The death toll from mudslides that devastated parts of California’s scenic Santa Barbara County rose to 19 on Saturday amid a massive influx of emergency crews searching for five people still missing.

One missing person was found alive on Saturday but chances were dwindling fast that more survivors could still be located from the torrent of mud and debris that struck on Tuesday, said Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown.

“While every hour it remains less likely we’ll find anyone alive, there remains hope,” he said at a news conference.

Brown said a 19th victim had been found and named her as Morgan Corey, 25. Her 12-year-old sister Sawyer had previously been discovered dead after their home was swept away this week.

Seven people had been missing at the start of the day, which saw about another 900 emergency personnel arrive…

Chancellor Angela Merkel is said to be furious that Theresa May’s Britain may be offered a tailor-made trade agreement. Negotiations on the future EU-UK relationship kick off in a few months but Berlin has already closed the door on Britain “having its cake and eating it.”

Merkel is reportedly against a British plan for so-called “managed divergence” from the EU but, far from being deterred, Britain has launched a double-barreled charm offensive in the form of Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond and Brexit Secretary David Davis.

The pair are due to arrive in Germany on Wednesday where they will call for their EU allies to take a more open approach. The crux of their argument will be that making trade difficult after the split “would only damage businesses and economic growth on both sides of the Channel.”

“As Brexit talks now turn to trade, the UK will look to negotiate a new economic partnership with the EU – the most ambitious in the world – that recognizes the extraordinary levels of interconnectedness and cooperation that already exist between us,” the pair wrote in the German newspaper, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Britain is putting forward a vision of a “three baskets” approach to Brexit which will keep the UK and the EU closely tied, with regulation on a middle ground. The idea put forward by May’s team would see agreements falling into one of three baskets “complete alignment, rough equivalence and no alignment.”

“Hammond and Davis are going to have their work cut out to convince the EU that the UK’s ‘three baskets’ approach isn’t another attempt to cherry pick and sow division within the EU,” Mujtaba Rahman, head of Europe practice at the Eurasia Group risk consultancy told The Times.

“Germany is going to play hardball: senior officials in Berlin are clear that Angela Merkel is determined to not reward the Brits with a deal that gives Eurosceptics and future trade partners a precedent to point to.”

Britain has received some support from member states, which are concerned about the Germans’ tough approach to Brexit trade. The Dutch, Italy and Luxembourg are questioning the hostile attitude from some within the remaining 27 member states.

Yet, insiders say hostility from Germany remains Charles Grant, the director of the Centre for European Reform, said: “German officials worry that clever British diplomacy would – with this model – enable the UK to ‘cherry-pick’ the bits of the single market that the UK wants to stay in, while it spurned those parts of the market it disliked.”

It is not clear how many areas Britain will remain in close ties with the EU on. May, however, has already ruled out a highly aligned Norwegian-style arrangement as inadequate to British needs.
In Brussels, chief Brexit official Michel Barnier is yet again suggesting he will not budge and expects Britain to back down.

This week he again suggested the “only model available,” given Mrs May’s red lines over freedom of movement and on leaving the single market, “is that of a free trade agreement.”

“We are not asking Germany to deliver something we think is impossible,” added a senior Whitehall official. “But when Michel Barnier says the EU want their ‘most ambitious’ approach to a Free Trade agreement yet, that should hold.”

Key cabinet meetings will take place this month for Davis’ Brexit team to come up with its final strategy. Brussels is, meanwhile, demanding details.

On January 25 the EU will hold a special seminar on preventing Britain from obtaining competitive advantage on tax, state aid and other regulations. A series of meetings will take place over the coming weeks, one of which will be over how the EU will manage if no deal is struck.

Barnier has made his best attempt at doom-mongering over a no-deal situation when the City of London leaves the single market.

“Do not have a short memory: the financial crisis is not so far away,” Mr Barnier said.

“It was expensive. It destroyed value and millions of jobs, and caused a lot of social suffering. We have created a single rulebook and a more integrated European supervision that guarantees financial stability, market integrity and a level playing field. A country that comes out of this very precise framework has the opportunity to diverge, but at the same time loses the benefits of the internal market.”

The move, explained as “due to terrorism and harassment,” comes at a time of heightened tensions between Washington and Moscow and just five months before Russia hosts the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

The new State Department classification sees countries divided into four zones, when it comes to personal security. Russia has been bundled into the “orange” category (the 2nd most dangerous of the quartet), meaning US citizens should “reconsider travel” to this destination.

Twitter was ablaze on Thursday and Friday with condemnation of Russia’s “orange” status. For instance, Mark Galeotti, a pundit at US State Broadcaster RFE/RL described it as “absolutely ridiculous.”

“Whether a political move or stupidity, truly ludicrous,” the Russia watcher commented.

The State Department itself claims the changes are part of an “effort to streamline information on threats overseas and present it in a clearer, more direct fashion” at a “time of increased travel – 2017 was on track to be a record year for the number of Americans travelling abroad. In 2016, there were over 80 million Americans who went overseas.”

Some users have suggested the decision may be more political than practical.

Leonid Ragozin, an author at Lonely Planet, protested “if travel advisories are a tool of punishing countries for aggressive behavior, of which Russia is clearly a culprit, then fair enough. But if the idea is to provide accurate info for citizens, then it is a piece of garbage.”

Ukraine, currently enduring a civil war in its east and frequent social unrest in the capital, is placed in the yellow band, which only requires Americans to “exercise increased caution.” Meanwhile, Kosovo, a partially recognized entity associated with human-organ trafficking, widespread corruption and organized crime is also considered safer than Russia.

Crucially, both Kosovo and Ukraine are US allies, whereas Russia is regarded one of the top foes in Washington amid unproven allegations of election meddling and geopolitical tensions in Europe and the Middle East.

The advisory includes a warning that “terrorists may attack with little or no warning, targeting tourist locations, transportation hubs, markets/shopping malls, and local government facilities. Bomb threats against public venues are common,” which could equally be applied to any other major European country these days including Germany, France and the United Kingdom – all of which have category two safety grades.

As reporter Fabrice Deprez pointed out, the French Foreign Minister has declared Russia “all safe, except for the South (sic) Caucasus.” The North Caucasus, located in the south of Russia, is a region where counter-terrorism operations are frequent.

The State Department also advised against travelling to Crimea. “The US government is unable to provide emergency services to US citizens travelling in Crimea as US government employees are prohibited from travelling to Crimea,” it contends. However, Russian authorities do not prohibit US government employees from visiting the peninsula. Instead, it is actually the US government which has introduced the ban, for its own reasons.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the move “another unsubstantiated statement, whose primary goal is to trigger another round of anti-Russian hysteria in the US, and to cultivate blind fear of Russia among Americans.”

Foreign travelers to Russia spoke of experiences that were far from scary. Ciaran Deely, from London, explained: “In Summer 2017 I travelled [for] 3 weeks [on] the Trans-Siberian Railway through [St] Petersburg, Moscow, Vladimir, Suzdal, Nizhny Novgorod, Perm, Yekenterenburg, Irkutsk, Lake Baikal, Ulan Ude… and can honestly say not once did I feel unsafe. Welcoming people! Far more danger in London or Dublin.”

The renowned Ukrainian pianist Valentina Lisitsa recalled a 2017 visit. “Sevastopol. Taking city walks at 2am, myself with my kid, to feed dozens of cats. Using [a] flashlight on dark street stairs and alleys without fear of strangers in the dark. An eerie feeling of time travel back to USSR, where, as a kid, the fear of strangers or crime didn’t exist. (),” she wrote. Lisitsa compared it to her first visits to the US. “And then the culture shock of America: no, it’s not a good idea to take a walk in downtown Miami – or NYC Central Park after dark. And we thought [it was] Soviet propaganda and scare tactics when we read about it.”

