America

    US Attorney General Jeff Sessions came under fire late Wednesday after the Washington Post reported he met twice last year with Russia’s ambassador to Washington, seemingly contradicting statements he made in Senate confirmation hearings in January. The revelation cast a fresh cloud over President Donald Trump’s administration, which has repeatedly denied any suspected ties between members of his election team and Russia — which US intelligence says interfered in the 2016 campaign against Hillary Clinton. The White House quickly labeled the report an attack by partisan Democrats, confirming the meetings but arguing Sessions did nothing wrong. In a statement Sessions, the Trump administration’s top law enforcement official, said: ‘I never met with any Russian officials to d...

    The Trump administration is exploring alternatives to taking trade disputes to the World Trade Organisation in what would amount to the first step away from a system that Washington helped to establish more than two decades ago. Incoming officials have asked the US Trade Representative’s office to draft a list of the legal mechanisms that Washington could use to level trade sanctions unilaterally against China and other countries. Their goal, people briefed on the request told the Financial Times, is to find ways that the new administration could circumvent the WTO’s dispute system. Since being established in 1995 the WTO has become the pre-eminent venue for resolving trade fights between member countries, which its proponents say has helped prevent destructive trade wars....

    Donald Trump said on Saturday he will not attend the White House Correspondents Dinner, breaking with an annual tradition in which the US president is the guest of honor at a light-hearted roast held by journalists. I will not be attending the White House Correspondents Association Dinner this year. Please wish everyone well and have a great evening! Trump tweeted about the event, which is also heavily attended by celebrities. The White House Correspondents Association, which organizes the dinner, insisted the 29 April event would still go on as planned as a celebration of the First Amendment and the important role played by an independent news media in a healthy republic. We look forward to shining a spotlight at the dinner on some of the best political journalism of the ...

    A man who allegedly ploughed into a crowd enjoying the Krewe of Endymion parade on Saturday in the Mid-City section of New Orleans is being investigated for driving while intoxicated, police said. The accident came during one of the busiest nights of Mardi Gras when thousands of people throng the streets of Mid-City to watch the elaborate floats and clamor to catch beads and trinkets tossed from riders. We suspect that that subject was highly intoxicated, Police Chief Michael Harrison said on Saturday evening. Harrison was asked twice by the media if terrorism was suspected. While he didn't say No he did say it looks like a case of DWI. one people were hospitalized after the crash with five victims in guarded condition. Seven others declined to be hospitalized, city Emerge...

    Melania Trump could have been deported and banned from the US if Donald Trump had been president when she was working as a model in the 1990s, immigration attorneys have said. In 1996, Ms Trump then Knauss was paid for modelling work undertaken in the United States while travelling on a visitor or tourist visa, violating the terms of entry, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press. The first lady allegedly earned more than $20,000 in the seven weeks before she acquired legal permission to work in the country. She went on to apply for a green card in 2001 and became a naturalised US citizen in 2006 without disclosing any past indiscretions. Under new rules brought in by Mr Trump last month, immigration officials are now required to prioritize the removal of a...

    It’s cold and I’m alone. I walk along Khreshchatyk, this city’s main boulevard. The street lights cast shadows on the ground, concealing patches of slippery ice and trampled snow. I walk thoughtfully and carefully, unable to clearly see the obstacles in my path. As is so often the case in a foreign country, even in one that starts to feel like home, the compiled differences in language and life experience isolate you, making you hyper aware to minute details. A small group of soldiers in uniform huddle outside a bar. They’re smoking cigarettes. A group of pretty young women in leather high-heeled boots and black fur coats walk past. The soldiers are young men, but they hardly seem to notice. Their war isn’t over, and they’re not yet ready to pretend like it is. Old women s...

    Donald Trump has described the European Union as wonderful and said he is “totally in favour of it”, despite having in the past praised Britain as smart for pursuing Brexit. The US President, who has made no secret of his dislike of the Brussels bloc, said he had very good relations with the EU, but I thought that the UK would pull out of Brexit and I was right. The EU, I’m totally in favour of it. I think it’s wonderful, if they’re happy. If they’re happy I’m in favour of it, he said. Mr Trump’s about-turn follows previous criticisms levelled at the 28-member bloc for acting as a vehicle for Germany. He has also predicted that other member states would leave the EU. Mr Trump said during an interview in January: You look at the European Union and it’s Germany. Basically a ...

    Mexico's Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray Mexico has indicated it would not accept the Trump administration’s new immigration proposals, saying it would go to the United Nations to defend the rights of immigrants in the US. Luis Videgaray, Mexico’s foreign minister, was responding to Donald Trump’s plans to enforce immigration rules more vigorously against undocumented migrants, which could lead to mass deportations to Mexico, not just of Mexicans but also citizens of other Latin American countries. We are not going to accept it because we don’t have to accept it, Videgaray said, according to the Reforma newspaper. I want to make clear, in the most emphatic way, that the government of Mexico and the Mexican people do not have to accept measures that one government wants to ...

    Amnesty International said on Wednesday that US president Donald Trump's poisonous rhetoric on his way to winning the White House led a global trend towards increasingly divisive politics in 2016 that had made the world a darker place. In its annual report covering 159 countries, the human rights group said principles of human dignity and equality had come under assault from politicians seeking election and it zeroed in on Mr Trump, who took office on January 20. Donald Trump's poisonous campaign rhetoric exemplifies a global trend towards angrier and more divisive politics, Amnesty said in a statement issued in Paris. The world, it said, had become a darker ... unstable place, with a rise in hate speech targeting refugees across Europe and the United States. The early ind...

    Donald Trump sparked no small number of raised eyebrows along with a flurry of sarcastic comments - when he suggested something ominous had happened last night in Sweden. After Mr Trump made the remarks at a rally in Florida, everyone from Sweden’s former prime minister, weighed in to point out that nothing averse had happened. What has he been smoking, pondered Carl Bildt? You look at what’s happening in Germany. You look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this? Sweden. They took in large numbers. They’re having problems like they never thought possible. Some smart observers suggested Mr Trump may, not for the first time, have been referring to something he had watched on Fox News. Business Times pointed to a segment on anchor Tucker Carls...