Category Archives: US News

Israel accused of planting spying devices near White House

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Surveillance devices planted over past two years, says report citing former US officials

Israel is likely to have planted mobile phone spying devices near the White House and other sensitive locations in the US capital over the past two years, according to a report from Politico that cited three former US officials.

The miniature surveillance devices mimic telecommunications towers to gather information, including the contents of phone calls. The US government concluded Israeli operatives were most likely to have put them in place to spy on Donald Trump and his associates, the news website reported.

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Family and nun fight for retrial as man convicted by all-white jury faces death

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Supporters of Rodney Reed, scheduled for execution in November, point to racial bias and questionable evidence

“He never had a chance.” That’s what Sandra Reed said at the start of a rally in front of the Texas governor’s mansion calling for a retrial for her son, Rodney Reed.

Reed, 51, has been on death row in Texas since 1998 and is scheduled to be executed on 20 November for murder.

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‘This should not be happening’: the whistle-blower who exposed MIT’s Epstein scandal

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Signe Swenson exposed the story of powerful men and millions of dollars in donations to the school’s Media Lab

“I felt like my job was to protect secrets,” says Signe Swenson, who last week emerged as key witness in the relationship between disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab and its former head Joi Ito.

Ito resigned last week after a picture emerged of institutional efforts to accept and cover up substantial philanthropic donations from Epstein that threaten to devastate the reputation of the famed technology-research centre.

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Dancers, writers, caddies: the gig workers who could benefit from California’s historic bill

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Uber and Lyft drivers aren’t the only ones getting protections – but journalists and musicians have raised concern

Groundbreaking legislation passed by California lawmakers on Wednesday has been lauded for its potential to transform the way tech companies such as Uber and Lyft treat their drivers – but those aren’t the only workers who stand to benefit.

The bill, known as AB5, will go into effect in January 2020. It sets a three-part standard for determining whether workers are properly classified as independent contractors, requiring that (a) they are free from the company’s control, (b) they are doing work that isn’t central to the company’s business and (c) they have an independent business in that industry.

This means a hugely diverse range of professions – from cable installers to exotic dancers to writers – will be affected by the bill.

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Britain-Iran relationship caught up in mutual blame game

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No progress in cases of dual-nationals arrested but catalogue of British failings is also long

The summoning of the Iranian ambassador to the British Foreign Office on Wednesday over broken assurances about the destination of an Iranian oil tanker, and now the arrest of two British-Australian nationals, marks yet another stage in the mutual blame game between Britain and Iran that leaves the relationship stuck deeper in a frustrating rut.

From the British perspective, well articulated by the former Middle East minister Alistair Burt, those in the UK government who would have liked to build a new relationship with Iran in the wake of the 2015 nuclear deal feel very badly let down by Tehran.

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Rouhani says US ‘warmongering’ against Iran will fail

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President Hassan Rouhani signals approval of firing of national security adviser

Iran’s president has urged the US to “put warmongers aside” as tensions roil the Persian Gulf amid an escalating crisis between Washington and Tehran after the collapsing nuclear deal with world powers.

Hassan Rouhani’s remarks signalled approval of Donald Trump’s abrupt dismissal of John Bolton as national security adviser. Bolton had been hawkish on Iran and other global challenges.

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Three Australians, two of them dual British citizens, held in Iran

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Two British-Australian women believed to be in prison, while location of Australian man is unknown

Three Australian citizens – two of whom also hold British passports – have been arrested and detained in Iran.

A female British-Australian academic who has been teaching at a university in Australia was arrested several months ago, sources confirmed to the Guardian.

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California passes landmark gig economy workers’ rights bill

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Law would make it more difficult for firms such as Uber to deny workers are employees

Lawmakers in California have passed a landmark bill that would make it much more difficult for companies such as Uber and Lyft to classify workers as independent contractors rather than employees.

The bill, which paves the way for workers in the so-called gig economy to get holiday and sick pay, has garnered attention across the US and beyond, largely owing to the size of California’s workforce. Several Democratic presidential candidates have supported the measure, including the US senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Kamala Harris of California.

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Donald Trump ousts top adviser John Bolton: ‘I disagreed strongly with him’

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Donald Trump has fired his national security adviser, John Bolton, in a pair of tweets in which he laid bare searing internal divisions within his inner circle, saying he had “disagreed strongly” with his top aide.

The departure of such a resolute hawk raises the possibility that Trump’s foreign policy could now make a dovish turn in the run up to next year’s elections, in particular with respect to Iran.

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Leak suggests UN agency self-censors on climate crisis after US pressure

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International Organization for Migration apparently amends programme documentation to avoid conflict with US ‘political sensitivities’

Leaked communications suggest that the UN’s migration agency is censoring itself on the climate crisis and the global compact on migration, following pressure from the US government.

An email sent by a US-based official of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on 28 August to colleagues around the world relayed that the US state department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) told the agency documents related to programme activities it funds “must not be in conflict with current [US government] political sensitivities”.

