FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin talk during the family photo session at the APEC Summit in Danang, Vietnam November 11, 2017.
In preparing for his first summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, U.S. President Donald Trump has provoked a rare agreement among Democrats and Republicans alarmed by the possibility of a cozy meeting.
While Republican Trump has gone softer on Putin, calling him a "competitor" and "not my enemy" on Thursday, lawmakers from both parties hardened their warnings to Trump before he sits down with the Russian leader in Helsinki on Monday.
President Donald Trump directly criticised Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit strategy, saying it had probably killed off hope of a U.S.-British trade deal and that she had failed to take his advice on how to negotiate with the European Union.In an interview published just hours before he was due to have lunch with May and tea with Queen Elizabeth on Friday, Trump chided the "very unfortunate" results of the prime minister's Brexit negotiation."If they do a deal like that, we would be dealing with the European Union instead of dealing with the UK, so it will probably kill the deal," Trump told the Rupert Murdoch-owned Sun newspaper."I would have done it much differently," he told The Sun, which urged its readers to back Brexit before a referendum in June 2016. "I actually told Theresa May how to do it, but she didn't listen to me."Video: Trump met by wall of protesters outside Blenheim PalaceAfter a tumultuous week for May, when her Brexit Secretary David Davis and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson resigned in protest at the Brexit plan, Trump heaped praise on Johnson, saying he "would be a great prime minister".Such public criticism by a sitting U.S. president of a British prime minister while on a visit to the United Kingdom publicly undermines May in her party, her country and abroad.When asked about the comments, May's spokesman said she was looking forward to sitting down with Trump to talk him through the negotiating stance.As Britain prepares to leave the EU on March 29, 2019, supporters of Brexit have made much of the so-called special relationship with the United States and the benefits of forging closer trade ties with the world's biggest economy.'EU will not be divided over US tariffs'Many have cast May's plan as a betrayal, including lawmakers in her divided Conservative Party, who have warned that she might face a leadership challenge.White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the president "likes and respects Prime Minister May very much," adding that he said in the interview she "is a very good person” and that he "never said anything bad about her".BREXIT AND TRUMPFor supporters, Trump and Brexit offer the prospect of breaking free from what they see as obsolete institutions and rules.But for many British diplomats, Brexit marks the collapse of a 70-year strategy of trying to balance European integration with a U.S. alliance based on blood, trade and intelligence sharing.London mayor says preposterous for Trump to blame crime on immigrationTrump has frequently angered British politicians. Late last year, May criticised him for retweeting a message by a member of a British far-right group, and the speaker of parliament has said Trump would not be welcome to address the chamber.More than 64,000 people have signed up to demonstrate in London against Trump's visit. On Friday, protesters began preparations to fly a large balloon over parliament depicting the president as an orange, snarling baby.On Thursday, May invoked World War Two leader Winston Churchill as she addressed Trump and business leaders at a black-tie dinner at Blenheim Palace, the 18th century country house where Churchill was born."Mr. President, Sir Winston Churchill once said that 'to have the United States at our side was, to me, the greatest joy'," May told Trump, according to a text of her speech."The spirit of friendship and cooperation between our countries, our leaders and our people, that most special of relationships, has a long and proud history," she said, adding that the United States was "not just the closest of allies but the dearest of friends".Outside the mansion, northwest of London, a couple of thousand booing demonstrators lined the road. It was one of more than a hundred protests police expected during Trump's four-day trip."I think it’s a travesty of British values. How can we roll out the red carpet for someone who stands for everything we stand against?" said academic Emily Jones, 40, one of those protesting outside Blenheim Palace.While Trump's trip was not the full state visit he was originally promised, he was heralded by military bands on his arrival in the country and at Blenheim, and he is scheduled to take the tea with Queen Elizabeth. 
Trump says May's Brexit plan kills hope of a US trade deal
"Putin is not America's friend, nor merely a competitor. Putin is America's enemy — not because we wish it so, but because he has chosen to be," Republican Senator John McCain said.
"It is up to President Trump to hold Putin accountable for his actions during the meeting in Helsinki," McCain said in a statement. "Failure to do so would be a serious indictment of his stewardship of American leadership in the world.”
Trump has touted the summit as an opportunity to reduce tensions, inflamed by Russia's annexation of the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, its military backing of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which turned the tide of the Syrian civil war in 2015, and accusations of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.
Twitter began purging its platform of millions of suspicious or fake accounts Thursday.Some of Twitter’s most prominent users, including President Donald Trump, saw their follower counts decrease by hundreds of thousands of accounts.“Action on this starts today,” Twitter’s chief executive and co-founder Jack Dorsey tweeted, adding he lost 200,000 followers.Traffickers tap into India’s digital boom to lure girlsOn Wednesday, Twitter announced that it would begin deleting “locked” accounts, accounts that were deactivated because Twitter deemed them to be suspicious or fraudulent.Twitter’s own official account, @Twitter, was one of the purge’s biggest victims. The account lost roughly 10 million followers Thursday, dropping some 12 percent to about 55 million.Trump lost about 200,000 followers. Former President Barack Obama lost roughly 2.6 million followers. Musician Katy Perry, the most followed account on Twitter, lost about 2.7 million followers in the purge.China chemical plant blast kills 19, injures 12In the announcement, Twitter executive Vijaya Gadde said the company estimated the average user would lose four followers or fewer.“We understand this may be hard for some, but we believe accuracy and transparency make Twitter a more trusted service for public conversation,” Gadde said in a statement.Israel summons EU ambassador“Though the most significant changes are happening in the next few days, follower counts may continue to change more regularly as part of our ongoing work to proactively identify and challenge problematic accounts.”While the general reaction to the loss of followers was relatively calm, the purge was still controversial on social media. Some conservatives on Twitter argued that the purge was politically motivated.“Look, if they're genuinely fake or dead accounts, I have no problem with it,” tweeted former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain. “But how do we know?”Twitter said locked accounts were accounts that were opened by an authentic person but have likely been hacked, according to the company’s metrics.
