Supreme court agrees to hear case over law that bans drug users from possessing guns
The supreme court has agreed to hear a case to review the federal law which prohibits illegal drug users having a gun – to determine whether this violates the second amendment.
The US fifth circuit court of appeals said the law was unconstitutional, but the Trump justice department is challenging the ruling, arguing that drug users pose a unique threat when they have access to firearms. The government will have to clear a hurdle used in a 2022 gun rights at the supreme court, which said that any firearm regulation must satisfy a “history and tradition” test.
A reminder, Hunter Biden, the former president’s son, was convicted on felony charges under the very law in question, when a jury determined that he lied about his drug use in order to obtain a gun.
Key events
Trump welcomes Australian PM to the White House
Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has arrived at the White House. Donald Trump said that he “loves” the Australian people and that the pair will achieve “a lot” today, when answering questions from reporters as the pair stood for pictures.
A reminder that Albanese leads the country’s Labor Party, which is the main centre-left party in Australia. He was elected in 2022, and this will be his first formal meeting with Donald Trump since he returned to office in January.
Russia says call with Rubio was ‘constructive’, ahead of Trump’s Budapest meeting with Putin
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has said his call with secretary of state Marco Rubio was “constructive” ahead of Donald Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin in Budapest. The date is yet to be determined, but it will be the second bilateral with the Kremlin leader this year.
Speaker: representative-elect should ‘serve her constituents’ instead of ‘making TikTok videos’
House speaker Mike Johnson, once again addressed questions from reporters about the decision to stave off swearing in representative-elect Adelita Grijalva, who won a special election in Arizona at the end of September. Johnson maintains that he will carry out the formal proceedings when the Senate advances a bill to reopen the government and the House is back in session.
“In the meantime, instead of doing TikTok videos, she should be serving her constituents,” Johnson said. “She could be taking their calls. She can be directing them, trying to help them through the crisis that the Democrats have created by shutting down the government.”
Johnson says shutdown is exclusively about top Democrat’s ‘political survival’
House Republicans are holding a press conference on day 20 of the government shutdown.
Republican speaker, Mike Johnson, said the shutdown was about “one thing and one thing only, Chuck Schumer’s political survival”. GOP lawmakers have maintained that the Senate’s top Democrat is being squeezed by progressive members to stall passing a House-passed stopgap funding bill.
Johnson has claimed that that Democrats wanted to wait for the No Kings protests across the country to take place before passing a funding extension.
Supreme court agrees to hear case over law that bans drug users from possessing guns
The supreme court has agreed to hear a case to review the federal law which prohibits illegal drug users having a gun – to determine whether this violates the second amendment.
The US fifth circuit court of appeals said the law was unconstitutional, but the Trump justice department is challenging the ruling, arguing that drug users pose a unique threat when they have access to firearms. The government will have to clear a hurdle used in a 2022 gun rights at the supreme court, which said that any firearm regulation must satisfy a “history and tradition” test.
A reminder, Hunter Biden, the former president’s son, was convicted on felony charges under the very law in question, when a jury determined that he lied about his drug use in order to obtain a gun.
White House economic adviser says shutdown likely to end this week
Kevin Hassett, the White House’s economic adviser, said that the ongoing government shutdown – which entered its 20th day – is likely to end this week.
“There’s a shot that this week, things will come together, and very quickly,” Hassett said in an interview with CNBC today. “The moderate Democrats will move forward and get us an open government, at which point we could negotiate whatever policies they want to negotiate with regular order.”
Hassett added that it would have been “bad optics” for Democrats to pass a funding bill to reopen the government before the No Kings protests that swept the country over the weekend.
Vance to travel to Israel as top Trump envoys return to preserve ceasefire deal
A reminder, that my colleagues are bringing you the latest developments out of the Middle East, as the US brokered ceasefire deal faced one of its first major tests over the weekend.
Israeli forces launched a wave of airstrikes on Gaza and an Israeli security official said the transfer of aid into the territory was halted “until further notice”. The strikes across the territory killed at least 45 people, Gaza’s civil defence agency and hospitals said.
The Israeli military claimed it struck after Hamas were said to have attacked Israeli troops operating “to dismantle terrorist infrastructure” in the southern city of Rafah.
My colleague, Tom Ambrose, reports that Vice-President JD Vance is to visit Israel on Tuesday, the country’s airport authority said in a statement on Monday announcing preparations for his arrival at Tel Aviv’s airport. Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner have returned to Israel, a US embassy spokesperson has said. They are overseeing, and helped broker, the ceasefire agreement, and are expected to meet members of prime ministers Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
Read more below.
Senate attempts 11th vote to reopen federal government, as shutdown enters day 20
The Senate will vote, for the 11th time, on a House-passed funding bill that would reopen the government at 5.30pm today.
