Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Statement marks first time US has formally labeled another country’s military a terrorist group
The United States has designated Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards as a foreign terrorist organization, Donald Trump said on Monday, marking the first time Washington has formally named a branch of the armed forces of a foreign government as a terrorist group.
In a statement, Trump said this unprecedented step, “recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a state sponsor of terrorism, but that the [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft”.
Kirstjen Nielsen, the homeland security secretary who has been the public face of some of the Trump administration’s most contentious policies, has resigned.
Democrat: attorney general is ‘agent of the administration’
President tweets angrily about leaks to ‘fake news media’
Senior Democrats are keeping up pressure on attorney general William Barr to release the full Mueller report, claiming collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia happened “in plain sight”.
Ocasio-Cortez also makes direct link between controversial remarks by Fox News’s Jeanine Pirro and threat against Omar
Donald Trump and Fox News are coming under fire for contributing to a climate of Islamophobia, following the arrest of a supporter of the president who threatened to kill Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota who was one of the first Muslim women elected to the US Congress.
Donald Trump said on Saturday he has not read Robert Mueller’s report about contacts between his 2016 campaign and Russia, which his Democratic opponents say should be released in full.
Donald Trump has once again claimed there was a state of emergency while on a visit to the US-Mexico border in California, saying the US immigration system is 'full' and 'when it's full, there's nothing you can do about it'. The US president travelled to Calexico on Friday to view a section of the border barrier, which he described as new, even though it was a long-planned replacement for an older barrier
A source tells CNN Donald Trump is willing to fight all the way to the Supreme Court to block a House Democratic request for his tax returns.
“This is a hill and people would be willing to die on it,” the official said.
California has filed its 50th lawsuit against the Trump administration. This one targets the feds’ withholding of data on the weakening of car emission standards, CNBC reports.
California files 50th lawsuit against Trump administration - Office of Gov. Gavin Newsom just announced state is suing fed govt "for withholding data on efforts to weaken vehicle emission regulations that place the health of millions of kids, families and communities at risk."
FBI Director Chris Wray has described white supremacist extremism as 'a persistent, pervasive threat' during a House committee appropriations hearing. According to congressman Jose Serrano, Wray did not mention the issue by name in his budget request to the House, but Wray reiterated the significance of the issue, describing the shift from organised white supremacist groups towards un-coordinated lone actors. His comments were in contrast to those of Donald Trump who, after the Christchurch shooting, said he 'didn't really' see white nationalism as a growing threat around the world but instead a 'small group of people with serious problems'.
•FBI director Christopher Wray warned that white nationalism is a “persistent, pervasive threat”, breaking with Donald Trump’s comments in the wake of the New Zealand terror attacks. “The danger. I think, of white supremacists, violent extremism or another kind of extremism is of course significant,” Wray said. Trump played down the threat of white nationalism after awhite nationalist murdered 50 people in Christchurch, New Zealand in March.
•Congress has passed a resolution to end US military assistance for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, in an unprecedented attempt to curtail the president’s power. The House voted 247 to 175 to send the resolution to the president’s desk, where it is likely to be met with a veto. The Senate passed the resolution last month, with seven Republicans breaking rank to support the resolution.
Lindsay Graham has joined those calling for Donald Trump to release his tax returns, in an extremelyrare act of defiance towards the president.
“I think you should release your tax returns if you’re running for president in 2020,” Graham told reporters on Thursday,
Chairman of ways and means committee says request for six years of returns is ‘within our rights’
House Democrats have formally demanded Donald Trump’s tax returns from the Internal Revenue Service, marking a major bid to obtain information about the president’s finances and business dealings.
Richard Neal, the chairman of the House ways and means committee, issued the request on Wednesday evening, stating: “It is critical to ensure the accountability of our government and elected officials.”
Donald Trump has again wrongly claimed that his father, Fred Trump, was born in Germany. The president made the claim about his New York-born father during a press conference with the Nato secretary general, saying: 'My father is German, was German, born in a very wonderful place in Germany.' Trump’s grandfather, Friedrich Trump, was born in the German village of Kallstadt
The President’s son-in-law has been identified as the “Senior White House Official” who appeared in reports to the House Oversight Committee, the Washington Post reports. The documents were released this week after whistleblower Tricia Newbold shared concerns with the committee, over Trump overriding career intelligence officers to grant clearances despite “significant disqualifying factors”.
Kushner was flagged for significant issues raised during his background investigation, including his potential to be swayed by foreign influence, his personal conduct, and business conflicts of interest.
The new details about the internal debate over Kushner’s clearance revives questions about the severity of the issues flagged in his background investigation and Kushner’s access to government secrets.
