Datasets:

x-g85

/

x_g85_fn_dataset

like 1

Follow

X_G85 4

Afghan president says he'd 'choose the Taliban' over U.S.

House committee eyes $18.5 billion increase to Trump defense budgetWASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers said on Monday they wanted another $18.5 billion added to President Donald Trump’s proposed defense budget of $603 billion to hire more troops and buy more aircraft and ships in fiscal 2018. Republican House of Representatives Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry released a proposed defense policy bill intended to address military readiness and the Department of Defense’s unfunded requirements list, which is hovering at $33 billion, House staff told reporters on Monday. The $621.5 billion proposed base spending plan for the Pentagon and defense related expenses at the U.S. Department of Energy was more than 13 percent higher than the 2018 defense spending budget cap of $549 billion which would need to be raised by Congress for the legislation to be enacted. The proposal also included $75 billion for Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) to pay for ongoing wars. This funding would not count against the budget caps. The House proposal would put total defense-related spending at $696 billion for fiscal 2018. Trump’s budget proposal included $65 billion for OCO funding, and total spending of $668 billion. If enacted, the House proposal would mean the Pentagon could commit to buying 17 more F-35 jets from Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed Martin Co for a total of 87 in 2018. It would increase the Army by 10,000, to 486,000 active service troops. The proposal would allow the Pentagon to buy a total of 22 Boeing Co F-18s, up from 14 in Trump’s budget proposal. The proposal also gives the Navy authorization for an additional five ships above Trump’s original budget request. The ships include an Arleigh Burke class destroyer made by General Dynamics Corp and Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc and a total of three Littoral Combat Ships built by Lockheed Martin and Australia’s Austal Ltd. The proposal also includes defense acquisition reform measures that would change how the Pentagon buys services and would allow the military to buy commercial off the shelf products from existing business to business e-commerce markets, such as Amazon.com Inc or W W Grainger Inc. On Wednesday, Democrats and Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee are slated to meet to discuss and potentially alter the proposal.

Putin: We'll have to retaliate against 'illegal' U.S. sanctionsSAVONLINNA, Finland (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia would be forced to retaliate if Washington pressed ahead with what he called illegal new sanctions against Moscow, describing U.S. conduct towards his country as boorish and unreasonable. Putin, speaking on a visit to Finland, was commenting on a vote by the U.S. House of Representatives which on Tuesday decided to impose new sanctions on Moscow and to force President Donald Trump to obtain lawmakers’ permission before easing any sanctions on Russia. The sanctions have yet to be approved by the Senate or Trump, and a top White House aide said on Thursday that Trump could veto the legislation in order to push for a tougher deal. Putin, who has repeatedly denied U.S. allegations that Russia interfered with last year’s U.S. presidential election, said Moscow would only decide on how to retaliate against Washington once it had seen the final text of the proposed law. “As you know, we are exercising restraint and patience, but at some moment we’ll have to retaliate. It’s impossible to endlessly tolerate this boorishness towards our country,” Putin told a joint news conference with his Finnish counterpart. “When will our response follow? What will it be? That will depend on the final version of the draft law which is now being debated in the U.S. Senate.” Putin also spoke about an ongoing diplomatic row between Moscow and Washington which erupted last December when then U.S. President Barack Obama ordered the seizure of Russian diplomatic property in the United States and the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats. “This goes beyond all reasonable bounds,” said Putin. “And now these sanctions - they are also absolutely unlawful from the point of view of international law.” Calling the proposed sanctions “extremely cynical,” Putin said the demarche looked like an attempt by Washington to use its “geopolitical advantages ... to safeguard its economic interests at the expense of its allies”. He dismissed Congressional investigations into Russia’s alleged meddling in last year’s U.S. presidential election, calling them a symptom of growing anti-Russian hysteria in the United States and a result of U.S. domestic politics. “It’s very sad that U.S.-Russian relations are being sacrificed to resolve internal policy issues in the U.S,” said Putin. “It’s a pity, because acting together we could be solving jointly the most acute problems that worry the peoples of Russia and the United States much more efficiently.” However, Putin said that Moscow had “many friends” in the United States and hoped that one day the situation would right itself.

A poet in the dock as Israel hunts 'lone wolf' assailants onlineREINEH, Israel (Reuters) - A week after Dareen Tatour posted a poem on Facebook entitled Resist, my people, resist, Israeli police came to her home in the middle of the night and arrested her. The Arab-Israeli poet will hear next Monday whether she will be jailed on charges of incitement to violence and supporting a terrorist group. The average sentence in similar cases is nine months, though the maximum term she could face is five years. Israeli prosecutors say Tatour, 35, issued a call to violence by reading her poem as a soundtrack to a video she posted on Facebook and YouTube, showing masked Palestinian youths throwing stones and fire-bombs at Israeli soldiers. Posted as a wave of Palestinian street attacks began in the region, it reads: Resist, my people, resist them /Resist the settlers robbery/ And follow the caravan of martyrs. They didn t understand my poem, Tatour told Reuters in an interview at her home in Reineh in northern Israel, where she is under house arrest. There is no call for violence. There is a struggle, they cast it as violent. The point of the poem was to say enough . A person feels for their people. I am of the Palestinian people. I live this struggle and I spoke it through the poem, she said. Tatour s case has become a cause celebrate for freedom of speech advocates. It has also drawn attention to advanced technology used by Israeli security agencies to trawl through social media to identify and arrest users suspected of incitement to violence or planning attacks. Critics say the practise is flawed because people have been detained purely on the basis that they may commit a crime, without having done so. Israel rejects the criticism, saying security concerns are paramount. Some Western intelligences agencies use similar predictive policing methods to identify individuals of interest but experts say Israel seems unique in using them as a basis for detention. Since October 2015, 51 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian stabbing, shootings and car-rammings. Palestinian leaders say the assailants are reacting to Israel s occupation of territories Palestinians want for a state. Some 270 Palestinians have also been killed in the past two years. Israel says at least 180 of those were killed carrying out attacks, nearly all lone wolf assailants, while others were killed in clashes. Online incitement is the fuel igniting the terrorists in this wave of violence, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked told a Tel Aviv University cyber conference in June. Israeli prosecutors say Tatour is also implicated by other posts than the poem that appeared on Oct. 3, 2015. The attempt to present her as an artist, a poet, who merely wrote something innocent distorts the truth, a Justice Ministry official said. An expert on Arabic translation told her trial that Martyr to an Israeli means a terrorist. To a Palestinian it means victim any Palestinian killed in the conflict with Israel, as a bystander or assailant. Indictments for online incitement most of those charged are young Palestinians have tripled in Israel since 2014, the Justice Ministry says. In the occupied West Bank, prosecutions by Israel s military have also increased, according to a report by the Military Advocate General. A report in Israel s Haaretz newspaper said there were 170 indictments in 2016. A senior officer in the Israeli military said arrests for incitement require judicial approval, as they do inside Israel. Many lone assailants post farewell messages before setting off. To intercept them, and prevent attacks, Israeli security forces comb through social networks using big data analytics sophisticated software that analyses vast volumes of data. Algorithms are used so that certain words, such as martyr , raise a red flag, as do names of anyone who has launched an attack, a security source said. Shin Bet intelligence agency chief Nadav Argaman says 2,000 potential lone wolves have been stopped by using advanced technology since 2016. A Shin Bet source said some potential attackers were arrested and prosecuted, and others just warned. Some suspects, the source said, were placed in administrative detention, under which Israel holds Palestinians without trial. Israel says that is necessary to prevent violence in cases where there is insufficient evidence to prosecute. Asked about Israel s policy, Facebook said public posts can be read by anyone, including law enforcement and intelligence agency officers. Google, which owns YouTube, declined comment. Others accused of online incitement include 16-year-old Tamara Abu-Laban was detained in East Jerusalem in July. Her father Moammar said she had shared a video online showing an elderly man arguing with Israeli security forces and, in a reference to the mosque that is Islam s third holiest shrine, saying: Kill me, I want to die for al-Aqsa . She has not been charged but was held for two days and barred from using Facebook for 180 days. Her father said the Shin Bet called him in to say they were keeping an eye on her. They are convinced she is going to do something. They told me to be careful. I tried to tell them it s just Facebook - she s just looking for Likes , he said. Police did not comment on her case because she is a minor.

Trump Has Been Sued REPEATEDLY For Disabilities Violations At His PropertiesThroughout the past 19 years, Donald Trump has been sued no less than eight times for violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act at his various properties, and has done his best to drag out these cases for as long as possible. In addition, a federal inspection at one of his properties also turned up multiple ADA violations.Five of the cases ended in a settlement and two others were resolved in consent decrees that required Trumpto make modifications to the properties to bring them into compliance with the ADA. One ended when both sides requested the case be dismissed and another was brought to a close in a bankruptcy.Christine Da Silva, a Trump Hotels spokeswoman, claims that Trump works very hard and spends lots of money to make sure his buildings are accessible to people with disabilities. It is the policy at all of our properties to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. This handful of cases, many of which are over ten years old, are not representative of our organization s strong record of ADA compliance. However, that handful of cases is pretty damning and doesn t support Trump s claims.In a suit filed in 1997, James Conlon, who is paraplegic, filed a lawsuit against Trump s Atlantic City Plaza Hotel alleging basic and serious deficiencies in accessibility. He stayed at the hotel and although he was placed in a room that was supposedly accessible, the toilets and showers were not usable by someone in a wheelchair. As for the public restrooms, they were so inaccessible he had to ask for help from strangers to be able to use them at all. A year later, Trump settled the case and agreed to renovate the accessible guest rooms and public restrooms, bringing them into compliance with the ADA. But a year later, Trump admitted to a judge that the renovations had yet to be completed.In 2001, a suit was brought by Robert Levine and Frieda Zames, who are both wheelchair users. They alleged that Trump International kept the wheelchair lift locked and when employees finally managed to locate the key, they had no idea how to use it. Levine said the degrading incident made him feel like a second-class citizen. Zames said it was as if she were a grade school child asking permission to go to the restroom. In an attempt to shift the responsibility, Trump blamed the architects. The case was amicably settled in 2009 after both sides decided to dismiss the case.In 2003, Conlon filed suit against Trump once again, this time alleging the bus between New York and the Atlantic City, New Jersey, casino was only accessible to wheelchair users if notice was given at least a week in advance. Naturally, Trump sued the bus company and said it was all their fault, but he eventually settled the case.In 2004, a disabled Purple Heart veteran filed suit against the Trump International Hotel and Tower in New York, alleging the property was not equipped with adequately accessible emergency exits, guest rooms and restrooms. Trump did everything he could to get rid of the suit, besides just making his hotel accessible to people with disabilities, that is. He attempted to have the case dismissed and dragged it out for three years. Just like in 2004, Trump blamed the architects and even launched a countersuit, which a judge called bullsh*t on and dismissed.Helena Berger, the president and CEO of the nonprofit American Association of People with Disabilities, said Trump s relentless attempts to squirm his way out of the suit were appalling. What was so striking and frankly appalling was the way he tried to fight [the violations]., Berger said. That, I think, is really telling. The Plaza Hotel became the subject of another complaint in 2007, which the plaintiffs eventually agreed to dismiss. Yet another lawsuit was brought against the hotel in 2008 but came to an end when Trump s company declared bankruptcy in 2009.In 2011, the Trump Taj Mahal settled with the Department of Justice after an inspection by the U.S. Attorney s Office turned up a long list of ADA violations. And more recently, in 2014, Trump claimed that making the pool at the Trump National Doral Miami golf course would impose an undue burden. Four months after the suit was filed, Trump and the plaintiffs entered into a consent decree.Featured image via video screen capture

Michael Moore to release anti-Trump film as celebs step up Clinton supportNEW YORK (Reuters) - Michael Moore, the left-wing filmmaker known for provocative documentaries that deliver a biting message, will release an anti-Donald Trump movie on Tuesday as Hollywood ramps up efforts to support Democratic White House contender Hillary Clinton in the final weeks of the 2016 election campaign. Moore, the Oscar-winning maker of documentaries about guns, the Iraq war and the U.S. health system, said on Twitter he would release “Michael Moore in Trumpland” in a free screening in Manhattan on Tuesday night at one movie theater, followed by commercial release in theaters in Los Angeles and New York on Wednesday. The film’s release comes three weeks before the Nov. 8 election. The film is based on a one-man show, “October Surprise,” that Moore, a vocal critic of the Republican presidential contender, recently performed in Ohio and shows Moore “dive right into hostile territory,” according to a brief description. The film is being released as scores of celebrities rally round Clinton ahead of the Nov. 8 election. More than 30, including Barbra Streisand, Billy Crystal, Julia Roberts, Helen Mirren and Lena Dunham, staged a fundraising show on Broadway on Monday with tickets that sold for up $10,000 each and which was streamed live online. Singer Jennifer Lopez and rocker Jon Bon Jovi will play separate Get Out The Vote gigs in Florida next week on behalf of Clinton’s campaign. “Iron Man” star Robert Downey Jr. and actors Neil Patrick Harris, Don Cheadle and Julianne Moore are among those asking Americans to “save the day” in a social media campaign aimed at getting people to vote against Republican businessman and former reality star Trump. Clinton counts more, and more vocal, celebrity supporters than Trump, whose backers include Clint Eastwood, Jon Voight, country singer Loretta Lynn, Kirstie Alley and rapper Azealia Banks. But fans of celebrities are not necessarily fans of the candidate they support. Comedian Amy Schumer was booed at her stand-up show in Florida on Sunday after she attacked Trump and Republican voters, causing some 200 audience members to walk out, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

NASA: Satellite which will end man-made CO2 debate in orbit at last

Just In: One Dead After Trump-Loving Nazi Uses Car To Mow Down Dozens Of PeopleThe mayor of Charlottesville, Virginia confirmed that one person died after a Trump supporting Nazi used his car to deliberately plow into a group of peaceful anti-racist protesters on Saturday. I am heartbroken that a life has been lost here. I urge all people of good will go home, Mayor Mike Signer tweeted.I am heartbroken that a life has been lost here. I urge all people of good will go home. Mike Signer (@MikeSigner) August 12, 2017 Conservatives have advocated for running over protesters for quite a while now. We ve all seen the memes circulating on social media.Hard right has been openly fantasizing about running over protesters for some time now, and elected Republicans have deliberately stoked it. pic.twitter.com/BC1CjJ5Onu Carl Beijer (@CarlBeijer) August 12, 2017Spend any amount of time on right-wing sites and you'll see these memes *everywhere*. pic.twitter.com/kmAe11SuZD Carl Beijer (@CarlBeijer) August 12, 2017Mission accomplished because a life was taken today by a Trump supporting fascist.Video footage quickly circulated on the Internet showing the car plowing through a group of protesters after police broke up clashes between white nationalist demonstrators and counter-protesters.Watch:pic.twitter.com/dOU9iKCEOa Protest SPb (@ProtestSPb) August 12, 2017In response, before the death was reported, Donald Trump offered a weak statement on Twitter. We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one! Trump tweeted about his own supporters violent protest.We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2017Trump went on to write, Charlottesville sad! Am in Bedminster for meetings & press conference on V.A. & all that we have done, and are doing, to make it better-but Charlottesville sad! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2017Washington Post reporter Joe Heim wrote before the death was announced, Virginia State Police spokesperson say injuries in crash range from life threatening to minor. Did not say how many injuries. Virginia State Police spokesperson say injuries in crash range from life threatening to minor. Did not say how many injuries. 1/ Joe Heim (@JoeHeim) August 12, 20171 dead, 19 injured from the car collision. https://t.co/9zwe2x4500 Joe Heim (@JoeHeim) August 12, 2017Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency shortly after violence erupted in Charlottesville with Trump-loving Nazis besieging the city while carrying torches. The Governor added, I am disgusted by the hatred, bigotry and violence these protesters have brought to our state over the past 24 hours. The Alt-Right racists poured into the city to protest the removal of Confederate Robert E. Lee s statue and in doing that, they left blood from innocent people in the streets. This is straight up terrorism. The whole world is watching as Trump supporters violently besiege a college town.Image via screen capture.

Peru says expelling North Korean ambassador over nuclear programLIMA (Reuters) - Peru said on Monday that it was expelling North Korea s ambassador over the country s refusal to heed the world s constant calls to end its nuclear program. The ambassador, Kim Hak-Chol, has five days to leave Peru, the foreign affairs ministry said in a statement. Earlier this month North Korea launched its biggest nuclear bomb test, prompting global condemnation as U.S. President Donald Trump said appeasement would not work. Peru stressed that it was committed to a peaceful solution to the dispute and strict compliance with resolutions passed by the United Nations Security Council. The UN Security Council is set to vote on Monday to impose new sanctions on North Korea after the United States watered down the text of a resolution to appease China and Russia. Peru said it would carry out all diplomatic efforts aimed at denuclearizing the North Korean peninsula. Peru s announcement follows a similar move by Mexico last week and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence s public call last month for Latin American nations to isolate Pyongyang. North Korea s embassy in Lima declined comment.

Trump rhetoric shows need to remake case for trade: ZoellickMEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Embarrassed by Donald Trump’s rhetoric against Mexico, former World Bank President Robert Zoellick said on Wednesday it is time to “remake” the case for free trade in the United States. The U.S. presidential race has been peppered with promises to rework trade policy in the United States’ favor, and many of the strongest attacks have been against the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a trade accord between the United States, Mexico and Canada that took effect in 1994. Regarded by Mexican policymakers as a milestone in the country’s economic modernization, NAFTA has been vilified by Republican front-runner Trump and Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders as a job-killing betrayal of U.S. industry. Zoellick, a Republican who also served as U.S. Trade Representative under President George W. Bush, said Mexican officials had understandably been unsettled by Trump’s rhetoric and flagging U.S. congressional support for free trade. “The bigger issue in the U.S. will be a need to remake the case for trade,” he said in a phone interview. That meant more than the traditional corporate lobbying in Congress, said Zoellick, who was World Bank chief from 2007-2012. “This is now going to need a broader public push. Part of this will be a challenge to get the Facebooks, the Googles the Apples and others to not only make the case in Washington, but actually use social media, use big data resources and others to explain this to coming generations of Americans,” he said. While noting that some Americans had good reason to feel concern about the pace of change and unfettered immigration, Zoellick said Mexico, a “significant, modernizing economy”, ought to be integrated further into U.S. thinking. “If it were up to me, I would bring Canada and Mexico into the TTIP negotiations with Europe,” he said, referring to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, a planned trade deal between the United States and the European Union. After China and Canada, Mexico is the United States’ third biggest trade partner, accounting for bilateral commerce worth around $500 billion annually. The United States is also home to an estimated 35 million people of Mexican origin. Claiming Mexico is “killing” the United States on trade and sending rapists and drug runners north, Trump has threatened to impose tariffs against Mexico and vowed to build a wall to stop illegal immigrants crossing the border. To make Mexico pay for the wall, he has threatened to block billions of dollars in remittances sent home by Mexicans in the United States, a plan Zoellick described as “outrageous.” “As an American, frankly, I’m embarrassed by his statements,” he said. However, he noted the Mexican government had to “walk a fine line” in countering Trump without stoking more tensions. A number of serving and former Mexican officials believe their government could have been more active in persuading U.S. businesses and politicians to make the case that both countries will lose out if Trump’s talk becomes reality. Zoellick said, however, it was a shared responsibility. “Depending on one’s perspective, this is really ... the U.S.’s burden to bear. And so while I concur that one would welcome assistance from Mexico, in some ways we’ve got to get our own act cleaned up in the U.S. first,” he said.

Ban marketing of junk food to kids under 12, Ontario report recommends

Pasco County schools have graduation rates substantially higher than the state average and dropout rates below the state average.

U.N. calls emergency meeting on Ukraine crisis

Barack Obama rejects Benjamin Netanyahus call for Iran to recognize Israel

Lebanon's Hariri lands in Cyprus, meets its president- Hariri Twitter feedBEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon s Saad al-Hariri arrived in Cyprus for a meeting with its president on Tuesday, Hariri said on his Twitter feed, ahead of his expected return to Beirut to take part in independence day celebrations on Wednesday. Hariri is expected to return to Lebanon in the coming hours, his first trip home since his sudden resignation as prime minister on Nov. 4 plunged the country into political crisis. It was a 45-minute meeting which was requested earlier today through diplomatic channels, Cypriot government spokesman Nikos Christodoulides told Reuters of the meeting between Hariri and Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades. We, and he, desire to see stability in Lebanon. He is leaving as we speak, he added.

MSNBC’S LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: This Could Be the Day Trump ‘Destroyed His Presidency’ [Video]MSNBC s Lawrence O Donnell was really reaching today when he claimed President Trump s announcement Monday that he won t assert executive privilege and thus allow former FBI Director James Comey s upcoming congressional testimony could be the decision that destroyed his presidency. Wishful thinking on O Donnell s part As much as they media would like it to be damaging for Comey to testify, Trump wins either way White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders read out a statement to that effect on Monday, and O Donnell teased the clip as potentially the beginning of the end. The video you re about to see might be the video that we re showing you years from now when we re pinpointing the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency, O Donnell said. The president s power to assert executive privilege is very well established, Sanders said. However, in order to facilitate a swift and thorough examination of the facts sought by the Senate Intelligence Committee, President Trump will not assert executive privilege regarding James Comey s scheduled testimony. Comey, who Trump fired last month, will testify on Thursday in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee. He is expected to discuss his conversations with Trump, which included the president reportedly asking him to let go of the investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.O Donnell said Trump was politically unwise enough to fire Comey but not bold enough to tell that FBI Director to shut up. Via: WFB

There is only one or two legitimate ninjas left in Japan, and they are to be the last. This saddens me.

So Much For Brussels Terror Victims…Let’s Play Ball!Hey Barry, could you at least have enough respect for the terror victims in Brussels to remove your shades for the interview? President Obama was all smiles this afternoon as he watched an exhibition baseball game between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Cuban national baseball team just hours after ISIS terrorists killed at least 34 people in Brussels.Settling down with wife Michelle, daughters Sasha and Malia and Cuban dictator Raul Castro, Obama appeared carefree as he enjoyed the game ignoring calls to cut short his historic trip to return to Washington and lead the response.Indeed, despite criticism that he only devoted one minute of his speech earlier in the day to the Belgian atrocities, Obama took the time to give a somewhat surreal 15-minute interview to ESPN about the threat posed by ISIS keeping his $500 shades on throughout the spot.Here is Obama s surreal interview with ESPN:After observing a moment of silence for the hundreds of victims, a relaxed Obama said, This is just one more example of why the entire world needs to unite against these terrorists. When asked by ESPN why he had not returned to Washington, the president said to do so would show the terrorists they have the power to disrupt. It s always a challenge when you have a terrorist attack anywhere in the world, particularly in this age of 24/7 news coverage, said the president. You want to be respectful and understand the gravity of the situation, but the whole premise of terrorism is to try to disrupt people s ordinary lives. Recalling what he called one of his proudest memories during his time as president, the reaction of Boston Red Sox David Ortiz after the Boston bombings in April 2013, Obama said he felt the hitter spoke for the nation when he said, This is our f**king city and nobody is going to dictate our freedom. Probably the only time America didn t have a problem with somebody cursing on live TV was when he talked about Boston and how strong it was and wasn t gonna be intimidated, Obama said. That is the kind of resilience and the kind of strength that we have to continually show in the face of these terrorists. They cannot defeat America. The president then offered his thoughts and prayers to those affected by the terror attacks.Communist human rights violated Raul Castro wasn t able to release any political prisoners, but he was able to release doves at the historic baseball game with Comrade Obama Doves released from centerfield stands ahead of Rays-Cuba game pic.twitter.com/kVEJHjfyxn Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) March 22, 2016Just after the game ended and Air Force One took off for Argentina for a two-day stint, the president ordered all federal flags to be flown at half mast as a mark of respect for those who were killed in Tuesday morning s attacks.Prior to his interview with ESPN, Obama had faced calls from Ted Cruz, Donald Trump and John Kasich to leave Cuba and return to the states.Meet the new Che We can only hope he retires there.Shepard Fairey mock-up for sale in Havana: Yes We Came pic.twitter.com/TgiHAvYqsu Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) March 23, 2016The president did not heed their advice. He dedicated a brief portion of a planned speech to the attacks and went on about his day.Here s Obama and his new bestie doing the wave https://twitter.com/BKcolin/status/712342816685494273He met Cuban dissidents at the U.S. Embassy in Havana, then made his way to watch the baseball in casual khaki pants, white shirt, no tie, and sunglasses. Via: Daily Mail

