Politics: Conservative MPs speak out about the UKIP entryists trying to take over their party and oust Theresa May

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Pro-EU Conservative MPs have reported a spike in people trying to join the party. They believe the party is evolving and leaving pro-EU, moderate Conservative MPs behind.

• Pro-EU Conservative MPs fear that a wave of UKIP members is trying to take over the party and oust Theresa May.
• Two pro-Remain Tory "rebels" told Business Insider there has been a spike in the number of people joining their local Conservative branches, with most thought to be former UKIP supporters and hard Brexiteers.
• However, they admitted that the party cannot block prospective members because they want a harder Brexit.

• "We must accept that it is possible for a party to evolve and change as the views of its membership change," one leading pro-EU Conservative MP said.

• Steven Woolfe, the former UKIP man who rejoined the Conservatives this week, told BI he wanted to "make the Conservative party conservative again" and kill any prospect of a soft Brexit.

LONDON — In recent months a battle has been raging in Conservative constituencies across Britain as Tory MPs fear they are being flooded by a wave of former UKIP members seeking to take control of their party.

Pro-EU MPs have reported a surge in new members since a call by the UKIP-donor Arron Banks for pro-Brexit activists to help overthrow Theresa May and force the hardest possible exit from the EU.

This summer has seen a battleground for these two rival brands of conservatism, with leading Conservative Remainer Anna Soubry already surviving a plot to oust her in her constituency of Broxtowe.

Leading pro-EU Tory MPs described to Business Insider two major influxes over the past few years: the first when David Cameron resigned and triggered a leadership contest; and the second over the last three months, with Brexit and May's position seemingly up for grabs.

They said their local memberships have increased by over 10% this summer. "People who went off the Tories in the early 90s, who look back at Thatcher with admiration and went to UKIP, are now coming back," one Conservative MP told BI.

The purple wave

One high profile member of the 'purple wave' flooding into the Conservative party is Steven Woolfe, the former UKIP MEP who re-joined the Conservative party this week.

He told BI that he had joined in order to "make the Conservative party conservative again," phase out the party's "pro-EU and social democratic" consensus, and bolster the fight to replace May's Chequers plan with a harder Brexit.

"I believe there is an opportunity for the Conservative party to reassess its own standing, and adopt some stronger core, conservative values," Woolfe said.

"It's now up to those on the Remain side like Anna Soubry and Sarah Wollaston to argue that their brand of Conservatism matches those who are joining the party.

"For us, they have got a long way to go. While people like Jacob Rees-Mo gg have more in common with ourselves."

'We can’t just exclude everyone'

One concern among Conservative figures trying to push back against the wave of former UKIP members seeking to join is that the party headquarters doesn't have sufficient resources to identify members who have joined specifically to oust Prime Minister May.

"What the Conservative Party should be treating seriously is the coordinated attempt to flood the party with people whose intention it is to achieve a hard Brexit and/or get rid of the prime minister," one MP told BI.

"But it's very difficult. Occasionally you can identify new members as UKIP canvassers, but who are the others?"

Another Conservative MP said it had been difficult to check the backgrounds of new members, describing Conservative Campaign Headquarter's system for doing so as "outdated" and "absolutely s***."

They added: "We are almost certainly going to have a leadership contest in the next 12 months or so. £25 to pick the next prime minister is an absolute bargain."

We are almost certainly going to have a leadership contest in the next 12 months or so. £25 to pick the next prime minister is an absolute bargain.

But a bigger concern among the party's pro-EU "rebels" is that the Conservative membership is simply evolving, and moving closer to a more traditional, Jacob Rees-Mogg brand of conservatism — while leaving them behind.

"We can't complain that we don’t have enough members and then turn people away when they want to become members. We must embrace them. We can’t say no to Leave voters with conservative values," one pro-EU MP acknowledged.

This was echoed by a backbench colleague. "It’s not impossible for someone to support UKIP and then no longer agree with the direction of that party. We can’t just exclude everyone.

"We must accept that it is possible for a party to evolve and change as the views of its membership change."

One MP who BI spoke to about their enlarged local party membership described Arron Banks as a "disreputable individual" who is "bigoted in the extreme" but said they couldn't simply block all applicants who might share his political views.

Woolfe, who worked with Banks at UKIP, said the Tory party was now a natural home for the pair. "There are many people in the party who think I'm more Conservative than some Conservative MPs," he said.

A conference 'bloodbath'

The struggle for the soul of the party will be played out in Birmingham next month when the Conservative party meets up for its annual conference. Some pro-EU MPs told BI they are turning down invitations to partake in debates in order to avoid what is expected to be a "bloodbath" atmosphere.

Dominic Grieve, the pro-EU MP for Beaconsfield, revealed he won't be attending the conference for the first time in 25 years. However, he insisted this was because he would be abroad with the Intelligence and Security Committee.

One leading Europhile Conservative MP told BI they had rejected a series of invitations to appear on panels to avoid being "the Brexiteers' sacrificial lamb," saying the conference "is going to be a bit of a bloodbath."

They told BI that they expected the atmosphere to be "even worse" than the "horrible" conference in Manchester last year.

"At one Brexit event last year, when it came to questions from the floor, comments ranged from a prediction that MPs will be hanged from lampposts if they don't deliver Brexit, to a rant about what Muslims wear to the beach... And that was before any Brexit rebellion," they said.

Another Conservative MP told BI: "My firm intention is to avoid [conference] like the plague."

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Tech: New wildfire tears through drought-stricken forest as California reels from its biggest fire in state history

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California firefighters were struggling to contain the Delta Fire three days after it scorched dry brush along the Sacramento River. The flames have already burned more than 30,000 acres and was zero percent contained as of Friday night.

• The Delta Fire in Northern California scorched nearly 25,000 acres of dry wildland as it raged on for a third day.
• Fire officials said they were making progress, but there was no containment as of Friday night.
• This latest fire comes as California struggles to recover from the worst fire in state history. The Mendocino Complex fire took off in late July and burned nearly 460,000 acres.

Firefighters in Northern California struggled to get the upper hand on a three-day-old wildfire that scorched more than 30,000 acres as of Friday evening.

Warm weather and winds amplified the danger as flames moves through the Shasta-Trinity National Forest region.

The wildfire was growing “incredibly fast” after having burned 22,000 acres by Thursday, Shasta-Trinity Cal Fire Unit Chief Mike Hebrard told local reporters Friday. It was zero-percent contained.

The Delta Fire was initially reported as three separate fires on Wednesday. But those combined into one and spread at a rate of one mile-per-hour at its height, Capt. Brandon Vaccaro, a fire spokesman, told the Los Angeles Times on Thursday.

Vaccaro said he believed the fire was human-caused, but the circumstances were not immediately clear.

At least 300 people were forced to evacuate their homes in Shasta and Trinity counties. Some 1,600 residents in the town of Dunsmuir, about 280 miles north of Sacramento, were told to be prepared to evacuate.

Two homes in small mountain communities were damaged by the fire as of Friday, according to another Los Angeles Times report Friday.

The wildfire led to major traffic disruptions in the region when the flames threatened Interstate 5. A roughly 45-mile section of the freeway has been closed since Wednesday.

California witnessed the worst wildfire in its history in July. The Mendocino Complex Fire, which also occurred in the northern part of the state and scorched more than 450,000 acres, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday.

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Politics: Michael Cohen says he'll end hush-money agreement with Stormy Daniels, effectively allowing her to tell-all about her alleged affair with Trump

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Michael Cohen's company, Essential Consultants LLC, requested a reimbursement of the $130,000 that porn star Stormy Daniels was paid in 2016 to keep quiet about an alleged affair with Donald Trump.

• The shell company belonging to Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former personal attorney, agreed to "put an end" to the nondisclosure agreement it has with the adult-film actress Stormy Daniels, CNN reported on Friday night.
• The company, Essential Consultants LLC, requested that Daniel pay back the original $130,000 she received in 2016 to keep quiet about a 2006 affair she said she had with Trump.
• Michael Avenatti, the attorney representing Daniels, said the development caught him by surprise.
• One theory on the decision was that Cohen, who pleaded guilty to eight financial fraud charges in August, had nothing to gain from Daniels' silence.

Michael Cohen's shell company, Essential Consultants LLC, reportedly agreed to cancel the nondisclosure agreement that bound the adult-film actress Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about an affair she said she had with Donald Trump in 2006.

Essential Consultants said it would squash the agreement in a status report filed on Friday, but requested a reimbursement of the original $130,000 that Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, received as part of the contract, according to a CNN report.

Cohen was a longtime personal attorney to Trump, before and after he became president. That relationship ended shortly before Cohen entered a plea deal with prosecutors in New York where Cohen pleaded guilty to multiple counts of criminal fraud in August.

"Today, Essential Consultants LLC and Michael Cohen have effectively put an end to the lawsuits filed against them by Stephanie Clifford aka Stormy Daniels," Brent Blakely, Cohen's attorney, said according to CNN. "The rescission of the Confidential Settlement Agreement will result in Ms. Clifford returning to Essential Consultants the $130,000 she received in consideration, as required by California law."

Michael Avenatti, the attorney representing Daniels, appeared to be caught by surprise.

"I haven't had a chance to digest it," Avenatti said in an interview with CNN anchor Chris Cuomo on Friday. "I just saw it on my email literally right before I came on."

"What they're trying to do is they don't want me to get a chance to depose Michael Cohen and Donald Trump," Avenatti said. "This is a hail mary to try and avoid that, that's my first guess."

One theory on the decision was that Cohen now has nothing to gain from Daniels's silence, according to CNN. Following Daniels's bombshell claims on the alleged affair, Avenatti and Daniels embarked on an extended media blitz that frequently needled Trump.

Two of the charges were related to campaign-finance violations connected to the "hush money" payments made to former Playboy model Karen McDougal and Daniels. Cohen said under oath that Trump directed him to make the payments in order to help his 2016 presidential bid, according to Lanny Davis, Cohen's attorney.

Cohen faces a total of 65 years in prison for his crimes, but his guilty plea makes it likely that his potential sentence will be shortened to three to five years.

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Politics: 'Dissent is as American as apple pie': Trump's UN ambassador Nikki Haley insists that she challenges the president 'directly' in opinion column rebuking anonymous op-ed

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Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, published a response to an explosive New York Times op-ed that sent the White House reeling this week. Haley insisted she challenges Trump directly and scolded the anonymous writer who declared themselves part of a silent internal resistance.

• Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, wrote a rebuttal to the bombshell anonymous New York Times op-ed that criticized President Donald Trump this week.
• In her own opinion column published in The Washington Post on Friday, night Haley rebuked the anonymous Trump administration official who declared themselves part of an internal "resistance" group intent on hamstringing the president.
• But Haley did not offer the kind of full-throated endorsement for Trump that other administration officials did hours after the anonymous op-ed was published.
• "I enthusiastically support most of its decisions and the direction it is taking the country," Haley said of the Trump administration. "But I don't agree with the president on everything," she added.
• The White House has been reeling over that unsigned editorial this week, and Trump is said to have narrowed down a list potential "suspects" who may have written it.

Nikki Haley, President Donald Trump's ambassador to the United Nations, would like you to know she is displeased with the unnamed Trump administration official who wrote a New York Times op-ed declaring themselves part of an internal "resistance" against the president.

Haley published counter-op-ed in The Washington Post on Friday, rebuking the anonymous author who painted Trump as petulant, unintelligent, and ill-suited for the Oval Office.

"What this 'senior official in the Trump administration' has done, and is apparently intent on continuing to do, is a serious disservice — just to the president, but to the country," Haley wrote, echoing a common refrain coming from inside the administration this week.

Like the White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Vice President Mike Pence, adviser Kellyanne Conway, and others, Haley invited the unnamed author to resign if they're truly unhappy with the way Trump governs.

But unlike others among Trump's inner circle, Haley did not offer a full-throated endorsement of the president.

"I don't agree with the president on everything," Haley said. "When there is disagreement, there is a right way and a wrong way to address it. I pick up the phone and call him or I meet with him in person."

Indeed, Haley has not been shy about breaking with Trump on some issues.

• She did that in January 2017 during her Senate confirmation hearing when she insisted the US should hold Russia accountable for its actions in Ukraine and Syria.
• Haley did it again in December when she said women accusing Trump of sexual misconduct "should be heard."
• And in July this year, one week after Trump praised Russian president Vladimir Putin after their joint meeting in Helsinki, Finland, Haley said, "We don't trust Putin. We never will."

"Everyone in government owes a greater loyalty to our country and our Constitution than to any individual officeholder," wrote in The Post on Friday.

"Dissent is as American as apple pie. If you don’t like this president, you are free to say so, and people do that quite frequently and loudly," Haley said.

She continued: "But in the spirit of civility that the anonymous author claims to support, every American should want to see this administration succeed. If it does, it’s a win for the American people."

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Tech: The giant garbage vortex in the Pacific Ocean is over twice the size of Texas — here's what it looks like

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The Great Pacific Garbage Patch has more than 16 times as much plastic as previous estimates, according to a study by the Ocean Cleanup Foundation.

• The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a massive area measuring more than 1.6 million square kilometers, but it's just part of the North Pacific Gyre, an ocean region where currents collect plastic.
• Researchers from the Ocean Cleanup foundation conducted a survey of plastic in the area, using planes to observe from the sky and boats to trawl the water.
• They found that the amount of plastic there seemed to be increasing exponentially and that there could be 16 times as much as previously thought.

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There's far too much plastic in the world's oceans, and the problem continues to build up.

Every little bit of plastic that gets tossed into the ocean or swept downstream out to sea either sinks or is picked up by currents. Much of it is eventually carried into one of five massive ocean regions, where plastic can be so concentrated that areas have garnered names like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

On Saturday, the Ocean Cleanup Foundation plans to deploy a massive plastic-collecting array with the hope that it can remove plastic debris from this part of the ocean. Some ocean researchers who study plastic pollution have questioned the plan, saying it may not be able to effectively remove enough plastic to be worth the cost and that it may harm marine life. But until it's out in the water, we won't know how much of an impact it'll have. If they deem it successful, the foundation hopes to launch a whole fleet of similar devices.

While "garbage patch" might make you think of something you pass by on the side of the road, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the North Pacific Ocean is less like a patch and more like a massive swirling vortex more than three times the size of Spain and more than twice the size of Turkey or Texas.

And it's growing and collecting more plastic rapidly, according to a study published in the Nature journal Scientific Reports by researchers associated with the Ocean Cleanup Foundation.

There may be more than 16 times as much plastic in the vortex than previous studies have estimated, according to the researchers behind the study.

An aerial view of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch might at first appear to be open water. But inside there's debris from all over the world — debris that traps or is eaten by marine animals, filling up their bodies to the point of being fatal and tainting our food supply.

More than 320 million metric tons of plastic are produced every year — and a disturbing amount ends up in the ocean, with much of it accumulating in places like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Much of the Ocean Cleanup foundation's data on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch comes from a 2015 expedition involving 18 vessels.

The Ocean Cleanup, a Dutch organization started by a young entrepreneur named Boyan Slat, wants to launch a somewhat controversial effort to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and has conducted research about the scale of the problem.

The ships trawled the waters using manta trawl nets outfitted with mesh to catch as much plastic as possible.

The area they focused on is a particularly concentrated part of one of the five global gyres where ocean currents collect plastic from around the world.

The region is huge, at more than 1.6 million square kilometers (617,800 square miles).

For comparison, Texas is about 269,000 square miles.

In 2016, the Ocean Cleanup foundation used a Hercules C-130 aircraft to conduct an aerial survey of the region to refine its data and count larger pieces of plastic (greater than 50 centimeters).

The researchers collected 1,136,145 pieces of debris that weighed a total of 668 kilograms and were made up of 99.9% plastic.

From that, the researchers estimated the area had at least 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic in the water, weighing 79,000 metric tons — with more arriving every minute of every day.

They estimated that 1.7 trillion pieces were microplastics (between 0.05 and 0.5 centimeters) but that 92% of the total plastic mass came from larger pieces.

They also estimated that 46% of the plastic mass was from lost fishing nets known as "ghost nets." These nets drift through the sea, ensnaring creatures and breaking into smaller bits of plastic.

The team also thinks the 2011 tsunami that hit Tohoku, Japan, could have added significantly to the mass of plastic.

This may vastly underestimate the amount of plastic in the area, both because the researchers measured only within the boundaries of the "patch" — not the full gyre — and because many others think there are far more microplastics deeper in the water.

While the foundation wants to push for a plan to clean up the plastic in the patch, many researchers think our best bet is stopping pollution from making it into the ocean in the first place.

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Politics: 'I had to be honest in my views': 'Plaid shirt guy' at Trump's rally in Montana says he didn't expect his facial expressions to be a viral hit

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He reportedly managed to have his picture taken with President Donald Trump while wearing a socialist organization emblem, and also tried getting Trump to sign a copy of the "Communist Manifesto," which was disguised as Trump's book, "The Art of the Deal."

