Donald Tusk’s “hell” comments on Brexit were “not helpful,” and the EU should focus on working with the U.K. to create a close future relationship with the bloc after it leaves, said Prime Minister Theresa May.

Speaking to Sky News after her meeting in Brussels with the European Council president, May said: “I’ve raised with President Tusk the language that he used, which was not helpful and caused widespread dismay in the United Kingdom.

“The point I made to him is that we should both be working to ensure that we can deliver a close relationship,” she added.

In a press conference Wednesday with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, Tusk had said that there is a “special place in hell” for Brexiteers who had advocated leaving the EU without a plan for how to do so — a remark that provoked outrage among Brexiteers who claimed it was an insult to the U.K.

May is in Brussels seeking changes to the Withdrawal deal agreed between the EU and the U.K. but overwhelmingly rejected last month by the House of Commons. She held discussions with Tusk, as well as European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Parliament President Antonio Tajani and senior MEP Guy Verhofstadt.

But despite vowing to “battle in Brussels for Britain,” May came away with little apparently to show for her diplomatic push. EU officials stuck solidly to their line that the Withdrawal Agreement cannot be reopened and the controversial Northern Ireland backstop cannot be renegotiated because it is vital to maintaining peace.

May said she had come to Brussels to “set out our clear position” and “secure legally binding changes to the Withdrawal Agreement to deal with concerns that the parliament has over the backstop.”

“Juncker and I have agreed that talks will now start, to find a way to get through this,” she added. “I am going to deliver Brexit, I am going to deliver it on time … I’ll be negotiating hard in the coming days to do just that.”

Thursday on ABC’s “The View,” co-host and network legal analyst Sunny Hostin said if President Donald Trump used a Sharpie to alter a Hurricane Dorian weather map it is a felony.

Co-host Joy Behar said, “Well, here’s the thing, just because you sleep with somebody named Stormy does not make you a weatherman.”

She added, “I don’t know why he brings up Alabama. He said it was going to hit Alabama. Alabama is two states west of where the thing was hitting.”

Co-host Abby Huntsman said, “It’s also very dangerous. People are watching this closely, and here an entire state is thinking that the hurricane is headed directly towards them. I’m wondering where his team is? We talked about this — this week, the loyalty around him. who is watching put for him?”

Hostin said, “The dangerous thing about it as you mentioned, Abby, is people in Alabama probably freaked out. The National Weather Service right after said Alabama will not, all in caps, see any impacts from Hurricane Dorian. And I think what’s terrible is it’s illegal to falsely —under federal law, to pass off a doctored national weather service forecast. Wouldn’t it be interesting if this is what took down the president?”

She added, “It’s a felony.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen enjoyed the double honour of topping the timesheet on Day 2 of pre-season testing and bringing out the first red flag of the week when the Finn was left stranded out on the Circuit de Catalunya.

Raikkonen demoted morning pacesetter Sergio Perez to second in Thursday’s overall standings while Daniel Ricciardo’s early effort also remained unchallenged in third place.

Raikkonen set his fastest lap with 40 minutes left on the clock and with the help of a set of Pirelli’s softest tyres.

But with less than 17 minutes left to go, the Finn’s Alfa was seen stranded near Turn 9, an event that brought a premature end to the F1 veteran’s day.

Like yesterday, Thursday’s session unfolded with few troubles but the afternoon saw a gremlin creep into the Mercedes garage where Valttero Bottas’ afternoon was curtailed by an ERS (Energy Recovery System) issue.

Still the Silver Arrows camp accumulated a productive 183 laps on the day, with Hamilton’s morning session accounting for 106 rounds.

Romain Grosjean’s day was also cut short when the Haas driver, who put in a massive 158 laps, spun with less than an hour to go and suffered a light contact with the barriers. Overall the Frenchman was left 11th in the day’s ranking.

Sebastian Vettel took over from Charles Leclerc to continue Ferrari’s routine programmes, the German driver ending the day P6 with 73 laps under his belt.

McLaren’s Lando Norris was number two behind Grosjean in terms of overall mileage, the Briton putting 137 laps under his belt, with his best lap placing him 10th fastest.

