A former White House physician who memorably said Donald Trump might have lived to 200 if he had improved his junk-food heavy diet has confessed to sneaking cauliflower into the president’s mashed potatoes.
Related: Trump lashes out at Schumer as Democrats slam 'no plan' on coronavirus – live
Continue reading...Hindu and Communist groups clash ahead of US president’s visit, with further conflict over controversial citizenship laws
Donald Trump’s visit to Delhi has been overshadowed by deadly protests that have continued to engulf India’s capital, as protesters and armed mobs wreaked havoc on the streets and the death toll rose to seven.
Violent clashes between groups of protesters who either supported or were opposed to a new citizenship law left one policeman and six civilians dead on Monday. Police deployed teargas and smoke grenades in an attempt to control the violence.
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Coming off his landslide Nevada victory, Bernie Sanders is now investing in South Carolina, which will hold its primary on Saturday.
Seeing an opening in South Carolina after their big win in Nevada, the @BernieSanders campaign is upping their presence here. They’ve launched a five day statewide ad buy, investing $500k in the closing days of the primary.
The latest numbers are in, and Mike Bloomberg has spent more than $500 million so far on his presidential campaign.
.@MikeBloomberg's current total for all media types: $509,512,884 or, in other words, half a billion dollars. #Election2020
Continue reading...On a two-day visit to India, the US president addressed more than 100,000 people at a massive public rally in Gujarat.
During his speech in Narendra Modi’s home state, Donald Trump said the US and India would shortly announce an ‘incredible’ trade deal, but repeated the line that the Indian PM was a ‘very tough negotiator’. He praised his achievements with the Indian economy and lifting people out of poverty, while Modi said the two countries had a ‘far greater and closer relationship than ever before’.
Continue reading...Iran’s election on Friday was a blow to moderates, a disappointment for conservative rulers and bad news for the region too. The result was largely ordained before anyone could cast a ballot. Hardliners appear to have swept the parliamentary contest – taking all 30 seats in Tehran – because the authorities ensured that they would. The Guardian Council, which is loosely under the control of the supreme leader, had disqualified around half of the thousands of candidates for the 290-seat body, including 90 serving members. While parliament’s powers are limited, it can impede the president and shape the political environment; with a presidential race due next year, the result sets a course for conservative control of every branch of government – as seen during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s grim tenure.
Yet the outcome of Friday’s poll was far from the endorsement sought. Despite the supreme leader’s exhortations to vote, the extension of polling hours and the anger engendered by the US assassination of Qassem Suleimani, commander of the Quds force, a usually active electorate stayed away. Turnout stood at just 42.5%, the first time it has dipped below 50% since the 1979 revolution; in Tehran it was just 25%.
Continue reading...New Gallup poll gives Trump a 49% rating, first net positive for the president since January 2017
Donald Trump’s popularity rating is improving at a key moment in election year – boosting his chances of winning a second term in the White House.
Related: Nevada caucuses: Bernie Sanders wins in resounding victory
Continue reading...John Bolton is “a traitor” and his book should not be published before the election in November, Donald Trump reportedly told aides and media figures.
The president’s views on news of a book deal for Marie Yovanovitch, another key figure in the Ukraine scandal which led to Trump’s impeachment, were not immediately clear.
Continue reading...Frontrunner condemns interference and says: ‘Unlike Trump, I do not consider Vladimir Putin a good friend. He is an autocratic thug’
US officials told Bernie Sanders that the Russian government is working to help him secure the Democratic nomination, the Washington Post reported Friday.
And new reports are emerging that Sanders knew a month ago about the interference. Asked why the news is only coming out now, Sanders pointed to the Nevada caucuses and suggested media was to blame.
Sanders tells reporters he learned about Russian interference in his campaign about a month ago.
But asked why it came out now, Sanders points to the fact that the NV caucuses are a day away. And adds sarcastically, "Washington Post? Good friends."
That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Mario Koran, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
Continue reading...Donald Trump has dismissed reports of Russian interference in the 2020 presidential election to his benefit as 'disinformation' at a rally in Las Vegas the day before the democrats are due to hold the Nevada caucuses
Trump had previously cast doubt on the intelligence community’s conclusion that the Kremlin interfered in the 2016 election to help him beat Hillary Clinton
Continue reading...Exhibit at the Bronx Documentary Center, the first in a year-long series, aims to document the current president’s overturning of decades of American immigration policy and law, and its profound effects on American society and the lives of immigrants
Continue reading...Stone, sentenced to 40 months for lying to Congress, is an ally of the president – and in the US in 2020 that carries a lot of weight
Any other convict, in Roger Stone’s place, might find cause for despair.
