Tag: United States of America

Dangerous cars, electrical goods and toys could flood into the UK after Brexit unless the government urgently reforms the current “failing” safety enforcement system, a consumer group warned on Monday. says the public will be vulnerable to delays in spotting and dealing with unsafe products unless continued access to the European Safety Gate system is negotiated. Concern over food safety as US seeks greater access to UK markets Read more Its new analysis shows the scheme, under which 31 European countries alert each other to products with serious safety problems, issued 34% more notifications in 2018 than a decade ago. In recent months, alerts have included a toxic children’s putty that could damage youngsters’ reproductive systems, and clothing which posed a strangulation risk. Recall notices have also appeared for fire-risk HP laptop batteries, explosive Honda airbags and a flammable children’s Star Wars Stormtrooper outfit. Last year the system flagged 2,064 dangerous non-food products – 500 more than in 2008, when the figure stood at 1,542. While part of the increase may be attributed to better reporting by authorities, the increase highlights the scale of unsafe products that must be tackled, Which? Action can include recalls, warnings or seizing products at the border – all reliant on increasingly cash-strapped trading standards run by local councils. “If it is to make people’s safety the number one priority, the government must secure access to the European alert and information sharing systems after Brexit, as well as introduce major domestic reforms to ensure consumers are properly protected from unsafe products.” In 2018 toys and vehicles were the product categories with the highest number of safety notices, 655 and 419 respectively, and both with significant increases over 10 years. Martyn Allen, the technical director at Electrical Safety First, said that after Brexit: “If no agreement between all contributing member states is found, the UK may be disconnected from Safety Gate.

This is higher than the percentage of people who reported that America is divided over issues of race and ethnicity (83 percent) or religion (77 percent). Like other recent polls and surveys, ours asked people whether they would be happy or unhappy if they had a child who married someone from the opposing party, Republican or Democratic. True polarization is when you dislike the other party and really like your own party. While this number grew to 25 percent among people who have strong connections to their party, it shrank to 10 percent of weak partisans. Weak partisans aren’t happy with an in-law from the opposing party discussing politics, but many are just as unhappy with an in-law from their own party who insists on political conversation. Other studies suggest, much like ours, that somewhere between 15 percent and 20 percent of Americans are truly polarized. In the 2018 American Family Survey, for example, only 21 percent of participants reported that it was important for a married couple to be of the same party. Looking beyond marriage, a survey conducted by The New York Times found that only 16 percent of people placed their political party membership among the top three terms they used to describe themselves. If the polarized are who comes to mind when Americans imagine a partisan, it is no wonder these Americans aren’t excited about that new in-law who supports the other party. These people may get the most attention, but they are also outnumbered by the majority who just want to discuss other things than politics.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Friday sentenced Republican political consultant Samuel Patten to 36 months of probation, 500 hours of community service and a $5,000 fine in a case spun out of U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe. Patten, 47, pleaded guilty in August to communicating with U.S. lawmakers and news media organizations on behalf of a Russia-aligned political party in Ukraine called the Opposition Bloc without disclosing that work to the Justice Department, in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), among other offenses. Patten is a former business partner of Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian national indicted by Mueller and accused of having ties to Russian intelligence. In Patten’s guilty plea he also admitted to arranging for a U.S. citizen to act as a straw purchaser to pay $50,000 for four tickets to the inauguration of Republican President Donald Trump on behalf of a Ukrainian oligarch, who reimbursed Patten through a Cypriot account. Patten, who spoke briefly at the hearing, said he “fully recognized” that he committed serious criminal conduct. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said Patten’s violation of FARA was “not a mere technicality” and undermined the democratic process. You didn’t try to justify them, and you didn’t try to blame them on anyone else,” Berman Jackson said to Patten, adding “that doesn’t happen everyday in this courtroom.” Berman Jackson said the acceptance of responsibility was one reason Patten received a much lighter sentence than former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Patten’s lawyer had asked for a sentence of probation, saying his case was unlike other FARA prosecutions, which have typically involved a lobbyist attempting to conceal the identity of the client and the source of funds. Federal prosecutors in Washington, who started investigating Patten after receiving a referral from Mueller, said in a court filing on Monday that Patten met or spoke with government investigators on the phone nine times. Patten’s case has sparked interest in Washington amid a widening crackdown by the Justice Department on undisclosed lobbying.

