Press corps touring with Trump stored in darkish about president’s catering container swap to secret aircraft – reside | US midterm elections 2026

Further to that, Donald Trump has stated the settlement happened after he spoke to Vladimir Putin about releasing Robert Gilman “on a humanitarian basis” and that Gilman will land again within the US at Joint Base Andrews tonight.

“I just spoke to him, and he had one request — A GREAT cheeseburger when he lands. I will take care of that!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

The US president additionally confirmed that this was not a prisoner alternate, including: “We appreciate this decision, and the fact that Russia asked for no one in return — No exchange took place.”

Trump’s publish included this photograph of Gilman touring again to the US, alongside his mom Nancy and officers.

Russia has freed a former US marine who had been in jail since 2022, after Vladimir Putin granted the ailing American a pardon on humanitarian grounds.

Robert Gilman, 32, an English instructor who briefly served within the US Marines, was travelling by practice when he was arrested within the southern Russian metropolis of Voronezh in January 2022 for allegedly kicking a police officer whereas drunk, based on Russian state media. He was later sentenced to 4 and a half years in jail, although his household has persistently denied the allegations towards him.

His father, Vladimir Gilman, who emigrated to Massachusetts from Russia, wrote in an October 2024 Boston Globe op-ed that his son had fallen sick when the incident occurred and had by chance kicked the police officer.

Concerns over Gilman’s well being had grown sharply in current weeks, and the White House and the state division had urged Moscow to launch him so he might obtain medical remedy within the US.

Eric Lebson, chief technique officer at Global Reach, an advocacy group representing Gilman’s household, instructed Reuters final week that he had been transferred in late June from a jail hospital to the psychiatric ward of a civilian emergency hospital in a catatonic-like state that medical doctors assessed as a “dissociative stupor”.

“While this news is deeply welcomed, it is long overdue,” Massachusetts senator Edward Markey wrote on X. “Approximately 50 days ago, Robert was diagnosed with a dissociative stupor – a condition where he could not interact or eat. He was essentially catatonic and also suffered a severe case of pneumonia. We do not know his current condition or the long-term impact on his recovery.”

US officers instructed Reuters that Gilman was already on a state division aircraft carrying him ‌from Russia to Washington Dulles airport, including that Gilman could be greeted on arrival by US envoy Steve Witkoff and Sebastian Gorka, a deputy assistant to Donald Trump.

The official who spoke to Gilman stated he was strolling and speaking.

“All things considered, he seems to be in good ‌shape,” the official stated.

The transfer to launch Gilman is prone to be a sign of Moscow’s eagerness to enhance relations with the Trump administration, after a number of weeks by which the US president has appeared to take a extra supportive place in direction of Ukraine.

Supreme courtroom justice Samuel Alito gained as much as $2.9m from his fossil gas pursuits between 2005 and 2024, a brand new evaluate of monetary disclosures reveals.

The analysis from the non-profit advocacy group and judicial watchdog Court Accountability, shared completely with the Guardian, discovered that even on the lowest vary of estimates, Alito gained nearly $400,000 from his oil and gasoline pursuits since being tapped for the excessive courtroom by George W Bush in 2005.

The findings come because the supreme courtroom prepares to take up a case by which the oil firms Suncor Energy and Exxon requested the justices to search out that federal legislation prevents subnational governments from submitting lawsuits towards fossil gas producers for the climate-warming results of their merchandise.

The supreme courtroom stated this month it’s going to hear oral arguments within the case on 5 October, the opening day of its new time period. The Trump administration, which is siding with the oil firms, has asked for 10 minutes of argument time. Court Accountability and different teams have called for a Senate committee to analyze Alito, the only real supreme courtroom justice with holdings in vitality firms, and stated he ought to recuse himself.

He and the courtroom rejected these calls.

Supreme courtroom ethics guidelines focus particularly on investments in firms named in courtroom instances. In May, a supreme courtroom spokesperson told NBC News that Alito will not be required to recuse himself from the Suncor lawsuit as his holdings don’t embody the businesses instantly named within the case, Suncor and ExxonMobil.

