Donald Trump urges Farage and Johnson to form Brexit pact – video

Donald Trump says he would like to see his 'friends' Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage form a pact to secure a pro-Brexit parliamentary majority in the general election. Farage announced on Sunday he would not stand in next month's election, choosing instead to campaign nationally against Johnson's Brexit deal. His Brexit party will stand in every seat on 12 December, which has been seen as a potential setback to Johnson.

The president said Johnson was 'the right man for the time ... He's tough, he's smart and I think he's going to do something.'

'What I'd like to see is for Nigel and Boris to come together,' he added. 'I think that's a possibility.'

Continue reading...

‘Quid pro quo, yes or no?’ Trump allies face Ukraine question

As Donald Trump repeated his demand that the whistleblower who triggered the impeachment inquiry should be identified, White House counsellor Kellyanne Conway refused to say the president did not offer the leader of Ukraine a quid pro quo involving military aid and the investigation of his political rivals.

Related: Experts on Trump's conduct: 'Plainly an abuse of power, plainly impeachable'

Continue reading...

California wildfire: evacuation orders lifted as Trump blasts Newsom

  • President slams governor and threatens to cut federal funds
  • Newsom tweets back: ‘You don’t believe in climate change’

As authorities lifted all evacuation orders imposed by a wildfire that caused thousands to flee their homes north-west of Los Angeles, Donald Trump threatened to cut federal funding for aid during the kind of blazes that have hit California hard this fall.

Related: ‘Not our mission’: private fire crews protect the insured, not the public

Continue reading...

Donald Trump retweets obscene comments from fighter after UFC appearance

  • President was greeted with boos and cheers in New York
  • Eric Trump denies his father had a negative reception

Donald Trump followed up his appearance at an Ultimate Fighting Championship event in New York City on Saturday night by retweeting an obscene comment from one of the fighters.

Jorge Masvidal, who won the headline fight against Nate Diaz, was asked his opinion of the President in the run-up to the event.

Continue reading...

Triggered review: Donald Jr proves himself the Trump kid with real political chops

The son’s book is one-eyed, loose with the facts and a crude attack on the left. In short, it’s like his dad – and it might work

In Triggered, the president’s eldest child excoriates the left for its censoriousness, but ignores his father’s repeated demands for the same. In case Don Jr forgot, Trump père is no friend of free speech or a free press.

Related: Donald Trump Jr's Triggered: a litany of trolling and insults worthy of his father

Continue reading...

Donald Trump met with boos and cheers at UFC fights in New York

  • US president attends UFC 244 card at Madison Square Garden
  • Trump attended with adult sons and Republican lawmakers

Politics can be a bruising business. But President Donald Trump took a break from battling the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry to watch another bloodsport Saturday, drawing a mixed response at an Ultimate Fighting Championship match at a raucous Madison Square Garden.

Related: Was it wrong for baseball fans to chant 'lock him up' at Trump? | Arwa Mahdawi and Lloyd Green

Continue reading...

Experts on Trump’s conduct: ‘Plainly an abuse of power, plainly impeachable’

Republicans may argue Trump’s actions were not impeachable – but scholars say it’s a solid example of a high crime

Was what he did really so bad? And even if it was bad – was it truly impeachable?

Related: 'I guess that's revealing': David Rubenstein on Trump and the weight of history

Continue reading...

Beto O’Rourke dropping out of 2020 presidential race  – live

The former Texas congressman has had low polling numbers and his campaign has been under financial strain

Beto O’Rourke was once a front runner in the Democratic primaries, who raised huge amounts of money from small donors across the country.

Related: Beto O'Rourke withdraws from Democratic race to face Trump

Following in the footsteps of Joan Didion, and Meghan Daum and Luc Sante – Donald Trump has penned his own version of the “Goodbye New York” essay after announcing yesterday that he had changed his primary residence from Manhattan to Mar-a-lago.

“I love New York, but New York can never be great again,” he begins. Like so many bigly figures in the literary world, Trump has written about that bittersweet feeling of leaving the iconic city.

I love New York, but New York can never be great again under the current leadership of Governor Andrew Cuomo (the brother of Fredo), or Mayor Bill DeBlasio. Cuomo has weaponized the prosecutors to do his dirty work (and to keep him out of jams), a reason some don’t want to be...

Continue reading...

Trump-Russia dossier author gave evidence to UK intrusion inquiry

Exclusive: Report allegedly being withheld by No 10 contains submissions from ex-head of MI6’s Russia desk

A report on Russian interference in British politics allegedly being sat on by Downing Street includes evidence from Christopher Steele, the former head of MI6’s Russia desk whose investigation into Donald Trump’s links with Moscow sparked a US political scandal.

Steele made submissions in writing to parliament’s intelligence and security committee (ISC), it is understood. A counter-intelligence specialist, Steele spent his career tracking Russian influence operations around the world and investigated Alexander Litvinenko’s 2006 murder.

Continue reading...

Trump says he wants to read Ukraine call transcript in TV ‘fireside chat’

  • Beleaguered president says: ‘When you read it, it’s a straight call’
  • Nancy Pelosi says impeachment process ‘very sad’ for America

Donald Trump has insisted he has “done nothing wrong” and does not deserve to be impeached, and made the extraordinary suggestion that he appear on live TV to read the full transcript of his controversial phone call with the Ukrainian president in a “fireside chat”.

Related: Trump impeachment inquiry: a timeline of key events so far

Continue reading...

