Iowa, Montana, New Jersey, South Dakota<\/a> and New Mexico also hold elections on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Focussing on California, the state\u2019s governor primary pits all candidates against each other, regardless of party, with the top two advancing to November\u2019s general election to replace the term-limited Gavin Newsom, AFP reports.<\/p>\n More than 60 names appear on the lengthy ballot papers that have been mailed out to all registered voters in the heavily Democratic state of 40 million people. The latest polls show a three-way split, with former president Joe Biden\u2019s health secretary Xavier Becerra in the lead.<\/p>\n In the battle for second place and the chance to take on Becerra in November are Democrat Tom Steyer and Trump-backed Republican Steve Hilton.<\/p>\n Incumbent Newsom is believed to have his eyes on the White House in 2028, following in the footsteps of Ronald Reagan, who occupied the governor\u2019s mansion from 1967 to 1975.<\/p>\n It comes as voters in Los Angeles will also vote in the city\u2019s mayoral primary.<\/p>\n Incumbent Karen Bass, who is making her case for a second term, facing a challenge from the left by her former ally on the city council Nithya Raman \u2013 and another from the right by reality TV star Spencer Pratt.<\/p>\n If anyone secures 50% of the votes on Tuesday, they win outright, while anything less means the top two candidates go through to the 3 November general election.<\/p>\n In other developments:<\/p>\n Democrats in the US Senate vowed to force Republicans<\/a> to vote on a $1.8bn \u201cMaga slush fund\u201d established as part of a resolution of Trump\u2019s long-shot lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service. The US president has described the secretive and loosely controlled \u201canti-weaponization fund\u201d as a means of paying the victims of politicized prosecutions.<\/p>\n Tina Peters, the former clerk convicted of participating in a scheme to chase election conspiracy theories promulgated by Donald Trump, was released from prison on Monday after the president successfully pressured Colorado\u2019s Democratic governor into commuting her sentence.<\/p>\n On Monday afternoon, over an hour south of Newark, a few dozen protesters outside the New Jersey state legislature in Trenton condemned Democratic governor Mikie Sherrill\u2019s decision to send in the state police to Delaney Hall, the Newark immigration detention center that has seen more than a week of chaotic and often violent clashes.<\/p>\n Transgender troops can remain in the US military, but the armed services can continue to block their enlistment, an appeals court ruled on Monday in a split decision with potentially significant consequences for the Trump administration\u2019s anti-diversity agenda.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a009.09 EDT<\/p>\n Key events<\/p>\n In a post on Truth Social, Donald Trump<\/a> makes a final push for Republican Steve Hilton, who is in a three-way race for California governor against two Democrats, Xavier Becerra and Tom Steyer.<\/p>\n He wrote:<\/p>\n CALIFORNIA: Vote today for Steve Hilton for Governor. He will work with me and the Federal Government, the money will flow because I have confidence in him (but not any of the others!), and we will MAKE CALIFORNIA GREAT AGAIN. Steve Hilton will NEVER let you down. VOTE NOW!<\/p>\n Share<\/a> While all eyes will be on California\u2019s governor race, there are several other high-stakes races in the state including one that encapsulates Democrats\u2019 ideological struggles.<\/p>\n When Jasmeet Bains first announced she was running for Congress<\/a>, some Democratic powerbrokers saw her candidacy as downright providential in their quest to flip a crucial House seat that had been in Republican hands for years.<\/p>\n The seat has only grown in importance now that California<\/a> has redrawn its congressional district boundaries in response to a wave of Republican gerrymandering in Texas, making it easier for Democrats to pick up as many as five extra House seats in the state. Instead of laying out a glide path to victory, however, the Democrats have become mired in a singularly nasty fight over their identity as a party, with Bains thrust squarely into the middle of it.<\/p>\n What Bains\u2019s excited backers overlooked \u2013 or chose to ignore \u2013 was that a promising Democrat was already campaigning for the seat, and building his own cadre of enthusiastic backers. Randy Villegas, a 31-year-old community college professor and second-generation Mexican immigrant, had been crisscrossing the district laying out his theory of the race in an area that is 75% Latino and has a median voter age of just 30. Bains, he argued, did not represent any kind of solution because he saw her as a big part of the problem.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>California elections: governor, LA mayor and Congress at stake Californians are frustrated and underwhelmed as they head to the polls to cast their ballots in Tuesday\u2019s primary election, where voters will eliminate all but two candidates in the volatile race for governor, the messy battle for Los Angeles<\/a> mayor and a series of high-stakes congressional contests.<\/p>\n In the marquee race to succeed term-limited Democratic governor Gavin Newsom<\/a> a trio of new surveys shows Democrat Xavier Becerra pulling slightly ahead as progressive Tom Steyer and Republican Steve Hilton scrap for the second-place spot to advance in the state\u2019s nonpartisan primary.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, voters in Los Angeles remain divided over whether to stand by embattled mayor Karen Bass<\/a> or to elevate her challengers.<\/p>\n At the federal level, voters will set the stage for a November showdown in the state\u2019s newly redrawn congressional districts, choosing their candidates for November in a series of House races that are poised to play an outsized and potentially decisive role in the fight for power in Washington.