It had been billed as Bernie Sanders' big day in Washington. Making a last stand as a presidential candidate, he was set to meet Obama and other Democrats.

She's making history - but not in the way Helen Clark has had to.

Presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton stepped out in Brooklyn, declaring that her primary wins have helped make history as she becomes the first female nominee of a major political party. Source: AP

Hillary Clinton has been part of the United States' national consciousness for so long that it is easy to forget how far she has pushed the edges.

Observers trying to understand Trump's rise have traditionally pointed to two separate but equal drivers of his popularity: economic and racial anxieties.

A growing number of Republican lawmakers and strategists fear that Trump's remarks about minorities and his unorthodox strategy have imperiled his campaign.

COMMENT: Four months of primaries turn out Clinton versus Trump. America has 350 million people - is that the best it can do?

Republican Donald Trump slammed Hillary Clinton's speech on foreign policy that she delivered on Thursday. Trump called Clinton unpresidential and hard to watch. He also compared her to Sominex, claiming her speeches can put people to sleep.

Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking may have a good grasp of the workings of the universe, but he says he can't understand Donald Trump's popularity. Hawking told ITV that he has no explanation for the likely GOP president nominee's success.

Barack Obama has chosen to break an unwritten rule by talking about Donald Trump while on foreign soil, writes Juliet Eilperin.

Today: Donald Trump reaches the number of delegates he needed to secure the party's presidential nomination for the White House and a 31-year-old man has been charged with the murder of Christchurch sex worker Renee Duckmanton. And US President Barack Obama meets with his G7 counterparts in Japan and pushes to finish negotiations on Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership before the end of the year.

Hillary Clinton says Donald Trump's gun policies are "not just way out there" but "dangerous" and would make America less safe.

Hispanics seem to care less than anyone in the US. Even though they make up 17 per cent of the population.

COMMENT: According to the person who may well be the next leader of the free world, the only things that would survive nuclear war are cockroaches and Helen Clark.

What is it going to take for Sanders to convert his impressive but losing campaign into a positive force for his ideas in the future.

The elites in Washington almost uniformly believe Hillary Clinton will be elected president in November. The conventional wisdom underlying coverage of 2016 is that Donald Trump will go down in flames and probably take the Republican Senate with him.

The constant spotlight fixed on Donald Trump for the last year would have overwhelmed any other candidate, particularly one so evasive. But not him.

COMMENT: 20th century totalitarian ideologies of left and right were quasi-religious movements that replaced an absentee God with flesh and blood messiahs.

COMMENT: Trump may be a sinister clown, but he has unleashed a potent strain of resentment among millions of voters who feel cheated by political elites.

Source: AFP

Donald Trump yesterday said he was open to raising taxes on the rich, backing off his prior proposal to reduce taxes on all Americans.

Source: AFP

The Rolling Stones don't want Donald Trump playing their songs. Travis M. Andrews looks at similar cases and what the law says.

When it comes to electing a president, Americans should be spoilt for choice. Instead they will have to choose between two supremely flawed human beings.

COMMENT: Seriously, it's entertainment. For Trump and his supporters, it's entertainment. The presidency will be entertainment for him and them.

COMMENT: We're venturing into the unknown. There have been demagogues in American politics before, but none became a major party's presidential candidate.

Twitter and Instagram users lampooned Ted Cruz today for accidentally elbowing his wife Heidi in the face, moments after dropping out of the presidential race.

Donald Trump has essentially clinched the Republican nomination with his main rival Ted Cruz pulling out of the race.