Democratic Rep. Joe Kennedy, 38, confirmed reports that he is considering running for Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey’s seat in 2020.

Kennedy, who’s been the congressman for Massachusetts’ 4th Congressional District since 2013, has seen local support for a potential Senate run in recent weeks.

“Over the past few weeks I’ve begun to consider a run for the U.S. Senate. This isn’t a decision I’m approaching lightly and — to be completely candid — I wasn’t expecting to share my thoughts so soon,” he wrote on Facebook Monday morning.

He went on, “I hear the folks who say I should wait my turn, but with due respect — I’m not sure this is a moment for waiting. Our system has been letting down a lot of people for a long time, and we can’t fix it if we don’t challenge it. I’ve got some ideas on how to do that. And I don’t think our democratic process promises anyone a turn.”

Earlier this month, when a Markey spokesperson was asked about the possibility of Kennedy primarying the senator, Giselle Barry, said, “Senator Markey is running for reelection no matter who enters the race. He is crisscrossing the state and will run his campaign hard every day.”

The other senator from Massachusetts is 2020 presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren. In the event she wins the 2020 general election, she would be forced to vacate her seat in the Senate. She stuck by her previous endorsement of Markey a couple weeks ago, while also calling Kennedy “an amazing reports” amid reports that the congressman could enter the race.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/joe-kennedy-confirms-reports-hes-considering-a-senate-run

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Crews are fighting an LA-area brush fire that has prompted evacuation orders in a Glendale neighborhood and nearby freeways.

The Los Angeles Fire Department says Sunday no injuries or structure damage have been reported as a result of the fire in the Eagle Rock community. The City of Glendale has issued mandatory evacuation orders for a nearby neighborhood.

KNBC-TV reported that California Highway Patrol had also closed the 134 Freeway and the 2 Freeway, and recommended people take the 210, 110 or 5 freeways instead.

Authorities say three helicopters are dropping water on the blaze.

The department said the fire has grown to roughly 96,800 square yards.

(Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Source Article from https://www.kolotv.com/content/news/LA-area-brush-fire-spurs-evacuation-orders-for-neighborhood-558310771.html

Biarritz, France — President Trump lauded his Chinese counterpart on Monday and said Beijing was actively reaching out to Washington to resume trade negotiations and “make a deal” to end a spiralling trade war. He made the remarks at a Group of Seven (G-7) summit in France with fellow world leaders, many of whom are gravely concerned about the impact of a deepening trade war between China and the U.S.

The president said Chinese officials had called “twice” over the weekend to discuss trade talks with his administration. He would not say whether he personally spoke with his counterpart Xi Jinping recently, and a Chinese official denied any knowledge of phone calls over the weekend.

“I think we’re going to have a deal, because now we’re dealing on proper terms. They understand and we understand,” Mr. Trump said. “Very big things are happening with China.”

On Friday Mr. Trump announced that his administration would boost tariffs on $550 billion in Chinese imports later this year in retaliation for China’s decision to hike trade levies on $75 billion in U.S. products. The move deepened a trade war that many fear could tip the U.S. and other global economies into recession. 

Mr. Trump praised President Xi as a “great leader” for understanding “how life works,” as he said Chinese officials had “called last night our top trade people and said let’s get back to the table.”

White House “not reflecting” view of U.S. businesses on trade, head of CEO group says

“I have great respect for it,” the president said. “This is a very positive development for the world… They want to make a deal. That’s a great thing.”

On Sunday Mr. Trump appeared to suggest that even he had misgivings about the hard line he was taking in the trade standoff with Beijing, but senior aides later insisted the president’s reference to “second thoughts” was only over whether he should have imposed even harsher tariffs.

China says U.S. “trampling” rules

Beijing did not confirm any weekend phone calls between its trade representatives and U.S. officials, and in regular remarks to reporters, a Foreign Ministry representative said he was unaware of any such phone conversations.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said China firmly opposed any new U.S. tariffs and would take “more steps” to protect its interests if they were enacted as threatened.

Geng accused the Trump administration of “trampling on multilateral trade rules, damaging the interests of China and the United States, threatening the security of the global industrial supply chain, and dragging down international trade and world economic growth” with the latest announcement of a tariff hike. 

“We have noticed that the U.S.’s escalations of trade frictions have caused widespread concern from all walks of life in the United States and the international community. We hope that the U.S. can return to rationality as soon as possible, give up wrong practices, and create conditions for the two sides to conduct consultations on the basis of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit,” Geng said.

Later Monday, pressed on the claims after Geng’s denial of any knowledge of weekend phone calls, President Trump insisted the calls had taken place “last night, and before last night.” He said they had been “numerous,” and suggested the Chinese were eager to resume talks as the pressure his administration was putting on China’s economy meant “they’ve lost millions of jobs.”

“They lost 3 million jobs in a short period of time,” Mr. Trump said. “A lot of companies have left China.”

Asked whether his goal was indeed to drive business out of China, Mr. Trump said it was, “if we don’t make a deal.”  

Trump gets ready to “double down” on trade war with China

CBS News White House correspondent Ben Tracy noted that Mr. Trump has said for months that China wants to make a trade deal, but that he is “not ready.” That has widely been interpreted as meaning Beijing wants to make a deal on terms that President Trump won’t accept.

Tracy also noted that there are already trade talks scheduled for early September in Washington, so any phone calls by China might have been aimed at confirming those discussions. The last round of trade talks, in Shanghai in July, ended without any significant agreements.

Mr. Trump said he would have a further statement on China and noted that a news conference was scheduled for later Monday on the sidelines of the G-7 summit at the French mountain resort of Biarritz.

G-7 leaders and guests pose for a family picture with the Biarritz lighthouse in the background on the second day of the 2019 G-7 summit in France. In the first row, from left to right are Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame, African Union Chair Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, President Donald Trump, France’s President Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, Senegal’s President Macky Sall. 

Getty


The president spoke to reporters briefly on Monday during a bilateral meeting with Egypt’s President Abdeh Fatah al-Sisi. He met later with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. His meetings were closed but Mr. Trump was expected to give a joint news conference later with Merkel and Indian leader Narendra Modi.

In his remarks he also praised a U.S. trade deal with Japan that he announced the previous day, and criticized the media for focusing more on the “bad things.”

“When we make a really big and really great trade deal, like with Japan, the media never writes about it. They only like to write about the bad things,” he said. “There aren’t too many of them.”

The president said on Friday that U.S. tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese imports would increase from 25% to 30% on October 1. An additional $300 billion in Chinese goods would be taxed at 15%, instead of 10%, starting on September 1. The stepped-up tariffs would represent a U.S. tax hike on virtually all goods imported from China under Mr. Trump’s leadership.

Larry Kudlow, the White House’s top economic adviser, was asked on Sunday if the Trump administration was escalating or de-escalating the trade dispute with China.

He insisted that nothing had changed.

Source Article from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-china-trade-chinese-called-us-twice-xi-jinping-seeks-make-a-deal-today-2019-08-26/

BIARRITZ, France (Reuters) – French and U.S. negotiators have reached a compromise agreement on France’s digital tax, a levy which prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to threaten a separate tax on French wine imports, a source close to the negotiations said.

The compromise struck between French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Donald Trump’s White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow envisages that France would repay to companies the difference between a French tax and a planned mechanism being drawn up by the OECD .

The draft agreement will be submitted to Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron later on Monday at a G7 leaders summit in Biarritz.

“Trump’s advisor is OK with the proposal,” the source told Reuters. “That would be the mechanism at this stage, that’s the joint proposal.”

France’s 3% levy applies to revenue from digital services earned by firms with more than 25 million euros ($27.86 million) in French revenue and 750 million euros ($830 million) worldwide.

U.S. officials complain it unfairly targets U.S. companies such as Facebook (FB.O), Google (GOOGL.O) and Amazon (AMZN.O). They are currently able to book profits in low-tax countries such as Ireland and Luxembourg, no matter where the revenue originates.

Le Maire and his U.S. counterparts worked on finding a deal all weekend, first at the French finance minister’s family house in the Basque countryside and later at a Sunday dinner in a Biarritz restaurant, the source said.

The row has been threatening to open up a new front in the trade spat between Washington and the European Union as economic relations between the two appeared to sour.

Trump had lambasted Macron’s “foolishness” for pursuing the French levy and threatened to tax French wines in retaliation.

The French leader pushed hard in 2018 for a digital tax to cover EU member states, but met resistance from some other countries. He decided to go ahead with a national tax, which was signed into law in July and applies retroactively to Jan. 1, 2019.

For the latest stories from the summit, click on

Reporting by Michel Rose; editing by Richard Lough and Louise Heavens

Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-g7-summit-digital-tax/french-u-s-officials-strike-draft-compromise-on-french-digital-tax-idUSKCN1VG0N5?il=0

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Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/26/politics/trump-g7-doral-miami/index.html

Wikipedia

The increase in fires burning in Brazil set off a storm of international outrage last week. Celebrities, environmentalists, and political leaders blame Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, for destroying the world’s largest rainforest, the Amazon, which they say is the “lungs of the world.”

Singers and actors including Madonna and Jaden Smith shared photos on social media that were seen by tens of millions of people. “The lungs of the Earth are in flames,” said actor Leonardo DiCaprio. “The Amazon Rainforest produces more than 20% of the world’s oxygen,” tweeted soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo. “The Amazon rain forest — the lungs which produce 20% of our planet’s oxygen — is on fire,” tweeted French President Emanuel Macron.

And yet the photos weren’t actually of the fires and many weren’t even of the Amazon. The photo Ronaldo shared was taken in southern Brazil, far from the Amazon, in 2013. The photo that DiCaprio and Macron shared is over 20 years old. The photo Madonna and Smith shared is over 30. Some celebrities shared photos from Montana, India, and Sweden.

To their credit, CNN and New York Times debunked the photos and other misinformation about the fires. “Deforestation is neither new nor limited to one nation,” explained CNN. “These fires were not caused by climate change,” noted The Times

But both publications repeated the claim that the Amazon is the “lungs” of the world. “The Amazon remains a net source of oxygen today,” said CNN. “The Amazon is often referred to as Earth’s ‘lungs,’ because its vast forests release oxygen and store carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping gas that is a major cause of global warming,” claimed The New York Times.

I was curious to hear what one of the world’s leading Amazon forest experts, Dan Nepstad, had to say about the “lungs” claim.

“It’s bullshit,” he said. “There’s no science behind that. The Amazon produces a lot of oxygen but it uses the same amount of oxygen through respiration so it’s a wash.” 

Plants use respiration to convert nutrients from the soil into energy. They use photosynthesis to convert light into chemical energy, which can later be used in respiration.

What about The New York Times claim that “If enough rain forest is lost and can’t be restored, the area will become savanna, which doesn’t store as much carbon, meaning a reduction in the planet’s ‘lung capacity’”?

Also not true, said Nepstad, who was a lead author of the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. “The Amazon produces a lot of oxygen, but so do soy farms and [cattle] pastures.”

Some people will no doubt wave away the “lungs” myth as nit-picking. The broader point is that there is an increase in fires in Brazil and something should be done about it. 

But the “lungs” myth is just the tip of the iceberg. Consider that CNN ran a long segment with the banner, “Fires Burning at Record Rate in Amazon Forest” while a leading climate reporter claimed, “The current fires are without precedent in the past 20,000 years.” 

While the number of fires in 2019 is indeed 80% higher than in 2018, it’s just 7% higher than the average over the last 10 years ago, Nepstad said.

INPE

One of Brazil’s leading environmental journalists agrees that media coverage of the fires has been misleading. “It was under [Workers Party President] Lula and [Environment Secretary] Marina Silva (2003-2008) that Brazil had the highest incidence of burning,” Leonardo Coutinho told me over email. “But neither Lula nor Marina was accused of putting the Amazon at risk.”

Coutinho’s perspective was shaped by reporting on the ground in the Amazon for Veja, Brazil’s leading news magazine, for nearly a decade. By contrast, many of the correspondents reporting on the fires have been doing so from the cosmopolitan cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, which are 2,500 miles and four hours by jet plane away.

“What is happening in the Amazon is not exceptional,” said Coutinho. “Take a look at Google web searches search for ‘Amazon’ and ‘Amazon Forest’ over time. Global public opinion was not as interested in the ‘Amazon tragedy’ when the situation was undeniably worse. The present moment does not justify global hysteria.”

And while fires in Brazil have increased, there is no evidence that Amazon forest fires have. 

“What hurts me most is the bare idea of the millions of Notre-Dames, high cathedrals of terrestrial biodiversity, burning to the ground,” a Brazilian journalist wrote in the New York Times.

But the Amazon forest’s high cathedrals aren’t doing that. “I saw the photo Macron and Di Caprio tweeted,” said Nepstad, “but you don’t see forests burning like that in the Amazon.”

Amazon forest fires are hidden by the tree canopy and only increase during drought years. “We don’t know if there are any more forest fires this year than in past years, which tells me there probably isn’t,” Nepstad said. “I’ve been working on studying those fires for 25 years and our [on-the-ground] networks are tracking this.” 

What increased by 7% in 2019 are the fires of dry scrub and trees cut down for cattle ranching as a strategy to gain ownership of land. 

Against the picture painted of an Amazon forest on the verge of disappearing, a full 80% remains standing. Half of the Amazon is protected against deforestation under federal law. 

“Few stories in the first wave of media coverage mentioned the dramatic drop in deforestation in Brazil in the 2000s,” noted former New York Times reporter Andrew Revkin, who wrote a 1990 book, The Burning Season, about the Amazon, and is now Founding Director, Initiative on Communication & Sustainability at The Earth Institute at Columbia University.

Deforestation declined a whopping 70% from 2004 to 2012. It has risen modestly since then but remains at one-quarter its 2004 peak. And just 3% of the Amazon is suitable for soy farming. 

Both Nepstad and Coutinho say the real threat is from accidental forest fires in drought years, which climate change could worsen. “The most serious threat to the Amazon forest is the severe events that make the forests vulnerable to fire. That’s where we can get a downward spiral between fire and drought and more fire.”

Today, 18 – 20% of the Amazon forest remains at risk of being deforested.

“I don’t like the international narrative right now because it’s polarizing and divisive,” said Nepstad. “Bolsonaro has said some ridiculous things and none of them are excusable but there’s also a big consensus against accidental fire and we have to tap into that.” 

“Imagine you are told [under the federal Forest Code] that you can only use half of your land and then being told you can only use 20%,” Nepstad said. “There was a bait and switch and the farmers are really frustrated. These are people who love to hunt and fish and be on land and should be allies but we lost them.”

Nepstad said that the restrictions cost farmers $10 billion in foregone profits and forest restoration. “There was an Amazon Fund set up in 2010 with $1 billion from Norwegian and German governments but none of it ever made its way to the large and medium-sized farmers,” says Nepstad.

Both the international pressure and the government’s over-reaction is increasing resentment among the very people in Brazil environmentalists need to win over in order to save the Amazon: forests and ranchers.

“Macron’s tweet had the same impact on Bolsonaro’s base as Hillary calling Trump’s base deplorable,” said Nepstad. “There’s outrage at Macron in Brazil. The Brazilians want to know why California gets all this sympathy for its forest fires and while Brazil gets all this finger-pointing.”

