EXCLUSIVE UPDATE: I did not travel to the US - Atiku Abubakar

The Peoples Democratic Party's presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar has denied report that he had travelled to the United States of America. A report in The Cable had claimed that presidential candidate of the main opposition had reportedly been granted a United States visa.
However, in a reaction, Atiku media aide Paul Ibe who spoke to Leadership denied reports he had travelled to the US but added the politician had gone on a private visit to the United Kingdom.
He said Atiku is back and preparing for his campaign which starts on Monday December 3 in Sokoto state.

According to an earlier report which appeared in The Cable on Saturday, December 1, Atiku was said to have recently got the visa and is expected to travel to the United States of America.
The report which quoted a family source had confirmed the acquisition of the visa but said he has yet to travel to the US.

Atiku was reported to have left for the United Kingdom where he reportedly would be for some time before his purported US visit. While the report of US visit was denied by Paul Ibe, he did corroborate the UK visit but added it was a private visit. He further confirmed that Atiku was since back to the country for his campaign in Sokoto state.
Former president Olusegun Obasanjo and Atiku's one-time boss was alleged to have played a big role in getting the US to grant Atiku the said visa.

While the reports of Atiku's UK-US travel is still the subject of controversy, secrecy and intrigues , Legit.ng could not immediately independently verify the authenticity of the report until the latest denial.
However, the report comes just days after the
federal government of Nigeria told the US to be cautious in granting visa to Atiku Abubakar, in order not to create the impression of endorsing him for the 2019 election.

The minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed, had gaven the government's position at an interactive session with media executives in Abuja on Thursday, November 29.

Mohammed said that the government was aware of the move by the former vice president to lobby the US to lift the visa ban imposed on him. Atiku's camp had been confident of him getting the visa.
Recall Legit.ng reported that former senior special assistant on public affairs to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Doyin Okupe,
revealed that Atiku Abubakar would be travelling to the United States of America by the end of November .
Okupe, who is a former spokesperson to former president Olusegun Obasanjo, disclosed this on his Twitter page on Sunday, November 4.
Not long ago, Legit.ng also reported that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) alleged that former president Obasanjo was working on how to get an American visa for Atiku .
The party said in a statement signed by its acting national spokesman Yekini Nabena on Saturday, October 13 that it has information that Obasanjo is trying to get the US to lift Atiku's entry ban into that country.
The APC said Obasanjo's move to help Atiku enter the US where he is allegedly banned from entering because of a purported corruption case, is evidence of the former president's hypocrisy.

Atiku, the presidential candidate of the PDP and a former vice president of Nigeria for eight years on the same political platform between 1999 and 2007 has been involved in a controversy over his inability to go to the United States.
Atiku was reportedly indicted in a corruption case that involved one of his wives Jennifer and some transaction with his American University of Nigeria in Yola, Adamwa state.
Although FBI searches of his property in the US did not turn up anything suspicious, he was said to have been issued a travel ban to the US and the matter has since hung over his political career.

Via LEGIT.NG

Democrats Meltdown After Justice Kennedy Announced Retirement from Supreme Court

Liberal heads exploded on Wednesday when the news broke that Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced is retirement after 30 years, effective July 31.

Kennedy, 81, was appointed to the Supreme Court by former President Ronald Reagan in 1987. He was sworn in a year later.

Chaos erupted on social media late Wednesday as news of Kennedy’s retirement circulated online. Ridiculous conspiracy theories quickly spread via social media. There was talk of Trump ending abortions and liberals being marched off to death camps.

By Wednesday night some Democrats and liberals were on suicide watch. Unhinged Comedy Central “comedian” Curtis Cook wished death upon Kennedy for simply retiring. “I wish Kennedy had been shot instead of the other ones,” he tweeted. As of Wednesday night, the tweet was still up.

President Trump immediately announced he would pick Kennedy’s successor “within weeks” from a list of 25 pre-vetted nominees.
Outraged Democrats promised an epic confirmation battle after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced, “We will vote to confirm Justice Kennedy’s successor this fall.”

The front-runner nominee is Chicago appeals court judge and mother-of-7 Amy Coney Barrett, 46. Trump added her name to the list just a few months ago.

If she is picked she will be Trump’s 2nd SCOTUS nominee since his election. He appointed Neil Gorsuch to the bench in 2017. Kennedy, a moderate, was the key swing vote in many landmark cases, including Roe vs. Wade and gay marriage, and union dues for non-union members. He also voted to uphold Trump’s travel ban this week.

At a standing-room-only campaign rally in Fargo, North Dakota Wednesday night, an ecstatic President Trump thanked Kennedy for visiting him at the White House to personally deliver his retirement letter earlier in the day.

“I’m very honored he chose to do it during my term in office, because he felt confident in me to make the right choice and carry on his great legacy,” Trump said.
With 3 current Supreme Court justices in their 80s, Trump has 3 potential SCOTUS picks.
The president stressed to ND voters the importance of electing Republican Senate candidate Kevin Cramer to maintain a majority Republican Senate who will confirm his SCOTUS nominees.
“The travel ban ruling underscores just how critical it is to confirm judges who will support our great Constitution,” he said Wednesday.

On MSNBC’s “Hardball” on Wednesday, Senator Kamala Harris said Democrats were ready to “play hardball” to protect gay marriage and the Constitution from Trump’s New SCOTUS pick. She said her colleagues were prepared to do serious battle with Trump to delay the nomination until after the midterms. “We will not relent.”

Read More - Sandrarose

FACTS - Checkout, 5 Facts the Mainstream Media Don’t Want You to Know About Family Separation at Border

The mainstream media is falling over themselves reporting on families separated at the border. Here are 13 facts the mainstream media don’t want you to know about the situation at the border.

