Category Archives: US News

Trump cuts short Nato summit after fellow leaders’ hot-mic video

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US president cancels press conference after video captured group of leaders apparently ridiculing him

A furious Donald Trump cut short his attendance at the Nato summit in London after a group of leaders, including Boris Johnson, was caught on video ridiculing the US president at Buckingham Palace for staging lengthy press conferences.

The notoriously thin-skinned Trump cancelled a planned press conference and branded the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, “two-faced” after he was revealed on video leading the laughter at Trump’s expense together with other US allies.

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How does Nato look at the age of 70? It’s complicated

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Squabbling, a spreading focus and Trump raise doubts about the effectiveness of the alliance

Seventy years after Nato was founded to protect western Europe from Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union, the military alliance returned this week to its first home in London to discuss an increasingly sprawling set of goals while bickering leaders competed to see who could offer the most contentious soundbite.

Normally this is an arena that would be dominated by Donald Trump, although this time he was somewhat upstaged by Emmanuel Macron, whose pre-summit declaration that the organisation had become “brain dead” obliged Trump to describe his French counterpart’s comments as “very, very nasty”.

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Aladdin star Mena Massoud: ‘I haven’t had a single audition since film was released’

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As the Disney movie earns $1bn at the global box office, the actor says ‘I feel like I’m going to be overlooked and underestimated for a long time’

Mena Massoud, the Egyptian-Canadian actor who played Aladdin in the recent Disney live-action remake, has said he hasn’t had a single audition since its release.

Massoud told the Daily Beast: “I’m kind of tired of staying quiet about it … I want people to know that it’s not always dandelions and roses when you’re doing something like Aladdin. ‘He must have made millions. He must be getting all these offers.’ It’s none of those things. I haven’t had a single audition since Aladdin came out.”

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Stakes rise for Republicans as Trump impeachment inquiry enters new phase

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President’s allies expected to launch procedural objections during judiciary committee hearings

As round two of public impeachment hearings was set to begin on Wednesday, Republicans were expected to resort to procedural objections and high-temperature harangues in an effort to protect Donald Trump.

With the party-line 13-9 approval on Tuesday night by the House intelligence committee of a 300-page report by congressional Democrats describing how Trump abused the power of his office for personal and political gain, the impeachment inquiry has now moved into the hands of the judiciary committee, the last stop in the process before lawmakers would vote on impeaching Trump.

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Trump’s misconduct a textbook case of impeachable offenses, experts say in hearing

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Republicans’ witness offered opposing view, saying that the impeachment process was being rushed

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Impeachment experts testified before the House judiciary committee on Wednesday that Donald Trump’s misconduct offered a textbook case of impeachable offenses as prescribed by the constitution and applied over the course of US history.

Related: What's next for the Trump impeachment inquiry?

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Markets in tailspin amid fears US-China trade deal is in peril

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Asian markets plunge after Trump comments about trade deal delay made worse by possible Xinjiang sanctions

Global financial markets have gone into a tailspin amid mounting concern that the US and China are not going to conclude an interim trade agreement before a new set of American tariffs hit Chinese goods on 15 December.

Asian markets saw heavy selling on Wednesday after Donald Trump said a trade deal could wait until next year’s presidential election, scotching widely held expectations that he was ready to give the go ahead for an agreement.

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Are drone swarms the future of aerial warfare?

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Technology of deploying drones in squadrons is in its infancy, but armed forces are investing millions in its development

As evening fell on Russia’s Khmeimim airbase in western Syria, the first drones appeared. Then more, until 13 were flashing on radars, speeding towards the airbase and a nearby naval facility.

The explosives-armed aircraft were no trouble for Russian air defences, which shot down seven and jammed the remaining six, according to the country’s defence ministry. But the failed attack in January last year was disturbing to close observers of drone warfare.

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US House approves Uighur Act calling for sanctions on China’s senior officials

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Legislation in response to crackdown in Xinjiang prompts angry response from Beijing

The US House of Representatives has overwhelmingly approved a bill that would require the Trump administration to toughen its response to China’s crackdown on its Muslim minority in Xinjiang, drawing swift condemnation from Beijing.

The Uighur Act of 2019 is a stronger version of a bill that angered Beijing when it passed the Senate in September. It calls on the president, Donald Trump, to impose sanctions for the first time on a member of China’s powerful politburo even as he seeks a trade deal with Beijing.

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Kamala Harris: how the ‘female Obama’ started with a bang and went downhill

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The California senator’s campaign began with a huge rally but factional infighting and lack of a clear message took their toll

Newspaper editors infamously prepare obituaries before their subjects have died, keeping them ominously in reserve until the moment of truth.