“I don’t mind the media frenzy as long as it leaves something positive,” said Nepstad, but it has instead forced the Brazilian government to over-react. “Sending in the army is not the way to go because it’s not all illegal actors. People forget that there are legitimate reasons for small farmers to use controlled burns to knock back insects and pests.”

The reaction from foreign media, global celebrities, and NGOs in Brazil stems from a romantic anti-capitalism common among urban elites, say Nepstad and Coutinho. “There’s a lot of hatred of agribusiness,” said Nepstad. “I’ve had colleagues say, ‘Soy beans aren’t food.’ I said, ‘What does your kid eat? Milk, chicken, eggs? That’s all soy protein fed to poultry.’”

Others may have political motives. “Brazilian farmers want to extend [the free trade agreement] EU-Mercosur but Macron is inclined to shut it down because the French farm sector doesn’t want more Brazilian food products coming into the country,” Nepstad explained. 

Despite climate change, deforestation, and widespread and misleading coverage of the situation, Nepstad hasn’t given up hope. The Amazon emergency should lead the conservation community to repair its relationship with farmers and seek more pragmatic solutions, he said.

“Agribusiness is 25% of Brazil’s GDP and it’s what got the country through the recession,” said Nepstad. “When soy farming comes into a landscape, the number of fires goes down. Little towns get money for schools, GDP rises, and inequality declines. This is not a sector to beat up on, it’s one to find common ground with.” 

Nepstad argued that it would be a no-brainer for governments around the world to support Earth Alliance (Aliança da Terra), a fire detection and prevention network he co-founded which is comprised of 600 volunteers, mostly indigenous people, and farmers.

“For $2 million a year we could control the fires and stop the Amazon die-back,” said Nepstad. “We have 600 people who have received top-notch training by US fire jumpers but now need trucks with the right gear so they can clear fire breaks through the forest and start a backfire to burn up the fuel in the pathway of the fire.”

For such pragmatism to take hold among divergent interests, the news media will need to improve its future coverage of the issue.

One of the grand challenges facing newsrooms covering complicated emergent, enduring issues like tropical deforestation,” said journalist Revkin, “is finding ways to engage readers without histrionics. The alternative is ever more whiplash journalism — which is the recipe for reader disengagement.”

Source Article from https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2019/08/26/why-everything-they-say-about-the-amazon-including-that-its-the-lungs-of-the-world-is-wrong/

World leaders attended a working session on the environment before the G7 comes to a close in Biarritz.

Emmanuel Macron presented leaders and guests with a watch made out of polluting plastic retrieved from the ocean.

The mass fires in the Amazon rainforest were expected to be high on the agenda – with PM Boris Johnson pledging £10million to help protect them.

Macron proposed to raise funds for reforestation, and develop ways to stop industrial deforestation, with the help of NGOs and indigenous communities.

A record number of fires are ravaging the rainforest, many of them in Brazil, drawing international concern because of the Amazon’s importance to the global environment.

Macron shunted the blazes to the top of the summit agenda after declaring them a global emergency. Last week he accused Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s government of not doing enough to protect the area and of lying about its environmental commitments.

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Source Article from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl8vY53D8b8

Image copyright
NOAA

Image caption

Hurricane Florence battered the US East Coast last year

Using nuclear weapons to destroy hurricanes is not a good idea, a US scientific agency has said, following reports that President Donald Trump wanted to explore the option.

The Axios news website said Mr Trump had asked several national security officials about the possibility.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said the results would be “devastating”.

Mr Trump has denied making the suggestion.

Hurricanes typically affect the US east coast, often causing serious damage.

It’s not the first time the idea has been considered.

Following reports of Mr Trump’s suggestion, the hashtag #ThatsHowTheApocalyseStarted has been trending on Twitter.

What effect would nuking a hurricane have?

Mr Trump asked why the US couldn’t drop a bomb into the eye of the storm to stop it from making landfall, news site Axios said.

The NOAA says that using nuclear weapons on a hurricane “might not even alter the storm” and the “radioactive fallout would fairly quickly move with the tradewinds to affect land areas”.

The difficulty with using explosives to change hurricanes, it says, is the amount of energy needed.

The heat release of a hurricane is equivalent to a 10-megaton nuclear bomb exploding every 20 minutes.

Even though the mechanical energy of a bomb is closer to that of the storm, “the task of focusing even half of the energy on a spot in the middle of a remote ocean would be formidable”, it adds.

Image copyright
PA

Image caption

Mr Trump has denied making the suggestion but the Axios website is standing by its story

“Attacking weak tropical waves or depressions before they have a chance to grow into hurricanes isn’t promising either,” says the NOAA.

“About 80 of these disturbances form every year in the Atlantic basin but only about five become hurricanes in a typical year. There is no way to tell in advance which ones will develop.”

How long has this idea been around?

The idea of bombing a hurricane has been around since the 1950s when the suggestion was originally made by a government scientist.

During a speech at the National Press Club in 1961, Francis Riechelderfer, head of the US Weather Bureau, said he could “imagine the possibility of someday exploding a nuclear bomb on a hurricane far at sea”.

The Weather Bureau would only begin acquiring nuclear weapons when “we know what we’re doing“, he added, according to National Geographic.

The NOAA says the idea is often suggested during hurricane season.

When is the US hurricane season?

The Atlantic Hurricane season runs from 1 June until the end of November. The peak of the season comes in September when sea temperatures are at their highest.

Media captionHurricane survivor’s unusual new home

The NOAA warned earlier this month that conditions were now more favourable for above-normal hurricane activity. It is predicting between 10 and 17 named storms, of which 5-9 will become hurricanes, including 2-4 major hurricanes.

Two named storms have formed so far this year.

Source Article from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49471093

BIARRITZ, France (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday offered an olive branch to China after days of intense feuding over trade and opened the door to diplomacy on Iran, easing tension on the last day of a strained G7 summit.

The leaders of the world’s major industrialized nations, meeting in the French coastal resort of Biarritz, look set to reach an agreement on how to help fight the Amazon forest fires and try to repair the devastation.

While they are not expected to leave with a more comprehensive set of agreements or even a joint communique, Trump and his Western allies appear to have agreed amicably to disagree on issues dividing them.

These ranged from Washington’s escalating trade war with China, which many fear could tip the slowing world economy into recession; how to deal with the nuclear ambitions of both Iran and North Korea; and the question of whether Russian President Vladimir Putin should be readmitted to the group.

Trump, a turbulent presence at last year’s G7 gathering, insisted during the Biarritz meeting that he was getting along well with other leaders of a group that also comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.

The trade war between the United States and China, the world’s two largest economies, escalated on Friday as both sides leveled more tariffs on each other’s exports, sending more shockwaves through financial markets.

Speaking on the sidelines of the G7 summit on Monday, Trump said he believed China wanted to make a trade deal after it contacted U.S. trade officials overnight to say it wanted to return to the negotiating table.

China’s lead negotiator in the U.S. trade talks said earlier on Monday Beijing was willing to resolve its trade dispute with the United States through “calm negotiations” and resolutely opposed the escalation of the conflict.

Trump hailed Chinese President Xi Jinping as a great leader and said the prospect of talks was a very positive development.

“He understands, and it’s going to be great for China, it’s going to be great for the U.S., it’s going to be great for the world,” he said.

“LET THEM BE RICH”

Trump also backed away from confrontation over Iran on Monday, a day after French President Emmanuel Macron stunned other leaders by inviting Iran’s foreign minister to Biarritz for talks on the stand-off between Washington and Tehran.

Trump told journalists that they had been wrong to report that he was blindsided by the five-hour visit of Mohammad Javad Zarif to the summit’s sidelines, and said that while he thought it was too soon for a meeting he had no objections to it.

