Hungary’s Viktor Orbán to meet with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago

Also snubbing Biden, the prime minister has enraged Nato allies as he tries to broker a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire

Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, will fly to Mar-a-Lago on Thursday to meet with Donald Trump, according to two sources with knowledge of the meeting.

Orbán has enraged his Nato allies by meeting with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping en route to the alliance’s summit in Washington DC. He has also met with Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv, and is said to be quietly negotiating his own ceasefire plan without consulting either the Biden administration or other EU countries.

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US, Canada and Finland form ‘Ice Pact’ to project influence into Arctic region

Partnership could produce up to 90 icebreaker ships to counter Russian and Chinese inroads into region

Canada, the United States and Finland say a newly announced “Ice Pact” to build a fleet of polar icebreaker ships will challenge China’s control of the market as nations scramble for influence in the Arctic.

The deal, announced during the Nato summit in Washington, could see as many as 90 icebreaker ships produced by the three countries in the coming years.

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Alec Baldwin jury views video of grim aftermath of Rust film set shooting

Actor on trial in New Mexico for involuntary manslaughter after shot from gun he was holding killed cinematographer

The jury in Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter trial on Wednesday viewed harrowing footage depicting the aftermath of the shooting on a New Mexico film set and medics’ desperate efforts to treat cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

The scene at the Bonanza Creek Ranch where the actor and crew were filming the western Rust was captured via body-camera footage from a New Mexico sheriff’s deputy who responded to the incident and testified in court this week.

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Biden’s Nato press conference poses major test for his campaign as calls mount to step down

US president’s press conference, which will include questions from reporters, is certain to be scrutinised for any signs of slip-up

Joe Biden was gearing up for one of the most pivotal press conferences of his long political career on Thursday in Washington as the growing number of Democratic party members calling on him to step down has turned the eyes of the world to his performance tonight.

The US president was scheduled to face journalists at a news conference marking the end of Nato’s 75th anniversary summit at 5.30pm, while across the city senators were preparing to meet key members of Biden’s staff at the White House to air their concerns about Biden’s electability following last month’s disastrous debate performance with Donald Trump.

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New York Times editorial board declares Trump ‘unfit to lead’

Board calls Trump ‘a chilling choice against this national moment’ days before Republican national convention

The editorial board of the New York Times has declared that “Donald Trump is unfit to lead” in an urgently worded article published just ahead of the Republican convention, where Trump will once again be formally named the party’s choice for president.

Noting that the former president and convicted felon has now become the Republican nominee three times in eight years, the board said: “A once great political party now serves the interests of one man, a man as demonstrably unsuited for the office of president as any to run in the long history of the republic, a man whose values, temperament, ideas and language are directly opposed to so much of what has made this country great.”

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One-year-old child survives two days on side of busy highway in Louisiana

Truck driver rescued baby near where the child’s four-year-old brother was found dead; the mother is now in custody

A Texas truck driver is being praised for rescuing a one-year-old boy who was seen crawling along a busy highway after surviving on his own for two days amid weather from Hurricane Beryl.

Reginald Walton, a driver for DHL Supply Chain, spotted the infant near a section of Interstate 10 in Calcasieu parish, Louisiana, near the state’s south-western border.

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US consumer prices unexpectedly fell in June, drawing Fed closer to cutting interest rates

Joe Biden says in statement that falling prices and rising wages are ‘thanks to my economic plan’

Prices unexpectedly fell in the US last month, lifting hopes that the Federal Reserve is on the verge of cutting interest rates.

As inflation fell 0.1% on a monthly basis in June, having been unchanged in May, the consumer price index’s annual increase was also the smallest in a year.

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Ex-Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist sued for wrongful death in alleged fatal collision

Josh Klinghoffer, who is touring with Pearl Jam, is being sued after allegedly hitting and killing a pedestrian in a crash in Alhambra earlier this year

Ex-Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer is being sued for wrongful death and negligence after allegedly hitting and killing a pedestrian earlier this year.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday by Ashley Sanchez, the daughter of 47-year-old Israel Sanchez, who died after being hit while walking in a crosswalk in Alhambra, east of Los Angeles.

