is in the crowd for his speech to Turning Point USA. "I said 'what's Nigel doing here?' He's a little older than you folks. He's going to work well with Boris. They're going to do tremendous things."
He adds: "Boris is good. he'll do a good job."

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Budget deal: Republicans and Democrats agree to raise debt ceiling – as it happened

The US was on track to run out of money in September if there was no deal

We’re ending our live coverage for the day, thanks for following along. Tune in tomorrow for what is sure to be a busy day as DC braces for Robert Mueller’s congressional testimony this week. Here are some key events and links from the day:

Here’s a story from today about a neighborhood in Nashville, Tennessee that apparently collectively organized to stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) from detaining a man:

When we #ProtectEachOther we win ✊https://t.co/uK9e1vFZBe

I’m outside a home in Hermitage where neighbors say ICE agents tried to take a man from his home early this morning. Neighbors say the man was in his van with his young son and they stayed there for 4 hours or so. Neighbors say they refused to let agents take the man.

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Nadler: Mueller has evidence of Trump high crimes and misdemeanours

The eyes of America will be trained on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, as Robert Mueller testifies before two House committees about his report on Russian election interference, links between the Trump campaign and Moscow and potential obstruction of justice by the president.

Related: 'It's a political civil war': Trump's racist tirades set tone for 2020

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Ocasio-Cortez wants ‘9/11-style commission’ on family separations

  • Democratic congresswoman hosts event in New York district
  • Tells crowd Trump ‘sent me back to Queens’ with racist attack

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called for a “9/11-style commission” to investigate child separation on the border with Mexico on Saturday, and said the US government has a life-long responsibility to children it severed from their parents, to provide them with mental health support.

Related: Bieber thanks Trump over A$AP Rocky but urges: 'Let those kids out of cages'

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Trump praises ‘incredible’ crowd who chanted ‘send her back’ at Ilhan Omar – live

President abandons disavowal of racist chants aimed at the congresswoman, saying ‘she’s lucky to be where she is’

Republican Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana have introduced a resolution that would designate the far-left group Antifa as a hate group.

Trump said during his comments to reporters in the Oval Office that the White House is trying to get rapper A$AP Rocky released from Swedish detention.

Pres. Trump on ASAP Rocky's case: "I personally don't know ASAP Rocky, but I can tell you that he has tremendous support. from the African-American community .. and when when I say African-American, I really can really say from everybody in this country because we are all one" pic.twitter.com/D95q2ZMGBc

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‘Despicable’: Democrats condemn Trump over rally’s Ilhan Omar chant

Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren denounced the president after rally erupted into chants of ‘send her back’

Democrats have rushed to condemn Donald Trump after his supporters erupted into chants of “send her back” at the mention of Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar, one of the targets of the president’s recent racist tweets.

Presidential candidates and senior members of Congress called the chant at a Trump rally in North Carolina on Wednesday night “despicable” and “vile”. Some expressed fears for Omar’s safety.

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Democrat Ilhan Omar says Donald Trump is a ‘fascist’ – video

Representative Ilhan Omar has responded to Donald Trump's criticism of her as well as the chanting of 'send her back', which was heard at a Trump rally in North Carolina. Speaking at Capitol Hill on Thursday, she said 'we have said this president is racist' before later adding that she believes Trump 'is a fascist'. 

Earlier, Trump was asked about the crowd's shouting at his rally and claimed that he 'disagrees' with the chanting directed at the Democrat.

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Trump says he ‘disagrees’ with racist chant against Ilhan Omar – video

Donald Trump has attempted to distance himself from the racist chanting that broke out at his rally in North Carolina on Wednesday. After the president mentioned Democrat Ilhan Omar, the crowd began chanting: 'Send her back'. Speaking in the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump said that he started speaking 'very quickly' in an attempt to defuse the chanting. Adding that: 'I was not happy with it - I disagree with it.'

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Donald Trump says tweets about congresswomen were ‘not at all’ racist – video

Donald Trump has said that his tweets on Sunday were 'not at all' racist after he was questioned by the media as he walked up the podium at his Made in America showcase speech. 

On Sunday, the US president used racist language to attack four progressive Democratic congresswomen, telling them to 'go back and help fix the totally broken and crime[-]infested places from which they came'. Trump did not name his targets, but the attack was directed at a group of liberal congresswomen who have had a run-in with the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and who are sometimes referred to as 'the Squad': Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota

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‘You can leave’: Trump unrepentant over racist attack on congresswomen

  • Weekend tweets had urged them to ‘go back’ home
  • President targets Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib, Pressley and Omar

In the face of international condemnation – and a trickle of disapproval from his own party – Donald Trump has returned to the offensive against four Democrats he targeted with racial invective on Sunday.

Related: 'Go back home': Trump aims racist attack at Ocasio-Cortez and other congresswomen

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‘Go back home’: Trump aims racist attack at Ocasio-Cortez and other congresswomen

Donald Trump used racist language to attack “the Squad” on Sunday, saying four progressive Democrats who have clashed with party leaders should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came”.

Related: ‘Is Bernie going to come?’ Warren seizes on Sanders' Netroots absence

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Trump labor secretary Alex Acosta resigns amid Epstein plea deal scandal – live

Acosta was under fire for having granted Jeffrey Epstein immunity from federal prosecution in 2008, following sex trafficking ring investigation

Another big House vote this afternoon.

