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

Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.

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.

The prime minister said universities will be held to account on tackling antisemitism

Keir Starmer is now a “sitting duck” because a leadership challenge is “inevitable” after the elections this week, a union leader has said.

Steve Wright, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, made the comment in an interview with Simon Fletcher, a former aide to Ken Livingstone, Jeremy Corbyn and (briefly) Starmer, published on Fletcher’s Modern Left Substack blog.

If [the election results are] as bad as all the polls suggest – I’m not a betting, man, but I’m sure they’re not going to be great, are they – I think Starmer should stand down.

I think he should have stood down a couple of months ago and given me, others, Labour activists, people that are proud of the Labour party, an opportunity to try and win round some people. It would have been hard, but I think without him there, we could have probably done something.

For us in the fire service, with our wages and also with the lack of funding and investment in public services, it’s just been austerity mark II.

I’ve no criticism of why people are looking for alternatives. They’re either turning to Reform because they’re providing an alternative narrative – the wrong one, I think – or they’re turning to the Greens as some kind of saviour of working-class people. And I certainly don’t think the Green party or Zack Polanski are the saviours of that.

And today we’re mandating an independent audit of how allegations are handled. This will be a hard-edged review of where systems are failing and where they need to be strengthened.

We will not and cannot accept complacency, delays or weak enforcement.

The launch of ‘Project Freedom’ in the strait of Hormuz has brought the region back to the brink of full-scale war. Plus: The electoral battle for Congress

Good morning.

Donald Trump has again raised the stakes in the Gulf region with the Monday launch of “Project Freedom” to open a route through the strait of Hormuz. More than 800 ships and roughly 20,000 crew members remain stranded in the region.

Have any vessels made it out of the strait? US Central Command (Centcom) said two US-flagged merchant vessels had “successfully transited” the strait, but Iran has denied this claim. Late on Monday, the container shipping company Maersk said the Alliance Fairfax – a US-flagged vehicle carrier – exited the Gulf. Shipping industry experts remain skeptical about whether vessels will be able to travel safely to and from the Gulf under Trump’s plan.

This is a developing story. Follow the liveblog here.

How will this play into the overall battle for Congress? Red states, including Alabama and Tennessee, are rushing to revise their congressional maps after the original supreme court decision. On Monday, Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, signed a gerrymandered congressional district map into law that gives Republicans an electoral advantage in four additional races in November’s midterm elections.

How are Democrats fighting back? Eight candidates have been added to their slate of top contenders vying to reclaim a Democratic House majority in November’s midterm elections.

When do voters head to the polls? Ohio voters will today select candidates before November’s midterm elections, including the candidates for Ohio’s Senate special election. Indiana voters also go to the polls today, with seven Republican state senators battling for re-election against candidates backed by Trump.

London-headquartered bank’s shares slide as it sets aside an extra $300m to cover effects of Middle East conflict

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HSBC has taken a $1.3bn (£961m) hit to profits, fuelled by the fallout from the US-Israel war on Iran and fraud in the troubled private credit sector.

The London-headquartered bank said profits fell 4% in the first three months of the year, dropping $100m to $9.4bn, compared with the same period in 2025. Revenue increased 6% to $18.6bn.

Iranian speaker says ‘new equation of the strait of Hormuz is in the process of being solidified’

• Donald Trump sends warships to break Iran’s strait of Hormuz blockade

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, is travelling to Beijing later today for talks with his Chinese counterpart “on bilateral relations and regional and international developments”, his ministry said on its Telegram account.

While Beijing condemned the initial US and Israeli strikes on Iran which started the war in late February, China has largely adopted a posture of neutrality ever since and has urged for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict.

In sobering comments, the RBA governor forecasts economic malaise due to the global fuel shock. Not recession but higher prices, lower growth and wages that don’t keep pace with inflation

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As far as rallying cries go, Michele Bullock’s “we are poorer, and there is no way out of that” leaves a lot to be desired.

It’s not going to win you any applause, particularly when you’re the governor of a central bank that has just announced a third rate hike.

Seven Republican state senators battle for re-election against candidates backed by Donald Trump

Indiana voters go to the polls today in a test of the Republican party’s staying power after the party’s state lawmakers resisted Donald Trump’s bruising campaign to pressure them into redrawing the congressional districts.

The vote has turned into a statewide referendum on political retribution.

Minor damage to gates is believed to have been caused by fire that CCTV shows was started deliberately, Met says

Counter-terrorism officers are investigating a suspected arson attack at a former synagogue in east London, the Metropolitan police have said.

The Jewish security charity Shomrim said fire crews were called out to the building in Nelson Street, Whitechapel, in the early hours of Tuesday.

Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison agrees to sell 49% stake as it attempts to reshape its portfolio

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Vodafone is to take full control of the UK’s biggest mobile operator in a £4.3bn buyout deal with the Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison.

The billionaire Li Ka-shing’s business said it had agreed to sell its 49% stake in VodafoneThree – a network with more than 27 million subscribers – to its partner Vodafone.