JD Vance and House speaker to meet Netanyahu after Israeli PM said he would nominate Trump for peace prize – US politics live

Key events

Show key events only

Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature

The United States only has about 25% of the Patriot missile interceptors it needs for all of the Pentagon’s military plans after burning through stockpiles in the Middle East in recent months, an alarming depletion that led to the Trump administration freezing the latest transfer of munitions to Ukraine.

The stockpile of the Patriot missiles has fallen so low that it raised concern inside the Pentagon that it could jeopardize potential US military operations, and deputy defense secretary, Stephen Feinberg, authorized the transfer to be halted while they reviewed where weapons were being sent.

Donald Trump appeared to reverse at least part of that decision on Monday when he told reporters in advance of a dinner at the White House with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he would “send some more weapons” to Ukraine, although he did not disclose whether that would include Patriot systems.

Trump also told Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a phone call that he was not responsible for the halt in weapons shipments and that he had directed a review of US weapons stockpiles but didn’t order the freeze, according to people briefed on the conversation.

But the determination last month to halt the transfer, as described by four people directly familiar with the matter, was based in large part on the Pentagon’s global munitions tracker, which is used to generate the minimum level of munitions required to carry out the US military’s operations plans.

According to the tracker, which is managed by the joint chiefs of staff and the Pentagon’s defense security cooperation agency, the stockpiles of a number of critical munitions have been below that floor for several years since the Biden administration started sending military aid to Ukraine.

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that it would take time to clarify what weapons the United States is supplying and will supply to Ukraine after president Donald Trump said Washington would have to send more arms to Kyiv.

Trump said on Monday that the United States would send more weapons to Ukraine, primarily defensive ones, to help the war-torn country defend itself against intensifying Russian advances.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to meet JD Vance and Mike Johnson today

Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.

We start with news that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet US vice-president JD Vance at 9.15am local time at the Blair House, The Times of Israel has reported.

He will then meet US House of Representatives speaker Mike Johnson at Capitol House, before returning to Blair House for meetings.

Then at 4pm, Netanyahu will head to the Senate for meeting with majority leader John Thune, Democratic senator John Fetterman and other lawmakers.

It comes as Netanyahu told Donald Trump that he would nominate him for the Nobel peace prize on Monday, as the two leaders met for the first time since the US launched strikes on Iran’s nuclear program as part of a short-lived war between Israel and Iran.

Trump was expected to press Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire in Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza amid an outcry over the humanitarian cost of an offensive that has led to nearly 60,000 deaths.

Read the full story here:

In other developments:

• The White House published letters to 14 countries detailing new tariff rates on imported goods to the United States. He also signed an executive order on Monday extending a 90-day pause for a slate of so-called “reciprocal” tariffs first introduced in April – in effect pushing back the deadline of trade talks back to 1 August. The tariffs include:

  • Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, and Tunisia: 25%

  • Indonesia: 32%

  • Bangladesh and Serbia: 35%

  • Bosnia: 30%

  • Cambodia and Thailand: 36%

  • South Africa: 30%

  • Laos and Myanmar: 40%

• Trump signed two other executive orders today: one directs his administration to “strictly enforce the termination of the clean electricity production and investment tax credits”, Biden-era subsidies for wind and solar projects. The other extends a federal hiring freeze through 15 October 15.

• Los Angeles mayor, Karen Bass, confronted immigration agents after US Customs and Border Patrol conducted a raid on the city’s MacArthur Park today, she said in a social media post.

• The Trump administration will deport Kilmar Ábrego García if he is released from custody, a justice department attorney said in court this morning, according to the New York Times.

• The Department of Veterans Affairs will no longer need to cut 80,000 jobs, as ordered by the Trump administration’s so-called “department of government efficiency”, because it has already cut staff by 30,000 through retirements, buyouts and hiring freezes, the agency said today.

• A judge has ordered the Trump administration to continue disbursing Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood, despite a provision in the president’s recently signed tax and spending bill.