European leaders have struggled to calm a deepening confrontation between Iran and the United States since Trump pulled his country out of Iran’s internationally brokered 2015 nuclear deal last year and reimposed sanctions on the Iranian economy.

Macron has led efforts to defuse tensions, fearing a collapse of the nuclear deal could set the Middle East ablaze.

Trump indicated an openness to discussions with Iran on a nuclear deal and said he was not looking for regime change.

“I’m looking at a really good Iran, really strong, we’re not looking for regime change,” he said. “And we’re looking to make Iran rich again, let them be rich, let them do well.”

Trump and Macron met over a long lunch on the first day of the summit and, as they gathered with other leaders on Monday for further talks, they greeted each other warmly and smiled.

DIGITAL TAX

Taking more heat out of the annual meeting, French and U.S. negotiators meeting behind the scenes reached a compromise agreement on France’s digital tax, a levy that had prompted Trump to threaten a separate tax on French wine imports.

The row had threatened to open up a new front in the trade spat between Washington and the EU as economic relations between the two appeared to sour.

France’s 3% levy applies to revenue from digital services earned by firms with more than 25 million euros in French revenue and 750 million euros ($830 million) worldwide.

U.S. officials complain it unfairly targets U.S. companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon. They are currently able to book profits in low-tax countries such as Ireland and Luxembourg, no matter where the revenue originates.

A source close to the negotiations said the deal envisaged that France would repay to companies the difference between a French tax and a planned mechanism being drawn up by the OECD.

The G7 leaders were due to discuss climate change in one of their final sessions on Monday and were expected to consider a deal on technical and financial help for the Amazon.

Slideshow (4 Images)

A record number of fires are ravaging the rainforest, many of them in Brazil, drawing international concern because of the Amazon’s importance to the global environment.

Macron shunted the blazes fires to the top of the summit agenda after declaring them a global emergency. Last week he accused Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s government of not doing enough to protect the area and of lying about its environmental commitments.

Reporting by Richard Lough, John Irish, Crispian Balmer, Marine Pennetier, John Chalmers, Jeff Mason, William James, Andreas Rinke and Michel Rose; Writing by John Chalmers; Editing by Alison Williams

Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-g7-summit/trump-moves-to-ease-tensions-over-china-iran-as-g7-summit-wraps-up-idUSKCN1VG0SD

President Trump began his final day at the Group of Seven summit complaining about the media but offering scant evidence that he and other world leaders gathered in France had made any progress on tackling major global challenges that range from a slowing economy to nuclear proliferation. 

The president took to Twitter to offer a retort to news coverage that has been dominated by the Trump administration’s muddled messaging about the trade war with China and the arrival of Iran’s foreign minister at the G-7 on Sunday. 

“In France we are all laughing at how knowingly inaccurate the U.S. reporting of events and conversations at the G-7 is,” Trump tweeted early Monday. “These Leaders, and many others, are getting a major case study of Fake News at it’s finest! They’ve got it all wrong, from Iran, to China Tariffs, to Boris!” 

But as the summit entered its final day, there was little sign that Trump and other world leaders had reached anything nearing a consensus on thorny issues including trade, climate change, and how to deal with Iran, North Korea and Russia. 

Illustrating the divide between Trump and the other leaders meeting in the resort town, the French all-but-abandoned efforts to craft a joint statement at the end of the summit, cognizant of how the United States is drifting further away from other nations on a growing number of issues. 

Negotiators from each country talked trade and other issues late into the night, but the U.S. delegation blocked any consensus, a senior European official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door discussions.

Monday was set to be pivotal day for the leaders, as they sought to cap a summit marked more by whiplash, mixed signals and surprises than by concrete results. 

Trump was scheduled to meet Monday with Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He also planned to attend working sessions on climate change and the digital economy. Trump planned to wrap up the summit with a joint news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron before returning to Washington.

He signaled on Monday that trade deals were in motion.

“China called,” Trump said. “They want to make a deal.”

And he also sought to boost a potential trade deal with Japan that he announced the previous day along side Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, saying that it would boost automobile manufacturing in the United States.

Despite the White House’s efforts to refocus the discussion on the global economy, Trump’s own muddled messaging — and a guest unexpected by most — largely disrupted those plans Sunday.

The president signaled regret for his trade war with China on Sunday only to have the White House reverse his position hours later. Trump was contradicted in public by several world leaders, who disagreed with his positions on trade, Russia’s expulsion from the G-7 and North Korea’s missile tests. After he claimed that a new trade deal with Japan would lead to the country buying “massive” amounts of agricultural products from the United States, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe clarified that any purchases would be made by the private sector — rather than directed by the government.

“The Japanese private sector listens to the Japanese public sector very strongly,” Trump retorted. 

Further adding to the tensions, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif made a surprise visit to Biarritz on Sunday, which dominated news coverage on a day the United States had sought to focus the gathering on the economy.

Trump said that Macron had asked him over a Saturday lunch whether it would be okay to invite Zarif the following day.

Macron “spoke to me, he asked me. I said, ‘If you want to do that that’s okay.’ I don’t consider that disrespectful at all, especially when he asked me for approval,” Trump said Monday.

“I think it’s too soon to meet, I didn’t want to meet,” Trump said. But he said “it’s truly going to be time to meet with Iran” soon. 

By Sunday night, Trump had largely moved on from the planned focus on the global economy. He spent much of the evening retweeting several conspiracy theories alleging corruption and malfeasance at the FBI. 

In one post related to the G-7, the president amplified the commentary of a libertarian Canadian media personality who accused Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of “assuming a submissive position” in meetings with Trump despite “trash-talking” him in Canada. 

 “No, we actually had a very good and productive meeting. Nice!” Trump tweeted, in a post that also served to broadcast the original tweet — with a picture a cross-legged Trudeau sitting next to a stern-looking Trump — to the president’s 63 million followers.

 After the G-7 last year in Canada, Trump dramatically withdrew his support for a joint communique after watching Trudeau give a news conference in which he spoke negatively about U.S. tariffs. 

 Trump tweeted at the time that Trudeau “acted so meek and mild during our @G7 meetings” and then gave a combative news conference “after I left.”

 Macron abandoned the idea of trying to convince Trump to sign on to a joint communique this year, deeming the effort “pointless.” The symbolic statements are typically issued at the end of global summits, but U.S. officials have resisted in recent years. 

French officials realized well in advance that the Trump administration had no interest in agreeing to a joint statement, and they began dialing back expectations.

 The move reflects Trump administration’s belief that it does not need to coordinate its policies with other leaders, particularly on issues that the president feels strongly about, such as trade. But it also could make it more difficult for leaders to address problems as they arise because they aren’t starting from the same level of understanding.

 It also shows how other world leaders are growing more comfortable separating themselves from the United States on policy issues, said Brian Klass, who teaches global politics at University College London.

“People are making nice publicly,” he said. “But I think privately, most in the G-7 are panicking about what Trump’s doing with the trade war, they are panicking about his increasingly erratic behavior and wondering whether they can continue to behave as if everything is business as usual.”

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/g-7-summit-set-to-end-with-little-consensus-amid-trumps-mixed-messaging-on-the-trade-war/2019/08/26/c73b49ac-c76d-11e9-a1fe-ca46e8d573c0_story.html

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif made a surprise visit to the city hosting the Group of Seven summit Sunday, a move that caught President Trump off-guard and added another element of tension to the meeting of world economic leaders.

Zarif’s arrival in Biarritz appeared to be a covert initiative by French President Emmanuel Macron, a senior European official said, and at least some other leaders were not informed ahead of time.

Trump, whose antics have often left other world leaders searching for words, had little to say about the unexpected guest.

