Fani Willis said she was “very anxious” to testify today, and ran from her office to get to the courtroom when she heard special prosecutor Nathan Wade’s testimony had concluded.

She said she had some “choice words” about the motion to disqualify her from Donald Trump’s election interference case but denies she had any substantive conversation with Wade, or anybody else about it:

I would not have. I don’t believe I’ve had any conversation with him that is substantive related to this.

Willis has adopted a defensive, verging on aggressive stance, and says she takes exception to allegations she slept with Wade the first day she met him, at a conference:

Your motion tried to implicate I slept with him at that conference, which I find to be extremely offensive. Mr Wade was my teacher.

It’s highly offensive when they replicate that you slept with somebody the first day you met with them, and I take exception to this.

Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis has just taken the stand in the election interference case in Georgia.

Almost as soon as she sat down, the judge called a five-minute break for certain documents to be copied and distributed.

She’ll be testifying soon about the nature of her relationship with, and cash payments to special prosecutor Nathan Wade, who wrapped up his lengthy period of testimony just now.

Stick with us…

Nicola Davis

Rumours that Russia is planning to deploy nuclear weapons in space have been dampened down by experts who say that while such technology is possible, there is no need to push the panic button.

The furore kicked off on Wednesday when the head of the US House of Representatives’ intelligence committee, Mike Turner, called for the Biden administration to declassify information on what he called a “serious national security threat”.

While Turner gave no further details, it was later reported by news outlets, citing unnamed sources, to involve Russia’s potential deployment of a nuclear anti-satellite weapon in space. The Kremlin dismissed the claim as a “malicious fabrication”.

Dr Bleddyn Bowen, an associate professor at the University of Leicester who specialises in outer space international relations and warfare, said the the lack of detail was no reason to panic. “It’s so vague and cryptic, it could be a number of different things. [But] no matter what they are, none of them are a big deal, to be honest. Everyone needs to calm down about this.”

Russia is bound by several legal restrictions regarding the use or presence of nuclear weapons in space. Article 4 of the Outer Space treaty (1967) bans nuclear weapons from being put into orbit, installed on celestial bodies or otherwise stationed in outer space, while the New Start treaty aims to reduce the number of deployable nuclear arms. The Partial Nuclear Test Ban treaty (1963) bans nuclear explosions in space.

You can read more here.

The White House just announced that the US will engage with Russia and allies on the Outer Space treaty and has no intention of violating it.

The White House national security spokesman John Kirby is telling reporters gathered in the west wing a little more detail about the “serious national security threat” that emerged into the public eye yesterday.

“It’s not an active capability,” Kirby said, after confirming that the threat was related to “an anti-satellite capability that Russia is developing, while adding that “there is no immediate threat to anyone’s safety.”

Kirby did not elaborate on reports that the new capability is about Russian plans to deploy nuclear weapons in space.

Kirby said Joe Biden has directed a series of actions by the administration, including briefings to congressional leaders and direct diplomatic engagement with Russia about the program.

The administration has not permitted more information to be made public yet, the spokesman said.

It was a surprise yesterday when the head of the House intelligence committee, Mike Turner, called for the Biden administration to declassify information on what he called a “serious national security threat”.

The emerging Russian system can’t directly cause “physical destruction” on Earth, Kirby just said.

Georgia Trump case special prosecutor Nathan Wade told the hearing in Atlanta that his romantic relationship with district attorney Fani Willis ended in the summer of 2023.

He couldn’t tell the court exactly when.

“Forgive me, I’m a man, we don’t do the date thing,” he said.

There then followed an excruciating exchange between the lawyer for one of the defendants in the election interference case that Willis and Wade are leading and Wade.

Nathan asked if the lawyer, who was using euphemism, wanted to know if he was still having “sexual intercourse” with Willis after that indeterminate time in the summer of 2023. The lawyer said he did.

“No,” Wade said.

But he said they remained close friends. He did not think others in the DA’s office knew about their romantic relationship because they worked hard to keep it private.

Sam Levine

We’re back in the hearing in Atlanta after a lunch recess and Craig Gillen, a defense attorney for former Georgia GOP chair David Shafer, is pressing prosecutor Nathan Wade, who is on the stand, on the lack of records showing his boss, district attorney Fani Willis, reimbursed him.

Wade says he didn’t deposit the cash in his bank account and that there’s no records of it. He declined to specify what exactly he would keep the cash

This is a key point of contention because Gillen and other defense lawyers are trying to show that Wade used his income from the Fulton county DA’s office to enrich Willis. Wade and Willis have rebutted that accusation saying they split expenses roughly equally.

