Saudi crown prince wanted to go after Jamal Khashoggi ‘with a bullet’ – report

US media quotes intelligence sources who intercepted a conversation between Mohammed bin Salman and an aide in 2017

Saudi Arabia’s crown prince told a senior aide he would go after Jamal Khashoggi “with a bullet” a year before the dissident journalist was killed inside the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate, according to a US media report.

US intelligence understood that Mohammed bin Salman, the country’s 33-year-old de facto ruler, was ready to kill the journalist, although he may not have literally meant he planned to shoot him, according to the New York Times ($).

Continue reading...

Congress reportedly closer to deal to avert new shutdown – live

Hopes raised for potential deal, reports suggest, to avert another government shutdown when bill expires on 15 February

The NAACP is urging the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject judicial nominees who refused to say that Brown vs. Board of Education, the landmark Supreme Court case that ended segregation in schools, was rightly decided.

A number of Trump judicial nominees considered by Senate Judiciary Committee today refused to say Brown v. Board of Education was correctly decided. For us, that is disqualifying. We urge the Senate to vote NO.

Georgia Rep. Rob Woodall will not seek re-election, per the Atlanta Journal Constitution. It’s a seat likely to be targeted by Democrats.

Breaking: #GA07 Rep. Rob Woodall (R), who won by just 419 votes last fall, to retire. Doesn't change @CookPolitical's Toss Up rating, but does vault #GA07 to the very top of Dems' list of pickup opportunities. https://t.co/XS4PeDhFrA

Continue reading...

Republican tries to remove Parkland parents during gun reform hearing – video

The Republican Matt Gaetz pushed Trump's goal of building a wall across the southern border of the US during a Congress hearing on gun reform. Arguing against the proposed HR8 bill, which would require universal background checks, he said: 'HR8 would not have stopped many of the circumstances ... but a wall, southern border, may have.'  Gaetz's comments angered Manuel Oliver and Fred Guttenberg, both fathers who lost their children in the Parkland shootings in 2018, which prompted Gaetz to call for Oliver to be thrown out

Continue reading...

Jill Abramson accused of plagiarism in new book Merchants of Truth

Ex-New York Times editor disputed allegations after Vice reporter listed passages that resemble material from other publications

The former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson is facing allegations that she lifted material from other sources for her new book, Merchants of Truth.

Related: Merchants of Truth by Jill Abramson review – journalism’s troubles

Continue reading...

‘Each one has a story’: the mundane beauty of NYC’s doors

Instagrammer Jonathan shares his obsession with the city’s doors, from the grand to the graffiti-ridden

It is only natural to feel curious about what goes on behind the imposing, archaic or graffiti-ridden doors of our cities.

Instagrammer Jonathan knows this feeling all too well. For the past year and a half he has been photographing the doors of New York from the grand to the scruffy, presenting a unique view of this well-documented city.

Continue reading...

‘Aristocrats are anarchists’: why the wealthy back Trump and Brexit

Nationalism has been sold as ‘a war for the little guy’ but Brooke Harrington argues that it serves the interests of elites

We know that politics makes strange bedfellows, but few alliances are more surprising than the one linking the ultra-rich to ultra-nationalists. What could the wealthiest people in the world have in common with those upending politics in the name of the “forgotten man”? As I have found in over a decade of research on global elites and tax havens, a shared political project unites them: both seek to weaken or dismantle international alliances that constrain them.

For ultra-nationalists, this project means “taking back control” of their governments from foreigners. For the ultra-rich, it means eliminating the controls that international organizations and alliances have imposed on them individually and as a class: a world without the EU, or without the Global Magnitsky Act, is one in which the people who appeared in the Panama Papers can get even richer and expand their influence over an increasing share of the world’s governments and resources.

Continue reading...

Trump wants out of America’s longest war, but Afghans can’t just walk away

Hope is real after landmark Taliban talks, but fears remain about what might happen if US troops depart

The start of 2019 has brought for Afghanistan a tantalising hope of peace, fragile but very real, as the Taliban sat down for talks first with Americans in Qatar and this week with senior members of the Afghan elite in Moscow.

These discussions come fraught with fears, that the progress for women and civil rights will be traded away too easily, and that the Taliban may renege on any deal once US troops and their coercive power are gone.

Continue reading...

Virginia: woman who accused lieutenant governor of sexual assault speaks out – live

After attorney general admits wearing blackface in 1980s, lieutenant governor accused of attack in 2004

It was a quiet ending to an eventful day. Thanks for sticking with us, everyone.

Paul Erickson, the boyfriend of Maria Butina, the Russian national who pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to influence US politics during the 2016 presidential election, was indicted by a federal grand jury in South Dakota on charges of wire fraud and money laundering, the Daily Beast is reporting.

The case against Erickson, a conservative US political activist and National Rifle Association insider, does not appear to be linked to the foreign agent case against Butina, who tried to infiltrate the NRA and relay intelligence on American politicians to a Russian government official.

Erickson was arrested on Feb. 6 and entered a plea of not guilty, according to the court filings.

The indictment alleges that Erickson ran a criminal scheme from 1996 to 2018 using a chain of assisted living homes called Compass Care. Erickson also allegedly defrauded investors through a company called Investing with Dignity that claimed to be “in the business of developing a wheelchair that allowed people to go to the bathroom without being lifted out of the wheelchair.” The indictment says he also ran a fraudulent scheme that claimed to be building homes in the Bakken oil fields of North Dakota.

Continue reading...

