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uawchild's JournalScotland's Sturgeon preparing for independence to keep post-Brexit options open
Source: Reuters
Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon said on Monday she would start preparatory work on splitting Scotland from the rest of Britain in order to keep the option of independence available following the June 23 vote to leave the European Union.
Although Britain voted to end its EU membership at the referendum, Scottish voters overwhelmingly backed remaining inside the bloc, reigniting the debate over Scotland's future as a constituent nation of the United Kingdom.
Sturgeon renewed her position that a fresh independence bid, only two years after the country voted against it, should remain an option, depending on the shape of Britain's future ties with the bloc and how well they worked for Scotland.
"If we find that our interests can't be protected in a UK context, independence must be one of those options that Scotland must have the right to consider," Sturgeon said in a speech.
"That's why we'll take the preparatory steps to ensure that it's an option open to the Scottish parliament if the Scottish parliament considers it necessary."
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-scotland-idUSKCN105191
Diplomatic win for China as ASEAN drops reference to maritime court ruling
Source: Reuters
China scored a diplomatic victory on Monday as Southeast Asian nations dropped a U.S.-backed proposal to mention a landmark international court ruling against Beijing's territorial claims in the South China Sea in a joint statement.
A weekend deadlock between Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers was broken only when the Philippines withdrew its request to mention the ruling in the face of resolute objections from Cambodia, China's closest ASEAN ally.
China publicly thanked Phnom Penh for the support, which threw the regional bloc's meeting in the Laos capital of Vientiane into disarray.
The United States had earlier on Monday urged ASEAN to make a reference to the July 12 ruling by the U.N.-backed Permanent Court of Arbitration, in which U.S. ally Manila won an emphatic legal victory over China on the dispute.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-southchinasea-ruling-asean-idUSKCN1050F6
Growth in white poverty fuels Trump’s run: Largely ignoring the trend has consequences
The GOP overlooked the poverty that's spread to white suburbs — those neglected Americans turned to Trump
by ROBERT HENNELLY
here was Donald Trump standing on the platform center stage at the Quicken Loans Arena basking in the moment the highest paid minds in media and politics told us over and over he would never have. What accounts for his improbable rise and what does it say about where our nation is really headed?
Just how did our corporate news media miss the amassing of the millions of mostly angry white voters with their pitchforks and torches that helped Trump stage a hostile takeover of the GOP?
Could it be that the elites of both parties, and their media stenographers, ignored the plight of poor whites for so long that they missed the explosion in their numbers, even as they marched on the town square?
Certainly, people of such poor education and such low social circumstance could not impact the politics of a nation so wordily and wealthy as America. Perhaps, the oversight is understandable. After all, with no disposable income worth targeting, there was no reason to run any detailed analytics on poor whites, unless you were selling beer, guns and bibles.
The reality is that under the current Democratic occupant of the White House, and a Republican-controlled Congress, poverty has exploded and expanded from its traditional urban and rural concentrations into America’s white suburbs. This precipitous deterioration happened as beltway leaders of both parties put their partisan gamesmanship and personal enrichment ahead of attending to the increasing ranks of the nation’s poor and struggling working class of all colors.
In the early 1970s the country had well under 25 million poor people and by 2014, the more recent available data, it was approaching close to 48 million people. But the spike in the real numbers is only part of the story which could help to catapult Trump right into the White House.
According to the Brookings Institute’s “The Growth and Spread of Concentrated Poverty” between 2008 and 2012 our urban poor population grew overall by 21 percent “while in suburbs it more than doubled, growing by 105 percent.” Almost every major metropolitan area in the country saw the number of suburban families living in high poverty and distressed neighborhoods go up.
http://www.salon.com/2016/07/25/growth_in_white_poverty_fuels_trumps_run_largely_ignoring_the_trend_has_consequences/
Civilian casualties increase as Afghan troops battle Taliban: U.N.
Source: Reuters
Civilians are being killed and wounded in record numbers in Afghanistan, the United Nations reported on Monday, just days after one of the deadliest attacks ever in Kabul.
Overall at least 1,601 civilians were killed and 3,565 wounded in the war in the first six months of 2016, the United Nations reported, as insurgent groups like the Taliban try to topple the government installed in Kabul after the 2001 U.S.-led military intervention.
Anti-government groups, the largest of which is the Taliban, accounted for at least 60 percent of non-combatants killed and wounded.
Twin blasts on Saturday were claimed by Islamic State militants and killed at least 80 people and injured more than 230, most of them civilians.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-afghanistan-casualties-idUSKCN1050EN
Nation building proceeding apace?
Suicide bombing north of Baghdad kills 16, Islamic State claims attack
Source: Reutrs
A suicide car bombing claimed by Islamic State killed 16 people including a group of women and children packed into a minibus outside an Iraqi town on Monday morning, police and hospital sources said.
