Saturday, May 5, 2018
Scientist claims life after death is impossible - Independent
May 5, 2018
Scientist claims life after death is impossible
Posted by Mimi Launder in offbeat
UPVOTE
Science may have bestowed us with gifts of medicines, air travel and the internet - but it is also the bearer of bad news.
One scientist thinks we should accept that there is no afterlife and move on with our lives on this earthly plane.
Sean Carroll, a cosmologist and physics professor at the California Institute of Technology, said according to the Express:
The laws of physics underlying every day life are completely understood.
Dr Carroll explained that for there to be an afterlife, consciousness would need to be entirely separated from our physical body.
But instead of an ever-lasting soul, consciousness appears to essentially composed of a series of atoms and electrons.
Dr Carroll added:
Claims that some form of consciousness persists after our bodies die and decay into their constituent atoms face one huge, insuperable obstacle.
The laws of physics underlying everyday life are completely understood.
And there's no way within those laws to allow for the information stored in our brains to persist after we die.
It is not like scientists haven't tested for an afterlife either.
Dr Carroll points to The Quantum Field Theory (QFT).
Simply put, QFT dictates that there is one field in the universe for each type of particle - one for all the photons, another for electrons, and every other type of particle.
If there was some sort of afterlife, quantum tests would reveal 'spirit particles' and 'spirit forces'. Spoiler: they have not.
HT Express
More: Alternative studies do think there may be activity in the brain after death
Trump booked himself for his first TV interview in months - CBS News
May 4, 2018, 6:25 PM
Trump booked himself for his first TV interview in months
Last week, on his wife's birthday, President Donald Trump appeared on Fox News' "Fox and Friends" for a freewheeling phone interview -- his first TV interview in months -- where he made news on a variety of topics. Two sources told CBS News that it was the president himself, who currently has no communications director, who booked his own appearance on the morning show.
A White House official confirmed that "Fox and Friends" co-host Steve Doocy invited the president to appear on his show over the phone and Mr. Trump accepted. Mr. Trump then directed the press office to coordinate the logistics of the interview.
"Well, good morning, and I picked a very, very special day, because it's Melania's birthday, so I said let's do it on Melania's birthday. So, happy birthday to Melania," Mr. Trump said after co-host Ainsley Earhardt greeted him.
During the interview, Mr. Trump defended Dr. Ronny Jackson, praised Kanye West, and claimed that his personal lawyer Michael Cohen only handles a "tiny, tiny little fraction" of his legal work but did handle "this crazy Stormy Daniels deal."
"He represents me — like with this crazy Stormy Daniels deal he represented me," Mr. Trump said. "And, you know, from what I see he did absolutely nothing wrong. There were no campaign funds going into this."
Mr. Trump has been known to call his friends and allies who appear on Fox News – sometimes even in the middle of their appearance – to offer his opinion and/or praise. But it is unusual for a president to be booking himself for a cable news appearance.
On Wednesday night, Mr. Trump's outside counsel, Rudy Giuliani, also appeared on Fox News to drop the bombshell news that Mr. Trump had reimbursed his personal attorney Michael Cohen for the $130,000 payment he made to porn star Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 election. White House sources told CBS News that they were stunned by the interview.
On Friday, Giuliani released a statement "to clarify" what he said in the interview.
"First: There is no campaign violation. The payment was made to resolve a personal and false allegation in order to protect the President's family. It would have been done in any event, whether he was a candidate or not. Second: My references to timing were not describing my understanding of the President's knowledge, but instead, my understanding of these matters," the statement read.
Trump booked himself for his first TV interview in months
Last week, on his wife's birthday, President Donald Trump appeared on Fox News' "Fox and Friends" for a freewheeling phone interview -- his first TV interview in months -- where he made news on a variety of topics. Two sources told CBS News that it was the president himself, who currently has no communications director, who booked his own appearance on the morning show.
A White House official confirmed that "Fox and Friends" co-host Steve Doocy invited the president to appear on his show over the phone and Mr. Trump accepted. Mr. Trump then directed the press office to coordinate the logistics of the interview.
"Well, good morning, and I picked a very, very special day, because it's Melania's birthday, so I said let's do it on Melania's birthday. So, happy birthday to Melania," Mr. Trump said after co-host Ainsley Earhardt greeted him.
During the interview, Mr. Trump defended Dr. Ronny Jackson, praised Kanye West, and claimed that his personal lawyer Michael Cohen only handles a "tiny, tiny little fraction" of his legal work but did handle "this crazy Stormy Daniels deal."
"He represents me — like with this crazy Stormy Daniels deal he represented me," Mr. Trump said. "And, you know, from what I see he did absolutely nothing wrong. There were no campaign funds going into this."
Mr. Trump has been known to call his friends and allies who appear on Fox News – sometimes even in the middle of their appearance – to offer his opinion and/or praise. But it is unusual for a president to be booking himself for a cable news appearance.
On Wednesday night, Mr. Trump's outside counsel, Rudy Giuliani, also appeared on Fox News to drop the bombshell news that Mr. Trump had reimbursed his personal attorney Michael Cohen for the $130,000 payment he made to porn star Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 election. White House sources told CBS News that they were stunned by the interview.
On Friday, Giuliani released a statement "to clarify" what he said in the interview.
"First: There is no campaign violation. The payment was made to resolve a personal and false allegation in order to protect the President's family. It would have been done in any event, whether he was a candidate or not. Second: My references to timing were not describing my understanding of the President's knowledge, but instead, my understanding of these matters," the statement read.
Stitch Fix CEO Katrina Lake on Why Gender Matters In the Business World - TIME Business
Stitch Fix CEO Katrina Lake on Why Gender Matters In the Business World
Posted: 03 May 2018 11:03 AM PDT
Katrina Lake is racking up the superlatives. In November, the Stitch Fix CEO became the youngest woman to ever take a company to an initial public offering. More recently, she was surprised to learn that her business’ board won an award for being more diverse than other public companies. But she has goals for bigger disruption.
In a quest to change the way people shop, her company sent more than 2.5 million people personalized boxes of clothing in the past year — what her company calls “fixes” — using a combination of data analysis and human curation. TIME sat down with Lake to talk about why her gender matters, how shopping needs to be reimagined and when it’s actually worth giving personal data to a tech company in order to get something in return.
The following excerpts have been edited for brevity and clarity.
If you had to choose, would you say you view Stitch Fix as more of a clothing company or a tech company?
What makes this company special is undoubtedly technology. That being said, I just don’t believe in the tech tag. At the end of the day, I think Uber is a transportation company. I think Airbnb is a hospitality company. I think Facebook is a marketing company. And we are a retail company.
When items are chosen for a shipment, how much of that work is being done by human stylists and how much by algorithms?
It’s a hard question to answer. We’ve never sent a fix where a human didn’t choose it. And philosophically it’s part of our business. The human touch is super important. [Still] I do think a lot is the algorithms. [They suggest items to stylists based on data analysis] where you’re saying price matters this much, fit matters this much, what she bought before matters this much. The interesting thing is the weights are different depending on the person. There might be someone for whom price or age is much more sensitive than somebody else. Depending on your input and how we get to know you over time – fix by fix – the weights also change. … If this was all randomized and the stylist was just going through our inventory with an e-commerce shopping cart, it would be really hard to do this well.
Is Stitch Fix a replacement for department stores or something complementary?
Right now it’s definitely both. When I think about shopping, we try to capture the best parts of it. The things you love about shopping are not the driving to the mall and parking and going through racks and racks and racks of stuff. The part you like is you get to try some things on and figure out what you like and what you don’t like. This is still a shopping channel. You’re still going through things and deciding ‘This is me, this isn’t me.’ It’s just done in a much more curated, effective way.
Is the death of brick-and-mortar retail on the horizon?
There’s definitely a role for it. The experiential element of it is really important, but the transaction is just so much more effective and convenient online. So I think we’ll see fewer stores, but I don’t think it’s totally going to die.
86% of your employees are women. What do see as the significance of that number?
A lot of that, candidly, is the stylists. We have 3,000 stylists who mostly work from home. The vast majority of them are women … Our technology teams are majority male but the percentage of women is still much higher than what you would see in technology teams across the landscape. And our management team and our board are more than half women. In some ways I don’t know how deliberate all of that was. I didn’t set out saying I was going to employ mostly women.
Even if you didn’t set out to do it, are there things you’ve done at the company that have helped you attract and retain women?
The fact that we have such a strong presence of women across the leadership ranks – this is a little bit chicken and egg – but that actually helps us to attract more women here. And when I started this company, I was really cognizant: I work for Stitch Fix. If I were a manager or an associate, what are the things that I would care about? The fact that I took my whole 16-week maternity leave. If you’re 30 years old and you just got married, working some place where you feel like you’re going to be supported at that really exciting time in your life is really important.
What do you see as the end goal with diversity and inclusion? Should tech companies have workforces that are proportional to the U.S. population?
To me the goal is just equal opportunity and equal possibility. I want this to be a place where people can succeed because of the differences that they bring rather than despite of them.
How much does it matter that you are the CEO and also a woman?
The biggest thing that we could do is to be an example of a company that is founded by a woman, that is in a women’s industry and goes public. Because if nothing else it wakes up the capitalists and venture capitalists … Even if they are not going to get excited about fashion, if they feel like they missed out on that one, that creates a natural and capitalist reason for people to pay more attention.
People often mention you being the youngest woman to ever take a company public. What does that mean to you?
First I hope it’s a title I don’t hold that long. I have mixed feelings. In years past I feel like I’ve been very resistant to being labeled as a female CEO. I just wanted to be a successful CEO. It has nothing to do with my gender. And now I think it’s actually really important that I’m a female CEO and I have more pride around that. When I was writing my business school applications, I wrote all about Meg Whitman and how I wanted to be just like her someday, because to me, at the time, she was one of very few examples of women who were running tech companies. It’s so important to be able to show more examples. That has a huge impact as you think about the pipeline of people – girls and boys – who are thinking about what they want to be when they grow up.
