Mohamed Salah’s first-half strike moved Liverpool top of the Premier League table with a 1-0 victory over a stubborn Brighton side.

Salah, who scored a record 38 goals in the Premier League last season, secured the three points with a clinical finish off the inside of the post.

Jurgen Klopp’s side were not at their fluid best, with their most dangerous moments coming before Salah struck.

After Sadio Mane poked a shot just wide, Roberto Firmino drew a smart save out of Mat Ryan with a downward header before Trent Alexander-Arnold hit the bar with a free-kick.

Brighton claimed a stunning 3-2 win against Manchester United in their previous game but rarely threatened to follow that up with an upset at Anfield.

They did, however, give the hosts some nervous moments in the closing stages and were denied a point when Alisson saved superbly from Pascal Gross’ header.

Liverpool are the only side to have taken maximum points from their three league games after reigning champions Manchester City dropped points at Wolves earlier on Saturday.

Chelsea and Watford also boast a 100% record but have played one game fewer than Liverpool.

Salah picking up from where he left off?

This was not Salah’s best game – he overhit a couple of passes and sent at least two shots into the upper tiers of the stand – but he was still able to provide the one moment of quality to decide a generally forgettable encounter.

Receiving the ball inside the area from fellow forward Mane, Salah looked up before superbly steering a left-footed shot just out of reach of Ryan and just inside the far post.

It was his 29th goal in 29 games at Anfield and the 45th Premier League goal he has been directly involved in (34 goals and 11 assists) since the start of the last season – 12 more than any other player.

He has two goals after three league games this season – the same as he had at this stage of his debut campaign with Liverpool last term.

Brighton beaten but not without a fight

Although this was Brighton’s second defeat in three games, their fans are unlikely to be discouraged by what they have seen from their team this season.

Their win against United was no fluke as they got in the faces of their opponents – showing no fear – and they displayed the same attitude at Liverpool.

Attacking opportunities were limited as they focused on nullifying a Liverpool side that scored six goals in their first two games – and in that respect they largely succeeded.

In May, Brighton were thumped 4-0 by Liverpool in the final game of the season, but only Alisson’s late save denied them a point.

The Seagulls appear to have come a long way in a short space of time and, if they continue to play in the style they have in their past two games, they have a strong chance of securing Premier League survival once again.

Man of the match – James Milner

Consistency key for Liverpool – the stats

• Liverpool have won their past six matches against Brighton in all competitions, scoring 21 goals and conceding five.
• Of the 17 teams to play in the Premier League last season and this season, Brighton have won the fewest points in away games (11).
• Liverpool have kept 11 clean sheets in the Premier League in 18 games since Virgil van Dijk’s debut in January 2018, more than any other side in that period.
• Liverpool named the same starting XI in three consecutive Premier League games for the first time since May 2017.
• Under Jurgen Klopp, Roberto Firmino has had a hand in 59 Premier League goals (36 goals, 23 assists), 14 more than any other Liverpool player.
• Liverpool midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum completed 75 of his 76 passes in the game (98.7% accuracy), with his one misplaced pass coming in the 80th minute.

What next?

Liverpool travel to Leicester in the Premier League on Saturday, 1 September (12:30), while Brighton host Southampton in the League Cup second round on Tuesday (19:45).

President Donald Trump‘s long-serving personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to twin federal election law offences directly implicating the President. Mr Cohen’s statements set the foundation for the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York to subpoena Mr Trump to testify about $280,000 paid to a adult film star (Stormy Daniels) and a Playboy model (Karen McDougal) during his 2016 campaign for their silence about his decade-old affairs with each to influence the outcome of the election. The disclosures could have alienated his religious right-wing supporters.

Mr Trump is likely to resist the subpoena. That would force a challenge in the United States Supreme Court as to whether a sitting president is accountable to the criminal law, as are all other officers of the United States, including members of Congress and justices of the Supreme Court. The controlling precedents are against President Trump. In United States v Nixon, the Supreme Court unanimously compelled President Richard Nixon to surrender presidential tapes and documents for use in a criminal trial against his top assistants. None of Mr Nixon’s four Supreme Court appointees voted in his favour. In Clinton v Jones, the Court held that President Bill Clinton could be compelled to testify in a civil suit bright by Paula Jones alleging sexual harassment. Neither of Mr Clinton’s two appointees voted in his favour. Mr Trump is similarly unlikely to win the votes of Justice Neil Gorsuch, whom he appointed, or Brett Kavanaugh, whose nomination will soon be confirmed. They would strain to avoid an appearance of bowing to their benefactor as did the Nixon and Clinton justices.

