- Mr. Trump Nails Shut the Coffin on Climate Relief. In March Mr. Trump ordered Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, to repeal the Clean Power Plan, which was aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants.
- Donald Trump ran for the White House as a change agent hostile to the habits of Washington, the place he nicknamed “the swamp.”
- “The theory is that a detainee won’t want to reach that point and so will abandon his hunger strike,” he said. “Who will blink first?” says David Remes.
- Police in the Indian capital Delhi have arrested five people after a video circulated showing what appears to be a mob severely beating a Nigerian man.
- Catalan leaders signed a declaration of independence on Tuesday but halted implementation to allow for talks.
- Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s visit to forward areas at the Sikkim-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction last Saturday had a key significance—India is preparing to fight off China’s salami slicing.
- On 25 August Ata Ullah, the Pakistan-born Rohingya man who started Arsa after an earlier wave of communal violence in Rakhine state in 2012, issued a video, flanked by hooded armed fighters.
- If Donald Trump decides this week to withdraw his endorsement of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, its fate and the potential for a major conflict will be determined by a complex battle in Congress.
- Fast Fact: US President has until October 15 to certify or withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.
- Trump’s recent threat to decertify the Iran nuclear deal is the latest and most dangerous Trumpian gambit yet, and it has emerged that the US is working to designate the Revolutionary Guards a terrorist group.
- Two attackers have blown themselves up near the police command centre in the Syrian capital, Damascus, according to state media.
- Turkish President Erdogan says US consulate staffer is a spy.
- The United Kingdom is keeping a close eye on the final use of weapons it sells to Saudi Arabia, according to a top diplomat.
- The US is offering multimillion-dollar rewards for two high-level officials of the Lebanese group Hezbollah as the US administration prepares to unveil a strategy to counter Iran’s perceived regional influence.
- In a surprising turn of events, Raila Odinga announced on October 10 that he was withdrawing from the scheduled October 26 rerun of the 2017 presidential election.
- Odinga said on Tuesday he would boycott the polls because opposition demands for electoral body reform have not been met.
- Scotland’s 2014 “No” vote and the violence in the lead-up to this month’s independence referendum in Catalonia appear to have weakened the independence drive elsewhere in Europe, too.
- Russia is ready and willing to mediate in establishing relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov has stated.
- After Republicans were unable to fulfill their longstanding promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the tax cut proposal is the only remaining game in town for the struggling majority and its allies on K Street.
- For an industry that is supposed to be struggling to find cash and partners due to crippling western sanctions, Russia’s energy sector is showing few signs of feeling abandoned.
- It is, perhaps, the worst kept secret in Washington that President Donald Trump will later this week announce that America is about to enter a new era of confrontation with Iran.
Hiba's curmudgeonly musings about books, politics & other trifles.
Die Denkende Nachteule.
