國際時事政治選舉集中理性討論區（四）

Omarosa worked in the Clinton White House long before she worked for Trump. Here's everything you need to know about her career.

https://www.businessinsider.com/omarosas-manigault-newman-history-with-trump-n-word-2018-8/#omarosa-made-her-primetime-debut-on-nbcs-the-apprentice-in-2004-2

Omarosa 的職業生涯Timeline

Omarosa Manigault-Newman, the firebrand communications director of the White House Office of Public Liaison who was abruptly fired in December, has released her tell-all book, "Unhinged: An Insider's Account of the White House."

In the book, she recounts her alleged experiences inside the Trump administration and campaign, making startling claims that include an accusation she heard a recording of Trump saying a racial slur.

But the Trump administration is fighting back, with the president leading the charge by downplaying her credibility and calling her names on Twitter.

In the days leading up to her book's release, Omarosa teased several audio tapes of her secretly recorded conversations with Trump's campaign and White House staffers.

She also made several explosive claims about Trump, including an assertion that she heard Trump say the N-word "multiple times" in reference to Kwame Jackson, a black contestant on NBC's "The Apprentice."

"It sounded as if he used it every day," Omarosa told MSNBC host Chris Matthews of the N-word. "It rolled off his mouth."

NBC的Today Show

Omarosa Manigault Full Interview On Secret Recordings, Alleges Audio Of Trump Saying N-Word | TODAY

https://youtu.be/S9IzA_M4l8s

其中，有好多位都係狂屌Kelly，話佢控制晒個White House同埋係冇通知侵侵情況下少佢，當中亦有講侵侵不停用N-word，而且係一個racist ，不過係佢俾人炒之後一日，佢先講侵侵唔係一個racist

Omarosa says Trump is a racist who uses N-word – and claims there is tape to prove it
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/10/omarosa-trump-book-the-apprentice-memoir

Donald Trump is a “racist” who has used the “N-word” repeatedly, Omarosa Manigault Newman, once the most prominent African American in the White House, claims in a searing memoir.

The future US president was caught on mic uttering the taboo racial slur “multiple times” during the making of his reality TV show The Apprentice and there is a tape to prove it, according to Manigault Newman, citing three unnamed sources.

In her book, Unhinged, a copy of which was obtained by the Guardian ahead of its publication next week, the former Apprentice participant insists that the reports are true, although she does not say she heard him use the word herself.

She also claims that she personally witnessed Trump use racial epithets about the White House counselor Kellyanne Conway’s husband George Conway, who is half Filipino. “Would you look at this George Conway article?” she quotes the president as saying. “F**ing FLIP! Disloyal! Fucking Goo-goo.”

兩日前 ，CBS又出咗一條新片，指侵侵的競選團隊一直都知有一段N-Word tape

Omarosa reveals audio of Trump campaign aides allegedly discussing potential fallout of N-word

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-audio-omarosa-trump-campaign-aides-apparently-discussing-fallout-of-n-word/

仲有野未寫，但係件事其實真係惹人討厭，因為成個姿態都好似sell緊佢本書。

當然，白宮入面而家就人心惶惶啦

‘People are terrified’: Trump staffers live in fear of Omarosa’s next tape

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/14/white-house-staff-omarosa-tapes-777490

A daily trickle of revealing internal conversations between staffers. Growing anxiety about what one might have once said. No sense of how long it will go on.

Omarosa Manigault Newman’s slow release of secretly taped conversations from inside the Trump campaign and White House is having the same effect on staffers as the daily dumps from WikiLeaks had on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, when chairman John Podesta’s emails were trickled out during the final stretch of the race.

“People are terrified,” one former Trump aide said of the tapes. “Absolutely terrified.”

FCC shuts down Alex Jones’s flagship radio station

http://thehill.com/policy/technology/technology/402063-fcc-shuts-down-alex-jones-flagship-radio-station

The Austin American-Statesman reported Wednesday that the pirate radio station, Liberty Radio, was hit with a $15,000 fine and at least temporarily pulled from the airwaves.

The newspaper reported that a lawsuit filed in federal court in Austin alleged that Liberty Radio had functioned without a license since at least 2013, and had been transmitting from a tower at an Austin apartment complex.

