Trump says he halted Iran strike because it was 'not proportionate' – live

This afternoon Trump will have lunch with secretary of state Mike Pompeo, just hours after he cancelled an airstrike against Iran.

Pompeo is a former member of Congress and a staunch hawk on Iran.

Read our latest coverage of the standoff between Washington and Iran.

Meanwhile, Kamala Harris has released a Summer Playlist on Spotify to mark the first day of the season, à la Obama who started the tradition while in the White House.

“I’m a firm believer that we all need to find the time to dance, to sing and to bop our heads a little, so I’m sharing the songs I’m listening to in the car out on the campaign trail this summer,” senator Harris told Bustle. “Whether we’re driving from Sacramento to Reno or Dubuque to Chicago, this playlist always lifts me up.”

The list, which her campaign said was “personally curated” by the Senator, includes songs by artists like Mary J. Blige, Cardi B, Lizzo, Kendrick Lamar and Nipsey Hussle.

Listen here and let us know what you think.

Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, yes, has a new plan.

Her new plan would ban private prisons and detention facilities, prohibit contractors from charging service fees for essential services like phone calls, bank transfers and healthcare.

“Here’s what this all comes down to,” she writes. “The government has a basic responsibility to keep the people in its care safe — not to use their punishment as an opportunity for profit.”

Plan by plan, Warren has built moment – but is it enough to overcome the roadblocks posed by her chief rivals, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden?

For the first time since the Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide in 1973, a US state may not have a single abortion clinic.

Missouri on Friday rejected the license application of a Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Louis, which is the only remaining abortion provider in the state, according to the Kansas City Star.

In a statement, Planned Parenthood action fund said the healthcare center has not yet been closed and is still providing abortions.

“The preliminary injunction issued by the Missouri State Circuit Court remains in effect, so the fate of abortion access in Missouri now hangs in the balance until further notice from the court,” the group said.

Missouri is one of several states across the country where access to reproductive healthcare has been dramatically restricted since Trump appointee Brett Kavanaugh joined the Supreme Court, consolidating a conservative majority. Antiabortion activists are pushing a bevy of state laws and federal action designed to trigger a Supreme Court case that could dismantle Roe.

This weekend, 20 of the 24 candidates running for the Democratic presidential nomination will participate in a first-of-its-kind forum on reproductive rights hosted by Planned Parenthood Action Fund in South Carolina.

“This is really the moment for the candidates to make clear where they stand on the full range of reproductive healthcare, including abortion,” said Kelley Robinson, the group’s executive director told the Guardian. “Whoever wants to lead the United States and serve in the office of the president is going to have to be clear and accountable to voters on this issue.”

Meanwhile on Capitol Hill, it’s business as usual ... which is to say more subpoenas related to Trump’s association with Russia.

The House intelligence committee on Friday said it will subpoena Moscow-born business executive Felix Sater after he did not appear for a scheduled interview Friday.

Who is Felix Sater, you might be asking yourself. Let us refresh your memory.

The Supreme Court on Friday overturned the murder conviction of a Mississippi man on death row in a case about the role of race in jury selection.

According to the Washington Post, the court “threw out the most recent conviction of a Mississippi man who has been tried an extraordinary six times for a quadruple murder in 1996, finding that a zealous prosecutor once again had improperly kept African Americans off the jury.”

The inmate, Curtis Flowers, who is black, argued that the jury selection in his case violated the Constitution. The prosecutor, District Attorney Doug Evans, is white.

Democrats are alarmed by the escalation and warned the White House that only Congress has the power to authorize war. (This power has been steadily undermined by the executive branch since the attacks on 9/11. )

And 2020 presidential candidates were quick to weigh in.

Former vice president Joe Biden called Trump’s approach to Iran a “self-inflicted disaster”.

Senator Bernie Sanders stayed on message, reminding voters that it “won’t be the kids of billionaires who get killed in a war with Iran.” (Sanders led the charge in Congress to claw back war-making powers from the executive branch. Trump vetoed the resolution.)

Senator Kamala Harris said Trump’s “saber-rattling” was making the US “weaker and less safe”.

Senator Elizabeth Warren reminded Trump of his promise to stop “endless wars”.

Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, whose running for president to “bend the arc of history away from war and toward peace”, said she doubts Trump can resist war with Iran ... and also please contribute to my fledgling campaign.

More details are emerging about the dramatic moments leading up to Trump’s decision not to launch strikes against three sites in Iran.

Reuters reported that Trump sent Tehran a warning that a “US attack on Iran was imminent” but stressing that he did not want to escalate the standoff and preferred to launch talks on a range of issues.

“In his message, Trump said he was against any war with Iran and wanted to talk to Tehran about various issues,” an Iranian official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“He gave a short period of time to get our response but Iran’s immediate response was that it is up to Supreme Leader (Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei to decide about this issue.”

A second Iranian official told the agency: “We made it clear that the leader is against any talks, but the message will be conveyed to him to make a decision.
“However, we told the Omani official,” who delivered the message from the US, “that any attack against Iran will have regional and international consequences.”

Trump has confirmed that the US military was “cocked and loaded” to launch retaliatory strikes against Iran on Thursday night but pulled with just 10 minutes to spare after a general was informed him that “150 people” would die.

He said such an action was “not proportionate” to Iran’s attack on an unarmed US done.

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of what is already a busy day in Washington DC, where nerves are jittery and tensions are high after news broke over night that the Donald Trump had “approved military strikes against Iran in retaliation for downing an American surveillance drone, but pulled back from launching them on Thursday night,” according to the New York Times.

The paper reported, citing an unnamed official that: “Planes were in the air and ships were in position, but no missiles had been fired when word came to stand down.”

“It was not clear whether Mr. Trump simply changed his mind on the strikes or whether the administration altered course because of logistics or strategy,” write Michael Shear, Eric Schmitt, Michael Crowley, and Maggie Haberman. “It was also not clear whether the attacks might still go forward.”

Trump, however, is at the moment occupied by a longtime grievance against the paper.

Elsewhere, nearly all of the 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls will head to South Carolina tonight for the state’s annual Blue Palmetto Dinner and congressman Jim Clyburn’s “World Famous Fish Fry”. Both events will give Democrats running for the party’s presidential nomination an opportunity to woo influential party members and local officials whose endorsements could boost their odds in the “first in the South” primary.