Summary
We’re wrapping up our live coverage for the day. Here are today’s key developments in US politics:
Clashing court rulings plunged Missouri’s congressional elections into uncertainty. The US Supreme Court decided not to intervene to reinstate a Donald Trump-backed US House map, upholding a a ruling from the state’s highest state court that prevented the use of the map in the November elections. But shortly after a federal judge temporarily barred the state from using its old congressional maps in November.
The US military destroyed five Iranian crude oil carriers after a US navy warship was targeted with ballistic missiles. Iran had targeted the warship twice over two days, the US Central Command said.
The US will ban Canadian dairy products, motorcycles and most alcoholic beverages. The move marked an escalation in the ongoing trade war between the North American countries, and comes just after Canada announced retaliatory tariffs on $20bn in US goods.
Congressman Chris Pappas beat back progressive challenger Karishma Manzur in the New Hampshire Democratic primary for US Senate. Former senator John E Sununu, who is backed by Trump, won the state’s Republican Senate primary.
Lonnie G Bunch III announced he is stepping down as secretary of the Smithsonian Institution after seven years in the role amid Donald Trump’s unprecedented crackdown on the world’s largest museum’s autonomy.
Karen Bass plans to step down from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority Commission. The mayor told the local radio station KFI she would no longer serve on the board because she did not have the time.
LAist recently reported that since Bass appointed herself to the governing body in 2023, she had missed more than half of the meetings.
The agency has been under scrutiny by the Trump administration. Last week Bass was asked been asked to testify before a congressional committee as part of an investigation into the “potential misallocation” of federal funds by the agency. Congressman Robert Garcia described the move as “another attempt by Donald Trump and House Republicans to launch a witch hunt against Mayor Karen Bass and Los Angeles.”
Global oil prices surged to levels last seen in July as the conflict between the US and Iran intensified this week.
Oil prices rose to almost $100 a barrel in early Asia trading, shortly after it emerged that the US military “destroyed” multiple Iranian tankers in response to Iran attempting to strike a US navy warship with ballistic missiles.
Read more on today’s developments from the Guardian’s Shrai Popat:
Related: US says Iranian tankers ‘destroyed’ after missile attacks on American warship
Former senator John E Sununu triumphed on Tuesday in the New Hampshire Republican Senate primary Scott Brown, earning the GOP nod in what will likely be a must-win race if Democrats hope to seize the upper chamber.
Sununu, 61, was the clear frontrunner in the GOP primary. He served one term in the Senate from 2003 to 2009.
Brown represented Massachusetts, later moved to New Hampshire, and served as US ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa during Donald Trump’s first term.
The US president threw his support behind Sununu earlier this year, despite the former lawmaker’s past criticism of Trump, including a 2024 op‑ed in which Sununu called Trump a “loser” and backed Nikki Haley in the Republican presidential primary.
On the trail, Sununu has tried to show daylight between himself and the administration, criticizing Trump’s tariff policy, urging Congress to rein in executive power, and questioning the decision to launch military action in Iran.
Related: Trump-backed John Sununu wins New Hampshire Republican Senate primary
Congressman Chris Pappas beat back progressive challenger Karishma Manzur in the Democratic primary for US Senate on Tuesday, advancing as most observers expected to what will be a closely watched general election that is critical to Democratic hopes of flipping the upper chamber.
The two were competing for the nomination that opened up after Jeanne Shaheen, 79, the state’s three‑term incumbent Democratic senator, announced her retirement.
Pappas, a popular centrist, has served in the House since 2019 and has crossed the aisle at various points. He calls himself “battle‑tested” and has consolidated establishment backing, earning endorsements from leading Democratic lawmakers and former vice‑president Kamala Harris.
Related: Congressman Chris Pappas wins New Hampshire Democratic Senate primary
Missouri’s congressional maps have been thrown into more chaos following a federal judge’s decision to bar the state from using its old congressional maps in the November midterm elections.
While Republicans in the state are celebrating the decision, it’s unclear exactly what it will mean for Missouri voters. The Associated Press reports that an attorney for People Not Politicians said another order from Missouri’s supreme court against using the new map remains in effect.
“An individual federal judge cannot overrule the Missouri Supreme Court,” said Chuck Hatfield.
The US will ban Canadian dairy products, motorcycles and most alcoholic beverages, the White House said on Tuesday.
The move marks an escalation in the ongoing trade war between the North American countries, and comes just after Canada announced retaliatory tariffs on $20bn in US goods.
Earlier in the day following Canada’s announcement, Trump also announced plans to exclude Canadian products from large US government contracts.
The ban is set to take effect in three weeks.
