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Wed, 03 Nov 2021
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A lasting peace: Yemeni government ready for talks with Houthis to resolve crisis

Houthis
© Al Arabiya
Houthis
The Yemeni government is prepared to hold talks with Houthi rebels to resolve the ongoing crisis, yet the rebels should agree to participate in the upcoming consultations in Sweden without preconditions, Yemeni Ambassador to Russia Ahmed Salem Wahishi told Sputnik.

"The Government of the Republic of Yemen affirms its approval to participate in any upcoming consultations in order to achieve a lasting peace in Yemen based on the agreed references," Wahishi said.

The Yemeni authorities also emphasized the need to exert pressure on the Houthis to make them participate in the UN-led negotiations unconditionally, calling on the international community to take a firm stance against any attempt of the rebels to disrupt the consultations again.

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Interpol bows to US pressure, selects South Korean over Russian for new chief

Kim Jong-yang Interpol
© Newsis via AP
Jong-yang was elected for a two-year term at the body's annual congress
Former acting president Kim Jong-yang elected as leader of Interpol, in blow to Moscow's efforts at pushing for Russian.

Interpol has elected Kim Jong-yang of South Korea as its new president, according to the international police body.

Jong-yang, who had been serving as acting president, was elected for a two-year term at the body's annual congress in Dubai on Wednesday, finishing the four-year term of his predecessor who was arrested in China this year.

Dollar

European Union rejects Italy budget, paves way for sanctions

EU rejects Italy's budget
© Global Look Press / Werner Otto
The European Union took the first step on Wednesday toward fining Italy after ruling that the country's spending drive violates the bloc's fiscal rules. Brussels has rejected Rome's budget plan for 2019.

"The Commission confirms the existence of a particularly serious case of non-compliance," the EU said in its annual review of euro-area nations' spending plans referring to Italy's 2019 budget. "With what the Italian government has put on the table, we see a risk of the country sleepwalking into instability."

Brussels has repeatedly voiced concerns over Rome's borrow-and-spend plans, warning the Italian government that it could trigger another debt crisis that would hurt them all.

According to EU regulations, a member country's public debt cannot be higher than 60 percent of its gross domestic product, or - if it is - has to be falling towards 60 percent at a satisfactory pace.

Dollar

Iran and Iraq considering replacing US dollar in trade with local currency

persian bazaar
© Getty Images / Walter Bibikow
Apart from barter trade, Tehran and Baghdad are mulling the idea of using the Iraqi dinar for mutual transactions to reduce reliance on the US dollar amid banking problems Iran is facing due to US sanctions.

"Considering the problems that have emerged in dollar-based banking transactions, a joint proposal between Iran and Iraq is using Iraq's dinar in trade," Iranian ambassador to Baghdad Iraj Masjedi said, as quoted by Iran's Fars News Agency.

The announcement comes two weeks after Washington brought into action the second round of anti-Iranian sanctions that target the country's oil, shipping, and financial sectors. The previous batch of penalties, which came into effect in August, hit cars, carpets, metals trading, as well as access to the US dollar.

Chess

Could Spain derail Brexit deal over Gibraltar issue?

rock of gibraltar
© Reuters / Jon Nazca
As Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez threatens to reject the draft Brexit deal unless it clarifies the state of future talks on Gibraltar, Birmingham City University lecturer Dr. Arantza Gomez Arana speaks to RT about that possibility.

Prime Minister Sánchez underlined Spain's position when it comes to the draft agreement on Tuesday, stating that it must be modified to make clear that Gibraltar's future will rely solely on talks between Madrid and London.

"As of today, if there are no changes with respect to Gibraltar, Spain will vote no to the agreement on Brexit," Sanchez said. He also drove that message home on Twitter.

But what exactly would a "no" vote from Spain really mean for Brexit? Dr. Arantza Gomez Arana, a lecturer from Birmingham City University's School of Social Sciences and a member of its Centre for Brexit Studies broke down the situation for RT.

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Amnesty launches program to let netizens track US coalition destruction of Raqqa

raqqa
© CNES 2018, Distribution AIRBUS DS
Raqqa’s overview after the battle; 16 October 2017.
Thousands of digital activists around the world will take part in an innovative new crowdsourcing data project Amnesty International is launching today, which uses satellite imagery to help plot how the US-led military coalition's bombings destroyed almost 80% of the Syrian city of Raqqa.

