The new U.S. immigration curbs have cast uncertainty over the futures of thousands of Iranian students in the United States, with many losing hope of being able to finish their studies or find a job in the country. President Donald Trump's executive order bans travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries including Iran for three months, and there is little certainty of what will happen after that. Many of the students have spent their families' life savings to pay for an American higher education, which they hope will be a ticket to a well-paid job in the West or Iran. Now they fear if they leave the country, they will not be allowed back in. They also do not know what status they will have after the three months are up, and whether they will be allowed to study, live or work in the United States. Amin Amouhadi, 32, studies at the University of Georgia. His girlfriend, who is also Iranian, is about to finish her PhD in Canada. "We were planning to get married in a month and move in together but the current ban and its possible consequences have put the future of all our plans in jeopardy," he told Reuters. "I might quit my PhD program, (and) try to find a university in Canada to apply for. I can't think of any other plan." The United States is the most popular destination for Iranians studying abroad, despite decades of hostility between the two countries. The trend goes right to the top; Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's cabinet boasts more U.S. doctorates than did the cabinet of Trump's predecessor Barack Obama. About 8,700 Iranian students were at U.S. universities in 2014, a fifth of the estimated 50,000 Iranians studying abroad, according to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. More than 3,000 Iranian students have received PhDs from American universities in the past three years, over 7,000 U.S. academics including 40 Nobel Laureates said in a petition against the order signed by Trump on Friday. They said the ban could lead to the departure of many talented individuals. Mohammadreza Jalaeipour, a post-doctorate student at Harvard University, has canceled a study visit to Oxford University in Britain because he was afraid he would not be able to return. The 34-year-old said he was not hopeful of extending his studies in another American university or receiving a visa for a job in the United States. "This discriminatory and inhumane order is targeted to harm Iranian society. It shows that the U.S. government is dishonest when it says they have no problem with the Iranian people and they are only against the Iranian government," he said. Medical students could be among the hardest hit. Roozbeh Esfandiari is an Iranian who studied medicine in the United States before gaining a job as a researcher at Harris County psychiatric center in Houston. He said U.S. medicine school qualifications could not be easily transferred to other countries, so it would be a major blow for Iranian graduates if they were unable to work in the United States after several years of study. "This news (Trump's order) is a headache for Iranian doctors applying for residency," he said. The Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates said on its website that it was aware of the executive order and was evaluating the potential impact on international medical students and graduates. Even before Trump's order, the road to American higher education has always been a tough one for Iranians. Since there is no U.S. embassy in Iran, students must travel to embassies or consulates in other countries to apply, which can cost them thousands of dollars. Student visas can take many months to secure. Because of security concerns, Iranians can face background stiff checks. Zahra Razavi, a computer science student at the University of Rochester, said her husband had applied for a U.S. visa several times under the Obama administration, with no success. The Trump order has crushed their lingering hopes of living together in the United States, she added. "This disaster has caused depression and deep anxiety in me. It's impossible to continue this way. I have no choice but to say goodbye to my dreams and quit my studies." Shirin Sajadi, an Iranian psychotherapist in Boston, wants to help shell-shocked students from her homeland by offering them free psychotherapy sessions. "There's a sense of facing crisis and the need to make sense of the chaos surrounding us," she told Reuters. "Many immigrants have come to this country when they had nothing but hope for a better life. They've worked hard, played by the rules and hoped to succeed. But now that hope is gone."


News Bulletin Andy Murray of Great Britain returns the ball during a tennis match against Martin Klizan of Slovakia at the ATP Tennis tournament in Vienna, Austria, October 26, 2016. © AFP  Britain's Andy Murray has booked his spot in the second round of the Erste Bank Open by defeating Slovakia's Martin Klizan 2-1 in Vienna. Andy Murray. © AFP  Murray was tested in the Wednesday match as he managed to overcome his opponent after 2 hours and 22 minutes.  The Scot won the opening set 6-3, but the Slovakian kept up with him all the way in the second and came out on top to take it 7-6 and tie the match at 1 a-piece. Martin Klizan. © AFP  The number 1 seed, however, produced some master class performance in the 3rd and didn't let Klizan to even win a game as he advanced into the last 16 with a bagel. He'll next face Frenchman Gilles Simon. Loading ...


The leaders of Zimbabwe s ruling ZANU-PF party will meet on Sunday to approve the dismissal of President Robert Mugabe, the only leader the southern African nation has known since independence 37 years ago, two party sources have said. An extraordinary meeting of the party s central committee is expected to convene around 10:30 a.m. (0830 GMT) to consider removing the 93-year-old, four days after a military seizure of power ostensibly aimed at criminals within his entourage. Separately, state television said Mugabe would meet military commanders on Sunday, quoting the Catholic priest who has been mediating in negotiations with the president. On Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people flooded the streets of Harare, singing, dancing and hugging soldiers in an outpouring of elation at Mugabe s overthrow. ZANU-PF s central committee is also expected to reinstate Emmerson Mnangagwa as party vice-president, resurrecting the political career of the former security chief, nicknamed The Crocodile, whose sacking this month triggered the military s intervention. Mugabe s wife, Grace, will be fired as head of the ZANU-PF Women s League, the sources told Reuters, completing the demise of a 52-year-old former government typist who just a week ago stood in pole position to succeed her husband after Mnangagwa s dismissal. The pair s stunning downfall is likely to send shockwaves across Africa, where a number of entrenched strongmen, from Uganda s Yoweri Museveni to Democratic Republic of Congo s Joseph Kabila, are facing mounting pressure to step aside. In scenes reminiscent of the downfall of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989, men, women and children ran alongside the armored cars and troops who stepped in this week to oust the man who has ruled since independence from Britain in 1980. Under house arrest in his lavish Blue Roof compound, Mugabe has refused to stand down even as he has watched his support from party, security services and people evaporate in less than three days. His nephew, Patrick Zhuwao, told Reuters the elderly leader and his wife were ready to die for what is correct rather than step down in order to legitimize what he described as a coup. But on Harare s streets, few seemed to care about the legal niceties as they heralded a second liberation for the former British colony and spoke of their dreams for political and economic change after two decades of deepening repression and hardship. These are tears of joy, said Frank Mutsindikwa, 34, holding aloft the Zimbabwean flag. I ve been waiting all my life for this day. Free at last. We are free at last. The crowds in Harare have so far given a quasi-democratic veneer to the army s intervention, backing its assertion that it is merely effecting a constitutional transfer of power, which would help it avoid the diplomatic backlash and opprobrium that normally follow a coup. The United States, a long-time Mugabe critic, said it was looking forward to a new era in Zimbabwe, while President Ian Khama of neighboring Botswana said Mugabe had no diplomatic support in the region and should resign at once. For a graphic on Zimbabwe struggles, click


When Kim Jong Un inherited power in North Korea in late 2011, then-Chinese president Hu Jintao was outwardly supportive of the untested young leader, predicting that traditional friendly cooperation between the countries would strengthen. Two years later, Kim ordered the execution of his uncle Jang Song Thaek, the country s chief interlocutor with China and a relatively reform-minded official in the hermetic state. Since then, ties between the allies have deteriorated so sharply that some diplomats and experts fear Beijing may become, like Washington, a target of its neighbor s ire. While the United States and its allies - and many people in China - believe Beijing should do more to rein in Pyongyang, the acceleration of North Korea s nuclear and missile capabilities has coincided with a near-total breakdown of high-level diplomacy between the two. Before retiring this summer, China s long-time point man on North Korea, Wu Dawei, had not visited the country for over a year. His replacement, Kong Xuanyou, has yet to visit and is still carrying out duties from his previous Asian role, traveling to Pakistan in mid-August, diplomats say. The notion that mighty China wields diplomatic control over impoverished North Korea is mistaken, said Jin Canrong, an international relations professor at Beijing s Renmin University. There has never existed a subordinate relationship between the two sides. Never. Especially after the end of the Cold War, the North Koreans fell into a difficult situation and could not get enough help from China, so they determined to help themselves. A famine in the mid-1990s that claimed anywhere from 200,000 to three million North Koreans was a turning point for the economy, forcing private trade on the collectivized state. That allowed the North a degree of independence from outside aid and gave credence to the official Juche ideology of self-reliance. China fought alongside North Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War, in which Chinese leader Mao Zedong lost his eldest son, and Beijing has long been Pyongyang s chief ally and primary trade partner. While their relationship has always been clouded by suspicion and mistrust, China grudgingly tolerated North Korea s provocations as preferable to the alternatives: chaotic collapse that spills across their border, and a Korean peninsula under the domain of a U.S.-backed Seoul government. That is also the reason China is reluctant to exert its considerable economic clout, worried that measures as drastic as the energy embargo proposed this week by Washington could lead to the North s collapse. Instead, China repeatedly calls for calm, restraint and a negotiated solution. The North Korean government does not provide foreign media with a contact point in Pyongyang for comment by email, fax or phone. The North Korean embassy in Beijing was not immediately available for comment. China s foreign ministry did not respond to a faxed request for comment. It has repeatedly spoken out against what it calls the China responsibility theory and insists the direct parties - North Korea, South Korea and the United States - hold the key to resolving tensions. Until his death in 2011, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il made numerous entreaties to ensure China would back his preferred son as successor. While then-President Hu reciprocated, the younger Kim, in his late 20s at the time, began to distance himself from his country s most powerful ally. There s a lot of domestic politics in North Korea where this young leader who isn t well-known, he s not proven yet, especially has to show that he s not in the pocket of Beijing, said John Delury of Seoul s Yonsei University. I think he made the decision first to keep Hu Jintao and then (current President) Xi Jinping really at bay. Within months of coming to power, Kim telegraphed North Korea s intentions by amending its constitution to proclaim itself a nuclear state. The execution of Jang in 2013 sealed Beijing s distrust of the young leader. Of course the Chinese were not happy, said a foreign diplomat in Beijing focused on North Korea. Executing your uncle, that s from the feudal ages. In an attempt to warm ties, Xi sent high-ranking Communist Party official Liu Yunshan to attend the North s October 2015 military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Workers Party of Korea. Liu hand-delivered a letter from Xi praising Kim s leadership and including congratulations not just from the Chinese Communist Party but Xi s personal cordial wishes in a powerful show of respect. Xi s overture has been repaid with increasingly brazen actions by Pyongyang, which many observers believe are timed for maximum embarrassment to Beijing. Sunday s nuclear test, for example, took place as China hosted a BRICS summit, while in May, the North launched a long-range missile just hours before the Belt and Road Forum, dedicated to Xi s signature foreign policy initiative. Mao Zedong s description of North Korea s relationship with China is typically mischaracterised as being as close as lips and teeth . His words are better translated as: If the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold, a reference to the strategic importance of the North as a geographical security buffer. Despite its resentment at the pressure North Korea s actions have put it under, Beijing refrains from taking too hard a line. It said little when Kim Jong Un s half-brother was assassinated in February at Kuala Lumpur s airport. The half-brother, Kim Jong Nam, had been seen as a potential rival for power in Pyongyang and had lived for years in Beijing, then Macau. An editorial in China s influential Global Times warned after Pyongyang s latest nuclear test that cutting off North Korea s oil would redirect the conflict to one between North Korea and China. Zhao Tong, a North Korea expert at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center in Beijing, said North Korea was deeply unhappy with China s backing of earlier UN sanctions. If China supports more radical economic sanctions that directly threaten the stability of the regime, then it is possible that North Korea becomes as hostile to China as to the United States. (This story has been refiled to remove reference to uncle in paragraph 18)


