September 29, 2020 |
News
| No Comments
With just days for Republicans in the U.S. Senate to pass their Trumpcare bill before a congressional recess that begins at the end of this week, an updated version of an iconic ad is back on Monday featuring an elderly woman being foisted from her wheelchair over the edge of a cliff.
Click Here: Putters
Taking direct aim at the hypocrisy of President Donald Trump’s support for the bill—which he characterizes as “mean” but also enthusiastically supports—the new ad pairs earlier footage of candidate Trump castigating Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan for his previous attempts to gut healthcare protections for the nation’s sick and elderly with clips of the president celebrating Ryan last month when the House pushed through their version of Trumpcare that did exactly that.
Watch the ad:
“Bringing back our massively impactful ‘Granny Off the Cliff’ ad, which Paul Ryan himself credited for sinking his 2011 budget proposal targeting Medicare, this new video rips apart their health care plan and makes brutally clear just how damaging Medicaid cuts will be for America’s seniors,” said the Agenda Project Action Fund, which co-produced the ad, in a statement.
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT
According to the group, the Senate version of Republican approach would devastate the healthcare of seniors in numerous and specific ways:
- Medicaid, which is being cut by hundreds of billions of dollars, covers the long-term care costs of two-thirds of Americans living in nursing homes. Without Medicaid, these seniors will have no other way to pay for long-term care.
- Repealing the Obamacare payroll tax weakens the Medicare Trust Fund, endangering the long-term health of the program and leaving the door open for future benefit cuts to Medicare recipients.
- The bill’s elimination of essential health benefits means insurance companies can offer insurance that doesn’t even cover prescription drugs, among other important services.
- 25 million people age 50-64 have a preexisting condition. This bill allows insurers to charge them significantly more, even to levels where health care becomes unaffordable.
- Insurance companies will be able to charge older customers 5 times as much as younger ones, compared to 3 times as much under Obamacare rules, leading to an estimated 22% increase in premium costs for elderly Americans.
The ‘Lady Off the Cliff’ has worked in the past, the group said, but the battle this week to defeat Trumpcare in the Senate “might be her most important fight” yet.
Along with their partners and allies at SaveGranny.org, the Agenda Project is urging people to mobilize against the Senate bill by calling their lawmakers this week. This, said the group, “is an all-hands-on-deck emergency. For the sake of Granny and millions of others who will be hurt if this bill passes, please take a moment to share this video, and call your Senators at 202-224-3121.”
Our work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. Feel free to republish and share widely.
September 28, 2020 |
News
| No Comments
Senate Republicans are preparing to hold a closed-door caucus meeting on Wednesday to discuss what to do about GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore if he wins the special election in Alabama.
Sen. John CornynJohn CornynSenate headed for late night vote amid standoff over lands bill Koch-backed group launches ad campaign to support four vulnerable GOP senators Tim Scott to introduce GOP police reform bill next week MORE (R-Texas), the No. 2 Senate Republican, confirmed that Majority Leader Mitch McConnellAddison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote GOP senator to try to reverse requirement that Pentagon remove Confederate names from bases No, ‘blue states’ do not bail out ‘red states’ MORE (R-Ky.) has called a closed-door caucus meeting for 10 a.m.
“I think that’s part of the discussion, yes,” he said, asked by The Hill if Republicans would use the meeting to talk about the outcome of the Alabama special election.
A spokesman for McConnell — asked if Republicans would discuss anything else including their tax bill or government funding strategy during the meeting — declined to comment until after the Alabama Senate race is called.
ADVERTISEMENT
Polls in Alabama will close at 8 p.m. eastern time on Tuesday night.
The impromptu meeting comes as Senate Republicans have been tightlipped about what they will do about Moore if he wins Tuesday’s special election in Alabama.
McConnell and other top GOP senators have predicted that he will face an Ethics Committee investigation after several women came forward and said Moore pursued relationships with them when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s.