Wade was asked if he gave an interview to the author of the book Find Me The Votes. He said he did not. The book discusses Willis’s financial circumstances.

Hello again, US politics live blog readers. It’s been a split-screen day, with hearings in two criminal cases against Donald Trump, one in New York and one in Georgia.

The New York hearing wrapped up and Trump is due to stand trial on March 25, an unprecedented event for a US president. The Georgia misconduct hearing involving the lead prosecutors in the election interference case there has just resumed after lunch.

The White House weekday media briefing has been put back to 1.45pm ET.

Here’s where thing stand:

• Donald Trump spoke outside the court room in New York moments ago, after the 100-minute hearing in his hush money criminal case took place, and as well as blasting this case he accused Joe Biden’s administration, New York district attorney Letitia James and Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg of coordinating legal attacks on him.

• Georgia special prosecutor Nathan Wade is on the stand in Trump’s election interference case in Atlanta, in a misconduct hearing, being asked about trips he took after he and district attorney Fani Willis became romantically involved and, crucially, how such trips were paid for.

• Former Fulton county district attorney’s office employee Robin Yeartie, also previously a friend of Willis, testified that Willis’s romantic relationship with Wade began before he was hired prosecution of Trump. Such details are crucial in the determination of conflicts of interest of which the two are accused by one of the defendants in the case. Yeartie’s testimony directly contradicts Willis’s statement that her personal relationship with Wade didn’t begin until after Wade was hired as special prosecutor in the case against Trump and others.

• Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis is expected to be called to the stand in court in Atlanta, in the misconduct hearing against her and special prosecutor Nathan Wade. It’s expected to be a two-day hearing.

• Judge Juan Merchan informed the hush money hearing in New York that the criminal case against Trump will move forward next month. He denied Trump’s motion to dismiss the case. The trial will begin on March 25.

• Donald Trump turned up at a New York court to attend a hearing in the criminal case in which he is charged in Manhattan Supreme Court with falsifying business records related to his alleged payoffs to cover up extramarital affairs in advance of the 2016 election.

Donald Trump spoke outside the court room in New York moments ago, after the 100-minute hearing in his hush money criminal case took place, and as well as blasting this case he accused Joe Biden’s administration, New York district attorney Letitia James and Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg of coordinating legal attacks on him.

Tomorrow we expect a decision from Judge Arthur Engoron in the civil fraud case brought against Trump, his two older sons Don Jr and Eric and others running the family business empire, the Trump Organization.

Bragg is bringing the prosecution in the hush money case, where jury selection will begin on March 25, the first of the four criminal cases Trump is facing.

As for Washington, Trump has been indicted in two federal criminal cases, one involving election interference culminating in the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, and the other related to, essentially, illegally retaining classified documents after leaving the White House and obstructing government efforts to retrieve them.

The hearing in the Georgia case is now resuming after the lunch break. Simultaneously we are waiting for the daily White House press briefing to begin in the west wing.

Sam Levine

In the Georgia hearing, defendant Michael Roman’s lawyer, Ashleigh Merchant, has been going through vacations prosecutor Nathan Wade and district attorney Fani Willis took together, in painstaking detail.

She’s trying to show that Willis benefitted financially from Wade – something the two prosecutors vehemently deny. Merchant walked through vacations the two took to the central American nation of Belize, Napa Valley in California, and the Caribbean island of Aruba.

“Our relationship wasn’t a secret. It was just private,” he said.

Wade has said that even though they traveled together, they split expenses roughly equally. But Merchant has seized on the fact that Wade has only produced a single receipt showing Willis paying for travel. Wade said he frequently would pay for things and then Willis would reimburse him in cash.

In March of 2023, for example, he paid for a trip to Belize for the two of them. But the trip, Wade testified, was actually a birthday trip for him and Willis wound up reimbursing him in cash for everything.

When they traveled, Wade said the two didn’t keep a ledger over who paid for what, but would roughly split expenses when they traveled.

“She’s a very independent proud woman. She’s going to insist she pays her own way,” she said. “In a relationship, ma’am, particularly men, we don’t go asking back for anything.”

Georgia special prosecutor Nathan Wade is on the stand being asked about trips he took after he and district attorney Fani Willis became romantically involved and, crucially, how such trips were paid for.

Wade is wearing a pale grey suit and looks uncomfortable, but is pushing back on minutiae about whether he did or did not rent a cabin in Tennessee for a stay with Willis, how trips for paid for, who paid whom back and how, that kind of thing.

As the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell, who is also in court, sums up: