Brazil policeman 'killed Greek envoy'

Greek ambassador was killed by Brazil police officer, who was having an affair with envoy's wife, investigator says

For more details, see the BBC News website

Israeli doctors refusing to force feed Palestinian hunger strikers

Israeli doctors refusing to force feed Palestinian hunger strikers

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972mag.com - The Knesset passed a law allowing courts to order doctors to force feed Palestinian hunger strikers. But the doctors, it appears, aren’t  so keen on violating basic principles of medical ethics. A ...

Moscow School for U.S. Kids Ordered Shut

Moscow School for U.S. Kids Ordered Shut

A Moscow school for Western diplomats’ children was reported to have received an order Thursday to shut down, in what appeared to be the first blowback over the U.S. response to Russia’s election interference. The Anglo-American School of Moscow, a nonprofit school for pre-kindergarten kids through 12th grade, attended by children of American, British, and Canadian diplomats, received an order from the Russian government to cease operations Thursday, just hours after U.S. sanctions were announced, CNN reported. It’s unclear if the school was given a deadline, but the closure appears aimed at driving Western diplomats out. The move came as Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov promised to make U.S. officials “very uncomfortable” in response to the sanctions. On Facebook early Friday, Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for Russia’s foreign ministry, denied the school was closed as retaliation and slammed the CNN report as “a lie.” Her post ended with a dig at President Obama: “Normally, people ask Santa Claus to bring them something. This year I am asking him to take someone away.”

Taiwanese President Plans 2 U.S. Stops

Taiwanese President Plans 2 U.S. Stops

Taiwan’s president is going ahead with plans to make two stops in the U.S. next month en route to Central America—hitting both San Francisco and Houston on the way. The visit promises to anger China, which has already demanded that Washington prohibit President Tsai Ing-wen and her delegation from landing stateside entirely. The Houston visit will be on Jan. 7, before Tsai goes to San Francisco on Jan 13. According to an official schedule, she travels next to Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Beijing has repeatedly asked the U.S. to prevent Tsai's trip through the U.S., in order to avoid “sending the wrong signal to Taiwanese independence forces.” President-elect Donald Trump last month broke decades of diplomatic protocol, speaking on the phone with Tsai after his election victory. It was believed to be the first contact between a president-elect in the U.S. and the leader of Taiwan since 1979. Shortly afterward, China’s foreign ministry lodged an official diplomatic complaint with the U.S. over the talk.

Putin: I Won’t Expel U.S. Diplomats

Putin: I Won’t Expel U.S. Diplomats

Russian President Vladimir Putin has rejected a proposal to kick out 35 U.S. diplomats from the country, despite a recommendation to that effect by his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov. “While we reserve the right to respond, we will not drop to this level of irresponsible diplomacy, and we will make further steps to help resurrect Russian-American relations based on the policies that the administration of D. Trump will pursue,” Putin said in a statement. Lavrov had proposed to kick out the officials in response to the U.S. decision to expel the same number of Russians—announced just one day earlier. Putin’s statement also wished Obama, Trump, and all Americans a happy new year, and he invited “all the children of American diplomats accredited in Russia to the new year and Christmas tree in the Kremlin.” The Obama administration decision was largely based on the belief by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia ordered cyberattacks on American political and government organizations in order to influence the 2016 presidential election. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova reacted angrily to the U.S.-imposed measures, calling the Obama administration “foreign policy losers.”

Buffalo School Board Passes Resolution Telling Carl Paladino To Resign Within 24 Hours

His fellow board members say the Donald Trump ally needs to resign or they will ask the state to remove him.

12/29/2016 03:55 pm ET | Updated 2 hours ago

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Amanda Terkel Senior Political Reporter, The Huffington Post

Brendan McDermid/Reuters

Carl Paladino, Donald Trump’s New York state campaign co-chair, has been in hot water since hoping for the death of President Barack Obama and saying he wants the first lady to go live with gorillas.

BUFFALO, N.Y. ― The Buffalo Board of Education voted 6-2 Thursday to issue a stunning ultimatum to Carl Paladino, one of their own members who has been under national fire for his racially charged comments about the Obamas: Resign within 24 hours, or the board will petition the state to remove you. 

