Trump ‘Very, Very Close’ to Moving on Mexico Deal, With or Without Canada

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Canadian officials are running out of time to join the U.S. and Mexico in a trade deal to replace current North American Free Trade Agreement terms, according to an administration source this week.

In a Fox News interview Friday morning, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett pointed to an Oct. 1 deadline in the ongoing negotiations.

“We’re still talking to Canada, and we’re getting very, very close to the deadline where we’re going to have to move ahead with Mexico all by themselves,” he said.

The Trump administration is fast-tracking the new terms to finalize an agreement before the end of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto’s term.

Some lawmakers see Canada’s inclusion in a new deal as vital to the preservation of NAFTA framework.

Nieto’s administration has been willing to negotiate with the U.S. and Canada, but leftist president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador would likely be less open to renegotiated terms.

Hassett placed the onus on Canadian officials he believes are refusing to negotiate in good faith.

“I’m a little surprised that the Canadians haven’t signed up yet,” he said. “They’ve got a really, really good deal that they should be participating in. … I worry that politics in Canada is trumping common sense, because there’s a good deal that was designed by Mexico and the U.S. to appeal to Canada, and they’re not signing up.”

Canadian officials have pointed to a key NAFTA provision affecting its dairy industry as a specific sticking point in the negotiations.

According to Hassett, the fact that Canada has not agreed to the terms has “everybody over here a little bit puzzled.”

Among the terms reached by Mexico and the U.S. so far are requirements that would impact the auto industry by requiring an increased amount — 75 percent — of a vehicle’s parts to be made in North America in order for NAFTA to categorize it as a duty-free product.

The renegotiated agreement would also require that at least 40 percent of all workers producing automotive parts earn the equivalent of $16 per hour or more.

Hassett’s comments this week echoed remarks U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin made last month on the issue of North American trade.

He said that the Trump administration prefers to have Canada as an active participant in the negotiations, but it would be willing to move forward with a bilateral agreement if necessary.

“I think our objective is to try to get Canada on board quickly,” Mnuchin said. “This is a great deal for American workers. If you remember one thing, this deal is about more trade for U.S. companies and goods and services, and that’s what we’re focused on.” (For more from the author of “Trump ‘Very, Very Close’ to Moving on Mexico Deal, With or Without Canada” please click HERE)

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Christians, Aid Worker Brutally Murdered by Radical Islamic Terrorists in Kenya

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Christians, citizens and at least one aid worker were brutally murdered by radical Islamic terrorists with ties to Al-Shabaab and Boko Haram in Kenya earlier this month. International Christian Concern (ICC), a group that tracks attacks on Christians around the world, first brought attention to the murders.

According to ICC, the terrorist group Boko Haram kidnapped several women in Kenya, including International Committee of Red Cross aid worker Saifura Khorsa, a Muslim, back in March. This alarming incident turned tragic when Khorsa was executed this week. ICC reports:

Saifura was executed early this week by the terrorists. This comes less than a month after Saifura and her fellow ICRC captives begged President Buhari to help rescue them, and that they were on the final warning from the group. Now in a video released by the group, Boko Haram has claimed that if they are not given ransoms within the next month, they will not only execute the other two aid workers, but will also murder Leah Sharibu. Leah, a 16 year old schoolgirl, is the lone captive from the Dapchi incident earlier this year.

. . .

“Amnesty International strongly condemns the recent killing of Saifura Hussaini Ahmed Khorsa, a midwife and aid worker, by Boko Haram,” the statement reads. “By this horrific act, Boko Haram has once again proven its brazen disregard for the sanctity of life which must not go unpunished.” . . .

According to ICC, seven radical Islamic terrorists stopped a bus on its way to Garissa in Northeast Kenya. They forced the passengers to disembark and separated three individuals who did not have “Muslim-sounding” names. When two of them refused to say the Islamic Shahada because of their Christian faith, they were tied up and murdered. (Read more from “Christians, Aid Worker Brutally Murdered by Radical Islamic Terrorists in Kenya” HERE)

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Google Turns Evil in Willingness to Collude With China’s Repression

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By The Federalist. Google, a company with an annual revenue exceeding $100 billion and tens of thousands of employees, has brought about ground-breaking innovations through its horizontal search engine, self-driving vehicles, and electronic messaging systems, improving the lives of millions of individuals and businesses in the process.

However, recent reports of the Silicon Valley behemoth’s cooperation with China paint a picture less of an ethical business giant, and more of an adversary blatantly subverting American interests and basic human rights on the world stage.

In early August, The Intercept reported that Google is planning to implement a censored version of its search engine in China, dubbed “Project Dragonfly,” which will block searches related to free speech, human rights, and democracy, among other content Beijing deems objectionable.

Worse, the search engine will reportedly link any searches entered by a user directly to his or her phone number, allowing Chinese authorities to easily track citizens seeking out blacklisted information, and placing political dissidents at risk of human rights violations such as interrogation or detention. . .

