Video: Why Is the FBI Targeting ‘Black Identity Extremists?’

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Eugene Puryear and Eddie Conway say there is no reason the FBI should be focusing on so-called “black identity extremists” when white supremacists commit …

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Europe Cringes Before Emperor Trump

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President Donald Trump says most summit meetings are a waste of time.  He’s so right.  Most meetings of every kind are a waste of time and energy.

The president was certainly right about last week’s NATO summit in Brussels.  At least, he livened it up by openly blasting his NATO allies once again for not spending enough on their military forces.  But Trump’s real purpose was to show the world that he was boss of all he surveyed.  

Doing his best bull in a china shop routine, Trump lectured and scolded the heads of NATO on live TV.  They took the verbal thrashing like truant schoolboys.  NATO’s secretary general, former Norwegian prime minister Jens Stoltenberg, who was put into office by the US, muttered a few lame excuses.  Trump supporters in the US were delighted to see the snotty, godless Europeans given a good dressing down.

It did not help when it was revealed that Germany, the bulwark of NATO, had only a handful of front-line fighters in service.  Another report claimed most of its main battle tanks were out of service due to budget cuts.

The president made the very important statement that he regarded Russia’s Vladimir Putin as a ‘competitor’ and not an ‘enemy.’  This view is widely held in Europe and the rest of the world.

But then Trump negated this sensible view by claiming Germany is ‘totally controlled’ by and ‘captive to’ nearby Russia because Germany now buys up to 70% of its oil and gas from them.

In fact, many Germans believe precisely the contrary: that Germany is Washington’s vassal state and still under American domination seven decades after World War II.

They cite US control of Germany’s intelligence agencies, foreign and defense policies, relations with Israel, and sending troops to support the ongoing US occupation of Afghanistan.

Over 37 active US bases and installations are spread across northern Germany and Bavaria.  Some 35,000 US troops remain in Germany, down from the Cold War total of over 300,000.  Important German air bases form the core of the US ability to project power into Eastern Europe and the Mideast.  The US quietly stores nuclear weapons in Germany.

The US has dominated Germany’s sedate media since WWII.  American intelligence has often hand-picked its editors and columnists.  German officials and politicians at all levels understand a list of approved do’s and don’ts, avoiding actions that would annoy or anger Washington.

American influence over Germany is so pervasive that when it was revealed that the US National Security Agency was tapping Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cell phone, the German government response to this humiliation was meek and muted.

Donald Trump dislikes Mrs. Merkel because she has let in refugees – and Muslim ones at that – but she remains one of America’s most deferential and loyal allies.  It’s a pity that neither she nor NATO chief Stoltenberg stood up and counter-blasted Trump.  Acting like mice further reinforced the prevailing view that NATO members are merely water carriers for the American nuclear knights.  It reinforces the point that Europe needs its own united military forces.

If Trump had any knowledge of history, which he clearly does not, he would know that Germany had close economic links with Russia since the days of the Empress Catherine the Great (1762-1796).  Russians have always admired the technical skills, efficiency and work ethic of Germans.  Germany and Russia are natural trading partners thanks to proximity and producing what the other lacks.

One of America’s perennial fears has been a German-Russian entente. This almost happened after the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that combined military and economic development.  In recent years, Germany has steadily expanded its economic presence in Russia, most notably with the underwater Nord Stream 2 pipeline under the Baltic that brings Russian natural gas to Germany while avoiding hostile Poland and Ukraine.

Buying Russian gas puts Germany under Russian domination, claims Trump, whose military has 800 bases around the globe and soldiers from South Korea to Togo.   A certain amount of influence, perhaps.  But Russia’s main money earner comes from exporting oil and gas, and minerals.  Except in wartime, it’s unlikely Moscow would shut the taps on its vital oil pipelines.

This brouhaha over Russian oil exports is the work of the US neocons who infest the Trump administration and run Fox TV.   They want to see Germany and Russia kept on their knees, and NATO submissive to Washington.

Trump is wading in deep, murky waters here. Let’s hope he does better this week in his meeting with Vlad Putin – which we venture to guess will not be a waste of time at all.

Via Common Dreams. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

PressTV-92-yr-old Queen waited 15 minutes for Trump

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Odd moments between US President Donald Trump and Queen Elizabeth has caught the attention of media both inside and outside the United States.

For one thing, the 92-year-old had to spend 15 minutes in the summer heat for the American commander-in-chief to show up on stage at the Windsor Castle on Friday.

Trump’s manners have been indicated as awkward, including during a stroll that he took like he was “wandering up and down a golf course,” according royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams.

The queen, who was in coat, hat and gloves, was left waiting, which made her look at her watch twice.

The meeting came right after Trump criticized the UK over how it has been handling London’s exit from the EU.

The US president’s stay in the UK has been met with British crowds protesting his policies.

 “Our rights to want a world that is not divided by misogyny, racism, and hate,” said Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Labour Party,…

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Dixie Rising: Rules for Rebels

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After reading “Punished With Poverty” I wanted to know if there was a way out for the occupied Confederate States, so I read the Kennedy Twin’s other new book “Dixie Rising“. A well thought out plan for regaining the founder’s vision of government by the consent of the governed, and those who may disagree please write us a book and tell us how you would go about such a monumental task?? No plan is ever perfect, but one thing for sure, if we continue to do what we’ve always done, we’ll always be where we’ve always been since April 9th, 1865.

Dixie Rising: Rules fo…
James Ronald Kennedy
Check Amazon for Pricing.

First mission, according to the Kennedy Boys, is to re-educate our Southern brethren, and a good way to start is by spreading these two gentleman’s books far and wide over Dixie! The “Good Book” says: ” My people are destroyed for lack of Knowledge” quite a prophetic statement in view of the current state of the education our Southern children are receiving form the Yankee controlled PC Public schools! While the Kennedy plan may not be perfect, I give it 5 stars, as I have yet to see a better one!

Reprinted from Amazon.com.

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Leak at Porton Down lab may be behind UK nerve-agent poisonings – Russian embassy — RT UK News

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A leak at the Porton Down secret laboratory may explain the nerve agent poisonings in Britain, as both cases happened in nearby Salisbury and Amesbury, the Russian embassy in the UK has said.

The embassy was asked by the media to comment on Friday’s announcement by the UK police that a small bottle they found in the home of one of the Amesbury poisoning victims contained the infamous Novichok nerve agent. 

However, Russian diplomats said that they “cannot check or verify any British statements” because London “refuses to cooperate with us in any way possible” on the issue.

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Forensic investigators in Amesbury, Britain, July 6, 2018 © Henry Nicholls

Russia would like the UK to share its data on the nerve agent attacks that targeted former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury last March, and another poisoning in Amesbury in late June, the embassy said. However, it added that they were “almost sure that the British side will not be informing us directly.”

The Russian mission pointed out that both poisoning cases took place “in the vicinity of the secret military chemical laboratory in Porton Down,” which may well lead to the conclusion that “some kind of ‘leak’ from this laboratory might have taken place. This cannot be excluded.”

“We have already demanded that the UK reveal information concerning ongoing research and production of chemical warfare agents in Porton Down,” it added.

The Porton Down chemical laboratory is located some 8km from both Salisbury and Amesbury.

The embassy also criticized the British authorities for asking the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to examine the substance found by the police at Amesbury.

The “independent verification” procedure initiated by the UK is “non-transparent, goes beyond the mechanisms outlined in the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC),” it said.

READ MORE: Full alert in Salisbury as man ‘falls ill’ near restaurant where Skripals ate before poisoning

“This initiative is yet another step towards politicizing the OPCW to the detriment of its reputation,” the Russian mission said.

In late June, the UK and its allies voted to expand the powers of the OPCW, allowing the body to not only investigate alleged chemical attacks, but also to assign blame for incidents. Russia said that it was a “dangerous” development, as the neutral body was being turned into a political tool that will be used by the West to apply pressure on Syria and other dissident states.

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Forensic investigators, wearing protective suits in Amesbury, Britain on July 6, 2018. © Henry Nicholls

On June 30, Charlie Rowley and his Dawn Sturgess were hospitalized after being poisoned at their home in Amesbury with what experts at Porton Down later identified as Novichok nerve agent. Sturgess died a week later, while Rowley’s health has improved. He is no longer in a critical condition, according reports on Wednesday.

In early March, Sergei and Yulia Skripal were found unconscious on the bench in Salisbury after a chemical attack and rushed to hospital. The UK authorities said that a Soviet-designed nerve agent, which they called ‘Novichok,’ had been used against the pair.

This gave London an opportunity to claim that Russia was “highly likely” responsible for the poisoning, and to introduce sanctions against Moscow. However, months later, the UK has yet to provide any convincing proof of Russia’s involvement, and it has turned down all requests for cooperation.

Meanwhile, the Skripals have miraculously recovered from the poisoning, despite Britain calling Novichok a deadly war-grade chemical. Their whereabouts are currently unknown, and Russian diplomats have been denied access to the pair.

The UK authorities say that the incidents in Amesbury and Salisbury are linked, but Professor of Chemistry at Cornell University, Dave Collum, told RT that “it’s impossible to make a connection as there’s been no data presented” to the public to back those claims.

He also reiterated that London’s statements of only Russia being capable of producing the novichok chemical were “totally false.” He described the nerve agent as “a simple compound,” which is actually just “three steps from commercially available materials.”

“I’ve put it on a final exam on my course… and they [the students] all got full credit. It was so easy, I knew none would lose credit because it’s like asking a bunch of bakers to make chocolate chip cookie recipe,” the US chemist said.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

“They’ve Been Doing This Massive, Anti-Democratic Model of Education Reform”

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Janine Jackson: A new report from the RAND Corporation concludes that the multi-million-dollar teacher evaluation project, championed and partially bankrolled by Bill Gates, did not increase teachers’ effectiveness or improve students’ academic performance, including the low-income minority students that were presented as the initiative’s major beneficiaries.

The Washington Post’s Valerie Strauss, a generally critical assessor of what’s called “education philanthropy,” covered this new report. But most corporate media appear uninterested in this challenge to a set of ideas about “failing public schools” and how to fix them, that they themselves play a notable role in promoting.

Our next guest has critically engaged the Gates Foundation’s educational forays for years now. Wayne Au is professor at the University of Washington/Bothell Campus, and interim dean for diversity and equity on campus. He’s also editor at Rethinking Schools. He joins us now by phone from Seattle. Welcome back to CounterSpin, Wayne Au.

Wayne Au: Thanks for having me.

It’s important to note that while the Gates Foundation underwrote a reported $215 million of this project, that was less than half; school districts supplied the rest. So we’re not talking about an episode of perhaps naïve corporate noblesse oblige, troubling as that would be. But a lot of public resources were put into this “use test scores to evaluate teachers” project, that many, many educators knew from the get-go was misdirected.

That’s really unfortunate, but I think it makes sense if you look at things in the current context. The same thing happened with Common Core and Race to the Top as…

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Man arrested for attacking wife with chainsaw removed from US 11 times

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A man accused of attacking his wife with a chainsaw has been deported from the US 11 times since 2005, officials from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have said.

READ MORE: House Democrats introduce ‘Abolish ICE’ bill

Alejandro Alvarez Villegas allegedly attacked his wife at their home in Whittier, southern California, with a mechanical saw while their three children were present, according to police. The 32-year-old is then said to have fled the scene in a stolen car. He was later picked up by police after detectives developed information about his whereabouts.

Police said that when officers arrived at the home they found the woman suffering from traumatic physical injuries believed to have been inflicted by a chainsaw. The victim was transported to a local hospital and her current condition is unknown.

In a statement to RT, ICE officials said that police have been requested to notify ICE prior to the release of Alvarez Villegas to enable customs officials to take him into custody. “Department of Homeland Security databases indicate Mr. Alvarez Villegas is a serial immigration violator who has been removed from the United States 11 times since 2005,” the statement read.

Depending on their criminal history, any person who illegally reenters the United States, after having been previously removed, could be charged with a felony offence that carries a maximum penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

READ MORE: Anti-ICE protester scales Statue of Liberty, prompting island evacuation & rescue (VIDEO)

Alvarez will be transported back to the Whittier City Jail where he will be booked on charges of attempted murder, child endangerment, hit and run and grand theft auto.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Tipping Points

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It is an axiom of American politics that there is one born every minute.  Even so, it boggles the mind to think that so many Americans fell for Donald Trump’s con two years ago.  Many did, however, and now he is president of the United States.

To be sure, it was the Electoral College, not the popular vote, that put him in office.  Still, some sixty-three million Americans voted for him.

This was impossible to justify, even before it became as clear as it soon would be, how manifestly unfit Trump is for the office he now holds. However, it is not hard to understand why so many people allowed themselves to be snookered.

The Trump vote was a rebuke to the dead center in a neoliberal age.  This was not an “exceptional” phenomenon; all over the world, center left and center right political parties are losing support and drawing the ire of voters that they used to count upon.

For the most part, though, the center is holding — in the United States and, with few exceptions, elsewhere.  There is nothing quite as dead center as the Democratic Party.

The conventional wisdom has it that the Democrats are a party of the center-left.  That gives them too much credit.

But because better alternatives are all but precluded by America’s electoral institutions and by a duopoly party system that effectively neuters political initiatives that fall outside the “bipartisan” ambit, the Democratic Party is where leftists go when they want to step out of the margins and into…

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PressTV-US-made mortar shells uncovered in Daesh hideout

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Syrian government forces have discovered considerable amounts of munitions, telecommunication equipment as well as US-built mortar shells at a weapons depot of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in the country’s eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr near the border with Iraq.

Syria’s official news agency SANA reported that Syrian army troopers launched a clean-up operation in Hasrat town, which lies on the western outskirts of Abu Kamal town, on Saturday and uncovered a huge cache of ammunition and explosives.

The report added that the weapons included 120mm mortars, BM-21 Grad rockets, 107mm rockets, 40mm grenades, anti-tank missiles and a combat-net radio transceiver.

An unspecified number of mines and explosive devices were also found, which Daesh Takfiris had planned to use to booby-trap residential buildings.

Militants hand over heavy, medium weapons in southwestern Syria

Meanwhile, foreign-backed militant groups in the…

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Mass protests against Trump’s UK visit

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Mass protests against Trump’s UK visit

14 July 2018

The huge protests in London and elsewhere in the UK yesterday were an outpouring of anger and revulsion against US President Donald Trump.

Organisers estimated a quarter of a million flooded into Trafalgar Square and surrounding streets. Police admit over 100,000. Tens of thousands also protested in major cities such as Manchester, Sheffield and Glasgow.

This was the first opportunity for workers in Europe to express their own views on the US president, after a week he spent threatening the European powers with trade war and demanding they speed up their own ongoing rearmament.

And whereas Europe’s rulers bemoaned their wounded pride at Trump’s pointed insults while seeking to maintain working relations, the UK protests prove that millions upon millions of workers despise Trump and everything he stands for—the enrichment of the billionaires, gutting of welfare provision, anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim racism and naked warmongering.

There is no doubt that Trump’s trip to Europe played its part in galvanising yesterday’s protests, including his xenophobic outburst in the Sun against immigrants and immigration destroying British and European culture.

Prime Minister Theresa May invited Trump to visit, despite more than a million people signing a petition in opposition. She hoped to secure his support for a US trade deal post-Brexit, promising the president at Blenheim Palace “an opportunity to tear down the bureaucratic barriers that frustrate business leaders on both sides of the Atlantic.”

Instead, in the pages of the Sun Trump treated her with naked scorn for daring to seek a continued relationship with the European Union, publicly savaging her just as he had German Chancellor Angela Merkel. All while his…

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PressTV-Democratic senators warn Trump not to meet Putin

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A group of top Democratic Party lawmakers in the US Senate have warned President Donald Trump against a one-on-one meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, ahead of a planned summit between the two Finland.

Eight Senate Democrats, including Minority Leader Charles Schumer, Minority Whip Dick Durbin and the top Democrats on the Senate Intelligence, Foreign Relations, Judiciary, Armed Services, Appropriations and Banking committees sent a letter to Trump on Saturday making the demand.

“If you insist on meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland, on Monday, we write to urge that you include senior members of your team,” the letter said.

They argued that “Putin is a trained KGB intelligence veteran who will come to this meeting well-prepared.”

“There must be other Americans in the room,” they wrote, urging Trump to “rely on the expertise and the experts of the State Department, Defense Department, CIA and other…

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Social media reacts to Trump waving to protesters during game of golf — RT UK News

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After grueling days of berating NATO allies over defense funding and being met with protests against his UK visit, Donald Trump took to his Scottish bolthole for a round of golf before his summit with Vladimir Putin in Finland.

The president’s plans for a hassle free weekend ahead of the Helsinki showdown on Monday soon fell through shortly on arrival to his Turnberry golf resort, when an activist from Greenpeace paraglided overhead with a sign bearing the slogan: “Trump: Well Below Par.”

Out on the links on Saturday, hopes of a quiet 18 were dashed as he was greeted with shouts of “No Trump, no KKK, no racist USA,” from protesters waiting in the rough to let their voices be heard.

Footage of the haranguing shows Trump flanked by security and more golf buggies than you’ve ever seen on a course at one time, where the president waved to the protestors before sticking his head down to take his shot.

The protesters continued their chants during the president’s swing, jeering as he waved one final time before making a speedy getaway down the course in his buggy.

Since footage of the protest and wave surfaced, social media has been in full swing with many praising the Scots for letting their displeasure with Trump be known. While other questioned who his golfing partners were.

Some wanted to express sympathy with Trump’s attempt at a easy game, while others took swipes at the Scots’ penance for fine whisky.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Empowerment or hypocrisy? Scarlett Johansson quits trans role after public backlash — RT US News

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After a backlash from the trans community Scarlett Johansson has dropped out of film in which she was to play a trans woman. The decision sparked a flood of reaction with some questioning if it’s excessive political correctness.

Johansson had been cast in the film ‘Rug & Tug’ as crime lord Dante ‘Tex’ Gill, a real-life brothel owner who was born Lois Jean Gill but identified as a man. “In light of recent ethical questions raised surrounding my casting as Dante Tex Gill, I have decided to respectfully withdraw my participation in the project,” Johansson told Out Magazine.

“Our cultural understanding of transgender people continues to advance, and I’ve learned a lot from the community since making my first statement about my casting and realize it was insensitive.”

The actor had initially struck a defiant tone when members of the trans community disputed her appointment to the role. “Tell them that they can be directed to Jeffrey Tambor, Jared Leto, and Felicity Huffman’s reps for comment,” she said in a statement to Bustle, citing three actors who produced award-winning performances as trans characters.

The internet reaction has been mixed, with some calling her withdrawal a positive move towards transgender empowerment. Others congratulated Johansson for making way, while some of the more skeptical folk were a little more grudging in their praise.

READ MORE: Ban ‘inhumane’ gay conversion therapy: Theresa May announces new LGBT+ plan

However, others on Twitter seemed to bemoan the ‘Lost In Translation’ star’s decision to vacate the role, with some labeling the move “a sad loss for reason.”

Some online commentators were quick to point out that there was nothing like the same level of outrage when other actors took on trans roles, such as Eddie Redmayne in ‘The Danish Girl.’ It was also pointed out that pushing Johansson from the lead role may prove to be a net negative for trans activists in the long-term.  

READ MORE: Trans people won’t get legal access to public single-sex spaces, ministers pledge

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Trump Marches Onward and Downward

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Journalists, academics, pundits and experts have ignored the complexity of President Trump’s impact on the state of the US Empire.

To properly assess the geopolitical configuration of power, we will consider the military, economic, political and diplomatic advances and setbacks of the Trump regime in Latin America, the European Union and Asia (including the Middle East).

Secondly, we will examine the time frame – the shifting direction of the present configuration of forces.

We will conclude by discussing how the influence and results of foreign policy shape domestic political power.

Background to President Trump’s Empire Building

First and foremost, we must take account of the fact that much of Trump’s policies build on and reflect the policies of his predecessors, namely Presidents Bush and Obama.

The US wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria were started by Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama, The US bombings of Libya and the destruction and uprooting of millions of Africans was inaugurated by Obama.

The expulsion of millions of Central American and Mexican immigrants from the US was common practice prior to Trump.

In brief President Trump continued, and in some cases exacerbated, the socio-economic and military policies, of his predecessors. In a few areas Trump reversed policies, as was the case with Obama’s Nuclear Agreement with Iran.

The…

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The View of Russia – LewRockwell

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The upcoming Trump/Putin summit is hampered by the crazed portrait of Russia painted by presstitutes. Jonathan Chait, Amy Knight, Max Bergmann, Yaroslav Trofimov, Roger Cohen, and the rest of the conscious or de facto CIA assets that comprise the Western presstitute media have turned Putin into a superhuman who controls election outcomes throughout the West, murders people without rhyme or reason, and has President Trump under his thumb doing Putin’s bidding. Who could imagine a more extreme conspiracy theory?

Jonathan Chait in New York magazine writes that “the dark crevices of the Russia scandal run deep,” so deep that “it would be dangerous not to consider the possibility that the summit is less a negotiation between two heads of state than a meeting between a Russian-intelligence asset and his handler.”

So here is Chait, who brands truth-tellers “conspiracy theorists” coming up with the greatest conspiracy theory of our time that President Trump has been a Kremlim asset since 1987. Chait provides a ”crazy quilt of connections” to illustrate his absurd conspiracy theory that “it’s not necessary to believe that Putin always knew he might install Trump in the Oval Office to find the following situation highly plausible: Sometime in 2015, the Russian president recognized that he had, in one of his unknown number of intelligence files, an inroad into American presidential politics.”

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Chait believes that Russia is also behind the UK’s exit from the European Union. “Driving Britain out of the European Union advanced the decades-long Russian goal of splitting Western nations apart, and Russia…

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Scott Pruitt, the Wall Street Journal, and Trump’s Swamp

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“The name of the slough was ‘Despond.’ Here, therefore, they wallowed for a time, being grievously bedaubed with the dirt. . . .” —John Bunyan, A Pilgrim’s Progress

It was such a nicely written letter, beautifully typed, and of impeccable logic. In it Scott Pruitt explained why he resigned, and it had nothing to do with his behavior while serving as Administrator of the EPA. In the second sentence of his letter of resignation he said, in what was probably an unintentional but very straightforward acknowledgement of his conduct, that Mr. Trump’s confidence in him “has blessed me personally.” He was not, of course, referring to the blessings he received that were the ultimate reason he was forced out. He was forced out, he said: “because of “the unrelenting attacks on me personally, my family” that “have taken a sizable toll on all of us.” The letter, of course, made no reference to any of his conduct that gave rise to more than twelve investigations.

A Wall Street Journal editorial that appeared the day after Mr. Pruitt’s resignation was announced, was captioned: “Pruitt Drowns in the Swamp.” The swamp to which the editorial writers refer was not, as readers might have thought, the swamp that Mr. Pruitt had created. That swamp contained the $48,000 phone booth installed in Mr. Pruitt’s office, a phone booth that Clark Kent would have been thrilled to use when changing into his superman outfit. It contained flunkies sent to buy used mattresses and skin cream. It contained first class airplane tickets, 24-hour protection, and elaborate convoys when travelling by car. And that is only a partial list. One would be forgiven for thinking that the swamp to which the WSJ was referring was the one in which Mr. Pruitt swam. A reading of the editorial disabused the reader of that notion.

The first six words of the editorial instructed: “Chalk one up for the swamp.” It went on to explain that the swamp to which it was referring was the “permanent progressive state” that “finally ran Scott Pruitt out of the Environmental Protection Agency.” The editors of the WSJ did not view Mr. Pruitt as one of the most prominent alligators living in the swamp because of the ingenious ways he found to translate his position into personal profit and self-aggrandizement. Instead, it attributed his downfall to Tom Steyer and Mike Bloomberg who, it says, were out to get him, and to “the EPA bureaucracy that leans left, the green lobby entwined with it, and their collaborators in the press corps.”

The WSJ is quite happy to overlook the particulars of the swamp of misconduct in which Mr. Pruitt swam during his tenure. The writers state that allegations that “he misused private air travel, sent staff on personal errands, and bought $1,560 worth of pens, among dozens of other allegations,” allegations that Mr. Pruitt described as “false or exaggerated.” probably were false and exaggerated.

In further defense of Mr. Pruitt, and placing the blame for his departure on what the WSJ calls the “left,” it suggested that to be successful Mr. Pruitt “had to avoid even the hint of an ethical question” and “he should have been walking around Federal Triangle handcuffed to a general counsel.”

The WSJ also praised Mr. Pruitt for updating “advisory science boards that have been stacked with members who receive EPA grants.” At the time he appointed those representatives Mr. Pruitt held a press conference in which he explained the reasons for rearranging the composition of the boards by making reference to the book of Joshua in the Bible. He referred to the story of Joshua leading the people of Israel into the promised land following the death of Moses, and telling them they would now have to decide whom they would serve. Mr. Pruitt described the rearrangement of the commission as making use of the “Joshua Principle.” Scientists would have to decide whether to serve on EPA independent advisory boards, or receive grants from the agency. They could no longer do both. He replaced members who had received grants with “voices from regulated industries, academics and environmental regulators from conservative states and researchers who have a history of critiquing the science and economics underpinning tighter environmental regulations.” The WSJ conveniently overlooked those appointments. Included among the appointees were Texas’s top toxicologist, Michael Honeycutt, who was appointed to lead the Scientific Advisory Board, and Consultant, Louise Anthony Cox, who chairs the “Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee.” Mr. Honeycutt has said that the EPA overstates the risks that are associated with mercury and has disregarded science that “demonstrates a chemical is not as toxic as it thinks it is.” Ms. Cox has said that the methods for calculating the public health benefits are “unreliable, logically unsound, and inappropriate for drawing casual inferences.”

The WSJ closes its defense of Scott Pruitt, and its attacks on those it describes as his “defenestrators,” by reminding readers of Mr. Pruitt’s use of first class air travel that cost tax payers $105,000 in the first year he was in office. It suggests that to avoid receiving the kind of unjust treatment from creatures living in the swamp inhabited by the left, that Mr. Pruitt received, the members of the Trump cabinet should fly coach. Only the editors of the WSJ would think that by itself, that one action would drain the swamp in which Mr. Trump and his cabinet swim. Would that it were so.

Via Common Dreams. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Explosives thrown at home of SF’s Gerry Adams, while Derry rioting blamed on ‘New’ IRA — RT UK News

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A week of rioting and violence across Northern Ireland culminated in explosive devices being thrown at the Belfast homes of prominent Sinn Fein activists, including the party’s former leader Gerry Adams.

The home of the republican Bobby Storey, who previously served as the party’s chairman in Northern Ireland, was also targeted.

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The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) confirmed on Friday night that they were dealing with “two incidents at two separate addresses in West Belfast.” 

A further search of both locations saw remnants of “industrial, firework-type devices” seized by police, and “a parked car was damaged at one of the houses”, according to a PSNI statement.

Sinn Fein’s Policing and Justice Spokesman Gerry Kelly condemned the “reprehensible and cowardly attacks.”

“Grandchildren were in the driveway of Adams’ home minutes before the attack,” he said.

Appealing for calm, Kelly described the attacks as “the desperate acts of increasingly desperate and irrelevant groups.”

Adams, a prolific social-media user who led Sinn Fein from 1983 until his retirement last February, tweeted in the early hours of Saturday morning that no one had been hurt during the attack, thanking neighbors and Sinn Fein members for their quick response.

The attacks were also condemned by other political parties in Northern Ireland, with Alliance Party leader Naomi Long calling for unity in the wake of the incident. 

“We need to stand together against all violence. No exceptions. No excuses,” she said. “It seems this week some people are determined to drag us back into violence at whatever cost.”

Those sentiments were echoed in the Republic of Ireland, where Taoiseach Leo Varadkar denounced the Belfast attacks, as well as the wider violence across Northern Ireland.

“We stand with the decent law-abiding people from all communities in the North,” he said. “We will not allow a small minority intent on violence to drag Northern Ireland back to the past.”

The west Belfast incidents come after six days of violence in Derry’s republican Bogside neighborhood, which the PSNI have attributed to dissident republican elements from the ‘New IRA.’

READ MORE: Police say rioters tried to murder them during 6th night of violence in N. Ireland (VIDEOS)

The unrest coincides with the loyalist marching season, which sees loyalists and unionists parading through nationalist areas.

Stating that the rioters in the Bogside had tried to murder them on Thursday night, police arrested a man on suspicion of attempted murder after officers were attacked with 74 petrol bombs and two improvised explosives.

The previous night saw numerous vehicles hijacked and burned in Belfast, while a bus was hijacked by masked men and set on fire in county Down.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Georgia cops caught on bodycam ‘flipping coin to decide arrest’ — RT US News

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Two Georgia police officers have been suspended after shocking bodycam footage apparently showed the pair deciding whether to arrest a woman suspected of dangerous driving based on a coin toss.

READ MORE: US police drag woman face-down by feet during arrest at Atlanta ICE protest

Officers Courtney Brown and Kristee Wilson from Roswell Police Department in Georgia stopped driver Sarah Webb on suspicion of excessive speeding in wet conditions in April this year. When the pair pulled Webb over, the woman explained that she was late for work and pleaded with Brown to give her a speeding fine rather than arrest her on the much more serious charge of dangerous driving.

Bodycam footage then shows Brown returning to her police cruiser to consult with her partner. Wilson, who is heard off-camera saying “‘a’ for heads and ‘r’ for tails,” then opens a coin-toss app on her phone. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the coin flip came up ‘r’ for release but the officers arrested the woman. Wilson is heard saying ‘23’, the code for arrest.

The incident only came to light after Webb’s defense lawyer was given access to the video. The case against her has now been dismissed.

In a statement posted to Facebook, Roswell police chief Rusty Grant said an internal investigation has now been launched. “I have much higher expectations of our police officers and I am appalled that any law enforcement officer would trivialize the decision-making process of something as important as the arrest of a person,” Grant said.

READ MORE: Horrifying cop bodycam shows officers shooting dog & hitting 9yo girl (VIDEO)

The woman’s mother, Teresa, has called on the police to be held accountable. “I am sharing my daughter, Sarah Ashley Webb experience,” she wrote online. “It makes me so upset seeing her crying. It makes me so upset to know what they have done to her. Sarah could have lost her job and she could have lost her license. This caused a big financial hardship to our family.”

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

PressTV-Trump, May clash on immigration in London

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US President Donald Trump has warned European leaders to “better watch themselves” as the wave of immigrations from the Middle East and Africa, according to him, is negatively changing the culture of their societies; acknowledging that his remarks were not politically correct to be made.

Standing next to British Prime Minister Theresa May at a joint press conference on Friday, Trump touched on the issue of immigration, saying it is “very bad for Europe.”

“I just think it is changing the culture, I think it is a very negative thing for Europe,” Trump claimed. “I think they better watch themselves because you are changing culture, you are changing a lot of things, you are changing security.”

“I know it is politically not necessarily correct to say that, but I will say it and I will say I it loud,” he added.

Further, he said that immigration was hurting Germany and other parts of Europe “very much.”

The president, who did not…

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PressTV-UK spending millions on security for Trump’s visit

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The British government is spending millions of pounds on security and policing during US President Donald Trump’s controversial visit to the country, where mass protests have greeted the unpopular US leader.

British police have mobilized their biggest operation for the arrival of Trump since the UK race riots in 2011.

Around 4,000 officers have been deployed to provide extra security in the locations that Trump is visiting with the total cost estimated to be at least 12 million pounds ($15.8 million).

Despite estimates of the policing costs being widely reported, with some figures giving a figure of as much as 30 million pounds ($40 million), the UK Home Office said the full costs of the policing for the bulk of Trump’s visit would only be known after it has finished.

The Home Office will pay the bill for the policing costs with central government giving money to the regional forces overseeing the policing.

A Home Office spokesperson…

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PressTV-US to open new military bases in Iraq, Kuwait: Reports

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New reports says the United States will open new bases in Iraq and Kuwait in defiance of widespread calls to end its military presence in the region.

The Erbil-based BasNews reported on Friday that the US is planning to inaugurate its third military base in Iraq, near the town of al-Qa’im in western Anbar Province bordering Syria.

The report quoted a source from Anbar Province as saying that the new American facility will join the already operating US airbases in Iraq, namely Ain al-Assad in Anbar and Habbaniya, both in Anbar.

The source also noted that the new base will oversee several Anbar cities, the western desert of Iraq and the strategic international road connecting Baghdad to Damascus.

Earlier this month, US Ambassador to Iraq Douglas Silliman and Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani broke ground on the largest American consulate building in Erbil.

The new US consulate, which will be built on a…

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PM May seeks to discuss her Brexit stance with Trump, who says it could sink trade deal with US — RT UK News

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Theresa May is seeking a one-on-one meeting with Donald Trump to discuss her Brexit negotiating stance, which the president said could sink a much-anticipated trade deal with the US and steer the UK in the wrong direction.

“She’s looking forward to sitting down with the president and talking him through the white paper,” the spokesman for UK Prime Minister Theresa May told Reuters on Friday when asked about US President Donald Trump’s threats he made in an interview with the Sun newspaper. 

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© Hannah McKay

The interview, published on Thursday, revolves around May’s post-Brexit negotiations with Brussels, in which she is said to seek to keep the customs borders open with the EU by sticking to common rules on goods and agricultural products. In the interview, Trump pledged to walk away from a major US-UK trade deal and launched a personal assault on May.

“If they do a deal like that, we would be dealing with the European Union instead of dealing with the UK, so it will probably kill the deal,” the president warned. “If they do that, then their trade deal with the US will probably not be made.”

On the topic of May’s EU exit negotiations, Trump claimed she ignored his advice on how to conduct the Brexit talks. “I would have done it much differently. I actually told Theresa May how to do it but she didn’t agree, she didn’t listen to me.”

Trump went as far as to question whether May’s Brexit plan actually reflects the main idea of the 2016 referendum result: “The deal she is striking [with the EU] is a much different deal than the one the people voted on. It was not the deal that was in the referendum… So a lot of people don’t like it.”

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© Kevin Lamarque

Trump, however, called her “a very good person,” and dismissed a Washington Post report that he regards the prime minister as “a bossy schoolteacher.”

“No, no, no, no. I never said anything bad about her,” Trump said. “That is fake news. I think she is a nice person. I get along with her very nicely. The Washington Post is totally fake. They are just a lobbyist for Amazon.”

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday during the tense NATO summit, Trump cast doubt again on May’s post-Brexit tactics. Downing Street was quick to respond: “We are having good discussions with countries we would aim to sign trade deals with, including the US, as I will discuss with President Trump when he arrives in the UK on Thursday.

“Only our Brexit deal for Britain truly respects the will of the British people. And, as Prime Minister, it is the Brexit I am determined to deliver,” the statement said. 

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Trump’s Angry Tweets and Secret Deals Will Not Lower Drug Prices

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We can only imagine how the Trump administration’s internal conversation about lowering the price of pharmaceuticals has been going.

President Trump campaigned on the issue and has repeatedly made bold promises to bring down the price of drugs since taking office. Trump chose a solid issue to stump on. Polls show that voters are furious about the cost of medicine and want lower prices to be a top priority in Washington.

Fulfilling these promises is another story. As Trump’s aides may have explained to him, sparking meaningful decreases in drug costs within a short period of time — say, the first few years of a presidential administration — would require government intervention in the pharmaceutical market and supply chain. Lawmakers may need to pass sweeping legislation, and new regulations are something that most Republicans, the health lobby and Trump himself generally oppose.

So, Trump tapped Alex Azar, a former Bush administration official who spent several years working as a top pharmaceutical executive, to come up with a plan. After weeks of delay and with much fanfare, Trump and Azar finally released a blueprint for lowering drug costs in May. Trump began making bold claims that drug makers would lower their prices within weeks in response.

It never happened. Biotech and pharmaceutical stock prices jumped after the blueprint was released because investors saw little long-term threat to their profit margins. By late June and early July, drug companies were once again raising prices for hundreds of drugs, just as they do every year.

So, predictably, Trump lashed out on Twitter earlier this week, saying Pfizer “and others” should be “ashamed” for raising drug prices “for no reason.” Then he got the company’s CEO on the phone. Pfizer caved and agreed to delay price hikes on 100 drugs until the blueprint “goes into effect” or the end of the year — whichever comes sooner. This would give the president “an opportunity to work on his…

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The Affirmative Action Silo

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Photo by hollow sidewalks | CC BY 2.0

One of the hidden sources of division in the United States is the conceptual silo: the habits of thought, jurisprudence and reporting that segregates issues that feed on each other into separate debates, news reports and court cases. The segregation of debates and decisions about affirmative action, on the one hand, and mass incarceration, on the other, is exemplary in this regard and worth digging into, as I do below.

Both phenomena are rooted in America’s tortured racial history. But affirmative action has been firmly placed by the Supreme Court in the diversity silo: Enhancing education and research by diversifying college campuses (the focus of the most celebrated of the affirmative action cases that have reached the Supreme Court) has been the only consistent justification for affirmative action that have survived continuous court battles against the policy. Those battles have been regularly in the headlines since the 1978 decision in the case of the Regents of California v. Bakke.  Justice Lewis Powell, writing the plurality opinion, declared quotas unconstitutional over the objection of civil rights lion Thurgood Marshall. But Powell created a silo for affirmative action by identifying diverse student bodies as a boon to education and a “compelling state interest.”

Meanwhile, the war on drugs that would flood American prisons with brown and black young men was ramping up in a separate silo, with a nakedly racial…

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US tougher on Russia than anybody, but chance for better relations with Moscow and Putin

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The US President Donald Trump said that his administration was “tougher on Russia than anybody.” At the same time, he admitted that getting along with Moscow would actually still be “a good thing.”

“When you look at what we have done in terms of Russia, I guarantee that whoever it is in Russia, they are saying: ‘Oh, God, do we wish that Trump was not the victor.” The US leader told journalists at a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Theresa May at her country residence in Chequers. Trump then went on to say that Washington was “extremely tough on Russia” under his rule.

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US President Donald Trump speaks with the news media, with first lady Melania Trump standing beside him, before boarding Marine One for travel to Europe from the White House. July 10, 2018. © Leah Millis

Trump particularly boasted that, following the incident in Salisbury that involved the former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, the US expelled a “far greater number” of the Russian diplomats “than anybody.”“We expelled … 60 people and Germany [expelled] three,” he said.

“We have been really very strong on Russia,” Trump added as he told the journalists that his administration “left NATO with more money, with more unity, with more spirit than NATO probably has ever had.”

Trump also once again denied having any “relationship” with the Russian President Vladimir Putin, adding that the two leaders met “two and a half times.” However, he then suddenly changed his tone and said that “if we could develop a relationship, it would be good for Russia and good for us, good for everybody.”

“If we get along with China and Russia, that will be a good thing, not a bad thing,” he added.

The US president’s remarks came just days before his meeting with the Russian leader, which is scheduled to take place in Helsinki on July 16. Ahead of the meeting, which has already provoked concerns among US, UK and Germany officials, Trump called Putin a “competitor.” At the same time, he said he still “cannot say” if Moscow was Washington’s “friend or foe.”

MORE TO FOLLOW

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

PressTV-Trump presidency ‘disaster for world’: Analyst

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The US President Donald Trump is trying to have a good relationship with Israel; however, his presidency has been a disaster for other parts of the region and beyond, says an analyst.

The Trump presidency has been “an incredible disaster” for Iran, Syria, Turkey, Europe and the world, Gordon Duff, senior editor of the Veterans Today, told Press TV on Saturday.

“Only one relationship has held together under Trump and that has been Israel and that relationship between Trump and … Israel has been a disaster for the world,” Duff argued.

Meanwhile, Trump’s presidency is facing a threat for an alleged collusion with Russia during 2016 presidential campaign.

Trump has repeatedly denied allegations that his campaign colluded with Russians.

The US president is scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on Monday.

 

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Bad NATO! Bad NATO! – LewRockwell

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President Donald Trump says most summit meetings are a waste of time.  He’s so right.  Most meetings of every kind are a waste of time and energy.

The president was certainly right about last week’s NATO summit in Brussels.  At least, he livened it up by openly blasting his NATO allies once again for not spending enough on their military forces.  But Trump’s real purpose was to show the world that he was boss of all he surveyed.

Doing his best bull in a china shop routine, Trump lectured and scolded the heads of NATO on live TV.  They took the verbal thrashing like truant schoolboys.  NATO’s secretary general, former Norwegian prime minister Jens Stoltenberg, who was put into office by the US, muttered a few lame excuses.  Trump supporters in the US were delighted to see the snotty, godless Europeans given a good dressing down.

It did not help when it was revealed that Germany, the bulwark of NATO, had only a handful of front-line fighters in service.  Another report claimed most of its main battle tanks were out of service due to budget cuts.

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The president made the very important statement that he regarded Russia’s Vladimir Putin as a ‘competitor’ and not an ‘enemy.’  This view is widely held in Europe and the rest of the world.

But then Trump negated this sensible view by claiming Germany is ‘totally controlled’ by and ‘captive to’ nearby Russia because Germany now buys up to 70% of its oil and gas from them.

In fact, many Germans believe precisely the contrary: that Germany is Washington’s vassal state and still under American domination seven decades after World War II.

They cite US control…

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Mayor says President’s claim immigrants to blame for rise in crime is ‘preposterous’ — RT UK News

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London Mayor Sadiq Khan has branded US President Donald Trump’s linking of rising crime rates in the capital to African immigrants as “preposterous.” It follows Trump’s criticism of Khan’s handling of crime and terrorist attacks.

“To blame this on immigration from Africa is preposterous and we should call him out when he does so,” Khan, speaking on the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme on Friday morning, said.

Khan made the remarks after Trump doubled down on his claims that the mayor had failed to do enough to protect London from Islamist terrorist attacks.

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One is filled with hot air; the other is a blimp. © Instagram

In a bombshell interview, which was published in The Sun tabloid newspaper on Friday, Trump said: “I think he has done a very bad job on terrorism. I think he has done a bad job on crime, if you look, all of the horrible things going on there, with all of the crime that is being brought in.”

It is the latest spat between the president and mayor, who have been at loggerheads ever since Trump publicly berated Khan for saying there is “no reason to be alarmed” by an increased and armed police presence in the city in the aftermath of the London Bridge attack in June 2017.

That broadside was followed by Khan calling for Trump’s visit to the UK to be cancelled, saying his “policies go against everything we stand for”.

Khan is also likely to have enraged Trump when he gave the green light for ‘Trump Baby’ – a 20ft, orange blimp depicting the US president as an angry infant in diapers – to be flown over the city during anti-Trump demonstrations. Over 50,000 people are expected to descend on central London on Friday to protest the leader’s visit.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

UPS workers oppose sellout contract, warn of union fraud to pass agreement

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“Now we’re all slaves, no matter what color you are”

UPS workers oppose sellout contract, warn of union fraud to pass agreement

By
Kayla Costa

14 July 2018

Opposition is growing among the more than 230,000 United Postal Services (UPS) workers to the sellout contract agreement released by the Teamsters union on Tuesday. The proposed deal would create a new second-tier driver position that will be used to destroy well-paid full-time jobs, maintain the company’s ability to force employees to work over 70 hours a week, and do nothing to address poverty-level wages for part-time workers who make up 70 percent of the workforce.

On Tuesday, the union announced that it was indefinitely extending the deadline for negotiations until after the July 31 expiration of the current agreement, to give the union more time to wear down opposition.

World Socialist Web Site reporters spoke with drivers and part-time workers at a UPS depot in Madison Heights near Detroit, Michigan. Most workers had not even been informed that the union had extended the contract deadline. Many said the union was seeking to find a way to push through the sellout agreement, and that it would resort to ballot stuffing to secure a “yes” vote.

The UPS depot in Madison Heights, Michigan

“It’s the same as the last contract in 2013,” said a worker with 10 years, five of them as a driver and five in the warehouse. “It got shoved down our throats even though we voted ‘no.’ Not one person I spoke to voted ‘yes’ on that deal, and they put it through.”

The worker said he had “read the whole damn contract, and it is BS. If you want to create a new driver job, you need to pay them like drivers,” he said. “Don’t pay them BS to do our job. It’s aimed at taking away overtime pay. The…

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Bolton, MEK and Trump Iran Strategy

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There are growing indications that the Trump administration plans to use the Mojahedin-e Khalq (People’s Mojahedin of Iran, or MEK) as a key element in its strategy to destabilize Iran preparatory to regime change.

On June 30 Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph Giuliani told the group in Paris: “We are now realistically being able to see an end to the regime in Iran. Trump doesn’t turn his back on freedom fighters.”

On July 1, 2017 John Bolton, former State Department official and Trump supporter, addressed a large gathering of MEK supporters in Paris.

There is a viable opposition to the rule of the ayatollahs,” he told the enraptured crowd, “and that opposition is centered in this room today…I have said for over 10 years since coming to these events that the declared policy of the United States should be the overthrow of the regime in Tehran. The behavior and the objectives of the regime are not going to change. And therefore the only solution is to change the regime itself. And that’s why before 2019 we here will celebrate in Tehran!

Yes, the man who has been U.S. National Security Advisor since April 9 predicted to MEK that he would celebrate with them the downfall of the Iranian regime by next year. On May 8 of this year Bolton’s boss withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

So it’s virtually official. MEK freedom fighters will be chief U.S. proxy in the coming confrontation, or rather the ongoing confrontation renewed…

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Peter Strzok’s bizarre congressional testimony goes viral — RT US News

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One particular moment from Peter Strzok’s raucous congressional hearing left Twitter users confounded and disturbed, even prompting Donald Trump Jr to label the FBI agent “the creepiest person in America.”

Strzok faced the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees on Thursday to answer questions about his conduct during the 2016 investigations into Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

READ MORE: FBI’s Strzok calls Congress hearing a ‘victory for Putin,’ denies anti-Trump bias

The lengthy hearing quickly descended into a partisan shouting match, as Republicans and Democrats interrupted each other’s questions, heckling or applauding Strzok.

Strzok’s peculiar reaction to one question caught the eye of viewers and many took to Twitter to confirm that their eyes weren’t deceiving them.

Robert Morgan asked: “Is this actually real or has it been manipulated in some way?” When it was confirmed that the footage was undoctored, people were even more astounded.

The clip even caught the attention on Donald Trump Jr, who labeled Strzok, the former deputy assistant director for counterintelligence with the FBI, “the creepiest person in America.”

Strzok’s facial expressions were also noticed by the congressmen in the room and prompted one of the most dramatic moments of the hearing when Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) accused Strzok of outright lying.

“I can’t help but wonder when I see you looking there with a little smirk; how many times did you look so innocent into your wife’s eyes and lie to her about Lisa Page,” Gohmert told Strzok, referring to the agent’s extramarital affair with his former colleague Lisa Page, with whom he exchanged anti-Trump text messages. Gohmert’s comment sparked vociferous objections from Democrats.

The hearing evoked a significant reaction, with many describing it as a farce. Former New York mayor and current attorney to US President Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, labelled it a “disgrace” and said it “taints the entire Mueller witch hunt.”

“President Trump is being investigated by people who possess pathological hatred for him. All the results of the investigation are ‘fruit of the poison tree’ and should be dismissed,” he added.

Democrats seemed to agree with that sentiment, as California Congressman Ted Lieu said it was “a stupid and ridiculous hearing.”

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

At Massive London Protest, Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn Trashes Trump, Calls for ‘World of Justice Not Division’

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Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn waves as he visits Trafalgar Square at a demonstration against President Trump's visit to the U.K. on July 13, 2018 in London, England. (Photo: Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images)Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn joined the mass protest against Donald Trump in London on Friday, where he said the message to the U.S. president was a call for a “world of justice not division.”

Speaking from Trafalgar Square to an enormous crowd after hundreds of thousands marched through the streets of London, Corbyn praised those gathered for “asserting our right to free speech and our right to want a world that is not divided by misogyny, racism, and hate.”

He took aim at specific actions the Trump administration has taken, including its cruel “zero-tolerance” immigration policies and decision to ditch the historic Paris climate accord.

Though he didn’t name Trump specifically, he said, “When somebody on a global stage condemns Muslims because they’re Muslims, it’s not acceptable and we will call it out.”

“When a major country says it wants to walk away from the UN council on human rights, I say, ‘Sorry, you are wrong. Human rights belong to all of us,'” Corbyn said. “And when a government condemns children because they’re Mexican or Guatemalan or from somewhere else in Central America, that is a breach of every international convention that I understand,” he said.

Beyond issues of humane immigration policies, Corbyn said the problem is “also about our planet, our world, and how we relate to each other.”

“Our environment is under threat,” he continued, saying that “there is no hiding place, ultimately, from foul air, from dirty seas, from polluted rivers. There’s no hiding place from the destruction of our natural world for any of us—unless we work together to protect it and our environment and our sustainability.”

Uniting the throngs gathered, Corbyn said, is “a wish to live in a world of peace not at war, a wish not to blame refugees for wars that they themselves are victims of, and a wish that we pursue the politics of unity, the politics of togetherness, the politics of recognizing the strengths and the good that is in each of us, however poor, however marginalized, however put-upon.”

Rather than politics of fear and austerity, he said, “We want human rights for the rest of the world, we want justice for the rest of the world. But above all,” he continued, “the message we give here today—in all our diversity—is one of solidarity of people, of people wanting that different and better world.”

He said that “when we divide ourselves by xenophobia … when we divide ourselves by hatred, at the end of the day we all lose. When you unite together with common objectives, we can all win.”

Watch:

Watch the full speech below:

Via Common Dreams. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Evidence Will Probably Never Be Produced in Indictments of ‘Russian Agents’ – Consortiumnews

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The indictment of 12 Russian ‘agents,’ which included no collusion with Trump’s team, is essentially a political and not legal document because it is almost certain the U.S. government will never have to present any evidence in court, reports Joe Lauria. 

By Joe Lauria
Special to Consortium News

Charges against 12 Russian intelligence agents for allegedly hacking emails from the Democratic Party during the 2016 presidential election were announced by the U.S. Justice Department on Friday at the very moment President Donald Trump was meeting Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle and just days before a summit between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki.

A central claim of Russia-gate has been that the Russian government with help from the Trump campaign stole emails from the Democratic Party and the Hillary Clinton campaign and then gave those emails to WikiLeaks for publication to damage Clinton’s quest for the White House.

Until Friday however, the investigation into the allegations had produced no formal indictment of Russian government interference in the election. Like previous U.S. government accusations against Russia for alleged election meddling, the indictment makes assertions without providing evidence. Under U.S. law, indictments are not considered evidence. And it is highly unlikely that the government will ever have to produce any evidence in court.

Friday’s indictments do not include any charges against Trump campaign members for allegedly colluding with the Russian government to carry out the hacks. That has been at the core of allegations swirling in U.S. media for two years. If the alleged co-conspirators “known” to the DOJ were on the Trump team, the indictments do not say. There is only a hint that “unknown” persons might be.

In announcing the indictments at a press conference Friday, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said: “The conspirators corresponded with several Americans during the course of the conspiracy through the internet. There’s no allegation in this indictment that the Americans knew they were corresponding with Russian intelligence officers.”

The indictment alleges…

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Trump fails to follow royal protocol as he meets Queen (VIDEO) — RT UK News

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US President Donald Trump failed to impress the British during his visit to the UK, due to both his policies and the way he behaved with the Queen. He broke etiquette several times during his short meeting with the royal.

President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump arrived at Windsor Castle to meet Queen Elizabeth II on Friday, becoming the fourth US president that the 92-year-old monarch has received at the palace, but the 11th that she has met during her reign. 

The encounter got off to a bad start, as Trump failed to greet the Queen properly, omitting to offer a neck bow as required in official guidelines on the royal website. Melania also failed to perform the required “small curtsy.” The two rules are not obligatory, as the etiquette provides that “other people prefer simply to shake hands in the usual way.” However, bowing and curtsying are considered good manners and are usually practiced by officials when meeting the royal family.

Minutes later, Trump showed bad manners again while inspecting the royal guard with the Queen. Trump both walked ahead of the Queen and turned his back to her as they walked past the guards.

Some people accused Trump of running late for the meeting, making the 92-year old wait for his cortege. She was also seen checking her watch. However, he arrived on time and the Queen had just arrived earlier to meet the guests, according to British media.

Twitter erupted to accuse the US leader of disrespect, with some even calling Trump’s behavior a “national humiliation” and “an insult to Britain.”  Many rushed to compare Trump’s short stay with his predecessors’ visits, some of whom stayed overnight at Buckingham Palace. 

