President Trump has withdrawn the United States from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal on Monday, fulfilling the promise he made to his voters during the campaign.
The president during his campaign has said TPP is a disaster for American workers, and has promised to put a stop to it if he is elected. The deal though negotiated under former President Obama was yet to be confirmed by the congress, so putting a stop to it will not have an immediate or a real time effect on the US economy, though this will send a wave to leaders around the world and democrats about Donald Trump stance on trade.
The president also signed an order that bans U.S non-governmental organizations receive federal funding from providing abortions abroad.
Donald Trump has been officially sworn-in as the 45th US president. The inauguration of President Trump took place outside the US Capitol, Washington, with dignitaries from all walks of life, including former political opponent, Hillary Clinton.
In his inaugural speech, the new president said;
For too long a small group in our nations capital has reaped the rewards of government. Washington flourished, but the people did not share in its wealth. Together we will determine the course of America and the world for many, many years to come.
We will face challenges, we will confront hardships, but we will get the job done.
The president also talks about his immigration stance and international trade saying;
We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries making our products, stealing our companies, and destroying our jobs. Protection will lead to great prosperity and strength.
Donald Trump, who has no political experience is a property developer and TV reality star. The president in his campaign was able to appear on news headlines because of his comment on the ban of Muslims entering the United States, and also about his access Nollywood tape.
The former US president, Barack Obama told the new president "Good job, good job" after his inaugural speech.
The two page synopsis attached to the report on the Russia role in the recent US election claims that the Kremlin also has possible"blackmail" materials on Donald Trump, though the report is unsubstantiated and not unverified.
Speaking to state-owned TASS news agency, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday;
No, the Kremlin has no compromising materials on Trump. "This is absolutely fake information, a fabrication and complete nonsense. The Kremlin does not engage in gathering compromising materials.
It is an obvious attempt to harm our bilateral relations. The quality of the public version of the previous report and this hoax is comparable. In English, it is called pulp fiction.
The circulated report was reported to have been compiled by a former British intelligence officer, Buzzfeed reported.
A new document declassifying the US election has just been released. According to the report by the intelligence community, Russian President Vladmir Putin ordered that the US election be hacked to "undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process."
The report reads;
We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the U.S. presidential election. Russia's goals were to undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process, denigrate Secretary [Hillary] Clinton and harm her electability and potential presidency.
We further assess Putin and the Russian government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump.
The report also shows a that Putin had a grudge against the Democratic party nominee, Hillary Clinton for comments she made and he saw as disparaging towards him.
The hacking report against the US election also shows;
Covert operations such as cyberactivity and overt operations through state-funded media and "paid social media users, or trolls."
Russian military intelligence's relaying material to media outlets.
Gaining access to "elements of multiple U.S. state or local electoral boards," although it was clear that those systems were "not involved in vote tallying.
The report did not say if say if the campaign swayed the election in favour of President-elect Trump, who won with 304 electoral college votes, but lost the popular votes to Hillary Clinton with a margin of 3million.
The President-elect has also called the report of the intelligence chiefs as bogus, citing claims that they had given a false report about the WMD in Iraq that lead to war before now, and they could be wrong again.
The three security agent, FBI and CIA have high confidence of the election interference, while the NSA only has a moderate confidence .
President Obama has decided to sanction the Russia diplomat in the USA for their involvement in the November 8th election that see Donald Trump becoming president. Obama sanctioned four Russian individuals and five Russian entities for interfering in the US election.
The Obama administration also ordered that 35 diplomats leave the country in the next 72 hours, and two Russian compounds are being closed.
According to statement from White house;
Russia's cyberactivities were intended to influence the election, erode faith in US democratic institutions, sow doubt about the integrity of our electoral process, and undermine confidence in the institutions of the US government.
These actions are unacceptable and will not be tolerated.
Also, the USA separately sanctioned two individuals Evgeniy Mikhailovich Bogachev and Alexey Belan, for using the cyber-enabled means to cause the misappropriation of funds and personal identifying information. They are both being sought by the FBI.
In a statement by the United States president, Barack Obama said;
These actions follow repeated private and public warnings that we have issued to the Russian government, and are a necessary and appropriate response to efforts to harm US interests in violation of established international norms of behavior.
While the President-elect, Donald Trump said;
It's time for our country to move on to bigger and better things. Nevertheless, in the interest of our country and its great people, I will meet with leaders of the intelligence community next week in order to be updated on the facts of this situation.
Homeland security adviser, Lisa Monaco in a statement with CNN Jack Tapper said;
What these individuals were doing were basically collecting intelligence. They were intelligence officers operating here and using these compounds, one in New York, one in Maryland, for intelligence collection purposes.
