This is hardly the first time Trump has made a blatantly false claim — he’s made more than 1,000 wrong or misleading ones as president — but this one is notable for its brazenness, how self-serving it is, the number of falsehoods contained within, and its repetition. Trump said it no fewer than six times Wednesday (when the “Fox and Friends” interview was recorded), making clear this is a talking point he has decided upon…
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would not allow transgender individuals to serve in the U.S. military in any capacity.
“After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military,” Trump wrote in a series of Twitter posts.
“Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail,” the Republican president wrote.
The Pentagon ended its ban on openly transgender people serving in the U.S. military in 2016 under Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration. It was expected to start allowing transgender people to begin enlisting this year, provided they had been “stable” in their preferred gender for 18 months.
Last month, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis approved a six-month delay in allowing transgender recruits to join the U.S. armed forces.
The delay alarmed transgender advocates.
Source: Trump: no transgender people will serve in U.S. military – Twitter
SILVERSTONE — Lewis Hamilton secured pole position at the British Grand Prix after a dominant display at Silverstone saw him set the fastest lap time by 0.547s in qualifying.
No one could rival the Mercedes driver’s 1:26.600 as he beat the previous qualifying record by over 1.5s and held a healthy margin over the Ferrari drivers in second and third.
But as remarkable as Hamilton’s performance was, it is also under investigation after he impeded Romain Grosjean during the Frenchman’s quick lap in Q3. Grosjean immediately complained on the radio and his engineer responded saying he lost 0.3s by getting stuck behind the Mercedes. Moments later a message popped up on the timing screens saying the incident would be investigated by the stewards after the session, although Hamilton said he had no warning from his team on the radio and felt he was far enough clear of the Haas to get away with it.
On his quick lap, Hamilton hooked up three fastest sectors that left championship leader Sebastian Vettel 0.756s adrift in third. Vettel complained of traffic following his quick lap and lost the majority of his time to teammate Kimi Raikkonen in the second sector, allowing Raikkonen to secure his third front row grid slot of the season in second.
Valtteri Bottas was fourth fastest, 0.776s off his Mercedes teammate, but will start ninth once a five-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change is applied. He opted to use the the more durable soft compound in the second session of qualifying, meaning he will start the race on that tyre on Sunday while all the others in the top ten will start on the super-soft.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took fifth, over one and a half seconds off Hamilton, ahead of an impressive lap from Nico Hulkenberg in the Renault, who looked quick throughout all three sessions. Sergio Perez secured seventh for Force India ahead of teammate Esteban Ocon, the McLaren of Stoffel Vandoorne and Grosjean’s impeded Haas.
Briton Jolyon Palmer was knocked out in Q2 after missing out a place in the top-ten shootout by just 0.088s to Vandoorne. Daniil Kvyat was 12th fastest ahead of Fernando Alonso, who qualified 13th but will drop to last on the grid once his 30-place engine penalty has been applied. Carlos Sainz was 14th fastest ahead of Felipe Massa, who complained of traffic on his quick lap and had to settle for 15th.
Lance Stroll was knocked out in the final minutes of Q1 as Alonso bolted on a set of super-soft tyres at the end of a drying session and rocketed up to the top of the timesheets to P1. Stroll had been out on intermediate tyres throughout the session and his best effort ended up 0.531s shy of a place in Q2 when the chequered flag fell. He will move up one place to 15th on the grid when Alonso’s 30-place grid penalty is applied while Kevin Magnussen will move up to 16th, Pascal Wehrlein to 17th and Marcus Ericsson to 18th.
Daniel Ricciardo finished the session dead last after a suspected turbo issue saw him pull up midway through the Q1. He had been leading the session up until that point, but the drying conditions meant he was 0.3s adrift of Ericsson by the end. Despite having a gearbox penalty, he will move up to 19th once Alonso’s larger engine penalty is applied.
Source: Lewis Hamilton beats Kimi Raikkonen to pole, faces investigation
LE MANS, France (AP) — Veteran German driver Timo Bernhard led Porsche to a dramatic third straight win at the 24 Hours Le Mans race to prevent a huge upset win for the lesser category Oreca team on Sunday.
After a series of mishaps to pre-race favorites Porsche and Toyota, the LMP2 category Oreca suddenly found itself in the lead with 19-year-old Frenchman Thomas Laurent behind the wheel three hours from the end of the grueling endurance race.
But the 36-year-old Bernhard, racing in the faster and more powerful LMP1 category Porsche 919 Hybrid, overtook the Oreca with about 1 hour remaining.
As the Porsche No. 2 crossed the finish line, there were scenes of relief in the Porsche garage as team members danced around holding up t-shirts with ”Hat trick 2015, 2016, 2017” written on them.
Teammate Brendon Hartley, who had done much of the hard work to drag Porsche back into the race, was in tears.
Bernhard finished about one minute ahead of the Jackie Chan DC Racing team car, owned by the famed action movie star.
Bernhard also won the race in 2010 when driving for the dominant Audi team.
It was a fantastic comeback win considering that the Porsche No. 2 was held up for more than one hour due to technical problems earlier in the race.
Source: Porsche leaves it late to win 24 Hours Le Mans for 3rd year
George Michael died of natural causes with a weakened heart and a damaged liver, a coroner has said.
The 53-year-old Wham! singer was found dead at his home in Goring-on-Thames on Christmas Day, prompting a huge outpouring of grief from fans around the world.
A coroner today announced he died from a disease of the heart muscle and fatty liver disease and an inquest into his death will therefore not be held.
More than two months after his death, the singer’s body will now be returned to his family for a planned funeral and it is unlikely a full toxicology report will ever be released.
Darren Salter, senior coroner for Oxfordshire, said: ‘Inquiries into the death of George Michael have been concluded and the final post-mortem report received.
‘As there is a confirmed natural cause of death, being dilated cardiomyopathy with myocarditis and fatty liver, the investigation is being discontinued and there is no need for an inquest or any further enquiries.’
MORE: George Michael died of natural causes, coroner says | Daily Mail Online
