Category Archives: Trump administration

Trump’s plan to sign antisemitism order raises fears it could stifle Israel criticism

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Executive order could redefine Judaism as a race or nationality, which critics argue is itself antisemitic

Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order on Wednesday targeting antisemitism on college campuses.

First reported by the New York Times, the policy would broaden the federal definition of antisemitism, according to administration officials who spoke to various news outlets on condition of anonymity. By expanding protections granted by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to people subjected to antisemitism, the order could also redefine Judaism as a race or nationality.

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Trump: Kim Jong-un risks losing everything if he acts ‘in a hostile way’

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Donald Trump said on Sunday North Korean leader Kim Jong-un risks losing “everything” and his country must denuclearize, after the North said it had carried out a “successful test of great significance”.

“Kim Jong-un is too smart and has far too much to lose, everything actually, if he acts in a hostile way. He signed a strong Denuclearization Agreement with me in Singapore,” Trump said on Twitter, referring to his first summit with Kim in 2018.

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Impeachment inquiry: Nadler may add Mueller counts against Trump

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The Democratic chairman of the House judiciary committee, Jerry Nadler, has not ruled out including evidence from the Mueller report in articles of impeachment against Donald Trump that could be published as early as next week.

On Sunday, Nadler told CNN’s State of the Union evidence showed the president’s conduct in the Ukraine scandal was part of “a pattern”, indicating “that the president put himself above this country several times”.

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Ukraine’s new president comes face to face with Putin in Paris

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Volodymyr Zelenskiy to meet Russian counterpart at summit on Kyiv’s five-year war with Russian separatists

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, faces a major test at a high-stakes summit with Vladimir Putin in Paris as he pursues a campaign promise to negotiate an end to the war in south-east Ukraine despite vocal opposition at home.

Zelenskiy and his Russian counterpart will meet at the Élysée Palace on Monday alongside European leaders for their first face-to-face talks since the comedian-turned-president took office in May.

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Back to the border of misery: Amexica revisited 10 years on

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A decade after publishing his vivid account of the places and people most affected by the US-Mexican ‘war on drugs’, Ed Vulliamy returns to the frontline to see how life has changed

If you drink the water in Ciudad Juárez, there you’ll stay, goes the saying – Se toma agua de Juárez, allí se queda. It’s not a reference to the quality of drinking water (about which polemic abounds because it is so dirty) but to the beguiling lure of this dusty and dangerous yet strong and charismatic city. It’s a dictum that might be applied to the whole 2,000-mile Mexico-US borderland of which Juárez and its sister city on the US side, El Paso, form the fulcrum.

Ten years ago, I returned from several months’ immersion along that frontier, reporting on a narco-cartel war for this newspaper and eventually writing a book, Amexica, about the terrain astride the border, land that has a single identity – that belongs to both countries and yet to neither. A frontier at once porous and harsh: across which communities live and a million people traverse every day, legally, as do hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of goods annually.

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Trump impeachment inquiry: House judiciary committee releases report

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The House judiciary committee released a report on the constitutional grounds for impeachment on Saturday. Shortly after that, Donald Trump once again insisted the whole thing was a “witch hunt” and “a total hoax”.

Related: White House dismisses invitation to take part in key impeachment hearing

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US considers putting Amazon overseas websites on counterfeit blacklist – report

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Amazon says in response it ‘strictly prohibits’ counterfeit products and invests heavily to protect customers from them



The Trump administration is considering putting some of Amazon.com Inc’s overseas websites on a list of global marketplaces known for counterfeit goods, the Wall Street Journal has reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The action would be taken by the US Trade Representative’s Office through its annual “notorious markets” list, the report said, adding that no decisions had been made and that similar proposals last year were eventually discarded.

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Trump says people flush the toilet 10 times and seeks solution

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The president announced he had issued an order to review water-saving regulations for bathroom facilities

Americans are in the midst of a toilet-flushing epidemic, according to the president.

Speaking to the press on Friday, with the hammer of impeachment poised to fall and countless domestic and international crises to consider, Donald Trump took on a pressing enemy: poor water pressure caused by conservation laws.

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Nearly 700,000 Americans to lose food stamps under new Trump policy

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Move will limit states from exempting work-eligible adults from having to maintain steady employment to receive benefits

Hundreds of thousands of Americans who rely on the federal food stamp program will lose their benefits under a new Trump administration rule that will tighten work requirements for recipients.

The move by the administration is the latest in its attempt to scale back the social safety net for low-income Americans. It is the first of three proposed rules targeting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as Snap, to be finalized. The program feeds more than 36 million people.

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Donald Trump says Taliban talks back on in surprise Afghanistan visit

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  • President makes Thanksgiving visit to airbase near Kabul
  • Confirms talks with extremists have resumed

Donald Trump made an unannounced visit to US troops in Afghanistan on Thursday, his first visit to the country where the US has been at war since late 2001.

