The Democratic congressman Elijah Cummings died suddenly on Thursday at the age of 68, robbing Capitol Hill of a passionate lawmaker respected on both sides of the political aisle. A sharecropper’s son, Cummings became the powerful chairman of the House oversight committee, one of the three panels leading the investigation into Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine. He died in the early hours due to complications from longstanding health problems, his congressional office said on Thursday
Continue reading...Category Archives: US News
What his letter to Erdoğan tells us about Donald Trump
US president’s letter to his Turkish counterpart is ‘the product of an amateur’, say critics
We now know – not that there was ever much doubt – that Donald Trump writes presidential letters like he talks – with a blustery mix of flattery and threats. His letter to the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has all the charm and elegance of an eviction notice from a slumlord, but on White House stationery.
Those who have observed him the longest say this is how he has always expressed himself. The most remarkable aspect of the Erdoğan letter is arguably that it shows the extent to which the distinctions between Trump’s personality and the remaining formal trappings of the presidency have crumbled away.
Continue reading...Trump awards G7 summit to his own Florida golf resort
- Ethics watchdog calls decision ‘unbelievable’
- Mick Mulvaney: site was ‘far and away the best’ of 12 considered
The White House says it has chosen Donald Trump’s golf resort near Miami as the site for next year’s Group of Seven summit.
The announcement on Thursday comes at the same that the president has accused Joe Biden’s family of profiting from public office because of Hunter Biden’s business activities in Ukraine when his father was vice-president.
Continue reading...Trump ordered diplomats to work with Giuliani on Ukraine, Sondland testifies
Meanwhile, White House chief of staff undercuts Trump’s denials of quid pro quo: ‘We do that all the time. Get over it’
Donald Trump instructed US diplomats to go through his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to make the Ukrainian president’s access to the White House dependent on launching investigations into Trump’s political opponents, the US ambassador to the EU has testified.
In his opening statement to Congress on Thursday, Gordon Sondland, a wealthy hotelier and Trump donor, sought to distance himself from the president, saying he had been “disappointed” Trump had chosen to conduct an important strategic relationship through his lawyer.
Continue reading...Could Donald Trump actually be impeached? – video
Things are getting serious for Donald Trump. The swiftly unrolling Ukraine scandal could cause him to become only the third president to be impeached.But what is impeachment? How does it work? And how likely is it to happen? Adam Gabbatt has the answers
Continue reading...Revealed: rightwing push to ban criticism of Israel on US campuses
Documents seen by Guardian show fresh attack on university debate under the guise of prohibiting antisemitism
Rightwing activists are attempting to spread new laws across Republican-controlled states that would ban criticism on public university campuses of Israel and its occupation of Palestinian territory.
Related: Resigning MP claims Corbyn has failed to tackle Labour antisemitism
Continue reading...Thirty years after devastating quake, is San Francisco ready for the next?
The 6.9-magnitude Loma Prieta quake killed 63 in 1989. Decades later, the Bay Area is still plagued by structural threats and flammable fuels
On the afternoon of 17 October 1989, a 6.9-magnitude earthquake rocked the San Francisco Bay Area, killing 63 people and causing $13bn in damages as it toppled a chunk of the Bay Bridge, colapsed a section of freeway in Oakland, and crumbled thousands of buildings from San Francisco to Santa Cruz.
Thirty years later, California will launch an earthquake early warning app, the first to cover the whole state, developed by UC Berkeley and the California Office of Emergency Services. The decades since the Loma Prieta quake have been remarkably quiet – yet it’s not a matter of if, but when, the next large earthquake will rattle the Bay Area, and the consequences will undoubtedly be severe.
Continue reading...Trump’s bizarre, threatening letter to Erdoğan: ‘Don’t be a fool’
President vows to destroy Turkish economy if Syria invasion is not resolved humanely, but brash language and diplomatic missteps draw confusion
Donald Trump warned his counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan “don’t be a fool” and said history risked branding him a “devil” in an extraordinary letter sent the day Turkey launched its incursion into north-eastern Syria.
The letter, first obtained by a Fox Business reporter, was shorn of diplomatic niceties and began with an outright threat.
Continue reading...‘A very serious meltdown’: top Democrats react to Trump meeting – video
Nancy Pelosi said senior lawmakers witnessed Trump having a 'meltdown' after nearly two-thirds of the House GOP caucus voted to condemn his decision to withdraw US troops from northern Syria. Leaving a White House meeting on the situation in Syria, Senator Chuck Schumer said that Trump was disrespectful to Pelosi, calling her a 'third-rate politician', and alleged Trump had no plan on how to contain Isis now
Continue reading...Police arrest hundreds over international child sexual abuse website
South Korean-based site accepted digital currency for access to videos, with victims rescued in US, UK and Spain
Hundreds of people have been arrested in a worldwide operation over a South Korea-based dark web child sexual abuse site that sold videos for digital cash.