What do you think about asking women business leaders about family life, when men often aren’t asked? Does that happen to you?
I have mixed feelings about it. I get asked the question a lot, not just in interviews but by women all the time because women genuinely want advice. How do you balance it? It’s hard, and I think people want to hear validation that it’s hard. Everybody should also be asking men.
What do you think tech and Silicon Valley have learned after #MeToo and Uber’s troubles? Have things changed?
I’m really hopeful. I don’t think things have changed yet, exactly. In Silicon Valley we’ve all felt this deep commitment and passion around transforming the future and largely people were thinking about doing that through products and technology. But the part that has been overlooked has been also changing the future of work and culture, where our children are going to work and what those places are going to be like and the obligation that we have to broader society. That’s a new conversation.
What about #MeToo in particular?
So much of this had been building up for decades and this past year has obviously been – not quite a sea change – but this moment of revelation. People need to have access to a safe work environment where they aren’t subject to harassment. My hope is that’s not the battle we’re fighting in the future. The next step is making sure that people are actually allowed equal opportunity within companies, thinking about gender equity and pay, fighting bias and things that are hidden. And that’s going to be a bigger, harder problem to solve but I’m really grateful for all the brave people who have come forward.
It can be hard thing to call out bias. It can often seem that you start taking risks with your career by speaking out. What advice would you give to women about how to make that calculation?
It’s a really hard answer. If you think about the calculation of ‘Do you say something or not?’ at a time when you are reliant on a venture population which is 94% male in order to keep your company alive and your employees paid, it’s a really impossible choice to make.
How do we make sure that things are actually different when we’re looking back at this moment 15 years from now?
There are a couple things. Having more women on management teams, having more women in venture. I think there were a lot of decisions made in the past where if a woman had just been in the room there would have been a different decision made … Some of the momentum has already changed. Corporate boards are paying attention to this. It’s a significant risk. Whereas 10 years ago, it might have been like ‘Oh, hush hush, wink wink, that guy’s kind of a creep who’s the CEO,’ today that guy’s gone.
Tech has also come under a lot of scrutiny for data collection and privacy practices, particularly Facebook. Stitch Fix depends on data in matching people with clothes. What’s your take on these tradeoffs we’re making, giving up data about ourselves for relevant stuff?
Our business model is very transparent. If you share with us that the dress is too big or too small, that’s super helpful, because next time we’re going to get you a dress that is going to fit you better. Even people on our board will ask what the income or race of our clients is. Those aren’t things that we actually ask for because we don’t think that actually helps the stylists. Our bar is that we know it’s a lot to ask people to spend time to share things with us, and we only ask for things that we can transparently show you will make your experience better.
I think there’s a disconnect with some of these other business models, where ultimately their business model is actually marketing. So they’re harvesting your data in order to help brands market. We benefit from that too – we advertise on Facebook, it’s really effective – but … there are a lot of companies that haven’t been really transparent around what data they’re collecting, what they’re doing with it, why it’s important. And it’s unfortunate, because there are opportunities where being able to share things is actually going to help people in their experiences. And I have a little bit of fear that there’s been a degradation of trust.
Are we sharing too much in general with companies at this point?
I’m not against the sharing of information. You’ll share your address with Uber or Lyft. It’s really hard to say we shouldn’t be sharing anything. The change that would feel better is if you really knew how people were using the data, if you really understood what data people had about you. Today there’s not a lot of transparency.
So with your company, people are letting data be collected about themselves for a more straightforward reason.
Also, a lot of it is optional. But 85% of people are sharing with us [feedback like] this is too big or this is too small. This is too expensive. That’s totally voluntary. And it’s also really important because if don’t share with us that everything in your fix was too expensive, the next time you’ll probably get things that are too expensive again. So there’s this really nice alignment. The business model is such that the better we are at serving you, the better our business is.
Stitch Fix has also created several in-house brands. Would you ever let people buy those clothes directly?
At the end of the day, I can’t imagine we’d ever be a straight e-commerce site. A lot of what people value in the service is not having to cull through millions of things to figure out what things are right for you. What we do right now is crazy. I just don’t believe that could possibly be the future.
Posted: 03 May 2018 11:03 AM PDT
Katrina Lake is racking up the superlatives. In November, the Stitch Fix CEO became the youngest woman to ever take a company to an initial public offering. More recently, she was surprised to learn that her business’ board won an award for being more diverse than other public companies. But she has goals for bigger disruption.
In a quest to change the way people shop, her company sent more than 2.5 million people personalized boxes of clothing in the past year — what her company calls “fixes” — using a combination of data analysis and human curation. TIME sat down with Lake to talk about why her gender matters, how shopping needs to be reimagined and when it’s actually worth giving personal data to a tech company in order to get something in return.
The following excerpts have been edited for brevity and clarity.
If you had to choose, would you say you view Stitch Fix as more of a clothing company or a tech company?
What makes this company special is undoubtedly technology. That being said, I just don’t believe in the tech tag. At the end of the day, I think Uber is a transportation company. I think Airbnb is a hospitality company. I think Facebook is a marketing company. And we are a retail company.
When items are chosen for a shipment, how much of that work is being done by human stylists and how much by algorithms?
It’s a hard question to answer. We’ve never sent a fix where a human didn’t choose it. And philosophically it’s part of our business. The human touch is super important. [Still] I do think a lot is the algorithms. [They suggest items to stylists based on data analysis] where you’re saying price matters this much, fit matters this much, what she bought before matters this much. The interesting thing is the weights are different depending on the person. There might be someone for whom price or age is much more sensitive than somebody else. Depending on your input and how we get to know you over time – fix by fix – the weights also change. … If this was all randomized and the stylist was just going through our inventory with an e-commerce shopping cart, it would be really hard to do this well.
Is Stitch Fix a replacement for department stores or something complementary?
Right now it’s definitely both. When I think about shopping, we try to capture the best parts of it. The things you love about shopping are not the driving to the mall and parking and going through racks and racks and racks of stuff. The part you like is you get to try some things on and figure out what you like and what you don’t like. This is still a shopping channel. You’re still going through things and deciding ‘This is me, this isn’t me.’ It’s just done in a much more curated, effective way.
Is the death of brick-and-mortar retail on the horizon?
There’s definitely a role for it. The experiential element of it is really important, but the transaction is just so much more effective and convenient online. So I think we’ll see fewer stores, but I don’t think it’s totally going to die.
86% of your employees are women. What do see as the significance of that number?
A lot of that, candidly, is the stylists. We have 3,000 stylists who mostly work from home. The vast majority of them are women … Our technology teams are majority male but the percentage of women is still much higher than what you would see in technology teams across the landscape. And our management team and our board are more than half women. In some ways I don’t know how deliberate all of that was. I didn’t set out saying I was going to employ mostly women.
Even if you didn’t set out to do it, are there things you’ve done at the company that have helped you attract and retain women?
The fact that we have such a strong presence of women across the leadership ranks – this is a little bit chicken and egg – but that actually helps us to attract more women here. And when I started this company, I was really cognizant: I work for Stitch Fix. If I were a manager or an associate, what are the things that I would care about? The fact that I took my whole 16-week maternity leave. If you’re 30 years old and you just got married, working some place where you feel like you’re going to be supported at that really exciting time in your life is really important.
What do you see as the end goal with diversity and inclusion? Should tech companies have workforces that are proportional to the U.S. population?
To me the goal is just equal opportunity and equal possibility. I want this to be a place where people can succeed because of the differences that they bring rather than despite of them.
How much does it matter that you are the CEO and also a woman?
The biggest thing that we could do is to be an example of a company that is founded by a woman, that is in a women’s industry and goes public. Because if nothing else it wakes up the capitalists and venture capitalists … Even if they are not going to get excited about fashion, if they feel like they missed out on that one, that creates a natural and capitalist reason for people to pay more attention.
People often mention you being the youngest woman to ever take a company public. What does that mean to you?
First I hope it’s a title I don’t hold that long. I have mixed feelings. In years past I feel like I’ve been very resistant to being labeled as a female CEO. I just wanted to be a successful CEO. It has nothing to do with my gender. And now I think it’s actually really important that I’m a female CEO and I have more pride around that. When I was writing my business school applications, I wrote all about Meg Whitman and how I wanted to be just like her someday, because to me, at the time, she was one of very few examples of women who were running tech companies. It’s so important to be able to show more examples. That has a huge impact as you think about the pipeline of people – girls and boys – who are thinking about what they want to be when they grow up.
What do you think about asking women business leaders about family life, when men often aren’t asked? Does that happen to you?
I have mixed feelings about it. I get asked the question a lot, not just in interviews but by women all the time because women genuinely want advice. How do you balance it? It’s hard, and I think people want to hear validation that it’s hard. Everybody should also be asking men.
What do you think tech and Silicon Valley have learned after #MeToo and Uber’s troubles? Have things changed?
I’m really hopeful. I don’t think things have changed yet, exactly. In Silicon Valley we’ve all felt this deep commitment and passion around transforming the future and largely people were thinking about doing that through products and technology. But the part that has been overlooked has been also changing the future of work and culture, where our children are going to work and what those places are going to be like and the obligation that we have to broader society. That’s a new conversation.
What about #MeToo in particular?
So much of this had been building up for decades and this past year has obviously been – not quite a sea change – but this moment of revelation. People need to have access to a safe work environment where they aren’t subject to harassment. My hope is that’s not the battle we’re fighting in the future. The next step is making sure that people are actually allowed equal opportunity within companies, thinking about gender equity and pay, fighting bias and things that are hidden. And that’s going to be a bigger, harder problem to solve but I’m really grateful for all the brave people who have come forward.
It can be hard thing to call out bias. It can often seem that you start taking risks with your career by speaking out. What advice would you give to women about how to make that calculation?
It’s a really hard answer. If you think about the calculation of ‘Do you say something or not?’ at a time when you are reliant on a venture population which is 94% male in order to keep your company alive and your employees paid, it’s a really impossible choice to make.
How do we make sure that things are actually different when we’re looking back at this moment 15 years from now?
There are a couple things. Having more women on management teams, having more women in venture. I think there were a lot of decisions made in the past where if a woman had just been in the room there would have been a different decision made … Some of the momentum has already changed. Corporate boards are paying attention to this. It’s a significant risk. Whereas 10 years ago, it might have been like ‘Oh, hush hush, wink wink, that guy’s kind of a creep who’s the CEO,’ today that guy’s gone.
Tech has also come under a lot of scrutiny for data collection and privacy practices, particularly Facebook. Stitch Fix depends on data in matching people with clothes. What’s your take on these tradeoffs we’re making, giving up data about ourselves for relevant stuff?
Our business model is very transparent. If you share with us that the dress is too big or too small, that’s super helpful, because next time we’re going to get you a dress that is going to fit you better. Even people on our board will ask what the income or race of our clients is. Those aren’t things that we actually ask for because we don’t think that actually helps the stylists. Our bar is that we know it’s a lot to ask people to spend time to share things with us, and we only ask for things that we can transparently show you will make your experience better.
I think there’s a disconnect with some of these other business models, where ultimately their business model is actually marketing. So they’re harvesting your data in order to help brands market. We benefit from that too – we advertise on Facebook, it’s really effective – but … there are a lot of companies that haven’t been really transparent around what data they’re collecting, what they’re doing with it, why it’s important. And it’s unfortunate, because there are opportunities where being able to share things is actually going to help people in their experiences. And I have a little bit of fear that there’s been a degradation of trust.
Are we sharing too much in general with companies at this point?
I’m not against the sharing of information. You’ll share your address with Uber or Lyft. It’s really hard to say we shouldn’t be sharing anything. The change that would feel better is if you really knew how people were using the data, if you really understood what data people had about you. Today there’s not a lot of transparency.
So with your company, people are letting data be collected about themselves for a more straightforward reason.
Also, a lot of it is optional. But 85% of people are sharing with us [feedback like] this is too big or this is too small. This is too expensive. That’s totally voluntary. And it’s also really important because if don’t share with us that everything in your fix was too expensive, the next time you’ll probably get things that are too expensive again. So there’s this really nice alignment. The business model is such that the better we are at serving you, the better our business is.
Stitch Fix has also created several in-house brands. Would you ever let people buy those clothes directly?
At the end of the day, I can’t imagine we’d ever be a straight e-commerce site. A lot of what people value in the service is not having to cull through millions of things to figure out what things are right for you. What we do right now is crazy. I just don’t believe that could possibly be the future.
Syrian man, Hassan al Kontar, is stranded at Malaysian airport for nearly 60 days - NBC News
Syrian man, Hassan al Kontar, is stranded at Malaysian airport for nearly 60 days
As he grapples with his own ordeal, he says Syrians are paying the price for a war they have "nothing to do with."
by Yuliya Talmazan / May.05.2018 / 7:23 PM ET
LONDON — Stranded in a foreign airport for nearly 60 days, trying not to lose hope of ever getting out.
That’s the reality for Hassan al Kontar, 36, a Syrian who has been stuck at the Kuala Lumpur international airport since March 7.
Before a civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, al Kontar was living what would be considered a normal life. A native of Sweida, a city about 60 miles south of the Syrian capital, Damascus, al Kontar worked as an insurance marketing manager in the United Arab Emirates.
Then, with hostilities escalating, he was summoned for military service in his home country. After refusing to return and join the military, he says the Syrian embassy in the UAE declined to renew his passport in 2012. That meant his work permit couldn’t be renewed either, so al Kontar lost his job and went into hiding in the UAE for the next six years.
“I am really tired," he said. "I keep shouting that I am not a bad guy, I am not a coward — I can fight, but it’s not my fight. It’s someone else’s fight in my land."
Al Kontar says he realizes there are Syrians in far worse situations, but his predicament has been mentally exhausting.
He was apprehended by UAE authorities last year and says he struggled to avoid deportation back to Syria. Al Kontar, who was able to renew his passport last year, was eventually sent to Malaysia — one of the few countries to accept Syrian citizens without a visa for up to 90 days.
After his attempts to obtain a permanent visa there failed, he decided to go to Ecuador, another country that accepts Syrians without a visa. But he says his flight was canceled at the last minute by Turkish Airlines. He tried going to Cambodia, but was sent back to the airport in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's capital, in early March, and has been stranded there since.
Image: Hassan Al Kontar has been stuck at an airport in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for 53 days. Hassan Al Kontar has been stuck at an airport in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for 53 days. Hassan Al Kontar
Al Kontar's time at the airport has been challenging. He has access to two bathrooms and a waiting area in the transit section of the airport. AirAsia, the airline that took him back to Malaysia, provides him with three airline meals a day.
During the first few days at the airport, he slept on the chairs in the waiting area, but has now moved to sleep on the floor under a stairwell.
For weeks he has confronted basic logistical dilemmas such as where to take a shower, how to clean his clothes and where to dry them — documenting his daily life on his Twitter account.
Nearly two months into his ordeal, his struggles continue. “The daily routine is the same, nothing has changed,” al Kontar said.
Image: The area of the airport accessible to Hassan Al Kontar at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.The area of the airport accessible to Hassan Al Kontar at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.Hassan Al Kontar
He says he tries to stay positive, because "otherwise, it’s better to die" — as he spoke with NBC News, the frustration in his voice was punctuated by the chimes of airport announcements.
He says he can’t leave the airport because he was “blacklisted” for five years by Malaysian authorities for originally overstaying his visa. Returning to Syria is not an option either as he says he is liable to be arrested for evading military service.
After his tweets attracted the attention of international media, al Kontar says Malaysia gave him a temporary one-month pass into the country. It would allow him to leave the airport, but while he is thankful for it, al Kontar says it’s a temporary fix, with no long-term prospects.
“I am a highly-qualified professional — desperate for a place where I can be safe, legal, not looking over my shoulder or being on the run … a place where I can work and prove myself."
Malaysia Airports, the company that manages the airport in Kuala Lumpur, is aware of al Kontar's case, which is now being handled by Malaysian immigration authorities known as "Jabatan Imigresen Malaysia," or JIM.
"JIM has informed us that they are monitoring the situation closely and have taken necessary steps in managing the situation," Malaysia Airports said. "Malaysia Airports will give full cooperation to the relevant authorities in helping to resolve this situation."
The United Nations Refugee Agency said it has also been in touch with al Kontar and continues to engage with the Malaysian authorities on his case, adding "reasonable assistance" has been offered for him to enter the country by the Malaysian government.
Much of the media coverage of his ordeal draws comparisons to the film "The Terminal," in which Tom Hanks’s character is stuck at New York's Kennedy Airport. But al Kontar says that referring to a Hollywood movie, which may reflect the precariousness of his situation, takes away from his plight and the struggle of the Syrian people, who he says are "paying the price of the war [they] have nothing to do with."
Over 5.6 million people have fled Syria since 2011, according to the U.N. Refugee Agency.
There is one beacon of hope remaining for al Kontar: A group of volunteers in Canada are determined to get him out of Malaysia.
The group has crowdfunded for him, arranged for sponsorship and filed all the necessary paperwork to apply for a temporary resident permit that would allow him to legally travel to Canada.
His application was submitted last week, and now all he can do is wait. He has also asked his Twitter followers to reach out to Canada’s immigration minister to drum up support for his case.
Hassan Al Kontar
@Kontar81
Plz retweet
I have Some good news and I need your help all of you to make it happen.
Please send an email to Mr. Ahmed Hussen - Canada's Minister of Immigration.
"ahmed.hussen@parl.gc.ca"
Tell him you support a Temporary Resident Permit for Hassan to come to Canada immediately
6:06 PM - Apr 27, 2018
Al Kontar said he feels Canada is his only chance out now. “If I lose that hope, I don’t know what to do," he said. "I don’t want to think of the possibility that it’s not going to happen because I may break down.”
As he grapples with his own ordeal, he says Syrians are paying the price for a war they have "nothing to do with."
by Yuliya Talmazan / May.05.2018 / 7:23 PM ET
LONDON — Stranded in a foreign airport for nearly 60 days, trying not to lose hope of ever getting out.
That’s the reality for Hassan al Kontar, 36, a Syrian who has been stuck at the Kuala Lumpur international airport since March 7.
Before a civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, al Kontar was living what would be considered a normal life. A native of Sweida, a city about 60 miles south of the Syrian capital, Damascus, al Kontar worked as an insurance marketing manager in the United Arab Emirates.
Then, with hostilities escalating, he was summoned for military service in his home country. After refusing to return and join the military, he says the Syrian embassy in the UAE declined to renew his passport in 2012. That meant his work permit couldn’t be renewed either, so al Kontar lost his job and went into hiding in the UAE for the next six years.
“I am really tired," he said. "I keep shouting that I am not a bad guy, I am not a coward — I can fight, but it’s not my fight. It’s someone else’s fight in my land."
Al Kontar says he realizes there are Syrians in far worse situations, but his predicament has been mentally exhausting.
He was apprehended by UAE authorities last year and says he struggled to avoid deportation back to Syria. Al Kontar, who was able to renew his passport last year, was eventually sent to Malaysia — one of the few countries to accept Syrian citizens without a visa for up to 90 days.
After his attempts to obtain a permanent visa there failed, he decided to go to Ecuador, another country that accepts Syrians without a visa. But he says his flight was canceled at the last minute by Turkish Airlines. He tried going to Cambodia, but was sent back to the airport in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's capital, in early March, and has been stranded there since.
Image: Hassan Al Kontar has been stuck at an airport in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for 53 days. Hassan Al Kontar has been stuck at an airport in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for 53 days. Hassan Al Kontar
Al Kontar's time at the airport has been challenging. He has access to two bathrooms and a waiting area in the transit section of the airport. AirAsia, the airline that took him back to Malaysia, provides him with three airline meals a day.
During the first few days at the airport, he slept on the chairs in the waiting area, but has now moved to sleep on the floor under a stairwell.
For weeks he has confronted basic logistical dilemmas such as where to take a shower, how to clean his clothes and where to dry them — documenting his daily life on his Twitter account.
Nearly two months into his ordeal, his struggles continue. “The daily routine is the same, nothing has changed,” al Kontar said.
Image: The area of the airport accessible to Hassan Al Kontar at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.The area of the airport accessible to Hassan Al Kontar at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.Hassan Al Kontar
He says he tries to stay positive, because "otherwise, it’s better to die" — as he spoke with NBC News, the frustration in his voice was punctuated by the chimes of airport announcements.
He says he can’t leave the airport because he was “blacklisted” for five years by Malaysian authorities for originally overstaying his visa. Returning to Syria is not an option either as he says he is liable to be arrested for evading military service.
After his tweets attracted the attention of international media, al Kontar says Malaysia gave him a temporary one-month pass into the country. It would allow him to leave the airport, but while he is thankful for it, al Kontar says it’s a temporary fix, with no long-term prospects.
“I am a highly-qualified professional — desperate for a place where I can be safe, legal, not looking over my shoulder or being on the run … a place where I can work and prove myself."
Malaysia Airports, the company that manages the airport in Kuala Lumpur, is aware of al Kontar's case, which is now being handled by Malaysian immigration authorities known as "Jabatan Imigresen Malaysia," or JIM.
"JIM has informed us that they are monitoring the situation closely and have taken necessary steps in managing the situation," Malaysia Airports said. "Malaysia Airports will give full cooperation to the relevant authorities in helping to resolve this situation."
The United Nations Refugee Agency said it has also been in touch with al Kontar and continues to engage with the Malaysian authorities on his case, adding "reasonable assistance" has been offered for him to enter the country by the Malaysian government.
Much of the media coverage of his ordeal draws comparisons to the film "The Terminal," in which Tom Hanks’s character is stuck at New York's Kennedy Airport. But al Kontar says that referring to a Hollywood movie, which may reflect the precariousness of his situation, takes away from his plight and the struggle of the Syrian people, who he says are "paying the price of the war [they] have nothing to do with."
Over 5.6 million people have fled Syria since 2011, according to the U.N. Refugee Agency.
There is one beacon of hope remaining for al Kontar: A group of volunteers in Canada are determined to get him out of Malaysia.
The group has crowdfunded for him, arranged for sponsorship and filed all the necessary paperwork to apply for a temporary resident permit that would allow him to legally travel to Canada.
His application was submitted last week, and now all he can do is wait. He has also asked his Twitter followers to reach out to Canada’s immigration minister to drum up support for his case.
Hassan Al Kontar
@Kontar81
Plz retweet
I have Some good news and I need your help all of you to make it happen.
Please send an email to Mr. Ahmed Hussen - Canada's Minister of Immigration.
"ahmed.hussen@parl.gc.ca"
Tell him you support a Temporary Resident Permit for Hassan to come to Canada immediately
6:06 PM - Apr 27, 2018
Al Kontar said he feels Canada is his only chance out now. “If I lose that hope, I don’t know what to do," he said. "I don’t want to think of the possibility that it’s not going to happen because I may break down.”
Donald Trump has 'a date and location' for meeting with Kim Jong-un He has said he wants it to be the DMZ - Independent
May 4, 2018
Donald Trump has 'a date and location' for meeting with Kim Jong-un
He has said he wants it to be the DMZ
Andrew Buncombe New York @AndrewBuncombe a
Kensington Palace reveals who will walk Meghan Markle down the aisle
Air Canada jet narrowly missed other planes as it came in to land
Trump and Netanyahu could fall into a war with Iran
Man facing drugs charges leaps from courthouse balcony
Donald Trump has said a date and location has been agreed for his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Speaking to reporters as he boarded Marine One at the White House for the journey to Andrews’ Air Force Base, and then Texas, he said his administration had been working very hard on the issue of North Korea.
“We’re having very substantive talks with North Korea and a lot of things have already happened with respect to the hostages. I think you're going to see very good things,” he said.
North Korea 'suspends' missile and nuclear tests
Of his planned meeting with the North Korean leader, he added: “We have a date, we have a place.”
A week ago, during a meeting with German chancellor Angela Merkel, he said the location had been narrowed down to two to three options. It was reported that two of the locations were believed to be Singapore, or Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia.
Mr Trump later tweeted that he would prefer to meet at the Peace House on the border of North and South Korea, the same place where Mr Kim made history last week when he met with South Korean president Moon Jae-in, shaking hands and laughing, before holding private talks that resulted in a joint declaration from the two countries.
“Numerous countries are being considered for the MEETING, but would Peace House/Freedom House, on the Border of North & South Korea, be a more Representative, Important and Lasting site than a third party country,” he wrote. “Just asking!”
In the aftermath of last Friday’s summit during which the 36-year-old became the first North Korean leader to travel south of the border between the two countries, Mr Trump praised the meeting and said he was looking forward to his own.
US 'not reducing troops in S Korea despite talks with Kim'
'A new era of peace': North Korean media hails historic summit
What happens now the Korean summit is over?
“I don’t think he’s playing,” Mr Trump said. “We will, I think, come up with a solution and if we don’t we leave the room with great respect and we just keep it going.”
The White House has said the historic summit with the Asian leader could take place this month, as long as North Korea made certain concessions.
Donald Trump has 'a date and location' for meeting with Kim Jong-un
He has said he wants it to be the DMZ
Andrew Buncombe New York @AndrewBuncombe a
Kensington Palace reveals who will walk Meghan Markle down the aisle
Air Canada jet narrowly missed other planes as it came in to land
Trump and Netanyahu could fall into a war with Iran
Man facing drugs charges leaps from courthouse balcony
Donald Trump has said a date and location has been agreed for his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Speaking to reporters as he boarded Marine One at the White House for the journey to Andrews’ Air Force Base, and then Texas, he said his administration had been working very hard on the issue of North Korea.
“We’re having very substantive talks with North Korea and a lot of things have already happened with respect to the hostages. I think you're going to see very good things,” he said.
North Korea 'suspends' missile and nuclear tests
Of his planned meeting with the North Korean leader, he added: “We have a date, we have a place.”
A week ago, during a meeting with German chancellor Angela Merkel, he said the location had been narrowed down to two to three options. It was reported that two of the locations were believed to be Singapore, or Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia.
Mr Trump later tweeted that he would prefer to meet at the Peace House on the border of North and South Korea, the same place where Mr Kim made history last week when he met with South Korean president Moon Jae-in, shaking hands and laughing, before holding private talks that resulted in a joint declaration from the two countries.
“Numerous countries are being considered for the MEETING, but would Peace House/Freedom House, on the Border of North & South Korea, be a more Representative, Important and Lasting site than a third party country,” he wrote. “Just asking!”
In the aftermath of last Friday’s summit during which the 36-year-old became the first North Korean leader to travel south of the border between the two countries, Mr Trump praised the meeting and said he was looking forward to his own.
US 'not reducing troops in S Korea despite talks with Kim'
'A new era of peace': North Korean media hails historic summit
What happens now the Korean summit is over?
“I don’t think he’s playing,” Mr Trump said. “We will, I think, come up with a solution and if we don’t we leave the room with great respect and we just keep it going.”
The White House has said the historic summit with the Asian leader could take place this month, as long as North Korea made certain concessions.
CBS News Hires Firm to Investigate Sexual Harassment as 27 New Charlie Rose Accusers Come Forward - TIME
CBS News Hires Firm to Investigate Sexual Harassment as 27 New Charlie Rose Accusers Come Forward
Posted: 03 May 2018 08:40 AM PDT
CBS News has hired an outside law firm to investigate sexual harassment and misconduct as 27 new accusers made allegations against former anchor Charlie Rose.
The Washington Post reported Thursday that three CBS News managers were made aware of harassment allegations against Rose, which span more than three decades. The Post reported that 27 women, 14 of whom worked at CBS News, accused Rose of sexual harassment. In 1986, a 22-year-old CBS News employee said she told a senior producer, whom she did not name, that Rose had allegedly made lewd comments. The Post reports that CBS News managers were made aware of other alleged instances of sexual harassment again in 2011 and April 2017.
Rose told the Post: “Your story is unfair and inaccurate.”
Two top executives – including CBS News President David Rhodes – told the Post they didn’t know about accusations against the former CBS This Morning anchor until they were first reported in November 2017.
A CBS News spokesperson said in a statement sent to TIME that the company has “worked to strengthen existing systems to ensure a safe environment,” but said it could not “corroborate or confirm” many allegations in the Post report.
On Thursday, Rhodes, who took over CBS News in 2011, sent an internal note — provided to TIME — in response to the Post article that outlines the steps the network has taken to “ensure a safe and respectful environment.” Rhodes said that the company hired Proskauer Rose LLP, which investigated sexual misconduct allegations at WNYC, to help with its investigation. He also said that the network instituted mandatory sexual misconduct training and created a working group to address the company’s reporting and handling of sexual harassment.
CBS News and PBS both fired Rose in November 2017 after the Post reported that eight women, all of whom worked or hoped to work on his PBS show, accused him of sexual harassment. At the time, Rose said that he “behaved insensitively at times, and I accept responsibility for that, though I do not believe that all of these allegations are accurate. I always felt that I was pursuing shared feelings, even though I now realize I was mistaken.”
Posted: 03 May 2018 08:40 AM PDT
CBS News has hired an outside law firm to investigate sexual harassment and misconduct as 27 new accusers made allegations against former anchor Charlie Rose.
The Washington Post reported Thursday that three CBS News managers were made aware of harassment allegations against Rose, which span more than three decades. The Post reported that 27 women, 14 of whom worked at CBS News, accused Rose of sexual harassment. In 1986, a 22-year-old CBS News employee said she told a senior producer, whom she did not name, that Rose had allegedly made lewd comments. The Post reports that CBS News managers were made aware of other alleged instances of sexual harassment again in 2011 and April 2017.
Rose told the Post: “Your story is unfair and inaccurate.”
