List of All Articles with Tag 'politics'

Alexia Ocasio-Cortez has threatened to quit Twitter after Elon Musk promoted a “sick” account impersonating the star Democratic politician. The New York congresswoman said that she was “assessing” what to do after the billionaire interacted with the fake account on his social media platform. “FYI there’s a fake account on here impersonating me and going viral. The Twitter CEO has engaged it, boosting visibility,” Ms Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on Tuesday. “It is releasing false policy statements and gaining spread. I am assessing with my team how to move forward. In the meantime, be careful of what you see.”

The Texas House's impeachment of state Attorney General Ken Paxton on Saturday was the latest in a string of legal woes that began shortly after the Republican was first elected in 2014.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday the “time is now” for Turkey to drop its objections to Sweden joining NATO but said the Biden administration also believed that Turkey should be provided with upgraded F-16 fighters “as soon as possible.” Blinken maintained that the administration had not linked the two issues but acknowledged that some U.S. lawmakers had. President Joe Biden implicitly linked the two issues in a phone call to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday. “I spoke to Erdogan and he still wants to work on something on the F-16s. I told him we wanted a deal with Sweden. So let’s get that done," Biden said. Still, Blinken insisted the two issues were distinct. However, he stressed that the completion of both would dramatically strengthen European security. “Both of these are vital, in our judgement, to European security,” Blinken told reporters at a joint news conference in the northern Swedish city of Lulea with Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. “We believe that both should go forward as quickly as possible; that is to say Sweden’s accession and moving forward on the F-16 package more broadly.” “We believe the time is now,” Blinken said. He declined to predict when Turkey and Hungary, the only other NATO member not yet to have ratified Sweden’s membership, would grant their approval. But, he said, “we have no doubt that it can be, it should be, and we expect it to be” completed by the time alliance leaders meet in Vilnius, Lithuania in July at an annual summit. Fresh from a strong re-election victory over the weekend, Erdogan may be willing to ease his objections to Sweden’s membership. Erdogan accuses Sweden of being too soft on groups Ankara considers to be terrorists, and a series of Quran-burning protests in Stockholm angered his religious support base — making his tough stance even more popular. Kristersson said the two sides had been in contact since Sunday’s vote and voiced no hesitancy in speaking about the benefits Sweden would bring to NATO “when we join the alliance.” Blinken is in Sweden attending a meeting of the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council and will travel to Oslo, Norway on Wednesday for a gathering of NATO foreign ministers, before going on to newly admitted alliance member Finland on Friday. Speaking in Oslo ahead of the foreign ministers' meeting, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the goal was to have Sweden inside the grouping before the leaders' summit in July. "There are no guarantees, but it’s absolutely possible to reach a solution and enable the decision on full membership for Sweden by the Vilnius summit,” Stoltenberg said. Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will kick off his White House bid in earnest on Tuesday evening in Iowa -- a state that will provide an early glimpse into whether Republican primary voters are ready to move on from former President Donald Trump.

Rosalynn Carter, the former first lady of the United States and wife of former President Jimmy Carter, has dementia, the Carter Center announced on Tuesday.

Democratic Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota signed a bill into law on Tuesday legalizing recreational marijuana use in the state.

As the probe into whether former President Donald Trump or his advisers broke the law in their retention of documents including some potentially classified material from the White House nears its end, Mr Trump’s legal team is said to be fearing disloyalty. The Daily Beast reported on Tuesday that the former president’s attorneys supposedly worry that some among them may decide to start talking to the Department of Justice, becoming witnesses in the case, as the attention of the agency turns to the actions of the legal team themselves. The probe into Mr Trump’s handling of presidential records, including classified documents, exploded into the public eye last year when FBI agents raided Mar-a-Lago, Mr Trump’s home and resort in Florida. Several current attorneys to Mr Trump who serve in varying capacities described a chaotic situation where much of the strategy is managed by Mr Trump’s in-house counsel, Boris Epshteyn, and clashing personalities have led to a toxic environment — all of which is occurring as the Justice Department’s special counsel is said to be closing in on a decision regarding potential criminal charges in the case. More follows... Read More Ivanka and Jared split over attending Trump 2024 launch – follow live Why was Donald Trump impeached twice during his first term? Four big lies Trump told during his 2024 presidential announcement

