Donald Trump is attending a two-day summit with Nato leaders in London and has wasted little time in attacking Emmanuel Macron over his dismissal of the alliance as “brain-dead” ahead of a tense meeting at which the French president chastised the American for joking about Isis prisoners.
Back in Washington, leading Democrat Adam Schiff has said he will release the House Intelligence Committee‘s report on the findings of the impeachment inquiry later today ahead of Wednesday’s big Judiciary Committee hearing.
“This is a threat to the integrity of the upcoming election and we don’t feel it should wait, in particular when we already have overwhelming evidence of the president’s misconduct,” Mr Schiff commented as the president denounced the timing of the next phase of the process, arguing it has been scheduled to embarrass him as he meets with world leaders overseas.
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Breaking news: The House Intelligence Committee has released its report about the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump. The committee said its investigation "uncovered a months-long effort by President Trump to use the powers of his office to solicit foreign interference on his behalf in the 2020 election."
Story to come...
More on Kamala Harris' surprise decision to drop out of the 2020 primaries:
Breaking news: Kamala Harris has told her campaign staff she was dropping out of the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries amid a wave of negative press surrounding the California senator’s bid for the White House.
"'I’m not a billionaire. I can’t fund my own campaign", she wrote in an email to supporters. "And as the campaign has gone on, it’s become harder and harder to raise the money we need to compete."
Donald Trump has denied knowing Prince Andrew despite having met the embattled royal on several well-documented occasions, including the president’s official state visit to the UK earlier this year.
When asked about the Duke of York, who has stepped down from his royal duties after being accused of sexual assault, Mr Trump responded: “I don’t know Prince Andrew, but it’s a tough story, it’s a very tough story.”
The president was referring to allegations made in an new interview with a woman who said she was sex trafficked by the late billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, and forced to have sex with the duke when she was 17 - below the age of consent.
“There was a bath, and it started there and then it led into the bedroom”, Virginia Giuffre said about the alleged incident in an interview with the BBC programme Panorama. “It didn’t last very long, the whole entire procedure. It was disgusting.”
She added: “He wasn’t mean or anything but he got up and he said thanks and then he walked out and I sat there in bed, just horrified and ashamed and felt dirty.”
Here's my story on Donald Trump's tense meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, and what it showed about the pair's rift in their views for NATO:
The president of France fact-checked Donald Trump’s claims about European ISIS fighters during a tense meeting between the two world leaders at the NATO summit in London.
Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that, while ISIS fighters from Europe are “a tiny minority of the overall problem”, the majority of those detained in Syria are not “mostly from Europe” as Mr Trump has previously claimed.
The contentious exchange reflected an apparent rift between the French and US presidents over how to deal with the nearly 10,000 prisoners held in Syria following Mr Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from the region.
Story to come...
House Democrats release intense trailer for next phase of impeachment inquiry
Forget Black Widow or No Time to Die, this is the only blockbuster trailer you need today. Starring Bill Taylor, Marie Yovanovitch, Lt Col Alexander Vindman, Gordon Sondland and Dr Fiona Hill.
North Korea says it has 'Christmas gift' for America
Kim Jong-un is pushing for sanctions concessions before the end of year - despite continuing its missile testing unabated - and has issued a sinister message for the Trump White House in time for the festive season.
Adam Withnall reports.
Courts orders Deutsche Bank, Capital One to turn over Trump financial records after upholding House subpoena
A federal appeals court in New York has upheld the legality of congressional subpoenas seeking Trump's banking records but said sensitive personal information should be protected.
A three-judge panel of the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan issued the ruling, with judge Debra Ann Livingston saying in a partial dissent that the lower court should take a longer look at the "serious questions" raised by the case and give the parties time to negotiate.
The court said the application by the president and his children to block the subpoenas was properly denied by a judge this year.
The House Financial Services and Intelligence committees have asked Deutsche Bank and Capital One to turn over records related to Trump's business ventures. The lawyers for the congressional committees say they need access to documents from the banks to investigate possible "foreign influence in the US political process" and possible money laundering from abroad. Trump and three of his children challenged the subpoenas.
