Bar Crobar

Kanye West is officially a US presidential candidate

While a member of Yeezy's campaign declared yesterday that the rapper was "out of the running", a representative of Kanye West has filed the first official papers for his candidacy.

" We must now fulfil America's promise by trusting God, unifying our visions and building our future. I'm running for President of the United States! Kanye West announced it personally on his Twitter account on 4 July, and he has kept his promises. According to People magazine, as of Wednesday 15 July the rapper is officially a candidate in the US presidential election to be held in November, pitting him against Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden. This is despite a member of his campaign declaring him "out of the race" and his voting intentions of 2 %.

Kanye 2020 or... Birthday Party

Also according to People, Kanye West's team has filed a Statement of Campaign Organization -titled Kanye 2020- with the Federal Election Commission (FEC). The Declaration of Organization form states that the Kanye 2020 Committee will serve as the "Principal Campaign Committee" with Kanye West as its candidate. His party is called the "BDP", which stands for "Birthday Party". A joke? Contacted by Rolling Stone magazine, the FEC confirmed that a committee dubbed "Kanye 2020″ had indeed submitted a form, before adding that it could not "not to confirm the legitimacy of this deposit". Kim Kardashian's husband still has to fill in the second presidential application form, in which he will have to prove that he has raised or spent more than $5,000 on his campaign.

Candidate in Oklahoma... but not in the other US states

But that's not all. According to a spokesperson for the Board of Elections, a representative of Kanye West filed the necessary documents for his candidacy as an independent candidate in the Oklahoma election on Wednesday 15 July, the deadline for filing his candidacy. According to Forbes, the billionaire rapper paid the $35,000 required for his registration and also submitted a declaration of candidacy.

But because his candidacy arrived too late in some parts of the USA (deadlines vary from state to state), Kanye West will not be able to appear on the ballot papers anywhere in the country. For example, voters in Texas and Florida will not be able to elect Kim Kardashian's famous husband. For other states in Uncle Sam's country, Kanye West's candidacy will require several thousand signatures from residents. And there's no word yet on whether he's already collected them... So stay tuned.

By Pierre-Yves Paque

Judge refuses to block release of John Bolton's explosive book on Trump

In his book, excerpts of which have been published in newspapers, the former national security adviser criticises the US President's decisions, which are "motivated by re-election calculations".

The White House's efforts to prevent the publication of John Bolton's book, scheduled for 23 June, will have been in vain. On Saturday 20 June, a US judge refused to block the release of the explosive book by Donald Trump's former adviser, John Bolton, in which he flays the president-candidate, who is already under pressure just a few months before the presidential election.

The American president reacted by saying that his former adviser would pay a price "very strong for publishing his book without White House authorisation.

John Bolton "put the national security of the United States at risk". and "has put his country in dangerIn his decision, Washington federal court judge Royce Lamberth emphasised this point. But "The government has failed to establish that a ban would prevent irreparable damage. Its claim is therefore dismissed".he concluded.

Judge Lamberth pointed out that the book had already been widely circulated and that it was now "An open secret. According to the publisher, over 200,000 copies have already been sent to bookshops across the country.

"Today we welcome the Court's decision rejecting the government's attempt to eliminate the book". commented his lawyer Charles Cooper.

The image of an incompetent and mocked President

The judge acknowledged that John Bolton did not appear to have asked for a"written authorisation to the White House prior to publication, which would have certified that none of the elements "Classified did not appear in the book. He implied that a separate lawsuit, also brought by the government, could result in Mr Bolton losing the $2 million advance he had received to write the book, due to breaches of confidentiality agreements. The magistrate is also in charge of this other case.

"The Government intends to hold Bolton to account for honouring his agreements and ensure that he receives no benefit from his shameful decision to place his desire for money and attention above his commitment to protecting national security."insisted the White House.

Title The Room Where it Happened (The Room Where It Happened) chronicles the author's seventeen months as National Security Advisor to the occupant of the Oval Office in 2018-2019.

In this vitriolic book, the former White House adviser fuels the image of an American president who is incompetent on the international stage, mocked by senior members of his own administration and who puts his thirst for re-election on 3 November before the interests of the country.

"SUPER JUDICIAL VICTORY against Bolton. Obviously, as the book had already been circulated and leaked to many people and the media, there would have been nothing the highly respectable judge could have done to stop it."Donald Trump reacted on Twitter.

"Bolton broke the law and has been exposed and blamed for doing so and will pay a very high price. He likes to drop bombs on people and kill them. Now bombs will fall on him", threatened the American President, referring to his ex-advisor's war-mongering diplomatic stance.

Donald Trump no longer wants to talk to Xi Jinping "for the time being".

The relationship between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping has continued to deteriorate since the outbreak of the coronavirus crisis.

I have a very good relationship [with him] but at the moment I don't want to talk to himsaid Mr Trump on Fox Business.

Asked about the various retaliatory measures he could envisage, he was threatening: There are many things we could do. We could break off all relationships.

What would happen if we did?he continued. We would save 500 billion dollars if we broke off all relationshe added.

For weeks, US President Donald Trump has been accusing the Chinese authorities of concealing the scale of the epidemic, which appeared at the end of 2019 in the city of Wuhan (central China), and thus facilitating its spread.

Beijing denies this and claims to have passed on all the information to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other countries, including the United States, as quickly as possible.

They could have stopped himhe hammered home on Fox Business.

Agence France-Presse

China wants to pull out all the stops at the UN

Showing its role as a major power, China is becoming increasingly involved in a United Nations that has been weakened by the Trump administration's blows. Its financial contributions are increasing, as are the number of posts at the head of the UN's specialised agencies.

Source: swissinfo.ch

SpaceX gets America flying again

The launch of the SpaceX flight is a powerful symbol for American space exploration. The United States, which for nine years has depended on Russian launchers to send astronauts into space, has no shortage of projects in this area. While Trump is dreaming of the Moon by 2024, Elon Musk already has his sights set on Mars.

Source: La Croix

Blackout Tuesday, a counter-productive initiative?

Launched by the American music industry, this movement in support of anti-racism demonstrators following the death of George Floyd has had unexpected effects. Particularly on Instagram, where black screens have tended to drown out information about the Black Lives Matter movement.

Many Instagram users have noticed that their feed is full of black squares posted on their followers' accounts as a sign of support for the demonstrators against racism and police violence in the United States.

This phenomenon is part of the Blackout Tuesday movement, which itself stemmed "essentially from the #TheShowMustBePaused initiative" launched by a section of the American music industry in reaction to the death of George Floyd, as Variety points out.

The problem, according to this magazine specialising in entertainment news, is that by also using the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter (#BlackLivesMatter) to accompany their black screens, social network users ultimately "also prevented the circulation of important information about the demonstrations, fundraising and other issues crucial to the movement".

"The intention was good at the outset, but, to put it bluntly, this clearly harms the message," tweeted one activist quoted by Variety, while other users have issued calls to abandon the use of #BlackLivesMatter in this form on Instagram

Source: Courrier International