Neither Republicans nor Democrats were pleased with the special counsel’s report, resulting in a contentious hearing
The former special counsel Robert Hur, who investigated Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents, testified before a House committee on Tuesday in an often contentious hearing that found the witness on the receiving end of criticism from both Democrats and Republicans.
Here were the key takeaways from the House judiciary committee hearing:
Continue reading...Film-maker is accused of rape, sexual battery and intentional affliction of severe emotional distress for alleged incident
Film-maker Roman Polanski will face a civil trial in Los Angeles in 2025 for allegedly raping a teenager in 1973.
Attorney Gloria Allred, who has represented the victims of Jeffery Epstein and Bill Cosby, confirmed in a press conference on Tuesday that a judge has set Polanski’s trial for August 2025.
Continue reading...James Lankford cites a veteran as partial reason for recommitting to Sunshine Protection Act, which has already passed in Senate
As Americans pushed their clocks forward an hour on Sunday to implement daylight savings, Senator James Lankford doubled down on his commitment to eliminating seasonal time changes, saying he wanted to abandon what he described as an antiquated first world war convention.
The Republican lawmaker from Oklahoma said he was devoted to proverbially locking the clock through his Sunshine Protection Act, which unanimously passed in the Senate but was not taken up by the House. Speaking with CNN State of the Union host Jake Tapper on Sunday, Lankford said he wanted to “start the dialogue” back up partly because of an encounter with a military veteran who seemed to view ending daylight savings time as a dying wish.
Continue reading...Ukraine is running dangerously low on munitions as efforts to get fresh funds for weapons have stalled amid Republican opposition
The Pentagon will rush about $300m in weapons to Ukraine after finding some cost savings in its contracts, even though the military remains deeply overdrawn and needs at least $10bn to replenish all the weapons it has pulled from its stocks to help Kyiv in its desperate fight against Russia, the White House announced on Tuesday.
It’s the Pentagon’s first announced security package for Ukraine since December, when it acknowledged it was out of replenishment funds. It wasn’t until recent days that officials publicly acknowledged they weren’t just out of replenishment funds, but $10bn overdrawn.
The announcement comes as Ukraine is running dangerously low on munitions and efforts to get fresh funds for weapons have stalled in the House because of Republican opposition. US officials have insisted for months that the United States wouldn’t be able to resume weapons deliveries until Congress provided the additional replenishment funds, which are part of the stalled supplemental spending bill.
The replenishment funds have allowed the Pentagon to pull existing munitions, air defense systems and other weapons from its reserve inventories under presidential drawdown authority, or PDA, to send to Ukraine and then put contracts on order to replace those weapons, which are needed to maintain US military readiness.
Continue reading...Special counsel says he is not testifying about the future and defends his comments on Biden’s memory and declines to
Jim Jordan, the Republican chair of the House judiciary committee, began the hearing by claiming that Robert Hurt’s report determined that Joe Biden “unlawfully” retained classified information.
Hur’s report found that Biden “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen”.
Continue reading...Itay Chen, 19, was serving in the IDF when militants attacked his base and killed him, and then took his body to Gaza
Joe Biden has said he was devastated to learn that a dual US-Israeli citizen thought kidnapped and held in Gaza had actually been killed during Hamas’s 7 October attack.
Itay Chen, 19, was about one year into his military service in the Israeli Armoured Corps when his base near the Gaza border was attacked.
Continue reading...Robert Hur, who investigated president over classified files, says at hearing before Congress ‘I had to consider the president’s memory’
Robert Hur, the justice department special counsel assigned to report on Joe Biden’s possession of classified documents, told Congress he was just doing his job when he shook up the US election campaign by criticizing the president’s apparent inability to recall certain events.
In his report released in February, Hur, a former US attorney under Donald Trump, recommended Biden not be charged for possessing classified documents. But he infuriated the president’s Democratic allies by making repeated references to Biden’s age and memory as one reason for not indicting him, saying jurors would see him “as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory”.
Continue reading...US president said Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, is ‘looking for a dictatorship’ after Orbán met with Trump in Florida
Hungary summoned the US ambassador over comments by the US president, Joe Biden, who said the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, wants a dictatorship.
The Hungarian leader traveled to Florida on Friday for talks with Donald Trump during a visit in which he did not meet with anyone from the Biden administration.
Continue reading...John Barnett was one of several people who raised alarm in 2019 about concerns of safety lapses at Boeing’s North Charleston plant
A former quality manager at Boeing who became a prominent whistleblower and raised concerns over the planemaker’s production line has been found dead.
John Barnett died on Saturday from what appeared to a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to officials in Charleston, South Carolina.
In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
Continue reading...Ex-president’s second chief of staff tried to convince him fascist dictator was ‘great guy in comparison’, John Kelly tells Jim Sciutto
Donald Trump’s second White House chief of staff tried to stop him praising Adolf Hitler in part by trying to convince the then president Benito Mussolini, the Italian fascist dictator, was “a great guy in comparison”.
