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February 28, 2019 ,

U.S. Seeks UN Security Council Vote on New Venezuela ResolutionThe resolution, which would likely face a Russian veto, stresses “the need to prevent further deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Venezuela and to facilitate unhindered access and delivery of assistance to all in need,” according to a draft of the text obtained by Bloomberg. Violence has raged along Venezuela’s borders as National Assembly leader Juan Guaido and his supporters -- which include the U.S. and 50 other nations -- amassed supplies at entry points in Colombia and Brazil.




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February 28, 2019 ,

Why Do Some People Wish the Attack on Smollett Happened?The reactions of many on the left to the case of Jussie Smollett prove two important things: 1. There is little racism in America. 2. The Left -- white and black -- is morally and psychologically impaired.There is no doubt that most Americans on the left, including black Americans, are distraught over the fact that Smollett faked the “racist” attack on him. Apparently leftists, Democratic leaders, and, most depressingly, many of his fellow blacks wish Smollett had been attacked by white racist homophobes.Representative Eric Swalwell (D., Calif.), a white leftist, tweeted, “I hope this was not something that Mr. Smollett did to himself, or created.”Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart told MSNBC there has been “an atmosphere of menace and hate” since Donald Trump was elected president, which made “people want to believe” Smollett’s story. Exactly. Capehart, a black leftist, wanted to believe that racists yelling “This is MAGA country” beat up blacks.Another black leftist who writes hate columns for the Washington Post, Nana Efua Mumford, wrote: “I wanted to believe Smollett. I really did.” Again, exactly. Mumford wanted to believe that racists yelling “This is MAGA country” beat up blacks.Corey Townsend, the social-media editor of The Root, a black-oriented website (founded in 2008 by Harvard black-studies scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr.), opened his column on his private doubts that Smollett was attacked as he claimed with the words, “I wanted to be wrong.” Three paragraphs later: “But still, I wanted to be wrong.”This should tell you a great deal about how morally and psychologically sick the Left is. And their reactions prove how little racism there really is in America.Here’s the proof of both these assertions: When American Jews, even most left-wing Jews, heard of the mass killing of Jews at a Pittsburgh synagogue, how many were hoping the shooter was truly an anti-Semite, and how many were hoping he was a mentally deranged individual who could have just as easily shot up a church? Or, if a well-known Jew had been beaten at 2 a.m. on a Chicago street, how many American Jews would have wanted the attackers to be Jew-haters, and how many would have wished they were just thugs who wanted money?As a Jew who has been deeply involved in Jewish culture all my life, I am pretty certain the majority of Jews -- certainly liberal and conservative Jews, and even most left-wing Jews -- would have wished that neither the Pittsburgh synagogue nor the theoretical attack on a Chicago street I conjured up were perpetrated by anti-Semites.Why is that? Why do almost all Jews wish attackers of Jews not be anti-Semites, but so many blacks and so many white leftists wish Smollett had been attacked by racists?Because Jews want to believe there is little anti-Semitism in America while most black leftists and most white leftists want to believe there is a lot of racism in America.And why is that? Because the Left and many American blacks are politically and personally dependent on one of the greatest mass libels in history -- namely, that America is a racist country. If just one one of five black Americans woke up tomorrow and announced, “You know, this a great country for anyone, including a black person, to live in, and the truth is the vast majority of white Americans bear no ill will toward blacks (or any other race or ethnicity),” that would end the Democrats’ chances of winning national elections. The Democratic party is dependent on nearly universal black acceptance of the leftist libel of America.And what about the personal? Why do so many black Americans, living in the freest country for all its citizens -- and in the least-racist multiracial, multiethnic country in history -- want to believe America is racist? That is one of the most important questions all Americans need to address at this time.And there is another one, which I posed in my column last week: Does the Left believe its own lies?




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February 28, 2019 ,

Trump's ex-fixer Cohen to offer new Russia details to Congress: sourceAs Special Counsel Robert Mueller appears to near the end of his probe into whether Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election in collusion with Trump's campaign, Cohen's assertion that Trump was inquiring about the skyscraper project as late as June 2016, if true, would show Trump remained personally engaged in the venture well into his candidacy. Cohen was set to offer lawmakers new information about Trump's private affairs over three consecutive days of in-depth discussion with congressional committees that began on Tuesday with a closed hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee. The focus of the session, which lasted for roughly 9 hours, was mainly on what Cohen knows about Trump's dealings with Russia, as well as about Cohen's previous lies, two congressional sources said.




