Investigations by the Observer and New York Times newspapers claim details from 50 million profiles were gathered without the users’ knowledge.

The company, Cambridge Analytica, was suspended from Facebook on Friday.

Both Facebook and Cambridge Analytica deny any wrongdoing.

The American data analysis firm – which is not associated with the famous British university – is well known for the role it played in President Trump’s election campaign, where it provided intricate data on the thoughts of American voters.

Allegations against it centre on a professor from the University of Cambridge, Aleksandr Kogan, who designed a personality testing Facebook app called thisisyourdigitallife. The app was a private enterprise, and not part of his university work.

The app, created in November 2013 for the Facebook platform, asked users for permission to access their profile information – and also that of their friends’.

It is alleged that Mr Kogan then sold that data on to Cambridge Analytica, in violation of Facebook’s policies.

A whistleblower who worked at Cambridge Analytica spoke to The Guardian,claiming that he worked with Mr Kogan “to harvest millions of people’s profiles.”

“We exploited Facebook… and built models to exploit what we knew about them and target their inner demons. That was the basis the entire company was built on,” he said.

How did it access so many profiles?

• Mr Kogan’s app requested permission from people taking his personality quiz to access some information from their Facebook profiles.
• About 265,000 people had downloaded the app at the time – and it also asked for permission to request “more limited information” from the user’s friends.
• Facebook says this “is no longer possible” – but at the time, such a request was controlled by the privacy settings of that user’s friends. So if a user had their account set to allow sharing with a friend’s apps, and the friend gave permission to Mr Kogan’s app, it could read some information.
• Facebook’s policies, however, said that this data can only be used for the app’s stated purpose – and cannot be transferred or sold on.

Cambridge Analytica, however, said that once the company learned about how the data provided by Mr Kogan was sourced, it deleted all the relevant records, in December 2015.

It said none of that data was used in the services it provided to Mr Trump’s campaign. It added that it did not use or hold data from Facebook profiles .

But in a statement, Facebook wrote that it had “we received reports that, contrary to the certifications we were given, not all data was deleted”.

A spokesperson for Facebook also said that the data collection was not a hack or a breach.

“People knowingly provided their information, no systems were infiltrated, and no passwords or sensitive pieces of information were stolen or hacked,” the company said.

Britain’s Observer newspaper reports that the incident was known about more than two years ago.

But the newspaper said Facebook’s action to ban Cambridge Analytica and its parent group SCL this week happened four days after its reporters contacted the social network for comment about its upcoming story.

On Saturday, as the story emerged in newspapers, the UK Information Commissioner, the country’s main data protection regulator, said it was “investigating the circumstances in which Facebook data may have been illegally acquired and used”.

However, the statement did not mention Mr Kogan, his company, or Cambridge Analytica, instead saying it was part of an “ongoing investigation into the use of data analytics for political purposes”.

Alexander Nix, founder of Cambridge Analytica, was interviewed by a committee of British MPs last month on the firm’s practices.

–

Source: BBC

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They say the memos could support allegations that the president sought to obstruct justice.

Mr McCabe was fired from the FBI on Friday following an internal inquiry. Mr Trump had accused him of bias.

The president has also dismissed the Russia investigation as a “witch hunt”.

The investigation is led by special counsel Robert Mueller, himself a former FBI director. He has so far indicted 19 people.

Also on Saturday, the president’s lawyer John Dowd issued a statement saying it was time for the special counsel’s investigation to end.

Why was McCabe fired?

Mr McCabe had been under internal investigation by the FBI and had already stepped down from his deputy post in January pending the review.

He was sacked just two days short of his 50 birthday on Sunday, when he was expected to retire with a federal pension.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the “extensive and fair investigation” had concluded that Mr McCabe “made an unauthorised disclosure to the news media and lacked candour – including under oath – on multiple occasions”.

Although the decision to fire Mr McCabe was made by Mr Sessions, Mr Trump had criticised him for months.

He has publicly pointed to donations that Mr McCabe’s wife, a Democrat, received from a Clinton ally when she ran unsuccessfully for the state Senate in 2015 as evidence that Mr McCabe was politically biased.