“He said, ‘Well, but Hitler did some good things,’” the retired marines general John Kelly told Jim Sciutto of CNN in an interview for a new book.
Continue reading...The president made the comments after Donald Trump suggested ‘there is a lot you can do’ in terms of cutting popular programs
Joe Biden swiftly seized on Donald Trump’s suggestion that he would cut “entitlements” like social security and Medicare if re-elected, saying: “Not on my watch.”
That was in a presidential tweet. In a campaign speech in New Hampshire on Monday, Biden elaborated.
Continue reading...A recent poll puts Biden leading Trump 54-38, but the ex-president has committed supporters ahead of state’s primary
Had he heard it, Joe Biden would surely have been delighted by Bianca Siegl’s comment – and the fact she barely paused before making it.
“Of course I will be voting on Tuesday,” says the 47-year-old, speaking at a farmers’ market in Seattle’s University district. “If Trump were to get elected, it would be incredibly dangerous for the world and for my family.”
Continue reading...Yemeni group earlier warned it would escalate operations during Ramadan in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza
The US said it carried out six strikes in self-defence against Houthi targets on Monday afternoon and evening, hours after the rebel group warned it would escalate attacks during Ramadan in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
US Central Command (Centcom) said it destroyed an unmanned underwater vessel and 18 anti-ship missiles belonging to the Houthis – but on Tuesday reports emerged of drones being shot down by an Italian warship in the Red Sea.
Continue reading...Detentions soar as critics say President Amlo willing to trade rights of migrants for political capital in Washington
Between border visits and rallies, Joe Biden and Donald Trump are duelling to control the narrative on immigration, placing the issue – and Mexico’s role in it – at the heart of the coming election.
In tasking Mexico with reducing arrivals at the border, the US has given its neighbour leverage over US political discussion. On the ground, this has meant many migrants find themselves stuck in Mexico, running a gauntlet of extortion and violence as they try to make it to the northern border.
Continue reading...United States Commission on International Religious Freedom cuts visit short after rabbi told to remove Jewish head covering
A US delegation on religious freedom said on Monday it cut short its visit to Saudi Arabia after one of its members was asked to remove his Jewish head covering, or kippah.
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said its delegation was near Riyadh visiting Diriyah, a historic town and Unesco world heritage site, when the commission’s chair, the Orthodox rabbi Abraham Cooper, “refused their requests that he remove his religious head covering”.
Continue reading...US president tells audience in New Hampshire: ‘I’m a capitalist. Make all the money you want. Just begin to pay your fair share in taxes’
Joe Biden is issuing a budget plan Monday aimed at getting voters’ attention: tax breaks for families, lower healthcare costs, smaller deficits and higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations.
Unlikely to pass the House and Senate to become law, the proposal for fiscal 2025 is an election-year blueprint about what the future could hold if Biden and enough of his fellow Democrats win in November. The president and his aides previewed parts of his budget going into last week’s State of the Union address, with plans to provide the fine print on Monday.
Continue reading...Civil rights advocates call for release of police bodycam video after Ryan Gainer killed on Saturday by deputy responding to 911 call
A sheriff’s deputy in southern California shot and killed a 15-year-old boy who was holding a gardening tool, officials said.
The San Bernardino county sheriff’s department was responding to a 911 call on Saturday from a family reporting that a boy, identified as Ryan Gainer, was attacking his family at their home in Apple Valley, east of Los Angeles. The department said he was holding a 5ft gardening tool and approaching the first deputy who arrived at the scene when the deputy shot him. Gainer was later taken to a hospital where he died.
Continue reading...Cryptocurrency rises as UK financial regulator says it will allow trading of crypto-backed securities
Bitcoin has reached a new record price of almost $73,000 (£57,000), as the UK financial regulator said it would allow the trading of cryptocurrency-backed securities.
The cryptocurrency hit a fresh high of $72,720 as of Monday evening having last week overtaken its previous November 2021 high of nearly $69,000.
Continue reading...US president praises legacy of ‘fierce advocate’ Fudge, 71, who says she is leaving with ‘mixed emotions’
Housing and urban development secretary Marcia Fudge announced Monday that she would resign her post, effective March 22, saying she was leaving “with mixed emotions”.
A former mayor of Warrensville Heights, Ohio, and later an Ohio representative in Congress, Fudge, 71, served as HUD secretary since the start of Joe Biden’s administration.
Continue reading...Endorsement from 15 groups marks launch of Students for Biden-Harris amid concerns over president’s age
A coalition of youth voters on Monday gave Joe Biden’s re-election campaign a welcome shot in the arm amid swirling concerns over the president’s age and mental acuity.
The endorsement from 15 groups of mostly gen Z and young millennial voters was announced to mark the launch of Students for Biden-Harris, an initiative from the campaign designed to recapture the support of younger voters who helped propel Biden and Kamala Harris to the White House in 2020.
Continue reading...