Mike Pence news - live: Ex-VP contradicts himself on Trump charges at CNN town hall launching 2024 campaign
Former US vice president Mike Pence officially announced that he is running for the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential election, pitting him against Donald Trump. In a speech in Iowa on his 64th birthday, Mr Pence trod a fine line between embracing the record of the Trump administration and attacking Mr Trump for his role in the deadly Capitol riot of 6 January 2021. In a CNN town hall on Wednesday evening, Mr Pence reasserted his conservative culture war credentials on abortion, gun rights, crime, school choice, and climate change. When asked about his estranged former boss, he called on the Department of Justice not to prosecute Mr Trump for his alleged mishandling of classified documents, immediately after saying that everyone should be treated equally under the law. Significantly, he refused to say he would pardon the ex-president if he won the White House. In an increasingly crowded GOP field, Mr Pence faces competition from the likes of Florida governor Ron DeSantis, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, senator Tim Scott and ex-UN ambassador Nikki Haley. On Thursday, Mike and Karen Pence celebrated their 38th wedding anniversary on the campaign trail. Read More Mike Pence isn’t even a contender for 2024. Why are we pretending? Mike Pence suffered the wrath of Trump. Now the ex-vice president wants his old boss’s job in 2024 The Republican presidential field is largely set. Here are takeaways on where the contest stands.
2023-06-09 05:17
Los Angeles district attorney's office quits Twitter due to barrage of 'vicious' homophobic attacks
The Los Angeles district attorney's office has left Twitter due to barrage of what the office called vicious homophobic attacks
2023-06-09 04:55
International help rolls in to fight persistent Canadian wildfires
By Nia Williams and Ismail Shakil OTTAWA Allies around the world have promised to increase their help to
2023-06-09 04:52
Former Chief Frank Clark chooses AFC West violence with landing spot
Kanas City Chiefs fans will be bummed to learn where DE Frank Clark has decided to take his talents after the team released him in March.The Kansas City Chiefs' defensive retool led them to release DE Frank Clark in March. The 29-year-old made 15 starts for the Super Bowl champs last season...
2023-06-09 04:50
GM's electric vehicles will gain access to Tesla's vast charging network
Electric vehicles made by General Motors will be able to use much of Tesla’s vast charging network starting early next year
2023-06-09 04:48
US and UK back new 'Atlantic Declaration' for economic cooperation
WASHINGTON/LONDON Britain and the United States backed a new "Atlantic Declaration" on Thursday for greater cooperation on pressing
2023-06-09 04:22
Ukraine goes on the attack in Zaporizhzhia – as counteroffensive steps up
A significant Ukrainian force has launched an assault on Russian lines in the southern Zaporizhzhia region – with a surge in attacks that points towards its counteroffensive shifting into high gear. A number of US and Ukrainian officials suggested this was the start in earnest of Kyiv's bid to reclaim territory lost to Russian occupation during Moscow's invasion. Ukraine's commanders and government have always said there would be no official announcement of the start of the counteroffensive and there has already been an increase in military activity all week. The combat against Russian positions – including intense fighting outside of the town of Tokmak, a Russian logistical hub – is said to involve Western-supplied tanks, armoured vehicles and infantry backed by artillery. The Kremlin has repeatedly claimed to have repelled Ukrainian attacks – that it calls the counteroffensive – across various points of the war's frontlines for a number of days, but Russian military bloggers noted an increase in clashes overnight Wednesday and into Thursday. One said: “Wave after wave of the enemy is trying to break through our defence." Appearing to confirm an operation was underway, the Ukrainian deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, said Russia was “actively on the defensive” in the Orihiv area of Zaporizhzhia region. Citing two unnamed Ukrainian officials, including a source close to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, ABC News reported that the offensive was truly beginning. Reports from other US outlets citing both Ukrainian and US officials, all speaking anonymously, said similar things. But when asked about these reports, a spokesperson for the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces told Reuters: "We have no such information." Video footage appearing on social media appeared to suggest that that German-made Leopard 2 tanks were involved in the battle. Russian Colonel General Alexander Romanchuk claimed, without providing evidence, that Moscow's forces had destroyed three Leopard tanks. The officer also said that the general in charge of Russia’s troops in Ukraine, chief of the general staff Valery Gerasimov, briefed President Vladimir Putin on the battles in Zaporizhzhia. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu also claimed that country's forces had driven back Ukrainian troops trying to punch through defensive lines in the Zaporizhzhia region – after a two-hour battle involving what he said was up to 1,500 Ukrainian soldiers and 150 armored vehicles. The Kremlin has a habit of inflating such numbers and the fog of war obscures a significant proportion of what happens on the frontlines. Zaporizhzhia – one of four partly occupied regions illegally annexed by the Kremlin – has long been seen as a likely point of a main Ukrainian strike, but Kyiv has worked to mask its plans by launching attacks on multiple points across the vast frontlines. Zaporizhzhia is part of the land corridor that Moscow has sought to create between Ukrainian's industrial heartland and the Crimean Peninsula, which the Kremlin annexed in 2014. For Ukraine, breaking or disrupting that land bridge will likely be one of the main aims of the offensive. The Institute for the Study of War, a US-based thinktank that tracks the war in daily updates, said it had concluded on Thursday that the Ukrainian counteroffensive "has begun". “Activity throughout Ukraine is consistent with a variety of indicators that Ukrainian counteroffensive operations are under way across the theatre,” the organisation tweeted. Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report Read More The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary Rishi Sunak and Joe Biden stress ‘unwavering support’ for Ukraine Renowned human rights campaigner Oleg Orlov on trial for “discrediting” Russian military Ukraine tells ‘clown’ Tucker Carlson to check his facts after pro-Kremlin rant
2023-06-09 04:22
Billionaire Trump supporter offers to buy embattled CNN
A Donald Trump-supporting New York billionaire says that he wants to buy embattled CNN from Warner Bros. Discovery. Grocery mogul John Catsimatidis told The New York Post that he would “go run the place tomorrow morning and all I’d want is $1 per year.” The news network has been hit by falling ratings and earlier this week under-fire CEO Chris Licht, who attempted to drag CNN to the right, was fired after a searing profile in The Atlantic. Greek-born Mr Catsimatidis, 74, refused to tell the newspaper how much he would be willing to offer for CNN. “It’s up to the investment bankers to come up with the numbers,” he said, as he suggested that finance to complete the deal would not be an issue. “We could always bring partners in, but I want to run the place,” he continued. “We are capable of putting down a substantial amount of money.” And he added: “I’d go run the place tomorrow morning, and all I’d want is $1 per year and a piece of the upside.” Mr Catsimatidis, who has a reported personal wealth of more than $4bn, is already in the media business having bought New York’s WABC radio station for $12.5m in 2019. “Whoever is running that company (CNN) is wrong,” Mr Catsimatidis said, telling the newspaper the network should not have fired Mr Licht, who supported the controversial Donald Trump town hall. “If the network is getting half a million (viewers) a night and they have Trump on and they get 3 million (viewers), to fire the CEO for getting that many people…” he said. But he insisted that if took over CNN he would continue to try and ensure that Republicans got equal coverage to Democrats. “I want the truth, not opinions. If people say there’s two truths, let’s voice both truths and let the viewers decide.” Read More How Chris Licht’s botched effort to drag CNN to the right ended with his own stunning downfall CNN CEO Chris Licht out days after devastating expose CNN’s own media reporter turns on embattled CEO The folly of trusting Trump claims two more victims. Why do they do it?
2023-06-09 04:18
TD Bank CEO 'confident' of resolving issues tied to First Horizon deal collapse
TD Bank Group CEO Bharat Masrani said he was confident the bank, Canada's second biggest lender, would resolve
2023-06-09 03:59
DeSantis campaign posts fake images of Trump hugging Fauci in social media video
The presidential campaign for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis released a video on social media that appears to use images generated by artificial intelligence to depict former President Donald Trump hugging Dr. Anthony Fauci.
2023-06-09 03:55
Rebel mobilisation in southern Sudan raises fears of conflict spreading
KHARTOUM Residents of Sudan's South Kordofan State reported mobilisation by a large rebel force on Thursday, raising fear
2023-06-09 03:51
How ‘The Flash,’ many years in the works and beset by turmoil, finally reached the finish line
The Flash may be one of the quickest superheroes in the comics, but getting a movie made based on the characters has been a marathon dating back, in some ways, to the late 1980s
2023-06-09 03:49
