Friday, February 07, 2020

Australia fires: Heavy rain extinguishes third of blazes in NSW

Image captionThe Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge seen through a cloak of heavy rain

Image captionThe Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge seen through a cloak of heavy rain

Torrential rain across the east coast of Australia has extinguished a third of the fires in the region - and could put more out, officials say.

A wide band of rain sweeping New South Wales (NSW) has put out 20 of about 60 fires in the state in the past day.

Authorities have welcomed the downpour, but warned of flash flooding in Sydney and other cities along the coast.

Some of the affected areas had received the most rain recorded in over a year, said the Bureau of Meteorology.

Australia's largest city, Sydney, recorded its wettest day in over 15 months on Friday. Many locals cheered on the downpour despite the inconvenience.

"It was fantastic to wake up to much-needed rain this morning!" tweeted the city's lord mayor Clover Moore.

Much of NSW has been in drought for over three years, and such conditions have fuelled the intensity of the summer's unprecedented fires.

Crowd of commuters hold umbrellas as they walk through heavy rain in central Sydney — Image captionSydney locals woke up to heavy downpours

Fire officials in NSW said they were "over the moon" to see the state's forecast for a week-long drenching finally eventuate.

"This is that constant, steady, decent rainfall that we've been praying for for so long," said NSW Rural Fire Service (NSWRFS) spokeswoman Angela Burford.

She told the BBC: "This isn't just one of those scattered showers we saw a month ago. This is really helping our firefighters, and in some places, giving them a well-needed rest."

However, Ms Burford warned that the largest blazes, in the state's inland south and near the capital city of Canberra, had received limited showers so far and were still of concern.

The weather system hit south-east Queensland on Wednesday before moving south to affect neighbouring NSW.

Authorities have issued a severe wet weather warning for a 1,000km (621 miles) stretch of the state - with damaging winds, heavy rainfall, and "abnormally high" tides forecast.

Over 280mm of rain was recorded at the holiday town of Byron Bay in northern NSW. Locals there described the downburst on Thursday night as heavier than that experienced in a 2017 cyclone.

Rescue services said they had rescued a number of people trapped in cars amid rising water. There have been close to 1,000 calls for help in NSW and Queensland since Wednesday.

The heavy rains are predicted to continue until next week, providing relief to some drought and fire-ravaged zones. Some fires, which were finally contained this week, have been burning for over two months.

"This has been an absolute welcome disruption to the weather pattern and a massive reprieve and relief to so many people," said NSWRFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons on Friday.

He said while hotter and drier conditions would likely return in the coming weeks, this particular period of rain "is breaking the back of this fire season, no doubt".

The state's bushfire season, which began in September, could run until as late as April. Officials have also warned that the peak of fire danger is still to come for the southern states of Victoria and South Australia.

NSW has been the state most devastated in Australia's bushfires crisis this year. The unprecedented scale and intensity of the blazes is a direct effect of climate change, scientists say.

Nationally, blazes have killed at least 33 people and destroyed thousands of homes. More than 11 million hectares of land - an area comparable to the size of England - has been scorched.

UK
Contraception shortage

GETTY IMAGES

A shortage of contraception is causing chaos and risks unplanned pregnancies and abortions, doctors are warning.

Leading sexual health experts have written to ministers warning that the supply shortage is beginning to lead to serious problems across the UK.

A number of daily pills and a long-acting injectable contraceptive are thought to be affected.

The problem follows a shortage of hormone replacement therapy for menopausal women last year.

But there are signs that those supply difficulties might soon start to be resolved as a key ingredient is now being manufactured again.

It is currently unclear what has caused the contraception shortages.

Drug firm Pfizer first reported supply problems with Sayana Press, which provides three months' protection and can be self-administered by women, last year.

It is the only self-injectable contraceptive on the market and is also used to help women control period-related problems, such as heavy bleeding.

The Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare said there were also now shortages of a number of daily pills, including Noriday, Norimin and Synphase.

'I was upset'

Nikki Heresford, 34, from Lancashire, had been using Sayana Press to control her periods.

