North Korea's Kim Jong-un issues threats and olive branch - BBC News

1/1/2018

North Korea's Kim Jong-un issues threats and olive branch

Residents of South Korea watched the speech from the North's leader

North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un has said a nuclear launch button is "always on my table" and warned the US it will never be able to start a war.

In a televised new year speech, he said the entire US was within range of North Korean nuclear weapons, adding: "This is reality, not a threat."

But he also offered a potential olive branch to South Korea, suggesting he was "open to dialogue".

North Korea may also send a team to the Winter Olympics in Seoul, he said.

What is President Trump's reaction?

When asked by reporters to respond to Mr Kim's latest threats, US President Donald Trump said, "We'll see, we'll see".

He was speaking at the sidelines of New Year's Eve celebrations at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

Where is the US-North Korean war of words heading?

Can the world live with a nuclear North Korea?

North Korea has come under increased criticism and sanctions over the past year because of its nuclear weapons programme and repeated testing of conventional missiles.

North Korea said in November its latest missile was capable of reaching Washington DC

It claims to have a fully deployable nuclear weapon, though there is still some international scepticism about its true capacity to carry out such an attack.

In his speech, Mr Kim re-emphasised his focus on the weapons programme, but implied the country still has a few stages left to go before achieving its ambitions. North Korea must "mass-produce nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles and speed up their deployment", he said.

He also said they would not use their weapons unless they felt that peace was threatened.

Thawing relations with the South?

While his language against the US remained tough, Mr Kim did not employ his typically antagonistic tone when speaking about his neighbours in South Korea.

"The year 2018 is a significant year for both the North and the South, with the North marking the 70th anniversary of its birth and the South hosting the Winter Olympics.

Pyongyang's seasonal ice festival includes an ice sculpture of an intercontinental ballistic missile

"We should melt the frozen North-South relations, thus adorning this meaningful year as a year to be specially recorded in the history of the nation," he said.

A spokesperson for the South Korean president said their office had "always stated our willingness to talk with North Korea at anytime and anywhere".

"We hope the two Koreas will sit down and find a solution to lower tensions and establish peace on the Korean peninsula."

How North Korea could tip the balance

North Korea crisis in 300 words

What we know about the new missile

Youngshik Daniel Bong, a research fellow at Yonsei Institute for North Korean Studies, told the BBC that addressing the South was a marked change from the norm for Mr Kim.

"North Korea usually ignores South Korea, maintaining the position that as a 'nuclear power' it will deal with the US on its own," said Mr Bong. "It appears that by engaging the South, he hopes to create an estrangement between South Korea and the US."

The analyst also said that Mr Kim could be seeking to improve ties to offer some respite from the growing economic pressures from the recent UN sanctions.

Will North Korea now go to the Olympics?

Mr Kim also said he would also consider sending a delegation to the Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in February - a gesture which South Korea has previously suggested would be welcome.

"North Korea's participation in the Winter Games will be a good opportunity to show unity of the people and we wish the Games will be a success," he said.

"Officials from the two Koreas may urgently meet to discuss the possibility."

Can sports and diplomacy mix on the ice with the presence of North Korea's figure skaters Ryom Tae-Ok and Kim Ju-Sik?

The president of the PyeongChang Games' organising committee, Lee Hee-beom, told South Korea's news agency Yonhap he was delighted to hear of the potential participation.

"[The committee] enthusiastically welcomes it. It's like a New Year's gift," he said.

The only two North Korean athletes who qualified for the Games are figure skaters Ryom Tae-Ok and Kim Ju-Sik.

Although the North has missed the official deadline to confirm their participation, the skaters could still compete with an invitation by the International Olympic Committee.

South Korea's President Moon Jae-in last month suggested delaying an annual joint military drill with US troops until after the Games. The North usually denounces any such exercises as a rehearsal for war.

Robert Kelly, a political science professor at South Korea's Pusan National University, told the BBC that the Winter Olympics statement was "a smart move from North Korea" as it positioned Mr Kim's regime as moving towards its neighbours while the US was seeking to isolate it.

Protesters have rallied in Iran over price increase and unemployment - Al Jazeera

NEWS/HASSAN ROUHANI

Protests reported in Tehran, Kermanshah and Mashhad

30 Dec 2017

Protests reported in Tehran, Kermanshah and Mashhad

Protesters have rallied in Iran over price increase and unemployment

Rouhani defends right to protest but rejects violence

today

Hundreds of protesters have rallied in several Iranian cities against rising prices, unemployment and economic inequality, according to anti-government activists and Iran's semi-state news agency Fars.

