Searching...

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Michael Avenatti pleads not guilty in federal wire, bank fraud case; trial to begin on June 25

04/29/19 10:34 AM

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Fox News Breaking News Alert

First images emerge of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in five years, intelligence group says

04/29/19 9:30 AM

Brexit: Labour braced for showdown over second referendum

MPs call on party to support European election manifesto that campaigns for second vote on any Brexit deal

Labour is braced for a showdown over whether to back a referendum on any Brexit deal when the party’s governing body meets to agree its draft European elections manifesto on Tuesday.

Party sources suggested Labour was likely to agree a compromise option where it would support a referendum in order to prevent Theresa May’s Brexit deal or leaving without a deal, describing that wording as “the path of least resistance”.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2XSsuy4

Tuesday briefing: 'Public wants Brexit to be over'

Labour must guarantee a second referendum, party leaders told … poor sense of smell linked to fatal dementia … and the 10,000 lies of President Trump

Hello, I’m Warren Murray delivering the people’s note.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2Wi9cBO

Infected blood victims call for more mass screening for hepatitis C

Government urged to test NHS patients given blood products or transfusions in 1970s-90s

Victims of the NHS contaminated blood scandal have called on the government to extend mass screening for hepatitis C infections to prevent more deaths.

The plea came as the prime minister, Theresa May, pledged additional financial support for those infected as well as bereaved relatives affected by the medical disaster.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2PzBTrs

Routine sense of smell tests could be used to spot signs of dementia

Impaired smell in later life can be an early warning of neurodegenerative and heart diseases, research suggests

Olfactory tests could help doctors spot older adults who are at greater risk of developing dementia, researchers say.

The sense of smell is known to deteriorate with age. However, researchers have previously found it might also hint at health problems: older adults who struggle to identify odours have a greater chance of dying in the near future regardless of how old they are.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2IOzlFc

After audience with the sun goddess, Japan's emperor Akihito prepares to abdicate

Akihito will become the country’s first monarch to give up the chrysanthemum throne in two centuries

Japan’s emperor Akihito is preparing to become the country’s first monarch to abdicate in two centuries, a day before his eldest son takes his place as the new occupant of the chrysanthemum throne.

Akihito, who expressed a desire to abdicate in 2016, fearing his age would make it difficult for him to carry out public duties, will enter the Matsu no Ma (Hall of Pine) at the imperial palace early on Tuesday evening and relinquish his title in a short ceremony that will be broadcast live on TV.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2Lc9nxx

Trump UN human rights snub will buoy repressive regimes, top Democrat warns

  • Bob Menendez condemns administration in letter to Pompeo
  • State department has not responded to UN’s official complaints

The Trump administration’s refusal to engage with UN human rights monitors risks undermining standards around the world and will embolden repressive regimes such as China and Russia, the top Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee has charged.

Related: Trump withdraws from UN arms treaty as NRA crowd cheers in delight

Continue reading...

from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2L7YT22

Isis leader Baghdadi appears in video for first time in five years

Video comes weeks after Islamic State was ousted from last stronghold in Syria

The fugitive Islamic State leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has appeared in a propaganda video for the first time in five years, in which he recognises the terror group’s defeat in the Syrian town of Baghuz.

The appearance is only Baghdadi’s second on video, and comes weeks after the remnants of Isis were ousted from their last organised stronghold in the eastern Syrian desert. Looking heavier than when he proclaimed the existence of the now collapsed caliphate in mid-2014, Baghdadi blames its demise on the “savagery” of Christians.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2DDMeOn

Cambridge university to study how it profited from colonial slavery

Centre of African Studies researchers will examine financial bequests and gifts

The University of Cambridge is to launch a two-year academic study to uncover how the institution contributed to and profited from slavery and other forms of coerced labour during the colonial era.

Two full-time post-doctoral researchers based in the university’s Centre of African Studies will conduct the inquiry to uncover the university’s historical links with the slave trade.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2GR6YE5

Boeing boss rejects accusations about 737 Max jets that crashed

‘We don’t make safety features optional,’ Dennis Muilenburg tells AGM in Chicago

The boss of Boeing has denied accusations that its two 737 Max aircraft involved in fatal crashes lacked an optional safety feature, which might have alerted the pilots to technical malfunctions that partly caused the accidents.

“We don’t make safety features optional,” Dennis Muilenburg, Boeing’s chairman and chief executive, said at the company’s annual meeting in Chicago on Monday. “Every one of our airplanes includes all of the safety features necessary for safe flight.”

