Trump tries to move on amid Epstein files backlash as speaker calls for their release – US politics live

President tries to downplay issue amid growing outrage from conservatives

President Donald Trump will meet with Qatar’s prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani on Wednesday to discuss negotiations over a Gaza ceasefire deal, Axios reporter Barak Ravid posted on X.

Israeli and Hamas negotiators have been taking part in the latest round of ceasefire talks in Doha since 6 July, discussing a US-backed proposal for a 60-day ceasefire that envisages a phased release of hostages, Israeli troop withdrawals from parts of Gaza and discussions on ending the conflict.

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Qatar dashes hopes of rapid Gaza ceasefire, saying talks ‘will need time’

Comments suggest obstacle to Trump’s wish to announce deal during Netanyahu’s Washington visit

Progress towards a ceasefire in Gaza has been slow, officials in Qatar say, dashing hopes of a rapid end to hostilities in the devastated Palestinian territory.

The new round of indirect talks between Israel and Hamas began on Sunday, after both sides accepted a broad US-sponsored outline of a deal for an initial 60-day ceasefire that could lead to a permanent end to the 21-month conflict.

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Tuesday briefing: What you need to know about Trump’s declaration of peace between Israel and Iran

In today’s newsletter: The US president responds to Iran’s limited retaliation by celebrating the end of the war, with Israel confirming agreement to proposal

Good morning. After the United States attacked Iranian nuclear sites early on Sunday, the question was how Tehran would respond. Last night, we saw the beginnings of the answer – and, at least according to Donald Trump, the end of it.

The retaliation came in the form of ballistic missile attacks on a US base in Qatar. While the Iranian authorities called the operation a “mighty and successful response”, no Americans were harmed – apparently by design. Trump described it as a “very weak response”, suggested that the Iranians had “gotten it all out of their ‘system’”, and added: “CONGRATULATIONS WORLD, IT’S TIME FOR PEACE!”

Protest | UK home secretary Yvette Cooper has vowed to ban Palestine Action under anti-terrorism laws, after activists from the group broke into RAF Brize Norton and spray-painted two military planes. PA’s lawyers said that Cooper’s proposal was an attack on freedom of expression and assembly.

Politics | Labour MPs have launched a significant rebellion against the government’s ​benefit cuts with an amendment that could kill its ​welfare bill, spearheaded by senior select committee chairs and which sources say could be signed by up to 100 MPs.

NHS | UK health secretary Wes Streeting has launched a national investigation into “systemic” failures in NHS maternity services in England, saying “maternity units are failing, hospitals are failing, trusts are failing, regulators are failing” and there is “too much passing the buck”.

Ukraine | Volodymyr Zelenskyy described Russia, Iran and North Korea as a “coalition of murderers” during a visit to London, where he held talks with Kier Starmer on how to put further pressure on Moscow to end the war. Ukraine’s president has accused Tehran of being complicit in Russia’s invasion.

Music | U2 guitarist The Edge has officially become an Irish citizen, 62 years after moving from Britain to Ireland, in a step he said was “long overdue”.

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Global alarm at US strikes on Iran amid fears conflict could spiral out of control

Politicians express ‘grave concern’ and urge all parties to de-escalate and return to talks on Iran’s nuclear programme

Nations in the Middle East and beyond responded with alarm after US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites as the EU and the UN called for immediate diplomacy, with fears mounting that the war could trigger a wider escalation that could spiral out of control.

Gulf states, who historically have been regional rivals with nearby Iran and critical of its nuclear ambitions, expressed serious concern at the US strikes, amid concerns of retaliation against US military bases hosted in their countries.

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Israel and Iran broaden strikes during third day of escalating war

Trump calls for end to conflict and warns Tehran against striking US targets in the region

Israel and Iran have broadened their strikes against each other on the third day of an escalating war that has killed and injured hundreds of people, as Donald Trump called for an end to the conflict and warned Tehran against striking US targets in the region.

G7 leaders flying to Canada for a summit that starts on Monday are likely to try to use their time with the US president to urge him to keep the US out of the conflict and use his influence with Israel to broker a ceasefire.

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Trump administration accepts jet from Qatar for possible use as Air Force One

Plane offer set off a firestorm of bipartisan criticism of Trump and raised questions about Qatar’s motives

The Trump administration has accepted the controversial gift of a Boeing 747 jetliner from the government of Qatar, and directed the air force to assess how quickly the plane can be upgraded for possible use as a new Air Force One.

The offer of the jet has set off a firestorm of bipartisan criticism of Trump, particularly following the president’s visit to the country last week to arrange US business deals.

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Qatar defends offer of plane gift to Trump as ‘a normal thing between allies’ – US politics live

PM Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani dismisses concerns country is trying to buy influence as Schumer introduces bill to block such a move

President Donald Trump is expected to head to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to meet congressional Republicans as they aim to reach agreement on a sweeping tax-cut bill, with their narrow majority divided over the scope of spending cuts, reports Reuters.

