Category Archives: US News

Inquiry strikes blow to Russian denials of Syria chemical attack

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UN watchdog’s investigation rebuts claims it manipulated evidence of Douma incident

A Russia-led campaign that claimed the UN weapons watchdog had manipulated evidence of a Syrian government chemical weapons attack has been dealt a blow by an official inquiry showing that two former employees hailed as whistleblowers had little direct access to the evidence and inflated their role.

The independent inquiry commissioned by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) shows that one of the two had never been on the team investigating the April 2018 attack in Douma and the other was only on the team for a brief period.

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Iowa caucus remains too close to call with 100% of precincts reporting

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DNC chair Tom Perez calls for ‘immediate recanvass’ of tally as Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders vie for victory

Pete Buttigieg expressed confidence over the Iowa caucus results on Thursday after days of chaotic vote tallying, even as the head of the Democratic National Party called on the state to “recanvass” the votes.

Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders have remained neck-and-neck for most of the week, and the Associated Press declared on Thursday evening that the race was still too close to call.

With 100% of precincts reporting, the pair were locked in a virtual tie. Buttigieg, leading by just 1.5 state delegate equivalents, had an advantage of about .1 percentage points.

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Man dubbed ‘largest facilitator’ of child abuse images pleads guilty

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Eric Eoin Marques, citizen of US and Ireland, faces up to 30 years in prison over web hosting service

A man once described by an FBI agent as the world’s largest “facilitator” of child abuse websites pleaded guilty on Thursday to operating a web hosting service that allowed users to anonymously access hundreds of thousands of images and videos depicting child abuse.

Eric Eoin Marques, 34, faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison and a maximum of 30 years after his guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to advertise child abuse images. A plea agreement will ask the US district judge Theodore Chuang in Maryland to sentence Marques to 15 to 21 years in prison, but the judge is not bound by the recommendation.

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Qassim al-Rimi: US forces killed al-Qaida leader in Yemen, Trump confirms

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Al-Rimi had claimed responsibility for a shooting at a Florida naval base, where a Saudi aviation trainee killed three American sailors

Donald Trump confirmed on Thursday that a counter-terrorism operation in Yemen killed Qassim al-Rimi, an al-Qaida leader who claimed responsibility for last year’s deadly shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola, where a Saudi aviation trainee killed three American sailors.

Unconfirmed reports of his death, including indicative tweets from the president, have been circulating since 31 January, but the neither the Department of Defense nor the CIA had issued official confirmation.

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Trump responds to impeachment acquittal with rambling, vitriolic speech – as it happened

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  • Trump speaks at White House for first time since acquittal
  • Report shows Iowa caucus results ‘riddled with inconsistencies’
  • Buttigieg lead over Sanders narrowing in Iowa results
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Related: Trump unleashed: what's next for a president who feels invincible?

Both Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders have claimed victory in Iowa, even as technical delays and reporting issues have prolonged the delay in tallying the Democratic caucus votes. Sanders has touted his raw vote tally; Buttigieg holds a narrow lead in the number of state delegate equivalents he’s amassed.

Both candidates will be speaking tonight in a CNN town hall ahead of the New Hampshire primary contest next week. Deval Patrick and Amy Klobuchar will be participating as well, answering questions from supporters and network hosts.

Related: Sanders and Buttigieg nearly tied in Iowa amid new claims of counting errors

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US customs dismantled ‘impossible to replace’ instrument, Mali musician says

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  • Harp-like kora arrived in pieces in Paris with note from TSA
  • ‘Would US customs have dared to dismantle a Stradivarius?’

Malian musician Ballaké Sissoko has accused US border officials of breaking his “impossible to replace” musical instrument during a security check.

Sissoko plays the kora, a west African instrument whose 21 strings can sound similar to a harp. US border officials said they did not open the instrument case.

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No 10 says Johnson’s row with Trump over Huawei was ‘overblown’

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US president was reportedly furious about PM’s decision to use Chinese 5G expertise

Downing Street has sought to play down the significance of a difficult phone call between Donald Trump and Boris Johnson over the UK’s decision to allow Chinese company Huawei to help build its 5G network.

Trump was reported by the FT to have been “apoplectic” about the decision taken by Johnson, and the phone call last week was said by one official to have been “very difficult” and tense.

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‘Dirty cops, leakers and liars’: Trump on impeachment acquittal – video

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Donald Trump spoke in the White House to supporters and Republicans in what he called 'a celebration' on Thursday, after being acquitted of impeachment in the Senate. 

The senators found Trump not guilty of the first article of impeachment, abuse of power, by a 52-48 tally, and not guilty of the second article of impeachment, obstruction of Congress, by a 53-47 tally.

Trump said the Democrats that impeached him were 'vicious and mean' saying Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi were 'horrible' people

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‘He’s impeached forever’: Nancy Pelosi on Trump’s acquittal – video

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Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that Donald Trump would never get rid of the 'scar' of impeachment, in her first weekly press conference since Trump was acquitted by the Senate.

Pelosi also responded to Trump’s comments at the National Prayer Breakfast, where he implicitly insulted Pelosi and Republican senator Mitt Romney

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Christina Koch returns to Earth after record-breaking space mission

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Koch lands in Kazakhstan after 328 days in space, the longest continuous spaceflight by a female astronaut

She would miss the friendship of her crewmates, she said, and of course the spectacular views.

