Washington’s latest foray into the world of sanctions, directed against China, is astonishing even when considering the low bar that has been set by previous presidents going back to Bill Clinton. Beijing has already been pushing back over US sanctions imposed last week on its government-run Equipment Development Department of the Chinese Central Military Commission and its director Li Shangfu for “engaging in significant transactions” with a Russian weapons manufacturer that is on a list of US sanctioned companies. The transactions included purchases of Russian Su-35 combat aircraft as well as equipment related to the advanced S-400 surface-to-air missile system. The sanctions include a ban on the director entering the United States and blocks all of his property or bank accounts within the US as well as freezing all local assets of the Equipment Development Department.

At Nasr Hospital's emergency room in the Yemeni city of Daleh, a little boy struggles to breathe. He is too tired, or too hungry, to cry.

Born with a degenerative neurological disease, his muscles have atrophied to nothing, his tiny joints visible through his pale skin, his stomach distended.

The child's body cannot retain even water, so nurses have resorted to putting him in diapers.

And doctors say there is nothing they can do.

The boy is one of an estimated five million Yemeni children who may not see their next birthday in a war the UN children's fund has described as a "living hell" for minors.

The UN has warned that international aid agencies are losing the fight against famine in Yemen, where 3.5 million people may soon be added to the eight million Yemenis already facing starvation -- more than half of them children.

In a 21-8 vote, the UN Human Rights Council has agreed to extend the inquiry into human rights violations committed during the Saudi-led war in Yemen. Saudi Arabia and its allies in the United Arab Emirates both condemned the news.

Such votes happen every year around the UN General Assembly meeting, with the Saudis trying to limit such votes and insisting that any investigations are only going to “deepen divisions” in Yemen.

The council spent several days debating the matter, with those in favor of more investigations, led by the Netherlands and Canada, winning out handily, while many other nations chose to abstain.

To prevent cops from uploading such videos on social media, as had been directed by the Hizbul in its threat video, the government has blocked internet services in south Kashmir.

Days after the centre rejected resignation videos of Special Police Officers (SPO) as "false propaganda" by terrorists, the Jammu and Kashmir government today admitted the quitting spree in south Kashmir, but played it down by saying that the number is negligible.
"The state has over 30,000 SPOs. If you compare the number of people who have resigned, it's negligible," said BVR Subramanium, Chief Secretary of Jammu and Kashmir.

The resignation videos of policemen surfaced following the kidnapping and killing of three cops in Jammu and Kashmir, just days after Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists had put out a "resign or die" threat. Sources say more than 40 SPOs and policemen have resigned since Friday.

On many occasions, Bellingcat has published information that could not be proven. In this particular case, the Bellingcat website has provided a very obviously digitally created ‘ID Card’ to the effect that Boshirov is really Chepiga, and that Chepiga is ‘GRU’. Bellingcat is run by a lone, clinically obese and perennially sedentary Englishman named Eliot Higgins, from his living room couch, and possesses no credentials or background in the field whatsoever.

About an hour later and after several private talks with Democrats Jeff Flake came out and announced he would only vote for Brett Kavanaugh if an investigation continued on the man for another week.
This was exactly what Democrats were hoping for!

Now this…

The women who were screaming at Senator Jeff Flake in the elevator are Soros-funded astroturfed activists.
There names are Maria Gallagher and Ana Maria Archila.

Flake and Republicans got played.
They celebrated after Flake caved.!

The body of former Massachusetts senator Brian A. Joyce was discovered by his wife in their home on Thursday.

According to a statement by the Bristol County District Attorney’s office, the former assistant majority leader was found dead in his Wesport, Massachusetts, home. Joyce did not seek re-election in 2016, after he was charged with corruption which included taking approximately $1 million in bribes, and even leveraging his influence to help a Dunkin’ Donuts store owner in exchange for free coffee.

In breaking news, so far 5 Palestinians were murdered today, with an additional 78 being shot with live rounds, and all together more than 300 sustained related injuries, as a result of Israeli security forces opening machine-gun fire upon a protesting crowd. In this extraordinarily gruesome and brutal scene that unfolded today, we have seen something which unfortunately has become all too common, as the Zionist settler-colonial Jewish supremacist entity, calling itself ‘Israel’, continues to defy international law, standards of civility, and numerous and standing UN resolutions which call for an end to its bloodthirsty repression and never-ending land-grabs of indigenous Arab lands.

Israeli soldiers shot dead seven Palestinians, including two boys, who were among thousands of people who thronged to the fortified Gaza Strip border on Friday as part of weekly protests launched half a year ago, Gaza health officials said.

