Spokesman for the UN Secretary General says the world body cannot verify the accuracy of the United States’ claim on the death of Daesh leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

“We’ve taken note of the announcement by the President of the United States on the death of Abu Bakr al‑Baghdadi, the leader of the UN‑designated terrorist group Daesh,” Farhan Haq said in a press briefing Monday.

However, he said the UN “cannot personally verify the accuracy of this.”

” We trust the reliability of the various sources of information that have been speaking up, but, obviously, any sort of information would need to be verified by the various authorities on the ground,” he noted.

When asked why the UN was only taking note of, and not welcoming the death of Daesh chief who was killed in a weekend operation, Haq stuck to the wording and refused to welcome the development.

“This is one of the events that we’ve taken note of.  We’ve made very clear that any progress against Daesh is to be welcomed. The Secretary‑General and the many branches of the UN, including our offices dealing with political affairs, with counterterrorism and others, have repeatedly urged all Member States to work together in the fight against Daesh, and any progress against them is to be commended,” he added.

“Daesh has committed heinous crimes and brought tragedy and death to thousands of men, women and children. And we should take this moment to remember the victims and families of victims of terrorism,” Haq said.

Meanwhile, the US has confirmed the killing of Abu al-Hassan al-Muhajir, billed as Baghdadi’s right-hand man in the Syrian town of Jarablus in Aleppo province.

Also according to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, an American soldier has been killed while two terrorists captured during the operation to take out Baghdadi.

US President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had blown himself up, dying “like a dog,” and “like a coward” after American forces trapped him inside a dead-end tunnel in a village in Syria.

“Last night the United States brought the world’s number one terrorist leader to justice,” Trump said while addressing the media at the White House on Sunday.

The president said the Daesh leader detonated his suicide vest while “crying and whimpering” during an overnight raid by American special ops forces in Syria. He said the explosion was so strong that al-Baghdadi’s body was “mutilated” and the tunnel was destroyed but forensics teams were able to identify his remains.

Culled from Presstv

The vast majority of Japanese voters back allowing women to inherit the Chrysanthemum Throne, a new polls shows, as the royal family struggles with a dearth of male heirs.

The survey, conducted in the wake of last week’s enthronement proclamation ceremony for Emperor Naruhito, found 81.9 percent favour Japan having a woman take the throne, with 13.5 percent opposed.

The Kyodo News agency poll, carried out over the weekend, comes as there is renewed debate about succession in the royal family, with inheritance of the throne limited by law to male members of the imperial line.ADVERTISING

There are currently just three heirs — the emperor’s younger brother Crown Prince Akishino, 53, his 13-year-old son Prince Hisahito, and 83-year-old Prince Hitachi, the emperor’s uncle.

The dwindling ranks of male heirs have rekindled debate about allowing female royals to ascend the throne, with top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga saying they would “cautiously” study the issue after a series of imperial ceremonies this year.

Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako have one child, 17-year-old Princess Aiko.

Not only are women precluded from inheriting the throne, but they lose their royal status if they marry a commoner, and their children are no longer considered part of the imperial line.

Japan’s Conservatives remain strongly opposed to revisions to the Imperial House Law to allow women to ascend the throne.

Last week, a group of politicians suggested instead enacting a special law allowing men from branches of the royal family that were abolished in post-war reforms to “rejoin” the line, in a bid to bolster the ranks of male potential imperial successors.

The survey, covering 732 randomly selected households, polled 1,009 people in total.

The results are in line with surveys in recent years suggesting public support for a woman taking the throne.

Source: AFP

Democratic presidential candidates have accused President Donald Trump of promoting racism in the US during a forum in South Carolina.

The forum, which was attended by former Vice President Joe Biden, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and five other Democrats, was held on Saturday at historically black Benedict College where Trump was presented an award a day earlier for his work on criminal justice.

The award ceremony provoked anger among candidates and temporarily prompted Senator Kamala Harris to pull out.

On Saturday, Harris spoke at the forum after the 20/20 Bipartisan Justice Center, which gave Trump the award, was removed as a sponsor.

“I said I would not come because I just couldn’t believe that Donald Trump would be given an award as it relates to criminal justice reform,” Harris told the audience.

“Let’s be clear: This is somebody who has disrespected the voices that have been present for decades about the need for reform,” she said.

