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    Leaked recording from RNC fundraiser reveals ‘uproarious’ laughter from sponsors for ridicule of former first lady

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  • Pelosi says she would have ‘battled’ capitol rioters with stilettos: ‘I’m a street fighter’

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  • Cameron-Greensill lobbying scandal: the facts, explained

    What’s the story? Ministers, Whitehall mandarins and a former prime minister have become embroiled in a major lobbying scandal after it emerged that David Cameron had been quietly pushing for a beleaguered finance company to receive Covid bailouts from the Treasury. After leaving office in 2016, Mr Cameron took on a job with Greensill Capital, a “supply chain finance” company that offers short term credit to firms to help them pay invoices more quickly. The company is run by Lex Greensill, who worked in Government during Mr Cameron’s time in office and was awarded a CBE for his work on a similar finance scheme for government departments. It has emerged that Mr Cameron privately lobbied ministers, senior Government officials and the Bank of England to attempt to secure a coronavirus support payment for Greensill last year. The former prime minister told an official it was “nuts” that supply chain finance firms were excluded from the Government’s support schemes and asked Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, to look again at whether Greensill could be given a bailout from the Treasury. Mr Cameron’s attempts were resisted – and investors withdrew their money from the company earlier this year after raising concerns about its viability. The firm has since filed for insolvency protection and threatens to bring Liberty Steel, a major UK manufacturer, with it. But the saga has raised questions about how lobbying in Westminster works, and whether former public servants like Mr Cameron should be allowed to use their contacts for private enterprise – and profit. The consultant lobbying regulator, which monitors freelance lobbyists in the UK, concluded that since Mr Cameron was an employee of Greensill, it was not equipped to regulate his activities. Boris Johnson now faces calls to increase the scope of lobbying rules to create greater transparency, while critics of Mr Cameron point out that it was under his government that an attempt to establish more rigorous rules was voted down by Tory peers. Mr Johnson has now set up an independent inquiry chaired by Nigel Boardman, a senior corporate lawyer, to investigate Mr Cameron’s lobbying and Mr Greensill’s involvement in Government under the Cameron government. Labour says the inquiry is likely to be a “Conservative cover-up” and is calling for another inquiry into cronyism led by MPs. Looking back The messages from Mr Cameron to decision-makers in Whitehall make for extraordinary reading. They have all been uncovered by reporters – largely from the Financial Times and Sunday Times – because there is no requirement for communications of that nature to be released by Government departments. Mr Cameron contacted Mr Sunak and two of his junior Treasury ministers (John Glen and Jesse Norman) about Greensill’s eligibility for Covid payments, and arranged a “private drink” with Matt Hancock to discuss a payment scheme that was eventually rolled out in the NHS. Mr Cameron says he believed Greensill’s supply chain model could have been integrated into the Government’s bailout scheme – known officially as the Covid Corporate Financing Facility – and points out that a similar idea was used following the financial crash in 2008. “What we need is for Rishi (Sunak) to have a good look at this and ask officials to find a way of making it work,” Mr Cameron wrote last year. Mr Cameron has released a statement that says while he can “understand the concern” about lobbying from former PMs, he thought it was “right” that he represented the company to the Treasury because it was involved in financing a large number of UK firms. He denies that he was given share options in the company worth $60 million, and says the true figure was far lower. Given the company’s insolvency, they are now worthless anyway. Anything else? One of the few organisations that monitors lobbying and the business activities of former ministers is the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) and is run by Eric Pickles, a former Tory MP. Yesterday Mr Pickles revealed that a senior civil servant was granted permission to join Greensill Capital while still working at the highest levels of government in 2015 – when Mr Cameron was still prime minister. Bill Crothers was head of Whitehall procurement, in control of a £15 billion annual purchasing budget, when he took on an external role as part-time adviser to the finance company's board. Labour said the news was “extraordinary and shocking” and is pushing for a wide-ranging inquiry led by MPs. The party will use an opposition day motion today that will establish the parliamentary inquiry if Tory MPs do not vote it down. A Labour source this week noted that in The Thick of It, a political sitcom generally held to be an exaggerated representation of Westminster, there is a judge-led inquiry into one leaked email – let alone a major lobbying scandal involving a former PM. The Government has already announced there will be an independent inquiry – and has expanded its scope to include Mr Crothers’ second job – but the story now threatens to become a broader outcry about lobbying in Westminster. It is thought that many civil servants have second jobs as advisors on company boards, and ministers often hold meetings with lobbyists without declaring them to the Cabinet Office. And while Labour has been highly critical of the Government’s “cronyism” during the Covid crisis, many Labour MPs are themselves former lobbyists. The Refresher take The unedifying text messages sent by David Cameron to government officials are only the beginning of a political scandal that will almost certainly claim more scalps. Whether or not Labour succeed in establishing a parliamentary inquiry into lobbying, there is now much greater scrutiny on the well-oiled revolving door between big business and the Government. While much of the murky behaviour is actually within the existing lobbying rules, ministers now rightly face growing calls to expand the regulations to tackle the various “private drinks” between old friends that seemingly inform official decision-making. This was first published in The Telegraph's Refresher newsletter. For more facts and explanation behind the week’s biggest political stories, sign up to the Refresher here – straight to your inbox every Wednesday afternoon for free.

