Category Archives: US Politics

US election 2024 primaries: follow live results

Posted on by

Primaries are being held in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kansas and Ohio – get up to speed with all the live results as they happen

Five states – Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kansas and Ohio – are holding their presidential nominating contests on Tuesday, with Florida holding only a Republican primary. Donald Trump and Joe Biden expect to sail to victory in their respective parties, growing their delegate counts in a march toward this summer’s conventions, where they will officially secure their parties’ nomination.

Here are the live results from the five presidential primaries.

Continue reading...

US election 2024 primaries: intrigue in down-ballot races as Trump-Biden rematch set

Posted on by

Ohio Republicans choose their nominee in key Senate race while California seeks to replace former speaker Kevin McCarthy

With a rematch set between Joe Biden and Donald Trump after both candidates crossed the delegate threshold needed to clinch their parties’ presidential nominations, suspense around the next wave of Tuesday primaries shifts to a handful of key down-ballot races.

Five states – Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kansas and Ohio – will hold their presidential nominating contests on Tuesday. Trump and Biden are expected to sail to victory, growing their delegate counts in a march toward this summer’s conventions, where they will officially secure their parties’ nomination.

Continue reading...

Peter Navarro: US supreme court denies Trump ally’s bid to avoid prison

Posted on by

Justices find ‘no basis to disagree’ with lower court’s ruling after Navarro, former Trump trade adviser, convicted of contempt

The US supreme court on Monday denied a request by Donald Trump’s former aide Peter Navarro to avoid prison while he appeals his contempt of Congress conviction for defying a subpoena from a panel that investigated the 2021 Capitol attack.

Navarro, who served as trade adviser during Trump’s presidency, is set to become the first senior member of his administration to be imprisoned for actions related to the attempt to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss.

Continue reading...

Trump unable to make $454m bond in civil fraud case, say his lawyers – as it happened

Posted on by

This live blog is now closed. For more on Trump’s bond efforts, you can read our full report:

Donald Trump’s lawyers have asked the appeals court to delay posting the bond to cover the $454m fraud judgment against him until his appeal of the case is over.

The former president’s lawyers filed notices of appeal late last month challenging Judge Arthur Engoron’s 16 February verdict that he lied about his wealth as he grew the real estate empire that launched him to stardom and the presidency.

Continue reading...

Supreme court rules insurrection clause bars local official despite sparing Trump

Posted on by

Decision on New Mexico election official’s 14th amendment appeal comes two weeks after court said ex-president could stay on ballot

The US supreme court declined an appeal on Monday from a former New Mexico county commissioner who was removed from office for his role in the January 6 attack, leaving intact a significant decision that enforced a constitutional ban on insurrectionists holding office.

The commissioner, Couy Griffin, is the only US public official thus far who has been removed from office for his role in the January 6 attack. Citing language in the 14th amendment that bars insurrectionists from holding office, a New Mexico judge removed him in 2022 after he was convicted of trespassing on the Capitol grounds. The New Mexico supreme court dismissed an initial appeal in the state.

Continue reading...

Arizona county fears ‘homelessness on steroids’ as migrant shelter funds end

Posted on by

Additional federal funding for shelter has been caught in broader political battles about illegal migration and government spending

An Arizona migrant shelter that has housed thousands of asylum seekers plans to halt most operations in two weeks when funding from Washington runs out, a problem for towns along the border where officials fear a surge in homelessness and extra costs.

Arizona’s Pima county, which borders Mexico, has said that at the end of the month its contracts must stop with Tucson’s Casa Alitas shelter and services that transport migrants north from the border cities of Nogales, Douglas and Lukeville.

Continue reading...

US foundation cancels RBG awards for Musk and Murdoch after backlash

Posted on by

Dwight D Opperman Foundation had planned to give award named for late supreme court justice to Tesla chief and News Corp mogul

A foundation which stirred controversy by planning to give awards named for the late US supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Elon Musk and Rupert Murdoch said on Monday it had canceled the ceremony.

“While we believe each of the honorees is worthy of our respect for their leadership and their notable contributions, the foundation has decided that the planned ceremony in April 2024 will be canceled,” Julie Opperman, chair of the Dwight D Opperman Foundation, said in a statement.

