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    Trump envoy Witkoff reportedly advised Kremlin official on Ukraine peace deal

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    Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff told a senior Kremlin official last month that achieving peace in Ukraine would require Russia gaining control of Donetsk and potentially a separate territorial exchange, according to a recording of their conversation obtained by Bloomberg.In the 14 October phone call with Yuri Ushakov, the top foreign policy aide to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, Witkoff said he believed the land concessions were necessary all while advising Ushakov to congratulate Trump and frame discussions more optimistically.“Now, me to you, I know what it’s going to take to get a peace deal done: Donetsk and maybe a land swap somewhere,” Witkoff told Ushakov during the five-minute conversation, according to Bloomberg’s transcript. “But I’m saying instead of talking like that, let’s talk more hopefully because I think we’re going to get to a deal here.”The envoy also offered tactical guidance on how Putin should raise the subject with Trump, including suggestions about scheduling a Trump-Putin telephone conversation before Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s White House visit later that week.On Wednesday, Ushakov appeared to confirm the authenticity of the phone conversation, telling Russian state TV that the leak was probably an attempt to “hinder” the talks.“As for Witkoff, I can say that a preliminary agreement has been reached that he will come to Moscow next week,” Ushakov said.The White House did not dispute the veracity of the transcript, and Trump described Witkoff’s reported approach to the Russians in the call as “standard” negotiating procedure.“He’s got to sell this to Ukraine. He’s got to sell Ukraine to Russia,” Trump told reporters onboard Air Force One as he flew to his home in Florida on Tuesday night. “That’s what a dealmaker does.”The recording offers a direct insight into Witkoff’s negotiating approach and appears to reveal the origins of the controversial 28-point peace proposal that emerged earlier in November.On the call, Witkoff, who recently helped broker the Gaza ceasefire agreement, suggested Moscow and Washington develop a joint peace framework modelled on that deal. “We put a 20-point Trump plan together that was 20 points for peace and I’m thinking maybe we do the same thing with you,” he said.Ushakov appeared to take some of the advice onboard. Putin “will congratulate” and will say: “Mr Trump is a real peace man,” he said.The heavily criticised 28-point proposal would require Ukraine to cede the entire Donetsk region to Russia, including areas under Ukrainian control. Russia has not fully captured Donetsk.Those territories would become a demilitarized buffer zone recognised internationally as Russian, and the plan would also grant Russia control of Luhansk and Crimea while freezing battle lines in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.Putin said this month he believed the US plan could serve as the “basis for a final peaceful settlement”, though the Kremlin maintains it has not discussed the proposal in detail with Washington.The revelations come as Trump said on Tuesday he was sending Witkoff to meet Putin in Moscow, and the US army secretary, Dan Driscoll, to meet with the Ukrainians – ahead of a possible White House meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy on Friday.“I look forward to hopefully meeting with President Zelenskyy and President Putin soon, but ONLY when the deal to end this War is FINAL or, in its final stages,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.The US has pushed Ukraine to accept the framework as the foundation for ending the nearly four-year conflict, though Ukrainian officials have insisted they will not recognise Russian control of occupied territories or accept limits on their military forces.The phone conversation took place as Trump’s stance toward Moscow appeared to be hardening. On the same day as the Witkoff-Ushakov call, Trump voiced frustration with Putin’s unwillingness to end the war, saying: “I don’t know why he continues with this war. He just doesn’t want to end that war. And I think it’s making him look very bad.”The Associated Press contributed to this report More

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      US triples national park fee for non-residents, amid ‘new’ fee for Americans

