World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk

'I love it': Donald Trump Jr posts emails from Russia offering material on Clinton
Coca-Cola to radically increase amount of recycled plastic in its bottles
EU-UK naval mission on people-smuggling led to more deaths, report says
British man and two Americans killed fighting Isis in Syria
Father of the bride struck by lightning during wedding speech in Canada
Twitter users sue Donald Trump for blocking them over critical comments
Canada fisherman killed by whale moments after rescuing it from net
Rex Tillerson applauds Qatar plan but Gulf rivals refuse to lift sanctions
Quentin Tarantino to make Manson murders film
Radiohead's Thom Yorke responds as Ken Loach criticises Israel gig
Donald Trump Jr: I would have done things differently – video
The slow lane: Dutch app allows elderly to 'hack' traffic lights
Senegal fails to stop abuse of children in Qur'anic schools
The Newark race riots 50 years on: is the city in danger of repeating the past?
Grenfell police investigator: we are doing our utmost – video
Al Gore: Australian government subsidising coal power would be ‘crazy’
Crown Resorts staff jailed in China over 'gambling crimes' reportedly released
Housing affordability: Choice calls for ban on mortgage broker commissions
Wednesday briefing: I didn't tell dad, says Trump Jr
How big tobacco has survived death and taxes
Inside the murky world of Nairobi's smoking zones
Threats, bullying, lawsuits: tobacco industry's dirty war for the African market
Tobacco: a deadly business – about this series
Benazir Bhutto: time is running out for General Zia – archive, 12 July 1986
Devotion amid despair: the great contemporary love story of Liu Xia and Liu Xiaobo
George Soros upset by 'antisemitic' campaign against him in Hungary
Pope Francis creates fourth pathway to becoming a saint
Religion, gender segregation and sex education in schools | Letters
US investigates Air Canada near miss that could have caused disaster
Mexico investigates killing of Honduran journalist who sought refugee status
Mosul attempts to start afresh after ousting Islamic State – video
China says it is not responsible for North Korea nuclear crisis
Protected wildlife allegedly killed on Peak District shooting estate
Avi Gabbay hailed as ‘Israel’s Macron’ after Labour leadership win
Why are Venezuela's ‘miraculous’ musicians silent about the crisis?
Global gag rule: what impact will it have where you live?
Hannity vs Trump Jr: Fox host fires blanks in friendly chat about Russian meeting
Don't call it treason: Trump advisers' legal jeopardy is deep, but not that deep
What is the significance of Trump Jr's meeting with a Russian lawyer? | Luke Harding
Russian lawyer who met Trump Jr denies links with Kremlin – video

'I love it': Donald Trump Jr posts emails from Russia offering material on Clinton

Posted: 11 Jul 2017 11:36 PM PDT

Full text of Trump Jr's emails with music promoter Rob Goldstone
Disclosures raise further questions over whether campaign laws were broken

Donald Trump Jr has been forced to release damning emails that reveal he eagerly embraced what he was told was a Russian government attempt to damage Hillary Clinton's election campaign.

Coca-Cola to radically increase amount of recycled plastic in its bottles

Posted: 11 Jul 2017 02:09 PM PDT

Exclusive: move to improve targets and increase support for recycling comes amid pressure from environmentalists

Coca-Cola is to radically increase the amount of recycled plastic in its bottles, the Guardian understands, amid pressure from environmentalists and new figures that show more than a million plastic bottles are bought globally every minute.

The world's biggest drinks brand is expected to announce on Wednesday that it will increase its target for recycled plastic in its bottles and its support for recycling.

EU-UK naval mission on people-smuggling led to more deaths, report says

Posted: 11 Jul 2017 02:57 PM PDT

House of Lords inquiry finds operation failed in objectives and has had little impact on the flow of irregular migrants

The tactics used by the European Union's naval mission – in which Britain plays a leading role – to tackle people-smuggling in the Mediterranean have resulted in more deaths at sea of refugees and migrants, a cross-party House of Lords inquiry has concluded.

The peers say an unintended consequence of Operation Sophia's policy of destroying smugglers' boats has been that they have adapted and sent refugees and migrants to sea in unseaworthy vessels, leading to more deaths.

British man and two Americans killed fighting Isis in Syria

Posted: 11 Jul 2017 09:03 AM PDT

Exclusive: Luke Rutter, from Birkenhead, died in attack on Raqqa, in which Robert Grodt and Nicholas Warden were also killed

A British man has been killed alongside two Americans fighting against Islamic State in Syria.