Related: Fired navy secretary blasts Trump over 'shocking' handling of Navy seal case

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As Hong Kong suffers, China risks losing its financial window on the world

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The territory’s recession is getting deeper and the US is threatening its special trading status, bringing serious consequences for Beijing

Almost six months after the protest movement that has upended life in Hong Kong began, the region is now facing serious questions about its future as Asia’s leading international business centre.

The most recent violence in the autonomous Chinese region have been the worst disturbances of the six-month long pro-democracy protests. US lawmakers have passed legislation threatening Hong Kong’s special trading status and the territory has slumped into its worst recession for 10 years.

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Trump impeachment inquiry: justice department appeals ruling Don McGahn must testify – live news

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A court ordered the former press secretary to defy a White House attempt to stop him testifying to Congress saying ‘The president is not a king’

When the FiveThirtyEight polling average on impeachment dipped by a few points last week, Trump’s allies rushed to claim that the slight decline was evidence of the American public turning against the inquiry.

But additional polls appear to have debunked that claim. It seems the recent damning testimony from current and former Trump officials like Gordon Sondland and Fiona Hill has not moved the needle much, with around half of Americans supporting the impeachment of the president.

Finally getting a few more impeachment polls and the notion that the numbers are moving against Democrats isn't looking so hot. +4 spread on supporting impeachment/removal, which is similar to the peak in October.https://t.co/Tj71WyGT4x pic.twitter.com/S7iUHaRdlX

Secretary of state Mike Pompeo has announced he will deliver remarks to the media at 11 a.m. ET. It’s unclear whether Pompeo will also take questions from reporters, who would inevitably ask about the cabinet member’s role in the Ukraine controversy.

pic.twitter.com/Vw2uGpv8GO

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Self-confessed liar Sarah Sanders says: ‘I don’t like being called a liar’

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  • Trump’s ex-press secretary says: ‘I was attacked for everything’
  • Sanders admitted Comey statement was ‘founded on nothing’

Sarah Sanders, the former White House press secretary who admitted to Robert Mueller that she lied to reporters, told the New York Times: “I don’t like being called a liar.”

Related: Trump impeachment: Republicans dig in as hopes of bipartisan support dashed

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Trump impeachment: Republicans dig in as hopes of bipartisan support dashed

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Congressional Republicans dug deep in defense of Donald Trump over the weekend, frustrating Democratic hopes that the impeachment inquiry would build bipartisan support following weeks of testimony laying out how Trump attempted to extract a political “favor” from Ukraine in exchange for official acts.

Related: Trump impeachment: Schiff calls on Bolton to testify and slams Republicans

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Trump impeachment: Schiff calls on Bolton to testify and slams Republicans

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House intelligence committee chairman Adam Schiff blasted former national security adviser John Bolton on Sunday, for failing to appear for testimony in the impeachment inquiry while teasing a forthcoming memoir.

Related: Not just the facts: Republicans' top six impeachment falsehoods

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Stephen Miller: white nationalist and, still, Trump’s immigration guru

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The revelation of an email trove in which the White House aide trafficked in far-right ideas provoked outrage but little surprise

The extraordinary email leak came with a sense of inevitability. The senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller promoted white nationalist articles and books in emails to a writer at Breitbart, who after leaving the hard-right website leaked 900 messages to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

It was a discovery that would end the careers of most political figures. But among calls for Miller’s resignation, a common theme emerged: a lack of surprise that the architect of Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda endorsed white supremacist views.

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Trump impeachment: released documents reveal Giuliani-Pompeo links

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Cache published under FOI act show paper trail between Trump’s lawyer and secretary of state to enable Ukraine smear plot

Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani was in contact with secretary of state Mike Pompeo in the months before the US ambassador to Ukraine was abruptly recalled, according to a cache of documents released by on Friday.

The state department released the documents to the group American Oversight in response to a freedom of information lawsuit. They show that Pompeo talked with Giuliani on 26 March and 29 March.

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Donald Trump on impeachment: ‘I want a trial’ – video

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Donald Trump told Fox & Friends he wants to go on trial, which means he would like to be impeached. The president complained that Republicans couldn’t call witnesses during the House impeachment hearings, and suggested a trial would enable him to quiz the whistleblower and Adam Schiff, House intelligence committee chair 

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Impeachment testimony takeaways: Fiona Hill says Ukraine scheme ‘very clear’

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The former National Security Council official provided some of the most explosive testimony yet

The fifth, and possibly final, day of public hearings in the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump was one of the most explosive. Here are five key takeaways:

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Fiona Hill: stop ‘fictional narrative’ of Ukraine meddling in US election

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Former expert on Russia attacked debunked conspiracy theory used to defend Trump against allegations of bribery

Republicans loyal to Donald Trump must stop pushing the “fictional narrative” that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 presidential election because it plays into Vladimir Putin’s hands, the White House’s former top expert on Russia has told the impeachment inquiry in dramatic testimony.

British-born Fiona Hill, appearing in Washington on Thursday, attacked a debunked conspiracy theory used by Republicans to defend the US president against allegations that he sought to bribe Ukraine for his own political gain.

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