About 300 people protested in Kermanshah, a city in western Iran, on Friday, according to Fars.

Police intervened after protesters damaged public property, the news agency reported.

Protests also broke out in the capital Tehran, according to social media.

The protests came after an earlier demonstration in Mashhad, Iran's second-largest city, on Thursday drew "thousands" of residents, anti-government activists said on social media.

Rallies were also held in a handful of other cities to decry rising food prices and other economic issues.

The prices of several staples, including eggs, have risen by up to 40 percent in recent days, the Associated Press news agency said.

Eshaq Jahangiri, Iran's first vice president, acknowledged that "there is an increase in the prices of some products", but said "the government is working on fixing the causes of the high prices".

Jahangiri also cast doubt on whether the protests were solely motivated by economic issues.

"The people behind what is taking place think they will be able to harm the government, but when social movements and protests start in the street, those who have ignited them are not always able to control them," he said.

High unemployment

In August, the Iranian Central Bank said inflation had reached 10 percent, the Tehran Times newspaper reported at the time.

The unemployment rate reached a three-year high of 12.7 percent last year, according to the World Bank.

Adnan Tabatabai, a political analyst and co-founder of the Germany-based Center for Applied Research in Partnership with the Orient, wrote on Twitter that the protests "are driven by socioeconomic grievances, not political aspiration".

"Peaceful sit-ins, strikes & gatherings in front of ministries & state institutions have happened regularly in various parts of the country, as people continue to have unresolved/unaddressed economic grievances," Tabatabai wrote.

Still, the protests have also been conspicuous for their anti-government slogans.

On social media, anti-government activists said protesters had chanted for the release of political prisoners, while others reportedly shouted, "Death to Rouhani", referring to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, said AFP news agency.

Rouhani, who was re-elected to a second term in May, has been under pressure from his conservative opponents inside Iran over perceived efforts to liberalise the country.

Tabatabai, the political analyst, said he did not believe the protests were the start of a revolutionary movement in Iran.

Instead, he wrote on Twitter that they signal that Rouhani, his government and Iran's political elite as a whole "must finally take [the] socioeconomic grievances" of ordinary Iranians seriously.

Videos of the protests in Mashhad, published by small reformist media group Nazar, showed people shouting "not Gaza, not Lebanon, my life for Iran", AFP reported.

The slogan reflects anger that the Iranian government is focusing on regional politics at the expense of tackling domestic issues.

Iran's semi-official news agency ILNA reported that about 50 people also protested in a public square in the capital, Tehran, on Friday, AP reported.

Mohsen Hamedani, the security deputy for Tehran's governor, said a few people were "temporarily arrested", but did not specify how many, said the AP report.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

Psychic foresees Donald Trump impeachment in her 2018 predictions - Independent

Psychic foresees Donald Trump impeachment in her 2018 predictions

Posted on 1/1/2018 by Greg Evans in news

UPVOTE

He fired multiple members of his staff, argued with NFL footballers and those allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election aren't going away any time soon.

Rumours of his impeachment circulated throughout most of 2017 but one person believes that 2018 will finally be the year that the President is ousted from the Oval Office.

Georgina Walker, a self-proclaimed psychic from Australia, has made the bold claim that Mr Trump will be impeached this year.

She told the Today Show:

[I see] an impeachment.

I saw a ball and chain around his ankle. I saw President Bill Clinton's shadow over him, so he went through that process, but he did escape it.

There is a black cloud over the White House this year ... I feel it's a rocky, rocky year.

He may just escape through the impeachment proceedings as Clinton did. But there's enough to take him down.

In contrast to Walker's statement the self-appointed psychic Craig Hamilton-Parker, who successfully called Trump's election and Brexit, speculates that Mr Trump will survive an impeachment in 2018.

He also believes that Kim Jong-un will be overthrown and he successfully predicted that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle would get engaged.

However, Walker has her own history of correct predictions. According to the Daily Mail, she asserted that the second child of Prince William and Kate Middleton would be a girl which turned out to be true - it was a 50/50 chance though...

Walker also believes that William and Kate's third child will once again be a girl and that the marriage of Jay-Z and Beyonce will remain strong.

But we could have told you that last one.

10 questions that could keep you up at night in 2018 - CNN News

10 questions that could keep you up at night in 2018

Frida Ghitis

By Frida Ghitis

Updated 1634 GMT (0034 HKT) December 27, 2017

This is what's happening in 2018

This is what's happening in 2018 03:48

Frida Ghitis, a former CNN producer and correspondent, is a world affairs columnist. She is a frequent Opinion contributor to CNN and the Washington Post and a columnist for World Politics Review. The opinions expressed in this commentary are her own.

