Saudi Arabia Hit with Lawsuit for Role in 9/11 Attacks & Bezos Claims Unfair Bias by Government

Via America’s Lawyer: Mike Papantonio and Trial Lawyer Magazine editor Farron Cousins put the spotlight back on Saudi Arabia, as over 25,000 9/11 victims and their families are filing suit against the Saudi government for its complicity in funding terrorist organizations. Plus, Amazon is accusing the Pentagon of improperly awarding its highly-coveted $10 billion JEDI cloud contract to Microsoft, alleging the decision was based on President Trump’s bias against Jeff Bezos. Mike Papantonio and Farron Cousins discuss more.

Divorce à Buckingham entre la famille royale et le couple Harry-Meghan

LE MONDE – ÉDITORIAL : La décision du prince et de son épouse de se mettre en retrait de la vie publique illustre les difficultés de la famille royale à renvoyer d’elle une image modernisée.

Editorial du « Monde ». La famille royale britannique joue un tel rôle dans la cohésion du Royaume-Uni, tient une telle place dans le cœur des Britanniques et dans le soft power de leur pays sur la scène internationale, que les états d’âme et les bisbilles des Windsor ne peuvent être considérés comme des vétilles. La décision, annoncée mercredi 8 janvier par Harry, deuxième fils de Charles, l’héritier de la couronne, et par son épouse, Meghan, de cesser de participer aux événements publics, principale activité des membres de la famille royale, jette le trouble à Londres. » | LeMonde | vendredi 10 janvier 2020

Boris Johnson: I Went to the Same School as Ursula van der Leyen

Boris Johnson and Ursula van der Leyen reminisced about going to the same school - the European School in Uccle, Belgium - although she left just before he joined.

It was a lighter note on a day that she warned the UK there are "tough talks ahead" in free trade negotiations over the next year.

Harry and Meghan Say They’ll 'Step Back' from Life as Senior Royals | ITV News

Harry and Meghan have signalled their intention to "step back" as senior members of the royal family and become financially independent.

The pair will continue to "fully support" the Queen, whilst splitting their time between both the United Kingdom and North America, where they have just spent several weeks on holiday.

Announcing their resignation from front line royal duties, the couple revealed the decision comes after "many months of reflection and internal discussions".

The couple will continue to "honour our duty to The Queen, the Commonwealth, and our patronages" after standing down.

Europe Should Tell US to Stop Listening to Clowns: Iran’s Zarif

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has said Europe could play a useful role in defusing tensions with the United States “by informing the US of the serious error in their analysis, and that they should stop listening to clowns”.

Zarif said that Iran's next steps will depend on the US reaction, after Iran fired missiles at two Iraqi bases hosting US troops in retaliation for the US assassination of military commander Qassem Soleimani.

Al Jazeera's Dorsa Jabbari reports from Tehran; Al Jazeera's Gabriel Elizondo reports from Washington, DC.

Ursula von der Leyen: UK Deadline Makes Full Brexit Deal Impossible

THE GUARDIAN: EU commission chief questions Johnson’s timeframe as she arrives for Downing Street talks

The president of the European commission has said it will be “impossible” for the UK to negotiate a comprehensive deal covering all aspects of Brexit within the timeframe set by Boris Johnson.

Speaking before her first face-to-face bilateral meeting with the prime minister in Downing Street on Wednesday, Ursula von der Leyen said the price of the clean-break Brexit the prime minister is pursuing was a “distant” partnership with the EU.

Unless the UK accepted a level playing field in the UK and EU’s trade positions after Brexit, there would inevitably be barriers for British manufacturing, she said in a speech at the London School of Economics.

At the same event, the EU’s Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, warned in an impromptu exchange that leaving the EU was not a simple process and involved renegotiation of “600 international agreements” as well as the new free trade agreement.

“It is basically impossible to negotiate all,” said Von der Leyen. » | Lisa O'Carroll, Brexit correspondent | Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Bernie Sanders: Trump Administration Hasn't a Clue about What It's Doing

Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders says that the letter released by mistake regarding troops in Iraq sends a message that the "Trump administration hasn't a clue about what it is doing."

Former Top Bush Official: I Saw the March to War in 2003. I’m Seeing the Same Thing with Iran Now

We look at the Trump administration’s assassination of Iran’s top military commander Qassem Soleimani with Lawrence Wilkerson, a retired United States Army colonel who served as Secretary of State Colin Powell’s chief of staff from 2002 to 2005. On February 5, 2003, he watched as Powell made the case for war in a speech to the United Nations. He has since become an outspoken critic of U.S. intervention in the Middle East. In 2018, Wilkerson wrote an article for The New York Times titled “I Helped Sell the False Choice of War Once. It’s Happening Again.”

Soleimani’s Death Could Galvanize Shia Coalitions against One “Foreign Aggressor” — The US

Fallout continues to mount following the U.S. assassination of Iran’s top military commander Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad last week. Iranian media reports that over a million mourners took to the streets of Tehran today for the funeral of Soleimani, who headed Iran’s elite Quds Force. On Sunday, Iran announced it would suspend its commitments under the landmark 2015 nuclear deal, which the U.S. pulled out of in 2018. Trump has also threatened to target 52 locations in Iran, including cultural sites, if Iran retaliates against the U.S. The targeting of cultural sites is widely viewed as an international war crime. Meanwhile, Iraq’s caretaker Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi has revealed he had plans to meet with Soleimani on the day he was killed to discuss a Saudi proposal to defuse tension in the region. From Washington, D.C., we speak with Narges Bajoghli, professor of Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University and the author of “Iran Reframed: Anxieties of Power in the Islamic Republic.”

Let’s Try and Brighten Up This Depressing, Trumpian Dystopia with This Wonderful Pop Classic by Stevie Wonder!

From ‘Songs in the Key of Life’

Trump Steps Up Rhetoric against Iran, Threatens Iraq Sanctions

US President Donald Trump ratcheted up his rhetoric with Iran and Iraq late on Sunday, warning of a "major retaliation" if Iran strikes back to avenge the US assassination of one of its top military commanders and threatening sanctions on Iraq after its parliament called on American troops to leave the country.

Asked on Air Force One about potential retaliation by Iran, Trump said: "If it happens, it happens. If they do anything, there will be major retaliation."

Al Jazeera's Gabriel Elizondo reports live from Washington, DC.

U.S. and Iran Exchange More Threats as Democrats Question Timing of Strike

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Oil prices surged and the stock market fell after President Trump ordered the killing of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani in Baghdad.

WASHINGTON — The United States and Iran exchanged escalating military threats on Friday as President Trump warned that he was “prepared to take whatever action is necessary” if Iran threatened Americans and Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, vowed to exact vengeance for the killing on Mr. Trump’s order of Iran’s most valued general.

Although the president insisted that he took the action to avoid a war with Iran, the continuing threats further rattled foreign capitals, global markets and Capitol Hill, where Democrats demanded more information about the strike and Mr. Trump’s grounds for taking such a provocative move without consulting Congress.

Democrats also pressed questions about the attack’s timing and whether it was meant to deflect attention from the president’s expected impeachment trial this month in the Senate. They said he risked suspicion that he was taking action overseas to distract from his political troubles at home, as in the political movie “Wag the Dog.” » | Michael Crowley, Peter Baker, Edward Wong and Maggie Haberman | Friday, January 3, 2020

James Ivory on ‘Call Me By Your Name’ | TIFF 2018

Legendary writer and director James Ivory (Howards End, The Remains of the Day) joins us for an extended introduction and audience Q&A to this year's art-house sensation ‘Call Me By Your Name’, a tender love story set in 1980s Italy for which he wrote the award-winning screenplay.