Radiation hotspots not linked to Fukushima: Japan's science minister announced Thursday that the radiation has been traced to material stored in a house

Obama Joins Comedy Central Host to Push ‘Laughable’ Establishment Conspiracy Theory on DNC Leaks21st Century Wire says President Obama is once again appearing on info-tainment programming on Comedy Central but his appearance is clearly not to entertain or inform the viewer. In the final days of the President s time in office he is going on comedy shows to push the Russian hack effect on the U.S. Presidential election outcome. He does so without a shred of evidence nor a mention of the Podesta emails, the collusion of the media with the Clinton campaign or the questionable practices of the Clinton Foundation.The Duran asks some good questions and provides further analysis Alex Christoforou The DuranObama has gone all in to blame Russia for Hillary Clinton s loss and the DNC hack that exposed Hillary Clinton for the corrupt cheat that we all knew, deep down inside, she truly was.Notice how Obama talks only about the DNC hack and not the Wikileaks Podesta email leak. Also notice how Obama tries to justify his conveniently timed call for an investigation, by throwing it back onto Donald Trump.Obama never states that he has irrefutable evidence that Russia hacked the DNC emails, and never even mentions once the Podesta emails We determined and announced in October that it was the consensus of all the Intelligence agencies in law enforcement that organizations affiliated with Russian intelligence were responsible for the hacking of the DNC materials that were being leaked. FYI China, Israel, Germany, etc also hack US institutions. US intelligence agencies hack governments all over the world.Obama s above assertions are based on James Clapper s statement that The Duran reported on in October consider the statement US intelligence published last week on the subject of alleged Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee and of other US agencies involved in the election. It reads as follows: The U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) is confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations. The recent disclosures of alleged hacked e-mails on sites like DCLeaks.com and WikiLeaks and by the Guccifer 2.0 online persona are consistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed efforts. These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the US election process. Such activity is not new to Moscow the Russians have used similar tactics and techniques across Europe and Eurasia, for example, to influence public opinion there.We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities. (bold italics added)The statement is an implicit admission that US intelligence has no evidence to back its allegations of Russian hacking.It is merely confident not sure that it is the Russians who are behind the hacking, and it is clear from the statement that it arrived at this conclusion purely through inference: because the hacks supposedly were consistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed efforts .US intelligence assumes the Russians were behind the hack not because it knows this to be so but in part because of what it believes Russian motives to be.The statement backs its claim with a textual trick. It says the Russians have used similar tactics and techniques across Europe and Eurasia . It then immediately follows these words with the words for example .These lead to the expectation that an actual example of such Russian tactics and techniques is about to follow. Instead what is provided are the fact free words to influence public opinion there .The words for example lend nothing to the meaning of the statement, which would be exactly the same without them. These two words as used in the statement are actually meaningless. That is a sure sign that their presence in the statement is intended to confuse the casual reader, and that this is true of the statement as a whole.The words are designed to create a subliminal impression to a casual reader that the Russians have been caught doing this sort of thing before, without however providing a single actual example when this was the case.Demonstrating how thin the case of Russian government actually is, the statement then goes on to say: Some states have also recently seen scanning and probing of their election-related systems, which in most cases originated from servers operated by a Russian company. However, we are not now in a position to attribute this activity to the Russian Government. (bold italics added)In other words US intelligence admits the mere fact servers operated by a Russian company may have been used for scanning and probing and presumably also for hacking is not in itself proof of the involvement of the Russian government.The Daily Show s Trevor Noah, who is not a journalist, and not even American, is the perfect useful idiot to conduct this interview and help spread Obama s political spin.No tough question, no follow up questions just giggly gushing glances of admiration and awe from Noah.Remember when Obama told Trump to stop whining about a rigged election and focus on getting votes. This was when Obama, and the entire Hillary liberal elite establishment, were certain that Trump had no chance to win the US Presidency.How things change, and how Obama is now changing his tune doing everything in his power to undermine Trump and undermine US Democracy, while risking escalating, already high tensions with Russia.Continue reading this story at The DuranREAD MORE ELECTION NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire 2016 Files

Study finds that in total s, it was the educated middle-class that avoided the most taxes in Greece.

U.S. lawmakers seek more information from Trump son-in-law Kushner in Russia probeWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Jared Kushner’s lawyer failed to give the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee documents President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser received about a “Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite,” the committee’s leaders said on Thursday. In a letter to Kushner’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, Senators Chuck Grassley and Dianne Feinstein, the Judiciary Committee’s Republican chairman and top Democrat, listed the documents and emails among materials Lowell has failed to produce. Kushner, the letter said, also forwarded to an unidentified campaign adviser emails from September 2016 concerning Wikileaks, the whistleblower group that published emails U.S. intelligence agencies determined Russian military intelligence had hacked from Democratic Party accounts. “It appears that your search may have overlooked several documents,” the letter said of Lowell’s responses to three requests for materials related to the committee’s investigation on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. “Mr. Kushner and we have been responsive to all requests,” Lowell said in a statement. “We provided the Judiciary Committee with all relevant documents that had to do with Mr. Kushner’s calls, contacts or meetings with Russians during the campaign and transition, which was the request. We also informed the committee we will be open to responding to any additional requests and that we will continue to work with White House Counsel for any responsive documents from after the inauguration.” When asked about the letter, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders referred reporters to Lowell. Trump denies any collusion between his campaign and Moscow. Russia denies a January report by three U.S. intelligence agencies that it conducted an influence operation to skew the 2016 presidential vote in favor of Trump over his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. Separately, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team last month subpoenaed Trump’s campaign for documents containing specified Russian keywords from more than a dozen officials. According to the Journal, a person familiar with the matter said the campaign has been complying voluntarily with the request. Grassley’s and Feinstein’s letter to Lowell also specified keywords, including Clinton, WikiLeaks, hacking, and the names of four Russian banks. Kushner remains one person of interest to the investigations by Mueller and congressional committees, according to a source with knowledge of the probes. Among other things, investigators want to know if Kushner knew during the 2016 campaign that Russia was hacking Democratic emails in an effort to help Trump and whether he tried to create a secret back channel between the Trump White House and the Kremlin, said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity. Investigators also want to know if Kushner took part in or knew of any post-election efforts by Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, or others to lift U.S. economic sanctions on Russia in exchange for financial investments or other business deals. A May 26 Reuters report quoted two sources who said Kushner and Flynn discussed with former Russian ambassador to Washington Sergey Kislyak creating a “back channel” between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that would bypass the State Department and U.S. intelligence agencies. Flynn, a former Army general who led the Defense Intelligence Agency and later was a Trump campaign adviser, was fired in February as national security adviser after misleading Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations with Kislyak. The letter to Lowell also said he had failed to produce “communications with Sergei Millian, copied to Kushner.” Millian, who has used multiple aliases, is a Belarussian-born émigré who in 2006 helped incorporate the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce, which sponsored trips to Russia by U.S. businessmen. After a December 2011 trip arranged by the chamber and a quasi-governmental agency in Russia called Rossotrudnichestvo, FBI agents questioned participants about whether Russian spies had approached them during the visit, one of the travelers said. Millian, who met Trump on at least one occasion, has boasted of his ties to the former New York real estate developer and reality television star. He has denied being a Russian spy.

South Carolina Governor Haley accepts Trump's U.N. offer: NBC(Reuters) - South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has accepted President-elect Donald Trump’s offer to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, NBC News reported on Wednesday, citing a source familiar with the transition process. Haley, the daughter of immigrants from India, had backed Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz during the Republican battle for a White House nominee.

Record El Nio set to cause hunger for 10 million poorest, Oxfam warns

Ecuadorian judges confess to taking bribes in Chevron suit

Ray Harryhausen, master of stop motion animation dies.

U.S. needs to balance foreign alliances: TillersonWASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday outlined for his staff how an “America First” agenda translates into foreign policy, but did not address the Trump administration’s proposed budget cuts, which worry many diplomats. It was the first time Tillerson had addressed all employees since his first day on the job on Feb. 2, when he spoke to hundreds of State Department officials in the building’s lobby, and the most thorough explanation yet of the Trump administration’s approach to foreign policy. Some allies and even some U.S. officials have interpreted Republican President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda, which puts Americans’ interests at home ahead of those of its partners overseas, as a threat to retreat from the world. Tillerson said U.S. foreign policy priorities had gotten “a little bit out of balance” in the previous decades, with the United States too focused on promoting economic activity and trade with emerging economies. “These are really important relationships to us, and they’re really important alliances, but we’ve got to bring them back into balance,” he said, speaking without notes and walking around the stage in a packed State Department auditorium. He also signaled that the United States would de-emphasize human rights concerns in some of its interactions with other countries, saying that while U.S. values remain constant, its policies can adapt. “If we condition too heavily that others must adopt this value that we’ve come to over a long history of our own, it really creates obstacles to our ability to advance our national security interests, our economic interests,” Tillerson said. Tillerson gave a tour of U.S. priorities around the world, including in East Asia, Russia, Africa, and the Western Hemisphere, omitting Europe. With regard to North Korea’s nuclear program, Tillerson said the administration is willing to use so-called secondary sanctions to target foreign companies that continue to do business with Pyongyang in contravention of United Nations sanctions. The pressure campaign on North Korea is “at about dial setting 5 or 6 right now,” Tillerson said. On China, Tillerson said the United States has a “tremendous opportunity” to define its relationship with the superpower for the next several decades, and that he sensed great interest by the Chinese leadership to do that as well. He and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis will chair a dialogue with their Chinese counterparts in June, in addition to a dialogue focused on economics and trade and led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. Tillerson said he had told Russian President Vladimir Putin during his visit to Moscow last month that U.S.-Russia relations were at their lowest point since the Cold War. “He did not disagree,” Tillerson said. “He shrugged his shoulders and nodded in agreement.” But in remarks lasting nearly 40 minutes, Tillerson did not address the administration’s proposed 28 percent budget cut for U.S. diplomacy and foreign aid, which would reduce funding for the United Nations, climate change and cultural exchange programs. That proposal has made many American diplomats and aid workers anxious. The Trump administration also has not named candidates for the vast majority of State Department positions requiring Senate confirmation, and many are being filled by career diplomats in “acting” positions. Tillerson began his remarks by thanking those officials, to applause from the crowd. One veteran official who watched the speech criticized Tillerson’s use of the “America First” slogan. The phrase was used in the 1930s by isolationists who sought to keep the United States out of World War Two. “The fact that they still use ‘America First’ shows they know nothing about history, and what’s worse is they don’t care. “It’s offensive,” said the official, who requested anonymity. Tillerson’s remarks followed an invitation to State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development employees this week to participate in an online survey to help identify “efficiency improvements,” in line with a March directive from Trump to “reorganize governmental functions and eliminate unnecessary agencies.” In his speech, the secretary urged employees to fill out the survey and give input on how to reform the agency. Tillerson said the State Department, like many institutions, was built for the Cold War era. He said he recognized that deep change to the State Department “is really stressful for a lot of people” and said the administration has “no preconceived notions on the outcome” of a review. One State Department official faulted Tillerson for not talking in detail about the budget cuts, as well as for not taking questions from employees. Previous secretaries of state, including Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton, held question-and-answer sessions with State Department employees within weeks of taking office. “They wanted to make this look like he was talking to us, but it was more about the appearance than any substance,” said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Two other State Department officials, however, spoke highly of Tillerson’s remarks, saying it was early to expect him to take questions from the rank and file and saying he provided guidance both on foreign policy and on the challenge of reorganizing the department. “I can understand folks wanting more details. I just don’t think we are in a place where he can provide more details,” said one of these officials about the expected State Department budget cuts. “My big takeaway was put on your big-girl britches, and when you look back you will feel like you were part of making this reform happen.”

Brazil's acting president used to be US intel informant - WikiLeaks

Normally cited as an example of good governance, Sweden is now fending off attacks from Assange's lawyers who charge the country is pursuing their client at the behest of the US for leaking classified government and military documents.