Meanwhile, Donal McAllister, an Oman-based Irishman, gave a slightly different testimonial. “Other than usual slightly menacing taxi drivers at [the] airport, [I] have to say [I] loved walking around Moscow, amazing city. At night, felt more uneasy but never had any hassle.”

Hunter Cawood, an American in St Petersburg, also disagreed with the State Department. “I’ve lived in Russia for a year and a half now, and I can genuinely say that I’ve never once felt unsafe,” he said.

And Michael Boyle, from Arizona, echoed his compatriot. “Very safe everywhere from St Petersburg to Irkutsk (including the Trans Siberian Railroad). The only questionable place was the St Petersburg-Moscow overnight train but even that was safe if you weren’t an idiot looking for trouble,” he tweeted.

London-based Chris McNee was even more positive: “I travel every few months to Russia and feel always very safe. More so than Paris London or NY. Worked all over and, touch wood, never really a problem.”

Bryan MacDonald, for RT

The French region of Hauts-de-France, where President Emmanuel Macron was born, is worried that a “punishment” Brexit deal would harm its car manufacturing sector, according to Politico, which has seen the document. Regional official Francois Decoster reportedly told the EU: “In the automotive sector, there are major concerns regarding future relations with the UK, particularly on the part of the car maker Toyota, which operates in the region. For example, 13 percent of Yaris exports in 2016 went to the UK.”

Local leaders in Lublin, Poland are also worried, as they believe there could be a slump in the lucrative export of agricultural and agri-food products. While for Dutch fishermen, there are concerns about losing access to UK waters, with the provinces of Flevoland and Overijssel facing a 60 percent fall in business.

There are also growing concerns among major exporters in Germany, Sweden and Cyprus, who consider the UK as one of their best customers. Germany is reportedly worried that a bad deal would harm its trade – pointing out that the UK is Berlin’s fifth biggest trading partner, and Bremen’s second biggest. Cyprus said the UK is its biggest trading partner in services, while Sweden counts Britain as its third largest foreign investor.

The leaked report collates submissions made by member states to the EU’s Committee of the Regions on the possible economic impact of Brexit on parts of the bloc. It highlights fears in Europe that Britain quitting the EU without a free-trade deal would cost their countries trade and jobs.

Brexiteers say the findings show it would be disastrous for the EU not to strike a post-Brexit free-trade deal with Britain. Peter Bone, Tory MP for Wellingborough, told the Daily Mail: “The EU needs to deal with us much more than we need to do a deal with them. That’s why it’s very surprising to me that we have offered £39 billion ($52.7 billion) to allow them to sell £70 billion ($94.6 billion) more goods into this country each year than we sell to them.

“There will be a lot of pressure from companies within countries within the EU for their governments to do a trade deal.” He added: “This points out why the likelihood of a trade deal is there – because it benefits them more than us.

“Everything points to doing a proper free-trade deal with us, and I’m afraid it’s only the posturing of the European elites and their governments that they are actually trying to do something that is against the interests of the people in the EU.

“So, if this report helps shove the EU elite to do the right thing for the European Union and trade with us on a free basis, then that’s all the better.”

Tory Brexiteer Bernard Jenkin told Politico: “It is highly significant that other EU member states’ authorities are beginning to engage with the consequences of a no-deal Brexit because it is something that should concern them greatly. I think the pressure is mounting on the EU negotiators to deliver a sensible deal which disrupts as little as possible.”

“We did everything that we can, immediately, to ensure that it will never happen again… so a single person will not be able to make an error that triggers another false alarm,” Vern Miyagi, Hawaii’s Emergency Management Agency (HI-EMA) administrator said, as he accepted responsibility for the incident.

“I’m sorry for that pain and confusion that many might have experienced,” he added.

It was a single mouse click by a HI-EMA employee during a routine test that sent the entire state of Hawaii into panic, Miyagi revealed.

“The wrong button was pushed on the test, it went into actual event versus a test,” he said. It was not literally a button, but part of a screen the employee erroneously clicked on to activate the alarm, according to Miyagi. As to why it took the agency nearly 40 minutes to inform the public that the alert was bogus, Miyagi said that officials were forced to go through a number of steps as there was no deactivation template in place.

“There was no an automated way to send a false alarm cancellation. We had to initiate a manual process and that was why it took a while to notify everyone,” Governor David Ige said.

In fact, the officials initiated the cancellation procedure just three minutes after the alarm went off, Miyagi said, as he provided a detailed timeline of how the events unfolded. At 8:13am, six minutes after the initial warning, the agency issued a cancellation which stops the messages from going out. At 8:20am, the agency posted the correction on Facebook, which was retweeted by the governor in four minutes. However, it was already 8:45am when distraught Hawaiians finally received “verbal” notifications on their cell phones.

Refusing to identify the employee responsible for the mishap, Miyagi said that he was also shaken by what he involuntary caused to happen.

“You got to know this guy feels bad. He was not doing this on purpose. It was a mistake on his part. He feels terrible about it and it won’t happen again,” Miyagi said.

“There’s definitely was no hacking involved, it was a human error,” Governor Ige reiterated.

As reporters grilled officials about how could it take the employee three minutes to realize such an obvious mistake, the governor said the emergency staff only became aware of the error when the alert popped up on their phones.

The first to receive the information were Governor Ige and Maj. Gen. Arthur Logan, state adjutant general and HI-EMA director, who both rushed to double-check the threat.

While the procedure for cancellation is complex, the same could not be said about the process of triggering the alarm, as it could be done by one employee in charge of the fateful “button.”

“We are talking only about 20 minutes launch to impact time frame,” Miyagi said, noting that the public would be left with 15 minutes to hide as the military and United States Pacific Command (USPACOM) would need another five minutes to detect the threat, analyze it, and determine where the missile is going.

“Based on this information, our warning person has the authority to push the button. They don’t have to call me or the governor… They have the authority to go and push the button,” he said.

In order to prevent the mistake from happening again, two people, instead of one, will be required to make the decision over initiating a test or an actual alarm, according to Miyagi. In another change of protocol, it will be possible from now on to withdraw the alarm warning automatically.

“It will be a template within the screen and they can just push it,” Miyagi said. Until all the changes are introduced, tests of the ballistic missile preparation checklist, which were performed several times a day since November 1, have been put on hold by the authorities.

The notification system will also have to be improved, so that all mayors and officials, as well as the media, receive the warnings as soon as possible. The authorities are now investigating reports that some of the carriers failed to deliver the initial alert.

Many officials and regular citizens were dissatisfied with the explanations, with Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) saying that “what happened today is totally inexcusable.”

Many on Twitter joined the calls for Miyagi and Ige to resign, calling the incident “unacceptable” incompetence and an “epic failure.”

The White House denies that President Donald Trump has suggested he had good contacts with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal quoted Trump as saying in an interview that “I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong-un,” but the paper refused to confirm whether the two had spoken.

“I have relationships with people. I think you people are surprised,” the paper said.

However, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders issued a Twitter meme on Saturday, insisting that Trump was misquoted.

“President Trump said, I’D probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un of North Korea. I’D — I’D — I’D. NOT I!” the message read, with “I’D” in red ink, under a red banner reading “FAKE NEWS.”

Sanders mockingly mimicked the newspaper’s front page, saying, “THE WALL STREET JOURNAL — FAKE NEWS IS AT IT AGAIN! — FALSELY QUOTING PRESIDENT TRUMP.”

During the interview, Trump also was…

To know is nothing at all; to imagine is everything.
—Anatole France, The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard

It’s not that he’s ever been far away. It’s just that whenever he returns, it causes the casual observer to marvel at how a great education could produce such a distorted intelligence and twisted mind. The good news is that soon he will leave the national stage in order to return to his home state and favor its voters with his peculiar views of government. A graduate of Harvard, Oxford, and Yale Law School, he is proof that, as one University President put it, some years back, when speaking of college graduates, “you can never be sure they are educated.” He is Kris Kobach.