Twitter begins purging locked accounts
U.S. lawmakers want Trump, both privately with Putin and publicly, to condemn Russia's actions.
Congress has taken a hard anti-Russia stance, nearly unanimously approving last year a tough sanctions law targeting Moscow. But lawmakers worry Trump will fail to take Putin to task, particularly over the election meddling, which the Russian leader has denied.
U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Moscow interfered and Trump has said he would discuss it, although he has stated both a willingness to believe Putin's denials and U.S. agencies. Trump has described a special counsel investigation into possible collusion between Trump campaign aides and Russia as a political witch hunt.
A huge explosion rocked an area near Cairo International Airport late Thursday, according to media reports.The blast was followed by a fire, according to Egyptian state television.There has been no official announcement on the cause of the explosion.Video: Explosion sets off fire outside Egypt's Cairo airport
Blast reported near Cairo’s international airport
"Our goal must be to demonstrate to the world that the community of democratic nations does not intend to accede to Putin's or any other authoritarian's view of the world. We will resist Russia's aggression," Democratic Senator Mark Warner and Republican Senator Marco Rubio said in an op-ed in USA Today on Thursday.
Senior Trump administration officials also have voiced fears about what he might give Putin to the detriment of allies in Europe, especially after seeing how Trump appeared to get only vague commitments from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at their June 12 summit in Singapore to discuss denuclearization.
The White House has ordered that a wider group of lawmakers have access to classified information about an informant the FBI used to investigate possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, the New York Times reported on Thursday, citing two American officials with knowledge of the decision.The White House order to allow all members of the House and Senate intelligence committees to see the classified documents - rather than a smaller group of lawmakers known as the "Gang of Eight" - was made despite concerns by intelligence and law enforcement officials that the move could lead to leaks, the Times said.Trump says May's Brexit plan kills hope of a US trade dealSome American officials believe the reason the White House made the decision was to provide political ammunition to President Donald Trump's Republican allies who have argued that the Federal Bureau of Investigation's probe was opened in July 2016 as an effort to keep Trump from becoming president, the Times reported.The White House did not immediately respond to a request from Reuters for comment.S.Korea's Moon urges North, United States to move forward on denuclearisationAccording to the Times and other media reports, the FBI sent the informant, an American academic who teaches in Britain, to talk to Trump campaign advisers in the summer of 2016 after the agency had received evidence that the aides had suspicious contacts with Russia. The use of informants is commonplace in counterintelligence and criminal investigations.The FBI at the time was investigating whether anyone in Trump's campaign worked with Russia to help tip the election in Trump's favor. The investigation is now being led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
White House orders greater access to files on FBI informant
Trump declared that he had ended the nuclear threat from North Korea, but one senior U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said: "Who's to say he won’t come out of Helsinki saying he and Putin agreed that Russia no longer poses a threat to the rest of Europe?"
'EASIEST' PART OF TRUMP TRIP
Worries over Trump's commitment to European allies and his deference to Russia loomed large at the NATO summit that wrapped up on Thursday. Trump claimed a personal victory after telling European allies to increase their defense spending or lose Washington's support. He particularly railed against Germany and Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Trump took another swipe at U.S. allies when he told reporters in Brussels that he thought his meeting with Putin would be "the easiest" part of his week-long European trip.
U.S. Senator Jeff Flake, a Republican, criticized Trump for saying that.
"The Russian president is a man schooled in treachery and espionage. He jails and murders his opponents, presides over a mafia state and he is an enemy of democracy. Why would a meeting with Putin be easier than a meeting with the allies that we rely on most to be a bulwark against him?" Flake asked in a Senate speech.
Putin won re-election for six more years in March with opposition leader Alexei Navalny barred from running on what he says was a false pretext.
Europeans and some U.S. officials are particularly concerned about whether Putin will ask Trump to suspend NATO military drills in the Baltic states on Russia's doorstep.
Another senior U.S. official said that if Putin came away from the meeting with Trump thinking he had permission to act in the Baltics, Estonia might become the epicenter of what NATO has helped to prevent.
Trump's assertion that Russia is a competitor and not an adversary is contrary to the judgments of U.S. intelligence agencies and his chief diplomat, Mike Pompeo, who at his April confirmation hearing to be Secretary of State, said the United States needs "to push back in each place we confront them," referring to the Russians.
While Trump said on Thursday that he expects the Helsinki summit to be "just a loose meeting," some at home are hoping it will be a "non-event" with nothing groundbreaking.
"Based on just the way things are shaping up, I think a non-eventful Helsinki meeting might be best for our country," Republican Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Foreign Relations committee, told Reuters.