Trump, who extolled his record on race and criminal justice while receiving the award, shot back at Harris, calling her a “badly failing presidential candidate.”

Donald J. Trump✔@realDonaldTrump

Badly failing presidential candidate @KamalaHarris will not go to a very wonderful largely African American event today because yesterday I recieved a major award, at the same event, for being able to produce & sign into law major Criminal Justice Reform legislation

Meanwhile, Biden said that “I don’t quite understand” why Trump would be given an award.

“It’s not just his words that have given rise to hate,” he said. “His actions – his actions have failed the African American community, and all communities.”

Trump is struggling with an impeachment inquiry focused on his request in a July telephone call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, who is a leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination to face Trump in the 2020 election.

Trump has compared his impeachment to being killed by a lynching mob without a proper trial.

“So some day, if a Democrat becomes President and the Republicans win the House, even by a tiny margin, they can impeach the President, without due process or fairness or any legal rights,” Trump wrote in a tweet. “All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here – a lynching. But we will WIN!”

Source: Presstv

The top American diplomat in Ukraine testified on Tuesday that President Donald Trump made the release of U.S. security aid to Ukraine contingent on Kiev publicly declaring it would carry out politically motivated investigations that he demanded.

The comments by William Taylor, a career diplomat and former Army officer who serves as the charge d’affaires in the U.S. embassy in Ukraine, were in a copy of his statement to lawmakers posted online by U.S. media.

Taylor’s statement to the three Democratic-led House of Representatives committees leading an impeachment inquiry against the Republican president marked a pivotal development in the political drama unfolding in Washington that threatens Trump’s presidency even as he pursues re-election.

It ran counter to Trump’s contention that there was no quid pro quo – a Latin phrase meaning a favor for a favor – related to the $391 million in security assistance approved by the U.S. Congress to help combat Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine that Trump had withheld.

“It was the most damning testimony,” Democratic Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz told Reuters.

In closed-door testimony, Taylor said he was told by Gordon Sondland, the U.S. envoy to the European Union, that Trump had linked release of the aid to public declarations by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that he would investigate Trump’s domestic political rival Joe Biden, and his son Hunter Biden, as well as a debunked conspiracy theory about the 2016 election.

Zelenskiy agreed to the request. The aid was later released.

“There was no quid pro quo,” said White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham. “Today was just more triple hearsay and selective leaks from the Democrats’ politically-motivated, closed door, secretive hearings.”

In his testimony, Taylor detailed numerous conversations and events and emphasized the strategic importance of Ukraine as it faces Russian aggression.

Previously released text messages that Taylor sent to other senior U.S. officials denounced as “crazy” the idea of withholding the security aid to benefit a domestic political campaign.

In his testimony, Taylor emphatically reiterated that view.

The House inquiry is focusing on Trump’s request during a July 25 telephone call with Zelenskiy that he investigate the Bidens.

Former Vice President Joe Biden is a leading contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination to face Republican Trump. Hunter Biden had served on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma.

Taylor said Trump also made a White House invitation to Zelenskiy contingent on announcing the investigations.

The content of the phone call was first revealed by a whistleblower within a U.S. intelligence agency, who submitted a report saying Trump pressured Zelenskiy to advance his personal political interests.

Trump also publicly asked China to investigate the Bidens.

Federal election law prohibits candidates from accepting foreign help in an election.

‘Direct line’

Wasserman Schultz said Taylor “drew the most direct line that I’ve heard from President Trump to the withholding of foreign aid to a vital diplomatic partner … and tying the withholding of that funding and the meeting that President Zelenskiy wanted to President Zelenskiy declaring that he would open investigations into the Burisma Biden issue and the 2016 election.”

Trump has denied any quid pro quo or wrongdoing and accused Democrats of trying to oust him to prevent him from being re-elected.

However, his acting chief of staff last week acknowledged that the aid was contingent on Ukraine investigating a discredited theory that there is a Democratic National Committee (DNC) computer server in Ukraine.

In his opening statement, Taylor said, “Ambassador Sondland told me that President Trump had told him that he wants President Zelenskiy to state publicly that Ukraine will investigate Burisma and alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election.”

The “alleged Ukrainian interference” is a reference to a debunked conspiracy theory that it was Ukraine, and not Russia, that interfered in the 2016 U.S. election.

