White House suggests 20% tax on Mexican imports

The feud between the White House and the Mexican government escalated on Thursday when the US press secretary suggested implementing a 20% border tax on goods coming from Mexico to pay for the wall the president intends to build across the southern border. The White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, originally told reporters about the plan on Air Force One as the president returned from a Republican retreat in Philadelphia, before later walking the idea back slightly. “By doing it that way we can do $10bn a year and easily pay for the wall just through that mechanism alone. That’s really going to provide the funding,” he said. Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Reince Priebus, later said that the tax was just one of a “buffet of options” the president had to ensure Mexico paid for the wall. Mexican government officials have criticized the ramifications of a border tax and earlier on Thursday Mexico’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto, cancelled a planned visit to the White House.

Trump-Mexico relations hit new low after 20% border wall tax mooted

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Trump continues obsession with crowd size

Trump’s obsession with disproving what the media has said about the crowd size at his inauguration continues, as he allegedly ordered the National Park Service director to release additional photographs of his inauguration in hopes they would prove the “media had lied”. Anonymous sources told the Washington Post, the president had told Michael Reynolds, the acting NPS director, that he wanted to see additional photographs of the inauguration as he thought it would prove more people were at his swearing-in. Trump also reportedly said to Reynolds that he was angry the NPS had tweeted an image of the side-by-side comparison of Trump and Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration crowds.

Trump pressured parks chief for photos to prove ‘media lied’ about crowd size



A new ‘special relationship’

The UK prime minister, Theresa May, has set out to forge a strong relationship with President Trump and Republicans during an address at the party’s Philadelphia retreat. May will visit the Oval Office today as she attempts to secure a post-Brexit trade deal with the US. She told journalists on the plane to Philadelphia that “sometimes, opposites attract” when speaking of her relationship with Trump, and said during her address the two countries’ special relationship would not be characterized by war as it had been during the George W Bush-Tony Blair era. She has come under increased scrutiny for warming to Trump. White House administration officials also managed to misspell her name on the president’s Friday schedule.

‘Opposites attract’: May signals strong relationship with Trump

Trump plans to keep China guessing

A prominent adviser to the president has said that Trump’s strategy on China will remain “unpredictable” with the hope of pushing for concessions from Beijing. Michael Pillsbury, a former Pentagon official and longtime China scholar, said the president’s sporadic comments and moves in relation to China have all been part of a calculated move. “He wants to be unpredictable in the eyes of the Chinese government,” Pillsbury, who has been advising the Trump team on China, told CGTN, an international mouthpiece for the Chinese government. Trump has upended US-China relations since his election on issues such as the South China Sea, Taiwan and China’s alleged currency manipulation.

Donald Trump’s plan for China relations is to be unpredictable, adviser says

Criminals love Facebook Live

The number of people live-streaming their criminal acts on Facebook is on the rise. A few days ago, three men in Sweden were arrested for live-streaming themselves raping a woman. A young man with disabilities was tortured on camera in Chicago, the musings of a spree killer being chased by police and more have also been live-streamed on Facebook. Some criminals have historically committed crimes with an audience in mind and now it has become easier, as Facebook provides access to its 1.79 billion users.

Rising numbers of criminals are using Facebook Live to document their acts

Hacker wanted by both US and Russia

A 29-year-old computer hacker who is in detention in the Czech Republic has become the subject of an extradition battle between the US and Russia, which may be related to the latter’s interference in the US’s election. Czech authorities arrested Yevgeniy Nikulin, a Russian citizen, upon a warrant for his arrest that was issued on interpol. He is believed to have hacked into computer networks belonging to LinkedIn, Dropbox and Formspring. The timing of his arrest has indicated to some that the US may believe he was in some way involved in the stealing of emails from the Democratic National Committee, or may know someone who was. Moscow has also pushed for Nikulin to be extradited on charges that he hacked someone’s personal bank account in 2009. Ondrej Kundra, a political editor with the Czech weekly magazine Respekt, said Nikulin was not formally accused at the time for that crime.

Alleged hacker behind LinkedIn breach at centre of US-Russia legal tussle



Don’t give up on the UN, America

Howard Stoffer, a former deputy executive director in the UN security council, is gravely concerned about the existential threat that Trump poses to the UN. There is reportedly an executive order set to be signed which will severely cut US funding to the UN and several other international bodies. Writing for the Guardian, Stoffer makes a case for why the US should remain a part of the UN. “For a truly tiny cost, close to 1% of the American defense budget,” he writes. “America receives a huge dividend from the UN – peace in many remote parts of the world, making them safe for American trade, investment, and tourism.”

Trump’s first week was a crusade against everything. But we returned the favor

In case you missed it …

Scientists have created a human-pig hybrid that raises the prospect of breeding organs in animals for transplants. The creation of this so-called chimera – named after the cross-species beast of Greek mythology – is the first time embryos combining two distantly related species has been produced.

First human-pig ‘chimera’ created in milestone study