She liked the fact she could administer the injection herself as it meant she did not have to take time off work to make regular trips to the doctor's.

But when she ran out of her supply last autumn she did not find out there were supply issues until she went to her local pharmacy to pick up her next prescription.

She said it left her "upset" because she had no choice but to start using another injectable contraceptive.

She managed to get a last-minute appointment at her GP surgery to have the injection that time.

But this week when she needed another one, she could not get an appointment for five weeks so was forced to travel to an evening clinic at a community health centre.

"It's obviously inconvenient as I have to drag my five-year-old to the next town when he should be in bed."

It is unclear how many women use these types of contraception - overall around three million women take daily pills, and more than 500,000 use long-acting contraception, such as coils, implants and injections.

The Royal College of GPs said its members were doing their best to help women find alternatives - there are many different types of daily pill available.

Faculty president Dr Asha Kasliwal said; "We are aware that women are sent away with prescriptions for unavailable products and end up lost in a system. This is causing utter chaos."

The faculty has teamed up with the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the British Menopause Society to write to ministers, asking them to set up a working group to address the problems.

The letter warns women are becoming distressed by having to find alternative products that might not necessarily suit them or go without contraception altogether.

It said this was affecting the "physical and mental wellbeing of girls and women" and could lead to a "rise in unplanned pregnancies and abortions".

The government in England said it was working with manufacturers to resolve the problems and expected the shortages to ease soon.

---30---

What happens to all the old wind turbines?

By Padraig Belton BBC Technology of Business report

Image copyrightGLOBAL FIBREGLASS SOLUTIONS

Image captionTurbines from the 1990s are reaching the

end of their working lives

Welcome to the wind turbine graveyard. It stretches a hundred metres from a bend in the North Platte River in Casper, Wyoming.

Between last September and this March, it will become the final resting place for 1,000 fibreglass turbine blades.

These blades, which have reached the end of their 25-year working lives, come from three wind farms in the north-western US state. Each is about 90m (300ft) long, and will be cut into three, then the pieces will be stacked and buried.

Turbines from the first great 1990s wave of wind power are reaching the end of their life expectancy today. About two gigawatts worth of turbines will be refitted in 2019 and 2020. And disposing of them in an environmentally-friendly way is a growing problem.Image copyrightGLOBAL FIBREGLASS SOLUTIONSImage captionMany unwanted blades are just buried

Burying them doesn't sound very green. Can they not be recycled?

Wind power goes as far back at least as 9th Century BC Persia, where sails were used to grind grain and draw up water on the windy Sistan plains.

Scottish professor James Blyth built the first windmill to make electricity in 1887, powering his holiday home in Maykirk.

His second powered the Lunatic Asylum, Infirmary and Dispensary in Montrose (later Sunnyside Royal Hospital).

Instead of using cloth to catch the wind like Prof Blyth and the ancient Iranians, today's turbine blades are built from composite materials - older blades from glass fibre, newer ones from carbon fibre.

Such composite materials might be light and strong, but they are also extremely hard to recycle.

GLOBAL FIBREGLASS SOLUTIONSDon Lilly of Global Fiberglass Solutions hopes to sell pellets made from recycled turbine blades

That doesn't mean they have to go into landfill, according to Don Lilly, chief executive of Global Fiberglass Solutions in Bellevue, Washington.

Mr Lilly has been transforming fibreglass composites into small pellets he calls EcoPoly.

The pellets can then be turned into injectable plastics, or highly waterproof boards that can be used in construction, he says.

Mr Lilly has received interest from "several manufacturers" for his pellets.

He's also developed a programme to track blades throughout their life cycle, and make it easier to recycle them at the end.

GLOBAL FIBREGLASS SOLUTION

Pellets made from old turbine blades can be used to make new products

If we "holistically think about the end of life, there are simple choices we could make now that could make fibreglass in the blade easier to recycle," says Richard Cochrane, professor of renewable energy at Exeter University.

A second avenue for recycling turbine blades is called pyrolysis.

