Fed shows little appetite for bold policy change sought by TrumpAs U.S. Federal Reserve officials hone their monetary policy playbook in preparation for the next economic downturn, it appears they will eschew more controversial approaches tried by other global central banks, including one that President Donald Trump has called on the Fed to try.
U.S. diplomat says top levels of Trump administration in on Ukraine pressureA senior U.S. diplomat on Wednesday described broad involvement at the upper levels of the Trump administration in a pressure campaign against Ukraine, giving testimony that for the first time put the secretary of state and vice president at the heart of the impeachment probe against President Donald Trump.
White House: Sondland testimony 'exonerates' TrumpThe White House seized on one portion of the testimony from U.S. envoy Gordon Sondland during a House of Representatives' impeachment hearing on Wednesday and said it "completely exonerates" President Donald Trump.
Sondland's bombshell testimony blows holes in Trump's Ukraine defence- Ambassador to EU testifies as House impeachment hearing
- Sondland: 'We followed the president's orders'
A star witness at the impeachment inquiry has delivered a devastating blow to Donald Trump, testifying about the existence of a quid pro quo with Ukraine and insisting: "We followed the president's orders."Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the European Union, stunned Washington with bombshell evidence that blew a hole in the White House's defences, implicated numerous senior officials and left the US president facing probable impeachment. Continue reading...
Prince Andrew to step back from public duties 'for foreseeable future'Duke of York issues statement amid criticism over relationship with Jeffrey EpsteinThe Queen has given permission for Prince Andrew to "step back from public duties for the foreseeable future" after days of mounting pressure following his unrepentant interview with the BBC about his friendship with the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.The Duke of York also said he was "willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations if required" over the US probe into Epstein. Continue reading...
Boris Johnson lets slip manifesto pledge to cut national insurancePM's apparent blunder over £12,500 threshold could benefit him amid 'factchecking' row Boris Johnson has said he wants to raise the national insurance threshold to £12,500, letting slip a major Tory tax cut from the manifesto as he was speaking to workers in Teesside.The prime minister blurted out the key announcement as he was pressed by an employee at a fabrication yard about whether he would help "people like us", not just the rich. Continue reading...
'What happened was a massacre': grief and rage in Bolivia after day of deadly violenceEight young Bolivians were killed in El Alto on Tuesday, and locals say the interim government of Jeanine Áñez is to blameTears filled Primitivo Quisbert's bloodshot eyes as he contemplated his son's swollen, lifeless face - and why someone else's struggle for political supremacy had condemned his child to an early grave."It's so painful, señor. So very painful," the 61-year-old carpenter sobbed. "Just look at what they have done to my boy." Continue reading...
'We couldn't hesitate': escaping Hong Kong's university siegePeople trapped inside campus are using increasingly desperate measures to escapeYanny Man, 23, had no time to think about it before crawling over the ledge of a bridge, eight metres high, grabbing a rope and pushing off toward the ground below.Behind her people shouted: "Just go, just go!" Police trying to stop them had paused from shooting teargas and were very likely to fire again. Continue reading...
Police investigating Caruana Galizia murder arrest businessman on yachtMaltese journalist was killed by car bomb on Mediterranean island in 2017A prominent Maltese businessman has been arrested onboard his yacht as it was heading out to sea, in an operation linked to the murder of the Maltese anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.Armed forces personnel boarded a vessel at about 5.30am on Wednesday and detained Yorgen Fenech. Continue reading...
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Bolivia in crisis after 'coup' against president Evo Morales, who had been president of Bolivia for 14 years, resigned last week amid allegations he fixed an election. In his absence, the country is teetering on the brink of violence and authoritarianism.
Lawyer for NSC Adviser Vindman Sends Letter to Fox Demanding Retraction of 'Espionage' Allegation A lawyer for Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman sent a letter to Fox News on Wednesday demanding the network either retract or issue a correction for a segment of the The Ingraham Angle, in which guest John Yoo, a former top lawyer in the Bush administration, seemed to suggest that Vindman might be guilty of espionage.Vindman, who listened to the July 25 phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky that forms part of the impeachment probe, testified in House hearings on Tuesday regarding the matter. Vindman is a long-serving military officer whose family fled Soviet Ukraine when he was three years old.During the October 28 airing of "The Ingraham Angle," host Laura Ingraham speculated on Vindman's motives for testifying."Here we have a U.S. national security official who is advising Ukraine, while working inside the White House, apparently against the president's interest," Ingraham said. "Isn't that kind of an interesting angle on this story?""I found that astounding," Yoo responded. "Some people might call that espionage.""LTC Vindman and his family have been forced to examine options, including potentially moving onto a military base, in order to ensure their physical security in the face of threats rooted in the falsehood that Fox News originated," Vindman's lawyer David Pressman wrote.Pressman noted that espionage is a crime punishable by death, and that Vindman "had never in his decorated 20-year career of service to his country been accused of having dual loyalties or committing espionage."A spokeswoman for Fox News said she had no immediate comment when asked by the New York Times.Yoo wrote an op-ed in USA Today after the segment aired in which he clarified that he meant Ukraine may have committed an espionage operation, but that he didn't accuse Vindman specifically of espionage.Pressman wrote in his letter that "Mr. Yoo's argument that he did not intend to accuse LTC of Vindman of 'espionage' - that he was accusing the nation of Ukraine instead - is as legally irrelevant as it is factually incredible."
Seller of bullets to Las Vegas gunman pleads guilty to ammo licensing offense Douglas Haig, 57, of Mesa, Arizona, became the first and only person arrested and charged in connection with the Oct. 1, 2017, massacre, which ended when the gunman, Stephen Paddock, killed himself. Haig told reporters following his arrest early last year that none of the surplus military ammunition he sold to Paddock in September 2017 was ever fired during the killing spree, which ranks as the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
Son of former German president stabbed to death in Berlin The son of former German president Richard von Weizsaecker was stabbed to death while he was giving a lecture at a hospital in Berlin where he worked as a head physician, police said Wednesday. A 57-year-old German man is in custody after he jumped up from the audience at the Schlosspark-Klinik and attacked Fritz von Weizsaecker with a knife on Tuesday evening. Von Weizsaecker died at the scene from a knife wound to the neck despite immediate attention from colleagues, said Martin Steltner, a spokesman for Berlin prosecutors.
Two more government officials testify in impeachment inquiryAfter explosive morning testimony directly linking President Donald Trump to an alleged "quid pro quo" in Ukraine, two government officials will tell lawmakers what they knew about the "quo" -- US security assistance -- as well as the circumstances surrounding its holdup.
Five takeaways from Gordon Sondland's bombshell testimonyUS Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland changed the course of the House impeachment inquiry Wednesday, over the span of several hours front of the House Intelligence Committee with the television cameras rolling for a global audience.
Legal analyst: Trump's defenses are almost entirely goneIn case there was any remaining doubt, US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland's testimony at the impeachment hearings on Wednesday put to rest two mainstays of the Republican battery of defenses for President Donald Trump: That the investigation was not based on firsthand information, and that there was "no quid pro quo."
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