Trump strategist calls mainstream media ‘the opposition party’

White House press secretary Sean Spicer speaks to reporters on
 Air Force One en route to Andrews Air Force Bas

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump sat down for an interview on Thursday with Fox News, a network he has consistently praised, while his chief strategist used an interview with the New York Times to lash out at the mainstream Ame

rican media — which he branded was “the opposition party” to the current administration.

“I want you to quote this,” chief strategist Steve Bannon told the Times. “The media here is the opposition party. They don’t understand this country. They still do not understand why Donald Trump is the president of the United States.”

President Trump has long enjoyed a friendly relationship with Fox, earning favourable coverage throughout the campaign and in the early days of his presidency.

Cornered during a presidential debate over his support for the Iraq war, for example, he implored the public to “call Sean Hannity” — his interviewer on Thursday — who he said would defend his opposition to it.

On Thursday morning, he described the whistle-blower Chelsea Manning in a tweet as an “ungrateful traitor”, 14 minutes after Fox had broadcast the same words.

Speaking to Hannity, Trump said Daesh fighters were “sneaky, dirty rats”.

“They’re sneaky, dirty rats and they blow people up in a shopping centre and they blow people up in a church,” Trump said.

“These are bad people. When you’re fighting Germany and they had their uniforms, and Japan and they had their uniforms and they had their flags on the plane, and the whole thing. We are fighting sneaky rats right now that are sick and demented. And we’re going to win.”

The interview with Hannity ran the gamut of Trump’s preoccupations on the campaign trail and in office — including his belief in the efficacy of torture including waterboarding against those suspected of terrorist offences and his support for “totally extreme” vetting of people seeking to enter the US from certain countries.

Media attacked

Trump also gave Hannity a tour of the Oval Office, during which he offered one of many boasts: “Look at my desk, papers. You don’t see presidents with papers on that desk.”

Concluding the interview, Trump returned to his obsession with TV ratings, saying: “The ratings tonight are going to be through the roof.”

Bannon, formerly chairman of the far right Breitbart News website, eviscerated legacy media organisations in his interview with the Times.

The media should be “embarrassed and humiliated” by its coverage of the election, he said, claiming that a number of political reporters were “outright activists of the Clinton campaign” though without naming any names.

“That’s why you have no power,” Bannon said. “You were humiliated.”

Many in the media wrongly predicted Hillary Clinton would win the election. Forecasters at the Times gave her an 85 per cent chance of winning on Election Day.

Trump enjoys antagonising the media, a routine that became habit on the campaign trail. Several reporters have also noticed that Trump has a tendency to react to Fox News segments, even on occasion parroting their language.

On Tuesday, seemingly out of nowhere, Trump used Twitter to say he would send “the feds” into Chicago if the city failed to combat an increase in violence. It soon became clear the tweet had followed an 8pm segment on Fox’s O’Reilly Factor — about an increase in violence in Chicago.

In his first public remarks after his inauguration last week, Trump used a speech at CIA headquarters to kindle a feud with the press over the size of the crowd. In a statement riddled with falsehoods the president’s spokesman, Sean Spicer, then delivered a scathing indictment of coverage of the inauguration.

“That was the largest audience to witness an inauguration, period,” Spicer said, a remark which the fact-checking website PoltiFact deemed to be “pants on fire” false.

The next day, Kellyanne Conway, a top aide to Trump, defended Spicer’s remarks, saying the White House’s false claims were “alternative facts”. Her words drew comparisons to “newspeak”, the language of a dictatorial regime featured in George Orwell’s dystopian classic 1984, causing sales of the book to spike.

Trump signs order to begin building Mexican border wall

US President Donald Trump holds up an executive order to start the Mexico
border wall project at the Department of Homeland Security facility in
 Washington, DC, on January 25, 2017.

Washington: US President Donald Trump took a first step toward fulfilling his pledge to “build a wall” on the Mexican border Wednesday, signing two immigration-related decrees.

Trump visited the Department of Homeland Security to approve an order to begin work to “build a large physical barrier on the southern border,” according to the White House.

Trump also signed measures to “create more detention space for illegal immigrants along the southern border” according to White House spokesman Sean Spicer.

“We’re going to once again prioritize the prosecution and deportation of illegal immigrants who have also otherwise violated our laws,” he added.

Stemming immigration was a central plank of Trump’s election campaign. His signature policy prescription was to build a wall across the (3,200-kilometre border between the United States and Mexico.

Some of the border is already fenced, but Trump says a wall is needed to stop illegal immigrants entering from Latin America.

In 2014, there were an estimated 5.8 million unauthorized Mexican migrants in the United States, according to Pew, with fewer arriving each year before that.

Experts have voiced doubts about whether a wall would actually stem illegal immigration, or if it is worth the billions it is expected to cost.

But the policy has become a clarion call for the US right and far-right - the core of Trump’s support.

Still, any action from the White House would be piecemeal, diverting only existing funds toward the project.

The Republican-controlled Congress would need to supply new money if the wall is to be anywhere near completed, and Trump’s party has spent the last decade preaching fiscal prudence.

Furthermore, much of the land needed to build the wall is privately owned, implying lengthy legal proceedings, political blowback, and substantial expropriation payments.

A Morning Consult/Politico poll released Wednesday said 47 percent of voters support building a wall, with 45 percent against.

Make Mexico pay?

Trump again promised “100 percent” to make Mexico pay for the wall Wednesday, something the Mexican government has repeatedly said it will not do.

“Ultimately it will come out of what’s happening with Mexico, we’re going to be starting those negotiations relatively soon. And we will be, in a form, reimbursed by Mexico,” he told ABC.

“All it is, is we will be reimbursed at a later date from whatever transaction we’ll make from Mexico.”

“I’m just telling you, there will be a payment, it will be in a form, perhaps a complicated form.”

