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US President Donald Trump has described his meeting with Republican senators as a “love fest”, despite attacks on his character by members of his own party.

He mocked his critics on Twitter, adding that Republicans had given him a “standing ovation” at a Capitol Hill lunch on tax reform on Tuesday.

His visit was largely overshadowed by public denunciations from Republican Senators Bob Corker and Jeff Flake.

Mr Trump said the retiring senators “had zero chance of being elected”.

President Trump told reporters on the White House lawn on Wednesday that “we actually have great unity in the Republican party”.

“We’re really unified on what we want to do,” he added, before boarding Air Force One for a trip to Dallas, Texas.

“The meeting with Republican Senators yesterday, outside of Flake and Corker, was a love fest with standing ovations and great ideas for USA!” Mr Trump had tweeted earlier on Wednesday.

“The reason Flake and Corker dropped out of the Senate race is very simple, they had zero chance of being elected. Now act so hurt & wounded!” the president continued.

On Tuesday Mr Flake took to the Senate floor to deliver a fierce attack on the US president while announcing his resignation.

In announcing his decision to not seek re-election in 2018, the Arizona Republican decried the “reckless, outrageous and undignified behaviour” at the top of the US government, which he said was dangerous to democracy.

Mr Trump said on Wednesday Mr Flake “was against me from before he ever knew me”, adding that he “did the smart thing for himself” by deciding not to run next year.

“This way he can get out somewhat gracefully,” Mr Trump said. “I wish him well”.

Mr Flake’s speech came as the US president already found himself embroiled in a row with another Republican Senator, Bob Corker from Tennessee.

Before confirming his decision in a speech to the Senate, Mr Flake told the Arizona Republic newspaper “there may not be a place for a Republican like me in the current Republican climate or the current Republican Party”.

Business as usual

Anthony Zurcher, BBC News, Washington

Senators at Tuesday’s private luncheon with the president could have given him a standing ovation or stood on their heads, for all it matters. Actions, as they say, speak louder than words (or applause).

And while Senators Bob Corker and Jeff Flake may say their fellow senators are quietly grumbling about Mr Trump’s performance as president, those colleagues aren’t doing anything about it.

In fact, most still seem to be working from the same playbook, trying to pull together a majority to pass sweeping tax cuts.

The reality is that opposition to the president in Republican quarters, at least at this point, is stylistic. They think Mr Trump’s bluster is hindering efforts to advance their shared priorities.

Where there are differences – on topics like trade and immigration – they seem content to let the president use his executive power, but any sort of supporting legislation just isn’t going to happen. And up to this point, there’s been no serious attempts to rein in the president’s authority.

So the ragtag band of anti-Trumpers can rail against the president. Mr Trump can boast of his standing ovations. The legislative results – or lack thereof – will tell the real story.

Taking to the floor, he said he did not enjoy criticising the president but felt it was “a matter of duty and conscience”.

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“We must never regard as ‘normal’ the regular and casual undermining of our democratic norms and ideals,” he said.

“I have children and grandchildren to answer to, and so, Mr President, I will not be complicit,” he added.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said it was “probably a good move” Mr Flake was standing down, suggesting he would not win re-election.

Following the speech, Mr Flake wrote in an opinion piece for the Washington Post: “There is a sickness in our system – and it is contagious.”

“We can no longer remain silent, merely observing this train wreck, passively, as if waiting for someone else to do something.”

Another prominent party critic of Mr Trump, Senator John McCain, was quick to pay tribute to Mr Flake.

US Republican majority leader Mitch McConnell said he had “witnessed a speech from a very fine man”.

Mr Flake has long been a vocal opponent of Mr Trump, refusing to endorse him during the presidential campaign.

Although he largely voted in line with the party, his comparatively moderate views and critiques of the direction of the Republicans under Mr Trump have left him out of kilter with voters who made Mr Trump president.

For his part, Donald Trump has long wanted to oust Mr Flake, even offering to spend millions of his own money to see him unseated in primaries.

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In a series of television interviews earlier in the day, Mr Corker accused the president of lying, adding that he had debased the US and weakened its global standing.

Mr Trump fired back on Twitter, calling the Tennessee senator a “lightweight” who “couldn’t get re-elected”. Mr Corker is also not seeking another term in elections next year.

The feud overshadowed efforts by Mr Trump to build support for his proposed tax cuts. He met Republican senators for a lunch time meeting.

Note: This story is auto-generated from BBC syndicated feed and has not been edited by AFRICA PRIME NEWS

US President Donald Trump has seized on reports that Hillary Clinton’s team bankrolled a sleazy dossier of allegations linking him to Russia.

Unfounded claims that Mr Trump had been filmed with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel surfaced in the closing stretch of last year’s White House race.

Mrs Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) reportedly helped fund the research.

“The victim here is the President,” Mr Trump tweeted on Wednesday.

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According to US media reports, Perkins Coie, a law firm representing the Clinton campaign and DNC, hired intelligence firm Fusion GPS in April 2016.

Fusion GPS, based in Washington DC, was paid to dig up dirt on Mr Trump, who was then Mrs Clinton’s rival for the presidency.

The intelligence firm subcontracted Christopher Steele, a former British spy who previously worked in Russia, to compile the research.

Attributed to unnamed sources, it claimed that Mr Trump had colluded with Russian officials during the election campaign.

The unsubstantiated dossier also alleged that Kremlin intelligence had filmed Mr Trump with prostitutes at Moscow’s Ritz-Carlton hotel in 2013.

The opposition research was initially funded by an unknown Republican consulting firm, which pulled the plug once Mr Trump captured the party’s nomination.

The Clinton campaign then picked up the tab, according to the reports.

