Moderate David Crowley and Democratic socialist Francesca Hong face tight race for Wisconsin governor primary – live

Results in the Wisconsin governor’s race are very close, with David Crowley, the Milwaukee county executive, narrowly leading Democratic socialist Francesca Hong.

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Crowley, endorsed by outgoing governor Tony Evers, made a last-minute full-court press across the state, emphasizing that he believes he is more poised to win statewide and beat Republican Tom Tiffany in the general.

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Polls had shown Hong with a strong lead, but often showed a sizable amount of undecided voters. With many candidates running, some dropping out and then Crowley re-entering the race, the polls likely didn’t accurately capture the race.

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Crowley’s team wrote a memo saying as much in the days leading up to the primary, stating that the polls would likely be off as they were in Michigan, where they showed Abdul El-Sayed with a large lead over Haley Stevens for US Senate. El-Sayed won the race, albeit with a closer margin than polls predicted.

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Voters in South Carolina, Vermont, Alabama , Connecticut, Minnesota and Wisconsin took to the polls today.

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Some results have already become clear:

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  In a special primary in South Carolina following the death of Republican senator Lindsey Graham, Graham’s sister, Darline Graham, and US Representative Ralph Norman advanced to a runoff election later this moth.

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  In Connecticut, incumbent Democratic governor Ned Lamont prevailed against his challenger Josh Elliott.

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  In Wisconsin, Democratic socialist Francesca Hong emerged as a frontrunner in a crowded primary for the Democratic nomination for governor

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  In the Minnesota governor’s race, Peggy Flanagan, the progressive lieutenant governor, is facing US representative Angie Craig on the Democrat side. And Republicans weighed whether to advance pillow salesman and election denier Mike Lindell.

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  As voters took to the polls, the Department of Justice said that officials are monitoring polling sites in Minnesota’s largest counties, Hennepin and Ramsey, throughout the state’s primary elections. Minnesota’s secretary of state said state monitors were observing federal election monitors.

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In other news:

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  There were new reports that Donald Trump left Turkey last month on a secret military flight to Britain amid an Iranian assassination threat. ABC News reporter Michelle Stoddart, who traveled with the president and senior officials from Ankara in July, noted today that before the press corps departed the summit, they were given no additional guidance on the president’s movements or flight plans beyond his publicly posted Truth Social post. More here.

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  The state department revoked more than 175,000 visas of foreign nationals whom officials say have “violated the terms of their visas, committed crimes, called for violence against US citizens”. These include people who allegedly “celebrated” the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, according to officials. The state department noted an instance of online comments that included: “when fascists die, democrats don’t complain” and another who said Kirk “died too late”.

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  ICE plans to spend up to $20m to purchase thousands of gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks for officers and agents by March, according to a notice published Monday by the Department of Homeland Security.The devices, called Glove (Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter), are manufactured by Compliant Technologies LLC of Lexington, Kentucky.

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  Russia has freed a former US marine who had been in jail since 2022, after Vladimir Putin granted the ailing American a pardon on humanitarian grounds. Trump has said the agreement came about after he spoke to Vladimir Putin about releasing Robert Gilman, and confirmed that this was not a prisoner exchange.

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  Supreme court justice Samuel Alito gained up to $2.9m from his fossil fuel interests from 2005 to 2024, a new review of financial disclosures shows.The analysis from the non-profit advocacy group and judicial watchdog Court Accountability, shared exclusively with the Guardian, found Alito gained almost $400,000 from his oil and gas interests.

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Some Alabama voters took to the polls today for the second time this primary season after the state’s Republican-controlled legislature reconfigured four of the seven districts.

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The redrawn district map came after the supreme court dismantled a key section of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and several southern states moved to redistrict and consolidate Republican power.

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In June, the supreme court ruled that Alabama could use a redrawn congressional map that eliminates one of the state’s two majority-Black districts in this year’s midterm elections.

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The new map poses steep challenges for Democratic representative Shomari Figures, who was first elected in 2024 after the creation a new district that included the mostly Black cities of Mobile and Montgomery. But the district no longer includes Mobile, Figures’s hometown.

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State representative Rhett Marques, a Republican and a small-business owner who became part of the the new district, won the primary to challenge Figures in November.

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Klobuchar, a fourth-term US senator, was widely expected to win the primary nomination to succeed governor Tim Walz, who decided not to run for a third term earlier this year.

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The senator, who has also run for president, faced minimal opposition after announcing her run. A moderate Democrat, she holds the third-highest-ranking position in Democratic leadership in the Senate.

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Norman, a hardline conservative who has served in the US House of Representatives since 2017, is projected to advance in the Republican Senate runoff against Darline Graham.

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A wealthy real estate developer and a prominent member of the House Freedom caucus, Norman ran unsuccessfully for South Carolina governor earlier this year. That campaign gave Norman statewide name recognition, boosting his campaign for the Senate, after Lindsey Graham’s death.

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As a reminder, here are the big races we’re watching tonight:

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In Wisconsin, Democratic socialist Francesca Hong emerged as a frontrunner in a crowded primary for the Democratic nomination for governor after current governor Tony Evers decided not to seek a rare third term. Hong’s campaign built a grassroots army, though in recent weeks, national headlines have focused on her past tweets, including ones about defunding police and canceling Thanksgiving, positions she no longer holds.

