Russian, Turkish military specialists among hundreds killed & injured in Syria's Idlib terrorist attacks – Moscow

Terrorists took over the Idlib de-escalation zone and carried out thousands of attacks in the last two months, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement, adding that the West is portraying them as "moderate opposition."

Idlib governorate, the last stronghold of anti-government forces in Syria, saw a surge of violence by radical jihadists who have no desire for a peaceful resolution to the almost nine-year-long conflict, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday. Most of the attacks are carried out by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the latest iteration of al-Qaeda in Syria.

The area was proclaimed a de-escalation zone under the Russia-Turkey agreements. In mid-January, Russian and Turkish forces tried to impose a ‘regime of silence’ there, but the attacks only escalated.

In December 2019 there were over 1,400 terrorist attacks staged from Idlib, with some operations seeing the use of armor and even tanks. The scale of violence remains high, with over 1,000 attacks recorded in the last two weeks of January. Hundreds of Syrian civilians and government troops have been killed, as well as “Russian and Turkish military specialists.”

“The relocation of some armed groups out of the de-escalation zone to northeastern Syria and later to Libya has boosted the concentration of radical extremists over the boiling point,” the ministry said.

This situation was recently discussed during an interview with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. He explained that Turkey needed to separate the armed opposition it is working with from the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham terrorists, saying that it has failed to do so.

https://www.rt.com/news/480218-russia-idlib-violence-terrorists/

Turkey, Israel, US DS, EU all supporting terrorists

Cocky Director Wray Delivers Lackluster Response to Congress After FBI Caught Spying on Trump, Ruining Lives of Trump Officials

FBI Director Chris Wray testified before Congress on Wednesday in his first public testimony on Capitol Hill since the release of the Justice Department’s inspector general report in December.

The cocky FBI Director delivered a nonchalant and unconcerned response to the accusations in the IG Report that confirmed the FBI was spying on the Trump Campaign, his transition team and the Trump administration based on made-up lies of Trump colluding with Russia. The FBI knew this was not true before they pushed a warrant to spy on Trump in 2016 and later in 2017 after his inauguration!

No one has been criminally punished for this attempted coup — the greatest political scandal in US history!

Chris Wray does not seem to care.

During the House Judiciary Committee hearing Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) grilled the FBI Director on the lack of public trust in the institution.

McClintock asked Wray about the treatment of General Michael Flynn and why in the world would ANYONE sit and talk with an FBI agent today.

Wray’s response was aloof and less than adequate.

This guy is the wrong man to bring trust back to the FBI.

General Flynn is still being harassed by the Deep State.

The DOJ needs to clean house and soon!

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/02/cocky-director-wray-delivers-lackluster-response-to-congress-after-fbi-caught-spying-on-trump-ruining-lives-of-trump-officials-video/

"We'd Rather Die At Home" - Chinese Citizens Rebel Against Mandatory Quarantine As Lockdown Expands

Update (1100ET): Is this the WHO's "Mission Accomplished?"

During a press conference in Switzerland Thursday evening, Dr. Tedros, the WHO's director-general, thanked the Gates Foundation (which committed $100 million) and Japan (which contributed $10 million) for answering the organization's call for more funding to help suppress the coronavirus outbreak that has now claimed more than 560 lives, mostly in China. He also claimed that the number of new and suspected cases is finally starting to slow, a sign that the outbreak could be subsiding, and that the China-led response has been a success.

Though researchers have already mapped the virus's DNA and are already working on a remedy, there is still a lot we don't know about the virus, Dr. Tedros said. We don't know where it came from (though there are theories) and we don't 100% understand how it spreads. There are also many tools we don't have, like a vaccine, that will hopefully soon be developed. In effect, "we're shadow-boxing with the virus," Dr. Tedros said. "We need to bring it into the light."

The organization continued to sidestep questions about China's censorship and its initial reluctance to share information about the outbreak with the international community.

Responding to a reporter's question, the WHO rep confirmed that the doctor who was one of the first to detect the virus before being ignored and eventually sickened has now died.

Dr. Li Wenliang, the Chinese whistleblower doctor who warned the public of a potential "SARS-like" disease in December 2019, succumbed to the virus in Wuhan on Thursday, the WHO said.

• • *

Thousands of athletes around the world breathed a sigh of relief on Thursday when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe confirmed that the Summer Olympics in Tokyo won't be delayed. Then again, if the outbreak continues to worsen in Japan and the broader region, who is going to want to come if they don't feel safe?

As the second week of global pandemic panic comes to a close, China, increasingly frustrated that their ruse with the WHO didn't manage to calm the international community, again registered its "strong objections" to the growing number of travel bans directed at its citizens.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/wed-rather-die-home-chinese-citizens-rebel-against-mandatory-quarantine-lockdonw

‘Taboo gone’: Ruling coalition in Germany shaken by fresh crisis after Merkel’s CDU breaks ranks on not cooperating with AfD

Germany’s Christian Democrats – the ruling party of Angela Merkel – have found themselves in a fresh crisis after members in the state of Thuringia defied ‘recommendations’ to avoid working with the anti-establishment AfD party.

The political mayhem stems from the election in eastern Germany's Thuringia region last October, when the Alternative for Germany party (AfD) more than doubled its support and came in second after the ruling Left Party. Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), on the other hand, was left red-faced, losing 13 seats in regional parliament and finishing third.

After months of arguments, the Left, Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens agreed to form a minority government, expecting to easily re-elect the Left's incumbent Bodo Ramelow as Thuringia's minister president. Their plans were unexpectedly halted on Wednesday when the AfD sided with the CDU and pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP) to narrowly outvote Ramelow's candidacy and elect FDP's Thomas Kemmerich instead.

The move instantaneously sent shockwaves across Germany, creating a rift between Thuringia's CDU branch and its leadership in Berlin. CDU's chief and Federal Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer accused her colleagues of breaking rank by violating the party's usual policy of avoiding any cooperation with the anti-establishment and anti-migrant AfD.

https://www.rt.com/news/480224-germany-thuringia-vote-crisis/

Original China Virus Whistleblower Doctor Dies

The Chinese doctor who tried to raise the alarm about the new coronavirus before it was even identified has died of the deadly virus.

Dr. Li, 34, was hospitalized on January 12 after contracted the virus from his patient, and he was confirmed to have the coronavirus on February 1, and The World Health organization has just confirmed his passing…

As a reminder, Li Wenliang - who warned the public of a potential "SARS-like" disease in December 2019 - was questioned by local health authority, and warned:

"We solemnly warn you: If you keep being stubborn, with such impertinence, and continue this illegal activity, you will be brought to justice - is that understood?"

Dr, Li was later summoned by Wuhan police to sign a reprimand letter in which he was accused of "spreading rumors online" and "severely disrupting social order."

In the meantime, local authorities had apologized to him but that apology came too late, and now with 10s of millions of Chinese locked down under martial law, Wenliang was proven very much right.

https://www.zerohedge.com/health/original-china-virus-whistleblower-doctor-dies

Out of control? Too many convicted terrorists to track, warns senior British police officer

British police are overwhelmed with suspected and convicted terrorists to track, as they simply cannot keep an eye on every single extremist, says Neil Basu, senior national coordinator for counter-terrorism.

In an article for the Evening Standard on Wednesday, Basu revealed that he was “supportive” of UK government plans to introduce emergency laws on February 27 that will prevent existing convicted terrorists from being automatically released from jail after serving just a third of their sentence.

Basu, who was speaking out after 20-year-old Sudesh Amman stabbed two people in Streatham, London before being shot dead by police officers, admitted that police were struggling to keep on top of surveillance of dangerous individuals.

With 3,000 or so subjects of interest currently on our radar and many convicted terrorists soon due to be released from prison, we simply cannot watch all of them all the time.

The counter-terrorism chief also said the sheer scale of the challenge to keep the streets of Britain safe from further attacks required the help of the public.

Amman was jailed in 2018 for “Islamist-related terrorism offences,” involving the sharing of terrorist manuals, including a tutorial on homemade bombs. He was under active police surveillance and was living at a bail hostel in South London.

Terrorist group Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack, naming Amman as one of their fighters. A statement released by the jihadist group through its media outlet Amaq, said the man answered its call to attack civilians in nations opposing IS.

https://www.rt.com/uk/480146-convicted-terrorists-too-many/

A State Of Denial

Once again investors are made to believe that nothing matters. Only 2 trading days after Friday’s sell off $NDX made new all time history highs. Only 3 days after Friday’s sell-off $SPX made a new all time closing high. Only 4 days after Friday’s sell off $DJIA, $SPX and $NDX make new all time human history highs in premarket. Fours day, four up gaps, all unfilled at the time of this writing. The market of the overnight gap ups.

