Trump’s commerce chief Lutnick to face Epstein grilling in closed-door interview – US politics live | US news

Washington believes it is close to reaching an agreement with Iran to reopen the strait of Hormuz and end the war, US news outlet Axios reported, citing two US officials.

According to Axios, the two sides are close to agreeing on a “one-page memorandum of understanding to end the war and set a framework for more detailed nuclear negotiations.”

It said the deal would involve Iran committing to a moratorium on nuclear enrichment and the United States agreeing to release billions of dollars of frozen Iranian funds.

Washington is reportedly awaiting a response from Tehran on several key points in the next 48 hours.

“Nothing has been agreed yet, but the sources said this was the closest the parties had been to an agreement since the war began,” Axios said.

A majority of Indiana Republican legislators whose opponents were backed by Donald Trump lost their primaries on Tuesday, giving the president wins in a deep-red state just months after lawmakers there rejected his redistricting plan.

Of the seven Trump-endorsed challengers to state senate candidates, at least five won.

The vote turned into a statewide referendum on political retribution, and a test of Republican staying power after the party’s state lawmakers resisted Donald Trump’s bruising campaign to pressure them into redrawing the congressional districts.

Seven state senators who voted against Trump’s mid-decade redistricting push faced challengers endorsed by the president, who said that “every one of these people should be ‘primaried’” after the effort failed.

Trump-aligned dark money groups spent upwards of $7m on TV ads in Indiana this year, according to a tally from AdImpact – the majority spent targeting Republicans who allied themselves with Democrats in the December redistricting vote.

Jim Buck, a state senator from Kokomo, lost to a Trump-backed challenger after 18 years in office.

“We’ve never had Washington meddle into our elections like they have this time,” Buck told NPR. “Now I’ve got over $1m against me in one race.”

Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.

Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick will become the latest of Donald Trump’s cabinet to be questioned over ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein when he sits for a closed-door transcribed interview with the Oversight Committee later today.

Lutnick has acknowledged visiting Epstein’s private island in 2012 with family members – a trip that contradicted his earlier claim that he had severed ties with Epstein in 2005.

In March, the Department of Justice briefly deleted and then restored an undated photo of Lutnick and Epstein in an island setting. CBS News reported that Lutnick and Epstein were in business together as recently as 2014.

Lutnick only agreed to the closed-door Capitol Hill testimony after Democrats on the committee publicly threatened to subpoena Lutnick if he refused to cooperate. Representative Ro Khanna of California told reporters that the votes were there to compel his testimony.

But getting to this stage has only been possible due to the cooperation of Republicans on the committee. Republican representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina called for Lutnick’s appearance, while James Comer, the Kentucky Republican who chairs the panel, said he had “proactively” agreed to the transcribed interview.

“I commend his demonstrated commitment to transparency and appreciate his willingness to engage with the Committee,” Comer said in a statement at the time.

It in unclear how many members will attend the interview but the commerce chief can expect to be probed over when his relationship with Epstein came to an end.

It comes as Politico reported last week that Mace has complained conversations with Epstein witnesses were taking place while members are out of town or traveling.

“Some of these are being scheduled when we are not in session, and that makes it more difficult,” she said. “They’re making it the most inconvenient for members of Congress to participate, and that is done on purpose.”

In other developments:

• A majority of Indiana Republican legislators whose opponents were backed by Donald Trump lost their primaries on Tuesday, giving the president wins in a deep-red state just months after lawmakers there rejected his redistricting plan. Of the seven Trump-endorsed challengers to state senate candidates, at least five won. More here.

• Democratic senator Sherrod Brown and Republican senator Jon Husted won their party’s nominations in Ohio’s primary elections, according to the Associated Press – teeing them up for what is expected to be a high-profile and expensive Senate race in November’s midterm elections. More here.

• Senate Republicans have released a new immigration enforcement funding package that includes a proposed $1bn that could go to security measures related to the $400m ballroom that is part of Donald Trump’s “East Wing modernization project”. More here.

• Marco Rubio argued the US is in a “very fortunate” position as fuel prices continue to climb nationwide amid disruption sparked by the US-Israel war on Iran. With average US fuel prices now approaching $4.50 a gallon – their highest level in four years – the US secretary of state was asked on Tuesday how long Americans should accept them at such levels. Other countries were suffering “big time”, Rubio replied. More here.

• Seven of the leading contenders in California’s unexpectedly dramatic race for governor faced off on the debate stage Tuesday night, with the stakes now higher because ballots are in the mail. Becerra was a top target, as expected, given his steady rise in the polls. More here.