  • George Floyd’s girlfriend once taught Daunte Wright in high school

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  • TV anchor accidentally captures meteor near miss during Facebook live

    ‘Oh my gosh, what is that in the sky? Woah! Okay. Big piece of flash in the sky just then’

  • ‘Congress itself is the target’: Capitol police overlooked intel and were ordered to hold back during riot, report finds

    Days before attack, law enforcement officials were warned Stop the Steal campaign could attract ‘white supremacists, militia members’ and other violent groups

  • India's Maharashtra shuts most manufacturing, restricts e-commerce to fight COVID-19

    MUMBAI (Reuters) -India's richest state Maharashtra will impose stringent curbs on industry and e-commerce for 15 days to slow rising coronavirus infections, its chief minister said on Tuesday, a move that is set to cripple manufacturing and other businesses in the region. Maharashtra - home to India's financial capital Mumbai - has been the country's worst hit state due to the coronavirus, accounting for about a quarter of India's 13.5 million cases. On Tuesday, Maharashtra reported 60,212 new COVID-19 infections.

  • Trump-era spike in Israeli settlement growth has only begun

    An aggressive Israeli settlement spree during the Trump era pushed deeper than ever into the occupied West Bank — territory the Palestinians seek for a state — with over 9,000 homes built and thousands more in the pipeline, an AP investigation showed. If left unchallenged by the Biden administration, the construction boom could make fading hopes for an internationally backed two-state solution — Palestine alongside Israel — even more elusive. Satellite images and data obtained by The Associated Press document for the first time the full impact of the policies of then-President Donald Trump, who abandoned decades-long U.S. opposition to the settlements and proposed a Mideast plan that would have allowed Israel to keep them all — even those deep inside the West Bank.

  • UAE sets new ambitious timeline for launch of moon rover

    The United Arab Emirates’ space center announced Wednesday a more ambitious timeline for sending its first rover to the moon. The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center said it is partnering with Japan’s ispace company to send a rover to the moon on an unmanned spacecraft by 2022, rather than 2024. The “Rashid” rover, named after Dubai’s ruling family, will deploy to the moon using ispace's lunar lander.

  • Gem County Sheriff’s Office searching for 3 missing children. Two were last seen in 2020

    Anyone with information regarding the three kids should call the Gem County Sheriff’s Office at 208-365-3521.

  • India coronavirus: Can its vaccine producers meet demand?

    India is a big player in vaccine production - but supply shortages have appeared in some areas.

  • Scottish Greens plan to push through 'millionaire's tax' and back independence referendum

    The Scottish Greens want to enter a coalition government with the SNP after the Holyrood election and push through an array of tax hikes for the wealthy including a new "millionaire's tax", their co-leader has said. Patrick Harvie said his party "aspired" to enter government after May 6 if Nicola Sturgeon fails to win an outright majority as he unveiled a manifesto backing her plans for another independence referendum. Although he refused to set out his policy “red lines” for a coalition deal, the Green manifesto set out radical proposals to hike income tax for wealthier Scots and replace council tax with a levy based on property values that would also increase bills for the better-off. In a triple whammy, one in 10 Scots would also face a "millionaire's tax" levied on everyone who owns property, land, pensions and other assets that together are valued at more than £1 million. In addition, businessmen who have to take regular international flights for their work would be forced to pay an escalating tax on their tickets and a "windfall tax" imposed on companies deemed to have made "extraordinary profits" during the pandemic. Mr Harvie also unveiled proposals to ban homeowners from selling older properties until they spend thousands of pounds making them more energy efficient. Among their flagship rural policies are a total ban on fox hunting, forcing all "significant" landowners to be subjected to a public interest test if they want to keep their property and allowing community groups to purchase their holdings at below market rate. Opinion polls have indicated Ms Sturgeon's SNP is on the cusp of winning an overall majority but may require the support of the pro-Greens if she falls short.

  • StarMed, Atrium Health holding walk-in COVID vaccine clinics; no appointments needed

    Clinic near the airport is available until 7 p.m. on April 13-14. Atrium event at Panthers stadium is April 13 only. Both events offer Pfizer shots.

  • Teenager killed in armed stand-off with Maryland police officer

    ‘I can’t even comprehend how sad this has got to be, and tragic, and we feel that,’ says superintendent

  • Daunte Wright shooting - latest: Kim Potter’s mugshot released as ex-police officer faces manslaughter charges

    Follow for latest updates

  • Biden's gamble: Will pulling troops revive extremist threat?

    At its start, America’s war in Afghanistan was about retribution for 9/11. Then it was about shoring up a weak government and its weak army so that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida could never again threaten the United States. With bin Laden long since dead and the United States not suffering another major attack, President Joe Biden is promising to end America’s longest war and move on to what he believes are bigger, more consequential challenges posed by a resurgent Russia and a rising China.

  • A Lesson Plan on Daunte Wright and History

    Long before sunrise the morning after Daunte Wright, a Black motorist, was killed by a white police officer outside Minneapolis, Kara Cisco made some quick posts to Facebook. She asked if anyone knew whether the previous night’s protests would affect her commute to work. She would need to traverse the part of Minneapolis where the […]