Category Archives: US Politics

Ron DeSantis cannot ‘out-Trump Trump’ in primary, Ocasio-Cortez says

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Democratic congresswoman says rightwing Florida governor, trailing Trump in the polls, has made ‘very large, critical errors’

Ron DeSantis has made “very large, critical errors” in the Republican presidential primary, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said, the biggest of which is the Florida governor’s attempt to “out-Trump Trump” and appeal to the hard-right GOP base.

“The dynamics of these races change from day to day,” the New York progressive congresswoman told MSNBC. “I think that Governor DeSantis has made some very large, critical errors.

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US says it killed Islamic State leader Usamah al-Muhajir in Syria

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Statement says that strike was carried out by the same drones that were earlier harassed by Russian aircraft

The US military said on Sunday it conducted a strike that killed Usamah al-Muhajir, an Islamic State leader in eastern Syria.

“The strike on Friday was conducted by the same MQ-9s that had, earlier in the day, been harassed by Russian aircraft in an encounter that had lasted almost two hours,” a statement from US Central Command said.

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Trump attacks ‘no personality’ DeSantis and repeats election lies in Nevada

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Former president who dominates Republican primary finds receptive audience at Las Vegas rally

Donald Trump attacked Ron DeSantis at a rally in Las Vegas on Saturday, saying his closest challenger for the Republican presidential nomination had “no personality” – but claiming responsibility for the Florida governor’s career on the national stage.

Trump also repeated his lie about electoral fraud in his 2020 defeat by Joe Biden, to a receptive audience, before high-fiving fans at a mixed martial event.

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Iowa Republicans to hold 2024 caucus on Martin Luther King Jr holiday

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Move to 15 January puts first votes of GOP primary a little more than six months away

Iowa Republicans announced on Saturday that their presidential caucuses will be held on 15 January – the federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr.

The move puts the first votes of the 2024 election a little more than six months away, as Republicans try to reclaim the White House.

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Rudy Giuliani should be disbarred over 2020 election, DC panel recommends

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Washington DC committee recommends revoking former New York City mayor’s law license over attempt to overturn election

Rudy Giuliani’s law license should be revoked over his work on a failed lawsuit challenging the 2020 election results on behalf of then president Donald Trump, a Washington DC attorney ethics committee has recommended.

He now faces being disbarred in the capital after the review panel late on Friday condemned the lawyer and ex-politician for aggressively pursuing the false assertions Trump made about his defeat by Democratic rival and now US president Joe Biden.

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With Trump in trouble, Republicans step up assault on DoJ and FBI

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Critics say party that touted its law-and-order credentials now intent on wrecking institutions that get in Donald Trump’s way

When Merrick Garland was nominated to the US supreme court by Barack Obama, Republicans refused to grant him a hearing. Now that Garland is the top law enforcement official in America, the party seems ready to give him one after all – an impeachment hearing.

Republicans on Capitol Hill are moving up a gear in a wide-ranging assault on the justice department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation that would have been unthinkable before the rise of Donald Trump. The party that for half a century claimed the mantle of law and order has, critics say, become a cult of personality intent on discrediting and dismantling institutions that get in Trump’s way.

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Outrage as Republican says 1921 Tulsa massacre not motivated by race

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Oklahoma superintendent Ryan Walters decried for comments on 1921 massacre in which hundreds were killed by white mobs

The state official in charge of Oklahoma’s schools is facing calls for impeachment, after he said teachers should tell students that the Tulsa race massacre was not racially motivated.

In a public forum on Thursday, Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s state superintendent of public instruction, said teachers could cover the 1921 massacre, in which white Tulsans murdered an estimated 300 Black people, but teachers should not “say that the skin color determined it”.

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Biden says sending cluster bombs to Ukraine was ‘difficult decision’ – as it happened

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President tells CNN he took the recommendation for controversial weapons because Ukraine is ‘running out of ammunition’

The US added 209,000 new jobs in June as hiring slowed amid signs that the economy is cooling.

The rise was the weakest gain since December 2020, lower than the 240,000 jobs economists had expected and lower than the 309,000 jobs added in May. But the increase was also the 30th consecutive month of jobs gains, and the unemployment rate ticked down to the historically low rate of 3.6%.

This alarming development requires the Committee to assess White House security practices and determine whose failures led to an evacuation of the building and finding of the illegal substance.

The presence of illegal drugs in the White House is unacceptable and a shameful moment in the White House’s history.

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Trump valet Walt Nauta pleads not guilty in Mar-a-Lago documents case – as it happened

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Former US president’s ‘body man’ appears in Miami court on charges relating to classified documents found at resort

Walt Nauta is facing six federal charges, including conspiracy to obstruct justice, corruptly concealing a document or record, and making false statements.

That’s fewer than the 37 federal charges Donald Trump is facing, but both men are named in the indictment brought last month by special counsel Jack Smith. You can read it below:

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Boris Johnson claims he ‘reminded’ Trump about key role in Ukraine aid

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Former British prime minister says in interview that Trump ‘played an important role’ in arming Ukraine and set an example

On his recent visit to the US, Boris Johnson “reminded” Donald Trump he “actually played an important role” in supporting and arming Ukraine against its Russian invaders, the former British prime minister said, adding that British aid to Kyiv was “enabled” by Trump’s example.

Johnson made the claim about the notoriously pro-Russian former president – and brushed off mention of Trump’s impeachment for blocking military aid to Ukraine – in an interview on One Decision, a podcast hosted by Sir Richard Dearlove, a former chief of the British intelligence service MI6, and the journalist Julia Macfarlane. The episode was released on Thursday.

