Humorously absurd characters have been appearing in the background of congressional hearings for Trump nominees
Some unlikely protesters have been gracing the confirmation hearings of nominees for top government posts during Donald Trump’s time in office.
This week, the Senate energy and natural resources committee held a confirmation hearing for David Bernhardt, a former oil lobbyist who has been serving as the acting interior secretary since the resignation of Ryan Zinke in January. And as the committee pressed him on his lobbying record Thursday, a protester in the gallery highlighted the contradiction inherent in his nomination by dawning a swamp creature mask.
Continue reading...The president celebrated victory with the Mueller report – but then his latest effort to invalidate Obamacare left some feeling he ‘stepped all over that message’
It felt like a victory lap. At a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Thursday night, surrounded by a sea of red Make America Great Again hats, a defiant Donald Trump held the podium before a raucous crowd.
Related: Trump Fed pick was held in contempt for failing to pay ex-wife over $300,000
Continue reading...Anna Sorokin, who went by ‘Anna Delvey’, is accused of perpetrating a two-year, $275,000 scam of friends, banks, designers and upscale hotels
Judge Diane Kiesel could barely conceal her irritation. Anna Sorokin, the defendant at the centre of a highly publicized art world extortion trial, was refusing to attend proceedings on account of dissatisfaction with her courtroom outfit.
Related: 'Magic trick': trial begins for fake heiress who swindled friends, banks and hotels
Continue reading...Some on the right say it’s wrong for Trump and his followers to fixate on the young New York Democrat. Others are convinced she’s electoral poison
“It’s weird,” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez mused on NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers earlier this month. “Why are so many grown men just obsessed with this, like, 29-year-old?”
Related: Ocasio-Cortez says Green New Deal critics are making 'fools of themselves'
Continue reading...The US is cutting off aid to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, the state department said on Saturday, a day after President Donald Trump blasted the countries for sending migrants north.
Related: 'This is our moment': Beto O'Rourke attacks Trump and calls for unity
Continue reading...Launching his White House run in El Paso, the Democrat cited the presence blocks away of migrants held behind barbed wire
Beto O’Rourke, the former punk rocker from a border town in Texas, formally launched his insurgent campaign for the US presidency on Saturday by denouncing fear and division promoted by Donald Trump and calling for a revival of inclusive American democracy.
Related: Beto O'Rourke goes to Nevada in search of ideas – 'I'm all ears'
Continue reading...James W Hanlon in custody after a phone found next to victim Gary Dolce’s body contained a recording of the shooting
A Colorado man was taken into custody after the killing of his neighbor was recorded on the victim’s cellphone, police said.
James W Hanlon, 53, turned himself to police in the Denver area on Friday night. Colorado Springs police lieutenant Howard Black said no other details were being released because the investigation was ongoing.
Continue reading...Donald Trump cited the Fox & Friends TV show on Saturday as he announced his intervention in the case of a US Navy Seal charged with murder in the stabbing of a teenage Islamic State fighter taken prisoner in Iraq.
Special operations chief Edward Gallagher is accused of killing the teenager while he was under his care, then holding his re-enlistment ceremony with the corpse. Navy prosecutors also accuse Gallagher of shooting two civilians in Iraq and opening fire on crowds.
Continue reading...Congresswoman hit back at Republicans who claim her resolution would cause ‘genocide’ and the end of hamburgers
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has rounded on her Republican opponents, accusing them of making “total fools of themselves” in criticising her Green New Deal proposals.
The Democratic congresswoman from New York has come under increasing attack from conservatives over her resolution that calls for a 10-year “national mobilization” to eliminate greenhouse gases and avert the worst impacts of climate change.
Continue reading...Records obtained by Guardian show Stephen Moore reprimanded by judge for not paying alimony, child support and other debts
Stephen Moore, the economics commentator chosen by Donald Trump for a seat on the Federal Reserve board, was found in contempt of court after failing to pay his ex-wife hundreds of thousands of dollars in alimony, child support and other debts.