Continue reading...

from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2GRqQXL

Celebrities denounce proposed boycott of Eurovision in Israel

Stephen Fry, Marina Abramović and Sharon Osbourne among stars describing the boycott movement as ‘an affront to both Palestinians and Israelis’

Public figures including Stephen Fry, Sharon Osbourne, Marina Abramović and pop mogul Scooter Braun have signed a letter speaking out against a proposed boycott of this year’s Eurovision song contest, which is to be held in Tel Aviv in May.

Their letter states that Eurovision’s “spirit of togetherness” across the continent is “under attack by those calling to boycott Eurovision 2019 because it is being held in Israel, subverting the spirit of the contest and turning it from a tool of unity into a weapon of division”.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2XUTX2g

How worried should we be about Huawei? – podcast

Theresa May has turned to her national security council to help her decide on whether to allow the Chinese firm Huawei to provide parts of Britain’s 5G network. Guardian reporters Rupert Neate, Alex Hern and Tania Branigan discuss the company at the heart of a diplomatic tussle. Plus, in opinion, David Kogan argues Labour needs clarity on Brexit to have a chance of winning power

When the government’s decision to allow Huawei to build parts of Britain’s 5G network leaked from Theresa May’s national security council it set off a furious backlash. Not just that secret cabinet discussions had been revealed, but Britain also found itself in a diplomatic tug of war between the US and China.

The US argues the Chinese tech firm is a potential security threat if it has access to critical infrastructure such as 5G networks. Huawei has said the US is creating a smokescreen for protectionism.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2XPOQA4

‘I wanted to make this film for the victims’: Zac Efron on playing Ted Bundy

The US actor discusses his controversial new role, playing a notorious serial killer. It’s not a glamorisation, he says

When Zac Efron first heard about a chance to play Ted Bundy, he was wary. This was a few years before he signed on for the new film about the serial killer, and it involved a different script. “I didn’t want to jump in too early to what could have potentially been the wrong version of this movie,” he says. “I was very hesitant to go into a darker genre in what could be perceived as an effort to change my perceived image.” The script for his new film Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile felt, to him, like the right version: “A movie that could have been procedural and boring now explores a brand-new perspective, and is told through the eyes of Liz, the girl closest to Ted.”

It is the morning after the London premiere, and Efron is with the film’s director, Joe Berlinger, in a hotel room. He’s drinking from a large pitcher of green juice – celery, cucumber, avocado, kale, ginger, a bit of banana – and although he has a leg injury that keeps causing him to stand up and stretch, he is otherwise the picture of health.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2UO4aeX

Busting the myth that depression doesn't affect people in poor countries

For decades, many psychiatrists believed depression was a uniquely western phenomenon. But in the last few years, a new movement has turned this thinking on its head. By Tina Rosenberg

When Vikram Patel first began to study mental health, he believed depression only existed in rich nations. But today, he is the single most influential figure in the growing global movement to treat mental illness in poor countries, especially the most common disorder, depression.

In 1993, Patel, who was born in Mumbai, finished his training as a psychiatrist in London and moved with his wife to Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, to begin a two-year research fellowship at the national university. His purpose was to find evidence for the view, then widespread among psychiatrists, that what looked like depression in poor countries was actually a response to deprivation and injustice – conditions stemming from colonisation. The remedy in such cases, he believed, was not psychotherapy, but social justice.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2V4Ustu

'Everyone has lost the plot': York's three-way local election fight

In the third of a series on local elections, we visit an electorate stuck between local issues and national crisis

“I think everyone has just lost the plot.” Judith Judge was standing on her York doorstep in the sunshine, a Lib Dem leaflet in her hand. “In this country, it’s almost impossible to work out what is going on at all.”

Judge’s sense of frustration is a trend that runs through York like the River Ouse. The Lib Dem voter lives in the battleground ward of Rawcliffe and Clifton Without. She said it was Brexit that had cemented her vote for the party, having occasionally tactically voted Labour.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2V9xMIN

'They don't get it': South Africa's scarred ANC faces voter anger

Divided party faces ‘deep moral crisis’ despite anticipated victory in election in May

Major Mgxaji, a retired union official in the poor township of Khayelitsha near Cape Town, was repeatedly jailed and tortured by apartheid authorities for his political activism with the ANC in the 1970s and 80s.

“It is not the same party as back then,” the 67-year-old said in an interview in Khayelitsha, where rolling power cuts in recent months have been widely blamed on corruption at the national electricity provider. “The ANC people have developed the struggle of the belly instead of the struggle to better the lives of our people. That is very dangerous.”

Continue reading...

from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2Wd5Bot

Hobbyhorsing: what girls everywhere can learn from the Finnish craze

Riding an imaginary horse is a galloping success with young girls in the Scandinavian country – and the trend is taking off elsewhere

Perhaps one of the more surprising articles to be widely circulated this month has been a New York Times feature on the girls of Finland and their fondness for hobbyhorsing.

Hobbyhorsing is not a metaphor, nor indeed the repurposing of some veterinarian-standard tranquiliser by the nightclubbing youth of today. It is, in fact, the act and art of riding a rudimentary toy horse – a toy that is, to put it bluntly, a stuffed fabric horse’s head attached to a stick.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2ZMxt5k

'It's him, but through the eyes of others': behind the Leonard Cohen exhibition

In Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything, the singer’s allure is explored by an array of artists in a variety of different mediums

Claudia Gould, the director of the Jewish Museum in New York City, describes the allure of Leonard Cohen as beyond mere fandom. “He goes right into your soul,” Gould explains. “Once he gets in there, it’s hard to extricate yourself. Leonard speaks to us on many different levels, whether through his music, activism, language and everything else he’s known for.”

Related: Romance, regrets and notebooks in the freezer: Leonard Cohen’s son on his father’s final poems

Continue reading...

from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2V8uqp9

'No coherent policy': Trump’s scattergun approach plunges Libya deeper into peril

The US president has gone from urging a ceasefire in Tripoli to threatening to veto such calls in the UN

Egyptian and Emirati influence on Donald Trump has thrown US policy on Libya into turmoil at a moment when Tripoli is under attack and the country is on the brink of a full-scale war once again.

The state department went from encouraging a UN security council resolution calling for a ceasefire and an end to an offensive on the capital by the eastern Libyan warlord, Khalifa Haftar, to threatening to veto the same resolution a few days later.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2V8lvnF

How going camping saved my sanity – and made me a better father

The wilderness, Bryan Mealer writes, taught me how to be alone in the universe; to find comfort in silence

For the past five years, I’ve taken my kids camping once a month. On Fridays I load our tent and gear and we drive to a nearby state park, where we fish and swim the rivers, build forts in the trees, and cook our meals over the fire. Aside from the occasional rain or freezing temperatures, there’s nothing rugged about it. For my kids, the trips have become paramount, anticipated events. And for me, they’ve become my very grip on sanity in this age of toxic politics, division and battering news cycles.

I started these trips out of an almost primal response to something not right within me. It was like when I first started running. Twelve years ago, wrestling with depression and trying to kick some bad habits, I felt a sudden panicked urgency come over me one night, as if my better self was trying to escape the body that I’d given it. This was in Providence, Rhode Island, in January. Despite an ice storm blowing outside, I put on a pair of old sneakers and ran into the frozen night until my lungs burned and I was calm. I’ve never stopped running.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2ZKd9Bf

Let’s seize the moment and create a Green New Deal for the UK | Ed Miliband, Caroline Lucas and Laura Sandys

We are coming together across party lines to ally the issue of climate change with social transformation

Three things stand out from the recent youth climate strikes, the visit of Greta Thunberg and the peaceful protests of Extinction Rebellion. The first is the call for truth. The campaigners have all been united in their call for politicians and policymakers to tell the truth about climate change – its impacts and the scale of the response required. The second has been the demand to treat the climate crisis as an emergency and the recognition that “business as usual” is now in effect a form of “climate appeasement”. The third has been the sense of hope. An increasing number of people, young and old, see that the way we run our economy is damaging our climate, our environment and our society, but that, crucially, it is within our power to change it for the better. And change it we must.

On Tuesday, the Institute for Public Policy Research launches its Environmental Justice Commission and we are coming together across Conservative, Labour and Green parties to serve on it. We are doing so with a very specific task in mind: to ally the issue of climate change with the economic and social transformation that we believe our country and citizens so urgently need and deserve. To act on that sense of hope.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2V5cyLN

Labour needn’t worry: in its northern heartlands, Brexiters are not the only voices | Polly Toynbee

The party is drawing up its European manifesto. From what I’ve seen, it won’t suffer a backlash by pledging a confirmatory vote

“I voted out. Out means out and I’d do it again,” said the old man, as he harrumphed off up Kirkgate on his mobility scooter. Wakefield voted 66% to 34% in favour of leave, so here was the perfect vox pop. Bank it, let it stand for northern working-class leavedom and head back south?