Under a 1960s Supreme Court decision, Republicans are required to seat Moore, who has denied wrongdoing, if he wins.
Sen. Cory GardnerCory Scott GardnerSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Interior faces legal scrutiny for keeping controversial acting leaders in office | White House faces suit on order lifting endangered species protections | Lawmakers seek investigation of Park Police after clearing of protesters The Hill’s Campaign Report: Republicans go on attack over calls to ‘defund the police’ MORE (R-Colo.), the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, has called on the Senate to hold an expulsion vote if Moore wins. But the last time the Senate expelled a member was in 1862 for supporting the Confederacy, and GOP senators haven’t rushed to back Gardner.
GOP senators are also expected to discuss if they want to give Moore committee assignments or invite him into the caucus’s closed-door policy lunches.
McConnell sidestepped a question earlier Tuesday about if he would give Moore a spot on the Senate’s committees.
“All of those are good questions for tomorrow. And we await the outcome of the Alabama Senate race,” he told reporters. Cornyn noted on Tuesday night that “no judgments” have been made yet on Moore’s fate, but expected it to come up during Wednesday’s meeting.
“I think all of that’s going to be a part of the discussion, but no judgements made [yet],” he said. A GOP aide noted separately that the decision about whether or not to give Moore committee assignments would be made by the full GOP caucus. Republicans raced to distance themselves following the allegations against Moore. The former judge, in turn, has also lashed out at McConnell, including refusing to say if he would support him as majority leader. If Moore wins, he wouldn’t immediately impact the GOP agenda. McConnell noted earlier Tuesday that Sen. Luther StrangeLuther Johnson StrangeThe biggest political upsets of the decade State ‘certificate of need’ laws need to go GOP frets over nightmare scenario for Senate primaries MORE (R-Ala.), whom Moore defeated in the primary, would remain in the Senate until they wrap up their work for the year.
September 28, 2020 |
News
| No Comments
Howard Dean says older members of the Democratic Party need “to get the hell out of the way and have somebody who is 50 running the country.”
Click Here: New Zealand rugby store
“I don’t think [Sen. Bernie SandersBernie SandersThe Hill’s 12:30 Report: Milley apologizes for church photo-op Harris grapples with defund the police movement amid veep talk Biden courts younger voters — who have been a weakness MORE] is going to be the next nominee. But he could be. But I’m very much for somebody who is younger,” said Dean, a former Democratic National Committee chairman and MSNBC contributor on “Morning Joe” Thursday.
“Morning Joe” guest co-host Willie Geist noted that meant big party names such as former Vice President Joe BidenJoe BidenHillicon Valley: Biden calls on Facebook to change political speech rules | Dems demand hearings after Georgia election chaos | Microsoft stops selling facial recognition tech to police Trump finalizing executive order calling on police to use ‘force with compassion’ The Hill’s Campaign Report: Biden campaign goes on offensive against Facebook MORE, who has hinted at running, as well as Sanders, who has strong grassroots support from the party’s left after his run against Hillary ClintonHillary Diane Rodham ClintonWhite House accuses Biden of pushing ‘conspiracy theories’ with Trump election claim Biden courts younger voters — who have been a weakness Trayvon Martin’s mother Sybrina Fulton qualifies to run for county commissioner in Florida MORE, would be out. Biden is 75 and Sanders is 76.
ADVERTISEMENT
“I think my generation needs to get the hell out of politics. Start coaching and start moving up this next generation who are more … fiscally sane,” Dean continued. “Neither Republicans or Democrats can claim they are fiscally responsible anymore.
“This young generation is going to pay for that if we don’t get the hell out of the way and have somebody who is 50 running the country.”
He also highlighted some potential younger contenders.
