- Geoblocking Prevalent For EU's Online Shoppers
This week, the European Union agreed to end unjustified geoblocking after a late-night session.
This relates to geoblocking the online trading of goods and services. As Statista's Niall McCarthy explains, the agreement means companies will not be able to prevent customers from visiting and doing business on their website due to being resident in another EU member state. The European Commission says the new rules will boost e-commerce for the benefit of consumers and businesses who take advantage of the growing European online market.
As of last year, 63 percent of websites in the EU do not let shoppers buy from another EU country.
You will find more statistics at StatistaBroken down by sector, 86 percent of electrical household appliance retailers will not sell to a shopper buying in a different member state.
Among electronics and computer hardware retailers, the rate is 79 percent while in the computer game and software sector, it is 73 percent.
- Experts Issue 2018 Warning: Earth "Had It Easy This Year" With Only 6 Severe Earthquakes
Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,
Scientists are warning that 2018 won’t be as “easy” on us as 2017 was when it comes to the number of severe earthquakes they predict.
In 2018, Earth, and one billion of its inhabitants could face 20 severe earthquakes due to the slowing rotation of the planet.
Tiny changes in the speed of our planet’s rotation will trigger huge seismic activity by releasing vast amounts of underground energy causing severe earthquakes, experts claim. Although their research has been rejected by some scientists, they are intent on sounding the alarm. The slowing of Earth’s rotation could disrupt the crust of the Earth making it possible to see 20 severe earthquakes next year.
According to the Daily Mail, the planet’s rotation is slowing down because of tidal forces between Earth and the moon. The side of Earth closest to the moon feels its pull the strongest, while the side farthest from the moon feels its gravity less. That difference in gravitational pull stretches the Earth, which causes tidal bulges. These bulges pull the moon closer or farther away from Earth by around 4cm per year. The moon exerts the opposite force on them, pulling them back toward it, creating friction and slowing down the planet’s rotation. The time the Earth takes to make a complete rotation on its axis varies by about a millionth of a second per day. While the rotational rate hasn’t declined evenly, the average day has grown longer by between 15 millionths and 25 millionths of a second every year.
Researchers found five periods in the past century when there were more earthquakes than other times. On these five occasions, there was a 25 to 30 percent increase in the number of earthquakes with a magnitude of 7 or above. These all coincided with a slowing in the rotation of the Earth. Scientists from the University of Colorado in Boulder and the University of Montana say that even fluctuations of a millisecond could increase seismic activity.
The minuscule variations in Earth’s rotation cause a shift in the shape of the Earth’s iron and nickel “inner core.” This, in turn, changes the liquid outer core on which the Earth’s tectonic plates rest. “The mechanism we’ve come up with is that as the Earth slows down it’s like a skater spinning on ice. As the Earth slows down its equatorial diameter reduces,” Dr. Rger Bilham of the University of Colorado told BBC Inside Science. “Its (the Earth’s) waistline gets smaller, but its clothes, the tectonic plates on Earth, remain the same size, which means they get rumpled up. These tiny changes to the overall shape of the Earth are enough, if there are faults that are already ready to go … to kind of kick them over into failure,” he said.
“The correlation between Earth’s rotation and earthquake activity is strong and suggests there is going to be an increase in numbers of intense earthquakes next year,” Dr. Bilham said.
This research comes just after a 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck Iran, leaving at least 400 people killed and more than 6,000 injured. The quake hit 19 miles southwest of Halabja in Iraqi Kurdistan at around 9.20pm on Sunday, when many people would have been at home. More than 100 aftershocks followed.
- Hong Kong Property: Record Price Per Square Foot Smashed…Twice…By The Same Buyer
Two weeks ago, we discussed Algebris Investments’ analysis of the world’s biggest asset bubbles. Portfolio manager, Alberto Gallo, noted that “It’s not just about valuation, it’s about irrational behaviour” and used variety of measures to identify the latter including ”Sky is the limit”, “Bidding wars” and “The trend is your friend”. Gallo listed what in his opinion were the fourteen biggest bubbles across the globe which included Hong Kong property, obviously.
In the global league table, Hong Kong held on to the dubious accolade of being the world’s most expensive place to live for the seventh year in succession in 2017, as Forbes noted, quoting work by Oxford Economics.
Holding on to its rank as the most expensive housing market in the world for the seventh year in a row is Hong Kong.
The median home price was 18.1 times the median annual pretax household income last year, according to a recent annual report from Demographia. Though a small improvement from the year before when home prices were 19 median household income, Hong Kong still ranks as "severely unaffordable" the report said.
The city's housing prices have skyrocketed in recent years, driven by low interest rates and mainland Chinese buyers. Lack of affordable housing has become a top social issue as the city's poor crowd into "cage homes" and dangerous, subdivided apartments.
To cement its leadership position in the realm of obscene property valuation, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) notes that the record price per square foot for a residence in Hong Kong has just been smashed…twice…by the same buyer…for two apartments in exclusive “The Peak” district.
Mount Nicholson, the luxury housing development atop Hong Kong’s highest elevation, has clinched the crown as the priciest address in the most expensive residential market on earth, selling two apartment units for HK$1.16 billion (US$149 million) to a single buyer.
A buyer paid HK$600 million, or HK$131,000 per square foot, for a property measuring 4,579 square feet at Mount Nicholson, according to Wheelock Properties, which oversees sales of the joint project between Wheelock & Co. and Nan Fung Development, without divulging the buyer’s identity.
The same buyer splurged another HK$560 million on the same day on a second flat measuring 4,242 sq ft, or about HK$132,000 per sq ft. In square footage terms, the second property is the most expensive residence in Asia.
“From the perspective of an ordinary Hong Kong resident, we’ll never understand why” the city’s wealthiest people pay such sums for homes, said Knight Frank’s head of valuation and consultancy Thomas Lam.
As the SCMP laments, Hong Kong’s new Chief Executive is facing a losing battle in providing affordable housing and containing the bubble.
The prices of Hong Kong’s private housing advanced in September for the 18th consecutive month to a record, underscoring the challenges facing Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, as she puts housing front and centre as the most important policy priority in her four-month-old administration. In her maiden policy address to the city, she pledged to create a “Starter Home” scheme to increase home ownership in the city for first-time buyers.
The transactions at Mount Nicholson, comprising 19 detached houses and 48 flats over three phases, broke the city’s previous price record, when a buyer paid HK$105,000 per sq ft for a HK$522 million duplex penthouse at Henderson Land Development’s 39 Conduit Road project at the Mid-Levels.
Hong Kong’s private home prices have increased by 430 per cent since 2003, making it the world’s most expensive urban centre among 406 cities to buy a home in, according to the Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey.
For the time being, Carrie Lam’s plan has about as much chance as that of King Canute.
- FBI Investigating House Democrat For Paying His Opponent To Drop Out Of Race
Authored by Peter Hasson via The Daily Caller,
The FBI is investigating Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Bob Brady for conspiracy, false statements and campaign in relation to payments his campaign allegedly made to 2012 primary opponent Jimmie Moore in order to persuade him to drop out of the race, court documents reviewed by The Daily Caller show.
FBI special agent Jonathan R. Szeliga filed a search warrant request on November 1 in the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania for all emails associated with Brady’s campaign email, BobCongress@Aol.com
Szeliga asserted he had “probable cause to believe that Kenneth Smukler, Robert Brady, Donald ‘D.A.’ Jones, Jimmie Moore, and Carolyn Cavaness and others known and unknown have committed violations” including charges of conspiracy, false statements, producing false records, causing false campaign contribution reports and violating limits on campaign contributions and expenditures.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Carol Sandra Moore Wells signed the search warrant the same day, court records show. The search warrant was unsealed by the court last week, court documents show.
Seamus Hughes, deputy director of George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, first broke the news on Twitter.