HILLARY SHARES PRO-ILLEGAL MANIFESTO: Plans To Open Borders, Create Taxpayer Funded Agency To Give ILLEGALS AmnestyTo hell with the common sense voter, Hillary believes she only needs Americans who are okay with living in a lawless nation to lock down the Presidency. It seems to have worked pretty well for her predecessor why not?Hillary Clinton wrote an op/ed piece for the Arizona Republic and boy is it insane. It s sort of an anti-Trump/pro-illegal alien manifesto that lays out her immigration policy if she becomes president. Two noteworthy things are that she intends to open our borders completely and establish a government agency that will spend taxpayer money to help illegal aliens become citizens.Hillary starts out with a folksy story about an illegal alien who would be deported if Donald Trump was in charge and then lashed out at the Supreme Court for ruling against Obama s amnesty executive order, calling it, heartbreaking and unacceptable. And while our system fails to provide certainty to immigrant families, political figures like Donald Trump turn them into scapegoats for many of the challenges facing American families today. His bigotry and fear-mongering may be an attempt to divide our country and distract from his lack of real solutions to raise incomes and create good paying jobs but it s not going to work.Let s be clear: When Trump talks about forming a deportation force to round up and expel 11 million immigrants he s talking about ripping apart families Isn t that cute? Hillary wants you to think there is no difference between legal immigrants and illegal aliens. Trump has never once said he plans to round up and deport legal immigrants, just that he wants to enforce existing immigration laws.When he praises local figures like Gov. Jan Brewer and Sheriff Joe Arpaio, he s endorsing their heartless and divisive policies.How is enforcing the law a heartless policy as Hillary says? The only way our immigration laws are divisive is because illegal aliens don t like them.Instead of building walls, we ought to be breaking down barriers. Our country has always been stronger when we lift each other up, not tear each other down. We re stronger together.Here Hillary is obviously saying that she wants open borders, which essentially would nullify our status as an autonomous country, but there s even more garbage contained within that last statement. Illegal aliens are not Americans and therefore not part of us. They are citizens of another country, which makes them not us. They don t stand with us, they don t lift us up, and they sure as shit don t make us stronger.After proving that Hillary plans to be the leader of the third world rather than the President of the United States, she outlined ways she will make that happen.First up, amnesty beyond Obama s bullshit:That s why, as president, I ll fight for comprehensive immigration reform that includes a path to full and equal citizenship, starting in my first 100 days in office. We should do everything we can to keep families together, better integrate immigrants into their communities, and help those eligible for naturalization take the last step to citizenship.Then another bloated bureaucracy and massive waste of funds:Second, we need to increase our focus on integration and make sure that immigrants are able to thrive in American society. Let s provide more federal resources to help immigrants learn the English language skills they need to be successful. And because this issue cuts across all levels of government local, state and federal I ll create the first-ever Office of Immigrant Affairs at the White House to help coordinate these policies across the nation.And finally, some more government handouts designed to make instant democrats:Third, let s help the 9 million people in our country who are currently eligible for naturalization become full citizens. They work and pay taxes yet they cannot vote or serve on juries. Let s expand fee waivers so that those seeking naturalization can get a break on the costs. And let s step up our outreach and education, because no one should miss out on the chance to be a citizen.Hillary claims that her plans will strengthen our economy by flooding the country with unskilled uneducated people who will drive down wages. I m not sure how that works and Hillary certainly didn t try to explain it.No matter what Donald Trump says, we have always been a nation of immigrants And it is long past time we helped millions of hard-working people step out of the shadows and onto a path to a brighter future.When has Trump ever denied that America was formed by immigrants? All he wants is the fairness that comes with upholding the law.If Hillary Clinton becomes president, we can pretty much kiss our country goodbye. With no border security and zero immigration enforcement, America as we know it will cease to exist. Downtrend

Report: U.S. preparing for a larger than anticipated military strike on Syria

Ex-Red Sox pitcher mulls run against Senator Warren in MassachusettsBOSTON (Reuters) - Former Boston Red Sox pitcher, failed video game entrepreneur and conservative political commentator Curt Schilling said on Tuesday he is considering running against Democratic U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts in 2018. “I’ve made my decision. I’m going to run,” Schilling said during an interview on WPRO-AM radio in Providence, Rhode Island, about 40 miles from Boston. He added that the decision would be contingent on his wife’s approval. “Ultimately it’s going to come down to how her and I feel this would affect our marriage and our kids.” Schilling also fielded phone calls from listeners about a $75 million loan the state of Rhode Island made in 2010 to his video game company, 38 Studios, which went bankrupt in 2012. “I’m sorry it ended the way it did,” Schilling said, adding that if he had been governor of Rhode Island he would not have offered financing to that company. Schilling is still warmly remembered by Red Sox fans for undergoing a medical procedure that allowed him to pitch with an injured ankle and blood-stained sock during the American League Championship Series and World Series in 2004, helping the team win its first world series championship since 1918. Despite being associated with a team from a politically liberal state, Schilling has long backed conservative politicians, most recently Republican presidential contender Donald Trump.

Ethiopians could still go hungry despite economic gains With its population of 91 million expected to double in the next 22 years, and a drier climate, Ethiopia will have trouble feeding its people, a new report says.

Meghan McCain: Ted Cruz Is ‘The Thinking Man’s Trump’ Because Bible Stuff (VIDEO)There are many, many things I would call Senator Ted Cruz, but a thinking man would never come to mind but apparently, that s exactly how Meghan McCain.During a conversation on Tuesday s episode of Outnumbered on Faux News, Weekly Standard columnist Stephen Hayes commented that he believes Cruz is winning his battle with Donald Trump because the frontrunner is not a true conservative. And Ted Cruz looks like he just waking up to that fact after having tightly embraced Donald Trump, Hayes said. I think that s the risk for Cruz even if I agree with him on his substantive critique of Trump. Host Andrea Tantaros wondered out loud if Cruz has made a mistake by not fighting harder against Senator John MCCain and seven other lawmakers comprehensive immigration bill. Because, you know, the party of family values must never, ever support a bill that would keep families together. After Tantaros musings, Meghan McCain made her silly thinking man statement: That s red meat for conservatives in Iowa, Meghan McCain agreed. What I think is fascinating is Donald Trump was at Liberty University yesterday, Jerry Falwell s school, very religious school obviously. He quoted Corinthians wrong and now it s become this meme all over the Internet. Ted Cruz, in many ways, is the thinking man s Donald Trump, she asserted. He s a religious man that I think a lot of people especially in the hardcore evangelical parts of Iowa can digest as being much more religious. And I think that s going to play really well for Ted Cruz. What?First of all, being able to quote the Bible does NOT make him a thinking man, it makes him a parrot. Secondly, if Ted Cruz were a religious man his policies would be ones that help the poor, accept immigrants, promote peace instead he believes in the exact opposite of all of those things.Meghan McCain used to make some sense when she spoke, but now it seems that the Fox stupidity has seeped into her brain and made her as ignorant as everyone else on that network.Watch the video below:Featured image via video screenshot

EU-prostitutes may work in Sweden - The Swedish police cannot continue to deport prostitutes from other EU countries. This was stated by the Migration court today.

Spain Is Doomed: Why Austerity Is Destroying Europe ... but the beatings will continue until bond yields improve!

Saudi Prince Arrested In LA For Sexual Assault After Woman Seen Screaming , Scaling 8-foot WallJust a week after a Prince from Qatar was in hot water for racing his Ferrari down the streets of LA, a Saudi Prince is arrested for sexual assault. This case will be one to watch since the Prince doesn t have diplomatic immunity in this case.A bleeding woman screaming for help was seen attempting to scale an 8-foot-high wall before a Saudi prince was arrested this week on suspicion of trying to force a worker to perform a sex act on him at his hillside compound near Beverly Hills.Police were called to the gated property in the Beverly Glen area, within a gated community on Wallingford Drive, after a caretaker at the home reported a disturbance, officials said. After officers interviewed people inside, a 28-year-old man identified as Saudi prince Majed Abdulaziz Al-Saud was arrested on suspicion of forced oral copulation of an adult.Neighbor Tennyson Collins said a resident reported seeing a bleeding woman scream for help as she tried to scale the property s wall Wednesday afternoon.When Collins drove home from work after 1:30 p.m., police followed his car through the gates and onto the property, which he described as a compound. The website Zillow valued the 22,000-square-foot property at $37 million.Officers escorted about 20 people out of the house, many of them staff, Collins said.Police said Al-Saud was renting the home. Collins said various foreign nationals have been renting out the property for weeks at a time over the last year but that the biggest incident up to Wednesday had been a raucous party or two. One person who rented out the home stationed armed guards at the gates, he said. Obviously neighbors aren t happy about it, but it is what it is, Collins said of the international visitors.Al-Saud was booked and freed on $300,000 bail Thursday afternoon, jail records show. He could not immediately be reached for comment.LAPD Officer Drake Madison said Al-Saud was booked after 4 p.m.The LAPD has a consul liaison division that checks with foreign nations consulates regarding diplomatic immunity, said Capt. Tina Nieto. Police determined Al-Saud does not have immunity in this case, she said.Some foreign royalty do have diplomatic immunity, but it depends on the dignitary s status in his home country s government and the level of the offense he commits in the U.S., she said.Jail records show Al-Saud is scheduled to appear in court Oct. 19.Attempts to reach the State Department and the Saudi Embassy in Los Angeles were not successful Thursday afternoon.Via: Hollywood Reporter

Bitcoin value plummets, losing as much as 41% of its value in a single day

Turkish police arrest suspect in killing of Syrian activistISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish police arrested a suspect on Saturday in the killing of a Syrian opposition activist and her journalist daughter in Istanbul, a police source said. Ahmet Barakat, a distant relative of the two women, was arrested in the city of Bursa, 90 km (55 miles) south of Istanbul, the source said, adding the motive for the killings was not known. The bodies of 60-year-old Orouba Barakat and her 22-year-old daughter Halla were found just over a week ago in their apartment in Istanbul s Uskudar neighborhood in the Asian side of Istanbul. Turkish media said Orouba Barakat was investigating reports of torture in prisons run by the Syrian government. It said she had initially lived in Britain, then the United Arab Emirates before coming to Istanbul. Hurriyet newspaper said Ahmet Barakat was arrested after a three-day operation. He was identified by CCTV footage and police were searching his house, the paper said.

BARACK OBAMA’S NSA Susan Rice Ordered Spies To Provide “Detailed Spreadsheets” Of Trump Calls…”That’s A Felony”…Brother Of CBS News President Also Involved [VIDEO]While Obama hangs out in Tahiti, his NSA director Susan Rice and her deputy director Ben Rhodes, brother of David Rhodes CBS News president, appear to be two of the key figures behind the surveillance of Donald Trump s campaign. What was Hillary s role in this massive scandal? Why is the media not questioning her? Does anyone really believe she had nothing to do with this? Meanwhile, not surprisingly at CBS News you can find the latest headline:The CBS News headline is followed up by two paragraphs citing the Washington Post (one of the news publications who sat on the Susan Rice spying story). The story is clearly a distraction from the real news, which is that Susan Rice and the CBS News president s bother were behind the surveillance of Trump s campaign. Apparently, CBS News thinks that an alleged secret meeting between a DONOR of President Trump and a Russian close to Putin with an agenda that remains unclear is somehow supposed to be relevant or important to the American people in the midst of a spying case that makes President Nixon look like an amateur:WASHINGTON The United Arab Emirates arranged a secret meeting in January between an American businessman supporting then President-elect Trump and a Russian close to President Vladimir Putin as part of an apparent effort to establish a back-channel line of communication between Moscow and the incoming president, The Washington Post reports.Citing U.S., European and Arab officials, the Post said the UAE agreed to broker the meeting in part to explore whether Russia could be persuaded to curtail its relationship with Iran, including in Syria, a Trump administration objective that would be likely to require major concessions to Moscow on U.S. sanctions. The full agenda remains unclear, the newspaper said.Daily Caller Former President Barack Obama s national security adviser Susan Rice ordered U.S. spy agencies to produce detailed spreadsheets of legal phone calls involving Donald Trump and his aides when he was running for president, according to former U.S. Attorney Joseph diGenova. What was produced by the intelligence community at the request of Ms. Rice were detailed spreadsheets of intercepted phone calls with unmasked Trump associates in perfectly legal conversations with individuals, diGenova told The Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group Monday. The overheard conversations involved no illegal activity by anybody of the Trump associates, or anyone they were speaking with, diGenova said. In short, the only apparent illegal activity was the unmasking of the people in the calls. Also on Monday, Fox News and Bloomberg News, citing multiple sources reported that Rice had requested the intelligence information that was produced in a highly organized operation. Fox said the unmasked names of Trump aides were given to officials at the National Security Council (NSC), the Department of Defense, James Clapper, President Obama s Director of National Intelligence, and John Brennan, Obama s CIA Director.Joining Rice in the alleged White House operations was her deputy Ben Rhodes, according to Fox.Critics of the atmosphere prevailing throughout the Obama administration s last year in office point to former Obama Deputy Defense Secretary Evelyn Farkas who admitted in a March 2 television interview on MSNBC that she was urging my former colleagues, to get as much information as you can, get as much intelligence as you can, before President Obama leaves the administration. Farkas sought to walk back her comments in the weeks following: I didn t give anybody anything except advice. Col. (Ret.) James Waurishuk, an NSC veteran and former deputy director for intelligence at the U.S. Central Command, told TheDCNF that many hands had to be involved throughout the Obama administration to launch such a political spying program. The lawyers and counsel at the NSA surely would be talking to the lawyers and members of counsel at CIA, or at the National Security Council or at the Director of National Intelligence or at the FBI, he said. It s unbelievable of the level and degree of the administration to look for information on Donald Trump and his associates, his campaign team and his transition team. This is really, really serious stuff. Michael Doran, former NSC senior director, told TheDCNF Monday that somebody blew a hole in the wall between national security secrets and partisan politics. This was a stream of information that was supposed to be hermetically sealed from politics and the Obama administration found a way to blow a hole in that wall. That s a felony, he told TheDCNF. And you can get 10 years for that. It is a tremendous abuse of the system. We re not supposed to be monitoring American citizens. Bigger than the crime, is the breach of public trust. We re looking at a potential constitutional crisis from the standpoint that we used an extremely strong capability that s supposed to be used to safeguard and protect the country, he said. And we used it for political purposes by a sitting President. That takes on a new precedent. For entire story: Daily Caller

