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      US election 2024 primaries: follow live results

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      View image in fullscreenFive states – Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kansas and Ohio – are holding their presidential nominating contests on Tuesday, with Florida holding only a Republican primary. Donald Trump and Joe Biden expect to sail to victory in their respective parties, growing their delegate counts in a march toward this summer’s conventions, where they will officially secure their parties’ nomination.Here are the live results from the five presidential primaries.Republican delegatesDemocratic delegatesRepublican resultsDemocratic resultsWho’s runningView image in fullscreenDonald TrumpThe former US president’s campaign to retake the White House and once again grab his party’s nomination got off to a slow start that was widely mocked. But after decisive wins in Iowa and New Hampshire, his campaign has steadily moved into a position of dominance.Trump declined to attend any of the Republican debates, has used his court appearances and many legal woes as a rallying cry to mobilize his base, and has run a surprisingly well-organized campaign. His extremist rhetoric, especially around his plans for a second term and the targeting of his political enemies, has sparked widespread fears over the threat to American democracy that his candidacy represents.His political style during the campaign has not shifted from his previous runs in 2016 and 2020 and, if anything, has become more extreme. Many see this as a result of his political and legal fates becoming entwined, with a return to the Oval Office being seen as Trump’s best chance of nixing his legal problems.View image in fullscreenJoe BidenBiden is the likely Democratic nominee for the 2024 presidential election. He announced his campaign for re-election on 25 April 2023, exactly four years after he announced his previous, successful presidential campaign. While approval for the president remains low, hovering just above 40%, political experts say he is the most likely candidate to defeat Trump. Biden has served in politics for more than five decades and is running on a platform that includes abortion rights, gun reform and healthcare. At 81, he is the oldest president in US history.View image in fullscreenMarianne WilliamsonFailed 2020 presidential candidate Marianne Williamson dropped out of the race last month before then resurrecting her long-shot campaign after the Michigan primary. Williamson, an author of self-help books, launched her bid with campaign promises to address climate change and student loan debt. She previously worked as “spiritual leader” of a Michigan Unity church.View image in fullscreenJason PalmerJason Palmer is a Democratic candidate who was only on the ballot in American Samoa and some other US territories. He won the primary in America Samoa after donating $500,000 to his own campaign. Palmer is a Baltimore resident who has worked for various businesses and non-profits, often on issues involving technology and education. More

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      White House warns Texas immigration law will ‘sow chaos and confusion at our southern border’ – as it happened