Liberty Radio stopped airing on the radio in December, but still streams online. The FCC is charging that the station was also illegally broadcasting on an FM wavelength.

The Hill Interview: Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey explains what got Alex Jones suspended

http://thehill.com/policy/technology/402072-the-hill-interview-twitter-ceo-jack-dorsey-explains-what-got-alex-jones

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey isn’t sure if the timeout given to Alex Jones will convince the right-wing conspiracy theorist to “reconsider” his social media behavior.

But Dorsey, in an interview with The Hill the morning after his company handed down a seven-day suspension to Jones, says its enforcement actions are intended to promote better behavior from its users.

“We're always trying to cultivate more of a learning mindset and help guide people back towards healthier behaviors and healthier public conversation,” the 41-year-old co-founder of Twitter said.

Apple, Facebook and Spotify are among the tech companies that have banned Jones and Infowars in the last 10 days, but Twitter argued Jones had not actually violated its content policies until a Tuesday tweet linking to a Periscope video in which he urged his followers to take up “battle rifles” in the crusade against censorship.

“We were getting a number of reports around the tweet and the Periscope that the content was inciting violence, which is against our terms of service and we took action,” Dorsey said.

If Jones again starts spreading unfounded rumors that the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax, Dorsey added, Twitter would certainly take action.

Qatari emir vows $15bn Turkey investment after Erdogan meeting

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/08/qatari-emir-vows-15bn-investment-turkey-erdogan-meeting-180815152545652.html

The Turkish lira rallied from record lows on Wednesday after Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani said Qatar was standing by its "brothers in Turkey" as he announced a $15bn investment into the country's financial markets and banks.

The emir's comments came after holding talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, Turkey's capital.

After falling by more than 45 percent against the US dollar, the Turkish lira firmed as far as 5.75 against the dollar on Wednesday - a more than five percent gain - and stood at 5.90 on Thursday morning.

Mali’s president wins second term in country plagued by violence

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/16/malis-president-wins-second-term-in-country-plagued-by-violence

Mali’s president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, has won a second term after taking 67% of the vote in a runoff election.

Opposition leader Soumaïla Cissé received more than 32% of the vote in Sunday’s poll.

The estimated turnout was 34%. Voters were put off by threats of violence from extremist groups, and there was widespread disillusion with veteran politicians, whose campaign promises failed to offer convincing solutions to the impoverished and violent west African country’s many problems.

The election looks unlikely to bring stability, which is key in the battle against Islamist extremism in the Sahel region and in efforts to curb illegal migration to Europe.

Cissé, 68, has said he will reject the results of the runoff, which was marred by allegations of ballot-box stuffing and other irregularities, calling on the population “to rise up”.

Poland's president vetoes altered election rules

https://www.dw.com/en/polands-president-vetoes-altered-election-rules/a-45106074

Polish President Andrzej Duda on Thursday said he would not sign a law put forward by the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party that would have effectively meant that no small party in Poland would have a chance at European Parliament elections next year.

"I've decided to veto this bill. This change would mean that the effective electoral threshold would rise to as much as 16.5 percent from 5 percent," Duda said on public television.

"This means that only two parties would have a real chance of winning representation in the European Parliament," Duda added.

Duda himself, a PiS ally, may have to rely on the support of smaller parties to be re-elected in 2020 polls.

無錯, 首先要分清楚, security clearance同assassibility係兩樣嘢黎

前者係指呢條check過某君, 佢身家清白/總統認為佢身家清白, 可以畀某級嘅機密資料佢睇
具體要視佢個clearance係咩lv而定

後者係佢有資格主動去拎邊啲嘢睇, 例如FBI局長可以自由睇FBI入面嘅案件資料, 但睇唔到CIA嘅, 要問CIA嗰邊, CIA那佢睇先得

之所以退休/離任情報/司法部人員會保有clearance, 係因為佢地嘅經驗好寶貴, 特別係退休嗰班. 佢地不在其位無accessibility, 拎唔到料睇, 但保有clearance意味住, 情報機關/司法部仍然可以係需要時, 直接畀資料佢地睇拎意見/分析, 唔洗再浪費時間, 同冒增加走漏風聲嘅風險再apply過

除非條友離任後, 從事嘅活動好撚有問題, 例如前國防顧問Flynn, 畀人揭發佢原來一直係土耳其agent, 但無申報, 所以先ban佢佢個clearance, 要再review過

