Trump harming US national security by giving Saudis ‘anything they want’ like nuclear tech

A picture taken on October 22, 2018 shows portraits of Saudi King Salman (R) and his son Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman displayed in Riyadh. (file photo)

Islam Times - US President Donald Trump’s closeness with Saudi Arabia is harming American national security, says a top senator, slamming the commander in chief’s seven-time approval of nuclear tech transfer to the kingdom, twice in the wake of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder.

American Senator Tim Kaine made the comments in a statement released Tuesday, Politico reported.

“President Trump’s eagerness to give the Saudis anything they want, over bipartisan congressional objection, harms American national security interests and is one of many steps the administration is taking that is fueling a dangerous escalation of tension in the region,” said the Virginia Democrat.

Only 16 days after the dissident Saudi journalist was brutally murdered inside the monarchy’s consulate in Istanbul, the US president made one of the approvals on October 18, 2018. A second one was made on February 18 of the same year.

Despite the heinous murder and dismembering of the Washington Post journalist, which the CIA believes was directed by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Trump bypassed Congress last month to sell even more arms to Saudi Arabia.

The Trump administration has remained a staunch supporter of Riyadh even as a humanitarian crisis is underway in Yemen, under aggression from the neighboring kingdom.

Trump has also disregarded the CIA’s assessment about the role the Saudi de facto ruler, bin Salman, played in the murder at the Saudi consulate.

Khashoggi was killed and his body was dismembered by a Saudi hit squad after being lured into the consulate on October 2, 2018.

Kushner advised MbS on how to weather Khashoggi murder: NYT

From left: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, US President Donald Trump, and his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner

Islam Times - US President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser has reportedly continued to have private contacts with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) following the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Citing two former senior American officials and the two people briefed by the Saudis, The New York Times reported on Saturday that Jared Kushner became bin Salman’s "most important defender inside the White House."

Kushner maintained his support for MbS and their personal bond continued despite revelations that Khashoggi was killed and dismembered inside Riyadh’s Istanbul consulate in early October on the orders of the heir to the Saudi throne.

Kushner even offered the Saudi crown prince advice about how to weather the storm caused by Khashoggi's assassination, urging him to resolve his conflicts in the region and avoid further embarrassments.

"Mr. Kushner’s support for Prince Mohammed in the moment of crisis is a striking demonstration of a singular bond that has helped draw President Trump into an embrace of Saudi Arabia as one of his most important international allies," the report said.

According to The New York Times, the two men call each other by their first names in text messages and phone calls.

Reviewing documents, emails and messages, the report said bin Salman and his advisers had cultivated the relationship with Kushner for more than two years in a bid to enlist American support for the Saudi prince's hawkish regional policies and consolidation of power.

Before Trump's inauguration, the Saudis were trying to position themselves as essential allies who could help his administration honor its campaign pledges, the report said.

The Saudis, it added, offered help to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well as hundreds of billions of dollars in deals to buy American weapons and invest in American infrastructure.

"A delegation of Saudis close to the prince visited the United States as early as the month Mr. Trump was elected, the documents show, and brought back a report identifying Mr. Kushner as a crucial focal point in the courtship of the new administration," the report noted.

In a slide presentation obtained by Lebanon's Al Akhbar daily, the Saudi delegation commented about Trump's incoming administration.

“The inner circle is predominantly deal makers who lack familiarity with political customs and deep institutions, and they support Jared Kushner," the delegation observed.

Martin Indyk, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and an ex-Middle East envoy, said the relationship between Kushner and MbS constitutes the foundation of the Trump policy not just toward Saudi Arabia but toward the region.

Washington’s reliance on the Saudis in the so-called Middle East peace process and its backing for the deadly Saudi war on Yemen have all grown out of “that bromance" between Kushner and bin Salman, he said.

Trump has avoided rebuking Saudi Arabia over Khashoggi's murder and vowed to stand with its ally, citing lucrative arms deals among the reasons for his support.