“No comment,” Trump told reporters.

Zarif came to this resort town at the invitation of his French counterpart, Jean-Yves Le Drian, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi wrote on Twitter. The aim of the visit was to “continue discussions about recent initiatives between the presidents of Iran and France,” Mousavi said.

The Iranian diplomat was in town for about five hours before departing on his Iranian government jet. He met with Macron, Le Drian, and British and German diplomats before speeding away, he wrote in a tweet.

“Iran’s active diplomacy in pursuit of constructive engagement continues,” Zarif wrote after his meetings. “Road ahead is difficult. But worth trying.”

White House officials have complained for weeks that Macron was trying to forcefully broker talks between the Trump administration and Iran. The U.S. president has branded Iran a “number one terrorist nation.”

Trump pulled the United States from the landmark nuclear deal between Iran and world powers in May 2018. The deal, negotiated by the Obama administration, restricted Iran’s nuclear capabilities in exchange for the easing of sanctions.

French officials have said Trump’s “maximum pressure” approach against Iran is doomed to fail. They have sought to persuade the White House to change course and accept a new deal with the Iranians.

Trump’s pressure campaign has involved a mix of sanctions and public threats aimed at crippling Iran’s economy — and, recently, new sanctions and travel restrictions on Zarif.

The foreign minister’s presence in Biarritz — at the invitation of the French president during a summit of world leaders who know Zarif well — underscored how isolated the Trump administration has become in its approach to Iran.

Even as Iranian forces have stepped up their aggression by seizing several tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, European leaders have sought to maintain the 2015 nuclear deal without the United States. Zarif’s visit appeared to be a gambit to break the logjam.

An earlier discussion on Iran during the summit showed little progress, as leaders could not agree publicly about even the terms of their talks. They planned to revisit their conversations on Monday after Zarif’s departure, a French official said.

Trump said Sunday he had not discussed a joint approach to Iran. French officials insisted a consensus had been reached among leaders Saturday night.

“I haven’t discussed that,” Trump said. “We will do our own outreach, but I can’t stop people from talking. If they want to talk, they can talk.” 

When leaders discussed Iran over dinner on Saturday, they agreed broadly that Iran should not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons and that they should work to de-escalate the ongoing crisis, according to officials who were briefed on the closed-door talks.

Macron pushed Trump to allow Iran to export a limited amount of oil — a nonstarter with the White House.

Zarif’s sudden arrival in Biarritz took at least some of the other delegations by surprise, even those aligned with France in its commitment to preserve the nuclear deal, according to a senior European official, who, like others in this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to comment publicly.

The official said it was not immediately clear why Zarif had been invited. Because Europe’s strength on the Iran deal has been its unity, the official said, the unilateral move to call in Zarif could prove counterproductive.

But a French official said Zarif had been invited to be debriefed about the G-7 discussions of the previous day and so that Macron could continue pushing an effort to get Iran back into compliance with the nuclear deal.

The official said Macron had told Trump ahead of time that he planned to invite Zarif for a discussion.

Zarif was in Paris on Friday for discussions with Macron and other French officials. He had planned to travel in Asia this weekend, according to his Twitter account.

His arrival in the French resort town appeared to take the State Department by surprise. A spokeswoman noted the agency’s absence from the summit and referred questions to the White House.

Trump is traveling in Biarritz with national security adviser John Bolton, one of the administration’s fiercest critics of Iran.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has complained that Zarif has used media appearances to spread Iranian “propaganda” against the United States.

Zarif criticized the Trump administration after it pulled out of the nuclear deal, and again after the administration announced sanctions against him last month.

“The US’ reason for designating me is that I am Iran’s ‘primary spokesperson around the world,’ ” he tweeted in July. “Is the truth really that painful? It has no effect on me or my family, as I have no property or interests outside of Iran. Thank you for considering me such a huge threat to your agenda.”

Zarif has been meeting with other world leaders, including Macron, about the nuclear issue. He has tweeted pictures of himself shaking hands with top officials and sought to contrast his embrace of diplomacy with the Trump administration’s unilateral pressure campaign. 

“Despite US efforts to destroy diplomacy, met with French President @EmmanuelMacron and @JY_LeDriane in Paris today,” he tweeted Friday. “Interviewed with Euronews, AFP, & France24. Multilateralism must be preserved. Next stops Beijing, Tokyo & KL after a day in Tehran.”

He did not mention that he would be stopping in Biarritz.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin indicated Trump might be willing to meet with Zarif. 

“The president has said before that to the extent that Iran wants to sit down and negotiate, we would not set preconditions to those negotiations,” he told reporters in France on Sunday. He declined to comment further.

But in Washington, Zarif’s appearance drew warnings from Iran critics.

Former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley called it “completely disrespectful” to Trump and the other G-7 leaders. “Iran supports terrorism at every turn and continues to pursue ‘Death to America,’ ” she tweeted. “Manipulative of Macron to do this and very insincere. #NotWhatFriendsDo.”

And Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said, “Hearing that the Europeans are negotiating with the Iranians again is of little comfort to me.

“Mr. President,” he continued in his tweet, “continue to stand firm against Iran’s aggression.”

Josh Dawsey and Damian Paletta in Biarritz, and Carol Morello in Washington contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/irans-javad-zarif-makes-surprise-trip-to-g-7-catching-trump-off-guard/2019/08/25/e339df7c-c742-11e9-8067-196d9f17af68_story.html

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Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/25/politics/g7-iran-zarif-france-intl/index.html

Trump on US-China trade war: ‘I could declare a national…

Clouding the G-7 gathering, which represents the world’s major industrial economies, are the tit-for-tat tariffs between Washington and Beijing.

read more

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/26/us-china-trade-war-what-happened-over-the-weekend.html

President Trump has reportedly suggested on multiple occasions to Homeland Security and to national security officials that they consider nuking hurricanes to prevent them from hitting the United States, Axios reported Sunday.

According to a source present at a hurricane briefing at the White House, the president at one point said, “I got it. I got it. Why don’t we nuke them?”

He reportedly continued, “They start forming off the coast of Africa, as they’re moving across the Atlantic, we drop a bomb inside the eye of the hurricane and it disrupts it. Why can’t we do that?”

“You could hear a gnat fart in that meeting,” the source said. “People were astonished. After the meeting ended, we thought, ‘What the f—? What do we do with this?'”

An official told the president at the time, “Sir, we’ll look into that.”

The president then apparently raised the idea in another conversation with officials, but his “bomb the hurricanes” idea never never entered a formal policy process.

In response to the report, a senior White House official said, “We don’t comment on private discussions that the president may or may not have had with his national security team.”

However, another senior official defended Trump’s idea, saying, “His goal — to keep a catastrophic hurricane from hitting the mainland — is not bad. His objective is not bad.”

“What people near the president do is they say, ‘I love a president who asks questions like that, who’s willing to ask tough questions,'” the official continued. “It takes strong people to respond to him in the right way when stuff like this comes up. For me, alarm bells weren’t going off when I heard about it, but I did think somebody is going to use this to feed into ‘the president is crazy’ narrative.”

The idea to bomb hurricanes dates back to the Eisenhower presidency when it was first floated by a government scientist. Scientists have since agreed it won’t work.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/trump-reportedly-recommended-using-nuclear-bombs-to-stop-hurricanes-from-hitting-us

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President Donald Trump doubles down on his criticism of Rep. Elijah Cummings and the Baltimore community he serves.
USA TODAY

On Sunday, former Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh addressed his role in stirring racist rhetoric in politics in the past while announcing his intentions of challenging President Donald Trump in the Republican primary.

Walsh apologized for his past comments during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” in which he said he had a role in Trump’s ascension. 

“I helped create Trump, there’s no doubt about that,” he said.

