CDC chief Susan Monarez refuses to resign amid ‘targeted’ ousting – US politics live

Monarez issues statement saying she had ‘neither resigned nor received notification’ of her termination from the White House, plunging public health agency into chaos

Hello, I’m Shrai Popat, and welcome to today’s coverage of US politics live.

The US’s top public health agency was plunged into chaos on Wednesday after the Trump administration moved to oust its leader, Susan Monarez, sworn in less than a month ago. But her lawyers said she would not resign and that she was being “targeted” for her pro-science stance.

Former British prime minister Tony Blair has attended a White House meeting with Donald Trump to discuss plans for postwar Gaza, the Guardian understands. After stepping down as prime minister in 2007, Blair took on the role of Middle East envoy until 2015 and spent time in Jerusalem trying to formulate a plan for a two-state solution.

A federal judge ruled on Wednesday that Kilmar Ábrego García, who was already wrongfully deported once, cannot be deported again until at least early October.

National guard troops have spent their last days of the summer mulching cherry trees, collecting trash and clearing homeless camps across Washington DC, as Donald Trump’s federal takeover of the capital evolved the guard from makeshift cops to armed jacks of all trades.

Republicans in California are proposing a “two-state solution” for the Golden state, in a move that is unlikely to go anywhere but is reflective of partisan divisions amid a nationwide battle over control of Congress.

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved updated Covid vaccines but has placed new restrictions on who can get them.

Florida’s immigration jail known as “Alligator Alcatraz” will probably be empty of detainees within days, a state official has said, indicating compliance with a judge’s order last week that the facility must close.

The Fulton county commission in Georgia will be fined $10,000 a day for violating a court order to appoint two Republicans associated with Trump-aligned groups pushing voter fraud conspiracies to the county’s election board.