Trump news: President hails disputed Syria 'ceasefire' as White House appears to confirm quid pro quo with Ukraine
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump’s administration announced a ceasefire in northeastern Syria after paving the way for Turkey’s offence to occur in the first place, with the president celebrating the move as a “great day for civilisation”.
The announcement was followed up swiftly by comments from the Turkish government casting doubt on the news, and criticism from those who have suggested that the Trump administration is giving the Turkish government a win by forcing Kurds to leave the region or face an uncertain future.
The breaking news arrives as Mr Trump's ambassador to the EU, Gordon Sondland, a key figure of interest in the impeachment inquiry, is testifying on Capitol Hill behind closed doors, turning on the president in his opening statement by saying he was “disappointed” by the decision to involve Mr Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani in US dealings with Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the president swiftly faced ridicule following the release of a bizarre letter he had written to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan imploring him not to attack the Kurdish fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces, which appears to have been thrown away and ignored by the recipient.
The mockery follows his dismissal of the crisis in Syria as “not our problem” on Wednesday and his falling out with senior Democrats when they urged him to halt the withdrawal of US troops from the region.
Meanwhile, the United States mourns congressman Elijah Cummings, a leading figure in the Trump impeachment probe, who died overnight after suffering through medical concerns.
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It's still early morning in DC but tributes will soon begin to pour in for the late Elijah Cummings. This clip of him speaking with Pelosi, Schiff and House Judiciary Committee chair Jerrold Nadler is already being widely shared.
The prospect of Trump having to pay his condolensces on the passing of this civil rights hero is almost too much to thing about.
A little more on Sondland.
The US ambassador to the EU is expected to tell House lawmakers today that he was merely repeating Trump's reassurances when he told another envoy that there was no quid pro quo in the administration's dealings with Ukraine. Trump blocked Sondland's appearance last week but Democrats promptly subpoenaed him.
Sondland, whose name first surfaced in the initial CIA whistleblower complaint in August, is certain to be asked about the text messages that show him working with two other diplomats to navigate the interests of Trump and Giuliani.
One text exchange that has attracted particular attention involves one diplomat, Bill Taylor, telling Sondland that he thought it was "crazy" to withhold military aid from Ukraine "for help with a political campaign." Sondland said in response that Trump had been clear about his intentions and that there was no quid pro quo.
Now, Sondland is prepared to tell lawmakers that Trump told him by phone before he sent the text that there was no quid pro quo and that he was simply parroting those reassurances to Taylor, according to a person familiar with his account. He is expected to say that though he did understand there to be a quid pro quo involving a White House visit, he did not associate Burisma with the Biden family and believed that an anti-corruption public statement was a goal widely shared across the administration.
Sondland will be testifying three days after Fiona Hill said that his actions so unnerved John Bolton that the latter said he was not part of "whatever drug deal Sondland and Mulvaney are cooking up" - a reference to White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney. But Sondland is reportedly prepared to say that neither Hill nor Bolton personally raised concerns about the Ukraine work directly with him.
Meanwhile, the ambassador is in trouble as it emerges he is spending $1m (£777,000) of US taxpayers' money on sprucing up his residence in Brussels.
Here's the full story on that outrage.
The British government has denied Trump's claim that Boris Johnson asked him to arrange a meeting between the grieving parents of teenager Harry Dunn and the American woman allegedly responsible for his death.
The prime minister’s spokeswoman said he was not aware the US president planned to bring the couple to the White House on Tuesday at the same as Anne Sacoolas, who fled the UK following the car crash which killed the 19-year-old in August.
Yikes. Trump is likely to cruise to re-election in 2020, according to Moody’s Analytics, a forecaster focused on economic trends that has only been wrong once since its launch in 1980.
Chris Baynes has more.
Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger has attacked Trump after The Wall Street Journal reported the US had intentionally bombed a military base operated by its own coalition against Isis as part of the hasty retreat from Syria.
"Is this the America you grew up believing in?" he asks.
Here's Jon Sharman with more.
Joe Biden has a new message for the president: "Release your tax returns or shut up."
Chris Riotta has the latest on this long-running theme.
Don Jr continues to make himself look like a complete doofus by going after Hunter Biden on nepotism grounds.
When you're the father and your son's entire career is dependent on that, they own you.
Narjas Zatat has more for Indy100.
The president's message on the death of Elijah Cummings was actually perfectly respectful.
The only trouble was, it came an hour after this and a series of retweets.
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