#destabiliser son ex

[mariacallous]

The European Union on Thursday imposed sanctions on six people and one organisation it said have been involved in actions aimed at undermining or threatening the sovereignty and independence of Moldova.

“There are serious, increased and continuous attempts to destabilise the country. Today’s listings send another important political signal of the EU’s unwavering support for Moldova, its stability, independence and sovereignty,” said the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borell.

Borell said that Moldova is one of the countries that has been most affected by the consequences of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

President Maia Sandu and Prime Minister Dorin Recean welcomed the sanctions.

“These measures send a powerful message – together, we stand strong in ensuring a secure future,” Sandu wrote on X.

“It is a clear sign that we have the EU’s unwavering support in the fight against Russia’s hybrid war and attempts to undermine Moldova’s rule of law and security,” Recean wrote on X.

The six people sanctioned, along with the People’s Shield association, are banned from entering the EU and their assets in EU member countries have been frozen.

According to the EU, People’s Shield is a paramilitary organisation in Moldova that includes ex-military, ex-policemen and ex-law enforcement personnel.

A former Border Police officer who leads the organisation from Moldova, Chiril Guzun, was involved in street protests in Chisinau organised by fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor and altercations with police.

The EU also sanctioned Dmitry Milyutin, the deputy head of the operational intelligence department of Russia’s Federal Security Service, the FSB, who the EU says has been responsible for Moscow’s covert operations in Moldova since 2016, in the pro-Russian breakaway region of Transnistria in particular.

“Through his agents, Milyutin directs, and manipulates certain political actors in Moldova in pursuit of pro-Russian objectives, thus undermining the democratic political process in Moldova,” the EU said in statement.

Victor Petrov, a businessman from the autonomous region of Gagauzia, was also among those sanctioned. The Moldovan press has reported on Petrov’s alleged connections with the Moldovan underworld in Russia. Petrov is an activist who has made anti-EU and anti-NATO statements in Moldova.

Two others added to the EYU’s sanctions list are Arina Corsicova and Dumitru Chitoroaga, both directors of media trusts associated with fugitive oligarch Shor, who the EU claims are spreading disinformation.

Sixth on the list is Maria Albot, the foreign relations adviser to the governor of the pro-Russian region of Gagauzia, Evghenia Gutul, who is alos supported by Shor.

Already on the EU sanctions list for alleged attempts to destabilise Moldova are Shor, pro-Shor politician Marina Tauber, oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc, former police official Gheorghe Cavcaliuc and Igor Chaika, the son of the former prosecutor-general of Russia.

The sanctions come amid speculation that Russia and its allies in Tiraspol may attempt provoke renewed destabilisation soon.

An opposition politician, Ghenadie Ciorba, from the breakaway region of Transnistria, said on Thursday that at a deputies congress on February 28 summoned by Vadim Krasnoselsky, the secessionist leader in Tiraspol, Transnistria will appeal to Moscow for the separatist region to join the Russian Federation.

The Moldovan government’s Reintegration Office said it is “carefully” following the situation in the Transnistrian region. According to Chisinau, there are currently no signs indicating that the situation on the left side of the Dniester could deteriorate.

The Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ukrainian Defence Ministry said however that the “congress of deputies of all levels on the left bank of the Dniester River”, to be held in Tiraspol, will not call for the accession of the region to the Russian Federation.

[paul123love]

Est ce possible de recouper son ex ?-marabout voyant

Est ce possible de recouper son ex ?-marabout voyant

Vous êtes actuellement à un tournant décisif de votre vie.

L’être aimé, va t’il partir pour toujours ? Y à t’il encore un espoir

Nous sommes parfois écrasés par des soucis et des problèmes qui nous maintiennent dans une vie désespérante. Souvent, quels que soient nos efforts, nous n’arrivons pas à résoudre nos problèmes, ni à obtenir ce dont nous avons besoin. Parfois, nous ne parvenons pas…

[slow-button-off]

Because we've recently talked about Sainz and the toro rosso drama. I just read some things again. TW: mention of Helmut Marko

So essentially Sainz sr. used the spanish media to start rumours about Max and other teams to destabilise his relationship with RB. So that hopefully his own son would get the RB seat.

Also Helmut Marko has been talking about the RB and ex RB drivers and said about Carlos that he was fast but that his problem was having Max as a teammate.. and that it became toxic. Carlos has said on beyond the grid tho that it wasn't between the kids themselves.

Just think it might be a bit relevent considering his current teammate and all.

[hshq-scotlandyard]

THE RESULTS

THE OFFICIAL STANCE OF THE POLICE !

Prince Arthur II denied ever entering his father’s office on the day of the incident. He had, instead, commanded a few of his personal staff to aid him in gathering his personal belongings in other areas of Buckingham Palace. The guards at the Palace and stationed to watch over his father admitted to never having seen Prince Arthur II come within the vicinity of the office prior to the discovery of the body, other than when he clearly passed by the end of the hall, headed to his own room. HRH Catherine of Scotland heard the sound of Arthur I falling to the ground, as she was using the bathroom in the same area, and promptly headed to the office to investigate the noise. By the time she arrived, Arthur I was already deceased. HRH Catherine of Scotland promptly alerted the authorities.

Detectives believe that the assailant was an extremist who wished for the monarchy to be abolished, having found multiple online groups that were stoked to action by the recent clashes between Scottish/English forces. Authorities are currently assuming the former. The current unrest and chaos within London has made it difficult to locate the assailant, who escaped just before HRH Catherine of Scotland entered the scene. 

English authorities are trying to organise and ask for any help finding the regent’s murderer.

THE CULPRIT !

Prince Arthur de Iturbide II of Mexico murdered Arthur Windsor I.

Congratulations to the ones who guessed the murderer! And thank you everyone for playing! This was mega fun

He may have escaped the law… this time.

THE MOTIVATION !

Prince Arthur II has been planning his father’s murder since Princess Natalia was named heir to the throne. 

At first, it had been motivated by blind rage; then, it increasingly seemed more logical to do so. Prince Arthur II had been hard at work ensuring that the English nobility did not question the royal family, even after his sister had been named the new heir. He had also been the perpetrator of the Parliament explosion in 2020, though there were no casualties. The attack was a warning, and one that was inspired by his father’s actions against the Dutch. But it did not seem enough. Unrest raged on, and Prince Arthur II believed that his father would continue to undermine his political efforts and destabilise the country ever further should he be allowed to come close to any sort of power. Prince Arthur believed that his father had become the cancer of the nation, and his siblings unable to stop the spread of his influence. All other international parties were either resentful of England or too loyal to the old (ex-) monarch to offer aid and be rid of the despot entirely.

THE CRIME !

Enabling the Scottish and nationalist English factions to cause further chaos in England was the first step. By then, England was already at the breaking point. They needed someone to blame, and it was so convenient to paint Arthur I, the tyrant. He was most already high by the time his father’s conviction was announced, confident of what the outcome would be – not because he manipulated it, but because the sociopolitical conditions of the country might as well have dictated it. 

The second condition was the party. Though Arthur II had no hand in planning it; it was just convenient that it was at Buckingham Palace. It was also convenient that his father chose that same night to take part in the celebrations. Arthur II took this as a sign.

The anger and mortification he conveyed to others was only half true. It constructed the lie that he wanted to retire to his private quarters at just the right time, especially when his father had taken his leave. He instructed his personal staff to gather the rest of his belongings elsewhere: books, memorabilia, and the like, particularly in the library. He obtained a silencer from his private security detail, but needed to find the concealed weapon – unregistered, and received it as a gift from his less pristine connections – in his private quarters. His room also had a secret entrance into the hidden passages within the Palace, and he knew these well, having explored them at length as a child. He traversed them, hearing the guard, George Abbott, watching something on his phone through the wall as he passed by the area that would have been the waiting room beside the study. He waited until his father was alone in his office, and entered promptly. He shot the man first on his back, hitting his chest. Arthur I fell and hit his nose on the table’s edge, breaking it. The elder Arthur attempted to get away and alert authorities, especially upon seeing his son, and Arthur II coldly interrupted: “I hope you’re proud of me now, dad.” before firing a single bullet between his father’s eyes. He did not need to come close to his father and allow his shoes to be stained by his father’s blood – he had been hunting with Catherine since they were old enough to be allowed to hunt together, and they were both excellent (and competitive) shots.

Disgusted by the sight of his father and still somewhat tipsy, he removed the ring from his finger – which he almost never takes off – and allowed it to fall to the ground, not noticing that his father still had his. 

The office has two hidden doors: one that’s an exit to the passage (behind the trophy cabinet) and one that’s an entry point on the opposite side of the room. If Arthur II had returned to the hidden passages, he would have created a mark on the blood spatter on the wall, as well as stepped over the body. This would not do. Knowing that the guard was distracted, he opened the door carefully and slipped out. By the time the guard returned to his post, having finished smoking by the window in the waiting room beside the study, he didn’t know any better. Arthur II rounded the corner just as he was spotted by the maid, Alicia Greene. Her irrelevance to his current concerns caused him to forget they even interacted.

It was a fortuitous moment later, after Arthur II’s subsequent exit, that Catherine heard the noise. The ring was beside Arthur I’s body, and noticing the same ring on the deceased, she recognised it immediately as her childhood partner-in-crime. She picked it up, and the events continued as we know it at present.

RED HERRINGS AND VITAL CLUES !

Madelyn Desjardins

While Madelyn and her beau had a jealous reason to be rid of Arthur I (may he rest in pieces), they were also commoners. Killing a monarch would have been a sure death sentence without the right connections and without prior extensive planning.

Nicole and Natalia de Marquis (and Ennio Este? Arnauld D’Orléans?)

This has to be the most convincing one. We were setting it up the entire time and you got jebaited ! They are all innocent of (this particular) crime. Other crimes, though? Who knows

The Palace staff

Alicia Greene straight up lied. She watched Arthur II and Natalia grow up, after all, and still sees them as kids. She doesn’t know what exactly happened or who killed Arthur I, but she’ll do anything to protect her kids. George Abbott has worked at the Palace for three years, but in those three years, the Palace has seen its fair share of chaos and scheming that he’s learned to steer clear of the study, and Ian Ford probably didn’t give a damn, being loyal to Antonia. The cook and the gardener were innocent and corroborated these claims.

The Windsor siblings

While we were all alluding to killing off dear old dad, none of them are actually murderers

Apart from Arthur II : D

The Dutch?!

I wish

The cufflinks

These were Arthur I’s, which he took off for himself in frustration while he was calling his lawyers. The list of his clothing did not include them.

The wine

Madelyn drank some before leaving the scene. No scuffle ensued here, but Arthur I was struggling to uncork it, which would explain the opener.