Shortly after the US Supreme Court decided not to intervene in the battle over Missouri’s new congressional map earlier today, a federal judge temporarily barred the state from using old districts in the November elections.
Last week Missouri’s highest state court blocked the use of a newly drawn congressional map backed by Donald Trump, ruling that voters must approve or reject the new districts. The map had already been used in August primary elections.
The decision outraged Donald Trump and Catherine Hanaway, the state’s Republican attorney general, who immediately pledged to appeal to the supreme court. The supreme court, however, turned back the emergency appeal on Tuesday, letting the state court’s ruling stand.
But almost immediately after, a federal judge in Missouri issued a temporary restraining order that bars Missouri from using anything other than the new Republican backed map. Hanaway said in a statement that Missouri would “follow and comply” with the judge’s order.
“We maintain that changing the congressional map in between the primary and general elections is simply not feasible and profoundly unjust to Missouri voters,” she said.
The US military destroyed five Iranian crude oil carriers after a US navy warship was targeted with ballistic missiles.
Iran had targeted the warship twice over two days, the US Central Command said in a statement on Tuesday. The ship evaded the attacks and no personnel were harmed, according to the statement.
Speaking from Colombia, secretary of state Marco Rubio said if Iran attacks US warships, the US military will hit Iranian oil tankers.
“Iran continues to try to hit US naval ships, and for every time they do that or try to do that, they’re going to lose tankers,” Rubio told reporters.
The US Supreme Court decision not to reinstate a Donald Trump-backed US House map in Missouri is a blow to Republicans and the president’s mid-decade redistricting effort.
Missouri was the second Republican state to act in response the president’s push to redraw congressional maps to favor Republicans. Mike Kehoe, the state’s governor, called the legislature into a special session last year to create new boundaries ahead of the US midterm elections. The state utilized the new map in its primary elections in August.
But last week the state’s supreme court, which includes five Republican-appointed judges, unanimously ruled voters must approve the map in November before it can be utilized. The state’s attorney general argued the decision thrust Missouri into a “full‑fledged constitutional crisis”.
Supreme court rebuffs Missouri's push to use redrawn congressional map in November
The US supreme court will not suspend a ruling from Missouri’s highest state court that prevented the use of a Donald Trump-backed US House map in an upcoming election.
Last week the state’s supreme court ruled that the map must go before voters to approve or reject the new districts, meaning it cannot be used in the November election. Trump and Republicans fumed over the decision, with the president calling it “horrible, ridiculous, and unConstitutional”.
Catherine Hanaway, the state’s Republican attorney general, immediately pledged to appeal to the supreme court. The conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh denied the emergency request.
Updated
Senator Alex Padilla praised Lonnie Bunch III, the outgoing Smithsonian chief, for his “longstanding service” and “telling the full story of America”.
“Secretary Bunch has been instrumental in telling and preserving the story of our nation and our culture, putting truth and accuracy over politics,” the Democratic lawmaker said in a statement.
“In the face of Donald Trump’s attacks on the Smithsonian, Secretary Bunch spoke truth to power and reasserted his commitment to defend and uphold American history and values.”
Here's a recap of the day so far
Lonnie G Bunch III has announced he is stepping down as secretary of the Smithsonian Institution after seven years in the role amid Donald Trump’s unprecedented crackdown on the world’s largest museum’s autonomy. In an interview with the New York Times (paywall), Bunch, 73, said it was not the Trump administration’s pressure campaign to control how the Smithsonian presents US history and values that had led to his departure.
In response to the news that Lonnie Bunch III will step down as chief of the Smithsonian Institution, some Republicans have assailed his tenure leading the storied collection of museums. “Good riddance,” wrote Josh Hawley, a GOP senator from Missouri. The lawmaker and fierce defender of Donald Trump said that Bunch “should return his salary to the American people”. Meanwhile, Democrats have praised Bunch for his seven years leading the organization. “He is a student of history who has devoted his life to telling America’s full history and cultivating our nation’s continued love of learning and exploration,” said Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat from Nevada, who serves on the Smithsonian’s 17-member board and will be responsible to selecting his replacement.
US Central Command (Centcom) said that a submarine drone, that Iranian forces claimed to have captured, actually “malfunctioned more than a day ago”. In a statement to the Guardian by US Navy Capt Tim Hawkins, a Centcom spokesperson, said that the underwater drone was surveying regional waters in support of the ongoing military operation in the region. Hawkins said the submersible was “defective” and an older model. He also downplayed that it was a sophisticated piece of technology, adding that it “neither collected sensitive data nor carried any classified sonar or radar equipment”.
