The Electronic Intifada – by Nora Barrows-Friedman

The New Orleans city council unanimously voted to rescind a resolution it passed just two weeks ago, following heavy pressure from pro-Israel Jewish communal organizations and right-wing lawmakers.

Dozens of civic and human rights groups, including Amnesty International, had urged city leaders to uphold the resolution that called on the city to start screening investments and contracts and to divest from corporations that profit from human rights abuses.   Continue reading “New Orleans repeals human rights resolution to shield Israel”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is expected, according to Fox News, to take a vote Monday afternoon on whether to release a classified memo that top congressional Republicans say details government surveillance abuses — and has emerged at the center of a power struggle in Washington.

Those who have seen the document suggest it reveals what role the unverified anti-Trump “dossier” played in the application for a surveillance warrant on at least one President Trump associate.   Continue reading “House Committee Expected To Vote ‘Yes’ To #ReleaseTheMemo This Afternoon, Report”

LIST OF RIFLE TARGETS

Quartz

The World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, begins on Jan. 23. While the full roster of attendees was closely guarded in the past, organizers now makes a list of participants public ahead of the forum. Released last week, we used that document to create the search tool.      Continue reading “The list of Davos attendees for 2018”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

On Monday morning we reported that a number of traders – currently or formerly employed by UBS, HSBC and Deutsche Bank (as usual, no JPMorgan US banks were touched) – would be perp-walked and charged in an unprecedented cross-agency crackdown between the CFTC, DOJ and FBI seeking to punish spoofers of futures. This was confirmed moments ago by a CFTC press release which announced criminal and civil enforcement actions against three banks and six individuals involved in commodities fraud and spoofing schemes.   Continue reading “These Are The 6 Traders Who Were Just Arrested For Manipulating The Gold Market”

The JC – by Lee Harpin

Former US President Barack Obama has said that he is “basically a liberal Jew.”

Mr Obama made the remark while speaking at a New York synagogue last week on his criticisms of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

He also said: “To be a true friend of Israel it is important to be honest about it, and the politics of this country sometimes do not allow for it.   Continue reading “Former US President Obama says he is ‘basically a liberal Jew.’”

KQED – by Sam Harnett

Wage stagnation. Rising housing prices. Loss of middle-class jobs. The looming threat of automation. These are some of the problems facing Stockton and its residents, but the city’s mayor, Michael Tubbs, says his city is far from unique.

“I think Stockton is absolutely ground zero for a lot of the issues we are facing as a nation,” Tubbs said.

Stockton is one of many Bay Area cities on the fringe of the wealth accumulating in Silicon Valley and San Francisco. The Central Valley city went bankrupt in 2012, and for decades it has been trying to diversify its agriculture-based economy.   Continue reading “Stockton Gets Ready to Experiment With Universal Basic Income”

WGN 9 News

WASHINGTON — FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe has told FBI staff he is stepping down effective Monday, sources tell CNN.

The news comes amid President Donald Trump’s criticism of McCabe and the FBI over its involvement in the investigation into potential collusion between his campaign and Russia during the 2016 election.   Continue reading “FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe stepping down, sources say”

The Syrian National Dialogue Congress has begun in Russia’s Sochi today. It is expected that about 1,600 representatives of various political and ethnic groups from Syria will be gathered. The major meetings are scheduled for January 30, 2018.

Despite the fact that the Syrian Negotiation Commission (SNC) announced it would boycott the Congress, many opposition groups have already arrived in Sochi. There are the representatives of the Movement for a Pluralistic Society, Syrian National Council, National Blog, and Syria’s Tomorrow Movement among them. Syrian Kurds also participate in the Sochi talks.   Continue reading “Syrian National Dialogue Congress in Sochi. Kurds Conduct Closed-Door Negotiations with Iran”

RT

Twitter, Facebook and Google had a hard time providing evidence of “Russian meddling” on social media, transcripts from the US Senate show. However, they did shockingly reveal that RT America had purchased ads aimed at Americans.

On Friday, the US Senate Intelligence Committee released answers provided by Twitter, Facebook and Google in response to questions concerning Russia’s alleged meddlesome use of social media in the devious pursuit of uprooting American democracy.  Continue reading “Buzz kill: Tech giants struggle to find ‘Russian meddling’ in written answers to US Senate”

RT

Mexico’s energy reform that ended a state monopoly has so far fared fairly well in the upstream sector, with oil majors snatching up offshore oil blocks in auctions.

In the downstream, however, aging refineries built before 1980 have been bleeding cash for years and made Mexico import increasing volumes of refined products to meet growing demand.   Continue reading “Mexico’s cartels are ditching drugs for oil”

RT

Although self-driving cars are becoming more of a reality each day, the majority of Americans are wary of the idea, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.

When asked whether they felt comfortable with the notion of “riding in an entirely self-driving car,” a whopping 67 percent of Americans said they were “not comfortable.” Only 27 percent said they were “comfortable” with the idea.   Continue reading “67% of Americans ‘not comfortable’ with self-driving cars – poll”

RT

A weak US dollar, a possible war between the US and North Korea or the impeachment of Donald Trump could result in one of the longest-ever rallies for gold, according to precious metals expert Jim Rickards.

“This is gold’s breakout year. We are in the third bull market of my lifetime – and we have a very long way to run,” Rickards said in an interview to Kitco News.  Continue reading “Gold price could smash $10,000 on crashing dollar & other factors – Jim Rickards”