The collision happened the afternoon of 18 March, when plaintiffs allege Klinghoffer was driving a black SUV with no licence plates and turned left at an intersection with a marked crosswalk.

Video from the plaintiffs shows a black car hitting a man, who was Israel Sanchez, during the turn before pulling over. The footage was obtained from a neighbor’s Ring camera.

Israel Sanchez suffered blunt force trauma to the head and died from his injuries a few hours later at the hospital, the lawsuit said. No arrest was made in the incident.

The lawsuit also alleges Klinghoffer was using a cellphone while driving, as video footage shows the driver holding an object above the steering wheel. Video also shows a 40-foot-wide grassy median dividing the road that should have given Klinghoffer time to see pedestrians in the crosswalk, the lawsuit said.

“My dad was known for being a great chef, the most talented of his family, the greatest grandpa always full of love and joy,” Ashley Sanchez said in a news release. “His smile was so infectious. His life was taken by a careless act of a person who didn’t bother to look where he was driving.”

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Peter Welch is first Democratic senator to publicly ask Joe Biden to withdraw

Vermont senator of more than two decades implores president in an op-ed to step down for ‘good of the country’

Peter Welch, a long-serving member of Congress from Vermont, became the first Democratic senator to publicly call on Joe Biden to withdraw from the presidential race.

“We cannot unsee President Biden’s disastrous debate performance. We cannot ignore or dismiss the valid questions raised since that night,” Welch, wrote in a Washington Post op-ed on Wednesday. “For the good of the country, I’m calling on President Biden to withdraw from the race.”

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Joe Biden hints UK should move closer to EU in Starmer meeting

Two leaders meet during Nato summit in Washington as prime minister works on EU-UK security pact

Joe Biden has appeared to back Keir Starmer’s ambition for the UK having a closer relationship with the European Union as the leaders held their first bilateral talks at the White House.

The US president called the US and UK the “best of allies” as he met the new prime minister in the Oval Office, describing Britain as the “knot” that tied the transatlantic relationship together.

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Biden under renewed pressure to step aside as top Democrats make agonized appeals

Senator Michael Bennet said Trump may win ‘by a landslide’ while two more senators echoed his concerns

Joe Biden came under renewed moral pressure on Wednesday to abandon his presidential candidacy amid agonised appeals by a succession of senior Democrats for him to consider the broader picture.

Those calls came as the US president dug in his heels to make it hard to supplant him as the nominee.

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Billionaire Sung Kook ‘Bill’ Hwang convicted of fraud by New York jury

Archegos Capital Management’s founder guilty of 10 of 11 criminal counts over investment firm that collapsed in 2021

Sung Kook “Bill” Hwang, the Archegos Capital Management founder, was convicted of fraud and other charges by a jury in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday. Prosecutors at a criminal trial had accused him of market manipulation ahead of the 2021 collapse of his $36bn private investment firm.

The jury, which began deliberations on Tuesday, found Hwang guilty on 10 of 11 criminal counts and Patrick Halligan, his Archegos deputy and co-defendant, guilty on all three counts he faced. Hwang and Halligan sat flanked by their lawyers as the verdict was read by a soft-spoken foreperson.

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Las Vegas sets record for number of days over 115F amid its ‘most extreme heatwave in history’

City hits all-time high of 120F as officials set up emergency cooling centers at community centers across south Nevada

Las Vegas set a new record on Wednesday as it marked a fifth consecutive day over 115F (46C), amid a lingering hot spell that will continue scorching much of the US into the weekend.

The blazing hot temperatures climbed to 115F shortly after 1pm at Harry Reid international airport, breaking the old mark of four consecutive days above 115F set in July 2005.

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US to resume sending 500lb bombs to Israel while withholding 2,000lb bombs, official says

US had paused shipment of bombs of both sizes amid concern over their impact in Gaza

The Biden administration will resume shipping 500lb bombs to Israel but will continue to hold back on supplying 2,000lb bombs over concerns about their use in densely populated Gaza, according to a a US official.

The US in May paused a shipment of 2,000lb and 500lb bombs due to concern over the impact they could have in Gaza during the war that began with Hamas’ deadly 7 October cross-border raid.

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UK will be ‘leading European nation’ in Nato, defence secretary pledges

John Healey acknowledges likely shift of US focus to China and says Britain and EU must raise military spending to counter Russia

Britain will be “the leading European nation” in Nato under a Labour government, the new defence secretary, John Healey, pledged in an interview at the Nato summit in Washington DC – though spending may have to rise significantly if the UK is to remain ahead of Germany.

The cabinet minister, appointed last Friday, acknowledged that European countries within Nato would have to take on more of the burden of defending the west against Russia – regardless of whether Joe Biden or Donald Trump won the US presidential election in November.

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Nato summit live: Stoltenberg says Ukraine Nato membership is ‘not the question of if, but when’ – as it happened

This live blog is now closed. For more on the Dutch and Danish governments’ statement at the summit, read our report:

Here’s the schedule for today’s talks in Washington (all in local time).

8:15am: Nato secretary general’s doorstep

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Move to reduce Lords retirement age to 80 is not about Joe Biden, says Keir Starmer

Ahead of UK-US bilateral talks, PM says primary driver for cutting peers’ retirement age is size of Lords chamber

Keir Starmer has denied that his decision to bring in a retirement age of 80 for the House of Lords means he believes Joe Biden should stand down as US president.

Ahead of his first bilateral talks with Biden at the White House, the UK prime minister said the “primary driver” for bringing in a retirement age for peers was the size of the second chamber.

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US House to vote on bill that will require proof of citizenship for casting ballot

Republicans to push Safeguard American Voter Eligibility bill in effort to quell unproved fraud of non-citizens voting

Congressional Republicans will vote this week on a bill to require people to show proof of citizenship to register to vote, a move that comes as they lay the groundwork for undermining election results in November.

The House will vote on the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility bill, or Save bill, which would make states require, in person, documents that prove a person is a US citizen when registering to vote. This can include a Real ID, passport or other kinds of identification that show a person’s place of birth. It wouldn’t include a standard drivers license as a sole form of identification and calls for a secondary proof of place of birth alongside it, like a birth certificate.

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First Thing: Democrats torn over Biden amid concern deepens over whether he can win

Seven House Democrats have so far called for president to quit. Plus, Israeli strike on Khan Younis shelter kills at least 25

Good morning.

After a day of private meetings on Capitol Hill, congressional Democrats appeared torn over whether Joe Biden should remain the party’s nominee, as concerns deepen over the 81-year-old president’s age, mental acuity and ability to win the White House for a second term.

Who has affirmed their support of Biden? Most prominent Democrats: the vice-president, Kamala Harris; Schumer, the Senate majority leader; the South Carolina representative James Clyburn; senior members of the Black and Hispanic caucuses; and progressives including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar.

What did Biden say in his Nato speech? On Tuesday, in Biden’s headline speech – a critical step to convincing foreign leaders he remains up to the task – the president said in forceful tones: “Today, Nato is stronger than it’s ever been in its history.”

What’s the latest on ceasefire negotiations? Mediation efforts led by Egypt, Qatar and the US continue, with Egyptian media reporting that talks are due to continue in Doha and Cairo this week, attended by the CIA director and Israel’s Mossad chief.

What effect is latest wave of attacks having on the talks? On Monday night, Hamas’s Qatar-based political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, said that the “catastrophic consequences” of the latest battles on the ground in Gaza could “reset the negotiation process to square one”.

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Urban heat island effect making temperatures 8F hotter in 65 US cities – study

Nearly 34 million people in those cities, or 15% of the US population, experiencing temperatures higher than in surrounding areas

Almost 34 million people in 65 major US cities, or 15% of the country’s population, are experiencing temperatures that are 8F higher than their surrounding areas, according to a new analysis from Climate Central, a non-profit research group.

That is largely due to built environments like parking lots and asphalt sidewalks, and a lack of trees, that contribute to what’s known as the urban heat island effect.

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