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Seattle sues Trump admin over sanctuary city threat, while DC won't enforce immigration laws and Mass. sheriff threatens to arrest city leaders

seattle
© Jason Redmond / Reuters
Seattle is seeking a federal ruling that it's not a "sanctuary city" and that President Donald Trump's executive order threatening funding cuts is unconstitutional. The Emerald City bases its case on the Tenth Amendment and the anti-commandeering doctrine.

On Wednesday, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray announced that his city filed a lawsuit in a US district court against Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly over the January 25 executive order which withholds federal funds from so-called "sanctuary cities."

Murray called for cities to "stand up and ask the courts to put an end to the anxiety in our communities and the chaos in our system" during a news conference.

Under the anti-commandeering doctrine of the Tenth Amendment, Seattle claims the federal government cannot force local governments to act against their will.

Comment: Meanwhile, Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson of Massachusetts had this to say:
"If these sanctuary cities are going to harbor and conceal criminal illegal aliens from ICE, which is in direct violation of Title 8 of the U.S. Code, federal arrest warrants should be issued for their elected officials," Hodgson said. "Our citizens would be safer if we never stopped enforcing immigration law and if we never formed or turned a blind eye toward sanctuary cities."

He also took aim at a Massachusetts legislator who passed along rumors of a planned ICE raid in Brockton on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Rep. Michelle DuBois, D-Brockton, warned her constituents in a Facebook post "if you are undocumented don't go out on the street. If there is a knock on the door of your house and you don't know who it is, don't open the door."

Hodgson called her actions "outrageous."

"This is the most outrageous, outrageous example of what is going on across the United States that is undermining my job and every other law enforcement officer in the United States," he said.
And DC mayor Muriel Bowser and police chief Peter Newsham reiterated that DC will continue not to enforce civil immigration law after being asked about suspected murderer El Hadji Alpha Madiou Toure's immigration status:
"I think you know that the Metropolitan Police Department does not ask questions about immigration status," he said.

"It's a long-standing policy of the Metropolitan Police Department not to enforce civil immigration law," Newsham continued. "We believe that the enforcement of civil immigration laws creates a divide between us and the community we serve and at the end of the day we believe that will make our community less safe. As the Chief of Police, I don't think I should be involved in any behavior that makes our city less safe."

Newsham said that in a discussion with the U.S. Attorney General, major city police chiefs collectively expressed their view that civil immigration enforcement is not the role of major police departments.

"The District - we are not responsible for civil immigration enforcement, like the Chief said," Bowser stated. "Our job is to enforce the laws of the District of Columbia and we are not local I.C.E. officials."

"We are not; however, a harbor for criminals - no matter where you're from," she added. "The police department will deal with criminals - violators of the law. They will be charged, they will be prosecuted, and they will be held."

"I don't think our policies are in violation," Bowser said. "The Federal Government does not compel the District to do its job. And the Federal Government's job is immigration enforcement."
In other words: "Immigration is the feds' job." That's reasonable in some contexts, like dealing with the public. But if DC is so concerned about fighting crime, wouldn't they think the threat of immigration law might be at least a little bit effective in dealing with criminals? At what point does someone's immigration status become relevant? Never? If that's their answer, it's an insane one.


Question

End of encryption? Tech giants ordered to clamp down on online extremism spread through social media

Britain's Home Secretary Amber Rudd
© Stefan Wermuth / ReutersBritain's Home Secretary Amber Rudd
Tech firms must do more to tackle terrorism and extremist propaganda being organized and spread through social media applications, British Home Secretary Amber Rudd will tell industry heavyweights.

Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Twitter bosses are expecting a grilling at the private meeting on issues like encrypted messaging, a feature which Rudd has criticized in the wake of last week's Westminster attack.

WhatsApp, the chat application that attacker Khalid Masood allegedly used, is owned by Facebook. Apple was reportedly not invited to the gathering.

