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Secretary of State John Kerry, in one of his final public appearances before stepping down, jokingly suggested Tuesday that the Trump administration may only last a year or two. Some of his audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos — which this year has many attendees absorbed with the looming inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump — appeared to enjoy the comment, laughing and clapping. Referring to the prospect that the Trump administration may walk away from the Iran nuclear deal, Kerry said that doing so would harm American credibility, “and it will hurt for the endurance of a year,...

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UN Ambassador-designate Nikki Haley's confirmation testimony will seriously question the US financial commitment to the world body, according to CNN as reported in The Hill. Gov. Nikki Haley (R-S.C.) will suggest that the U.S. reconsider its 22 percent contribution to the U.N.’s annual budget, CNN reported. “Are we getting what we pay for?” Haley is expected to ask, according to a copy of her opening statement obtained by the network. Haley will highlight U.N. successes including food and health programs during her testimony, CNN said, as well as its weapons monitoring and some of its peacekeeping operations. The South Carolina...

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden [...] described Russia [...] as the biggest threat to the international [u]liberal[/u] order and said Washington must work with Europe to stand up to Vladimir Putin. [...] Biden called Article 5 of the NATO treaty, which states that an attack on one member of the transatlantic military alliance is considered an attack on all, a "sacred obligation". [...] "Defending the liberal international order requires that we resist the forces of European disintegration and maintain our longstanding insistence on a Europe, whole, free and peaceful," said Biden. "It means fighting for the European Union, one of...

Much thanks to Jean-Patrick for reporting on this monumental but ignored court ruling. Also see San Remo mandate: Israel’s Magna Carta (and here). Israel is the legal occupant of the West Bank, says the Court of Appeal of Versailles, France Publie par Jean-Patrick Grumberg, Le 12 Janvier 2017 In a historical trial carefully « forgotten » by the media, the 3rd Chamber of the Court of Appeal of Versailles declares that Israel is the legal occupier of the West Bank*. When I first learned that the Court of Appeal of Versailles ruled that West bank settlements and occupation of Judea Samaria by...

As this administration draws to a close, Audrey Edwards is packing as fast as the Obamas. [Snip] "If somebody as crazy as this guy gets in, I'm out of here."

In a bizarre spectacle that took many low-level establishment-minded analysts by surprise, brutal Communist Chinese dictator Xi Jinping was crowned the king of globalism this week by embattled Western globalists at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos. Blasting “excessive pursuit of profits,” Xi (shown) offered a “vigorous defense” of globalism and pseudo-“free trade” schemes in his keynote speech at the event. He also suggested that his brutal regime was ready to step in to a leadership role in the emerging new world order as the United States changes direction. However, as the globalist alliance with savage communist tyranny comes...

Vice President Joe Biden delivered an epic final speech Wednesday to the elites at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The gist of his speech was simple: At a time of "uncertainty" we must double down on the values that made Western democracies great, and not allow the "liberal world order" to be torn apart by destructive forces. Biden went after Russian President Vladimir Putin by name, saying he is using "every tool" in his power to whittle away the European project, and undermine Western democracies. Biden accused Putin of wanting to "roll back decades of progress." Biden said...

FULL TITLE: WATCH IT LIVE: TODAY'S UN SECURITY COUNCIL MEETING, "OPEN DEBATE, MIDDLE EAST" ...FEATURING ISRAELI AMBASSADOR DANNY DANON The United Nation's Security Council is meeting today in New York. The declared subject is, "Open Debate - Middle East." According to the Council's president, Olof Skoog, he hopes the meeting will "trigger action towards a two-state solution" between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Will it? Live-streamed here, see for yourself.

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — The reputation of Germany’s vaunted Leopard 2 tank, which forms the mainstay of NATO’s armored forces, has taken a pounding in battles with Islamic State militants in Syria. At least 10 of the 60-ton main battle tanks have been destroyed during a Turkish attempt to recapture the strategically important northern town of al-Bab, located just 15 miles south of the Turkish border, media reports have said. The Turks have deployed several thousand soldiers in the operation, which began in September. But despite airstrikes by Russian warplanes in support of the advancing troops, they have been unable to...

As the liberation of Mosul from the "Islamic State" group gathers pace, Iraq's second city has been coming back to life with remarkable speed. DW's Florian Neuhof reports from neighborhoods of freshly shaven men. On a street just off the main road leading to the last neighborhoods in eastern Mosul still under "Islamic State" (IS) control, people throng around produce-laden handcarts. Mortar rounds come crashing into the area with alarming frequency, exploding with a sharp, dry bang. The insurgents have made a habit of bombarding areas no longer under their control and consider anyone who failed to retreat with them...

