Social Media: Facebook and Instagram extend Trump ban to remainder of his presidency

Facebook Inc. and Instagram will extend a ban on U.S. President Donald Trump's accounts for at least the next two weeks until the presidential transition is completed, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said.

Twitter Inc., Facebook, and Snap Inc. temporarily locked Trump's accounts on Wednesday, as tech giants scrambled to crack down on his baseless claims about the U.S. presidential election and hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.

Read more at: Facebook and Instagram extend Trump ban to remainder of his presidency | CBC News

USA: Russian investign: Mueller indicates he will likely seek interview with Trump - by Carol Leonnig

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has raised the likelihood with President Trump's legal team that his office will seek an interview with the president, triggering a discussion among his attorneys about how to avoid a sit-down encounter or set limits on such a session, according to two people familiar with the talks.

Mueller brought up the issue of interviewing Trump during a late December meeting with the president's lawyers, John Dowd and Jay Sekulow. Mueller deputy James Quarles, who oversees the White House portion of the special counsel investigation, also attended.

The special counsel's team could interview Trump very soon on some limited portion of questions — possibly within the next several weeks, according to a person close to the president who was granted anonymity to describe internal conversations.

"This is moving faster than anyone really realizes," the person said, who said Trump is comfortable participating in an interview and believes it would put to rest questions about whether his campaign coordinated with Russia in the 2016 election.

However, the president's attorneys are reluctant to allow him to sit down for open-ended, face-to-face questioning without clear parameters, according to two people familiar with the discussions.

Since the December meeting, they have discussed whether the president could provide written answers to some portion of the questions from Mueller's investigators, as then-President Ronald Reagan did during the Iran-contra investigation. They have also discussed the obligation of Mueller's team to demonstrate they could not obtain the information they are seeking without interviewing the President.
Dowd and Sekulow declined to comment.

In a statement, Ty Cobb, the White House lawyer overseeing the administration's response to the Mueller investigation, said "the White House does not comment on communications with the OSC out of respect for the OSC and its process," referring to the special counsel's office.

"The White House is continuing its full cooperation with the OSC in order to facilitate the earliest possible resolution," Cobb added.

Read more: Mueller indicates he will likely seek interview with Trump

Britain furious, Trump unapologetic as fallout swells from anti-Muslim videos - by Karla Adam and William Booth

Trump Twitter Mania Continues unabated

The British revolt against President Trump swelled Thursday with Parliament members openly deriding him and Britain’s prime minister standing by her denunciations of Trump’s retweets of a fringe group’s anti-Muslim videos.

Prime Minister Theresa May blasted Trump for crossing a line by posting the inflammatory videos on his Twitter page Wednesday — and then warning May to essentially mind her own business and focus on Islamist terrorism instead of him.

But officials were careful to note that ties with the United States are stronger than the current flare-up with the White House.

“It’s increasingly clear that any official visit from President Trump to Britain would not be welcomed,” tweeted London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, the first Muslim to hold the office. Khan has repeatedly called for Britain to withdraw an invitation for Trump to visit — and his stance appeared to gain backing amid the outrage against the president.

In a sign of the disruptive wake unleashed by Trump, British Home Secretary Amber Rudd had to remind Parliament and the public that Britain’s relationship with the United States was bigger than one president — and that important trade, security and intelligence sharing are ongoing.

Note EU-Digest: The statement issued by the British Home Secretary Amber Rudd in the British House of Parliament, was weak and insufficient. Britain should at least have presented an official note of protest to the US Ambassador in Britain and request apologies from the US Government for the insane and racially slanted Twitter messages by President Trump. The US President must not be allowed, at least by the international community, to get away with this nonsense.

Read more: Britain furious, Trump unapologetic as fallout swells from anti-Muslim videos  - The Washington Post