But what of the other voices I heard in the windswept West Yorkshire market precinct outside the cathedral? Fed-upness with all politics, indignation at Westminster chaos, resentment at three wasted years of empty argy-bargy. A few people said they wouldn’t vote again in another referendum, they were just too disillusioned. “Bring back Guy Fawkes!” one man joked. Plenty of well-justified grudge; but there were plenty of switchers too. Resentful, not ode-to-joy converts, but weary givers-in to the realities, trade-offs and hard choices that were never revealed during the referendum.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2GIFEa2

Asking rape victims to hand over mobile phones is a further trial | Suzanne Moore

Putting women who have been sexually assaulted through another kind of scrutiny is hard to stomach when rape continues to carry few consequences for the rapist

Rape is a crime of opportunism. The chances of a man being prosecuted and found guilty of rape are low. Despite more women speaking out, despite the #MeToo movement and chat about consent, the grim reality is that the justice system is failing women. While more rapes are being reported, the number of suspected rapists being charged by the Crown Prosecution Service is the lowest in a decade.

Related: Rape cases ‘could fail’ if victims refuse to give police access to phones

Continue reading...

from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2UQe0N8

Looking for comment on the royal baby? Don’t ask me | Afua Hirsch

Meghan and Harry’s child will have enough questions about its own heritage without adding to them

Here are some of the things that people are saying about mixed-race babies at the moment: websites have run stories about the “viral” mixed-race children of Instagram, who are trending because of their “gorgeous blonde hair, light eyes, and golden skin that looks like sand”. White teenagers – in conversations that I have both overheard and been privy to – say, “I really want to have kids with a black guy because mixed-race babies are so cute! I just love their curly hair, and oh my God, the ones with freckles.”

The Kardashians, who have been accused by some people of turning that particular fantasy into reality, are a never-ending source of related commentary. Kylie Jenner is currently causing people to “fall all over themselves with praise” because she learned how to do her mixed-race daughter’s hair.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2PEhqS5

Why are teachers miserable? Because they’re being held at gunpoint for meaningless data | Jeremy Hannay

It is time to change the education system before we have no one left in the classroom except the children

Everyone seems to be dancing around the elephant in the room. Jeremy Corbyn is talking about scrapping Sats. The DfE is on the workload warpath. Ofsted is myth-busting itself out of the dark ages into the 21st century, saying it doesn’t care about marking any more. Almost a third of teachers quit in the first five years, and those who stay are burning out in record numbers.

Let me clear up this edu-mess for you. It’s not Sats. It’s not workload. The elephant in the room is high-stakes accountability. And I’m calling bullshit. Our education system actively promotes holding schools, leaders and teachers at gunpoint for a very narrow set of test outcomes. This has long been proven to be one of the worst ways to bring about sustainable change. It is time to change this educational paradigm before we have no one left in the classroom except the children.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2PEYT8n

Policies? Not for a government that's turned doing nothing into an art form | John Crace

Only mice show signs of life at Westminster, as beta versions of beta ministers struggle to explain themselves

Only the mice are showing any real signs of life in Westminster. They scuttle from room to room with an energy unmatched by other residents. The government is no more than the Barely Walking Dead. Having secured a six-month extension to article 50, neither Theresa May nor anyone in cabinet has a clue what to do with it.

There are occasional rumblings of having a fourth vote on the Brexit withdrawal agreement but only out of a sense of duty rather than any expectation of it being passed. A sign that the government would be doing something rather than nothing as tumbleweed rolls through the Commons chamber. Ministers have even given up pretending the EU elections can be avoided and have instead started to pretend they don’t care about their inevitable losses.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2PB0Ang

‘Ajax are always a step ahead’: Spurs’ Jan Vertonghen ready for reunion

Totenham defender is not surprised by Ajax’s resurgence having been schooled at the club where a ‘win is never enough’

Jan Vertonghen was 19, he had scored a vital goal in a pivotal game and he feared that it had killed his career. On loan at RKC Waalwijk from Ajax, the goal came against his parent club in a 2-2 draw in the fourth-last match of the 2006‑07 Eredivisie season.