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‘I’m never surprised’: Mike Pompeo reacts to John Bolton’s firing – video

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Secretary of state Mike Pompeo was asked if he was caught off guard by the firing of John Bolton, Donald Trump's national security adviser, to which he replied: 'I'm never surprised.' Pompeo was speaking at a press conference that earlier in the day Bolton had been billed to speak at. The president has fired three national security advisers in as many years and has said he will name the new one next week

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Trump wants to build a legacy, Bolton to break things – something had to give

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No one expected Trump to pivot to diplomatic breakthroughs with someone as bellicose as Bolton by his side

John Bolton can at least boast that he lasted longer than his two predecessors, but few observers of Trumpworld expected him to cling on until 2020.

Donald Trump hired Bolton to break things, like the Obama administration legacy and the orthodox foreign policy establishment in general. Now, with the 2020 election coming, a downturn looming and a second presidential term in doubt, Trump is trying to build a foreign policy legacy of his own – or at least a reasonable impression of one.

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John Bolton fired as Trump’s national security adviser – live news

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President tweeted about the firing after reports emerged Bolton opposed Trump plan to hold peace talks with the Taliban at Camp David

Trump has taken the stage at the National Historically Black Colleges and Universities Week Conference and appears to (so far) be sticking to the teleprompter.

He has touted the importance of HBCUs and celebrated his education secretary, Betsy DeVos, as a champion for the institutions.

Trump is expected to soon start speaking at the National Historically Black Colleges and Universities Week Conference. The president was scheduled to take the podium at 2:15 p.m. E.T. but is apparently running behind.

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How will John Bolton’s dismissal affect US foreign policy?

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Trump’s anti-interventionist instincts likely to come to the fore in flashpoint countries

Donald Trump’s abrupt dismissal of John Bolton, his national security adviser, may reflect the near breakdown in personal relations between the two men, as well as Bolton’s rivalry with the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, but it will also have implications for US foreign policy in a range of flashpoints.

Related: John Bolton fired as Trump's national security adviser – live news

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Why Netanyahu’s election threats could become real this time

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Israeli PM is a master of fiery rhetoric but Trump’s support could embolden him to action

Benjamin Netanyahu is an old hand at Israel’s equivalent of the “October surprise”, reliably making incendiary remarks on election eve designed to both rally the faithful in his Likud party and undercut any rivals on the right and the far right threatening his grip on the prime minister’s office.

The successful formula, repeated over the last decade in office, has always followed a reliable pattern: scare any wavering supporters with the idea that Arab voters might come out in force while grabbing any nationalist votes by promising settlement building, annexation or refusal to withdraw.

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Man held hostage by Taliban-linked group says wife is ‘incompetent mother’

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Joshua Boyle, charged with sexual assault, tells court estranged wife Caitlan Coleman was unfit to parent the their four children

The Canadian man who spent five years held hostage in Afghanistan with his American wife has accused her of “incompetence” as a mother as his trial for sexual assault nears its conclusion.

Related: Canadian man held hostage by Taliban denies assaulting wife after release

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Top weather official who defended ‘Sharpiegate’ makes tearful clarification

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Neil Jacobs said a statement criticizing the Alabama office that disagreed with Trump was meant to clarify ‘technical aspects’

The head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) appeared close to tears on Tuesday, as he both defended the administration and thanked a local weather office that contradicted Donald Trump’s claims about Hurricane Dorian threatening Alabama.

Neil Jacobs, the acting administrator, told a meteorology group a Noaa statement that criticized the Birmingham-area forecast office after it disagreed with the president was meant to clarify “technical aspects” about Dorian’s potential impact.

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Russia investigated disappearance of suspected US spy as possible murder

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Oleg Smolenkov hadn’t been seen after he went on holiday in 2017, but Russian authorities concluded he had fled abroad

The CIA Russian spy drama currently gripping Washington has taken a new turn as Russian media reported that a suspected US mole inside the Kremlin was a member of Vladimir Putin’s administration who disappeared in 2017 and was initially thought to have been murdered.

Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, confirmed the man, Oleg Smolenkov, had worked for the Kremlin but played down his importance, insisting he was a low-level employee who had been fired two years ago.

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Gwyneth Paltrow ‘a crucial source’ in Harvey Weinstein revelations

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A new book says the actor was scared of going on the record at first but then encouraged other women to speak out

Gwyneth Paltrow has been named a key figure in the New York Times story that first catalogued a series of sexual harassment allegations against Harvey Weinstein, and led to the film producer’s dismissal from his own company and subsequent prosecution.

In a new book titled She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey – the New York Times reporters whose story on 5 October 2017 triggered Weinstein’s downfall – Paltrow is said to have been “scared to go on the record but became an early, crucial source, sharing her account of sexual harassment and trying to recruit other actresses to speak”.

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‘Sharpiegate’ controversy deepens as inspector general reportedly launches inquiry – live

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Wilbur Ross said to have issued threats at Noaa after the agency contradicted the president’s false claim on Hurricane Dorian

Trump told his supporters at a rally in North Carolina that he might need an extra term as president, then mocked the idea that news headlines tomorrow will announce that he said he wants an extra term.

“We told you he’s a dictator, we told you,” Trump said, impersonating his critics.

Just as a Republican congressional candidate had started to speak, Trump paused the rally for several minutes and repeatedly said “thank you” to a doctor presumably assisting an audience member who was unwell.

Then the president quipped, “I guess Dan’s speech wasn’t so good,” referring to Dan Bishop, a Republican congressional candidate the president had flown to North Carolina to support.

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