The FBI has been asked to investigate whether a hoaxer offered women money to make false allegations about Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. Several journalists and bloggers in the US received an email this month purporting to be from a woman who had been offered money to smear Mueller with bogus claims of inappropriate behaviour decades ago.

After Mueller’s office was told about the email, it referred the matter to federal investigators, who are now likely to examine whether the hoax scheme described in the woman’s email is real – or if the email itself contains false information.Peter Carr, Mueller’s spokesman, said in a statement on Tuesday: “When we learned last week of allegations that women were offered money to make false claims about the special counsel, we immediately referred the matter to the FBI for investigation.”This statement itself was rare for Mueller’s office, which has built a reputation over the past 17 months for almost never making public remarks about its activities outside of court hearings and legal filings.

Mueller has come under sustained pressure from Donald Trump and some Republicans in Congress, who have tried to dismiss his investigation as a “witch-hunt”. Mueller has so far obtained criminal convictions of Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort for financial crimes, along with guilty pleas from several people including Mike Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, and Rick Gates, his former deputy campaign chairman.(theguardian)…[+]

Brazil’s far-right president-elect, Jair Bolsonaro, has reaffirmed his defense of his country’s brutal 21-year dictatorship and rejected claims that he is a fascist, instead painting himself as a Churchillian patriot determined to lead his crisis-stricken country “out of this quagmire”.

In one of his first television interviews since being elected on Sunday with nearly 58 million votes, the former paratrooper, who is notorious for his inflammatory rhetoric, did little to suggest he would temper his discourse after taking power on 1 January.

Bolsonaro told TV Band, one of Brazil’s major channels, it was his leftwing detractors who were fascists, not him. “They always accuse others of being what they are themselves,” he said. “It’s these leftwing people, who always put themselves above the rest, who are fascists.” The veteran politician, who paints himself as a political outsider, also refused to say he regretted saying the military regime that ruled Brazil from 1964 until 1985 should have killed 30,000 people. In a now infamous 1999 television interview Bolsonaro also said: “You’ll never change anything in this country through voting. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.”(theguardian)…[+]

BRIDGETOWN- The Government of the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) is taking steps towards improving the country’s solid waste management systems through a loan of USD672, 500 from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).

Solid waste management has become an increasingly critical issue in the tourism-dependent territory as rapid growth in the tourism sector, population increase and changing consumption patterns have led to a corresponding increase in solid waste generation. Consequently, inadequate solid waste management has been identified as one of the key environmental threats facing TCI, an issue which the Technical Assistance project will help the country assess and address. Director of Projects at CDB, Daniel Best said the goal of the project is to create an environmentally sustainable system that can serve the country well into the future.

The loan will assist with the costs of consulting services to develop an integrated solid waste management strategy for the country and preparing a feasibility study of solid waste management options. It will also aid in creating detailed engineering and architectural designs for the preferred infrastructure options and developing a related programme of institutional strengthening and capacity-building. Independent Environmental and Social Impact Assessments for the proposed works will also be undertaken…[+]