Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
President vows to destroy Turkish economy if Syria invasion is not resolved humanely, but brash language and diplomatic missteps draw confusion
Donald Trump warned his counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan “don’t be a fool” and said history risked branding him a “devil” in an extraordinary letter sent the day Turkey launched its incursion into north-eastern Syria.
The letter, first obtained by a Fox Business reporter, was shorn of diplomatic niceties and began with an outright threat.
US president Donald Trump said on Wednesday that his meeting with the Dunn family, whose son Harry died in a road collision with a US intelligence officer's wife, was 'beautiful in a certain way', but sad. He added that Anne Sacoolas said she was driving on the wrong side of the road before the crash
Elizabeth Warren came under sustained attack from her Democratic rivals during Tuesday night’s presidential debate, a reflection of the threat her ascendant candidacy poses to the crowded field of hopefuls competing to take on Donald Trump in the 2020 US election.
Twelve Democratic candidates took to the stage in Westerville, Ohio, for the largest presidential primary debate in modern US history, and the first since the launch of an impeachment inquiry into the president’s efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate his leading rival, Joe Biden.
Twelve Democratic 2020 presidential candidates will share the stage in the perpetual swing state on Tuesday
The Democratic 2020 presidential candidates will gather once again on Tuesday night to face off in their fourth debate, this time in the perpetual swing state of Ohio.
Twelve of the candidates have qualified to participate, and they will all share one stage – marking the most crowded debate stage of this election cycle so far. But the dynamics of the race have changed since the candidates last met in September, and some of the contenders face the prospect of this being their last debate.
Democratic front-runner Elizabeth Warren is on an absolute tweet storm today, linking America’s big dollar election donation system corrupt, calling out pay-for-play - and taking full advantage of comedy actor Kate McKinnon’s most recent depiction of her on Saturday Night Live.
I don't spend call time asking rich donors to throw big dollar fundraisers or underwrite my campaign. My call time is spent with grassroots donors, thanking them for chipping in whatever they can. Mind if I make just a few more? pic.twitter.com/TDo9EkNpA1
Action in the Trump-Ukraine impeachment inquiry is taking place behind closed doors today, so we’ll wait breathlessly for any revelations via participating lawmakers on Capitol Hill committees taking testimony from state department official George Kent.
Meanwhile, there is plenty else afoot in US politics.
President freezes negotiations on $100bn trade deal
Trump vows to ‘swiftly destroy Turkey’s economy’
Donald Trump spoke directly to the Turkish president, Tayyip Erdoğan, on Monday to demand an immediate ceasefire in Syria while announcing a series of punishments for Ankara that critics saw as an attempt to save face.
The US president’s conversation with Erdoğan was revealed by the vice-president, Mike Pence, who said he would soon be travelling to the Middle East. “The United States of America did not give a green light for Turkey to invade Syria,” Pence insisted to reporters at the White House.
National Coming Out Day festivities across the US were tempered this year by anxiety that some LGBTQ people may have to go back into the closet so they can make a living, depending on what the supreme court decides about workplace discrimination.
Donald Trump’s secretary of defense said on Sunday the Pentagon would cooperate with the House’s impeachment inquiry, while cautioning that Trump may try to restrict his disclosure of information.
Donald Trump came to the defence of Rudy Giuliani on Saturday, only a day after he said he didn’t know if the former New York mayor was still his personal attorney and it was reported that Giuliani is under federal investigation in Manhattan.
John Bel Edwards must secure 50% of vote in Saturday’s poll
Republicans Ralph Abraham and Eddie Rispone lead challenge
Louisiana’s governor, John Bel Edwards, is fighting to hang on to a rare Democratic governorship in the deep south, against a national Republican offensive aimed at forcing him into a run-off after Saturday’s election.
Republicans are trying to hold Edwards under the 50% benchmark the region’s only Democratic governor needs to win outright over five other candidates. On Friday night, Donald Trump made a last-minute appeal to Louisiana voters.
The former US ambassador to Ukraine, whose abrupt departure has become a focus of impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump, has told congressional investigators that the president personally pressured the state department to recall her as part of a “concerted campaign” against her.
At a closed-door hearing on Capital Hill, Marie Yovanovitch delivered a stinging denunciation of diplomacy under the Trump administration, saying the state department was being “attacked and hollowed out from within”.