President Joe Biden will welcome BritishPrime Minister Rishi Sunak to the White House for an Official Working Visit next week on 8 June, the White House has said. In a statement, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Mr Biden “looks forward” to meeting with the Prime Minister to “further deepen the close and historic partnership between the United States and the United Kingdom”. Ms Jean-Pierre said the bilateral session will follow up on recent meetings between Mr Biden and Mr Sunak, who last saw each other at the G7 summit in Japan earlier this month. She added that the US and UK leaders “will review a range of global issues, including their steadfast support for Ukraine as it defends itself against Russia’s brutal war of aggression, as well as further action to bolster energy security and address the climate crisis,” and “discuss efforts to continue strengthening our economic relationship as we confront shared economic and national security challenges”. The White House spokesperson also said Mr Biden and Mr Sunak will “review developments in Northern Ireland as part of their shared commitment to preserving the gains of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement”. A spokesperson for the Prime Minister said the two men would spend their time together “build[ing] on discussions the Prime Minister and President Biden have had in recent months about enhancing the level of co-operation and co-ordination between the UK and US on the economic challenges that will define our future, including securing our supply chains and transitioning to zero-carbon economies”. “It will also be an opportunity to discuss issues including sustaining our support for Ukraine as we build on the success of our G7 summit in the run-up to the Nato summit in July,” the spokesperson added. Mr Sunak’s visit to the White House will come during the second half of what will be a two-day visit to the US capital, during which he will also meet with top Congressional leaders and business figures. He last visited the US in March when he travelled to San Diego for a meeting with Mr Biden and Australian leader Anthony Albanese regarding the Aukus agreement to supply Australia with nuclear-powered submarines. The Prime Minister and the US President also met in Belfast in April, and will meet again at the Nato leaders’ summit in Lithuania this summer. Read More Biden marks eighth anniversary of son Beau’s death from brain cancer at memorial Mass AP News Digest 9:30 a.m. Sunak to visit Washington DC for talks with Joe Biden

President Joe Biden marked Tuesday’s eighth anniversary of one of the saddest days of his life, the death of his son Beau, by attending a memorial Mass and visiting his gravesite. Mr Biden, his wife, Jill, and other family members prayed for Beau Biden during the Mass at St Joseph on the Brandywine, the Roman Catholic church where the president worships during weekends at his home near Wilmington, Delaware. Afterward, the family visited Beau Biden’s gravesite in the church cemetery. The first lady carried a bouquet of flowers. Beau Biden was 46 when he died of brain cancer in 2015. His father was vice president. The eldest of Mr Biden's three children, Beau Biden served two terms as Delaware attorney general before declaring a run for governor. Many saw in him the same aspirations that brought his father to the White House. In fact, Joe Biden often says his son is the one who should have been president — not him. Beau Biden also served in Delaware’s Army National Guard, including a deployment to Iraq, where the president says he was exposed to toxic gases from pits where the military burned waste. Mr Biden has linked his son's cancer to his exposure to burn pits. Beau Biden is the son of Joe Biden and his late first wife, Neilia, who was killed in a 1972 car crash that gravely injured Beau and younger brother Hunter, and also killed their baby sister. Beau Biden’s daughter, Natalie, graduated from high school on Sunday, with her grandparents in the audience. She will attend her father’s alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, in the fall. While Tuesday's remembrance of Beau Biden was private, the president publicly mourned his son on Monday during a Memorial Day address at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington. For Mr Biden, his son's death and the annual holiday honoring Americans who paid the ultimate sacrifice serving the United States in uniform are inextricably linked. He told the audience that Tuesday “marks eight years since we lost our son, Beau." “As it is for so many of you, the pain of his loss is with us every day, but particularly sharp on Memorial Day. It’s still clear,” Mr Biden said. “Tomorrow is his anniversary. But so is the pride Jill and I feel in his service, as if I can still hear him saying, ‘Dad -- it’s my duty, Dad. It’s my duty.’ Duty.” Read More Biden invokes late son Beau’s memory as he pays tribute to fallen US soldiers Beau Biden: The story of Joe Biden’s late son Critics say Biden is lying about how his son Beau died in Iraq – they are ignoring the full story Biden will welcome Sunak to White House next week AP News Digest 9:30 a.m. Sunak to visit Washington DC for talks with Joe Biden

Donald Trump ally Laura Loomer has provoked outrage over comments in which she described Casey DeSantis’s battle with cancer as “over-exaggerated”. Ms Loomer, a far-right anti-Muslim activist who twice ran unsuccessfully for Congress and was in 2018 banned from Twitter for “hateful conduct”, said Florida governor Ron DeSantis exaggerated his wife’s battle with cancer in a desperate attempt to woo voters. The Trump loyalist called for the release of Ms DeSantis’s medical records to prove she is not being exploited as a campaign prop for her husband’s political ambitions. Meanwhile, over the holiday weekend, Trump foe and former Republican Rep Liz Cheney spoke about the political test she faced in the immediate aftermath of January 6 during her address to graduates of Colorado College. “After the 2020 election and the attack of January 6th, my fellow Republicans wanted me to lie. They wanted me to say the 2020 election was stolen, the attack of January 6th wasn’t a big deal, and Donald Trump wasn’t dangerous,” she told students and families in her address Sunday, according to the Associated Press. “I had to choose between lying and losing my position in House leadership.” Read More Biden laughs off idea of Trump pardon after DeSantis pledges to consider it Trump has been indicted: Here are the other major lawsuits and investigations he is also facing Liz Cheney explains how GOP begged her to lie about Trump

Energy permitting reform, which aims to cut down the time it takes for new projects to get approved, could be one of the few bipartisan measures to emerge from a debt limit deal.

Allies of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie have formed a super PAC to support an expected Republican presidential bid, two sources familiar with the plans tell CNN.