Just before the accusation was made public, multiple staffers resigned from the US representative’s gubernatorial campaign, Politico reports

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email

On Truth Social, Donald Trump issued a cryptic message this morning that appeared to be in reference to the upcoming negotiations in Islamabad, but remains unclear.

“WORLD’S MOST POWERFUL RESET!!!” he wrote.

This live blog is now closed.

• Melania Trump says she not did not have relationship with Jeffrey Epstein

• Sketch: Melania says her piece about Epstein – doth the lady protest too much?

• Trump news at a glance: Melania Trump’s weird disavowal of Epstein is getting weirder

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email

Nato secretary general Mark Rutte has briefed some capitals that US president Donald Trump wants concrete commitments within the next few days for help securing the strait of Hormuz, two European diplomats told Reuters.

The report appears to confirm yesterday’s report in the German economic daily Handelsblatt, claiming Nato was considering a naval mission to secure the strait in a move to “appease” Trump.

This live blog is now closed.

• Success or surrender? Iran ceasefire exposes rift in Trump’s Maga movement

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email

Pete Hegseth repeated Donald Trump’s social media comments that Iran will cease uranium enrichment – a condition that Tehran has previously refused to budge on.

“Any material they should not have, will be removed right now,” Hegseth said. “The president has been clear from the beginning, there will be no Iranian nuclear weapons.”

This live blog is now closed.

• Trump news at a glance: president steps back from threat to destroy Iran’s ‘whole civilization’ after ceasefire deal reached

• Sign up for Breaking News US email alerts

During a press conference in Budapest with Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orbán, vice-president JD Vance is asked how the military goals in Iran can be achieved if the US continues its attacks on the country.

Vance was also asked about reports about US attacks on Kharg Island. The vice-president said the plan was to hit “some military targets” there and “I believe we have done so.”

This live blog is now closed.

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email

Donald Trump confirmed that King Charles and Queen Camilla, will travel to the US for a state visit from 27 to 30 April.

The president said that the trip will include a banquet dinner at the White House on 28 April. “I look forward to spending time with the King, whom I greatly respect. It will be TERRIFIC!,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Sanae Takaichi tells reporters she told Trump that Japan’s ability to deploy military forces overseas is limited by post-WWII constitution

• Trump news at a glance: president claims ignorance of Israel’s plan to strike Iranian gasfield, exposing rift

• Sign up for the Breaking US News US email

Answering a reporter’s question on Iran’s missile capabilities, considering the country has managed to strike numerous states in the Gulf, Gen Dan Caine, the chair of the joint chiefs of staff, said Tehran retains “some capability” to attack American assets.

“They came into this fight with a lot of weapons.,” he said, adding that the US continues to be “as aggressive and assertive” in striking Iran.

Committee chair Rand Paul and Markwayne Mullin exchange heated remarks at hearing to confirm new homeland security secretary

• Mullin never served in military but talks as if he did

• Sign up for Breaking US News US emails

Rand Paul seemed immediately frustrated with Mullin as he opened the hearing. While he was speaking, he suggested that Mullin wasn’t listening to his remarks, during which he pushed Trump’s nominee on his vote against Paul’s amendment to stop all funding for refugee welfare programs.

“You decided to transfer the blame. You told the media that I was a ‘freaking snake’ and that you completely understood why I had been assaulted,” Paul said, referring to when he was attacked by a neighbor in Kentucky in 2017, which resulted in Paul breaking several ribs and developing pneumonia.

President says he will ‘never (ever) endorse anyone’ who votes against Save America act as Senate prepares to take up debate on controversial bill

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox

A top counter-terrorism official in the Trump administration has resigned over the ongoing war on Iran.

Joe Kent, who reported to director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, said that he “cannot in good conscience” support the joint conflict with Israel.

You can reverse course and chart a new path for our nation, or you can allow us to slip further toward decline and chaos. You hold the cards.

Only some agencies within the DHS, including the Tsa and Fema, and the Coast Guard are affected by the shutdown

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email

Both Pete Hegseth and Dan Caine were asked today about energy secretary Chris Wright’s comments to CNBC on Thursday, where he said that the US Navy cannot escort ships through the strait of Hormuz now but it was “quite likely” that could happen by the end of the month.

Gen Caine appeared to agree with Wright’s assessment, calling the waterway a “tactically complex environment”.

Democratic senator John Fetterman broke with his party in support of reopening the DHS; this is the fourth failed Senate

• Sign up for Breaking US News emails

US defense officials told senators on the armed services committee that the cost of the war on Iran totaled more than $11.3bn in the first six days alone, according to multiple reports.

The New York Times was first to break the news about the conflict’s price tag, citing three people familiar with the closed-door briefing on Tuesday.

Strike on school in Minab, Iran, in which at least 175 people died was result of a ‘targeting mistake’, officials have told the New York Times

Donald Trump said that the US-Israel war in Iran will end “soon” because there is “practically nothing left to target” in a phone interview with Axios.

