Officials say proposed 38,000-tonne sea barrier could damage sand dunes at Doonbeg resort
The climate crisis just became more personal for Donald Trump, after authorities in Ireland rejected an attempt by his Doonbeg golf resort to build a wall to combat rising sea levels.
The planning agency An Bord Pleanála said on Wednesday that the proposed 38,000-tonne rock barrier at Doughmore Bay could damage dunes that straddle the golf course in County Clare, on the Atlantic coast.
Continue reading...The US president has dismissed accusations that his use of the term 'Chinese virus' to refer to the coronavirus is racist. Speaking at his daily coronavirus taskforce briefing, he said it was 'not racist at all. It comes from China; I want to be accurate.' The World Health Organization has advised against terms that link the virus to China to avoid stigmatisation
News of Bernie Sanders assessing his campaign comes after Joe Biden made an overture to Sanders supporters last night.
In a video following Biden’s wins, Biden said he and Sanders shared common goals on regarding healthcare, inequality and the climate crisis.
“So let me say especially to the young voters who have been inspired by Senator Sanders, I hear you. I know what to stake, [...]
I know what we have to do. Our goal is as a campaign, and my goal as a candidate for president is to unify this party, and then to unify the nation.
The Sanders’s campaign has just issued the following statement via campaign manager Faiz Shakir:
The next primary contest is at least three weeks away. Sen. Sanders is going to be having conversations with his supporters to assess his campaign. In the immediate term, however, he is focused on the government response to the coronavirus outbreak and ensuring that we take care of working people the most vulnerable
Continue reading...Joe Biden’s latest string of victories prompts renewed calls for senator to call it quits for the national good
For more than three years it seemed impossible to millions of Americans that anything could be more important than voting for an alternative to Donald Trump.
Yet right now the US president is no longer seen as the most pressing threat to national security. The coronavirus crisis has temporarily turned the US presidential election into a sideshow.
Continue reading...Florida, Illinois, Arizona go to polls against backdrop of emergency measures and disruption that have cancelled Ohio primary
It was an unprecedented move to cancel the Ohio primaries at the 11th hour due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Republican Governor Mike DeWine failed to get a judge to halt the primary Monday evening, even though he contended the election results wouldn’t be viewed as legitimate in light of the pandemic.
“Democrats now must to find a way to complete this primary given the uncertainty of when each state is going to vote and whether we’re even going to be able to have a convention in July.”
That was veteran Democratic consultant Simon Rosenberg yesterday reflecting the reality that the disruption caused by the coronavirus outbreak in the US is now so severe that there’s a real possibility that Democrats will have to rearrange their whole plan for nominating a challenger to Donald Trump.
Related: Three states hold primaries as coronavirus upends 2020 election
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Utah senator Mitt Romney appeared to endorse a key component of Democratic presidential platforms Monday: a living wage - if only temporarily.
NEW from @MittRomney:
“Every American adult should immediately receive $1,000 to help ensure families and workers can meet their short-term obligations and increase spending in the economy.”
Thank you Andrew Yang.
But...but...socialism!
Here’s what you may have missed in the rush:
Continue reading...Donald Trump urged Americans to refrain from panic-buying basic supplies during the coronavirus pandemic as the administration announced plans to expand testing for the virus.
'You don't have to buy so much', the US president said during a press briefing at the White House on Sunday evening, adding that people should 'take it easy. Just relax'
Continue reading...A summary of the biggest developments in the global coronavirus outbreak
Key developments in the global coronavirus outbreak today include:
Continue reading...Donald Trump is “strongly considering a full pardon” for Michael Flynn, his first national security adviser who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his dealings with the Russian ambassador before Trump took office.
Flynn cut a deal as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian election interference and links between Trump and Moscow.
Continue reading...The president’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has been ‘haphazard’, from a cascade of false statements to a public address that fueled anxiety
With his back to the wall, Donald Trump turned to perhaps the only people that truly impress him: not health experts or scientists but the titans of corporate America.
Confronted by a global pandemic he cannot bully, insult or out-tweet, the president paraded chief executives at the White House in the hope they could dig him out of a hole partly of his own making.
Continue reading...Donald Trump has confirmed he took a coronavirus test after exposure to infected people including a member of Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s entourage in Florida last weekend. He revealed he had been tested at a briefing where it was announced the US would ban travellers from the UK and Ireland from entering the country from Monday.