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      The supreme court has allowed a law passed by Texas’s Republican-dominated state government that gives police the power to arrest people suspected of crossing the border illegally to go into effect.The court’s six conservative justices turned down an appeal from the Biden administration, which wanted the law blocked while it challenged it in lower courts. The court’s three liberals dissented.The measure had been on hold due to a stay authorized by conservative justice Samuel Alito, who was among the group that allowed it to go into effect. Alito extended it yesterday:The White House expressed outrage after Donald Trump said in an interview that Jews who vote for Democrats “hate” Israel and their religion, with a spokesman for Joe Biden decrying Trump’s “vile and unhinged antisemitic rhetoric”, and the Democratic National Committee saying the former president “should be ashamed of himself”. Meanwhile, the leaders of Congress announced a government funding deal to avert a partial shutdown that would have begun this coming weekend, though it still needs to be approved by lawmakers. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden was “deeply concerned” about reports of an imminent famine in northern Gaza, while again calling on Republican House speaker Mike Johnson to allow a vote on aid for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan.Here’s what else happened today:
      The supreme court allowed a Texas law granting police powers to arrest people suspected of crossing the border illegally to go into effect, drawing objections from the White House.
      Peter Navarro, a former Trump White House adviser, reported to federal prison to begin serving a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress, but not without railing against his conviction one last time.
      Republican senator Lindsey Graham took up a proposal, championed by Trump, to turn Ukraine aid into a loan. The White House declined to comment.
      It’s primary day in five states, with most of the drama occurring in down-ballot elections.
      The Biden campaign launched an effort to win the support of Latino voters in the November elections.
      White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre blasted Texas’s SB4 immigration law, saying in a statement that allowing state police to arrest people suspected of entering the country illegally will upend border security:
      We fundamentally disagree with the Supreme Court’s order allowing Texas’ harmful and unconstitutional law to go into effect. S.B. 4 will not only make communities in Texas less safe, it will also burden law enforcement, and sow chaos and confusion at our southern border. S.B. 4 is just another example of Republican officials politicizing the border while blocking real solutions. We remained focused on delivering the significant policy changes and resources we need to secure the border – that is why we continue to call on Congressional Republicans to pass the bipartisan border security agreement, the toughest and fairest set of border reforms in decades.
      Some thoughts on the implications of the supreme court allowing Texas’s SB4 to go into effect and give police the power to arrest people suspected of crossing the border illegally, from Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council:However, the law is still being litigated at the appeals level, and depending on how that plays out, Reichlin-Melnick predicts the supreme court may have to weigh in on it again soon:In a dissent, liberal justice Sonia Sotomayor writes that allowing the Texas immigration law to go into effect “invites further chaos and crisis in immigration enforcement”.“Texas passed a law that directly regulates the entry and removal of noncitizens and explicitly instructs its state courts to disregard any ongoing federal immigration proceedings. That law upends the federal-state balance of power that has existed for over a century, in which the National Government has had exclusive authority over entry and removal of noncitizen,” writes Sotomayor, who is joined by fellow liberal justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.“Texas can now immediately enforce its own law imposing criminal liability on thousands of noncitizens and requiring their removal to Mexico. This law will disrupt sensitive foreign relations, frustrate the protection of individuals fleeing persecution, hamper active federal enforcement efforts, undermine federal agencies’ ability to detect and monitor imminent security threats, and deter noncitizens from reporting abuse or trafficking.”Texas’s Republican governor Greg Abbott called the supreme court’s decision a “positive development”, but notes it is still being challenged at the appeals court level:The Texas law allowing police to arrest suspected undocumented border crossers comes amid a wider confrontation with the Biden administration over border security. Here’s more on that, and the supreme court’s decision to allow the law to go into effect, from Reuters:The US supreme court on Tuesday declined to block a Republican-backed Texas law allowing state law enforcement authorities to arrest people suspected of crossing the US-Mexico border illegally, rejecting a request by President Joe Biden’s administration.The administration had asked the justices to freeze a judicial order allowing the Texas law to take effect while the US government’s challenge to the statute proceeds in the lower courts. The administration has argued that the law violates the US constitution and federal law by interfering with the US government’s power to regulate immigration.Governor Greg Abbott last December signed the law, known as SB 4, authorizing Texas law enforcement officers to arrest people suspected of entering the United States illegally, giving local officers powers long delegated to the US government.Abbott said the law was needed due to Biden’s failure to enforce federal laws criminalizing illegal entry or re-entry, telling a press conference on 18 December that “Biden’s deliberate inaction has left Texas to fend for itself.“The supreme court has allowed a law passed by Texas’s Republican-dominated state government that gives police the power to arrest people suspected of crossing the border illegally to go into effect.The court’s six conservative justices turned down an appeal from the Biden administration, which wanted the law blocked while it challenged it in lower courts. The court’s three liberals dissented.The measure had been on hold due to a stay authorized by conservative justice Samuel Alito, who was among the group that allowed it to go into effect. Alito extended it yesterday:An Arizona lawmaker announced on Monday on the state senate floor that she plans to have an abortion after learning that her pregnancy is not viable, the Associated Press writes.State senator Eva Burch, a registered nurse known for her reproductive rights activism, was surrounded by fellow Democratic senators as she made the announcement, the Arizona Republic reported and the AP brings us via news wire.Burch said that she found out a few weeks ago that “against all odds”, she was pregnant. The mother of two living children from west Mesa who is running for re-election said she has had “a rough journey” with fertility. She experienced her first miscarriage 13 years ago, was pregnant many times and terminated a nonviable pregnancy as she campaigned for her senate seat two years ago, she said.Now, Burch said that her current pregnancy was not progressing and not viable and she had made an appointment to terminate.
      I don’t think people should have to justify their abortions. But I’m choosing to talk about why I made this decision because I want us to be able to have meaningful conversations about the reality of how the work that we do in this body impacts people in the real world.”
      Burch said the state’s laws have “interfered” with her decision. Arizona law required an “invasive” transvaginal ultrasound that her doctor didn’t order and she was then read “factually false” information about alternatives that was required by law, she said.
      I’m a perfect example of why this relationship should be between patients and providers,” not state lawmakers,” Burch said.
      Burch called on the legislature to pass laws that make sure every Arizonan has the opportunity to make decisions that are right for them. She also said she hoped voters have a chance to weigh in on the topic of abortion rights on the November ballot.Joe Biden is onboard Air Force One en route to Nevada and expects to touch down shortly in Reno, for a campaign event, then head on to Las Vegas and, later, Arizona and its state capital, Phoenix.The US president and his vice-president, Kamala Harris, are today launching a special push to retain and win over teetering Hispanic voters who might be leaning towards the Republicans.Donald Trump was ahead of Biden in a recent New York Times/Siena College poll of Latino voters by six points. Many respond to Trump’s conservative economic message and hardline approach to migration and future immigration.Biden and Harris have devised the “Latinos con Biden/Harris” [Latinos with Biden/Harris] campaign. Harris has posted about it on X/Twitter, with Biden reposting/tweeting. There’s a clip of her on a bilingual radio show in Phoenix, Arizona, and giving speeches and making statements, talking up the US as a nation of immigrants.“Generation after generation, immigrants have made our nation stronger,” she said. There’s also a clip of her saying the US immigration system has been “broken for years”, which in the fourth year of the Biden administration is a tough message to push, despite intransigence in Congress and unprecedented forces driving migration, from extremism to the climate crisis.The White House expressed outrage after Donald Trump said in an interview that Jews who vote for Democrats “hate” Israel and their religion, with a spokesman for Joe Biden decrying Trump’s “vile and unhinged antisemitic rhetoric”, and the Democratic National Committee saying the former president “should be ashamed of himself”. Meanwhile, in Congress, the top Democrats and Republicans announced a government funding deal to avert a partial shutdown that would have begun this coming weekend, though it still needs to be approved by lawmakers. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden was “deeply concerned” about reports of an imminent famine in northern Gaza, while again calling on Republican House speaker Mike Johnson to allow a vote on aid for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan.Here’s what else has happened today so far:
      Peter Navarro, a former Trump White House adviser, reported to federal prison to begin serving a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress, but not without railing against his conviction one last time.
      Republican senator Lindsey Graham took up a proposal, championed by Trump, to turn Ukraine aid into a loan. The White House declined to comment.
      It’s primary day in five states, with most of the drama occurring in down-ballot elections.
      White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was also asked if the Biden administration had looked into making its aid to Ukraine a loan, as Donald Trump has proposed.She didn’t answer the question, only restating their position that Republican House speaker Mike Johnson must allow a vote on legislation approved by the Senate to provide military assistance to Ukraine along with Taiwan and Israel.“To give Ukraine what they need is to get that national [security] supplemental passed,” Jean-Pierre told reporters.“We know for a fact that there are multiple Republican congressional members in the House who have said that they would vote for it if it goes to the floor. We know where Democrats are on this,” she continued. “The speaker has to put it to the floor and not … let politics get in the way.”Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre just told reporters that the White House is “deeply concerned” over aid groups’ warning that famine in northern Gaza is imminent.“We certainly are deeply concerned about the report yesterday … about the imminent famine in Gaza,” Jean-Pierre said. “As the report makes clear, despite ongoing and tireless efforts, including by this administration, the amount of aid reaching people in Gaza, and particularly those most in need, remains insufficient. “So, we have been clear that there is more that needs to be done and this report is a stark and devastating reminder of this.”The United States has been airdropping food and other aid into the enclave, and Joe Biden announced earlier this month that the US military would build a floating pier to allow deliveries by sea.“Everyone needs to do more,” said Jean-Pierre, who called on Israel “to provide sustained and unimpeded for assistance to enter both northern and southern Gaza.” More

