USA - America’s worst nightmare potentially just got the green light. The blue helmets of the UN are coming to police the streets of the USA. Foreign Military is now allowed to police the streets, arrest, and use force in combat.
USA - In a congressional hearing on Wednesday, former Director of National Intelligence and retired Navy admiral Dennis Blair told the panel that the United States should be prepared to use military force to oppose Chinese aggression in the South China Sea. “I think we need to have some specific lines and then encourage China to compromise on some of its objectives,” Blair, who headed the US Pacific Command while in the Navy, said at the hearing. The admiral’s recommendation came the day after a United Nations tribunal invalidated China’s claim of territorial rights to nearly all of the waters in the South China Sea. Other nations in the region — including the Philippines, who brought the action against China in 2013 — also claim sovereignty in that zone.
USA - In a clip from The Jewish Channel’s interview with Newt Gingrich, the former House Speaker gives this hard-line answer when asked if he considers himself a Zionist: Well, I believe that the Jewish people have a right to have a state, and I believe that the commitments that were made at the time – now, remember, there was no Palestine as a state, it was part of the Ottoman Empire, and I think that we’ve had an invented Palestinian people who are in fact Arabs and were historically part of the Arab community. And they had a chance to go many places and for a variety of political reasons we have sustained this war against Israel now since the 1940s. And I think it’s tragic.
Gingrich isn’t the only GOP candidate who’s stood strongly with Israel this week, but this answer shows just how far-right his Israel position is.USA - Following yesterday's stark warning by the militant "black power" organization, the New Black Panther Party, which warned it would arrive in Cleveland packing firearms for self-defense ahead of the republican convention [July 18-21], we were curious how long it would take the various US authorities to admit that the upcoming Republican and Democratic conventions will be ground zero for the next round in escalating US violence. The answer, it turned out, was just about 24 hours.
UK - New Brexit Secretary David Davis has set a timetable to end Brussels rule in Britain which could see independence achieved by December 2018. Mr Davis, who was the Conservative Grassroots Out spokesman, indicated before his appointment that formal negotiations to Leave the EU should be triggered at the beginning of next year.
CHINA - A senior Chinese official has warned the US and its regional allies not to "turn the South China Sea into a cradle of war" after an international tribunal declared invalid Beijing’s claims to the disputed waters.
USA - The demand for ‘perfect’ fruit and veg means much is discarded, damaging the climate and leaving people hungry. Americans throw away almost as much food as they eat because of a “cult of perfection”, deepening hunger and poverty, and inflicting a heavy toll on the environment.
ZIMBABWE - For a while Zimbabwe was one of the most promising and potentially bountiful countries in Africa and its people were far more amenable than South Africans to the south. There was a joke when I left then-Rhodesia that the Zimbabwe ruins would be all that was left if Robert Mugabe ever assumed power. Well it came to pass and Mugabe has brought an agriculturally abundant, prosperous and formerly stable country to the brink of ruin. It’s a far cry from the “liberation” that was promised when Mugabe assumed power in 1980. However, there is a lesson here and that is that we shouldn’t trust those who promise to rid us of “oppressors” or “inequality”. In reality our “liberators” may bring something far worse.
VATICAN - Pope Francis will meet another Orthodox icon when he travels to Georgia in late September, a reminder of ironies in Catholic/Orthodox relations on his watch - including that one of the historical legacies of this "progressive" pope could be giving the staunchly conservative Orthodox a greater voice in Catholic life.
USA - The hacktivist group Anonymous is now calling for nationwide Day of Rage protests on Friday, July 15th. Use this as a list of places NOT to be on Friday the 15th. While the video by Anonymous does specify non-violence and denounces the actions taken against police officers that were not involved in these deaths, with the tagline “Day of Rage” I think it’s safe to expect emotions to be running very high on both sides of the line. No matter how great your empathy might be for those who have unjustly lost their lives, these protests are not safe places to be.
FRANCE - At least 84 people have died, including children, after a lorry slammed through a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in the southern French city of Nice. The driver ploughed on for 2km on the Promenade des Anglais at about 23:00 local time, before being shot dead by police.
EUROPE - The eurozone is set to be destroyed due to the poor economies of Greece and Italy, a leading economist has warned. Max Otte also said the demand for referendums in the wake of Brexit threatens to destroy the eurozone as Brussels struggles to reform. The economist told German Magazine Focus southern countries who cannot afford reforms would be forced to leave the Euro as he said the anti-EU sentiment “cannot be avoided”.
USA - Life in America just continues to get more and more tumultuous as all sorts of societal issues seem to arise with every passing day. Whether it be police brutality stemming from the growing racial tensions in America or the influx of radical Islamic ideals, there seems to be a never-ending cycle of violence, death and destruction. Everyone has become fed up with the current state of affairs, but the federal government seems to have no answers for our problems.
USA - President Obama has signed an executive order that allows for the US military to use force against American citizens for the first time in history. The order was signed on July 1st, 2016 and is titled “Executive Order — United States Policy on Pre- and Post-Strike Measures to Address Civilian Casualties in US Operations Involving the Use of Force“. The order looks like the rules of engagement between the military vs ordinary US citizens have significantly and unconstitutionally changed.
GERMANY - Angela Merkel could press ahead with plans to create an EU army following Britain's decision to leave the EU, according to the German defence minister. Ursula von der Leyen, who has been tipped to take over from Merkel as Chancellor, said Britain had "paralysed" European efforts for closer integration in military co-ordination and "blocked everything that had Europe written on it”.