New migrant caravan departs El Salvador for U.S.

About 2,000 migrants set off on foot from El Salvador’s capital on Wednesday, the latest of several groups of Central Americans heading to the United States, even as U.S. President Donald Trump increased pressure to halt their flow. Men and women from the two groups of Salvadorans that departed San Salvador pushed baby strollers or bore children on their shoulders. On Sunday, a separate group of about 300 people set off from the city. Some, such as 42-year-old Luis Geovanni Vindel, a salesman from the central city of Zacatecoluca, moved on quickly, hitching rides alone toward the Guatemalan border. “We’re already one step away from Guatemala, and soon into Mexico,” said Vindel, limping forward with a cane on a prosthetic leg in the municipality of San Francisco Menendez.

A larger U.S.-bound caravan, which left northern Honduras in mid-October is moving north at about 30 miles (48 km) a day through southern Mexico. It has become a major campaign issue ahead of U.S. congressional elections on Nov. 6. Mexico’s Interior Minister Alfonso Navarrete on Wednesday put the size of the first caravan at 2,800 to 3,000, below the government’s previous estimate of about 3,500. Participants in the caravan have put the number significantly higher. Dozens of the men, women and children in that caravan told Reuters they were abandoning their homelands to seek asylum from a mixture of poverty, violence and corruption. “We’re now in an unprecedented situation in the country,” Navarrete told reporters in Mexico City. “This is not merely a caravan … it’s a migratory exodus.”

The bulk of illegal immigrants intercepted at the U.S. border are from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Trump said he could send up to 15,000 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, which is already heavily policed by border guards. “It scares us a little. But since we’re seeing a ton of people going together, we can help one another to cross,” said Jose Machado, a migrant departing from San Salvador, his backpack stuffed with clothing and toiletries. Trump, who has threatened to slash U.S. aid to Central America and close the U.S. border with Mexico, said in a tweet on Wednesday that Mexico needs to keep up efforts to discourage the migrants, who he described as “tough fighters.”

A clash at the Mexico-Guatemala border on Sunday left one migrant dead and several law enforcement officers injured. “Mexican soldiers hurt, were unable, or unwilling to stop Caravan. Should stop them before they reach our Border, but won’t!” Trump said on Twitter.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders on Wednesday praised Mexico’s actions to slow the movement of people, but told Fox News: “They can do more.” Police estimated the two groups leaving San Salvador numbered around 1,000 each. One left around dawn, followed by the second later in the morning. Some waved Salvadoran flags as motorists honked in support and shouted “God bless you.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-caravan/new-migrant-caravan-departs-el-salvador-for-u-s-idUSKCN1N52BD?il=0

Exclusive: Canada rushes to deport asylum seekers who walked from U.S. - data

Canada is prioritizing the deportation of asylum seekers who walked across the border from the United States illegally, federal agency statistics show, as the Liberal government tries to tackle a politically sensitive issue ahead of an election year. The number of people deported after their refugee applications were rejected was on track to drop 25 percent so far this year compared to 2017 to its lowest point in a decade, even as the number of deported border-crossers was on track to triple, according to Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) data.

More than 36,000 people have walked into Canada from the United States to file refugee claims since January 2017, many saying they feared U.S. President Donald Trump’s election promise and policy to crack down on illegal immigration. The influx has thrown the Canadian asylum system into turmoil and caused a political uproar in a country accustomed to picking and choosing its newcomers.

In response, the government gave more money to the independent body adjudicating refugee claims and appointed a minister responsible for border-crossers. The CBSA, which is responsible for deportations, said in an email to Reuters that it classifies border-crossers with criminals as a top deportation priority. Refugee lawyers and border officers said the prioritization seems to be Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s way of dealing with those asylum seekers, who have become a hot political issue for his Liberal Party ahead of a general election in 2019.

Border Security Minister Bill Blair declined to comment. In an email, Blair’s office said the government is committed to a “robust and fair” refugee system and that everyone ordered removed has been given due process. A CBSA inland enforcement officer said the tradeoff is that deportees who could pose a real public safety risk are not getting deported.“We have priority cases, people with extensive criminal records that are due to be deported, people with security problems - these cases are not all taken care of because we have to take care of these administrative cases,” said the officer, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to media. Border-crossers “are not a priority, but they are a priority because of all the media attention around them.”

A CBSA spokesman said in an email that the agency prioritizes “irregular” failed refugee claimants along with criminals as a top priority, followed by other failed refugee claimants, but would not say why. Six lawyers told Reuters they were aware of this acceleration of certain cases, some saying they have had border-crosser hearings scheduled in blocs, with a focus on those from Haiti and Nigeria. Toronto lawyer Lorne Waldman said there were good reasons for accelerating the processing and deportation of people who crossed the border: it deters people with weak claims from making refugee claims in the hopes of living in Canada for years while their case wends through the system. “The best way of discouraging people from making frivolous claims is by having the claims processed quickly,” Waldman said.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-immigration-deportation-exclus/exclusive-canada-rushes-to-deport-asylum-seekers-who-walked-from-u-s-data-idUSKCN1N52V6?il=0

>>3682015

It certainly is…more like an invasion than migration..

UK, EU agree tentative Brexit deal on financial services: The Times

British Prime Minister Theresa May has struck a tentative deal with the European Union that would give UK financial services companies continued access to European markets after Brexit, the Times reported on Thursday. British and European negotiators have reached tentative agreement on all aspects of a future partnership on services, as well as the exchange of data, the British newspaper reported, citing government sources. The services deal would give UK companies access to European markets as long as British financial regulation remained broadly aligned with the EU’s, the Times reported.