Citing First Amendment violations, a federal judge in Arizona on Thursday blocked enforcement of the state’s 2016 law that aims to thwart the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian rights.

The law required state officials to produce a blacklist of companies, organizations and other entities that are banned from state contracts because of their alleged support for boycotting Israel.

Arizona is now the second state, after Kansas, where Israel and its supporters have been dealt a major legal blow to their efforts to muzzle Americans who support Palestinian rights.

“A restriction of one’s ability to participate in collective calls to oppose Israel unquestionably burdens the protected expression of companies wishing to engage in such a boycott,” US District Court Judge Diane J. Humetewa wrote in Thursday’s order blocking the Arizona law.

Friday marked what Gaza’s health ministry described as the single bloodiest day of the Great March of Return protests since 14 May, when Israeli occupation forces fatally injured more than 60 Palestinians.

Seven Palestinians, including two children, were slain on Friday, two days shy of the six-month anniversary of the protest launch.

The two children were identified as Nasir Azmi Musbah, 11, shot in the head east of Khan Younis, and Muhammad Nayif Yusif al-Hawm, 14, shot in the chest east of Bureij.

The death toll from a Friday evening earthquake and tsunami on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi jumped to 384 on Saturday, authorities said, with many of those killed swept away by giant waves as they played on the beach in the city of Palu.

Strong aftershocks continued to rock the city on Saturday morning after waves up to 6 meters (18 feet) high swept through the scenic tourist town Friday, triggered by a 7.5 magnitude earthquake on land.

“When the (tsunami) threat arose yesterday, people were still doing their activities on the beach and did not immediately run and they became victims,” said the spokesman for the disaster mitigation agency BNPB, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, in Jakarta. Hundreds of people were preparing for a beach festival to celebrate Palu’s anniversary. The festival was due to start Friday night.

More than 380 people have been confirmed dead after a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 7.7 earthquake hit an Indonesian city on Friday.

The Palestinian authority has asked the International Court of Justice to compel the US to shut down its embassy in Jerusalem, because it violates the Vienna convention, which says an embassy must be located in a host country.
The Palestinian government submitted its application to launch proceedings against the US on Friday. The 14-page complaint, released by the UN's principal judicial body, alleges that the US, as a party of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, has flouted its obligation by setting up an embassy outside the territory of the host state, Israel.

Given the Trump administration's goal of a complete, verifiable denuclearization of North Korea during President Trump's first term, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is eager to maintain U.S.-North Korean engagement. As he prepares for upcoming discussions with the North Koreans, he is leaving one tool conspicuously on the table: the prospect of an official declaration to end the Korean War.

"It's hard to know. I don't want to prejudge precisely where we'll end up," Pompeo said this week when asked if President Trump and Kim Jong Un could sign a declaration to end the war at their next summit. "But make no mistake about it, there is real progress being made."

A protester who said she was sexually assaulted approached Senator Jeff Flake in an elevator Friday after he released a statement saying he would be voting in favor of Brett Kavanaugh for a seat on the Supreme Court.

The unidentified woman could be heard shouting at Flake, R-Ariz., during a CNN live shot before the Senate Judiciary Committee moved toward a vote on Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court Friday morning. Flake had previously been undecided.

“You’re telling me that my assault doesn’t matter,” a woman, audibly emotional, can be heard telling Flake.

“Don’t look away from me,” the woman can be heard saying. “Look at me and tell me that it doesn’t matter what happened to me.”

The woman continues to criticize Flake, saying he is allowing attackers to occupy positions of power.

WikiLeaks has publicised the Interamerican Court of Human Rights decision as a major win for Mr. Assange. How does this win get implemented in the UK if it is a regional American Court?

When did Assange enter the embassy, and why is he there?

Why is Assange not allowed to receive visitors, access the Internet or receive or make any phone calls?

Why does the US government want to prosecute Assange?

What’s so unusual about the United Kingdom’s actions against Mr. Assange?

How is Mr. Assange’s health considering he’s been arbitrarily detained without access to sunlight or fresh air since 19 June 2012?

The Palestinian authority has asked the International Court of Justice to compel the US to shut down its embassy in Jerusalem, because it violates the Vienna convention, which says an embassy must be located in a host country.
The Palestinian government submitted its application to launch proceedings against the US on Friday. The 14-page complaint, released by the UN’s principal judicial body, alleges that the US, as a party of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, has flouted its obligation by setting up an embassy outside the territory of the host state, Israel.

Julie Swetnick, the third woman to accuse Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct in high school, faced allegations from her former employer that she engaged in “unwelcome, sexually offensive conduct” in 2000.

