Turkey's parliament has given preliminary approval to a new constitution which will increase the powers of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

There will be a second round of voting later this week and, if approved, a referendum will follow.

Critics claim it amounts to a power grab by Mr Erdogan.

But the president says the changed system will resemble those in France and the United States.

Outgoing CIA Director John Brennan has warned US President-elect Donald Trump to avoid off-the-cuff remarks once he takes office.

He said spontaneity was not in the interests of national security.

Mr Trump is known for regularly making broad pronouncements on issues of national importance on his Twitter feed.

Mr Brennan also said that Mr Trump did not fully appreciate Russia's capabilities or intentions.

"I think Mr Trump has to understand that absolving Russia of various actions that it's taken in the past number of years is a road that he, I think, needs to be very, very careful about moving down," he said.

LONDON (AP) -- British anti-European Union politician Nigel Farage says he will attend Donald Trump's inauguration as U.S. president.

Farage, one of Trump's strongest U.K. supporters, told Sky News that he had been invited by Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant. He called the Jan. 20 ceremony in Washington "a great, historic event" and Trump's election "a political revolution."

Farage led the anti-EU U.K. Independence Party until November, and was a key player in Britain's vote to leave the bloc. He sees Trump as an anti-establishment ally, and visited the president-elect soon after the Nov. 8 U.S. vote.

Given that he declared victory and left politics, this is not as meaningful as it would have once been, but still.

The first of 3,500 American troops began rolling into Poland for a nine-month-long mission starting on Jan. 8, 2017. It's an unprecedented length of time for a U.S. armored unit to stay in Eastern Europe. The U.S. Army's 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division were heading to Zagan and Pomorskie, with the unit's 87 M-1 Abrams tanks following on trains.

It's the beginning of a bulked-up and continuous NATO troop rotation to counter a resurgent Russia. In addition to the tanks, the unit is bringing with it 18 self-propelled Paladin howitzers, hundreds of Humvees and 144 Bradley fighting vehicles which will spread out across Eastern Europe.

There hasn't been a U.S. military deployment in Europe this big since the Cold War.

But as the troops move beyond Zagan, they will fall under the shadow of Russia's land-based strike missiles in Kaliningrad, the Connecticut-sized enclave squeezed between Poland, Lithuania and the Baltic Sea. Russia has invested heavily in building up its military presence there in recent years.

Moscow (CNN)There's an old Russian expression: "If he beats you it means he loves you."
Now, in a chilling reminder of that sentiment, Russian legislators are moving toward decriminalizing some forms of domestic violence. Women's rights groups fear it will reignite a problem that still plagues much of Russian society.

The Duma has passed a bill in its first reading that has been dubbed the "slapping law." The pending legislation would consider an assault -- if it's a first offense that does not seriously injure the person -- an administrative, rather than criminal offense. The legislation would also apply to children.
Church and conservative influence
The bill's sponsors, including arch-conservative senator Yelena Mizulina, say the proposed law would simply bring family law into line with reforms passed last summer that loosened punishment for other minor assaults.
Mizulina has called the existing laws "anti-family" and a "baseless intervention into family affairs" that allows prosecution for just "a scratch."

I have to wonder about any Russia reporting coming from Amerian sources these days, but this doesn't seem obviously propagandistic, as far as I can tell -- but what do I know?

Alfonso Dastis, Spain's new foreign minister, seems to be of the opinion that a poor deal is better than no deal at all. He never raises his voice as he chooses the least-controversial words for his answers, picking his way around conflicts with a smile. This 61-year-old career diplomat with a background in law is familiar with the ins and outs of the European project, having served as Permanent Representative to the European Union under the first administration of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

Dastis says he never thought he would one day be tapped for the post of minister. The day before his appointment, he received a telephone call in Brussels: it was Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría. Two months later, he spoke with EL PAÍS in what is his first interview with a print media outlet.

Liberal candidate, Guy Verhofstadt, thinks that his own chances will be improved by the fact that the two large factions are bickering amongst themselves. Verhofstadt initially attempted to win the support of the Italian populists of the "Five Star Movement." But the Eurosceptics were sorely out of place in the liberal group. They eventually balked, and Verhofstadt was forced to bury his alliance with "Five Star" leader Beppe Grillo. Asked what he thought when his odd plan backfired, Verhofstadt replied, "Bugger!" His future could in fact grow bleaker still, for the liberal faction is rumored to be looking to get rid of the ambitious Belgian as leader of their parliamentary group. Meanwhile, the "Five Star Movement" has remorsefully returned to the radical anti-European faction, which is still led by "Brexiteer" Nigel Farage of the UK Independence Party.