One person was shot at an anti-Trump demonstration in Portland on Saturday as protesters crossed the Morrison Bridge, police said. "Everyone needs to leave the area immediately," police said on Twitter, and they asked witnesses to come forward.


John Cena popped the question to Nikki Bella on one knee. The Undertaker put one foot in the grave. And if you don't know the significance of these two events, you are not one of the millions of fans who watched Sunday night as the 33rd annual WrestleMania event unfolded. About 75, 000 attended the live show in Orlando's Camping World Stadium. The "Showcase of the Immortals" — as World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. likes to market the card — fulfilled its usual role of celebrating and capstoning a year of storytelling for the insular and bombastic world of wrestling entertainment. And make no mistake, that world is a big one: The WWE is a $1. 65 billion dollar company that has 750 million social media followers across multiple platforms and reports at least 3 million weekly television viewers. The major news of the evening for those who keep track of wrestling story lines had little to do with the main events in the ring. All five championship belts changed hands. But a proposal and a retirement were the most significant developments. Mr. Cena, a longtime WWE performer (and burgeoning movie star) proposed to his girlfriend and fellow wrestler, Stephanie Nicole better known to fans as Nikki Bella. The proposal and presentation of a giant engagement ring came in the middle of the ring, but only after the couple successfully performed in a mixed bout with matching finishing moves. She said yes. The Twitter account she shares with her sister, Brie, spread the news. The biggest news was saved for the finale when another longtime WWE performer, the Undertaker, made a dramatic, prolonged exit from the stadium to close the broadcast. Modern professional wrestling traces its lineage back through cable wars, territory fights, Vaudeville and carnival "strong man" contests. Throughout, performers who break the fourth wall talk of retirees "going out on their back" to make sure that favorable fan impressions of heroism are passed on to the next generation. And so it was last night when the anointed next big star, Roman Reigns, pinned the fabled Undertaker clean in the middle of the ring. Retirement for the performer, known in civilian life as Mark William Calaway, was never explicitly stated by the announcers on the broadcast or posted to the throbbing oversized screens in the stadium. But in a modern nod to the old tradition, chants of "Thank you, Taker" filled the arena, and corresponding hashtags flooded social media after the Undertaker left his fighting gloves, hat, and duster jacket in the middle of the ring. That these were the two most noteworthy events of wrestling's most highly publicized night is curious. Both Mr. Cena and the Undertaker have been performers for the WWE at this point, showing up every couple of weeks or monthly. Other performers work weekly on televised programming and at regional "house" shows. Over the last decade, the WWE has developed a formula of using high profile performers like this for major events. For instance, the MMA competitor Brock Lesnar will drop in for a several monthslong engagements and just as quickly disappear from known story lines. This year three of the most established performers were notably absent: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Hulk Hogan. These absences opened up prominent places in the spotlights for emerging performers at WrestleMania like A. J Styles and Kevin Owens. It was not clear if this was part of a planned changing of the guard or other palace intrigue engineered by Vince McMahon, the founder and owner of the wrestling empire. Fans will have to search for the truth amid the innuendo found in trade publications, or the lore of "kayfabe," the pro wrestling community's phrase for the staged story lines that may or may not speak to underlying rivalries. On Sunday night, the mass entertainment value was on full display. Mr. McMahon is known to enjoy connecting his wrestling product to mass culture by drawing celebrities to the event. Muhammed Ali, Liberace and Cyndi Lauper appeared at the first WrestleMania. So many other names have appeared since to fill a pretty robust Wikipedia page dedicated to chronicling special appearances — including one in 2007 by Donald J. Trump. This year's iteration was no exception. Rob Gronkowski, the star tight end of the New England Patriots, jumped in from the crowd to get involved in a Battle Royal match. The pop stars Pitbull and Flo Rida performed. Al Roker took a turn as ring announcer for a match. For the fans, this was their Super Bowl, their Oscars. And now it is done for another year until the next annual WrestleMania event in New Orleans, when the only seeming certainty is that for the first time in 25 years, no gong over the loudspeaker will announce the entrance of The Undertaker. Of course, this being professional wrestling, never say never.


The tried and true Donald Trump supporter doesn t care what the fuhrer does as long as he keeps saying catch phrase like we re gonna make America great again and we re gonna build a wall. As long as they can feel superior to Mexicans, Muslims and anyone with an education as they join in beating them up for wearing an offensive shirt that claims science is real to a Trump rally. No matter how much of a bump he gets afterwards and no matter how many times he declares himself victorious, the one thing Ted Cruz has on the Donald are his debating skills.Cruz isn t exactly a master. His shrill voice and the condescending look he gets on his face are enough for almost anyone to be willing to risk a night in jail for hauling off and punching him. At the end of the GOP debates, however, Cruz always got himself a nice little push in the polls. It s amazing that the smartest guy in the Republican room ended up being the least likeable guy in Washington. To call Ted Cruz smart in any other context is an insult to smart people.Cruz s big plan, then, is to challenge Donald Trump to another debate. He doesn t seem to be getting the memos. Trump is the only candidate with a mathematical chance of a secure nomination. He s polling high in every major contest left. His worst case scenario seems to be if the RNC screws him from his nomination with a contested convention, in which case the Republican party implodes anyway. The whole thing really has been glorious to watch.The one thing Cruz has going for him is The Donald s over-inflated ego. It may not allow Trump to simply back down from a senseless debate that can serve no purpose to Trump other than the loss of even more supporters. It s a noble move on Cruz s part; bold even to suggest another debate this late in the game. Unfortunately for him, his opponent has already kicked his political teeth down his throat and stands to gain nothing by accepting.That, of course, won t stop Ted Cruz from trying, so hopefully there are a few days of good Twitter name calling. That s far more interesting to cover than anything the GOP buffoons are still yammering about.


The White House put Iran "on notice" on Wednesday for test-firing a ballistic missile and said it was reviewing how to respond, taking an aggressive posture toward Tehran that could raise tensions in the region. While the exact implications of the U.S. threat were unclear, the new administration signaled that President Donald Trump intended to do more, possibly including imposing new sanctions, to curb what he sees as defiance of a nuclear deal negotiated in 2015 by then-President Barack Obama. The tough talk commits the administration to back up its rhetoric with action, which could cast doubt on the future of the Iran agreement and sow further uncertainty in an already chaotic Middle East, experts said. Trump has frequently criticized the Iran nuclear deal, calling the agreement weak and ineffective. Officials declined to say whether the military option was on the table, although Pentagon spokesman Christopher Sherwood said: "The U.S. military has not changed its posture in response to the Iranian test missile launch" on Sunday. A fiery statement from Trump's national security adviser, Michael Flynn, marked some of the most aggressive rhetoric by the administration that took office on Jan. 20, making clear that Obama's less confrontational approach toward Iran was over. Flynn said that instead of being thankful to the United States for the nuclear deal, "Iran is now feeling emboldened." "As of today, we are officially putting Iran on notice," he told reporters in his first appearance in the White House press briefing room. He said the launch and an attack on Monday against a Saudi naval vessel by Iran-allied Houthi militants off the coast of Yemen underscored "Iran's destabilizing behavior across the Middle East." Iran confirmed it had tested a new missile but said it did not breach a nuclear accord reached with world powers or a U.N. Security Council resolution that endorsed the pact. Analysts said Iran could interpret Flynn's warning as bluster given that the Trump administration is still formulating a response. "It's a vague way of drawing a line in the sand," said Mark Fitzpatrick, executive director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies-Americas. "Taken literally, it could mean: 'You do this one more time and you'll pay for it.' But how would the U.S. respond?" The warning could foreshadow more aggressive economic and diplomatic measures against Iran. Three senior U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a range of options, including economic sanctions, was being considered and that a broad review was being conducted of the U.S. posture toward Iran. One official said the intent of Flynn's message was to make clear the administration would not be "shy or reticent" toward Tehran. "We are in the process of evaluating the strategic options and the framework for how we want to approach these issues," the official said. "We do not want to be premature or rash or take any action that would foreclose options or unnecessarily contribute to a negative response." "Our sincere hope is that the Iranians will heed this notice today and will change their behavior," he said. Iran has test-fired several ballistic missiles since the nuclear deal in 2015, but the latest test was the first since Trump became president. The issue came to the forefront on the same day that the U.S. Senate confirmed former Exxon Mobil Corp Chief Executive Rex Tillerson as secretary of state. Trump told Tillerson at his swearing-in ceremony that "although you inherit enormous challenges in the Middle East and around the world, I believe we can achieve peace and security in these very, very troubled times." Simon Henderson, a Gulf expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said there was a danger of a miscalculation by Washington or Tehran. "The question now is will the Iranian logic be: 'My goodness, this guy is serious, we'd better behave ourselves?'" he said. "Or do they say: 'Why don't we tweak him a bit more to see what he really means, maybe test him.'" The administration's tough statement came midway through a three-day exercise by 18 U.S., French, British and Australian warships and an undisclosed number of aircraft close to Iranian waters in the Gulf, according to a statement by U.S. Central Command. Trump is due to hold talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a strident critic of the Iran nuclear deal, at the White House on February 15. The U.S. president and Saudi Arabia's ruler, King Salman, spoke by phone on Sunday and were described by the White House as agreeing on the importance of enforcing the deal and "addressing Iran's destabilizing regional activities." Sunni Muslim-dominated Saudi Arabia, home to Mecca and other Islamic holy sites, and Shi'ite Muslim-majority Iran are regional rivals.