As he headed off to Dallas, Texas, on Wednesday, President Trump told reporters on the White House lawn: “It’s very sad what they’ve done with this fake dossier.

“It was made up and I understand they paid a tremendous amount of money.”

He added: “Hillary Clinton always denied it, the Democrats always denied it.

“I think it’s a disgrace, it’s a very sad commentary on politics in this country.”

He dismissed the dossier shortly before his inauguration as “fake news”.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders tweeted on Tuesday: “The real Russia scandal? Clinton campaign paid for the fake Russia dossier, then lied about it & covered it up.”

Government outsourcing

Anthony Zurcher, BBC News, Washington

Political campaigns have been in the business of digging up dirt on their rivals since the dawn of democratic elections. A choice bit of “opposition research”, deployed at an opportune moment, can be a decisive factor in a close election.

So it should come as little surprise that supporters of a Republican candidate went to work building a file on Donald Trump during the party primaries or that Democrats took the baton as the general election geared up.

What’s unusual – and what will pique the interest of investigators and fuel the suspicions of conservatives – is that after the election, once Hillary Clinton was defeated, the FBI would pick up funding for this investigation.

A topic as sensitive as this – allegations of foreign influence on a presidential campaign – doesn’t seem like something the US government should be outsourcing.

There have been plenty of accusations, on both sides of ideological divide, that the FBI has become politicised. Stories like this won’t help diminish those concerns.

In fact, they will almost certainly be cited to undermine the results of ongoing inquiries into Mr Trump’s possible Russia ties, whether or not the eventual findings have a connection to this now-infamous dossier.

The DNC said its new leadership had nothing to do with creation of the dossier.

A spokeswoman told the Washington Post, which broke the story: “But let’s be clear, there is a serious federal investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, and the American public deserves to know what happened.”

Some of Mr Steele’s allegations began circulating in Washington in the summer of 2016 as the FBI began looking into whether there were any links between Trump aides and the Kremlin.

Special counsel Robert Mueller and several congressional panels are investigating the same alleged connections, but to date have found no evidence.

Note: This story is auto-generated from BBC syndicated feed and has not been edited by AFRICA PRIME NEWS

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A top African-American rights group has warned black flyers to exercise caution when flying American Airlines after a string of “disturbing incidents”.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) issued a “national travel advisory”.

The organisation warned the airline “could subject [travellers to] disrespectful, discriminatory or unsafe conditions”.

The airline insisted it does “not tolerate discrimination of any kind”.

The NAACP “national travel advisory” was issued as the advocacy group cited a series of incidents suggesting a “corporate culture of racial insensitivity and possible racial bias” at the airline.

It warned black travellers that American Airlines could subject them to “disrespectful, discriminatory or unsafe conditions”.

American Airlines replied in a statement: “We are disappointed to hear about this travel advisory as our team members – a diverse community of gate agents, pilots, and flight attendants – are proud to serve customers of all backgrounds.”

In the advisory, the NAACP listed four incidents in which black passengers said they were discriminated against by AA employees.

One incident on a Washington DC to Raleigh, North Carolina, flight involved a NAACP state chapter president, who sued the airline.

He said he had been required by flight attendants to give up his seat after he responded to “disrespectful and discriminatory comments directed toward him by two unruly white passengers”.

In another incident, a black woman was moved to the coach section at the ticket counter despite having booked first-class tickets for herself and a travelling companion.

The woman’s travelling companion, who was white, remained assigned to a first-class seat, according to NAACP.

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Another incident involved a black woman who was ordered removed from a New York to Miami flight after a pilot overheard her complain to a gate agent about a change to her seat assignment without her consent, said NAACP.

American Airlines, which has 120,000 employees, has invited NAACP representatives to meet at the company headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas, for “a meaningful dialogue”.

The organisation, which has historically issued travel advisories “when conditions on the ground pose a substantial risk of harm to black Americans”, said the allegations they cite may represent “only the tip of the iceberg”.

The NAACP, which was founded in 1909, bills itself as the nation’s oldest and largest nonpartisan civil rights organisation.

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Canada is growing increasingly diverse and its share of immigrants is the highest in almost a century.

New census figures show over one in five Canadians report being immigrant, some with permanent residency.

Over 1.2m people settled permanently in Canada between 2011 and 2016, most coming in as skilled economic immigrants.

The proportion of visible minorities has also grown and is now over 22% of the population.

Figures released by Canada’s statistics agency on Wednesday give a snapshot from the 2016 national census of the country’s increasing diversity and growing share of newcomers.

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The country is also becoming more culturally diverse, with immigrants increasingly coming from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

Statistics Canada is predicting that if population trends continue, by 2036 up to 30% of the country’s population could be made up of immigrants.

The agency also predicts that within 20 years up to 35% of the population will be made up of visible minorities.

Most newcomers still settle in the big cities of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, though more are beginning to move into prairie and maritime provinces.

Toronto, Canada’s biggest city, is still the primary destination for newcomers. Over 46% of the city’s population are immigrants and over 51% of the city’s residents identify as being a visible minority.

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The increase in the percentage of new Canadians is linked to immigration policies as well as the relatively low birth rate and aging population.

Between 1951 and 1991, the share of immigrants fell as low as 14.7%, but slowly began to increase in the early 90s.

The majority of newcomers come to Canada under economic immigration programmes for skilled workers. About three in 10 came in under the family reunification category.

One in 10 came to Canada as refugees, though that was number increased slightly between January and May 2016 when over 25,000 Syrian refugees were admitted into the country.

Note: This story is auto-generated from BBC syndicated feed and has not been edited by AFRICA PRIME NEWS