“I’m going to support someone who is young and in the next generation,” said Dean, naming Sens. Chris MurphyChristopher (Chris) Scott MurphyState, city education officials press Congress for more COVID-19 funds The Hill’s 12:30 Report: Trump takes victory lap in morning news conference Pelosi demands Trump clarify deployment of unidentified law enforcement in DC MORE (D-Conn.), Kamala HarrisKamala Devi HarrisRand Paul introduces bill to end no-knock warrants The Hill’s Campaign Report: Biden campaign goes on offensive against Facebook McEnany says Juneteenth is a very ‘meaningful’ day to Trump MORE (D-Calif.), and Kirsten GillibrandKirsten GillibrandWarren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Warren, Pressley introduce bill to make it a crime for police officers to deny medical care to people in custody Senate Dems press DOJ over coronavirus safety precautions in juvenile detention centers MORE (D-N.Y.) as well as Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, the son of former L.A. district attorney Gil Garcetti, as possible contenders.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if 17 people run,” Dean said.
“Like the Republican primary the last time around,” Geist said.
“Hopefully there won’t be people in it for the fun of it,” Dean added.
“And end up winning it anyway,” joked panelist Sam Stein, in a shot at President TrumpDonald John TrumpSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote Warren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Esper orders ‘After Action Review’ of National Guard’s role in protests MORE.
Dean also said he thinks “progressives are in the process of informally taking over the Democratic party” and that “the country has moved to the left.”
Dean, 69, led the field at one point during the 2004 Democratic presidential primary.
His comments come as cable news programs have run segments previewing the upcoming midterm elections and also the 2020 presidential race.
September 28, 2020 |
News
| No Comments
Seizing upon the now record high support for a Medicare-for-all bill, advocates for such a system are pushing House Minority Leader Nancy Peolosi (D-Calif.) to throw her weight behind the legislation.
The Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act, HR676, reintroduced in January by Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) this week claimed for the first time support from more than half of the Democratic caucus, reaching 104 co-sponsors in Congress.
Pelosi is not among them.
Instead, she appears on a list of 89 House Democrats not supporting Conyers’ legislation. Justice Democrats, an advocacy group calling for an overhaul of the Democratic Party, put out on social media this week an infographic highlighting their names:
But the time to act on the legislation is now, said Donna Smith, executive director of Progressive Democrats of America (PDA). In fact, it is “long overdue,” she stated Friday.
“Because of my family’s harrowing experiences with failures of the American healthcare system, I dedicated myself to fight for healthcare as a human right,” added Smith, who was featured in Michael Moore’s 2007 documentary Sicko. “Conyers’ legislation is the best hope for Americans, like my own family, who are facing bankruptcy or death if we or a loved one suffers even just one serious accident or illness.”
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT
Given the stakes, PDA and its allies say members of Congress, and especially the House leadership, must go beyond just opposing TrumpCare, the GOP healthcare bill, and must help advance HR676. As such, PDA members recently sent letters to congressional offices touting the bill as “the best healthcare solution.”
The call from PDA bookends a month in which Medicare-for-all advocates held rallies in scores of communities across the nation “to go on the offense and demand a healthcare system that covers everyone and costs less.”
Support for just that was evident this week in California, where the state Senate Health Committee advanced a single-payer healthcare bill.
“With today’s vote we are closer to being able to say, once and for all, that healthcare is not a privilege, it’s a human right,” the bill’s author, Democratic state Sen. Ricardo Lara, said. “Every family, every child, every senior deserves healthcare that costs less and covers more, and California has a chance to lead the rest of the nation toward universal care,” he stated.
According to Dr. Carol Paris, president of Physicians for a National Healthcare Program, “The momentum towards a universal health program is unstoppable.”
“Americans of all political stripes are reiterating their long-held support for improved Medicare for all, and Congress has a responsibility to act. We urge all members—including Republicans, whose constituents are demanding a better healthcare system—to come together and finally enact HR.676. Now is the time,” Paris said this week.
Our work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. Feel free to republish and share widely.
