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Trudeau accuses China of 'arbitrarily' applying death sentence in drug smuggling trial against Canadian national


CBC
Mon, 14 Jan 2019 17:16 UTC
Lloyd Schellenberg
© CCTV via Associated Press
Canadian Robert Lloyd Schellenberg attends his retrial at the Dalian Intermediate People's Court in Dalian, northeastern China's Liaoning province on Monday, Jan. 14, 2019
A Chinese court on Monday sentenced a Canadian man to death for drug smuggling - a ruling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was quick to condemn and one that is certain to aggravate tense relations between Beijing and Ottawa.

The Dalian Intermediate People's Court in China's northeast province of Liaoning retried Abbotsford, B.C. native Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, who had appealed his original 15-year sentence. The court decided on execution, it said in a statement on its website.

Trudeau said Canada will always intervene when a Canadian is sentenced to death in another country.

"It is of extreme concern to us as a government, as it should be to all our international friends and allies, that China has chosen to begin to arbitrarily apply [the] death penalty ... as in this case facing a Canadian," he told reporters Monday morning.
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Telephone

Trump, Erdogan discuss creating security zone in North Syria


Sputnik
Mon, 14 Jan 2019 20:46 UTC
Trump ph
© Michael Reynolds/EPA
President Donald Trump
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlet Cavusoglu earlier addressed the US president's warning of "economic devastation" should Ankara target US-backed Kurdish forces in Syria, saying ties and collaboration with "terrorists will lead nowhere" and calling the US to showcase respect for his country.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US President Donald Trump discussed by phone the creation of a security zone in northern Syria "based on the principles of the country's territorial integrity", according to a statement by a Turkish official.

"Our president held phone talks with his American counterpart Donald Trump. They discussed bilateral relations and events in Syria," Erdogan's office said in the statement.

A rift between Ankara and Washington further intensified following Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu's announcement last week that Ankara would kickstart a military operation east of the Euphrates River if the US failed to withdraw its troops from the Arab Republic in due course. Separately, he called for the United States and all other countries to show due respect for Turkey:
"Cooperation with terrorists will lead nowhere. May we remain hungry, without food and water, but we will do everything that is necessary. The United States and all other countries should show sufficient respect for Turkey", Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlet Cavusoglu pointed out, however assuming that Trump is "under great pressure, so that he doesn't withdraw troops from Syria."

Comment: Both Turkey and the US have issued demands and threats as to what happens next in Northern Syria involving the Kurds. Can either country be trusted to hold to an agreement, should drama be set aside and cooler heads prevail?
See also:

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Dollar

Ecuadorian President Moreno, prepared to trade Assange for IMF payoff, is 'auditing' his asylum and citizenship


21st Century Wire
Fri, 04 Jan 2019 00:00 UTC
Assange/Moreno
© Unknown
Julian Assange • President of Ecuador Lenin Moreno
As 21WIRE outlined in its annual Year in Review Report, 2018 was the year in which concerted moves between the US and Ecuadorian governments became visible, with the two states conspiring behind closed doors to bring WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange to America for an unlawful trial based on trumped-up and specious legal claims, including those made by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who has repeatedly accused WikiLeaks of being "a non-state hostile intelligence service." In normal times, Julian Assange and Wikileaks would be classed as a publisher and therefore should be protected under freedom of the press. This fundamental principle is something which the corporate mainstream media cartel has neglected to spell out to their own readership - which should call into question their own legitimacy as members of the "free press."

Ecuador's previous president, Rafael Correa, understood the gravity and importance of the Assange case, and extended diplomatic protection and granted citizenship to Assange. However, the current president, Lenín Moreno, was quick to stab Assange in the back as soon as Washington's hawks began circling. Moreno's betrayal of his government's previous recognition of international law is likely to come down to some lucrative favors (as well as likely threats) from Washington DC. One concession might be a financial bailout for Ecuador, courtesy of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). There is also another outstanding issue - a judgement of liability against oil giant Chevron for its role in destroying Ecuador's environment and rainforest.

Taking both of these factors into account, Moreno could very well be involved in one of the biggest international bribery (or extortion) cases in history. In the latest episode of this drama, The price (or payoff) for delivering the head of Julian Assange? A cool $10 billion.