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      Donald Trump’s niece to publish follow-up to bestselling memoir this year

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      Mary Trump, Donald Trump’s niece, who wrote Too Much and Never Enough, a bestselling book on the former US president and his family dysfunction, will publish a second memoir this year.“I’ve told you what growing up in this family did to Donald,” Mary Trump wrote on social media on Tuesday. “Now I’m telling the story of what it did to my dad and me.”Who Could Ever Love You: A Family Memoir will be published in the US on 10 September. Its publisher, St Martin’s Press, called it “an intimate, heartbreaking memoir of a father, a mother, a family’s exile, and the toxic dynamic that is shaping our future”.A trained psychologist, Mary Trump, 58, is the daughter of Fred Trump Jr, Donald Trump’s older brother who died aged 42 in 1981, after struggling with alcohol addiction.Mary Trump published her first book in 2020, as her uncle sought re-election as president. Its full title – Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man – indicated her feelings on Donald Trump’s move into politics.In return, Donald Trump called her “an unstable niece … rightfully shunned, scorned and mocked her entire life, and never even liked by her own very kind and caring grandfather!”, a reference to his father, the New York property developer Fred Trump Sr.An attempt to block publication failed and the book sold more than a million copies in its first week alone.Mary L Trump told the Guardian then: “I have always flown under the radar up until recently. I guess that’s not the case any more.”She has since become a prominent political commentator and opponent of her uncle, who is now the presumptive Republican nominee for president as well as the subject of 88 criminal charges and multimillion-dollar civil penalties.Mary Trump’s second book, The Reckoning: Our Nation’s Trauma and Finding a Way to Heal, was published in 2021.Also in 2021, Donald Trump sued his niece over her role in reporting by the New York Times about his tax affairs. More

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      US government faces another shutdown: what you need to know

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      Congress faces its third shutdown deadline of the month this week, as much of the federal government is expected to run out of funding by Friday at midnight.Both chambers of Congress must approve six appropriations bills before Saturday to get the legislation to Joe Biden’s desk and avert a partial shutdown. Although the current fiscal year started more than five months ago, House Republicans have struggled to pass appropriations bills due to demands from hard-right members to include controversial provisions in the legislation.As a result, Congress has been forced to pass four stopgap bills since the fiscal year began in October, and members hope they can finally conclude the appropriations process this week.But disputes over the Department of Homeland Security’s budget repeatedly hampered negotiations, raising serious doubts about whether members would be able to pass a spending package in time to prevent a funding lapse.The White House announced on Tuesday that negotiators had reached a deal on homeland security funding, but it remains unclear whether Congress will have enough time to pass the proposal before Saturday.Here’s everything you need to know about the shutdown threat:What bills must Congress pass?Congress has to approve six full-year appropriations bills, which represent funding for about 70% of the federal government. Among other agencies, the departments of state, defense, homeland security, education and labor will all run out of funding at 12.01am on Saturday unless another spending package is approved.Didn’t Congress already pass a funding bill?Earlier this month, Congress approved a spending package that encapsulated six of the 12 full-year appropriations bills necessary for funding the federal government. The agencies covered by that package now have funding through the rest of this fiscal year, which ends on 30 September.But under the terms of a stopgap bill passed late last month, the remaining six appropriations bills must be signed by 22 March to prevent a partial government shutdown.What is holding up the talks?Democrats and Republicans appear to have reached agreement on five of the six appropriations bills, but they repeatedly clashed over funding for the Department of Homeland Security due to arguments over money for border security measures.The House speaker, Republican Mike Johnson, said on Tuesday that a deal had been struck on DHS funding, but the exact details of the proposal remain unclear. As of Tuesday afternoon, lawmakers were still waiting to see legislative text of the deal.“House and Senate committees have begun drafting bill text to be prepared for release and consideration by the full House and Senate as soon as possible,” Johnson said on X, formerly known as Twitter.The announcement comes weeks after congressional Republicans blocked a bipartisan border and national security deal that included more funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.Does a shutdown appear likely at this point?The exact timing of votes in the House and the Senate will determine whether a partial shutdown occurs on Saturday. House Republican leaders prefer to give members 72 hours to read legislation before a vote, and with full bill text now expected no earlier than Tuesday, it appears that a final House vote would probably take place on Friday.That would leave the Senate with little time to approve the package before the shutdown deadline at midnight. Senators would have to unanimously agree on fast-tracking the legislation, and that task could prove difficult given past objections from some hard-right Republicans in the chamber, including Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky.“Passing the second group of appropriations bills, of course, is not going to be easy,” the Senate majority leader, Democrat Chuck Schumer, said last week. “Democrats will continue working with Republicans to finish the job. That can only be done in a bipartisan way.”If no agreement is reached on expediting the final Senate vote, it could trigger a partial shutdown on Saturday morning. But if the Senate can ultimately approve the package over the weekend, the shutdown would be short-lived and would have little impact on federal agencies.If Congress can pass a funding package, when will this issue arise again?Assuming Congress approves a spending package this week, the entire federal government will be funded through the end of the fiscal year, and lawmakers will not face another shutdown deadline until the end of September.But it is worth noting how unusual it is to have Congress still haggling over government funding at this point in the calendar, when nearly half of the fiscal year has already elapsed. Underscoring how late Congress is on passing the appropriations bills, members of Biden’s cabinet will be on Capitol Hill this week to testify about the president’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year – even as this year’s spending levels remain up in the air. More

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      US election 2024 primaries: intrigue in down-ballot races as Trump-Biden rematch set

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      With a rematch set between Joe Biden and Donald Trump after both candidates crossed the delegate threshold needed to clinch their parties’ presidential nominations, suspense around the next wave of Tuesday primaries shifts to a handful of key down-ballot races.Five states – Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kansas and Ohio – will hold their presidential nominating contests on Tuesday. Trump and Biden are expected to sail to victory, growing their delegate counts in a march toward this summer’s conventions, where they will officially secure their parties’ nomination.Trump’s last Republican challenger, his former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, ended her presidential campaign after being routed on Super Tuesday, while the Democratic congressman Dean Phillips dropped his long-shot challenge to Biden after failing to win a single delegate, including in his home state of Minnesota.In Florida, the state Democratic party decided support for Biden was strong enough and cancelled its presidential primary. Republicans in the one-time swing state can vote for Trump, though his vanquished rivals, including the governor, Ron DeSantis, will still appear on the ballot. The result may reveal clues about the enduring strength of the anti-Trump vote within the Republican party.Further down the ballot there could be some surprises in store on Tuesday.OhioOhio Republicans will choose their nominee in one of the most highly anticipated Senate races of the cycle. The heated three-way battle to take on the Democratic incumbent, Senator Sherrod Brown, features Republicans Frank LaRose, Matt Dolan and the Trump-backed Bernie Moreno. The final days have become increasingly bitter.Trump held a rally for Moreno in Ohio this weekend, a day after the candidate, who has taken virulently anti-LGBTQ+ positions, was the subject of reporting by the Associated Press that his work email had been used to create an account on an adult website seeking “men for 1-on-1 sex” in 2008. Moreno’s team has condemned the report, and his lawyer told the AP that the account was created by a former intern as “part of a juvenile prank”.During his speech, Trump defended Moreno, used dehumanizing language to describe immigrants and warned darkly that if he loses “you’re going to have another election”.Ohio, once a perennial swing state, is now soundly Republican and backed Trump in 2016 and 2020.Meanwhile, voters in eastern Ohio will choose their party’s nominee to represent them in a June special election to serve the remaining term of the seat vacated by Congressman Bill Johnson, a Republican who retired earlier this year to become a college president.The leading Republican candidates will be on the ballot twice: once for the special election and again to represent their party in the November general election contest for this Republican-leaning seat.In another closely watched primary, Republicans are vying for the nomination to challenge the longtime Democratic congresswoman Marcy Kaptur. State representative Derek Merrin has secured the backing of the party and his former Republican rival, the scandal-plagued JR Majewski, who bowed out of the race after disparaging athletes at the Special Olympics.IllinoisIn Illinois, the incumbent congressman Danny Davis is in the fight of his political life as he seeks to fend off a progressive challenge. But the 82-year-old, 14-term congressman, backed by the state’s governor, JB Pritzker and the Chicago mayor, Brandon Johnson, is also contending with calls for a generational change in leadership that echoes the concerns Democrats have with Biden.CaliforniaMeanwhile, California will hold a special election to replace the Republican Kevin McCarthy, who resigned from Congress last year after his historic removal as speaker of the House.McCarthy’s departure left Republicans with one less vote in the House, where their grip on the majority is already razor thin. The race for the seat, a rare conservative stronghold in the otherwise liberal state, will feature Republicans Vince Fong, a state assemblymember and McCarthy’s chosen successor, and the Tulare county sheriff, Mike Boudreaux.While Fong, who won Trump’s endorsement, is favored to win the election to serve the rest of McCarthy’s unexpired term, it is possible he could be forced to a May runoff if no candidate secures a majority of the vote. The Republicans will face each other in the November general election for a new congressional term.Elsewhere in the west, Biden will visit Arizona on election day, touching down in Phoenix after a stop in Nevada and before departing for events in Texas. Biden narrowly won Arizona in 2020 but polls show him trailing Trump amid deep dissatisfaction with his handling of the economy and border security.As part of the Democratic effort to protest Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war, organizers with the “Vote Ceasefire AZ” campaign are urging supporters to cast a ballot for the president’s nominal challenger, the self-help guru Marianne Williamson who recently “unsuspended” her presidential campaign. Williamson, who is one of several candidates to appear on Arizona’s Democratic primary ballot, has called for a ceasefire in Gaza and has advocated a “peace” department as part of her platform.For observers closely tracking the strength of the “uncommitted” campaign, the result may be hard to parse. Uunlike in Michigan and Minnesota, there are few options on Tuesday for Democrats upset with the president’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war to register their discontent at the ballot box.Florida, for example, isn’t holding a Democratic primary. And Williamson won’t appear on the ballot in Ohio, where ceasefire activists there are urging supporters to “Leave It Blank”. More

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      Top senator calls on Biden to ‘use all levers’ to pressure Israel over Gaza