In December Mr Trump tweeted: “FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is racing the clock to retire with full benefits. 90 days to go?!!!”

He welcomed the news of his dismissal almost immediately after Mr Sessions announced it, calling the move a “great day for democracy”.

Mr Trump’s tweet about the firing provoked an angry response from former CIA director John Brennan, who implied Mr McCabe was being made a scapegoat.

What could the memos say?

News that Mr McCabe had kept records of his conversations with Mr Trump and FBI Director at the time James Comey emerged on Saturday.

US media say the memos will support Mr Comey’s account of the circumstances of his dismissal last May.

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They were arrested at different states for various immigration offences such abuse of the terms of their visas and engaging in illegal employment.

[contextly_sidebar id=”3JycAsPzqAuiwOG5Nh2erQVT5SN6MdEH”]The deportees, all males, came on a chartered flight on Wednesday morning.

More deportations expected

It is expected that more Ghanaians who are at various detention centres across the USA will be deported this year.

Detained between 6 and 12 months prior to deportation

Information indicates that, they were detained for periods ranging from between six and 12 months before being deported to Ghana.

82 Came with travel certificates

Out of the 86 people deported, 82, who did not have passports, came with travel certificates, while four traveled with Ghanaian passports.

Regional breakdown of deportees

The regional breakdown of the deportees is as follows: Greater Accra – 37, Ashanti – 24, Brong Ahafo – six, Northern – five, Upper West – four, Western – four, Eastern – three, Upper East – two, and one from Volta Region.

The deportees have been processed by the Ghana Immigration Service and have since joined their families.

7,000 Ghanaians in US await deportation

In 2017, US Ambassador to Ghana, Robert Jackson, revealed that the Trump administration in America was set to deport over 7,000 Ghanaians who have abused the terms of their visas.

At the time, he said the Ghanaians were at different stages of the deportation process.

“In fact, about 7,000 of them are currently at different stages of the deportation process. And we are not apologetic about that,” he told the Ghanaian media last year.

1,968 Ghanaians deported in 2016

Statistics from the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) revealed that a total of 1,968 Ghanaians who traveled to various countries around the world were either deported or refused entry to the country they were traveling to.

The breakdown of the figure shows that 1,245 Ghanaians were refused entry into various destinations abroad for failing to meet their respective entry conditions in 2016.

This means the refusal of entry into various destinations of Ghanaians shot up by 50.5% from the 827 figure recorded in 2015.

Reasons for refusal of entry include the traveler failing to provide clear information on where the individual is going, misbehaviour towards immigration officer, not having sufficient funds, information provided at entry point contradicts information provided on application form submitted to the embassy to get the visa, and possessing fake visa.

It is explained that visa offers partial clearance and that immigration officers have the discretion to grant or deny travellers entry.

723 Deportations in 2015

A total of 723 Ghanaians were deported from various countries abroad for non-compliance to immigration and other related laws of those countries.

Of the number, 42 were voluntarily repatriated whilst 38 were deported together on a special flight (mass deportation).

The remaining 681 came on commercial flights.

It must be emphasised that Ghanaians continue to be deported on commercial flights, hence the huge numbers for deportees during the year under review.

Breakdown of deportations

The top 10 countries where Ghanaians were deported from include Saudi Arabia – 291, USA – 74, UK – 44, Kuwait – 44, Germany – 41, and Malaysia – 22.

The rest are Thailand – 14, Italy – 13, Israel – 13, and Egypt – six.

3,556 Deported in 2014

It has emerged that a total of 3,556 Ghanaians who traveled to various countries around the world were deported in 2014.

The breakdown involved 2,618 deportees, who came on commercial flights; 76 came as mass deportees; 725 were inadmissible, which means they got to the airport of the country of destination but were refused entry; and 137 were removed or refused entry.

Additionally, 93 Ghanaians returned home through voluntary repatriation while 77 stowaways were arrested and deported to Ghana.

