Donald Trump has said he “approves a deal in concept” that will allow TikTok to continue to operate in the US, after threatening to ban the Chinese-owned app.
Related: China attacks US 'bullying' over ban on Tiktok and WeChat
Continue reading...Donald Trump’s decision to ban downloads of the Chinese-owned platform prompts realignment of tech space
TikTok users in the United States have reacted with a collective shrug to Donald Trump’s decision to ban new downloads of the video-sharing app, but many are already planning an exit to other platforms should the clampdown lead to an outright ban.
“Oh my God! Ok! It’s happening! Everybody stay calm!” TikToker Nick Foster told his 577,000 followers, dubbing a video of himself with audio of actor Steve Carell’s character on the series The Office panicking during a fire alarm.
Continue reading...The most prominent US agency for delivering public health advice on Friday reversed key guidelines about who should get tested for coronavirus that were published just a month ago.
Related: Trump under fire for 'shocking' Covid failures as ex-adviser turns against him
Continue reading...The president announced the 1776 Commission, which would teach students ‘about the miracle of American history’
Donald Trump on Thursday launched an extraordinary attack on American education at a history conference in Washington DC, downplaying America’s historic legacy of slavery and claiming children have been subjected to “decades of leftwing indoctrination”.
Speaking at what was dubbed the White House Conference on American History, the president intensified efforts to appeal to his core base of white voters with a historically revisionist speech, while blasting efforts to address systemic racism as divisive.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Amy Dorris alleges Trump forced his tongue down her throat and groped her at 1997 US Open
A former model has come forward to accuse Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her at the US Open tennis tournament more than two decades ago, in an alleged incident that left her feeling “sick” and “violated”.
In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Amy Dorris alleged that Trump accosted her outside the bathroom in his VIP box at the tournament in New York on 5 September 1997.
Continue reading...Exclusive: tech firm Palantir has come under fire for links to Trump’s drive to eject migrants
The government has awarded oversight of the UK’s post-Brexit border and customs data to Palantir, an American tech firm notorious for assisting the Trump administration’s drive to deport migrants from the US.
Palantir, whose co-founder Peter Thiel has been a vocal supporter of Trump, was formally awarded a contract last week to manage the data analytics and architecture of the UK’s new “border flow tool”, which will collate data on the transit of goods and customs from 31 December, according to a Cabinet Office document seen by the Guardian.
Continue reading...Rarely used charge means a person plotted a threat that posed imminent danger to government authority
William Barr told prosecutors to explore aggressive charges against people arrested at recent demonstrations across the US, even suggesting bringing a rarely used sedition charge, reserved for those who have plotted a threat that posed imminent danger to government authority, according to multiple reports on Wednesday.
The move signals a doubling down on Barr’s aggressive approach to the protests. Barr told US attorneys from across the country during a conference call last week that they should seek to pursue federal charges against people who were arrested at demonstrations, even if state charges could also apply, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The Journal reports that more than 200 people have been charged with federal crimes in relation to the protests, including arson, assault of federal officers and gun crimes. Dozens of the people who face charges were protesting in Portland, Oregon, where protesters held nightly demonstrations and faced violent crackdown from federal agents.
Continue reading...President warns any agreement to continue operating in US must be ‘100% as far as national security is concerned’
Donald Trump has questioned plans by the Chinese tech firm ByteDance to keep a majority stake in TikTok’s US operations as part of a “trusted technology deal” with Oracle.
“Conceptually I can tell you that I don’t like that,” Trump told a news conference when asked about a reported proposal to give Oracle only a minority share. “I’m not prepared to sign off on anything. They’re going to be reporting to me tomorrow morning and I’ll let you know.”
Continue reading...The ‘Abraham accords’ merely make public once-furtive friendships between Israel and Gulf monarchies, while bigger problems remain
The White House was festooned with the flags of four nations. There were trumpet blasts, multiple signatures on various pieces of paper, and much weighty talk about blood and history – everything you might expect from a peace deal.
And not just any peace deal. The agreements signed in Washington on Tuesday were titled the Abraham Accords, implying a epochal reconciliation between Judaism, Islam and Christianity, three faiths with shared Middle East ancestry.
Continue reading...The president admitted to downplaying the virus in interviews with investigative journalist Bob Woodward
Donald Trump falsely claimed he did not downplay the coronavirus pandemic at a town hall Tuesday night, saying, “Actually, in many ways, I up-played it, in terms of action.”
His remarks came in response to an uncommitted voter at the ABC News event, who asked Trump why he would “downplay a pandemic that is known to disproportionately harm low-income families and minority communities”. The president said he did not minimize the threat of the virus: “My action was very strong. I’m not looking to be dishonest. I don’t want people to panic.”
Continue reading...President says he has to ‘do something’ about the body after it rules that duties on $200bn worth of Chinese goods breached regulations
The United States has described the World Trade Organization as “completely inadequate” after it criticised the Trump administration’s tariffs on China.
The WTO said on Tuesday that the US breached global trading rules by imposing levies on more than $200bn of Chinese goods in the opening salvo of president Donald Trump’s trade war with Beijing two years ago.
Continue reading...Donald Trump repeats claims he earlier made online, boasting of winning the 'Bay of Pigs Award' – an honour that doesn't exist. Trump twice visited a Bay of Pigs museum in Miami in 2016, where he received 'a hand-painted Brigade 2506 shield', which his campaign insisted was the award in question. Trump made the claims while courting Latino voters in Nevada, a state where he trails rival Joe Biden in polls, and one where the president failed to overcome Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign
Continue reading...Peter Strzok was removed from Russia investigation and fired by the FBI over text messages critical of Trump
Donald Trump is “compromised by the Russians”, a former member of Robert Mueller’s investigation insisted on Sunday, contending that the president is “incapable of placing the national interest ahead of his own”.
Related: Trump attacks Robert Mueller's 'hit squad' in row over 'wiped' phones
Continue reading...The revelation that Donald Trump deliberately downplayed the coronavirus pandemic forced key aides on to desperate defence on Sunday, barely 50 days from the presidential election.
Related: Roger Stone to Donald Trump: bring in martial law if you lose election
Continue reading...Jean Castex said government not planning return to full lockdown despite surge in cases; Austria extends mask rules
Melbourne residents are experiencing some of the strictest and longest coronavirus lockdown measures in the world as Victoria continues to work to contain a second wave of Covid-19 infections. An overnight curfew from 8pm to 5am is in place, leaving the streets of a once thriving city deserted.
Related: Melbourne’s curfew descends and vibrant city becomes ghost town – in pictures
Saturday’s Mirror splash in the UK.
Saturday’s MIRROR: Virus alert #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/NiJ4gNUL3Z
Continue reading...Brian Murphy claims he was demoted for refusing to accept fabrication of intelligence to match Donald Trump’s rhetoric
Trump loyalists running the Department of Homeland Security manipulated intelligence reports to play down the threat of Russian election interference and white supremacists and exaggerate the threat of antifa and anarchist groups, according to the department’s former top intelligence official.
The official, Brian Murphy, said he was demoted in August from his position running the department’s office of intelligence and analysis because of his refusal to go along with the fabrication of intelligence to match Donald Trump’s rhetoric, and for making formal complaints about the political pressure. He filed a whistleblower reprisal complaint on Tuesday.
Continue reading...The president’s fixer wanted to be a Goodfella but ended up taking a fall. His revenge is a tawdrily readable tell-all memoir
Michael Cohen is no saint. Aside from the obvious, Donald Trump’s former fixer has never entered into a formal cooperation agreement with federal prosecutors, a fact duly noted by the US attorneys’ office for the southern district of New York in its sentencing memorandum. Because of that, the “inability to fully vet his criminal history and reliability impact his utility as a witness”.
Related: Michael Cohen book details Trump's racism and toxic family dynamic
Continue reading...As the US election draws closer, the Guardian’s Ed Pilkington hears from civil leaders on their fears for the integrity of the process and the future of their democracy
When Barack Obama spoke at the Democratic national convention recently he had as his backdrop a facsimile of the US constitution. He spoke pointedly about the importance of that document and criticised Donald Trump, a reality TV star who had damaged the reputation of the United States with “our democratic institutions threatened like never before”.
It is a concern shared by many across the US and the Guardian’s Ed Pilkington tells Anushka Asthana that he was alarmed by what he heard in interviews with some of the most prominent figures in civil rights, the law and academia on the state of democracy in America. He spoke to Michael Waldman, the head of the Brennan Center for Justice; Derrick Johnson, the president of the NAACP; Deirdre Schifeling, the campaign director of Democracy For All 2021; K. Sabeel Rahman, the head of Demos, and Vanita Gupta, the president and chief executive of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. All told him versions of the same story: democracy in America is in peril like never before.
Continue reading...In August the US president said New Zealand was seeing a ‘big surge’ in cases, but it only reminded people of how well they had done
Following comments by Donald Trump that New Zealand was dealing with a “big surge” of new Covid-19 cases, Kiwis have snapped back with some light social media trolling under the hashtag #NZhellhole, which has trended at number two on New Zealand Twitter.
Continue reading...Some service members expressed skepticism after bombshell report prompted an outpouring of condemnation
Donald Trump was struggling to retain support of active US service members, according to polls, even before last week’s bombshell report that the commander-in-chief referred to fallen and captured US service members as “losers” and “suckers”. But some veterans and military family members remain conflicted.
Related: Trump called American war dead ‘suckers’ and ‘losers', report claims
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