Kris is remembered for a number of peculiar triumphs that occurred during the last two years. It was he, who while serving on the Republican Platform Committee of the Republican National Convention, successfully inserted language into the platform that addresses illegal immigration in the manner now demanded by the country’s Resident Fool who has found shelter in the White House. The language he successfully inserted was: “The border wall must cover the entirety of the southern border and must be sufficient to stop both vehicular and pedestrian traffic.” In furtherance of this project, eight sample walls have now been constructed in Texas, the prettiest of which is described as being a pale blue and white and resembles in some respects a split level home. The wall was not Kris’s only platform success. He inserted into that platform language pertaining to gay marriage and stating that the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion legalizing it was obviously incorrect.

Although Kris serves as Kansas’s Secretary of State, he has enjoyed serving as the vice-chair of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Election Integrity. Vice President Pence was the chair of that Committee, but Kris assumed the role of leader which was singularly appropriate since he is more in tune with perceived election fraud than almost anyone in the country. At the time the Advisory Committee was created, he said: “As the chief election officer of a state, ensuring the integrity of elections is my number one priority. The work of this commission will assist all state elections officers in understanding, and addressing, the problem of voter fraud.” There were probably few people in the country with Kris’s experience.

As Secretary of State of Kansas Kris had sought to impose a requirement that anyone wanting to register to vote in that state offer proof of citizenship before registering. He claimed that was needed to put an end to voter fraud. Unimpressed, the federal judge who declined to permit that requirement to go forward in federal elections, and had a much keener understanding of the scope of the problem than Kris, observed that: “There is evidence of only three instances where noncitizens actually voted in a federal election between 1995 and 2015,” and during that time only 14 non-citizens attempted to register. While serving on the Advisory Commission, Kris claimed on Breitbart news that he had found proof that 5,51l voters who voted in New Hampshire in the 2016 election were not eligible to vote. He based that on the fact that the voters lacked New Hampshire drivers’ licenses when they registered, and failed to obtain them after voting. It turned out that there is no requirement that someone registering to vote in New Hampshire using an out of state driver’s license is required to obtain a New Hampshire driver’s license after voting.

The Commission on which Kris served has been dissolved. Its activities have been referred to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Kris says he will continue as an advisor to that department, presumably so his expertise will not go to waste. Tyler Houten, a spokesperson for the DHS, said that: “Mr. Kobach is not advising the Department on this matter.” Whether he will be involved or not, Kris has found another way to spend his time that he hopes will prove to be more successful than his tilting at the windmill of imaginary voter fraud. He hopes to become Governor of Kansas. Since he has made his mark as incompetent in his recent efforts, he may be well qualified to become the governor since Sam Brownback, the man he would replace, has the second lowest approval rating of any sitting governor according a survey by Morning Consult. Through creative tax reductions initiated by Governor Brownback, it is anticipated that the state’s deficit will exceed $280 million this year.

Governor Brownback has been nominated to serve as Ambassador at large for international religious freedom and, if confirmed, will be replaced by Jeff Colyer, the lieutenant governor. Mr. Colyer has already said he will run for the position in the 2018 election, and if Governor Brownback is confirmed, he will be running as the incumbent. Kris believes his successes in bringing failed lawsuits attacking imaginary voter fraud, his claim to have seen voter fraud in New Hampshire, where none existed, and his mistaken description of himself as an advisor to the DHS, are proof that he would be a worthy successor to Governor Brownback. He is right. Whether that is what Kansas voters are hoping for, only time will tell.

The paper from Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, says while “the potential impacts of cyberattacks on nuclear weapons systems are enormous,” the issue has received “scant attention.” It warns that the public could “pay the ultimate price.”

Nuclear weapons systems – including the UK’s Trident warheads – were first developed when computers were in their infancy and little consideration was given to cyber vulnerabilities, the authors warn. There are now “a number of vulnerabilities and pathways through which a malicious actor may infiltrate a nuclear weapons system without a state’s knowledge.”

Widespread reliance on digital systems in the military means communications between commanders, positioning data, and the supply and logistics chain could all be vulnerable.

Nuclear weapons are at threat from hostile states, criminal groups and terrorist organizations, the report says. “Cyber vulnerabilities within nuclear weapons systems and structures present a whole set of dangers and risks.

“At best, cyber insecurity in nuclear weapons systems is likely to undermine trust and confidence in military capabilities and in the nuclear weapons infrastructure. At worst, cyberattacks could lead to deliberate misinformation and the inadvertent launch of nuclear weapons.”

“After all, it is the public that will pay the ultimate price for complacency regarding cybersecurity of nuclear weapons systems.”

The researchers outlined a number of doomsday scenarios that could hit any nuclear arsenal in the world. It included neutralising communications – sowing doubt in the minds of world leaders and commanders ahead of a strike, attacking telemetry data to affect where missiles strike, and sabotaging “pre-launch targeting information.” They also warned cyberattacks could manipulate data, scramble communications and dupe commanders in by hacking systems or planting malware.

It cited examples such as a report that the US could have infiltrated the supply chain of North Korea’s missile system, contributing to a test failure in April last year. Elsewhere, the silos of US nuclear-tipped Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles “are believed to be particularly vulnerable to cyberattacks.”

The study also recorded illicit trafficking in Moldova and Georgia of radioactive and nuclear materials, a group in Belgium affiliated to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) monitoring the movements of a nuclear scientist, and German-owned Patriot missiles reported to have been hacked in 2015.

The report, entitled ‘Cybersecurity of Nuclear Weapons Systems: Threats, Vulnerabilities and Consequences’, was written by Beyza Unal, a research fellow at London-based Chatham House who previously worked on strategic analysis for NATO, and Patricia Lewis, research director of the international security department at Chatham House.

It comes just days after Russian President Vladimir Putin raised concerns about a nuclear power plant drone attack. It was reported that the president is poised to create a special force to protect against terrorist drone strikes on key nuclear power stations, following attacks on Russian bases in Syria.

The emergency alert issued by Hawaii Civil Defense on Saturday sparked panic and confusion, both on the ground and on social media. It took the agency more than half an hour to send out a correction, while officials scrambled to apologize for the “human error” and assure people there was in fact no threat.

READ MORE: ‘Whole state was terrified’: Hawaii urges ‘tough & quick’ reprisal for bogus missile alert

But for many those reassurances came much too late, as locals were already clamoring for shelter anywhere they could find it, including storm drains, bathtubs and basements.

Students running for shelter at University of Hawaii at Manoa were filmed by Joe Walker, who posted the footage on Twitter.

Meanwhile others rushed to contact their relatives to bid farewell in case the worst should happen. A resident of San Diego posted audio of a voicemail and pictures of text messages left by her mother and brothers at the height of the incident. Remaining calm throughout the voice message, the poster’s mother says: “We just got a notice saying that a missile, a threat was coming this way – “it’s not a drill. Take cover.” There’s really not a lot we can do. But if it’s real and we’re gone, I just want to say I love you.”

Others however seemed to resign themselves to their fate, like a father who left a goodbye message for his family while out on the golf course. His daughter, Alohi Gardner, posted the video, in which her father claims to have earned a par on his last hole in the aftermath of Saturday’s false alarm. 

Antoni Imiela has served 14 years in prison since he was given seven life sentences for the rape of nine women and girls, eight of which occurred in just one year, it has been reported.

The callous rapist called his victim’s mother during one brutal assault, to brag about the ordeal he was putting her daughter through. His first known victim was just 10 years old.

Imiela, now 63, came to the UK from West Germany at the age of seven.

His father was Polish and his mother was German. Before he was captured in 2004, police had been hunting the sex attacker known as the M25 Rapist. He was given the name since his attacks took place around the M25, often close to the motorway.

The railway worker raped women in London, Hertfordshire, Berkshire, Kent, Surrey and Birmingham.

