Trump and new Japanese prime minister share praise and vow to strengthen ‘remarkable’ relationship – US politics live

Key events

Show key events only

Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature

Eric Berger

A group of New Yorkers has filed a lawsuit against the state’s board of elections alleging that its congressional map unconstitutionally dilutes the voting power of Black and Latino residents of Staten Island.

The complaint, filed Monday, is another volley in the battle between Democrats and Republicans to redraw congressional districts in a way that favors their party in advance of the midterm elections.

The suit concerns the 11th congressional district, which is represented by Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican, and challenges part of the map approved by the majority Democratic New York legislature less than two years ago.

But in the wake of Donald Trump’s call for Texas and other red states to redraw their maps to help the party pick up more seats in 2026, Democrats have responded by trying to do the same thing in states like California and Maryland.

Democrats in California and New York trying to counter Republican efforts could be hurt by their own efforts to prevent gerrymandering, said Michael Kang, a law professor at Northwestern University and an expert on redistricting.

“The Democrats are trying to respond, but they have much greater obstacles – legal obstacles – in their way in places like California and New York, where they have engaged in this kind of good government redistricting reform and put hurdles in the way of being able to partisan gerrymander and do so on a mid-decade basis,” Kang said.

In New York, the lawsuit was filed by Elias Law Group, which has also worked with Democrats on court cases concerning redistricting and congressional maps in Texas, Nevada and Wisconsin.

Ramon Antonio Vargas

Mario Guevara has said he may have been “the first” immigrant journalist whom Donald Trump’s administration deported from the US while working – but the Emmy award-winner added: “I don’t think [I’ll] be the only one.”

“Just be careful because [immigration agents are] very aggressive,” Guevara recently said from El Salvador in a virtual interview with the US Freedom of the Press Tracker, during which he was asked whether he had any message for other immigrant colleagues in the industry. “They showed they are – they don’t care about journalists. They don’t believe in the media.”

He continued: “They believe the media [are] against them. They see the media as an enemy … They have the power. They can do everything they want. It can be dangerous for us.”

Guevara delivered that chilling admonition amid what appeared to be the Salvadorian’s most extensive public remarks yet on his case, which culminated in his deportation from the US on 3 October as the federal immigration crackdown pursued by Trump throughout his second presidency barreled on.

On Sunday, three days after Guevara’s Tracker interview, the British journalist Sami Hamdi was detained by federal immigration authorities at San Francisco international airport.

A Trump administration official said Hamdi faced deportation after his detention and visa revocation – a plight which the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair) alleged was retaliation for the Muslim political commentator’s having criticized Israel while touring the US.

“We are journalists – we try to be objective, but sometimes we have to report what is going on,” Guevara told the Tracker’s Briana Erickson. “They can think we are against them even if it’s not true.

“You can have retaliation for that. That was my case. Probably I was the first one – but I don’t think [I’ll] be the only one.”

The Trump administration on Monday asked the supreme court to allow it to fire the director of the US Copyright Office.

The administration’s newest emergency appeal to the high court was filed a month and a half after a federal appeals court in Washington held that the official, Shira Perlmutter, could not be unilaterally fired.

Nearly four weeks ago, the full District of Columbia circuit court of appeals refused to reconsider that ruling.

The case is the latest that relates to Donald Trump’s authority to install his own people at the head of federal agencies. The supreme court has largely allowed Trump to fire officials, even as court challenges proceed.

But this case concerns an office that is within the Library of Congress. Perlmutter is the register of copyrights and also advises Congress on copyright issues.

Solicitor general D John Sauer wrote in his filing on Monday that despite the ties to Congress, the register “wields executive power” in regulating copyrights.

Trump lauds Japan's 'great' female leader on visit to Asia

Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.

We start with news that president Donald Trump lavished praise on Japan’s first female leader Sanae Takaichi in Tokyo on Tuesday, welcoming her pledge to accelerate a military buildup and signing deals on trade and rare earths.

Takaichi, a protegee of Trump’s late friend and golfing buddy Japanese leader Shinzo Abe, applauded Trump’s push to resolve global conflicts, vowing to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize, according to Trump’s spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt.

Both governments released a list of projects in the areas of energy, artificial intelligence and critical minerals in which Japanese companies are eyeing investments of up to $400 billion in the US, Reuters reported.

Tokyo pledged to provide $550 billion of strategic US investments, loans and guarantees earlier this year as part of a deal to win a reprieve from Trump’s punishing import tariffs.

Those gestures may temper any Trump demands for Tokyo to spend more towards its security in the face of an increasingly assertive China, calls that Takaichi sought to head off by promising to fast-track plans to increase defence spending to 2% of GDP.

“Everything I know from Shinzo and others, you will be one of the great prime ministers,” Trump told Takaichi as they sat down to discussions, accompanied by their delegations, at Tokyo’s Akasaka Palace.

“I’d also like to congratulate you on being the first woman prime minister. It’s a big deal,” Trump added.

In other developments:

• Trump left the door open to a third term, a constitutional impossibility, saying he “would love” to do it but wouldn’t use a vice presidential loophole, which he called “too cute.” “Am I not ruling it out? I mean you’ll have to tell me,” he said in a gaggle on Monday.

• Michigan congresswoman Rashida Tlaib responded to Trump’s refusal to rule out a third term: “No way in hell we’re going to let that happen.”

• In other 2028 news, Gavin Newsom, California’s Democratic governor, told CBS News Sunday Morning he plans to make a decision on whether to run for president in 2028 once the 2026 midterm elections are over.

• The head of America’s largest federal workers union says it is time to end the government shutdown, now the second-longest in US history, as hundreds of thousands of employees miss another round of paychecks.

• Republican speaker of the House Mike Johnson blasted the chamber’s Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries for his endorsement of Zohran Mamdani in the New York City mayor’s race.

• And speaking of that shutdown, Johnson was asked whether he would call lawmakers back to Washington. He said he was “evaluating this day by day”.

• Indiana governor Mike Braun announced that he is calling a special session to consider redrawing congressional districts in the state, the latest state to work on its maps ahead of 2026.

• As Republican states launch more redistricting efforts, Democrats in blue states are still deciding how or if they will respond. House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries is said to be headed to Illinois today, while in Virginia, the Democratic House speaker called a special session focused on redistricting.