Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Surveillance devices planted over past two years, says report citing former US officials
Israel is likely to have planted mobile phone spying devices near the White House and other sensitive locations in the US capital over the past two years, according to a report from Politico that cited three former US officials.
The miniature surveillance devices mimic telecommunications towers to gather information, including the contents of phone calls. The US government concluded Israeli operatives were most likely to have put them in place to spy on Donald Trump and his associates, the news website reported.
President Hassan Rouhani signals approval of firing of national security adviser
Iran’s president has urged the US to “put warmongers aside” as tensions roil the Persian Gulf amid an escalating crisis between Washington and Tehran after the collapsing nuclear deal with world powers.
Donald Trump has fired his national security adviser, John Bolton, in a pair of tweets in which he laid bare searing internal divisions within his inner circle, saying he had “disagreed strongly” with his top aide.
The departure of such a resolute hawk raises the possibility that Trump’s foreign policy could now make a dovish turn in the run up to next year’s elections, in particular with respect to Iran.
Secretary of state Mike Pompeo was asked if he was caught off guard by the firing of John Bolton, Donald Trump's national security adviser, to which he replied: 'I'm never surprised.' Pompeo was speaking at a press conference that earlier in the day Bolton had been billed to speak at. The president has fired three national security advisers in as many years and has said he will name the new one next week
No one expected Trump to pivot to diplomatic breakthroughs with someone as bellicose as Bolton by his side
John Bolton can at least boast that he lasted longer than his two predecessors, but few observers of Trumpworld expected him to cling on until 2020.
Donald Trump hired Bolton to break things, like the Obama administration legacy and the orthodox foreign policy establishment in general. Now, with the 2020 election coming, a downturn looming and a second presidential term in doubt, Trump is trying to build a foreign policy legacy of his own – or at least a reasonable impression of one.
Trump has taken the stage at the National Historically Black Colleges and Universities Week Conference and appears to (so far) be sticking to the teleprompter.
He has touted the importance of HBCUs and celebrated his education secretary, Betsy DeVos, as a champion for the institutions.
Trump is expected to soon start speaking at the National Historically Black Colleges and Universities Week Conference. The president was scheduled to take the podium at 2:15 p.m. E.T. but is apparently running behind.
Donald Trump’s abrupt dismissal of John Bolton, his national security adviser, may reflect the near breakdown in personal relations between the two men, as well as Bolton’s rivalry with the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, but it will also have implications for US foreign policy in a range of flashpoints.
Israeli PM is a master of fiery rhetoric but Trump’s support could embolden him to action
Benjamin Netanyahu is an old hand at Israel’s equivalent of the “October surprise”, reliably making incendiary remarks on election eve designed to both rally the faithful in his Likud party and undercut any rivals on the right and the far right threatening his grip on the prime minister’s office.
The successful formula, repeated over the last decade in office, has always followed a reliable pattern: scare any wavering supporters with the idea that Arab voters might come out in force while grabbing any nationalist votes by promising settlement building, annexation or refusal to withdraw.
Neil Jacobs said a statement criticizing the Alabama office that disagreed with Trump was meant to clarify ‘technical aspects’
The head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) appeared close to tears on Tuesday, as he both defended the administration and thanked a local weather office that contradicted Donald Trump’s claims about Hurricane Dorian threatening Alabama.
Neil Jacobs, the acting administrator, told a meteorology group a Noaa statement that criticized the Birmingham-area forecast office after it disagreed with the president was meant to clarify “technical aspects” about Dorian’s potential impact.
Wilbur Ross said to have issued threats at Noaa after the agency contradicted the president’s false claim on Hurricane Dorian
Trump told his supporters at a rally in North Carolina that he might need an extra term as president, then mocked the idea that news headlines tomorrow will announce that he said he wants an extra term.
“We told you he’s a dictator, we told you,” Trump said, impersonating his critics.
Just as a Republican congressional candidate had started to speak, Trump paused the rally for several minutes and repeatedly said “thank you” to a doctor presumably assisting an audience member who was unwell.
Then the president quipped, “I guess Dan’s speech wasn’t so good,” referring to Dan Bishop, a Republican congressional candidate the president had flown to North Carolina to support.
Hit out at ‘boring John Legend and his filthy-mouthed wife’
Donald Trump’s social media behaviour took another surreal turn with a public attack on model Chrissy Teigen and her musician husband John Legend over the issue of criminal justice reform.
CNN says decision made shortly after 2017 Oval Office meeting
US officials alarmed by Trump’s private meeting with Putin
The US extracted “one of its highest-level covert sources inside the Russian government” in 2017, it was reported on Monday, in part because of concerns that mishandling of classified intelligence by Donald Trump and his administration could jeopardise the source’s safety.
CNN cited “multiple Trump administration officials with direct knowledge” of the matter and said “a person directly involved in the discussions” said the move was made because Trump and his officials could not be fully trusted.
President’s snakes-and ladders approach to diplomacy raises eyebrows in Kabul and Washington
Donald Trump’s boundless faith in his own magnetism and negotiating skills has taken a knock after the cancellation of his bizarre plans for talks with Taliban chiefs. Most Afghans, including the president, Ashraf Ghani, can live with that. Since they believe Trump was selling them out, they will be glad the talks bombed.
Amy Klobuchar: ‘This isn’t a gameshow. These are terrorists’
Liz Cheney says Taliban should never visit Camp David
Donald Trump’s shock announcement that he had canceled secret peace talks with the Taliban this weekend has prompted criticism and confusion, including from his own Republican party.
The Democratic presidential 2020 hopeful and Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar ridiculed the president on Sunday morning, saying he approaches foreign policy like “some kind of gameshow”.
President tweets that he called off planned Camp David meeting after Kabul attack killed US soldier
Donald Trump says he has cancelled secret peace talks on Afghanistan scheduled for Sunday that would have brought him face to face with Taliban leaders at Camp David, the presidential retreat in the hills of Maryland state – with the Islamist militant group warning on Sunday that the snub meant more American lives would be lost.
The US president made the remarkable claim in a series of tweets on Saturday evening declaring he had “called off” the negotiations after the Taliban claimed responsibility for a blast in Kabul that killed 12 people including a US soldier on Thursday.
That’s it from me this week. My West Coast colleague, Julia Carrie Wong, will be taking over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
Fresh from the department of oof: Democratic presidential candidate Tim Ryan said he thinks Joe Biden is “declining” and doesn’thave the “energy” to defeat Trump.
“I just think Biden is declining,” Ryan told a reporter, whom he apparently mistook for a potential donor. “I don’t think he has the energy. You see it almost daily. And I love the guy.”
A CNN analyst neatly summarized Joe Biden’s continued dominance in the polls despite a series of embarrassing gaffes that many commentators predicted would affect his front-runner status.
Average of all polls this year of Biden v. Trump? Biden by 8. Average of all August polls, after all the gaffes? Biden by 10. That's the same as it is in the RCP average. Clinton lead in the RCP average against Trump at this point? 2.4 points... (1/?)
Maybe, it will change. Heck, we're over a year out. But the difference between what the numbers are saying and conventional wisdom (at least in some quarters) is stunning.
Meanwhile, Trump is still refusing to acknowledge that he was wrong when he tweeted Sunday about the threat Hurricane Dorian posed to Alabama.
Just as I said, Alabama was originally projected to be hit. The Fake News denies it! pic.twitter.com/elJ7ROfm2p
Donald Trump has caused uproar on social media after displaying a map of Hurricane Dorian's path featuring an extra loop drawn in Sharpie extending it to Alabama – in an apparent attempt to validate previous baseless claims the state could be affected.
Over the weekend, as Dorian struck the Bahamas, the president issued a torrent of tweets. One mistakenly warned that Alabama would also be impacted.
Just 20 minutes later, the National Weather Service in Birmingham, Alabama, tweeted: "Alabama will NOT see any impacts from #Dorian. We repeat, no impacts from Hurricane #Dorian will be felt across Alabama. The system will remain too far east.”
Bernie Sanders dismissed concerns that there was not enough room in the Democratic presidential primary for both him and Elizabeth Warren, given that the two progressive senators espouse similar ideals.
“Elizabeth is a friend of mine. She and I have known each other well over 20 years. She’s going to run her campaign and I will run my campaign,” Sanders told ABC’s “The View.”
"Elizabeth is a friend of mine. She and I have known each other well over 20 years. She's going to run her campaign and I will run my campaign," Bernie Sanders tells @TheView when asked if there's room in the Democratic Party for himself and Sen. Warren. https://t.co/QXHJ4vE89Ipic.twitter.com/FBemYsKdPn
Imagined as a Venn diagram, there is common ground between Warren and Sanders voters but each has their own distinct base. A survey by the Pew Research Center this month found that about seven in 10 of Warren’s supporters are white, compared to about half of Sanders’ backers. Warren’s supporters are substantially more likely to have a college degree compared with supporters of [Joe] Biden and Sanders.
John Zogby, a pollster and author, said: ‘Because of progressive ideology there is some sort of overlap, but they are different. Warren picks up support among women that ordinarily Sanders would not get, including former Clinton supporters who regard her as the bearer of the torch to get a woman elected.’
Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson sent (and deleted) a tweet implying that the path of Hurricane Dorian could be altered with “the power of the mind.”
Prayers for the people of the Bahamas, Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. May the peace of God be upon them and their hearts be comforted as they endure the storm.
Director says Brexit makes him ‘terminally depressed’ while fellow Python Cleese backs it
Terry Gilliam has said he disagrees with the way his friend and fellow Monty Python member John Cleese sees the world, following comments from the latter endorsing Brexit and criticising the makeup of London.
The Python animator and Hollywood director despairs of Donald Trump and Brexit, both of which make him “terminally depressed”. Cleese has previously faced a backlash for voicing support for the UK leaving the EU, and for saying London was no longer an English city.