After first chopping up the blades, pyrolysis breaks up the composite fibres in ovens with an inert atmosphere, at about 450-700C.

The process recovers fibres other industries can reuse for glues, paints, and concrete.

Other products include syngas (synthesis gas) that can be used in combustion engines. And char (charcoal) which can be used as a fertiliser.

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The problem is significant amounts of energy are needed to activate the pyrolysis, which might limit its environmental usefulness. It has mainly been done at a laboratory scale. Germany's subsidiary of the French recycling group Veolia is researching the technology.

In Rotterdam unwanted blades have been put to a different use. The Dutch city boasts a 1,200sq m children's playground called Wikado, with a slide tower, tunnels, ramps, and slides all made from five discarded wind turbine blades.

Decommissioned blades have also been turned into another playground and outdoor seats in the Dutch city of Terneuzen, two bus stops in Almere, a seat beside Rotterdam's famous Erasmusbrug bridge.

DENIS GUZZO

Rotterdam's Wikado playground has found a use for old turbine blades

Césare Peeren, an architect from Rotterdam's Superuse Studios is currently waiting for planning permission to turn two 55m blades into a bridge in Denmark's city of Ålborg, he says.

Meanwhile new rotors are only getting bigger.

"Twenty years ago, my colleagues and I used to ask ourselves what is the most powerful offshore wind turbine that we could imagine," says Vincent Schellings, who works for General Electric in the Dutch city of Enschede.

"We couldn't picture anything much more powerful than a three megawatt (MW) output, but even that seemed a challenge," he says.

Mr Schellings recently led the development team for GE's Haliade-X, now the world's largest wind turbine

GETTY IMAGESThe Haliade-X from GE is the world's biggest turbine

It produces 12MW - four times the amount he imagined 20 years ago. Its 107m blades yield 45% more energy than previous offshore turbines.

"So we are going to see much bigger turbines offshore in this decade, and the reason is size matters," says Rolf Kragelund, Danish-based director of offshore wind for the energy research firm Wood Mackenzie.

Bigger onshore turbines can access faster wind speeds, higher in the sky. They can produce more energy, meaning you need fewer of them, which saves money on transport, installation and servicing.

Siemens Gamesa says 20 of its new 10MW turbines, announced last year with 94m blades, could power Liverpool, with a population of half a million.

SIEMENS GAMES

Blades made at this Siemens Gamesa plant are up to 94m long

Bigger always better?

But large turbines bring along their own challenges, including what to do with them when they are no longer needed.

Bigger blades "need bigger factories, bigger vessels, cables, foundations, and handling equipment," says Ray Thompson, global business development head at Spanish-headquartered Siemens Gamesa, one of the world's two largest wind turbine makers.

Longer blades can make for bigger recycling headaches, too.

SIEMENS GAMES

Turbine blades are the most difficult and expensive part of a wind farm to dispose of

The composite fibreglass in blades is "the most difficult, and the most expensive part" of turbines to recycle, Mr Kragelund says. And there's more of it.

There's some reselling of second-hand turbine components from Europe to the Middle East and Asia pacific, he says. Big data, leading to better maintenance regimes and more reliable components could also mean today's blades might last longer, says Siemens's Mr Thompson.

Recycling has made more progress so far in the onshore than offshore industry, which is newer, he adds.

But while "there is work being done to find ways to recycle materials from old turbines," it "would be nice to see more design input now, so that's easier in the future," says Prof Cochrane.

Meet the cannabis chef leading a culinary revolution

The legal cannabis market in the US is booming and edibles - food that contains cannabis - are becoming increasingly popular.

The country's first cannabis cafe recently opened in Los Angeles, although cannabis-infused food cannot currently be made on site.

Andrea Drummer is the co-founder and one of the nation's leading cannabis chefs.

But she started out life as an anti-drugs counsellor.

Video produced by Trystan Young.

How a single locust becomes a plague

BBC Visual Journalism Team
7 February 2020
World

Vast swarms of desert locusts are tearing through the Horn of Africa and south Asia, devouring crops and threatening food supplies and livelihoods. It's the worst infestation in a quarter of a century. How did it get so bad?