“What I’m doing is good for the United States, it’s also going to be good for Mexico. We want to have a very stable, very solid Mexico”

Trump aides have weighed hiking border tariffs or border transit costs as one way to “make Mexico pay.” Another threat is to finance the wall by tapping into remittances that Mexican migrants send home, which last year amounted to $25 billion.

Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray and the country’s economy minister are currently in Washington to prepare a visit by President Enrique Pena Nieto scheduled for January 31.

“There are very clear red lines that must be drawn from the start,” Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo told the Televisa network in Mexico just ahead of the trip.

Asked whether his country would walk away from talks if the wall and remittances are an issue, Guajardo said: “Absolutely.”

Trump also wants to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada, warning last week that he would abandon the pact unless the United States gets “a fair deal.”

Mexico has said it is willing to “modernize” the accord, which came into force in 1994 and represents $531 billion in annual trade between Mexico and the United States.

Some 80 percent of Mexico’s exports go to the US market.

Ban on Muslims?

Trump has also floated the idea of a ban on Muslims coming to the United States.

Trump this week is set to slash the number of refugees allowed to resettle in the United States, according to the New York Times, particularly from Syria and other Muslim-majority countries.

Around 4.8 million Syrians have fled to neighboring countries alone, according to the United Nations.

An estimated 18,000 Syrians have come to the United States.

Former officials said Trump could slow the flow down by moving resources away from processing visa requests, or cutting migrant quotas and programs.

Executive orders are expected to restrict immigration and access to the United States for refugees and visa holders from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, according to the Washington Post.

Citizens from those countries already face large obstacles in obtaining US visas.

But the move has prompted a fierce backlash even before it was announced.

“A ban on refugees would not make America safer,” said Stephen Yale-Loehr of Cornell Law. “Refugees from Syria already go through a 21-step screening process that takes 18-24 months.”

“The head of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services told Congress in September 2016 that not a single act of actual terrorist violence has been committed by a refugee since 9/11.”

Trump asks Comey to stay on at FBI: reports

FBI Director James Comey testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington.
 Comey is staying in his job. A Justice Department memo lists
him among officials remaining in their positions.

Washington: US President Donald Trump has asked FBI director James Comey to stay in his post, despite criticism for his actions during the presidential election which many Democrats say damaged Hillary Clinton’s candidacy, media reports said Tuesday.

Comey informed senior agents at the Federal Bureau of Investigation about Trump’s decision during a conference call last week, The New York Times reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.

The FBI director is a Republican who was appointed by former president Barack Obama in 2013.

An FBI spokeswoman declined to comment when asked about The New York Times report. The Washington Post also reported on Comey’s decision to stay on, citing unnamed sources.

Comey has faced tough criticism from both Republicans and Democrats for his role during last year’s election campaign in the investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was at the State Department.

Relations between the current White House and the FBI are especially sensitive because the Bureau is currently investigating potential ties of several Trump associates to Russian officials.

Trump told Comey during their first meeting at Trump Tower in New York earlier this month that he hoped he would remain in office, the Times reported, citing anonymous sources.

“And Mr Trump’s aides have made it clear to Mr Comey that the president does not plan to ask him to leave,” the paper added at the time.

Although the director is appointed for a period of 10 years, the president has the power to dismiss him.

Comey first angered Republicans in July by recommending that Clinton not be prosecuted, though he called her actions “extremely careless.”

Eleven days before the November 8 election, he prompted more shock and dismay, this time among Democrats, by informing Congress that the FBI was reopening the inquiry into Clinton after some of her emails were discovered on the computer of an aide’s estranged husband.

Two days before the vote, the FBI said the emails contained no new relevant information.

Clinton and many other Democrats blame Comey’s 11th-hour revelation for her defeat.

The Justice Department’s inspector general has launched an investigation into the FBI’s role in the Clinton case, including Comey’s decision to publicize it at a news conference in July and his October announcement on re-opening the case.

Trump to authorise wall and curtail immigration

People protest against US President Donald Trump next to a fake wall with a Mexican national flag and a dummy representing him in Mexico City.

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Wednesday will order the construction of a Mexican border wall — the first in a series of actions this week to crack down on immigrants and bolster national security, including slashing the number of refugees who can resettle in the United States and blocking Syrians and others from “terror-prone” nations from entering, at least temporarily.

The orders are among an array of national security directives Trump is considering issuing in the coming days, according to people who have seen the orders. They include reviewing whether to resume the once-secret “black site” detention program; keep open the prison at Guantanamo Bay; and designate the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization.

According to a draft, the order on detention policies would start a review of “whether to reinstate the program of interrogation of high-value alien terrorists to be operated outside the United States, and whether such a program should include the use of detention facilities operated by the CIA.” But one section of the draft would require that “no person in the custody of the United States shall at any time be subjected to torture, or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, as described by US or international law.”

The proposed orders could lead to sweeping and controversial changes in the way the United States conducts itself at home and around the globe in the name of security, potentially leading to the reinstatement of policies that have been repudiated by much of the world.

“Big day planned on NATIONAL SECURITY tomorrow,” Trump wrote on Twitter on Tuesday night. “Among many other things, we will build the wall!”

Trump will sign the executive order for the wall during an appearance at the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday, as Mexico’s foreign minister, Luis Videgaray, arrives in Washington to prepare for the visit of President Enrique Pena Nieto of Mexico. Pena Nieto will be among the first foreign leaders to meet the new president at the end of the month.

The border wall was a signature promise of Trump’s campaign, during which he argued it is vital to gaining control over the illegal flow of immigrants into the United States.

Trump is also expected to target legal immigrants as early as this week, White House officials said, by halting a decades-old program that grants refuge to the world’s most vulnerable people as he begins the process of drastically curtailing it and enhancing screening procedures.

In the draft of a separate executive order being circulated inside the administration, Trump would examine the question of whether the CIA should reopen its so-called black sites, secret interrogation and detention centers that it operated overseas. Former President Barack Obama ordered the closings of all in the first week of his presidency in 2009.