Luke Rutter, 22, from Birkenhead, was fighting with the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) when he died last Wednesday evening during an ambush in a suburb of the Isis stronghold of Raqqa, his Kurdish commanders said.

Father of the bride struck by lightning during wedding speech in Canada

Posted: 11 Jul 2017 12:26 PM PDT

'All of a sudden there was this lighting flash that hit,' said JP Nadeau, who was able to continue his speech and said he was not injured in the incident

JP Nadeau was determined not to let anything get in the way of his daughter's wedding – not even a lightning bolt that surged through his hand partway through his toast to the newlyweds.

The Canadian couple had just been married an hour earlier at an outdoor ceremony in his family's apple orchard in Woodstock, New Brunswick, on Saturday. A few clouds had started to roll in on the hot, sunny day as the father of the bride took the microphone to make his speech.

Twitter users sue Donald Trump for blocking them over critical comments

Posted: 11 Jul 2017 01:21 PM PDT

Lawsuit argues Trump's personal account is public forum and barring users is a violation of first amendment, after Sean Spicer called tweets 'official statements'

A group of Twitter users has sued Donald Trump and two White House communication aides for violating their constitutional rights by blocking them from Trump's personal Twitter account after they criticized the president.

The suit, which was was filed in federal court in New York on Tuesday, argues that Trump's Twitter account, @realDonaldTrump, constitutes a "public forum for speech by, to, and about the President". The plaintiffs are seeking an injunction requiring Trump to unblock their accounts and cease blocking others on the basis of their opinions.

Canada fisherman killed by whale moments after rescuing it from net

Posted: 11 Jul 2017 02:13 PM PDT

Joe Howlett helped to rescue a north Atlantic right whale that had become heavily tangled in rope and was struck by the mammal afterward

A Canadian lobster fisherman who saved dozens of endangered whales after they became tangled in fishing nets has been killed – moments after a last successful rescue.

Joe Howlett, from Campobello Island, New Brunswick, boarded a vessel off the province's eastern coast on Monday to help rescue a north Atlantic right whale that had become heavily tangled in rope.

Rex Tillerson applauds Qatar plan but Gulf rivals refuse to lift sanctions

Posted: 11 Jul 2017 11:58 AM PDT

US secretary of state praises agreement on tracking terrorist financing, putting pressure on Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states isolating Qatar

Rex Tillerson, the US secretary of state, has lavished praise on the isolated Gulf state of Qatar after it became the first regional power to sign a new memorandum of understanding with Washington on tracking the flow of terrorist financing.

Quentin Tarantino to make Manson murders film

Posted: 12 Jul 2017 01:03 AM PDT

Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt among star names linked to story of brutal hippie-cult killings of Sharon Tate and friends

Quentin Tarantino is developing a film about the Manson family murders.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Pulp Fiction and Hateful Eight director will write and direct the as-yet untitled film, which concerns the notorious killings of five people, including pregnant actor Sharon Tate – wife of director Roman Polanski – carried out by followers of Charles Manson in 1969. Manson and four followers later received life imprisonment – and his group were also responsible for a number of other killings during the 1960s.

Radiohead's Thom Yorke responds as Ken Loach criticises Israel gig

Posted: 12 Jul 2017 12:29 AM PDT

Radiohead frontman argues 'we don't endorse Netanyahu any more than Trump, but we still play in America', after film director encourages them to support cultural boycott of Israel

Radiohead's lead singer Thom Yorke has responded to criticism by film director Ken Loach over the band's upcoming performance in Tel Aviv.

Loach wrote in a comment piece in the Independent: "[Radiohead's] stubborn refusal to engage with the many critics of their ill-advised concert in Tel Aviv suggests to me that they only want to hear one side – the one that supports apartheid... Radiohead need to decide if they stand with the oppressed or with the oppressor."

Donald Trump Jr: I would have done things differently – video

Posted: 11 Jul 2017 11:52 PM PDT

Amid the furore about his meeting with a Russian lawyer, Donald Trump Jr says that 'in retrospect I probably would have done things a little differently', but he says the meeting was 'opposition research' conducted 'before the Russia mania'. In an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News he says he has 'probably met with other people from Russia' but 'not in the context of an actual formalised meeting or anything like that'

'I love it': Donald Trump Jr posts emails from Russia offering material on Clinton

The slow lane: Dutch app allows elderly to 'hack' traffic lights

Posted: 11 Jul 2017 11:30 PM PDT

With sensors and smartphones to make roads more flexible, Tilburg is addressing the question: how can a city become safer for less able residents?

