Todd Blanche announces indictment of former Cuban president Raúl Castro over downing of two planes in 1996 – US politics live

Alongside his usual boastful claims that Iran’s navy and air force are “gone”, Donald Trump said the only question now is whether the United States goes back to finish the job or if Iran will sign a document.

Everything’s gone. Their navy’s gone. Their air force is gone. Just about everything. The only question is, do we go and finish it up? Are they going to be signing a document? Let’s see what happens.

President Trump has arrived at the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, where he will be giving the commencement speech in a few minutes. He has spoken at the Academy at least once before.

Barney Frank, one of first openly gay members of Congress, dies aged 86

Barney Frank, the former US representative who made history as one of the first openly gay members of Congress, died on Tuesday night. He was 86.

Frank, a Democrat of Massachusetts who represented the state in the US House of Representatives from 1981 to 2013, entered hospice care at his home in Maine last month, Politico reported. He had been dealing with congestive heart failure.

Born in New Jersey in 1940, was a key figure behind the biggest shake-up of US financial regulations since the Great Depression, as chair of the House financial services committee from 2007 to 2011.

The sweeping Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which Frank co-sponsored, bolstered oversight of the financial sector in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis. Signed into law by Barack Obama in 2010, the law cracked down on lending practices and expanded consumer protections.

The former House speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a statement on his death and life’s work:

“During his 32 years in the House, Congress and the Country were well-served by Barney Frank’s passion, his persistence and his patriotism. In the wake of the financial crisis, he was a force for reining in an out-of-control financial system: crafting the landmark Dodd-Frank reforms, establishing a consumer financial protection agency and improving transparency in the markets. For many years, we fought side by side to bring down the cost of housing and expand housing opportunities for those living with HIV/AIDS.

As the first Member to come out as gay publicly, Chairman Frank was a pioneering and powerful voice for the LGBTQ community. All were moved by how he spoke about the discrimination he faced. He channeled that personal experience into passionate leadership to enact the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act and to send the bigoted ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy to the dustbin of history.”

Two police officers who clashed with rioters at the US Capitol during the January 6 insurrection in 2021 have sued Donald Trump over plans to create a $1.776bn “anti-weaponization” fund.

The fund, which critics have argued is essentially a slush fund, is set to compensate allies of the US president who he claims were victims of prosecutorial overreach.

It was created as part of an agreement in which Trump and his sons dropped a $10bn long-shot lawsuit against the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Harry Dunn, a retired US Capitol police officer, and Daniel Hodges, a Metropolitan police department officer, filed a complaint in US district court in Washington DC on Tuesday.

“In the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century, President Donald J. Trump has created a $1.776 billion taxpayer-funded slush fund to finance the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence in his name,” the lawsuit says.

Todd Blanche, acting attorney general, and Scott Bessent, treasury secretary, are also named as defendants.

When Fox News correspondent Jacqui Heinrich asked the president a question, Trump’s response was to tell reporters that her husband Brian Fitzpatrick, a Republican congressman, has voted against him.

“Her husband votes against me all the time. Can you imagine? I don’t know what’s with him,” said Trump. “You better ask what’s with him. He likes voting against Trump. You know what happens with that? It doesn’t work out well.”

Fitzpatrick, a moderate Republican has built his career on a brand of bipartisanship, has served in the House since 2017 and won re‑election in 2024. He has broken with Trump and his party on several issue. Last year, he voted against the “one big, beautiful bill”.

Trump has a history of attacking the media and of dodging questions by distracting reporters and audiences.

Trump told reporters Wednesday that the proposed White House ballroom is also a “strong military position”.

“The ballroom is being built, I’m building the ballroom,” he said. “It’s a military complex. The roof is actually a drone port. It gives great safety to everything below it.”

In response to a question on Wednesday morning about how long Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, will hold on before re-starting strikes on Iran, Trump said: “He’s fine. He’ll do whatever I want him to do.”

Trump also cited a poll that gave him 99% approval in Israel. Guardian US has not yet verified this poll.

“I could run for prime minister, so maybe after I do this, I’ll go to Israel and run for prime minister,” he said.

Immigration activists whose homes were raided accuse federal agents of intimidation campaign

Federal agents have raided the homes of three southern California immigration activists in what the activists allege is the latest escalation in a Trump administration campaign to harass a volunteer-led advocacy group that organizes neighborhood ICE-watch patrols.

Agents with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the main investigatory branch of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), executed a pre-dawn raid on 13 May at the home and business of Leonardo Martinez, whose group VC Defensa runs a rapid response hotline and supports immigrant families across Ventura county. The homes of two other current and former VC Defensa volunteers were also targeted. No arrests were made.

Members of the group were previously arrested in an HSI operation last October in connection with protests over massive immigration raids at cannabis greenhouses last July. VC Defensa alerted the community to the July raids after a government convoy headed to the greenhouses was spotted, rallying large numbers of protesters to the scene.

The July raids led to the death of a farm worker and hundreds of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests, while immigration agents, flanked by the national guard, deployed less-lethal ammunition at demonstrators.

Cuban American lawmakers hosted a news conference to push for the indictment of Raul Castro, a 94-year-old former Cuban leader and brother of Fidel Castro, ahead of an expected announcement of his indictment from Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general.

Florida congressman Mario Diaz-Balart said there was a big announcement coming from Miami.

“We have a president now who won’t look the other way,” he said. “The day of justice is finally arriving.”

Cuban American leaders, including Florida congressman Carlos Gimenez, Nicole Malliotakis, a representative from New York, and Florida congresswoman Maria Salazar, praised the Trump administration for bringing Castro to justice.

The move towards indictment is a further step in the Trump administration’s campaign against the country. Economic sanctions on the island nation are already tight, additional political and military officials were sanctioned this week and Trump has repeatedly threatened to topple the country’s regime if diplomacy fails.