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February 28, 2019 ,

Trump erupts over explosive Michael Cohen testimony calling president a 'racist conman'Donald Trump has responded angrily to reports his former lawyer will testify that he is a racist conman, claiming Michael Cohen's allegations are an attempt to reduce his prison time. The president's former attorney is expected to tell the House oversight committee on Wednesday he is a "racist, a conman and a cheat" and that he was negotiating a business deal in Russia on his client's behalf during the 2016 presidential election. Mr Trump's claim Cohen was merely "one of many lawyers" - an apparent attempt to distance himself from the 52-year-old - is in stark contrast to a 2012 tweet in which he described Mr Cohen as his EVP (executive vice president).




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February 28, 2019 ,

Australian Cardinal Pell convicted of molesting 2 choirboysMELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The most senior Catholic cleric ever charged with child sex abuse has been convicted of molesting two choirboys moments after celebrating Mass, dealing a new blow to the Catholic hierarchy's credibility after a year of global revelations of abuse and cover-up.




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February 28, 2019 ,

Trump-Kim summit: North Korea leader arrives in Vietnam to red carpet reception ahead of talksKim Jong-un has rolled into Hanoi in an armoured limousine ahead of talks with Donald Trump in the Vietnamese capital. The North Korean leader had earlier received a red-carpet reception amid tight security following a 65-hour, 2,500-mile journey from Pyongyang in a bulletproof train. After disembarking at Dong Dang rail station, close to Vietnam’s border with China, he walked past a guard of honour before climbing into his personal Mercedes limousine on Tuesday morning.




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February 28, 2019 ,

Pennsylvania teen found alive after five family members murderedA teen whose mother and twin 9-year-old sisters were among five family members killed in their Pennsylvania home was staying at a friend's house at the time of the murders and is safe, officials said on Tuesday. Joshua Campbell, 17, was not at home when his aunt Shana Decree, 45, and her daughter Dominique Decree, 19, are alleged to have murdered five relatives in their apartment in Morrisville, about 30 miles (50 km) northeast of Philadelphia, Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub said. After police found the bodies on Monday, relatives of the victims said they had begged authorities for weeks to check on Shana Decree due to concerns she might have fallen under the influence of a fringe religious group.




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February 28, 2019 ,

Apple self-driving car layoffs give hints to division's directionThe tech firm said in a filing with state regulators that it planned to lay off people from eight different Santa Clara County facilities near its Cupertino, California, headquarters, as of April 16. A company spokesman confirmed that the reduction was from the self-driving car program. Among those laid off were at least two dozen software engineers, including a machine learning engineer, and 40 hardware engineers, according to a letter sent by Apple to California employment regulators earlier this month.




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February 28, 2019 ,

Q&A: What's at stake as India-Pakistan tensions rise?ISLAMABAD (AP) — Nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan face their worst tension in years over the disputed region of Kashmir, with Islamabad saying they shot down two Indian warplanes Wednesday and captured a pilot. Pakistan, which previously said it captured two pilots, immediately shut down its civilian airspace in response.




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February 28, 2019 ,

Ocasio-Cortez – 'who actually worked for wages' - rebukes Ivanka TrumpAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez described her experience ‘as a person who actually worked for tips and hourly wages’. Without calling her out outright, the Democratic freshman congresswoman and Twitter wonder Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Tuesday rebuked the first daughter Ivanka Trump for sounding off on something she could never truly understand: working for a living wage. Describing her expertise “as a person who actually worked for tips and hourly wages”, Ocasio-Cortez essentially pointed out that Ivanka Trump has never had to work a minimum wage job in her life and that her comments on the Green New Deal jobs guarantee rang hollow.