Sources told The Sun that a parole board is set to meet to discuss his release. A date for the hearing, which will be held in secret, is likely to be set by March. A source said: “It’s inconceivable that he should be freed.”

The revelation comes after the decision to free taxi driver John Worboys, 60, who is considered to be one of Britain’s worst sex offenders. He was released after a parole board found that he was no longer dangerous, despite having been convicted of 19 offences and ordered to serve a minimum sentence of eight years in 2009.

Previously, Imiela served eight years of a 14-year sentence for armed robbery. He terrorised bank staff and robbed a building society clerk at gunpoint. He also has a history of domestic violence.

Imiela finally handed himself into police over fears he would be killed in a shootout when he was discovered.

The emergency alert, which popped up on mobile phones across Hawaii shortly after 8am local time, read: “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.”

The message prompted panic and confusion, both on the ground and on social media.

According to reports emerging on social media, some people even tried to seek shelter from the “incoming missile” in storm drains. 

Emergency phone lines were reportedly clogged with calls following the alert.

Another Civil Defense message, reassuring Hawaiians that the original alert was in fact false, has reportedly only reached some citizens after long delays, apparently due to the strain the event has put on local phone lines.

In a statement posted on Twitter, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard said the alert was a false alarm.

“This is a false alarm. There’s no incoming missile to Hawaii. I have confirmed with officials there is no incoming missile,” she said.

It was some 30 minutes after the alert that the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency confirmed the missile threat was non-existent.

The US military’s Pacific command has also reassured citizens it was a false alarm, confirming it had “detected no ballistic missile threat to Hawaii” and that the message had been “sent in error.”

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) says it is launching a “full investigation” of the Hawaii missile alarm scare, with its head Ajit Pai calling the incident a “false emergency alert” on Twitter.

Meanwhile, the White House referred to the missile alert as “state exercise.” “The President has been briefed on the state of Hawaii’s emergency management exercise. This was purely a state exercise,” said White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters.

The incident occurred during a shift changeover when an employee pushed the wrong button, Hawaii Governor David Ige said. The official apologized for the false alarm, calling it “unfortunate and regrettable.”

“It was a mistake made during a standard procedure at the change over of a shift, and an employee pushed the wrong button,” he told CNN.

The incident has clearly shown that “government agencies are not prepared and lack the capacity to deal with emergency situations,” said Speaker for the Hawaii House of Representatives Scott Saiki. The system that Hawaiian residents are supposed to rely on failed miserably, as it took some 30 minutes for the emergency services to issue a correction, the official stressed.

On Thursday, the day before the eighth anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti that killed at least 230,000 people, President Trump called Haiti – as well as a single, undifferentiated “Africa” – “shithole countries.”

Of course, the president’s first impulse was to deny the statement, just as he had denied the statement made public through an anonymous source to the New York Times that “all Haitians have AIDS.”

Triggering the conversation is his administration’s denial of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 58,000 people from Haiti currently living in the U.S., some for as much as thirty years.

His comments speak to the callous attitude of an individual that feels no accountability, who thinks he can rewrite history as is convenient. Senator Durbin (D-IL) confirmed that indeed 45 had spoken these “hate filled words” many times in a conversation about immigration policy, that Trump has been actively sabotaging despite an apparent deal with Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) for his “yes” vote on Trump’s tax plan.

It would be unfortunate if the media were to exceptionalize Trump’s comments as the latest gaffe from an individual too accustomed to bullying people on Twitter, recently claiming that his “nuclear button” is bigger than North Korea’s. The comments are also indicative of an unchallenged white supremacy that has unfortunately been allowed to fester in our society. It is more useful to see this as an open expression of often hidden feelings, unresolved cultural aftershocks of the institution of plantation slavery that our nation has to deal with head on and with courage and honesty.

As Haitian literature professor Regine Jean-Charles has written, she was not surprised by the comments, as “evidence of a brand of racism that has always been present in U.S. society, which since the 2016 campaign has been fanned into virulent flame.”

What is behind Trump – and white America’s – obsession with Haiti?

Haiti has been targeted for its decisive role in challenging what Southern planters – including eight U.S. Presidents – called a “peculiar institution.” The Haitian Revolution was the first time slaves were able to permanently end slavery and forge an independent nation. It also was a tipping point in U.S. history, leading to the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, paving the way for U.S. “Manifest Destiny” stretching from sea to shining sea and eventual dominance. Chicago, the country’s third largest city, was founded by a Haitian, Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, who Haitian historian Marc Rosier called an “agent” of the Haitian government to pursue a pro-freedom international policy.

Haiti’s contribution to U.S. “greatness” has long been unacknowledged. The pivotal Haitian Revolution was literally “unthinkable,” as Haitian anthropologist Michel-Rolph Trouillot argued. The demonization of Haiti was so strong, its inspiration to slaves so dangerous, that Congress imposed a gag order in 1824, preventing the word Haiti from being uttered in Congress, a year after the imperialist Monroe Doctrine.

White supremacy was not defeated in the Appatomox Court House in 1865, nor the 13^th Amendment that allowed for a back-door legalization of slavery, nor in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling, nor in the 1965 Voting Rights Act following “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, nor in the 2008 election of the first African American President.

Through it all, as Haitian anthropologist Gina Athena Ulysse analyzed, Haiti has served as the “bête noir” in a deliberate smear campaign against the descendants of the people who said no to white supremacy.

These narratives of Haiti continued throughout the initial response to the 2010 earthquake, from the likes of televangelist Pat Robertson and the New York Times’ David Brooks. As New Yorker contributing writer Doreen St. Felix pointed out, this obsession with Haiti has to do with white society’s rejection of black self-determination.

These discourses have definite and powerful material consequences.

France, which in 2001 declared slavery a “crime against humanity,” extorted 150 million francs from Haiti as a condition of recognition of Haitian independence, plunging Haiti into a 120-year debt that consumed up to 80% of Haiti’s tax base. Socialist president Jacques Chirac scoffed at Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s demand for reparations before being the first to call for his resignation in 2004.

Calling Haiti “ungovernable” provided justification for U.S. intervention: The United States invaded Haiti twenty-six times from 1849 to 1915, when U.S. Marines landed and occupied the country for nineteen years. During the U.S. Occupation, the Marines set up the modern army, opened up land for foreign ownership, solidified class and racial inequality, laying the groundwork for the 1957-1971 Duvalier dictatorship.

Incorrectly blaming Haiti for its role in the AIDS epidemic killed the tourist industry, which, along with the deliberate destruction of Haiti’s pig population, sent the economy in a nosedive. Neoliberal capitalist interests seized the opportunity to take advantage of the massive rural exodus to build sweatshops, exploiting people’s misery by offering the lowest wages in the world. With poverty wages, and a crippling foreign debt that according to the IMF’s own recordkeeping went to the paramilitary tonton makout, Port-au-Prince’s shantytowns had no services and no government oversight. These foreign interventions were the main killer in the 2010 earthquake.

Fearing Haitians as “looters” or the other familiar racist scribes, and calling Haiti a “failed state” led to the invisibility of Haitian people’s heroic first response, and also to the complete exclusion of Haitian state and non-state actors in rebuilding their own country and providing aid. Bill Clinton co-chaired the Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission, making decisions about aid, and humanitarian aid was coordinated in a UN Logistics Base, where Haitian people were excluded by foreign soldiers responsible for the cholera epidemic that killed almost 10,000 people or the English language of the meetings. Nongovernmental organizations reproduced a top-down, hierarchical structure that excluded people living in the camps from decisions. These humanitarian aftershocks led to, among other consequences, the breakup of Haitian families and increasing violence against women.

Calling the world’s beacon of freedom a “shithole” sullies not only Haiti’s ten million residents on the island and three million in the U.S., but is an affront to human freedom and equality.

As award-winning Haitian author Edwidge Danticat argued, “today we mourn. Tomorrow we fight.”