Esteban Ocon followed Ricciardo at Renault and ended his day 12th fastest, 1.466s adrift from Raikkonen  but just ahead of Bottas.

So far, Mercedes, Red Bull and McLaren lead the aggregated lap tally for the first two days of pre-season testing.

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General reliability continued to be very good overall but the biggest story of the day was undoubtedly the revelation of Mercedes’ innovative DAS steering system on its W11.

Friday’s will mark the third and final day of the first week of pre-season testing at the Circuit de Catalunya, with the action kicking off at 9PM local time as usual.

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Far-left Congresswoman Rep. Ilhan Omar appeared on CBS’ Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Wednesday evening, and the pair once again smeared White House adviser Stephen Miller as a “white nationalist.”

During her interview, Ilhan Omar complained about the “double standard” of people criticizing her anti-semitic rhetoric, rather than the hosts of Fox & Friends who she claims “actually say those words.”

“They actually said that I might not be an American, that my loyalties might not be to this country, but I get called out,” Omar said. “They don’t. They get to keep their show.”

“I would say that goes as far as me too,” Colbert responded. “When I heard that you had said you believe Stephen Miller is a white nationalist, and you got a lot of heat for that, I thought haven’t I said that? Don’t’ we make joke about that all the time on this show?”

Earlier this week, Omar posted a tweet that read, “Stephen Miller is a white nationalist. The fact that he still has an influence on policy and political appointments is an outrage.”

The remark was widely criticized, with people pointing out that Miller is Jewish, while white nationalists hold vehement anti-semitic views.

“You see this outrage when I speak the truth,” Omar told Colbert. “Everybody else’s truth is allowed, but my truth can never be.”

Follow Ben Kew on Facebook, Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at [email protected].

Manfred Weber, the leader of the center-right group in the European Parliament, declared on Wednesday he is standing to be his party’s candidate for Commission president in next year’s European election.

If he secures the nomination at a party congress in November, the 46-year-old Bavarian will officially be the European People’s Party (EPP) candidate for the top EU job under the so-called Spitzenkandidat, or “lead candidate,” system backed by the European Parliament.

However, leaders of EU governments have said that legally they cannot be bound to the Spitzenkandidat system, so there is no guarantee he will become Commission chief even if the EPP comes first in next May’s election.

Weber, a senior official in Bavaria’s Christian Social Union (CSU), announced his candidacy in a series of tweets in German, English and French.

“Europe is at a turning point,” he said. “Today, it’s about standing up for Europe and defending our values, because we are being attacked from outside and from within. It’s about the survival of our European way of life.”

Weber added, “There can be no more ‘business as usual’ in the EU. Europe is not institutions of bureaucrats and elites. I will help to bring Europe back to the people. A new start for the EU is necessary to achieve a better, more united and more democratic Europe.”

“I am standing to be lead candidate of the European People’s Party in the European election, in order to become president of the European Commission,” Weber said. “I told my EPP parliamentary group this today. I want to renew the connection between the people and the EU.”

No other EPP politician has so far declared an intention to run for the group’s nomination but former Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb and the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, have been widely mentioned as potential candidates.

Following his Twitter flurry, Weber made a statement to confirm his candidacy at the European Parliament in Brussels.

An engineer by training, Weber served as a regional politician in Bavaria before becoming a member of the European Parliament in 2004. He is a vice chairman of the CSU, the Bavarian sister party of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats.

Weber has no experience of high public office but he insisted he is up to the task of running the European Commission, the EU executive composed of some 32,000 employees.

“I was asking myself: Can I master the challenges? And my answer is yes — yes I am ready for it,” Weber told journalists.

Weber also played up his reputation as a coalition-builder.

“I will listen, I will try to manage a compromise and then I will lead, this is what I did as a group leader,” he said. “I want to build up bridges, because I deeply believe that only together we can be strong otherwise Europe has no chance in today’s world.”

Weber last week secured Merkel’s backing to run as the EPP’s lead candidate but officials from the chancellor’s party made clear this did not mean she was endorsing him as her pick for the Commission presidency.

Under the Spitzenkandidat system, pan-European groups of parties competing in the European Parliament election choose lead candidates to campaign across the Continent. Later, one of those candidates — most likely the nominee of the group that wins most seats in the election — should then be put forward by the European Council of EU leaders to be confirmed by a majority vote of the Parliament.