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February 28, 2019 ,

US Denied Tens of Thousands More Visas in 2018 Because of Travel BanTens of thousands more visas were denied in 2018 than previously because of President Trump's travel ban on certain countries, according to data released Tuesday.According to Reuters, the State Department said it rejected over 37,000 visa applications last year because of the travel ban restrictions, many times more than the 1,000 blocked in 2017, before the ban kicked in completely.The ban mostly affects the Muslim-majority countries Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. Visas issued to those countries are down 80 percent since 2016. About 14,600 visas were granted to applicants from those five countries from October, 2017 to September, 2018, down from the 72,000 approved the year before.The ban also restricted visas for those from Venezuela and North Korea.Last year, the government rejected 15,384 applications for immigrant (permanent resident) visas because of the ban, as well as 21,645 short-term visit applications.After Trump announced the ban in January, 2017, citing terrorism concerns from the countries listed in the order, it faced challenges in several federal courts over whether the ban was illegally discriminatory against Muslims. The administration tweaked the order, and the Supreme Court approved the implementation of most of it in December, 2017. The Court upheld the current version of the ban last summer.The U.S. denies close to 4 million visa applications every year for a laundry list of reasons, including criminal activity and not qualifying for the particular visa sought.




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February 28, 2019 ,

Nigeria's Buhari wins second term as presidentBuhari secured 56 percent of votes, compared with 41 percent for Atiku, a candidate for the People's Democratic Party (PDP). Buhari faces a daunting to-do list, including reviving an economy still struggling to recover from a 2016 recession and quelling a decade-old Islamist insurgency that has killed thousands of people in the northeast, many of them civilians. Addressing supporters at the campaign headquarters of his All Progressive Congress (APC) party in the capital Abuja, he promised to tackle these issues.




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February 28, 2019 ,

Why the Robert Kraft Bust MattersRobert Kraft’s name will now long be associated with one of the most despicable scourges of modern life, and rightly so.The New England Patriots owner is charged with soliciting prostitution at a Florida massage parlor busted as part of a sex-trafficking ring. Kraft denies it, although the police in Jupiter, Florida, say they have video evidence.The charges against him, and two other high-flying men from the financial world, represent an important front in the fight against sex trafficking. Authorities should be doing everything they can to crack down on the supply of trafficked women — via the networks that often import them to the U.S. and force them into prostitution — but also exacting a price from the men who constitute the demand.As Donna Hughes of the University of Rhode Island has written in support of a perpetrator-focused approach to sex trafficking: “The men who purchase the sex acts remain nameless, faceless, and uncharacterized. They are not stigmatized the way that ‘prostitutes’ are. Yet, the men, the buyers of commercial sex acts, are the ultimate consumers of trafficked women and children. They use them for entertainment and sexual gratification, and often perpetrate acts of violence against them.”To their credit, authorities undertook a monthslong investigation of the Orchids of Asia spa, where strangely the only customers were male, and dozens of similar operations. They placed cameras inside and charged hundreds of men. (The agency that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other progressives want to abolish, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, assisted on the case.)The Orchids of Asia spa was in an unremarkable strip mall in a tony area of Florida, neighbors with other businesses including an Outback Steakhouse and a surf shop. Beneath the veneer of normality there existed a sink of degradation.The women were lured from China with promises of legitimate work and then trapped in a life of sexual slavery. They were working to pay off debts incurred traveling to the United States. Some of them had their passports confiscated. There was no choice and no escape from a nightmarish existence that makes a mockery of the glamorous image of prostitution in much of the popular culture and belies the term “sex worker.”Sex with up to a thousand men a year. No change of clothes. Sleep on massage tables. Food from hot plates at the back of the parlor. Moved around from one parlor to the next as pawns of the traffickers.And this is a major business. According to the anti-trafficking group Polaris, the country’s 9,000 illicit massage parlors make $2.5 billion a year.They are such a lucrative industry only because the Robert Krafts of the world are patrons. He is a billionaire, famous and the owner of one of the most successful franchises in sports. He presumably has access to women, indeed dates an actress and dancer nearly 40 years younger than he is. He doesn’t have to go to a strip-mall massage parlor for sex.Except that it’s impossible to find women who are so thoroughly disposable as those compelled to perform sex acts at the likes of the Orchids of Asia spa. The commercial transaction lent a veneer of consent to a sexual exchange where only one party was exercising volition — the men who showed up, paid $100 or $200 and then went on their way.They are the appropriate target of law enforcement. In Illinois, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart has been a national leader in making it a priority to go after the buyers of sex, while offering help to prostitutes.It will, of course, never be possible to end demand for trafficked women. But as with domestic violence, the law can be used as a tool of social disapproval to change how the culture regards prostitution, achieving clarity on who are the victims and the victimizers. Everyone who availed themselves of the Orchids of Asia spa, not just the monsters profiting from it, is the latter.© 2019 by King Features Syndicate




