The vice-president and the Democratic hopeful are both Christian and have worked together but in the age of Trump, they and their fellow Hoosiers sense a looming battle
Both are from modestly sized cities in Indiana. Both were baptised Catholic but came to embrace other branches of Christianity. Both found inspiration in former president John F Kennedy as they launched political careers of their own.
The parallels between Mike Pence and Pete Buttigieg stop there.
Continue reading...Bird native to Australia and Papua New Guinea likely killed breeder with its long claws
A cassowary – a large, flightless bird native to Australia and Papua New Guinea – has killed its Florida owner when it attacked him after he fell.
The fire rescue department in Alachua county told the Gainesville Sun newspaper the cassowary killed the man on Friday on his property near Gainesville, in the north of the state, likely using its long claws. The victim, whose name was not released, was apparently breeding the birds, state wildlife officials said.
Continue reading...Stratolaunch jet, brainchild of late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, may be used to launch small satellites into space
A giant six-engine aircraft with the world’s longest wingspan – surpassing Howard Hughes’ infamous Spruce Goose – took off from California on its first flight on Saturday.
The behemoth, 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 landed two hours later.
Continue reading...Murdoch-owned paper published front page that Yemeni American Merchants Association says ‘provoked hatred’
A group of New York corner-store owners has announced a boycott on the sale of the New York Post, arguing that the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper’s attacks on the congresswoman Ilhan Omar are making Muslim Americans less safe.
On Thursday, the Post published a front page featuring an image of the World Trade Center towers in flames on 11 September 2001 and a quote suggesting that Omar, a Somali American congresswoman from Minnesota who wears a hijab, had minimized the seriousness of the terror attacks in a speech last month.
Continue reading...An editorial accused envoy Geoffrey Pyatt of ‘cheerleading’ for Alexis Tsipras, the prime minister, and interfering in the country’s internal affairs
Relations between Athens and Washington have rarely been better, but neither that nor the leftist government’s unexpected love-in with America, has stopped members of the Greek diaspora from calling for the departure of the US envoy widely credited with boosting ties.
Related: US throws diplomatic support behind Macedonia name change
Continue reading...Authorities said three naked women who were seen applying suntan lotion at a Florida rest stop led police on a 21-mile chase, drove a car at one deputy and threatened another with a bat.
The Florida highway patrol said that when a deputy approached the women at the Interstate 75 rest stop on Wednesday in Dade City, Pasco county, they started dressing. The women told the trooper they had been staying at a relative’s home but went to the rest stop after an altercation and had nowhere else to go.
Continue reading...The senator has effectively not stopped campaigning since 2015 as the political landscape has shifted – but can he grow his 2020 support?
There is an saying in US politics, perhaps truer now than ever: every senator looks in the mirror and sees a president looking back. Before Bernie Sanders ran for the White House, his rumpled appearance and shock of unruly white hair suggested that this US senator gave his reflection no more than a fleeting glance each morning.
And yet, nearly two months into his second presidential run Sanders sits atop an unsettled Democratic field. It is a remarkable transformation for a democratic socialist from Vermont, deep into his 70s, who spent most of his decades-long career in the political wilderness.
Continue reading...Congresswoman says rightwing vitriol cannot threaten her ‘unwavering love for America’ as president pushes video
In the face of attacks from Donald Trump, Republicans and rightwing media outlets, the Minnesota representative Ilhan Omar said on Saturday no one could “threaten” her “unwavering love for America”.
Related: Yemeni bodegas boycott New York Post over attacks on Ilhan Omar
Continue reading...North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is interested in meeting Donald Trump again only if the US comes to talks with the right attitude, state media said on Saturday, after the US president floated the idea.
Related: The art of the no deal: how Trump and Kim misread each other | Julian Borger
Continue reading...Openly transgender people now banned from serving in the military as LGBT groups denounce ‘shameful’ rule
The US military is returning to the era of “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policies, after new rules that ban transgender people from serving came into effect on Friday.
The new policy bars military members who have transitioned or are openly trans from enlisting after Friday, while troops who come out as trans while serving after that day will be discharged.It forces trans soldiers to hide their identity or lose their job and will result in increased stigma and mental health issues, said troops and LGBT groups.
