New Hampshire and Rhode Island electorate to vote in state primaries
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
New Hampshire and Rhode Island primary voters will choose candidates across a full slate of federal, state and local offices over the next two days.
In New Hampshire, US senator Jeanne Shaheen’s decision to not seek reelection created a cascade of competitive races, AP reported. Two of the eight Republicans hoping to replace the three-term Democrat are former US senators she previously defeated: John E. Sununu and Scott Brown.
The five-way race for the Democratic nomination includes US representative Chris Pappas, whose departure from his 1st congressional district seat in turn attracted a crowd of candidates.
Shaheen’s daughter, Stefany Shaheen, is among those seeking the Democratic nomination for Pappas’ seat, along with former candidate Maura Sullivan. Several other candidates in top races also are making repeat appearances.
Meanwhile, in Rhode Island, governor Dan McKee faces a tough Democratic primary challenge tomorrow in his bid for a second full term. Voters will also choose nominees for a full slate of federal, state and local offices.
McKee was elected governor by a wide margin in 2022 after first assuming the role in March 2021 when then-governor Gina Raimondo stepped down to become US commerce secretary. He now is at risk of becoming the nation’s first elected governor since 2014 to lose renomination and the first in Rhode Island since 1994.
His challenger is Helena Buonanno Foulkes, a former longtime executive with Rhode Island-based CVS. She placed a close second behind McKee in the five-way 2022 Democratic primary. She is the niece of former Democratic senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut.
In other developments:
President Donald Trump said on Monday that Canadian private jet maker Bombardier would no longer be allowed to sell its planes in the United States unless it started manufacturing in the country. “NO MORE SELLING BOMBARDIER IN THE UNITED STATES! Their products aren’t good enough!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “If they want our Market, they must build here, and stop treating America like a ’piggybank’.”
New York mayor Zohran Mamdani is set to come face-to-face with Rudy Giuliani at the main September 11 memorial service, just days after the former mayor – who led the city at the time of the 2001 terrorist attacks – disparaged his Muslim religion and said he should skip the ceremony. In an interview with right-leaning Newsmax at the weekend, Giuliani said: “Having lost friends there and being very close to many of the families, it offends me that he’s coming.”
A cluster of advocacy groups that boast veteran lawyers, voting experts and ex-judges have expanded legal challenges to Donald Trump’s authoritarian executive orders on voting and other presidential actions they see as a “war” on the rule of law in the US. Heavy legal opposition to Trump’s two executive orders on elections to curb voting rights and supplant the authority of states on election matters has come from the Democracy Defenders Fund, the Campaign Legal Center, the American Civil Liberties Union and kindred groups.
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently released a report linking “gender ideology” to leftwing authoritarianism and political violence – a study scientists say was poorly conducted and “nakedly political”, likely leading to greater politicization of science and health. It follows attempts by the administration to limit access to gender-affirming care – including, on Friday, an agreement reached between the Department of Justice and a New York hospital to no longer offer pediatric gender-affirming care.
Key events
The Trump administration is seeking greater US access to Venezuela’s minerals, including gold, as it expands its push to gain control and influence over the South American country’s vast natural resources beyond oil, according to three sources familiar with the discussions.
The effort could open the Venezuelan mining sector to US investment and give U.S. companies access to not only oil, but supplies of minerals crucial for national security, the sources said on condition of anonymity.
It also would expand president Donald Trump’s push to more closely align Venezuela’s resources with Washington’s strategic and economic interests in the wake of the US military’s ouster of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in a raid in January.
Edward Helmore
New York mayor Zohran Mamdani is set to come face-to-face with Rudy Giuliani at the main September 11 memorial service, just days after the former mayor – who led the city at the time of the 2001 terrorist attacks – disparaged his Muslim religion and said he should skip the ceremony.
In an interview with right-leaning Newsmax at the weekend, Giuliani said: “Having lost friends there and being very close to many of the families, it offends me that he’s coming.”
Mamdani confirmed on Monday, while attending a breakfast celebrating New York’s J’ouvert and West Indian Day Parade celebrations in Brooklyn, that he would attend the main ceremony and multiple 9/11 events on Friday, to stand with the families of those who died and first responders – as he did last year before taking office.
“I’m proud to be the mayor of this city. I love this city. I love this country,” he said. “What I want this week to be a focus on is on the families whose loved ones were stolen from them 25 years ago in the horrific act of terror of September 11, and a focus also on the first responders who did everything they could.”
The mayor and his office have declined to respond to Giuliani’s remarks.
Giuliani, the former mayor and a close ally of Donald Trump, has said he will also attend this year’s ceremony to mark the attacks by terrorists representing al-Qaida, who flew hijacked passenger planes into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan on September 11 2001.
