Trump officials continue to insist that suggestive note and drawing were not work of the president Trump calls release of suggestive note ‘a dead issue’ Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of US politics amid the ongoing furore over links between Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, as the White House said it would support a forensic analysis of the signature on a letter purportedly given by the president to the convicted sex offender. White House officials on Tuesday doubled down on their assertion that a sexually suggestive letter carrying what appeared to be Trump’s signature that was included in a birthday book for Epstein had not been signed by the president. President Trump said on Tuesday his administration is continuing negotiations to address trade barriers with India and that he would talk to prime minister Narendra Modi, in a sign of a reset after weeks of diplomatic friction. Trump, in a marked shift of tone, said he looked forward to speaking to Modi in the “upcoming weeks” and expressed optimism that they could finalize a trade deal. Trump, however, has urged EU officials to hit China and India with tariffs of up to 100% as part of a strategy to pressure Russian president Vladimir Putin, according to a U.S. official and an EU diplomat. A federal judge has ruled that Federal Reserve board member Lisa Cook can stay in her post while suing Donald Trump over his unprecedented bid to fire her. Cook is legally challenging the US president after he sought to remove her, citing unconfirmed allegations of mortgage fraud, amid an extraordinary campaign by his administration to strengthen its control over the US central bank. Trump said on Tuesday Israel’s decision to strike Qatar was made by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and not by the Republican leader who added that a unilateral attack on Qatar does not serve American or Israeli interests. Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of Hamas with an airstrike in Qatar on Tuesday, escalating its military action in the Middle East. Trump had dinner Tuesday night at a seafood restaurant near the White House, promoting his deployment of the National Guard and federalizing the police force in an effort to crack down on crime in the nation’s capital. His motorcade made the short distance to Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab on 15th Street in the northwestern quadrant of the city following weeks of the president boasting about mobilizing federal authorities and the military that he says have made Washington “a safe zone.” Poland shot down drones that entered its airspace on Wednesday, the first time a member of Nato is known to have fired shots during Russia’s war in Ukraine. South Carolina GOP representative Joe Wilson posted on X: “This is an act of war, and we are grateful to NATO allies for their swift response to war criminal Putin’s continued unprovoked aggression against free and productive nations.” The justice department on Tuesday charged a man accused of fatally stabbing a Ukrainian refugee on a North Carolina commuter train last month with a federal crime that could carry the death penalty. The Trump administration says the killing shows how local leaders, judges and policies in Democratic-led cities are failing to protect their residents from violent crime. The US supreme court on Tuesday temporarily halted a lower court’s order that the Trump administration spend nearly $5bn in congressionally appropriated foreign aid money that it is seeking to cancel. The order from the conservative chief justice, John Roberts, comes amid legal wrangling over Donald Trump’s moves to aggressively downsize US support of global development and emergency response, which has resulted in the dismantling of USAID. Continue reading...