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Evers endorsed David Crowley, the Milwaukee county executive, who previously left before re-entering the race and centering his bid on being more electable in a swing state. Kelda Roys, a state senator, and Joel Brennan, a former head of the state administration department, round out the field.

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In Minnesota, both sides of the aisle have big primaries. In the Democratic race for an open US Senate seat, Peggy Flanagan, the progressive lieutenant governor, faces US representative Angie Craig, a moderate. Flanagan has hit Craig on immigration enforcement, a major factor for voters in a state ravaged by federal agents. Michele Tafoya, a former NFL broadcaster, is favored to win the Republican nod for the seat.

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And Republicans in Minnesota will decide whether to follow Trump’s endorsement and vote for pillow salesman and election denier Mike Lindell in the governor’s race. He is running against House speaker Lisa Demuth and businessman Kendall Qualls.

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Amy Klobuchar, the US senator, is the likely winner for Democrats for the governor’s race.

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As we watch for election results tonight, we’re also following news that a federal judge blocked the US Postal Service (USPS) from implementing part of Donald Trump’s executive order on mail-in voting before the November midterm elections.

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The president’s order had enabled the USPS to refuse to deliver ballots to states that did not comply with directives to turn over their voter rolls to federal officials.

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​US district ‌judge Indira ‌Talwani in Boston expanded on an ‌earlier order from June that had prevented the administration from implementing restrictions in 23 mostly Democratic-led states.

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Voting rights groups, joined by 23 states and the District of Columbia, sued the administration to stop the executive order, arguing that the US constitution does not authorize the president to issue orders governing the administration of elections.

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Incumbent governor Lamont, 72, will face Ryan Fazio, 36, a Republican state senator in the November general election.

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The governor, who is favored to win re-election in a reliably blue state, will become one of the longest-serving governors in Connecticut history.

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Darline Graham has advanced to a runoff in South Carolina’s special Republican primary to replace her late brother, Lindsey Graham, in the Senate one month after his sudden death.

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She did not win the primary outright, but the race is too close to call for her opponent in the runoff to be held on 25 August.

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Those in the running still include Representative Russell Fry, Representative Ralph Norman, former governor Mark Sanford and Mark Lynch, a businessman.

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The winner of the Republican runoff will face Annie Andrews, the Democratic nominee and a pediatrician, in the November general election.

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In Alabama, voters are participating in a second primary this year after the state’s Republican-controlled state legislature reconfigured four of the state’s seven districts after the supreme court dismantled a key section of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

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In Connecticut, Democratic governor Ned Lamont is seeking a third term, but is facing a challenge from Josh Elliott, the deputy speaker of the state house, who has said Lamont has been ineffective at raising taxes on the rich.

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In South Carolina, all eyes are on the special Republican Senate primary to determine who will succeed the late senator Lindsey Graham.

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Darline Graham, who was appointed as the replacement to serve the remainder of her brother’s term, is running in the contest with the backing of Donald Trump.

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If no candidate wins an overall majority of votes, the top two will advance to a runoff on 25 August. Polling suggests that this is the most likely outcome.

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In the race to replace the late US senator Lindsey Graham, 10 candidates have been barnstorming South Carolina diners, church halls and recreation centers, compressing a normal year of campaigning into about a fortnight.

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The Republican party is staging a special primary election in the state on Tuesday to choose Graham’s replacement. His sister, Darline, who has been serving as interim senator following his sudden death last month, is on the ballot.

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If no candidate wins an overall majority of votes, the top two will advance to a runoff on 25 August. Polling suggests that this is the most likely outcome.

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“You know, South Carolina politics is very local,” said Eaddy Roe Willard, a longtime Republican activist in South Carolina’s Richland county. “Something one of our former chairmen used to say about presidential candidates: we don’t decide whether or not we’re going to vote for you until we’ve had a chance to shake your hand at least three times.”

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On Friday, Russell Fry, a Republican representative, pressed the flesh at Savage Craft Ale Works in West Columbia. On Monday morning, Darline Graham shook hands at Lizard’s Thicket breakfast restaurant, 2 miles away. Mark Sanford, the former South Carolina governor, and the US representative Ralph Norman were also just a few miles down the road in Aiken on Friday, Willard said.

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After Lindsey Graham’s death on 11 July, Henry McMaster, South Carolina’s governor, appointed Darline Graham to fill the vacancy in the US Senate.

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Lindsey Graham had already won the Republican primary election for his seat, so the Republican party must hold a special election to replace him on the ballot in November’s general election. The timeline is brutal by American political standards, holding an election within a few weeks of the vacancy.

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The winner will face Annie Andrews, the Democratic nominee and a pediatrician, in the November general election.

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Minnesota secretary of state Steve Simon provided more insight into federal election monitors in the state during a press conference on Monday, saying that state monitors will observe the federal monitors.

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Simon said that both Hennepin and Ramsey counties, where Minneapolis and St Paul are located respectively, declined to allow the observers into polling sites, as is their right under state law. The justice department affirmed it would abide by this refusal and will have a “small number” of observers stationed outside a 100ft boundary at some polling sites. Any member of the public can be outside the 100ft boundary, he noted.

