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19:12:00 ,




Following intelligence reports, the Federal Government has located a slush account in Paris to which some Nigerians have made huge deposits in support of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

It has also uncovered how some IPOB members have invaded Nigerian embassies in Hong Kong and Spain and created some scenes in the last 72 hours.

The development, security sources said, was an indication of the desperation of IPOB and the justification for the proscription of the organisation.

But the French Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Denys Gauer on Friday met with the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

Although the outcome of the meeting between the two leaders was kept under wraps, Gauer was said to have reassured the Federal Government that France would not support any terrorist group.

It was learnt that the French government promised to take action as soon as the IPOB’s slush account was known to it.

A top security source, who spoke in confidence, said: “Intelligence gathering has led to the discovery of an account in Paris into which some Nigerians in the Diaspora remit funds to support IPOB.

“From the said account, funds were being drawn for the activities of IPOB at home and abroad. The relevant security agencies did a thorough job and provided incontrovertible evidence on the basis of which the government proscribed the terrorist organisation.

“These Nigerians in the Diaspora are using France as a clearing house.

“Investigations also confirmed inflows into the account from Holland, Hungary, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Turkey, Singapore and other parts of Europe.

“In fact, a football tournament was recently organised in Senegal to raise funds for IPOB.



“As a matter of fact, the account is being used to get money from a lot of people in the Diaspora.

“What many Nigerians did not know is that the Minister of Information and Culture was talking on the basis of credible intelligence report.”

Responding to a question, the source added: “With cooperation by the international community, especially relevant countries, we will soon get the list of all the people remitting funds into the account in Paris.”

But the government was also concerned that IPOB members were becoming desperate after the clampdown on the terrorist group.

The source said: “IPOB members are becoming desperate in the last 72 hours. About two days ago, some members of the terrorist group breezed into our Embassy in Hong Kong under the pretence of renewing their passports but ended up staging a protest.

“The IPOB members also demonstrated at our embassy in Spain a few days ago.”

At press time, the details of the session between the French Ambassador and the Minister of Information and Culture were yet to be formally released.

But a source said: “The Ambassador actually told the minister that France would never condone the activities of any terrorist group, including IPOB.

“He recalled that France has always been at the receiving end of terrorists and so cannot under any circumstances back IPOB.

“He restated the determination of the French government to support any policy or initiative which will strengthen Nigeria’s unity.

“He actually made it known that his government will not back secessionist agitation in this country.”

On the account in Paris, the Ambassador was said to have told the minister that France was “not aware of the account, but Nigeria should make a formal report.”

The source said the minister also reiterated that he “never said that France was supporting IPOB, because there is a robust relationship between France and Nigeria.

“We can never accuse France of collaborating with terrorists, because it has been assisting us in tackling Boko Haram insurgency.

“France played a major role in setting up and managing the operation of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF).
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07:54:00 , , ,

A rather insane end-times theory claims that Planet X will pass the Earth on Sept. 23, ending all life and bringing about the Rapture.


Hope you’re not too attached to this planet, or to life in general, because it’s all going bye-bye in a week. That’s what a ridiculous new “prophecy” cooked up by “Christian numerologists” is claiming, so figure out where you want to die on Sept. 23.

Christian numerologist David Meade poitns to verses in Luke 21:25-26 as a sign that some recent events like the solar eclipse and Hurricane Harvey indicate the apocalypse is nigh. Here’s what those verses say: 

 

“25: There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’

“’26: Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.’

Why Sept. 23? It was chosen because of “codes” in the Bible, as well as a “date marker” thanks to the pyramids of Giza in Egypt. If that sounds pretty arbitrary, it is, but Meade is convinced.

He’s constructed this theory based on the theorized Planet X, a massive planet that scientists think may explain some gravitational anomalies and is orbiting many times farther out than Pluto. He thinks that Planet X will pass Earth on Sept. 23, causing huge volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, earthquakes, and other disasters on an epic scale. Of couse, the notion that a massive planet is that close to Earth and scientists haven’t noticed that is pretty difficult to understand.

The apocalypse, according to the Bible and specifically the book of Revelation, will mark the beginnign of the Rapture and the second coming of Christ, which is a big feature in Christian end-times theories.

Revelations 12:1-2 reads: “And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of 12 stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth.”

Source: BabwNews

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16:56:00 ,


Americans’ debt level notched another record-high in the second-quarter on the back of modest rises in mortgage, auto and credit-card-debt where delinquencies jumped.