At a town hall in Frost, Texas last week a voter expressed concerns about violence against women but Rep. Joe Barton was not interested in hearing them.The constituent asked Barton to work with Rep. Jackie Speier, a Democrat, to sponsor legislation that could combat violence against women a topic that has not much interested the Congressman in the past: Given your voting record opposing legislation protecting women from violence, will you make a commitment to us today, make a promise that you will reach out to Congresswoman Jackie Speier and work with her to see this bill successfully through Congress? Barton says he voted against the bill because he believes violence targeting women which happens literally everywhere is a state issue, not a federal issue. His audience was not pleased. The crowd responded with a chrous of boos. Violence against women, that s a national issue! one person yelled in response. That s an issue that impacts everyone everywhere, not only in this country, but everywhere! But Barton wasn t done. Pointing his finger at the man who had the audacity to suggest that he take a moment to care about women, he demanded: You, sir, shut up. You don t tell anybody to shut up! the man shouted back. You work for us! Close to 1,000 people attended the town hall. It s safe to say that most of them left knowing for whom they are not voting in the next election. Watch it below:


Less involvement by the United States in international affairs under President Donald Trump will have an impact on Germany and its European neighbors, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Tuesday, warning of a shifting world order. The withdrawal of the United States under Donald Trump from its reliable role as a guarantor of western-led multilateralism accelerates a change of the world order with immediate consequences for German and European interests, Gabriel said.


( ANTIWAR ) Complaining about Western "hysteria" surrounding repeated predictions of Russian military attacks on NATO member nations, Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to resolve two solid years of predictions to that effect with a straightforward assurance that " Russia is not going to attack anyone ." Putin accused Western nations of having "mythical, dreamt-up problems," and insisted the idea that Russia was going to attack the West was " simply stupid and unrealistic ." He added that he believes the idea is being played up to justify bigger military spending. The Russian president also sought to dismiss allegations that he is plotting to rig the US elections to his own benefit, noting that the US is a great power and not some banana republic with an easily manipulated political system. Russia has repeatedly denied involvement in such plots. NATO has played up the Russian threat to justify sending over 40,000 ground troops to the Russian border, with ever-growing numbers announced all the time. Such predictions started after the ouster of a pro-Russian government in Ukraine led to a civil war in that country's east, with NATO military leaders repeatedly predicting Russian tanks rolling across Ukraine into NATO countries.


By Matt Agorist Students at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan got a hefty dose of the police state this week as they were...


RT  The record shows Hillary "We Came, We Saw, He Died" Clinton is the 'Queen of War'.  She is fully supported by virtually the whole US establishment; a bipartisan, neocon/neoliberalcon, regime change/"humanitarian" imperialist axis.  On the opposite side, for all his personal pathology problems and incoherent twitter-mouth ramblings, Donald Trump seemed to be on the money when he said that if elected, Hillary would use Syria to unleash WWIII.  To check out if that holds, let's start with an essential backup.  The 'Queen of War', at the final US presidential debate in Las Vegas: "A no-fly zone [in Syria] can save lives and hasten the end of the conflict."  The 'Queen of War', in one of her 2013 speeches to Goldman Sachs, published by WikiLeaks: a no-fly zone would "kill a lot of Syrians."  The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, speaking to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: a no-fly zone in Syria "would require us to go to war, against Syria and Russia." why_hillary_won_t_unleash_wwiii_-_rt_op_edge.png  Predictably, the Clinton (cash) machine has been relentless promoting Hillary's no-fly zone. Whenever cornered, the machine switches the narrative to Russian hacking of the DNC. Edward Snowden, who knows a thing or two about cyberwarfare, stresses there is no solid proof Russian intel hacked the Democratic/Clinton machine. And if they actually did it, the NSA would know. The fact the NSA is mum reveals this is no more than information war.  Pass the missile launchers, please  Trump seems to have been more on the money when he insisted how Hillary will be outsmarted – as she already was in the past – when dealing with President Putin, who she has demonized as Hitler.  I have shown how Hillary will be prevented from launching WWIII because her no-fly zone is already implemented in Syria by Russia. And the Pentagon – reflecting Dunford's comments - knows it, no matter how emphatically soon-to-be-unemployed Pentagon head Ash Carter threatens "consequences."  The Pentagon ranks Russia and China as the number one and two "existential threats" to US national security, in that order. And the US government reserves for itself the privilege of a nuclear "first-strike"– which Hillary supports (but not Trump); this is part of the 2002 Full Spectrum Dominance doctrine.  The relentless hysteria now crystallized as Cold War 2.0 has led scores of analysts to game the actual – terrifying - possibility of a US-Russia hot war. As much as the Cold War MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) doctrine may now lie in the dust – exactly because Washington refuses to back down from "first-strike"– only armchair Dr. Strangeloves get their kicks with the possibility of fighting a nuclear power. Dunford does not seem to be one of them.  What Hillary Clinton will certainly do is to double down on proxy wars, Vietnam/Afghanistan-style. So expect a President Clinton to authorize full weaponization of those Beltway-loved "moderate" Al-Qaeda-in-Syria rebels with plenty of shoulder-held missile launchers. This could easily get out of control – with lethal, yet not nuclear, consequences.  That's exactly the point made by Mikhail Rostovsky in Moscow daily Moskovsky Komsomolets; if Hillary ratchets up tensions, "things could get out of hand."  Also expect not so proxy ratcheting up of tension in the South China Sea; after all it was Hillary who claimed 'mothership' of the pivot to Asia; and it was Hillary who steered intra-South East Asian maritime disputes into the boiling cauldron of wider US-China competition.  And if that was not hard boiled enough, US frustration will be at an all-time high after Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte's own pivot to China.  Say hello to my new Sarmat  A case can be made that official Moscow is carefully getting ready to work with a Clinton – as in Obama III – presidency, with Hillary, a devil they know well when she was Secretary of State, to be dealt with as a pragmatist, unwilling and unable to plunge US-Russia relations into total incandescence.  A Clinton presidency for its part should know better than overestimate Russia's financial "weakness."  The national debt of Russia is only 17.7 percent of GDP; for the US it is a whopping 104.17 percent of GDP, or $19.2 trillion. Russia in 2015 had a trade surplus of $150 billion, while the US had a trade deficit of $531.5 billion. The current account surplus of Russia was 5.1 percent of GDP, or 65.8 billion, while the US ran a current account deficit of 484.1 billion, or 2.7 percent of GDP.  Besides, Russia has all the natural resources it needs; unlike the US government, which believes it needs an empire of bases overseas and ten aircraft carrier task forces to secure the resources it lacks.  Moreover, as much as the Pentagon may continue to be infested by neocon cells, sound generals are also able to identify key Russian signals – such as the unveiling of the RS-28 Sarmat nuclear missile, which NATO calls Satan 2. The Sarmat delivers monster warheads of 40 megatons; boasts a top speed of seven kilometers per second; and is able to outfox any anti-missile shield system anywhere.