(CNN)2017 was the year that resolved next to nothing. It was a year of transitions and of unresolved conflicts on the global stage and across continents. Above all, 2017 was a year that posed momentous questions and left them open for the future -- mostly for the near future.

Here are some of the crucial, history-making questions looming as 2018 begins.

What will happen with the Trump presidency?

President Donald Trump and his Republican backers succeeded in enacting a major tax overhaul, rolling back a host of regulations and appointing a significant number of conservative judges to the federal court. But the next year of Trump's presidency faces significant uncertainty.

In 2017, Trump revived feminism, saved satire and reinvigorated journalism

In 2017, Trump revived feminism, saved satire and reinvigorated journalism

Trump ends 2017 with the lowest approval ratings of any first-year president in modern history. Congressional committees are still investigating possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, and special prosecutor Robert Mueller has already indicted key campaign officials and secured guilty pleas from others. And the investigation continues.

If Trump's approval ratings drop much lower, or if Democrats take control of the House, any further legislative goals he may have could be derailed. Meanwhile, Trump's former top aide Steven Bannon reportedly told Vanity Fair he sees only a 30% chance that Trump will serve out his term, either because of impeachment or through a 25th Amendment move to remove him by his Cabinet. Bannon's credentials as a political savant are tarnished after the failure of his Senate candidate, Roy Moore, in Alabama. But there's no question that clouds are hanging over the Trump presidency.

Will the US and North Korea go to war?

Graham: Time for new approach on N. Korea

Graham: Time for new approach on N. Korea 00:53

The surreal war of insults between the President of the United States and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was more than a sticks-and-stones schoolyard scuffle. It was punctuated by tangible military advances by North Korea with detonations of nuclear devices and launches of ballistic missiles. Trump has warned he will unleash "devastating" military attacks, with "fire and fury" if North Korea threatens the United States. But, so far, Kim seems unintimidated by the man he called a "dotard." Experts say war with North Korea would kill hundreds of thousands of people.

The Trump administration has succeeded in securing UN sanctions against Pyongyang, but a path to a peaceful resolution that prevents North Korea from keeping its nuclear weapons is becoming increasingly elusive.

Will US tear up Iran nuclear deal, will Iran reinvigorate its nuclear program?

Trump called the nuclear deal with Iran, "the stupidest deal of all time," promising to "rip up" the deal as soon as he came to office. As recently as last week, when he was unveiling his National Security Strategy, Trump chastised his predecessors for making an "incomprehensibly bad deal with Iran." In October, he put the deal in limbo, accusing Iran of violating the agreement and telling Congress to fix the deal's flaws. There's no sign that Congress can or will reopen negotiations, or that Iran would be open to changing the agreement. And Trump has said he may cancel the deal if it is not fixed. The move leaves open the question of what the US will do next, and how Iran will respond.

As Iran and Russia dig themselves into Syria, will US do anything about it?

Now that Iran and Russia have saved Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad from being overthrown, will Moscow and Tehran continue to fortify their positions in Syria? Will the US take any action to counter the two countries' growing influence in the region and their military presence on the ground? Trump remains oddly reluctant to challenge Russian President Vladimir Putin. Not only is Trump unwilling to criticize Putin, but he has so far failed to implement new sanctions against Russia approved by Congress during the summer. But what about Iran, a country that Trump describes as a global menace?

Will Saudi Arabia's ambitious prince -- soon-to-be king -- succeed with revolutionary reforms?

Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the favorite son of Saudi Arabia's King Salman, spent 2017 trying to bring revolutionary change. The crown prince lifted restrictions on women driving, limited the power of the religious police and imprisoned scores of prominent personalities, accusing them of political corruption. And MBS, as he is known, has done it all while accumulating not only enormous power but also powerful enemies. The prince is all-but-certain to become king in the coming months, but his ambitious effort to transform Saudi Arabia's society, economy and geopolitical position, is an epic gamble, whose outcome remains uncertain.

Will the war in Yemen, a great humanitarian disaster, garner international action?

When Trump announced his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, the move raised the ire of most Muslim countries. Among those waxing indignant was Yemen -- a country torn by a war pitting a Saudi-led alliance against Iran-back rebels -- and whose leaders took time to co-draft a United Nations resolution repudiating the US decision. Unlike the Jerusalem decision, the events in Yemen have garnered little attention and scant signs of outrage, even though UN officials say Yemen is on the verge of experiencing "the largest famine the world has seen for many decades" and is already enduring the worst cholera outbreak ever recorded, all the result of a man-made catastrophe.

