Gordon Sondland, the US Ambassador at the centre of the Ukraine scandal driving the impeachment hearings, and a Trump donor and supporter, is stuck between a rock and a hard place as he faces giving testimony on Wednesday. A WH aide has testified that Sondland claimed to be acting on Trump’s orders in pushing … Read more
Marie Yovanovitch, the ousted U.S. ambassador to Ukraine said a “smear campaign” against her by the President and Rudy Giuliani, his personal lawyer, undermined U.S. national security and emboldened Russia. During impeachment proceedings she said she was “kneecapped” by corrupt interests and abandoned by State Department leaders. Trump in his usual knee-jerk fit of … Read more
The US stock market’s meteoric rise stands in sharp contrast to sagging investor confidence in the face of a worsening economic outlook. “There is a disconnect between where the market is going and where the economy is heading,” one analyst said, with the China-USA trade tiff harming US consumers and farmers more than Chinese. A … Read more
Mike Bloomberg, the billionaire former three-times mayor of New York City, is contemplating a possible 2020 presidential campaign, reversing his decision earlier in the year, though he hasn’t firmly decided yet. His concern is that the current crop of Democratic presidential candidates are not up to defeating Trump. Bloomberg is a divisive figure not least … Read more
Are Trump and Putin about to fall out of the bro-romance? It’s an intriguing notion floated by Haaretz which points to Trump’s reversal of the bring-troops-home-from-Syria order to leave some USA soldiers to guard the oil fields. Russia regards the oil as war booty and was furious, accusing the U.S. of illegal activity – … Read more
There are yowls of protest as Boris Johnson has blocked the publication of a report on alleged illicit Russian activities in Britain before the election. The inquiry by the Commons Intelligence and Security Committee is believed to have looked at claims of Moscow’s attempts to influence the Brexit campaign and Russian money going into … Read more
Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Speaker in Congress, is juggling an astonishing portfolio as she heads for her eightieth birthday next March. Spearheading the impeachment inquiry against Trump she’s also casting an anxious eye over the left-wing Democratic candidates, pointing out their liberal policies won’t win over swing voters in the Midwest states needed to defeat … Read more
Words fail me – almost. Trump has brought a ‘prosperity televangelist’ into the White House as his personal spiritual adviser. Paula White-Cain has alarmed even WH aides with her materialistic ‘if you’re rich it means God loves you’ creed. His Scottish Presbyterian mother must be revolving in her grave. Some theologians see her views … Read more
The death of the ISIS leader Baghdadi still hasn’t been confirmed by DNA corroboration but Trump is already grandstanding his final moments in graphic detail. The Kurds claim it was a joint effort with USA while Trump thanked the Russians who weren’t involved. He’s also angling to have it seen as a bigger event … Read more
(John Lewis) Elijah Cummings, a Democratic congressman widely respected on both sides of the house despite his criticism of Trump has died suddenly of long-standing health problems. He was a leading figure in the Trump-Ukraine impeachment inquiry and had a long career in Maryland politics and civil rights activism before winning a congressional seat … Read more