Israeli PM spoke via video link and answered questions, after his request to similarly speak with Democrats was turned down

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu virtually addressed Republican senators in Washington on Wednesday, days after the chamber’s majority leader, Democrat Chuck Schumer, called him an impediment to peace in an unsparing floor speech.

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell told reporters, shortly after leaving the Senate Republicans’ policy lunch, that Netanyahu joined the gathering via video link, delivered a presentation, and answered questions.

Democrats hit back, saying former president ‘should be ashamed of himself’ after divisive comments

Good morning, US politics blog readers. Campaigning for the November election is in full swing, and true to form, Donald Trump is saying things that people find outrageous and offensive. The latest: his comments on Monday that Jews who voted for Democrats “hate” their religion and Israel. America’s relationship with Israel is a major political issue, with Congress deadlocked over approving aid to the country as well as Ukraine and Taiwan despite months of negotiations , and Joe Biden showing signs of exasperation with Benjamin Netanyahu ’s handling of its invasion of Gaza. Democrats pilloried Trump for his comments, with a party spokesman saying the former president “should be ashamed of himself”.

Perhaps. But Democrats are also grappling with the uncomfortable reality that Biden is stubbornly unpopular, and that Trump has a track record of saying offensive things and yet maintaining Republicans’ loyalty. But Biden’s not Hillary Clinton , it’s not 2016 any more , and we’ll see if this comment lands among voters any differently. Trump is also dealing with his own problems, namely the bond he is so far unable to secure to cover New York’s $454m civil fraud judgment against him.

The supreme court will issue opinions at 10am ET. We don’t know what they’ll decide, but one case pending will determine whether South Carolina’s congressional map was an illegal racial gerrymander.

Biden heads to Nevada and Arizona, two swing states that will be important to his re-election prospects. In the latter, he’ll launch Latinos con Biden-Harris to attract voters from the demographic that’s well represented in both states.

Republicans have an idea for breaking the logjam on Ukraine aid: make it a loan. We’ll see if any Democrats think that’s a good idea.

Congress needs to pass legislation by Saturday to avert another government shutdown – will it happen?

Congress faces its third shutdown deadline of the month this week, as much of the federal government is expected to run out of funding by Friday at midnight.

Both chambers of Congress must approve six appropriations bills before Saturday to get the legislation to Joe Biden’s desk and avert a partial shutdown. Although the current fiscal year started more than five months ago, House Republicans have struggled to pass appropriations bills due to demands from hard-right members to include controversial provisions in the legislation.

Agreement looked close on Friday but disagreements over border and immigration spending are stalling a deal

The supreme court will hear oral arguments on Monday in Murthy v Missouri, a case with the potential to radically redefine how the US government interacts with social media companies.

Central to the case is whether the White House violated free speech protections during the Covid-19 pandemic, when government officials requested that Twitter, Facebook and other social networks remove misinformation about the coronavirus.

11.30am. Joe Biden, first lady Jill Biden and Kamala Harris will speak at a Women’s History Month reception.

1.30pm. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and national security adviser Jake Sullivan will brief.

Independent lawmaker says it’s time for workers to have a better quality of life with a 32-hour workweek without loss of pay

Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont who twice ran for the Democratic presidential nomination, introduced a bill to establish a four-day US working week.

Studies and pilot programmes have shown that four-day workweeks can increase productivity and happiness. Given Republican control of the House and a Senate split 51-49 in favour of Democrats, however, the legislation stands little chance of success.

The majority leader signaled his impatience with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in face of growing Gaza death toll

• Middle East crisis – live updates

The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, called on Israel to hold new elections, saying he believed the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had “lost his way” in the Israeli bombardment of Gaza and a growing humanitarian crisis there.

Schumer, the first Jewish majority leader in the Senate and the highest-ranking Jewish official in the US, strongly criticized Netanyahu in a lengthy speech on Thursday morning on the Senate floor.

Future of app used by about 150 million Americans hangs in balance but if House passes bill, it is unclear how it will progress in the Senate

Donald Trump ’s newfound support of TikTok, and by extension its Chinese owner ByteDance ByteDance, came soon after Joe Biden said he’d sign legislation making its way through Congress that could ban the app.

It also came after the former president met with the Republican mega-donor, Jeff Yass, who reportedly has a major financial stake in the popular social media platform.

If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business. I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better.

There’s a lot of good and there’s a lot of bad with TikTok. But the thing I don’t like is that without TikTok you’re going to make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people, along with a lot of the media.

I think Facebook has been very bad for our country, especially when it comes to elections.

In memoir, professor whose accusation rocked 2018 supreme court hearings says rightwing justice not ‘consummately honest person’

The US supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh is not a “consummately honest person” and “must know” what really happened on the night more than 40 years ago when he allegedly sexually assaulted Christine Blasey Ford, his accuser writes in an eagerly awaited memoir.

A research psychologist from northern California, Ford was thrust into the spotlight in September 2018 as Kavanaugh, a Bush aide turned federal judge, became Donald Trump’s second conservative court nominee. Her allegations almost derailed Kavanaugh’s appointment and created headlines around the world.

Republican denied hiding fact that the abuse she referred to in her State of the Union rebuttal had actually occurred during Bush era

In her first interview since delivering her widely ridiculed rebuttal to Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech, Republican senator Katie Britt refused to apologize for invoking a story about child rape that she implied resulted from the ongoing crisis at the southern US border – even though the abuse occurred in Mexico while her party controlled the White House.

Britt , 42, appeared on Fox News Sunday and denied hiding the fact that the rape and sex trafficking case to which she referred had actually occurred during the presidency of George W Bush. She also made it a point to criticize what she called “the liberal media” for how it has covered her rebuttal to Biden’s speech on Thursday, which earned being parodied on the latest episode of Saturday Night Live.