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The event at the newly named Trump Village in a remote corner of India on Tuesday had all the hallmarks of a major unveiling: a ceremony, school kids singing inspirational songs and phalanx of national and international media in attendance.

There was only one problem: The Indian philanthropist who renamed the village in honor of America's president had no permission to do so and in fact officials asked his charity on multiple occasions to back off, warnings that were ignored.

We repeatedly asked them not to hold this event, but they did not listen," said Mani Ram Sharma, the deputy commissioner of the district where the farming village of about 600 is located. They did not ask for any permission, and none would have been given if they had.

The drama surrounding the renaming of tiny Marora began last month when Bindeshwar Pathak, the founder of water and sanitation charity Sulabh International, announced during a speech in Virginia that he wanted to change the name of a village, where he is building toilets, to honor Trump and improve bilateral relations between the United States and India.

The village elders happy to have the attention, and perhaps the development dollars that came with it gave their permission. Huge Trump Village billboards were erected with a grinning Trumps name and likeness. But Sharma quickly declared the rebranding illegal and ordered police to tear down the signs.

It was all fictitious and a fraud event by the organizers aimed at collecting money across the country and abroad, Sharma said in an earlier interview with the wire service IANS.

Nevertheless, Sulabh went ahead with a ceremony Tuesday to inaugurate a new vocational center and some toilets it had built for the villagers. Children waved (smaller) signs with Trumps photo and the words "Our Trump Village Will Be Clean!" and villagers sand songs praising the virtues of indoor toilet use. Nearly a third of Indians do not have access to proper sanitation.

We are trying for permission [for the name change] but we dont have it until now, said Monika Jain, a vice president of the charity. She said she expected it to be granted in the coming weeks.

Also attending the event was Puneet Ahluwalia, vice chairman of the Fairfax County Republican Committee and a member of Trump's Asian Pacific American Advisory Committee.

The Trump Organization did not respond to an email asking whether this use of the presidents name and likeness was appropriate.

Residents there know little about Trump or his policies but said they were happy to have their village named after him. Why not if it brings these facilities our way? said Mehboobi, one of the women who had received one of the freshly built commodes. Swati Gupta contributed to this report.

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A charity renamed an Indian village after Donald Trump. Then things got weird. - Washington Post

Former Vice President Al Goresays hes given up hope that President Donald Trumpwill act on key climate issues.

Gore recounted toLate Show hostStephen Colberthis optimism after his meeting with Trump to discuss climate change and the landmarkParis Accord. Trump hadpromised supporters during the campaign that he would pull out of the agreement, arguing it was a bad deal.

I went to Trump Tower after the election, said Gore, who was on the show to promote his new movie, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power. I thought that there was a chance he would come to his senses. But I was wrong.

Trump announced the United States withdrawalfrom the agreement last month, a decision widely met with criticism from business leaders, fellow politicians and longtimeU.S. allies. More than 350 mayorsin cities across the U.S. have since pledged to honor the Paris climate agreement.

Gore added he worried that Trumps decision to exit the agreement would be disastrous, but he was excited by the response of political leaders in the U.S.

A lot of our most important governors and mayors and business leaders said, Were still in the Paris Agreement, and were going to meet the commitments of the country regardless of what Donald Trump tweets.

Watch the whole clip in the video above.

This article has been updated with an updated figure for the number of mayors who have signed on to the Climate Mayors initiative.

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Al Gore: 'I Was Wrong' About Donald Trump - HuffPost

WASHINGTON PresidentDonald Trumppaused after falsely claiming Monday that hes signed more bills and Im talking about through the legislature than any president ever.

I better say think, otherwise theyll give you a Pinocchio, Trump said, referring to The Washington Posts rating system for fact-checking politicians statements. And I dont like those, I dont like Pinocchios.

It took roughly 8.5 minutes for Trump, who has an extensive history of lies, to deliver what appears to be another doozy taking credit for the creation of tens of thousands of new mining jobs.

In Pennsylvania, two weeks ago,they opened a mine, the firstmine that was opened in decades. Opened a mine! he said during a speech to kick off the White Houses Made in America week, referring to the states new coal mine. And you know all the people that were saying the mining jobs?Well we picked up 45,000 mining jobs in a very short period of time. Everybody was saying, well,you wont get any mining jobs. We picked up 45,000 mining jobs.

And the miners are very happy with Trump and with Pence, Trump boasted. And were very proud of that.

While Americas miners may be happy with the administrations push for increased fossil fuel development, theres a problem: The number of coal mining jobs has increased by roughly 800 since Trump became president.

In a pair of posts to Twitter, Washington Post Fact Checker columnist Glenn Kessler addressed both Trumps Pinocchio comment and his claim about mining jobs.