Why? Because the economic impact of the coronavirus is over or contained? Of course not, it’s far from any of that. Shutdowns persist, warnings of individual companies are mounting i.e. $TSLA, tumbling a day after the technical warning issued, global economic growth estimates are coming down and with them invariably take downs in earnings estimates.

What do markets do? Make new all time highs, back on the multiple expansion game from 2019 when no slowdown in earnings mattered as the liquidity injections from our central bank overlords overrode everything.

This week the PBOC injected liquidity, the Fed kept flushing repo liquidity into the system, and of course a continued buying of treasure bills.

And so markets continue on their path of never pricing in any bad news and continue to disconnect farther and farther from the underlying size of the global economy no matter the ongoing data:

German factory orders:

But there are no bubbles central bankers tell us. Don’t insult our intelligence I say. Especially since they perfectly well know that policies and words are closely followed by markets and are market impacting:

Don’t blame our negative interest rate policies for housing price increases or bank profitability issues.

And besides there is no housing bubble when ordinary people struggle keeping up with ever rising house prices:

We don’t believe you.

And central banks in denial about the distortions they have created and continue to create is not a recipe for long term success.

Fact is they remain trapped and beholden to a market whose entire valuation scheme and price discovery mechanism remains entirely dependent on ongoing central bank intervention.

It’s a historic absurdity we are witness to and an ultimate tragedy unfolding before our eyes.

Central banks are in denial about the existence of the financial bubbles and distortions they themselves have created.

For to admit them would be to take responsibility and acknowledge that asset prices are sky high overvalued which in itself could lead to a risk off event as the admission of bubbles would lead to a loss in confidence, confidence which must always be maintained.

Central banks are residing in glass tower la la land. There is no trust, no transparency, no accountability. Only denial.

And so we see a market running on nothing but optimism despite continued disappointment about the reality on the ground:

Overnight futures ramped on the news that China proactively cut tariffs. You think that’s a sign of China thinking the economic impact of the virus is contained and happy days a here again?

I wonder:

https://northmantrader.com/2020/02/06/state-of-denial/

Mueller Notes: Rod Rosenstein Asked McCabe Whether Opening Trump Probe Would Be Seen As ‘Revenge’

Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe discussed whether opening an investigation of President Donald Trump days after he fired James Comey would be perceived as an act of revenge for getting rid of the FBI director, according to interview notes from the special counsel’s investigation released this week.

McCabe told FBI agents during an interview on Sept. 26, 2017 that he met with Rosenstein multiple times in the days after Comey’s firing on May 9, 2017 to discuss plans to appoint a replacement, as well as how to handle the ongoing Russia investigation.

McCabe told the FBI that in a May 16, 2017 meeting with Rosenstein he brought up the possibility of opening an investigation of Trump for obstruction of justice and possible collusion with Russia, according to the notes, which BuzzFeed News and CNN first obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit and published Monday.

“Rosenstein immediately started to question McCabe about his basis for opening the cases, his legal theory, and similar questions,” the notes say. “They also discussed whether the investigations would be perceived as revenge.”

https://dailycaller.com/2020/02/06/mueller-notes-rosenstein-mccabe-revenge/

>>8050018

WTF is this shit??????????

Hungary First European Country to Join U.S.-Led Religious Freedom Alliance

Hungary become the first European Union member state to join the new International Religious Freedom Alliance launched by U.S. President Donald Trump, announced Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó on Wednesday.

“We are proud that Hungary became the first European country to join the new international alliance set up by the United States,” he said. The organization — a “network of like-minded countries fully committed to advancing freedom of religion or belief around the world” — held its inaugural meeting Wednesday in Washington, DC.

While left-wing economist Jeffrey Sachs was berating the Trump administration for its “unilateralism” in the Vatican at the same time, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was chairing the Washington inaugural event with representatives of the 26 countries that have joined the new international alliance.

Hungary shares the conviction of the new alliance that “more must be done to protect members of religious minority groups and combat discrimination and persecution based on religion” and does not accept that international organizations “turn a blind eye” to the persecution of Christian communities around the world, Szijjártó said.