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February 28, 2019 ,

UK PM May proposes votes on no-deal exit and Brexit delay if her deal rejected: TelegraphLONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May is proposing that parliament votes on whether to leave the European Union without a deal or delay Brexit if her exit deal fails to win parliamentary approval, a Daily Telegraph reporter said on Twitter. "The PM (Prime Minister) has said there will be a three line whip on an amendable motion tomorrow that will commit to two votes on March 12th in the event that her deal fails," Telegraph reporter Steven Swinford wrote, citing details of an ongoing cabinet meeting. ...




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February 28, 2019 ,

Ocasio-Cortez – 'who actually worked for wages' - rebukes Ivanka TrumpAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez described her experience ‘as a person who actually worked for tips and hourly wages’. Without calling her out outright, the Democratic freshman congresswoman and Twitter wonder Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Tuesday rebuked the first daughter Ivanka Trump for sounding off on something she could never truly understand: working for a living wage. Describing her expertise “as a person who actually worked for tips and hourly wages”, Ocasio-Cortez essentially pointed out that Ivanka Trump has never had to work a minimum wage job in her life and that her comments on the Green New Deal jobs guarantee rang hollow.




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February 28, 2019 ,

GOP Rep.: Michael Cohen Is a ‘Fake Witness’ and His Testimony Is a ‘Travesty’Representative Mark Green (R., Tenn.) labeled President Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen a “fake witness” during Cohen's appearance before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday and suggested there was no value to hearing the testimony of a proven liar.“Ladies and gentlemen, how on earth is this witness credible?” Green asked. “With all the lies and deception, the self-serving fraud. It begs the question: What is the majority party doing here? No one can see this guy as credible. He will say whatever he wants to accomplish his own personal goals. He’s a fake witness. His presence here is a travesty.”Green criticized Representative Elijah Cummings (D., Md.), the chairman of the Oversight Committee, for restricting the topics that lawmakers are permitted to question Cohen about, listing each approved topic and arguing in detail that Cohen's testimony on those matters lacked credibility.“Mr. Chairman the first topic in your limited scope that I can ask Mr. Cohen is about the president's debts. But Mr. Chairman, didn't Mr. Cohen plead guilty to lying to banks about his personal finances? So we're asking a guy going to jail for lying about his debts to comment about the president's debts. He's the expert,” Green said.Cohen pled guilty to bank-fraud charges in August after admitting he lied to a number of financial institutions regarding his outstanding debt in order to secure personal loans. He was sentenced to serve three years in prison in December on those charges as well as the additional charge of lying to Congress, which he pled guilty to in November.Republican lawmakers sought to discredit Cohen throughout his Wednesday testimony, frequently challenging him to explain how the financial crimes he committed to protect his personal assets benefited President Trump, refuting Cohen's defense that he acted immorally “out of blind loyalty” to the president.