Bullseye

'If US is world's conscience, why doesn't it see what's happening in Yemen?' - Zakharova

Protesters against Saudi airstrikes Yemen
© Mohamed Azakir / ReutersProtesters carry banners as they take part in a protest against Saudi-led air strikes on Yemen
The US cannot be the world's "moral conscience" by any stretch of the imagination, as both its actions and inaction in Yemen, Iraq and Syria show a lack of basic compassion, according to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

American envoy to the UN Nikki Haley said on Wednesday that the US is the "moral conscience" of the world, and that it would not give up this role, at the same time calling the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) "corrupt" - without providing any evidence for her accusations.

American actions worldwide, however, mainly constitute a significant lack of conscience, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zakharova said at a press briefing on Thursday.

Igloo

Putin to Arctic Forum: Climate change real, but isn't man-made

Putin arctic forum
Putin at the Arctic Forum
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that global warming is real but has been going on long before the "man-made effects" that climate science points to as its primary cause.

Speaking at the International Arctic Forum in Arkhangelsk on Thursday, Putin said (rushed transcript):
"What I'm about to say may be unpopular. But we will respect the various agreements and Russia will do just that, just like we abided by the Kyoto protocols. Yesterday I visited the French archipelago and back in 1930s I think, an Austrian pioneer and researcher visited that place and issued a description of the glacier and twenty years later an Italian king visited and found that ice cover had melted. This warming started back in the 1930s. And back then, we did not have not have these man-made effects, but the warming was already there. It's not a question of prevention, I agree with those who say it's not a matter of prevention because you can't prevent it. [Global warming] may be a global trend, a global cycle. A planetary cycle. You just need to adjust to that. "

Comment:


Rocket

Russian military checkmate: 'Unstoppable' hypersonic Zircon missile has Navy destroying 4,600mph speed

Russian warships Zircon missiles
Russia creates 'unstoppable' hypersonic Zircon missile with Navy destroying 4,600mph speed
Russia claims to have created a devastating hypersonic missile that travels five times faster than the speed of sound and could rip through navy warship defenses because it's too fast to stop.

The Kremlin's Zircon missile has been called "unstoppable", "unbeatable" and "undefendable" with a 4,600mph speed that only one defense system in the world can destroy - that system is owned by Russia.

The missile employs revolutionary scramjet technology to reach its hypersonic speeds whereby propulsion is created by forcing air from the atmosphere into its combustor where it mixes with on-board fuel - rather than carry both fuel and oxidizer like traditional rockets. This makes it lighter, and therefore much faster.

It uses no fans, rotating turbines or moving parts - just an inlet where air is compressed and a combustor where the air is mixed with fuel. Fewer moving parts also means less chance of mechanical failure.

Che Guevara

Monsanto is being pushed out of India

Monsanto India
© REUTERS/Adnan AbidiA farmer protests against Monsanto in New Delhi in August 2013. The dispute in India with the cotton seed multinational has disrupted the country's $1.8 billion-a-year seed industry.
Tens of millions of dollars were within reach for M. Prabhakara Rao as he prepared in April 2015 to take his Indian cotton seed company public.

The Indian businessman already had $54 million in initial funding from an American private equity investor. Rao had also locked in a long-term licensing agreement with Monsanto Co, the world's largest seed company, for the technology used in genetically modified cotton seeds that made up the majority of his annual sales.

Two months after publishing his initial public offering plan, Rao gambled. He sent one of his executives to negotiate a 10 percent cut in royalties with Monsanto. The multinational said no.

The outcome of that meeting ignited a corporate battle that has left Rao's IPO plans in tatters and drawn in the Indian and U.S. governments. More ominously, the fight has disrupted India's $1.8 billion-a-year seed industry, with Monsanto saying it may abandon the market.

Bad Guys

Mexican attorney general faces drug trafficking charges after arrest in California

Edgar Veytia
Edgar Veytia, the Attorney General in the Mexican state of Nayarit.
A Mexican state attorney has been arrested in San Diego, accused of conspiring to smuggle and traffic drugs. The charges against Edgar Veytia were filed in New York, in the same jurisdiction where Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán was charged.

Veytia (46), the attorney general for the state of Nayarit, was arrested on Monday at the Cross Border Xpress Bridge which connects Tijuana Airport and the US, reported KNSD. He was indicted on charges of conspiracy to illegally import, manufacture and distribute heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana and cocaine.