Marco Rubio said today that US is “not going to do what the UK did” and impose sweeping sanctions on trade with Israeli settlements, but stopped shy of commenting on the matter while speaking to reporters today. However, the secretary of state said that the US does not “want to see some uptick in violence or an uptick in conflict or tensions in the West Bank at a very tenuous time in the region”.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced that New York City would release 170,000 pages of previously undisclosed documents that show officials at the time knew that the air quality after the 9/11 terror attacks posed health risks, despite assuring the public and first responders that the air quality was safe. Ahead of the 25th anniversary of the attacks, the city has published the documents to a publicly accessible portal, which includes air quality reports and correspondence between New York officials. Mamdani directed $34m of the city’s budget to create the portal for the records.
Democrats have hit back against Donald Trump’s suggestion that the state of New Mexico should be renamed “New America”, accusing the US president of trying to distract from his war on Iran and rising prices. Michelle Lujan Grisham, the state’s Democratic governor said in a post on X that New Mexico’s name “isn’t up for debate – it’s been ours since before the United States existed.” She added: “While the President tries to distract Americans from his disastrous war in Iran, gas prices keep soaring.” More here
The court of appeals for the District of Columbia upheld a block by a lower court judge that prevents the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from sharing tax return information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The court also noted that IRS’ argument against the preliminary injunction – namely that it “impedes and delays federal law enforcement by improperly restricting the information that ICE is entitled to receive” – is actually a problem that needs to be addressed through legislation in Congress, not the court. The judges added that the administration’s claim is “weak sauce”.
Federal appeals court upholds block on IRS sharing tax return information with immigration enforcement
The court of appeals for the District of Columbia upheld a block by a lower court judge that prevents the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from sharing tax return information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“No statute authorizes the IRS to disclose ‘return information’ for non-tax civil investigations without the taxpayer’s consent, or to disclose ‘taxpayer return information’ for any purpose,” the court writes in its ruling.
The court also noted that IRS’ argument against the preliminary injunction – namely that it “impedes and delays federal law enforcement by improperly restricting the information that ICE is entitled to receive” – is actually a problem that needs to be addressed through legislation in Congress, not the court.
The judges added that the administration’s claim is “weak sauce”.
Last year, the IRS established the “Data-Exchange Procedure” with ICE, which provides the agency with the last-known addresses of 1.2 million taxpayers who may be undocumented. Soon after the plaintiffs challenged the new policy, blocked the data sharing, which the government appealed.
Updated
Centcom says that unmanned US drone Iran claims to have captured was 'defective' and carried no classified equipment
US Central Command (Centcom) said that a submarine drone, that Iranian forces claimed to have captured, actually “malfunctioned more than a day ago”.
In a statement to the Guardian, US Navy Capt Tim Hawkins, a Centcom spokesperson, said that the underwater drone was surveying regional waters in support of the ongoing military operation in the region. Hawkins said the submersible was “defective” and an older model. He also downplayed that it was a sophisticated piece of technology, adding that it “neither collected sensitive data nor carried any classified sonar or radar equipment”.
Hawkins added that operations in area waters continue.
Earlier today, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed to Iranian state TV that its naval forces “captured one of the most modern, unmanned, and smart submarines of the US terrorist army at the entrance to the strait of Hormuz”.
They added that the drone was “equipped with the latest technology”.
Updated
Republicans welcome Smithsonian chief's retirement, while Democrats praise his 'trailblazing leadership'
In response to the news that Lonnie Bunch III will step down as chief of the Smithsonian Institution, several Republicans have assailed his tenure leading the storied collection of museums.
“Good riddance,” wrote Josh Hawley, a GOP senator from Missouri. The lawmaker and fierce defender of Donald Trump said that Bunch “should return his salary to the American people”.
Similarly, Congressman Brandon Gill – a hardline conservative from Texas – said that he was “glad to see” Bunch retire.
“The days of using America’s museums to teach Americans to hate their own country are coming to an end,” Gill said on X. “New leadership must tell America’s story accurately.”
As we reported earlier, Trump has spent much of his second term in office undermining the content, programming and leadership of Smithsonian, including signing an executive order to “restore” the institution to “its rightful place as a symbol of inspiration and American greatness”.
Democrats, however, have praised Bunch for his seven years leading the organization. “He is a student of history who has devoted his life to telling America’s full history and cultivating our nation’s continued love of learning and exploration,” said Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat from Nevada, who serves on the Smithsonian’s 17-member board and will be responsible to selecting his replacement.
Meanwhile, Representative Terri Sewell, a Democrat from Alabama, thanked Bunch for his “trailblazing leadership” and appeared to push back on the criticism from Republicans that Bunch had attempted to rewrite American history.
