Trump-endorsed candidate facing a long-shot challenge from car designer and YouTube provocateur Casey Putsch

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Former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is hoping to lock in his position as candidate in the race to become Ohio governor.

Donald Trump has threatened that Iran will be “blown off the face of the earth” if it attacks US vessels trying to reopen a route through the strait of Hormuz. The US launched an operation to help hundreds of ships trapped with their crews in the Gulf, dragging the region back to the brink of full-scale war. While the US military claimed to have destroyed six Iranian small boats and intercepted both Iranian cruise missiles and drones, this was denied by Iran. More here.

The Trump administration moved to block a lawsuit Minnesota officials filed almost six years ago alleging oil companies and a petroleum trade group deceived state residents about climate change. The justice department, the administration’s law enforcement arm, filed an action in federal court in Minneapolis arguing that the federal government has the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, not states, and that Minnesota officials are trying to improperly impose their policy preferences on the rest of the country.

The US supreme court went out of its way to help Louisiana Republicans redraw their congressional maps ahead of this year’s midterm elections. The procedural move comes less than a week after the court’s landmark decision striking down Louisiana’s congressional map and gutting section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

The Trump administration is continuing to pressure the United Nations and the international aid sector more broadly to adopt trade-focused policies to benefit US firms – or face the threat of further budget cuts. Donald Trump’s second term has already seen USAID suffer mass layoffs and have its remaining operations folded into the state department, with a ripple effect across the globe that has many experts warning will cost thousands of lives as vital programs are cut. More here.

The Trump administration’s attack on the 87-year-old food aid program that supports tens of millions of low-income Americans escalated last week as the agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, claimed that 14,000 Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (Snap) recipients included owners of luxury vehicles such as Ferraris, Bentleys and Teslas. More here.

BEV sales jumped nearly 60% in April, taking total electric car registrations to more than 2m, says SMMT

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A recent jump in electric car sales in the UK is likely to be “tempered” by worries over rising inflation and energy prices caused by the Iran war, a leading industry body has warned.

New car sales in the UK rose by 24% year on year to 149,247 in April, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

The meeting will take place after Donald Trump carried out an unprecedented broadside against the pontiff

US secretary of state Marco Rubio expects a “frank” meeting with Pope Leo during a visit to the Vatican this week, the US ambassador said, after president Donald Trump took a fresh pot-shot at the pope for criticising the US war in Iran.

“Nations have disagreements, and I think one of the ways that you work through those is ... through fraternity and authentic dialogue,” said Brian Burch, the US ambassador to the Holy See, in comments reported by Reuters.

State expected to play major role in deciding whether Republicans maintain control of Congress in his final two years

Voters in Ohio on Tuesday are selecting candidates ahead of November’s midterm elections. The state is expected to play a major role in deciding whether Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans maintain control of Congress for the final two years of his term.

The race with the highest national profile is Ohio’s Senate special election, in which Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, is vying to unseat the Republican incumbent, Jon Husted, and return to the chamber after failing to win re-election in 2024. The winner will serve the final two years of the term JD Vance won in 2022, before he became vice-president last year.