COVID-19 PORN

Billionaire John McAfee 'Arrested' for Wearing Thong as Face Mask

© Photo : John McAfee / twitter

VIRAL

13.08.2020
by Evgeny Mikhaylov

Pictures of the fugitive American billionaire show him wearing black underwear on his face, which he refused to take off for his "health's sake".

Billionaire John McAfee claims he was arrested for using a lace thong as a face mask. The eccentric tycoon was planning to attend the "Red Scarf Society" in Munich, but then cancelled the meeting, tweeting about his detention and mocking coronavirus regulations.
"I am being detained in Norway. Trivial issue but waiting for high level beaurocrats [sic] to arrive. Slow b******s, as you know", he wrote on Twitter.

I was jailed:

Why?

Visited Catalonia just before Europe banned Catalonians from travelling.

Tried to return to Germany and were refused entrance. They demanded we wear masks.

I put on my thong mask.

They demanded I replace it. I refused.

Tussle. Jail. Black eye. Released. pic.twitter.com/B8SW2VBzSm— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) August 11, 2020

​The billionaire's wife Janice Dyson took over his account, describing the situation, and stressing that McAfee "was arrested for what he believes" and joking about possible ways for him to be released.

Going to have to cancel the Red Scarf Society meeting.

I am so sorry.

Note to future adventurers:

Always joke with you captors. No matter what. pic.twitter.com/aKgq65Fjqx— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) August 10, 2020

​Later, the tycoon said he was released after 14 hours in jail and then travelled to Belarus.

McAfee, who is the founder of McAfee LLC and several other businesses, confronted law enforcement in various countries on multiple occasions. The fugitive tycoon claims he is wanted in the United States "as a criminal" for murder, money laundering, and tax evasion; however, he previously decided to run in the 2020 presidential election for the US Libertarian Party.

POTUS Claims G. Washington ‘Would Have Had a Hard Time’ to Beat Him in Election, Ignites Twitter

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly blamed the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which started in China in late-December 2019, for his declining poll statistics, as his administration faces heavy criticism over its handling of a crisis where over 5 million Americans have been infected with the disease and at least 164,603 have died.

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that George Washington, the first US president and one of the founding fathers of the United States, “would have had a hard time” to win against him in a presidential election, before the coronavirus pandemic.

“I don’t know if you’ve seen. The polls have been going up like a rocket ship. George Washington would have had a hard time beating me before the plague came in, before the China plague,” Trump declared during a Tuesday radio interview. “And then, you know, like every other nation, like other countries, when you get hit, it affects you, and we went down a little bit”


Netizens met Trump’s remarks with satire and mockery, with some questioning whether he “knows who George Washington was”.


I’m surprised he knows who Washington was. 🤣
— K Hawley (@kphcolumbia) August 11, 2020


So either he is extremely high today or this is trying to distract from the fact that the Flynn hearing is going poorly for him.
— Evan (@CV6BigE) August 11, 2020


IMPOTUS takes malignant narcissism to another level!
— Mia Michaels (@dona17_mc) August 11, 2020


Other Twitter users mocked Trump bragging that he could win an election against someone who has been "DEAD for over 200 years".

"Uh....Um...do I even need to point out what is wrong with this statement? Um, Trump, George Washington isn't running against you in the 2020 election. He's kind of been, uh, you know, DEAD for over 200 years," according to a tweet.


Uh....Um...do I even need to point out what is wrong with this statement? Um, Trump, George Washington isn't running against you in the 2020 election. He's kind of been, uh, you know, DEAD for over 200 years.
— Kat Holmes (@KatHolmes130) August 11, 2020


Not only would George Washington have easily beaten Trump in an election, he would have easily beaten him with his fists and any improvised weapon within reach. https://t.co/nVbTtGwlYK
— Andy Rivkin (@asrivkin) August 11, 2020


George Washington would have dueled Trump before the election because of his mouth. Trump would have been dispensed with by the founders just like Burr.... but sooner.
— Fired Brad Parscale!💀 (@Tacticus22) August 11, 2020

For one, not true. Second, presidents typically get a huge bump during a crisis because Americans look for strong leadership. But it requires being straight with us like FDR. Finally, it goes to show that there is more than just a strong economy(which started under Obama).
— Punk Rock Litigator (@PunkLitigator) August 11, 2020

