Joe Biden has said Donald Trump has diminished America's standing in the world 'more than any president in history'. The former president delivered remarks highly critical of his successor while giving the keynote address at a gala in Hanover, Maryland, hosted by the state's Democratic party, which is hoping to help wrest control of Congress away from Trump and his Republican allies during November's midterm elections.
Biden Calls Trump 'a Loser'
Calling Trump 'a loser', Biden portrayed him as incompetent, corrupt and vain. Biden's 10-minute discourse touched on Trump's demolition of the White House's East Wing to make space for a ballroom, the court-ordered removal of his name after he added it to the facade of the John Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, his plans for a triumphal arch, and the algae bloom that undermined his $14.7m renovation of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool.
Biden also criticized Trump's relationship with Vladimir Putin and accused Trump of 'deliberate distortion and destruction' of the Nato military alliance.
Escalating US-Iran Strikes
A new round of escalating strikes between Iran and the US has continued, further undermining the fragile interim peace agreement between the two countries, and prompting Trump to threaten violence that would ensure Iran 'will no longer exist'. On Sunday, Tehran launched drone and missile attacks against Bahrain and Kuwait after new US strikes on sites in southern Iran, and threatened a 'complete halt' to negotiations to end the war. Trump said that a moment might come soon when he abandoned talks and the US would 'militarily finish the job'. The US president posted on social media: 'If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist!'
Homeland Security Secretary on Migrants
Migrants in the US on temporary protected status should seek permanent residence or leave, Markwayne Mullin, the Homeland Security secretary, said in the wake of last week's supreme court decision that stripped humanitarian protections from hundreds of thousands of immigrants.
Redesign of Government Websites Stirs Surveillance Fears
An opaque White House office staffed largely by veterans of Elon Musk's 'department of government efficiency' (Doge) has quietly rebuilt some of the federal government's most sensitive websites – for passport applications, voter registration, prescription-drug pricing and children's savings – in ways critics say appear to violate federal law.
Bill Cassidy Accuses Trump of Treating Congress as 'Merely an Appendage'
Bill Cassidy, the Republican senator from Louisiana who is being ousted from his position after Trump successfully backed a challenger in May's primary, has accused the US president of treating Congress as 'merely an appendage' in his handling of the Iran war.
Other Developments
Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor, said on Sunday that he and a slew of democratic socialist allies who prevailed in recent primary elections are carrying a 'national message' to struggling working Americans hungry for a new kind of politics 'coast to coast'. Three firefighters were killed and two others were hurt while responding to wildfires along the Colorado-Utah border, officials announced on Sunday.