Will Putin enter another war?

As President Vladimir Putin prepares to run for a fourth six-year term in Russia, there is little chance that he will lose. If and when he wins, Putin will remain in office until 2024, which including the time he spent governing as prime minister, would give him almost a quarter of a century in power, longer than any Russian leader since Joseph Stalin.

Ignore the noise: Russia still wants good relations with Trump

Ignore the noise: Russia still wants good relations with Trump

Not much is left of Russian democracy since Putin eroded its foundations and crushed the opposition. Putin, who controls most of the media, remains enormously popular despite tough economic times. According to the respected Russian sociologist Lev Gudkov, Putin preserves his legitimacy by being a war-time president, which raises the question, will Putin look beyond Ukraine and Syria to find another war? It's a question that deeply worries Russia's neighbors.

Will populism continue to spread?

Democracy has faced headwinds in recent years, with leaders in the US, Russia, Turkey, Poland, the Philippines and elsewhere rising to power on the strength of raw populist messages. And once in power, these leaders often defy basic liberal democratic norms such as respect for a free press and an independent judiciary.

The question is whether this trend has peaked or will continue. Trump's victory has triggered a defense of democracy by many in the US, but it has also energized other populists around the world. Among them is an anti-Trump leftist populist in Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who could become president -- just one of many populist candidates on the left and the right with a good chance of taking power in the new year.

Will Venezuela continue spiraling into calamity?

Venezuelan sanctions without diplomacy will fail

Venezuelan sanctions without diplomacy will fail

The slow-motion disaster in Venezuela spiraled into outright calamity in 2017, and there is no sign that the tragedy inflicted on the Venezuelan people by an incompetent government will end anytime soon. Despite having the world's largest proven oil reserves, Venezuela's tragic arc has taken it from a relatively-well-functioning democracy, with one of the stronger economies in Latin America, to what is essentially a dictatorship, with children starving in the streets, shortages of every conceivable product, quadruple-digit inflation and out-of-control crime.

The opposition has failed to defeat the undemocratic maneuvers of President Nicolas Maduro and his party. And, so far, Maduro's enablers have done nothing to change the country's disastrous course. One would think there is a limit to how horrific life can become for the Venezuelan people. But one might be wrong.

Will anything slow China's rise?

While the US, Europe and even Russia are busy sparring over democracy and conflicts in the Middle East, Beijing's influence around the world is growing quietly but impressively. China is building giant infrastructure projects on land and sea across Asia and beyond. It is influencing governments without questioning them with concerns about human rights and democratic norms. China's nearly-one-trillion dollar Belt and Road initiative, in contrast to Western projects, pays little mind to environmental and human rights standards.

Considering the implications of China's rise, it is attracting relatively little attention.

Trump's withdrawal from trade deals has left the field open for Beijing. If current trends continue, China, a dictatorship that brooks no dissent, could become the world's most powerful country. Currently, China's economy is on track to surpass the US' GDP, its military is growing fast and its global influence is expanding rapidly. While America's military remains by far the world's largest, the size of the Chinese economy is already comparable to America's, and Beijing's diplomatic, economic and military assertiveness mean it is becoming a serious rival to US global dominance.

A year from now, we will know if in 2018 we resolved any of the questions left open this year; if the year brought the world closer to the edge of disaster, or if it reverted to a more promising path. The only guarantee is that, as the old curse threatens, we will have lived in interesting times. Happy 2018, all.

The difference between Barack Obama and Donald Trump in two quotes - Independent

The difference between Barack Obama and Donald Trump in two quotes

Posted in February, 2017

by Jessica Brown in offbeat

UPVOTE           

They might have a job in common on their CVs now, but Donald Trump and Barack Obama are worlds apart in pretty much everything else.

We've drawn comparisons between the two in pictures and in video, but now there's another comparison to make. A literary one.

Alan Rappeport, a reporter at the New York Times, tweeted a quote from each of the men talking about books.

@arappeport

Obama and Trump, on reading.

2:56 PM - Mar 17, 2017

Obama said that Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison gave him perspective, and “is a book I think of when I imagine people going through hardship. That it’s not just pain, but there's joy and glory and mystery”.

He added that he always thinks about this line from Bend in the River, by V.S. Naipaul:

The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it.

Obama said he thinks about Naipaul’s novels when “thinking about the hardness of the world".

Shall we move on to what Trump has to say about the literature that’s shaped his worldview?

I’m looking at a book, I’m reading a book, I’m trying to get started. Every time I do about half a page, I get a phone call that there’s some emergency, this or that.

Inspiring.