Category Archives: US News

US politics: Buttigieg leads in Iowa as Senate prepares to acquit Trump – live coverage

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  • Buttigieg just ahead of Sanders as Iowa votes trickle in
  • Pelosi rips up copy of Trump State of the Union speech
  • Only one Republican senator likely to vote to convict Trump
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Pete Buttigieg threw everything into winning the Iowa Democratic caucuses and – with 71% of the vote in following Monday’s results debacle – his gamble may well have paid off.

If so, the former mayor of tiny South Bend, Indiana, may look back on this moment as the peak of his political career, or the start of a long, hard slog that could take him all the way to the White House.

Hello and welcome to another big day in American politics.

It’s fair to see Donald Trump is probably having a pretty good week. Last night he got 80 minutes to make his case for a second term on primetime TV with his State of the Union address, as the Democrats continued to struggle to publish results from their first primary contest on Iowa on Monday.

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Hundreds of Salvadorans deported by US were killed or abused, report reveals

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Human Rights Watch says 138 Salvadorans were murdered from 2013 to 2019 and 70 others were abused or sexually assaulted

At least 200 Salvadoran migrants and asylum seekers have been killed, raped or tortured after being deported back to El Salvador by the United States government which is turning a blind eye to widely known dangers, a new investigation reveals.

Related: How the US helped create El Salvador’s bloody gang war

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State of the Union: Pelosi expresses her disdain as Trump pitches for re-election

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Trump used speech to brag about ‘the great American comeback’ but House speaker said she couldn’t find ‘one page with truth on it’

An emboldened Donald Trump bragged about the “great American comeback” in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, in a speech resembling an 81-minute re-election rally that prompted the most powerful woman in Congress to rip up her copy of the speech on national television.

The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said she tore up the address, which he delivered on the eve of the verdict in his impeachment trial, because she couldn’t find “one page with truth on it”.

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Iowa caucus results: Pete Buttigieg pulls ahead as state Democrats release partial count – live

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Some Iowans expressed frustration on Tuesday that the state Democratic party had bungled its moment in the national spotlight after the state Democratic party delayed releasing the results of the caucuses because of a technical glitch.

“They’re not complete, but results are in from a majority of precincts, and they show our campaign in first place,” said Pete Buttigieg, grinning widely as he addressed supporters in New Hampshire. “This is what we have been working more than a year to convince our fellow Americans: that a new and better vision can bring about a new and better day.

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Senate leaders make speeches before final vote – video

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Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell called for senators to ‘vote to reject the House abuse of power’ during a speech on Tuesday 4 February before a final vote scheduled for Wednesday afternoon on whether to convict Donald Trump. Democratic minority leader Chuck Schumer said that ‘the Republicans refused to get the evidence because they were afraid of what it would show’.

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Pete Buttigieg holds early lead in Iowa caucuses after chaos over results

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Iowa Democratic party announces partial results with former South Bend mayor trailed closely by Bernie Sanders

Pete Buttigieg, the previously little-known former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, held a narrow lead in the Iowa caucuses on Tuesday night, according to a partial release of a majority of the results by the state Democratic party a day after an embarrassing organizational breakdown that marred the biggest night of the election year so far.

With 71% of the precincts reporting from all of Iowa’s 99 counties, Buttigieg held 26.8% of the state’s delegate count, trailed closely by the Vermont senator Bernie Sanders with 25.2%, the Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren with 18.4% and the former vice-president Joe Biden falling well behind with 15.4%. Sanders, meanwhile, had so far earned the largest share of total votes cast.

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Canadian court upholds Trans Mountain pipeline expansion approval

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Federal court of appeals in a 3-0 decision rejected four challenges from First Nations to government’s approval of the project

Canada’s federal court of appeal has dismissed legal objections to the contentious Trans Mountain pipeline expansion that would nearly triple the flow of oil from the Alberta oil sands to the Pacific coast.

In a 3-0 decision, the court rejected four challenges from First Nations in British Columbia to the federal government’s approval of the project.

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Joe Biden heckled on campaign trail in New Hampshire – video

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The Democratic presidential candidate said he had had a good night in Iowa and was expecting good results from the caucus. Biden held his speech at a 'get out and vote' event, where he was suddenly heckled by at least one member of the audience who was escorted away as supporters shouted 'get out'

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Harvey Weinstein trial: witness details complex relationship with ex-producer

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Rape trial continued with cross-examination of accuser who suffered a panic attack under questioning on Monday

The dramatic rape trial of Harvey Weinstein continued on Tuesday with the cross-examination of an accuser who suffered a panic attack under questioning the day before.

The 34-year-old witness alleges she was violently raped twice by the film producer in 2013. Her claims form a central pillar of the prosecution’s case.

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Ex-Obama official exits Israeli spyware firm amid press freedom row

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Juliette Kayyem has left NSO, which denies its technology has been used to target activists

A former Obama administration official who has faced criticism from press freedom groups for her role as a senior adviser at NSO Group has stepped down from the Israeli spyware company.

The disclosure of the public departure of Juliette Kayyem, a high-profile national security expert and Harvard professor, as a senior adviser to NSO came just one day after a controversy over her role at the spyware group prompted Harvard to cancel an online seminar she was due to host.

