Trump allies and rivals rally to his defence after he claims arrest is imminent

Former president says he expects to be arrested on Tuesday but there has been no official confirmation of the likelihood or timing of charges being brought

Top Republicans, including some of Donald Trump’s potential rivals for the party’s 2024 presidential nomination, rushed to his defence after the former president said he expected to be arrested next week.

On Saturday, Trump announced he would be arrested on Tuesday in a criminal case involving hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, but there has been no official confirmation on the likelihood that charges will be brought.

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Biden urgeed an investigation into how guns are peddled to kids. Will it stop the ads?

The action is aimed at expanding last year’s bipartisan Safer Communities act, which strengthened background checks

Last year the Georgia-based gun manufacturer Daniel Defense tweeted an image of a young child with a rifle – about the same size as the child himself – in his lap. “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it,” the caption read.

The post came just eight days before an 18-year-old shot and killed 19 students and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas – using a weapon made by Daniel Defense.

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Wyoming becomes first US state to outlaw use of abortion pills

Bill from Republican-controlled legislature comes as measures to crack down on abortion pills gather pace across the country

Wyoming has become the first US state to outlaw the use or prescription of medication abortion pills after the governor, Mark Gordon, signed into law a bill that was passed by the state’s Republican-controlled legislature earlier this month.

The crux of the two-page Wyoming bill is a provision making it illegal to “prescribe, dispense, distribute, sell or use any drug for the purpose of procuring or performing an abortion”.

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Police reportedly preparing for possible Trump indictment in New York– live

Manhattan grand jury has been investigating former president’s alleged hush money payment to adult film actor Stormy Daniels

A more serious concern for Congress and the White House is TikTok, the wildly popular video-sharing app that many in Washington fear is in cahoots with the Chinese Communist Party. Here’s what we know about the growing feud between the US and China over the app:

TikTok is once again fending off claims that its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, would share user data from its popular video-sharing app with the Chinese government, or push propaganda and misinformation on its behalf.

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Leo Varadkar meets Biden after apparent Clinton-Lewinsky joke

Irish leader meets US president at White House for traditional St Patrick’s Day event a day after making gaffe

Ireland’s taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, has apologised for making an apparent joke about Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky, during an event in Washington on the eve of St Patrick’s Day celebrations.

Varadkar’s comment on Thursday risked overshadowing his meeting with Joe Biden at the White House on Friday for the traditional handing over of a bowl of shamrock to the US president, the most important day in the Irish-American political calendar.

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Biden administration sides with climate lawsuit against fossil fuel companies

DoJ brief argues Colorado case against energy giants ExxonMobil and Suncor should be heard in state court instead of federal

The US Department of Justice filed a legal brief Thursday in support of local governments in Colorado that are part of a growing wave of local and state governments pursuing climate litigation against fossil fuel companies.

In the brief, the DoJ argued that the Colorado case against the Canadian energy giant Suncor should be heard in state court, which is considered more favourable than federal court for plaintiffs who are suing oil companies over climate change. ExxonMobile is also a defendant in the case.

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US banks launch $30bn rescue of First Republic to stem spiraling crisis

Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan agree to prop up troubled bank after its shares tumbled amid wider turmoil

Wall Street’s giants moved to end the US’s spiraling banking crisis on Thursday by agreeing to prop up troubled First Republic, a mid-sized bank whose shares have been pummeled amid a wider banking turmoil.

Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and others will deposit $30bn in First Republic, which has seen customers yank their money following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and fears that First Republic could be next.

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Will UK follow US in demanding TikTok be sold by its Chinese owner?

TikTok will be concerned Rishi Sunak will match each upward ratchet in pressure from his allies

When asked this week whether the UK would ban TikTok on government phones, Rishi Sunak’s response signalled a change in stance: “We look at what our allies are doing.”

Previously ministers had seemed sanguine, even saying that whether or not the app stayed on someone’s phone should be a matter of “personal choice”.

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More than a quarter of Republicans approve of Capitol attack, poll shows

Survey also reveals more than half of Republicans think January 6 was a form of legitimate political discourse

More than a quarter of Republicans approve of the January 6 Capitol attack, according to a new poll. More than half think the deadly riot was a form of legitimate political discourse.

The Economist and YouGov survey said 27% of Republicans either strongly or somewhat approved of the riot on 6 January 2021, which Donald Trump incited in an attempt to overturn his election defeat by Joe Biden.

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Trump-appointed judge seems open to arguments against abortion pill – live

Federal judge in Texas holds hearing on status of mifepristone, which a far-right group claims is unsafe despite FDA approval

The Guardian’s Martin Pengelly reports that a federal prosecutor has unveiled an indictment against a Chinese tycoon tied to Steve Bannon and other top allies of Donald Trump. Here’s what we know so far about the charges:

Ho Wan Kwok, a Chinese tycoon with close links to prominent Trumpist Republicans including Steve Bannon, has been indicted on 12 counts relating to an alleged $1bn fraud.

