Category Archives: US News

Activists push for action on National Gun Violence Awareness Day – live news

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Campaigners will be wearing orange as a tribute to Hadiya Pendleton, a 15-year-old shot dead in Chicago in 2013

Billionaire Charles Koch’s conservative political network is launching four new PACs, CNN reports.

The groups will back incumbents in primaries who have sided with Koch’s positions on trade, immigration and other issues. His organization, Americans for Prosperity, is working to distance itself from Donald Trump and his wing of the Republican party, CNN reports.

More than three quarters of Americans support upholding the Roe v Wade decision legalizing abortion, according to a new poll.

In the NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll, a total of 77% of Americans said they support keeping the landmark decision in place in some form, while 13% want it overturned. Americans are split, however, on how many restrictions there should be on abortion access: 26% say they want to keep Roe but add more restrictions, 21% want to expand it to allow abortion in any circumstance, 16% want to keep it in its current form, and 14% want to keep it while removing some abortion restrictions.

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Mexico tightens southern border security as another day passes with no tariff deal

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Under pressure from Trump, Mexico has launched a crackdown on the Guatemala border, arresting activists and holding migrants

As Donald Trump’s deadline for new tariffs on Mexican imports draws near, Mexico has stepped up security along its porous border with Guatemala – deploying police and soldiers to its southern frontier and arresting prominent migration activists.

Trump last week pledged to impose 5% tariffs on Mexican products on 10 June unless Mexico stops Central American migrants from travelling through its territory.

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Mueller could be subpoenaed within two weeks, says judiciary chair Nadler – live

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Leading Democrat Jerry Nadler says he may issue subpoena to special counsel if Mueller does not agree to testify voluntarily

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg returned to the Supreme Court bench after surgery for cancer this year and is leaning on her colleagues for support. From the Associated Press:

Since Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s return in late winter from cancer surgery and broken ribs , she has regularly accepted Justice Clarence Thomas’ extended hand to help her down the three steps behind the Supreme Court bench when the gavel falls and court ends for the day.

There’s something touching about seeing the 86-year-old liberal icon and the 70-year-old conservative stalwart briefly join hands to exit the courtroom. Most people in the courtroom can’t see the justices once they leave the bench, but the seats reserved for reporters offer a good view.

Troops deployed to California are being tasked with painting the border wall between the US and Mexico, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said on Wednesday, in a tweet that called it “a disgraceful use of government spending.”

DHS informed Congress today that troops are going to spend the next month painting the border wall & “the primary purpose is to improve the aesthetic appearance.” A disgraceful misuse of taxpayer $$. Our military has more important work to do than making Trump’s wall beautiful.

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US envoy says Russia still stands with Maduro, contradicting Trump

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Elliott Abrams says Russians ‘have not abandoned’ Nicolas Maduro despite US president’s tweet

The US special envoy for Venezuela has said that Moscow has “not abandoned” the regime of Nicolás Maduro and that the Russian presence in the South American country has not significantly changed since the failed uprising in April led by opposition leader Juan Guaidó.

Donald Trump tweeted earlier this week that “Russia has informed us that they have removed most of their people from Venezuela”, but the claim was quickly disputed by the Kremlin.

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I’d do it again, says D-day Omaha beach ‘suicide wave’ veteran

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Trump and Macron laud Russell Pickett, sole survivor of US infantry company that led the charge

As Russell Pickett, 94, from Tennessee, was helped to his feet by the French president and hugged by Donald Trump, the 15,000 people gathered at the American cemetery in Normandy to commemorate the D-day landings 75 years ago stood to applaud.

“A tough guy,” the US president said, gesturing to the sole survivor of Company A of the 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Division, which led the charge 75 years ago on to Omaha beach, a chaotic bloodbath which became known as the “suicide wave”and was made infamous by the Hollywood film Saving Private Ryan.

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Trump arrives for D-day ceremony in Normandy – live news

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Follow live updates as world leaders join veterans to mark the 75th anniversary of the D-day landings in Normandy

The Élysée Palace is live streaming the ceremony.

