Robert Harward turns down national security adviser position
Retired admiral and former Navy SEAL Robert Harward was offered the job of national security adviser to President Donald Trump, but has turned down the position for personal reasons, a senior administration official tells ABC News.
The 60-year-old Harward had been the leading candidate to replace Gen. Michael Flynn, who was fired Monday, sources said. Flynn had misled Vice President Mike Pence about whether he discussed sanctions with the Russian ambassador ahead of the inauguration.
Harward most recently served as the deputy commander of U.S. Central Command under Gen. James Mattis, now the Secretary of Defense, a relationship which was seen as a strong selling point, administration officials said.
Harward, an ABC News consultant, and Trump had spoken recently about a position in the administration, according to the officials.
But after weighing the opportunity of national security adviser, Harward cited his family in declining the job, the senior administration official said.
"I was humbled and honored," Harward told ABC News, but said of the job, "It takes 24 hours a day of focus... It's a tough sacrifice" and after 40 years of military service, he was not ready to come back from retirement.
Harward denied turning down the offer because of chaos in the West Wing.
Other names have been under consideration as possible replacement for Flynn, according to administration officials: retired Gen. David Petraeus, former Ambassador Bob Kimmitt, and retired Gen. Keith Kellogg -- who is currently serving as the acting NSA -- have all been in the mix.
Thursday evening, reaction to Harward's decision was already coming in.
"Robert Harward’s decision to not take over General Flynn’s old job is the latest evidence that the Trump WH is falling into utter disarray," House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi tweeted.
Source-ABC
President Trump calls reports that campaign had contact with Russia 'fake news'
President Donald Trump held a press conference at the White House Thursday to announce his new pick for labor secretary, Alexander Acosta, but once he began taking questions from reporters, the focus shifted away from Acosta to a slew of other topics including allegations of his campaign's contact with Russians and a popular go-to topic for the president, his disdain for the mainstream media.
Trump said reports that members of his campaign team had multiple contacts with Russian officials during his presidential campaign are "fake news" and called the storyline "fabricated" by those bitter over Hillary Clinton's election loss. “It's all fake news,” Trump told reporters at a press conference in the East Room of the White House, calling the matter a “fabricated deal to make up for the loss of the Democrats.”
Though the president refuted the reporting as fake news, Trump told ABC News Jonathan Karl that suspected leaks coming from inside the government are real.
"Well, the leaks are real. You are the one that wrote about them and reported them. The leaks are real. You know what they said. You saw it. And the leaks are absolutely real. The news is fake because so much of the news is fake," the president said.
"I've actually called the Justice Department to look into the leaks. Those are criminal leaks," Trump said.
Trump also told reporters Thursday his administration is working "like a fined-tuned machine," in the wake of this week’s resignation of his national security adviser and the withdrawal of his nominee for secretary of labor.
"This administration is running like a fine-tuned machine," Trump said. "Despite the fact that I can't get my Cabinet approved, and they are outstanding people."
Trump also raised eyebrows when he asked a black reporter at the free-wheeling press conference to arrange a meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus.
“Do you want to set up the meeting?" Trump asked April Ryan, the White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks. “Are they friends of yours? Set up a meeting. Set up the meeting. I would love to meet with the Congressional Black Caucus, I think it's great.”
NBA All-Star Game: Carmelo Anthony named as Kevin Love's
New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony will be stepping in for Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love on Sunday when the 2017 NBA All-Star Game tips off.
Anthony was picked by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to replace Love, who underwent knee surgery on Tuesday. The Cavs said Love is expected to be out for approximately six weeks as he recovers from the operation.
With Anthony now part of the Eastern Conference roster, this marks his 10th NBA All-Star selection. So far this season, he is averaging 23.4 points, 6.1 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game.
The 66th NBA All-Star Game is set to air February 19 at 8 p.m. ET from New Orleans.
Source-ABC
John Mayer's new wave coming next Friday
John Mayer has confirmed that the next batch of songs from his in-progress album The Search for Everything will arrive next Friday, February 24, but he's already revealed the track listing.
John posted the details on Friday: the four songs are called "Still Feel Like Your Man," "Emoji of a Wave," "Helpless" and "Roll It on Home." He posted the artwork on Wednesday: it's a line drawing of a young girl looking down, with feathers falling around her.
Last month, John released the first batch of songs from the album as The Search for Everything -- Wave One EP. He's promised to release four new songs every month for an undetermined amount of months -- and then later this year, he'll release the album in its entirety.
John's Search for Everything world tour kicks off March 21. It'll feature John performing solo acoustic, with a full band and with his John Mayer Trio.
NFL declares Lady Gaga's Super Bowl halftime show the most-watched...of all time!
After Lady Gaga performed at the Super Bowl earlier this month, the ratings showed that it was the second most-watched halftime show ever, just behind Katy Perry's 2015 show. But now, the NFL is claiming that in fact, Gaga's show was the most-watched musical event OF ALL TIME.
How can that be? Well, if you count how many people watched it on all the platforms on which it was available, the numbers add up. While close to 118 million viewers caught Gaga on TV, they also watched on NFL's digital platforms, including Twitter, You Tube, NFL.com and NFL Mobile. According to the NFL, all told, the show reached more than 150 million unique people.
An NFL exec said in a statement, "The Halftime show provides the ultimate world stage for an artist. Through her incredible music, choreography and unifying message, Lady Gaga created a unique performance that will remembered for years to come."
Courtesy of the NFL, here are a few stats, broken out by platform:
YouTube
The Halftime Show is the most-watched video on the NFL’s YouTube channel, with more than 24 million views and more than 140 million minutes watched.
During Lady Gaga’s live performance, there were 2.2 million real-time tweets about the #PepsiHalftime show, as well as a total of 5.1 million tweets about the performance leading up to, during, and in the 10 minutes following.
More than 49 million video views, and more than 5 million reactions, comments, and shares.
Giphy
GIFs from the Halftime show generated more than 75 million views across GIPHY’s network.
Source-ABC
Retail sales fall unexpectedly in January
Retail sales slipped back unexpectedly in January, following on from December's dip.
Official figures, from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), showed retail sales volumes dropped by 0.3% compared with the previous month, well below the 0.9% rise expected.
The ONS said the data indicated the first signs of a fall in the underlying trend since December 2013.
It said evidence suggested higher fuel and food prices were key factors.
Compared with January 2016, sales were up 1.5%, the weakest performance since November 2013.
Figures earlier this week from the ONS showed inflation rose to its highest level in two and a half years at a time when wage growth was slowing down.
Fuel prices jumped 16.1% in January, the biggest changed since September 2011.
Wary
Kate Davies, senior statistician at the ONS, said: "In the three months to January 2017, retail sales saw the first signs of a fall in the underlying trend since December 2013.
"We have seen falls in month-on-month seasonally adjusted retail sales, both in conventional stores and online, and the evidence suggests that increased prices in fuel and food are significant factors in this slowdown."
Analysts said consumers were becoming wary of spending at a time when employment and earnings growth was slowing and inflation rising.
Samuel Tombs at Pantheon Economics said consumers were starting to "crumble" in the face of inflation pressure.
Ruth Gregory, from Capital Economics, said: "January's surprise fall in the official measure of retail sales volumes has brought the recent run of resilient economic news to an abrupt end. And the rest of the year is shaping up to be tough on the high street, given the expected squeeze on consumers' real pay growth."
Vauxhall UK and Germany raise concerns on deal talks
The UK and German governments are seeking to safeguard jobs in the potential merger of the Vauxhall and Peugeot carmakers.
Ministers have raised concerns after PSA Group, maker of Peugeot cars, said it was in talks to buy General Motors' loss-making European business Opel.
Opel has thousands of workers at its plants in Germany and UK arm Vauxhall.
Business Secretary Greg Clark said he would make a "strong case" for the firms to keep manufacturing in the UK.
Mr Clark met with union officials on Wednesday to discuss the future of Vauxhall, which employs 4,500 staff at plants at Ellesmere Port and Luton.
Meanwhile, Germany's government has signalled its concerns and frustrations with the possible deal.
Economy Minister Brigitte Zypries said it was "unacceptable" that Opel and French firm PSA had not consulted ministers or unions before going ahead with the talks.
German ministers will discuss the deal with the French government in an effort to limit the potential impact on German workers, Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman said.
In a bid to contain the outrage, General Motors (GM) chief executive Mary Barra travelled to Germany to answer questions about the deal on Wednesday.
PSA also said its chief executive Carlos Tavares planned to meet senior German officials, possibly including Mrs Merkel, in the near future.
Opel employs about half its workers, about 19,000 people, in Germany.
Ministers will not judge the deal yet, but "it is clear that the government will accompany this process", Mrs Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters.
The announcement from PSA, which is 14% owned by the French state, comes a week after US carmaker GM reported a loss of $257m (£206m) from its European operations last year.
That was the 16th consecutive loss-making year for GM in Europe, bringing its cumulated losses on the continent since 2000 to more than $15bn.
PSA, which already works with GM in Europe on several projects, said a takeover was among "numerous strategic initiatives" being considered.
Source-BBC
Kushner family may step away from Marlins acquisition
Should current Miami Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria be nominated by President Donald Trump as the U.S. ambassador to France, as has been reported, real estate mogul Charles Kushner and his family will no longer be interested in buying the team.
In a statement Wednesday, Kushner's son-in-law Joseph Meyer said, "Our family has been friends with Jeff Loria for over 30 years, been in business together, and even owned a AAA baseball team together. Although the Kushners have made substantial progress in discussions for us to purchase the Marlins, recent reports suggest that Mr. Loria will soon be nominated by the President to be Ambassador to France."
"If that is true, we do not want this unrelated transaction to complicate that process and will not pursue it," Meyer added. "The Kushners remain interested in purchasing a team and would love to buy the Marlins at another time."
Kushner's son Jared is married to Trump's daughter Ivanka and serves as the president's senior adviser.
Last week, Forbes reported that a "handshake agreement" was in place for the team. The offer was said to be for $1.6 billion.
ESPN later reported that Charles Kushner was part of a potential purchase group. It was not known, however, whether that was the same group linked to the offer reported by Forbes.
Source-ABC
US actor Ashton Kutcher urges end to child sexual exploitation
Actor and human rights campaigner Ashton Kutcher has urged US lawmakers to support efforts to help bring an end to child sexual exploitation.
At a senate hearing on Wednesday, a visibly emotional Mr Kutcher said it was time for "society and government" to defend the vulnerable.
He said that he had been exposed to things "no person should ever see".
Mr Kutcher was speaking as chairman of Thorn, an organisation that develops software to locate victims of abuse.
"The right to pursue happiness for so many is stripped away, it's raped, it's abused, it's taken by force," Mr Kutcher, 39, said.
He told the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington that new technology was needed to prevent websites from carrying adverts promoting the sexual exploitation of minors.
"Technology can be used to enable slavery, but it can also be used to disable slavery," Mr Kutcher said, adding: "Can we build the tools that are better than their tools to fight what is happening?"
He said that one of the tools his organisation had created, Spotlight, helped identify 6,000 victims in six months. It was developed after a 2012 survey found that 63% of underage victims were being bought or sold online.
Mr Kutcher, who is married to actress Mila Kunis and has two children, said that he aimed to help victims around the world with his work at Thorn after being affected by what he had seen.
"I've seen video content of a child that's the same age as mine, being raped by an American man who was a sex tourist in Cambodia. This child was so conditioned by her environment that she thought she was engaging in play."
He told those present at the Ending Modern Slavery hearing that his organisation had been approached by authorities to help track online perpetrators with new technology.
"We were the last line of defence - an actor and his foundation," he said, adding: "That's my day job, and I'm sticking to it."
Source-BBC
Spouses of CARICOM leaders to address violence against women
The high rate of violence against women will be among issues discussed when the Forum of the Caribbean Community’s (CARICOM’s) Spouses of Heads of State and Government on the Every Caribbean Woman, Every Caribbean Child (ECWECC) initiative begins in Guyana tomorrow.
The Guyana-based CARICOM Secretariat said that the two-day meeting will seek to hammer out the specifics on the way forward for this initiative.
The ECWECC initiative is expected to provide opportunities to improve the lives of women, children and adolescents. It focuses on four priority issues: teenage pregnancy; violence against women and children, including trafficking in persons; cervical cancer and mother to child transmission of HIV in the Caribbean.
Guyana’s First Lady, Sandra Granger, said the initiative evolved out of the Every Woman, Every Girl (EWEG) Initiative of former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, which was launched in 2014. She said that ECWECC took on board Caribbean realities, resulting in the four areas for priority intervention and the expanded focus to include the child, irrespective of gender.
These include the Caribbean having the second highest rate of teenage pregnancy in the world after sub-Saharan Africa, with an estimated 20 per cent giving birth before the age of 19, cervical cancer being the second leading cause of cancer deaths among Caribbean women aged 15 to 49 and accounting for 13 per cent of all cancer cases.
The meeting is also expected to discuss the high rate of violence against women and girls, which also involves trafficking in persons.
“Invitees include regional and international partners who have expressed a willingness to come on board to assist… providing resources, both financial and intellectual to push it (the initiative) forward,” Granger said.
The forum is funded by Gilead Sciences Inc and organised by the Office of the First Lady of Guyana in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the CARICOM Secretariat.
CARICOM leaders endorsed the ECWECC initiative at their summit here in 2016, and a report of the forum will be presented to them at their inter-sessional meeting, which also begins tomorrow.
Source-CMC