A huge row is brewing after Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was arrested yesterday at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he has lived for the past seven years. The government of Ecuador revoked his asylum and invited police officers to take him away from its premises in Knightsbridge. He was found guilty of failing to surrender to court. Assange now faces extradition to United States for conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, over the leaks of millions of classified government documents. His colleagues at Wikileaks claim he could face the death penalty, but Washington insists that the computer hacking charge against him carries a maximum of five years. Further charges could yet be brought. It sets the scene for a political battle, as while Theresa May has welcomed Assange’s arrest, Jeremy Corbyn says his extradition “for exposing evidence of atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan should be opposed”. She invoked the case of Gary McKinnon, who hacked into US computers but whose extradition was blocked on human rights grounds by May in 2012, when the prime minister was home secretary. But Labour’s position could yet change if it becomes clear that Sweden would go on to extradite Assange to the US. However things play out, the case is sure to cause friction within Labour.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Friday sentenced Republican political consultant Samuel Patten to 36 months of probation, 500 hours of community service and a $5,000 fine in a case spun out of U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe. Patten, 47, pleaded guilty in August to communicating with U.S. lawmakers and news media organizations on behalf of a Russia-aligned political party in Ukraine called the Opposition Bloc without disclosing that work to the Justice Department, in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), among other offenses. Patten is a former business partner of Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian national indicted by Mueller and accused of having ties to Russian intelligence. In Patten’s guilty plea he also admitted to arranging for a U.S. citizen to act as a straw purchaser to pay $50,000 for four tickets to the inauguration of Republican President Donald Trump on behalf of a Ukrainian oligarch, who reimbursed Patten through a Cypriot account. Patten, who spoke briefly at the hearing, said he “fully recognized” that he committed serious criminal conduct. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said Patten’s violation of FARA was “not a mere technicality” and undermined the democratic process. You didn’t try to justify them, and you didn’t try to blame them on anyone else,” Berman Jackson said to Patten, adding “that doesn’t happen everyday in this courtroom.” Berman Jackson said the acceptance of responsibility was one reason Patten received a much lighter sentence than former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Patten’s lawyer had asked for a sentence of probation, saying his case was unlike other FARA prosecutions, which have typically involved a lobbyist attempting to conceal the identity of the client and the source of funds. Federal prosecutors in Washington, who started investigating Patten after receiving a referral from Mueller, said in a court filing on Monday that Patten met or spoke with government investigators on the phone nine times. Patten’s case has sparked interest in Washington amid a widening crackdown by the Justice Department on undisclosed lobbying.

WASHINGTON—Saying they are now convinced the candidate is overwhelmingly qualified to lead the country, a majority of Americans have shifted their support to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in the 2020 presidential race since learning he is a millionaire, a Pew Research Center poll found Wednesday. “I have my reservations about his policies, but if the guy’s a millionaire, he must know what he’s doing,” said Cleveland-area voter Glenn Mannix, 48, echoing the sentiments of 68% of the voting populace, who were reportedly impressed upon discovering the royalties Sanders has earned on sales of his books has pushed his net worth to seven figures. “Anyone who’s smart enough to make a million dollars has got to have some pretty great ideas about how to move our country in the right direction. You don’t get to be that rich and successful without having a really good head on your shoulders. The man has my vote!” According to the poll, the remaining 32% of voters agree with all of Sanders’ policies, but said they cannot bring themselves to cast their ballot for someone who owns three homes.