In May, US district judge Edgardo Ramos said Trump and his company were "highly unlikely" to succeed in proving that the subpoenas were unlawful and unconstitutional.
The 2nd Circuit agreed though it said the lower court should implement a procedure protecting sensitive personal information. It also gave litigants a limited chance to object to disclosure of certain documents.
Deutsche Bank has lent Trump's real estate company millions of dollars over the years.
President continues to turn screw over Nato member state contributions
Trump is continuing to hammer on about Nato members not meeting their two per cent GDP target - attempting to catch Trudeau out by asking him the exact number of Canada's contribution. The PM was too smart for him, however, declaring 1.4 per cent and promising to improve on it.
Trump says next G7 will be at Camp David, calls Adam Schiff 'deranged human being' and says he 'grew up with a complex'
The president do his third press Q&A of the day, this time alongside Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau. He says the next G7 will be held at Camp David in Maryland - after being forced to drop plans to host it at his Doral golf resort in Miami - and has been busy deriding Adam Schiff and the impeachment inquiry.
He also claimed he would "love" to have his Cabinet testify. Hmmm.
Trump also declared he thinks about climate change "all the time", which is not the same as saying he believes in it.
His claim not to follow the stock market is especially laughable.
Jens Stoltenberg reflects on breakfast with Trump
Rather him than me...
Trump has naturally not had much time for Twitter today due to his Nato commitments but has been sneaking out Matt Gaetz, Devin Nunes, Jeanine Pirro and Newt Gingrich retweets on the sly, you will be delighted to hear.
He has just tweeted this though, off the back of his Macron conversation.
‘You have bad information!’
CNN’s Chris Cuomo has been sticking it to conspiracy-minded Republican congressmen again on live TV for pushing comprehensively debunked theories about Ukraine's (nonexistent) involvement in hacking the 2016 US election.
This time Randy Weber was called out for suggesting CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm that features in Trump’s regular claims about Ukraine, was partially owned by a Ukrainian.
The executive in question, Dmitri Alperovitch, is an American citizen who was born in Moscow, as Cuomo was quick to point out.
Parents of Harry Dunn to protest Trump at Buckingham Palace
The family of British teenager Harry Dunn say they will “make their feelings known” to Trump as the president visits Buckingham Palace for a reception with the Queen and other world leaders this evening.
The 19-year-old was killed outside RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire on 27 August after his motorbike collided with a car outside, the latter vehicle driven by Anne Sacoolas, the wife of an American diplomat who was allowed to return to the US after claiming immunity.
Matt Drake reports.
Trump says EU founded 'to take advantage of the United States'
Some more highlights from the ongoing Trump-Macron session, including a particularly mad stream-of-consciousness take on the founding of the European Union.
Trump giving press conference with Emmanual Macron, latter 'stand by' disparaging Nato comment
Trump is currently sitting down with Macron, whom he attacked earlier today as "very, very nasty", on the sidelines of the Nato summit.
The Frenchman says he "stands by" his suggestion the alliance is "brain-dead", a line that was sharply criticised by his US counterpart.
Trump has continued to bash Nato member states on the organisaiton's 70th anniversary and suggested easing off on Russia (!)
He also appeared to back off on those big French import tarrifs.
But things are not altogether friendly...
President claims not to know how NHS rumour started
Trump said earlier in his Q&A with Jens Stoltenberg that he did not know where the rumour the NHS was on the table in post-Brexit trade talks had come from.
Spoiler alert: He started it.
Greg Evans has more for Indy100.
Meme roundup: The most hilariously brutal responses to Trump's arrival in London
Following his Stoltenberg sitdown this morning, Trump has been meeting with supporters at the InterContinental London Park Lane for a (highly lucrative) roundtable before returning to the ambassador's residence for lunch and meetings with Macron and Trudeau.
For Indy100, Joanna Taylor has this roundup of the funniest reactions to his latest visit to London.
Tucker Carlson tells Americans to back Russia over Ukraine, as Rudy Giuliani threatens to sue Steve Hilton
Over on Fox News, Tucker Carlson has backed Russia over Ukraine for the second time in a week and suggested some US journalists hate America more than Vladimir Putin.
Carlson said the US should “probably take the side of Russia” in a dispute between Putin’s country and Ukraine, even though the latter is an American ally.
On Monday night, Republican congressman Jim Jordan denied suggestions that Trump is helping Russia by pointing out that the Trump administration has placed sanctions on the country. Carlson said he he “totally opposed” those sanctions "...and I don’t think we should be at war with Russia… I think we should probably take the side of Russia, uh, if we have to choose between Russia and Ukraine.”
Meanwhile, another Fox anchor, Neil Cavuto devoted a section of his show on Monday night to reading out the abusive letters he had received after he had had the temerity to criticise the president by telling him "I don't work for you" and arguing on air that Trump was unable to distinguish between "fake news" and stories he just doesn't like (see below).
Cavuto had returned from his Thanksgiving to such messages from Trump supporters as: "So, you’re not dead? Well, we can only hope. Careful, Cavuto. It’s still icy out there!" Cold indeed.
Also at Fox, Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani has threatened to sue Steve Hilton - an adviser to British PM David Cameron many moons ago - after the latter branded him a "toxic chump", accused the ex-NYC mayor of trying to "enrich himself" by association with the president and urged Trump to get rid of him.
Rudy responded angrily on Twitter, calling Hilton a "wild card":
Here's Conrad Duncan on Tucker.
Bloomberg reporters blocked from covering Trump's 2020 campaign over owner's candidacy
Bloomberg News reporters have been barred from covering events on Trump's re-election bid due to alleged "biases", campaign chiefs said on Monday. The decision to no longer give credentials to Bloomberg reporters comes a week after the news service's founder, billionaire Michael Bloomberg, announced he was seeking the Democratic nomination for president.
Bloomberg News, which the former New York City mayor founded in 1990, has also said it will not investigate Bloomberg or his Democratic rivals but would continue to probe the Trump administration, as the sitting government.
Trump's campaign manager Brad Parscale called it a troubling decision to "formalise preferential reporting policies", and said Bloomberg reporters would no longer be credentialed to cover campaign events until the policy is rescinded. "As President Trump's campaign, we are accustomed to unfair reporting practices, but most news organisations don't announce their biases so publicly," Parscale said.
Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait said the accusation of bias could not be further from the truth. "We have covered Donald Trump fairly and in an unbiased way since he became a candidate in 2015 and will continue to do so despite the restrictions imposed by the Trump campaign," he said.
The Trump campaign's action illustrates the difficult position Bloomberg's candidacy has imposed on the news organisation. By saying reporters could not investigate Bloomberg or his Democratic rivals, some critics have said this would prevent the news organisation from conducting in-depth reporting on the campaign. Bloomberg officials say it is a position the news service has navigated before, when Bloomberg was mayor.
(Joshua Roberts/Reuters)
"This is my nightmare come true," said Kathy Kiely, a University of Missouri journalism professor who quit as Bloomberg political director when he was considering a run for the 2016 presidential nomination. Journalists at Bloomberg would have been better served if he had made clear he was stepping away from his company for the campaign, Kiely said, adding Bloomberg - and any candidate for president - was fair game for any kind of stories that Bloomberg News reporters could dig up. "It's unfortunate that this is creating a perception that this is how journalism works, that journalists are manipulated by their bosses," she said.
In a memo sent to staff members following Bloomberg's announcement, Micklethwait said he would continue the organisation's policy of not investigating Bloomberg, his family or his foundation, and "will extend the same policy to his rivals in the Democratic primaries". If Bloomberg was chosen as the candidate against Trump, the policy would be reevaluated, Micklethwait said at the time.
Dean Baquet, executive editor of The New York Times, also criticised the Trump campaign's move. "Bloomberg News is one of the largest and most influential news organisations in the world," Baquet said. "We condemn any action that keeps quality news media from reporting fairly and accurately on the presidency and the leadership of the country."