Comment: Assange is not a commodity, nor a criminal, nor a pawn for bad business deals in Ecuador. Sealed US charges against Assange are illegal under international law, in violation of multiple Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which the US is both a signatory and a creator.
See also:

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Calendar

Pentagon: Border deployment extended through September at the US-Mexican border

Tara Copp
Military Times
Tue, 15 Jan 2019 00:00 UTC
Military/Wall
© Sgt. Brandon Banzhaf/Army
Military policemen watch as soldiers with the 515th Sapper Company, 5th Engineer Battalion, 36th Engineer Brigade make repairs on concertina wire Dec. 19, 2018, at Nogales, Ariz.
The Pentagon announced late Monday that it is extending the mission of active duty troops to the Mexico border through September, marking almost a year-long domestic deployment of forces there.

The approximately 4,500 active duty and National Guard forces now on the border were first sent there in late October 2018 to meet a request from President Donald Trump and the Department of Homeland Security to secure border entry points from thousands of immigrants traveling north through Mexico to seek asylum in the U.S. Several units have rotated in and out during that time, and have been tasked to lay concertina wire, barriers and help assist border patrol agents at points in Texas, Arizona and California.

The mission for those troops extending through September will also slightly change to add more surveillance, but some will still be laying wire, DoD said.

The Pentagon said in a statement:
"In response to the December 27, 2018 request from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Acting Secretary of Defense Pat Shanahan approved Department of Defense assistance to DHS through Sept. 30, 2019. DoD is transitioning its support at the southwestern border from hardening ports of entry to mobile surveillance and detection, as well as concertina wire emplacement between ports of entry. DoD will continue to provide aviation support."

Comment: See also:

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Light Sabers

Media digs up Tulsi Gabbard's alleged 'homophobia' in decades-old comments

Carla Herreria
Huffington Post
Sat, 12 Jan 2019 17:06 UTC
Tulsi Gabbard
© Getty Images / Tom Williams
It's been one day since Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) announced she was running for president in the 2020 election, and parts of her conservative past are already coming back to haunt her.

They returned in the form of homophobic remarks the congresswoman made over a decade ago. At least twice the Hawaii Democrat publicly called the LGBTQ community and supporters of same-sex marriage "homosexual extremists."

In one instance in February 2004, Gabbard, at the time a 22-year-old state representative, was testifying against a bill aimed at legalizing same-sex civil unions.

"To try to act as if there is a difference between 'civil unions' and same-sex marriage is dishonest, cowardly and extremely disrespectful to the people of Hawaii," she said. "As Democrats, we should be representing the views of the people, not a small number of homosexual extremists."

Comment: While Tulsi may hold traditional views on marriage, that does not equate with being "homophobic". It's also rather unfair to hold her feet to the fire for something she said when she was just 22 years old. If we all were held to that standard, none of us would be employable.

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Bad Guys

Moscow won't re-engage with Council of Europe until voting rights restored - Russian speaker


RT
Tue, 15 Jan 2019 16:17 UTC
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
© REUTERS / Vincent Kessler
FILE PHOTO. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in session. Picture taken with fisheye lens.
Moscow's position on its participation in the work of the Council of Europe remains unchanged - no re-engagement until its voting right is restored, the Russian parliament speaker told his visiting Finnish counterpart.

On Tuesday, Vyacheslav Volodin is hosting Paula Risikko during the official's visit to Russia. Moscow's continued absence from the work of the Council of Europe, the 47-member-strong rights body, topped the discussion. The Russian speaker said that, while Moscow values being part of the council and its various bodies, it won't re-engage with it as long as discrimination against Russia there continues.

"We don't require any special status for Russia. We insist on one thing, that all 47 member nations should be equal, as it is stated in the founding charter of the Council of Europe," Volodin told Risikko.

Russia was stripped of its voting rights in the council and its parliamentary body PACE in 2014 in response to the political crisis in Ukraine, and Russia's acceptance of Ukraine's breakaway region of Crimea. Moscow responded by suspending its participation in all events of the council. Since 2017, Russia has suspended its contribution to the council's budget, saying the money will be transferred after Russia's voting rights are restored in full and the rules are changed to prevent similar discrimination against any member in future.
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Chess

Tokyo's attempts to attach the US to Russia-Japan peace talks are 'outrageous' - Lavrov


RT
Tue, 15 Jan 2019 16:12 UTC
Russian Japanese flags
© Reuters / Konastantin Salomatin
Japan must stop trying to include the US in peace talks with Moscow and must abandon its territorial claims if it's to make any progress, Russian FM Sergey Lavrov said, adding that American missiles in Japan were also of concern.

