https://twitter.com/albamonica/status/1183582266963963904

New York Times

She provides the radio voice of Vesper Fairchiled

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8815944/?ref_=ttep_ep_cur

Source: The Guardian

Chinese president Xi Jinping has warned that any attempt to divide China will be crushed, as Beijing faces political challenges in months-long protests in Hong Kong and US criticism over its treatment of Muslim minority groups.

“Anyone attempting to split China in any part of the country will end in crushed bodies and shattered bones,” he told Nepal’s prime minister, KP Sharma Oli, in a meeting on Sunday, according to China’s state broadcaster CCTV.

“And any external forces backing such attempts dividing China will be deemed by the Chinese people as pipe-dreaming,” he was quoted as saying.

Xi, the first Chinese president to visit Nepal in 22 years, arrived in the country on Saturday on a state visit. Both sides are expected to sign a deal expanding a railway link between the Himalayan nation and Tibet.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/14/threatening-china-will-end-in-crushed-bodies-says-xi-jinping-amid-hong-kong-protests?CMP=edit_2221&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1571019519

Source: The Hill

Congressional Republicans appear poised to hand President Trump a stinging rebuke of his Turkey and Syria policy when lawmakers return to Washington this week.

GOP lawmakers, furious over Trump’s decision to withdraw troops to make way for a Turkish offensive against Kurdish allies, are preparing legislation that would force the administration to impose sanctions on Turkey.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced Friday that Trump would sign an executive order giving the Treasury Department “very significant” new sanctions authorities against Turkey, but it’s unclear whether the move will be enough to placate Republicans on Capitol Hill.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) called the announcement “welcome news,” while Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said the administration needs to “up their game.”

Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/defense/465494-furious-republicans-prepare-to-rebuke-trump-on-syria

https://twitter.com/alexi/status/1183540688769769472

https://twitter.com/m_mendozaferrer/status/1183448786590486530

https://twitter.com/m_mendozaferrer/status/1183448789333532673

CNN

Raw Story

Source: Washington Post

BEIRUT — Videos posted on social media showing at least one execution-style killing have called into question the discipline of the soldiers engaged in Turkey’s near week-long effort to seize territory controlled by Kurds in northeastern Syria.

The most gruesome and explicit of the videos shows Turkish-allied Syrian fighters pumping bursts of automatic fire into the body of a bound man lying on the side of a desert road as a gunman shouts to his comrades to take his phone and film him doing the shooting. Another trembling, handcuffed man crouches on the opposite side of the road as the shooting erupts. “Kill them,” one man is heard shouting.

The video is one of a series of photographs and videos posted on Twitter accounts of the Turkish-backed rebel groups and circulated by the U.S.-allied Syrian Democratic Forces that suggest some of the Syrian rebels participating in Turkey’s offensive to capture territory in Syria might have committed war crimes.

...snip...

Another fleeing pig has been liquidated by the hands of the National Army,” one of the fighters says as the others clamor to be filmed. “He was fleeing in an armored car.”

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/turkish-led-forces-film-themselves-executing-a-kurdish-captive-in-syria/2019/10/13/22e11198-ed9c-11e9-89eb-ec56cd414732_story.html

Source: Politico

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff indicated Sunday that the whistleblower at the heart of Democrats’ impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump may not testify over concerns about that person’s safety.

Schiff’s remarks come after Trump has dramatically escalated his attacks on the whistleblower and repeatedly called for the official to be unmasked. Trump’s unrelenting barrage has spurred worries from Democrats that congressional Republicans may try to reveal that person’s identity — conceivably endangering his or her safety — at the behest of the president.

Schiff (D-Calif.) said the whistleblower’s testimony might not be needed given that a rough transcript of the call with Trump asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for a “favor” — the centerpiece of the whistleblower’s complaint — is public. In addition, lawmakers have a collected a tranche of damning text messages and witness testimony related to the scandal in the last two weeks.
Story Continued Below

“Our primary interest right now is making sure that that person is protected. Indeed now there’s more than one whistleblower, that they are protected,” Schiff said on CBS’ “Face the Nation“ on Sunday.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/13/schiff-whistleblower-impeachment-probe-045910