Federal investigators focus on emails between Trump lawyers and congressman – as it happened

Revelation casts light on direction of the criminal inquiry into the former president’s insurrection efforts

Joe Biden is at a town hall for veterans in New Castle, Delaware, choking with emotion when talking about his late son Beau, a former National Guard major for whom the center he was speaking at is named.

The president kept his comments tightly focused on the expansion of benefits and services for veterans resulting from the Pact Act, introducing a second world war pilot, and talking of the need to support and improve the physical and mental health of retired military members.

The Pact Act was the first step of being sure that we leave no-one behind.

We also need to pass the bipartisan government funding bill so we can deliver on the act’s promise.

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Nancy Pelosi tells of ‘proud’ record as speaker in likely final press conference – live

Nancy Pelosi has given what she suggests will be her final press conference as House speaker, telling reporters this is “maybe the last time I see you in this way”.

She’s been reflecting on some of the successes of her tenure, and paying tribute to Joe Biden and Barack Obama for most of them, from the passing of the Affordable Care Act to this week’s signing of the same-sex Respect for Marriage Act.

He has been a remarkable president. He has a record that is so outstanding, and for such a short period of time as well.

People compare him to Lyndon Johnson, to Franklin Roosevelt, but I’d remind you all that Roosevelt had 319 Democrats in the House, President Biden 222, whatever it is, and even fewer now.

Passing the American rescue plan, getting vaccines at arms, money in pockets, children back to school and people safely back to work, the bipartisan infrastructure law, building roads, bridges, ports and water systems…

Bringing people together, not projects that divide communities but bringing people together, and this such a source of pride, putting justice and equity front and center.

We won’t relent until the job is done, until we can have background checks, and have banned assault weapons.

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‘Losing the plot’: Trump mocked after announcing superhero card collection

Cards cost ‘only $99 each’ and ‘would make a great Christmas gift’, said former president in video as he made ‘major announcement’

Donald Trump walked into a comic book universe of internet mockery on Thursday, when in a carefully trailed announcement he introduced his “official Donald Trump Digital Trading Card” collection with a picture of himself in superhero costume, cape and “Trump Champion” belt.

“Just when you thought this grifter couldn’t humiliate himself any more than he already has,” wrote John Kiriakou, a CIA whistleblower turned author, “there’s this. THIS is what the big announcement was.”

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US government sues Arizona over shipping container wall on Mexico border

The complaint claims that the state of Arizona is trespassing on federal lands and says the US is entitled to compensation

The US government sued Arizona governor Doug Ducey and the state on Wednesday over the placement of shipping containers as a barrier on the border with Mexico, saying it is trespassing on federal lands.

The complaint filed in the US district court comes three weeks before the Republican governor steps aside for Democratic governor-elect Katie Hobbs, who has said she opposes the construction.

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Biden says he’s ‘all in’ on Africa’s future at leadership summit – as it happened

President commits to strengthening Africa’s food supplies, tackling climate and partnering to take on rising global power

Back at the House oversight hearing into anti-LGBTQ+ violence, Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) says her group has recorded an alarming surge in hate-related killings:

Over the last 10 years, the campaign has tracked over 300 incidents of fatal violence against transgender and gender non-conforming people. In 2022 so far, we’ve recorded the murder of 35 people.

It’s fueled by nearly unfettered access to guns, political extremism and rhetoric that is deliberately devised to make our community less safe, less equal, and less free. Violence has become a lived reality for so many in our community.

We should have societal guilt for taking too long to deal with this problem. We have a moral obligation to pass and enforce laws that can prevent these things from happening again. We owe it to the courageous, young survivors and to the families who lost part of their soul 10 years ago to turn their pain into purpose.

A few months ago, I signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act into law. We’ve reined in so-called ghost guns which have no serial numbers and are harder to trace. We’ve cracked down on gun trafficking and increased resources for violence prevention.

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Republican who urged Trump to declare ‘Marshall’ law only regrets misspelling

Text from Ralph Norman to Mark Meadows, Donald Trump’s final chief of staff, urged president to declare martial law

A Republican who urged the Trump White House to declare martial law to stop Joe Biden taking office has only one regret: that he misspelled “martial”.

