monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen -- the implementer of some of the most unjust immigration policies since the internment of citizens and noncitizens of Japanese descent during World War II

“A mountain gave birth to a mouse.”

Vladimir Putin has mocked the US special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Donald Trump, saying “a mountain gave birth to a mouse” and the inquiry’s findings validated the Kremlin’s continuous denials of collusion with Trump’s presidential campaign.

In his first comments since Mueller presented his report to the US attorney general last month, Putin said US Democrats’ claims of a campaign conspiracy reflected their failure to accept the outcome of the 2016 election.

“It was clear for us from the start that it would end like this,” the Russian leader said of the Trump-Russia investigation. “A mountain gave birth to a mouse.”
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Israeli TV: Likud to win by thin margin

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Two Israeli TV stations have changed their forecasts for final election results and are now projecting a narrow victory by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party.

Channels 12 and 13 are projecting Likud will capture 35 seats in the 120-seat parliament, compared to 34 for Benny Gantz's centrist Blue and White party. Earlier, Channel 13 had projected the parties deadlocked at 36 seats apiece, while Channel 12 gave Gantz a solid 37-33 lead.

Both stations early Wednesday also showed Likud and its religious-nationalist bloc of allies controlling a majority in the 120-seat parliament.

Their updated projects mirrored partial results, which gave Likud a slight lead with about a quarter of votes counted.

Official results are expected later Wednesday.

Putin is saying that the Mueller report, for all the grandiose claims made about it, has produced nothing substantial.

A Fulham FC fan living in California is suing a state agency after he was banned from having the letters COYW on a personalised car number plate, as they feared the slogan "Come on you whites" had racist connotations.

University professor Jonathan Kotler said he was "shocked" at the decision.

Launching his legal case, he claimed the decision by the California Department of Motor Vehicles violated his right to freedom of speech.

"It's just a shirt colour," he said.

"The people at the DMV are either extra thick or very PC."

Prof Kotler applied for a plate that would read COY-W - an abbreviation of the slogan commonly used by Fulham football fans - and a hashtag seen every weekend on many Twitter posts about the club.

The 73-year-old, who was born in New Jersey and now lives in Calabasas, California, has been a fan of Fulham FC for decades, after watching a match "by happenchance" during a visit to London.

He was originally a fan of both Manchester United and Fulham, but chose his current allegiance in 2006 when both teams were in the Premier League.

Prof Kotler, who teaches media law at the University of Southern California, put in his application for the number plate last year and had to include the reasons for his choice of letters, but it was turned down.

The Department of Motor Vehicles said the COYW slogan could be considered hostile, insulting, or racially degrading, according to the US federal legal case.

"I sent them tons of material," Prof Kotler told the BBC. "Press releases, stories from the British media, letters from the chairman who uses 'come on you whites'.

"I pointed out that many clubs in Britain are known by their colour - the blues, the clarets. Nobody thought the Liverpool reds were communists."

He added: "Even when I did it, it was the furthest thing from my mind that anyone would object to it. I was shocked, absolutely."

He said the club's owner, Shahid Khan, "uses the phrase all the time".

"Half of the team are non-white. And it's just a shirt colour. It's got nothing to do with anything other than that.

"I decided this is crazy, this is enough. I can take it up to a point but this became personal."

Prof Kotler said he travels to watch Fulham play in Britain on average around eight to 10 times a season, often taking the 11-hour flight on a Thursday and returning back in the US by Tuesday ready to teach his students.

In his legal complaint, he is asking the court to declare the DMV's criteria for personalised licence plates unconstitutional. He claims he has been deprived of his right to freedom of speech.

The Department of Motor Vehicles says it does not comment on pending legal cases.