Related: Trump’s Federal Reserve pick owes $75,000 in taxes, US government alleges
Continue reading...North Korea is a country in transition, moving from isolation to fast food, smartphones and plastic surgery
Many people would balk at the idea of a westerner setting foot in North Korea, which is known internationally for its nuclear weapons, human rights record and its highly regimented, militaristic society.
They might be somewhat shocked to hear then, that one young Australian – that’s me – would give up two years of his 20s to study at Kim Il-sung University, North Korea’s top university, in the country’s capital, Pyongyang.
Continue reading...From Boeing to Monsanto and beyond: this week has revealed the tip of the iceberg of regulatory neglect
Why didn’t Boeing do it right? Why isn’t Facebook protecting user passwords? Why is Phillip Morris allowed to promote vaping? Why hasn’t Wells Fargo reformed itself? Why hasn’t Monsanto (now owned by Bayer) recalled its Roundup weedkiller?
Answer: corporate greed coupled with inept and corrupt regulators.
Continue reading...The spandex-based controversy has been broiling in the west for years; and it’s not just men policing women’s bodies, women are doing it to themselves
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Continue reading...The evidence of Russian interference in the US election has profound consequences for the UK – and for democracy
Last Sunday, the biggest ever donor in British political history was celebrating. The man who is currently supporting a hard Brexit campaign for Britain to leave the European Union with no deal and who is under investigation by the National Crime Agency for multiple potential offences took to Twitter to let off steam.
Arron Banks, the Bristol-based businessman who funded Nigel Farage’s Leave.EU campaign, had seen the first news reports of the special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible collusion between Donald Trump and the Russian government and he was cockahoop.
Continue reading...A US court ordered Monsanto to pay $80m in damages because it hid cancer risks. That’s a small consolation for victims
The chickens are coming home to roost, as they say in farm country.
For the second time in less than eight months a US jury has found that decades of scientific evidence demonstrates a clear cancer connection to Monsanto’s line of top-selling Roundup herbicides, which are used widely by consumers and farmers. Twice now jurors have additionally determined that the company’s own internal records show Monsanto has intentionally manipulated the public record to hide the cancer risks. Both juries found punitive damages were warranted because the company’s cover-up of cancer risks was so egregious.
Continue reading...Once again, there are reports of the male contraceptive pill being tantalisingly imminent. And, once again, a mental image occurs of a man and woman looking at each other, arms folded, as if to say: “Sorry, I don’t trust you a bit.”
A University of Washington study, involving 40 men, showed that sperm production could be disrupted with minimal side-effects and everything returning to normal once men stop taking the pill. Which all sounds intriguing, though it wouldn’t resolve the other major issue – the intrinsic lack of contraceptive trust between the sexes, which seems impossible to resolve, leastways to the point where the chemical baton could pass from women to men.
Continue reading...Lucas Bjerregaard pulled off a stunning victory over Tiger Woods in the quarter-finals of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in Texas on Saturday.
Woods had beaten Rory McIlroy 2&1 in their first matchplay meeting, in the last 16, but Bjerregaard completed a 1-up victory over the former world No 1 when Woods missed a short putt on the 18th hole.
Continue reading...Ashleigh Barty had 15 aces and became the 33rd different player to win a title in as many ATP and WTA tournaments this year when she beat Karolina Pliskova 7-6, 6-3 on Saturday in the final of the Miami Open.
The 22-year-old Australian, seeded 12th, won her fourth title and the biggest of her career. She improved to 18-3 this year and will rise next week to career-high ranking of No9, the first Australian woman since 2013 to reach the top 10 in the world.
Continue reading...Donald Trump exceeded his authority when he reversed bans on offshore drilling in vast parts of the Arctic ocean and dozens of canyons in the Atlantic, a judge said in a ruling that restored the Obama-era restrictions.
Related: Ocasio-Cortez says Green New Deal critics are making 'fools of themselves'
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Republican National Committee is said to be taking extra steps to discourage “#NeverTrump” movement ahead of primary election
Republicans are eager to crush internal dissent and turn their 2020 primary election into a coronation for Donald Trump.
