Top Democrats call for FCC chair to resign, claiming Jimmy Kimmel suspension is ‘corrupt abuse of power’ – US politics live

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'Putin has let me down', Trump says

The president just said that the Kremlin leader, Vladimir Putin, has disappointed him. “He’s let me down, he’s really let me down,” Trump said. “Russia and Ukraine, we’ll get it done … you know war is a different thing. Things happen that are very opposite of what you thought. You thought you were going to have an easy time or a hard time. And it turns out to be the reverse.”

Joint press conference between Donald Trump and Keir Starmer begins

UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, kicks off the press conference with Donald Trump.

“We’ve renewed the special relationship for a new era,” Starmer says. “This afternoon, we’re confirming our status as the first partners in science and technology, ready to define this century together.”

Earlier the pair signed a “tech prosperity deal” which includes billions of dollars in mutual investment from leading technology companies in both countries.

My colleague, Andrew Sparrow, is bringing you the latest developments.

Also today, we’ll be keeping an eye on the latest lines from the first day of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) meeting.

This is the vaccine advisory panel which offers recommendations about a slate of crucial inoculations. These recommendations include who should get a particular jab, the age range, the dose and time between shots, as well as any precautions.

According to the schedule, today’s committee meeting will focus on the Measles, Mumps, Rubella, and Varicella (MMRV) vaccine, as well as the Hepatitis B vaccine.

A reminder, that health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr replaced all 17 members of the panel earlier this year, and has faced criticism for hand-picking replacements who have spread misinformation about the efficacy of vaccines.

On Wednesday, two ex-leaders at the Centers of Disease Control, including the fired director Susan Monarez, expressed their fears about the outcomes of the upcoming ACIP meetings.

“The stakes are not theoretical. We already have seen the largest measles outbreak in more than 30 years, which claimed the lives of two children. If vaccine protections are weakened, preventable diseases will return,” Monarez said.

Responses to ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ being taken off the air continue to pour in, and the union which represents musicians in the show’s band has called the suspension an example of “state censorship”.

“This act by the Trump Administration represents a direct attack on free speech and artistic expression,” said Tino Gagliardi, the president of the American Federation of Musicians. “It is now happening in the United States of America, not some far-off country. It’s happening right here and right now.”

Top House Democrats say FCC chair should resign over Kimmel suspension

Top House Democrats are calling on Brendan Carr, chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), to resign over the indefinite suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s late night show.

The congressional leaders accuse Carr – who runs the US’ media watchdog – of engaging in a “corrupt abuse of power” by “bullying ABC” and forcing the media company to “bend the knee to the Trump administration”.

Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, Minority whip Katherine Clark, Democratic Caucus chair Pete Aguilar, as well as other leading Democrats in the lower chamber, all said the move to take Kimmel’s show off the air “will not be forgotten” and promised an investigation if necessary.

Donald Trump and the Republican Party’s war on the first amendment is blatantly inconsistent with American values. Media companies, such as the one that suspended Mr. Kimmel, have a lot to explain. The censoring of artists and cancellation of shows is an act of cowardice. It may also be part of a corrupt pay-to-play scheme. House Democrats will make sure the American people learn the truth, even if that requires the relentless unleashing of congressional subpoena power.

Trump says bond between US and UK ‘unbreakable’ at business leaders reception

Speaking in front of reporters at the business leaders reception, Donald Trump said that the US has an “unbreakable bond” with the UK.

The ties between the UK and the US are “priceless”, he added.

He also said that and Melania will be forever thankful to King Charles for the “fantastic” evening last night.

Trump and Starmer then signed a “tech prosperity deal”, an agreement which includes billions in tech investment from some of the US’ leading technology companies.

Back on Capitol Hill today, DC’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, will testify before lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee at 10am EST. She’ll be joined by other top DC officials: attorney general Brian Schwalb, and chair of the district council, Phil Mendelson.

Last week, the president’s federal takeover of the DC police expired. Bowser, however, signed an order earlier this month which extended cooperation between local law enforcement and federal agencies indefinitely. But the mayor was resolute that the Metropolitan Police department (MPD) wasn’t required to work alongside Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice).

“Immigration enforcement is not what MPD does,” she said at a press conference.

In response, the president relaunched his attacks on the district this week and threatened to another takeover. “I’ll call a National Emergency, and Federalize, if necessary!!!,” he wrote in a post on Truth Social.

This will be another one to watch, when it comes to the tightrope that Bowser has been walking since Trump returned to office this year.

It’s the president’s last day of his state visit to the UK – the second since he returned to the White House this year.