The black sites were a highly classified program, so their mention in an executive order would be highly unusual.

The refugee policy under consideration would halt admissions from Syria and suspend admissions from other majority-Muslim nations until the administration can study how to properly vet the applicants. This would pave the way for the administration to slash the number of displaced people who can be resettled on US soil and would effectively bar the entry of people from Muslim countries — including Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and Syria — at least for some time.

The plan is in line with a ban on Muslim immigrants that Trump proposed during his campaign, arguing that such a step was warranted given concerns about terrorism. He later said he wanted to impose “extreme vetting” of refugees from Syria and other countries where terrorism was rampant, although the Obama administration had already instituted strict screening procedures for Syrian refugees that were designed to weed out anyone who posed a danger.

The expected actions drew strong criticism from immigrant advocates and human rights groups, which called them discriminatory moves that rejected the American tradition of welcoming immigrants of all backgrounds.

“To think that Trump’s first 100 days are going to be marked by this very shameful shutting of our doors to everybody who is seeking refuge in this country is very concerning,” said Marielena HincapiE, the executive director of the National Immigration Law Center. “Everything points to this being simply a backdoor Muslim ban.”

The order to build the wall is likely to complicate the visit of Videgaray, who has a history with Trump. It was Videgaray, then Mexico’s finance minister, who orchestrated Trump’s visit to Mexico before the election, a move seen by many Mexicans as tantamount to treason. He was forced to resign because of the fallout, but his reputation was restored after Trump’s victory, and he was given the job of foreign minister, in part to capitalise on his relationship with the new American leader.

It is unclear whether Mexican officials were informed of Trump’s decision to sign the executive order during Videgaray’s visit.

Trump’s refugee directive is expected to target a program the Obama administration expanded last year in response to a global refugee crisis, fuelled in large part by a large flow of Syrians fleeing their country’s civil war. Obama increased the overall number of refugees to be resettled in the United States to 85,000 and ordered that 10,000 of the slots be reserved for Syrians. He set the number of refugees to be resettled this year at 110,000, more than double the 50,000 Trump is now considering.

By the end of last month, more than 25,000 refugees had been resettled, according to State Department figures, meaning the plan Trump is considering would admit only 25,000 more by the end of September.

Michelle Obama: uber-mom, style icon, political force

First Lady Michelle Obama (centre) after President Barack
Obama delivered his farewell address on January 10.

Washington: In 2008, Michelle Obama was tentative on the ca

mpaign trail, wary of saying anything to jeopardise her husband’s historic bid to be America’s first black president.

Eight years later, the self-assured first lady — back on the campaign trail — electrified Democratic Party faithful with a passionate takedown of Donald Trump and what she called his “frightening” attitude towards women.

“It has shaken me to my core in a way that I couldn’t have predicted,” Obama told a rally for Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire.

“This is not normal. This is not politics as usual. This is disgrac

Five dead in shooting at Mexico music festival

A railing lies askew inside the Blue Parrot club, where several
 people were killed in early morning gunfire, 

Plaaya del Carmen: A shooting erupted during an electronic music festival at a Mexican

beach resort early on Monday, leaving five people dead, including one in a stampede as revelers fled in panic.

Fifteen other people were injured in the melee after a gunman opened fire on security guards preventing him from entering the Blue Parrot nightclub during the BPM festival in Playa del Carmen, the Quintana Roo state prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

According to the state’s governor Roberto Borge the gunfire stemmed from “a personal conflict” between two individuals.

According to local prosecutors the five deceased victims are the Canadian Kirk Wilson, the Italian Daniel Pessina, the American Alejandra Villanueva Ibarra

Trump most disliked modern president

President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a news
conference in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York.

Washington: Donald Trump is poised to take office with the lowest approval ratings of an

y new president in recent history, but despite a chaotic transition Americans trust the billionaire on one crucial point: jobs.

Since the real estate developer’s White House win in November, companies have lined up to announce new factories or jobs in the United States, including air conditioning manufacturer Carrier, Japan’s SoftBank, Ford, Fiat Chrysler and Amazon with a headline-grabbing

Woman charged with kidnapping teenage daughter at birth

Walterboro, South Carolina: Neighbours knew them for years as a church-going mother and her

polite teenage daughter before police swarmed Gloria Williams’ home in this small, quiet South Carolina city.

Williams, 51, was arrested on kidnapping charges. Then came the real shocker: Police identified the victim as the 18-year-old woman Williams had raised as her daughter. Investigators said DNA analysis proved she had been stolen as an infant from a hospital in Jacksonville, Florida.

“She wasn’t an abused child or a child who got in trouble,” a stunned Joseph Jenkins said of the young woman who lived across the street. “But she grew up with a lie for 18 years.”

She grew up as Alexis Manigo, but has now learned she was born as Kamiyah Mobley. Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams described her on Friday as being in good health

WhatsApp vulnerable to snooping, report says

WhatsApp is vulnerable to snooping

London: The Facebook-owned mobile messaging service WhatsApp is vulnerable to interception, the Guardian newspaper reported on Friday, sparking concern over an app advertised as putting an emphasis on privacy.

The report said that WhatsApp messages could be read without its billion-plus users knowing due to a security backdoor in the way the company has implemented its end-to-end encryption protocol.

The system relies on unique security keys “that are traded and verified between users to guarantee communications are secure

Man’s best friend, bacteria’s worst enemy

VANCOUVER, CANADA:

Hospital ID badge dangling from his neck, Angus considered the empty bed in front of him. After a few strong sniffs, he moved on.

Nearing the next bed, his floppy ears perked up before he stopped dead in his tracks, tapping his paw and eyeing his handler expectantly.

The two-year-old English springer spaniel is believed to be the only canine hospital employee in the world trained to sniff out the notorious superbug Clostridium difficile, or C difficile.

