Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Japan’s prime minister isn’t the first leader to regret trying to do Trump a favor – but he must have known he was taking a risk
Shinzo Abe’s trip to Tehran this week turned out to be one of the more ill-fated mediation efforts of recent times.
What was billed as a grand gesture – the first Japanese leader to visit Iran in four decades – ended in humiliation, with split-screen television pictures showing Abe being told off by a stern supreme leader, while a thick plume of smoke rose from a burning Japanese tanker in the Gulf of Oman.
On 16 June 2015, the then mogul announced his White House run. Four years on, reporters who covered that Trump Tower speech recall the lies and bombast that now define his presidency
Given everything that has happened in the past four years, it’s not a huge surprise to learn that the first words of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign were a lie.
Four years ago, on 16 June 2015, after Trump had slowly descended a golden escalator to the basement of his eponymous New York tower, he clambered on to a makeshift stage and began his announcement speech.
The White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, whose tenure was marked by a breakdown in regular press briefings and questions about the administration's credibility, as well as her own, will leave her post at the end of the month, Donald Trump has announced. Sanders is one of the US president's closest and most trusted White House aides and one of the few remaining staff who worked on his campaign
US secretary of state accuses Tehran of ‘lashing out’
Iran denies responsibility for early morning attack
The US military has released video footage it says shows an Iranian military patrol boat approach one of two tankers attacked in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday, to support the Trump administration’s claims that Iran was responsible.
The blurry black and white footage, taken from the air, shows a small military boat alongside a tanker and someone stand up on the prow of the boat to remove an object from the tanker’s hull. The small boat then pulls away from the tanker. US officials were quoted as saying the boat was an Iranian Revolutionary Guard patrol boat approaching the tanker after it was attacked, and the object removed was an unexploded limpet mine.
Analysis: the departing White House spokeswoman, who has not held a press briefing in months, spun a web of deceit in her role
“You’re fired!”
Donald Trump was joking when he barked these words at his press secretary, Sarah Sanders, during a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in April – on a night when both were snubbing the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
Sanders, who made false claims on Trump’s behalf, departs
Press secretary says ‘I love the president’ in emotional farewell
Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, has become the latest official to leave Donald Trump’s volatile administration, but in an emotional farewell she insisted: “I love the president.”
Donald Trump appears to have inadvertently misspelled the Prince of Wales in a rebuttal to his statement to ABC that he would accept information on opponents from foreign governments.
•The House intelligence committee is holding a hearing on ‘National Security Challenges of Artificial Intelligence, Manipulated Media and Deepfakes’ at 9am. It comes after a tampered video of Nancy Pelosi – a deepfake – was widely shared in May. Facebook refused to delete the video, which was manipulated to question Pelosi’s competence. They may also address anticipated Russian interference in the 2020 election.
•In other political skullduggery news, Donald Trump has said he would accept incriminating information from Russia or other adversaries on his 2020 election opponent. “It’s not an interference,” Trump told ABC. “They have information — I think I’d take it.” The president said he would call the FBI if approached only “if I thought there was something wrong.”
President claims he would have no obligation to call the FBI, contradicting bureau director he appointed
Donald Trump has said he would be open to accepting damaging information on a 2020 election opponent from another country, adding that he would feel no obligation to inform the FBI.
“I think you might want to listen, there isn’t anything wrong with listening,” Trump said in an interview with ABC News on Wednesday. “If somebody called from a country, Norway, [and said] ‘we have information on your opponent’ oh, I think I’d want to hear it.”
Sticking with the 2020 race, we have a report that former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is taking time off from exploring a presidential run.
Hallie Golden has a quick story for us:
Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz will be taking the summer off from exploring his potential 2020 bid for the US presidency. In a statement released Wednesday, Schultz said he experienced “acute back pain” while he was traveling in Arizona as part of his campaign work, and ultimately had to undergo three back surgeries. He said he has decided to spend the summer focused on rest and rehabilitation.
“I take this detour from the road reluctantly,” Schultz said. “My concern for our country’s future remains, as does my belief that the American people deserve so much more from our elected officials.”
In January, the billionaire announced he would explore a potential run for the presidency as an independent candidate. The news sparked a backlash from leading Democrats worried such a move could help President Donald Trump win his reelection bid in 2020.
Schultz has spent months traveling to 15 states, talking with thousands of local residents as part of his campaign. In January, he visited his home town of Seattle to promote his new book and was greeted by dozens of protestors. He said he will be back in touch after Labor Day.
We’ll return to the Democratic 2020 campaign for a short while and to my colleague Adam Gabbatt who spent the morning with Texas Democrat Beto O’Rourke here in New York.
O’Rourke, whose campaign has dropped off in recent weeks according to some polls was her to take part in a morning run with LGBTQ activists.
O’Rourke turned up right on time, ready for action. The 47-year-old was decked out in full running garb for the two-mile jog, mid-thigh shorts displaying willowy legs. He was wearing an Iowa Cubs baseball hat, which seemed on message given the importance of the Hawkeye State in the Democratic primaries.
“Everybody ready to run?” O’Rourke asked the roughly 30 people who had assembled on a popular running path close to the Hudson River. There was a muted response. “Two miles is all we’re doing,” he added, which served to lift spirits a little.
Donald Trump on Wednesday lashed out at new polling results showing the president in deep trouble as he mounts his 2020 re-election bid.