But leaders of EU governments have refused to give that system their unconditional backing. They argue that the EU treaties make clear they are responsible for nominating the next Commission president, taking account of the election results, but legally cannot be bound to choose from among the lead candidates.

The Spitzenkandidat process was first used in 2014 in the election of the current Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

This article has been updated. Zach Young contributed reporting.

Quarterback Russell Wilson took a minute out of his busy day to announce his huge deal with the Seattle Seahawks via a tweet, while in bed with his wife Ciara.

Wilson jumped to Twitter on Tuesday night to tell the city, “Seattle, Let’s get it,” the New York Post reported.

Tweeting a video from bed, Wilson said on the attached video, “Hey, Seattle, we got a deal,” before noting that he would talk more about it after he woke up.

“I’m going to see y’all in the morning,” Wilson said on the video. “Time for y’all to go to bed.”

Wilson’s four-year, no-trade deal reportedly includes a $140 million extension with a $65 million signing bonus, ESPN reported.

The deal makes Wilson the highest paid player in the entire league.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.

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EU trade chief Cecilia Malmström has agreed to start a World Trade Organization consultation on the issue of Colombian anti-dumping duties on fries from Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders told POLITICO today.

The consultation will be the first stage of formal dispute settlement at the WTO. It gives all sides a chance to discuss the issue behind closed doors and try to find a solution. Should no agreement be reached in this stage, a panel can be established.

Earlier efforts to come to terms with Colombia on the issue have not had “any real effects,” Reynders said upon arrival at the meeting of EU trade ministers today, adding that it is “very important” for Belgium to get the Commission to start consultations at the WTO.

Dutch Trade Minister Sigrid Kaag told POLITICO: “It’s very important [to act] … because this deals with a sort of contagious element, a precedent case: If they get away with it in this sector … then it can also happen in other sectors. And that’s obviously very concerning.”

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Last week, the Colombian government announced anti-dumping duties on imports of frozen fries from Beligum, Germany and the Netherlands.

The European Commission insisted it had not sat idle. It tweeted: 19 “times we’ve stepped up in the last year — ranging from ministerial meetings with national authorities to formal submissions in the WTO — to support the access of European ‘frites’ to the Colombian market.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article misstated the status of the duties. 

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Hollywood director and left-wing activist Rob Reiner on Wednesday expressed concern over the Trump administration scheduled release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on now-debunk Trump-Russia collusion, suggesting it could spell the end for U.S. democracy.

“Tomorrow Donald Trump, with the aid of the Attorney General of the United States, will try to drive a stake through the heart of Democracy,” tweeted Rob Reiner.

The All in the Family star’s hyperbolic tweet follows an announcement by the Justice Department stating Attorney General William Barr will hold a 9:30 a.m. news conference accompanied by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversaw the investigation after Mueller’s appointment in May 2017.

It is unclear if Barr will speak before or after the report is released. The Justice Department also plans to provide a “limited number” of members of Congress and their staff access to a copy of the Mueller report with fewer redactions than the public copy, according to a court filing Wednesday.

The nearly 400-page report is expected to reveal what Mueller uncovered about ties between the Trump campaign and Russia that fell short of criminal conduct. It will also lay out the special counsel’s conclusions about formative episodes in Trump’s presidency, including his firing of FBI Director James Comey and his efforts to undermine the Russia investigation publicly and privately.

Rob Reiner, one of Hollywood’s most vocal Trump critics, has claimed for nearly two years that the special counsel would uncover proof of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Last month, the actor began criticizing Barr’s handling of the Mueller report, accusing the attorney general of attempting to “gas light” Americans with his summary of Mueller’s findings.

“Autocracy 101: Continually lie and tell you not to believe what you see with your own eyes,” he wrote in a tweet. “Trump, with the protection of cult GOP, FOX, & AG Barr, is in full gas light mode. We’ve seen Collusion & Obstruction in plain sight. Reality is reality. Truth is truth. Trust Your Eyes.”

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has claimed vindication after nearly two years of unrelenting investigation, seeing “complete and total exoneration” in the Justice Department’s account of Mueller’s findings.

