Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, has announced the launch of a formal inquiry into whether President Donald Trump should be impeached over a controversial Ukraine call.

Pelosi made the announcement on Tuesday after meetings with Democratic congressional leaders and working out plans to move toward impeachment proceedings against Trump over his July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

During the phone call, Trump allegedly sought Ukraine’s help to smear the former vice president and current front-runner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, Joe Biden.

“The actions of the Trump presidency revealed the dishonorable fact of the president’s betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security, and betrayal of the integrity of our elections,” Pelosi said in a televised address.

“Therefore, today I’m announcing the House of Representatives is moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry,” Pelosi added. “The president must be held accountable; no one is above the law.”

Trump reportedly urged Zelensky about eight times during the phone call to work with his lawyer Rudy Giuliani to investigate government corruption involving Biden and his son, Hunter.

Source: Presstv

Pressure is escalating for Democrats in the US Congress to launch impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump over allegations that the Republican president had asked his Ukrainian counterpart to launch an investigation that could damage Democratic political rival Joe Biden.

Speaking to reporters as he arrived at the UN General Assembly in New York on Monday, a defiant Trump said he is taking the impeachment threat “not at all seriously”

“The conversation I had was largely congratulatory, was largely corruption… and largely the fact that we don’t want our people, like vice president Biden and his son, creating… the corruption already in the Ukraine,” Trump said.

Trump also sought to deflect any blame from himself and redirect it towards Biden, accusing the former vice president, without evidence, of engaging in corruption in Ukraine.

The latest crisis for Trump was sparked earlier this month after The Washington Post reported that Trump made a phone call in July to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and allegedly attempted to coerce Zelensky into finding damning information about Biden’s son’s business dealings in Ukraine.

On Sunday, Trump acknowledged that he discussed Biden and his son in a call with the Ukrainian president.

Several Democrats now argue that Trump’s call for Ukraine to investigate Biden, and what they suspect was a threat to condition $250 million in aid to Ukraine on an investigation of Biden, is impeachable conduct.

That view may be pushing House leaders towards a tipping point for launching removal proceedings.

The Democratic leader of a key congressional panel said on Sunday the pursuit of Trump’s impeachment may be the “only remedy” to the situation.

Amid the growing pressure, several Republicans in the US Senate, which would hold a trial of Trump should the House impeach him, have signaled they want the president to be more transparent about the call and the whistleblower’s complaint.

“I would just urge the president — you know, he’s talking openly about the conversation — to release as much as possible,” Senator Lindsey Graham, a Trump loyalist, told the Hugh Hewitt radio show.

However, Democrat leaders have hesitated to pull the impeachment trigger. Launching impeachment proceedings could be a politically risky move ahead of a presidential election.

Source: Presstv

The chairman of US House intelligence committee has threatened President Donald Trump with impeachment amid controversy over his phone call with Ukraine’s president.

Adam Schiff said on Sunday that impeachment would be the “only remedy” if an investigation revealed that the US president had pressured his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, to investigate possible corruption involving former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.

“If the president is essentially withholding military aid at the same time that he is trying to browbeat a foreign leader to do something illicit, to provide dirt on his opponent during a presidential campaign, then that may be the only remedy that is co-equal to the evil that conduct represents,” Schiff told the CNN.

Schiff, who has so far been reluctant to push for presidential impeachment, said it “may be that we do have to move forward with that extraordinary remedy” if Trump sought information on Biden and his son.

“[I] want the country to understand this is the last resort,” Schiff added. “The president is pushing us down this road.”

News outlets reported last week that Trump urged Zelensky about eight times during a phone call to work with his lawyer Rudy Giuliani on a probe that could hamper the US president’s potential 2020 opponent.

Biden said there should be an investigation into Trump’s call, denouncing the action as “an overwhelming abuse of power.”

Trump on Saturday dismissed the Ukraine allegations as another witch-hunt attempting to smear his already tarnished reputation and damage his popularity as the Americans get closer to the 2020 presidential election.

