Duckworth calls out 'Cadet Bone Spurs' after Trump's 'treasonous' remark - CNN Politics

Duckworth calls out 'Cadet Bone Spurs' after Trump's 'treasonous' remark

Anchor Muted Background

By Maegan Vazquez, CNN

Updated 1357 GMT (2157 HKT) February 6, 2018

Trump: Democrats' SOTU reactions 'treasonous'

Van Jones: Trump's stories were poisoned candy

2018 State of the Union DEM Head On

Kennedy III: We are all equal and we all count

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 30: U.S. President Donald J. Trump arrives to deliver the State of the Union address in the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives January 30, 2018 in Washington, DC. This is the first State of the Union address given by U.S. President Donald Trump and his second joint-session address to Congress. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Tapper: Trump opened one hand, fist with other

Kennedy III addresses dreamers in Spanish

Trump: Democrats' SOTU reactions 'treasonous'

News Conference 01/31 10:00 am HVC Studio A DL Pelosi, Dem Caucus Chair Crowley, V-Chair Sanchez et al post-caucus avail. Access studio via HVC-117 (Caucus starts @ 9 am in HVC-215)

Pelosi: Trump stooped to new low in SOTU

Sarah Sanders Pelosi smile sot Newday_00002301.jpg

Sarah Sanders says Pelosi should smile more

Ryan Holets

Cop reacts to Trump's 'stunning' SOTU comment

Joe Kennedy on Trump: Bullies may land a punch

Van Jones: Trump's stories were poisoned candy

2018 State of the Union DEM Head On

Kennedy III: We are all equal and we all count

Tapper: Trump opened one hand, fist with other

Kennedy III addresses dreamers in Spanish

US President Donald Trump delivers remarks on tax reform at Sheffer Corporation in Blue Ash, Ohio on February 5, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / MANDEL NGAN (Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)

Trump: Democrats' SOTU reactions 'treasonous'

News Conference 01/31 10:00 am HVC Studio A DL Pelosi, Dem Caucus Chair Crowley, V-Chair Sanchez et al post-caucus avail. Access studio via HVC-117 (Caucus starts @ 9 am in HVC-215)

Pelosi: Trump stooped to new low in SOTU

Sarah Sanders Pelosi smile sot Newday_00002301.jpg

Sarah Sanders says Pelosi should smile more

Ryan Holets

Cop reacts to Trump's 'stunning' SOTU comment

Late night clowns Trump's speech

Watch Democrats react to Trump's address

Washington (CNN)An Illinois Democrat who was seriously wounded in Iraq derisively referred to President Donald Trump's draft deferments after Trump called Democrats "treasonous" for not clapping during his State of the Union speech.

"We don't live in a dictatorship or a monarchy. I swore an oath—in the military and in the Senate—to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, not to mindlessly cater to the whims of Cadet Bone Spurs and clap when he demands I clap," Sen. Tammy Duckworth tweeted Monday evening.

Duckworth, an Army veteran who lost her legs while serving in Iraq, appeared to be referencing Trump's draft deferments. Trump received five draft deferments throughout the Vietnam War, and on one occasion, Trump received a deferment because of bone spurs.

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On Monday, Trump called out Democrats' behavior at his speech last week.

"They were like death and un-American. Un-American. Somebody said, 'Treasonous.' I mean, yeah, I guess, why not," Trump said, adding, "Can we call that treason? Why not."

This isn't the first time Duckworth has pointed out Trump's draft deferments. Last month, she brought it up on the Senate floor.

"I spent my entire adult life looking out for the well-being, the training, the equipping of the troops for whom I was responsible. I will not be lectured about what our military needs by a five-deferment draft dodger," Duckworth said at the time.

Julian Assange UK arrest warrant is still valid, court rules in blow to freedom bid - Telegraph

Julian Assange UK arrest warrant is still valid, court rules in blow to freedom bid

Wondering which applications to move to the cloud?

In this edition of the Enterprise Cloud Strategy e-book, discover the comprehensive information you need to establish and execute an ente...