Let’s break some news: A sitting member of Congress is being investigated by the FBI for false statements, conspiracy, and campaign fraud. They got a search warrant for his email and believe he’s lying. pic.twitter.com/YyT6WDABkX
— Seamus Hughes (@SeamusHughes) November 21, 2017
Federal prosecutors announced charges last month against two of Brady’s political consultants, Kenneth Smukler and Donald Jones, in relation to the campaign finance probe.
- Isolation Escalates As Chinese Airline Ends Flights To North Korea
It's barely been a day since President Donald Trump revealed that the US would once again label North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism and impose broad new sanctions against its government and senior officials, and already more bad news for the restive communist state has emerged. This time, the Associated Press is reporting that Air China, a state owned airline, is canceling flights to North Korea, leaving the North's troubled Air Koryo as the only airline operating flights between North Korea and its primary economic benefactor.
Flights were “temporarily suspended due to unsatisfactory business operations,” said an employee of Air China’s press office who would give only his surname, Zhang, according to the AP. The suspension was blamed on falling demand for the routes. A foreign ministry spokesman, Lu Kang, said he hadn’t heard about Air China’s cancellation. He said such decisions would be made based on the “state of operation and the market.”
Beijing has supported UN sanctions on North Korean exports meant to pressure the government of leader Kim Jong Un to drop its pursuit of nuclear and missile technology, but China has argued against measures that would harm ordinary North Koreans.
Since mid-summer, the UN Security Council has passed two rounds of sanctions (with China's approval) that impose strict limitations on exports of North Korean seafood, coal and other raw materials. And Trump said the Treasury will outline more restrictions to be imposed against the North and senior government officials in the coming weeks. Since Air China is state-owned, the cancellation of the routes received at least tacit government approval. But since the sanctions have choked off much of the North's legitimate economy, it's possible the routes were eliminated to prevent the airline from losing money, forcing the government to intervene with subsidies. Back in September, China kicked out North Korean businessmen and instructed its banks not to do business with North Koreans or North Korean-owned businesses.
To be sure, Airlines have been rolling back flights to North Korea for months.
Airlines have steadily reduced the frequency of flights to North Korea as mounting political tensions depressed the already small number of business travelers and tourists visiting the North.
Air China Ltd. announced in April it was cutting the frequency of flights to North Korea due to lack of demand. Some other Chinese carriers offered charter services to the North but those also have been canceled.
Zhang said the last Air China flight to Pyongyang was Monday and he didn’t know when service might resume.
The status of Air Koryo’s flights was unclear. Phone calls to the carrier’s Beijing office weren’t answered. The flight information website for the Beijing airport showed its Pyongyang flight on Tuesday took off as scheduled.
Lu, the foreign ministry spokesman, appealed for measures to ease the tense standoff.
“Given the highly complex and sensitive situation on the peninsula, we hope all relevant parties can do something conducive to alleviating the tension and pulling all sides concerned back to the track of negotiation and dialogue to settle the peninsular nuclear issue,” he said at a regular news briefing.
Whether it's true or not, Trump has shown himself more than willing to take credit for any signs of a chill in relations between the North and China. For example, he boasted about having secured assurances from President Xi that China would continue to help isolated the North's economy. Though many have speculated that Xi is just flattering his American rival, and that China has no intention of squeezing the North.
- After A Natural Disaster, Do Landlords Jack Up The Rent?
A widely unpopular practice (and illegal in most states), price gouging is when sellers take advantage of a disaster situation to excessively raise prices on essential goods like food, fuel, and shelter. Concern across communities about this problem is especially heightened after the past several months of storms, forest fires, and other disasters.
Houston, recovering from the damage inflicted from Hurricane Harvey, is no exception. The office of Ken Paxton, Texas Attorney General, reports receiving upwards of 5,000 complaints – regarding everything from food to home repairs. In an incident that elicited enough outrage to spark a viral news story, a Best Buy was criticized for selling a case of water for $42.
But price gouging is not always as clear cut and visible as water marked up 200%. In an interview with Fox News, Paxton explained his office’s approach for monitoring the situation, “We try to be reasonable in how we're dealing with this. The general rule is, if it goes up 10 percent or more, and it's above like a three-month average, we're going to look at it.” The measured approach is likely because, in many cases it’s difficult to draw a line between honest price increases and predatory practices.
