Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Recent tragic events have, critics say, displayed once again the moral collapse of one of America’s two great parties
Presidential addresses in the wake of national tragedies are typically attempts to heal and unite. For critics of Donald Trump, it was more a case of wondering how much more damage he might do.
Standing in the diplomatic reception room at the White House after a weekend of bloodshed in America, the US president declared: “In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry, and white supremacy.”
Trump has turned his attention away from the shootings if his Twitter feed is any indication.
The president has instead been busy attacking China for harming America’s economy and repeating the (false) claim that US consumers are not covering the cost of his trade war:
....used currency manipulation to steal our businesses and factories, hurt our jobs, depress our workers’ wages and harm our farmers’ prices. Not anymore!
Another Democratic presidential candidate, Cory Booker, has dismissed Trump’s statement on the shootings this morning as woefully lacking.
The New Jersey senator specifically cited Trump’s focus on mental illness in his remarks. “Mental illness didn’t kill the people of Dayton,” Booker said. “People are too easily getting their hands on guns.”
As Trump carries on with his rally in North Carolina, we’re going to wrap up the liveblog for today. Check The Guardian’s homepage for updates.
Congressman Will Hurd of Texas, a critic of Trump and one of the few Republican lawmakers who voted to condemn Trump’s racist attacks, announced that he will not be seeking reelection in order to “pursue opportunities outside the halls of Congress”.
I have made the decision to not seek reelection for the 23rd Congressional District of Texas in order to pursue opportunities outside the halls of Congress to solve problems at the nexus between technology and national security. https://t.co/GeZ4Hh264f
Marianne Williamson was the most-searched candidate during the live broadcast, according to Google. The New Age author was widely written off as a joke when she entered the Democratic presidential contest and, while she remains a fringe candidate, she received praise for her answers last night on race, environmental justice and slavery reparations. Here is a look at her best moments during the debate
The president called himself ‘the least racist person’ after he was accused of racist behaviour once again. In his comments on Tuesday, Trump also accused one of the people he has attacked, the Rev Al Sharpton, of being a racist and claimed his presidency has been a success for African Americans
The Rev Al Sharpton has addressed Donald Trump’s attack on the Maryland representative Elijah Cummings and his district of Baltimore. Speaking to reporters, the longtime activist said the president had attacked Cummings and his constituents ‘in the most bigoted and racist way’. Earlier on Monday Trump attacked Baltimore, the home city of Cummings, saying that it is ‘a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess’, adding that it was ‘the worst run and most dangerous [district] anywhere in the United States’
Dan Coats to go next month after turbulent two years of disagreements with president
Dan Coats, one of the most senior national security officials willing to contradict Donald Trump, will leave the post of US director of national intelligence next month, the president has said.
Trump said Coats would go on 15 August and that he will nominate John Ratcliffe, a Texas representative and staunch loyalist, to the post.
The president is celebrating the supreme court’s decision to allow him to spend $2.5bn on the border wall:
Wow! Big VICTORY on the Wall. The United States Supreme Court overturns lower court injunction, allows Southern Border Wall to proceed. Big WIN for Border Security and the Rule of Law!
This wall won't make anyone any more secure. It's a futile exercise to massage your ego, and advance your racist agenda.
We should be spending this $2.5bn of our tax payers money on housing for homeless people, mental health for veterans, and healthcare for those who are unwell.
The case is not about whether the challenged border barrier construction plan is wise or unwise. It is not about whether the plan is the right or wrong policy response to existing conditions at the southern border of the United States. Instead, this case presents strict legal questions regarding whether the proposed plan for funding border barrier construction exceeds the executive branch’s lawful authority.”
The case the Supreme Court ruled on began after the 35-day partial government shutdown that started in December of last year. Trump ended the shutdown in February after Congress gave him approximately $1.4 billion in border wall funding. But the amount was far less than the $5.7 billion he was seeking, and Trump then declared a national emergency to take cash from other government accounts to use to construct sections of wall.
The money Trump identified includes $3.6 billion from military construction funds, $2.5 billion in Defense Department money and $600 million from the Treasury Department’s asset forfeiture fund.