“Hungary has been a Christian state since its foundation more than a thousand years ago and as such carries a responsibility for persecuted Christian communities around the world,” Szijjártó said, while noting that Hungary has provided 50 million dollars of aid to communities in Africa and the Middle East.

Last fall, Hungary hosted its second international conference on aid to persecuted Christians, emphasizing the need to assist the faithful where they are rather than encouraging them to abandon their homelands.

At that conference, Szijjártó noted that “Christianophobia is the last acceptable form of discrimination in the world.”

“When I go to my monthly meeting of the foreign ministers of the European Union,” Szijjártó said, they tell me not to mention “Christian communities” because it is “discriminatory.”

“On the other hand, the EU presses for its ‘Global Compact for Migration’ as if mass migration were a good to be encouraged,” Szijjártó said.

“But what about the right to national identity, to national security, to culture — fundamental rights never addressed by the Compact,” Szijjártó concluded, eliciting a spontaneous round of applause.

Last year, Szijjártó told Breitbart News that Hungary disagrees with the European Union policy of getting rid of national identity and Christian culture.

“Our position is no, the European Union can only be strong, and Europe as such can only be strong again, if the member-states are themselves strong, and in order to be strong you need to stick to heritage and you need to be proud of your roots,” he said.

Along with the United States, 26 nations have joined the international alliance: Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Gambia, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Senegal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Togo, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.

https://www.breitbart.com/faith/2020/02/06/hungary-first-european-country-to-join-religious-freedom-alliance/

Bye Bye Leo? Ireland’s Left-Wing PM Faces Defeat in Upcoming Election

Ireland’s Europhile prime minister is facing defeat as his party trails in the polls ahead of the election on Saturday.

Leo Varadkar, Ireland’s left-wing 41-year-old prime minister (Taoiseach), and leader of the Fine Gael party, has seen his party’s lead in the polls dwindle over the past weeks, falling to third place behind the centre-right Fianna Fáil party and the IRA-linked Sinn Féin party.

Currently, Vandakar’s party has 21 per cent support in the polls compared to that of Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin which are tied with 24 per cent support, according to The Irish Times.

Mr Varadkar, who has been described as a “low-rent Justin Trudeau” by Breitbart News’s James Delingpole, has overseen a massive bungling of the construction of the National Children’s Hospital, which has faced three years of delays and is now expected to cost the Irish taxpayer 2.4 billion euros, six times more than the original estimate.

Healthcare has become a major issue in the Irish Republic’s upcoming election, with over 553,000 people waiting for outpatient appointments in December, up more than 37,000 over the previous year, reports the BBC.

The prime minister said that despite the latest polls, he believes his party will “emerge as the largest party” after the election; however, he told The Journal, that should his party lose he intends on remaining the head of Fine Gael and the leader of the opposition.

Mr Varadkar, who became Ireland’s youngest and first openly gay leader in 2017, has been a frequent critic of the pro-sovereignty Brexit movement in the United Kingdom, saying that Ireland is “on team EU”.

In January, the Irish Taoiseach said that the United Kingdom should “come to terms” with the idea that it is “now a small country” after leaving the European Union.

“The UK, it’s about 60 (million). So if these were two teams up against each other playing football, who do you think has the stronger team?” he said.

There has been conjecture within Ireland that should he lose, Varadkar could take up a position within the European Commission, rather than becoming the leader of the opposition, a claim which the prime minister denies.

“I have not ever been offered any of these wonderful jobs in Europe that people speculate about, I don’t think any of them are available until 2024 anyway,” he said.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/02/06/bye-bye-leo-irelands-left-wing-pm-faces-defeat-in-upcoming-election/

>>8050081

Notable

Anti-Brexit Scottish Govt Finance Boss Bombarded Schoolboy with Creepy Texts

The Scottish Government’s finance minister, Derek Mackay, has resigned just hours before he was due to deliver the Scottish budget, after he was exposed for sending a deluge of messages to a schoolboy he found online.

Mackay, Member of the Scottish Parliament — roughly equivalent to a state legislature in the United States — for Renfrewshire North & West and, until today, Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Economy, and Fair Work in Scottish National Party (SNP) leader Nicola Sturgeon’s devolved executive, bombarded the Glasgow schoolboy, 16, with messages on Instagram and Facebook after contacting him out of the blue.

Mackay persuaded the boy to give him his phone number and repeatedly fished for an invite to a rugby game, offered to pay to bring the boy to the Scottish Parliament for a Scottish Rugby Union event, and tried to get him out to deliver election leaflets with him.