So now we know why Five Star Movemet was changing groups. Or rather why ALDE leadership wanted them to.

The English-Speaking, German Loving, French politican Europe has been waiting for

Given the widespread appeal of anti-immigration and anti-European politics, Macron's position becomes all the more striking. It reflects not only his political and moral convictions but a strategic conviction as well: The French and the Germans, he believes, can still be rallied to the European project. He first expressed this position when, in early January, he published an editorial in Le Monde. Addressing the terrorist attack on a Christmas market in Berlin, he announced: "We are all Berliners, we are all Europeans." In crisp and compelling language, Macron argued for more and not less Europe. The answer was not to "expel refugees from the national community and build barricades between one another" -- the solution for which nationalists on both sides of the Rhine clamored -- but was instead to galvanize cooperation and compassion among Europeans. Whereas Le Pen and Valls see the refugees as a burden, Macron insisted they represented an "economic opportunity" for France and Europe.

Significantly, Macron repeatedly praised Merkel for maintaining, even in the face of terrorism, "our common values and preserving our common dignity by welcoming and lodging refugees in distress." But Macron had not only come to praise Merkel on her refugee policy but to provoke her on her monetary policy. Describing the euro as little more than a "weak Deutsche mark," he urged Germany to adopt a pro-growth and pro-investment strategy, all the while cutting slack to the EU's struggling members. Should Berlin fail to do so, Macron warned, the euro "would be dismantled in 10 years' time." In a clever riff on the concept of sovereignty -- which now has totemic significance for Europe's nationalist right -- Macron went on to argue that the euro will be saved only if Europe, and not its constituent members, acts like a truly sovereign body.

A lawyer for Julian Assange has indicated that the WikiLeaks founder is ready to face extradition to the US after Barack Obama commuted the sentence of US army whistleblower Chelsea Manning.

In sum, then, the Finnish political landscape around the UBI has fractured in a fairly discouraging way. On the right side of the spectrum, there is an idiosyncratic ethno-nationalist party whose position on the UBI is mostly incoherent, a skeptical conservative party that is mostly opposed, and a centrist party whose membership is split on the idea and whose leadership is interested but for all the wrong reasons.

On the Left, the traditional party of workers and the welfare state remains worried that any real UBI policy would undermine unions and social insurance, while the far left adores the kind of liberatory UBI that looks nothing like the actual UBI experiment the government ultimately approved.

Trump supporters in Russia unveil triptych portraits of Putin, Trump and Le Pen. In case you were in any doubt as to the trend here. pic.twitter.com/s5BPhejLHz

— Alex Andreou (@sturdyAlex) November 9, 2016

I've written extensively about the emerging network of trans-Eurasian direct cargo trains that is rapidly linking together dozens of cities in China and Europe. I often boast that these trains can make this 9,000-12,000 kilometer journey in less than two weeks -- and sometimes in as little as 10.5 days. Then a reader named Tony Restall left a comment on an article about the new train from the east of China to London and taunted:

"12,000 kms in 16 days -- seems like the Slow Train from China."

He then did the math which showed that if these trains were to travel around the clock, their average speed would only equate to 30-40 kilometers per hour.

While I explained that although these are direct trains that have a special "express" categorization, that doesn't mean they're moving non-stop around the clock. Through China, Central Asia, and Russia these trains make around 1,100 kilometers per day, while in Europe, where the rail network is more condense, their daily coverage drops to around 350 to 400 kilometers. But he had a point: although this is one of the faster cargo rail networks on the planet, it's really not going that fast.

As Barcelona develops its plans for a future local currency, which is due to be launched next year, it is keeping a close eye on the example of Bristol, in the United Kingdom. It has been four years since the south-western English city launched the Bristol Pound, a currency that runs parallel to sterling, and seeks to promote the local business sector. Ciaran Mundy, the CEO of the Bristol Pound, has plenty of advice for the Catalan capital: "Be ambitious, and seek to include a great diversity of businesses," he says.

"It has already made a huge difference in the way our citizens understand money,"  Mundy explains. "People from Bristol can see that change is possible and that they can attach a value to their money," Bristol was not the first city to create a local currency but it has been the most popular so far. In the UK, the town of Lewes, East Sussex, and the Brixton area of London have both run their own experiments, and there are now around 25 cities in the country, including Exeter and Liverpool, that have a similar local method of payment.