Sentenced by Judge Amy Berman Jackson to 40 months in federal prison on Thursday, Stone, 67, the piratical politico, was also on the receiving end of a stern rebuke for making threatening social media posts during the trial and for generally acting as if the rules did not apply to him.
Continue reading...It is a place where worlds converge, a vast melting pot of different peoples, all in search of a better life. Yet the US-Mexico border is also, increasingly, a focal point for human suffering
Milson, from Honduras, sits with his 14-year-old daughter, Loany, on the reedy riverbank beside the bridge connecting Matamoros, in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, with downtown Brownsville, Texas, across the Rio Grande.
On the far reach – a few yards but another world away – is a vast tent (officially a “soft-sided facility”) erected to cope with the sheer numbers seeking asylum in the US. In a few weeks’ time, on the date stipulated on their “notice to appear” document, the people staying here will have their “credible fear interview” by video link.
Continue reading...President says US has trade problems with South Korea and wonders if ‘we can get Gone With the Wind back’
Donald Trump has taken a jab at the Oscars for awarding this year’s best picture honor to Parasite, because the film is South Korean.
“How bad were the Academy Awards this year?” Trump asked a rally in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The crowd responded with loud boos.
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It was another evening of late-breaking news. Here’s a summary as our live politics coverage ends for the night:
Elizabeth Warren is not done with her demans that Michael Bloomberg, billionaire former New York mayor and late entrant into the 2020 Democratic primary, release former employees who have brought lawsuits against Bloomberg and his company from their nondisclosure agreements.
The goal, Warren has said: allowing women to talk candidly about the behavior that prompted the lawsuits, and ensuring transparency in the primary.
Elizabeth Warren opens her CNN town hall by saying she brought something with her -- a contract she wrote up that she says would release former Bloomberg employees from NDAs.
"I used to teach contract law... All he has to do is sign it. I’ll text it."
Briefing to members of Congress is said to have led to abrupt removal of acting director of national intelligence
US intelligence officials are reported to have warned members of Congress last week that Russia was trying to interfere in the 2020 election campaign in favour of Donald Trump, in a briefing that led to the abrupt removal of the acting director of national intelligence.
When Trump heard about the briefing, he railed at the acting DNI, Joseph Maguire, in the Oval Office, over what the president saw as disloyalty, the Washington Post reported. Until then, Maguire had been a leading candidate to become permanent DNI and is understood to have told colleagues he expected to stay on in the position.
Continue reading...Donald Trump said his longtime ally Roger Stone had a ‘very good chance of exoneration’, addressing the case for the first time since his former associate was sentenced at a Las Vegas event on Thursday 20 February. Trump also said the jury foreman in Stone’s case was ‘totally tainted’ and an an ‘anti-Trump activist’. After he issued a series of commutations and pardons earlier this week, speculation that Trump will pardon Stone has intensified
Former national security adviser John Bolton faced a roasting from one of his predecessors on Wednesday night, in his second public appearance since the conclusion of Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.
Related: Democratic debate: Warren brands Bloomberg 'a billionaire who calls people fat broads' – live
Continue reading...Roger Stone, a longtime ally of Donald Trump and a self-described political dirty trickster, is set to be sentenced on Thursday for his attempts to sabotage a congressional investigation that posed a political threat to the president.
The sentencing will go ahead despite an 11th-hour request by Stone’s defense team for a new trial following Trump’s claim that the conviction “should be thrown out”.
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The White House said that Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron spoke over the phone yesterday.
“The two leaders discussed the importance of NATO, French and United States counterterrorism efforts in the Sahel, and other bilateral issues,” the readout says.
Bernie Sanders may also be asked about this during tonight’s debate: the Atlantic is reporting that the Vermont senator considered challenging Barack Obama for the 2012 Democratic nomination.
The Atlantic reports:
Bernie Sanders got so close to running a primary challenge to President Barack Obama that Senator Harry Reid had to intervene to stop him.
It took Reid two conversations over the summer of 2011 to get Sanders to scrap the idea, according to multiple people who remember the incident, which has not been previously reported.
Continue reading...Donald Trump offered Julian Assange a pardon if he would say Russia was not involved in leaking Democratic party emails, a court in London has been told.
The extraordinary claim was made at Westminster magistrates court before the opening next week of Assange’s legal battle to block attempts to extradite him to the US.
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