Category Archives: Washington, DC

US’s global reputation hits rock-bottom over Trump’s coronavirus response

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International relations expert warns policy failure could do lasting damage as president insults allies and undermines alliances

Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, which he once dismissed as a hoax, has been fiercely criticised at home as woefully inadequate to the point of irresponsibility.

Yet also thanks largely to Trump, a parallel disaster is unfolding across the world: the ruination of America’s reputation as a safe, trustworthy, competent international leader and partner.

Call it the Trump double-whammy. Diplomatically speaking, the US is on life support.

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‘It should be illegal’: protesters call for end to abortion at Washington rally

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Protesters out in numbers for annual March for Life, at a time when US reproductive rights are under serious threat

America’s largest annual anti-abortion protest drew tens of thousands of people to Washington in one of the most precarious years in decades for reproductive rights.

Related: Trump tells anti-abortion activists at March for Life: 'I am fighting for you'

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DC braces for Erdoğan’s visit 18 months after bodyguards assaulted protesters

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His bodyguards ran riot in the city as they punched and pushed Kurdish protesters and attacked American security officers

Police in Washington DC, the US state department and the Secret Service are girding themselves for the return of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Wednesday, 18 months after the Turkish president’s bodyguards ran riot in the city, assaulting protesters and American security officers.

Newly declassified state department documents provide fresh details of the aggression shown by the Turkish security detail towards their US counterparts both before and after the 2017 attack near the Turkish embassy in north-west Washington. Six officers from the US Secret Service, two from the diplomatic service and one from the Washington police required medical treatment.

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‘Lock him up’: Trump greeted with boos at World Series – video

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Donald Trump was booed loudly and a chant of 'lock him up' rose up against him when he was shown on the video screens in the Nationals Park stadium, where he attended game five of the World Series between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros. 

Trump left the game with one inning to go

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Donald Trump booed and greeted with ‘lock him up’ chants at World Series

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  • President attended Sunday’s baseball game in Washington DC
  • Crowd booed when Trump appeared on video screen

Donald Trump once claimed he was courted by several major league baseball clubs in his youth but turned them down because they couldn’t offer him enough money. On Sunday, baseball got its revenge.

The President attended Game 5 of the World Series between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros at Nationals Park, a short journey from the White House. When Trump was shown on the video screens in the stadium he was loudly booed by fans. That, perhaps, was predictable: Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon and both Bushes were all booed while attending baseball games as President. What came shortly afterwards was a little more personal in a city that is heavily Democratic as cries of “Lock him up!” rang out, a reference to the chants about Hillary Clinton used at Trump’s rallies in the run-up to the 2016 presidential elections.

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When Donald met Scott: a reporter’s view of Trump and his White House wonderland

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Australian PM Scott Morrison received a full-blown welcome from the US president. Katharine Murphy was on hand for an inside account

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Scott Morrison has made his first visit to the United States as prime minister. It was a trip that included a close encounter with the unpredictability of the Trump White House, a foreign policy pivot, and a backlash about a lack of climate policy action. Guardian Australia’s political editor, Katharine Murphy, travelled, with the prime minister. Here is what she witnessed:

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Scott Morrison to unveil $150m support for Trump’s mission to Mars

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PM says five-year commitment designed to make Australia ‘partner of choice’ to support expeditions to moon and Mars

Scott Morrison has used a visit to Nasa on Saturday local time to unveil a $150m investment in Australian businesses and new technology to support the American space agency launch expeditions to the moon and to Mars.

The Australian prime minister on his second day in the American capital visited Nasa, and also laid a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery. Morrison visited the graves of Australian military personnel and visit the tomb of The Unknown Soldier.

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Woman arrested for threatening to blow up Swedish embassy over A$AP Rocky case

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Rebecca Kanter is accused of abusing staff and damaging property at Washington DC embassy

A fan of the rapper A$AP Rocky has been arrested in Washington DC after allegedly threatening to “blow up” the Swedish embassy there. The rapper is currently jailed in Sweden, awaiting trial for an assault charge after footage emerged of him and his entourage allegedly punching and kicking a pair of men on a Stockholm street.

According to a written statement by a Secret Service officer, Rebecca Kanter is accused of screaming at embassy staff, accosting a group of students visiting the embassy and damaging property. She was arrested after refusing to leave the premises, and charged with wilfully injuring and damaging property of a foreign government, and refusing to depart a foreign embassy. The previous day she had allegedly thrown liquid from a Coca-Cola bottle at the embassy and shouted: “I’m going to blow this motherfucker up.” She wrote on social media that she had “defiled the House of Sweden … why aren’t I getting press for A$AP”. She has been released on bail.

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Inside Trump’s DC hotel, where allies and lobbyists flock to peddle their interests

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Fossil fuel interests, pro-gun groups, foreign delegations and all manner of allies visit the Trump International Hotel to cozy up to the administration, say watchdogs

On 25 July, the conservative Heartland Institute is slated to host a one-day meeting at the Trump International Hotel, just a few blocks from the White House. It will feature leading climate science deniers who will discuss issues like “the benefits of ending the Democrats’ war on fossil fuels”, according to the institute.