EN DIRECT | Cérémonie franco-américaine au cimetière américain, Colleville-sur-Mer. #DDay75https://t.co/zh7bfyDifa

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‘Is white supremacy not a global issue?’ Ocasio-Cortez dissects FBI’s terrorism definition – video

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The US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has questioned the FBI over a potential double standard for perpetrators of violent extremism. She said Muslim mass killers tended to be charged with terrorism while massacres by white supremacists were considered only to be hate crimes. ‘Doesn’t it seem that because the perpetrator was Muslim that the designation would say it’s a foreign organisation?’ Ocasio-Cortez asked the assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division Michael McGarrity, to which he responded: 'That’s not correct.' Ocasio-Cortez then asked him if white supremacy was not a global issue. 'It is a global issue,' the FBI official responded. 'So why are they not charged with foreign terror?'

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Trump visit avoids major pitfalls despite usual blunders

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US president’s behaviour seemed tame in comparison with disastrous visit last year

He insulted London’s mayor, abused an American actor on Twitter at 1.20am, turned Brexit into a threat to the National Health Service, described Meghan Markle as nasty, and behaved as if he was a kingmaker offering audiences to aspirants from the 51st state, and yet to Whitehall’s diplomats Donald Trump’s state visit was by no means the worst in living memory.

It may be that the bar had been set vertiginously low, or that Trump, as a repeat visitor, has lost some of his capacity for shock and awe. Somehow, it seemed tame and normalised in comparison with his previous disastrous visit a year ago. Even the protests felt familiar, and like Trump’s insults aimed at Sadiq Khan, heartfelt but formulaic.

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Trump compares post-Brexit Irish border issue to plans for US-Mexico wall – video

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Donald Trump has started his visit to Ireland by comparing the country's post-Brexit border with Northern Ireland to the US border with Mexico, along which the US president wants to build a permanent wall. The Irish taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, who looked visibly uncomfortable at the joint press conference, responded by saying that 'the main thing we want to avoid, of course, is a wall or a border' 

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Donald Trump, the one person more of a political basket case than Britain

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Over three endless days, the US president was welcomed as grist to our dark satanic content mills

It is finally over, then, the state visit during which US President Donald Trump treated Britain like a Moscow hotel mattress. God, we deserved it. The event served most tellingly as a vicious satire on British public life, with every fevered reaction to it recalling Sybil Fawlty’s assessment of her husband Basil’s way with guests: “You never get it right, do you? You’re either crawling all over the them, licking their boots, or spitting poison at them like some Benzedrined puff adder.”

And so with the entire political class, who spent three days either fawning over this Nascar royal wedding, or shriekingly defining themselves against it to boost their personal brands. Much better to have treated Trump with the exquisitely polite disinterest of a competent hotelier – perhaps the only language he understands.

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Trump cancels key services for unaccompanied child migrants – live

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Officials say language classes and recreation programs for immigrant children staying in federal shelters ‘not directly necessary’

Vice President Mike Pence will meet Wednesday with top Mexican officials who are seeking to head off the administration’s threatened tariffs, the Hill reports.

Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard is representing his country at the talks and expected to argue Mexico is already taking steps to prevent migrants from crossing the US-Mexico border.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says Paul Manafort should not be held in solitary confinement, and nor should anyone else. Manafort, Donald Trump’s former campaign chair, is reportedly heading for Rikers Island where he’s likely to be held in solitary while awaiting trial on New York state charges.

Yes - released from solitary.

NYT used the term solitary confinement, & that’s what I am commenting on.

“Protective custody” IS a separate practice, but does not necessarily exclude solitary. If he is in fact not being held in solitary, great. Release everyone else from it too.

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Trump’s anti-abortion global gag rule harming women in Africa and Asia, report says

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‘People are dying as a result of the policy’ that bans aid to foreign groups who provide or promote abortions, says author of report

The Trump administration’s anti-abortion restrictions on US global health aid funding have significantly damaged health care for women in Africa and central Asia, according to a new report.

Restrictions on funding also include limiting access to funds for sex education, and shifting funds to anti-LGBTQ and pro-abstinence groups such as Focus on the Family, researchers say.

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Saudi influence in spotlight as US calls on Riyadh to end Sudan violence

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Washington takes unusual step of calling on kingdom to bring about end to military crackdown

The thorny question of Saudi Arabian political influence across the Middle East and Africa is back in the spotlight again with Washington taking the unusual step of effectively telling Riyadh to end Sudan’s military crackdown.

