President Donald Trump Pulls the Plug on Abandons Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Obama’s Signature Trade Deal

TRUMP ENDS AMERICAN JOB KILLING TPP …NOTE TO MSM, WHAT PART ABOUT AMERICA FIRST DIDN’T YOU QUITE UNDERSTAND?

On day one of his presidency, Donald Trump fulfilled a campaign promise and ended the TPP, Trans-Pacific Partnership. And so it further begins. First Obama went after Obamacare, Obama’s signature piece of legislation and now it’s Obama’s signature trade deal. Trump looks to make individual trade deals with countries and doing so from an America first vision. President Trump was able to end the TPP by an executive order because it was never approved by Congress. Bipartisan trade policy, eh NY Times?

President Trump upended America’s traditional, bipartisan trade policy on Monday as he formally abandoned the ambitious, 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership brokered by his predecessor and declared an end to the era of multinational trade agreements that defined global economics for decades.

With the stroke of a pen on his first full weekday in office, Mr. Trump signaled that he plans to follow through on promises to take a more aggressive stance against foreign competitors as part of his “America First” approach. In doing so, he demonstrated that he would not follow old rules, effectively discarding longstanding Republican orthodoxy that expanding global trade was good for the world and America — and that the United States should help write the rules of international commerce.

Although the Trans-Pacific Partnership had not been approved by Congress, Mr. Trump’s decision to withdraw not only doomed former President Barack Obama’s signature trade achievement, but also carried broad geopolitical implications in a fast-growing region. The deal, which was to link a dozen nations from Canada and Chile to Australia and Japan in a complex web of trade rules, was sold as a way to permanently tie the United States to East Asia and create an economic bulwark against a rising China.

FUNERAL CRASHER: Wife Noela Rukundo Crashes Her Own Funeral, Much to Husband’s Surprise, Who Had Paid to Have Her Killed … Balenga Kalala, Ultimately Pleaded Guilty & Sentenced to 9 Years in Prison

REAL LIFE FUNERAL CRASHERS,  WHERE’S WILL FERRELL …

Noela Rukundo, an Australian woman, returned to her native Africa to travel to Burundi to attend her attend her stepmother’s funeral when she was abducted by a gang of men. They had been ordered by her husband of 10 years to kill her.  The amazing part, she was spared by the hitmen with principles. Hmm, I guess there is sometimes honor among thieves. After having kidnapped her, the men said, they weren’t going to kill her, they didn’t believe in killing women. Instead, they called the husband and told him the job was done.  According to Australia’s The Age newspaper, two days later, they set her free on the side of a road, but not before giving her a cellphone, recordings of their phone conversations with Kalala, and receipts for the $7,000 in Australian dollars they allegedly received in payment.

Noela Rukundo  was presumed dead by her partner and their entire community who held a funeral in her home in Melbourne, Australia, in her memory early last year. Much to all of their surprise, after all of the mourners had left, she approached her former love who was under the impression that his wife was not only dead, but that he had got away with his murderous plan. That’s when she approached him and replied, “Surprise! I’m still alive!” Her husband looked like he’d seen a ghost. Eventually, her husband, Balenga Kalala, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 9 years in prison.

Balenga Kalala, who arrived in Australia in 2004 as a refugee, paid almost $7,000 to a group of kidnappers to kill the mother of his three children, Noela Rukundo, when she was attending her stepmother’s funeral in Burundi in early 2015.

The group snatched Ms Rukundo at gunpoint outside her hotel in Bujumbura in February and drove her to a secret location.

The WAPO:

Finally, she spotted the man she’d been waiting for. She stepped out of her car, and her husband put his hands on his head in horror.

“Is it my eyes?” she recalled him saying. “Is it a ghost?”

“Surprise! I’m still alive!” she replied.

Far from being elated, the man looked terrified. Five days earlier, he had ordered a team of hit men to kill Rukundo, his partner of 10 years. And they did — well, they told him they did. They even got him to pay an extra few thousand dollars for carrying out the crime.

Now here was his wife, standing before him. In an interview with the BBC on Thursday, Rukundo recalled how he touched her shoulder to find it unnervingly solid. He jumped. Then he started screaming.

“I’m sorry for everything,” he wailed.

But it was far too late for apologies; Rukundo called the police. The husband, Balenga Kalala, ultimately pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nine years in prison for incitement to murder, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corp. (the ABC).

19 Year Old Sevdet Besim Charged with Planning to Target Police with Explosive Kangaroo in Melbourne, Australia

HE DID WHAT MATE …

19 year old Sevdet Ramadan Besim has been charged with plotting to target police  with a kangaroo packed with explosives in an ISIS terror attack in Melbourne, Australia. According to prosecutors, the teenager discussed packing a kangaroo with explosives, painting it with the ISIS symbol and setting it loose on police. Prosecutors also accuse Besim of communicating with a teenager overseas, as well as planning to run over and behead a police officer on Anzac Day.