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Trump demands bigger bed & red, white & blue paint job for ‘more American’ Air Force One – report — RT US News

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Apparently unimpressed by the iconic aircraft used to ferry US presidents around the world, Donald Trump has reportedly commissioned two new planes – with bigger beds and “more American” paint jobs – to serve as Air Force One.

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An airman guards an Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) stationed at Hickam AFB, on Oahu Hawaii November 18, 2004. © Pascal Pink

According to a scoop landed by Axios, in February Trump personally oversaw a $4 billion deal with Boeing for two new 747s to serve as Air Force One. The news outlet was also told that the US leader had two specifications for the new presidential fleet: The on-board bed should be larger, and the classic blue-and-white paint job should be changed to something that “looks more American” – a red, white and blue design.

But a major change to the plane’s look could be met with resistance: after all, the current color scheme goes back some 55 years to the Kennedy administration, and the aircraft’s historic paint job is one of Air Force One’s most recognizable features. Trump, however, is looking for something more patriotic, reportedly insisting that the new fleet of presidential planes have a color scheme that isn’t a “Jackie Kennedy color.”

The particular shade of blue is actually known as “luminous ultramarine,” and it was John F. Kennedy – not his wife – who chose the color, Axios pointed out.

Trump can, of course, commission red, white and blue, bald eagle-bedazzled planes to his heart’s content – but he’ll have to win reelection if he hopes to fly in one: The new 747s are unlikely to be in service before January 20, 2021.However, he’s likely to enjoy the new refrigerators as they are being replaced at a cost of nearly $24 million.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

PressTV-US indictments ‘big distraction’ ahead of Putin summit

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The US Justice Department’s indictments of 12 Russian intelligence officials in connection with the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election are “a big distraction” from what President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir should discuss in their upcoming summit, says a political writer and activist.

“In reality these indictments won’t make a difference; these people are in Russia, they probably had no plan to go to the United States,” Adam Garrie, director at Eurasia Future, said in an interview on Friday.

All the 12 defendants were members of the GRU, a Russian Federation intelligence agency within the Russian military, the Justice Department announced on Friday.

The indictments were part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. The Russians were accused of being involved in “sustained effort” to hack Democrats’ emails and computer networks during the 2016 election.

“There is no allegation in this…

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The US Is Broke – LewRockwell

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“The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower becomes the lender’s slave.” – Solomon

This is the story about Debtor, a newborn American baby. Debtor has just been born into the greatest economy in the world, a land full of promises and opportunities. This is what his parents tell him. But unbeknown to Debtor, he has been given a very bad start in life. Because the parents haven’t told Debtor, and how could they since they are not aware themselves, that he starts life with a massive debt burden that will grow manifold during his lifetime.

THE AMERICAN DEBT SLAVE

King Solomon’s words will ring true for almost every American born today. The average American is a debt slave already at birth. And by the time he dies, his debt will have increased exponentially, thus passing on an even bigger debt and greater enslavement to the next generation.

This is a vicious circle that has gone on for just over 100 years. A very small elite has become incredibly wealthy and the masses have become enslaved by private and government debt.

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For the majority of people it will be impossible to extricate themselves from this massive debt stone around their neck. Instead they will add to the debt by taking on more debt.

US DEBT GOING FROM $21 TRILLION TO $43 QUADRILLION

But the government will also do their part. They will at least double the national debt every 8 years as they have been doing for several decades ( see last week’s article). Starting from $21 trillion debt today and assuming that Debtor will live until 88 years old, a doubling of the debt every 8 years would lead to a $43 quadrillion federal debt in 2106. Most of us…

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Video: ‘Civilization at risk?’: US politicians hype upcoming midterm elections

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Prominent Democrat Nancy Pelosi, who recently claimed civilization will be at stake during upcoming 2018 midterm elections, wasn’t the only one to trying to …

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London anti-Trump rally: Gripping images that caught the mood

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Preview Photographers have come out in force as thousands of Londoners poured onto the streets of the UK capital to protest the visit of US President Donald Trump. Here are the highlights of what the protest had to offer.
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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Tech Industry’s Push to Hire Autistic Workers Could Lead to Hyper-Exploitation

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For autistic people, employment prospects are grim. Using data collected in 2014 and 2015, a Drexel University study found that only 14 percent of autistic adults in the United States hold paying jobs. In 2016, the university reported that while 60 percent of autistic adults who complete vocational training secure jobs, the majority earn poverty-level wages. The issue isn’t limited to the United States: Gainful employment rates for autistic people remain comparatively low in a number of other nations, including the United Kingdom and Australia.

In recent years, major corporations — particularly those in tech — have purported to offer an antidote. Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Google, Yahoo and German software company SAP, among others, have demonstrated a mounting interest in hiring autistic candidates, introducing programs ostensibly designed to recruit them. The logic: At once, these companies address an employment crisis and avail themselves of what Microsoft calls an “untapped” pool of talent.

Efforts to engage people on the autism spectrum interested in pursuing tech careers are, in theory, laudable, especially in light of the current labor landscape. What the work-in-tech narrative elides, however, is these initiatives’ exploitative, paternalistic treatment of the people they claim to exalt.

Conceived as a vehicle of self-actualization in the 1990s, the neurodiversity movement contends that neurological differences such as dyslexia and autism aren’t “disorders,” as much scientific literature classifies them, but natural human variations. More recently, some media outlets have appropriated neurodiversity as a corporate boon. Last year, the Harvard Business Review deemed workers on the autism spectrum a “competitive advantage” for companies, touting such reductive qualities as “loyalty” and “appreciativeness of having been given a chance,” while citing productivity growth and public relations boosts. In 2016,…

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Ireland’s Intellectuals Bow to the Queen of Chaos 

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“It is the responsibility of intellectuals to speak the truth and to expose lies.”

— Noam Chomsky (1967)

Ireland’s oldest university – Trinity College Dublin – gave Hillary Clinton an honorary doctorate in late June. It was one big love in. Clinton was paraded and praised like a people’s champion. And in return Clinton fawned over Dublin’s cutting edge liberal politics.

A Trinity College professor orated about Clinton: “Almost sixty-six million people have given her their vote of confidence, sharing her belief that a true democracy is a society in which everyone is equally valued as a human being.”

And Clinton’s response: “These last few years in Ireland have been a testament to the power of young people to shape the future – from the 2015 marriage equality referendum, which saw historic youth turnout, to this year’s abortion referendum….No demographic is better positioned to be a force on the side of democracy, progress and equality.”

Behind these delusions, platitudes and lies there is a logic. A disturbing one – one that actually built Trinity College Dublin way back in 1592. And one that sustains the same College today in 2018. It sustains Clinton too. It’s the logic of imperialism. And the shameless culture of empire worship that goes with it.

Hillary Clinton personifies the last thirty years of US imperialism. And so by honoring her, Trinity College honors three decades of US savagery across the planet. Firstly, during…

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Mueller indictment ‘aims to spoil’ Trump-Putin summit

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The indictment of 12 Russians for allegedly hacking the Democratic Party in 2016 appear to be politically motivated, with the goal of spoiling the upcoming Helsinki summit, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

“It is regrettable that spreading false information has become the norm in Washington, and [the] indictments are based on openly political motives,” the ministry said on Friday, responding to the announcement by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. “The question is for how long will they continue to flog this shameful comedy that disgraces the US.”

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Robert Mueller (FILE PHOTO) © Yuri Gripas

Claiming that the people indicted are intelligence officers and hackers does not make them either, the ministry said, adding that the allegation of illegal entry into Democratic Party computers is not backed by any factual evidence.

“The goal of this ‘information attack’ is obviously to spoil the atmosphere prior to the Russian-American summit,” the ministry said in a statement, referring to the forthcoming meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US leader Donald Trump. “The influential political forces in the US, that are opposed to the normalization of relations between our countries and have spread open slander for the past two years, are desperately trying to make the best use of yet another fake,” it added.

The ministry also warned that “sooner or later, the initiators of these lies will have to answer for the damage they have done to American democracy, undermining trust in it for their own personal gains.”

Earlier on Friday, the US Department of Justice announced that 12 people, whom it identified as “Russian intelligence officers,” had been indicted for hacking the Democratic Party and the Hillary Clinton campaign. At the same time, it admitted that the alleged hacking attack in fact did not eventually affect any votes.

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Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May and US President Donald Trump © Hannah McKay

The suspects, named as members of the GRU (Russian military intelligence), are alleged to have hacked into the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and the Clinton campaign during the 2016 presidential election. Left out from the indictment is how the federal investigators obtained any evidence of this, given that the FBI never got access to the DNC servers.

The announcement comes just days before the summit between Trump and his Russian counterpart Putin in Finland on Monday. Ahead of the meeting, which has already provoked concerns among US, UK and Germany’s officials, Trump called Putin a “competitor.” He also said during a joint press conference with the British Prime Minister Theresa May that his administration was “tougher on Russia than anybody.”

At the same time, he also admitted that getting along with Moscow would actually still be “a good thing.” Moscow said it sees the US as “partners” and hopes to use the summit to improve bilateral relations with Washington.

Mueller was appointed special counsel in May last year, to investigate allegations of Trump’s collusion with Russia during the 2016 US presidential election. In February, his prosecutors indicted 13 Russian nationals associated with the Internet Research Agency and Concord Management, accusing them of conducting “information warfare” against the US on social media. Attorneys for Concord challenged the charges in US court, however, saying they amounted to a “make-believe crime” and that Mueller was trying to “justify his own existence” and “indict a Russian ‒ any Russian” for political reasons.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: Three Lions are in World Cup semi-finals & England fans are in Russia… despite media scare stories

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Check out https://www.rt.com/fifa2018 RT LIVE http://rt.com/on-air Subscribe to RT! http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=RussiaToday Like us …

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The Shadow of Torture Behind Trump’s Britain Visit

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As President Trump visits the United Kingdom, the focus has been on strained trans-Atlantic relations, his intervention in domestic politics, and massive public protests.

A different, diplomatically-couched protest has received less attention but sends a consequential signal about the so-called “special relationship” between the two countries: U.K. parliamentarians are concerned that under Trump, America could return to a policy of torture — and they are warning British intelligence agencies to guard against it.

Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee released a pair of reports at the end of June providing extensive detail about U.K. complicity in torture, rendition, and other abuses of detainees by the U.S. military and the CIA during the George W. Bush administration. The reports by the committee, which oversees the U.K.’s intelligence agencies, also focus on policy changes needed to avoid a repeat of such abuses.

The committee uncovered at least 166 instances in which British officials either directly witnessed or had credible information suggesting that torture and abuse were carried out by Americans. It also found 232 cases in which U.K. personnel continued to interrogate or provide intelligence about a U.S.-held detainee even after they knew or suspected that the detainee had been abused. And there were 192 cases in which the U.K. accepted intelligence information obtained by the U.S. from detainees the U.K. knew or should have suspected had been tortured or abused.

The committee found dozens of instances in which the U.K. provided intelligence or financial support to illegal U.S. “renditions” — in which the U.S. essentially kidnapping people and transferring them to third countries where they were subjected to torture and degrading treatment.

The stories the committee tells are harrowing. It cites internal reports from U.K. intelligence officers who visited U.S. detention facilities and saw prisoners hooded and held in painful “stress” positions for hours on end. It describes the CIA’s practice of forcing detainees into small wooden crates designed so that they could neither lie down nor stand up.

The committee describes U.K. intelligence officials documenting detainees’ accounts of sleep deprivation and other forms of abuse — and facing internal pressure from higher-ranking officials to remove those details from their reports. It tells of U.K. foreign service officers walking through the halls of the U.S. detention facility at Bagram Air Force base in Afghanistan, hearing “audible screams” coming from detainees. It describes how U.S. officials asked U.K. officers to leave an interrogation room so they would have “plausible deniability” when the U.S. interrogator “roughed up” the detainee.

How did the U.K. become the Best Supporting Actor in the U.S.’s shameful torture drama? The committee suggests that British intelligence agencies may have been “deliberately turning a blind eye so as not to damage the relationship [with the U.S.] and risk the flow of intelligence.” It notes that the U.K. is the “junior partner” of American intelligence agencies, relying — perhaps over-relying — on the U.S. for intelligence. The committee also says that the U.K. let pressure to share intelligence distract from its obligations to uphold fundamental human rights.

The U.K. intelligence agencies’ own explanation to the parliamentary committee is that they were taken unaware by America’s rapid abandonment, in the aftermath of 9/11, of what the U.K. assumed was a shared set of basic values.

The chief of the U.K.’s Secret Intelligence Service noted that “there was an assumption prevailing that the U.S. would be behaving lawfully. Nothing in our previous experience before 2001 had led us to doubt that.” As a result, he said, the U.K. failed for too long to “join the dots” and fully comprehend its complicity in torture and abuse by its closest ally.

Whatever you think of this explanation from U.K. agencies mired in complicity with torture, we live now in less innocent times. The committee repeatedly refers to a current risk that the U.K. will once again be pressured to choose between complicity in torture and continued cooperation with America. It calls for further tightening of rules to prevent U.K. intelligence agencies from participating in interrogations and exchanging intelligence when there is a serious risk of involvement in torture or mistreatment.

Ominously, the committee specifically refer to “the clear shift in focus signaled by the present US administration,” and asserts that reliance on past U.S. assurances that U.K. territory will not be used for rendition “is completely unsatisfactory.”

Diplomacy may have stopped the committee from naming the sources of its renewed concern, but there can be no doubt that President Trump and CIA Director Gina Haspel are those sources. After all, Trump has repeatedly advocated for a return to torture. And although he has not carried out that promise — or threat — he did succeed in getting the Senate to confirm a CIA director who oversaw torture, and participated in covering up and destroying torture evidence.

Now, Prime Minister Theresa May is welcoming Trump. In advance of his arrival, the U.S. ambassador went on the BBC to extoll the “special relationship” between the two nations and laud the “unprecedented interoperability” of the American and British intelligence and security apparatus.

But the looming fear of future complicity in rights violations threatens that relationship. When the U.K. parliamentarians released their reports, they warned, “We are unconvinced that the Government recognizes the seriousness of rendition and the potential for the UK to be complicit in actions which may lead to torture or CIDT” — cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. Nevertheless, they noted that U.K. intelligence agencies “are monitoring the actions of their US liaison partners in order to identify at an early stage any shift in policy on detainees.”

Trump is now straining America’s traditional alliances in unprecedented ways. Even in these dark and turbulent times there is some good news — he should not count on America’s Western allies to go along with any return to torture.

Via Common Dreams. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: ‘We won’t be taken advantage of’ – Donald Trump hits back at Tusk

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Trump rubbishes the European Commission President Donald Tusk’s veiled warning over NATO and also calls Putin ‘a competitor’ ahead of their summit READ …

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Video: Top U.S. & World Headlines — July 13, 2018

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Visit https://democracynow.org to watch the full independent, global news hour, read the transcript, search our archive and to make a donation to support us.

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Indictments meant to ‘spoil’ Putin-Trump summit

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Russia says the indictment of a dozen Russians for allegedly hacking the US Democratic Party in 2016 is meant to “spoil” the upcoming meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his American counterpart Donald Trump.

“It is regrettable that spreading false information has become the norm in Washington, and indictments are based on openly political motives,” said the Russian Foreign Ministry in a statement on Friday, adding, “Obviously, the purpose of this is to spoil the atmosphere” ahead of the Putin-Trump summit slated to be held in the Finnish capital of Helsinki on Monday.

The statement came a few hours after US Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russian intelligence officials on charges of hacking the computer networks of 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her party to help Republican Trump.

The Russian ministry also blamed the “influential political forces of the…

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Strzok Hoisted on His Own Petard

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If FBI agent Peter Strzok were not so glib, it would have been easier to feel some sympathy for him during his tough grilling at the House oversight hearing on Thursday, even though his wounds are self-inflicted. The wounds, of course, ooze from the content of his own text message exchange with his lover and alleged co-conspirator, Lisa Page.

Strzok was a top FBI counterintelligence official and Page an attorney working for then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. The Attorney General fired McCabe in March and DOJ has criminally referred McCabe to federal prosecutors for lying to Justice Department investigators.

On Thursday members of the House Judiciary and Oversight/Government Reform Committees questioned Strzok for eight hours on how he led the investigations of Hillary Clinton’s unauthorized emails and Donald Trump’s campaign’s ties with Russia, if any.

Strzok did his best to be sincerely slick. Even so, he seemed to feel beleaguered — even ambushed — by the questions of Republicans using his own words against him. “Disingenuous” is the word a Republican Congresswoman used to describe his performance. Nonetheless, he won consistent plaudits from the Democrats. He showed zero regret for the predicament he put himself into, except for regret at his royal screw-up in thinking he and Lisa could “talk about Hillary” (see below) on their FBI cellphones and no one would ever know. One wag has suggested that Strzok may have been surreptitiously texting, when he should have been listening to the briefing on “Cellphone Security 101.”

In any case, the chickens have now come home to roost. Most of those chickens, and Strzok’s predicament in general, are demonstrably the result of his own incompetence. Indeed, Strzok seems the very embodiment of the “Peter Principle.” FBI agents down the line – that is, the non-peter-principle people – are painfully aware of this, and resent the discredit that Strzok and his bosses have brought on the Bureau. Many are reportedly lining up to testify against what has been going on at the top.

It is always necessary at this point to note that the heads of the FBI, CIA, NSA and even the Department of Justice were operating, as former FBI Director James Comey later put it, in an environment “where Hillary Clinton was going to beat Donald Trump.” Most of them expected to be able to stay in their key positions and were confident they would receive plaudits – not indictments – for the liberties that they, the most senior U.S. law enforcement officials, took with the law. In other words, once the reality that Mrs. Clinton was seen by virtually everyone to be a shoo-in is taken into account, the mind boggles a lot less.

Peter Principle

In a text sent to Page on April 2, 2016, Strzok assured her that it was safe to use official cellphones. Page: “So look, you say we text on that phone when we talk about Hillary because it can’t be traced.” It goes downhill from there for the…

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Brexit Balls Up – It’s fun to watch, but does anyone actually know what’s going on? — RT UK News

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For some time it’s been clear no one really knows what Brexit means as Britain tries to extract itself from the EU. However, with high-level resignations and the government close to collapse, at least it’s now fun to watch.

David Davis, the man who is supposed to be negotiating how to get out of Europe has quit as Brexit Secretary having got more or less nowhere.

Boris Johnson, the man largely responsible for Britain voting to leave the EU, has quit as Foreign Secretary to whinge from the sidelines, and continue his doomed, bad faith attempt to become Prime Minister.

Even Donald Trump is now doing his best to derail the whole process.

So ICYMI takes a look at the joy of Brexit, whatever it is.

For more, follow #ICYMI on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Other Revolving Doors | Dissident Voice

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It’s more than doors between government and the businesses that they supposedly regulate that go round and round.  One of the other swinging doors is between the Democratic and Republican Parties.

A second door

Perhaps the best known case is when Al Gore ran for president in 2000, he picked Joe Lieberman as his running mate.  Then, in 2008, Lieberman showed up at the Republican national convention to endorse John McCain for president.  Between those two campaigns, John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, was rumored to be leaning to ask Republican John McCain to be his running mate.

Had Al Gore won, Lieberman would most likely have been the subsequent Democratic nominee for president.  Had John Kerry won with McCain on the ticket, McCain would have been the heir apparent to the “Democratic Party” crown.  Whether Lieberman or McCain, Democrats across the country would have been told to bow in reverence to their party’s red-blue nominee for president.

This was hardly the first time such a switcheroo blossomed in American politics.  In 1864, Republican Abraham Lincoln dumped his sitting vice-president to ask Democrat Andrew Johnson to be his running mate.  After Lincoln’s murder, US voters, who had selected a Republican to be their president, found him replaced by a Democrat.

Though such examples at the presidential level may be enshrined in history books, they happen all the time at the local level.  In 1963, the Texas Young Democrats…

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New York mafia man miraculously survives point-blank range assassination attempt (VIDEO) — RT US News

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An associate of a New York City crime family has narrowly escaped death after being chased and shot several times by a would-be assassin on the streets of the Bronx, video footage released by police has revealed.

Salvatore ‘Sally Daz’ Zottola, a partner in crime of the Bonanno family, which has ruled the streets of New York for over a century, was targeted by an unknown shooter at about 6.30am on Wednesday morning. The newly-released video of the incident shows a red Nissan pulling up next to Zottola’s car.

The gunman first tries to take out the 41-year-old through the passenger window, apparently missing his target. The victim then jumps out of his minivan, seeking cover as the hitman continues shooting at the mafia man. Zottola is then seen rolling away, apparently trying to dodge the bullets.

With the target still breathing, the assassin gets out of the vehicle to shoot Zottola at point-blank range as the 41-year-old keeps swirling away. After shooting his victim several times, the hitman runs back to the getaway car before speeding away.

Zottola was rushed to the hospital in serious condition with wounds to his chest and right hand but is expected to survive. The would-be assassin, meanwhile, remains on the loose.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: Trump Baby to be flown in Westminster ahead of his visit to UK

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Anti-Trump demonstrators have vowed to track the US President every step of the way during his visit to Britain. The Trump Baby balloon will be flown over …

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Video: Will Parents Separated from Their Children at the Border Be Forced to Separate Again to Win Asylum?

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https://democracynow.org – Two days after a court-imposed deadline, the Trump administration said Thursday that just 57 of more than 100 children under the …

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PressTV-Trump greeted by protests in Scotland

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US President Donald Trump has arrived in Scotland as thousands of demonstrators gathered to protest his visit.

Trump touched down at Prestwick Airport Saturday evening after paying an official visit to London, where he met with Prime Minister Theresa May and Queen Elizabeth amid huge protests.

People held a rally in Glasgow ahead of Trump’s arrival.

The US president will spend the weekend at one of his private golf courses in Turnberry, preparing for his Monday summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

US President Donald Trump (R) disembarks Air Force One with US First Lady Melania Trump at Prestwick Airport, south of Glasgow, on July 13, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

Shortly after Trump arrived, a power paraglider was seen flying close to the golf resort with a banner that read, “Trump: Well below par.”

Organizers of the Scotland United Against Trump said the group had hoped to gather about 3,000 people to protest Trump’s “politics of…

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Poll: Germans Want US Troop Withdrawn

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BERLIN — After over 70 years, Germans have apparently had enough of the U.S. troop presence in their country, the second largest presence of U.S. troops abroad after Japan. According to a YouGov poll conducted by Germany’s DPA news agency, 42% of Germans support a complete withdrawal of U.S. troops in the country with 37% of Germany wanting them to stay and 21% undecided. Currently, Germany hosts close to 35,000 U.S. soldiers and between 30 and 40 U.S. military bases.

The poll also found that support for withdrawal came from across the German political spectrum. For instance, 67% of voters from the left-wing Die Linke party were found to support a U.S. troop withdrawal while 55% of the far-right, nationalist AfD party also expressed support for their removal. The Green party of Germany also backed withdrawal by 48%. Support was lowest among voters of the CDU party, the political party of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, at 35%.



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Other findings from the poll show that there is little popular support among Germans for militarism in general, but particularly U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent demand that NATO members such as Germany work to increase their military spending to a new target of 4% of national GDP. Some German political analysts have asserted that Trump’s demand is aimed at increasing European purchases of U.S.-manufactured weapons systems.

On this point, however, the poll found that only 15% of Germans support increasing military spending to just 2% of GDP. Furthermore, 36% of Germans feel that the country already spends too much on military spending. Yet, despite the lack of support for…

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New Zealand nurses stage first nationwide strike in 30 years

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New Zealand nurses stage first nationwide strike in 30 years

By
our reporters

13 July 2018

Nearly 30,000 nurses, midwives and healthcare assistants took part in a 24-hour strike yesterday across New Zealand—the first nationwide strike by public hospital workers since 1989.

Demonstrations and pickets were held throughout the country, with hundreds attending in Auckland and Wellington. More than 1,000 health workers and supporters joined a march in Christchurch. There were well-attended pickets in Dunedin, Hamilton, Napier, Nelson, New Plymouth, Timaru, Invercargill, Whangarei and many other towns.

The strike attracted widespread support from the working class, which has endured a decade of austerity measures enforced by the entire political establishment. Among those who joined the pickets were school teachers, who have voted to strike next month, as well as many hospital patients, including some whose medical procedures were postponed because of the strike.

Striking nurses outside Wellington Hospital

The Public Service Association, the biggest union in the country, felt compelled to proclaim its support for nurses. Four thousand PSA members at the Inland Revenue Department and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment held a two-hour strike on Monday against low wages.

The strike attracted significant media attention and support from workers internationally. Messages of support and photos from Australian health workers were widely shared on Facebook. The New Zealand strike is part of a wave of anti-austerity struggles around the world, including mass teachers’ strikes in the United States, public sector walkouts in France and protests against cuts to the National Health Service in Britain.

According to media reports, thousands of non-urgent medical…

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Video: Amesbury victim regains consciousness: Police speak to British man after he wakes from coma

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Charlie Rowley, poisoned with what is believed to be Novichok a week ago, is now stable and conscious, according to Salisbury District Hospital. Check out …

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Video: In U.K., Trump Insults Theresa May, Praises Far-Right Boris Johnson, Attacks London’s Muslim Mayor

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https://democracynow.org – President Trump is meeting with Prime Minister Theresa May today, just hours after warning that a “soft Brexit” will kill Britain’s …

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Trump says US-UK relationship ‘highest level of special’ — RT UK News

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Donald Trump, who stirred tension in the UK by giving a critical interview to a tabloid newspaper about Prime Minister Theresa May, said he ranked the relationship between the two nations as ‘highest level of special’.

Standing next to May during a joint media conference, Trump repeatedly stressed his “tremendous respect” to his host and made assurances that the UK and the US were especially close under his administration.

“I would say I would give our relationship in terms of grade the highest level of special,” Trump said. “Now, after two days with your prime minister, I would say the highest level of special.

“Am I allowed to go higher than that?” he added, turning to May. Trump said the British were “very special people” and their country was “very special”, and he valued the relationship because his mother was born in Scotland, among other things.

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© Kevin Lamarque

Commenting on what he told The Sun about May rejecting his suggestions on how to handle Brexit, Trump said May probably “found it too brutal”.

“I gave her suggestion, not advice,” he stressed. “I could fully understand why she thought it was a little bit tough. And maybe one day she will do it. If they don’t make the right deal, she might very well do what I suggested.”

In the interview with the British tabloid, Trump said May’s decision to opt for a ‘soft Brexit’ undermined the UK’s chances to strike a comprehensive trade deal with the US and that the prime minister ignored his advice on how to negotiate with the EU.

‘Special relationship’ is a term long used in Britain and the US to describe the close coordination of their foreign policies and overall strong ties between the two countries. Mostly perceived as a good thing, the special relationship is considered shameful by some critics, who say in essence it means that the UK simply does Washington’s bidding in things like the Iraq invasion of 2003 and similarly embarrassing episodes.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Trump’s whirlwind European tour causes stir online — RT US News

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On his EU visit, US President Donald Trump lectured Germany on doing business with Russia, demanded tribute from NATO and offered advice on British politics. Many Europeans were having none of it, venting their spleen on Twitter.

Trump flew into Belgium for the NATO summit on Wednesday, then jetted to the UK for a state visit on Thursday. He is scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland, on Monday.

Trump vs Germany

The US leader started off the NATO summit by accusing Germany of being a “captive to Russia,” arguing that Berlin’s position within the military alliance was compromised because of its reliance on energy from Moscow. This led some journalists to accuse Trump of projecting his insecurities onto a rival, while others pointed out this dispelled claims he was soft on Russia.

While Trump’s comments provoked fierce reaction online, Chancellor Angela Merkel was more restrained in her response. Online commentators were in no mood for civility, with some calling for Merkel to mete out some rough justice.

READ MORE: Merkel slams Trump’s ‘Russian captive’ comment, defends Berlin’s ‘independent policies’

One German TV network reportedly responded by digitally replacing the US president with an image of a Trump-shaped blimp made by some British protesters.

He said, no one else said

If making culturally insensitive statements is a Trump trademark, so is declaring victory in disputes before being contradicted by the supposedly vanquished. The NATO summit produced a few such moments.

The former reality TV star has long berated NATO over military spending or lack thereof. Trump came to the summit looking to pick a fight with 24 alliance members failing to meet an agreed target of making their military budgets two percent of their GDP.

Trump later told the press he’d successfully pushed for a spending increase. French President Emmanuel Macron disagreed. Twitter weighed in to mediate. 

READ MORE: Trump warns NATO allies US can ‘do our own thing’ if 2% spending goal not met – reports

In another seemingly off-the-cuff remark, Trump said he wanted NATO members to double their spending, to four percent of GDP. Some felt they could see the malign hand of shady defense contractors at play.

Trump does Britain

UK Prime Minister Theresa May must have choked on her tea when she read Trump’s interview with The Sun on Friday morning. In a bizarre exclusive, Trump was scathing about her Brexit plan and even backed rival Boris Johnson to succeed her at 10 Downing Street. Later in the day, he insisted that the story was “fake news.” Online commentators knew who they were going to believe.

READ MORE: Trump says US-UK relationship ‘highest level of special’

There was some discussion about whether Trump should be involving himself in British domestic matters, especially after criticising Barack Obama for the same thing in 2016. At least one British politician saw nothing wrong with Trump’s “meddling,” however.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: Germany ‘captive’ of Russia: Trump slams NATO allies at summit

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Donald Trump is visiting NATO allies at a summit in Brussels – and the US president has openly hit out at other member states for not paying up when it comes to …

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Video: Meet the Activist Who Called Piers Morgan an “Idiot” for Criticizing Anti-Trump Protests in Britain

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https://democracynow.org – President Donald Trump said Friday that immigrants fleeing violence and seeking asylum in Europe are changing “the fabric of …

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PressTV-Judge tells US to pay costs of reuniting migrant families

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A US judge has ordered the government to pay the costs of reuniting immigrant families with their children after being separated at the US-Mexico border as part of President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy.

The US government is currently in the process of reuniting nearly 2,000 children with their parents, although the Trump administration missed the deadline of July 10 Judge Dana Sabraw set in June to reunite nearly 100 of those immigrant children and their parents.

Immigrant parents have been told by immigration officials that they had to pay for their travel and DNA tests to verify family relationships before being reunited with their children. In response, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a lawsuit against the government.

“It doesn’t make any sense for any of the parents who have been separated to pay for anything,” said Sabraw at a hearing in San Diego on Friday.

At the hearing, Sarah Fabian, who is a lawyer…

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Video: ‘England didn’t finish game off in first half, paid the price’ – Mourinho talks Croatia v England

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If I was a bit naïve, if I didn’t have the experience I have in football, I would have come in at half time and said the job is done. But it was not done” – Mourinho …

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Video: Judge Rules Trump Admin May Have Violated Free Speech Rights of Mexican Journalist Detained in U.S.

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https://democracynow.org – We turn now to a major development in the case of a jailed Mexican journalist that Democracy Now! has followed closely. In El Paso …

Via Youtube

Police say rioters tried to murder them during 6th night of violence in N. Ireland (VIDEOS) — RT UK News

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Improvised explosives and more than 70 petrol bombs were thrown at Northern Ireland police officers in the city of Derry following Twelfth of July celebrations.

Northern Ireland’s police service said rioters tried to murder them on the sixth straight night of violence in the city. The unrest coincides with the Loyalist marching season which sees Loyalists and Unionists marching through Nationalist areas.

The violence broke out in the Bogside area of the city following Twelfth of July marches earlier in the day.

July 12, also known as Orangeman’s Day, marks Protestant William of Orange’s victory over Catholic King James in the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. The day is celebrated by the, mainly-Protestant, Unionist community and shunned by the, largely-Catholic, Nationalist community.

Two improvised explosive devices and 74 petrol bombs were thrown at police officers in a “prolonged and sustained attack.”

Supt Gordon McCalmont said: “I am saddened, disheartened and frustrated that yet again police officers committed to keeping this local community safe have been attacked by a small number of people within it. It is nothing short of a miracle that officers were not injured.”

Three men were arrested following the violence. One of them was arrested for attempted murder.

“While we have seen many young people involved in these attacks over the last number of nights, it is clear that this is being orchestrated by a more sinister, adult, violent dissident Republican element. This cannot continue. This must end now,” Supt McCalmont added.

READ MORE: Bonfires, bus hijacking & petrol bombs rock Belfast on Eleventh Night (PHOTOS, VIDEOS)

Wednesday night also saw numerous incidents as enormous bonfires were built to mark Eleventh night. Police officers were again bombarded with petrol bombs and several cars were burned out. Elsewhere in Northern Ireland a bus was hijacked by masked men and burned out after it was set on fire in county Down.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Piers Morgan Is Wrong for Criticizing British Anti-Trump Protests

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President Donald Trump said Friday that immigrants fleeing violence and seeking asylum in Europe are changing “the fabric of Europe. … And I don’t mean that in a positive way.” Trump’s xenophobic comments came during a shocking interview with the Rupert Murdoch-owned British tabloid The Sun. Massive protests have greeted President Trump during his two-day trip to Britain — including a 20-foot-long giant baby Trump blimp outside Parliament. We go to the streets of London to speak with Ash Sarkar, the anti-Trump coalition organizer who confronted Piers Morgan during a “Good Morning Britain” interview Thursday that went viral.

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: We begin our show in Britain, where President Trump is meeting with Prime Minister Theresa May today, just hours after warning that a “soft Brexit” will kill Britain’s chances of a future trade deal with the United States. In an explosive interview with the Rupert Murdoch-owned British tabloid The Sun — Murdoch is a Trump supporter — in which Trump claimed that Britain is “losing its culture” due to immigration, Trump said Theresa May had ignored his advice on Brexit negotiations.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: If they do a deal like that, it will most likely—because we’ll be dealing with the European Union instead of dealing with the UK, so it will probably kill the deal with—if they do that, their trade deal with the US is—will probably not be made. I did give Theresa, who I like—I did give her my views on what she should do and how she should negotiate. And she didn’t follow those views. I would—I would actually say she probably went the opposite way.

AMY GOODMAN: Trump went on to praise former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, calling him Britain’s future prime minister. Johnson resigned earlier this week in protest of Brexit negotiations, writing in his resignation letter the, quote, “Brexit dream was dying,” and “We are…

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In the Land of Formula and Honey

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+ Tariq Ali: “The vaudeville President stirring NATO with attacks on the Germans for being Russian puppets. Bizarre, but the EU powers are so pathetic they can’t fight back because they’ve been ever so loyal to the US. Even now with Trump excreting on them…”

+ So Trump came Brussels not to kill off NATO, as both liberals and neocons feared, but to further weaponize it. He played the part of a blustery arms dealer, demanding that all NATO countries increase defense spending to 4% of GDP (double the current commitment), which would come as welcome news to Raytheon, Lockheed & Boeing. Of course, feeding defense corporations is what NATO has been about since the alliance became operationally obsolete in 1990.

+ Note that Trump’s call for NATO countries to increase military spending to 4% GDP would also mean another spike in US military spending, above the $718 billion check the Congress just wrote the Pentagon in the name of John McCain. Where are the protestations from the Deep State?

+ The Senate voted 97-2 to defend poor little NATO against Trump’s rhetorical blasts. Only Rand Paul and Mike Lee dissented…

+ Here’s an alert sent out by Ryan Air in advance of Trump’s visit to UK…

+ Best slogan at London protests? “Take Boris back with you!”

+ Trump tells Putin shit that Putin (and nearly everyone else) already knows, namely that many of his top aides are “stupid people.”

+ Senator Chris Coons, the Delaware Democrat, is very worried about…

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Maddow goes to meddling & collusion expert Nuland for tips on Trump-Putin puppetry — RT US News

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Rachel Maddow, the star MSNBC anchor who is obsessed with the Trump-Russia collusion conspiracy theory, found the perfect ‘expert’ to ask about orders Vladimir Putin might give to Donald Trump: Victoria ‘F**k the EU’ Nuland.

Maddow’s disdain for the incumbent US president, and her propensity to speculate that Trump may be a Kremlin puppet bent on destroying the Western world to please Russian President Putin, is well-documented.

In Thursday’s episode of her show, the MSNBC anchor bemoaned Trump’s threats to withdraw from NATO and how his abrasive manners were offensive to other allies. No mention was made of Trump berating Germany over energy cooperation with Russia, though.

Then she interviewed a guest about Trump’s upcoming meeting with Putin in Helsinki, Finland, asking in a most peculiar manner what the Russian leader may want from it.

“We are told that President Trump has tried to arrange the meeting so that at one point in the summit it will be him and President Putin in a room with no other Americans. As far as I understand, not even an American translator there,” Maddow said. “So if President Putin were hypothetically in some sort of a position where he could give orders to an American president behind closed doors and no other American would know what those orders would be, if he had this sort of magic wand, what would be the thing he would want most? What kind of order would he give?”

She couldn’t have found a person better qualified to comment on ordering around foreign governments: Victoria Nuland, former US ambassador to NATO in the George W. Bush administration and former assistant secretary of state for Eurasia under the Obama administration.

Nuland and the US ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt were photographed handing out pastries to anti-government protesters in Kiev. She became notorious, however, after a conversation between her and Pyatt in February 2014 was posted online. While Nuland’s vulgar dismissal of the EU may have stolen the headlines, the topic of their conversation was arguably more scandalous, since the two US diplomats discussed who should and should not be in the new Ukrainian government. Two weeks later, US-backed protesters violently deposed Ukraine’s democratically elected president.

READ MORE: ‘F**k the EU’: Snr US State Dept. official caught in alleged phone chat on Ukraine

The insight into Putin’s wishes Nuland offered was devoid of surprises: Money in the form of sanctions relief, a Syria deal, recognition of Crimea as part of Russia and cancellation of NATO exercises in the Baltic Sea, because if Kim Jong-un got it, why wouldn’t Putin? Maddow suggested that pulling the rug out from under NATO would be good for Putin too. Nuland agreed.

“He’d want more trouble between us and our closest allies like Germany,” she said.

Last month, the State Department cited the D-Day landing of Allied troops in occupied France as an example of the “long history” and “strong relationship” between the US and Germany.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Sudan and South Sudan Caucus Statement on UN Sanctions

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Via Common Dreams. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Sudan and South Sudan Caucus Statement on UN Sanctions

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Via Common Dreams. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

‘It Is Really Crucial That People Stand Up for What They Believe In’

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On its July 6, 2018, episode, CounterSpin reaired Janine Jackson’s interview with Mara Verheyden-Hilliard about the right to protest, originally heard on the July 14, 2017, broadcast. This is a lightly edited transcript.

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MP3 Link

Janine Jackson: A Washington Post poll from July 2017 found that one out of every three Washington, DC, residents said they’d taken part in a protest against Donald Trump since his inauguration. That number included half of the district’s white residents, half of people making more than $100,000 a year, and a fifth of the respondents over the age of 65.

As more and more people go out in the street, states are rushing to criminalize that resistance. This time last year, we talked about the right to protest and the role of law in a time of widespread dissent with activist attorney Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, executive of director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund. I started by asking about the J20, the group of people—including journalists—arrested for protesting at Trump’s January 20 inauguration. CounterSpin listeners got an update on the state of that case just a few weeks back on the show. Mara Verheyden-Hilliard explained the nature of the J20 case.

Police at the Trump inauguration (cc photo: Johnny Silvercloud)

(cc photo: Johnny Silvercloud)

Mara Verheyden-Hilliard: This case is really of extraordinary proportions, when you look at what the government is doing to people who are engaged in protests on the first day that Trump took office. And it’s really in its own context significant, too, because of the major shift in policing in Washington, DC, which we believe is intended to send a signal.

What’s happened now is more than 200 people were swept up in a dragnet arrest by the police, and this occurred after the police had followed the demonstration for, by their own account, approximately half an hour, while there were some people who broke windows, only a handful of people. And rather than going in and arresting the people for whom they had probable cause to arrest, the police waited that arbitrary time, tracked and detained 200 people. And so they swept up demonstrators, passers-by, journalists, anyone who’s in proximity, anyone who is chanting and protesting.

And then they undertook this mass prosecution with the United States Attorney’s Office here in the District of Columbia, in which people are being threatened with, as you’ve mentioned, jail time that is decades and decades long, really a lifetime of jail time, with these felony charges. They are charging people en masse with crimes that may have happened, in terms of property damage, but charging everyone with crimes without particularized probable cause, without being able to point to a person and say, you committed this act and so we’re charging you for this act. They’re charging everyone in the vicinity for being in proximity.

This is extremely dangerous; it sets the stage that for any demonstration, if anyone commits a criminal act, an act of property damage, whether that be a protester or, frankly, a police agent provocateur, the police can now use this as license, or they wish to, to sweep up everyone else around them.

JJ: This is what we talked about before. It’s not a crime, now, is it, to be in proximity to other people who break the law in conjunction with First Amendment activities?

Inauguration protest (cc photo: Mobilus in Mobili)

(cc photo: Mobilus in Mobili)

MVH: Of course it’s not, and it cannot be. And the First Amendment has always stood for that, in fact, you cannot criminalize a person for the acts of another. And particularly in the context of the First Amendment, when it’s an issue where the connection is that there may be a sympathy of political views, one cannot do that. There are cases dating back, NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware and others, the courts said you have to act with precision. You cannot say that just because people have a similar point of view, or may have similar political goals, that those who carry out illegal acts or acts of violence in pursuit of those goals, that those acts can be attributed to the others who do not.

JJ: Right. These charges, at the level they’re at, it feels new, but we know that the effort to repress First Amendment expression is not new. The Supreme Court last month rejected a First Amendment case that dates from years back, Garcia v. Bloomberg. Can you tell us about that and how it relates?

MVH: The Garcia v. Bloomberg case comes from the Occupy demonstration of 2011, when 700 people were peacefully marching, compliant with police orders, there was no violence, and as people marched, the police escorted the march. The police themselves closed the Brooklyn Bridge roadway to vehicular traffic. The police and police commanders themselves opened up the roadway to pedestrian traffic. It is the police and police commanders who led the demonstrators onto the roadway of the Brooklyn Bridge, and once those demonstrators had flowed and followed behind the lead of the police, the police stopped the march, trapped them from behind, mass-arrested 700 people.

When we litigated this case, we won at the District Court level, we won at the Second Circuit, in fact. And then Mayor de Blasio, who had taken office, frankly, running on an Occupy ticket, had the court reevaluate the ruling, and the court, in an extraordinary measure, reversed itself. And we took this case up to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court just last month determined that they would not hear it.

JJ: Obviously, lots of folks are taking their lead from this, and kind of joining on this bandwagon. We have a spate of anti-protest legislation around the country, even UN experts are issuing alarmed statements now. Some 20 states have passed or tried to pass laws allowing protesters to be charged with conspiracy, increasing penalties for blocking streets, even protecting drivers who run protesters over, banning masks and hoodies…. I mean, is anyone really confused that the intent of these rules is to quash dissent, and doesn’t that thinly veiled intent matter?

Mara Verheyden-Hilliard (image: WTTG)

Mara Verheyden-Hilliard: “There is an effort around the country…to curtail people’s fundamental First Amendment rights to gather together in the streets.” (image: WTTG)

MVH: It’s clear that there is an effort around the country to try, through legal means—although we would consider illegal means—to curtail people’s fundamental First Amendment rights to gather together in the streets, to be able to speak out in unified action.

I do think, as much as we’re seeing these kinds of restrictions imposed and these rulings, that at the same time it can obviously have a chilling effect on people, the reality is that people do always come out and people will continue to come out. And while this may be intended to have a chilling effect, it is really crucial that people stand up and speak out for what they believe in. And I do think the reason that we’re seeing these is because there is a growing recognition that there really is this fire of people, these embers burning, where we keep seeing people come up and demonstrating for what they believe in. We’re seeing so many more people entering political life, even since the election of Donald Trump. People are taking to the streets, protesting, who never protested before.

So while we’re faced with what is I think overt repression, both in terms of these felony prosecutions, these state laws, these court rulings, we also are faced with the fact that there are millions of people who are engaging in political protest and political organizing who have never done so before, and that’s a force that really can’t be stopped.

JJ: We’ve been speaking with Mara Verheyden-Hilliard of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund. Find them online at JusticeOnline.org. Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, thank you very much for joining us today on CounterSpin.

MVH: Thank you for having me.


This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission from FAIR.

Video: World Cup semi-final Croatia celebrates, England lose: FansEyeView (LIVE + Tape)

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It’s here. The 2nd clash for the final. Croatia vs England.Here you’ll find pre-game interviews from the streets of Moscow, live fan festivals in Croatia and England …

Via Youtube

Shooting Ourselves in the Foot

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The Canadian government, lining the pockets of its dairy producers, imposes high tariffs on American dairy imports. That forces Canadians to pay higher prices for dairy products. For example, Canadians pay $5.24 for a 10.5-ounce block of cheddar. In Washington, D.C., that same amount of cheddar sells for $3.64. Canadians pay $3.99 for a 1-pound container of yogurt. In Washington, D.C., you can get nearly twice as much yogurt for a little over $4. It’s clear that the Canadian government’s tariffs screw its citizens by forcing them to pay higher prices for dairy products.

What should the U.S. response be to Canada’s screwing its citizens? If you were in the Trump administration, you might propose imposing tariffs on soft wood products that Americans import from Canada — in other words, retaliate against Canada by screwing American citizens. Canadian lumber — such as that from pine, spruce and fir trees — is used in U.S. homebuilding. Guess what tariffs on Canadian lumber do to home prices. If you answered that they raise the cost and American homebuyers are forced to pay higher prices, go to the head of the class.

This retaliation policy is both cruel and not very smart. It’s as if you and I were in a rowboat out at sea and I shot a hole in my end of the boat. What should be your response? If you were Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross or Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, you might advise retaliating by shooting a hole in your end of the boat. If I were president, I’d try to persuade officials of other countries not to serve special producer interests by forcing their citizens to pay higher prices. But if they insisted, I’d say, “Go ahead, but I’ll be damned if I’ll do the same to Americans!”



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Video: F-bomb & middle fingers: England fans crash RT broadcast

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How would you react if you were the reporter? READ MORE: https://on.rt.com/99yj Check out http://rt.com RT LIVE http://rt.com/on-air Subscribe to RT!

Via Youtube

PressTV-Big US banks’ clients nervous about growing trade tensions

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Clients of giant US banks are increasingly nervous about growing trade tensions, but are not yet significantly curtailing business activity due to the uncertainty, banks said Friday after reporting mixed earnings.

JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon cautioned that “There are unpredictable outcomes when you start skirmishes like this with multiple countries.”

“It’s a worry,” he told reporters in a conference call, but “I don’t know if I’d use the word ‘major’ yet.”

Citigroup chief financial officer John Gerspach agreed with his counterparts that the concerns are not yet driving business decisions.

“When you get into this kind of rhetoric, it does impact sentiment,” he said. “It’s going to slow down decision making in some cases, but that hasn’t translated yet into anything we’ve seen.”

The comments came as the two major US banks reported earnings that easily topped analyst expectations, in contrast to slumping Wells Fargo which badly…

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UK police claim to have found bottle containing ‘Novichok’ nerve agent in Amesbury victim’s house — RT UK News

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UK police say they have found the source of the nerve agent that allegedly poisoned two people in Amesbury, killing one. They claim the source appears to be a small bottle discovered in one of the victim’s homes.

The bottle was apparently found in Charlie Rowley’s house in Amesbury on Wednesday. “Scientists have now confirmed to us that the substance contained within the bottle is Novichok,” a Friday statement by police said.

Investigators say they’ve not yet determined how a bottle of supposedly weapons-grade chemicals ended up in Rowley’s home, or if there are more like it around. Police cordons will remain in place around the scene “for some considerable time.”

Rowley, 45, and his girlfriend Dawn Sturgess, 44, took ill on June 30, with what British police later said was nerve agent poisoning caused by Novichok, citing researchers at the nearby Porton Down chemical lab. Both were admitted to the Salisbury hospital in critical condition.

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© Bristol Dry Gin Micro Distillery

Sturgess died a week later, while Rowley’s condition improved. By Wednesday this week he was no longer critical, medics said.

Novichok is the same nerve agent that British authorities claim was used in the March poisoning of former Russian-UK double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. Russia is being blamed for that incident, although the investigation is ongoing and no conclusive evidence has been produced in over four months. Both Skripals survived the alleged poisoning and left hospital for undisclosed locations.

Police and counter-terrorism investigators looking into the Amesbury incident say they haven’t yet determined if there’s a link to the Skripals’ case. The UK Defense Secretary, though, was among the people who didn’t hesitate to make the leap.

“The simple reality is that Russia has committed an attack on British soil which has seen the death of a British citizen,”Gavin Williamson, of the ‘Russia should go away and shut up’ fame, told the Commons following Sturgess’ death. Other officials and establishment journalists rushed to label the Russian President Vladimir Putin a ‘murderer’.

Russia has repeatedly asked to be given access to investigation materials in the Skripals’ case so that it could assist the probe on the grounds that Yulia Skripal retained her Russian citizenship, but the requests were ignored. Instead, saying Moscow was “highly likely” to blame, the UK and its allies initiated a mass expulsion of Russian diplomats, resulting in more than 100 Russian embassy and consulate workers getting sent home from over a dozen countries.

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Is Britain’s Green Party About to take a Significant Step Towards Revolution?

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The Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW) is currently undertaking a huge holistic review as to how the Party works. As it already has a superb set of highly radical policies encompassing not only its well-known concerns for saving the environment but also proposals for revolutionary reforms of the economy, British foreign policy, and our so-called constitution, the holistic review has the potential to be either a step towards a major peaceful revolution, or a damp squib.

Since the Greens were first established in Britain decision-making has been undertaken at annual conferences, where any Party member attending the conference may be involved. This has worked reasonably well, but obviously excludes all those members who are unable to attend conferences. The holistic review may possibly modernise this system.

About a hundred years ago Emma Goldman was one of the first to observe that if voting could really change anything it would be made illegal. It’s not absolutely true, of course, but her point, that most of our so-called democracies are not fit for purpose, was right on the money.

Democracy is a relatively new feature of human society. Given the incredible technical advances that humans have achieved over the last couple of thousand years, it’s not exactly impressive that it’s only just a hundred years or so since women were deemed to be sufficiently human to be entrusted with the right to vote once in a while.

The main reason why we have not yet…

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Trump snubs CNN, slams NBC during Theresa May presser — RT US News

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US President Donald Trump lashed out at ‘fake news’ during a joint press conference with US PM Theresa May, singling out NBC and denying the CNN correspondent a question.

Trump went on the offensive after NBC’s White House correspondent Kristen Welker asked a question about NATO and the upcoming summit in Helsinki, Finland.

“You have spent the week taking on NATO allies, criticizing Prime Minister May on her own soil, and I wonder are you giving Russian President Vladimir Putin the upper hand heading into your talks, given that you are challenging these alliances that he seeks to break up and destroy?” Welker asked, adopting a standard mainstream media line on Russia.

Fake news? 10 times US news anchors got it really wrong

“See, that’s such dishonest reporting,” Trump fired back. “Of course it happens to be NBC — which is possibly worse than CNN.”

Trump went on to dismiss the notion that he was breaking up NATO, describing the alliance as more “strong and powerful” as a result of his presidency. He also said that his administration has been “far tougher on Russia than anybody.”

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© Lucy Nicholson

Citing his decision to expel 60 Russian diplomats as a favor to Britain over its claims of an alleged nerve agent attack in Salisbury in March, Trump said that his tough stance on Russia has gone largely unappreciated because “the fake news doesn’t want to talk about it.”

In an attempt to defend his network’s honor, CNN correspondent Jim Acosta requested to ask the next question, since Trump had “attacked CNN.”

Trump ignored him, calling on a Fox News correspondent instead.

“Can I ask you a question?” Acosta repeated.

“No,” Trump replied. “CNN is fake news. I don’t take questions from CNN.” He then called on John Roberts of Fox again, saying he was from “a real network.”

“Well, we’re a real network too,” Acosta retorted.

A nearly identical exchange took place in January 2017, when then president-elect Trump refused Acosta’s question, saying: “Not you – not you – you’re fake news. Your organization is terrible.”

British reporters also caught heat from the US leader, with Trump chastising The Sun for cutting out all the praise he had heaped on May from a sensationalist interview published Thursday.

“I said very good things about her. I didn’t think they’d put it in, but that’s alright. They didn’t put it in the headline, I wish they’d put it in the headline. And she’s a total professional because when I saw her this morning I said, ‘I want to apologize because I said such good things about you’, and she said, ‘don’t worry, it’s only the press’.”

