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 Texas senator tried to pick a fight after Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called out Mike Pence’s coronavirus credentials
If you were in search of a scientifically minded, steadying presence to guide the country through the potential fallout of the coronavirus, you could not do much worse than Vice-President Mike Pence. This being the Donald Trump administration, however, where qualifications and expertise are often seen as prohibitive factors for top jobs, that’s exactly who we’ve been given.
Cutting to the heart of the matter with her characteristic bluntness, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez this week pointed out the absurdity of placing Pence in charge of a potentially looming health crisis.
At the annual CPAC conference in Maryland, Republicans were in buoyant mood about the president’s re-election prospects
“Four more years!” the crowd chanted at Mike Pence, the vice-president. “Four more years!”
Not so long ago, under the shadow of investigations, impeachment and dismal approval ratings, Donald Trump’s re-election seemed a long shot. But at the biggest annual gathering of grassroots conservatives on Thursday, self-belief was surging and some were already looking ahead to what a second term might bring.
Vice-President Pence to take charge of US response to coronavirus
Poll shows widespread concerns about election security and integrity
UN chief Michelle Bachelet criticises Trump’s weakened environmental protection standards
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The US Dept. of Justice announced it had created a division tasked with denaturalizing immigrants.
The Denaturalization Section “underscores the department’s commitment to bring justice to terrorists, war criminals, sex offenders and other fraudsters who illegally obtained naturalization” officials said in a statement.
Denaturalizations have ramped up under the Trump administration: Of the 228 denaturalization cases that the department has filed since 2008, about 40 percent of them were filed since 2017, according to official department numbers.
According to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, actor Steven Seagal allegedly failed to disclose a promotional agreement related to cryptocurrencies.
The SEC alleges Seagal accepted $250,000 in cash and $750,000 worth of Bitcoiin2Gen (B2G) tokens in exchange for online promotion of the currency, including “posts on his public social media accounts encouraging the public not to ‘miss out’”.
Donald Trump has sought to play down the threat from coronavirus, saying the danger to Americans ‘remains very low’ and predicting that the number of cases diagnosed in the country, currently on 15, could fall to zero in a ‘few days’. In a press conference in Washington, the US president also announced he was placing the vice-president, Mike Pence, in charge of coordinating the US response to the coronavirus outbreak
Donald Trump’s lawyers began making their case Saturday, with a longer, more meaningful session expected for Monday
Donald Trump’s legal team on Saturday argued that Donald Trump broke no laws and Democrats’ move to impeach him was simply an attempt to delegitimize Trump’s presidency.
‘Ultimate deal’ reported to be extremely favourable to Israel
Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader to visit next week
Donald Trump has invited Israel’s prime minister and leader of the opposition to Washington for talks on the “prospects of peace”, signalling that the White House was preparing to share details of its long-awaited “ultimate deal” for Israelis and Palestinians.
Mike Pence, the US vice-president who is visiting Jerusalem for a Holocaust remembrance forum, said after a meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu that he had asked the leader to fly to Washington next week.
“President Trump asked me to extend an invitation to Prime Minister Netanyahu to come to the White House next week to discuss regional issues as well as the prospect of peace here in the Holy Land,” he said. Opposition leader Benny Gantz would also visit, he added, although it was not clear if at the same time.
No Palestinian representatives appeared to have been invited.
Senate minority leader criticized the White House for its handling of the impeachment inquiry, saying ‘trials have witnesses’
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Speaking to reporters in the cabinet room at the White House, Trump said Rudy Giuliani, his personal lawyer, had not shared “too much” with him after returning from Ukraine.
Hmm...Asked what Giuliani shared with him upon his return from Ukraine, Trump says, "Not too much. But he’s a very great crime fighter…He’s a great person who loves our country. And he does this out of love, believe me. " Giuliani told WSJ he had more than Trump could imagine.
According to a newly released poll, Trump’s approval rating has edged up a bit and opposition to impeachment has slightly decreased since the start of the public impeachment hearings.
The Quinnipiac poll found 43 percent of registered voters approve of Trump’s job performance, compared to 38 percent in an Oct. 23 poll.
Visit meant to reassure US allies in fight against Isis
Pence is highest-level American to travel there since withdrawal
Mike Pence made an unannounced visit to Iraq on Saturday, the highest-level American to visit since Donald Trump ordered a pullback of US forces in neighbouring Syria two months ago.
Lawsuit exposed ‘shocking pattern of illegality’ in Trump’s personal charity, while John Bolton fails to show for deposition on Capitol Hill – follow live
Bloomberg is preparing to enter the Democratic presidential primary, the New York Times reports. He’s expected to file paperwork designating himself as a candidate in Alabama this week.
Mr. Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor and billionaire businessman, has been privately weighing a bid for the White House for weeks and has not yet made a final decision on whether to run, an adviser said. But in the first sign that he is seriously moving toward a campaign, Mr. Bloomberg has dispatched staffers to Alabama to gather signatures to qualify for the primary there. Though Alabama does not hold an early primary, it has a Friday deadline for candidates to formally enter the race.
Trump hails ceasefire and ‘safe zone’ on Turkey-Syria border as ‘great day for civilisation’ but few believe it
The deal agreed between the US and Turkey immediately achieved the priority objective of vice-president Mike Pence’s peace mission to Ankara: Donald Trump was able to claim victory on Twitter.
The president had unwittingly alienated most of his own party over his acceptance of the Turkish invasion of north-eastern Syria, and was already in the midst of an impeachment battle.
The mayor of Doral, Florida, a small town outside of Miami, was taken by surprise by the White House’s announcement that the G7 summit would be held at one of Trump’s own resorts there, the Washington Post reports.