By yielding to Beijing’s assault on freedom in return for access to new markets, Google has succumbed to the darker impulses of human nature, in a stark reversal of previous anti-censorship stances. In 2010, for instance, Google refused to censor search results in China, writing in a blog post, “We want as many people in the world as possible to have access to our services.” (Read more from “Google Turns Evil in Willingness to Collude With China’s Repression” HERE)

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Google’s Nest Reportedly Went to Great Lengths to Hide Its Health Ambitions When It Acquired a Seattle Start-Up Last Summer

By CNBC. Google-owned Nest went to great lengths to conceal its acquisition of Seattle health monitoring start-up Senosis in order to keep its interest in digital health a secret, new records obtained by GeekWire show.

While GeekWire had previously reported that Google had bought the start-up in the summer of 2017, the records confirm that it was actually Alphabet’s home automation business Nest that wished to integrate Senosis’s technology. However, the company told those involved in the deal that they couldn’t mention Nest or publicize the sale.

“It turns out Nest is much more secretive than the rest of Google or Alphabet,” Senosis co-founder Shwetak Patel wrote to the vice president of University of Washington’s innovation hub in June 2017. “They seem to be particularly sensitive in this situation since they don’t want people to know they are getting into a whole new line of business, digital health, until they are ready to publicly announce.”

Senosis Health spun out of the University of Washington, which enabled GeekWire to make public records requests related to its sale.

Emails also show that Google’s corporate counsel instructed the team to use “Google” instead of “Nest” on outside forms and in internal discussions to prevent speculation around a Nest health product. (Read more from “Google’s Nest Reportedly Went to Great Lengths to Hide Its Health Ambitions When It Acquired a Seattle Start-Up Last Summer” HERE)

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China Still Has Plenty of Ammunition to Fight Back in Trump’s Trade War

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China still has several tools in its kit to mitigate the negative effects of President Trump’s trade war on its economy. With a top-down economic structure and a huge domestic market, China may be able to absorb some impact of the latest round of tariffs by turning goods destined for export around for internal consumption.

While pushing back on U.S. demands, China continues expanding to new markets. President Xi’s “One Belt and One Road” initiative to build infrastructure projects from Europe to Africa has already provided a big market and consistent demand for Chinese exports, especially those running into overcapacity issues, such as steel and cement. Many countries along the initiative routes are resource-rich. They will provide a steady supply of raw material and energy to support China’s long-term economic growth.

China can also increase its investment in Africa. In early September, Xi announced a $60 billion package of aid, investment, and loan money for Africa. Since Africa is already becoming overloaded with Chinese debt, the majority of this aid package is expected to be investments that will provide an outlet for Chinese goods and services.

Beijing has also started a charm offensive with U.S. businesses. Xi’s top economic advisor recently promised a delegation of U.S. multinationals that U.S. businesses operating in China “won’t be targeted in Beijing’s trade counterattacks.” China’s government-run tabloid, the Global Times, tried to appeal to U.S. businesses by stating, “The Chinese market can help them make money, but the White House can’t.”

Most importantly, Xi became president for life in March of this year. Time is on his side. He doesn’t face much political pressure to reach a trade deal with the United States. As a matter of fact, China’s hardliners may grumble if they perceive any trade deal has sold out China’s interests. So Xi has strong incentives to act like the tough guy who won’t yield to U.S. demands. This probably explains why China already warned the United States that it would back out of the latest round of trade talks if Trump goes ahead with his latest tariff announcement. (Read more from “China Still Has Plenty of Ammunition to Fight Back in Trump’s Trade War” HERE)

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Venezuelan Journalist Hits Jim Carrey With Scathing Reality Check for Praising Socialism

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Hollywood superstar Jim Carrey made headlines last weekend when he declared that Democrats needs to “say yes to socialism” and stop apologizing for their increasingly progressive agenda. . .

Writing in an open letter published in Runrunes, Venezuelan columnist Laureano Márquez eloquently explains that socialism in the root cause of Venezuela’s current crisis — one that started as an idea, but manifested itself much differently than leaders promised.

“I admire you very much, but sometimes it seems that the inability of Hollywood stars to understand politics is directly proportional to their scenic talent. [Ronald] Reagan was always an actor of very little talent, thank God,” Márquez began. “I read that…you said: ‘We have to say yes to socialism, to the word ‘socialism’ and to everything.’ Perhaps for you, as for all humanity, the word ‘socialism’ sounds beautiful.” . . .

“[In] Venezuela, what we find is just that our regime is not – for God’s sake – the antithesis of selfishness,” he explained. “In Venezuela, dear Jim, from what I have just told you, there is no equitable distribution of wealth; wealth is concentrated, as rarely before in our history, in very few hands.”