And what we are saying today is, in response to and in order to impose consequences for the Russian government's increasing harassment and aggression toward our personnel in Moscow, and, of course, their malicious cyberactivities, interfering and an effort to interfere in our election process, we are imposing consequences.
Kremlin Reaction
According to the representative of the Kremlin, Russia will retaliate in response to any "hostile" steps by the US government.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also said Russia will take similar steps of expulsion, but she did not provide further details of what would be Russia actions.
At the time of this writing, the Russian government has ordered the closure of the Anglo-American School of Moscow that serves the US,British and Canadian embassy personnel, to US and foreign nationals. This also closes the US embassy vacation house in Serebryany Bor, near Moscow.
After the Obama administration sanction, the Russian embassy in UK tweeted a duck image, and tagged the US current administration actions as "Cold War deja vu"
The Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte remains colourful in his words, and seems to swear at anything that angers him. The recent man to face his recent anger is President Obama of the U.S. who had planned to meet with him during the ASEAN meeting in Laos this week.
The White house had reported that Obama would confront Duterte about the way drug dealers are executed without judicial proceedings or due process.
But on hearing the reason the Obama would meet him, Duterte said;
Who does he think he is? I am no American puppet. I am the president of a sovereign country and I am not answerable to anyone except the Filipino people,"Son of a b****, I will swear at you."
Duterte also blamed the U.S. for the unrest on the southern Philippines Island of Mindanao. Duterte said;
As a matter of fact, we inherited this problem from the United States," he said. "Why? Because they invaded this country and made us their subjugated people. Everybody has a terrible record of extra-judicial killing. Why make an issue about fighting crime?
Obama May Not Meet Duterte
In response to Duterte speech, President Obama while addressing the press said that the meeting with Duterte might not go forward. He said;
I always want to make sure if I'm having a meeting that it's productive and we're getting something done.
If and when we have a meeting, this is something that is going to be brought up," Obama said, referring to the Philippines' controversial record of combating drug crime since Duterte took office earlier this year.
The president of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari is currently meeting with the president of the United States, Barack Obama. Buhari is being criticized for his delay in appointing ministers to his cabinet after is inauguration, but the president while on a speech released by Washington post has said that his administration will have appointed ministers, come September, and that is few months he was inaugurated.
Muhammadu Buhari compared his not having minsiters now to President Barack Obama. He said that the US president did not have his full cabinet several months after his inauguration. He said Nigeria is currently committed to fighting terror and good governance.
This month, the world moved a step closer to the defeat of Boko Haram, the jihadist group that has terrorized hundreds of thousands in the northern states of Nigeria. In one of my first acts since taking office as president six weeks ago, I have replaced the heads of Nigeria’s army, navy and air force. Our new military leadership has not been chosen because of their familiarity with those in government, as was too often the case in the past, but on their track records and qualifications alone.
These new military leaders will be based in Borno State in northern Nigeria, where the headquarters of the armed services has been relocated. This shift of resources and command directly to the front line, in addition to the replacement of the head of the State Security Service, Nigeria’s intelligence organization, and a new emphasis on working in partnership with our neighbors, has equipped us to take the fight directly to Boko Haram.
Already we are beginning to see a degrading of Boko Haram’s capabilities as a fighting force. In recent weeks, it appears to have shifted away from confronting the military directly to an increase in attacks on civilian areas, as we saw only last week when an elderly woman and 10-year-old girl blew themselves up at a Muslim prayer gathering in northeastern Nigeria. We should not be confused by this change, hateful as it is: It does not mean that Boko Haram is succeeding in its aims — it shows that it is losing.
While we work to defeat the terrorists, I ask the people of Nigeria and the world for resolve and fortitude. The campaign we will wage will not be easy; it may not be swift. We should expect stages of success and also moments when it may appear that our advances have been checked. But no one should have any doubt as to the strength of our collective will or my commitment to rid this nation of terror and bring back peace and normalcy to all affected areas.
Similarly, my determination should not be underestimated in other matters. This includes instilling good governance and tackling the scourge of corruption that has held Nigeria back for too long.
As I meet with President Obama today — the first time a president of the United States will encounter a Nigerian counterpart following the peaceful transfer of power in a contested election in our history — I will be discussing my plans for critical reforms. So, too, will I discuss why the formation of my administration is taking time and, crucially, why it must. Already there are voices saying these changes are taking too long — even though only six weeks have passed since my inauguration. I hear such calls, but this task cannot and should not be rushed.
When cabinet ministers are appointed in September, it will be some months after I took the oath of office. It is worth noting that Obama himself did not have his full Cabinet in place for several months after first taking office; the United States did not cease to function in the interim. In Nigeria’s case, it would neither be prudent nor serve the interests of sound government to have made these appointments immediately on my elevation to the presidency; instead, Nigeria must first put new rules of conduct and good governance in place.