An adverse ruling by the Supreme Court would end the Trump presidency. If he defied the Supreme Court’s order, he would be immediately be impeached by the House for subverting the Constitution’s separation of powers, convicted in the Senate by a two-thirds majority, and removed from office. (Attempts to subvert the Constitution are made impeachable offences, ie, high crimes and misdemeanours, under Article II, section 4). The Supreme Court remains the nation’s most venerated and untarnished civil institution. Any attack on a decision joined by Trump’s own appointees would ring hollow.

President Trump would be equally doomed if he agreed to give testimony under oath. In his mental universe, he does not distinguish between truth and falsehood. Perjury would be inescapable. He has already lied repeatedly about pay-offs to the two women. His foremost lawyer and spokesman, Rudy Giuliani, has insisted “truth isn’t truth” in explaining why Trump’s testimony would inexorably prove perjurious. Perjury is an impeachable offence, and occasioned President Clinton’s impeachment by the House of Representatives.

President Trump may also be implicated in a June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower between Donald Trump Jr, Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner on the one hand, and agents of Russian President Vladimir Putin on the other hand. The purpose, according to Donald Trump Jr, was to solicit or receive damaging information on Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton to use in the election campaign. Federal law prohibits soliciting anything of value from a foreign government or agent to influence the outcome of an election even if the solicitation fails. It seems implausible that President Trump was clueless about a meeting of such electoral importance. That conclusion is reinforced by his concoction with Donald Trump Jr of a false story that the President Putin’s minions were embraced to discuss adoptions of Russian children – a non-issue in the 2016 presidential campaign

Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign manager, was found guilty of eight counts of tax and bank fraud involving huge sums concurrently with Mr Cohen’s guilty plea. The convictions discredit Mr Trump’s soundtrack that special counsel Robert Mueller is engaged in a political witch-hunt with no legal justification. Indeed, Mr Mueller has indicted or convicted more than 30 persons or entities.

The Manafort convictions combined with Mr. Cohen’s guilty plea and the guilty plea of Mr Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, puncture Mr Trump’s campaign pledge to “drain the swamp”. The president’s popularity is dwindling, which will spike the probability of impeachment.

It blends law and politics. Members of Congress respond to public opinion. If it turns against President Trump because of the epidemic of lawlessness in and around the White House, members will be emboldened to initiate impeachment hearings, especially if control of either the House or the Senate flips to the Democrats after the November 2018 elections. President Nixon’s public approval rating had plunged to 22 percent when he resigned in 1974 after the House Judiciary Committee voted three articles of impeachment. When President Trump’s political barometer falls to that level, his impeachment and conviction are a certainty.

President Trump epitomises narcissism. He has scorned the adage that he who loves himself will have no rivals. He has virtually no personal friends in Congress willing to fall on a sword for him. Indeed, most members would prefer Vice President Mike Pence in the Oval Office to Mr Trump. Mr Pence echoes the same general policies, but without the vulgarity and venom of Mr Trump.

Mr Manafort has become a wild card for President Trump after his tax and bank fraud convictions. Even if he resists cooperation with special counsel Mueller, Manafort can be compelled to testify with a grant of immunity about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russian officials when he was Trump’s campaign manager to solicit “dirt” on Clinton. Mueller can afford to grant immunity. He does not need additional convictions to dispatch Mr Manafort to prison for long years or life.

According to a recent book by Mike Isikoff and David Corn, Russian Roulette, Mr Manafort and Donald Trump Jr both solicited the Russians for derogatory information – a clear violation of the anti-solicitation prohibition in federal campaign finance laws as applied to foreign nations or agents. With a grant of immunity, Mr Manafort would be compelled to reveal everything that transpired and what President Trump knew before and after. That Manafort testimony could implicate Mr Trump in a conspiracy to violate the law against foreign contributions to political campaigns. Mr Mueller would then subpoena Mr Trump for testimony about the apparent “Russian collusion”. That would end Trump’s presidency. He is a compulsive liar and would commit perjury as Mr Giuliani has acknowledged.

The imponderables that will determine how quickly the Doomsday Clock for the Trump presidency strikes midnight are threefold: the credibility of Mr Cohen as a witness under klieg lights; the speed with which Congress begins televised hearings into President Trump’s wrongdoing; and, the timing of subpoenas for Mr Trump’s testimony from the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York and special counsel Mueller. 

