The top 10 Democrats in the presidential race faced each other in yet another 2020 showdown, with Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren meeting head-to-head for the first time in the primary season.
The debate comes following a busy day in Washington, where the House Judiciary Committee approved a key resolution as it gears up towards potential impeachment of Donald Trump. The resolution has defined the boundaries of a probe that Democrats hope could lead to said impeachment, and potentially his removal from office. The move allows the committee to designate certain hearings as impeachment hearings, and empower staff to question witnesses for a longer period of time.
Mr Trump travelled to Baltimore today for a Republican fundraising event and the House Republican Conference member retreat dinner.
During the debates, Ms Warren and Mr Biden were joined by the likes of Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Beto O'Rourke, Julián Castro, Amy Klobuchar, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, and Andrew Yang.
The debate saw an illustration of their differences on healthcare policy, with Ms Warren and Mr Sanders advocating for Medicare for All, while many of the others advocating for a less aggressive approach.
Mr Trump has a quiet day scheduled for Friday, meeting for an intelligence briefing in the morning, before then meeting with the secretary of Defense in the afternoon.
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Hello and welcome to The Independent's rolling coverage of Donald Trump and his administration.
The House Judiciary Committee will today hold its first ever vote on Donald Trump's impeachment, with representatives set to define the boundaries of a probe which some Democrats hope could ultimately lead to the president's removal from office.
Republicans oppose the committee's impeachment efforts. But with Democrats outnumbering Republicans on the committee by 24-17, the resolution's approval is all but certain.
The meeting is scheduled for at 8am EST (noon GMT.)
Not all Democrats are comfortable with the House Judiciary Committee's continued attention on the potential attempt to impeach Trump.
Several party moderates - most of them newly elected in 2018 - met with the committee's chair Jerry Nadler yesterday to express their concerns that the process could be a distraction.
"It's sucking the air out of all the good stuff that we're doing, so that's our concern," said Florida representative Donna Shalala, who attended the meeting. She added very few constituents in her swing district asked her about impeachment over the August recess.
Representative Anthony Brindisi, of New York, said voters in his district "are calling for action on prescription drug prices, health care, border security and infrastructure — not clamoring for impeachment probes and investigations.
"Congress should be focused on getting things done that can improve the lives of working people."
Democratic House speaker Nancy Pelosi has also urged caution, telling her colleagues the public was not supportive of impeachment. But she nonetheless signed off today's vote, saying it was logical thing for a committee to establish its rules of procedure".
Today's judiciary committee resolution is similar to procedural votes taken at the beginning of the impeachment investigations into presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton, according to chair Jerry Nadler.
"The adoption of these additional procedures is the next step in that process and will help ensure our impeachment hearings are informative to Congress and the public, while providing the president with the ability to respond to evidence presented against him," the New York Democrat said.
He added: "We will not allow Trump's continued obstruction to stop us from delivering the truth to the American people."
The resolution that the committee will consider would set parameters for the panel's impeachment hearings in an attempt to give the House more powers to investigate the president.
But it is worth bearing in mind that the committee would still have to introduce impeachment articles against Trump and win approval from the House to bring charges against the president. The Republican-led Senate, meanwhile, is extremely unlikely to convict him and remove him from office.
Donald Trump was last night declaring a "BIG WIN" for his administration after judges ruled the government could proceed which a new policy which will bar most Central American migrants from seeking asylum in the US.
The Supreme Court decision late on Wednesday undoes a lower court ruling that had blocked the policy in some states along the southern border. The policy denies asylum to anyone who passes through another country on the way to the US without seeking protection there.
Most migrants arriving the US-Mexico border are Central Americans fleeing violence and poverty and will be largely ineligible under the new rule, as will asylum seekers from Africa, Asia and South America who arrive regularly at the southern frontier.
The Trump administration policy upends decades of longstanding US practice. A legal challenge against the move is continuing, but Wednesday's ruling allows Trump's government to implement the policy while the court case is ongoing.