Reflecting pools with waterfalls constructed on the footprints of the towers and a 9/11 museum now mark the site that was dubbed Ground Zero in the aftermath of the attacks, and where each year the names of the almost 3,000 people who died are read out by survivors and loved ones, in a solemn ceremony attended by national and local leaders.
In the interview with Newsmax, Giuliani was asked if Mamdani should skip the ceremony. “Well, there’s no question he should,” he said.
Iceland summoned the US ambassador on Monday after president Donald Trump posted an image on social media showing the island and other countries covered by the American flag, local broadcaster RUV said.
The map showed the United States, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean covered by the US flag, with the entire landmass labelled ‘United States of America’.
Trump posted the image on his Truth Social platform without explanation.
Iceland’s foreign minister, Thorgerdur Gunnarsdottir, called in Billy Long, the US ambassador to Iceland, who only formally took up the post last month, RUV reported.
“The position was clearly expressed that the post was completely inappropriate,” the foreign ministry told RUV.
ShareTrump says Canada’s Bombardier must build jets in US or lose market access
President Donald Trump said that Canadian private jet maker Bombardier would no longer be allowed to sell its planes in the United States unless it started manufacturing in the country.
“NO MORE SELLING BOMBARDIER IN THE UNITED STATES! Their products aren’t good enough!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
“If they want our Market, they must build here, and stop treating America like a ‘piggybank’,” he said.
Trump made the post as a trade dispute between Washington and Ottawa esclates, part of the near-global tariff wall in his second term that has drawn complaints from many US trading partners. Canada is set to introduce a wave of counter-tariffs against the US on Tuesday.
Bombardier, the Montreal-based rival of US business jet manufacturer Gulfstream Aerospace, has an American workforce of 3,500, and a US footprint of 2,800 suppliers, along with factories and service centers in the country.
The company is now adding its sixth US service center and produces wings for its flagship Global 8000 jet in Texas.
ShareNew Hampshire and Rhode Island electorate to vote in state primaries
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
New Hampshire and Rhode Island primary voters will choose candidates across a full slate of federal, state and local offices over the next two days.
In New Hampshire, US senator Jeanne Shaheen’s decision to not seek reelection created a cascade of competitive races, AP reported. Two of the eight Republicans hoping to replace the three-term Democrat are former US senators she previously defeated: John E. Sununu and Scott Brown.
The five-way race for the Democratic nomination includes US representative Chris Pappas, whose departure from his 1st congressional district seat in turn attracted a crowd of candidates.
Shaheen’s daughter, Stefany Shaheen, is among those seeking the Democratic nomination for Pappas’ seat, along with former candidate Maura Sullivan. Several other candidates in top races also are making repeat appearances.
Meanwhile, in Rhode Island, governor Dan McKee faces a tough Democratic primary challenge tomorrow in his bid for a second full term. Voters will also choose nominees for a full slate of federal, state and local offices.
McKee was elected governor by a wide margin in 2022 after first assuming the role in March 2021 when then-governor Gina Raimondo stepped down to become US commerce secretary. He now is at risk of becoming the nation’s first elected governor since 2014 to lose renomination and the first in Rhode Island since 1994.
His challenger is Helena Buonanno Foulkes, a former longtime executive with Rhode Island-based CVS. She placed a close second behind McKee in the five-way 2022 Democratic primary. She is the niece of former Democratic senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut.
In other developments:
President Donald Trump said on Monday that Canadian private jet maker Bombardier would no longer be allowed to sell its planes in the United States unless it started manufacturing in the country. “NO MORE SELLING BOMBARDIER IN THE UNITED STATES! Their products aren’t good enough!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “If they want our Market, they must build here, and stop treating America like a ’piggybank’.”
New York mayor Zohran Mamdani is set to come face-to-face with Rudy Giuliani at the main September 11 memorial service, just days after the former mayor – who led the city at the time of the 2001 terrorist attacks – disparaged his Muslim religion and said he should skip the ceremony. In an interview with right-leaning Newsmax at the weekend, Giuliani said: “Having lost friends there and being very close to many of the families, it offends me that he’s coming.”
A cluster of advocacy groups that boast veteran lawyers, voting experts and ex-judges have expanded legal challenges to Donald Trump’s authoritarian executive orders on voting and other presidential actions they see as a “war” on the rule of law in the US. Heavy legal opposition to Trump’s two executive orders on elections to curb voting rights and supplant the authority of states on election matters has come from the Democracy Defenders Fund, the Campaign Legal Center, the American Civil Liberties Union and kindred groups.
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently released a report linking “gender ideology” to leftwing authoritarianism and political violence – a study scientists say was poorly conducted and “nakedly political”, likely leading to greater politicization of science and health. It follows attempts by the administration to limit access to gender-affirming care – including, on Friday, an agreement reached between the Department of Justice and a New York hospital to no longer offer pediatric gender-affirming care.