Trump news: 'Shaken' president insults Pelosi at Syria meeting, as he repeats discredited conspiracy theories about Ukraine
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump has raged about the “totally illegal & absurd” impeachment inquiry on Twitter and justified his decision to pull US troops out of Syria, leaving America’s allies in the Syrian Democratic Forces under siege from Turkey, by telling reporters at the White House the Kurdish people are “no angels”.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi repeated on Tuesday that the House of Representatives would not cave in to Republican demands for a vote to approve the Democratic-led inquiry, which vice president Mike Pence and Mr Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani are now refusing to co-operate with, declaring: ”This is not a game for us. This is deadly serious. We’re on a path that is taking us, a path to the truth.”
As the president’s Democratic challengers for the presidency in 2020 squared off on the debate stage in Ohio, White House lawyers opened their own internal review of the handling of the president’s call with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky of 25 July, examining the response of aides and raising concerns they are seeking out a potential scapegoat.
A bizarre letter sent from Mr Trump to the Turkish president was laced with an equal mix of weird threats and friendly language. The White House confirmed that the nearly unbelievable dispatch was real.
The president also apparently had a "meltdown" during a meeting about the Syrian crisis with Democratic leaders, during which he told Nancy Pelosi that he "hates ISIS more than you do."
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Trump's latest appalling environmental rollback sees him overturning a logging ban in Alaska's Tongass national forest, also known as "America's Amazon".
Randi Spivak, public lands director at the Centre for Biological Diversity, offers this damning verdict:
Alaska’s elected officials are selling out their constituents and robbing future generations by trying to strip protections from one of the most pristine old-growth forests in the world.
Alaska is already reeling from the effects of climate change. Clearcutting remaining old-growth trees in the Tongass national forest would release significant amounts of carbon into the atmosphere and make things worse.
This disastrous plan would smother vital wild salmon streams with sediment and irreparably harm subsistence hunters. It’s wrong to put private profits ahead of the health and future of Alaskans.
Matt Drake reports.
↵Trump's next "Keep America Great" rally takes place in Dallas, Texas, tomorrow evening.
Don Jr and campaign manager Brad Parscale have been down to San Antonio early to butter up the locals.
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Breaking news: The Independent's Clark Mindock has more on the fourth man linked to Rudy Giuliani who has been arrested in New York on charges surrounding alleged campaign finance violations -
A third man has been arrested by the FBI in connection to a campaign finance scheme involving two associates of Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump's personal lawyer.
David Correia was arrested on Wednesday at John F Kennedy International Airport in New York, after flying there to turn himself in on charges related to a scheme to funnel money from international sources to a Republican congressman and a political action committee supporting Mr Trump.
Mr Giuliani is the president's personal lawyer, and has been representing him on issues related to the ongoing impeachment investigation in the House of Representatives. He has said he had no knowledge of illegal donations.
Mr Trump and the Italian president Sergio Mattarella are now conducting a joint news conference.
Mr Trump so far is praising the US relationship with China, and talking a bit about upcoming 5G technology.
Mr Trump says that the White House will "celebrate our deep and abiding friendship with Italy", noting that the US has a large Italian-American population.
Mr Mattarella has thanked Mr Trump for his invitation, and says the "relationship between the United States and Italy are marked by deep friendship and common interest".
Mr Mattarella is detailing the conversations he has had with Mr Trump during this visit, including the World Trade Organisation and their mutual relationship with China.
He says Italy is paying "close attention" to the national security requirements for new 5G technology.
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