Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s aid of Bernie Sanders’ campaign is raising talk of the possibility she might run for the White House herself
It was billed as a rally for Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign. But the only aging white man on the platform was the film-maker Michael Moore, and attendee Brittany Springmeier wasn’t there to see him.
She was in Iowa City for real star of the show, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Continue reading...Compton musician due to perform at the Grammys on Sunday
The American rapper YG has been arrested at his home in Los Angeles on suspicion of robbery two days before he is scheduled to perform at the Grammy awards.
Los Angeles county sheriff’s deputies took YG, whose real name is Keenon Jackson, into custody at his home in Chatsworth on Friday and also served a search warrant.
Continue reading...Our world affairs editor reflects on how, despite years of negotiations, we came once again to the brink of conflict
Countries tend to go to war when diplomacy fails. But Washington and Tehran are now facing off because it succeeded. It was because the 2015 nuclear deal was Barack Obama’s proudest foreign policy achievement that Donald Trump was so determined to destroy it.
The US and Iran are sliding back towards the brink of conflict. If a missile had landed a little bit differently in the course of the latest exchange of hostilities, they would probably be at war by now.
Continue reading...Secretary of state screamed obscenities and demanded host Mary Louise Kelly find Ukraine on a map, journalist says
Mike Pompeo is said to have unleashed a foul-mouth tirade at a well known US radio host after she asked him questions about Ukraine in an interview.
Mary Louise Kelly, a respected broadcaster on National Public Radio (NPR), sat down for a pre-arranged interview with the secretary of state on Friday, whose wrath was apparently triggered by a string of questions about Marie Yovanovitch, the former US ambassador to Ukraine. Kelly asked Pompeo whether he owed Yovanovitch an apology for not defending her in the face of a smear campaign orchestrated by Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani and his associates.
Continue reading...White House tried to hide records of Trump’s call with Ukrainian president and block whistleblower complaint, say Democrats
Democrats concluded the presentation of their case against Donald Trump at his impeachment trial on Friday, with the lead prosecutor Adam Schiff calling on Republicans to exercise “moral courage” and vote in favor of calling witnesses at the trial next week.
“Give America a fair trial,” Schiff concluded after three marathon days of argument. “She’s worth it.”
Continue reading...In a move that would please Gene Roddenberry – or make him ask for royalties – the president showed off a familiar looking symbol
As the impeachment trial of Donald Trump continued in earnest on Friday, the president was boldly unveiling his new logo for the US Space Force.
After consultation with our Great Military Leaders, designers, and others, I am pleased to present the new logo for the United States Space Force, the Sixth Branch of our Magnificent Military! pic.twitter.com/TC8pT4yHFT
Continue reading...US actor Rosie Perez testified in New York on the third day of the rape trial of Harvey Weinstein on Friday, describing phone calls she had with Annabella Sciorra where she learned Sciorra was allegedly raped.
Perez said she called Sciorra on a chilly night in 1993. Perez was in a good mood, saying, “Girl, what’s up? Wanna hang out?” hoping Sciorra was interested in going out that night.
Continue reading...Protesters out in numbers for annual March for Life, at a time when US reproductive rights are under serious threat
America’s largest annual anti-abortion protest drew tens of thousands of people to Washington in one of the most precarious years in decades for reproductive rights.
Related: Trump tells anti-abortion activists at March for Life: 'I am fighting for you'
Continue reading...On the fourth day of Trump's trial for impeachment in the US senate, impeachment manager Hakeem Jeffries warned that the president's actions toward Ukraine had put the country in jeopardy.
The New York Democrat also warned of a 'toxic mess' emanating from the White House, that 'is our collective job on behalf of the people to try and clean up'.
London Breed, San Francisco’s first black female mayor, joins campaign following support from Stockton and San Jose mayors
There’s nothing surprising about a billionaire winning the support of the mayor of San Francisco, a city flush with tech wealth and new money.
But when the billionaire is Mike Bloomberg – and the endorsement is the latest from a string of California mayors he mentored and supported – the vow of support raises some eyebrows.
Continue reading...Thirty-four US soldiers have been diagnosed with concussion or traumatic brain injury from an 8 January Iranian missile attack on their base in Iraq, the Pentagon has revealed.
The Pentagon spokesman, Jonathan Hoffman, said on Friday that eight service members who had been previously transported to Germany had been moved to the United States.
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“Give America a fair trial,” impeachment manager Adam Schiff said, wrapping up the Democrats’ opening statements. “She’s worth it.”
And just like that, Senate has adjourned for the night. The impeachment trial continues tomorrow morning.
