The investigation spent approximately $10 million between October 2017 and March this year, according to a Department of Justice report released Thursday. The department had previously spent $6.7 million between May 2017 and September 2017.

Of the latest $10 million reported, Mueller’s office spent $2.7 million on salaries and benefits, just over $500,000 on travel expenses, and just under $30,000 on office supplies.

President Donald Trump tweeted the news Friday morning, along with his often repeated assertion that there was “No Collusion, except by the Democrats.”

After an earlier FBI investigation, Mueller was appointed in May to lead an investigation into “any links and/or coordination between Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump, and any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation.”  

While the investigation has thus far found no links or coordination, 19 individuals have been indicted by Mueller. These include thirteen alleged Russian internet ‘trolls’, as well as members of Trump’s campaign team.

Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was indicted on unrelated charges of tax and bank fraud dating back to 2005 and 2007, and charges of failing to properly register his lobbying work for the Ukrainian government between 2006 and 2015.

A federal judge in Virginia questioned these charges last month, and claimed that they were beyond Mueller’s remit. Instead, the judge argued, the charges were aimed at pressing Manafort to provide incriminating information against Trump.

“You don’t really care about Mr. Manafort’s bank fraud,” Judge T.S. Ellis said to one of Mueller’s prosecutors. “What you really care about is what information Mr. Manafort could give you that would reflect on Mr. Trump or lead to his prosecution or impeachment…The vernacular is to ‘sing’.”

Mueller’s office has so far spent $879,000 of taxpayer money per individual indicted, enough to prosecute 40 homicide cases. Based on data from Rand Corporation, for the price of the entire investigation so far, the US Department of Justice could have convicted as many as 770 murderers.

Last December, Mueller discovered that Trump’s then-National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn, lied about a conversation he had with Russia’s ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak. While newspapers ran titillating headlines like “Michael Flynn Pleads Guilty to Lying to the FBI and Will Cooperate With Russia Inquiry,” the circumstances surrounding the guilty plea revealed that Mueller was actually grasping at straws: Flynn had indeed met with Kislyak – to request that Moscow refrain from retaliating against sanctions imposed by the outgoing Obama administration in December 2016.

Amid fears the tariffs will deal a huge blow to the struggling UK steel industry, some political figures and prominent UK journalists have flocked to Twitter to condemn the Brexiteers for putting the UK at risk of being “eaten alive” by trade tariffs once it leaves the EU.

Many also hit out at No.10 over its “delusional” claim the UK enjoyed a “special relationship” with the US that would see Britain benefit from Trump’s ‘America First’ policy.

Others criticized the UK for courting the controversial Republican leader while all it got in return is tariffs.

Shadow International Trade Secretary Berry Gardiner said the UK should not be “cowed” by the US decision to impose the tariffs.

He told the ‘Today’ program: “Theresa May has really not managed to persuade Mr Trump at all to abandon the plans that he’s had, despite the fact we’ve now had two months where they have been on hold. All this special relationship – the idea that we are going to secure a special deal once we’ve left the EU with America – it is a nonsense.”

He warned Trump’s latest move doesn’t bode well for a post-Brexit UK trying to hammer out trade deals with countries outside the EU.

Gardiner said the UK would be “infinitely more vulnerable” to trade wars with non-EU countries “because we will not have the weight of a 500 million-strong consumer market behind us.”

International Trade Secretary Liam Fox, who last year went to Washington to pave the way for what Trump had said would be a “big” trade deal with the UK, branded the president’s tariffs “patently absurd.”

“We absolutely do not rule out counter measures. And we do not rule out taking a dispute to the World Trade Organisation at Geneva. Obviously, we still hope the United States will think again about this. But, it would be a great pity if we ended up in a tit-for-tat trade dispute with our closest allies.”

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The half sister to the newly minted Duchess of Sussex called on UK PM Theresa May to ‘free’ Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, via a Change.org petition. The petition has been signed by more than 500,000 people, praises the behavior of Robinson and calls for the far-right campaigner’s release saying: “It’s time we stand together, stand strong, and stand by his side.”

Some of the Twittersphere threw their support behind Markle and Robinson, while others lashed out at the sister of royalty for piping up about British politics and for misunderstanding contempt of court law.

Robinson put a case – which includes 29 charges of child sex and neglect – at risk of a mistrial by live streaming within earshot of jurors as they entered the court.

The hour-long video stream had been watched 250,000 times within hours of being posted on Facebook, Leeds Crown Court heard. On Friday, while Robinson was before the court, Judge Geoffrey Marson QC said: “No one could possibly conclude that it would be anything other than highly prejudicial to the defendants’ in the trial.”

“I respect everyone’s right to free speech,” Marson said. “That’s one of the most important rights that we have. With those rights come responsibilities. The responsibility to exercise that freedom of speech within the law. I am not sure you appreciate the potential consequence of what you have done.

“If the jurors in my present trial get to know of this video I will no doubt be faced with an application to discharge the jury. If I have to do that it will mean a re-trial, costing hundreds and hundreds and thousands of pounds,” he added.

Robinson was sentenced him to 13 months jail on Friday; ten months for contempt of court and an extra three months for blatantly disregarding the terms of his suspended sentence.