Continue reading...Hillary Clinton told an event in New York that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's dramatic arrest on Wednesday was not about 'punishing journalism', but holding him to account for the hacking charges against him. The Australian is charged by the US with conspiring to hack into a Pentagon computer network with whistleblower Chelsea Manning. WikiLeaks released a cache of hacked Democratic party emails that embarrassed Clinton's campaign during the 2016 presidential election
Jared Kushner only registered as a Republican on September 20, 2018, Vice reports.
The presidential adviser and son in law was unenrolled in any party until he changed his New York City voter registration on that date.
Vice President Mike Pence says Donald Trump’s many past comments praising WikiLeaks were “in no way an endorsement” of the organization.
“I think the President always, as you and the media do, always welcomes information,” Pence told CNN. “But that was in no way an endorsement of an organization that we now understand was involved in disseminating classified information by the United States of America.”
Continue reading...Mixed picture shows rebound in country’s exports, creating $32bn trade surplus in March
Chinese imports slumped in March, driven by a slowdown in US trade amid the tense standoff between Washington and Beijing, raising renewed questions over the strength of the Chinese economy.
Imports fell by 7.6% in March compared with a year earlier, worse than City economists’ forecasts for the volume of goods bought from abroad to grow by 0.2%.
Continue reading...Officials sought to pressure immigration authorities in effort to retaliate against Trump’s political opponents, Washington Post reports
White House officials have tried to pressure US immigration authorities to release migrants detained at the border into so-called sanctuary cities such as San Francisco to retaliate against Donald Trump’s political adversaries, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.
The Post, which reviewed emails on the issue and spoke to unnamed officials at the Department of Homeland Security, said the White House proposed the measure at least twice in the past six months. Sanctuary cities are those where local officials decline to hand over illegal immigrants for deportation.
Continue reading...US president said he ‘enjoys the summits’ with chairman Kim Jong-un and is hopeful for progress on sanctions and human rights
Donald Trump has said he is considering a potential third nuclear summit with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un.
“We will be discussing that and potential meetings, further meetings with North Korea and Kim Jong-un,” Trump said in the Oval Office at the start of talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
Continue reading...Actor had refused to reimburse city for overtime as police sought to verify his account of a racist, anti-gay attack
Chicago filed a lawsuit against Jussie Smollett on Thursday in a bid to recoup the costs of investigating a racist, anti-gay attack that authorities say was orchestrated by the Empire actor as a publicity stunt.
The 12-page civil lawsuit, filed in Cook county court, is the latest volley in a legal battle that shows no signs of abating since Smollett reported that masked men beat him up on 29 January in Chicago, shouting slurs and wrapping a rope around his neck.
Continue reading...Friends, family and fans gather in Los Angeles as blogger reads letter from Barack Obama to crowd
Nipsey Hussle’s legacy as a persistent rapper, community activist, uniter, doting father, protective sibling and loving son were underscored at his public memorial service on Thursday, with deeply personal testimonies from those closest to the rapper, including his fiancee, Lauren London; collaborator and dear friend Snoop Dogg; and his mother, who said she was at peace with the death of her “superhero” son.
Beyoncé and Jay-Z were among the celebrities who attended the three-hour event in Los Angeles at the Staples Center. The last celebrity funeral held at the concert arena was Michael Jackson’s in 2009.
Continue reading...After WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested at the Ecuadorian embassy in London on Thursday, Donald Trump claimed not to know anything about WikiLeaks and that it's 'not his thing'. The US president frequently praised the organisation during the 2016 presidential campaign when WikiLeaks published emails stolen from Democratic National Convention servers and Hillary Clinton's campaign.
Gregory Craig was charged with lying to US authorities about his work alongside Paul Manafort
Gregory Craig, a former White House counsel to Barack Obama, has been charged with lying to US authorities about his work alongside Paul Manafort for pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine.
Related: William Barr says 'spying did occur' on Trump campaign during Obama era
Continue reading...Democratic congresswoman Katie Porter grills JP Morgan’s billionaire CEO, Jamie Dimon, on the real-world consequences his bank’s low wages have had on a single mother’s life. Porter found that the woman, a Chase bank teller on a starting salary, was $567 short at the end of each month.
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