But Lisa Graves, co-founder of Court Accountability who authored the brand new evaluation, stated Alito’s oil-tied wealth gives grounds to query whether or not Alito can impartially weigh in on instances affecting your entire fossil gas sector.

“You might have real appreciation for how that industry has helped make it possible for you to perhaps buy a second home on the water, or live a [certain] lifestyle,” she stated.

Here’s Dharna’s full report:

The advocacy group Free DC has held a rally in Washington DC as we speak to mark one 12 months since Donald Trump declared a “crime emergency”, regardless of violent crime being at a 30-year low, and deployed nationwide guard troops to the capital.

One of essentially the most controversial measures of Trump’s second time period to date, the deployment – at present at greater than 4,600 personnel – was not too long ago quietly prolonged via January 2029, to a price of about $1.4bn. It marks the longest and largest of Trump’s extraordinary mobilizations of navy personnel on US soil.

The lawsuit in my final publish is the most recent instance of organizations pushing again on what they name the Trump administration’s efforts to undermine worldwide legislation and stop efforts to fight impunity by governments world wide.

“The fact that so many leading human rights and humanitarian organizations have come together to challenge Trump’s unlawful executive order demonstrates the widespread harm it is causing across civil society groups dedicated to bringing those responsible for grave crimes to justice,” Andrew Loewenstein of Foley Hoag LLP, the lead counsel representing the plaintiffs, instructed the Associated Press.

The teams assert that the monetary and authorized penalties towards the ICC have compelled them to “curtail a wide range of human rights and legal work in violation of their First and Fifth Amendment rights under the US Constitution and under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.”

“The Trump administration seeks a get out of jail free card for whomever it chooses. And with this case, we say no,” Liz Evenson, worldwide justice director at Human Rights Watch, instructed a press convention this morning.

Four distinguished US human rights organizations have accused the Trump administration of utilizing its “crippling” sanctions regime towards the worldwide felony courtroom (ICC) to undermine international efforts to prosecute conflict crimes and crimes towards humanity.

In a lawsuit filed in federal courtroom as we speak, the teams – the American Friends Service Committee, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Human Rights Watch and the Open Society Institute – argued that the administration’s focusing on of the ICC, in addition to of teams and people affiliated with it or aiding its work, quantities to a “blatantly illegal attack on international justice”, the teams stated.

The go well with challenges Donald Trump’s February 2025 executive order, which licensed sanctions on ICC officers, judges and others working to help its investigation of Israeli crimes in Palestine – one among 18 investigations into conflict crimes and crimes towards humanity the Netherlands-based tribunal is overseeing.

The US state division and justice division didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.

The US authorities has lengthy opposed and sought to impede the work of the courtroom – of which it isn’t a celebration – however these assaults escalated after the ICC prosecutor issued arrest warrants in November 2024 for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and former Israeli protection minister Yoav Gallant over crimes dedicated in Gaza. The US responded by sanctioning ICC prosecutors, judges, three main Palestinian human rights teams and Francesca Albanese, the UN particular rapporteur on the scenario of human rights in Palestinian territory.

Earlier this summer time, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, additionally escalated efforts towards the ICC, asserting a marketing campaign aimed toward “dismantling” it by pressuring member states to depart the courtroom.

Those assaults, and Trump’s government order, undermine entry to justice for victims of main human rights violations and criminalize the work of these searching for to fight impunity by collaborating with the courtroom – together with the plaintiffs within the case – in violation of each constitutional protections totally free speech and affiliation and US obligations underneath worldwide legislation, the lawsuit argues.

“The Trump administration took the extraordinary step to not only deny Palestinians and victims of US torture equal access to justice, but to criminalize and punish them, their lawyers and advocates, and their partners,” stated Katherine Gallagher, a senior legal professional on the Center for Constitutional Rights who represents victims earlier than the ICC. She added:

All victims of worldwide crimes – from Sudan and Ukraine to Palestine and Afghanistan – want and should have an unbiased and powerful ICC in a position to fulfill its mission of ending impunity, with out worry or favor.

More on this story right here:

In response to the Washington Post’s reporting that Donald Trump took a clandestine flight on a navy jet to keep away from an Iranian assassination try, Ned Price, a former state division official, said that whereas “subterfuge is sometimes a necessary safeguard” the choice to mislead reporters “in the moment” and proceed “to lie to the American people weeks later is never acceptable”.