Paladino was Donald Trump’s New York campaign co-chair and currently sits on the nine-member Buffalo school board. In recent days, he’s faced intense criticism for his answers to a local newspaper’s questionnaire about what he would like to see happen in 2017. Paladino said he’d like President Barack Obama to die from mad cow disease and called first lady Michelle Obama a man who should go live with gorillas. 

Buffalonians sick of Paladino making their city look bad mobilized Thursday, first for a protest downtown in Niagara Square and later at a special school board meeting at city hall.

The board met to consider a fiery resolution that said if Paladino did not resign within 24 hours, they would petition New York Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia to remove him. Elia has so far declined to weigh in on the controversy.

The resolution, introduced by board member Hope Jay, called Paladino’s remarks about the Obamas “unambiguously racist, morally repugnant, flagrantly disrespectful, inflammatory and inexcusable.” It also said they reflected negatively on “the Buffalo Board of Education, the City of Buffalo and its leadership and its citizens, the State of New York, and every decent human being in America and abroad who has been shocked and offended by his words.”

When Jay read her resolution Thursday at the school board’s special session, the crowd gave her an enthusiastic standing ovation. 

Only two board members ― Patti Pierce and Larry Quinn, who are considered Paladino allies ― did not support the resolution. They said they would like to see Paladino apologize to the students of the district rather than resign.

Pierce said she hoped the people in Buffalo could show Paladino some forgiveness for his comments and “take a page out of the horrific massacre that happened in Charleston, South Carolina, where nine innocent people in a house of worship were slain by a hateful, hate-filled man.”

The comparison drew gasps from the audience and was too much for one woman, who left shouting that it was offensive to use the murdered African-American congregation members in this situation.

The Huffington Post

Several hundred people gathered outside city hall Thursday to push for Carl Paladino to be removed from the Buffalo Board of Education.

“Although I do think he has a racial filter from time to time, I don’t know that it’s that much different from many people on this board,” Quinn said. The school board is majority black.

He also recounted a moment of racial understanding he had when he was younger, telling a story about the black woman his father hired to look after him when his mother was ill. 

The protest Thursday morning drew several hundred people outside city hall, despite cold, slushy weather.

“He’s like a test case,” said Ellie Dorritie, 74. “If we let him stay, if we give him a pass, if we even give him a week ― it’s like a green light for all the rest of the slime to come out of the sewer. And because we have the Trump administration coming up ― all of that garbage, flowing all around it ― it means that we’re going to give Trump a chance to do that. We’ve had Carl Paladino’s filth for so many years. It’s got to end now.”

The Huffington Post

Many protesters said Paladino was reflecting poorly on the city of Buffalo.

Trump was on the minds of many people at the protest. 

Josh Gordon, 31, came with his two kids, one of whom is set to begin school next year. He said he hasn’t really been very involved in local politics but after this most recent election, he’s going to start doing more.

“I would like somebody to hear that this isn’t OK,” Gordon said. “I want [my son] to go into a school system where the sort of people who say the sort of shit that Carl Paladino says ― I don’t want that in my city. ... I know that I’m pretty fed up with this kind of stuff, and the election of Trump, Paladino’s support of Trump, has motivated me to do a little more than I’ve been doing.”

Paladino’s comments have drawn widespread criticism, including from his own son, who called them “disrespectful.”

“Carl’s comments are absolutely reprehensible, and they serve no place in our public discourse,” added a Trump campaign spokeswoman.

Paladino tried to issue a form of an apology this week, saying he never intended to hurt the “minority community,” is “certainly” not a racist and actually meant to send the responses to friends ― not to the publication Artvoice.

He has also indicated he won’t step down. In a statement released Thursday, he called the board’s resolution calling for his resignation “certainly not an illustration of a profile in courage or leadership” and said it was retaliation for his attempts to uncover corruption within their ranks. He added he would “fight to the end to continue to expose the corruption.”

But Paladino has been losing local support. This week, the Buffalo Common Council voted unanimously to call for Paladino’s resignation, with one of his longtime supporters joining the other members. Thousands of people have signed petitions urging Elia to remove Paladino, and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund sent her a letter this week asking her to do the same.

Larry Scott, co-chair of the Buffalo Parent-Teacher Organization, told The Huffington Post this week that he was in the process of filing an official complaint with Elia about Paladino. 