WebTrends alleged in a lawsuit that, after the company determined she had engaged in “inappropriate conduct,” Swetnick made “false and retaliatory allegations” of sexual harassment against two male co-workers.

Kavanaugh vehemently denied Swetnick’s claims, and her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, called the case “bogus,” pointing out that WebTrends dismissed its case.

The woman who charges she was gang-raped at a party where Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was present, Julie Swetnick, had a lawsuit filed against her by a former employer that alleged she engaged in “unwelcome, sexually offensive conduct” towards two male co-workers, according to court documents obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation.

In explaining why I wanted a second front door, I began to describe the assault in detail. I recall saying that the boy who assaulted me could someday be on the U.S. Supreme Court, and spoke a bit about his background at an elitist all-boys school in Bethesda, Maryland. My husband recalls that I named my attacker as Brett Kavanaugh.

We now have proof that this was a lie — a major lie.
This was the basis for the entire story she told the US Senate Judiciary Committee under oath — And this is a lie.
Christine Ford perjured herself.
The problem with Ford’s testimony is that the the second front door was built on their home long before that date.

According to online queries and pictures of the property from as early as 2007, the house in question had two doors in the front since at least 2011 and probably earlier.

Our leading weapons dealers have developed a business model that feeds on war, terrorism, chaos, political instability, and human rights violations.

Modern technologies can now detect and analyze DNA from samples comprised of only 16 cells. But due to the touch-transfer properties of DNA, determining how those cells reached the surface on which they were found is impossible. Tiny amounts of touch-transferred DNA have placed people at locations they had never visited and implicated people for crimes they did not commit.

Washington's mistake of arming the Mujahedeen against the Russians 40 years ago gave us the Taliban. We're doing it again.

There was plenty of blue-check-marked outrage from both sides of Twitter during the Kavanaugh hearings Thursday, but some of the most incisive came from Kurt Schlichter, the former Army colonel turned Townhall.com columnist and political pundit.

Schlichter doesn’t really do anything by halves, as those who have followed him over the years can attest to. So, when it came to the Kavanaugh hearing, he was definitely not displaying a lack of courage in his live-tweeting.

His best tweet of the day may have been in response to Maria Shriver, the niece of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy, among an array of Kennedy siblings. It’s that last one that’s important here, however.

Republican Senators Lee, Graham and Hatch were doxxed on Wikipedia on Thursday.

Many Republicans on the Senate Judiciary had their home addresses and phone numbers published on their Wikipedia pages Thursday.

Shortly after Lindsey Graham went off on Senate Democrats for destroying Kavanaugh’s life in order to derail his confirmation, Republicans were doxxed.

The victims included Republican Senators Mike Lee, Orrin Hatch of Utah and Lindsey Graham, reported the Washington Times.

According to Caleb Hull, editor of the Independent Journal Review, the wife of Mr. Hatch “has been receiving calls nonstop ON HER BIRTHDAY and their home address was made public.”

CongressEdits, a bot account that for four years automatically retweets edits to Wikipedia made anonymously from IP addresses associated with the U.S. Congress, said the information was also posted on Mr. Lee and Mr. Graham “from US House of Representatives.”

If Dianne Feinstein cared about Christine Ford and protecting women from the “monster” that is Brett Kavanaugh she would have moved forward when she heard about the allegation months ago. If she really cared about women she would have immediately shared the information with Chuck Grassley and the FBI because Brett Kavanaugh could have attacked more women. Feinsten cares about protecting women, right? Of course not. She knows Brett Kavanaugh isn’t a sexual predator and she held onto the information until the last second when it was clear that Democrats wouldn’t be able to defeat Kavanaugh on the merits.

That’s one of the biggest takeaways from the hearing on Thursday. Feinstein has become a national embarrassment.

Orrin Hatch and Lindsey Graham called her out for it.

The risk of the deadly Ebola virus spreading from Congo is now "very high" after two confirmed cases were discovered near the Uganda border, the World Health Organization says.

The outbreak of the hemorrhagic fever in northeastern Congo is now larger than the previous one in the northwest and more complicated to contain because of a dense, highly mobile population and a rebel threat so serious that some health workers say they're operating in a war zone.

A deadly attack in Beni, the heart of Ebola containment efforts, forced the work to be suspended for two days earlier in the week.

Joy Behar on Friday accused Senate Republicans of wanting to push through the vote for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh without an FBI investigation as a way to retain “white power.”

“The View” co-host was reacting to Thursday’s hearing, during which the Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony from Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, a California professor who alleges that he sexually assaulted her during high school decades ago.

Said Behar: “The people on the Republican side, it looks like to me, do not want to investigate this any further. They just want to hold on to their power. They know that this country is getting darker. White Europeans are now 61 percent of the population. … In 2045 it will be 49 percent.”

Nasty Nancy Pelosi, Mad Maxine Waters, and Dirty Dianne Feinstein Gang Raped me in 1901 while I was on a trip to Mars in the Wright Brothers plane with them! Bimbo Barbra Boxer was there also but I can’t verify because she is sick and deranged at the moment! Krazy Kamala Harris heard about it so she may have to come forward as a witness!

Dirty Donna Brazile was on her cell phone telling them what questions to ask me.

All of these women are Catholics so I am sure the Pope and all Bishops and Priests have first hand knowledge. I may gotta subpoena them if President Trump will hear my case!

CNN was there and filmed the whole incident from their base on the Moon! They will not hand over the evidence so I am calling for an investigation by the FBI and my preschool school board.

The parents of the woman who is accusing Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct have a connection to the Supreme Court nominee through his mother, a Maryland state judge, online court records show.

Martha Kavanaugh granted a motion dismissing a 1996 foreclosure action against Ralph and Paula Blasey, according to the records.

Christine Blasey Ford publicly came forward Sunday to accuse Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault decades ago when they were both teenagers in prep school.

According to publicly available campaign finance data, Sheldon Adelson – the conservative, Zionist, casino billionaire –is now the biggest spender on federal elections in all of American politics. Adelson, who was the top donor to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and the Republican Party in 2016, has cemented his role as the top political donor in the country after giving $55 million in recent months to Republicans in an effort to help the party keep its majority in both houses of Congress.

Adelson’s willingness to help the GOP stay in power is likely born out of his desire to protect the massive investment he placed in the party last election cycle. In 2016, the Republican mega-donor gave heavily to the Trump campaign and Republicans, donating $35 million to the former and $55 million to the top two Republican Super PACs — the Congressional Leadership Fund and the Senate Leadership Fund — during that election cycle.

Iran has issued a number of threats on Friday following official charges made by leaders in Tehran that Saudi Arabia and the UAE funded a terrorist attack on a military parade in a southwest district last Saturday which killed 25 people, including members of the elite Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC).

Iranian military officials declared "red lines" against the two Gulf countries, threatening war, while in a separate statement a senior cleric said US regional bases will not be safe if "America does anything wrong".

"If America does anything wrong, their bases around Iran would not remain secure,"Ayatollah Mohammadali Movahedi Kermani was quoted as saying by Mizan news agency while leading Friday prayers in Tehran.

And simultaneously the Fars news agency quoted Brigadier General Hossein Salami, deputy head of the IRGC, as saying in reference to the Saudis and Emirates: “If you cross our red lines, we will surely cross yours. You know the storm the Iranian nation can create.”

The ability to vote for local, state, and federal representatives is the cornerstone of democracy in America. With mid-term congressional elections looming in early November, many voices have raised concerns that the voting infrastructure used by states across the Union might be suspect, unreliable, or potentially vulnerable to attacks. As Congress considers measures critical to consumer rights and the functioning of technology (net neutrality, data privacy, biometric identification, and surveillance), ensuring the integrity of elections has emerged as a matter of crucial importance.

With mid-term elections in just two months, Secretaries of State should be pressed to do their jobs and increase security before voters cast their ballots.

Add “a phone number I never gave Facebook for targeted advertising” to the list of deceptive and invasive ways Facebook makes money off your personal information. Contrary to user expectations and Facebook representatives’ own previous statements, the company has been using contact information that users explicitly provided for security purposes—or that users never provided at all—for targeted advertising.

A group of academic researchers from Northeastern University and Princeton University, along with Gizmodo reporters, have used real-world tests to demonstrate how Facebook’s latest deceptive practice works. They found that Facebook harvests user phone numbers for targeted advertising in two disturbing ways: two-factor authentication (2FA) phone numbers, and “shadow” contact information.

Two-Factor Authentication Is Not The Problem

Goldsboro, NC – Water sampling of the Neuse River conducted on behalf of the Upper Neuse Riverkeeper and Waterkeeper Alliance following the coal ash spill at Duke Energy’s retired H.F. Lee Plant found levels of arsenic nearly 18 times higher than the North Carolina standard for drinking water supply and fish consumption.

The standard for drinking water supply and fish consumption is 10 micrograms per liter; testing from water sampled from the Neuse near the coal ash spills following Hurricane Florence was 186 micrograms per liter. The city of Goldsboro has a municipal water intake less than ten miles downstream from the plant.

The analysis, conducted by Pace Analytical, also found elevated levels of lead and other heavy metals in the water. That analysis can be found here.

The sample with the highest arsenic level came from a grey plume of ash in the river, which had poured over an actively eroding dam made of coal ash.

Last year, Desiree Collins, a 52-year-old St. Paul resident, learned the hard way what can happen when a K9 officer loses control of his dog. St. Paul police officer Thaddeus P. Schmidt claims he lost control of his K-9, Gabe, when it attacked Collins, ripping her arm into shreds. The entire incident was caught on the body cameras of the officers involved and now, the taxpayers of St. Paul are shelling out over a half million to pay for the officer’s negligence.

The City Council and Collins’ attorney, Andy Noel met behind closed doors this week to discuss and reach the settlement, according to the Star Tribune.

“She’s pleased and she’s glad that she can put this lawsuit behind her and move on with life,” Noel said.

On Friday the State Department announced it is evacuating all non-essential personnel from the US consulate in Basra, Iraq.

The drastic move comes after a month of heavy anti-Iran and anti-Iraqi government protests that have gripped the southern city, which has led to sectarian rioting and the burning of Shia militia buildings, as well as the torching of the Iranian consulate early this month. During the first week of September the US embassy in Baghdad's green zone also came under attack by mortar fire, which US officials and military analysts blamed on Iran-backed militias.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cited threats from Iran as the reason for ordering the Basra consulate evacuation, and in a separate statement a senior US official confirmed to CNN that the "ordered departure" was due to "security threats from Iran."

A mere day after the Department of Defense touted its first ever combat engagement in Afghanistan, the multi-billion dollar in development and cutting edge Marine F-35B stealth fighter has now experienced another first — one has crashed near a Marine base in Beaufort, South Carolina.

"A 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing F-35B belonging to Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501 (VMFAT-501) stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort crashed in the vicinity of Beaufort, South Carolina at approximately 11:45 a.m. (EST), today," said a statement from the 2nd Marine Air Wing.

The volcano didn’t start slowing down its eruptions until August. P?hoa in the Puna District was especially affected, leaving residents in a constant state of uncertainty.

And of course, the government failed to provide sufficient relief.

It’s no secret that the government – more specifically – FEMA, often fails to act adequately or quickly enough when disaster strikes. FEMA has been cited in on-the-ground reports to turn community help away when people bring food, citing ridiculous regulations. Yet some of the food they provided after Hurricane Matthew was allegedly mal-nourishing and didn’t meet basic calorie requirements. To make matters worse, a year after the hurricane, the crumbling infrastructure still needed repair and families still needed help – yet FEMA froze the Matthew fund, to send those monies to other, more pressing hurricane relief efforts.

Netanyahu's Thursday UN General Assembly speech predictably included the familiar props and visuals condemning Iran over what the Israeli prime minister says is a continuing nuclear program it is hiding from the world's view.

Like pretty much all prior Netanyahu speeches focusing on Iran, he held up a physical "evidence" to illustrate his points as he spoke — this time it was a "proof" that Iran has yet another secret warehouse holding nuclear-related material in the form of an aerial photograph of the Iranian capital marked with a red arrow pointing to a large building.

Though this was perhaps a step up from the cartoon bomb performance at the UNGA in 2012, the act is now a fixture and entirely predictable after many others spanning years, barely eliciting much media excitement compared to six years ago.

But unlike the last number of similar speeches, US intelligence officials have told Reuters that the claims are not true.

The Trump administration and some others in the U.S. government have sent some not-so-subtle hints lately that they are open to a military invasion of Venezuela to oust President Nicolas Maduro.

“It’s a regime that frankly could be toppled very quickly by the military, if the military decides to do that,” President Trump told reporters on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.

The words seem to offer some encouragement for a coup, which may not come as a surprise because the New York Times published an investigation in early September that found that the Trump administration met secretly with Venezuelan military officers over the last year to discuss an overthrow of Maduro.

The Trump administration pressed ahead Friday with plans to create an “Arab NATO” that would unite U.S. partners in the Middle East in an anti-Iran alliance.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met in New York with foreign ministers from Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to advance the project. The State Department said Pompeo had stressed the need to defeat the Islamic State group and other terrorist organizations as well ending the conflicts in Syria and Yemen, securing Iraq and “stopping Iran’s malign activity in the region.”

“All participants agreed on the need to confront threats from Iran directed at the region and the United States,” the department said in a statement. It added that the ministers had “productive discussions” on setting up what is to be known as the “Middle East Strategic Alliance” to promote security and stability in the region.