Family asks Department of Homeland Security to halt their deportation to Honduras to investigate the alleged assault
A private prison guard physically assaulted a five-year-old boy at an immigration detention center in Texas, according to a complaint filed with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Related: She raised her niece like a daughter. Then the US government separated them at the border
Continue reading...Congressman and civil rights leader Elijah Cummings was remembered at a funeral that brought Washington politicians and ordinary people alike to the Baltimore church where he worshipped for nearly four decades
Continue reading...Democrat sent cease-and-desist as lawsuit suggests publication defamed her by claiming she has a Nazi-inspired tattoo
A member of Congress from California has threatened to sue the Daily Mail over nude photographs and claims posted online by the newspaper.
Lawyers for Katie Hill, 32, a Democratic, first-term representative from a suburban Los Angeles district, sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Mail demanding that “you remove these photos from publication at once”.
Continue reading...Trump has complained that his campaign was improperly targeted, but critics say department is being used to chase conspiracy theories
The US justice department has reportedly opened a criminal inquiry into the origins of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, a move that would raise concerns that Donald Trump and his allies may be using the powers of the government to go after their opponents.
The development, first reported by the New York Times, comes as Trump is already facing an impeachment inquiry examining whether he withheld military aid to pressure the president of Ukraine to launch an investigation of former vice-president Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
Continue reading...System sold by Optum estimates health needs based on medical costs, which are much less than for white patients, report finds
An algorithm used to manage the healthcare of millions of Americans shows dramatic biases against black patients, a new study has found.
Hospitals around the United States use the system sold by Optum, a UnitedHealth Group-owned service, to determine which patients have the most intensive healthcare needs over time. But the algorithm, which has been applied to more than 200 million people each year, significantly underestimates the amount of care black patients need compared with white patients, research published on Friday in Science magazine found.
Continue reading...Footage of Fresno, California, incident follows police claims that killing of unarmed Isiah Murrietta-Golding, 16, was justified
Newly released video shows a Fresno, California, police officer shooting a fleeing, unarmed 16-year-old in the back of the head and then handcuffing the boy as he lies motionless on the ground.
Surveillance footage of the 14 April 2017 killing of Isiah Murrietta-Golding, released this week by the family’s attorney, has spread across the US, with critics calling it another example of extreme police brutality and unjustified lethal force that would have received little attention if lawyers hadn’t published the video.
Continue reading...The US is reportedly planning to deploy tanks and other heavy military hardware to protect oil fields in eastern Syria, in a reversal of Donald Trump’s earlier order to withdraw all troops from the country.
The most likely destination for US armoured units is a Conoco gas plant near the city of Deir Ezzor, the site of a February 2018 clash between US special forces and Syrian regime-backed militias fighting with Russian mercenaries.
Continue reading...A wind-driven wildfire has forced evacuations north of San Francisco in Sonoma County. The blaze near Geyserville had grown to 15 sq miles (39 sq km) by early Thursday, according to the state firefighting agency Cal Fire. Winds around the county's highest areas were blowing at speeds of up to 70mph, and elsewhere in the region between 30mph and 50mph, the National Weather Service said
Continue reading...The charade may seem desperate, but it’s a strategy straight out of Trump’s playbook when he faced Mueller
In addition to an abuse-of-power allegation, Democrats leading the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump are said to be building a case against the president for alleged obstruction of justice.
But it had not occurred to anyone that the obstruction in question might literally amount to the physical obstruction by Republican lawmakers of impeachment proceedings.
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Tim Ryan failed to gain much traction since entering the presidential race in April, but during his campaign, he helped to cast a spotlight on gun violence.
Ryan represents Youngstown and suburbs of Akron in the House. When a gunman opened fire on the nearby Ohio city of Dayton, Ryan lambasted Trump and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell for inaction on gun legislation.
Tim Ryan’s exit from the presidential race means that there are now 18 contenders seeking the Democratic nomination.
AND THEN THERE WERE 18: @RepTimRyan announces he's dropping out of the Democratic presidential race and will seek re-election to Congress. pic.twitter.com/oZIOIG6coX
Continue reading...Donald Trump on Wednesday talked about the construction of a wall in states that border Mexico, but included Colorado, which is 400 miles away from the frontier. The US president later said on Twitter he had been kidding and added that he had been referring to people in states that weren't on the border, saying they would still benefit from the wall
Continue reading...The Democrat made waves by challenging Zuckerberg. It wasn’t even her first viral moment that day
It isn’t often that you hear someone rave about a great congressional hearing they’ve seen online. Heck, outside of big national events, I’m going to bet you have never willingly watched C-Span.
But less than one year since she entered Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has represented New York’s 14th congressional district since January, has changed that.
Continue reading...Democratic lawmaker challenges Facebook CEO during hearing over Libra cryptocurrency
Mark Zuckerberg faced a grueling examination from the Democratic lawmaker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Wednesday, with questions over the Cambridge Analytica scandal and Facebook’s reluctance to police political advertising.
