Barack Obama

The NBA was this week suspended indefinitely amid the spread of COVID-19, with league commissioner Adam Silver saying that will remain the case for at least 30 days.

In response, Kevin Love, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Blake Griffin all donated $100,000 to the arena staff of their respective teams to help those who will be hardest hit by the halting of NBA action.

Zion Williamson vowed to cover the salaries of all staff at the New Orleans Pelicans' Smoothie King Center for the next month.

"We obviously didn't record private meetings," the former official said. "The Obama White House didn't secretly record private meetings"

The White House press office had a stenographer in meetings with journalists in order to have an independent transcript of the interviews, a common practice, the former official said.

Mr Obama warned his successor less than 48 hours after the November election during a conversation in the Oval Office, former Obama officials said.

Mr Flynn's contacts with a Russian envoy left him vulnerable to blackmail, a Senate panel heard on Monday.

He was fired in February for concealing the nature of these contacts.

Mr Flynn, a retired army lieutenant-general, misled the Trump administration about discussing US sanctions against Russia with the country's envoy, Sergei Kislyak, before the inauguration.

The White House cited "grave national security risks and privacy concerns" as the reason for its decision.

Former President Barack Obama voluntarily disclosed more than 6 million records during his presidency.

Critics say the logs allow for monitoring of individuals or groups who may be trying to influence policy.

White House Communications Director Michael Dubke said the administration is following a 2013 federal court ruling that found most of the logs are considered presidential records and are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

The FBI made the request because such wiretapping would be illegal, since the President cannot just order the eavesdropping of a U.S. citizen's phones, the sources said. The sources would not say who was involved in the conversations between the FBI and DOJ.

So far, the Justice Department has not said anything in reaction to Trump's tweets on Saturday, in which he made the wiretapping allegations.

Asked about the FBI request, a Justice Department spokesman said he had no comment. The FBI refused comment as well.

"The company has acquired world publication rights for two books, to be written by President and Mrs Obama respectively," the publisher said.

Titles and other details have not been disclosed but the deal is believed to be worth over $60m (£48m).

Mr Obama is the author of the bestsellers Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope.

Mrs Obama has written American Grown - a book about food and gardening.

Trump was asked in an interview on Fox News' "Fox and Friends" if he believed Obama was responsible for the town hall protests against Republicans this month.

"It turns out his organization seems to do a lot of these organizing to some of the protests that these Republicans are seeing around the country against you. Do you believe President Obama is behind it and if he is, is that a violation of the so-called unsaid presidents' code?" Trump was asked.

"No, I think he is behind it. I also think it is politics, that's the way it is," Trump replied.

"It's totally crazy, but the cool thing is that once you get past that, you start thinking that maybe it's possible. Who cares that he's not French? He's Barack Obama," one of the campaign organizers told CNN.

They've launched a website and they put up 500 posters of Obama around Paris last weekend, said the organizer. He asked to be identified only as Antoine.

They're hoping to get 1 million people to sign a petition urging Obama to run.

Yes, it's a joke, he admits -- but one with a serious purpose.

"At my core I think we're going to be OK," Obama said as he concluded his final news conference at the White House. "We just have to fight for it, work for it, and not take it for granted."

"I know that you will help us do that," he told reporters assembled in the White House briefing room.

If the message was still hopeful, it was a sharp downgrade from the grand visions of progressive change that propelled Obama to the presidency eight years ago.

He told his final news conference that "justice has been served".

Manning was sentenced to 35 years for leaking diplomatic cables to the group, one of the largest breaches of classified material in US history.

The commutation of her sentence has been attacked by Republicans as sending the wrong message.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said the move set a "dangerous precedent".

The 29-year-old transgender US Army private, born Bradley Manning, leaked documents to Wikileaks in 2010.

She will be freed on 17 May but had been scheduled to be released in 2045.