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February 28, 2019 ,

Pakistan 'captures Indian pilot after shooting down two jets in dogfight over Kashmir'Two planes shot down over Kashmir border Pakistan claims to have two pilots held Sources: jets shot down in 'four-on-four' dogfight Both countries dispute each other's claims Analysis: Pakistan and India need help climbing down, or risk another war over Kashmir ​ Pakistan has claimed to have shot down two Indian jets and captured a pilot after a dogfight over Kashmir, igniting fears of an all-out conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours.  Tensions remain high on the Asian Subcontinent where tens of thousands of Indian and Pakistani soldiers face off along the disputed Kashmir boundary. There are competing claims regarding the exact details of what has taken place, but Pakistan's Major General Asif Ghafoor said a pilot was in Army custody. Pakistan had earlier said it was holding two pilots. Ghafoor said the jets had been shot down after Pakistani planes earlier Wednesday flew across the Line of Control, the de facto border in disputed Kashmir, to the Indian side in a show of strength, hitting non-military targets including supply depots. Although this version of events is disputed by India, the Pakistani official said: "The Pakistan Air Force was ready, they took them on, there was an engagement. As a result both the Indian planes were shot down and the wreckage of one fell on our side while the wreckage of the other fell on their side." Pulwama suicide attack - Map Initially, the Indian Air Force (IAF) denied Pakistani claims, despite videos of the two pilots in Pakistani captivity being broadcast by state media. The IAF is also decried claims that two Indian fighter aircraft had been shot down. But later on Wednesday a foreign ministry official told a press conference in Delhi that there was an "aerial engagement", conceding just one Indian jet was shot down.  IAF sources said that there were four Pakistani F-16 fighters against four IAF MiG-21 Bison combat aircraft and the dogfight happened in a chase. The four Pakistani fighters are believed to have tried attacking an ammunition dump at Nowshera near the Line of Control in Kashmir, when they were chased by four Indian planes. India claims it has also shot down one of the Pakistani fighter jets.  The incident is the latest in a dangerous sequence of events between the two countries, whose ties have been under intense strain since a February 14 suicide bombing in Indian Kashmir that killed 40 troops. Islamabad insisted the latest move was in self defence and officials said strikes had been taken at non-military targets avoiding civilian casualties. Ghafoor said: "We do not want escalation, we do not want to go towards war," at a press conference in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, calling for talks with New Delhi. Pakistan closed its airspace Wednesday, "until further notice", the civil aviation authority and the military said. A military spokesman said the decision had been taken "due to the environment". How did we get here? The claim came a little over 24 hours after Delhi said it had struck a Jaish-e-Mohammad training camp near Balakot where it said militants were preparing for imminent terrorist attacks. Islamabad had denied any camp was struck, but on Tuesday warned India to prepare for a surprise and vowed a "befitting" response at a time and place of its choosing. In a statement headed "Pakistan strikes back", the foreign ministry said the action was not retaliation " to continued Indian belligerence". "Pakistan has therefore, taken strikes at non military target, avoiding human loss and collateral damage. Sole purpose being to demonstrate our right, will and capability for self defence.  Pakistani soldiers stand next to what Pakistan says is the wreckage of an Indian fighter jet shot down in Pakistan controled Kashmir at Somani area in Bhimbar district Credit: AFP A spokesman for Pakistan's military said that Indian jets had then crossed the line of control and the Pakistan air forces had gone on to shoot two of them down inside Pakistani airspace. "One of the aircraft fell inside Azad Jammu and Kashmir, while other fell inside Indian Occupied Kashmir. One Indian pilot arrested by troops on ground while two in the area," said Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor. There was no immediate response from Delhi, but Indian media did report an Indian air force jet crashed in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Wednesday morning. Delhi said on Tuesday it had said it had struck a pre-emptive blow against the Pakistan-based militant group it blames for a suicide bomb that killed at least 40 paramilitary police in Kashmir earlier this month. The force of jets destroyed a hilltop training camp near Balakot where Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) jihadists were preparing an imminent attack, the country's foreign minister said. But Pakistan dismissed that claim as “fictitious” and “self-serving”, saying its own jets had intercepted the raiding force and seen it off. Pakistan's military said the Indian jets dropped their payload of bombs “in haste” as they fled and they caused no damage after landing in deserted forest. Indian soldiers gesture near the remains of an Indian Air Force helicopter after it crashed in Budgam district, outside Srinagar on February 27, 2019 Credit: Tauseef Mustafa/AFP Villagers near Balakot said they had been woken by jets and four blasts in an area close to a JeM madrassa. But they denied heavy casualties and said the damage was largely to trees. One person was wounded. "We saw trees fallen down and one house damaged and four craters where the bombs had fallen," said Mohammad Ajmal, a 25-year-old who visited the site told Reuters. Another neighbour, who declined to be named, said JeM ran a nearby Islamic school. An Indian attack had been widely predicted as Narendra Modi faced domestic outrage over the bomb attack in Pulwama blamed on JeM. A history of trouble Pakistan has long been accused of harbouring and supporting militant groups as tools of its foreign policy in India, Kashmir and Afghanistan. JeM is a primarily anti-India group that forged ties with al Qaeda and has been on a UN terrorist list since 2001. India says the JeM was also behind the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament and on an Indian air force base in 2016. Pakistan denies any involvement in the Pulwama attack and has challenged Delhi to deliver actionable intelligence on who carried out the attack. Indian and Pakistan: timeline of a testy relationship Western diplomats now fear any counter retaliation by Pakistan could dangerously escalate the stand-off and trigger an international crisis. One diplomat said both sides must try to carefully measure their action to satisfy domestic nationalist fervour, while not provoking all out war. However with an Indian general election only weeks away, Mr Modi had come under intense pressure to act. As news channels on both sides of the border became increasingly bellicose, a Pakistani military spokesman even alluded to its nuclear arsenal, highlighting the escalation in hostile rhetoric. Indian soldiers and Kashmiri onlookers stand near the remains of an Indian Air Force helicopter after it crashed in Budgam district Credit: Tauseef Mustafa/AFP The spokesman said a command and control authority meeting, which decides over the use of nuclear weapons, had been convened for Wednesday, adding: "You all know what that means." The Indian strike 30 miles from the frontier was thought to be the first strike inside its neighbour's territory since their 1971 war. Indian military sources said 12 French Mirage 2000 fighters crossed the line of control dividing the adversaries in Kashmir on their raid into Pakistani territory at around 3.15am local time. Accompanied by an airborne early warning and control aircraft and a mid-air re-fueller, the Mirages reportedly employed 1,000kg precision guided munitions to hit their targets in a mission that lasted a few minutes. Kashmir: why the tension?  The Kashmir dispute dates from 1947. The partition of the Indian sub-continent along religious lines led to the formation of India and Pakistan. However, there remained the problem of over 650 states, run by princes, existing within the two newly independent countries. In theory, these princely states had the option of deciding which country to join, or of remaining independent. In practice, the restive population of each province proved decisive. As a result, both India and Pakistan control parts of Kashmir, but claim it in its entirety and have fought two wars over Kashmir since Partition in 1947. Where do we go now? Pakistan have claimed the two pilots are being treated well, according to its state media.  One is in hospital and one has been arrested, but there are question marks over where this tit-for-tat will go next.  Islamabad has said it does not want to escalate the situation to a full-blown war - a sentiment echoed by those around the world.  China is renewing calls for Pakistan and India to take steps to avoid a further deterioration of ties following the latest flare-up. Indian army soldiers arrive near the wreckage of an Indian aircraft after it crashed in Budgam area Credit: Mukhtar Khan/AP Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told reporters at a daily briefing on Wednesday that "both Pakistan and India are important countries in the subcontinent of South Asia." He added that China hopes "they will keep in mind the regional peace and stability, exercise restraint, take effective measures to strengthen dialogue, and maintain two sides' fundamental interests and the regional peace and stability." Lu also said: "We hope they will avoid deterioration of the situation." China is longstanding close ally and arms supplier to Pakistan, but has also sought better ties with its southern neighbor and Asian rival India. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also urged the two countries to exercise restraint and avoid escalation at any cost, and said in a statement he had spoken to foreign ministers from Indian and Pakistan to "encourage both ministers to prioritise direct communication and avoid further military activity."  Sign up for your essential, twice-daily briefing from The Telegraph with our free Front Page newsletter.