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White House calls on Republicans to act on gun control after Fourth of July weekend killings – as it happened

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White House press secretary urges Republicans to act to protect US communities after latest spate of gun violence

The Washington Post reports that the cocaine discovered at the White House was found on the ground floor in an area where visitors leave their cellphones.

White House employees can give tours of the building, usually on evenings and weekends, and part of the security protocol involves having visitors leave their cellphones in a locked box. As the for the cocaine, the Post adds that “Authorities are trying to find the person who left it at the White House.”

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Lab test confirms white powder found at White House is cocaine

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Secret Service review of visitor logs and surveillance cameras will seek to determine how drug came to be in the West Wing

A formal laboratory test of a white powder found in a “highly-trafficked” area of the White House has been confirmed as cocaine, NBC News reported on Wednesday, citing an unnamed official with knowledge of the investigation.

A Secret Service review of visitor logs and surveillance cameras will seek to determine how the cocaine, described as being in a small, zippered bag, came to be in the executive mansion.

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Central Park Five’s Yusef Salaam wins Democratic city council primary

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Salaam prevails over two veterans in improbable feat for political novice wrongly accused with four others of raping a woman in 1985

Yusef Salaam, one of the exonerated Central Park Five, is all but assured of a seat on the New York city council after being confirmed as the winner of a Democratic primary, an improbable feat for a political novice who was wrongly accused, convicted and imprisoned as a teenager for the rape and beating of a jogger in Central Park.

Additional votes released on Wednesday showed Salaam as the clear winner of the primary to represent Central Harlem, which took place last week.

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US investigators zone in on Trump election-plot lawyer John Eastman

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Experts say Eastman, faces possible disbarment in California, under increasing scrutiny in federal and state inquiries

John Eastman, who was in the vanguard of lawyers plotting schemes involving “fake electors” and other ploys to help Donald Trump thwart Joe Biden’s win in 2020, is now under close scrutiny in federal and state investigations of Trump’s drives to stay in power, and faces possible disbarment in California, say former prosecutors.

The former California law professor is one of several lawyers whose legal stratagems have been heavily examined by Special Counsel Jack Smith’s accelerating investigation into Trump and his allies’ efforts to block Biden from taking office.

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Man accused of attacking Capitol officer as January 6 arrests pile up

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Jeremy Rodgers, 28, arrested in Florida a day after armed man wanted over riot detained near Barack Obama’s Washington home

Americans continue to be arrested on suspicion of taking part in the Capitol attack, two and half years after the January 6 insurrection by supporters of Donald Trump.

Court documents on Monday showed that a Michigan man accused of attacking a police officer with a flagpole during the insurrection was arrested in Florida last Friday, a day after an armed man also wanted for the rioting was arrested near Barack Obama’s Washington home. Another man suspected of violence at the Capitol was arrested in Maryland last month.

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Trump said president under indictment would create ‘constitutional crisis’

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Former president made comments in 2016 days before election he won, and predicted Hillary Clinton would face criminal trial

The election of a president under indictment and facing criminal trial would “create an unprecedented constitutional crisis” and “cripple the operations of government”, Donald Trump said.

But the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, who faces 71 criminal counts in state and federal cases and is expected to face more, was not speaking about himself – or speaking this year.

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Supreme court’s student loan decision ‘usurps Congress’s authority,’ says Democrat

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Ro Khanna of California said he will support another relief plan that Joe Biden is proposing under the Higher Education Act

The US supreme court’s decision to strike down Joe Biden’s student debt forgiveness plan late last week “usurped the authority of Congress”, Democratic House representative Ro Khanna said on Sunday.

Khanna, of California, argued that if anyone thought Biden was unduly empowered by the legislation which the president used to issue the debt relief program, “then the solution is Congress can repeal the … act”.

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Chris Christie calls Trump-DeSantis nomination feud ‘a teenage food fight’

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Former New Jersey governor speaks out after bizarre video from Florida’s governor and ‘juvenile’ nicknames from the ex-president

An escalating feud between the two main rivals for the Republican presidential nomination is akin to a “teenage food fight”, another challenger, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, said on Sunday.

He made the comment after the campaign of Ron DeSantis, the rightwing Florida governor who has slipped in the polls to Donald Trump, released a “homophobic” video attacking the former president for his previous support of the LGBTQ+ community.

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Another bus with dozens of migrants from Texas arrives in Los Angeles

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Bus with 41 people, including 11 children who were with families, was welcomed by collective of faith and immigrants’ rights groups

Another bus carrying asylum seekers arrived in downtown Los Angeles from a Texas border city early on Saturday, the second such transport in less than three weeks.

The bus, which arrived at about 12.40pm at Los Angeles’s Union Station from Brownsville, Texas, held 41 people including 11 children who were with their families, according to a statement from the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles (Chirla).

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Fireworks sales skyrocket as Americans spend record amount on pyrotechnics

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Sales expected to hit an ‘all-time high’, with figures suggesting fireworks market should increase by $100m from last year

Cost of living, poor air quality and environmental concerns are no match for Americans’ willingness to spend a record amount on fireworks, according to reports ahead of the Fourth of July holiday.

According to the American Pyrotechnics Association, US consumer fireworks retailers have reported that sales of rockets, missiles, roman candles, aerial spinners, parachutes, sparklers, poppers, fountains, jumping jacks and firecrackers should increase by about $100m this year over 2022.

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