Welker was referring to that interview when she said Trump had criticized May “on her own soil,” but the Sun had noted the interview was recorded before the US president arrived in the UK.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: Combat Cam: Israeli Patriot missile intercepts drone from Syria

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Israel fired a Patriot missile at an unmanned aircraft that entered its territory from Syria on Wednesday, the military said, warning it won’t tolerate airspace …

Via Youtube

PressTV-Mexico calls on US to reunite separated migrant families

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Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has called on a high-level US delegation to quickly reunite migrant families with their children.

Nieto made the remarks in a statement on Friday, the same day when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo leading top US officials arrived in Mexico City to discuss a range of issues, including the border and trade with Nieto and President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Nieto also warned of “hatred and racism” after an attack on a 92-year old Mexican man in California, calling for “a permanent alternative that prioritizes the well-being and rights of minors.”

The old man was attacked by a woman and several men with a brick in the Willowbrook neighborhood of Los Angeles, according to a newly-released video.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (L) and Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador shake hands on July 13, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

The visit by President Donald Trump’s top team comes as his…

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The Media’s Brazen Dishonesty About North Korean Nuclear Violations – Consortiumnews

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In its reporting of supposed North Korean “violations”, the corporate media is once again found to be pushing a political agenda, as Gareth Porter explains.

By Gareth Porter

In late June and early July, NBC News, CNN, and The Wall Street Journal published stories that appeared at first glance to shed a lurid light on Donald Trump’s flirtation with Kim Jong-un. They contained satellite imagery showing that North Korea was making rapid upgrades to its nuclear weapons complex at Yongbyon and expanding its missile production program just as Trump and Kim were getting chummy at their Singapore summit.

In fact, those media outlets were selling journalistic snake oil. By misrepresenting the diplomatic context of the images they were hyping, the press launched a false narrative around the Trump-Kim summit and the negotiations therein.

The headline of the June 27 NBC News story revealed the network’s political agenda on the Trump-Kim negotiations. “If North Korea is denuclearizing,” it asked, “why is it expanding a nuclear research center?” The piece warned that North Korea “continues to make improvements to a major nuclear facility, raising questions about President Donald Trump’s claim that Kim Jong Un has agreed to disarm, independent experts tell NBC News.”

CNN’s coverage of the same story was even more sensationalist, declaring that there were “troubling signs” that North Korea was making “improvements” to its nuclear facilities, some of which it said had been carried out after the Trump-Kim summit. It pointed to a facility that had produced plutonium in the past and recently undergone an upgrade, despite Kim’s alleged promise to Trump to draw down his nuclear arsenal. CNN commentator Max Boot cleverly spelled out the supposed implication: “If you were about to demolish your house, would you be remodeling the kitchen?”

But in their determination to push hardline opposition to the negotiations, these stories either ignored or sought to discredit the careful caveat accompanying the original source on which they were based—the analysis of satellite images published on the website 38 North on June 21. The…

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Australia: Victorian bus drivers strike over wages and conditions

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Australia: Victorian bus drivers strike over wages and conditions

By
our reporters

13 July 2018

Nearly 500 bus drivers participated in two 24-hour strikes, today and on Tuesday, impacting 49 bus routes in Melbourne’s western and eastern suburbs and 25 services in the regional Victorian cities of Ballarat and Geelong.

The stoppages are part of a dispute between the private bus company CDC Victoria and the Transport Workers Union (TWU), over a new Enterprise Agreement covering drivers for the next three years.

The strikes are the first significant industrial action by bus drivers in Victoria in around 20 years. More than 90 percent of unionised drivers voted in favour of the stoppages. Large numbers took part in protests in Wyndham, Oakleigh, Geelong, and Ballarat on Tuesday.

The TWU is demanding a wage increase of four percent per year as well as a one percent increase in superannuation entitlements. CDC Victoria has offered a paltry 2.5 percent wage rise per annum.

Strikers at Sunshine depot

Bus drivers who spoke to WSWS reporters outlined a number of their grievances, including low wages that have not kept up with the rising cost of living, long shifts beginning early in the morning, often forcing workers to leave their homes at 3.00 a.m., and stressful situations involving abusive passengers and unresolved health and safety concerns.

The TWU’s claim that a wage rise of just four percent would be “fair” is absurd. This would represent on average a $45.00 per week increase, which would be eaten up by the increased cost of essential items.

For instance, fuel increased by more than $200 per household last year, while there was a 3.4 percent increase in health costs, along with hikes in home and car insurance. Basic commodities such as fruit increased by around 9…

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Corbyn hits out at ‘rolling of red carpet’ for Trump while he ‘tramples on basic human rights’ — RT UK News

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Jeremy Corbyn has condemned Prime Minister Theresa May’s “rolling of a red carpet” for US President Donald Trump at a time when his “dangerous and inhumane policies” are undermining the “lives of millions of people.”

Speaking as thousands of people prepare to protest against Trump’s visit to the UK in dozens of organized demonstrations across the country, the Labour party leader hit out at the Tory government for offering Trump an unhampered welcome. May and her husband Philip were seen welcoming the president on a red carpet on Thursday night as he arrived with his wife Melania at Blenheim Palace.

READ MORE: London anti-Trump rally: Gripping images that caught the mood (WATCH LIVE)

Trump landed at Stansted Airport on Thursday for his four-day visit to the UK, during which he will meet the PM at her country residence at Chequers, as well as the Queen at Windsor Castle.

In a video posted on his Twitter page on Friday morning, the opposition leader said: “Theresa May has invited President Trump to our country at a time when his dangerous and inhumane policies are putting the lives and wellbeing of millions of people at risk.”

Corbyn added: “The Labour party is committed to dialogue, including of course with those we strongly disagree with and in government we would find a way to work with his administration while also standing up for our values and our beliefs.

“But instead the Tories are rewarding President Trump with a red carpet welcome.”

READ MORE: ‘Europe will not be destabilized’: French, German foreign ministers slam Trump

The Labour leader cited Trump’s recent ‘zero tolerance’ immigration policy that saw children being separated from their parents at the southern US border. Amid international outcry over the policy, Trump signed an executive order to stop it.

Corbyn said May has greeted the business tycoon-turned president while he “repeatedly tramples on the most basic fundamentals human rights that all of us hold dear […] condoning racism, misogyny and prejudice, and promoting the politics of hate and fear.”

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: West Virginia Teachers Offer a Lesson in Organizing

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With a deal reached in the West Virginia teachers strike, there is talk of revived labor activism nationwide. But is the deal fair to all, and will anti-union forces push …

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Sanders slams Disney CEO for taking home millions and paying ‘poverty wages’ — RT US News

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Democratic Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders is taking on Mickey Mouse and company, blasting Disney CEO Bob Iger for taking home a seven-figure paycheck while some of his workers struggle to make ends meet.

“Does Disney CEO Bob Iger have a good explanation for why he is being compensated more than $400 million while workers at Disneyland are homeless and relying on food stamps to feed their families?” the senator from Vermont, who caucuses with the Democrats, tweeted on Friday.

Sanders was lashing out at Iger’s lucrative pay package, which could see him net a cool $423 million over the next few years, as long as he hits his performance goals. Meanwhile workers at Disney’s flagship theme park in Anaheim, California earn an average of $13.36 per hour – above the California minimum wage of $11 per hour, but below the $15 per hour ‘living wage’ Sanders has championed.

Disneyland employees must also adhere to a long list of rules governing everything from appearance to etiquette, but almost three quarters say that they can’t afford basic necessities every month. Two thirds report being food-insecure, almost half can’t afford proper dental care, and one in ten say they have been homeless in the last two years.

This year, Iger’s compensation will equal the total pay of just under 9,300 Disney workers, according to an Economic Roundtable report. Disney disputed the report, calling it “inaccurate and unscientific.” The report relied on anecdotal testimony from union employees, many of whom saw promised bonuses of $1,000 dollars withheld from them earlier in the year.

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© Fred Prouser

In a reply to Sanders via Facebook, Iger defended his fat paycheck, and reminded the socialist senator that Disney creates jobs, even if they are low-paying ones.

“To Bernie Sanders: We created 11,000 new jobs at Disneyland in the past decade and our company has created 18,000 in the U.S. in the last five years. How many jobs have you created? What have you contributed to the US economy?” he snapped back.

Sanders’ beef with Disney is ongoing. At a campaign event in Anaheim in May, he roasted Iger for paying “poverty wages” and asked the crowd does “anybody make a living wage at Disney?”

In a Facebook post a few days later, Sanders said “this isn’t what Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck are supposed to be about.”

Disney is not the only company in Sanders’ sights. In June, he railed against General Electric, accusing the corporation of “destroying the moral fabric” of America by closing American factories and shipping jobs overseas – a position Sanders shares with President Donald Trump, despite sitting at opposite ends of the political spectrum.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: Welcome to one of the world’s SMALLEST islands!

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Santa Cruz del Islote, an artificial island located off the coast Colombia, is known to be one of the most densely populated islands in the world Check out …

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Gun Control Is Now Truly Impossible

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Gun control is the dream of every wannabe statist dictator and naive do-gooder alike. The latter think that removing guns will suddenly force humanity to stop all animosity toward one another, hold hands, and sing Kumbaya. The former recognizes that an armed populace is a threat to any tyrant and pushes for gun control out of self-preservation.

However, a new ruling in a court case over 3-D printer files of guns has now made gun control virtually impossible.

FIVE YEARS AGO, 25-year-old radical libertarian Cody Wilson stood on a remote central Texas gun range and pulled the trigger on the world’s first fully 3-D-printed gun. When, to his relief, his plastic invention fired a .380-caliber bullet into a berm of dirt without jamming or exploding in his hands, he drove back to Austin and uploaded the blueprints for the pistol to his website, Defcad.com.



Defend Yourself: A Com…
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He’d launched the site months earlier along with an anarchist video manifesto, declaring that gun control would never be the same in an era when anyone can download and print their own firearm with a few clicks. In the days after that first test-firing, his gun was downloaded more than 100,000 times. Wilson made the decision to go all in on the project, dropping out of law school at the University of Texas, as if to confirm his belief that technology supersedes law.

The law caught up. Less than a week later, Wilson received a letter from the US State Department demanding that he take down his printable-gun blueprints or face prosecution for violating federal export controls. Under an obscure set of US regulations known as the International Trade in Arms Regulations (ITAR), Wilson…

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Why Is Sadiq Khan a Favourite Target of Trump? You Know the Answer

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Sadiq Khan really gets under Trump’s skin. You can hear it in his voice when he speaks about him, or read it in his tone when he tweets about him. When interviewed on his views on British politics yesterday, the president’s usual congested, out of breath and bored drawl sharpened when he came on to Khan.

Even when he was ostensibly undermining Theresa May by saying that she “didn’t listen to him” about Brexit, and posturing that he would walk away from a non-favourable trade deal with the UK, his pulse didn’t seem to quicken once, as he did what he usually does, which is the opposite of what anyone would expect of a president on a diplomatic mission. Outrageous as his comments were, they were still broadly reading from the same script, one that he doesn’t necessarily believe in or particularly care about as long as it telegraphs his status.

But on Khan he woke up. Before you knew it, he had issued several quick condemnations of London’s mayor.

“Take a look at the terrorism that is taking place. Look at what is going on in London. I think he [Khan] has done a very bad job on terrorism”, Trump said. “I think he has done a bad job on crime, if you look, all of the horrible things going on there, with all of the crime that is being brought in.”

I don’t want to be trite, nor slip into the trap of identity politics that is poisoning our modern discourse, but what could possibly set Khan apart from, let’s say, the mayor of Manchester, who also, according to Trump’s logic, failed to prevent a terror attack last year and therefore also did a “very bad job” on terrorism?

What could it be about Khan, merely a mayor, not even a member of government, that has meant that Trump, the president of the United States, would dedicate so much time to abusing him?

I am sorry to bring race or religion into this, it’s ever so tedious and I am as bored of it as you are, but the inescapable fact is that the only difference is that Khan is Muslim and brown.

That alone however is not enough to incur Trump’s wrath.

Sadiq Khan is also uppity.

Trump has no issue with women or Muslims or immigrants, as long as they know their place; as long as he is the one to bestow on them status and compliments; as long as they are silent when he makes oblique insults or untrue statements. Khan is not in the business of placation or ingratiation because he has a strong mandate in London that he is confident of, and because he has a Teflon composition.

We take it for granted because Khan is a don, but it must be unnerving, when trying to deal with the aftermath, bloodshed and social cohesion challenges after a terrorist attack, to have the president of the United States bearing down on you to score cheap points in his domestic political game.

When Khan wisely and calmly said that there was ‘’no reason to be alarmed’’ by the visibly increased security presence in the streets of London after the London Bridge attacks, Trump spun it as Khan trying to minimise the threat of the attacks – but didn’t challenge Theresa May when she said in response to the same attacks that ‘’everybody needs to go about their lives as they normally would’’.

The clear implication is that Khan is deliberately minimising the threat of terror attacks and cannot be trusted to police the city effectively – because he is Muslim and therefore naturally, his loyalties lie elsewhere.

Khan merely said that Trump was ‘“ill-informed”. That’s another thing that makes him a supreme irritant to the president: he’s not really spoiling for a fight and will not engage so as not to dignify. And so Trump must continue to smear him the only ways he knows how to, by coming to his city and blowing a chorus of dog-whistles, by mentioning Khan in the same breath as immigration “changing the fabric of Europe”, and all the crime “that is being brought in” (by immigrants obviously as, no indigenous crime in London ever existed) and “all the terrorism that is taking place”.

It’s not subtle, is it. And it’s not novel.

Where is the party of government? Running to Khan’s defence? Alas, I bring you more bad news that must refer to anti-Muslim prejudice. As Trump gave the interview in which he insulted Khan, Tory MP Michael Fabricant tweeted an image of Khan as a pig blimp, being sodomised by another pig, as Trump laughed in the foreground.

There was no cavalry coming to his defence.

Not to suggest that all Tory MPs are Islamophobic – not until an inquiry that has for years been demanded goes ahead anyway. Those whose prejudice credentials have not been withdrawn are not alarmed by the bullying of Khan, because they need the bully on side.

May squirmed and smiled as Trump patronised her both in the press and in person. His gendered subordination of May was clear: the subtext painted a picture of a man amused by a woman PM who would not listen to his advice, but is a tough old gal anyway.

May knows that she must swallow this if it means maintaining the peace, not bristling when she is insulted, avoiding reading the room as London teemed with protestors.

Khan, on the other hand, free from the practical constraints of government and the personal constraints of spinelessness, will not take Trump’s lazy racism lying down for the sake of an invite to a state dinner.

Via Common Dreams. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: ‘I am a stable genius’ – Trump at NATO summit

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While fielding questions after a meeting at the NATO summit, Trump answered a Croatian reporter about ‘changing tweets while on Air-Force 1’ Trump says ‘he …

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PressTV-Trump and May are globalist puppets: Writer

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US President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May both are globalist puppets, according to Walt Peretto, a writer and researcher based in Washington, DC.

Peretto made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Friday while commenting on Trump’s controversial statements regarding Britain’s exit strategy from the European Union.

Breaking normal diplomatic conventions, Trump on Thursday blasted his host, May, in an interview published shortly after May rolled out the red carpet at Blenheim Palace for the US president’s first official visit to Britain.

Trump disparaged May’s compromise, pro-business plan to leave the European Union and warned that her approach could imperil any future trade deal between the US and UK, saying the prime minister’s Brexit plan is going “the opposite way.” 

On Friday, however, Trump told a joint press conference with the British prime minister that he supports the post-Brexit US…

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Will Parents at the Border Be Forced to Separate Again to Win Asylum?

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Two days after a court-imposed deadline, the Trump administration said Thursday that just 57 of more than 100 children under the age of 5 have been reunited with their parents after they were separated at the border under the “zero tolerance” policy. This comes as the Trump administration has announced a new asylum policy at the US-Mexico border, which instructs immigration officers to immediately reject asylum seekers who say they are fleeing gangs or domestic violence. We’re joined by Renée Feltz, Democracy Now! correspondent and producer who has long reported on the criminalization of immigrants, family detention, and the business of detention. Her new story for The Nation, reported in partnership with The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute, is headlined “For Some Migrant Families, a Second Separation Awaits.”

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: I’m Amy Goodman. This is Democracy Now! Two days after a court-imposed deadline, the Trump administration said Thursday that just 57 of the 103 children under the age of 5 have been reunited with their parents, after they were separated at the border under the “zero tolerance” policy. Officials said they could not reunite the other 46 children because their parents have been accused of crimes, because the children weren’t related to the people they were separated from, or, in at least a dozen cases, because US immigration authorities had already deported their parents. In total, about 3,000 separated children are in detention centers and facilities across the United States. A judge has ordered all separated children reunited with their parents by July 26. Some migrant parents who have been released from detention say they’ve been unable to reunite with their children because of bureaucratic hurdles.

On Wednesday, Democracy Now!’s Laura Gottesdiener spoke with a Honduran mother who had been separated from her two children at the border. After being…

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May thanks Trump for expelling ‘Russian spies’ after Salisbury, urges ‘strength & unity’ — RT UK News

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UK Prime Minister Theresa May thanked US President Donald Trump for expelling what she called “Russian intelligence officers” after the Salisbury attack and said that Moscow should be engaged from a position of strength.

“I thanked President Trump for his support in responding to the appalling use of a nerve agent in Salisbury, after which he expelled 60 Russian intelligence officers,” May said after talks with the US leader at the Chequers residence in Buckinghamshire on Friday. 

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Theresa May and Donald Trump holding hands. © Hannah McKay

Washington expelled dozens of Russia diplomats in solidarity with Britain after London said that it was “highly likely” that Russia was responsible for a chemical attack against former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury on March 4. However, no evidence of Moscow’s involvement in the incident has been presented by the British side so far.

The prime minister said that she “welcomed” Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which is to take place on Monday in Helsinki, Finland.

“We agreed that it’s important to engage Russia from the position of strength and unity and that we should continue to deter and counter all efforts to undermine our democracies,” she said.

Answering questions later, May clarified that by “unity” she meant the consensus achieved between NATO allies during a meeting in Brussels earlier this week.

In early June, the Times reported that some of the ministers in the UK cabinet were almost in a state of panic over the meeting between Trump and Putin. London has been playing the ‘Russian threat’ card for some time now, as it tries to unite EU countries in a campaign against Moscow pursuing its political goals at home and internationally. 

Brexit has not only weakened Britain’s positions in Europe, but also caused a crisis in the UK government, with Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Brexit Secretary David Davis resigning over their disagreements with May on the terms of parting ways with the EU.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Time to Stop Playing “Simon Says” with James Madison and Alexander Hamilton

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Photo by John Trumbull | CC BY 2.0

The People as a Problem to be Contained

As the United States’ depressed, distracted, disorganized, and demobilized populace watches the vicious white-nationalist and authoritarian Donald Trump and the arch-reactionary Republican Party craft a Supreme Court yet further to the right of majority public opinion, the worst of the nation’s slave-owning Founders might just be heard chuckling in their graves.

Democracy – the rule of the majority – was the last thing the nation’s aristo-republican Founders wanted to see break out in their new republic. Drawn from the elite propertied segments in the new nation, most of the delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention shared their compatriot John Jay’s view that “Those who own the country ought to govern it.” As the celebrated U.S. historian Richard Hofstader noted in his classic 1948 text, The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It:“In their minds, liberty was linked not to democracy but to property.” Democracy was a dangerous concept to them, conferring “unchecked rule by the masses,” which was “sure to bring arbitrary redistribution of property, destroying the very essence of liberty.”

Protection of “property” (meaning the people who owned large amounts of it) was “the main object of government” for all but one of the U.S. Constitution’s framers (James Wilson), as constitutional historian Jennifer Nedelsky has noted. The non-affluent,…

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Mueller indicts 12 Russians for 2016 presidential election hacking offences — RT US News

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Twelve Russian intelligence officers were indicted for hacking the Democratic party and the Hillary Clinton campaign, the US Department of Justice announced, adding that no Americans were involved and no votes affected.

Named in the indictment are members of alleged GRU Units 26165 and 74455, based in Moscow: Viktor Netyksho, Boris Antonov, Dmitry Badin, Ivan Yermakov, Aleksey Lukashev, Sergey Morgachev, Nikolay Kozachek, Pavel Yershov, Artem Malyshev, Aleksandr Osadchuk, and Aleksey Potemkin.

The suspects are members of the GRU, the Russian military intelligence, and are alleged to have hacked into the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and the Clinton campaign during the 2016 presidential election.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced the indictment on Friday in a press conference, accusing the twelve of “conspiring to interfere with the 2016 presidential election.”

“There is no allegation in this indictment that any American citizen committed a crime” or that anything affected the vote count or election results, Rosenstein said.

The hackers infiltrated their targets by using spear phishing and malware, and created fictitious online personas ‘DCLeaks’ and ‘Guccifer 2.0’ to disseminate the hacked materials.

“Both were created and controlled by the Russian GRU,” Rosenstein claimed.

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FILE PHOTO © Adam Berry / Getty Images

The indictment does not mention WikiLeaks by name, but refers to it as “Organization 1” that “had previously posted documents stolen from US persons, entities and the US government.”

It was WikiLeaks that published the emails from the private account of Clinton campaign manager John Podesta, starting in October 2016.

The indictment claims that one of the suspects “searched for open-source information about the DNC network, the Democratic Party, and Hillary Clinton” in March 2016. The following month, the indictment says, the group hacked into the DCCC network and installed malware that later enabled them to access the DNC computers. They allegedly “compressed” the files and moved them using the software the indictment calls “X-Tunnel” and tried to hide their tracks by deleting access longs.

Left out from the indictment is how the federal investigators obtained any evidence of this, given that the FBI never got access to the DNC servers. Instead, the bureau took the word of the DNC cyber security contractor, CrowdStrike, which is referred to in the indictment as ‘Company 1.’

“Why did the FBI not press the DNC to turn over its servers immediately?” political analyst Charles Ortel told RT. “It looks contrived to me.”

Another interesting claim in the indictment is that  ‘Guccifer 2.0’ received a request for documents from a congressional candidate on August 15, 2016, and subsequently sent the documents to the candidate, who was left unnamed.

The announcement comes just days before the Monday summit between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Finland.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Jacinta Gonzalez on Immigration Rights, Jocelyn McCalla on Haiti Uprising

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Abolish ICE Now! (cc photo: Sasha Patkin)

(cc photo: Sasha Patkin)

This week on CounterSpin: Americans, many of them anyway, have been filled with outrage—and anger, and sadness—at the fact that immigrants escaping violence and deprivation (some of it visited on them by US policy and practice) are being treated as criminals at the US border. Children being literally pulled from their parents’ arms and locked up in pens—and it’s all in aid of, what, exactly? The truth is US “policy” on immigration has long veiled, thinly, an abject cruelty and racism. And so while outrage at family separation at the Mexican border is a fine starting point for a movement for change, it cannot be its end. We’ll talk about bigger, positive visions on immigration with Jacinta Gonzalez, senior campaign organizer at Mijente, the national political hub for Latinx organizing.

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MP3 Link

Haitian immigration protest, St. Paul (cc photo: Fibonacci Blue)

(cc photo: Fibonacci Blue)

Also on the show: Corporate US media coverage of Haiti, as with many places, is inconsistent, and shallow. But the shallow coverage of Haiti is especially ahistorical and disempowering. Haiti is the “poorest country in Western Hemisphere”—you hear that a lot; ABC‘s George Stephanopoulos described the country’s problems as “biblical.” But they are in fact political, social, economic problems that have identifiable roots, and the international community has a big role in them. So now, when you hear that protests over a hike in fuel prices in Haiti are causing chaos, you should know there’s much more to it. We’ll talk about that with Jocelyn McCalla, longtime director of the National Coalition for Haitian Rights, now advocacy coordinator for Haitian-Americans United for Progress.

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This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission from FAIR.

Video: $33bn more: Everyone agreed to substantially up their commitment – Trump on NATO spending

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Speaking with journalists at the NATO summit in Brussels, Donald Trump said the members agreed to up their commitment, but did they? Check out http://rt.com …

Via Youtube

Video: Trudeau ignores Belgium PM, goes straight to his wife

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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau left his Belgian counterpart red-faced after he raced straight past his open arms to plant a smooch on the latter’s partner.

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PressTV-12 Russians indicted in Mueller investigation

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US Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller has indicted 12 Russian intelligence officials in connection with the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The Justice Department announced on Friday that all 12 of the defendants were members of the GRU, a Russian Federation intelligence agency within the Russian military.

A grand jury convened by Mueller accusing the Russians of engaging in a “sustained effort” to hack Democrats’ emails and computer networks.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said no American citizen was indicted.

“There is no allegation in this indictment that any American citizen committed a crime,” he said at a news conference. “There is no allegation that the conspiracy altered the vote count or changed any election result.”

The indictment comes as President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on Monday.

Mueller, a former FBI director, has been running…

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Irish Seanad votes in Favour of Occupied Territories Bill

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Frances Black

Yesterday the Irish Seanad voted in favour of the Occupied Territories Bill which will prohibit the importation of goods or services from illegal settlements in occupied territories, including Israel’s settlements in Palestine which violate the Geneva Conventions. The Bill was introduced by the well-known Irish singer Frances Black whose albums feature both Irish ballads and traditional music. She was elected to Seanad Éireann as an independent Senator on her first attempt in 2016.

The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign welcomed the Seanad vote (25 in favour, 20 against) in support of Senator Frances Black’s ‘Control of Economic Activities (Occupied Territories) Bill. According to the IPSC Chairperson, Ms. Fatin Al Tamimi (a Palestinian-Irish citizen):

We in the IPSC, and Palestinians around the world, warmly welcome this historic vote, the first its kind in any Western country. Once again, Ireland is making history and leading the way in its solidarity with the Palestinian people. We thank and salute all those Senators and parties who have pledged to support the Bill, and we will be asking the Irish people to ensure that these politicians support its passage at all stages of the lawmaking process.

Black has been campaigning for some time now for the rights of the Palestinian people. She states:

I have long been passionate about the struggle of the Palestinian people, which shows clearly how trade in settlement goods sustains injustice. In…

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Trump impersonators steal show at London protests (PHOTOS, VIDEOS) — RT UK News

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From the instantly-iconic gigantic orange baby to the furry gorilla locked in a cage, here are the many faces of Donald Trump which protesters flaunted in central London as they opposed the US president’s visit to the UK.

Trump Dalek

One lookalike that caught a lot of attention was a Trump Dalek which was spotted walking near Whitehall. The Dalek, who bore Trump’s hair and his iconic red tie, was escorted by ‘secret agents’ and a ‘Theresa CyberMay.’

READ MORE: ‘We’ll destroy the world’: Dalek Trump & ‘CyberMay’ hit London during mass protest (VIDEOS)

According to Doctor Who’s official website, Daleks are “one of the most feared races in the universe.” Their creator’s sole purpose is to “destroy all life” besides that of the Dalek race.

A video posted on Twitter captured the Dalek Trump talking to CyberMay. “You are my friend, you are my very good friend,” Trump says. “You are so strong and stable.” CyberMay responds: “You are so rational and intelligent.”

Trans-Trump

Among the thousands of protesters, there also seemed to be Trump’s genuine Doppelganger. A man, in fact, looked the spitting copy of the US president as he wore his trademark navy jacket, white shirt and red tie, as well as his Make America Great Again cap.

Were it not for the pink bright tights and white pointed heels, he could effectively sell himself as the ‘Real Donald Trump’.

The man was one of many drag artists who turned up to the demonstration. One of them was snapped carrying a sign that read, ‘No closets, no cages’ while another dressed as the Statue of Liberty.

Caged Gorilla

One man stuck a Trump mask on his face, dressed up as a gorilla and locked himself in a cage as part of his act of opposition. He was accompanied by a Boris Johnson lookalike and they held posters saying ‘Thump the Orange Gorilla at the Big World Zoo.’

The Johnson lookalike is Drew Galdron who says he is frequently mistaken for the former London mayor as he moves around the UK capital. If he ever gets any hassle he says his favorite tactic is to throw glitter on the hecklers.

Baby Trump

The giant balloon of a baby Trump that floated over Parliament Square in London to kick off a 55,000-strong protest indisputably won the day. The 20ft inflatable balloon was given the green light by London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who previously called on Trump’s visit to be scrapped, saying his “policies go against everything we stand for.”

READ MORE: German public TV trolls Trump with baby balloon collages

The helium-filled blimp depicted the president as an enraged, smartphone-clutching baby in a nappy.

The balloon both enraged and delighted the public with some thinking it was hilarious while others thought it was disrespectful and shameful. “Shame on everyone involved in this pathetic balloon stunt,” breakfast show host Piers Morgan said.

German public TV channel ZDF had another take entirely. It’s ‘heute’ show embraced the balloon and photoshopped it into photos of Trump throughout his trip to Europe.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Immigration is very bad, Europeans better watch themselves, says Trump — RT US News

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US President Donald Trump used a joint press conference with UK Prime Minister Theresa May to excoriate Europe’s migrant problem, calling immigration “very negative” and saying that Europeans “better watch themselves.”

“I think it’s been very bad for Europe. You see the same terrorist acts I do, we see them a lot,” Trump said, speaking to reporters at PM’s countryside residence Chequers on Friday. It follows Trump’s criticism of May’s handling of Brexit a day earlier.

Trump also blasted Angela Merkel for her role in inviting millions of migrants to Europe at the height of the Syrian refugee crisis in 2015, and for the spike in migrant-committed crime that followed.

“It’s very much her (Merkel’s) Germany. I think they better watch themselves. Because you are changing culture, you are changing a lot of things, you’re changing security…it’s a very sad situation but I don’t think it’s good for our country and I don’t think it’s good for Europe,” Trump said.

After the EU was opened to an influx of migrants, almost 40 jihadist terrorist attacks have been committed successfully in Europe and countless others foiled, with 2015 the bloodiest year on record, according to Europol. Across Germany and much of Western Europe, fear of terrorism has led to a tightening of security measures, including concrete barriers in public places, and bulletproof glass around tourist attractions.

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People wearing kippas in Berlin to denounce an anti-Semitic attack on a young man wearing a kippa in the capital in April. © Fabrizio Bensch

Trump used Europe’s experience to call for Democrats back in the US to support tougher border control measures. Despite the Trump administration’s recent ‘zero tolerance’ crackdown on illegal immigration, Democrats have rejected multiple bills from House Republicans, including one ‘compromise bill’ that would give some existing but undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship, but would also fund Trump’s proposed border wall and provide for tougher enforcement of immigration law.

“We have laws that are so bad we don’t even call them laws,” he said. “We virtually don’t have immigration laws.”

Trump made similar comments in an interview published by The Sun tabloid newspaper on Friday. In the interview he savaged London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s security record.

“I think he has done a very bad job on terrorism,” Trump said. “I think he has done a bad job on crime, if you look, all of the horrible things going on there, with all of the crime that is being brought in.” Trump at least partly attributed London’s ongoing crimewave to immigration from the Middle East and Africa.

On Khan’s watch, London suffered three vehicle attacks in 2017, and has recently seen a surge in knife crime, with the city’s murder rate overtaking that of New York City earlier this year.

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© Kevin Lamarque

Khan and Trump have publicly clashed ever since Trump berated Khan for saying there is “no reason to be alarmed” by an increased and armed police presence in the city in the aftermath of the London Bridge attack in June 2017. Khan previously called for Trump’s working visit to the UK to be canceled, saying that “his policies go against everything we stand for”.

“To blame this on immigration from Africa is preposterous and we should call him out when he does so,” Khan, speaking on the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme on Friday morning, said.

At Chequers on Friday, May tempered down Trump’s tough anti-immigration rhetoric, taking a more moderate stance on immigration. She touted the UK’s “proud history of welcoming people who want to come to our country to contribute to our economy and our society.”

“What is important is that we have control of our borders, what is important is that we have a set of rules that enables us to determine who comes in to our country,” she added.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: Keiser Report: Private immigration prisons’ profits (E1252)

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In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max and Stacy discuss the headlines from London and the profit in private immigration prisons in America. In the second …

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PressTV-Trump backtracks over his harsh criticism of May

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US President Donald Trump has backtracked over his explosive criticism of British Prime Minister Theresa May, calling it “fake news.”

Breaking normal diplomatic conventions, Trump on Thursday blasted his host, May, in an interview published shortly after May rolled out the red carpet at Blenheim Palace for the US president’s first official visit to Britain.

Trump disparaged May’s compromise, pro-business plan to leave the European Union and warned that her approach could imperil any future trade deal between the US and UK, saying the prime minister’s Brexit plan is going “the opposite way.” 

On Friday, however, Trump told a joint press conference with the British prime minister that he supports the post-Brexit US trade deal with Britain, and that it was “fake news” to suggest otherwise.

 “Whatever you’re going to do is OK with us,” Trump told May during a joint press conference at the conclusion of his visit to the…

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The Dehydration Warning Sign – LewRockwell

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Drinking eight glasses of water per day is a common piece of advice for those who want to stay hydrated and healthy, but sometimes it’s easier said than done.

What with our fast-paced lives and busy schedules, it’s easy to neglect some aspects of our health, especially something as simple as drinking the right amount of water every day.

The good news is that there is a quick and easy way to tell if you’re dehydrated, and there’s no need for any apps or gadgets to do so.

All you have to do is pinch your skin.

According to My Domaine, by pinching the skin on the arm or on the lower abdomen, you are quickly able to easily tell the skin’s elasticity.

Medline Plus defines skin elasticity, or skin turgor, as the ability of the skin to change shape and return to normal.

When you pinch your skin, notice if its shape quickly turns back to normal. This means that you are adequately hydrated. 

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However, if it takes longer for your skin to go back to normal after a quick pinch, that could mean you should probably be drinking more water.

Aside from this skin test, there are also other telltale signs of dehydration.

According to Cosmopolitan, some of the main indicators include a small appetite, intense thirst, exhaustion, headaches, and poor memory, among others.

You could also experience a bad case of diarrhea and other irregular bowel movements, as well as a darker shade of yellow pee.

That being said, it’s important to to stay hydrated at all times, given that drinking water greatly affects your body’s metabolism and digestive system.

It also keeps your skin radiant, leaving you looking and feeling good.

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Video: Putin is neither my enemy, nor my friend – Trump

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Donald Trump has touched upon his much-anticipated meeting with Vladimir Putin, saying the Russian president is not an enemy but a competitor who may turn …

Via Youtube

Dalek Trump & ‘CyberMay’ hit London during mass protest (VIDEOS) — RT UK News

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A ‘Donald Trump’ Dalek has invaded the streets of London along with a coterie of “secret agents” and his “best friend,” ‘Theresa CyberMay’ – with whom he intends to “destroy the world.”

The Dalek, which bears some of Trump’s most recognizable traits, was spotted roaming the streets of the capital on Friday morning. Photos and videos of the strange group quickly emerged on Twitter as the mutants generated huge interest.

Daleks are extraterrestrial figures from the iconic sci-fi TV series ‘Doctor Who’. According to the series’ website, they are “one of the most feared races in the universe.” Their creator’s sole purpose is to “destroy all life” besides that of the Dalek race.

READ MORE: ‘Where are your manners, Mr President?’ UK minister scolds Trump over Sun interview

The Trump Dalek was surrounded by a group of secret agents, who were kitted out in suits and sunglasses and armed with, counterfeit, guns.

A Dalek representing the UK prime minister, dubbed ‘Theresa CyberMay’, also trailed behind.

A video posted on Twitter shows the Dalek Trump talking to CyberMay as the pair stroll through Westminster Bridge: “You are my friend, you are my very good friend.” He goes on to mock the PM saying “you are so strong and stable.” CyberMay responds: “You are so rational and intelligent.”

The stunt is part of mass protests against Trump’s four-day visit to the UK which are taking place on Friday. Some 55,000 are expected to demonstrate against the US president at a mass rally in London. Meanwhile, a 20-ft inflatable Baby Trump flew above the London skies, portraying Trump as an enraged baby wearing diapers.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Trump ruffles allies’ feathers with indelicate statecraft during European tour — RT US News

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President Trump is not exactly known for his subtlety, but few could have predicted the smorgasbord of candid (and at times uncouth) remarks directed at US allies during the president’s European tour – and it’s only Friday.

Amid strained relations between Washington and its transatlantic allies, US President Donald Trump arrived in Brussels on Tuesday for a weeklong trip to Europe – beginning with the annual NATO summit, followed by a visit to the UK, and ending with a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki.

READ MORE: Trump says he ‘thinks’ he can pull out of NATO without congressional approval

Trump joked that the meeting with Putin “may be the easiest of them all” – and he may be right. So far, the US leader has managed to irk his NATO partners with vapid ultimatums and empty claims, while ruffling British feathers with comments about migrant crime waves and Boris Johnson’s political potential. To borrow Trump’s description of the NATO summit, the US president’s visit to Europe has so far been a “great success.”

German captives

Trump got the wrecking ball rolling early, taking aim at one of his favorite targets – Germany – while meeting with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday morning.

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© Anna Krasko

In an impromptu geopolitical analysis over breakfast, Trump told Stoltenberg that “Germany is totally controlled by Russia” and a “captive” because of Berlin’s energy deals with Moscow. Unamused, German officials pushed back on Trump’s unflattering characterization of German sovereignty.

“We are not prisoners, neither of Russia nor of the United States,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told reporters on the sidelines of the NATO summit. “We are one of the guarantors of the free world and that will stay that way.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed similar misgivings about Trump’s remarks, noting that she had first-hand experience of when East Germany was controlled by the Soviet Union. “I am very happy that today we are united in freedom, the Federal Republic of Germany. Because of that we can say that we can make our independent policies and make independent decisions. That is very good, especially for people in eastern Germany,” Merkel said.

Pay up!

Trump’s straightforward statecraft shined during talks with NATO states about increasing defense spending – although his hardball tactics appear to have accomplished little aside from peeving Washington’s allies.

On Thursday, Trump reportedly warned that if the alliance’s wealthiest economies aren’t paying two percent of their GDP on defense by January, then the United States is “going to do our own thing.”

But even that wasn’t enough for Trump. The US leader also tweeted from Brussels that “all NATO Nations must meet their 2% commitment, and that must ultimately go to 4%!”

Trump later announced that the allies had agreed to significantly increase defense spending – a claim that was later denied by France and Germany, and even the NATO secretary general. Despite Trump’s demands, it appears that the alliance is sticking with a plan from 2014, which calls for spending two percent of GDP on defense by 2024.

Trump goes after London mayor

Even before arriving in the UK on Thursday evening, Trump got down to business, criticizing everything from the UK’s immigration policy to the London mayor’s handling of crime.

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© Stefan Wermuth

“Allowing the immigration to take place in Europe is a shame,” Trump told the Sun newspaper in Brussels, before setting off to London to begin his official visit to the UK. “I think it changed the fabric of Europe and, unless you act very quickly, it’s never going to be what it was and I don’t mean that in a positive way,” he said.

“Take a look at the terrorism that is taking place. Look at what is going on in London. I think [Sadiq Khan] has done a very bad job on terrorism,” Trump told the British publication. “I think he has done a bad job on crime, if you look, all of the horrible things going on there, with all of the crime that is being brought in.”

London Mayor Sadiq Khan fired back on Friday, saying it was preposterous for Trump to blame the rise in violent crime in the city on immigration.

“The idea that you can blame this on immigration from Africa is I think preposterous and we should call him out when he does so,” Khan told BBC radio on Friday.

Backing Boris, criticizing May’s Brexit

Never hesitant to speak his mind, Trump happily provided the British tabloids with his uniquely Trumpian take on UK politics, commenting that recently-resigned Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson would make a terrific prime minister, and chastising current Prime Minister Theresa May for not “listening to him” about Brexit.

“I am not pitting one against the other,” the US president said when asked if he’d like to see Johnson as prime minister. “I am just saying I think he would be a great prime minister. I think he’s got what it takes,” Trump told The Sun. Expressing his disappointment with May’s handling of Britain’s withdrawal from the EU, Trump said that he had provided the prime minister with an airtight plan, but she decided to ignore his stellar advice.

“I would have done it much differently. I actually told Theresa May how to do it but she didn’t agree, she didn’t listen to me,” Trump told the tabloid. “I would actually say that she probably went the opposite way. And that is fine. She should negotiate the best way she knows how. But it is too bad what is going on.”

Trump later walked back his criticisms of May during a joint press conference with the prime minister on Friday, claiming that The Sun had taken his comments out of context and had failed to report his praise for the British leader.

“I said very good things about her. I didn’t think they’d put it in, but that’s alright. They didn’t put it in the headline, I wish they’d put it in the headline. And she’s a total professional because when I saw her this morning I said, ‘I want to apologize because I said such good things about you’, and she said, ‘don’t worry, it’s only the press.’”

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Trump Threatens Iran With “Escalation;” Could it Spin Out of Control?

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Both Trump and his hyperactive but ineffectual secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, ratcheted up their rhetoric on Iran on Thursday. In fact, Pompeo has been more or less threatening acts of war for the past week.

Trump said at a NATO news conference,

“I would say there might be an escalation between us and the Iranians.”

He went on to say that Iran was “treating us with much more respect right now, than they did in the past . . .I know they’re having a lot of problems and their economy is collapsing, but I will tell you this – at a certain point they’re going to call me and they’re going to say let’s make a deal. And we’ll make a deal. But they’re feeling a lot of pain right now,”

Yes, and George W. Bush offered not to invade Iraq if only Saddam Hussein would leave it and open himself to being arrested by Interpol.

Threatening other countries and acting belligerent and imposing an economic blockade on them might sometimes bring them to the table if they think they can get a better deal that way. But what Trump and Pompeo want from Iran just will never be acceptable to Tehran. They want the ayatollahs unilaterally to surrender to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and let the latter two have Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, and cease supporting the Palestinians.

The reason Barack Obama and John Kerry conducted a successful negotiation with Iran was because they focused in on a single issue– Iran’s nuclear enrichment program. And they put the kind of limits on that program that Iran could minimally live with. Had they thrown in Lebanon and Iraq and rockets and kowtowing to the House of Saud, they’d have never so much have been able to conduct a telephone call, much less achieve a wide-ranging treaty.

But if you throw around a lot of threats about “escalation” and “pain” and present the other country with nothing but an ultimatum, that can lead to serious trouble. In fact, it is a truism of military and diplomatic history that ultimatums always lead to war.

The other thing to say is that just last week, the members of the UN Security Council minus the US met with Iran to see what could be done about preserving the Iran deal. They just went around Trump, including Britain and France (Germany sat in as informal representative of the EU). When you don’t have your major allies with you, squeezing an oil state like Iran is pretty hard to pull off.

Pompeo just visited the United Arab Emirates, which seems to have played a role in getting Trump elected and in connecting his team with Russian firms close to Putin. The UAE, as much as Israel and Saudi Arabia, led the charge to have the 2015 Iran nuclear deal destroyed by Trump. When Mueller’s findings come out, why exactly Trump and Pompeo are in the back pocket of Emire Mohammed Bin Zayed may be clearer. For the moment, we should be afraid, very afraid.

They’ll fight Iran to the last American life.

While in the UAE, Pompeo did an interview with The National, Abu Dhabi’s house propaganda organ (which has started to make the old Soviet Pravda look like a paragon of sane and independent journalism).

Pompeo said of Qasem Sulaimani, the head of the special operations unit, the Quds or Jerusalem Brigade, of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, “Qassem Soleimani is causing trouble throughout Iraq and Syria and we need to raise the cost for him – for his organisation and for him personally.”

Sulaimani has been targeted by Saddam Hussein, Saudi intelligence, and a host of other foes, and he is still standing, so Pompeo’s incredible arrogance is unwarranted. Moreover, if Iraq’s government had to choose between Pompeo and Sulaimani, they would go with the latter hands down (the militias Sulaimani helped organize to fight ISIL are actually now in parliament and helping form the government!). I mean, contemporary Iraq was deeply shaped by American invasion, occupation, rule and intervention, and if even there Pompeo is at a disadvantage, imagine the situation in Syria or Lebanon.

In the Cold War, it was considered unwise to threaten individual Soviet generals, because that sort of thing can spiral out of control. The only time I’m aware it was considered was when Reagan’s out-of-control CIA was running the Afghan Jihadis in Afghanistan in the 1980s. That bright idea led directly to the al-Qaeda attacks on the US on September 11, 2001. The holy warriors figured if one superpower could be attacked with impunity, so could the other.

So Pompeo, himself of the tribe of Christian Taliban, is asking for an awful lot of blowback with this sort of talk, in which he is no doubt encouraged by Mohammed Bin Zayed and by Mohammed Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, as well as the corrupt and arrogant Binyamin Netanyahu of Israel. They’ll fight Iran to the last American life.

Trump and the people around him could not organize their way out of a paper bag if it didn’t involve kickbacks or money laundering. Sulaimani, despite the authoritarian character of the regime he serves, is the grand chess master of Middle East politics. My guess is that the Jerusalem Brigade will be tinkering with the Iraqi and Lebanese parliaments long after Pompeo is back in the private sector eating overcooked steak in Kansas and seeing if he could eke out 12 miles a gallon in his dusty Escalade.

Via Common Dreams. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: Thai football team rescue: How it all happened

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The rescued Thai youth football team and their coach were filmed in a hospital ward in Chiang Rai, where they started their recovery after being freed from a …

Via Youtube

Hearing on FBI role in 2016 election erupts in vicious conflict between right-wing politicians

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Hearing on FBI role in 2016 election erupts in vicious conflict between right-wing politicians

By
Patrick Martin

13 July 2018

At an all-day joint hearing by two committees of the House of Representatives, Democratic congressmen repeatedly defended the FBI and the US intelligence apparatus, while Republicans sought to discredit the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.

Both sections of the US ruling class—gripped by an increasingly violent factional frenzy—are deeply reactionary. The Republican Party upholds the authoritarian and anti-democratic drive of the Trump White House. The Democratic Party opposes Trump by aligning itself with sections of the military-intelligence apparatus that reject his foreign policy as erratic and insufficiently confrontational towards Russia.

The nominal purpose of the hearing was to interrogate FBI official Peter Strzok about his role in the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server and the initial stages of the probe into Russian actions in 2016, including possible coordination with officials of the Trump presidential campaign.

Strzok has become a major target of the Trump White House and its media supporters at Fox News and Breitbart, because of text messages he exchanged with his then-girlfriend, FBI lawyer Lisa Page, voicing disgust with Trump during the 2016 election campaign and the initial months of the Trump administration. Strzok was removed from the Mueller investigation after the text messages came to light and transferred to administrative duties, and Page has quit the FBI. Last month, Strzok was walked out of the FBI headquarters, and his security clearance was revoked.

The House Judiciary Committee and the House…

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PressTV-Orange ‘Trump baby’ blimp flies over London

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A blimp depicting Donald Trump as an orange, snarling nappy-wearing baby flew outside the British parliament in London on Friday, launched by critics of the U.S. president who are demonstrating throughout his visit to the country.

Trump, who arrived on Thursday, said he would avoid London as much as possible to avoid the protests.

“I guess when they put out blimps to make me feel unwelcome, no reason for me to go to London,” he told the Sun newspaper. “I used to love London as a city. I haven’t been there in a long time. But when they make you feel unwelcome, why would I stay there?”

Many British politicians regard close ties with the United States, which they call “the special relationship”, as a pillar of foreign policy and Prime Minister Theresa May has courted Trump before the country’s departure from the European Union.

But some Britons see Trump as crude, volatile and opposed to their values on a range of issues. More…

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DNC Panel Approves Plan to Gut Power of Superdelegates

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In the face of fervent opposition from Democratic elites who “think their vote is more important” than the will of the party’s base, the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) Rules and Bylaws arm cleared a major hurdle in the fight to curtail the power of superdelegates on Wednesday by approving a plan that would end their ability to cast votes for the presidential candidate on the first ballot at the party’s convention.

“The activists that have been concerned that superdelegates will overturn the will of the voters should feel good about this,” DNC member Elaine Kamarck said in a statement.

While the plan to gut the influence of superdelegates — who have been free since 1984 to put their weight behind any candidate no matter how the public voted — has received broad support from Democrats and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) as an important first step toward making the party’s process more “open and transparent,” establishment figures who stand to lose power if the plan is implemented are staging a last-minute “revolt” to block the rule change.

As investigative reporter Alex Kotch noted in a Twitter thread on Wednesday, at least two of the Democratic insiders who are clinging desperately to their undue influence as superdelegates happen to be corporate lobbyists — a fact that Politico neglected to mention in its reporting on the party elites’ “longshot bid to block the measure.”

“They don’t realize it but they’re proving the point of Sanders and everyone else who’s opposed to superdelegates,” Kotch writes. “Many prioritize corporate interests over those of everyday people and thus automatically support the less progressive candidate.”

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DNC Panel Approves Plan to Gut Power of Superdelegates

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In the face of fervent opposition from Democratic elites who “think their vote is more important” than the will of the party’s base, the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) Rules and Bylaws arm cleared a major hurdle in the fight to curtail the power of superdelegates on Wednesday by approving a plan that would end their ability to cast votes for the presidential candidate on the first ballot at the party’s convention.

“The activists that have been concerned that superdelegates will overturn the will of the voters should feel good about this,” DNC member Elaine Kamarck said in a statement.

While the plan to gut the influence of superdelegates — who have been free since 1984 to put their weight behind any candidate no matter how the public voted — has received broad support from Democrats and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) as an important first step toward making the party’s process more “open and transparent,” establishment figures who stand to lose power if the plan is implemented are staging a last-minute “revolt” to block the rule change.

As investigative reporter Alex Kotch noted in a Twitter thread on Wednesday, at least two of the Democratic insiders who are clinging desperately to their undue influence as superdelegates happen to be corporate lobbyists — a fact that Politico neglected to mention in its reporting on the party elites’ “longshot bid to block the measure.”

“They don’t realize it but they’re proving the point of Sanders and everyone else who’s opposed to superdelegates,” Kotch writes. “Many prioritize corporate interests over those of everyday people and thus automatically support the less progressive candidate.”

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Lessons That Should Have Been Learned From NATO’s Destruction of L

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Photo by Bernd.Brincken | CC BY 2.0

The summit meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the military alliance that is expanding its deployments of troops, combat and surveillance aircraft and missile ships around Russia’s borders, took place on July 11-12 and was a farce, with Trump behaving in his usual way, insulting individuals and nations with characteristic vulgarity.

Before the jamboree, NATO’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg (one of those selected for a Trumpian harangue), recounted in a speech on 21 June that “NATO has totally transformed our presence in Afghanistan from a big combat operation with more than 100,000 to now 16,000 troops conducting training, assisting and advising.”  But then he had a bit of a rethink when he was asked a question about whether NATO had learnt any lessons that might make it think about “intervening in the future.” To give him his due, Stoltenberg replied that he thought “one of the lessons we have learned from Iraq, from Afghanistan, from Libya, is that military intervention is not always solving all problems.”

He is absolutely right about that, because the US-NATO military interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya have been catastrophic.

It is intriguing that NATO’s secretary general can at last admit that military muscle doesn’t solve every problem, but he did not expand on the subject of Libya, which unhappy country was destroyed by US-NATO military intervention in 2011, and it is…

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Calls for Tory MP to resign over ‘vile racist’ and ‘Islamophobic’ image of pig mounting Sadiq Khan — RT UK News

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Conservative MP Michael Fabricant is facing calls for his resignation after he posted what has been called a “racist” and “Islamophobic” image on Twitter of a pig mounting London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

The now-deleted tweet from Fabricant depicted an image of Khan as a blimp being mounted by a pig. It features US President Donald Trump laughing in the foreground with the accompanying words: “Well, what can I say?”

The tweet from Fabricant has led to a string of MPs, Muslim groups, and political commentators asking what it would take for the Tories to take the issue of Islamophobia in their party seriously.

Labour’s Afzal Khan MP, who is Muslim, tweeted: “This is abhorrent. Tory members, the former chair of the party @SayeedaWarsi , and the @MuslimCouncil have all called for an inquiry into Islamaphobia (sic). If @BrandonLewis respect pledge means anything, Michael Fabricant must be suspended immediately.”

Miqdad Versi, the assistant secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, has said that he is appalled at the picture tweeted by the Tory MP, and asks “What will @BrandonLewis do about #ToryIslamophobia?” Lewis is the chairman of the Conservative Party, who launched a ‘respect pledge’ at the start of 2018.

Tory peer Baroness Warsi, a vocal critic of her party’s perceived lack of action on the issue of Islamophobia, claimed that there will be an inquiry into the incident, but she asked: “how much damage we will do to our reputation in the meantime as we drag our feet.”