Musk, 52, the billionaire owner of SpaceX, Tesla and Twitter/X, through which he has taken increasingly rightwing political stances;

Murdoch, 93 and the rightwing media baron owner of Fox News;

Michael Milken, 77, a financier jailed on securities charges, pardoned by Trump and now a philanthropist;

And Sylvester Stallone, 77, the star of films including the Rocky saga and the violent Rambo franchise.

Continue reading...

Trump predicts ‘bloodbath’ if he loses election and claims ‘Biden beat Obama’

Posted on by

Republican candidate insists at Ohio rally that Biden had beaten ‘Barack Hussein Obama’ in elections that never took place

Joe Biden tore into Donald Trump’s mental stability at a dinner in Washington DC on Saturday – just as the former president was making verbal gaffes at a campaign rally in Ohio as well as, during remarks on the economy and auto industry, predicting a “bloodbath” for the country if he met defeat in November’s election.

Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, confused the crowd at an appearance in Vandalia by insisting that Biden had beaten “Barack Hussein Obama” in elections nationally that never took place.

Continue reading...

Mike Pence will not endorse Trump, but will not rule out voting for him

Posted on by

Former vice-president says he ‘respects the right’ of Republicans who plan to vote for the ex-president

Two days after saying he would not endorse a second Donald Trump presidency, former vice-president Mike Pence on Sunday declared his esteem for fellow Republicans who plan to vote for his former boss anyway – and he declined to rule out eventually following suit.

Pence reiterated on CBS’s Face the Nation that he “cannot in good conscience endorse Donald Trump” in November’s election for a number of policy-related decisions that he insisted were not personal between him and the former president whose supporters chanted for Pence to be hanged publicly as they attacked the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.

Continue reading...

‘A campaign for vengeance’: critics warn of a radical second Trump term

Posted on by

After a chaotic first term, experienced advisers are ready to usher in a second presidency ‘driven by imaginary grievances’

The US election primary season is effectively over. Conventional wisdom holds that the two major candidates will now pivot towards the centre ground in search of moderate voters. But Donald Trump has never been one for conventional wisdom.

Detention camps, mass deportations, capital punishment for drug smugglers, tariffs on imported goods, a purge of the justice department and potential withdrawal from Nato – the Trump policy agenda is radical by any standard including his own, pushing the boundaries set during his first presidential run eight years ago.

Continue reading...

Top senator calls on Biden to ‘use all levers’ to pressure Israel over Gaza

Posted on by

Democrat Chris Van Hollen says Biden must cease giving arms to Israel until it lifts restrictions on aid and does more to protect lives

Joe Biden should use his leverage and the law to pressure Israel to change how it is prosecuting the war in Gaza, the Democratic senator Chris Van Hollen said.

Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, is among a group of senators urging Biden to stop providing Israel with offensive weapons until it lifts restrictions on the delivery of food and medicine into Gaza, where children are now dying of hunger and famine looms.

Continue reading...

Former Trump adviser appeals to supreme court to keep him out of prison

Posted on by

Peter Navarro is appealing his conviction for contempt of Congress after he refused to cooperate with the January 6 House inquiry

Donald Trump White House official Peter Navarro appealed to the US supreme court on Friday to allow him to stay out of prison as he appeals his contempt of Congress conviction.

Navarro is due to report to a federal prison on Tuesday after an appeals court ruled that his appeal wasn’t likely to overturn his conviction for refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the January 6 attack that Trump supporters aimed at the US Capitol in 2021.

Continue reading...

‘My soul is so tired’: Stormy Daniels stands up to Maga hate in new film

Posted on by

The adult film star – at center of hush-money payments in run-up to 2016 election – is featured in the new documentary Stormy

Stormy Daniels, the adult movie star who received hush-money payments at the center of one of Donald Trump’s pending criminal cases, says she is “so tired” as she confronts the prospect of testifying against the former president, whose supporters have flooded her social media accounts with threats.

“I’m desensitized to some of it … but I’m also tired,” Daniels says in a new documentary premiering on Monday on Peacock, according to Slate, which reported viewing the film in advance. “Like, my soul is so tired. And I don’t know if I’m so much a warrior now as out of fucks, man. I’m out of fucks.”

Continue reading...

