Top News Stories for Today – Jan 31, 2018
Top News Stories for Today – Jan 31, 2018
Trump at odds with intelligence agencies
President Trump has publicly disputed the conclusions of various government agencies in recent days, and on Wednesday said intelligence officials “should go back to school.” On Tuesday, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, CIA Director Gina Haspel, and other intelligence chiefs warned about the continued threats from the Islamic State, Russia and China, cyber-warfare, and the enduring nuclear threat from North Korea.
Though they testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee that Iran is not taking steps to develop nuclear weapons, Trump claimed Iranian officials “are testing rockets … and are coming very close to the edge.” Separately, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration seemed to fact-check Trump’s suggestion that cold weather across the US is evidence in disproving climate change. The Week, Donald J. Trump
Venezuela’s Guaido calls for international support
Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido is calling on the international community to back his efforts to force embattled President Nicolas Maduro from power and restore democracy to the South American nation.
Guaido, the president of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, declared himself interim president last week after the Assembly declared that Maduro’s re-election last May was illegitimate, as most either boycotted the race or were prevented from running. The United States has recognized Guaido as the country’s interim leader. Guaido said over 50 countries have either recognized him as interim president or the National Assembly as the legitimate authority in Venezuela, and has appealed to UN, to The New York Times, Thursday. VOA
3 US allies find way around Iran sanctions
Germany, France and Britain have officially set up a European mechanism to facilitate non-dollar trade with Iran and circumvent US sanctions, two diplomats said Thursday. The EU has been preparing the system, in effect a clearinghouse that avoids monetary transfers in dollars between the EU and Iran for months although it is unlikely to become operational for several months because of technical details.
German broadcaster NDR reported that the European Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) would be named INSTEX-Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges. The idea is for the SPV to help preserve the economic nuclear program under a 2015 deal with world powers. VOA
US, Russia nuclear treaty talks fail
Russia and the United States failed to bridge their differences over a landmark Cold War-era arms treaty at last-ditch talks in Beijing, Russia’s deputy foreign minister was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies Thursday.
The impasse sets the stage for the United States to begin pulling out of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty (INF) as early as Saturday unless Moscow moves to destroy a missile Washington says is violating the accord. Moscow has refused to destroy the Novator 9M729 missile, insisting it is fully compliant with the treaty. VOA
Deadly polar vortex hits US
Cities are all but shutting down across the US Midwest as the region shivers in a deadly cold snap known as a polar vortex. At least eight people have been killed in several states as a result of the Arctic weather. Temperatures fell to -30C (-22F) in Chicago – colder than parts of Antarctica – and -37C in North Dakota. Freezing weather will chill 250 million Americans, and 90 million will experience -17C (0F) or below.
“This could possibly be history-making,” said Ricky Castro, a National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologist in Illinois. Dangerous wind chills across the Upper Midwest and into the Ohio Valley were expected to last through Thursday, with heavy snow downwind of the Great Lakes, the NWS said.
Files on indicted Russian company leaked
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office filed a complaint on Wednesday, saying a Twitter account, in an attempt to discredit the Russia investigation, released more than 1,000 sensitive files from an active criminal case. The Mueller filing objects to a discovery request from Concord Management and Consulting, a Russian agency owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, an associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Last February, Prigozhin and Concord were indicted, accused of disrupting the 2016 election.
Concord’s legal team, from US-based law firm Reed Smith, was given access to about four million documents from Mueller’s office. In October, a Twitter account claimed to have hacked into the Mueller investigation’s database, linking to a website with 300,000 files. The FBI determined more than 1,000 had watermarks unique to materials shared with Concord during discovery. Politico via The Week