If Paladino doesn’t immediately resign, getting rid of him could be a slow process. The Buffalo News explained that he would have the right to appeal the Buffalo board’s decision to Elia. The whole process could take six to eight months. 

A handful of board members have been thrown out in recent years for misconduct ― but it was their behavior, not their words, that landed them in trouble, making the Paladino case unusual. The school board’s resolution argued that Paladino violates the New York Constitution and the Dignity for all Students Act, which gives children the right to “an education free of discrimination and harassment.”

When Paladino ran for New York governor in 2010, he came under fire for sending emails to associates that included references to bestiality and offensive characterizations of Obama. In one email labeled “Obama Inauguration Rehearsal,” there was a video clip of African tribesmen dancing around.

Local activists are launching an anti-Paladino website this weekend and on Jan. 5 will be marching to Paladino’s house to protest. 

Want more updates from Amanda Terkel? Sign up for her newsletter, Piping Hot Truth, here.

The Huffington Post

Protesters gathered in Niagara Square outside Buffalo City Hall.

The Huffington Post

In addition to Thursday’s protests, thousands of people have signed petitions urging the New York education commissioner to remove Paladino.

The Huffington Post

If Paladino doesn’t resign, the process to remove him from the board could be slow.

The Huffington Post

Ellie Dorritie: “We’ve had Carl Paladino’s filth for so many years. It’s got to end now.”

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Carl Paladino Buffalo, New York Buffalo Common Council

Donald Trump cannot move ahead with his plan to dismantle his foundation because state prosecutors are probing whether the president-elect personally benefited from its spending

ASSOCIATED PRESS
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2016 3:00 PM GMT

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President-elect Donald Trump, second from left, accompanied by his wife, Melania Trump, center right, departs after attending a Christmas Eve service at the Church of Bethesda-by-the Sea, in West Palm Beach, Fla., Saturday, Dec. 24, 2016. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

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WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Donald Trump cannot move ahead with his plan to dismantle his charitable foundation because state prosecutors are probing whether the president-elect personally benefited from its spending, the New York attorney general's office said Tuesday.
"The Trump foundation is still under investigation by this office and cannot legally dissolve until that investigation is complete," said Amy Spitalnick, spokeswoman for state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
The statement came after Trump announced that he wanted to dissolve the Donald J. Trump Foundation, part of what his presidential transition team says is an effort to erase any potential conflicts of interest before he takes office Jan. 20.
But the foundation's inner workings have been the subject of Schneiderman's investigation for months and could remain a thorny issue for Trump's incoming administration. Democrats nationally have said they are ready to raise any legal or ethical issues from Trump's global business empire during his presidency.
Trump's charity has admitted that it violated IRS regulations barring it from using its money or assets to benefit Trump, his family, his companies or substantial contributors to the foundation.
The admissions by the Donald J. Trump Foundation were in a 2015 tax filing made public after a presidential election in which it was revealed that Trump has used the charity to settle lawsuits, make a $25,000 political contribution and purchase items, such as a painting of himself, that was displayed at one of his properties.
The 2015 tax filing was posted on the nonprofit monitoring website GuideStar on Nov. 18 by someone using an email address from the foundation's law firm, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, said GuideStar spokeswoman Jackie Enterline Fekeci.
In the tax filing, the foundation acknowledged that it used money or assets in violation of the regulations not only during 2015, but in prior years. But the tax filing doesn't provide details on the violations.
Schneiderman, a Democrat, launched his investigation into the charity after reporting by The Washington Post drew attention to some of the foundation's purchases.
Trump asserted on Twitter late Monday that his foundation was run efficiently.
"The DJT Foundation, unlike most foundations, never paid fees, rent, salaries or any expenses," the president-elect tweeted. "100% of the money goes to wonderful charities."
It was the latest of several tweets from Trump, who is spending the holiday week at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
Earlier Monday, Trump questioned the effectiveness of the United Nations, saying it's just a club for people to "have a good time," after the U.N. Security Council voted last week to condemn Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem,
And on Friday, Trump warned, "As to the U.N., things will be different after Jan. 20th," referring to the day he takes office.
The decision by the Obama administration to abstain from Friday's U.N. vote brushed aside Trump's demands that the U.S. exercise its veto and provided a climax to years of icy relations with Israel's leadership.
That was only one subject Trump tackled on Twitter on Monday. In an evening post, he wrote that he believes his election as president has boosted the economy.
"The world was gloomy before I won — there was no hope," he tweeted. "Now, the market is up nearly 10 percent and Christmas spending is over a trillion dollars."
Markets are up since Trump won the general election, although not by that much. The Standard & Poor's 500 is up about 6 percent since Election Day, while the Dow has risen more than 8 percent.
As for holiday spending, auditing and accounting firm Deloitte projected in September that total 2016 holiday sales were expected to exceed $1 trillion, representing a 3.6 percent to 4.0 percent increase in holiday sales from November through January. But that can't be credited to Trump because the projection came before the election.
Kellman reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Edith Lederer in New York contributed to this report.