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      The interior department announced today new “America-first” entrance fees for national parks, commemorative annual passes featuring Donald Trump and “resident-only patriotic fee-free days for 2026” including Trump’s birthday.Starting next year, entrance fees for international visitors will more than triple.According to a department press release, non-residents will be able to choose between purchasing a $250 annual pass or paying $100 per person “to enter 11 of the most visited national parks, in addition to the standard entrance fee”.In a video posted to his X account, interior secretary Doug Burgum said: “This year we’re making it easier and more affordable for every American to experience the beauty and freedom of our public lands.”“Starting in 2026, United States residents will be able to purchase an annual interagency pass for just $80,” he added. The current, annual interagency America the Beautiful pass is already $80.The aim of raising prices for international visitors is to ensure “they contribute their fair share to help preserve and maintain these treasured places”, Burgum said.Burgum also announced commemorative new designs for annual passes issued in 2026. The annual pass features portraits of George Washington and Donald Trump side-by-side, while the military pass includes a photograph of Trump saluting troops.The interior department announced five new “fee free days” that will go into effect in 2026, bringing the total number of fee free days – for US residents only – to 10.The new fee-free days include 3, 4 and 5 July – in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States Declaration of Independence. They also include 17 September, which is Constitution Day, and 27 October, the birthday of conservationist and former president Theodore Roosevelt. The final fee-free day is 14 June, which Burgum noted is “Flag Day, which is also fittingly President Trump’s birthday”.In his video, Burgum noted that plans to increase fees for international visitors were focused on conservation. “As Theodore Roosevelt once said, there can be no greater issue than that of conservation in this country,” he said. Under Burgum and Trump’s leadership, the interior department has lost nearly a quarter of national parks staff, proposed billions of dollars in cuts to public lands, opened logging in national forests, defunded conservation organizations and proposed allowing oil and gas drilling off California’s coast. More

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      Trump news at a glance: Pete Hegseth increases administration’s attacks on senator Mark Kelly

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      The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, escalated attacks by Trump administration chiefs on Arizona senator Mark Kelly on Tuesday by ordering the secretary of the US navy to investigate “potentially unlawful comments” made by Kelly in a social media video with other lawmakers.Hegseth’s order came in the form of a memorandum to John Phelan asking the Navy secretary to review Kelly and a group of fellow Democrats’ comments in the video last week that sought to remind serving soldiers and intelligence officers that they have the right to refuse unlawful orders.Hegseth said in the memo that he wanted a brief from Phelan that he could review by 10 December.Pete Hegseth orders US navy to investigate Mark Kelly’s commentsThe Pentagon had issued a statement on Monday that it was investigating Kelly for possible breaches of military law.Kelly and the other Democrats have been accused by Donald Trump of “seditious behavior”, to which Kelly has responded that the US president is using the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) against them as a “tool to intimidate and harass members of Congress”.The latest statement from the group, released by congressional lawmakers Jason Crow of Colorado, Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania and Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire, confirmed that the FBI had contacted the House and Senate sergeants at arms requesting interviews with them.Read the full storyTrump may have inadvertently issued mass pardon for 2020 voter fraud, experts sayDonald Trump may have inadvertently pardoned any citizen who committed voter fraud in 2020 when he granted a pardon to Rudy Giuliani and other allies for their efforts to overturn the election, legal experts say.The pardons of Giuliani and others who participated in the fake elector scheme earlier this month were largely symbolic since the federal government dismissed its criminal cases once Trump was elected. Many of those pardoned have faced criminal charges at the state level.Read the full storyUS to send envoy to Moscow to discuss proposals to end Ukraine warDonald Trump said he would send special envoy Steve Witkoff to meet Vladimir Putin in Moscow to discuss developing proposals to end the Ukraine war, but despite White House optimism there was little sign of progress on core sticking points.The US president said negotiations had left “only a few remaining points of disagreement” but there was no breakthrough on the issues of territorial control and security guarantees and he dampened expectations of immediate peace summits.Read the full storyAnti-fascist groups named as US terror threats ‘barely exist’, experts sayExperts have told the Guardian the same anti-fascist groups the US state department recently named as foreign terrorist organizations and accused of “conspiring to undermine foundations of western civilization” barely qualify as groups, let alone terrorist organizations, and pose no active threat to Americans.“The whole thing is a bit ridiculous,” said Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, which tracks extremist movements worldwide, “because the groups designated by the administration barely exist and certainly aren’t terrorists.”Read the full storyMajority of Latino voters disapprove of Trump, Pew study findsAfter receiving support from nearly half of Latino voters in the 2024 election, Trump had lost the backing of a majority surveyed in October. Pew found that 70% of Latinos “disapprove of the way Trump is handling his job as president”, while 65% disapprove of his administration’s approach to immigration and 61% believe his economic policies have worsened economic conditions.Trump won 48% of the Latino vote in 2024, up from 28% in 2016. Latinos, one of the fastest-growing demographics in the United States, account for one in five Americans.Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

      The Trump administration’s ICE raids across southern California have had disastrous effects on the region’s immigrants and swept up US citizens in the process, community leaders and residents said at a congressional hearing in Los Angeles on Monday.