The commission, backed by Virgin tycoon Richard Branson and former Liberal Democrats leader Nick Clegg, says drug users are victims of discrimination. It called for an end to negative language around their habits, to ensure that their human rights are respected.

It suggested alternative terms “drug dependence,” and “problematic drug use.” A drug perception problem is making it harder to help users who want to quit, it said.

The words “pothead” and “stoner” should not be used, it added.  It is also wrong to label someone with “non problematic use” as a “recreational or experimental user.”

“Commonly encountered terms such as junkie, drug abuser and crackhead are alienating, and designate people who use drugs as others – morally flawed or inferior individuals. Such stigma and discrimination, combined with the criminalization of drug use, are directly related to the violation of the human rights of people who use drugs in many countries.

“Therefore, in order to change how drug consumption is considered and how people use drugs are treated, we need to shift our perceptions, and the first step is to change how we speak.”

Laws banning drugs make users “scapegoats for wider societal problems,” the report said. It added that crime is not a result of drug use, but when users get criminal records for drugs it makes “the illegal market and criminal activity among their only means of survival.”

It said new laws are often not as good as they could be, because politicians base their decisions on “perceptions and passionate beliefs” instead of on “factual discussions.” Instead, drug policy is more often treated as a “moral debate” and drugs are presented as evil when “in reality, taking substances to alter one’s mind seems to be a universal impulse, seen in almost all cultures around the world and across history.”

The commission was set up in 2011 by billionaire investor Soros with the aim of legalizing drugs. 12 former presidents or prime ministers from around the world sit on the commission.

The report says it should not be assumed that all drug use is wrong or dangerous, and includes a number of “positive” examples of friends sharing cannabis or other, more powerful drugs as part of their social lives.

The report features a picture of a group of adults watching a film while smoking a joint.

In a recent debate on the issue in the House of Commons, some MPs agreed that drug policy should be looked at again, with others encouraging decriminalizing some substances to better manage their use.

Manning, who had her 35-year sentence commuted by former President Barack Obama in May last year, declared her intention to run with the Federal Election Commission on January 5. She will run as a Democrat.

The 30-year-old Oklahoma native faces a tough primary battle against incumbent Democrat Ben Cardin, the senior senator from Maryland who has held the seat since 2007. Cardin has an approval rate of 50 percent, according to the latest figures cited by the Baltimore Sun, and will face Manning and three other candidates in the upcoming primary.

Prominent paranoiacs interpreted Manning’s announcement as some kind of Russian plot designed to overthrow Cardin, the senior Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee, who has made a number of Russophobic statements in recent times – a theory swiftly slapped down by other media personalities.

Manning was arrested in 2010 after an internal US Army investigation found she had leaked more than 700,000 sensitive documents and videos to news outlets across the world, including WikiLeaks. She was released from military prison at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas last year.

A report by United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture, Juan Mendez, was scathing of the US government’s treatment of Manning while in detention. Mendez told the Guardian in 2012 that the military was at least culpable of cruel and inhumane treatment in keeping Manning locked up for 23 hours a day over an 11-month period.

As recently as January last year, Manning, who came out as transgender the day after she was jailed, was branded an “ungrateful traitor” in a tweet by President Donald Trump after she criticized his predecessor Obama.

Manning took aim back at the president in July after Trump announced his plan to ban transgender people from the military, calling the move “cowardice.”

(Photo: Sven)

People incarcerated throughout the state of Florida are planning a January 15 work stoppage to protest their conditions, and they say they are prepared to continue the protest for more than a month.

Prisoners in eight prisons are expected to participate in the effort, which they refer to as Operation PUSH. The strike, which was purposely scheduled to coincide with Martin Luther King Day, is designed to advance three major changes: a reduction of canteen prices, payment for labor and parole incentives for prisoners serving life sentences. It is not immediately clear how many incarcerated people intend to participate.

News of the action spread after a statement was posted on SPARC (Supporting Prisoners and Real Change), a Facebook page used by Florida prisoners and their families. The statement was compiled from a series of messages sent by prisoners to the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee’s Gainesville chapter and the national Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons.

“Every institution must prepare to lay down for at least one month or longer,” the statement reads. “Our goal is to make the governor realize that it will cost the state of Florida millions of dollars daily to contract outside companies to come and cook, clean, and handle the maintenance. This will cause a total breakdown. In order to become very effective, we must use everything we have to show that we mean business.”

The prisoners’ statement claims that cases of soup purchased in the prisons cost $17 — well above their cost outside of the prison. “This is highway robbery without a gun,” says the post. They’re also asking for payment for their labor, “rather than the current slave arrangement.” Despite a few exceptions, Florida is one of only six states where prison jobs remain unpaid.

As prison activists consistently point out, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, “except as a punishment for crime.”

Panagioti Tsolkas, an organizer with the Campaign to Fight Toxic…

London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who commissioned the report, said if the government continued to “mishandle” negotiations, Britain could be heading for a “lost decade of lower growth and lower employment.” He added: “The analysis concludes that the harder the Brexit we end up with, the bigger the potential impact on jobs, growth and living standards.”

The assessment, which models five possible scenarios for leaving the EU ranging from a near-status quo situation to exiting on World Trade Organization (WTO) terms without any transition agreement, warns that the worst outcome could be a decade-long economic slump.

Khan’s reports are understood to have cost £42,000 ($56,680).

The analysis, carried out by Cambridge Econometrics, predicts that a ‘no deal’ Brexit could shed as many as 87,000 jobs in London alone and 482,000 across Britain. The capital’s economic output would be 2 percent lower in 2030 than what would be expected under a ‘soft Brexit’.

The modelers did not study the effect of remaining in the EU.

The Labour mayor was a strong supporter of the Remain campaign and has since vigorously argued for the UK to stay in the EU’s single market and customs union, or for London to be granted its own deal, especially on maintaining rules on banking and financial services.

According to the BBC, Tories on the London Assembly, an elected body which scrutinizes the mayor, said: “Sadiq Khan, a well-known Remainer and advocate of Project Fear, has simply produced a continuation of his widely publicized anti-Brexit views.”

The impact assessments are likely to infuriate the government, which has insisted such information could undermine negotiations. It has both refused to release such information and also suggested that such analysis does not exist.

Khan said it was “astonishing” that Theresa May’s government had failed to do any analyses.

“I’ve released these impact assessments because the British people and our businesses have a right to know the likely impact of the various options the government are considering on their lives and personal finances.

“This new analysis shows why the government should now change its approach and negotiate a deal that enables us to remain in both the single market and the customs union.”

“The whole state was terrified,” said Hawaiian US senator Brian Schatz following the false alarm on Saturday morning, which went uncorrected for 38 minutes. He called for immediate action.

The alert was mistakenly sent out during an employee shift change at the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency when someone literally “pushed the wrong button,” according to Hawaii Governor David Ige.

“We took shelter immediately … I was sitting in the bathtub with my children saying our prayers … I’m extremely angry right now,” said Hawaii State Rep Matt LoPresti, describing for CNN the panic that ensued following the alert.

READ MORE: ‘This is not a drill’: Hawaii gets ballistic missile alert ‘by mistake’

The mistake came at “a time of heightened tensions” between the US and North Korea – a fact not lost on US Senator for Hawaii Mazie Hirono, journalist Glenn Greenwald or NYT national security correspondent David Sanger, who all alluded to the danger of the nuclear and digital age colliding.

President Donald Trump, who was at his golf resort in Mar-A-Lago at the time of the alert, and who has remained uncharacteristically silent on Twitter since the debacle, has been criticized for his role in raising tensions.

“Our leaders have failed us,” Rep Tulsi Gabbard told CNN. “Donald Trump is taking too long. He’s not taking this threat seriously and there’s no time to waste. We’ve got to get rid of this nuclear threat from North Korea … because this is literally life and death for the people of Hawaii and for the people of this country.”