Click Here: Geelong Cats Guernsey
September 28, 2020 |
News
| No Comments
Top House Democrats on Friday raised concerns that Attorney General Jeff Sessions violated the law and lied under oath to Congress if he directly participated in President Donald Trump’s decision to fire FBI director James Comey.
Sessions reportedly recommended earlier this week that Trump fire Comey amid the investigation into alleged Russian election interference. On Thursday, Trump told NBC‘s Lester Holt that he had planned to do it “regardless,” although he credited the recommendation to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. His statement raised numerous questions, chief among which was whether Sessions inserted himself into the probe despite pledging in March to recuse himself after he was found to have lied during his confirmation hearings in January.
Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Ga.), the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) on Friday sent a letter (pdf) to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein raising “grave concerns” over the news.
“If the facts now being reported are accurate, it appears that the attorney general’s actions in recommending that President Trump fire director Comey may have contradicted his sworn testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee at his confirmation hearing, breached the public recusal he made before the American people, and violated the law enacted by Congress to prevent conflicts of interest at the Department of Justice,” Cummings and Conyers wrote.
Cummings and Conyers said Sessions may have violated Section 528 of title 28 of the United States Code, which require the DOJ to establish rules that disqualify “any officer or employee of the Department of Justice…from participation in a particular investigation or prosecution if such participation may result in a personal, financial, or political conflict of interest, or the appearance thereof.”
The penalty for violating that law could be removal from office.
“Since the attorney general previously recused himself from these matters—and since he may not sit in judgment on his own failure to comply with the law—we request that you, as the acting attorney general in this matter, report to us on the steps that must now be followed to address this apparent abuse,” the lawmakers wrote.
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT
“We recognize that the attorney general’s actions have thrust you into a very delicate position with respect to enforcing the law of the land against your superior,” they added. “In this case, however, the attorney general previously recused himself from these matters, leaving you with the solemn obligation to fulfill your responsibilities to the Department of Justice and the nation.”
Their concerns were echoed in the Senate.
“Attorney General Sessions should not have had any involvement in this decision at all,” Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), said Friday. “He recused himself. And yet he inserted himself in this firing.”
And Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) tweeted on Wednesday, “Sessions said he’d recuse himself from anything to do with Russia. It’s clear he did not. Calling for him to resign (again).”
Earlier this week, the watchdog group Public Citizen called for Sessions’ firing, saying his involvement meant that “we’ve just plunged into a constitutional crisis.”
“Sessions must be removed from office immediately. He violated his pledge to recuse himself from matters related to the Russia investigation,” Public Citizen’s president Robert Weissman said. “This is a test for America.”
Our work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. Feel free to republish and share widely.
Click Here: collingwood magpies 2019 training guernsey
September 28, 2020 |
News
| No Comments
Over the past decade, the United States has claimed broad authority to carry out drone strikes across the world, even in places far from the battlefield. Under President Barack Obama, the U.S. acknowledged killing between 2,867 and 3,138 people in strikes that took place in countries like Somalia, Yemen, and Pakistan.
Although in the waning days of his presidency, Obama took some steps to improve transparency about drone strikes, including providing the total estimated death toll, a new report by the Columbia Law School Human Rights Clinic and the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies says that the U.S. is still lagging in providing a full accounting of its drone program. Among other failures, the report, titled “Out of the Shadows: Recommendations to Advance Transparency in the Use of Lethal Force,” says that the U.S. has only acknowledged approximately 20 precent of its reported drone strikes — failing to claim responsibility or provide details in the vast majority of cases.
Meanwhile, the drone program is intensifying. Since President Donald Trump took office earlier this year, the rate of drone strikes per month has increased by almost four times Obama’s average. Yemen in particular has been a target of many of these operations, with between nine and 11 strikes hitting the country this year, according to statistics compiled by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT
The authors of the new report say that the government’s failure to provide information or legal rationales for its strikes is making it impossible to understand the full scope of the government’s targeted killing program, as well as its impact on civilians.