Price, who famous that he’s traveled abroad with a number of presidents stated that so far as he’s conscious, this determination making is “unique to this White House”.

We’re additionally chasing new experiences that Donald Trump left Turkey final month on a secret navy flight to Britain amid an Iranian assassination risk – regardless of the White House saying he was aboard the outdated Air Force One – and that he briefly hid in an airport catering truck to maneuver from one plane to a different.

ABC News reporter Michelle Stoddart, who traveled with the president and senior officers from Ankara in July, famous as we speak that earlier than the press corps departed the summit, they got no extra steering on the president’s actions or flight plans past his publicly posted Truth Social post.

Stoddart stated the press pool’s actions weren’t uncommon as soon as they boarded the outdated Air Force One. But she added that the pool was instructed to maintain window shades closed. Another ABC News journalist stated a Secret Service agent returned to the press cabin to remind reporters to maintain the shades down. At one level, a photographer seated behind Stoddart opened their shade and was rapidly instructed to shut it. When they requested a White House aide why, the aide stated solely that it was a request from Secret Service.

Pete Hegseth’s appointments to a key Pentagon advisory physique embody two males with ties to the enterprise capital fund the place Donald Trump Jr is a accomplice, which has profitable investments in navy and house expertise.

Defense Policy Board appointee Marc Andreessen’s agency, Andreessen Horowitz, one among Silicon Valley’s largest enterprise capital companies and recognized by the title “a16z”, co-invests alongside the Trump partnership 1789 Capital in three protection contractors. Fellow DPB appointee Blake Masters additionally sits on the boards of three ventures tied to 1789 Capital.

Both males now advise the Pentagon on the defense-technology sector these firms function in.

Companies collectively backed by a16z and 1789 have already drawn billions in federal loans and contracts for the reason that begin of the second Trump administration.

The appointments by the US protection secretary not solely seem to extend the affect of rightwing ideologues, autonomous weapons producers, and one-time purchasers of authoritarian states on the world’s strongest arsenal, however to doubtlessly put the monetary pursuits of the US president’s household on the coronary heart of setting US strategic priorities.

Scott Amey, normal counsel on the Project on Government Oversight stated that such advisory committees are sometimes discovered to have conflicts of curiosity. “A lot of the people appointed to them are seeking government business – specifically seeking business with the agency they’re serving,” Amey stated.

As we proceed to cowl plenty of key major races all through the nation as we speak. He’s a reminder of when the polls shut within the states holding elections.

• South Carolina – 7pm ET

• Vermont – 7pm ET

• Alabama – 8pm native time/9pm ET

• Connecticut – 8pm ET

• Minnesota – 9pm native/10pm ET

• Wisconsin – 9pm native/10pm ET

The state division has revoked greater than 175,000 visas of overseas nationals who officers say have “violated the terms of their visas, committed crimes, called for violence against US citizens”.

While plenty of these individuals had been charged with crimes, together with sexual assault, human trafficking and felony kidnapping. Others who had their visas revoked had allegedly “celebrated” the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, based on officers. The state division famous an occasion of on-line feedback which included: “when fascists die, democrats don’t complain” and one other who stated Kirk “died too late”.

Last 12 months, my colleague Ed Pilkington dug into the Trump administration’s free speech crackdown following Kirk’s capturing at a Turning Point USA school campus occasion in Utah.

Trump additionally welcomed the information that supreme courtroom justice Samuel Alito could be serving one other time period on the bench, regardless of a now-retracted report from NPR in June that the long-serving conservative jurist could be retiring.

Alito not too long ago instructed the Wall Street Journal that he’s “obviously” serving one other time period.

In a publish on Truth Social, Trump known as Alito the “greatest of all time”. Earlier this 12 months, Alito wrote the courtroom’s majority opinion that dismantled part two of the Voting Rights Act – the final remaining to of the 1965 civil rights legislation that stops racial discrimination in voting.

Donald Trump will start the day in closed-press conferences in Washington. Later, he’ll journey to Geneva, Ohio the place he’ll watch the Patriot Games finale at 7pm ET.