U.S. intelligence agencies and a special counsel investigation concluded that Russia used a campaign of hacking and propaganda to undermine Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and boost Trump’s candidacy in 2016.

Taylor had mentioned his concerns over the withholding of U.S. aid on Sept. 9 to Sondland and Kurt Volker, the State Department’s former special envoy to Ukraine, in a text message provided to House investigators and later made public.

“As I said on the phone, I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign,” Taylor wrote in the text message.

‘A rancorous story’

On Tuesday, Taylor told lawmakers that Trump’s administration had established an “irregular, informal channel of U.S. policy-making” that ran counter to stated diplomatic goals.

Taylor described this channel as including Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, then-Special Envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker, Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Sondland.

“It is a rancorous story about whistleblowers, Mr. Giuliani, side channels, quid pro quos, corruption, and interference in elections,” Taylor testified.

Taylor also said Sondland told him that he recognized he had made a mistake by earlier telling Ukrainian officials that Zelenskiy’s desire for a White House meeting with Trump was dependent on a public announcement of investigations Trump sought.

In fact, Taylor testified, Sondland said, “‘Everything’ was dependent on such an announcement, including security assistance.”

Taylor was tapped to serve as charge d’affaires in Kiev, where he had served as U.S. ambassador from 2006 to 2009, after Trump in May abruptly removed Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch. Giuliani had portrayed her as resisting his efforts to push Ukraine to investigate the Bidens.

Yovanovitch testified in the impeachment inquiry on Oct. 11.

Sondland was a wealthy Oregon hotelier and Trump political donor named to his European diplomatic post last year.

In his testimony to lawmakers, he expressed concern that Trump had ordered U.S. officials in May to work with Giuliani on Ukraine policy. Giuliani had been working to engineer a Ukrainian investigation of the Bidens.

Taylor said Sondland, during a Sept. 8 phone call, “tried to explain to me that President Trump is a businessman. When a businessman is about to sign a check to someone who owes him something, he said, the businessman asks that person to pay up before signing the check.”

In addition, Taylor said Volker used the same terms days later.

“I argued to both that the explanation made no sense: The Ukrainians did not ‘owe’ President Trump anything, and holding up security assistance for domestic political gain was ‘crazy,’ as I had said in my message to Ambassadors Sondland and Volker on September 9,” Taylor testified.

Democratic Representative Gerry Connolly told reporters Taylor’s testimony was based on meticulous contemporaneous notes of conversations and meetings, adding to his credibility as a witness.

(REUTERS)

Japanese Emperor Naruhito formally proclaimed his ascendancy to the throne on Tuesday in a centuries-old ceremony attended by dignitaries from more than 180 countries, pledging to fulfill his duty as a symbol of the state.

Naruhito became emperor in May in a brief, tradition-filled ceremony but Tuesday’s “Sokui no Rei” was a more elaborate ritual at the royal palace in which he officially announced his change in status to the world.

“I swear that I will act according to the constitution and fulfill my responsibility as the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people,” the 59-year-old declared, his voice slightly hoarse, in front of about 2,000 participants, including Britain’s Prince Charles.

“I sincerely hope that Japan will develop further and contribute to the friendship and peace of the international community, and to the welfare and prosperity of human beings through the people’s wisdom and ceaseless efforts.”

The first Japanese emperor born after World War Two, Naruhito acceded to the throne when his father, Akihito, became the first Japanese monarch to abdicate in two centuries after worrying that advancing age might make it hard to perform official duties.

“As he is young and energetic with outstanding leadership, I hope he’ll support the people of Japan, which has faced continuous disasters and typhoons,” said Tomoko Shirakawa, 51, who was among small groups of umbrella-clutching supporters outside the palace.

The long-planned celebrations were tempered by Typhoon Hagibis, which killed at least 80 people when it tore through Japan 10 days ago, and pouring rain on Tuesday.

A public parade was postponed until next month to allow the government to devote its attention to the typhoon clean-up, while Tuesday’s inclement weather forced the palace to scale back the number of courtiers in ancient robes taking part in the courtyard ceremony although the skies cleared as it began.

