America

    Britain is relying on Donald Trump for new RAF spy planes to hunt Russian submarines lurking off the UK coast, we can reveal. Fresh fears were raised over the country’s defences after the Mirror discovered jets to protect Royal Navy ships and subs have not even been ordered. The Ministry of Defence claimed in July it had confirmed the deal to purchase nine P-8A Poseidon Maritime Patrol Aircraft. But the planes are being bought through the US government - and it will not sign a contract with manufacturer Boeing until the new year. That leaves the deal at the mercy of the incoming President, who has already clashed with the aviation giant building the jets. UK defence sources admitted the contract “for the 8th US Production Lot, which will include the UK’s initial aircraft, ...

    Russian hackers are reported to have successfully broken into a US electricity grid. A malware code linked to a larger campaign dubbed Grizzly Steppe by the Obama administration, has been uncovered inside systems of an electric utility in Vermont, according to a report citing US authorities. According to unspecified sources with knowledge of the matter, the hackers did not actively use the malware to disrupt operations in any way. According to a senior administration official, the motives and end goals of the attackers remain unclear. However, authorities believe that the cyberattack may have been a dry run by Russian hackers, in efforts to determine whether the grid could be infiltrated, the Washington Post reported. The Grizzly Steppe campaign's malware code was made...

    It's no secret that Donald Trump’s cabinet is richer than your nan’s Christmas pudding. Todd Ricketts, Trump’s pick for deputy commerce secretary, has an estimated net worth of $4.5 billion, and the new secretary of commerce, Wilbur Ross, is worth $2.5bn. Altogether, the cabinet is worth an estimated $14.5bn. That’s more than the GDP of 87 countries (or 14 countries combined,) according to UN data from 2014. And Trump still has a few picks left to make. Unsurprisingly, there are worries Trump's cabinet will make decisions to benefit their own bulging bank accounts. The man of the people’s cabinet includes a billionaire heiress, a former Goldman Sachs partner, which is weird, considering Trump has promised to “drain the swamp” of politicians to end corruption in government....

    Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe with U.S. President Barack Obama, speaks at Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam, Tuesday. In Honolulu. Abe and Obama made a historic pilgrimage Tuesday to the site where the devastating surprise attack sent America marching into World War II. The leaders of Japan and the United States sought to remind the world that even the most bitter enemies can become allies, during a historic pilgrimage to the hallowed waters of Pearl Harbor. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe did not apologize, but conceded Japan "must never repeat the horrors of war again." Seventy-five years after Japan's surprise attack, Abe and President Barack Obama peered down Tuesday at the rusting wreckage of the USS Arizona, clearly visible in the tranquil, teal water. In a show of respe...

    Donald Trump has described the United Nations as being just a club for people to have a good time, after the U.N. Security Council voted last week to condemn Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. The president-elect wrote Monday on Twitter that the U.N. has such great potential, but it has become just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time. So sad! And on Friday, Mr Trump warned, As to the U.N., things will be different after Jan. 20th, referring to the day he takes office. The decision by the Obama administration to abstain from Friday's U.N. vote brushed aside Mr Trump's demands that the U.S. exercise its veto and provided a climax to years of icy relations with Israel's leadership. Meanwhile, the billionaire businessman took to T...

    In an alternate universe in which President Barack Obama ran for a third term against Donald Trump, who would have won? No surprise: The president and the president-elect disagree. A fresh dispute erupted Monday between Obama and his successor, spurred by Obama's hypothetical musings that had he run again, he would have been victorious. Interviewed for a podcast, Obama suggested he still holds enough sway over the coalition of voters that elected him twice to get them to vote for him once again. I am confident in this vision because I'm confident that if I had run again and articulated it, I think I could've mobilized a majority of the American people to rally behind it, Obama told his former White House adviser, David Axelrod, in a podcast released Monday. Trump, naturall...

    Donald Trump's new trade chief has urged Britain's rivals to take advantage of the God-given opportunity of Brexit to take business away from the UK. Wilbur Ross, the US commerce secretary designate, said Britain was facing a period of confusion following the vote to leave the EU and that it was inevitable there would be relocations. The billionaire businessman will be responsible for negotiating a free trade deal with the UK and his reported comments will raise concerns the incoming US administration will seek to exploit Britain's isolation following Brexit . Mr Ross was reported by The Times to have made his comments to an audience of Cypriot financiers in the days following last June's referendum vote - before he had been appointed to Mr Trump's cabinet. I recommend tha...

    As the first female airplane pilot in Afghanistan, Niloofar Rahmani became a powerful symbol of what women could accomplish in the post-Taliban era. But in the ultraconservative country, the limelight also brought threats, sending her into hiding from insurgents and vengeful relatives. Now, more than three years after she earned her wings, the 25-year-old Afghan air force pilot hopes to start a new life in the U.S. where she has applied for asylum, saying her life would be in danger if she returns home. Capt. Rahmani went to the U.S. in the summer of 2015 to train on C-130 transport planes with the U.S. Air Force. The course ended Thursday, and under the terms of her training stint, she was due to go back to Afghanistan on Saturday. She won’t be going. I would love to fly ...

    Donald Trump announced on Saturday that he will shut down his charitable foundation, a response to mounting complaints over conflicts related to the president-elect’s charitable and business interests. In a statement released by his campaign, Trump said the Donald J Trump Foundation would be “dissolved” to avoid “even the appearance of any conflict with my role as President”. Trump said he would continue to pursue his strong interest in philanthropy in other ways. The closure of the Trump Foundation, which was first reported by the New York Times, requires the approval of the New York attorney general’s office, which is currently investigating the nonprofit and issued a cease and desist order to it in October. The Donald J Trump Foundation was repeatedly the subject of con...

    He added that he would like to see Ms Obama return to being a male and let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla. A New York developer and leading supporter of Donald Trump, is at the centre of outcry after he said he hoped Barack Obama died of mad cow disease that the First Lady moved to Africa and lived in a cave with gorillas. Carl Paladino, the co-chairman of Mr Trump’s New York campaign, defended his comments that appeared in a free weekly newspaper published in Buffalo. Artvoice asked several leading figures from the city for their hopes for 2017. Obama catches mad cow disease after being caught having relations with a Hereford (cow). He dies before his trial and is buried in a cow pasture next to Valerie Jarre...