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Diane Greene, the chief executive of the company’s cloud business unit, recently told employees that revenue from Project Maven – a Pentagon program under development which aims to use artificial intelligence to help drones identify human ground targets without the assistance of human operators – was “only” for $9 million. But internal company emails from September 2017 obtained by The Intercept suggest otherwise.

READ MORE: ‘Not in the business of war’: Google employees urge company to abandon Pentagon AI project

One message, said to be from Aileen Black, a member of Google’s defense sales team, noted that the deal would rake in $15 million over the next 18 months. The email also said that the budget for the program was expected to eventually expand to $250 million. Black’s assessment appears to have merit: According to The Intercept, one month after news of the contract broke, the Pentagon allocated an additional $100 million to Project Maven.

The emails also show that Google executives were deeply concerned about a potential public backlash if the company’s participation in the Pentagon program became widely known.

“I don’t know what would happen if the media starts picking up a theme that Google is secretly building AI weapons or AI technologies to enable weapons for the defense industry,” Dr. Fei-Fei Li, the head scientist at Google Cloud, wrote in one of the leaked emails. “This is red meat to the media to find all ways to damage Google. You probably heard Elon Musk and his comment about AI causing WW3.”

Google apparently had no concrete plan for dealing with media coverage surrounding the controversial contract, the email chain suggests. Instead, the company was seemingly hoping that the deal, which was not directly with Google, would remain hidden from the public.

“The contract is not direct with Google but through a partner (ECS) and we have terms that prevent press releases from happening without our mutual consent,” wrote Black, adding that the Defense Department “will not say anything about Google without our approval.”

However, Black warned that news of the contract will eventually get out, either through leaks or Freedom of Information Act requests. Cautioning against keeping the deal a secret, Black asked: “Wouldn’t it be best to have it released on our terms?” Despite Black’s concerns, the company did go public with the project until after news broke about its existence in March 2018.

In protest against the contact, more than 3,000 Google staffers signed a petition demanding that the company cancel the deal and adopt a clear policy stating that it would not participate in the development of warfare technology. Around a dozen Google employees have resigned in recent weeks in protest over the project, according to Gizmodo.

Google insists that the technology it is developing for the US military will be for “non-offensive uses only.”

Yet, in a curious move which exacerbated public outcry over Google’s participation in Project Maven, the company decided to scrub ‘don’t be evil’ – its unofficial motto – from its code of conduct. The removal occurred sometime in late April or early May, but the change was noticed only at the end of May.

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Police in Harlesden have been granted extra stop-and-search powers until midday following a shooting and stabbing that occurred roughly a mile apart on Thursday. A man, aged in his 20s, suffered life-threatening gunshot wounds at 8:30pm Thursday in Lawrence Avenue, Brent.

Only two hours later, police found another man in his 20s with life-threatening wounds – this time from a knife attack – in Rainborough Close. Met Police officers are investigating if the two violent attacks are connected.

Despite eyewitnesses claiming that a machine gun was used in the firearm attack, Scotland Yard has advised that there was “no information” to support these claims.
On the other side of the city in Deptford, a 23-year-old man was discovered just after 8pm with stab wounds in Creek Road. He was rushed to the hospital after he was treated by London’s Air Ambulance.

In the early hours of Friday morning, roughly two miles or so from the attack in Deptford, another man was stabbed on Old Kent Road. The man, understood to be 30-years-old, was rushed to the hospital. His condition is currently unknown. Police arrested a 28-year-old man on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm.

Met Police have now launched at least 69 murder investigations this year, including the fatal stabbing of a man in London’s second wealthiest borough, Kensington and Chelsea, on Wednesday.

The man was believed to be a delivery driver and was found with multiple stab wounds at 10:20pm on Cathcart Road. He was reportedly attacked after refusing to hand over money to a gang of youths.

The victim, understood to be in his 40s, was pronounced dead at the scene.

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The casual absurdity was noticed by The Secret Barrister on Twitter, who picked a few of the day’s most bizarre stories, tweeting: “Go home 30 May, you’re drunk.”

The burger story quotes anonymous officials at the CIA as saying that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will probably not completely give up his nuclear weapons as part of a potential deal with the US. He may, however, be willing to open a western hamburger franchise in the capital, Pyongyang, as a goodwill gesture.

Meanwhile, Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko emerged alive and well at a press conference in Kiev, Ukraine, on Wednesday. Together with Ukrainian law enforcement, Babchenko had faked his own death to dodge an alleged assassination plot against him. He thanked the Ukrainian security services, and apologized to his wife for his stunt.

On the same day, reality TV star Kim Kardashian traveled to the White House to speak with President Trump about prison reform, a cause she has been vocal about in the past.

Other Twitter users were equally bewildered at the glut of strange headlines:

Zooming out, the first five months of 2018 have seen their fair share of surprises. As Trump and Kim (Jong-un, not Kardashian) traded nuclear threats with each other last year, it would have been hard to imagine the two leaders gearing up for peace talks this summer.

The idea that Trump – who dubbed Kim “little rocket man” and threatened to rain “fire and fury like the world has never seen” upon Pyongyang – could ever be suggested for the Nobel Peace Prize seemed ludicrous last year.

Likewise, few could have expected Kardashian’s husband Kanye West to return to Twitter with a stream of libertarian-right and self-help tweets, and a declaration of love for Trump. Meanwhile, the greatest threat to the Trump administration are a porn star and her lawyer (according to CNN at least). Republicans are beginning to pull ahead in the polls as an all-important midterm election looms, and Trump made good on his controversial promise to move the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

In many ways, however, some things stay the same. Mass shootings in America still grab column inches on a regular basis; Democrats and their enablers in the media still see Russian boogeymen behind every scandal; and everything is still racist.

First signed in 2005, the Prüm Convention saw the creation of a number of tools to help the European Union fight crime and terrorism, including the European Criminal Records Information Exchange System and the Schengen Information System (SIS).

Speaking to RT, Professor Alain Bauer, a criminology expert and former chair of the National Crime Commission and the National Police Data Control Group, said protestations from Europe were to be expected as “It is difficult to be always in and out of a club and expect equal treatment after leaving.”

Britain had initially opted out of the convention, with then-Home Secretary Theresa May saying the program was too costly.

She later changed her mind on European security cooperation, warning skeptical Conservative backbenchers in 2014 that Britain could become a “honeypot” for criminals if it did not sign up to the European arrest warrant (EAW) system.

Speaking at the time of the reversal in opinion, the then-immigration minister, James Brokenshire, said it would allow police to access the tools “they need to rapidly and efficiently identify foreign criminals who have committed serious offences in the UK.”

“It currently takes an average of 143 days for a DNA match to be returned through the Interpol process, compared with just 15 minutes under Prüm. Matches for fingerprints and vehicle registration information will be returned within 24 hours and 10 seconds respectively.”

The UK finally adopted the Prüm convention in 2016, months before citizens voted to leave the European Union.

Arguments over remaining in Prüm is the latest for British negotiators trying to secure a new security arrangement after it exits the EU in 2019. Last week saw a German-led clique block attempts by the UK to maintain access to the €10 billion ($11.7 billion) Galileo satellite program.

READ MORE:Easy come, easy go, will EU let them go? German-led clique oppose UK staying in Galileo sat program

When asked about the possibility of the UK gaining access to the criminal database as part of a new deal, Professor Bauer said it was possible, but would require a “modified version of Prüm that allows the UK to just use Interpol data,” while avoiding more sensitive information the EC doesn’t want going to third parties.

While it is the Germans who lead the resistance in opposition to Galileo, France, normally supportive of Britain continuing security cooperation post-2019, is reportedly leading the charge in blocking British access to Prüm, insisting that the matter be taken up with the European Commission.

One senior government figure, speaking to The Times, said: “Normally France is quite helpful when it comes to security co-operation but on this they are being awkward.”

But The Times’ claims have been dismissed by French diplomats to the UK. They maintain that France was one of the first to ask Britain to opt into the Prüm treaty to begin with, adding that the UK’s post-Brexit security relationship was being negotiated by the European Commission with full support from member states – including France.

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Trump uses Twitter as his primary mode of communication with the world, delivering policy positions and bestowing catchy nicknames on his enemies.

Most Americans think the president tweets too much – 72 percent, according to the new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll, while 62 percent think his tweeting is “a bad thing.”

Though his original “Despite the constant negative press covfefe” tweet was deleted, Trump left a follow-up message about the term that remains a mystery to this day.

Trump has spent much of his presidency tweeting denials of “collusion” with Russia and accusing Democrats of the same. Over the last year, Trump has lashed out at the Democrats countless times.

One of his biggest bombshell tweets was when he revealed Obama had his “wires tapped.” 

Trump has made some of his most memorable tweets about North Korean leader Kim Jong-un – from deriding his appearance to boasting about how his “button” is bigger than Kim’s.

Another favorite target for Trump is the media. From calling out multiple “fake news” outlets to slamming ratings, when it comes to the media, Trump is rarely kind.  

Sometimes this criticism gets personal. Trump came under fire for a series of tweets attacking the appearance of MSNBC anchor Mika Brzezinski, alleging she had both a low IQ and a botched face lift.

The president has more than 52.2 million Twitter followers and has tweeted more than 37,700 times since opening his account in March 2009.

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The UK Policy Group, a private company appointed to carry out opposition research for the Conservatives, has two ex-Number 10 officials advising them. Sources have revealed to The Mirror that the firm deep dives into the personal histories, online videos and posts of Labour candidates. Evidence is then compiled into dossiers for the Conservatives. The information is then reportedly leaked to right-wing websites and newspapers to back-up negative articles on the Labour Party.

It is understood that this is the first time that one of Britain’s political parties has stood accused of outsourcing its attack research to an external company; a tactic frequently used in US elections.

The firm in question, launched in January 2017, was originally registered with Companies House under the name UK Rising Ltd, according to official documents. The UK Policy Group is the London branch of Definers Public Affairs, the elite US opposition research firm set up by two senior Republicans, Matt Rhoades and Joe Pounder. Rhoades ran Mitt Romney’s failed 2012 bid for the White House, while Pounder is the former head of research for the Republican Party.

