Tag: us news

  • US ex-safety chiefs back John Brennan in Donald Trump war on words

    Former CIA Director John Brennan testifies during a House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence hearing about Russian actions during the 2016 election on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC Symbol copyright AFP/Getty Image caption Mr Brennan briefed Mr Trump prior to his inauguration on accusations of Russian meddling

    A dozen former US intelligence leaders have subsidized ex-CIA leader John Brennan after his security clearance was revoked by President Donald Trump.

    The former CIA and national intelligence bosses known as Mr Trump’s transfer “an attempt to stifle unfastened speech” in a joint statement on Thursday.

    Mr Trump is raring to strip different top-rating officers of access to categorized information, US media say.

    The nine folks currently on a assessment checklist have all criticised the president.

    Many have also been all for the research into Mr Trump’s 2016 election campaign’s alleged collusion with Russia.

    Symbol copyright Getty Photographs Image caption Mr Trump omitted press questions into his decision to strip Mr Brennan’s clearance at a cabinet meeting

    The White House said casting off his get entry to to sensitive government information on Wednesday was once as a result of Mr Brennan’s “erratic habits” and “outrageous allegations”.

    Mr Brennan then hit back pronouncing Mr Trump’s claims of no collusion were “hogwash”.

    “Mr Trump clearly has grow to be extra eager to give protection to himself and people close to him, which is why he made the politically inspired resolution to revoke my security clearance in an attempt to scare into silence others who might dare to problem him,” Mr Brennan wrote in a brand new York Times op-ed.

    Former best intelligence officers usually retain their clearances for a time, often advising successors.

    William McRaven, a retired Army admiral who oversaw the raid that resulted within the loss of life of Osama bin Laden, additionally wrote an open letter to Mr Trump on Thursday, announcing he would consider it “an honour” if his own clearance had been got rid of.

    Image copyright Getty Pictures Image caption Mr McRaven described Mr Trump’s action as “McCarthy-era techniques” to suppress grievance

    “Thru your movements, you have got embarrassed us within the eyes of our children, humiliated us on the world’s level and, worst of all, divided us as a nation,” Mr McRaven wrote in the Washington Post.

    The 12 signatories of the joint commentary – who include former CIA directors David Petraeus, Leon Panetta and Porter Goss – noted that even as they are going to no longer all consider Mr Brennan’s comments, they supported his proper to voice an opinion.

    Mueller ‘threatened Trump with subpoena’ What does the different recommend do?

    The ex-officers referred to as Mr Trump’s transfer towards Mr Brennan “sick-thought to be and unheard of”.

    Two of them – ex-director of Nationwide Intelligence James Clapper and former CIA director Michael Hayden – are also at the White House list of those whose safety clearances had been publicly threatened.

    Mr Clapper and Mr Brennan have been some of the Obama management officers who briefed Mr Trump before his inauguration on evidence of Russian meddling within the 2016 election.

    Mr Trump has many times advised Legal Professional Basic Jeff Periods and other officers to finish the Russia investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

  • US defence spending v remainder of international

    Video US defence spending v remainder of global

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  • What makes an army parade?

    Video Army parades to inspire Trump

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  • US army parade ordered by means of Trump postponed ‘to 2019’

    A Navy jet is pulled down Broadway Avenue in a June 1991 welcome home parade for returning Gulf War troops Symbol copyright AFP/Getty Pictures Symbol caption The U.s. placed on a grand army spectacle again in 1991, while troops had been celebrating victory in the first Gulf Warfare

    US defence officers have postponed a planned Veterans Day weekend military parade through the streets of Washington DC until no less than 2019.

    The parade was at the start conceived to commemorate the centenary of the top of global Warfare 1 and to honour veterans.

    But a Pentagon legit said it has now been not on time a minimum of one year.

    Provisional figures launched earlier on Thursday stated the event could value approximately $NINETY million (£71m) – more than 3 times an original estimate.