Officials from the United States, Britain and South Korea described the network as one of the largest operations they had encountered to date.
Continue reading...British family deported after saying they accidentally crossed US border
Family of seven were detained for nearly two weeks after crossing into Washington state, saying they were trying to avoid an animal in the road
Lawyers for a British family who made an unauthorized crossing from Canada into the United States say the family have been deported after nearly two weeks in federal custody.
Bridget Cambria says US Immigration and Customs Enforcement told her all seven members of the family, including an infant and toddler twins, were headed back to England. Ice declined comment Wednesday afternoon, saying it did not discuss “removal arrangements” before deportees are back in their own country.
Continue reading...Fourth man held in campaign fraud case involving Rudy Giuliani associates
Prosecutors allege David Correia, 44, made outsized political donations to Republican candidates to advance business interests
A Florida man wanted in a campaign finance case involving associates of Rudy Giuliani is in federal custody after flying Wednesday to Kennedy airport in New York City to turn himself in, federal authorities said.
Related: Third Rudy Giuliani associate arrested at JFK airport – live
Continue reading...Trump calls decision to withdraw US troops from Syria ‘strategically brilliant’ – video
Donald Trump on Wednesday played down the crisis in Syria touched off by Turkey’s incursion against US-allied Kurdish forces, saying the conflict was between Turkey and Syria and that it was okay for Russia to help Damascus. The US president, speaking to reporters at the White House, said the Kurds were ‘no angels’
Continue reading...Three US diplomats held near Russian test site where mystery blast killed five
- Russian foreign ministry says trio ‘obviously got lost’
- August explosion caused radiation levels to surge
Three American diplomats were briefly detained in Russia near the military test site where a mysterious explosion released radiation in August, several Russia state news agencies have reported.
The US embassy has confirmed the incident, the Interfax news service reported, but said the three diplomats had filed the proper paperwork to travel in the area.
Continue reading...Trump says Boris Johnson asked him to set up Dunn family meeting – video
US president Donald Trump said on Wednesday that his meeting with the Dunn family, whose son Harry died in a road collision with a US intelligence officer's wife, was 'beautiful in a certain way', but sad. He added that Anne Sacoolas said she was driving on the wrong side of the road before the crash
Continue reading...Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden in heated exchange during Democratic debate – video
During the fourth debate on Tuesday evening, Biden claimed credit for Elizabeth Warren’s signature achievement – the establishment of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Biden claimed loudly that he had gone to the Senate and secured votes to it, to which Warren replied she was ‘deeply grateful to President Obama’ and ‘every other person who fought for it and who helped pass it into law’
Continue reading...Dwarfism and me: ‘We’re still treated as less than human’ – video
About 90,000 people in America have dwarfism. The writer and podcaster Cara Reedy takes us on a journey to reflect on what it means to be a person with dwarfism – and why America's obsession with little people has left lasting damage
Continue reading...Harry Dunn’s parents vow to continue fight for justice after Trump meeting
Couple say Trump shocked them by revealing woman involved in son’s death, Anne Sacoolas, was nearby
The parents of Harry Dunn have vowed to continue their fight for justice following a White House meeting with Donald Trump where they were told the US woman allegedly responsible for their son’s death would not return to the UK.
Anne Sacoolas, the wife of a US intelligence officer, fled the UK after 19-year-old Dunn was killed in a road collision. Dunn died near RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire on 27 August.
Continue reading...‘I said do the right thing’: Harry Dunn’s mother describes meeting Trump – video
The mother of Harry Dunn, a British teenager who died in a collision with a car driven on the wrong side of the road by Anne Sacoolas, an American woman who claimed diplomatic immunity, said she asked Donald Trump to ‘do the right thing’ when they met at the White House on Tuesday. The US president told Dunn’s parents that Sacoolas was in an adjoining room but they turned down the offer to meet her
Continue reading...Panama Papers law firm Mossack Fonseca sues Netflix over The Laundromat
Partners Jurgen Mossack and Ramon Fonseca want US court to stop the film being released on Friday
The partners of the offshore law firm whose confidential files were exposed in the Panama Papers leak, Mossack Fonseca, have launched defamation action against Netflix over a movie about the scandal that is due to be released on Friday.
In a US lawsuit filed on Tuesday, Jurgen Mossack and Ramon Fonseca say The Laundromat, in which they are respectively played by Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas, portrays them as “ruthless uncaring lawyers who are involved in money laundering, tax evasion, bribery and/or other criminal conduct” and ask the court to stop it from being screened.
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