Ex-New York governor and current NYC mayoral candidate accused of mishandling nursing homes during pandemic
The justice department has reportedly opened a criminal investigation into Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor and current frontrunner in the New York City mayoral race.
The investigation was launched after Republicans accused Cuomo of mishandling the state’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, multiple outlets reported on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Gen Michael Guetlein of Space Force will be in charge of defense system that could cost $540bn over 20 years
Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that his administration will move forward with developing the so-called “Golden Dome” missile defense system that he envisions will protect the United States from possible foreign strikes using ground and space-based weapons.
Flanked by the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, in the Oval Office, Trump also said that he wanted the project to be operational before he left office. He added that Republicans had agreed to allocate $25bn in initial funding and Canada had expressed an interest in taking part.
Continue reading...Tim Kaine condemns secretary of state for admitting Afrikaners while cancelling refugee schemes for others
Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, has defended the Trump administration’s controversial decision to admit 59 Afrikaners from South Africa as refugees after Tim Kaine, a Democratic senator from Virginia, claimed they were getting preferential treatment because they were white.
Kaine, Hillary Clinton’s former running mate, challenged Rubio to justify prioritising the Afrikaners while cancelling long-standing refugee programmes for other groups that have been more documented as victims of conflict or persecution.
Continue reading...Move comes one week after Trump announced all US sanctions on Syria would be lifted
The EU has agreed to lift economic sanctions on Syria in an effort to help the war-torn country recover after the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime.
After the decision by EU foreign ministers on Tuesday, the EU’s chief diplomat, Kaja Kallas, wrote on X: “We want to help the Syrian people rebuild a new, inclusive and peaceful Syria.”
Continue reading...President signs bill with first lady Melania Trump to criminalize sharing intimate images without consent
President Donald Trump on Monday signed into law the Take It Down Act, a measure that imposes penalties for online sexual exploitation that first lady Melania Trump helped usher through Congress, and he had her sign it, too, despite what sounded like a mild objection on her part.
“C’mon, sign it anyway,” the president told his wife. “She deserves to sign it.”
Continue reading...Palestinian activist, freed just over two weeks ago from federal detention, crosses graduation stage to cheers
Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi, released just over two weeks ago from federal detention, crossed the graduation stage on Monday to cheers from his fellow graduates.
The Palestinian activist was arrested by immigration authorities in Colchester, Vermont, while attending a naturalization interview. He was detained and ordered to be deported by the Trump administration on 14 April despite not being charged with a crime.
Continue reading...Former FBI director describes as ‘crazy’ claim that seashell photo on Instagram signified assassination call
James Comey went for a walk on the beach with his wife when they stumbled on a message in the sand: 8647.
According to the former FBI director, his wife wondered if it was an address. They stood over the seashells, trying to decipher meaning. His wife, according to Comey’s account, recalled her days as a server, and said 86 was the term used to remove an item from the menu. Comey chimed in that when he was a kid, “86” meant “to ditch a place”.
Continue reading...Cato analysis goes against Trump administration’s claim that only undocumented people were deported to Cecot
At least 50 Venezuelan men sent by the Trump administration to a prison in El Salvador had entered the United States legally, according to a review by the Cato Institute.
The report, published by the libertarian thinktank on Monday, analyzed the available immigration data for only a portion of the men who were deported to El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot), and focuses on the cases where records could be found.
Continue reading...Former US president is reviewing treatment options with family as cancer has spread to the bone
Joe Biden, the former US president, has been diagnosed with an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones, his personal office announced on Sunday.
The 82-year-old was seen last week by doctors after urinary symptoms and a prostate nodule were found. Biden and his family are considering options for treatment.
Continue reading...Chris Murphy says Trump strategically visited Gulf states ‘willing to pay him off’ as backlash rises against luxury offer
Donald Trump’s acceptance of a $400m Boeing jet from Qatar is the “definition of corruption”, a leading Democrat said on Sunday, as several senior Republicans joined in a bipartisan fusillade of criticism and concern over the luxury gift.
Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator for Connecticut, condemned the “flying grift” on NBC’s Meet the Press as he assailed the president’s trip to several Gulf states this week that included a stop in Qatar.
Continue reading...Proposed rule change could pave way for president to fire economists whose figures prove politically inconvenient
Summarizing his befuddlement with numbers, Mark Twain observed that there were “lies, damned lies and statistics”.
The acerbic phrase later become so deeply embedded in popular consciousness that it once formed the title to an episode of The West Wing, NBC’s portrayal of a fictitious US president played by Martin Sheen.
Continue reading...In social media posts, president also slammed Walmart for price increases and spread anti-Clinton conspiracy theories
Donald Trump has said that he will speak to both Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an effort to stop what he called the “bloodbath” war in Ukraine, in a barrage of new social media posts that included baseless conspiracy theories and a demand that Walmart not raise prices for customers because of tariffs he has imposed.