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President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to be ambassador to Israel is sending shockwaves through Israeli and Arab circles alike

ASSOCIATED PRESS
MONDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2016 11:30 PM GMT

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FILE- In this photo provided by Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman LLP, David Friedman, President-elect Donald Trump's choice for ambassador to Israel. (Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman LLP via AP, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — If President-elect Donald Trump wanted to show he planned to obliterate President Barack Obama's approach to Israel, he might have found his man to deliver that message in David Friedman, his pick for U.S. ambassador.
The bankruptcy lawyer and son of an Orthodox rabbi is everything Obama is not: a fervent supporter of Israeli settlements, opponent of Palestinian statehood and unrelenting defender of Israel's government. So far to the right is Friedman that many Israel supporters worry he could push Israel's hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be more extreme, scuttling prospects for peace with Palestinians in the process.
The heated debate over Friedman's selection is playing out just as fresh tensions erupt between the U.S. and Israel.
In a stunning decision Friday, the Obama administration moved to allow the U.N. Security Council to pass a resolution condemning Israeli settlements as illegal. The move to abstain, rather than veto, defied years of U.S. tradition of shielding Israel from such resolutions, and elicited condemnation from Israel, lawmakers of both parties, and especially Trump.
"Things will be different after Jan. 20th," when he's sworn in, Trump vowed Friday on Twitter. On Monday, he added: "The United Nations has such great potential but right now it is just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time. So sad!"
Presidents of both parties have long called for a two-state solution that envisions eventual Palestinian statehood, and Netanyahu says he agrees. Friedman, who still must be confirmed by the Senate, does not. He's called the two-state solution a mere "narrative" that must end.
Under Obama, the U.S. has worked closely with J Street, an Israel advocacy group sharply critical of Netanyahu. Friedman accuses Obama of "blatant anti-Semitism" and calls J Street "worse than kapos," a reference to Jews who helped the Nazis imprison fellow Jews during the Holocaust.
For decades, the U.S. has opposed Israeli settlement-building in lands it seized in the 1967 Mideast war. Friedman runs a nonprofit that raises millions of dollars for Beit El, a settlement of religious nationalists near Ramallah. Beit El runs a right-wing news outlet and a yeshiva whose dean has provocatively urged Israeli soldiers to refuse orders to uproot settlers from their homes.
So it's unsurprising that Friedman's nomination has already sharpened a growing balkanization of American Jews, between those who want the U.S. to push Israel toward peace and those who believe Obama's approach abandoned America's closest Mideast ally.
It's a debate playing out even at Temple Hillel, near the Long Island-Queens border, where Friedman's father was rabbi for almost half a century.
"Clearly, David's opinions do not appeal to everybody in the synagogue, and they appeal to others in the synagogue," said Ken Fink, the synagogue's president and longtime congregant. "But there's a huge amount of pride for the hometown boy."
Thirty-two years before Trump's election, President Ronald Reagan donned a yarmulke and noshed on chicken cutlets and noodle pudding at Rabbi Morris Friedman's home, after a speech at Temple Hillel affirming the separation between church and state. Coming just two weeks before Reagan's re-election, the attempt to woo Jewish voters struck some as opportunistic, and they protested on the streets of the heavily Jewish town of North Woodmere.
Seated at the Sabbath table with Reagan was David Melech Friedman — his middle name means "king" in Hebrew. The rabbi's son went on to become Trump's bankruptcy lawyer, an advocate for far-right policies on Israel, and now, Trump's choice for ambassador, despite having no diplomatic experience.
Cindy Grosz, who said she's known Friedman for nearly 50 years, recalled big parties with boisterous debates about Jewish issues held in his family's sukkah, the outdoor hut Jews build during the harvest festival Sukkot.
"He still has the same best friends he's had for over 30 years," Grosz said.
At his midtown Manhattan law firm, Friedman opens his offices to those in mourning who need a minyan — a quorum of 10 men in Orthodox Judaism — to say the Mourner's Kaddish, a prayer that observant Jews say daily for one year after a parent's death.
And it was a parent's death, in a way, that brought Friedman and Trump closer together. Over the years, Friedman has told friends the story of how the billionaire real estate mogul defied an oppressive snowstorm that had kept others away to "sit shiva" for Friedman's father during the Jewish mourning period.
Educated at Columbia University and NYU School of Law, Friedman developed a reputation as an aggressive, high-stakes bankruptcy attorney, representing Trump when his Atlantic City casinos went through bankruptcy.
In the courtroom, he's known as a formidable opponent, said attorney Tariq Mundiya, Friedman's adversary in several cases. He said he'd been aware of Friedman's advocacy on Israel but added, "When you're in the fog of war with David, the last thing you're talking about is the Middle East."
Enraged by Trump's pick, left-leaning groups and Palestinian officials have suggested his confirmation could spell the end of any serious discussions about peace.
Netanyahu has stayed publicly quiet about Trump's pick. Friedman and Trump's transition team didn't respond to requests for comment.
Associated Press writers Josef Federman and Daniel Estrin in Jerusalem and Tia Goldenberg in Beit El, West Bank, contributed to this report.
Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP


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Israel threatens to give Trump 'evidence' that Obama orchestrated UN resolution

THE GUARDIAN
MONDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2016 8:35 PM GMT

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Samanta Power, the US ambassador to the UN, raises her hand to indicate US abstention from voting on the security council resolution to condemn Israeli settlements.

Netanyahu allies claim 'iron-clad information' from Arab sources reveals Obama administration drafted document to end settlements, which US abstained from
Peter Beaumont in Jerusalem
Israel has escalated its already furious war with the outgoing US administration, claiming that it has “rather hard” evidence that President Barack Obama was behind a critical UN security council resolution criticising Israeli settlement building, and threatening to hand over the material to Donald Trump.
The latest comments come a day after the US ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, was summoned by Netanyahu to explain why the US did not veto the vote and instead abstained.
The claims have emerged in interviews given by close Netanyahu allies to US media outlets on Monday after the Obama administration denied in categorical terms the claims originally made by Netanyahu himself.
However, speaking to Fox News on Sunday, David Keyes – a Netanyahu spokesman – said Arab sources, among others, had informed Jerusalem of Obama's alleged involvement in advancing the resolution.
“We have rather iron-clad information from sources in both the Arab world and internationally that this was a deliberate push by the United States and in fact they helped create the resolution in the first place,” Keyes said.
Doubling down on the claim a few hours later the controversial Israeli ambassador to Washington, Ron Dermer, went even further suggesting it had gathered evidence that it would present to the incoming Trump administration.
“We will present this evidence to the new administration through the appropriate channels. If they want to share it with the American people, they are welcome to do it,” Dermer told CNN.
According to Dermer, not only did the US not stand by Israel's side during the vote, it “was behind this ganging up on Israel at the UN”.
Dermer is a controversial figure in Washington, blamed by the Obama administration for organising the invitation for Netanyahu to address the US Congress in the midst of Israel's campaign against the Iran nuclear deal.
His comments on CNN seem to represent an even more egregious breach of protocol, not least over the vague sourcing of the evidence alluded to by Keyes and Dermer.
Indeed, Israel was accused by unnamed US officials in a Newsweek article two years ago of “very sobering … alarming … even terrifying” levels of espionage targeting the US refuted as a “ malicious fabrication aimed at harming relations” by then foreign minister Avigor Lieberman.
Last year, however, US officials again accused Israel of spying, this time on the Iran nuclear talks, with one telling the Wall Street Journal: “It is one thing for the US and Israel to spy on each other. It is another thing for Israel to steal US secrets and play them back to US legislators to undermine US Diplomacy.”
Dermer's threat on CNN to hand information to Trump would seem to replicate some of those concerns.
Israel's threat to present “evidence” on a sitting president, and one of Israel's closest ally, to an incoming presidential team – and to do it so publicly – appears almost unprecedented.
The moves appear part of a high risk – and even more highly partisan strategy - on Netanyahu's part, tying the future of Israel to a highly unpredictable Republican president-elect with no experience of public office and who comes from the very fringes even of the party he stood as candidate for.
The US has already denied the claim made by Israel in the strongest terms.
“We did not draft this resolution; we did not introduce this resolution. We made this decision when it came up for a vote,” said Obama's deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said in a statement on Friday.
'But because of its opposition to settlement activity and concern for what it could mean for the region, the US “could not in good conscience veto”, he added.