6 FEBRUARY 2018 • 2:21PM

The British arrest warrant against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is still valid, a court has ruled in a blow to his fresh bid for freedom.

He has been living inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for more than five years following a sex assault-related case brought by the Swedish prosecutors.

Those investigations have since been dropped, so Mr Assange maintained the arrest warrant - under which he would be detained for breaching his former bail conditions if he left the embassy - was no longer valid.

His lawyers made an application at Westminster Magistrates' Court last month for the UK warrant to be withdrawn, saying it had "lost its purpose and its function".

Senior district judge Emma Arbuthnot gave her ruling on Tuesday afternoon, although either side can appeal against the decision.

Mr Assange believes he will be extradited to the United States if he leaves the embassy for questioning about the activities of WikiLeaks.

His lawyers point out that the UK authorities refuse to confirm or deny whether or not a US extradition warrant has been received.

Mr Assange entered the embassy in June 2012 after skipping bail. Last month, the court heard he was suffering from depression, a frozen shoulder and toothache.

Who is Julian Assange?

by Henry Samuel and Harriet Alexander

Julian Assange - born Julian Paul Hawkins on July 3 1971 - is the founder of WikiLeaks, a website set up to allow whistleblowers to release anonymous documents.

The 45-year-old Australian computer hacker started the site in 2006.

But it was not until the publication of information about the US military, leaked by Chelsea Manning, that WikiLeaks and its editor-in-chief became household names.

Among the leaks were a video entitled Collateral Murder, showing unarmed Iraqis being gunned down by an American helicopters; the Iraq and Afghanistan war logs, which revealed the true human cost of the conflicts; and over 250,000 diplomatic cables, which shone an uncomfortable spotlight on US foreign policy.

Assange speaks during a news conference at the Ecuadorian embassy

Julian Assange speaks during a news conference at the Ecuadorian embassy in 2014 CREDIT: REUTERS

Mr Assange has since been involved in the publication of material documenting extrajudicial killings in Kenya, a report on toxic waste dumping on the Ivory Coast, Church of Scientology manuals, Guantanamo Bay detention camp procedures and material involving large banks such as Kaupthing and Julius Baer.

His work brought him international fame - at one point, there were five major films about WikiLeaks in development. Two were eventually made: We Steal Secrets, a documentary, and The Fifth Estate, starring Benedict Cumberbatch. Mr Assange spoke out against both films, and in a letter to Cumberbatch said that The Fifth Estate "vilifies and marginalises a living political refugee to the benefit of an entrenched, corrupt and dangerous state".

He travelled the world speaking about WikiLeaks and his work, and became something of a hero to anti-establishment activists.

How did he end up inside the Ecuadorian embassy?

The saga began in Sweden. Mr Assange was in the country in August 2010 to speak at a conference.

While he was there, he met two women and had sex with them. They later filed complaints of rape and molestation - accusations that he denied. Mr Assange was questioned but never charged and left the country.

On November 20, Interpol issued a Red Notice for Mr Assange's arrest. A week later he gave himself up, appeared before a judge in Westminster, and in December 2010 was granted bail after his supporters paid £240,000 in cash and sureties.

Legal wrangling in the UK continued until June 2012, with the Swedish prosecutors calling for him to be extradited, and Mr Assange's lawyers saying that if he was sent to Sweden he would be at risk of then being extradited to the US.

Assange gives a press conference on the balcony of the Ecuadorean Embassy in Knightsbridge in Feb 2016

On June 19, 2012, he fled bail and applied for asylum in Ecuador, through the embassy in Knightsbridge. But police encircled the embassy and refused to allow him to leave: the UK says its courts have ruled he must be sent to Sweden.

Ecuador granted him asylum in August 2012. He has been inside the embassy ever since.

"I am entirely innocent," Assange wrote in a 19-page testimony released in December 2016.

He argues that the sex was consensual and has denounced the accusations as "politically motivated".

Could Britain extradite Assange to the US?

If the US government wishes to extradite Assange, it would need to be in a position to charge him and have an indictment signed off.

