Politics

In early trading, the Turkish Lira is slumping (having tagged pre-US-Visa highs) as President Tayyip Erdogan showed no retreat from a diplomatic row with the United States, castigating Washington for what he called an "undemocratic" indictment against his security detail.

As Reuters reports, his comments may further dash hopes of a quick resolution to an on-going diplomatic crisis between the NATO allies. Both Ankara and Washington have cut back issuing visas to each other's citizens as ties have worsened.

Spot the odd one out...

Only one of these six people admits that Russians did not alter the election outcome and did not vote for Hillary...

In a lengthy interview with The New York Times recently, 93-year-old former President Jimmy Carter cut loose on some painful establishment 'facts'.

Two days after former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon warned that California may attempt to secede from the US over the next decade if Republicans failed to reassume control of the state, the state’s attorney general played down speculation that the state would make a credible attempt at leaving the US in the coming years.

In an unexpected development, President Donald Trump has signed an executive order allowing the Air Force to recall up to 1,000 retired pilots to address what the Pentagon has decribed as "an acute shortage of pilots," Fox News reported.

The order, which Trump signed Friday, amends an emergency declaration signed by George W. Bush in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. The Air Force is only allowed to recall up to 25 pilots under current law. The order signed by Trump temporarily removes that cap for all branches of the military.

Following Catalan President Puigdemont's address yesterday accusing Madrid of "the worst attack since Franco," the Spanish government has urged Catalonians to accept direct control from Madrid and ignore seditious instructions from the pro-independence leaders.

Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis responded on Sunday with the call to obey Madrid.