Larry Kudlow says ‘We may know more today or this evening or tomorrow’ after Trump raises spectre of a full-blown trade war
The US expects China to retaliate over the Trump administration’s latest tariff hike, chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Sunday.
Related: Tariffs: Donald Trump's trust in trade war tactic is big electoral gamble
Continue reading...No law can end abortions, however severe its restrictions and however harsh its penalties. Each day almost 70,000 unsafe abortions are carried out around the world, and they are vastly more likely to happen in countries with strict laws. What such legislation does do is force some women to continue pregnancies against their wishes, while risking the lives and wellbeing of others. Women in the US have seen their ability to terminate pregnancies dismantled piece by piece. Now states are racing to outlaw or dramatically curb abortions with extreme and unconstitutional bills. The aim is to directly challenge Roe v Wade, the US supreme court ruling that established that abortion is legal before the foetus is viable outside the womb, at around 24 weeks. Last Tuesday, the governor of Georgia signed a bill essentially banning abortions after six weeks from 2020. Some described it as a sign that men who wish to control women’s bodies have no idea of how they actually work. More likely, those who pushed hardest for the change understand all too well that many women will not know they are pregnant until it is too late.
Five other states have signed similar bills; several more are considering them. (Others have introduced more incremental curbs.) The Alabama senate will this week consider a near-total ban on abortion – with prison sentences of up to 99 years for doctors – which Republicans initially tried to sneak through without even a vote. The state’s lieutenant governor said he believes Roe v Wade will be overturned thanks to Donald Trump’s appointment of conservative jurists.
Continue reading...#Betomania became #Betofatigue in six short months – can the Texas Democrat rise again and show voters what type of president he’d be?
When Beto O’Rourke travelled to Yosemite in California to unveil his $5tn plan on climate change, a ripple of surprise crossed America. How did the tall white guy with the funny first name known for his punk past, Beatnik road trips and fondness for campaigning atop counters get to be the first Democratic candidate to proclaim on the crisis of our age?
This wasn’t the O’Rourke that the country had grown used to during his battle with Ted Cruz last November for a US Senate seat. Then, the Texas Democrat had propelled himself to within three percentage points of victory, and with it national stardom, by making viral speeches about NFL players taking a knee and by instilling hope through a feel-good but rather wishy-washy call to unity.
Continue reading...Following his instincts, the president has slapped tariffs on $200bn of Chinese imports but the consequences are unpredictable
Donald Trump’s obsession with tariffs may be based on one of his few core beliefs. Or it may be part of a grand strategy to win votes. Either way, triggering a trade war between the world’s two biggest economies represents a huge gamble ahead of next year’s US presidential election.
The US has raised tariffs on $200bn in imports from China to 25% from 10%, with another round in the offing. Beijing vowed to retaliate but Trump, ever the salesman, claimed on Twitter that the new tariffs will bring “FAR MORE wealth” to America.
Continue reading...The former vice-president has yet to put forward a plan to address global warming, which polls suggest is the single most important issue for Democrats
Climate change is transforming life by redrawing coastlines, turning vast areas of forest into infernos, stirring enormous storms and spreading exotic diseases. An indirect casualty of this upheaval could be Joe Biden’s hopes of becoming US president.
Biden, frontrunner in the polls to secure the Democratic nomination, has not laid out a plan to address the crisis.
Continue reading...President calls for united front in face of ‘unprecedented’ US pressure
Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, has called for unity among political factions to overcome conditions that he said may be harder than those during the 1980s war with Iraq, state media reported, as the country faces tightening US sanctions.
Donald Trump on Thursday urged Iran’s leaders to talk with him about giving up their nuclear programme and said he could not rule out a military confrontation.
Continue reading...Actor shot to fame in the 1960s playing a hippie undercover cop and returning to television with David Lynch’s cult series
Peggy Lipton, a star of the groundbreaking late 1960s TV show The Mod Squad and the 1990s show Twin Peaks, has died of cancer aged 72.
Lipton died surrounded by her family, her daughters, Rashida and Kidada Jones, said in a statement.
Continue reading...The actor Alyssa Milano ignited a social media storm with a call for women to join her in a sex strike, to protest against strict abortion laws passed by Republican-controlled state legislatures.
Related: Abortion: judge strikes down Kentucky restriction but governor to appeal
Continue reading...Federal judge says 2018 law would create ‘substantial obstacle’ to abortion rights
After a federal judge struck down a Kentucky abortion law that would halt a common second-trimester procedure to end pregnancies, the state’s anti-abortion Republican governor immediately vowed to appeal.
Related: All the president’s judges: how Trump can flip courts at a record-setting pace
Continue reading...During Donald Trump’s campaign to be president, he regularly cited China’s export subsidies as “evil”, and in his manifesto he pledged to “cut a better deal with China that helps American businesses and workers compete”.
The president turned decades of musings into a policy mission after his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, handed him a book by the academics Peter Navarro and Greg Autry – Death by China – which set out to explain how China manipulated the global trade system for its own ends.