Jeffrey Epstein: US opens inquiry into light sentence for wealthy sexual abuser

Plea deal, involving attorney who became Trump’s labor secretary, saw financier avoid severe penalty for abusing girls

The justice department has opened an investigation into federal prosecutors’ handling of a plea deal in which a wealthy, politically connected Florida financier avoided potentially severe penalties for sexually abusing teenage girls in favor of a relatively light state conviction.

The department’s Office of Professional Responsibility wrote in a letter Wednesday to the Republican senator Ben Sasse, of Nebraska, that it would examine whether professional misconduct occurred in the highly publicized case of Jeffrey Epstein. The letter cited a series of recent articles by the Miami Herald that focused new attention on how the deal came about.

Continue reading...

Mayor’s joke about building wall around Apple HQ city angers neighbors

Communities around tech-rich Cupertino – teased they would pay for a wall – say city’s lack of affordable housing means they already subsidize it

A Donald Trump joke usually lands well in the heart of Silicon Valley. But when the mayor of Cupertino wisecracked in his state of the city address that he wanted to build a wall around the city where Apple is headquartered – and make the surrounding communities pay for it – he ignited a fury among local housing advocates, for whom the farce veered too close to reality.

Mayor Steven Scharf made his speech on 30 January, but it drew little attention until it was tweeted by venture capitalist and housing advocate Kim-Mai Cutler. Leading up to remarks on traffic, Scharf pulled up a PowerPoint slide titled, “Securing Our Borders With The Cupertino Wall” that showed a map of the city with the border marked in black.

Continue reading...

Donald Trump’s 2019 State of the Union address – video highlights

Donald Trump has delivered his second State of the Union address, calling for bipartisan unity before taking aim at ‘ridiculous partisan investigations’, while continuing his demand for a US-Mexico border wall. Female Democrat members attended the speech dressed in white, in a tribute to the women's suffrage movement

Continue reading...

Trump’s lip service to unity meets wall of resistance from the women in white

As the president railed against ‘partisan investigations’, the night’s momentum was with the diverse, hungry Democrats

It was the night that Donald Trump, preaching unity but practising divisiveness, found his white minority rule under siege from Nancy Pelosi’s women in white.

A year after wearing black to support the MeToo movement, the record number of Democratic women in the House of Representatives wore white at the state of the union address to honour suffragists who won the right to vote.

Continue reading...

State of the Union: Trump attacks Democrats and Mueller in divisive speech

The president called for bipartisan unity but decried ‘ridiculous partisan investigations’ and took hard line on immigration

Donald Trump issued sharp warnings to Democrats, including cautioning that “ridiculous partisan investigations” would harm economic progress, in comments that clashed with an appeal for unity during his first State of the Union address to a newly divided Congress.

“If there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation,” Trump declared. The presence of Democrat House speaker Nancy Pelosi on the dais behind him was an acute reminder of the political challenges he will face in the next two years.

Continue reading...

The key points from Trump’s State of the Union address

The president pitched bipartisanship but struck polarising tone on immigration and socialism

Donald Trump delivered his second State of the Union address on Tuesday, urging unity despite giving a speech that often reflected the country’s bitterly polarized political climate.

The president attempted to cast his agenda as bipartisan amid rising tensions over immigration following the longest government shutdown in US history last month.

Continue reading...

Elizabeth Warren registered for bar as ‘Native American’ – report

Democratic presidential hopeful apologizes for identifying as Native American in Washington Post interview

Senator Elizabeth Warren was once again forced to address her past claims of Native American heritage on Tuesday, as the Washington Post reported the senator and Democratic candidate for president listed her race as “American Indian” on her registration for the Texas state bar more than three decades ago.

The yellow registration card, which is dated April 1986, was filled out in blue ink and signed by Warren, the Post reported. The paper said her office did not dispute the card’s authenticity.

Continue reading...

Trump confirms second summit with Kim Jong-un will be in Vietnam within weeks

The meeting between leaders of US and North Korea is expected to take place in either Danang or Hanoi on 27-28 February

Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un are to hold their second summit in Vietnam at the end of February, the US president has confirmed.

In his state of the union speech to Congress, Trump repeated an earlier claim to averted a major with his Korean diplomacy.

Continue reading...

Liam Neeson: red carpet event cancelled following race attack remarks

New York ceremony for film Cold Pursuit called off after actor said friend’s rape made him want to kill black man

The New York celebrity red carpet event on Tuesday for Liam Neeson’s new film Cold Pursuit has been cancelled in the wake of an interview in which the actor said he wanted to kill a black man in response to the rape of a friend who said her attacker was black.

The movie studio Lionsgate declined to comment but a source familiar with the matter said that a red carpet, where movie stars pose for photos and speak with reporters, would be inappropriate.

Continue reading...

Ivanka Trump hits back at art exhibit of lookalike vacuuming breadcrumbs

Exhibit shows a Trump lookalike pushing a vacuum cleaner and invites spectators to throw crumbs for her to clean up

A new art exhibit at a Washington DC museum shows an Ivanka Trump lookalike pushing a vacuum cleaner and invites spectators to toss crumbs for her to clean up.

The art piece by Jennifer Rubell, Ivanka Vacuuming, opened on 1 February and continues through 17 February at the Flashpoint Gallery. The public is encouraged to “throw crumbs on to the carpet, watching as Ivanka elegantly vacuums up the mess, her smile never wavering”.

Continue reading...

Runner suffocated mountain lion after animal attacked him, officials say

Colorado Parks and Wildlife says man fought off the cougar, hiked out of the area after attack and drove himself to hospital

Wildlife officials say a man who fought off a young mountain lion on a northern Colorado trail killed the animal by suffocating it.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife says the man was running alone near Fort Collins when the lion attacked him from behind after the movement apparently triggered its hunting instincts.

Continue reading...