Source: CNBC
One area that is especially difficult to monitor, but increasingly important to vulnerable residents is rent. The concern is that with the widespread destruction of so many homes, the housing supply will be severely limited, resulting in price increases. Displaced residents can’t hold out for fair prices and landlords who understand they are in a position of power over these desperate renters, could inflate prices unfairly. This is no small issue either. A 2015 census estimate puts the number of Harris County residents who rent at about 45%.
Price increases could also be exacerbated by the fact that Houston is already a market with high demand. Between 2010 and 2016 the the city has increased in population by about 10% (to 2.3 million) and broader Harris County by about 12% (to 4.6 million).
So, are we seeing an increase in rental prices in the Houston area since Harvey? We decided to analyze data from Priceonomics customer RentHop, a real estate marketplace covering major markets in the US, including Houston. By comparing prices in Houston before and after the disaster, we can identify price changes that seem questionable and investigate further.
According to our data, while the Houston area overall saw a decrease in median rental prices of approximately 15%, certain zip codes experienced moderate price increases. In total 19 zip codes increased by 10% or greater after the hurricane, meeting the threshold for “price gouging”. Additionally we’ve seen an uptick in the maximum daily price for listings, with one and two bedroom units seeing most of the impact over the past 50 days.
* * *
The first logical analysis is to summarize price over time. Overall did we see any kind of change in the Houston housing market? For each day within our dataset (April 18th through October 15th) we’ve calculated the median price, plotting the results to reveal a trend.
Data source: RentHop
The data it not immediately clear because of the variation between days, but using a polynomial regression line, we can see a downward trend since mid-July, continuing through the events of the hurricane around August 25th. This actually makes sense. Generally housing markets are seasonal, with the highest prices in summer and lowest in winter. Prices in autumn should continue to decrease, which is what we see.
The median price may not be suited for identifying price gouging. These gouger-prices would be at the extreme high end of the spectrum, and would not be frequent enough to move the median in a meaningful way. A better statistic to track would be the daily maximum price. In the same manner we’ve calculated the maximum price for each day in our dataset and plotted them along with a trendline.
Data source: RentHop
Again we see strong fluctuations between days, but in general the trend is smooth until around early September where much sharper peaks pull the line upwards. It is important to note that there are price spikes throughout this time series. From this plot we can say, since Harvey, the highest price for each day is getting bigger. Another interesting detail is that the max price bottoms out around the last week of September (the week of the hurricane), but then quickly rebounds.
We want to get more specific though. Right now we are looking at a whole range of apartments and our data includes small studios through large single family homes. It is possible that the price spikes we see are because more valuable homes are being put up for rent. What if the month of October had an abnormally large number of mansions put up for rent? While not likely, that is an alternative explanation for this price spike that does not involve gouging. We need to compare apartments that are similar in value and see if there are differences.
The best indicator of rental value is number of bedrooms, so we’ve used it to split our data for comparison. Below we’ve plotted max rental prices for one through five bedroom listings. Any price spikes within a category could be more meaningful than just a general change.
Data source: RentHop
Looking more closely we see that one and two bedroom listings are experiencing an upward trend in maximum prices. There are more instances of high peak prices from September onwards. It’s important to note that these listings also make up the majority of the rentals in our dataset. Even when adding measures to control for rental value, we are seeing a change in prices after the hurricane.
Another big influence on price is location. In a metro area as broad as Houston, there are plenty of differences between neighborhoods that could result in a difference in price. One of the most obvious examples would be comparing the rent in the heart of downtown to rent in the outer suburbs. We would expect downtown to be more expensive. Additionally there could be reasons for variation between the suburbs. The key to our question would be to tease out if any price differences are due to hurricane damage.
To start this line of analysis, we’ve mapped the median price for each zip code in the Houston area. The intensity of the color indicates cost of rent, with pricier areas being shaded darker.