無厘頭吊銷呢班前情報機關/司法部要人clearance, 同打自己情報機關一拳無分別

Paul Ryan上月被問到, 佢點睇Trump威脅要吊銷呢班前情報機關/司法部要人clearance, 佢話佢覺得係trolling

無錯, 係trolling, let this sink in

Omarosa releases new tape of Trump campaign's 'hush money' offer

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/16/omarosa-lara-trump-campaign-hush-money-tape

Omarosa Manigault Newman, the former White House aide, has released fresh audio recordings that she claims show she was offered “hush money” by Donald Trump’s re-election campaign.

Manigault Newman has already made several serious and provocative accusations about Trump and the White House in her book Unhinged, including that there are recordings of Trump using the N-word. The White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said earlier this week she was unable to guarantee that any such recording did not exist.

During an appearance on MSNBC on Thursday, Manigault Newman played excerpts of an apparent phone conversation between her and Lara Trump, Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law, which Manigault Newman claims was recorded shortly after her dismissal from the White House.

In the call, Lara Trump, who has a senior role in Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, offers Manigault Newman a job that would pay $180,000 a year in exchange for occasionally attending meetings in New York and doing “speaking engagements”.

In a statement, Lara Trump criticized Manigault Newman, calling the tapes “a fraud”, although she did not directly contradict anything on the recording.

She said that the Trump family “had no idea about basis of her dismissal” when she was fired from White House, and said “we still wanted her on our team because we cared so much about her personally. That’s why I reached out to offer her a position with the 2020 Trump campaign before we knew anything about the gross violations of ethics and integrity during her White House tenure.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBXkQsDuDWY

China is 'rapidly' expanding bomber training, probably for US strikes – Pentagon

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/17/pentagon-claims-china-military-likely-training-strikes-us-targets

China’s military has expanded its bomber operations in recent years while “likely training for strikes” against the United States and its allies, a Pentagon report released on Thursday has said.

The assessment was contained in an annual report that highlighted China’s efforts to increase its global influence, with defence spending that the Pentagon estimates exceeded $190bn in 2017.

“Over the last three years, the PLA [People’s Liberation Army] has rapidly expanded its overwater bomber operating areas, gaining experience in critical maritime regions and likely training for strikes against US and allied targets,” the report said, noting how China is pushing its operations out into the Pacific.

The report comes as China and the United States plan to hold trade talks, offering hope they might resolve an escalating tariff conflict that threatens to degenerate into an all-out trade war.

The report said that while the PLA had continued to extend operations, it was not clear what message Beijing was seeking to send by carrying out the flights “beyond a demonstration of improved capabilities”.

Turkey arrests another German citizen

https://www.dw.com/en/turkey-arrests-another-german-citizen/a-45111256

Another German citizen has been arrested by Turkish police on charges of terrorism after criticizing the Turkish government online, his lawyer said on Thursday.

Ilhami A., 46, was arrested on Tuesday morning while visiting his mother in the town of Saribasak in a largely Kurdish region of eastern Turkey, public broadcaster ARD reported.

His Turkish lawyer, Ercan Yildirim, told ARD Ilhami A. was accused of "terror propaganda" because he had criticized the Turkish government on social media.

Yildirim said his client had been locked up in the prison of Elazig and that he would file a complaint against the arrest.

The German Foreign Ministry confirmed the arrest and said he would receive consular assistance.

US forms action group to increase pressure on Iran

https://www.dw.com/en/us-forms-action-group-to-increase-pressure-on-iran/a-45112496

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday announced the formation of a so-called Iran Action Group aimed at increasing efforts to put additional diplomatic and economic pressure on Iran.

The group will push Washington's "maximum pressure" strategy to change Tehran's behavior.

"The Iran Action Group will be responsible for directing, reviewing and coordinating all aspects of the State Department's Iran-related activity, and will report directly to me," Pompeo said

It will be headed by current Director of Policy Planning Brian Hook as the State Department's special representative for Iran.

The new US body's formation comes after Washington reimposed sanctions of Iran in an effort to force Tehran to end its nuclear weapons program, halt support for militant groups in the Middle East and free detained American citizens.