The seeds of Angus’ unlikely career were planted three years ago, after Teresa Zurberg, a Vancouver resident, suffered a C difficile infection. Her bout with the bacteria which attacks people whose immune systems have been weakened by

Lessons in respect at China’s Confucius kindergartens

Girls learn to perform a tea ceremony at a Confucius
 kindergarten in Wuhan, China.

Wuhan, China: Children in scholars hats bow before a statue of Confucius, the Chinese sage once reviled by Communist authorities but now enjoying a revival as parents look to instill his values in their offspring.

With central government backing, hundreds of private schools dedicated to Confucian teachings have sprung up across the country in response to growing demand for more traditional education.

At a new institution in the central city of Wuhan, about 30 students aged two to six chant: “Our respect to you, Master Confucius. Thank you for the kindness of your teaching and your compassion”.

How 8-ft-high chicken manure triggered fire

Little Rick, Arkansas: How high is too high for a pile of chicken manure?

Eight feet, apparently.

Chicken waste is an excellent fertilizer, but with the growing season still weeks away it's piling up in barns across the South. To reduce the risk of fire from spontaneous combustion, poultry experts are warning farmers that piles 6½- to 7-feet high are high enough.

One pile caught fire in western Arkansas this week, triggering a wildfire that destroyed a mobile home.

Sunny the White House dog bites teenager

Sunny, one of the Obamas' two dogs

Washington: Blood was spilled Monday at the White House, but the culprit’s politics were not to

blame: the Obamas’ dog Sunny bit a teenaged guest of the family, leaving a gash above her cheekbone, TMZ reported on Thursday.

The 18-year-old girl, whose name has not been released, was trying to pet the animal, a female Portuguese water dog, when it bit her, according to the TMZ website, which specializes in celebrity news.

The president’s physician, Dr. Ronny Jackson, deemed it necessary to close the wound with a few stitches.

Homeless man makes selfless sacrifice to help shivering young couple left stranded after night out

Charlotte and Taylor say the experience has changed their lives

Joey (not pictured) immediately offered his
coat and duvet to the pair

A couple who missed their last train home and were stranded in freezing January weather say their lives have changed after they met a kind-hearted homeless man .

Charlotte Ellis and boyfriend Taylor Waldon, both aged 22, were on their way home from a night out in Covent Garden, London, when they realised the train station gates were closed and, in their "drunken state", they had missed their chance to get back.

A couple who missed their last train home and were stranded in freezing January weather say their lives have changed after they met a kind-hearted homeless man .

Charlotte Ellis and boyfriend Taylor Waldon, both aged 22, were on their way home from a night

Obama surprises Biden with America's highest honour

U.S. President Barack Obama presents the Medal of Freedom
 to U.S. Vice President Joe Biden during an event at the White
 House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, Jan. 12, 2017

Washington: Barack Obama awarded Vice-President Joe Biden America’s highest civilian honor

on Thursday, in an emotional surprise ceremony at the White House.

Biden was reduced to tears as the president in his last days in office surprised him by announcing he would be awarding the 74-year-old the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

In remarks billed as a joint farewell to family, friends and staff before they leave the White House next week, Obama described Biden as “the finest vice-president we have ever seen” and a “lion of American history.”

“So, Joe, for your faith in your fellow Americans, for your love of country, and for your lifetime of service that will endure through the generations, I’d like to ask the military aid to join us on stage. For the final time as president, I am pleased to award our nation’s highest civilian honour, the presidential medal of freedom.”

Biden’s jaw dropped, he rolled his head back and turned his face away from the audience to wipe away the tears.

After composing himself and receiving the medal, Biden stepped up to the dais and looked around the room in search of his chief of staff — and fired him, in jest, for not giving him early warning.

“I had no inkling,” Biden said.

“Mr President, I’m indebted to you. I’m indebted to your friendship. I’m indebted to your family,” he said.

US government watchdog to probe FBI Clinton email actions

Hillary Clinton

WASHINGTON: A U.S. government watchdog said on Thursday it would examine whether the Federal Bureau of Investigation followed proper procedures in its probe of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server.

The inspector general’s announcement comes amid outcry from Democrats who say Clinton’s loss to President-elect Donald Trump was in part due to Comey's bringing Clinton's emails back into the public spotlight less than two weeks before the 2016 election.

The Justice Department's Office of Inspector General said its probe would focus in part on decisions leading up to public communications by FBI Director James

London Mayor Khan: Britain heading for ‘muddled Brexit’

London Mayor Sadiq Khan

LONDON: London Mayor Sadiq Khan will say on Thursday that urgent action is needed to prevent Britain slipping towards a “muddled Brexit”, arguing that the capital needs more control over its economic policy to cope with leaving the European Union.

Khan, a member of the opposition Labour Party, was elected to the influential position of mayor last May on a promise to stand up for the city’s businesses. He has called for the government to avoid the uncertainty of a messy divorce from the EU, saying it would damage confidence in the city.

“It’s deeply concerning that we still appear to have ‘muddled thinking’ at the heart of government so soon before the negotiations are set to start,” Khan will say in a speech later on Thursday according to a statement from his office.

His words echo those of Britain’s former ambassador to the EU, Ivan Rogers, who resigned last week saying that Prime Minister Theresa May government was “muddled” in its approach.

May refuted the suggestion, saying she would set out her strategy over the coming weeks.

“The only thing that would be as damaging as a hard Brexit is a muddled Brexit, and — unfortunately — it looks like that is where we are heading without urgent action,” Khan is due to say.

He will reiterate his view that London needs preferential access to the single market, access to skilled workers in Europe and a transitional agreement with the EU to smoothen the Brexit process.

Khan will also restate his case for London to have more control over its economy policy. He will promise to compile his own industrial strategy for London to feed into the government’s plan to reshape the British economy.

May has promised to draw up an industrial strategy that will revive areas of the country which have suffered from a decades-long decline in manufacturing, to try to rebalance the services-reliant economy and re-engage with disillusioned working-class voters.

