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Brit lawmakers nix PM Johnson's bid for snap election

Corbyn Parliament
© Reuters/UK Parliament/Roger HarrisBritain's Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn speaks at the House of Commons
PM Boris Johnson's attempt to trigger a general election has been thwarted by British MPs after he failed to achieve the two-thirds majority required in a vote in the UK parliament on Wednesday night.

The defeat in the House of Commons saw Johnson's Tory government fail to reach the 434 threshold required with only 298 MPs supporting the early election motion and 56 lawmakers voting against it.

The Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party (SNP) all appear to have abstained from the vote.

Johnson reacted by saying that Corbyn is now "the first leader of the opposition in the democratic history of our country to refuse the invitation of an election." He claimed that reason was because he "does not think he can win."

Corbyn earlier said that his party will back an election only after a 'no-deal' is completely ruled out. It completes a disastrous night for the British prime minister after rebel MPs earlier sealed victory on new legislation at the third and final stage that compels Johnson to seek a three-month extension to Article 50 from Brussels to stop a 'no-deal' Brexit on October 31.

Comment: More from RT, 4/9/2019 Rebel MPs seal defeat of blocking 'no-deal' Brexit
The bill, tabled by Labour's Hilary Benn and supported by the likes of Ken Clarke and Churchill's grandson, Nicholas Soames, who have been expelled from the Conservative Party, was passed by 327 votes to 299 in the House of Commons after the third and final reading on Wednesday night. It's a hammer blow to Johnson.

Johnson responded to the defeat by saying there is now "only one way forward" and "there must now be an election on Tuesday 15 of October."

However, the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said his party will back an election only after a 'no-deal' is completely ruled out.

The new law calls for the prime minister to obtain an extension to Article 50 from the EU that runs to "11pm on 31 January 2020."

Clarke, Soames were among a number of Tory MPs who were sacked from the party after they defied Johnson to vote for the new legislation at first reading on Tuesday night.

Johnson who will table a motion for an early election later on Wednesday, with voting scheduled for around 10.30pm BST. The Prime minister is hoping to secure an election for October 15.

The prospects for Brexit happening now look "quite bleak" without a general election, veteran political journalist Neil Clark told RT. "Ruling out 'no-deal' effectively means ruling out Brexit as there's no incentive for the EU to offer a better deal."



Brain

Joe Biden's eye fills with blood while participating in CNN town hall

Biden blood eye
© Fox NewsDemocratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden
Former VP Joe Biden's eye filled with blood while participating in a Wednesday night CNN town hall on climate change, according to the Washington Examiner.

The poorly timed broken blood vessel - or subconjuctival hemorrhage, comes as Biden brushes off weeks of criticism over his age and mental capabilities after the 76-year-old made a series of gaffes on the campaign trail. According to the report, the hemorrhage can be caused by several factors - including bleeding disorders, high blood pressure, blood thinners or even straining too hard.

Biden, 76, has long been plagued by health issues. In 1988, he suffered an aneurysm that burst and required him to undergo emergency surgery. The then-senator was so close to death that a Catholic priest began preparing to administer the sacrament of last rites.

Months later, surgeons clipped a second aneurysm before it burst. Biden then took a seven-month leave from the Senate following the surgery. Describing the operation, he once said, "They literally had to take the top of my head off." -Washington Examiner


Nuke

Erdogan: Cannot accept Turkey 'can't' have nukes, wants to join the club

Erdogan nukes
© EuropeReloaded.comTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
The country is currently a signatory to two international treaties prohibiting it from developing and testing nuclear weapons. At the same time, two of Turkey's regional neighbours, Israel and Iran, are suspected of either possessing or developing such weapons, although no solid evidence proving this has ever been presented.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lambasted limitations imposed on his country in terms of developing nuclear weapons during a speech before members of the governing AK Party in the city of Sivas.

"Some countries have missiles with nuclear warheads, not one or two. But [they tell us] we can't have them. This, I cannot accept", he said.

To substantiate his claims, he recalled the widespread belief that Israel secretly possesses nuclear weapons. Erdogan noted that Tel Aviv scares other countries "by possessing these [weapons]" and argued that because of this, "no one can touch them".

Bullseye

Putin: 'West's leading role is ending, G7's no good without India and China'

putin xi and modi
© Kremlin via REUTERS/Sputnik/Mikhail Klimentyev
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the leading role of the West is coming to an end, and no serious international group makes much sense anymore without economic juggernauts like China and India.

