by Oui
Tue Oct 1st, 2019 at 09:43:52 AM EST
The media outlet of the New York Times? Poor choice for a source on many matters relating to foreign affairs, especially the Middle East and the Islamic nations. Indonesia, the nation with the largest Muslim population, needs to get in line and enforce Sharia Law if it wants to play along with the wealth of fossil fuel states: Saudi Arabia, Emirates, Brunei and its neighbors Malaysia and Singapore.
○ Saudi Arabia's influence in Southeast Asia - too embedded to be disrupted?
h/t post by ARGeezer
More below the fold ...
by Oui
Sat Sep 28th, 2019 at 05:42:38 AM EST
Diary will be updated later ... more to come!
McCain Institute head Kurt Volker steps down as US diplomat | The State Press |
Executive Director of the McCain Institute Kurt Volker resigned from his position as the U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine Friday, following reports he collaborated with Ukraine and President Donald Trump.
An ASU official confirmed Volker's resignation Friday, and said the University could not speak about his future at ASU because the University does not comment on personnel matters.
Volker met with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Friday to announce he would be resigning, the official said.
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by Oui
Thu Sep 26th, 2019 at 03:19:03 PM EST
○ Boris Johnson refuses to apologise for language
Supreme court litigant advised to buy stab vest after death threats | The Guardian |
A leading lawyer in the legal fight against Boris Johnson's prorogation of parliament has said he may need to leave the country over death threats triggered by the supreme court case that ruled the suspension "unlawful, void and of no effect".
Jolyon Maugham QC has revealed that his local police and crime commissioner was sufficiently concerned by recent threats against his life that he was advised to buy a stab vest, while a former counter-terrorism expert was ordered to install a panic button in Maugham's home. High-end security equipment is also installed outside his home.
Continued below the fold ...
by Oui
Wed Sep 25th, 2019 at 11:26:23 AM EST
[Update 1+2 added]
The Brexit-Tories on the attack ... no sign of any humiliation or shame ... the attack dogs are out!!!
The Attorney General: "This parliament is a dead parliament ... the members have no moral right to sit on these green benches."
The Conservatives follow the line of Rees-Mogg.... "this was a Constitutional Coup."
The reactions now are getting degenerational ... unworthy of the House of Commons.
More below the fold ...
by Oui
Tue Sep 24th, 2019 at 08:16:55 AM EST
Building a Singapore on the Thames: financials, biosciences, surveillance, robotics, AI and regulatory convergence with the US of A. Becoming a satellite state inside Europe ... how will a united [?] EU react as it happens after the 31st of October. The magnetic pull of pure capitalism on the EU and its future ... care to extrapolate how the economics in the UK will regress or progress? A whole new ball game. Here is an introduction by the man himself from the Hudson Bay high rise ...
Johnson hints at major reforms to tax and industry post-Brexit | The Guardian |
In what Downing Street has billed as Johnson's setpiece Brexit speech in New York, on Tuesday morning he is to address US and Canadian businesspeople in the city's plush and newly built Hudson Yards district.
According to extracts of the speech released in advance, Johnson will promise that a post-Brexit UK would "roll out the red carpet" for US businesses, with "the most competitive tax rates and the best skilled workforce in the hemisphere".
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by Oui
Thu Sep 19th, 2019 at 04:59:49 AM EST
Humiliated in Luxembourg by a PM of the tiniest nation ...
○ Boris Johnson given two-week EU deadline for Irish backstop plan
With his back against an EU wall, limited in options by the House of Commons, threat of another blow by the UK's Supreme Court, Boris route to safety lies in making a deal and NI leadership and Ireland's Varadkar must get their act together. There is no more deadline extension in the offing from the EU. Even German industry leaders voice their concern for another delay, uncertainty and further costs. Just get it over with ... we're fed up with political deadlock.
DUP appears to soften stance on accepting EU regulations to make a NI-only backstop possible and a last-minute Brexit withdrawal with a deal.
More elow the fold ...
by Oui
Wed Sep 18th, 2019 at 12:37:45 PM EST
No words can express our grief when our democratic system is confronted with such a brutal murder.
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Live blog @AD.nl
Killing of crown witness's lawyer Derk Wiersum shocks Amsterdam | Al Jazeera |
Derk Wiersum was the lawyer for Nabil Bakkali, a crown witness in a case against 16 men accused of five murders.
The killing of Wiersum, a father and long-time criminal lawyer in Amsterdam, has sent shockwaves through the city and its justice system.
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by Oui
Tue Sep 17th, 2019 at 12:08:15 PM EST
This is a diary I'm still working on as the most recent developments will be placed in a larger context of the Middle East from the Levant through all lost territories of the Western colonial powers and into the AfPak region of South Asia.
h/t Richard Silverstein @TikunOlam
More below the fold ...
by Oui
Mon Sep 16th, 2019 at 11:07:48 AM EST
Update [2019-9-17 13:51:28 by Oui]: See follow-up diary -
Saudis Signal Iranian Build Cruise Missiles Used in Attack
"The courage and common sense
of a minority of senators will be cold
comfort to the millions of Yemenis
struggling to survive without adequate
food or health services amidst daily
bombing and shelling."
--Ray Offenheiser, Oxfam America
○ "Indifferent to Yemen's Misery," Senate Approves Massive Saudi Arms Deal | Common Dreams - Sept. 2016 |
○ Obama administration offered $115bn in weapons to Saudi Arabia: report | The Guardian - Sept. 2016 |
Libya - Syria - Yemen ... all in common President Barack Obama's legacy of eight years in power.