President Trump’s ouster from the White House is no longer a question of if but when.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

Image: Marc Rasmus/imageBROKER/REX/Shutterstock

Walt Disney World might now be a place where the workers’ dreams really do come true. After months of negotiations, the theme park and resort struck a deal with six unions to start paying employees $15 per hour by 2021, according to the Orlando Sentinel. 

The deal still awaits union members’ approval, but it would slowly increase the hourly minimum wage for Disney World staff from $10 to $15 by October 2021. Nationwide advocates of a $15 hourly wage often refer to that pay as a “living wage.”  

UNITE HERE Central Florida, a union that represents staff with Walt Disney World Food & Beverage and Housekeeping, called the raise “historic” in a Facebook post published Friday. In addition, workers will receive a previously scheduled $1,000 bonus that had been put on hold during negotiations. 

The deal will affect 38,000 employees that belong to six different unions. Though Disney World originally wanted concessions on union rights, the agreement doesn’t include those demands. 

“These Union raises will be life-changing for the women and men who welcome millions of tourists to Walt Disney World,” Matt Hollis, president of the Service Trades Council Union, said in a statement. “Now money tourists spend here in Central Florida will stay here, pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into local small businesses.” 

The Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, estimates that full-time, year-round workers who receive $15 an hour will earn $3,500 more a year. It also argues that a single, childless adult will need to earn $15 an hour by 2024 in order to “achieve a modest but adequate standard of living.” 

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump unloaded on the media, the FBI and his own attorney general in a Saturday morning Twitter rant – saying he “may have to get involved” in the investigations into the 2016 presidential campaign. 

Trump’s latest tweets come after a week of stunning developments in two investigations into Trump’s political campaign and businesses. Two top associates were found guilty of tax evasion and bank fraud charges – and one of campaign finance violations. And two other associates – his accountant and a publisher – reportedly reached immunity deals with prosecutors.

In recent days, Trump has turned his ire to Attorney General Jeff Sessions – even leading Sessions to put out a statement saying he “will not be improperly influenced by political considerations.”

Trump shot back Saturday that Sessions only said that because he “doesn’t understand what is happening underneath his command position.”

Special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, reports to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein because Sessions, a former Trump campaign adviser, recused himself.

“The special counsel Highly conflicted Bob Mueller and his gang of 17 Angry Dems are having a field day as real corruption goes untouched,” Trump said, repeating a partly true assertion. Thirteen of the 17 members of Mueller’s team are registered to vote as Democrats, but Mueller himself is a Republican.

Trump also quoted Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., who suggested this week that the Department of Justice may need fresh leadership “sooner rather than later.”

“Every president deserves an attorney general they have confidence in,” Trump said, quoting Graham. I believe every president has a right to their cabinet, these are not lifetime appointments. You serve at the pleasure of the president.”

But Trump also expressed lingering anger over the 2016 investigation into rival Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server to conduct sensitive government business. He claimed on Twitter that the FBI “ignored tens of thousands of Crooked Hillary Emails, many of which are REALLY BAD.”

And he said that if the FBI doesn’t get to the bottom of Clinton’s corruption, “at some point I may have to get involved!”

Trump also defended himself against accusations that he knew about a 2016 Trump Tower meeting in which campaign officials met with a Russian agent in an effort to get damaging information about Hillary Clinton. His former attorney, Michael Cohen, reached a plea deal with prosecutors Tuesday and was expected to testify that Trump did know about the meeting, which was attended by his son, son-in-law and campaign chairman.

More: Michael Cohen’s hush money plea marks rare ‘win’ in campaign system

But the source of that story, Cohen attorney Lanny Davis, later clarified to the New York Postthat he could not “independently confirm” Trump’s advance knowledge of the meeting. 

“The answer is that I did NOT know about the meeting,” Trump said Saturday. “Just another phony story by the Fake News Media!”

Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2o792h8

A relative of Mollie Tibbetts spoke forcefully online Friday against the political rhetoric surrounding the Iowa woman’s killing.

Sandi Tibbetts Murphy expressed her desire to “reclaim our Mollie”  from those using her as part of their “racist, false narrative.”

“Mollie was killed, and a man has been arrested and charged with her murder,” she wrote. “Yes, that man is an immigrant to this country, with uncertainty as to his legal status. But it matters not.”