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Sending federal election monitors is a normal process, he added, and it has occurred without incident in other states, including Michigan, recently. These monitors have a narrow purpose, to ensure provisions of the Voting Rights Act are being followed, he said. They can ask voters specific questions about these provisions, and voters can decline to answer if they so choose. Still, he said, his office and the Minnesota attorney general’s office will be observing the federal monitors.

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“I think that’s a reasonable thing to do, given the record of the last several months and the very real concerns and even anxieties that people have about the justice department in particular, and about the federal government in general when it comes to activity near a polling place or in communities,” Simon said.

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He said the federal government has been transparent with his office about where the federal observers intend to go in the state, and he has “every reason to believe that this will go smoothly”.

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In the year since the Donald Trump sent a wave of federal law enforcement to Washington DC – including the deployment of the national guard and the administration’s temporary takeover of the DC police department – officials have touted a reduction in crime.

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The newly confirmed attorney general, Todd Blanche, claimed on social media that “in just one year” the capital “is safer than it has been in years”.

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However, data from the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) tells a different story.

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While certain types of crime, like homicide, have decreased since this time last year, others are actually significantly higher. There has been a 40% increase in assault with a dangerous weapon in 2026. Overall, total violent crime in Washington DC is up by 3% compared to the same point in 2025.

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The Trump administration claims regularly that the federal takeover has led to record-breaking dips in crime, but the drop in violent crime between 2025 and 2024 – when Joe Biden left office – was 29%.

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There was also a consistent 32% decrease in the number of homicides in DC year-on-year, between 2023 and 2025.

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  The Department of Justice said that officials are monitoring polling sites in Hennepin and Ramsey county – Minnesota’s largest – throughout the state’s primary elections on Tuesday. In a press release, the justice department said that it has deployed approximately 20 staff from the Civil Rights Division’s Voting Section and Minnesota’s US attorney’s office to continue “its nationwide effort to ensure free and fair elections”.

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  We’ll bring you the latest from the various primaries across the country, with a close eye on the Democratic competition in the Wisconsin governor’s race. There are also marquee races in Minnesota, where voters will pick the Democratic and Republican nominee in the gubernatorial race, and the closely watched Democratic primary in the Senate race between Peggy Flanagan, the state lieutenant governor and a progressive, and Angie Craig, a US congresswoman. Meanwhile, in South Carolina a special primary to replace the late Senator Lindsey Graham as the Republican nominee in the Senate race will see his sister, Darline Graham, who has received Trump’s endorsement, face nine other contenders.

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  We’re also chasing new reports that Donald Trump left Turkey last month on a secret military flight to Britain amid an Iranian assassination threat. ABC News reporter Michelle Stoddart, who traveled with the president and senior officials from Ankara in July, noted today that before the press corps departed the summit, they were given no additional guidance on the president’s movements or flight plans beyond his publicly posted Truth Social post. More here

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  The state department has revoked more than 175,000 visas of foreign nationals who officials say have “violated the terms of their visas, committed crimes, called for violence against US citizens”. These include people who allegedly “celebrated” the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, according to officials. The state department noted an instance of online comments which included: “when fascists die, democrats don’t complain” and another who said Kirk “died too late”.

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  Russia has freed a former US marine who had been in jail since 2022, after Vladimir Putin granted the ailing American a pardon on humanitarian grounds. Trump has said the agreement came about after he spoke to Vladimir Putin about releasing Robert Gilman, and confirmed that this was not a prisoner exchange.

n

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The Department of Justice said that officials are monitoring polling sites in Hennepin and Ramsey counties – Minnesota’s largest – throughout the state’s primary elections on Tuesday.

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In a press release, the justice department said that it had deployed approximately 20 staff members from the civil rights division’s voting section and Minnesota’s US attorney’s office to continue “its nationwide effort to ensure free and fair elections”.

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Minnesota has long been a target of the Trump administration since the president returned to the White House last year.

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The North Star state was the site of a deadly immigration crackdown that killed two US citizens earlier this year, and the administration has paused more than $500m in Medicaid payments to Minnesota to clamp down on alleged fraud over the last year.

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The United States will sponsor a new round of talks between Israel and Lebanon in early September in Rome, a state department official announced today.

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“The political track will reconvene in Rome in early September, and conversations will continue in Beirut, Jerusalem, and Washington in the interim,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity, adding: “We feel good about the trajectory.”

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The US has been facilitating talks between Israel and Lebanon aimed at putting an end to hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group based in Lebanon, with Beirut seeking Israel’s phased withdrawal from the swathes of southern of Lebanon it currently occupies, while Israel wants the disarmament of Hezbollah.

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In June, Israel and Lebanon agreed to a framework deal that involves the disarmament of Hezbollah, a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon’s south and the deployment of the Lebanese army to the region, starting in test areas known as “pilot zones”.

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The seventh round of US-mediated talks between the two countries concluded last week. One of the days of discussion was cut short after Israel resumed heavy strikes on Lebanon, accusing Hezbollah of violating the truce. But really there has been continued intermittent Israeli strikes and shelling, as well as detonations and demolitions in southern villages, since the ceasefire agreement was signed on 26 June.

