US Politics Live Updates: Trump appoints 'chief alien hunter'

We’re wrapping up our coverage now. Here is a recap of the main developments from US politics and the Iran war.

• US and Iranian negotiators have agreed to continue talks in the Qatari capital of Doha on issues tied to the peace deal signed last month, says Qatar.
• Donald Trump’s latest financial disclosure report shows the president has amassed $1.7 billion in a fortune weighted with cryptocurrency investments.
• In an update on the Nancy Guthrie case, the FBI says some of the ransom notes received by media outlets were fakes.

In an update on the Nancy Guthrie case, the FBI says some of the ransom notes received by media outlets were fakes.

The elderly mother of American television show anchor Savannah Guthrie went missing earlier this year, triggering a nationwide hunt and global headlines.

The FBI Phoenix office says notes sent to news organisations were not legitimate, but some may be and are being investigated.

“This case continues to be investigated as a kidnapping for ransom case,” the FBI office said, adding that while it is assisting in the case, local authorities oversee the investigation.

The 84-year-old vanished from her Arizona home in the early morning hours of February 1 without her phone or essential medications. The investigation is ongoing.

Lawyers for E. Jean Carroll have requested a judge order Donald Trump to pay the $US5 million ($7.2 million) in damages over her civil claim the president sexually assaulted her in the 1990s, the BBC reports.

The move came after the US Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected Trump’s request to review the 2023 case.

Trump steadfastly rejected the sexual assault allegations and later branded the incident a social media hoax.

Carroll’s legal team say the writer had agreed to all of Trump’s requests to delay paying the damages, which now amount to almost $US5.8m with interest.

“Given the extraordinary lengths he has taken to avoid such payments and that each of those efforts has been denied in full, that cooperation ends today,” the lawyers wrote. “It is time for him to pay Carroll.”

Trump has wrapped up a speech marking the opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in North Dakota and given a preview of his July 4 Independence Day speech.

The president says he’ll be giving a “really long speech” in expected sweltering heat.

“And by the way, on July 4 it’s going to be approximately 107 degrees(42 degrees Celsius) out, and I’m going to go and I’m going to make a really long speech, just to show that I can do anything,” he said.

At the other end of the US political spectrum, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani will deliver a “major address” on Friday to mark America’s 250th birthday, his office told NBC News.

Military casualties in the Russia-Ukraine war have reached more than two million, according to a new study by a US think tank.

Russian forces have borne the brunt of the staggering figure, with between 400,000 and 450,000 troops killed, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)  analysis says.

Since the Kremlin launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, there has been 1.4 million casualties - killed, wounded and missing - among Russia’s military.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s armed forces suffered between 525,000 and 625,000 casualties and between 125,000 and 150,000 deaths during the same period, the CSIS said.

“Russian fatalities in Ukraine are more than four times greater than all US fatalities in all wars combined since World War II,” while the ratio of Russian to Ukrainian casualties has likely risen to around eight to one in the first half of this year.”

Donald Trump has taken his first flight on the new Air Force One jet, a Boeing 747-8 luxury plane gifted to the US by Qatar last year.

The president flew on the luxury $US400 million aircraft to North Dakota as part of America’s 250th anniversary celebrations.

“This will be the first flight of what I think is maybe the greatest commercial plane ever built,” Trump said before boarding it at an air base outside Washington DC.

Trump is expected to use the plane until a new fleet of presidential aircraft are delivered to the US Air Force in 2028.

US and Iranian negotiators have agreed to continue talks on issues tied to the peace deal signed last month, says Qatar.

The Qatari capital Doha has been hosting separate indirect meetings between officials from both countries.

Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari said in a post on X they’ve made “positive progress” on issues tied to the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding.

He said further meetings would be scheduled after funeral processions for Iran’s former supreme leader, planned from Saturday to next Thursday in locations across Iran and Iraq.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed during US-Israel strikes early in the war.

Iranian state media has reported a ship ran aground in the Strait of Hormuz while using a route not approved by Tehran.

State broadcaster IRIB shared footage of the cargo vessel after it reportedly ran aground while following a “US-suggested route” through the strait.

The vessel was identified as a foreign container ship, with no other details.

The report appeared aimed at underlining Tehran’s claims to control the strait, which the world has long considered an international waterway. A fifth of all oil and natural gas passed through it in peacetime.

- With AP

Donald Trump’s latest financial disclosure report shows the president is moving from real estate mogul to cryptocurrency king.

The document shows he took in about $US1.2 billion ($1.7 billion) last year from various crypto holdings, overshadowing a real estate business that brought him fame, reports Associated Press.

Whereas it took decades for Trump to amass his various properties, the rise of crypto in his portfolio was done in just over a year, sped along by his own friendly policies toward the industry.

Running to about 900 pages, the mandatory annual report raises questions about the ethics of how Trump is amassing his fortune.

He took in tens of millions of dollars from new property holdings in foreign countries eager to please a man with power over where to deploy the US military and how much to charge in tariffs.

Ever the salesman, Trump even made big money off the smallest of things, pulling in millions by slapping his name on Bibles, guitars and watches — the latter alone bringing in $US4.7 million.