Khashoggi versus 50,000 Slaughtered Yemeni Children

For three and half years, the Saudi’s have waged a horrendous war on Yemen. They have slaughtered tens of thousands of Yemenis – according to the UN Human Rights Commission more than 50,000 children died by Saudi air raids with UK supplied bombs, and US supplied war planes – through lack of sanitation and drinking water induced diseases, like cholera – and an even worse crime, through extreme famine, the worst famine in recent history – as per UNICEF / WHO – imposed by force, as the Saudi’s with the consent of the European allies closed down all ports of entry, including the most important Red Sea Port of Hodeida.

Khashoggi versus 50,000 Slaughtered Yemeni Children Global Research

Why the Khashoggi Affair Maybe the Biggest US Foreign Policy Crises Since Iran’s Revolution

If Donald Trump seems at a loss about how to respond to the Jamal Khashoggi murder, it may not be because he’s worried about his Saudi business investments or any of the other things that Democrats like to bring up to avoid talking about more serious topics. Rather, it’s likely because Trump may be facing one of the biggest U.S. foreign-policy crises since the overthrow of the shah in 1979.

Why the Khashoggi Affair Maybe the Biggest US Foreign Policy Crises Since Iran’s Revolution MPN

$15bn Iraq power-generation contract to GE (not Siemens) after Trump pressure

Siemens is said to have lost out on a $15bn contract to supply 11GW of power-generation equipment to Iraq after an intervention from the Trump administration on behalf of General Electric (GE).

Siemens loses $15bn Iraq power-generation contract to GE Power Technology

Stock Market Correction?

The US stock market turned volatile this week and has now erased all the gains made up to now in 2018 in just a week or so. So much for Trump’s boast that things for rich investors have never been better. The fall in the US market has been matched by similar drops in the European and Asian stock markets. The all-world index has had its worst performance since the Euro debt crisis of 2012.

Now this fall could just be what market traders call a ‘correction’ and not a full ‘bear market’, when the prices of shares enter a long and deep decline. But it could be that investors are beginning to fear that the boost to profits and sales that the Trump tax cuts generated is soon to be over, while interest rates (the cost of borrowing to invest or buy back shares to boost prices) are rising significantly.

Correction? Michael Roberts

Khashoggi, Erdogan and the CIA

Khashoggi should not himself be whitewashed. He had a long term professional association with the Saudi security services which put him on the side of prolific torturers and killers for decades. That does not in any sense justify his killing. But it is right to be deeply skeptical of the democratic credentials of Saudis who were in with the regime and have become vocal for freedom and democracy only after being marginalized by Mohammed Bin Salman’s ruthless consolidation of power (which built on a pre-existing trend).

The same skepticism is true many times over when related to CIA Director Gina Haspel, who personally supervised torture in the CIA torture and extraordinary rendition program. Haspel was sent urgently to Ankara by Donald Trump to attempt to deflect Erdogan from any direct accusation of Mohammed Bin Salman in his speech yesterday. MBS’ embrace of de facto alliance with Israel, in pursuit of his fanatic hatred of Shia Muslims, is the cornerstone of Trump’s Middle East policy.

Khashoggi, Erdogan and the Truth Craig Murray

Apple’s Tim Cook makes blistering attack on the “data industrial complex”

Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has joined the chorus of voices warning that data itself is being weaponized again people and societies — arguing that the trade in digital data has exploded into a “data industrial complex”.

Cook did not namecheck the adtech elephants in the room: Google, Facebook and other background data brokers that profit from privacy-hostile business models. But his target was clear.

“Our own information — from the everyday to the deeply personal — is being weaponized against us with military efficiency,” warned Cook. “These scraps of data, each one harmless enough on its own, are carefully assembled, synthesized, traded and sold.

“Taken to the extreme this process creates an enduring digital profile and lets companies know you better than you may know yourself. Your profile is a bunch of algorithms that serve up increasingly extreme content, pounding our harmless preferences into harm.”

“We shouldn’t sugarcoat the consequences. This is surveillance,” he added.

Apple’s Tim Cook makes blistering attack on the “data industrial complex” TechCrunch

Scientists see a problem with Trump plan on defining sex: biology

A new report that the Trump administration hopes to legally define a person’s sex at birth — an unchangeable condition determined by genitalia — has prompted an outcry among the transgender community.

But beyond the political implications — and fears that any such change could ultimately mean the end of civil rights protections for transgender people — the proposal raises fundamental questions about something else: biology.

The proposal is “highly inaccurate and just an insult to science. Basic science,” said Rachel Levin, a Pomona College neuroscientist who studies the development of sex.

Scientists see a problem with Trump plan on defining sex: biology Stat