Walsh went on to offer his opinion of Trump: “He’s nuts, he’s erratic, he’s cruel, he stokes bigotry.”

He also wrote in a recent New York Times op-ed that Trump “inspires imitators” but brought up his own “share of controversy.”

“At times, I expressed hate for my political opponents. We now see where this can lead,” he wrote. “There’s no place in our politics for personal attacks like that, and I regret making them.”

Walsh’s past comments 

In 2014, Walsh was pulled off the air during his radio show for using racist slurs. He also promoted the “birther” conspiracy during former President Barack Obama’s time in office and said Obama was only elected because he is black.

More: Former Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh announces he will challenge Trump in Republican primary

When asked by Stephanopoulos on Sunday to address instances of his own racism, including his promotion of the false conspiracy that Obama is Muslim and remarks against Sen. Kamala Harris, Walsh said he has reflected on his previous statements.

“I said some ugly things about President Obama that I regret,” Walsh said. 

In 2017, Walsh tweeted “We LOWERED the bar for Obama. He was held to a lower standard cuz he was black.”

“I had strong policy disagreements with Barack Obama, and too often I let those policy disagreements get personal,” he said Sunday.

He’s been all over the place on Trump’s comments 

Walsh has a history of inconsistency in his opinions of Trump’s rhetoric. At times, he has denounced the president as a racist. This summer when Trump told four Democratic congresswomen, who are people of color and citizens of the U.S., to “go back and help fix” the countries he said they “originally came” from before trying to make legislative changes in the USA, Walsh spoke out.

“To say ‘go back to where you came from’ is gross. It’s offensive, ignorant, anti-American, and racist,” Walsh tweeted

But it was not that long ago that Walsh thought Trump’s language made him a bully, but not a racist, and that Walsh was still making racist claims about Obama:

Why he’s apologizing 

Walsh said the one good thing about Trump’s language since he has been in office is that Trump has made him realize his attacks were inappropriate. The difference between them?

“We have a guy in the White House who’s never apologized for anything he’s done or said. I think it’s a weakness not to apologize,” Walsh told Stephanopoulos. “I helped create Trump, there’s no doubt about that. The personal, ugly politics, I regret that and I’m sorry for that. And now we’ve got a guy in the White House, George, that’s all he does.”

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/08/25/joe-walsh-apologizes-racist-comments-run-against-trump/2115011001/

Media captionThe BBC’s Will Grant describes the view of the devastation from above as “disturbing”

International leaders gathering at the G7 summit are reportedly nearing an agreement to help fight fires in the Amazon rainforest.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday a deal to provide “technical and financial help” was close.

Leaders from the US, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, the UK and Canada continue their meeting in the seaside town of Biarritz on Monday.

It comes amid international tension over record fires burning in Brazil.

Critics have accused Brazil’s President, Jair Bolsonaro, of “green lighting” the Amazon’s destruction through anti-environmental rhetoric and a lack of action on deforestation violations.

The severity of the fires, and his government’s response, has prompted global outcry and protests.

President Macron last week described the fires as an “international crisis” and pushed for them to be prioritised at the G7 summit this weekend.

On Sunday he said the leaders are “all agreed on helping those countries which have been hit by the fires as fast as possible.

“Our teams are making contact with all the Amazon countries so we can finalise some very concrete commitments involving technical resources and funding.”

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Britain would provide £10m to protect the Amazon rainforest.

What is Brazil doing?

On Friday, facing mounting pressure from abroad, President Bolsonaro authorised the military to help tackle the blazes.

The Defence Ministry has said that 44,000 troops are available to help in the effort and officials said on Sunday that military intervention has been authorised in seven states.

Warplanes have also been drafted in to dump water on the areas affected.

The president tweeted on Sunday that he had also accepted an offer of support from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Image copyright
AFP

Image caption

Protests calling for intervention have continued in Brazil across the weekend

President Bolsonaro has previously been critical of the response of foreign governments and accused them of interfering in Brazil’s national sovereignty.

Announcing the military help in a television address on Friday, President Bolsonaro insisted forest fires “exist in the whole world” and said they “cannot serve as a pretext for possible international sanctions”.

On Saturday, EU Council president Donald Tusk admitted it was hard to imagine the bloc ratifying the long-awaited EU-Mercosur agreement – a landmark trade deal with South American nations – while Brazil was still failing to curb the blazes.

As criticism mounted again last week, Finland’s finance minister went as far as calling for the EU to consider banning Brazilian beef imports altogether.

How bad are the fires?

Wildfires often occur in the dry season in Brazil, but satellite data published by Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) has shown an increase of 85% this year.

They say more than 75,000 have been recorded in Brazil so far in 2019, most of them in the Amazon region.

Environmental activists have drawn links between President Bolsonaro’s attitudes towards the environment and the recent surge in the number of fires in the famous rainforest.

Media captionMembers of Brazil’s indigenous Mura tribe vow to defend their land

President Bolsonaro has been accused of emboldening miners and loggers who deliberately start fires to illegally deforest land. Earlier this month he accused Inpe of trying to undermine his government with data revealing sharp increases in deforestation levels.

BBC analysis has also found that the record number of fires being recorded also coincide with a sharp drop off in fines being handed out for environmental violations.

Neighbouring Bolivia is also struggling to contain fires burning in its forests.

On Sunday President Evo Morales suspended his re-election campaign and said he was prepared to accept international help to tackle blazes in his country’s Chiquitania region.

Why is the Amazon important?

As the largest rainforest in the world, the Amazon is a vital carbon store that slows down the pace of global warming. It spans a number of countries, but the majority of it falls within Brazil.

Media captionWhy the Amazon rainforest helps fight climate change

It is known as the “lungs of the world” for its role in absorbing carbon dioxide and producing oxygen.

The rainforest is also home to about three million species of plants and animals and one million indigenous people.

Political leaders, celebrities and environmentalists are among those who have called for action to protect the Amazon.

Thousands of protesters have also taken to the streets across the world calling on governments to intervene.

On Sunday, Pope Francis also joined the call to protect the rainforest.

“We are all worried about the vast fires that have developed in the Amazon. Let us pray so that with the commitment of all, they can be put out soon. That lung of forests is vital for our planet,” he told thousands of people in St Peter’s Square.

Media captionWorldwide protests over Brazilian government inaction on Amazon fires

Source Article from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-49469476

Joe Arpaio, the tough-guy former sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, announced that he’s running for his old job on Sunday, exactly two years after President Donald Trump pardoned him for a federal contempt-of-court conviction.

“Watch out world! We are back!” Arpaio, 87, said in a statement in which he promised to reinstate the extreme measures that made him famous, like housing immigrants in outdoor tents in the 100-degrees-plus temperatures of the Phoenix area.

Arpaio was defeated for re-election to what would have been a record seventh term as sheriff in November 2016, shortly after he was charged with contempt of court for having ignored a federal judge’s order to stop arresting immigrants solely on suspicion that they were in the country illegally.

Arpaio, who was one of the first elected officials to endorse Trump’s presidential campaign, was convicted in July 2017. The next month, Trump pardoned him, saying he admired Arpaio’s work “protecting the public from the scourges of crime and illegal immigration.”

Last year, Arpaio lost a Republican primary race for the U.S. Senate to Rep. Martha McSally.

Arpaio reveled in his reputation as America’s toughest sheriff, which led him to be the target of several civil rights lawsuits. He boasted that:

  • He forced inmates to wear pink underwear.
  • He fed inmates only twice a day with a bland log called “Nutraloaf,” which other prisons serve as a disciplinary measure.
  • He subjected inmates to an in-house radio station that played patriotic music and opera for 20 hours a week. He called the station KJOE.

