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Crusader

Crossing the Brexit red line: Ministers threaten to quit after May's war cabinet flop - reports


RT
Fri, 12 Oct 2018 16:45 UTC
Andrea Leadsom
© Reuters / Hannah McKayAndrea Leadsom
Brexit red lines are being drawn as Theresa May faces a cabinet backlash just as an EU-UK trade deal nears. Leader of the House of Commons, Andrea Leadsom, is the latest member to reportedly threaten to quit in protest.

Leadsom's reported decision to consider her future follows a 'war cabinet' meeting of senior government ministers, Thursday, where May detailed her plan to break the deadlocked negotiations over the Irish border.

If one minister threatening to quit wasn't enough, it's also emerged that Esther McVey, the work and pensions secretary, and Penny Mordaunt, the international development secretary, neither of whom attended the meeting, are also considering their positions.

The Independent reported that Leadsom, an ardent Brexiteer, is ready to resign if the PM backs any plan to keep the UK in the EU's customs union permanently and is currently "considering discussions that have taken place."
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Chess

Turkish court frees US pastor Brunson after 2yrs in jail


RT
Fri, 12 Oct 2018 16:41 UTC
Pastor Andrew Brunson
© AFPPastor Andrew Brunson
A Turkish court will release imprisoned US pastor Andrew Brunson, who was jailed for alleged terror links following 2016's failed coup attempt. Brunson's arrest has soured US-Turkish relations, with Trump pushing for his release.

Charged with terrorism offences, the court handed down a sentence of 3 years and 1-1/2 month sentence for the evangelical Christian pastor on Friday. Despite the verdict, the court also ruled that the US man would not serve any further time as he had already been detained by authorities since October 2016.

Prior to the judge's ruling, Brunson told the court that he was "an innocent man" adding: "I love Jesus, I love Turkey." Reuters reports that Brunson wept as the court's decision was announced.
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Attention

Hillary Clinton is dangerous - neither she nor the Democratic party can be trusted with power anymore

David Catron
The American Spectator
Thu, 11 Oct 2018 12:05 UTC
Killary periscopic
© YouTube/KJNRelevance
Many Americans have been wondering when the Democrats are finally going to calm down and accept the will of the voters as expressed in the 2016 election. Hillary Clinton provided the answer Tuesday afternoon - never. She clearly believes that Republican control of Congress or the Presidency is, by definition, illegitimate and must be resisted by any means necessary. During an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour she said, "[Y]ou cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for." She went on to say that "civility can start again" when the Democrats regain control of the government.

She declared, in other words, that the peaceful transfer of power which has long been the hallmark of our system of government now applies only when her side wins and that she won't stop stoking unrest until the "deplorables" learn their place: "But until then," she said, "the only thing that the Republicans seem to recognize and respect is strength." By "strength" she means "violence," as experienced by Republicans Steve Scalise and Rand Paul. The last time leading Democrats utilized such irresponsible language was in 1860, when their refusal to accept the result of an election caused a war that got 600,000 Americans killed.

Comment: Unfit for civility, Killary is off the rails and has taken the Left with her.
See also:

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Padlock

Last year US prisons held 61K inmates in solitary confinement

C.J. Claramella
Reason
Wed, 10 Oct 2018 03:35 UTC
Sonia Sotomayor
© Patrick Semansky/AP/KJN
The number of U.S. prison inmates held in solitary confinement has dropped over the past five years, according to a new report, but an estimated 61,000 people last year still faced imprisonment in tiny cells for up to 22 hours a day in conditions that many former inmates, mental health professionals, and at least one sitting U.S. Supreme Court justice say amount to torture.

A longitudinal survey co-authored by the Association of State Correctional Administrators (ASCA) and the Arthur Liman Center for Public Interest Law at Yale Law School found that, in the federal prison system and 43 state prison systems that provided data, 49,000 inmates in the fall of 2017 were confined to what is commonly known as "solitary." Extrapolating for the remaining states, the study estimates the total number to be 61,000.

The census asked jurisdictions to report, as of the fall of 2017, both their total prison populations and the number of prisoners held in restrictive housing. It includes federal and state inmates placed in any form of "restricted housing" for at least 22 hours a day for more than 15 consecutive days. In 2011, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture concluded that solitary confinement beyond 15 days constituted cruel and inhumane punishment.

Comment: See also:
'End prison slavery!' 24,000+ inmates join nationwide jail strike causing lockdowns (VIDEO)

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X

Virgin Galactic's Richard Branson suspends Saudi investment of $1B due to Khashoggi disappearance


RT
Fri, 12 Oct 2018 03:43 UTC
Branson/MBS
© Reuters/Mike Blake/KJNRichard Branson • Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman
Billionaire Richard Branson has suspended talks with Saudi Arabia regarding a planned $1bn investment in his space ventures after Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman was linked to the disappearance of a Washington Post journalist.

Branson, co-founder of Virgin Galactic, announced last October that Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund was planning to invest $1 billion in his commercial space flight companies. He is now putting the brakes on the investment, as well as distancing himself from participation in two advisory boards linked to the sovereign wealth fund, Branson said in statements to several media.

Saudi Arabia is known for its repressive speech climate, but the disappearance of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, widely blamed on the kingdom, was a step too far for some. The fate of the journalist, who according to some reports was abducted or murdered in Turkey, remains unknown.

Comment: The mystery continues. For more on this situation, see also:

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Folder

Wikileaks has published alleged secret files on Amazon's data centers


Sputnik
Thu, 11 Oct 2018 21:54 UTC
Amazonbarbwire
© AP Photo / Frank Augstein
Whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks said Thursday it had obtained and published "a highly confidential document" on the technology giant Amazon. In the so-called "Amazon Atlas," the transparency proponent said that the document, allegedly from 2015, provided a uniquely deep insight into where Amazon's data centers are located, as well as shed light on the company's apparent ties with the US intelligence services.