Officials could then apply for a provisional arrest warrant, which could be issued in a matter of hours.

The US authorities would then have a further 65 days to apply for a full extradition warrant, putting forward the grounds on which they wish to charge him.

The extradition process could then begin, which could take several months as lawyers for Assange argue why he should not answer the charges in the US.

If no indictment has been drafted, the American authorities could be in a race against time to complete the legal process before Assange completes any sentence he is handed in Britain for breaching bail.

Ex-Goldman Volatility Trader Sees More Blood Before Rout Ends - Bloomberg

Ex-Goldman Volatility Trader Sees More Blood Before Rout Ends

By Min Jeong Lee

February 6, 2018, 3:09 PM GMT+11

Yamada says it’s hard to gauge the amount of short-vol trades

Says slump will eventually end because fundamentals aren’t bad

Makoto Yamada, who traded index-linked derivatives including volatility at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. before joining a Japanese brokerage, sees more pain before the stock rout ends.

For Yamada, who’s now head of equity trading at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc., investors have been shorting volatility without realizing what impact it would have on the market. Now, as those trades are being systematically unwound, it’s dragging down U.S. stock indexes.

“Nobody probably knows how much of these bets are out there,” Yamada said in a phone interview from Tokyo. “Stocks are having to be sold after prices move by a certain extent, like 3 percent or 4 percent. This is really shaking up the markets.”

Estimates of how much money is tied up in instruments that profit from lower equity turbulence differ, but one estimate from Chris Cole of Artemis Capital Advisers puts the total at more than $2 trillion. The Cboe Volatility Index jumped to 38.8 on Monday, its highest since August 2015, spurring investors to unwind their trades.

For Yamada, who joined SMBC Nikko in 2015, stock prices are becoming divorced from their true value, but the downturn won’t stop until such trades are covered. In one positive sign, VIX futures pared declines in Asian trading on Tuesday.

“The drop will stop somewhere because fundamentals aren’t bad at all,” Yamada said. “But it won’t stop until the pus is lanced from the boil.”

— With assistance by Rachel Evans, and Elena Popina

U.S. warns on growing nuclear arsenals of China, Russia, North Korea - Reuters

FEBRUARY 6, 2018 / 9:01 PM / UPDATED 41 MINUTES AGO

U.S. warns on growing nuclear arsenals of China, Russia, North Korea

Reuters Staff

GENEVA (Reuters) - North Korea may be only months away from being able to strike the United States with a nuclear-tipped ballistic missile and its atomic weapons program must be shut down, a senior U.S. disarmament official said on Tuesday.

U.S. disarmament ambassador Robert Wood, addressing the U.N.-sponsored Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, also warned that arsenals in China and Russia were expanding.

“Russia, China and North Korea are growing their stockpiles, increasing the prominence of nuclear weapons in their security strategies, and - in some cases - pursuing the development of new nuclear capabilities to threaten other peaceful nations,” he said.

North Korea “may now be only months away from the capability to strike the U.S. with nuclear-armed ballistic missiles”.

Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Alison Williams

BIS Chief Sees ‘Strong Case’ for Cryptocurrency Intervention - Bloomberg

BIS Chief Sees ‘Strong Case’ for Cryptocurrency Intervention

By Catherine Bosley and Alessandro Speciale

February 6, 2018, 8:00 PM GMT+11 Updated on February 6, 2018, 8:34 PM GMT+11

From

Carstens says central banks, regulators may need to act

Digital currencies may reshape financial system, abet crime

There is a “strong case” for authorities to rein in digital currencies because of their links to the established financial system, Bank for International Settlements General Manager Agustin Carstens said.

In his first major public speech as head of the Basel, Switzerland-based institution, Carstens argued that central banks -- along with finance ministries, tax offices and financial market regulators -- should police the “digital frontier.” He said they must ensure a level playing field and functioning payment systems, and safeguard the “real value” of money.

The value of cryptocurrencies soared in 2017 before slumping, with Bitcoin losing two-thirds of its value since mid-December. The biggest virtual currency sank 8 percent to $6,482 at 10:31 a.m. Frankfurt time, after earlier sliding to as low as $5,922, according to Bloomberg composite pricing.

