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Theresa has placed Britain in the worst of positions for Brexit negotiations

Seth Ferris
New Eastern Outlook
Mon, 12 Jun 2017 15:10 UTC
Theresa May
© Sky News
Well that worked out well, didn't it?

Theresa called the election despite the Fixed Term Parliament Act, despite repeatedly saying that she wouldn't do it, despite the fact she already had a majority. She insisted she wanted a mandate to pursue a hard Brexit, which hadn't been part of the Conservative manifesto at the previous election, when she hadn't been the leader and Prime Minister presumptive.

Now she has lost her majority, despite having started the campaign 20% ahead in the polls and seen the UKIP vote collapsing and the other parties making no impression. Now the newspapers are calling the election a gamble. It was no gamble, it was a certain win, and she managed to mess it up. This ranks alongside George Seawright being expelled from Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party, DUP for being too bigoted, and considered as the greatest political achievement in living memory.
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Smoking

Riyadh 'sin tax' doubles price of cigarettes to recoup lost oil cash


Sputnik
Mon, 12 Jun 2017 22:40 UTC
Saudi Arabia riyals
© AFP 2017/ HASSAN AMMAR
Saudi Arabia has introduced a new tax on cigarettes and energy drinks that has led to a 100-percent price hike, as the kingdom continues to struggle with sunken oil prices.

The newly introduced tax has cranked up prices on cigarettes and energy drinks across Saudi Arabia, according to various media reports. Prices for carbonated drinks have been increased by 50 percent as well.
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Dollar

Speeding more drugs to market: U.S. Supreme Court overturns 'biosimilar' drug delays


RT
Mon, 12 Jun 2017 16:20 UTC
Amgen, Inc.
© Robert Galbraith/Reuters
A California-based pharmaceutical company cannot use federal law to enforce a rule delaying the sale of a copycat "biosimilar" drug, but may appeal to the federal circuit court to use state law instead, the US Supreme Court ruled unanimously.

Amgen Inc. sued Sandoz, a subsidiary of Swiss-based Novartis AG, for patent infringement and sought to delay them from selling a biosimilar drug until six months after receiving US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval and another six months from filing a marketing notice. Sandoz's drug, Zarxio, would have competed with Amgen's Neupogen.

Statutory context of the law contains a single 180-day timing requirement, rather than the two requirements posited by the federal circuit court, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the decision. Had Congress intended to impose two timing requirements, it would have done so, Thomas noted.

"Amgen's contrary arguments are unpersuasive, and its various policy arguments cannot overcome the statute's plain language," Thomas wrote.
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Hourglass

Are the Central Banks getting ready to crash their rigged stock market on schedule?

David Haggith
The Great Recession Blog
Sun, 11 Jun 2017 00:00 UTC
Fed Roulette
We just saw a major rift open in the US stock market that we haven't seen since the dot-com bust in 1999. While the Dow rose by almost half a percent to a new all-time high, the NASDAQ, because it is heavier tech stocks, plunged almost 2%. Tech stocks nosedived while others rose to create new highs. Is this a one-off, or has a purge begun for the tech stocks that have driven the nation's third-longest bull market?
Yesterday's dramatic "rotational" divergence between tech stocks and the rest of the market, which as Sentiment Trader pointed out the only time in history when the Dow Jones closed at a new all time high while the Nasdaq dropped 2% was on April 14, 1999, stunned many and prompted Bloomberg to write that "a crack has finally formed in the foundation of the U.S. bull market. Now investors must decide if any structural damage has been done." (Zero Hedge)
This is important because, without the nearly constant lead of those tech stocks, the market would have been a bear a long time ago. Tech stocks created half of the market's gains in 2017. Financials, which led the Trump Rally, also hit the rocks in recent weeks, at one point erasing almost all of their gains for 2017, though they recovered a little of late. If both continue to falter, the rally rapidly implodes and maybe the whole bull market with it.
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Info

Still on hold: 9th Circuit Court rules against Trump's revised travel ban


RT
Mon, 12 Jun 2017 18:55 UTC
Donald Trump
© Nicholas Kamm / AFP
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled against the revised executive order by President Donald Trump halting entry into the US from several Muslim-majority countries.

Responding to a lawsuit pressed by the Hawaii attorney general, the federal court rejected the government's claim that the March 6 executive order was valid on its face, arguing that a "mountain of extrinsic evidence, mostly in the form of statements by the President himself, indicating that the stated rationale is a sham."
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Eye 1

Trump slapped with second lawsuit for accepting foreign payments through his hotel businesses


RT
Mon, 12 Jun 2017 18:48 UTC
Donald Trump
© Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
Two attorney generals will file a lawsuit against the US president for violating anti-corruption laws, claiming foreign payments made to Trump's businesses are in violation of the US constitution.