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The US official today gave an update on the last round of talks in Rome, telling AFP: “The framework is being implemented, the first zones are live, and the working groups have aligned their language, maps, and procedures.”

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At the next round of technical talks, they added, “Lebanon will present detailed roadmaps for securing new areas as implementation proceeds in the current zones.”

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Israel’s bombing campaign and ground invasion has killed more than 4,300 people in Lebanon, injured over 12,200 and displaced over 1.2 million.

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Further to that, Donald Trump has said the agreement came about after he spoke to Vladimir Putin about releasing Robert Gilman “on a humanitarian basis” and that Gilman will land back in the US at Joint Base Andrews tonight.

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“I just spoke to him, and he had one request – A GREAT cheeseburger when he lands. I will take care of that!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

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The US president also confirmed that this was not a prisoner exchange, adding: “We appreciate this decision, and the fact that Russia asked for no one in return – No exchange took place.”

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Trump’s post included this photo of Gilman traveling back to the US, alongside his mother, Nancy, and officials.

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Gilman traveling back to the US on a state department plane.”,”caption”:”Robert Gilman traveling back to the US on a state department plane.”,”credit”:”Photograph: truthsocial.com/realDonaldTrump”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1786465552000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”17.25 BST”,”blockLastUpdated”:1786466861000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”17.47 BST”,”blockFirstPublished”:1786466043000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”17.34 BST”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”17.34″,”title”:”Trump says agreement to release former US marine from Russian custody came about after he spoke to Putin”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Wed 12 Aug 2026 04.29 BST”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Tue 11 Aug 2026 11.44 BST”},{“id”:”6a7b4c5d8f08bd3e82541730″,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

Russia has freed a former US marine who had been in jail since 2022, after Vladimir Putin granted the ailing American a pardon on humanitarian grounds.

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Robert Gilman, 32, an English teacher who briefly served in the US Marines, was travelling by train when he was arrested in the southern Russian city of Voronezh in January 2022 for allegedly kicking a police officer while drunk, according to Russian state media. He was later sentenced to four and a half years in prison, though his family has consistently denied the allegations against him.

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His father, Vladimir Gilman, who emigrated to Massachusetts from Russia, wrote in an October 2024 Boston Globe op-ed that his son had fallen ill when the incident occurred and had accidentally kicked the police officer.

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Concerns over Gilman’s health had grown sharply in recent weeks, and the White House and the state department had urged Moscow to release him so he could receive medical treatment in the US.

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Eric Lebson, chief strategy officer at Global Reach, an advocacy group representing Gilman’s family, told Reuters last week that he had been transferred in late June from a prison hospital to the psychiatric ward of a civilian emergency hospital in a catatonic-like state that doctors assessed as a “dissociative stupor”.

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“While this news is deeply welcomed, it is long overdue,” Massachusetts senator Edward Markey wrote on X. “Approximately 50 days ago, Robert was diagnosed with a dissociative stupor – a condition where he could not interact or eat. He was essentially catatonic and also suffered a severe case of pneumonia. We do not know his current condition or the long-term impact on his recovery.”

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US officials told Reuters that Gilman was already on a state department plane carrying him ‌from Russia to Washington Dulles airport, adding that Gilman would be greeted on arrival by US envoy Steve Witkoff and Sebastian Gorka, a deputy assistant to Donald Trump.

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The official who spoke to Gilman said he was walking and talking.

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“All things considered, he seems to be in good ‌shape,” the official said.

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The move to release Gilman is likely to be a signal of Moscow’s eagerness to improve relations with the Trump administration, after several weeks in which the US president has appeared to take a more supportive position towards Ukraine.

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Supreme court justice Samuel Alito gained up to $2.9m from his fossil fuel interests between 2005 and 2024, a new review of financial disclosures shows.

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The analysis from the non-profit advocacy group and judicial watchdog Court Accountability, shared exclusively with the Guardian, found that even at the lowest range of estimates, Alito gained almost $400,000 from his oil and gas interests since being tapped for the high court by George W Bush in 2005.

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The findings come as the supreme court prepares to take up a case in which the oil companies Suncor Energy and Exxon asked the justices to find that federal law prevents subnational governments from filing lawsuits against fossil fuel producers for the climate-warming effects of their products.

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The supreme court said this month it will hear oral arguments in the case on 5 October, the opening day of its new term. The Trump administration, which is siding with the oil companies, has asked for 10 minutes of argument time. Court Accountability and other groups have called for a Senate committee to investigate Alito, the sole supreme court justice with holdings in energy companies, and said he should recuse himself.

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He and the court rejected those calls.

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court justice Samuel Alito attends an event organized by the US embassy to the Holy See in Rome, Italy, on 20 September 2025.”,”caption”:”Supreme court justice Samuel Alito attends an event organized by the US embassy to the Holy See in Rome, Italy, on 20 September 2025.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Vincenzo Livieri/Reuters”}},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

Supreme court ethics rules focus specifically on investments in companies named in court cases. In May, a supreme court spokesperson told NBC News that Alito is not required to recuse himself from the Suncor lawsuit as his holdings do not include the companies directly named in the case, Suncor and ExxonMobil.

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But Lisa Graves, co-founder of Court Accountability who authored the new analysis, said Alito’s oil-tied wealth provides grounds to question whether Alito can impartially weigh in on cases affecting the entire fossil fuel sector.