Related: Kamala Harris drops out of Democratic 2020 presidential race

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Making the case for impeaching Trump: a look back at the key testimony – video

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Donald Trump "abused the power of his office for personal and political gain, at the expense of [US] national security", congressional Democrats have alleged in a report laying out damning conclusions after two weeks of public hearings in the impeachment inquiry. Here's a look back at some of the key testimony heard by the House Intelligence Committee that led to this point

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Adam Schiff accuses Trump of acting as if he is ‘above the law’ over Ukraine – video

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Adam Schiff, the Democratic chair of the House intelligence committee, has suggested Donald Trump undermined American national security and betrayed his oath of office, as Democrats announced the release of the report laying out the impeachment case against the president. Accusing Trump of using the powers of his office to solicit foreign interference in the 2020 election, Schiff said: 'This is the result of a president who believes he is ... beyond any form of accountability and indeed above the law' 

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Photos contradict Trump’s claim not to know Prince Andrew

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US president’s statement easily disproved as prince faces pressure to give evidence in US

Donald Trump has falsely claimed not to know the Duke of York as pressure rises on the latter to submit to questioning in America over his links to the sexual abuser Jeffrey Epstein.

The US president was asked during an event at the US ambassador’s residence in London on Tuesday about the Queen’s son having stepped down from royal duties after his disastrous BBC interview about the allegations. “I don’t know Prince Andrew, but that’s a tough story, it’s a very tough story,” he answered.

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Trump abused presidency for own gain, Democrats’ impeachment report concludes

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  • Democrats vote to adopt the report, moving the inquiry forward
  • They say evidence shows president improperly pressured Ukraine to influence 2020 election
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The US House intelligence committee voted on Tuesday evening to adopt Democrats’ damning 300-page impeachment report, moving the inquiry into Donald Trump into its next phase.

Trump “abused the power of his office for personal and political gain, at the expense of [US] national security”, congressional Democrats concluded in the report released on Tuesday, which laid out incriminating conclusions after two weeks of public hearings.

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Macron clashes with both Erdoğan and Trump at Nato summit

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French president is rebuked by Trump over Nato criticism after row with Turkey about Kurds

Nato disunity was on full display on the opening day of the alliance’s summit in London as the French president, Emmanuel Macron, accused Turkey of colluding with Islamic State proxies while Donald Trump described Macron’s criticisms of Nato’s “brain death” as insulting and “very, very nasty”.

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, for his part threatened again to veto Nato’s defence plan for the Baltics unless Nato endorsed its own assessment that Syrian Kurdish fighters on Turkey’s borders were terrorists, a definition that Macron and the Pentagon rejected.

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North Korea says choice of ‘Christmas gift’ is up to US amid missile tensions

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  • Pyongyang had given US till end of year to change position
  • ‘Dialogue touted by US … is a foolish trick’ linked to 2020 vote
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North Korea yesterday issued a thinly veiled warning it could resume long-distance missile tests in the next few weeks if the US does not change its negotiating position on the regime’s nuclear disarmament, saying “it is entirely up to the US what Christmas gift it will select to get”.

Related: North Korea's Kim Jong-un opens new city and 'socialist utopia' of Samjiyon

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Democrats expected to release Trump impeachment report – live news

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Report will convey argument that Trump abused power of the presidency by trying to pressure Ukraine to investigate Biden and the 2016 election

  • Help us cover the critical issues of 2020. This Giving Tuesday, consider making a contribution

Tom Steyer’s campaign said the billionaire activist has qualified for the December Democratic debate, making him the seventh presidential candidate to meet both the polling and donor requirements to participate.

“After terrific performances in the last two debates and a tremendous amount of earned media over the last month, Tom continues his surge in the early state polls which has led to an increased amount of donors over the last few weeks,” his campaign manager, Heather Hargreaves, said in a statement.

Good morning, live blog readers!

Donald Trump is at the Nato summit in London striking fear into stockbrokers’ hearts and insulting world leaders (as we’ve come to expect), but the impeachment inquiry is continuing unabated as the president is abroad.

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‘Google is no longer listening’: four fired workers file charges against tech giant

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The employee-activists accuse the company of attempting to quash employee organizing, in violation of federal labor laws

The four worker-activists who were fired by Google during Thanksgiving week plan to file federal charges alleging that their former employer fired them to quash worker organizing, in violation of federal labor laws.

Google told its staff of approximately 100,000 last week that the employees were fired for “clear and repeated violations of our data security policies”, according to a memo obtained by Bloomberg. But in defiant interviews with the Guardian on Monday, the workers rejected that justification as a pretext.

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Trump blasts Macron over ‘brain dead’ Nato remarks

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US president calls French leader’s comments ‘nasty’ and says Paris could leave alliance

Donald Trump has lashed out at Emmanuel Macron on the first morning of a two-day Nato meeting, saying the French president’s description of Nato as brain dead was insulting and a “very, very nasty statement”.

At a news conference alongside the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, the US president also accused Macron of trying to break away from Nato, as well as running a failing economy – while discarding the fact he himself has described Nato as obsolete on previous occasions.

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