Antony Blinken tells Netanyahu US and allies back Biden ceasefire proposal – as it happened

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, arrived in Israel on Monday as part of his eighth visit to the Middle East since the Hamas attacks on 7 October as Washington tries to shore up support for its proposed Gaza ceasefire deal.

• The UN security council approved its first resolution endorsing a Gaza ceasefire plan. The vote on the US-sponsored resolution was 14-0, with Russia abstaining.

• Blinken told Benjamin Netanyahu that the proposal would “unlock the possibility of calm along Israel’s northern border and further integration with countries in the region”, the US state department said.

• Jurors in Hunter Biden’s gun trial began deliberations. The president’s only surviving son faces three federal charges relating to the illegal purchase and ownership of a gun while in the grip of longstanding drug addiction.

The picture of criminal behavior and a dissolute lifestyle was painted in sometimes painfully frank testimony in a Delaware court room last week and would have been difficult to hear for the family of any defendant.

But Hunter Biden, the man in the dock in Wilmington, is no ordinary plaintiff; he is the son of the president of the United States.

All week long, the proceedings put the personal conduct of the eldest surviving presidential scion under a microscope.

A jury in his hometown heard details of his previous addiction to crack cocaine and how, in 2018 – with his father preparing for a run for the presidency – he bought a handgun by allegedly lying to a registered firearms dealer about his drug use. He then desperately tried to retrieve it from a garbage bin where his then lover, the widow of Joe Biden’s other son, Beau, who died in 2015, had dumped it in panic.

Jury deliberations have begun and yet already, the details of a president’s son gone astray should be manna in an election year for Republicans, who focused for years on Hunter Biden’s business interests and alleged wrongdoing in an effort to politically discredit his father.

Instead, the trial has presented Republicans with an awkward dilemma.

The jury have begun deliberations in Hunter Biden’s federal gun trial in Wilmington, Delaware.

Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty to three felony charges stemming from the October 2018 purchase of a gun. He is accused of making false statements on a gun-purchase form when he said he was not illegally using or addicted to drugs, and then unlawfully possessing the gun for 11 days.

If convicted, he could face up to 25 years in prison, though such a sentence would be highly unusual given that he would be a first-time offender. It is unclear whether the presiding judge, Maryellen Noreika, would give him time behind bars.

Hunter Biden also faces a separate federal trial in California on charges of failing to pay $1.4m in taxes.

The UN security council has voted to pass a US-drafted Gaza ceasefire deal that would lead to the release of all the remaining hostages in return for Israel accepting steps towards a permanent ceasefire and the eventual withdrawal of its forces from Gaza.

The resolution passed in the 15-strong council, as China did not block it and Russia abstained. In March, China and Russia vetoed a US resolution urging a ceasefire in Gaza linked to a hostage deal.

Washington is struggling to gain the unequivocal backing of Israel or Hamas for a three-stage deal proposed by Joe Biden that would lead to the release of all the remaining hostages, a permanent ceasefire and the eventual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is visiting the Middle East this week, his eighth trip to the region since the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel, to make a further push to nail down support for the deal.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, met with Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem today, where he reiterated that the US “and other world leaders will stand behind the comprehensive proposal outlined by President Biden” for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and release of hostages.

Blinken told Israel’s prime minister that “the proposal on the table would unlock the possibility of calm along Israel’s northern border and further integration with countries in the region,” according to a US state department readout of the meeting.

The Secretary updated the prime minister on ongoing diplomatic efforts to plan for the post-conflict period, emphasizing the importance of those efforts to providing long-term peace, security and stability to Israelis and Palestinians alike. Secretary Blinken also emphasized the importance of preventing the conflict from spreading.

Closing arguments have begun in Hunter Biden’s gun trial, beginning with the prosecutors.

Prosecutor Leo Wise said “no one is above the law” and added the testimonies from Biden’s high-profile family members don’t matter.

Biden’s lawyer Abbe Lowell said “it’s time to end this case,” arguing the burden of proof against her client has not been met.