Data Source: RentHop. Shapefile Source: City of Houston Geographic Information System (COHGIS)
From this we can see that in general, the most expensive areas are right in downtown and some of the wealthier suburbs.
Now we want to see how all these prices in these zip codes generally changed after Harvey. To run this analysis, we grouped prices from 50 days before the hurricane and 50 days after and calculated the median for each time interval. We then found how much the prices changed relative to how the market changed overall. In the map below, zip codes that increased in price are in red, while those that decreased are in blue. The intensity of the color indicates the degree of change.
Data Source: RentHop; Dates compared Before Harvey: July 6, 2017 – August 25, 2017 After Harvey: August 26, 2017 – October 15, 2017
Shapefile Source: City of Houston Geographic Information System (COHGIS)
The largest price increases are concentrated in a few zip codes, several within the heart of downtown and others on the northern and western periphery. There are two factors likely working together to cause this pattern. Downtown Houston was had higher rents to start with, so some of this shift could be the continuation of the housing boom. Some of it though is possibly connected to the vast flooding in the area. Due to locations of reservoirs and floodplains, damage was extensive to the north and west of the city, near where we see some of our higher rent increases.
To see exactly how much some of these zip codes were impacted, we can list out those with the greatest increases.
Data Source: RentHop
We can see that, on initial inspection, 19 zip codes appear to meet the 10% price increase threshold for greater investigation by the state.
The largest change was in Bellaire, Texas, is a largely upper-middle class community about 10 miles southwest of Houston. Flooding here was extensive during the storm and some residents report past issues with flooding. It does seem plausible that in a community with generally more expensive housing, widespread damage could reduce the number of rentals and increase prices.
The other two top zip codes were in Downtown Houston, and Dickinson, a community between Galveston and Houston, which also faced flooding damage from Harvey.
It is hard to investigate exactly what caused these price increases, but we can look into one factor that is related to price. The thought is, with the extensive damage, there are just fewer houses on the market. Market forces would push the price up in any case where supply is limited. But from what we are seeing, are there fewer homes available? We can plot how many rentals are listed by date and see if there’s any change over time.
Data Source: RentHop
Here we actually see the lumber of listings spike after the hurricane. Perhaps people are seeing an opportunity to rent out an extra room given the market or maybe tenants are leaving partially damaged apartments and they’re headed back onto the market. Whatever the cause, with an increase in listings, we would expect a price decrease.
Is there any relationship with the number of listings and prices? For each zip code, we’ve plotted the change in price before and after the hurricane against the change in number of listed rentals.
Data Source: RentHop
In most zip codes we see an increase in the number of listings. Another noticeable trend is that in areas with more listings, the price is actually more often decreasing. In areas with price increases, there are typically few or a reduction in the number of new listings. This would support the conventional relationship that areas with more listings (a greater supply of housing) are cheaper. The bulk of the price increases are happening where there aren’t a lot of new rentals.
The ultimate question is whether all of this constitutes price gouging. While we did see a lot of interesting trends suggesting some types of rentals are more expensive, we do not have anything to suggest illegal price increases.This problem should be monitored vigilantly at the local level to ensure renters are protected. Hopefully, this provided some insight into the state of the Houston housing market in after Hurricane Harvey.
- Stan Druckenmiller Sells Greenwich Mansion For 20% Below Asking
Last month, we reported that wealthy homeowners in one of America’s prototypical enclaves of wealth and privilege have begun to pull their stately mansions from the market as demand for high-end properties in Greenwich, Conn. Has plunged in recent years.
Despite sellers slashing prices, so far, only three Greenwich homes have sold for more than $10 million. In response, new listings have dropped 31% as sellers opt to wait out the gully in hopes of securing a higher price.
But as it turns out, one of those three homes belongs to Stanley Druckenmiller, the billionaire founder of Duquesne Capital, who sold it at a considerable discount, according to Bloomberg.
Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller sold his eight-bedroom Greenwich mansion for $25 million, the biggest sale this year in a Connecticut town where high-end listings have been piling up.