Sewell said that the outgoing chief “helped ensure that all Americans can see themselves – and their history – reflected in the Smithsonian”.
A US appellate court has decided that the federal constitution does not guarantee a right to clean water.
That legal opinion came in the form of a decision on Friday from the fifth circuit court of appeals to uphold a lower court’s dismissal of a 2022 lawsuit from several Jackson, Mississippi, residents claiming that tainted drinking water violated their constitutional rights.
Those residents of Mississippi’s capital city contended that their local drinking water was unsafe to drink because of high lead levels and other contaminants.
The New Orleans-based fifth circuit’s majority opinion held that the residents wanted “recognition of two new constitutional rights lacking any foundation in the history and tradition of our nation” – those being “the right to be free from exposure to contaminated water and the right to accurate information from public officials”.
In the majority’s view, residents should have gone about their legal fight for clean water another way, such as pursuing “tort claims” or by “electing representatives who will better manage the public-water system, and petitioning their representatives for other remedies”.
Tort claims allege “harms caused by others” while seeking “to impose liability on parties responsible for the harm, and to deter others from committing harmful acts”, according to Cornell University’s law school.
Friday’s decision also said that state and federal officials were working hard to improve the majority-Black city’s drinking water. The residents who filed suit alleged that public authorities had for years failed to mitigate lead levels and failed to inform them about an increase.
Related: US federal court says no constitutional right to clean water in Mississippi case
Bunch’s resignation will mark a huge leadership transition at a vulnerable and politically fraught time for the institution.
During Trump’s second term in office, the president has repeatedly attacked how the Smithsonian presents US history, starting when he signed an executive order in March last year targeting “divisive narratives” and “improper ideology” at the institution. This progressed into frequent attacks, sweeping exhibition reviews and federal funding threats.
Bunch has had to tread a fine line between defending the Smithsonian’s independence and commitment to historical accuracy and complexity, and complying with some of the administration’s demands.
Trump has accused the organization of being too “woke” and focusing too much on unsavoury aspects of US history. A recent report prepared by the White House’s domestic policy council called “Saving America’s Story” accused the museum’s leadership of “ideological capture”.
The Smithsonian “explicitly adopted an ideological framework that no longer treats the American story as a shared national inheritance to be taught or celebrated, but as a political instrument to divide, dispirit, and discourage our citizens”, the report said.
In July, Trump then ordered the interior department to display signs in front of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History accusing the institution of “inaccurate information”.
Interior secretary Doug Burgum then sent a letter to the Smithsonian last week accusing its leadership of having “sanctioned a radical institutional ideology to permeate” the museum and threatening to cut off executive agencies’ cooperation with the institution if it failed to abandon that agenda.
Bunch pushed back against many of the administration’s efforts, reiterating the Smithsonian’s commitment to “scholarship, nonpartisanship, independence, accuracy, and integrity.”
But he has also complied with some of the White House’s requests, including handing over extensive documents about museum exhibitions and programming details for review.
Updated
Smithsonian head to retire as Trump escalates attacks on institution
Lonnie G Bunch III has announced he is stepping down as secretary of the Smithsonian Institution after seven years in the role amid Donald Trump’s unprecedented crackdown on the world’s largest museum’s autonomy.
In an interview with the New York Times (paywall), Bunch, 73, said it was not the Trump administration’s pressure campaign to control how the Smithsonian presents US history and values that had led to his departure.
It was really just saying, now’s the time. I’m a fighter.
But, acknowledging the strain of the role, he added:
I have to be honest, it has been stressful. And at a certain point, I’d like to wake up in the morning and not look at my cellphone.
Bunch, the institution’s first black secretary, is expected to leave the role at the end of the year.
Updated
Trump asks supreme court to allow voter verification database blocked by judge
The Trump administration has asked the supreme court to allow it to use a revamped immigration database for checking the accuracy of state voter rolls, one of a series of actions that boosts federal involvement in voting ahead of November’s midterm elections, Reuters reports.
Justice department lawyers asked the court to halt a Washington DC-based federal judge’s June ruling that blocked the mass voter verification system, which the judge said was haphazardly assembled and contained unreliable citizenship data.
“The district court has issued an indefensible order that threatens the integrity of upcoming elections by vacating the federal government’s authority to internally use Social Security data when fulfilling its duty to respond to requests by states to verify the citizenship of individuals for voting and other purposes,” DOJ lawyers wrote in a filing.
The lawyer of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts woman accused of killing her three young children, has said he hopes Donald Trump will pardon his client after her trial recently ended with a deadlocked jury.