Ocasio-Cortez and other lawmakers grilled the Facebook CEO during a hearing in front of the US House of Representatives financial services committee regarding the launch of Facebook’s cryptocurrency project, Libra.
Continue reading...Group chanting ‘Let us in’ enter closed-door meeting where top Pentagon official who oversees Ukraine policy was to testify
Political tensions over an intensifying impeachment inquiry reached fever pitch on Wednesday as Republicans “stormed” a closed-door committee hearing on Capitol Hill disrupting a crucial deposition related to the Ukraine controversy was appearing – a day after devastating testimony from a key diplomat.
Related: Republicans are finally realising Trump is his own worst enemy – and theirs | Richard Wolffe
Continue reading...Donald Trump has said he will lift the economic sanctions imposed on Turkey after its government informed the US that it would make the ceasefire in Syria ‘permanent’. Claiming success at the US-brokered effort, the US president said on Wednesday that ‘this was an outcome created by us’
Diplomat added significant ballast to the allegation Trump was trying to extort Ukraine into ginning up bad news about Biden
The impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump has heard some extraordinary testimony over the last month. From the first mention of Trump’s desired “deliverable” from Ukraine, successive layers of witnesses and documents have added to an indictment of the president’s conduct that only gets heavier, as Trump howls his defenses to the wind.
Related: Trump impeachment catch-up: where we are right now
Continue reading...Former vice-president is attracting support of 34% of voters compared to Elizabeth Warren’s 19% and Bernie Sanders’ 16%
Trump announced in a tweet that he would deliver a statement from the White House at 11 a.m. E.T. on the situation in Syria.
Big success on the Turkey/Syria Border. Safe Zone created! Ceasefire has held and combat missions have ended. Kurds are safe and have worked very nicely with us. Captured ISIS prisoners secured. I will be making a statement at 11:00 A.M. from the White House. Thank you!
Tuesday’s developments more concretely define the size and scope of the area that Turkish soldiers will occupy, adding to pockets of northern Syria that Turkey seized from Islamic State and Kurdish fighters in operations in 2016 and 2018.
The deal was widely perceived as good news for Ankara and a poor result for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), building as it does on the US’ agreement last week that Turkey has a right to a buffer zone on its border at their expense. Most of all, it cements Moscow’s new role as prime powerbroker in the Middle East as US influence in the region wanes.
Laura Cooper – the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia – has arrived to testify in House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.
Cooper may be able to shed more light on the delaying of military aid to Ukraine, but her appearance feels a bit anticlimactic after Bill Taylor testified yesterday that he was told Trump specifically wanted a public announcement of investigations into Joe Biden and the 2016 election before releasing the aid.
Continue reading...Laura Cooper’s testimony for House Democrats underway after protest delayed her appearance by more than five hours
Here’s a recap of this evening’s developments:
Trump and his supporters have said that there couldn’t have been a quid pro quo because Ukrainians weren’t aware that aid was being witheld.
Neither he (Taylor) or any other witness has provided testimony that the Ukrainians were aware that military aid was being withheld. You can’t have a quid pro quo with no quo.” Congressman John Ratcliffe @foxandfriends Where is the Whistleblower? The Do Nothing Dems case is DEAD!
Word of the aid freeze had gotten to high-level Ukrainian officials by the first week in August, according to interviews and documents obtained by The New York Times.
The problem was not a bureaucratic snag, the Ukrainians were told then. To address it, they were advised, they should reach out to Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, according to the interviews and records.
Continue reading...President attempted to discredit Ukraine diplomat with quote from John Ratcliffe: ‘You can’t have a quid pro quo with no quo’
Donald Trump launched a relatively lackluster attack on Wednesday morning against the impeachment inquiry into his dealings with Ukraine and the devastating testimony on Capitol Hill the previous day of the most senior US diplomat in Kyiv, Bill Taylor.
Unlike some of his aggressive and fiercely personal attacks on opponents, the US president appeared to be struggling early Wednesday in any attempt to discredit the explosive account given by Taylor – a career diplomat who discussed his role in detail with secretary of state Mike Pompeo earlier this year before accepting the post of acting ambassador to Ukraine.
Continue reading...The Ukraine diplomat said Trump put pressure on Zelenskiy to investigate Biden and gave the most detailed account so far
The US’s top diplomat in Ukraine, Bill Taylor, gave damning evidence on Tuesday to congressional committees in Washington investigating Donald Trump. Taylor told impeachment inquiry hearings that Trump had explicitly put pressure on Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to investigate former vice-president Joe Biden – Trump’s Democratic rival in the 2020 election – and to pursue the conspiracy theory that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 US election on the side of Hillary Clinton. Taylor released his version of events in a 15-page document, in the most detailed account of the scandal so far.
Related: US envoy says Trump used military aid to push Ukraine to investigate Biden
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