Ross Perot, an eccentric Texan billionaire who lived a picaresque life and twice ran for president as an independent, has died. He was 89.
Related: Donald Trump: UK ambassador is 'a very stupid guy' – live updates
Continue reading...Rolling coverage of the day’s political news, including the row over the UK ambassador’s leaked memos and latest on Tory leadership contest
Jeremy Hunt, the underdog in the Tory leadership contest, has told President Trump on Twitter his comments about Theresa May “disrespectful and wrong”.
1/2 @realDonaldTrump friends speak frankly so I will: these comments are disrespectful and wrong to our Prime Minister and my country. Your diplomats give their private opinions to @SecPompeo and so do ours! You said the UK/US alliance was the greatest in history and I agree... https://t.co/hNeBWmyyVN
2/2...but allies need to treat each other with respect as @theresa_may has always done with you. Ambassadors are appointed by the UK government and if I become PM our Ambassador stays.
MPs have voted to introduce same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland, unless the power-sharing executive is revived by 21 October, by 383 votes to 73 - a majority of 310.
Continue reading...US commerce secretary pulls out of trade talks as president calls envoy ‘very stupid’
Transatlantic tensions over the British ambassador’s leaked criticisms of Donald Trump have grown into a diplomatic crisis after the US president attacked Sir Kim Darroch as “a pompous fool” and his commerce secretary postponed planned trade talks with Liam Fox.
A day after Trump said he would no longer deal with Darroch following the release of UK diplomatic memos calling him “incompetent”, “inept” and “insecure”, he used his Twitter feed to attack the diplomat, who he described as “wacky” and “very stupid”.
Continue reading...Billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer has formally launched his campaign for president, making a late entry into the sprawling 2020 Democratic field that has already held its first round of primary debates.
Related: Donald Trump: we will no longer deal with the British ambassador
Continue reading...Danger for Boris Johnson, if he becomes PM, is being portrayed as governor of 51st state
In normal times, the breakdown in relations between Donald Trump and the British ambassador to the US could be readily finessed. Trump would vent his anger, and gain private British assurances that Sir Kim Darroch will be replaced by someone more palatable by the end of the year.
It would create an awkward interlude in the special relationship but every family has bust-ups.
Continue reading...Thwaites glacier is likely to thaw and trigger 50cm sea level rise, US study suggests
Antarctica faces a tipping point where glacial melting will accelerate and become irreversible even if global heating eases, research suggests.
A Nasa-funded study found instability in the Thwaites glacier meant there would probably come a point when it was impossible to stop it flowing into the sea and triggering a 50cm sea level rise. Other Antarctic glaciers were likely to be similarly unstable.
Continue reading...Pelosi attacks Trump’s 2020 citizenship question as ‘disgraceful’, while Trump says US will no longer deal with UK ambassador Kim Darroch
As House Democrats began issuing subpoenas for President Trump’s financial records, the Justice Department fought a federal judge’s decision to allow the lawsuit accusing Trump of profiting off the presidency to go forward, the Associated Press is reporting:
Justice Department lawyers want an appeals court to take the case instead.
They filed papers Monday seeking to move the case from federal court in D.C. to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia. They also want to stop subpoena requests seeking Trump’s business tax returns, and documents from Trump’s D.C. and New York hotels, Mar-a-Lago Club and Trump Tower.
Our climate and environment reporter, Susie Cagle, listened in on President Trump’s speech about “maintaining a healthy environment.” Here are some choice quotes from the speech:
Related: What Trump gets wrong about wildfires, by a fire scientist
Continue reading...Advocates warn the new panel, helmed by an abortion and gay rights opponent, is a threat to progressive reforms
US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has unveiled a new panel tasked with reviewing “the role of human rights in American public policy” in a move that some advocates warned could imperil LGBTQ and women’s reproductive freedoms.
Pompeo announced the launch of the “Commission on Unalienable Rights” at the state department in Washington on Monday, telling reporters: “As human rights claims have proliferated, some claims have come into tension with one another provoking questions and clashes about which rights are entitled to gain respect.”
Continue reading...In latest tweets, US president also attacks Theresa May for making a mess of Brexit
Donald Trump has launched a scathing attack on Theresa May and said the US would no longer deal with the British ambassador to Washington after the diplomat’s frank assessments of the president as “inept” and “dysfunctional” were leaked to the Mail on Sunday.