Local journalist Anthony Quintano tweeted “I’m still shaking” and shared an image of electronic signs on a highway in Honolulu still displaying corrections for the alert.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said the bureau has launched a full investigation into the false alert.

The proposed plans include cutting the army by 11,000 soldiers, giving 2,000 Royal Marines and sailors the boot and saying goodbye to 1,250 airmen. Defence secretary Gavin Williamson is reportedly “horrified” by the cuts.

The armed forces are made up of about 137,000 personnel. The army, already significantly below the target size of 82,000, is made up of fewer than 78,000.

Cutting more than 14,000 from the armed forces will see the army reduced to 71,000 or fewer – a level not seen since before the Napoleonic wars.

A Whitehall source told the Times that Williamson “[did] not think any [cuts] were acceptable.” The source added: “It would put the armed forces in a difficult position in light of the international threat level.”

Also facing the chop are nine Royal Navy warships, seven Type 23 frigates, 100 helicopters, and aircraft including the Wildcat and the Apache – the same gunships flown by Prince Harry in Afghanistan.

One of the more controversial cutback proposals, which were included in two out of three of the options handed over to Williamson, involved operating 3 Commando Brigade as a combined force. 3 Commando Brigade currently uses the Royal Marines and 16 Air Assault Brigade, which uses the Parachute Regiment.

This merger would reportedly be cause for significant outcry within the military. Sources told the Times that such mergers would erode fighting capabilities and reduce the capacity to deploy elite forces on lengthy operations.

It is understood that Williamson is trying to convince chancellor Philip Hammond to provide up to £2 billion in interim cash for defence in an effort to avert the cuts.

It is also believed that defence will not be included in the national security capability review (NSCR) in light of reports that national security adviser Mark Sedwill wants to focus on cyberattacks instead of battlefield warfare.

A defence source said it was unclear how much time the defence secretary has to stop the cuts. “The danger is that unless the prime minister agrees the case for a comprehensive spending review or a strategic defence review, the NSCR will be a ‘work within your means’ outcome – essentially defence’s budgetary problems are for it to sort out.”

READ MORE: ‘Not the language used’: Trump after reports of ‘s***hole’ countries remark about African nations

John McCain, Republican senator

On Trump:“Respect for the God-given dignity of every human being, no matter their race, ethnicity or other circumstances of their birth, is the essence of American patriotism. To believe otherwise is to oppose the very idea of America.”

On Russia:“Russia is a gas station masquerading as a country.”

Keith Olbermann, TV host and commentator

On Trump: “No, you’re not getting past the “S***hole” remark. Ever. You racist coward. Your presidency is over. Have a grown-up explain it to you.”

On Russia, last December, after hockey player Alex Ovechkin endorsed Vladimir Putin for this year’s election: “Maybe Ovechkin should be thrown out of this league and forced to go back and skate with Putin in that hellhole #ToHellWithRussia.”

Lindsey Graham, Republican senator

On Trump: “Following comments by the president, I said my piece directly to him yesterday. The president and all those attending the meeting know what I said and how I feel. I’ve always believed that America is an idea, not defined by its people but by its ideals.”

On Russia: A “one-man dictatorship” (2009) with “an economy the size of Italy” that is “playing a poker game with a pair of 2s” (2014).

Tim Wise, prominent anti-racism activist “fighting alt-right Nazis since ‘89” 

On Trump:“For those who keep excusing Trump because ‘that’s just how some people talk’… um, if your standards for the president are no higher than those you set for your Uncle Cooter, YOU are the problem. Unfiltered people are either demented or four [years old]. Either way, we should ignore them.”

On Russia:“W/each new day I know why part of my family left s***hole of imperial Russia. 100 years after last rev[olution] let’s hope 4 another1,” in a tweet from 2016.

Barack Obama, former US President

On Trump: Nothing yet.

On Russia:“Russia doesn’t make anything. Immigrants aren’t rushing to Moscow in search of opportunity. The life expectancy of the Russian male is around 60 years old. The population is shrinking,” Obama told the Economist in 2014.

Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo political blog founder

On Trump:“It’s not just exclusion but a palpable dehumanizing contempt. The words only matter in as much as they illustrate the ugliness of what is currently happening and that is real and much more important than mere words,” Marshall wrote in conclusion to his post on Trump’s comments.

On Russia:“Xenophobic paranoia and a gravitation towards autocracy are embedded into the cultural DNA” of Russians, in a tweet from 2016.

Josh Barro, Business Insider Senior Editor, MSNBC contributor

On Trump:“Our president is an extremely prejudiced man and also an extremely superficial one,” Barro wrote in a column after the story broke. “The president’s prejudice causes him to make snap judgments about people, and his superficiality makes him incapable of processing information that might countermand his prejudices.”

On Russia: “A dystopic s***hole since the dawn of history,” adding in another later deleted tweet – “It’s amazing how much national pride Russians have, given how little they have to be proud of.”

Protesters hold signs during an anti Wal-Mart rally on City Hall steps on June 21, 2011 in New York City. (Photo: Mario Tama / Getty Images)

Walmart, the US’s largest private employer, announced to much fanfare on Thursday that it is raising the company-wide minimum wage from $10 to $11 — a move eagerly touted by President Donald Trump. However, Walmart didn’t loudly announce that it was, at the same time, moving to shut down more than 60 Sam’s Club stores nationwide and lay off thousands of workers.

Sam’s Club is a wholly owned subsidiary of Walmart, and it is named after Walmart founder Sam Walton. According to Business Insider, many of the company’s employees didn’t know they had lost their jobs until they showed up for work Thursday morning.

Following news of the mass layoffs and store closures, ThinkProgress’ Judd Legum argued the timing of Walmart’s wage announcement “was almost certainly not an accident.”

In addition to inflating the generosity of the new bonuses, Walmart appears to have launched its wage hike press blitz “to cover for thousands of unannounced layoffs,” Legum writes.

“It would look very bad to announce dozens of store closures and thousands of layoffs right after receiving a massive corporate tax cut,” he notes, referencing the $1.5 trillion tax plan Trump signed into law last month. “So instead, Walmart gave out what amounts to about two percent of the value of their tax cut over 10 years in bonuses. Made a big deal about it. Got praise from the president. Meanwhile, it was abruptly shutting stores across the country. It’s diabolical.”

“Walmart is pulling off an extremely devious two-step,” concluded George Zornick, Washington editor of The Nation.

During a press briefing on Thursday, both Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders were asked to comment on the mass layoffs — and on the administration’s attempt to take credit for the wage increases, but not the dozens of store closures.

“I don’t have…

EU diplomats agree that Britain should effectively remain governed by the EU’s common fisheries policy (CFP) during the transition period, but should not have a role in deciding the catches elsewhere in Europe. Given that quotas are set in December for the following year, then a two-year transition would mean the CFP would still apply to the UK for two years and nine months up to December 2021.

Environment Secretary Michael Gove claimed last year that the UK would “take back control” of its waters after Brexit by exiting the CFP, which gives member states fishing rights between 12 and 200 nautical miles off the UK’s coastline.

That was a claim reiterated by Prime Minister Theresa May in the Commons. She said: “We will be leaving the European Union on March 29 2019, we will therefore be leaving the Common Fisheries Policy and the Common Agricultural Policy at that date.”

Gove’s confident claim, however, has not been heard since. One EU diplomat believes he may have quietly conceded that the UK will be unable to discuss fishing quotas until the end of the transition period.

The diplomat told the Guardian: “We notice Gove hasn’t repeated that recently. Perhaps he has been reined in, because it isn’t going to happen.”

Every year, EU member states jointly agree on the total amount of fish to be taken from the seas, species by species, but each country’s allocation within the total allowable catch does not change. The EU27 are keen to strike a bilateral deal before Brexit on the total size of the catch taken out of UK seas by European fishermen.