      Jim Justice, the Republican US senator, and his wife have agreed to pay more than $5m that the couple owes in back taxes shortly after they were sued over the 16-year-old debt by the federal government.

      The BBC has been plunged into a new row over its treatment of Donald Trump, after an academic accused it of censoring his remarks about alleged corruption by the US president.

      Ralph Abraham, a top Louisiana health official who stopped promoting mass vaccination policies and once described Covid-19 vaccines as “dangerous”, has been appointed deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it was revealed on Tuesday.

      Investigators have identified the source of a leak in the Olympic pipeline two weeks after fuel was first spotted in a ditch near an Everett, Washington, blueberry farm.
      Catching up? Here’s what happened on 24 November 2025. More

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      Judge orders Trump administration to provide bond hearings to detained migrants

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      A federal judge has ruled that Donald Trump’s administration cannot impose mandatory detention on thousands of migrants held by US immigration authorities without first giving them an opportunity to seek release on bond.US district judge Sunshine Sykes in Riverside, California, certified a nationwide class of individuals who were already living in the United States when they were detained and are legally entitled to a hearing to determine whether they can be released on bond while their deportation cases proceed.Sykes ruled last week that the Trump administration’s policy adopted in July of denying bond hearings to migrants detained during domestic enforcement operations in the US was illegal, joining dozens of other federal judges. While those decisions involved individual migrants or small groups, Sykes on Tuesday extended her ruling nationwide.About 65,000 people were in immigration detention in the US as of last week, according to government data.The Trump administration has argued that individuals’ differing circumstances required the issue to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, but Sykes said that being deprived of the right to a bond hearing was an injury common to the class.“Such common injury can be resolved in a single stroke upon the determination that the new policy is in violation of (migrants’) due process rights,” wrote Sykes, an appointee of Joe Biden.The US Department of Justice and lawyers for the four migrants who filed the lawsuit did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Under federal immigration law, “applicants for admission” to the United States are subject to mandatory detention while their cases proceed in immigration courts.Bucking a longstanding interpretation of the law, the Trump administration in July said that non-citizens already residing in the United States, and not only those who arrive at a port of entry at the border, qualify as applicants for admission.Sykes in her ruling last week disagreed, saying the law makes a clear distinction between existing US residents and new arrivals. More

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      ‘We will not be bullied’: House Democrats involved in video to troops confirm FBI is seeking to question them – live

