The outgoing Labour leader is set to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Thursday

Dena Karari, dual US-Iranian citizen, ‘now safely outside of Iran, and in good condition’, president posts on Truth Social

Donald Trump said Wednesday Iran had agreed to release an American citizen who was “wrongfully detained” since December 2024.

“She is now safely outside of Iran, and in good condition,” Trump wrote on social media, without naming the woman. “The United States of America appreciates this gesture of Goodwill by Iran!”

Trump’s effort to revamp the landmark stretched well past the goal of having it ready by the Fourth of July

The newly drained Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool’s bottom surface has noticeably faded since it was lined with a protective coating in a color Donald Trump called “American flag blue” this spring.

An Associated Press reporter and photographer viewed the fenced-off reflecting pool on Wednesday from the top of the Washington Monument. The new liner appears grayer than when the pool was repainted and refilled with water in early June. Debris that had been visible earlier this week after the pool was drained is now largely gone, after work crews removed it.

Vice-president tells Joe Rogan administration botched handling and should have released all documents from start

JD Vance agreed with criticism that the Trump administration botched the handling of the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, telling podcast host Joe Rogan that “we absolutely screwed up the comms”.

The Department of Justice’s repeated moves to delay the release of documents related to the convicted sex offender drew bipartisan disapproval last year. The files have been one of the most significant political liabilities to Donald Trump since his second term began.

During confirmation hearing Wednesday, Trump’s pick tells Senate health committee she would ‘never betray the science’

Erica Schwartz, the Trump administration’s latest nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), faced sharp questioning from senators who pressed her to say whether she would stand up to her boss, the health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.

During her confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Schwartz, a deputy surgeon general in the first Trump administration, told the Senate health committee she “will never betray the science” and pledged to use “radical transparency” to rebuild public trust. But she repeatedly deflected questions about how she would handle pressure from Kennedy, a leader in the anti-vaccine movement who has overseen months of turmoil at the agency and made controversial changes to US vaccine policies.

Effort is latest attempt to pass bill that seeks to ban mail-in ballots and imposes voter identification requirements

House Republicans on Wednesday made another attempt to answer Donald Trump’s demand for new restrictions on voting nationwide by linking the measure to an unrelated spending bill and passing both largely along party lines.

The effort was the latest attempt by congressional Republicans to pass the Save America Act, which would ban mail-in ballots and impose new identification requirements on voters when they register and cast ballots. While the Trump administration has cast the bill as necessary to prevent non-citizens from voting and combat election fraud, voting rights advocates say there’s no evidence of widespread election tampering and warn the bill could disenfranchise swaths of eligible voters ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Backing by 103 Democrats underscores how sentiment in party towards Israel and Netanyahu government has soured

The House on Wednesday defeated a measure to slash military aid to Israel, but more than 100 House Democrats voted for it in a significant rebuke of the longtime US ally as accusations that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government green-lit genocide in Gaza continue to convulse the party ahead of November’s midterm elections.

The amendment proposed by Republican congressman Thomas Massie to a spending measure would have halted $3.3bn in planned aid – much of which would have gone to Israel’s military. But it was rejected by a 104-314 vote, with 10 lawmakers voting present. Massie was the sole member of the GOP to vote yes.

Since start of Trump’s second term, 14 Mexican immigrants have died in ICE custody and three in agency operations

Mexico formally requested that US state attorneys general criminally investigate cases of immigrants who have died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody or during raids, the Mexican government said Tuesday.

The request follows the death of Mexican immigrant Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Houston. Since the beginning of Donald Trump’s second term, 17 Mexican immigrants have died during immigration enforcement, 14 in ICE custody and three in agency operations.

Friedrich Merz responds to US project offering grants of up to $3m in Europe to address ‘sovereignty, migration and censorship’

Friedrich Merz has warned Donald Trump’s administration against interfering in German elections after the US state department announced a scheme to fund Maga-aligned causes in Europe.

The German chancellor was responding to a US initiative offering grants of up to $3m (£2.2m) for European charities, thinktanks and individuals.

US defense secretary unveils plan that will work to ensure service members have the ‘right testosterone levels’

Pete Hegseth announced Wednesday that the Department of Defense will offer testosterone deficiency screening for soldiers 30 and older.

The US defense secretary unveiled plans for a new screening program for testosterone deficiency among troops that will work to ensure service members have the “right testosterone levels” to perform at their optimal condition in a video posted to X.

In interviews and social posts, the loyalty-obsessed president couldn’t help but weave criticism into his praise

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Normal procedure in the immediate aftermath of an unexpected death is to shower the deceased with praise, irrespective of whether it is deserved.

Donald Trump, commemorating Lindsey Graham in recent days, has taken a different tack, sometimes extolling the South Carolina senator’s virtues but at other times rather diminishing the newly deceased 71-year-old.

Musk distributed money to three people before the 2025 election, which he claimed was critical to Trump’s agenda

Billionaire Elon Musk likely violated Wisconsin law when he gave out $1m checks to voters in the 2025 state supreme court election, a bipartisan elections panel has found.