US Forces Kill Top Iranian General in Airstrike

US forces have killed a top Iranian general in a drone airstrike on Baghdad airport - an attack that marks a dramatic escalation of tensions with Tehran.

Iran immediately threatened a "crushing revenge" for the assassination in Iraq of Major General Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite Quds Force and spearhead of Iran's spreading military influence in the Middle East.

The Pentagon confirmed US forces had killed the general, a revered figure in the region, on Friday.

Australian PM told to '**** Off' over Handling of Bushfires

Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison was confronted by angry residents as he toured the town of Cobargo in New South Wales.

The Guardian at Tiff 2017: Cast and Crew of ‘Call Me By Your Name’

In the first of three sessions from the Toronto film festival, the team behind acclaimed gay romance Call Me by Your Name – actors Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet, and director Luca Guadagnino

Democracy Now! Top US News & World Headlines — January 2, 2020

Angela Merkel's New Year's Address: 'The 2020's Can Be Good Years' | DW News

In her annual New Year's address, German Chancellor Angela Merkel risked a glance into the new decade. She cited digitization and climate change as the central challenges of our times. According to Merkel, "Germany will only thrive in the long term if Europe thrives too."

Merkel’s New Year Speech Calls for Action on Climate and Tolerance »

The Observer View on Britain’s Future in an Uncertain and Perilous World

THE OBSERVER: Johnson will struggle to get Brexit done, let alone lead the country in an increasingly volatile age

Boris Johnson is fond of metaphors such as an “oven-ready” Brexit. He recently compared the struggle between Leave and Remain to the feuding of Montagues and Capulets. So the prime minister will readily understand, though probably not applaud, our likening of Britain in 2020 to a leaky tramp steamer heading into uncharted waters with a captain of doubtful character at the helm. Is Johnson a new Lord Jim? Time will find him out.

To say the coming year is full of challenges is a comforting way of saying Britain will be tested, perhaps to breaking point, in ways not often experienced. A critical hurdle, following Britain’s 31 January departure from the EU, is Johnson’s rash pledge to finalise a new European trading relationship by year’s end. People with experience of trade negotiations, and that excludes him, say it cannot be done, unless, of course, Britain meekly accept Europe’s demands. Any deal that fails to meet the expectations of Brexit supporters, for example, Britain’s fishermen, or does not secure the promised zero tariffs and quotas, for example, for Britain’s car industry, will be seen as proof that Johnson’s Brexit is fatally holed below the waterline. Failure to reach any agreement at all, resulting in a disastrous “no-deal” exit, would be an even bigger betrayal, especially of the working-class voters who put their faith in the Tories. » | Observer editorial | Saturday, December 28, 2019

Love – More Than a Feeling | DW Documentary

What is love? Love is more than a feeling: it is a driving force that can influence both brain and body. Recent scientific studies show how much love can really change people's lives.

Love is not only a topic in art, but also in science. Few other emotions can trump human reason like love. Love is an instinct like eating and drinking - primitive but vital. It is not romance but above all biology that brings two people together: we can identify the right partner for us by their scent, just as animals do. Recent research shows that the sense of smell, especially in women, has a significant influence on the choice of partner. Love can make wounds heal faster, lower your pulse rate and blood pressure and reduce anxiety and stress. But it can also make you sick and even kill you: "Broken Heart Syndrome” can be as dangerous as a heart attack. Love isn’t just about sex, but sex nurtures love between two people. Every touch causes the brain to release oxytocin, a hormone that triggers feelings of care and affection. And the love hormone isn’t just behind the passion of the newly smitten, but also behind the bond between parents and children and the affection for a pet. In fact, it makes social coexistence possible in the first place - for humans as well as for rats or ants. Love is above all a matter of biochemistry and scientists may one day even create a love pill in the laboratory. This science documentary shows in an entertaining way what love is, what it does to people - and how it stays alive.