Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
The US president reportedly disputed UK’s ‘overwhelming evidence’ of Russian involvement in Salisbury attack
Donald Trump disputed that Russia was behind the attempted murder of a former Russian spy in a tense call with Theresa May, it has emerged.
Despite the widespread conclusion that Vladimir Putin’s regime was behind the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia last year, the US president is said to have spent 10 minutes expressing his doubts about Russian involvement.
Intelligence official was interviewed by watchdog to corroborate initial complaint about Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, report says
A second intelligence official is reportedly considering filing a whistleblower complaint about Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine as the Democrats’ impeachment investigation into the president and his administration continues to escalate.
The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, also failed to meet a subpoena deadline to turn over documents related to the investigation, as House Democrats broadened their subpoena request to the White House, demanding documents after the executive branch ignored requests to provide them voluntarily.
President revels in mutual flattery during White House event organized by pro-Trump Turning Point USA
Through the looking glass, and a wormhole, in the farthest reaches of a parallel universe, Donald Trump is not facing impeachment. Instead he is truth-teller, a healer of divisions and such a moral champion of African Americans they wonder if that Obama chap was a bit overrated.
To be in the East Room of the White House on Friday afternoon was to step into this alternative reality. More than 200 African American students and young professionals roared with delight and adulation, chanting “USA! USA!” and pointing camera phones, as Trump walked in and gave a typically jarring speech that veered off teleprompter.
Trump demands full House vote on impeachment inquiry
House Democrats have subpoenaed the White House demanding documents that could shed light on Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine, in the latest escalation of their impeachment investigation into the president and his administration.
The move comes as the senior Democrats also formally requested documents relating to Ukraine dealings from Mike Pence, the vice-president.
As the impeachment inquiry closes in, the media faces a challenge in finding new ways to hold the US president accountable
The question was straightforward enough: in the phone call that prompted a whistleblower’s complaint and triggered the impeachment inquiry now roiling Washington, what exactly did Donald Trump want from the president of Ukraine over his political rival Joe Biden?
Jeff Mason, Reuters’ White House correspondent, put that query to Trump at a press conference this week to mark a visit by the Finnish president, Sauli Niinistö. Trump was evasive then, when Mason politely persevered, suddenly turned nasty.
The former White House strategist, and a leading voice of the alt-right, was once key in the propagation of the conspiracy theory
Senior White House adviser Stephen Miller recently claimed the impeachment inquiry imperilling Donald Trump’s presidency was a product of the “deep state”, a conspiracy theory which holds that a permanent government of civil servants and security operatives exists to thwart the will of the people.
But according to Steve Bannon, Trump’s former 2016 campaign chair and White House strategist, a prime mover in the formation and propagation of the Deep State conspiracy theory, it should not be taken seriously.
Newly released texts show diplomats made clear that better Kyiv-Washington relations were linked to cooperation
US diplomats told Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, that a prestigious White House visit to meet Donald Trump was dependent on him making a public statement vowing to investigate Hunter Biden’s company, and a Ukrainian role in the 2016 elections, according to texts released on Thursday night.
The texts, released by three congressional committees holding impeachment hearings, show that the diplomats made clear that any improvement in Kyiv’s relations with Washington would be dependent on Zelenskiy’s cooperation in Trump’s quest to find damaging material about son of his leading political opponent, and on the Democrats in general.
Before abruptly resigning Kurt Volker gambled that acting as a go-between for Rudy Giuliani could secure military aid for Kyiv
When Kurt Volker agreed to work for the Trump administration in 2017, he told colleagues he hoped to navigate the president’s mercurial nature and his evident attachment to Vladimir Putin, and still pursue a traditional US policy of upholding Ukrainian independence and pushing back against Moscow.
Many were sceptical and predicted a clash between the two approaches, but even they did not expect the spectacular collision of the past few weeks.
More from Adam Schiff, who has continued to criticize Trump’s earlier exhortation for China to investigate Biden:
“Once again, having the president of the United States suggesting, urging, a foreign country to interfere in our presidential elections is an illustration that if this president has learned anything from the two years of the Mueller investigation is that he feels he can do anything with impunity.”
Trump suggests the “pharmaceutical” industry, and other industries, could be behind what he describes as a “hoax”.
I’m not sure which of the things Trump believes to be a hoax he is discussing, but it’s likely the Mueller investigation or the Ukraine scandal.