The announcement, a clear example of using the power of the presidency to benefit Trump’s private interests, has sparked anger and widespread criticism.
I just talked to the mayor of Doral — who now needs to plan to host 8 world leaders and thousands of diplomats. He learned this when we did, by watching Mulvaney on TV. He still hasn’t gotten a call from the White House. https://t.co/7A9AekUhoy
In his final hours, Elijah Cummings, the son of sharecroppers who became an influential Democratic congressman from Baltimore, was still working to help immigrants with chronic medical conditions.
That’s what members of his staff told Massachusetts congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, she tweeted today.
As I was paying my respects to our forever Chairman, his staff told me that in his final hours he signed subpoenas to USCIS and ICE, pursuing justice for immigrants in my district & across the country with chronic medical conditions. A man of his word every moment of his life. pic.twitter.com/igzUPl1yPF
Mike Pence strikes deal with Turkish president in Ankara
Agreement appears to cement key Turkish objectives
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has agreed with the US vice-president, Mike Pence, to suspend Ankara’s operation on Kurdish-led forces in north-east Syria for the next five days in order to allow Kurdish troops to withdraw, potentially halting the latest bloodshed in Syria’s long war.
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters would pull back from Turkey’s proposed 20-mile (32km) deep “safe zone” on its border, Pence told reporters in Ankara on Thursday evening after hours of meetings with Turkish officials.
US vice president Mike Pence on Thursday announced that the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, had agreed to a ceasefire in Syria, where Turkey had launched an offensive on Kurdish forces once allied with the US in the fight against the Islamic State group. Ankara will suspend its operation on Kurdish-led forces in north-east Syria for the next five days in order to allow Kurdish troops to withdraw
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.
The Irish prime minister, Leo Varadkar, has warned that there is “no such thing as a clean break” – Brexit deal or no Brexit deal – with difficult and complex negotiations on the future relationship with the EU whatever the outcome of talks. In a speech in Dublin to the British and Irish Chambers of Commerce, he has said:
If there is no deal – and I believe we may have to live with no deal for a period – then, at a certain point, we will have to begin negotiations again. The first and only items on the agenda ... will be citizens’ rights, the financial settlement with the EU and a solution to the Irish border.
Whatever happens, Ireland will not be dragged out of the single European market.
Recently, Prime Minister Johnson and I spoke by phone. We spoke of our shared desire to see the Northern Ireland political institutions reinstated. We shared our perspectives on the withdrawal agreement and agreed that our teams would establish one-to-one contact.
We will meet again in Dublin on Monday. Unfortunately, given political developments in the UK, there is a significant and growing risk of no-deal.
Here’s some more detail on the criticism of Johnson from the West Yorkshire police and crime commissioner, Labour’s Mark Burns-Williamson:
To use police officers as the backdrop to what became a political speech was inappropriate and they shouldn’t have been put in that position.
It clearly turned into a rant about Brexit, the opposition and a potential general election. There’s no way that police officers should’ve formed the backdrop to a speech of that nature.
Yes, because he’s used the pretence of an announcement around police recruitment for mainly a political speech.
In a statement about the the president’s performance at the G7 summit, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden warned of the potentially devastating effects another four years of Trump could unleash.
“Rather than looking to America for vision, agenda setting, and leadership by example, our closest democratic allies sought to manage and mitigate the damage Trump might do at this year’s G-7,” Biden said.
Taylor Swiftsurprised some of her fans last night by striking a political tone while accepting the MTV Video Music Award for video of the year.
The pop star encouraged those listening to sign a petition in support of the Equality Act, which would bar discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation. The Democratic-controlled House passed the bill earlier this year, but it has not yet been taken up in the Senate.
Trump has turned his attention away from the shootings if his Twitter feed is any indication.
The president has instead been busy attacking China for harming America’s economy and repeating the (false) claim that US consumers are not covering the cost of his trade war:
....used currency manipulation to steal our businesses and factories, hurt our jobs, depress our workers’ wages and harm our farmers’ prices. Not anymore!
Another Democratic presidential candidate, Cory Booker, has dismissed Trump’s statement on the shootings this morning as woefully lacking.
The New Jersey senator specifically cited Trump’s focus on mental illness in his remarks. “Mental illness didn’t kill the people of Dayton,” Booker said. “People are too easily getting their hands on guns.”
Aldrin accompanies Mike Pence to launch site in Florida
Vice-president repeats Trump push for Mars mission
As Donald Trump reiterated his determination that Americans should walk on Mars, Mike Pence marked the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing at the Apollo 11 launch site in Florida on Saturday.
The vice-president, Mike Pence, got a first-hand view of migrant detention facilities after touring two centres in Texas as he spoke out against grandstanding on Capitol Hill after legislators delivered emotional testimony about appalling conditions. Pence was in the border city of McAllen, Texas where he was joined by a delegation of Republican lawmakers as they toured migrant detention centres. President Donald Trump has said that a nationwide wave of arrests of immigrants facing deportation will begin over the weekend.
Men say they have been held for 40 days and want to brush teeth
Vice-president claims migrants are ‘in good shape’
Controversy continued on Saturday over Mike Pence’s visit to a detention facility on the Texas border, in which the vice-president said appalling conditions described by a pool reporter were “tough stuff” but placed the blame for the migrant crisis on Democrats in Congress.
Families fleeing violence, poverty and drought in Central America have been coming to the US in record numbers, peaking in May when the border patrol made nearly 133,000 apprehensions. Detention facilities quickly filled up, forcing many migrants to languish in unsuitable facilities much longer than the 72 hours required by law.