The judge in this trial has instructed jurors to only consider whether or not the president’s son was using drugs at the time he filled out the federal forms to purchase his firearm.

Jury deliberation will begin after both sides have rested their cases.

Biden’s criticism of Trump, who recently became the first former US president to be convicted of felony crimes, has become increasingly sharper.

Today the Biden campaign dropped a new campaign ad featuring a Trump gaffe, in which his opponent in the upcoming 2024 presidential election says:

“We need every voter. I don’t care about you. I just want your vote. I don’t care.”

In a subsequent post to X, Brown thanked Trump for the endorsement and for his “leadership”.

“I look forward to working with you to bring a better future to every Nevadan and American when we both win in November!!,” Brown said.

Read the full post below:

Donald Trump endorsed retired Army captain Sam Brown in the Nevada Senate race in a Truth Social post late Sunday, giving Brown a crucial boost two days before the state primary.

Trump, who described Brown as a “FEARLESS AMERICAN PATRIOT”, posted after he spent the day in Las Vegan holding a rally, where several of the GOP Senate candidates were in attendance, AP reported. Trump chose Brown over several other candidates with close ties to the former president, including Jeff Gunter, his former ambassador to Iceland.

The winner of Tuesday’s Republican primary will face off with Democratic senator Jacky Rosen in what is likely to be one of the closest Senate races in the country.

The Kennedy name looms large over American politics. John F Kennedy, despite serving only two and a half years as president before his assassination, is frequently ranked among the top 10 US leaders; his brother, Robert F Kennedy, seemed set for his own spell in the White House until he too was killed in 1968.

Enter: Robert F Kennedy Jr, nephew of the former, son of the latter and increasingly, persona non grata of the surviving Kennedy clan.

Part-time environmental lawyer, full-time conspiracy theorist, an animal enthusiast who owned a pet lion at his elite boarding school and who, in his telling, had part of his brain eaten by a worm, Kennedy entered the 2024 presidential race as a Democrat running against Biden, before switching to an independent in October last year. The 70-year-old, who also has a history of associating with white supremacists, is an unknown quantity in the 2024 election race, with both parties worried about the havoc he could wreak.

Five months out from perhaps the most consequential election in recent US history, Biden and Trump continue to be unpopular with the American public. Kennedy’s ability to be neither of those men, and his willingness to lean into his family name, have positioned him as a spanner in the works of American democracy.

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As we reported earlier, Donald Trump was scheduled today to make a virtual address to an event by the Danbury Institute, a Christian group that calls for abortion to be “eradicated entirely”.

Hours before Trump’s expected address, the former president’s campaign said he will deliver a pre-recorded message in which he does not say the word “abortion” at all, according to a Politico, which has obtained a script of his two-minute speech.

According to the script, Trump is expected to say:

We have to defend religious liberty, free speech, innocent life and the heritage and traditions that built America into the greatest nation in the history of the world. I know that each of you is protecting those values every day – and I hope we’ll be defending them side by side for the next four years.

Dozens of Donald Trump’s supporters have been requiring medical help at his rallies in the scorching US south-west but it seems lost on him that his plans to reverse climate policies and “drill, baby, drill” for fossil fuels will only worsen extreme weather, campaigners say.

A total of 24 people at a Trump rally in Las Vegas on Sunday required medical attention due to the heat, according to the Clark county fire department, with six taken to hospital for treatment. The hospitalizations come after a further 11 people needed to be admitted to hospital for heat exhaustion as they waited for Trump to speak at a rally in Phoenix on Thursday.

Trump himself noted the severe heat during his speech on Sunday, with the Las Vegas rally starting around noon when the temperature was about 90F (32C) and climbed to around 102F (38C). The rally was held in a park with little shade, although organizers provided water and cooling tents, and allowed attendees to hold shading umbrellas.

“It’s 110, but it doesn’t feel it to me,” said Trump, who wore a suit jacket and signature red baseball cap.

I’m up here sweating like a dog. They don’t think about me. This is hard work.

Trump then said:

I don’t want anybody going on me. We need every voter. I don’t care about you. I just want your vote. I don’t care.

