May turns up the heat on US after fresh intelligence leak
● British officials say families upset at release of bomb attack details
US president Donald Trump was forced to calm a growing row between UK and US intelligence services after a series of leaks from the Manchester bombing investigation that infuriated investigators and hurt grieving families.
British officials reacted with anger and cut off information-sharing with US agencies, putting the decades-old transatlantic intelligence relationship under strain.
Mr Trump said US justice officials would prosecute whoever was responsible for the leaks, which resulted in the publication of highly sensitive crime scene photos by the New York Times.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed yesterday that the terror threat level in the UK will remain at critical, as police raided several more properties and announced they had uncovered “important” evidence.
In a statement released ahead of a gathering of Nato leaders in Brussels, the US president said the leaks were “deeply troubling” and promised to “get to the bottom of this”.
His comments came after the Prime Minister issued an unprecedented public rebuke of the UK’S closest ally, announcing that she would use the meeting to “make clear to President Trump that intelligence that is shared between our law enforcement agencies must remain secure”.
Mr Trump said: “The leaks of sensitive information pose a grave threat to
He favours late-night satellite talkshows over books and his only contribution to US culture to date has been to take a scythe to the nation’s arts budget.
Now, one of Scotland’s most eminent arts figures has warned US president Donald Trump’s philistinism could have damaging repercussions around the world.
Sir John Leighton, director general of the National Galleries of Scotland, indicated the billionaire was setting a bad example to the next generation by making clear his disdain for culture.
Addressing Holyrood’s culture committee, Sir John said his institution and others around the globe were discussing how to make sense of the world at a time of political upheaval and terrorist attacks.
But such efforts, he warned, were being undermined by the occupant of the White House.
“We now have an American president who makes a virtue of the fact that he doesn’t pick up a book and would certainly not know the inside of a museum or an institution,” Sir John said.
“What a signal that sends out – what a signal it sends out across the world, out to young people.”
Liberal Democrat MSP Tav- ish Scott said the aftermath of the Manchester bombing and Syria attacks had left a younger generation with a view of Islam garnered from modern technology such as mobile phone apps.
He contrasted that with the great cultural and artistic achievements of Islam which may be “lost forever” because they are being destroyed by Islamic State in Syria.
Mr Scott asked whether Scotland’s galleries and museums have a duty to use their collections to help Scots to “get some sense of what’s going on in the world around us at the moment.”
Dr Gordon Rintoul, director of National Museums Scotland, said museums had a “really important role” to play in “bringing out a better understanding of communities.”
He added: “The key is working with communities to see how we can add value and to see how we can use the national collections or themes arising from the national collections to bring about better dialogue and better understanding.”
Mr Trump attracted derision last year when he claimed he did not have time to read.
But he is not the only political leader to have made it clear he has little time for the arts or popular culture.
Robert mul do on, prime minister of New Zealand from 1975 to 1984, once railed against cultural figures as “snobs” and “ivory tower types.”
However, he reserved much of his displeasure for pop music, which he dismissed as “horrible” after refusing to lift a 40 per cent sales tax on records and cassettes,
New Zealand’s artistic community responded in kind, most famously with the release of the single, Culture? by new wave band, The Knobz.
In 2009, Iain Gray, then leader of Scottish Labour, was roundly criticised by painter John Bellany and writer Alasdair Gray after he described the post of culture minister as “a non-job” within the Scottish Government.
“The key is working with communities to see how we can use the national collections to bring about better dialogue and understanding”
DR GORDON RINTOUL