How one man is working to privatise the war in Afghanistan
10/5/2018, 4:39:44 AMAs Afghanistan frays, Blackwater founder Erik Prince is everywhere. ✔ He denied he was trying to influence the Afghan political process to achieve that vision ✔ He said the only money he had spent on Afghanistan was the $US1500 ($2100) production cost of a 10-minute video to explain his plan ✔ Our new podcast series from the team behind Phoebe's Fall View episodes
Trump's New Syria Policy Is to Stay Forever, Does That Mean War With Turkey?
10/5/2018, 7:16:02 AMundefined ✔ Strategic Culture: Presidential candidate Trump promised to stay out of foreign wars ✔ We will make it our business to make life as miserable as possible for that flopping cadaver of a regime and let the Russians and Iranians, who made this mess, get out of it, he warned
Afghan government rejects proposals to privatize war
10/5/2018, 6:45:58 AMAfghan officials have reacted angrily to speculation that foreign military contr... ✔ REUTERS/Larry Downing Afghan officials say that any move to replace U.S military advisers with private contractors would further undermine government legitimacy and fuel Taliban accusations that the war was being conducted for the benefit of foreign interests
Daniel Urresti, Peru's populist champion, cleared of murdering journalist
10/5/2018, 3:47:51 AMThe leader in the race to be mayor of Lima found not guilty of killing reporter during bloody conflict with Maoist guerrillas in 1980s ✔ Urresti was accused by two fellow officers from his military base, who had been convicted of the journalist’s murder in 2007 ✔ BustÃos’ eldest daughter, Sharmeli, tweeted that the judges’ decision was manipulated and without legitimacy and said the family would appeal ✔ Most died at the hands of the Shining Path but atrocities were also committed by security forces
Ducks, geese shot with darts are still swimming at Boise park while culprit at large
10/5/2018, 3:55:35 AMSeveral ducks and geese in an Idaho park are swimming with blow darts in their heads while the culprit who injured the animals remains at large. ✔ MOHD RASFAN, AFP/Getty Images Fullscreen In this image released by NASA, Expedition 56 Commander Drew Feustel of NASA is carried to a medical tent shortly after he, Expedition 56 Flight Engineer Richard Arnold of NASA, and Expedition 56 Flight Engineer and Soyuz Commander Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos landed in their Soyuz MS-08 spacecraft near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Oct. 4, 2018
Qatar declares war on hackers, but it leads the pack in state-sponsored hacking
10/5/2018, 1:03:03 AMSpeaking to the U.N. General Assembly last week, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani promised that his country would soon hold an international conference on the scourge of hacking and cyberwarfare. ✔ According to a recent report from Amnesty International, one construction company withheld wages from its employees, leaving them stuck in Qatar with no pay ✔ • Mohamed Fahmy is the former bureau chief of Al Jazeera English in Egypt and the author of The Marriott Cell: An Epic Journey from Cairo’s Scorpion Prison to Freedom
Armitage, Nye urge Japan to bolster spending on defense
10/5/2018, 3:00:55 AMWASHINGTON--Japan should increase defense spending beyond 1 percent of its gross domestic product to ✔ One of the report’s proposals to deepen the alliance is to increase the number of military bases in Japan jointly used by the Self-Defense Forces and U.S. military ✔ alliance in 2000, 2007 and 2012 that have played a role in changing Japanese policy, such as the revision of its long-held position of not exercising its right of collective self-defense
Idlib hopes ceasefire will hold as deadline approaches
10/5/2018, 4:46:22 AMTurkish negotiators iron out problems ahead of 10 October cut-off date ✔ Turkey will not give up on Idlib, said Abd al-Hameed Bayoush, a fighter in the National Liberation Front ✔ I think it was pressure from the Americans to do something quickly, said local Abdul Majeed Sharif ✔ It is worrying there are more points of difference than points of agreement … but we are not left with much choice
MARK ALMOND examines Kremlin's terrifying power to paralyse Britain