The text from Ralph Norman of South Carolina to Mark Meadows, Donald Trump’s final chief of staff, was given to the January 6 committee by Meadows and revealed by Talking Points Memo.

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Ron DeSantis leads Donald Trump by 23 points in Republican poll

Florida governor takes enormous lead over embattled ex-president for 2024 race as Mike Pence nears a run of his own

In a new poll regarding potential Republican nominees for president in 2024, the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, led Donald Trump by a whopping 23 points.

Republican and Republican-leaning voters dealt the significant blow to the former president’s ego in a survey carried out by USA Today and Suffolk University and released on Tuesday.

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African leaders gather in US as Joe Biden aims to reboot rocky relations

President and Antony Blinken woo nations at summit in Washington in hope they will align with west rather than Russia or China

Dozens of African leaders have assembled in Washington for a summit aimed at rebooting US relations on the continent, which have languished in recent years.

The US-Africa summit, the first since 2014, will be the biggest international gathering in Washington since the pandemic and the most substantial commitment by a US administration to boosting its influence in the region for almost a decade.

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US announces fusion energy success ‘that could revolutionize the world’ – live

Breakthrough came after experiment with 192 high-energy lasers, say US energy officials

The energy department’s press conference on the breakthrough in its fusion experiment has wrapped up, but before it concluded, a top official said it could be a long time before the technology becomes commonly used.

“There are very significant hurdles, not just in the science but in technology,” said Kim Budil, director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where the experiment was conducted. “This is one igniting capsule one time, and to realize commercial fusion energy, you have to do many things. You have to be able to produce many, many fusion ignition events per minute, and you have to have a robust system of drivers to enable that.”

Inside that was a small, spherical capsule about half the diameter of a BB. One hundred and ninety two laser beams entered from the two ends of the cylinder and struck the inner wall. They didn’t strike the capsule, they struck the inner wall of this cylinder and deposited energy, and that happened in less time than it takes light to move 10 feet, so it’s kind of fast.

X-rays from the wall impinged on the spherical capsule. Fusion fuel in the capsule got squeezed. Fusion reaction started.

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Los Angeles official involved in racism scandal caught fighting activist on video

Kevin de León, who has resisted resigning after the debacle, was involved in an altercation in which he appears to push an organizer

Kevin de León, the embattled Los Angeles city council member involved in a racism scandal that threw city hall into upheaval, is facing criticism again after video footage captured him in a physical fight with an activist.

De León, who has resisted calls to resign, made his first in-person appearance at a council meeting in nearly two months on Friday. Hours later he was involved in an altercation at a holiday toy giveaway in which video appeared to show him shoving a local organizer.

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Special counsel investigating Trump subpoenas Georgia secretary of state – as it happened

Prosecutor Jack Smith is seeking ‘any and all communications in any form … to, from or involving’ the former president

The January 6 committee’s mandate expires at the end of the year, and it still needs to release its report into the insurrection and decide whether to make formal criminal referrals to the justice department.

The committee’s chair Bennie Thompson has said to expect the report’s release on 21 December, while NBC News today has details of where lawmakers are in their deliberations of who to refer to prosecutors for potential charges:

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Sanders says Sinema ‘helped sabotage’ some of Congress’s key legislations

Senator adds to chorus of detractors against Arizona lawmaker who left Democratic party and declared herself an independent

The popular progressive US senator Bernie Sanders would consider supporting any Democrat who might mount a challenge against his chamber colleague Kyrsten Sinema after she recently left the party and declared herself an independent like him, arguing that she has “helped sabotage” some of Congress’s most important legislation.

Sanders’s comments on Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union added to the chorus of detractors against the Arizona lawmaker who has undermined the agenda of the Joe Biden White House and other progressives, including by voting down raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour and reforming the Senate filibuster so that voting rights legislation can pass.

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Massachusetts recount flips state house election to Democrat by one vote

Kristin Kassner won against Republican opponent Lenny Mirra after a recount shrunk candidates’ narrow vote deficit to one

A recount in a political race in Massachusetts has flipped a state house of representatives election from Republican to Democrat by a single vote.