Last month, as Donald Trump was kicking off his 2020 campaign and boasting again of “draining the swamp” of Washington’s powerful lobbyists and elites, a couple of dozen oil and gas executives with the Domestic Energy Producers Alliance were checking into the president’s hotel before a day of schmoozing with Republican House leaders and cabinet officials.

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Divided America on display during Fourth of July events – video report

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The US president’s unique interpretation of the Declaration of Independence was on full display on Thursday, when he staged a militaristic jamboree at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington to celebrate the Fourth of July. But it wasn't just the military tanks, jet flyovers or Donald Trump’s speech that marked this year’s holiday. Burning flags, blimps, toilet robots and Proud Boys all showed us just how divided America is 

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‘We will plant the American flag on Mars’: Trump delivers July 4th speech – video

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The president sailed close to one of his campaign lines when he claimed, “our nation is stronger than it ever was before”, but otherwise swerved past party politics . “For Americans, nothing is impossible,” he said, reciting a litany of American accomplishments over its history, including the moon landing 50 years ago, and promised “very soon, we will plant the American flag on Mars.”

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Donald Trump’s July 4th jamboree: symbolic, jingoistic and untraditional

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Some welcomed the rare plea for unity but others said the show of military might was the moment Trump went full Roman emperor

All men are created equal. But one is created more equal than others. And his name is Donald Trump.

The US president’s unique interpretation of the declaration of independence was on full display on Thursday when he staged a militaristic, jingoistic and untraditional jamboree at the Lincoln memorial in Washington to celebrate the Fourth of July.

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White House ‘struggles to draw crowds’ to Trump’s Fourth of July show

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Trump is set to mark Independence Day by delivering a speech about patriotism on the steps of the Lincoln memorial

White House aides have reportedly struggled to draw crowds to Donald Trump’s Fourth of July celebrations, with service chiefs for the Army, Navy, Air Force or Marine Corps set to skip the planned display of military might.

Despite facing accusations that he is politicizing an important holiday, emulating displays in authoritarian countries and wasting taxpayers’ money, Trump is set to mark Independence Day by delivering a speech about patriotism on the steps of the Lincoln memorial.

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Trump’s Independence Day parade in Washington DC – in pictures

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Donald Trump is overseeing Fourth of July celebrations with a speech about patriotism and a show of military might that critics say is politicising an important holiday and wasting taxpayers’ money. The president has dismissed concerns about the event, which will take place in front of the Lincoln Memorial and feature fireworks, a flyover by Air Force One and a display of tanks

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Now kids, help us to kill Bin Laden! The dark side of Washington’s spy museum

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The bugged shoes and poison brollies are fun and fascinating. But why are the sections about state-sponsored torture and assassination so uncritical?

Sitting in a glass case, standing out against a backdrop of deep red, there’s an ice axe that still bears a rust mark, the consequence of a bloody fingerprint left on it decades ago. One day in 1940, this axe was hidden inside Ramón Mercader’s suit jacket, suspended by a string, as he walked into the office of Leon Trotsky, the Russian revolutionary living in exile in Mexico, having been sentenced to death as an “enemy of the people” in his home country.

Mercader slipped behind Trotsky’s desk and brought the axe down with tremendous force, penetrating two-and-three-quarter inches into his skull. Trotsky died 26 hours later. Mercader served 20 years in prison then returned to a hero’s welcome in Moscow. On his deathbed in 1978, his last words were: “I hear it always. I hear the scream. I know he’s waiting for me on the other side.”

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Former Putin adviser had neck fracture at time of death in Washington hotel

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New report raises questions about Mikhail Lesin, whose death was ruled an accident but has been shrouded in suspicion

Newly released documents show that a former adviser to Vladimir Putin sustained a complete fracture of his neck “at or near the time of his death” in a Washington hotel room in 2015.

The documents from the city’s medical examiner were released to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE) in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed nearly two years ago.

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Paul Manafort given seven-year prison term and severe rebuke from judge

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Paul Manafort, the former Donald Trump campaign chairman, was told by a judge on Wednesday that he is a liar and fraud who will spend a total of seven and a half years in prison.

Related: Paul Manafort charged by New York prosecutors with 16 further crimes

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US college admissions scandal: how did the scheme work and who was charged?

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Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin were among 50 charged in scheme to get children into universities via bribery and cheating

There are 50 people charged in the case, including actors Felicity Huffman, known for her role on the TV show Desperate Housewives and the feature film Transamerica, and Lori Loughlin, a cast member on the TV series Full House. Defendants in the case include parents and college athletics coaches.

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Felicity Huffman among dozens charged over admissions fraud at top US schools

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Scheme helped wealthy Americans buy their children’s way into elite universities including Yale, Georgetown and Stanford

US federal prosecutors have charged the Hollywood actors Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, along with almost 50 other people, over a $25m scheme to help wealthy Americans buy their children’s way into elite universities including Yale, Georgetown, Stanford and the University of Southern California.

Huffman appeared in court in Los Angeles on Tuesday afternoon, where a magistrate judge said she could be released on a $250,000 bond. The judge ordered the Desperate Housewives star to restrict her travel to the continental United States. Huffman’s husband, the actor William H Macy, attended his wife’s initial court appearance. He has not been charged and authorities have not said why.

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