NERVOUS NANCY: Pelosi Gives Incoherent Response To Trump’s Saying Her Being Dem Leader Helps GOPA nervous Nancy Pelosi responded Thursday to criticism from Democratic colleagues asking her to step down from her leadership post and President Donald Trump s subsequent tweet mocking her for helping Republicans politically.Some Republican members have said that it would be good for their party if Pelosi remains the top Democrat in the House. These remarks followed heavy criticism from Democratic lawmakers of Pelosi s leadership following Tuesday s special election losses in Georgia and South Carolina.Many within the Democratic party are calling for new leadership In other words, Nancy needs to go ASAP!President Trump went on Twitter to mockingly signal his support for the Pelosi:Conservatives like former speaker Newt Gingrich have been saying they hope Nancy Pelosi stays on as Minority Leader of the House She s good for the Republican Party. She s definitely on the hot seat right now but in true Pelosi fashion, she s oblivious to the reality that it s time to go. She even said she s a master legislator Um, no Check out the transcript of her comments at the press conference: So, you want me to sing my praises? Is that what you re saying? Why should I? Well, I m a uh um master legislator, I am a, uh, strategic, politically astute leader, I am a uh, uh, my, uh, uh my leadership is recognized by many around the country and that is why I m able to attract the support that I do, which is essential to our elections, sad to say. I m very pleased at the cooperation we re doing working with all the, um, social media and small donor community to change how we communicate but also how we attract resources, intellectual and financial, uh, to the party. I have experience in winning the congress. When people said to us in 05, you don t have a chance, be ready for a, uh, permanent Republican majority , I said, Harry Reid and I said, we don t accept that , so we proceeded, we took the president from 58 to 38, president Bush won the election. But the fact is, they will always make a target. Senator Reid was a target, Senator Daschle was a target, Tip O Neill was a target, I am a target, and they always want to choose our leaders, and usually they go after the most effective leaders because they want to take us diminish us uh the opportunity that we have. We have a Democratic caucus where members participate in the decisions and right now, the members are putting together our messaging as we go forward. I could have written something down on the page and said, this is what I think , but we don t do things that way, we listen to members, we re very proud of our, uh, policy and communications committee. Yikes!!!!

Japan earthquake shifted Earth's axis by 10cm (about 4 inches)

Putin complains about US cooperation: We have offered the Americans: "Give us objects that we shouldnt target on Syria. Again, no answer"

ISIS Threatens To Kill Creator of Muslim Superhero Comic Series The 99

CHELSEA CLINTON CRITICIZES President Trump Over Policy On Transgenders In Military…Forgot Whose Policy BANNED Openly Gay Soldiers From Serving In Our MilitaryThe unaccomplished Chelsea Clinton, wife of unemployed and perpetually vacationing husband Marc Mezvinsky, and daughter of America s most famous grifters, Bill and Hillary Clinton, took to Twitter to criticize President Trump s ban on transgenders in the military. It s worth noting that the woman whose wedding was paid for by the charitable Clinton Foundation, has assumed a new role, as the self-assigned new Democrat leader. There s only one problem with Chelsea s criticism she neglected to mention her father s ban on any military member who dared to be honest about being gay.Apparently in a hypocritical liberal s world, it s okay to ban openly gay military members, but it s hateful and a violation of human rights to ban openly transexual members of our military. Who better to make a policy that forces thousands of troops to keep secrets about their sexual lifestyle than the impeached former President Bill Clinton right Chelsea?Yesterday, the Washington Post tweeted about the hit piece they did on Trump s transgender ban:Analysis: Trump s stance on LGBT rights has always been confusing https://t.co/tNaSKJ082u Washington Post (@washingtonpost) July 26, 2017Chelsea replied:No. President Trump has consistently failed to support LGBT equal rights, dignity & safety in the U.S. & around world (e.g. Chechnya/Russia) https://t.co/nXY5uYjz4S Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) July 26, 2017Don t Ask, Don t Tell (DADT), byname for the former official U.S. policy (1993 2011) regarding the service of homosexuals in the military. The term was coined after Pres. Bill Clinton in 1993 signed a law (consisting of statute, regulations, and policy memoranda) directing that military personnel don t ask, don t tell, don t pursue, and don t harass. When it went into effect on October 1, 1993, the policy theoretically lifted a ban on homosexual service that had been instituted during World War II, though in effect it continued a statutory ban.

Interview with Architect Albert Speer: 'Calamity of Postwar Construction Came from Rejecting History'

BBC News - 'Hostages held' in Toulouse bank

RON PAUL SUMS Up Obama’s #FakePresidency In One BRUTAL Facebook PostOwnage. pic.twitter.com/yznLKcYiMW Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) January 7, 2017

Peru says no to GMO: the first country in the Americas to ban genetically modified foods, putting its food policy closer to that of Europe, than the US or many of its South American neighbors

BP, Shell ban hoodies at Gold Coast petrol pumps after armed robbery epidemic

Rich Cause the Crisis, Workers Get the Blame

Ebola "out of control" in Guinea - "The number of unreported cases is likely to be 10 times higher than the number recorded by the WHO."

Turkish Protests Are About Democracy, Not Religion

Brazil Aims to Break from US-Centric Internet Because of Washington's Spying - Many fear this is a potentially dangerous 1st step toward politically fracturing a global network built with minimal interference by govts.

At least 82 dead in southern Sudan, including women and children, as rebels continue attacks ahead of region's independence in July

Potential Boeing Iran sale faces opposition in U.S. CongressWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two senior Republican House of Representatives lawmakers said on Friday they were concerned that Boeing Co’s reported plans to sell aircraft to Iran could threaten U.S. national security and had requested more information from the company. “American companies should not be complicit in weaponizing the Iranian Regime,” Representatives Jeb Hensarling and Peter Roskam said in a letter to Boeing released on Friday. Iran said on Tuesday it had reached an agreement with Boeing for the supply of jetliners, reopening the country’s skies to new U.S. aircraft for the first time in decades under an international nuclear agreement that eased sanctions. Boeing has not confirmed an aircraft sale agreement. The company on Tuesday declined to provide detailed comment in response to Western and Middle East sources saying Iran had reached an understanding with the company to acquire over 100 passenger jets. The nuclear pact reached by Democratic President Barack Obama was opposed by every Republican member of the U.S. Congress. Several questioned the Boeing deal as soon as the news reports came out. In their letter to Boeing Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg, the lawmakers asked for “clarification” of the current state of negotiations. Their questions included whether Boeing could guarantee that Iran’s government could not convert Boeing passenger aircraft to cargo aircraft and whether it would repossess aircraft if Iran violated the nuclear agreement. Hensarling is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and Roskam is chairman of the Oversight subcommittee of the Ways and Means Committee. Not every congressional Republican is opposed to a potential U.S. aircraft deal. Senator Mark Kirk, who represents Illinois, where Boeing is headquartered, said in a hallway interview at the Senate he had mixed feelings about it. “You want the jobs, but you are worried about what the Iranians are going to do with the aircraft,” Kirk said this week.

The rise in drug resistant infections is comparable to the threat of global warming, according to the chief medical officer for England.

China calls on all sides to avoid provocations on the Korean peninsulaBEIJING (Reuters) - China s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday urged all sides to exercise restraint over the North Korea issue after the U.S. military flew two Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers over the Korean peninsula in a show of force. Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying made the comment at a regular press briefing, adding that all sides should avoid provoking each other.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel sought to bury once and for all the idea of common euro zone bonds on Tuesday, saying Europe would not share total debt liability "as long as I live", as the bloc's big four finance ministers met to narrow differences on how to solve a worsening debt crisis.

Mystery of Argleton, the 'Google' town that only exists online

BBC News: Indian students caught 'cheating' in exams - large-scale practice

SHE’S B-A-A-A-CKKKK!! Hillary Makes Crazy Video Calling Leftist Troops To Join Radicals In FIGHT Against Trump…”Keep Fighting!” [VIDEO]Hey President Trump how s that Hillary email investigation going? A message from @HillaryClinton: "Let resistance plus persistence equal progress for our Party and our country." #DNCFuture pic.twitter.com/smbxQZQfpV The Democrats (@TheDemocrats) February 24, 2017Can someone tell this crazy b*tch America s over her? Like waaaayyy over her!

BUZZFEED’S EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Attempts Lame Explanation Of Why He Published Fake News On Trump: “This was absolutely the right thing to do” [Video]Here s @chucktodd s interview with @BuzzFeedBen about BuzzFeed s decision to publish that dossier https://t.co/Oa7Fs6IVLT Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) January 11, 2017

In a rare example of openness, China has set up a website for citizens to express their views to top leaders - and users have wasted little time in firing unusually blunt criticisms at the government.

HERE’S THE LIST OF People We Elected Who Just Made Our Nation Less Safe While Adding $1.1 Trillion To The Taxpayer’s Tab If you re like us, you either made a donation, knocked on doors, or called voters on behalf of a Republican candidate in the 2014 election. Maybe you did all three things. Is the candidate you worked so hard to get elected or re-elected on this list? We were very disappointed to see the name of the candidate we supported for US Rep in MI on the list of Yea s. We also know we won t be working so hard to help him with his re-election bid next time around. Only ONE Representative in the entire state of MI, Justin Amash (R-MI) actually stood up against the establishment and said NO, we re not gonna take it anymore! Please take the time to look through this list and contact your US Representative or US Senator. Let them know the next time they look to you for support of their re-election, that you don t help people who sell out our nation.It s worth noting, that Marco Rubio didn t even bother to vote on one of the most critical spending and national security bills in our nation s history! If he can t be bothered to vote on such a critical bill, how can he be bothered with representing our nation in the most powerful position in our government? Conservative presidential candidate, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) voted against this insane bill. He criticized the legislation in a statement after the vote, saying it effectively forfeits our massive Republican victories of 2014 and cements Obama s priorities for nearly the full remainder of his term. For a quick look at how the passage of this bill will harm the security of Americans, while adding a huge debt to our children and grandchildren s future, click HERE.Here is how our US Senators voted on the Omnibus spending bill:

LIBERTARIAN Gary Johnson ENDORSES Black Lives Matter, Anti-Cop Terror Group [VIDEO]Johnson calls Obama s manufactured race war/war on cops a national emergency Watch below as Johnson exposes his left-winger leanings while attempting to pick up disenfranchised Cruz and Sanders voters If there was any doubt, Gov. Gary Johnson is working harder at winning over former Bernie Sanders supporters than Ron and Rand Paul supporters. For whatever reason, he s taken on several left-wing positions from bashing religious freedom to now supporting Black Lives Matter. At the CNN Libertarian Party Town Hall on Wednesday, Johnson praised the efforts of Black Lives Matter and endorsed the organization.https://youtu.be/y9bwi91j99USpeaking to a Black Lives Matter protestor and registered Democrat who was shot in the leg during a march, Johnson said, What it has done for me is that my head has been in the sand on this, Johnson said. I think that we ve all had our heads in the sand and lets wake up. Discrimination does exist, has existed, and for me personally, um, slap, slap, wake up. The Libertarian Vice Presidential nominee Bill Weld focused less on the Black Lives Matter movement and more on the stats of black youth unemployment, calling it a national emergency.Via: Red Alert Politics

Israel asks UN to condemn Iran Holocaust cartoon contest

Trump congratulates China's Xi on 'extraordinary elevation'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping to congratulate him on a new leadership line-up unveiled at the Communist Party Congress in Beijing. The two also discussed North Korea and trade, Trump said in a Twitter post. “Spoke to President Xi of China to congratulate him on his extraordinary elevation. Also discussed NoKo & trade, two very important subjects!” Trump wrote. Xi told Trump China would “unswervingly follow the path of peaceful development” and promote “coordination and cooperation among world major powers”, the official Xinhua news agency reported late on Wednesday. “China attaches great importance to the Sino-U.S. relations and is willing to promote the long-term, healthy and stable development of bilateral relations on the basis of mutual respect and mutual benefits,” Xinhua cited Xi as saying. Trump is expected to meet Xi when he visits China next month, when the two are likely to discuss issues related to North Korea and U.S.-China trade.

