by Oui
Tue Oct 15th, 2019 at 07:06:28 AM EST
[Update-1]
○ Boris Johnson 'on brink of Brexit deal' after border concessions | The Guardian |
○ UK and EU closing in on a deal, as negotiating teams work on legal text | Telegraph |
[End update]
○ EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier says a deal with Britain is still possible this week | AP |
Brexit deal 'still possible this week', says EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier | Sky News |
The EU's chief negotiator believes a Brexit deal is "still possible this week" as he returned to "intense" discussions with UK officials.
Speaking on his arrival at a gathering of EU ministers in Luxembourg, where Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay will also be present, EU negotiator Michel Barnier told reporters: "Our team are working hard."
More to follow ...
by Oui
Mon Oct 14th, 2019 at 07:21:08 PM EST
Leading in "diplomacy" ... the Russian designed S-400 missile system.
○ Nearly half of Turks favor purchase of S-400 missiles: Survey | Hürriyet News |
○ Failure to reign in Idlib jihadists makes trouble for Turkey
○ Kurds announce deal with Damascus on troop deployment to confront Turkish offensive | Middle East Eye |
In the Middle East, Russia is back | Gulf News |
Among the presidents, prime ministers, kings and princes who have visited Moscow over the past year to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin are some of the United States' closest allies, who once might have been expected to devote their travel time to Washington.
There's a new power rising in the Middle East, and it needs to be wooed.
Continued below the fold ...
by Oui
Fri Oct 11th, 2019 at 11:24:08 AM EST
Two Giuliani fixers face charges in US court | Kyiv Post | [Limited free articles]
In January 2019, Parnas and Fruman then introduced Guiliani to two highly controversial former Ukrainian prosecutors -- former General Prosecutor of Ukraine Viktor Shokin and his successor, Yuriy Lutsenko.
During these meetings, Lutsenko and Shokin alleged that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections on Hillary Clinton's behalf and that the U. S. Embassy in Ukraine, under the direction of U. S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie L. Yovanovitch at the time, was secretly assisting.
[...]
Giuliani was forced to reveal supplied notes of the Jan. 25-26 conversations with Lutsenko to the U. S. State Department, which turned them over to Congress. The notes also included an account of a Jan. 23 phone call with Shokin.
These meetings were organized by Parnas and Fruman and as stated in the notes they were present during these conversations.
Donald Trump Jr., Tommy Hicks Jr., Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman. (Credit: The Campaign Legal Center via AP)
Continued below the fold ...
by Oui
Tue Oct 8th, 2019 at 01:42:37 PM EST
Merkel: EU agreement on Brexit deal 'overwhelmingly unlikely' | DW |
German Chancellor Angela Merkel described the likelihood of the European Union ratifying UK Prime Minister Johnson's Brexit deal as "overwhelmingly unlikely" in a call between the two leaders on Tuesday morning, according to a Downing Street source.
Continued below the fold ...
by Oui
Thu Oct 3rd, 2019 at 07:13:23 PM EST
A long history of a divided state, caught up in collapse of West-European and Eastern Empires and the Rise and Fall of Communism in the 20th Century. The oligarchs run the nation ...
○ Zelensky unchained: What Ukraine's new political order means for its future | ECFR |
Viktor Pinchuk, Trump's Lonely Friend In Ukraine
In the first google search the organization "Yes" appeared ... a long history to join the EU and reset the relations with Russia.
[A number of links added are mine in article below - Oui]
Who are Donald Trump's friends in Ukraine? | DW |
US President Donald Trump has never been to Ukraine and has shown little interest in the country. In the past, he has accused the former Soviet Republic of attempting to sabotage his 2016 election campaign. At the time, information from Kyiv led to the resignation of his campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who earlier had advised a pro-Russian party in Ukraine and was later sentenced to prison for charges relating to his foreign lobbying work.
Continued below the fold ...
by Oui
Wed Oct 2nd, 2019 at 10:48:22 AM EST
A never ending tale of Red vs Blue ...
William Barr's 4-country effort to discredit the Trump-Russia inquiry, explained | Vox |
News reports this week have clarified that Attorney General William Barr's promised investigation into the origins of the FBI investigation of links between Russia and the Trump campaign is very real, and has involved high-level talks and meetings with the governments of four countries -- Ukraine, Italy, Australia, and the United Kingdom.
That's a motley assortment of nations whose links and relevance may not be obvious to someone who gets their news from mainstream sources.
The four countries link together as part of a counternarrative popular on the right that holds that the real scandal of the Trump-Russia affair is not anything Trump (or the Russians) did but a "deep state" plot by intelligence agencies to swing the election against Hillary Clinton.
Taking the narrative, add a lot of falsehoods and one creates multiple-conspiracies for news headlines and plenty of content.
More below the fold ...
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.
Continued below the fold ...
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".
Continued below the fold ...
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.
Continued below the fold ...
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 ...
