It said the man approached the White House’s fence on Pennsylvania Avenue just before noon local time (17:00GMT) before taking out a handgun and firing several shots.

No one else was injured, according to police.

President Donald Trump is not at the White House, but at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

The man was in a large crowd when he fired the gun, the Washington Post reports, citing witnesses.

A video posted to Twitter shows many people running away from the scene.

The man’s name has not been released.

Washington DC police earlier said on Twitter that their “natural death squad” was on the scene.

Geoff Bennett, White House correspondent for NBC News, said that journalists were “sheltering” in the press briefing room.

Mr Trump is with First Lady Melania Trump in Florida. They are scheduled to return for a dinner in Washington on Saturday evening.

There have been a number of security incidents at the White House in recent years.

Most recently, on 23 February, a car drove into a security barrier outside the building. A 35-year-old woman was detained.

In March last year a man armed with pepper spray spent more than 16 minutes inside the grounds after jumping the fence.

–

Source: BBC

The post Man shoots and kills himself outside fence appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Mr Tillerson has been at odds with Mr Trump over foreign policy recently.

The secretary of state was even reported to have privately described the president as a “moron”.
They have differed in their approach to North Korea’s missile testing and Iran’s nuclear programme, among other issues.
A White House official was quoted by Associated Press as saying a plan was being discussed, and unnamed government sources also spoke to the New York Times and Vanity Fair.

Mr Pompeo would be replaced at the CIA by Republican Senator Tom Cotton, the New York Times reports.

Reports suggest the change could take place as soon as December or in January.

However, it is not yet clear whether Mr Trump has given final approval to the move, the NYT reports.

Mr Trump’s disenchantment with Mr Tillerson, a former chief executive of energy giant Exxon Mobil, has been rumoured for some time.

The secretary of state has defended the multi-party deal to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions in return for a loosening of sanctions – an agreement derided by Mr Trump.

The president has also said Mr Tillerson is “wasting his time” trying to bring about diplomatic contacts with North Korea as it continues to build up its missile and nuclear capabilities.

Mr Tillerson was appointed in January and his replacement would result in one of the shortest tenures for an American secretary of state.

–

Source: BBC

The post White House ‘has plan to replace Tillerson’ appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Documents released by the White House have revealed millions of dollars in assets held by its senior staff.

President Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, have assets valued between $240m and $740m (£191m- £590m).

That includes a stake in Trump International Hotel, which earned Ms Trump between $1m and $5m last year.

The financial disclosure documents also detail salaries of several other high-profile figures in the administration.

Ethics regulations require such financial disclosures for staff working in the White House. The documents show income and assets at the time they started working for the US government – before any assets were sold or disposed of.

Neither President Donald Trump or Vice-President Mike Pence were part of the disclosure release, which came late on Friday.

The documents, which US media have uploaded online, list asset values within a range, rather than giving precise figures.

Among the revelations are:

• Ivanka Trump‘s business empire is worth more than $50m, and the value of her stake in Trump International Hotel is between $5m and $25m, according to the filing of her husband, Jared. Ms Trump only recently became a formal White House employee, and may file her own disclosure form later.
• Jared Kushner‘s disclosure document runs to 54 pages, detailing positions held at 267 organisations, many of which he has since divested himself of. In the previous year, he earned hundreds of thousands of dollars from real estate and other assets.
• Steve Bannon, now a senior White House adviser, was paid $191,000 in consulting fees by conservative media outlet Breitbart, in addition to at least $1m in other employment income. He also had between $3.3m and $12.6m in assets.
• Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, was paid $260,000 for his role as chief strategist and communications director at the Republican National Committee, and holds several real estate assets.
• Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s campaign chief turned advisor, earned more than $800,000, mostly for consulting services, including Mr Trump’s campaign.
• Gary Cohn, head of the White House National Economic Council and a former Goldman Sachs president, has assets worth at least $230m – but potentially more, as many of his assets are simply listed as worth “over $1m”. The White House said Mr Cohn resigned from all his positions at Goldman Sachs.

In a briefing before the release, White House officials stressed that “these are not the current holdings that everyone has today. These are the holdings that everybody had at the time when they came into office”.

Potential conflicts of interest may have already been eliminated.

“These are incredibly successful individuals, very high net worth, very sophisticated, complex asset structures, numerous sub-LLCs [limited liability companies], trusts and other items, all of which have to be worked through,” the White House official said, adding that every staff member had a “sit-down” about their assets.

Image copyrightAFP

Reuters news agency quoted a White House official as saying about 25% of Mr Trump’s White House were classified as having “extremely complex” filings, indicating they were very wealthy.

They appeared much wealthier than officials in previous administrations, including Barack Obama’s White House, US media reported.

Bloomberg estimates that Mr Trump’s cabinet and senior staff are worth some $12bn.

Since his election in November, the president’s own business empire has been scrutinised by ethics experts – who say it poses major conflicts of interest.

Fears have been raised that interest groups or foreign governments might stay at the luxury Trump hotel in Washington in a bid to win the administration’s favour.

Mr Trump’s two oldest sons now control his extensive assets, but watchdogs have complained that the arrangements are insufficient to avoid conflicts.

The Office of Government Ethics has urged the president either to divest fully, or to set up a blind trust for his assets.

Mr Trump has also refused to release his tax returns, breaking with a long-held tradition.