<\/p>\n Under California\u2019s quirky nonpartisan primary system, all candidates regardless of party appear on the same ballot and only the top two vote-getters advance to November.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a008.12 EDT<\/p>\n The Egyptians had their pyramids. The Anglo-Saxons had their barrows. And the Americans have their presidential libraries \u2013 the chief difference being that the leaders the US venerates are usually still alive at the opening.<\/p>\n Lacking a royal family or a state religion, the US presidency has swelled to fill the void, transforming over the decades into a national personality cult, complete with its own secular temples to these powerful men. The latest pharaonic edifice is about to open on Chicago\u2019s south side, where it looms on the skyline as a towering totem to the 44th president, Barack Obama<\/a>. He might have seemed humble in office, but in his post-presidential, Netflix-producing afterlife, Obama has erected the largest, costliest and most audacious complex of them all. Behold the $850m Obamalisk \u2013 or, as it sometimes feels morbidly like, the Obamausoleum.<\/p>\n Previous presidential libraries have taken many forms, reflecting the values of their creators. Franklin D Roosevelt began the tradition in 1940, building a library in Dutch colonial style<\/a> alongside his grave in upstate New York, which he hoped would be swarmed with \u201can appalling number of sightseers\u201d. Since then, every president has followed suit in their quest for immortality, dreaming up ever larger museums and archives, conceived as hallowed places of pilgrimage. Lyndon B Johnson commissioned a brutalist hulk for Austin, Texas<\/a>, a fitting symbol, its architect Gordon Bunshaft remarked, for \u201can aggressive \u2026 big man\u201d. Ronald Reagan opted for a sprawling California hacienda<\/a>, with a dedicated hangar for Air Force One, while Bill Clinton conjured a cantilevered metallic box in Arkansas<\/a> \u2013 a literal interpretation of his promise to \u201cbuild a bridge to the 21st century\u201d.<\/p>\n So, how to symbolise hope, justice, equality and all the other bygone values that Obama championed in his meteoric ascent to the White House? How to commemorate the first Black president in history, in whom so much transformational faith was vested, at a time when so many of his achievements are being relentlessly rolled back?<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Rubio to be grilled by lawmakers in first Capitol Hill appearances since Iran war began<\/p>\n Secretary of state Marco Rubio is set to face a litany of questions Tuesday about the Trump administration\u2019s fragile or stalling diplomatic efforts around the world when he appears for back-to-back hearings on Capitol Hill for the first time since the Iran war began.<\/p>\n The Republican former senator will sit before House and Senate committees to make the State Department\u2019s annual budget request, AP reported.<\/p>\n But the focus is likely to shift quickly to the already unsteady ceasefire between Washington and Tehran, which has been further tested in recent days by back-and-forth attacks.<\/p>\n Cabinet members, including Rubio, have defended president Donald Trump\u2019s decision to launch the conflict despite promises over the years not to engage in \u201cforever wars\u201d in the Middle East.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a008.13 EDT<\/p>\n Aipac affiliate funded lavish trips to Israel for dozens of US lawmakers since 7 October Dozens of members of Congress<\/a> and Capitol Hill staffers have enjoyed lavish gifted travel to Israel<\/a> funded by an Aipac affiliate since 7 October 2023, amid Israel\u2019s expanding wars on its neighbors and despite plummeting levels of support among Americans for the country\u2019s policies, a Guardian analysis has found.<\/p>\n Congressional ethics filings and other public records show the trips, led by the American Israel Education Foundation (AIEF), revolved around one-sided briefings on Middle East politics and Israeli domestic and foreign policy. Lawmakers and their staffers from both parties met Israeli officials, military contractors and civil society figures, including Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> and advocates for the annexation of the West Bank and the displacement of Palestinians from Jerusalem.<\/p>\n The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac<\/a>) and other pro-Israel groups have sponsored such trips for years, and both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have joined. But the continued participation of Democratic lawmakers and their staff on recent trips is particularly noteworthy given how much sympathy<\/a> for Israel has ebbed among Democratic voters, and the pains that some Democratic politicians have recently taken to distance themselves from the lobby group.<\/p>\n A recent poll found that eight in 10 Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents have an unfavorable<\/a> view of Israel, along with six in 10 Americans broadly.<\/p>\n The congressional ethics filings show that members of Congress and their staffers were hosted at luxurious hotels, dined at top-tier restaurants and received briefings in at least one West Bank settlement. While one of the trips referenced in this story has previously been reported in broad terms, the Guardian is revealing details relating to itineraries, costs and other trips for the first time.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a008.13 EDT<\/p>\n Cecilia Nowell<\/p>\n Journalists may no longer enter the Pentagon\u2019s press office, which has been designated as a classified space amid growing moves to restrict press access to the defense department.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the most transparent war department in history. No amount of spin from the Fake News media will change that,\u201d Jose Valdez, the acting defense department press secretary, said in a social media post. \u201cThe Pentagon Press Office has been redesignated as a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility due to speechwriters from the Office of the Secretary of War sharing the facility.