Trump said he wanted to maintain a military presence, despite saying the invasion of Iraq was ‘one of the greatest mistakes’
Donald Trump wants to keep US troops in Iraq, in order to “watch” Iran.
Related: Super Bowl: Donald Trump would have 'hard time' letting son play football
Continue reading...Pentagon is still investigating misconduct claims that scuppered rear admiral’s attempt to head Veterans Affairs
President Donald Trump has appointed his former doctor to be his assistant and chief medical adviser.
Saturday’s announcement by the White House follows Trump’s decision to re-nominate Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson for a second star due to inaction by the previous Congress.
Continue reading...‘Remain in Mexico’ policy is also a human rights violation that is ‘throwing the entire system into chaos’, said Margaret Huang
The Trump administration’s “remain in Mexico” policy aimed at deterring asylum seekers, especially at the southern border, is illegal and a human rights violation, the head of Amnesty International in the United States has said.
Related: Ice force-feeds immigrants inside Texas detention center
Continue reading...As the president offers a sympathetic ear – and policies to match – critics see a de facto advisory committee, violating federal law
The US health secretary sat for an interview with a man experts say is the leader of a hate group known for “defaming gays and lesbians”, just two days after Karen Pence, the US second lady, was criticized for teaching at a Christian school that bans homosexuality.
Alex Azar, secretary of health and human services, was interviewed by the Family Research Council President, Tony Perkins, at an anti-abortion event called ProLifeCon in mid-January.
Continue reading...Embattled president warns Donald Trump he risks turning country into new Vietnam
Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, has accused Donald Trump and a “group of extremists around him” of plotting to topple him in order to seize Venezuela’s oil, and warned he risked transforming the South American country into a new Vietnam.
In a four-minute Facebook video – published as Venezuela prepared on Wednesday for a day of fresh pro-opposition protests – Maduro said the leaders of the US “empire” were conspiring “to get their hands on our oil – just like they did in Iraq and in Libya”.
Continue reading...Government employees – especially in science, research and technology – could find higher pay and more stability
The longest government shutdown in US history has come to an end, but experts fear its long-term consequences will include a brain drain among professionals who won’t want to work for a federal government they can’t count on to stay open.
The pain of the shutdown and fear of another one may drive away current and would-be government employees – especially those in highly skilled fields such as science, research and technology who can often command bigger paychecks in the private sector.
Continue reading...
George Papadopoulos, the former Trump campaign aide who served a brief prison stint for lying to FBI agents in the Russia investigation, has a new job at a medical marijuana company.
Papadopoulos joins a medical marijuana startup https://t.co/oIAw6Jzcqs
Coffee magnate Howard Schultz will take his time to decide to pursue a third party presidential bid. The former Starbucks CEO has become a lightning rod on the left in recent days with his public musing about running as an independent.
New: @HowardSchultz may not decide on a presidential run until "summer or fall," his political adviser Bill Burton tells me.https://t.co/0nYekuZNUD
Continue reading...
Thanks for staying with us through another eventful day. We’ll see you tomorrow.
The Guardian’s Erin Durkin is at former Starbucks CEO and possible independent 2020 presidential candidate Howard Schultz’s first stop of his book tour, which has turned into a town hall of sorts.
Speaking at a New York Barnes and Noble, he ruled out any possibility that he would run as a Democrat, despite his life-long affiliation with the party.
In 2020, the great likelihood is that an independent would just split the anti-Trump vote and end up re-electing the President. That's a risk I refused to run in 2016 and we can't afford to run it now. https://t.co/SmHM6cYUg7 pic.twitter.com/iQ2CK5o2k6
Howard Schultz doesn’t have the “guts” to run for President! Watched him on @60Minutes last night and I agree with him that he is not the “smartest person.” Besides, America already has that! I only hope that Starbucks is still paying me their rent in Trump Tower!
Continue reading...Christoph Flügge warns over ‘shocking’ moves by Trump administration and Turkey
A senior judge has resigned from one of the UN’s international courts in The Hague citing “shocking” political interference from the White House and Turkey.
Christoph Flügge, a German judge, claimed the US had threatened judges after moves were made to examine the conduct of US soldiers in Afghanistan.
Continue reading...The Trump administration has lifted sanctions on three companies, including the aluminum giant Rusal, linked to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Democrats had led a push in Congress to continue the restrictions.
