monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

Egypt's former President Mohammed Morsi, who was ousted by the army in 2013, has died after fainting in a courtroom, state TV says.

A former top figure in the now-banned Islamist movement Muslim Brotherhood, Morsi was in court for a hearing on charges of espionage. He was 67.

Morsi was overthrown following mass protests a year after he took office as the country's first democratically elected leader.

He had remained in custody since then.

After his removal from power, Egyptian authorities launched a crackdown on his supporters and the Muslim Brotherhood.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has called Donald Trump a "poster boy for racists" after the US President hit out at him over London's knife crime.

Mr Trump retweeted a post from right-wing commentator Katie Hopkins blaming the violence on "Khan's Londonistan".

Her comments came after four people were killed in a spate of shootings and stabbings in London over three days.

Foreign Secretary and Tory leadership candidate Jeremy Hunt said he "150% agreed" with Mr Trump.

Speaking in central London on Monday, Mr Khan said: "It's remarkable that you've got the president of the USA amplifying the tweets of a far-right activist, amplifying a racist tweet.

"That's one of my concerns about Donald Trump - he's now seen as a poster boy for racists around the world, whether you're a racist in this country, whether you're a racist in Hungary, a racist in Italy, or a racist in France."

The original post by Ms Hopkins called the capital "Stab-City", alongside screenshots of BBC News articles detailing the violence.

But a number of people pointed out the much higher homicide rates in US cities.

Mr Hunt said Mr Trump had his "own style", but he backed the president's stance on Mr Khan.

"We have a Mayor of London who has completely failed to tackle knife crime and has spent more time on politics than the actual business of making Londoners safer and in that I 150% agree with the president," he said while attending a Conservative leadership hustings event.

But Mr Khan said: "We've had four days and four homicides in London, we've seen over the last five years an increase in violent crime across our country and it's not acceptable.

"That's one of the reasons why City Hall, even though there's been massive cuts from central government, have continued to invest in our police."

He added: "There are many good leaders in America facing massive increases in violent crime.

"They have my support to make sure we learn lessons from each other and that we work together to grapple the issue of violent crime taking place in many cities across the Western world."

Another Tory leadership hopeful, Home Secretary Sajid Javid, said President Trump should be more worried about violent crime in the United States.

Mr Javid said: "I think President Trump should stick to domestic policies and I think it is unbecoming of a leader of such a great state to keep trying to interfere in other countries' domestic policies.

"The president is right to be concerned about serious violence, but he should be concerned about the serious violence in his own country where it is more than 10 times higher than it is in the UK."

Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott said she had never heard any previous US President make reference to a London mayor at all.

In the Commons, Ms Abbott said: "It's hard to escape the conclusion that President Trump may be singling out Sadiq Khan because he is of the Muslim faith."

"The president is right to be concerned about serious violence, but he should be concerned about the serious violence in his own country where it is more than 10 times higher than it is in the UK."

The US economy could face significant long term damage if the Trump administration imposes more tariffs on Chinese goods, a leading group of US retailers told the BBC, adding that US consumers would be the ones footing the bill.

“Tariffs are taxes so the ultimate effect is that consumers will be paying more. We have $250bn worth of imports that already face a 25% tariff and the threat now is that virtually every item coming from China will face a 25% tariff," Brian Dodge, chief operating officer at America's Retail Industry Leaders Association, told Talking Business on BBC World News.

"That means that consumers will walk out of stores with items that will simply cost more, every single shopping cart will be full of items that cost more as a result of this," he said. "We simply think that’s bad economics, that’s bad policy and we’re eager for a resolution to this trade war that gets us back to normal.”

The group’s members include companies such as Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Home Depot and Gap.

Today's neo Nazi's like Oralloy love everything about the Nazis but the name itself.

They're not a very smart bunch.

Iran has announced it will breach on 27 June the limit on its stockpile of enriched uranium that was set under a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

oralloy wrote:

There is no prohibition against outlawing a group that routinely abuses power to conduct witch hunts against people who disagree with them.

Oh, you mean like Whitewater?

That is purely racist fantasy and absurdist illogic on your part.

Yes. It showed that the pipeline for american guns going to the bad guys was real as charged which is why they put some trackable guns in the stream. F&F just proved what it was designed to prove was true.

coldjoint wrote:

Quote:

The president is right to be concerned about serious violence, but he should be concerned about the serious violence in his own country where it is more than 10 times higher than it is in the UK.

Bullshit. Source it.

Right cold joint! No gun violence in the US. No one shot anywhere, no pointless acts of violence. Americans don't even need to lock their doors any longer, we liove in a violence free paradise.

Russia has said it is "possible" that its electrical grid is under cyber-attack by the US.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said reports that US cyber-soldiers had put computer viruses on its electrical grid was a "hypothetical possibility".

His comments came in response to a New York Times (NYT) story which claimed US military hackers were targeting Russian power plants.

The report drew scepticism from experts and a denunciation by President Trump.

In its report the newspaper said American "code" had been deployed inside many elements of Russia's power network.

The Times said this was an escalation of other work the US was doing to combat Russian disinformation and hacking campaigns.

Mr Peskov said President Trump had dismissed the allegations made in the Times, calling them "fake news".

The Kremlin spokesman added: "If one assumes that some government agencies do this without informing the head of state, then of course this may indicate that cyber-war against Russia might be a hypothetical possibility."

He said "vital areas" of Russia's economy were under continuous attack, but it had managed to counter the intrusions so they did no damage.

The NYT story was questioned by Thomas Rid, a political scientist from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, who said it made no sense because "publicity burns capabilities".

The story would prompt Russia to search its power network extensively for malicious code, he said, making it likely that any viruses would be found.

He added that the Russian power grid was big and "exceedingly complex" making it very hard for cyber-attackers to get in and leave any virus in place for a long time.

The malicious code was reportedly inserted by soldiers of the US Cyber Command. This group of military hackers is permitted to carry out "clandestine military activity" on computer networks under the aegis of the National Defense Authorization Act, which was passed in 2018.

The US has been probing Russian power systems since 2012, reported the NYT, but was now more interested in finding weaknesses and inserting viruses.