The media reported on Wednesday that total U.S. household debt was 12.84 trillion dollars in the three months to June, up 552 billion dollars from a year ago, according to a Federal Reserve Bank of New York report published on Tuesday.

The proportion of overall debt that was delinquent, at 4.8 per cent was on par with the previous quarter.

However, a red flag was raised over the transitions of credit card balances into delinquency which the New York Fed said “ticked up notably.”

Loosening lending standards have allowed borrowers with lower credit scores to access credit cards, Andrew Haughwout, an in-house economist, said in the report.

“The current state of credit card delinquency flows can be an early indicator of future trends and we will closely monitor the degree to which this uptick is predictive of further consumer distress,” he said.

Total US indebtedness is about 14 per cent above the trough of household deleveraging brought on by the 2007-2009 financial crises and deep recession, a pull-back that interrupted what had been a 63-year upward trend.

Mortgage debt was 8.69 trillion dollars in the second quarter, up 329 billion dollars from last year, the report said.

Student loan debt was 1.34 trillion dollars, up 85 billion dollars, while auto loan debt came in at 1.19 trillion dollars, up 55billion dollars. (Reuters/NAN)

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16:44:00 ,

This summer's crackdowns on illicit bitcoin activity has been considerable, but the dramatic surge in the currency's overall value poses even more challenges. (Associated Press/File) 
 
The value of the shadowy digital currency known as bitcoin has jumped to record highs this month, sending shock waves through America’s defense and intelligence agencies, which fear its growth signals a surge in use by terrorists, drug kingpins, white-collar criminals and Russian cybercriminals who don’t want to be tracked by the world’s governments.
This summer, the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the Department of Justice and scores of European illicit finance law enforcement officials have fought back with a wave of operations against Russian cybercriminals. Late last month, they shuttered AlphaBay and Hansa — two of the biggest “dark web” contraband marketplaces rife with the illegal sale of guns, drugs and other forbidden merchandise.
In an even more startling sign of the battle raging around bitcoin, a FinCEN-led international illicit financing task force arrested a Russian “mastermind of organized crime” on a small beachside village in northern Greece less than two weeks ago.
Alexander Vinnik, who is accused of laundering more than $4 billion worth of illegal funds using bitcoin accounts, operated BTC-e, one of the world’s oldest bitcoin exchanges.
U.S. authorities accuse Mr. Vinnik of facilitating crimes including drug trafficking, public corruption, hacking, fraud, identity theft and tax refund fraud.
“Just as new computer technologies continue to change the way we engage each other and experience the world, so too will criminals subvert these new technologies to serve their own nefarious purposes,” Brian Stretch, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California, said about BTC-e.

Mr. Vinnik was arrested amid worldwide cyberhavoc triggered by massive WannaCry’s Bitcoin ransomware attacks in May and June. The attacks forced a production shutdown at Renault auto plans, crashed computers at Britain’s National Health Service and targeted India’s ATM network.
In Britain, screenshots on social media showed National Health Service computer screens with messages demanding $300 worth of Bitcoin to regain access to files.
While cyberattacks have increasingly targeted businesses around the world, bitcoin ransom attacks, especially in the U.S., are skyrocketing. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center reported it received 2,673 ransomware incidents last year — nearly double the figure from 2014.
Despite Moscow’s denials of meddling in the U.S. presidential election, major investigations also continue into Russian hackers suspected of using cyberattacks to undermine or influence the vote.
A little-noticed provision of the law passed by Congress and signed by President Trump this month imposing new sanctions for North Korea, Iran and Russia mandated the formulation of a national security strategy to combat “the financing of terrorism and related forms of illicit finance.” Among those forms, according to the text of the law, were “so-called cryptocurrencies [and] other methods that are computer, telecommunications, or internet-based” for cybercrime.
Bitcoin’s wild rise
A creation of the digital age that reflects the libertarian impulses of much of the online community, bitcoins were launched in 2009 by a shadowy figure named Satoshi Nakamoto, who has never publicly come forward. Many analysts have suggested that he never existed.
The currency’s unique power comes from its independency and lack of reliance on any single government for its legitimacy. Unlike regular money, digital or cryptocurrencies are not connected to banks or governments and allow anonymous purchases or money exchanges completely outside the realm of banks, credit card firms or other third parties. Instead, the coins exist because users “mine” them by lending their computing power to verify other users’ transactions.
This anonymity has brought instability to bitcoin values. Over the past month, however, prices are up more than 30 percent. According to the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index, a bitcoin traded for more than $3,000 — a record high — this past weekend.
The surge follows a spinoff another cryptocurrency, Bitcoin Cash.
Anticipation of the spinoff sent bitcoin values spiraling last month as market analysts predicted a “civil war” with the rival. The opposite appears to have occurred with the spinoff driving up bitcoin’s value.
Market analysts say the value surge demonstrated bitcoin’s resiliency in addition to a growing public appetite for cryptocurrencies.
On Thursday, bitcoins traded at $3,439.55 per coin, driving the overall market value of all existing bitcoins to $56 billion.
Adding bitcoin’s overall value to other cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum and Litecoin and the total market capitalization of such digital cash is roughly $120 billion.
America’s defense and intelligence agencies, FinCEN in particular, pride themselves on the U.S. government’s ability to track and disrupt the illicit financial networks that work through traditional banks and finance channels.
This summer’s crackdowns on illicit bitcoin activity has been considerable, but the dramatic surge in the currency’s overall value poses even more challenges.
Yaya Fanusie, a former counterterrorism analyst for the CIA, is credited with identifying the first verifiable instance of a terrorist organization attempting to use bitcoin to raise funds. He now runs analysis for the Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and told The Washington Times in an interview that the increased volume of bitcoin trading in itself is not the concern.
“The national security concern is not that criminals will use this type of technology — they use all technologies,” Mr. Fanusie said. “The policy question is: How do you deal with something that governments can’t control?”
He said the U.S. needs to engage with the cryptocurrencies as much as possible and pointed to Defense Department procurement experiments already underway.
“Bitcoin is like a rebellious teenager,” he said. “It wants to do its own thing. So what do you do? Do you ban it? No, you want to have a good relationship with it and influence how it develops.”

 
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16:33:00 ,

This image released by Lionsgate shows, from left, Sadie Sink, Charlie Shotwell, Ella Anderson, foreground center, Woody Harrelson, Naomi Watts and Eden Grace Redfield in "The Glass Castle." ( Jake Giles Netter/Lionsgate via AP) 
 
 As a young woman growing up poor in extremely rural Welch, West Virginia, all Jeannette Walls could think about was moving to New York to escape her alcoholic father and eccentric mother. The family had moved countless times before, running from town to town as soon as the creditors came knocking and the money had run out.
New York, the great Gotham, was calling, but her domineering father, Rex, would have none of it, requiring her to all but escape one day after high school.
Her first New York writing job was as a celebrity takedown artist — ironic for a young woman who had grown up without a television.
“I really don’t care about celebrities, [so] I don’t know how I ended up writing about them,” Ms. Walls told The Washington Times at a District stop on a recent press tour.
While nonplussed with her job, she knew that she absolutely had to write. But what?
“I love journalism, I love truth-telling, [but] I was doing something else,” she said of her life in the Big Apple. “And I was kind of ready to dig out of that.”

The story needing telling was staring her in the face.
In 2005 Ms. Walls published “The Glass Castle,” a memoir detailing the transient life she and her siblings led as her parents, Rex and Rose Mary, shuttled them about the country until they finally “settled” in West Virginia, where Rex would spend drink-fueled nights pouring over his plans to build the edifice of the title for his family to be completely off the grid.
“The irony, some would say hypocrisy, was that I’m chasing all the truths out there but not my own,” Ms. Walls said.
The book is now a film from Lionsgate, starring Oscar-winner Brie Larson as the on-screen adult Jeannette, Woody Harrelson as Rex and Naomi Watts as Rose Mary.
Ms. Walls didn’t spare the reader from her father’s drinking, his overbearing nature and refusal to relinquish control as his children grew into adulthood. Mr. Harrelson, in his best performance in years, brings a fearsomeness to Rex but also an undeniable love for his family despite his many flaws.
“Honestly, readers were a lot smarter than I am, and the readers kept saying ‘I think your father was mentally ill,’” Ms. Walls, who now lives about two hours from the District in rural Virginia with her author husband, said. “I’d read a couple of books on mental illness, and I think they were right: He was trying to self-mediate. A lot of alcoholics are trying to self-medicate.”
One of the reasons Ms. Walls said she left the celebrity business was not only a wish to be more authentic in her reporting, but also how sharing stories, she believes, “makes people feel safer.”
Even, it seems, some rather high-profile people. Ms. Walls requires asking an unnamed celeb an “insightful question” about her dress when the starlet asked the interrogator to switch off the mic.
“She said, ‘I wanted to thank you for writing about your father as candidly as you did. My father is also an alcoholic, and your book helped me come to terms’” with her own family situation, Ms. Walls recalls, adding the famous actress said she also handed “The Glass Castle” to several of her friends.
“That’s what it’s all about. It’s not about fame, it’s about sharing stories and making people feel safer,” Ms. Walls says now.
Despite her rather unusual upbringing and difficult young adulthood, Ms. Walls outwardly seems to bear few of the scars of those formative experiences. During this interview she laughs loudly and often, belaying an un-self-conscious manner and nary a trace of bitterness.
Her mother, Rose Mary, even now lives on a separate small home on the property Ms. Walls shares with her husband.
“Not ‘with’ me, because I’m not a saint. I built a place for her out back,” Ms. Walls said, laughing again so much that she nearly doubles sideways. “She makes me crazy sometimes.”
Rose Mary’s artworks are seen in “The Glass Castle,” and the artist even jested to her daughter that the works might “overshadow” everything else in the film.