“Any time I want it to end, it will end,” the president told the outlet. “The war is going great. We are way ahead of the timetable. We have done more damage than we thought possible, even in the original six-week period.”

Chris Murphy attacks Trump administration’s strategy after classified briefing on Iran war; at least 140 US personnel injured in Operation Epic Fury

• Trump news at a glance: war on Iran is either ‘very complete’ or just starting, depending on who is talking

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox

Hegseth says the aftermath of the conflict is “going to be in America’s interests” and says it “will not live under a nuclear blackmail” from Iran.

It comes shortly after the defence secretary reiterated president Donald Trump’s threat that if Iran does anything to prevent the flow of oil in the strait of Hormuz, it will be hit “twenty times harder”.

This live blog is now closed.

• Trump news at a glance: president issues an ultimatum to Congress to get voter ID bill passed

• Sign up for Breaking US News email alerts

Donald Trump has urged the Australian government to grant asylum to five members of the Iranian women’s football team, amid reports that they refused to return home following the team’s elimination from the Women’s Asian Cup and were taken into the protection of Australian police.

As my colleague Martin Farrer reports, speculation had mounted for days that some of the players would try to seek asylum in Australia they had been called “traitors” for refusing to sing their national anthem before their opening game of the tournament last week.

State secretary frames strikes as necessary to protect US forces from retaliation; Chuck Schumer tells reporters ‘this is Trump’s war’ and ‘he has no strategy’

• Hegseth says US won’t get ‘bogged down’ in Iran

• What is the legality of the US and Israeli attacks on Iran?

• Sign up for Breaking US News email alerts

While speaking today, Pete Hegseth acknowledged the fourth US service member killed in Iran’s counterattacks.

“War is hell and always will be,” he said. “Our grateful nation honors the four Americans we have lost thus far and those injured – the absolute best of America.”

Former state secretary says she wants to see ‘the truth come out’ and voices confidence that her husband Bill Clinton didn’t know of Epstein’s crimes

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox
  

Cindy McCain announced today that she will step down from her role as executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme to focus on her health.

McCain, the widow of the late US senator John McCain, suffered a mild stroke last October and had returned to Italy to resume her work after that, but the demands of the job were affecting her recovery, the organization said. She started the role in April 2023. She will step down in three months.

Trump’s order is not yet public, but White House fact sheet says new global import tax will take effect Tuesday, 24 February – with some goods exempt

• Trump’s tariffs are illegal, supreme court rules

• Trump threatens 10% global tariffs and rails against supreme court

• What will happen to Trump’s tariffs after supreme court verdict?

According to reporters at the supreme court, one box of opinions has been brought out.

Typically, this means we can expect two decisions from the court.

Reuters reports that the US military “is preparing for the possibility of sustained, weeks-long operations” against Iran’s theocratic government

The annual rate of US inflation eased in January, according to the latest data consumer price index report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Over the last 12 months, the cost of goods has increased by 2.4% – down from 2.7% in last month’s report.

Lawmakers in the House and Senate left Washington on Thursday as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) heads for another shutdown, when stopgap funding lapses tonight. Nearly all Democrats blocked a second attempt to pass the annual DHS appropriations bill as negotiations for guardrails on federal immigration enforcement have stalled. Senator John Fetterman was the only lawmaker to break ranks with the party.

This live blog is now closed.

Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan kicked off his press conference today announcing that the administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota has “yielded the successful results” they were looking to achieve.

Homan also noted that Immigation and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has not made any arrests at hospitals, elementary schools or churches. However, many people in the Twin Cities have told the Guardian that they’re fearful of federal immigration officers who patrol near these spots, and appear to make indiscriminate arrests throughout the region. The anxiety has resulted in parents keeping their children at home, and patients missing hospital appointments.

Khanna, who co-sponsored the Epstein transparency act, named six people including Victoria’s Secret tycoon Leslie Wexner on the House floor

• Who are the six men named in the unredacted Epstein files?

• Congressmen name six wealthy men ‘likely incriminated’ in Epstein files

Jamie Raskin, a top House Democrat, accused the justice department of making “puzzling, inexplicable redactions” to documents related to Jeffrey Epstein that obscured the names of abusers, while allowing the identities of the disgraced financier’s victims to become public.

Raskin told reporters that he wanted to view the complete files to better understand how the justice department handled the redaction process.

This live blog is now closed.

• Trump news at a glance: Democrats sound alarm after president mulls election takeover

• Tulsi Gabbard running solo 2020 election inquiry

• Trump suggests Republicans should ‘take over’ elections

Donald Trump has continued to sow doubt in the election system. While appearing on former deputy FBI director Dan Bongino’s podcast on Monday, the president called on Republicans to “nationalize the voting,” in at least “15 places”, although he did not clarify which ones.

“The Republicans should say, ‘we want to take over’,” Trump said in the interview.