The US has said it would only end the sanctions if Iran agreed to negotiate a new deal, but Iran and other signatories to the agreement, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China, have been working to find a way to save the acord, despite the actions of the United States.

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2018-midterm-election-forecast/house/

538.com : 75% DEM gain House of Reps

China offers Turkey moral support, says can overcome difficulties

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-currency-china/china-offers-turkey-moral-support-says-can-overcome-difficulties-idUSKBN1L210C

BEIJING (Reuters) - China offered moral support to Turkey on Friday as Ankara reeled from a currency crisis and U.S. sanctions, saying it believed the country could overcome its “temporary” economic difficulties, in Beijing’s first comment on the issue.

The Turkish lira TRYTOM=D3 has lost a third of its value against the dollar this year as worsening relations between the NATO allies Turkey and the United States added to losses driven by concerns over President Tayyip Erdogan's influence over monetary policy.

In a brief statement, China’s Foreign Ministry said that it had noted the “new direction” of the Turkish economy and its foreign relations.

“Turkey is an important emerging market country, and it remaining stable and developing benefits regional peace and stability,” the ministry added.

“China believes that Turkey has the ability to overcome the temporary economic difficulties, and hopes the relevant sides can ease their differences via dialogue,” it said, referring to Turkey and the United States.

Exclusive: U.S. government seeks Facebook help to wiretap Messenger - sources

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-encryption-exclusive/exclusive-u-s-government-seeks-facebook-help-to-wiretap-messenger-sources-idUSKBN1L226D

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The U.S. government is trying to force Facebook Inc (FB.O) to break the encryption in its popular Messenger app so law enforcement may listen to a suspect’s voice conversations in a criminal probe, three people briefed on the case said, resurrecting the issue of whether companies can be compelled to alter their products to enable surveillance.

The previously unreported case in a federal court in California is proceeding under seal, so no filings are publicly available, but the three people told Reuters that Facebook is contesting the U.S. Department of Justice’s demand.

The judge in the Messenger case heard arguments on Tuesday on a government motion to hold Facebook in contempt of court for refusing to carry out the surveillance request, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Facebook and the Department of Justice declined to comment.

The Messenger issue arose in Fresno, California, as part of an investigation of the MS-13 gang, one of the people said.

Facebook says it can only comply with the government’s request if it rewrites the code relied upon by all its users to remove encryption or else hacks the government’s current target, according to the sources.

Turkish court rejects U.S. pastor Brunson's appeal for release: Haberturk

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-security-usa/turkish-court-rejects-u-s-pastor-brunsons-appeal-for-release-haberturk-idUSKBN1L21AD

ANKARA (Reuters) - A Turkish court has rejected an appeal to release American Christian pastor Andrew Brunson from house arrest, broadcaster Haberturk said on Friday.

Brunson, an Evangelical pastor residing in the coastal province of Izmir, is standing trial in Turkey over terrorism charges. His case now lies at the heart of a diplomatic crisis between Turkey and the United States that has prompted a crash of Turkey’s lira currency.

The lira, which has lost some 40 percent of its value this year, weakened beyond 6.21 against the U.S. dollar after the news, from 6.04 beforehand.

Imran Khan confirmed as Pakistan prime minister

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-45219455

Former cricket star Imran Khan has been elected prime minister of Pakistan in a vote at the country's National Assembly.

His PTI party won the most seats in July's elections - setting up Mr Khan to become PM with the help of small parties, more than two decades after he first entered politics.

He will be sworn in on Saturday.

Mr Khan, 65, will inherit a country with a mounting economic crisis and he has vowed to create a "new Pakistan".

The charismatic sports star, who captained Pakistan to a World Cup victory in 1992, has long shed his celebrity playboy image and now styles himself as a pious, populist, anti-poverty reformer.

Kofi Annan, former UN chief, dies at 80

Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary-general who won the Nobel Peace Prize for humanitarian work, has died aged 80, international diplomats say.

Annan was the first black African to take up the role of the world's top diplomat, serving two terms from 1997 to 2006.

He later served as the UN special envoy for Syria, leading efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-45232892

UN chief presents Palestinian protection proposals

https://www.dw.com/en/un-chief-presents-palestinian-protection-proposals/a-45126736

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday presented four possibilities to improve the protection of Palestinian civilians.