But after 328 days on the International Space Station – the longest continuous spaceflight ever undertaken by a female astronaut – Christina Koch could not deny last week that she was looking forward to experiencing some very simple pleasures back on Earth, including “the feeling of wind on my face”.

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Donald Trump alludes to Mitt Romney and Nancy Pelosi in speech after acquittal – video

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The US president referenced support for his impeachment from both Mitt Romney and the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, at the national prayer breakfast. He added: 'When they impeach you for nothing, then you are supposed to like them. It is not easy'

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After Trump’s acquittal: new revelations will continue to trickle in

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The hollowness of the president’s acquittal after impeachment may be exposed as leaks and investigations soldier on

The Senate trial of Donald Trump has arrived at its preordained conclusion. The president has begun a victory lap to celebrate impunity and settle scores with a long list of enemies headed by Mitt Romney, while the Democrats return to their ill-starred primaries. But there are good reasons to believe that Ukraine, the reluctant focus of the impeachment battle, will continue to haunt US politics for some time to come.

Related: Trump tilts at Romney and Pelosi in first speech after impeachment acquittal – live

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‘Don’t do this again’: Schumer and McConnell clash over Trump acquittal – video

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The US senators Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer both held press conferences after the Senate acquitted Donald Trump on two impeachment charges. Schumer, the Democratic Senate minority leader, said Americans knew that ‘this was one of the largest cover-ups in the history of our nation’, while McConnell, the Republican Senate majority leader, warned the House of Representatives: ‘Don’t do this again’

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Jared Kushner appeared ignorant of what Nato actually does, book claims

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Sinking in the Swamp says Trump’s ‘lead point of contact’ for US allies seemed unaware of alliance members’ commitment to defend each other from attack

Though Jared Kushner was a “lead point of contact” for US allies worried about Donald Trump’s threats to Nato, the president’s son-in-law did not “seem to know what Nato actually did”, a new book claims.

Related: Jared Kushner may have an ethics problem - to the tune of $90m | Vicky Ward

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Bernie Madoff says he is dying of kidney failure and seeks early prison release

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Lawyer says 81-year-old behind history’s largest Ponzi scheme uses a wheelchair and has multiple serious conditions

Bernard Madoff, the fraudster behind the largest Ponzi scheme in history, said Wednesday that he was dying of kidney failure and is seeking early release from his 150-year prison sentence.

In a court filing Madoff’s lawyer said the 81-year-old uses a wheelchair, often requires oxygen, and suffers from cardiovascular disease, hypertension, insomnia and other chronic and serious medical conditions. He is too old for a transplant and has been moved to the Federal medical center prison in Butner, North Carolina.

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Kirk Douglas, Hollywood legend and star of Spartacus, dies aged 103

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Square-jawed star of Paths of Glory and Lust For Life leaves legacy ‘that will endure for generations’, says son Michael Douglas

Kirk Douglas, the self-styled “ragman’s son” who became the last great star of Hollywood’s golden age, has died at the age of 103.

His son Michael announced the news in a statement posted on Instagram on Wednesday evening.

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Harvey Weinstein trial: attorney shows dress witness wore during alleged attack

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Lauren Young gave a distressing account of an alleged hotel bathroom attack by the once-powerful movie producer

The sixth and final woman to accuse Harvey Weinstein of sexually attacking them took the witness stand at his rape trial on Wednesday, describing in harrowing detail how he allegedly groped her in a Los Angeles hotel bathroom in 2013.

The jury in the New York supreme court were once again subjected to a graphic and distressing account of an alleged forced sex act imposed on an aspiring young actor by the once-powerful movie producer.

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The great escape: how Donald Trump survived impeachment

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How did Trump and his team pull off his successful defense? Here’s a look at key factors

Will historians find Donald Trump’s impeachment remarkable because Republican politicians turned a blind eye to such egregious wrongdoing and acquitted him? Or will they find it remarkable because it was the last time a cadre of Republican officials publicly turned against Trump?

While most of the career civil servants who defied the president by testifying in the impeachment inquiry do not publicly identify as Republican, many were Trump appointees with strong Republican ties, while other key figures such as former national security adviser John Bolton are wizened party warriors.

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Trump’s acquittal in impeachment ‘trial’ is a glimpse of America’s imploding empire

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In a hyperpartisan era, Republicans cast Trump as a victim while Democrats lamented his ‘normalisation of lawlessness’

Donald Trump’s short but indelible political career has been based around the principle of divide-and-fool. His acquittal in the impeachment trial by the US Senate will further fan the flames of the most profound national split since the Vietnam war, perhaps even the civil war.

First, expect Trump to be cocky and take a victory lap, falsely claiming “exoneration” just as he did after special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation left him bruised but unbowed. A day after Mueller’s leaden testimony to Congress, the president felt able to act with such impunity that he made his bullying phone call to the leader of Ukraine.

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Donald Trump acquitted on both articles in Senate impeachment trial

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President becomes third in US history to be impeached by the House and acquitted in Senate trial

Donald Trump has been acquitted in his Senate trial on both of the articles of impeachment he faced, ending the threat that he would be removed from office and concluding the impeachment process.

Voting largely along party lines, the senators found Trump not guilty of the first article of impeachment, abuse of power, by a 52-48 tally, and not guilty of the second article of impeachment, obstruction of Congress, by a 53-47 tally.

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