In the latest instalment of our series on the counties in which voters swung from Obama to Trump, Chris McGreal reports from Howard county, Iowa, where Trump voters have plenty to dislike – but many would vote for him again
Donald Trump hasn’t made life easier for Aaron Schatz. He may even have made the Iowa dairy and grain farmer a little poorer. But Schatz can live with that, for now.
“This trade war with China, it’s dropped prices of our corn and beans but it’s something that needed to be done because China was unfair to us. I know we’re going to take a hit. Some of us are getting a little frustrated but we’re happy something’s being done,” he said.
Donald and Eric Trump repeat claims of improper behaviour by Joe Biden’s son in sign of how 2020 campaign will be fought
Donald Trump sought to weaponise Democrats’ impeachment inquiry to his electoral advantage on Thursday at a typically crude-but-effective rally in which he declared Joe Biden “was only a good vice president because he understood how to kiss Barack Obama’s ass”.
In his first campaign stop since the inquiry was announced, the US president and a 20,000-capacity crowd staged a formidable show of defiance at a basketball arena in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Trump mesmerised his fans for 102 minutes with a verbal cannon of conspiracy theories, blatant falsehoods, profane insults and anti-refugee bigotry.
Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren weighed in on the arrest of two Republican donors connected to Rudy Giuliani, arguing that their campaign-finance charges indicate the depth of corruption in Trump’s political world.
In addition to abusing and manipulating our diplomatic relationships for Trump's political gain, we can add corruption and campaign finance violations to the list. https://t.co/b57uGfVl3l
Here’s a midday summary of today’s news, which is slightly belated given the many developments the blog is tracking:
‘We’re going to get back into the groove of a very vigorous campaign,’ 2020 candidate says, a week after having a heart attack
Bernie Sanders said he intends to compete as aggressively as ever for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination after suffering a heart attack last week, saying he “misspoke” when he told reporters he planned to scale back the relentless pace of his campaign for health reasons.
Russia and Iran have troops in Syria and will see opportunities amid chaos of US impulsiveness
Donald Trump’s decision to give the green light – now seemingly turning amber – for Turkey to enter northern Syria has produced a torrent of criticism from European capitals to Washington Republicans, all pointing out that Ankara’s move will revive Islamic State, cause untold civilian deaths and land the US with an indelible reputation across the Middle East as an unreliable ally.
But the west has been losing traction in Syria over the past two years, and it may be the reaction of Russia and Iran, who have forces on the ground in Syria, that will most concern the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Their reaction may also reveal more about the long-term future of Syria’s eight-year civil war.
US president Donald Trump defends his decision to withdraw support for Kurdish allies in Syria by saying they did not help the US during the second world war, citing Normandy as an example. Kurdish forces did fight alongside the US against Isis for nearly five years before Trump's call to remove US troops from the region
As we noted earlier, when Trump defended his decision abandon Kurdish allies in Syria by saying that they didn’t help the US during World War II.
“They didn’t help us with Normandy as an example,” Trump told reporters.
Trump on the Kurds: "They didn't help us in the Second World War, they didn't help us with Normandy, as an example." He suggests that they battled alongside U.S. forces for "their land," and adds, "With all of that being said, we like the Kurds." pic.twitter.com/4aFGJiQquv
Trump told reporters he’ll cooperate with the House democrats’ impeachment inquiry if “they give us our rights”.
Asked whether he’ll cooperate with the democrats if they hold a vote on the impeachment inquiry, Trump responded: “The Republican Party and president has been treated extremely badly by the Democrats, very unfairly, because they have a tiny margin in the House, they have eviscerated the rules, they don’t give us any fair play, it is the most unfair situation people have seen, no lawyers, you can’t have lawyers, you can’t speak, you can’t do anything.”
The Constitution states clearly that the House of Representatives “shall have the sole Power of Impeachment,” and that “the Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments.”
What “impeachment” means in this context is, effectively, indictment — the House has the power to determine whether sufficient evidence exists to spur a trial that would then take place in the Senate.
Eight-page letter to Democratic leaders sets stage for constitutional crisis, as legislative and executive branches clash
Donald Trump pushed the United States towards a constitutional crisis on Tuesday when his legal counsel said the White House would refuse to cooperate with Congress’s impeachment inquiry.
“Given that your inquiry lacks any legitimate constitutional foundation, any pretense of fairness, or even the most elementary due process protections, the Executive Branch cannot be expected to participate in it,” the counsel Pat Cipollone said in a letter to Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives.