Trump says this is all a hoax. Mueller, Congress and Facebook disagree - CNN

Trump says this is all a hoax. Mueller, Congress and Facebook disagree.

by Brian Stelter @brianstelter

September 22, 2017: 9:54 AM ET

Special counsel Robert Mueller and three congressional committees are investigating Russian interference in the election, but President Trump is still telling his fans it's a "hoax."

Trump used the "Russia hoax" label on Friday for the first time in six weeks. He said in a tweet that scrutiny over Facebook ads from Russian-linked accounts was just part of the continuing "hoax."

Then the president asked: "What about the totally biased and dishonest Media coverage in favor of Crooked Hillary?"

Trump was echoing conservative commentators who say he won the election in spite of grossly unfair media coverage.

The timing is curious. Hillary Clinton has been on a highly successful book tour for the past two weeks. Her campaign memoir, "What Happened," is firmly in first place on bestseller lists, and it smashed first-week sales records for publisher Simon & Schuster.

During the book tour, Clinton herself has sharply criticized the news media's influence on the election. Her view is that the press went relatively easy on Trump, partly because they thought Clinton would win, which gave him a big advantage.

Trump has an opposite view. "The greatest influence over our election was the Fake News Media 'screaming' for Crooked Hillary Clinton," he tweeted on Friday. "Next, she was a bad candidate!"

In effect he's saying "look over there," at media bias, "not over there," at the mounting evidence that Russia tried to sway the election in his favor.

Related: Facebook is planning big changes to political ads on its site. Are they enough?

New leaks and revelations emerge every day about Russian meddling in the election. Some of the stories describe connections between Russians and people in Trump's orbit.

Facebook's role in inadvertently spreading Russian propaganda, some of it explicitly anti-Clinton, has come into focus this month. On Thursday, the company pledged to hand 3,000 Russia-linked ads over to Congress, and it announced a nine-point plan in response to election interference.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg clearly doesn't think the talk of Russian interference is a "hoax." Nor do national security officials or congressional leaders. They agree the meddling attempts must be thoroughly investigated.

Related: Facebook says it will hand Russian ads over to Congress

That's what makes Trump's denials stand out. He started using the word "hoax" in connection to Russia six months ago.

"Trump Russia story is a hoax. #MAGA!" he tweeted on March 28.

On May 8, shortly before firing FBI director James Comey, he said it again: "The Russia-Trump collusion story is a total hoax, when will this taxpayer funded charade end?"

Trump said it again in June, July and August.

"That's a total witch hunt, the whole Russia story. It's a hoax. It's a hoax. We had no collusion with Russia. We never dealt with Russia," he told The Wall Street Journal on July 25.

A week later, at a rally in Phoenix, he criticized Democrats' "obsession with the Russian hoax."

A side effect of attacking the media, as Trump often does, is that his supporters are less likely to believe the pile of news stories documenting Russian interference.

Conservative Trump critic Bill Kristol pointed out that Trump's Friday tweetstorm "doesn't merely deny collusion with Russia, as one might expect. He seems to deny the fact of Russian interference."

Bangladesh PM wants Rohingya safe zones in Myanmar - Al Jazeera

Bangladesh PM wants Rohingya safe zones in Myanmar

In speech to UN, Sheikh Hasina presses Myanmar to allow the return of 'hungry, distressed and hopeless' refugees.

Bangladesh's prime minister has accused Myanmar of ethnic cleansing of its Rohingya people and urged the country to allow the return of "hungry, distressed and hopeless" refugees.

Sheikh Hasina told the UN General Assembly on Thursday that Bangladesh was sheltering more than 800,000 Rohingya, of whom 430,000 had arrived in the past three weeks.

She called for safe zones to be created under UN supervision in Myanmar's Rakhine state.

"We are horrified to see that the Myanmar authorities are laying landmines along their stretch of the border to prevent the Rohingya from returning to Myanmar," Hasina said.

Mobs target non-Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar

"These people must be able to return to their homeland in safety, security and dignity."

More than half of the displaced Rohingya are living in makeshift camps with little access to shelter, food, clean water and sanitation, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

On Tuesday, Marzuki Darusman, the head of the UN Fact-Finding Mission, said they were seeking access to Myanmar to investigate allegations of mass killings and torture.

Children make up about 60 percent of more than 420,000 people who have poured in to Bangladesh. They have seen family members killed and homes set on fire.

They have known fear and terror. And they have endured dangerous journeys through forests and on rickety boats.

Sometimes they have done it alone. UNICEF has so far counted more than 1,400 children who have crossed the border with neither parent.

A Rohingya child cries amid a crowd of elders to receive food being distributed [AP]

Now they have traded the fear and terror of Rakhine for the chaos of refugee camps in Bangladesh.

Tens of thousands of strangers are living in the refugee camps, packed in normally uninhabitable places.

Child refugees face many dangers, including separation from their families, trafficking, servitude, and abuse.

Hunger is a constant and most children have to beg at some point if they are to eat. And to do that they have to leave their tents.

Their parents, who are simply too overwhelmed and impoverished themselves, cannot chaperone them.

UNICEF has set up what the agency calls "Child Friendly Spaces" within the camps.

Children make up about 60 percent of the sea of humanity that has poured in to Bangladesh [AP]

These are spaces where children can be around each other, where they can play and sing and have books read to them.

