Category Archives: US News

Trump 2020 team spending almost half of Facebook ad budget to target seniors – live

Posted on by

Trump camp is spending 44% of its Facebook ad budget to target users 65 years and older, Axios reports, while top 12 Democrats have allotted 27%

Cory Booker – US senator from New Jersey, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate

Bodega Boys – the entertainers Desus and Mero, Bronx-bred pop podcasters turned stars of the late-night Showtime show “Desus and Mero”

Bodega Boys made it over to Brick City. And yeah, it was indeed brick city for much of the night, but my floater wasn't half bad. Catch me on @SHODesusandMero this Thursday (11pm ET/PT) -- don't miss this game. pic.twitter.com/r3iZWYmefd

Brave political opinions...[John Kerry?!?]

Joe Biden/Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden/John Kerry will be a good ticket.
Warren, Kamala Harris, Beto are completely useless and time wasters.

Trump's logo looks like the Tesco cheap range logo. (Says it all I reckon, except that Trump is a leech on society, and definitely not cheap or value for money) I wonder if Tesco will sue for the misuse of their logo.

As a European, I am deeply envious of what is going on in US politics. Yes, there is a powerful right wing side, but there is also a vibrant and powerful emerging left too.

German voters and politicians are so stuck in 90s politics. They are sleep walking. No urgency on the climate or to how an erstwhile social democrat party could have lost its roots so badly. There is nothing going on here. And about the only party that hasn't sold out to neoliberalism, the Linke, are also not supported.

Old white people. What IS their problem?

Continue reading...

Bureaucratic glitch: UK suspends visa enrolment for American citizens

Posted on by

Americans applying for work, study or settlement visas have been turned away because of a ‘technical issue’, Home Office says

Biometric enrolment for American citizens seeking to move to the UK has been suspended for more than two weeks because the British government missed a payment to the Department of Homeland Security, according to sources familiar with the bureaucratic glitch.

Americans applying for work, study or settlement visas have been turned away from application support centres in the US which take the necessary fingerprints and photographs because of the suspension in service. Foreign nationals applying from the US were also affected.

Continue reading...

Trump wrote off novichok attack of defector as ‘spy games’ – report

Posted on by

Trump reportedly wrote off Skripal poisoning as business as usual among spies and was at first reluctant to expel 60 Russians

Donald Trump was reluctant to expel suspected Russian spies after the novichok chemical weapons attack in Salisbury, viewing the poisoning of a defector as “part of legitimate spy games”, according to a new report.

According to the New York Times, Trump reacted sceptically to a British request in March 2018 for a strong punitive response to the use of the nerve agent against the former spy, Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia. A local resident, Dawn Sturgess, was killed three months later when she came in contact with the chemical.

Continue reading...

Iran parliament brands US troops in Middle East as terrorist

Posted on by
  • Bill authorises Iran to respond to ‘terrorist actions’ by US forces
  • US designation of Revolutionary Guards as terrorist takes effect

Iran’s parliament has overwhelmingly approved a bill labelling US forces in the Middle East as terrorist, a day after Washington’s terrorism label for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard formally took effect.

The defence minister, Gen Amir Hatami, introduced the bill on Tuesday authorising the government to act firmly in response to “terrorist actions” by US forces. It demands authorities use “legal, political and diplomatic” measures to neutralise the American move, without elaborating.

Continue reading...

US deports husband of soldier killed in Afghanistan – then lets him back in

Posted on by

José González Carranza was arrested by Ice officers and deported to Mexico, but brought back after an Arizona paper reported on it

US immigration officials deported the husband of a soldier killed in Afghanistan – then reversed course and let him back into the country.

José González Carranza, 30, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers last week at his home in Arizona and quickly deported to Mexico, he and his attorney told the Arizona Republic.

Continue reading...

Bernie Sanders draws enthusiastic cheers in surprising Fox News town hall

Posted on by

The setup looked potentially hostile but became a free, hourlong commercial for the Sanders candidacy, broadcast to Fox viewers

At every turn they clapped and cheered, enamored with the candidate’s prescriptions for universal healthcare, a humane attitude toward immigrants and the rejection of climate change denialism.