Locust plagues have become less frequent in recent decades

Source: FAONote: Recession means locusts are present at low density; upsurge means several locust outbreaks have accelerated through breeding; a plague means widespread and heavy infestations for more than a year; the end of a plague is called a decline.

A desert locust like this - a type of grasshopper - usually likes to live a shy, solitary life. It develops from an egg into a young locust - known as a hopper - and then into a flying adult. It's a simple, if unremarkable, existence.

But every now and then, desert locusts undergo a Jekyll and Hyde transformation. When they get crowded together - such as on diminishing areas of green vegetation - they stop being solitary creatures and become "gregarious" mini-beasts.

In this newly-sociable phase, the insects change colour and form groups that can develop into huge flying swarms of ravenous marauding pests.

Such swarms of locusts can be huge. They can contain up to 10 billion individuals and stretch over hundreds of kilometres. They can cover up to 200km (120 miles) in a day, devastating rural livelihoods in their relentless drive to eat and reproduce.

Even an average swarm can destroy crops sufficient to feed 2,500 people for a year, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

The last major upsurge - a sharp rise in the number of swarms - in West Africa in 2003-05 cost $2.5bn in harvest losses, according to the UN.

But there were also large and damaging upsurges in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. Some of them spanned multiple regions, reaching the numbers required to be declared a "plague".

Overall, the FAO estimates the desert locust affects the livelihood of one in 10 people on the planet - making it the world's most dangerous migratory pest.

Swarms are devastating crops in East Africa and Pakistan

The worst swarms of desert locusts in decades are now decimating crops and pasture across the Horn of Africa - an area covering Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia - and beyond, threatening the food security of the entire sub-region.

The ravenous insects are currently spreading through Kenya after wreaking havoc in Somalia and Ethiopia. It is the worst infestation in Kenya for 70 years and the worst in Somalia and Ethiopia for 25.

Somalia has declared a national emergency in response to the crisis. It is the second country to do so after Pakistan, where the insects have ravaged cotton, wheat, maize and other crops in eastern areas.

But it is the Horn of Africa that is of most concern, the FAO says, with the locusts breeding so fast that numbers could grow 500 times by June.

A number of countries are on locust alert

Source: FAO, February 2020

Some swarms could reach Uganda and South Sudan in the coming days and the upsurge could become a regional plague if not tackled, the FAO has warned.

The pests had already destroyed more than 175,000 acres of farmland in Somalia and Ethiopia by the end of December.

They are eating 1.8m tonnes of vegetation a day across 350 sq km (135 sq miles), the FAO says.

The organisation believes one swarm in Kenya covered an area 40km by 60km (25 miles and 40 miles).
How much can a locust consume?An adult desert locust can eat its own weight in food every day - about 2g

Source: FAO

Authorities in the region now fear the locust crisis could lead to a drop in agricultural production, further threatening food suplies in an area already reeling from the effects of floods and drought. More than 20 million people in the region could be affected, the UN says.

"We're most concerned about Kenya and Ethiopia because these are the two areas that have very large swarms," says Keith Cressman, the FAO's senior locust forecasting officer.

"In addition, in Ethiopia, there is breeding going on so there are locusts increasing in number."

Ali Bila Waqo, a 68-year-old farmer working in north-eastern Kenya, was hopeful of a good grain harvest this season, with recent rainfall ending a long period of drought.

But the locusts have destroyed all his maize and beans.

"They ate most of our grains and what they didn't eat, dried up," he says. "That has hurt us a lot. We saw the food with our eyes but we never even got to enjoy it."

Mr Waqo, who remembers a previous locust infestation in the 1960s, describes how the swarms blacken the skies.

"It gets dark and you can't even see the sun," he says.

Extreme weather has fuelled the crisis

The causes of the current infestation go back to the cyclones and heavy rains of 2018-19.

