In a remarkable move by a sitting president, US President Donald Trump for the first time Thursday morning suggested delaying the presidential election over his persistent false attacks that mail-in voting would lead to the “most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history.” “With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which …
Read More »US jobless claims rise for second week, GDP falls by record 33 percent
More than 1.43 million people filed for unemployment benefits for the first time last week, according to new weekly data from the Department of Labor. It’s the second-straight week that the number has risen. The extent of the economic damage wrought by the coronavirus pandemic was further revealed on Thursday, …
Read More »Federal agents fire tear gas at Portland protesters after Oregon Gov. says they’re leaving (Videos)
Federal agents in Portland tear-gassed and kettled protesters on Wednesday night, hours after Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said the Trump administration had agreed to withdraw federal forces from the city. Around 500 people arrived in downtown Portland for a 63rd consecutive night of protests after Brown’s announcement, The Oregonian reported. …
Read More »Big Tech results move center stage after Congressional bruising
Four of the United States’ big tech firms, accounting for nearly a fifth of the S&P 500’s total value, report results on Thursday on the heels of a bruising Congressional hearing to look into alleged abuse of their global dominance. It will be the first time Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc, …
Read More »Why Trump’s tough-on-crime message is not breaking through in suburban America
As President Donald Trump’s support in the U.S. suburbs erodes amid concerns about his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, he has returned to a familiar campaign theme: trying to scare voters away from backing Democrat Joe Biden in November. From deploying federal agents to confront protesters in cities such as …
Read More »US agents in Portland to pull back, but tensions remain
The Trump administration and Oregon leaders declared victory after it was announced that U.S. agents guarding a federal courthouse during violent demonstrations in Portland will pull back, but it wasn’t clear the agreement will reduce tensions that have led to more than two months of protests. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown …
Read More »Watchdog accuses Trump campaign of hiding $170m in spending
US President Donald Trump’s re-election effort allegedly hid nearly $170m in spending from mandatory public disclosure by routing payments through companies tied to his former campaign manager, a government oversight group claimed on Tuesday. The use of firms linked to former campaign manager Brad Parscale masked the ultimate recipients of …
Read More »Barr testifies Portland protests have been ‘hijacked,’ defends federal response
“In the wake of George Floyd’s death, violent rioters and anarchists have hijacked legitimate protests to wreak senseless havoc and destruction on innocent victims,” Barr said. Attorney General William Barr faced a grilling from Democrats at a contentious congressional hearing Tuesday as he spoke about the protests following George Floyd’s …
Read More »Trump administration to undertake DACA review in new bid to end program
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration plans to allow so-called ‘Dreamer’ immigrants to renew deportation protections for a year while it reviews a Supreme Court ruling, a senior administration official said on Tuesday. The administration is preparing a fresh attempt to end the program that shields from deportation hundreds of thousands …
Read More »Six US mayors urge Congress to block Trump federal deployment
Six U.S. mayors, all Democrats, urged Congress on Monday to halt President Donald Trump’s deployment of federal forces to their cities, saying the move has escalated tensions at anti-racism protests spreading across the country. The request came on the same day the U.S. attorney for Oregon announced the arrest of …
Read More »US-China spats rattle world, prompting calls for unity
Antagonisms between the U.S. and China are rattling governments around the world, prompting a German official to warn of “Cold War 2.0” and Kenya’s president to appeal for unity to fight the coronavirus pandemic. Global trade already was depressed by two years of tariff warring between the world’s two biggest …
Read More »Oil slips on US-China tensions, rising virus cases
Oil prices edged lower on Monday as rising coronavirus cases and tensions between the United States and China pushed investors towards safe-haven assets. Brent crude LCOc1 dipped 20 cents, or 0.5%, to $43.14 a barrel by 1000 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 dropped to $41.15 a …
Read More »Biden leads in North Carolina as voters give Trump poor marks on virus, race relations
Joe Biden leads President Donald Trump by 7 points in the key swing state of North Carolina, according to a new NBC News/Marist poll, with voters also favoring Democratic Senate and gubernatorial candidates and saying by 2 to 1 that the state was right to balk at the Trump administration’s …
Read More »Shocking scenes in US as Trump calls protesters who disagree with him terrorists – Analysis
Heavily armed, unidentifiable security agents dressed in camouflage have been snatching anti-racism protesters off the streets of Portland, Oregon, and bundling them into unmarked cars, with no clear justification. They’re scenes you might expect to see in authoritarian countries, not in America. It turns out that among the hodge-podge of …
Read More »China seizes U.S. consulate in Chengdu, retaliating for Houston
China took over the premises of the U.S. consulate in the southwestern city of Chengdu on Monday, after ordering the facility to be vacated in retaliation for China’s ouster last week from its consulate in Houston, Texas. The seizure capped a dramatic escalation in tensions between the world’s two biggest …
Read More »Trump-era record | Eight in 10 Americans think country is headed in wrong direction
More Americans are pessimistic about the direction of their country than at any point during Donald Trump’s presidency, as the nation continues to struggle with the coronavirus, protests against police brutality that have at times turned violent, and a venomous presidential election that has exposed deep political divides. Roughly eight …
Read More »Explosion rocks military base near Baghdad: Iraqi military
Three explosions rocked a military compound in Baghdad Sunday, but the cause remains unclear, an Iraqi military statement said. The explosions were reported at Al-Saqr military base. A statement from the Iraqi Media Security Cell said that an ammunition warehouse belonging to the police exploded due to the high temperatures …
Read More »Moderna gets further $472 million U.S. award for coronavirus vaccine development
Moderna Inc said on Sunday it has received an additional $472 million from the U.S. government’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to support the development of its novel coronavirus vaccine. The U.S.-based drugmaker said the additional funding will support its late-stage clinical development including the expanded Phase 3 …
Read More »100 Days: Trump faces headwinds as Election Day draws near
With the November election 100 days away, more Americans say the country is heading in the wrong direction than at any previous point in Donald Trump’s presidency, putting the incumbent in a perilous position as his reelection bid against Democrat Joe Biden enters a pivotal stretch. A new poll from …
Read More »Seattle Black Lives Matter clashes spark 45 arrests, 21 police injured
Dozens were arrested and many police injured in clashes around Seattle’s biggest Black Lives Matter protest in weeks on Saturday, police said, with a renewed energy sparked by violent clashes between activists and federal agents in nearby Portland, Oregon. Police said officers used non-lethal weapons in attempts to disperse the …
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