Fabricant has claimed that he did not see the image was of Khan. He tweeted: “I deleted it as soon as I saw Sadiq Khan’s face on the picture. I did not see it was him. He may be a useless Mayor, but he’s a nice guy whom I worked with when he was in Parliament.”

Fabricant has since provided greater detail as to how his post came about, saying that he “stupidly tweeted it in a meeting without checking it properly.”

Fabricant, MP for Lichfield, said: “I did not see the detail on my small iPhone… I am genuinely sorry if it caused anyone offence and I am disappointed in the person who sent it to me in the first place.”

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© Mark Thomas/ Global Look Press

It comes as a senior Tory official in Lewes, East Sussex, Carola Godman Irvine, has been suspended after claiming Islamic extremists were raping British women to create “Muslim babies,” Politics Home reports.

It’s reported that she also claimed that the Manchester arena bombing may have been the “wake-up call that was needed” to encourage the police into “radical monitoring” of Muslims.

After coming under increasing pressure to take action on the toxic issue within the party, Lewis, the Tory chairman, vowed to “stamp out” Islamophobia. In June, he told ConservativeHome that the party would work with TellMAMA, which monitors anti-Muslim activity, to help tackle a problem that has seen countless members suspended for offensive comments.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Trump’s ‘$250,000’ Jerusalem embassy will cost $21+ million to complete — RT US News

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Donald Trump boasted that the new US embassy in Jerusalem would be a bargain, but the temporary facility is currently slated to receive more than $21 million in upgrades – a sum almost 100 times larger than the original cost.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara Netanyahu at the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem © Ronen Zvulun

Recently released documents show that the US government awarded a firm $21.2 million to design and build “addition and compound security upgrades” at the Jerusalem embassy, which Trump had repeatedly billed as a project that would be easy on taxpayers’ wallets.

“We’re going to have it built very quickly and inexpensively,” Trump told reporters at a March press conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following his December decision to declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel and relocate the US embassy from Tel Aviv.

“They put an order in front of my desk last week for $1 billion. … We’re actually doing it for about $250,000, so check that out. Now it’s temporary, but it’ll be very nice.”

But Trump’s estimate – perhaps too optimistic – began to gradually increase. The $250,000 grew over the course of a few weeks, with Trump declaring in April that the facility would end up costing between $300,000-$400,000. The final bill to spruce up the former US consulate for its grand opening in May came to $335,000.

The $21.2 million facelift is expected to begin this week and last until April 2020. Trump has made embassy costs into something of a political issue, repeatedly slamming a new $1 billion dollar embassy in London built during the Obama administration. He also criticized the location of the UK embassy as “lousy.”

READ MORE: ‘Serious violation’: China fumes as US opens new $256 million ‘de facto embassy’ in Taiwan

Price tag aside, the Jerusalem embassy has become a prickly issue for the Trump administration, which defied international consensus by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state. In December, the United Nations General Assembly voted by 128 to 9 to declare the United States’ controversial decision as “null and void.”

The opening of the embassy in May also sparked mass demonstrations. Approximately 60 Palestinian protesters were killed and more than 2,000 were injured by Israeli forces.

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Video: Croatia Govt members wear national football jerseys after dramatic 2-1 win over England

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Courtesy: Croatian Parliament Croatian Cabinet Ministers held a session wearing national football jerseys in Zagreb on Thursday, after the country’s team …

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A NATO Crisis – LewRockwell

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Of President Donald Trump’s explosion at Angela Merkel’s Germany during the NATO summit, it needs to be said: It is long past time we raised our voices.

America pays more for NATO, an alliance created 69 years ago to defend Europe, than do the Europeans. And as Europe free-rides off our defense effort, the EU runs trade surpluses at our expense that exceed $100 billion a year.

To Trump, and not only to him, we are being used, gouged, by rich nations we defend, while they skimp on their own defense.

At Brussels, Trump had a new beef with the Germans, though similar problems date back to the Reagan era. Now we see the Germans, Trump raged, whom we are protecting from Russia, collaborating with Russia and deepening their dependence on Russian natural gas by jointly building the Nord Stream 2 pipeline under the Baltic Sea.

When completed, this pipeline will leave Germany and Europe even more deeply reliant on Russia for their energy needs.

To Trump, this makes no sense. While we pay the lion’s share of the cost of Germany’s defense, Germany, he said in Brussels, is becoming “a captive of Russia.”

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Impolitic? Perhaps. But is Trump wrong? While much of what he says enrages Western elites, does not much of it need saying?

Germany spends 1.2 percent of its gross domestic product on defense, while the U.S. spends 3.5 percent. Why?

Why — nearly three decades after the end of the Cold War, the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, the crackup of the Soviet Union and the overthrow of the Communist dictatorship in Moscow — are we still defending European nations that collectively have 10 times the GDP of Vladimir Putin’s…

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Video: Trump jokes with Macron, even journos laugh

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Trump jokes with French President Emmanuel Macron during a bilateral meeting at the NATO summit in Brussels making even journalists laugh! READ MORE: …

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PressTV-French FM slams Trump over bid to destabilize EU

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French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has blasted US President Donald Trump for what he described as his attempts to destabilize the European Union, insisting that Europe will not allow itself to become destabilized.

“He (Trump) jeopardized the climate agreement, he jeopardized the agreement on Iran, jeopardized the UN operating model. And he does not tolerate the fact that there is a unity called the European Union,” Le Drian said on Friday in an interview with the France-based BFMTV channel.

“He is taking initiatives with respect to Europe, in particular in the field of trade, which are aimed at destabilization. But Europe will not allow itself to be destabilized,” he added.

The development came as a major trade conflict between the US and its European allies has escalated since March after Washington imposed a 25-percent tariff on steel imports and a 10-percent tariff on aluminum imports from EU member nations.

Although the…

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Reclaiming Democracy | Dissident Voice

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Media release by Heather Stroud before her trial at York Magistrates Court on 16th July for chaining herself to the gate at Third Energy Fracking Site at Kirby Misperton, North Yorkshire, UK (30th January 2018)

*****

It’s not pleasant to stand in front of a court and defend myself; however, the overwhelming evidence of harms that fracking would bring to our community, and, in fact, globally through depleted clean water resources and rising temperatures, is so great that I felt I had no choice but to take action.

Fracking is just a symptom of a bigger, far more insidious problem where our government, in servitude to corporate lobbyists, has placed the rights of corporations above that of humans and of the natural world. Without social licence to frack, this abandonment of their mandate to serve the people, raises issues of the states’ disregard for democracy and human rights. As a further step in this decline of democracy Westminster have proposed to fast track fracking licensing decisions, taking them out of the hands of local people and local councils.

By chaining myself to the gate at KM8 I was symbolically claiming back democracy, democracy that rightfully belongs in the hands of the people.

Just to borrow some words from Benedict Cohen, international human rights lawyer:

Rights are not conferred on us by the state. Rights are conferred on us by virtue of our being human. The rights of nature are there because it is nature herself, who is the universal law…

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‘Where are your manners, Mr President?’ UK minister scolds Trump over Sun interview — RT UK News

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A UK government minister has handed President Donald Trump an extremely British dressing down over his incendiary interview with The Sun newspaper – by scolding him about his manners.

Sam Gyimah, the junior minister for universities, science and research, took to Twitter on Friday to ask the visiting statesman: “Where are your manners, Mr President?”

READ MORE: Trump says his ‘talented’ friend Boris Johnson would be a ‘great’ PM, ahead of meeting with UK’s May

The intervention by the MP for East Surrey is the first note of protest from a UK government official following Trump’s sit-down with the tabloid in which he criticised Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit strategy and backed the recently-departed former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to succeed her as prime minister.

“He would make a great prime minister,” Trump told the tabloid. “I have a lot of respect for Boris. He obviously likes me, and says very good things about me. I was very saddened to see he was leaving government and I hope he goes back in at some point. I think he is a great representative for your country.”

READ MORE: If Trump continues pushing Europeans, it would bring an end to NATO – Wimmer

Trump also took aim at London Mayor Sadiq Khan, saying he was doing a “bad job” on combating terrorism and crime in the city. The president also blamed immigration for the rise in violent crime in the city.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Kelly shows dissatisfaction with Belgian ‘pastries and cheese’ as Trump berates Germany (VIDEO) — RT US News

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As Donald Trump tore into Germany for its reliance on Russian energy, Chief of Staff John Kelly looked uneasy when he made the remarks. The White House says he was just struggling with his breakfast.

As Trump lambasted Germany’s investment in a gas pipeline from Russia, he claimed “Germany is totally controlled by Russia.” Kelly grimaced at the president’s remark, staring blankly at the table.

According to the White House, a NATO breakfast was simply not good enough for the former Marine Corps general. In a statement given to the Washington Post, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said that Kelly “Was displeased because he was expecting a full breakfast and there were only pastries and cheese.”

Diplomacy is best done on a full stomach, and the European fare clearly agitated Kelly. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was evidently okay with his continental breakfast, sitting stone-faced on Trump’s left.

Right on cue, the Twitter #resistance jumped on the chance to have their say.

While the annual NATO summit in Brussels is usually a carefully-choreographed show, President Trump flipped the script and took the opportunity to hammer the US’ allies for reportedly failing to meet their defense spending goals, leaving the US to foot the bill for Europe’s defense against the perceived threat from Russia.

After Trump reportedly hinted that the US might leave the alliance and “do its own thing,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called an emergency meeting on Thursday morning.

After the emergency session, Trump said that the alliance is “very unified, very strong, no problem.” He said that NATO allies had committed to increasing their defense spending and added that pulling out of the military alliance would therefore be “unnecessary.”

Trump left Brussels aboard Air Force One on Thursday, bound for the UK. His visit will be met with protests, and with the flying of a blimp depicting the President as a giant baby over London on Friday.

His officials needn’t worry about breakfast though. A full English breakfast of sausages, bacon, eggs, beans and toast can contain up to 1,000 calories.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: Bad detective? Kiev accuses Blumenthal of exposing neo-Nazis under pen name

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Ukraine is accusing the Israeli newspaper “Haaretz” of spreading “fake news” after it published a report about Israel arming Ukrainian neo-Nazis. READ MORE: …

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PressTV-‘US uses NATO to maintain hegemony over Europe’

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The NATO military alliance has helped the United States to maintain its dominance over Europe’s security and international affairs and keep the continent under its hegemony, long after the Cold War, an American analyst in Virginia says.

“Traditionally, ever since the NATO alliance was created back in the 1940s, the United States has essentially covered most of the cost in return for Europe’s deference to Washington with regards to international geo-political interests,” said Keith Preston, chief editor of AttacktheSystem.com.

“The arraignment is that the United States essentially provides for the military defense of Europe and then Europe is expected to be deferent to the foreign policy objectives of the United States,” Preston told Press TV on Thursday.

“They [US] like the fact that they are able to use the relationship between NATO and Europe to essentially exercise hegemony over Europe and the European nations are largely…

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Outside ‘Ring of Steel’ Fence, Demonstrators Swarm Embassy Residence as Trump Arrives in UK

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Contrary to President Donald Trump’s claim on Thursday that “they like me a lot in the U.K.,” he was immediately met with angry and rowdy protesters as he arrived in London to meet with Prime Minister Theresa May ahead of larger demonstrations against the president expected to draw tens, if not hundreds, of thousands into the streets nationwide on Friday.

Anti-Trump Britons gathered outside the U.S. ambassador’s residence and Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, with protesters holding signs reading “No to Racism, No to Trump” and “Trump Not Welcome.”

While expansive efforts to shield the president from public dissent have been underway, with workers erecting a “ring of steel” and concrete barriers around the ambassador’s residence, organizers have asked protesters to bring pots, pans, drums, and plastic horns to hold an “all night noise protest.”

The demonstrations come ahead of a mass protest scheduled to begin at 2:00pm on Friday in central London, and dozens of other actions against Trump—amounting to what the Stop Trump Coalition and Stand Up to Trump have dubbed a “carnival of resistance.” Tens of thousands, or more, are expected to participate. 

London mayor Sadiq Khan has also approved the flight of a 20-foot-tall blimp depicting Trump as a baby floating over the city on Friday.

In a separate endeavor, an artist created a 650-foot crop circle reading, “Fuck Trump” in Russian, on farmland that the president was expected to fly over on Friday.

Some signs at Thursday’s protests condemned Trump’s immigration policy, demonstrating the international outrage he has drawn for separating families at the U.S.-Mexico border and imprisoning children and babies away from their parents.

The demonstrations were in stark contrast to Trump’s assertion to the press that the British “agree with me on immigration” and mirrored those in Brussels ahead of Trump’s arrival there on Tuesday to meet with other NATO leaders.

As Trump is expected to discuss a possible post-Brexit trade deal and other international issues with May, organizers of Friday’s demonstrations say there is no shortage of issues that will inspire mass numbers of people to attend.

“We are expecting hundreds of thousands of people in London wanting their voices heard because they reject the normalization of a Trump agenda—one that is based around hate and divisiveness,” said the Stop Trump Coalition. “People want to send a message to everyone fighting against this politics of hate, we all stand united together, and we will not allow the clock to be turned back to the darkest moments of human history.”


Via Common Dreams. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: May watches England vs Croatia on mobile phone during NATO summit

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UK Prime Minister Theresa May was caught laughing while watching the England vs Croatia World Cup Semi-Final on a mobile phone with Merkel, Erdogan …

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PressTV-US chief sponsor of Taliban militants: Russia

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Russia has accused the US military of being the chief sponsor of Taliban militants in Afghanistan, saying that during the active presence of US-led NATO forces in the country, the production and distribution of narcotics had drastically surged there.

The accusations were raised on Thursday by Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. She was responding to earlier US claims that Russia was collaborating with the Takfiri militants – what the official said was meant to mask America’s own “sponsorship of the Taliban” in Afghanistan.

Zakharova said Russian had limited contacts with the Taliban but said this was meant to ensure the safety of Russian citizens in the country and to support the stalled Afghan national conciliation process.

She said there was already evidence of US sponsorship of Taliban and emphasized that several probes conducted by special committees of the US Congress testified to that. Instances of this,…

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Musk looks at Flint water crisis after being berated for ‘impractical’ help in Thai cave rescue op — RT US News

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After his offer of a ‘kid-size’ submarine to Thai cave rescuers was berated as “impractical,” Elon Musk is taking on the Flint water crisis, saying there’s “no kidding” in his promise to fix the lead contamination problem there.

The criticism over his suggestion to help Thai kids trapped in a flooded cave didn’t stop the SpaceX and Tesla boss from carrying on with good deeds.

This time, he has pledged to come to the rescue of every household in Flint, Michigan, still suffering from its lingering water crisis.  

“Hey Elon Musk I heard a bunch of people saying there’s no way you could help get clean water to Flint, Michigan,” wrote one Twitter user. “Said you wouldn’t be capable, I don’t know.”

Musk almost immediately fired back at the taunt. “Please consider this a commitment that I will fund fixing the water in any house in Flint that has water contamination above FDA levels,” he tweeted. “No kidding.”

The tireless billionaire soon went on to clarify in other tweets what he meant by “fund fixing the water”. He said he would pay for water filters for all houses that were able to demonstrate their water supply was contaminated.

He also promised to try and help fix the loss of trust between state authorities and residents in Flint, as well as arrange a “barnstorming” event during which filters would be installed in households in the troubled city.

“Most houses in Flint have safe water, but they’ve lost faith in government test results,” he wrote. “Some houses are still outliers. Will organize a weekend in Flint to add filters to those houses with issues & hopefully fix perception of those that are actually good.”

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 © Rebecca Cook

The Flint water crisis started in 2014 when the city cut off Detroit’s water supply and instead began drawing water from the Flint River. The goal was to minimize costs, but it resulted in a city-wide health crisis, with lead-contaminated water coming into people’s homes.

Musk’s own impressive resume is marred with breathtaking accomplishments, but also devastating failures at certain points. Back in 2006, when he started SpaceX, his first rocket exploded during lift-off, followed by a similar failure in 2007 and 2008, pushing the company and Musk’s flagship Tesla to the brink of bankruptcy.

The Tesla cars have recently been involved in a series of fatal crashes, which were blamed on Tesla’s autopilot system and have put the future of the self-driving vehicles in question. The production of the new Model 3 sedans has also been plagued by numerous complications and delays. In early July, Tesla’s shares plummeted seven percent after it was revealed that the electric car maker skipped the standard brake tests to meet the deadlines.

In 2016, Musk’s SpaceX suffered its fifth rocket launch failure, this time affecting several Facebook satellites for African customers, all worth $300 million. Previously, he reportedly made some enemies in the ranks of Tesla shareholders and found himself at odds with American media.

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Video: ‘It’s nice here’: German fans stay in Russia even after team’s shocking elimination

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The Slang Map of the US

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There’s a minute, and then there’s a hot minute. Defined as “a longish amount of time,” this unit of time is familiar to Alabamians but may stir up confusion beyond the state’s borders.

It’s Louisianans, though, who feel the “most misunderstood,” according to the results of a survey regarding regional slang by PlayNJ. Of the Louisiana residents surveyed, 72 percent said their fellow Americans from other states—even neighboring ones—have a hard time grasping their lingo. Some learned the hard way that ordering a burger “dressed” (with lettuce, tomato, pickles, and mayo) isn’t universally understood, nor is the phrase “to pass a good time” (instead of “to have” a good time).

After surveying 2000 people (with proportional numbers from each state), PlayNJ created a map showing the top slang word in each state. Many are words that are unlikely to be understood beyond state lines, but others—like California’s bomb (something you really like) and New York’s deadass (to be completely serious)—have spread well beyond their respective borders thanks to memes and internet culture.

Hawaiians are also known for their distinctive slang words, with 71 percent reporting that words like shaka (hello) and poho (waste of time) are frequently misunderstood. Shark bait, one of the state’s more colorful terms, refers to tourists who are so pale that they attract sharks.

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PressTV-US trade deficit with China jumps amid escalating war

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The US trade deficit with China increased sharply in May, even as America’s trade gap as a whole dropped, underscoring the economic tensions between the world’s two biggest economies.

The US Commerce Department said Friday that the May trade deficit — the difference between what the US exports and what it imports — fell 6.6 percent to $43.1 billion, the smallest imbalance since October 2016.

Exports climbed 1.9 percent to a record $215.3 billion. Imports were up a smaller 0.4 percent to $258.4 billion.

However, America’s deficit in goods with China rose 18.7 percent to $33.2 billion. So far this year the deficit totals $152.2 billion, up 9.9 percent from the same period a year ago.

As has been the case for decades, America’s deficit with China is the largest imbalance with any country.

China’s trade surplus increase with the US in May topped expectations, possibly as its exporters and big American customers rushed to beat US…

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BREAKING: Syrian Opposition and Western NGOs Hire Actors for Chemical Weapons Provocation

It’s not the first time we hear about the upcoming provocation in Syria. Following the joint US, British and French air strikes on Syria’s facilities in April, the locals wait in high anxiety and tension for new staged provocations, fake accusations of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and further attacks.

So far, we have only wondered where the White Helmets ‘activists’ could set up their movie studio. This scenario usually occurs in the areas where various militant groups suffer heavy losses. Currently, for terrorists, things go bad in Daraa and Idlib provinces. Fortunately, we do not witness new provocations there yet.

However, monitoring and reading numerous Middle Eastern mass media on Syria we came across an advertisement on recruiting volunteers for shooting a documentary film in Al-Hasakah province. This post was published in The Syrian Observer.

Screenshot of the ad on the Syrian Observer

It was something odd about this job offer. Why is the preference given to families, women and children, and why can the details be clarified only via WhatsApp? We Googled the ad and also found it on social media. It was published by Ahmed Fadli in various groups and communities.

                   Screenshot of the ad on Vacancies in Syrian NGOs on Facebook

Screenshot of the ad on Syrian Jobs in Damascus on Facebook

Then a certain ‘independent and international’ NGO published a vacancy on finding actors for shooting a documentary film on other resources, forums, and employment sites.

Screenshot of the ad on Wazeefe employee site

Screenshot of the ad on Evadeefa employee site

 

Moreover, someone published the same advertisement on opposition sites.

Screenshot of the ad on Shahedon

This Ahmed Fadli is allegedly connected with the NGOs that published the ads. We also supposed that this organization has some influence in northern Syria if it plans to shoot the film in Al-Hasakah. Humanitarian Dialogue or the International Crisis Group could be such organizations. They are not the only that could publish such kind of ad. Many other organizations similar to the White Helmets under the guise of humanitarian organization could conduct any provocation for the U.S. money in the region.

Initially, we failed to find any information neither on Fadli nor upon the organization. However, what kind of work is this where families, women, and children are required? The ad verification plan has ripped immediately.

We decided to find out what kind of job is offered in this ‘international organization.’ One of the employees of our editorial staff, under the pretext of seeking a job, contacted the NGO representative, introducing herself as Latifa, who has a family and several children. The information we got was terrifying.

Screenshot of the conversation on WhatsApp between Latifa and Ahmed Fadli

 

The screenshots of chats contain detailed information about the location of the shooting not far from the Assad refugee camp in Al-Hasakah province. This area is not controlled by the Syrian government, and the safety of the movie studio will be granted by the American military.

It’s not all we found out. First of all, we tried to identify what exactly does the U.S. nongovernmental organization intends to shoot in the Kurdish-held area.

First, the actors were warned to play the role of a happy family, and then to become the victims of a tragedy. Second, for creating a realistic image, the participants were proposed to simulate an overdose from pills and have make-up put on. Here can be only one conclusion: a new chemical weapons provocation is being prepared in Syria.

It worth noting, that a significant number of people reacted to this ad. Many social network users confirmed the preparation of provocation in Al-Hasakah. We contacted them, and they kindly provided us with the screenshots of their correspondence with Ahmed Fadli for the investigation. They also informed us about their difficult financial situation. Nowadays, Syrians, mainly refugees, are ready for any paid work. Sites for employment are quite popular among them.

Screenshot of the conversation on WhatsApp between Ahmed Fadli and a Syrian woman who provided us with the information for the investigation

While searching for work, many people stumble upon these proposals, contact the potential employer and make appropriate conclusions. In particular, many users ask their friends not to respond to the vacancy, as they suspect the other staging with the use of chemical weapons is being prepared in Syria.

Screenshot of comment in Syrian Perspective group on Facebook

Also, one of the potential ‘actors’ who at first wanted to participate in the shooting, expressed his opinion in Facebook that all members of his family could be killed as witnesses to the staging. “Why don’t they use chemicals for a more realistic picture, and then finish off surviving witnesses if they do not die from poisoning?” he wonders.

Screenshot of comment in an opposition group on Facebook

Thus, having conducted a thorough investigation, we came to a conclusion that in the nearest future a certain Western NGO intends to stage a chemical provocation. Such an information campaign in Western mainstream media could once again discredit Assad’s forces and accuse them of using chemical weapons. So, what’s left after this is to carry out a retribution air strike for the demoralization and destruction of the SAA units, quarrels the official government with the Kurds and firmly establish control over the most significant oil fields in Syria’s Deir Ezzor.

Video: ‘My life is ruined!’: Migrant campaign group urge UK to let foreign students retake English exam

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French President Macron lays out road map for military escalation

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French President Macron lays out road map for military escalation

By
Francis Dubois

13 July 2018

On July 10, before the two houses of parliament assembled at Versailles, Emmanuel Macron announced a major hike in military spending financed by social attacks on the working class. A year after his election, when he was hailed as a defender of democracy against neo-fascist candidate Marine Le Pen, Macron is advancing a far-right policy of militarism, attacks on democratic rights and scrapping basic social gains of the working class.

In the days before his address, the media worried over rising social opposition in the working class. “The patience of the French people has reached its limit,” declared RTL, pointing to an Elabe poll in which 75 percent found Macron’s policy “unjust” and 65 percent found it “ineffective.” On Monday morning, Europe1 bluntly predicted that Macron’s speech would do “little to satisfy public opinion” and pointed to Macron’s “collapse” in the polls. After losing 14 percent support among retirees in another poll, his popularity rating stands at 34 percent.

After another poll found that 55 percent of French people fear falling into poverty, including over 60 percent of working-age people, many parliamentarians did not dare go to Versailles for a speech that cost taxpayers €500,000. A right-wing deputy, Fabien di Filippo, explained his decision to boycott the speech by saying, “It’s just 500,000-euro PR. Out of respect, I am not going.”

Faced with these concerns in ruling circles, Macron made a perfunctory statement of concern, saying, “I know I cannot do everything, I know I do not succeed everywhere,” and then proceeded to stay the course on his vastly unpopular policies.

He briefly pointed to the explosive…

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Securities and Exchange Commission Guts Its Whistleblower Program

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The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) always hated the whistleblower program that Congress imposed on it as part of Dodd Frank reforms. Congress was responding to the SEC’s grotesque institutional failure in ignoring Harry Markopolos’ repeated, detailed warnings about the Bernie Madoff fraud, a Ponzi scheme that reached $65 billion due to SEC inaction.

But as we’ll describe, the SEC issued new guidance – on a Saturday night in the summer – that guts the whistleblower program by imposing new standards that look to be contrary to the intent of Congress by making it difficult to win awards for large-scale frauds, and then reducing the payouts on them. It looks like career-minded SEC officials who resented that whistleblower filings could force them to probe wrong-doings of prospective employers are making sure the agency will only hand out parking tickets.

Admittedly, Congress had set out to enfeeble the SEC, by keeping it budget-starved and having Congressmen like Joe Lieberman threaten to cut its funding even further if it went too aggressively after big financiers. The agency had retreated to focusing enforcement almost entirely on insider trading, to the degree that became almost incapable of seeing the world any other way. For instance, it botched its first major crisis case involving the collapse of two Bear Stearns hedge funds, by bizarrely pursuing the execs managing the funds as insider traders, rather than understanding that they were victims of other Wall Street firms (and perhaps even Bear’s own trading desks) that were selling toxic subprime mortgage securities and CDOs. ‘

Nevertheless, the new whistleblower program established an awards fund entirely outside the SEC’s budget, and also tasked the SEC to set up a “Whistleblower Office.” The agency was obligated to pay sources compensation set as a portion of the SEC’s recovery if they contributed information that was valuable to an enforcement action.

The program went live in 2012,…

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PressTV-Droughts creating perfect storm for wildfires in US West

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Bigger and more “explosive” wildfires are raging across the US West, with the area burned in the state of Colorado already four times the size of last year’s total, as rising temperatures, drought and a buildup of forest fuels supercharge blazes.

So far this year, 3.3 million acres have burned in US forests, just below the figure for this time in 2017. Last year was the second worst year on record with 10 million acres blackened, according to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC).

Around 2,600 homes have been destroyed nationally by fires year to date, according to Forest Service data. Nine US wildland firefighters have been killed up to this week, compared with 14 killed in all of 2017, according to the National Wildfire Coordinating Group. It was not immediately possible to verify how many civilians have died this year.

The number of wildfires larger than 25,000 acres on US Forest Service land in the West nearly quadrupled in…

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You Don’t Have to Overrule Roe to Overrule Roe

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Photo by Supermac1961 | CC BY 2.0

A second Supreme Court nomination by President Trump does not necessarily mean Roe v. Wade will be overturned.  At least not formally.  Instead, look to see the Supreme Court continue to acknowledge the validity of Roe as precedent while effectively overruling it with judicially minimal decisions.  This has been one of the characteristics of the Roberts Court, using judicial minimalism to limit precedents, and it will continue with reproductive rights.

Anticipation of Trump’s second appointment to the Supreme Court in reference to reproductive rights has completely missed a major point.  Groups supportive of reproductive rights have talked of the importance of Roe, and pro-choice senators such as Susan Collins have said they will not support a Justice who opposes Roe.  Look to see Senate confirmation questions ask  nominees about Roe as a precedent.  Either a nominee will refuse to comment or express fidelity to precedent.  Upholding Roe formally is important but not critical to abortion rights.  Simply upholding Roe does not mean reproductive rights are secure.

Roe v. Wade is the 1973 Supreme Court decision declaring that the Constitution encompasses  a right to privacy, which  also includes a right of a woman to terminate her pregnancy.  Yet Roe never granted an absolute right to terminate a pregnancy.  Under the original decision Justice Blackmun  created a trimester system where the later in the term of pregnancy it…

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Trump says he won’t change his mind on NATO spending — RT US News

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US President Donald Trump rejected the suggestion he might change his tune on NATO military spending once he boards the Air Force One, calling himself “very consistent” and “stable genius” once again.

At the summit in Brussels, Trump bluntly demanded that all NATO countries devote at least 2 percent of their GDP to military spending immediately, and not by 2025.

“What good is NATO if Germany is paying Russia billions of dollars for gas and energy?” he asked, adding that the US is “paying for Europe’s protection, then loses billions on trade.”

At the press conference on Thursday, a Croatian reporter dared ask if Trump would change his mind once he leaves Brussels for London.

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© Darrin Zammit Lupi/Reuters

“We understand your message,” the reporter asked. “But some people ask themselves, will you be tweeting differently when you board the Air Force One?”

“No, that’s other people that do that. I don’t. I’m very consistent. I’m a very stable genius,” Trump said.

The phrase echoed a tweet from January, when Trump dismissed claims about his mental and physical health contained in a sensationalist tell-all book that now seems mostly forgotten.

It remains to be seen whether Trump really meant it about consistency, when it comes to soccer, however.

He interrupted the reporter’s question to congratulate Croatia on their FIFA World Cup victory over England on Wednesday, which earned the Balkans country a spot in the finals for the first time in history.

President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic mounted a charm offensive at the summit, presenting Trump with a Croatian soccer jersey as giving him plenty of attention.

However, the US president’s next destination is London, where he will meet with British Prime Minister Theresa May and other officials. It remains to be seen whether he will make any soccer-related comments.

Of the 29-member alliance, only the UK, Poland, Estonia and debt-ridden Greece met the benchmark in 2017. Croatia is one of the laggards, with 1.3 percent. The US was at 3.6 percent, pouring almost $700 billion into the Pentagon.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: Trump UK visit: Protesters getting ready

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Anti-Trump organizations making final preparations for their protests against the US leader as he makes his long-awaited official visit to the UK. Check out …

Via Youtube

Hungarian Fertility Rates Rise, Turns Back Demographic Decline

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Hungary’s pro-family culture has resulted in a rising fertility rate for married women which is “winding back the clock” on demographic decline — a trend once deemed irreversible in Europe and used by globalists to justify mass migration from the third world.

“The country is not just experiencing a fertility spike; Hungary is winding back the clock on much of the fertility and family-structure transition that demographers have long considered inevitable,” writes the author of “Is Hungary Experiencing a Policy-Induced Baby Boom?” from the Institute for Family Studies website.

“That’s unusual,” author Lyman Stone wrote, “as most countries around the world are currently experiencing stable or falling fertility, especially in Europe.”

Mr Stone suggests that fiscal implications — such as subsidies for married couples buying houses, a change in tax deductions for children, and a growing economy — likely only played a small part on their own and estimates that those factors, coupled with cultural policies, were what had brought about the rise in fertility rate.

Stone points to Hungary’s pro-family constitution adopted in 2011 which stated that “We believe that our children and grandchildren will make Hungary great again,” and which defends “the institution of marriage as the union of a man and a woman… and the family as the basis of the nation’s survival.”

Stone also pointed to the Hungarian “marriage boom”, which “starting…

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Video: Trump: Crimea happened on Obama’s watch, not on mine

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Trump spoke to journalists at NATO summit. Check out http://rt.com RT LIVE http://rt.com/on-air Subscribe to RT!

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Stomping in Britain: Donald Trump and May’s Brexit

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What a rotten guest, but then again, that was to be expected.  Ahead of his visit to Britain, there was some indignation that US President Donald Trump should even be visiting in the first place.  Protesters were readying their assortment of paraphernalia in anticipation.  Walls of noise were promised.  Trump, on the other hand, was bullish after his NATO performance, which did a good deal to stir and unsettle partners and leaders.  On leaving Brussels, his singular account was that all partners had, in fact, agreed to a marked rise in defence spending.

Having settled into dinner with British Prime Minister Theresa May at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, there was a whirring buzz that the president had been busy, having given an interview to that infamous rag of reaction The Sun newspaper.  It was spectacularly poor form, featuring a series of pot shots against his host on how she had handled Brexit negotiations so far.  Not that May’s handling has been brilliantly smooth. Characterised by Tory saboteurs, confusion and ill-expertise, the British tangle with the European Union has persisted with barnacle tenacity.

This did not inspire confidence from Trump, and the Chequers agreement that May had reached with cabinet members was deemed “very unfortunate”.  For the president, a Brexit softened and defanged to keep it bound up in some form in the EU could well spell an end to a separate, post-separation trade pact with the United States.  “If they do a…

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Piers Morgan branded an ‘idiot’ by Corbynite Journo during clash over ‘Stop Trump’ protests — RT UK News

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Breakfast show host Piers Morgan has been branded an “idiot” by Corbynite journalist, Ash Sarkar, during a clash over ‘Stop Trump’ protests that are scheduled to begin on Friday.

The former editor of the Daily Mirror, who recently interviewed Donald Trump, appeared apoplectic at Sarkar wanting to demonstrate against the US President, despite having not taken to the streets to protest against her “hero Obama.”

The accusation from Morgan received an acid-tongued reply from Novara’s News editor, as she rebuked: “He’s not my hero. I’m a communist you idiot!”

Morgan’s irritation at what he sees as “double standards” from those who protest the likes of Trump but not other leaders, who also implemented controversial policies, received no sympathy from Sakar. She accused him of using strawman arguments to make up for his “own incompetence as a journalist.”

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© Jay Shaw Baker/ Global Look Press

Referring to Morgan’s interview with Trump in January this year Sarkar blasted: “You didn’t hold Trump adequately to account when you interviewed him.

“You didn’t think climate change was important enough. You thought you’d ask him to manage your favourite football team. It’s embarrassing.”

Defending his stance on Trump, the controversial presenter countered: “What I try to do is be fair about Trump. What you try to do is be relentlessly anti-Trump and be relentlessly pro somebody like Obama.”

Sarkar clearly exasperated with Morgan told him: “I’m not pro Obama. I’m a critic of Obama. I’m a critic of the democratic party, because I’m literally a communist.”

It comes as preparations are being made by the ‘Stop Trump Coalition’ for Friday’s protests against the arrival of the US President, billed by the activists as a “carnival of resistance.”

One of the chief proponents of the ‘Stop Trump’ protests is Guardian journalist, Owen Jones who claims a source close to him suggests the UK government has been putting pressure on London’s Metropolitan police to curb the demonstrations.

It’s not only London that will see protests against Trump’s visit to the UK. The US president is scheduled to spend some time at his Scottish golf resorts. Common Space’s Alasdair Clark, a Scottish-based journalist, claims that Scotland’s Police Force is “asking students’ unions for details of activists and groups planning to attend protests.”

Trump and first lady, Melania plan to arrive in London on Thursday afternoon, to begin what will be a four day trip to the UK, following a two-day NATO summit in Brussels, where the US leader has already caused a stir with German officials.

He’s accused Germany of being “a captive of Russia,” as well as calling members of the alliance “delinquent” in their defence spending and insisting they increase it “immediately.”

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

‘This goes 140mph!’ Arizona lawmaker brags to cop about speeding & his state immunity (VIDEO) — RT US News

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Driving at 140mph is, it seems, an acceptable speed for an Arizona lawmaker to cruise home to his wife and seven kids. Abusing his statewide immunity, Paul Mosley was filmed bragging to a cop about his high-speed adventures.

“I go 130, 140, 120. I come down I-10, I was going 120 almost, you know, if there was no traffic,” Mosley, a Republican member of the Arizona House of Representatives told the officer, after being stopped for speeding, body cam footage obtained by ParkerLiveOnline shows.

Initially pulled over just north of Parker, AZ, for doing 97mph in a 55 zone, Mosley tried to evade the harsh hand of the law by waiving his legislative ID at the La Paz County Sheriff’s Deputy, claiming he is immune from prosecution.

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FILE PHOTO © Storyblocks

“I informed Mosley that 97 mph in a 55mph zone is considered criminal speed. Mosley stated he was just in a hurry to get home to surprise his family in Lake Havasu City, Arizona,” the deputy’s report of the accident read. “Mosley also told me that I should just let him go and that I shouldn’t waste any more of my time dealing with him due to his immunity as a government official.”

After checking the official’s Driver’s License, the officer cautioned Mosley against speeding. Instead of just hitting the road, Mosley begins bragging about how fast he usually goes on his new Lexus LS 400, which he was ‘forced’ to buy while his Toyota Prius was being fixed.

“This goes 140. That’s what I like about it,” the state representative is heard telling the officer, to which the deputy replied, “The, purpose? You just can, so you do?”

“Well, no, it’s, it’s, like, I’m trying to surprise my wife, … as long as it’s, you know, as long as it’s safe, but… I don’t even notice that I’m going very fast because of this, you know, car just, you know, nice wheels, nice, you know, suspension, but… Yeah I mean, I don’t, I don’t break the law because I can,” Mosley replied.

Amid the exchange where the official asks the cop if he has EVER reached those speeds, the deputy replied, “Well your logic is flawed for me. I see too many accidents. That’s, that’s not safe.”

“Seeing that my conversation about safe driving was going nowhere,” the deputy later wrote in his report, “Mosley was allowed to continue on his way without incident.”

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WLBT/Facebook

After the publication of the video, authorities began looking into the matter. According to Arizona state law, the legislative immunity shields the official from the law in traffic cases. “Members of the legislature shall be privileged from arrest in all cases except treason, felony, and breach of the peace, and they shall not be subject to any civil process during the session of the legislature,” Article IV reads.

Mosley meanwhile issued a statement on Thursday, apologizing to his constituents and law enforcement about his driving habits.

“My desire to get home to see my family does not justify how fast I was speeding nor my reference to legislative immunity when being pulled over. Legislative immunity is a serious responsibility and should not be taken lightly or abused,” he wrote on Facebook. “In addition, my jokes about frequently driving over 100 miles per hour during my 3-hour commute to and from the capitol were entirely inappropriate and showed extremely bad judgement on my part, for which I am truly sorry.”

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Exxon Quits ALEC After Years of Climate-Denying Collaboration

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Via Common Dreams. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Dixie – LewRockwell

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Is the South today a captive nation? Most Southerners would never consider the question—most likely because they would deem the issue to be absurd. But is it inane to ask such a question—is it forbidden in politically correct America to ask such a “confrontational” question? Conservatives would immediately dismiss such rhetorical questions as being unpatriotic or even treasonous—after all, everyone knows we live in “one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” Liberals, on the other hand, would immediately dismiss the question by repeating two words—slavery, racist, slavery, racist, etc., etc., etc. Despite the soft-censorship efforts of both left and right to limit free discussion, the question will be asked!

What are the hallmarks of a captive nation?[1] What are the features captive nations share that distinguish them from sovereign nations? I can think of at least seven features which current captive nations share with other captive nations in modern history:

First: The captive nation’s former military forces were defeated by the invading nation’s military. From now on, the invading nation will be referred to as the “Empire” because most, but not all, captive nations were/are victims of Empires, such as captive nations held by the former Soviet, Nazi, Japanese, and British Empires.

Liberals and most conservatives will immediately dismiss the question based upon their assertion that the South is not a captive nation because it was never a nation and therefore, by definition, cannot be a captive nation. What are the parameters of a nation? Did the South measure up to the description of a nation from 1861 to 1865?



The South Was Right!
James Ronald Kennedy, …
Best Price: $6.18
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Another ‘Fake Chemical Attack’ Would Trigger Major Crisis in Syria, Former UK Envoy Says

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There is a real risk that the West could use another alleged chemical attack to justify actions in Syria which could spark a dangerous crisis, former UK ambassador to Syria Peter Ford told RT.

Speaking on RT’s political show CrossTalk with Peter Lavelle, Ford warned that Syria watchers were too focused on a potential crisis in the Golan Heights (Syrian territory occupied by Israel since 1967 and a source of numerous tensions between Damascus and Tel Aviv).

Yet, the real threat of escalation comes from the potential of another “Douma-like situation,” the ex-envoy said, referring to April’s alleged gas attack in a besieged rebel stronghold in Eastern Ghouta, which resulted in US-led airstrikes against the Syrian government’s military and scientific facilities.

“We’re in danger of looking at the wrong flashpoint. It’s not the Golan. The real potential flashpoint is a return to a Douma-like situation,” Ford said.

“Remember in April, we were close to World War 3. We were talking in those terms. And the same scenario could be reproduced at any moment, but most likely it will be reproduced when the moment comes for the siege of Idlib, which is some months down the track.

“But it’s perfectly foreseeable that the same conditions will be produced, and I believe there will be another fake chemical attack, which will trigger a really dangerous crisis.”

Notably, the US-led missile attack on Syria was conducted without waiting for a formal investigation to determine if chemical…

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Greeted with protests & ‘Tr*mp Trump’ crop circle, US leader feels ‘unwelcome’ in UK (VIDEOS) — RT UK News

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US President has received a lukewarm welcome on the first day of his official visit to the UK. Besides a crowd of protesters, a massive ‘Tr*mp Trump’ crop circle farmland sign, visible from his plane, greeted the US leader.

Just as Donald and Melania Trump landed at Standsted Airport, hundreds of protesters began to gather in London’s Regent’s Park waiting for Marine One to bring the guests to the US Ambassador’s residence.

READ MORE: Trump says his ‘talented’ friend Boris Johnson would be a ‘great’ PM, ahead of meeting with UK’s May

Chanting “Shame on you” and holding placards reading “Trump not Welcome” in front of an erected fence, the activists protested against a variety of issues, accusing Trump of being racist and of running an inhumane immigration policy. Protesters then whistled and booed at the landing of Trump’s chopper.

The official visit to the country was also tainted for the guests by a large art installation at Moat Farm in Stoke Mandeville, which laid along Trump’s flight path and read ‘Tr*mp Trump’ in a mixture of English and Russian. The 200-meter-wide, carefully crafted crop circle was made by an anonymous artist.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Texas woman sentenced to 40yrs in prison for pimping out her 2yo daughter — RT US News

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A 25-year-old woman from Texas has been sentenced to 40 years behind bars for attempting to sell her two-year-old daughter for a sex act, for $1,200, to an undercover police officer who impersonated a willing pedophile.

In a carefully devised sting operation targeting child exploitation and abuse, led by Detective Serratt of the Montgomery County Precinct 1 Constable’s Office, officers managed to track down and arrest 25-year-old Sarah Peters, who in February this year planned to sell her two-year-old daughter online to someone desiring to “engage in sex acts with the child for a fee of $1,200.00.”

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Commuters disembark from a suburban train at a railway station in Mumbai. © Shailesh Andrade

Once Peters arranged to pimp out her daughter, she took the child to the drop off point in Conroe, Texas, north of Houston. When she and the toddler arrived at the Greyhound bus station she was immediately arrested by the Internet Crimes Against Children’s Task Force and Department of Homeland Security officers.

The child was then taken to a safe location, while Peters was booked into the Montgomery County Jail and charged with a number of offenses, including prostitution of a child and trafficking a child.

On Thursday, Texas Judge Phil Grant sentenced the woman to 40 years in prison on Promoting a Sexual Performance by a Child, Attempted Human Trafficking, and Promotion of Prostitution of a Child charges, after Peters pleaded guilty to the crimes. “These sentences will run concurrently and Peters will not be eligible for parole on the Sexual Performance of a Child case until 2038,” Montgomery County District Attorney’s office said in a press release.

“The events of this case are hard to believe – that a mom would willingly expose her own daughter to this type of danger. And without the proactive work of Detective Serratt and the ICAC Task Force, this child would have become a victim to the worse type of abuse,” Tyler Dunman, Special Crimes Bureau Chief said.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

As NATO Summit Ends, We Must Resist Further Militarization

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At the NATO summit, President Trump called on member states to double their military spending to 4 percent of gross domestic product, and hailed the meeting as a success. He is scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday. Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation, joins us to discuss NATO, the militarization of US foreign policy and avoiding a second Cold War with Russia over allegations of election meddling. “I would argue that the bipartisan establishment consensus is bankrupt. … We believe you can have secure elections and avoid nuclear catastrophe,” said vanden Heuvel. The Nation has just published an open letter, “Common Ground: For Secure Elections and True National Security,” co-signed by Daniel Ellsberg, Gloria Steinem, Noam Chomsky, Governor Bill Richardson, Rev. Dr. William Barber and Michael Moore, among others.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: President Trump has called on NATO member states to increase their military spending to 4 percent of gross domestic product, doubling his previous demand that they meet targets of 2 percent by January. Trump’s comments, made during a tense NATO summit in Brussels, reportedly prompted the military alliance to call an emergency session to respond to the demands. The Washington Post reports Trump said the US was prepared to, quote, “go it alone,” and threatened to, quote, “do his own thing,” unless the target was met. On Wednesday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg downplayed reports of tensions with Trump, even as he said NATO members were prepared to increase military spending.

SECRETARY GENERAL JENS STOLTENBERG: Of course, President Trump has a very direct language and message on defense spending, but fundamentally we all agree.

AMY GOODMAN: Speaking to reporters as NATO talks wrapped up today, Trump touted the visit as a success and boasted about future weapons sales to NATO allies.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: The United States makes by far the best…

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The Hammonds and the Violent Origins of the Rancher Uprising in Burns, Oregon

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Malheur-Oregon-standoff-1

Here’s some background on the Hammonds, who were pardoned this week for acts of arson on federal lands.

During the spring of 1995, shortly after the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, James Ridgeway and I spent a couple of weeks traveling across the West for a series of stories in the Village Voice that chronicled  the rise of militant new rightwing movements of militias, white supremacists, Christian Identity sects and anti-government groups, including a profile of central Oregon rancher Dwight Hammond, who became the precipitating force behind the armed seizure of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters near Burns.

In the early 1990s, Hammond repeatedly transgressed federal environmental laws, trespassed on federal lands and hurled death threats at federal wildlife officials. Little action was taken against Hammond by a timid Clinton administration. Emboldened, Hammond and some of his fellow ranchers continued over the next two decades to flagrantly flout environmental laws and harass federal officials. These activities finally culminated in an act of poaching on Steens Mountain and two arson fires. Hammond and his son were convicted in federal court and sentenced to five years in prison. . Here is our report from 1995. — JSC

In the high desert of central Oregon, lies Harney County, a site of a long-festering and intense confrontation between federal officials and the militant property rights movement. Here federal Fish and…

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‘Why can’t they wear bras?’ Mother defends son who wore bra to school — RT UK News

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The mother of a 15-year-old boy who went to school wearing a bra has defended her son, who was put in isolation by school authorities, saying he was just standing up for a female friend.

Raymond Deane, from Hugh Baird College in Liverpool, wore the bra in protest at a classmate being sent home for wearing the elastic garment at school.

His mother, Kim, claims he was “upset” because it is “body shaming girls who are already insecure.

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Under the 'gender-neutral' uniform policy, boys can wear skirts but not shorts © Getty Images

“I had no idea until I was sent pictures of what he had done. But I am very proud of him for standing up for young girls that are probably already insecure,” she said.

“I understand that the teacher had to send him home, because the girl had been sent home, but I don’t think she should have been sent home in the first place,” Deane told the Liverpool Echo.

She explained how her son had asked his sister and her girlfriends to lend him the bras, and then turned up to school the next day to show solidarity with the girl who was disciplined.

He and three other friends were put into isolation for wearing the piece of women’s clothing and were told to take it off and return to class or risk being sent home.

“Hugh Baird is meant to be for pupils who don’t fit into other schools and they are allowed piercings and pink hair – so why not sports bras?” the outraged mother said.

However, a spokesman at Hugh Baird College said while the school does not have a uniform, pupils should “dress appropriately.”

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

FBI’s Strzok calls Congress hearing a ‘victory for Putin,’ denies anti-Trump bias — RT US News

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Anti-Trump text messages he exchanged with Lisa Page were expressions of “deep patriotism” and not bias, FBI agent Peter Strzok told US Congress. He also claimed the hearing was a victory for Russian efforts to destroy America.

Strzok, the former deputy assistant director for counterintelligence of the FBI, faced the House Judiciary and Oversight committees on Thursday, to answer questions about his conduct during the 2016 investigations of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. He was a key member of both probes and even served on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team, until he was reassigned following the discovery of text messages between him and Page, a FBI attorney who has since resigned.

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FBI agent Peter Strzok © Leah Millis

Strzok maintained that the text messages between him and Page were rooted in “deep patriotism” and “not indicative of bias.” In his opening remarks, he said he was “particularly proud” of his work on the Clinton email investigation.

“I have the utmost respect for Congress’s oversight role, but I strongly believe today’s hearing is just another victory notch in Putin’s belt and another milestone in our enemies’ campaign to tear America apart,” he said. “As someone who loves this country and cherishes its ideals, it’s profoundly painful to watch and even worse to play a part in.”

This sentiment was echoed by numerous Democrats. Luis Gutierrez (D-Illinois) at one point declared that “they’ve got to be overjoyed at the Kremlin.”

The marathon hearing split along partisan lines from the very beginning, with the Democrat minority interrupting the Republicans’ questioning with repeated procedural interventions and points of order, and at one point bursting into applause at an answer from Strzok.

Representatives Trey Gowdy (R-South Carolina) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) zeroed in on the content of texts and emails between Strzok and Page, including the August 2016 exchange in which Page seeks reassurance Trump is “not ever going to become president, right? Right?!”

“No. No he won’t. We’ll stop it,” Strzok replied.

On Thursday, he categorically denied this meant bias or hinted at any action by him or Page. Rather, he argued, it was late at night, he doesn’t remember writing that message and, in any case, what he really meant was more of a general sense the American people wouldn’t vote for someone like Trump.

This led to a notable clash with Gowdy, one of many over the course of the hearing.

“I don’t appreciate being mischaracterized,” Strzok told Gowdy.

“I don’t give a damn what you appreciate, Agent Strzok,” Gowdy replied. “I don’t appreciate having an FBI agent with unprecedented level of animus working on two major investigations in 2016.”

Strzok repeatedly denied that he or any other FBI agents let any personal political opinions turn into bias that would affect their job, and that the DOJ inspector-general’s report, released last month, confirmed that as well.

At one point, however, Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) quoted from the IG report, which said the investigators “did not have confidence” that a specific decision by Strzok to prioritize the Russia investigation over new evidence in the Clinton probe “was free from bias.” Strzok dismissed that as “hedging phrases” and insisted he did everything correctly in that instance.

Strzok also testified that his security clearance has not been revoked, and that he still has Top Secret access. Attorney General Jeff Sessions had said in an interview last month that Strzok had been stripped of his clearance, “as I understand.”

One of the most dramatic moments came when Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) accused Strzok of outright lying, bringing up the issue of the agent’s extramarital affair with Page that had been tacitly ignored up to that point.

“I can’t help but wonder when I see you looking there with a little smirk; how many times did you look so innocent into your wife’s eyes and lie to her about Lisa Page,” Gohmert told Strzok, over the shouted objections from Democrats.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

PressTV-Trump blasts his host on Britain’s first state visit

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Breaking all normal diplomatic conventions, Donald Trump has blasted his host, British Prime Minister Theresa May, in an interview published shortly after May rolled out the red carpet at Blenheim Palace for the US president’s first official visit to Britain.

In the explosive interview with the British tabloid Sun published on Thursday night, Trump disparaged  May’s compromise, pro-business plan to leave the European Union and warned that her approach could imperil any future trade deal between the US and UK, saying the prime minister’s Brexit plan is going “the opposite way.” 

“If they do a deal like that, we would be dealing with the European Union instead of dealing with the UK, so it will probably kill the deal,” he told the Sun.  

He said that Prime Minister May ignored his advice on Brexit negotiations with the EU. “I would have done it much differently. I actually told Theresa May how to do it, but she didn’t…

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Immigration Story Missing Context of Hunger and Freedom

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I teach journalism. So, of course, I follow journalism closely.

On the immigration issue, many news outlets have been doing a great job covering the rallies and marches, the “baby jails” and rulings and (few) family reunifications.

But they lack context.

In the classroom, I emphasize that every news story—even a little one about a city sidewalk repair—must provide context. Why that sidewalk, why now? Who lives there and walks there? What sidewalks are not getting repaired? When was the sidewalk first built? What’s the budget? And so on.

Recent news stories certainly provide some context and numbers. And many tell harrowing and important specific stories…but they mostly don’t get into the structural causes, the deep history. I worry that readers and viewers are not getting the whole story.