“She was calling my older sister Lori and going, ‘Who is this Naomi Watts character anyway?’” Ms. Walls said when the Oscar-nominated Australian actress was cast to play her in the film. “Then she saw the trailer. She was elated.”
Mr. Harrelson also got so into character as Rex that Ms. Walls recalls hearing the “Cheers” actor saying things that her own father had — but which were not in the script.
“That’s the degree to which he got inside my father’s head,” she said. “It was astonishing.”
An early scene shows Rex not so much teaching his young daughter to swim as letting go of her in a pool, whether she is ready or not.
“I used to be afraid of water. I’m not anymore,” Ms. Walls said. “Did it work? Yes. Would I recommend it other people? No.”
While Rex is seen frequently drunk in “The Glass Castle,” Ms. Walls now believes that he likely was attempting to drown his demons.
“One of the things that I hope comes from this story is to continue this conversation” about mental health awareness, she said, adding that her father was one of a long line of so-called mad creative geniuses in the vein of Vincent Van Gosh, William Blake and countless others. “Can we harness these demons rather than trying to kill them?”
“The Glass Castle” was filmed in Welch, West Virginia, not far from the actual Walls family home. Ms. Walls recalls initial feelings of trepidation returning to the town — in an area ravaged by the decline of the coal industry — she escaped as a young woman.
“I was the lowest of the low,” she said, adding her family name was used as a punch line by their neighbors. “The more I go there [now], it’s just a place,” Ms. Walls said. “It’s just a place where there’s a lot of people who are down on their luck.”
Ms. Walls is quick to point out that in reportage such as her own book, truth and accuracy are not one and the same.
“The trouble with characters and stereotypes is they’re accurate but they’re not the whole story,” she said. “And that’s why I felt I had to tell a book-length explanation of who and what my parents were.”
Ms. Walls advices memoir-writers now to spare nothing in the name of truthfulness, and not to worry about what the people in the manuscript might think about it.
“I hope I was never cruel in my previous line of work, but by definition, when you write about celebrities, you’re either raising them up or pushing them down,” she said of her former career in New York. “I’m not interested in making fun of people anymore, I’m interested in compassion.”
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06:49:00
Party observers and election volunteers gather to count the ballots in the Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya, Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2017. Kenyans went to the polls to vote in a general election after a tightly-fought presidential race between incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta and main opposition leader Raila Odinga. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

Polls in Kenya closed without major reports of violence Tuesday, easing fears that this year’s presidential election would replicate that of 2007, when a cliffhanger result sparked ethnic clashes that left more than 1,000 people dead.
Results were still coming in from more than 40,000 polling stations, a process that could take days. Five hours after the polls closed, only 23 percent of votes had been reported, with incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta in the lead by about 12 percent over National Super Alliance candidate Raila Odinga.
The few disruptions of the day included the failure of several voter-identification machines and tear gas reportedly released by security forces at protesters at a Nairobi polling station.
Kenyans expected a close election between Mr. Kenyatta and Mr. Odinga, who faced off in 2007 and 2013 as well. The winning candidate needs more than 50 percent of the vote, and at least 25 percent in 24 counties.
Pressure is on Kenya’s electoral commission to deliver accurate results. The brutal, unsolved murder of commission’s information technology manager, Christopher Msando, last week raised suspicions of interference with the electronic voting systems.