“We need more control of the right levers to improve competitiveness, stimulate growth and invest in our long-term future,” Khan will say. “If we want an industrial strategy that works for London and therefore for Britain, we must have more control.”

Nine things Obama will be remembered for

President Barack Obama waves as he steps off Air Force One.

WASHINGTON: As Barack Obama prepares to leave office on January 20, here are nine things his presidency may be remembered for:

 Making history

If historians were to write only one thing about Barack Hussein Obama, they would likely note that - 143 years after slavery was abolished - a young Illinois senator became the first black president of the United States.

Obama, just 47 at his 2009 inauguration, harnessed magisterial oratory to rally a diverse electoral coalition behind a message of "hope and change."

In office, Obama sometimes struggled to turn that poetry into the prose of governance. Racial tensions - underscored by police shootings of unarmed black men and

Trump at war with all sides in his news conference

President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a news conference
 in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York.

WASHINGTON

Donald Trump on Wednesday displayed his essential politic

al character: He is a man apart, rebelling against both the political party he defeated and the one he ostensibly leads.

That positioning, and its appeal to disgruntled voters, helped to secure him the presidency. The question now is whether playing by his own rules will work as well in the White House.

In his first full news conference in almost six months, Trump put his independence and refusal to follow Washington convention on vivid display.

He deepened his public war with the intelligence agencies that in nine days will be among his most important national security guides

He gratuitously insulted a Republican senator who could prove to be a daunting enemy when it comes to

Russian tech expert named in Trump report says US intelligence never contacted him

An image of Alexsej Gubarev from the Russian website of Servers.c
om, which is owned by his parent company, XBT Holding. 

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article125910774.html#storylink=cpy

WASHINGTON 

A Russian venture capitalist and tech expert whose name and company are mentioned in the now-notorious document alleging connections between the Donald Trump campaign and Russian hackers says no intelligence officers have ever contacted him about the accusations, which he says are false.

A report compiled by a former Western intelligence official as opposition research against Trump was made public Tuesday when BuzzFeed posted its 35 pages. The document included unsubstantiated claims of collusion between the Trump campaign team and the Kremlin.

It also alleged that global tech firm XBT Holding, with operations in Dallas, was instrumental in the hack of leaked Democratic Party emails that embarrassed Hillary Clinton and fellow Democrats.

XBT, owner of Dallas-based enterprise-hosting company Webzilla, is run by a successful Russian tech startup expert, Aleksej Gubarev. In a phone interview from Cyprus, where he said he’d lived since 2002, Gubarev said he was surprised to see his name in the report.

“I don’t know why I was there,” Gubarev said, adding that perhaps a competitor sought to discredit him. “I still don’t understand the true reason for this report.”

The salacious innuendoes in the periodic reports about Trump’s personal life dominated social media headlines. The mention of Webzilla and Gubarev was among the more specific allegations: that XBT and affiliates “had been using botnets and porn traffic to transmit viruses, plant bugs, steal data and conduct ‘altering operations’ against the Democratic Party leadership.”

Gubarev said he operated 75,000 servers across the globe and got real-time information if there had been hacking or illicit activity tied to his businesses. There is no evidence of that, he said, adding that no one has contacted him.

“I have a physical office in Dallas. Nobody contacted me,” said Gubarev, adding that 40 percent of his business is handled over the servers it runs in Dallas and the United States accounts for about 27 percent of his global business.

President-elect Trump confirmed Wednesday at a news conference that he had seen the 35-page report, and he blasted it as “fake news” and an “absolute disgrace.’’

McClatchy has reported that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., gave the bulk of the report to FBI Director James Comey on Dec. 9. The final pages of the report are dated Dec. 11. McClatchy had the report earlier but couldn’t verify any of its allegations.

A federal law enforcement source told McClatchy that the document was being examined as part of a broader FBI inquiry into Russia’s influence on the U.S. election but wouldn’t characterize its credibility. A source familiar with the former Western intelligence expert who compiled the dossier told McClatchy that the ex-spy has extensive experience in tracking activities in the Kremlin.

The report alleges that Gubarev and another hacking expert were recruited under duress by the FSB, the Russian intelligence-agency successor to the KGB. Gubarev said he had not been threatened or blackmailed, nor had his mother, who lives in Russia.

Gubarev’s Facebook page shows his wife, Anna Gubareva, and him on the bow rail of a fast-moving luxury yacht. His profile picture shows him behind the wheel of a vintage convertible Citroen. He is the public face of a number of tech companies around the globe.

XBT offers an array of tech services, from dedicated hosting of servers and cloud-based storage to developing apps for mobile phones and offering virtual private servers. His company advertises specialized services to software developers, advertisers, gaming companies and electronic-commerce enterprises. It also operates data centers in Russia, Asia, Europe and Dallas.

XBT has been on a buying spree in recent years, accumulating companies in the web-hosting and related fields, including DDoS.com, 1-800-HOSTING, SecureVPN.com, ColocateUSA, Server.lu in Luxembourg, Singapore’s 8 to Infinity, and a site used heavily to host pornography, fozzy.com. It acquired Webzilla about a decade ago, which is a medium-sized web-hosting company.

Although Webzilla operates from Texas, it has a “pretty deep Russian client base,” analyst Carl Brooks of 451 Research, a Boston-based consultancy, said in a December interview. “They don’t have a bad reputation, by any means.”

He said the same went for XBT Holding: “To the best of my knowledge, XBT is not particularly nefarious.” He estimated annual revenues for XBT between $50 million and $200 million.

Gubarev suspected he might have been named in the report because of comments to Bloomberg’s Russia business columnist Leonid Bershidsky. Bershidsky wrote on Nov. 1 that Gubarev questioned allegations that the Trump organization maintained a server found to have communicated with two servers at Russia’s Alfa Bank, which is also named in the 35 pages of unproven allegations.

“Bloomberg asked me my expert opinion,” he said, noting it was the only time he’d ever commented about a U.S. election or U.S. politics.

