Trump urges Texas Republicans to vote for Ken Paxton as four-term senator John Cornyn fights to hold seat – live
From 4h ago 14.11 BST Trump urges Texas Republicans to vote for Ken Paxton in runoff election As Texas heads to the polls for the
From 4h ago 14.11 BST Trump urges Texas Republicans to vote for Ken Paxton in runoff election As Texas heads to the polls for the primaries, Trump reminded his supporters to vote for Attorney General Ken Paxton, amid other posts Tuesday Morning. “Texas, Vote for Ken Paxton, our Country’s BEST Attorney General!” Trump posted. Share Updated at 15.33 BST 12m ago 18.27 BST The Redistricting Foundation applauded the federal court’s blocking of Alabama’s attempt to bring back a 2023 congressional map. Marina Jenkins, the executive director of the Foundation, said: double quotation mark “Alabama must use its 2023 court-adopted map—a map with two Black opportunity districts—in this year’s elections. Make no mistake, the fight for justice is far from over in states across the country where politicians are enacting gerrymanders on top of gerrymanders to erase equal representation for communities of color. The message from this panel is clear: courts must fulfill their independent duty to protect voters’ rights, not just rubber-stamp state officials’ efforts to use the Supreme Court’s Callais decision as an excuse to draw Black voters out of a say in our democracy.” Share 50m ago 17.50 BST Trump says medical check-up went 'perfectly' Donald Trump has said “everything checked out perfectly” following his 6-month physical examination at Walter Reed Military Medical Center. He wrote on Truth Social: double quotation mark Just finished my 6 month physical at Walter Reed Military Medical Center. Everything checked out PERFECTLY. Thank you to the great Doctors and Staff! Heading back to the White House. President DJT Last month a Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll found that less than half of US adults think Trump has the mental sharpness or physical health to serve effectively. “I think concern for the president’s physical health is probably at an all-time high, and I think advanced physical age is the No. 1 concern,” Dr Jeffrey Kuhlman, who served as a White House physician under former presidents Barack Obama, George W Bush and Bill Clinton, told the Associated Press. Kuhlman said a complete physical would include advanced heart testing, screening for common cancers and a cognitive assessment. The White House had not disclosed what Trump’s check-ups would entail. “President Trump is the sharpest and most accessible President in American history who is working nonstop to solve problems and deliver on his promises, and he remains in excellent health,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in a statement issued to the AP ahead of the check-up. Share Updated at 17.51 BST 1h ago 17.19 BST Iran says US broke ceasefire with overnight strikes, with impact on peace talks unclear Further to that, while Donald Trump continues to insist that a peace deal is close, Iran has accused the United States of violating the ceasefire after conducting what the US called “self-defense” strikes overnight. Iran’s foreign ministry said US strikes in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province, where Iranian media reported sounds of explosions in the early hours of Tuesday, represented a “gross violation” of the tenuous ceasefire that has been in place for nearly seven weeks. The US airstrikes are a sign of “bad faith and unreliability” as negotiations continue, the ministry said, as it warned: “The Islamic Republic of Iran will leave no act of aggression unanswered.” The US military said it acted with restraint in defensively targeting missile launch sites and boats placing mines. The development leaves progress on a peace deal murky, and we’ll bring you any updates throughout the day as we get them. Both sides had previously indicated progress on a memorandum of understanding that could halt the war and restart shipping through the blockaded strait of Hormuz, while giving negotiators 60 days to negotiate more complex issues including Iran’s nuclear programme. Iranian media reported that Iran’s negotiators had also been pushing for the memorandum to include the release of billions of frozen assets at talks in Qatar.
You can also follow our Middle East live blog for more coverage: Middle East crisis live: Iran’s foreign ministry says US broke ceasefire with overnight strikes Read more Share Updated at 17.21 BST 2h ago 17.07 BST US strikes Iran as Trump faces backlash over ‘disastrous’ peace deal plan - podcast The United States has launched fresh strikes on Iran despite suggestions that a peace deal could be within reach. Donald Trump faces growing criticism from Republicans over the proposed plan to end the war, which reportedly contained major concessions from Washington. But could an agreement still be imminent? In today’s edition of The Latest podcast, Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour. 9:09 US strikes Iran as Trump faces backlash over ‘disastrous’ peace deal plan - The Latest Share Updated at 17.38 BST 2h ago 16.57 BST President Trump raised the cap on refugee admissions for the current year by 10,000, a move aimed at allowed more white South Africans into the US, a signed presidential determination seen by Reuters disclosed. White South Africans of Afrikaner ethnicity are in dire circumstances in the majority-Black country, because of ‘incitement of racially motivated violence’ by the South African government and political parties, said the document which was dated May 21. Trump halted refugee admissions from around the globe when he took the presidential oath in 2025, but soon launched a program that specifically brought white South Africans into the US. The total cap on the number of white South African refugee admissions into the US for the 2026 fiscal year is now 17,500. Share 2h ago 16.35 BST The Supreme Court won’t intercede in an discrimination lawsuit that Brian Flores, the Miami Dolphins head coach, filed against the NFL, the AP reported Tuesday. The NFL had appealed to the Court, asking that the case be handled through an arbitration process instead of open court in New York. Flores filed his lawsuit against the league and three teams in February 2022, claiming that the league is “rife with racism,” with regards to its hiring of Black coaches. At least two more Black coaches joined his lawsuit later. Share 3h ago 15.36 BST Federal court blocks new Republican-friendly voting map in Alabama Sam Levine Alabama cannot use a new Republican-friendly map in this year’s midterm elections because it was drawn to intentionally discriminate against Black voters, a panel of three federal judges ruled on Tuesday. The decision blocks Alabama from using a congressional map lawmakers passed in 2023 but never went into effect because the same court found it was drawn with intent to discriminate. Alabama was eventually ordered to adopt a map with two majority-Black districts that both elected Democrats After the US supreme court gutted a major provision of the Voting Rights Act in April, Alabama took the extraordinary step of moving its imminent congressional primary and sought to use the 2023 congressional map this year. The state is likely to appeal to the US supreme court. But Tuesday’s ruling is significant because the judges said the supreme court’s landmark ruling on the Voting Rights Act did not permit Alabama to use the map. “We cannot see our way clear to requiring Alabamians to cast their votes in the 2026 elections under a districting plan tainted by intentional race-based discrimination,” the court wrote in its opinion. Federal court blocks new Republican-friendly voting map in Alabama Read more Share Updated at 17.14 BST 3h ago 15.34 BST While the Senate race between Republican Senator John Cornyn and Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general is generating a lot of attention, especially after the President endorsed Paxton, there are several other important races in Texas today: One race is between Representative Al Green, 78, who has served 11 terms as a Democrat and Christian Menefee, 38, who has been serving his first term as a representative since earlier this year when he won a special election.
The two sitting members of Congress are opposing each other because the recent Republican redistricting shuffled their districts. Previously Green represented Texas’ ninth district and now he’s racing for a nomination from the 18th. Green has long been among Trump’s top critics, and was the first member of Congress to call for his impeachment, as early as 2017. He used to represent a majority African American district and has long fought for civil rights. Menefee and Green have stood apart on their stance on crypto. While Green has opposed pro-crypto bills, in a January questionnaire, Menefee told Stand With Crypto: double quotation mark “We should make sure the next generation of blockchain innovation is built in America.” Within a month, a crypto Pac had donated more than $1.5m to his campaign – a boost of roughly 60%. Share 4h ago 14.53 BST Trump administration considers asking federal workers to sign NDAs President Trump’s administration floated a plan to ask federal workers to sign non-disclosure agreements, according to a government document released Tuesday, Reuters reported. This is not the first time the administration has brought up non-disclosure agreements with federal workers. Last year, after the administration fired federal workers in mass amounts for “poor performance,” they were asked to sign confidentiality agreements, but refused, the Guardian reported. Share Updated at 15.00 BST 4h ago 14.11 BST Trump urges Texas Republicans to vote for Ken Paxton in runoff election As Texas heads to the polls for the primaries, Trump reminded his supporters to vote for Attorney General Ken Paxton, amid other posts Tuesday Morning. “Texas, Vote for Ken Paxton, our Country’s BEST Attorney General!” Trump posted. Share Updated at 15.33 BST 5h ago 13.42 BST Donald Trump and his motorcade have left the White House for his scheduled doctor’s visit at Walter Reed Military Medical Center. The White House described the visit as an annual preventative medical and dental checkups, AP reported. This is Trump’s fourth visit to to Walter Reed since he returned to office for a second term, and comes as he is trying to project strength ahead of midterms. Share Updated at 13.48 BST 6h ago 12.55 BST Alexandra Villarreal US immigration enforcement flights are producing hundreds of thousands of metric tonnes of climate-damaging carbon emissions as officials shuttle unprecedented numbers of people to detention centers far from home and deport them to countries across the world. Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign has spurred at least an 80% increase in such flights year over year, accelerating the climate crisis by emitting massive amounts of carbon dioxide, according to data analysis shared exclusively with the Guardian. “We’ve seen a staggering increase of all US immigration [enforcement] flights,” including “the number of flights as well as the locations that the flights are going to,” said Savitri Arvey, director of research and analysis for refugee and immigrant rights at Human Rights First (HRF), the US advocacy group. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) air operations pumped into the air an estimated 335,876 tonnes (37,0240 US tons) of carbon emissions in 2025, up 88% from the year before. And the first four months of 2026 show the federal agency is on track to contribute even more to global heating this year from such flights, the Guardian can reveal. Those emissions exacerbate the climate crisis, a driver of irregular migration in itself, while polluting the air in local communities used as flight hubs, such as Phoenix, El Paso and Harlingen in Texas, and Alexandria in Louisiana. Revealed: huge climate cost of harmful emissions from US immigration flights Read more Share 6h ago 12.47 BST The Congressional Black Caucus on Tuesday called on major corporations across the US, including those that previously expressed support for voting rights and racial justice, to oppose redistricting efforts by Republican-led states that seek to eliminate majority-Black US House districts.
In a letter sent to more than 250 companies, members of the Black Caucus urge them to condemn the redistricting efforts, which the lawmakers describe as “coordinated efforts to silence Black voices at the ballot box.” Some of the companies had co-signed their own message to Congress five years ago urging lawmakers to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, a Democratic proposal to restore and update the Voting Rights Act. That 2021 coalition, Business for Voting Rights, was backed by many of the country’s most valuable and influential companies, including Apple, Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Tesla, Salesforce, Target, PayPal, Intel and Starbucks. Share 6h ago 12.15 BST Michael Sainato Nearly 200,000 US truck drivers are at risk of losing their commercial driver’s licenses after the US Department of Transportation (DOT) issued a new rule that disqualifies many foreign-born truck drivers from getting or renewing their licenses. Tens of thousands of immigrant drivers are stuck in a limbo after the rule took effect in March, and lawsuits challenging the rule are still being reviewed by federal courts. The rule restricts licenses to immigrants who have specific employment authorization statuses, disqualifying those with other authorizations, including asylum seekers, refugees and those with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) status. The rule has shaken immigrant drivers who have spent years dedicated to the industry. Sarabjeet Singh, a truck driver from India who has worked in central California for the past 12 years, said he attempted to renew his license last month when it expired but was turned away. Kavita Patel, Singh’s wife, said the loss of his license has been devastating for their whole family. “This not only affected us financially, but this is a huge burden mentally, emotionally, physically,” she said. “People think you can just find another job, but your entire skill set [and] experience has been built around driving this big rig.” “It’s kind of a fear and helplessness that comes from waking up one day and realizing, ‘Oh, guess what, your career that you built is suddenly all gone in one night,’” she added. Truck drivers say ‘racism’ behind Trump administration’s license restrictions on immigrants Read more Share 7h ago 12.05 BST Trump scheduled to see doctors for his annual physical President Donald Trump is scheduled to get a medical exam on Tuesday, putting his health under renewed public scrutiny after he has worked to dismiss concerns over his age and stamina. The 79-year-old president is scheduled to visit Walter Reed Military Medical Center for what the White House described as annual preventative medical and dental checkups, AP reported. It will be Trump’s fourth publicly disclosed medical exam since he returned to office for a second term, and comes as he tries to project strength ahead of midterm elections that will test his sway with voters. Trump turns 80 next month and was the oldest person elected US president. His predecessor, former president Joe Biden, was 82 when he left office, dropping out of the 2024 presidential race because of widespread concerns he was too old for the job. A Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted in April found that less than half of US adults think Trump has the mental sharpness or physical health to serve effectively as president. Share Updated at 15.30 BST
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