Filibuster_HK 2018-9-4 20:13:32 Macron to reshuffle cabinet to breathe new life into reform drive

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-politics-reshuffle/macron-to-reshuffle-cabinet-to-breathe-new-life-into-reform-drive-idUSKCN1LK0UP

PARIS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron hopes to draw a line under a raft of troubles plaguing his 16-month-old presidency and to re-energize his economic reform drive with a cabinet reshuffle on Tuesday

Macron was forced into the move by the surprise exit of his former ecology minister, Nicolas Hulot, who said he despaired at what he felt were hollow commitments on environmental policy.

Resigning live on air last week, Hulot’s resignation was a setback for the 40-year-old French leader, who returned from the summer break reeling from a bodyguard scandal and preparing to embark on a new wave of economic reforms.

Benjamin Griveaux, government spokesman, said the cabinet would be complete in time for Wednesday morning’s weekly cabinet meeting but was tight-lipped on the scope of the rejig.

Hours before the expected announcement, Sports Minister Laura Flessel said she was resigning from the government for personal reasons.

Filibuster_HK 2018-9-4 20:13:59 Britain must press EU members to help get Brexit deal - May

https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-cabinet/britain-must-press-eu-members-to-help-get-brexit-deal-may-idUSKCN1LK1A5

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain must step up contact with members of the European Union to try to get a Brexit deal as talks to leave the bloc enter a “crucial and intense phase”, Prime Minister Theresa May agreed with her ministers on Tuesday.

Her spokesman told reporters that at a meeting of her cabinet of top ministers, her Brexit and foreign ministers said her plans to leave the bloc had received a “warm and positive” response during visits to EU capitals over the summer.

“The PM and ministers agreed on the importance of continued engagement with member states as the talks enter a crucial and intense phase,” the spokesman said.

Filibuster_HK 2018-9-4 20:15:33 Swedish center-left holds small lead ahead of Sept. 9 election

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sweden-election-poll/swedish-center-left-holds-small-lead-ahead-of-sept-9-election-idUSKCN1LK1CW

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden’s center-left bloc holds a small but stable lead over the center-right Alliance ahead of Sunday’s election, two opinion polls showed on Tuesday, but forming a government after the vote may be extremely difficult.

The Social Democrats with junior coalition partner the Greens - together with the Left Party - hold a lead of around 4 percent over the center-right opposition bloc, opinion polls by Kantar Sifo and Ipsos published by newspapers Svenska Dagbladet and Dagens Nyheter showed.

All the mainstream parties have promised to exclude the Sweden Democrats, a party with roots in the far-right fringe, polling 16-18 percent.

In turn, the Sweden Democrats have vowed to bring down any government that does not give them a say over immigration policy, leaving no clear successor to the current coalition.

Filibuster_HK 2018-9-4 20:18:12 GOP應該唔想呢一刻炒人，唔少人出聲屌

Filibuster_HK 2018-9-4 21:48:42 Live: Kavanaugh hearing

https://youtu.be/SDqHXRtXSA0

Filibuster_HK 2018-9-4 22:47:02 Cross-party leftist alliance launched in Germany

https://m.dw.com/en/cross-party-leftist-alliance-launched-in-germany/a-45344972

Sahra Wagenknecht, co-leader of the opposition Left party's group inside Germany's federal Bundestag parliamentary chamber, defied skeptics Tuesday in Berlin by launching Aufstehen (Stand Up), a cross-party leftist movement. 

She said the "alliance" had 101,000 adherents who had signed up to the project — billed by some media as resembling grassroots movements in Britain, France and the USA that are intent on regulating "neo-liberal" capitalism.

Prominent Aufstehen backers include veteran Greens politician Ludger Volmer, dramatist and author Bernd Stegemann, Social Democrat (SPD) parliamentarian Marco Bülow and Wagenknecht's husband, former SPD leader turned former Left party leader Oskar Lafontaine.

Also at Tuesday's launch was Simone Lange, mayor of Germany's northern port city of Flensburg and a recent federal SPD leadership challenger.

Lars Klingbeil, the general secretary of the SPD currently in Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition cabinet, dismissed Aufstehen as a "power struggle" within the opposition Left party – amid conjecture over a further leftist schism.