Donald Trump changes primary residence from New York to Mar-a-Lago

Donald and Melania Trump have filed for residency in Palm Beach, according to documents obtained by the New York Times

The lifelong New Yorker has officially become a Florida man. Donald Trump changed his primary residence from Manhattan to Mar-a-Lago – the exclusive golf club that he has referred to as the “winter White House”.

“I cherish New York,” Trump said in a tweet on Thursday. But, he added, “despite the fact that I pay millions of dollars in city, state and local taxes each year, I have been treated very badly by the political leaders of both the city and state.”

Continue reading...

‘Corbyn would be so bad for your country,’ Trump tells Farage – video

The US president has taken the unusual step of using an interview with Nigel Farage on LBC radio to intervene in the UK general election. Trump said Jeremy Corbyn would be ‘so bad’ for the UK and that Farage and Boris Johnson would be an ‘unstoppable force’ if they were to work together

Continue reading...

Trump says Johnson and Farage could form ‘unstoppable force’

US president claims on LBC Radio that Jeremy Corbyn would take UK to ‘such bad places’

Donald Trump has intervened in the UK’s nascent election campaign, calling on Boris Johnson to team up with Nigel Farage to form an “unstoppable force” and claiming Jeremy Corbyn would be “so bad for your country”.

Speaking to Farage on LBC Radio, the US president also said Johnson’s Brexit deal could prevent the UK from agreeing a trade deal with the US.

Continue reading...

Pelosi bangs the gavel: House votes to endorse Trump impeachment inquiry

Vote set rules for public phase of impeachment inquiry, laying out plan that could produce televised hearings within two weeks

For only the third time in the history of the modern presidency, the US House of Representatives voted on Thursday to formalize impeachment proceedings against the president of the United States.

Related: House votes to formalize impeachment process against Trump – live

Continue reading...

Our democracy is at stake: Nancy Pelosi on impeachment vote – video

Speaking on the floor of the House of Representatives, the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, says the impeachment resolution passed on Thursday will enable lawmakers to find out the truth about the allegations against Donald Trump. The resolution passed 232-196, clearing the way for public hearings 

Continue reading...

Trump’s top Russia official to testify in impeachment inquiry after stepping down – live

Tim Morrison is at closed-door testimony following last night’s reports that the official is stepping down from his post at the White House

Nancy Pelosi rather unusually presided over the House herself this morning as members began to debate the impeachment resolution.

.@SpeakerPelosi taking the unusual step of presiding over the House herself as they begin debate on the procedures for the impeachment inquiry going forward

Tim Morrison, the national security council official currently testifying behind closed doors in the impeachment inquiry, reportedly intends to confirm Bill Taylor’s account that the White House held up Ukraine’s military assistance to push for public announcements of investigations into Joe Biden and the 2016 election.

The Washington Post reports:

Morrison is expected to tell impeachment investigators on Thursday that the account offered by Ambassador William B. Taylor Jr., is accurate, particularly that Morrison alerted him to the president’s and his deputies’ push to withhold security aid and a meeting with the Ukrainian president until Ukraine announced an investigation of the Bidens and 2016 election interference, the person said on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive discussions.

Morrison will also say that he did not necessarily view the president’s demands as improper or illegal, but rather problematic for U.S. policy in supporting an ally in the region, the person said.

Continue reading...

John Bolton reportedly asked to sit for impeachment deposition – live news

House committees leading the impeachment inquiry reportedly intend to call Donald Trump’s former national security adviser

The interior department is grounding its entire fleet of drones due to security concerns, the Wall Street Journal reported.

With more than 800 aerial drones, the department has one of the largest fleets in the federal government.

US officials worry that the country’s reliance on Chinese drones may be putting critical US infrastructure at risk. They are concerned the drones may be sending information back to the Chinese government or hackers elsewhere to use for cyberattacks or other offenses.

Hello, Kari Paul here in San Francisco, taking over the blog for the next few hours. More news to come shortly.

Continue reading...

The treatment of Meghan is racist. We should feel able to say so | Yomi Adegoke

The MPs who condemned the press attacks on the Duchess of Sussex should be praised, but tiptoeing around the language only protects perpetrators

The silence surrounding the Duchess of Sussex’s treatment by the press has become a roar. More than 70 female MPs signed a letter this week in “solidarity” with Meghan after she spoke about her treatment by sections of the media. The letter outlined attempts “to cast aspersions” on her character. It also attempted to address the nature of these attacks: “We are calling out what can only be described as outdated, colonial undertones to some of these stories,” it read.

However, this treatment can be described as only one thing: racist. Not saying so explicitly is part of a growing trend – the word “racist” is now dodged with more fervour than racial slurs themselves.

Continue reading...

How the US caught up with Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi | podcast

The Guardian’s Martin Chulov describes how US special forces finally tracked down Baghdadi, who was killed in a raid at the weekend. Plus: Robert Booth on the criticism of the London fire brigade’s response to the Grenfell Tower disaster

US special forces finally caught up with the Islamic State leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, on Saturday at a safe house in the Syrian province of Idlib, one of the few areas of the country still outside regime control. In a night-time raid, Baghdadi detonated a suicide vest and killed himself and three of his children, according to Donald Trump.

The Guardian’s Middle East correspondent, Martin Chulov, has followed the rise and fall of Isis in the past five years from close quarters. He tells Rachel Humphreys what Baghdadi’s death will mean to the terrorist organisation, which has lost almost all the territory it held at its peak.

Continue reading...