In that column, Gubarev expressed doubt about the conclusions of outside experts who said they had studied the server connections between Alfa Bank and the Trump organization. These experts, Gubarev said, would not have had access to the complete logs of a server they didn’t control.

The Russian-born Cyprus resident may not be a household name in the United States, but he is tied to millions of iPhones belonging to ordinary Americans. Gubarev was a major investor in the app now called Prism. It was one of the most downloaded of 2016 and uses artificial intelligence to turn ordinary cellphone photos into a wide range of painting styles.

If law enforcement wants to talk with him, Gubarev said, his door is open.

“I’m ready for any investigation. I’m ready to cooperate with everybody, he said.

Microsoft staff 'suffering from PTSD'

The two men were left with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after working at the firm, the lawsuit alleged.

Their jobs involved viewing and reporting material, communicated via Microsoft services, that had been flagged by automated software as being potentially illegal.

"Microsoft takes seriously its responsibility to remove and report imagery of child sexual exploitation and abuse being shared on its services, as well as the health and resiliency of the employees who do this important work."

It said the balance of protecting internet users while minimising the impact on its employees was a continued learning process.

Saving children’s lives

Henry Soto and Greg Blauert worked for Microsoft’s Online Safety Team, a division responsible for upholding the firm’s legal obligation to pass on any illegal images to the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

When an image is reported, or automated software has “spotted” an issue, a human being is required to view the material and forward it on to the authorities, a Microsoft spokeswoman said.

The company said people with this role are only required to do this particular task for a short period of time - and that they are kept in a “different office” from other staff.

But in papers filed on 30 December 2016, the two men said the company did little to warn or prepare them for the disturbing images they were required to view.

The lawsuit says both men’s efforts were “instrumental” in saving children’s lives and securing prosecutions, but that both were paying a serious psychological toll.

But the documents described Mr Blauert as suffering greatly from this work, contributing to a mental breakdown in 2013. When he expressed his discomfort, it is alleged that he was told to "smoke", "go for walk" or "play video games" as a distraction.

'Horrible and inhumane'

Mr Soto viewed "many thousands of photographs and videos of the most horrible, inhumane and disgusting content one can imagine," the papers said.

"Many people simply cannot imagine what Mr Soto had to view on a daily basis as most people do not understand how horrible and inhumane the worst people in the world can be."

In an internal employee review, Mr Soto was praised by his bosses for having "courage". However, he said the work resulted in him suffering "panic attacks, disassociation, depression, visual hallucinations" as well as the inability to be around young children, including his own son.

Doing so would remind him of "horribly violent acts against children that he had witnessed," the court papers said.

Mr Soto alleged that when he requested a transfer out of the teamin 2014, he was told he would have to apply for a new job within Microsoft "just like any other employee". When he was eventually moved to a different section of the safety team, he said he was still being asked questions related to his prior role.

Microsoft disputed this particular detail, saying: "If an employee no longer wishes to do this work, he or she will be assigned other responsibilities."

Wellness

Employees on the Online Safety Team are automatically put on a “Wellness program”, Microsoft said, which included mandatory monthly one-on-one sessions with a counsellor to combat what is referred to as "compassion fatigue".

The company said many measures are taken to minimise the psychological impact on people viewing the material.

The measures include efforts to reduce the "realism" of the content.

Microsoft’s software automatically blurs imagery, lowers the resolution, makes it black and white and separates the audio from video. Images are only seen as thumbnails, not full size.

Furthermore: "Employees are limited in how long they may do this work per day and must go to a separate, dedicated office to do it; they can’t do this work at home or on personal equipment.”

However, a spokeswoman could not speak to whether employees undergo any psychological assessment prior to taking on the work.

Collaboration

Technology companies, particularly those offering web storage or social networking, are under continued pressure to do more to remove images depicting a variety of problems - from terrorist propaganda to child abuse.

The companies are working on better ways to share data so that an image flagged by one company would automatically be removed by another, minimising the number of people exposed to the material.

The lawsuit in this case is suing for an unspecified amount in damages, but also for its suggestions on how to improve the Online Safety Team to be taken on board.

US tanks and troops to begin arriving in Poland

Tanks and other equipment began arriving in Germany last
week and are being moved to Eastern Europe

They are part of President Barack Obama's response to reassure Nato allies concerned about a more aggressive Russia.
Their arrival comes just days before the inauguration of Donald Trump who has signalled he wants to improve relations with Moscow.
It is the largest US military reinforcement of Europe in decades.
More than 80 main battle tanks and hundreds of armoured vehicles

President-elect Donald Trump holds first press conference since election

Donald Trump President Elect

NEW YORK: Opening his first news conference since the election, President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday confirmed that he has turned down a $2 billion real estate deal with Damac in Dubai.

Trump said this demonstrates

that he is putting his business behind him as he prepares to move into the White House.

“Over the weekend, I was offered $2 billion to do a deal in Dubai with a very, very, very amazing man, a great, great developer from the Middle East,” he told a press conference. “I didn't have to turn it down," he said. "But I have a no-conflict-of-interest provision as president.”

Trump denies, denounces reports on Russia ties: 'a disgrace'

Trump responded to suggestions

Justin Bieber’s custom-made Ferrari 458 up for auction

Justin Bieber

A Ferrari custom-built for Justin Bieber is on the auction block.

Barrett-Jackson auctions has listed what it calls a “once-in-a-life opportunity” to purchase Bieber’s 2011 Ferrari 458 Italia F1. The car was modified for Bieber by famed car outfitter West Coast Customs. The listing touts a “factory custom interior created to Justin’s specifications.”

The Ferrari isn’t with

Kim Kardashian robbery: 16 arrested

Sixteen people were arrested and some held for questioning by police in France on Monday in connection with the robbery of reality TV star Kim Kardashian in Paris last October, Europe 1 Radio and other French media reported.