In 2008 and 2010, a federal judge ruled that Arpaio’s jails violated the constitutional rights of inmates when it came to medical care.

Arpaio was also famous for housing prisoners in outdoor tents that he himself called concentration camps, where inmates complained that fans were inoperative and that their shoes melted.

He was reported to have responded to the complaints by saying, “It’s 120 degrees in Iraq, and the soldiers are living in tents, and they didn’t commit any crimes, so shut your mouths.”

In his announcement on Sunday, Arpaio lamented that “the last four years have proven to be a time of lost opportunities to continue the kind of tough policing this county needs.”

And he warned that his enemies would do their worst to make sure he isn’t re-elected.

“During the past several years, his opponents, activists and political figures on the Left, have utilized slanderous attacks on him through the fake and biased news media to try and keep him from being heard, but these efforts have failed,” the statement said. “However, he expects these attacks will continue in full force, even more so with today’s announcement.”

Arpaio’s opponents are likely to include Jerry Sheridan, who strongly supported Arpaio as his deputy for the last six years he was sheriff.

Sheridan announced in February that he is also seeking the Republican nomination to challenge Sheriff Paul Penzone, who defeated Arpaio with 56 percent of the vote in 2016.

CORRECTION (Aug. 25, 2019, 9:05 p.m. ET): A previous version of this article misstated how Rep. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., moved to the Senate. McSally lost the 2018 Senate race to Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat, and was appointed to the Senate in December 2018 after Jon Kyl resigned.

Source Article from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ex-sheriff-joe-arpaio-pardoned-trump-wants-his-old-job-n1046226

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles County deputy lied when he said he was shot in the shoulder while standing in a sheriff’s station parking lot last week and will face a criminal investigation, authorities said.

“The reported sniper assault was fabricated” by Deputy Angel Reinosa, Assistant Sheriff Robin Limon said at a news conference late Saturday.

Reinosa, 21, made a frantic radio call Wednesday claiming he’d been shot by someone in a nearby building as he walked to his car outside the Lancaster station, prompting a huge police response. Deputies set up a perimeter and SWAT officers went door-to-door inside a sprawling building complex to search for the shooter.

At the time, investigators believed Reinosa’s bulletproof vest saved his life but that a bullet grazed him. A department statement the next day said a single round hit the top of Reinosa’s shoulder, damaging his uniform shirt but failing to penetrate his flesh.

But no bullets were recovered from the scene and detectives saw “no visible injuries,” Capt. Kent Wegener said Saturday night.

Much of the young deputy’s statement “was self-serving and didn’t make a whole lot of sense,” Wegener said. “There were many things that didn’t add up.”

Reinosa eventually admitted making up the story and using a knife to cut the two holes in his shirt, Wegener said.

Reinosa has been relieved of his duties and could face charges for filing a false report about a crime, officials said. He didn’t explain his motive for the fabrication, Wegener said.

Reinosa had been with the LA County Sheriff’s Department for a year and joined the Lancaster station in May for patrol training.

Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris told the Los Angeles Times on Sunday he had been informed by sheriff’s officials that Reinosa had been struggling in his first year in the field — a probationary training period that all deputies must complete before becoming full-fledged deputies. Sheriff’s officials wouldn’t immediately confirm that account.

“He was not advancing through the training program at an adequate pace,” Parris told the newspaper. “There had been a lot of attention on him.”

Parris declined to elaborate further on Reinosa’s performance but said the deputy was scheduled to be transferred from the Lancaster station and speculated that he had been unhappy about the pending move.

The mayor visited Reinosa in the hospital and then gave a press conference on the incident Wednesday night detailing the ongoing investigation.

Parris said he was “embarrassed” after learning Saturday evening that the whole ordeal was a hoax.

“At the same time, I’m grateful we don’t have a sniper running around,” the mayor told the newspaper. “And I’m really proud of how the Sheriff’s Department handled it. There was no attempt to cover it up.”

Deputies searched through the night for the sniper inside the block-long, four-story structure with many windows that overlook the sheriff’s facility in downtown Lancaster, a desert city of about 160,000 people north of Los Angeles.

Tactical teams worked their way through the building, evacuating some people and having others shelter in place, officials said.

Deputies cleared other nearby buildings, including a library. Authorities urged residents to avoid the neighborhood.

Metrolink train service was halted in the area.

The search was called off Thursday and authorities said the shooter was still at large.

“Our deputies responded to a cry for help and did exactly what they have been trained to do to protect our civilian staff, residents and community,” said a department statement Sunday. “Our community and other first responder partners worked side by side with us to move quickly, effectively and efficiently. There is no shame in that.”

The statement concluded: “The actions of one individual are not indicative of who Lancaster Sheriff’s Station Deputies are.”

Source Article from https://www.limaohio.com/news/370817/deputy-lied-about-sniper-assault

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Behind-the-scenes drama at G7 summit as Trump claims all is well

Fears of a global recession and other troubling issues awaited President Donald Trump and fellow leaders of the world’s most industrialized economies over the weekend at the annual G-7 summit. Trump denied reports Sunday of tension among world leaders at the summit in Biarritz, France, insisting that he was having “good meetings” and that everyone was getting along well. But behind the scenes, there were signs of discord. Here are a few key developments: 

  • Trump may have regrets over his trade war with China. At a meeting Sunday with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a reporter asked Trump if he had second thoughts about how the trade conflict with China has escalated. “I have second thoughts about everything,” Trump said. The White House later tried to clarify Trump’s comments, suggesting he regrets not placing higher tariffs on Chinese goods.
  • The U.S. and Japan agreed on a new trade deal that calls for Japan to buy U.S. surplus corn, Trump said Sunday. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said the deal will open up markets to $7 billion in other products.
  • A top Iranian official arrived unexpectedly at the G-7 summit Sunday, a move that seemed likely to highlight U.S. isolation on its handling of Tehran. Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had landed in France, but specifically mentioned he wouldn’t be meeting with Trump or other U.S. officials. The office of French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed Zarif left Biarritz after a five-hour visit.

Colts QB Andrew Luck abruptly retires from NFL

Andrew Luck stunned the sports world by abruptly announcing his retirement from the NFL on Saturday. The former Colts quarterback, who is just 29, said in a press conference that he felt “exhausted” as he dealt with the “cycle of injury, pain, rehab.” Despite his contributions to Indianapolis, the fans still booed him as he walked off the field Saturday night. It’s another example of fans just not getting it, columnist Mike Jones writes, as Luck showed courage to control his own life. By retiring, Luck is giving up $58.125 million left on his contract. What’s next for the Colts? Meet their likely starting QB.  

Joe Walsh to run against Trump in the GOP primary

Former Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh announced Sunday that he will run against President Donald Trump in the Republican primary for president. The former tea party congressman and current conservative radio host said on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” that he’s running because Trump is “unfit” and “somebody needs to step up.” Walsh, who has used racist slurs and promoted the “birther” conspiracy about former President Barack Obama, also apologized for past comments. “I helped create Trump, there’s no doubt about that,” said Walsh, who has become an outspoken critic of Trump and his relationship with Russia. Walsh joins former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld in the Republican primary against the president. 

Real quick

Star Wars, Marvel and more: Disney stuns at D23

Throughout Disney’s three-day biennial expo, D23, fans were transported between epic-space battles, the Marvel Cinematic Universe and childhood nostalgia. Disney not only showed special footage of “Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker,” but revealed that the saga is far from over. Disney’s new streaming service, Disney+, premiered the trailer “The Mandalorian,” along with announcing a new series featuring Obi-Wan Kenobi. More shows were announced too, including a series about about a Muslim Pakistani student joining the Marvel Universe called “Ms. Marvel,” the mercenary-led “Moon Knight” and the show about a woman hulk aptly named “She-Hulk.” Hillary Duff is making her return to Disney as Lizzie McGuire, this time as a 30-year-old millennial navigating New York City. Disney also revealed the first look of Emma Stone as Cruella de Vil, the villain from the animated 1961 film “101 Dalmations.”  