This is the athletic competitors for highschool college students that features challenges just like the presidential health check. The successful boy and lady will every win $125,000 in scholarships. Critics have urged the occasion resembles the Hunger Games.

We’ll carry you the most recent traces as we hear from the president.

North Carolina Republicans on Monday selected state lawmaker Jennifer Balkcom to switch Chuck Edwards, the incumbent congressman who earlier this month dropped his re-election bid after a US House investigation decided his conduct in direction of to younger feminine staffers probably amounted to sexual harassment.

Balkcom will face off towards the Democratic nominee, Jamie Ager, within the November midterm elections to characterize the eleventh congressional district in western North Carolina. Though Donald Trump gained the district by 10 share factors two years in the past, Democrats imagine Ager could have a shot at successful amid the president’s low approval rankings and frustration over the tempo of restoration from Hurricane Helene, which devastated the area in 2024.

“I’m blessed to receive the Republican nomination for the 11th Congressional District. Western North Carolina is where I was born, raised, and chose to raise my own family,” Ager stated in an announcement following her nomination.

“Rest assured, I will work every single day between now and Election Day to earn the votes of our friends and neighbors. Our region is incredibly strong and resilient, and I plan to be the fighter everyone who calls Western North Carolina home deserves.”

Edwards was first elected in 2022 after defeating the scandal-plague congressman Madison Cawthorn within the Republican major. Last week, the US House ethics committee discovered he “fostered a hostile work environment and engaged in sexual harassment” in direction of two feminine staff in his Washington DC workplace.

Minnesota voters on either side of the aisle are weighing the path of their events – and their possibilities of successful over the final citizens – in marquee statewide races on Tuesday.

On the left, Peggy Flanagan, the state lieutenant governor and a progressive, faces off towards Angie Craig, a US consultant, for the Democratic bid for US senate in a race punctuated by the function of immigration enforcement within the state that noticed two residents killed by immigration brokers in a winter surge.

On the suitable, Mike Lindell, an election denier and pillow salesman, carries Donald Trump’s endorsement in a three-way race for the Republican nomination for governor, the place Republicans face an uphill battle to problem Amy Klobuchar, the Democratic contender and a US senator, now searching for the governor’s workplace.

After Tuesday, the final election for the open governor and US senate seats will form up, signaling a change for prime roles within the state. Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat, initially sought a 3rd time period, however dropped his bid after ongoing fraud scandals threatened to distract from the race.

Tina Smith, the Democratic US senator, determined to not run once more, saying she wished to spend time along with her grandkids and make method for brand spanking new faces within the chamber. She has endorsed Flanagan.

The state leans Democratic. It has not elected a Republican statewide since 2006, when Tim Pawlenty gained a second time period as governor. A Republican presidential candidate has not gained the state since 1972. Still, Republicans hope to grab on fraud issues in state packages, together with felony instances towards a sprawling group accused of organized theft of meals for kids, providers for teenagers with autism and housing packages.

Wisconsin voters will determine on Tuesday whether or not to appoint a democratic socialist for the state’s highest workplace within the newest check of an anti-establishment wave amongst Democratic major voters.

Francesca Hong, a democratic socialist state lawmaker, emerged because the frontrunner in a four-way race to succeed Tony Evers, the Democratic governor who will not be searching for one other time period.

Evers threw his help behind David Crowley, the Milwaukee nation government. Crowley beforehand left the race, earlier than reentering it on 18 July.

Crowley and Evers toured the state within the final two weeks, centering his marketing campaign round electability, saying Crowley was extra poised to win a normal election in a swing state like Wisconsin than Hong.

Eyes turned to the Wisconsin governor’s race after Abdul El-Sayed gained the Democratic major for US Senate in Michigan final week in the latest instance of a progressive beating out a average. Next door, Minnesota voters have additionally been weighing a US Senate major between a average and a progressive.

After a wave of wins of progressives and democratic socialists in solidly blue elements of the nation, the midwest primaries centered extra on electability considerations given the shut nature of statewide races there.

In the race to switch the late US senator Lindsey Graham, 10 candidates have been barnstorming South Carolina diners, church halls and recreation facilities, compressing a traditional 12 months of campaigning into a few fortnight.