Filibuster_HK 2018-9-5 11:42:30 又有侵侵新書

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Bob Woodward's book details Trump's chaotic and dysfunctional White House

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/04/bob-woodward-book-fear-donald-trump-white-house

The White House chief of staff, John Kelly, was so incensed by the behavior of Donald Trump that he privately described the president to other aides as an “idiot” and complained that they were in “Crazytown”, according to an incendiary new account of Trump’s presidency.

The unflattering portrait of Trump’s White House, in which the president is portrayed as being so gripped by paranoia over the Russia investigation that he is barely able to operate, is contained in Fear, the much-anticipated book by Bob Woodward. A copy of the book was obtained, days before its official release, by the Washington Post, which reported on several of its most arresting details on Tuesday.

Woodward has been a star reporter at the Post since 1971 and remains an associate editor. He is most famous for breaking the story of the Watergate scandal with his fellow Post reporter Carl Bernstein. The scandal prompted the resignation of Richard Nixon from the presidency in 1974.

Woodward’s depiction of the Trump administration as being in a state of “nervous breakdown” strongly echoes the picture of chaos and pandemonium laid out this year by Michael Wolff in his blockbuster Fire and Fury. But given Woodward’s powerful journalistic brand, from his seminal role in exposing Watergate through a series of insider portraits of a succession of presidents – including Bill Clinton, the younger George Bush and Barack Obama – Fear is likely to carry an even greater punch.

Trump 'wanted Assad assassinated': key claims in Bob Woodward's book

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/04/donald-trump-bob-woodward-fear-syria-assad-claims

Trump on Woodward: ‘It’s just another bad book’

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/04/john-kelly-trump-idiot-806416

President Donald Trump on Tuesday pushed back against Bob Woodward’s scathing new account of how the White House operates, saying that it’s “just another bad book” and suggesting that Woodward made up some of the content.

“It’s just another bad book. He’s had a lot of credibility problems,” Trump told The Daily Caller in an interview Tuesday afternoon.

Trump said he never spoke to Woodward, adding that “I probably would have preferred to speak to him, but maybe not.”

“I think it probably wouldn’t have made a difference in the book,” he told The Daily Caller. “He wanted to write the book a certain way.”

Filibuster_HK 2018-9-5 11:46:34 Democrats create chaos at Kavanaugh hearing

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/04/kavanaugh-remarks-neutral-umpire-806306

Democrats sought to take control of Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation hearing Tuesday, mounting a failed bid to delay President Donald Trump's nominee and interrupting Republicans dozens of times as multiple activists on the left disrupted the proceedings.

The volley of Democratic interjections began after Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) attempted to open the high-stakes four-day hearing. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) helped coordinate that strategy despite not serving on the Judiciary panel, convening a call with the committee's minority members over the weekend, according to a source familiar with the planning.

Grassley, attempting to speak over Democrats as they sought a vote on a motion to adjourn the hearing, acknowledged that "maybe it’s not going exactly the way that the minority would like to have it go." One after another, Democrats repeatedly interrupted Grassley in the opening minutes, breaking into their protests to allow Kavanaugh to speak before resuming their push to stop the process until they can examine more records.

But the display of disruption, galvanizing as it was to Kavanaugh’s liberal critics, ultimately did little but delay a day of partisan jockeying that closed, more than seven hours later, with the nominee telling senators that “I do not decide cases based on personal or policy preferences.”

Grassley said at the end of the hearing that he’s preparing to schedule a committee vote on Kavanaugh for Sept. 13, paving the way for a final floor vote on confirmation before the new Supreme Court term opens next month. Democrats are expected to exercise their procedural right to delay that by a week, at a minimum.

Filibuster_HK 2018-9-5 11:47:03 After demos, far-right AfD overtakes German Social Democrats

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-politics-afd/after-demos-far-right-afd-overtakes-german-social-democrats-idUSKCN1LK1K2

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has overtaken the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), a poll showed on Tuesday, days after some of the most violent protests by radical right-wingers the country has seen in decades.

Some 6,000 supporters of the AfD and anti-Islam PEGIDA joined protests in the eastern city of Chemnitz on Saturday, following other demonstrations last week, after a fatal stabbing on Aug. 26. Two immigrants were arrested for the killing.

An INSA opinion poll on Tuesday put the AfD up half a percentage point at 17 percent, with the SPD, who share power with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives, slipping by the same amount to 16 percent. Merkel’s conservative bloc was on 28.5 percent.