The proposals were outlined in a report requested by the UN General Assembly in response to increased violence in Gaza, where 171 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since late March.

The four options include

Providing a "more robust UN presence on the ground" with rights monitors and political officers to report on the situation.

Additional UN humanitarian and development aid to "ensure the well-being of the population."

Creating a civilian observer mission to be present in sensitive areas such as checkpoints and near Israeli settlements, with a mandate to report on protection issues.

Deploying an armed military or police force, under a UN mandate, to provide physical protection to Palestinian civilians.

Yazidi woman encounters 'Islamic State' captor in Germany

https://www.dw.com/en/yazidi-woman-encounters-islamic-state-captor-in-germany/a-45114593

A 19-year-old Yazidi woman has fled Germany with her family after encountering the "Islamic State" (IS) fighter who had enslaved her in Mosul on the streets of Schwäbisch Gmünd, a town in Baden-Württemberg.

Ashwaq Haji Hamid arrived in the southwestern state with her family in 2015 through a program aimed at assisting Yazidi women who had been subjected to violence by IS.

In 2014, IS committed what the UN concluded was a genocide of Yazidis in northern Iraq. The militant group also abducted scores of women and children, including Hamid, who were sold into slavery.

But while attempting to leave her past behind, she was confronted by her tormenter, who had kept her as a slave for 10 weeks.

"I ran away from Iraq so I would not see that ugly face and forget anything that reminds me of it, but I was shocked to see him in Germany," Ashwaq Haji Hamid told InfoMigrants, a news site about migration run by DW, France Medias Monde and Italy's ANSA agency.

"The first time was in 2016," she said. "He was chasing me. He was the same person, but the second time, he came close to me and told me he knew everything about me."

Authorities confirmed on Friday that a 19-year-old had filed a complaint corresponding with Hamid's story. However, police in Baden-Württemberg say they did launch an investigation in March.

Local law enforcement put together a facial composite, but said the information Hamid provided was not accurate enough and that they were unable to match the name she gave them with any registered person.

Federal prosecutors took over the investigation in June, but by then Hamid was in Iraq with her family. The probe could not progress further because the "witness is currently unavailable" Baden-Württemberg police said in a Tweet on Wednesday.

Chinese President Xi to visit North Korea next month: Straits Times

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-north-korea/chinese-president-xi-to-visit-north-korea-next-month-straits-times-idUSKBN1L3050

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to visit Pyongyang next month at the invitation of North Korea leader Kim Jong Un to attend the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of North Korea’s founding, Singapore’s Straits Times newspaper reported.

It will be the Chinese leader’s first visit to the North Korean capital since he took power in 2012, and 13 years after the last visit by a Chinese President, when Xi’s predecessor Hu Jintao visited in 2005, the newspaper said on Saturday.

The Straits Times did not say where it obtained the information and the Chinese foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

China's top diplomat says cooperation with Iran to continue: Xinhua

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-nuclear-china/chinas-top-diplomat-says-cooperation-with-iran-to-continue-xinhua-idUSKBN1L2297

(Reuters) - China will continue its cooperation and relations with Iran, state news agency Xinhua reported on Friday, citing a statement from Chinese State Councillor Wang Yi.

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 deal in which Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear work in return for the lifting of most Western sanctions, is in line with the international community’s “common interest”, the Chinese diplomat said in a phone conversation with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, according to Xinhua.

“We have openly indicated that we oppose the wrong practices of unilateral sanctions and ‘long-arm jurisdiction’ in international relations,” Wang Yi was quoted as saying.

Beijing has cultivated close commercial links with Tehran, especially in the energy sector.

China’s Empire of Money Is Reshaping Global Trade

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-08-01/china-s-empire-of-money-is-reshaping-lives-across-new-silk-road



Xi calls the grand initiative “a road for peace.” Other world powers such as Japan and the U.S. remain skeptical about its stated aims and even more worried about unspoken ones, especially those hinting at military expansion. To assess the reality of Belt and Road from the ground up, Bloomberg Markets deployed a team of reporters to five cities on three continents at the forefront of China’s grand plan.