Naruhito began the day’s ceremonies by reporting his enthronement to his imperial ancestors at one of three shrines on the palace grounds, dressed in a black headdress and pure white robes with a long train borne by an attendant.

He was followed later by Empress Masako, 55, his Harvard-educated wife, dressed in 12-layered white robes and attended by two women in violet robes to arrange her train.

Tradition-bound ceremony

For the main ceremony in the Matsu-no-Ma, or Hall of Pine, the most prestigious room in the palace, Naruhito wore a traditional burnt-orange robe and headdress, as his father did nearly three decades ago.

He declared his enthronement from the “Takamikura” – a 6.5-metre (21 feet) high pavilion that weighs about 8 tones – with an ancient sword and a jewel, two of the so-called Three Sacred Treasures, placed beside him.

Together with a mirror called Yata-no-Kagami, which is kept at the Ise Grand Shrine, the holiest site in Japan’s Shinto religion, the three treasures comprise the regalia that symbolize the legitimacy of the emperor.

Masako, wearing 12-layered robes and an elaborate, upswept hairstyle, also took part, her throne smaller.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe delivered a congratulatory speech before guests including Prince Charles, who with then-wife Princess Diana attended Akihito’s enthronement, as well as US Transport Secretary Elaine Chao and Myanmar civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Abe then led the assembled dignitaries in giving three “banzai” cheers for the Emperor.

Imperial family future

A court banquet is due to be held on Tuesday evening, before Naruhito and Masako host a tea party for foreign royalty on Wednesday afternoon.

While the public parade was postponed until Nov. 10, the NHK national broadcaster said there were 26,000 police providing security on Tuesday.

Naruhito is unusual among recent Japanese emperors since his only child, 17-year-old Aiko, is female and as such cannot inherit the throne. The future of the imperial family for coming generations rests instead on the shoulders of his nephew, 13-year-old Hisahito, who is second in line for the throne after his father, Prince Akishino.

Naruhito’s grandfather, Hirohito, in whose name Japanese troops fought World War Two, was treated as a god but renounced his divine status after Japan’s defeat in 1945. Emperors now have no political authority.

Though many Japanese welcomed the enthronement ceremony, some shrugged it off as a nuisance.

“There is no need for such an elaborate ceremony. Traffic has been restricted and it is causing inconvenience for ordinary people,” said Yoshikazu Arai, 74, a retired surgeon.

“The emperor is necessary now as a symbol of the people, but at some point, the emperor will no longer be necessary. Things will be just fine without an emperor.”

(Source: Reuters)

Canadians are electing a new Parliament on Monday after a tight election campaign that has raised the threat of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau being knocked from power after just one term.

The 47-year-old Trudeau channelled the star power of his father, the liberal icon and late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, when he won in 2015 but a combination of scandal and high expectations have damaged his prospects.

The Liberals and Tories went into the home stretch in a dead heat, each with about 31-32 percent support after 40 days of mudslinging.

Pollsters are predicting a minority government will result from Monday’s vote – led either by the Liberals or the Conservatives – as the smaller New Democratic Party (NDP), Green Party and Bloc Québécois have continued to chip away at the frontrunners’ leads.

Not in 84 years has a first-term Canadian prime minister with a parliamentary majority lost a bid for re-election.ADVERTISING

Trudeau reasserted liberalism in 2015 after almost 10 years of Conservative Party government in Canada, but he is one of the few remaining progressive leaders in the world. He has been viewed as a beacon for liberals south of the border in the Donald Trump era, even appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine under the headline “Why Can’t He Be Our President?”

Barack Obama✔@BarackObama

I was proud to work with Justin Trudeau as President. He’s a hard-working, effective leader who takes on big issues like climate change. The world needs his progressive leadership now, and I hope our neighbors to the north support him for another term.

Perhaps sensing Trudeau is in trouble, Barack Obama last week made an unprecedented endorsement by a former US president in urging Canadians to re-elect Trudeau, calling him an “effective leader who takes on big issues like climate change”.

“The world needs his progressive leadership now,” Obama tweeted Wednesday.

Lapses

Plagued by a blackface scandal and accused of ethics lapses in the handling of the bribery prosecution of an engineering giant, Trudeau has seen his star dim, his judgment questioned and his personal popularity slip over the past year.