2, 940 Deportees in 2013

Data from the GIS revealed that as many as 2,940 Ghanaians were deported to Ghana in 2013 while the number of Ghanaians who were refused entry into the various countries they were travelling to at airports amounted to 676.

According to the data, a total of 237 Ghanaians were voluntarily repatriated from various countries to Ghana last year.

The GIS information also indicates that 179 people who hid aboard ships (stowaways) in order to obtain free passage into other countries were also arrested and deported to Ghana.

–

Source: The Finder Newspaper

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His order cited “credible evidence” that the proposed $140bn (£100bn) deal “threatens to impair the national security of the US”.

There were concerns the takeover could have led to China pulling ahead in the development of 5G wireless technology.

The deal would have been the biggest technology sector takeover on record.

A takeover of Qualcomm by Broadcom would have created the world’s third-largest maker of microchips, behind Intel and Samsung.

The chipmaking sector is in a race to develop chips for the latest 5G wireless technology and Qualcomm is considered to be a leader in this field, followed by Broadcom and China’s telecoms giant Huawei.

Analysts say Qualcomm is highly regarded for its commitment to research and development (R&D), particularly in the field of 5G technology. Huawei is equally committed to R&D in the area.

However, Broadcom is better known for selling assets and growing through acquisitions, and deemed to be weaker on R&D.

With this in mind, analysts have said a deal between Qualcomm and Broadcom could have given Huawei the chance to take over the top spot in years to come – a situation US politicians wanted to prevent given their ongoing security concerns around Chinese telecom firms doing business with US carriers.

Others have said Mr Trump’s decision was more about competitiveness than security concerns.

“Given the current political climate in the US and other regions around the world, everyone is taking a more conservative view on mergers and acquisitions and protecting their own domains,” said Mario Morales, vice president of enabling technologies and semiconductors at global research firm IDC.

“We are all at the start of a race, and you have 5G as a crown jewel that everyone wants to participate in – and every region is racing towards that,” he told the BBC.

“Semiconductor technology and companies like Qualcomm will be an important weapon in that 5G arms race [and] the US like other nations and regions want to be first.”

Broadcom said it was reviewing the order and “strongly disagrees that its proposed acquisition of Qualcomm raises any national security concerns”.

The company had been pursuing San Diego-based Qualcomm for about four months.

Last week, however, Broadcom’s hostile takeover bid was put under investigationby the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS), a multi-agency body led by the US Treasury Department.

The US company had rejected approaches from its rival on the grounds that the offer undervalued the business, and also that any takeover would face antitrust hurdles.

Earlier this year, Chinese telecoms giant Huawei said it had not been able to strike a deal to sell its new smartphone via a US carrier, widely believed to be AT&T.

The US also recently blocked the $1.2bn sale of money transfer firm Moneygram to China’s Ant Financial, the digital payments arm of Alibaba.

–

Source: BBC

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In a surprise development, Mr Trump on Friday accepted North Korea’s invitation to direct talks.

South Korean officials said Mr Kim was prepared to give up his nuclear weapons.

Details on the planned talks remain vague, with no agreement yet on the location or agenda.

Analysts are sceptical about what can be achieved through talks given the complexity of the issues involved.

“We have not seen nor received an official response from the North Korean regime regarding the North Korea-US summit,” a spokesman for the South Korean Ministry of Unification said on Monday.

“I feel they’re approaching this matter with caution and they need time to organise their stance.”

South Korean officials who spoke to Trump are now on the way to China and Japan to brief the leaders of each country on the upcoming talks.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s top security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, is scheduled to meet China’s President Xi Jinping. Meanwhile, Suh Hoon, chief of the intelligence agency, is headed to Tokyo to speak with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Unprecedented step

The surprise proposal for the summit comes after more than a year of heated rhetoric between North Korea and the US, and global concern that the hostilities might escalate into military confrontation.

North Korea has conducted several nuclear tests over the past year and developed long-distance missiles it says can carry nuclear bombs as far as the US mainland.

Talks between the countries would mark an unprecedented step in the conflict as no sitting US president has ever met with a North Korean leader.

