Category Archives: US News

Univision’s Jorge Ramos detained in Venezuela after Maduro interview, network says

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Anchor, who has reportedly been released, asked question embattled leader did not approve of, according to Univision executive

The Univision anchor Jorge Ramos has been detained in the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, the network announced on Monday evening.

The Mexican-born journalist was interviewing Venezuela’s embattled president Nicolás Maduro when he and his crew were detained after asking a question the combative Maduro did not approve of, according to a tweet by the network’s US president, Daniel Coronell. The team’s equipment had also been confiscated, Coronell said.

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Venezuela: US increasingly isolated as allies warn against use of military force

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Mike Pence says ‘all options are on the table’ in effort to oust Maduro while key allies warn they would oppose sending troops

US vice-president Mike Pence has repeated a veiled threat of military intervention in Venezuela, but Washington appeared increasingly isolated in its willingness to contemplate using force to oust President Nicolás Maduro.

Both European powers and some of Donald Trump’s key Latin American allies – all of whom have recognised opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s legitimate leader – warned that they would oppose sending troops into the country.

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US negotiating position in disarray ahead of summit with North Korea

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Trump says he would be happy if rogue state continues with nuclear testing ban, handing diplomatic initiative to Kim Jong-un

Donald Trump has said the US will be “happy” if North Korea simply agrees to continue its moratorium on nuclear and missile testing at this week’s summit in Hanoi.

The US president’s remarks on Sunday night represented a lowering of already modest expectations for his second meeting with Kim Jong-un in Hanoi, due to begin on Wednesday.

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Ex-campaign staffer says Trump kissed her without consent – live updates

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Alva Johnson files lawsuit alleging Trump kissed her in August 2016 outside rally in Tampa, and says ‘I immediately felt violated’

Donald Trump has complained about a “racist hit” he said Spike Lee carried out on him at the Oscars.

The film-maker, 61, won his first competitive Academy Award, best adapted screenplay, for his film BlacKkKlansman, which was also nominated for best picture. Lee received an honorary Oscar in 2015.

A former staff member of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has filed a federal lawsuit against the president, claiming he kissed her without consent.

Alva Johnson, who served as Trump’s campaign’s director of outreach and coalitions in Alabama in 2016, told the Washington Post that Trump “grabbed her hand and leaned in to kiss her on the lips”, as the then-candidate exited an RV at a rally in Tampa on August 24 2016.

Johnson said she turned her head and the unwanted kiss landed on the side of her mouth, which she called “super-creepy and inappropriate.”

“I immediately felt violated because I wasn’t expecting it or wanting it,” she said. “I can still see his lips coming straight for my face.”

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Nord Stream 2 Russian gas pipeline likely to go ahead after EU deal

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Concerns had been raised over project increasing German reliance on Russian energy

Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, called it a mistake, while the US president, Donald Trump, has branded it very inappropriate and a “very bad thing for Nato”.

The Nord Stream 2 pipeline to take Russian gas to Germany is arguably Europe’s most controversial energy project, drawing opposition from Ukraine, which it will bypass, and uniting the US, eastern EU states, and the European Commission which fears it will undermine the bloc’s ‘energy union’ plans.

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R Kelly remains in jail as lawyer says ‘not easy’ for singer to pay $100,000 bail

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  • Singer being held in 7,000-inmate county jail in Chicago
  • Lawyer says Kelly not wealthy despite string of hit records

R Kelly remains in jail as confidants make arrangements to pay the $100,000 bail needed to free him as he awaits trial for aggravated sexual abuse, his lawyer said.

Related: R Kelly: judge sets $1m bail for singer on sexual abuse charges

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‘FarFarOut’: Nasa astronomer finds potential furthest object in solar system

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Mystery shrouds ‘very faint’ planetary body that appears to be 140 times further from the sun than Earth

A new object has been discovered in the distant reaches of our solar system and given the name FarFarOut, according to a prominent astronomer.

At 140 times further away from the sun than our own planet is, the newly identified body – if its discovery is confirmed – will become the furthest known object in our solar system.

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Pro-Israel US group condemns Netanyahu pact with extremists

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Aipac attacks Israeli PM’s pact with ‘racist and reprehensible’ Jewish Power party

Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to enter an electoral pact with a party of ultranationalist extremists has drawn rare criticism from an influential pro-Israel group in the US.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), which has generally given unflinching support to the Israeli leader during his 13 years in power, called the Jewish Power party “racist and reprehensible”.

