Netanyahu to push Trump on Iran missiles in White House talks
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news over the next few hours.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will push Donald Trump on Wednesday to take a tougher stance in nuclear talks with Iranafter rushing to Washington to stiffen the US president’s resolve, AFP reported.
Trump said on the eve of the hastily arranged White House meeting – set to begin at 11am – that he was weighing sending a second US “armada” to the Middle East to pressure Tehran to reach a nuclear deal.
But Netanyahu, making his sixth visit to the United States since Trump took office, will also be urging the US leader to take a harder line on Iran’s ballistic missile program.
Tehran, which resumed talks with Washington last week in Oman, warned Monday of “destructive influences” on diplomacy ahead of the Israeli premier’s visit.
On Wednesday, Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian said his country would “not yield to excessive demands” on its nuclear program, though he said the country is not seeking an atomic weapon.
Netanyahu had been expected to come to Washington for a 19 February meeting of Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ for Gaza, but reportedly brought forward his visit as the US-Iran talks proceeded.
Trump is also due to meet with special envoy to the UK Mark Burnett later today, while attorney general Pam Bondi is set to face questions from lawmakers over the Justice Department’s handling of files related to Jeffrey Epstein.
In other developments:
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Federal prosecutors reportedly tried, and failed, to convince a grand jury to indict six Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday over a social media video they recorded to remind service members in the military and intelligence community that they are not required to follow illegal orders.
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Donald Trump’s sudden turn against a new, publicly owned bridge being constructed to connect Detroit, Michigan to Windsor, Ontario came right after a Republican donor who owns a private, rival bridge met with Trump’s commerce secretary, the New York Times reports.
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Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carneyand the premier of Ontario, Doug Fordhave taken on the daunting task of trying to explain to Trump that the reasons he cited for threatening to block the opening of the new bridge are entirely untrue. Carney told Trump that Canada paid for the bridge and the US shares ownership.
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In an appearance on the rightwing channel Real America’s Voice, a Republican congressman from Missouri, Mark Alfordsaid “we are still investigating” the lyrics of a song performed in Spanish by the Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny during his Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday.
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As the US supreme court prepares to rule on whether Trump does have the power to impose tariffs on foreign imports, to address a self-declared economic emergency, the president confirmed in an interview that he sets tariff rates based, in part, on his own feelings about the leaders of other nations.
Key events
Jason Wilson
As Donald Trump redoubled his war of words on the European Union and Nato in recent weeks, a senior state department official, Sarah B Rogers, was publicly attacking policies on hate speech and immigration by ostensible US allies, and promoting far-right parties abroad.
Rogers has arguably become the public face of the Trump administration’s growing hostility to European liberal democracies. Since assuming office in October, she has met with far-right European politicians, criticized prosecutions under longstanding hate speech laws, and boasted online of sanctions against critics of hate speech and disinformation on US big tech platforms.
Rogers is undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, a top-10 state department role that was created in 1999 to strengthen relationships between the US and foreign publics, as opposed to foreign governments and diplomats.
Rogers, however, appears to be concerned with winning over a particular slice of foreign public opinion.
Her recent posts on Twitter/X have included a characterization of migrants in Germany as “barbarian rapist hordes”, a comment on Sweden apparently linking sexual violence to immigration policy (“If your government cared about ‘women’s safety,’ it would have a different migration policy”), and the recitation of the view that “advocates of unlimited third world immigration have long controlled a disproportionate share of official knowledge production”.
The Guardian emailed Rogers a detailed request for comment on this reporting.
US jobs reported due out at 8.30am EST as White House looks to manage expectations
Julia Kollewe
The eagerly-awaited US jobs report is out today, and the White House has been trying to moderate expectations.
Peter Navarrosenior counselor for trade and manufacturing to Donald Trumpwas speaking on Fox News last night.
We have to revise our expectations down significantly for what a monthly job number should look like. When we were letting in 2 million illegal aliens a day we had to produce 200,000 [jobs] a month for steady stay.
Now 50,000 a month is going to be more like what we need. Wall Street, when this stuff comes out, they can’t rain on our parade, they just have to adjust for the fact that we’re deporting millions of illegals.
When asked whether the number would be weak, he rowed back and said no, but stressed that investors need to expect smaller numbers in future.
This comes after a warning from National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett on Monday. “One shouldn’t panic,” he told CNBC on Monday. “You should expect slightly smaller job numbers.”
The data release, delayed from last week, is expected to show the economy created 70,000 jobs in January, after 50,000 in December.
For more on this, see our business live blog here:
Bondi to face questions on Epstein files in House testimony
Attorney general Pam Bondi will appear before a House of Representatives panel on Wednesday, where lawmakers are expected to press her on the Justice Department’s handling of files involving the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Bondi’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee comes as lawmakers, including some Republicans, have expressed frustration with the amount of Epstein material the department has redacted and withheld despite a federal law requiring the release of nearly all files.
The Justice Department released what it called a final tranche of more than three million pages of documents late last month, drawing renewed attention to wealthy and powerful individuals who maintained ties with Epstein even after his conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor.
But lawmakers have complained that redactions in the files appear to go beyond the limited exemptions allowed for in a law Congress passed nearly unanimously in November.
The department has also declined to publish a large volume of material, citing legal privileges.
Netanyahu to push Trump on Iran missiles in White House talks
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news over the next few hours.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will push Donald Trump on Wednesday to take a tougher stance in nuclear talks with Iranafter rushing to Washington to stiffen the US president’s resolve, AFP reported.
Trump said on the eve of the hastily arranged White House meeting – set to begin at 11am – that he was weighing sending a second US “armada” to the Middle East to pressure Tehran to reach a nuclear deal.
But Netanyahu, making his sixth visit to the United States since Trump took office, will also be urging the US leader to take a harder line on Iran’s ballistic missile program.
Tehran, which resumed talks with Washington last week in Oman, warned Monday of “destructive influences” on diplomacy ahead of the Israeli premier’s visit.
On Wednesday, Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian said his country would “not yield to excessive demands” on its nuclear program, though he said the country is not seeking an atomic weapon.
Netanyahu had been expected to come to Washington for a 19 February meeting of Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ for Gaza, but reportedly brought forward his visit as the US-Iran talks proceeded.
Trump is also due to meet with special envoy to the UK Mark Burnett later today, while attorney general Pam Bondi is set to face questions from lawmakers over the Justice Department’s handling of files related to Jeffrey Epstein.
In other developments:
-
Federal prosecutors reportedly tried, and failed, to convince a grand jury to indict six Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday over a social media video they recorded to remind service members in the military and intelligence community that they are not required to follow illegal orders.
-
Donald Trump’s sudden turn against a new, publicly owned bridge being constructed to connect Detroit, Michigan to Windsor, Ontario came right after a Republican donor who owns a private, rival bridge met with Trump’s commerce secretary, the New York Times reports.
-
Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carneyand the premier of Ontario, Doug Fordhave taken on the daunting task of trying to explain to Trump that the reasons he cited for threatening to block the opening of the new bridge are entirely untrue. Carney told Trump that Canada paid for the bridge and the US shares ownership.
-
In an appearance on the rightwing channel Real America’s Voice, a Republican congressman from Missouri, Mark Alfordsaid “we are still investigating” the lyrics of a song performed in Spanish by the Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny during his Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday.
-
As the US supreme court prepares to rule on whether Trump does have the power to impose tariffs on foreign imports, to address a self-declared economic emergency, the president confirmed in an interview that he sets tariff rates based, in part, on his own feelings about the leaders of other nations.