The distance from Noud Rommen's front door to the local shops is just 100 yards, but to get there, the 71-year-old with mobility problems must negotiate a six-lane dual carriageway with a notoriously short pedestrian crossing time.

"If I stick to the rules I can only get to the island halfway across before it turns red, so I have to press the button and wait again," he says. "But nobody wants to do that, so you try to cut between the traffic. It's not good, but that's what happens."

Senegal fails to stop abuse of children in Qur'anic schools

Posted: 11 Jul 2017 11:00 PM PDT

A year on from a government crackdown, children have been sent back to abusive teachers and once again are being sent out to beg, says report

Tens of thousands of children in Senegal are still being forced to beg for their food by abusive teachers in Qur'anic schools, a year after the government began a crackdown on the issue, according to a survey.

A report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) found that most of the children picked up on the streets by the authorities were later returned to the schoolteachers who had sent them out soliciting in the first place.

The Newark race riots 50 years on: is the city in danger of repeating the past?

Posted: 11 Jul 2017 04:41 AM PDT

At least 26 people died in the rebellion of 1967, which devastated the city for decades. But as Newark moves on and memory fades, those who remember 1967 worry about losing the connection between oppression then and now

On 12 July 1967, a man named John Smith steered his taxi around a double-parked police car on a Newark street. It was a hot Wednesday in the Central Ward – the principal black neighbourhood of New Jersey's biggest city. The cops took offence at Smith's manoeuvre. They stopped him, pulled him from his cab, and beat him. Then they took him to the Fourth Precinct, and beat him some more.

Smith was black; the cops were white. The Great Migration and white flight to the suburbs had flipped Newark's demographics, turning it majority-black by the early 1960s. The power structure, however, was still controlled by the old machine. The police force was almost all white. Brutality was the norm. "People had been getting the crap beaten out of them for years," says community activist Richard Cammarieri, who grew up in one of the Central Ward's remaining white families. A change was due.

Grenfell police investigator: we are doing our utmost – video

Posted: 12 Jul 2017 01:15 AM PDT

Sgt Alistair Hutchins, from the Metropolitan police, tells survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire that officers are working as hard as they can. He says his team has a meticulous process for removing and identifying the remains of victims to ensure the 'right person gets brought back to their loved ones'. Hutchins says it could take at least four months to complete the search of the building

Grenfell Tower investigator tells of painstaking process of recovering remains

Al Gore: Australian government subsidising coal power would be ‘crazy’

Posted: 12 Jul 2017 12:59 AM PDT

Former US vice president and climate change campaigner says providing funding for infrastructure to support Adani coal mine is 'just nuts'

Any move by the Australian government to subsidise coal-fired power would be "crazy" and providing funding for infrastructure to support the Adani coal mine is "just nuts," former US vice president and climate change campaigner Al Gore has said.

"Globally, the world is moving rapidly away from subsidies to fossil fuels," he said. "It would be odd if Australia went in the opposite direction and subsidised coal. It's impolitic of me to say it, but it would be crazy."

Crown Resorts staff jailed in China over 'gambling crimes' reportedly released

Posted: 11 Jul 2017 10:55 PM PDT

Ten of the 16 casino employees sentenced in June have reportedly walked free from two detention facilities in Shanghai

A number of Crown Resorts employees who were jailed in China for "gambling crimes" have reportedly been released.

Reuters says 10 of 16 employees who were detained in October and sentenced in June were released from two detention facilities in Shanghai on Wednesday.

Housing affordability: Choice calls for ban on mortgage broker commissions

Posted: 12 Jul 2017 01:13 AM PDT

Consumer organisation says borrowers receiving potentially bad advice and payments distorting housing market

Abundant commissions, bonuses and "soft payments" to mortgage brokers mean borrowers are likely not getting the best deal, and it could be impacting the housing market, Choice has said.

The consumer organisation has called for mortgage broker commissions to be banned as part of a legislative and regulatory overhaul of the industry, in a submission to Treasury.

Wednesday briefing: I didn't tell dad, says Trump Jr

Posted: 11 Jul 2017 10:11 PM PDT

Russia meeting was 'just a nothing' … Big tobacco is bullying African governments to drop regulations … Stop climate change by having fewer children

Good morning. I'm Martin Farrer and these are the top stories this Wednesday morning.