The Supreme Court has said the Trump administration can spend $2.5bn in Pentagon funds on the border wall:
JUST IN: Supreme Court allows Trump administration to spend $2.5 billion in Pentagon funds on border wall pic.twitter.com/JVxFusMf41
NOW: In a divided decision, the Supreme Court rules the Trump administration can begin using some of the contested federal funds Trump redirected for border wall construction — the court granted the admin's request to stay a lower court injunction https://t.co/SSEU48JLNUpic.twitter.com/DPijozmm8B
Justices Ginsburg, Sotomayor, and Kagan would have denied the stay and left in place the injunction blocking the admin from using the funds while the case went forward; Breyer would have let the govt finalize contracts, but also blocked construction during the litigation
Exclusive: Danielle Stella, reported to support baseless QAnon conspiracy theory, held twice this year over alleged shoplifting
A pro-Trump Republican candidate for Congress who is aiming to unseat Ilhan Omar in Minnesota has been charged with a felony after allegedly stealing from stores.
Trump’s lawyer, Jay Sekulow, said in a statement that Mueller’s testimony revealed the “troubling deficiencies of the special counsel’s investigation.”
“The testimony revealed that this probe was conducted by a small group of politically biased prosecutors who, as hard as they tried, were unable to establish either obstruction, conspiracy, or collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia,” the president’s lawyer said. “The American people understand that this issue is over. They also understand that the case is closed.”
...who, as hard as they tried, were unable to establish either obstruction, conspiracy, or collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. It is also clear that the Special Counsel conducted his two-year investigation unimpeded.
Donald Trump renewed his attack on members of 'the Squad' of Democratic congresswomen of colour on Tuesday, this time targeting representative Rashida Tlaib, calling her 'vicious' and a 'crazed lunatic'. The US president has been engaged in a back-and-forth with the women, following racist tweets he fired off suggesting they return to their countries, though all are American citizens and all but one born in the US
Trump notes that Nigel Farage is in the crowd for his speech to Turning Point USA. "I said 'what's Nigel doing here?' He's a little older than you folks. He's going to work well with Boris. They're going to do tremendous things." He adds: "Boris is good. he'll do a good job."
We’re ending our live coverage for the day, thanks for following along. Tune in tomorrow for what is sure to be a busy day as DC braces for Robert Mueller’s congressional testimony this week. Here are some key events and links from the day:
Here’s a story from today about a neighborhood in Nashville, Tennessee that apparently collectively organized to stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) from detaining a man:
I’m outside a home in Hermitage where neighbors say ICE agents tried to take a man from his home early this morning. Neighbors say the man was in his van with his young son and they stayed there for 4 hours or so. Neighbors say they refused to let agents take the man.
Republican Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana have introduced a resolution that would designate the far-left group Antifa as a hate group.
Trump said during his comments to reporters in the Oval Office that the White House is trying to get rapper A$AP Rockyreleased from Swedish detention.
Pres. Trump on ASAP Rocky's case: "I personally don't know ASAP Rocky, but I can tell you that he has tremendous support. from the African-American community .. and when when I say African-American, I really can really say from everybody in this country because we are all one" pic.twitter.com/D95q2ZMGBc
Representative Ilhan Omar has responded to Donald Trump's criticism of her as well as the chanting of 'send her back', which was heard at a Trump rally in North Carolina. Speaking at Capitol Hill on Thursday, she said 'we have said this president is racist' before later adding that she believes Trump 'is a fascist'.
Earlier, Trump was asked about the crowd's shouting at his rally and claimed that he 'disagrees' with the chanting directed at the Democrat.
Donald Trump has attempted to distance himself from the racist chanting that broke out at his rally in North Carolina on Wednesday. After the president mentioned Democrat Ilhan Omar, the crowd began chanting: 'Send her back'. Speaking in the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump said that he started speaking 'very quickly' in an attempt to defuse the chanting. Adding that: 'I was not happy with it - I disagree with it.'
Trump telling four politicians of color to ‘go back’ to countries they came from shows more than just his own nativist instincts
In an unfashionable corner of Washington, with African American community activists standing behind him, House speaker Paul Ryan described Donald Trump’s view that an American-born judge was not qualified to preside over a case because of his Mexican heritage as the “textbook definition of a racist comment”.
Donald Trump has said that his tweets on Sunday were 'not at all' racist after he was questioned by the media as he walked up the podium at his Made in America showcase speech.
On Sunday, the US president used racist language to attack four progressive Democratic congresswomen, telling them to 'go back and help fix the totally broken and crime[-]infested places from which they came'. Trump did not name his targets, but the attack was directed at a group of liberal congresswomen who have had a run-in with the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and who are sometimes referred to as 'the Squad': Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota
After an explosive leak, the British ambassador resigned. The special relationship has been propelled into a strange and uncertain new era
Donald Trump, president and showman, was staging a military pageant to celebrate the Fourth of July and independence from the British empire. George Washington’s soldiers, he told a rainsoaked crowd in Washington, toppled a statue of King George and melted it into bullets for battle.