A White House physician later issued a statement confirming that Trump does not have Covid-19. Meanwhile, his daughter Ivanka Trump, a White House adviser, entered self-isolation on Friday after meeting an Australian politician later revealed to have tested positive.
Continue reading...Donald Trump has welcomed legislation that will help fund paid sick leave, unemployment insurance, free testing and other measures to help Americans affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
Related: 'I don't take responsibility': Trump shakes hands and spreads blame over coronavirus
Continue reading...In the early 90s, Donald Trump judged the world’s biggest modelling competition - since hit by allegations of abuse. This is how the people who were there remember it.
Special investigation by Lucy Osborne, Harry Davies and Stephanie Kirchgaessner
On 1 September 1991, a large private yacht cruised towards the Statue of Liberty. It was a clear, breezy evening, and from the upper deck of the Spirit of New York, a golden sunset could be seen glinting off the Manhattan skyline. Downstairs, a party was in flow. Scores of teenage girls in evening dresses and miniskirts, some as young as 14, danced under disco lights. It could have been a high school prom, were it not for the crowd of older men surrounding them.
As the evening wore on, some of the men – many old enough to be the girls’ fathers, or even grandfathers – joined them on the dancefloor, pressing themselves against the girls. One balding man in a suit wrapped his arms around two young models, leering into a film camera that was documenting the evening: “Can you get some beautiful women around me, please?”
Continue reading...During a press conference on Friday, in which Donald Trump declared a national emergency due to the coronavirus outbreak, PBS reporter Yamiche Alcindor asked the US president about the US Pandemic Response Team that was disbanded in May 2018. Trump replied that he knew nothing about it
Nearly 19,000 schools have or will close across the US, affecting more than 8.1m students and counting, according to Education Week, one of the few outlets tracking school closures nationally. There are roughly 76 million students in US schools.
That number will likely rise as coronavirus spreads to Midwest and rural areas of the country.
Update: At least 18,700 schools have closed or will close, affecting at least 8.1 million students, due to #coronavirus, as of today at 11 a.m. (Some of those schools have reopened.)
Six governors have ordered or asked schools to close; via @educationweek https://t.co/0U0CPCCyYm pic.twitter.com/yn5wwSvHVv
Hours before the House was scheduled to vote on a package that would provide assistance those affected by the coronavirus outbreak, President Trump criticized the proposal, throwing a compromise into question.
“We don’t think they’re giving enough,” Trump said, referring to Democrats during a midday press conference from the Rose Garden. “They’re not doing what’s right for the country.”
On 17 March, Donald Trump told reporters he knew this coronavirus 'was a pandemic all along', but that is in stark contrast to many of his previous statements. Here's a look back at how the US president has spoken about Covid-19 since January 2020
Pledges of help from EU, China and Germany plus declaration of US emergency produce mild rally after torrid week
The world’s most powerful central bank, the US Federal Reserve, is preparing a fresh attempt to shore up investor confidence despite a late rally on Wall Street on Friday that ended a torrid week for stock markets on a more positive note.
Fresh pledges of help from China, Germany and the European commission combined with Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency over coronavirus to reassure investors after an ordeal for equities on both sides of the Atlantic that echoed the depths of the banking crisis.
Continue reading...Donald Trump on Friday declared a national emergency over the fast-spreading coronavirus, opening the door to providing what he said was about $50bn in federal aid to fight the disease. Speaking at a news conference in the Rose Garden, the US president said he was declaring the national emergency in order to 'unleash the full power of the federal government'.
Donald Trump spoke to reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday, the morning after he delivered an address to the nation announcing restricted air travel from Europe. Sitting alongside the Irish caretaker taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, the US president sought to calm fears of both a market crash and the virus spreading, telling reporters: 'We're in great shape compared to other places'
The president responded to the pandemic with denial and blaming foreigners. His incompetence and selfishness will be lethal
Coronavirus is the first major crisis Donald Trump has faced that is not of his own making. People who know what it is like to be in charge when disaster strikes have warned us this moment would come eventually – and we can now see why they were so terrified.
Trump in a time of coronavirus is a lethal combination. Everything about the president – his reliance on his gut instincts in place of expertise, his overwhelming selfishness, and his unfailing tendency to lash out at others when things go wrong – make him the worst person imaginable to hold the world’s most powerful job in the face of pandemic.
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