Now that the Democrats and the Fake News Media have gone “bust” on every other of their Witch Hunt schemes, they are trying to start one just as ridiculous as the others, call it the Ukraine Witch Hunt, while at the same time trying to protect Sleepy Joe Biden. Will fail again!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 21, 2019

In an interview with local media on Saturday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko insisted that his country was independent and that Kiev would never take sides with either party in US politics.

Addressing a July phone conversation between Trump and Zelensky, the Ukrainian minister said there was no coercion and the conversation was friendly.

Biden is the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination for the 2020 election.

Since launching his bid for 2020 presidency, Biden has been referred to as “Sleepy Joe” by Trump, among other cases of name-calling.

The 76-year-old politician has also been lambasted for what his opponents and others have deemed inappropriate touching, hugging and sniffing of women and children. Biden has dismissed such allegations.

Source: Presstv

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s strongest rival, Benny Gantz, has thrown out his offer for a coalition, after their battle in the regime’s latest general elections ended up in a deadlock.

Gantz’s centrist Blue and White party is slightly ahead of Netanyahu’s Likud in the second round of voting this year, which was held Tuesday. However, they both lack the numbers of seats in the 120-member parliament to form a ruling bloc.

Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving leader, urged Gantz, the former military chief of the regime, to meet him Thursday, because he had pledged to form a right-wing government led by Likud.

“But to my regret, the election results show that this is impossible,” Netanyahu said in a video message on Thursday. “Benny, we must set up a broad unity government, as soon as today.”

Gantz, in response, said without mentioning Netanyahu and his request that he himself was going to form a “liberal” coalition, implying that he would not become allies with Netanyahu.

Moshe Yaalon, another top leader of the Blue and White, gave a more detailed response later in the day, saying his party was not willing to join forces with Likud mainly because of the looming corruption charges against Netanyahu.

“We will not enter a coalition led by Netanyahu,” Yaalon said.

“The time has come for you to tell Netanyahu: ‘Thank you for all you’ve done’,” Yaalon urged Likud members, who are yet to show signs of rebellion against the PM.

The swift rejection left Netanyahu “surprised and disappointed,” prompting him to repeat the call.

“It’s what the public expects of us,” Netanyahu said later in the day.

Gantz had taken a similar position over the course of the campaign and suggested several times that an alliance would only be possible if Likud dumped Netanyahu.

The election came five months after an inconclusive vote in August, where Netanyahu once again failed to form a majority government.

With 99 percent of votes counted, Israeli media are saying that a Likud-led right-wing bloc looks set to control 55 of the parliament’s 120 seats, with up to 57 for a center-left alliance.

Despite their rivalry, Netanyahu and Gantz had only narrow differences on key issues during their campaigns, meaning that even if Netanyahu was to stand down after five terms in office, significant changes in the Tel Aviv regime’s policies on relations with the United States, the standoff with Iran or the Palestinian conflict would most likely remain unchanged.

Once all the votes are counted, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin will meet with the parties that won seats and will ultimately give one party leader up to 42 days to form a government.

The deadlock has turned the regime’s former minister of military affairs Avigdor Lieberman, who is now head of the far-right Yisrael Beitenu party which has eight seats, as a key influence in the coalition-building process.

Lieberman remained open to the idea of a secular unity government but said Thursday that he was unconvinced by Netanyahu’s unity offer.

In a statement, he called Netanyahu’s offer “no more than a trick and an attempt to paint a false picture to prepare public opinion for a third round of elections.”

Lieberman resigned from Netanyahu’s cabinet earlier this year and has become one of his firm critics ever since.

Source: Presstv

US Vice President Mike Pence has said the United States is “locked and loaded” to defend America’s allies like Saudi Arabia but added that the Trump administration doesn’t want to go to war with anyone.

“In the wake of this unprovoked attack, I promise you, we’re ready,” Pence said on Tuesday following the attacks on two Saudi Aramco oil facilities on Saturday that knocked out more than half the kingdom’s production.  The strike sent oil prices soaring.

“We’re locked and loaded and we’re ready to defend the interests of our allies. Make no mistake about it,” he added.

Yemen’s Houthi fighters have claimed responsibility for the attack, but the United States has rejected their claim with President Donald Trump saying that Iran appears to be responsible for the strike.