Washington kept a starving army together by force of will, invented the presidency, signed the Constitution, surveyed a frontier, taught himself everything he knew, and died universally loved. What have you done to surpass this?
— Matthew Hines (@MatthewGHines) August 11, 2020

Please let this end soon...He makes my stomach turn!
— Concetta (@conbontalk) August 11, 2020

Let’s see. George Washington served in the military. George Washington never wanted to be a king/dictator. He never lied compared to your now 20,000+ lies. He was a humble and kind man. Plus, George Washington NEVER played this much golf!!!
— Ron & Deb (@rdcastagna) August 11, 2020


Trump’s poll numbers have significantly dropped during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic over his administration’s handling of the virus outbreak in the country, where more than 164,600 Americans have died of the disease.


The president’s approval rating in the RealClearPolitics index of polls dropped from 47.3 percent in late March, the beginning of the outbreak in the US, down to 41.1 percent in early July, according to The Hill. However, as of Tuesday, his approval, according to the site, stood at 43 percent.
Trump-Biden Presidential Debates


During the radio show, Trump said he might encounter difficulty during the 2020 US presidential debates against presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, who the president said “wasn’t smart”.


“If [Biden] goes and debates, if he said 'Yes, I had a wonderful breakfast, thank you for asking the question,' they’ll give him, they’ll say it was one of the greatest answers in history. So you know, I know what I’m up against, and I had a smaller dose of it with Hillary [Clinton]. But Hillary was smart. Joe was never smart. Joe wasn’t smart in prime time,” Trump stated.


Trump and Biden are scheduled to face each other in three debates in October, ahead of the 3 November presidential vote.


In June, Biden led Trump by more than 10 points in the RealClearPolitics average index. In the meantime, the Democratic presidential hopeful leads the Republican president by 7.2 points.

Show host Hugh Hewitt could be heard laughing in response to the president’s claims.

The Harvard Professor Who Told the World That Jesus Had a Wife

Ariel Sabar Credit...Mary Beth Meehan

By Mark Oppenheimer
Aug. 11, 2020

VERITAS
A Harvard Professor, A Con Man and the Gospel of Jesus’s Wife
By Ariel Sabar

In 2012, the Harvard scholar Karen King announced what she believed to be an extraordinary discovery: a second-century papyrus fragment with a text hinting that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene. “The Gospel of Jesus’ Wife,” as it became known, tapped into a plot point from “The Da Vinci Code” that had already helped King’s academic treatise on Mary Magdalene become a best seller with a mass audience.

This “gospel” was worldwide news — before skeptical papyrologists and grammarians, in one case drawing on the research of an amateur Coptic obsessive working in his Macomb, Mich., basement, showed it to be a complete fake. King was mum on who the stranger from Florida was who had given her the fragment, but the writer Ariel Sabar, using sophisticated tools like Google, uncovered that it was one Walter Fritz, a former director of the Stasi Museum in East Germany with a fake Egyptology degree whose businesses included charging for online videos of his wife having sex with other men, and who, more than three weeks before King’s bombshell announcement about the papyrus, had registered the web domain gospelofjesuswife.com

Mark Oppenheimer’s book about the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh will be published next summer.

VERITAS
A Harvard Professor, A Con Man and the Gospel of Jesus’s Wife
By Ariel Sabar
416 pp. Doubleday. $29.95

PAYWALL

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/11/books/review/veritas-ariel-sabar.html

Indigenous Australians 'farmed bananas 2,000 years ago'

• 12 August 2020Share this with FacebookShare this with MessengerShare this with TwitShare this with Emai

Image copyrightANU

Image captionAncient banana cultivation sites were found on Mabuyag Island

Archaeologists say they have found ancient banana farms once managed by Australia's Indigenous peoples.

The sites, which date back 2,145 years, were found on a tiny island north of the mainland in the Torres Strait.

Researchers found banana microfossils, stone tools, charcoal and a series of retaining walls at the site.

It further dispels the myth that Australia's native peoples were solely "hunter-gatherers", researchers said.