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‘Iowa, you have shocked the nation’: Democrats remain hopeful despite results chaos – video

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The Democratic candidates vying to challenge Donald Trump for the US presidency in November were left in limbo and forced to make their scheduled speeches to supporters without knowing the outcome. Despite the lack of results, all candidates sought to claim a form of victory

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Iowa caucuses: results in chaos as Democratic party blames delays on ‘inconsistencies’ – as it happened

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  • Party says they are using photos and paper trail to validate results
  • Biden’s campaign sends letter to party demanding ‘full explanation’
  • Iowa caucuses results – live updates
  • Help us cover the critical issues of 2020. Consider making a contribution

That’s it from me after a very anti-climatic night in Des Moines. The Democratic presidential candidates and the media circus accompanying them are leaving Iowa with no sense of who won the first voting state in the nominating contest.

Here’s where things stand:

One reporter described Iowa Democratic party chairman Troy Price’s voice on the press call as “deflated”, which is understandable considering the organization saw its worst nightmare unfold before its eyes tonight.

"Thank you and we will be in touch soon," Price said.

An understatement to say he sounded deflated. Since his election in 2017, it's been his sole mission to try to make a fairer, more transparent Iowa caucus that would also run seamlessly. Tonight was IDP's worst nightmare.

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Trump campaign jubilant as Democrats’ big night implodes

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Vote-counting chaos in Iowa has been a PR disaster for Democrats

They couldn’t organise a caucus in a brewery. Or a church, or a library, or a school gymnasium. Democrats’ heroic charge to end Donald Trump in the final battle for decency and democracy has spiralled into vote-counting carnage and chaos.

Imagine if the shoe has been on the other foot. Imagine if Trump’s White House had spent four years preparing for an election only to mess it up. It would have been seen, quite rightly, as yet another example of his incompetence, ineptitude and inability to focus on detail or retain experienced staff.

Related: Iowa caucuses off to disastrous start as results delayed due to 'inconsistencies'

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The botched Iowa caucuses have become the ultimate political metaphor

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Monday’s voting revealed the Democrats apparently can’t count – not the most promising sign for the 2020 election

Iowa is like soccer. It is the most important of all the least important things in politics.

It may be the first state in the nation to vote in an election that will ultimately decide whether a sociopathic cretin keeps his finger on the nuclear button.

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Iowa caucuses off to disastrous start as results delayed due to ‘inconsistencies’

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Hours after voting began there were no results as the state’s Democratic party said it was ‘simply a reporting issue’

The Democratic presidential primary contest got off to a disastrous start on Monday after results from the highly anticipated Iowa Democratic caucuses were dramatically delayed due to “inconsistencies” in the reporting of the data.

The state’s Democratic party said it was performing “quality control” on the numbers “out of an abundance of caution” following reports of problems with a phone app used to relay vote tallies.

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Harvey Weinstein’s rape trial abruptly halted amid witness’s panic attack

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Judge suspended proceedings until Tuesday morning after a key witness was unable to bring her crying under control

Harvey Weinstein’s rape trial in New York had to be brought to an abrupt halt on Monday afternoon after one of his two main accusers was reduced to uncontrollable sobbing, having been subjected to more than four hours of relentless grilling at the hands of his defense lawyer.

James Burke, the judge presiding over the New York supreme court trial, suspended proceedings until Tuesday morning when the key witness was unable to bring her crying and breathing under control and appeared to have a panic attack. Even after a five-minute break, the woman continued to sob in her witness seat.

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How do the Iowa caucuses work? Your guide to the night

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The midwestern state is the first to vote in the presidential primary race. So what are caucuses, and how do they work? Here’s your guide to the night

The Iowa caucuses take place on Monday 3 February, kicking off the long process of nominating a Democratic presidential candidate who will eventually take on Donald Trump in November’s US election.

The primary race is made up of a series of contests called primaries and caucuses that take place in all 50 states plus Washington DC and outlying territories, by which the parties select their presidential nominee from the candidates who are running.

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‘You basically are nothing’: the Americans shut out of the Iowa caucuses

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Hundreds of thousands of Iowans are barred from the Iowa caucus because of physical and legal barriers

As Democratic candidates began a last minute blitz across Iowa on Friday evening, nearly a dozen men gathered in a cavernous YMCA meeting room in downtown Des Moines to have a conversation that felt a universe removed from the 2020 race.

They were part of one of the largest groups shut out of Monday’s caucus: people with felony convictions. Iowans are barred from voting for life once they commit a felony, and people can’t vote even if they committed a crime decades ago. The state’s policy, one of the strictest in the country, means more than 42,000 Iowans out of prison won’t have a say in choosing a presidential candidate. Almost 10% of the black voting age population can’t vote because of a felony conviction.

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‘We must defeat Trump’: Democrats make final appeals as Iowa prepares to vote

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Polling shows no clear frontrunner in tight race as four Democratic candidates are knotted together at the top

After more than a year of ideological clashes and policy debates, voters in the midwestern state of Iowa are set to have their say on which Democratic presidential candidate they believe is best positioned to defeat Donald Trump in November’s election.

Related: 'Nerve-racking': Iowans under pressure on eve of crucial caucuses

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Jared Kushner insists Middle East peace plan is ‘a real effort to break logjam’

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  • Kushner hopes Palestinians ‘read’ the Middle East peace plan
  • Mahmoud Abbas cuts ties with US and Israel after rejecting plan

Though the Palestinian Authority has cut ties with the US and Israel over the Trump administration’s plan for Middle East peace, its author has insisted his plan is not dead yet.

Related: What we Palestinians think does not matter – all that matters is Israel | Diana Buttu

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