As the government shutdown enters its 20th day, there is little end in sight. The lower chamber is still out of session, as both parties continue to trade barbs over the lapse in funding.
“I refuse to allow us to come back and engage in anything until the government’s reopened, when the Democrats do the right thing for the people,” House speaker Mike Johnson said in an interview with ABC News on Sunday. “They’re playing politics, and we have to use every ounce of leverage we have to make sure they do the right thing.”
For Democrats’ part, they blame Republicans for being unwilling to negotiate and include several health care provisions in an alternative stopgap bill. This would roll back several of the cuts made to Medicaid enacted by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), and extend Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies that are set to expire this year.
As we reported earlier, Donald Trump will welcome Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, to the White House today.
He’s due to arrive at 11am ET for a bilateral meeting. We’ll bring you the latest lines as that gets under way.
Trump will stay in Washington for the rest of the day as he hosts the Louisiana State University (LSU) baseball champions at the White House for a visit at 4pm ET.
The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said on Monday it has opened a preliminary investigation into about 2,000 Waymo self-driving vehicles after reports that the company’s robotaxis may have failed to follow traffic safety laws around stopped school buses.
The investigation is the latest federal review of self-driving systems as regulators scrutinize how driverless technologies interact with pedestrians, cyclists and other road users, reports AP.
NHTSA said the Office of Defects Investigation opened the review after flagging a media report describing an incident in which a Waymo autonomous vehicle did not remain stationary when approaching a school bus with its red lights flashing, stop arm deployed and crossing control arm extended.
The report said the Waymo vehicle initially stopped beside the bus then maneuvered around its front, passing the extended stop arm and crossing control arm while students were disembarking.
A Waymo spokesperson said the company has “already developed and implemented improvements related to stopping for school buses and will land additional software updates in our next software release”.
NHTSA said the vehicle involved was equipped with Waymo’s fifth-generation Automated Driving System (ADS) and was operating without a human safety driver at the time of the incident.
Waymo has said its robotaxi fleet numbers more than 1,500 vehicles operating across major US cities, including Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Austin. The Alphabet-owned company also plans to expand internationally, with launches in cities including Tokyo and London in coming years.
Marina Dunbar
A city council member in Florida is facing backlash from national Indian American organizations, members of Congress, and local residents after posting a series of social media messages that insulted Indian people living in the US and called for them to be deported en masse.
Chandler Langevin, a Palm Bay council member elected last year, made derogatory comments about Indian people across several posts on the social media platform X over roughly three weeks this fall. He claimed that Indians come to America to “drain our pockets” before returning to India, “or worse … to stay”.
His remarks have sparked widespread anger. Since 29 September, residents along with regional and national Indian American groups have crowded Palm Bay city council meetings and demanded that he step down.
On Thursday night, the council voted 3-2 to formally censure Langevin. During the meeting, Rob Medina, the mayor who also serves on the council, said: “We’re all overwhelmed by everything. This nation was founded on immigrants … We are all part of the very fabric of the flag, our banner, the United States of America.”
Hindus for Human Rights, a national advocacy organization, released a letter calling the remarks “overtly bigoted, dehumanizing, and dangerous” and urged Republican governor Ron DeSantis to suspend Langevin from his role.
Donald Trump due to meet Anthony Albanese, prime minister of Australia, at White House
Donald Trump is due to meet Anthony Albanese, the prime minister of Australia, today for a working lunch at the White House, says the White House schedule.
Olivia Empson
Disgraced former US congressman George Santos said on Sunday that his prison sentence had been “disproportionate”, but that he had been served “a very large slice of humble pie”, while lashing out at his critics in his first interview since Donald Trump commuted his sentence.
Speaking to Dana Bash on CNN’s State of the Union, Santos said he was “all politicked out”, and called for his former campaign staffer, Sam Miele, to also receive a commutation.
“This isn’t about … glitter, stars and glam or going back to Congress,” he said. “This is a very personal journey and road for me ahead.”
Trump announced on Friday that he had commuted the sentence for Santos, who was meant to serve more than seven years in federal prison in New Jersey after a whirlwind political career tainted by serial fabrications and fraudulent scheming.
“I just signed a Commutation, releasing George Santos from prison, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump said in a lengthy Truth Social post. “Good luck George, have a great life!”
Santos, who pleaded guilty last year to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, was less than three months into serving time before he was released. He said Trump’s decision to commute his sentence came as a surprise.
Olivia Empson
Donald Trump on Sunday accused Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, of being an “illegal drug dealer” and threatened to immediately cut US funding to the country, as a Republican senator said the US would soon announce “major tariffs” on the country.
