tyb
gn kb
GM, Sam
Pompeo to Designate Yemen's Houthi Rebels as Terrorist Group
11 Jan 2021
The Associated Press | By Matthew Lee
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has announced that he will designate Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels as a “foreign terrorist organization” as time runs down on the Trump administration. The designation will take effect on Jan. 19, one day before president-elect Joe Biden takes office.
The announcement Sunday comes as Pompeo and his top aides rush to complete actions they believe will cement their legacy and the president’s. In addition to the Houthi designation, Pompeo in coming days is also expected to likely re-designate Cuba as a “state sponsor of terrorism," according to several administration officials.
Both moves will impose or re-impose sanctions on the targets and may complicate the incoming Biden administration’s diplomacy. On Saturday Pompeo angered China when he declared restrictions on U.S. diplomatic contacts with Taiwanese officials to be null and void. In addition, Pompeo plans before leaving office on Jan. 20 to draw explicit links between Iran and al-Qaida and hit more Iranian entities with sanctions, the officials said.
The officials were not authorized to discuss the steps publicly because they have not yet been announced and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The administration had been weighing the formal designation of the Houthi rebels as a “foreign terrorist organization” for months. But that effort had been bogged down in internal disagreements over whether sanctions could be effectively enforced without worsening the dire humanitarian crisis in Yemen.
Objections from the Treasury Department were apparently overcome last week after certain exemptions to the sanctions allowing for aid work to continue were arranged.
Late Sunday, Pompeo announced that he was proceeding with the designation of the Houthis., also known as Ansarsallah, along with separate terrorist designations of three senior rebel leaders.
MORE AT LINK - https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/01/11/pompeo-designate-yemens-houthi-rebels-terrorist-group.html
US says Mike Pompeo won’t go to Taiwan after Chinese state media warns such a trip may ‘trigger a war’
Spokeswoman tweets that Europe tour will be his final as secretary of state and says China’s ‘nervous panic diplomacy is unwarranted and dangerous’
Global Times commentary said Beijing’s response would be ‘overwhelming’ if Pompeo visited island after lifting restrictions on official contacts
Minnie Chan and Catherine Wong
Published: 6:30pm, 11 Jan, 2021
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will not travel to Taiwan, the State Department said on Monday, after he lifted restrictions on American officials visiting the self-ruled island.
State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus tweeted that Pompeo’s upcoming trip to Europe would be his final overseas tour as secretary of state. She was responding to a commentary in Chinese state tabloid Global Times that warned a Taiwan visit by Pompeo could lead to war.
“There are no plans to travel to #Taiwan this week but we will continue our consistent support for Taiwan as a successful market economy, vibrant democracy, and force for good in the world,” Ortagus said in the tweet.
“The CCP [Chinese Communist Party] must act responsibly and stop believing the lies in their own propaganda. Their nervous panic diplomacy is unwarranted and dangerous.”
Pompeo issued a statement over the weekend saying the previous restrictions on how American officials may interact with their Taiwanese government counterparts were “null and void”.
He said the restrictions had been adopted “in an attempt to appease the communist regime in Beijing”, and in future all official engagements with Taiwan should be handled through the American Institute in Taiwan – the de facto US embassy.
MORE AT LINK - https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3117263/us-says-mike-pompeo-wont-go-taiwan-after-chinese-state-media
Pompeo is laying ‘landmines’ in U.S.-China relations before Biden takes office, ex-Australian leader says
PUBLISHED MON, JAN 11 20213:21 AM EST Yen Nee Lee
KEY POINTS:
Over the weekend, Pompeo announced the lifting of all “self-imposed restrictions” in U.S. relations with Taiwan — a democratic and self-ruled island that China claims as its own territory.
The move could further complicate a tense U.S.-China relationship days before President-elect Joe Biden takes office, said former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
Rudd said Pompeo may be motivated to harden U.S. stance on China now so that he could attack Biden as “having gone soft” on China should it make any policy changes.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s latest move on Taiwan could upend a major foundation underpinning the U.S.-China relations — further complicating a tense bilateral relationship just before President-elect Joe Biden takes office, said former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
“What Pompeo is doing is laying a whole series of landmines for the incoming Biden administration … salting the earth in the U.S.-China relationship in general, and laying landmines on Taiwan in particularly,” Rudd told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Monday.
Over the weekend, Pompeo announced the lifting of all “self-imposed restrictions” in U.S. relations with Taiwan — a democratic and self-ruled island that China claims as its own territory.
