The White House appeared to be in fresh disarray on Wednesday as Donald Trump insisted that his coronavirus taskforce would remain in place – less than 24 hours after suggesting it would be disbanded.
Continue reading...Fake social media accounts also used to support Ron Paul’s presidential bid and the Occupy movement
Iran’s state broadcaster experimented with using fake social media accounts to influence the outcome of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum and other western elections, according to a report from Facebook released on Tuesday.
The Iranian network, one of eight to be suspended for so-called “coordinated inauthentic behaviour” by the social media giant in April, points to efforts by state-linked groups to try to use Facebook to influence foreign democratic contests years before Russia’s alleged campaign against the 2016 US presidential contest.
Continue reading...John Ratcliffe was forced to withdraw his nomination for the same post nine months ago for exaggerating his security experience
A Trump loyalist nominated as director of national intelligence (DNI) looked set to sail through Senate confirmation hearings on Tuesday, only nine months after being forced to withdraw for having exaggerated his security experience.
Related: John Ratcliffe: Trump's intelligence chief pick withdraws amid qualification doubts
Continue reading...The US president said the government's top infectious disease expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, would not testify in the House of Representatives but only before the Senate. He argued this was because 'the House is a set-up. The House is a bunch of Trump haters.'
He later said the US 'wants' and 'needs' to reopen amid the coronavirus outbreak
With Covid-19 deaths set to almost double this month, the president is putting the stock market before lives, critics say
Donald Trump is effectively abandoning a public health strategy for the coronavirus pandemic and showing “clear willingness to trade lives for the Dow Jones”, critics say.
Related: Will Americans ever forgive Trump for his heartless lack of compassion? | Francine Prose
Continue reading...At least six workers who have participated in protests or advocated for safer conditions have been fired during the pandemic
Amazon’s revenues topped $33m an hour in the first three months of the year as the coronavirus pandemic locked down large parts of the world. The sales boost has handed Amazon the biggest dilemma of its 25-year life: how to deal with a growing chorus of critics within the company. So far its reaction has only made matters worse.
Last week an Amazon vice-president, Tim Bray, resigned in protest at what he called the company’s “chickenshit” decision to fire colleagues in the company’s warehouse division who had highlighted safety issues. “Remaining an Amazon VP would have meant, in effect, signing off on actions I despised,” wrote Bray.
Continue reading...It's one of the most important decisions a presidential candidate can make: so who will Joe Biden choose as his running mate? Political correspondent Lauren Gambino breaks down the most likely candidates for November's election
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That’s all for today, thanks for following along. A recap of the day:
Senator Elizabeth Warren said today she believed Joe Biden’s comments on the sexual assault allegation were “credible and convincing”.
“I saw the reports of what Ms [Tara] Reade said, I saw an interview with vice-president Biden. I appreciate that the vice-president took a lot of questions, tough questions. And he answered them directly and respectfully. The vice-president’s answers were credible and convincing,” the senator and former presidential candidate said, according to a CNN reporter.
Related: Senate rejects Joe Biden's request to search for records on Tara Reade
Continue reading...New York Times says it has obtained document that suggests administration expects daily death toll to rise throughout May
As Donald Trump proclaimed success in America’s fight against the coronavirus and continued to push for the US economy to reopen, it was reported on Monday that internal projections show the administration is expecting 3,000 deaths a day by 1 June.
Related: CNN's Don Lemon tells Trump to stop peddling 'crap' and 'conspiracy theories'
Continue reading...Trump administration portrays crisis as example of danger Beijing’s leadership poses to China and the world
The escalating row between Washington and Beijing over blame for the coronavirus pandemic is fast becoming a battle over the Chinese Communist party’s legitimacy, raising the stakes in an already fraught relationship.
In castigating Beijing for its failure to contain the outbreak, senior Trump administration officials have gone out of their way to portray the crisis as a deadly illustration of the threat that Communist party rule poses the Chinese people – and the world beyond.
Continue reading...Senate secretary said legal counsel advised that ‘the secretary has no discretion to disclose any such information’
The US Senate has rejected a request from Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, to search for and release any records of a 1993 complaint against him from an aide who has accused him of sexual assault.