What emerges is a picture of mostly poor nations—laggards during the past half-century of global growth—that jumped at the promise of Chinese-financed projects they hoped would help them catch up. And yet as some high-profile ones falter and the cost of their Chinese funding rises, would-be beneficiaries from Hambantota, Sri Lanka, to Piraeus, Greece, are questioning the long-term price. In Malaysia, one of the biggest recipients of Chinese investment in Southeast Asia, newly installed Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is pushing back. Expressing concerns about loan conditions and the use of Chinese labor that limit benefits to the local economy, he’s put billions of dollars of Chinese-­funded rail and pipeline projects on hold.

Belt and Road is very much about politics at home, too. With the government and state-owned enterprises investing vast sums outside China, Xi is encouraging Chinese companies to channel their spending into domestic projects that will directly benefit the economy and, incidentally, the popularity of his regime.

“Economic clout is diplomacy by other means. It’s not for today. It’s for mid-21st century China”

高學歷廢青:【有片】Wall Street Journal整咗個4分鐘短片，講解新疆集中營嘅現況

https://lihkg.com/thread/784673/page/1

https://www.wsj.com/video/life-inside-china-re-education-camps/23B07DC7-76DC-4180-8033-20942D501BFF.html?mod=trending_now_video_1

Nigel Farage: ‘I’m back’ to fight Theresa May’s Brexit plan

https://www.politico.eu/article/nigel-farage-im-back-to-fight-theresa-mays-brexit-plan/

Nigel Farage is back — again — promising to teach Remainers a lesson “they will never forget.”

The MEP and leader of the right-wing Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy faction in the European Parliament has pledged to help raise funds and make appearances for a re-launch of the Brexit campaign dubbed Leave Means Leave.

“Under Theresa May’s fraudulent Chequers plan, the people have … been offered a form of regulatory alignment,” the three-time leader of UKIP said in an opinion piece for The Telegraph on Saturday, describing May’s plan as the “Chequers betrayal” and a “cowardly sell-out.”

Farage’s latest intervention comes as momentum builds for a referendum on any final Brexit deal hammered out between London and Brussels, and as public opinion in some key leave-voting constituencies shifts toward Remain.

Farage said his return was to quash “baseless” claims about the negative impact of Brexit and challenge those who call for a re-think on the original June 2016 referendum result to leave the EU.

White House Counsel cooperates with Russia investigation: New York Times

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-papadopoulos/u-s-special-counsel-recommends-six-months-in-prison-for-papadopoulos-idUSKBN1L3015

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House’s top lawyer has cooperated extensively with the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, sharing detailed accounts about the episodes at the heart of the inquiry into whether President Donald Trump obstructed justice, the New York Times reported on Saturday.

Citing a dozen current and former White House officials and others briefed on the matter, the newspaper said White House Counsel Donald McGahn had shared information, some of which the investigators would not have known about.

McGahn voluntarily cooperated with Mueller’s team as a regular witness, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters, as the White House asked many staffers to do. He was not subpoenaed nor did he speak to them under any kind of proffer or cooperation agreement.

The person also said he did not believe McGahn provided Mueller with incriminating information about Trump. McGahn provided the facts but nothing he saw or heard amounts to obstruction of justice by Trump, the person told Reuters.

Tough talks, no agreements at Merkel, Putin meeting near Berlin

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-russia/tough-talks-no-agreements-at-merkel-putin-meeting-near-berlin-idUSKBN1L22B2

MESEBERG, Germany (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, as well as Iran and a gas pipeline project that has drawn U.S. ire during tough talks outside Berlin that ended with no clearcut progress.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters no agreements were reached, but the meeting had simply been intended to “check the watches” after Merkel’s meeting with Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi in May.

Ties between the two countries have been strained since Russia’s annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine in 2014.

The two leaders both viewed the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project as a purely commercial venture, despite persistent fire by the U.S. and Ukrainian governments, Peskov said.

Merkel said it was important to avert a humanitarian crisis in Idlib, Syria and the surrounding region, and said she and Putin had already discussed the issue of constitutional reforms and possible elections when they last met in Sochi in May.

Putin told reporters that everything must be done to help Syrian refugees to return to their country and that Syria needed assistance to rebuild. The two leaders took no questions.

On Ukraine, Merkel said she hoped fresh efforts could be undertaken at the beginning of the new school year to disentangle Ukrainian military forces and separatists on the front lines in the Donbass region.