FOR decades, automakers have been able to count on a fundamental fact of American life: You pretty much need a car to get around. But lately, novel technologies, including services like Uber and advances in cars, are creating new alternatives for commuting, shuttling children and going to the store — particularly in urban settings. There are also demographic and economic trends in play. Many younger Americans do not consider owning a car a goal or necessity — or a necessary expense. So carmakers are looking ahead to a day when the automobile plays a smaller role, or even no role at all, in many people's daily routines. "The historical model is you buy a car and it's in your garage most of the time," said Glen DeVos, vice president for engineering and services at Delphi Automotive, a big developer and supplier of automobile technology. "It's the expensive thing you buy after your home, so if you can get around without owning a car, there are a lot of economic reasons people may not own a car, or own only one instead of two. " One clear sign of the shift is the increasing energy that carmakers are devoting to a design category the auto industry refers to as the "the first mile" challenge. It refers to the short distances some people must travel from home or work to a local destination, often a mass transit station. Not so long ago, this challenge was strictly a matter for transportation authorities, and barely registered with automakers. "People really didn't think of the first mile issue because the car was the primary way to get around,'' said Erica Klampfl, the global future mobility manager at Ford Motor Company. "You just drove your car to your destination. '' In many ways, the industry's race to solve the challenge involves the development of vehicles, an effort involving various carmakers, technology companies and firms. General Motors and its partner, Lyft, an Uber rival, are about to begin testing a fleet of cars ferrying passengers short distances in Detroit and other cities. Uber already has similar trials underway in Pittsburgh and has just expanded its tests to San Francisco. Next year, Delphi Automotive expects to have Audis providing rides to mass transit stations in a section of Singapore. Ford, meanwhile, has vowed to begin producing a car, with no steering wheel and no pedals, by 2021. The vehicle would be intended for services in large cities. If these types of cars and services proliferate, Mr. DeVos at Delphi said, people will have more freedom to not own automobiles. Monica Manjarres, a college student, is embracing that freedom. She lives in Azusa, Calif. 24 miles east of Los Angeles. In the last year, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority has opened miles of new light rail extensions to its subway system, including a light rail link to Azusa. "If I want to visit my sister in Pasadena, I can walk to the train and it's a to ride," Ms. Manjarres said. "If you drive, the traffic is usually horrible. " After she graduates this semester from Azusa Pacific University with a degree in exercise science, Ms. Manjarres says, she hopes to find a job she can reach by train. "I can confidently say I don't really need a car," she said. Kelly Skow has all but come to the same conclusion. A video producer, Ms. Skow lives in Hollywood and commutes on the Los Angeles subway using the new Expo rail extension that goes to Santa Monica, where her office is. She usually covers the first and last mile of the trip on foot. "I only drive maybe once a week, usually to go shopping on weekends," she said. During the week, her boyfriend uses her car to get to his job. "I had barely ridden the subway before the Expo Line opened, but now I'm using it a lot more and it's great. Parking in L. A. is a nightmare and you don't have to deal with that. " The twist in Ms. Skow's story: She works for TrueCar, a website that provides automotive pricing and information to help connect consumers with and dealers. Forecasters expect people in metropolitan areas to own fewer cars in the future. But they are not ready to predict a big drop in the total number of vehicles sold, which this year will total more than 17 million cars and light trucks in the United States and about 75 million globally. That is, in part, because so many people have more than a last mile to cover. Automakers are generally betting that sales of vehicles to fleet services will offset any decline in sales to individual consumers. Boston Consulting Group predicts that 44, 000 cars will be sold to fleets in North America in 2021, more than making up for an expected net decline in consumer sales of about 8, 000 vehicles. The bigger impact might be on how the automotive industry — not just carmakers, but also fleet service operators, parts makers and the like — makes its money in years to come. According to the consulting firm PwC, the global automotive industry generates about $400 billion a year in profits about 41 percent of that — or about $164 billion — comes from new vehicle sales. By 2030, PwC forecasts that even as overall automotive profits grow to about $600 billion, only about 29 percent of that will come from new vehicle sales. By then, PwC predicts that "mobility services'' — including and other types of transportation services — will represent 20 percent of the automotive industry's profits. Ford is among the automakers angling to be in position if that shift occurs. "We are on the cusp of a revolution," Mark Fields, Ford's chief executive, said at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November. Cars, he said, "are no longer our entire game. " The company sees mobility services as potentially more profitable than its traditional business of making and selling cars. Manufacturing vehicles requires billions of dollars in investments in plants and engineering — costs that are often difficult to recoup. Mobility services would require less upfront investment, Robert Shanks, Ford's chief financial officer, said in an interview. "Margins could be more like 20 percent instead of the 8 percent we are trying to get to today," he said. Some of Ford's mobility efforts don't involve cars at all. Ford is sponsoring a program in the San Francisco area, with the goal of having 7, 000 blue, bikes in operation by 2018. In recent months, the company has also begun demonstrating a motorized conveyance device, created by its engineers, to help people cover the last mile — especially if they are carrying luggage or groceries that would make walking a challenge. Called the it looks like a giant white hockey puck. The passenger stands on it as it travels to her destination, or she can set a parcel on it and have the follow along. Ford has no plans to put it into production, but the company says it represents the unconventional ways it is thinking about the transportation future. Glimpses of a less future, and the emergence of new options, are evident in Southern California, where the new rail system has given many more people easy access to mass transit. Ms. Skow and other residents of Santa Monica, population 92, 000, can now hop on the Expo Line and ride all the way from the coast to downtown Los Angeles, 16 miles to the east. Although Ms. Skow walks to the train, the Santa Monica municipal government has tried to make it easier to reach any of the city's three Expo Line stops without using a car. Its bus network was completely reorganized to deliver passengers to the stations in time to catch trains. For service, after buses stop running, riders can get discounted cab rides. The last mile is more of a challenge in Azusa, a city of about 48, 000 that is less compact and walkable than Santa Monica and does not have as big a bus network. Ms. Manjarres, the college student, lives only a short walk from a station. But so many commuters still drive their cars to the train that the city doesn't have enough parking for them. Theirs is more than a gap to bridge. "People coming to the train will park in residential neighborhoods or retail parking lots," said Troy Butzlaff, Azusa's city manager. That is why the city is building an solution: a parking garage.


There s been development with Trump s Muslim ban and it s not good.On Monday, the Supreme Court not only decided to hear the Trump Administration s challenge against the ruling that blocked his Muslim ban executive order but will allow enforcement of parts of the Muslim ban while the case moves forward.According to The Guardian, the court said the ban on visitors from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen could be enforced as long as those people lack a credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States. So refugees that don t already have ties in the U.S. (that will be a majority of the refugees) won t be able to come into the U.S. Because of the few, many are punished.Trump has championed this ban far and wide, instilling Islamphobia left and right. He believes that by restricting travel from six predominantly Muslim countries, it will protect the U.S. from terrorist attacks.Because, you know, we are perfectly safe and never have any sort of violence going on by our own citizens. Nope. Perfectly, 100% safe and serene and we need to keep it that way.CNBC reminds us that critics and some federal court rulings have argued that it targets immigrants based on religion, after Trump called for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the U.S. as a candidate.Yes, that is exactly what it s doing. It s painting all Muslims are evil and dangerous. It s awful and disgusting. For the record, more Americans are killed by their furniture than Islamic terrorists. To heat things up further, three justices including Trump appointee Neil Gorsuch said they would have let the executive order go into effect in full.With that in mind, who knows what the outcome of the Muslim ban hearing will be. We will find out soon, however, as the hearing will take place in the fall.


Lawmakers brawled in Uganda s parliament for a second day running on Wednesday over a fiercely disputed move to change the constitution to let long-ruling President Yoweri Museveni run for re-election after age 75. MPs exchanged blows and kicks, with some using microphone stands as crude weapons in the melee, and at least two female lawmakers were carried out of the chamber after collapsing, a Reuters journalist on the scene said. At least 25 MPs opposed to the proposed constitutional amendment to prolong Museveni s tenure were forcibly ejected on orders of the speaker for involvement in fighting on Tuesday. All other like-minded MPs then walked out. After calm returned, ruling party MP Raphael Magyezi introduced the contested motion authorizing parliament to draft and present a bill that would lift the constitution s age cap on presidential candidates. The motion passed, parliament communications director Chris Obore told Reuters, adding that Magyezi would have about a month to submit the bill to a first reading in the House. Under the existing constitution, eligibility to stand as a presidential candidate in the East African country has an age ceiling of 75. That makes Museveni, 73, in power since 1986 and increasingly accused of authoritarianism and a failure to curb corruption, unqualified to seek re-election at the next polls in 2021. Removing the age cap would erase that barrier. The proposal, echoing steps by other veteran African leaders to void legal limits on their rule, has stirred widespread resistance from rights activists, opposition parties, religious leaders and even some members of Museveni s party. Fisticuffs first broke out in the Kampala parliament on Tuesday, leading Uganda s communication regulator to ban live broadcasts of events inciting the public . In a notice on Wednesday, the Uganda Communications Commission said radio and television stations should stop live broadcasts of events that are inciting the public, discriminating, stirring up hatred, promoting a culture of violence ... and are likely to create public insecurity. No station aired Wednesday s proceedings, but some posted clips of the brawls on their Twitter feeds. Uganda s two major privately owned TV stations, including a local unit of Kenya s Nation Media Group, and some radio stations carried Tuesday s parliamentary session live. Critics said the authorities action to ban live broadcasts underscored a crackdown on anyone questioning the planned constitutional amendment. Since last week, when a motion to kick-start the amendment process was supposed to be read but never made it to the floor, both police and military personnel have been deployed around the parliament and many parts of the capital. Protests by students and opposition activists and supporters in Kampala against the amendment, sometimes broadcast live, have been put down with tear gas and arrests of scores of people. Media in Uganda routinely complain of harassment by security personnel. Journalists say they have been beaten, detained or their equipment damaged or confiscated during coverage of anti-government demonstrations. On Tuesday, anti-government protests also occurred in other parts of the country, including in the northern town of Lira. Three local journalists there were arrested as they covered the protests, according to Hudson Apunyo, an official in a journalists association in the area. Robert Ssempala, national coordinator for Human Rights Network for Journalists-Uganda, said banning live broadcasts was to shut out Ugandans and keep them in the dark on the age limit debate after the measure met broad resistance.