The boy, who has a girlfriend and told Mackay, who left his wife and came out as homosexual in 2013, not to “try anything”, broke off contact with the SNP heavyweight after he wrote to him asking if “our chats are between us?” and said he was “really cute”.

“Just as long as you know , but you can delete that message lol” the anti-Brexit politician added.

The Scottish edition of The Sun acquired a full transcript of the exchanges and has posted them online.

“[Mackay] first contacted me on Instagram. I had a look to see who he was and I noticed he was quite high profile so I was interested to see what he wanted,” the schoolboy explained to newspaper.

“I asked him if he was a politician and he said he was. He then connected with me on Facebook and started messaging me on there.

“He was sending me ‘waves’ to try to get my attention but at first I just ignored him.

“He was quite persistent and then when he asked me if I liked Scottish rugby, I said yes.

“I was just being polite because I don’t like just ignoring people.

“There was nothing bad about it. It seemed like he wasn’t looking for anything and just wanted a chat.

“He was asking about the rules of rugby and I told him it would be easier to explain it at a game, but I didn’t mean anything by it.

“He asked me if it was an invite but it clearly wasn’t.

“He then asked me if I would like to go to a game and asked for my mobile number. I gave him it because he was a politician and high profile and I thought, ‘Would that be bad? I wouldn’t mind it’.”

The schoolboy later became more worried about the politician’s interest in him, however, inventing a serious of elaborate excuses to avoid meeting up with him.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/02/06/scottish-govt-finance-boss-bombarded-schoolboy-creepy-texts/

GRAPHIC: Gulf Cartel Dumps Fallen Members Outside Mexican Border City Funeral Home

Gunmen with Mexico’s Gulf Cartel dumped the bodies of four of their fallen after recent clashes with a rival organization not far from the Texas border.

The gruesome scene was discovered Wednesday afternoon in the border city of Miguel Aleman where the bodies of four men were left outside a funeral home. Each corpse exhibited gunshot wounds. Authorities responded to the scene and documented the evidence.

Though officials did not reveal any identifying information, the working theory shared by Mexican law enforcement is that the four were Gulf Cartel gunmen who died in clashes. In recent days, Gulf Cartel gunmen fought with rivals from the Cartel Del Noreste (CDN) faction of Los Zetas for lucrative drug and human smuggling territories along the Texas border.

In one of the clashes this week, five CDN gunmen died inside a torched armored truck. That shootout took place in Dr. Coss, Nuevo Leon, approximately 50 miles south of the Texas border. Local police did not respond, leaving the task to state and military forces who arrived after the fighting had ended.

https://www.breitbart.com/border/2020/02/06/graphic-gulf-cartel-dumps-fallen-members-outside-mexican-border-city-funeral-home/

‘No right to privacy from the opposite sex’: 13yo girl takes school trans inclusion rules to UK High Court

Some British schools are trying to be more accommodating to trans students at the expense of others, a 13-year-old has alleged in court documents. She says their guidelines go against girls’ desire for privacy, dignity and safety.

The new Trans Inclusion Toolkit released by Oxfordshire County Council last February instructs that students should have access to toilets, changing rooms, dorms and similar spaces, in accordance with the gender they identify as.

A 13-year-old girl has challenged the rules, saying the council never bothered to ask non-trans students like her how they felt about them. “Under these guidelines I have no right to privacy from the opposite sex in changing rooms, loos, or on residential trips,” she said in legal papers filed with the High Court in London on Thursday.

The pushback against the controversial drive for greater trans inclusivity in British schools comes with the backing of a group called Safe Schools Alliance. It is being brought to court by several parents and a teacher on behalf of the girl, who was not identified for legal reasons.

https://www.rt.com/uk/480222-trans-school-guidelines-court/

Every single UK venue has now dropped hate preacher Franklin Graham

Every single UK venue booked by anti-LGBT preacher Franklin Graham has now ditched his events, after an outcry from activists.

The Trump-supporting preacher, who is known for praising Vladimir Putin’s anti-gay laws and blaming gay people for a “moral 9/11”, is set to visit the UK at the start of Pride Month in June as part of an evangelist tour.

However, every single venue booked for the eight-date tour has now cancelled, after being made aware of his extreme anti-LGBT views.