Still, details of the meeting remain unclear.

“Pyongyang probably wants to wait to see how the offer was received in Washington,” Andray Abrahamian, Research Fellow at Pacific Forum CSIS, told the BBC.

“There’s already been a bit of confusion in the messaging from the White House so it probably makes sense to get some of the ground rules established before go public with it,” Mr Abrahamian said.

Sanctions relief

If the summit goes ahead, Mr Trump is expected to meet the North Korean leader by the end of May, while South Korean President Moon and Mr Kim will hold separate talks ahead of that.

Observers are divided on whether talks could pave the way to Pyongyang giving up its nuclear ambitions or whether North Korea is merely seeking a propaganda win and a break from years of crippling international sanctions.

“Their short term objectives will be to get some relief from the sanctions,” Mr Abrahamin said.

“Many pundits seem vexed that Kim Jong-un will use a summit for propaganda. This should not be a big concern….[it] doesn’t mean that the United States is giving approval to its political system, human rights record or weapons programmes,” he added.

CIA director Mike Pompeo on Sunday defended Donald Trump’s decision to meet with Mr Kim, saying the president understands the risks of the talks and the administration had its eyes “wide open” to the challenge of dealing with North Korea.

The US president told supporters at a rally on Saturday that he believed North Korea wanted to “make peace” but said he might leave talks if no progress for nuclear disarmament could be made.

According to US media reports, Mr Trump made the decision to meet Mr Kim without consulting key figures in his administration, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson confirmed to reporters the decision was one “the president took himself”.

–

Source: BBC

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It is the latest in a series of high-profile departures from President Trump’s team.

There has been speculation that Mr Cohn, a supporter of free trade, was angered by Mr Trump’s plans to impose tariffs on aluminium and steel imports.

In a statement released by the White House, Mr Cohn said it had been “an honour to serve my country”.

The 57-year-old former president of the Goldman Sachs bank helped Mr Trump push through his sweeping tax reforms late last year.

However, the two were not believed to be close.

In August 2017, Mr Cohn criticised Mr Trump over his reaction to a far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, saying the administration “can and must do better”. He was reported to have drafted a resignation letter after the event.

“It has been an honour to serve my country and enact pro-growth economic policies to benefit the American people, in particular the passage of historic tax reform,” Mr Cohn said in his statement.

“I am grateful to the president for giving me this opportunity and wish him and the administration great success in the future.”

Analysis by Anthony Zurcher, BBC News, Washington

Gary Cohn was a bit of a stranger in a strange land. He was a Democrat in a Republican White House; an economic globalist working for a president who campaigned on economic nationalism. Now, it seems, Donald Trump’s protectionist bent has pushed the top administration economic adviser to the exit.

This was not an unexpected development. By many accounts, there had been a contentious White House fight over whether to impose sweeping sanctions on US steel and aluminium imports – a tug-of-war that was settled, precipitously, by the president himself last week.

There were the rumours that Mr Cohn was only sticking around to see last year’s tax bill over the finish line, after his extreme discomfort following the president’s warm words about some of the white nationalist marchers involved in violent clashes in Charlottesville last August.

Mr Cohn was reportedly viewed by many Trump loyalists in the White House as an unwelcome interloper. Some on the outside, particularly in the financial world, welcomed him as a moderating influence – along with son-in-law Jared Kushner and daughter Ivanka.

Now the former is leaving and the latter two seem greatly weakened. All this could mark sharp new direction in White House policy.

The White House said Mr Cohn’s exact departure date had yet to be determined.

“For several weeks Gary had been discussing with the president that it was nearing time for him to transition out,” an official said.

In a statement, Mr Trump described his outgoing economics adviser as “a rare talent”.

“Gary… did a superb job in driving our agenda, helping to deliver historic tax cuts and reforms and unleashing the American economy once again,” he said .

“He is a rare talent and I thank him for his dedicated service to the American people.”

Mr Trump later tweeted that he would pick Mr Cohn’s replacement “soon”.

“Many people wanting the job – will choose wisely!” he added.