“Finally the Trump administration has taken notice,” said Gimenez Wednesday morning. “Justice come a little late but justice will be served.”

Raul Castro could be indicted for his role in shooting down civilian aircraft 30 years ago that killed three Americans who were carrying out humanitarian missions in the Florida strait, said Diaz-Balart.

The event precipitated the longstanding embargo on Cuba that is in place today.

Salazar said she represents South Florida, the heart of the Cuban exile community, who have been waiting for this moment for three decades and that Cubans want to feel safe.

Georgia mayor who fired town’s entire police force resigns, citing family ‘health concerns’

The mayor of Georgia has resigned shortly after firing his community’s entire police department, a step that the local governing council ultimately reversed – but that he nonetheless took amid a political spat pitting him and his wife against members of the force.

In a 15 May resignation letter that the Guardian reviewed, Ron Shinnick avoided mentioning his attempted termination of the Cohutta police department, word of which gained international media attention. The letter instead said Shinnick had opted to vacate the mayoral post he had held since 2014 due to “health concerns” faced by family members outside Cohutta.

“This decision was not made lightly,” Shinnick wrote in his resignation letter, to which he assigned immediate effect. “But I believe it is in the best interest of both the town and myself at this time.”

Shinnick, 70, had dismissed Cohutta’s police chief and 10 officers by 6 May. A sign posted in the town of roughly 930 people announced the dissolution of its police department and advised anyone in need of help to call a non-emergency county government telephone number.

Later, Shinnick said he acted against the police department over some comments that officers made on social media. A police sergeant maintained the matter involved a complaint officers had raised about Shinnick’s wife, Pam, who had served as the town’s clerk before being fired in January.

This morning Trump continued to post on Truth Social about the congressmen, governor, lieutenant governor and senator he had endorsed who won their primaries on Tuesday.

In his 13 posts he named Republican winners from Idaho, Alabama, Georgia and Kentucky, and at the end had a summary post citing that 100% of candidates endorsed by him, 37 by his count, have won their races.

Trump is giving the commencement speech to the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut at 11am today, where he is likely to speak more about these wins.

The Republican primary campaign for Georgia governor will go to a June runoff, with the lieutenant governor Burt Jones facing off against healthcare billionaire and political newcomer Rick Jackson – and locking out Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state and longtime political enemy of Donald Trump who was on track to finish a distant third.

Jackson, a political newcomer who was relatively unknown in the state, upended the contest by pouring nearly $50mn of his own money into campaign advertising. Republican candidates spent more than $100m in total, according to tracking figures from AdImpact.

Jones, who has been endorsed by Trump, and Jackson will continue their showdown on 16 June, which has soaked up almost all of the available advertising inventory on Georgia television.

The Democratic primary was relatively genteel compared to dueling attack advertising among Republicans.

Despite predictions of a runoff, former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms won the Democratic primary for governor with a decisive margin, with support from former president Joe Biden. You can read the full story here:

The EU has finally agreed to implement a trade deal with the US after hours of talks between members of the European parliament and member states, likely averting a threat by Donald Trump to punish any more stalling with steep tariffs, including on cars and trucks imported from the bloc. You can read more in this story by my colleague Lisa O’Carroll:

Donald Trump has posted to Truth Social claiming that “100%” of his endorsements in the May 19 Republican primaries won in their races, citing clean sweeps in Alabama, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Idaho, Oregon and Kentucky.

Republicans backed by Trump either won or were in first place in the primaries in Georgia, Alabama and Kentucky on Tuesday. Idaho’s three longtime congressional incumbents, all Republicans supported by Trump, easily won their party’s nominations in yesterday’s primary election. A small number of races, however, remain unsettled and are heading to runoffs.

Other election results poured in as polls closed in Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Idaho and Oregon.

Among the most notable: US senator Tommy Tuberville won the Republican nomination for Alabama governor, former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms won the Democratic nomination for governor in Georgia and state representative Chris Rabb won the Democratic nomination for Pennsylvania’s third congressional district.

In Georgia, lieutenant governor Burt Jones and healthcare executive Rick Jackson will advance to a runoff in the Republican primary for the governor’s race, while congressmen Mike Collins and Derek Dooley will advance to a runoff for the Republican nomination to compete against Democrat Jon Ossoff for his senate seat this November.

Good morning, and welcome to our live coverage of US politics. Donald Trump has tightened his grip on the Republican party after the independent-minded Congressman Thomas Massie was defeated in the Kentucky Republican House primaryby the president’s hand-picked challenger.

Massie lost by a vote of 55% to 45%, in what became the most expensive House primary in US history, reportedly drawing over $32m in spending.

Trump repeatedly called for voters to back Ed Gallrein, a retired navy Seal and farmer, over the incumbent Massie who had drawn the president’s ire after breaking with him on several high-profile issues, including the war on Iran, the release of the Epstein files and his signature tax bill.

“There is a yearning in this country for somebody who will vote for principles over party,” Massie said in his concession speech.

“If the legislative branch always votes whichever way the wind is blowing, then we have mob rule,” he added.

Massie’s defeat was the latest in a series of successful proxy battles Trump has fought which have ousted dissenting Republican incumbents – in states like Indiana and Louisiana – by endorsing a more loyal challenger.

The election took place as voters in five other states – Pennsylvania, Georgia, Alabama, Oregon and Idaho – went to the polls on Tuesday, to decide their nominees for the November election in what was the biggest primary night of the year so far. We’ll bring you a round up of these results shortly.

The next major test of Trump’s influence is in Texas, where the state’s controversial attorney general, Ken Paxton, has just secured the president’s endorsement in his bid to unseat four-term incumbent Republican senator John Cornyn in next week’s Republican primary run-off race.