A police officer at the scene said most of the victims died inside their vehicles while waiting at a checkpoint to enter Khalis, about 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad.
"We still have charred bodies inside many vehicles including a minibus packed with women and children," the police captain said, requesting anonymity.
Amaq, a news agency that supports Islamic State, said the attack had targeted Iraqi troops in Khalis, which is located in the eastern province of Diyala, a mixed Sunni-Shi'ite Muslim area bordering Iran.
Iraq declared victory over the Sunni insurgents in Diyala more than a year ago, but the militants remain active despite holding no significant territory there. Islamic State has stepped up attacks across the country even as it incurs battlefield setbacks in the country's north and west.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-idUSKCN1050IG
G20's deference for China's economic policies irks Japan
Source: Reuters
China dodged criticism of its economic management at a G20 meeting it hosted on the weekend, even winning plaudits for yuan transparency, much to the frustration of Japanese officials who are calling for more reforms from Beijing.
It was a marked contrast to a February G20 gathering of finance heads in Shanghai, when Chinese policymakers were on the defensive about the risk of another devaluation of the yuan.
While the world's second-largest economy has slowed and the yuan has fallen to 5-1/2 year lows against the dollar over the past five months, G20 finance ministers and central bank chiefs appeared more concerned about the fallout from Britain's June vote to leave Europe.
"We have been very polite with China," said a European official at the meeting in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu, adding Tokyo failed to keep its concerns about China's economic performance - a major risk for Japan - on the table.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-g20-china-diplomacy-idUSKCN1051DQ
"China's growth problems and exchange rate decline have not been much of an issue here. Japan with its concerns has been left a bit alone, no one wanted to join in," the official said.
Japan has already failed this year to win support from its industrialized peers to curtail a strengthening yen, which has soared to 2-1/2 year highs against the dollar even as the economy faltered and exports fell.
"Japan remains concerned about China's economy and we will call on the U.S. and Europe not to shift attention away from China," a Japanese official said, but added that Tokyo had decided to "be quiet" on currency during the meeting.
U.S. praises confidence-building measures with Chinese military
Source: Reuters
The U.S. and Chinese militaries have reduced the risk of encounters between them having "unintended consequences", a top U.S. official said on Monday, while China reiterated it would not accept interference in the South China Sea.
There have been a series of incidents in recent years, most in the disputed South China Sea, where the United States has accused Chinese military ships and aircraft of coming dangerously close to U.S. forces.
Visiting U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice said confidence-building measures had reduced risks and the United States valued progress in improving military-to-military ties.
"Our military leaders communicate more frequently and more directly than ever before in the past," Rice said in a meeting with a vice chairman of China's powerful Central Military Commission, Fan Changlong.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-usa-rice-idUSKCN10514Y
Turkey detains 42 journalists in crackdown as Europe sounds alarm
Source: Reuters
Turkey ordered the detention of 42 journalists on Monday, broadcaster NTV reported, under a crackdown following a failed coup that has targeted more than 60,000 people, drawing fire from the European Union.
The arrests or suspensions of soldiers, police, judges and civil servants in response to the July 15-16 putsch have raised concerns among rights groups and Western countries, who fear President Tayyip Erdogan is capitalizing on it to tighten his grip on power.
EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker questioned Ankara's long-standing aspiration to join the EU.
"I believe that Turkey, in its current state, is not in a position to become a member any time soon and not even over a longer period," Juncker said on French television France 2.
Juncker also said that if Turkey reintroduces the death penalty - something the government has said it must consider, responding to calls from supporters at public rallies for the coup leaders to be executed - it would stop the EU accession process immediately.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-security-idUSKCN1051B0
Senior Turkish military officers held after failed coup 'raped with a truncheon' by police officers
Source: International Business Times - UK
Amnesty International says it has gathered credible evidence of detainees in Turkey who are subjected to beatings, torture and rape since the attempted coup earlier this month. The rights group interviewed over 10 lawyers in Ankara and Istanbul about the treatment of their clients who included judges, prosecutors, police, military and civil servants.
"It is absolutely imperative that the Turkish authorities halt these abhorrent practices and allow international monitors to visit all these detainees in the places they are being held," said Amnesty's Europe director John Dalhuisen in a statement.
Two lawyers working in Ankara on behalf of detainees told Amnesty International that they saw senior military officers in detention being raped with a truncheon or fingers by police officers. The worst treatment in detention seems to be reserved for high-ranking military officers.
A person on duty at the Ankara police headquarters sports hall saw one detainee with severe wounds denied medical treatment. The police doctor on duty was heard saying: "Let him die. We will say he came to us dead."
Read more: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/senior-turkish-military-officers-held-after-failed-coup-raped-truncheon-by-police-officers-1572247
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