A number of former Tory high flyers now work for the research firm. The staff include ex-Number 10 staffers and former Conservative Party researchers. The firm’s UK vice president is Andrew Goodfellow who was, in another life, the Conservative Party’s director of policy and research. Staff also include the Tory party’s former head of media monitoring and a former member of George Osborne’s own communications team.

Official documents have revealed that Ameetpal Gill, David Cameron ’s former director of strategy, was given the OK by authorities to accept a contract advising the firm through Hanbury Strategy, his own political strategy company.

Theresa May’s former Director of Government Relations Chris Brannigan is a member of the UK Police Group’s advisory board, but he has said that he is not involved in opposition research. “I advise them on the strategic political scene and interpretation of political activities,” he said. “Dull stuff.”

The Conservative Party, UK Policy Group Ltd, and Goodfellow have not commented.

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Gregory Hill Jr., 30, was fatally shot in January 2014 by St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Christopher Newman who, along with his partner Edward Lopez, responded to a complaint about a man listening to loud music.

“After Newman knocked on the doors, the garage door opened revealing Hill within the comfort of his own garage and home,” the lawsuit claimed. “Upon information and belief, Deputy Lopez indicated loudly that Hill had a gun and then the garage door closed. Despite the door being closed, Newman fired his handgun approximately four times and killed Hill.”

Two of the bullets struck the father of three in the abdomen, while another pierced his head. A SWAT team that was called to the scene discovered the deceased with an unloaded 9mm handgun in his back pocket.

Newman said he was forced to respond because the man was allegedly pointing a gun at him. Hill’s family, who filed the lawsuit in 2016, disputed that claim. Viola Bryant, Hill’s mother, argued that police violated her son’s Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures by using excessive force.

The federal court jury deliberated for nearly 10 hours before declaring that Hill was 99 percent liable for the incident and the fatal injuries he received, because he was under “the influence of alcoholic beverages.”

Last week, the court awarded Bryant $1 for funeral expenses and $1 to each of the children for the “loss of parental companionship, instruction, and guidance and… mental pain and suffering.” But because the jury decided St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara, in his official capacity, was somewhat negligent – but only 1 percent liable – the total of $4 was reduced to 4 cents.

While the Sheriff’s Office praised the verdict, the family and their lawyer, John M. Phillips, appealed for public support and launched a fundraising campaign demanding justice for Gregory Hill, who left behind three small children, aged 13, 10, and 7.

The family maintains that the evidence in the case doesn’t add up and they will appeal the verdict. They argue that one of Hill’s daughters, who witnessed the murder of her father, along with other witnesses across the street, saw no gun in his hand. They further claim, citing forensic testimony, that the gun was free of any blood or brain splatter, and that Hill would have been incapable of putting the weapon back in his pocket after he was shot. They also dispute Newman’s testimony that he ordered Hill several times to put down his weapon, and claim the officers only yelled “hey” before firing.

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The Jewish leader and barrister of more than 30 years has been an outspoken critic of Corbyn since he became president of the board in 2015. In the interview he asks the Labour leader to offer “some clarity on his real views about Israel.”

He cites Corbyn’s association with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) group as being problematic, because “If you look at its [PSC] logo and language, it’s quite clear its world picture has no room for Israel.” He adds: “Delegitimizing the State of Israel is anti-Semitic. He was a chairman of Stop the War, which is responsible for some of the worst anti-Israel discourse.”

Responding to the article, Corbyn’s spokesperson said: “Jonathan Arkush’s attempt to conflate strong criticism of Israeli state policies with anti-Semitism is wrong and undermines the fight both against anti-Semitism and for justice for the Palestinians. It should be rejected outright.”

Arkush equating the ‘delegitimization of the State of Israel’ to anti-Semitism is just one of a many controversial statements made by the barrister.

Congratulating Donald Trump

In November 2016, Arkush congratulated Donald Trump on his US election win, sparking a backlash from British Jews, reports the Jewish Chronicle. In a statement published on the board’s website after Trump’s victory, Mr Arkush said: “I would like to congratulate Donald Trump on his victory.

“After a divisive campaign, I hope that Mr Trump will move to build bridges and ensure that America’s standing as a beacon of progress, tolerance and free-thinking remains strong.”

Around 200 young members of the community, including several deputies, members of the Jewish Labour Movement, and Jewish student society presidents, sent the Board of Deputies a co-signed letter, which called Arkush’s statement “laughable,” reported the Jewish News.

Supporting the moving the US embassy to Jerusalem

Writing in the Times of Israel in December 2017, Arkush hailed Trump’s decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem.

“Why is it apparently so controversial that the United States is taking the decision to recognize what we already know, that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel,” wrote Arkush. He makes little reference to Palestinians in his article, only that the “US government is not passing judgement on what a final status agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians will look like.”

Protests that followed Trump’s decision coincided with Palestinians’ ‘great march of return’ that led to more than 100 Palestinians being killed, since March 30, 2018.