Gerard van Balsfoort, the chair of the European Fisheries Alliance, the group lobbying on behalf of EU fishermen in the Brexit negotiations, said he was confident the UK would not be successful in persuading the 27 member-states to change their position over the coming months.

But Bertie Armstrong, Chief Executive of the Scottish Fishing Federation, told the Guardian it would be “absolutely unacceptable” for Britain to be kept tied to the CFP framework during the two-year transition period.

The prospect of losing access to UK waters has struck fear into some fishing communities in mainland Europe, with job losses expected in northern European ports if access to UK waters is denied.

A Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affaris (Defra) spokesperson said: “We remain committed to leaving the Common Fisheries Policy and developing arrangements for fishing that can create a more profitable and self-sufficient seafood sector. As we leave the EU, we are working to secure the best deal for the whole of the UK fishing industry.”

Bajwa made the comments to Votel earlier this week during a phone call, a spokesman for Pakistan’s military said in a statement on Friday. Bajwa also said Pakistan is being treated badly by the US “despite decades of cooperation,”Sputnik News reports.

The comment comes after President Donald Trump’s administration withheld almost $2 billion in security aid from Pakistan for allegedly failing to take “decisive action” against Taliban militants targeting US personnel in neighboring Afghanistan, according to the Associated Press.

During the call, Votel told Bajwa that Washington is concerned about Afghans using Pakistan as a staging ground for attacks against the US inside Afghanistan.

Bajwa responded that Pakistan is fully aware of concerns laid out by the US in relation to the terrorist activities of Afghan nationals in Pakistan, and his country is already engaged in several operations against those militants, AP reports.

The two generals did however find common ground and spoke of the need for continued cooperation in the ongoing war on terror. Bajwa assured Votel that Pakistan would continue to follow through with its counter-terrorism plans without US financial support, according to AP.

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Pakistan has assisted the US in its fight in the war on terrorism, providing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) with supply routes into landlocked Afghanistan after the US invasion, Bloomberg reports.

The phone call comes on the heels of a tweet sent out by President Trump earlier this month, criticizing his country’s long-standing policy of sending security aid to Pakistan.

Pakistan later responded to Trump’s allegations by convening a National Security Committee meeting, attended by Bajwa and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.

READ MORE: Pakistani Air Force ordered to shoot down US drones

During the meeting the committee accused the US of scapegoating Pakistan to cover for its own failings in Afghanistan in the war on terror.

I am the daughter of two immigrants who moved our family to the United States for a better life and richer opportunities.

I am an immigrant.

I am a former White House aide.

I am Haitian-American.

And on Thursday, President Trump called my homeland a “shithole.”

In a bipartisan meeting concerning changes in immigration policy, President Trump asked why America would want immigrants from “all these shithole countries,” specifically referencing Haiti and African countries. He then suggested that United States immigration policy focus instead on bringing in immigrants from countries like Norway.

A quick reminder: Haiti is 95 percent black, and Norway is over 90 percent white.

“Trump entered the business world as a racist, he entered the 2016 election as a racist, and he entered the White House as a racist.”

Some might call Trump’s comments racially coded, or “racially tinged,” as I heard them called yesterday, but the truth is that these statements are overt, transparent, undisguised, unbridled racism. (Senator Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who was in the room, said as much on Friday morning.)

And they’re not just comments: they’re the basis for Trump’s mass deportation policy.

That racism underlies this administration’s thinking on immigration is thoroughly unsurprising. Donald Trump’s legacy is not simply speckled with incidents of racism; it itself is racist. Donald Trump entered the business world as a racist, he entered the 2016 election as a racist, and he entered the White House as a racist.

In 1973, Trump and his father were sued by the Department of Justice for discrimination on the basis of race in one of their housing ventures. (They signed a consent decree settling the suit in 1974, admitting no wrongdoing but agreeing to institute safeguards to prevent future discrimination.)

“Just as Trump’s racism is intrinsic to who he is as a person, it too is embedded in his policy choices.”

In 1989, five black and Latino teenage boys were wrongfully convicted of raping a woman jogging in Central Park in a case that relied heavily — perhaps exclusively — on racist stereotypes of black men sexually assaulting white women. The case came to be known as the Central Park Five. Leading the calls for these children’s execution was Donald Trump, who had no connection to the case — other than that he was racist, and this was an opportunity to show it. Even after the Central Park Five were exonerated by DNA evidence and the confession of the actual perpetrator, Trump refused to apologize.

In 2016 as the Republican nominee for President, Donald Trump called Mexican immigrants “rapists,” again relying on tired tropes about black and brown men sexually assaulting white women; he admitted in an unrelated legal case that he’d planned to make that remark in particular. He questioned the competence of a Mexican American judge, Gonzalo Curiel, solely on the basis of his ethnic heritage. And he called for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” (and suggested that a Muslim judge could not rule properly in that case).

And, since winning the presidency — to pick just one example— his response to a white supremacist rally that culminated in the murder of a peaceful protester was to tell Americans that “there are two sides to a story.” He’s right, in a way: One side was racist, the other was not. It doesn’t take much imagination to guess to which side Trump was more sympathetic.

“While Republicans in Congress feign outrage over Trump’s latest astounding racist comment, they continue to step in line to help propel his racist policies.”

Given all this, it’s not surprising Donald Trump called Haiti — a country whose independence and freedom was borne out of the first successful slave-led revolution — a “shithole.”

It’s also not surprising he said so in the context of immigration policy discussions. Because just as Trump’s racism is intrinsic to who he is as a person, it too is embedded in his policy choices, from his attempts to implement a somewhat limited version of the Muslim ban he promised to his insistence on building a wall on the border with Mexico as part of any immigration reform.

Donald Trump’s racist biases seemingly led him to end Temporary Protected Status for and order the mass deportation of 200,000 Salvadorans who came here after a pair of major earthquakes, as well as 59,000 Haitians who arrived after the devastating 2010 earthquake.

Trump’s racism is what underlies and governs his support of tying immigration quotas to “historical norms,” widely seen as a way to limit immigration from non-European countries, which is a policy we as a nation have already long ago understood to be racist and discarded, and to end family reunification policies (which Republicans have rebranded “chain migration”) which allows families to build new lives in America together.

“The only thing that differentiates Trump from many of his Republican allies is that he is willing to name the source of his motivations aloud, and often in public.”

And Trump’s racist sentiments seem to be behind his decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which granted temporary protection from deportation to undocumented youth who were brought to this country as undocumented children, had no criminal records and met other strenuous requirements.

While Republicans in Congress feign outrage over Trump’s latest astounding racist comment, they continue to step in line to help propel his racist policies. And not surprisingly: these policies, such as overthrowing DACA, ending TPS and attempts to limit the number of immigrants arriving from non-European countries, are ones many Republicans in Congress have supported for years.

The only thing that differentiates Trump from many of his Republican allies is that he is willing to name the source of his motivations aloud, and often in public, whereas many Republicans in Congress would rather pander to the white supremacist anti-immigrant movement while pretending that’s not what their policy positions are about.

“Every person who stays silent on Donald Trump’s racism, regardless of their own race or party, is betraying not just America’s communities of color, but the very ideals on which this country was founded.”

Today, we find ourselves in a moment of reckoning. “There comes a time,” Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “where silence is betrayal.” We are in that time.

Every person who stays silent on Donald Trump’s racism, regardless of their own race or party, is betraying not just America’s communities of color, but the very ideals on which this country was founded. We were founded on the idea that all people are created equal, and while that notion of who counts as a person — who deserves equality — has evolved over time, the point remains: America was founded as bastion of freedom, and equality. That is the America I know. That is the America of which my Haitian parents wanted to be a part. That is the America for which we must all speak up.

And a good way to start is for all of us to make it clear to members of Congress that we want them to reject Trump’s racism and all the policies that stem from it, to pass a clean DREAM Act now (rather than catering to his racism and agreeing to restrictions on other immigrants to get protection for DREAMers) and to protect from deportation those who had been covered by the TPS program that Trump is determined to end.

