A US federal judge has ordered former White House counsel Donald McGahn to appear before Congress in a setback to Donald Trump’s effort to keep his top aides from giving evidence.

A presidential advisory panel says telephone information collected in bulk by the National Security Agency and used in terror investigations “was not essential to preventing attacks” and has proposed sweeping changes to US government surveillance programmes.

The US National Security Agency’s bulk collection of phone records violates the Constitution’s ban on unreasonable searches, a judge has ruled. He put his decision on hold pending a nearly certain government appeal.

A US judge has ordered the military to release a Guantanamo Bay detainee who was arrested in Pakistan when he was 14.