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Darline Graham wins South Carolina GOP nomination to replace her late brother in US Senate

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Senator Darline Graham has won the Republican nomination to replace her late brother, Lindsey, on South Carolina’s general election ballot.

Her success marks another win for president Donald Trump after he threw his support behind the political novice.

Graham defeated US representative Ralph Norman in Tuesday’s special Republican primary runoff, two weeks after they were the top two finishers in a 10-way primary.

With nearly all of the ballots counted, Graham had received 52.4% of the vote, according to the Associated Press, ahead of Norman’s 47.6%.

Lindsey Graham, a US senator for more than two decades, won the party’s primary in June, but died the next month. Days later, Darline Graham, was appointed to serve out the remainder of her brother’s Senate term.

“The critics say I shouldn’t run for the Senate,” she told a rally audience Friday. “They say I’m not a politician. You know what I say? Guilty as charged.”

Graham will face the Democratic nominee Annie Andrews, a Charleston-area pediatrician, in November. Andrews faces steep historical odds; the last Democrat to win a statewide race in South Carolina was state superintendent Jim Rex in 2006.

Trump recommended the appointment of Darline Graham, a career civil servant who was head of South Carolina’s Commission for the Blind, then encouraged her to run for a full term – upending a Republican scramble to select a new Senate nominee.

“What I really want you to do is pretend – please – that I’m on the ballot,” Trump said at a rally in Myrtle Beach on Friday. “Just come and vote.” Trump’s Maga Inc Super Pac spent more than $800,000 in support of Graham during the campaign.

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In other developments:

The US supreme court lifted one of two injunctions that block the Trump administration from pressing ahead with a sweeping effort to restrict mail voting
The court’s decision “needlessly injects chaos and uncertainty into the upcoming midterm elections”, justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote in a blistering dissent.
The NAACP, which sued in April to block the order to restrict mail-in voting, said that Republicans are trying to make it harder to vote in November because they “know full well that they are unpopular and will lose in a free and fair election”.
The Trump administration is preparing to revoke the visas of up to 200,000 foreigners who have applied for asylum status in the United States, according to US state department documents obtained by the Associated Press.
Donald Trump responded to criticism of his new tariffs on Canadian imports from the premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, by comparing him unfavorably to his late brother, Rob Ford, a former mayor of Toronto best known for smoking crack.
US treasury secretary Scott Bessent announced that the US has begun an “unprecedented” sanctions campaign against Iran “and its enablers”.

Key events

Trump threatens to demolish Kennedy Center if $250m renovation not done

David Smith

The John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts could be demolished if repairs are not carried out, the Trump administration warned in a court filing on Monday.

Lawyers for the US president said the national arts complex in Washington DC must undergo a $250m renovation or risk facing the wrecking ball.

“Without those efforts, the ⁠Center will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down, with a determination to follow on what to build on the site, such as a large outdoor amphitheater overlooking the Potomac River that has been proposed, by some, for many years,” they argued.

The warning came as Donald Trump leaves a trail of destruction in Washington, demolishing the East Wing of the White House to make way for a $600m ballroom and ordering a renovation of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool that resulted in algae blooms and a peeling liner.

The court filing represented the first time that Trump’s allies have raised the prospect of knocking down the Kennedy Center – a 100ft-high complex with a concert hall, opera house and theatre – as the dire alternative to closing it for two years of improvements. Such an aggressive move would be sure to face legal challenges, protests and an outcry from historic preservation groups.

The threat emerged on Monday as the administration urged a federal judge to reject a fresh legal challenge to Trump’s efforts to put his name on the Kennedy Center. The dispute has become part of a months-long battle over the president’s attempt to alter the memorial created by Congress in honour of John F Kennedy, the 35th US president, who was assassinated in 1963.

Uwa Ede-Osifo

Stanley Druckenmiller, a billionaire investor, said he used artificial intelligence to pen his viral Wall Street Journal op-ed in which he sharply criticized the interference of Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, in the US bond market.

Many news outlets, including the Guardian, covered the editorial, highlighting Druckenmiller’s rebuke of his former mentee, Bessent. As the story circulated online, some readers questioned rhetorical choices that resembled AI-generated text.

On Tuesday, Druckenmiller admitted to using the technology. “I’m not embarrassed by it,” he told Notus.

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page editor, Paul Gigot, defended Druckenmiller in a statement.

“The question for us is whether what we publish from contributors reflects an author’s original argument, and if the author has the standing and credibility to make it. In Stan Druckenmiller’s case, we have had a relationship with him for many years, and nobody can doubt that his op-ed is his genuine opinion,” Gigot said.