The notepad and the laptop

Because the laptop has the most incriminating piece of evidence, we decided to save the best for last. To solve the password, you had to have access to the notes. Old people have a tendency to just write down their passwords, so we placed it there for good measure.

[louisedebelgique]

&&. announcing her royal highness, louise astrid charlotte de saxe-cobourg et gotha, the ( 27 ) year old princess of belgium. she is often confused with ( merritt patterson ). some say that she is (worrywart and resentful ), but she is actually ( sensible and intelligent ).

OKAY HERE IS MY NEW BABY. I wanted to write someone more involved in the political schemes. So you get princess Louise of Belgium. Please plot with her, I have many wanted connections !! 

TW death

About her family: She is the eldest daughter of King Albert and Queen Anne née du Poitiers. She has a 24 years old brother Prince Léopold and a 20 years old sister Princess Joséphine. She also has a paternal uncle Prince Baudouin. Baudouin married  Joanna Von Habsburg from Austria and they had two children, Arabella and a son. On her mother’s side, she is cousin with Lisette du Poitiers. Florence D’Orléans is her aunt by marriage. Renée Devereaux is also relative by marriage.  

Léopold is a golden boy and scandal bringing prince (think young Harry vibes) and Joséphine has a delicate health which is why she is not really in the public eyes as much as her older siblings.

The king and queen were  recently involved in a terrible helicopter crash. Queen Anne died at the scene and King Albert is in a coma.

Louise is now acting as a regent while her father is in the hospital. She rules with the help of her uncle Baudoin, a small council, and the de Liedekerke (her paternal grandmother’s family).   .

Since the crash, she alternates her time between Brussels and Phuket. Before that she remained in Belgium most of the time. 

She is shopping for allies against France who will probably try to invade Belgium, taking advantage of the helicopter accident that destabilised the country.

Louise is pretty  much willing to marry anyone who can provide an army and support against France.

She is a calm and intelligent ruler. She is diplomatic. She is good with details and little touches She understands the intrigues but used to try to stay clear of plotting and conspiring. She is now changing that position and is willing to intrigue away if it can save her country.

She is sensible, reliable and discreet. However she suffers from a lack of charisma and is plagued with anxiety.

She is often underestimated, not taken seriously and overlooked.

She is relatively well liked by her pears and the people. She has a good reputation.

She is also seen as someone people hope to manipulate or a pawn. 

She can be too serious at times.  

She is constantly worried about her siblings. She hopes that Léopold will stop his antics and support her and the family. She wishes Joséphine could get better. 

She is also anxious about her uncle other people in Belgium being seen as a more legitimate rulers than her and a potential coup. 

She has a classic royal education (aka me being lazy to delve into it right now). 

She speaks the 3 official languages of Belgium: french (language used in her family), dutch and german. She also speaks english and very little italian. 

She can play the violin but is not really into it. She did years of fencing and actually liked it. 

She always had a passion for painting and art.

She studied art in the Ecole des beaux-arts in Paris for 3 years. She also did a year abroad in Venice.

After that, she worked in an art gallery with a friend for several years until the helicopter crash.

She paints under an alias. 

She is involved in conservation and loves to help the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage. 

Louise is the mum friend and a big sister tm. She was always helping her parents taking care of her siblings. It’s something she reproduces in her other relationships.  

She is bisexual and never publicly came out but her sexuality is known mostly by her family and close friends. The communication team has been debating for years whether or not it should be public since she is the heir and they want Louise to be liked by the more people possible.   

She is a dog person. The royal family had a yellow labrador called Tintin which they kept for most of her childhood. 

She had big hopes for her future reign. She dreamed of a united Belgium and planned to work toward that goal after her parent’s passing. Sadly things took a terrible turn. As acting queen, her priority is now to insure Belgium’s survival.

Some wanted connections

Please give me a connection on her mother’s side. I would love cousins from another kingdom. PRETTY PLEASE. It’s done thanks to @lisettefoix​ 

Also if you fancy applying for her siblings or uncle, i would love you forever. 

Allies

Art friends

French speakers group

An unrequited crush on her side or someone elses

Ex boyfriend

A secret girlfriend 

People she can be the mum friends to 

A fake friend (aka someone trying to manipulate/use her)

A mentor. Another royal she admires and takes example from 

A torn in her side. 

[latenightcinephile]

#740: ‘Fox and His Friends’, dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1975.

Money can’t buy love, happiness, or freedom. But it can buy Valium. Life is funny that way. - Michael Koresky

Let’s race through the general synopsis and get to the good parts of the analysis, shall we? In 1975, Rainer Werner Fassbinder continued his exploration of the power imbalances inherent in romantic relationships with Fox and His Friends. Fox, a dim working-class gay man (played by Fassbinder himself), wins half a million marks in the lottery, and immediately becomes the target of a ring of viciously camp friends. After falling in love, he is encouraged by the most voracious of them, Eugen, to invest in his father’s company, to buy them a new apartment, to furnish it, and to pay for trips overseas in an attempt to repair a relationship that isn’t worth saving. Eventually, Fox is penniless and is last seen lying on the platform of a Berlin subway station.

What makes this film significantly different from Fassbinder’s previous work is that it’s an intensely and explicitly queer film. The bisexual director was not reticent about putting this facet of his life, with the cruising and the undercutting, on the screen to be explored. But it does raise the question: why tell this story with these characters? Are the class and sexuality of the characters meant to be unrelated, or are they representative of a parallel that Fassbinder sees?

Our first clue to this is in Fassbinder’s self-casting. Fassbinder plays Fox really strongly, to the point that my first instinct was that Fox was a self-insert, representing Fassbinder in most facets. But a bit of cursory reading indicates that if anything, Fassbinder saw himself as more of a Eugen - if there was a Fox at all in Fassbinder’s life, it was one of his boyfriends from around this time, who eventually found himself suffering in the same way that Fox does.

At first, it seems like the viewer knows where this story is heading: Fox is our working-class hero, familiar from cinema at the time, but even more specifically from the cinema of Eastern Europe at the time. He is a genuinely charming figure, too: when we see him rapping the table at a restaurant rhythmically, unsettling Eugen and drawing stares from those around him, it feels like he might disarm the “posh and prissy” gay men around him; he might reign triumphant over their squabbles. I was put in mind of the ‘Golden Heart’ films of Lars von Trier, where savage sacrifice is met with beatific reward. But right from the beginning, Eugen belittles Fox and makes it impossible for him to get a foothold - the only way he can hope to hold his ground here is by doing what Eugen wants to do but can’t, which is to spend money.

What could demolish the stance of Eugen, Max, Philip and the rest is if Fox’s genuine (if naive) love could destabilise them. In order to coax Fox’s money out of him, Eugen has to unceremoniously dump Philip. Likewise, Fox’s ex, Klaus, seems to be a genuinely nice guy. These factors could, in the hands of a slightly more optimistic director, lead to Fox’s triumph. Philip’s jealousy could thwart Eugen’s schemes; Klaus’s return could throw Eugen’s behaviour into clarity for Fox. Sadly for Fox, there is another theme that Fassbinder wants to explore in this film, and it pins down the agency of the characters at all four corners. In order to keep Philip in his good books, Eugen gets Fox to purchase clothes at his establishment. Max is kept quiet because he happens to own a furniture store. Klaus is rapidly embroiled in a smuggling operation. For these characters, love is just another thing that can be leveraged in order to get at the capital. Fox is too giddy to notice it.

One of the major ambiguities that I noticed while watching Fox and His Friends is that it’s hard to tell when the characters are being actively malevolent in their behaviour towards Fox and when they’re merely thoughtless. Eugen is the most clear in his attitudes: he constantly promises to turn Fox into ‘a real human being’, Henry Higgins style. Even with Eugen, though, there are times when he seems genuine: it’s only after the fact that we see the extent of his machinations. There are twitches in the facial expressions of Eugen’s parents that seem to suggest they might have a more calculating goal in mind, but Eugen’s father in his final scene seems defeated by his son’s total immorality. Even Max’s character motivations seem to be built on a seesaw: he’s positively affectionate and avuncular one minute and almost a literal devil on Fox’s shoulder the next.

Overall, though, that ambiguity doesn’t make a difference to the way the story plays out. Despite the desire we may feel to protect Fox (who, after all, is as dim as he thinks he is), it’s hard to feel that any great injustice has been done to him. Fox’s great flaw is that he wants to use his money to impress people, and thinks that someone being superior to him is the same thing as someone being worth falling in love with. As Michael Koresky suggests, “for Fassbinder, the tragedy is that [people] could choose to extricate themselves from the morass but often don’t.” Fox, and everyone around him, could turn back at any time from the capitalist hellscape of 1970s Europe. That they choose not to might say something about queer identity at the time; it might say something about the economic situation of West Germany. But even if it doesn’t say anything about that, it tells us a lot about the power capitalism holds, and how it dwarfs any other power imbalance that might be in play.

It’s not like everyone in the film is unsympathetic to what happens to Fox. There are a number of small roles, usually women, who offer support. But even those people are too unwilling to lose a sale, or too poor to offer anything significant. They’re just as much victims of capitalism here as Fox. The only real difference is that Fox is running towards his doom, arms wide open to embrace it when he thinks he’s embracing a lover.

Perhaps you might imagine from the images I’ve chosen that Fox and His Friends is a stylish film. It’s not; it’s absolutely a film about its storyline and themes. It doesn‘t have the ostentation of Petra von Kant, which I’ll have to write about another time. But this lack of excess style means that its characters seem even more seedy and appalling at their worst, and never rise to anything approaching redemption. They get exactly what they deserve, and they deserve exactly what they get. Is it a victory? No, but we don’t always get what we’re told we will.

[eliotduran-info]

Holala que tal ! Nous sommes le 27 septembre, et Bonjour l’Info revient pour une nouvelle saison en enfer ! On commence l’année avec Beyonce et Ivanka Trump, qui seront donc les marraines officielles de la chronique pour l’année 2018. Merci à elles.