Clancy’s attorney, Kevin Reddington, made the appeal on a televised interview on the ABC show Good Morning America today. The plea comes to Trump after a judge on Friday declared a mistrial after the jury in the Clancy case could not reach a unanimous verdict on whether she was guilty or not guilty, opening the way for another trial.
Reddington said he hoped that the president would “consider a pardon” for Clancy given “the type of person she is” and “what she has been through”.
“Mr President, I would hope that you would consider this young lady,” said Reddington, who also alluded to how Trump on Friday called the case a “tragedy”.
Trump’s pardon powers are applicable in the federal justice system in the US, and Clancy was tried in Massachusetts’ state criminal justice system.
The president was asked about the trial by reporters on Friday, with Trump calling the case “a shame” and a “horrible tragedy”.
“I think the judge has said it’s going to be a mistrial, so there’s going to be another trial,” he said. “It’s a terrible situation. Look, she did a horrible, horrible thing.
“Can’t be worse. But you’ll find out what the price to pay is. There’ll be a price. It’s going to be mental institution or jail or something, but I guess they’re going to go through another trial.”
Related: Lindsay Clancy’s lawyer urges Trump to consider pardon after mistrial
Iran says it captured unmanned US submarine drone in strait of Hormuz
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed said they seized an American submarine drone “equipped with the latest technology” in the strait of Hormuz on Tuesday.
“The IRGC naval forces captured one of the most modern, unmanned, and smart submarines of the US terrorist army at the entrance to the strait of Hormuz in a complex intelligence and operational action at dawn today,” the Guards said in a statement carried by Iranian state TV. “This submarine has now been captured and images of it will be released in the coming hours.”
The White House did not immediately respond to the Guardian’s request for comment.
In January, the New York police department’s counter-terrorism unit sent out a memo warning police officers about a new potential “security and counterintelligence” threat: Ray-Ban Meta glasses.
The memo directed officers to “conduct thorough inspections of all eyewear permitted within inmate cells” and cautioned that people who have been arrested could use these glasses, equipped with small cameras and microphones, to record inside police facilities. The memo cited two examples of such videos posted on social media.
“The ability to covertly record inside a law enforcement or detention facility, could result in a security risk if proprietary information about cell layouts, camera placements, or officer patrol/site protection routines are released,” the memo read.
The NYPD memo is one of a dozen, previously unreported and reviewed by the Guardian, that showed law enforcement agencies across the US are increasingly concerned about the potential for smart glasses to be used against them. Officers from Maine to California worry the technology will be used either to secretly record officers and facilities or to aid in the execution of crimes and acts of terrorism.
One of the videos, taken with smart glasses and posted to TikTok in July 2025, offered a rare peek into a South Carolina detention center that had been the subject of a federal investigation over unsafe conditions.
“Everyone here is trying to figure out what’s going on with my glasses, why my light is blinking,” the user said about other detainees in the video. “People don’t know about Meta glasses.” He filmed a dingy shower, the inside of holding cells, an overcrowded cafeteria, and several other detainees as they slept, ate or walked, all seemingly unaware of being recorded.
US police and federal agents are not alone in their fear. Concern among the public and privacy experts over Meta’s smart glasses, widely dubbed “pervert glasses”, is growing. The technology enables its wearers to record people without their consent and has already been used to harass people.
Read the full report:
Related: US police fear Meta smart glasses could be used to secretly record them
Rubio says US will not implement same sanctions on trade with Israeli settlements as UK
Marco Rubio said today that US is “not going to do what the UK did” and impose sweeping sanctions on trade with Israeli settlements, but stopped shy of commenting on the matter while speaking to reporters in Miami. However, the secretary of state said that the US does not “want to see some uptick in violence or an uptick in conflict or tensions in the West Bank at a very tenuous time in the region”.
Earlier today, UK foreign secretary Ed Miliband announced the measure, the strongest condemnation ever issued by the UK government, which accused Israel the country of conducting “ethnic cleansing” in the West Bank.
The sanctions include an import ban on goods from illegal settlements in the occupied territories and a comprehensive sanctions regime against providing services such as construction or financing for Israeli settlements.
Updated
Donald Trump is speaking now in Washington, at an event for first responders at the 9/11 terror attacks.
The president just spoke about how his commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, narrowly avoided being at the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001, when he took his son to school instead of being in his office at Cantor Fitzgerald, which occupied several floors of the North Tower.
“This was the first time in years that he wasn’t there early in the morning,” Trump said, noting that Lutnick’s brother, Gary, who also worked at the investment banking firm and 657 other Cantor Fitzgerald employees were killed in the attacks.