In a sign of the damage to the US-UK relationship, Trump hit out at Sir Kim Darroch for a second day in a row, threatening to cut ties over the memos that described him as “radiating insecurity”.
Continue reading...The billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking conspiracy and sex trafficking contained in a newly unsealed 13-page Manhattan federal court indictment. Some victims of Epstein’s abuse were just 14 years old, prosecutors alleged in the shocking document.
Related: Jeffrey Epstein: inside the decade of scandal entangling Prince Andrew
Continue reading...Tehran breaches agreed 3.67% limit and hints it could soon start enriching to 20%
Iran has enriched uranium beyond the key limit dictated in its 2015 deal with major powers, in the latest escalation of the crisis between Washington and Tehran.
The move, confirmed by the UN’s nuclear watchdog, came amid hints from Iran that it could start enriching to 20% later in the year unless it secured European help in the face of crippling US sanctions.
Continue reading...Epstein faces 45 years in jail over alleged sex trafficking – and the case could have implications for others who have mixed with him
The sex trafficking case against Jeffrey Epstein, unveiled by prosecutors from the southern district of New York in Manhattan, may have implications for many men who have come in and out of Epstein’s social circle.
Related: Jeffrey Epstein expected to make court appearance on sex trafficking charges
Continue reading...Some staff in London reported to be in tears after hearing their jobs have gone
Deutsche Bank started slashing thousands of jobs in the City of London and in New York only hours after announcing a drastic plan to reduce its global workforce by 18,000.
Germany’s biggest lender employs almost 8,000 people in the UK, with 7,000 in London, which is one of the main hubs for its global investment bank, where the bulk of the job losses will be focused. The jobs being cut make up about a fifth of Deutsche’s global workforce of 91,500.
Continue reading...Donald Trump has compared Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Eva Perón, saying that though he first saw the New York congresswoman “ranting and raving like a lunatic on a street corner” and thinks “she knows nothing”, she has “a certain talent”.
Related: When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez met Greta Thunberg: 'Hope is contagious'
Continue reading...House speaker Nancy Pelosi is making a moral and strategic mistake by refusing to bring formal articles of impeachment against Donald Trump, the only Republican in Congress to back such proceedings said on Sunday.
Related: Trump calls Ocasio-Cortez 'Evita' in new book American Carnage
Continue reading...Private comments by British ambassador to the US published by the Mail on Sunday
This is what Kim Darroch, the British ambassador to the US, is reported to have said in private about Donald Trump.
On Trump’s ‘dysfunctional’ administration
Continue reading...US president criticises Kim Darroch, saying he ‘has not served Britain well’
Donald Trump has said Britain’s ambassador to the US has “not served the UK well” as he hit back following the leak of confidential internal memos that presented an unflattering portrait of the president and his administration.
Earlier, the Foreign Office ordered an inquiry into the leaking of the cables, written by the ambassador, Kim Darroch, in which Trump’s White House is described as “uniquely dysfunctional” and “inept”.
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25 min: A cross from Dunn to Mewis gives van Veenendaal a difficult catch as she’s backtracking.
Neil Truby asks what it means to say, as I did earlier, that Mewis responds with a takedown. Basically, a wrestling move. But I should clarify that a few seconds had elapsed after Rapinoe cried foul.
22 min: Now the USA look more deliberate, passing around at the back.
Hubert O’Hearn with an interesting point: “What I’m going to suggest is by no means insulting, but this feels more like an FA Cup than a World Cup. You know, some hulking monster of a Man City, or Chelsea in their pomp, facing the gutsy team from mid-table or the Championship that went on a magical run. It’s actually rather charming – can’t remember the last time a World Cup Final felt so Favourite v. Underdog.”
Continue reading...Officials in southern California expressed relief on Saturday that damage and injuries were not worse after the largest earthquake the region has seen in nearly 20 years, but voiced concerns about the possibility of major aftershocks in the days and months to come.
Related: ‘We should expect more quakes’: a top seismologist on California’s tremor
Continue reading...US billionaire will reportedly appear before a federal magistrate on Monday
Jeffrey Epstein, the politically well-connected US billionaire, has been charged with sex trafficking, according to reports.
The New York Times reported that Epstein, a wealthy Florida financier, was arrested in the New York area and was in custody. He is expected to appear before a federal magistrate on Monday. The NYT cited two anonymous sources.
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