Danish submarine owner admits dismembering body of Swedish journalist: policeCOPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Danish inventor Peter Madsen has admitted to dismembering Swedish journalist Kim Wall on board his submarine in August and dumping her body parts in the sea, but he still denies killing her, police said on Monday. The police said in a statement Madsen had told them in an Oct. 14 interrogation that Wall, 30, had died from carbon monoxide poisoning inside the submarine, while he was on the deck of the vessel. The police would now gather additional information from coroners and submarine experts from the Danish defense command. In past court hearings, Madsen said that Wall had died accidentally after being hit by a heavy hatch cover on his UC3 Nautilus submarine. The police said they would now extend the charges against Madsen - which already include murder and mutilating Wall s body - to include sexual assault without intercourse, based on 14 interior and exterior stab wounds to the journalist s genitals. Kim Wall had suffered 14 stabs in and around the genitals and it is due to these stabs that we have said that there must have been a sexual motive, police spokesman Jens Moller Jensen told journalists in Copenhagen. Madsen denies the murder and sexual assault charges. The cause of death was still unknown, said Jensen. Wall, a freelance journalist who was researching a story on Madsen, went missing after he took her out to sea in the 17-metre (56-foot) submarine in August. On Aug. 23, police identified a headless female torso that washed ashore in Copenhagen as Wall s. Wall s arms as well as her and Madsen s mobile phones are still missing and the police are currently assessing if divers should continue the search for them. Earlier this month, police said they had also recovered Wall s head and legs. They said they found no skull fracture, despite Madsen s earlier account that she had been hit on the head by the hatch cover. The submarine is one of three that Madsen built, and one of the largest of its kind privately produced in the world. It could carry eight people and weighed 40 tonnes fully equipped. The case has been scheduled to run for eight days at Copenhagen s district court from March 8 2018.

Srebrenica survivors: No punishment enough for Mladic despite convictionSREBRENICA, Bosnia (Reuters) - Bosnian Muslims who lost loved ones in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre said on Wednesday that no punishment was enough for Ratko Mladic, the ex-Bosnian Serb wartime commander jailed for life for genocide. Mladic, dubbed the Butcher of Bosnia , was convicted by a U.N. tribunal on 10 counts of war crimes including the siege of Sarajevo in which over 10,000 civilians died from shelling and sniper attacks, and the expulsion of hundred of thousands of non-Serbs during the 1992-95 conflict. Can there ever be adequate punishment for someone who committed so many crimes? It would be too many even for 300 years, let alone three days, said Vasva Smajlovic, 74, referring to the Srebrenica slaughter in July 1995. Her husband, son-in-law and other relatives were among the 8,000 Muslim men and boys taken away and shot dead execution-style after Mladic assured U.N. peacekeepers and local residents that no harm would befall them after his forces seized the town. I try to count my dead all the time. I count to 50 and then I m not able to count anymore, Smajlovic said tearfully while watching a live telecast of the Mladic verdict. No words can describe how I feel. I am angry. All this comes too late. Her sister-in-law felt, however, justice was served with Mladic s conviction, even if it came 22 years after the war. Nothing can compensate for our pain but it is important that justice is done, said Bida Smajlovic, who last saw her husband when he tried to flee Srebrenica through woods in July 1995. His remains were later found in a mass grave. On July 11, 1995, Mladic s ultra-nationalist forces separated men and boys from women and took them away in buses or on foot to be shot within days. It was Europe s worst single atrocity since World War Two. Wednesday s verdict, the last major case before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) after 24 years of work, stirred tension in a region still scarred by the 1990s Balkans conflagration. Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, who frequently threatens the secession of the Serb region from Bosnia, said the tribunal s judgment of Mladic only proved its bias against the Serbs. But Bakir Izetbegovic, the Muslim Bosniak member of Bosnia s tripartite presidency, said: No people, including Serbs, should call Mladic a hero, ..., glorify criminals and decorate war criminals. I hope this verdict will bring about such kind of sobering in Bosnia. The opinions underscored the stillborn reconciliation process in the federal state, now divided into an autonomous Serb Republic and Muslim-Croat federation. Placards with a portrait of the once beefy and brash Mladic bearing a slogan You Are Our Hero plastered the sides of buildings in Srebrenica, now a largely ethnic Serb town, and nearby Bratunac on Wednesday. The general will become a legend, and we shall continue to live as we have lived, said Milena Komlenovic, the Serb mayor of the eastern town of Kalinovik, where Mladic went to school. She added that the international court s decisions - over 60 of 83 defendants convicted have been Serbs - had aggravated rather than healed divisions in Bosnia. Politicians in neighboring Serbia, whose 1990s nationalist president, Slobodan Milosevic, armed and funded Mladic s forces, appealed for calm and urged all to look to the future when a now democratic Belgrade hopes to join the European Union. Our hearts are also with the victims, the victims on all sides. I do honestly feel...for all victims, but let s look towards the future, Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said. Zdravka Gvozdjar, whose nine-year-old son Eldin was killed in the Bosnian Serb bombardment of besieged Sarajevo, said the verdict was no surprise and partially satisfactory. He deserved a much worse punishment but I was so excited and satisfied that he was handed down a life sentence because it is the most he could get. There is no comfort for me or any other mother (but) we have learned to live with the pain.

Trump says rich might pay more in taxes, talks with DemocratsWASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that taxes on rich Americans might rise, as he pursues a tax code overhaul and reaches out to both Democrats and Republicans in a push to win support for a plan still far from complete. Trump met with the two top congressional Democrats over dinner at the White House in a search for common ground that could make it easier to get a tax-cut package through Congress. Both sides said the meeting, which covered an array of legislative issues, was productive. Earlier, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said tax reductions would be paid for by faster economic growth. The White House and the Republican-led Congress have yet to put forth a detailed tax plan, despite months of high-level talks that had until recent days excluded Democrats. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said an outline of a plan would be unveiled during the work week beginning Sept. 25, with congressional tax-writing committees crafting detailed legislation in the subsequent weeks. Mnuchin told Fox News Channel the Trump administration would use its own economic assumptions to gauge the impact of its tax cuts on the federal budget deficit and the $20 trillion national debt, a key issue in Washington’s intensifying tax debate. “It will be revenue neutral under our growth assumptions,” Mnuchin said. “So, we can pay for these tax cuts with economic growth.” The administration believes tax cuts will lead to much faster growth than do congressional analysts or most private forecasters, a likely fault line in the debate ahead. As for taxing the rich, Trump said during a meeting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers - his second in as many days - that the wealthy “will not be gaining at all with this plan. ... If they have to go higher, they’ll go higher, frankly.” In a phone call with a small group of reporters, Marc Short, Trump’s legislative affairs director, said the president was not talking about higher tax rates, but that other changes in the tax code could affect the wealthy and how much they pay, the publication Roll Call reported. Democrats have criticized Republican tax overhaul efforts as benefiting mainly the wealthiest Americans and corporations. Tax experts said Trump could raise taxes on high-income people by lowering the cap on mortgages eligible for interest deductions to $500,000 from $1 million. Another step might be to close a loophole that lets Wall Street fund managers pay low taxes on much of their income, analysts said. Trump might also propose eliminating the deduction for state and local taxes, then use the revenue raised to fund tax cuts for the middle class, leaving top earners with a higher effective tax bill. There has also been talk in the Senate about increasing tax rates on capital gains and dividends. But even with those changes, analysts said it was not clear top earners would end up paying more overall, partly because Trump has also proposed cutting the top individual tax rate. Steven Rosenthal, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center think tank in Washington, said Trump was unlikely to raise taxes on investment income. Instead, he said, Trump could close a loophole that largely benefits super-rich financiers, although they may be able to find other ways to avoid taxes. “That’s what I would expect him to do, take a symbolic but ineffective step,” Rosenthal said. Trump hosted Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday evening to discuss tax overhaul plans and other legislative items. A White House official said the meeting was constructive and covered border security and the status of so-called Dreamers who came to the United States illegally as children, as well as infrastructure and trade, in addition to taxes. “The administration looks forward to continuing these conversations with leadership on both sides of the aisle,” the official said. In a joint statement, Schumer and Pelosi called the meeting “very productive” and said it focused mainly on the plight of the “Dreamers,” nearly 800,000 young immigrants who are able to live and work in the United States legally under the Obama-era DACA program that Trump recently rescinded. “We agreed to enshrine the protections of DACA into law quickly, and to work out a package of border security, excluding the wall, that’s acceptable to both sides,” they said. One of Trump’s major campaign promises was building a wall the entire length of the U.S.-Mexican border. In his meeting earlier on Wednesday with eight Democratic and five Republican House members, Trump had expressed hope he could bring a fresh bipartisanship to Washington. Asked what his message was to skeptical conservatives who worry he is cozying up to Democrats, Trump said: “I’m a conservative, and I will tell you I’m not skeptical. And I think that if we can do things in a bipartisan manner, that’ll be great. Now it might not work out.” Trump blindsided Republican leaders last week by striking a deal with Schumer and Pelosi on the U.S. debt limit and federal spending for three months. Ryan said the outline being worked on now would reflect the consensus of the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee and the Trump administration. “I would love to have the Democrats supporting and working with us in a constructive way on tax reform, but we’re going to do it no matter what,” Ryan said. There has been no comprehensive U.S. tax code overhaul since 1986, and starkly different visions embraced by the two parties for how to move forward promise to make the task difficult. Asked about Trump’s comment on a possible tax increase for the wealthy, House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady said: “My goal is to lower taxes on every American as much as possible and help them keep more of what they earn.”

(VIDEO) TRUMP AND O’REILLY DISCUSS DEBATE: Admits He’s “Apprehensive” Before First National GOP Debate You don t know what s gonna come at you all of this has nothing to do with being a great President.

Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff urges reform at UN: Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has demanded a greater role for emerging nations in addressing the global economic crisis.