Desert loscusts typically live in the arid areas of about 30 countries between West Africa and India – a region of about 16 million sq km (6.2 million sq miles).

But the wet, favourable conditions two years ago on the southern Arabian Peninsula allowed three generations of locusts to flourish undetected, the UN says.
The upsurge has been developing since 2018

Source: FAO, January 2020

By early 2019, the first swarms headed to Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Iran, breeding further before moving to East Africa.

Further swarms formed and by the end of last year had developed in Eritrea, Djibouti and Kenya.

Swarms are also developing along both sides of the Red Sea, affecting Egypt, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, and along the India-Pakistan border - a situation the UN has described as "extremely alarming".

Even though such infestations are notoriously hard to battle because of the wide geographical area affected, the FAO's Mr Cressman believes more could have been done earlier to tackle this particular locust upsurge.

"If there were greater and more successful efforts of control made in some of the key countries, it might have minimised the situation," he said.

People are trying to tackle the huge swarms

With the locust swarms in the Horn of Africa now unprecedented in terms of their size and destructive potential, countries are scrambling to deal with them.

Containment of the outbreak depends on two major factors - monitoring and effective control.

The Desert Locust Information Service, run by the FAO, provides forecasts, early warning and alerts on the timing, scale and location of invasions and breeding.

But once populations reach critical levels, such as in the Horn of Africa, urgent action needs to be taken to reduce locust populations, as well as prevent more swarms from forming and spreading.
How locust swarms are tackled

Source: FAO

"Very large-scale aerial control operations are needed now in Kenya and in Ethiopia - and ideally in Somalia, but this is just not possible due to the security situation," says Mr Cressman.

"As the [locust] populations now are mainly in mature swarms, it would be ideal to hit them hard with aircraft, so that we can reduce the number that could mature and lay eggs."

Although there is ongoing research into more environment-friendly solutions, such as biological pesticides or introducing natural predators, the most commonly used control method is pesticide spray.

Showered onto the pests via hand pumps, land vehicles or aircraft, whole swarms can be targeted and killed with chemicals in a relatively short period of time.

Efforts to combat the invasion in Kenya have intensified with aerial spraying, but controlling such large populations over large, remote areas remains a logistical challenge.

It is especially difficult in countries and regions that have not had to deal with locusts for decades, as there is no infrastructure in place and no collective memory.

"It can cause considerable panic when swarms do come back," says Mr Cressman.

Action taken in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya - as well as Pakistan - will now determine what happens next. If the current upsurge crosses more borders and infests more regions, devastating more crops, it could be declared a "plague".

The UN says aerial and ground spraying operations in the region are currently "insufficient" and it has appealed to international donors for $70m (£54m) in emergency aid to help tackle the crisis.

But for Kenyan farmer Ali Bila Waqo and his family, any action now will be too late. The only thing they could do to battle the pests when they descended was to bang on jerrycans and shout.

Yet, he remains philosophical about what has happened.

"It is God's will. This is his army," he says.

Credits

Words and production by Lucy Rodgers, field production by Joe Inwood, design by Zoe Bartholomew and Millie Wachira, development by Becky Rush, Catriona Morrison and Purity Birir. Locust images by Swidbert R Ott and Stephen Rogers and Getty Images. Kenya farming images by the BBC.

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=BIBLICAL
SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=PLAGUE
SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=LOCUSTS
SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=AFRICA
SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=KENYA

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=SOMALIA
SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=PAKISTAN

AMERIKA'S NIGHT OF THE LONG KNIVES BEGINS
The hidden worst part of Donald Trump's unhinged impeachment victory speech

Analysis by Chris Cillizza,

CNN Editor-at-large
Thu February 6, 2020

(CNN)Less than 24 hours after formally being acquitted by the Senate, President Donald Trump riffed for over an hour from inside the White House -- a vengeful, angry, fact-challenged spew of score-settling that even for this most unorthodox of presidents was eye-opening in its tone and jaw-dropping in its boundary busting.
"It's a celebration," Trump said of the event, attended by a "who's who" of Republican politics, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, as well as the President's Cabinet and the legal team that defended him in the Senate trial.