Related: 'Sex trainer' who said she could prove Russia meddled in US election freed
Continue reading...Beginning with Richard Nixon in the early 1970s, the former adviser for Donald Trump has made a career of ruthless campaigning
The raid happened before dawn, a Swat team of heavily-armed FBI agents in camouflage uniforms rushing between Florida palm trees to confront their target. The spectacle was laden with melodrama, surprisingly so given who had ordered it: Robert Mueller, the special counsel in the Russia investigation who has turned understatement into an art form.
Related: Roger Stone says he won't testify against Trump after Mueller indictment
Continue reading...Roger Stone, a longtime ally of the US president, says he has been falsely accused of lying to the House intelligence committee and will plead not guilty to the charges filed against him. Stone told reporters outside Fort Lauderdale courthouse in Florida: 'There is no circumstance whatsoever under which I will bear false witness against the president, nor will I make up lies to ease the pressure on myself'
Continue reading...Longtime Trump ally appeared in federal court on Friday after being arrested in Florida on seven charges including obstruction
Roger Stone has apparently called into InfoWars, the website-cum-radio show of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
The InfoWars website seems to be having some problems, so I couldn’t listen in. But Paul Joseph Watson, InfoWars editor-at-large and noted crank, says Stone told the website:
Stone says just before 6am 29 agents burst into home w weapons, allowed him to dress, scared death out of his wife, taken to FBI Miami Dade, where he says agents treated him very well, then did bond hearing - shackled hands and feet - Special Counsel and US atty there, $250k bail https://t.co/HyKA5Fmmlt
Of course, Roger Stone wasn’t the only Trump ally appearing in federal court this morning.
Around the same time Stone was shuffling into Fort Lauderdale court in chains, Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, was in the US District Court for the District of Columbia in Washington DC.
His eyes tired and his hair streaked with grey, Paul Manafort looked morose and walked gingerly, with a limp, during his first court appearance in months on Friday.
The former Donald Trump campaign chairman, imprisoned in Virginia as he awaits sentencing, wore a suit and was not handcuffed during the hour-long hearing at the US District Court for the District of Columbia in Washington, which focused mainly on procedure.
Continue reading...Senator Michael Bennet, a Colorado Democrat, delivers a powerful speech on the impact of the US government shutdown, having been provoked by the Republican Ted Cruz's apparent concerns for emergency workers
Warning that ‘We are like passengers on the Titanic, ignoring the iceberg ahead’ in face of nuclear arms and climate change threats
The risk to global civilisation from nuclear weapons and climate change remains at an all-time high, according to a group of prominent US scientists and former officials, who said the world’s predicament had become the “new abnormal”.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced that its symbolic “doomsday clock”, unveiled every year, was stuck at two minutes to midnight, the same as last January. The only other time the Bulletin has judged the world as being this close to catastrophe was 1953, in the early volatile stages of the cold war.
Continue reading...As the longest US government shutdown continues, unpaid workers are feeling the strain. Hundreds of thousands of federal employees have gone without pay for weeks
Continue reading...Mike Pence, the US vice-president, has issued a video message offering the country's ’unwavering support’ to Venezuelans protesting against President Nicolás Maduro.
‘We stand with you, and we will stay with you until democracy is restored,’ Pence said on the eve of demonstrations expected to take place across the country. Maduro has accused Washington of trying to force a coup
Continue reading...Two years since his inauguration, millions of Americans have built on recent movements such as Black Lives Matter to rally, march and strike against the president
For 125 days last year, Ashley Weitz stood with her four-year-old son on a quiet corner near their home in Salt Lake City for one hour daily to protest Donald Trump.
This was unusual for a woman who had mostly ignored the wall-to-wall coverage of Trump’s unprecedented behavior in the White House, occupied instead by the full-time task of being a disabled, single mother. But when his administration separated thousands of migrant children from their parents at the border last summer as part of its immigration crackdown, Weitz erupted – a line had been crossed and she felt acutely the privilege in her life.
Continue reading...In the two years since he took office, the US president has repeatedly deployed a number of tactics to try to get what he wants. We highlight five of Trump's most commonly used methods to make them easier to spot during the rest of his term
Continue reading...Turkish president tells Donald Trump he is ready to send troops into US-overseen areas
The threat of a growing security vacuum in Syria as a result of Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw US troops has been underlined by an attack on a joint US-Kurdish patrol, which reportedly killed five people and injured at least two American soldiers.
The attack on Monday, in which a suicide bomber drove a car into a checkpoint, emphasised the vulnerability of American troops since the US president declared he was withdrawing 2,000 soldiers from northern Syria on the grounds that Islamic State has been defeated.
Continue reading...