"Regarding the White Helmets, they are terrorists and Takfiris [...] they have nothing to do with Humanity [...] when they used to see an injured civilian, they used to finish them off. If you come to "rescue" a man would you slaughter them? The White Helmets and the terrorists are one and the same, they are hand in hand."

This statement was made by Hassan Al Mahmoud Al Othman during a conversation I had with him in 2019 following the liberation of Eastern Ghouta, Damascus by the Syrian Arab Army in 2018. Al Othman was one of many prisoners detained by extremist armed group Jaish Al Islam (Army of Islam) in Douma's notorious Tawba Jail during the six year occupation of the eastern suburbs of Damascus by UK/US-backed armed groups.

The White Helmets in Syria are a shadow-state propaganda construct initially midwived by US and UK intelligence agencies and embedded exclusively with extremist armed groups dominated by Nusra Front or Syria's Al Qaeda. They were established in 2013, trained in Turkey and Jordan, by a former British Military Intelligence officer - James Le Mesurier employed by a UK Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (UK FCDO) contractor, Analysis Research and Knowledge (ARK Group).

The primary role of this pseudo Humanitarian organisation was to produce the "corroborating evidence" to support UK FCDO foreign policy in Syria which is regime change, the balkanisation of Syria and the destabilisation of the entire region in the interests of Israeli 'security' and expansionism.

The European Commission is planning to issue new EU debt to cover Ukraine's short-term financing needs over the next three months, estimated at €15 billion, three diplomats with knowledge of the discussion told POLITICO.


The plan would be unveiled as early as May 18, they said.

According to the Ukrainian government and the International Monetary Fund, Ukraine needs €5 billion per month to keep the economy afloat — from paying wages and pensions to caring for displaced populations and other war-related costs.

The United States has pledged to provide a third of that sum, which would leave €10 billion uncovered.

The Spanish government has sacked the country's spy chief, Paz Esteban, as it tries to contain the fallout from a cyber-espionage scandal that has engulfed the ruling coalition and raised further questions about the use of controversial Pegasus spyware in Spain and beyond.

Esteban's dismissal on Tuesday came amid growing political tensions and almost two years after a joint investigation by the Guardian and El País first revealed that senior pro-independence Catalan politicians were warned their mobile phones had been targeted using the spyware.

The scandal has intensified over recent weeks after cybersecurity experts at Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto said at least 63 people connected with the Catalan independence movement had been targeted or infected with Pegasus spyware between 2017 and 2020.

The Queen's Speech was interesting this year.

For all the people outside the UK who don't understand what the "Queens Speech" actually is, it's a farcical state occasion in which the Queen (or, in this case, Prince Charles since her majesty is ill/secretly dead/having "mobility issues") makes a speech about what "her government" intends to do for the next 12 months.

Of course, the Queen doesn't actually write the speech, or have any input on its content, or have any control at all over what "her" government intends to do. She's just a mouthpiece in a big gold hat.

It's the UK equivalent of the State of the Union, only done in Halloween costumes made out of shiny stolen rocks.

The whole thing is nothing but a grand, gilt statement of intent from the British Deep State, wrapped in mink and draped in medals they never earned. It's a joke, but it is worth listening to.

Or, if you have a sensitive stomach, you can just read the full text the next day on the UK government's website (that's what I do).

A lot of the content is entirely predictable.

More money to Ukraine, with a promise the UK will "lead the way in championing security around the world". More online censorship via the "Online Safety Bill". A compulsory register for homeschooled children via the "Schools Reform Bill".

There's also mention of "securing the constitution" by introducing the UK's own "Bill of Rights". We broke down that particular Trojan Horse back in February.

But the part I found most interesting is the stated plan to "encourage agricultural and scientific innovation at home" via the proposed Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Bill.

The proposed bill (which, for some reason is not available through the parliament website) follows on from DEFRA's announced "loosened regulation" of genetic research back in January.

To quote the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB), the legislation would "take certain precision breeding techniques out of the scope of restrictive GMO rules".

Essentially, this would see new "gene-edited" foods as distinct from old-fashioned "genetically modified" foods, and therefore not subject to the same rules and oversight.

Russia summoned the Polish envoy on Wednesday and demanded an apology after Moscow's ambassador in Warsaw had red syrup thrown in his face during a Victory Day wreath-laying ceremony.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said the attack was "a flagrant violation" of the 1961 international convention, which says that countries must protect foreign missions.

"The Russian side expects an official apology from the Polish authorities and demands that the safety of the Russian ambassador and all staffers at Russian missions in Poland is guaranteed," it said.