“For years, the only way we knew anything about individual strikes was from media reports or individual statements about strikes from government officials,” said Alex Moorehead, of the Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute, highlighting the failure of the government to provide details about cases in which drones have been used for targeted killings. “When we talk about official acknowledgment, we are talking about specific information about individual strikes, which is what matters to people who have had loved ones killed.”
© 2020 The Intercept / First Look Media
Click Here: Rugby league Jerseys
September 28, 2020 |
News
| No Comments
A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that President Donald Trump’s revised Muslim Ban, issued in March and lambasted by rights groups, is unconstitutional.
The full Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals heard the case earlier this month. In a 10-3 decision (pdf) on Thursday, the panel upheld a lower court’s nationwide preliminary injunction on Trump’s executive order, which blocked for 90 days people from Sudan, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen. The revised order, like the one it replaced, also suspended the nation’s refugee program for 120 days and reduced the annual number of refugees to 50,000 from 120,000.
Citing statements made by Trump and surrogates, the Fourth Circuit ruling said the majority was “unconvinced” that the order “has more to do with national security than it does with effectuating the president’s proposed Muslim ban.” On the 2016 campaign trail, Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.”
The ruling refers to an executive order “that in text speaks with vague words of national security, but in context drips with religious intolerance, animus, and discrimination.”
It continues:
Rights groups celebrated the decision.
“President Trump’s Muslim ban violates the Constitution, as this decision strongly reaffirms,” said Omar Jadwat, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) Immigrants’ Rights Project, who argued the case. “The Constitution’s prohibition on actions disfavoring or condemning any religion is a fundamental protection for all of us, and we can all be glad that the court today rejected the government’s request to set that principle aside.”
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT
Margaret Huang, executive director of Amnesty International USA, added: “Over and over we are seeing the courts and the public soundly reject this blatant attempt to write bigotry into law. Rather then wait for yet another court to rule against it, Congress can and must take action that will end this discriminatory and dangerous policy once and for all.”
Lawmakers also weighed in:
CNN, whose legal analyst Steve Vladeck called the decision a “huge loss” for Trump, described Thursday’s ruling as “the latest step on a likely trip to the Supreme Court.” The White House has not yet issued a statement.
Meanwhile, Karen Tumlin, legal director of the National Immigration Law Center, offered a sobering reminder: “While the spotlight today is on the Muslim ban, the truth is that this executive order is just one part of President Trump’s xenophobic agenda. We will continue to fight to ensure that all people—regardless of where they were born, what they earn, or how they pray—can live freely and be treated fairly in this country.”
Our work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. Feel free to republish and share widely.
Click Here: Maori All Blacks Store
September 28, 2020 |
News
| No Comments
Voting and civil rights advocates are ringing alarm bells on Thursday after it was learned that an election commission established by Donald Trump—one which critics feared from its inception would be used to suppress, not protect, voter access—had sent requests to all fifty states demanding personal and detailed information about voters.
“I certainly don’t trust the Trump Administration with that information, and people across the country should be outraged.” —Jason Kander, DNC
According to The Hill, a letter was sent from Kris Kobach, the Secretary of State in Kansas and vice chairman of Trump’s Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, asking the states for “several pieces of information about voters, including their names, birthdays, the last four digits of their Social Security numbers and their voting history dating back to 2006.”
The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a civil rights and voting protection watchdog, described the move as dangerous and called on states receiving the request not to comply.
“We fully condemn actions taken today by the President’s Election Integrity Commission seeking disclosure of data and personal information on virtually every voter across the country,” the group said in a statement. And continued:
Jason Kander, head of the Democratic National Committee’s Commission on Protecting American Democracy from the Trump Administration, also expressed his concern about the letter, which he called “very concerning.”