The Cuban and American delegations sat at parallel tables, eight wary diplomats on each side, facing each other across a distance of about six feet and a gulf filled with more than a half-century of grievances. In separate news conferences afterward, at the end of their first round of talks Thursday, both sides pronounced it "productive," respectful and positive. But both acknowledged that "profound differences" remain. "What you have to recognize," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson said after the initial session, "is that we have . . . to overcome more than 50 years of a relationship that was not based on confidence or trust." Josefina Vidal, Jacobson's counterpart at Cuba's Foreign Ministry, stressed the importance of approaching each other on the basis of "equal sovereignty" and "avoiding any interference in [each other's] internal affairs." Like Jacobson, Vidal stressed that reopening embassies that were closed in 1961 was just the first step in a complicated process of normalizing relations. Even that will require further negotiation. For example, Vidal said, "it would be very difficult to explain that there has been a resumption of diplomatic relations . . . while our country unjustly continues to be included on the [U.S.] list of state sponsors of terrorism." The sober descriptions of what still divides the two governments deflated some of the enthusiasm for rapid change that has been building on both sides. But the delegations said they would set an early date for another meeting and were committed to the public pledge made by President Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro last month to restore diplomatic relations and then begin to tackle other areas of discord. If body language and ease of public presentation was any guide, Vidal, clearly on her own turf, seemed far more forthcoming than Jacobson in addressing the dozens of U.S. journalists who have traveled to Cuba to cover the talks along with other international news media. She took more questions than Jacobson and translated her own Spanish into fluent English. But her remarks were also more specific on areas of discord, including what subjects they discussed. Obama, who announced relations would be restored in a Dec. 17 speech, has said that U.S. human rights concerns would be directly raised in conversations with Cuba. After the morning session, Jacobson said she had raised the issue; Vidal said it did not come up. During a second session in the afternoon, the talks moved away from the embassies to areas of current and future cooperation, including counter-narcotics, law enforcement, the environment and international health issues. But in a statement distributed in Spanish after the talks ended at 7 p.m., the U.S. side said it had "pressured" Cuba on issues of human rights and free expression. In a solo evening news conference, Vidal said the word "pressure" was not spoken in the afternoon session. "That's not a word used in these kinds of communications," she said, and "Cuba has a long history of not responding to pressure." Vidal said that Cuba had some concerns of its own about human rights in the United States and had renewed a proposal it made a year ago for a separate dialogue in which each country could express its views on the subject. U.S. officials later said they had erred in using the Spanish verb "presionar," meaning to pressure, in the statement. The English version said that "we pressed the Cuban government for improved human rights conditions, including freedom of expression and assembly." Vidal also said that Cuba was still studying the new trade and travel rules the Obama administration announced last week, particularly those opening the door for U.S. telecommunication companies to do business in Cuba. Havana, she said, was "willing to . . . explore possibilities of doing business [with them] that would benefit both sides." After the Thursday morning meeting on embassies, Vidal said that a complete lifting of the 1960 U.S. embargo was "essential" for further normalization but that Cuba recognizes "the willingness of the U.S. president to have a serious and honest debate" with Congress about it taking action to lift the embargo. But the terrorism list is a different story. Obama has the power to remove Cuba from the list if he determines that Havana has not engaged in terrorism in the recent past and is unlikely to do so in the future. He has asked the State Department to review Cuba's status and provide a recommendation. Its presence since 1982 on the list, which includes Iran, Sudan and Syria, is more than a significant irritant to Cuba. Based on an uptick of Obama administration penalties imposed on foreign banks whose business with Cuba has passed through U.S. financial institutions — a practice banned for all on the list — Buffalo-based M&T Bank dropped the Cuban Interests Section in Washington last year as a client. Since then, U.S. banks have decided to err on the side of caution in avoiding any dealings with Cuba, and none has been willing to open an account for the U.S.-based diplomats, who must conduct all of their transactions in cash. If its officials were unable to conduct U.S. bank transactions for diplomatic purposes, Vidal and other Cuban officials said, the United States would not be complying with the international conventions on diplomatic practices that both delegations on Thursday said they had agreed would govern their new embassies. Once he receives State's recommendation, Obama must transmit his decision to Congress. Assuming a positive outcome, there is a 45-day waiting period before implementation of any removals from the list. In the streets of Havana this week, Cubans seemed to talk of little else but the opening between the two governments. Cuban news media covered the statements of both sides Thursday and those issued following lower-level talks Wednesday on migration issues. After the Americans had departed the conference hall, Vidal was asked what she thought was the main news of the day. "The news is that Cuba and the United States met for the first time," she said, and were checking their calendars to schedule the next session.


Iraqi forces have entered al-Qaim, one of the last remaining territories in the country still held by Islamic State militants, the Joint Operations Command said on Friday. Units from the Iraqi army, Counter-Terrorism Services, Sunni tribal and Iranian-backed Popular Mobilisation forces (PMF) are participating in an offensive to recapture al-Qaim and Rawa, two towns which lie on the border area with Syria. Iraq s security forces retook a border crossing with Syria from the militants, hours after entering al-Qaim, according to the Joint Operations Command. The road runs through al-Qaim in Iraq and Albu-Kamal in Syria, two towns which are very close to each other on opposite sides of the border in the last important territorial stronghold of Islamic State. Welcoming the offensive, the U.S.-led international military coalition, which has run an air campaign against Islamic State in both Syria and Iraq since 2014, said in a statement that approximately 1,500 Islamic State fighters were estimated to remain in the immediate vicinity of al-Qaim. Operations to clear the militants from their final strongholds in Iraq have continued, despite a concurrent military advance on Kurdish-held territory in the north. Iraq s central government launched an offensive on Oct. 16 to seize disputed territories, claimed by both Baghdad and the Kurds, in retaliation for a referendum on Kurdish independence held on Sept. 25. In a lightning strike, central government forces swiftly recaptured large areas, including the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, from the Kurds, who had seized these areas when Islamic State swept across northern Iraq in 2014. On Thursday, Iraqi forces threatened to resume military operations against the Kurds, accusing them of delaying the handover of control of borders and taking advantage of negotiations to bolster their defenses.


With violence escalating in Aleppo and elsewhere across Syria, the United Nations said Saturday that the number of children trapped in besieged areas had doubled in less than a year to half a million. A report by Unicef, the United Nations Children's Fund, said the children were among hundreds of thousands of civilians in 16 areas under siege across the country who had been "almost completely cut off from sustained humanitarian aid and basic services. " The report said some of these areas had received little or no aid in nearly two years, despite repeated efforts by international relief agencies to provide food and medicine. "This is no way to live," Unicef's executive director, Anthony Lake, said in the report. The report estimated that 100, 000 of the trapped children were among the civilians pinned down in eastern Aleppo, the portion of what had been prewar Syria's commercial epicenter. Eastern Aleppo is now a focal point of the war, pitting an array of insurgents and militant jihadists against the forces of President Bashar of Syria and their Russian allies. The top United Nations diplomat seeking a negotiated end to the Syrian conflict, Staffan de Mistura, has repeatedly pleaded for a humanitarian halt to the fighting in Aleppo and has even offered to escort the militants out of the city. But Mr. Assad and his subordinates have said they intend to retake all of Aleppo, apparently regardless of the cost in lives and destruction, as he feels increasingly emboldened that the nearly war is moving in his favor. The Russian forces who have been assisting Mr. Assad for more than a year have been escalating their bombings against insurgent targets in northern Syria since . Syrian state news media reported Saturday that government troops had captured the Hanano district of eastern Aleppo, which was among the first to fall to insurgent control when fighting broke out in the city in 2012. In another indication of the deprivations confronting residents of eastern Aleppo, the Middle East coordinator of the World Food Program, the United Nations agency, said people had been scrounging through garbage for food scraps since the last rations, delivered in July, were distributed a few weeks ago. The coordinator, Muhannad Hadi, said in an interview with The Canadian Press that "people are looking through garbage to find something to eat — that's if they find garbage in Aleppo. " Mr. Hadi made the remarks during a visit to Ottawa to brief Canadian officials on the Syria crisis.


Ottawa | Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is getting prepared to accommodate nearly 250,000 American refugees if Donald Trump is to be elected US president in November. The Prime Minister was keen to stress the possibility of a mass exodus of American citizens on Canadian soil in case the controversial Republican candidate for the US presidency wins his presidential election.  In the event of a mass exodus of American citizens, Canada will always be a hospitable country for people persecuted or fleeing difficult living conditions   Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada We reach out to refugees of all countries living under dictatorships and persecution, he reiterated during a press conference this morning. immigration Immigration Minister, the Honorable John McCallum, expects up to 1,000,000 American refugees by 2017 if Donald Trump is elected president Immigration requests exploding Immigration Canada claims to have received more than 350,000 requests for information on Canadian citizenship status since Super Tuesday when Donald Trump won several important states. The more Trump advances, the more we are overwhelmed, assures spokesperson for Immigration Canada, Amanda Singh. Our whole 2016 budget is already gone since it was necessary to enroll extra workforce to successfully process all applications and even then, it is far from sufficient for the task she admits, visibly under stress. But Ottawa has promised us its full cooperation on this question, she assured. Miley Cyrus ready to leave the country Several celebrities including Miley Cyrus, Macaulay Culkin and Nicolas Cage have threatened to leave the country in case of a victory by Donald Trump. If Trump is elected, it makes me sad, but I have no choice, commented Miley Cyrus to the Rolling Stones magazine this week. I could never live under a president like him, it would be like living under the Soviet dictatorship of Hitler, she explained. According to information confirmed by the Hollywood Inquirer this week, a number of celebrities such as Miley Cyrus and Kanye West have shown interest in purchasing houses in the Toronto area and have already contacted real estate agents in the region.


