US politics: virtual Democratic convention to start amid coronavirus crisis – live updates

  • Pelosi recalls House early to fight postal service election ‘sabotage’
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3.57pm BST

Eva Longoria, Tracee Ellis Ross, Kerry Washington and Julia Louis-Dreyfus will help em...

No Covid-19 stimulus package progress as Trump makes more false claims – live

  • Another 1.18m Americans file for unemployment
  • Deutsche Bank gave Trump records to New York prosecutors - report
  • Trump claims Covid-19 will ‘go away’ as Fauci warns long road ahead
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3.13pm BST

Joe Biden made clear this morning that Se...

Healthcare is Trump’s Achilles heel. Republicans don’t get it | Lloyd Green

Five million Americans have lost their health insurance in a pandemic - yet Republicans are still trying to end Obamacare

Like Moloch, the ancient pagan god, Donald Trump is ever ready to demand that Americans sacrifice themselves for his greater good. He commanded that states open up early, and then this happened: Arizona, Florida, and Texas are looking like Wuhan redux. Come this fall, the president also expects that parents will put their children in harm’s way for the sake of his...

Trump administration asks supreme court to axe Obamacare

Democrats call legal push amid coronavirus crisis an ‘act of unfathomable cruelty’

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The Trump administration has asked the US supreme court to invalidate the Obamacare lawthat added millions to the healthcare safety net but has been at the centre of political controversy.

The government advocate, Noel Francisco, argued in a filing late on Thursday that the Affordable Care Act (ACA), one of Ba...

Coronavirus US live: death toll nears 80,000 as Trump rages over Russia

Precautions against Covid-19 infection have been stepped up at the White House but are hampered by the cramped and poorly ventilated conditions in the West Wing, Kevin Hassett, a special adviser to Donald Trump on the pandemic response, said on Sunday.

Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin has been talking to Fox News Sunday about the Trump administration’s attempts to reopen and restart the stalled US economy, and whether there will be another huge stimulus bill. Democrats who control the House want one of those but the White House doesn’t – that’s the short version.

The White House is “absolutely pushing for a payroll tax cut”, Mnuchin says. Most observers think that is a non-starter, because Democrats won’t let it. Payroll taxes, meaning deductions from regular paychecks, include funds for Social Security and Medicare, vital social benefits.

Related: US job losses have reached Great Depression levels. Did it have to be that way?

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Trump’s pick for federal court ‘too inexperienced’, Democrats say

Justin Walker, 37, is facing a Senate confirmation hearing as Mitch McConnell restarts push to confirm federal judges

A federal judge nominated to the nation’s second-most powerful court said on Wednesday that he was writing as an academic and commentator when he criticized as “indefensible” a supreme court ruling upholding the Affordable Care Act.

Justin Walker, a 37-year-old protege of the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, and the supreme court Justice Brett Kavanaugh...

Biden and Sanders cancel rallies over coronavirus concerns – live

  • Sanders and Biden call off Ohio events to heed public warnings
  • Joe Biden aims to cement lead in crucial Democratic primaries
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10.28pm GMT

Asked whether Trump — a self-described germaphobe — would continue to shake hands with people amidst the spread of coronavirus, the vice president said he expects so.

“Well, ...

Trump and Bloomberg trade insults ahead of Democratic debate – live

  • President had accused candidate violating campaign finance laws
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5.32pm GMT

Secretary of state Mike Pompeo condemned China for expelling three Wall Street Journal reporters over a critical op-ed published by the newspaper.

The United St...

Iowa caucus: Democratic race in shambles as results are delayed – live coverage

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11.57am GMT

Donald Trump has given his verdict on the Iowa controversy, which he calls an “unmitigated disaster”.

Donald Trump backs quick dismissal of impeachment by Senate – live updates

Nancy Pelosi has said she will send the articles of impeachment ‘soon’ but the president is no longer keen on a showy televised trial

3.14pm GMT

Former Vice President Joe Biden rolled out a set of endorsements Monday underscore two aspects of the Democratic primary Biden’s campaign is focusing on in the final days before the Iowa caucuses.

First, Biden’s team announced that Rep. Colin Allred had backed...