Possible candidates mooted by US media include White House adviser Peter Navarro and Larry Kudlow, a conservative commentator and 2016 campaign adviser.

Earlier on Tuesday, President Trump tweeted that there was no chaos at the White House but there were “still… some people that I want to change”.

The White House has seen a string of senior figures leave since Mr Trump took office.

Last week, one of his closest aides, Hope Hicks, resigned. She was the fourth person to have served as the president’s communications chief.

It came a day after she had testified in front of the House Intelligence Committee investigating possible Trump campaign ties to Russia, but White House sources said this was not the reason.

–

Source: BBC

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Dick’s Sporting Goods, which has more than 600 shops, said it would no longer sell assault-style rifles, and backed “common sense gun reform”.

Walmart later said it was raising the minimum age for anyone buying guns or ammunition to 21 years.

It came as Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School pupils returned to classes.

Grief counsellors were on hand as students and teachers arrived at the campus, two weeks after 17 of their peers were shot dead by an expelled former student with an AR-15 rifle.

In the aftermath of the 14 February shooting, pressure has mounted on US politicians to act on gun control and for corporations to cut ties with the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA).

Firms including Hertz car rental, United airlines and Delta airlines have ended discounts to NRA members.

Walmart, the largest seller of guns in the US, said it would remove items from its website that resembled assault-style rifles.

The retailer stopped selling high-powered rifles in its shops in 2015, citing low demand.

In a statement, Walmart said: “We take seriously our obligation to be a responsible seller of firearms.”

In Washington, President Donald Trump urged a group of lawmakers with diverse views to come up with a comprehensive bipartisan solution in a televised meeting.

Republican leaders in Congress have rejected raising the minimum legal age to buy rifles from 18 to 21, but Mr Trump said he “would give pretty serious thought to it”, despite opposition from the NRA, which supported him as a candidate.

He told the lawmakers: “Some of you people are petrified of the NRA, you can’t be petrified.”

Also on Wednesday, a teacher in the state of Georgia was arrested after barricading himself in a classroom and firing a handgun. No-one was injured.

In announcing its policy change, Dick’s Sporting Goods said in a statement that it had “tremendous respect and admiration for the students organising and making their voices heard regarding gun violence in schools and elsewhere in our country”.

It added: “We have heard you. The nation has heard you.”

The retailer said it was committing itself to:

• No longer selling assault-style rifles (The company had stopped selling such weapons at its main shops after the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting but 35 shops run by a subsidiary called Field & Stream had continued to do so)
• Banning the sale of high-capacity magazines that allow more shots to be fired without reloading
• Not selling any firearms to anyone under the age of 21

It said that while it supported the Second Amendment to the US constitution, which protects the right to keep and bear arms, “gun violence is an epidemic that’s taking the lives of too many people”.

Dick’s CEO Edward Stack told CNN he expected a backlash from some customers, saying “the hunt business is an important part of the business, no doubt about it”.

The Parkland shooting suspect, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, bought a gun at Dick’s but not the weapon he is alleged to have used in the attack, Mr Stack said.

“We did everything by the book, and we did everything that the law required, and he was still able to buy a gun,” he told ABC.

Emotional return

At Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, a line of police officers, school staff and community members bearing flowers greeted some 3,000 students who returned to classes on Wednesday morning. There were also many reporters, shouting questions to the teenagers about how they felt.

Lyliah Skinner, a 16-year-old student, told the BBC before she left home: “We’re not going to really be learning much today – it’s all about healing.”

She also said she was feeling nervous “because I’m scared it’s gonna happen again”. Lyliah listed people she knew who would not be returning, including Joaquin Oliver, who sat just in front of her in a class they shared.

David Hogg, a senior student and now leading activist, was also feeling trepidation. It was “really hard to think about” what occurred two weeks ago, he said.

“Imagine getting in a plane crash and having to get back on the same plane again and again and again and being expected to learn and act like nothing’s wrong,” he told NBC News.

The handling of the shooting by authorities sparked criticism after it emerged that the FBI and local police had failed to follow up on multiple tips about Mr Cruz, and that an armed deputy at the school had stayed outside the school building while the attack took place.