The president said that he had never heard the stories of migrants dying, even from his top immigration and border patrol officials. “Dangerous people are coming here and the good people are dying,” Mr. Trump said, adding that the donors had all told him that the answer to the problem was to build his wall along the border with Mexico. But moments later, as he attacked Democrats for failing to address border security, Mr. Trump said that immigration would be a tremendous issue for him and other Republicans in the 2020 campaign. They want to have open borders.” The issue of immigration and border security has been at the center of Mr. Trump’s political life for years. It is not clear whether the president will acknowledge Mr. Castro or the Democratic rally, which is scheduled to take place after Mr. Trump has already traveled from San Antonio to Houston Wednesday evening. He has largely failed to build the “big beautiful wall” along the southern border as he promised. Under his policy, Mr. Castro also called to establish a so-called Marshall Plan for Central America to aid countries that have a high number of migrants, including by increasing funding for economic development and violence-prevention programs. With his immigration proposals, Mr. Castro, who has also served as mayor of San Antonio, is trying to position himself in the race for his party’s nomination as the candidate who can best combat Mr. Trump’s contentious border policies. “But it’s also helping galvanize people, Latinos in particular, across the country because they are seeing these candidates talk about issues that affect us.” The dual candidacies of Mr. Castro and Mr. O’Rourke are almost certain to place Texas squarely at the center of the increasingly heated immigration debate. But if immigration is at once a key campaign issue in Texas, and other states including California and Arizona, Republicans are betting that Mr. Trump’s anti-immigrant message will also resonate far from the southern border.

The Troika (the UK, US and Norway) on Tuesday released a joint statement on the current unrest in Sudan, urging the Sudanese authorities to respond to the demand from peaceful protesters for a transition to a political system that is “inclusive and has greater legitimacy.” The Troika urged a “credible plan for this political transition”, warning that failing to do so would risk “causing greater instability.” The Troika also called on the Sudanese authorities to “release all political detainees, stop the use of violence against peaceful protestors, remove all restrictions to freedoms, lift the state of emergency and allow for a credible political dialogue in a conducive environment with all key Sudanese actors that has as its basis the goal of a political and economic transition to a new type of Sudan.” The protests in Sudan began in December 2018, due to economic deterioration, such as a currency crisis, tripled bread prices and continued fuel shortage. Protesters also demand that president Omar al-Bashir steps down.

A man whose son was killed by an illegal immigrant driver in San Francisco has criticized California Gov. Gavin Newsom for putting illegal immigrants ahead of residents of his own state with a planned tripped to Central America. Newsom is on a four-day trip to El Salvador to learn more about the root cause of why Central American migrants make the arduous journey to the United States. The president recently moved to cut direct aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, whose citizens are fleeing north and overwhelming U.S. resources -- including as part of organized caravans that the White House has warned may eventually lead to the closure of the entire southern border with Mexico. During his El Salvador trip Newsom said: “Right now you have a president that talks down to people, talks past them, demoralizing folks living here and their relatives in the United States.” Rosenberg, the president of Advocates for Victims of Illegal Alien Crime, a nonprofit organization with the goal of promoting “American's safeness from illegal alien crime,” called Newsom’s trip “a political stunt.” He added: “He (Newsom) says he’s going down there to get a better understanding of what’s going on. Galo, a Honduran, who entered the country illegally but earned temporary protective status, then ran over Rosenberg twice in his frenzied effort to flee the scene. “He was the mayor of San Francisco when my son was killed. It was his policy a year before that if you are in the country illegally you can drive in San Francisco without a license and the guy who killed my son was caught prior to that and they just dropped the charges, let him go, and he continued to drive until he killed my son.” He added: “Newsom, he’s ignoring his own state, and worrying about everything else. Look, he’s posturing for a run for presidency, he’s not going to run right now, but if Trump wins another term, he’ll be running in 2024 and that’s what he is doing right now. It’s disgusting.”