The findings from Mabuyag Island were released by a team from the Australian National University and the University of Sydney on Wednesday.

"Our research shows the ancestors of the Goegmulgal people of Mabuyag were engaged in complex and diverse cultivation and horticultural practices in the western Torres Strait at least 2,000 years ago," lead researcher Robert Williams said.

• Australia's oldest human remains head home
• Mining firm halts plan to disturb Aboriginal sites

He said the Torres Strait had been historically viewed as a "separating line" between Indigenous groups in New Guinea - now part of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea - who practiced agriculture, and those in Australia who were labelled "hunter gatherers".

But the findings show that the strait was "more of a bridge or a filter" for horticultural practices across both regions, said Mr Williams.

Image copyrightANU

Image captionThe archaeologists found gardening tools as well as retaining walls at the site

The agricultural system reflected the local regional diet at the time which included staples such as yams, taro and bananas.

"Food is an important part of Indigenous culture and identity and this research shows the age and time depth of these practices," said Mr Williams.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are widely misconceived to have been nomadic hunter-gatherers in the time before British colonisation.

Historians have argued that the British denied evidence of Indigenous agriculture systems so they could claim the land was unsettled and unoccupied.

• Why Aboriginal planners say the bush 'needs to burn'
• Aboriginal Australians 'still suffering effects of colonial past'

Ancient Indigenous land care practices are still not widely known in Australia.

But research in past decade has shed some light on pre-colonial agriculture, engineering and construction practices of the first Australians.

Stunning 'reverse waterfall' filmed near Sydney

High winds and torrential rain on the New South Wales south coast in Australia have resulted in a spectacular sight - waterfalls in the Royal National Park being blown in reverse.

Not enough bright orange clay in Mt Rushmore to add your face to it, Donald Trump told

Monday 10 August 2020 by Pete Redfern

The geological composition of Mount Rushmore would not fairly portray Donald Trump’s likeness, the President has been told today.

After asking if he could have his face added to the landmark, those in charge of preserving the monument were forced to tell him it wouldn’t work out, after they had eventually stopped laughing.

“There are a number of factors which influence whether someone can be added to the monument,” explained Chuck Williams, head of Mount Rushmore’s tourism board.

“Little things – like having achieved something noteworthy for the betterment of life in America at any point in your presidency, instead of killing 1,000 Americans per day, and not having a face that looks like a sunburned tangerine.

“The Trump presidency will definitely go down in the record books, and will be studied by academics for generations to come – but what it won’t be, is looked at as a golden era led by a very stable genius.

“There are at least 150 other people ahead of him in the queue, and we’ve only had 45 presidents.”

The logistics of creating a Trump likeness in Mount Rushmore would also prove difficult to overcome.

Williams went on, “Try and imagine just how much bright orange clay we’d have to slap on the mountain to do him justice.

“And that’s before you get to his hair. We’d have to find some wild, wavy, blonde-ish grey scrubs to add to the top, but even then that would be an improvement on how he actually looks.”

He concluded, “Mind you, it would be good to update it a bit. Perhaps we’ll chisel Barack Obama’s beautiful visage on the mountain for a laugh, just to see the look on Trump’s face.”

https://newsthump.com/2020/08/10/not-enough-bright-orange-clay-in-mt-rushmore-to-add-your-face-to-it-donald-trump-told/

Mike Pence demands on-stage chaperone for VP debate with Kamala Harris
WELL IT COULD BE TRUE
Tuesday 11 August 2020


After Joe Biden selected Californian Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate for the November presidential election, Mike Pence wasted no time in demanding a chaperone for the VP debates to ensure he is not alone with her on stage at any point during the proceedings.

The Republican party have been left shocked at the announcement of Harris as Biden’s running mate, as it exposes Pence’s Achilles heel – women.

A GOP spokesperson told us, “We’ll be working with Vice President from now until the debates on mental exercises to picture Kamala Harris as a two-hundred-pound white man that he is entirely comfortable to be around.

“We also believe that at this point he is in discussions with Mrs Mike Pence to secure her permission to talk solely to another woman for a period of up to an hour.

