SUMMARY:President Trump lobbed a volley of verbal grenades at British Prime Minister Theresa May in a tabloid interview before he arrived in the UK, saying May had botched Brexit and praising the former foreign secretary as a potential Prime Minister. Special correspondent Ryan Chilcote joins Judy Woodruff from London to discuss the fallout from the visit.
SUMMARY: Welcome to 10 Downing Street, Theresa May. Now deal with the Brexit mess that you campaigned against. The new UK Prime Minister, who took over Wednesday from David Cameron, supported staying with the EU but the Conservative Party leader's first order of business is presiding over the divorce from Europe that British voters approved last month. Chris Ship of Independent Television News reports.
SUMMARY: Sir Peter Westmacott, the UK's former Ambassador to the United States weighs in on the past three weeks' fast-paced developments in Britain. Of the new Prime Minister, Theresa May, he describes her as grounded, no-nonsense and humble. He describes as a surprise her appointment of Boris Johnson, the pro-Brexit former mayor of London, to be foreign secretary. Gwen Ifill talks with Westmacott.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will not readily surrender power and is unlikely to do so unless chief ally Iran insists that he go, Maliki’s foes and supporters warn as pressure mounts on the embattled Iraqi leader to make concessions to rivals or step aside.
The pressure intensified Friday with an appeal by Iraq’s most revered Shiite cleric for the swift formation of a new government capable of uniting Iraqis against the threat posed by Sunni militants who have seized large chunks of Iraqi territory over the past 10 days.
Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani did not directly mention Maliki, but he called for the creation of a government that has “broad national support,” a clear reference to Maliki’s failure to win the confidence of the country’s Sunnis during his eight years in office. The message was delivered by his representative Ahmed al-Safi in the holy city of Karbala.
Sistani’s message echoed one delivered by President Obama on Thursday that hinted at a withdrawal of U.S. support for Maliki, whose authoritarian style and discriminatory behavior toward Iraq’s Sunni minority are widely blamed for the bloodshed threatening to tear the country apart.
“Only leaders that can govern with an inclusive agenda are going to be able to truly bring the Iraqi people together and help them through this crisis,” Obama said, while announcing the dispatch of as many as 300 U.S. troops to assist Maliki’s forces in their battle against Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) extremists.
However, persuading Maliki to step down could be difficult, say his political foes, who have long sought to persuade the United States that Maliki is a liability but repeatedly failed to form a viable coalition against him.
“This is not going to be easy,” said Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlak, a Sunni who has led many fruitless efforts to build parliamentary coalitions against Maliki in the past. “Maliki will not go quietly.”
Previous bids to oust Maliki through constitutional means have foundered on the inability of his foes to unite around a single alternative candidate. According to the parliamentary system of government spelled out in the constitution, drawn up under U.S. supervision in 2005, whoever commands a majority of seats in the parliament forms the government, making it theoretically possible to replace any leader by mustering the support of enough lawmakers.
A bigger obstacle to forcing Maliki’s departure, however, could be the support of Iran, which has shown no sign that it is preparing to dilute its support for the incumbent prime minister. The support includes funding and training for the private militias that back Maliki, many of whose members have taken to the streets in recent days in response to a call for arms.
I am Retired U.S. Navy (22yrs) and a Vietnam Veteran. After my Navy retirement I was in the computer related industry, now retired. In 2000 I was a registered Republican and voted for George W. Bush. Six months of having Bush in the Whitehouse forced me to re-evaluate my political stance. I had always thought of myself as a Moderate Republican, but was a Republican by "default" NOT because of close examination of the GOP. Due to what has happened in America since 2000, I now consider myself a progressive, and registered as a Non-Affiliated voter.
*Anti-First Amendment policies that attempt to turn America into a theocracy by enshrining ANY religious belief as law.
* Any attempt to suppress human or Constitutional rights.
* Any law or policy that supports discrimination based on religion, ethnicity, race/color, gender, sexual orientation, or any law that does NOT support Equal Treatment under the law.
*Any law or policy that attempts to suppress Freedom of the Press or Free Speech.
LINK DISCLAIMER:
There is no guarantee that any link provided in this blog will always work, especially for older links. The validity of any link is governed by the source-site policies. Some sites will archive articles and require subscription to access. Very small sites, such as a local town newspaper, may not archive at all.
