Mike Pence to defy Trump and campaign with Georgia governor Brian Kemp – live

  • Former vice-president likely to draw ire of Trump in Georgia
  • Trump has endorsed Kemp’s rival David Perdue in primary
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Lloyd Austin, the US defense secretary, held a call with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Friday in which he called for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine, the Pentagon said.

During the call Austin also “emphasized the importance of maintaining lines o...

Joe Biden to address inflation as Congress mulls big aid bill for Ukraine – live

It’s primary day in West Virginia and Nebraska, with votes that will test Donald Trump’s influence on Republican party

Divided States of America: Roe v Wade is ‘precursor to larger struggles’

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The president is due to speak shortly about the administration’s efforts to reduce inflation. But a significant chunk of the remarks are expected to highlight a plan by Senator ...

Obama calls Biden ‘vice-president’ on return to the White House – video

Barack Obama jokingly referred to Joe Biden as 'vice-president' on his return to the White House for the first time since 2017. The 44th president was there to celebrate the Affordable Care Act and offered Biden a potential boost ahead of the midterm elections

  • Back to the future as Obama sprinkles some stardust on Biden White House
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‘Feels like the good old days’: Joe Biden welcomes Barack Obama back to White House – as it happened

  • Former president returns to mark 12 years of Affordable Care Act
  • Confirmation week continues for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson
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Ivanka Trump will testify before the January 6 committee this afternoon.

The Guardian confirmed that former president Donald Trump’s oldest daughter, and former senior White House adviser, will speak to the panel virtually.

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Biden expected to announce ban of Russian oil imports – US politics live

Reports that a bipartisan bill seeking to ban the import of Russian oil could make it to a vote in the House this week

Senator Ron Johnson is now backtracking from his comments on Breitbart News Radio, in which he discussed repealing and replacing Obamacare - the Affordable Care Act - if Republicans win the White House and the House and senate majorities in 2024.

“For example, if we’re going to repeal and replace Obamacare — I still think we need to fix our health-care system — we need to have the plan ahead of time so that once we get in office, we can implement it immediately, not knock around like we did last time and fail,” he said on air Monday.

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Harry Reid obituary

Veteran Nevada senator who shepherded and protected Obamacare on its difficult passage into law

During a long, combative career in US political life, Harry Reid, who has died aged 82, made his most telling contribution as Democrat majority leader in the Senate. There, in 2010, he pushed through and then vigorously defended President Barack Obama’s groundbreaking healthcare reforms.

Given the huge strength of Republican feeling against “Obamacare”, the president needed a streetfighter to drive his measures through to the statute book – and Reid was the man for the job. Quietly spoken but toughened by a hard early life and years spent swimming in the shark-infested waters of Nevada politics, he fought through the deeply polarised atmosphere that surrounded Obama’s health reforms to shepherd the Affordable Care Act through the Democrat-controlled Senate.

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Harry Reid, who led Senate Democrats for 12 years, dies at 82

  • Nevada senator helped to pass Obama’s Affordable Care Act
  • Reid called Trump ‘the worst president we’ve ever had’

Harry Reid, who emerged from the unforgiving political landscape of Las Vegas, Nevada, to lead the Senate Democrats for 12 turbulent years, died on Tuesday at age 82.

Reid died Tuesday, “peacefully” and surrounded by friends “following a courageous, four-year battle with pancreatic cancer,” Landra Reid said of her husband.

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Fox News hosts and Trump Jr urged Mark Meadows to help stop Capitol attack, texts reveal – live

Texts turned over by Meadows to committee include pleas from Fox News hosts and Donald Trump Jr urging the chief of staff to take action

  • House rules committee meets to take up Meadows contempt resolution
  • Capitol attack panel recommends Meadows for criminal prosecution
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During the hearing aimed at taking up the contempt resolution against Mark Meadows,...

John Roberts is no longer the leader of his own court. Who, then, controls it?

Chief justice no longer sits in supreme court’s ideological center and has lost the power to cast the deciding vote in any ruling

When Chief Justice John Roberts delivered the decisive vote in 2012 that upheld Barack Obama’s signature achievement in office, the Affordable Care Act, he reportedly did so following after a month-long campaign by fellow conservatives to try to get him to join their side.

His decision to side with liberal colleagues inspired ire on the right but it ...

Republicans slap down Manchin’s voting rights compromise – US politics live

  • Mitch McConnell says proposal is ‘rotten to the core’
  • Manchin’s plan tries to attract bipartisan support in Senate

Christopher Staudinger reports for the Louisiana Illuminator and Floodlight, a nonprofit that partners with the Guardian:

One morning in September, word of layoffs began to spread quickly through Marathon Petroleum’s refinery in the small industrial community of Garyville, Louisiana.

Related: A US oil company cut nearly 2,000 jobs – and reaped $2.1bn in pandemic benefits

Greetings from Washington, live blog readers.

Most of the city’s attention was focused on the supreme court yesterday, as the justices dismissed a Republican challenge to the Affordable Care Act. However, there were also some significant developments on Capitol Hill.

Democrats can change the packaging, but their plan for a power-grab of America’s electoral system is still rotten to the core. My full statement: https://t.co/HLRuDSZ3lS

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