How big tobacco has survived death and taxes

Posted: 11 Jul 2017 10:00 PM PDT

The world's five major tobacco companies are thriving, profitable and increasing sales, despite many predictions of the industry's decline

A casual observer could be forgiven for believing that the tobacco industry – for so long a fixture as permanent as its two main by-products, death and taxes – is itself on its last legs.

In the US, health officials have predicted that smoking rates in America could drop to as low as 5% by 2050, well within the lifetime of someone born today.

Inside the murky world of Nairobi's smoking zones

Posted: 11 Jul 2017 09:48 PM PDT

The Kenyan government has cracked down on cigarettes with a ban on advertising and smoking in public, driving the habit into the shadows

There is a wooden shed in the middle of Nairobi city centre, dark, full of fumes, crowded and deliberately built beside the public toilets. It feels like a place of shame.

Jairus Masumba, Nairobi county's deputy director of public health, calls it in jest the gazebo. It's the public smoking place, created by his department. It is claustrophobic and filled with smoke, some of which drifts out through slats, but most of which hangs heavily in the fugged air inside.

Threats, bullying, lawsuits: tobacco industry's dirty war for the African market

Posted: 11 Jul 2017 09:48 PM PDT

Revealed: In pursuit of growth in Africa, British American Tobacco and others use intimidatory tactics to attempt to suppress health warnings and regulation

British American Tobacco (BAT) and other multinational tobacco firms have threatened governments in at least eight countries in Africa demanding they axe or dilute the kind of protections that have saved millions of lives in the west, a Guardian investigation has found.

BAT, one of the world's leading cigarette manufacturers, is fighting through the courts to try to block the Kenyan and Ugandan governments' attempts to bring in regulations to limit the harm caused by smoking. The giant tobacco firms hope to boost their markets in Africa, which has a fast-growing young and increasingly prosperous population.

Tobacco: a deadly business – about this series

Posted: 11 Jul 2017 09:45 PM PDT

This series is focused on the damage caused by the tobacco industry, which continues to endanger the lives of millions of the world's most vulnerable people

This content is funded by support provided, in part, by Vital Strategies with funding by Bloomberg Philanthropies. Content is editorially independent and its purpose is to shine a light on both the tobacco industry and the world's most vulnerable populations, who disproportionately bear the brunt of the global health crisis resulting from tobacco consumption.

Although tobacco consumption remains one of the world's greatest health threats, media coverage has decreased as the sense of urgency to address the issue has waned. This investigative reporting series seeks to renew the focus on tobacco consumption and deaths worldwide, contextualised through the duel lenses of global inequality and health.

Benazir Bhutto: time is running out for General Zia – archive, 12 July 1986

Posted: 11 Jul 2017 09:00 PM PDT

12 July 1986: The present situation - with General Zia in command and Mr Junejo as his civilian cover - is untenable and will not continue indefinitely

Comment
Pakistan is once again at the crossroads. There are two real solutions to the present crisis. The first is an immediate restoration of democracy through free elections this autumn. The other is a regression to direct military rule. The present situation - with General Zia in command and Mr Junejo as his civilian cover - is untenable and will not continue indefinitely. Mr Junejo will be in Washington next week, arguing no doubt that the general is in control of the situation. This is far from the truth. Without a rapid return to an elected government the current mood of tolerance could be transformed into a spontaneous and uncontrollable anger on the part of the people. Time is running out.

Devotion amid despair: the great contemporary love story of Liu Xia and Liu Xiaobo

Posted: 11 Jul 2017 07:46 PM PDT

Nobel laureate and poet fell in love after meeting in the 1980s and have endured persecution, detention and now, his critical illness, together

Not long after Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to 11 years in jail, he discovered two items had vanished from his correspondence with his wife. To their astonishment and amusement, the couple realised the only letters censors had blocked were the love poems that each had penned to the other.

Perhaps authorities feared they were arousing and would get the inmate too fired up, Liu Xia later joked. But there was nothing funny about the state's unrelenting interference in even the most intimate parts of their life – nor about the unchecked force of their devotion in the face of every obstacle.

George Soros upset by 'antisemitic' campaign against him in Hungary

Posted: 11 Jul 2017 05:45 PM PDT

Posters show a large picture of the Hungarian-born Jew alongside the text: 'Let's not let Soros have the last laugh'

George Soros, the billionaire financier, has criticised an anti-immigration campaign run by the Hungarian government as "antisemitic".