The charges date back to January 2013, the year he became attorney general, and cover the period through to February 2017. They relate to at least 1kg (2.2lb) of heroin, 5kg of cocaine, 500g of methamphetamine and 1,000kg of marijuana, reported KNSD.

Allegations of ties between the attorney general and the Jalisco New Generation cartel have appeared in Mexican media before, according to the LA Times. Led by Nemesio Oseguera, also known as El Mencho, it's one of Mexico's newest and fastest growing cartels and it operates in Nayarit.

Comment: See also: El Chapo Guzmán, Washington's Drug Problem, and the North American Police State


Chess

Theresa May to use powers dating back to Henry VIII to convert EU laws without parliamentary scrutiny

Theresa May
© Dylan Martinez / Reuters
A day after invoking Article 50, setting Brexit negotiations in motion, the government will set out plans to convert European laws into domestic legislation. Up to 1,000 will be passed without parliamentary scrutiny, using powers dating back to Henry VIII.

Prime Minister Theresa May will on Thursday publish a white paper detailing the Great Repeal Bill.

The bill will repeal the European Communities Act, which says EU law is supreme over Britain's, repatriating more than 40 years of powers back to Westminster from Brussels.

It will transpose existing EU legislation into domestic UK law and ensure the UK leaves the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. This, the government says, will avoid a "black hole in our statute book" and will mean the "UK will be an independent sovereign nation."

Comment: May has also been accused of using the threat of terrorism as leverage during Brexit negotiations:
In a letter handed to the President of the EU Council Donald Tusk by the UK's ambassador to the EU Tim Barron, May stressed the UK's primary intent is to maintain a "deep and special partnership" EU members.

However, the letter's positive vibes soon took a more threatening tone.

"In security terms, a failure to reach agreement would mean our cooperation in the fight against crime and terrorism would be weakened," the PM said.

The European Parliament's Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt told MEPs it is unacceptable for the UK to use its strength in intelligence and security services as leverage to secure a good trade deal from EU negotiations.

When asked if he thought May's suggestion amounted to blackmail, Verhofstadt said: "I tried to be a gentleman towards a lady, so I didn't even use or think about the use of the word blackmail.

"I think the security of our citizens is far too important to start a trade-off of one and the other," he said.

"Both are absolutely necessary in the future partnership without bargaining this one against the other."

May shrugged off accusations in the House Commons of using security cooperation as a "bargaining chip" to obtain a good deal for the UK.

"We will not be trading the security of our country, but we have a relationship with the EU," she said.



Propaganda

RT covered both of this week's big protests, guess what Fake News CNN did

Russia protests
© Reuters / Ruptly
If you are relying on CNN for your news, you are probably only getting half the story. Especially if two major European stories of recent days are anything to go by.

On Sunday, as protests took place across Russia, I found myself far from the action. In a Balkan hotel room, to be precise, where the only channel available in either English, Russian or German was CNN. And it's fair to say they offered tremendous coverage of the rallies, even if they exaggerated their importance. In fact, you might suggest they appeared to revel in them.

And, you know what? If marches were held in America, against a top US official, there's little doubt RT would be on hand to document them too. Because that's what international news outlets should do. Hence, why RT viewers and readers on Sunday were kept well informed of events. Indeed, I was able to pair up CNN's TV output with RT's live online feed to follow everything more carefully.

Bad Guys

'Civilians bombed every day': US to launch formal investigation into Mosul airstrikes

Displaced Iraqis flee their homes, while Iraqi forces battle with Islamic State militants in western Mosul
© Zohra Bensemra / ReutersDisplaced Iraqis flee their homes, while Iraqi forces battle with Islamic State militants in western Mosul
The US military has elevated the level of inquiry into the suspected Mosul airstrike that allegedly killed dozens of civilians from a "credibility assessment" to a full formal investigation, the head of the US Central Command has said at a Congress briefing.

"It will be a more formalized approach to really look into the details of this as much as we can to establish what happened, establish what the facts are, identify accountability and then certainly identify the lessons learned out of that," Army General Joseph Votel, the US CENTCOM commander, saidduring a House Armed Services Committee hearing, referring to the incident on March 17.

Dozens of civilians died as a residential building in western Mosul collapsed after a suspected airstrike carried out by the US-led coalition.