Trump told Xi Jinping that China helping Iran is ‘unacceptable’
During talks at the White House yesterday, president Donald Trump told visiting Chinese leader Xi Jinping that it would be “unacceptable” for China to help Iran during the US’s military campaign against the country, a US official told CNBC this morning.
“We made it very clear to them weeks ago that, you know, any help that they would give Iran, whether it be direct or indirect, whether it be intelligence or parts or military equipment, was totally unacceptable,” David Perdue, US ambassador to China, said in an interview with CNBC. “President Trump made that very clear again yesterday.”
Trump’s meeting with Xi is unfolding as the US tries to implement a new round of secondary sanctions on Iran, aiming to sever its remaining ties to the global economy. But critics have speculated that that plan will be ineffective unless China, which has long maintained strategic ties to Iran, gets on board.
Updated at 09.48 EDT
Key events
Pope Leo, responding to Trump’s White House press ban, stresses importance of free press
Questioned by a CNN reporter about his thoughts on Trump’s ban on several news organizations from the White House, Pope Leo XIV said that he believed strong press coverage is “very important.”
“I am very happy that here, you are all welcome,” Leo told the reporters gathered on board his plane, as he was en route to France for a several-day visit. “And good coverage, I think is very important that we have it all the way around, for everyone.”
The first American pope, Leo, born Robert Francis Prevost, has publicly opposed Trump on several issues, including his hardline immigration crackdown and the war with Iran he launched alongside Israel.
The comment comes after a judge’s ruling appears to have temporarily put to rest a scuffle between the President and three outlets covering the White House: CNN, MS Now and Politico.
Trump made a snap decision to ban the three outlets last Friday over coverage he found unfavorable. The three outlets sued, alleging their First Amendment rights to free speech and free press had been violated, as well as their rights to due process. Other outlets halted some elements of their coverage of Trump’s White House in solidarity.
A federal judge, siding with the outlets, ordered the Trump administration to restore the outlets’ access late on Wednesday while the case progressed – then ordered him to do so again, as journalists for the three organizations showing up to work on Thursday found themselves again denied entry. Ultimately, the administration granted them entry.
Updated at 11.29 EDT
Trump picked a fight with the media… and lost | Politics Weekly America
Trump picked a fight with the media… and lost | Politics Weekly America
The US press corps stood up to Donald Trump this week after he banned three organisations he doesn’t like from the White House. But when it came to the leader of one of the US’s oldest adversaries – China – well, Trump literally rolled out a very long red carpet. Jonathan Freedland speaks to the Guardian’s Shrai Popat about why Trump seems weaker these days, but why it could be dangerous to underestimate him
ShareNew poll gives Democrats an edge in Michigan and New Hampshire, but tougher odds in Maine
A new poll by The New York Times and Siena University of through crucial Senate races that could determine control of the chamber after the midterm elections
In both Michigan and New Hampshire, the Democratic nominees (progressive firebrand Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, and moderate congressman Chris Pappas) lead their Republican challengers by five points. That places the seats, already held by Democrats, further out of reach of Republicans who want to flip them in the midterms, shoring up the party’s Senate margins.
But Maine, where Democrats have been hopeful about their chances to unseat Republican Senator Susan Collins, looks like a more difficult prospect for the party. The Times/Siena poll found that Collins leads Democratic nominee Troy Jackson by three points.
The race in Maine was thrown into turmoil over the summer when Graham Platner, the Democrats’ populist and progressive nominee for the seat, resigned amid allegations of sexual misconduct, leaving the party to appoint logger-turned-state lawmaker Troy Jackson as his replacement.
But another recent development in the race – which broke after Times/Siena poll was largely completed – may again shake up that picture: a ProPublica report that surfaced allegations that Collins had engaged in a pay-for-play scheme, directing government money to a defense contractor in return for campaign donations.
Updated at 10.20 EDT
Trump told Xi Jinping that China helping Iran is ‘unacceptable’
During talks at the White House yesterday, president Donald Trump told visiting Chinese leader Xi Jinping that it would be “unacceptable” for China to help Iran during the US’s military campaign against the country, a US official told CNBC this morning.
