Thursday, June 28, 2018

Six In The Morning Thursday June 28

China will not give up 'any inch of territory' in the Pacific, Xi tells Mattis

Updated 0625 GMT (1425 HKT) June 28, 2018


China will not give up "any inch of territory" in the Pacific Ocean, President Xi Jinping told US Defense Secretary James Mattis Wednesday during a visit to Beijing.
"Our stance is steadfast and clear-cut when it comes to China's sovereignty and territorial integrity," Xi said, according to state media, adding that "any inch of territory passed down from ancestors can not be lost while we want nothing from others."
Mattis' meeting with Xi inside the Great Hall of the People comes as relations between Washington and Beijing have been marred recently by rising tensions -- not only by an impending trade war but also by both militaries viewing each other with increasing suspicion and alarm.


How the Red Hen affair broke America's civility wars wide open

A restaurant’s choice to eject Trump’s press secretary stoked debate on how liberals should behave in an era of outrage


Arefugee from what is now South Sudan, David Acuoth remarked to compatriots recently that America increasingly reminds him of home. “Where we have ethnic tribes, here it is ideological tribes,” says the political consultant, based in Washington.
The latest evidence, Acuoth believes, came last Friday night when the White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, was told to leave a restaurant in Virginia, touching off debate over “civility” and the implications – moral and tactical – of abrasive public shaming. Donald Trump seized on this and other incidents in a characteristic bid to cast himself as a victim and rally sympathy and support.

Germany on track to return more asylum-seekers within EU than 2017

Germany has witnessed an apparent increase in the number of asylum seekers returned to EU member states. Under pressure to find a bloc-wide solution, the German chancellor has found support from some unlikely leaders.
German authorities returned 4,100 asylum-seekers between January and the end of May to the EU country responsible for processing their application, according to information given in response to a parliamentary inquiry from the Left Party also seen by DW.
If the January and May figures remain relatively constant for the rest of the year, then a total of around 10,000 would be sent back, compared to 7,102 asylum-seekers returned in 2017. 

'I cried when I saw the pitch,' say Iranian women finally allowed in stadium

Although Iran just missed out on qualifying for the World Cup's final 16, its fans have a lot to be cheerful about. Not only did 'Team Melli', the country's national team, play extremely well, but there was something else that made supporters celebrate. Female supporters were able to enter a stadium to watch a live broadcast of the Iran-Portugal match on Monday, June 25. Women have been banned from entering stadiums ever since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

It happened once before, just five days earlier, when female supporters were authorised to go to Tehran's Azadi stadium to watch the broadcast of Iran's match with Spain on June 20. But the fact that it occurred a second time made it feel like it wasn't a fluke.
For the first match the Azadi stadium had announced that "families" were allowed to go to the event, without making it clear whether women were included in the term "family". But it turned out that they were - and thousands of women made the most of the opportunity.

Kim Jong-nam murder suspects are trained killers, trial told

By Eileen Ng

Two Southeast Asian women on trial for killing the estranged half brother of North Korea's leader are trained assassins who used "criminal force" to rub the toxic VX nerve agent on Kim Jong-nam's eyes and face, prosecutors say.
The women's claim that they were duped by North Korean agents into thinking they were playing a harmless prank for a hidden camera show was an "ingenious attempt ... to cover up their sinister plot in order to obscure the eyes of the public and the court," prosecutor Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin told the court in his closing arguments.

A titanic battle over replacing Justice Kennedy looms in the Senate

Keep an eye on the two pro-abortion rights Republican senators.

The retirement of the Supreme Court’s swing justice, Anthony Kennedy, sets up an enormously consequential confirmation battle over his replacement in the narrowly divided Senate for later this year.
Kennedy announced he’s stepping down as an active justice on July 31. President Donald Trump has already made clear he’ll choose a replacement relatively quickly. Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor Wednesday, “We will vote to confirm Justice Kennedy’s successor this fall.” And after McConnell’s rules change last year, only a simple majority is necessary to get a Supreme Court justice through the Senate.
But while Republicans do currently control a majority in the chamber, it’s quite a narrow one. They have 51 seats, meaning they could theoretically confirm a new justice without any Democratic help. But Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has been absent from Washington all year for health reasons. If McCain remains in his seat but unable to show up and vote, the Senate will effectively be composed of 50 Republicans and 49 Democrats — so, if any one Republican defects in a partisan vote, he or she can sink a nomination.

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