Murphy said those casting blame should instead focus on the accused killer’s “sense of male entitlement.” 

“We must be willing to address the way we raise our boys and young men, so that violence is not a part of their response to this world,” she wrote.

“It is not your right to exacerbate this grievous act by hijacking Mollie and all she believed with your racist fear-mongering. You do not get to use her murder to inaccurately promote your ‘permanently separated’ hyperbole. You do not have permission to callously use this tragedy to demonize an entire population for the acts of one man.

“No. We reclaim our Mollie.”

Recent coverage of the disappearance and death of Mollie Tibbetts

 

 

 

 

 

Read or Share this story: https://dmreg.co/2BMlHja

Arsenal recorded their first Premier League win under new manager Unai Emery after Issa Diop’s own goal and Danny Welbeck’s late strike saw West Ham fall to their third straight defeat.

The defensively frail Gunners came from behind to lead in fortuitous fashion as Alexandre Lacazette’s volley across the area deflected in off Diop.

Hector Bellerin then picked out an unmarked Welbeck in added time and the substitute turned to lift his effort past Lukasz Fabianski.

West Ham captain Marko Arnautovic put the visitors in front on 25 minutes, exchanging passes with the impressive Felipe Anderson before slotting low past Petr Cech.

Nacho Monreal equalised five minutes later, firing into an unguarded net after Bellerin’s cross deflected into the defender’s path off Alex Iwobi.

Both Arnautovic and Robert Snodgrass then shot straight at Cech as the Hammers missed several chances to take the lead again, with former Gunner Lucas Perez also slicing wide late on in search of an equaliser.

Frail Arsenal need defensive improvement

The first half at times resembled a contest to determine which side’s defence were more inept, with Arsenal edging it.

Their tactic of playing out from the back with Shkodran Mustafi and Sokratis Papastathopoulos split either side of Cech was too easy for West Ham to disrupt, particularly with neither centre-back looking overly comfortable or mobile enough on the ball.

It led to several chances for the visitors, as did having full-backs Monreal and Bellerin pushed up high – the latter especially offered plenty of threat going forward but it meant West Ham had plenty of space to counter-attack into.

Anderson exploited that space brilliantly throughout, carrying the ball from deep to drive at the Arsenal defence, before playing a one-two with Arnautovic through Mustafi’s legs and allowing the striker to pick his spot in the bottom corner from outside the area.

Elsewhere, Arsenal failed to pick up runners, with the offside Arnautovic wisely leaving Michail Antonio’s through ball for the overlapping Snodgrass, only for the Scot to pick out Cech.

The hosts escaped with a win here but better sides will both carve them apart and finish their chances if the defending does not improve.

Or will they just try to outscore opponents?

Arsenal showed glimpses of their attacking potential and started the game by dominating possession and winning tackles in midfield, with 19-year-old Frenchman Matteo Guendouzi impressing again.

Yet that spell in control lasted only 10 minutes and it took Diop’s bizarre own goal to spark the Gunners’ attack once more, with Lacazette and Aubameyang both going close as the Hammers reeled.

Aaron Ramsey had a goal rightly disallowed for offside and saw a low drive superbly saved by Fabianski late on as the midfielder proved an adequate replacement for Mesut Ozil, reportedly left out due to illness.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan produced a decent display, while summer signing Lucas Torreira was a positive influence after replacing the tiring Guendouzi, suggesting the makings of a fine midfield if Emery can bring it together.

Mixed Hammers fall to the bottom

While Arsenal’s defence was more obviously shambolic in the first half, it was West Ham’s that ultimately determined the result and sent the visitors bottom of the table.

In the build-up to his own goal, Premier League debutant Diop miscued a clearance straight up in the air, allowing Rasmey to head the ball to Lacazette, who turned and found the net via the hapless retreating defender.

Elsewhere, the visitors could could have conceded more but for a fine performance by Fabianski against his former side.

The same could not be said for Jack Wilshere, the former Gunner kept largely anonymous throughout and cutting a frustrated figure as he picked up a late booking.

Missed chances aside, West Ham showed promise going forward, with Anderson offering his side pace and crisp passing, while Arnautovic was a threat until he was forced off with a knee injury in the second half.

They need that knock to be nothing too serious to avoid a difficult start to the season turning into a real struggle.

Man of the match – Felipe Anderson (West Ham)

‘Very important to win’ – match reaction

Arsenal manager Unai Emery, speaking to BBC Sport: “We are happy because it is the first three points after two defeats. It was very important to win, and we showed in the match that in the difficulty we can win, after 1-0 in the first half.

