Month: April 2019

Donald Trump has questioned the credibility of the woman who has accused his Supreme Court nominee of sexual assault, saying she would have reported the attack to police at the time if the attack "was as bad as she says".

Doctor Christine Blasey Ford, a professor in California, has claimed Judge Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her more than 30 years ago when they were teenagers, something he vehemently denies.

The US president’s remarks were a marked departure from his comments in the days since the accusation first surfaced, during which he refrained from attacking Dr Ford and said she deserved to be heard by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

On Friday the US president tweeted: "I have no doubt that, if the attack on Dr Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with local Law Enforcement Authorities by either her or her loving parents. I ask that she bring those filings forward so that we can learn  date, time, and place!"

Mr Trump had previously avoided naming Dr Ford or openly casting doubt on her account. 

Dr Ford took her allegations public with an interview in the Washington Post last Sunday, in which she claimed that Mr Kavanaugh drunkenly pinned her to a bed on her back, groped her and put his hand over her mouth to muffle her screams at a house party in the early 1980s.

She said she remembered thinking: “I’m not ever telling anyone this. This is nothing, it didn’t happen, and he didn’t rape me.”

The Senate Judiciary Committee has said it will hold a hearing to allow Dr Ford and Mr Kavanaugh to put forward their accounts. 

The move has delayed a planned vote to confirm Mr Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, which Republicans are eager to secure before the upcoming Midterm elections as they currently hold a majority. 

Mr Trump yesterday accused “radical left wing politicians” of attempting to smear Mr Kavanaugh’s reputation in order to "destroy and delay” a vote.

“Facts don’t matter. I go through this with them every single day in DC,” Mr Trump tweeted.

In a series of tweets, Mr Trump defended his nominee as “a fine man, with an impeccable reputation” as he expressed his frustration with the delay in the confirmation process.

Democrats have called for an FBI investigation into the allegations rather, but the Justice Department has said Dr Ford’s allegation “does not involve any potential federal crime.”

Dr Ford’s lawyer Debra Katz is still negotiating with Republicans about the conditions under which she might testify next week before the Senate.

Dr Ford has also asked the committee to subpoena Mark Judge, who she claims was in the room at the time of the alleged incident. Mr Judge has told the committee he does not recall the incident and does not want to speak publicly.

A spokesman for the Committee’s Republican chairman, Senator Chuck Grassley, said he "will consult with his colleagues on the committee. He remains committed to providing a fair forum for both Dr Ford and Judge Kavanaugh."

Dr Ford has also dismissed the suggestion by a prominent friend of Mr Kavanaugh that she may have mistaken the identity of her attacker – suggesting another classmate might have been responsible.

In response, Dr Ford said she knew and socialised with both men, adding “there is zero chance that I would confuse them”.

Mr Kavanaugh has said he wants a hearing "as soon as possible, so that I can clear my name".

Mr Trump has up until now been careful not to criticise Dr Ford but in an interview with Fox News on Thursday night he asked: "Why didn’t somebody call the FBI 36 years ago? … What’s going on?" 

He added that Dr Ford should "have her say… but I don’t think you can delay it any longer. They’ve delayed it a week already."

A substantial delay could push the judge’s confirmation vote to after the November elections, when Democrats could possibly seize control of the Senate.

Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader, sought to reassure evangelical activists on Friday that Republicans will "plough right through" to confirm Mr Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

A number of influential evangelical and anti-abortion leaders have expressed frustration in recent days that Republican senators have not done enough to protect their nominee. 

It comes as CNN reported the Senate committee is likely to propose a hearing for both Dr Ford and Mr Kavanaugh on Wednesday – two days later than they originally desired.

Cynthia Nixon, the left-leaning Sex and the City actress turned education activist, lost her dream of becoming New York governor on Thursday, trounced in the Democratic Party primary by the two-term incumbent.

Andrew Cuomo, 60, in office since 2011 and who commanded a huge war chest from powerful donors, batted aside her insurgent bid at 66-34 percent, US media projected not long after the polls closed.