Musk distributed the money before the vote, which he claimed was critical to Donald Trump’s agenda and “the future of civilization”.

Marc Beckman ridiculed for gushing praise of Melania Trump, whom he hailed for helping rescue Ukrainian children from Russia, despite others doing much more on the issue

Republican Trump ally has spent years promoting discredited claims about 2020 election

Donald Trump has endorsed Mike Lindell’s bid for Minnesota governor, calling the MyPillow founder “one of America’s greatest and most hard working Patriots” in a Truth Social post on Wednesday.

Trump described Lindell as someone who had “sacrificed” more than almost anyone else “in fighting for our country, especially when it comes to Election Integrity”, invoking Lindell’s years spent promoting discredited claims about the 2020 election. Trump said Lindell “will MAKE MINNESOTA GREAT AGAIN” and gave him full-throated support ahead of the state’s 11 August Republican primary, where early voting is already under way.

Exclusive: bill from Democratic lawmaker comes two days after Marco Rubio vowed to dismantle war crimes tribunal

The Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar introduced a resolution on Wednesday urging the United States to join the international criminal court (ICC), marking the first congressional pushback against the Trump administration’s pledge to “systematically disable” the war crimes tribunal through sanctions and diplomatic pressure.

Omar’s bill came two days after Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, vowed to dismantle the court.

Lawmakers dubious of answers from Kathryn Ruemmler, whose name appeared thousands of times in released files

Democrats said Kathryn Ruemmler, who served as White House counsel under Barack Obama, was not “completely truthful” with lawmakers during her Wednesday testimony before the House committee on oversight and reform about her ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

Ruemmler, who testified as part of the panel’s investigation into the convicted sex offender, said in her opening remarks that Epstein “used” her “to legitimize his standing” and that “it was a mistake to deal with” him. She insisted she never witnessed criminal activity.

Promise Me, America to cover everything from economy to decision to drop bid for re-election

Former president Joe Biden will publish a memoir this fall, publisher Little, Brown and Company told the Associated Press.

Promise Me, America, which Biden says will touch upon everything from the economy to his decision to drop his bid for re-election, is scheduled to come out on 17 November.

President Donald Trump is expected to urge top defense executives on ​Wednesday to accelerate weapons production and expand manufacturing capacity

Clayton, if confirmed, would replace Bill Pulte, and is facing senators for confirmation as the US’s top spy

Jay Clayton, the US attorney for the southern district of New York, refused to say that Joe Biden won the 2020 election during his Wednesday confirmation hearing to become the country’s next intelligence chief.

Clayton opted instead to say that Biden was “certified” as president. Clayton also skirted questions about his previous election integrity claims and whether or not a White House official asked him to subpoena a group of New York Times journalists as part of an alleged national security investigation.

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In his opening statement before senators today, Todd Blanche, said that he is “pleased to testify again today to tell everybody here that we are doing just that-we are keeping America safe”.

The nominee for attorney general, who has been leading the justice department in an acting capacity since Pam Bondi was fired in April.

Agents killed Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas, even though both were not targets of enforcement action

US officials are facing mounting calls to remove US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from American streets after federal agents killed two men who were not the target of enforcement action in less than a week.

Advocacy groups, including the National Police Accountability Project and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, described the fatal shootings of Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas as extrajudicial killings.

Plaintiffs allege ‘profound’ chilling effect on protected work of international criminal court officials and others

Two US advocacy groups sued the Trump administration on Wednesday, alleging that sanctions targeting Palestinian rights organizations, international criminal court (ICC) officials and a UN expert have unlawfully violated Americans’ first amendment rights.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Manhattan, argues that the administration’s sweeping 2025 sanctions package has had a “profound” chilling effect on Palestine-related advocacy, compelling Americans to sever professional relationships and abandon constitutionally protected work.

President’s pick for attorney general faces tough questions over purging of career prosecutors, January 6 and Epstein

Todd Blanche sought to downplay his close relationship with Donald Trump, tried to distance himself from decisions regarding January 6 rioters, and defended his handling of files regarding Jeffrey Epstein as well a settlement agreement that created a $1.8bn slush fund and giving the president and his family immunity from audits during his confirmation hearing to be the next attorney general in front of the Senate judiciary committee on Wednesday.

Blanche served as Trump’s personal attorney before being tapped to be the deputy attorney general – the No 2 position at the justice department at the start of last year. He has been serving as the acting attorney general since April, when Trump fired Pam Bondi, and has amped up Trump’s retribution agenda.

The senator is alive, a key requirement to maintain one’s job in the US Senate

Like any good proof-of-life photo, it featured that day’s newspaper. After a nearly month-long disappearance, when it was clear that he had been rushed to the hospital but not clear why or in what condition, Mitch McConnell broke his silence, as they say in the tabloids, by releasing a photograph of himself sitting upright in a hospital bed. He wore a pink button-up shirt, and his vacant, lipless mouth seemed to form something meant to resemble a smile. Beside him was his wife, the comparatively pert former Trump transportation secretary Elaine Chao, her coiffed hair as stiff as the couple’s determination. In a statement, McConnell said that he had been hospitalized after a fall, and was being treated for pneumonia.