What about specific references to international law, like to the UN Declaration of Human Rights (UNDHR) and its promise (in Article 14) that all people have “the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution”? It was ratified by the US, and is thus “the supreme law of the land,” according to Article VI of the US Constitution.

I’d argue that every single news story should remind that it is not illegal to cross a border and seek asylum.

In order to obtain political asylum here, a person must have a “well-founded fear of persecution or harm on account of his or her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion,” according to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services website.

Historically, every year US courts have determined that tens of thousands of people turning up at the US border have that kind of well-founded fear—over 23,000 in 2014 and over 26,000 in 2015, according to the Migration Policy Institute. That might sound like a lot of people, but those numbers are tiny, given the UN High Commission on Refugees says the planet is witnessing “the highest levels of deplacement on record,” with 24.5 million refugees and 3.1 million asylum-seekers. Compared to countries like Turkey and Uganda, who are hosting 3.5 and 1.4 million refugees respectively, the US is doing little.

Philadelphia street mural (cc photo: Rashaad Jorden)

(cc photo: Rashaad Jorden)

But what about another promise of the UNDHR, Article 3, that all people in member nations have “the right to life, liberty and security of person”? What if someone has a “well-founded fear” of “harm” due to lack of security?

The UN Development Program defines human security as “freedom from fear and freedom from want.” What if your spouse beats you? What if gangs and thugs harass your little shop and demand tribute payments? What if there are no jobs that will support you and your family? Healthcare is pricey everywhere. Education is often not free. Shelter and food are expensive.

In 2015, the Food and Agriculture Organization was pleased to announce that only 5.5 percent of the population in Latin American and the Caribbean was “undernourished.” Sounds like a low number, right? Wrong. At the time, 5.5 percent equaled 34 million men, women and children definitely not “free from want.”

Shouldn’t readers and viewers be reminded of that hunger, and—more importantly—of the historical and political contexts at least partly responsible for it?

For example, wouldn’t it be useful to point out that the countries of this hemisphere have borders mostly established by invading armies and settlers from Europe? There were no walls to keep the Spanish, Portuguese, French and English out. The indigenous people living in the Americas of the 15th and 16th centuries had no say on their “immigration crisis.” The entire hemisphere was converted into colonies where local populations and imported African slaves were tortured, killed and/or exploited for centuries.

In the 19th century, as the European powers’ hold on the hemisphere weakened, and even before some countries achieved independence, another kind of invasion took place, this one from the north.

US businesses found ample opportunities to scoop up land, launch industries and run banks. They were encouraged by the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, the Spanish/American War of 1898 and the 1903 Platt Amendment, which noted without any irony that the US could invade Cuba for, among other purposes, “the preservation of Cuban independence.” The 1904 Roosevelt Corollary expanded that attitude to the hemisphere.

Writing some 50 years ago in The Open Veins of Latin America, Eduardo Galeano noted that even though the colonial era had officially ended,

our region still works as a menial… at the service of others’ needs, as a source and reserve of oil and iron, of copper and meat, of fruit and coffee, the raw materials and foods destined for rich countries.

Later in the book, he wrote:

Hasn’t our experience throughout history been one of mutilation and disintegration disguised as development? Centuries ago the conquest cleared out lands to plant crops for export and annihilated the indigenous populations in the mines to satisfy the demand abroad for silver and gold. The diet of the pre-Columbian population that could survive the extermination deteriorated as the foreigners progressed. In our day, the people of Peru produce fishmeal, very rich in protein, for the cattle of the United States and Europe, but proteins are conspicuously absent from the diets of most Peruvians.

That has not changed much since the book appeared.

In 2016, the World Bank reported that four of the top five exports from the region were raw materials, and the fifth was automobiles—US, European or Asian vehicles assembled south of the border. Top trading partners? The US, followed by China. No wonder Galeano subtitled his classic, “Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent.”

What happened when US companies’ “pillage” was threatened? The Marines would show up.

Starting with a 1905 invasion of the Dominican Republic and scores of times since then, soldiers, spies and mercenaries have repeatedly intervened in nearly every country south of the Rio Grande. Sometimes they stayed, setting up puppet governments overseen by multi-year occupation armies. On other occasions, Washington backed mercenaries and paramilitary forces who overthrew democratically elected leaders.

What are the long-term effects of policies and acts that are nothing short of imperialism? Many would argue that they are at least partly responsible for massive poverty: About one-quarter of the region’s population lives below the poverty line, set at US$5.50 per day, according to the World Bank, and it has the most unequal income distribution in the world (although that has improved a bit over the past decade).

What kind of “security of the person” is possible with these kinds of numbers? And why doesn’t it matter if one has a “credible fear” of the “harm” resulting from malnutrition? From lack of jobs and opportunities? From criminal gangs?

Philadelphia street mural (cc photo: Rashaad Jorden)

(cc photo: Rashaad Jorden)

With all the talk of Supreme Court candidate Brett Kavanaugh’s “originalism,” I was reminded of one last bit of context: the “original” writings and philosophy that predate the Constitution and helped inspire the US’s founding ideas and ideals.

Thank you, Enlightenment philosophers and your clarion calls for freedom… of speech, of religion, of thought.

One freedom many of them discussed was freedom of movement, an idea that dates back to ancient Greek and Roman scholars, according to University of New Wales Professor Jane McAdams (Melbourne Journal of International Law, 2011). She notes that philosophers like pre-Enlightenment thinker Hugo Grotius (1583–1645), whose work contributed to international jurisprudence, carried the idea forward when he wrote in 1625 of

the right of a person to temporarily sojourn in a foreign country “for the sake of health, or for any other good reason; for this also finds place among the advantages which involve no detriment.”

John Locke (1632–1704), Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) and others also thought freedom of movement was one of the “natural rights,” according to McAdam.

Closer to home, writing in 1774, Thomas Jefferson agreed, noting that everyone had

a right, which nature has given to all men, of departing from the country in which chance, not choice, has placed them, of going in quest of new habitations, and of there establishing new societies, under such laws and regulations as, to them, shall seem most likely to promote public happiness.

In today’s world, with its borders and customs agents and walls and razor wire, freedom of movement has become detached from the rest of the liberal philosophy that underpinned our revolutionary generation. Why not give those in the Americas who were born—as Jefferson put it—into a country which “chance, not choice, has placed them” the opportunity to go “in quest of new habitations”? Perhaps resurrecting freedom of movement as a “natural right” would at least partly make up for the centuries of pillage and invasion.

Shouldn’t journalists covering the ongoing crisis at the southern border remind readers, viewers and listeners of this historical context?

 


This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission from FAIR.

Video Shows 8 Antifa Members of ‘Occupy ICE’ Arrested Outside ICE Facility

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Eight protesters were arrested Wednesday morning as they blocked a van from leaving a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Southwest Portland.

A video entitled “Deportation bus leaving Portland, Oregon (Abolish #OccupyICEPDX)” shows a band of protesters linked at the arms, blocking the van from exiting the facility. It also shows several of them being detained by officers, who deployed pepper balls at close range, as well as pepper spray.

One detained protester ran away. Robert Sperling, a Federal Protective Service spokesman, said officers went after that protester but didn’t know whether he or she was among the eight arrested.

The federal agency said the eight people were arrested on allegations including but not limited to failure to comply and obstruction. Federal officers warned the protesters to leave the driveway multiple times, the agency said in a statement.

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Trump escalates trade war against China

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Trump escalates trade war against China

By
Nick Beams

12 July 2018

The Trump administration has stepped up its trade war against China with the announcement that US Trade Representative, Robert Lighthizer, will begin an investigation with a view to putting a 10 percent tariff of $200 billion worth of Chinese goods by the end of August.

The latest decision comes on top of the imposition of a 25 percent tariff on $34 billion of Chinese exports last Friday, with a further $16 billion expected to be hit by the same levy within weeks.

The additional tariffs, foreshadowed several weeks ago, were taken in response to China’s decision to retaliate against last Friday’s US measures by putting tariffs on the same value of US exports.

The statement issued by Lighthizer was that of an imperial overlord whose word is law, to be obeyed without question, with any opposition to be met by escalating reprisals. The US has already indicated that it is prepared to impose tariffs on another $200 billion worth of goods, on top of those targeted in Tuesday’s announcement, with Trump saying that as much as $500 billion could be hit—the value of all Chinese exports to the US.

Turning the situation on its head, Lighthizer said that China’s retaliation against the imposition of US tariffs last Friday was “without any international legal basis or justification.” In fact, it is the US measures, introduced under Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act, which contravene international trade rules.

“For over a year,” Lighthizer said, “the Trump administration has patiently urged China to stop its unfair practices, open its market, and engage in true market competition. We have been very clear and detailed regarding the specific changes that China should undertake.

“Unfortunately, China has…

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Trump escalates trade war against China

0

 

Trump escalates trade war against China

By
Nick Beams

12 July 2018

The Trump administration has stepped up its trade war against China with the announcement that US Trade Representative, Robert Lighthizer, will begin an investigation with a view to putting a 10 percent tariff of $200 billion worth of Chinese goods by the end of August.

The latest decision comes on top of the imposition of a 25 percent tariff on $34 billion of Chinese exports last Friday, with a further $16 billion expected to be hit by the same levy within weeks.

The additional tariffs, foreshadowed several weeks ago, were taken in response to China’s decision to retaliate against last Friday’s US measures by putting tariffs on the same value of US exports.

The statement issued by Lighthizer was that of an imperial overlord whose word is law, to be obeyed without question, with any opposition to be met by escalating reprisals. The US has already indicated that it is prepared to impose tariffs on another $200 billion worth of goods, on top of those targeted in Tuesday’s announcement, with Trump saying that as much as $500 billion could be hit—the value of all Chinese exports to the US.

Turning the situation on its head, Lighthizer said that China’s retaliation against the imposition of US tariffs last Friday was “without any international legal basis or justification.” In fact, it is the US measures, introduced under Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act, which contravene international trade rules.

“For over a year,” Lighthizer said, “the Trump administration has patiently urged China to stop its unfair practices, open its market, and engage in true market competition. We have been very clear and detailed regarding the specific changes that China should undertake.

“Unfortunately, China has…

Read more

Filling the Swamp – LewRockwell

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When Donald Trump started running for the Republican nomination for president in June 2015, he began by attacking the Republican establishment in Washington, and he began his attack by calling the establishment “the swamp.”

His real target was the permanent government and its enablers in the legal, financial, diplomatic and intelligence communities in Washington. These entities hover around power centers no matter which party is in power.

Beneath the swamp, Trump argued, lies the deep state. This is a loose collection of career government officials who operate outside ordinary legal and constitutional frameworks and use the levers of government power to favor their own, affect public policy and stay in power. Though I did not vote for Trump — I voted for the Libertarian candidate — a part of me rejoiced at his election because I accepted his often repeated words that he would be a stumbling block to the deep state and he’d drain the swamp.

On Monday night, he rewarded the swamp denizens and deep state outliers by nominating one of their own to the Supreme Court.

Here is the back story.



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The late Justice Antonin Scalia — my friend during the final 10 years of his life — and his neighbor and colleague Justice Anthony Kennedy often remarked to each other during the Obama years that each would like to leave the Supreme Court upon the election of a Republican president. Scalia’s untimely death in February 2016 denied him that choice, but Kennedy bided his time.

When Trump was elected president, Kennedy told friends that he needed to await Trump’s nominee to replace Scalia to gauge whether the judicially untested…

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Trump’s Iran Policy Invites Escalation, and That’s the Point

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Amidst Trump’s Demolition Derby NATO Summit, the carnage at home from the “barely organized crime” that is his immigration “policy” goes on apace. Even as the feds blew off a court deadline to reunite kidnapped toddlers with their families – finding just four of 102 – the HHS Secretary declared “what we are doing for these unaccompanied (kids) smuggled into our country illegally” – though they’re not unaccompanied, smuggled or illegal – “one of the great acts of American generosity and charity.”

Via Common Dreams. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: Top U.S. & World Headlines — July 12, 2018

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Visit https://democracynow.org to watch the full independent, global news hour, read the transcript, search our archive and to make a donation to support us.

Via Youtube

The Narrative of Things Unsaid

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When the original version of Home Truths appeared in 2006, it was already an accomplished work of great technical sophistication and emotional insight. This expanded and extensively revised edition manages to substantially improve upon the earlier book, drawing on recently-discovered source materials to clarify and deepen the complex and emotionally charged narrative of the author’s parents’ courtship in Dayton in the 1950s—a story of often short-lived triumphs and sometimes lingering disappointments—centered around the formidable figure of the poet’s maternal grandmother, a matriarch who did whatever she had to, to ensure that the family business, a funeral home, would continue to prosper after her husband’s sudden and unexpected death. Mixing personal recollection with a wealth of reconstructed correspondence, Ryan Guth displays an enviable facility with both poetry and prose; while the majority of the verse pieces presented are scored as free verse, the sequence also contains one extraordinary sonnet.

In every poem, postcard, or letter herein, a wealth of specific detail gives substance and vivid life to the lost world of the poet’s childhood, as in this passage, near the beginning of the book, where the poet’s parents reluctantly pose for a photograph:

Back home, Phyllis and Hank
(still newly-weds, almost)
in the back yard. Un-
cooperative, he’s
kept his shades on,
jammed his right hand
so deep in the pocket of his blazer
the sleeve’s wrinkled

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PressTV-Trump’s bigotry is playing to his base: Analyst

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US President Donald Trump’s bigotry is playing to his base which includes working class and lower middle class whites who are terrified of what their future holds for them, says Myles Hoenig, an American political analyst and activist. 

Hoenig, a former Green Party candidate for Congress, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Thursday while commenting on Trump’s controversial policy of separating children from immigrant families.   

On Wednesday, New York elected representatives, clerics, activists and lawyers accused the Trump administration of deliberately delaying the reunification of migrant families separated at the US-Mexico border.

The coalition of activists called on Trump to abolish the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE), a detention center in Harlem where around 250 migrant children have been housed without their parents being informed.

Some 2,300 children were separated from their families as a…

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Trump says ‘talented guy’ Boris Johnson would be a ‘great’ UK Prime Minister — RT UK News

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Boris Johnson would make a ‘great prime minister’ and Theresa May made a bad Brexit deal by ignoring his advice, US President Donald Trump told a British tabloid.

The US President described the former foreign secretary as “a very talented guy.”

“I like him a lot,” he said. “I have a lot of respect for Boris. He obviously likes me, and says very good things about me. I was very saddened to see he was leaving government and I hope he goes back in at some point. I think he is a great representative for your country,” Trump told The Sun.

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 Boris Johnson (L), Donald Trump (R) near Theresa May (C) © Matt Dunham

Johnson resigned as foreign secretary on Monday, in protest over May’s proposal for a “soft” Brexit from the European Union. Under the arrangement, the UK would lose all influence in the bloc but still have to abide by its multitudinous regulations.

“I am not pitting one against the other,” the US president said when asked if he’d like to see Johnson as PM. “I am just saying I think he would be a great prime minister. I think he’s got what it takes.”

Trump also expressed disappointment with May’s handling of Britain’s withdrawal from the EU.

“I would have done it much differently. I actually told Theresa May how to do it but she didn’t agree, she didn’t listen to me,” Trump told the tabloid. “I would actually say that she probably went the opposite way. And that is fine. She should negotiate the best way she knows how. But it is too bad what is going on.”

The US president also took potshots at the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.

“I think he has not been hospitable to a government that is very important. Now he might not like the current President, but I represent the United States,” he said.

Trump arrived in the UK on Thursday for a state visit, after attending the NATO summit in Belgium. He is scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Finland on Monday.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

House Democrats introduce ‘Abolish ICE’ bill — RT US News

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The far left’s calls to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) took one step closer to reality, as progressive House Democrats introduced a bill that would disband the agency and shift its duties to other agencies.

The bill, sponsored by Democrat Representatives Mark Pocan (Wisconsin), Pramila Jayapal (Washington) and Adriano Espaillat (New York) is the first effort by liberal Democrats to legislate the controversial agency out of existence, and was introduced on Thursday.

Its sponsors argue that ICE has become a “militarized” deportation force, used by the Trump administration to “terrorize our communities” with “unchecked power,” according to Pocan.

The bill, called the Humane Immigration Enforcement System Act, would see a commission established to review ICE’s responsibilities and recommend transferring them to other agencies. After one year, Congress would implement the commission’s proposed recommendations and disband ICE.

“The agency has a very broad jurisdiction and was created to combat terrorism, human trafficking, and drugs. Yet, ICE now spends the majority of its time detaining and separating mothers and fathers seeking safety for themselves and their children,” said Espaillat.

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Demonstrators protest outside the White House in Washington DC. © Joshua Roberts / Reuters

ICE was established in 2003, as then-President George W. Bush sought to beef up America’s security in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. It was formed with the merger of several existing agencies like the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the US Customs Service, all under the umbrella of the newly-formed Department of Homeland Security.

It seems extremely unlikely that the House Democrats’ latest bill will result in ICE’s abolition. Republicans hold a majority in the House and some more centrist Democrats do not support such a drastic step. In addition, only 25 percent of Americans and 43 percent of Democrats support abolishing ICE, according to a recent Politico poll.

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) called the bill “the craziest position I’ve ever seen,” adding that Democrats are “tripping over themselves to move too far to the left.”

‘Abolish ICE’ became a rallying cry for the progressive wing of the Democratic party amid outrage over President Trump’s ‘zero tolerance’ immigration policy. After it emerged last month that the Trump administration was separating illegal immigrant children from their families and detaining them, protesters have picketed ICE offices and ‘Antifa’ activists distributed a database of some 1,600 ICE employees, featuring names, photos, addresses and children’s names of the staff.

While ICE is responsible for enforcing immigration policy, it is also tasked with other missions, like fighting money laundering, cybercrime, transnational gangs, and human trafficking. However, public anger against the agency has risen to a point where Democrat politicians are embracing calls to shut it down.

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Actress and New York gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon © Brandan McDermid

2020 presidential hopefuls Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) have taken up the torch and called for the agency’s abolition, as have former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and former Obama Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson.

So too has Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year-old Democratic Socialist who ousted 10-term incumbent Joseph Crowley in New York’s Democratic primary last month. In an interview given to CNN after her victory, Cortez incorrectly described ICE as an “extrajudicial” organization that runs “black sites at our border.”

The Trump administration, however, has vowed never to abolish ICE. In a speech to agency employees last week, Vice President Mike Pence said that his administration is “with you 100 percent.”

Last month, Trump told Fox Business that abolishing ICE would “lead to massive, massive crime,” and accused progressive Democrats of running on a platform of “open borders which equals crime.”

“I think they’ll never win another election,” he said. “So I’m actually quite happy about it.”

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: Who Is Brett Kavanaugh? Inside the Right-Wing History of Trump’s Supreme Court Nominee

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https://democracynow.org – President Trump has nominated federal Judge Brett Kavanaugh to fill Anthony Kennedy’s seat on the high court. Kavanaugh has …

Via Youtube

Threat of Terrorist Attack Near Toronto’s CN Tower Concealed by Police

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A mysterious threat that prompted cops to increase their presence in the city’s downtown core was actually a potential “vehicle ramming attack” in the vicinity of the CN Tower, the Sun has learned.

On Thursday morning, Toronto Police posted officers seemingly on every corner around the CN Tower, Ripley’s Aquarium, Roger’s Centre, Scotiabank Arena and elsewhere in the city.

In a cryptic tweet, police stated they were “responding to an unconfirmed, uncorroborated piece of information relating to the GTA.”

And cops also made the public aware there would be an “increased number of police officers throughout the city and, specifically, in the downtown core.”

Near the CN Tower, on Bremner Blvd., Acting Supt. Mike Barsky provided an update just before noon-hour, explaining police had “received information regarding a potential threat to public safety.”

“The police presence in this area is simply so the public can enjoy and come down to this area unimpressive and without any worry,” the 52 Division commander said, unwilling to elaborate on the threat.

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Video: Katrina vanden Heuvel on NATO Military Spending & Avoiding Cold War Nuclear Catastrophe with Russia

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https://democracynow.org – At the NATO summit, President Trump called on member states to double their military spending to 4 percent of gross domestic …

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Video: Greenland Ice Sheet Melting 600 Percent Faster Than Predicted by Current Models

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The climate is very capable of changing to another stable state unfavorable to the human species, and this is a real danger of our global experiment with …

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Full alert in Salisbury as man ‘falls ill’ near restaurant where Skripals ate before poisoning — RT UK News

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A new incident has occurred in the British town of Salisbury that hit the news in relation to the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy and his daughter. A man has passed out in the town center, provoking an emergency response.

UK police have closed a road in Salisbury after a man “in his 30s” had reportedly “fallen ill” right outside the Zizzi restaurant in Wiltshire, where the former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, had dined on the day of the chemical attack, in which a nerve agent –dubbed Novichok– was used.

Emergency services have been seen outside the restaurant as police cordoned off the area. The Police have confirmed the incident in a Twitter post but provided no details. The reasons behind it remain unknown.

Police admitted that “there is nothing to suggest any wider risk to the public” but still announced that they would take “highly precautionary measures to ensure public safety” in light of the “ongoing incident in Salisbury and Amesbury.”

The situation, however, soon calmed down as police announced that “the cordon in place in Castle Street, Salisbury, has been removed and the road has been reopened.” The person in question, who was not identified, was taken to a local hospital, the police said, adding that “there is no concern for either his health or any wider risk to the public.”

This fresh incident comes less than two weeks after a couple, Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley, reportedly fell ill after coming into contact with Novichok in the town of Amesbury, located some 13 kilometers away from Salisbury. Sturgess died days later.

The Amesbury incident victims are believed to have been exposed to the same nerve agent believed to have poisoned Sergei and Yulia Skripal in early March. The Skripal poisoning case caused a major international scandal, as London accused Moscow of being behind the suspected chemical attack, though it presented no evidence substantiating its claims.

Despite the British government blaming Russia, police have not named suspects in either poisoning incident. In May, the UK’s national security adviser Sir Mark Sedwill said authorities did “not yet” know who was responsible for the Skripals’ poisoning.

On Wednesday, the UK counter-terrorism chief, Neil Basu, admitted that the British authorities are not even able to determine if the two incidents are linked. He also said he could not guarantee that those responsible for the attacks would be caught.

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

11 inmates demand trial or release — RT US News

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A group of prisoners held in the Guantanámo Bay for years without charge have petitioned a US federal court, demanding they be tried or released. Gitmo, however, exists outside of the US legal system, a former detainee has warned.

“Nobody has been released from Guantánamo to this day as a result of any legal proceeding,” Moazzam Begg, a British Pakistani, who spent two years in the notorious US prison located on Cuba, told RT a day after the first hearing of the inmates’ case was held in Washington District Court.

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 © Alberto Pezzali/ Global Look Press

“Literally, when it comes to Guantánamo, the American legal system does not work, it is not applied,” the ex-Guantánamo Bay inmate explained, adding that even the ruling of the US Supreme Court was not properly applied in case of the Gitmo prisoners.

“It was all as a result of pressure or diplomatic assurances and discussions between nations. But it has nothing to do with the law,” the man, who was released after the UK government’s intervention which followed a public outcry, said.

Back in the early 2000s, soon after the camp opened, the Supreme Court “actually ruled that the prisoners had a right to be actually presented in front of the court under the habeas petition, but nothing ever happened. No prisoner was ever taken to the US to be taken to court,” Begg said.

Now, the eleven petitioners are not even allowed to watch the court hearing from inside the infamous prison walls by a video link. The court deemed the absence of a room big enough for all the petitioners to be shackled to the floor as a valid reason to deny them a right to watch a direct relay of the hearing, according to media reports.

“It shows that the US might have a habeas corpus act as part of its constitution but, in reality, the prisoners know [very] well that it means nothing. It is just another attempt to find justice in a place where there is no justice since 2001,” Begg lamented.

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FILE PHOTO Guantanamo Bay, Cuba - A detainee seen in hand restraints in Camp 4 at the detention facility © Louie Palu / Global Look Press

“Holding people without charge or trial for almost 17 years … is a crime” as it amounts to “forced imprisonment,” the former inmate, who now works as an outreach director for a rights organization, asserted, adding that “the cruelest and most torturous treatment is that you are detained without trial by a country that claims to be the bastion of freedom and human rights and democracy.”

“You cannot ever get to challenge the evidence against you because there is no evidence presented in court. Every time you go to court is to argue whether they can actually present the evidence to get you charged or released,” Begg said.

The lawyers representing the prisoners, who have been held in Gitmo for more than 16 years without charge, argue that the US authorities violate their rights as they do not intend to try the men or resettle them overseas. They also say that their clients’ continued detainment violates the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force, as it does not authorize “perpetual detention, disconnected from any legitimate purpose, of the kind the Petitioners now endure.”

At least two of the petitioners were actually cleared for release but are still held in Gitmo, according to media reports. The government, however, insists that it could continue to hold the detainees indefinitely until hostilities against the US cease, as they could potentially pose a future threat even if it was not actually proven. “We could hold them for 100 years if the conflict lasted 100 years,” Justice Department lawyer Ronald Wiltsie said during the hearing.

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© Louie Palu / Global Look Press

“There are very high standards on who can be detained based on a threat to the general public. We are asking the court to apply those same standards to those Guantánamo [detainees],” Shayana Kadidal, Senior Managing Attorney at the Centre for Constitutional Rights, who represents some of the petitioners, told Ruptly following the hearing. He added that, even though the district court judge is “sympathetic” to his clients’ cause, he has his hands tied by the Court of Appeals that “calls the game in the government’s favor from the very beginning,” so that Washington would not have to “really prove anything.”

The Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp, also known as Camp Delta, opened its cells to terrorist suspects more than 16 years ago, on January 11, 2002. Over the years, close to 800 prisoners have been detained and, in some cases, tortured in the infamous prison. Only nine prisoners have ever been convicted of a crime during this time. Nine inmates also died there, with seven of those deaths being considered suicide.

Now, the facility holds a total of 41 prisoners, despite former president Barack Obama’s promise to close it. In January 2018, US President Donald Trump released an executive order, stating that the US operations at Guantánamo will continue, effectively revoking his predecessor’s move.

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: UK Brexit Secretary David Davis resigns, Theresa May not long for this world

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From Housing Minister to Brexit Secretary in five short minutes UK Brexit Secretary David Davis resigns, Theresa May not long for this world Is Raab even British …

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A Call to Ease Tensions Between the Nuclear Superpowers

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With Donald Trump about to meet Vladimir Putin in their first summit on July 16, prominent academics, journalists, politicians and activists call for a lessening of dangerous tensions between the two nuclear powers.

An Open Letter: Common Ground for Secure Elections and True National Security

Many Americans remain deeply concerned about reports of Russian interference with the 2016 election. Meanwhile, relations between the United States and Russia are at their lowest and most dangerous point in several decades. For the sake of democracy at home and true national security, we must reach common ground to safeguard common interests – taking steps to protect the nation’s elections and to prevent war between the world’s two nuclear superpowers.

Whatever the truth of varied charges that Russia interfered with the election, there should be no doubt that America’s digital-age infrastructure for the electoral process is in urgent need of protection. The overarching fact remains that the system is vulnerable to would-be hackers based anywhere. Solutions will require a much higher level of security for everything from voter-registration records to tabulation of ballots with verifiable paper trails. As a nation, we must fortify our election system against unlawful intrusions as well as official policies of voter suppression.

At the same time, the U.S. and Russian governments show numerous signs of being on a collision course. Diplomacy has given way to hostility and reciprocal consular expulsions, along with dozens of near-miss military encounters in Syria and in skies above Europe. Both sides are plunging ahead with major new weapons development programs. In contrast to prior eras, there is now an alarming lack of standard procedures to keep the armed forces of both countries in sufficient communication to prevent an escalation that could lead to conventional or even nuclear attack. These tensions are festering between two nations with large quantities of nuclear weapons on virtual hair-trigger alert; yet the current partisan fixations in Washington are ignoring the dangers to global stability and, ultimately, human survival.

The United States should implement a pronounced shift in approach toward Russia. No political advantage, real or imagined, could possibly compensate for the consequences if even a fraction of US and Russian arsenals were to be utilized in a thermonuclear exchange. The tacit pretense that the worsening of U.S.-Russian relations does not worsen the odds of survival for the next generations is profoundly false. Concrete steps can and must be taken to ease tensions between the nuclear superpowers.

  • Andrew Bacevich, Professor Emeritus, Boston University
  • Phyllis Bennis, Fellow, Institute for Policy Studies
  • Noam Chomsky, Professor, Author, and Activist
  • Stephen F. Cohen, Professor Emeritus of Russian Studies and Politics, NYU and Princeton University, and Board Member, American Committee for East-West Accord
  • John Dean, Former…

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Video: “The Old Order Is Disappearing”: How Progressive Grassroots Movements Are Sweeping the U.K. & U.S.

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https://democracynow.org – Pundits and Democratic heavyweights were stunned when 28-year-old Democratic Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez beat 10-term …

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Hillary Plots Her 2020 Comeback

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Hillary Clinton has ramped her public presence and her fundraising appeals in recent weeks, leading to speculation she’s plotting her 2020 comeback and preparing for a rematch with Donald Trump.

The former presidential candidate has been appearing at high-profile events – such as for the Clinton Foundation and at Oxford University – in addition to asking for donations to causes she supports.

The New York Post notes that five times in the last month alone, Clinton let supporters know her super PAC was working against Trump.

She has stayed at the top of her supporters’ in-box, using events-of-the-day – such as her email railing against Trump’s controversial ‘zero tolerance ‘immigration policy earlier this month – to spread her message.

Using the headlines around Trump’s policy as a rallying cry, Clinton raised more than $1.5 million for migrant children and their families being separated at the border with the money going to several groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project.

Half of the donations came from Twitter, with email, Instagram, and Facebook also helping Clinton rake in the cash, Marie Claire reported. 

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And the day after Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement, Clinton announced a new partnership with the group Demand Justice.

The group’s focus is on Trump’s judicial nominees, noting on its mission page: ‘Our courts should be the place that we can trust to safeguard our rights and promote justice.’

And Demand Justice’s executive director is Brian Fallon, who served…

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Video: Minnesota Police Dog Bites the Wrong Black Man, Causes Severe Injuries

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https://www.themaven.net/pinacnews/public-records/minnesota-police-dog-bites-the-wrong-black-man-causes-severe-injuries-WZqFIUo-BE-lRGkM7EAr4g/

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PressTV-RAND details US ties with anti-Iran MKO terrorists

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An American nonprofit global policy think tank says the US-led coalition has been offering protection to the anti-Iran terrorist group Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) since the occupation of Iraq in 2003.

In a report, the RAND Corporation said US forces not only did nothing to punish the MKO for its crimes, but also offered it protected status and allowed it to remain in Iraq and continue its  provocations against neighboring Iran.

The West’s collaboration with the MKO has come to light again in the wake of Germany’s arrest of an Iranian diplomat on suspicion of planning to attack an MKO meeting in Paris. The Islamic Republic has dismissed the allegation as ludicrous, which came as President Hassan Rouhani visited Europe.

The RAND report said from the early weeks of the 2003 invasion of Iraq until January 2009, US forces detained and provided security to MKO terrorists to prevent the Iraqi government from expelling them to…

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How Progressive Grassroots Movements Are Sweeping the UK and US

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Pundits and Democratic heavyweights were stunned when 28-year-old Democratic Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez beat 10-term incumbent Representative Joe Crowley in New York in last month’s Democratic primary. We speak with George Monbiot, British journalist and author, and Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation, about what her win means for the future of the Democratic Party and the progressive movement.

AMY GOODMAN: And, George Monbiot, when President Trump was asked about the protests in Britain today at his 40-minute news conference in Brussels, before he flew off to you — well, not exactly you and not exactly Sheila, but before he flew off to Britain, where he’ll also be going to the — his Turnberry golf course, which he talked about, did a little advertisement for and also said he had one in Ireland — and we have to remember that two years ago, when he went to that golf course the day after the Brexit vote, he was met by a young comedian. No one knew who he was at the time. He got on the golf course, and just as Trump was about to speak, he was wearing a Turnberry sweater and tie, and he said, “You can get Trump’s balls” — he was holding up golf balls — ”right behind me at the pro shop.” And he started to throw these golf balls out to the people, and they had swastikas on them. But Trump, today, when asked about the British protests, said — well, he started talking about the US elections and talked about how significant they were, that he was elected. He once again lied and said that he got Wisconsin, even Reagan did not win Wisconsin — which he did. But you’ve been looking at progressive politics in the United States. And what do you say to him saying — well, Trump said, “I won”?

GEORGE MONBIOT: Well, that’s part of the problem with the system that we’ve got. Your president or government can look back to a single decision, made once by the people, and then justify everything that takes place following that….

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The Coming Collapse of the American Economic System with Richard Wolff

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[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60FrsWm9OAc]

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House of Commons suspended as release of Brexit white paper descends into farce — RT UK News

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Farcical scenes caused the House of Commons to be suspended as MPs weren’t given copies of the UK government’s Brexit white paper before the new Brexit secretary, Dominic Raab, addressed them.

Raab’s attempt to explain the government’s position on Brexit to the Commons descended into what Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer described as an “utter shambles” – with MPs hurriedly throwing copies of the white paper at their parliamentary colleagues during the five minutes that the house was suspended.

Unsurprisingly, opposition MPs were particularly aghast at the government’s manner in delivering their published paper on Brexit – none more so than Labour’s Starmer.

Starmer directed the blame at Raab, who took up the role of chief UK Brexit negotiator this week, telling him: “He’s not got off to a very good start. The utter shambles of the last twenty minutes that led to the suspension of the house during a statement is clear evidence Mr Speaker of why the government is in such a mess.”

Starmer, the MP for Holborn and St Pancras, was particularly bemused as to why the media had reportedly been handed a copy of the Brexit paper at a briefing, hours before he had been handed it.

In response to the wave of dissatisfaction at the proceedings, Raab told the house: “Can I just apologise for the late arrival. We will look into what happened with the clerks and we will avoid it happening again.”

One of the most eye-catching proposals contained within the document is EU migrants being given the right to work in the UK “visa-free” in the future under the government’s Brexit blueprint.

The 100-page document reveals that citizens coming to Britain from the continent will be allowed to “travel freely… for tourism and temporary business activity.”

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Conservative MP and leading supporter of Brexit Jacob Rees-Mogg in central London © Simon Dawson

In return, Theresa May’s government would expect the same arrangements for Brits looking to live and work in Europe. The white paper said the immigration plans were “consistent with the ending of free movement, respecting the UK’s control of its borders.”

The proposals are likely to anger Brexiteers who insist that leaving the EU should mean large scale reductions in immigration numbers.

The white paper, called ‘The Future Relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union’, says: “The UK would seek reciprocal arrangements that would allow UK nationals to visit the EU without a visa for short-term business reasons and equivalent arrangements for EU citizens coming to the UK.

“This would permit only paid work in limited and clearly defined circumstances, in line with the current business visa policy.”

Elsewhere, the document confirms that the government seeks to formalize a “common rule book” with Brussels on regulations, and enter into a “free trade area” on goods.

Theresa May in her foreword says: “In short, the proposal set out in this white paper would honour the result of the referendum.

“It would deliver a principled and practical Brexit that is in our national interest, and the UK’s and EU’s mutual interest. Together we must now get on and deliver it.”

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Indianapolis man told to leave his own pool ( VIDEOS) — RT US News

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One man’s relaxing afternoon at his building’s pool spiralled into a tense standoff as he was told to leave in what appears to a racially profiled incident.

Shayne Holland was sitting by the pool at the River Crossing at Keystone apartment complex when an off-duty Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officer who was working as a security guard asked if he lived there.

Holland began filming the exchange after he showed the woman his key but told her he didn’t want to give his full address, and she had asked him to leave.

The property manager, Candice Clingerman, comes outside and after a few minutes of back and forth, tells Holland there is a sign that says she can “ask anybody to leave at any time.”

Holland shared the video on Twitter under another video taken at the same pool with the same property manager. In it, she is telling a group of black people to leave the pool.

“So yesterday at River Crossing at Keystone at the crossing we were kicked out of the pool and our Bbq was shutdown for no apparent reason as this lady who said she was ‘property manager’ preceded to let every white person that was there stay and only kicked out all black ppl,” the poster said.

The video shows the group questioning why they have to leave. It isn’t clear how many are residents. At one stage, Clingerman says the property’s residents can only bring two guests to the pool.

Holland also posted another video from a different day showing Clingerman and a man questioning another group of people. One of the women tells her the group of five were allowed to enter earlier and the person working had no issue with it, and that only one of them was a resident.

As a result of the videos going viral, Clingerman has been placed on leave. “Once we’ve finished our internal investigation, we’ll decide if she continues to be an employee or if she’s terminated,” Alex Stokely, vice president of Barrett & Stokely told the IndyStar.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

PressTV-Russia bashes Trump over gas pipeline comments

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Moscow has criticized US President Donald Trump for his comments on a major pipeline project that will double the amount of gas transferred from Russia to Germany, saying the comments are meant to dissuade the country’s gas customers and force them to buy American energy supplies instead.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that Trump’s description of Germany a “captive” of Russia due to its energy reliance was part of Washington’s campaign to bully Europe into buying American energy supplies.

“As for Germany’s dependence (on Russia) as a major gas buyer we cannot agree with this premise,” Peskov said, adding, “Supplies of pipeline gas do not lead to dependence of one country on another but to complete mutual dependence. That is a guarantee of stability and future development.”

Trump said at a NATO summit in Brussels on Wednesday that Germany’s support for the $11-billion Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which will…

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Kharma, Interconnectedness, and the Immigrant Crisis

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“Don’t come to our country illegally,” President Trump blasted in a recent tweet, his solution to the current immigrant crisis – one in which thousands of immigrants are fleeing violence in Central America and attempting to cross into the United States.  He went on to emphasize the importance of borders, national sovereignty, and “rule of law.”

“Don’t invade our country,” Central Americans might well have tweeted back.

“Don’t invade our country,” Central Americans might well have tweeted back.  What goes ‘round, comes around, and whether you believe in laws of kharma and the spiritual interconnectedness of life on this planet or not, there is plenty of evidence that the “crises” we see today were initiated long ago by actions that our country took.  And the actions we take today will have profound effects on the future.

In most of the reports I have read about the “immigrant crisis,” there is some recognition that there are reasons families take the tremendous risks they do to cross the border into the United States – a migration that costs thousands of dollars and potentially their lives, with no guarantee of success. These reports usually mention the rampant gang violence in Central America, and sometimes domestic violence as well.

But there is scant mention of the role of the United States played in begetting that violence, through “interventions” we took over the last century.  Interventions, by their very name, involve a disrespecting of national sovereignty, borders, and the rule of law. They are achieved militarily – i.e. through violence.

But there is scant mention of the role of the United States played in begetting that violence, through “interventions” we took over the last century. Take the case of Guatemala. In 1954, the CIA engineered a coup that overthrew the democratically-elected presidency of Jacobo Arbenz, because Arbenz had instituted land reform that threatened the U.S.-based United Fruit Company, which was owned by Allen Dulles, brother to CIA director John Foster Dulles.  (For details on this history see Steve Kinzer’s book, The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and their Secret World War.) This ushered in fifty years of military dictatorships that were supported and funded by the United States, leading to the “disappearance” or murder of some 200,000 civilians and a legacy of violence that now reverberates in everyday life.

My point is simple: violence begets violence; for every action there is a reaction; and what we do today will have profound effects on tomorrow.

The United States’ recent decision to separate young children from their families at the border, regardless of their requests for asylum (asylum from violence that we are implicated in), will have repercussions far into the future: trauma layered on historical trauma.  Recognizing our own role in creating these conditions would offer us an opportunity to right the historical record, to repair, restore, and set in place a different legacy.

Let me end on a more uplifting note. Last week’s international efforts to rescue the soccer team from the cave in Thailand shows the good that can happen when people come together to support life, not thwart it. While some psychologists have warned that the boys may be traumatized by their experience, all reports thus far are that the boys are happy and at peace. This is likely due to the great efforts their coach took to care for them during their time in the cave, and to ensure that they cared for each other. And now, the mothers of the boys are promising to help “heal the heart” of the young coach who is suffering from his feelings of responsibility – such a different response than the press seemed to expect.

A situation that could have been tragic, traumatic, and full of blame or shame, has become an opportunity to see the power of interconnectedness, the good that can happen when we work together, and the healing power of care. We can choose how we respond to any situation in the world, and how we choose matters for what we set in play. There seem to be many forces that perpetuate violence and negativity, but perhaps we could tip the balance toward positivity and love.

Via Common Dreams. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

PressTV-Huge protests to greet Trump as he arrives in Britain

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US President Donald Trump has arrived in Britain for a four-day visit during which he will meet UK Prime Minister Theresa May and Queen Elizabeth ll, but will avoid the capital where massive protests are planned against his policies.

Trump’s plane landed Thursday at Stansted airport, in Essex, arriving from Brussels, where he had spent two days at the NATO summit.

The US president is due to remain in the UK until Sunday evening, when he will head to Helsinki, the capital of Finland, for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump will largely avoid London and other major cities that could host significant protests. He will instead be kept mainly insulated from the public at various country estates or palaces.

The planned nationwide demonstrations against Trump have been launched by a collection of different organizations protesting everything the populist leader stands for including sexism, racism and Islamophobia.

“Donald…

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How Current Medicine Is Rigged to Win Government-Approval

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Eric Zuesse

A libertarian, Pam Barker, called to my attention this scam (which she blames entirely on “regulatory agencies” and not on the entire corrupt socio-political-economic system), and I am here pasting together excerpts of various parts of the evidence in this particular case, so as to provide readers the fastest and most direct access to understanding this systemic scam, in which the drug companies (are legally allowed to) rig our medical system to maximize their profits, at the expense of the public, patients — the broader society. The author of the following article (which article I am slightly rearranging here, to improve clarity) is Dr. Aubrey Blumsohn, who had refused to participate in this scam, and who here reported this scam (which, as I’ll document here, continues unchanged to the present day, to be plaguing the public’s health, and boosting drug-makers’ profits):

http://scientific-misconduct.blogspot.com/2006/08/procter-research-shenanigans-3_07.html

Letter from Richard Eastall (r.eastell@sheffield.ac.uk), Professor of Bone Metabolism, to Dr. Aubrey Blumsohn, Sr. Lecturer in Metabolic Bone Disease, dated 13 December 2004:

I understand that your major concern [in order to co-sign as an author on a certain ‘scientific’ study] is that you have not had access to the original data. I have checked with Aventis and with other pharmaceutical companies in the field of osteoporosis for their guidelines to publication. They state that they take the approach described in the PhRMA guidelines and that in these guidelines there is not access to the data (other than those from your centre) for investigators.

——

That’s the key paragraph. Dr. Blumsohn would receive no professional credit from, nor other financial benefits of, his participation in the study, unless he would sign off on the study’s findings without having seen all of the data (evidence) that is supposedly the basis of those findings. (The term “ghostwritten” is sometimes used in order to refer to such a study’s actual authorship, but the readers of the study won’t necessarily know that the people who financed the study also actually, in effect, wrote the study.)

PhRMA is the lobby for, and the representative of, the pharmaceutical industry. No link was provided there to “the PhRMA guidelines,” so I web-searched in order to find those “guidelines”, and here they currently are (and this version has been in force since 2009; and the prior version, which pertained to this particular study, was essentially similar on these matters; so there’s been no improvement in this regard):

http://phrma-docs.phrma.org/sites/default/files/pdf/042009_clinical_trial_principles_final_0.pdf

4. Providing Information About Clinical Trials

… As sponsors [the people who are paying for this ‘research’ and who legally will own it], we are responsible for receipt and verification of data from all research sites for the studies we [hire ’scientists’ to] conduct; we ensure the accuracy and integrity of the entire study database, which is owned by the sponsor. …

b. Authorship and Research Contributors.

1. Authors. Consistent with standards of the international committee of Medical Journal editors and major journal guidelines for authorship, anyone who: (1) provides substantial contributions into the conception or design of a study, or data acquisition, or data analysis and interpretation; and (2) writes or revises the manuscript involving important intellectual content; and (3) has final approval of the version to be published, should receive appropriate recognition as an author when the manuscript is published. Conversely, individuals who do not contribute in this manner do not warrant authorship. Authors should meet conditions 1, 2, and 3. …

• all authors, whether from within a sponsoring company or external, will be given the relevant statistical tables, figures, and reports needed to support the planned publication.

2. Contributors. Like other research sponsors, companies sometimes employ staff to help analyze and interpret data, and to produce manuscripts and presentations. Such personnel must act in conjunction with the investigator-author. Their contributions should be recognized appropriately in resulting publications — either as a named author or in acknowledgments, depending on their level of contribution. …

d. Investigator Access to Data and Review of Results. We [PhRMA members: drug-manufacturers] seek to provide investigators with meaningful access to clinical data from the studies in which they participate. Individual investigators in multi-site clinical trials will have their own research participants’ data, and will be provided the randomization code after conclusion of the trial. Sponsors [the drug-manufacturer that has hired a given ‘investigator’] will make a summary of the study results available to the investigators. In addition any investigator who participated in the conduct of a multi-site clinical trial will be able to review relevant statistical tables, figures, and reports for the entire study at the sponsor’s facilities, or other mutually agreeable location. …

Investigators who participated in the conduct of a multi-site clinical trial and are interested in more extensive data displays will be able to review data for the entire study at the sponsor’s facility or other mutually agreeable location in response to a reasonable [as adjudged solely according to the sponsor’s discretion and judgment] scientific inquiry. Investigators who are authors of study-related manuscripts will be given all study data needed to support the publication.

——

I thus now am continuing here with Dr. Blumsohn’s presentation,

http://scientific-misconduct.blogspot.com/2006/08/procter-research-shenanigans-3_07.html:

Procter research shenanigans 3: Research misconduct explained in one letter

Background to the dilemma involving Actonel research in Sheffield is here, here and here. The research involved a secondary endpoint in randomized trials used to demonstrate the efficacy of risedronate (Actonel) for regulatory approval. The company violated the norms of science under whose banner they claim to sell their products.

There were three elements to the problem:

  1. A pharmaceutical benefactor (Proctor & Gamble) repeatedly refused to provide raw data including randomization codes to academic “collaborators”. Data was required by the academics to verify scientific reports, statistical analyses, meeting abstracts (1,2), and draft publications “ghost written” in their names.
  2. Data was provided to authors 3 years later, in early 2006, following press exposure. “Fair” analysis of the data would not have yielded findings desired by the sponsor.
  3. There were multifaceted and intriguing attempts to prevent the problem from being raised or discussed.

A single letter summarizes problem 1: here.

The writer is Professor Richard Eastell, collaborator in this research, and then Research Dean of Sheffield Medical School. It was written after numerous attempts to gain access to data from the company, and after some information had emerged to suggest that the analysis performed by P&G was implausible. A publication based on overlapping data had already appeared in press (Eastell et al., 2003 J. Bone. Miner. Res. 18:1051-6) — the raw data underlying this overlapping paper had also not been disclosed to Sheffield authors (BBC broadcast).

This letter from Professor Eastell was written in response to two letters from myself here and here. Eastell’s “response” (again, here):

  1. attempts to rationalize why it was appropriate for authors to be refused access to critical raw data
  2. suggests that the first author (Blumsohn) would be removed even as a coauthor unless prepared to sign a journal declaration in the absence of data

Abstracts underlying intended publications:

• A. Blumsohn, IP Barton, A Chines, R Eastell Relative Contributions Of The Early Changes In Bone Resorption And Later Changes In Hip Bone Mineral Density To The Reduction In Vertebral Fracture Risk With Risedronate. [J Bone Miner Res 2003;18(S2):S157 Abst#SA337

• A. Blumsohn, IP Barton, A Chines, R Eastell. Relationship Of Early Changes In Bone Turnover To The Reduction In Vertebral Fracture Risk With Risedronate – The HIP Study. [J Bone Miner Res 2003;18(S2):S89 Abst#F338

——

Here is industry-provided information on that drug, Risedronate.

Here is Government-provided information (after-the-fact and too late) regarding the entire class of these drugs. The person posting it is Dr. Blumsohn himself, who then follows up there on the case.

Medicines being allowed onto the market in this way — and the participating ‘researchers’ and their sponsors not being imprisoned for this scam against the public — proves that the government, in fact, doesn’t actually represent the public’s interests, but instead represents the interests of the aristocracy who own and control the corporations.

Such a government is an aristocracy, not really a democracy. The corporate owners run such a country, the public do not, no matter whether or not the Government calls itself a ‘democracy’. It’s an aristocracy, a fascist dictatorship — that’s all. Anyone who calls it a “democracy” is either ignorant or a liar.

The problem isn’t that the regulators exist; it’s that they’re controlled by and serve the corporations they ‘regulate’, instead of controlled by and serving the public. This is a reason why I consider libertarianism to be false. I think that libertarians apply a false theory — in this instance, the theory that regulation should be eliminated, instead of required to be honest and to impose severe penalties upon the participants in frauds like these.

—————

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of  They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of  CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.

Legalized Groping: Court Grants TSA the Right To Assault You

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A US appeals court has just ruled that we Americans have no recourse when an aggressive Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screener commits an assault on us. The the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled that TSA officers were not “investigative or law enforcement officers,” and therefore were protected from liability under the Federal Tort Claims Act. What does it say about us that we allow the government to commit crimes against our bodies for the “privilege” of traveling inside our country? Is there a better way? Tune in to today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

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One worker killed, one injured hours apart at Florida’s Walt Disney World

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One worker killed, one injured hours apart at Florida’s Walt Disney World

By
Jessica Goldstein

12 July 2018

A 33-year-old worker was killed at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, on Monday following an accident with a Toro utility cart. According to witnesses, Juan Alberto Ojeda was working on the cart’s battery when it jumped anywhere from three to six feet up a nearby chain link fence before it landed on and crushed him behind Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort.

Danny Vasquez, a fellow worker who witnessed the incident, saw the cart move up the fence and fall on top of Ojeda, whom he rushed to help. According to the Orlando Sentinel, Ojeda asked Vasquez to back the cart off of him and told him that he could not breathe, before falling unconscious and dying at the scene. Vasquez and another worker, Josh Willner, struggled to lift the cart off Ojeda, but were unsuccessful due to its weight.

In a statement to the Washington Post, Walt Disney World Resort President George A. Kalogridis said, “All of us at Walt Disney World Resort are deeply saddened today by the loss of one of our Cast Members”—the term used by Walt Disney to refer to workers at its resorts. “Our thoughts and concerns are with his family, friends, and fellow co-workers.” Kalogridis called Ojeda’s death “a tragic accident” and said the company is “providing resources and care for those affected.”

Hours later, around 10:30 p.m., another male worker was injured after a fall while working at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge. The worker called 911 and was taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center, where he was reported to be recovering from non-life-threatening injuries.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department was involved in investigating both the death and the injury. The Federal…

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Trump, Trade Wars, and the Class Struggle

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All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and [humans are] at last compelled to face with sober senses [our] real conditions of life, and [our] relations with [our] kind.

— Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, The Communist Manifesto

An unfolding trade war pitting the United States simultaneously against China, the European Union, Canada, and Mexico has begun. The economic and political consequences – intended and unintended – are now unfolding.  How this trade war develops and “ends” is a political question that cannot be predicted concretely. But the framework to foresee what is coming down the road is coming into focus.

There is no letup in the continued erosion and breakdown of the post-World War II, post-“Cold War” eras characterized at their core by the predominance of US capital in the institutions of world capitalism and in world politics.

China

On June 15, 2018 the Donald Trump Administration announced it will be adding a 25% tariff-tax on some $50 billion worth of Chinese goods imported into the United States. On June 18 Trump then threatened another 10% tariff-tax on $200 billion worth of additional Chinese commodities, raised to $500 billion on July 5, affecting virtually every Chinese product throughout the US-China production-to-exchange…

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UK police protecting Trump slam ‘chaotic’ accommodation — RT UK News

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Police officers drafted in to protect US President Donald Trump on his UK visit are grappling with a lack of food and water and are reportedly being subjected to freezing cold showers in “unacceptable” accommodation.

Officers have taken to Twitter to express their outrage at where they are being made to stay for three nights while they take part in Operation Manifold – the name given to the massive protection unit for the president.

Some have complained of having just a few hours of sleep ahead of 12-hour shifts because they’re crammed in a room with another 300 officers. A Twitter user by the name of ‘Manchester Sergeant’ described the situation as “chaos.”

He went on describing the accommodation, saying: “The deafening sound of 50 out of 300 people snoring, the odd phone going off, constant creaking of these stretcher beds and then.. ….. someone farts have to try and see the funny side.