“It was just announced there was no collusion with Russia,” the president said in brief remarks to reporters upon the summary’s release. “It’s a shame that our country had to go through this. To be honest it’s a shame that your president has had to go through this.”

Overall, Mueller brought charges against 34 people — including six Trump aides and advisers — and revealed a sophisticated, wide-ranging Russian effort to influence the 2016 presidential election. Twenty-five of those charged were Russians accused either in the hacking of Democratic email accounts or of a hidden but powerful social media effort to spread disinformation online.

Five former Trump aides or advisers pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate in Mueller’s investigation, including former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and his former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. Stone is awaiting trial on charges including false statements and obstruction.

The AP contributed to his report.

The Wales international was allowed to head out of Stamford Bridge in search of regular game time, but he intends to make his mark in west London

Ethan Ampadu believes he still has a future at Chelsea, with his plan being to become a senior star for the Blues, but his focus is locked on a loan spell at RB Leipzig for now.

The versatile 19-year-old is held in high regard at Stamford Bridge.

He was, however, among those allowed to leave west London during the summer of 2019 in search of regular game time.

Farmers on Europe’s northern edges have so far spent the summer staring at the sky, praying for rain.

One of the worst droughts in recent memory has taken countries along the Baltic Sea by surprise, with places like Sweden issuing alerts for “extremely high temperatures” above 30 degrees Celsius, and where groundwater levels in some areas are at their lowest point on record.

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Lithuania has declared a state of emergency. The Danish government is pushing through legislation to ease standards for organic farmers so that they don’t have to feed their livestock as much grass — which is scarce.

“This is the most severe drought we’ve had in 50 or 60 years,” said Niels Lindberg Madsen, head of EU policy at the Danish Agriculture and Food Council. “Yields are very low simply because there has been no rain, generally speaking, for a couple of months.”

Swedish grain and cereal growers have had to start harvesting their first cut of crops for the season three to four weeks earlier than usual, according to Palle Borgström, president of the Federation of Swedish Farmers. Some have witnessed their production decrease by as much as 50 percent compared to the average.

One of the farmers’ main problems is that they haven’t been able to grow enough grass or crops typically used to graze their livestock. They’ve turned to land normally set aside for crop rotation and environmental protection to feed cattle. Farmers could also buy forage for their animals, but this is much more expensive and would have to be imported from other countries due to the lack of supply in the drought-hit Baltic region. Borgström said that ultimately farmers “will need to make tough decisions” and kill more animals than usual, which will drive down the price for meat and hurt their bottom line.

“Farmers are now taking care of every straw of grass that is available,” said Borgström. “They are even using their winter stores to feed their animals. In the autumn, we will face a situation where we need to slaughter a lot more cattle than what we normally do because there is simply no feed.”

Unprepared for extreme weather conditions, countries have asked the European Commission for help. In response, the Commission decided Monday to temporarily exempt eight countries — Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Portugal — from an EU environmental requirement aimed at promoting biodiversity, which obliges farmers to leave part of their land fallow. With this exemption, farmers will be able to use more of their land to grow sources of food for animals.

“The Commission is closely monitoring the exceptional situation,” a Commission official said in an email. “The Commission is in contact with several Member States and examining all possibilities for support.”

But farmers’ groups say the exemption isn’t enough. Sweden requested that the EU also provide crisis funding, but representatives of the farming sector say they were told this isn’t likely to happen.

“I don’t think a quick reaction is a major competence for the Commission,” said Borgström. “Every euro counts in a situation like this, but there won’t be any significant support from the EU crisis fund. Even if we do get some money, it will probably not hit the farmers until next year and the farmers need financial support, liquidity and cash flow now, not next year.”

Sweden is now considering its own national aid scheme for farmers.

“For now, the biggest concern is to make sure that our farmers with livestock have enough forage for their animals the coming fall and winter,” said Daniel Ferreira, a spokesperson for the Swedish government.

The Commission did not respond to a question about whether it would provide additional funding.

“It’s very positive that we had a quick decision to be able to harvest the fallow land,” said Borgström, “but it’s just a drop in the ocean for what’s needed.”