America

    The mastermind behind a plot to blow up landmarks in New York has died in prison aged 78. Blind Egyptian cleric Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman was sentenced to life in prison after his 1995 conviction for his advisory role in a plot to blow up landmarks, including the United Nations, and several bridges and tunnels. Kenneth McKoy, of the Federal Correction Complex in Butner, North Carolina, said Rahman died on Saturday after a long battle with diabetes and coronary artery disease. Rahman had been a key spiritual leader for a generation of Islamic militants and became a symbol for radicals during a decade in American prisons. The cleric, who had been blind since infancy from diabetes, was the leader of one of Egypt's most feared militant groups, the Gamaa Islamiya, which led a cam...

    Donald Trump has branded his critics in the US press not my enemy but the enemy of the American people, in a tweet that came a day after he launched a sustained attack on the media during a White House press conference. In his latest barb aimed at US journalists, the Republican billionaire took to Twitter to accuse reporters of publishing fake news and singled out several broadcasters for criticism. Mr Trump wrote: The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People! Mr Trump has frequently attacked the media but has never before called it an enemy of the American public. It comes a day after an astonishing news conference in which the US President criticised the press and commented on the nature of rep...

    Pictures of the two at a roundtable discussion about women in the workforce have gone viral this week as mischief-makers suggest the US president’s daughter may be swooning a little over the Canadian prime minister. The president’s daughter probably doesn’t fancy Canada’s PM like the rest of the internet but that didn’t stop the jokes. On much of the internet, Trudeau is essentially regarded as a Disney prince come to life – so, naturally, it assumes anyone who meets him is instantly smitten. The meeting itself had already attracted some controversy after Ivanka tweeted a picture of herself alongside her father and Trudeau in the president’s seat: Trump’s daughter holds no official role in his administration, yet she has participated in a number of official events. Trudeau...

    The New York Times has responded to a claim that one of its journalists said the First Lady is a hooker, calling the comment completely inappropriate. Actress Emily Ratajkowski tweeted on Monday that a journalist from the newspaper had made the comment to her the night before, and called it out for “slut shaming” Melania Trump. Ms Ratajkowski tweeted: Sat next to a journalist from the NYT last night who told me Melania is a hooker. Whatever your politics it’s crucial to call this out for what it is: slut shaming. I don’t care about her nudes or sexual history and no one should, she said, adding: Gender specific attacks are disgusting sexist bulls***. New York Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy said the reporter had referred to an unfounded rumour regarding the First Lady, and...

    President Donald Trump's embattled national security adviser Michael Flynn resigned late Monday night, following reports that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence and other officials about his contacts with Russia. His departure upends Trump's senior team after less than one month in office. In a resignation letter, Flynn said he held numerous calls with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. during the transition and gave "incomplete information" about those discussions to Vice President Mike Pence. The vice president, apparently relying on information from Flynn, initially said the national security adviser had not discussed sanctions with the Russian envoy, though Flynn later conceded the issue may have come up. Trump named retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg as the acting na...

    Whistleblower Edward Snowden has seized on a report that Russia is considering sending him back to the US as a gift to Donald Trump, saying that the story vindicates him of charges that he is a spy. Finally: irrefutable evidence that I never cooperated with Russian intel, he said on Twitter. No country trades away spies, as the rest would fear they’re next. Snowden was responding to a report by NBC which stated that US intelligence had collected information that Russia wanted to hand Snowden over in order to curry favor with Trump, who has said that the former NSA contractor is a traitor and a spy who deserves to be executed. The report based on two sources in the intelligence community said the intelligence had been gathered since Trump’s inauguration. The Guardian was un...

    Donald Trump has held his first telephone conversation with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, since entering the White House, telling the Communist party leader he will not challenge Beijing by upending longstanding US policy towards Taiwan. In a statement the White House said the leaders of the world’s two largest economies had held a lengthy and extremely cordial telephone call on Thursday evening in which numerous topics were discussed. President Trump agreed, at the request of President Xi, to honor our One China policy, the White House said, referring to a diplomatic understanding by which Washington does not challenge China’s claim over Taiwan, a democratically ruled island that Beijing considers a breakaway province. Following his shock election in November last ye...

    A federal appeals court refused Thursday to reinstate President Donald Trump's ban on travelers from seven predominantly Muslim nations, unanimously rejecting the administration's claim of presidential authority, questioning its motives and concluding that the order was unlikely to survive legal challenges. The three judges of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the argument that the ban targets Muslims raised serious allegations and presented significant constitutional questions, and they agreed that courts could consider statements by Trump and his advisers about wishing to enact such a ban. Moments after the ruling, Trump tweeted, SEE YOU IN COURT, adding that THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE! In response, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a D...

    President Donald Trump blasted department store chain Nordstrom Inc on Wednesday for dropping his daughter Ivanka's clothing line, prompting critics to accuse him of misusing public office to benefit his family's sprawling business empire. After Trump's highly unusual move to use a White House platform to intervene in a commercial matter involving his daughter, Nordstrom reiterated that its action last week was based on declining sales of the Ivanka Trump products. But White House spokesman Sean Spicer characterized the move as a direct attack on the president's policies. My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly. She is a great person - always pushing me to do the right thing Terrible Trump wrote on Wednesday on both his personal and official presidential Twitter ac...

    The wife of a Kremlin critic in hospital with major organ failure has told Sky News that those in charge of the Russian system are responsible for his suffering. Vladimir Kara-Murza - a 35-year-old Cambridge University graduate - fell ill last Thursday and spent the next six days in a medically-induced coma. Doctors believe he was poisoned by an unidentified toxin - although medics in the Russian capital say they have no idea what it is. His wife believes that he has paid a heavy price for participating in opposition politics in Russia. Yvegenia Kara-Murza said: I just think that it's the whole situation that the Russian government - the current Russian regime creates in the country. A committed democrat, a vociferous critic of the President Putin and the father of three c...