America

    When two Harris County Sheriff's deputies found him clinging to a tree branch, water up to his neck, Samuel Saldivar was distraught and in tears, describing how he watched a van carrying his elderly parents and his brother's grandchildren sink into Greens Bayou, a relative said. Saldivar's sister-in-law, Virginia, told The Associated Press Tuesday that the same deputies came to the suburban Houston home where she and her husband have stayed since volunteers evacuated them Monday for information about the children, aged 6 to 16, and her in-laws. They wanted to make sure that we understood how they found Sammy, she said. After his parents' northeast Houston home began to flood early Sunday, Samuel Saldivar borrowed his brother's van and drove to pick up the relatives. He tol...

    Donald Trump has issued his first statement in response to an unprecedented North Korea missile test over one of Japan's main islands, warning it that all options are on the table for a US response. The world has received North Korea’s latest message loud and clear. This regime has signalled its contempt for its neighbours, for all members of the United Nations, and for minimum standards of acceptable international behaviour, Mr Trump said, in a statement issued by the White House. Threatening and destabilising actions only increase the North Korean regime’s isolation in the region and among all nations of the world. North Korea fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile over Japan's northern Hokkaido region on Tuesday, prompting air-raid sirens and mobile phone alerts ...

    Tropical Storm Harvey was set to dump more rain on Houston on Monday, worsening flooding that has paralyzed the country's fourth biggest city, forced thousands to flee surrounding counties and swollen rivers to levels not seen in centuries. Harvey, the most powerful hurricane to hit Texas in more than 50 years, first hit land late on Friday and has killed at least two people. It has since stayed around Texas' Gulf of Mexico Coast where it is forecast to remain for several more days, drenching parts with a year's worth of rain in the span of a week. Schools, airports and office buildings in Houston, home to about 2.3 million people, were ordered shut on Monday as scores of roads turned into rivers and chest-high water filled neighborhoods in the low-lying city. Torrential r...

    The Washington Post's report on Saturday that President Donald Trump asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions about dropping the case against former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio offers a critical window into Trump's thinking. Trump's alleged conversation with Sessions and subsequent decision to pardon Arpaio could shed new light on Trump's motives when he spoke to former FBI director James Comey about ending the investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn one day after Flynn resigned. Arpaio, an early and enthusiastic Trump surrogate, was convicted of criminal contempt in July for violating a court order to stop racially profiling Latinos. When Trump allegedly asked Sessions this past spring whether it would be possible to drop the federal criminal investig...

    Ousted White House chief strategist Steve Bannon is gearing up for battle and has set his sights on President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, according to Vanity Fair. Bannon and Kushner have a long history of disagreement, with the two frequently butting heads on the ideological plane, where Bannon's far-right nationalist instincts clashed with Kushner's more moderate views. In the wake of his ouster, Bannon is looking to even the score with West Wing rivals like Kushner, Vanity Fair reported. In keeping with that, Bannon reportedly wants former chief of staff Reince Priebus to testify to special counsel Robert Mueller that Kushner was significantly involved in Trump's decision to fire former FBI director James Comey in May. According to Vanit...

    Donald Trump appears to be trying to placate Steve Bannon, the strategist whom he fired and who subsequently vowed that the presidency is over. Hours after Mr Trump fired Mr Bannon, the right wing populist had returned to his former position as the head of the pro-white nationalist Breitbart News  

    A defiant Steve Bannon declared the Trump presidency he had campaigned for was over as he vowed to carry on the fight after being ousted as the White House chief strategist. Within hours of leaving his office, Mr Bannon was back at Breitbart, the right wing website he ran, presiding over the evening news conference. In interviews he made it clear he was not going quietly as he rounded on those he held responsible for his departure. The Trump presidency that we fought for, and won, is over, he told the Weekly Standard, a right-wing newspaper We still have a huge movement, and we will make something of this Trump presidency, he continued. But that presidency is over. It’ll be something else. And there’ll be all kinds of fights, and there’ll be good days and bad days, but tha...

    Six law enforcement officers on Friday night were shot -- 1 is confirmed dead -- in three different U.S. cities, their respective agencies have confirmed. In central Florida, two Kissimmee Police Department officers were shot, chief Jeffrey O'Dell said at a press conference early Saturday morning. Officer Matthew Baxter, a three-year veteran, died. The other officer, 10-year veteran Sgt. Sam Howard, is in grave critical condition and the prognosis does not look good, O'Dell said. Gov. Rick Scott erroneously tweeted late Friday night that both officers had died. One of the four suspects remains on the run. The officers were investigating suspicious persons. President Trump reacted to the Kissimmee shootings, tweeting, My thoughts and prayers are with the @KissimmeePolice an...

    The co-author of Donald Trump’s memoir The Art of the Deal has predicted the US President is going to resign by autumn if not sooner. Tony Schwartz, who claims to have ghostwritten the 1987 best-selling business book, argued Mr Trump is on the brink of stepping down and said he would be shocked if his presidency lasts until the end of the year. Mr Schwartz, who has been a vocal critic of President Trump and spent 18 months interviewing and shadowing him in the 1980s, suggested he would negotiate a deal for immunity in the Russia investigation in exchange for giving up his seat in the Oval Office. He said: The circle is closing at blinding speed. Trump is going to resign and declare victory before Mueller and Congress leave him no choice. Trump's presidency is effectively o...

    The American Civil Liberties Union will no longer defend hate groups seeking to march with firearms, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, a policy change that comes on the heels of protests by white nationalists and counter-protesters at the weekend in Virginia. The newspaper quoted the ACLU's executive director as saying in an interview that, after violence during the Charlottesville protests, judges, police chiefs and legal groups would be required to "look at the facts of any white-supremacy protests with a much finer comb." An ACLU spokeswoman confirmed the policy shift and said the concern over weapons was not something the group has had to contend with in the past. We’ve had people with odious views, all manner of bigots. But not people who want to carry wea...