From the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the Biden White House has repeatedly announced large and seemingly random amounts of money that it intends to send to fuel the war in Ukraine. The latest such dispatch, pursuant to an initial $3.5 billion fund authorized by Congress early on, was announced on Friday; "Biden says U.S. will send $1.3 billion in additional military and economic support to Ukraine," read the CNBC headline. This was preceded by a series of new lavish spending packages for the war, unveiled every two to three weeks, starting on the third day of the war:

• Feb. 26: "Biden approves $350 million in military aid for Ukraine": Reuters;
• Mar. 16: "Biden announces $800 million in military aid for Ukraine": The New York Times;
• Mar. 30: "Ukraine to receive additional $500 million in aid from U.S., Biden announces": NBC News;
• Apr. 12: "U.S. to announce $750 million more in weapons for Ukraine, officials say": Reuters;
• May 6: "Biden announces new $150 million weapons package for Ukraine": Reuters.

Those amounts by themselves are in excess of $3 billion; by the end of April, the total U.S. expenditure on the war in Ukraine was close to $14 billion, drawn from the additional $13.5 billion Congress authorized in mid-March. While some of that is earmarked for economic and humanitarian assistance for Ukraine, most of it will go into the coffers of the weapons industry — including Raytheon, on whose Board of Directors the current Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, sat immediately before being chosen by Biden to run the Pentagon. As CNN put it:

"about $6.5 billion, roughly half of the aid package, will go to the US Department of Defense so it can deploy troops to the region and send defense equipment to Ukraine."

As enormous as those sums already are, they were dwarfed by the Biden administration's announcement on April 28 that it "is asking Congress for $33 billion in funding to respond to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, more than double the $14 billion in support authorized so far."

Moscow harbors no plans to impose martial law in the country amid the ongoing conflict with Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday, dismissing claims made by a top US spy.

"No, there are no such plans," Peskov told reporters when asked to comment on a fresh statement by Director of US National Intelligence Avril Haines. The official also urged reporters and the public to listen to Russian President Vladimir Putin who has "reiterated and most recently confirmed that the special military operation is unfolding as planned."

The top US spy Haines alleged that Moscow may impose martial law in the country to ramp up its efforts in Ukraine. Haines also claimed:

"President Vladimir Putin's aims are greater than what Russia is capable of militarily and the situation is likely to be more unpredictable and potentially escalatory in the next few months. The current trend indicates the likelihood that President Putin will turn to more drastic measures, including imposing martial law."

U.S. government officials in March asked Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras whether it could increase crude output after Russia's invasion of Ukraine sent global prices soaring. They came away empty-handed, the sources said.

Officials at Petrobras, formally Petroleo Brasileiro SA , said output levels were a function of business strategy rather than diplomacy and also that a significant short-term production boost would not be logistically possible.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson said:

"We are ... doing everything possible with our allies and partners to mitigate the economic impacts of Russian actions on other economies like Brazil. We are working with energy companies to surge their capacity to supply energy to the market, particularly as prices increase."

The spokesperson did not elaborate or comment specifically on the March meeting with Petrobras officials. Petrobras denied in a statement that any meeting had occurred with "representatives of the U.S. State Department." It did not respond to a request for comment when asked if it had been contacted by any other U.S. government agency.

Washington has been making a sweeping diplomatic push to secure global oil supplies and keep a lid on prices after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. U.S. officials also have been trying to improve relations with the right-wing government of President Jair Bolsonaro, despite disagreements over the Ukraine war and environmental policy.

Brazil is the world's ninth-largest oil producer.

Two years ago last Saturday (May 7, 2020) Adam Schiff (D, California), Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, was forced to perform what Nixon co-conspirator John Ehrlichman famously called a "modified limited hangout."

On that day, Schiff released sworn testimony that there was zero technical evidence that Russia - or anyone else - hacked those DNC emails so prejudicial to Hillary Clinton (later published by WikiLeaks).

Now, please, before you put me in Putin's or Trump's pocket, read on:

The testifier was Shawn Henry, the head of the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. For reasons former FBI Director James Comey would never really explain, he deferred to CrowdStrike to do the forensic work on the DNC computers that were supposedly "hacked." Comey told Congress that CrowdStrike "would share with us what they saw."

In June 2019, it was revealed that CrowdStrike never produced an un-redacted or final forensic report for the government because the FBI never required it to, according to the Justice Department.

Are you starting to smell a rat? What about the "modified limited hangout"?

Well, if some or all of this is news to you, it is because the NY Times and other major media have deep-sixed it for exactly two years now, and counting. It gets worse - much worse.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has said that the EU had failed to find a way to mitigate the damage from a proposed ban on oil supplies from Russia as part of sanctions over its military campaign in Ukraine.

"Brussels has no proposal for a solution ... which could handle the atomic bomb-like impacts of this potential oil embargo against Russia on Hungary's economy."

Last week, the European Commission proposed to do away with oil imports from Moscow by the end of the year. Budapest rejected the idea due to its heavy reliance on Russian energy.

Szijjarto told Hungary's parliament on Monday that the proposed sanctions were "problematic for the country." Hungarian officials repeatedly warned that they would use their veto power to block an oil embargo.