IRAN Samedi dernier, un commando de 5 hommes a ouvert le feu durant une parade militaire à Ahvaz, faisant 24 morts et une soixantaine de blessés. L’attentat a été revendiqué par l’Organisation de l’Etat Islamique. Le gouvernement iranien, après avoir accusé un régime étranger supporté par les Etats-Unis, privilégie la piste des groupes séparatistes arabes dans la région. Le Khouzestan, région riche en pétrole, est en proie à une crise économique (chômage de masse), écologique (qualité de l’air) et de représentation politique. 1/3 de la population y est arabe et se plaint d’être marginalisée par la majorité perse. Rappelons que les milites chiites iraniennes combattent l’OEI (entre autres) en Syrie, aux coté du régime de Damas. https://www.lexpress.fr/actualites/1/monde/attentat-d-ahvaz-l-iran-privilegie-la-piste-separatiste-arabe_2036540.html Pour une analyse très complète de la situation : https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/les-enjeux-internationaux/iran-qui-veut-destabiliser-le-regime

TRUMP FAMILY Ivanka Trump a visité les locaux de la NASA. Tout le monde avait l’air ravi. https://twitter.com/NASA_Johnson/status/1043216599120011266

ANIMAUX C’est fini les éléphant à New Delhi ! Les autorités indiennes ont confisqué les 6 derniers pachydermes qui vivaient encore dans l’une des villes les plus polluées du monde. Il y a 50 ans, il y avait plus de 200 éléphant à Delhi. https://twitter.com/afpfr/status/1043983527593869314

ALIMENTATION En Afrique du Sud, on ramasse de plus en plus le fruit du Baobab. Apparement c’est plein d’anti-oxydants et ça rend heureux. Un Baobab vit près d’un millier d’année, et il faut attendre 200 ans pour pouvoir récolter les premiers fruits. https://twitter.com/afpfr/status/1044157240721244160

INTERNET Waow. Cette vidéo incompréhensible tente de nous apprendre que Beyonce a été accusée de « sorcellerie extrême » par son ancien batteur. Attention, c’est très violent. https://sg.news.yahoo.com/video/wowtv-beyonce-accused-witchcraft-ex-042000714.html

Okay les loulous, on se retrouve très vite pour de nouvelles aventures !

[aion-rsa]

The Expanse Season 4 Recap: Ilus, the Ring Gates and the Cliffhanger Ending

https://ift.tt/33wqYH6

Warning: contains spoilers for The Expanse season 4

At the beginning of The Expanse season four, the show’s characters stood at the crossroads of a brave and expansive new world, as did the cast and crew in their new home at Amazon. It was a marriage made in heaven. The Expanse was bigger, slicker, bolder, and grittier, but just as gloriously deep, rich and complex as ever. As season five gets ready to drop, let’s remind ourselves of the ups, downs, ins, outs, fights, smites and subterfuge of season four. We’ll start with the set-up and then look at each of the main locations/groups in turn, leading up to the season’s denouement and planet-busting cliffhanger. Major spoilers, obviously, ahead.

In the Beginning

Season three ended with the opening of the mysterious ring gates, and the 1300 habitable systems beyond them. Holden feared the beginning of ‘a blood-soaked gold rush’.

It’s a fear shared by UN Secretary General Chrisjen Avarasala (Shohreh Aghdashloo), who wants everyone to stay put. The UN’s stance is backed by the Martian Congressional Republic (MCR) and many of the Belters. The balance of peace and power in the Sol system is precarious, and a mass exodus could destabilise human civilisation. Besides, no one group wants any of the other groups to rush in and gain the upper hand.

A convoy of Belter ships rushes the blockade on the Sol side of the slow zone. The Barbapiccola, containing refugees from Ganymede, makes it through and enters one of the ring gates. The Belters settle on a planet there and begin mining lithium. They name the planet Ilus.

Two ships are dispatched in the settlers’ wake. The first is the Edward Israel, owned by a corporation called Royal Charter Energy (RCE), which already had a UN-and-Mars-backed mandate to conduct scientific studies beyond the ring gates. The second is the Rocinante. Avasarala wants Jim Holden (Steven Strait) and his team to bring their knowledge and experience of the protomolecule to bear on this strange new world, and also act as adjudicators. Officially, at least. It’s not really in Avasarala’s interests for the situation on Ilus to run smoothly.  

Life on Mars

Bobbie Draper (Frankie Adams) spent seasons two and three in a whirlwind of defections, double-dealings and divided loyalties thanks to the cold war (and almost total war) between Earth and Mars, and the revelation of Mars’ role in the development of protomolecule bio-soldiers. Season four finds her somewhat adrift, living on Mars with her younger brother, David, and working for a company that dismantles decommissioned warships. She’s generally having a hard time readjusting to civilian life.

David gets embroiled in the criminal underworld, helping a gang to prepare illicit sense-enhancement drugs. Bobbie takes exception to this, so goes looking for the gang. She finds and beats down some of its members, in the process smashing up one of their labs and damaging their inventory. Her brother is kidnapped and forced to work off the debt incurred by the damage. Bobbie pleads for her brother’s release, a request to which the leader of the gang is willing to acquiesce, but only for a price: Bobbie has to leave a door unlocked at work so the gang can steal some military equipment. Reluctantly, she complies. When Bobby’s conscience gets the better of her she tries to report the gang to the police, only to discover that the high-ranking policeman who comes to log her report is the gang leader himself, Esai Martin (Paul Schulze). She later quits her job when her supervisor seems keener on getting in on the lucrative illegal action than in pursuing justice. Eventually she’s arrested for her part in the gang’s crime, and is only saved from prosecution when she agrees to accept Esai’s offer to work for his gang. Esai is motivated in his criminality by the pressing need to make enough money to secure passage off Mars and start a new life elsewhere with his family. He knows that the ring-gates, and the life and fecundity beyond them, have rendered Mars’ terraforming initiatives pointless, thereby dooming the planet to stagnation and, very possibly, extinction.  

Esai and his gang are later involved in the theft of another piece of Martian military tech, which is handed over to a team of Belters, who summarily execute the gang before retreating off-world. Bobbie witnesses this happening.  

Avasarala, Earth, and The OPA

The Outer Planets Alliance (OPA) faction represented by Camina Drummer (Cara Gee) and Klaes Ashford (David Strathairn) allies with the UN. They re-brand and re-purpose the Behemoth as Medina station, setting themselves up as gate-keepers of the rings, helping to enforce the UN blockade.  It’s hoped that this will grant them a place at the table and influence over the new galactic order.

Not all Belters are on board with this new paradigm, perceiving it as selling out; a capitulation to those who would still demean and exploit them.  Marco Inaros (Keon Alexander) is the most vocal and militant voice of opposition. Marco is Naomi Nagata’s (Dominique Tipper) ex-beau and father of their child, Filip (Jasai Chase Owens), and while these days he styles himself a freedom fighter, it wasn’t always thus. When he was with Naomi, he tricked her into writing code that he claimed would merely disable other ships, allowing their faction to come to the rescue and extort payment for their time and trouble. However, Marco used the code to overload the reactor of a docked ship, killing hundreds of people. When the distraught and guilt-ridden Naomi left the faction she was prevented from taking their son, Filip.

Marco is apprehended by Drummer and Ashford for his part in capturing the UNN colony ship Soujourner and executing its crew. While aboard the Behemoth, Marco tries to win Ashford over to his world view, reminding him that the Belt will suffer a terminal decline of profit and influence owing to the exodus, and, besides, very few Belters, due to their space-bound physiology, will be able to take advantage of the brave new worlds beyond the ring gates. The heads of the various OPA factions assemble to decide whether or not Marco should be spaced (ejected into space sans suit) for breaking the fragile truce between the inner and outer planets. It’s Drummer who breaks the tie, reasoning that killing Marco would make him a martyr, and propel into action those factions loyal to his cause.

On Earth, Avasarala faces a leadership challenge from Nancy Gao (Lily Gao) who, in contrast to the incumbent, is a fierce advocate for embracing the change, opportunity and adventure that the ring gates represent. Avasarala’s campaign takes its toll on her ethics and her personal life, especially her marriage. She resorts to smears against Gao, and isn’t above attempting to use the problems on Ilus to her advantage. 

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OPA bigwig Fred Johnson (Chad L. Coleman) reveals Marco’s location to Avasarala, who wastes no time in dispatching a team of marines to the Pizzouza spacecraft to extract him. Marco, however, isn’t on board, and the resulting firefight between marines and Belters results in grave loss of life. The fallout critically damages Avasarala’s image, reputation and election chances, and moreover plays right into Marco’s hands. 

Fred Johnson visits the Behemoth, receiving from Drummer both a punch in the face and news of her resignation. Ashford vows to track down and kill Marco and wants Drummer to accompany him, but she declines on the grounds that she’s sick of politics and its machinations.

Ashford’s pursuit of Marco through the Belt leads him to a Martian naval officer, who reveals under interrogation the existence of a conspiracy involving Martians and Belters. When Ashford finally tracks down Marco, on an abandoned asteroid mine in the belt (from which there are also some asteroids missing) he’s prevented from killing him by the appearance Marco’s and Naomi’s son Filip, who emerges from the shadows to tip the balance of power in his father’s favour. Ashford is spaced, but before he dies he broadcasts a secret recording that incriminates Marco and will alert whomever receives the transmission to the conspiracy – even if Ashford never learned its exact purpose or shape.

On Earth, Avasarala is defeated by Nancy Gao. Avasarala dictates a conciliatory message to Nancy Gao, which ends thusly: “As for policy and the direction you’re taking the earth and all her peoples. Well, we disagree. One of us is wrong. I think it’s you… but I hope it’s me.”

Ilus/New Terra

When the Rocinante arrives on Ilus – or New Terra, as the UN would have it – there is already palpable tension and mistrust between the Belters and the crew of the Edward Israel. The RCE’s shuttle was downed on its way from orbit, resulting in deaths and injuries. Survivors of the crash include the group’s leader, the merciless Adolphus Murtry Burn Gorman); RCE security officer Chandra Wei (Jess Salgueiro); and exo-biologist Dr Elvi Okoye (Lyndie Greenwood). Violence is halted when everyone is swarmed by alien bugs, soon confirmed as protomolecule-based.

The planet is home to large structures that were built by the long-dead beings responsible for the protomolecule. Proto-Miller (Thomas Jane) appears to Holden and makes him go to one of the ruined structures to remove a root that’s blocking a connection. This turns on the structure and, it would appear, the entire planet, shaking loose forks of promethean lightning from the dark, oppressive clouds. Holden fires a torpedo at another of the structures when it too appears to activate.

Amos (Wes Chatham) and Murtry play detective for a time, discovering that the planet’s landing pad was blown up deliberately. In the ensuing stand-off between the Belters and the RCE group, Murtry shoots and kills one of the Belters. This violent act kills the potential bromance between Amos and Murtry. Both men are killers, but Amos, despite his shallow affect, follows a more honourable code of ethics, one that puts him at irreconcilable loggerheads with the ruthless Murtry. Amos is taken into custody while Naomi – still having trouble adjusting to terra firma, despite the help of acclimation drugs – helps a Belter woman named Lucia (Rosa Gilmore) escape the RCE’s clutches. She’s being pursued by the RCE because they know she was involved in blowing up the landing pad. Lucia explains to Naomi that it was only supposed to be an act of sabotage to buy the Belters more time. When it became clear that this act of sabotage would coincide with the arrival of the RCE’s shuttle, Lucia tried to abort the action, but was prevented from doing so by her co-conspirators. Holden and Alex (Cas Anvar) come to Naomi and Lucia’s aid as they’re hunted across the encampment, bringing some of the Rocinante’s firepower to bear. Alex takes Lucia and Naomi into orbit aboard the Rocinante, leaving Holden behind to plead with the two factions to evacuate the unpredictable, proto-molecule-soaked planet, with a little time left over to punch Murtry in the face and demand Amos’s release.