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But it didn't feel like one, as Trump spent the bulk of his stream-of-consciousness "speech" savaging his various enemies, which included, well, almost everyone not in the room.
"It was evil, it was corrupt," Trump said of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, which concluded that the Russians sought to actively interfere to help Trump and hurt Hillary Clinton.

"We caught 'em in the act ... dirty cops, bad people," Trump said of, well, something.
"We went through Russia, Russia, Russia ... and it was all bullshit," Trump said.
"Little did we know we were running against some bad and evil people," Trump said.
"A man who got James Comey to choke -- and he was just talking in his regular voice," Trump said of Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley. (Trump went on to call Comey, the former FBI director, a "sleazebag.")

"There were some that used religion as a crutch. ... A failed presidential candidate so things can happen when you fail so badly running for president," Trump said of Sen. Mitt Romney, who voted to convict Trump on abuse of power.

"A guy who can't stand the fact that he ran one of the worst campaign in the history of the country," Trump added on Romney.

"Two low-lifes," Trump said of former FBI officials Lisa Page and Peter Strzok.
*Adam Schiff is a vicious horrible person," Trump said of the California Democrat.
"Nancy Pelosi is a horrible person. ... I doubt she prays at all," Trump said of the Speaker of the House.

"They want to destroy our country," Trump said of Democrats.

"Top scum," Trump said of the FBI leadership.

And on and on and on it went. Trump attacking opponents. Trump belittling members of his own party. Trump outright lying about what he has done (and hasn't) as President.
It was Trump on steroids. Trump unbound. Trump giving no, well, you know.

All of which was frankly incredible to watch. But the worst part of it all had nothing to do with Trump. Instead, it was the audience who egged him on, laughed at his jokes and applauded his appalling lack of human decency.

It felt like watching a bully beat up a helpless kid. Sure, the bully is to blame. But the crowd of people surrounding the beating and either cheering or doing nothing at all are far worse.
Trump is Trump. While he stepped beyond where has gone before in many respects during Thursday's "celebration," it hard to say that no one saw this coming.

But the complicity of those in attendance -- the most powerful people within the Republican Party -- is what was truly astounding. Yes, the Republican Party threw in its lot with Trump (and his forced takeover of it) long ago. But to sit by or even celebrate while Trump used the White House as a combination of a campaign venue, or a bathroom wall on which to write his darkest thoughts about those who oppose him, was beyond unforgivable.

Consider Sen. Mike Lee of Utah. After Trump suggested that Romney was faking his religiosity and its influence on his decision to convict and suggested -- with zero proof -- that Romney's polling numbers had flagged as a result, Lee stood up to accept Trump's congratulations. "We can say Mike Lee is by far the most popular senator from Utah," Trump said as Lee rose.

Seriously? Does Mike Lee actually believe that his Utah colleague was using religion as a "crutch" to justify a vote against Trump? And that the real reason Romney voted to convict on the abuse of power charge is because "things can happen when you fail so badly running for president?"

Does McConnell believe that? Does McCarthy think that Pelosi actually doesn't pray at all? Or that Democrats want to "destroy" our country? Or that the leadership of the FBI is "top scum?" Or that the investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election was "evil" and "corrupt?"

I can't believe that they do. And if they don't, then something far worse is at play here. They are willing to suspend their principles and beliefs and acquiesce to Trump's wild claims solely because it is good for their own personal politics. That taking a stand against Trump's absolute smashing of presidential norms isn't worth the political pain it might cause them.

That was the worst part of watching Trump on Thursday. That every single person in that room smiled and laughed and, uh, celebrated, as though what Trump was saying was even close to normal behavior. It wasn't. None of it.

Trump celebrates impeachment acquittal and blasts rivals

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

US President Donald Trump has taken a victory lap one day after his impeachment acquittal, in a tirade against his political enemies.

"I've done things wrong in my life, I will admit... but this is what the end result is," he said as he held up a newspaper headlined "Trump acquitted".