Nearly two-thirds of Americans disapprove of Donald Trump's handling (or lack thereof) of the climate crisis, according to a new poll.
Sixty-four per cent of US adults do not approve of the president's policies on global warming, found the Associated Press-NORC Centre for Public Affairs Research survey. Less than a third said they approved.
Trump has repeatedly dismissed the scientific consensus on climate change, and his administration has rolled back Obama-era regulations aimed at cutting carbon emissions and curbing fossil fuel use.
The poll finds the majority of Americans trust climate science and want subsidies for renewable energy.
Donald Trump has logged on and is complaining about European Central Bank's new round of monetary stimulus, designed to support economic growth in the face of uncertainties like the US-China trade conflict and Brexit.
The central bank for the 19 countries that use the euro today announced it would cut the rate on deposits it takes from banks to -0.5 per cent from -0.4 per cent - a penalty rate which pushes banks to lend excess cash.
Trump reacted quickly to the bank's move in a dig at the US Federal Reserve:
Good morning from New York City, where we’ll be guiding you through today’s news out of the Trump White House. It’s a mostly quiet day for the president, who will be having lunch with the secretary of state at 12:30 pm.
Donald Trump will then head to Baltimore at night to the Marriott Waterfront where he will deliver remarks at the 2019 Republican Conference Member Retreat Dinner.
He’s scheduled to return to the White House at 8:55pm.
Stick with us here and we’ll keep you updated throughout the day.
The United States would delay a planned increase in its 25 per cent tariff on $250 billion (£200bn) of Chinese goods from 1 October 1 to 15 October, a move that was made “at the request of the Vice Premier of China, Liu He, and due to the fact that the People’s Republic of China will be celebrating their 70th Anniversary on October 1st,” the US president said in a tweet.
The move comes as trade talks between the United States and China have stagnated, leading to stock market volatility and consternation among businesses that have paid higher prices to import and export goods.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler said: “Some call this process an impeachment inquiry. Some call it an impeachment investigation. There is no legal difference between these terms and I no longer care to argue about the nomenclature."
The clerk is reporting the numbers on the official vote tally:
24 yes and 17 nos. The resolution is agreed to. The markup is adjourned, and the House Judiciary Committee has now voted to hear future proceedings about launching an impeachment of Donald Trump.
The Democratic-controlled House Judiciary Committee has successfully passed a vote to establish rules for hearings on impeaching Donald Trump in a move seen as a major step forward in the panel’s investigations into the president.
The resolution passed on Thursday is a technical step, and the committee would still have to introduce impeachment articles against Mr Trump and win approval from the House to bring charges against him. It’s unclear if that will ever happen, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has urged caution on the issue, saying the public still isn’t yet supportive of taking those steps.
And yet the House Judiciary Committee pressed forward, with Chairman Jerrold Nadler saying: “We have a constitutional, historical, and moral obligation to fully investigate these matters.”
“Let us take the next step in that work without delay,” he said just before the vote. “I urge my colleagues to adopt this resolution, and I yield back."
However, even if the House does recommend impeachment charges against the president, the Republican-led Senate is unlikely to convict him and remove him from office.
Additional reporting by AP. Story to come.
While most North Carolinians were remembering the lives lost on September 11, 2001, the Republican leaders in the General Assembly took advantage of a half-empty House and voted to override the governor's budget veto Wednesday morning.
Roy Cooper, a Democrat, said in a news conference that House Republicans called for a "surprise vote" while he and House members were honouring first responders on the anniversary of 9/11.
"Republicans called a deceptive surprise override of my budget veto," Mr Cooper said. "Unfortunately, it's the people of North Carolina who lose."
House Minority Leader Darren Jackson, a Democrat, said he told his caucus members that they did not need to be in attendance and that David Lewis, a Republican, chairman of the Rules, Calendar and Operations Committee, gave Mr Jackson his word that there would be no votes, according to the News and Observer.
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