Democrat Kristin Kassner won against her Republican opponent and five-term incumbent Lenny Mirra earlier this week after a recount that shrunk the candidates’ narrow vote deficit to one. The candidates were all vying for a seat based in the North Shore area, which is a coastal region between Boston and New Hampshire.

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Brittney Griner in Texas medical facility as political fallout over swap continues

Basketball star is being debriefed at San Antonio army facility as plight of other Americans held in Russia continues

Brittney Griner, the American basketball star who has been released from almost 10 months of detention in Russia in a prisoner swap with the notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout, is undergoing physical and mental evaluation at a Texas army facility as part of her rehabilitation to the US.

The two-time Olympic gold medalist is being debriefed at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. She arrived back in the US on Friday morning and was immediately taken for what was being described as “extensive health evaluations”.

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Arizona governor builds border wall of shipping crates in final days of office

Critics say Republican Doug Ducey’s scheme is illegal because makeshift barrier is being erected on tribal and federal land

A makeshift new barrier built with shipping containers is being illegally erected along part of the US-Mexico border by Arizona’s Republican governor – before he has to hand over the keys of his office to his Democratic successor in January.

Doug Ducey is driving a project that is placing double-stacked old shipping containers through several miles of national forest, attempting to fill gaps in Donald Trump’s intermittent border fencing.

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Biden faced internal opposition to Brittney Griner swap, reports say

Department of Justice viewed deal to exchange basketball star for Russian arms dealer as a mistake

Joe Biden has faced pressure from within his own administration, as well as his political opponents, in securing the release of basketball player Brittney Griner from Russia, according to reports.

On Thursday, Biden hailed the “intense and painstaking negotiations” that led to the release of Griner in a prisoner swap deal with the arms dealer Viktor Bout. Griner was arrested at a Moscow airport in February for possession of a small amount of cannabis oil, while Bout, nicknamed ‘the merchant of death’, was serving a 25-year sentence in federal prison for fueling conflicts in Africa and the Middle East.

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Nephew calls Republican who tearfully opposed gay marriage bill a homophobe

Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler voted against bill protecting same-sex marriage but Andrew Hartzler, who is gay, was unimpressed

The backlash to the Republican member of Congress who broke down in tears in her opposition to the same-sex marriage bill has included a familiar face – her nephew, who has called the lawmaker a “homophobe”.

On Thursday, Vicky Hartzler, a Republican representative from Missouri, shed tears as she urged colleagues in the US House of Representatives to vote against the Respect for Marriage Act, which forces states without marriage equality laws to recognize LGBTQ+ marriages from other states.

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Kari Lake: defeated governor candidate challenges Arizona election result

Trump-backed Republican files lawsuit asking court to throw out certified results of her loss to Democrat Katie Hobbs


Kari Lake, the Republican defeated in Arizona governor’s race, is formally challenging her loss to Democrat Katie Hobbs, asking a court to throw out certified election results from the state’s most populous county and either declare her the winner or rerun the governor’s election in that county.

The lawsuit filed late on Friday by Lake centers on long lines and other difficulties that people experienced while voting on election day in Maricopa county. The challenge filed in Maricopa county superior court also alleges hundreds of thousands of ballots were illegally cast, but there is no evidence that is true.

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White House says Sinema defection ‘does not change Democratic Senate control’ – as it happened

As we’ve mentioned Republican criticism of Joe Biden for trading basketball star Brittney Griner for convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout, here’s Florida senator Marco Rubio’s considered opinion:

“We have to recognize, even as we’re happy an American’s coming home, it does incentivize the taking of more Americans,” he told reporters on Friday morning.

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Kyrsten Sinema goes independent days after Democrats secure Senate majority

Arizona senator changes party affiliation and says she will not caucus with Republicans

The US senator Kyrsten Sinema has switched her political affiliation to independent, leaving the Democratic party just days after it won a Senate race in Georgia to secure a 51st seat in the chamber.

“I have joined the growing numbers of Arizonans who reject party politics by declaring my independence from the broken partisan system in Washington. I registered as an Arizona independent,” she said in an op-ed for Arizona Central, a local media outlet.

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