Pence also said that it “looks like” Iran was responsible for the attack, but added US intelligence agencies were working to confirm the details.

The US vice president said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo would travel to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to discuss the attack with Saudi officials.

“We’re evaluating all of the evidence, we’re consulting with our allies,” Pence said.

He added that the United States “will take whatever action is necessary” to defend US allies.

US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Monday the American military was preparing a response to the attacks.

Esper briefed President Donald Trump in the White House on Monday. He did not directly put blame on Iran for the attack but accused it of undermining international order.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo put the blame for the operation on Iran, claiming, “Tehran is behind nearly 100 attacks on Saudi Arabia” and that “there is no evidence the attacks came from Yemen.”

Tehran, however, dismissed the allegation, saying Washington seems to be shifting from a failed campaign of “maximum pressure” to one of “maximum lying” and “deceit” against the Islamic Republic.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a tweet that “US & its clients are stuck in Yemen because of illusion that weapon superiority will lead to military victory.”

Yemen said it used 10 drones for Saturday’s operation, which was one of their largest retaliatory attacks ever inside the kingdom.

The Yemeni army has said the raids were carried out on the back of an intelligence operation and in cooperation with “certain honorable and freedom-seeking individuals within Saudi Arabia.”

Source: Presstv

Japan’s Shinzo Abe on Wednesday appointed new foreign and defense ministers and promoted a popular rising political star, in a cabinet reshuffle that fueled speculation over the prime minister’s successor.

The spectacular appointment as environment minister of the telegenic Shinjiro Koizumi, the 38-year-old son of much-loved former PM Junichiro Koizumi, set tongues wagging in Tokyo political classes as the Abe era draws to a close.

“Abe intends to start an open race to pick the next prime minister or even the one after that,” said SMBC Nikko Securities chief market economist Yoshimasa Maruyama.

A darling of the Japanese media, Shinjiro Koizumi received blanket coverage for his recent marriage to television broadcaster Christel Takigawa, which was announced at the prime minister’s office.

He is the third-youngest minister appointed to the cabinet in Japan since the end of World War II, in a country where seniority is prized in politics and many other walks of life.

Despite intense media spotlight, he has been coy on expressing his view on the issues of the day and there will be close scrutiny over his policies on nuclear power, particularly on whether he will break with his father’s anti-nuclear stance.

Abe is set to become Japan’s longest-serving prime minister in November but is expected to step down at the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leadership election in 2021 and the jostling for position is already beginning.

Japan’s new foreign minister is Toshimitsu Motegi, who was promoted as a reward for his work in negotiating a trade deal with the United States.

Outgoing foreign minister Taro Kono was shifted to the defense portfolio, in a move seen as reinforcing Tokyo’s hard line towards South Korea at a time of worsening ties between the two neighbours.

Kono, who has amused commentators by interacting with people on social media — even offering relationship advice at times — struck a hard line during the recent spat with Seoul that has infected their trade and security ties.

Motegi, 63, is a Harvard-educated political veteran who worked as a McKinsey consultant before winning a lower house seat in 1993.

Analysts do not expect the shake-up to herald significant changes to Japan’s diplomatic policy, which is managed largely by the prime minister’s office.

But it may also put Motegi in the starting blocks in the race to succeed Abe, noted Tobias Harris, an expert on Japanese politics at consultancy Teneo.

Speed skating Olympics minister

Abe retained the services of his trusted associate Taro Aso as deputy prime minister and finance minister, as well as Yoshihide Suga as the powerful chief cabinet secretary.

The PM also kept key allies and aides within the cabinet and top layers of the party to shore up his position for the next two years.

The Abe government is poised to hike its consumption tax from eight percent to 10 percent on October 1, amid fears this could act as a brake on the world’s third-largest economy.

He is also hoping to achieve his long-cherished ambition of amending Japan’s post-war constitution to change the status of the country’s Self Defense Forces.

Ahead of the cabinet announcement, Abe told party members he wanted a “united front in the party, and (to) powerfully push for a revision of the constitution,” calling it the LDP’s “long-term earnest desire.”

Abe also kept LDP Secretary General Toshihiro Nikai, who has deep contacts in China, as Japan prepares for an expected state visit by Xi Jinping in 2020.

