Trump denies 'temper tantrum'

US President Donald Trump. Pic/AFP

Washington: An angry President Donald Trump insisted Thursday that he was not in a "rage" when he abruptly cancelled a meeting with top Democrats at the White House. Despite 24 hours of furious tweets and a hastily arranged press event at which he expressed bitterness at Democrats, Trump explained he'd been unflappable on Wednesday while blowing up the meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer.

"I was extremely calm yesterday with my meeting with Pelosi and Schumer, knowing that they would say I was raging, which they always do, along with their partner, the Fake News Media," Trump said in a tweet.

"Well, so many stories about the meeting use the Rage narrative anyway - Fake & Corrupt Press!" The meeting had been billed as a rare bipartisan session on funding national infrastructure projects. But within minutes of Pelosi and Schumer arriving, Trump showed them the door.

Pelosi said afterwards that he'd had a "temper tantrum." Trump says he pulled the plug on the meeting because Pelosi had earlier accused him of attempting to cover up alleged crimes related to a recently finished probe into his campaign's Russia links. The accusation came as some in the Democratic Party are pushing hard for impeachment proceedings. Trump says he cannot deal with Democrats as long as the "phony investigations" continue.

Top advisor Kellyanne Conway went on Trump-friendly television Fox News to defend him, saying that "he never actually raised his voice." The Democrats "ruined it about an hour before," Conway said.

US charges Assange for classified info leak
The US filed new charges on Thursday against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, accusing him of violating the Espionage Act by publishing secret documents containing the names of confidential military and diplomatic sources. The Justice Department's 18-count superseding indictment alleges that Assange directed former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in one of the largest compromises of classified information in US history. It said that he damaged national security.

Huawei trouble: China slams US 'lies'
China ramped up a war of words with the United States over Huawei on Friday, accusing Washington of spreading "lies" about the telecom giant thrust to the centre of their trade war. The fiery response came hours after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rejected Huawei's denials that the Chinese company works with the Communist government. The Trump administration has infuriated Beijing by blacklisting the smartphone and telecommunications company over worries that China uses it as a tool for espionage, and allegations of breaking sanctions on Iran. Huawei has repeatedly denied it works with the Communist-led government in China.

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