10/5/2018, 7:27:20 AMDutch authorities released images of four Russian agents who tried to hack into the global chemical weapons watchdog at the time of the investigation into the Salisbury novichok attack ✔ Moreover, technology makes it much easier for someone to cause mayhem ✔ A miscalculation by any rogue agents, anxious to ingratiate themselves with the Kremlin, could have disastrous consequences ✔ We do well to remember that the new world disorder, which Putin promotes as well as relishes, is our new reality
‘Trump humiliates Saudis’: Iran’s FM invites SA to jointly boost regional security, not outsource it
10/5/2018, 1:50:33 AMIran, rarely friendly to Saudi Arabia, has extended an unusual offer of cooperation to its neighbors in the face of “humiliation” by Donald Trump, who claimed the kingdom would fall within two weeks without protection from the US. ✔ Trump made similar remarks on Thursday in Minnesota, where he told his Republican supporters that the oil-rich nation should pay for their defense ✔ Trends: Donald Trump newsIran news Iran tensionMohammad Javad Zarif news Salman of Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia news
Possibility of conflicts in DMZ reduced: JCS chief
10/5/2018, 6:51:22 AMundefined ✔ Park Han-ki, the nominee for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), answers questions from lawmakers while participating in a National Assembly confirmation hearing in Seoul, Friday ✔ I am confident that a potential threat for armed conflicts has declined particularly near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and the disputed inter-Korean western sea border, or the northern limit line (NLL), he said
Spy's dating profile picture taken 650 metres from GRU headquarters
10/5/2018, 1:12:34 AMAlexei Morenets created a profile on a Russian dating site so the 41-year-old could seek romance with women aged between 21 and 30 while he was part of a covert hacking team undermining the west. ✔ But the spies left a trail of clues thanks to six blunders during their international campaign ✔ The men being sought by the FBI are all Russian nationals and residents: Aleksei Morenets, 41, Evgenii Serebriakov, 37, Ivan Yermakov, 32, Artem Malyshev, 30, and Dmitriy Badin, 27, from the GRU's Unit 26165, and Oleg Sotnikov, 46, and Alexey Minin, 46, who were also GRU officers
Nobel peace prize: Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un among bookies' favourites
10/5/2018, 5:27:38 AMWinner of the prestigious award set to be announced in Oslo ✔ A group of 18 Republican lawmakers wrote to the Nobel committee in May nominating Trump in recognition of his work to end the Korean War, denuclearize the Korean peninsula, and bring peace to the region ✔ Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May are tied at Ladbrokes with odds of 100/1
Conor McGregor in rant at Ali Abdelaziz in Las Vegas
10/5/2018, 7:47:39 AMWILL GRIFFEE IN LAS VEGAS: McGregor went into astonishing detail as he once again accused Khabib Nurmagomedov's manager, Ali Abdelaziz, of being a 'f****** snitch, terrorist rat'. ✔ A passage in the book by Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman reads: 'His name was Ali Abdelaziz, an Egyptian mixed martial arts expert ✔ The Dubliner is always liable to go off on an unexpected tangent with microphone in hand but the bizarre and pointed attack on Khabib's manager shows his willingness to leave no stone unturned in the battle for a mental edge ahead of Saturday's showdown
N Korea joins S Korean protest over Japan's Rising Sun flag
10/5/2018, 7:15:46 AMJapan should refrain from flying the "Rising Sun" flag on a warship in a fleet review planned in South Korea next week, a North Korean propaganda website said on Friday, joining South Koreans in the latest spat over the countries' colonial history. Relations between the neighbors and Japan have long… ✔ Variations of the flag are used by the ground Self-Defense Force and on the fatigues of some Japanese sailors, but some South Koreans liken the ensign to Nazi symbols such as the swastika ✔ Japan and South Korea often trade barbs over disputed islands known as Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in Korea
UN: moralizing, demonizing, common sense
10/5/2018, 6:51:27 AMundefined ✔ Among the sonorous drone of 193 addresses, either restating the obvious or repeating by rote the contemporary global mantra of climate change, the Palestinians and endemic poverty, some chiefs of state reached rhetorical pinnacles ✔ 11, 2001, attacks on America, she added, Pakistan's commitment to terrorism as an instrument of official policy has not abated one bit ✔ He is the author of Divided Dynamism: The Diplomacy of Separated Nations Germany, Korea, China