Well, this is how you end up with Pinocchios! Kessler wrote, linking to the Posts fact-check of a similar claim made by the head of the Environmental Protection Agency last month.

In a series of TV interviews on June 4, in which he defended Trumps decisiontowithdrawthe U.S. from thehistoric Paris Agreement on climate change, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt bragged that the administration had added 50,000 jobs.

Since the fourth quarter of last year until most recently, weve added almost 50,000 jobs in the coal sector, he told NBCs Meet the Press. In the month of May alone, almost 7,000 jobs.

However, there are only 50,800 coal mining jobs nationwide, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In another interview June 4 with Fox News, Pruitt said that since the fourth quarter weve had almost 50,000 jobs created in the mining and coal sector alone, being careful to not pin the number specifically to coal.

For his claim, Pruitt earned four Pinocchios the worst kind of falsehood from the Post.PolitiFact gave Pruitts claim a grade ofmostly false.

The Washington Post noted in its analysis that the increase in all mining and logging jobs since Trump took office was, at the time, around 33,000. Including preliminary figures for June, BLS estimates roughly 47,000 new mining and logging jobs have been added since December.

Trump didnt mention logging in his remarks Monday.

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8 Minutes After Saying 'I Don't Like Pinocchios,' Donald Trump's Nose Grows - HuffPost

WASHINGTON White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Monday appeared to be confused aboutDonald Trump Jr.s June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer, claiming it was about adoptions contradicting both Donald Trump Jr. and the president, who have both confirmed the true reason for the meeting.

During an off-camera briefing with reporters, Spicer claimed that the president has made it clear through his tweet, and there was nothing as far as we know that would lead anyone to believe that there was anything except for a discussion about adoption,referring to the original reason Trump Jr. gave for meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.

Veselnitskaya has lobbied against the Magnitsky Act, a law passed by Congress in 2012 that imposed sanctions on Russian officials. In retaliation for the sanctions, the Kremlin imposed a ban on Americans adopting Russian children.

But both Trump Jr. and the president have affirmed that the real reason the younger Trump took the meeting was he was looking to obtain damaging information on campaign opponent Hillary Clinton.

The presidents tweet that Spicer referred to on Monday lays that out quite clearly, defending Trump Jr.s meeting as politics.

As detailed in emails released by Trump Jr. himself last Tuesdayin response to the New York Times uncovering the meeting, he clearly took the meeting after being offered information that he was told would incriminate Clinton and was part of Russia and its governments support for Mr. Trump.

If it is what you say I love it, Trump Jr. replied to an email from music publicist Rob Goldstone.

Later Tuesday, Trump Jr. defended the meeting in an interview with Fox News Sean Hannity, saying that it was simply part of normal campaign business.

Someone has information on our opponent. You know, things are going a million miles an hour. You know what its like to be on a campaign, he told Hannity. Wed just won Indiana but were talking about a contested convention. Things are going a million miles an hour again. And, hey, wait a minute. Ive heard about all these things, but maybe this is something. I should hear him out.

The president has also affirmed several times that the meeting was about Clinton. When asked about it last Thursday, he defended his son,claiming that most people would have taken that meeting,as it was very standard and part ofopposition research.

The meeting is the clearest indication yet that the Trump campaign may have colluded with Russia to influence last years election, a possibility that is the subject of multiple investigations.

Despite both fathers and sons insistence that the meeting was routine, many expertsbelieve it violated campaign finance lawsthat make itillegalto solicit, accept or receive contributions and donations from foreign nationals. Legal experts say this generally includes political opposition research.

Republican political operatives told HuffPost last week that itwould be unheard offor campaign veterans to take such a meeting, and that they would have reported it to the FBI.

Excerpt from:
Sean Spicer Still Insists Donald Trump Jr. Meeting Was About Adoptions - HuffPost

Garbled grammar aside, Trump's essential message is this: My approval rating isn't bad at all!

Except, he's wrong.

Here's George H.W. Bush back to Jimmy Carter:

Bush, Ronald Reagan and Carter were all in the stratosphere compared to Trump at the six-month mark of their presidencies. Worth noting: Bush and Carter went on to lose their re-election bids three and a half years later -- a sign that you always need to be cautious about making predictions after just 6 months.

Then, finally, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford:

So here are the facts: Donald Trump is less popular at the six-month mark of his presidency than eight of the nine men who have held the office before him. He's as unpopular as the ninth, who pardoned a president embroiled in the most serious scandal ever to hit the presidency.

That's probably not something he'll be touting on Twitter anytime soon.

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3 charts that show why Donald Trump's low approval ratings aren't normal at all - CNN International