The Republican social gathering is staging a particular major election within the state on Tuesday to decide on Graham’s substitute. His sister, Darline, who has been serving as interim senator following his sudden dying final month, is on the poll.

If no candidate wins an total majority of votes, the highest two will advance to a runoff on 25 August. Polling means that that is the most definitely final result.

“You know, South Carolina politics is very local,” stated Eaddy Roe Willard, a longtime Republican activist in South Carolina’s Richmond county. “Something one of our former chairmen used to say about presidential candidates: we don’t decide whether or not we’re gonna vote for you until we’ve had a chance to shake your hand at least three times.”

On Friday Russell Fry, a Republican consultant, pressed the flesh at Savage Craft Ale Works in West Columbia. On Monday morning, Darline Graham shook fingers at Lizard’s Thicket breakfast restaurant, 2 miles away. Mark Sanford, the previous South Carolina governor, and US consultant Ralph Norman had been additionally only a few miles down the highway in Aiken on Friday, Willard stated.

After Lindsey Graham’s dying on 11 July, Henry McMaster, South Carolina’s governor, appointed Darline Graham to fill the emptiness within the US Senate.

Lindsey Graham had already gained the Republican major election for his seat, so the Republican social gathering should maintain a particular election to switch him on the poll in November’s normal election. The timeline is brutal by American political requirements, holding an election inside a couple of weeks of the emptiness.

The winner will face Annie Andrews, the Democratic nominee and a pediatrician, in November.

Hello and welcome to the US politics reside weblog.

Democratic primaries for governor in Wisconsin and US senator in Minnesota will as soon as once more see left-wing candidates face off towards extra conventional ones.

The social gathering’s ideological rift, that has already been seen in contests throughout the States this 12 months, shifts to the higher Midwest later as we speak.

In Wisconsin, state consultant Francesca Hong, a self-described democratic socialist, is front-runner for the social gathering’s nomination for governor in a swing state the place successful the governor’s mansion is central to Democrats’ hopes for 2028 and past.

In Minnesota, Peggy Flanagan is operating for the nomination for an open Senate seat towards centrist Democratic consultant Angie Craig. Meanwhile, seven Minnesota Republicans are vying to face off towards probably Democratic gubernatorial nominee senator Amy Klobuchar in November.

The primaries come per week after Abdul El-Sayed narrowly defeated Haley Stevens in Michigan’s divisive and dear US Senate major.

El-Sayed’s victory has energized progressives, whereas stoking fears amongst Democratic social gathering leaders that the shift to the left, notably in battleground states like Michigan and Wisconsin, will make it harder to win within the November midterms.

The left vs heart theme is on show in Democratic primaries in a number of states voting on Tuesday, with different vital races additionally going down within the likes of Alabama and South Carolina.

In different developments:

• President Donald Trump departed on a secret navy flight from Turkey final month when the White House stated he was flying aboard ⁠Air Force One, a unprecedented transfer prompted by an Iranian assassination risk, the Washington Post reported on Monday.

• Trump signed an government order that may contain splitting up the extremely efficient measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three single photographs. The president additionally introduced an overhaul to the childhood immunization schedule, scrapping suggestions for the hepatitis b, Covid-19 and influenza vaccines. He additionally urged that the variety of inoculations is linked to the speed of autism within the US, regardless of no confirmed hyperlink between the 2. Medical specialists have blasted the modifications, calling it “problematic and deeply concerning.”

• Todd Blanche has been sworn as US legal professional normal, cementing Trump’s set up of his former private legal professional accountable for the Department of Justice. Blanche, who has been serving as performing legal professional normal since April, was confirmed in his new place throughout a ceremony on the White House on Monday.

• Trump has named White House workers secretary Will Scharf to turn into White ​House counsel and assistant to the president, changing David Warrington, who’s taking a job within the personal sector. In taking over that function, Scharf will turn into the White House’s prime lawyer after overseeing the executive work of the Oval Office in his present place.

• Lawyers for David Hearn, the Olympian who was arrested for alleged property destruction of the reflecting pool earlier than his prices had been dropped, stated that the Trump administration is “continuing to attack an innocent man”.