Asked about a possible deal with Russia, he said nuclear weapons should be part of it and "reduced very substantially", in return for lifting US sanctions.

...

"If you look at the European Union, it's Germany - it's basically a vehicle for Germany," he said.

...

Talking about international security, Mr Trump argued that he had said "a long time ago that Nato had problems. One; that it was obsolete because it was designed many many years ago, and number two; that the countries weren't paying what they're supposed to pay."

Has anyone here seen the German version in Bild? How is this being recieved/spun there?

In an interview with Bild and the Times, the US president-elect had indicated that he would aim to realign the "out of balance" car trade between Germany and the US. "If you go down Fifth Avenue everyone has a Mercedes Benz in front of his house, isn't that the case?" he said.

"How many Chevrolets do you see in Germany? Not very many, maybe none at all ... it's a one-way street."

Asked what Trump could do to make sure German customers bought more American cars, Gabriel said: "Build better cars."

What is striking is what generally is not discussed: bolstering the power of workers to bargain for better wages and redistributing wealth from the top to the bottom.

... It is a conversation fueled in part by fear: If the world is indeed in the throes of a populist insurrection, the pitchforks could do worse than to point here.

... Yet the solutions that have currency seem calculated to spare corporations and the wealthiest people from having to make any sacrifices at all, as if there is a way to be found to tilt the balance of inequality while those at the top hang on to everything they have.

More entrepreneurialism, mindfulness training, education focused on the modern ways of technology: These are the sorts of items that tend to get discussed here as the response to the plight of those left behind by globalization. That perhaps private equity overseers should not be paid 1,000 times as much as teachers while availing themselves of tax breaks is thinking that gets little airing here.

... But I have not yet heard a good conversation about what changes in globalization would address inequality."

That is not an accident, he [Stiglitz] surmised. Any sincere list would have to include items that involve transferring wealth and power from the sorts of people who come to Davos to ordinary workers via more progressive taxation, increased bargaining rights for labor unions, and greater protections for labor in general.

... Which means that the global populism insurrection is unlikely to lose momentum anytime soon.

Alexander Dugin, a far-right Russian philosopher who has long supported Trump, and of whom the new US president's chief strategist, Steve Bannon, has spoken positively, said he believed that Putin would now play nice with Trump, in order to win long-desired concessions in Europe and across the world.

"We don't have to do anything: we just have to not annoy Trump, not make him angry or provoke him with belligerent rhetoric, and everything will fall into our hands, like apples in the autumn. You don't even need to shake the tree; they just come tumbling down on their own."

It was a crisp and sunny Saturday afternoon downtown Frankfurt. Rhythmic chants echoed through off of shopping centers and historic buildings as a sea of people punctuated by bright pink knit hats, rainbow flags and signs declaring "#WhyIMarch", "Girls just want to have fun-damental human rights" and "Women's Rights Matter" moved through the heart of Europe's financial capital. Walking at the very front of the march were three little girls bundled up in winter coats and knitwear. "Hey hey ho ho discrimination has to go" and "No means no" they shouted, as the protest moved forward.

#WomensMarch #whyIMarch @AWID @UrgentAct @WHRDIC #Berlin pic.twitter.com/qaBerg4sWC

— Sema (@sem_karaman) January 21, 2017

pic.twitter.com/nbcarsObsT

— Women's March Paris (@womensmarchpar) January 21, 2017

At Paris' #WomensMarch now. Thousands of people marching against Trump & for #WomensRights! SUCH AN AMAZING CROWD! #WomensMarchParis pic.twitter.com/Rr8rtPwhsz

— #NotMyPresident (@France4Hillary) January 21, 2017

#womensmarchparis/ A #Paris: la "marche de femmes" contre Donald Trump réunit 2.000 personneshttps:/t.co/ARVIalMwcJ pic.twitter.com/eANobD6pN3

— BFMTV (@BFMTV) January 21, 2017

#TrumpPresident / Paris: la #WomensMarchParis contre Donald Trump part du Trocadéro https:/t.co/ARVIalMwcJ pic.twitter.com/YsWJIeLKdW

— BFMTV (@BFMTV) January 21, 2017

#womensMarchAntarctica (still photo from our march video in Paradise Bay this morning) video to come Thursday pic.twitter.com/MfebPcDJsy

— linda zunas (@lindazunas) January 21, 2017