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Spain would ’roundly condemn’ use of force in Venezuela

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Spanish foreign minister says Madrid would not support military action to oust Nicolás Maduro

Spain has warned that it will not back any military intervention in Venezuela after the South American country’s opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, urged other nations to consider “all options” to remove the president, Nicolás Maduro, from power.

Guaidó is due to meet the US vice-president, Mike Pence, in Colombia on Monday amid ongoing speculation that the Trump administration could use force to oust Maduro.

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Okinawa referendum rejects new US military base but Abe likely to press on

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Tokyo sees controversial plan for new base at Henoko as key to US security alliance

Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has vowed to push on with the controversial relocation of a US military base in Okinawa, hours after the island’s voters overwhelmingly rejected the move in a referendum.

Just over 70% of voters – or 434,000 people – opposed construction of a new base on Okinawa’s northeast coast that will replace an existing US marine corps base 30 miles away. Just 19% voted in favour of the move, with turnout at 52%.

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Trump sets more realistic tone ahead of second North Korea summit

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President and secretary of state lower expectations as they prepare for meeting amid no sign of concessions from Pyongyang

Donald Trump and his most senior diplomat moved on Sunday to lower expectations for this week’s summit with North Korea, having previously overstated their progress in blocking its pursuit of a nuclear weapon.

Related: Kim Jong-un boards train for two-day journey to meet Trump in Vietnam

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Donald Trump delays tariff hike on Chinese goods after ‘great’ trade talks

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The US president says he will hold a summit with Xi Jinping to conclude an agreement to end the year-long standoff

Donald Trump has said he will delay an increase in tariffs on Chinese goods that had been scheduled for Friday, citing “substantial progress” in trade talks with China over the weekend.

Related: When multilateralism crumbles, so does our rules-based order | Mark Medish

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Schiff threatens to call Mueller to testify if Trump-Russia report not made public

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A top Democrat threatened on Sunday to call special counsel Robert Mueller to testify on Capitol Hill, subpoena documents and take the Trump administration to court if necessary, if the full report on the Russia investigation is not made public.

Related: Trump faces a legal reckoning – but are his worst troubles yet to come?

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Andrew Yang: the 2020 candidate warning of the rise of robots

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The entrepreneur says Trump won the 2016 election because the US automated away jobs – so he wants to become president to do something about it

Donald Trump won 2,584 counties in the 2016 presidential election; Hillary Clinton carried only 472. But the Democratic nominee’s accounted for nearly two-thirds of America’s economic output, according to a study by the Brookings Institution.

Related: Leftwing Democrats steal the 2020 spotlight but can centrists fight back?

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Alabama newspaper at centre of KKK outcry appoints black female editor

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Elecia R. Dexter takes reins of Democrat-Reporter from Goodloe Sutton, who called for return of Ku Klux Klan

A small-town Alabama newspaper that drew condemnation for an editorial this month calling for the Ku Klux Klan to “ride again” has named an African American woman as its new editor and publisher, the paper has said.

On Friday, Elecia R. Dexter took the reins of the weekly Democrat-Reporter in Linden, Alabama, from Goodloe Sutton, 79, the longtime owner of the paper who wrote the incendiary editorial that brought sharp rebukes from elected officials in the state and the public.

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Mueller: Paul Manafort is hardened criminal who ‘repeatedly’ broke law

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Special counsel’s team say Trump campaign chairman deserves second prison sentence which could total 10 years

Paul Manafort is a hardened criminal who “repeatedly and brazenly” broke the law even while serving as Donald Trump’s campaign chairman, special counsel Robert Mueller has said.

Related: 'Even Nixon wasn’t like him': Trump's bid to upend Russia inquiry unprecedented, experts say

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R Kelly due in court following arrest on 10 sexual abuse charges

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  • R&B singer taken into custody in Chicago on Friday
  • Cook county state’s attorney says abuse dated back as far as 1998

The R&B star R Kelly is due in court in Chicago on Saturday, charged with 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse involving four victims, including at least three between the ages of 13 and 17.

Related: R Kelly in police custody after being charged with 10 counts of sexual abuse

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