"The document...lists the addresses and some operational details of over 100 data centers spread across fifteen cities in nine countries," WikiLeaks wrote, accompanying the post with a map supposedly marking Amazon's widely scattered data processing locations.

The release claimed that Amazon "is notoriously secretive about the precise locations." "More often, Amazon operates out of data centers owned by other companies with little indication that Amazon itself is based there too or runs its own data centers under less-identifiable subsidiaries," WikiLeaks suggested.

Comment: See also:

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X

China cuts US LNG in trade war, bursts Trump's gas dream bubble


Sputnik
Thu, 11 Oct 2018 18:26 UTC
tanker docked
© REUTERS / Agencja Gazata/Cezary Aszkielowicz
The Trump administration has shot itself in the foot by tightening the screws in the US-China tariff war: Beijing is turning its back on American liquefied natural gas (LNG) in response to Washington's third round of tariffs. The move is especially painful for the US, as it had projected to jump on the bandwagon of the booming Asian gas market.

It appears that China has found the US' sore spot: Beijing has dramatically diminished the acquisition of American liquefied natural gas (LNG) while US crude oil shipments to the country have completely stopped in recent weeks, according to China Merchants Energy Shipping Co (CMES).

The main reason behind China's change of heart is Donald Trump's trade war on the country.

Starting from September 24, US President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on $200 billion more in Chinese goods, marking the third round of the Sino-American tariff spat. Beijing's response wasn't long in coming: China retaliated with levies on $60 billion in American goods, including a 10-percent tariff on the US LNG.

Meanwhile, US LNG exports to China have started declining amid the trade spat: "Prior to the slowdown, China was on track to import 141.6 billion cubic feet (bcf) of US LNG in 2018, up from 103.4 bcf in 2017 and 17.2 bcf in 2016," Reuters highlighted.

Comment: See also:

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Footprints

Professor Daniel P. Franklin sheds some light on why Haley resigned


Sputnik
Thu, 11 Oct 2018 20:12 UTC
Nikki Haley
© Jim Watson/AFPDone tooting her horn at the United Nations
Daniel P. Franklin, Associate Professor of Political Science at the Georgia State University, has discussed the reasons and consequences of Nikki Haley's decision to resign as the US envoy to the UN with Sputnik.

Sputnik: What were the main reasons that led to Nikki Haley's sudden resignation?

Daniel P. Franklin: There is some question as to whether this resignation was all that sudden. The President says that they had discussed her resignation earlier in the year, but that they had waited until now to announce it (after the President's visit to the UN earlier this month).

The average high-level administration appointee serves for about two and a half years. Haley, when she leaves, will have served two years since her appointment. Therefore, her tenure is not all that much out of the norm.

Having said that, there is a combination of reasons that probably led to Haley's resignation. It is pretty clear that Haley and the President had a difficult relationship. Furthermore, in appointing John Bolton as his National Security Advisor, an avowed skeptic of the United Nations, the President had made it clear that he was not a supporter of the UN mission. Therefore, Haley was serving in a role that had no support from the Administration. That is a difficult position for an appointee to be in. If the President had been supportive, she would have probably stayed longer.

Comment: And, the country breathes a sigh of relief...at least until the next chapter in US belligerence and bias at the UN. See also:

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Attention

Moscow addresses Council of Europe's demands and expulsion threats: 'We won't pay for thin air'


RT
Thu, 11 Oct 2018 12:21 UTC
Palace of Europe Strasbourg, FR
© Vladimir Fedorenko/SputnikPalace of Europe, Strasbourg, France
Russian officials have replied to the Council of Europe's demands for payment with a promise to suspend its membership unless it introduces anti-discrimination amendments to its parliamentary assembly (PACE) regulations.

Russia is interested in full-pledged participation in the Council of Europe and not mere presence in the body under discriminating conditions, Senator Oleg Morozov, who sits in the Upper House Committee for Foreign Relations, said.
"If the policies of restricting our rights in Council of Europe's organizations continues, this would objectively raise the issue of our future participation in the council. We are not going to pay for thin air, whether someone likes it or not."
The comments came soon after CE's Secretary General, Thorbjorn Jagland, said that his group might expel Russia from its ranks if the regular fee payments in its budget are not paid in full. Russia froze one-third of its payments to the Council of Europe in 2017. This was the approximate share of the fee that was used to finance PACE which amounted to about $12.5 million. The suspension of payments was performed in protest of continuing restrictions of the rights of the Russian delegation in the assembly that started as far back as 2014.

Comment: See also:

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Smoking

Malaysia to ban smoking at all restaurants, hawker stalls starting January 1


Straits Times
Thu, 11 Oct 2018 12:46 UTC
Smoking ban in Malaysia
© Straits Times (file)
Malaysia will enforce a smoking ban on restaurants, coffee shops and hawker stalls nationwide from Jan 1, Sin Chew Daily cited Deputy Health Minister Lee Boon Chye as saying on Thursday (Oct 11).

The ban will cover all air-conditioned and non-air-conditioned restaurants, coffee shops, open-air hawker centres and street stalls.

Dr Lee announced the mandatory ban while chairing a health forum at the Asian Institute of Medical, Science and Technology in Kedah.

Those caught smoking at prohibited areas will be fined RM10,000 (S$3,300) and eateries found not enforcing the ban will be fined RM2,500.

Comment: See also:

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