Neither faction wants to abandon the planet, or their claim to the lithium, but soon the planet itself renders Holden’s exhortations irrelevant. An island explodes, precipitating a shockwave and tsunami that threatens their survival. Worse still, the fall-out has somehow rendered the fusion drives on the orbiting spacecraft useless. There’s no prospect of escape or rescue. Everyone has to flee for refuge in one of the alien ruins.

Structures, slugs and synthesised drugs

Once inside, the survivors split into two factions, RCE on one side, Belters on the other, with Holden and Amos somewhere in the middle. They quickly discover that the structure is teeming with countless thousands of neurotoxic alien slugs and hostile micro-organisms. Everyone except Holden starts to go blind after being infected by the micro-organisms. Many others succumb to the fatal touch of the slugs. Murtry, becoming more unstable by the moment, reveals to his group his true objective on Ilus/New Terra. It isn’t the lithium he’s after, but the proto-molecule tech. He also wants to kill Holden and Amos.

Above the planet, Alex and Naomi devise a plan to tether the Rocinante to the Barbapiccola to prevent its decaying orbit from dragging it down onto the planet’s surface. Murtry keeps things interesting by ordering the Edward Israel to fire on the Rocinante.

The exo-biologist Dr Okoye works out – just in the nick of time – that Holden is immune to the micro-organisms because of the anti-cancer medication he’s been taking ever since he and Miller were exposed to radiation on Eros. She synthesises a cure, and the effects are reversed. In time, the waters recede enough for the survivors to leave the structure.

Meanwhile, proto-Miller again appears to Holden. The ‘real’ Miller is now battling with the protomolecule for control of the Miller ‘avatar’. In a moment of lucidity, Miller explains to Holden that the hat-wearing Miller he’s been dealing with is The Investigator, whose mission was to bring Holden and a dose of active protomolecule through the ring gates to activate the structures on Ilus. Miller, however, has identified a place on the planet where the protomolecule can’t go, where in fact all trace of it can be destroyed.       

Holden heads off in search of this weak spot. He’s led to a portal which transports him to another structure elsewhere on the planet, swiftly followed by Murtry and Chandra (with whom Amos had a brief ‘romance’), who are intent on killing him. Amos and Okoye follow. Amos fatally shoots Chandra, then Murtry shoots and disables Amos. Meanwhile, Okoye and Holden find a mysterious circular rift that Miller refers to as ‘the bullet’. While Holden rushes to aid Amos and incapacitate Murtry, Okoye stays behind to help Miller with ‘the bullet’. Miller merges with items strewn around the room to give him the corporeal form necessary to enter and plug the rift. His self-sacrifice not only saves Okoye, who is almost swallowed by the phenomenon, but returns everything to normal. All vestiges of the protomolecule are removed, the planet is ‘deactivated’ and fusion engines can function once more. The Belters and some of the RCE scientists decide to stay behind on Ilus. In orbit, Holden ejects the only piece of protomolecule that’s still aboard the Rocinante into Ilus’ sun. Murtry is a prisoner aboard the Rocinante, but the crew decides to let Lucia go.    

The Beginning of the End

Bobbie reaches out to Avasarala to tell her about the criminal conspiracy between Martian and Belter criminals/terrorists. Ashford’s message, which lends weight to this intel, is out there in the ether somewhere, but no one has yet detected it. Bobbie and Avasarala are now working together.

It was Filip who was with the team of Belters on Mars that stole the piece of military tech before eliminating Esai’s gang. The hardware taken was stealth tech, which we discover that Marco Inaros has used to cloak eight asteroids that are currently hurtling their way towards Earth.  

It’s going to be fascinating and harrowing in equal measure to see what a few million tonnes of space-rock will do to the tentative peace that’s barely holding the Sol system together, and how the various factions will make peace – or war – with the atrocity to come.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Roll on season five.

The post The Expanse Season 4 Recap: Ilus, the Ring Gates and the Cliffhanger Ending appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[celesylvupdates-blog]

Headlines Update July 28 Headlines from Nigeria’s Major Newspapers NATION *CJN urged to probe transfer of Rivers’ APC cases from P/Harcourt to Abuja *DSS warns on plans to destabilise country *PTF: why we can’t lock down high-risk Lagos councils *NMA kicks as govt asks exit class pupils to resume Aug 4 *More NDDC contracts beneficiaries on Akpabio’s list *Kidnapped Benue businessman freed *Land allottees seek Sanwo-Olu’s intervention against land grabbers *Afe Babalola petitions IG over suspect’s death in custody *Rape: Court of Appeal upholds school supervisor’s 60-year jail *Nine robbery suspects held in Ogun, Lagos *Caleb Varsity takes giant steps in e-learning *Why Fed Govt set up committee on rape, gender-based violence, by Malami *Dogara to drag more Reps, others to APC *Buhari names railway stations after leaders *Oyo prosecutes 40 environmental offenders *Nigerian writer Okojie wins AKO Caine Prize for African Writing *Ondo averts strike *Gunmen kill lawyer, abduct wife, son in Kaduna *Weeks after, domestic aviation industry still crawling *Oyo, Cross River roll out reliefs for taxpayers *Oshiomhole: I’m sorry for selling a bad product in 2016 *‘Buhari’s achievements will win Edo, Ondo polls for us’ *Uncertainty as Jegede gets PDP certificate *Samsung lifts virus battle with 500 phone devices *PDP: we will resist APC’s intimidation *Ex-commissioners lash Obaseki *ADC candidate Oboh condemns violence *Benin group makes case for peace *Fed Govt directs firm to fix bridges *Ekiti commissioner, 11 others test positive *Edo tests 9,626 residents, disinfects 2,167 homes *Too early to declare pandemic curve flattening, say FG, WHO *Lagos shuts water treatment plant *MFM to begin 70 days fasting *Why Africa is not having many fatalities, by WHO DAILY TRUST *WASSCE: Students optimistic as teachers, parents fear mass failure *Tenants, labour, developers tackle FG over 6% stamp duty *Sallah: We’re pressured to resume train services – FG *No going back on light rail project, says Kano govt *Read more http://www.celesylvupdates.com/headlines-today/headlines-update-july-28-headlines-from-nigerias-major-newspapers/ https://www.instagram.com/p/CDLfgKoJtwy/?igshid=gqmt76nsruul

[ebaeschnbliah]

MISTER  KINGSLEY

________________________________________________________________

Some time ago I wrote about the short cases Sherlock investigates at the beginning of TST (Spinning the plates). As it turned out each case seems to be closely connected to Sherlock himself in one way or another. It appears to be the same with characters who have a tattoo. Even as unlikely ones as the torturer in Serbia (TEH) or the unconscious ex-con in CAMs office (HLV)

In TST a man comes to Baker Street and seeks the help of Sherlock Holmes. His wife left him and he assumes she was having an affair. Sherlock doesn't take that case but throwes the man out instead. This case might have been too boring for Sherlock but the man - Mr. Kingsley - is quite interesting. He has an almost faded tattoo on his forearm. Reason enough to take a closer look at this guy. Could he be a Sherlock mirror as well?

More under the cut .....

His name is KINGSLEY

Which  includes the word KING. While Mycroft is compared to the 'queen' in ASIB, Sherlock is more than once connected to the 'king'.

'Am I the current king of England?' asks Sherlock in TSOT.

Elvis is called the 'King' as well and in THOB his face overlays Sherlock's while the first accords of 'Hound Dog' can be heard.

In TLD Elvis is mentioned again as a person who can be recognized by one name alone ... like Sherlock.

Now, you haven’t always been in life insurance, have you?

This is the very first information about Mr. Kingsley. He works in 'life insurance' .... is it too far a stretch connecting 'life insurance' to a form of protection ... of guarding? Sherlock himself (and some of his mirrors) are several times presented as 'guardians'.

You started out in manual labour. Oh, don’t bother being astonished. Your right hand’s almost an entire size bigger than your left. (“10½” over the right hand and “9½” over the other.) Hard manual work does that.

KINGSLEY: I was a carpenter, uh, like me dad.

A carpenter who is the son of a carpenter?. Is this another Christ reference? Wouldn't be the first time Sherlock is associated with Christ in this story.

In the New Testament, Jesus is commonly referred to as "Jesus of Nazareth" (e.g., Mark 10:47). Jesus' neighbors in Nazareth refer to him as "the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon" (Mark 6:3), "the carpenter's son" (Matthew 13:55), or "Joseph's son" (Luke 4:22).

And you’re trying to give up smoking, unsuccessfully,

SHERLOCK: Not just e-cigarettes – ten individual e-cigarettes. Now, if you just wanted to smoke indoors, you would have invested in one of those irritating electronic pipe things, but you’re convinced you can give up, so you don’t want to buy a pipe because that means you’re not serious about quitting, so instead you buy individual cigarettes, always sure that each will be your last.

This speaks for itself, I think. :))))

You once had a Japanese girlfriend that meant a lot to you

But now you feel indifferent about. You’ve got a Japanese tattoo in the crook of your elbow in the name ‘Akako.’ It’s obvious you’ve tried to have it removed. KINGSLEY: But surely that means I wanna forget her, not that I’m indifferent. SHERLOCK: If she’d really hurt your feelings, you would have had the word obliterated, but the first attempt wasn’t successful and you haven’t tried again, so it seems you can live with the slightly blurred memory of Akako, hence the indifference.

This topic - the 'broken off realationships' of various kinds (parents, friends, lovers) - runs throughout the whole story. Stillborn children, orphans, lost siblings, children, friends, a dog  and romances ending before they even had a chance to properly begin.

And of course the connection to Japan is another reference to the East, the Eastwind, Eurus and memory.

KINGSLEY: Sorry. I-I thought you’d done something clever. No, no. Ah, but now you’ve explained it, it’s dead simple, innit?

The whole deduction scene up unto this point is taken - with little changes - from ACDs Story  'The Red-Headed League'. In the original the client's name is Mr. Jabez Wilson. He is a former ship's carapenter who had once travelled to China. Holmes deduces this by a very distinctive fish tattoo on his arm and a coin on the watch chain. Mr. Wilson comes to Baker Street because the company he worked for suddenly 'vanished' without a trace. Turns out the whole organisation was a fake from the start. It's existance had been only created to lure Mr. Wilson away from his house for several hours per day to dig a secret tunnel to a nearby bank ... and the considerable fortune of French gold in its vaults.