Pompeo said in a statement on Saturday that the U.S. had unilaterally limited contact between its officials and their Taiwanese counterparts for several decades “in an attempt to appease the Communist regime in Beijing.” He then declared all those restrictions are “no more.”
MORE AT LINK - https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/11/pompeo-is-laying-landmines-in-us-china-relations-for-the-biden-administration-says-e-australian.html
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Sets Out Plans to Call for Trump’s Removal
By VOA News
January 11, 2021 05:16 AM
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the House of Representatives will offer a resolution Monday calling on President Donald Trump’s Cabinet to invoke the 25th amendment, removing him from office.
In a letter to her Democratic colleagues, Pelosi said if Vice President Mike Pence does not respond within 24 hours, the House will proceed with impeachment.
“In protecting our Constitution and our democracy, we will act with urgency, because this president represents an imminent threat to both. As the days go by, the horror of the ongoing assault on our democracy perpetrated by this President is intensified and so is the immediate need for action,” the letter read.
The push to remove Trump from office in his final days comes amid growing calls to hold him accountable for last Wednesday’s mayhem that left five people dead at the U.S. Capitol as a mob of Trump supporters stormed past police into the building.
Neither Trump nor the White House responded to Pelosi’s move on Sunday.
President-elect Joe Biden has taken a hands-off stance on the impeachment move against the outgoing president who has yet to concede the election but has acknowledged there will be a “new administration” in Washington come January 20.
“In 10 days, we move forward and rebuild — together,” Biden said Sunday on Twitter.
One of Pelosi’s top congressional lieutenants, Congressman Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, told the “Fox News Sunday” show that the House could vote on impeachment within days, even though Trump’s four-year presidency ends next week with the inauguration of Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.
Given that Trump will be out of office shortly, there is little likelihood that the Senate would hold an impeachment trial before his term ends, although it could do so after he leaves, and if it convicts him, keep him from ever holding federal office again.
But Clyburn said the urgency to impeach Trump for a second time is paramount.
“Our business is to impeach, basically an indictment,” Clyburn said. “Our vote is our voice, and our vote is a voice of disapproval.”
Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, a long-time Trump critic, said she would introduce two articles of impeachment against Trump on Monday for “abuse of power” for pressuring election officials in the southern state of Georgia to overturn Biden’s narrow win there and “incitement of violence for orchestrating an attempted coup against our country” with the storming of the Capitol.
MORE AT LINK - https://www.voanews.com/usa/us-politics/house-speaker-nancy-pelosi-sets-out-plans-call-trumps-removal
Pelosi issues ultimatum on Trump
Impeachment to be sought unless Pence leads ouster
by Compiled by Democrat-Gazette Staff From Wire Reports | Today at 4:10 a.m.
WASHINGTON – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday that the House will proceed with legislation to impeach President Donald Trump unless the vice president and Cabinet invoke constitutional authority to force him out, calling Trump a threat to democracy after last week's deadly assault on the Capitol.
Pelosi, D-Calif., made the announcement in a letter to colleagues, framing it as an ultimatum to Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the powers of the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office. If not, she said, the House will proceed with impeachment.
"In protecting our Constitution and our Democracy, we will act with urgency, because this President represents an imminent threat to both," she said, adding: "The horror of the ongoing assault on our democracy perpetrated by this President is intensified and so is the immediate need for action."
Pelosi's plan seeks a vote today on a resolution calling for Pence and Cabinet officials to invoke the 25th Amendment. Under rules for when the full House is not convened, any objection would reject the resolution. Pelosi would then put the resolution before the full House on Tuesday. If it were to pass, then Pence and the Cabinet would have 24 hours to act before the House would move toward impeachment.
As of Sunday afternoon, a draft impeachment resolution had garnered 210 co-sponsors in the House, according to Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., one of its authors.
MORE AT LINK - https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2021/jan/11/pelosi-issues-ultimatum-on-trump/?news
Holy Conspiracy! How the Vatican helped Obama, China & Leonardo SpA Steal the Election with 14 Pallets of Money
By Grady Owen
Published on January 10, 2021
A money trail involving everyone from Dubai’s Sheikh to the CEO of Deutsche Bank traces a convincing path from the Iran nuclear deal strait to the U.S. election stolen from Trump
The Vatican Bank — long plagued by scandal and corruption — is now under new management.
It’s true. Pope Francis has packed up the bank and moved it out from under the Vatican branch that oversaw it for hundreds of years and put it under his own direct oversight. Why?