Trump added: “[Lutnick’s] got some faults, but overall he’s excellent. He’s a great guy. Now he went through a lot, didn’t he?”
New York releases previously undisclosed documents showing that officials knew air quality was unsafe in wake of 9/11 terror attacks
Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced on Tuesday that New York City would release 170,000 pages of previously undisclosed documents that show officials at the time knew that the air quality after the 9/11 terror attacks posed health risks, despite assuring the public and first responders that the air quality was safe.
Ahead of the 25th anniversary of the attacks, the city has published the documents to a publicly accessible portal, which includes air quality reports and correspondence between New York officials. Mamdani directed $34m of the city’s budget to create the portal for the records. Many documents were stored in 68 boxes in a city office, and many were only discovered last year by officials.
The initial release on the portal includes the document commonly known as the “Harding Memo” sent to then-Deputy Mayor Robert Harding in 2001, which provides insight into the City’s consideration of potential legal responses in the aftermath of the attacks, including concerns about the prospect of litigation arising from toxic exposure and the adequacy of safety equipment.
“For too long, information about the aftermath of September 11th has not been provided to the public. For years, families, city workers, and survivors have been crying out for more transparency from their government,” said Stephen Banks, head of the city’s law department, about the release.
While almost 3,000 people were killed in the attacks, in the years since, “thousands more have become devastatingly – often fatally – ill from toxins and debris, though the true magnitude of the attack’s impact has yet to be fully realized,” Banks added.
Greg Hull, the Republican nominee running to replace New Mexico’s term-limited governon, Michelle Lujan Grisham, denounced the president’s suggestion to change the state’s name to “New America”.
“New Mexico does not need a new name,” Hull said in a statement to Santa Fe Public Radio. “This state carries the history of Native nations and Spanish explorers who named this land nearly five hundred years ago, and generations of families who built New Mexico into what it is today. That identity is not up for negotiation.”
Further down the ballot in New Hampshire, the Democratic primary for Chris Pappas’s House seat has drawn eight candidates, with Stefany Shaheen – daughter of the outgoing senator – and Maura Sullivan, a former Obama administration official, leading the field.
The district, long purple, has been reliably blue since 2017. Republicans now see it as flippable, and Donald Trump has endorsed Anthony DiLorenzo, a businessman who owns several car dealerships, in the GOP race.
As voters head to the polls for primary elections in New Hampshire, some Democrats worry the Granite State could become a sleeper risk – a state where Republicans control the legislature but haven’t won a Senate race since 2010, when Kelly Ayotte, the now-governor, captured a seat.
Congressman Chris Pappas insists he’s not taking anything for granted in his bid for Senate, and is running like he’s “10 votes behind” at all times – especially in a midterm cycle where progressive challengers have scored surprise primary wins across the country. This, however, hasn’t fazed Pappas who says he is running as a “New Hampshire Democrat” who knows his state.
But Dr Karishma Manzur, Pappas’s main challenger, who supports Medicare for All and higher taxes on mega‑corporations and the ultra‑wealthy, has repeatedly highlighted the money Pappas has received from donors aligned with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. She casts him as milquetoast and ineffective. “I was tired of choosing between the lesser of two evils and still seeing so much pain and suffering right here in my state,” she said, calling both Pappas and John E Sununu, the frontrunner in the Republican primary race, “corporate politicians”.
“One has a ‘D’ after their name. One has an ‘R’ after their name … neither of them have been able to address the real needs of the people,” Manzur added.
Pappas, for his part, has long backed US aid to Israel but told the Guardian that Benjamin Netanyahu was “not a trustworthy ally of the US” and said he hoped the Israeli prime minister is ousted in the country’s October election. Pappas noted he has rejected corporate Pac money in this race but did not directly address his support from pro‑Israel donors, instead pointing to a “broad‑based effort” of individual contributors that have supported his Senate bid.
Pappas says he would support the Democratic nominee if he loses. “We need a big tent and new voices in the party to win tough elections,” he said at last week’s Democratic debate.
Manzur declined to make the same commitment. “I’m focused on winning,” she told the Guardian. “I’m not going to get into these discussions – they’re intentionally distracting from the people’s movement.”
Updated
Democrats hit back at Trump floating changing name of New Mexico
Democrats are starting to hit back against Donald Trump for his recent social media post suggesting that the state of New Mexico should be changed to “New America”.
The state’s senior senator, Martin Heinrich, shot back on X, blasting the president’s recent efforts to rename bodies of water via executive order.
“Three things I will always call by their actual names,” Heinrich wrote. “The Gulf of Mexico, Lake Ontario, New Mexico.”