"Strike Tracker" is the next phase of an in-depth Amnesty International investigation, in partnership with Airwars, into the shocking scale of civilian casualties resulting from four months of US, UK and French bombardment to oust the armed group calling itself Islamic State (IS) from Raqqa.

Amnesty International's field investigations and analysis since the battle ended in October 2017 presented compelling evidence of apparent violations of international humanitarian law (the laws of war) by the US-led Coalition. They prompted the Coalition to revise its civilian death toll statistics upwards from 23 to more than 100 - a 300% increase.

"Based on our meticulous on-the-ground investigations, hundreds of interviews amid the rubble of Raqqa, and expert military and geospatial analysis, we've been able to push the US-led coalition to admit to almost every civilian death case we've documented so far. But with bodies still being recovered from the wreckage and mass graves more than a year later, this is just the tip of the iceberg," said Milena Marin, Senior Adviser for Tactical Research on Amnesty International's Crisis Response team.

Light Sabers

Turkey could seek formal UN probe into Khashoggi murder if Saudi Arabia fails to cooperate

erdogan
© Reuters / Carlo Allegri
Turkey's foreign minister says his country could ask for a formal UN probe if cooperation with Saudi Arabia on the Jamal Khashoggi case comes to an impasse, adding that the truth must come out on who ordered the killing.

Speaking to reporters in Washington after meeting with his US counterpart Mike Pompeo, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu stated that Turkey has released all the information it has available on the Khashoggi killing.

He added that the truth must come out regarding who ordered the journalist's death and that Ankara could seek a formal UN investigation if cooperation with Saudi Arabia comes to a halt. He also indicated that the current level of cooperation is less than desirable.

Black Cat

Trump deflects as he says he 'does not know anything' about Assange

Trump Assange
© Reuters / Leah Millis / Peter Nicholls
President Donald Trump said he doesn't "know much" about WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange, dodging a reporter's question on whether the editor should go free. The claim follows reports that the US has secretly charged Assange.

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Tuesday, Trump produced a stunning claim, saying that he has a very superficial knowledge about the most famous self-exiled fugitive in the world:
"I don't know anything about him. Really, I don't know much about him. I really don't."

Comment: It is ungrateful of Trump not to take steps to grant Assange his freedom. However, there are so many surrounding him who would be destroyed if Wikileaks were allowed to bring the full weight of evidence against them. Ex-FBI director is known to have scuttled an earlier deal that would have see Assange set free in 2017. With the CIA-aided election of Moreno in Ecuador, the Deep State was in a perfect position to force his extradition. Ecuador has betrayed one of its own citizens, as has Australia.


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Brexit: A Political Farce Based on a Public Lie

Brexit posters

Equally-deluded: opposing camps on Brexit
When a dramatic event or trauma occurs to a person that fundamentally changes their life or life course, friends and often psychologists will immediately look to what was happening in the person's life that may have provoked this major change. That's called looking for context. Over the past 2.5 years, I've listened to, read, and watched many pundits and politicians expound on the topic of Brexit, what it means and the reason it came about. Yet not once did I hear any of these 'experts' mention the most important aspect of 'Brexit': the context in which it came about.

The result of Brexit - supposedly a simple vote on whether the UK should leave the EU - has become the farce it is today for one simple reason: the call for the referendum and the vote itself had, essentially, nothing to do with the UK's membership of the EU. Instead, the referendum was called by British politicians as a direct result of British political maneuvering, with the incumbent (then and now) Conservative party attempting to consolidate its grip on power in the face of an increasingly popular 'far right' UK independence movement that was founded on anti-immigrant sentiment and a desire to leave the EU (primarily to control immigration). The vote itself by the British people hinged on that same issue: immigration, or more specifically, immigration to the UK from Muslim countries, understood as being facilitated (or mandated) by the EU.

But why was immigration a sufficiently hot topic in the UK to provoke such a political calamity?

Chess

DUP begins flirting with Corbyn's Labour amid Brexit quagmire

Arlene Foster Michel Barnier  DUP brexit
© REUTERS/Yves Herman
DUP Leader Arlene Foster (L) meet with European Union's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier (R)
Theresa May got a stark warning about the power of her Northern Irish allies, the DUP, after they switched their support, siding with Labour in several parliamentary votes on a finance bill.

The move throws into doubt the future of the confidence and supply arrangement that sees the DUP's 10 MPs vote with the government. In return for their support, May pledged that there will be no separate post-Brexit status for Northern Ireland.