New leak claims Trump scrapped Iran nuclear deal ‘to spite Obama’
Donald Trump abandoned the Iran nuclear deal to spite Barack Obama, according to a leaked memo written by the UK’s former ambassador to the US.
Sir Kim Darroch described the move as an act of “diplomatic vandalism”, according to the Mail on Sunday.
The paper says the memo was written after the then Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson appealed to the US in 2018 to stick with the nuclear deal.
The latest leak came despite the Met Police warning against publication.
The first memos criticising Trump’s administration, which emerged a week ago, prompted a furious reaction from the US president and resulted in Sir Kim resigning from his role.
Impending immigration raids across US spark anxiety and protests
- Raids expected to target 2,000 migrants in nearly a dozen cities
- Vigils held from Los Angeles to Berlin
Immigration raids conducted by the Trump administration are expected in major US cities on Sunday, a prospect that has sparked vigils, protests, condemnation and fear.
The raids are expected to target roughly 2,000 migrants in the US illegally but the prospect has rippled terror through broad swaths of migrant communities. Vigils were held from Los Angeles to as far afield as Berlin on Friday, as a broad coalition of progressive groups condemned the raids.
“This administration’s deliberate terrorizing of immigrant families and communities grows worse every day,” Mary Bauer, deputy legal director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Immigrant Justice Project, told the Guardian.
Far-Right AfDGermany’s Populist Party Embraces Its Extremist Wing
The far-right fringe of Germany’s populist Alternative for Germany party is gaining ground. Politicians in the party who once opposed the wing and its leader, Björn Höcke, have abandoned their resistance and are taking steps to embrace the extremists.
By Melanie Amann and Ann-Katrin Müller
It was the video that proved decisive. Four minutes of images of Björn Höcke, the leader of the far-right nationalist wing of the right-wing populist AfD party, the so-called “Flügel.” It showed him jogging through the golden autumn leaves of his village, shaking the hands of workers and women, feeding sheep and then firing people up in a speech. “When you celebrate me, I feel the passion,” Höcke says in the video. “I bow my head in humility for your efforts.”
A few days after Höcke’s image video was presented at the Flügel’s annual “Kyffhäusertreffen,” a yearly meeting of the far-right wing in the eastern German state of Thuringia, he combined the video with a combative speech against the arbitration tribunals and the federal executive committee of his party and the more than 100 AfD members who wrote an open letter appealing for the rejection of Höcke. In the letter, more moderate members of the party lambasted his “excessive cult of personality” and rejected his “divisive criticism” of internal party opponents. The letter also made clear that, “The AfD is not and will not become a Björn Höcke Party!”
Scores dead as monsoons hit India, Nepal, Bangladesh
Monsoon-triggered floods and landslides have killed at least 85 people in South Asia in the past few days. Almost 870,000 people have been affected by floods in India’s northeastern state of Assam.
The death toll from floods and landslides caused by two weeks of torrential monsoons in South Asia has reached 85, officials and news sources reported on Sunday. In Nepal alone, up to 50 people were said to have died in floods and landslides caused by monsoon rains across the country, while dozens more were missing.
Nepal’s weather department issued a high alert for the southern Koshi River and sent SMS warnings to people in the area. “Our first priority is lifesaving rescue,” Nepalese Home Ministry official Umakanta Adhikari told the AFP news agency, “and all our resources have been deployed.”
Demonstrators in Sudan demand justice for army crackdown victims
Thousands rally to mourn dozens of demonstrators killed in a brutal raid last month.
Thousands of Sudanese people have protested in Khartoum and other cities to mark the 40th day since the deadly dispersal of a sit-in outside the army headquarters that killed more than 100 people.
Dubbed the “Justice First” marches, Saturday’s demonstrations were called by the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), which has been spearheading the protests since December that led to the removal of longtime leader Omar al-Bashir by the military in April.
Daily Mail: Leaked cables show British ambassador saying Trump abandoned Iran deal in act of ‘diplomatic vandalism’ to spite Obama
By Caroline Kelly, CNN
Updated 0225 GMT (1025 HKT) July 14, 2019
The report comes following news last week that Darroch sent diplomatic cables describing President Donald Trump as “inept,” “insecure” and “incompetent,” a UK government official confirmed to CNN.
Darroch has since resigned.
According to the Daily Mail Saturday, the former ambassador said Trump seemed to be discarding the Iran nuclear deal for “personality reasons,” as the deal had been agreed to by former President Barack Obama. The paper also reported that Darroch hinted at discord brewing between Trump’s closest aides and said the White House had failed to produce a “day-after” plan on how to handle the aftermath of withdrawing from the deal.