    US President Donald Trump requested a parade after seeing France’s Bastille Day experience in 2017 and expressing a desire to “best it”.

    No tanks, but Trump will get his parade Ex-US defence secretary rains on Trump’s army parade

    A Pentagon spokesperson, Colonel Rob Manning, stated in a press release that the dept of Defence and the White House “have now agreed to explore possibilities in 2019”.

    Media playback is unsupported in your tool

    Media captionPresident Trump at Bastille Day parade

    Earlier on Thursday, a US reliable instructed the AFP information company the planning estimate for the event had ballooned to as a lot as $92m (£72m).

    The parade’s funds director had offered an estimate of among $10m (£7.8m) and $30m (£23.6m) when the White Space announced its request in February.

    A memo at the time said no tanks would be used in order not to damage the roads of the nation’s capital.

    The city’s governing District of Columbia Council was very important of the plan while introduced, voicing its displeasure on Twitter.

    Skip Twitter post via @councilofdc

    Tanks but No Tanks! https://t.co/jMbmumcfFy

    — Council of DC (@councilofdc) February 7, 2018

    File

    Finish of Twitter publish by means of @councilofdc

    Contributors of the Democratic celebration were in a similar fashion sceptical, with congressman Jim McGovern mentioning it “an absurd waste of money” on Twitter and pronouncing Mr Trump “acts more like dictator than president”.

    The Pentagon stated the parade used to be deliberate to travel from the White House to the Capitol, and could function a “heavy air element at the tip”.

    It used to be deliberate to incorporate “wheeled vehicles most effective”. The Focus used to be to be at the work folks army veterans in the course of the ages, beginning with the yank Modern Battle.

    US media talked about that Donald Trump cancelled deliberate military workouts with South Korea in June after his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the grounds it would “shop a fortune”.

    Skip Twitter put up by way of @realDonaldTrump

    We keep a fortune by way of not doing battle games, as lengthy as we’re negotiating in excellent faith – which each side are!

    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 13, 2018

    Record

    Finish of Twitter put up by means of @realDonaldTrump

    Critics have additionally in comparison the parade plan unfavourably to spectacles favoured via autocratic international locations.

    The United States had an army parade in 1991 following the end of its a success marketing campaign to force Saddam Hussein’s troops out of Kuwait.

    Media playback is unsupported for your instrument

    Media captionWhat makes a military parade? Here’s how other countries do it.

    A Few social media users puzzled the aim of the parade at all, and said as an alternative the money need to be used to in an instant help veterans.

    Skip Twitter post through @daryl_says

    If @realDonaldTrump in fact cared concerning the #military, he may scrap the #MilitaryParade idea and use that money for homeless #vets

    — Daryl (@daryl_says) August 17, 2018

    Document

    Finish of Twitter put up by way of @daryl_says

    Skip Twitter publish by way of @GStein269

    Pentagon goes to prolong Army Parade till November of next 12 months! In other phrases no way is Trump spending $NINETY TWO million on a parade and not using a actual birthday party apart from Trump’s ego.

    — Georgia Stein (@GStein269) August 17, 2018

    Document

    Finish of Twitter post by @GStein269

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  • US media holds unfastened press marketing campaign after Trump assaults

    A copy of the Boston Globe newspaper, August 2018 Image copyright AFP/Getty Image caption The Boston Globe made a plea for editorial team spirit ultimate week

    greater than THREE HUNDRED US information organisations will launch a free press campaign on Thursday to counter President Donald Trump’s attacks.

    The Boston Globe made the call last week for a nationwide denouncement of the president’s “grimy struggle” towards the media, the use of the hashtag #EnemyOfNone.

    Mr Trump has derided media reviews as “pretend news” and attacked journalists as “enemies of the people”.

    UN experts have stated this raises the risk of violence against reporters.