The meaning of names

An interesting thing to notice is, that the name chosen for the lady in pink in ASIP is ... Jennifer Wilson. The name Wilson is also related to 'William', which is Sherlock's first name in this story.

William comes ultimately from the given name Wilhelm (cf. Old German Wilhelm and Old Norse Vilhjálmr). That is a compound of two distinct elements :

wil = "will or desire";

helm = Old English helm "helmet, protection"

Protector of desires - what a fitting name for Sherlock in this special adaptation!

Original Sherlock Holmes reacts to Mr. Wilson's rather simplifying interpretation, regarding the explanation of the deductions, quite different.

“I begin to think, Watson,” said Holmes, “that I make a mistake in explaining. ‘Omne ignotum pro magnifico,’ you know, and my poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I am so candid."

Omne ignotum pro magnifico .... 'every unknown thing is taken for great'

Or 'everything becomes commonplace by explanation' that's how Dr.Watson translates this statement in the lovely Granada adaptation of the 'Red-Headed League' with Jeremy Brett and David Burke (here).

Back to Sherlock and Mr. Kingsley

Highly indignant and offended by Mr. Kingsley's dismissive reaction to his explanations, Sherlock launches from nil to a hundred into a real torrent of deductions about poor Mr. Kingsley, who listens dumbfounded.

I’ve withheld this information from you until now ...

... but I think it’s time you knew the truth. Have you ever wondered if your wife was a little bit out of your league? You thought she was having an affair. I’m afraid it’s far worse than that. Your wife is a spy. Her real name is Greta Bengtsdotter. Swedish by birth and probably the most dangerous spy in the world.

WATSON: You’re working for Mycroft? MRS WATSON: He likes to keep an eye on his mad sibling. HOLMES: And he had a spy to hand.  Has it never occurred to you that your wife is excessively skilled for a nurse?

A 'super-agent' with a terrifying skill set? Oh, Mary I hear your tapping.

She’s been operating deep undercover for the past four years now as your wife for one reason only: to get near the American embassy which is across the road from your flat.

And once again the mention of an embasy - an ambassador. First Rufus Bruhl the US ambassador and his children Max and Claudette. Then the ambassador in Tiblisi who knew the truth about AMO. Three ambassadors in one story? A bit much for just coincidence, I think.

Tomorrow the US president will be at the embassy as part of an official state visit. As the president greets members of staff, Greta Bengtsdotter, disguised as a twenty-two stone cleaner, will inject the president in the back of the neck with a dangerous new drug hidden inside a secret compartment inside her padded armpit.

Like poor John in TEH? Before he got dumped under the bonfire woodpile? Is John the president?

This drug will then render the president entirely susceptible to the will of their new master, none other than James Moriarty.

Ahhhh .... another dangerous drug.  H.O.U.N.D. is for creating fear. TD12 is to create the bliss of ignorance. And now something to gain full domination over someone else. Fear - loss of memory - loss of power .... how frightening.

Moriarty will then use the president as a pawn to destabilise the United Nations General Assembly which is due to vote on a nuclear non-proliferation treaty, tipping the balance in favour of a first strike policy against Russia. This chain of events will then prove unstoppable, thus precipitating ... World War Three.

This sounds a lot like  '... Nuclear codes – I could blow up NATO in alphabetical order. In a world of locked rooms, the man with the key is king; and honey, you should see me in a crown.'    Jim Moriarty ... ruler of the whole world!

JOHN: Are you serious?  SHERLOCK: No, of course not.

'... his wife left him because his breath stinks and he likes to wear her lingerie.'

KINGSLEY: I don’t! Just the bras.

Really? Cross dressing like unle Rudi? Like Mycroft as Lady Bracknell? Oh, what a coincidence!  Sometimes the universe seems to be rather lazy.   :)))))

'his breath stinks' ... the simplest translation would be 'not liking what comes out of someones mouth'  and I guess there are a lot of people who are convinced this applies perfectly to some of Sherlock's deductions.

SEBASTIAN: He could look at you and tell you your whole life story. Put the wind up everybody. We hated him.

Assuming Mr. Kingsley is indeed a mirror for Sherlock - created in his own mind - how heartbreakingly sad is this last deduction! Sherlock imagining a life partner who leaves him because of what comes out of his mouth ... and because of what he likes.

JOHN: So. What’s this all about, then? SHERLOCK: Having fun. ..... While I can.

In a nutshell ... Sherlock is annoyed and wants to have fun while he still can and because of that he invents an impromptu story - far-fetched and dramatically charged - about a most dangerous 'super agent' employed by a criminal mastermind to gain world domination.  Sounds familiar ....

Are these kind of stories the ones Sherlock loves most?

Stories about undercover agents, secret spies, super agents ... like Mr. 'double-0-seven' James Bond? Then he would propably get along very well with another character in this story. A little boy ... with a mop of unruly, curly, dark hair. For he seems to have quite similar interests as Sherlock .... and he is a clever boy as well .... Max Bruhl.

SHERLOCK: What would he do in the precious few seconds before they came into the room? How would he use them if not to cry out? This little boy; this particular little boy ... who reads all of those spy books. What would he do? JOHN: He’d leave a sign?

The ambassadors son .... Max Bruhl .... abducted and poisoned and left to die together with his sister Claudette.

This reminds me very much of Sherlock - who gets abducted and drugged as well ..... or poisoned?

September, 2017

I leave you too your own deductions  Thanks @callie-ariane for the scripts.

@gosherlocked @loveismyrevolution @sagestreet @sherlockshadow @monikakrasnorada @kateis-cakeis @sarahthecoat @raggedyblue @darlingtonsubstitution @tjlcisthenewsexy

[toldnews-blog]

New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/business/house-launches-probe-of-us-nuclear-plan-in-saudi-arabia/

House launches probe of US nuclear plan in Saudi Arabia

Image copyright MANDEL NGAN VIA GETTY IMAGES

Image caption President Trump at the Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh in 2017

The US is rushing to transfer sensitive nuclear power technology to Saudi Arabia, according to a new congressional report.

A Democratic-led House panel has launched an inquiry over concerns about the White House plan to build nuclear reactors across the kingdom.

Whistleblowers told the panel it could destabilise the Middle East by boosting nuclear weapons proliferation.

Firms linked to the president have reportedly pushed for these transfers.

The House of Representatives’ Oversight Committee report notes that an inquiry into the matter is “particularly critical because the Administration’s efforts to transfer sensitive US nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia appear to be ongoing”.

President Donald Trump met nuclear power developers at the White House on 12 February to discuss building plants in Middle Eastern nations, including Saudi Arabia.

And Mr Trump’s son-in-law, White House adviser Jared Kushner, will be touring the Middle East this month to discuss the economics of the Trump administration’s peace plan.

Saudi Arabia has said it wants nuclear power in order to diversify its energy sources and help address growing energy needs.

But concerns around rival Iran developing nuclear technology are also at play, according to US media.

Previous negotiations for US nuclear technology ended after Saudi Arabia refused to agree to safeguards against using the tech for weaponry, but the Trump administration may not see these safeguards as mandatory, ProPublica reported.

Critics say giving Saudi Arabia access to US nuclear technology would spark a dangerous arms race in the volatile region.

Image copyright Getty Images

Image caption Adviser Jared Kushner watches alongside a member of the Saudi Delegation during a meeting between President Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

What does the report say?

The House report is based on whistleblower accounts and documents showing communications between Trump administration officials and nuclear power companies.

It states that “within the US, strong private commercial interests have been pressing aggressively for the transfer of highly sensitive nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia”.

These commercial entities could “reap billions of dollars through contracts associated with constructing and operating nuclear facilities in Saudi Arabia”.

Mr Trump is reportedly “directly engaged in the effort”.

The White House has yet to comment on the report.

The report includes a timeline of events and names other administration officials who have been involved with the matter, including Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Mr Kushner, Mr Trump’s inaugural committee chairman Tom Barrack and former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.

Flynn was found guilty of lying about Russian contacts by special counsel Robert Mueller as a part of the inquiry into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

The commercial entities implicated in the report are:

IP3 International, a private company led by ex-military officers and security officials that organised a group of US companies to build “dozens of nuclear power plants” in Saudi Arabia

ACU Strategic Partners, a nuclear power consultancy led by British-American Alex Copson

Colony NorthStar, Mr Barrack’s real estate investment firm

Flynn Intel Group, a consultancy and lobby set up by Michael Flynn

Image copyright Reuters

Image caption Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was deeply involved with the nuclear plans, the report says

The report states that Flynn had decided to develop IP3’s nuclear initiative, the Middle East Marshall Plan, during his transition, and while he was still serving as an adviser for the company.

In January 2017, National Security Council staff began to raise concerns that these plans were inappropriate and possibly illegal, and that Flynn had a potentially criminal conflict of interest.

Following Flynn’s dismissal, however, IP3 continued to push for the Middle East Plans to be presented to Mr Trump.

According to the report, one senior official said the proposal was “a scheme for these generals to make some money”.

And whistleblowers described the White House working environment as “marked by chaos, dysfunction and backbiting”.

What next?

The report says an investigation will determine whether the administration has been acting “in the national security interests of the United States or, rather, [to] serve those who stand to gain financially” from this policy change.

These apparent conflicts of interest among White House advisers may breach federal law, and the report notes that there is bi-partisan concern regarding Saudi Arabia’s access to nuclear technology.

The oversight committee is seeking interviews with the companies, “key personnel” who promoted the plan to the White House, as well as the Departments of Commerce, Energy, Defence, State, Treasury, the White House and the CIA.