The suit by the Maryland and District of Columbia attorneys general will be filed on Monday. It accuses Trump of violating the emoluments clause, which bars the president from accepting gifts from foreign governments without approval from Congress.
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Info

Turkish prosecutors identify 5 suspects linked to murder of Russian ambassador Karlov


Sputnik
Mon, 12 Jun 2017 18:40 UTC
Ankara Mayor Melih Gokcek
© Sputnik/ Eray ErkylychAnkara Mayor Melih Gokcek presents a certificate of renaming an Ankara street into Andrei Karlov Street to Karlov's widow.
The Ankara Public Prosecutor's Office said Monday that it had identified five suspects connected to the assassination of Russian Ambassador Andrei Karlov carried out by off-duty Turkish police officer Mevlut Mert Altintas in December 2016.

According to the local Yeni Safak media outlet, in late November 2016, Altintas went to a 5-star hotel in Cankaya district of Turkey's capital of Ankara and sent a phone message to his roommate Sercan B., which read "A brother dear to me is coming, I will meet with him."
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Info

White phosphorus in Syria and Iraq: 'Nothing will change' unless Western governments do


Sputnik
Mon, 12 Jun 2017 18:28 UTC
SDF fighters
© REUTERS/ Rodi Said
Images taken by witnesses in Syria and Iraq have found that the US-led coalition which is currently fighting Daesh may have used the dangerous and life-threatening white phosphorus chemical munitions, prohibited under international law, in densely populated areas.

Photographs and video clips posted online on June 8 show blinding spots of light over the northern Syrian city of Raqqa. The pictures, distributed by the Amaq News Agency, which is linked to Daesh, and activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, show puffs of white light and smoke, which are signs of white phosphorous.

​White phosphorus is a weapon intended to provide a smokescreen for troop movements on the battlefield. It is highly flammable and its spread effect is such that it should never be used in civilian areas.
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Blackbox

Softening Brexit? Europe eyes opportunity with Theresa May's weakened government


RT
Mon, 12 Jun 2017 18:23 UTC
British and EU flags
© Daniel Leal-Olivas / AFP
European officials are said to be ready to pounce on Theresa May's weakened and unstable leadership, after last week's snap election left the British prime minister with a diminished mandate just days before Brexit negotiations are due to begin.

Formal talks with European Union counterparts were scheduled to begin next Monday, June 19, but might be postponed by a few days.

Brexit secretary David Davis announced the possible change of plan on Monday, as the date clashes with the announcement of the new government's policy program, known as the Queen's Speech.

"It's in the week of next week, basically, is the first discussions," Davis told Sky News when pressed about the start of negotiations.

"My permanent secretary is actually in Brussels today talking to them about the details. It may not be on the Monday because we've also got the Queen's Speech that week and I will have to speak in that and so on."
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Windsock

Saudi Arabia turns pro-Kurdish after Turkey sides with Qatar

Adam Garrie
The Duran
Mon, 12 Jun 2017 00:00 UTC
Syrian Kurds
© vindheim.wordpress.com
This could be the beginning of a new alignment that will elevate the Russian position in the region while diminishing the influence of the United States.

The new and seemingly prolonged row between Saudi Arabia and Qatar is having some curious and almost shocking knock-on effects. The most interesting is that Syrian media has been reporting that attacks and even mobilisations from many Gulf funded terrorists in Syria have declined. Likewise, state-run Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera has suddenly discovered the extent of Saudi war crimes in Yemen after ignoring the story until last week when Qatar's exit from the Saudi coalition was formalised.

But by far the most strange development thus far is the newfound Saudi love for the cause of Kurdish nationalism. Like most things coming from Saudi, this is a totally disingenuous move, designed to punish Turkey for its support of Qatar. Tightly monitored and in effect state-run Saudi social media has been filling up with words of support for Kurds in Syria and Iraq. These Kurds are of course the sworn enemy of Turkey. The Turkish based Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) has long been a thorn in the side of successive Turkish governments. Now it seems they have a new and highly wealthy ally in Saudi Arabia, at least for the time being.

Comment: The long view of the ME conflict shows things are rarely what they seem and alliances change as the sands shift. Those who have remained true to their allegiance and convictions: Syria and Russia.

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