Bernie Sanders was the candidate, and the people clapping and cheering were audience members who turned out in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, for a televised town hall on Monday night sponsored by none other than Fox News.

Continue reading...

Bernie Sanders and Beto O’Rourke release decade worth of tax returns

Posted on by

Returns shows Sanders’ family made $566,000 in 2018, while O’Rourke paid $81,000 in taxes on $366,00 in 2017

Bernie Sanders, the Democratic socialist senator from Vermont, released a decade of tax returns on Monday, showing his family made $566,000 in 2018.

According to returns provided by his campaign, Sanders reported he paid $137,573 in federal taxes in 2018 and owed $8,267 in taxes for the year. Sanders and his wife, Jane Sanders, reported paying a 26% effective tax rate on his adjusted gross income. The couple reported donating $18,950 to charity, or 3.2%.

Continue reading...

Get to know 2020 candidate Pete Buttigieg in nine clips – video

Posted on by

Pete Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, officially launched his White House campaign on Sunday. If he is successful he will become the youngest and first openly gay president of the United States. In these nine clips, 'Mayor Pete' covers his religious beliefs, the seven languages he can speak and why running as a millennial candidate is a good thing

Continue reading...

Letters support claim Assange would not face death penalty

Posted on by

UK foreign secretaries wrote to assure Ecuador president over WikiLeaks founder’s extradition

Ecuador’s president, Lenín Moreno, was assured by two British foreign secretaries that Julian Assange would not be extradited to a country where he could face the death penalty, according to letters seen by the Guardian.

Letters signed by the foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, and his predecessor Boris Johnson, dated 7 March 2018 and 10 August 2018 respectively, confirm a person cannot be extradited if they could face the death penalty, according to British legislation.

Continue reading...

Bernie in the Fox’s den: Sanders takes anti-Trump pitch straight to ‘state TV’

Posted on by

The Democratic frontrunner will speak at a Fox News town hall. He says it’s necessary to speak to Trump voters. Others disagree

Bernie Sanders will finish a four-day tour of Trump Country on Monday, with a town hall on the president’s favorite network: Fox News.

Related: Ilhan Omar has had spike in death threats since Trump attack over 9/11 comment

Continue reading...

Michelle Obama on meeting the Queen and how to cope in difficult political times – video

Posted on by

The former first lady was greeted on stage at the O2 in London on Sunday night by tears, screams and a standing ovation. Obama was at the 20,000-capacity arena to promote her book, Becoming, which charts her journey from Chicago to the White House. The memoir has sold more than 10m copies worldwide since it was published in November. Her appearance at the event followed a similar one at the capital's Southbank Centre in December, which sold out within minutes. The Becoming tour has taken Obama to Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Paris, Oslo and Stockholm, as well as a string of events across the US and Canada.

Michelle Obama gets rock-star reception at O2

Continue reading...

Europe urged to reject US Middle East plan if it is unfair to Palestinians

Posted on by

Exclusive: letter from former officials says Europe must stand by the two-state solution

High-ranking former European politicians have condemned the Trump administration’s one-sided Israel-Palestine policy and called in a letter for Europe to reject any US Middle East peace plan unless it is fair to Palestinians.

The letter, sent to the Guardian, the EU and European governments, was signed by 25 former foreign ministers, six former prime ministers, and two former Nato secretary generals.

Continue reading...

Assange tried to use embassy as ‘centre for spying’, says Ecuador’s Moreno

Posted on by

Exclusive: President says he has it in writing from UK that WikiLeaks co-founder’s rights will be respected

Julian Assange repeatedly violated his asylum conditions and tried to use the Ecuadorian embassy in London as a “centre for spying”, Ecuador’s president has said in an interview with the Guardian.

Lenín Moreno also said he had been given written undertakings from Britain that Assange’s fundamental rights would be respected and that he would not be sent anywhere to face the death penalty.

Continue reading...