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GOP Wants To Punish Filming, Photography On The House Floor

HUFFINGTON POST
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2016 12:44 AM GMT

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When caught on camera doing something bad, most people stop doing the bad thing.
House Republicans try to get rid of the cameras.
On Monday, leadership in the GOP-controlled House proposed a rule that would punish representatives who film, take photos, record or broadcast anything from the House floor. Bloomberg, which first reported the rule change, says first-time offenders would face a $500 fine; repeat offenders would see $2,500 docked from their paychecks.
The rule is a clear response to Democratic lawmakers who, in a protest this June after the deadliest shooting in U.S. history, staged a sit-in on the House floor in an attempt to compel Republican leadership to vote on gun control legislation.
Republicans responded instead by gaveling the House into recess, thereby cutting off C-SPAN cameras that broadcast the protest. In the absence of cameras, Democrats began tweeting photos and live-streaming the event on their phones, which C-SPAN broadcast instead.

#NoMoreSilence #WheresTheBill pic.twitter.com/u5AMX5lzew
— Katherine Clark (@RepKClark) June 22, 2016

Republicans defended the proposal as a means to maintain order in the chamber and prevent disruption.
“These changes will help ensure that order and decorum are preserved in the House of Representatives so lawmakers can do the people's work,” said AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), in a statement Monday.
U.S. News & World Reports notes current rules already prohibit taking photos or video on the floor. This proposal would punish those who break the rule ― all the way up to potential sanctions.
“House Republicans continue to act as the handmaidens of the gun lobby refusing to pass sensible, bipartisan legislation to expand background checks and keep guns out of the hands of terrorists,” a spokesman for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California said in a statement to U.S. News on Tuesday. “Speaker Ryan can continue to shamefully ignore the calls for action from the American people, but House Democrats will never stop speaking out against the daily tragedy of gun violence in this country.”
The new rules will be considered when the House reconvenes Jan. 3.
This article originally appeared on The Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/gop-punish-filming-photography-house-floor_us_5862ebe5e4b0de3a08f67e33


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Accidental torpedo launch & radioactive leaks ‘no nuclear safety significance,’ UK regulator says

Accidental torpedo launch & radioactive leaks ‘no nuclear safety significance,’ UK regulator says

RT | December 28, 2016

Britain’s nuclear regulator is under government investigation for reportedly dismissing several serious accidents as posing no safety risk.
The government launched the investigation after a report by the Times revealed the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) has ignored serious mistakes at power plants and military bases, including the accidental discharge of a torpedo at a nuclear submarine base.
Experts accuse the regulator of being cozy with the nuclear industry and too reluctant “to frighten the horses.”
The Times reports officials at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), which is responsible for the ONR, are investigating the regulator following the newspaper’s disturbing revelations.
The ONR says all of its safety classifications follow international guidelines and insists it is a robust and independent regulator.
However, the rate of incidents deemed to be “of no nuclear safety significance” has increased to more than one per day over the past five years, raising questions as to how seriously the regulator is treating accidents.
Between 2012 and 2015, these incidents included at least 30 fires, a dozen leaks, three road accidents involving nuclear material, and the inadvertent discharge of a torpedo at Plymouth nuclear submarine docks.
Other serious incidents deemed to be of a no concern include the contamination of at least 15 workers with radioactive material and a complete power cut at a nuclear weapons base.
Dr David Toke, a reader in energy politics the University of Aberdeen, said the revelations indicated safety issues were a “low priority” for the ONR.
Nuclear expert Professor Stephen Thomas said the reports reinforced his suspicions that “the first priority for the ONR is not to frighten the horses.”
“Ironically, since they became an independent body rather than being part of the Health and Safety Executive [in 2014], they seem to have got worse,” Thomas told the Times.
“Independence is just a cheap and easy way for government to wash its hands of its rightful responsibility.”
The University of Greenwich academic added: “Independent regulators must be accountable to the public and if it is not through a democratically elected government, who is it through?”
Thomas said the ONR had previously ignored warnings about the safety of tending the lifespan of an old reactor design, the AGR, that is still in use in the UK, as well as the reliability of the newer EPR model reactor, which will be used at Hinkley Point C.