His colleague in the Senate, Ben Ray Luján, echoed the sentiment.
“It’s New Mexico, always has been and always will be,” he said, adding that Trump will “always be a sinvergüenza” – a spanish word for “scoundrel” and “corrupt”.
Similarly, Melanie Stansbury, one New Mexico’s Democratic US House representatives, was resolute. “WE ARE NOT CHANGING OUR NAME!” she said in a video, standing on the banks of the Rio Grande, which runs through the state. “New Mexico is New Mexico. We are fiercely proud of our name, our people, and our places, including this river.”
Updated
Donald Trump is in Washington today. We’ll hear from the president at 10.35am ET, when he hosts an event on the Ellipse honoring first responders at the 9/11 terrorist attacks, ahead of the 25th anniversary commemoration this week.
Trump is set to unveil a 21-foot steel beam that has been recovered from the World Trade Center that will be on display as part of a “Steel Across America” tour.
However, as we noted last week, the president is reportedly not going to be in New York for the anniversary event at Ground Zero, and instead will deliver remarks at the Pentagon. It has long been policy that there are no speeches from the president at the site of the attacks, in order to keep any memorials apolitical.
Trump will spend the rest of the day in closed-door meetings. At 1pm ET he’s set to sign executive orders, and we’ll let you know if that opens up to the press.
Trump promotes idea of changing name of New Mexico to 'New America'
President Donald Trump spent Labor Day posting memes on social media in support of changing the name of the state of New Mexico to ‘New America’ as tense trade negotiations with Mexico ramp up.
Trump posted several maps of the US that relabelled the land area of New Mexico as New America on Monday.
The president on Sunday said he had received suggestions to change the name of the state and that he liked the idea. “So much more prestigious and beautiful for the people of that potentially incredible State. Wow, I Love It!!!“
Trump’s posts follow his decision to change the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America last month, after trade negotiations with Canada failed to produce a deal.
The US federal government, however, has no authority to change the name of a state. New Mexico is currently governed by Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat. She has been in the job since 1 January, 2019, and was reelected in 2022.
The governor said in a post on X that “New Mexico’s name isn’t up for debate - it’s been ours since before the United States existed.”
The Trump administration is seeking greater US access to Venezuela’s minerals, including gold, as it expands its push to gain control and influence over the South American country’s vast natural resources beyond oil, Reuters reports, according to three sources familiar with the discussions.
The effort could open the Venezuelan mining sector to US investment and give US companies access to not only oil, but supplies of minerals crucial for national security, the sources said on condition of anonymity.
It also would expand president Donald Trump’s push to more closely align Venezuela’s resources with Washington’s strategic and economic interests in the wake of the US military’s ouster of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in a raid in January.
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New York mayor Zohran Mamdani is set to come face-to-face with Rudy Giuliani at the main September 11 memorial service, just days after the former mayor – who led the city at the time of the 2001 terrorist attacks – disparaged his Muslim religion and said he should skip the ceremony.
In an interview with right-leaning Newsmax at the weekend, Giuliani said: “Having lost friends there and being very close to many of the families, it offends me that he’s coming.”
Mamdani confirmed on Monday, while attending a breakfast celebrating New York’s J’ouvert and West Indian Day Parade celebrations in Brooklyn, that he would attend the main ceremony and multiple 9/11 events on Friday, to stand with the families of those who died and first responders – as he did last year before taking office.
“I’m proud to be the mayor of this city. I love this city. I love this country,” he said. “What I want this week to be a focus on is on the families whose loved ones were stolen from them 25 years ago in the horrific act of terror of September 11, and a focus also on the first responders who did everything they could.”
The mayor and his office have declined to respond to Giuliani’s remarks.
Giuliani, the former mayor and a close ally of Donald Trump, has said he will also attend this year’s ceremony to mark the attacks by terrorists representing al-Qaida, who flew hijacked passenger planes into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan on September 11 2001.
Reflecting pools with waterfalls constructed on the footprints of the towers and a 9/11 museum now mark the site that was dubbed Ground Zero in the aftermath of the attacks, and where each year the names of the almost 3,000 people who died are read out by survivors and loved ones, in a solemn ceremony attended by national and local leaders.
In the interview with Newsmax, Giuliani was asked if Mamdani should skip the ceremony. “Well, there’s no question he should,” he said.
Related: Giuliani says Mamdani should skip 9/11 ceremony during rant against Islam
Iceland summoned the US ambassador on Monday after president Donald Trump posted an image on social media showing the island and other countries covered by the American flag, local broadcaster RUV said.
The map showed the United States, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean covered by the US flag, with the entire landmass labelled ‘United States of America’.
