The EU told Iran that it would put the issue of Iranian non-compliance into the agreement’s formal dispute mechanism if the next Iranian move away from the deal is significant. Iran says it has been taking advertised, reversible and calibrated steps away from the deal as a reprisal for US sanctions, including its ban on Iranian oil exports, and the failure of the EU to do more to build trade with Iran. Tehran is due to take a fourth step on 7 November. One source said: “The difficulty is that Iran says the steps are reversible, but if they learn about building a nuclear bomb, that is irreversible.”

But European diplomats still argue that the American strategy is incoherent: Washington has applied a sanctions regime so severe that Tehran has responded militarily, but the president is not yet willing to respond in kind, meaning his only real option is more sanctions.

“The future belongs to sovereign and independent nations who protect their citizens, respect their neighbors and honor the differences that make each country special and unique.” And he had some advice for governments the world over — and maybe for American Democrats trying to unseat him in the 2020 election. “If you want freedom, take pride in your country,” he said, according to Fox. “If you want democracy, hold on to your sovereignty. If you want peace, love your nation.”

Trump also attacked the forces that have helped feed the immigration crisis that’s wracking the United States southern border, and publicly called out the terrorist regime in Tehran for a “bloodlust” subsidized by other governments. “Today, I have a message for those open-border activists who cloak themselves in the rhetoric of social justice: Your policies are not just, your policies are cruel and evil,” he said, according to Fox.

“You are empowering criminal organizations that prey on innocent men, women and children. You put your own false sense of virtue before the lives and well-being of countless innocent people. When you undermine border security, you are undermining human rights and human dignity.”

The words might come as a shock to immigration advocates and Democratic presidential contenders, who’ve tried to set themselves up as the caring, compassionate counterweight to Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration. But for local governments overwhelmed by the crisis, law enforcement officers who see firsthand the crimes it leads to, and to ordinary families hit by tragedy because of the influx of illegal aliens in the United States, Trump was speaking the simple truth.

According to a Vatican statement issued on Thursday, September 12, the Pope is inviting representatives of the main religions, international organizations and various humanitarian institutions, as well as key figures from the world of politics, economics and academia, and prominent athletes, scientists and sociologists to sign a “Global Pact on Education” so as to “hand on to younger generations a united and fraternal common home.”

“A global educational pact is needed to educate us in universal solidarity and a new humanism,” Francis said in a video message to launch the initiative.

This video of her speaking at the UN is a case in point, as is her statement to the Davos crowd earlier this year, in which she decided to spread her own brand of hopeless misery to all:

“Adults keep saying we owe it to the young people, to give them hope. But I don’t want your hope. I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. I want you to act. I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if the house is on fire, because it is.”

Causes which are backed up by incontrovertible facts do not need the aid of slightly unnerving and emotive teenage girls to lead the charge. On the contrary, slightly unnerving and emotive teenage girls might be thought by a rational society to be somewhat of a hindrance to the facts, since they are likely to detract from them and move the issues from the realm of reason and rational discourse to emotion and feelings. Which of course is exactly the point, and why she is where she is.

But a No 10 source criticised the 11 supreme court judges, saying they had made “a serious mistake in extending its reach to these political matters.” The prime minister flatly rejected the idea that he could resign over the defeat, and was backed up by Donald Trump, when the pair held a joint press briefing in New York. Asked if he might step down, Trump said: “I’ll tell you, I know him well, he’s not going anywhere.”

Downing Street’s response to the crisis was inconsistent, with one part of the operation claiming that Johnson was infuriated by the position in which he found himself and another senior source claiming that the clash with the courts was not unhelpful to his narrative that he was fighting for Brexit against an obstructive establishment.

A No 10 source said: “We think the supreme court is wrong and has made a serious mistake in extending its reach to these political matters. Further, the supreme court has made it clear that its reasons are connected to the parliamentary disputes over, and timetable for, leaving the European Union. We think this is a further serious mistake.”

Other wreckers in the Remainer Establishment have included: John Bercow, the dwarfish Speaker of the House of Commons; Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England; the Archbishop of Canterbury; former Prime Ministers Theresa May, David Cameron and John Major; several leading Conservative MPs including Sir Nicholas Soames; the majority of parliament; most of the Civil Service; the BBC; the City of London; the corporations; the City law firms; academe; etc. Today it was the senior judiciary’s turn to swing the wrecking ball.

Parliament, which is dominated by Remain-voting MPs, had been consistently frustrating Boris Johnson’s attempts to strike an exit deal with the European Union, making his democratically mandated job of delivering Brexit all but impossible. Now, if you didn’t know this already, you’re in a position to understand what is so shockingly anti-democratic about today’s Supreme Court decision... it’s a constitutional disaster. This is very worrying for the future of British democracy.

As Brendan O’Neill rightly points out at Spiked, it is close to tyranny: “What we have seen emerge via this judgement is a borderline tyrannical layer in British politics. A layer that stands above everyone and everything, including the government itself. A layer of unrepresentative, unaccountable individuals who have now presumed the authority to strike down actual government decisions.

This instantly weakens any future government’s claim to moral and political authority and their basic ability to relate to parliament, to negotiate treaties, and to act on the will of the people. The precedent set today is that any of that might potentially be subject to the higher, apparently wiser judgement of politicised courts. It is an outrage. It is staggering just how political, how uninhibited, the judgement was.”

That means that Trump’s short-term interests are perfectly aligned with Wall Street’s short-term interests, but things will shift dramatically if someone like Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders ends up in the White House. Wall Street knows that they have a friend in Donald Trump, and losing that friend would potentially be absolutely devastating. Needless to say, a lot of investors were unnerved on Tuesday when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that a formal impeachment inquiry is being initiated.

Because in this day and age the truth really doesn’t matter. Even if there isn’t any evidence against Trump at all, most Democrats will vote to impeach because that is what they are expected to do. And even if Trump is 100 percent guilty most Republicans will vote against impeachment because they would be afraid of being voted out of office by angry voters back home. So in the end it will probably come down to what the Senate decides to do, and right now the Republicans are holding 53 seats. Unfortunately for Trump, some of those 53 seats are held by very “moderate” Republicans that are not fans of Trump at all.

The repo market is at the center of the US financial system but it is little understood even by most people working in finance.

Here’s how it works.

Each morning, traders at the big Wall Street firms put in bids to borrow cash and cash investors accept bids. The bids are promises to pay an interest rate and a pledge to post securities as collateral. Later in the day, the securities get allocated to the cash investors. The following day, the repos get unwound in the morning. The cash investors get their cash back and the Wall Street banks get their securities back. Then it starts all over again.

Usually, the repo process is nearly seamless. Most of the previous day’s trades just get rolled over into the next day’s repos, with a slight tinkering of the rates and slight shifts in the collateral. But the market started to malfunction last Monday, with the implied interest rate rising far above the Fed Funds target. Ever since, the Fed has intervened to hold the rate down. Many on Wall Street are now wondering if this will become a permanent feature of the market.

A visibly angry Greta Thunberg berated world leaders as she addressed a UN climate summit on Monday, accusing them of betraying her generation by failing to tackle greenhouse gas emissions and asking “How dare you?” The Swedish teen, who has become the global face of the growing youth movement against climate inaction, began by telling her audience: “My message is that we’ll be watching you,” eliciting laughter. But it was soon clear that the tone of the message would be very serious.

“This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back at school on the other side of the ocean,” the 16-year-old, who is taking a year off from her studies, said. “You come to us young people for hope. How dare you?” she thundered. “You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words, yet I’m one of the lucky ones. People are suffering, people are dying, entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is the money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!”