“After one hours sleep, a freezing cold shower and having to get dressed in the dark with no light there are serious issues with health and safety arising in my accomodation,” he said, the Daily Mirror reports. “People are saying they feel unwell. Myself included.” The account’s owner has since closed it down.

Other reports claim female officers are being forced to sleep on the floor.

Chairman of the Hampshire Police Federation John Apter said the conditions in which officers are being made to sleep are worse than those experienced by prisoners. He called on the National Police Chiefs Council to step in to improve the treatment of its forces.

Trump’s visit to the UK – which got underway on Thursday when he landed at Stansted airport – will be met with the biggest police security operation since the 2011 London riots. Thousands of police officers have been mobilized from almost every force in England and Wales, costing an estimated £8-10 million.

Officers have had their leave cancelled and will be enduring extended 12-hour shifts to cover Trump’s stay. The president will visit Blenheim Palace, Chequers, Windsor Castle, the US ambassador’s official residence in Regent’s Park, London, and Scotland. The visit is expected to be marked by numerous protests with tens of thousands of demonstrators set to attend a mass rally in London on Friday.

One officer dismissed accusations that they are trying to get “luxury” treatment saying:

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Stormy Daniels arrested for feeling up cop in bizarre sting operation — RT US News

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In what her attorney has labelled a ‘politically-motivated’ sting Stormy Daniels has been arrested at an Ohio strip club for touching undercover officers’ breasts and buttocks during a performance.

The former porn star, who is known for claiming she was paid hush money to keep quiet about an affair with President Donald Trump, was performing at the Sirens Gentlemen’s Club in Columbus when she was arrested in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Daniel’s crime was touching patrons during her performance, some of whom were undercover cops. Ohio has an unusual law aimed at sexually-oriented businesses which prohibits both patrons and performers from touching one another.

READ MORE: Porn star Stormy Daniels’ attorney says Russia is out to get him

Police inside the club reported seeing Daniels smacking patrons with her bare breasts and that she touched the breasts of female patrons. When officers approached her, she reportedly held a female officer’s face between her breasts and fondled another officer’s breasts and buttocks, 10TV reports.

“My client Stormy Daniels was arrested in Columbus, Ohio, while performing the same act she has performed across the nation at nearly a hundred clubs,” Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti wrote on Twitter. “This was a setup and politically motivated.”

Daniels was charged with three misdemeanor counts of illegally touching a patron. She posted bail and was released. The Community Defense Act was passed in 2007 and also bans nude or topless dancing between the hours of midnight and 6am.

Daniels is in the midst of a legal case with Trump in which she is seeking to get out of a non-disclosure agreement about their affair. She also filed a defamation suit against the president in 2011.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Gotta Love All Those Armed Citizens

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USA – WSVN TV 7 & WJXT Fox 30, report 06-12-18 in Jacksonville, Florida, the incident began when a 36 year old suspect robbed a Walmart liquor store, and attempted to flee in a silver Ford SUV.

Witnesses said the vehicle would not start, so he first tried to carjack a male driver at knifepoint, cutting him on his arms and legs.

That driver said “I reached in between my glove box and my console, between my seats, reached down and got my weapon and brandished it for him. He was like, ‘Don’t shoot me.’ I was like, ‘Then get out of here.’”

The suspect then jumped into the passenger seat of a woman’s car in a Starbucks drive-thru. Police said the woman got out of her car and grabbed a pistol from her trunk, pointing it at and he ran off.

Ultimately, police found their suspect inside the bathroom of a Supercuts. He surrendered without résistance.

Straight Talk on Armed…

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According to an arrest report, the 36 year old told police, “The reason I was running and did this was because somebody was after me.”

He is charged him with strong-arm robbery, carjacking with weapon, aggravated battery w/ a deadly weapon and trespassing. He is currently being held on a bond of $91,512.

Comments:

This guy tried to carjack two people and both pulled out guns to protect themselves.

Gotta love all those armed citizens in Florida!

Originally published by AmmoLand.com.

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Video: ‘Agent of Trump & Moscow’, really? Greenwald slammed for visiting Russia

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The Intercept’s Glen Greenwald, who said his visit to Russia was partially meant to combat a toxic McCarthyist environment in the US, has found himself on the …

Via Youtube

Britain’s despise for Trump impossible to ‘overestimate’ – ex-Tony Blair spokesman — RT UK News

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Tony Blair’s ex-spokesman Alastair Campbell has said it’s impossible to “overestimate just how despised” Donald Trump is in the UK, just as the US President touches down on British soil.

Campbell, who gained fame and notoriety for his role as the former Labour prime minister’s “spin doctor”, told CNBC on Wednesday that opposition to the visiting president “will be big.”

More than 55,000 people are expected to attend a mass protest outside the BBC on Friday and other demonstrations are planned around the country. However the President, who landed at Stansted Airport on Thursday afternoon, is not expected to encounter many protesters as most of his agenda is based outside of London.

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Piers Morgan, FILE PHOTO. © Ferdaus Shamim / Reuters

“I don’t think anyone can possibly overestimate just how despised he is. I mean, he really is,” Campbell told the American broadcaster.

He said Trump may think the level of protestation is “unfair” because the UK has welcomed a different range of leaders, including Chinese premiers, Russian President Vladimir Putin and former Zimbabwean PM Robert Mugabe.

READ MORE: ‘Verging on criminal’: Fury at Telegraph article suggesting PM Theresa May guilty of treason

“But I think people feel that America is a special country and, therefore, the leadership in America should be something that British people can look up to and respect. I’m afraid that there is very, very little respect for him.”

He added: “I suspect that you will find the protests will be big. People will not want him to feel welcome at all. I think that goes very, very far across the board.”

His remarks appear to back up a freshly released Guardian/ICM poll that reveals the extent to which the British public is both critical and preoccupied with the US president’s controversial administration.

A total 63 percent of people said they believe the Trump presidency makes the world more dangerous. Only 20 percent would want to see a politician like him as British PM, while only 18 percent think he is good for the UK.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Cop who declined to help Puerto Rican woman being harassed for ‘un-American’ T-shirt resigns — RT US News

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A Chicago police officer has resigned a month after a video of him standing by while an elderly man harassed a Puerto Rican woman for her “un-American” T-shirt went viral.

Officer Patrick Connor of the Forest Preserves of Cook County Police Department resigned late Wednesday, and the police department say they are continuing to investigate the incident.

In a video filmed last month that recently went viral, Connor can be seen standing by while an irate man harasses Mia Irizarry, who is dressed in a tank top with the Puerto Rican flag on it.

Seemingly unaware that Puerto Rico is in fact a US territory, the man proceeds to unload on Irizarry, calling her “un-American” and questioning her citizenship.

“I would like to know is she an American citizen? Why is she wearing that shit?” he says, temper rising. “You’re not going to change us. The world is not going to change the United States of America. You should not be wearing that in the United States of America.”

Irizarry called for help from Officer Connor, who declined to intervene, and instead milled around in the background. Eventually, other officers turned up and arrested the man, who they said was intoxicated. The man, identified as 62-year-old Timothy Trybus, was charged with assault.

Connor was placed on desk duty as an investigation began. Meanwhile, the video drew anger on Twitter, and the Governor of Puerto Rico joined the calls for Connor to be fired on Monday. Governor Ricardo Rossello said that he was “shocked and disturbed by the officer’s behavior,” and called Trybus a “bigot.”

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: Moment Progress cargo spacecraft blasts off for fastest-ever trip to space station

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A Russian Progress cargo spacecraft on a Soyuz booster carrying supplies for the International Space Station crew has successfully completed its …

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While ‘Scar of Injustice’ Lingers and Racist Violence Persists, DOJ Reopens 1955 Murder Case of Emmett Till

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The case into the 1955 kidnapping, torture, and murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till—whose killing helped galvanize opposition to racism in the South and fueled the Civil Rights movement—has been reopened by the U.S. Justice Department, news outlets reported Wednesday.

“The scar of injustice is deep, but we are convinced that if we can get justice and make this right for Emmett, America can begin to heal.” —Deborah Watts, Emmett Till Legacy Foundation According to the Associated Press:

The Justice Department told Congress in a report in March it is reinvestigating Till’s slaying in Money, Mississippi, in 1955 after receiving “new information.” The case was closed in 2007 with authorities saying the suspects were dead; a state grand jury didn’t file any new charges.

Deborah Watts, a cousin of Till, said she was unaware the case had been reopened until contacted by The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The federal report, sent annually to lawmakers under a law that bears Till’s name, does not indicate what the new information might be.

In an op-ed earlier this month, Till’s cousin Deborah Watts, founder of the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation, argued that holding those guilty of Emmett’s murder—even after more than 60 years—is as essential and necessary as it ever was. Citing Timothy B. Tyson’s recently-published book “The Blood of Emmett Till”—which the AP reporting speculates could be at least part of the reason the DOJ has reopened the case—Watts wrote, “Some have told us to move on, it’s too late! Is it really too late for us to pursue justice?”

She concluded:

Who will now stand with us to make sure there is justice for Emmett? 

There are so many other deaths that have gone unsolved. The justice system needs to right the wrongs done and work for us and other African-Americans and their families. No family should ever have to endure this pain and injustice for this long.

We are committed to continue to tell Emmett’s story and our stories, educate and empower our youth, preserve the legacy of Emmett and his mother, fight for justice, remind the nation to never forget, and ask everyone to join us in pledging never again! 

The scar of injustice is deep, but we are convinced that if we can get justice and make this right for Emmett, America can begin to heal. 

The clock is ticking. Will you join our call for justice now?

 

Via Common Dreams. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: Bodies still rotting under rubble year after liberation of Raqqa

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After years under the control of Islamic State terrorists, the Syrian city of Raqqa was liberated back in 2017. But it paid a heavy price for this liberation. RT Arabic …

Via Youtube

How the Farm Bill Could Affect Our Food System

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Janine Jackson: After House Republicans passed their farm bill, reportedly the first time the critical measure — involving everything from nutrition assistance to crop subsidies — has passed either chamber with only single-party support, Donald Trump tweeted, “Farm Bill just passed in the House. So happy to see work requirements included. Big win for the farmers!”

Among other things, Trump doesn’t mean farmers like the Callahan family, profiled in Civil Eats, small farmers in South Carolina who not only qualify for SNAP — the food assistance program Trump is crowing over making harder to access — but who benefit also from programs Republicans would cut, that encourage the farmers’ markets where the family make much of their income, including selling to people who pay with SNAP benefits.

The Senate version pushes back on some of that, but does that make it good? And what else should we know about what’s likely to be in the final legislation, due by the end of September? Patty Lovera is the assistant director of Food and Water Watch. She coordinates the food team. She joins us now by phone from Washington, DC. Welcome back to CounterSpin, Patty Lovera.

Patty Lovera: Hi, thanks for having me.

There’s so many elements to this $860 billion legislation, it’s easy to miss things. We’ve seen some attention — and rightly so — on what was apparently the House Democrats’ sticking point, the restrictions that Republicans want to add to SNAP. I want to get to other things, too, but what is your sense of whether this very familiar, punitive, non-evidence-based stuff, to do with Food Assistance Programs — is that going to make it through conference, do you think?

That is the question. You know, every five years or so, give or take a…

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The Sinister Underbelly of Climate Change Denial

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The last few days of June 2018 saw most people in the United States sweltering in an epic heat wave. High temperatures were uniformly between 90 and 110 degrees in a mind-boggling 17 states [1]. Heat indices in parts of the East and Midwest approached 120 degrees. Heat Advisories or Excessive Heat Warning were issued by the National Weather Service for all or parts of 21 states. Hazardously poor air quality arising from the reaction of volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides with sunlight and heat compounded the agony in 9 states.

On top of this, catastrophic drought gripped the southwestern US [2], largely the product of a devastatingly dry winter. Snowpack during the winter of 2017-2018 in mountains south of a line running roughly through mid-Nevada, Utah, and Colorado was nearer 0% than 100% of normal—hardly worth even being called “snowpack.”

And virtuous Americans were not the only ones suffering. Near-record heat and drought was scorching northern Europe, fanning peat fires in England. Plus an all-time record minimum temperature of 109 degrees was recorded amidst the baseline excessive heat of Oman.

Meanwhile, the northern Rocky Mountains, where I live, was basking in near-normal June temperatures while being bathed in near 170% of normal rainfall—a factoid that will no doubt be seized upon by people obsessed with denying the reality of human-driven climate warming.

Climate Warming is Real

But climate warming is real, as is the role of humans. All of…

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Trapped thief asks cops to rescue him — RT US News

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Could an escape room get a better endorsement than being so puzzling that a burglar couldn’t find a way out? A hapless thief in Washington was so perplexed by the adventure game he broke into that he called the police on himself.

The live action games, which sees people trapped in a room that they must escape from as quickly as possible, have become hugely popular in recent years. But one burglar got more than he bargained for when he broke into one in Vancouver, Washington. The man entered the escape room through a doorway that was hidden behind a set of lockers in an adjoining business.

Things started off pretty well for the thief as he quickly got his hands on a cellphone, a TV remote and even a beer from the fridge, local news outlet KOIN reports.

“The sheriff said he had a burrito and he was settling in to have a breakfast and a beer I guess and then got scared because he couldn’t get out,” Rob Bertrand, owner of NW Escape Experience, said.

Faced with this quandary, the criminal bizarrely decided that he needed help from the police. Surveillance footage shows the cops slowly moving around the building looking for the intruder. However, he eventually managed to escape of his own accord and officers picked him up lurking outside.

READ MORE: Spectacular helicopter jailbreak leaves notorious French gangster at large again

The suspect was later identified as Rye Daniel Wardlaw. He is facing a charge of 2nd-degree burglary.

Bertrand is pretty proud of his businesses’ new claim to fame. “We started thinking about it and yeah, it’s really funny,” he said. “I’m proud to say I’m the only escape room in the Northwest that has a 100% capture rate of criminals.”

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

PressTV-US reopens probe into 1955 slaying of black teen

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The US federal government has reopened its investigation into the slaying of Emmett Till, the black teenager whose brutal killing in the state of Mississippi shocked the world and helped inspire the US civil rights movement more than 60 years ago.

The US Justice Department told Congress in a report in March it is reinvestigating Till’s slaying in Money, Mississippi, in 1955 after receiving “new information.” The case was closed in 2007 with authorities saying the suspects were dead; a state grand jury didn’t file any new charges.

Deborah Watts, a cousin of Till, said she was unaware the case had been reopened until contacted by The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The federal report, sent annually to lawmakers under a law that bears Till’s name, does not indicate what the new information might be.

But it was issued in late March following the publication last year of “The Blood of Emmett Till,” a book that says a key figure in the…

Read more

Conflating Bitcoin and Blockchain – LewRockwell

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There it is again! That smooth, subtle and seamless transition conflating cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin, with the blockchain technology. There are thousands of blog posts and news articles about bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, but the great majority fail to clearly distinguish between the technology and the digital currency that is created and transmitted by it.  In a “Bitcoin Primer” published by Coinlab, “The term Bitcoin refers to both the digital unit of stored value and the peer-to-peer network of computers transmitting and validating transactions of these units.”

In another bitcoin primer, we read “Bitcoin is a decentralized peer-to-peer payments network and a virtual currency that essentially operates as online cash.”

To some degree, it is understandable.  The original bitcoin white paper by Satoshi Nakamoto described a digital currency produced on a unique-to-bitcoin blockchain platform.  They were as inseparable as Siamese twins and many bitcoin enthusiasts share exactly that view of the world.

Conflation creates confusion, however, particularly when discussing valuation.  Allowing bitcoin to ride the coattails of the blockchain technology is misleading at best. A typical example of conflation comes from trying to compare the valuation of bitcoin to the franchise value of Mastercard and VISA.  “Quite simply, Bitcoins have value because a growing group of people believe that the underlying Bitcoin technology has value.”

Bitcoin as “coin” does not equate to VISA as transmittal medium.  Blockchain is the proper comparison.  I think that might be what Warren Buffet and Jamie Dimon are getting at when they call bitcoin a fraud.  They certainly are not referring to blockchain technology, which they know…

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Video: The Stan Collymore Show: Alain Giresse, Panini & World Cup semifinals

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Alain Giresse, Michel Platini, Luis Fernandez and Jean Tigana – these four French players formed the Magic Square, one of the best midfield quartets the game …

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Cultural and Ideological Struggle in the U.S.: A Final Comment on Ocasio-Cortez

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There is no question that there is an acute, ongoing social, political, and economic crisis in the United States and the colonial/capitalist world. Liberal democracy along with the institutions and ideological justifications for the neoliberal order are under tremendous strain in the U.S.  In the cultural and ideological sphere commonsense assumptions that provided meaning and societal unity are now contested. Politically, intra-ruling class contradictions sharpened with the election of Donald Trump and the social and class forces he represents. Those intensifying contradictions are being played out within the terrain of the duopoly with both parties and most governmental institutions suffering a precipitous loss of legitimacy.

This is the specific context that must inform how we apprehend political developments and the war of ideas unfolding in the U.S. and throughout the capitalist world. It is the context that must inform how we come to understand the meaning of the Ocasio-Cortez win in New York and similar developments in the two parties, but especially what is being called an insurgency within the democrat party.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez seemingly came out of nowhere to knock off an entrenched member of the democrat party establishment in what had been considered an uncontested and thus safe seat for twenty years. I don’t need to go into the details of the story because most of the obvious details are now known. However, what was not known in the first…

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Video: Israeli settlement goods face ban in Ireland

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RT took to the streets in Dublin, Ireland to ask people what they thought of proposed legislation to ban imports from Israeli settlements. READ MORE: …

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PressTV-Corbyn backs MP who wants Israel move to US

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UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has backed Naz Shah, a British member of parliament who was suspended from the party in 2016 for making anti-Israeli comments on social media.

Corbyn appointed Shah, a mother-of-three former disability rights advocate and mental health charity chief, as shadow equalities minister on Wednesday.

The decision prompted reactions from pro-Israeli groups, who have called for an urgent meeting with the MP.

In early July 2014, Israel waged a devastating war on the Gaza Strip. The 50-day offensive claimed the lives of nearly 2,200 Palestinians, including 577 children.

Before becoming an MP in May 2015, Shah shared a graphic showing the outline of the occupied territories superimposed onto a US map with the comment “problem solved.”

Her caption for the image read:  “Solution for Israel-Palestine Conflict – Relocate Israel into United States.”

She posted yet another comment with the hashtag…

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PressTV-UK increases troops in Afghanistan to meet US demands

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UK Prime Minister Theresa May has decided to increase the number of British troops in Afghanistan to over 1,000, as the NATO military alliance tries to meet the demands of US President Donald Trump.

Preparing to address an ongoing NATO summit in Brussels, May committed 440 more troops to the alliance’s mission in Afghanistan this week and urged other member-states to fulfill their commitment to spend two percent of their GDP on their militaries, just like the UK does.

“We will be deploying an additional 440 personnel to NATO’s Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan and I think that shows when NATO calls, the UK is one of the first to step up,” May told reporters Wednesday, on the first day of the Brussels meeting.

Sources within the UK’s Ministry of Defense have expressed concern that Trump, who is also attending the NATO summit, would eventually pull American troops out of Eastern Europe and stop partaking in joint NATO drills…

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Australia’s new “foreign interference” laws: A threat to anti-war dissent

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Australia’s new “foreign interference” laws: A threat to anti-war dissent

By
Mike Head

12 July 2018

At the core of the two anti-foreign influence bills that the Australian government and the opposition Labor Party jointly rammed through parliament on June 28 are “foreign interference” offences that are unprecedented in Australia and other supposed democracies.

In an increasingly globalised world, the “interference” provisions attack and criminalise the very concept of cooperative political activity with overseas or international organisations. This is an assault on fundamental democratic and legal rights.

The Espionage and Foreign Interference (EFI) Act, now in operation, inserts a new Division 92 into the federal Criminal Code. Entitled “Foreign interference,” it contains seven far-reaching offences.

This is on top of the expansion of an array of existing offences, such as treason, sabotage, advocating mutiny and breaching official secrecy, to broaden their potential use to outlaw dissent and anti-war activity.

Never before has it been a crime, punishable by up to 20 years’ imprisonment, to collaborate with an overseas group or individual to seek political change, whether on environmental, refugee, geo-strategic, anti-war or any other issues.

These laws have been introduced directly at the behest of the ruling establishment in Washington in order to combat China’s rise and help demonise and suppress opposition to preparations for war against China. Needless to say, the laws will not be directed against the US, which wields by far the greatest “foreign influence” in Australia.

As the US business publication Bloomberg reported: “Australia is set to become the first developed country to pass sweeping laws against foreign interference, in a…

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Video: Belgian Fries… Wait, What?! RT in search of sacred truth behind potato clash

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Battle of the Fries! Check out http://rt.com RT LIVE http://rt.com/on-air Subscribe to RT! http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=RussiaToday Like …

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Trump’s Criticism of NATO Ignores the Real Questions – Consortiumnews

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Donald Trump’s bluster at the NATO summit only has to do with money, not whether the alliance serves any genuine security purpose, says Jonathan Marshall.

By Jonathan Marshall
Special to Consortium News

The usual NATO summit begins and ends with U.S. and European leaders issuing platitudes about the unbreakable bonds between Western democracies. The two-day summit that began Wednesday is not the usual NATO summit. President Donald Trump came to Brussels armed with a barrage of insults and Twitter blasts against his ostensible allies.

He gave a public tongue-lashing to NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, saying it was unfair for the U.S. to pay the most for protecting Europe while Germany agreed to a new natural gas pipeline to import natural gas from Russia. “Germany, as far as I’m concerned, is captive to Russia,” Trump said. “Germany is totally controlled by Russia.” But Germany turned to Russia after the Trump administration threatened sanctions on Europeans who buy Iranian natural gas. The U.S. also wants to sell more expensive natural gas to Germany.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel responded bluntly to Trump. “I’ve experienced myself a part of Germany controlled by the Soviet Union,” she told reporters, “and I’m very happy today that we are united in freedom as the Federal Republic of Germany and can thus say that we can determine our own policies and make our own decisions and that’s very good.” 

Trump set the stage for his trademark political brawl at a recent rally in North Dakota, where he declared, “Sometimes our worst enemies are our so-called friends or allies, right?” On the same Western swing, he he told supporters in Montana that Europe “kills us with NATO.” As he left the White House for Europe, the President further trolled America’s traditional allies, noting that between NATO, the UK, and Putin—the three subjects of his visit—“Putin may be the easiest of them all. Who would think?”

Though he has for decades complained that other countries have been taking advantage of the U.S., the key to understanding Trump’s performance toward NATO may be recognizing that it is just that, a…

Read more

Trump’s Criticism of NATO Ignores the Real Questions – Consortiumnews

0

Donald Trump’s bluster at the NATO summit only has to do with money, not whether the alliance serves any genuine security purpose, says Jonathan Marshall.

By Jonathan Marshall
Special to Consortium News

The usual NATO summit begins and ends with U.S. and European leaders issuing platitudes about the unbreakable bonds between Western democracies. The two-day summit that began Wednesday is not the usual NATO summit. President Donald Trump came to Brussels armed with a barrage of insults and Twitter blasts against his ostensible allies.

He gave a public tongue-lashing to NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, saying it was unfair for the U.S. to pay the most for protecting Europe while Germany agreed to a new natural gas pipeline to import natural gas from Russia. “Germany, as far as I’m concerned, is captive to Russia,” Trump said. “Germany is totally controlled by Russia.” But Germany turned to Russia after the Trump administration threatened sanctions on Europeans who buy Iranian natural gas. The U.S. also wants to sell more expensive natural gas to Germany.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel responded bluntly to Trump. “I’ve experienced myself a part of Germany controlled by the Soviet Union,” she told reporters, “and I’m very happy today that we are united in freedom as the Federal Republic of Germany and can thus say that we can determine our own policies and make our own decisions and that’s very good.” 

Trump set the stage for his trademark political brawl at a recent rally in North Dakota, where he declared, “Sometimes our worst enemies are our so-called friends or allies, right?” On the same Western swing, he he told supporters in Montana that Europe “kills us with NATO.” As he left the White House for Europe, the President further trolled America’s traditional allies, noting that between NATO, the UK, and Putin—the three subjects of his visit—“Putin may be the easiest of them all. Who would think?”

Though he has for decades complained that other countries have been taking advantage of the U.S., the key to understanding Trump’s performance toward NATO may be recognizing that it is just that, a…

Read more

PressTV-‘Trump pushes Germany to abandon Iran deal’

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US President Donald Trump is trying to intimidate Germany to sacrifice its economic imports, particularly petroleum, oil and gas, from Russia in favor of the United States, according to American writer and academic James Petras who added that Trump also wants Germany to  join Washington in abandoning  the Iran nuclear agreement.

Professor Petras made the comments in an interview with Press TV while commenting on Trump’s unprecedented tirade against Germany during the NATO summit on Wednesday.

Trump called on NATO allies to commit 4 percent of their GDP to military spending, while the alliance’s European partners are struggling to reach the current target of 2 percent of their annual output.

Trump singled out Germany for criticism over its military spending. He also Germany’s “inappropriate” relationship with Russia.

“Germany is totally controlled by Russia … They will be getting between 60 and 70 percent of their energy from…

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Video: ‘Russia did a great job!’: Belgian Football Union VP talks World Cup & upcoming France v Belgium

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Bart Verhaeghe, Vice President of the Belgian Football Union to RT Check out https://www.rt.com/fifa2018 RT LIVE http://rt.com/on-air Subscribe to RT!

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Execution Halted After Pharmaceutical Company Accuses Nevada of Illegally Obtaining Drug for Experimental Killer Cocktail

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A Nevada judge halted an execution scheduled for 8pm local time on Wednesday after the pharmaceutical company Alvogen filed suit alleging the state illegally obtained its sedative midazolam—which has been part of multiple previous botched executions in other states and was one of three drugs Nevada planned to include in a cocktail that’s never been used for lethal injection in the United States.

Alvogen’s complaint, filed Tuesday, pointed out that “past attempts by other states to use the medicine in lethal injections have been extremely controversial, and have led to widespread concern that prisoners have been exposed to cruel and unusual treatment.” The company alleged Nevada purchased the drug “by subterfuge with the undisclosed and improper intent to use it for the upcoming execution in complete disregard of plaintiff’s rights.”

While Assistant Solicitor General Jordan Smith claimed the company’s “whole action is just PR damage control” and reportedly argued that Clark County District Court Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez had “no authority to stay the execution,” the judge issued a temporary restraining order that bars the state from using midazolam and set another hearing for September 10, effectively delaying the execution of 47-year-old Scott Raymond Dozier.

The condemned man was sentenced to death in 2007 for a first-degree murder conviction in Nevada following a previous second-degree murder conviction in Arizona. Although Dozier waived his appeals in 2016 and told reporters he wishes to be put to death rather than held in prison, human rights advocates have not wavered in opposing plans for his execution.

Noting that “eyewitness accounts of recent executions using midazolam are full of grizzly details,” ACLU Nevada’s legal director Amy Rose wrote in a blog post on Wednesday. “It is deeply troubling that Nevada government officials are barreling ahead with execution when the chances of torturing Dozier are so high.”

“These executions are not justice—they are inhumane and unacceptable,” Rose added. “Capital punishment is an intolerable denial of civil liberties and is inconsistent with the fundamental values of our democratic system. A government that would risk torturing someone to death is not dispensing justice or serving the public good.”

The “risky combination of drugs” Nevada planned to used to kill Dozier also included the painkiller fentanyl and the paralytic cisatracurium.

“A second pharmaceutical company, Sandoz, also raised objections at Wednesday’s hearing to the use of one of its drugs—the muscle-paralyzing substance cisatracurium—in Dozier’s execution. But the company did not immediately ask to formally join Alvogen’s lawsuit,” The Associated Press reported. “A third company, Pfizer, last year demanded Nevada return the third drug intended for use in the execution, the powerful opioid fentanyl. But the state refused.”

Alvogen’s lawsuit is only the second time a drug company has tried to halt an execution over the use of its products, the AP noted, citing Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. The first attempt—by a different company in Arkansas—failed last year.

Nathan O’Neal of KSNV News 3, an NBC affiliate, and Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter David Ferrara said on Twitter Wednesday that Smith plans to file an emergency appeal with Nevada’s Supreme Court to force the execution to proceed, but the high court has not yet received the filing.


Via Common Dreams. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Imposter ‘Saudi prince’ caught after eating pork during $50,000 scam — RT US News

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A con artist who defrauded his victims of millions of dollars while posing as a Saudi prince got caught after a Miami hotelier noticed the supposedly devout Muslim royal was eating pork during their meetings.

Anthony Gignac, a Colombian-born scammer known for targeting super-rich real estate developers, worked under the alias ‘Sultan Bin Khalid Al-Saud’ as he finagled gifts worth around $50,000 from Jeffrey Soffer, the owner of the iconic Fontainebleau resort hotel on Miami Beach. Soffer was negotiating with the fictional prince and his co-conspirators over a deal to buy 30 percent of his hotel in return for a $440million investment, according to the Miami Herald.

READ MORE: Richard Branson nearly lost £4mn to con-artist posing as Defense Secretary Michael Fallon

During their months-long negotiations, the 47-year-old Gignac stayed in the hotel and was known to drive expensive cars fitted with diplomatic plates around Miami Beach, the paper reported. He had apparently bought the plates off eBay.

Gignac is also said to have flown Soffer to Aspen on a private jet in August last year to talk over the supposed deal. Once there, Soffer gave the fraudster a gift of a Cartier bracelet worth tens of thousands of dollars. It is alleged that Soffer only handed over the gift after it was demanded by one of Gignac’s representatives “because the honor of the sultan had been questioned.”

The ruse came undone when Gignac was seen chowing down on pork during meals, delicacies that should be against the religion of a devout Muslim prince. Soffer then alerted the FBI who conducted their own investigation into Gignac. He was arrested in November last year after being caught travelling from London to New York with a passport under a different name.

It is thought that Soffer is just one of 24 victims of Gignac’s scam, which he conducted on and off for more than 20 years. He even documented his adventures on Instagram. The account heavily features pictures of Gignac’s dog, ‘Foxy’, as well as his jewelry, clothes and trips to European hotels.

Chanel NYC

A post shared by Foxy (@princedubai_07) on

Dom

A post shared by Foxy (@princedubai_07) on

READ MORE: Con artist charged with hate crime for targeting elderly Chinese immigrants in ‘blessing scam’

The con man pleaded guilty to impersonating a foreign government official, identity theft and fraud in November. He is currently at a Miami detention center, awaiting his sentencing next month.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

The Ideal Conceal? – LewRockwell

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The company announced this week that their innovative .380 that mimics a smartphone when folded for carry or storage is shipping for those who pre-ordered guns.

Ideal Conceal’s CEO, Kirk Kjellberg, said in a progress update posted Monday that the pre-orders are being sent out the order they were received and promised a line of holsters are close to being complete for the gun.

The Minnesota-made double-barreled derringer made headlines two years ago when it debuted and was supposed to go on sale in mid-2016 with a retail price of $395. However, Kjellberg has since apologized for missed production dates and last fall announced a limited run of “a few hundred” pistols followed by a ramp up to full production in 2018.

Read the Whole Article



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Video: Swedish dentist fired for reporting on refugee patients

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A Swedish dentist has been fired and now risks losing his home – after exposing some of his child refugee patients, as actually being adults. A court fined the …

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Capitalism and Democracy Can No Longer Coexist

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Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh pushes the Supreme Court towards defending a far-right corporate state, says Henry A. Giroux the author of American Nightmare: Facing the Challenge of Fascism.

TRANSCRIPT

SHARMINI PERIES: It’s The Real News Network. I’m Sharmini Peries, coming to you from Baltimore.

On Monday, President Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh as his choice to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh is a well-known conservative federal appeals court judge; a former aide to President George W. Bush. He also served as one of the investigators of President Bill Clinton during his impeachment process. As a staunch conservative, Kavanaugh, if confirmed by the Senate, would consolidate the conservative majority on the Supreme Court, moving it significantly to the right. Here is Brett Kavanaugh on his nomination.

BRETT KAVANAUGH: My judicial philosophy is straightforward. A judge must be independent, and must interpret the law, not make the law. A judge must interpret statutes as written, and a judge must interpret the Constitution as written, informed by history, and tradition, and precedent.

SHARMINI PERIES: Now, looking back, the retiring Justice Kennedy sometimes sided with the liberal justices on key issues such as abortion rights, affirmative action, gay marriage, the death penalty, and reversing unfair housing discrimination. Here is how Bernie Sanders reacted to the announcement of Brett Kavanaugh as Trump’s Supreme Court choice at a rally on Monday night.

BERNIE SANDERS: Are you ready to defend Roe v. Wade? Look, I am not going to kid anybody. This is a tough fight, but it is a fight that we can win. We have the American people on our side. Now we’ve got to go state by state by state to make sure that senators do what their constituents want.

SHARMINI PERIES: Joining me now to analyze the meaning of Trump’s choice for Supreme Court is Henry Giroux. Henry is the McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the Public…

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Why the Democrats Are Also to Blame for Brett Kavanaugh

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Photo by The White House | CC BY 2.0

“I’m open to voting yes. I’m open to voting no.” – Sen. Doug Jones (Democrat, Alabama)

It’s as if a horror film is playing right before our very eyes, except this time there are no redeeming characters swooping in to save us. We face a constitutional Armageddon and the do-nothing Democrats are just as much to blame as the Republicans.

During the confirmation of Trump’s last Supreme Court pick, Neil Gorsuch, three Senate Democrats voted in favor; Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota. All three of these rightwing Democrats are facing tough reelection campaigns in their respective pro-Trump states. We all know what hangs in the balance with Trump’s latest Supreme Court pick of Brett Kavanaugh, yet the Democratic leadership is going to have a tough time reining in their own.

True, it’s not as if Trump needs their votes. Even if all three Democrats oppose Kavanaugh for the bench, he’d likely still slide right through the nomination process. What’s the Democrat’s grand strategy to stop him? To court Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, both of whom are in favor of protecting women’s reproductive health. Or so they say. For Kavanaugh’s nomination to fail, all Democrats would have to oppose him and one Republican would have to defect as well. It’s a strategy that is bound to fail.

If the Democrats cannot cobble together a solidified…

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Video: Keiser Report: American Capitalist Cancer (E1251)

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In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max and Stacy discuss how private equity has destroyed yet another U.S. firm for short term gain. They also ask whether or …

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Video: Top U.S. & World Headlines — July 11, 2018

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Visit https://democracynow.org to watch the full independent, global news hour, read the transcript, search our archive and to make a donation to support us.

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Mental Illness Serves as Easy Scapegoat in Mass Murder Accounts

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CBS4 Local News, 5/18/18

A local Texas CBS station published an article (5/18/18) warning of “signs of mental illness” in the wake of the Santa Fe shooting, but stated that that shooter’s mental state was “unknown.”

After the May 18 mass murder at a high school in Santa Fe, Texas, a local CBS station (5/18/18) published an article headlined, “Looking for Signs of Mental Illness in Wake of Recent Shootings.” It described the Santa Fe shooter, Dimitrios Pagourtzis, as a “person who kept to himself,” citing this trait as a possible warning sign of mental disorder.

A day later, NPR (5/19/18) attempted to piece together bits of information about Pagourtzis, calling into question his mental state, quoting one student:

I don’t think he was normal…. I think he was really strange and quiet. I wasn’t surprised when I heard it was him…. He always wears this weird trenchcoat and kind of looks like a psychopath.

Descriptions of the Santa Fe shooter as a deranged social outcast in a trenchcoat flooded headlines. A New York Times article (5/18/18) led with, “Dimitrios Pagourtzis was seen entering the low-slung building at Santa Fe High School on Friday morning, armed and wearing a trenchcoat.”  CNN (5/21/18) began an article, “The teenager accused of carrying out the mass shooting at Santa Fe High School on Friday was known as a quiet student who often wore a trenchcoat to school,” while the Washington Post (5/18/18) published a piece headlined, “Alleged School Killer Dimitrios Pagourtzis had a Fondness for Trenchcoats and a Growing Darkness.”

Washington Post (5/21/18)

The Washington Post (5/18/18) headlined  the Santa Fe shooter’s wardrobe choices and  “growing darkness.”

Though painted as an outcast, a brooding, troubled teenager and even a “psychopath,” Pagourtzis has no history of mental illness. In fact, most perpetrators of mass shootings don’t.

Inaccurate—and damaging

A study that analyzed 235 mass killings in the US between 1913 and 2015 found 22 percent of perpetrators demonstrated signs of  mental illness. An American Psychiatric Association study from 2013 notes only 1 percent of yearly gun-related homicides are carried out by people with mental illness (New York Times, 2/16/18).

Stephen Paddock, who killed 59 people at a Las Vegas concert, had no history of mental illness. Even an autopsy of Paddock’s brain revealed nothing of note. But the Washington Post (10/2/17) quoted the Las Vegas Metropolitan sheriff saying, “I can’t get into the mind of a psychopath.”

NYT: ‘Always Agitated. Always Mad’: Omar Mateen, According to Those Who Knew Him

After the Pulse Nightclub massacre, the New York Times (6/18/16) focused on “hints of a disturbed mind” while publishing smiling portraits of the killer.

The word “psychopath” is also thrown around in the case of the Orlando Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateen. CBS (6/11/17) published an account that described Mateen as a “psychopath with a rifle.” The New York Times (6/18/16) ran an article full of smiling photos, childhood portraits and selfies, that described Mateen as “always agitated, always mad,” “a difficult student” and having “hints of a disturbed mind.” Mateen was never diagnosed with mental illness.

When mental illness is a possible part of the equation, media often stress that aspect over other compelling narratives. Dylann Roof, the white supremacist who murdered nine African-American churchgoers in Charleston is likely mentally ill, according to psychiatric evaluations, despite refusing to reveal psychiatric information in court. With this potential illness available as a ready explanation, much of the media failed to examine the impact of his racist worldview, and the far-right websites that inculcated it, on his violence (Slate, 6/20/15). The New York Times (7/16/15) outlined his troubles at home and school, and Fox News (6/22/15) questioned, “Why Didn’t Anyone Help Dylann Roof?” The fact is that Roof did have help in developing an ideology in which murdering African-Americans to spark a race war made sense, but with a pat psychological interpretation (possibly) available, there was no need to explore the social context of his crime.

The damage of stigma

The implication that mass shooters are generally mentally ill—and the desire to portray them as such, even when they are not—is not only inaccurate, but also damaging to the vast majority of people with mental illness who are nonviolent.

The American Journal of Psychiatry (5/1/13) examined the effects of news media messages about mass shootings on mental illness stigma. It found that compared to a control group, those who viewed a story about a mass shooting reported heightened negative attitudes toward persons with serious mental illness, perceiving them as more dangerous.

A 2013 poll by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation found that 41 percent of Americans would be uncomfortable working with someone with mental illness. The National Alliance on Mental Illness notes that when stigma like this leads to lack of treatment, it can lead to other medical conditions, a higher chance of dropping out of school and an increased risk of suicide.

A desire for notoriety

FoxNews (6/22/15)

Fox News (6/22/15) said paranoia, depression and self-loathing can lead people to adopt “bizarre beliefs” like white supremacy. Another thing that can lead to such beliefs: watching Fox News (FAIR.org, 12/22/15).

The media’s fixations with Pagourtzis’ trenchcoat and withdrawn personality come from common fallacies about the Columbine High School massacre of 1999. The perpetrators of that crime were falsely reported to be part of the “Trenchcoat Mafia,” a clique of gamers and outcasts at the school who were not affiliated with the shooters. Social awkwardness and duster coats have been associated with mass shootings ever since.

What the Columbine shooters, Pagourtzis and other mass killers most importantly have in common, though, is a desire for notoriety. According to an affidavit (AP, 5/19/18), Pagourtzis told investigators he spared the lives of students he liked so they could “tell his story.”

A New York Times article (5/30/18) outlined the contagious effect the notoriety of Columbine has on school shooters today:

The role of the media in turning school gunmen into household names and perpetuating “the infamous legacy they desire” can be shown to have inspired additional attacks, researchers at Western New Mexico University reported recently. There have been growing calls for withholding the names and biographies of school gunmen from newspaper and television coverage.

The article went on to acknowledge that the Times regularly profiles mass murderers. Articles displaying shooters’ mugshots, speculating about their mental health and providing biographical details are not only plentiful at the Times, but throughout media. After the Parkland shooting, the news dove into the topic of Nikolas Cruz’s “troubled past” and history with mental illness.

NBC (2/18/18)

NBC (2/18/18) revealed Parkland shooter’s history of mental health issues—and outlined his racist tendencies—within the same sentence.

An NBC article (2/18/18) featuring a photo of Cruz outlined how the shooter was nearly hospitalized for mental health issues in 2016 after cutting himself and displaying hate symbols on his bookbag (as if racism is a side-effect of mental illness, and self-harm is a sign of homicidal desires). A Newsweek piece (3/18/18) did the same.

The New York Times (5/30/18) described Cruz as “a 19-year-old with a history of mental health and behavior problems,” before summarizing his video manifesto, in which he declared—referring to the rifle that he would use in his murders—“With the power of the AR, you’ll all know who I am.”

With media digging through his past and medical history, Cruz got his wish.

Evading media’s own role

Could it be media would prefer to scour for evidence of a shooter’s mental illness or report on his dysfunctional past, rather than address what their own role could have been in encouraging killers, through being the very channel by which their “story” is told? If journalists blame some vaguely defined, catch-all category of mental illness for these crimes, or at least imply it is partially responsible, they don’t have to address how their widespread coverage could be a contributing factor (FAIR.org, 10/2/15).

According to an estimate by Duke University professor who studies the relationship between violence and mental illness, if we were to cure everyone with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression overnight, the amount of mass shootings in America would only decrease by 4 percent.

If we were to stop giving shooters the spotlight, though, the number of mass shootings is likely to decrease greatly, according to a study in American Behavioral Scientist (9/5/17). It cited another study in the same journal (11/2/17) that found at least 32 attackers identified the Columbine shooters as role models, with eight identifying the Virginia Tech shooter as a role model.

Though mental illness plays a role in some mass shootings, media coverage plays some role in all of them.

 


This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission from FAIR.

London Pride organizers apologize after ‘disgusting’ stunt by anti-trans group — RT UK News

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Pride in London has apologized after being heavily criticized for allowing a small anti-trans group of women to lead the parade on Saturday. The organizers called Get the L Out’s behavior “unacceptable.”

Ten women from the anti-trans group appeared at the front of the parade carrying banners saying “transactivism erases lesbians” and describing the trans movement as “anti-lesbianism.”

Other LGBT groups called on organizers to justify how the group had been able to make it to the front of the 30,000-strong parade. Chair of LGBT+ Lib Dems Jennie Rigg described the protest as “a betrayal of the thousands marching.”

Pride apologized for the “disgusting” behavior by the protest group and said in a statement: “The protest group showed a level of bigotry, ignorance and hate that is unacceptable. We reject what this group stands for. They do not share our values, which are about inclusion and respect and support for the most marginalized parts of our community.”

A Get The L Out spokeswoman said the group was protesting against lesbians being “threatened and intimidated” by the GBT community.

“The GBT community today, by supporting the rights of males who ‘identify as lesbians’ (also called ‘transwomen’) over the rights of lesbians to choose their sexual partners (on the basis of their sex, not how they ‘identify’) is in fact enforcing heterosexuality on lesbians,” she said, according to the BBC. “This is a misogynistic and anti-lesbian manifestation of the rape culture we live in.”

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Hacker selling US military documents online… because someone forgot to change a default password — RT US News

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Sensitive military documents have been put up for sale in online hacking forums after someone forgot to change a default password, according to a security firm that discovered the breach.

Documents for sale include maintenance manuals for servicing MQ-9 Reaper drones, training manuals describing deployment tactics for improvised explosive devices (IEDs), documents detailing tank platoon tactics and an M1 ABRAMS tank operation manual, Bleeping Computer reported.

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Computer software pioneer John McAfee. © Jorge Dan Lopez

Security firm Recorded Future discovered the documents for sale online and said the hacker who stole them was selling the information for the surprisingly low bargain price of between $150 and $200.

The security firm, which has reported its findings to US authorities, said it had engaged with the hacker online and found he had used a program to search for Netgear routers that use a known default File Transfer Protocol (FTP) password. He then used the default password to gain access to the routers — and some were located at military facilities.

The hacker stole the MQ-9 Reaper manual, for example, from the Creech Air Force Base in Nevada. The Reaper drones are used by the US Air Force, the US Navy, the CIA, NASA and the Customs and Border Protection agencies — as well as other foreign militaries. The hacker did not say where he got the other documents from but experts suspect they were taken from the Pentagon or a US Army official.

A spokesperson for Recorded Future said the stolen training manuals were not classified material, but in the wrong hands “could provide an adversary the ability to assess technical capabilities and weaknesses in one of the most technologically advanced aircrafts”.

READ MORE: Snowden’s security tip: ‘Shift your thinking from passwords to passphrases’

The entire affair could have been avoided, however, if the IT team at the military bases had simply changed the default password.

Bleeping Computer reported that the issue with Netgear routers using default passwords has been known since 2016 when a security researcher raised the alarm about the oversight. At the time, Netgear published a support page containing information on how users could change the password — but obviously not everyone paid attention.

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

PressTV-China planning to retaliate against US ‘in other ways’

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China is reportedly reviewing plans to hit back at aggressive US trade measures “in other ways,” a report says, citing Chinese officials.

Chinese officials familiar with the plan told The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that Beijing was looking into alternative options as it imported only 130 billion dollars’ worth of goods from the US last year — not enough to match Washington’s tariffs on Chinese goods dollar for dollar.

Those alternatives include delaying the approvals of mergers and acquisitions involving US companies, holding up licenses for US firms, and “delaying and ramping up” inspections of American products at borders, the officials said.

A day earlier, the administration of US President Donald Trump had announced 10-percent tariffs on an extra $200 billion worth of Chinese imports.

In a statement, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer released a wide-ranging list of Chinese goods to be hit with the new set of…

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Video: Russia coach Stanislav Cherchesov talks to RT

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His gruff persona and unconvincing record with the national team made many doubt Russia’s football coach Stanislav Cherchesov ahead of the World Cup, but …

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Video: As Trump Admin Misses Deadline to Unite Families, HHS Head Calls Jailing Kids an Act of “Generosity”

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https://democracynow.org – The Trump administration failed to meet a court-imposed deadline Tuesday to reunite all of the children under the age of 5 whom …

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Making Heavy Weather: Boris Johnson the Despoiler

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There is a certain haunting similarity between the President of the United States and the now former foreign secretary of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson.  This does not merely extend to mad, oddly positioned hair, and misshaped mullets.  Both share a philosophy of upending the order and permanent disruption, impossible for those on their putative side of politics to measure, predict or contain.

Last Friday, Prime Minister Theresa May thought that her cabinet, moulded by cabinet responsibility, would be able to go forth with the bare bones of a plan for negotiations with the European Union for Britain’s departure.  Johnson, with characteristic muddling, had signed on to the Chequers statement, but had issued public utterances about his dissatisfaction.  He was on board, but only in wobbly fashion.

Having first seen which way the wind would turn, Johnson waited for the initial resignations of the Brexit team led by David Davis to take the plunge. His resignation was intended as an improvised explosive device, timed to blow up in the prime minister’s face just before she was to address members of parliament on Monday.

The letter has all the elements of BJ the opportunist, the cad, the slippery debater.  It has no definite shape in terms of what should be done, but is filled with defiance and, dare one say it, hope. Central to the argument is a defence of the “British people”, those subjects for whom he supposedly speaks for.  “They were told that…

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Video: Two places, two faces: US senator gives different statements on meeting with Lavrov

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One of the key figures involved in making Trump-Putin summit happen seems to change his views depending on where he is. Check out http://rt.com RT LIVE …

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Video: Nevada Plans to Kill Condemned Prisoner with Fentanyl & Drug Linked to Botched Executions

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https://democracynow.org – A drug manufacturer has filed suit in an attempt to stop an execution of a condemned prisoner slated for tonight. The drug company …

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New female genital mutilation case in UK every 2 hours, figures reveal, while all prosecution fails — RT UK News

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A new case of female genital mutilation (FGM) is recorded in the UK every two hours, new official figures reveal. Most of the victims identified by the NHS were aged between 25 and 40.

It has sparked calls for authorities to do more to prosecute perpetrators – there has not been a successful case since FGM was outlawed in 1985.

According to figures released last week by the NHS, there were up to 6,196 women and girls who showed up at GPs across the country for FGM treatment between April 2017 and May 2018. Of these, 4,495 were newly recorded cases of FGM.

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FILE PHOTO. © Pacific Press

Some 70 cases of the 6,195 were detected when the person was still a child.

Leethen Bartholomew, head of the National FGM Centre, which aims to eradicate FGM in the UK by 2030, said in a statement: “Shockingly, the figures confirm that dozens of women and girls born in the UK have undergone FGM, despite the practice being illegal for over 30 years. Yet there still hasn’t been a single successful prosecution to hold perpetrators to account.

“FGM is child abuse and it’s vital that we work with affected communities to change hearts and minds about the practice.”

It was reported in March that cases of alleged FGM in the UK had increased fivefold since 2014. According to responses by 47 police forces obtained through a Freedom of Information request by the Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation (IKWRO), there were 1,337 reported cases of FGM over a three-year period between 2014 and the end of 2016. Cases had risen from 137 in 2014 to 647 in 2016.

The latest data from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), however, shows there have been just 36 referrals of alleged FGM to the CPS since 2010. Despite the government criminalizing FGM in 1985, there has not been a single successful prosecution.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Federal court shields overzealous TSA agents from abuse lawsuits — RT US News

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Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers are immune from abuse lawsuits because they are not investigators or law enforcement officers, a federal court of appeals has ruled, dismissing a Florida woman’s lawsuit.

The Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) shields most US government employees from intentional tort claims, with the exception of law enforcement or investigators. However, TSA personnel do not fall into this category, the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Wednesday in a 2-1 verdict.

“TSA employees typically are not law enforcement officers and do not act as such,” but rather carry out “administrative searches and contact local law enforcement if they encounter situations requiring action beyond their limited though important responsibilities,” the majority explained.

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© Mario Anzuoni

The court was “sympathetic” to concerns that this would leave travelers with “very limited legal redress” in case they encounter aggressive or overzealous TSA screeners, but expanding the liability would be “squarely in the realm” of Congress, Circuit Judge Cheryl Ann Krause wrote in the 53-page majority opinion. Judge Thomas L. Ambro disagreed, appending a 58-page dissent.

Nadine Pellegrino, a consultant from Boca Raton, Florida, had filed the lawsuit for false arrest, false imprisonment and malicious prosecution over a 2006 incident at the Philadelphia International Airport. Pellegrino and her husband were jailed for 18 hours and charged with 10 criminal counts over a confrontation with several TSA agents, including assault and making terrorist threats. They were acquitted in 2008.

The 3rd Circuit ruling comes a day after New York Giants footballer A.J. Francis slammed the agency on Twitter for spilling his mother’s ashes during a baggage search. TSA has apologized and offered condolences.

TSA and airlines urge travelers to keep remains in a wood or plastic container that can be easily X-rayed and placed in carry-on baggage for easier inspection. Asked why he had placed the urn in the checked baggage, Francis said that Delta Airlines was demanding a death certificate, which he had not received by that point.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

PressTV-China not buying ‘contaminated’ recycled material from US

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For months, a major recycling facility for the greater Baltimore-Washington area has been facing a big problem: it has to pay to get rid of huge amounts of paper and plastic it would normally sell to China.

Beijing is no longer buying, claiming the recycled materials are “contaminated.”

For sure, the 900 tons of trash dumped at all hours of the day and night, five days a week, on the conveyor belts at the plant in Elkridge, Maryland — an hour’s drive from the US capital — are not clean.

Amid the nerve-shattering din and clouds of brown dust, dozens of workers in gloves and masks — most of them women — nimbly pluck a diverse array of objects from the piles that could count as “contaminants.”

That could be anything from clothes to cables to tree branches to the bane of all recyclers: plastic bags, which are not supposed to go in recycling bins because they snarl up the machinery.

“We’ve had to slow our machinery, and hire more people”…

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A Call To Ease Tensions

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With Donald Trump about to meet Vladimir Putin in their first summit on July 16, prominent academics, journalists, politicians and activists call for a lessening of dangerous tensions between the two nuclear powers. 