Trump Blasts ‘Inflammatory’ Obama

Trump Blasts ‘Inflammatory’ Obama

President-elect Donald Trump has evidently turned on President Barack Obama, with whom he has had a chummy relationship since being elected last month. The real-estate mogul blasted the current occupant of the Oval Office on Twitter on Wednesday for his “inflammatory” statements. “Doing my best to disregard the many inflammatory President O statements and roadblocks. Thought it was going to be a smooth transition—NOT!” Trump wrote, seemingly in response to Obama’s suggestion that he would’ve defeated Trump in a head-to-head matchup. He also accused the Obama administration of treating Israel with “total disdain and disrespect.” That remark earned high praise from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who tweeted in response: “President-elect Trump, thank you for your warm friendship and your clear-cut support for Israel!”

Criminal Probe of Netanyahu ‘Launched’

Criminal Probe of Netanyahu ‘Launched’

Israel’s attorney general’s office has reportedly launched a criminal probe into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over allegations of bribery and fraud. Netanyahu’s government has described the accusations as false and part of an attempt to undermine his legitimacy. The reported investigation into Netanyahu stems from his foreign trips during his time as Israel’s foreign minister, in addition to an allegation that he improperly accepted 1 million euros.

Kerry Defends UN Israel Vote

Kerry Defends UN Israel Vote

Secretary of State John Kerry laid out his case Wednesday for why the U.S. abstained from a United Nations Security Council vote to condemn Israel for its settlement activity, paving the way for it to be approved. During his 11 a.m. speech, Kerry said that a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine is the “only way to achieve a just and lasting peace” and that increased settlement activity on the part of Israel is threatening that peace process. “If the choice is one state, Israel can either be Jewish or democratic. It cannot be both,” Kerry said in a blistering critique of the current “extreme” Israeli government. He declared that the Obama administration has done more for Israel’s security than any past U.S. administration. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded almost immediately to the speech. “What he did was to spend most of his speech blaming Israel for the lack of peace by passionately condemning a policy of enabling Jews to live in their historic homeland and in their eternal capital, Jerusalem,” he said.

Who is Supporting ISIS-Daesh in Syria? Erdogan or Obama? NATO Military Alliance in Crisis

Who is Supporting ISIS-Daesh in Syria? Erdogan or Obama? NATO Military Alliance in Crisis

By Michel Chossudovsky | Global Research | December 28, 2016

In an unusual turn of events, Washington accuses Ankara of supporting the ISIS-Daesh.
And Turkey’s president Erdogan responds by accusing Washington of supporting ISIS-Daesh. “Now they give support to terrorist groups including Daesh, YPG, PYD. It’s very clear. We have confirmed evidence, with pictures, photos and videos.” said Erdogan.
And Washington responds “”he [Erdogan] continues to supply arms [into Syria] as well, with his ultimate aim [being] to go after the Kurds, and ISIS is secondary.”
While Washington has strongly denied Erdogan’s latest allegations, the structure of political and military alliances is in crisis.
Who is supporting the ISIS?  
The fact of the matter is that both the US and Turkey provide covert support to the terrorists including ISIS-Daesh and Jabhat Al Nusra.
Both Turkey and the US have collaborated in supporting the ISIS-Daesh in Northern Syria.
From the very outset, the Islamic State has been supported  (unofficially of course) by the broader US-NATO coalition which includes several NATO member countries (including the US, France, Britain as well as Turkey) and their Middle East allies including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Israel.
What is of concern to Erdogan is that the US is ALSO supporting  the Kurdish separatists YPG forces which have been combating the ISIS. And until recently Turkey has used the ISIS rebels to combat YPG forces, which are also supported by the US.
From the outset in 2011, the recruitment of jihadist mercenaries to be deployed in Syria was coordinated by NATO and the Turkish High Command. In this regard, Turkey has played a central role in relation to logistics, weapons supplies, recruitment and training, in close liaison with Washington and Brussels.
The Ankara government has also played a strategic role in protecting the movement of jihadist rebels and supplies across its border into Northern Syria
What is now occurring is a rift in the structure of military alliances, through the emergence of “cross-cutting coalitions”.
Turkey as a NATO member state is an ally of the US. But the US is now supporting the YPG which is fighting both the ISIS and Turkey.
In turn, Turkey, which is a staunch ally of the US is negotiating with Russia and Iran.
Already in May 2016, Erdogan accused US-NATO of supporting YPG forces:

“The support they give [US, NATO] to… the YPG (militia)… I condemn it,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday during an airport ceremony in the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir. “Those who are our friends, who are with us in NATO… cannot, must not send their soldiers to Syria wearing YPG insignia.” (Ara News Network, May 28, 2016)

What is the underlying cause of this clash between the US and Turkey, which strikes at the very heart of the Atlantic Alliance?
Washington is firmly opposed to Erdogan’s territorial ambitions in Northern Syria. The US-NATO objective is to fragment both Syria and Iraq. Washington’s strategy in Northern Syria consists in supporting and controlling the Kurdish YPG separatists.
Mark Toner, the US State department spokesperson confirmed that Washington would continue to support the YPG “despite the Turkish government opposition towards Kurdish-US cooperation”. (See Ara New Network, December 27, 2016):

“… there are disagreements among members of the coalition as to how we proceed and with whom we’re cooperating on the ground? I’m not going to say that there aren’t. And obviously, Turkey’s made very clear their feelings about the YPG. We have also been equally clear, while we understand Turkey’s concerns, that we’re going to continue to work with the YPG as a part of the overarching Syrian Democratic Forces. So the YPG is not the sole group that we’re working with on the ground. We’re working with Syrian Arabs, Syrian Turkmen, and other groups that are fighting Daesh,”

Officially the US is fighting the ISIS, unofficially it is supporting it.
And now in an about turn, the ISIS which is integrated (covertly and unofficially) by Western special forces (often on contract to private mercenary companies) has turned against Turkey, a NATO member state. This action is largely on behalf of  YPG forces, which are also fighting Turkish forces:

 ISIS claims it has killed 70 Turkish soldiers during the conflict and just a few days ago the warped death cult released a video of two Turkish men being burned alive.
Turkey has rushed tanks and heavy weapons to its border and blamed the US-led coalition for inadequate air support after Erdogan’s forces which encountered deadly resistance from ISIS militants – 14 Turkish troops were killed. (Daily Express, December 27, 2016)

Cross-Cutting alliances
While Ankara accuses Washington, Moscow is playing at the diplomatic level a skillful “double game”: Foreign Minister Lavrov is talking to John Kerry on the one hand as well as negotiating with Ankara on the other hand.
On December 21, the Foreign Ministers of Russia, Iran and Turkey (See image below) met in Moscow “to draft a joint statement aimed at resolving the long term conflict in Syria.” (RT, December 22, 2016)
Moscow also intimated that other countries including Saudi Arabia would be invited to join this initiative. The underlying objective would be to weaken the allegiance of Saudi Arabia to the US.
It is “very important” that the statement by Moscow, Tehran and Ankara “contained an invitation to other countries that have influence ‘on the ground’ to join such efforts,” (RT, December 22, 2016)

According to media reports, Turkey has Moscow’s support in the siege of the Northern Syrian city of Al-Bab which has been under the clutch of the ISIS since 2013. Fierce fighting is ongoing. Ankara reported on December 26 that “the anti-ISIS coalition was making progress in al-Bab”.

John Kerry harshly rebuked Israel over its settlements, saying the U.S. couldn't allow "a two-state solution to be destroyed"

John Kerry harshly rebuked Israel over its settlements, saying the U.S. couldn't allow "a two-state solution to be destroyed"

Wednesday, December 28, 2016 12:00 PM EST

Secretary of State John Kerry, in one of his last speeches as secretary of state, said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel was allowing the agenda of the settler movement to define the future of Israel. But he said “there is still a way forward if the responsible parties are willing to act.’’

And he defended the Obama administration’s policy on Israel, citing what he called unprecendented military assistance and cooperation. “No American administration has done more for Israel’s security than Barack Obama’s,’’ he declared.

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