Lebanese-born, California-based artist Huguette Caland, whose five-decade career reflected an imaginative conception of form and color through whimsically sensual figurative and abstractly surreal painting, textile, drawing, and mixed media works, has died at eighty-eight years old. On the occasion of an exhibition at New York’s Institute of Arab and Islamic Art in 2018, Artforum contributor Kaelen Wilson-Goldie wrote of the “formal clarity of Caland’s erotic line—her ability to be sexually suggestive, almost comically naughty, while at the same time penning a feminist political critique of beauty, the body, and expectations…

Savannah Behrmann USA TODAY Published 9:00 PM EDT Sep 24, 2019 WASHINGTON — Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who ran against Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, said in an interview exerpt released Tuesday that she is “favor of moving toward impeachment” and that “we are in a crisis.” “I did not come to that decision easily or quickly, but this is an emergency as I see it,” Clinton told PEOPLE. “This latest behavior around Ukraine, trying to enlist the president of Ukraine in a plot to undermine former Vice President Biden…

Russia’s booming agriculture sector and rising exports to China because of its trade war with the US is helping the country’s local fertiliser producers grow at unprecedented levels, according to the chief executive of PhosAgro.Andrey Guryev, chief executive of the fertiliser producer, said: “Everything we are seeing from the geopolitics standpoint — the US-China trade war that will not end but will continue, and get worse — Russian agriculture is the 100 per cent beneficiary of.”Already a major grain exporter, Russia has begun to sell chicken and is preparing to start…

Richard Wolf USA TODAY Published 5:00 AM EDT Sep 25, 2019 NEW YORK – After 14 years as chief justice of the United States, John Roberts faces what must seem like a double dose of the seven-year itch. As his Supreme Court prepares for a contentious term featuring cases on immigration, gay and lesbian rights, gun ownership and, in all likelihood, abortion, Roberts can look forward to opposition from the left and distrust from the right. A buttoned-down conformist who fights to preserve his court’s reputation, he must referee continual battles between lower…

Donald Trump made a surprise appearance at the UN Climate Action summit this week after threatening to snub it.It is unlikely that the US president, who has labelled climate change a Chinese “hoax” to stamp out American manufacturing, is having second thoughts about his position on an issue that is rising quickly to the top of the global agenda.He attended only for 10-15 minutes. But Mr Trump is perhaps beginning to absorb what it means for the US to be increasingly isolated in its aversion to tackling climate change. On…

Bart Jansen, Christal Hayes and Courtney Subramanian USA TODAY Published 3:00 AM EDT Sep 25, 2019 WASHINGTON – When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the start of a formal impeachment inquiry Tuesday against President Donald Trump, she said his contacts with Ukraine’s president “changed everything” for Democrats. Lawmakers said her announcement galvanized the Democratic Caucus to expedite and prioritize their investigations for a speedy resolution. But chairmen of the six committees that have been investigating Trump for months and rank-and-file members said no details were discussed about how the mechanics…

Asia’s emerging economies have been the big winners from the US-China trade war and they will gain even more if it escalates, according to the latest outlook from the Manila-based Asian Development Bank. Exports from developing Asian countries to the US rose by 10 per cent over the previous year in the first half of 2019, even as exports from China fell by 12 per cent. Exports from Vietnam to the US jumped by 33 per cent and from Bangladesh by 13 per cent. The report shows how the huge trade…

John Fritze, David Jackson and Michael Collins USA TODAY Published 9:34 PM EDT Sep 24, 2019 NEW YORK – President Donald Trump said Tuesday he will release the transcript of a July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that is at the center of a controversy over whether he pressured Kiev to investigate Joe Biden.  The White House is also weighing whether to give Congress a whistleblower report that outlines concerns about Trump’s interaction with a foreign leader, according to two administration sources speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations….

Susan Page USA TODAY Published 1:01 AM EDT Sep 25, 2019 Rubicon: Crossed. In a single extraordinary day, the calculations and conventional wisdom that have prevailed in Washington during the Age of Trump were thrown out the window. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, for two years a voice of caution about the consequences of trying to remove President Donald Trump from office, announced Tuesday that the House of Representatives would begin a formal impeachment inquiry into whether he encouraged a foreign government to investigate his political rival. Even the president’s most fervent critics…

Courtney Subramanian and Bart Jansen USA TODAY Published 10:07 PM EDT Sep 24, 2019 WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Tuesday evening the U.S. House of Representatives will launch a formal impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump over allegations he sought help from a foreign leader to damage a political rival ahead of the 2020 election.  “I can say with authority, the Trump administration’s actions undermine our national security and intelligence,” Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters after meeting Democratic leadership. “The president must be held accountable. No one is above the law.” The announcement came after a string…