VIDEO – NBC News

A Melbourne teenager allegedly discussed packing a kangaroo with explosives, painting it with an Islamic State symbol and setting it loose on police officers.

Sevdet Ramadan Besim, 19, of Hallam, is accused of plotting an Anzac Day terror attack in Melbourne that would have included a beheading.

He was committed to trial in the Supreme Court on Thursday after pleading not guilty to four charges.

In a prosecution summary against Mr Besim tendered to court, police allege the pair spoke on March 16 last year, during which they discussed packing a kangaroo with explosives and letting it loose on police.

“The conversation continues with Besim detailing what he did that day and they have a general discussion around animals and wildlife in Australia, including a suggestion that a kangaroo could be packed with C4 explosive, painted with the IS symbol and let loose on police officers,” the summary says.

Daily Commentary – Tuesday, December 16, 2014 – Looks Like Australian Authorities Knew How to Deal with the Lone Gunman

• Islamist radical, Man Haron Monis was killed by authorities when they heard gunshots being fired. Monis and two hostages were killed by gun fire. No word yet on who’s gun killed two hostages

Daily Commentary – Tuesday, December 16, 2014 Download

Sydney Siege in Sydney, Australia: Hostages Held in Lindt Cafe (LIVE VIDEO) (Update: Seige Over, Two people Dead Along with an Islamist Gunman)

Multiple hostages have been held in a Sydney, Australia cafe by a gunman in what appears to be an Islamist-linked attack.

VIDEO – CNN: Hostage situation inside a Sydney cafe

Australian police locked down the center of the country’s biggest city on Monday after an armed man walked into a busy downtown Sydney cafe, took hostages and forced them to display an Islamic flag, igniting fears of a jihadist attack.

Police said they knew of one armed assailant involved in the incident at the Lindt chocolate cafe in the heart of Sydney’s financial district, but there could be more.

Click HERE for VIDEO

BBC:

A gunman is holding staff and customers hostage at a cafe in Sydney, Australia.

The Lindt cafe in the city centre is surrounded by armed police. Officers have made contact with the gunman.

Five people have been seen running from the building. It is not clear how many remain inside. A black Islamic flag has been displayed at the window.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott said it was “profoundly shocking” that people were being “held hostage by an armed person claiming political motivation”.

He was speaking after chairing a meeting of the national security committee in Canberra.

Earlier Mr Abbott said: “Australia is a peaceful, open and generous society – nothing should ever change that and that’s why I would urge all Australians today to go about their business as usual.”

Senior police officers say they are on a footing “consistent with a terrorist event”.

UPDATE I: ABC – Australia.

Key Points:

• An armed offender is holding an “undisclosed number” of hostages inside the Lindt cafe in central Sydney, police say
• Almost seven hours into the siege, three people were seen running out of the cafe. An hour later another two emerged
• New South Wales Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn could not confirm how many people were being held hostage, but police believed it was fewer than 30
• Police are working to determine the motivation of the offender and have moved to a footing consistent with a terrorism event
• A black flag with white Arabic writing reading “There is no God but Allah” and “Mohammed is the messenger of God” was waved behind the hostages

UPDATE II: Five people flee from Sydney cafe amid hostage drama.

VIDEO – Watch ABC News 24 Live

UPDATE III: Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the gunman was “claiming political motivation.”

Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the gunman was “claiming political motivation” but after more than 15 hours had yet to declare the siege a terrorist event. However, police said they were “operating according to our counter-terrorism protocols” and NBC News analyst, ex-FBI-agent Don Borelli, told TODAY that the suspect appeared to be inspired by ISIS.

Chris Reason, a journalist with NBC News’ Australian partner Channel 7, said the hostage-taker was “forcing them to stand against windows, sometimes two hours at a time.” He added that the suspect seemed to be “getting extremely agitated” after the five hostages left.

Police would not confirm how many were still being held inside the Lindt cafe — where a black flag used by Islamist groups in the Middle East has been shown in the window.

UPDATE IV: Sydney siege: Gunman issued demands, threats.

UPDATE V: Sydney siege: Three dead after commandos storm cafe.

Two people died, along with an Islamist gunman, after commandos stormed a cafe in Sydney, Australia, to bring to an end a 16-hour siege.

Local media have named those who died as Lindt cafe manager Tori Johnson, 34 and lawyer Katrina Dawson, 38.

Four people were injured, including a policeman hit by shotgun pellets.

Central Sydney was put in lockdown as the gunman, identified as an Iranian refugee, seized dozens of hostages early on Monday.

The Lindt Chocolat Cafe is located in Martin Place, a busy shopping area in Sydney’s financial district.

The gunman, named as Man Haron Monis, forced some of the hostages to hold up a black Islamic banner at the window of the cafe.