Two top executives – including CBS News President David Rhodes – told the Post they didn’t know about accusations against the former CBS This Morning anchor until they were first reported in November 2017.
A CBS News spokesperson said in a statement sent to TIME that the company has “worked to strengthen existing systems to ensure a safe environment,” but said it could not “corroborate or confirm” many allegations in the Post report.
On Thursday, Rhodes, who took over CBS News in 2011, sent an internal note — provided to TIME — in response to the Post article that outlines the steps the network has taken to “ensure a safe and respectful environment.” Rhodes said that the company hired Proskauer Rose LLP, which investigated sexual misconduct allegations at WNYC, to help with its investigation. He also said that the network instituted mandatory sexual misconduct training and created a working group to address the company’s reporting and handling of sexual harassment.
CBS News and PBS both fired Rose in November 2017 after the Post reported that eight women, all of whom worked or hoped to work on his PBS show, accused him of sexual harassment. At the time, Rose said that he “behaved insensitively at times, and I accept responsibility for that, though I do not believe that all of these allegations are accurate. I always felt that I was pursuing shared feelings, even though I now realize I was mistaken.”
Giuliani May Have Exposed Trump to New Legal and Political Perils - New York Times
Giuliani May Have Exposed Trump to New Legal and Political Perils
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR, MATT APUZZO and MAGGIE HABERMAN MAY 3, 2018
Accusations, payoffs and lawsuits: Here’s a guide to the latest White House scandal, which involves a porn star named Stormy Daniels. By DREW JORDAN on Publish Date March 9, 2018. . Watch in
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s new legal team made a chaotic debut as Rudolph W. Giuliani, who was tapped recently to be one of the president’s lawyers, potentially exposed his client to legal and political danger by publicly revealing the existence of secret payments to Michael D. Cohen, the president’s personal lawyer.
After he moved into the White House, the president began paying Mr. Cohen $35,000 a month, Mr. Giuliani said, in part as reimbursement for a $130,000 payment that Mr. Cohen made to a pornographic film actress to keep her from going public about an affair she said she had with Mr. Trump. The president confirmed he made payments to Mr. Cohen in a series of Twitter posts on Thursday morning.
The explosive revelation, which Mr. Giuliani said was intended to prove that Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen violated no campaign finance laws, prompted frustration and disbelief among the president’s other legal and political advisers, some of whom said they feared the gambit could backfire.
Legally, the failure to disclose the payments could be a violation of the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, which requires that federal officials, including Mr. Trump, report any liabilities of more than $10,000 during the preceding year. Mr. Trump’s last disclosure report, which he signed and filed in June, mentions no debt to Mr. Cohen.
Politically, Mr. Giuliani’s remarks — made in television appearances and interviews — raised questions about the president’s truthfulness and created a firestorm at the White House, where aides were caught off guard and furiously sought to deflect questions they could not answer. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said she had been unaware of the payments before the interviews.
President Trump reshuffled his legal team in recent weeks as he has sought a more aggressive posture in dealing with the investigations into him and his associates. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times
“Everyone is wondering, what in the world is he doing?” said George Arzt, a longtime New York Democratic consultant who has known Mr. Giuliani for decades. “I would not have sent out Rudy to talk about the investigation. But Trump likes chaos and Trump just added to the chaos.”
Trump Says Payment to Stormy Daniels Did Not Violate Campaign Laws MAY 3, 2018
Opinion Michelle Goldberg
Does Giuliani Have a Plan, or Is This Just a Freakout? MAY 3, 2018
Giuliani Appears to Veer Off Script. A Furor Follows. MAY 3, 2018
Giuliani Says Trump Repaid Cohen for Stormy Daniels Hush Money MAY 2, 2018
What Giuliani Said About Cohen’s Payment to Stormy Daniels MAY 2, 2018
I'm no legal eagle but Trump seems to be changing his story by the day.A good liar he is not.Mueller must be itching to drop the hammer.
I. Apelo Enriquez 12 hours ago
In a democracy, the least that any president owes us, the American people, is trust. During the election process, we make choices on the...
Mark Hardin 12 hours ago
This information was bound to come out, and now seems like a relatively non damaging time for Trump. I assume this is why Giuliani revealed...
By the end of the day, the president and his advisers had done little to clarify the confusion that Mr. Giuliani had set in motion a night earlier.
Mr. Giuliani did not consult every member of the president’s legal team, or the network of lawyers around Washington whose clients have been entangled in Mr. Trump’s legal disputes, according to several people close to the team. Emmet T. Flood, a lawyer hired by Mr. Trump on Wednesday, was not involved in Mr. Giuliani’s plans to reveal the payments to Mr. Cohen during an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, one of the people said.
The abrupt disclosure — which even caught Mr. Hannity, a confidant of the president’s, by surprise — set off a flurry of calls between Mr. Trump’s lawyers as they sought to determine whether Mr. Giuliani meant to reveal the president’s reimbursement. Witnesses and lawyers around Washington scoured transcripts, watched television clips and called each other in an effort to grasp the consequences of what Mr. Giuliani had said.
The president’s other lawyers ultimately determined that Mr. Giuliani had consulted with Mr. Trump, people close to them said, but were left speechless about why he decided to make the disclosure in such a high-profile way and without any strategy to handle the fallout.
Mr. Giuliani recognized the situation was problematic, two people close to him said, because Mr. Trump had previously said on Air Force One that he was unaware of the hush payments to Stephanie Clifford, the actress who performs as Stormy Daniels. However, Mr. Trump and his aides see lying to or misleading the news media as far less troublesome than lying to investigators, they said.
Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, recently joined Mr. Trump’s legal team. Credit Ruth Fremson/The New York Times
Even some of the president’s advisers said they were skeptical of Mr. Giuliani’s statements that Mr. Cohen entered into a settlement, made payments to a pornographic film actress and was reimbursed by the president all without Mr. Trump’s knowing why.
Mr. Giuliani’s disclosure is a sign of how Mr. Trump’s reshuffled legal team — which now includes a highly paid Washington lawyer, a famous former mayor, a constitutional lawyer who specializes in religious cases and former federal prosecutors — will function in the coming weeks as they sort out who takes the lead on representing the president.
Mr. Giuliani has said he is the lead lawyer dealing with the special counsel’s investigation in Washington. But his statements on Wednesday night related to the continuing investigation in New York that is examining the conduct of Mr. Cohen. People close to the president are concerned that Mr. Trump and Mr. Giuliani may create more problems for themselves if they consult only with each other and leave out the other lawyers who may know more about the nuances of the cases.
Mr. Trump faces a two-front battle with the Justice Department: one investigation in New York into Mr. Cohen and the special counsel investigation in Washington.
Whoever runs the president’s legal defenses will almost certainly adopt a more aggressive strategy than the previous team, which was led by the Washington lawyers John Dowd and Ty Cobb.
Despite the president’s desire to take on the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, and the Justice Department, Mr. Dowd and Mr. Cobb persuaded Mr. Trump to buy into their strategy of cooperation. The more helpful the president was, Mr. Dowd and Mr. Cobb told him last year, the more likely the investigation would conclude by year’s end.
Michael D. Cohen, the president’s personal lawyer, paid $130,000 in hush money to Ms. Clifford, who says she had an affair with Mr. Trump. Credit Jeenah Moon for The New York Times
Instead, the investigation has intensified, and the president has concluded that approach was a mistake, according to people close to him. Convinced that the investigation is a growing threat to his presidency, he has resorted to his initial inclination to fight.
Mr. Trump appears to hope that Mr. Giuliani, a like-minded political street fighter from New York, will aid his combative approach. Mr. Giuliani’s comments on Wednesday and Thursday were an attempt to do just that.
His aggression carried risks. Besides revealing that the president had reimbursed Mr. Cohen, Mr. Giuliani appeared to admit that the payment to Ms. Clifford just before Election Day in 2016 was made because of concerns about the coming vote. That could be used to argue that it was an illegal campaign contribution.
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“Imagine if that came out on October 15, 2016, in the middle of the, you know, last debate with Hillary Clinton,” Mr. Giuliani said on the Fox News program “Fox & Friends.” “Cohen didn’t even ask. Cohen made it go away. He did his job.”
Violating campaign finance laws can be serious. John Edwards, a former Democratic senator and presidential hopeful, was charged with corruption for his role in trying to hide details of his affair with a videographer during his 2008 bid for the White House. Mr. Edwards’s trial ended in an acquittal on one count with the jury unable to reach a verdict on five others.
Mr. Giuliani’s comments also raised fresh questions about the president’s relationship with Mr. Cohen. As Mr. Giuliani told it, Mr. Cohen entered into a legal agreement with Ms. Clifford and paid her without Mr. Trump’s knowledge. Mr. Giuliani described that as commonplace, saying he performed similar services for his own clients. But legal ethics experts said such an arrangement was highly unusual and would only expose Mr. Cohen to new questions.
The Trump Team’s Conflicting Statements About the Payment to Stormy Daniels
From complete denial to acknowledging involvement, what President Trump and his lawyers said about the $130,000 paid to the pornographic film actress.
Lawyers are required to keep their clients fully informed of their activities and are generally prohibited from advancing money to or on behalf of their clients, said Deborah L. Rhode, a scholar on legal ethics at Stanford Law School. “This is a guy who says he’ll take a bullet for the president,” she said. “And what they’re giving him is the legal ethics equivalent of a bullet.”
“Giuliani thinks he’s serving President Trump’s interest,” she said. “President Trump’s interest is not the same as Michael Cohen’s interest.”
In his tweets on Thursday, Mr. Trump contradicted his earlier statements that he knew of no payment to Ms. Clifford. Mr. Trump said he paid a monthly retainer to Mr. Cohen and suggested that the payment to the actress could not be considered a campaign contribution.
Government watchdog groups warned that willfully violating the financial disclosure laws can be punished by a fine of up to $50,000 and a year in prison. Although federal officials who lie on the forms are also typically charged with other, more serious offenses such as bribery or fraud, more than 20 officials or former officials have been charged in the past 12 years with making false statements to federal officials, a felony offense. An Environmental Protection Agency official who failed to report a source of income on the form, for instance, was convicted and sentenced to probation.