In a small room that was built just a week ago in this refugee camp happy faces abound, with balloons and drawings hung around the walls and ceiling.

But the children are all too aware of the terrors they have witnessed and aid agencies like UNICEF and MSF say they are barely scratching the surface when it comes to addressing their mental and physical well-being.

The Aid agency Save the Children warns that more than 600,000 Rohingya children could be in Bangladesh by the end of the year. Many of them will probably be orphans who will need urgent assistance.

China pleads with Kim Jong-un and Trump to stop 'provoking each other' - Daily Mail

China pleads with Kim Jong-un and Trump to stop 'provoking each other' and warns the situation is 'grave' as North Korea threatens to detonate hydrogen bomb over the Pacific

Chinese foreign minister Lu Kang said situation is 'grave' and advised 'restraint'

He said that 'all relevant parties' should be trying to avoid 'provoking each other'

North Korea is planning to test a powerful hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean

Threat comes after Donald Trump vowed to 'totally destroy' the rogue state

Kim Jong-un called Mr Trump 'mentally deranged' when he spoke at the UN

By Iain Burns For Mailonline and Afp

China has warned that the situation on the Korean Peninsula is 'grave' and called for restraint on all sides after North Korea hinted it might blow up a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific Ocean.

The appeal came as a war of words between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un escalated, with the young North Korean leader calling the 71-year-old American president a 'mentally deranged US dotard'.

'The situation on the Korean Peninsula now is grave,' Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a regular press briefing in Beijing.

'All relevant parties should exercise restraint instead of provoking each other,' he said.

'We believe that only if relevant parties meet each other halfway can they really solve the Korean Peninsula issue and truly realise peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.'

North Korea's top diplomat said the country planned to test the bomb to fulfill Kim Jong Un's (pictured) vow to take the 'highest-level of hard-line countermeasure in history' against the US +7

North Korea's top diplomat said the country planned to test the bomb to fulfill Kim Jong Un's (pictured) vow to take the 'highest-level of hard-line countermeasure in history' against the US

China has repeatedly called for peace talks, suggesting that Pyongyang halt its nuclear activities in return for the United States suspending military drills in the region.

It comes as North Korea said it is planning to test a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean after Donald Trump vowed to 'totally destroy' Kim Jong-un's rogue state.

North Korea's top diplomat said the country planned to test the bomb to fulfill Kim Jong Un's vow to take the 'highest-level of hard-line countermeasure in history' against the US.

The threat comes after US President Donald Trump said he would 'totally destroy' North Korea.

At his UN address on Tuesday, President Trump warned the North Korean leader that the United States, if threatened, would destroy the country of 26 million people.

Off-duty police officer, 25, charged with indecently...

Kim Jong-un confirmed his nuclear program was on the 'correct path' this week.

'His remarks... have convinced me, rather than frightening or stopping me, that the path I chose is correct and that it is the one I have to follow to the last,' Kim Jong-un said in a statement.

He called Mr Trump 'mentally deranged' and said the US President's comments were 'the most ferocious declaration of war in history'.

'I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged US dotard with fire,' Kim said in the rare direct statement, referring to Trump.

'He has made unprecedented rude nonsense one has never heard from any of his predecessors.

'A frightened dog barks louder.'

The letter, issued in the leader's own name, was unusual for North Korea.

'I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged US dotard with fire,' Kim said in the rare direct statement, referring to Trump +7

'I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged US dotard with fire,' Kim said in the rare direct statement, referring to Trump

At his UN address on Tuesday, President Trump warned the North Korean leader that the United States, if threatened, would take out the country of 26 million people +7

At his UN address on Tuesday, President Trump warned the North Korean leader that the United States, if threatened, would take out the country of 26 million people

North Korea celebrates the nuclear scientists and technicians

'I'd like to advise Trump to exercise prudence in selecting words and to be considerate of whom he speaks to when making a speech in front of the world,' the statement said.

'After taking office, Trump has rendered the world restless through threats and blackmail against all countries in the world.

'He is unfit to hold the prerogative of supreme command of a country, and he is surely a rogue and a gangster fond of playing with fire, rather than a politician.'

He offered more vitriol for Trump, saying he was 'unfit to hold the prerogative of supreme command of a country, and he would 'pay dearly for his speech calling for totally destroying North Korea'.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un inspecting a launching drill of the medium-and-long range strategic ballistic rocket Hwasong-12 at an undisclosed location +7

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un inspecting a launching drill of the medium-and-long range strategic ballistic rocket Hwasong-12 at an undisclosed location

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (not pictured) guides the

'Whatever Trump might have expected, he will face results beyond his expectation,' Kim said.

Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said it 'could be the most powerful detonation of an H-bomb in the Pacific', according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

Ri reportedly added: 'We have no idea about what actions could be taken as it will be ordered by leader Kim Jong Un'.

If North Korea launches the test, it will be considered a major provocation by Washington and its allies.

Ri reportedly added: 'We have no idea about what actions could be taken as it will be ordered by leader Kim Jong Un'

President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday designed to choke North Korea's economy.

The president said the new order would cut off sources of revenue that funded North Korea's efforts to develop what he called 'the deadliest weapons known to humankind'.

The order was designed to dissuade Pyongyang from pursuing its nuclear missile program.

Pyongyang is the capital city of North Korea.