With a 402-12 vote, Congress approved a bill that would ensure funding for the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund.

Jon Stewart says he looks forward to signing ceremony for bill funding 9/11 first responders compensation fund: "We'll all be here for that one final moment—not of celebration, but of relief. Let them exhale." https://t.co/NkJuIoh4fP pic.twitter.com/p7PI4cLDOc

The House has just voted to limit Trump’s authority to make war in Iran as part of a bill which also restricts the president’s budget request for the Pentagon.

Republicans joined the majority Democrats for a 251-170 vote.

Trump said last month he believes he does not need congressional approval to strike Iran. The vote Friday amounted to a pointed and bipartisan rebuttal — led by strange ideological bedfellows, Representatives Ro Khanna, a liberal Democrat from California, and Matt Gaetz of Florida, one of Trump’s most strident Republican allies in Congress.

“When this passes, it will be a clear statement from members of Congress on both sides of the aisle that this country is tired of endless wars, that we do not want another war in the Middle East,” Khanna said before the amendment vote.

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Omar hits back at ‘racist fool’ Tucker Carlson after Fox News host’s on-air rant

Fox News host railed against Democratic congresswoman in monologue full of anti-immigrant rhetoric and personal insults

The Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar has called the Fox News presenter Tucker Carlson a “racist fool” after he made a racially loaded attack on her live on air.

Related: Trump's Fourth of July event 'bankrupted Washington DC security fund' – live

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Billionaire Tom Steyer makes 2020 U-turn and announces run for president

  • Steyer, Democrats’ largest donor, says he will run after all
  • Activist favors Trump impeachment and climate crisis action

Billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer has formally launched his campaign for president, making a late entry into the sprawling 2020 Democratic field that has already held its first round of primary debates.

Related: Donald Trump: we will no longer deal with the British ambassador

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Pelosi: Trump wants to ‘make America white again’ with census question – live

Pelosi attacks Trump’s 2020 citizenship question as ‘disgraceful’, while Trump says US will no longer deal with UK ambassador Kim Darroch

As House Democrats began issuing subpoenas for President Trump’s financial records, the Justice Department fought a federal judge’s decision to allow the lawsuit accusing Trump of profiting off the presidency to go forward, the Associated Press is reporting:

Justice Department lawyers want an appeals court to take the case instead.

They filed papers Monday seeking to move the case from federal court in D.C. to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia. They also want to stop subpoena requests seeking Trump’s business tax returns, and documents from Trump’s D.C. and New York hotels, Mar-a-Lago Club and Trump Tower.

Our climate and environment reporter, Susie Cagle, listened in on President Trump’s speech about “maintaining a healthy environment.” Here are some choice quotes from the speech:

Related: What Trump gets wrong about wildfires, by a fire scientist

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Trump calls Ocasio-Cortez ‘Evita’ in new book American Carnage

  • President interviewed for book on Republican civil war
  • Comparison to Eva Perón indicates respect for Democrat

Donald Trump has compared Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Eva Perón, saying that though he first saw the New York congresswoman “ranting and raving like a lunatic on a street corner” and thinks “she knows nothing”, she has “a certain talent”.

Related: When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez met Greta Thunberg: 'Hope is contagious'

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Trump says he’s considering executive order to force census question – as it happened

We’re ending live coverage for the day, thanks for following along! Here’s a recap and key links from the day:

The Washington Post takes a look at how just how much paper the 2020 Census will require. Spoiler alert: it’s a lot.

The amount of paper that will be printed for the Census is more than enough to cover the entirety of D.C. https://t.co/UM0WY7XCAk

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Biden jabs leftwing Democrats and says Trump a bully he’d ‘smack in the mouth’

Democratic frontrunner defends ‘centre-left’ credentials but admits he wasn’t prepared for debate attack from Kamala Harris

Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential frontrunner, hit out at the Democratic party’s left wing on Friday, suggesting firebrand progressives cannot win in battleground states.

Biden meanwhile admitted he wasn’t prepared for the attack by rising challenger Senator Kamala Harris on his historic handling of race issues in the first primary debates last week – and said Donald Trump was a bully and he would “smack him in the mouth”.

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Is a new generation taking over the Democratic party? – podcast

Kamala Harris was the big winner of the first round of Democratic party debates in the US. This week, her poll numbers surged and so did donations to her campaign. But as Lauren Gambino in Washington notes, it was bad news for the frontrunners as Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders faltered. Also today: Daniel Boffey on the new cast of characters taking over the EU’s top jobs

The race for the Democratic party’s presidential nomination is intensifying after two rounds of televised debates in which the candidates squared up to each other on major issues and their past records. The big winner was the California senator Kamala Harris, who denounced the record of the frontrunner, Joe Biden, on race.

The Guardian’s Lauren Gambino joins Anushka Asthana to look across the diverse field of potential presidential nominees and the debates that highlighted the generational and ideological divides in the party.

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Booker not sure Biden ‘up to the task’ of reconciling US over racial injustices

Booker, a Democratic presidential candidate, says Biden has ‘an inability to talk candidly about the mistakes he made’

The Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker said on Sunday that while the US must fix racial injustice, he is not sure Joe Biden is “up to that task”.

Related: Julián Castro calls Trump Jr a ‘coward’ over racist attack on Kamala Harris

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