Donald Trump called James Comey an “a weak and untruthful slimeball” on Friday morning after the first reports were released from the former FBI director’s new book, in which he likens the president to a mob boss.

“James Comey is a proven LEAKER & LIAR,” Trump tweeted. “Virtually everyone in Washington thought he should be fired for the terrible job he did-until he was, in fact, fired. He leaked CLASSIFIED information, for which he should be prosecuted. He lied to Congress under OATH.” In his next tweet, Trump wrote: “He is a weak and untruthful slime ball who was a terrible Director of the FBI. His handling of the Crooked Hillary Clinton case will go down as one of the worst “botch jobs” of history. It was my great honor to fire James Comey!”

Comey said during congressional testimony last year that he helped to leak details of a memo about Trump to the New York Times, but he denied that it contained classified information.Earlier on Friday morning, ABC News released the first clip from its upcoming interview with Comey, which will be aired on Sunday night.(theguardian)…[+]

The prime minister of Slovakia has hit out at people seeking to portray his country as a mafia state following the murder of a reporter investigating government corruption, but conceded that the “professional” killing was proving difficult to solve. Peter Pellegrini, who replaced Robert Fico after he was forced to quit in the wake of the murders of the journalist Ján Kuciak, 27, and his fiancee, Martina Kušnírová, said unprecedented numbers of police were working on the case. The authorities believe Kuciak was killed in relation to his work. He had recently been examining claims that a senior aide to Fico had business links with a man suspected of ties to the Italian mafia.

In an interview with the Guardian and five other European newspapers during a visit to Brussels, Pellegrini said the Slovakian police were being assisted by the FBI, the Metropolitan police and Italian and Dutch forces, but he appeared to suggest the investigation was struggling because of the delay in finding the bodies. “I am very sorry for the fact that the murders are running four days ahead of us. The problem is that the murder did occur on Wednesday, but the people were reported missing on the Sunday. This is far too much in case of a murder,” he said.

“It seems it was … very professional. That is why it may be very difficult to find. But for my government, for myself, for our citizens it is very important to find the perpetrator as quickly as possible.” Pellegrini was Fico’s deputy for the last two years, and while the protests that forced the former prime minister from office have been put on hold, there are concerns among those campaigning for a cleanup of government corruption that little will change.(theguardian)…[+]

BRIDGETOWN– The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has launched a Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Project in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), which will assist the country in recovering from the effects of Hurricane Irma. The Project, which was launched on April 10, 2018, will be funded through a USD65.3 million (mn) loan and a USD300,000 grant.

Speaking at the launch, Diana Wilson Patrick, General Counsel, CDB, noted that the Project is a further extension of CDB’s efforts to help BVI recover from the impact of the extreme weather event. In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Irma, the Bank provided an Emergency Relief Grant of USD200,000, and Immediate Response Loans totalling USD2.25 mn. “It was with a sense of some pride that the management and staff of the Caribbean Development Bank were able to work with our counterparts in the Government of the Virgin Islands to have financing towards the proposed rehabilitation and reconstruction activities approved by the Bank’s Board of Directors on December 14, 2017. This was a mere three months after Hurricane Irma caused the loss of four lives and an estimated USD3.6 billion in damage to homes, schools, infrastructure, public administration and defence and several other sectors; disrupting the lives of the country’s men, women, boys and girls.”

Premier and Minister of Finance, Dr. The Honourable D. Orlando Smith said that the Project was timely, as it will assist with recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction. “It is time to get our livelihoods back on track. It is time for us to get on with the several projects and initiatives that are identified for each ministry in the loan agreement. And, it is time to weather proof our infrastructure and rebuild it in a way that offers some resiliency to unprecedented weather patterns.” He went on to note that the funds provided will help to restore economic stability to the Territory.(CDB)…[+]