I cannot stress how important it is to ensure that this process is carried out correctly, just as it has been crucial to first install the correct leadership of the military and security services before we fully take the fight to Boko Haram.
There are too few examples in the history of Nigeria since independence where it can be said that good management and governance were instituted at a national level. This lack of a governance framework has allowed many of those in charge, devoid of any real checks and balances, to plunder. The fact that I now seek Obama’s assistance in locating and returning $150 billion in funds stolen in the past decade and held in foreign bank accounts on behalf of former, corrupt officials is testament to how badly Nigeria has been run. This way of conducting our affairs cannot continue.
Indeed, the failure of governance, it can be argued, has been as much a factor in Nigeria’s inability thus far to defeat Boko Haram as have been issues with the military campaign itself.
So the path we must take is simple, even if it is not easy: First, instill rules and good governance; second, install officials who are experienced and capable of managing state agencies and ministries; and third, seek to recover funds stolen under previous regimes so that this money can be invested in Nigeria for the benefit of all of our citizens.
We seek the support and partnership of the United States in these tasks. The importance of the fight against terrorism and corruption in Nigeria, Africa’s most powerful economy and largest populace, cannot be underestimated. Our allies can provide much-needed military training and intelligence as our soldiers take the war effort to Boko Haram. Similarly, we look to U.S. businesses as well as the Obama administration to help develop governance initiatives that can ensure that Nigeria’s wealth benefits all its people, not just a few. By taking these steps, we will be positioned to benefit from increased investment — particularly in energy and electricity — from the United States.
I was elected on a platform of change. I know this is what the people of Nigeria desire more than anything else. I know they are impatient for action. I realize the world waits to see evidence that my administration will be different from all those that came before. Yet reforming my country after so many years of abuse cannot be achieved overnight. In our campaigns against both Boko Haram and corruption, we should remain steadfast and remember, as it is said: “Have patience. All things become difficult before they become easy.”
A Pulitzer prize winning journalist, Seymour Hersh has revealed that Osama Bin Laden was "Invalid" when his compound was invaded in Pakistan. The journalist revealed that Osama Bin Laden was not buried in the sea as President Obama and a video broadcasted to the world had shown.
Osama Bin Laden hideout at Abottabad where he was assasinated
The journalist had spent four years investigating the issue of May 2, 2011. The journalist revealed that what President Obama told USA and the world about Osama bin laden assassination was a lie.
The journalist painted a picture of what happened in an essay for the London Review Of Books. In the book, Hersh said Bin Laden is in a state of ill-health , under Pakistani watch and was no longer the leader of Al-Qaeda as portrayed by the US and world media.
Hersh said based on the testimony from an anonymous retired senior intelligence official and dissects the Obama Administration’s retelling of the operation.
Some Claims That Hersh Said Was Wrong
Pakistan was on the operation all along. Even though reporters have said that the Pakistani was left out of the operation as a precaution and to ensure no possible leaks, compromising the operation of the navy seal whose job was to take down the most wanted man, Osama Bin Laden.
Hersh said :
The White House still maintains that the mission was an all-American affair, and that the senior generals of Pakistan’s army and Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) were not told of the raid in advance. This is false
The Pakistani had captured Osama Bin Laden in 2006 and were keeping him in a high-walled compound in Abottabad.
In August 2010 a former senior Pakistani intelligence officer approached Jonathan Bank, then the CIA’s station chief at the US embassy in Islamabad, and offered to tell the CIA where to find bin Laden in return for the reward that Washington had offered in 2001,” Hersh said.
Pakistan had said they will cooperate with the Americans if they (Americans) continue to release their military aid to the country.
Two Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency senior officials, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and General Ahmed Shuja Pasha took money to make sure that the ISI never interferes in the capturing of Osama.
Osama was ill and the ISI had ordered a doctor stays nearby to treat him regularly.
The truth is that bin Laden was an invalid, but we cannot say that. ‘You mean you guys shot a cripple? Who was about to grab his AK-47?’
Though the white house had said that Bin Laden was killed as he posed a threat to the Team Seal 6 and they opened fire for self defence.
They knew where the target was — third floor, second door on the right,” the retired official said. Go straight there. Osama was cowering and retreated into the bedroom. Two shooters followed him and opened up. Very simple, very straightforward, very professional hit.
The squad came through the door and obliterated him
The Osama Bin Laden body was tossed over the Hindu Kush mountains and was not buried in the sea as claimed
Obama said that after killing bin Laden the Seals ‘took custody of his body
The retired official told Hersh that the body was scattered over the mountains from a helicopter.
The remains, including his head, which had only a few bullet holes in it, were thrown into a body bag and, during the helicopter flight back to Jalalabad, some body parts were tossed out over the Hindu Kush mountains,” Hersh said
