POTUS Created Outrage, Dodged London and Defered Iran

Old building at Alconbury Weald

President Trump hits the headlines twice today. Once for the alleged description of countries such as Haiti, San Salvador and the continent of Africa as 'shitholes' and asking why the US could not have more immigrants from places like Norway. He denied using the phrase in a tweet later, claiming he just used 'robust' language. The UN, Haiti, San Salvador and the countries of the African continent are outraged and asking for apologies. One attending democrat senator,  Dick Durbin, contradicted the President's statement, stating the derogatory phrase was used multiple times..

The second time was for announcing that he would not be coming to the UK to open the new US embassy. He explained his rationale in a tweet:

"Reason I canceled my trip to London is that I am not a big fan of the Obama Administration having sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for “peanuts,” only to build a new one in an off location for 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!"

This does flatly contradict the facts.

• The US Embassy's move had been initiated in 2008 during the last phases of the Bush administration. There were practical reasons of security and access.
• Although there are no public figures, the unverified sale price was $500 m
• The new Embassy was built for $1 bn using funding from the sale of other US properties in London.
• It is located in a now desireable and more accessible location with faster access to UK government.

The cynical media view was that this was a way out of risking exposure to possible anti-Trump demonstrations when coming to the UK.

The significant hidden piece of news today was that POTUS deferred upending the existing Iran nuclear deal for another 120 days. Trump had stated in the past that he wanted withdraw from the deal, in total contrast to all the other signatories to the contract and other EU countries.

Today's HBN meeting was at Alconbury Weald. With all the new construction going on on the site, an old building near to the meeting place stood out, where it had been overlooked before. Like any ruin, it had its own fascination, and drew me to photograph it.

The meeting itself was by Luana Mattaey and Graham Buck. They both illustrated hard times and mistakes that they had gone through in their past business careers and what they had learnt.