\u201d<\/p>\n Valdez added that, because speechwriters handle classified material, \u201cjournalists will no longer be permitted to enter the office space\u201d. The move was first reported by the Washington Post<\/a>, and later confirmed by Valdez on social media.<\/p>\n The defense department, which the Trump administration prefers to call the war department, began rolling out new restrictions to press access<\/a> in September, when the military demanded journalists pledge not to gather any information \u2013 including unclassified documents \u2013 that had not been authorized for release or else risk revocation of their press passes.<\/p>\n Credentialed journalists have long had broad access to the Pentagon, but after the defense department announced sweeping restrictions to their work in October, many longtime reporters refused to agree<\/a> and began turning over their press passes. That month, the department announced<\/a> a \u201cnext generation of the Pentagon press corps\u201d featuring 60 journalists from far-right outlets. The New York Times sued the Pentagon over those policies, which designated journalists as \u201csecurity risks\u201d, and a federal judge found in the Times\u2019s favor in March<\/a>.<\/p>\n Share<\/a> Donald Trump is reconsidering whether to keep pressing for a $1.8bn fund to compensate his allies, a person familiar with his thinking said on Monday, as the justice department paused the program to comply with a court order.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s \u201canti-weaponization\u201d fund has faced legal setbacks since it was announced two weeks ago. The idea has also faced a mounting political backlash from Republicans<\/a> concerned by a lack of oversight and the possibility of payouts to participants in the January 6 2021 riot at the US Capitol.<\/p>\n Some Republicans<\/a> are pressing the White House to commit to giving up on the fund.<\/p>\n \u201cI do think the best way to handle it is if the administration decides to shut [the fund] down themselves,\u201d Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters.<\/p>\n Democrats<\/a> in the US Senate had vowed to force Republicans<\/a> to vote on what they deride as a $1.8bn \u201cMaga slush fund\u201d established as part of a resolution of Donald Trump\u2019s long-shot lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service.<\/p>\n The US president<\/a> has described the secretive and loosely controlled fund as a means of paying the victims of politicized prosecutions. Members of his own party<\/a> are among those who have expressed alarm.<\/p>\n The terms of the fund do not require the disclosure of how much is paid to whom. Administration officials have said payees could include pardoned January 6 rioters.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Voters cast ballots in several states as California governor primary goes down to the wire<\/p>\n Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.<\/p>\n Californians go to the polls today in the first round of voting for a new governor, with a tight three-way race for two run-off spots.<\/p>\n The golden state will also vote on House districts for the first time since it approved Proposition 50 \u2013 its response to Texas redrawing its congressional lines to create five Republican leaning districts at the behest of Donald Trump<\/a> \u2013 in November last year.<\/p>\n Iowa, Montana, New Jersey, South Dakota<\/a> and New Mexico also hold elections on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Focussing on California, the state\u2019s governor primary pits all candidates against each other, regardless of party, with the top two advancing to November\u2019s general election to replace the term-limited Gavin Newsom, AFP reports.<\/p>\n More than 60 names appear on the lengthy ballot papers that have been mailed out to all registered voters in the heavily Democratic state of 40 million people. The latest polls show a three-way split, with former president Joe Biden\u2019s health secretary Xavier Becerra in the lead.<\/p>\n In the battle for second place and the chance to take on Becerra in November are Democrat Tom Steyer and Trump-backed Republican Steve Hilton.<\/p>\n Incumbent Newsom is believed to have his eyes on the White House in 2028, following in the footsteps of Ronald Reagan, who occupied the governor\u2019s mansion from 1967 to 1975.<\/p>\n Tom Steyer speaks at a rally at Los Angeles Trade Technical College on 31 May 2026. Photograph: Jackson Tammariello\/ZUMA Press Wire\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n It comes as voters in Los Angeles will also vote in the city\u2019s mayoral primary.<\/p>\n Incumbent Karen Bass, who is making her case for a second term, facing a challenge from the left by her former ally on the city council Nithya Raman \u2013 and another from the right by reality TV star Spencer Pratt.<\/p>\n If anyone secures 50% of the votes on Tuesday, they win outright, while anything less means the top two candidates go through to the 3 November general election.<\/p>\n In other developments:<\/p>\n![\"Tom](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4995.jpg\")
Tom Steyer speaks at a rally at Los Angeles Trade Technical College on 31 May 2026. Photograph: Jackson Tammariello\/ZUMA Press Wire\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n![\"Andrew](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/andrewgumbel_140x140.jpg\")
Andrew Gumbel<\/p>\n![\"Lauren](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Lauren_Gambino.png\")
Lauren Gambino<\/p>\n![\"Oliver](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Oliver-Wainwright,-L.png\")
Oliver Wainwright<\/p>\n![\"Jason](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Jason-Wilson,-L.png\")
Jason Wilson<\/p>\n![\"George](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/George-Chidi.jpg\")
George Chidi<\/p>\n