Related: 'Things are swinging his way': Trump takes Mueller victory lap in Michigan
Continue reading...Footage is consistent with claims of McCoy’s family, who said officers did not try to wake him or talk to him before shooting
Vallejo police have released footage of the killing of Willie McCoy at a Taco Bell, showing six officers shooting the 20-year-old who was sleeping in his car.
The disturbing body-camera videos show the young rapper had moved his hand to scratch his shoulder before officers opened fire. The footage is consistent with key claims of McCoy’s family, who watched footage earlier this month and said the officers “executed” him while he was not alert or awake. The videos, released after significant pressure, show:
Continue reading...GoFundMe campaign sparks angry response, with rival fund earning support from tech figures including Marc Benioff
When residents from one of San Francisco’s most desirable neighborhoods launched a crowdfunding appeal to block a new homeless shelter, the controversial tactic drew an angry response from the city’s mayor.
Their campaign on GoFundMe, best known as a site that hosts fundraisers for medical expenses or victims of natural disasters, has raised around $70,000 from hedge fund managers, executives and authors, which will be used to pay for an attorney.
Continue reading...A fire destroyed the main office building at Tennessee’s Highlander Research and Education Center, a historic leadership school for civil rights and social justice - destroying decades of archives and artifacts.
The “devastating” fire engulfed the building before 6am on Friday, the center said in a statement. No one was injured.
Continue reading...Donald Trump threatened to close the United States’ border with Mexico next week, repeating a threat he has made numerous times before and angering Mexican leaders and business groups.
Trump said on Twitter: “If Mexico doesn’t immediately stop ALL illegal immigration coming into the United States through our Southern Border, I will be CLOSING … the Border, or large sections of the Border, next week.”
Continue reading...Lawmakers will receive findings from the Trump-Russia investigation, with no plans for Trump to add his own edits
Congress will be given a redacted version of Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia report by mid-April and there are no plans for Donald Trump to add his own edits, the US attorney general, William Barr, said on Friday.
Related: Mueller report release: Barr says Congress will get redacted version by mid-April – live
Continue reading...Tyler R Barriss was sentenced to 20 years for ‘swatting’ – bogus emergency calls used in retaliation – over $1.50 bet in Call of Duty
A California man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for making bogus emergency calls to authorities across the US, including one that led police to fatally shoot a Kansas man following a dispute between two online players over $1.50 bet in the Call of Duty: WWII video game.
Related: 'Magic trick': trial begins for fake heiress who swindled friends, banks and hotels
Continue reading...El Paso officials, aid workers and churches are scrambling to find shelter and legal counsel for a surge of Central American migrants
US authorities’ failure to keep up with a steep increase in Central American families seeking asylum at the US-Mexico border has left El Paso aid workers, churches and city government scrambling to respond.
After a sudden surge in arrivals, migrants have been crowded into hotels, churches and even held under a bridge behind a chain-link fence and razor wire while their asylum claims are processed.
Continue reading...Now is the chance to remove the main source of Britain’s worst crisis since the war: Conservative rule
Force-feed them back their words. Theresa May’s deal was “even worse” than staying in the EU, declared Dominic Raab, the Brexit secretary who resigned to oppose a deal he helped negotiate. This is a man who once publicly confessed he didn’t understand Britain’s reliance on the Dover-Calais crossing.
The deal would turn Britain into a “vassal state”, declared Boris Johnson, a man who had penned a column backing remain days before endorsing leave; it was “about as bad as it could possibly be”.
Continue reading...Christchurch, Michael Jackson, George Pell. What sort of fresh chaos is this?
Before March, these were the old certainties: Michael Jackson was just a big, weird kid (only a little bit suss!), your son could be left with the archbishop in the sacristy after mass, and New Zealand was the last safe place on Earth.
The terrorist attack in Christchurch, the release of the documentary exploring in extensive detail the paedophilia of pop idol Jackson and the jailing of Cardinal George Pell have all occurred this month and the result has been a collective trauma, and a sense of fresh chaos.