Moscow and Tokyo have recently redoubled efforts to seal a peace treaty - which the countries haven't yet signed since the end of World War II - but "significant disagreements" remain, Lavrov said Monday, as negotiations kicked off in the Russian capital.

Among them are Japan's recent attempts to turn its ally, the USA, into being part of the talks, which Lavrov blasted as "outrageous." He said he relayed Russia's stance on this issue to his Japanese counterpart, Toro Kano, during their meeting in Moscow.

Earlier in January, an aide to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that he wanted the "US to understand the importance of concluding a Japan-Russia peace treaty as a means to jointly counter the threat from China."
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Bad Guys

Israel's Army Chief admits to providing weapons and support to 'Syrian rebels' in Golan Heights

Jason Ditz
AntiWar.com
Mon, 14 Jan 2019 00:00 UTC
rebel fighters in Syria
While reports to that effect have been around for months, over the weekend, Israeli Army Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot finally confirmed that the Israeli military indeed provided weapons to Syrian rebels operating in Golan during the Syrian War.

This was the first official confirmation from the army chief, but back in September Israeli media were reporting that Israel has armed as many as 12 rebel factions. Those reports were quickly censored by the Israeli military, however.

The rebel factions have been confirming such support for awhile as well, saying they were given large amounts of money and aid as well. Syria confirmed capturing arms and munitions with Hebrew writing on them held by the rebels.

Comment: The arming of 'rebels' fits perfectly with Israel's Yinon Plan for a "Greater Israel':
Written in 1982, Israel's famous "Yinon Plan" also called for the fractionalization of Syria, revealing that what is today a "Plan B" was once a "Plan A." The plan advocated for the federalization of Syria as strategic destruction on the Syrian state by the Israelis and their allies. As Khalil Nakleh wrote in the opening to Oded Yinon's A Strategy For Israel In The Nineteen Eighties,
The plan operates on two essential premises. To survive, Israel must 1) become an imperial regional power, and 2) must effect the division of the whole area into small states by the dissolution of all existing Arab states. Small here will depend on the ethnic or sectarian composition of each state. Consequently, the Zionist hope is that sectarian-based states become Israel's satellites and, ironically, its source of moral legitimation.
See also: The man behind the curtain: Israeli colonel captured among ISIL terrorist forces in Iraq

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Briefcase

Russian foreign minister: US doesn't understand need to positively respond to N. Korea's steps on denuclearization


Interfax
Mon, 14 Jan 2019 15:26 UTC
north south korea peace

Pyongyang and Seoul meet
Washington does not fully realize the need to positively respond to North Korea's steps in the direction of denuclearization and normalization of relations, a Russian Foreign Ministry official said.

"The way the South Korean administration is building its line - step by step, in parallel, by reciprocal steps - is a good example to the U.S. partners, too. Unfortunately, the U.S. administration currently has no clear understanding of the need to react positively," Russian Foreign Ministry Ambassador-at-Large Oleg Burmistrov, who supervises the settlement process on the Korean Peninsula, said in an interview with Interfax.

Comment: Xi to Trump: N. Korea has legitimate security concerns that need to be addressed

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Stormtrooper

Turkey slams Trump over warning on 'economic devastation' - says it 'protects' Kurds against 'terrorists'


Sputnik
Mon, 14 Jan 2019 12:39 UTC
syrian militants turkey
© Associated Press
Pro-Turkey Syrian fighters and Turkish troops secure the Bursayah hill, which separates the Kurdish-held enclave of Afrin from the Turkey-controlled town of Azaz, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 28, 2018
Tensions between Ankara and Washington have further escalated over the Kurdish issue as Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced last week that Ankara would launch a military operation east of the Euphrates River if the US failed to withdraw its troops from the Arab Republic in time.

"Cooperation with terrorists will lead nowhere. May we remain hungry, without food and water, but we will do everything that is necessary. The United States and all other countries should show sufficient respect for Turkey", Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlet Cavusoglu said, addressing the US president's warning of "economic devastation" should Ankara target US-backed Kurdish forces in Syria.
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