    UN experts condemn Trump media assaults Why Trump attacks the media

    The Boston Globe pledged to put in writing an article “on the danger’s of the administrations assault on the press” on SIXTEEN August, and requested others to do the same.

    Image copyright AFP/Getty Symbol caption President Trump has been accused of accelerating the danger of violence against reporters together with his attacks

    Mr Trump is the first president “who appears to have a calculated and constant coverage of undermining, delegitimising or even endangering the clicking’s paintings,” the London-based totally newspaper wrote in its editorial.

    Under the headline A Loose Press Needs You, The Brand New York Times called Mr Trump’s assaults “dangerous to the lifeblood of democracy”, and published excerpts from dozens extra publications beneath.

    In its personal editorial, below the headline Journalists Aren’t The Enemy, the Boston Globe mentioned a loose press were a center American concept for greater than TWO HUNDRED years.

    “These Days it is beneath serious threat,” it reads, arguing that such remedy of the click by way of the united states president “sends an alarming sign to despots” around the globe.

    Are journalists an increasing number of under assault? How Trump ‘enemies’ commentary echoes tyrants

    Thursday’s marketing campaign comes after a chain of incidents and Trump remarks ramping up power on the media.

    While Mr Trump’s daughter Ivanka distanced herself from her father’s media assaults, White Area press secretary Sarah Saunders refused to say the media weren’t an enemy of the folks.

    And at a presidential rally in Florida in July, CNN filmed Mr Trump’s supporters yelling insults and swearing at journalists overlaying the development. CNN presenter Jim Acosta tweeted a clip, which contained sturdy language.

    Image Copyright @Acosta @Acosta

  • Pennsylvania priests ‘abused lots of children’

    Donald Wuerl Archbishop of Washington Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Archbishop Donald Wuerl despatched a letter to Pennsylvania priests caution them of “profoundly tense” main points in the document

    The Pennsylvania Ideally Suited Court has launched a grand jury document detailing sex abuse in the Catholic Church, naming over 300 accused clergymen.

    The landmark grand jury investigation found more than 1,000 children had been abused via participants of six dioceses in the state for the remaining 70 years.

    Officials say the probe discovered systematic duvet-ups by way of the church.

    The document is the most recent inquiry into allegations of sex abuse by means of Catholic clergy worldwide.

    After an 18-month investigation, “over a thousand kid sufferers have been identifiable, from the church’s own data,” the grand jury states within the file launched on Tuesday.

    Image copyright Getty Pictures Image caption Archbishop of Washington Cardinal Theodore McCarrick resigned amid allegations that he assaulted a youngster whilst working as a priest within the seventies

    Pennsylvania is house to over 3m Catholics. US media record that Pennsylvania has had the top selection of grand jury investigations into kid sex abuse within the church within the country.

    The file comes amid renewed scrutiny of child sex abuse allegations throughout the Catholic Church.

    Remaining month, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, a former Washington DC archbishop and a prime-profile Catholic chief, resigned amid allegations that he sexually abused children and adults for decades.

    Cardinal McCarrick

    Cardinal Wuerl changed Cardinal McCarrick as Washington’s archbishop after he retired in 2006.

    Earlier this year, Pope Francis apologised to Chilean victims for “severe mistakes” he made in coping with a case of alleged kid abuse.

  • Manafort attorneys rest fraud case with out calling witnesses

    Manafort in court in February Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Paul Manafort coming into court docket back in February (REPORT)

    Ex-Trump marketing campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s legal professionals have rested their case with out calling any witnesses in his bank and tax fraud trial.

    A US pass judgement on additionally pushed aside Mr Manafort’s movement to throw out all 18 fees filed towards him by Unique Suggest Robert Mueller.

    That Is the primary prison trial to come from the dep. of Justice-led inquiry into alleged Russian meddling.

    Mr Manafort, who has pleaded now not guilty, also declined to testify.

    Prosecutors, who rested their case on Monday, say the 69-yr-vintage dodged taxes on hundreds of thousands of dollars he made lobbying for Ukrainian politicians.