“We made it very clear to them weeks ago that, you know, any help that they would give Iran, whether it be direct or indirect, whether it be intelligence or parts or military equipment, was totally unacceptable,” David Perdue, US ambassador to China, said in an interview with CNBC. “President Trump made that very clear again yesterday.”
Trump’s meeting with Xi is unfolding as the US tries to implement a new round of secondary sanctions on Iran, aiming to sever its remaining ties to the global economy. But critics have speculated that that plan will be ineffective unless China, which has long maintained strategic ties to Iran, gets on board.
Updated at 09.48 EDT
Brazil’s president accuses Trump of election meddling in new campaign ad
Tom Phillips
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s presidential campaign has accused Donald Trump of wanting to “colonise” Brazil in order to capture its natural resources by meddling in next month’s presidential election.
The accusation came in a campaign advert that was published on social media on Thursday night by Lula’s team and will air on television on Friday amid growing fears over the impact alleged US interference could have on the vote.
The TV spot claims the US president is trying to sway the election in favour of Lula’s far-right adversary in the election, Flávio Bolsonaro, in order to advance Trump’s interests in the South American nation.
“Flávio Bolsonaro is Trump’s candidate and what Trump wants is to colonise Brazil, take our riches, steal our future and leave us in the dust,” the female narrator tells viewers in the minute-long video.
The state department has denied claims the US is meddling in Brazil’s election. “Any insinuation of a ‘ploy’ to undermine a democratic nation’s election is a baseless lie,” it said last month in a statement.
Earlier this week, dozens of Democratic party congresspeople wrote to secretary of state, Marco Rubio, to denounce the Trump administration’s “apparent effort to interfere with, and potentially undermine” Brazil’s elections through what they called a “sustained, multifaceted campaign of interference and destabilisation in Brazil”.
The narrator of Lula’s campaign ad cited a series of recent media stories relating to alleged acts of US meddling.
They include reports about the alleged interference of Big Tech companies as well as a confidential document sent to electoral authorities by Brazil’s intelligence agency warning of a “critical level” of risk of US interference. The campaign video also highlighted recent claims about links between Bolsonaro’s campaign and the conservative donor network Rockbridge, which was co-founded by Trump’s vice-president JD Vance.
Fears over US meddling are not confined to the Brazilian left. This week, another of the right-wing candidates in Brazil’s election, Renan Santos, also denounced Trump’s behaviour and said he did not want Brazil to become a US vassal state. “They want to interfere in Brazil’s elections to secure satisfactory contracts involving rare earths,” Santos claimed in a social media video.
Updated at 09.49 EDT
NJ governor Mikie Sherrill calls on her lieutenant governor to resign after ethics probe
Mikie Sherrill, the Democratic governor of New Jersey, on Thursday called on her own lieutenant governor, Dale Caldwell, to immediately resign in response to a probe that found Caldwell had engaged in sexual harassment and repeatedly broken state ethics rules.
The investigation, published in a report dated Wednesday but announced by Sherrill the following evening, found that Caldwell had engaged in “serious, repeated violations of state policy.” These included making sexual overtures to the friend of a staff member in that staffer’s presence and, after being rejected, told the staffer: “you young women are looking for young sperm.”
Caldwell, a Democrat, had also broken state ethics policy by lobbying for a promotion for a state employee with whom he’d maintained a romantic relationship, and by bringing guests to ticketed events without paying for them, the report concluded.
Sherrill’s office engaged a private law firm to investigate allegations into Caldwell in response to an anonymous letter in May, according to the report.
In publicizing her demand for Caldwell’s resignation, Sherrill sought to differentiate her governorship from the ethics of the Trump administration.
“The Lieutenant Governor’s resignation is necessary and in the best interest of New Jersey residents,” Sherrill wrote in a post to social media on Friday.
She continued: “The President continues to undermine confidence in public service at the federal level. In New Jersey, I will not accept a culture that sweeps misconduct under the rug. We have to be better than that — people expect and deserve better.”
Caldwell’s lawyer, Thomas Calcagni, has disputed the allegations according to the AP, calling the investigation a one-sided operation that did not include necessary due process.
“The Lieutenant Governor was not provided a meaningful opportunity to address each of these anonymous allegations,” he said in a statement.