French police said at the time that the 36-year-old was robbed at gunpoint of some €9 million (Dh34.7 million) worth of jewellery by masked men who tied her up in her Paris apartment early on October 3.

The Paris prosecutor could not be immediately reached for comment.

Kardashian

Natalie Portman says Ashton Kutcher was paid 3 times as much

Natalie Portman

Natalie Portman says Ashton Kutcher was paid three times as much as her for co-starring in 2011’s No Strings Attached.

Portman tells Marie Claire she knew about the pay difference at the time the film was being made, but wasn’t as miffed as she should have been. She tells the magazine, “We get paid a lot, so it’s hard to complain, but the disparity is crazy.”

The 35-year-old says she doesn’t “think women and men are more or less capable. We just have a clear issue with women not having opportunities.” She says women need to “be part of the

Madonna on dating younger lovers: I’m tired of that question

The singer has been linked romantically to
a number of men in their 20s at the time

Pop icon Madonna has described herself as “oppressed,” saying she was tired of a gender double-standard over her relationships with younger men.

The 58-year-old singer said in an interview published on Tuesday that she has endured criticism throughout her entire career despite her professional success.

“I’ve always felt oppressed,” she told Harper’s Bazaar magazine.

“A large part of that is because I’m female and also because I refuse to live a conventional life. I’ve created a very unconventional family.

“I have lovers who are three decades younger than me. This makes people very uncomfortable. I feel like

Woody Harrelson to join 'Star Wars' cast

Los Angeles: Actor Woody Harrelson will be heading to a galaxy far, far away for his next movie, playing a role in the second anthology “Star Wars” film focused on a young Han Solo.

Lucasfilm said Wednesday in a statement that the 55-year-old Oscar-nominated actor will join Alden Ehrenreich, who will play the younger version of the smuggler and space pirate Han Solo. The cast will also include Donald Glover, as a young Lando Calrissian, and Emilia Clarke, of “Game of Thrones,” in an

Donald Trump reveals plan for his business

President-elect Donald Trump will hand over “complete and total control” of his global business enterprise to his sons and would turn over any profits his hotels earn from foreign governments to the US Treasury to avoid any conflicts of interest, his lawyer said Wednesday.

“The President-elect will have no role in deciding whether the Trump Organization engages in a new deal,” said Sheri Dillon, adding that Trump’s order to terminate more than 30 pending deals has already cost the family “millions” of dollars.

“As you can well imagine, that caused an immediate financial loss of millions of dollars, not just for President-elect Trump but also for Don, Ivanka and Eric,” she said

Trump is going to be the breath of fresh air we all need

Each day brings fresh proof that America is hopelessly headed down the wrong track and needs to

change direction. Meryl Streep’s pompous attack on Donald Trump and his supporters at the Golden Globes is one example, and a second involves the heckling idiots who wore KKK outfits yesterday to smear Sen. Jeff Sessions during his confirmation hearing to be attorney general.

A third proof comes from the Mideast. Predictably, this one involves an Arab terrorist shedding Israeli blood.

Sessions assures senators he would rein in Trump

Washington: Sen. Jeff Sessions, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, pledged on Tuesday to “say no” to Trump if he tries to go beyond the law, and he spoke out against torture, a ban on Muslim immigration and other ideas that had been floated by Trump.

Sessions, a deeply conservative Republican from Alabama who was an early Trump supporter, appears headed for confirmation after completing 10-and-a-half hours of testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sessions and his allies had girded for a coordinated attack on his civil rights record, but Democrats tempered their criticism and Republicans mounted a pre-emptive defence, describing him repeatedly as a man of integrity.

In his two decades on Capitol Hill, Sessions has questioned whether the Constitution guarantees citizenship to anyone born in the US, has said courts have interpreted the separation of church and state too broadly and has declared same-sex marriage

Kremlin denies it has compromising information on Trump

Moscow: The Kremlin on Wednesday denied claims that Russia gathered compromising information on US President-elect Donald Trump, saying they were aimed at damaging Moscow’s relations with Washington.

“The Kremlin does not have compromising information on Trump,” President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

He called the claims published by US media outlet BuzzFeed and attributed to a former British intelligence operative a “total fake” and “an obvious attempt to harm our bilateral relations”.

The claims are aimed at “keeping relations (with the United States) in a state of deterioration,” instead of becoming constructive, Peskov said.

He also denied allegations that

Russian spies say they have dirt on Trump

President-elect Donald Trump

Washington: US spy chiefs told President-elect Donald Trump last week that Russian operative

s claim to have “compromising” personal and financial information about him, CNN reported Tuesday.

Citing “multiple” unnamed US officials with direct knowledge of the meeting, CNN said the intelligence chiefs presented a two-page synopsis on the potential embarrassment for the incoming president along with their classified briefing on Friday on alleged Russian interference in the presidential election.

President Barack Obama was also briefed on the issue on Thursday.

CNN gave no details of what the so-called compromising information is, but said knowledge of its existence in Russian hands originally came from a former British MI-6 intelligence operative hired by other US presidential contenders to do political “opposition research” on Trump in the middle of last year.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation had been given the information in August, more than two months before the November 8 election, according to CNN.

“What has changed since then is that US intelligence agencies have now checked out the former British intelligence operative and his vast network throughout Europe and find him and his sources to be credible enough to include some of the information in the presentations” to Trump, CNN said.

The existence of the information on Trump in Russian hands has been rumored since before the election.

The rumours gained support when the then Democratic leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, said in a letter to FBI Director James Comey a week before the vote: “It has become clear that you possess explosive information about close ties and coordination between Donald Trump, his top advisors, and the Russian government — a foreign interest openly hostile to the United States, which Trump praises at every opportunity. The public has a right to know this information.”

In the Friday briefing Trump was also told by the intelligence officials — the heads of the Directorate of National Intelligence, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Security Agency — of allegations that supporters of his White House campaign had a “continuing exchange of information” with intermediaries for the Russian government during the election.