Last year, President Trump directed his then-chief of staff, John F. Kelly, to give Kushner a top-secret security clearance, despite concerns expressed by career intelligence officers”.
Exclusive: western donors urged to ‘put children before politics’ in face of food shortfall
The head of the UN World Food Programme has called for the White House and other western donors to put children’s lives before politics and fund a major injection of aid to North Korea despite the failure of Donald Trump’s summit with Kim Jong-un.
David Beasley, a former Republican governor of South Carolina who backed Trump’s campaign for the US presidency, said he had heard concerns that responding to an appeal from Pyongyang would prop up the Kim regime.
President made the claim about his New York-born father, Fred Trump, during a press conference with the Nato secretary general
Donald Trump has wrongly claimed his father was born in Germany, again, during a press conference with the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg.
Trump made the claim while criticizing Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, whose country, the president said, “was not paying their fair share” toward the military alliance.
During a meeting with the secretary general of Nato, US President Donald Trump continued his retaliation against the concluded Mueller investigation by calling for the media to look into its 'oranges', meaning origins. After repeating his claim that the report exonerates him from both collusion with the Russian government and obstruction of justice, Trump said his only disappointment with the report was that it didn't look into its own origins, which he claimed stem back to his presidential campaign announcement in June 2015. At another point in the meeting, Trump also claimed his father Fred Trump was born in 'a very nice part of Germany', when in fact his father was born in New York.
Yujing Zhang is charged with lying to federal agents and illegally entering a restricted area, and remains in custody
A woman carrying two Chinese passports and a device containing computer malware lied to Secret Service agents and briefly gained admission to Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club over the weekend during his Florida visit, federal prosecutors allege in court documents.
Yujing Zhang, 32, approached a Secret Service agent at a checkpoint outside the Palm Beach club early Saturday afternoon and said she was a member who wanted to use the pool, court documents said. She showed the passports as identification.
Donald Trump is tweeting this morning and on a bit of a roll.
Puerto Rico got 91 Billion Dollars for the hurricane, more money than has ever been gotten for a hurricane before, & all their local politicians do is complain & ask for more money. The pols are grossly incompetent, spend the money foolishly or corruptly, & only take from USA....
....The best thing that ever happened to Puerto Rico is President Donald J. Trump. So many wonderful people, but with such bad Island leadership and with so much money wasted. Cannot continue to hurt our Farmers and States with these massive payments, and so little appreciation!
In 1998, Rep.Jerry Nadler strongly opposed the release of the Starr Report on Bill Clinton. No information whatsoever would or could be legally released. But with the NO COLLUSION Mueller Report, which the Dems hate, he wants it all. NOTHING WILL EVER SATISFY THEM! @foxandfriends
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Washington and all things politics.
Before we dive in, let’s take a moment to recognize Equal Pay Day – the day into the year that women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year, according to the National Committee on Pay Equity. It’s 2 April.
Dee Margo warned Donald Trump that closing the border would have a ‘detrimental, almost draconian’ impact on the region
The Republican mayor of El Paso, the largest American city on the US border with Mexico, has warned Donald Trump that if he goes ahead this week with his threat to close the border it would have a “detrimental, almost draconian” impact on the entire region.
“It would be a critical killer to us, frankly”, the mayor, Dee Margo, said.
A fight between Donald Trump and Democrats over hurricane relief for Puerto Rico is imperiling a widely backed disaster aid bill that’s a top priority for some of the president’s southern Republican allies, the Associated Press reports.
More from the AP:
Democrats should stop fighting Sen. David Perdue’s disaster relief bill. They are blocking funding and relief for our great farmers and rural America!
From my colleague Lauren Gambino, an update on progressive superstar and perhaps the only member of Congress known by her initials, AOC:
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has raised more than $90,000 for progressive, swing-district Democrats less than 24 hours after she urged supporters to donate to their re-election campaigns.
Last night @AOC helped raise 3 candidates in tough districts more than 30k each in a few hours. Corporate PACs can give candidates 5K - & it comes with strings. Grassroots $$ lets us stay accountable to the people. That’s the power of this movement — let’s keep building, together
Can’t thank my friend @AOC enough for helping me to reach my Q1 goal. We rise by lifting others. Onward!! https://t.co/AoI7PM2vC0
The @DCCC’s new rule to blacklist+boycott anyone who does business w/ primary challengers is extremely divisive & harmful to the party.
My recommendation, if you’re a small-dollar donor: pause your donations to DCCC & give directly to swing candidates instead.
Some great ones:
The fact that I challenged an incumbent meant a lot of folks were told not to come anywhere near my campaign. But I was lucky to build a dynamic, innovative team of staff & consultants who understood the challenges our campaign faced, and who were willing to take a risk (4/x)