The school’s Building 12, the site of the shootings, will remain closed and cordoned off indefinitely.

Armed school ‘marshals’

Members of Florida’s State House and Senate will soon begin reviewing proposed bills related to firearms, which need their approval and also that of Governor Rick Scott.

Among other restrictions, they would raise the legal age to buy rifles from 18 to 21 and giving police more control to seize weapons from mentally ill people.

A controversial $67m voluntary programme to arm school staff, including teachers, would ensure they were trained by law enforcement and allowed to carry concealed weapons on campus, according to the New York Times.

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In his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, Trump said he had directed the defence secretary, James Mattis, “to reexamine our military detention policy and to keep open the detention facilities at Guantánamo Bay”. He added that he expected that “in many cases” captured terrorists would be sent to the camp.

Trump sets out immigration plan in State of the Union address – as it happened
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The Trump executive order instructs Mattis, in consultation with the secretary of state and other officials, to deliver a new policy on battlefield detentions, “including policies governing transfer of individuals to US Naval Station Guantánamo Bay” within 90 days.

It is the latest in a long series of policies pursued by Barack Obama that Trump has reversed. Obama signed an order calling for Guantánamo Bay to be closed on his second day in office in 2009, but he was never able carry out that policy to its conclusion.

Obama argued that maintenance of an detention facility beyond the reach of US law undermined American global leadership on human rights. In his speech on Tuesday night however, Trump said that the move to close Guantánamo reflected softness in the fight against terrorism. And he suggested detention was second best to killing terrorists.

“Terrorists who do things like place bombs in civilian hospitals are evil,” Trump said. “When possible, we have no choice but to annihilate them. When necessary, we must be able to detain and question them. But we must be clear: Terrorists are not merely criminals. They are unlawful enemy combatants. And when captured overseas, they should be treated like the terrorists they are.”

He added: “In the past, we have foolishly released hundreds of dangerous terrorists, only to meet them again on the battlefield – including the Isis leader, al-Baghdadi, who we captured but who we had who we release.”

Obama’s adversaries had claimed that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had been released from an Iraqi prison facility called Camp Bucca in 2009. However, the insurgent who went on to lead the Islamic State, was released by a military review board in 2004.

Trump did not announce he was about to order the transfer of new prisoners to Guantánamo Bay, and a leaked state department cable to embassies abroad said there were no immediate plans for transfer to Guantánamo. But the president left that option open in his speech.

–

Source: The Guardian

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Mr Trump also said the allegation was hurting efforts to strike a deal to protect so-called Dreamer immigrants.

The president was responding to a claim by Democratic Senator Dick Durbin that he used “vile and racist” language during a meeting on immigration reform.

The alleged remarks sparked global outrage and demands that he apologise.

“There is no other word one can use but racist,” said a UN spokesman.

On Monday, two senators who said he did indeed use the disparaging remark stood by their account of what took place.

What did the president allegedly say?

The row broke out after Republican and Democratic lawmakers visited the president in the Oval Office on Thursday to work on a proposal for an immigration deal.

A key issue they need to agree on is what to do with an Obama-era scheme that protects some 800,000 young people who entered the US illegally as children – known as the Dreamers.

But the alleged slur was uttered during another topic for discussion – the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) given to a number of nationalities currently living in the country.

In recent weeks the Trump administration has made a series of announcements that have brought that status to an end.

Hours after the meeting, reports emerged that Mr Trump had asked: “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?”

The US should be taking in migrants from countries like Norway, he is reported to have said.

Accounts suggest that when Mr Trump was told that the largest groups of immigrants with that status were from El Salvador, Honduras and Haiti, the president responded: “Haitians? Do we need more Haitians?”

What have those in the room said?

On Friday, Mr Durbin said: “I cannot believe that in the history of the White House, in that Oval Office, any president has ever spoken the words that I personally heard our president speak yesterday.

“President Trump said things that were hate-filled, vile, and racist. He used those words repeatedly.”