[marlaluster]

emptying clipboard w items numbered

1. https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=zv%2ffdOvt&id=E6261A7BA3668178713351F9B404295FC13E444B&thid=OIP.zv_fdOvtFolItj5R71aQZgHaH2&q=David+Hogg+Crisis+Actor&simid=608033243877738474&selectedIndex=35&ajaxhist=0 2. https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5642712/what-is-the-crisis-actor-conspiracy-theory-and-what-are-the-claims-around-florida-shooting-survivor-david-hogg/ 3. tips@the-sun.co.uk 4. What is the 'crisis actor' conspiracy theory and what are the claims around Florida shooting survivor David Hogg? THE Florida school massacre has sparked sick conspiracy theories that the shooting was staged as a ruse to limit Americans' access to firearms. Trolls claim teen pupils who survived the attack are really actors paid to argue in favour of gun control. Conspiracy nuts claim to have identified 'crisis actors' present at a number of atrocitiesWhat are crisis actors? The name comes from actors who volunteer or are paid to take the roles of victims in mock disasters and terror attacks staged as training drills for emergency services. Conspiracy theorists have applied the name to survivors and witnesses in genuine atrocities. They claim people interviewed on TV news about mass shootings have actually been paid to be on the scene by the shadowy forces of the "deep state" that orchestrated the horror. Wackos post images online claiming to show the same "crisis actors" have been present at past attacks such as the Boston marathon bombing. There was a huge spike in online searches about crisis actors after the Sandy Hook shooting left 20 kids and six teachers dead in 2012. Conspiracy nuts label such massacres as "false flag" operations - meaning they are cooked up by intelligence agents or other officials as a means to grab more power for the US federal government. Wackos claimed Florida shooting survivor David Hogg is a paid crisis actor With shootings, the theory goes that "deep state" agents stage a bogus massacre with fake victims or even a real shooting. Plotters are variously said to include the FBI and the Democrat party. The alleged purpose is to destabilise the Trump presidency and provide an excuse to impose tougher gun laws across the nation. Russian Twitterbots have also begun stirring hatred with fake news about the Florida school shooting, using the hashtag #falseflag. In April 2017, trolls claimed a chemical weapons atrocity in Syria was a deep state false flag operation designed to drag Donald Trump into war against President Assad. Pupils Kelsey Friend and David Hogg are interviewed about the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High SchoolWhat has been said about Florida shooting survivor David Hogg? David Hogg, 17, is a pupil at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. He survived the massacre of 14 youngsters and three staff by troubled ex-student Nikolas Cruz, 19, on February 14. David is one of a number of teenage survivors who have appeared in the media passionately calling for action to prevent a repeat of the horror at other US schools. As a result he has been the subject of loopy claims that he is a crisis actor who was briefed before the shooting by the local FBI. YouTube apologised for promoting a video that claimed to expose David in its Top Trending section. It claimed to "prove" he was a crisis actor based on an interview he gave on local TV in California last year about a dispute with a lifeguard. The president's son Donald Trump Jr appeared to be taken in by the conspiracy. He liked two tweets suggesting the teenager was a fabrication of the “mainstream media”. Donald Trump Jr liked this loopy post by a conspiracy theorist on Twitter And an aide to a Florida state politician was sacked after accusing David and another teen of being stooges. Benjamin Kelly, secretary to Republican district representative Shawn Harrison, emailed a journalist: "Both kids in the picture are not students here but actors that travel to various crisis when they happen." Asked about the claims on CNN, David said: "I'm not a crisis actor. "I'm someone who had to witness this and live through this and I continue to be having to do that. "I'm not acting on anybody's behalf." Florida state senator Marco Rubio - who argues against gun control - came to David's defence. He tweeted: "Claiming some of the students on tv after #Parkland are actors is the work of a disgusting group of idiots with no sense of decency." Parkland shooting survivor Samuel Zeif speaks directly to Donald Trump about the horrors he experienced We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368 . We pay for videostoo. Click here to upload yours. 5. NXIVM founder, actress indicted on sex trafficking, for abcnews.go.com/US/...sex-trafficking-forced-labor/story?id=54618672 Mobile · Apr 20, 2018 · Allison Mack was charged with sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy and forced labor … Forced Labor | U.S. Customs and Border Protection https://www.cbp.gov/trade/trade-community/programs-outreach/... Mobile · Section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. § 1307) prohibits the importation of merchandise mined, produced or manufactured, wholly or in part, in any foreign country by forced or indentured child labor – including forced child labor. Related searchesfacts about forced laborforced labor in americaforced labour definitionforced labor policyforced labor lawsforced labor in the philippines 123 6. https://www.bing.com/search?q=forced+labor&PC=SMSM&FORM=MBDPSB 7. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/millions-of-americans-forced-to-work-part-time/ 8. "I want to go to sleep at night and not have numbers running through my head," she says. "How much money do I have until my food benefits run out? How much do I have left on my car? How do I feed my kids today? I always have math in my head, now." 9. https://www.bing.com/search?q=web+dubois&PC=SMSM&FORM=MBDPSB 10. W. E. B. Du Bois Historian William Edward Burghardt "W. E. B." Du Bois was an American sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author, writer and editor. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in a relatively tolerant and integrated community. After completing graduate work at the University of Berlin and Harvard, where he was the first African American to earn a doctorate, … Wikipedia Spouse: Shirley Graham Du Bois (m. 1951) Founded: NAACP · Niagara Movement Education: Humboldt University of Berlin · Fisk University · Harvard University Parents: Mary Silvina Du Bois (Mother) · Alfred Du Bois (Father) More details QUOTES Like Nemesis of Greek tragedy, the central problem of America after th… The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line. The power of the ballot we need in sheer defense, else what shall save us fro… See more quotes 11. http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/88/ 12. Washington’s speech stressed accommodation rather than resistance to the racist order under which Southern African Americans lived. In 1903, Washington recorded this portion of his famous speech, the only surviving recording of his voice. 13. Booker T. Washington's Atlanta Compromise Speech by Booker T. Washington In 1895, Booker T. Washington gave what later came to be known as the Atlanta Compromise speech before the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta. His address was one of the most important and influential speeches in American history, guiding African-American resistance to white discrimination and establishing Washington as one of the leading black spokesmen in America. Washington’s speech stressed accommodation rather than resistance to the racist order under which Southern African Americans lived. In 1903, Washington recorded this portion of his famous speech, the only surviving recording of his voice. Listen to Audio: Booker T. Washington: Mr. President and gentlemen of the Board of Directors and citizens. One third of the population of the South is of the Negro race. No enterprise seeking the material, civil, or moral welfare of this section can disregard this element of our population and reach the highest success. I must convey to you, Mr. President and Directors, and Secretaries and masses of my race, when I say that in no way have the value and manhood of the American Negro been more fittingly and generously recognized, than by the managers of this magnificent exposition at every stage of its progress. It is a recognition that will do more to cement the friendship of the two races than any occurrence since the dawn of our freedom. Not only this, but the opportunities here afforded will awaken among us a new era of industrial progress. Ignorant and inexperienced, it is not strange that in the first years of our new life we began at the top instead of the bottom, that a seat in Congress or the state legislature was more sought than real estate or industrial skill, that the political convention of some teaching had more attraction than starting a dairy farm or a stockyard. A ship lost at sea for many days suddenly sighted a friendly vessel. From the mast of the unfortunate vessel was seen a signal: “Water, water. We die of thirst.” The answer from the friendly vessel at once came back: “Cast down your bucket where you are.” A second time, the signal, “Water, send us water!” went up from the distressed vessel. And was answered: “Cast down your bucket where you are.” A third and fourth signal for water was answered: “Cast down your bucket where you are.” The captain of the distressed vessel, at last heeding the injunction, cast down his bucket and it came up full of fresh, sparkling water from the mouth of the Amazon River. To those of my race who depend on bettering their condition in a foreign land, or who underestimate the importance of preservating friendly relations with the southern white man who is their next door neighbor, I would say: “Cast down your bucket where you are.” Cast it down, making friends in every manly way of the people of all races, by whom you are surrounded. To those of the white race who look to the incoming of those of foreign birth and strange tongue and habits for the prosperity of the South, were I permitted, I would repeat what I have said to my own race: “Cast down your bucket where you are.” Cast it down among the eight millions of Negroes whose habits you know, whose fidelity and love you have tested in days when to have proved treacherous meant the ruin of your fireside. Cast down your bucket among these people who have without strikes and labor wars tilled your fields, cleared your forests, builded your railroads and cities, brought forth treasures from the bowels of the earth, just to make possible this magnificent representation of the progress of the South. Source: Oral history courtesy of theMichigan State University Voice Library. See Also:Booker T. Washington Delivers the 1895 Atlanta Compromise Speech W.E.B. DuBois Critiques Booker T. Washington Making the Atlanta Compromise: Booker T. Washington Is Invited to Speak "Equal and Exact Justice to Both Races": Booker T. Washington on the Reaction to his Atlanta Compromise Speech 14. To those of my race who depend on bettering their condition in a foreign land, or who underestimate the importance of preservating friendly relations with the southern white man who is their next door neighbor, I would say: “Cast down your bucket where you are.” Cast it down, making friends in every manly way of the people of all races, by whom you are surrounded. 15. To those of the white race who look to the incoming of those of foreign birth and strange tongue and habits for the prosperity of the South, were I permitted, I would repeat what I have said to my own race: “Cast down your bucket where you are.” Cast it down among the eight millions of Negroes whose habits you know, whose fidelity and love you have tested in days when to have proved treacherous meant the ruin of your fireside. Cast down your bucket among these people who have without strikes and labor wars tilled your fields, cleared your forests, builded your railroads and cities, brought forth treasures from the bowels of the earth, just to make possible this magnificent representation of the progress of the South. Source: Oral history courtesy of  16. OVERVIEWWRITTEN WORKSTIMELINEQUOTES Booker T. Washington Educator Booker Taliaferro Washington was an American educator, author, orator, and advisor to presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American community. Wikipedia Lived: Apr 05, 1856 - Nov 14, 1915 (age 59) Spouse: Fanny Norton Washington · Margaret Murray Washington (m. 1893 … Founded: Tuskegee University · National Negro Business League · Cal… Education: Hampton University · Wayland Seminary (1878 - 1879) 17. OVERVIEWWRITTEN WORKSTIMELINEQUOTES Booker T. Washington Educator Booker Taliaferro Washington was an American educator, author, orator, and advisor to presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American community. Wikipedia Lived: Apr 05, 1856 - Nov 14, 1915 (age 59) Spouse: Fanny Norton Washington · Margaret Murray Washington (m. 1893 … Founded: Tuskegee University · National Negro Business League · Cal… Education: Hampton University · Wayland Seminary (1878 - 1879) More details QUOTES Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way. You can't hold a man down without staying down with him. If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else. See more quotes WRITTEN WORKS 18. Jim Crow laws Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Enacted after the Reconstruction period, these laws continued in force until 1965. They mandated de jure racial segregation in all public facilities in states of the former Confederate States of America, starting in 1890 with a "separate but equal" status for African Americans. Wikipedia PEOPLE ALSO SEARCH FOR Reconstruction era Literacy test Great Migration Carpetbagger Affirmative action Manifest destiny Sit-in See all See more about Jim Crow laws Jim Crow laws - Wikipedia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Crow_laws Overview 19. Period after Civil War ANSWER: The time period after the American Civil War is known as,"Reconstruction.". This was the process in which the South was to be rebuilt from the damages of the war, and to eventually have a united country once again. Name of time period after civi… www.answers.com/Q/Name_of_time_p… Feedback PEOPLE ALSO ASK 20. How Southern lynching gave birth to South Carolina’s death penalty   The State · 13 hours ago Donald Glover's 'This Is America,' Through The Eyes Of A Jim Cro   HuffPost · 3 days ago When Southern Newspapers JustifiedLynching   The New York Times · 5 days ago New lynching memorial offers chance to remember, heal ABC News · 4/21/2018 National monument to victims of white racist violence rekindles in…   The Baltimore Sun · 13 days ago See all Nearly 4,000 blacks were lynched inJim Crow South, re… https://www.wsws.org Mobile · There were, for example, a number of Italian immigrants lynched in the Jim Crow South, including 11 Sicilians killed in New Orleans in 1891; and in 1915 came the brutal public … Lynching in the United States -Wikipedia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching_in_the_United_States Overview

[bharatiyamedia-blog]

The inheritance of loss - Nation Information

http://tinyurl.com/y2tvr2yd Madhya Pradesh: Chouhan is a lonely man in the present day After 13 years as undisputed CM, Shivraj Chouhan finds he has few buddies left. The election outcomes that evicted Shivraj Singh Chouhan as chief minister of Madhya Pradesh on December 11 have been, because it appears now, solely among the many first of the political setbacks that have been in retailer for the veteran Bharatiya Janata Get together chief. Inside two days of the decision, Chouhan introduced he would proceed in MP politics and wasn’t going anyplace. He stated he would quickly embark on an ‘aabhaar yatra (gratitude tour)’ throughout the state, a plan the central management quickly requested him to desert. Then got here the information that he was able to turn out to be the chief of the opposition, a put up that finally went to former minister Gopal Bhargava (who shouldn’t be thought of near him). Chouhan then evinced curiosity in turning into the state BJP president, an vital place within the run-up to the polls. However a day earlier than the BJP’s nationwide council assembly in Delhi, he was shocked to seek out himself appointed nationwide vice-president, together with two different ex-CMs of states the place the BJP had misplaced, Rajasthan’s Vasundhara Raje and Chhattisgarh’s Raman Singh. The message from the cen­­tral management was clear: Chouhan wasn’t going to have his manner anymore. After a largely unchallenged stint of 13 years as CM wherein he had minimize down many rising political rivals, Chouhan is now within the cross-hairs with rivals ganging up and outmanoeuvring him at each flip. How will he get out of this chakravyuh he finds himself in? Political watchers in MP are satisfied the knives are out for Chouhan. That the ex-CM is not a favorite of the present BJP central management, the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah duo, is an open secret within the get together. Chouhan had nearly satisfied them that he was their finest wager earlier than the elections. However now, even after the get together carried out moderately nicely in MP-the BJP truly had the next vote share than the Congress and barely missed a majority, with 109 seats within the 230-member meeting to the Congress’s 114-Chouhan appears to be within the doghouse. The choices earlier than him are few: he might contest the Lok Sabha ballot, and if the BJP wins on the Centre, earn a ministerial berth and stay related (his constructive equation with the RSS might guarantee this). A second choice can be to remain within the state and work in the direction of destabilising the Congress authorities, given the slender majority it has. It might result in one other shot at workplace if he’s profitable. This is not simple regardless that the central unit of the BJP is not above directing a coup, as proven in Uttarakhand and Karnataka. Whoever tries will probably be pitting themselves towards Congress veterans like Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh who’re previous masters on the sport. A 3rd choice earlier than Chouhan, and one he has evinced curiosity in, is working in the direction of successful MP again for the BJP every time elections are held subsequent. This can entail quite a lot of arduous work, touring and assembly folks, which Chouhan is most eager as all this comes naturally to him. Chouhan’s strategists keep that within the days to return he’ll search extra accountability from get together president Shah. A brand new ‘vice-president’, he’s unlikely to wish to stay in a decorative put up as most incumbents have been. “I thank PM Modi and get together president Amit Shah for giving me the accountability of vice-president on the earth’s largest organisation,” he tweeted quickly after his appointment on January 10, sustaining a courageous entrance. Chouhan will spend a majority of his time in Bhopal to allow his touring inside the state. The vice-president setback aside, Chouhan cannot preserve himself from plunging into points dominating state politics. Although aides have suggested him to lie low for some time, Chouhan toured the northern and western districts that had been hit by a chilly wave and demanded compensation for farmers. “Chouhan is himself when he’s among the many folks. Most politicians would have given themselves time earlier than happening the street once more, however Chouhan has been at it,” says political analyst Girija Shankar. It appears Chouhan can also be pushed massively by this urge to maintain his recognition intact. Opinion polls earlier than the meeting election had given the Congress an edge however Chouhan was nonetheless the preferred chief in ballot after ballot. He could also be out of workplace, however Chouhan is set to remain within the public consciousness, the fixed excursions are an effort to remain related. However generally all of it goes awry. On January 18, Chouhan rushed off to Mandsaur to protest the homicide of native municipal chairman Prahlad Bandhwar and assault the brand new Congress authorities for the breakdown in legislation and order-only to be taught halfway that the accused was one among their very own, a BJP chief. In the meantime, there may be the native problem from his personal get together. One-time ally and Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar, former minister Narottam Mishra, BJP common secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, state BJP president Rakesh Singh, to not point out BJP vice-president Prabhat Jha, all of them appear to have discovered a typical agenda in preserving Chouhan out. A telling growth is that Chouhan’s publicity and press notes are actually being dealt with by a crew separate from the state BJP workplace which earlier did the duty for him. Within the days to return, Chouhan will face extra testing instances. Remaining vital when not in workplace is a large problem for many politicians. The result of the Lok Sabha election can be very vital for intra-party politics within the BJP, one thing each the central management and people affected by its selections are conscious about. Rajasthan: Raje’s again to the wall The ex-CM could also be at loggerheads with the Modi-Shah duo, however within the state she remains to be numero uno. As of now, apart from hoping that with a brand new management the anti-incumbency towards Vasundhara Raje will fade away by the Lok Sabha ballot, the BJP has no plan on easy methods to use the previous chief minister in Rajasthan. Raje on February 10 stated even when she is appointed get together vice-president, she won’t be leaving the state ever. She was addressing BJP employees in Jhalarapattan, her meeting constituency that falls within the Jhalawar-Baran parliamentary constituency from the place her son Dushyant Singh is a three-time MP and is predicted to contest this time too. State Satrap: Ex-CM Raje on the Rajasthan meeting after the brand new regime took over. Raje has tried to place an finish to rumours that she can be requested to contest the overall election in order to maneuver her out of the state. Raje has been visiting her son’s constituency and has already began a kind of election marketing campaign, hitting out on the new Congress authorities over the swine flu epidemic which has claimed 100 lives and the loss of life of 10 farmers within the chilly wave (the ex-CM alleges they died as a result of the federal government offered energy to irrigate the fields at evening when temperatures drop significantly). There was hypothesis that the get together needs Raje to contest the parliamentary polls. That will imply Dushyant is unlikely to get a ticket. One other part believes Raje could also be requested to affix the Union authorities if the BJP wins the Lok Sabha election. This appears extra seemingly, particularly as senior ministers like Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Manohar Parrikar will not be in the very best of well being. However Raje would possibly push for her son Dushyant to be made a Union minister as an alternative. Prime Minister Modi had denied this want final time round as a result of she was chief minister. So how is the BJP seemingly to make use of Raje? The get together has to this point tried to restrict Raje to the background after the election debacle. Her rival and RSS favorite Gulab Chand Kataria, a Jain by caste and an eight-time MLA, is chief of the opposition. Rajendra Rathore, a seven-time MLA and a Rajput by caste, is his deputy. Each have had lengthy tenures as ministers within the state, however have restricted affect over their castes. Rathore, as soon as a goal of the RSS due to his proximity to Raje, has reportedly been cultivating his connections with the RSS and anti-Raje lobbies within the get together of late. Fifty-four of the BJP’s 73 MLAs have been at Raje’s residence asking her to be the chief of the opposition earlier than she proposed Kataria’s identify final week. By the way, each Rathore and Kataria have been booked for faux encounter killings previously. Kataria was booked for the Sohrabuddin encounter (the place the Gujarat police and even get together president Shah have been accused at one level) whereas Rathore spent a month in jail for bootlegger Dara Singh’s loss of life in 2006. Each have been discharged later. In Rajasthan, the BJP plan is to work on strengthening a “weakened” organisation. Present state president Madan Lal Saini, 74, was introduced in earlier than the meeting ballot solely as a result of he was a grassroots employee. There had been some friction then as a result of Raje didn’t permit Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, 51, a Rajput, Union MoS and Modi’s alternative for the put up, a glance in. With Rathore now deputy chief of the opposition, the get together could not get Shekhawat again as state president as there may be hardly any time left for the Lok Sabha election. Union minister of state Rajyavardhan Rathore is one other fashionable BJP chief as is his colleague Gen VK Singh (each are Rajputs), however the BJP doesn’t have any distinguished Jat face apart from Dushyant Singh. Raje herself is arguably a Rajput, married to a Jat and with a Gurjar daughter-in-law, thus making her above caste equations. It’s her affect over voters and her maintain over the MLAs that the BJP should take into accout as elections close to. n Chhattisgarh: Raman Singh down however not out Has BJP central leaders’ backing, however push for OBC face at house is a fear. The knives are out within the Chhattisgarh BJP. And the goal is former chief minister Dr Raman Singh, whose 15-year rule within the state led to December together with his get together’s crushing election defeat by the hands of the Congress. Rivals are projecting the BJP’s droop to 15 seats within the 90-member meeting from 49 within the earlier election as a referendum on Singh’s insurance policies and selections. Innings defeat: Raman Singh speaks to the media after the meeting ballot outcomes. Sources near Singh, nevertheless, keep that regardless that the BJP’s hammering in Chhattisgarh was emphatic, the get together has not been as harsh on him because it has been on Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Madhya Pradesh. They declare state BJP chief Dharamlal Kaushik’s appointment because the chief of Opposition was at Singh’s behest and he would also have a say if a brand new president have been to be appointed forward of the Lok Sabha election. Not like Chouhan, who has been touring Madhya Pradesh, Singh has been taking it simple. “It is because Raman Singh shouldn’t be the one to run after positions and posts,” claims an aide. “Additionally, he feels striving for something in the meanwhile will not yield outcomes as selections about his future will not be in his fingers anymore.” Singh did go to Delhi after the election. He’s not solely on good phrases with the BJP central management, however can also be thought of near Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley. Within the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Singh enjoys a great equation with sahsarkaryvah Krishna Gopal. What might nonetheless eclipse his political future is the evaluation inside a piece of the Chhattisgarh BJP {that a} robust OBC (Different Backward Class) management must be promoted to thwart the Congress’s consolidation in these communities. OBCs account for roughly 50 per cent of the state’s electorate-Kurmis, Sahus and Yadavs being the distinguished communities. Behind this rising view within the BJP is the Congress’s 68-seat haul underneath the management of Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, a Kurmi chief. A pattern is already apparent-leader of Opposition Kaushik is a backward neighborhood chief whereas Chandra Shekhar Sahu, who criticised the Singh authorities’s pre-election determination to distribute free cellphones whereas refusing to waive farm loans, is a distinguished Sahu chief of the BJP. “Any strengthening of the OBC management in Chhattisgarh can be at the price of Raman Singh,” predicts Ruchir Garg, media advisor to Baghel. Brijmohan Agrawal, a distinguished state BJP chief, too, finds himself hemmed in by the get together’s push for OBC faces. The Raipur MLA is but to get any key accountability within the get together. Amid all this, the salvos proceed. “Many extra folks can have such eye-opening moments now,” was Singh’s retort to Sahu’s remarks towards his authorities. The previous chief minister additionally has to cope with recent investigations ordered by Baghel into alleged scams throughout his regime. Whereas Singh has challenged the brand new authorities to show any wrongdoing, his rivals are solely anticipated to show up the warmth. It is a battle that can be keenly watched. Source link