He was hurt by the scandal that erupted earlier this year when his former attorney general said he pressured her to halt the prosecution of a Quebec company. Trudeau has said he was standing up for jobs, but the damage gave a boost to the Conservative Party led by Andrew Scheer.

Justin Trudeau✔@JustinTrudeau

A little rain can’t stop us! Port Moody’s ready to #ChooseForward.

No party is expected to get a majority of Parliament’s 338 seats, so a shaky alliance may be needed to pass legislation.

If it is the Conservatives who win the most seats – but not a majority – they will probably try to form a government with the backing of Quebec’s separatist Bloc Québécois. In contrast, Trudeau’s Liberals would likely rely on the NDP to stay in power.

Attack machine

Scheer, meanwhile, has struggled to convince voters to look past his dull, minivan-driving dad persona and the party’s minimalist platform to give the rookie leader a chance to govern.

Throughout the campaign, the devout Catholic father-of-five faced criticism for padding his resume and over his personal opposition to abortion and gay marriage.

A career politician who served as Canada’s youngest Speaker of the House of Commons, Scheer is described by those in his own party as bland, a possible antidote for those tired of Trudeau’s flash. The 40-year-old fiscal and moral conservative calls Trudeau a phony who can’t even recall how many times he has worn blackface.

Andrew Scheer✔@AndrewScheer

Justin Trudeau will pay any price to stay in power and he will use your money to do it.

A Trudeau-NDP coalition is a coalition you can’t afford.

I’ve spent the last 39 days talking about my plan to help you get ahead, and a Conservative government will do just that.

Conservative Jason Kenney, Alberta’s premier and a close friend of Scheer, calls the party leader “an extremely normal Canadian” who is so nice he “can’t fake being mean”.

Scheer, however, has so relentlessly attacked Trudeau that Nik Nanos, a Canadian pollster, said he hasn’t been himself.

“Scheer has been hostage to the message,” Nanos said. “His campaign has made him into an attack machine.”

Conservative supporters chanted “Lock him up! Lock him up!” at a rally Saturday after Scheer said he would investigate Trudeau’s attorney general scandal – mirroring the Hillary Clinton “Lock her up!” chant popular at Trump rallies. Scheer moved to calm the crowd and changed the chant to “Vote him out”.

Hugging refugees

Trudeau embraced immigration at a time when the US and other countries were closing their doors, even personally welcoming Syrian refugees to Canada with a hug and a gift of a parka. More than 45,000 Syrians were resettled in the country during his first term in office.

Under Trudeau’s leadership, Canada became only the second nation to legalise cannabis, held a public inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women, and passed legislation permitting medically assisted suicide.

His also negotiated a new free trade deal for Canada with the US and Mexico amid threats by President Donald Trump to scrap it.

But Trudeau’s efforts to strike a balance on the environment and the economy have been criticised by both the right and left. He brought in a carbon tax to fight climate change but rescued a stalled pipeline expansion project to get Alberta’s oil to international markets.

Scheer, for his part, is promising to end the carbon tax and cut government spending, including foreign aid, by 25 percent.

“That money belongs to you, not to them,” Scheer said.

Battleground push

Their voices hoarse, the frontrunning rivals made last, desperate pitches to undecided voters over the weekend in the key battleground provinces of British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec.

“We need a strong, progressive government that will unite Canadians and fight climate change, not a progressive opposition,” Trudeau told a rally in a suburb of Vancouver after whistle-stops in Ontario, Manitoba and Alberta.

“We need to unite as citizens. We need to unite as a planet,” the Liberal leader said.

Scheer, also crisscrossing the country over the weekend, accused the Liberals of being spendthrift, saying on Sunday in Vancouver: “The choice tomorrow is between a Liberal-NDP coalition that will run massive deficits and leave less money in your pocket or a Conservative government that will get back to balanced budgets and make life more affordable.”

“Trudeau would pay any price to stay in power and he’d use your money to do it,” he continued. “We want Canadians to send Conservative MPs to Ottawa to undo the damage that Justin Trudeau has caused.”

(FRANCE 24 with AP and AFP)

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, facing the loss of his Parliamentary majority in an election next week, traded attacks with his main rival on Saturday as a bad-tempered campaign entered the last few days.