Related: Tottenham’s story won’t be repeated in football, says Mauricio Pochettino

Continue reading...

from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2vucy94

Leadership failure at ECB leaves Alex Hales and England in a mess | Andy Bull

English cricket’s governing body is under immense pressure to host a successful World Cup and is wobbling under the load

Here is a line to keep in mind as we consider the whos, whats, whys and whens of the Alex Hales case. It is from Nathan Leamon’s recent novel The Test, which was inspired by his experiences working as the England team’s performance analyst. One of his characters is talking about the toilets in the England and Wales Cricket Board’s headquarters, where “on the back of the cubicle door someone had written, ‘500 people work for the ECB. At this exact moment in time you are the only one of them who knows exactly what he is doing.’”

Related: Alex Hales 'devastated' after drugs ban costs him World Cup place

Continue reading...

from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2V4qshp

Dutch magic and the Montemurro effect: the story of Arsenal’s WSL title | Suzanne Wrack

Arsenal coped with a rash of injuries to win the Women’s Super League with a game to spare and this is how they did it

Arsenal were frontrunners for the title from the moment they kicked off their league season on 9 September. The 5-0 dismantling of Liverpool on the opening day announced Arsenal as serious contenders, but despite that it has not been plain sailing for Joe Montemurro’s side and it was only on Sunday, on the penultimate weekend of the season, that they secured the WSL title with a 4-0 win over Brighton. An unforeseeable injury crisis crippled the team for much of the season, stretching the squad to its limits and testing the manager’s tactical nous. So how has Montemurro done it?

Related: Miedema's fitness proves vital while City may need a summer shake-up

Continue reading...

from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2vrSDYf

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to Step Down in May - The New York Times

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to Step Down in May  The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, said Monday that he would leave the Justice Department in mid-May, bringing to a close a ...

View full coverage on Google News

from Top stories - Google News https://nyti.ms/2UTihja

Prince William and Kate Middleton Celebrate Their 8 Year Anniversary Despite Those Cheating Rumors - The Cheat Sheet

Prince William and Kate Middleton Celebrate Their 8 Year Anniversary Despite Those Cheating Rumors  The Cheat Sheet

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge celebrated eight years of wedded bliss and pointedly ignored the cheating rumors.

View full coverage on Google News

from Top stories - Google News http://bit.ly/2V2nQQY

Khloe Kardashian Says She'd Be 'Insecure' If She Was Sofia Richie After Scott Disick Discovers His 'Soulmate' - Entertainment Tonight

Khloe Kardashian Says She'd Be 'Insecure' If She Was Sofia Richie After Scott Disick Discovers His 'Soulmate'  Entertainment Tonight

On the latest episode of 'KUWTK,' a spiritual healer tells exes Kourtney Kardashian and Scott Disick that they are 'soulmates.'

View full coverage on Google News

from Top stories - Google News https://et.tv/2XY2gub

2019 Dynasty fantasy football rookie rankings - NFL.com

2019 Dynasty fantasy football rookie rankings  NFL.com

With the NFL Draft in the books, it's officially time to start gearing up for 2019 fantasy football leagues. This exciting time begins with a look at the incoming rookie ...

View full coverage on Google News

from Top stories - Google News http://bit.ly/2Y1R0Nt

The Illinois plant shooter threatened to kill everyone if he got fired, but his coworker didn't believe him - CNN

The Illinois plant shooter threatened to kill everyone if he got fired, but his coworker didn't believe him  CNN

Gary Martin made no secret of his intentions when he showed up for work on February 15. He even told one person, "If I get fired, I'm going to kill every ...



from "news" - Google News https://cnn.it/2ZJW7TV

Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein submits resignation - Fox News

Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein submits resignation  Fox News

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who frequently found himself in the political crosshairs due to his role in the special counsel's Russia probe and ...

View full coverage on Google News

from "news" - Google News https://fxn.ws/2WhBfRS

CNN's Don Lemon cuts off guest who accused him of 'contributing' to political divide - Fox News

CNN's Don Lemon cuts off guest who accused him of 'contributing' to political divide  Fox News

CNN anchor Don Lemon lashed out at former White House aide Cliff Sims over President Donald Trump's Charlottesville remarks and ended the segment early ...

View full coverage on Google News

from "news" - Google News https://fxn.ws/2ZJMkgx

More Americans are likely to oppose Trump in the 2020 elections because of his handling of health care, poll says - CNBC

More Americans are likely to oppose Trump in the 2020 elections because of his handling of health care, poll says  CNBC

More Americans say they are likely to oppose rather than support President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election because of his handling of health ...