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Chinese business tycoon and Bannon ally Guo Wengui arrested in $1bn fraud conspiracy

US attorney says Wengui, also known as Miles Guo and Ho Wan Kwok, used stolen money to buy a $3.5m Ferrari and finance a $37m yacht

Guo Wengui, a self-exiled Chinese tycoon with close links to prominent Trumpist Republicans including Steve Bannon, has been indicted on 12 counts relating to an alleged $1bn fraud.

The charges announced by the US attorney for the southern district of New York on Wednesday include wire fraud, securities fraud, bank fraud and money laundering.

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Wellesley College students vote to admit trans men and non-binary people

Proposal also calls for gender neutral language at women’s college whose alumni include Hillary Clinton and Madeleine Albright

Students at the famed Wellesley College for women voted this week to extend admission to trans men and non-binary students, though campus administrators have said there is “no plan” to immediately change school policy.

In a non-binding election on Tuesday, students at the liberal arts college in Massachusetts voted to open admission to all non-binary and transgender students, including trans men, reported Wellesley News, the college’s student newspaper.

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Chris Murphy: Republicans ‘don’t give a crap’ about children or gun violence

The senator, a leading force in the Democratic push for gun control, warns the US is ‘headed towards a very dangerous place’

A Democratic US senator at the forefront of a push to enact new gun control measures has said Republicans “don’t give a crap” about children or gun violence.

Connecticut’s Chris Murphy – who has been a leading force for Democrat gun control efforts since the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting killed 26 people in his state, 20 of them children – made the comment in a wide-ranging interview with Salon that was published on Tuesday.

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Joe Biden to unveil executive order to crack down on law-breaking gun sellers

Merrick Garland, the attorney general, tasked with moving the country ‘as close to universal background checks as possible’

Joe Biden announced Tuesday a new slate of executive actions that are aimed at reducing gun violence and the proliferation of guns that are sold to prohibited people.

The president spoke at a community center in Monterey Park, California, meeting victims’ families and community members devastated by a mass shooting that claimed 11 lives and injured nine other people in January following a large lunar new year festival in the city’s downtown.

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Pat Schroeder, Democrat and feminist pioneer in Congress, dies aged 82

One of her biggest victories was signing a family leave bill in 1993, providing job protection for care of a newborn, sick child or parent

Pat Schroeder, a pioneer for women’s and family rights in Congress who confronted and angered conservatives, has died. She was 82.

Schroeder’s former press secretary, Andrea Camp, said the former congresswoman suffered a stroke recently and died on Monday in Celebration, Florida.

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Special relationship becomes personal as Sunak and Biden bond in San Diego

College football, Mexican cola and muffins – UK prime minister has plenty to talk about in private hour at Aukus

It is common for British and American leaders to try to show the “special relationship” between their two countries extends to them personally.

When Rishi Sunak landed in San Diego for a flash visit to see Joe Biden, the world’s media were spared any such attempts verging on the grandiose.

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DeSantis opposes US aid to Ukraine as Republican presidential race intensifies – live

Likely contender’s statement read on air by Fox News host Tucker Carlson aligns him with rival Donald Trump

Here’s Ron DeSantis’s full statement outlining his position on Ukraine, as posted by Tucker Carlson:

Other big Republican names responded to the Fox News commentator’s questionnaire, including Texas governor Greg Abbott, South Dakota governor Kristi Noem, former vice president Mike Pence and, of course, Donald Trump.

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Joe Biden says Jimmy Carter has asked him to deliver his eulogy

President reveals he visited his Democratic predecessor, who is receiving hospice care at home in Plains, Georgia

Jimmy Carter – who entered home hospice care in February – has asked fellow Democratic president Joe Biden to eulogize him after he dies, Biden has revealed.

Biden told people at a fundraiser in Rancho Santa Fe, California, on Monday that he had recently visited Carter after the 98-year-old former president’s health had “finally caught up with him”, according to multiple reports on the remarks.

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Mitch McConnell released from hospital after treatment for concussion

Senate Republican leader fell and was injured last week, and will now receive physical therapy at inpatient rehabilitation facility

Mitch McConnell was released from the hospital on Monday after the Republican leader of the Senate received treatment for a concussion, and he will continue to recover in an inpatient rehabilitation facility, a spokesman said.

McConnell’s office said his doctors discovered over the weekend that he had also suffered a “minor rib fracture” after he tripped and fell at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Washington on Wednesday evening.

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White House rebukes Mike Pence over homophobic jokes about Pete Buttigieg

Former vice-president took aim at transportation secretary for taking maternity leave and joked about postpartum depression

The White House rebuked the Republican former vice-president Mike Pence on Monday, for making jokes about US transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, maternity leave and postpartum depression that it said were homophobic and offensive to women.

“He should apologise to women and LGBTQ+ people,” said Joe Biden’s press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre.

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