“It’s obviously very concerning when the federal government is attempting to get the name, address, birth date, political party and Social Security number of every voter in the country, Kander said in the statement. “I certainly don’t trust the Trump Administration with that information, and people across the country should be outraged.”
Our work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. Feel free to republish and share widely.
Click Here: camiseta seleccion argentina
September 28, 2020 |
News
| No Comments
As climate scientists stress that climate change has contributed to the enormous size and strength recent storms including Hurricane Irma, which has killed at least ten people in the Caribbean and left the island of Barbuda “uninhabitable” as it heads toward Florida, a coalition of more than 220 organizations called for a “managed decline of fossil fuel production” on Thursday, with an immediate end to new oil, gas, and coal development.
“Leadership must come from countries that are high-income, have benefitted from fossil fuel extraction, and that are historically responsible for significant emissions.”—The Lofoten Declaration
The Lofoten Declaration, named for an archipelago in Norway where drilling by the oil industry has been successfully blocked by environmental groups, demands “unprecedented action to avoid the worst consequences of our dependence on oil, coal, and gas.” The document notes that new oil and gas exploration and production are “incompatible with limiting global warming to well below 2ºC,” the stated goal of the Paris climate agreement of 2016, and that countries that do not embrace clean energy will soon be left behind:
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT
Click Here: Putters
The Lofoten Declaration has been signed by climate science and environmental advocacy groups from 55 countries around the world who aim to close the gap between efforts to reduce fossil fuel consumption and those that focus on cutting fossil fuel production. As Hannah McKinnon wrote at Oil Change International:
The signers of the Lofoten Declaration aim to put pressure on developed countries that can afford to implement meaningful change in how they produce energy, to take action that could benefit nations around the world—including the small island nations like those in the Caribbean that stand to sustain some of the most serious destruction as climate change brings increasingly severe weather patterns.
Our work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. Feel free to republish and share widely.
September 28, 2020 |
News
| No Comments
Valtteri Bottas clinched his second win of the season – and his second at Sochi – after his Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton was handed two five second penalties for a pre-race infraction on his initial way to the grid.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was runner-up after successfully staying ahead of the recovering Hamilton to the finish line.
The race saw a dramatic start with separate incidents taking out McLaren’s Carlos Sainz and Racing Point’s Lance Stroll on the opening lap.
- 2020 Russian Grand Prix – Race results
A stewards investigation for the way he’d conducted his practice start on the initial way to the grid notwithstanding, Lewis Hamilton was lined up in pole position on the grid at Sochi Autodrom. But he had other issues on his mind: the fact that he was starting on soft tyres while Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas were both on the preferred medium compound for one, and the likelihood that he would end up giving his rivals a tow in the long run down to the opening corners to challenge for the lead.
When the lights went out, Hamilton launched off the grid while Bottas was able to pass Verstappen for second and then use the slipstream to gain on his Mercedes team mate into turn 2. Hamilton was narrowly able to fend off the attack, while on the other side of the track Verstappen ran wide and into the run-off area, slaloming the marker boards to make a legal return to the track.
Carlos Sainz also went off the track, but he cut his return too fine going through the markers and clipped the wall, shattering the McLaren’s left front suspension and inadvertently obstructing his team mate Lando Norris as the car spun across the track trailing debris across the racing line. Caught up in a separate incident was Racing Point’s Lance Stroll who was hit from behind by Leclerc in the congestion which spun him round into the barrier and out of the race.
A safety car was deployed for the clean-up enabling Norris and a number of other drivers at the back including Alex Albon and George Russell to pit for an early change to the hard compound tyre. Hamilton, Bottas and Verstappen were left leading the Renault pair of Esteban Ocon and Daniel Ricciardo, with Sergio Perez having dropped to sixth ahead of Pierre Gasly and Charles Leclerc. The biggest gainers from the first lap incidents were the two Haas cars of Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean who found themselves running up into the top ten for the restart at the end of lap 5.