"I am distressed by the current Hungarian regime's use of antisemitic imagery as part of its deliberate disinformation campaign," the 86-year-old said in a rare statement.

Pope Francis creates fourth pathway to becoming a saint

Posted: 11 Jul 2017 05:09 PM PDT

Candidates for beatification, which was previously limited to those involved in miracles, can now include Christians who lay down their lives to save others

Christians who lay down their life to save others, "following in the footsteps and teaching of Jesus", will now be eligible for beatification, Pope Francis has said.

Beatification is the first step on the path toward sainthood and has in the past been reserved for three categories of people: martyrs, those who have lived a life of heroic values and others with a clear saintly reputation.

Religion, gender segregation and sex education in schools | Letters

Posted: 11 Jul 2017 11:11 AM PDT

Segregation in co-educational faith schools should not be allowed, say Amina Lone and 21 others. Relationships and sex education is at risk of being hijacked for religious reasons, write Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain and 52 others. Plus Jim Lockie says freedom to express your views comes with responsibilities

We, the undersigned, are seriously concerned about the dilution of gender rights and equality regarding minority and in this case Muslim girls' and women's rights. We refer to the case of Al-Hijrah school, a co-ed faith school in Birmingham that has been segregating boys and girls during lessons and all breaks, activities and school trips (Gender-divided school is named, 11 July). The school was inspected by Ofsted, who judged it to be inadequate on a number of grounds including gender segregation.

We recognise the existence of single-sex schools but our concerns are with co-educational faith schools that apply gender segregation throughout the school day. It is as abhorrent as segregating people according to their race or sexuality. To engage in such conduct within a secular democracy raises fundamental questions about the type of society we are creating. Why are we allowing such educational institutions to waver from the basic freedoms our ancestors have fought for? We are in danger of creating a two-tier system in which minority women, especially Muslim women and girls, are being systematically treated as second-class citizens. Our progressive parties, institutions and even some on the left and within feminist circles seem to be abandoning the fight for gender equality in favour of religious dogma.

US investigates Air Canada near miss that could have caused disaster

Posted: 11 Jul 2017 09:15 AM PDT

Air Canada Airbus 320 almost landed on a crowded taxiway rather than runway
FAA investigating how plane from Toronto came so close to four other jets

US aviation authorities are investigating a near miss at a San Francisco airport after an Air Canada plane almost landed on a crowded taxiway rather than the runway.

The Air Canada Airbus 320 was cleared to land at a runway at San Francisco international airport late on Friday. The pilot, however, inadvertently began descending toward one of the taxiways, where four airplanes laden with passengers and fuel sat waiting for permission to take off, according to the US Federal Aviation Administration.

Mexico investigates killing of Honduran journalist who sought refugee status

Posted: 11 Jul 2017 09:11 AM PDT

Edwin Rivera Paz, who was shot dead in Veracruz state on Sunday according to officials, supposedly fled Honduras after a colleague had been killed

Authorities in the Mexican state of Veracruz are investigating the killing of a Honduran video journalist who had sought refugee status in Mexico.

In a statement, the state prosecutor's office said Edwin Rivera Paz was shot to death Sunday in the town of Acayucan. It said the body was identified by a relative.

Mosul attempts to start afresh after ousting Islamic State – video

Posted: 11 Jul 2017 06:01 AM PDT

Residents of Iraq's second city are trying to move on after a bloody three-year battle with Islamic State ended this week. People say they are optimistic about the future now the terrorists have been forced out by Iraqi forces

'We lost our houses, our cars, our men': call to protect Mosul civilians

China says it is not responsible for North Korea nuclear crisis

Posted: 11 Jul 2017 05:37 AM PDT

China rejects Trump's calls for it to do more to rein in its neighbour, saying the 'China responsibility theory' must stop

China has rejected Donald Trump's repeated calls for it to do more to rein in North Korea's nuclear programme, saying the "China responsibility theory" must stop.

Trump's frustration with China has grown since Pyongyang launched an intercontinental ballistic missile that some experts say could reach Alaska or other parts of the US west coast. Prior to the missile launch, the US had already imposed sanctions against two Chinese citizens and a shipping company with ties to Pyongyang, and moved to blacklist a small Chinese bank headquartered in a town on the border with North Korea.

Protected wildlife allegedly killed on Peak District shooting estate

Posted: 11 Jul 2017 05:29 AM PDT

Police investigate after animal rights group films badgers allegedly being caught in snares and shot on the Moscar estate

Police are investigating allegations that protected wildlife was killed on a shooting estate owned by the Duke and Duchess of Rutland.

Footage filmed by an animal rights group allegedly showed badgers caught in snares and shot this year.

Avi Gabbay hailed as ‘Israel’s Macron’ after Labour leadership win

Posted: 11 Jul 2017 03:40 AM PDT

Millionaire businessman, who has little political experience, becomes party head after runoff with ex-leader Amir Peretz

A relative political unknown has swept to a shock victory to become head of Israel's opposition Labour party and one of the main candidates to challenge the long serving rightwing prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in future elections.

The emergence of Avi Gabbay, 50, a nonchalant businessman who burst onto Israel's political scene, immediately drew comparisons to the French president, Emmanuel Macron, from some commentators, while others suggested it was the latest chapter in the once dominant party's long decline.

Why are Venezuela's ‘miraculous’ musicians silent about the crisis?

Posted: 11 Jul 2017 06:00 AM PDT

Amid the ongoing political turbulence, dissatisfaction with the state-funded music programme is growing as few musicians speak out against regime

Venezuela's El Sistema ("the system") is probably the world's most famous music education programme – and its most misunderstood.

El Sistema is a vast operation that brings hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan children, many of them ostensibly poor, under the umbrella of a classical orchestral training scheme in the name of their "salvation". It has been covered extensively in the past decade, often by journalists who are given red-carpet tours and press office accounts and the success stories of individual musicians. This has all given the programme an unduly rosy international image, further distorted by a romanticised vision of the power of music.

Global gag rule: what impact will it have where you live?

Posted: 11 Jul 2017 02:32 AM PDT

The Guardian is running a project on the impact of Donald Trump's revival of a policy that bans US aid for foreign organisations whose services include abortion provision or advice

Since becoming president, Donald Trump has significantly expanded a policy known as the "global gag" rule, which bans foreign aid to international healthcare providers with even the remotest links to abortion provision and advice.

Every Republican president since Ronald Reagan has required NGOs to certify that they will not perform or promote abortions but Trump has adopted a stringent version of the rule. Critics fear it will lead to a huge increase in backstreet abortions, unwanted births and could hamper other areas of global healthcare such as vaccinations, HIV/Aids and early years care.

Hannity vs Trump Jr: Fox host fires blanks in friendly chat about Russian meeting

Posted: 11 Jul 2017 09:30 PM PDT

Trump cheerleader failed to bare his journalistic teeth, saying at one point ' I wanted to ask every question I could think of, I can't think of any more'

David Frost versus Richard Nixon it was never going to be.

When Fox News host Sean Hannity interviews Donald Trump and his family, it is usually about as hard-hitting as the BBC's questions for prime ministers in days of yore: "What is your message for the British people?"

Don't call it treason: Trump advisers' legal jeopardy is deep, but not that deep

Posted: 11 Jul 2017 03:08 PM PDT

Donald Trump Jr's conduct with Russia has more than a strong whiff of illegality about it, many experts say, but others argue it's not so straightforward

Has Donald Trump Jr broken the law? And what kind of legal trouble, exactly, might he or other Trumpworld figures be in, culminating with the president himself? Have we just gotten a step closer to impeachment? Or is that state of play basically unchanged?

What is the significance of Trump Jr's meeting with a Russian lawyer? | Luke Harding

Posted: 11 Jul 2017 09:23 AM PDT

The details of the president's son's meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya last summer are problematic for the White House

Last summer, two weeks after Donald Trump won the Republican nomination, his son met a Russian lawyer. The meeting, revealed by the New York Times, took place at Trump Tower in Manhattan. Those present were Donald Trump Jr, Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and the candidate's campaign chairman, Paul Manafort.

The lawyer was Natalia Veselnitskaya. She had previously lobbied against a US law that sanctioned prominent Russians for human rights abuses. The meeting came about via a backchannel. A Russian-Azeri businessman, Aras Agalarov, and his son, Emin, who hosted Trump for the 2013 Miss Universe pageant, got in touch with Rob Goldstone, a British publicist and former tabloid reporter, who in turn contacted the Trump campaign.

Russian lawyer who met Trump Jr denies links with Kremlin – video

Posted: 11 Jul 2017 10:49 AM PDT

The Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya tells NBC's Today show that she was summoned to Trump Tower during last year's presidential campaign to meet with Donald Trump Jr. She says it was possible that the Trump team wanted information on the Clinton campaign. She also denies having connections with the Russian government