A joint conference with the Finnish president descended into theatrics as reporters pressed for answers on the unfolding scandal
The Finnish president, Sauli Niinistö, spent part of his visit to Washington touring Smithsonian museums of American history. He likely saw Abraham Lincoln’s top hat, memorabilia from Barack Obama’s election campaign and reminders of other leaders who, whatever their flaws, strove for a more perfect union.
'Are you talking to me?' Donald Trump asked during an extraordinary exchange with Reuters’ White House correspondent Jeff Mason. Trump became angry after Mason asked Trump a question about Ukraine, to which Trump replied: ‘We have the president of Finland. Ask him a question'. Mason responded: 'I have one for him. I just wanted to follow up on the one that I asked you.' Trump's outrage did not subside: ‘Did you hear me? … Ask this gentleman a question. Don't be rude’
The 25% levies also include British knitwear and EU cheese and aircraft as White House retaliates for subsidies given to Airbus
The US is set to impose $7.5bn (£6.1bn) of tariffs on exports from the EU including scotch whisky, French wine and cheese and aircraft in retaliation for subsidies given to the aerospace group Airbus after a World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling..
Donald Trump continued his assault on the Democratic lawmakers leading impeachment proceedings on Wednesday, accusing House intelligence committee chairman Adam Schiff of treason and calling for his resignation, as well as attacking the unidentified whistleblower who reported concerns about his behavior.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Congressman Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House intelligence committee, delivered a stern warning to the White House: attempts to ‘stonewall’ the impeachment inquiry ‘will be considered further evidence of obstruction of justice’
Lets return to some of the president’s inflammatory tweeting last night, in which he described the House impeachment inquiry as a “COUP”.
We won’t embed the tweets here or reprint the contents due to their inflammatory and misleading nature, but they’re available to view here if you want to take a look.
Mr. Dorsey:
I write to call your attention to activity that President Trump has been engaged in on his Twitter account, which appears to violate the terms of the user agreement that your company requires all users on the platform adhere to.
No user, regardless of their job, wealth, or stature should be exempt from abiding by Twitter’s user agreement, not even the President of the United States.
Look let's be honest, @realDonaldTrump's Twitter account should be suspended.
Some more context on Secretary Pompeo’s admission that he took part in the July phone call between Donald Trump and Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky.
Pompeo’s involvement in the call (he listened in to the conversation and does not appear to have actively participated) was first reported by the Wall Street Journal last week. Pompeo’s admission, made earlier today on an official trip to the Vatican, confirms this reporting.
ABC: And I want to turn to this whistleblower complaint, Mr. Secretary. The complaint involving the President and a phone call with a foreign leader to the director of national intelligence inspector general. That’s where the complaint was launched by the whistle-blower. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that President Trump pressed the president of Ukraine eight times to work with Rudy Giuliani to investigate Joe Biden’s son. What do you know about those conversations?
Democratic pair say impeachment inquiry will not be slowed
Trump condemned for ‘blatant effort to intimidate witnesses’
Donald Trump has been accused of “incitement to violence” and threatened with obstruction charges in the fast-escalating battle over impeachment, as the president maintained his aggressive counter-attack against Democratic leaders and the whistleblower who precipitated the inquiry.
Iranian president tells cabinet the country had been ready to accept terms of French UN plan
The Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, has told his cabinet that while the country had been ready to end its nuclear stand-off with the US broadly on terms set out by France at the United Nations, Donald Trump was not prepared to make public an apparent private offer to lift sanctions.
Although his account is inherently not impartial, it is the fullest version of behind-the-scenes diplomacy at the UN general assembly provided by the Iranians.
The state department’s inspector general has requested an urgent briefing related to documents on Ukraine with congressional staff members, according to multiple reports.
The inspector general’s unusual request followed secretary of state Mike Pompeo’s assertions that House democrats were trying to “bully” officials into testifying and that the democrats’ schedule for depositions related to the Trump-Ukraine impeachment inquiry was “not feasible”.
The US president appears to believe Australian spies are part of a deep-state conspiracy. Australia should be wary of the risks of getting drawn into his defence
It really is a poke in the eye – the “Five Eyes”, that is. Donald Trump’s telephone call to Scott Morrison, revealed on Tuesday in the New York Times, where he pressed for help in investigating the origins of the Mueller inquiry, will doubtless put a further strain on what is otherwise a very close intelligence-sharing partnership between the United States and Australia.
Why? Because aside from the unwanted political distraction of putting Australia at the centre of another Trump tirade (just as Morrison was seeking to apply the blowtorch to Labor at home for what he called “naive and immature” remarks about China), the twisted logic of Trump’s allegation is truly extraordinary.