He also called AI “a fact of modern life”.

US halts all immigrant visa applications amid tightening restrictions

Gabrielle Canon

All US immigrant visa applications have been paused by the Trump administration as the state department moves to tighten restrictions and limit access to applicants who they deem could end up relying on US assistance, a state department official confirmed Tuesday.

The agency launched the initiative at all embassies and consulates in early August, according to the official and visa appointments had to be adjusted to accommodate “in-depth training”, according to the official. The state department has been working on updated guidance and training since early this year, “to ensure all consular officers are fully equipped to evaluate every visa applicant comprehensively and consistently”, they added.

Financial Times reports that applicants with interviews already scheduled were sent emails that their appointments had been canceled and that they would be informed of a new date and time.

Agency officials claim this will ensure visa applicants will not end up relying on US public benefits. But it’s part of a slate of strategies the Trump administration has employed to crack down on both lawful and undocumented immigration and create a more selective process for who can gain entry into the system.

This week the Trump administration also announced plans to revoke visas from asylum seekers who initially entered the country for tourism or business. Up to 200,000 people currently seeking asylum could be impacted, marking what would end up being the largest mass pulling of visas in the history of the US. The action is being taken in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security.

USS Abraham Lincoln will stop in Thailand on its way home from lengthy deployment in Middle East

The US aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln will make a stop in Thailand after its deployment in the Middle East, Thai officials said.

The Lincoln was supporting the US war against Iran, and its deployment included a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea of more than 250 days, AP reported.

Concerns have grown about the Lincoln’s lengthy deployment following reports of deteriorating mental health among the crew and shortages of supplies including food and hygiene products.

Thai defense ministry spokesperson Surasant Kongsiri said that the Lincoln will stop in Thailand next week for rest and recovery before returning to its US base.

“The stop in Thailand is a chance for the crew to go ashore and relax,” he told reporters at a news conference in Bangkok.

Two Dan Sullivans to appear on Alaska’s US Senate ballot in November’s midterm elections

Chris Stein

Republican senator Dan S Sullivan will be joined on the November ballot in Alaska by a challenger with a nearly identical name from the same party, election officials confirmed on Tuesday, adding a twist to what is expected to be one of the most hotly contested races of the midterms.

The Republican senator is running for a third term against Democrat Mary Peltola, a former US House representative whom polls show is neck-and-neck with him in a state that hasn’t sent a Democrat to the Senate since 2008.

Alaska holds nonpartisan primaries in which the top four vote-getters advance to the general election. The Associated Press reported that with 85% of the ballots counted, Dan J Sullivan, a retired school teacher and US Forest Service employee running as a Republican, would appear on the ballot alongside incumbent Dan S Sullivan and Peltola, with a fourth candidate yet to be announced.

The other Sullivan entered the race earlier this year, with the incumbent senator condemning him as a “sham” candidate who is running at the behest of Democrats to confuse his supporters and split their votes.

In June, Alaska election officials disqualified the other Sullivan from the election, but the state supreme court ordered him restored. The two were listed next to each other among the 16 candidates on primary ballots, but the senator had “registered Republican” and “incumbent” next to his name, while his similarly named challenger was unadorned.

It’s unclear how much of a threat the other Sullivan may pose to the senator’s chances of winning re-election. His 2.5% of the vote is much less than the more than 48% received by Peltola and almost 43% senator Sullivan won in last week’s primary.

Abortion rights group endorses Democrat Troy Jackson in critical Maine Senate race

Shrai Popat

One of the oldest abortion rights groups in the US is endorsing Troy Jackson, the Democratic nominee in Maine’s critical US Senate race, according to details first shared with the Guardian.

Reproductive Freedom for All is supporting Jackson, the former state senate president, in challenging Susan Collins – the five‑term Republican incumbent who has been dogged on the campaign trail for her role in overturning abortion access in the US.

Collins voted in 2018 to confirm conservative justice Brett Kavanaugh to the supreme court. In 2022, Kavanaugh joined the majority opinion overturning Roe v Wade, a landmark abortion rights protection. In the aftermath, more than a dozen states enacted near‑total abortion bans. This year’s midterm elections mark the first time Collins is on the ballot since the decision.

“Flipping the Maine Senate race is a critical path to winning a Senate majority, and we do not restore a federal right to abortion without flipping the Senate majority,” said Mini Timmaraju, the group’s president.

Timmaraju will join Jackson on Wednesday in Brunswick for the launch of the campaign’s Women for Troy coalition.