Among other key figures are former Olympic speed skater Seiko Hashimoto, who became the latest in a string of Olympic ministers ahead of the 2020 summer Games.

Hashimoto is one of just two women out of 19 in the new cabinet despite Abe’s much-heralded “womenomics” programme. His previous cabinet included just one woman.

Japan ranked 125th in the 2018 World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Report in terms of women’s political empowerment.

The other woman is Sanae Takaichi, appointed as interior minister. She is seen as a hard-right nationalist, who regularly visits the Yasukuni shrine housing war criminals that enrages South Korea and China.

During her previous stint as interior minister, she threatened to cut off TV news stations over perceived unfriendly coverage.

(Source: AFP)

An American political analyst and activist says leading US Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden’s prospects are even lower than previous elections’ also-ran Hillary Clinton.

Myles Hoenig, who ran for Congress in 2016 as a Green Party candidate, made the remarks in an interview on Sunday.

“Clinton’s political positions were so far to the right,” he said, adding, “Biden is in a similar situation.”

“His political views are very conservative, anti-environmental, and pro-war, nothing that would truly engage or electrify especially younger voters,” Hoenig noted.

As one instance of political posturing that shrinks Biden’s powerbase, he cited his views on the run-up to the 2013 US-led invasion of Iraq and the war itself.

Hoenig said Biden’s fellow Democratic presidential aspirants at least acknowledge that the invasion was “a mistake.”

Not only does not Biden do that, but also he “blames [former president George W.] Bush for convincing him to go to war against Iraq, rather than saying the war was an act of aggression on the US’s part,” the analyst observed, noting, “For that matter, there really isn’t any Democrat running who would say that.”

Many people, who would more likely vote for a progressive Democrat were, therefore, likely to stay home, “seeing only personality as a difference, not policy,” the expert stated. “That could mean another four years of a Republican administration, with or without [current President Donald] Trump,” he added.

In 2016, at the end of Barack Obama’s limit of consecutive presidential mandates, Trump raised eyebrows by stunning Clinton thanks to the US’s Electoral College system.

The system overrides the popular vote, which gives the victory to the candidate winning the most ballots. It instead makes 538 “electors” across different states, who are chosen based on each state’s representation in Congress, liable for electing the chief executive. Therefore, if a contestant secures at least 270 of the electoral votes, they have won the presidential race.

Trump’s victory came while Clinton had received three million more popular votes.

Earlier in the month, the results of an ABC News/Washington Post poll came out, showing that Biden, who used to serve as the US vice president under Obama, remained the favorite presidential candidate among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents in the 2020 nomination field.

According to the survey, 27 percent of Democrats favored Biden as the party’s 2020 presidential nomination, followed by Bernie Sanders with 19 percent of support and Elizabeth Warren with 17 percent.

Source: Presstv

US President Donald Trump has claimed canceling peace talks with leaders of Afghanistan’s Taliban insurgents in a resort near Washington after the notorious militant group claimed responsibility for a recent Kabul attack that killed an American soldier and 11 others.

Trump revealed in a Twitter post on Saturday that he had planned a secret meeting with Taliban’s “major leaders” on Sunday at a presidential resort compound in Camp David, Maryland, adding that he also planned a meeting with his Afghan counterpart Ashraf Ghani, who was left out of the US talks with the militant group that seeks to topple the Kabul government.

The US president further stated that he immediately called off the talks after the insurgents declared responsibility for the attack on the Afghan capital.

“If they cannot agree to a ceasefire during these very important peace talks, and would even kill 12 innocent people, then they probably don’t have the power to negotiate a meaningful agreement anyway,” Trump wrote in the Twitter message.

Trump’s announcement came hours after US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Washington is seeking a “good deal” with the Taliban even after a wave of recent attacks by Afghan insurgents overshadowed negotiations with the militant group.

“The United States’ view is that the best way forward is a political agreement and that (is what) we’re working diligently on right now, that doesn’t mean we’ll take any deal,” Esper said on Saturday during a press conference in Paris with his French counterpart.

“We will make sure we have a good deal, a good enough deal that guarantees at least the security of our countries going forward and a brighter path ahead for the Afghan people,” he stated.