The former vice-president gave his first TV interview on the matter on Friday, flatly denying former aide Tara Reade’s allegation that when he was a senator from Delaware he pushed her against a wall and assaulted her.
Continue reading...Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan has spoken out in support of Joe Biden, telling CNN that when it comes to accusations of sexual assault, “not every claim is equal”.
Related: Tara Reade says she didn't explicitly accuse Biden of assault in Senate report
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Donald Trump disputed warnings from the US Capitol physician and said it is safe for the Senate to return to the Washington DC building next week in a tweet which, as usual, needs a bit of explanation.
There is tremendous CoronaVirus testing capacity in Washington for the Senators returning to Capital Hill on Monday. Likewise the House, which should return but isn’t because of Crazy Nancy P. The 5 minute Abbott Test will be used. Please inform Dr. Brian P. Monahan. @MarkMeadows
The White House said it would be “counterproductive” for Dr Anthony Fauci to testify before Congress next week and is blocking him from speaking about the government’s response to the pandemic ina House committee hearing.
Fauci, who has worked at the National Institute of Health since 1968, has been a source of measured, expert analysis on the Covid-19 outbreak in press briefings and interviews. This has put him at odds with the president, who has downplayed the pandemic and disputed facts about the crisis.
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Here’s a look at today’s major news items ...
Donald Trump has appeared to confirm that Kim Jong Un is “alive and well” after weeks of speculation over the North Korean leader’s health.
“I, for one, am glad to see he is back, and well!” Trump wrote, quote-tweeting North Korean state media photos of Kim attending a ribbon cutting ceremony at the Sunchon Phosphatic Fertilizer Factory.
I, for one, am glad to see he is back, and well! https://t.co/mIWVeRMnOJ
Continue reading...Declarations of false victory and a vacuum of federal leadership have undermined testing as experts warn reopening the US could result in disaster
A broad coalition of US health systems has mobilized to ramp up coronavirus testing in a national effort on a scale not seen since the second world war. But declarations of false victory by the Trump administration and a vacuum of federal leadership have undermined the endeavor, leading experts to warn that reopening the US could result in a disaster.
Related: The missing six weeks: how Trump failed the biggest test of his life
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Donald Trump appears to have revised upward to 100,000 his expectations for the number of Americans who will die of Covid-19.
“Hopefully we’re going to come in below that 100,000 lives lost, which is a horrible number nevertheless,” Trump said at a White House event to honor people who are doing work related to the coronavirus pandemic, according to Reuters.
The last patient has left the field hospital that was erected in New York City’s Javits convention center, the AP reports.
The emergency facility was erected by the members of the US military to alleviate strain on the city’s hospital system at the height of the outbreak. It ultimately treated 1,095 patients, the last 8 of whom left the hospital today.
Continue reading...The latest spokeswoman for the ministry of untruth made an assured debut – but on Covid-19 and more, there were still Trumpian echoes
Channeling George Washington, Donald Trump, who has reportedly made 18,000 false or misleading claims in 1,170 days, recently proclaimed: “I cannot tell a lie.”
Related: Joe Biden denies sexual assault allegation from former staffer Tara Reade
Continue reading...Joe Biden has categorically denied allegations from a former Senate aide that he sexually assaulted her in 1993.
The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee’s first public comment on the allegation came at a delicate moment for his campaign.
Continue reading...House lawmakers said they could subpoena CEO to testify in antitrust investigation if he doesn’t appear voluntarily
A bipartisan group of House lawmakers investigating Amazon for possible antitrust violations have demanded that Jeff Bezos testify before Congress to address statements by the company that “appear to be misleading, and possibly criminally false or perjurious”.
“Although we expect that you will testify on a voluntary basis, we reserve the right to resort to compulsory process if necessary,” seven leaders of the House judiciary committee, including the chair Jerry Nadler, wrote in a letter to the Amazon CEO on Friday.
Continue reading...The presumptive nominee has come under pressure to address the allegation from fellow Democrats and progressive activists
Joe Biden will publicly address for the first time a sexual assault claim against him during an appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Friday morning, after weeks of silence on the subject.
Biden, the presumptive nominee, will “respond for the first time to the recent allegation of sexual assault”, the network announced in a tweet on Thursday.
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