    Manafort lawyer attacks deputy’s ‘lies’

    The surprise move from the defence crew got here on the eleventh day of the trial and clears the way in which for last arguments to start out on Wednesday.

    If found in charge, Mr Manafort may spend the remainder of his lifestyles in jail.

    What’s the historical past?

    Mr Manafort led US President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign for a number of months in 2016, including in August while Mr Trump gained the Republican party’s nomination.

    He was once charged in October 2017 as part of Different Counsel Mueller’s investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

    But most of his alleged crimes pre-date his time operating for Mr Trump and instead centre on his consultancy paintings for Russian-sponsored Ukrainian politicians.

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  • Nebraska first in US to make use of opioid fentanyl in execution

    Carey Dean Moore police photo Image copyright AFP Symbol caption Carey Dean Moore was once sentenced to loss of life for 2 1979 murders

    Nebraska has become the first US state to make use of the opioid fentanyl to hold out the demise penalty.

    Convicted felony Carey Dean Moore, 60, who killed two cab drivers in 1979, used to be completed in the state’s first lethal injection and primary execution in 21 years.

    Amid two court cases from drug corporations to stay the execution, Moore had informed his attorneys he wanted to be completed.

    Fentanyl is a formidable narcotic drug at the middle of the united states opioid crisis.

    in step with the Omaha Global-Bring In newspaper, the state used an untried drug cocktail of diazepam, fentanyl, cisatracurium and potassium chloride to execute Moore.

    How US loss of life penalty capital changed its mind Judge delays Nevada’s opioid execution Why opioids are such an American drawback

    Moore was once convicted of killing cab drivers Reuel Van Ness and Maynard Helgeland in August 1979. Both males had been 47-year-old Korean battle veterans.

    He was once suggested dead approximately 23 mins after the drugs were administered, the Washington Post stated.

    German pharmaceutical corporate Fresenius Kabi tried to halt the execution with a federal lawsuit filed remaining week.

    The go well with alleged that Nebraska had not legally bought the potassium chloride, meant to stop Moore’s center, and the cisatracurium besylate, a muscle paralytic.

    State officers denied the allegations.

    In a courtroom submitting seen by way of the Post, the Nebraska Attorney General’s administrative center mentioned: “the folks of Nebraska have selected via a large margin to keep capital punishment for Moore’s crimes.

    “Their government is ready to hold out Moore’s sentence and possesses the constitutional, lawfully-acquired means of doing so.”

    A federal pass judgement on rejected Fresenius Kabi’s request to block the use of its medicine, and a circuit court denied an appeal.

    Another pharmaceutical corporate, Sandoz, requested closing week that Nebraska screen who made the drugs it could use to execute Moore.

    But a pass judgement on dominated he would not choose the case until after the execution.

    Just 3 years ago, Nebraska had abolished the death penalty. A 12 months later, it was restored after 60% of electorate supported it.

    Nebraska isn’t the first state to consider using fentanyl in an execution – specifically as drug companies proceed to withstand their merchandise getting used for dying sentences.

    In July, Nevada used to be set to make use of fentanyl in a deadly injection till a lawsuit stalled the execution amid claims that the state illegitimately got considered one of the medicine it deliberate to use.

    Scott Frakes, director of Nebraska’s Division of Correctional Services And Products cited in a sworn statement that deadly elements “are difficult, if nearly inconceivable, to obtain” in lots of death penalty states.

    Media playback is unsupported to your device

    Media caption”My child died from it”: One mum on the prescription painkiller being taken to get a high

    However to this point, the felony questions have not concerned fentanyl, the opioid at the centre of America’s opioid epidemic.

    In the u.s., it is approved as an anaesthetic and for ache aid, however because of its top profit margin for traffickers, it has change into a large a part of the u.s. opioid crisis.