Last UK venue drops Franklin Graham

The Utilita Arena in Newcastle was the final venue to announce it had axed the preacher, following the lead of venues in Birmingham, Newport, Glasgow, Milton Keynes, Sheffield and Liverpool. A London date, also planned, never secured a venue.

Newcastle’s Utilita Arena confirmed on Wednesday: “Following talks with our partners and relevant stakeholders we can confirm that the Franklin Graham event scheduled at the Utilita Arena Newcastle in June will not take place.”

Ste Dunn, chair of Northern Pride, told PinkNews: “Having led the call for this to be cancelled and coordinated the support of numerous groups throughout the city, we are obviously delighted by this decision.

“We would like to thank everyone who got behind the campaign and signed our petition, to make a stand and show that anti-LGBT+ speech is not welcome in Newcastle.”

Hate preacher plans to take legal action

Graham, who has previously declared that gay people are “the enemy” of civilisation, has vowed to go ahead with the tour.

A statement on the website said: “We are still finalising where the Graham Tour will be held, but we want to be clear that the initiative and all associated training courses will take place on the same dates as originally planned.”

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association has said it will pursue legal action over the decision to cancel the shows.

A spokesperson told right-wing Christian outlet CBN: “Since the original venues have broken our legal contract with them, we are pursuing appropriate actions based on grounds of religious discrimination and freedom of speech.

“The Gospel always faces opposition, so we will prayerfully and boldly continue to press forward so that the Good News of God’s love and forgiveness will be proclaimed in all of the cities we have planned to visit.”

Graham tweeted on Saturday: “I’m looking forward to preaching the Gospel across the UK in late May & June.

“Hundreds of churches are praying & planning to be a part of these evangelistic outreaches. People everywhere are searching for something to fill the void in their lives. Jesus Christ is the answer.”

http://www.madnesshub.com/2020/02/every-single-uk-venue-has-now-dropped.html

SNP engulfed by 'grooming' scandal: Nicola Sturgeon SUSPENDS her heir apparent who quit as finance minister after being caught preying on 'cute' boy, 16, by sending him 270 messages on Facebook and Instagram

Finance Secretary Derek Mackay messaged boy on Facebook and Instagram

Boy's mother called for Nicola Sturgeon to sack him amid calls for police probe

Father-of-two MSP left his wife Jennifer Mackay in 2013 after coming out as gay

He asked boy to dinner and said he was 'really cute' after he delivered leaflets

Teenager lied about brother having accident and blamed mum to avoid meeting

Today Mr Mackay quit post and apologised to the boy and SNP's supporters

But hours later his party leader told Holyrood he was suspended pending probe

Police say Mackay hasn't been accused of a crime - but will 'assess information'

The SNP is in crisis today after Nicola Sturgeon suspended her heir apparent from the party who quit as Finance Secretary in disgrace for bombarding a 16-year-old schoolboy with 'creepy' messages over six months.

Derek Mackay, 42, who was tipped to be the next First Minister of Scotland, contacted the boy out of the blue on Facebook and Instagram last summer, calling him 'really cute' before asking him to keep their exchanges secret.

But he resigned hours before presenting the SNP's Budget at Holyrood in Edinburgh today after the boy's mother published the 270 messages exchanged with her traumatised son and said she would go to the police.

Ms Sturgeon told the Scottish Parliament today his conduct 'falls seriously below the standard required of a minister' and revealed he had been suspended from both the party and the SNP parliamentary group at Holyrood 'pending further investigation'.

It is the second major blow to hit the SNP in the past year after former First Minister Alex Salmond resigned from the party 12 months ago to fight charges of sexually assaulting 10 women - and today's controversy involving another senior figure in Nicola Sturgeon's party could badly damage her demands for a second independence referendum after Brexit.

Salmond's trial, which starts on March 9, threatens to reveal more damaging information about the party and plunge Scottish Nationalists into more chaos.

Sturgeon is facing intense pressure from within her Remain-supporting party to secure the right to hold a second vote on breaking up the UK, as the latest poll shows 51 per cent of Scots would support leaving the union - the first time a majority has been recorded in favour since 2015.

But Boris Johnson is flatly refusing the demand raising the prospect of a potential legal battle between the SNP and the government.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7971903/Scottish-finance-secretary-Derek-Mackay-Minister-texted-16-year-old-boy.html

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