An Open Letter:  Common Ground For Secure Elections and True National Security

Many Americans remain deeply concerned about reports of Russian interference with the 2016 election. Meanwhile, relations between the United States and Russia are at their lowest and most dangerous point in several decades. For the sake of democracy at home and true national security, we must reach common ground to safeguard common interests—taking steps to protect the nation’s elections and to prevent war between the world’s two nuclear superpowers.

Whatever the truth of varied charges that Russia interfered with the election, there should be no doubt that America’s digital-age infrastructure for the electoral process is in urgent need of protection. The overarching fact remains that the system is vulnerable to would-be hackers based anywhere. Solutions will require a much higher level of security for everything from voter-registration records to tabulation of ballots with verifiable paper trails. As a nation, we must fortify our election system against unlawful intrusions as well as official policies of voter suppression.

At the same time, the U.S. and Russian governments show numerous signs of being on a collision course. Diplomacy has given way to hostility and reciprocal consular expulsions, along with dozens of near-miss military encounters in Syria and in skies above Europe. Both sides are plunging ahead with major new weapons development programs. In contrast to prior eras, there is now an alarming lack of standard…

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Video: Turmoil in UK: Jeremy Hunt appointed new Foreign Secretary amid Brexit disarray

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British PM Theresa May has appointed Jeremy Hunt as the new top diplomat, after Boris Johnson resigned citing May’s “soft” Brexit deal with the European …

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Video: Mark Weisbrot: Trump’s Threats to Invade Venezuela Are Part of U.S. Strategy of Regime Change

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https://democracynow.org – The Associated Press is reporting President Trump repeatedly asked senior White House advisers last year about the possibility of a …

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At Historic Habeas Corpus Hearing, Guantanamo’s ‘Dangerous Experiment in Indefinite Detention’ Challenged

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Lawyers representing a group of men held for over a decade without charge at Guantánamo asked a federal court on Wednesday to provide judicial intervention to stop the men’s arbitrary and unlawful imprisonment—continued detention, the legal team says, that is fueled by President Donald Trump’s “executive hubris and raw animus.”

“Our dangerous experiment in indefinite detention, after 16 years, has run its course,” said Baher Azmy, legal director at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), who argued before Judge Thomas Hogan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

CCR, human rights organization Reprieve, and other counsel filed on January 11—the offshore prison’s 16th anniversary—a challenge to the men’s indefinite detention. The habeas corpus motion (pdf) references the “devastating psychological and physiological consequences” and “conditions devised to break human beings” the men continue to experience. In addition to violating the constitutional right to due process, the motion argues:

[Trump’s] defiant policy exceeds his authority under the 2001 Authorization for “Use of Military Force (“AUMF”), which permits detention only for the narrow purpose of preventing the return of detainees to the battlefield. Instead, the policy is a symbolic, indifferentiated assertion of this president’s expectation of absolute executive authority and a rejection of the policy framework that has governed Guantánamo detentions for years. Not least, it is a demonstration of his antipathy to ward this prisoner population, all foreign-born Muslim men, and toward Muslims more broadly, of the kind courts have properly rejected in recent months.

“The government says my detention is legal because of the indefinite war against terrorism. When terrorism ends, the war will end. So, never,” said 43-year-old Sharqawi Al Hajj, a Yemeni who’s been detained without charge since 2002. His is among the separate 8 motions Judge Hogan heard.

Al Hajj and the other petitioners, however, were not allowed to listen to their own hearing. The government, which spends over $10 million a year per detainee at Guantanamo, said it didn’t have a room to accommodate all the shackled men listening to a live feed. The court agreed with the government that a transcript would suffice.

According to a press statement from Reprieve, Judge Hogan asked U.S. Justice Department attorney Ronald Wiltsie if the AUMF justification would allow the government to detain the men for 116 years.

“Yes,” Wiltsie said. “We are still engaged with the same battle foes in the same battle space.”

As Azmy stressed, “Due process of law does not permit the arbitrary detention of individuals, particularly at the hands of a president like Donald Trump, who has pledged to prevent any releases from Guantánamo. That position is based not on a meaningful assessment of any actual threat, but on Trump’s animosity towards Muslims, including these foreign-born prisoners at Guantanamo—the height of arbitrariness. Short of judicial intervention, Trump will succeed.”


Via Common Dreams. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

More inconsistencies in account of second UK novichok poisoning

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More inconsistencies in account of second UK novichok poisoning

By
Thomas Scripps

11 July 2018

Yesterday evening in the UK saw the release of reports from Salisbury District Hospital that, “We have seen a small but significant improvement in the condition of Charlie Rowley. He is in a critical but stable condition, and is now conscious.”

Rowley is the second victim of a reported poisoning by a “novichok” nerve agent. His partner, Dawn Sturgess, died Sunday.

Events since the two reportedly came into contact with a nerve agent on June 29 have piled questions on top of questions.

Metropolitan police assistant commissioner Neil Basu claimed on Monday that Sturgess and Rowley received a high dose of novichok as a result of handling a container of some sort holding the nerve agent. The pair’s “reaction is so severe it resulted in Dawn’s death and Charlie being critically ill. This means they must have got a high dose.”

Rowley’s house in Amesbury, Sturgess’ Salisbury homeless hostel and the nearby Queen Elizabeth Gardens—along with several other sites—have been cordoned off and are being searched by around 100 police officers for the container, which has still not been identified in the 11 days since June 30, when they became ill and were hospitalised.

Twenty-one individuals—including police officers, hospital staff and members of the public—have been medically assessed over fears of exposure to the poison. All have been discharged.

Each development only adds to the opaque and contradictory descriptions of “novichok” first given during the Skripal affair. Dr. Mirzayanov, who claims to have worked on production of the nerve agent, states that it would have decomposed in the four months since the Salisbury events, raising doubts that it relates to…

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Video: “Appreciate your allies, you don’t have many’ – Tusk advises Trump

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European Council President Donald Tusk has urged Washington – and Trump specifically – to stop criticizing NATO allies over defense expenditure Check out …

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Video: A New Era of IMF Riots: Protests Force Haiti to Rescind Fuel Hikes

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https://democracynow.org – In Haiti, massive anti-austerity protests recently shut down parts of the capital Port-au-Prince after the government tried to …

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Mum of 6yo epileptic boy becomes first to legally bring ‘miracle’ cannabis oil into UK — RT UK News

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The mother of a six-year-old epileptic boy is the first person to legally bring medical cannabis into the UK after being given a special license by the Home Office.

Hannah Deacon, whose son Alfie Dingley relies on the class B drug to treat his epilepsy, was able to pass through London City Airport on Tuesday with a five-month supply of medical cannabis obtained in Amsterdam.

“Today, for the first time ever in this country, we have bought back THC oil through the airport legally, which is amazing,” Deacon said after passing through customs, as quoted by the PA.

The Home Office granted the family a license for the drug in June after a long battle.

Deacon, a carer from Kenilworth, Warwickshire, says the “miraculous” drug reduces Alfie’s seizures from 300 to one a month. The medicine will be given to Alfie’s GP, who should approve it for prescription, although Deacon may still have to repeat the whole process if the government does not allow for the plant-based drug to be rescheduled.

READ MORE: Jeremy Corbyn says ‘yes’ to legalizing medical cannabis but opposes recreational use

Home Secretary Sajid Javid announced the scheduling of the drug would be reviewed for medical purposes after the high-profile case of 12-year-old epileptic boy Billy Caldwell, whose mother Charlotte had a supply of cannabis oil taken off her at Heathrow Airport in June.

The government appears to have taken steps towards the reclassification of the drug after its chief medical adviser, Professor Dame Sally Davies, said there is “conclusive evidence” it helps treat some conditions. The Advisory Council for Misuse of Drugs will deliver an assessment on the issue in the following weeks.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

California father ‘swings baby like a baseball bat’ in fight with girlfriend (VIDEO) — RT US News

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A man in California is facing child abuse charges for using his 18-month-old son as a weapon to fend off his girlfriend during a skirmish. In the CCTV clip, the man is seen swinging the child around and dropping him on the ground.

A domestic brawl at Riverwalk Montecito Estates has led the District Attorney office to file charges against the 27-year-old Techhoak Danny Lim, who used his own son to chase his girlfriend away. The video of the incident captured by the neighbor shows an Asian woman as Lim walks into a frame holding a child – and dropping him. Clearly upset over something, Lim picks up the toddler as the couple continues to engage in their dispute.

Minutes later, the camera captures Kim wielding the child like a weapon, swinging the poor kid around. In the heat of the moment, the toddler is once again thrown to the ground. As the girlfriend runs off, Kim takes off in the opposite direction, closely followed by the kid on his feet, the video of the incident which happened last Thursday reveals.

“The video shows him hitting her with the baby like a baseball bat,” Riverside police Detective Jerilynn Czobakowski told reporters.

Anti-child-abuse activist & former Nobel Peace Prize nominee arrested for planning sex with 2yo

Police arrested the man five hours after the incident before releasing him on $50,000 bail the next day. The child suffered cuts, bruises and bleeding to an earbud. After receiving the medical treatment he was placed in the custody of his mother. Lim meanwhile faces charges of child endangerment and domestic violence. The 27-year-old is due to appear in court on September 7.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Says U.S. News-Media Still as Bad as 2003 & the ‘Saddam’s WMD’ Lies

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Eric Zuesse

On July 6th, Jack Matlock, who had been the U.S. Ambassador to Moscow working with Mikheil Gorbachev to end the Cold War in 1987-1991, headlined at washingtonsblog, “The Claim that ‘Russia Interfered with U.S. Elections’ Is Political Nonsense’,” and he wrote that America’s news-media persistently misrepresent the Russiagate evidence, because first the Obama Administration and then now the Trump Administration are jiggering the Government’s intelligence evaluations in order to accuse Russia of having tried to assist Donald Trump’s campaign against Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

He says (and these are just the highlights):

Did the U.S. “Intelligence Community” judge that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election?

Most commentators seem to think so. Every news report I have read of the planned meeting of Presidents Trump and Putin in July refers to “Russian interference” as a fact and asks whether the matter will be discussed. Reports that President Putin denied involvement in the election are scoffed at, usually with a claim that the U.S. “intelligence community” proved Russian interference. In fact, the U.S. “intelligence community” has not done so. The intelligence community as a whole has not been tasked to make a judgment and some key members of that community did not participate in the report that is routinely cited as “proof” of “Russian interference.” …

This report is labeled “Intelligence Community Assessment,” but in fact it is not that. A report of the intelligence community in my day would include the input of all the relevant intelligence agencies and would reveal whether all agreed with the conclusions. …

The report states that it represents the findings of three intelligence agencies: CIA, FBI, and NSA, but even that is misleading in that it implies that there was a consensus of relevant analysts in these three agencies. In fact, the report was prepared by a group of analysts from the three agencies pre-selected by their directors, with the selection process generally overseen by James Clapper, then Director of National Intelligence (DNI). Clapper told the Senate in testimony May 8, 2017, that it was prepared by “two dozen or so analysts—hand-picked, seasoned experts from each of the contributing agencies.” If you can hand-pick the analysts, you can hand-pick the conclusions. The analysts selected would have understood what Director Clapper wanted since he made no secret of his views. Why would they endanger their careers by not delivering?

What should have struck any congressperson or reporter was that the procedure Clapper followed was the same as that used in 2003 to produce the report falsely claiming that Saddam Hussein had retained stocks of weapons of mass destruction. That should be worrisome enough to inspire questions. …

The second thing to remember is that reports of the intelligence agencies reflect the views of the heads of the agencies and are not necessarily a consensus of their analysts’ views. The heads of both the CIA and FBI are political appointments, while the NSA chief is a military officer. …

One striking thing about the press coverage and Congressional discussion of the January report, and of subsequent statements by CIA, FBI, and NSA heads is that questions were never posed regarding the position of the State Department’s INR, or whether the analysts in the agencies cited were in total agreement with the conclusions. …

On the first page of text, the following statement leapt to my attention:

“We did not make an assessment of the impact that Russian activities had on the outcome of the 2016 election.” …

Now, how can one judge whether activity “interfered” with an election without assessing its impact? …

As for particulars, the report is full of assertion, innuendo, and description of “capabilities” but largely devoid of any evidence to substantiate its assertions. …

Most people, hearing that it is a “fact” that “Russia” interfered in our election must think that Russian government agents hacked into vote counting machines and switched votes to favor a particular candidate. This, indeed, would be scary, and would justify the most painful sanctions. But this is the one thing that the “intelligence” report of January 6, 2017, states did not happen. Here is what it said: “DHS [the Department of Homeland Security] assesses that the types of systems Russian actors targeted or compromised were not involved in vote tallying.”

This is an important statement by an agency that is empowered to assess the impact of foreign activity on the United States. Why was it not consulted regarding other aspects of the study? Or—was it in fact consulted and refused to endorse the findings? Another obvious question any responsible journalist or competent politician should have asked. …

He is saying that this is strikingly like the 2003 ‘Saddam’s WMD’ scam by the Government with the full cooperation of the major news-media, to fool the public into hating Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin, like they 15 years ago fooled the public into hating Putin and invading Iraq. Just like at that earlier time, the nation’s press are unified with the Government, to demonize, on dubious if not outright fake grounds, a foreign head-of-state, and create a ‘need’ for more intensive military action and exploded military budgets, to ‘defend’ our country against a ‘threat’ which is only by lies, misdirection and thinly based innuendo.

However, there is a big difference: this time, what could be at stake might be a world-ending nuclear war, and not merely the entirely needless destruction of a far smaller country, which had no nuclear weapons (nor any WMD) at all.

This time, what the Government and its press are doing is vastly more dangerous.

—————

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of  They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of  CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.

Scholars Demand Mideast Settlement Now

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The Middle East is in turmoil now, possibly again on the verge of a major war that could draw in the United States and Russia. President Donald Trump has pulled the United States out of the six nation nuclear agreement with Iran, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA. Although a few of his advisers counseled against leaving the agreement, he has brought into his cabinet advisers who are known to be hawkish toward the Middle East and prefer regime change in that area to regime reform. The most notable of these advisers is John Bolton, appointed as director of the National Security Agency. His policies align well with those of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who condemned the nuclear accord with Iran from the outset.

On May 14 of this year Israel celebrated the seventieth anniversary of its existence. It has enjoyed extraordinary military successes against its Arab neighbors in 1948, 1956, and 1967, and after suffering a setback at the outset of the 1973 war with Egypt and Syria, the Israel Defense Force crossed the Suez Canal and was in a position to threaten the capitals of Egypt and Syria and their many population centers. Yet, in spite of its unmatched military capabilities in the Middle East, its strong cultural institutions, its technological capacities, and its high standards of living with respect to the other states in the region, Israel has negotiated peace agreements only with Egypt and Jordan.

The United States government has provided immense financial and military support to Israel as have American citizens and American corporations. The American-Israeli Political Action Committee is one of the strongest pressure groups in the United States on a par with corporate lobbies and the National Rifle Association. The recent decision of the American government to move its embassy to Jerusalem, done without extracting any concessions from the government of Israel and with no support from its European allies, makes clear the American government’s support for the state of Israel.

Equally important and distinctly related, perhaps as severe as the tensions between Iran and Israel, is the presence of Israel’s soldiers on the west bank of the Jordan River, with its heavy Palestinian population. The Israel Defense Force has been in military occupation of that region for five decades, making it one of the longest military occupations of modern times. The Israeli state has used its power in that area to deny statehood to the Palestinians, to oppress the Palestinian population, to dispossess Palestinians of houses and land, and has established a substantial settler population, strongly committed to annexing these territories. American political decision makers, as well as Israeli political leaders, need to rethink their political, military, economic, and cultural policies in the region. If Israel maintains its army in the West Bank and continues, with Egypt, to isolate Gaza from the outside world, surely Israel…

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Video: Fans flood host city ahead of Belgium v France

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Check out https://www.rt.com/fifa2018 RT LIVE http://rt.com/on-air Subscribe to RT! http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=RussiaToday Like us …

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PressTV-New York activists lash Trump on migrant children

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New York elected representatives, clerics, activists and lawyers accused the Trump administration on Wednesday of deliberately delaying the reunification of migrant families separated at the US-Mexico border.

The coalition of activists called on the Republican president to abolish the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE), outside a facility in Harlem where around 250 migrant children have been housed without their parents being informed.

At total of more than 2,300 children were split up from their families as a consequence of the administration’s “zero tolerance” practice that saw their parents prosecuted for illegally crossing the border with Mexico, even if they did so to seek asylum.

Many are fleeing gang violence and poverty in Central America.

Activists said two daughters, aged five and nine, of a Honduran asylum seeker identified only as Hector are still at the Harlem center despite their father’s best efforts to…

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Loan Stars

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The post Loan Stars appeared first on Truthout.

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The UK’s Brexit Shambles

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Photo by Christopher Michel | CC BY 2.0

Blighty this week has been frying in record warm temperatures. The army had to be called in to assist firefighters dealing with large moorland fires in the north of England.

Out of control fires are perhaps an apt metaphor for what is happening in UK politics.  Tory misgovernment gets worse with each passing day.

Tory handling of Brexit has been chaotic from the beginning, and is now beyond shambolic.

Ministers no longer leak surreptitiously against each other, since this has been superseded by denunciation and threats made brazenly in public by Tory Brexiteers and Remainers alike.  These two hate each other more than they do the opposition Labour party.

The EU has always been crystal-clear that Brexit means exactly that, namely, the UK’s exit will be a 100% departure from the EU.

The Tories, split among themselves, are either fine with this (the “hard” Brexiteers) and a range of ad hoc factions craving “more flexible” options tending towards  a “soft” or “softer” Brexit.

Theresa “the Maybot” May, a hack politician if ever there was one, is hopelessly out of her depth in dealing either with her own viciously divided party or the brutally uncompromising eurocrats in Brussels.

Where her own party is concerned, she tries to placate all sides, and of course ends up pleasing none.

It’s open season for the Tories when it comes to embarrassing the Maybot or undermining her in public.

In negotiating with the…

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Video: Enormous iceberg filmed breaking from Greenland glacier

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The moment a giant iceberg measuring 4 miles (6 km) in length broke off from a glacier in Greenland, sending huge chunks of ice crashing into the sea, was …

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In Wake of AMLO Victory, US Media Fear Chavismo and Hope for ‘Business-Friendly’ Change

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NYT: López Obrador, an Atypical Leftist, Wins Mexico Presidency in Landslide

For the New York Times (7/1/18), the election of Lopez Obrador brings “a sense of economic nationalism that some fear could reverse important gains of the last 25 years.”

Neoliberal capitalist dogma pervades mainstream media. A case in point is coverage of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s resounding victory in Mexico’s presidential election.

Referring to the president-elect by his commonly used acronym, the New York Times’ Azam Ahmed and Paulina Villegas (7/1/18) claimed that

one of AMLO’s biggest challenges will be to convince foreign investors that Mexico will remain open for business. If he fails to convince the markets that he is committed to continuity, or makes abrupt changes to the current economic policy, the country could find itself struggling to achieve even the modest growth of prior administrations.

According to the authors, keeping Mexico “open for business” for “foreign investors” should be a priority, a call for maintaining the economic status quo in a country where nearly half the population lives below the poverty line. Ahmed and Villegas suggest that “continuity” is necessary, even as they themselves say earlier in the article “that the nation’s desire for change outweighed any of the misgivings the candidate inspired”; evidently pleasing “the markets” matters more than carrying out the will of the populace.

The authors note López Obrador’s “sense of economic nationalism,” which “some fear could reverse important gains of the last 25 years.” Which gains these are and who made them is unspecified; economist Mark Weisbrot of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (7/1/18) pointed out:

Poverty is worse than a quarter century ago, real wages are lower than in 1980, inequality is worsening, and Mexico ranks 18th of 20 Latin American countries in terms of income growth per person in the 21st century.

Another New York Times article (7/2/18), this one by Ahmed and Kirk Semple, said that López Obrador “must still convince investors that his policies will be business friendly.” Ensuring that “investors” are happy is apparently a nonnegotiable imperative.

Revealingly, the authors failed to consider how this supposed essential can co-exist with another necessity they describe, which is that “Mr. López Obrador will also have to deliver on his promises to address widespread poverty and yawning inequality.” Ahmed and Semple decline to point out the contradiction here: “Investors” rarely deem policies that “address widespread poverty and yawning inequality”—say, a higher minimum wage and the redistribution of wealth through social programs—to be “business friendly.” By glossing over such inconsistencies, and proffering magical thinking according to which capital can be appeased while poverty and inequality are successfully fought, the authors performed a service for advocates of neoliberal capitalist scripture.

WaPo: Mexico’s president-elect has far too many promises to keep

The Washington Post (7/2/18) fears Lopez Obrador “reversing the hard-won progress of his predecessors in shifting the statist, autocratic Mexico of the 20th century toward a modernizing liberal democracy.”

The Washington Post (7/2/18) editorialized on AMLO’s win:

It may be that Mr. López Obrador’s promise of radical reform will amount to reversing the hard-won progress of his predecessors in shifting the statist, autocratic Mexico of the 20th century toward a modernizing liberal democracy. The new president…is likely to slow a partial privatization of the oil industry.

According to this perspective, privatization is synonymous with “progress.” A society advances, it would seem, when profits from and control of its resources are taken from the public and turned over to a small number of wealthy, unaccountable people.

A reference Ahmed and Semple (New York Times, 7/2/18) made to US/Mexico relations illustrates the same servile attitude to ruling-class interests:

Mr. Trump has badgered Mexico since he announced his candidacy, criticizing its migrants, threatening to abandon the North American Free Trade Agreement and promising to build a wall between the two countries.

The ideology of pro-corporate trade deals runs so deep that the possibility of ending NAFTA is presented as being as dangerous and as contemptible as racist slurs against migrants and plans to further militarize the US/Mexico border.

Bad comparisons

Neoliberal capitalist orthodoxy bifurcates the world between believers and unbelievers, often without parsing the differences among the heretics. Thus, as I wrote for FAIR (6/26/18) shortly before Mexico’s election, Trump and López Obrador are lumped together, even though the former is a racist warmonger who has given the rich $5 trillion and has boasted of sexually assaulting women, while the latter has a record of solidarity with campesinos and indigenous people, subsidizing transit, and providing stipends to seniors and single mothers.

The Post wrote that AMLO

is a product of the political left, but his victory is part of the global story of rising populist leaders. Like many of them, including President Trump, Mr. López Obrador promises to overturn the reigning political establishment, says he alone is capable of delivering on his far-fetched promises, and assails the media, courts, civil society groups and all others who might check his personal power. Like other populists, the incoming Mexican leader also has been vague and occasionally contradictory about the specific policies he may pursue, even while insisting he will bring about a “transformation” comparable to Mexico’s achievement of independence. In that, he is sure to fail; the question is how much damage he may do to the democratic system that enabled him to gain power.

Saying that AMLO is like Trump because both are “populists” in a vague, vacuous sense, is akin to putting pet food and rat poison in the same category because both are intended to be eaten by animals. While Trump calls for strict voter ID laws that will undermine democracy by disenfranchising the poor and minorities, there is a dearth of compelling evidence that López Obrador’s will do “damage…to the democratic system.”

Ahmed and Villegas claimed that

the allure of López Obrador message is steeped in the language of nostalgia for a better time….In this way, and others, the parallels between Mr. López Obrador and President Trump are hard to ignore. Both men are tempestuous leaders, who are loath to concede a political fight. Both men lash out at enemies, and view the media with suspicion.

These comparisons between the two politicians are ankle-deep, overlooking as they do that Trump has sought a massive increase to the hundreds of billions of dollars that the US spends killing people around the world, while López Obrador has promised to launch a public-works program to employ 2.3 million young people and to raise pensions for the elderly.

NYT: A New Path in Mexico

The New York Times (7/2/18) hopes Lopez Obrador won’t be “a radical leftist in the mold of Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez who will send swarms of migrants across the border.”

The neoliberal capitalist catechism also manifests itself by maligning those who have challenged its doctrines with any degree of success. This is evident in coverage of AMLO’s win that considers the commonplace comparison between him and the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. When corporate media outlets examine this analogy, they do so on the assumption that it will be bad for Mexico if López Obrador adopts policies similar to Chávez’s.

A New York Times editorial (7/2/18) asked whether López Obrador was like Chávez or Trump or both, and concludes that “unlike Mr. Chávez and Mr. Trump, the president-elect is a lifelong politician with firm faith in democracy.” The accusation that Chávez was undemocratic is false. Every election he won was certified free and fair. When Chávez was president, the Venezuelan government launched a program called Barrio Adentro (“Inside the Neighborhood”), designed to foster mass political participation and improve public health, that proved to be “especially popular with the poorer sections of the society” (Globalizations, 1/3/13).

Ahmed and Semple write that “for as long as Mr. López Obrador has been running for president, accusations that he will sink the economy have chased him. He was likened in the news media to Hugo Chávez, the former socialist leader of Venezuela,” a comparison that the authors describe as “overblown.”

Ahmed and Semple take for granted that Chavez “[sunk] the economy,” but when Chávez was leader, Venezuela’s rates of poverty, inequality, illiteracy, child mortality and malnutrition sharply declined. If that’s what it means to “sink the economy,” one could be forgiven for hoping AMLO’s nautical skills are in line with Chávez’s.

 

 

 


This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission from FAIR.

Police can’t say Skripal & Amesbury cases linked, ‘no guarantee’ those responsible will be caught — RT UK News

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Britain’s counter-terrorism chief Neil Basu says he can’t guarantee authorities will catch those responsible for the nerve agent poisoning of the Skripals and Dawn Sturgess, and is even unable to say if both incidents are linked.

Basu, who is national lead for Counter Terrorism Policing, told residents of Amesbury he would “love to be able to say that we have identified and caught the people responsible and how we are certain there are no traces of nerve agent left anywhere in Wiltshire, but the brutal reality is that I cannot offer you any reassurance or guarantee at this time.”

Sturgess and Charlie Rowley reportedly fell ill after coming into contact with Novichok on June 30, and Sturgess died days later. This is the same nerve agent believed to have poisoned Sergei and Yulia Skripal in March. Public Health England have repeatedly said there is no wider threat to the public arising from the Skripal case.

“At this stage, we cannot say with certainty that both the incident in March and this latest incident are linked,” Basu told attendees at Tuesday evening’s community meeting.

Despite the admission, and acknowledging that the investigation “must be led” by evidence and “facts alone,” the Scotland Yard officer added that he believed it to be “implausible” that there would be two separate incidents in one small English county.

He said scientists would continue to establish if the nerve agents are from the same batch, but that the Defence, Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down are “already crystal clear” that both are Novichok. Police believe Sturgess and Rowley came into contact with a container holding nerve agent inside and are trying to find it. They have not found any evidence that they visited any of the sites which were decontaminated following the Skripal poisoning.

Despite the British government blaming Russia, police have not named suspects in either poisoning incident. In May, the UK’s national security adviser Sir Mark Sedwill said authorities did “not yet” know who was responsible for the Skripal death, and no updates have been offered since.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Trump tells NATO allies to spend more… like thrifty Pentagon buying $1.2k mugs & $10k toilet seats? — RT US News

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Toilet seat covers that cost $10,000? Coffee mugs for $1,200 apiece? No wonder NATO countries aren’t too keen to follow US military spending benchmarks. Even the Pentagon is looking for better deals and 3D printing for savings.

While President Donald Trump browbeats NATO allies into increasing their military spending, the US Department of Defense is spending untold amounts of taxpayer money on common items it could buy off the shelf or even make in-house, were the military actually allowed to do so.

In one recently reported example, crews of the air tankers and cargo planes based at the Travis Air Force Base in southern California live in dread of dropping the special cups designed to reheat coffee or tea on long flights. The metal cup’s fragile plastic handle is prone to breaking, and there are no replacements to be found, requiring the Air Force to spend up to $1,220 for an entirely new mug.

The 60th Aerial Port Squadron has spent almost $56,000 over the past three years on new mugs, the Air Force Times reported on Monday, describing the drinking vessel as “worth its weight in gold.” Indeed, just this year the USAF spent $32,000 on just 25 cups.

While the Pentagon is still going through its first-ever internal audit, the staggering cost of items such as coffee mugs and toilet seats certainly helps explain where some of that $700 billion-plus in taxpayer funds is going every year.

The root of the problem is that the Pentagon makes bad deals, as Trump might say. When the Department of Defense contracts for purchases, the contracts seldom include intellectual property rights, which allows contractors to charge through the nose for repairs and replacements –or lack thereof– down the road, according to Dan Grazier, former Marine tanker and a fellow at Project On Government Oversight (POGO).

The Air Force could 3D print many components, but it doesn’t own the rights to do so, Assistant Secretary for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Will Roper told Defense One in May. He brought up the issue of the toilet seat covers for the C-17 Globemaster transports, which cost $10,000 because USAF is not allowed to 3D print them for $300.

“You’ll think, ‘There’s no way it costs that’,” Roper said. “No, it doesn’t, but you’re asking a company to produce it and they’re [busy] producing something else.”

The story has caught the eye, and ire, of Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who wrote to the Pentagon’s deputy inspector general in June, saying that “there is no way to justify a $10,000.00 price tag for a toilet seat lid. It’s just not credible. It needs scrutiny.”

As of Tuesday, there has been no response, Grassley’s office said.

When it comes to the coffee mugs, however, the Air Force has finally decided to do something. Captain Ryan McGuire of the 60th Air Mobility Wing turned to designers and engineers in the Phoenix Spark program for a cheaper solution.

“The handle currently on the hot cup has a square bottom which creates a weak point on the handle so any time it is dropped, the handle splits shortly after impact,” said Nicholas Wright, a volunteer 3D designer and printer with Phoenix Spark, according to a Travis AFB release. “Our new rounded handle reduces that weak point. The handle we designed is stronger and capable of being printed at most Air Force bases.”

Now it’s up to the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Wright Patterson AFB in Ohio to approve the design, so it can go into production.

It may seem like the US government has never had any sense when it came to contracting, with an oft-quoted myth about NASA spending millions on a space pen while the Soviets used pencils to get around the problem of writing in zero gravity. The actual story is somewhat different, however.

NASA was indeed wasteful in its contracting, paying a Texas-based company $128.89 apiece for some 34 mechanical pencils in 1965. That same year, the Fisher Pen Company patented the “space pen” it researched at its own expense. By 1968, both NASA and the Soviets were buying pens from Fisher in bulk, at $2.39 each, according to Scientific American.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

France in Flames, but World Cup Team Doing Great

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Gregory Hood, American Renaissance, 9 July 2018

Diversity is strength and immigration a blessing for the French Republic. Just look at the World Cup results. France’s heavily non-white team has been championed by Ed Aarons in the Guardian, Afshin Molavi in the Washington Post, and Antoinette Muller at the Daily Maverick as a multi-racial success. They’re hardly alone—the UK Independent called the polyglot Belgium/France matchup nothing less than a “celebration of immigration.” “Nativists” beware: If it weren’t for immigrant soccer players, neither France nor Belgium would have a chance in the World Cup.

This happy talk is in sad contrast with what’s happening back in the Republic. Last week, a French police officer in the western city of Nantes fatally shot one Aboubakar Fofana after a traffic stop. Initially, the officer said he fired to save the lives of others. However, under interrogation, he admitted his gun went off accidentally as he struggled with Fofana. The officer has been charged with manslaughter.

There were four days of riots. Even the New York Times called it a “familiar replay of grim media images . . . in France, where law enforcement tactics in immigrant neighborhoods are a regular source of friction.” According to the Times, the late Monsieur Aboubakar “had at least eight previous encounters with the police and . . . had an outstanding arrest warrant on a robbery charge.” Even if the officer made a mistake,…

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Are Open Borders Libertarian? – LewRockwell

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This article is excerpted from the author’s A Realistic Libertarianism.

Left-libertarians profess to apply libertarian principles more consistently than other libertarians. In fact, their role is to serve as Viagra to the State. This becomes apparent when one considers their position on the increasingly virulent question of migration. Left-libertarians are typically ardent advocates in particular of a policy of ‘free and non-discriminatory’ immigration. If they criticize the State’s immigration policy, it is not for the fact that its entry restrictions are the wrong restrictions, i.e., that they do not serve to protect the property rights of domestic citizens, but for the fact that it imposes any restrictions on immigration at all.

But on what grounds should there be a right to un-restricted, “free” immigration? No one has a right to move to a place already occupied by someone else, unless he has been invited by the present occupant. And if all places are already occupied, all migration is migration by invitation only. A right to “free” immigration exists only for virgin country, for the open frontier.

There are only two ways of trying to get around this conclusion and still rescue the notion of “free” immigration. The first is to view all current place occupants and occupations with moral suspicion. To this purpose, much is made of the fact that all current place occupations have been affected by prior State-action, war and conquest. And true enough, State borders have been drawn and redrawn, people have been displaced, deported, killed and resettled, and state-funded infrastructure projects (roads, public transportation facilities, etc., etc.) have affected the value and relative price of almost all locations…

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Video: ‘Heroes are there…not in the World Cup’: Mourinho praises people involved in Thai cave rescue

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‘The kids and especially the divers and those involved in the rescue. For me the World Cup comes second’ – Mourinho Check out https://www.rt.com/fifa2018 RT …

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PressTV-Ex-CIA chief blasts Trump’s ‘reckless behavior’

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Former CIA Director John Brennan has slammed Donald Trump after the US president censured allies for their contributions to NATO at the Western military alliance’s annual summit in Brussels, calling him “dangerously naive & grossly ignorant.”

“It is in the interest of America’s security if NATO leaders push back against the reckless behavior of Donald Trump, who is dangerously naive & grossly ignorant of how the world works,” Brennan said on Twitter on Wednesday.

“History inevitably will regard Trump as one of the most disastrous figures of the 21st century,” the former top spy continued.

At the meeting on Wednesday, Trump called on NATO allies to commit 4 percent of their GDP to military spending, while the alliance’s European partners are struggling to reach the current target of 2 percent of their annual output.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the main focus should be on all members meeting the 2 percent…

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The Wisdom Of Serpents | Dissident Voice

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Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
— Mathew 10:16

While there is a lower class, I am in it, while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.
— Eugene Debs, Statement to the Court upon being convicted of violating the Sedition Act, September 18, 1918

Last month I called Bernie Sanders’ Democratic party primary run “sheepdogging” my term for a move the national Democratic party seems to execute every presidential primary season when there’s no incumbent White House Democrat. The job of the sheepdog candidate is to herd leftish voters and activists back into the Democratic party one more time by giving perhaps sincere but limited and ineffectual voice to some of their issues.
— Bruce A. Dixon.  “This is what happens when we follow the Democrat sheepdog.  And what can happen if we don’t”, Black Agenda Report, June 3, 2015

I keep watching the ways in which people, left leaning liberals anyway, and even some I thought were leftists, fall over themselves to believe in the Alexandria Ocasio Cortez victory. Now, I don’t believe, I should make clear. But I find what is interesting is the ways in which this story became a kind of fairy tale and found traction. First, it’s New York. If this occurs in Port Huron or Tampa or Bakersfield — there is no story. Secondly, this woman came out of the Democratic Party machine, out…

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Video: ‘US can’t be taken advantage of by EU’: Tensions rise ahead of NATO summit

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Tensions between Europe and the US are casting a massive shadow over Wednesday’s NATO summit. Check out http://rt.com RT LIVE http://rt.com/on-air …

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What’s at Stake if Brett Kavanaugh Joins the Court

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President Donald Trump has nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh to replace former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. Why should you care? Because everything from reproductive rights to voting, education, and health care is now at stake.

Kavanaugh, a judicial ideologue committed to pulling the Court further to the right, may also reverse decades of key rulings that uphold the constitutional right to personal liberty and autonomy.

All Americans say they value personal freedom, especially the right to make our own decisions about our private lives. Every day, we take that liberty for granted, from exercising our right to free speech to lighting up sparklers on the Fourth of July. Cherishing our liberties is as American as apple pie — but our right to exercise those liberties could be undone.

Nowhere is the issue more critical than on reproductive rights. Kavanaugh’s nomination will mean a major battle to undo key protections in Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court case that firmly established the right to access safe, legal abortion.

Striking down Roe would immediately outlaw abortion in states where pre-Roe anti-abortion laws are technically still on the books. As many as 22 states could be impacted over the course of two years.

That’s bad enough. But it’s also critical to remember the reasoning behind the historic 7-2 ruling: that people have a constitutional right to privacy.

Specifically, the Supreme Court upheld and enshrined the protections included in the First, Fourth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments, holding that those protections applied to decisions a person might make about their own body.

According to Roe, the right to make your own choices is one of the founding principles that govern this country.

Ultimately, that decision informed several other critical rulings, including cases that forbade bans on same-sex romantic relationships and affirmed the right to same-sex marriage. According to Roe, the right to make your own choices is one of the founding principles that govern this country.

If Roe is overturned, that could set off a chain reaction that upends this critical foundation behind other landmark cases — both those that came before and those that came after.

The constitutional right to privacy informed Loving v. Virginia, which struck down criminalization of interracial marriage, and Griswold v. Connecticut, which enabled the legalization of contraceptives. The constitutional right to privacy also played a key role in Carpenter v. United States, a recent ruling that prohibits warrantless collection of cellphone users’ data without reasonable cause.

Judicial precedent set by the Supreme Court has built a solid foundation for interpretation of the law — but all it takes is a stacked court to have that foundation tumble like a house of cards.

Supreme Court appointments are for life. The rulings these justices make affect the entire judicial system for decades, if not centuries, to come. Each year, dozens of critical cases come before the court that deeply impact people’s rights and daily lives.

While outgoing Justice Anthony Kennedy wasn’t perfect, he was committed to upholding the personal right to privacy as enshrined in U.S. law. Kavanaugh, however, could roll back our hard-won freedoms — and those of future generations.

The Senate will be voting soon on whether to confirm Kavanaugh. A lot more than just a vacant bench hangs in the balance.

Via Common Dreams. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Monty Python’s Cleese to leave UK due to British press

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Actor and comedian John Cleese has declared he will leave the UK later this year due to the “lying and triviality” of the British press – ranked the least trustworthy among 33 European nations.

Cleese appeared on BBC Newsnight on Tuesday to express his frustration at the current state of Britain. While exasperated at the level of debate on Brexit, he more pointedly stated that his “particular beef” was with the British press.

The 78 year old, a long-time Liberal Democrat supporter who voted leave in the 2016 EU Referendum, came armed with a clipboard and chart to highlight the research carried out by the EU each year on the trust level, in the printed media by its citizens.

The eccentric actor got BBC presenter Emily Maitlis to confirm that according to the extensive public opinion polling carried out by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the UK is ranked last out of 33 European countries on levels of trust in the press.

Cleese laughed when Maitlis suggested the statistics illustrated that the UK press was robust, adding: “Least trusted does not necessarily mean not true.”

Cleese, who has been a vocal supporter of electoral reform, advocating a move to proportional representation, as well as press reform, told the BBC that he was upping sticks to relocate to the tiny Caribbean island of Nevis in autumn later this year.

“It’s one of the nicest islands I’ve ever been on. The relationship between the races is absolutely superb. The people there are really kind,” he said of Nevis.

READ MORE: We had a ‘poof’ & ‘no slave owners’: Monty Python’s Cleese slams BBC ‘too white & Oxbridge’ claim

So has the UK got an issue with levels of public trust in the print press and the media more widely?

Based on the EBU’s latest 2018 report, which surveyed approximately 1,000 people aged 15 or over in 33 European nations in 2017, it would appear so.

As Cleese said, the UK is ranked 33rd out of 33 on public trust in the press. Almost two-thirds of British people surveyed “tend not to trust” their print media. Only 23% “tend to trust” and 4% “Don’t know” if they trust the British press – meaning the British public have a net trust level of -50 in the written press.

The Netherlands tops the EU’s written press trust league, with 71% of their citizens declaring trust in their press and only 25% saying they do not trust them.

Looking at public trust levels in the media more broadly, the UK comes bottom again with Albania, Portugal, Slovakia, Austria and Belgium topping the list. Half of Brits have “low or no trust in the media,” 39% have “medium trust” and a minuscule 9% have a “high trust in the media.”

Other notes of interest include the EBU’s findings that show there is a correlation between press freedom and broadcast media. Britain (GR) as illustrated below, does not come out with flying colours, ranking very lowly.

Social media has played an ever-growing role in distributing information, however there are concerns that platforms such as Facebook and Twitter lack the required regulation to safeguard against unsafe sources of information. The EBU report shows that people have less trust in social media than any other medium ranking 5th (1. Radio 2. Television 3. Print Media 4. Internet 5. Social Media).

For a nation that prides itself on its historic “democratic values,” can Britain confidently conclude that democracy has never been so strong, when public trust levels in those that hold the UK government of the day to account are incredibly low?

Can a nation be truly democratic if the people do not trust a key source of information? The rise in accusations of “fake news” discourse cannot help matters for the beleaguered industry.

Radical reform of the print media may be the only way forward to regain public trust. Less select few of billionaire newspaper owners, such as Rupert Murdoch and Lord Rothermere and more democratically run print companies – operated in the interest of its citizens, free from close relationships with the political establishment.

Omar Baggili

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

YouTube TV service goes haywire in midst of England-Croatia World Cup Semi-final — RT US News

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Google’s internet-delivered subscription TV service, YouTube TV, has suffered outages across the US right as it was airing the Fox broadcast of the 2018 World Cup semi-final match between England and Croatia.

Even though the US national team did not qualify for the World Cup, Americans have seemingly not been immune to the football fever that has gripped the world during the tournament. Google’s TV service might well have experienced it firsthand, as it was hit with nationwide outages at the time of the semi-final, probably due to the large number of people watching the match or trying to.

YouTube TV acknowledged the technical problems in a Twitter post. It also offered “sincere apologies” to viewers, as it was apparently aware of the significance of the moment. “The timing is horrible but we’re working to be up and running again asap!” the service said. 

The interruption also came amid the men’s quarter-final matches at Wimbledon. Fortunately for the US sports fans, YouTube TV managed to promptly restore the service.

Google launched YouTube TV in April 2017, and it now offers a core lineup of over 50 traditional broadcast and cable networks. It was not the first time that the internet-delivered service was on the blink. In May, it went down during another sporting event – the Game Two of the NBA’s Eastern Conference Finals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: ‘Belgium kept hiding on the biggest stage, but Pogba was mature’ – Jose Mourinho on France v Belgium

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RT special World Cup host Jose Mourinho has accused Belgium’s players of “hiding” but heaped praise on France midfielder Paul Pogba, who helped his side …

Via Youtube

A Call to Ease Tensions Between the Nuclear Superpowers – Consortiumnews

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With Donald Trump about to meet Vladimir Putin in their first summit on July 16, prominent academics, journalists, politicians and activists call for a lessening of dangerous tensions between the two nuclear powers. 

An Open Letter:  Common Ground For Secure Elections and True National Security

Many Americans remain deeply concerned about reports of Russian interference with the 2016 election. Meanwhile, relations between the United States and Russia are at their lowest and most dangerous point in several decades. For the sake of democracy at home and true national security, we must reach common ground to safeguard common interests—taking steps to protect the nation’s elections and to prevent war between the world’s two nuclear superpowers.

Whatever the truth of varied charges that Russia interfered with the election, there should be no doubt that America’s digital-age infrastructure for the electoral process is in urgent need of protection. The overarching fact remains that the system is vulnerable to would-be hackers based anywhere. Solutions will require a much higher level of security for everything from voter-registration records to tabulation of ballots with verifiable paper trails. As a nation, we must fortify our election system against unlawful intrusions as well as official policies of voter suppression.

At the same time, the U.S. and Russian governments show numerous signs of being on a collision course. Diplomacy has given way to hostility and reciprocal consular expulsions, along with dozens of near-miss military encounters in Syria and in skies above Europe. Both sides are plunging ahead with major new weapons development programs. In contrast to prior eras, there is now an alarming lack of standard procedures to keep the armed forces of both countries in sufficient communication to prevent an escalation that could lead to conventional or even nuclear attack. These tensions are festering between two nations with large quantities of nuclear weapons on virtual hair-trigger alert; yet the current partisan fixations in Washington are ignoring the dangers to global stability and, ultimately, human survival.

The United States…

Read more

Vladimir Putin’s Basic Disagreement with The West

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Eric Zuesse, originally published at The Saker

Vladimir Putin’s basic view has been expressed so many times, in so many different contexts, and it’s always the same: that the only people who have a sovereign right to any land, are the people who live on that land — nobody who lives outside that land does. In other words, his basic view is a repudiation — a total rejection — of the very concept of empire: it’s a rejection of the right of foreigners to control any country, anywhere, anytime. Residence is determinative. According to Putin, the only justification that a country can ever have for invading another country is if and when that invasion is in direct and immediate response to that other country’s having invaded their land — purely defensive. Other than this, no invasion of any land by foreigners is acceptable.

The U.S. and its allies endorse empires — endorse conquest. This view was first extensively promoted during 1877-1902 by the founder of the Rhodes Trust, Cecil Rhodes, a self-avowed racist who passionately advocated that all “races” be subordinated to “the first race”: the British. However, he was willing that, if necessary, this empire would fly the U.S. flag instead of the English flag.

In more recent times, George Soros has championed this view, but giving different (non-racialist) words to it. Soros has stated his view of this important matter in mainly two places, and both times he has opposed national sovereignty and asserted instead “the people’s sovereignty” as being something that can justify a foreign invasion into a country by “the international community” in order to protect “the people’s sovereignty” there. He argues for a (what he claims would be) beneficent empire of “the international community,” which fights around the world ‘protecting’ “the people’s sovereignty,” wherever and whenever “the international community” decides that the local government is violating “the people’s sovereignty.”

That’s the basic difference between their views — Putin asserting no foreigner has any right to invade, versus Soros asserting that “the international community” has an obligation to invade (to protect “the people’s sovereignty” there), whenever and wherever it decides to invade and gives some ‘reason’ (truthful or not) ‘justifying’ this ‘protection’ of ‘the people’s sovereignty’, over that land.

At least two separate academic studies have been done (both by Americans) of what Soros’s proposal comes down to in actual practice; and both conclude that what it does in actual practice is to polarize and maybe ultimately destroy (make irrelevant) the U.N., and to enhance international imperialism. (Neither of the two studies connects the issue to the international armanents business, which relies almost exclusively upon imperialism in order to grow its profits — scholars try to avoid motivation and present purely statutory analyses, so as to be inoffensive to extremely wealthy people, who might have non-statutory motives and who heavily endow scholarly institutions in order to have control over the careers of their relevant ‘experts’.)

So, first: here will be statements by Soros, in which he defends his view; and then will be statements by the two scholarly studies finding that Soros’s view is actually just a veiled support for might-makes-right international imperialism — grabbing of one country by other countries. Then, the original systematic statement of the modern imperialist view will be presented, from Rhodes himself, along with sympathetic interpretation of it by Rhodes’s transcriber and close personal friend, W.T. Stead. And, to close here, will be presented the cardinal issue alleged to be the basis for most of the economic sanctions against Russia and for virtually all of NATO’s war games in preparation for a possible ‘defensive’ invasion of Russia: Russia’s reintegrating the briefly Ukrainian land Crimea back into Russia. The West calls that a ‘seizure’ and an ‘invasion,’ and Russia calls it not anything like that, and not even a topic that’s relevant in international law, but purely a matter that the residents of Crimea have the right to decide, on their own — relevant only to law within nations not between nations. So, that issue will be included as a practical application of this basic ideological difference regarding the good or evil of imperialism. Closing this cardinal issue will be Mr. Soros’s personal funding and propagandizing for this coup that he had helped to fund in Ukraine.

Then a PS will be added at the very end, to indicate the deep historical roots that Putin’s rejection of the acceptability of empire has, going back at least as far as the Russia of 1948, when Albert Einstein — a champion of world government as being the only means to avoid a third world war — debated (but not really) against that view, in the February 1948 issue of Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. (He debated there not as a conservative, such as Rhodes; nor as a liberal, such as Soros; but as a progressive, whose overriding concern was to prevent a World War III, and whose aim was to disarm all nations and to have all military armaments transferred to a democratic global government.)

——

SOROS

George Soros, 2003 The Bubble of American Supremacy.

p. 100: “Sovereignty is a historic[al] concept born of an era when society consisted of rulers and subjects, not citizens. It became the cornerstone of international relations with the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, after thirty years of religious wars.”

p. 101: “Anachronistic or not, sovereignty remains the basis of the current international order.”

p. 102: “The principle of sovereignty needs to be reconsidered. Sovereignty belongs to the people: the people are supposed to delegate it to the government through the electoral process. But not all governments are democratically elected and even democratic governments may abuse the authority thus entrusted to them. If the abuses of power are severe enough and the people are deprived of opportunities to correct them, outside interference is justified. International intervention is often the only lifeline available to the oppressed.”

p. 112: “I have no right to call the promotion of open societies the Soros Doctrine. The idea was endorsed in a little-known document, the Warsaw Declaration. [“The Warsaw Declaration Toward a Community of Democracies”, 27 June 2000, listing 16 human “rights” and the obligations of governments to fill them] This document proclaimed that it is in the interest of all democratic countries taken as a group to foster the development of democracy in all other countries. The declaration was signed by 107 states (a greater number than the number of democracies in the world), including the United States, at a conference held in Warsaw in 2000. The conference was sponsored by Madeleine Albright’s State Department.”

p. 118: “The Community of Democracies established by the Warsaw Declaration in 2000 could offer a source of legitimacy for intervening in the internal affairs of nondemocratic states.”

p. 146: “There is another major area where the principle of the people’s sovereignty has important implications: revenues from the exploitation of natural resources. … The natural resources of a country ought to belong to the people, but the rulers often exploit the resources for their own personal benefit. This violates the sovereignty of the people and calls for external intervention.”

p. 167: “To regain the identity it enjoyed during the Cold War, the United States ought to become the leader of a community of democracies and change its behavior accordingly. It ought to lead by building genuine partnerships and abiding by the rules that it seeks to impose on others. Since peaceful cooperative efforts do not necessarily succeed, the United States would still need to retain its military might, but this strength would serve to protect a just world order and would be seen as such by the rest of the world. This vision goes against the grain of the Bush administration’s ideology, which I have described as a crude form of social Darwinism: the survival of the fittest as determined by competition, not cooperation.”

——

https://foreignpolicy.com/2009/10/28/the-peoples-sovereignty/

http://archive.is/xx6bb

http://web.archive.org/web/20171208065423/https://foreignpolicy.com/2009/10/28/the-peoples-sovereignty/

The People’s Sovereignty

How a new twist on an old idea can protect the world’s most vulnerable populations.

BY GEORGE SOROS | OCTOBER 28, 2009, 6:33 PM

Sovereignty is an anachronistic concept originating in bygone times when society consisted of rulers and subjects, not citizens. It became the cornerstone of international relations with the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. During the French Revolution, the king was overthrown and the people assumed sovereignty. But a nationalist concept of sovereignty soon superseded the dynastic version. Today, though not all nation-states are democratically accountable to their citizens, the principle of sovereignty stands in the way of outside intervention in the internal affairs of nation-states.

But true sovereignty belongs to the people, who in turn delegate it to their governments. If governments abuse the authority entrusted to them and citizens have no opportunity to correct such abuses, outside interference is justified. By specifying that sovereignty is based on the people, the international community can penetrate nation-states’ borders to protect the rights of citizens. In particular, the principle of the people’s sovereignty can help solve two modern challenges: the obstacles to delivering aid effectively to sovereign states, and the obstacles to global collective action dealing with states experiencing internal conflict.

… the rulers of a sovereign state have a responsibility to protect the state’s citizens. When they fail to do so, the responsibility is transferred to the international community. Global attention is often the only lifeline available to the oppressed.

——

http://scholarship.law.unc.edu/ncilj/vol40/iss1/5

NORTH CAROLINA JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW AND COMMERCIAL REGULATION

Volume 40, Number 1 (Fall 2014)

“No Responsibility for the Responsibility to Protect: How Powerful States Abuse the Doctrine, and Why Misuse Will Lead to Disuse”

Brighton Haslett

http://scholarship.law.unc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2030&context=ncilj

I. Introduction

… the decision whether or not to intervene and the way in which intervention itself is carried out do not truly turn on humanitarian concerns, but rather are guided by strategic and economic interests. While the doctrine does not preclude weighing of strategic and economic interests,12 it does require that the primary purpose of intervention be to end human suffering.1 …

VI. Conclusion

The inconsistent application of responsibility-to-protect principles in the thirteen years since its inception shows that responsibility-to-protect intervention does not, in fact, turn on humanitarian principles, but on some combination of power dynamics, political strategy, and economic gain.