Germany’s next electoral test comes on Oct. 14 when Merkel’s Bavarian allies face a major challenge from the AfD for state government.

Filibuster_HK 2018-9-5 11:47:36 Mueller will accept Trump's written responses as first step: source

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia/mueller-will-accept-trumps-written-responses-as-first-step-source-idUSKCN1LK2S2

(Reuters) - U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller will accept written answers from President Donald Trump on whether his campaign conspired with Russia to interfere in the 2016 U.S. election, but Mueller is not ruling out a follow-up interview on that issue, a person familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

Mueller’s offer to accept written responses from Trump on questions about possible collusion was contained in a letter that Trump’s lawyers received on Friday, the person said.

The letter was first reported by the New York Times.

Filibuster_HK 2018-9-5 21:28:41 Salisbury poisonings: police name two Russian suspects
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/sep/05/salisbury-poisonings-police-name-and-charge-two-suspects?

Two Russian nationals have been named and charged over the novichok poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, Wiltshire. British police and prosecutors made the announcement on Wednesday.

Police said the two men were travelling on authentic Russian passports under the names of Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov and arrived in the UK on an Aeroflot flight days before the attack. The Crown Prosecution Service said there was enough evidence to charge them.

The prime minister, Theresa May, told the House of Commons on Wednesday that the two menhad been identified as officers from Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU.

Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: "The names published by the media, like the photographs, don’t mean anything to us.” Zakharova said she “again urged Britain to refrain from public accusations” and work with Russian law enforcement authorities to investigate the attack in Salisbury.

Filibuster_HK 2018-9-6 11:52:41 North Korea's Kim says wants to denuclearize in Trump's first term: Seoul

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-southkorea/north-koreas-kim-says-wants-to-denuclearize-in-trumps-first-term-seoul-idUSKCN1LM07M

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he wants to denuclearize the Korean peninsula during U.S. President Donald Trump’s first term, as he agreed to hold a third summit with his South Korean counterpart this month in Pyongyang, Seoul officials said on Thursday.

Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in will meet in the North Korean capital on Sept. 18-20, during which they will discuss “practical measures” toward denuclearization, the South’s national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, told reporters a day after meeting Kim in Pyongyang.

Kim told the South Korean officials that his faith in Trump remains “unchanged” and he wanted to denuclearize and end long-standing hostile relations between North Korea and the United States during Trump’s first term ending early 2021, Chung said.

Filibuster_HK 2018-9-6 11:54:21 French President Macron's popularity slumps to record low in poll

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-politics-poll/french-president-macrons-popularity-slumps-to-record-low-in-poll-idUSKCN1LM0B6

PARIS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron’s popularity has hit a record low following the resignation of a popular minister and a summer scandal over his bodyguard, a poll showed on Thursday.

Only 23 percent of those surveyed reported a favorable opinion of Macron in September, down from 27 percent last month, the YouGov poll for Le Huff Post and CNEWS found.

Macron’s popularity is low in most polls but the YouGov survey pegged it worse than others and indicated poor ratings across the political spectrum.

In July his leadership was put to the test when a scandal broke out as video emerged showing his top bodyguard beating May Day protestErs.

Meanwhile, soft economic data has raised questions about whether he has the right recipe for growth while hesitation over a tax collection reform has painted him as unusually indecisive.

His government has repeatedly shrugged off poor poll ratings, insisting it will not waver on the reform agenda as politically sensitive overhauls of unemployment insurance and pensions loom in the months ahead.

土木膠程師 2018-9-6 13:01:32

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Filibuster_HK 2018-9-6 14:21:26 Brazil police ask that President Temer face fresh corruption charges: document

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-corruption-temer/brazil-police-ask-that-president-temer-face-fresh-corruption-charges-document-idUSKCN1LM03T

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil’s federal police have recommended to prosecutors that President Michel Temer be charged with taking bribes and money laundering, according to a police document reviewed on Wednesday by Reuters.

The investigation involves 10 million reais ($2.41 million) in illicit funds Temer’s Brazilian Democratic Party allegedly received from construction firm Odebrecht [ODBES.UL] in 2014, according to the police document.

Odebrecht made the alleged payment in 2014, when Temer was vice president.

Temer’s office said in a written statement that the president had done no wrongdoing and that the funds received from Odebrecht were legal campaign donations.