“Mr. Giuliani did his client no favors,” said Norman L. Eisen, the chairman of the good-government group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
Mr. Cohen had worked for Mr. Trump for a decade and has said he would “take a bullet” for him. Mr. Trump, however, treated Mr. Cohen poorly over the years, people familiar with their relationship have said.
Ms. Clifford is suing Mr. Cohen to try to be released from the nondisclosure agreement. And Mr. Cohen is under federal investigation into possible bank fraud, raising concerns in the president’s inner circle that Mr. Trump’s longtime personal lawyer will cooperate with the government. Federal agents raided Mr. Cohen’s office and home last month and seized documents that included information about payments to Ms. Clifford.
Mr. Cohen recently invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in Ms. Clifford’s lawsuit.
Michael D. Shear and Matt Apuzzo reported from Washington, and Maggie Haberman from New York. Reporting was contributed by Matt Flegenheimer, Sharon LaFraniere, Jeremy Peters, Michael S. Schmidt and Eileen Sullivan in Washington.
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR, MATT APUZZO and MAGGIE HABERMAN MAY 3, 2018
Accusations, payoffs and lawsuits: Here’s a guide to the latest White House scandal, which involves a porn star named Stormy Daniels. By DREW JORDAN on Publish Date March 9, 2018. . Watch in
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s new legal team made a chaotic debut as Rudolph W. Giuliani, who was tapped recently to be one of the president’s lawyers, potentially exposed his client to legal and political danger by publicly revealing the existence of secret payments to Michael D. Cohen, the president’s personal lawyer.
After he moved into the White House, the president began paying Mr. Cohen $35,000 a month, Mr. Giuliani said, in part as reimbursement for a $130,000 payment that Mr. Cohen made to a pornographic film actress to keep her from going public about an affair she said she had with Mr. Trump. The president confirmed he made payments to Mr. Cohen in a series of Twitter posts on Thursday morning.
The explosive revelation, which Mr. Giuliani said was intended to prove that Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen violated no campaign finance laws, prompted frustration and disbelief among the president’s other legal and political advisers, some of whom said they feared the gambit could backfire.
Legally, the failure to disclose the payments could be a violation of the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, which requires that federal officials, including Mr. Trump, report any liabilities of more than $10,000 during the preceding year. Mr. Trump’s last disclosure report, which he signed and filed in June, mentions no debt to Mr. Cohen.
Politically, Mr. Giuliani’s remarks — made in television appearances and interviews — raised questions about the president’s truthfulness and created a firestorm at the White House, where aides were caught off guard and furiously sought to deflect questions they could not answer. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said she had been unaware of the payments before the interviews.
President Trump reshuffled his legal team in recent weeks as he has sought a more aggressive posture in dealing with the investigations into him and his associates. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times
“Everyone is wondering, what in the world is he doing?” said George Arzt, a longtime New York Democratic consultant who has known Mr. Giuliani for decades. “I would not have sent out Rudy to talk about the investigation. But Trump likes chaos and Trump just added to the chaos.”
Trump Says Payment to Stormy Daniels Did Not Violate Campaign Laws MAY 3, 2018
Opinion Michelle Goldberg
Does Giuliani Have a Plan, or Is This Just a Freakout? MAY 3, 2018
Giuliani Appears to Veer Off Script. A Furor Follows. MAY 3, 2018
Giuliani Says Trump Repaid Cohen for Stormy Daniels Hush Money MAY 2, 2018
What Giuliani Said About Cohen’s Payment to Stormy Daniels MAY 2, 2018
I'm no legal eagle but Trump seems to be changing his story by the day.A good liar he is not.Mueller must be itching to drop the hammer.
I. Apelo Enriquez 12 hours ago
In a democracy, the least that any president owes us, the American people, is trust. During the election process, we make choices on the...
Mark Hardin 12 hours ago
This information was bound to come out, and now seems like a relatively non damaging time for Trump. I assume this is why Giuliani revealed...
By the end of the day, the president and his advisers had done little to clarify the confusion that Mr. Giuliani had set in motion a night earlier.
Mr. Giuliani did not consult every member of the president’s legal team, or the network of lawyers around Washington whose clients have been entangled in Mr. Trump’s legal disputes, according to several people close to the team. Emmet T. Flood, a lawyer hired by Mr. Trump on Wednesday, was not involved in Mr. Giuliani’s plans to reveal the payments to Mr. Cohen during an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, one of the people said.
The abrupt disclosure — which even caught Mr. Hannity, a confidant of the president’s, by surprise — set off a flurry of calls between Mr. Trump’s lawyers as they sought to determine whether Mr. Giuliani meant to reveal the president’s reimbursement. Witnesses and lawyers around Washington scoured transcripts, watched television clips and called each other in an effort to grasp the consequences of what Mr. Giuliani had said.
The president’s other lawyers ultimately determined that Mr. Giuliani had consulted with Mr. Trump, people close to them said, but were left speechless about why he decided to make the disclosure in such a high-profile way and without any strategy to handle the fallout.
Mr. Giuliani recognized the situation was problematic, two people close to him said, because Mr. Trump had previously said on Air Force One that he was unaware of the hush payments to Stephanie Clifford, the actress who performs as Stormy Daniels. However, Mr. Trump and his aides see lying to or misleading the news media as far less troublesome than lying to investigators, they said.
Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, recently joined Mr. Trump’s legal team. Credit Ruth Fremson/The New York Times
Even some of the president’s advisers said they were skeptical of Mr. Giuliani’s statements that Mr. Cohen entered into a settlement, made payments to a pornographic film actress and was reimbursed by the president all without Mr. Trump’s knowing why.
Mr. Giuliani’s disclosure is a sign of how Mr. Trump’s reshuffled legal team — which now includes a highly paid Washington lawyer, a famous former mayor, a constitutional lawyer who specializes in religious cases and former federal prosecutors — will function in the coming weeks as they sort out who takes the lead on representing the president.
Mr. Giuliani has said he is the lead lawyer dealing with the special counsel’s investigation in Washington. But his statements on Wednesday night related to the continuing investigation in New York that is examining the conduct of Mr. Cohen. People close to the president are concerned that Mr. Trump and Mr. Giuliani may create more problems for themselves if they consult only with each other and leave out the other lawyers who may know more about the nuances of the cases.
Mr. Trump faces a two-front battle with the Justice Department: one investigation in New York into Mr. Cohen and the special counsel investigation in Washington.
Whoever runs the president’s legal defenses will almost certainly adopt a more aggressive strategy than the previous team, which was led by the Washington lawyers John Dowd and Ty Cobb.
Despite the president’s desire to take on the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, and the Justice Department, Mr. Dowd and Mr. Cobb persuaded Mr. Trump to buy into their strategy of cooperation. The more helpful the president was, Mr. Dowd and Mr. Cobb told him last year, the more likely the investigation would conclude by year’s end.
Michael D. Cohen, the president’s personal lawyer, paid $130,000 in hush money to Ms. Clifford, who says she had an affair with Mr. Trump. Credit Jeenah Moon for The New York Times
Instead, the investigation has intensified, and the president has concluded that approach was a mistake, according to people close to him. Convinced that the investigation is a growing threat to his presidency, he has resorted to his initial inclination to fight.
Mr. Trump appears to hope that Mr. Giuliani, a like-minded political street fighter from New York, will aid his combative approach. Mr. Giuliani’s comments on Wednesday and Thursday were an attempt to do just that.
His aggression carried risks. Besides revealing that the president had reimbursed Mr. Cohen, Mr. Giuliani appeared to admit that the payment to Ms. Clifford just before Election Day in 2016 was made because of concerns about the coming vote. That could be used to argue that it was an illegal campaign contribution.
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“Imagine if that came out on October 15, 2016, in the middle of the, you know, last debate with Hillary Clinton,” Mr. Giuliani said on the Fox News program “Fox & Friends.” “Cohen didn’t even ask. Cohen made it go away. He did his job.”
Violating campaign finance laws can be serious. John Edwards, a former Democratic senator and presidential hopeful, was charged with corruption for his role in trying to hide details of his affair with a videographer during his 2008 bid for the White House. Mr. Edwards’s trial ended in an acquittal on one count with the jury unable to reach a verdict on five others.
Mr. Giuliani’s comments also raised fresh questions about the president’s relationship with Mr. Cohen. As Mr. Giuliani told it, Mr. Cohen entered into a legal agreement with Ms. Clifford and paid her without Mr. Trump’s knowledge. Mr. Giuliani described that as commonplace, saying he performed similar services for his own clients. But legal ethics experts said such an arrangement was highly unusual and would only expose Mr. Cohen to new questions.
The Trump Team’s Conflicting Statements About the Payment to Stormy Daniels
From complete denial to acknowledging involvement, what President Trump and his lawyers said about the $130,000 paid to the pornographic film actress.
Lawyers are required to keep their clients fully informed of their activities and are generally prohibited from advancing money to or on behalf of their clients, said Deborah L. Rhode, a scholar on legal ethics at Stanford Law School. “This is a guy who says he’ll take a bullet for the president,” she said. “And what they’re giving him is the legal ethics equivalent of a bullet.”
“Giuliani thinks he’s serving President Trump’s interest,” she said. “President Trump’s interest is not the same as Michael Cohen’s interest.”
In his tweets on Thursday, Mr. Trump contradicted his earlier statements that he knew of no payment to Ms. Clifford. Mr. Trump said he paid a monthly retainer to Mr. Cohen and suggested that the payment to the actress could not be considered a campaign contribution.
Government watchdog groups warned that willfully violating the financial disclosure laws can be punished by a fine of up to $50,000 and a year in prison. Although federal officials who lie on the forms are also typically charged with other, more serious offenses such as bribery or fraud, more than 20 officials or former officials have been charged in the past 12 years with making false statements to federal officials, a felony offense. An Environmental Protection Agency official who failed to report a source of income on the form, for instance, was convicted and sentenced to probation.
“Mr. Giuliani did his client no favors,” said Norman L. Eisen, the chairman of the good-government group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
Mr. Cohen had worked for Mr. Trump for a decade and has said he would “take a bullet” for him. Mr. Trump, however, treated Mr. Cohen poorly over the years, people familiar with their relationship have said.
Ms. Clifford is suing Mr. Cohen to try to be released from the nondisclosure agreement. And Mr. Cohen is under federal investigation into possible bank fraud, raising concerns in the president’s inner circle that Mr. Trump’s longtime personal lawyer will cooperate with the government. Federal agents raided Mr. Cohen’s office and home last month and seized documents that included information about payments to Ms. Clifford.
Mr. Cohen recently invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in Ms. Clifford’s lawsuit.
Michael D. Shear and Matt Apuzzo reported from Washington, and Maggie Haberman from New York. Reporting was contributed by Matt Flegenheimer, Sharon LaFraniere, Jeremy Peters, Michael S. Schmidt and Eileen Sullivan in Washington.
Police stop Native American brothers during US college tour - BBC News
Police stop Native American brothers during US college tour
4 May 2018
Loraine Kahneratokwas Gray (L) and Thomas Kanewakeron Gray (R) say the incident was discriminatory
A Colorado university has apologised for two Native American brothers who were removed from a campus tour after a parent called the police.
The brothers' mother, Lorraine Kahneratokwas Gray, said they were taken off the tour because a parent was suspicious of how quiet they were.
Colorado State University (CSU) police searched the brothers, who drove seven hours to attend the admissions tour.
University officials apologised for the incident in a letter to students.
Thomas Kanewakeron Gray, 19, and Lloyd Skanahwati Gray, 17, had borrowed their family van to drive from Santa Cruz, New Mexico to Fort Collins, Colorado, to visit the college on Monday.
The boys got lost in the city and joined the CSU admissions tour about 30 minutes late.
As the tour moved through the gymnasium, they were stopped by campus police who demanded to know why they were on campus.
Does profiling make sense - or is it unfair?
Implicit bias: Is everyone racist?
"Apparently, a parent on the tour called police because they were too quiet. That made them suspicious," Mrs Kahneratokwas Gray told the Denver Post. "They were trying to listen. Why should it be a crime to listen and not engage in a conversation?"
The boys, who are members of the Mohawk tribe, were only released after they provided police with an email showing they had pre-registered for the tour.
The tour continued while the boys were questioned, and they were unable to complete it.
"I think it's pretty discriminatory," Thomas told the Associated Press on Thursday.
"Me and my brother just stayed to ourselves the whole time. I guess that was scaring people; that we were just quiet."
"Our family is shocked and saddened over this incident of racial profiling, and disappointed that the school didn't take a more proactive stand in protecting my boys from being shamed in this hostile way," their mother said.
In a letter to students, officials say that the Office of Admissions, Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Native American Cultural Center and the CSU Police Department will be meeting to discuss how to better handle similar cases in the future.
"The incident is sad and frustrating from nearly every angle, particularly the experience of two students who were here to see if this was a good fit for them as an institution," the letter said.
The statement added that the university had been speaking to the family of the prospective students.
"As a University community, we deeply regret the experience of these students while they were guests on our campus."
Starbucks race row leaves customers a bitter aftertaste
The incident comes amid other high profile cases of racial profiling, including an incident in Philadelphia in which two black men were arrested at a Starbucks while they were waiting for a friend to arrive before placing an order.
4 May 2018
Loraine Kahneratokwas Gray (L) and Thomas Kanewakeron Gray (R) say the incident was discriminatory
A Colorado university has apologised for two Native American brothers who were removed from a campus tour after a parent called the police.
The brothers' mother, Lorraine Kahneratokwas Gray, said they were taken off the tour because a parent was suspicious of how quiet they were.
Colorado State University (CSU) police searched the brothers, who drove seven hours to attend the admissions tour.
University officials apologised for the incident in a letter to students.
Thomas Kanewakeron Gray, 19, and Lloyd Skanahwati Gray, 17, had borrowed their family van to drive from Santa Cruz, New Mexico to Fort Collins, Colorado, to visit the college on Monday.
The boys got lost in the city and joined the CSU admissions tour about 30 minutes late.
As the tour moved through the gymnasium, they were stopped by campus police who demanded to know why they were on campus.
Does profiling make sense - or is it unfair?
Implicit bias: Is everyone racist?
"Apparently, a parent on the tour called police because they were too quiet. That made them suspicious," Mrs Kahneratokwas Gray told the Denver Post. "They were trying to listen. Why should it be a crime to listen and not engage in a conversation?"
The boys, who are members of the Mohawk tribe, were only released after they provided police with an email showing they had pre-registered for the tour.
The tour continued while the boys were questioned, and they were unable to complete it.
"I think it's pretty discriminatory," Thomas told the Associated Press on Thursday.
"Me and my brother just stayed to ourselves the whole time. I guess that was scaring people; that we were just quiet."
"Our family is shocked and saddened over this incident of racial profiling, and disappointed that the school didn't take a more proactive stand in protecting my boys from being shamed in this hostile way," their mother said.
In a letter to students, officials say that the Office of Admissions, Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Native American Cultural Center and the CSU Police Department will be meeting to discuss how to better handle similar cases in the future.
"The incident is sad and frustrating from nearly every angle, particularly the experience of two students who were here to see if this was a good fit for them as an institution," the letter said.
The statement added that the university had been speaking to the family of the prospective students.
"As a University community, we deeply regret the experience of these students while they were guests on our campus."
Starbucks race row leaves customers a bitter aftertaste
The incident comes amid other high profile cases of racial profiling, including an incident in Philadelphia in which two black men were arrested at a Starbucks while they were waiting for a friend to arrive before placing an order.
Apple shares hit all-time high after Buffett raises stake - BBC News
Apple shares hit all-time high after Buffett raises stake
4 May 2018
Warren Buffett enjoys an ice cream during one of Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meetings.
Apple shares have hit an all-time high on news that legendary investor Warren Buffett now has a roughly 5% stake in the tech giant.
Shares in Apple, already the world's most valuable company, rose by almost 4% on Friday to more than $183.7 each.
Mr Buffett said his Berkshire Hathaway group bought about 75 million more shares of the iPhone maker in the first three months of the year.
His investment moves are closely watched across the world.
Mr Buffett's company has been buying up shares in Apple since 2016. Berkshire Hathaway claimed a nearly 3.3% stake, or more than 166 million shares, at the end of last year.
At the time, the holding, one of Berkshire's biggest stock market gambits, was worth more than $28bn.
Now, after the additional share purchases and an 8% rise in price since the start of the year, the firm's stake is worth more than $44bn.
Apple's market value now stands at almost $932bn.
"It is an unbelievable company," Mr Buffett said in an interview with CNBC. "If you look at Apple, I think it earns almost twice as much as the second most profitable company in the United States."
Some analysts have worried the technology giant's best days are behind it, as competition in the smart phone market increases and sales growth slows.
But the company has been building up other lines of business, including the services unit that includes the App Store, Apple Music and Apple Pay.
Apple this week reported profit of $13.8bn in the first three months of the year, rising 25% from the same period in 2017.
The company also has a generous share buyback and dividend programme that is expanding.
Apple, citing new US tax cuts, this week said it would buy back $100bn worth of shares and increase its dividend.
The moves, which return money to its shareholders, had been widely anticipated in the aftermath of the new tax law, which lowered the corporate tax rate and reduced the incentives for firms to hoard cash overseas.
Berkshire Hathaway will host its annual meeting for shareholders in Omaha, Nebraska this weekend.
4 May 2018
Warren Buffett enjoys an ice cream during one of Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meetings.
Apple shares have hit an all-time high on news that legendary investor Warren Buffett now has a roughly 5% stake in the tech giant.
Shares in Apple, already the world's most valuable company, rose by almost 4% on Friday to more than $183.7 each.
Mr Buffett said his Berkshire Hathaway group bought about 75 million more shares of the iPhone maker in the first three months of the year.
His investment moves are closely watched across the world.
Mr Buffett's company has been buying up shares in Apple since 2016. Berkshire Hathaway claimed a nearly 3.3% stake, or more than 166 million shares, at the end of last year.
At the time, the holding, one of Berkshire's biggest stock market gambits, was worth more than $28bn.
Now, after the additional share purchases and an 8% rise in price since the start of the year, the firm's stake is worth more than $44bn.
Apple's market value now stands at almost $932bn.
"It is an unbelievable company," Mr Buffett said in an interview with CNBC. "If you look at Apple, I think it earns almost twice as much as the second most profitable company in the United States."
Some analysts have worried the technology giant's best days are behind it, as competition in the smart phone market increases and sales growth slows.
But the company has been building up other lines of business, including the services unit that includes the App Store, Apple Music and Apple Pay.
Apple this week reported profit of $13.8bn in the first three months of the year, rising 25% from the same period in 2017.
The company also has a generous share buyback and dividend programme that is expanding.
Apple, citing new US tax cuts, this week said it would buy back $100bn worth of shares and increase its dividend.
The moves, which return money to its shareholders, had been widely anticipated in the aftermath of the new tax law, which lowered the corporate tax rate and reduced the incentives for firms to hoard cash overseas.
Berkshire Hathaway will host its annual meeting for shareholders in Omaha, Nebraska this weekend.
Trump: Knife crime left London hospital 'like a war zone' - BBC News
May 5, 2018
Trump: Knife crime left London hospital 'like a war zone'
Trump: Blood on London hospital floor
US President Donald Trump has criticised the level of knife crime in London, comparing one of the city's hospitals to a "war zone".
His comments came in a speech to the National Rifle Association (NRA), in which he defended US gun laws.
He also told the firearms lobby's conference in Dallas, Texas, that American gun rights were "under siege".
Mr Trump is due to visit the UK this summer, after previously cancelling a trip amid calls for mass protests.
"I recently read a story that in London, which has unbelievably tough gun laws, a once very prestigious hospital right in the middle is like a war zone for horrible stabbing wounds," he said on Friday.
"They don't have guns. They have knives and instead there's blood all over the floors of this hospital.
"They say it's as bad as a military war zone hospital. Knives, knives, knives, knives." He mimed a stabbing motion.
"London hasn't been used to that. They're getting used to it. It's pretty tough."
Has London's murder rate overtaken New York's?
No easy answers to London's killings
Nine charts on rising knife crime in England and Wales
It is unclear where Mr Trump sourced his information. However, leading London trauma surgeon Dr Martin Griffiths told BBC Radio 4 a month ago that his hospital was likened to an Afghan war zone. The interview was the basis for a Daily Mail article.
The surgeon, who works at the Royal London Hospital, responded to Mr Trump on Twitter with an image suggesting the president had missed the point, adding that he was "happy to invite Mr Trump to my prestigious hospital".
Image Copyright @martinpgriff@MARTINPGRIFF
Report
Dr Griffiths had told the BBC last month about treating stabbing victims "on a daily basis".
He said: "Some of my military colleagues have described their practice here as being similar to being at [Helmand province's former Camp] Bastion."
He added: "We routinely have children under our care, 13, 14, 15 years old are daily occurrences, knife and gun wounds.
BBC Radio 4 Today
✔
@BBCr4today
"We're treating children in school uniforms for knife and gun injuries". One London trauma surgeon - Martin Griffiths @NHSBartsHealth, says his practice is like a war zone #r4today
8:48 PM - Apr 5, 2018
At least 38 people in London have lost their lives to knife crime so far this year, the Met Police has said.
It is not the first time Mr Trump, who will visit the UK on 13 July, has remarked on security in the UK capital.
Last year he criticised London Mayor Sadiq Khan for his handling of terrorist attacks in the city.
The Met Police and Mr Khan declined to comment on Mr Trump's latest remarks.
Piers Morgan
✔
@piersmorgan
Guns are more dangerous than knives, Mr President @realDonaldTrump.
That’s why more people died from guns in America TODAY than have been murdered by knives in Britain this YEAR.
8:24 AM - May 5, 2018
Marian Fitzgerald, a criminologist at the University of Kent, said although there had been a spike in knife-related deaths in London, it was a separate issue to gun control.
She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It's just politically convenient, in a speech to the gun rights lobby, to try and make those comparisons and they are totally spurious.
She added: "If he needs reassurance, Donald Trump is going to be much safer in London than he would be at home."
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
Just returned home to the beautiful White House, from Dallas, where the Arena was packed to the rafters with the great fans and supporters of the @NRA. It was so wonderful to be there!
10:17 AM - May 5, 2018
Mr Trump also claimed that the terror attack in Paris in 2015 - in which 130 people were killed - could have been prevented if more people had been armed.
"The terrorists would have fled or been shot and it would have been a whole different story," he said.
It was Mr Trump's fourth address to the NRA and his second in office. The last president to do so was Ronald Reagan in 1983.
An estimated 80,000 people have attended this year's NRA convention in Dallas.
The lobby supported Mr Trump during his 2016 presidential election, spending more than $11m (£8m) in advertisements for him, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
After a high school shooting in Parkland, Florida, left 17 dead in February, Mr Trump said he would "fight" the NRA on gun control.
At the time, the president appeared to support raising the age limit of purchasing rifles, closing background check loopholes and confiscating firearms from mentally ill individuals.
Media captionHow young conservatives view #NeverAgain
The US president later said there was "not much political support".
Mr Trump instead pushed a proposal to provide firearms training to school employees.
His administration, however, has taken steps to ban bump stocks, which allow a rifle to shoot hundreds of rounds a minute.
Trump: Knife crime left London hospital 'like a war zone'
Trump: Blood on London hospital floor
US President Donald Trump has criticised the level of knife crime in London, comparing one of the city's hospitals to a "war zone".
His comments came in a speech to the National Rifle Association (NRA), in which he defended US gun laws.
He also told the firearms lobby's conference in Dallas, Texas, that American gun rights were "under siege".
Mr Trump is due to visit the UK this summer, after previously cancelling a trip amid calls for mass protests.
"I recently read a story that in London, which has unbelievably tough gun laws, a once very prestigious hospital right in the middle is like a war zone for horrible stabbing wounds," he said on Friday.
"They don't have guns. They have knives and instead there's blood all over the floors of this hospital.
"They say it's as bad as a military war zone hospital. Knives, knives, knives, knives." He mimed a stabbing motion.
"London hasn't been used to that. They're getting used to it. It's pretty tough."
Has London's murder rate overtaken New York's?
No easy answers to London's killings
Nine charts on rising knife crime in England and Wales
It is unclear where Mr Trump sourced his information. However, leading London trauma surgeon Dr Martin Griffiths told BBC Radio 4 a month ago that his hospital was likened to an Afghan war zone. The interview was the basis for a Daily Mail article.
The surgeon, who works at the Royal London Hospital, responded to Mr Trump on Twitter with an image suggesting the president had missed the point, adding that he was "happy to invite Mr Trump to my prestigious hospital".
Image Copyright @martinpgriff@MARTINPGRIFF
Report
Dr Griffiths had told the BBC last month about treating stabbing victims "on a daily basis".
He said: "Some of my military colleagues have described their practice here as being similar to being at [Helmand province's former Camp] Bastion."
He added: "We routinely have children under our care, 13, 14, 15 years old are daily occurrences, knife and gun wounds.
BBC Radio 4 Today
✔
@BBCr4today
"We're treating children in school uniforms for knife and gun injuries". One London trauma surgeon - Martin Griffiths @NHSBartsHealth, says his practice is like a war zone #r4today
8:48 PM - Apr 5, 2018
At least 38 people in London have lost their lives to knife crime so far this year, the Met Police has said.
It is not the first time Mr Trump, who will visit the UK on 13 July, has remarked on security in the UK capital.
Last year he criticised London Mayor Sadiq Khan for his handling of terrorist attacks in the city.
The Met Police and Mr Khan declined to comment on Mr Trump's latest remarks.
Piers Morgan
✔
@piersmorgan
Guns are more dangerous than knives, Mr President @realDonaldTrump.
That’s why more people died from guns in America TODAY than have been murdered by knives in Britain this YEAR.
8:24 AM - May 5, 2018
Marian Fitzgerald, a criminologist at the University of Kent, said although there had been a spike in knife-related deaths in London, it was a separate issue to gun control.
She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It's just politically convenient, in a speech to the gun rights lobby, to try and make those comparisons and they are totally spurious.
She added: "If he needs reassurance, Donald Trump is going to be much safer in London than he would be at home."
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
Just returned home to the beautiful White House, from Dallas, where the Arena was packed to the rafters with the great fans and supporters of the @NRA. It was so wonderful to be there!
10:17 AM - May 5, 2018
Mr Trump also claimed that the terror attack in Paris in 2015 - in which 130 people were killed - could have been prevented if more people had been armed.
"The terrorists would have fled or been shot and it would have been a whole different story," he said.
It was Mr Trump's fourth address to the NRA and his second in office. The last president to do so was Ronald Reagan in 1983.
An estimated 80,000 people have attended this year's NRA convention in Dallas.
The lobby supported Mr Trump during his 2016 presidential election, spending more than $11m (£8m) in advertisements for him, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
After a high school shooting in Parkland, Florida, left 17 dead in February, Mr Trump said he would "fight" the NRA on gun control.
At the time, the president appeared to support raising the age limit of purchasing rifles, closing background check loopholes and confiscating firearms from mentally ill individuals.
Media captionHow young conservatives view #NeverAgain
The US president later said there was "not much political support".
Mr Trump instead pushed a proposal to provide firearms training to school employees.
His administration, however, has taken steps to ban bump stocks, which allow a rifle to shoot hundreds of rounds a minute.
US Navy resurrects Second Fleet in Atlantic - BBC News
May 5, 2018
US Navy resurrects Second Fleet in Atlantic
The Second Fleet will be based at its former home - Norfolk, Virginia
The US Navy has said it will re-establish its Second Fleet, as Russia becomes more assertive.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm John Richardson said the fleet, disbanded in 2011, would oversee forces on the US East Coast and North Atlantic.
He said the National Defense Strategy, published earlier this year, made it clear that the era of great power competition had returned.
The strategy makes countering Russia and China a priority.
The fleet, which was disbanded for cost-saving and structural reasons, will be based in its previous home - Norfolk, Virginia.
"Our National Defense Strategy makes clear that we're back in an era of great power competition as the security environment continues to grow more challenging and complex," Adm Richardson said.
"That's why today, we're standing up Second Fleet to address these changes, particularly in the north Atlantic."
Norfolk has also been proposed as a host for the new Nato Joint Force Command for the Atlantic.
Nato officials say Russia has increased naval patrols in the Baltic Sea, the North Atlantic and the Arctic, and its submarine activity is at its highest level since the Cold War.
US Navy resurrects Second Fleet in Atlantic
The Second Fleet will be based at its former home - Norfolk, Virginia
The US Navy has said it will re-establish its Second Fleet, as Russia becomes more assertive.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm John Richardson said the fleet, disbanded in 2011, would oversee forces on the US East Coast and North Atlantic.
He said the National Defense Strategy, published earlier this year, made it clear that the era of great power competition had returned.
The strategy makes countering Russia and China a priority.
The fleet, which was disbanded for cost-saving and structural reasons, will be based in its previous home - Norfolk, Virginia.
"Our National Defense Strategy makes clear that we're back in an era of great power competition as the security environment continues to grow more challenging and complex," Adm Richardson said.
"That's why today, we're standing up Second Fleet to address these changes, particularly in the north Atlantic."
Norfolk has also been proposed as a host for the new Nato Joint Force Command for the Atlantic.
Nato officials say Russia has increased naval patrols in the Baltic Sea, the North Atlantic and the Arctic, and its submarine activity is at its highest level since the Cold War.
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