The picture was meant to put an end to the rampant speculation over whether the senator, aged 84, was dead or not. You would think this would be a simple enough question to answer. If the man himself wasn’t available to clear up the matter, couldn’t someone have held two fingers to the inside of his wrist to check for a pulse, or propped a hand mirror under his nose to see if it fogged? No such luck, apparently. The Kentucky senator was missing for weeks, with no word, his office only releasing vague and repetitive acknowledgments that he had been hospitalized. Public emergency services records indicate that paramedics were called to his Washington address on 14 June, where they administered CPR on an unconscious person who was allegedly suffering a cardiac arrest – one whose identity has been withheld. McConnell had been in a Washington DC area hospital ever since.

Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist

Death of unidentified 28-year-old man marks third immigration enforcement-related death in one week

A person died during an encounter with federal immigration officials on Tuesday morning in Florida, a state highway patrol spokesperson confirmed, marking the third death in one week linked to immigration enforcement operations.

Officials with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which is a component of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), had an “encounter” with four men in a vehicle in the parking lot of a convenience store along a busy road in St Augustine, Florida, the highway patrol spokesperson said. As the four men fled from the agents, one of them ran into the busy road and was struck by a semi truck. The person died at the scene.

Chuck Schumer says Republicans are ‘ignoring the nation’s most urgent national security crisis’ amid US exchange of fire with Iran

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Senate Democrats on Tuesday blocked the advancement of a must-pass defense bill in protest of Donald Trump’s resumption of hostilities with Iran.

The hold up of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) comes amid the fiercest exchange in fire between the countries in weeks, which has amplified frustration among Democrats that the US remains involved in the conflict despite the passage last month of a war powers resolution intended to force a ceasefire.

A collision of online conspiracy theories have come for two of the most powerful Senate Republicans in recent days

It was Russia. It was Israel. Could it have been Iran? Or maybe it was a Covid booster. What about the Clintons?

After US senator Lindsey Graham died suddenly over the weekend from what a preliminary medical examiner report said was an aortic dissection, conspiracy theories spread quickly claiming – without evidence – that any number of foreign adversaries or other frequent conspiracy subjects might have orchestrated the Republican’s death.

Lawsuit alleges administration coordinated with online surveillance groups to ‘criminalize solidarity with Palestine’

Mahmoud Khalil filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against Trump administration officials and several pro-Israel groups, accusing them of conspiring to target him and others as punishment for their support of Palestinian rights.

The former Columbia University graduate student became the face of the Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestine speech after he was detained last year. A permanent US resident, Khalil is also fighting in court against the government’s effort to deport him.

Lindsey Graham’s younger sister appointed by South Carolina’s governor three days after senator’s death

• Darline Graham Nordone: Lindsey Graham’s sister and interim US senator

Darline Graham, the sister of the late Republican senator Lindsey Graham, was sworn in to temporarily fill his Senate seat on Tuesday, just three days after his sudden death.

Graham was appointed by Henry McMaster, South Carolina’s governor, to fill the remainder of her brother’s current term.

House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, calls amendment ‘overly broad’ as party grapples with backlash over Israel

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Top House Democrats split on Tuesday over a proposal to block aid for Israel’s military, with two of the party’s highest-ranking lawmakers saying they will oppose the effort while the chair of the progressive caucus encouraged his colleagues to back the defunding.

The debate over an amendment introduced by Republican congressman Thomas Massie to halt $3.3bn in aid for Israel – the majority of which would go to its military – comes as Democrats grapple with a rebellion among their voters over the party’s support for the Middle Eastern ally, which has fueled the defeats of a series of congressional incumbents in recent primaries.

Deaths of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo prompt calls for independent investigations

Federal immigration officials have been instructed to stop pulling over vehicles until further notice, according to a homeland security source, following two recent deadly shootings in Texas and Maine during which officials shot and killed immigrants in vehicles.

Other news outlets, including Fox News and CNN, confirmed that officials nationwide received the instructions, with the former reporting some vehicle stops would be allowed to target “the most egregious criminal aliens”.

Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett appear before House lawmakers in rare testimony to ask for more protection

Supreme court justice Amy Coney Barrett told House lawmakers that a sharp rise in threats against her and other justices is increasingly affecting her personal and family lives.

Barrett and fellow supreme court justice Elena Kagan made the case for increased security in rare House testimony to discuss the court’s budget request. The last time a sitting justice answered questions on Capitol Hill was 2019.

US government says it wants to ‘systematically disable’ The Hague-based international criminal court

A spokesperson for the EU has pushed back against the Trump administration’s assertion that the international criminal court poses a threat to US sovereignty, a day after the US government said it would work to “systematically disable” a global tribunal that seeks to prosecute the perpetrators of the world’s gravest crimes.

Anouar El Anouni, an EU spokesperson, said on Tuesday: “We stand firm in our support for the international criminal court (ICC). Attacks or threats against the court, elected officials, personnel or those cooperating with the court are simply not acceptable.”