Encouraged people to vote Tory at the 2015 GE and expressed sadness at the 2017 GE result

The Jewish News reported that Arkush advocated the election of a Tory government at the 2015 GE because “we have a PM and Government who gets it on with Israel. Whether or not you are a Conservative supporter, isn’t the communal interest best served by them getting re-elected?”

His support for the Conservatives was expressed again when he described the result of the 2017 GE, where Theresa May’s Tory party lost their outright majority as an unequivocal “loss.” Arkush told The Times of Israel that “If the governing party, which is a strong supporter of Israel, loses so much ground, then of course it has to be something of a loss for Israel and the Jewish community.”

On Jeremy Corbyn’s unexpectedly strong showing at the election he told the Jewish Post that “Corbyn is not a Labour Party leader who is trusted by the Jewish community.”

This partisan display has prompted social media users to brand Arkush’s latest attack on Corbyn as being either politically motivated or having nothing to do with antisemitism.

Condemned Tory Ruth Davidson for her criticism of Israel’s illegal settlement building

Arkush’s criticism is not solely directed at the Labour party. He also chides figures on the right should they criticize Israel. In September 2017 Arkush condemned Scottish MP Ruth Davidson after she said building illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory was “unacceptable.” He responded by saying that “Anyone who knows me will know that I would take issue quite strongly with (Ms Davidson’s) language.”

Why would Arkush condemn Davidson for highlighting what is recognized under International law; that Israel has and continues to build illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories?

UN Security Council, December 2016 – “Israel’s Settlements Have No Legal Validity, Constitute Flagrant Violation of International Law”

Arkush does not promote a neutral line when it comes to his political inclinations. He makes it explicit that he trusts May and the Tories and is suspicious of Corbyn’s Labour party, seemingly his only basis for this is which party supports Israel, criticizing it the least.

Omar Baggili, RT Journalist

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A search for ‘California Republican Party’ on Google as late as Thursday morning listed “Nazism” as one of the party’s political ideologies in the ‘knowledge panel’ box, which popped up in the query alongside “Conservatism,” “Market liberalism,” “Fiscal conservatism,” and “Green conservatism.” The reference to Nazi ideology, which was responsible for millions of deaths under the reign of Adolf Hitler, sparked outrage from the Republicans, who are gearing up to hold primary elections in California next week. 

While the reference, spotted by political strategist Eric Wilson and Vice News, was removed, Republicans lashed out against the “slander” of conservatives by the California-based company.

Google, however, brushed aside criticism, claiming that its algorithms are totally unbiased and rely on public information sources such as Wikipedia. The Mountain View company blamed the misunderstanding on “vandalism,” and stressed that it was not the result of any “manual” manipulation by Google staff.

“Sometimes people vandalize public information sources, like Wikipedia, which can impact the information that appears in search,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement. “We have systems in place that catch vandalism before it impacts search results, but occasionally errors get through, and that’s what happened here.”

READ MORE: Mystery figure targets anti-war pundits and politicians by prolifically editing Wikipedia

The revision history in Wikipedia for the California Republican Party indeed shows that the word ‘Nazism’ was added to the article last week and removed several days later. The word ‘authoritarianism’ also graced the page on Thursday.

The scandal trended under the #StopTheBias hashtag, a Republican-led initiative designed to stop alleged prejudice against the party by technology firms. Earlier this week, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) accused companies like Amazon, Facebook, and Twitter of trying to censor out conservative Christian voices. 

“This is a disgrace,” McCarthy tweeted Thursday. “Sadly, this is just the latest incident in a disturbing trend to slander conservatives. These damaging actions must be held to account.”

“Google owes conservatives answers and assurances that they are putting an end to this,” the chair of the Republican National Committee added. “Evidence is mounting that conservative voices are either being suppressed or, as it appears in this case, being falsely depicted as hateful extremists.”

“It is libelous and Wikipedia and Google should take more ownership of what is published on their sites, since both companies just said 5 million Californians support Nazism,” Cynthia Bryant, executive director of the California Republican Party, told Vice News. “It is unfortunate, but is unlikely to affect the election because anyone with common sense knows we don’t support Nazism.”

‘Trump’s only ideology is ‘me’, deeply authoritarian & very dangerous’ – Noam Chomsky

The eldest child of the 45th president, Donald Trump Jr, also spoke out against Google, calling it yet another “disgusting” example of bias against conservatives.

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The top tweet on BoJo’s twitter feed, a day after Babchenko reappeared like Lazarus, still says that he is “appalled” about the murder – that didn’t happen, and that “We must defend freedom of speech and it is vital that those responsible are now held to account.”

We’ll be waiting a long time for a follow up tweet in which Johnson says how appalled he is that he was misled by the intelligence service of an ally, although perhaps he’s now immune to embarrassment and won’t let it bother him. With Johnson in charge, I expect the rest of the Foreign Office would be in favor of some minor curbs on free speech.

The Foreign Office has recently been caught deleting tweets that made misleading claims about Russia over the Salisbury spy poisoning, so Johnson can’t be expected to delete the tweet insinuating Russian guilt for a fake murder, but couldn’t he at least express how glad he is to hear that the journalist, he was so moved to write about, is alive? Or at least just let the world know he’s seen the news?