A day after a survey found at least six Democratic presidential candidates would defeat Trump in a head-to-head election matchup, the president revived his attacks on the media while dismissing the numbers as, in his view, “fake polling”.
The US president, Donald Trump, gave reporters a glimpse of what he said was a deal with Mexico on Tuesday, but offered few details on what was in the document. Trump was speaking to reporters before departing for Iowa when he took a piece of paper from his jacket pocket, held it up and said it was the deal with Mexico. He said it was 'a very good agreement' for both countries, but said he would let Mexico announce it
French president Emmanuel Macron said the death of the tree was not symbolic
French president Emmanuel Macron has downplayed the death of an oak tree he planted with US president Donald Trump last year, saying people shouldn’t read symbols into everything and that he would send the American leader a new tree.
The two men celebrated the special relationship between the United States and France during Macron’s state visit in April 2018 to Washington by planting the oak sapling on the grounds of the White House.
Well, Donald Trump is tweeting again ... (not that he ever stopped).
The president took to his favorite social media platform on Tuesday to refer to the Russia investigation as “the Greatest Witch Hunt of all time” and once again suggest, falsely, that he had been exonerated by special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.
“Mueller has spoken. He found No Collusion between the Trump Campaign and the Russians. The bottom line is what the Democrat House is doing is trying to destroy the Trump Presidency (which has been a tremendous success), and I can assure you that we’re done with the Mueller......
....investigation in the Senate. They can talk to John Dean until the cows come home, we’re not doing anything in the Senate regarding the Mueller Report. We are going to harden our Infrastructure against 2020!” @LindseyGrahamSC
Vice president Mike Pence has defended the Trump administration’s move to bar US embassies from flying the rainbow pride flag during LBGTQ pride month as “the right decision”.
“We’re proud to be able to serve every American,” Pence said in an interview with NBC News late Monday. “But when it comes to the American flagpole, and American embassies, and capitals around the world, one American flag flies.”
At least four US embassies – in Israel, Germany, Brazil and Latvia – were denied permission to fly the pride flag. Richard Grenell, the US ambassador to Germany, is spearheading an American campaign to decriminalize homosexuality around the world and said he would be “proud” to fly the rainbow flag.
But Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, believes that embassy flagpoles should be reserved for the American flag only, according to a spokeswoman.
Administration stopped US embassies flying LGBTQ flag
‘When it comes to the flagpole … one American flag flies’
Vice-President Mike Pence has defended the Trump administration’s decision to prohibit US embassies from flying the rainbow pride flag on their flagpoles during LBGTQ pride month.
Richard Nixon’s former White House counsel John Dean testified before the House judiciary committee today, bringing the fire by stating that “Robert Mueller has provided this committee with a road map” to impeachment.
It appears Dean’s superfans were also there.
John Dean superfans asking him to sign Watergate paraphernalia is a very 2019 thing pic.twitter.com/3ZUDars4Lf
Here’s something fun: Lissandra Villa, a Time magazine reporter, has the walk-out song playlist for the 2020 candidates at the Iowa Democrats Hall of Fame campaign event yesterday.
It’s a good list. We’ve got Dolly Parton for Elizabeth Warren, Lizzo for Kirsten Gillibrand,Marvin Gaye for Tulsi Gabbard, the Clash for Beto O’Rourke, John Lennon for Bernie Sanders, Mary J. Blige for Kamala Harris.
Here is the walk-out song playlist for the candidates at the Iowa Democrats Hall of Fame campaign yesterday. The songs were chosen by the campaigns. pic.twitter.com/Aphykxt322
French media say oak given as a gift by Macron and planted at the White House as part of charm offensive is no more
The tree planted by Donald Trump and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, at the White House as a symbol of their countries’ ties has died, according to multiple media reports in France.
The oak was given as a gift to the US president during Macron’s visit in 2018. In a tweet at the time, Macron said: “100 years ago, American soldiers fought in France, in Belleau to defend our freedom. This oak tree (my gift to @realDonaldTrump]) will be a reminder at the White House of these ties that bind us.”
Russell Vought makes request in letter to Pence and Congress
Mnuchin: trade progress with China could ease Huawei actions
The Trump administration’s acting budget chief is asking for a delay in restrictions against Huawei products, according to a letter to Vice-President Mike Pence and nine members of Congress.
President tweets ire at New York Times and opponents as agreement to avoid tariffs comes under scrutiny
The Trump administration was forced to defend its immigration agreement with Mexico on Sunday, amid reports that key provisions in the deal, forged under the threat of trade tariffs, were mostly old commitments agreed to months ago.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador tells crowd in Tijuana he is raising an ‘open hand’, not a closed fist, to Donald Trump
The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, travelled to the border city of Tijuana to rally the country in “defence of national dignity”, but to also reaffirm friendship with the US people – barely a day after the US cancelled the threat of tariffs.
López Obrador called the rally, which was convened prior to the tariffs being cancelled, a “celebration” of both countries brokering a deal.
Pascal Lamy said Trump’s actions went against the spirit of diplomacy after Mexico agreed to expand asylum program
The immigration deal imposed on Mexico by Donald Trump under the threat of punitive tariffs is a victory for “hostage-taking” over international rules, a former head of the World Trade Organization (WTO) said on Saturday.