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Macron says nationalism is the opposite of patriotism, and Trump paid off women for silence

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‘No tension’ between Melania and Ivanka Trump and Danny Boyle leads a community remembrance event on British beaches.

Donald Trump was participating in hush payoffs to women he had sexual encounters with

Federal prosecutors have evidence that US President Donald Trump was involved in transactions that violated campaign-finance laws. These transactions were allegedly made to “buy the silence of women if they tried to publicize alleged sexual encounters with Mr. Trump,” reported The Wall Street Journal.

According to WSJ’s sources, in August 2015, Trump had a deal with longtime friend and media executive David Pecker, where the latter offered to help the former in the election campaigns by paying off women for this silence. Less than a year later, Trump asked Pecker to quash the story of a former Playboy model Karen McDougal who said they’d had an affair.

Pecker’s company paid $150,000 to her to stop her from publicly talking about it. Similar procedures were followed with others and Trump was closely involved in the dealings, according to WSJ.

The US Attorney’s office in Manhattan has gathered evidence of Trump’s participation in the transactions, said The Wall Street Journal.

However, Trump’s involvement in the payments, by itself, wouldn’t mean he is guilty of federal crimes, according to Richard Hasen, a law professor at University of California. Criminal conviction would require proof Trump willfully skirted legal prohibitions on contributions from companies or from individuals in excess of $2,700, Hasen told WSJ.

Macron rebukes Trump’s nationalism, warns world of falling into a new disorder

In a sharp speech at the Armistice Day ceremony, French President Emmanuel Macron delivered a rebuke against the rising nationalism in the world, alluding to US President Donald Trump’s ideology, reported The Washington Post.

“Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism. Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism. In saying ‘our interests first, whatever happens to the others,’ you erase the most precious thing a nation can have, that which makes it live, that which causes it to be great and that which is most important: its moral values,” he said, as reported by The Guardian.

Macron made the remarks in the presence of over 60 world leaders at the foot of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

The remarks came as a pointed rebuke to Trump who recently called himself a nationalist and has been promoting an “America first” foreign policy that has caused disruption in trade and defence with its allies.

Trump was present at the ceremony along with Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, among others.

Macron also said that this day would go down in history as a snapshot of various world leaders, whose countries were once at war, gathered around in peace. But he asked, “Will it be the symbol of a durable peace among nations? Or, on the contrary, a photograph of a final moment of unity before the world descends into a new disorder?”

Thousands participate in Danny Boyle led ‘Pages of the Sea’ event

Oscar-winning English filmmaker Danny Boyle hosted a large scale commemoration event, called ‘Pages of the Sea’, across the beaches of UK to mark the 100th anniversary of the Armistice Day. The event saw huge portraits of those martyred during World War I etched on the sands of 32 beaches along the British coastline.

Visitors participated in carving out the portraits in the sand, before they were washed away by the tides of the ocean, which was imagined as a metaphor of saying goodbye to those who were lost, and a way of paying homage, reported Sunderland Echo.

“The 100th anniversary of the Armistice initially felt like an opportunity to say a final goodbye and we may well decide it is a final goodbye and that we don’t commemorate the First World War any more,” Boyle told Manchester Evening News.

‘I’m suffocating … Take this bag off my head, I’m claustrophobic’ were Jamal Khashoggi’s last words

According to an audio recording that surfaced from the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul, the last words of slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi were, “I’m suffocating … Take this bag off my head, I’m claustrophobic,” reported Al Jazeera.

Khashoggi died on 2 October due to suffocation as a plastic bag covered his head, Nazif Karaman, head of investigations at Turkish Daily Sabah newspaper, told Al Jazeera.

Karaman said the murder lasted for about seven minutes, according to the recordings. He also told Al Jazeera that Saudi Arabia knows Khashoggi’s killer is among a group of 15 people who flew into Istanbul hours before the incident.

Karaman further revealed that the Saudi entourage covered the floor with plastic bags before dismembering Khashoggi’s body — a 15-minute process that was led by Salah al-Tubaigy, head of the Saudi Scientific Council of Forensics. Traces of acid were also found at the Saudi consul general’s residence in Istanbul, where the body was believed to be disposed of with the use of chemicals.

Karaman said Daily Sabah will be publishing the images of the tools that were brought into the country and used by the Saudi group.

Melania Trump filling in her mother’s shoes, while balancing her own responsibilities

As US’s first lady Melania Trump leads a deeply private life, the first daughter, Ivanka Trump, has to balance the responsibilities of her own, as well as her mother’s, reported The New York Times.

“While expanding her own presence in the White House, Ms. (Ivanka) Trump has at times, intentionally or not, defined her stepmother’s role in more limited terms,” said the report.

According to NYT, Ivanka Trump has defined her role in clearest terms that she is in the White House to help her father by using her charm and contacts to cut through Washington’s bureaucracy, particularly with Congress.

However, Melania Trump had earlier made a point to say that she is willing to disagree with her husband when she expressed her discomfort with the Trump administration’s policy of separating children from their parents after illegal border crossings.

A White House official spoke to NYT on the condition of anonymity, and insisted that there was no tension between the two: “The first lady and Ivanka have a great relationship. As strong independent women, each has their own unique portfolio but they always support each another personally and professionally.”

Another person close to Ivanka Trump insisted she was trying to avoid stepping on her stepmother’s toes when she described certain duties as being in the East Wing’s purview.

However, according to NYT, sensitivities over Melania Trump’s Africa trip suggested that the aides are acutely conscious of possible problems, including White House chief of staff, John F. Kelly, who has privately described the Trump children as “playing government”.

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