Ilhan Omar has had spike in death threats since Trump attack over 9/11 comment

Posted on by

Congresswoman said many threats referenced the president’s tweet as Sarah Sanders praises Trump for ‘calling Omar out’

Muslim American congresswoman Ilhan Omar has said she has received an increased number of death threats after Donald Trump repeatedly tweeted video footage of September 11 and accused Omar of downplaying the terror attacks.

Omar issued a statement on Sunday night saying: “Since the president’s tweet Friday evening, I have experienced an increase in direct threats on my life – many directly referencing or replying to the president’s video.”

Continue reading...

Trump fixed on sanctuary city idea amid opposition and doubts over legality

Posted on by

Consternation over move meant to exact revenge on Democrats sees House committee chairs dismiss Trump’s claim

Donald Trump appears determined to send migrants arrested at the southern border to “sanctuary cities” around the US, a scheme meant to exact revenge on his Democratic foes, despite fierce political opposition and doubts over the legality of such a move.

Related: Buttigieg v Pence: Indiana politicians put faith on the election front line

Continue reading...

Kamala Harris: presidential candidate releases 15 years of tax returns

Posted on by

Donald Trump continues to refuse to release his since the 2016 campaign, as Democrats press for access to his tax returns

The Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has released 15 years of tax returns, including her returns for 2018. The California senator reports that she and her husband had a federal tax bill of about $700,000 on an adjusted gross joint income of about $1.9m last year.

Related: Democrats set new deadline for release of Trump tax returns

Continue reading...

Full Mueller report may have ‘proof of bad deeds’ and must be seen – Democrat

Posted on by

House judiciary chair Jerrold Nadler accuses attorney general William Barr of ‘acting as a personal agent of the president’

The chairman of the House judiciary committee on Sunday said a report filed by special counsel Robert Mueller could contain “proof of some very bad deeds” and warned that the entire document must be made available to Congress.

Mueller, a former director of the FBI, was appointed to investigate election tampering, alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives and related matters. He filed what has been described as a nearly 400-page report last month.

Continue reading...

Plane with world’s longest wingspan takes off and successfully lands – video

Posted on by

A manned giant six-engine aircraft with the world’s longest wingspan – surpassing Howard Hughes’s infamous Spruce Goose – took off from California on its first flight on Saturday. The twin-fuselage Stratolaunch jet lifted off from Mojave air and space port and climbed into the desert sky 70 miles north of Los Angeles. It successfully landed two hours later. The aircraft is designed to carry as many as three satellite-laden rockets under the centre of its enormous wing, which stretches 385ft, or 117 metres

Airplane with world's longest wingspan takes flight, beating Spruce Goose record

Continue reading...

The Observer view on extraditing Julian Assange | Observer editorial

Posted on by

Sending the WikiLeaks founder to face charges in the US would be a disaster for press freedom

It’s not difficult to despise Julian Assange. For seven years, he has attempted to evade rape and sexual assault charges in Sweden by seeking asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He has dismissed the charges as a “radical feminist conspiracy” and tried to smear the complainants as acting on behalf of the CIA. His excuse for refusing to face trial in Sweden – that he would then face extradition to the US – has always been hogwash. He is no safer from extradition in Britain than he would have been in Sweden, as he may soon discover.

There are questions to be asked about WikiLeaks, too. The organisation has been invaluable in allowing whistleblowers to safely publish documents that the authorities would rather have kept hushed up, from the truth about the commodity trader Trafigura’s devastating dumping of chemical waste in Ivory Coast to videos of US helicopter attacks on Iraqi civilians. It is, or certainly was in its early days, an important tool in cutting down to size those in power who would abuse their power.

Continue reading...

‘Shut the country down’: British climate group Extinction Rebellion heads to US

Posted on by

With dozens of events next week, many hope arrival of climate punks who’ve swept the UK will be a watershed moment

Bea Ruiz, a veteran progressive coordinator, has been telling scores of first-time climate change protesters they face being harassed and beaten by police next week. Most seem happy with the deal.

“I told a 72-year-old volunteer that he will probably be targeted by police,” said Ruiz, who is based in Eureka, California and is helping organize the first US rollout of Extinction Rebellion, a group founded in the UK that has grabbed attention through disruptive protests leading to mass arrests.

Continue reading...