READ MORE: Britain’s hilarious reaction as Trump shuns London… including a lookalike statue 

Khan had just begun his address at a conference for the Fabian Society, a socialist group, in London when demonstrators in the audience started calling for his arrest. Some of the group held US flags and anti-EU banners as their supporters clapped and heckled the Labour mayor.

The demonstration follows US President Donald Trump’s cancellation of a planned visit to the UK capital next month. Khan, a vocal critic of the the US president, responded to news of the cancellation by saying Trump “had got the message” that Londoners were opposed to his policies.

Video footage of the incident shows the chairperson for the conference asking the demonstrators to go outside and talk to the press. The protesters were later escorted from the venue by police.

READ MORE: Boris Johnson slams ‘pompous popinjay’ critics of Donald Trump after UK state visit canceled  

Khan resumed his speech on equality about 20 minutes after the disruption started.

A spokeswoman for the Fabian Society told The Express that the speech had been marred by “far-right” protesters.

A Metropolitan Police spokesperson confirmed to RT.com that protesters were removed from the building but said no arrests were made.

Researchers at Purdue University in Indiana created the miniature robot to study how much dirt, pollen, bacteria, and other “bio junk” is collected by crawling infants.

Using data gathered by the creepy little robot – whose body is a Frankensteinian concoction of a legless baby doll wrapped in tin foil – the researchers found that concentrations of harmful particles are about twenty times denser closer to the ground than they are higher up. When babies crawl, they inhale all sorts of unhealthy particles, which can lodge themselves in the deepest regions of their lungs.

However, imprisoning your infant in a sterile bubble may not be necessary.

“Many studies have shown that inhalation exposure to microbes and allergen-carrying particles in that portion of life plays a significant role in both the development of, and protection from, asthma and allergic diseases,” lead researcher Brandon Boor said in a statement published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

US President Donald Trump’s derogatory remarks about certain nations, which he described as “shithole countries”, have prompted rebuke from around the world and once again raised questions about the billionaire’s racist attitude.

At a closed-door meeting intended to discuss a way forward on an immigration deal in the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump reportedly asked lawmakers, “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” According to several people briefed on the meeting, Trump was referring to Haiti, El Salvador and certain African countries.

Trump denied saying “anything derogatory” about the people of Haiti, and instead blamed the media for distorting his words. He said that his description of “shithole” was not racist but rather a straightforward assessment of some nations’ depressed conditions.

The glowing black creatures have peculiar extending jaws and needle-shaped teeth, but little is known about the rarely-seen shark.

The five specimens were caught at a depth of 350 metres during a routine survey of the fish species in the Taitung area, the Taiwan Fisheries Research Institute said in a statement. Only one was alive when it was pulled from the water. Researchers submerged it with the hope of carrying out further study, but it died within 24 hours of its capture.

The sharks ranged in length from 25 to 30cm. The most prominent feature of the luminescent shark is its needle-like teeth, described as “snake-like fangs” by the research body.

“The upper and lower jaws can be extended forward with prehensile canals to prey on prey,” the institute said, explaining how the creature snatches its dinner of bony fish and crustaceans. This strange approach to eating is similar to that of the goblin shark – a rare species of deep sea shark with a distinctive snout.

READ MORE: Disturbing faceless fish hauled from ‘the most unexplored environment on Earth’ (PHOTO)

The viper dogfish was first caught in 1986 and has only been spotted a handful times since, leadings experts to believe that only a small population exists.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature lists the viper dogfish as “data deficient” due to the lack of information on the species.

The deep water sharks are small in size, with the largest recorded specimen coming in at 54 centimeters long. Despite its deadly sounding name, the viper shark poses no threat to humans.

In a press release, the organization, whose stated mission is “promoting public understanding of and support for effective arms control policies,” said that Trump “dodged a bullet” by waiving sanctions on Iran in accordance with US commitments under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). However, Kelsey Davenport, director of nonproliferation policy, warned that Trump “is setting up the United States to violate it down the road,” noting that “threatening to withhold future sanctions waivers in an attempt to force unilateral changes to the deal is dangerous, jeopardizes the future of the agreement, and creates a schism between the United States and its allies.”

On Friday, Trump announced that he would extend economic sanctions relief to Iran in adherence with the nuclear deal but introduce new sanctions to punish Tehran for alleged human rights abuses and ballistic missile development. He also warned that Washington would pull out of the agreement if its “terrible flaws” weren’t fixed, pressuring the allies to agree to an amended deal.

Thomas Countryman, the chairman of the board of directors of the Arms Control Association and the former US Assistant Secretary of State for Nonproliferation, challenged Trump’s characterization of the deal, pointing out that “the vast majority of nonproliferation and security experts agree that the successful implementation of the JCPOA has effectively neutralized the threat of an Iranian nuclear weapons program.”

Trump has pushed for altering the agreement, which will ease nuclear restrictions on Iran over the next decade if Tehran honors its commitments under the deal. The Arms Control Association says that, were Washington to permanently deprive Iran of a nuclear program, it would be a direct violation of the JCPOA.

READ MORE: Iran rejects Trump’s ‘fixes’ to nuclear deal, slams new sanctions

“Legislative efforts by the US Congress that automatically reimpose sanctions if Iran does not indefinitely abide by core nuclear restrictions that the JCPOA phases out over time would violate the accord and are strongly opposed by Washington’s negotiating partners,” Davenport said. “In the weeks ahead, the administration and the Congress must refrain from imposing new sanctions that violate the JCPOA or seek to unilaterally alter the nuclear restrictions on Iran,” she added.

The JCPOA was signed by Iran, China, France, Germany, Russia, the UK, the US, and the EU. As part of the deal some economic sanctions against Iran were lifted in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear program over a period of 15 to 25 years.

Landscapes from Point Reyes National Seashore, a stretch of federally protected Pacific Ocean coastline, on July 6, 2017, outside of the town of Inverness, California. (Photo: Andrew Lichtenstein / Corbis via Getty Images)

This story was originally published by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit news organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Learn more at revealnews.org and subscribe to the Reveal podcast, produced with PRX, at revealnews.org/podcast.

In its first act to shield California from the Trump administration’s repeal of regulations, the state’s water board has prepared its own rules protecting wetlands and other waters.

The proposed new rules, scheduled for a vote by the board this summer, could insulate the state from President Donald Trump’s executive order to roll back the reach of the Clean Water Act. That rollback would strip federal protection from seasonal streambeds, isolated pools and other transitory wetlands, exposing them to damage, pollution or destruction from housing developments, energy companies and farms.

“When you look at it from a historical perspective, California has lost the vast majority of the wetland resources,” said planner Paul Hann, who oversees the State Water Resources Control Board’s wetlands protection program. “We want to capture the rich diversity of wetlands across the state. These resources play a big role in improving our water quality and providing a valuable benefit in terms of flood protection, wildlife habitat and recreation.”

Over the past two centuries, California has lost roughly 90 percent of its wetlands, leaving 2.9 million acres, according to the California Natural Resources Agency. These remaining wetlands support more species of plants and animals than any other habitat, including an estimated 41 percent of California’s rare and endangered species.

Stepping in to protect its wetlands “is a prime example of a state exerting its right to protect itself from federal…

Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service tweeted that crews are “working to stop the fire from spreading.” Ten fire engines are at the building, which has been evacuated. No injuries are reported.

The railway station was originally built in 1848 and is a landmark, Grade II listed building.

Bryn Coleman, incident commander for Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service, told the BBC: “Unfortunately the fire is spreading to the roof void of the new section of the train station, and it’s now travelling across the main concourse area across the main lines into Nottingham train station.

“We’ve got in the region of 60 firefighters here at the scene and we’re fighting the fire from inside the building using breathing apparatus, hose reels and jets. But it is quite a significant incident we’re dealing with this morning.”