Trudeau came to power in 2015 promising “sunny ways” and a new way of doing politics but saw his popularity drop earlier this year amid an ethics scandal. Images of him in blackface emerged last month, further hurting his Liberal Party ahead of the Oct. 21 election.

The 47-year-old prime minister, his voice increasingly hoarse, said Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer would slash spending and rip up Liberal plans to fight climate change.

Polls show the Liberals and the Conservatives in a dead heat, with neither able to capture a majority of the 338 seats in the House of Commons. This would leave the winner in a vulnerable position, seeking to govern with smaller parties.

“I am very excited and confident about the choice Canadians are making,” Trudeau answered when asked if he was worried about losing. “And the question they’re facing is with that vote do we stop conservative cuts? Do we invest in our families and in our future and make life more affordable for them?” Trudeau said after a rally in a fire station in the Ontario city of Hamilton, to the west of Toronto.

In the absence of an overriding narrative, dirty tactics and awkward moments have characterized the campaign.

A Nanos Research poll for the Globe and Mail and CTV released on Saturday put the Liberals at 32.6% public support and the main official Conservatives at 30.3%. The left-leaning New Democrats, who compete for the same voters as the Liberals, were at 18.4%.

Trudeau sidestepped questions about his plans if he did not win a majority. Minority governments in Canada rarely last more than two and a half years.

Scheer, speaking at a campaign event on Saturday, said Trudeau would spend his first 100 days negotiating a coalition with the New Democrats that would impose tax hikes.

“It’s quite clear that under Justin Trudeau region has been pit against region. Justin Trudeau has divided Canadians. He’s divided provinces. He’s failed to stand up for the types of big ideas, the big projects that can bring this country together,” he said during a pit stop in North York, Ontario.

Trudeau and Scheer made multiple trips to Ontario, which accounts for 108 of the 338 seats in the House of Commons. The Liberals hold 76 of those seats.

Trudeau was scheduled to make four stops in Ontario before flying later on Saturday to the western provinces of Manitoba and Alberta, where anger against the Liberals is rising over government environmental measures that critics complain will hobble the energy industry.

(Source: Reuters)

U.S. presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders returned to the campaign trail in New York City on Saturday, three weeks after suffering a heart attack, and pledged to resume at full throttle his battle against the business and political establishment, including members of his own Democratic Party.

“I am more than ready to assume the office of President of the United States. I am more than ready to take on the greed and corruption of the corporate elite and their apologists,” Sanders told a gathering of thousands of people holding aloft placards at the Queensbridge Park.

“To put it bluntly, I am back.”

Sanders, one of 19 Democrats fighting to take on Republican President Donald Trump at the polls in November 2020 was introduced by U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the leaders of the party’s progressives and a frequent target of Trump’s attacks.

The congresswoman announced her support to Sanders’ campaign as his campaign battled to overcome the health scare and a surge in support for Elizabeth Warren, a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts.

Sanders, 78, the oldest candidate in the crowded Democratic field, has bounced back rapidly since the Oct. 1 heart attack that threatened to derail his campaign.

But Sanders, a U.S Senator from Vermont, was already running third behind Warren and former Vice President Joe Biden in most national polls, although Sanders raised more money for his campaign in the last quarter than any other Democrat.

The rally was Sanders’ largest of his 2020 campaign so far, with 25,872 people attending, his campaign said, citing a count by an outside company that managed the event, which Reuters was unable to independently verify.

The number would make the rally larger than one held in the city by Warren last month, Warren’s largest of the campaign.

“His supporters are so much more passionate” than other Democratic candidates, said Christina Martin, 29, from Manhattan, who came to the rally with her mother, also a Sanders supporter and a breast cancer survivor.

Both said Sanders’ proposal for government-run health care was his main draw, and credited him with focusing the Democratic Party on the issue.

“He moved the party so much in the past four years,” said Martin. “We wouldn’t be where we are without him. We wouldn’t be talking about Medicare for All.”

Endorsement

The backing of Ocasio-Cortez is expected to boost Sanders in his efforts to fight off Warren. The filmmaker Michael Moore also spoke to endorse Sanders’ campaign.

Ocasio-Cortez, better known by her initials AOC, was welcomed with chants of “Green New Deal”, a reference to her proposal for a transition to renewable energy sources that has been taken up by Sanders as part of his policy platform.

