Thirty-four US soldiers have been diagnosed with concussion or traumatic brain injury from an 8 January Iranian missile attack on their base in Iraq, the Pentagon has revealed.
The Pentagon spokesman, Jonathan Hoffman, said on Friday that eight service members who had been previously transported to Germany had been moved to the United States.
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“Give America a fair trial,” impeachment manager Adam Schiff said, wrapping up the Democrats’ opening statements. “She’s worth it.”
And just like that, Senate has adjourned for the night. The impeachment trial continues tomorrow morning.
As impeachment manager Adam Schiff continues to talk, Donald Trump has gone on a retweeting frenzy. He reposted a tweet of his from earlier today, as well as one from the Senate Republicans account, and one each from Republican senators John Barrasso and Marsha Blackburn.
This obsession with impeachment* is out of hand.
Tennesseans have their priorities straight: trade, border security, and creating jobs. pic.twitter.com/vNFjPBA2MQ
US Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin downplay risks posed by climate emergency
The US and Europe have clashed over the threat posed by global heating as Donald Trump’s finance minister downplayed the risks of a climate crisis during the final session of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Steve Mnuchin, the US Treasury secretary, said the debate should be about “environmental issues” rather than climate change, that the costs were being over-estimated and that climate was only one of several concerns that needed to be discussed.
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A few more scenes from the trial chamber:
Senators and 2020 Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar reportedly shared a laugh.
On the floor, Bernie Sanders looked quite tired, ultimately got up, walked to the back of the chamber - and chatted briefly with Amy Klobuchar. She pointed to something in her binder. They both shared a laugh and Sanders retreated to the cloak room.
Sen. Tillis is not in his seat at the moment. He’s sitting watching from above in the visitor gallery, for some reason
Emphasizing that nearly $400m in congressionally-appropriated military aid to Ukraine was held up for no good reason, the impeachment manager Zoe Lofgren, with the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, sitting nearby, pointed out: “Even Senator McConnell has said ‘I was not given an explanation’ for the hold.”
The evidence is clear that Donald Trump “knowingly, willfully violated the law when he withheld the aid to Ukraine”, Lofgren said. “It shows the great lengths the president was willing to go to in order to pressure Ukraine to do his dirty work.”
Continue reading...Donald Trump put his personal political interests ahead of his country’s national security and free and fair elections, prosecutors at his impeachment trial on Capitol Hill said on Thursday, telling US senators: “This conduct is not ‘America first’. It is Donald Trump first.”
Democratic impeachment managers, who are acting as the prosecutors bringing the case for Trump’s removal from office, were spending a second day in Washington laying out their case against Trump in only the third presidential impeachment trial in American history.
Continue reading...Philanthropist unveils plan for global network of institutions at Davos and attacks Trump as ‘ultimate narcissist’
The philanthropist and former financier George Soros has announced that he is to donate $1bn to fund a new global network of universities designed to promote liberal values and his vision of an open society.
In what he hailed as the “most important and enduring project of my life”, Soros said it was important to fund institutions that would help resist the drift towards growing authoritarianism in the US, Russia and China. He also launched a fresh attack on Donald Trump, calling the US president “the ultimate narcissist”.
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That wraps up the second full day of Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. Catch up on The Guardian’s coverage:
Related: 'Our future is not assured': Schiff issues stark warning at impeachment trial
Report: Tomorrow, the Trump administration is expected to finalize a rule to strip away environmental protections for streams, rivers, and wetlands.
Under the new regulations, for the first time in decades, landlords and businesses will be allowed to dump pollutants and pesticides directly into bodies of water.
From Day 1 of his administration, President Trump vowed to repeal President Barack Obama’s “Waters of the United States” regulation, which had frustrated rural landowners...
“I terminated one of the most ridiculous regulations of all: the last administration’s disastrous Waters of the United States rule,” Mr. Trump told the American Farm Bureau Federation’s annual convention in Texas on Sunday, to rousing applause. He added, “That was a rule that basically took your property away from you.”
Related: 'Our future is not assured': Schiff issues stark warning at impeachment trial
Continue reading...Striving to make himself heard across partisan lines, the lead impeachment prosecutor filled his opening argument against Donald Trump on the Senate floor on Wednesday with invitations, warnings and appeals designed to win Republican backing for a substantial trial.
Using flowing evocations of constitutional history, the global promise of US democracy, and the stakes should it all be allowed to slip, Democrat Adam Schiff framed his story of Trump’s wrongdoing as a national crisis demanding a non-partisan remedy.
Continue reading...Chuck Schumer, the US Senate minority leader, said Donald Trump’s defence team appeared 'unprepared, confused and unconvincing' during the first day of debate at the president’s impeachment trial on Tuesday.