This is a compilation of stories from across the USA TODAY Network. Contributing: Associated Press.

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2019/08/25/trump-g-7-andrew-luck-retirement-weekends-biggest-news/2114553001/

Former Rep. Joe Walsh, R-Ill., says he’ll challenge President Trump for the Republican nomination in 2020. The Tea Party favorite argues that Trump is unfit for the White House.

Carolyn Kaster/AP


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Carolyn Kaster/AP

Former Rep. Joe Walsh, R-Ill., says he’ll challenge President Trump for the Republican nomination in 2020. The Tea Party favorite argues that Trump is unfit for the White House.

Carolyn Kaster/AP

Updated at 11:45 a.m. ET

Joe Walsh, a conservative talk-radio host and former Tea Party congressman, is launching a long-shot primary challenge to President Trump. He’s the second Republican to officially announce a run against Trump, who has a strong approval rating among his party’s base.

Walsh, 57, supported Trump during his 2016 campaign but in recent months has been offering a bitter critique of the president, calling Trump a liar and bully who is unfit for office. Walsh has also attacked Trump from the right.

“Mr. Trump isn’t a conservative. He’s reckless on fiscal issues; he’s incompetent on the border; he’s clueless on trade; he misunderstands executive power; and he subverts the rule of law. It’s his poor record that makes him most worthy of a primary challenge,” Walsh wrote in a New York Times op-ed this month.

On the Democratic side, meanwhile, 21 candidates are vying for the White House in 2020. But far fewer Republicans are attempting to deny Trump a second term. Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld is the only other person so far to announce he’ll try to unseat Trump, whose support among Republicans usually polls in the 80s, making him a formidable party incumbent.

“We can’t take four more years of Donald Trump. And that’s why I’m running for President,” Walsh tweeted on Sunday. “It won’t be easy, but bravery is never easy.”

When asked by Politico if he could raise enough money to pose a legitimate challenge to Trump, Walsh responded: “Abso-freaking-lutely. There’s a drumbeat from a lot of people out there for somebody who wants to take this on.”

Walsh has a history of controversial, incendiary and offensive comments.

In October 2016, Walsh said on Twitter that he was backing Trump for president, saying: “On November 9th, if Trump loses, I’m grabbing my musket. You in?”

Walsh was pulled off the air from his radio show in 2014 following his use of racial slurs in a discussion over the controversy around the Washington Redskins name. He later tweeted: “I’m trying to have an honest, adult conversations about words without resorting to alphabet soup phrases(C-word, N-word, etc).”

Walsh, who has called President Barack Obama a “Muslim” and a “traitor,” told George Stephanopoulos on ABC News’s This Week on Sunday that he has apologized for those comments, saying he feels responsible for some of Trump’s incendiary rhetoric.

“I helped create Trump. There’s no doubt about that. The personal ugly politics. I regret that,” Walsh said. “Now we have a guy in the White House, that’s all he does.”

In a video posted to his website, the former one-term Illinois congressman says, “These are not conventional times. These are urgent times. Let’s be real — these are scary times.”

He goes on: “We’re tired of a president waking up every morning and tweeting ugly insults at ordinary Americans. We’re tired of a president who sides with Putin against our own intelligence community. We’re tired of a president who thinks he’s above the law. We’re tired of a president who’s tweeting this country into a recession.”

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2019/08/25/754149376/former-congressman-and-talk-radio-host-joe-walsh-announces-trump-primary-challen

Bernie Sanders renewed his attacks on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell at a fiery rally in the top Republican’s home state of Kentucky on Sunday afternoon, demanding that McConnell stop his “cowardice” and “have the guts” to immediately take up legislation aimed at reducing gun violence, strengthening election security and raising the federal minimum wage.

The blistering address in Louisville came as national Democrats, hoping to retake not only the White House but also the Senate in 2020, increasingly have set their sights on the 77-year-old McConnell.

“The reason I’m in Louisville is to ask McConnell to do the right thing,” Sanders said at the rally, his voice rising. “Stop worrying about your billionaire friends — they’re doing just fine — and start worrying about the working families of this state and around the country who are struggling to keep their heads above water.”

Sanders also made a pitch for his version of the Green New Deal while speaking in coal-producing Kentucky. Last week, Sanders turned heads by tweeting that fossil fuel executives should be prosecuted criminally for damaging the environment.

“Why does he oppose virtually every piece of legislation that protects working families, while supporting legislation that gives huge tax breaks to billionaires?” Sanders asked rally attendees on Sunday. “Follow the money.” (Earlier this year, Sanders sparred with progressive activist groups that pointed out that he has since largely dropped his criticisms of “millionaires and billionaires,” opting instead to single out “billionaires” only.)

Bernie Sanders speaking to striking telecommunications workers on Sunday in Louisville. (AP Photo/Bruce Schreiner)

Sanders went on to note that McConnell has received “huge amounts of campaign contributions from Wall Street companies like Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, J.P. Morgan Chase and hedge funds,” as the crowd booed.

“Stop your cowardice,” Sanders continued. “Have the guts to debate the issues. … You don’t have the right to stop democracy in the United States Senate.”

McConnell has attached himself to Trump in positioning himself for his 2020 reelection bid. The longtime senator has vowed to bury the House Democrats’ agenda.

Earlier this month, progressive activists gathered outside McConnell’s home while he was inside, with one demonstrator calling for someone to stab McConnell “in the heart” and for McConnell to break his “raggedy” neck. Twitter then suspended the account belonging to McConnell’s re-election campaign for posting a video of the episode, but the social media giant later reversed its decision under pressure from Republicans.

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The episode led many Republicans to call on Democrats to tone down their rhetoric. But on Sunday, Sanders directly accused McConnell of prioritizing campaign contributions over domestic security.

“McConnell, take a look around you, and tell your wealthy campaign contributors that enough is enough — they can’t have it all,” Sanders declared.

In response, McConnell has lamented what he’as called unprecedented divisiveness in Washington. In unusually forceful, angry, and personal terms late last month, McConnell countered what he called “baseless smears” from left-wing media and vowed not to be “intimidated,” in the wake of a Washington Post op-ed that declared McConnell a “Russian asset.”

In particular, many Republicans said congressional Democrats have been playing politics by seeking election-security funding that already has been allocated for that purpose. Last year, Republicans allocated $380 million to the states for election security in a funding bill, although the move attracted little attention.

Prior to the rally at the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Sanders spoke to striking AT&T workers who have accused management of “unfair labor practices” during negotiations for a new contract.

Sanders spoke to the striking telecommunications workers before attending his rally in Louisville. (AP Photo/Bruce Schreiner)

The Vermont senator told union members that workers nationwide needed to “stand up and tell corporate America, ‘enough is enough.'” He added that corporations needed to reinvest in America and stop sending jobs abroad.

Kentucky Republican Gov. Matt Bevin, whom Sanders also attacked, condemned the self-described democratic socialist for “protesting business, protesting those who create jobs and opportunity.”

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“He thinks that everything should be free, somehow the job creators should be punished, and the people who do and don’t work to varying degrees should get everything for free,” Bevin said. “Doesn’t work that way. Anytime someone gets something for free, someone else is paying for it.”

Sanders, Bevin continued, was “crazy,” and “strongly believes” Second Amendment rights should be restricted.

Fox News’ Allie Raffa in Louisville, Sam Dorman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/sanders-slams-mcconnell-cowardice-as-ky-governor-laments-arrival-of-crazy-socialist