Agustin CarstensPhotographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

“Bitcoin is not functional as a means of payment, but it relies on the oxygen provided by the connection to standard means of payments and trading apps that link users to conventional bank accounts,” Carstens said in Frankfurt on Tuesday. “If the only ‘business case’ is use for illicit or illegal transactions, central banks cannot allow such tokens to rely on much of the same institutional infrastructure that serves the overall financial system and freeload on the trust that it provides.”

For a QuickTake on bitcoin and blockchain, click here.

While cryptocurrency technology has the potential to reshape global finance, concerns have been raised about its volatility and the appeal to criminals. The BIS helps central banks pursue monetary and financial stability and Carstens, who took over late last year after leading Mexico’s central bank, joins a list of officials expressing reservations.

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi told European lawmakers on Monday evening that digital currencies should be seen as “very risky” unregulated assets, and that the bank-supervision arm of the ECB is studying whether euro-area lenders are too exposed.

At last month’s World Economic Forum in Davos, ECB Executive Board member Benoit Coeure urged Group of 20 nations to discuss ways to regulate Bitcoin at their March meeting, and U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May promised to consider clamping down.

In the U.S., Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton will call attention to potentially dangerous gaps in rules for trading digital currencies when they appear on Tuesday at a Senate Banking Committee hearing, according to copies of their testimony obtained by Bloomberg.

ECB policy maker Yves Mersch will speak about digital currencies and their underlying technology at a lecture in London on Thursday.

Modern Debasement

The developers of cryptocurrencies portray them as immune to dilution by governments and central banks because the number of coins in circulation is fixed. Yet Carstens said the proliferation of spinoffs is effectively a modern-day equivalent of currency debasement.

While noting that many people don’t consider them to be a systemic threat because of their still-niche role, he warned that could change quickly.

“If authorities do not act pre-emptively, cryptocurrencies could become more interconnected with the main financial system and become a threat,” he said. “Most importantly, the meteoric rise of cryptocurrencies should not make us forget the important role central banks play as stewards of public trust. Private digital tokens masquerading as currencies must not subvert this trust.”

Donald Trump accuses Democrats of 'treason' for not clapping economic gains during State of the Union - Telegraph

Donald Trump accuses Democrats of 'treason' for not clapping economic gains during State of the Union

Donald Trump delivers his divisive comments at a manufacturing plant in Blue Ash, Ohio

Donald Trump delivers his divisive comments at a manufacturing plant in Blue Ash, Ohio

Our Foreign Staff

6 FEBRUARY 2018 • 4:32AM

President Donald Trump accused Democrats of treason on Monday, accusing them of “un-American” behaviour for failing to applaud economic gains during his State of the Union address.

His extraordinary outburst takes the country’s polarised politics to a new low.

He levelled the allegations at his political opponents as he addressed an audience in Ohio during a day when the year’s stock market gains were being wiped out by steep losses on Wall Street.

He said Republicans applauded throughout the speech in contrast to the silent Democrats, even as he celebrated historically low levels of unemployment among African-Americans.

"They were like death and un-American," he said . "Somebody said 'treasonous'. I mean, eh. I guess, why not? Can we call that treason, why not? I mean they certainly didn't seem to love our country very much.”

Treason is a capital offense and punishable by death in the United States.

Democrats gave Trump a decidedly cool reaction during the State of the Union. While falling unemployment has begun to lift wages, business executives are mixed on how much to credit Mr Trump and how much of the success is down to Barack Obama, his predecessor.

Jeff Merkley, a Democratic senator for Oregon, was unimpressed with the criticism.

@SenJeffMerkley

.@realDonaldTrump: “Treasonous” means betraying your country – like, say, if someone colluded with Russia to influence American elections. The freedom not to clap for ideas you disagree with is called the 1st Amendment. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-tags-democrats-treasonous-un-american-muted-sotu-reaction-n844851 …

9:43 AM - Feb 6, 2018

Over the past four years, the US economy has added 10 million jobs and the overall unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest level since 2000. Wage growth, however, has been sluggish, although it has shown signs of picking up recently.