Putin shared his thoughts on the Group of Seven (G7) during the Eastern Economic Forum, held outside Vladivostok in Russia's Far East on Thursday. He was asked whether he would attend the group's meeting in the US next year if invited. US President Donald Trump said last month he will "certainly" invite Putin.

The Russian president hinted that G7 leaders should instead travel to Russia where the last G8 event was due to take place, in 2014, prior to Moscow's expulsion from the group.

Network

Best of the Web: India-Russia eternal friendship takes a Pacific turn

putin and modi
© Pool via REUTERS / Alexander Nemenov
The India-Russia special partnership is strategic. It is growing in new directions, with implications for both China and the United States.

The twentieth annual summit between India and Russia on September 4 could have been ignored as a ho-hum affair. After all, the steadiness and regularity of meetings between the heads of these two 'special and privileged strategic partners' may not seem like anything new or a departure that is newsworthy.

But think again. Every time the leaders of India and Russia huddle together, something fresh and geopolitically significant emerges.

The latest summit occurred not in Moscow or St. Petersburg but in the Far Eastern city of Vladivostok. Narendra Modi became the first Indian prime minister to visit that part of Russia, signalling the arrival of a new player on the Pacific coast. Modi was also the chief guest at Russia's high-profile Eastern Economic Forum, a platform to attract international investment and involvement in the cold and sparsely populated - but mineral-rich - Far East that Moscow seeks to develop.

Eagle

Paul Craig Roberts: 'I feel sorry for Trump'

Trump and salutes
© Consolidated News PhotosUS President Donald Trump
Yes, I know. I am lining up on the wrong side. You are supposed to hate him. The presstitutes hate Trump. So does the Democratic Party, part of the Republican Party, the military/security complex, the entirety of the liberal/progressive/left, the universities, feminists, and Washington's vassal states. No one likes him but the "racist, white supremacist Trump deplorables."

Nevertheless, I feel sorry for him. I started feeling sorry for him when he announced he would run for President of the United States. You see, I had inside information. I had held a presidential appointment from a President of the United States. I ended up fighting battles for him against entrenched interests who opposed his policies to end stagflation and the cold war. I helped to win the battles for him, as his accolades to me testify, but my success ended any career for me in government.

I knew that, unlike Reagan who had prepared his run over the years and had a movement behind him, Trump had not. Moreover, also unlike Reagan, Trump had no idea of what he was walking into and no idea of who to appoint to important offices who might be inclined to help him. Generally speaking, the value of a presidential appointment, such as the one I had, lies NOT in helping the president, but in helping the ruling private establishment. Any Assistant Secretary can be very helpful to private interests and end up a multi-millionaire. Indeed, most of them do.

But I put the country's interest ahead of mine and helped Reagan to cure stagflation and to end the cold war. Curing stagflation was perceived as a threat by the economics profession which had no cure and didn't want to be shown up by dissident supply-side economists, and much of Wall Street misunderstood what the media called "Reaganomics" as more inflationary deficit spending that threatened their stock and bond portfolios. Ending the Cold War threatened the budget of the military/security complex, a dangerous undertaking.

Bad Guys

Ex-Sec-Def Mattis: Pakistan is the 'most dangerous country' in the world

Mattis quits
© Andrew Harnik/Associated Press
Former US defense secretary James Mattis has said he considers Pakistan as the "most dangerous country" he dealt with it in a long career spanning decades in the military and as a member of President Donald Trump's cabinet, because of the level of radicalization of its society and its nuclear weapons.

Mattis, who left the Trump administration in January, also slammed Pakistan's obsession with India, saying it "views all geopolitics through the prism of its hostility toward India" and that has also shaped their policy on Afghanistan as "the Pakistan military wanted a friendly government in Kabul that was resistant to Indian influence".

He has long years of experience dealing with Pakistan and South Asia, first as a top US Marine Corps commandeer in Afghanistan, head of US central command and then as secretary of defense.

"Of all the countries I've dealt with, I consider Pakistan to be the most dangerous, because of the radicalization of its society and the availability of nuclear weapons," Mattis has written in "Call Sign Chaos", an autobiography that hit the stands Tuesday. "The result would be disastrous." Pakistan has the world's fastest growing nuclear arsenal, with a substantial quantities of tactical weapons that its leaders have publicly boasted about, including a member or Prime Minister Imran Khan's cabinet recently. And Mattis writes, echoing a longstanding US concern, "We can't have the fastest-growing nuclear arsenal in the world falling into the hands of the terrorists breeding in their midst."