"We went through hell, unfairly. We did nothing wrong," he said at the White House. "It was evil, it was corrupt."

He earlier criticised impeachment foes who invoked their religious faith.

"Now we have that gorgeous word. I never thought it would sound so good," Mr Trump said from the East Room, which was crammed with supporters and cabinet officials.

"It's called 'total acquittal'."

Image captionMr Trump thanked his lawyers and Republican lawmakers

Mr Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives in December for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, but was acquitted on Wednesday after a two-week trial in the Republican-controlled Senate, which did not include any witnesses.

Mr Trump also used a swear word to describe the justice department inquiry into whether his 2016 election campaign had colluded with the Kremlin.

"It was all bullshit," he said. "This should never happen to another president ever."

Media captionPersonality clash: Trump and Pelosi spar over faith

The heroic political outlaw

Analysis by Gary O'Donoghue, Washington @BBCBlindGazza

So what was that?

According to the president, it was neither speech nor news conference; it was "nothing", it was a "celebration".

It was certainly about 62 minutes long and veered wildly between self-congratulation, via self-justification, to self-pity with a smattering of bilious expletives and insults to describe his political opponents en route.

It was both a lap of honour and an emotional rollercoaster, all played out in front of his Republican flock, the nation and the world.

Frankly, it was hard to keep up.

One moment the president was railing against liars, leakers and "dirty cops"; the next we were into an anecdote about a wrestling team from Penn State University.

The acquitted, no doubt, enjoy a moment of catharsis - the moment of euphoria when the pall of guilt is lifted and renewal can begin. But don't expect this president to put this one behind him - it's far too valuable an electoral stick with which to beat his rivals right up to polling day.

President Trump's appeal in 2016 was as the outsider, the man to "drain the swamp" and give power back to the people.

The impeachment process will allow Trump 45 to once again assume the mantle of the heroic political outlaw.

Follow Gary O'Donoghue on Twitter

The president's tone on Thursday suggested he is confident of Republican party loyalty ahead of November's White House election.

Mr Trump's post-acquittal celebration contrasted with President Bill Clinton's address in 1999, when the impeached Democratic president offered a sombre apology to the American people.

"I want to say again to the American people how profoundly sorry I am for what I said and did to trigger these events and the great burden they have imposed on the Congress and on the American people," Mr Clinton said.

As he concluded his remarks, Mr Trump also offered a rare apology - to his family, for having to "go through a phony, rotten deal".

Media captionTrump attacks Romney at National Prayer Breakfast

Earlier in the day, Mr Trump spoke about his "terrible ordeal" of impeachment during the National Prayer Breakfast, an annual cross-party event in Washington DC to celebrate religious freedom.

Mr Trump continued: "I don't like people that use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong.

"Nor do I like people that say 'I pray for you' when they know that's not so."

On Wednesday, Senator Mitt Romney cited his deep Mormon faith as he became the only Republican to vote to remove Mr Trump from office.

In December, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who launched the impeachment inquiry, cited her own Catholic faith as she said she prays for Mr Trump.

Mr Trump cited the matter again later in the East Room, saying: "I doubt she [Pelosi] prays at all."

Reacting to Mr Trump's prayer speech, Mrs Pelosi, who sat near Mr Trump as he spoke, told reporters: "He's impeached forever, no matter what he says or whatever headlines he wants to carry around.

"You're impeached forever. You're never getting rid of that scar."

BBC

Democrat criticizes Trump administration for giving Senate GOP Ukraine documents but not House

(CNN)The Treasury Department is cooperating with a Senate Republican investigation into Hunter Biden's activities in Ukraine, according to a top Democrat on one of the committees.
Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, criticized the Treasury Department for sending over information after it had stonewalled the House's impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump's dealings with Ukraine.

Wyden's office is not saying what documents were turned over and whether they specifically involve Hunter Biden, the son of former Vice President Joe Biden. Three Republican chairmen -- Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham of South Carolina -- have sent letters in recent months seeking information and interviews related to the Bidens, the Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma and uncorroborated allegations about Ukrainian interference in the 2016 US election. Trump and his allies have repeatedly made unfounded and false claims to allege that the Bidens acted corruptly in Ukraine.