Hardline Republicans in the US House of Representatives on Friday briefly blocked the advance of the bill – which nonpartisan analysts say could add $3tn to $5tn to the federal government’s $36.2tn debt – but relented on Sunday.

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UK suspends trade talks with Israel as Lammy calls Gaza blockade ‘morally wrong’ and ‘unjustifiable’ – as it happened

Foreign secretary tells parliament that the Israeli government’s ‘egregious actions and rhetoric’ are isolating the country from its friends and partners. This live blog is closed

The Scottish secretary has said the new UK-EU trade deal provides “12 years of certainty and stability” for the fishing industry, amid criticism from the industry that the government has made too large a concession to the EU on fishing rights.

The Scottish Fishermen’s Federation (SFF) has described the deal as a “horror show”, but Ian Murray said: “I don’t agree with that.”

It gives 12 years of certainty and stability for the industry, it doesn’t change any of the deal that was put in place in 2019, which is 25% more quotas for UK and Scottish trawlers and it gives wide access, of course to the new markets of the EU, in terms of pushing away all that red tape that was there before.

Not one more fish will be taken out of Scottish waters by an EU trawler as part of this deal and that provides that stability and certainty.

We should never trust Keir Starmer. You know, he’s screwing things up domestically, so he gets on the international bandwagon.

He’s selling us out, not just on Brexit, but on Chagos and … we’re hearing all sorts of things about Gibraltar. We’ll hold them to account on this. Where Labour negotiates, Britain always seem to lose.

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Trump’s acceptance of Qatar jet gift is ‘definition of corruption’, senator says

Chris Murphy says Trump strategically visited Gulf states ‘willing to pay him off’ as backlash rises against luxury offer

Donald Trump’s acceptance of a $400m Boeing jet from Qatar is the “definition of corruption”, a leading Democrat said on Sunday, as several senior Republicans joined in a bipartisan fusillade of criticism and concern over the luxury gift.

Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator for Connecticut, condemned the “flying grift” on NBC’s Meet the Press as he assailed the president’s trip to several Gulf states this week that included a stop in Qatar.

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Gaza ceasefire talks continue as Israel carries out fresh wave of strikes

Netanyahu signals openness to deal but lays out conditions while territory’s hospitals ‘overwhelmed’ with casualties

Ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas have been continuing in Qatar for a second day as Israeli warplanes and artillery launched a fresh wave of strikes across Gaza, killing at least 130 people, according to health officials in the Palestinian territory.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, signalled on Sunday that Israel was open to a deal with Hamas that would include “ending the fighting” in Gaza, but laid out conditions that have been repeatedly refused by the militant Islamist organisation.

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How Donald Trump’s ‘historic’ Gulf state deals benefit a handful of powerful men

The deals stand to enrich tech CEOs substantially by opening up new audiences for their products

On his tour of the Middle East this week, Donald Trump announced a slew of multibillion-dollar tech deals with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. With the sale of the US’s most advanced technology, he also sold the American model of the industry that made it: enormous amounts of power concentrated in the hands of a few men.

The announcements poured in last week: the US and the United Arab Emirates agreed on Abu Dhabi as the site of the largest artificial intelligence campus outside the US. The deal reportedly allows the UAE to import half a million Nvidia semiconductor chips, considered the most advanced in the world for the creation of artificial intelligence products. Saudi Arabia struck a similar deal for semiconductors, obtaining the promise of the sale of hundreds of thousands of Nvidia Blackwell chips to Humain, an AI startup owned by its sovereign wealth fund. Cisco said it had signed a deal with a UAE AI firm to develop the country’s AI sector. The agreements also directed some investment by Saudi firms into US technology and manufacturing. Amazon Web Services and Qualcomm likewise announced deals on cloud computing and cybersecurity.

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‘Very disturbing’: Trump receipt of overseas gifts unprecedented, experts warn

White House remakes foreign policy under pay-for-access code that critics say could violate US constitution

Former White House lawyers, diplomatic protocol officers and foreign affairs experts have told the Guardian that Donald Trump’s receipt of overseas gifts and targeted investments are “unprecedented”, as the White House remakes US foreign policy under a pay-for-access code that eclipses past administrations with characteristic Trumpian excess.

The openness to foreign largesse was on full display this week as the US president was feted in the Gulf states during his first major diplomatic trip abroad this term, inking deals he claimed were worth trillions of dollars and pumping local leaders for investments as he says he remakes US foreign policy to prioritise “America first” – putting aside concerns of human rights or international law for the bottom line of American businesses and taxpayers.

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Middle East crisis live: Trump says US should turn Gaza into ‘freedom zone’ as more than 100 killed in Israeli strikes

US president’s reported comments in Qatar come as scores killed in a second consecutive night of heavy bombing

Gaza’s civil defence agency has said that the death toll from Israeli strikes overnight into Thursday is up to 82 people, updating a previous toll.