All but one Republican voted against the amendments offered by Democrats, which was approved by the Senate on a party line vote in the early hours of Wednesday morning
Donald Trump’s impeachment trial began in the US Senate, with Democrats pushing back against the rules set out by the Republican-held senate. Democrats accused Republicans of covering up for the president as their amendments to trial proceedings were voted down repeatedly
Continue reading...Can Republicans divorce themselves from a demagogue? The impeachment trial’s first day offers little hope
A lone figure in a blue suit slipped quietly into the front row of the US Senate public gallery just before 3.30pm on Tuesday and gazed down at his former colleagues.
Jeff Flake, the former Republican senator from Arizona, had returned to Washington to witness two trials. One was that of an impeached American president accused of strong-arming a foreign government for his own political ends. The other was a trial of the conscience of the Republican party.
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After 13 hours of debate, Republican senators pushed through the organizing resolution for the impeachment proposed by Mitch McConnell, without any of the 11 amendments proposed by Democrats.
The trial is now adjourned until 1pm ET on Wednesday.
The final amendment proposed by minority leader Chuck Schumer would allow Chief Justice John Roberts — as a neutral party — to decide whether to allow motions to subpoena witnesses or documents.
Finally, the senators are voting on the organizing resolution for the impeachment trial, as proposed by Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell.
Continue reading...Donald Trump took centre stage at Davos to tout the success of the US economy on Tuesday. At the conference, in which the main theme is the environment and where the climate activist Greta Thunberg is a star guest, the US president spoke about the economic importance of oil and gas. Trump also said the US would join the 1 trillion tree initiative being launched at the World Economic Forum annual meeting, but called activists 'prophets of doom'
Comment came as Greta Thunberg demanded immediate action in Davos
Donald Trump told the world’s business leaders to stop listening to “prophets of doom” as he used a keynote speech at the World Economic Forum to attack the teenage activist Greta Thunberg over her climate crisis warnings.
The US president hailed America’s growth record and compared campaigners against global heating with those who feared a population explosion in the 1960s and mass starvation in the 1970s.
Continue reading...White House’s brief also claimed process has been a ‘charade’ and Trump did ‘absolutely nothing wrong’ in dealings with Ukraine
Lawyers acting on behalf of Donald Trump on Monday branded the impeachment case against him “flimsy” and a “dangerous perversion of the constitution”, setting the stage for the opening of his long-awaited Senate trial on Tuesday.
As the president prepared to jet off to Davos, where he is set to give a keynote speech at the World Economic Forum on Tuesday, the White House submitted its formal trial defence brief, a 110-page document in which it also claimed the impeachment process has been a “charade” and insisted Trump did “absolutely nothing wrong” in his dealings with Ukraine.
Continue reading...Donald Trump wants his impeachment trial to end before his state of the union address in just two weeks’ time, Lindsey Graham said on Sunday.
Related: Alan Dershowitz: Trump impeachment acquittal would make me unhappy
Continue reading...Monroe county, Michigan, saw one of the largest swings in the country from Obama to Trump – and so far many swing voters are likely to go for Trump even as they have plenty of doubt
It’s not that James Padot hugely admires Donald Trump or his values.
After all, Padot spent more than four decades as a pipe fitter, a skilled trade that provided a good living but relied on the power of his labour union for work and to ensure he was decently paid.
Continue reading...Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker, Pulitzer-winning Washington Post reporters, have produced a vital and alarming read
In January 2018, Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury made headlines as it depicted a president out of control and a White House that careened from crisis to crisis. Donald Trump threatened legal action against author and publisher. He also lauded himself and his electoral college victory: “I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius … and a very stable genius at that!”
Related: Trump 'abused' and 'harassed' Kirstjen Nielsen over border, new book reveals
Continue reading...Its new commission is failing to enact its grand ambitions, as destructive global power games are played out by others
It has been a difficult start to 2020 for the EU and the new European commission, which took office last month. Ursula von der Leyen, who succeeded Jean-Claude Juncker as commission president, is not short of ambition. She believes Europe should take a leading “geopolitical” role in international affairs, reflecting the EU’s status as the world’s largest trade bloc. But turning words into deeds is proving problematic.
“The EU needs to be more strategic, more assertive and more united in its approach to external relations,” Von der Leyen told Josep Borrell, the newly nominated EU high representative for foreign and security policy, in a mission statement last autumn. “We must use our diplomatic and economic strength to support global stability and prosperity… and be better able to export our values and standards.”
Continue reading...Donald Trump’s legal team has delivered a fiery response to impeachment summons from the Senate, calling the two articles passed by the House “a dangerous attack on the right of the American people to freely choose their president”.
Related: Impeachment: is Trump set to survive and win a second term?
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