As impeachment manager Adam Schiff continues to talk, Donald Trump has gone on a retweeting frenzy. He reposted a tweet of his from earlier today, as well as one from the Senate Republicans account, and one each from Republican senators John Barrasso and Marsha Blackburn.
This obsession with impeachment* is out of hand.
Tennesseans have their priorities straight: trade, border security, and creating jobs. pic.twitter.com/vNFjPBA2MQ
US Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin downplay risks posed by climate emergency
The US and Europe have clashed over the threat posed by global heating as Donald Trump’s finance minister downplayed the risks of a climate crisis during the final session of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Steve Mnuchin, the US Treasury secretary, said the debate should be about “environmental issues” rather than climate change, that the costs were being over-estimated and that climate was only one of several concerns that needed to be discussed.
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A few more scenes from the trial chamber:
Senators and 2020 Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar reportedly shared a laugh.
On the floor, Bernie Sanders looked quite tired, ultimately got up, walked to the back of the chamber - and chatted briefly with Amy Klobuchar. She pointed to something in her binder. They both shared a laugh and Sanders retreated to the cloak room.
Sen. Tillis is not in his seat at the moment. He’s sitting watching from above in the visitor gallery, for some reason
Emphasizing that nearly $400m in congressionally-appropriated military aid to Ukraine was held up for no good reason, the impeachment manager Zoe Lofgren, with the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, sitting nearby, pointed out: “Even Senator McConnell has said ‘I was not given an explanation’ for the hold.”
The evidence is clear that Donald Trump “knowingly, willfully violated the law when he withheld the aid to Ukraine”, Lofgren said. “It shows the great lengths the president was willing to go to in order to pressure Ukraine to do his dirty work.”
Continue reading...The white supremacist group the Base has been a target of FBI raids and its members accused of planning a race war. The Guardian can now reveal the identity of its secretive leader
The Guardian has learned the true identity of the leader and founder of the US-based neo-Nazi terror network the Base, which was recently the target of raids by the FBI after an investigation into domestic terrorism uncovered their plans to start a race war.
Members of the group stand accused of federal hate crimes, murder plots and firearms offenses, and have harbored international fugitives in recent months.
Continue reading...Mexico continues with efforts to contain the procession under pressure from the Trump administration
National guardsmen in riot gear have corralled hundreds of Central Americans and hauled them on to buses as Mexico continues with efforts to contain mass migration, under pressure from the Trump administration.
Security forces blocked the migrants’ path near the town of Frontera Hidalgo on Thursday afternoon, after hundreds had swept into Mexico across the Suchiate River that divides the country from Guatemala.
Continue reading...Donald Trump put his personal political interests ahead of his country’s national security and free and fair elections, prosecutors at his impeachment trial on Capitol Hill said on Thursday, telling US senators: “This conduct is not ‘America first’. It is Donald Trump first.”
Democratic impeachment managers, who are acting as the prosecutors bringing the case for Trump’s removal from office, were spending a second day in Washington laying out their case against Trump in only the third presidential impeachment trial in American history.
Continue reading...Philanthropist unveils plan for global network of institutions at Davos and attacks Trump as ‘ultimate narcissist’
The philanthropist and former financier George Soros has announced that he is to donate $1bn to fund a new global network of universities designed to promote liberal values and his vision of an open society.
In what he hailed as the “most important and enduring project of my life”, Soros said it was important to fund institutions that would help resist the drift towards growing authoritarianism in the US, Russia and China. He also launched a fresh attack on Donald Trump, calling the US president “the ultimate narcissist”.
Continue reading...Donald Trump has invited Israel’s prime minister and leader of the opposition to Washington for talks on the “prospects of peace”, signalling that the White House was preparing to share details of its long-awaited “ultimate deal” for Israelis and Palestinians.
Mike Pence, the US vice-president who is visiting Jerusalem for a Holocaust remembrance forum, said after a meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu that he had asked the leader to fly to Washington next week.
“President Trump asked me to extend an invitation to Prime Minister Netanyahu to come to the White House next week to discuss regional issues as well as the prospect of peace here in the Holy Land,” he said. Opposition leader Benny Gantz would also visit, he added, although it was not clear if at the same time.
No Palestinian representatives appeared to have been invited.
Continue reading...Annabella Sciorra’s shocking testimony marks first time the Weinstein sex crimes trial directly heard from one of his accusers
In a packed courtroom in the New York supreme court in Manhattan on Thursday, the former Sopranos actor Annabella Sciorra held her arms above her head, wrists locked, in a physical re-enactment of the moment she alleged that the disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein forcibly pinned her to her bed.
“He took my hands and put them over my head to hold them back,” the actor said, staring straight at the jury. Some 15ft away on the defense table, the defendant looked impassively at her.
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