As he cast his vote, Mr. Kenyatta vowed to accept the election’s results, the BBC reported. “To my competitors, as I have always said, in the event that they lose, let us accept the will of the people,” he said. “I am willing, myself, to accept the will of the people.”
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06:46:00









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The Trump administration Tuesday slapped a punitive import tax on aluminum foil from China, following a preliminary determination that the country was dumping the product in the U.S.
The latest of President Trump’s get-tough trade measures, the import tax or countervailing duty of 16.56 percent to 80.97 percent was aimed at offsetting China’s unfair trade practices.
“The United States is committed to free, fair and reciprocal trade, and will continue to validate the information provided to us that brought us to this decision,” said Commerce Secretary Wilbur L. Ross Jr. “The Trump administration will not stand idly by as harmful trade practices from foreign nations attempt to take advantage of our essential industries, workers and businesses.”
Mr. Ross instructed U.S. Customs and Border Protection to immediately begin collecting cash deposits from importers of aluminum foil from China based on preliminary countervailing subsidy rates.
In 2016 imports of aluminum foil from China were valued at an estimated $389 million.
Heidi Brock, president and CEO of The Aluminum Association, said she applauded Mr. Ross’ leadership in combating unfair trade practices.

“This is an important step to begin restoring a level playing field for U.S. aluminum foil production, an industry that supports more than 20,000 direct, indirect and induced American jobs, and accounts for $6.8 billion in economic activity,” she said.
“U.S. aluminum foil producers are among the most competitive producers in the world, but they cannot compete against products that are subsidized by the Chinese government and sold at unfairly low prices,” she said.
Enforcement of U.S. trade law has been a focus of the Trump administration, following through on Mr. Trump’s campaign promise to negotiate better trade deals and get tough with trade cheaters, especially China.
From Jan. 20 through Aug. 8, Commerce initiated 64 antidumping and countervailing duty investigations, a 60 percent increase over the number initiated by the Obama administration during the same seven-month period last year, and a 40 percent increase over the number for all of 2016.
The aluminum foil case involved two Chinese exporters of aluminum foil, Dingsheng Aluminum Industries Trading Co. Ltd. of Hong Kong and Jiangsu Zhongji Lamination Materials Co. Ltd., that participated in the proceedings.
Dingsheng Aluminum Industries was hit with a 28.33 percent ad valorem duty and Jiangsu Zhongji Lamination Materials with a 16.56 percent duty.
The countervailing duty case against aluminum foil from China is independent of the Aluminum 232 investigation that was launched in April to determine whether aluminum overcapacity, dumping and illegal subsidies threaten American economic security and military preparedness.



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06:35:00






Concern of an armed clash over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program reached new heights Tuesday as an angry President Trump warned that Pyongyang could soon face “fire and fury like the world has never seen” amid reports that the North has managed to build a nuclear bomb small enough to fit inside an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Mr. Trump’s outburst, which brought both criticism and praise from Capitol Hill, followed the revelation that Japanese analysts and at least one U.S. intelligence agency had concluded that the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was proceeding much faster than previously thought in obtaining a nuclear weapon capable of hitting much of the U.S. mainland as well as key American allies across East Asia.
U.S. intelligence officials sought to calm nerves about the situation by asserting that a Washington Post news report about a confidential Defense Intelligence Agency analysis on North Korea’s progress toward miniaturization had not revealed anything that American authorities haven’t been aware of for months.

“This is just the latest drip of alleged classified information about the North’s program,” said one intelligence official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity with The Washington Times and refused to confirm or deny the accuracy of the DIA analysis.
While the DIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment on The Post’s report, a separate assessment released Tuesday by Japan’s Defense Ministry concluded it was “possible that North Korea has achieved the miniaturization of nuclear weapons.”
Mr. Trump’s intense rhetoric mirrored in a way the often apocalyptic, belligerent tone North Korea has long used to threaten its neighbors, heightening fears that the escalating rhetorical war could lead one side or the other to miscalculate.