Episode #154 – SUNDAY WIRE: ‘The Pro-War Left?’ with guests Jean Bricmont, Vanessa Beeley Episode #154 of SUNDAY WIRE SHOW resumes this Sunday September 25, 2016 as host Patrick Henningsen broadcasts a 3 HOUR SPECIAL of LIVE power-packed talk radio on ACR LISTEN LIVE ON THIS PAGE AT THE FOLLOWING SCHEDULED SHOW TIMES:SUNDAYS 5pm-8pm UK Time | 12pm-3pm ET (US) | 9am-12pm PT (US)This week s edition of THE SUNDAY WIRE is on the road broadcasting LIVE from the Valley of the Sun. This week host Patrick Henningsen covers this week s top stories internationally. In the first hour we ll be joined by a very special guest, writer, academic Jean Bricmont, and author of Humanitarian Imperialism, to delve deep into the new political fault lines of the Anti-Anti-War Left that has emerged in recent years and as a reaction to the Syrian War and how cynical operatives in the West have used Smart Power to successfully mitigate mainstream opposition to US and NATO-led wars around the world. In the second hour, we ll connect with 21WIRE special contributor Vanessa Beeley who recently returned from Syria with a stunning exclusive the story of the REAL Syria Civil Defense, and also updates on the recent attack on the UN Aid Convoy which has brought Russia and the US to the edge diplomacy, and dangerously close to a world war.SHOUT POLL: Should US/UK/EU-funded White Helmets receive a Nobel Peace Prize?LEARN MORE ABOUT THE WHITE HELMETS: Who Are Syria s White Helmets?Strap yourselves in and lower the blast shield this is your brave new world *NOTE: THIS EPISODE MAY CONTAIN STRONG LANGUAGE AND MATURE THEMES*Direct Download the Most Recent Episode// <![CDATA[ broadstreet.zone(46707); // ]]&gt;Sunday Wire Radio Show Archives

Syria anti-ISIS documentary maker 'assassinated' in Turkey

The Biggest Student Uprising You've Never Heard Of [Quebec]

Bankers Are Using the Eurozone Crisis to Wage Warfare on Working People &amp; Seize Control of Governments - Wages &amp; living standards are to be scaled back &amp; political power shifted from elected government to technocrats governing on behalf of big banks &amp; financial institutions

Congressman Conyers faces mounting pressure to resignWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic U.S. congressman John Conyers faced increasing pressure to resign on Wednesday, with the No. 2 Democrat in the House of Representatives saying he should step aside if sexual harassment accusations against him were true. With Congress in session, Conyers returned to his home district in Detroit on Tuesday. He has been accused of making unwanted sexual advances toward women who worked for him. The latest accusation was reported by the Detroit News, which cited a former staffer as saying Conyers sexually harassed her three times between 1997 and 1999. Conyers, 88, has denied the accusations and said he would cooperate with a House Ethics Committee investigation. Asked if Conyers was planning to resign, his attorney Arnold Reed told Reuters, “No.” The Detroit News earlier quoted Reed as saying, “He’s not going to be forced out of office, and no one has told him he has to leave.” “Notwithstanding the credibility of the witnesses, we have a process to determine were these allegations founded? And if they’re founded, yes, he should resign,” Steny Hoyer, the No. 2 Democrat in the House, said in an interview with MSNBC. Conyers’ office did not reply to a Reuters request for comment. The Michigan lawmaker has stepped down as the senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee pending the outcome of the ethics investigation. House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican, said it was up to Conyers to decide if he should resign from the chamber. “I know what I would do if this happened to me. I will leave it up to him to decide what he wants to do. I think he made the right decision in stepping down from his leadership position,” Ryan said. The House on Wednesday passed a resolution requiring members and their staff to take annual training on sexual harassment. A bipartisan group of House members also introduced a bill that would prohibit the use of public funds to settle sexual harassment claims against members, and require all previously made payments to be made public. Conyers and his wife Monica left their house in Detroit in separate vehicles on Wednesday. He did not talk to reporters who had gathered outside. Some of Conyers’ colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus have been privately pressing him to resign, according to Democratic aides. Representative Joe Crowley, chairman of the House Democratic caucus, said he believed that in Michigan, Conyers was “taking counsel from his family as well as his constituents.” “And I believe at the end of the day the right thing will be done. I think accountability will be had,” Crowley told a news briefing. Democratic Representative Linda Sanchez said lawmakers were trying to pursue a fair process for both sides. “It appears that there’s more than one complainant, which does heighten my sense of ‘there may be something there,’” Sanchez said, adding that she could not call for Conyers’ resignation unless she has heard all the evidence. Sexual harassment accusations have been made against a number of public figures in recent weeks, including former Hollywood executive Harvey Weinstein, Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama and Democratic Senator Al Franken of Minnesota.

British PM David Cameron calls for global response to Antibiotic-resistant superbugs, which "threaten to plunge the world back to the "dark ages" of medicine."

WOMAN PULLED OVER FOR 51 MPH IN SCHOOL ZONE: “No wonder you people get shot” [VIDEO]I ve never been more grateful there are so many good men and women who are willing to risk their lives for so many ignorant people Watch what happens when this Palm Beach Co., FL cop pulls over this woman for going 51 mph in a 20 mph school zone:

South Korea says it will prepare for unification with North.

President Obama Wants You To Vote So Badly He’s Ready To Make History To Do ItPresident Obama has officially endorsed the idea to make a national holiday set aside just for voting, in order to ensure that more Americans have the free time to exercise one of their greatest freedoms and responsibilities.A Rutgers student journalist from The Daily Targum was at the White House as part of a college journalism program. While he was there, he requested a one-on-one interview with President Obama and the president was happy to oblige.During the interview, Obama was asked about the relatively dismal voter turnout in America, compared to other countries.President Obama s response was nothing short of historic. A portion of the interview is below:THE TARGUM: You have pointed out many times that voter turnout in the United States is very low, especially compared to other developed nations. But in many other countries, the government automatically registers voters and holds elections on days that are weekend days or national holidays. Do you think it s time for the U.S. to follow their lead?PRESIDENT OBAMA: Absolutely. We are the only advanced democracy that makes it deliberately difficult for people to vote. And some of it has to do with the nature of our history and our Constitution, where we allow individual states to determine their own processes for structuring elections within certain boundaries.I think that we know some states like Oregon are doing a much better job at extending mail-in voting, increasing tools like online voting that are safe and secure, give people flexibility over a long period of time, (and) early voting. And so everything we can do to make sure that we re increasing participation is something that we should promote and encourage. Our democracy is not going to function well when only half or a third of eligible voters are participating.The single most dramatic political change that could occur in this country and the best way for us to relieve the frustrations that people feel around the political process would be if we had greater participation that was more reflective of the day-to-day concerns that people have.Source: SlatePresident Obama has made it clear for a long time now, that he would really like to do some things to increase political engagement among Americans. He s already said he was on board with making voting mandatory, but this was his first yet endorsement of a national holiday to facilitate it.Featured image via Getty

Greece to give millions in compensation to flood victimsATHENS (Reuters) - Greece said on Monday it would offer emergency compensation worth millions of euros to hundreds of households affected by flash flooding west of Athens that killed at least 20 people on Nov. 15. Hundreds of homes and businesses were extensively damaged in the coastal towns of Mandra and Nea Peramos when a torrent of mud and water smashed into the settlements, built along dry gullies on the foothills of a mountain range. Twenty people died and two remain missing from the early-morning deluge, the worst casualty toll from flooding since 1977 when more than 30 people died. The disaster has prompted recriminations and finger-pointing over a perceived inability of Greek authorities to act on prior warnings that areas with poor infrastructure and unlicensed construction were vulnerable to flooding. Critics also asked why flood prevention projects had been delayed. Authorities will offer flood victims up to 5,000 euros ($5,896.50) for households and 8,000 euros for businesses, government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos said. It was not immediately clear how much the state had budgeted for compensation. Tzanakopoulos told Reuters the amount would come from the national budget. That assistance would be over and above compensation residents were entitled to, comprised of 60 percent government aid and 40 percent interest-free loan, he said. The flash flooding hit many areas of the country, including housing settlements where town planning regulations are often flouted.

Syria asks UN to immediately investigate three new chemical attacks by rebels

A face-sitting protest is happening outside Parliament in the UK as people protest new laws banning many acts in pornography

Thousands flee heavy Darfur fighting

Iraqi Kurd prime minister: court voided referendum without KRG inputERBIL (Reuters) - Iraq s Supreme Federal Court, which voided results of a Kurdish independence referendum on Monday, reached its ruling without input from representatives of the Kurdish autonomous region, the region s Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said on Monday. The rights of Kurds are enshrined in the [Iraqi] constitution, and we seek the implementation of this constitution to resolve our issues with Baghdad, Barzani told reporters at a news conference, according to Kurdish Rudaw TV.

A bomb killed two men and damaged a historic church in a northern Iraqi city on Wednesday, one day ahead of Christmas Eve services that will be heavily guarded for fear of more attacks on the country's Christian minority

President Obama Tells Audience Why Americans Deserve Trump And RepublicansPresident Obama took a trip to Milan, Italy this week and he laid down some cold, hard truths for America s liberals, telling us why we deserve Donald Trump and Paul Ryan and all of their reverse Robin Hood work of stealing from everyone to give to the rich.Eschewing a tie for a more fashion forward country, Obama told the Milan audience: People have a tendency to blame politicians when things don t work, but as I always tell people, you get the politicians you deserve, Obama explained while the audience applauded. And if you don t vote and you don t pay attention, you ll get policies that don t reflect your interest. Obama also told the audience that often times a mistake activists make is not engaging people once they get attention. Source: Raw StoryWhile it sounds a bit harsh to say that we deserve the wannabe dictator Donald Trump, it s actually not too surprising coming from the man who began his political career as a community organizer. Obama has always realized the importance of civic engagement for everyone, not just for the people running for office.We live in a country where fewer than two-thirds of the people vote during presidential elections. In local elections (arguably the most important), turnout plummets to an embarrassing one-fifth of the population.There are some positive signs, though, which Obama spoke about just a few days after Trump was inaugurated.Former president Barack Obama said he s heartened by American civic engagement, following a weekend of spontaneous protests in the wake of President Donald Trump s executive order related to immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries. Citizens exercising their Constitutional right to assemble, organize and have their voices heard by their elected officials is exactly what we expect to see when American values are at stake, Obama spokesman Kevin Lewis said Monday in a written statement.Source: CNBCObama s message, as always, is that yes, our democracy can be saved. The catch, though, is that we have to get off our collective asses to do it.Featured image via Scott Olson/Getty Images.

Underworld exploitation of Bitcoin: 'Assassination Market' website raising the online virtual currency to hire assassins that target key US figures revealed. Those allegedly targeted on the site include Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, President Obama and NSA director Keith Alexander.

Turkish and Iraqi militaries discuss Kurdish independence voteISTANBUL (Reuters) - The heads of the Turkish and Iraqi armed forces discussed the illegitimate Iraqi Kurdish referendum on Saturday and stressed the importance of maintaining Iraq s territorial integrity, the Turkish military said. It issued a written statement after the Iraqi army s chief of staff, Lieutenant General Othman al-Ghanmi, met his Turkish counterpart, General Hulusi Akar, in Turkey on Saturday, two days ahead of the planned referendum.

Colombia arrests local director of Portugal's J.Martins on corruption chargesLISBON (Reuters) - Colombian police have arrested the local director of operations for Portuguese retailer Jeronimo Martins on charges of corruption, the company said on Thursday, adding it had reported the executive to the authorities itself. Jeronimo Martins, which is the largest food retailer in Poland and the second largest in Portugal, has been expanding in Colombia for the past four years. Jeronimo Martins Colombia has recently reported to the Colombian authorities the existence of a potential case of private corruption, for personal benefit and harmful to the company, which had been detected by our internal systems, a company spokeswoman said. The director of operations of ARA has been detained following joint actions with the Colombian authorities, she said, declining to provide further details. Jeronimo Martins entered the Colombian market in 2013 and has opened more than 200 stores since under the ARA brand.

