monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

US President Donald Trump is clearing the sale of billions of dollars' worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia, citing Iranian threats to its arch rival.

Mr Trump evoked a rarely used aspect of federal law to push through the $8bn (£6bn) deal, which would ordinarily need to be approved by Congress.

He did so by declaring that ongoing tensions with Iran amounted to a national emergency.

The move has angered those who fear the weapons may be used against civilians.

Some Democrats have also accused the president of bypassing Congress because the sale of weapons, including precision-guided munitions and other forms of bombs, would have been strongly opposed on Capitol Hill.

Weapons will also reportedly be sold to the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.

Weapons will also reportedly be sold to the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.

BillRM wrote:

As soon as the Cubans and the Russians had shown up

Where was Cuba before it suddenly appeared in America's backyard?

Cuba is a sovereign nation that threw off the Batista's in a popular revolution. America's vested interests opposed that, the Soviets helped, and you can't blame the Cubans for that.

It's Cuba's back yard too.

I remember Batista government. Backed by the mafia. The colmmies did improve the livelihood of some Cubans over the batista government.

Kennedy went with Eisenhower's battle plan all the way. This has always been blamed on a president who had just come into office and did what Ike and the CIA told him to do. Put the blame where it belongs.

You're quoting wiki on political/legal matters?

About as relevant as claiming that a handful of Russians with a 200 grand budget, posting on social media, won the election for Donald.

Blame America's interference in South America. They're doing the same in Honduras and Venezuela.

Cuba is a brave independent country standing up to fascist imperialism.

Over here we identify with the Cubans, we went through a similar thing during the Blitz.

The Boston Museum of Fine Arts has apologised after a teacher alleged her group of pupils suffered racist language and treatment during a visit.

Marvelyne Lamy said staff had followed the black and other minority 12 and 13-year-olds, yelling at them not to touch exhibits while ignoring white groups.

She claimed staff told the group: "No food, no drink, and no watermelon."

The term dates back to the US civil war and is considered derogatory when used in relation to the black community.

In a statement, a museum spokesperson said the employee in question said they told the students, "No food, no drink and no water bottles" were allowed inside the galleries.

The museum said there was no way to "definitively confirm or deny what was said", but added it would provide additional training for all frontline staff on engaging with school groups.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh called the alleged remarks "incredibly disturbing".

Ms Lamy, an English teacher at the Davis Leadership Academy in Boston, complained about the "racial profiling" of her class of black and minority pupils in a Facebook post. It has been shared more than 1,000 times.

"We were instructed not to touch any of the artefacts in the museum, yet the white students there touched the displays several times while security looked on without saying anything," she said.

"The minute one of our students followed suit, the security guards would yell at them that they should not touch exhibits."

Her students became agitated because of this treatment and she gathered them to leave as a result, she said.

Visitors at the museum also made racist and derogatory remarks about the pupils, Ms Lamy said.

"The worse part about all of this is seeing the hurt look on my children's faces as this was their first time experiencing racism first hand," she said.

In an open letter, the museum apologised and said Ms Lamy and her pupils had "encountered a range of challenging and unacceptable experiences that made them feel unwelcome".

The museum also said it had found that visitors made racist comments to the students on two occasions. It said that it had "identified the patrons who made the disparaging remarks and revoked their membership." They are now banned from the museum's grounds.

The museum will also train staff in how they engage with visitors inside and outside the museum, and review how guards are instructed to patrol the galleries, following claims from the school group that they felt followed.

When slavery was abolished at the end of the 1860s some black people grew and sold watermelon to provide for their families.

The fruit went on to be used as an excuse to characterise an entire section of the population as being lazy and content with simple pleasures and, therefore, flaunting their independence.

Minstrel shows, caricatures, songs and cartoons were used to dehumanise and denigrate the black community.

In 2014 The Boston Herald was forced to apologise for a cartoon after an intruder broke into the White House during Barack Obama's presidency. The cartoon showed a man sitting in the bathtub referring to "watermelon flavoured toothpaste".

In another separate incident in 2014 an American football coach in South Carolina was first fired and then reinstated for allowing players to smash a watermelon while making ape-like noises in a post game celebration.

A US federal judge has temporarily blocked the use of defence department funds to build a border wall between the US and Mexico.

The judge granted the injunction to block the use of $1bn (£786m) in Arizona and Texas because it had not been approved by Congress.

President Donald Trump declared an emergency earlier this year, saying he needed $6.7bn to build the wall as a matter of national security.

It was a major campaign promise.

About 20 states, along with groups including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), have filed lawsuits to try to stop the president using the emergency declaration to bypass Congress.

"The position that when Congress declines the executive's request to appropriate funds, the executive nonetheless may simply find a way to spend those funds 'without Congress' does not square with the fundamental separation of powers principles dating back to the earliest days of our Republic," Judge Haywood Gilliam said in his ruling.

He said plaintiffs were likely to show that administration officials "exceeded their statutory authority, and that irreparable harm will result from those actions".

Construction was due to begin as early as this weekend in the two states.

However, despite the ruling President Trump could still find funds from elsewhere to build the wall, CNN reports.

The ACLU wrote on Twitter: "This is a win for our system of checks and balances, the rule of law and border communities."

The border wall has been a major political battle for the president.

In February, Congress approved $1.38bn for the construction of "primary pedestrian fencing" along the Rio Grande Valley in Texas - far less than Mr Trump had sought.

His declaration of a national emergency was designed to unlock multi-billion dollar funding for the wall, including $2.5bn from the department of defence and $3.6bn from military construction projects.

That sum is still considerably short of the estimated $23bn cost of the barrier along almost 2,000 miles (3,200km) of border.

The House of Representatives is also taking legal action to stop the diversion of funds for the wall project.

The Batista regime was far worse than Castro's, far far worse.

The reason Cuba is not as democratic as it could be is because of the years of totally unjustified American sanctions.

All your Cuban friends are the ones who benefitted from the Batista regime, that's why they fled the revolution.

Cuba's healthcare is significantly better than yours.

The reason Cuba is not as democratic as it could be is because of the years of totally unjustified American sanctions.

Economic migrants fleeing Cuba could get citizenship in the USA no questions asked, genuine refugees fleeing persecution in Haiti had no such guarantees.

American double standards in action, fascism OK, anything left leaning from Communism to Social Democracy evil.

The nation’s intelligence chief expressed hope Friday that Attorney General William Barr would adhere to “long-established standards” during his investigation into the origins of the Russia probe — but warned the release of “highly-sensitive classified information” would imperil national security.

Mr. Coats and Gina Haspel, the C.I.A. director, will fight hard to ensure that their most valuable secrets — the identities of sources — are protected, former officials have said. Ms. Haspel has been described as a fierce political infighter, but she has also been careful to cultivate a strong working relationship with Mr. Barr, former officials said.

Traditionally, the C.I.A. has been effective at intramural governmental fights, in large measure because its power comes from its information and its closely guarded secrets. By taking that power from the intelligence agencies, Mr. Trump and Mr. Barr may have weakened the C.I.A.

The intelligence agencies already have a degree of unease over the Justice Department’s ability to keep the identity of sources secret. The name of the F.B.I. informant involved in the initial investigation of the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia was inadvertently made public.

“If you compromise agents, lives can be lost. That is why this is so sensitive,” Senator Angus King, the Maine independent who is a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in an interview. “It is important to be exceedingly careful in this area. That is my only concern, and I hope Mr. Barr realizes that.”