Continue reading...In a speech denying allegations of antisemitism, misogyny and homophobia after Facebook banned him from the social media platform, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan referred to “Satanic Jews”.
Related: Facebook bans Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos and other far-right figures
Continue reading...As the trial of the group’s founder, Keith Raniere, begins, experts say people attracted to change are vulnerable to manipulative ‘cultish group behavior’
The federal courthouse in Brooklyn provided a bland judicial setting for some startling testimony this week, as former members of Nxivm, a self-improvement and wellness group that was allegedly a sex cult, described how devotees were manipulated to the point of enslavement to the group’s founder, Keith Raniere.
A case which on the surface contained the compelling components of wellness, self-improvement, celebrity and wealth was quickly reduced to accusations of base criminality.
Continue reading...Committee chair Richard Neal says treasury secretary and IRS commissioner must provide documents by 17 May
A top House Democrat on Friday issued subpoenas for six years of Donald Trump’s tax returns, giving the treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, and the IRS commissioner, Charles Rettig, a deadline of next Friday to deliver them.
Richard Neal, the chairman of the House ways and means committee, , issued the subpoenas days after Mnuchin refused to comply with demands to turn over Trump’s returns. Mnuchin told the panel he wouldn’t provide Trump’s tax records because the panel’s request “lacks a legitimate legislative purpose”, as supreme court precedent requires.
Continue reading...US has hiked the tariffs on $200bn of Chinese goods to 25% overnight, from 10%, escalating the battle between the two economic powers
Britain’s construction sector grew by 1% in the last quarter, as building firms got busier.
But Clive Docwra, managing director of construction consulting and design agency McBains, says Brexit is still hurting the sector.
“Today’s figures mark another increase in output, coming after last month’s statistics showed unexpected moderate growth during February.
“However, this was driven by repair and maintenance - there was no growth in new work across the first quarter of the year, including a decrease in private commercial and housing work.
Britain’s politicians are predictably split on whether the UK is romping along healthily, or simply scrambling to protect itself from Brexit.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, takes an upbeat view on today’s growth figures, pointing out that we’ve now enjoyed nine years of growth.
“Today’s figures show the economy remains robust, with growth of 0.5% in Q1 benefitting every major sector.
“The economy has grown for nine consecutive years, debt is falling, employment is at a record high and wages are rising at their fastest pace in over a decade.
“It’s not surprising to see households and businesses protecting themselves against a potentially disastrous Tory No Deal Brexit.
“With this government increasingly resembling a business entering administration it’s time they admitted the failure of their approach and stood aside for a General Election.
Continue reading...Damaging trade war could destabilise the already slowing global economy
Donald Trump has insisted that there is “no rush” to secure a deal with China despite growing business and Wall Street fears that the ratcheting up of US tariffs risks a full-blown trade war between the world’s two economic superpowers.
US shares, which were falling for much of the day, staged a late rally on Friday night after Trump tweeted that trade talks “will continue” after the hiking of tariffs on $200bn of Chinese goods.
Continue reading...The former FBI director says there were at least two incidents that prove criminal intent on the president’s part to obstruct justice
James Comey, the former director of the FBI, has said that the Mueller report contains sufficient evidence that Donald Trump committed obstruction of justice that he would have been charged, were he not president.
Comey is the latest in a growing list of former federal prosecutors and senior judicial figures who have said that the factual details contained in Robert Mueller’s report into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential race would be grounds for indicting Trump with multiple felony charges for obstruction. A joint letter to that effect has now been signed by 803 individuals.
Continue reading...However, the former army intelligence analyst was served a new subpoena ordering her to appear before another grand jury
Chelsea Manning has been released from jail after 62 days of confinement for refusing to testify before a grand jury.
The former army intelligence analyst, who leaked hundreds of thousands of state secrets to WikiLeaks in 2010, was released from the William G Truesdale adult detention center in Alexandria, Virginia, on Thursday after the grand jury she had defied expired.
Continue reading...A judge has sentenced the fake German heiress Anna Sorokin to four to 12 years in prison for defrauding hotels, restaurants, a private jet operator and banks out of more than $200,000.
Related: Glitz, glamour, now guilty: spectacular fall of New York's socialite scammer
Continue reading...Ruling will be given on Monday over whether to reopen case that dates back to 2010
Sweden’s state prosecutor will announce on Monday whether she will reopen a preliminary investigation into a rape allegation against Julian Assange.
The WikiLeaks founder is in prison in Britain after he was arrested last month after seven years holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. The US wants to extradite him in a case relating to WikiLeaks’ massive release of sensitive military and diplomatic documents.
Continue reading...The crowd cheered and Trump laughed when an audience member at a Florida rally said the best way to deal with migrants was to ‘shoot them’
Jill Biden said she would like to continue working as a teacher if her husband Joe wins the presidency.
“I would want to make sure that my students were safe, but boy, would I love to do it,” Jill Biden said in an interview with MSNBC.
The plan proposed today by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would cap credit card interest rates at 15%, Bloomberg News reports.
The legislation would also let post offices offer low-cost basic financial services, such as checking and savings accounts and loans.
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