The result puts him on course to win a third term as chief executive of America’s fourth most populous state, which leans heavily Democrat, in the general election on November 6.

The 52-year-old mother of three dived into the race in March, in a bid to become the first woman and first openly gay governor, demanding change and supporting a raft of left-of-centre hot-button issues.

She was one of a number of candidates hoping to shift the Democratic Party to the Left, capitalising on the rise of Bernie Sanders to usher in a new era of progressive politics to counter Donald Trump.

In her concession speech, she pointed to the way she had won concessions from Mr Cuomo, with a ban on plastic bags and fresh consideration of decriminalising marijuana.

"The generation coming of age in Obama and Trump’s America is one of the most progressive generations in history. And every day, more and more of you are turning 18 and registering to vote," she told her supporters in Brooklyn. "You are going to change America — and for the first time in our history create a nation that finally belongs to all of us."

Her supporters were sanguine in defeat.

"He is an experienced man and she is totally inexperienced," explained Cuomo voter Jack Buchanan, 87, on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

"We already have a totally inexperienced guy in the White House, so why put one in Albany?" he added in reference to the state capital and Mr Trump, who is hugely unpopular in the city.

"I don’t think she’s qualified," Nixon voter Jill Vexler told AFP in Union Square, confessing it had been "more of a sympathy vote."

"I don’t think she has enough strategy to get the money to do what she wants to do, but I do like what she wants to do."

Ms Nixon had hoped to ride the crest of other upset victories by political first-timers in Democratic Party primaries for congressional seats in places like New York and Boston.

The public school advocate and LGBT activist campaigned hard for universal healthcare, rent controls and fixing the decrepit subway.

Yet she headed into Thursday’s vote trailing Cuomo in every single demographic group, the governor leading 63-22 percent, up from 60-29 percent in late July, according to the latest poll from Siena College.

Winning state-wide is a much tougher gambit than a congressional seat, especially for a first-timer up against the well-oiled and well-funded machinery of a sitting governor.

"To break through, that requires a lot of money and organisation," said Michael Miller, professor of political science at Barnard College. "A lot of people would be surprised if she did pull it off," he told AFP.

The final home stretch of the race degenerated into ugly spats. She denounced as a smear campaign a Democratic Party mailer that implied she was anti-Semitic, to which Cuomo pleaded ignorance.

Then she sailed into controversy and free column inches of her own with a bagel order that incensed almost everyone, an incongruous smoked salmon, cream cheese, tomatoes and capers – on a cinnamon and raisin bun.

A British woman has managed to escape her three-month jail sentence in Dubai by flying back to the UK, despite Dubai authorities imposing a no-fly ban.

She was given the sentence in her absence in a court hearing on Monday, after fleeing the country.

Asa Hutchinson, aged 22, was charged with assault and theft following an alleged drunken altercation with a Swedish businessman in 2016.

According to the MailOnline, she has managed to escape by obtaining a new British passport andboarding a plane back to London.

“Asa left via the airport [in Dubai] and was fortunate not to have alerted the system [over the ‘no-fly’ court order],” a source close to Ms Hutchinson told MailOnline. “She was able to do this because she had replaced her passport. This is not usually possible.”

Ms Hutchinson, who was an account manager for a global transportation company in the UAE, was arrested following an incident in Dubai’s Al Fattan Currency House, where she was accused of being involved in an altercation with a Swedish businessman.

She and three friends were implicated when a drunken row erupted after the group took photos of a sleeping Swedish man.

One of the young group woke up the sleeping man by hitting him in the face,before another member stole his glasses and the fight escalated.

According to a medical report, the victim suffered a broken nose, finger and toe as well as scratches and bruises and was left with a one percent permanent disability as a result of an injury to his left nostril.

Taking pictures of someone without their consent and being rude to another person are both classed as illegal in Dubai and are punishable by jail time.