Brazil’s Prosecutor General Raquel Dodge requested in March that Temer be investigated despite the constitution barring him from standing trial for crimes committed before he became president as long as he remains in power.

The police document indicated that mines and energy minister Wellington Moreira Franco and Temer’s chief of staff Eliseu Padilha were also involved in the alleged scheme and requested they face corruption charges.

Filibuster_HK 2018-9-6 14:22:24 Exclusive: British Navy warship sails near Beijing-claimed South China Sea islands - sources

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-china-southchinasea-exclusive/exclusive-british-navy-warship-sails-near-beijing-claimed-south-china-sea-islands-sources-idUSKCN1LM017

(Reuters) - A British Royal Navy warship sailed close to islands claimed by China in the South China Sea as it headed toward Vietnam, asserting “freedom of navigation” rights and challenging Beijing’s “excessive claims” in the region, two sources said.

The HMS Albion, a 22,000 ton amphibious warship carrying a contingent of Royal Marines, passed by the Paracel Islands in recent days, said the sources, who were familiar with the matter but who asked not to be identified.

The Albion was on its way to Ho Chi Minh City, where it docked on Monday following a deployment in and around Japan.

One of the sources said Beijing dispatched a frigate and two helicopters to challenge the British vessel, but both sides remained calm during the encounter.

The other source the Albion did not enter the territorial seas around any features in the hotly disputed region but demonstrated that Britain does not recognize excessive maritime claims around the Paracel Islands. Twelve nautical miles is an internationally recognized territorial limit.

A spokesman for the Royal Navy said: “HMS Albion exercised her rights for freedom of navigation in full compliance with international law and norms.”

前路在何方 2018-9-6 14:25:36 Jeff Sessions唔係trump nominated,點解佢好似同總統時時對著幹？雙方私下係咪有牙齒印

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Filibuster_HK 2018-9-6 14:26:13 Senior official attacks 'amoral' Trump in anonymous New York Times op-ed

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/05/donald-trump-oped-white-house-resistance

An internal White House resistance is working against Donald Trump to “frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations” until he leaves – or can be removed from – office, according to an anonymous account written by a current Trump administration official.

The op-ed, published in the New York Times on Wednesday, represents a shocking critique of Trump and is without precedent in modern American history. The anonymous author describes Trump as amoral, “anti-trade and anti-democratic” and prone to making “half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless decisions”.

The writer claims aides had explored the possibility of removing Trump from office via the 25th amendment, a complex constitutional mechanism to allow for the replacement of a president who is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office”, but had decided against it.

“So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until – one way or another – it’s over,” the author writes.

In contrast to Trump’s Democratic critics, the author makes clear that “ours is not the popular ‘resistance’ of the left”, but a coalition that wants the administration to flourish.

Trump demands New York Times reveal explosive op-ed author's identity

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/05/donald-trump-new-york-times-op-ed-identity

Donald Trump has called for the New York Times to reveal the identity of a senior administration official who the paper says is the author of a column revealing they are part of a “resistance” against the president’s “worst inclinations”.

The president vented his fury at the essay, which the newspaper said it had taken the rare step of running anonymously, saying the writer’s “identity is known to us” and their “job would be jeopardized by its disclosure”.

Its publication has prompted a frenzied search for the author.

Trump called for the source to be revealed in tweets on Wednesday evening, with one asking starkly: “TREASON?”

Then in a follow up tweet, he insisted: “If the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once.”

I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/05/opinion/trump-white-house-anonymous-resistance.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

Filibuster_HK 2018-9-6 19:03:43 兩個人係Policy基本上相同，但侵侵覺得Sessions冇好好咁保護佢同GOP利益，好似佢今似屌Sessions控告兩個Republicans 的議員同時唔肯停Muller investigation，仲有冇盡力調查之前政權的事宜。另外，DOJ 係Immigration係separation of family 上亦令人垢病，侵侵覺得Sessions唔夠好等等。

雖然係Huff，不過個TImeline都可以睇睇

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Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions’ Unraveling Relationship: A Timeline

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-jeff-sessions-relationship_us_5b8c4021e4b0162f4724c32f

Filibuster_HK 2018-9-6 19:15:12 India court legalises gay sex in landmark ruling

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-45429664

In a historic decision, India's Supreme Court has ruled that gay sex is no longer a criminal offence.