While not directly responding to Mr. Trump, Pyongyang voiced defiance again Tuesday to tightening economic sanctions and a series of recent U.S. military moves, warning its citizens in a statement that “packs of wolves are coming in attack to strangle a nation.” The North also said it was “carefully examining” a plan to attack Guam, the U.S. territory in the western Pacific that includes a major American air base.
While the Trump administration has just successfully pushed for tougher United Nations sanctions on the isolated North Korean economy, Mr. Trump was clearly frustrated when he spoke to reporters while on a summer working vacation at his private golf course in New Jersey.
“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States,” the president said, speaking before a briefing on the nation’s opioid abuse crisis. “They will be met with fire, fury and, frankly, power, the likes of which this world has never seen before.”
Several prominent Democrats — and at least one key Republican — criticized the president for inflaming a delicate situation with his comments.
“That kind of rhetoric, I’m not sure how it helps,” Senate Armed Service Committee Chairman John McCain told an Arizona radio station.
“I take exception to the president’s words because you’ve got to be sure you can do what you say you’re going to do,” the Arizona Republican said.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said “there is no question that North Korea is seeking to add a nuclear warhead to an ICBM capable of reaching the United States.”
Although the threat has clearly grown more grave, said the California Democrat, the U.S. approach should be to diplomatically “engage North Korea in a high-level dialogue without any preconditions.”
“What this tells me is that our policy of isolating North Korea has not worked,” said Ms. Feinstein, who asserted that “President Trump is not helping the situation with his bombastic comments.”
New clarity
But some said Mr. Trump, who recently declared the “era of strategic patience with North Korea is over,” provided a bracing clarity in the face of continued provocations and slights from Pyongyang. North Korea’s neighbors, including critical ally China, are now on notice of the new U.S. administration’s determination to act.
If the news reports are true, the claim about North Korean nuclear weapon miniaturization “undoubtedly represents the greatest crisis since the Cuban Missile Crisis,” Rep. Darrell E. Issa, California Republican, told CNN.
The developments came to light just days after the U.N. Security Council slapped its toughest sanctions yet on North Korea as punishment for a series of recent tests of a ballistic missile that could be used to deliver a nuclear weapon.
Despite the increasing tempo of such tests in recent years, U.S. analysts are uncertain about the North Korea’s ability to couple such a missile with a nuclear device.
A successful miniaturization of a nuclear bomb would signal a major advance by Pyongyang toward the development of nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.
The Post article, citing unidentified U.S. intelligence officials, claimed the DIA’s confidential analysis of the situation was completed last month and that the agency analysts also calculated that North Korea has up to 60 nuclear weapons, more than double the number in independent assessments.
Alarm in Washington over Pyongyang’s pursuit of a nuclear capability intensified after the North conducted two tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles last month, both reaching farther than any previous North Korean missile had been capable of flying.
It was not clear if Mr. Trump’s blunt comments signal a major diplomatic or military shift on North Korea. So far, the White House has embraced the long-elusive approach of recruiting China to contain Pyongyang and curb its weapons programs. Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, on a just-concluded trip to Southeast Asia, took a noticeably more restrained tone, saying the U.S. wasn’t seeking regime change in Pyongyang and was open to talks if North Korea halted its nuclear programs and ballistic missile tests.
While the administration has praised the U.N. sanctions and promised to push hard on regional powers including Russia and China, senior White House officials have also spent recent days stressing what a potentially game-changing development it would be if Pyongyang was found to have operable nuclear ICBMs.
National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said in an interview with MSNBC on Saturday that the president has deemed it intolerable for North Korea to have nuclear-armed ICBMs that could threaten the U.S. mainland and that the administration had to provide all options to prevent such a development, including a military option.
Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats told Congress in May that North Korea’s Mr. Kim is “intent on proving he has the capability to strike the U.S. mainland with nuclear weapons” and alluded to U.S. intelligence that Pyongyang had already achieved miniaturization of a warhead.
Specifically, Mr. Coats, whose remarks were part of the intelligence community’s annual Worldwide Threat Assessment, said Mr. Kim had been “photographed beside a nuclear warhead design and missile airframes to show that North Korea has warheads small enough to fit on a missile.”
The anti-war group Peace Action also criticized Mr. Trump’s comments. “Yet again, the president is counting on dangerous threats of military force to convince North Korea to back away from its goal of fielding a nuclear arsenal capable of striking the United States,” the group’s executive director, Jon Rainwater, said in a statement.

⦁ Carlo Muñoz contributed to this article, which is based in part on wire service reports.

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03:06:00 , ,
  • Chelsea lost the Community Shield as they were defeated in a penalty shootout
  • A clip emerged on social media which suggested Michy Batshuayi was laughing
  • The striker insisted it was not the case and responded to people on Twitter
  •  And it was later revealed it took place during Sunday's trophy presentation 

Michy Batshuayi has denied claims he laughed at Alvaro Morata during Chelsea's Community Shield penalty loss.
The forward was filmed laughing and smiling as Chelsea players, including £70million summer signing Morata, stood around in a clip that was widely shared on social media.
There were suggestions that it came after the Spain international missed one of Chelsea's spot kicks during the shoot out as Arsenal won the Community Shield, that were later proved to be unfounded.


With Morata in direct competition with Batshuayi for a place in the starting line-up, some fans seemed to think he was happy at his misfortune.
But it has since been clarified that Batshuayi's actions came during the trophy presentation after the game, while the 23-year-old was keen to dis-spell suggestions he enjoyed Morata's miss.
The Belgian striker wrote on Twitter: 'Wow lol some people really believe I laughed at my teammate and/or us losing ? Sorry to disappoint but I wasnt.
'Im enjoying every goal for us scored by anyone in the team, thats the only thing you have to know. have a blessed day (sic)'.

The striker - seen celebrating after Victor Moses scored - said he wanted the team to do well

 With Morata in direct competition with Batshuayi for a place in the starting line-up, some fans seemed to think he was happy at his misfortune.
But it has since been clarified that Batshuayi's actions came during the trophy presentation after the game, while the 23-year-old was keen to dis-spell suggestions he enjoyed Morata's miss.
The Belgian striker wrote on Twitter: 'Wow lol some people really believe I laughed at my teammate and/or us losing ? Sorry to disappoint but I wasnt.
'Im enjoying every goal for us scored by anyone in the team, thats the only thing you have to know. have a blessed day (sic)'.



Morata missed a penalty kick against Arsenal during the Community Shield shootout

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01:28:00 ,








American Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley speaks to reporters after a Security Council vote on a new sanctions resolution that would increase economic pressure on North Korea to return to negotiations on its missile program, Saturday, Aug. 5, 2017 at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
American Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley speaks to reporters after a Security Council vote on a new sanctions resolution that would increase economic pressure on North Korea to return to negotiations on its missile program.


The Trump administration says it has momentum to exert more international pressure on North Korea, following a unanimous U.N. Security Council vote that increases sanctions on Pyongyang over its recent ballistic missile tests.
Mr. Trump said the new sanctions, which seek to ban exports worth about one-third of North Korea’s income from trade, will have “a very big financial impact!” He called it the largest single economic sanctions package ever on North Korea.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Mr. Trump “appreciates China’s and Russia’s cooperation in securing passage of this resolution.”
“He will continue working with allies and partners to increase diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea to end its threatening and destabilizing behavior,” Mrs. Sanders said late Saturday in a statement.
A White House official said that South Korean President Moon Jae-in asked to speak with Mr. Trump by phone Sunday night. The White House said it would provide details of their conversation later.
Mr. Tillerson also met with his South Korean counterpart Sunday and A White House official said South Korean President Moon Jae-in had asked to speak with Mr. Trump by phone Sunday night. The White House said it would provide details of their conversation later.
The U.S. Security Council voted 15-0 in favor of sanctions that ban exports worth over $1 billion. The resolution adopted Saturday afternoon also would ban countries from giving any additional permits to North Korean workers, another source of money for Kim Jong-un’s regime.
The U.S.-drafted measure, negotiated with North Korea’s neighbor and ally China, is aimed at increasing economic pressure on Pyongyang to return to negotiations on its nuclear and missile programs. It follows North Korea’s first successful tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the U.S. last month.
The resolution bans North Korea from exporting coal, iron, lead and seafood products. This represents one-third of its total exports last year, estimated at $3 billion.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley praised the council’s unanimous vote on the resolution, which had been negotiated with China for more than a month.
“This resolution is the single largest economic sanctions package ever leveled against the North Korean regime,” said Ms. Haley, adding the council had put the country and its leadership “on notice” and “what happens next is up to North Korea.”
Even prominent critics of Mr. Trump said the vote was an important step. Former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul called the vote “a genuine foreign policy achievement.”


⦁ This article is based in part on wire service reports.
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09:49:00 , ,


Arsenal defeated Chelsea in a dramatic penalty shoot-out at Wembley to open the new English season with silverware.
 
Thibaut Courtois and Alvaro Morata missed from the spot as Arsenal claimed the Community Shield by beating 10-man Chelsea 4-1 on penalties.

After a 1-1 draw in regulation time, the shoot-out saw goalkeeper Courtois, an unusual choice to take his side’s second penalty, bizarrely fire his attempt way over.