It took a discount to seal the deal. The purchase price was 21 percent less than the $31.5 million the seller originally sought, according to the listing. Druckenmiller bought the 12,238-square-foot (1,137-square-meter) home in 2004 for $23 million.
Druckenmiller’s sale was the third in Greenwich this year for more than $20 million, and the second to find a buyer after the owner agreed to a price cut, according to data from appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate. There were 180 luxury homes on the market in Greenwich at the end of the third quarter, the firms said.
Once upon a time, a nonexistent income tax (Connecticut became the last state in the US to institute an income tax in the early 1990s) and low property taxes – not to mention the gold coast tableau of beautiful beaches and lush greenery – made Greenwich one of America’s most sought-after zip codes.
But two income-tax hikes pushed through under Democratic Gov. Dannel Malloy, not to mention a looming fiscal crisis, have seriously diminished Connecticut’s popularity. The fact that Connecticut is a mostly suburban state – at a time when young people are migrating toward urban surroundings – certainly isn’t helping property values.
There were only five sales for $10 million or more in 2015 and 2016, the slowest pace in this category since at least 2008, and less than half the average, according to brokerage Houlihan Lawrence. As of late October, there were nearly 40 properties listed for $10 million in and around Greenwich. At the current pace, it would take at least seven years to sell them all at the current pace.
One would think, with stocks at record highs, the “wealth effect” would lead to an increase in purchases of luxury homes. However, perhaps the most significant factor affecting the Greenwich real-estate market is a shift in trends. Younger couples favor urban environments – meaning they’re more likely to opt for a Manhattan apartment instead of an expansive home in the suburbs.
As one real-estate agent put it, small is the new big.
- "Comey Has No Issue With It": Judicial Watch Dumps Explosive New FBI Emails From McCabe's Conflict Review
Judicial Watch has just dumped a new treasure trove of FBI emails regarding Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s conflict check relative to the Clinton email investigation (for those who missed it, we reviewed all of McCabe’s many scandals here: “FBI Director McCabe Subject Of Three Separate Federal Inquiries Into Alleged Misconduct: Report“). Ironically, this particular FOIA request was filed in October 2016 under the Obama administration but they apparently just “didn’t have time” to get to it.
Judicial Watch today released 79 pages of Justice Department documents concerning ethics issues related to FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s involvement with his wife’s political campaign. The documents include an email showing Mrs. McCabe was recruited for a Virginia state senate race in February 2015 by then-Virginia Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam’s office.
The news that Clinton used a private email server broke five days later, on March 2, 2015. Five days after that, former Clinton Foundation board member and Democrat party fundraiser, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, met with the McCabes. She announced her candidacy on March 12. Soon afterward, Clinton/McAuliffe-aligned political groups donated nearly $700,000 (40% of the campaign’s total funds) to McCabe’s wife for her campaign.
Judicial Watch obtained the documents through a July 24, 2017, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed after the Justice Department failed to respond to an October 24, 2016, FOIA request
Among other things, the new FOIA dump reveals a panicked FBI’s efforts to enlist the support of an army of lawyers and public relations personnel to deal with the original Wall Street Journal article (see: “Clinton Ally Aided Campaign of FBI Official’s Wife“) that first revealed McCabe’s ties to the Clintons and his simultaneous oversight of the Clinton email investigation.
But perhaps none of the newly revealed emails from Judicial Watch today are more important than the following one in which McCabe describes how FBI Director Comey was breifed on his ties to the Clintons just days before his wife announced her Senate bid (and subsequently received roughly $700,000 in political donations for Clinton-friendly PACs) and then confirmed that he “has no issue with it.”
An October 23, 2016, email shows McCabe running the response effort to a Wall Street Journal article that was published that day, titled “Clinton Ally Aided Campaign of FBI Official’s Wife.” McCabe provides Michael Kortan, the assistant director of Public Affairs, his version of a timeline of events surrounding the Clinton investigation and his wife’s campaign. McCabe said he contacted then-FBI Chief of Staff Chuck Roseburg about Jill McCabe’s candidacy and was told that “the D [Comey] has no issue with it.” (Judicial Watch earlier this month released documents showing that McCabe finally did recuse himself from the Clinton investigation only a week before last year’s presidential election.)