Continue reading...The UN needs to understand Yemen better. Its peace process so far has been too simplistic and short-term
Yemen has long faced structural, economic, social and security challenges. The war that started in 2015 has only exacerbated Yemen’s many previous woes. The conflict, gradually escalating from a political impasse into full-scale hostilities, is quickly becoming intractable.
The war, which entered its fifth year this week, with an exceedingly complex political and military situation, is being worsened by an overwhelming humanitarian crisis that keeps growing in scale where almost 80% of the population is in need of aid. The peace process is currently at a deadlock while the war is deepening grievances, ripping the social fabric and shattering an already fragile state.
Continue reading...As the nation loses itself in the Brexit maze, the Conservative party is seeking a new face to lead us down the wrong path
There’s a photo from Pompeii that’s been doing the internet rounds a while, showing the plaster cast of a naked man. He appears to have died masturbating, even as he must have known the Vesuvian ash-cloud was approaching. Did he? Science says it’s a bit more complicated than that – but science isn’t important right now, because in every psychological aspect, that guy is the Conservative party. No matter what holy terror was raining down upon our land, no matter what the peril, the Conservative party would always decide to crack out a leadership contest.
Related: At least 10 cabinet ministers considering prime ministerial bids
Continue reading...Transport bosses need little prodding in public to utter the words “safety is our number one priority” – a mantra so widespread that, as with an English person inquiring “How do you do?” the inherent insincerity is barely noted.
Clearly, the main objective of rail companies, airlines or carmakers is moving people or things, for profit, with all the risk that entails. What those industries have excelled at is vastly reducing that risk. In Britain, more than 11 years have elapsed since a passenger was killed in a train crash. Fatality rates in car accidents are declining, particularly for drivers; yesterday the European commission announced that extra safety features, including automatic speed limiters, would soon be mandatory.
Continue reading...With Trump has come two years of conspiracy-mongering about Russia – and at the top of the heap is none other than MSNBC’s Maddow
The worst-kept secret in the liberal media ecosystem is that Donald Trump is great for business. Rebranded for the resistance, liberal newspapers gobbled up thousands of new subscribers while local outlets die across America, unable to feast on the Trump manna. On television, left-leaning stations, at long last, competed with Fox in the ratings game, fueled by a never-ending Trump obsession.
Related: Mueller could never have saved us from Trump. That's what politics is for | Lawrence Douglas
Continue reading...A brilliant eagle helped Tiger Woods roar back from an early deficit to set up an eagerly anticipated showdown with Rory McIlroy in the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.
Woods found himself two down after eight holes of his must-win contest with his fellow American Patrick Cantlay but won five of the next six on his way to a 4&2 victory at Austin Country Club.
Continue reading...The Blue Devils embodied everything Black America hated during my playing career, but I came to learn that perception isn’t always reality. It feels like the culture is catching up
Growing up I loved the Fab Five. The freshman class of Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jalen Rose, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson became crossover sensations practically overnight when they landed at the University of Michigan in 1991. It wasn’t just what these five African-American teenagers did on the court in becoming the first team to reach the NCAA tournament championship game with a starting lineup of all first-year players, something that had never been done before. It was how they did it: with a brash, unapologetic attitude and flamboyant style that forever changed the culture of basketball.
Related: When it comes to racially abusive fans, the NBA has a Utah problem
Continue reading...The US skater beat the Olympic champion in his own backyard this week. It looks like a rivalry set to explode at the 2022 Winter Games
The question, inevitably, on the Yale campus this week as classes resumed was: “What did you get up to over spring break?” No one had an answer quite like Nathan Chen’s.
The American figure skater – and Yale freshman – traveled to Tokyo last week to capture his second consecutive world championship, this time triumphing over two-time Olympic gold medalist and Japanese hero Yuzuru Hanyu on home turf. While it’s not Chen’s first win over Hanyu, it is his biggest (Hanyu missed the worlds last year) and has many inside the sport believing that this is a rivalry that could build to – and explode at – the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
Continue reading...• Three birdies in final four holes get the job done for world No 2
• Francesco Molinari makes it seven from seven in matchplay
Justin Rose sympathised with his countryman Eddie Pepperell after snatching an unlikely half to maintain control of his own destiny on day two of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin, Texas.