The New York native went from working as a poorly paid waitress as recently as last year to sitting in Congress, she said, crediting Sanders for her own political awakening and shaking up U.S. politics with his primary challenge of eventual nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016.

“It wasn’t until I heard of a man by the name of Bernie Sanders that I began to question and assert and recognize my inherent value as a human being that deserves healthcare, housing, education and a living wage,” she told the rally.

Ocasio-Cortez volunteered as an organizer for Sanders’ 2016 campaign before winning her own election to the House of Representatives last year representing a district close to the site of the rally.

Progressive platform

Sanders, after taking the stage to AC/DC’s “Back in Black” song, launched into a wide ranging critique of an unequal U.S. society beset by what he described as the corrupting influence of corporate power.

He noted the park he was speaking in sat beside the country’s largest public housing project, Queensbridge Houses, which he said was in urgent need of repair, while just across the East River lay the shining skyscrapers of Manhattan, where banks and multinational corporations are headquartered.

Sanders said he would invest in public housing and education and write off medical debts, but warned that elites in politics, business and the media were working against his plans to address inequality.

“They want us to believe that the only reality that we can live under is the status quo, that real change is impossible,” said Sanders, also slamming moderate Democrats who questioned the affordability of his proposals during a debate in Ohio on Tuesday night.

He would raise taxes on the rich to pay for his plans, Sanders said, including through a wealth tax on those with a net worth of more than $32 million.

David Cobb, 61, said that, like many at the rally, he was drawn to Sanders’ by his plans for healthcare reform.

Cobb had one arm in a sling from recent shoulder surgery and clutched a “Bernie” placard under the other arm. He was accumulating thousands of dollars of medical debt, he said, despite having some coverage through the existing Medicare plan for older Americans and a health maintenance organization.

“It’s corrupt,” said Cobb. “We’re the only industrialized country in the world that’s like this.”

(REUTERS)

Former Vice President Joe Biden expanded his lead over more than a dozen other candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination this month as US House Democrats looked into allegations that President Donald Trump tried to pressure a foreign leader to investigate him, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday.

The Oct. 17-18 opinion poll found that 21% of Democrats and independents said they would vote for Biden in statewide nominating contests that begin next year, up 3 percentage points from a similar poll that was conducted at the end of September.

Democrats in the House of Representatives are holding hearings to investigate whether Trump improperly pressured Ukraine to investigate Biden and his son Hunter, who sat on the board of a Ukrainian energy company.

The House could vote to impeach Trump later this year, which would trigger a trial in the Republican-controlled Senate where a conviction and ouster seem unlikely.

Trump denies he did anything wrong.

So far, the inquiry does not appear to have shaken up public support for Biden or the other candidates for the Democratic nomination.

According to the poll, 16% of Democrats and independents said they would support US Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and 15% said they would back US Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, received about 5% support in the poll, and US Senator Kamala Harris and former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke both received 3%.

With less than four months to go before Iowa holds the first nomination contest, the race for the Democratic nomination remains wide open. About 1 in 5 said they remain undecided, and nearly two-thirds of Democrats and independents said they could still change their minds.

Many of the candidates, including Buttigieg, O’Rourke and Harris, are still relatively unknown to a majority of Americans, and only about 1 in 10 said they watched this week’s Democratic debate in Ohio.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online, in English, throughout the United States. It gathered responses from 1,116 adults in all, including 703 Democrats and independents. It has a credibility interval, a measure of precision, of about 4 percentage points.

(Source: Reuters)

US President Donald Trump and Democratic leaders cut short a meeting over Turkey’s war after the commander in chief experiences a “meltdown.”

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters Wednesday that Trump called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a “third-rate politician” and as the result, the meeting in the White House deteriorated into a “diatribe.”

“What we witnessed on the part of the president was a meltdown. Sad to say,” said Pelosi, who has launched an impeachment inquiry over the Ukraine scandal.

Drew Hammill✔@Drew_Hammill

Thanks for the new cover photo @realDonaldTrump!

Hoyer blasted the president’s treatment of Pelosi, suggesting that his behavior was unprecedented.

“I’ve been in many, many, many meetings like this,” he said. “Never have I seen a president treat so disrespectfully a co-equal branch of the government of the United States.”

Trump’s spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham rejected the Democrats’ allegations.