View full coverage on Google News

from "news" - Google News https://cnb.cx/2IYwQj0

Workers barely benefited from Trump’s sweeping tax cut, investigation shows

Big companies drove the 2017 Tax and Jobs Act, but did not commit to any specific wage hikes, the Center for Public Integrity found

Big companies drove Donald Trump’s tax cut law but refused to commit to any specific wage hikes for workers, despite repeated White House promises it would help employees, an investigation shows.

The 2017 Tax and Jobs Act – the Trump administration’s one major piece of enacted legislation – did deliver the biggest corporate tax cut in US history, but ultimately workers benefited almost not at all.

Continue reading...

from US news | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2UQZtRo

'Battle for America's soul': Biden comes out swinging at first 2020 event

The former vice-president has become a frontrunner in the primary race, raising $6.3m in the first 24 hours of his campaign

In the inaugural speech of his third campaign for the White House, the former vice-president Joe Biden returned to his native state of Pennsylvania and implored voters to reject Donald Trump’s presidency in what he framed as a “battle for America’s soul”.

“If I’m going to beat Donald Trump in 2020, it’s going to happen here. With your help, I think we’re going to be able to do that,” Biden said on Monday in Pittsburgh.

Continue reading...

from US news | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2DHJHCF

Rod Rosenstein resigns after embattled tenure as deputy attorney general

He was a target of Donald Trump and his allies, who resented the deputy attorney general’s decision to initiate the Mueller investigation

The deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, has resigned, after a fraught two-year relationship with a president who resented his decision to appoint a special counsel to investigate possible ties between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia.

His last day will be 11 May.

Continue reading...

from US news | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2UOlxfp

Justine Damond shooting: police officer 'acted as he was trained', court told

In closing arguments defence lawyer says Mohamed Noor was caught up in a ‘perfect storm’

A Minneapolis police officer who shot and killed an unarmed woman who approached his squad car minutes after calling 911 was caught up in “a perfect storm” of events but “acted as he was trained”, his attorney argued on Monday.

Prosecutors countered that Mohamed Noor was responsible for “a tragic event of his own making” in 2017 when he shot Justine Ruszczyk Damond, a dual US-Australian citizen who had summoned police when she heard a possible rape in the alley behind her home.

Continue reading...

from US news | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2DDIvQB

Authorities thwart US veteran's plan to bomb California white supremacist rally

Mark Domingo allegedly said he wanted revenge for attacks on mosques in New Zealand that killed 50 people last month

A terror plot by an army veteran who converted to Islam and planned to bomb a white supremacist rally in southern California as retribution for the New Zealand mosque attacks was thwarted, federal prosecutors said Monday.

Mark Domingo, 26, an infantryman who served a combat stint in Afghanistan, was arrested by federal agents Friday while finalizing plans to plant a bomb at a Nazi rally that had been scheduled Sunday in Long Beach.

Continue reading...

from US news | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2W9jAM6

Trump says NRA is 'under siege' after New York opens investigation

President said group must ‘get its act together’ after New York’s attorney general opened an inquiry into its not-for-profit status

In a series of tweets Monday morning, Donald Trump implored the National Rifle Association (NRA) to put its house in order. The gun rights group is publicly wrestling with internal strife and a criminal investigation.

Related: Oliver North forced out as NRA president amid bitter power struggle

Continue reading...

from US news | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2V9MfV6

Lies, damned lies and Donald Trump: the pick of the president's untruths

The White House incumbent has told a staggering 10,000 lies since taking office, some big, some trifling. Here’s a selection

Donald Trump likes to boast about his achievements, imagined and otherwise, that is no secret. The president regularly trumpets the success of the greatest economy ever, and the strongest military, and the most decisive electoral victory and all manner of other superlatives he’s supposed to have delivered. But one that is undeniable is that he has just become one of the most prolific liars in the history of American governance, passing the 10,000th lie of his administration this week – meaning an average of almost 17 lies a day over 604 days.

Related: Trump has made 10,000 untrue claims as president, factcheckers say

Continue reading...

from US news | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2GRhB9U

Guantánamo prison commander fired for 'loss of confidence' in leadership

Navy rear admiral John Ring was relieved of his duties on Saturday. About 40 prisoners are being held at the facility

The commander of the US prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba was abruptly fired for unknown reasons over the weekend.

Navy R Adm John Ring was relieved of his duties on Saturday. A statement from US Southern Command said the change in leadership was “due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command”, and would “not interrupt the safe, humane, legal care and custody provided to the detainee population” at Guantánamo.

Continue reading...

from US news | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2GQi3p5