○ Drone Strikes Cause Fierce Blowback In Yemen by Oui @EuroTrib on Aug. 11, 2013
"Drones don't differentiate, they kill people"
More below the fold ...
by Oui
Sat Sep 14th, 2019 at 02:29:15 AM EST
○ Netanyahu seeks to annex parts of West Bank 'in coordination' with U.S. | NBC News - 3 days ago |
White House Intercepts: Israel placed Stingray catchers for first hand intelligence on Trump moves ...
Israeli Intelligence Spied on Trump's Cell Phone Calls | Tikun Olam |
File this post under "well, of course they did!" Politico reports today that Israeli intelligence implanted Stingray devices near the White House and other sensitive U.S. government facilities in order to intercept the cell phone calls of Pres. Trump ...
The Israelis weren't subtle about what they did. They didn't care whether U.S. officials knew what they were doing. Politico says U.S. officials knew about the interception because Israeli officials in meetings with them, would use specific language from documents or conversations that were only known inside the White House.
Continued below the fold ...
by Oui
Fri Sep 13th, 2019 at 01:50:15 PM EST
○ Netanyahu seeks to annex parts of West Bank 'in coordination' with U.S. | NBC News - 3 days ago |
White House Intercepts: Israel placed Stingray catchers for first hand intelligence on Trump moves ...
More below the fold ...
by Oui
Tue Sep 10th, 2019 at 04:52:39 PM EST
Never thought a line of praise for the BIG White Man ...
After the days of Boris' humiliation in the House managed by Bercow, I truly feel more comfortable going into the month of October.
More below the fold ...
by Oui
Tue Sep 10th, 2019 at 01:25:27 AM EST
See my earlier diary - Joy for A Day ... Boris Humiliated .
And - Plan B: A Revolt In House of Commons.
More below the fold ...
by Oui
Sun Aug 25th, 2019 at 07:01:32 AM EST
Not the Queen but the Courts to decide on confidence no-deal Boris and the improbability UK Parliament is allowed to vote.
Boris of London: game-set-match. Serving strawberries anyone?
Boris Johnson seeks legal advice on five-week parliament closure ahead of Brexit | The Guardian |
Boris Johnson has asked the attorney general, Geoffrey Cox, whether parliament can be shut down for five weeks from 9 September in what appears to be a concerted plan to stop MPs forcing a further extension to Brexit, according to leaked government correspondence.
An email from senior government advisers to an adviser in No 10 - written within the last 10 days and seen by the Observer - makes clear that the prime minister has recently requested guidance on the legality of such a move, known as prorogation. The initial legal guidance given in the email is that shutting parliament may well be possible, unless action being taken in the courts to block such a move by anti-Brexit campaigners succeeds in the meantime.
Continued below the fold ...
by Oui
Sat Aug 24th, 2019 at 09:19:37 PM EST
Money Can't Buy Greenland
Good for You Denmark!
To Greenland's Frozen Coast - photography by Rachel Fletcher
More below the fold ...
by Oui
Wed Aug 21st, 2019 at 05:26:59 PM EST
Especially his warlord John Bolton ...
US seeks to seize Grace 1 as Gibraltar moves to release | The Gibraltar Chronicle - Aug. 15, 2019 |
The US Department of Justice has applied to seize the Iranian supertanker Grace 1 in Gibraltar, just hours before the Gibraltar Government was poised to release it.
Gibraltar had been due to lift the detention on the ship this morning but the move by the US means the decision has now been adjourned until 4pm today.
The developments were revealed by Joseph Triay, the lawyer for Attorney General Michael Llamas QC, during a short hearing in the Supreme Court of Gibraltar.
Mr Triay said: "This application was to have taken a very different turn. It was to have been an application for no further order of detention."
The grounds for the US application are not clear at this stage but the court was told it was a request from the Department of Justice for mutual legal assistance.
Royal marines forced crew of Iranian tanker to kneel at gunpoint , says captain
More below the fold ...
by Oui
Sun Aug 18th, 2019 at 07:17:11 AM EST
Plan A to get a no-confidence vote and Labour leaders Jeremy Corbyn into Downing Street 10 is doomed to failure. This discussion is now behind us as ALL sides refuse to compromise. I wished I could believe there were negotiations between prties going forward in secret. I think that's not the case. There are talks through the media and it's leading nowhere.
There is just a slim chance Boris Johnson and his command of the playbook can be thwarted by a disunited opposition ... so sad.
As I posted a few hours back ...
Extraordinary times requires extraordinary solutions ... there will be a very short window of opportunity to rid the UK of Boris Johnson ... any deal to get an agreement to block a no-deal Tory-Brexit is fine with me ... in the first week of September I will accept any plan ... there is no one who should put his "position" first ... the caretaker Government should be just for a single purpose ... nothing else matters ... the UK will sink in a hole managed by all parties. There is no clear cut option ... what mess they created. Can Corbyn even manage to unite his "opposition" party ... no Constitution ... amazing country ... was Ireland united when the Titanic was launched in 1912? Another disaster waiting to happen ... just like a slow motion Hollywood film. No captain and the band keeps playing ... 🎭 🌘
h/t Bernard
○ Brexit: A Titanic Disaster
More below the fold ...
by Oui
Thu Aug 8th, 2019 at 08:23:46 PM EST
In another thread, a worthwhile discussion takes place about no-deal Brexit, early election and by-passing the House of Commons to force through the Tory-Brexit plan. Hatched man is PM's chief advisor Dominic Cummings. The rebels within the Conservative party will not accept the doomsday scenario the Brexiteers are preparing for Britain. The early days in September will be crucial to give Parliament their say or lose their voice on Brexit.
○ Re: "constitutional crisis"
○ Occupier Downing Street 10
More below the fold ...