Fifty interesting facts about Russia 31.10.2016 Print version Font Size 1. Russia is the largest country in the world. The country has 17,075,400 square kilometers, which makes Russia 1.8 times larger than the United States of America. The territory that Russia takes on planet Earth practically equals the surface area of planet Pluto.2. Russia is home to the world's largest active volcano - Klyuchevskaya Sopka. Its height is 4 kilometers 850 meters. The volcano shoots columns of ash up to eight kilometers high and becomes even taller with every eruption. Klyuchevskaya Sopka volcano erupts for the past 7,000 years.3. The subway system (metro) of St. Petersburg is the deepest in the world. Its average depth - 100 meters.4. The number of bridges in St. Petersburg exceeds the number of bridges in Venice three times. 5. The oldest Christian church on the territory of Russia is the ancient temple of Thaba-Yerdy located in Ingushetia, Jeirakh District. It was built in VIII-IX centuries. Three oldest of existing churches are located in the village of Nizhny Arkhyz in Karachay-Cherkessia. The temples were built in the X century.6. The Trans-Siberian Railway is the longest railway in the world. The Great Siberian Way, connecting Moscow with Vladivostok, is 9,298 kilometers long. The railway crosses eight time zones, passes through 87 cities and towns and crosses 16 rivers, including the Volga.7. Lake Baikal in Siberia is the deepest lake in the world and the largest source of fresh water on the planet. Baikal holds 23 cubic kilometers of water. All the world's major rivers - the Volga, the Don, the Dnieper, the Yenisei, the Ural, the Ob, the Ganges, the Orinoco, the Amazon, the Thames, the Seine and the Oder would have to flow for almost a year to fill the basic, equal to the volume of Lake Baikal.8. Russia is the only country whose territory is washed by 12 seas.9. Russia is only four kilometers far from America. The is the distance between the island of Ratmanova (Russia) and the Kruzenshtern Island (USA) in the Bering Strait.10. The distance from Moscow to Chicago is smaller than the distance from from Chicago to Rio de Janeiro.11. In the cultural capital of Russia, St. Petersburg, there are 2,000 libraries, 221 museums, 100 concert organizations, more than 80 theaters, 80 clubs and houses of culture, 62 cinemas and 45 art galleries.12. The Ural Mountains are the oldest mountains in the world. The Karandash Mount located in the Kusinsky area near the village of Aleksandrovka was formed 4.2 billion years ago. The historical names of the Ural Mountains are - the Big Rock, the Siberian Rock, the Earth Belt, the Belt Rock.13. In Moscow, there are seven exactly the same high-rise buildings: two hotels, two office buildings, two residential buildings and the University. In English, this ensemble is known as the Seven Sisters, whereas in Russian, the buildings are known as Stalinist skyscrapers. The style, in which the skyscrapers are built, is called the Stalinist gothic.14. The Moscow Kremlin is the world's largest medieval fortress.15. The total length of the Kremlin walls is 2,235 meters.16. In Moscow, there is a large fountain that contains drinking water. The fountain is part of the architectural group "Alexander and Natalie" with a sculptural composition of Pushkin and Goncharova in a graceful rotunda.17. St. Petersburg is the world's northernmost city with a population of over one million people.18. The area of Siberia is 9 million 734.3 thousand square kilometers, which accounts for nine percent of the world's land.19. Russia borders with 16 countries: Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, North Korea, Japan and the United States. Russia also borders on two unrecognized states: South Ossetia and Abkhazia.20. The number of Kalashnikov assault rifles in the world is larger than the number of all other assault rifles combined. 21. Russia proclaimed equal rights for men and women before the United States. In Russia, the right to vote was granted to women in 1918, in the United States - in 1920.22. Russia had never known slavery. The period of the most distinguished form of feudal dependence, serfdom, was shorter in Russia than, for example, in England and most of Europe. Serfdom in Russia had milder forms. Russian serfdom was abolished in 1861, whereas the United States abolished slavery in 1865.23. On January 16, 1820, the Russian expedition led by Thaddeus Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev discovered Antarctica.24. The most famous computer game -Tetris - was created by Russian programmer Alexey Pazhitnov in 1985. This game became popular in the Soviet Union, and then, in 1986, in the West.25. Ivan the Terrible was not a tyrant, his rule was unprecedentedly mild for his time. During his rule, Russia's size was equal to that of Europe, but Ivan the Terrible executed 100 fewer people in comparison with European kings during the same period of time - 3-4 thousand people against 300-400 thousand.26. Ivan the Terrible did not kill his son.27. Trains of the Moscow metro run more often than in any other subway system in the world. At rush hours, intervals between trains is only 90 seconds. There are stylized trains in the Moscow metro, for example, a train called "Watercolors" that represents a traveling exhibition of paintings.28. In Peterhof, near St. Petersburg, there are 176 fountains, 40 of which are huge and five are built as cascades.29. The Russian samovar is an ancient version of the electric kettle. The samovar was powered by coal, but its function was to boil water. 30. In the Russian town Oymyakon, the lowest temperature of air was recorded. The cold record was set in 1924, when temperates dropped to -71.2 °C.31. In the Novosibirsk Institute of Cytology and Genetics, there is a monument to the laboratory mouse that knits the DNA.32. During the Second World War, metro stations were used as bomb shelters. As many as 150 babies were born there during air raids. 33. In Russia, there are many beautiful excursion and hiking routes. The most famous one of them is the so-called Russian Golden Ring, as well as the Silver Ring of Russia and the Great Ural Ring.34. The total length of 12 lines of the Moscow metro is 310 kilometers.35. In the 18th century, Russia was the third largest empire in the history of mankind, occupying the territory from Poland in Europe to Alaska in North America. 36. The West Siberian Plain is the largest plain in the world.37. The Hermitage is one of the largest and oldest museums in the world. The Hermitage stores three million works of art from the Stone Age to the present. If a visitor pays only one minute of their attention to each exhibit, it would take them 25 years to see all the exhibits of the Hermitage. 38. A half of the city of Chelyabinsk is located in the Urals, whereas the other half - in Siberia. Strangely enough, the coat of arms of Chelyabinsk depicts a camel. It turns out, however, that Chelyabinsk used to take caravans of camels 200 years ago. 39. A while ago, Moscow had more billionaires than any other city in the world.40. The Russian Public Library is the largest library in Europe and the second largest in the world after the United States Library of Congress. The Russian Public Library is located in Moscow, it was founded in 1862.41. On the opening day of a 700-seat McDonalds restaurant on Pushkin Square in Moscow, the line of people willing to go there made up 5,000 individuals at 5 a.m. During the first day of work, the restaurant served 3,000 customers. To this day, the McDonald's on Pushkin Square remains the most visited McDonald's in the world.42. The State Hermitage Museum keeps a flock of cats against rodents. Each cat of the Hermitage has a passport with a photo.43. In Altai, there are more than 820 glaciers that occupy a total area of 600 square kilometers.44. In Russia, a new sport has recently emerged in Russia - helicopter golf. Two helicopters, equipped with 4-meter sticks, play two balls one meter in diameter. Each team consists of five people.45. Russia regularly appears on lists of least friendly countries in the world, but this is just a misconception based on cross-cultural differences. In Russia, children are taught not to smile for no reason, as this kind of behavior displays light-mindedness. In fact, the Russians are friendly and are always ready to help a foreigner.46. In 2002, the city of Yekaterinburg was put on UNESCO's list of 12 perfect cities in the world.47. The largest bell ever cast is the Russian Tsar Bell made by Ivan Motorin and his son Mikhail. The weight of the Tsar Bell is 12,327 puds and 19 pounds, or 201 tons and 924 kilograms. The Tsar Bell is 6 meters 14 centimeters tall. 48. The city of Suzdal takes only 15 square kilometers of land and has the population of a little over 10,000 people. Yet, there are 53 churches in Suzdal. 49. The Russian Federation consists of eight federal districts, which are divided into 83 regions -subjects of the Federation, including 21 national republics. According to the Constitution, each republic is assigned to a titular ethnic group. The Russian republics take 28.6% of the territory of Russia, which is home to 16.9% of the population of the country. Ethnic Russians account for approximately 83% of the Russian population. However, the Russian Constitution does not contain a word about the Russian people. This legal mishap is one of the most pressing domestic problems of the Russian Federation, and it will be settled sooner or later.50. A myth about a myth: the Russians think that Americans think that bears walk in the streets of Moscow. In fact, bears do not appear in Russian city streets, and the Americans do not have a stereotype of the wild Russia.Newsinfo


John Podesta, Hillary Clinton's former presidential campaign chairman, has claimed there was a "failing" by mainstream media to protect American democracy during the 2016 presidential election. ["The fact that there was substantiation that the Russians had hacked my emails, the DNC emails, that Wikileaks was an instrument of an attempt by Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation to undermine our democracy, that could have been reflected in the press and I don't believe it was," Podesta said in an interview with the BBC's Evan Davis. "And I think that was actually a failing on behalf of the mainstream media and particularly some of the major news outlets in our country like The New York Times," he continued. However, there is little evidence to support Podesta's claims, given that mainstream news outlets such as The New York Times, CNN, and The Washington Post all gave extensive coverage to potential Russian interference in the election and did not fully report the range of explosive revelations that emerged from the Wikileaks releases. "The [mainstream media] decided it was more interesting, maybe more titillating, to get into the kinda campaign gossip which was what those emails were," Podesta continued. Podesta's claims are also undermined by the vigorous support Clinton received from nearly all the mainstream media, earning endorsements from The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, New York Daily News, The Los Angeles Times, and nearly all metro and regional newspapers across the country. Furthermore, emails revealed by Wikileaks actually showed extensive collusion between mainstream media journalists and Clinton's campaign, principally via Podesta, without revealing this to their audience. Prominent examples of that collusion include CNBC's Chief Washington Correspondent John Harwood regularly emailing Podesta to congratulate him on primary wins, former POLITICO reporter Glenn Thrush asking Podesta to approve a story he wrote pertaining to Clinton's campaign, while The New York Times' political correspondent Maggie Haberman was described by the campaign as a "friendly journalist" who "teed up" stories and "never disappointed" the Clinton campaign. A study in the run up to the November election also found that 96 percent of campaign donations from persons in the media went toward Hillary Clinton. Discussing the future of the Democratic Party, Podesta added that he was now "fully into the resistance" against Donald Trump and the new administration. You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart. com


