Blinken says the US is working “24/7” with Qatar, Egypt and Israel on reaching a ceasefire and hostage-release agreement.

He says there is a “very serious” offer for Hamas on the table that “should be accepted”, adding that he believes that the fact that Hamas has not said yes “is a reflection of what it really thinks about the people of Gaza – which is not much at all”.

The ball is in Hamas’s court. The world is watching to see what it does.

Cameron, asked about his meeting with Donald Trump on Monday, says it was an “entirely proper” meeting that was in line with precedent of UK ministers speaking with opposition politicians in the run-up to elections.

The UK foreign secretary says it was a “private” meeting and that he and Trump “discussed a range of important geopolitical subjects”.

David Cameron starts his remarks off by saying that there is no closer alliance for the UK than its partnership with the US.

“In a time of danger like this international affairs, close alliances really matter,” the UK foreign secretary says.

In terms of support for Ukraine, Cameron says:

We know what they need, and we know what is right for us. We know that if we give the Ukrainians the support they deserve, they can win this war.

Citing the Ukrainian foreign minister, Cameron says Ukraine needs air defenses, ammunition and money. He says it is important to send a clear message to all those around the world, including China, that the US and UK stands by its allies. Cameron says:

Nothing is more important than the supplemental request the Congress is looking at the moment. I come here with no intention to lecture anybody or tell anybody what to do or get in the way of the process of politics. I just come here as a great friend and believer in this country and a believer that it’s profoundly in your interest, and your security, and your future, and the future for all your partners to release this money and let it through.

Blinken says it is “imperative” now that the House is back in session to get a vote on Ukraine aid “as quickly as possible”.

The supplemental budget request that President Biden has made to Congress is “urgent”, he says.

Blinken says there has been genuine burden-sharing among the US and European and international allies in terms of support for Ukraine. “We need to continue to do our part,” he says.

Antony Blinken begins the news conference by saying he and Britain’s foreign secretary, David Cameron, reaffirmed the imperative of continuing to support and help Ukraine defend itself against the ongoing Russian aggression.

The secretary of state says the UK has been an “extraordinary leader” in the effort to support Ukraine from day one, including by imposing sanctions and export controls on Russia.

Blinken says he and Cameron discussed ways to strengthen efforts to prevent the transfer of weapons and materials to Russia for use in Ukraine. “This is an ongoing challenge,” he says.

We see weapons and technologies to support the defense industrial base in Russia coming from North Korea from Iran from China. This is an area of particular concern for not only the United States and the United Kingdom, but many of our allies and partners throughout Europe.

The UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, and the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, are due to hold a joint press conference at 11:15am ET following talks in Washington about support for Ukraine and bringing stability to the Middle East.

Cameron also met with Donald Trump ahead of his meeting with Blinken in an attempt to persuade the presumptive Republican presidential candidate to drop his opposition to a new package of aid for Ukraine that is being held up in Congress partly on Trump’s instruction.

Though it is called “natural gas” by industry interests, gas is primarily made of methane, a greenhouse gas 80 times more planet-warming in the short term that has also been linked to asthma and other health risks.

“There is no such thing as clean methane gas,” Caleb Heeringa of the Gas Leaks Project shouted at a protest in Washington DC to demand that gas utilities stop using ratepayer dollars to fund their political agendas.

Attendees included actors from the Gas Leak Project’s recently launched Hot & Toxic campaign, a faux reality show which parodies the marketing of gas stoves. Dressed in brightly colored outfits, they cheered when protesters mentioned pollutants such as carbon monoxide and benzene and pretended to try and snatch the banner away.

Authorities quickly asked the protesters to vacate the American Gas Association’s premises, so they relocated in front of the Capitol building.

The Gas Leaks project on Tuesday also launched DitchTheAGA.com, a website allowing viewers to determine if their utility is a member of the American Gas Association. If the answer is “yes”, users can also easily email their local officials to demand that the utility cut ties.

At noon, the group will hold a press conference with Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts.