When North Korean students joined the 1956 Hungarian Revolution Benjamin R. Young January 5th, 2017 A recently published book – “From North Korea to Budapest: North Korean Students in the Hungarian Revolution in 1956″ – looks at the role of North Korean students in the 1956 anti-Soviet revolution in Hungary. Using Hungarian archival sources and oral history interviews, Professor Mózes Csoma of Eötvös Loránd University investigated the assistance given by North Korean students to their Hungarian classmates who went out on the streets to fight against Soviet troops. These North Korean students, many of whom had military experience from the...

Dr. Udo Ulfkotte: World Class Journalist Spills the Beans, Admits Mainstream Media is Completely Fake - Former Newspaper Editor Who Exposed CIA Found Dead - Moving Closer to War With Russia - Bought Journalists - Anglo-American "Media" Directives: Develop Pretext For War With Russia - Generating Propaganda Against Russia Source: Global Research Journalist and German political scientist Dr. Udo Ulfkotte has passed. Ulkotte reveals how fake news permeates the mainstream media. His unbending commitment to truth in media as well as his legacy will be remembered. (Michel Chossudovsky, January 15, 2017)

German opposition leader Sahra Wagenknecht on Tuesday added her voice to calls to dissolve the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the wake of US President-elect Donald Trump’s controversial remarks concerning the military alliance. “NATO must be dissolved and replaced by a collective security system including Russia,” Wagenknecht told Germany’s “Funke” media group. Wagenknecht, who leads the opposition Left Party in parliament, added that comments made by the future US president “mercilessly reveal the mistakes and failures of the [German] federal government.” …

China’s President Xi Jinping warned on Tuesday against scapegoating globalization for the world’s ills or retreating behind protectionist walls, staking out an alternative vision for the international economy days before Donald Trump takes office. The global economic order has been led for decades by the United States, but the president-elect is threatening to tear up the rule book, and Xi used his debut appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos to insist that globalization was irreversible. “Pursuing protectionism is like locking oneself in a dark room. Wind and rain may be kept outside, but so is light and air,”...

THE BBC is facing fresh accusations of bias after a Panorama documentary labelled Donald Trump the "Kremlin Candidate".

S. Korea to remain firm against China's non-tariff barriers 2017/01/17 SEJONG, Jan. 17 (Yonhap) -- South Korea said Tuesday that it will take a firm stance against China's recent hostile movements against its businesses in apparent retaliation for welcoming a U.S.-owned missile system. "We will continue to object to the Chinese measures," Vice Trade Minister Woo Tae-hee said at a task force meeting to discuss pending trade issues between South Korea and China. His comments came as Beijing is heightening non-tariff barriers against South Korea as the Seoul government decided to deploy the U.S.-led missile system called Terminal High Altitude...

Paris peace summit, UN anti-settlements resolution and Trump entering the White House said to be behind agreement. 'A unity government is of strategic importance,' Palestinian official says. Hamas and Fatah have agreed to establish a Palestinian unity government, the two factions said in a statement from Moscow, where they were holding unity talks since Sunday. According to the deal reached in Moscow, the Palestinian factions - including the Islamic Jihad - will join the PLO institutions and form a new Palestinian National Council. The new council will select the PLO Executive Committee, the top political and diplomatic Palestinian body.

The White House said Tuesday that the Guantánamo Bay detention center in Cuba will still be open when President Barack Obama leaves office, conceding that a core campaign promise will go unfulfilled. Administration officials had long insisted that the president was continuing to work toward closing the facility even when it became obvious that it would no longer be possible for practical reasons before President-elect Donald Trump takes office Friday. White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters that the administration determined it wouldn’t happen when they realized they did not have enough time left to comply with the 30-day deadline...

The mayor of a tony Maryland suburb resigned from a prominent golf club on Monday because the club might not welcome President Obama as a member. Jeffrey Slavin, the mayor of the Montgomery County town of Somerset, wrote in an email that he would not remain a member of Woodmont Country Club because of a recent fevered debate about whether Obama could join. Some members of the historically Jewish club have said they would not welcome Obama, who has played there four times during his presidency, because of his recent decision not to veto a U.N. Security Council resolution criticizing...