Comment: No, we can't have that. Mattis isn't exactly wrong about Pakistan as a hub for radicalization. But what he neglects to mention is the cozy relationship the CIA has had with the ISI - and the fact that the U.S. has supported, and continues to support, those very terrorists Mattis is so worried about. The U.S., Israel, UK, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan - all have had a hand in creating the world of terrorism we live in today. And the crazy thing is, in their minds, they're the ones who should be given the task of fighting those very terrorists. Why should we trust them, especially given the following revelations? See: 'It's a tip of an iceberg': Bulgarian journo reveals how US-purchased arms end up with ISIS in Yemen


Stock Up

US trade war has China shifting to Russia for soybean demand

soybeans
© Global Look Press / Pfeiffer, J. / Arco Images GmbH 50
The volume of Russian soybeans exported to China will be worth at least $600 million by 2024, according to the Russian Ministry of Agriculture.

Soybeans and their processed derivatives were the second-biggest agricultural export from Russia's Far East, Deputy Minister of Agriculture Sergey Levitin said at the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Vladivostok.

"Over the past year, these exports doubled and amounted to 6.5 percent of the total export volumes from the Far East. This became possible due to a significant increase in demand from the Chinese market due to its trade conflict with the US," he said.

Attention

Best of the Web: 'It's a tip of an iceberg': Bulgarian journo reveals how US-purchased arms end up with ISIS in Yemen

ISIS tank
Mortar shells shown in an Islamic State propaganda video have put a Bulgarian journalist on the scent of an alleged US-run arms shipping network supplying militants in the Middle East, she told RT in an exclusive interview.

This story began back in June, when Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) terrorists in Yemen demonstrated several Serbian-made 82mm mortar shells in their propaganda video. Independent investigative journalist, Dilyana Gaytandzhieva, believes that the deadly munitions ended up with the jihadists after going through US hands.

Tracing origins

Clearly visible on one of the shells is a mark that reads '82 mm M74HE mortar shells KV lot 04/18.' The letters KV stand for the Serbian state arms manufacturer Krusik, located in the town of Valjevo, while the digits 04/18 refer to lot 04 produced in 2018. One should not jump to any conclusions, however, as it is not the Serbs who were responsible for the shells suddenly appearing in the hands of terrorists, according to Gaytandzhieva.

A trove of "explosive" leaked documents she said she received from an "anonymous source" shows that the lot in question was part of a deal between the Serbian arms factory and a Pentagon contractor, Alliant Techsystems LLC. It was part of a purchase of more than 100,000 such shells "for the needs of the US government."


Comment: This story is bigger than Iran-Contra, but the mainstream media aren't touching it with a ten-foot pole. Gaytandzhieva has uncovered that the U.S. is diverting weapons to al-Qaeda and ISIS - the very terrorists who are supposed to have been the target of the war on terror for the past 18 years. And they're doing so "for the needs of the U.S. government." Just let that sink in. SOTT has been saying this for as long as they've been doing it - but Gaytandzhieva has uncovered the proof. So naturally, the MSM must not cover it at all. That would necessitate some heads to roll - probably an uncomfortably large number, including some at the very top of the U.S. power structure. And that can never happen.

See the full reports: And Gaytandzhieva's previous investigative work:


Chess

Erdogan threatens Europe with flood of refugees unless land-grabbing 'safe zone' is established at Syria-Turkey border

refugees syria turkey
© Associated PressSyrian refugees in a Turkish camp.
"We will be forced to open the gates. We cannot be forced to handle the burden alone," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned on Thursday while demanding that European countries give political support to his controversial 'safe zone' plan in northern Syria.

Ankara is currently in tense negotiations with the United States over Erdogan's plan to militarily carve out a large swathe of territory along the Turkish-Syrian border which would serve as a buffer zone of sorts where US-backed Kurdish militias could not operate.

Erdogan said one million refugees could settle in the new buffer territory, thus alleviating the crisis on Turkish soil, and ultimately for Europe as well.

Comment: Erdogan has been pushing for this covert land grab 'safe zone' since at least 2016. However he has ramped up the rhetoric since the beginning of August. Has something changed with the gains Syrian government forces have made in retaking Idlib?