The post White House aides’ finances revealed in disclosure documents appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The unusual move by the agency came after White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer cited claims first made on US TV channel Fox News earlier this week.

GCHQ responded by saying the allegations were “nonsense, utterly ridiculous and should be ignored”.

Mr Trump has claimed that Trump Tower in New York was under surveillance.

‘Chain of command’

The GCHQ claims were initially made by former judge Andrew Napolitano.

Mr Spicer quoted Mr Napolitano as saying: “Three intelligence sources have informed Fox News that President Obama went outside the chain of command.

“He didn’t use the NSA, he didn’t use the CIA, he didn’t use the FBI and he didn’t use the Department of Justice, he used GCHQ.”

A GCHQ spokesman said: “Recent allegations made by media commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano about GCHQ being asked to conduct ‘wiretapping’ against the then president-elect are nonsense.

“They are utterly ridiculous and should be ignored.”

–

Source: BBC

The post Britain’s GCHQ agency denies wiretapping Donald Trump appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The breach happened around midnight on Friday while President Donald Trump was in the building, the agency said.

The intruder was arrested without incident and no hazardous materials were found in the backpack.

Mr Trump and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly were briefed on the incident.

The Secret Service said agents searched the grounds and found “nothing of concern to security operations”.

Intruders have broken into the grounds of the White House before by scaling the perimeter fence, They are usually handed over to local police.

In 2014, 42-year-old Omar Gonzales made it through the north portico doors into the building, armed with a three-and-a-half-inch (9cm) folding knife.

He was arrested just after making it inside the doors, the Secret Service said at the time.

–

Source: BBC

The post White House intruder arrested on grounds while Trump at residence appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The two men have had almost no one-on-one contact previously. Trump, a Republican, led the “birther” movement that questioned Obama’s U.S. citizenship and has pledged to overturn the Democrat’s signature policy achievements after he takes office on Jan. 20

Obama campaigned vigorously for Trump’s Democratic rival, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and called Trump both temperamentally unfit for the presidency and dangerously unprepared to have access to U.S. nuclear codes.

Obama and Trump will seek to put their tensions behind them, at least for the cameras, during their Oval Office meeting.

First lady Michelle Obama will also meet privately with Trump’s wife, Melania, in the White House residence.

On Wednesday, Obama said that despite his major differences with Trump, he would follow the lead of former Republican President George W. Bush in 2008 and ensure a smooth handover to Trump.

“Eight years ago, President Bush and I had some pretty significant differences, but President Bush’s team could not have been more professional or more gracious in making sure we had a smooth transition,” Obama said. “So I have instructed my team to follow the example that President Bush’s team set.”

–

Source: Reuters

The post Obama, Trump meet at White House to begin transition of power appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Press secretary Josh Earnest said in a statement that the president called both Trump and Hillary Clinton following the results of the election early Wednesday.

In his call with Clinton, Obama “expressed admiration for the strong campaign she waged throughout the country,” Earnest said.

Obama will deliver a statement on the election at the White House later today, where he’s expected to address “what steps we can take as a country to come together after this hard-fought election season.”

As recently as Monday, Obama slammed Trump as “temperamentally unfit” to serve as commander-in-chief and raised concerns over the potential of him handling the nation’s nuclear codes.

The trip would be Trump’s first inside the White House, and his first face-to-face meeting with Obama. According to the White House, their meeting will be centered around ensuring a peaceful transition of power.

–

Source: ABC News

The post Obama invites President-elect Trump to the White House appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The Dow Jones industrial average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq are all down by roughly 2% to 3% ahead of the open. Losses were more dramatic earlier in the night with Dow futures plunging more than 900 points.

Dow futures are now off by only about 300 points.

Investors are concerned about Trump’s unpredictable nature and anti-trade stance, which could result in global turmoil during his presidency. But there are hopes that President Trump will be different than candidate Trump.

“The first speech by President-elect Trump has had a calming effect on the markets,” said Kathleen Brooks, a research director at City Index in London. “Trump definitely sounded more presidential than he has done at any stage during the election campaign.”

It’s worth noting that regardless of which candidate wins, stocks typically sell off the day following an election. Case in point: The S&P 500 dropped just over 5% the day after President Obama was elected in 2008.

Looking abroad, European markets posted minor declines in early trading, with many indices down by 1% to 2%.

Asian markets closed out the day in the red. Tokyo’s Nikkei led the declines with a 5.4% loss.

The main Middle Eastern markets also declined by about 1%.

2. Peso plunge: The Mexican peso is getting clobbered in reaction to the U.S. election results.

At one point overnight, the peso was down as much as 11% versus the U.S. dollar, hitting an all-time low. It’s since recovered a bit but is still down by about 8% in early morning trading.

Mexico’s largest trade partner is the U.S. But Trump has attacked Mexico from Day 1 of his campaign and threatened to build a wall between the two countries. The peso is falling hard as traders fret about deteriorating relations between the countries.

3. Seeking a safe haven: Investors typically rush to invest in gold during times of market uncertainty. Today is no exception.

Gold prices rose by 3% as investors bought into the so-called safe haven asset.

The Swiss franc and Japanese yen also got a boost because they are viewed as steady rocks during times of turmoil.

Mining and pharmaceutical stocks were also performing well in Europe.

–

Source: CNN

The post Wall Street panics over Trump presidency; Peso plunges; Gold surges appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.