Socialism’s grim reality is so bad, Márquez explained, that his society’s most vulnerable people groups are at “God’s mercy,” fleeing the country in search of food, medicine, and other basic necessities to survive. (Read more from “Venezuelan Journalist Hits Jim Carrey With Scathing Reality Check for Praising Socialism” HERE)

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Revealed: Three Democrats Attended Private Dinner With Iran’s President and Louis Farrakhan

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Three Democratic congressmen attended a private dinner hosted by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in 2013, a new report reveals.

Reps. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, Andre Carson of Indiana and Gregory Meeks of New York attended the private dinner, along with Louis Farrakhan, a notorious anti-Semite who leads the black supremacist group Nation of Islam.

Iran is the number one state sponsor of terrorism, according to the United States government, which has listed the Islamic Republic as a state sponsor of terror since 1984. Rouhani was in New York for a United Nations meeting and held the dinner party just hours after speaking to the UN General Assembly.

Final Call, a Nation of Islam publication, noted the three Democrats’ attendance at the time and included photos of Ellison and Meeks at the dinner party. But aside from the Final Call article, the three Democrats’ presence at the dinner remained secret until a Wall Street Journal column revealed it on Friday. None of the three congressmen’s offices responded to The Daily Caller’s request for comment for this article. . .

The CBC held a secret meeting with Farrakhan in 2005, where then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama took a smiling picture with the hate group leader. The existence of both the meeting and Obama’s photo with Farrakhan remained secret until last month. A Final Call photographer said he suppressed the photo for 13 years at the CBC’s request, in order to protect Obama’s political career.

(Read more from “Revealed: Three Democrats Attended Private Dinner With Iran’s President and Louis Farrakhan” HERE)

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Imam Who Recruited for ISIS Is About to Get Released From Prison Early

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In September 2016, infamous and dangerous Imam Anjem Choudary was sentenced to five years in prison for recruiting individuals to join ISIS and carry out jihad against “infidels” in the west. Before his loyalty to ISIS, Choudary praised Osama bin Laden for carrying out the September 11 attacks.

Next week Choudary will be released from prison early on a technicality. He’s served less than half of his sentence and is still considered a serious threat.

(Read more from “Imam Who Recruited for ISIS Is About to Get Released From Prison Early” HERE)

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Someone Screwed Up: FEMA Delivered Millions of Bottles to Puerto Rico, It’s Been Rotting on a Runway for a Year

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Last year in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, FEMA delivered millions of bottles of water to the island as part of the relief effort. After the supplies were delivered, hundreds of pallets worth, they were never distributed. CBS News broke the story.

The photos were taken by Abdiel Santana, who works with the United Forces of Rapid Action agency of the Puerto Rican Police. Santana said he snapped the photos because he was angry to still see them sitting there, nearly a year after he first spotted them.

Marty Bahamonde, director of disaster operations at FEMA, confirmed that the agency delivered the bottled water to the island but said the agency didn’t track specific shipments. It’s not clear what became of the bottles after the delivery. FEMA is investigating whether or not the agency placed the water bottles on the runway.

(Read more from “Someone Screwed Up: FEMA Delivered Millions of Bottles to Puerto Rico, It’s Been Rotting on a Runway for a Year” HERE)

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U.S. Has ‘Likely’ Become the World’s Biggest Oil Producer

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The United States may have reclaimed the title of the world’s biggest oil producer sooner than expected.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration said Wednesday that, based on preliminary estimates, America “likely surpassed” Russia in June and August after jumping over Saudi Arabia earlier this year.

If those estimates are right, it would mark the first time since 1973 that the U.S. has led the world in output, according to government figures. (Read more from “U.S. Has ‘Likely’ Become the World’s Biggest Oil Producer” HERE)

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Report Blames Russia for Sonic Attacks

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U.S. personnel assigned to diplomatic missions in Cuba have over the past year or so complained about a “sonic attack” that produces in victims abnormal sensations of sound and pressure. . .

So the FBI, CIA and other agencies have been investigating, and their conclusion is that it may have been Russia using electromagnetic weapons against Americans. . .

“U.S. officials said in July they were still investigating health problems at the U.S. embassy in Cuba, and do not know who or what was behind the mysterious illnesses, which began in 2016 and have affected 26 Americans,” the report said.

“NBC has achieved the seemingly impossible, somehow managing to incorporate mysterious brain-zapping weapons, evidence-free accusations from anonymous U.S. officials, and Russia, into a juicy smorgasbord of journalistic excellence,” the publication said.

“The bombshell report opens with a phrase that every American schoolchild already knows by heart – ‘Russia is likely behind’ – but this is no ordinary, Pulitzer-prize winning morsel of security state stenography. This time, the Russians ‘likely’ targeted U.S. diplomats stationed in Cuba and China with a powerful brain-altering weapon (which has yet to be identified/confirmed to actually exist), resulting in various injuries, ranging from hearing loss to ‘problems with cognition.’” (Read more from “Report Blames Russia for Sonic Attacks” HERE)

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