Trump, posting on his Truth Social account on Saturday, wrote that he will speak to Putin on Monday morning. “THE SUBJECTS OF THE CALL WILL BE, STOPPING THE ‘BLOODBATH’ THAT IS KILLING, ON AVERAGE, MORE THAN 5000 RUSSIAN AND UKRAINIAN SOLDIERS A WEEK, AND TRADE,” Trump wrote, in his customary all-capitalized prose.
Continue reading...Interview by special counsel shows then president having problems remembering key dates and life events
A newly released recording appears to confirm that Joe Biden suffered some memory lapses while US president, struggling to recall the year his son died or when Donald Trump was first elected.
While being interviewed by a special counsel over his handling of classified records, the audio shows Biden’s responses are marked by long pauses, a faint whispered voice and confusion over key dates, such as when his son Beau died (2015) or when Trump won his first presidency (2016).
Continue reading...White House remakes foreign policy under pay-for-access code that critics say could violate US constitution
Former White House lawyers, diplomatic protocol officers and foreign affairs experts have told the Guardian that Donald Trump’s receipt of overseas gifts and targeted investments are “unprecedented”, as the White House remakes US foreign policy under a pay-for-access code that eclipses past administrations with characteristic Trumpian excess.
The openness to foreign largesse was on full display this week as the US president was feted in the Gulf states during his first major diplomatic trip abroad this term, inking deals he claimed were worth trillions of dollars and pumping local leaders for investments as he says he remakes US foreign policy to prioritise “America first” – putting aside concerns of human rights or international law for the bottom line of American businesses and taxpayers.
Continue reading...James Comey posted picture of shells arranged to say ‘8647’, using common slang for kicking a customer out of a bar
Donald Trump accused the former FBI director James Comey on Friday of calling for his assassination in a coded social media post written in seashells.
Comey’s Instagram post – a photograph of seashells on a beach arranged to spell the numbers 8647, which he captioned “Cool shell formation on my beach walk” – was used by rightwing supporters of Trump to claim that it was a call to assassinate the US president. The Secret Service said it has launched an investigation.
Continue reading...Homeland security department reviewing ‘out-of-the-box’ pitch in which immigrants would compete for citizenship
The US Department of Homeland Security is reportedly considering an “out-of-the-box” pitch to participate in a television gameshow that would have immigrants compete to obtain US citizenship.
Department spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin described the pitch to the New York Times as a “celebration of being an American” and said the show would include challenges based on American traditions.
Continue reading...Administration’s appeal to quickly deport Venezuelans under Alien Enemies Act rejected with two dissenting
The supreme court has rejected the Trump administration’s request to remove a temporary block on deportations of Venezuelans under a rarely used 18th-century wartime law.
Over two dissenting votes, the justices acted on an emergency appeal from lawyers for Venezuelan men who have been accused of being gang members, a designation that the administration says makes them eligible for rapid removal from the United States under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
Continue reading...Goal of Christian nationalist and director of OMB to dismantle federal workforce may be coming to fruition
Russ Vought’s years-long quest to dismantle the federal workforce and consolidate power for the president is coming to fruition, and he may be given a major boost when he reportedly takes on Elon Musk’s cost-cutting efforts as the billionaire bows out of the federal government.
The director of the office of management and budget has worked alongside Musk’s “department of government efficiency” to slash through the federal government since Trump took office. The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Vought would take on an increased public role in Washington as Musk transitions out and the president’s budget process advances. The outlet reported that Vought could use the budget process to make some of Doge’s cuts permanent.
Continue reading...Pledge to strengthen ties with Gulf state includes a $14.5bn agreement with Boeing, GE Aerospace and Etihad Airways
Donald Trump has announced deals totaling more than $200bn between the United States and the United Arab Emirates, including a $14.5bn commitment among Boeing, GE Aerospace and Etihad Airways, as he pledged to strengthen ties between the US and the Gulf state during a multiday trip to the Middle East.
The White House said on Thursday that Boeing and GE had received a commitment from Etihad Airways to invest $14.5bn to buy 28 US-made Boeing 787 and 777X aircraft powered by GE engines.
Continue reading...New Mexico judge rules immigrants did not know they were entering US military zone, marking setback for Trump
A federal judge in New Mexico on Thursday dismissed trespassing charges against dozens of immigrants caught in a new military zone on the US-Mexico border, marking a setback for Trump administration efforts to raise penalties for unlawful crossings into the US.
Chief US magistrate judge Gregory Wormuth began filing the dismissals late on Wednesday, ruling that immigrants did not know they were entering the military zone in New Mexico and therefore could not be charged, according to court documents and a defense attorney.
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