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      Four Democratic members of the US House, who appeared in a video telling service members to “refuse illegal orders”, confirmed that the FBI has requested interviews with them. All of the lawmakers in the video are former members of the military or intelligence community.Today, the representatives issued statements, saying that Donald Trump is using the FBI “as a tool to intimidate and harass” them.“We swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. That oath lasts a lifetime, and we intend to keep it. We will not be bullied. We will never give up the ship,” representatives Maggie Goodlander, Jason Crow, Chrissy Houlahan, and Chris Deluzio wrote.In a lengthy social media post, Donald Trump wrote on Thuesday that his attempt to hold on to the House through gerrymandering ahead of the 2026 midterms is not yet done.“It looks like the Indiana Senate Republicans will be coming back in two weeks to take up Redistricting,” Trump reported.He went on to threaten any state lawmakers who fail not support the effort to tilt the electoral map in Indiana more in favor of Republicans with primary challenges.“I am glad to hear the Indiana House is stepping up to do the right thing, and I hope the Senate finds the Votes. If they do, I will make sure that all of those people supporting me win their Primaries, and go on to Greatness but, if they don’t, I will partner with the incredibly powerful MAGA Grassroots Republicans to elect STRONG Republicans,” the president wrote on his social media platform.Interior secretary Doug Burgum announced today the new cost of an annual national parks pass for international tourists.For US residents, the cost of a yearly pass (which grants access to 63 of America’s national parks) will stay at $80. But for those visiting, they’ll have to fork out $250.When visiting any of the 11 most visited parks, non-residents will also pay a new $100 per person fee (in addition to the usual entry fee). There will also be five extra “fee free days” for US residents.Washington DC’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, said today she would not seek re-election. Instead, she will finish out the remainder of her third term and leave office in January 2027.Bowser, once a vocal critic of Donald Trump, found herself complying when he returned to the White House in January, launched a federal takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department, and deployed national guard troops to the district earlier this year. While critics blamed Bowser for acquiescing to the administration, supporters felt she exercised tactical soft-power given the legal limitations of leading the nation’s capital.In a video posted to social media, Bowser noted that her administration “brought our city back from the ravages of a global pandemic, and summoned our collective strength to stand tall against police who threaten our very autonomy while preserving home rule that is our North Star.”Bowser added that she’s “cherished the opportunity” to serve her hometown for 10 years, and has “happily given all my passion and energy to the job that I love”. Notably, she did not say which candidate she would endorse to succeed her.In September, I reported on how Bowser had to navigate her political summer stand-off with Trump.Donald Trump may have inadvertently pardoned any citizen who committed voter fraud in 2020 when he granted a pardon to Rudy Giuliani and other allies for their efforts to overturn the election, legal experts say.The pardons of Giuliani and others who participated in the fake elector scheme earlier this month were largely symbolic since the federal government dismissed its criminal cases once Trump was elected. Many of those pardoned have faced criminal charges at the state level.But, the federal pardon could wind up having a big effect on people like Matthew Alan Laiss, who is accused of voting in both Pennsylvania and Florida in the 2020 election. According to a federal indictment handed down in September, Laiss moved from Pennsylvania to Florida in August of 2020 and voted first with a mail-in ballot in Pennsylvania and then in person in Florida on election day. Both votes were for Trump, Laiss’ lawyers wrote in court documents. He has pleaded not guilty.The case is still in its early stages. Last week, Laiss’ lawyers, public defenders Katrina Young and Elizabeth Toplin, argued that the charges should be thrown out because Trump had pardoned him.They argued that Trump’s 7 November pardon was sweeping. It applies to any US citizen for conduct relating to the advice, creation, organization, execution, submission, support, voting, activities, participation in, or advocacy for or of any slate or proposed slate of presidential electors, whether or not recognized by any state or state official, in connection with the 2020 presidential election.” And while it lists a number of people the pardon specifically applies to, it also says the pardon is not limited to those named.That language is so broad, lawyers for Laiss wrote, it also applies to their client.Elissa Slotkin, one of the two Democratic senators in the video to troops, said today she was aware that the FBI’s counterterrorism division “appeared to open an inquiry” into her.She wrote:
      The President directing the FBI to target us is exactly why we made this video in the first place. He believes in weaponizing the federal government against his perceived enemies and does not believe laws apply to him or his Cabinet. He uses legal harassment as an intimidation tactic to scare people out of speaking up.
      A reminder that after the video was published online, Donald Trump accused the lawmakers of “seditious behavior, punishable by death” in a post on Truth Social. He also re-shared several comments from other users calling for the arrest, trial and execution of the Democratic members of Congress.For her part, Slotkin remained resolute today. “This isn’t just about a video,” she said in her statement. “This is not the America I know, and I’m not going to let this next step from the FBI stop me from speaking up for my country and our Constitution.”Four Democratic members of the US House, who appeared in a video telling service members to “refuse illegal orders”, confirmed that the FBI has requested interviews with them. All of the lawmakers in the video are former members of the military or intelligence community.Today, the representatives issued statements, saying that Donald Trump is using the FBI “as a tool to intimidate and harass” them.“We swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. That oath lasts a lifetime, and we intend to keep it. We will not be bullied. We will never give up the ship,” representatives Maggie Goodlander, Jason Crow, Chrissy Houlahan, and Chris Deluzio wrote.Mitch McConnell, the Republican senator from Kentucky and former majority leader, has critiqued a possible US co-authored peace plan to end the war in Ukraine, which might require land concessions.“The most basic reality on the ground is that the price of peace matters. A deal that rewards aggression wouldn’t be worth the paper it’s written on,” he lawmaker wrote in a post on X. “America isn’t a neutral arbiter, and we shouldn’t act like one.”Last week, McConnell said that Vladimir Putin has “spent the entire year trying to play President Trump for a fool”. He added that the president “ought to find new advisors” if administration officials are “more concerned with appeasing Putin than securing real peace”. In response, vice-president JD Vance said that every criticism of the peace deal “either misunderstands the framework or misstates some critical reality on the ground”.It’s almost 1:30pm in Washington, and here’s were things stand today.

      As he prepared to pardon two lucky turkeys, Waddle and Gobble, the president said he thought a peace deal on Russia’s war in Ukraine was getting very close but gave no other details. “We’re going to get there,” Donald Trump said. Earlier, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that “tremendous progress” had been made towards a deal. In a post on X, she added that “a few delicate, but not insurmountable” details remain and “will require further talks between Ukraine, Russia, and the United States”.

      The FBI has requested interviews with the six Democratic members of Congress who took part in a video where they told members of the military to “refuse illegal orders”, according to Reuters. Citing an unnamed justice department official, Reuters reports that the FBI is asking for interviews with senators Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin, as well as House representatives Maggie Goodlander, Jason Crow, Chrissy Houlahan, and Chris Deluzio. The FBI declined to comment when the Guardian reached out about the latest report.

      For his part, senator Kelly called the Pentagon’s announcement that it is investigating the him for possible breaches of military law for taking part in the video as an act of “intimidation”. In an interview with Rachel Maddow on MS NOW, Kelly added: “I don’t think there’s anything more patriotic than standing up for the constitution. And right here, right now, this week, the president clearly is not doing that.”
      In his remarks before the pardoning just then, Trump also said he thought a deal on Russia’s war in Ukraine was getting “very close” but gave no other details. “We’re going to get there,” he said.“I think we’re getting very close to a deal, we’ll find out … I think we’re making progress,” he added.My colleagues over on the Europe blog report that a short while ago Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv was ready to move forward with a US-backed peace deal, and that he was prepared to discuss its sensitive points with Trump in talks he said should include European allies.In a speech to the ‘coalition of the willing’, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, the Ukrainian president urged European leaders to hash out a framework for deploying a “reassurance force” to Ukraine and to continue supporting Kyiv for as long as Moscow shows no willingness to end its war.Gobble is officially pardoned. Along with Waddle, he’ll live out the rest of his days in North Carolina. More

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      Gobble-degook: Trump talks turkey and trashes another presidential tradition

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      Don’t give up the day job. On Tuesday, Donald Trump came to the annual Thanksgiving turkey pardoning ceremony at the White House ready to serve up some political satire. It went about as well as you would expect.Like a startled turkey flapping in zigzags, the US president’s speech ricocheted bafflingly from topic to topic. He told jokes in the worst possible taste and watched them arc through the Rose Garden sky before landing with a thud. And on a day intended for charity and good cheer, he described a state governor as “a big, fat slob”.Trump has never met a presidential tradition he did not want to trash. For nearly eight decades, the turkey presentation has been a silly but reassuring ritual in which presidents offer a few bad puns and uplifting words about the state of the nation. They are not meant to make news.But this year, of course, things were different. Normally, two turkeys are in attendance following a public vote on which should be pardoned. On Tuesday, however, Gobble was present but Waddle was “missing in action”, as Trump put it – evidently a bird of the same feather as Marjorie Taylor Greene.The Rose Garden was transformed, its grass paved over with Mar-a-Lago-style slabs, while nearby was the presidential walk of fame, featuring tacky gold and framed portraits of Trump’s predecessors save for Joe Biden, replaced by an auto pen. Behind the president was a framed mirror in which a yellow crane could be seen at the site of the former East Wing.“I hope you like our new beautiful patio with matching stones at the White House,” said Trump after emerging from the Oval Office with the first lady, Melania, in light rain. “If it were grass today, you’d be sinking into the mud like they’ve done for many years, and you would be very unhappy.”It’s hard for Trump’s critics to accept that the man can be funny. At election campaign rallies, he can cut through the pretentiousness of politicians with a down-to-earth comment that strikes a chord with his audience. On this occasion, however, he lacked spontaneity, his wit was less rapier than baseball bat. The gags felt sour a day after a judge tossed out his justice department’s prosecution of political opponents.Trump rambled about a thorough investigation by Bondi and a host of departments “into a terrible situation caused by a man named Sleepy Joe Biden. He used an auto pen last year for the turkey’s pardon.”If the president was expecting riotous laughter from an audience that included JD Vance and his wife, Usha, as well as attorney general Pam Bondi and “secretary of war” Pete Hegseth, he was disappointed. There was barely a chuckle.Nevertheless, he persisted. “I have the official duty to determine, and I have determined, that last year’s turkey pardons are totally invalid,” he said.Finally, some polite chuckles from the gathering. What a relief! But then Trump went and spoiled it by riffing on the pardon for Biden’s son Hunter and taking another dark turn.“The turkeys known as Peach and Blossom last year have been located, and they were on their way to be processed – in other words, to be killed. But I’ve stopped that journey, and I am officially pardoning them, and they will not be served for Thanksgiving dinner. We saved them in the nick of time,” he said.In his dark coat, suit and red tie, Trump was bombing. Would Melania or someone wield a hook to yank him off stage? The privilege of the presidency is that no one dares.Trump was doing “the weave”, drifting from nuclear power plants to border security, from car factories to AI, from tax cuts to the price of eggs. It was the biggest tonal misjudgment since he tried to tell military generals how to be tough guys.Finally, he got back to the turkeys. “When I first saw their pictures, I thought we should send them – well, I shouldn’t say this – I was going to call them Chuck and Nancy,” he said – a reference to Democrats Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi that earned gentle mirth from the sycophants’ corner.“But then I realised I wouldn’t be pardoning them, I would never pardon those two people. I wouldn’t pardon them. I wouldn’t care what Melania told me: ‘Darling, I think it would be a nice thing to do.’ I won’t do it, darling.”Will next year’s pardoned turkeys be called Maxwell and Mountbatten?Trump boasted that, at more than 50lbs, his turkeys were bigger than those of his predecessors. He claimed that Robert Kennedy Jr, the health secretary, had certified them as the first-ever “Maha” [Make America Healthy Again] turkeys. He worried that Gobble might attack him and then, randomly, talked about immigration again.That led to the sickest witticism of the day: “Instead of pardoning, some of my more enthusiastic staffers were already drafting the paperwork to ship Gobble and Waddle straight to the terrorist confinement centre in El Salvador. And even those birds don’t want to be there. You know what I mean.”It was unfunny because it’s all too believable that Stephen Miller would try to send turkeys to the El Salvador mega-prison, along with kittens, puppies and cute rabbits. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt must have regretted bringing her infant son Nicholas to work.Indeed, Trump moved on to his draconian crackdown on crime in Chicago and Washington DC. “They burned this beautiful woman riding in a train,” was another phrase jarringly at odds with this once jovial occasion. Anger rising in his voice, he ditched a prewritten line about Illinois governor JB Pritzker’s weight and called him a “big, fat slob” before admitting that he could afford to lose a few pounds too.Then Trump walked over to Gobble, made his characteristically theatrical hand gestures and declared: “Gobble, I just want to tell you this – very important – you are hereby unconditionally pardoned!” He even appeared to do a turkey impression for a moment, then reached over to run his hand over the feathers, asking: “Who would want to harm this beautiful bird?”The future lame-duck president had delivered a box-office turkey. Had the nation of Mark Twain come to this? But no one in this audience of enablers was going to object. First they laugh at you, then they fight you, then they pretend to laugh at your authoritarian jokes. More

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      Democrats accuse Trump of ‘intimidation’ campaign as FBI seeks interviews

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      A group of Democrats accused by Donald Trump of “seditious behavior” have said that the US president is using the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) against them as a “tool to intimidate and harass members of Congress”.The four politicians, along with two others, had made a video encouraging US military service members to resist unlawful orders – a message that angered Trump, who posted on social media that the group were “traitors” and thus could be jailed or even face the death penalty.The statement, released by congressional lawmakers Jason Crow of Colorado, Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania and Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire, confirmed that the FBI had contacted the House and Senate sergeants at arms requesting interviews with them.“No amount of intimidation or harassment will ever stop us from doing our jobs and honoring our constitution,” they said, adding that they had each sworn an oath “to support and defend” the US constitution.“That oath lasts a lifetime, and we intend to keep it. We will not be bullied. We will never give up the ship,” they added.The statement deepens a dispute between the Trump administration and Democrats, including Arizona senator and former astronaut Mark Kelly and Michigan congresswoman Elissa Slotkin, over the video message, which urged the military and intelligence services members to “refuse illegal orders”.Slotkin said the FBI’s counter-terrorism division had notified the group that “they are opening what appears to be an inquiry against the six of us” and described the move as a “scare tactic” by Trump.“To be honest, the president’s reaction and the use of the FBI against us is exactly why we made the video,” she said.“He believes in using the federal government against his perceived adversaries, and he’s not afraid to use the arms of the government against people he disagrees with. He does not believe the law applies to him … which is exactly why we made the video, to give people some assurance that they weren’t alone as they watch this stuff unfold.”The Pentagon has also said it is conducting a review of misconduct allegations against Kelly that could, it said, result in him being recalled to active duty to face court-martial proceedings. More

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      ‘Living an American nightmare’: LA hearing details lasting trauma of ICE raids

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      The Trump administration’s ICE raids across southern California have had disastrous effects on the region’s immigrants and swept up US citizens in the process, community leaders and residents said at a congressional hearing in Los Angeles on Monday.Andrea Velez, an American arrested by US immigration officials over the summer, described how she was accosted by masked agents while on her way to work. She said she was charged with assaulting an officer and held for two days in a federal detention center, where detainees had to pay for a cup in order to have water. The charges against her were ultimately dismissed due to what her attorney described as a lack of evidence.Democrats organized the hours-long congressional oversight hearing in Los Angeles in order to hear testimony about the impacts of Donald Trump’s sweeping deportation agenda, and look at alleged civil rights abuses by federal agents and the “unlawful” detention of US citizens.“Every person in our country has a right to due process, regardless of immigration status. It’s critical that the Oversight Committee document and hold accountable those that are defying the constitution, violating civil rights, and terrorizing families and communities,” Robert Garcia, a Democratic California congressman, said in a statement.The White House said earlier this month that the federal government had arrested more than 150,000 undocumented immigrants and deported nearly 140,000 people since Trump took office.His administration has made southern California a focal point for its aggressive mass deportation campaign. Federal agents have descended on car washes and Home Depot stores, and near schools and workplaces, leaving southern California communities in fear and parks and churches empty. The federal government has been accused of “blatant racial profiling” and civil rights violations.“Right now we are living an American nightmare,” said Jasmine Crockett, a Democratic representative from Texas.The situation has left lasting effects on southern California communities and residents affected by the raids.Velez said in her testimony: “I still live with the trauma everyday.”Karen Bass, LA’s mayor, described the raids as “an attack from our own federal government” and an affront to cities and people across the US.“We will hold every federal agency accountable, and we will relentlessly defend the rights of every resident in Los Angeles – and across this nation,” Bass said. “Reports that Angelenos, including US citizens, were forcibly held, physically attacked, and deprived of their freedom without cause are not only outrageous – they are intolerable.”Garcia on Monday announced the creation of a new oversight dashboard documenting “verified incidents of possible misconduct and abuse” during federal immigration enforcement operations”.The US Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to the Guardian’s request for comment. More

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      Mark Kelly: call for troops to disobey illegal orders is ‘non-controversial’

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      Senator Mark Kelly said it was “non-controversial” for him and other congressional Democrats to implore military personnel to disobey “illegal orders” from the Trump administration – hitting back at accusations of “serious allegations of misconduct” leveled against him by the Pentagon.“I said something that was pretty simple and non-controversial – and that was that members of the military should follow the law,” the Arizona Democrat senator, a former US navy officer and astronaut who flew on four separate space shuttle missions between 2001 and 2011, told MS Now on Monday night.Kelly then alluded to how the president went on social media to say Kelly and the others had engaged in “seditious behavior, punishable by death” – while also republishing another user’s post containing the phrase “hang them”.“And in response to that, Donald Trump said I should be executed, I should be hanged, I should be prosecuted,” Kelly said to political talkshow host Rachel Maddow.He added: “If this is meant to intimidate me and other members of Congress from doing our jobs and holding this administration accountable, it won’t work. I’ve given too much to this country to be silenced by bullies who care more about their own power than protecting the constitution.”Kelly’s remarks came after the Pentagon announced it was launching an investigation into the senator after Trump protested that Kelly and the other five Democratic lawmakers “should be in jail right now” for releasing a video advising service members that “threats to our constitution” are coming “from right here at home”. The video also said military members can “refuse illegal orders”.On Tuesday, Fox News reported that the FBI had contacted US Capitol police in Washington DC to schedule interviews with the six Democrats in question.The Pentagon warned that it could recall Kelly to active duty to be court-martialed and cited a federal law that bans military retirees against interfering “with the loyalty, morale, or good order and discipline of the armed forces”.In a statement of his own, the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, argued that the video at the center of the controversy was “despicable, reckless, and false”.“Encouraging our warriors to ignore the orders of their commanders undermines every aspect of ‘good order and discipline,’” Hegseth said.Trump weighed in with his own point of view, calling the senators’ statement “seditious behaviour at the highest level” and for an example to be set. “Their words cannot be allowed to stand – We won’t have a Country anymore!!! punishable by DEATH!”Active military members in the US – whose oath is to the constitution rather than the president – can face execution for the crime of sedition. Civilians, meanwhile, can be fined and imprisoned for up to 20 years if found to have engaged in seditious conspiracy.Meanwhile, the US Manual for Courts-Martial states that military requirements to obey orders do not apply “to a patently illegal order, such as one that directs the commission of a crime” – while also prohibiting “contemptuous speech”.The dispute between the Trump administration and Kelly – whose wife, Gabrielle Giffords, narrowly survived an attempted assassination in 2011 while she was meeting her congressional constituents – comes amid claims from Democrats that the Pentagon has issued illegal orders. Democrats allege that the purported illegal orders include sending military personnel to the seal the US-Mexico border and in carrying out deadly strikes on so-called fast boats in the Pacific and the Caribbean that the administration claims were carrying illegal narcotics.Elizabeth Beaumont of Middle Tennessee State University’s Free Speech Center told the Associated Press that US military regulations “have been used to restrict political expression as well as other activities”.The dispute also hits a nerve on the use of “sedition” after Trump supporters were accused of precisely that by carrying out a deadly attack on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 – when the first of his two non-consecutive presidential terms in ended in defeat to Joe Biden.Some of the mob members even called for the hanging of Mike Pence, Trump’s vice-president at the time, who oversaw a congressional session certifying Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.Trump then granted presidential clemency to more than 1,500 Capitol attackers shortly after his second term began in January.In his remarks on Monday to MS Now about Trump and the video, Kelly said “sending a mob to round me and the other folks up … says a lot more about him than it says about me. He doesn’t want accountability.”Retired air force officer and Nebraska Republican congressman Don Bacon offered some measure of calm to the political mud-slinging, calling the Democrats’ video “unnecessary and foolish” but also drawing attention to the Pentagon’s response with an insult over its formal Department of Defense name.“Amateur hour once again at the Department of Dense,” Bacon wrote on X.Bacon added that Kelly and his fellow Democrats in the video “said don’t follow illegal orders – that is the law by the way”.“Good luck prosecuting someone who is quoting the law,” Bacon continued. “The administration should have just pointed out how dumb it was. The threats looked dumber.” More