At this point it’s not entirely clear what happened with the very much alive Babchenko, with much of the global media now a little hesitant about taking the Ukrainians on their word.

There are question marks over the veracity of the evidence that the Ukrainian intelligence services believe they have against Russia over an alleged plan to kill the Russian journalist, but current British government policy appears to be that there is no excuse to pass up the chance to have a good old dig at Russia, even when the facts change.

It would be unkind to suggest that Boris is not fully devoted to the safety of free speech and journalists in Ukraine, but it is probably fair to speculate that the description of Babchenko as a “murdered Putin critic” was what really got him scrabbling online. The revelation of an ‘alive Putin critic’ hasn’t so far been deemed tweetable by Boris.

Further analysis of Johnson’s twitter feed shows three of his last five tweets have been aimed at Russia, the other two were about saving elephants. The sixth and seventh tweets are about dementia and recycling, but the reader can insert their own joke there.

Setting yourself up as a ‘Putin critic’ is like a flare gun in a dark room for anyone wanting to attract the attention of Western politicians now. Just below Johnson’s tweet about Babchenko, we see that the Foreign Secretary had recently come off the phone with self-styled “Putin enemy number one” Bill Browder who had just been released from custody over in Spain after Moscow had requested his arrest on charges of fraud.

The Foreign Secretary was on the phone to Browder so fast, any Brit who finds themselves in a sticky situation abroad and in need of Foreign Office assistance would be well advised to put ‘Putin critic’ down as their occupation on the arrest forms.

When Russia is a target, a country like Ukraine, which will see some advantage to undermining Moscow, can play on the fault lines being caused by what the Kremlin claims is a concerted campaign against it. In other words you can pretend to kill someone who has the reputation of being a Putin critic, and be safe in the knowledge that not even senior international figures will ask any hard questions about what actually happened.

The Babchenko incident shows that the British government remains quick to accuse Russia where it is expedient, but has so far not found a way to dial back the criticism when the facts come in.

By Simon Rite, RT

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“Any interested party in Syria should understand that attacking US forces or our coalition partners will be a bad policy,” Director of Joint Staff Lieutenant General Kenneth McKenzie said at the Pentagon press briefing on Thursday.

Over 2,000 US troops in Syria are embedded with the SDF in the northeast as well as in the enclave of At-Tanf in the south, along the Jordanian border. McKenzie said the US troops and their local militia allies were staying in Tanf, quashing rumors of their impending withdrawal.

“We are there. Nothing has changed,” he said. “The maintenance of that deconfliction zone is important and we would view very gravely any actions that tended to change that.”

Unlike the Russian military mission, which was invited by the Syrian government in 2015, the US presence in Syria is not sanctioned under international law. Both the Obama and the Trump administrations have argued that the US-led coalition against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in Iraq and Syria is legal under the congressional authorizations to use military force against Al-Qaeda dating back to 2001.

However, the US at one point ended up effectively allied with Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra (Al-Nusra Front), President Assad told RT. After it became clear that Nusra was an Al-Qaeda offshoot rather than “moderate rebels,” the US established the SDF, Assad said.

After each Syrian military victory or successful reconciliation effort, the US and its partners attempted to counteract these gains by “supporting more terrorism, bringing more terrorists to Syria, or by hindering the political process,” Assad said, blaming the US for prolonging the seven-year war.

Damascus is willing to negotiate with the SDF, as it regards the Kurdish-led militias as fellow Syrians who love their country. “We all don’t trust the Americans, [so] the one option is to live with each other as Syrians,” Assad said.

Every attempt would be made to negotiate with the SDF, he told RT, but if negotiations fail, “the Syrian army will be forced to liberate areas occupied by the SDF, with the Americans or without the Americans.”

While US President Donald Trump has floated the idea of withdrawing American troops from Syria, multiple officials from the Pentagon and the State Department have said the US troops are going nowhere, and that territories liberated from IS by SDF will not be returned to the Syrian government unless Assad leaves power.

The Syrian president, however, believes he will outlast the Americans.

“This is our land, it’s our right, it’s our duty to liberate [these areas], and the Americans should leave,” Assad told RT. “Somehow, they’re going to leave. They came to Iraq with no legal basis. And look what happened to them. They have to learn their lesson.”

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While fatwas are usually reserved for blasphemers, Salman Rushdie, and the occasional Larry David plot line, the very existence of university drinking clubs are under threat as emerging stories allege charges of sexual harassment, classism, racism, and general uncouthness, from their members while on the sauce.

Anonymous posts made by the group Grudgebridge, document tales of members sexually harassing “attractive fresher girls” after confiscating their keys and phones; a male member of a society saying female students would “be going home in wheelchairs” after an event; and a drinking society member trying to ban someone from entering a bar because they went to a state school, The Guardian reports.

Grudgebridge started in early May with a video taken by its founding administrator at a soiree held by the Trinity Hall Crescent in a local boozer, where a sodden student made a damning speech which called inclusivity the “single biggest problem facing the [society] in the modern age”.

The administrator, who no longer runs the page, then vowed to start a campaign to take down the college drinking clubs calling them “networking grounds for public school boys where they can sleazily lubricate their ways into six figure salaries as soon as they leave uni.”

Meanwhile, the student who made the remarks is now being investigated by Trinity Hall. It is thought he was not a member of the Crescents – the society which was disbanded due to the incident.

Since the allegations surfaced, Cambridge University Student Union (CUSU), in conjunction with student sexual harassment campaign group, Cambridge for Consent, is to draw up a code of conduct for drinking societies and should be in place by the end of term.

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Daisy Eyre, CUSU student president, called the drinking clubs “incredibly problematic and disruptive,” adding that the governing body of the union was expected to vote on whether to disband the societies entirely.

Now administered by two female students, Grudgebridge said the page compliments the university’s Breaking the Silence campaign, which allows students to anonymously report instances of sexual misconduct, since drinking clubs had only responded to the Breaking the Silence now, “when they’re at risk – when they’ve been exposed.”

READ MORE: Higher education: The new global economic war

But not all are happy at the attempts to shut up shop on the bad behavior. Andreas Bedorf, who sits on the CUSU council as the president of Downing College’s graduate students, told the Guardian that the Grudgebridge campaign “reminds me of a witch hunt or inquisition”.

Another senior student representative said the Facebook campaign was akin to an “online fatwa,” with a number of fake stories reportedly already being removed from the page.

University authorities, meanwhile, said colleges were in liaison with student bodies to discuss the best way to tackle unofficial drinking clubs and to see if the allegations of bad behavior fall under university disciplinary procedures.

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Tariffs on US goods will vary between 10 and 25 percent, matching the tariffs imposed on Canadian imports by Washington just hours earlier, Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland announced on Thursday.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called the US levies “totally unacceptable” and an “affront” to Canada, warning that a trade war would harm the economies of both countries.

“We have to believe that, at some point, common sense will prevail. But we see no sign of that in the US action today,” he said, describing the tariffs as “a turning point in the Canada-US relationship.”

Canada is the top supplier of steel to the US, accounting for 17 percent of all imports. The US accounts for 90 percent of Canada’s steel exports, however.

On Thursday, the Trump administration announced it would not extend the waiver of tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, Mexico, and the European Union.

Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, said that the tariffs were a “bad day for world trade,” and vowed to introduce countermeasures.

“This decision is not only unlawful but it is a mistake in many respects,” French President Emmanuel Macron said. “Economic nationalism leads to war.”

“We look forward to continued negotiations, both with Canada and Mexico on the one hand, and with the European Commission on the other hand, because there are other issues that we also need to get resolved,” US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said.

He added that no reprisals over the measure will have an impact on the American economy. The affected countries “will get over this in due course,” Ross said.

US stocks shuddered at the news, however, with the The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipping over one percent, S&P 500 dropping 0.54 percent, and the Nasdaq going down 0.16 percent.

Fears of a trade war between the US and its allies were bolstered by the talk that US President Donald Trump is also seeking to levy imports of German cars; the tariffs would be similar to those on steel and aluminum.

Trump maintains that the US has been unfairly treated in trade with its neighboring and oversees partners. According to anonymous sources quoted in a German magazine Wirtschafts Woche, he told French president Emmanuel Macron that he would stick by his hardline trade policy “until no Mercedes models rolled on Fifth Avenue in New York.”

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Of course, the increase in the flying ant population is apparently because of… Russia. Thanks to the Beast from the East wild weather patterns in recent months, many of the bugs remained dormant during the cold snap. As a result, the bugs are now out in droves… much to the delight of Britain’s seagulls.

Experts say the nation’s ant population is normally 150 billion, but this has risen to 200 billion – and pest control bosses are reporting a record numbers of call outs as the bugs descend on Britain – a 148% increase in the last two months.

Rentokil Pest Control training academy head David Cross said: “Last month we saw reported ant infestations rise to levels we wouldn’t usually expect until June or July. It’s rare to see ant infestations in cold or overcast weather, and while the ‘Beast from the East’ may have caused them to remain dormant in March, the sudden change in temperature has since brought them out in their droves.

“This trend could be set to continue throughout the rest of the summer. We also expect this to really be a bumper year for flying ants, which could manifest itself at ‘Flying Ant Day’, the time of the year when male and female ants will sprout wings and venture out of their nests, seeking ants from other colonies to mate with.”

Bad news for those grossed out – or even just mildly annoyed – by bugs but the flying ant influx will mean happy days for the seagull population.

RSPB gull expert Tony Whitehead said the ants leave the gulls distracted and excitable and they forget to look where they are going. “The gulls are mad for them,” he said. “There has been a massive emergence of the ants over the last three days and they are like little treats for the gulls.

“They are like M&Ms to them. They go to wherever they are. They either pick them off the ground, or sometimes you see big flocks randomly flying everywhere through the skies to pick them out.”

In 2013, Dr Rebecca Nesbit from the Society of Biology echoed Whitehead’s sentiments, explaining why the bugs have such an adverse effect on the birds. She told the Telegraph that “some of the slightly odd behavior we are seeing could be as a result of these ants – it could leave the gulls slightly drunk.”

