Facebook bans Trump: Ex-president floats 2024 run and threatens Mark Zuckerberg as McGahn testifies

Dr Anthony Fauci, who is currently the target of outrage from conservatives over the contents of his emails from spring last year, has called on China to release the medical records of workers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology who fell ill in 2019.

“I would like to see the medical records of the three people who are reported to have got sick in 2019,” he said to the Financial Times. “Did they really get sick, and if so, what did they get sick with?”

The reported illnesses among lab staff are one of the key elements feeding into the hypothesis that Covid-19 escaped from the Wuhan facility. US and other intelligence services say the theory is plausible, but the Chinese government has so far denied them access to enough information to assess the facts in full.

Luis Elizondo, who led a Pentagon unit that investigated evidence of unidentified aerial phenomena spotted by military personnel in the US and around the world, has shared his concerns that the report soon to be released might not tell the full story of what the military knows.

Responding to a New York Times story that the authorities have found no evidence that the craft sighted were extraterrestrial in origin, Mr Elizondo has said he may yet run for Congress to get the full details released.

“If the New York Times reporting is accurate,” he tweeted, “the objects being witnessed by pilots around the world are far more advanced than any earthly technologies known to our intelligence services. It’s time to release the full report, videos & data that we've seen in the Pentagon.”

President Biden has hailed a monthly report showing that US employers added more than half a million new jobs to the economy in May. “It isn’t luck,” he said.

Danielle Zoellner has the news.

Kelly Loeffler, who lost her US Senate seat to Raphael Warnock in January and thereby gave Democrats control of the Senate, is thought to be considering a campaign to get back to Washington when Mr Warnock comes up for re-election in 2022.

And as a sign she may be serious, she’s been talking to the Republican Party’s only true kingmaker...

As Tulsa, Oklahoma reckons anew with the facts of the 1921 massacre that saw a white mob burn down a prosperous Black neighbourhood while murdering and chasing out its residents, five more bodies have been unearthed at a mass grave site at the city’s Oaklawn Cemetery.

One estimate holds that at least 30 people are likely buried at the site. A formal exhumation process is due to start on Monday.

Rudy Giuliani is under severe legal pressure after investigators seized a number of electronic devices from his office – and as the case against him takes shape, the judge has appointed a retired federal judge with a history of prosecuting mafia leaders to review the evidence against the longtime Trump lieutenant.

Former Judge Barbara Jones will be sifting through Mr Giuliani’s communications to make sure anything covered by attorney-client privilege is not entered into evidence.

The case against Mr Giuliani revolves around his activities in Ukraine leading up to the 2020 election, and specifically his efforts to dig up dirt on Joe and Hunter Biden.

Clara Hill has more.

At the end of his press conference on this month’s jobs numbers, Mr Biden got a shouted question from a reporter wanting to know if he still has full confidence in Dr Anthony Fauci after the Covid-19 adviser’s emails from last spring were released this week.

Having left the room without answering, Mr Biden apparently thought again...

Longtime Trump ally and far-right instigator Roger Stone has shared a grubby hypothesis about Steve Bannon, namely that the former Trump aide must have threatened the president into giving him a pardon given the depth of the two men’s mutual animosity.

Here’s the clip of Mr Stone’s assessment.

Former White House counsel Don McGahn has arrived at the Capitol to testify before the House Judiciary Committee, something Democrats have sought for over two years – but we may not learn what he said for seven days.

House Democrats subpoenaed Mr McGahn in 2019 over his role in the Russia investigation drama, but the White House refused to let him testify. Last month, Mr McGahn’s lawyers reached a deal with Democrats for him to finally speak – but only under strictly controlled circumstances.

Mr McGahn’s testimony will be behind closed doors, without any press in attendance, and a transcript of the interview will be released up to a week later – only after Mr McGahn has reviewed and approved it. All those present are required to keep what was said secret until then.

“The parties will have a reasonable amount of time, not to exceed seven calendar days, to review the transcript for accuracy before it is released,” the document outlining the deal says. “The Committee Chair will ask all Members and Committee staff to maintain the confidentiality of the interview until the transcript is released publicly.”

Mr McGahn played a central role in the drama over special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether Donald Trump improperly sought Russia’s help in the 2016 election. He reportedly refused Mr Trump’s request that he fire Mr Mueller, and refused again when Mr Trump asked him to deny that he ever tried to fire him.

Donald Trump has been banned from Facebook for at least two years, the social media giant has announced.

The former president was indefinitely suspended from all Facebook platforms in the wake of the 6 January US Capitol riot, in which his supporters violently tried to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s election win.

Now Mr Trump’s account will remain suspended until 7 January 2023, and Mark Zuckerberg’s company says he will only get it back if the “risk to public safety has receded.”

Facebook’s independent Oversight Board upheld the initial suspension of Mr Trump last month, but they criticised the company over the indefinite time period, which led Mr Zuckerberg to introduce the new rules.

“Given the gravity of the circumstances that led to Mr Trump’s suspension, we believe his actions constituted a severe violation of our rules which merit the highest penalty available under the new enforcement protocols. We are suspending his accounts for two years, effective from the date of the initial suspension on 7 January this year,” said Nick Clegg, Facebooks VP of Global Affairs, on Friday.

“At the end of this period, we will look to experts to assess whether the risk to public safety has receded.”

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