The Taliban insurgents — who now control more Afghan territory than at any time since the US-led military invasion of the country in 2001 aimed at rooting out Taliban and terrorism across Afghanistan — launched new offensives against the northern cities of Kunduz and Pul-e Khumri over the past week and carried out two major terror bombings in the capital Kabul.

In one of the Kabul blasts on Thursday, a bomber set off his explosives near the American Embassy, killing a US Army Sergeant 1st Class Elis Barreto Ortiz of Puerto Rico, bringing the number of American forces killed in Afghanistan this year to 16.

The development came as a senior US military commander stated during a visit to Pakistan that the surge of attacks by Taliban insurgents in neighboring Afghanistan has been “particularly unhelpful” to what he described as “peace efforts” there.

Surge of Taliban attacks hindering peace talks: CENTCOM

“It is particularly unhelpful at this moment in Afghanistan’s history for the Taliban to ramp up violence,” said the head of US Central Command (CENTCOM) Marine General Kenneth McKenzie in a press briefing in Pakistani capital of Islamabad on Saturday.

McKenzie, who oversees American military operations in the region, declined to comment on the diplomatic negotiations between US and Taliban representatives, however.

McKenzie further underlined that for the peace process to move forward, “all parties should be committed to an eventual political settlement” which, in turn, should result in reduced violence.

“If we can’t get that going in, then it is difficult to see the parties are going to be able to carry out the terms of the agreement, whatever they might or might not be,” he added.

Many Taliban elements are also based in neighboring Pakistan, where McKenzie held talks on Saturday with a senior Pakistani general with more talks scheduled for Sunday.

The CENTCOM commander further stated that he was not aware whether any of the planning for the recent wave of Taliban attacks in Afghanistan came from Pakistan-based militants.

This is while US and Taliban negotiators struck just last week a draft peace deal that could lead to a a major withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, where the American military has been bogged down in its longest war ever.

However, the recent wave of Taliban attacks in the country has cast a long shadow over a potential peace pact.

Under the draft accord, thousands of US troops would be pulled out over the coming months in exchange for Taliban guarantees that Afghanistan would not be used as a base for militant attacks on the United States and its allies.

But observers insist that a full peace agreement to end more than 18 years of war in the impoverished country would depend on subsequent “intra Afghan” talks. The Taliban, however, have rejected calls for a truce and instead escalated operations across Afghanistan.

Source: Presstv

US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who ran a presidential campaign centered on advocacy for women, ended her bid for the 2020 Democratic nomination on Wednesday after failing to gain traction in opinion polls or qualify for next month’s debate.

The move did not come as a surprise. Gillibrand, 52, languished below 1 percent in polls and struggled to raise money in a packed field.

“After more than eight months, and with clarity that she will not have access to the September debate stage, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is suspending her campaign for president today,” her campaign manager, Jess Fassler, wrote in a memo distributed to the media on Wednesday.

Gillibrand, a senator from New York since 2009, is the latest in a spate of Democrats to end their campaigns in the past month after failing to make headway. Her departure leave 20 Democrats vying to challenge Republican President Donald Trump in the November 2020 election.

“I know this isn’t the result we wanted. We wanted to win this race. But it’s important to know when it’s not your time, and to know how you can best serve your community and country,” Gillibrand said in a video statement on Twitter.

Gillibrand did not make an endorsement with her exit but told the New York Times she would do so at some point. She suggested she would like to see a woman win the nomination.

“I think that women have a unique ability to bring people together and heal this country,” Gillibrand told the Times, saying: “I think a woman nominee would be inspiring and exciting.”

But she added: “I will support whoever the nominee is, and I will do whatever it takes to beat Trump.”

To earn a spot in the September debate, candidates had to draw at least 2 percent support in four national or early voting state polls, and have 130,000 unique donors, including 400 in 20 states. Gillibrand’s failure to qualify for the debate likely would have had a significant impact on her already dire financial position.

“Moving forward, Kirsten will focus on uniting our party and our country to beat Donald Trump, flip the Senate and elect women up and down the ballot,” Fassler wrote in the memo.

Source: Presstv