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      Joe Biden should use his leverage and the law to pressure Israel to change how it is prosecuting the war in Gaza, the Democratic senator Chris Van Hollen said.Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, is among a group of senators urging Biden to stop providing Israel with offensive weapons until it lifts restrictions on the delivery of food and medicine into Gaza, where children are now dying of hunger and famine looms.“We need the president and the Biden administration to push harder and to use all the levers of US policy to ensure people don’t die of starvation,” Van Hollen said in an interview on Friday.This week, Van Hollen and seven of his colleagues sent a letter to the president arguing that Israel was in violation of the Foreign Assistance Act, a section of which prohibits the sale and transfer of military weapons to any nation that restricts the delivery of US aid.Their call comes as the administration faces mounting domestic and international pressure over what critics have described as an “absurd” and “inherent contradiction” at the heart of US policy on Israel’s war against Hamas: while the US attempts to ease the deepening humanitarian crisis caused by Israel’s military campaign in the Palestinian territory, it continues to arm the country.In a sign of the widening rift between Israel and its most important ally, Van Hollen said Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, was openly defying Biden’s pleas that Israel do more to protect civilians in Gaza and work toward a long-term solution to the conflict that includes the establishment of a Palestinian state.“Prime Minister Netanyahu has been an obstacle to the president’s efforts to at least create some light at the end of this very dark tunnel,” Van Hollen said.In recent weeks, Biden has escalated his criticism of Israel’s military offensive, saying last weekend that Netanyahu was “hurting” his country’s standing by failing to prevent more civilian deaths in Gaza. But the US president has so far resisted Democrats’ calls to leverage future military aid as a means of reining in Israel’s conduct in the war.The United Nations warned last month that more than a quarter of the 2.3 million Palestinians living in Gaza face “catastrophic levels of deprivation and starvation”. It said without action, widespread famine would be “almost inevitable”. Israel’s military campaign, which came in retaliation for the Hamas attack on 7 October that killed about 1,200 people, has devastated Gaza and killed more than 30,000 people, most of them civilians.With the prospects of a truce elusive and far too little aid trickling in, Biden has authorized airdrops and the construction of a maritime corridor to deliver desperately needed food and medicine to the Palestinian people living in the besieged territory. But critics say those methods are less effective, less efficient and more dangerous than the unhindered delivery of supplies by land.“The very fact that the United States is airlifting humanitarian supplies and is now going to be opening a temporary port is a symptom of the larger problem, which is [that] the Netanyahu government has restricted the amount of aid coming into Gaza and the safe distribution of aid within Gaza,” Van Hollen said.Israel, which tightened its already strict controls on access to the enclave after 7 October, has denied that it is impeding the flow of aid.Amid intensifying international pressure, Israel said this week it would expand the amount of supplies into the country. A small convoy of six trucks, coordinated by the Israeli military, brought humanitarian aid directly into the isolated northern Gaza earlier this week. Separately, an aid ship loaded with 200 tons of rice, flour, chicken and other items arrived in Gaza on Friday, in the first test of a new sea route.But that is a far cry from what is needed, humanitarian workers say. Before the five-month-old conflict began, roughly 500 truckloads of humanitarian aid per day crossed into the territory. Now the number is far less, sometimes peaking above 200 trucks per day but often well below, according to UN figures.Van Hollen’s insistence that the US do more to push Israel on humanitarian aid was informed by his visit to the Rafah crossing from Egypt in January, and the onerous Israeli inspection process he witnessed.“You witnessed these very, very long lines of trucks trying to get in through Rafah and through the Kerem Shalom crossing, and quite an inspection review, including arbitrary denials of humanitarian aid being delivered into Gaza, which just makes the process even more cumbersome,” he said.“For example, we visited a warehouse in Rafah that was filled with goods that had been rejected at the inspection sites. The rejected goods included things like maternity kits, included things like water purification systems.”Van Hollen said no specific reason was given as to why the items were rejected, but said Israel has broadly claimed that they could be considered “dual use” or having a civilian or military purpose. The maternity kit, Van Hollen said, contained a “teeny little scalpel” that he speculated was the reason the package was turned back.Across the border in Gaza, the situation is dire. UN agencies have estimated that 180 women give birth every day, sometimes without access to adequate pain medication, food or hygiene products. Malnourished, dehydrated and increasingly anemic, many pregnant women in Gaza face elevated risks of postpartum hemorrhaging.Another problem, Van Hollen said, is that so many of the people delivering aid or accompanying the aid convoys have been killed, making coordination and distribution of the aid that does enter difficult.Netanyahu and his government, the senator said, “need to open more crossings, they need to end the arbitrary rejection of goods like maternity kits and solar powered desalinization units, and they need to make sure that food can be safely delivered within Gaza without people getting killed.”Van Hollen’s comments came the day after Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the US and a longtime ally of Israel’s, was unsparing in a speech in which he declared that Netanyahu had “lost his way”, and urged Israelis to hold elections to replace him. Biden, who has been increasingly open about his frustration with Netanyahu, called it a “good speech”.Van Hollen called Schumer’s speech an “important moment” that made clear the US believes “there needs to be a change in course” in the way Israel is conducting the war.‘The administration will have to decide’In the letter to Biden earlier this week, Van Hollen and his colleagues wrote: “According to public reporting and your own statements, the Netanyahu government is in violation of [the Foreign Assistance Act]. Given this reality, we urge you to make it clear to the Netanyahu government that failure to immediately and dramatically expand humanitarian access and facilitate safe aid deliveries throughout Gaza will lead to serious consequences, as specified under existing US law.”Van Hollen also argued that the Israeli government is “not in compliance” with a national security memorandum (NSM 20) issued by the president last month that requires any country that receives US military assistance to provide written assurances it will “not arbitrarily deny, restrict, or otherwise impede” the delivery of humanitarian aid.Israel reportedly provided that commitment in a letter to Biden signed by Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant on Thursday, according to Axios. Van Hollen said the onus is now on the US to assess the credibility of Israel’s assurances.“Part of that evaluation will depend on what’s happening on the ground right now, and their assessment of whether or not, in fact, the Netanyahu government is meeting that requirement,” he said. “And if the signatures and commitments are found to be lacking, then the administration cannot provide military assistance until they determine that they’re credible.”View image in fullscreenVan Hollen stressed that enforcing the statute would not prevent the US from continuing to send defensive military assistance to protect Israeli citizens from rocket attacks, such as the Iron Dome.The memorandum was issued last month, after Van Hollen and more than a dozen Democratic senators introduced an amendment to a wartime aid package that included military assistance for Ukraine, Israel and other US-allies. The senators’ proposal, which would have required any country receiving US weapons to comply with humanitarian laws, risked a messy floor fight among Democrats divided over the US’s approach to the war amid Gaza’s rising death toll.Instead, Van Hollen said, the administration offered to turn the amendment into a memorandum that, with the force of law, would apply the terms to the sale and transfer of all US military aid. Biden issued the memorandum, and the Senate later approved the foreign aid package, with Van Hollen’s support. That measure is now languishing in the House.Biden has warned that Israel would cross a “red line” if it proceeded with a large-scale invasion of the southern city of Rafah, where the war has pushed nearly half of Gaza’s population. Reports suggest Netanyahu has approved a plan to invade the city, setting him up for direct conflict with the US president.Biden has not made clear what consequences Netanyahu might face if he ignores the US’s position. An invasion of Rafah, Van Hollen said, would present “one of those moments where the Biden administration is going to have to decide whether it’s going to back up the president’s strong words with the leverage that it has”. More

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      Trump hush-money trial delayed for 30 days as lawyers review new evidence