The British pound jumped as much as 0.5 percent against the dollar following the report. Global banks operating in the UK have had to reorganize their operations around Britain’s departure from the European Union, due to take place in March next year. Many have set up new European hubs and begun to move operations, senior executives and staff to ensure they can continue to serve their continental clients if Britain leaves the bloc without a deal. According to the Times’ report, EU will accept that the UK has “equivalent” regulations to Brussels, and UK financial services companies will be allowed to operate as they now do in Europe.

EU officials have said that the EU’s financial market access system, known as “equivalence,” under which Brussels grants access to foreign banks and insurers if their home rules converge with the bloc’s, is probably Britain’s best bet. “Equivalence” has so far had limited application, because, for one, under existing rules market access can be withdrawn unilaterally with only a month’s notice, the Times said.

Under the new deal, “equivalence” will be extended and will fall under the governance of the wider trade treaty, allowing the EU and the UK to change or set new financial regulations after consulting each other beforehand, the Times said. May’s principal Europe adviser, Oliver Robbins, is continuing the negotiations in Brussels, according to the report. With five months to secure a deal before Britain is due to leave the EU, business leaders are demanding certainty over the kind of trade terms the divorce will deliver.

UK’s Financial Conduct Authority wants Britain to stay closely aligned with the EU, but without Britain’s having to copy all the bloc’s rules, the acting director of strategy at the FCA, Richard Monks, has said. Britain on Wednesday said there was no set date for Brexit talks to finish, backtracking from a letter by Brexit minister Dominic Raab that suggested a deal on the terms of its departure from the European Union could be finalised by Nov. 21.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-financial-services/uk-eu-agree-tentative-brexit-deal-on-financial-services-the-times-idUSKCN1N639Q

>>3682101

I believe that would certainly work..Saw a vid today on the NG equipment being shipped by train to AZ..quite a show of power..let's hope this will be enough.

North Korea readies nuclear, missile sites for international inspectors: Yonhap

South Korea’s spy agency has observed preparations by North Korea for international inspections at several of its nuclear and missile test sites, the Yonhap news agency said on Wednesday, citing a South Korean lawmaker. U.S. officials declined to confirm the observations, but Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in Washington he planned to meet his North Korean negotiating counterpart next week and would speak to him about inspections.

Pompeo said in a radio interview that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had committed to allowing U.S. inspectors at two “significant” sites when he met him in Pyongyang this month. “We hope to get them there before too long,” he told the Laura Ingraham show. Pompeo did not identify the sites.

Kim Min-ki of South Korea’s ruling Democratic Party told reporters earlier that the country’s National Intelligence Service observed North Koreans “conducting preparation and intelligence activities that seem to be in preparation for foreign inspectors’ visit” at Punggye-ri nuclear test site and the Sohae Satellite launching ground. The lawmaker added that no major movements had been seen at Yongbyon, the North’s main nuclear complex. North Korea has stopped nuclear and missile tests in the past year, but it did not allow international inspections of its dismantling of Punggye-ri in May, drawing criticism that the action was merely for show and could be reversed. In September, Kim Jong Un also pledged at a summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in to close Sohae and allow experts to observe the dismantling of the missile engine-testing site and a launch pad. At the time, Moon said North Korea agreed to let international inspectors observe a “permanent dismantlement” of key missile facilities, and take further steps, such as closing Yongbyon, in return for reciprocal moves by the United States.

Washington has demanded steps such as a full disclosure of the North’s nuclear and missile facilities, before agreeing to Pyongyang’s key goals. American officials have been skeptical of Kim’s commitment to giving up nuclear weapons, but the North’s pledge at the summit with the South drew an enthusiastic response from President Donald Trump, who met Kim in an unprecedented summit in June and has been keen on a second meeting. During an inspection of a large construction project at a tourism resort in Wonsan, Kim told workers that such economic projects are a new “decisive battle” for supporting the ruling party and pushing back against international sanctions over the nuclear program, North Korean state media reported on Thursday. “The hostile forces are foolishly keen on vicious sanctions to stand in our way toward promotion of people’s wellbeing and development and to lead us to change and submission, but they will be made to clearly see over time how our country that has built its strength hundreds of times defying hardship build its own country as a powerful nation by its own strength, technology and efforts,” he said on Korean Central News Agency.

Pompeo told Laura Ingraham Washington hoped the second summit would take place early next year “where we can make a substantial breakthrough in taking down the nuclear threat from North Korea.” “There’s a lot of work which remains, and Chairman Kim has made clear to me - just as plain as I’m speaking to you, Laura - that he has the intention to denuclearize and we’ll do everything we can to assist him in following through on that commitment.” Pompeo did not name his counterpart, but Kim Yong Chol, a close aide to Kim Jong Un, has led past negotiating sessions with him. The State Department declined to provide details, but the meeting is expected to take place in New York.

Also in Washington, South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo said the United States and South Korea would make a decision by December on major joint military exercises for 2019. Earlier this month, the two countries suspended Vigilant Ace, one of several exercises that have been halted to encourage dialogue. “We are not right now concerned with a loss of combat capability,” U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters after the meeting with his South Korean counterpart. “Clearly as we go forward, we’ll have to make adaptations to ensure we don’t lose that capability. But right now, again this is not a total suspension of all collaboration and military exercises,” Mattis added.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-sexcrimes/sex-abuse-by-officials-endemic-in-north-korea-rights-group-idUSKCN1N63DJ

>>3682463

Yes I do remember that..