Donald Trump, his aides and allies went on the offensive on Sunday, over what the president claims is un-investigated corruption involving Joe Biden and his son in Ukraine.
Related: Ukraine furore confirms Giuliani as Trump's most off-kilter advocate
Continue reading...Elizabeth Warren leads Joe Biden in Iowa for the first time, according to a new poll in the early voting state.
Related: How Trump could lose the popular vote again – and hold the White House
Continue reading...Incumbent president says election is vital to give government a democratic mandate in talks with Taliban
Afghanistan must choose a new president this week, but every election over the last decade has been riddled with fraud and marred by violence, and fears are growing that the poll on may be the worst yet.
It comes as the war is raging with unprecedented intensity. Last week alone, dozens were killed when the Taliban flattened a hospital in an attack in the south, and a US drone strike hit a group harvesting pine nuts in the east. And looming over the poll is the future of controversial US efforts to negotiate a troop withdrawal with the Taliban, suspended after a tweet by President Donald Trump but not entirely dead.
Continue reading...Underwater proposal gone tragically wrong was recorded and posted to Facebook
A woman has paid a heartbreaking tribute to her boyfriend, who drowned while proposing marriage to her in Tanzania.
Kenesha Antoine posted a video on Facebook of her boyfriend, Steven Weber, swimming up to the window of their underwater room at the Manta Resort on Pemba Island, off Tanzania.
Continue reading...Prime minister says there is no discussion of Australian involvement after Donald Trump’s recent comments
Scott Morrison insists Australia will not be drawn into any military conflict with Iran, declaring our commitment is limited to protecting freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.
Donald Trump, who flagged the prospect of a military strike against Iran, including, possibly, with nuclear weapons, during a meeting with Morrison in the Oval Office, before backtracking and saying his preference was for restraint – has sent additional troops and enhanced air and missile defence systems to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in response to a drone attack on Saudi oil facilities on 14 September.
Continue reading...Iran’s foreign minister not confident war can be avoided, but promises any conflict will not be ‘limited’
Iran has threatened to pursue and destroy any aggressor, and says war may be unavoidable in the wake of drone attacks on Saudi Arabian oilfields and a US troop build-up in the Gulf.
A day after the head of Iran’s elite Republican Guards said on state TV that “limited aggression will not remain limited,” the Iranian foreign minister told American network CBS that he was not confident that war could be avoided, while again denying Iranian involvement in the attacks on Saudi Arabia.
Continue reading...A watch and a shotgun were among the items connected to outlaws Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker
Several personal items related to 1930s Texas outlaw Clyde Barrow have sold at a Boston auction for nearly $186,000.
RR Auction officials say the Bulova watch that Barrow wore when he and Bonnie Parker were killed in 1934 sold on Saturday for $112,500. Parker and Barrow, who were immortalised in a 1967 film starring Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty, were fatally shot by officers in Louisiana.
Continue reading...Biden calls for congressional inquiry into call in which Trump reportedly pressed Ukraine leader for damaging information
Donald Trump lashed back at his critics on Saturday, as questions swirled in the latest scandal to hit his White House and his target, Joe Biden, called for a congressional investigation of “an overwhelming abuse of power”.
Related: Ukraine imbroglio confirms Giuliani's as Trump's most off-kilter advocate
Continue reading...PM says five-year commitment designed to make Australia ‘partner of choice’ to support expeditions to moon and Mars
Scott Morrison has used a visit to Nasa on Saturday local time to unveil a $150m investment in Australian businesses and new technology to support the American space agency launch expeditions to the moon and to Mars.
The Australian prime minister on his second day in the American capital visited Nasa, and also laid a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery. Morrison visited the graves of Australian military personnel and visit the tomb of The Unknown Soldier.
Continue reading...They must be laughing their socks off in Tehran. The days following last weekend’s attacks on Saudi oil facilities, blamed by the US on Iran, have seen an almost comical display of indecision, confusion and bluster by the leader of the world’s most powerful country. As a result, Iran looks stronger … and Donald Trump looks like a clown.