Rose was three down with four holes to play at the Austin country club, but made birdies at the 15th, 17th and 18th to halve his match with Pepperell and will advance to the last 16 with victory over Gary Woodland on Friday.
Continue reading...President wrongly claims special counsel’s report fully exonerated him as he woos voters in Grand Rapids, Michigan
Donald Trump continued his assault on the media and Democrats on Thursday night, wrongly claiming “total exoneration, complete vindication” at his first rally since Robert Mueller submitted his report.
Trump dedicated about half of his approximately 90-minute speech in front of a raucous audience at Grand Rapids to the topic, labeling the accusations and investigation “ridiculous bullshit”. The president bounced between theories about why the special counsel’s investigation happened and attacks on his opponents.
Continue reading...Supporters say they’re feeling ‘a little better’ about the president’s 2020 chances as some called for an end to ‘partisan bickering’
Donald Trump has spent the week on a victory lap, which culminated in thousands of his jubilant supporters packing Thursday’s rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where there was a general sense of confidence about the president and his chances of re-election in 2020.
Related: Donald Trump rails against 'greatest hoax' at first rally since Mueller report
Continue reading...In his first rally since the release of Robert Mueller's report to the US attorney general William Barr, Donald Trump has given a 90-minute diatribe against the media and the US Democratic party, claiming he had been 'totally exonerated' after an investigation he described as the 'single greatest hoax in the history of politics in this country'. He also spoke on several other issues critical to his Michiganian audience, including the car industry and preservation programmes for the Great Lakes
Continue reading...Betsy DeVos, education secretary, has been under fire since her budget proposal introduced the cut Thursday
Donald Trump said on Thursday afternoon that he’s “overridden” his own administration officials on proposing to cut funding for the Special Olympics out of the latest federal budget proposals.
“The Special Olympics will be funded, I just told my people,” the president told reporters on the lawn at the White House as he departed to take a flight to an evening rally in Michigan.
Continue reading...Smithsonian and other leading museums continue taking tobacco donations even as others reject funds from big pharma
Researchers are questioning why some American museums accept tobacco donations, even as some review donation policies in light of the UK National Portrait Gallery recently rejecting a gift from the Sackler family, owner of Purdue Pharma who are at the center of America’s devastating opioid crisis.
One of America’s most venerated institutions, the Smithsonian museum, which oversees the US National Portrait Gallery, has accepted donations from the US maker of Marlboro cigarettes as recently as 2017.
Continue reading...Poland Spring in Maine, which labels name as a source of the water, ‘commercially ran dry’ nearly 50 years ago, complaint says
A federal judge on Thursday rejected Nestle SA’s bid to dismiss a revised lawsuit claiming that it defrauded consumers by filling bottles of its Poland Spring water with ordinary groundwater.
The US district Judge Jeffrey Alker Meyer said consumers from eight north-eastern states may pursue claims that Nestle Waters North America deceived them into overpaying by labeling Poland Spring as “100% Natural Spring Water”.
Continue reading...The 2017 reform has not led to increased consumer spending or a surge in investment by business owners
Reducing taxes can certainly help a small business. But it’s becoming increasingly clear that a tax reduction is no silver bullet for our challenges. That’s what Republicans are learning this year and it will be a recurring issue as the country heads towards the 2020 elections. It seems that different people view the impact of a tax reduction in different ways.
Related: Business owners, hedge your March Madness bets: it’s costing you $13.3bn | Gene Marks
Continue reading...US economic growth slowed at the end of 2018, falling well below the Trump administration’s projections and closing a strong year on a more worrying note.
The commerce department said on Thursday that the US expanded at an annual rate of 2.2% in the last three months of the year, down from an initial estimate of 2.6% and below the 3.4% growth achieved in the previous three months.
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