Trump hush-money trial delayed for 30 days as lawyers review new evidence

Posted on by

Judge agrees to month-long postponement after Trump lawyers say they need more time to sift through newly released documents

A judge on Friday delayed Donald Trump’s hush-money criminal trial until at least mid-April after the former president’s lawyers said they needed more time to sift through a profusion of evidence they only recently obtained from a previous federal investigation into the matter.

Judge Juan Manuel Merchan agreed to a 30-day postponement and scheduled a hearing for 25 March to address questions about the evidence dump. The trial had been slated to start on 25 March. It is among four criminal indictments against Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee.

Continue reading...

Biden says Schumer made ‘good speech’ in breaking with Benjamin Netanyahu

Posted on by

President also condemns US surge in Islamophobia in comments that could portend broader shift in sentiment towards Gaza war

Joe Biden on Friday said Senator Chuck Schumer made “a good speech” that reflected many Americans’ concerns when he publicly broke with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, over his handling of the war in Gaza.

While the US president announced no changes in his administration’s policy towards Israel, his views on the speech Schumer made Thursday from the floor of the US Senate, where the New York Democrat is the majority leader, could portend a broader shift in sentiment.

Continue reading...

Ex-intern for Republican candidate says post on adult website was ‘a prank’

Posted on by

Bernie Moreno, a hardline LGBTQ+ opponent running for Senate seat in Ohio, appeared to look for ‘men for 1-on-1 sex’ in 2008 profile

A former intern to Bernie Moreno, Donald Trump’s endorsed candidate for US Senate in Ohio and a hardline opponent of LGBTQ+ rights, said he wrote as an “aborted prank” a post on the Adult Friend Finder website in which Moreno appeared to look for “young guys to have fun with” and “men for 1-on-1 sex”.

“I am thoroughly embarrassed by an aborted prank I pulled on my friend, and former boss, Bernie Moreno, nearly two decades ago,” the former intern, Dan Ricci, said in a statement provided to the Associated Press by Moreno’s lawyer.

Continue reading...

Judge says Fani Willis affair was ‘tremendous lapse in judgment’ but rules she can stay on Trump Georgia case – live

Posted on by

Scott McAfee rules Willis can continue case on Trump attempts to overturn 2020 election result if deputy steps down but says court cannot condone relationship

House speaker Mike Johnson has acknowledged that it is unclear if House Republican impeachment investigation into Joe Biden will disclose impeachable offenses.

Johnson admitted that “people have gotten frustrated” with the inquiry as he spoke to reporters on Wednesday.

I know that people have gotten frustrated sometimes that it’s [dragged] on too long. But in our constitutional system, that is the way it’s supposed to work.

Does it reach the ‘treason, high crimes and misdemeanor’ standard? Everyone will have to make that evaluation when we pull all the evidence together.

Continue reading...

Vermont senator Bernie Sanders introduces four-day workweek bill

Posted on by

Independent lawmaker says it’s time for workers to have a better quality of life with a 32-hour workweek without loss of pay

Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont who twice ran for the Democratic presidential nomination, introduced a bill to establish a four-day US working week.

Studies and pilot programmes have shown that four-day workweeks can increase productivity and happiness. Given Republican control of the House and a Senate split 51-49 in favour of Democrats, however, the legislation stands little chance of success.

Continue reading...

White House lawyer tells House speaker to end Biden impeachment ‘charade’

Posted on by

Scathing letter from White House counsel tells Republican Mike Johnson ‘it is clear the House Republican impeachment is over’

The White House’s top lawyer told House Republicans to give up on their impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, calling the investigation a “charade”.

The White House counsel, Ed Siskel, told the House speaker, Mike Johnson that “it is clear the House Republican impeachment is over” in a scathing letter sent on Friday morning.

Continue reading...

Steven Mnuchin putting together investor group to buy TikTok

Posted on by

Ex-treasury secretary tells CNBC of plans a day after US House passes bill giving app’s owner six months to divest or face US ban

Steven Mnuchin is putting together an investor group to try to buy TikTok, he told CNBC on Thursday.

The former US treasury secretary’s comment comes just a day after the US House of Representatives passed a bill that would give the short-video app’s Chinese owner ByteDance about six months to divest the US assets or face a ban. If it did not, app stores including the Apple App Store and Google Play would be legally barred from hosting TikTok or providing web-hosting services to ByteDance-controlled applications.

Continue reading...