Pakistan: US puts forward a motion to place Pakistan on a global terrorist-financing watchlist

(Islamabad) I bet the Pakistani Government is wishing it hadn’t made such public attack on the US after Washington withheld a load of Aid money . You know where they openly burnt pictures of President Trump on the streets, where Pakistani Bank replaced the dollar with the Chinese Yuan as its preferredcurrency of payment  and even having the gall to summon the US ambassador for a talking to.

It appears the US under President Trump is not the US under Obama which is why  he United States has put forward a motion to place Pakistan on a global terrorist-financing watchlist . Which it previously was on from 2012-2015. A senior U.S. official in the region said

“Pakistan has always been selective” in cracking down on militants who use its territory as a base. It is time for that to stop, and so we are working with our allies, who also are affected, to see effective action against groups such as the Haqqanis and elements of the Taliban.”

Pakistan’s de facto finance minister, Miftah Ismail, told Reuters that the United States and Britain put forward the motion several weeks ago, and later persuaded France and Germany to co-sponsor it.

“We are now working with the U.S., UK, Germany and France for the nomination to be withdrawn,” Ismail said, speaking by telephone from Europe. We are also quite hopeful that even if the U.S. did not withdraw the nomination that we will prevail and not be put on the watchlist.”

Its not before time at all, For years the Pakistanis have played the US (If not the world) why for a coutnry which is virtually bankrupt, its just been revealed that they are developing new types of Nukes. This a country which can't even feed its own people. Hopefully a few years of no money will force Pakistan to sever its links with Islamic terrorism.

US: President Trump says no to Transgender people in the Military

(Washington) And the ethical latte brigade aren't happy.

Migrants seek asylum in Canada to escape Donald Trump

(Canada) It appears that due to the election of President Trump, migrants in the US have decided that now is the time to relocate to Canada. In recent months, hundreds of refugees have trickled across the US border into Manitoba, which lies above North Dakota and Montana. Normally, only 40 to 60 cross each year.  The Manitoba Interfaith Immigration Council (MIIC), a non-profit organisation in Winnipeg that provides food, shelter, paralegal services and helps refugees file their asylum claims, has seen an unprecedented spike in refugees seeking their help. Rita Chahal, the executive director of MIIC stated:

"There were 21 people who crossed the border since last weekend, in January alone, we had 40 refugees]and since October to the end of January, we had 118 refugees. Those are huge numbers because in an average year we would normally see generally between 50 and 60."

Refugee claims processed at the Canada/US land border in the province of Quebec

US: Trump and NATO

(US) The political elites have made a huge song and dance about how Trump is going to let Russia rape Europe by pulling out of NATO. But that isn't what he said. He, like many other US presidents, isn't happy how so many countries hang onto the shirt tails of the US when it comes to defence. Every country in NATO is supposed to spend 2% of its GDP on defence. But for years, many countries haven't done so and instead rely on US taxpayers to defend them (usually while bitching about the US). Here is chart of how much countries belonging to NATO in Europe spend on defence. It appears that Donald is simply asking for people to pay their fair share:

Trump Warns Obama Not To Harm Israel In Closing Days; Palestinian UN Envoy Threatens Trump

Trump aides said to warn Obama against 11th hour ‘new adventures’ on Palestinian issue

Aides to US president-elect Donald Trump are reportedly warning President Barack Obama not to “even think about” trying to make a new push for progress on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the final weeks of his administration.

The outgoing president and his team “shouldn’t go seeking new adventures or pushing through policies that clearly don’t match Trump’s positions,” the Politico website reported an unnamed Trump “national security adviser” as insisting.

And that includes “efforts to bring peace to the Israelis and Palestinians — even if those initiatives are symbolic at best,” Politico wrote, noting that Trump “has made it very clear he will support Israel and its preferences.”

The Thursday report, which was headlined “Trump team warns Obama not to make major moves on foreign policy,” quoted Obama administration officials wondering about how much influence they could have on the incoming president and his team. “We are asking ourselves: Are we going to be able to have some influence on the transition team or not? There is so much unknown. Nobody really knows these people,” a State Department official was quoted as saying. “I’m not sure I need to feel defensive about what we are working on, but I think it’s important to explain it, and explain options, and to be willing to explore alternatives.”

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Palestinian UN Envoy threatens Trump: If US Moves Embassy to Jerusalem We’ll ‘Make Their Life Miserable’

Prof. Miriam Elman had a post earlier today on Donald Trump’s promise to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Israel’s capitol, U.S. Embassy: Next Year in Jerusalem?

It’s worth highlighting one piece of news in that post, via Haaretz, Palestinian UN Envoy: If Trump Moves Embassy to Jerusalem We’ll ‘Make His Life Miserable’:

The Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, said in Washington on Friday that if President-elect Donald Trump moves the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem the Palestinians would “make life miserable” for the United States at the United Nations.

“If people attack us by moving the embassy to Jerusalem, which is a violation of Security Council resolutions, it is a violation of resolution 181 of the UN general assembly that was drafted by the U.S. … it means they are showing belligerency towards us … If they do that nobody should blame us for unleashing all of the weapons that we have in the UN to defend ourselves and we have a lot of weapons in the UN,” Mansour said.

Mansour said that the Palestinian response to a move of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem could not be a Security Council resolution because the United States would veto it. “Maybe I can’t have resolutions in the Security Council but I can make their lives miserable everyday with precipitating a veto on my admission as a member state. Italy in 1949 received 3 consecutive vetoes on its admission to the UN from the Soviet Union. These are the kind of things that I can do.”

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