In an unusual public statement the US state department revealed that its undersecretary for political affairs, the diplomat David Hale, had phoned the Saudi deputy defence minister, Khaled bin Salman, to ask him to use the country’s influence to end the brutal repression against peaceful protesters by the Sudanese Transitional Military Council (TMC) in Sudan.

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US-China trade war to cost $455bn in lost output, says IMF

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Christine Lagarde says world must avoid the ‘self-inflicted wounds’ of a tit-for-tat wrangle

The International Monetary Fund has called for a speedy end to the deepening trade war between the United States and China after calculating that the tit-for-tat tariffs will cost $455bn (£357.5bn) in lost output next year – more than the size of South Africa’s economy.

Christine Lagarde, the IMF’s managing director, underlined her organisation’s growing concern at the most serious outbreak of trade tension since the 1930s and said “self-inflicted wounds” had to be avoided.

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D-day veterans and world leaders take part in emotional ceremony

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Queen and Donald Trump among those marking 75 years since Normandy landings

D-day veterans and world leaders have taken part in an emotional ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of the Normandy landings, with a vast security operation safeguarding dignitaries including the Queen, Donald Trump and Theresa May.

Miles of fencing, roadblocks and checkpoints were in place and residents of nearby flats were told not to aim long-lens cameras at the national commemoration event on Southsea Common, or fly drones over the site.

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Trump warns ‘foolish’ Republican senators in rare clash over Mexico tariffs

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Lawmakers in president’s own party voice firm opposition to threat over Mexico

In a rare confrontation, Republican senators declared deep opposition Tuesday to Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs on all goods coming into the US from Mexico. But it’s unclear they have the votes to stop him, and Trump said they’d be “foolish” to try.

All sides, including officials from Mexico meeting Trump negotiators in Washington this week, remain hopeful that high-level talks will ease the president away from his threat. But with the tariffs set to start next Monday, and Trump declaring them “more likely” than not to take effect, fellow Republicans in Congress warned the White House they were ready to stand up to the president.

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House passes bill offering 2 million migrants a chance at citizenship

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Measure to protect Dreamers and others stands little chance of passing but highlights Democrats’ push for immigration reform

Democrats shunned a White House veto threat and muscled legislation through the House on Tuesday that would bestow a chance for citizenship on an estimated 2 million-plus migrants, a bill that stands virtually no chance of enactment but lets them showcase their efforts on one of their highest-profile priorities.

The measure is just one skirmish in Democrats’ multi-front battle against most congressional Republicans over immigration, an issue that has deadlocked the two parties for decades but intensified under the harsh policies and rhetoric of Donald Trump. It is likely to join a host of other House-passed measures advancing Democrats’ agenda that are running aground in the GOP-run Senate, including legislation on healthcare, gun control, climate change and election security.

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Trump’s trade wars sent global investment tumbling – World Bank

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Brexit and trade disputes push bank’s policy uncertainty index to record high, says report

Donald Trump’s trade wars with China, Mexico and Europe have sent global investment tumbling, according to a World Bank report that forecasts worldwide growth this year will slip back to levels not seen since 2016.

The Washington-based lender to developing world countries said in its half-yearly global health check that spiralling political uncertainty was to blame for a slowdown in trade and a collapse in investment spending that will push down GDP growth to 2.6% this year “before inching up to 2.7% in 2020”.

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Trump officials approved Saudi nuclear permits after Khashoggi murder

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  • Seven licenses approved for Riyadh by US energy department
  • Democrats: ‘Were decisions … based on Trump’s financial ties?’

The Trump administration twice approved licenses for the export of nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia after the murder of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, it emerged on Tuesday.

Related: Jamal Khashoggi: murder in the consulate

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Trump wavers after saying NHS must be on table in US-UK trade talks

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US president says he refused to meet Corbyn, who vows to fight any grab at health services

Donald Trump has declared he wants the NHS to be on the table in any US-UK trade deal and refused to meet the “negative” Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who pledged to oppose US corporations taking over the health service with every breath in his body.

On the second day of his state visit, during which he has been hosted by the Queen and Theresa May, the US president set out his ambitions for a “phenomenal” post-Brexit trade deal with the UK.

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