Hamilton offered his rivals no chance to slipstream him this time and quickly pulled away. But that success was tempered by confirmation that he had been handed not one but two separate five second penalties for his pre-race infraction, wrecking his chance of equalling Michael Schumacher’s all-time wins record this weekend. The issue was exacerbated by his being on the soft tyres, which mandated making an early stop before he could try to pull out a gap over the rest of the field.
Elsewhere, Perez was able to make a pass through turn 2 on Ricciardo on lap 15, the Renault pitting next time by. Also on the move was Daniil Kvyat with the AlphaTauri swiftly dispatching both Haas cars to climb up to eighth place. A good deal of entertainment came from the three friends currently running at the back of the field – Albon, Norris and Russell – until Russell flat-spotted his tyres and was forced to make his second stop of the day and a return to the medium compound at the end of lap 15.
Hamilton’s stop came on lap 17. He wasn’t happy about the early timing, and it was an interminable wait in the pit box as he served his penalty once his new hard tyres were fitted. It dropped him to 11th place behind Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who was swiftly dispatched as Hamilton started to work his way forward. Meanwhile Bottas and Verstappen – still on their initial set of medium tyres – were now leading the race from Perez and Leclerc after Ocon’s pit stop dropped him behind the still-to-stop Vettel.
Perez was the last of the front runners to have started on soft tyres to pit on lap 21, and he came back out in sixth place just behind Hamilton who was now hunting down Kvyat, who was also yet to make his first call to pit lane having begun the race on the hard compound.
Wary of Hamilton’s recovery, Red Bull called in Verstappen for new tyres on lap 26 and Mercedes responded by pitting Bottas next time by. The Finn’s advantage was sufficient to keep him in the lead ahead of Leclerc, while Verstappen briefly dropped to fourth behind Kvyat but the Red Bull was given little resistance by the sister AlphaTauri. Further back, Daniel Ricciardo had been on the move with a pre-agreed pass on his team mate and then a more assertive overtake of Vettel; however he was then given a five second penalty for going off-track and not following the approved instructions for resuming while he was getting around Ocon. Admonished, Ricciardo took the blame and said he would make up for it by going faster.
Leclerc finally made his stop from second place on lap 29 dropping him to seventh, while Kvyat came in on lap 31 and rejoined in eighth. It meant that the top three were the same as they had been at the start, but inverted: Bottas leading Verstappen by 12s and Hamilton a further 9s behind. Perez was back up to fourth ahead of Ricciardo and Leclerc, with Ocon running in seventh from Kvyat, Kimi Raikkonen and Pierre Gasly.
Raikkonen was the final driver to make his first stop of the afternoon on lap 37, promoting Norris back into the top ten after his first lap dramas. With all the scheduled pit stops having played out, it was now a matter of whether anyone would encounter problems lasting the remaining laps without tyre problems forcing their hand.
Gasly sought to take advantage of a brief Virtual Safety Car (after Grosjean mowed down the polystyrene markers at turn 2) to make a stop, dropping him to 11th but with fresh tyres compared to both Norris and Albon ahead that soon allowed him to efficiently regain the two lost positions. Having originally pitted at the end of the first lap, Norris was finally obliged to make another stop with five laps remaining.
Click Here: Putters
There was no sign of any such tyre worries for Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen who were trading fastest lap times as they cruised to the finish with the extra point ultimately going to Bottas. Even Hamilton, who had stopped significantly earlier, seemed to have no problems with his pace as he joined them on the podium. Perez claimed fourth while Ricciardo held on to fifth despite his penalty ahead of Leclerc, Ocon, Kvyat, Gasly and Albon.
One lap down at the chequered flag were Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi, Haas’ Kevin Magnussen and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel. They were followed by Kimi Raikkonen, Lando Norris and Nicholas Latifi, with Romain Grosjean finishing ahead of George Russell and two DNFs in the form of Carlos Sainz and Lance Stroll.
Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter