First Thing: Trump launches wide-ranging and unverified attack on integrity of US electoral system

Donald Trump after addressing the nation from in the East Room of the White House. Photograph: Saul Loeb/CNP Pool/Shutterstock View image in fullscreen Donald Trump after addressing the nation from in the East Room of the White House. Photograph: Saul Loeb/CNP Pool/Shutterstock First Thing: Trump launches wide-ranging and unverified attack on integrity of US electoral system US president accused China of meddling in his 2020 election defeat and said system was ‘catastrophically’ unfair. Plus Christopher Nolan’s epic take on The Odyssey hits the big screen Good morning. Donald Trump accused China of interfering with the 2020 election in a primetime televised address that laid bare his continuing obsession with his defeat to Joe Biden, but which opponents warned was a smokescreen for him to meddle in the forthcoming congressional midterms. Trump’s claims are unverified. In a 25-minute speech, the US president cast extraordinary doubts on the integrity of the US electoral process, saying it was “catastrophically” short of standards of fairness and trust, while vulnerable to trespassing by foreign powers. Democrats warned that Trump was trying to sow confusion, spread misinformation and lay the groundwork to challenge the results of the midterm elections. What was the aim of Trump’s address? In this analysis piece , Sam Levine explains how the president is using his office and US intelligence agencies to try to undermine confidence in elections. Instead of offering smoking-gun evidence, the release of new papers seemed to be a return to a classic Trump strategy of flooding the zone with information in an attempt to muddy the waters. What did US networks do about broadcasting Trump’s allegations? The US’s largest television stations split on whether to air Trump’s White House address, which was filled with unproven accusations. While CNN, ABC and NBC chose not to air the speech live, CBS, Fox News and MS Now (formerly MSNBC) aired at least large portions of the speech live. ‘Enemies of civilization’: top Trump officials launch sweeping attack on left View image in fullscreen Marco Rubio arrives to speak during the meeting. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters In another prong of the administration’s attack on its opponents, top Trump officials hosted a gathering of 66 nations on Thursday to discuss the supposed threat of leftwing violence . The conference, convened by Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, and attended by Stephen Miller, a top Trump adviser, and Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, was billed as a “ministerial on the resurgence of political violence”. The focus was solely on crushing leftist violence. It came as Donald Trump ramped up his efforts to label his political opponents, and a rising number of politicians identified with the Democratic Socialists of America, as “communists”. The officials did not mention episodes of rightwing attacks, such as the 6 January riot on Capitol Hill. What did Rubio say? “They can call themselves anti