The ruling overturns a 2013 judgement that upheld a colonial-era law, known as section 377, under which gay sex is categorised as an "unnatural offence".

The court has now ruled discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is a fundamental violation of rights.

Campaigners outside the court cheered and some broke down in tears as the ruling was handed down.

Although public opinion in India's biggest cities has been in favour of scrapping the law, there remains strong opposition among religious groups and in conservative rural communities.

But this ruling, from the top court, is now the final say in the matter and cannot be challenged. As such, it represents a huge victory for India's LGBT community.

Filibuster_HK 2018-9-6 22:35:14 U.S. to charge North Koreans over WannaCry, Sony cyberattacks: U.S. official

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cyber-northkorea-sony/u-s-to-charge-north-koreans-over-wannacry-sony-cyberattacks-u-s-official-idUSKCN1LM20W

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department is poised to charge North Korean hackers over the May 2017 global WannaCry ransomware attack and the 2014 cyberattack on Sony Corp, a U.S. official told Reuters on Thursday.

The charges are part of a strategy by the U.S. government to deter future cyberattacks by naming and shaming the alleged perpetrators.

Filibuster_HK 2018-9-6 22:36:05 U.S. to help nations replace Iran oil, may consider waivers

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-usa-iran/u-s-to-help-nations-replace-iran-oil-may-consider-waivers-idUSKCN1LM0FW

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Washington will consider waivers for Iranian oil buyers such as India but they must eventually halt imports as sanctions are imposed on Tehran, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday.

Pompeo, who is in Delhi with U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis for talks with their Indian counterparts, told reporters some buyers of Iranian oil would take a “a little bit of time” to unwind their trade with Iran.

The United States is pushing all countries to halt oil imports from Iran after President Donald Trump in May withdrew from a 2015 deal between Iran and six world powers and ordered a re-imposition of sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

“We will consider waivers where appropriate but that it is our expectation that the purchases of Iranian crude oil will go to zero from every country or sanctions will be imposed. So we’ll work with the Indians, we committed that we will do that,” Pompeo said.

“Many countries are in a place where it takes a little bit of time to unwind and we’ll work with them I’m sure to find an outcome that makes sense,” Pompeo said, adding that the United States would be ‘happy’ if Iranian oil is replaced with American products.

Filibuster_HK 2018-9-7 00:01:13 US, Canada, France and Germany back UK over novichok attack
[url]https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/sep/06/us-canada-france-and-germany-back-uk-over-novichok-attack?/url]

Theresa May has received strong international backing for her claim that the Salisbury attack was perpetrated by Russian secret service agents, in a joint statement from the French, Canadian, US and German governments.

As Britain prepares to confront Russia about the findings of the investigation at the UN security council, the four countries joined with the UK to underline the findings of the police investigation into the novichok attack.

Their statement said they had “full confidence” in Britain’s assessment that the two suspects were members of Russia’s GRU, and agreed that their operation was “almost certainly” approved at a senior level of the Russian government.

The statement added: “Yesterday’s announcement further strengthens our intent to continue to disrupt the hostile activities of foreign intelligence networks in our territories, uphold the prohibition of chemical weapons, protect our citizens and defend ourselves from all forms of malign state activity directed against us and our societies.”

Filibuster_HK 2018-9-7 00:02:05

US, Canada, France and Germany back UK over novichok attack

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/sep/06/us-canada-france-and-germany-back-uk-over-novichok-attack?

Theresa May has received strong international backing for her claim that the Salisbury attack was perpetrated by Russian secret service agents, in a joint statement from the French, Canadian, US and German governments.

As Britain prepares to confront Russia about the findings of the investigation at the UN security council, the four countries joined with the UK to underline the findings of the police investigation into the novichok attack.

Their statement said they had “full confidence” in Britain’s assessment that the two suspects were members of Russia’s GRU, and agreed that their operation was “almost certainly” approved at a senior level of the Russian government.

The statement added: “Yesterday’s announcement further strengthens our intent to continue to disrupt the hostile activities of foreign intelligence networks in our territories, uphold the prohibition of chemical weapons, protect our citizens and defend ourselves from all forms of malign state activity directed against us and our societies.”

書桓 2018-9-7 10:22:18 https://apnews.com/6c73d44576824558b1b75673aa5ccb44
美國貿易逆差又創歷史新高