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“You might have real appreciation for how that industry has helped make it possible for you to perhaps buy a second home on the water, or live a [certain] lifestyle,” she said.

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Here’s Dharna’s full report:

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Four prominent US human rights organizations have accused the Trump administration of using its “crippling” sanctions regime against the international criminal court (ICC) to undermine global efforts to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity.

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In a lawsuit filed in federal court today, the groups – the American Friends Service Committee, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Human Rights Watch and the Open Society Institute – argued that the administration’s targeting of the ICC, as well as of groups and individuals affiliated with it or assisting its work, amounts to a “blatantly illegal attack on international justice”, the groups said.

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The suit challenges Donald Trump’s February 2025 executive order, which authorized sanctions on ICC officials, judges and others working to support its investigation of Israeli crimes in Palestine – one of 18 investigations into war crimes and crimes against humanity the Netherlands-based tribunal is overseeing.

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The US state department and justice department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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The US government has long opposed and sought to impede the work of the court – of which it is not a party – but those attacks escalated after the ICC prosecutor issued arrest warrants in November 2024 for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and former Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant over crimes committed in Gaza. The US responded by sanctioning ICC prosecutors, judges, three leading Palestinian human rights groups and Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Palestinian territory.

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Earlier this summer, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, also escalated efforts against the ICC, announcing a campaign aimed at “dismantling” it by pressuring member states to leave the court.

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Those attacks, and Trump’s executive order, undermine access to justice for victims of major human rights violations and criminalize the work of those seeking to combat impunity by collaborating with the court – including the plaintiffs in the case – in violation of both constitutional protections for free speech and association and US obligations under international law, the lawsuit argues.

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“The Trump administration took the extraordinary step to not only deny Palestinians and victims of US torture equal access to justice, but to criminalize and punish them, their lawyers and advocates, and their partners,” said Katherine Gallagher, a senior attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights who represents victims before the ICC. She added:

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All victims of international crimes – from Sudan and Ukraine to Palestine and Afghanistan – need and deserve to have an independent and strong ICC able to fulfill its mission of ending impunity, without fear or favor.

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More on this story here:

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We’re also chasing new reports that Donald Trump left Turkey last month on a secret military flight to Britain amid an Iranian assassination threat – despite the White House saying he was aboard the old Air Force One – and that he briefly hid in an airport catering truck to move from one aircraft to another.

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ABC News reporter Michelle Stoddart, who traveled with the president and senior officials from Ankara in July, noted today that before the press corps departed the summit, they were given no additional guidance on the president’s movements or flight plans beyond his publicly posted Truth Social post.

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Stoddart said the press pool’s movements were not unusual once they boarded the old Air Force One. But she added that the pool was instructed to keep window shades closed. Another ABC News journalist said a Secret Service agent returned to the press cabin to remind reporters to keep the shades down. At one point, a photographer seated behind Stoddart opened their shade and was quickly told to close it. When they asked a White House aide why, the aide said only that it was a request from Secret Service.

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The state department has revoked more than 175,000 visas of foreign nationals who officials say have “violated the terms of their visas, committed crimes, called for violence against US citizens”.

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While a number of these people had been charged with crimes, including sexual assault, human trafficking and felony kidnapping. Others who had their visas revoked had allegedly “celebrated” the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, according to officials. The state department noted an instance of online comments which included: “when fascists die, democrats don’t complain” and another who said Kirk “died too late”.

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Last year, my colleague Ed Pilkington dug into the Trump administration’s free speech crackdown following Kirk’s shooting at a Turning Point USA college campus event in Utah.

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North Carolina Republicans on Monday chose state lawmaker Jennifer Balkcom to replace Chuck Edwards, the incumbent congressman who earlier this month dropped his re-election bid after a US House investigation determined his conduct towards to young female staffers likely amounted to sexual harassment.

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Balkcom will face off against the Democratic nominee, Jamie Ager, in the November midterm elections to represent the 11th congressional district in western North Carolina. Though Donald Trump won the district by 10 percentage points two years ago, Democrats believe Ager may have a shot at winning amid the president’s low approval ratings and frustration over the pace of recovery from Hurricane Helene, which devastated the region in 2024.

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“I’m blessed to receive the Republican nomination for the 11th Congressional District. Western North Carolina is where I was born, raised, and chose to raise my own family,” Ager said in a statement following her nomination.

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“Rest assured, I will work every single day between now and Election Day to earn the votes of our friends and neighbors. Our region is incredibly strong and resilient, and I plan to be the fighter everyone who calls Western North Carolina home deserves.”

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Edwards was first elected in 2022 after defeating the scandal–plague congressman Madison Cawthorn in the Republican primary. Last week, the US House ethics committee found he “fostered a hostile work environment and engaged in sexual harassment” towards two female employees in his Washington DC office.

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Minnesota voters on both sides of the aisle are weighing the direction of their parties – and their chances of winning over the general electorate – in marquee statewide races on Tuesday.

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On the left, Peggy Flanagan, the state lieutenant governor and a progressive, faces off against Angie Craig, a US representative, for the Democratic bid for US senate in a race punctuated by the role of immigration enforcement in the state that saw two residents killed by immigration agents in a winter surge.

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On the right, Mike Lindell, an election denier and pillow salesman, carries Donald Trump’s endorsement in a three-way race for the Republican nomination for governor, where Republicans face an uphill battle to challenge Amy Klobuchar, the Democratic contender and a US senator, now seeking the governor’s office.

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After Tuesday, the general election for the open governor and US senate seats will shape up, signaling a change for top roles in the state. Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat, initially sought a third term, but dropped his bid after ongoing fraud scandals threatened to distract from the race.

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Tina Smith, the Democratic US senator, decided not to run again, saying she wanted to spend time with her grandkids and make way for new faces in the chamber. She has endorsed Flanagan.

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The state leans Democratic. It has not elected a Republican statewide since 2006, when Tim Pawlenty won a second term as governor. A Republican presidential candidate has not won the state since 1972. Still, Republicans hope to seize on fraud problems in state programs, including criminal cases against a sprawling group accused of organized theft of meals for children, services for kids with autism and housing programs.

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Wisconsin voters will decide on Tuesday whether to nominate a democratic socialist for the state’s highest office in the latest test of an anti-establishment wave among Democratic primary voters.

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Francesca Hong, a democratic socialist state lawmaker, emerged as the frontrunner in a four-way race to succeed Tony Evers, the Democratic governor who is not seeking another term.

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Evers threw his support behind David Crowley, the Milwaukee country executive. Crowley previously left the race, before reentering it on 18 July.

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Crowley and Evers toured the state in the last two weeks, centering his campaign around electability, saying Crowley was more poised to win a general election in a swing state like Wisconsin than Hong.

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Eyes turned to the Wisconsin governor’s race after Abdul El-Sayed won the Democratic primary for US Senate in Michigan last week in the most recent example of a progressive beating out a moderate. Next door, Minnesota voters have also been weighing a US Senate primary between a moderate and a progressive.

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After a wave of wins of progressives and democratic socialists in solidly blue parts of the country, the midwest primaries centered more on electability concerns given the close nature of statewide races there.

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In the race to replace the late US senator Lindsey Graham, 10 candidates have been barnstorming South Carolina diners, church halls and recreation centers, compressing a normal year of campaigning into about a fortnight.

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The Republican party is staging a special primary election in the state on Tuesday to choose Graham’s replacement. His sister, Darline, who has been serving as interim senator following his sudden death last month, is on the ballot.

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If no candidate wins an overall majority of votes, the top two will advance to a runoff on 25 August. Polling suggests that this is the most likely outcome.

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“You know, South Carolina politics is very local,” said Eaddy Roe Willard, a longtime Republican activist in South Carolina’s Richmond county. “Something one of our former chairmen used to say about presidential candidates: we don’t decide whether or not we’re gonna vote for you until we’ve had a chance to shake your hand at least three times.”

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On Friday Russell Fry, a Republican representative, pressed the flesh at Savage Craft Ale Works in West Columbia. On Monday morning, Darline Graham shook hands at Lizard’s Thicket breakfast restaurant, 2 miles away. Mark Sanford, the former South Carolina governor, and US representative Ralph Norman were also just a few miles down the road in Aiken on Friday, Willard said.

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After Lindsey Graham’s death on 11 July, Henry McMaster, South Carolina’s governor, appointed Darline Graham to fill the vacancy in the US Senate.

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Lindsey Graham had already won the Republican primary election for his seat, so the Republican party must hold a special election to replace him on the ballot in November’s general election. The timeline is brutal by American political standards, holding an election within a few weeks of the vacancy.

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The winner will face Annie Andrews, the Democratic nominee and a pediatrician, in November.

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Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.

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Democratic primaries for governor in Wisconsin and US senator in Minnesota will once again see left-wing candidates face off against more traditional ones.

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The party’s ideological rift, that has already been seen in contests across the States this year, shifts to the upper Midwest later today.

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In Wisconsin, state representative Francesca Hong, a self-described democratic socialist, is front-runner for the party’s nomination for governor in a swing state where winning the governor’s mansion is central to Democrats’ hopes for 2028 and beyond.

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In Minnesota, Peggy Flanagan is running for the nomination for an open Senate seat against centrist Democratic representative Angie Craig. Meanwhile, seven Minnesota Republicans are vying to face off against likely Democratic gubernatorial nominee senator Amy Klobuchar in November.

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The primaries come a week after Abdul El-Sayed narrowly defeated Haley Stevens in Michigan’s divisive and costly US Senate primary.

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El-Sayed’s victory has energized progressives, while stoking fears among Democratic party leaders that the shift to the left, particularly in battleground states like Michigan and Wisconsin, will make it more difficult to win in the November midterms.

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The left vs center theme is on display in Democratic primaries in multiple states voting on Tuesday, with other significant races also taking place in the likes of Alabama and South Carolina.

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In other developments:

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  President Donald Trump departed on a secret military flight from Turkey last month when the White House said he was flying aboard ⁠Air Force One, an extraordinary move prompted by an Iranian assassination threat, the Washington Post reported on Monday.

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  Trump signed an executive order that will involve splitting up the highly effective measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three single shots. The president also announced an overhaul to the childhood immunization schedule, scrapping recommendations for the hepatitis b, Covid-19 and influenza vaccines. He also suggested that the number of inoculations is linked to the rate of autism in the US, despite no proven link between the two. Medical experts have blasted the changes, calling it “problematic and deeply concerning.”

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  Todd Blanche has been sworn as US attorney general, cementing Trump’s installation of his former personal attorney in charge of the Department of Justice. Blanche, who has been serving as acting attorney general since April, was confirmed in his new position during a ceremony at the White House on Monday.

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  Trump has named White House staff secretary Will Scharf to become White ​House counsel and assistant to the president, replacing David Warrington, who is taking a job in the private sector. In taking up that role, Scharf will become the White House’s top lawyer after overseeing the administrative work of the Oval Office in his current position.

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  Lawyers for David Hearn, the Olympian who was arrested for alleged property destruction of the reflecting pool before his charges were dropped, said that the Trump administration is “continuing to attack an innocent man”.

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Key events

Peggy Flanagan, the progressive lieutenant governor of Minnesota, clinched the victory in the state’s Democratic primary for US senate, beating out moderate US representative Angie Craig.

The AP called the race, where Flanagan leads with nearly 59% of the vote.

The AP has called a few more races:

• Trina Swanson, a former federal worker, won in the Democratic primary for Minnesota’s eighth congressional district, a right-leaning area, over Luke Gulbranson, who has been on the reality TV show Summer House.

• Jake Johnson, a math teacher, won the Democratic nomination for US House in Minnesota’s first congressional district

• Maurice Mercer, the former city council president of Pelham, won the Democratic nomination in a special primary election for US House in Alabama’s sixth congressional district

• Amanda Janoo, an economist who was running for office for the first time, secured the Democratic nomination for governor of Vermont over Aly Richards, a former head of a lobbying group, to take on incumbent Republican Phil Scott in November

With a lot of ballots still left to tabulate, progressive Peggy Flanagan holds a strong lead over moderate Angie Craig in Minnesota’s Democratic primary for US senate.

Flanagan, the lieutenant governor, centered her attacks on Craig, a US representative, around immigration, hitting Craig over her vote for the Laken Riley Act. The law requires immigration detention for undocumented immigrants accused of local crimes, and Craig has since expressed regret for voting for it.

On the Republican side, pillow salesman and election denier Mike Lindell trails Minnesota House speaker Lisa Demuth in the governor’s race, despite Trump’s endorsement for Lindell.

Michael Alfonso, the 26-year-old son-in-law of transportation secretary Sean Duffy, won the Republican primary in Wisconsin’s seventh congressional district.

Alfonso was endorsed by Trump and Duffy to succeed Tom Tiffany, who is running for governor.

If elected, Alfonso would be the youngest member of Congress. He doesn’t have much of a history in politics, but he did work for a time on Dan Bongino’s podcast.

Rebecca Cooke, a “blue dog” Democrat, won a primary challenge by Emily Berge in Wisconsin’s third congressional district, a major target for national Democrats.

Cooke will face Republican incumbent Derrick Van Orden in November for the third time. In the last two elections, she came close to beating him. In a rare instance, she’s a relative moderate endorsed by progressive Bernie Sanders.

The western Wisconsin district is a toss-up, and Cooke announced her third bid for the seat early. She grew up on a dairy farm and worked as a waiter, after running local businesses and working on Democratic campaigns.

“I don’t know what people’s political background is, but when I’m shaking their hand, I’ll say: ‘I’m Rebecca Cooke, I grew up on a dairy farm,’ and I tell them a little bit about my background,” she told the Guardian last year. “By the end of the conversation, they go: ‘So, what party are you from?’ And I would rather that question if they’re agreeing with me on similar values.”

Matt Little rose to the top of a three-way race among current and former state lawmakers to win the Democratic nomination in Minnesota’s second congressional district, the seat currently held by Angie Craig, who is running for US Senate.

Little, who patrolled for immigration officers during Operation Metro Surge, defeated state senator Matt Klein and state representative Kaela Berg. He had received the endorsement from the state Democratic party via the delegate process.

The second congressional district is seen as a swing district, though it went for Kamala Harris in 2024. Cook Political Report rates it as a likely Democratic seat, though national Republicans are likely to make a play to flip it.

In Wisconsin, David Crowley narrowly leads Democratic socialist Francesca Hong

Results in the Wisconsin governor’s race are very close, with David Crowley, the Milwaukee county executive, narrowly leading Democratic socialist Francesca Hong.

Crowley, endorsed by outgoing governor Tony Evers, made a last-minute full-court press across the state, emphasizing that he believes he is more poised to win statewide and beat Republican Tom Tiffany in the general.

Polls had shown Hong with a strong lead, but often showed a sizable amount of undecided voters. With many candidates running, some dropping out and then Crowley re-entering the race, the polls likely didn’t accurately capture the race.

Crowley’s team wrote a memo saying as much in the days leading up to the primary, stating that the polls would likely be off as they were in Michigan, where they showed Abdul El-Sayed with a large lead over Haley Stevens for US Senate. El-Sayed won the race, albeit with a closer margin than polls predicted.

Luke Bronin, the former mayor of Hartford, ousted incumbent congressman John Larson in Connecticut’s first congressional district, the AP has projected.