One eve of Gaza reconciliation, Hamas frees Fatah menGAZA (Reuters) - Hamas freed five prisoners belonging to the rival Fatah party on Sunday and Egypt sent a delegation to the Gaza Strip to oversee the Islamist group s planned handover of administrative control of the Palestinian enclave to a unity government. The West Bank-based Palestinian prime minister, Rami al-Hamdallah, and other officials of the government formed in 2014 are due in Gaza on Monday to run ministries and hold a cabinet meeting the next day. Hamas opted for reconciliation with Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas s Fatah because it is short of funds and friends a decade after seizing the enclave in a brief civil war. [nL8N1MA2FT] We are determined to ... bury the chapter of division so that the homeland can be reunited, Hamdallah said in public remarks in the West Bank city of Ramallah. One cabinet member, Culture Minister Ehab Bseisso, arrived in Gaza on Sunday and held a meeting with deputies and employees after taking up his post. Hamas made its dramatic turn towards reconciliation on Sept. 17 after Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates imposed an economic boycott on the movement s main donor, Qatar, over alleged support of terrorists. Abbas, whose popularity ratings are low, has been facing public pressure to patch up differences with Hamas. Hamas s armed wing still remains the dominant power in the territory of 2 million people partially blockaded by Israel and Egypt, which cite security concerns for border restrictions. On the eve of the handover, Hamas released five Fatah security men it jailed two years ago for what an Interior Ministry spokesman described as actions harmful to internal security . Their sentences ranged from seven to 15 years. Speaking to reporters, one of the freed inmates, Taher Abu Armana, thanked Hamas Gaza chief Yehya Al-Sinwar and Mohammed Dahlan, a former Fatah security chief in the enclave, for his release. Dahlan, based since 2011 in the United Arab Emirates, is behind an influx of cash to prop up Gaza and detente between Hamas and Arab states including Egypt, which hosted reconciliation talks. We urge President (Mahmoud Abbas) to order the release of all political prisoners in the West Bank, Abu Armana said, a reference to members of Hamas, a group considered by Western countries that back Abbas to be a terrorist organization. An official of the Palestinian Authority, the self-rule body headed by Abbas in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, said an Egyptian delegation comprised of two generals and Cairo s ambassador to Israel, arrived in Gaza to oversee reconciliation efforts. It was the first official Egyptian delegation to travel to Gaza since 2012. Egypt suspended its diplomatic mission in Gaza in 2007 after the Hamas takeover.

Swiss police to expel two Tunisians linked to Marseille attackerPARIS/GENEVA (Reuters) - Switzerland is sending a Tunisian couple who include the brother of a man presumed to have killed two people in a knife attack at a French train station back to their home country for security reasons, Swiss federal police said on Tuesday. The couple were arrested in the Swiss town of Chiasso near the Swiss-Italian border on Sunday night where they sought asylum. They will detained pending their expulsion, Swiss federal police said, giving no date. The man is known to foreign police services for his links with the jihadist terrorist movement. For now his role in the Marseille attack, if any, is not clear, Swiss federal police said in a statement giving no names or ages for the couple. Earlier a source close to the investigation said on Tuesday that Swiss had detained two Tunisians wanted in connection with a deadly knife attack at Marseille train station on Oct. 1. Swiss police confirmed that one of the two detained is a brother of 29-year-old Ahmed Hannachi, who was shot dead by a French soldier after killing two young women outside the station in southern France. Authorities are investigating the attack as a probable terrorist act. Hannachi s younger brother, Anis, was arrested in Italy earlier this month. More than 240 people have been killed in France since 2015 in attacks by assailants who pledged allegiance to, or said they were inspired by, the Islamic State group. Earlier this month, the French parliament adopted counter-terrorism legislation to increase police surveillance powers and make it easier to close mosques suspected of preaching hatred - a law which civil rights groups said would infringe on personal freedoms.

Hurricanes Shift Debate On Embargo Against Cuba

LEFTIST Resentment Peddler, Larry David (Net Worth $800 Million) Claims $5K Prize For Calling Trump A “Racist”And why wouldn t he? The leftist comedy writer/actor with a net worth of $800 million, probably needs the money to feed all of the illegal aliens who live with him. Even though we don t have any proof that he has illegal aliens living with him, we re pretty sure every celebrity who speaks out against those who want to close our borders and deport illegals must be taking some personal responsibility for their welfare Right? Not likely Comedian Larry David is going to be picking up a $5,000 bounty for calling billionaire businessman and GOP presidential contender Donald Trump a racist on national TV.Earlier in the week, the DEPLORABLE group DeportRacism.com PAC offered a $5,000 reward to anyone who called Trump a racist on-air during Saturday Night Live.During the show s opening monologue with Trump flanked by cast members Taran Killiam and Darrell Hammond both made up as Trump David heckled the blustery businessman from offstage, repeatedly yelling, You re a racist. Trump s a racist. Asked by Trump why he was doing it, David replied, I heard if I yelled that, they d give me $5000. Despite being written as part of the opening, DeportRacism is making good on their promise. Via: Raw StoryAccording to a press release issued before the show was broadcast on the west coast, Luke Montgomery, campaign director for DeportRacism, said the PAC was excited to award the money to David.Here is a great piece entitled: Larry David Curbs His Enthusiasm:You may know Larry David as the writer and producer from Seinfeld. You may know him from Curb Your Enthusiasm. After his most recent New York Times piece, you ll know him as the guy who curbed his intelligence on liberalism:There is a God! It passed! The Bush tax cuts have been extended two years for the upper bracketeers, of which I am a proud member, thank you very much. I m the last person in the world I d want to be beside, but I am beside myself! This is a life changer, I tell you. A life changer!To begin with, I was planning a trip to Cabo with my kids for Christmas vacation. We were going to fly coach, but now with the money I m saving in taxes, I m going to splurge and bump myself up to first class. First class! Somebody told me they serve warm nuts up there, and call you mister. I might not get off the plane!The first rule of Fight Club is you never talk about Fight Club. The first rule for the Wealthy Elitist Liberal Club is you always talk about your money. The second? Find a way to feign indignation that the federal government isn t confiscating more of your earnings, without ever mentioning that there s nothing stopping you from turning it over to Uncle Sam.Larry David s Thanks for the Tax Cuts! is based on the false premise that the rich is a homogenous group of artists, namely successful Hollywood actors, writers, and producers who occupy their spare time on liberal guilt trips (wealthy Republicans don t count, as Hollywood liberals classify them as monsters).Larry would rather not think about the countless Subchapter S corporations and small mom and pop businesses that benefit from tax cuts because their success is rooted in creating widgets, gadgets, and services the world finds useful; his came about because he s sharp with sex jokes and awkward situations.Americans naturally do not begrudge someone for their success because the track record for the United States is stellar when it comes to upward economic mobility. Hard work, patience, sound judgment, and a pleasant demeanor tends to take Americans pretty far, which is why they need to be prompted to believe the rich boogeyman is out to get them. Smug, self-loathing Hollywood types like Larry David play the part well:This tax cut just might save my life. Who said Republicans don t support health care? I m going to have the blueberries with my cereal, and I m not talking Special K. Those days are over. It s nothing but real granola from now on. The kind you get in the plastic bins in health food stores. Did someone say organic ?Everyone already knows Larry has enough disposable income to fill his swimming pool with blueberries, just for a giggle, if he wanted. However, the point of Thanks for the Tax Cuts! was to let readers know that higher tax rates would be a pittance to him and his friends. The point is to rub readers noses in trips to Cabo and expensive organic foods they can t afford, in order to stoke the flames of class warfare liberalism needs to survive.It s not working, Larry. See the recent election results for more details.Americans are getting wise to resentment peddlers who seek to tax you until the day you die before taxing you and the gifts you sought to pass on to family, one more time as Rigor mortis kicks in. They know that it isn t the successful entrepreneurs and businessmen hurting the future prospects of a great nation, but Washington politicians addicted to kamikaze entitlement spending and private property power grabs.The liberal comedian Wanda Sykes once called Larry David Ass Man. After witnessing him try to sell tax hikes by inducing resentment, I couldn t agree more.Watch Larry David call Donald Trump a racist during the Saturday Night Live show that crushed the ratings. It s likely one of the high points in his career. What Larry David may not be able to comprehend in his narrow little world, is that if it weren t for Donald Trump agreeing to host SNL, no one would have even bothered to watch the dying show. Larry David should be thanking Donald for allowing him to appear on the same stage, instead of walking away from the show smugly pretending he had anything at all to do with the show s astronomical ratings.

Will Trump block Comey testimony? White House does not know yetWASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House officials said on Friday they did not know yet whether President Donald Trump would seek to block former FBI Director James Comey from testifying to Congress next week, a move that could spark a political backlash. “I have not spoken to counsel yet. I don’t know how they’re going to respond,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters. Comey was leading a Federal Bureau of Investigation probe into alleged Russian meddling in last year’s U.S. presidential election and possible collusion by Trump’s campaign when the president fired him last month. Critics have charged that Trump was seeking to hinder the FBI’s investigation by dismissing Comey. The former FBI chief is due to testify on Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee as part of its own Russia-related investigation, and his remarks could cause problems for the Republican president. Comey is widely expected to be asked about conversations in which the president reportedly pressured him to drop an investigation into Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, whose ties to Russia are under scrutiny. Critics have said that such pressure could potentially amount to obstruction of justice. Presidents can assert executive privilege to prevent government employees from sharing information. However, legal experts say it is not clear whether certain conversations between Trump and Comey that the president has talked about publicly would be covered, and any effort to block Comey, who is now a private citizen, from testifying could be challenged in court. Democratic lawmakers sent White House counsel Donald McGahn a letter warning that invoking executive privilege “would be seen as an effort to obstruct the truth from both Congress and the American people.” In an interview with ABC News, White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway appeared to indicate the president would allow Comey to testify. “We’ll be watching with the rest of the world when Director Comey testifies,” she said. But asked directly whether Trump would invoke executive privilege on Comey’s testimony, she added: “The president will make that decision.” Amid a political firestorm touched off by Comey’s firing, the Justice Department appointed a special counsel last month to take the lead on the Russia investigation. U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded the Russian government sought to influence the U.S. election in Trump’s favor, a charge Russia has denied. Russian President Vladimir Putin, however, said on Thursday some Russians may have acted on their own. Trump, who has raised doubts about the U.S. agencies’ findings and denounced the continuing Russia probes, has denied any collusion.

China, Russia to hold simulated anti-missile drillBEIJING (Reuters) - The Chinese and Russian militaries will next month hold anti-missile drills in Beijing, China s Defence Ministry said on Friday, amid concern in both countries about the deployment of a U.S. anti-missile system in South Korea. China and Russia have both expressed opposition to the basing of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system in South Korea, which Seoul and Washington say is needed to defend against the threat of North Korean missiles. China, along with Russia, has repeatedly expressed opposition to the THAAD deployment, saying it will do nothing to help ease tension with North Korea. China also fears THAAD s powerful radar system can look deep into is territory, undermining its security. China s Defence Ministry said in a statement a computer drill would take place from Dec. 11 to Dec. 16. The aim of the exercise was to jointly practice defense against missiles and how to handle sudden and provocative attacks on the two countries territories by ballistic missiles and cruise missiles , the ministry said. The drill is not aimed at any third party, it said, without elaborating. While China and South Korea agreed last month to move beyond their year-long stand-off over THAAD, a dispute that has been devastating to South Korean businesses that rely on Chinese consumers, China has stuck to its opposition to the system. China and Russia have close military and diplomatic ties, and they have repeatedly called for a peaceful, negotiated solution to the North Korea nuclear and missile crisis.

"The Pentagon underestimated the speed at which China has developed and fielded a ballistic missile that may be capable of hitting a maneuvering U.S. aircraft carrier, the head of [United States] Navy intelligence said today [January 5, 2011]."

GROUP WITH TERROR TIES Encourages Muslims To Swing U.S. Presidential Elections: “Turn Your Islamic Centers, Mosques Into Registration Centers For Voters”The idea that a tax-exempt radical organization in the United States of America with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, a terror organization can influence our vote by suggesting Muslims register voters in Mosques should be shocking to every American.Could anyone imagine the outrage if non-profit groups were advocating churches register voters to support the Republican party?The last time the Muslim Brotherhood got involved in an election, it ended with a tyranny, church burnings, terrorism, a civil war, mass sexual assaults on women and a popular uprising against it.Presumably the local Muslim Brotherhood crew is hoping for a better outcome in the United States than they ended up with in Egypt, as Sharona Schwartz at The Blaze Reports.The head of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said that Muslims could comprise the swing vote in the presidential elections if 1 million of them register to vote, as he urged them to turn mosques into polling stations this November. I believe we have at least 1 million Muslim eligible voters in this country. We have to register every single Muslim to vote in 2016. The Muslim vote can be the swing vote in major states, CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad said at the Muslim American Society (MAS) and Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) annual conference in Chicago, according to video posted earlier this month.Awad explained that CAIR which is prohibited from engaging in political activity due to its registration as a tax-exempt organization would not be the vehicle by which a candidate would be endorsed. He said another organization would be set up to promote the Muslim-friendly presidential candidate.Awad urged all Muslims to register to vote and to use Islamic centers as polling stations. Turn your centers, Islamic centers, mosques into registration centers for voters, into polling stations during the election time, he said. Via: Frontpage Mag