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02:22:00 ,




President Trump greeted supporters last week in Huntington, West Virginia. At a campaign-style rally, he gave them the cue to reject as laughable allegations of collusion with Russia to interfere in the presidential election. (Associated Press/File) 
 

President Trump and his campaign organization are going to war against the Russia investigations, said an official involved in the effort, launching a multipronged public relations offensive to spread distrust of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe.
Capitol Hill Republicans and Washington legal professionals say Mr. Trump should keep out of the investigation and focus on governing because his protestations keep the story in the media spotlight and make him look defensive.
But the president is determined to confront head on the allegations of Trump campaign collusion with Russia and expose the investigation to be a political hit job. Marshaling opposition from Mr. Trump’s base, the thinking goes, will make it more difficult for Mr. Mueller’s investigation to bring down the Trump presidency.
“This is a war,” said Bruce Levell, a member of the Trump re-election campaign’s advisory board. “Why would we stop talking to the American people? That is the best thing you can do: keep talking to your base. And guess what? The base is growing.”
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway on Sunday blasted the Russian probe as a “conclusion in search of evidence.”
“They’ve come up with nothing,” she said on ABC’s “This Week.” “We’ve been doing this for almost a year now, and what is there to show for it? What has actually metastasized in a way that we can say, ‘Wow, there’s a smoking gun’?”

She pointed to Mr. Trump’s rally last week with supporters in West Virginia, saying the president is making good on his promises to the voters while the political class obsesses over a “hypothetical.”
“People just can’t get over that election,” she said. “The president is going to continue to talk about America, and I suppose others, sadly, will continue to talk about Russia.”
Fighting Mr. Mueller’s open-ended probe to the court of public opinion is part of a broader effort to get more aggressive pushing Mr. Trump’s message on every front, which includes the president’s consideration of senior adviser Stephen Miller for the job of communications director after his feisty exchange with CNN’s Robert Acosta at a White House briefing.
The Mueller probe into Russian meddling in the election and allegations of Trump campaign collusion appears to be reaching into Mr. Trump’s vast business empire and the financial transactions of his associates, a move the president warned would be crossing a red line.
Mr. Trump also has eroding support among congressional Republicans, who overwhelmingly approved new Russian sanctions that took away the president’s ability to unilaterally lift them. The bill, which the president reluctantly signed into law, sent a powerful message that he cannot count on support from Republican lawmakers.
David K. Rehr, a law professor who teaches strategic Washington leadership at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, said Mr. Trump benefits from keeping his side of the story in the public eye and forcing the news media to cover his comments and his rallies.
“It is one of his limited tools to keep public pressure on what is an open-ended, secretive probe that is likely to go on for years with little accountability of time spent or tax dollars being expended,” he said. “His comments keep the partisanship of the probe in the public eye, with the hopes of undermining its legitimacy.”
Mr. Trump has some distance to go to build the type of popular support President Clinton had when he was impeached by the House but not removed from office in a trial by the Republican-majority Senate. His acquittal in 1999 was all the more spectacular given the bitter opposition to his presidency from the Republican Party.
Mr. Trump remains far from that level of political jeopardy. However, there are lessons to be learned from Mr. Clinton’s survival instincts.
Mr. Clinton benefited from the ability to keep his job approval numbers above 50 percent throughout the scandal over his extramarital affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky and his impeachment over obstruction of justice and perjury charges.
Mr. Trump’s job approval rating stands at 38 percent in the Real Clear Politics average of recent surveys.
Last week, Mr. Trump took his case to the American people, telling a massive campaign-style rally in West Virginia that the Russia investigation was a Democratic hoax to threaten his election victory.
“They are trying to cheat you out of the leadership you want with a fake story that is demeaning to all of us and most importantly demeaning to our country and demeaning to our Constitution,” he told a crowd of more roughly 8,600 people filling an arena in Huntington, West Virginia. “We didn’t win because of Russia. We won because of you.”
He gave them the cue to reject as laughable allegations of collusion with Russia to interfere in the presidential election.
“Have you seen any Russians in West Virginia or Ohio or Pennsylvania? Are there any Russians here tonight? Any Russians?” he said. “They can’t beat us at the voting booths, so they are trying to cheat you out of the future and the future that you want.”
Democratic strategist Jim Manley said Mr. Trump’s rhetoric was “just extraordinarily divisive stuff” and did his cause more harm than good.
“It may play well with his base, but that’s it,” he said. “It’s turning off more and more Americans while at the same time giving Mueller more ammunition to make his case.”
The next day, Mr. Trump’s surrogates from the campaign were back and hammering home the message.
Lynnette “Diamond” Hardaway and Rochelle “Silk” Richardson, the YouTube star sisters from North Carolina who became campaign trail sensations stumping for the Trump campaign last year, delivered the message on “Fox & Friends.”
Mrs. Hardaway said the president was being railroaded.
“We know it was no collusion, and it’s a slap in the American people’s face,” she said. “We got out. We voted for him. We rushed to the polls and voted for him, and now you want to blame Russia. No. These were the American people that voted for the president.”


• Valerie Richardson contributed to this report.
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