It comes after the US defense secretary confirmed in a social media post an attack on a vessel associated with a Colombian leftist rebel group. Pete Hegseth said “three terrorists were killed” in the operation, which was “conducted in international waters”.
“These cartels are the Al Qaeda of the western hemisphere,” Hegseth said. “The United States military will treat these organizations like the terrorists they are – they will be hunted, and killed.”
In a post on his Truth Social platform just hours earlier, Trump had blamed Petro for encouraging the mass production of illegal drugs, saying the leftwing leader “does nothing to stop it, despite large-scale payments and subsidies from the US”.
“Petro, a low rated and very unpopular leader, with a fresh mouth toward America, better close up these killing fields immediately,” Trump wrote, “or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely”.
The remarks come after Petro said the US committed “murder” following a strike on an alleged drug boat in Colombian territorial waters in September, adding “we await explanations from the US government.”
Zelenskyy calls for more US Patriot air defences after Trump again sides with Putin
Peter Beaumont
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for the delivery of an additional 25 US Patriot anti-missile batteries amid the rapidly escalating air war with Russia, as it became clear that Donald Trump had once again tacked sharply towards Moscow.
The Ukrainian president added that he would be ready to join Vladimir Putin and Trump at their summit in Hungary if he was invited.
Reports over the weekend said Trump had privately urged Zelenskyy to accept Russia’s terms for ending the war in Ukraine during a fractious White House meeting on Friday, warning that Putin had said he would “destroy” Ukraine if it did not agree.
According to the Financial Times, the meeting descended at times into a “shouting match”, with Trump “cursing all the time”.
President Donald Trump reiterated on Sunday that Indian prime minister Narendra Modi told him India will stop buying Russian oil, while warning that New Delhi would continue paying “massive” tariffs if it did not do so.
“I spoke with prime minister Modi of India, and he said he’s not going to be doing the Russian oil thing,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.
Asked about India’s assertion that it was not aware of any conversation between Modi and Trump, Trump replied: “But if they want to say that, then they’ll just continue to pay massive tariffs, and they don’t want to do that.”
Russian oil has been one of the main irritants for Trump in prolonged trade talks with India – half of his 50% tariffs on Indian goods are in retaliation for those purchases. The US government has said petroleum revenue funds Russia’s war in Ukraine, Reuters reports.
Comey faces deadline to file legal motions to dismiss indictment against him
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you the latest news lines over the next hour or so.
We start with the news that former FBI director James Comey today faces a deadline to file legal motions to dismiss an indictment accusing him of making false statements to Congress. Expected challenges that are scheduled to be filed today include claims that the prosecution was vindictive and that the US attorney supervising it was unlawfully appointed by president Donald Trump.
The brief indictment handed down by a federal grand jury on 25 September accused Comey of making a false statement and obstructing a congressional investigation in connection with his September 2020 testimony to Congress.
While the details of the charge remain unclear, they appear to be related to his claim that he never authorized anyone in the FBI to be an anonymous source in news stories.
“I have great confidence in the federal judicial system and I’m innocent. So let’s have a trial. And keep the faith,” Comey said in a video statement the night the charges were filed.
In other developments:
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Donald Trump has escalated tensions between Washington and one of its closest Latin American allies, declaring the US will slash assistance to Colombia and enact tariffs on its exports because its president, Gustavo Petro, “does nothing to stop” drug production. Trump referred to Petro as “an illegal drug leader” in a post on the Truth Social platform and warned that Petro “better close up” drug operations “or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely”.
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Disgraced former US congressman George Santos said on Sunday that his prison sentence had been “disproportionate” but that he had been served “a very large slice of humble pie”, while lashing out at his critics in his first interview since Donald Trump commuted his sentence. Speaking to CNN, Santos said he was “all politicked out” and called for his former campaign staffer, Sam Miele, to also receive a commutation.
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Trump said yesterday that he would send the national guard into San Francisco to make it “great again”. The comment came during an interview with Fox News, with Trump saying: “We’re going to go to San Francisco, and we’re going to make it great.”
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Major US soft-drink and snack-food corporations are waging a coordinated campaign that aims to pit Donald Trump’s Maga faithful against Robert F Kennedy Jr’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement, a Guardian investigation in partnership with the environmental watchdog Fieldnotes has found. Their goal is to stymie the Maha-led effort to curb Americans’ consumption of soda and ultra-processed foods.
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The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has arrived in the US for a meeting with president Donald Trump, where they are expected to discuss the Aukus pact – an agreement a respected Republican has called a “crucial deterrent” in the Indo-Pacific that “keeps [the Chinese president, Xi Jinping] up at night”.
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A city council member in Florida is facing a backlash from national Indian American organizations, members of Congress and residents after posting a series of social media messages that insulted Indian people living in the US and called for them to be deported en masse.