“The number of martyrs from Israeli airstrikes on Gaza has risen to 82 after the occupation targeted several homes in northern Gaza,” civil defence spokesperson Mohammad al-Mughayir told AFP, after the agency earlier reported at least 50 dead (see 8.27am BST).

We’re getting close to maybe doing a deal without having to do this … there [are] two steps to doing this, there is a very, very nice step and there is the violent step, but I don’t want to do it the second way.

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Trump 2.0 takes quid pro quo fears to new heights with $400m flying grift

Accepting a ‘gift’ of a luxury jet from Qatar is just the most eye-catching of the president’s ethically questionable acts

Fox & Friends, the show beamed into millions of rightwing Americans’ homes every morning, is not generally considered to be the place where Donald Trump faces the tough questions. The “& Friends” in the show’s title gives that away.

But on Monday morning, the show’s co-host Brian Kilmeade put the billion-dollar question to the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. News had just broken that Trump had decided to accept a gift of a $400m luxury jumbo jet from the government of Qatar, a petro-state which the president once denounced as a “funder of terrorism”.

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‘Just wildly illegal’: top Democrats push to censure Trump’s plan to accept Qatar jet

Four senators, including Cory Booker, say they will press for vote against president’s plan to take $400m gift from Qatar

Top Democrats in the US Senate are pushing for a vote on the floor of the chamber censuring Donald Trump’s reported plan to accept a $400m luxury jet from the royal family of Qatar for use as Air Force One and later as a fixture in the Trump’s personal presidential library.

Four Democratic members of the Senate foreign relations committee said on Monday that they would press for a vote later this week. They said that elected officials, including the president, were not allowed to accept large gifts from foreign governments unless authorized to do so by Congress.

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Trump says planned gift of luxury plane from Qatar is a very ‘transparent’ deal

News of present known as ‘flying palace’ from royal family to replace Air Force One has ignited accusations of bribery and corruption

Donald Trump has indicated he is ready to accept a luxury plane being offered to the US president as a gift from Qatar’s royal family, almost immediately igniting accusations of bribery and corruption as well as commensurate criticism.

A statement from Qatar on Sunday acknowledged it had held discussions with the US about “the possible transfer” of a plane to be used temporarily by Trump as his presidential aircraft, usurping Air Force One. The emirate’s statement denied a final decision over the transfer had been made – or that it was a gift.

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Hamas suspends release of Israeli hostages over ‘violations’ of ceasefire

Israeli military on alert as mediators fear a breakdown in three-week-old truce as Hamas says ‘door remains open’

Hamas has said it is delaying the release of Israeli hostages indefinitely over “violations” of the ceasefire deal, prompting Israel’s defence minister to put the country’s military on alert with orders to prepare for “any scenario in Gaza”.

Mediators fear a breakdown of the three-week-old ceasefire, Egyptian security sources told Reuters, and have postponed talks until they receive a clear indication of Washington’s intent to continue with the phased deal.

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Qatari, US and Egyptian negotiators set up Cairo hub to shore up Gaza ceasefire

Communication lines open 24 hours intended to avoid breakdown over reported violations and other issues

Qatari, US and Egyptian negotiators are running a communications hub in Cairo to protect the ceasefire in Gaza, as Donald Trump said he was not confident the break in fighting would hold.

Violations have already been reported. Medics in Gaza said on Monday that eight people had been hit by Israeli fire. The start of the ceasefire was also delayed when Hamas did not provide the names of hostages to be released.

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Afghans evacuated by US in chaos of withdrawal are languishing in foreign camps, documents reveal

Exclusive: records show evacuees with pending applications to enter US ‘forced to remain in limbo’ in at least 36 countries, some in ‘untenable conditions’

Afghan citizens who fled the country with American assistance after the US’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan remain stranded in third countries, new documents shared exclusively with the Guardian suggest, some at prison-like facilities and many with no clarity about their prospects for resettlement.

US officials won’t say exactly how many Afghans remain at such sites, where they were taken after the withdrawal that involved hundreds of thousands fleeing for their lives during the Taliban’s lightning takeover in 2021. Some advocates estimate that “hundreds” remain stranded in temporary facilities in up to three dozen countries.

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Fifa ignores own report into Qatar World Cup over workers’ compensation

  • Subcommittee points to ‘severe human rights impacts’
  • $50m legacy fund to be used on international development

A long-awaited Fifa report into the legacy of the Qatar World Cup has been published, but only after its key recommendation was rejected by the organisation.

Fifa’s subcommittee on human rights and social responsibility has found that the game’s world body “has a responsibility” to provide financial remedy to workers who suffered loss as a result of employment at the 2022 World Cup. Its report argues that Fifa should use its Qatar legacy fund for those workers. Two days before the report was published, however, Fifa announced that the $50m fund would be used on international development projects instead.

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