“We suffered with the transition in the first half, but we improved in the second half and controlled more like we want. In the second half we wanted to find more balance on the pitch and we did.

“We need to improve. To improve in this transition to get the balance, to get more control with the ball but also, West Ham are a good team, it was a difficult match, for that we are happy but there are things to improve.”

West Ham boss Manuel Pellegrini, speaking to BBC Sport: “They won 3-1, but if you analyse the game you see we had so many options to score the goal.

“I am very happy in the way we played, we played well with good pace and movement, so I am sure soon it will come.

“The team played well, it was a team that defended well. I am happy as a team we are improving on a lot of things we are trying to do.”

Gunners extend London derby run – match stats

• Arsenal are unbeaten in their last 10 Premier League London derbies at the Emirates, winning seven and drawing three.
• West Ham United have lost their first three games of the Premier League season for the third time this decade (also 2010-11 & 2017-18) after doing this just five times between 1920 and 2010.
• Marko Arnautovic has been directly involved in 19 Premier League goals since the start of last season (13 goals, 6 assists), eight more than any other West Ham player.
• Issa Diop is only the eighth player to score an own goal on his Premier League debut and the first to do so for West Ham United in the competition.
• Arsenal striker Danny Welbeck netted his third Premier League goal against West Ham United; only against Aston Villa (4) and Everton (4) has he scored more.

What’s next?

Arsenal are at Cardiff on Sunday, 2 September at 13:30 BST, while West Ham are on EFL Cup duty against AFC Wimbledon on Tuesday (kick-off 19:45 BST) before hosting Wolves in the league on Saturday, 1 September at 15:00 BST.

It has been one year since hundreds of thousands of the Rohingya population streamed into Bangladesh, as a result of a brutal crackdown carried out by the Myanmar army that was described by the United Nations as “textbook ethnic cleansing”.

The latest assault took place after a coordinated attack by the Arkan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) rebel group on a Myanmar police post and army base killed 12 security personnel.

For many of the Rohingya, who are not recognised by Myanmar as an ethnic group and are denied citizenship and government services, this was not the first time they had forcibly left their homes. 

Previous waves of displacement took place in 1978, 1991 and 2016.

According to the Inter Sector Coordination Group (ISCG), over the past year there has been an influx of 919,000 refugees who have been displaced from their villages in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

They live in 32 camps in the Ukhiya and Teknaf sub-districts, or upazilas, of the tourist beach town Cox’s Bazar, joining the 300,000 other Rohingya who were displaced in previous years.

The camps suffer from overcrowding and squalid conditions, with sanitation problems and lack of basic infrastructure.

About 200,000 Rohingya are at risk of landslides during the monsoon season, as the tarpaulin and bamboo shelters are built haphazardly on soft ground.

Last November, the Bangladeshi and Myanmar governments signed a repatriation deal where they agreed that the Rohingya that fled across the border would be returned to Rakhine state.

However, little is known about what the deal holds, and there has not been a single return yet.

Many of the Rohingya cite their fears of returning only to be forcibly displaced again in the future.

For this reason, they say they will not return unless their demands are met, such as for Myanmar to grant them citizenship, greater inclusivity in government services such as education and workforce, the ensuring of security and safety, and reparations for all that they have lost.

Al Jazeera spoke with refugees living in various camps in Cox’s Bazar about whether they would return to their homelands and their thoughts on the repatriation deal.

Ali is from Taung Bazar village in the Buthidaung Township, where he used to be a local trader in food items.

He arrived in Jamtoli refugee camp last August with his wife, son and sister.

“I didn’t know there was a repatriation deal. But I won’t go back unless certain demands are met, such as granting the Rohingya people citizenship, for Myanmar to ensure greater security for us, and to give us compensation for all that we’ve lost.”

Gulsahar is from Taung Bazar and now lives in the Jamtoli refugee camp with her husband, Mohammad Shafi and her five children.

“I lost my sister and my nieces and nephews. They were killed by the Myanmar soldiers. I have made up my mind to stay here in Jamtoli until I die. Here, I receive help from the aid agencies. But even if the government of Bangladesh cuts off the aid, I would rather die from starvation than return to Rakhine.

“I have three daughters and two sons. My eldest daughter is 20, and she is still unmarried. We are searching for a bridegroom.”