Depending on who you ask it’s either to hide illegal and immoral actions in the past, or to facilitate immoral and illegal actions coming soon. Either way it’s not nice, the amount of “suspicious activity” reports having to do with the bank spiked up to 64 in 2020, and reports say at least $3 billion is currently held frozen by the Council of Europe’s Moneyval division.
But there’s more to it than just the usual greasing of wheels, bribing and sex scandal cover-ups. On January 17th of 2017, weeks before Donald Trump took office in the U.S., an Italian C130 took off loaded with $400 million. The news covered this very expensive pinata when it landed in Tehran — and President Obama called it a long overdue pay out from money frozen by the U.S. during the 1970’s after the fall of the Shah.
On-the-ball conservatives thought they smelled something else, and tied it to Iran’s Nuclear agreement — one of Obama’s legacy foreign policy acts.
But the truth is looking even worse. New sources say the amount of money involved that day was more like $1.7 billion. It took up 14 pallets on the plane. Obama had claimed there was no U.S. currency involved, but it has since been shown it was all U.S. dollars. And that after the plane took off, $400 million lighter, the rest went to Dubai where a secret meeting between Obama’s proxies and the current ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, or MBR. Also at the meeting was Valerie Jarrett, the Iran-born go-between for the Obama administration and for his foundation on matters both above and below the radar. Also at the meeting was the Governor of the Central Bank of Iran, the ranking commercial officer for relations between the U.S. and Iran, and head of security for the Iranian Embassy in Rome.
<BREAK>
Global word is that the hatchet is coming down on this operation. Not just the Leonardo part–where Arturo D’Ella, the IT operator who has admitted to pushing the satellite uplink buttons connecting his Via Veneto office with the CIA-protected Dominion servers in Frankfurt–but also on the bigger picture linking
China, Iran and Obama.
Follow the money indeed.
MORE AT LINK - https://www.shockya.com/news/2021/01/10/holy-conspiracy-how-the-vatican-helped-obama-china-leonardo-spa-steal-the-election-with-14-pallets-of-money/
Pope Francis suggests people have moral obligation to take coronavirus vaccine
Jan 11, 2021
by Joshua J. McElwee Vatican
ROME — Pope Francis suggested that people have a moral obligation to receive one of the new coronavirus vaccines as soon as possible, revealing in a new interview that he expects to get his own first dose this week.
"I believe that morally everyone must take the vaccine," the pontiff said in a Jan. 10 interview for Italy's TG5 news program. "It is the moral choice because it is about your life but also the lives of others."
The pope, who said he has already made an appointment with the Vatican's health service for his own inoculation, also lamented that some people are saying they will not take a vaccine.
"I do not understand why some say that this could be a dangerous vaccine," said Francis. "If the doctors are presenting this to you as thing that will go well and doesn't have any special dangers, why not take it?"
"There is a suicidal denialism that I would not know how to explain but today people must take the vaccine," the pontiff continued.
Francis' remarks are the latest in a series of firm signals to the world's 1.3 billion Catholics that he and the Vatican strongly support the global vaccination effort.
Earlier in December, the Vatican's doctrinal office issued an unusually prompt note saying it is "morally acceptable" for Catholics to take the new vaccines. And the Vatican's own health service is about to begin offering the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to the city-state's residents, staff members, and their families.
Francis did not say specifically when he would receive the vaccine, and the Vatican has not offered further comment on the pope's plans.
The pontiff also spoke in the interview about the violent Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, saying it left him "astonished" and surprised that such a scene could unfold in a country with a long history of practicing democracy.
Asked how his own daily life has changed because of the coronavirus pandemic, Francis said he first felt "caged in" during Italy's spring 2020 lockdown but then "calmed down."
"I took life as it came," said the pope. "You pray more, you speak more, you use the telephone more."
Francis also mentioned that he had to cancel several of his planned trips abroad, making 2020 the first year without papal travel outside Italy since 1979. The pope revealed he is not sure if his plan to visit Iraq this March will go forward.
"In conscience, I cannot cause assemblies, no?" said the pontiff. "Now, I do not know if the next trip to Iraq will happen."
"It has changed our lives," Francis said of the pandemic. "But the Lord always helps us."
https://www.ncronline.org/news/vatican/pope-francis-suggests-people-have-moral-obligation-take-coronavirus-vaccine
correct. did you take the weekend off, Anon? kek
No! Never retreat from the battlefield!
Gonna need some sauce on this purge habben stuff please thanQ!
Maybe they think it is Feb and that the 15th is Presidents day? kek