He later said he was joking about not caring about his own voters and complained the media would criticize him for this.

Record-breaking heat enveloped much of the US south-west last week, with temperatures soaring beyond 110F (43C) in areas stretching from California to Arizona. Roughly half of Arizona and Nevada were under an excessive heat alert, even though the official start of summer is still a week away, with Las Vegas hitting 110F on Friday and Phoenix reaching 113F (45C).

Antony Blinken’s meetings with Israeli officials on Monday and the US push for a Gaza ceasefire deal comes after Israel’s former army chief of staff, Benny Gantz, resigned from the war cabinet.

The resignation by Gantz, leader of the centre-right National Unity party and a major rival to Benjamin Netanyahu, followed through on a threat to resign after he gave Israel’s prime minister an ultimatum of 8 June to present concrete “day after” plans for the Gaza Strip.

The withdrawal of his party also means Gadi Eisenkot, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) general and war cabinet observer, and the minister without portfolio, Chili Tropper, are also stepping down.

The departure of Gantz leaves Netanyahu with enough seats in his coalition but has made him even more reliant on the support of far-right allies including Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister. Smotrich and Ben-Gvir have repeatedly threatened to walk away over any deal for a ceasefire in exchange for hostages.

Donald Trump has been compared to Jesus Christ by the far-right Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene at a campaign rally for the former president in Las Vegas, a city more renowned for evoking images of gambling than biblical scenes.

Greene, who makes frequent references to her Christian faith, cited Trump’s supposed Christ-like qualities to challenge the Democrats’ efforts to capitalise on the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s status as a convicted felon following his recent conviction in a case involving hush money paid to an adult film actor and falsified business records in a New York court.

“The Democrats and the fake news media want to constantly talk about ‘President Trump is a convicted felon’,” she told a crowd that waited in soaring early-summer temperatures.

Well, you want to know something? The man that I worship is also a convicted felon. And he was murdered on a Roman cross.

It is not the first time Greene has drawn parallels between Trump and Christ – whom Christians consider to be the messiah and son of God – as well as other historical martyr figures.

When he was arrested in New York on corruption charges in April last year, she likened Trump to Jesus and Nelson Mandela, who became South Africa’s first post-apartheid president after being jailed for 27 years by the racist regime.

A Georgia congressional candidate convicted for participating in the January 6th insurrection walked out of a televised Republican debate on Sunday.

Chuck Hand is one of at least four people convicted of January 6 crimes running for Congress this year, according to AP. All are running as Republicans. Hand was sentenced to 20 days in federal prison and six months of probation.

Hand is running against Wayne Johnson ahead of a 18 June primary runoff for southwest Georgia’s 2nd congressional district.

During the debate, Hand said he was refusing to debate Johnson after Michael Nixon, who finished third in an earlier primary, endorsed Johnson. Nixon brought up a 2005 criminal trespass charge and a 2010 DUI charge against Hand, both of which were dismissed, and also cited federal court documents to argue Hand’s participation in the January 6 riot was more serious than Hand had claimed.

Hand, walking out of the studio, said:

This is where I get back in my truck and go back to southwest Georgia because I’ve got two races to win.

“You’re not staying?” asked anchor Donna Lowry. “You’re leaving, sir? OK.”

The Biden administration is considering entering into a deal with Hamas that does not include Israel, according to a NBC report.

Citing two current and two former US officials, the American broadcaster said a deal to free five US hostages would be hammered out through Qatari mediation if current ceasefire talks involving Israel fail.

The officials did not know what the US could offer Hamas in return, but argued there was an incentive for Hamas to drive a deeper wedge between Joe Biden and the Israeli leader, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Parts of the Biden administration would like to see the Netanyahu coalition government collapse, leading to fresh elections and the formation of an Israeli government more willing to seek an understanding with the Palestinians. They believe the complete obliteration of Hamas militarily is a mirage and say Netanyahu has no realistic plan for Gaza’s future governance.

Mitch Landrieu, Joe Biden’s campaign chair, has told MSNBC that it is “astounding” that Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, “first has to go sit down with his probation officer”.