[teeky185]

The US is reportedly preparing to slash all funding to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, prompting outrage from Palestinians and warnings that the move could spark unrest in region.   The Trump administration is expected to announce in coming weeks that it is ending all aid for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which supports Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank and Gaza as well as neighbouring countries. The US is the single largest donor to UNRWA, giving around $350 million (£254 million) per year, and the cuts may force the agency to pare back education and medical services for 5 million Palestinians.  The White House is also expected to announce that it is abandoning the traditional definition of a Palestinian refugee and will only recognise around 500,000 Palestinians as having actual refugee status.  Taken together, the moves would represent a dramatic shift in US policy on one of the most sensitive issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  The changes closely align with the goals of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, to close down UNRWA and take the question of refugees off the negotiating table in future peace talks with Palestinians.    Benjamin Netanyahu believes UNRWA sets back the peace process Credit: Ronen Zvulun/Pool via AP The Palestinian Authority warned that destabilising UNRWA would “create unimaginable suffering and would destabilise the entire region”.    UNRWA was created in 1949 to support the 750,000 Palestinians displaced from their homes in what is today Israel by the fighting between Jewish and Arab forces. The displaced people settled in refugee camps in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.  The agency recognises the descendants of the original 750,000 as also being refugees, meaning their current number stands at more than 5 million.  Palestinians insist the refugees have “the right of return” and must be allowed to go back to their pre-1948 lands under any peace deal. Israel has always opposed this because a large-scale return would drastically shift Israel’s demographic make up.  Mr Netanyahu argues the refugees are used as a political pawn by Arab leaders, who have encouraged them to hold on to false hopes of one day returning to Israel. He believes UNRWA perpetuates this idea and therefore makes the conflict harder to solve.  Jared Kushner (right) also favours "disrupting" UNRWA Credit: Photo by Israel Press Office /Handout/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images Leaked emails from Jared Kushner, Mr Trump’s son-in-law and point man on Israel-Palestinian issues, show a similar thinking. “This [agency] perpetuates a status quo, is corrupt, inefficient and doesn’t help peace,” Mr Kushner wrote, according to emails published by Foreign Policy. The US announced an initial cut to UNRWA funding earlier this year and the agency has already begun laying off some staff. Crowds stormed an UNRWA compound in Gaza in protest at the cuts.  Former US and Israeli officials have warned that bigger cuts will weaken both the Palestinian Authority and the government of Jordan, which relies on UNRWA to give services to 2 million Palestinians living in its territory.  Israel has close security cooperation with both Jordan and the Palestinians and the prospect of either collapsing is a major concern for Israel’s military.   Peter Lerner, a retired Israeli officer who served as the army’s spokesman, warned that “hardballing the Palestinians into submission is likely to blow up on Israel’s doorstep”.   Ex-Israeli officials have warned that instability could benefit Hamas and other militant groups Credit: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa “Will this doctrine bring peace, or will more, and potentially escalated, violence prevail? After all, in our region, poverty has been a breeding ground for radical recruitment, violence, and terrorism,” he wrote in an article for Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper. European governments have signaled they will boost funding for UNRWA to make up some of the shortfall and the agency also hopes to extract more money from Saudi Arabia and other wealthy Arab governments. 

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2NA2Rxf

[smnews]

The US is reportedly preparing to slash all funding to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, prompting outrage from Palestinians and warnings that the move could spark unrest in region.   The Trump administration is expected to announce in coming weeks that it is ending all aid for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which supports Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank and Gaza as well as neighbouring countries. The US is the single largest donor to UNRWA, giving around $350 million (£254 million) per year, and the cuts may force the agency to pare back education and medical services for 5 million Palestinians.  The White House is also expected to announce that it is abandoning the traditional definition of a Palestinian refugee and will only recognise around 500,000 Palestinians as having actual refugee status.  Taken together, the moves would represent a dramatic shift in US policy on one of the most sensitive issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  The changes closely align with the goals of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, to close down UNRWA and take the question of refugees off the negotiating table in future peace talks with Palestinians.    Benjamin Netanyahu believes UNRWA sets back the peace process Credit: Ronen Zvulun/Pool via AP The Palestinian Authority warned that destabilising UNRWA would “create unimaginable suffering and would destabilise the entire region”.    UNRWA was created in 1949 to support the 750,000 Palestinians displaced from their homes in what is today Israel by the fighting between Jewish and Arab forces. The displaced people settled in refugee camps in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.  The agency recognises the descendants of the original 750,000 as also being refugees, meaning their current number stands at more than 5 million.  Palestinians insist the refugees have “the right of return” and must be allowed to go back to their pre-1948 lands under any peace deal. Israel has always opposed this because a large-scale return would drastically shift Israel’s demographic make up.  Mr Netanyahu argues the refugees are used as a political pawn by Arab leaders, who have encouraged them to hold on to false hopes of one day returning to Israel. He believes UNRWA perpetuates this idea and therefore makes the conflict harder to solve.  Jared Kushner (right) also favours "disrupting" UNRWA Credit: Photo by Israel Press Office /Handout/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images Leaked emails from Jared Kushner, Mr Trump’s son-in-law and point man on Israel-Palestinian issues, show a similar thinking. “This [agency] perpetuates a status quo, is corrupt, inefficient and doesn’t help peace,” Mr Kushner wrote, according to emails published by Foreign Policy. The US announced an initial cut to UNRWA funding earlier this year and the agency has already begun laying off some staff. Crowds stormed an UNRWA compound in Gaza in protest at the cuts.  Former US and Israeli officials have warned that bigger cuts will weaken both the Palestinian Authority and the government of Jordan, which relies on UNRWA to give services to 2 million Palestinians living in its territory.  Israel has close security cooperation with both Jordan and the Palestinians and the prospect of either collapsing is a major concern for Israel’s military.   Peter Lerner, a retired Israeli officer who served as the army’s spokesman, warned that “hardballing the Palestinians into submission is likely to blow up on Israel’s doorstep”.   Ex-Israeli officials have warned that instability could benefit Hamas and other militant groups Credit: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa “Will this doctrine bring peace, or will more, and potentially escalated, violence prevail? After all, in our region, poverty has been a breeding ground for radical recruitment, violence, and terrorism,” he wrote in an article for Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper. European governments have signaled they will boost funding for UNRWA to make up some of the shortfall and the agency also hopes to extract more money from Saudi Arabia and other wealthy Arab governments. 

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2NA2Rxf

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US will 'cut all funds to UN agency for Palestinian refugees'

The US is reportedly preparing to slash all funding to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, prompting outrage from Palestinians and warnings that the move could spark unrest in region.   The Trump administration is expected to announce in coming weeks that it is ending all aid for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which supports Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank and Gaza as well as neighbouring countries. The US is the single largest donor to UNRWA, giving around $350 million (£254 million) per year, and the cuts may force the agency to pare back education and medical services for 5 million Palestinians.  The White House is also expected to announce that it is abandoning the traditional definition of a Palestinian refugee and will only recognise around 500,000 Palestinians as having actual refugee status.  Taken together, the moves would represent a dramatic shift in US policy on one of the most sensitive issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  The changes closely align with the goals of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, to close down UNRWA and take the question of refugees off the negotiating table in future peace talks with Palestinians.    Benjamin Netanyahu believes UNRWA sets back the peace process Credit: Ronen Zvulun/Pool via AP The Palestinian Authority warned that destabilising UNRWA would “create unimaginable suffering and would destabilise the entire region”.    UNRWA was created in 1949 to support the 750,000 Palestinians displaced from their homes in what is today Israel by the fighting between Jewish and Arab forces. The displaced people settled in refugee camps in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.  The agency recognises the descendants of the original 750,000 as also being refugees, meaning their current number stands at more than 5 million.  Palestinians insist the refugees have “the right of return” and must be allowed to go back to their pre-1948 lands under any peace deal. Israel has always opposed this because a large-scale return would drastically shift Israel’s demographic make up.  Mr Netanyahu argues the refugees are used as a political pawn by Arab leaders, who have encouraged them to hold on to false hopes of one day returning to Israel. He believes UNRWA perpetuates this idea and therefore makes the conflict harder to solve.  Jared Kushner (right) also favours "disrupting" UNRWA Credit: Photo by Israel Press Office /Handout/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images Leaked emails from Jared Kushner, Mr Trump’s son-in-law and point man on Israel-Palestinian issues, show a similar thinking. “This [agency] perpetuates a status quo, is corrupt, inefficient and doesn’t help peace,” Mr Kushner wrote, according to emails published by Foreign Policy. The US announced an initial cut to UNRWA funding earlier this year and the agency has already begun laying off some staff. Crowds stormed an UNRWA compound in Gaza in protest at the cuts.  Former US and Israeli officials have warned that bigger cuts will weaken both the Palestinian Authority and the government of Jordan, which relies on UNRWA to give services to 2 million Palestinians living in its territory.  Israel has close security cooperation with both Jordan and the Palestinians and the prospect of either collapsing is a major concern for Israel’s military.   Peter Lerner, a retired Israeli officer who served as the army’s spokesman, warned that “hardballing the Palestinians into submission is likely to blow up on Israel’s doorstep”.   Ex-Israeli officials have warned that instability could benefit Hamas and other militant groups Credit: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa “Will this doctrine bring peace, or will more, and potentially escalated, violence prevail? After all, in our region, poverty has been a breeding ground for radical recruitment, violence, and terrorism,” he wrote in an article for Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper. European governments have signaled they will boost funding for UNRWA to make up some of the shortfall and the agency also hopes to extract more money from Saudi Arabia and other wealthy Arab governments. 

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