Bronin, 47, was the latest Democrat to challenge an ageing member of Congress. Larson, 78, has represented the district since 1999.

Bronin talked to the Guardian last year for a piece on Democrats challenging older members of Congress in the aftermath of Joe Biden’s 2024 exit from the presidential race over age and mental fitness concerns.

At the time, Bronin said Democrats needed to be “relentless and clear” about the ways Trump is making life worse for Americans, and “equally relentless and clear” about the Democratic party’s vision for improving their daily lives. He said he wanted to see “an intense focus on issues like housing and healthcare and childcare”.

In a statement tonight, Bronin said: “Tonight, voters sent a message that if we are going to fix this mess we’re in, we need to build a Democratic party that’s bringing a whole new energy to this fight. It’s time to be courageous, bold and clear about who we’re fighting for and what we’re fighting for.”

Today’s recap

Voters in South Carolina, Vermont, Alabama , Connecticut, Minnesota and Wisconsin took to the polls today.

Some results have already become clear:

• In a special primary in South Carolina following the death of Republican senator Lindsey Graham, Graham’s sister, Darline Graham, and US Representative Ralph Norman advanced to a runoff election later this moth.

• In Connecticut, incumbent Democratic governor Ned Lamont prevailed against his challenger Josh Elliott.

• In Wisconsin, Democratic socialist Francesca Hong emerged as a frontrunner in a crowded primary for the Democratic nomination for governor

• In the Minnesota governor’s race, Peggy Flanagan, the progressive lieutenant governor, is facing US representative Angie Craig on the Democrat side. And Republicans weighed whether to advance pillow salesman and election denier Mike Lindell.

• As voters took to the polls, the Department of Justice said that officials are monitoring polling sites in Minnesota’s largest counties, Hennepin and Ramsey, throughout the state’s primary elections. Minnesota’s secretary of state said state monitors were observing federal election monitors.

In other news:

• There were new reports that Donald Trump left Turkey last month on a secret military flight to Britain amid an Iranian assassination threat. ABC News reporter Michelle Stoddart, who traveled with the president and senior officials from Ankara in July, noted today that before the press corps departed the summit, they were given no additional guidance on the president’s movements or flight plans beyond his publicly posted Truth Social post. More here.

• The state department revoked more than 175,000 visas of foreign nationals whom officials say have “violated the terms of their visas, committed crimes, called for violence against US citizens”. These include people who allegedly “celebrated” the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, according to officials. The state department noted an instance of online comments that included: “when fascists die, democrats don’t complain” and another who said Kirk “died too late”.

• ICE plans to spend up to $20m to purchase thousands of gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks for officers and agents by March, according to a notice published Monday by the Department of Homeland Security.The devices, called Glove (Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter), are manufactured by Compliant Technologies LLC of Lexington, Kentucky.

• Russia has freed a former US marine who had been in jail since 2022, after Vladimir Putin granted the ailing American a pardon on humanitarian grounds. Trump has said the agreement came about after he spoke to Vladimir Putin about releasing Robert Gilman, and confirmed that this was not a prisoner exchange.

• Supreme court justice Samuel Alito gained up to $2.9m from his fossil fuel interests from 2005 to 2024, a new review of financial disclosures shows.The analysis from the non-profit advocacy group and judicial watchdog Court Accountability, shared exclusively with the Guardian, found Alito gained almost $400,000 from his oil and gas interests.

Michele Tafoya, a former NFL broadcaster, has won the Minnesota Republican senate primary.

But in the blue state, all eyes are on the Democratic primary – where representative Angie Craig, a moderate Democrat who serves a swing district in the south suburbs of Minneapolis, is running against lieutenant governor Peggy Flanagan, a progressive.

Voters in parts of Alabama have voted for the second time this primary season

Some Alabama voters took to the polls today for the second time this primary season after the state’s Republican-controlled legislature reconfigured four of the seven districts.

The redrawn district map came after the supreme court dismantled a key section of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and several southern states moved to redistrict and consolidate Republican power.

In June, the supreme court ruled that Alabama could use a redrawn congressional map that eliminates one of the state’s two majority-Black districts in this year’s midterm elections.

The new map poses steep challenges for Democratic representative Shomari Figures, who was first elected in 2024 after the creation a new district that included the mostly Black cities of Mobile and Montgomery. But the district no longer includes Mobile, Figures’s hometown.

State representative Rhett Marques, a Republican and a small-business owner who became part of the the new district, won the primary to challenge Figures in November.

Amy Klobuchar wins Democratic primary for Minnesota governor

Klobuchar, a fourth-term US senator, was widely expected to win the primary nomination to succeed governor Tim Walz, who decided not to run for a third term earlier this year.

The senator, who has also run for president, faced minimal opposition after announcing her run. A moderate Democrat, she holds the third-highest-ranking position in Democratic leadership in the Senate.

Ralph Norman advances in South Carolina Senate Republican runoff

Norman, a hardline conservative who has served in the US House of Representatives since 2017, is projected to advance in the Republican Senate runoff against Darline Graham.

A wealthy real estate developer and a prominent member of the House Freedom caucus, Norman ran unsuccessfully for South Carolina governor earlier this year. That campaign gave Norman statewide name recognition, boosting his campaign for the Senate, after Lindsey Graham’s death.