Protesters gathered in Washington DC on Tuesday to demand that gas utilities stop using ratepayer dollars to fund their political agendas.

The demonstration took place outside the headquarters of the lobbying organization the American Gas Association, which represents nearly every gas utility in the country.

“We won’t pay for the AGA,” protesters cried.

The trade group, funded in part by utility bills paid to its members, has come under fire for successfully working to strip decarbonization measures from building codes and lobbying against an array of climate-friendly policies.

The protesters, convened by the anti-gas nonprofit The Gas Leaks Project, held a banner that said Ditch the AGA and signs that said “American Gaslighting Association”.

Patrick Wintour

David Cameron is scheduled to hold talks with the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, in Washington on Tuesday. Although they have much to discuss covering the future of Nato, China and a possible ceasefire in Gaza, the foreign secretary’s key goal is to shift Republican thinking in Congress on the relevance of the threat posed by Russia to American interests.

A steady stream of European politicians have travelled to Washington on similar missions, only to return frustrated at the growing US indifference to Ukraine’s fate.

The Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, has so far declined to allow the Ukraine aid issue onto the floor of the Congress, but has indicated he might do so next week when Congress returns from recess. In February, the speaker refused to consider a Senate-passed foreign aid package that would have included $60bn for Ukraine because it lacked measures relating to security on the US-Mexico border.

A key test for Cameron’s trip is whether he gains meetings with the swing Republican congressmen including Johnson. At present no meeting with Johnson is slated for Tuesday.

Talks will also focus on the Middle East, with the foreign secretary expected to set out the UK’s reasoning for not suspending arms sales to Israel.

Patrick Wintour

The risk is that past bad blood between David Cameron and Donald Trump over issues such as Brexit have poisoned the well, and Cameron, for all his persuasive skills, is not the British political leader most likely to make Trump change his mind and drop his opposition to a new Ukraine aid package.

Trump has said he can negotiate a peace deal on Ukraine in 24 hours. His allies say the deal will involve ceding Crimea and the Donbas region to Russia, formalizing the land grab that Vladimir Putin started in 2014 and continued with the full-scale invasion in 2022.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said on Sunday that Ukraine would lose the war if US aid was withheld and Ukrainian air cover not improved.

“Success for Ukraine and failure for [Vladimir] Putin are vital for American and European security,” Cameron said before his trip.

This will show that borders matter, that aggression doesn’t pay and that countries like Ukraine are free to choose their own future. The alternative would only encourage Putin in further attempts to redraw European borders by force, and would be heard clearly in Beijing, Tehran and North Korea.

Earlier this year, he warned Congress not to show “the weakness displayed against Hitler” in the 1930s.

Cameron is also arguing that Ukraine has shown time and again that if it is given the resources it can succeed and would be ready to “go on the offensive” in 2025.

Aware that Trump believes Europe does not pull its weight in defending itself, Cameron is armed with statistics to show more than $184bn (£145bn) has already been committed to Ukraine by European nations including more than $15bn (nearly £12bn) from the UK.

David Cameron meets Trump amid push to shore up Ukraine support

Patrick Wintour

The UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, has taken the unusual and potentially risky step of travelling to see Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida before a visit to Washington DC on Tuesday.

Cameron was hoping to persuade the presumptive Republican presidential candidate to drop his opposition to a new package of aid for Ukraine that is being held up in Congress partly on Trump’s instruction.

It is Cameron’s second visit to the US to try to convince Republicans that it is in America’s national interest for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, not to make any further military advances in Ukraine.

In a statement on Monday, a UK Foreign Office spokesperson played down the rarity of a Conservative foreign secretary trying to persuade a Republican not to make concessions to Russia over the future of Europe. The Foreign Office said it was “standard practice for ministers to meet opposition candidates as part of their routine international engagement”.

Although Conservative politicians have met Trump, as has his great ally Nigel Farage, Monday’s meeting was the first between a senior UK minister and Trump since he left office insisting that the presidential election had been stolen from him.