According to North Korea’s foreign ministry, the latest round of UN sanctions are “an act of war,” and threatened to punish those who supported the measure. The UN Security Council imposed new sanctions on North Korea on Friday due to its recent ICBM test, seeking to limit its access to refined petroleum products and crude oil along with its earnings from workers abroad.
The new resolution seeks to ban nearly 90% of refined petroleum exports by capping them at 500,000 barrels a year and demands the “repatriation of North Koreans working abroad within 24 months”. The US-drafted resolution also caps crude oil supplies to North Korea at 4 million barrels a year and commits the Council to further reductions if the North conducts another ICBM/nuclear test.
In a statement, North Korea’s foreign ministry said the US is “terrified” by its nuclear force and was getting “more and more frenzied in the moves to impose the harshest-ever sanctions and pressure on our country”.
The American Civil Liberty Union (ACLU) has requested to represent a US citizen detained in Syria, who reportedly fought alongside the Islamic State. The citizen, whose identity is being withheld from the public, is being held without formal charges or access to an attorney.
Government attorneys filed a response to the ACLU, after they (ACLU) petitioned the US District Court in Washington DC, to challenge the man’s detention and seek legal counsel for him.
The man was captured by US-backed Kurdish forces in September, according to Steven Dalbey, director of the Defense Department’s Office of Detainee Policy. His captors turned him over to US special forces, on 12/September, who identified him as an enemy combatant and is currently detained in Iraq.
Former campaign manager for United States President Donald Trump Paul Manafort and associate Rick Gates turned themselves over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Monday.
This comes amid a probe into allegations regarding Russia’s influence on the 2016 presidential election.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller charged Mr. Manafort and Mr. Gates with a 12-point indictment that includes conspiracy against the US and conspiracy to launder money.
Beyond these two charges, the pair faces the following: unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading FARA statements and seven counts of failure to disclosed foreign bank and financial accounts.
Mr. Trump responded on Twitter a few hours after the charges were laid out, saying “sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign”.
He also called for investigation focus on “crooked” former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party.
The president followed up with a second tweet saying there is “no collusion!”
The indictment revealed that former foreign affairs aide to Mr. Trump George Papadopoulos secretly plead guilty in lying to FBI agents during the investigation.
Manafort and Gates will appear in court at 1:30 pm ET.
The White House has yet to formally respond to the incidents.
More details to follow. Image 1 of Paul Manafort from CNN.
A United States federal judge from Hawaii has blocked the latest version of President Donald Trump’s travel ban which was set to effect eight different countries. Judge Derrick Watson said that the ban “plainly discriminates based on nationality”.
This announcement comes five days after he was suspended for sexual harassment allegations. This all started last week when Isa Hackett the Producer of ‘The Man in A High Castle’, accused Price of coming onto her in 2015, also telling her that she would ‘love my “d***”.
Roy Price comes after the newest scandal involving Harvey Wein Stein, who has been accused of multiple sexual harassment charges. Weinstein has since been fired from his own company and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has stripped Weinstein of his membership.
A US soldier was killed last night, with 20 US and Afghan troops wounded, during operations against the Islamic State in Afghanistan. US and Afghan troops were hit by an IED while clearing the inside of a building, in the Nangarhar province.
Utah Governor Gary Herbert said that the dead soldier, along with the eleven Americans injured, belonged to the Utah National Guard. This is the 10th member of the US military to die in Afghanistan this year.
A peaceful crowd protesting against a white nationalist rally in the small Virginia college city of Charlottesville were slammed by a car on Saturday, resulting in the death of a women two hours after protests turned violent among the two groups in the United States.
A State Police helicopter crashed later on near the city while monitoring the situation, killing the two officers on board. Police say there is no indication of foul play, but the incident remains under investigation.
Conservative blogger Jason Kessler had called for what he identified as a “pro-white” rally against the city removing a statue of the late Confederate General Robert E Lee, seen as a figurehead of the south during the US Civil War.
Violence in the city brought an injured tally to over 30 individuals, nine of which were wounded by the car slamming into the peaceful crowd counter protesting white nationalists, those identifying as Nazis and alt-right political movement supporters.
US President Donald Trump responded multiple times throughout the day via Twitter, calling for the unification of all Americans against violence.
Mr Trump blamed “both sides” for the aggression largely attributed to the pro-white ethnicity protestors. He did not, however, identify attackers as white nationalists or denounce the far right, recieving criticism from both sides of the aisle and across the political spectrum.
“We’re closely following the terrible events unfolding in Charlottesville, Virginia,” the president told media gathered in Bedminster as he takes a working vacation.
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides.”
A reporter inquired whether he had spoken out strongly enough against the alt right, a question Trump ignored.
Republican Senator Ted Cruz called for the US Justice Department to investigate the situation as “domestic terrorism” late on Saturday, a first domestic crisis for the Trump administration.
Republican Senator Ted Cruz called for the US Justice Department to investigate the situation as “domestic terrorism” late on Saturday.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation have also opened a civil rights probe into the fatal car attack.
US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said racial bigotry and hatred “cannot be tolerated” while supporting the FBI investigation.
Helicopter crashes in Virginia
Lt H Jay Cullen, 48, and Trooper-Pilot Berke MM Bates of the Virginia State Police were killed when a Bell 407 helicopter smashed into the ground seven miles out from Charlottesville at 4:50 pm EST.
No injuries were sustained from civilians on the ground, but the cause of the crash remains unclear. However, police say they do not suspect intentional sabotage or foul play.
President Donald Trump offered support in a tweet that gave his “deepest condolences”.
The crash came just hours after the car attack.
Featured image from AM 1380 The Answer. More details to follow.
Breaking: The US state of Virginia has declared a state of emergency amid large scale protests and clashes between White Nationalist groups and counter protestors.
The ‘Unite The Right’ rally was launched by Alt-Right figures online including known leader of the Alt-Right, Richard Spencer. Amid use of swastikas, racist rhetoric, and more, US Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, has decried the clashes, blasting what he calls, “vile bigotry.”
Via The War Files – The Syrian government announced that the Syrian Army has gained full control of the central city of Homs, after rebels surrendered the last district under their control. An estimated 700 rebels along with their families, nearly 3,000 people, were evacuated on buses from the al-Wair district. “The city of Homs is completely clear of weapons and militants,” provincial governor Talal Barazi said. Many of the rebels were on their way to the rebel-held Idlib province. Some were also heading to Jarablus, which is controlled by rebels backed by Turkey. The evacuation is apart of the Russian-brokered deal that was agreed earlier this year. Under the agreement, opposition fighters are granted safe passage with their weapons/families out of Homs to rebel-held areas in Syria. The Syrian government said that such “reconciliation deals,” which have been agreed in several rebel-held areas, are one of the key’s to ending the civil war. Opposition fighters continue to claim that they have been “coerced into such agreements by brutal sieges and bombardments.”
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