• A guy wearing a plaid shirt who made several animated facial expressions during a Trump rally in Montana on Thursday has been identified as Tyler Linfesty, a 17-year-old high school senior.
• Linfesty was positioned directly behind President Donald Trump and made several facial expressions as Trump spoke, before a staffer asked him to leave.
• "I didn't really have a plan," Tyler told The Billings Gazette. "I was just going to clap for things I agreed with and not clap for things I didn't agree with."
• Tyler reportedly managed to have his picture taken with Trump while wearing a Democratic Socialists of America emblem, and also tried getting Trump to sign a copy of the "Communist Manifesto," which was disguised as Trump's book, "The Art of the Deal."

A teenager wearing a plaid shirt who made several animated facial expressions during a Montana campaign rally featuring President Donald Trump has been identified as Tyler Linfesty, a 17-year-old high school senior, the Billings Gazette reported.

As Trump delivered remarks on Thursday night, Linfesty was positioned directly behind him and made several facial expressions before a staffer apparently asked him to leave. The high school senior's reactions went viral the next morning and prompted amateur facial readers to analyze what he was saying.

"I didn't really have a plan," Linfesty told the Gazette. "I was just going to clap for things I agreed with and not clap for things I didn't agree with."

The teen was seen clapping at several points throughout Trump's speech — including when Trump remarked on Sen. Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign and the North American Free Trade Agreement — but his facial reactions caught the most attention.

"They told us while we were sitting there, 'you guys have to keep clapping, you have to smile, you have to look enthusiastic,'" Linfesty told the Gazette. "I had to be honest in my views."

The high school student told the Montana newspaper he requested tickets to the rally earlier in the week. He said he never expected to be seated on-camera, right behind the president.

"It's still hard for me to believe that people are recognizing me in the hallways as 'plaid shirt guy' now," Linfesty said. "I don't think any of us had any idea we were going to be that big on TV, because whenever I see a Trump rally, you see Trump, you see hundreds of people behind him — that's my experience at least."

"In this case, there were like seven people there," Tyler added. "I did not know that I was going to be that big."

Soon after Tyler pinned a rose emblem representing the Democratic Socialists of America on the right side of his shirt, a stand-in was sent to take his spot and he was asked to leave.

"I saw this woman walking toward me on the left," Tyler said to The Gazette. "She just said to me, 'I'm going to replace you.'"

Linfesty was later taken to a back room where police and Secret Service reportedly inspected his identification. "They treated me fine," he said. "They just told me not to come back."

Prior to the rally, Tyler managed to have his picture taken with Trump while wearing the Democratic Socialists emblem and also tried getting Trump to sign a copy of the "Communist Manifesto," which was disguised as Trump's book, "The Art of the Deal," according to the Gazette.

Tyler has yet to see the picture that was taken by campaign staffers and did not get his book signed.

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NBA 2K19: Nigerian dance move Shaku-Shaku featured in new edition of popular basketball video game

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In NBA 2K, users are allowed to select the type of dance move they can use to celebrate after scoring points .

Nigerian dance move ‘Shaku-Shaku’ has been featured in the newest edition of popular basketball video game NBA 2K.

Although the NBA 2K19 will be released on Tuesday, September 11, the 20th Anniversary Special Edition version of the game which was first developed and released in 1999 launched on Friday, September 7.

In NBA 2K, users are allowed to select the type of dance move they can use to celebrate after scoring points and the Shaku-Shaku has been included in the latest edition.

 

The  Shaku-Shaku is a viral dance style that has taken over the Nigerian music scene and done by taking an arm over the other while dancing in any random style.

 

The dance has since become very popular and its popularity has since soared with the likes of Paul Pogba and some of his French teammates doing it during the their title-winning campaign at the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

It’s also the favourite dance style amongst Super Eagles players.

 

Arsenal star Alex Iwobi also did the dance after he scored against Chelsea recently in a Premier League game.

Both the Standard Edition and the Special Edition of the NB 2K19 will be available to play on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and PC.

For gamers wishing to play early, the NBA 2K19 Prelude version has been available for download for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One since Friday, August 31, allowing gamers to begin their career mode and eventually transfer progress over to the full game.

The Standard Edition of the video game will cost N21, 476 ($59.99) while the 20th Anniversary Special Edition of NBA 2k19 will cost N35, 796 ($99.99).

NB: $1=N358

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