Ms Hutchinson, who lived and worked in Dubai, claims she was only a witness to the fight and is in no way to blame. However, since the other members of the group were never convicted as they had already fled Dubai, she says she was left "in the firing line."

She earlier lost her job after being arrested, and authorities seized her passport.

Ms Hutchinson claimed the authorities did not listen to her side of the story, adding:  "once the man made his complaint it was taken as fact."

She said she had little opportunity to defend herself as "the police are not interested in anything I have to say,” and her lawyers claimed that she was forced to sign papers, only written in Arabic and incomprehensible, confessing to the alleged crimes. She says that she was threatened with an immediate jail sentence if she did not sign.

Her father Iain has pleaded for "some compassion" for his daughter, commenting that "Asa is a young girl in a foreign country, being subjected to a legal system not at all like what we are accustomed to."

The young woman’s future remains unclear. Although she is back living in the UK, in her hometown of Chelmsford, Essex, she still faces arrest if she returns to Dubai, and extradition if she lands in any of the neighbouring Gulf countries.

Donald Trump’s own deputy attorney general suggested secretly recording the president and discussed invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him from the White House, according to the New York Times.

Rod Rosenstein was said to have broached the idea that the president was unfit for office with senior officials at his own Justice Department and the FBI last year.

Mr Rosenstein reportedly said he believed he might be able to persuade John Kelly, Mr Trump’s chief of staff, and Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, to pursue the 25th Amendment, which can be invoked if the president is unable to fulfill his duties.

It requires the support of the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet.

Mr Rosenstein furiously denied the New York Times report.

In a statement he said. "The New York Times’s story is inaccurate and factually incorrect.

"I will not further comment on a story based on anonymous sources who are obviously biased against the department and are advancing their own personal agenda.

"But let me be clear about this: Based on my personal dealings with the president, there is no basis to invoke the 25th Amendment."

The report was expected to spark accusations of a "deep state" conspiracy against the president from his supporters, who believe he is being targeted by officials within his own Justice Department and the FBI.

At a rally on Friday, Trump said there was a "lingering stench" about what was being exposed at the US Justice Department and promised he was going to get rid of that just as his administration had gotten rid of bad people at the FBI.

Speaking in Missouri Trump said "Just look at what is being exposed in our Justice Department."

"We have great people in the Department of Justice. … But you’ve got some real bad ones. You’ve seen what’s happened at the FBI. They’re all gone," he told a rally for Republican Senate candidate Josh Hawley. "But there’s a lingering stench and we’re going to get rid of that, too."

Donald Trump Jr, the president’s son, said: "I’m shocked, absolutely shocked. These guys would do anything in their power to undermine him."

Mr Rosenstein is overseeing the investigation by special counnsel Robert Mueller into allegations of collusion between Mr Trump’s campaign and Russia.

He was said to have made his comments in the Spring of 2017 around the time Mr Trump fired James Comey as head of the FBI.

Around the same time Mr Trump disclosed classified information to senior Russian officials visiting the Oval Office. which was said to have alarmed Mr Rosenstein.

At the time Mr Rosenstein was only a few weeks into his role.

He had himself  played a key role in the firing of Mr Comey, writing a memo that Mr Trump used to justify the firing.

Mr Rosenstein’s alleged comments were described to the New York Times by several people familiar with them.

He was also said to have suggested that other FBI officials secretly record Mr Trump.

His remarks were said to have been written down in memos by FBI officials. 

Mr Rosenstein never did secretly record the president, the New York Times reported.

A Justice Department spokeswoman said Mr Rosenstein had made a comment about wearing a wire when speaking to the president but it had been made sarcastically.

Meanwhile, Mr Trump questioned the credibility of the woman who has accused his Supreme Court nominee of sexual assault.

The president said she would have reported the attack to police at the time if it "was as bad as she says".

Dr Christine Blasey Ford, a professor in California, has claimed Judge Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her more than 30 years ago when they were teenagers, something he vehemently denies.

Mr Trump said on Twitter: "I have no doubt that, if the attack on Dr Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with local Law Enforcement Authorities by either her or her loving parents. I ask that she bring those filings forward so that we can learn date, time, and place!"

Little Leo Belnap loves nothing better than helping his mother put junk mail, credit card statements or other documents with personal information through the family’s shredding machine.

So when the two-year-old spotted a bundle of papers on the counter at their home in Salt Lake City he knew exactly what to do. He shredded them.

Only in this case it wasn’t a stack of worthless documents, it was an envelope filled with more than $1000 (£760) in bank notes that his parents had been saving up to pay for American football tickets.

"We realised it was gone the next day and started to search. We searched everywhere in our house and could not find it," Jackee Belnap told CBS News.

"I have a bin where I put junk mail and any files I want shredded and my son and I shred it when it gets full. I looked through that and then it made me think to look in the shredder."

The money was all there. If not exactly in mint condition.

"We were silent for about five minutes and just sorted money out and then I broke the silence and said, ‘this will make a great wedding story someday,’" said Jackee.

In all, the envelope contained $1060 that was supposed to go to her husband’s parents who had paid for University of Utah football season tickets. The envelope had been left on the counter to remind them to hand it over at the weekend.

She and her husband knew exactly who the culprit was.

"Leo had no idea he did anything wrong," she continued. "It felt unfair to get mad and he probably doesn’t even know what cash is as we use our credit card for almost everything."

There may yet be a happy ending. The family has been told they can send the shredded notes to the Department of the Treasury which reimburses tens of thousands of people every year for their mutilated currency – as much as $30 million in all.

The wine growing regions of Burgundy and Champagne are heading for an “exceptional” year in terms of quantity and quality boosted by the summer heatwave in eastern France, experts say.

Such is the quality that champagne producers say they are heading for the first “vintage year” for bubbly in a decade. Bordeaux and southern French regions, meanwhile, had a tougher time, blighted by mildew.

Maxime Toubart, president of the champagne vintners union, SGV, called the year “exceptional in quantity and quality” as grapes benefited from a wet winter that recharged water tables which the vines would tap throughout the hot, dry summer.  

“I didn’t have a single grape go rotten this year. Lots of producers told me they’d never seen a year like this,” said Mr Toubart. “We have high hopes this year will be a vintage year in champagne,” he told AFP.

Non-vintage wines make up the vast majority of production in the region and are a blend of the latest vintage plus several older reserve wines.

Non-vintage wines require a minimum of 18 months ageing before release.

In years where there is an outstanding harvest, producers “declare” the vintage and make wines using only grapes from that particular year. A minimum of 36 months maturation is required for these wines.

As a result, such bottles are “30 to 50 per cent more expensive,” said Mr Toubart.

Non-vintage champagne accounts for 80 per cent of sales worldwide. Régis Camus, cellar manager at the Piper-Heidsieck champagne house, said that 2018 would “likely” be a vintage year. The last one for the house was in 2008.

The abundant harvest will also allow wine-growers and houses to “rebuild their reserve (wines put aside in good years), which will enable them to face the possible vagaries of the climate in the future”, said the champagne wine board, CICV.

Hail and frost in previous years meant some champagne producers’ reserves had reached perilously low levels.

Over in Burgundy, the picture looked equally rosy. “This vintage has fully lived up to expectations, both in terms of quality and quantity,” said the Burgundy wine board, BIVB.

“The wines are showing good balance. The reds are undergoing extraction of deep some rich colours, while the minerality and crispness of the whites is very promising."

BIVB president François Labet said: “We are in the footsteps of preceding vintages. Undeniably, climate change has been beneficial for us as an eastern region. Pinot (noir) and chardonnay love these conditions.”

Bordeaux is also expecting a good year in some areas due to the same hot weather, but yields are down due to mildew, a fungus, which attacked the grapes after heavy spring rains, which affected 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres) of vineyards.