America’s exit from the world stage
10/5/2018, 7:53:30 AMundefined ✔ Shortly before leaving office, Barack Obama wrote a letter for his successor that he left behind on the Resolute desk in the Oval Office ✔ In an inversion of the normal complaint about rock bands, I found myself wishing that Kagan had spent less time playing his greatest hits and devoted more time to his new material instead
Far from formidable, Russia's spy agency now looks like a comedy outfit
10/5/2018, 12:39:13 AMThe GRU, it seems, is not all it's cracked up to be. ✔ When these failed, the GRU then dispatched a four-man team to Amsterdam to penetrate the OPCW ✔ Vladimir Putin is clearly feeling the strain over the incompetence of his spies.Credit:EPA The level of incompetence they displayed in this botched affair beggars belief ✔ Our new podcast series from the team behind Phoebe's Fall View episodes
White House report points to severe shortcomings in U.S. military supply chain
10/5/2018, 2:07:10 AMIn a report that took more than a year to complete, a presidential task force highlighted new and long-standing risks to the defense industrial base. ✔ It singled out obscure but important components such as submarine propeller shafts, gun barrels that go on combat vehicles, and ceramics that go in soldiers’ body armor as being potentially unable to meet the U.S. military’s needs in a protracted war
Analysis | A journalist’s disappearance may rev up a Middle East rivalry
10/5/2018, 5:40:12 AMJamal Khashoggi, a respected Saudi dissident and journalist, has not been seen since he entered a Saudi consulate on Tuesday. ✔ By Ishaan Tharoor Ishaan Tharoor Reporter covering foreign affairs, geopolitics and history Email Bio Follow October 5 at 10:59 PM We still do not know what has happened to Jamal Khashoggi ✔ With every supposed reform comes a wave of fresh arrests, prison sentences and increasingly repressive behavior
Inside the at-bat that led to Aguilar's breakout season
10/5/2018, 6:43:37 AMDespite falling into an 0-2 hole as a pinch-hitter in late April, Aguilar managed to produe an at-bat that would chart a new course for his season. ✔ MLB Inside the At-Bat That Led to Jesús Aguilar’s Breakout With the Brewers Quickly What's the story behind Jesús Aguilar’s breakout campaign with the Brewers ✔ With 35, he finished the season ranked fifth in the National League, an integral part of a squad that ultimately captured a division title and is now battling the Colorado Rockies in the NLDS
India risks US sanctions ahead of possible $5 billion Russia defense deal
10/5/2018, 4:56:10 AMIndia could soon be faced with the threat of US sanctions should it go ahead with a controversial $5 billion weapons deal with Russia, a move analysts say poses more of a headache for Washington than it does Delhi. ✔ The US may prevent this by refusing to allow India to purchase some advanced fighter aircraft types ✔ It is important to note that other parts of the US-India relationship would not be impacted, simply the sale of advanced military aircraft, added Layton ✔ CNN's Ryan Browne contributed to this report
Putin's army of 80,000 spies EXPOSED as four Russian agents caught hacking novichok probe
10/5/2018, 7:32:10 AMFOUR bungling Russian agents are part of Vladimir Putin's 80,000-strong spy network, the UK was warned last night. ✔ Another official said a size-12 boot had been deployed in the panicky attempt to destroy the evidence ✔ Our action today reinforces the clear message from the international community: we will uphold the rules-based international system and defend international institutions from those that seek to do them harm ✔ The attack left Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia critically ill, and Ms Sturgess, 44, who was later exposed to the same nerve agent, died in July
The finance curse: how the outsized power of the City of London makes Britain poorer
10/5/2018, 5:27:51 AMThe long read: The City of London and the services it sells around the world are hailed as the crowning glory of the UK economy. But as the financial sector blooms, everything else withers ✔ In the 1990s, I was a correspondent for Reuters and the Financial Times in Angola, a country rich with oil and diamonds that was being torn apart by a murderous civil war ✔ Will pampering Croydon, London and south-east England generate wealth that can then be spread out to Strathclyde, Scotland and the regions
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