Updated at 09.49 EDT
In our second live discussion ahead of the elections, Joseph Gedeon, Dara Kerr and Chris Stein will join us at 11am EDT (4pm BST) to answer your questions about who is backing candidates in the upcoming midterms.
Our reporters will cover who is funding the campaigns, where the money is going and how it’s shaping the election outlook ahead of the votes on 3 November.
You can follow along here later today:
ShareCNN and MS Now journalists denied access to White House state dinner despite court ruling
Jeremy Barr
Journalists for CNN and MS Now were denied access to the White House state dinner in honor of Xi Jinping, China’s president, on Thursday evening, hours after a federal judge ruled the Trump administration must allow them in after imposing a ban last week.
“About an hour before Xi’s arrival was scheduled, the White House said CNN could cover the event, but only with a photojournalist and audio technician, notably excluding the network’s editorial team consisting of a reporter and producer,” CNN reported.
MS Now, another outlet banned from the White House by Trump last week for what he calls overly negative coverage of his presidency, also said its White House reporter, Laura Barrón-López, was prevented from covering Xi’s arrival for the state dinner despite applying for credentials to cover the event. When Barrón-López asked a White House staffer why she was denied access, the staffer said she should “talk to Steven”, apparently meaning White House communications director Steven Cheung, MS Now reported.
Xi’s arrival for the dinner, with his wife, Peng Liyuan, was streamed live on YouTube by the White House, but none of the major US networks provided live broadcast video of the event in solidarity with CNN, a member of the broadcast pool.
Earlier on Thursday, journalists for CNN, MS Now and Politico, which was also part of the ban issued last week, were finally granted access to the White House after days of being barred from the building.
Earlier attempts by the journalists to enter the building had been unsuccessful, and lawyers representing the three organizations had told a judge that the White House has already “repeatedly violated” his overnight order requiring the Trump administration to return the press badges of journalists from the three news organizations.
Timothy Kelly, the US district judge who appeared skeptical of arguments from lawyers representing the White House during a hearing on Wednesday, issued an early morning order forcing the administration to return access for a 14-day period.
ShareTrump to wrap up Xi summit with a tour of US archives
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
Donald Trump is taking Chinese president Xi Jinping to visit the National Archives later today, showing off the sacred texts of US democracy to the leader of the world’s most powerful communist country.
Xi is expected to depart Washington after touring the nation’s vault of records, where the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are held, AP reported.
The three-day state visit came as the US celebrates the 250th anniversary of its founding and Trump said on Thursday that he wanted to show Xi “some of the greatest treasures of that proud history.”
The archives has a special exhibit marking the sesquicentennial, titled ‘The American Story,’ which highlights the country’s accomplishments and advances, along with images depicting its darker moments.
Trump showed Xi one copy of the Declaration of Independence on Thursday – a wall-mounted copy he keeps in the Oval Office. The US president also said he wanted to show Xi artefacts about the relationship between the two countries.
“Just as our ancestors reached across the ocean centuries ago to trade, to learn, and to build a better world, our two countries do really the same thing, and we’re very proud of it,” he said.
Xi’s day will begin at the White House, where Trump and first lady Melania Trump will host the Chinese leader and his wife, Peng Liyuan, for tea.
In other developments:
Donald Trump welcomed Xi Jinping to the White House for a state dinner in honor of the Chinese leader that was not televised because the White House continued to deny full access to the event to CNN journalists on Thursday, despite a court order.
Writing on his social media platform, Trump complained that two of the three outlets he banned from the White House, CNN and MS Now, “refused to cover” his elaborate welcome of Xi to the White House. He did not mention that the two broadcasters were not in position to cover the event live because his own actions and those of his aides, who continued to block their reporters.
As Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu attacked him at the UN, New York’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, doubled down on his support for Palestinians by making public video of himself hosting Palestinian families from Gaza.
Darializa Avila Chevalier, the Democratic socialist congressional candidate from New York, was among dozens of activists arrested near the United Nations on Thursday at a protest against Netanyahu’s appearance organized by Jewish Voice for Peace.
The Trump administration used taxpayer funds to air a White House-produced, pro-Trump ad on Fox News this week.