[Rohingya women tend to marry in their early teens because they fear getting raped by Myanmar soldiers, she said, adding that if the women are married, the soldiers lose interest]

Mahmud is from the Raballah village in Maungdaw Township. He is the eldest of seven siblings. He and his unmarried brothers live with their mother in Nayapara – Shalbagan refugee camp in Teknaf.

“I have no demands. I want to go back to my village without any compensation or conditions. I used to be a porter. Now I do nothing.

“Every day I face many difficulties just to get food. I am dependent on aid. There are also hygiene problems, such as the lack of sanitary latrines. I don’t know much about the repatriation deal.”

Mir is from Fukira Bazar in Maungdaw Township, where he was a farmer and owned 10 kani (1.6 hectares) of land. He now lives in Balukhali camp.

“I am married with two sons and one daughter. I am willing to go back to Rakhine if the Myanmar government meets our demands, such as compensation and recognising us as citizens.”

“Here I can get food and shelter. I feel better here than in my own village because there’s more security. But I want to return to Fukira Bazar because there, I can live in dignity.”

Hujjatul is from a village in Maungdaw Township, and now lives with his parents, two brothers and two sisters in Kutupalong camp, in the unregistered bloc 11.

“I was in Year Three in school when I was in Rakhine. Now I can’t find a proper school here except for the madrasahs where we learn the Quran. I haven’t heard of any repatriation deal.”

“I’ll go back if we have Rohingya recognition. We would much rather die here if Myanmar forces us to go back without granting us citizenship.”

She is from Bolibazar village in Maungdaw Township and now lives in the Kutupalong camp.

“I have nine children and a husband. It took us two days to reach Cox’s Bazar. I saw so many massacres, rapes, and homes set on fire.

“I haven’t heard of the repatriation deal. I would only go back if Myanmar granted us Rohingya recognition. I don’t feel good here because this is not my land.

I am grateful for the role of the Bangladeshi government and the aid agencies for helping us, but I want to live in dignity back in my own land.”

They are cousins from the Maungdaw Township. Amin has 10 kids and Ahmad has eight kids.

Nural Amin: “We haven’t heard of a repatriation deal. If the governments of both countries decide to physically return us to Rakhine, we have conditions that must be met first, like the Rohingya recognition and compensation.”

“I hope we won’t be forced to go back without any guarantees. We would prefer to die here in a Muslim country and not among Buddhists.”

“This is our third time being displaced. The first was in 1978 and the second time in 1991. Every time we returned to Rakhine we faced torture and government repression.”

“We were fishermen and farmers in Myanmar. Even though Myanmar is our country, there is no way we would go back there again without security or conditions. Bangladesh is more peaceful.”

Image: Bryan Steffy/Getty Images

Way back in 2015, before he was firing everyone from his golden toilet in the White House, Donald Trump just wanted a photo with Sia.

In a Rolling Stone profile published Friday, the singer recalled how Trump politely took it in stride when she declined to take a photo together after they both appeared on Saturday Night Live. But the funniest part? Sia said she had “crazy diarrhea” after the encounter. 

Sia was walking back to her dressing room when Trump, who was hosting that night’s SNL, spotted her and asked for a photo together.

“We’ve got to get a photo!” Sia recalled Trump saying. His daughter Ivanka was reportedly with the future president and ready to snap a pic, but Sia refused his request. 

The singer said she worried about the potential outrage that would come if she was seen with Trump. “Actually, do you mind if we don’t? I have a lot of queer and Mexican fans, and I don’t want them to think that I support your views,” she recalled telling Trump.

Seemingly not offended, Trump brushed it off and didn’t appear angry or upset. “Oh, no problem. Then don’t,” he said in Sia’s account.

“It was as if he viewed me as protecting my brand,” she added. That’s when this story’s twist happened.

“I was like, ‘Thank you so much,’” Sia told Rolling Stone, before adding, “and then I went into my dressing room and had crazy diarrhea.”

While you might be LOLing at the meeting, as the Huffington Post’s follow-up report notes, it’s not the only time the Australian pop star ever took a serious dump after being in stressful situation.

In December 2017, she tweeted to her fans how she suffered from similar symptoms after bad weather conditions screwed up a flight, and then a blown tire during a 13-hour drive “has given me crazy diarrhea.”

The question now is, will Trump fire back? Shade her on Twitter? We all know how easily irritated the 45th President of the United States gets whenever anyone says anything remotely bad about him.