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      A judge on Friday delayed Donald Trump’s hush-money criminal trial until at least mid-April after the former president’s lawyers said they needed more time to sift through a profusion of evidence they only recently obtained from a previous federal investigation into the matter.Judge Juan Manuel Merchan agreed to a 30-day postponement and scheduled a hearing for 25 March to address questions about the evidence dump. The trial had been slated to start on 25 March. It is among four criminal indictments against Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee.Trump’s lawyers wanted a 90-day delay, which would have pushed the start of the trial into the early summer. Prosecutors said they were OK with a 30-day adjournment “in an abundance of caution and to ensure that defendant has sufficient time to review the new materials”.Trump’s lawyers said they have received tens of thousands of pages of evidence in the last two weeks from the US attorney’s office in Manhattan, which investigated the hush money arrangement while Trump was president.The evidence includes records about former Trump lawyer turned prosecution witness Michael Cohen that are “exculpatory and favorable to the defense,” Trump’s lawyers said. Prosecutors said most of the newly turned over material is “largely irrelevant to the subject matter of this case,” though some records are pertinent.The hush money case centers on allegations that Trump falsified his company’s records to hide the true nature of payments to Cohen, who paid porn actor Stormy Daniels $130,000 during the 2016 presidential campaign to suppress her claims of an extramarital sexual encounter with Trump years earlier.Trump pleaded not guilty last year to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and has denied having a sexual encounter with Daniels. His lawyers argue the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses and were not part of any cover-up.Prosecutors contend Trump’s lawyers caused the evidence problem by waiting until 18 January – a mere nine weeks before the scheduled start of jury selection – to subpoena the US attorney’s office for the full case file.District attorney Alvin Bragg’s office said it requested the full file last year, but the US attorney’s office only turned over a subset of records. Trump’s lawyers received that material last June and had ample time to seek additional evidence from the federal probe, the district attorney’s office said.Short trial delays because of issues with evidence aren’t unusual, but any delay in a case involving Trump would be significant, with trial dates in his other criminal cases up in the air and election day less than eight months away.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe defense has also sought to delay the trial until after the US supreme court rules on Trump’s presidential immunity claims, which his lawyers say could apply to some of the allegations and evidence in the hush money case. The supreme court is scheduled to hear oral arguments 25 April.Trump has repeatedly sought to postpone his criminal trials while he campaigns to retake the White House.“We want delays,” Trump told reporters as he headed into a 15 February hearing in New York. “Obviously, I’m running for election. How can you run for election if you’re sitting in a courthouse in Manhattan all day long?” More

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      Fani Willis thanks deputy Nathan Wade for ‘patriotism and courage’ after accepting his resignation – as it happened

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      Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor in the Georgia racketeering case against Donald Trump and his co-defendants, has resigned.Wade’s resignation comes after a ruling by the judge overseeing the Trump Georgia case that district attorney Fani Willis can continue to head the prosecution, as long as Wade steps down from the case.Here is a wrap-up of the day’s key events:
      Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor in the Georgia racketeering case against Donald Trump and his co-defendants, has resigned. Wade’s resignation comes after a ruling by the judge overseeing the Trump Georgia case that district attorney Fani Willis can continue to head the prosecution, as long as Wade steps down from the case.
      Donald Trump has responded to Nathan Wade’s resignation in yet another fiery Truth Social post. Writing on his social media platform, Trump said: “…Nathan was the ‘Special,’ in more ways than one, Prosecutor ‘engaged’ by Fani (pronounced Fauni!) Willis, to persecute TRUMP for Crooked Joe Biden and his Department of Injustice…”
      Donald Trump has endorsed John Barrasso for the next Senate Republican whip, the conference’s number two spot. Barrasso is a “fantastic” senator for Wyoming who will “never let you down”, Trump posted to Truth Social on Thursday evening.
      New York judge Juan Merchan has delayed Donald Trump’s hush money trial, which was set to begin on March 25, to mid-April. “There are significant questions of fact which this Court must resolve before it may rule on Defendant’s motion,” Merchant wrote.
      The White House’s top lawyer told House Republicans to give up on their impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden in a letter addressed to the House speaker, Mike Johnson. A spokesperson for Johnson said it was not up to the White House to decide what happened with the inquiry.
      Joe Biden defended the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, over comments he made on Thursday calling on Israel to hold new elections and harshly criticizing its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. “I’m not going to elaborate on the speech. He made a good speech,” Biden said.
      Joe Biden welcomed the Irish taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, at the White House. Varadkar told Biden that his priority was to get a ceasefire in Gaza as soon as possible to allow humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory.
      New York judge Juan Merchan has delayed Donald Trump’s hush money trial, which was set to begin on March 25, to mid-April.“There are significant questions of fact which this Court must resolve before it may rule on Defendant’s motion,” Merchant wrote.Earlier this month, Trump’s lawyers had argued for a 90-day delay, saying that they needed more time to review thousands of pages of evidence. However, they later said that they agreed to the 30-day delay “in an abundance of caution and to ensure that defendant has sufficient time to review the new materials.”The hush money case revolves around alleged payments Trump secretly made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016 during his presidential campaign in an attempt to conceal their alleged sexual encounter.Last year, Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony charges in the case.Donald Trump is the true winner in the decision on Fani Willis in the Georgia election interference case, the Guardian’s Sam Levine writes:Fani Willis may have survived a high-stakes effort to disqualify her from prosecuting the high-stakes election interference case in Georgia. But the biggest winner from the episode is likely Donald Trump.The Fulton county district attorney can now continue prosecuting her case against Trump and 14 co-defendants as long as Nathan Wade, a top deputy with whom she had a romantic relationship with, resigns, Fulton county superior court judge Scott McAfee ruled on Friday. Wade did just that a few hours later.But both the opinion and the extraordinary hearing that preceded it lends a hugely significant judicial imprimatur to Trump’s successful effort to diminish Willis’ credibility in the public eye.Trump and his co-defendants have waged a successful campaign to diminish the perception of her – puncturing her reputation as an impartial prosecutor seeking justice and instead offering up the image of a flawed public official whose romantic feelings led to a lapse in judgment.For the full story, click here:Donald Trump has responded to Nathan Wade’s resignation in yet another fiery Truth Social post.Writing on his social media platform, Trump said:“The Fani Willis lover, Mr. Nathan Wade Esq., has just resigned in disgrace, as per his and her reading of the Judge’s Order today. Nathan was the ‘Special,’ in more ways than one, Prosecutor ‘engaged’ by Fani (pronounced Fauni!) Willis, to persecute TRUMP for Crooked Joe Biden and his Department of Injustice, for purposes of Election Interference and living the life of the Rich & Famous…”In his resignation letter to district attorney Fani Willis, Nathan Wade said:“I am offering my resignation in the interest of democracy, in dedication to the American public, and to move this case forward as quickly as possible.I am proud of the work our team has accomplished in investigating, indicting and litigating this case. Seeking justice for the people of Georgia and the United States, and being part of the effort to ensure that the rule of law and democracy are preserved, has been the honor of a lifetime.”Nathan Wade’s resignation allows Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis to remain on the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump, but the long-term damage to her credibility and the public perception of the prosecution remains unclear.Despite Judge Scott McAfee’s ruling giving Willis the option to stay on the case, his decision offered a harsh analysis of her conduct and underscoring questions about her judgment that were exposed during a multi-day hearing.In his ruling, McAfee said Willis had demonstrated “tremendous lapse in judgment”, noting that Georgia law “does not permit the finding of an actual conflict for simply making bad choices – even repeatedly maintaining such a relationship.”Trump and allies are likely to seize on those punches as they continue to defend themselves in the case.Donald Trump has endorsed John Barrasso for the next Senate Republican whip, the conference’s number two spot.Barrasso is a “fantastic” senator for Wyoming who will “never let you down”, Trump posted to Truth Social on Thursday evening.Barrasso, 71, is the third-ranking Senate Republican as chair of the Senate Republican conference and relatively popular with the Republican right. He endorsed Trump in January and has also supported several “Make America great again” candidates for the Senate, including election denier Kari Lake in Arizona.Barrasso is running unopposed for the whip position to replace John Thune, who is running to replace Mitch McConnell as Senate Republican leader.Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis accepted Nathan Wade’s resignation from the election interference case against Donald Trump and his co-defendants in Georgia in a letter where she thanked him for his “patriotism, courage, and dedication to justice.”In the letter, Willis said she accepted her top deputy’s resignation effective immediately, and said she will “always remember … that you were brave enough to step forward and take on” the investigation into the former president and his allies. She wrote:
      I compliment you for the professionalism and dignity you have shown over the last 865 days, as you have endured threats against you and your family, as well as unjustified attacks in the media and in court on your reputation as a lawyer.
      She concluded the letter by writing:
      Please accept my sincere gratitude on behalf of the citizens of Fulton county Georgia for your patriotism, courage, and dedication to justice. I wish you the best in your future endeavors.
      The decision by Nathan Wade to step down from his role as special prosecutor in the Georgia racketeering case against Donald Trump and his co-defendants means that district attorney Fani Willis can continue leading the prosecution.The ruling earlier today by Judge Scott McAfee came after hearings that offered a dramatic deviation from the case against Trump and his allies as it investigated Willis’s romantic relationship with Wade, her top deputy.The question at the heart of the matter was whether Willis had a conflict of interest in the case because of her relationship with Wade. Michael Roman, one of the 14 remaining defendants in the case, filed a motion in January saying Willis should be disqualified from handling the case because of her romantic relationship with Wade, which was not publicly known at the time.The two eventually admitted their relationship, but said it did not begin until 2022, after Wade was hired to work on the Trump case. Wade acknowledged that he paid for vacations for the two of them to places such as Napa in California and Aruba, but he and Willis both said she paid him back in cash.In his ruling, the judge said Wade could withdraw from the case, “allowing the district attorney, the defendants, and the public to move forward without his presence or remuneration distracting from and potentially compromising the merits of this case”.Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor in the Georgia racketeering case against Donald Trump and his co-defendants, has resigned.Wade’s resignation comes after a ruling by the judge overseeing the Trump Georgia case that district attorney Fani Willis can continue to head the prosecution, as long as Wade steps down from the case.After the House fast-tracked a bill that would force China-based ByteDance to divest from TikTok or face a nationwide ban, senators say they want the chamber to take its time deciding whether to back the legislation.The House voted 352-65 on Wednesday, just eight days after the proposal was introduced. There is broad support in the Senate for taking action to address national security threats from foreign apps like TikTok but no agreement on the right approach.The Senate commerce committee chair, Maria Cantwell, said in an interview with Reuters she wants legislation to address broad concerns about foreign apps that will hold up in court and is not sure the House bill goes far enough.“We’ll probably have a better idea in a week what we think the options are,” Cantwell said, adding that she had thought about holding hearings.Senator Ron Wyden, a leading Democrat on tech issues, said he was still reviewing the House bill and has “serious concerns about any app that gives the Chinese government access to Americans’ private data.
      I’ll also say this: history teaches us that when lawmakers rush to legislate on tech and social media, mistakes get made.
      Fani Willis may have survived a high-stakes effort to disqualify her from prosecuting the high-stakes election interference case in Georgia. But the biggest winner from the episode is likely Donald Trump.The Fulton county district attorney can now continue prosecuting her case against Trump and 14 co-defendants as long as Nathan Wade, a top deputy with whom she had a romantic relationship with, resigns, Fulton county superior court judge Scott McAfee ruled on Friday.But both the opinion and the extraordinary hearing that preceded it lends a hugely significant judicial imprimatur to Trump’s successful effort to diminish Willis’ credibility in the public eye.Trump and his co-defendants have waged a successful campaign to diminish the perception of her – puncturing her reputation as an impartial prosecutor seeking justice and instead offering up the image of a flawed public official whose romantic feelings led to a lapse in judgment.Friday’s developments are extremely significant. The Georgia case has long been considered one of the strongest against Trump. Unlike the two criminal cases being pursued by the justice department, it is also insulated from any direct interference by Trump should he win the 2024 election since he cannot dismiss the prosecutor or pardon himself in Georgia, even if he occupies the White House.Read the full analysis by the Guardian’s voting rights reporter, Sam Levine: Trump is the true winner in the decision on Fani Willis in the Georgia caseThe Georgia judge overseeing Donald Trump’s criminal case over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election in the state on Friday declined to remove Fani Willis, the Fulton county district attorney, from leading the prosecution, finding there was no conflict of interest stemming from her romantic relationship with her top deputy.But the judge, Scott McAfee, ruled the relationship had the “appearance of impropriety” and gave Willis a choice: either she could step down, or the deputy, special prosecutor Nathan Wade, could do so.If, as seems likely, Wade is now to be dropped from the prosecution, the case against Trump can continue with Willis leading it. But it will be one that is deeply politically damaged, especially due to the scathing criticism of her by McAfee.Here are the top takeaways from the 23-page ruling.Leo Varadkar, the Irish taoiseach, is in Washington today visiting Joe Biden and attending happenings on Capitol Hill.Varadkar used his remarks at a luncheon to thank the United States for its work to bring peace between Ireland and Northern Ireland — part of the United Kingdom — with the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, The Associated Press reports.Joe Biden said:
      May the hinge of our friendship never grow rusty.”
      Both the US president and the Irish taoiseach, or prime minister, spoke up for continued international support for Ukraine in its grinding resistance two years into Russia’s invasion.
      Ukraine must not fall and together, we need to stand by Ukraine for as long as it takes. We look forward to working with America for the next 100 years,” said Varadkar.
      Joe Biden and Mike Johnson have been shaking hands, smiling, sitting next to each other. You’d almost think Congress was functioning and the Democratic-controlled White House was happy with everything that’s going on in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.The US president and the Speaker of the House are at, to quote the White House, the Friends of Ireland Caucus St Patrick’s Day Luncheon.You know that when someone says “luncheon” it’s an official function calling for decorum and delicacies, both diplomatic and gastronomic.The White House pool report says that Johnson stepped to the microphone first in the Rayburn Room. He introduced Biden, who was smiling while he sat nearby listening, as “someone who is known everywhere as America’s most famous Irishman.”Pool continues: The president, in a blue suit and green tie, then made general remarks about Ireland – Irish poets, Irish history, Irish American heritage.“And excuse me for saying this,” Biden said turning his attention to the situation in Ukraine after noting the shared US and Irish commitment to freedom, “but I think the vast majority of members of Congress” are willing to do their part” to stand up to Russian aggression.The latest tranche of US funding for Ukraine to counter the Russian invasion passed the Senate but has stalled in the House.Irish leader Leo Varadkar is visiting Biden today and is attending the luncheon.Israel said on Friday it would send a delegation to Qatar for fresh talks on a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza, keeping faint hopes for a truce alive despite rejecting a long-awaited counter-offer from Hamas, Reuters reports.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office also said he had approved a plan for an assault on Rafah, the city on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip where more than half of the territory’s 2.3 million residents are sheltering, though it gave no timeframe for such an attack.Negotiators failed this week to reach a ceasefire agreement for the Gaza war in time for the Ramadan Muslim holy month. But Washington and Arab mediators are still determined to reach a deal to head off an Israeli assault on Rafah and let in humanitarian aid to stave off mass starvation.Underlining growing disquiet in Washington, US Secretary of State Antony Blinkentold reporters in Austria that the United States needed to see a clear and implementable plan for Rafah, including to get civilians out of harm’s way.You can follow all the developments from the Middle East in our story coverage and, currently, our separate live blog on the situation in Gaza.The lawyer who filed the original motion against Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis has called the judge’s ruling “a vindication”.Ashleigh Merchant, who represents Donald Trump’s co-defendant Michael Roman, released the following statement:
      The judge clearly agreed with the defense that the actions of Willis are a result of her poor judgment and that there is a risk to the future of this case if she doesn’t quickly work to cure her conflict.
      While we do not agree that the courts suggested cure is adequate in response to the egregious conduct by the district attorney, we look forward to the district attorneys response to the demands by the court.
      The Georgia judge overseeing Donald Trump’s criminal case over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election in the state has ruled that the district attorney Fani Willis can continue to head the prosecution, as long as a special prosecutor in the case and her top deputy, Nathan Wade, steps down. The decision avoids catastrophe for Willis, but it still significantly harms her credibility and underscores questions about her judgment.
      Here are the top takeaways from the 23-page ruling by the judge, Scott McAfee.
      You can also read the judge’s full decision here.
      Trump lawyer Steve Sadow said his team will “use all legal options available” to continue to fight the Georgia election case.
      A former assistant US attorney, Andrew Weissmann, called on Willis to voluntarily recuse herself from the case against Trump and his allies.
      Republican senator Lindsey Graham called the judge’s decision “nonsensical” and “bizarre”.
      Also:
      The White House’s top lawyer told House Republicans to give up on their impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden in a letter addressed to the House speaker, Mike Johnson. A spokesperson for Johnson said it was not up to the White House to decide what happened with the inquiry.
      Joe Biden defended the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, over comments he made on Thursday calling on Israel to hold new elections and harshly criticizing its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
      The supreme court will hear oral arguments on Monday in a case with the potential to radically redefine how the US government interacts with social media companies.
      Biden welcomed the Irish taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, at the White House. Varadkar told Biden that his priority was to get a ceasefire in Gaza as soon as possible to allow humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory.
      A spokesperson for House speaker Mike Johnson has responded to a letter sent by the White House’s top lawyer urging House Republicans to give up on their impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden.In a scathing letter on Friday, White House counsel Ed Siskel told Johnson “it is clear the House Republican impeachment is over” and noting that despite collecting over 100,000 pages of records and conducting interviews with dozens of witnesses, including multiple public hearings, “none of the evidence has demonstrated that the president did anything wrong.”Raj Shah, a spokesperson for Johnson, accused Biden of lying and said it was not up to the White House to decide what happened with the inquiry. An email shared by Reuters reads:
      The White House does not get to decide how impeachment gets resolved, that is for Congress to decide. More