If Iranian leaders intended to call Trump’s bluff, they have succeeded – for now at least. The president’s immediate reaction to the attacks was to declare the US “locked and loaded” for retaliatory strikes. Then he remembered he’s opposed to fighting wars in the Middle East and hopes to be re-elected next year.
Continue reading...Josh Campbell worked for James Comey – his book is a must-read indictment of the ‘mob boss’ in the White House
Few people had better seats than Josh Campbell for the drama that has shaped the Trump presidency. A supervisory special agent at the FBI, he was special assistant to James Comey and stayed on into Robert Mueller’s first year as special counsel.
Related: Whistleblower's mysterious complaint over Trump sparks feverish speculation
Continue reading...The man once called America’s Mayor has become the loosest of cannons, embroiling his boss in an election-meddling furore
On Thursday night Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and troubleshooter-in-chief, went on CNN to defend his boss against the latest scandal swirling round him.
Related: Rudy Giuliani's quest for dirt on Biden via Ukraine – a timeline
Continue reading...A bus carrying 30 tourists lost control about seven miles from Bryce Canyon National Park
At least four people have been killed and up to 15 others critically injured when a bus transporting Chinese-speaking tourists crashed near Bryce Canyon national park in the western US state of Utah, local authorities said.
The Utah highway patrol said the crash took place Friday morning about seven miles from the park entrance, forcing the road to be shut as ambulances and rescue vehicles rushed to the site.
Continue reading...Trump has for now decided not to authorize an immediate military strike on Iran in response to attack
The Pentagon on Friday announced it will deploy additional US troops and missile defense equipment to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as Donald Trump has at least for now put off any immediate military strike on Iran in response to the attack on the Saudi oil industry.
The US defense secretary, Mark Esper, told Pentagon reporters this is a first step to beef up security and he would not rule out additional moves down the road. General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said more details about the deployment will be determined in the coming days, but it would not involve thousands of US troops.
Continue reading...White House has refused to turn a national security official’s formal whistleblower complaint over to Congress
Donald Trump pressed the new leader of Ukraine this summer to investigate Joe Biden, multiple reports say, as Democrats condemned what they saw as a clear effort to damage a political rival.
It was the latest revelation tied to an explosive whistleblower complaint that sparked a showdown between congressional Democrats and the Trump administration. Trump officials have refused to turn over the complaint by a national security official or even describe its contents.
Continue reading...Millions of people across the globe took part in protests on Friday demanding urgent action on the climate crisis. The strike kicks off a week of environmental activism before the UN Climate Action Summit
Continue reading...Removals are part of inquiry into how developers use data, which the company started after the Cambridge Analytica scandal
Facebook has suspended tens of thousands of apps from the platform for privacy reasons, it announced in a blogpost on Friday.
The removals come as part of an ongoing investigation into how developers use data, which the company started after the Cambridge Analytica scandal in March 2018. The news also reveals that the platform is home to more problematic apps than previously thought.
Continue reading...Deal could lead to migrants obtaining refuge in El Salvador, one of Central America’s most violent countries
The United States planned to sign an agreement on Friday to help make one of Central America’s most violent countries, El Salvador, a haven for migrants seeking asylum, according to a senior Trump administration official.
The official said the acting homeland security secretary, Kevin McAleenan, would sign a “cooperative asylum agreement”.
Continue reading...Virginia Giuffre claims prince was participant in disgraced financier’s exploitation of her
An accuser of Jeffrey Epstein has alleged Prince Andrew was “an abuser, a participant” in the disgraced US financier’s exploitation of her as a teenager, in her first television interview.
Virginia Giuffre, formerly Roberts, who was pictured with Prince Andrew in a now notorious photograph, spoke to the US network TV station NBC News about her involvement with Epstein, a convicted sex offender who killed himself in a New York jail in August while facing fresh child sex trafficking charges.
Continue reading...Tropical Depression Imelda has flooded south-east Texas, a region that had only just started to recover from Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Some areas have received almost 30in of rain, with Governor Gregg Abbott declaring a state of disaster for 13 counties
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