    The Middle for Disease Keep Watch Over (CDC) stated that among 2015 and 2016, the velocity of drug overdose deaths within the US involving artificial opioids such as fentanyl had doubled.

    “there’s no explicit it’s because one may use fentanyl,” mentioned Robert Dunham, government director of the nonprofit Loss Of Life Penalty Data Middle.

    “No One has used it sooner than, and we have now had loads and hundreds of executions by means of injection. that implies that the state is the use of fentanyl because it can get its arms on it,” he instructed the Washington Publish.

    in line with the Omaha International-Bring In, Nebraska has 11 last prisoners on loss of life row.

    Before Moore, Nebraska’s last execution used to be in 1997, using the electric chair.

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  • Killer whale mom after all we could lifeless infant calf move, after 17 days

    Mother whale seen support dead calf Symbol copyright Ken Balcomb, Center for Whale Research Image caption Whale J35 is observed here earlier helping her lifeless calf

    A killer whale has stopped carrying her useless child calf after no less than 17 days, by which she covered 1,000 miles (1,600km), scientists say.

    The whale “vigorously chased a college of salmon together with her pod-friends in Haro Strait” off Canada’s Vancouver Island, The Center for Whale Analysis said.

    “Her excursion of grief is now over and her behaviour is remarkably frisky.”

    Killer whales had been recognized to hold dead calves for per week, however scientists believe this mother “sets a report”.

    Killer whale spotted pushing lifeless calf for two days

    The Mummy whale – referred to as J35 – has captivated the world’s attention in the earlier few days.

    “Telephoto virtual pictures taken from shore show that this mom whale appears to be in excellent bodily situation,” CWR mentioned in a press release on Saturday.

    “The carcass has most likely sunk to the bottom of these inland marine waters of the Salish Sea between Canada and the US, and researchers may not get a possibility to inspect it for necropsy (post-mortem of an animal).”

    The Mum whale used to be first spotted carrying her dead calf on 24 July, off the shore of Vancouver Island.

    The calf is believed to have died the similar day. The explanation for demise is unknown.

    Both Canada and the u.s. record the Southern Resident killer whale as endangered. The whales depend on Chinook salmon – which have been in dramatic decline in recent years – for food.

  • Monsanto ordered to pay $289m damages in Roundup most cancers trial

    A soybean field is fumigated near Urdinarrain, Entre Rios province, Argentina, on February 8, 2018 Symbol copyright AFP Symbol caption Plants are often handled with the herbicide glyphosate

    Chemical large Monsanto has been ordered to pay $289m (£226m) damages to a man who claimed herbicides containing glyphosate had brought about his most cancers.

    In a landmark case, a Californian jury discovered that Monsanto knew its Roundup and RangerPro weedkillers have been bad and failed to warn consumers.

    It’s the primary lawsuit to head to trial alleging a glyphosate link to cancer.

    Monsanto denies that glyphosate reasons most cancers and says it intends to attraction against the ruling.

    “The jury were given it improper,” vice-president Scott Partridge said out of doors the courthouse in San Francisco.

    Symbol copyright AFP Symbol caption Dewayne Johnson (R) hugged his lawyer after hearing the verdict

    Jurors discovered on Friday that the corporate had acted with “malice” and that its weedkillers contributed “considerably” to Mr Johnson’s terminal illness.

    Following an 8-week trial, the jury ordered the agricultural multi-national to pay $250m in punitive damages along with different prices that introduced the overall determine to just about $290m.

    In an announcement after the ruling, Monsanto mentioned it was once “sympathetic to Mr Johnson and his circle of relatives” however it may “continue to vigorously protect this product, which has a 40-yr historical past of protected use and keeps to be a vital, effective and secure device for farmers and others”.

    The use of glyphosate has lengthy been controversial.

    One UN observe known as the chemical “most probably carcinogenic”, although different scientists have said it’s secure to make use of.

    Image copyright AFP Symbol caption Roundup is a well-liked brand of weedkiller