Woman fired for showing Trump motorcade the middle finger

A woman pictured raising her middle finger toward US President Donald Trump's motorcade has reportedly been fired from her job over the photograph.

The image went viral after it was taken on 28 October in Virginia, close to a Trump golf resort.
Juli Briskman, who was identified as the cyclist in the image, alleges she was fired by employers Akima LLC after she posted it to her online profiles.
The company did not respond to the BBC's request for comment.
Ms Briskman told US media the firm had called her into a meeting a day after she informed their HR department she was the subject of the widely circulated image.
She told the Huffington Post news website that executives had told her they classified the image as "lewd" or "obscene", and therefore deemed that it violated their social media policies after she had posted it to her Twitter and Facebook accounts.
However Ms Briskman said she had emphasised to management that she had not been in working hours when the photograph was taken and had not mentioned her employers on the social media pages.

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Ms Briskman also alleges that a male colleague was allowed to keep his job after deleting a post deemed as offensive in a separate incident.
She therefore questions why she was immediately dismissed from her role.
The 50-year-old mother-of-two had reportedly been at the government contractor firm for six months working in communications

Despite losing her job, Ms Briskman said she did not regret making the gesture.

"In some ways, I'm doing better than ever," she told The Huffington Post

"I'm angry about where our country is right now. I am appalled. This was an opportunity for me to say something."

The press photographer, Mike Smialowski, told the AFP website that it was common to see people protesting or making obscene gestures at presidents as they drove by.

He said that he had been struck by the "tenacity" of Ms Briskman after she made the gesture several times and made attempts to catch up with the motorcade.

Trump: Japan could shoot down North Korean missiles

US President Donald Trump has said Japan could shoot North Korean missiles "out of the sky" with military equipment bought from the US.

Japan's PM Shinzo Abe followed up by saying his country could intercept missiles "if necessary", and added that he was looking into the deal.
The two leaders were speaking to reporters at the close of Mr Trump's first state visit to Japan.
North Korea has fired missiles over Japan twice in recent months.

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On Monday, while answering questions at a press conference, Mr Trump said Mr Abe was "going to purchase massive amounts of military equipment" from the US.
Referencing North Korea's missiles, he said Mr Abe could "shoot them out of the sky" when he completed the purchase, which Mr Trump said would provide jobs to Americans as well as "safety for Japan".
Mr Abe said he was considering such a deal, adding that Japan had to "qualitatively and quantitatively" enhance its defence capability, given the "very tough" North Korea situation.
He stressed that missile defence was based on "legal co-operation" between Japan and the US, and as for shooting down missiles, "if necessary of course we can do that".
It is not clear whether a military deal has been signed during Mr Trump's trip, but the two countries are close military allies with the US maintaining several military bases in Japan.
In September Mr Trump had tweeted that he would allow the sale of high-end military equipment to Japan and South Korea.

Japan does not have a standing army, but instead maintains what it calls self-defence forces, under its post-war pacifist constitution which the hawkish Mr Abe has been seeking to revise.
The two leaders also reaffirmed their ties and pledged to "stand against the North Korean menace", said Mr Trump. Mr Abe said Japan was imposing sanctions on several North Korean entities and individuals.
Earlier on Monday, North Korean state media accused Mr Trump of driving tensions "to the extremes" and said that "no-one can predict when the lunatic old man of the White House, lost to senses, will start a nuclear war" against North Korea.

Mr Trump on Monday met families of Japanese people abducted by North Korea - a topic which he later addressed in the press conference, calling it a "very, very sad thing".
He said it would be "a tremendous signal" and "the start of something very special" if North Korean leader Kim Jong-un returned the abductees, something which Mr Abe has constantly pushed for.
The two leaders also said they discussed economic co-operation in the region.

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Mr Trump is visiting Japan as part of his first tour of Asia as US president.
He has also visited a US air base near Tokyo, and met American business leaders where he publicly criticised Japan over a trade deficit.
Mr Trump will be going to South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines in the coming week.

Texas shooting: Gunman Devin Kelley 'had row with mother-in-law'

Texas church gunman Devin Patrick Kelley had three guns and had been involved in a row with his mother-in-law, officials have said.

The attack on the small church outside of San Antonio during Sunday services left 26 people dead and 20 injured.

The gunman called his father after he was shot by an armed bystander, and said he did not think he would survive.

Kelley was not legally permitted to own the weapons, which included a semi-automatic rifle and two handguns.

Freeman Martin, the regional director for the Texas Department of Public Safety, told reporters it appeared that Kelley died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after first being shot by a "Good Samaritan".

"This was not racially motivated, it wasn't over religious beliefs," Mr Martin said. 

"There was a domestic situation going on with the family and in-laws," he said, adding that the mother-in-law had received threatening text messages from Kelley in recent days.
Wilson County Sheriff Joe Tackitt said that family members had not been present at the time of attack.
Officials have not yet identified the victims in the small town of Sutherland Springs.
Ten of the injured victims are in hospital in critical condition, with officials warning that the death toll could rise.

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 Kelley was court-martialed in 2012 after he was accused of assault against his wife and child. He was sentenced to 12 months confinement.
He received a "bad conduct" discharge two years later, according to Ann Stefanek, a US Air Force spokeswoman.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said on Monday: "It's clear this is a person who had violent tendencies, who had some challenges, and someone who was a powder keg, seeming waiting to go off."
Mr Abbott added that the attacker should not legally have been allowed to own a firearm, after having been denied a gun owner's permit by the state. 

The suspect had a licence to work as an unarmed security guard, a job that police described as "similar to a security guard at a concert-type situation".
"There were no disqualifiers entered into the national crime information database to preclude him from receiving a private security licence," Mr Martin said.
The shooting comes just a month after a gunman in Las Vegas opened fire on an outdoor music festival, killing 58 people and wounding hundreds in the deadliest mass shooting in recent US history.