Mr Trump responded by saying his language was “tough” but not the language used in the news reports. He also denied he was a racist.

And on Monday he tweeted that Mr Durbin had “totally misrepresented what was said”.

He also blamed the Democratic senator for the apparent impasse over negotiations to reach a solution on the Dreamers.

Senator Dicky Durbin totally misrepresented what was said at the DACA meeting. Deals can’t get made when there is no trust! Durbin blew DACA and is hurting our Military.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 15, 2018

Have the senators present at the meeting backed him up?

• No – Democratic Dick Durbin said he used the word “shithole” repeatedly
• Yes – Republican David Perdue said the reported racial slur was a “gross misrepresentation”
• No – Republican Lindsey Graham told another senator the reports were “basically accurate”
• Yes – Republican Tom Cotton “didn’t hear Trump use derogatory language”

Three other people who were in the room have remained silent.

The two sides in the row became more entrenched on Monday, with Mr Graham appearing to challenge colleagues Perdue and Cotton by saying his memory had not “evolved”.

“I know what was said,” he said.

And Mr Durbin also said he stood “behind every word”, and rejected reports that perhaps Mr Trump said “shithouse” instead.

He added he was focused “full-time” on finding a “future in America” for “those who are being protected by Daca [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals]”.

–

Source: BBC

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“Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” Mr Trump told lawmakers on Thursday, according to the Washington Post.

The remark was reportedly in reference to people from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries.

The White House did not deny the comment, which was widely reported by other US media.

“Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people,” a statement from White House spokesman Raj Shah said.

It continued: “Like other countries that have merit-based immigration, President Trump is fighting for permanent solutions that make our country stronger by welcoming those who can contribute to our society, grow our economy and assimilate into our great nation.

“He will always reject temporary, weak and dangerous stopgap measures that threaten the lives of hardworking Americans, and undercut immigrants who seek a better life in the United States through a legal pathway.”

Mr Trump’s remark reportedly came as lawmakers from both parties visited him to propose a bipartisan immigration deal.

Democratic Senator Richard Durbin had just been discussing US temporary residency permits granted to citizens of countries hit by natural disasters, war or epidemics, say US media.

According to the Post, Mr Trump told lawmakers the US should instead be taking in migrants from countries like Norway, whose prime minister visited him a day earlier.

Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, was also in the meeting, but would not comment on the president’s reported slur.

The New York Times reported three weeks ago that Mr Trump had said Haitians “all have Aids” during a June meeting about immigration.

A backlash to his latest alleged remarks was swift.

Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democratic lawmaker, tweeted: “I condemn this unforgivable statement and this demeaning of the office of the Presidency.”

Another black Democratic lawmaker, Cedric Richmond, said Mr Trump’s comments “are further proof that his Make America Great Again agenda is really a Make America White Again agenda”.

Mia Love, a Utah Republican and the only Haitian-American in Congress, demanded Mr Trump apologise for the “unkind, divisive, elitist” comments.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) accused the president of falling “deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole of racism and xenophobia”.

But the White House was apparently brushing off such criticism.

One Trump official was quoted by CNN as saying: “Though this might enrage Washington, staffers predict the comment will resonate with his base, much like his attacks on NFL players who kneel during the National Anthem did not alienate it.”

A spokesman for the Salvadorean embassy in Washington DC declined to comment.

In Thursday’s meeting, lawmakers reportedly proposed restoring so-called Temporary Protected Status (TPS) permits for certain countries, while offering $1.5bn (£1.1bn) for a wall that Mr Trump wants built on the US border with Mexico.

This week the Trump administration announced it was withdrawing TPS for more than 200,000 people from El Salvador.

The decision gives Salvadoreans who have been living in the US for nearly three decades until next year to leave, seek lawful residency or face possible deportation.

They were granted provisional US residency after an earthquake devastated the Central American country in 1991.

But the State Department said on Monday that much infrastructure damaged by the tremor has since been repaired.

TPS permits have already been withdrawn from Haitians and Nicaraguans.

Hundreds of thousands of migrants face possible deportation from the US.

–

Source: BBC

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