"For its part, the Trump administration refused to comply with all Democratic requests for documents and witnesses associated with impeachment. Applying a blatant double standard, Trump administration agencies like the Treasury Department are rapidly complying with Senate Republican requests -- no subpoenas necessary -- and producing 'evidence' of questionable origin," Wyden spokeswoman Ashley Schapitl said in a statement. "The administration told House Democrats to go pound sand when their oversight authority was mandatory while voluntarily cooperating with the Senate Republicans' sideshow at lightning speed."

A Treasury spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

Grassley spokesman Taylor Foy said, "As a matter of routine, we don't discuss sensitive third-party material during ongoing investigations. It's unfortunate that Democrats whom we've kept in the loop on our investigations would recklessly seek to interfere with legitimate government oversight."

The Senate Republican investigation into the Bidens, which is being led primarily by Grassley and Johnson, is a sign that while impeachment has ended, the investigations related to Ukraine have not. House Democrats too are still pursuing probes and court cases post-impeachment, and many Democrats want the House to subpoena former national security adviser John Bolton, who was not called in the Senate trial, after senators voted not to hear from witnesses.

It is not clear what Treasury has provided to the Senate committees, which was first reported by Yahoo News. Grassley and Johnson sent a letter dated November 15, 2019 to the director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, Ken Blanco, requesting information related to their investigation "into potentially improper actions by the Obama administration with respect to Burisma Holdings and Ukraine." Johnson and Grassley requested "all Suspicious Activity Reports" -- which financial institutions are required to file when they spot suspicious activity, though the reports don't necessarily indicate wrongdoing occurred -- that were filed related to 11 individuals or entities including Hunter Biden and Burisma Holdings by December 5, 2019.

In addition to the Treasury letter, the Senate Republicans chairmen requested information late last year related to Ukraine from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Attorney General William Barr. In a sign they are still expanding their probe, they sent a new letter on Wednesday to the Secret Service seeking travel information on Hunter Biden.

During the impeachment trial, Trump's lawyers and congressional Republicans defended the President's actions by saying he had legitimate reasons to worry about corruption Joe Biden and Hunter Biden, the latter of whom who worked for Burisma. Multiple witnesses in the impeachment inquiry testified that Biden's actions in Ukraine were consistent with official US government policy, backed by European allies and both Republicans and Democrats in Congress, including Johnson.

In the House, Democrats are still weighing their next steps following the end of the Senate impeachment trial. They never received documents from the Trump administration related to Ukraine, some of which have been released in the weeks since the President was impeached in December thanks to Freedom of Information Act lawsuits. There's also the question of Bolton, who indicated he was willing to testify in the Senate but has not said the same about the House.

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat, said Wednesday that it was likely the House would subpoena Bolton, but House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff has not committed to doing so. "We really haven't made any decisions yet," the California Democrat said Thursday when asked about the House's next steps.

In addition to Ukraine threads, House Democrats still have active court cases in their efforts to obtain the President's tax returns, financial and accounting information and the testimony of former White House counsel Don McGahn. Democrats said they expect those investigations into the President to continue, regardless of having already impeached him -- and the committees will continue aggressive oversight of the federal agencies.

"No one thinks that the Senate's act of jury nullification gives the President any immunity from the Congress' oversight power," said Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat on the Oversight and Judiciary committees. "So we will not let up for one second in ferreting out the corruption and the criminality that have overtaken the administration. I believe our oversight power is as necessary as ever, if not more so now. This President appears to be emboldened by the robotic behavior of Republican senators with the notable exception of Mitt Romney."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday noted the ongoing court cases but didn't suggest the Democrats were about to make a new push for testimony from Bolton or others.
"Those cases still exist," the California Democrat said at her weekly news conference. "If there are others that we see as an opportunity, we'll make a judgment at that time. But we have no plans right now."

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment