Nations rise and fall

Secretive talks in the waning days of a campaign. Furtive phone calls. Ardent public denials. American history is full of October surprises — late revelations, sometimes engineered by an opponent, that shock the trajectory of a presidential election and that candidates dread. In 1880, a forged letter ostensibly written by James A. Garfield claimed he wanted more immigration from China, a position so unpopular it nearly cost him the election. Weeks before the 1940 election, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s press secretary kneed a Black police officer in the groin, just as the president was trying to woo skeptical Black voters. (Roosevelt’s response made history: He appointed the first Black general and created the Tuskegee Airmen.) But the scandal that has ensnared Donald J. Trump, the paying of hush money to a pornographic film star in 2016 , is in a rare class: an attempt not to bring to light an election-altering event, but to suppress one. The payoff to Stormy Daniels that has a … [Read more...] about Donald Trump, and the Sordid Tradition of Suppressing October Surprises

In lucrative paid speeches that Hillary Clinton delivered to elite financial firms but refused to disclose to the public, she displayed an easy comfort with titans of business, embraced unfettered international trade and praised a budget-balancing plan that would have required cuts to Social Security, according to documents posted online Friday by WikiLeaks. The tone and language of the excerpts clash with the fiery liberal approach she used later in her bitter primary battle with Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and could have undermined her candidacy had they become public. Mrs. Clinton comes across less as a firebrand than as a technocrat at home with her powerful audience, willing to be critical of large financial institutions but more inclined to view them as partners in restoring the country’s economic health. In the excerpts from her paid speeches to financial institutions and corporate audiences, Mrs. Clinton said she dreamed of “open trade and open borders” throughout … [Read more...] about Leaked Speech Excerpts Show a Hillary Clinton at Ease With Wall Street

Nine in 10 foodbanks fear running out of supplies to hand to hungry families, a heartbreaking study revealed tonight. Seventy per cent of outlets said they were “extremely” or “very concerned” about their “ability to continue to support” those in need amid the cost-of-living crisis. Another 23% who responded to the SurveyMonkey study for the BanktheFood network were “somewhat concerned”. Some 97% of foodbanks which answered the poll reported surges in demand over the past 12 months as the living standards disaster crisis gripped Britain. The biggest increase was seen among working families with children aged under 12, with 26% of foodbanks reporting rises in demand from these households. The next biggest was from households with children under 12, in a home where no-one worked. Read More Foodbanks are struggling to keep up with demand ( Image: Getty Images) Three per cent of foodbanks said the biggest increase came from “working people in public services such … [Read more...] about Foodbanks fear they will run out of supplies for hungry families as crisis bites