Internally, the Wall Street Journal article started a flurry of emails among Mrs. McCabe’s campaign, Kortan, Director McCabe, and the FBI’s General Counsel. Part of that exchange is an email from McCabe to someone in the General Counsel’s Office: “Sucks pretty much. Buckle in. It’s going to get rough.” The colleague responds, “I know. It’s awful. I shouldn’t be shocked by now, but I really am appalled.” McCabe also forwarded the article to Comey who responded, “Copy.”
On October 24, 2016, a memo was sent to all Special Agents in Charge, Assistant Directors, Executive Directors and the General Counsel’s Office regarding the Wall Street Journal article discussing campaign activities concerning Mrs. McCabe. Kortan suggested that questions could be referred to his office and he attached an “Overview of Deputy Director McCabe’s Recusal Related To Dr. McCabe’s Campaign for Political Office.” The Overview itself was previously reported by Judicial Watch.
Meanwhile, the documents also show repeated use of the official FBI email system in connection with Mrs. McCabe’s political campaign.
On March 13, 2015, Mrs. McCabe emails to her husband’s official FBI email account a draft press release announcing her run for state Senate.
In August 2015, McCabe uses his official FBI email account to advise a redacted recipient to visit his wife’s campaign website: “Jill has been busy as hell since she decided to run for VA state senate (long story). Check her out on Facebook as Dr. Jill McCabe for Senate.”
On November 2, 2015, Mrs. McCabe forwards an email to her husband – then the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Office – that accuses her opponent of extorting local businessmen. The email was sent to her husband’s official FBI account.
In summarizing these latest revelations, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said “these new documents show that the FBI leadership was politicized and compromised in its handling of the Clinton email investigation…it’s well past time for a do-over on the Clinton emails that requires a new, honest criminal investigation of her misconduct.”
- UN Releases Shocking Video Of North Korean Defector's Mad Dash Into The South Under Fire
Authored by Ryan Pickrell via The Daily Caller,
Incredible video footage from the tense Korean Demilitarized Zone shows one North Korean soldier’s desperate dash into South Korea as his comrades let loose a barrage of bullets.
United Nations Command released CCTV footage Tuesday of a suspected staff sergeant in his 20s fleeing his desolate country, first in a jeep and then on foot, with North Korean soldiers hot on his heels. The man crossed into South Korea at the Joint Security Area while his comrades chased after him, firing on him as he ran.
Incredible footage of the North Korean soldier making his escape through the DMZ, first in a jeep and then on foot. Can clearly see North Koreans running to shoot their "comrade" pic.twitter.com/JRzTdYBvq4
— Anna Fifield (@annafifield) November 22, 2017
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
A clearer and more detailed video of this extremely rare incident can be seen below.
In the video, four North Korean soldiers can be seen pursuing the defector, trying to kill him before he can reach freedom.
The young North Korean soldier was shot multiple times, but he succeeded in making it into South Korea before he collapsed in a pile of leaves. He was rescued by South Korean troops and airlifted to a medical facility in Suwon. He has already undergone two major surgeries, and he is scheduled to have another surgery Wednesday.
The operations were complicated by the presence of numerous parasites and widespread infection, but the medical team has so far managed to keep him alive.
The North Korean soldier has regained consciousness and is communicating with the medical staff, but conversation is limited. His first words were reportedly “Is this actually South Korea?”
The medical staff hung the South Korean flag in his hospital room to comfort him and to remind him that he actually made it. The medical personnel at Ajou University Hospital where the man is receiving treatment suspect the soldier is suffering from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
In addition to revealing details about one man’s daring escape, the video shows multiple armistice violations on the part of the North Korean troops at the JSA. Not only were they carrying prohibited weapons, but they also fired and personally crossed into South Korea at the Military Demarcation Line during the incident.
Digest powered by RSS Digest
Saving...