“It’s possible because we know that some ants produce formic acid, and it could be having an effect. The gulls can also get very excited and loud when they eat the ants, so that could be a contributing factor.”

In the past, a spike in nuisance behavior from the seagulls has been reported due to them getting ‘high’ off the formic acid created by the large number of insects that they gorge on. Apparently, the birds can lose their inhibitions which can lead them to raiding bins, stealing food from people’s hands, or getting so wasted that they fly into cars or buildings.

Whitehead, however, scoffed at the suggestion that the birds are more likely to get into mischief while high on the bugs. “It was said at one point that they made them drunk, but actually I think they just make them very happy,” he said. “I think rather than drunk, I think they are distracted and happy and focusing on eating ants rather than looking out for cars for example.”

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Storm Alberto – the first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season – brought several mudslides to the region following heavy rainfall. The Lake Tahoma dam is now in “imminent danger” of failure, according to authorities who are warning residents in McDowell County to immediately move to higher ground.

The National Weather Service declared a flash flood emergency and is reiterating that this is “a life threatening situation.” The weather agency is also warning that there is an increased risk of further mudslides.

McDowell County Emergency Management is asking people to be patient as it assesses the danger. State inspectors will evaluate the risk during daylight hours. Until then all residents living below Lake Tahoma are urged to evacuate.

Shelters have been set up in local churches and a YMCA. An interstate highway was closed for a time Tuesday and schools will not open Wednesday.

READ MORE:Cubans cheat death as bridge over floodwaters crumbles into raging rapids below (VIDEOS) 

Storm Alberto has killed at least four people in Cuba and two in Florida as it brought heavy rains, winds and floodwater over the Caribbean and eastern US.

It might not have been the prime time news. It might not have been Newsnight or even Question Time. So when the esteemed Secretary for Defence Gavin Williamson beamed in via satellite from a safari park in Worcester to talk to Good Morning Britain, he may be forgiven for expecting a softer round of questioning.

Hoping to keep the interview as light and breezy – as much as one possibly can when heading a department that controls nuclear weapons, Williamson was there to talk about the deployment of British troops, not to Afghanistan where US President Trump wants them, but to Malawi to help protect wild elephants from poachers.

Madeley, filling in this week for the one-man headline generator Piers Morgan, had other ideas.

After repeatedly failing to answer questions about whether he regretted telling Russia to “shut up and go away” earlier this year, a visibly frustrated Madeley called the interview off, leaving a bemused Williamson with only the elephants, lingering curiously behind him, for company.

For a broadcaster with a 30-year television career, who is more known for his Ali G impressions, a wildly successful broadcasted book club, and awkward flirting with his wife and frequent co-host Judy Finnigan, viewers may not have been expecting such a tough line of questioning over their morning coffee.

“What are these politicians like?” Madeley then asked his co-host Charlotte Hawkins after a pained sip from his coffee mug.

In the aftermath of the banishment, Madeley took to the Opinion pages of The Guardian to decry the “utterly shameless, droning obfuscation” of Williamson, and “how well drilled today’s politicians have become at evasion, obfuscation and manipulation during interviews.”

Due to the overwhelmingly positive reception he received, he called the outburst the “most popular thing I’ve ever done on TV,” and revealed his plans for future interviews with politicians.

“I’ve got a new rule when conducting interviews with politicians who won’t answer the question. Three strikes, and you’re out.”

“If all of us interviewers adopt that principle, the quality of political debate on television will immediately and dramatically improve.”

He’s Madeley as hell, and he’s not going to take this anymore!

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Duplantis implored his congregation to help fund private jet number four because, if Jesus was alive today, he “wouldn’t be riding a donkey.”

According to Duplantis, whose wealth is valued at least $40 million, he hesitated about the purchase, until he remembered a tip God gave him back in 1978, “I didn’t ask you to pay for it. I asked you to believe for it.” Duplantis took the divine message to mean ‘ask your flock to fork out for it.’

The evangelical preacher explained the need for a fourth private jet on his ‘This week with Jesse’ show, in which he stood next to framed pictures of his fleet of jets before pointing out that the aircraft he bought 12 years ago required refuelling, meaning he had to pay “exorbitant” refuelling costs.

The answer, according to Duplantis, is to get his followers to instead cover the exorbitant cost of purchasing a jet – specifically, a Dassault Falcon 7X, which costs about $54 million.

“Now, some people believe that preachers shouldn’t have jets,” Duplantis explained in a video on his website. “I really believe that preachers ought to go on every available voice, every available outlet, to get this Gospel preached to the world.” Clearly that doesn’t extend to flying economy to spread the Lord’s word.

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While the televangelist may claim divine inspiration was behind the jet idea, it appears more likely he may have coveted his neighbor’s possession, as fellow televangelist Kenneth Copeland bought himself a Gulfstream V jet in January.

The pair previously defended their need to fly privately, claiming commercial planes are simply filled with “a bunch of demons,” that will inconvenience them with prayer requests.

Duplantis won’t personally own the plane, he explained. It will be owned by Jesse Duplantis Ministries and when he dies, his successor will use it. While televangelists basking in great wealth gifted by loyal followers is nothing new, Duplantis’ request has invited particular disgust and mockery online.

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