Grim reality of NAFTA talks sets in after tough U.S. demand

By Dave Graham and David Lawder / Reuters News

 

ARLINGTON, Va. (Reuters) - Negotiators from Canada and Mexico grappled with U.S. demands to drastically alter the North American Free Trade Agreement on Saturday, as talks over renewal of the pact vilified by President Donald Trump ran through a fourth straight day.

Some downcast participants said the demands, unveiled this week in line with Trump's "America First" agenda, have increased the odds of NAFTA's demise. At the very least, they could make it impossible to reach a deal renewing the treaty before a year-end deadline.

"The atmosphere is complicated," one trade official told reporters, adding that his fears about some "pretty harsh, pretty horrible" demands from the U.S. side of the negotiating table were coming true.

Speaking on condition of anonymity because the talks are confidential, the official added the U.S. stance "has a clear protectionist bias, a bias that is trying to eradicate, minimize, eliminate the mechanisms that existed in NAFTA in the last 20 years."

Trump, who blamed NAFTA for shifting U.S. manufacturing jobs to Mexico during his election campaign last year, has repeatedly vowed to scrap the treaty unless it can be renegotiated on more favorable terms.

Beijing shuts down popular Islamic bookstore, arrests its owner on suspicion of jihad terrorism
By Robert Spencer / Jihad Watch

 

Clearly this is just another example of Chinese authorities persecuting Muslims, right? I mean, a Muslim bookstore owner involved with jihad terrorism? Inconceivable! After all, if he read any of the books he stocked, he would know that it’s a religion of peace, right? “Beijing shuts down popular Islamic bookstore ahead of Party Congress as […]
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NKorea Vows 'Salvo of Missiles' on Guam as US Gears Up for Drills With Seoul

By Todd Beamon / NEWSMAX

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North Korea has vowed that a "salvo of missiles" will be unleashed on Guam and that it would keep its hands "closer to trigger" as U.S. drills begin with South Korea.

Reports also indicate that Pyongyang might soon test more missiles.
Kim Kwang Hak, a researcher at the Institute for American Studies of North Korea’s Foreign Ministry, issued the new threat Friday in an op-ed piece for the regime’s official KCNA news agency.

"We have already warned several times that we will take counteractions for self-defense including a salvo of missiles into waters near the U.S. territory of Guam, an advance base for invading the DPRK, where key U.S. bases are located, as the U.S. has resorted to military actions in sensitive regions, making the waters off the Korean peninsula and in the Pacific restless," Kim said.

Pyongyang’s threat came after the U.S. Navy announced Friday that the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier would lead drills with South Korea next week in the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea, RT News reports.

The Navy said that the drills were for honing "communications, interoperability, and partnership."

Read entire article here: https://www.newsmax.com/International/North-Korea-Missiles-Guam-Seoul/2017/10/14/id/819719/?ns_mail_uid=32379927&ns_mail_job=1758340_10152017&s=al&dkt_nbr=010502h1eaxy

Plan to Open Mega-Mosque in Iconic London Jewish Community

By Pamela Geller / THE GELLER REPORT

What practicing Jew wouldn’t enjoy the daily nails-on-a-chalkboard supremacist cry of the Muslim call to prayer? Especially at 5am. Anyone who doesn’t enjoy that bloodcurdling cry is clearly Islamophobic, isn’t that so?

Takbir! It is clearly a supremacist move. Why build a mosque in the center of one of Britain’s best-known Jewish communities? Why there? To terrorize the Jews, of course. Muslims are terrorizing Jews all across Europe. It is not safe for Jews to wear religious symbols on the streets of Europe.

Imagine the Jewish blood shed if a synagogue opened up in, say, Tower Hamlets. But the Jews would never do that, now would they? No, they would not.

If I could, I would protest this mosquestrosity, but then, this Jew is banned from the UK.

Read entire article here: https://pamelageller.com/2017/10/london-mega-mosque-jewish-community.html/