Headlines:
- Turkey Slapped with Sanctions
- Mohamed Ali Spills Secrets to Middle East Eye
- IMF Warns World Growth Slowest Since Financial Crisis
Turkey Slapped with Sanctions
US President Donald Trump announced on Twitter that he would soon issue an executive order imposing sanctions on current and former Turkish government officials, increasing steel tariffs to 50% and ceasing negotiations on a new trade deal with Turkey in response to Ankara’s offensive in north-eastern Syria. This is the complete opposite to Trump’s phone call where he agreed to remove US troops and after he gave the green light for the Turkish operation. Congress and the defence dept have always been against the removal of US troops from Syria and many republicans resent Trump personally as he defeated many heavy weight republicans to become the president, they have been undermining him at every opportunity. Trumps move follows significant congressional pressure on the White House to punish Turkey for its operation, Turkey launched the operation after the United States said it would withdraw some of its assets from the area. Trump’s order is very watered down than the sanctions package currently under discussion in the US Congress, which includes sanctions on individuals and a potential end to arms sales and military assistance. Despite all that Erdogan has achieved for the US, the life of clients means little to the US – as the Kurds have found out the hard way, but for people like Erdogan they also get humiliated.
Mohamed Ali Spills Secrets to Middle East Eye
The whistleblower whose video revelations about Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi sparked mass protests and a fresh crackdown in Egypt sat down with the Middle East Eye in an exclusive interview. With the people of Egypt struggling under a flagging economy and austerity measures implemented by the government, Ali’s tales of lavish palaces built for Sisi using public funds were met with widespread anger. Muhammed Ali, whose real estate company has for years been contracted by the Egyptian government and military, has caused scandal and outrage in Egypt since he began releasing videos in early September accusing Sisi and other top officials of corruption. Ali confirmed he had moved to leave Egypt and assume his whistleblower role after the Egyptian government repeatedly failed to pay his company for work it had completed. Among the real estate projects Ali worked on, he told MEE, was a multi-storey building used by Egypt’s general intelligence to house what the contractor called “Sisi’s electronic army”. This army’s job, he said, was to monitor social media. Part of their job is to like Sisi’s videos and comment on them,” he revealed.
IMF Warns World Growth Slowest Since Financial Crisis
The global economy is growing at its slowest pace since the financial crisis, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said. The fund said world growth would hit just 3% this year – down from its July forecast of 3.2% and a sharp slowdown from just two years ago. The IMF blamed the slowdown on trade fights, Brexit uncertainty and other geopolitical crises. “The global outlook remains precarious,” the international lending body said in its annual report. “At 3% growth, there is no room for policy mistakes.” The IMF blames much of the weakening outlook on trade tensions and called for the reversal of tariff increases imposed by several countries, notably the US. The reality is the growth since 2008 was due to stimulus and the printing of money and this was always going to be a temporary fix, now this has caught u with the global economy.