In the past, the doctrine has been abused and misapplied.354 Unjustified attacks have been launched in violation of the U.N. Charter; interventions justified by the responsibility to protect at the outset have been executed in violation of the principles underlying the doctrine; and situations warranting international action have been ignored due to the economic and strategic interests of states with the power to prevent intervention.355

——

https://sites.temple.edu/ticlj/category/volume-26/

TEMPLE INTERNATIONAL AND COMPARATIVE LAW JOURNAL

Volume 26, Number 2 (Fall 2012)

“Responsibility to Protect: Moral Triumph or Gateway to Allowing Powerful States to Invade Weaker States in Violation of the U.N. Charter?”

Jamie Herron

https://sites.temple.edu/ticlj/files/2017/02/26.2.Herron-TICLJ.pdf

[In 2011,] NATO forces helped the rebel Libyan army overthrow Colonel Muammar Gadhafi’s regime.13  This Note will argue that, as shown by the intervention in Libya, the standard that the [U.N.] General Assembly created to determine when humanitarian interventions are authorized is too flexible, allowing states to invade sovereign nations under the pretext that the invasion is a humanitarian intervention.

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RHODES

https://ia802706.us.archive.org/22/items/lastwilltestamen00rhodiala/lastwilltestamen00rhodiala_bw.pdf

www.archive.org/details/lastwilltestamen00rhodiala

THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF CECIL JOHN RHODES WITH ELUCIDATORY NOTES TO WHICH ARE ADDED SOME CHAPTERS DESCRIBING THE POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS IDEAS OF THE TESTATOR, Edited by W.T. Stead, 1902

p. 52: Mr. Rhodes’s last Will and Testament reveals him to the world as the first distinguished British statesman whose Imperialism was that of Race and not that of Empire. The one specific object defined in the Will as that to which his wealth is to be applied proclaims with the simple eloquence of a deed that Mr. Rhodes was colour-blind between the British Empire and the American Republic. His fatherland, like that of the poet Arndt, is coterminous with the use of the tongue of his native land. In his Will he aimed at making Oxford University the educational centre of the English-speaking race. He did this of set purpose, and in providing the funds necessary for the achievement of this great idea he specifically prescribed that every American State and Territory shall share with the British Colonies in his patriotic benefaction. Once every year “Founder’s Day” will be celebrated at Oxford; and not at Oxford only, but wherever on the broad world’s surface half-a-dozen old “Rhodes scholars” come together they will celebrate the great ideal of Cecil Rhodes the first of modern statesmen to grasp the sublime conception of the essential unity of the race. Thirty years hereafter there will be between two and three thousand men in the prime of life scattered all over the world, each one of whom will have had impressed upon his mind in the most susceptible period of his life the dream of the Founder. It is, therefore, well to put on record in accessible form all available evidence as to the nature of his dream. What manner of man was this Cecil Rhodes.

p. 59 [“His Writings” at around 1877] “I contend that we are the first race in the world, and that the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race. I contend that every acre added to our territory means the birth of more of the English race who otherwise would not be brought into existence. Added to this, the absorption of the greater portion of the world under our rule simply means the end of all wars. … [He then discusses his main goals:] The furtherance of the British Empire, for the bringing of the whole uncivilised world under British rule, for the recovery of the United States, for the making the Anglo-Saxon race but one Empire. What a dream! but yet it is probable. It is possible. … I once heard it argued, so low have we fallen in my own college [Oxford], I am sorry to own it, by Englishmen, that it was a good thing for us that we have lost the United States. There are some subjects on which there can be no argument, and to an Englishman this is one of them. But even from an American’s point of view just picture what they have lost. All this we have lost and that country has lost owing to whom? Owing to two or three ignorant, pigheaded statesmen in the last century [1700s]. At their door is the blame. Do you ever feel mad, do you ever feel murderous? I think I do with these men [supporters of the U.S. Constitution].”

pp. 73-74 [“His Writings” date unclear] “What an awful thought it is that if we had not lost America, or if even now we could arrange with the present members of the United States Assembly and our House of Commons, the peace of the world is secured for all eternity! We could hold your federal parliament five years at Washington and five at London. The only thing feasible to carry this idea out is a secret one (society) gradually absorbing the wealth of the world to be devoted to such an object. There is Hirsch with twenty millions, very soon to cross the unknown border, and struggling in the dark to know what to do with his money; and so one might go on ad infinitum … a scheme to take the government of the whole world!”

pp. 147-149 [“Political and Religious Ideas” dated 1884] “The proposed settlement of Bechuanaland is based on the exclusion of colonists of Dutch descent. I raise my voice in most solemn protest against such a course, and it is the duty of every Englishman in the House to record his solemn protest against it. In conclusion, I wish to say that the breach of solemn pledges and the introduction of race distinctions must result in bringing calamity on this country; and if such a policy is pursued it will endanger the whole of our social relationships with colonists of Dutch descent, and endanger the supremacy of Her Majesty in this country. … I have made up my mind that there must be class legislation, that there must be Pass Laws and Peace Preservation Acts, and that we have got to treat natives, where they are in a state of barbarism, in a different way to ourselves. We are to be lords over them. These are my politics on native affairs, and these are the politics of South Africa. Treat the natives as a subject people as long as they continue in a state of barbarism and communal tenure; be the lords over them, and let them be a subject race and keep the liquor from them.”

p. 114 — Stead, the friend of Rhodes, sums up Rhodes’s view as: “To be a Rhodesian, then, of the true stamp, you must be a Home Ruler [a proponent of federated republic, like in the U.S.] and something more. You must be an Imperialist, not from mere lust of dominion or pride of race, but because you believe the Empire is the best available instrument for diffusing the principles of Justice, Liberty, and Peace throughout the world. Whenever Imperialism involves the perpetration of Injustice, the suppression of Freedom, and the waging of wars other than those of self-defence, the true Rhodesian must cease to be an Imperialist [must cease fighting for more land, and instead fight only for principles]. But a Home Ruler and Federalist, according to the principles of the American Constitution, he can never cease to be [Stead accepted the republicanism of the U.S. Constitution, though his hero had condemned America’s Founders], for Home Rule is a fundamental principle, whereas the maintenance and extension of the Empire are only means to an end, and may be changed, as Mr. Rhodes was willing to change them. If, for instance, the realisation of the greater ideal of Race Unity could only be brought about by merging the British Empire in the American Republic, Mr. Rhodes was prepared to advocate that radical measure. The question that now arises is whether in the Englishs-speaking world there are to be found men of faith adequate to furnish forth materials for the Society of which Mr. Rhodes dreamed: ‘Still through our paltry stir and strife Glows down the wished Ideal. And Longing moulds in clay what Life Carves in the marble Real.’ We have the clay mould of Mr. Rhodes’s longed-for Society. Have we got the stuff, in the Empire and the Republic, to carve it in marble?”

——

UKRAINE & CRIMEA

——

https://www.academia.edu/11797839/Crimea_crisis_before_International_Law

“Crimea Crisis before International Law”

Riccardo Murgia, Università degli Studi di Cagliari 

http://www.unica.it/pub/english/index.jsp?is=23&iso=371

https://unica-it.academia.edu/Departments/Facolt%C3%A0_di_scienze_economiche_giuridiche_e_politiche

https://unica-it.academia.edu/RiccardoMurgia/Activity

p. 8:

Conclusion

… The Russia-Ukraine conflict is a conflict between two of the most important principles of International Law: the principle of self-determination statuted by Article 1, paragraph 2 of the UN Charter, which can bring justification to the Russian actions, and the principle of respecting each state’s territorial integrity and political independence, statuted by Article 2, paragraph 4 of the same charter.

A precedent for Russia’s actions in Crimea can be found in relation with NATO intervention in Kosovo in 1998.

[His study doesn’t mention the coup, which preceded the separation of Crimea from Ukraine. Nor its illegality — the fact that Obama had seized Ukraine via a bloody and thoroughly illegal coup, and that this seizure sparked Crimea’s breaking away from Ukraine and seeking Russia’s protection. Also, Murgia’s study fails to note here that by saying “A precedent for Russia’s actions in Crimea can be found in relation with NATO intervention in Kosovo in 1998” Murgia is validating Putin’s repeated assertions that this “precedent” was introduced by the U.S. itself, and was accepted by the Court, and is now being disowned by the U.S. in order for the U.S. to be able to argue that ‘Putin seized Crimea’ and that therefore the U.S.-imposed sanctions and NATO buildup are somehow justified, instead of being simply aggressive acts against Russia.]

——

https://www.academia.edu/11374379/Validity_of_the_Russian_Annexation_of_Crimea_in_terms_of_International_Law

International Law 341

“Research Thesis: Validity of the Russian Annexation of Crimea in terms of International Law”

JJ Arries [student at Stellenbosch University School of Law]

The second ground on which Ukraine’s argument is flawed relating to the validity of the referendum is that in terms of international law, and as far as it is concerned, no prohibitions exists on unilateral declarations of independence by sub-divisions of a state, and this position is supported by the advisory opinion of the ICJ on the matter Kosovo’s declaration of independence in 2008. The Russian President quoted submissions made by the United States to the ICJ, that repeat their position, “declarations of independence may and often do, violate domestic legislation. However, this does not make them violations of international law.”

Conclusion

Given the arguments made by both parties to the matter, it is clear that in some aspects, Russia did violate international law with regards to the annexation of the Crimean territory. Their arguments on the use of force do not fall in line with the international standards, and thus are invalid. They are however correct in quoting precedents, such as the Kosovo independence matter, as grounds for acting in defence of minorities. The validity of the referendum may be invalid in terms of the domestic law in Ukraine; however, in terms of international law, no prohibition currently exists with regards to declaration of independence by sub-divisions of a state.

——

http://www.icj-cij.org/files/case-related/141/15640.pdf

“Written Statement of the United States of America”

April 2009

[argues that international law does not pertain to revolutions or to declarations of independence, but that all acts forming new nations, including breaking away from any existing nation, are purely internal matters pertaining to the people who live there, nobody else’s business]

United States Department of State Washington, D.C. 20520 www.state.gov April 17, 2009 Pursuant to the Court’s Order of 17 October 2008, I have the honor to enclose thirty copies of the Written Statement of the United States of America concerning the request of the United Nations General Assembly for an advisory opinion on the question of the Accordance with International Law of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence by the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government of Kosovo. I have also enclosed a diskette containing the text of the Statement. Accept, sir, the assurances of my highest consideration. Joan E. Donoghue [“an American jurist, and a Judge on the International Court of Justice. She was elected to that post in 2010 and re-elected in 2014.”], Acting Legal Adviser. Enclosures: As stated Mr. Philippe Couvreur, Registrar, International Court of Justice, Peace Palace, The Hague

“Accordance with International Law of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence by the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government of Kosovo”  …

Statement of the United States of America [17] April 2009 …

pages 50-52:

Section I. International Law Does Not As A General Matter Regulate Declarations Of Independence

lt is widely accepted that declarations of independence, standing alone, present matters of fact, which are neither authorized nor prohibited by international law.202 Neither the United Nations Charter, nor other general international afeements, nor customary international law regulate the act of declaring independence. 20 The fact that international law does not address declarations of independence is not surprising. As a general rule, international law governs the relations between States, not the conduct of entities within States.204 There are certain exceptions, such as those found in international humanitarian law,205 but declarations of independence do not by themselves fall into these exceptions. “Events leading to the creation of a new State generally entail matters within the domestic jurisdiction of a State.”206 [not matters within the jurisdiction of international law]

It is certainly the case that declarations of independence may — and in their nature often do — violate domestic law. However, that does not mean that there has been a violation of international law.207 As Oppenheim has observed in the context of rebellion: “Although a rebellion will involve a breach of the law of the state concerned, no breach of international law occurs through the mere fact of a rebel regime attempting to overthrow the govemment of the state or to secede from the state.”208 Thus, it is widely accepted that, from the standpoint of international law, the process of State formation presents a matter of fact.209 A declaration of independence is an expression of a will or desire by an entity to be accepted as a State by the members of the international community. There may be other events associated with a particular declaration of independence that can be regulated by international law, but as one commentator has remarked:

[T]he State in the contemplation of international law is not a mere legal or ‘juristic’ person (personne morale), whose process of coming into being is prescribed by law. lt is rather a ‘primary fact’, i.e. a fact that precedes the law, and which the law acknowledges only once it has materialised, by attributing certain effects to it, including a certain legal status.210

In this case, the question before the Court is not whether any of these associated events — such as the subsequent recognitions of Kosovo’ s statehood by other States — are permissible under international law, but rather whether the declaration itself was consistent with international law. The fact that international law does not generally seek to regulate the act of declaring independence means that this declaration must be deemed to be in accordance with international law.211

——

George Soros helped to fund this coup in Ukraine, and afterward he propagandized for the U.S. and its allies to spend $50 billion more in order to help to defeat (and to kill as many as possible of) the residents in the portion of Ukraine where the Ukrainian President whom Obama overthrew had won 90% of the vote. This is how much Soros supports “the people’s sovereignty” and “human rights.” He wanted $50B more of Western taxpayers’ money spent on killing these people.

And that’s the difference of opinion, between Vladimir Putin and The West.

——

PS: The following excerpts, from Albert Einstein, present a very different position than either the imperialist one or the nationalist one — he clearly and passionately endorsed the formation of a democratic world government being formed whose legislature would be composed of representatives of equalitarian anti-elitist democratic national governments, and he failed to recognize how corrupt the aristocracies are in every country and how likely they would be to take control over any world government that might ultimately emerge:

https://books.google.com/books?id=0UMEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA9#v=onepage&q&f=false

“Looking Ahead with Albert Einstein”

The Rotarian, June 1948, pp. 8-10

“What urgent message have you for The Rotarian’s world-wide audience of business and professional men?”

That question was put to Dr. Einstein. It resulted, at his suggestion, in these excerpts from his public statements, and a direct answer in a summarizing query. …

“Security Demands Sacrifice”

29 May 1945

A world government must be created which is able to solve conflicts between nations by judicial decision. This government must be based on a clear-cut constitution which is approved by the governments and the nations and which gives it the sole disposition of offensive weapons. A person or a nation can be considered peace loving only if it is ready to cede its military force to the international authorities and to renounce every attempt or even means of achieving its interests abroad by the use of force.

“U.S.S.R. and U.S.A.”

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists [no date, but actually February 1948], responding to Soviet scientists [the entire exchange being on pp. 34-38 in that month’s issue, and later on pp. 134-146 of Ideas and Opinions:]

You are such passionate opponents of anarchy in the economic sphere, and yet equally passionate advocates of anarchy — e.g., unlimited [national] sovereignty — in the sphere of international politics. The proposition to curtail the sovereignty of individual States appears to you in itself reprehensible, as a kind of violation of a natural right. In addition, you try to prove that behind the idea of curtailing sovereignty the United States is hiding her intention of economic domination and exploitation of the rest of the world without going to war. … [Omitted here, but included in the complete versions, was: ”If we hold fast to the concept and practice of unlimited sovereignty of nations, it only means that each country reserves the right for itself of pursuing its objectives through warlike means.” ]

I advocate world government because I am convinced that there is no other possible way of eliminating the most terrible danger. … The objective of avoiding total destruction must have priority over any other objective.

“A Question and an Answer”

[June 1948, here, Einstein’s direct answer to the Rotarians]

The longer we continue to march ahead on this fateful road, the more difficult it will be to leave it. … Each day’s postponement diminishes the probability that the patient will come out alive.

“Albert Einstein, Citizen, Princeton, New Jersey”

Recently he was asked what weapons would be used in a third world war. Dr. Einstein’s reply was characteristic: “I don’t know. But I can tell you what they will use in the fourth. They’ll use rocks!”

——

Whereas it seems to me that Einstein sincerely supported democracy and opposed any dictatorship by the aristocracy or by any other entity, I have the impression that Rhodes sincerely supported dictatorship by a racist aristocracy (this being an extremely conservative government), and that Soros deceitfully supports whatever he thinks will most efficiently serve the interests of America’s aristocracy (against other aristocracies, and against all publics) (and his view represents traditional liberalism).

Vladimir Putin has not yet made clear precisely where he stands on this entire matter, other than via his actions and decisions in public office (plus a few side-comments he has made). Perhaps he thinks that he has made himself clear to everyone by his actions and decisions. And his underlying presumption, that actions and decisions can be trusted far more than any mere words can, makes sense. However, I think that the time has now come when he needs to state publicly, how he views things, explaining that the basic difference is between himself and The West (both Rhodes’s conservative The West, and Soros’s liberal The West), and also regarding Einstein’s advocacy for a global and all-encompassing democratic world government, to be comprised of representatives from all national governments. Perhaps Putin thinks that the latter is impossible; if so, he should explain his position on it, and on the possibility that (and means by which) the U.N. might evolve into that. It needs to enter the public discussion.

My personal view of the matter has been set forth in two articles, which complement (not compliment) one-another: “Liberals Don’t Respect a Nation’s Sovereignty” (which argues that the basic difference between liberals and progressives is that only progressives respect a nation’s sovereignty), and “The Two Contending Visions of World Government” (which argues that the vision of world government that FDR intended, became defeated at the first meeting of the Bilderbergs in 1954, because they were all closeted fascists and controlled NATO). The date when the U.S. Government secretly instructed its allies that the goal going forward would be to conquer Russia, was 24 February 1990, and this plan is now at an advanced stage. All of this would have shocked and demoralized Albert Einstein. He was not a liberal; he was a progressive, but he — like millions of other American progressives — was fooled by closeted fascists, such as the CIA. The issue, in his view, wasn’t isolationism versus internationalism; it was fascism versus progressivism; and fascism (including both the conservative and the liberal sorts) has definitely been winning.

—————

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of  They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of  CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.

Video: The Marc Steiner Show: Baltimore 1968, Baltimore 2018

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Marc talks with TRNN Executive Producer and former political prisoner Eddie Conway and Baltimore activist Durre Smith about how Baltimore’s movements and …

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Video: France fans on Champs Elysee celebrate World Cup Russia 2018 #FansEyeView (LIVE + Tape)

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This is a story that has never been properly told and is the next-best thing to being here. World Cup Russia 2018 has already exceeded everyone’s expectations.

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Video: Porton Down, the ‘elephant in the room’, Craig Murray dismantles Amesbury poisoning story

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Three miles from Amesbury, six miles from Salisbury. ‘Porton Down is the elephant in the room’: former British ambassador who visited #Nukus plant where …

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UK commits troops to its biggest Afghan surge since 2014 ‘pullout’ — RT UK News

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Ahead of the long-anticipated NATO summit in Brussels, the UK has committed to doubling its troop presence in Afghanistan. It is the largest number of British troops in the country since its pullout finished in 2014.

The announcement was made by Prime Minister Theresa May on the eve of the summit. US President Donald Trump has already reiterated his demands that allies should increase their defense spending and contribute more widely to NATO missions instead of relying on the US.

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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and US President Donald Trump © Brendan Smialowski

Since NATO’s combat mission in Afghanistan ceased in 2014, UK troops numbers have stayed at around 450 in non-combat roles. At the peak of their deployment in 2009, UK personnel numbers had swelled to 9,500 across 137 British bases. The latest British surge will see a further 440 “non-combat” troops deployed to the Afghan theatre in a bid to help “bring the stability and security that the Afghan people deserve,” May said in a statement.

Of that 440, approximately half that number will arrive as early as August, with the remaining troops arriving in February 2019. Once deployment has been completed, the UK will rise to become the third largest contributor of troops to Afghanistan out of the entire 29-member alliance. The troops will reportedly not take part in active combat roles, but instead resort to training and assisting Afghan forces, as well as reinforcing the UK-led Kabul Security Force. Dubbed “Armoured Uber,” the KSF’s primary mission is to transport international advisers safely around the capital.

Despite the coalition spending nearly 18 years in Afghanistan – which has cost the UK over £40 billion ($53bn) while estimates put the US cost at over $1 trillion – the security situation in the country has been deteriorating over the years. The Taliban has been seen gaining control of vast swathes of the country and a rival outfit pledging allegiance to the Islamic State has also taken root – gaining a presence and launching its own attacks.

Recent suicide attacks have targeted journalists, security personnel, as well as citizens registering to vote in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

READ MORE: UK to follow Trump and send more British troops to Afghanistan as Taliban attacks increase

Last August, opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn demanded that any troop increase by the UK in Afghanistan is voted on by Parliament with a spokesperson for the Labour leader saying a decision on whether to push for a vote would depend on the “manner of the deployment.”

Saying that the war in Afghanistan had failed, Corbyn went on to warn the prime minister to not “obediently” follow America’s lead. But follow she has, with the news expected to be well received by US President Donald Trump who is expected to use the Brussels summit to reiterate demands that NATO allies contribute more to the alliance in both troops numbers and in defense spending.

Taking the opportunity for one last tweet before his transatlantic flight, Trump tweeted a reminder that it wasn’t fair to the US taxpayer that America is “spending many times more than any other country in order to protect them.”

Despite earlier promises to withdraw US troops from combat zones, the Trump has vowed to up its own numbers in Afghanistan amid a growing number of attacks by Taliban and Islamic State militants in the run-up to Afghanistan’s parliamentary elections in October which has left hundreds killed in 2018 alone.

Last August, Trump promised to deploy 4,000 troops to the region, adding to the 8,300 currently there, and estimates could see a total of 18,000 US troops deployed by the end of 2018.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Illegal immigrant could not be Messiah, Trump’s religious adviser says — RT US News

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A US televangelist and spiritual adviser to the US president has defended the Trump administration’s immigration clampdown, arguing that baby Jesus’ stay in Egypt was legal, otherwise he wouldn’t have been the savior of humanity.

Pastor Paula White, a Pentecostal evangelist who has been credited with converting President Trump to Christianity, made the eyebrow-raising argument in an interview with CBN News. When asked by the host, Erik Rosales, how the immigration controversy in the US corresponded to biblical teachings, Pastor Paula came up with this argument:

“I think so many people have taken biblical scriptures out of context on this, to say stuff like, ‘Well, Jesus was a refugee’. Yes, He did live in Egypt for three-and-a-half years. But it was not illegal. If He had broken the law then He would have been sinful and He would not have been our Messiah.”

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A girl takes part in a protest against Donald Trump's immigration policy on June 30, 2018. © Jose Luis Gonzalez / Reuters

Jesus’s flight to Egypt is considered the final act of the Nativity of Jesus, which saw Jesus and his parents flee to Egypt upon hearing that King Herod of Judea planned to kill all newborn infants in the area. A family fleeing their homeland because staying would result in the death of their baby is probably consistent with the modern definition of refugees.

Whether breaking laws disqualifies a person from being a messiah is a debatable question. After all, Jesus was tried and crucified for the crime of blasphemy under Jewish law and for the crime of lèse majesté under Roman law. Whether the trial itself was a farce to give a veil of legality to a murder or a perfectly legal if misguided procedure is an open question even now.

Some episodes in the Gospels would probably be frowned-upon by modern law. For example, the one in which Jesus expelled money changers from the Jerusalem temple may well be considered unlawful use of force or an illegal protest, were it to happen today.

Most of the CBN interview was about Paula’s recent trip to the Youth for Tomorrow foster care center in Virginia. The facility is where some children separated from their parents under Trump’s ‘zero-tolerance’ immigration policy are currently being housed. She described the center as “amazing” and praised the care provided for the children there: “Not just three square meals, psychiatric care, clinician, medical care, chapel, events, schooling, language and love.”

She maintained that the children being held there are victims of trafficking by “coyotes,” the term given to people who smuggle Latin American migrants across the Mexico-US border. She added her trip only strengthened her belief in greater border security.

“If we are going to be compassionate, we have to have stricter border security and laws,” the pastor said.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

US claims against embassies activities psywar

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Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi has dismissed as ludicrous a recent US allegation that Iranian embassies are involved in terror attacks in Europe.

Qassemi on Wednesday rejected the allegation by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as baseless, preposterous and part of a targeted propaganda campaign and psychological warfare against the activities of the Iranian embassies, which he said were in line with international conventions and aimed at promoting bilateral friendly relations with other countries.

Qassemi said that bringing up such allegations was “another attempt by the United States to destroy our country’s foreign relations.”

Pompeo on Tuesday accused Iran of using its embassies to plot terrorist attacks in Europe.

“Just this past week there were Iranians arrested in Europe who were preparing to conduct a terror plot in Paris, France. We have seen this malign behavior in Europe,” Pompeo said in an interview…

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Trump Hammers NATO. Good! Let’s Get Out!

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President Trump is making waves as he arrives in Europe for the NATO summit. Chiding Germany for benefitting from US protection against Russia while buying billions of dollars worth of Russian oil, he has captured the duplicity of European leaders. But the solution is not to browbeat them to spend more on their militaries. It’s to shut down NATO once and for all. More in today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

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Mutiny on their knees: The Democratic Party’s phony opposition to the Kavanaugh nomination

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Mutiny on their knees: The Democratic Party’s phony opposition to the Kavanaugh nomination

11 July 2018

President Trump’s nomination of Appeals Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh to fill the vacancy on the US Supreme Court has produced a predictable round of demagogic posturing and symbolic fist-shaking by Senate Democrats, vowing to fight against the confirmation of a justice who will give the ultra-right a solid five-member majority on the court for years to come.

This, however, is only the opening scene of a hackneyed stage production whose actors are going through the well-trod motions without a trace of energy or sincerity, and who all know the outcome in advance. In one month, or two, or at the most three, Kavanaugh will be sworn in as the new associate justice of the Supreme Court, as Trump looks on approvingly and Kavanaugh’s co-thinkers in the Federalist Society celebrate.

There were efforts Tuesday by the Democratic Party’s media allies to present the Democrats as engaged in a terrific fight against the Trump Supreme Court pick. The Washington Post ran the banner headline, “Democrats launch all-out blitz against pick for high court,” highlighting this quote from Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer: “I will oppose him with everything I’ve got.”

A reading of the article compels the conclusion that “everything I’ve got” is very little, except his marching orders from Wall Street, which fully backs the nomination. Schumer declares that all 49 Democratic senators would not be enough to defeat Kavanaugh and expresses the hope that two pro-choice Republicans, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, might oppose the nomination. The article goes on to explain that as many as six Democrats may defect and vote for confirmation, including…

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Punished With Poverty – LewRockwell

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From the authors of The South was Right! comes what one historian calls one of the most important and original histories of the Southern people. Punished with Poverty tells the unvarnished story of the intentional policy of economic devastation and exploitation of the South which has affected all Southerners, both black and white, long after the close of the “Civil War” and “Reconstruction.” In fact, the sad legacy of these punitive policies continues to this very day. The over-arching theme of Southern history is not Race, as is conventionally stated, but Poverty—poverty not due to the South’s shortcomings, but imposed on them by the system under which they live.



Punished with Poverty:…
James Ronald Kennedy, …
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Punished with Poverty is a timely and much needed contribution to the understanding of both the South and the nature of the “Federal Empire” under which all Americans now live. From Punished with Poverty “The South’s subjugation and impoverishment have fallen hard on both black and white citizens of the South. Our redemption will come only when all Southerners understand how and why we stand impoverished and virtually defenseless before an all-powerful big government.” (6) “The one great question in today’s political and cultural environment is simply this: ‘Will this generation of Americans have the “right stuff” like the generation of 1776.’ Simply stated, is liberty more important than government to modern Southerners and Americans? For Southerners their ‘subjugation’ and eventual impoverishment has fallen hard on both black and white citizens of the South.

Our redemption will come only when Southerners understand…

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Video: ‘It’s Coming Home!’ – Russian folk band performs famous Three Lions song

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Song: Football’s Coming Home (Three Lions cover) Performed by: Фолк-группа Партизан FM, partizanfm.ru FOLLOW: https://www.rt.com/fifa2018 Check out …

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PressTV-‘Trump more hawkish than Bush, Obama’

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US President Donald Trump is clearly more of a warmonger compared to his previous predecessors and the faster he is removed from office, the safer the world would be, an investigative journalist in Washington says.

Wayne Madsen, an author and columnist specializing in intelligence and international affairs told Press TV on Tuesday that Trump’s constant claims that he does not want to engage in past US military forays is far from accurate and that he is much more prone to war than former US presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

“He’s been doubling down on China, he claims without any proof that China was somehow responsible for Kim Jong-un of North Korea not following through with some agreement that Trump says they made in Singapore. He is blaming China for that. He is ratcheting up tensions in the Taiwan strait with these navy maneuvers,” Madsen said. 

Increasing tensions with China

Amid increasing trade tensions with…

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Trump Administration Misses Deadline to Unite Families

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The Trump administration failed to meet a court-imposed deadline Tuesday to reunite all of the children under the age of 5 whom immigration officials took from their parents at the border and then sent to jails and detention centers across the country. Only 38 of the 102 children under 5 have been reunited with their parents, some of whom say their young children did not even recognize them at first after the traumatic, protracted separation. 
On Tuesday, Judge Dana Sabraw reiterated that all separated children—3,000 in total—must be reunited with their parents by July 26, saying, “These are firm deadlines; they are not aspirational goals.” On Tuesday night, Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar told CNN that the United States was acting “generously” toward the migrant children. For more, we speak with Lomi Kriel, immigration reporter for the Houston Chronicle, and Barbara Hines, an immigration lawyer and founder of the University of Texas Immigration Law Clinic.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: The Trump administration failed to meet a court-imposed deadline Tuesday to reunite all children under the age of 5 who were separated from their parents at the border. According to the government, just 38 children out of the 102 children under the age of 5 have been reunited with their parents. Attorney Lee Gelernt of the American Civil Liberties Union criticized the Trump administration for missing the deadline.

LEE GELERNT: We are extremely disappointed that the government looks like they’re not going to reunify all the eligible children today and that they have not even tracked down the removed parents. But we do think, since the judge became involved in the compliance process as of this past Friday, things have taken a real step forward, and there has been progress. We are hoping that that means, from now on, no deadline will be missed, either for these under 5 or for any of the 2,000-plus going forward.

AMY GOODMAN: Over 60 children under the age of 5 remain…

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Democratic Party Elites Feel the Grassroots Heat

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[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95O13P3UqtY]

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Video: ‘Germany totally controlled by Russia’ – Trump

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Russia uses gas supplies to control Germany, said US President Donald Trump on Wednesday. Trump says it’s unacceptable that Berlin is paying billions of …

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Rees-Mogg launches bid to put brakes on May’s Chequers Brexit plans — RT UK News

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Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leading voice for the backbench Tory Brexiteers, is leading a rebellion against Theresa May in a bid to thwart her Brexit proposals, by tabling four amendments to the Trade Bill to be debated on Monday.

Rees-Mogg has assembled a significant amount of Eurosceptic MPs, including fellow Tory backbenchers, the DUP, and Kate Hoey from Labour, who are furious at the PM’s Chequers Brexit plans they’ve nicknamed ‘Brino’ (Brexit In Name Only), according to the Sun.

The move could destabilize the PM – who has already seen a raft of ministerial resignations including Boris Johnson and David Davis, as well as Tory party vice-chairs Maria Caulfield and Ben Bradley, angry at her “soft” Brexit plan.

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© Rob Pinney/ Global Look Press

Seemingly undeterred by the risk to May, Rees-Mogg insists: “Unfortunately Chequers was a breakdown in trust. Brexit meant Brexit, but now it appears Brexit means remaining subject to European laws.

“I believe this will help the Government stick to the promises it made,” he continued.

“It may resolve the dilemma the Prime Minister faces. Does she rely on Labour votes to achieve Brexit or does she change her mind and go back to Lancaster House. Will she stick to her earlier words?”

The move could potentially wipe out May’s parliamentary majority when the Bill goes before MPs on Monday in the first eye-catching course of action instigated by hardline Brexiteers post-Chequers.

One amendment calls for the UK to abandon its pledge to collect taxes and duties on behalf of EU states unless it is reciprocated by the bloc, reports the Sun.

Eton educated Rees-Mogg claims this change would essentially kill off May’s Chequers proposal for a ‘Facilitated Customs Arrangement’ as EU nations would refuse to accept such an arrangement.

Another is supported by the Tories’ Northern Irish friends, the DUP, and one of Labour’s few ardent Brexiteers, Kate Hoey, MP for Vauxhall. It would compel the UK government to agree in law to a commitment in applying the same customs terms to Northern Ireland as to the rest of the UK post-Brexit.

READ MORE: Explainer: Why is Northern Ireland such a big deal in Theresa May’s Brexit negotiations?

A third amendment would require the government to sign up to having a separate VAT regime from the EU, while a fourth would oblige the PM to creating primary legislation if she wanted to remain in the EU’s customs union.

The amendments were lodged with House of Commons officials earlier on Wednesday.
Former International Development Secretary Priti Patel is among the cohort to have signed them, as well as John Redwood, Craig Mackinlay, and Bernard Jenkin.

The PM will be hoping the publishing of her Brexit White Paper on Thursday will not trigger an avalanche of ‘no-confidence’ letters from disgruntled Tory MPs to the Conservative 1922 Committee chairman, Graham Brady. It would take 48 such letters from Conservative MPs to trigger a no-confidence vote in Theresa May as leader.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Trump calls in British reinforcements as America’s longest war drags on — RT US News

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British Prime Minister Theresa May announced that the UK will almost double its troop numbers in Afghanistan, after a request by US president Donald Trump. The war in Afghanistan shows no signs of ending, 17 years after it began.

Britain will send 440 troops to Afghanistan, bringing its total number of deployed forces to around 1,100. The troops will train and assist Afghan forces, and will not be deployed in a combat role, reported Reuters. They will begin to deploy from August.

Ahead of a NATO summit in Brussels that will likely be characterized by arguments between Trump and allies over defense spending, May said that the deployment shows the UK’s commitment to pulling its weight within the alliance.

“In committing additional troops to the Train Advise Assist operation in Afghanistan we have underlined once again that when NATO calls, the UK is among the first to answer,” May said. “NATO is as vital today as it ever has been and our commitment to it remains steadfast. The Alliance can rely on the UK to lead by example.”

Fragile

The boost in British troop numbers comes as Afghanistan’s security situation becomes ever more fragile. As parliamentary elections loom in October, hundreds of civilians have been killed in attacks this year.

In January, 95 people were killed in Kabul when a Taliban suicide bomber drove an ambulance packed with explosives through a security checkpoint and detonated it in a crowd of pedestrians. The attack kicked off six months of regular bombings and shootings in the capital.

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FILE PHOTO © Robert King/Global Look Press

April saw nine journalists and almost 20 others killed in a series of bombings by the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorist group, and at least 57 killed when another IS suicide bomber blew himself up at a voter registration center.

Last month, an unprecedented ceasefire between government and Taliban forces during the Muslim holiday of Eid was brutally shattered by a series of explosions in the cities of Jalalabad and Nangarhar. At least 44 people died, among them a mix of Afghan forces, Taliban fighters, and civilians. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.

Outside the cities, the Taliban are estimated to control 14 of Afghanistan’s 407 districts, with another 46 under the group’s influence. A separate study by the BBC, disputed by the Afghan government, found that the militant group are active in 70 percent of the country, threatening 15 million people or half of the country’s population.

The threat of the Taliban is compounded by the presence of the Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) group, mostly Pakistani Taliban who have pledged loyalty to Islamic State, and by Al-Qaeda.

American buildup

Trump’s request to May was made against this bloody backdrop. Last year the US president promised to increase US troop numbers in the country by 3,000. He also shifted the US’ Afghanistan strategy to one where troop numbers would be dictated by conditions on the ground, a departure from former President Barack Obama’s policy of phased withdrawal from the battle-scarred country.

Broadly, the Trump administration’s strategy is to train, assist, and advise Afghan forces, while deploying more air power and artillery, and fighting tooth and nail to prop up the fragile government in Kabul. Trump also delegated decision-making authority over troop numbers to the military.

Newsweek estimates as many as 16,000 US troops could be in Afghanistan by the end of 2018, and American aircraft keep hammering Taliban and IS positions in the country. In March, the Afghan Air Force stepped up the intensity of its own bombing sorties, dropping a GBU-28 laser-guided bomb on a Taliban compound in Farah province.

Despite the Trump administration’s newfound assertiveness, some Afghan politicians feel that they have seen little progress made against the Taliban and that the present security agreement with the US should be changed.

“What have we achieved from this security agreement? Nothing, except notoriety,” said Afghan senator Zalmai Zabuli in May. “The foreign forces in Afghanistan have not fulfilled their commitments,” agreed senator Mohammad Hanif Hanifi.

The war in Afghanistan is now the longest-running war in American history, with almost 17 years since hostilities began in 2001. It has cost the US over one trillion dollars, and almost 2,300 lives. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who met with US forces in Afghanistan on Tuesday, hinted that victory may not be the only option.

Pompeo told the troops that the Taliban “cannot wait us out,” and that they “will ultimately have to settle their differences with the Afghan government at the negotiating table.”

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

PressTV-US stock futures slide as China trade war intensifies

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As the US trade-war against China escalates to unprecedented levels with the Trump administration announcing extra tariffs on $200 billion of imports from China, US stock futures are starting to slide.

Futures on Wednesday for the S&P 500 are down 0.7 per cent while those for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq 100 both dropped 0.8 per cent. The Wednesday numbers are all an hour before the opening bell, so by the end of the day a sharper decline might be looming.

The decline could be part due to a sharp selloff in Chinese and Hong Kong stocks on Wednesday. European stocks posted smaller drops, although those more exposed to China’s economy and the trade dispute such as metals saw a sharper decline.

US chipmakers were among the biggest losers in pre-market trade. Advanced Micro Devices, Nvidia and Micron Technology were all down more than 1 per cent amid fears that China would retaliate by banning these companies, whose memory…

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Video: Trump-Stoltenberg tense talk at NATO summit (FULL VIDEO)

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Trump criticized bloc members that approved the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Europe. The president criticized Germany in …

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NARAL and People’s Defense to Hold Massive Day of Action to Oppose Kavanaugh Nomination

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WASHINGTON – NARAL Pro-Choice America, The People’s Defense, and progressive grassroots organizations will hold a national day of action, “Stand For Justice,” on August 26, 2018, Women’s Equality Day. On August 26th, Americans will rally in all 50 states to demand that senators oppose Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court.

Groups already signed on to the day of action include: NARAL Pro-Choice America, The People’s Defense, American Federation of Teachers (AFT), Color of Change, CREDO, Daily Kos, Demand Justice, End Citizens United, Every Voice, Feminist Majority Foundation, Indivisible, MoveOn, National Women’s Law Center, PCCC, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Religious Institute, Stand Up America, and the Working Families Party.

Donald Trump has long promised to only nominate a justice who will end Roe v. Wade and criminalize abortion. Trump has found his man in Brett Kavanaugh. Which is why dozens of organizations and thousands of people are ready to take to the streets on August 26th. 

“This August 26th, Americans will stand united in commitment for our freedom and our future to tell the U.S. Senate that they must vote to block Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination for the Supreme Court. Brett Kavanaugh is a sure fire vote to end the protections of Roe, criminalize abortion, and punish women just as the president promised,” said NARAL President Ilyse Hogue. “People know what is at stake in this fight. Kavanaugh would decimate reproductive rights, voting rights, workers’ rights, LGBTQ rights, and immigrant rights for generations. Senators in all fifty states must listen to their constituents, and do their jobs to uphold the will of the people and the soul of our country, and block this nomination.”

To learn more about “Stand for Justice” on August 26th, click here.

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Via Common Dreams. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

PressTV-US and China face uncertain path to trade deal

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As the trade war between the world’s two largest economies nears the end of its first week, its most unsettling fact may be this: No one seems to foresee any clear path to peace.

The United States insists that China abandon the brass-knuckles tactics it’s used to try to supplant America’s technological dominance. Yet Beijing isn’t about to drop its zeal to acquire the technology it sees as crucial to its prosperity.

Having run for the White House on a vow to force China to reform its trade policies, President Donald Trump won’t likely yield to vague promises by Beijing to improve its behavior — or to pledges to buy more American soybeans or liquefied natural gas.

“It certainly feels like we’re in for a protracted fight,” said Timothy Keeler of the law firm Mayer Brown and a former chief of staff at the Office of the US Trade Representative. “Truthfully, I don’t know what the off-ramp is.”

The first shots sounded July 6: The United States…

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Europe’s Iron Curtain: The Refugee Crisis is about to Worsen

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A recent European Council summit in Brussels was meant to articulate a united policy on the burgeoning refugees and migrant crisis. Instead, it served to highlight the bitter divisions among various European countries. Considering the gravity of the matter, Europe’s self-serving policies are set to worsen an already tragic situation.

True, several European leaders, including Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, went home to speak triumphantly of a ‘great victory’, achieved through a supposedly united European position.

Italy’s Interior Minister, Matteo Salvini, used more derogatory terms in explaining his country’s new policy on refugees and migrants.  “They will only see Italy on a postcard”, he said, referring to refugees who have been arriving in Italy with the help of humanitarian rescue boats.

The first of these boats, carrying over 600 refugees and economic migrants, the Aquarius, was sent back on June 11, followed by another, carrying over 200 refugees. When Italy carried out what then seemed like excessive action, the decision erupted into a massive political controversy between Italy, France, Spain, Malta and others.

However, the pandemonium has subsided since then, as Italy’s Conte declared that, following the Brussels summit, his country ‘is no longer alone.’

What Conte, who presides over a populist, right-wing government, meant is that his country’s unwelcoming attitude towards refugees is now gathering greater European…

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Video: ‘Prump/Tutin’: Craziest ‘Russiagate’ conspiracy yet?

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The highly anticipated meeting between Donald Trump and President Putin next Monday in Helsinki seems to have put the media rumour mill into overdrive.

Via Youtube

Fury at Telegraph article suggesting PM Theresa May guilty of treason — RT UK News

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The Telegraph has drawn the ire of MPs and social media users alike over an article it published insinuating UK Prime Minister Theresa May is guilty of treason over her latest Brexit plan.

Cross-party MPs are accusing the outlet of being “shockingly irresponsible” over the article by writer Christopher Howse entitled: ‘Is Theresa May guilty of treason? Plenty of readers think so. Politicians would be wise to listen up’.

READ MORE: Tory MP publicly shuns PM’s invitation to watch England semifinal

Howse explains how the paper has received a storm of letters from angry readers who feel “betrayed” by May’s post-Brexit trade plan agreed at Chequers on Friday. The plan would see the UK sticking to EU rules in order to have a free trade deal with the bloc once Brexit takes effect.

“‘Where are the politicians of principle who will honour the manifesto promises they were elected on,’ asked a reader from Solihull,” Howse wrote of the correspondence.

“Instead we have only traitorous members of the Cabinet who think only of their careers,” the reader added.

Public outcry swiftly poured in through Twitter over the article, with one saying it “verges on criminal” in its broaching of the treason charge.

Other social media users referenced the murder of Jo Cox in 2016 as a reason to deplore such incendiary rhetoric. The Labour MP was shot and stabbed multiple times by far-right extremist Thomas Mair, who was handed a life sentence for the murder.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Tampa man sparks outrage with racist billboards (PHOTO) — RT US News

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A controversial black political activist has sparked outrage in Tampa, Florida by standing on a busy downtown street displaying a sign instructing “homeless n*ggers” to go “back to Africa”.

The sign was spotted by a Tampa resident and posted on Twitter where it quickly racked up thousands of retweets and responses.

But, it turns out that the man in question has made a bit of a career out of his inflammatory ‘activism’ in the Tampa area.

Twitter users responded to the tweet identifying the man as 60-year-old Tony Daniel, who is a familiar face at Tampa City Council meetings where he has been criticized for using vulgar and profane language in his presentations.

According to local reporting, Daniel has been arrested and removed from public meetings on numerous occasions since the mid-1990s when he began his crusade against the city.

In March this year, council members amended their rules to place restrictions on vulgar and threatening speech, including personal attacks against city officials and members of the public — but said that Daniel wasn’t the reason the rules were changed.

In his spare time, Daniel has been known to drive around the city in a pickup truck displaying a Nazi flag, a Confederate flag, a photograph of a lynching and numerous uses of the word “n*gger”, according to local media.

He has also been involved in a long-running dispute with the city over expansions made to a home in east Tampa which is believed to be owned by his daughter, resulting in nearly $2 million in fines. Local officials say the necessary permits were not obtained for the expansion.

More cryptically, Daniel also seems to have a big problem with Home Depot, displaying references to the home and hardware store on the back of his truck — but no one seems to know why.

“We’ve tried reasoning with him to understand what his concern is with the company, but to no avail,” a spokesperson for Home Depot told the Tampa Bay Times.

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

PressTV-Is Trump’s utopia a ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ America?

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Martin M Eagleton 

Shocking new revelations by the New York Times make public that back in May the US delegation to the World Health Organization (WHO) opposed a very well-established and otherwise uncontroversial resolution that encouraged breastfeeding and intimidated other countries, especially poor countries in Latin America and Africa, to decline their support for the resolution.    

The NY Times reports:

“American officials sought to water down the resolution by removing language that called on governments to ‘protect, promote and support breast-feeding’ and another passage that called on policymakers to restrict the promotion of food products that many experts say can have deleterious effects on young children.

When that failed, they turned to threats, according to diplomats and government officials who took part in the discussions. Ecuador, which had planned to introduce the measure, was the first to find itself in the…

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A Nation Built on Lies

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“The greatest want of the world is the want of men — men who will not be bought or sold; men who in their inmost souls are true and honest; men who do not fear to call sin by its right name; men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole; men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall.” – Ellen G. White

The world becomes more chaotic by the day. Good luck finding a politician, business icon, or religious leader who is not bought and sold by corporate or special interests. Finding truth telling honest leaders in today’s world is virtually impossible. Charles Foster Kane, a quasi-biographical portrayal of William Randolph Hearst, is a fine representation of the billionaire clique that pull the strings in our warped, deceitful, greed driven, materialistic world.

Citizen Kane’s thematic portrayal of the American Dream is far more germane to our society today than it was when made in 1941. Financial affluence, material luxury, wielding power over others, and controlling the opinions of the masses through propaganda media, did not guarantee happiness or fulfillment for Kane or todays oligarchs. Kane was happiest as a poor child, living with his parents, playing in the snow on his sled – Rosebud.

Life is a tragedy, with the richest and poorest dead in the end. The only thing that really matters is your character and integrity. The societal hollowness created by those pushing the delusion of a materialistic American Dream based on an ever growing pyramid of debt has left a society morally deadened, psychologically damaged, living lives based on deception, and willfully ignorant of the truth.

Until individuals in this country choose to tell the truth and insist on being told the truth by the leaders…

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Video: CrossTalk: A Trumpian kind of view

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It is understatement to say Donald Trump is an unconventional and unorthodox political figure. His critics do have a point when they say Trump appears to be …

Via Youtube

PressTV-Germans want US troops pullout: Poll

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Germans want the withdrawal of American troops from their country, a new poll says, amid US President Donald Trump’s threats to discontinue military support for the Western military alliance of NATO.

A YouGov poll for the German news agency DPA found that more Germans would welcome the withdrawal of the 35,000-strong American force than would oppose it, British online newspaper The Independent reported Wednesday.

Meanwhile, 42 percent said they supported withdrawal while just 37 percent wanted the soldiers to stay, with 21 percent undecided. 

The finding comes on the first day of a NATO summit, during which the US president is expected to press Europe to increase military spending if it wants to continue to receive American military support.

US troops have been stationed in Germany since the Second World War. 

There are nearly 36 US military bases in Germany, a significant reduction from over 200 that were located there until the…

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Video: May vows more troops: ‘When NATO calls, UK is one of the first to step up’

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Prime Minister Theresa May’s announced an extra 440 non-combat troops, in the biggest military commitment in over a decade. Check out http://rt.com RT LIVE …

Via Youtube

‘Horny’ passenger molested sleeping woman on United Airlines flight, lawsuit claims — RT US News

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A United Airlines passenger is suing the airline after she allegedly woke to find a man molesting her whilst masturbating under a blanket. After complaining to the crew, she says she was told to go back to her seat.

Anne Dowling was upgraded to business class on a flight from Hong Kong to San Francisco in July 2016 and found herself next to passenger Monte Wedl, who worked as a FedEx pilot at the time.

READ MORE: Woman screaming ‘I’m God!’ attempts to open door & abandon plane midflight

Later in the flight, Dowling says she woke to find Wedl’s hand on the back of her leg, near her buttock. She said she moved his hand and fell back asleep, but awoke a second time to “Wedl’s hand rubbing her thigh, grabbing her butt, and attempting to reach into her pants,” the suit reads.

She claims that she told him to stop and, after falling asleep again, woke up to his hand “running up her thigh” and then on her vagina as he was “rapidly masturbating” under his blanket.

Dowling says she got out of her seat and asked an attendant if she could move seats but was told there were none available, but was eventually allowed a different seat. She reported the incident to the airline, the San Francisco Police and the FBI. The US attorney in San Francisco filed a criminal complaint against Wedl but he was acquitted in June 2017.

Filing a suit in the District Court of Colorado last week, Dowling is seeking $75,000 in damages over the alleged incident, accusing the airline of acting negligently and wrongfully in failing to protect her after she informed the crew of the assault, and for telling her to return to her seat.

“We can’t comment on this case because of pending litigation, but safety is our top priority and we’re always looking for more we can do to ensure the safety and security of the hundreds of thousands of people who fly United every day,” United spokeswoman Erin Benson said.

Wedl consumed “at least three to four vodka shots,” the suit claims, and reportedly took an Ambien. He allegedly told a flight attendant he had been away from home for two months and he “missed his wife, and is horny.”  

FedEx says Wedl has not flown with them since the allegations came to light.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Concerted efforts to save May’s government and the chance of a “soft Brexit”

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Concerted efforts to save May’s government and the chance of a “soft Brexit”

By
Chris Marsden

11 July 2018

In a day filled with high-profile declarations of support for Prime Minister Theresa May and opposing any leadership challenge, perhaps the most significant statement was that of the European Union’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier.

Speaking in New York while attending the Council on Foreign Relations, Barnier made clear the concern of the European powers that May’s beheading by the eurosceptic wing of the Conservatives is to be avoided if possible.

After previously ridiculing the suggestion that the EU would accept any preferential “cherry-picking” arrangement for the UK, Barnier declared that “we have agreed on 80 percent of the negotiations” and that he was determined to agree on the remaining 20 percent.

“No deal is the worst solution for everybody. It would be a huge economic problem for the UK and also for the EU,” he added.

Barnier still stressed the EU’s position that the “four freedoms of movement of people, goods, services and capital” were “indivisible” and that “at the end of this negotiation that the best situation, the best relationship with the EU, will be to remain a member.” But he insisted, “I will negotiate only with the British government… so our next negotiations will be next Monday with the British delegation appointed by Mrs. May.”

However, the EU clearly calculates that the possibility of reversing Brexit at this point comes second to preventing a hardening of the Tories’ anti-Brexit stand in the aftermath of the resignation of Brexit Secretary David Davis, his minister Stephen Baker and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.

Such concerns would have been highlighted by the resignation of two…

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It’s Not Civil Disobedience if You Ask for Permission

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On Saturday, July 7, social media was flooded with images of an event in Chicago that was advertised as a shutdown of the Dan Ryan Expressway to protest gun violence. Led by celebrity-pastor Father Michael Pfleger and co-sponsored by half a dozen local groups, 3,000 people marched onto the expressway, at first only occupying two lanes, with the permission of state police. After about an hour, Pfleger announced that state police would be shutting down all four lanes of traffic.

Some celebrated the protest as a powerful act of resistance. In Chicago and elsewhere, some of us who do the work of direct action and community organizing were far less impressed, and a few of us openly expressed that we found the event misguided and harmful to ongoing organizing and resistance efforts. As such, we have received some questions about why we feel the way we do. We, too, have questions — questions we feel we should all be asking ourselves about any direct action in which we consider participating. We are sharing some of those questions here to hopefully build a more honest, accountable and ethical practice of solidarity with all those who would take action with us in the streets.

What Is the Demand?

A direct action is an attempt to leverage, seize or demonstrate power. So, the question is: To what end? If you lead 3,000 people onto an expressway for a duration of time the state has agreed to, you have successfully mobilized people but have not created any leverage in a power struggle. If we unpredictably hold space and disrupt the flow of business as usual and the powerful must respond to the disruption, then we are challenging power and the status quo. In Saturday’s event, we saw conditions that could only occur with a political insider at the helm, including a blessing by the mayor and other officials. While some argued in the days leading up to the action that the event was youth-led, there could be no confusion about who was in control on Saturday. Father Pfleger led the march…

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