During last Tuesday's address, the president touted his tax cuts and regulation rollbacks as the reason Americans are finally seeing more wages after "years and years" of stagnation.

"Every American should be alarmed by how @realDonaldTrump is working to make loyalty to him synonymous with loyalty to our country," Representative Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in the House of Representatives, said in a tweet. "That is not how democracy works."

Photos show Beijing’s militarisation of South China Sea in new detail - Guardian

Photos show Beijing’s militarisation of South China Sea in new detail

China accused of building ‘island fortresses’ as Filipino newspaper obtains images of strategic area

Tom Phillips in Beijing

Tue 6 Feb 2018 21.09 AEDT Last modified on Tue 6 Feb 2018 21.20 AEDT

An aerial picture of Chinese construction activities in the South China Sea

Beijing has been accused of building “island fortresses” in the South China Sea after a newspaper in the Philippines obtained aerial photographs offering what experts called the most detailed glimpse yet of China’s militarisation of the strategic waterway.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer said the surveillance photographs – passed to its reporters by an unnamed source – had been mostly taken between June and December last year and showed Chinese construction activities across the disputed Spratly archipelago between the Philippines and Vietnam.

Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have overlapping claims in the region.

The Inquirer said the images showed an “unrestrained” building campaign designed to project Chinese power across the resource-rich shipping route through which trillions of dollars of global trade flows each year.

Installations on Johnson South Reef

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Installations on Johnson South Reef. Photograph: Inquirer.net/Philippine Daily Inquirer

Some photographs show cargo ships and supply vessels, which the newspaper said appeared to be delivering construction materials to the China-controlled islands.

Others show runways, hangars, control towers, helipads and radomes as well as a series of multistorey buildings that China has built on reefs such as Fiery Cross, Subi, Mischief, McKennan, Johnson South, Gaven and Cuarteron.

The Inquirer described the reefs as “island fortresses”. Bonnie Glaser, an expert in Asia-Pacific security issues from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, called the images “the most complete, detailed batch of aerial pics available” of China’s military outposts in the South China Sea.

Bonnie Glaser / 葛来仪

@BonnieGlaser

EXCLUSIVE: New photos show China is nearly done with its militarization of South China Sea http://www.inquirer.net/specials/exclusive-china-militarization-south-china-sea …. This is the most complete, detailed batch of aerial pics available of China's SCS military outposts.

Ties between the two Asian countries have warmed since Rodrigo Duterte, thje Philippines president, took power in 2016 and set about forging a lucrative new alliance with China during a four-day state visit to Beijing.

Images from the Philippine Daily Inquirer showing Mischief Reef

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Images from the Philippine Daily Inquirer showing Mischief Reef. Photograph: Inquirer.net/Philippine Daily Inquirer

Responding to questions about the photographs, the presidential spokesman, Harry Roque, told reporters: “[The region has] long been militarised. And the question is, what can we do?”

He reportedly added: “What do you want us to do? We cannot declare war.”

Opposition figures hit back, accusing Duterte’s administration of betraying their “sacred core duty” to defend their country’s territory.

Experts interviewed by China’s Communist party press also shrugged off the photographs, suggesting they showed mostly civilian installations.

Fiery Cross Reef in the South China Sea

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Fiery Cross Reef. Photograph: Inquirer.net/Philippine Daily Inquirer

“Civilian facility construction is the major focus of the South China Sea islands building and the portion of defence deployment is relatively small,” Chen Xiangmiao, from the state-run National Institute for South China Sea Studies, told the Global Times.

Another Chinese expert, Zhuang Guotu, accused foreign journalists of “hyping” Beijing’s activities in the South China Sea, but added: “China has the right to build whatever it needs within its territory.” Zhuang claimed China’s military deployment was not for military expansion, but about defending its security and interests.

The photographs were published just a few weeks after a report claimed China had created military facilities about four times the size of Buckingham Palace on contested South China Sea islands.