“We’ve no idea what’ll happen if she says ‘no’. Maybe she’ll be up on the stage with him, giving dirty looks to Kamala Harris for trying to seduce her husband into unwanted verbal pleasantries.”

Pence has also asked that the traditional handshake be taken off the agenda, insisting physical conduct with a woman who is not his wife could lead to several hours of prayer when he should be supporting his President by doing the things that he does.

https://newsthump.com/2020/08/11/mike-pence-demands-on-stage-chaperone-for-vp-debate-with-kamala-harris/

KAPITAL FLIGHT
Prudential slashes dividend as it retreats from the US: Insurer to focus on fast-growing markets in Asia and Africa
TRUMP SCARES FINANCE CAPITAL OFFSHORE

By MATT OLIVER FOR THE DAILY MAIL
11 August 2020

Insurance giant Prudential slashed the dividend in half as it announced plans to spin off its American business.

The FTSE 100 firm plans to float a minority stake in Michigan-based Jackson National Life, before gradually selling the rest of its holding over time.

Bosses said the shake-up will allow the Pru to focus on fast-growing markets in Asia and Africa.


Prudential plans to float a minority stake in Michigan-based Jackson National Life, before gradually selling the rest of its holding over time

But the company is cutting its prized dividend as part of the changes, to give it extra firepower to invest in Asia and enable Jackson to build up its own cash reserves before separation.

It is a blow to savers and pension funds who rely on dividends for income. The Pru is traditionally one of the top-20 dividend UK payers.

Other firms that have slashed their payouts include BP, Shell, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, Glencore and Aviva.

The small number of companies that kept their divis includes Legal & General, Standard Life Aberdeen and Unilever.

Pru boss Mike Wells said: 'To support the separation process Prudential will adopt a new dividend policy that is aligned to the Asia and Africa growth strategy and to the intended separation of Jackson.'

It is the second major upheaval announced by the Pru in as many years. In 2018, the British firm revealed plans to spin off UK business M&G into a separate listed company and the split took effect last October.

Jackson will be separated as well – but listed in the US, where it is expected to float next year.

The rest of the Pru's business will be based in London and it will keep its primary listing on the London Stock Exchange.
Wells said the 'rebalancing' of investments with the dividend was aimed at delivering strong growth and bumper profits in the long run.

The Pru declared a half-year dividend of 5.37 cents (4.1p) per share, 56 per cent down from the previously expected payout of 12.28 cents (9.4p).

445 firms who have cut their payouts


A total of 445 companies cut, cancelled or hit the pause button on dividends between January and late July, figures show.

Firms of all sizes desperately tried to rein in spending at the start of the pandemic. But this has been dire for pensioners, savers and retail investors as they have been deprived of a key source of passive income.

Fifty firms in the FTSE 100, 108 in the FTSE 250 and 89 small-caps were among those who suspended, trimmed or scrapped shareholder payouts between January 1 and July 24, according to exchange-traded fund provider Granite Shares. Some 139 companies on AIM also axed their divi.

On the Footsie, oil majors BP and Royal Dutch Shell made cuts, and Lloyds Bank, Barclays and Rolls-Royce have added to the misery.

Firms including Rio Tinto and BAE Systems are among those to have increased their payouts.

It expects to pay another 10.70 cents (8.2p) per share later in the year, taking full-year payouts to about 16.10 cents (12.3p) – worth £321million overall.

Wells said the divi would rise 'broadly in line with the growth in Asia'.

Pru shares rose 2.8 per cent, or 35p, to 1267p yesterday.

The fresh break-up is a victory for Third Point, the aggressive US hedge fund run by corporate raider Dan Loeb, which built up a stake of 5 per cent and demanded it separate Jackson.

Loeb also called for the Pru to scrap its UK base to save costs –something it has refused to do.

Wells said that the Pru is 'committed' to the City but will make its base more 'cost-effective', as it looks to save £53million a year by 2023.

He declined to say how many jobs at the HQ, where some 200 people are employed, are at risk but said the office would be 'appropriately-sized'.