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February 28, 2019 ,

Republican Harris will not run again after tainted U.S. House electionHarris attributed his decision to health concerns. The unanimous vote by North Carolina's bipartisan elections board followed four days of evidence showing an operative for Harris' campaign had orchestrated a ballot fraud scheme in the state's 9th Congressional District. Harris, a pastor who previously edged out then-incumbent Republican Congressman Robert Pittenger in a close primary, had sought for months to fend off a general election rerun.




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February 28, 2019 ,

Michael Cohen testimony: Trump said black people were 'too stupid' to vote for him, former lawyer to claim in explosive racism allegationsDonald Trump is a racist whose prejudice is “even worse” in private than his public outbursts suggest, the president’s former lawyer Michael Cohen is due to say in explosive testimony before Congress. “Mr Trump is a racist.




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February 28, 2019 ,

House advances bill rejecting Trump's border wall emergencyBy a vote of 229-193, the House agreed to move to final debate and a vote later on Tuesday on passing the resolution. Passage, which is expected, would set up a vote in the Republican-controlled Senate where the resolution's chances were slimmer, but seemed to be improving. Republican Senator John Barrasso, a member of the Senate's leadership, told MSNBC in an interview that the legislation "may actually pass the Senate." Following a closed meeting of Republican senators and Vice President Mike Pence, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to predict the outcome, including whether senators ultimately could override a Trump veto.