Asked about this in a Senate hearing Tuesday, Comey refused to confirm or deny that his agency was investigating such links.

US intelligence has concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an operation to meddle in the US election to hurt the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton with embarrassing hacked emails, and then to boost Trump when they thought he had a chance to win.

Trump has repeatedly dismissed the conclusion that Moscow influenced the election while expressing the need to smooth over bilateral relations deeply strained during the Obama presidency.

Mata, Fellaini give United League Cup edge

Manchester United's Marouane Fellaini celebrates scoring
 their second goal with manager Jose Mourinho.

Manchester: Juan Mata and Marouane Fellaini struck to give Manchester United a 2-0 victory over injury-ravaged Hull City in Tuesday’s League Cup semi-final first leg at Old Trafford.

All eyes were on United captain Wayne Rooney, who is chasing a record 250th goal for the club, but it was Mata who broke the deadlock in the 56th minute before substitute Fellaini added a late second.

It puts Jose Mourinho’s men in the driving seat ahead of the return leg on January 26, although it was not until Fellaini headed home in the 87th minute that they finally put the game beyond Hull.

“We are not at Wembley, but the second goal is maybe the important goal,” Mourinho told

Sky Sports.

“I was expecting a difficult match. I wasn’t expecting to win by four or five.”

United have now won nine games in succession ahead of arch rivals Liverpool’s visit in the Premier League on Sunday.

Hull’s new manager Marco Silva, taking charge of his second game, was able to name only six substitutes and lost both Markus Henriksen and Josh Tymon to injury.

“I’m not happy with the result, but I’m happy with the work of my players,” said Silva.

“With all the problems we had, my boys worked well.”

Despite Mourinho making seven changes to the team that had outclassed Reading 4-0 in the FA Cup on Saturday, United picked up where they had left off, peppering the Hull goal with shots.

Hull goalkeeper Eldin Jakupovic had to produce a one-handed save to thwart Mata inside two minutes and moments later Andy Robertson stopped Rooney applying the finishing touch to Marcus Rashford’s shot.

Rooney goes close

The presence of David Meyler and Tom Huddlestone in defence and the fact there were only six players on the Hull bench told the story of the visitors’ injury problems and there was more to come.

Henriksen was left clutching his right shoulder in agony after being knocked over by Paul Pogba and had to go off in the 16th minute, with Abel Hernandez taking his place.

United, missing the ill Zlatan Ibrahimovic, continued to swarm forward, Henrikh Mkhitaryan twice shooting wide, Rashford lashing over and Jakupovic shovelling a long-range Pogba effort over the crossbar.

But Hull, the Premier League’s bottom club, began to offer an attacking threat of their own as half-time approached in the club’s first ever League Cup semi-final match.

Adama Diomande gave United a scare when he headed against the post, only for an offside flag to then go up, and both Robert Snodgrass and Hernandez tested David de Gea before the interval.

Rooney’s moment of history looked to have arrived in the 51st minute when Pogba’s fine, flighted pass set him racing in on goal from the right, but he drilled his shot inches wide of the far post.

Instead it was Mata who provided the breakthrough, stabbing in on the volley at the back post after Antonio Valencia’s cross from the right was headed back across goal by Mkhitaryan.

After Diomande had volleyed over acrobatically for Hull, Pogba came within a whisker of doubling United’s lead, his curling free-kick clanging against the left-hand post and bouncing away.

It seemed Hull would escape with only a one-goal deficit, but with three minutes remaining Fellaini met Matteo Darmian’s cross with a looping header that Huddlestone could only help over the line.

Silva’s injury woes mounted yet further in stoppage time when 17-year-old left-back Tymon had to limp off.

Liverpool, last season’s beaten finalists, visit Southampton in the first leg of the second semi-final on Wednesday.

President Obama opens up about Sasha and Malia's time in the White House

President Obama opens up about Sasha and
Malia's time in the White House

President Obama opened up about his daughters' experience growing up in the White House, saying

he and Michelle Obama had been concerned, "mostly about whether they'd develop an attitude."

But the president, in an exclusive interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos that aired today on "This Week," said, "All I can say is they have turned out to be terrific young women."

"They are sweet, kind, funny, smart, respectful people, and they treat everybody with respect," Barack Obama said. "You know, we feel pretty good when ... they go to other folks' houses and when the parents say, 'Oh, you know, Malia, she's just so sweet,' or 'Sasha helped to pick up the dishes. What is it that you're doing?'" he said.

Malia and Sasha were 10 and 7, respectively, when their father was elected president, and growing up in the White House brought a unique set of challenges for the girls, now 18 and 15.

"They complained about Secret Service as they became teenagers," Obama said. "But as you might imagine, if you're a teenager having a couple of people with microphones and guns always following you around, that could grate on them. But they've handled it with grace, and I give Michelle most of the credit for how well they've done."

Obama also credited his daughters for making the White House feel like home when they first arrived.

"When you open a door and they're in their pajamas and they're, you know, wrestling with you and asking you, you know, to read to them and stuff, you know it starts feeling like home pretty quick," he said, adding, "It feels even more like home now because you have all these memories that were formed watching your kids grow up."

Watching his daughters grow was made a lot easier by the close proximity of the president's office and home, Obama said.

"It's one of the biggest benefits of being president that you really don't think about until you get here. I have never had to travel more than 30 seconds from home to office," Obama joked. "It's because of that that I've been able to maintain, you know, really a family life that has nurtured and sustained me during this time."

But as the Obamas prepare to leave the White House, the president is also preparing to say goodbye to a group of people who have been with him throughout his presidency: his staff.

"The people here have been extraordinary. We had a farewell dinner for some of my senior staff, and - generally everybody likes to talk about how cool I was - I had trouble getting through just a few remarks, because not only do you appreciate the sacrifices they've made and the hours they've kept and the soccer games they missed and the birthday parties," Obama said. "The concentrated interactions and experience that you have here, I don't expect you can duplicate anyplace else."