1. Trump Is Only Enforcing the Law That Was Passed in 1997
President Trump is under fire for separating children from their parents (mostly males) at the border. But more children were separated from their parents under the Obama administration. The media referred to the children as “unaccompanied minors”.

2. Barack Obama Separated Illegal Alien Families, Media Said Nothing
More families were separated under Obama than under Trump. When the liberal media began reporting on this manufactured scandal they used photos of children sleeping on mats in cages. Those photos were taken in 2014 — during the Obama administration. “Political journalism needs a bit of housecleaning on this child border crisis. I’ll start. It was going on during the Obama years in large numbers,” tweeted David Martosko (@dmartosko).

He added: “To my colleagues out there chasing Pulitzers over this: Why didn’t today’s critical mass form when we were looking at unaccompanied minors by the tens of thousands in 2014. Why didn’t those kids matter as much as these? Few of us chased those stories down with any vigor.”

3. Immigrant Children Can’t Be Housed with Adults
Illegals who cross the border are
breaking the law . Whether immigrants or Americans, children are never allowed to stay with lawbreakers in detention centers, jails or prisons. There has been a 300% increase in adults bringing children to the border in the past year. Many of the children are not related to the adults. Trump’s “zero tolerance policy” is a deterrent to this activity. Separating children from adults protects children from rape and other violent acts.

4. Asylum Seekers Not Breaking the Law are Not Being Separated
Asylum seekers who respect our laws, by turning themselves in at legal points of entry, are not being separated. Only lawbreakers who try to sneak into the country are being detained and separated.

5. Obama and Democrats Spread the Word That Minors Were Being Allowed Into the Country
The Obama administration incentivized the immigration crisis by spreading the word that families with children were being given asylum in America. This caused a sharp increase in adults bringing non-related children.

[Donald Trump] I didn’t know my lawyer paid prostitute $130k

Stormy Daniels’s attorney said on Thursday that President Trump claims he was unaware of the $130,000 payment his attorney made to the porn star days before the 2016 election.

“He’s effectively thrown, Michael Cohen now under the bus,” Michael Avenatti said.

“This is an undisciplined guy, who you know, he finally cracked. We knew he would crack eventually. We’d been patient, I’ve been waiting, and low and behold, who would have thought that it would arrive on this Thursday on this glorious day in New York,” he continued.

Avenatti said they he would file a petition to depose the president on Monday.
“My understanding is that he denied a couple subsequent questions as to whether he has set up a fund from which this payment would be made or reimbursed.

“I find that quite interesting. And I find that certainly a topic that we’re going to explore in connection with his deposition, which we’re going to be making a petition for on Monday,” he said.

Trump for the first time publicly acknowledged the scandal regarding Daniels’s claim that the two had an extramarital affair on Thursday, telling reporters on Air Force One that he did not know where his attorney Michael Cohen obtained the funds to pay Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford.

The money was part of an agreement to stop her from publicly discussing her affair with Trump and was made in the days before the 2016 presidential election.

“You’ll have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael is my attorney. You’ll have to ask Michael,” Trump said.

[NEWS] Netanyahu, Trump to discuss Iranian `aggression’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with US President Donald Trump on Monday, providing an opportunity to shift attention away from mounting corruption investigations in Israel and towards Netanyahu’s main foreign policy priority, combatting Iran.

The two leaders are expected to present a united front against Iranian “aggression,” especially in Syria, and call for the modification of the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran, which Trump has threatened to rip up entirely.

In their White House meeting, Netanyahu will also applaud Trump for his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the US embassy there.
“I intend to discuss with him a series of issues but first Iran – its aggression, its nuclear aspirations, and its aggressive actions in the Middle East in general and on our borders,” Netanyahu said on Sunday.

The visit comes at a difficult time for Netanyahu, with Israel’s attorney general considering whether to act on police recommendations to put the premier on trial for bribery and other charges.
The prime minister and his wife, Sara, landed in Washington on Sunday, two days after the couple spent hours under police questioning in a new probe of alleged regulatory kickbacks to a telecom company.

The White House meeting, along with his speech at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference on Tuesday, gives Netanyahu a stage to highlight his foreign policy concerns and achievements.

High on this list is winning Washington’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, a break from 70 years of US foreign policy. While that decision outraged Palestinians and was internationally condemned, it has buoyed Netanyahu’s popularity at home.
During the AIPAC conference on Sunday, Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales announced his country’s plans to move its embassy to Jerusalem in May.

“Do you remember I said at the time that after the United States there would be other countries? Here is another country,” Netanyahu said in a video statement published Monday.
“And now I say to you – there will be other countries,” he added.
Netanyahu has not mentioned any prospects for furthering an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal during his visit.

The nascent peace process appears to have stalled since Trump’s Jerusalem move as Palestinians have said the US can no longer be a “honest broker.”
White House officials insist that they will present a peace plan at an undisclosed time.

Complicating matters is the status of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and the top White House official responsible for forging peace deal, who had his security clearance downgraded, according to US media reports.

NAN.ng

UPDATE - Asia Overtakes United States As Region With The Most Billionaires For The First Time

Asia have overtaken the United States as the region with the most billionaires for the first time. Last year America had 563 billionaires while Asia had 637, a report by financial services firm UBS and auditor price water house coopers found.

The report credited the reversal of fortunes to the arrival of a new entrepreneurial class in China, with Asia creating a new billionaire every three days on average.

But while Asian billionaires now outnumber their US counterparts, the Americans still control more wealth in total. Europe took third spot in the report's billionaire database with 342.

In total there are now 1,542 billionaires in the world controlling $6trillion between them.