The head of the U.S. Senate's Armed Services Committee, John McCain, has proposed $7.5 billion of new military funding for U.S. forces and their allies in the Asia-Pacific, where tensions have been rising over China's territorial ambitions. The funds, $1.5 billion a year for five years to 2022, could be used to boost U.S. munitions stocks in the region, build new military infrastructure, such as runways, and to help allies and partner countries increase their capabilities, an aide to McCain and a U.S. military official said. The funding proposal was contained in a White Paper issued by McCain last week entitled "Restoring American Power." His committee is expected to discuss it at a budget hearing on Tuesday. "Senator McCain believes the United States must sustain its enduring commitment to the security and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific region," a spokesman for McCain, Dustin Walker, said. "The Asia-Pacific Stability Initiative ... would ... make U.S. regional posture more forward-learning, flexible, resilient, and formidable," he said. "These funds would boost operational military construction, increase munitions procurement, enhance capacity building with allies and partners, and expand military exercises and other training activities." An official in the administration of new U.S. President Donald Trump, who took office on Friday, said he believed McCain's proposal was "very much in general alignment with the administration's goals in the region." Trump has vowed to take a tougher line with China and to build up the U.S. military, although it is unclear whether he will succeed in lifting caps on defense spending that have been part of "sequestration" legislation. A U.S. military official, who did not want to be identified, said the funds could go to construct new military runways in countries such as Australia and the Philippines and to make up a shortfall of munitions that the head of the U.S. Pacific Command, Admiral Harry Harris, complained of last year. "There's a shortfall in the total number of munitions and also a quality gap," the official said, adding that more sophisticated missiles were needed in the region to counter China's "anti-access, area-denial" strategy. On Monday, the new U.S. administration raised the prospect of worsening tensions with China when it vowed to prevent Beijing from taking over territory in international waters in the South China Sea, something Chinese state media has warned would require Washington to "wage war."


President Donald Trump denounced reporting from the New York Times and the Washington Post that said his campaign was communicating with Russia. "Information is being illegally given to the failing New York Times and Washington Post by the intelligence community," he wrote on Twitter, suggesting that the NSA and the FBI might be responsible. "Just like Russia," he added. The New York Times cited law enforcement and intelligence agency sources that intercepted communications from people close to Trump during the presidential campaign with Russian intelligence. "The real scandal here is that classified information is illegally given out by 'intelligence' like candy," Trump wrote. "Very !" That news is leading coverage of the president on cable and network news stations, prompting Trump's reaction on Twitter. "The fake news media is going crazy with their conspiracy theories and blind hatred," Trump wrote. "MSNBC and CNN are unwatchable. Fox and Friends is great!" Trump called the reports " " and said they were "merely an attempt to the many mistakes made in Hillary Clinton's losing campaign. " He also praised Bloomberg columnist Eli Lake, for discussing his latest column on Fox News, pointing out that the damaging intelligence leaks were the kind of behavior seen in "banana republics. " "We trust the NSA and the FBI to use these powers to catch criminals and terrorists but that should not interfere in our politics, and that stuff is interfering right now in our politics," Lake said in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity. — @realDonaldTrump referring to this @EliLake segment on @seanhannity last night that was on @foxandfriends this morning pic. twitter. — Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) February 15, 2017, Trump reminded the world that Russian President Vladimir Putin's unchecked aggression began during the Obama administration. "Crimea was TAKEN by Russia during the Obama Administration," he wrote. "Was Obama too soft on Russia?"


A breakthrough in U.N.-backed Syria peace talks in Geneva this week seems hardly more likely than in seven failed earlier rounds as President Bashar al-Assad pushes for total military victory and his opponents stick by their demand he leave power. U.N. Syria mediator Staffan de Mistura said on Monday the Syrian government had not yet confirmed that it would attend the talks. A Syrian newspaper reported that the government delegation would delay its planned Tuesday arrival in Geneva because of the opposition s insistence Assad step down. The opposition s stance is seen by Damascus and its allies as divorced from reality after the government s steady march of victories since Russia entered the war in 2015. The rebels have been forced from all Syria s big cities and their hopes of toppling Assad by military means look finished. The opposition has also accused the government of refusing to seriously engage. The Assad regime must not be allowed to play for time while people are being besieged and bombed, Yahya al-Aridi, newly appointed head of the opposition s negotiating committee, said on Sunday. Aridi was chosen last week after the opposition rejigged its negotiations committee - jettisoning as its leader a more hardline opponent of Assad in what some speculated might be a move towards softening its position. But the statement it put out after meeting on Friday reiterated its demand that Assad go before the start of a political transition under any peace deal. Last week a senior Assad adviser said talks could succeed only if rebels laid down their arms. Over the weekend, air strikes on the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta district near Damascus intensified, killing 41 people on Sunday and Monday, according to a war monitor. You cannot expect very much, said Nikolaos Van Dam, a former Dutch diplomat in Damascus and author of two books about Syria. The regime doesn t want to really negotiate. They want to reconquer every inch of Syrian territory and then negotiate. But then the opposition would have no bargaining chips, he said. The Syrian civil war, now in its seventh year, has killed hundreds of thousands of people and caused the world s worst refugee crisis, driving 11 million from their homes. All previous diplomatic initiatives have swiftly collapsed over the opposition demand that Assad leave power and his refusal to go. Troops from Russia, Iran, Turkey and the United States, as well as Shi ite militias from Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan, have all now joined arrived on the battlefield. Russia has pushed its own parallel track of diplomacy since early this year, bringing together Assad s other main ally Iran, and Turkey, which has been one of the biggest rebel supporters. Russia has elections next year and President Vladimir Putin wants to show progress towards a political deal after two years of fighting far from Russian soil. Moscow has already said it will bring many troops home from Syria by the end of the year. Putin may also seek to tout diplomatic progress as he angles for the West to take some of the burden of Syria s post-war reconstruction, now likely to fall on Russia, Iran and China. Western foreign ministers said in September their support hinges on a credible political process leading to a genuine political transition , a process they have said requires the involvement of the opposition. Russia wants the end of the war but it wants its ally intact. So what would be the compromise that is acceptable to the opposition or to the other countries? It s not clear to me, said Van Dam. Moscow now plans a Syrian Congress , bringing together the government and some opposition groups to write a new constitution leading to elections. The main opposition rejects the idea, saying all talks must come under the United Nations. But the government has said it backs the congress, as has Turkey, which has some sway over rebel groups in the northwest. There is an acceleration in the political solution on the basis of a unified Syria headed by Bashar al-Assad, with amendments to the constitution and in the election law, a senior, pro-Assad official in the region said. The Syrian government declared on Sunday it would support the formation of a committee that will discuss the constitution and is expected to be set up at the congress. It also said it would support U.N. participation in legislative elections to be held after that discussion. Ultimately Russia s objective is to dress up a limited military victory for the Assad regime and the Iranians in Syria as a diplomatic one, said Andrew Tabler, a Syria specialist at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think-tank. Because the regime and the Iranians don t have the manpower to completely occupy all Syria, or to rebuild Syria, or the money to rebuild Syria, they need international buy-in, he said. I don t think it will be easy for them because the United States and others know what they are trying to do. This week s Geneva talks will focus on the issues of elections and a constitution, Ramzi Ramzi, the deputy United Nations special envoy for Syria said in Damascus on Saturday. De Mistura said on Monday negotiations should take place at Geneva and without any preconditions, and all other initiatives should support the U.N. mediation process. After recapturing the last major rebel urban stronghold in East Aleppo a year ago, and advancing across central and eastern Syria against Islamic State this year, the government now controls far more territory than any other force in the country. But rebels still hold a swathe of northwest Syria next to Turkey, and an enclave in the southwest near Israel and Jordan. They have other pockets near Damascus and Homs. Kurdish groups and allied Arab militia backed by the United States also hold the northeast and are holding elections there this week for local councils in an effort to cement autonomy. They have not been invited to the Geneva talks and are regarded by Syria s neighbor Turkey as enemies. Assad has sworn to recover all of his state, and visiting Iranian officials have indicated that new military campaigns may soon start against both the rebels and the Kurds.


When Donald Trump's administration put together its controversial executive order on immigration, it was Steve Bannon – the populist firebrand fast emerging as the president's right-hand man – pushing a hard line. Senior officials at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) interpreted the order to mean that lawful permanent residents - green card holders – who hailed from the seven Muslim-majority countries targeted in the immigration order would not face additional screening when they entered the country. But they were quickly overruled by Bannon, who is Trump's chief strategist and oversaw the drafting of the executive order along with White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, a close ally of Bannon's, the officials said. "They were in charge of this operation," one senior DHS official said, adding that the experts were "almost immediately overruled by the White House, which means by Bannon and Miller." A senior national security official described the pair as a "tag team" pushing Trump's key policies, including the immigration order which bars the entry of refugees and places a temporary hold on people from seven countries - Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Somalia and Libya. The inclusion of green card holders from those countries intensified opposition to an executive order that sparked legal challenges, protests at airports and sharp criticism from inside the Republican Party, including from some Trump allies. DHS officials say there was little or no White House consultation with immigration, customs and border security agencies on the immigration policy change, causing widespread confusion over how to implement Trump's order. A senior administration official said the order went through a review by "key people" at DHS and the White House National Security Council, and that several immigration staff on Capitol Hill were involved in drafting the order. But officials said Bannon was the driving force throughout. The White House declined to comment on his role. Critics have accused Bannon of harboring anti-Semitic and white nationalist sentiments. Under Bannon's leadership, his Breitbart website presented a number of conspiracy theories about Trump's Democratic rival in the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton, as well as Republicans deemed to be lacking in conservative bona fides. Bannon has ascribed his interest in populism and American nationalism to a desire to curb what he views as the corrosive effects of globalization. He has rejected what he called the "ethno-nationalist" tendencies of some in the movement. After becoming chief executive of Trump's election campaign in August, the former Goldman Sachs banker and Navy veteran helped lead him to victory over Clinton. He was then appointed by Trump as senior counselor and chief strategist - jobs not subject to U.S. Senate confirmation. He has been an almost constant presence by Trump's side in the first 10 days of the administration - in the White House for a meeting with American manufacturers, at CIA headquarters the day after Trump was sworn in, and in the Oval Office during British Prime Minister Theresa May's visit. He appears to have greatly expanded his power in the first 10 days of Trump's presidency. Trump gave him an unprecedented seat in the NSC's top-level meetings and potentially narrowed the role played by the director of national intelligence (DNI) and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Bannon has also asserted authority over almost all written statements from the White House and the NSC and has sent back documents for rewrites as he sees fit, one NSC official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Critics, including four senior U.S. intelligence officers, called the decision to formalize Bannon's role at the NSC meetings a mistake, saying it risks politicizing decisions on national security. White House spokesman Sean Spicer on Monday defended Bannon's inclusion in the NSC. Susan Rice, the former national security adviser in former President Barack Obama's administration, tweeted on Sunday: "This is stone cold crazy. After a week of crazy." Bannon and Miller are drowning out the opinions of more moderate advisers like White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, said a senior DHS official and two people in Washington who work closely with the White House on immigration and a range of other issues. One of those people and the DHS official said Priebus felt he had placed enough of his fellow moderate Republicans in key positions at the White House as a counterbalance to Bannon and Miller, but he has been frustrated at their outsized influence so far, especially on issues of immigration and national security. The White House dismissed the views of the officials as gossip.


Attackers set fire to vehicles beneath a housing complex for police and their families in a suburb of Grenoble, eastern France, on Thursday. Police said a fence around the building was closed off in an apparent attempt to prevent residents escaping and rescuers getting in, but all 24 people inside escaped unharmed. Nobody claimed responsibility for the assault, which was the latest in a series of arson attacks against police and police vehicles. Attacks like this can be tantamount to terrorism, Grenoble prosecutor Jean-Yves Coquillat told reporters, adding that the method used was similar to other recent attacks by far-left groups. Last month, such a group claimed responsibility for an arson attack on a police building in Grenoble that destroyed a warehouse and several cars. The group said the fire was a protest against the trial of nine far-left activists accused of firebombing police in an assault on two officers in Paris in May 2016 that was caught on camera. Last month, five police cars were set on fire in Limoges, central France. French police are on high alert after a series of Islamic State-inspired attacks that have killed more than 240 people in the past three years. Aside from the Islamist threat, far-left and far-right militancy has also not let up. Police this month arrested 10 far-right militants suspected of planning attacks on mosques and politicians.


If Kansas Republicans have their way, they will have the power to impeach state Supreme Court judges who disagree with the conservative agenda.A Kansas Senate committee has already recommended SB439 for passage so it can be voted on by the full Senate, which is controlled by conservatives.According to the Kansas City Star, the bill would make attempting to usurp the power of the Legislature or the executive branch grounds for impeachment. In other words, if a judge rules a law passed by the Republican-controlled state legislature unconstitutional, Republicans would legally have the power to then impeach that judge and replace him or her with a judge who will rule the way Republicans want them to rule.Governor Sam Brownback and his Republican cohorts in the statehouse have had their schemes to defund public schools foiled by the state Supreme Court in recent years after the GOP tried to use the funds to pay for a disastrous budget shortfall created when Brownback gave rich people a massive tax cut.So far, the state Supreme Court has blocked such a move as unconstitutional since the Kansas Constitution plainly states that the legislature shall provide for intellectual, educational, vocational and scientific improvement by establishing and maintaining public schools, educational institutions and related activities which may be organized and changed in such manner as may be provided by law. Furthermore, the Kansas Constitution says the legislature shall make suitable provision for finance of the educational interests of the state. That means the Kansas Supreme Court has made the right call by denying Brownback and Republicans the ability to screw over the public school system to benefit the wealthy.But if Republicans pass this bill into law, they would be able to overthrow the judicial branch so they can pass whatever laws they want even if they are unconstitutional. They would be effectively rigging the court in their favor.And Kansas Republicans haven t exactly made this a secret.The Star reports:Impeachment has been a little-used tool to challenge judges who strike down new legislation, said Republican Sen. Dennis Pyle, a sponsor of the measure. Maybe it needs to be oiled up a little bit or sharpened a little bit. Courts have the ability to harm society with their decisions, GOP state Senator Mitch Holmes claimed in defense of the bill according to the Topeka Capitol Journal. And impeachment was what our founders intended to be a check and a balance on an unchecked system, or what has evolved into an unchecked system. But once again, Republicans are wrong. Not only is their bill unconstitutional on the grounds that the state constitution does not list disagreement as a legitimate reason for impeachment, it would make the court system a puppet institution with the sole purpose of allowing Republicans to do whatever they want in the legislative and executive branches without a judicial branch that can check their power. Basically, it is the executive and legislative branches that would become an unchecked system. Article 2 of the state constitution clearly states grounds for impeachment.The governor and all other officers under this constitution, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.So unless Republicans want to literally make disagreeing with them a crime, which would violate the First Amendment and the independence of the judiciary, they would be well-advised to trash this bill and never let it see the light of day again.This is the exact kind of government overreach that Republicans have hypocritically whined about for decades, and yet here they are trying to overthrow the state Supreme Court so that Brownback can stack it with judges who will do his bidding. Just imagine if this scheme actually worked. How long would it be before Republicans try the exact same thing at the federal level so that they can keep the court conservative forever? This is serious power play that needs to be squashed by the people of Kansas before they no longer have a fair court system to rely on.


Isn t it unbelievable that these so-called experts get to spout off their hatred towards President Trump on a regular basis via MSNBC? This village idiot connects Mosque burnings to Trump when anyone with half a brain knows the Muslims are vandalizing their own Mosques (see below)! They don t even know who burned the Minnesota Mosque!The blame has been put on President Trump but could it be that the Muslims set fire to these Mosques to produce a backlash? some of the arson cases have not been solved so why is Buzzfeed blaming the attacks on anti-Muslim arsonists?BUZZFEED MAKES FALSE CLAIMS:In the past seven weeks, four mosques across the country have caught fire, according to BuzzFeed News. Three of those fires have been ruled arson, authorities stated.On Jan. 7, the Islamic Center of Lake Travis in Austin, which had been under construction, caught on fire. A week later, on Jan. 14, the Islamic Center of Eastside in Bellevue, Washington, burned.Two weeks after that, on Jan. 28, several hours after President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries, a fire destroyed the Islamic Center of Victoria in Texas.According to BuzzFeed News, the Daarus Salaam Mosque near Tampa, Florida, caught on fire this past Friday, marking the fourth mosque in to go up in flames in fewer than two months. Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said he s never seen anything like this, calling them part of a series of dramatic attacks against Muslims.WHAT THEY DON T REPORT ON: MUSLIMS TORCHING THEIR OWN MOSQUE!Police in Iowa arrested a 22-year-old woman suspected of starting a small fire at an Iowa mosque Thursday morning.Security cameras in the mosque showed a woman, later identified as Aisha Ismail, pouring lighter fluid on the carpet and then starting the fire, said Des Moines police spokesmanTHE TEXAS CASE:HOUSTON, Texas The Muslim charged with arson of his own mosque on Christmas Day 2015 has pleaded guilty to felony arson in a Harris County (Houston) district court and was sentenced to prison. The charging instrument stated that Gary Nathaniel Moore started a fire with the intent to destroy and damage a place of worship the Savoy Masjid Mosque in Houston. Moore said he attended the mosque every day up to five times a day for five years. The Houston Fire Department (HFD) responded to the fire about 2:47 p.m. on Christmas Day.THE MOST DISTURBING CASE IS A FAKE HATE CRIME CASE:Have you heard about the Texas case where the Muslim community pushed for a hate crime charge and got it. The lawyer for the defendant, Mr. Di Carlo, contested the basic premise of the hate crime charge: This was not a mosque, this was an Islamic learning center and there was a mosque therein, he said.


Republican Senator Marco Rubio signaled his support for a sweeping tax bill on Friday, saying changes that had been made at his urging to increase the refundability of a child tax credit marked "a solid step toward broader reforms." "Increasing the refundability of the Child Tax Credit from 55% to 70% is a solid step toward broader reforms which are both Pro-Growth and Pro-Worker," Rubio, who had threatened to vote against the bill, said on Twitter.