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February 28, 2019 ,

Manafort sentencing hearing rescheduled to March 7: court filingA federal judge in Virginia rescheduled the sentencing hearing for Paul Manafort, the former chairman of U.S. President Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, to March 7, according to a court filing on Tuesday. It was not immediately clear why the sentencing hearing was rescheduled from March 8. Manafort was convicted in August of eight charges of bank and tax fraud as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.




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February 28, 2019 ,

Democrats on oversight panel to quiz ex-Trump lawyer Cohen on hush money payments: memoCohen will be asked in the House of Representatives Oversight Committee about his decade of work as Trump's personal lawyer and self-described "fixer" before he pleaded guilty to crimes last year and turned on his former boss. A Democratic staff memo outlining plans for the hearing said Trump's lawyers "appeared to provide false information" to federal ethics officials about whether Trump reimbursed Cohen for hush payments made to a former adult film star known as Stormy Daniels, who said she had sex with Trump in 2006. The White House had no immediate comment on the Democrats' assertions on Tuesday.




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February 28, 2019 ,

Elon Musk could face contempt charge over latest controversial tweetTesla boss Elon Musk could be held in contempt if a tweet is found to have violated a settlement deal agreed last year. US stock market regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has asked a court in New York to hold the chief executive in contempt for violating a $40m (£30m) settlement he reached five months ago. Now the US financial regulator is alleging that Mr Musk broke the terms of that agreement with a tweet on 19 February which showed an aerial photo of thousands of new Tesla vehicles and said the company would make about 500,000 cars in 2019.




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February 28, 2019 ,

Cohen, Jim Jordan Clash Repeatedly During Testimony: ‘Shame on You’Michael Cohen's testimony before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday saw several heated exchanges between Cohen and the Committee's ranking Republican, Jim Jordan, who called Cohen -- President Trump's former personal lawyer -- a "patsy" for Democrats."The Democrats don’t care," Jordan told Cohen. "They just want to use you. You are the patsy today. They want to find someone somewhere to say something so they can remove the president."Cohen, who worked for Trump as his personal lawyer for a decade, appeared before the Committee on Wednesday after months of criticizing his former boss and cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election.He pled guilty to federal prosecutors in New York in December and was sentenced to three years in prison for financial crimes, campaign-finance violations, and lying to Congress about how deep into the 2016 campaign negotiations over a proposed deal to build a Trump Tower in Moscow continued."His remorse is nonexistent. You just debated a member of Congress saying, 'I really didn't do anything wrong with the false bank things that I'm guilty of and going to prison for,'" Jordan said during one of the most dramatic moments of the hearing."Shame on you, Mr. Jordan," Cohen shot back. "That's not what I said and you know that that's not what I said. I pled guilty and I take responsibility for my actions. Shame on you.""I am remorseful and I am going to prison," Cohen said. "I will be away from my wife and family for years, so before you turn around and cast more aspersion, please understand, there are people watching you today that know me a whole lot better. I made mistakes. I own them."A number of Republicans echoed Jordan's comments during the course of the hearing, including Georgia representative Jody Hice, who called the hearing a "shameful mockery," and Tennessee representative Mark Green, who called Cohen a "fake witness."




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February 28, 2019 ,

U.S. disrupted Russian trolls on day of November election: reportThe U.S. military disrupted the internet access of a Russian troll farm accused of trying to influence American voters on Nov. 6, 2018, the day of the congressional elections, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday. The U.S. Cyber Command strike targeted the Internet Research Agency in the Russian port city of St. Petersburg, the Post reported, citing unidentified U.S. officials. The group is a Kremlin-backed outfit whose employees had posed as Americans and spread disinformation online in an attempt to also influence the 2016 election, according to U.S. officials.




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February 28, 2019 ,

Tesla's Musk must address SEC contempt bid as he calls agency 'broken'A federal judge on Tuesday ordered Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk to explain by March 11 why he should not be held in contempt for violating his fraud settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The order by U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan came hours after the billionaire criticized SEC oversight as "broken," in the wake of the regulator's request on Monday night that he be held in contempt. Lawyers for Tesla and Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment.




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February 28, 2019 ,

US seeks vote on UN resolution to allow aid into VenezuelaUNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.S. envoy Elliott Abrams said Tuesday the Trump administration will seek a U.N. Security Council vote this week on a resolution calling for Venezuela's government to let in humanitarian aid and to hold free elections, and then sparred with Russia over possible U.S. military intervention in the politically divided country.




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