Trump posted the image on his Truth Social platform without explanation.
Iceland’s foreign minister, Thorgerdur Gunnarsdottir, called in Billy Long, the US ambassador to Iceland, who only formally took up the post last month, RUV reported.
“The position was clearly expressed that the post was completely inappropriate,” the foreign ministry told RUV.
Trump says Canada's Bombardier must build jets in US or lose market access
President Donald Trump said that Canadian private jet maker Bombardier would no longer be allowed to sell its planes in the United States unless it started manufacturing in the country.
“NO MORE SELLING BOMBARDIER IN THE UNITED STATES! Their products aren’t good enough!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
“If they want our Market, they must build here, and stop treating America like a ‘piggybank’,” he said.
Trump made the post as a trade dispute between Washington and Ottawa esclates, part of the near-global tariff wall in his second term that has drawn complaints from many US trading partners. Canada is set to introduce a wave of counter-tariffs against the US on Tuesday.
Bombardier, the Montreal-based rival of US business jet manufacturer Gulfstream Aerospace, has an American workforce of 3,500, and a US footprint of 2,800 suppliers, along with factories and service centers in the country.
The company is now adding its sixth US service center and produces wings for its flagship Global 8000 jet in Texas.
New Hampshire and Rhode Island electorate to vote in state primaries
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
New Hampshire and Rhode Island voters will choose candidates across a full slate of federal, state and local offices over the next two days, ahead of November’s midterm elections.
In New Hampshire, there are primaries that will set up a closely watched Senate contest – a vulnerable open seat Democrats must defend if they are to have any shot at reclaiming the upper chamber.
The race opened when Jeanne Shaheen, 79, the state’s three‑term incumbent Democratic senator, announced her retirement. Congressman Chris Pappas, who represents New Hampshire’s first district, is seeking the nomination and enters the final stretch with a clear financial edge: more than $4m cash on hand, according to his latest filings. But his main challenger, Dr Karishma Manzur – a scientist and progressive activist with no experience holding public office – has gained ground.
If he wins the primary, Pappas, 46, is likely to face the Donald Trump-endorsed former senator John E Sununu, who is seeking a return to the seat he once held and is part of a political dynasty that includes his father and brother, both former governors.
Sununu, 61, is the clear frontrunner in the GOP primary, though he faces Scott Brown – another former senator who represented Massachusetts, later moved to New Hampshire, and served as US ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa during Donald Trump’s first term.
Meanwhile, in Rhode Island, governor Dan McKee faces a tough Democratic primary challenge on Wednesday in his bid for a second full term. Voters will also choose nominees for a full slate of federal, state and local offices.
McKee was elected governor by a wide margin in 2022 after first assuming the role in March 2021 when then-governor Gina Raimondo stepped down to become US commerce secretary. He now is at risk of becoming the nation’s first elected governor since 2014 to lose renomination and the first in Rhode Island since 1994.
His challenger is Helena Buonanno Foulkes, a former longtime executive with Rhode Island-based CVS. She placed a close second behind McKee in the five-way 2022 Democratic primary. She is the niece of former Democratic senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut.
In other developments:
President Donald Trump said on Monday that Canadian private jet maker Bombardier would no longer be allowed to sell its planes in the United States unless it started manufacturing in the country. “NO MORE SELLING BOMBARDIER IN THE UNITED STATES! Their products aren’t good enough!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “If they want our Market, they must build here, and stop treating America like a ’piggybank’.”
New York mayor Zohran Mamdani is set to come face-to-face with Rudy Giuliani at the main September 11 memorial service, just days after the former mayor – who led the city at the time of the 2001 terrorist attacks – disparaged his Muslim religion and said he should skip the ceremony. In an interview with right-leaning Newsmax at the weekend, Giuliani said: “Having lost friends there and being very close to many of the families, it offends me that he’s coming.”
A cluster of advocacy groups that boast veteran lawyers, voting experts and ex-judges have expanded legal challenges to Donald Trump’s authoritarian executive orders on voting and other presidential actions they see as a “war” on the rule of law in the US. Heavy legal opposition to Trump’s two executive orders on elections to curb voting rights and supplant the authority of states on election matters has come from the Democracy Defenders Fund, the Campaign Legal Center, the American Civil Liberties Union and kindred groups.
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently released a report linking “gender ideology” to leftwing authoritarianism and political violence – a study scientists say was poorly conducted and “nakedly political”, likely leading to greater politicization of science and health. It follows attempts by the administration to limit access to gender-affirming care – including, on Friday, an agreement reached between the Department of Justice and a New York hospital to no longer offer pediatric gender-affirming care.
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