No New Zealand Officials to Visit Riyadh Forum Amid Khashoggi's Case

None of the New Zealand officials will attend the so-called "Davos in the Desert" investment summit in Riyadh due to the circumstances of journalist Jamal Khashoggi's death, Trade Minister David Parker said in a statement.

The statement also said that New Zealand condemns the killing of Washington Post journalist Khashoggi by Saudi operatives. New Zealand government is awaiting the outcome of Turkish investigation and keeping all options for next steps under review.

Previously, Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, vanished on October 2 after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey to obtain an official document for his upcoming marriage. The incident caused a significant public outcry in Turkey as well as many Western countries.

Saudi Arabia announced on Friday that Khashoggi died in a fight at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, after having denied any knowledge of his whereabouts for two weeks. Riyadh said 18 people had been already arrested over their involvement in the incident.

Meanwhile, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono called on Sunday for carrying out a comprehensive investigation into the death of the Saudi journalist.

"That is regrettable. We are calling for a comprehensive investigation into the incident and taking fair and transparent reciprocal measures," Kono said during his visit to Denmark, as quoted by the NHK broadcaster.

https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201810211069071487-new-zealand-saudi-arabia-japan-forum/

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Compares Fighting Climate Change to War Against Nazi Germany

Democratic Socialist candidate for the House of Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in a video that reaching the goal of 100 percent renewable energy to fight climate change requires the same urgency and mobilization in the United States as it did to fight Nazi Germany during World War II.

Calling Nazi Germany the last “existential threat” the United States has faced, Ocasio-Cortez ignored more recent threats, including radical Islam’s attack on U.S soil that killed almost 3,000 innocent Americans on September 11, 2001.

“So when we talk about existential threats — the last time we had a really major existential threat in this country was around World War II,” Ocasio said in a video filmed at an undated campaign at an unknown location.

“And so we’ve been here before, so we have a blueprint of doing this before,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “None of these things are new ideas.”

“What we have is an existential threat in the context of war,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “We had a direct existential threat with another nation — this time it was Nazi Germany … who explicitly named the United States as an enemy.”

“And what we did is that we chose to mobilize our entire economy; industrialize our entire economy, and we put hundreds of thousands if not millions of people to work defending our shores and defending this country,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

“We have to do the same thing if we’re going to get us to 100 percent renewable energy,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “And that’s just the truth of it.”

“It may seem really big. It may seem very ambitious. It may seem very radical,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

“But the fact of the matter is we’re dealing with a radical truth and a radical reality and the more that we choose to ignore it the worse we are doing for our children and our grandchildren and frankly ourselves,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

Ocasio-Cortez, 28, became an instant Democratic Party heroine after unseating party caucus chair Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY) in New York’s June primary.

Although that victory marks the start of Ocasio-Cortez ’s political career, she is not a newcomer to activism, having volunteered for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in his 2016 presidential campaign.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2018/10/20/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-compares-fighting-climate-change-to-war-against-nazi-germany/

Record Number of Migrants Crossing Arizona Border, Say Feds

“Coordinated smuggling of large numbers of Central Americans is taking place daily here in Yuma Sector,” Yuma Sector Chief Patrol Agent Anthony Porvaznik said in a written statement. “They show flagrant disregard for the laws of our country and are exploiting our need for improved border wall infrastructure.”

https://www.breitbart.com/border/2018/10/20/migrants-crossing-border-into-arizona-in-record-numbers-says-border-patrol/

Migrant Families, Minors at Texas Border Hit ‘Unprecedented’ Levels, Say Feds

“As the Rio Grande Valley Sector continues to experience an unprecedented flow of family units and unaccompanied children, the increase in identified fraud cases is extremely concerning,” Rio Grande Valley Sector Chief Patrol Agent Manuel Padilla, Jr. said in a written statement. “The trend in these fraud cases is an effort by smugglers to exploit ongoing U.S. immigration policies and procedures. Agents have already discovered over 60 fraudulent cases in the first two weeks of the new fiscal year.”

https://www.breitbart.com/border/2018/10/17/migrant-families-minors-at-texas-border-hit-unprecedented-levels-say-feds/

Ex-Israel PM: We Killed 300 Palestinians in 3 Minutes

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak on Friday said that he had killed 300 Palestinians “in only three and a half minutes”.

“When I was defense minister, more than 300 Hamas members were killed in only three and a half minutes,” Barak said in statements to the Hebrew TV channel Seven.

Barak criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and said that he has repeatedly capitulated to Hamas because he does not have a strategy.

In commentary on Barak’s statements, Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said that the Israeli leader’s confessions about killing 300 Palestinians in about three minutes confirm that Israel is a terrorist entity led by a group of murderers.

Abu Zuhri wrote on Twitter that the international community must react immediately to these dangerous confessions.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/ex-israel-pm-we-killed-300-palestinians-in-3-minutes/5657504