Earlier, Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump, left Windsor Castle. Trump then travelled to Chequers Estate – the British prime minister’s country home – where the president took part in a bilateral meeting with Keir Starmer. The president and prime minister are due hold a reception for several business leaders. It looks like this may be running a little late.

In the meantime, Melania Trump has spent time with Queen Camilla and the Princess of Wales in Windsor, which included a tour of Frogmore House.

Trump and Starmer will hold a press conference at 9:20am EST.

A reminder that we’re following the latest developments in our dedicated blog below.

White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett on Thursday welcomed the Federal Reserve’s decision to lower interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point as a good first step.

“The bottom line is that moving kind of slow and steady and heading towards the target, watching the data come in, that’s what prudent policy is,” Hassett said in an interview with CNBC.

He said he knew some in the Trump administration, like new Fed governor Steven Miran, wanted the rate to go lower, “but I think 25 [basis point] is a pretty broad consensus.”

There were no hurricanes in the Gulf, as can be typical for Louisiana in late July – but Governor Jeff Landry quietly declared a state of emergency. The Louisiana state penitentiary at Angola – the largest maximum security prison in the country – was out of bed space for “violent offenders” who would be “transferred to its facilities”, he warned in an executive order.

The emergency declaration allowed for the rapid refurbishing of a notorious, shuttered housing unit at Angola formerly known as Camp J – commonly referred to by prisoners as “the dungeon” because it was once used to house men in extended solitary confinement, sometimes for years on end.

For over a month, the Landry administration was tight-lipped regarding the details of their plan for Camp J, and the emergency order wasn’t picked up by the news media for several days.

But the general understanding among Louisiana’s criminal justice observers was that the move was in response to a predictable overcrowding in state prisons due to Landry’s own “tough-on-crime” policies. Though Louisiana already had the highest incarceration rate in the country before he got into office, Landry has pushed legislation to increase sentences, abolish parole, and put 17-year-olds in adult prisons.

Advocates swiftly objected to the reopening of Camp J, noting its history of brutality and violence. Ronald Marshall served 25 years in the Louisiana prison system, including a number of them in solitary confinement at Camp J, and called it the worst place he ever served time.

“It was horrible,” Marshall said.

More US adults view Israel’s military action in the Palestinian territory as excessive than at the beginning of the war, according to a new poll.

About half of Americans say the military response from Israel in the Gaza Strip has “gone too far,” according to the survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

That’s up from November 2023, when 40% said Israel’s military action had gone too far, AP reports.

But at the same time, Americans overall, particularly Republicans, are less likely to say that negotiating a ceasefire should be a high priority for the US government than they were just a few months ago when the US was holding ceasefire talks with Hamas.

The shift in American attitudes about Israel’s actions comes as Israel begins an expanded ground offensive on Gaza City.

Israel is facing increased international scrutiny over its conduct in Gaza, with a team of independent experts commissioned by the United Nations’ Human Rights Council this week announcing it has concluded that Israel is committing genocide.

Health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr’s hand-picked vaccine advisers to the CDC are set to hold a meeting on Thursday and Friday that could set out a new path for the country’s vaccination policy.

Kennedy, a long-time anti-vaccine activist, fired all 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices earlier this year and created a smaller panel that now has 12 new members.

The vaccine advisory committee is expected to review guidance and vote on recommendations on shots for hepatitis B, measles-mumps-rubella-varicella on Thursday and Covid-19 on Friday, Reuters reported.

The committee is chaired by Martin Kulldorff, a biostatistician and epidemiologist who publicly criticized Covid-10 lockdowns and was fired from Harvard for refusing to take a Covid-19 vaccine.

In June, he said that the panel would study the use of a combined measles-mumps-rubella-varicella shot.

In Hollywood, where Jimmy Kimmel’s show is recorded, audience members were turned away at the door before taping began on Wednesday, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Tommy Williams, a longshoreman from Florida, told AFP the indefinite suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live! felt un-American. The 51-year-old said:

Any show that’s on TV that speaks out against Donald Trump, he’s trying to shut down,

We’re losing our freedom of speech. This is something that happens in Russia and North Korea and China, state-run TVs stuff.

Sherri Mowbray, a San Francisco resident, said she was “devastated.” She told AFP:

This is free speech. We are supposed to have free speech in this country, and this is not free speech. He didn’t say anything wrong. I’m really upset.

People demonstrate outside the El Capitan theater, where Jimmy Kimmel Live! is recorded, on Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles. Photograph: Daniel Cole/Reuters

On Wednesday night, Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican senator, praised Donald Trump’s announcement, saying:

Antifa seized upon a movement of legitimate grievances to promote violence and anarchy, working against justice for all. The president is right to recognize the destructive role of antifa by designating them domestic terrorists.