Puppet MastersS


Star of David

'Merry Christmas' from Israel to Syria: Zionist state attacks military targets near Damascus, 3 dead

Seth J. Frantzman
Jerusalem Post
Mon, 23 Dec 2019 18:26 UTC
israel missiles
© FACEBOOK DIARY OF A MORTAR SHELL IN DAMASCUS/YOUMIYAT QADIFAT HAWUN FI DAMASHQ/VIA REUTERSWhat is believed to be guided missiles are seen in the sky during what is reported to be an attack in Damascus, Syria
Three people were allegedly killed in reported Israeli strikes in Syria on Sunday night, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Israel attacked several targets in the Set Zaynab area near Damascus on Sunday night, the Lebanese newspaper Al Ahbar reported on Monday morning. The area is known for an important Shi'ite tomb where pilgrims from Lebanon, Iraq and Iran congregate as well as an area where Hezbollah and Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard members are located.

During the strikes local reports indicated several weapons warehouses were hit, causing material damages.Al Ahbar further said that a wave of missiles were allegedly spotted coming from near the Golan Heights and off the Lebanese coast over Sidon.
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Airplane

Russia ready to share all info required by MH17 crash investigators as Netherlands now seeks Moscow's help


RT
Mon, 23 Dec 2019 18:19 UTC
MH17
© Sputnik / Mikhail Voskresensky
Moscow is poised to give assistance in the investigation of the crash of flight MH17 in 2014, as it always has been, a Russian EU envoy has assured stakeholders, responding to a call for cooperation by the Dutch foreign minister.

"We are ready to cooperate in clarifying all the circumstances of the incident," Vladimir Chizhov, Russia's envoy to the European Union, told media on Monday. In fact, Moscow has always been poised to do so, but its proposals were brushed aside, the diplomat recalled.

Moscow is also prepared to hand over "the data we have" to its Dutch counterparts, ahead of a court trial that will look at the evidence collected by the Netherlands-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT) in March next year, Chizhov said.

The envoy spoke shortly after Stef Blok, the foreign minister of the Netherlands, said Russia's contribution is needed to find some missing facts about the crash, which killed 298 passengers and crew. The Hague had "asked the Russian Federation to cooperate in a factual investigation into the closing of airspace above and around Ukraine," Blok wrote to Dutch lawmakers on Sunday.

Blok's letter comes two months after Chris van Dam, spokesman for the MH17 probe, announced the inquiry will focus on why Ukraine's airspace "was not closed" over Donetsk at the time of intense hostilities between the government military and rebel forces in the breakaway Donbass region.
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Network

Trump has 'respect' for Tulsi Gabbard voting 'present' on impeachment: 'She knew it was wrong' and took flak from her party

Mark Moore
New York Post
Sun, 22 Dec 2019 18:02 UTC
TrumpTulsi
© wunc.org/Getty Images/TwitterPresident Donald Trump • Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard
President Trump lauded Rep. Tulsi Gabbard for voting "present" on the two articles of impeachment approved last week in the Democratic-controlled House.

"I give her respect. She didn't vote the other day. I give her a lot of respect. Because she knew it was wrong. She took a pass," Trump said during a speech Saturday to the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Gabbard, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, said she voted against impeachment because it did not have bipartisan support.


"Trump is guilty of wrongdoing," the Hawaii Democrat said in a statement after the vote. "I also could not in good conscience vote for impeachment because removal of a sitting President must not be the culmination of a partisan process, fueled by tribal animosities that have so gravely divided our country."


Comment: A fuller version of what she had to say:
"Throughout my life, whether through serving in the military or in Congress, I've always worked to do what is in the best interests of our country. Not what's best for me politically or what's best for my political party. I have always put our country first. One may not always agree with my decision, but everyone should know that I will always do what I believe to be right for the country that I love.

"After doing my due diligence in reviewing the 658-page impeachment report, I came to the conclusion that I could not in good conscience vote either yes or no, I am standing in the center and have decided to vote 'present.'"

No Republicans voted to impeach Trump.

Two Democrats - Reps. Jeff Van Drew and Collin Peterson of Minnesota - voted against both articles. The following day, Van Drew of New Jersey, switched parties to become a Republican.

Comment: Trump also commented on Tulsi being smeared as a "Russian asset" by bitter loser Hillary Clinton:
"Then she said Tulsi Gabbard is a weapon of Russia," Trump told reporters on Friday. "Then she said Tulsi Gabbard is a 'weapon of Russia.' And they lost all credibility because we know Tulsi Gabbard — and I give her respect — she didn't vote the other day. I give her a lot of respect because she knew it was wrong. She took a pass. But I don't know. I do know one thing: she's not an agent of Russia."
See also:

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Better Earth

NATO's Stoltenberg says he's 'ready' to meet with Putin

Janosch Delcker
Politico
Mon, 23 Dec 2019 17:48 UTC
stoltenberg
© Yasser Al-Zayat/AFP via Getty ImagesJens Stoltenberg said he is willing to meet Vladimir Putin
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said he is willing to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, potentially paving the way for the first high-level talks between the world's most powerful military alliance and Moscow in several years.

"If the context is right, I am, of course, also ready to meet with President Putin," Stoltenberg told DPA news agency in an interview published Monday, stressing that dialogue is important "especially when things are difficult."

Stoltenberg's offer for talks comes as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, founded in 1949, is struggling to reconcile conflicts between its 29 members on issues ranging from military action in Syria to defense spending to how to deal with Russia.

It follows calls by French President Emmanuel Macron for the West to rethink its relationships with the Kremlin, which have been strained since Moscow invaded and annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula in 2014.

"Russia is our biggest neighbor, Russia is here to stay, and we need to strive for a better relationship with Russia," NATO's Stoltenberg told DPA. "But even without an improved relationship with Russia, we need to manage a difficult relationship with Russia."

The idea of a softer stance on Moscow has alarmed some NATO members, particularly those who spent decades in the Soviet sphere of influence.

Comment: The final sentence gets close to the heart of the matter. The probable source of the endemic anti-Russian sentiment these days isn't any alleged wrongdoing committed by Russia. Crimea, the Skripals, Magnitsky, Syria, etc., are all smokescreens. The root reason is simply old attitudes held by old men and women approaching senility and stuck in a Cold War mentality that has been running on inertia for the past 30 years. And it's not just the countries who "spent decades in the Soviet sphere of influence". It's all the Cold Warriors outside that sphere of influence that are only too happy to keep the spirit alive.

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Bad Guys

Erdogan: 80,000 Syrian migrants marching to Turkey

Jeyhun Aliyev
Anadolu Agency
Sun, 22 Dec 2019 17:15 UTC
erdogan
© AP
More than 80,000 migrants fleeing the bombings from Syria's Idlib have started to migrate toward the Turkish border, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday.

"In such a case, Turkey will not bear all alone the burden of this migration," Erdogan said, speaking at an event in Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul.

"If violence against the people of Idlib does not end, this number will rise further," he added.

The Turkish president went on to say that the negative reflections of the pressure that Turkey might be exposed to will be an issue that will be felt by all European countries, especially Greece.
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Map

Syrian Government Army takes control of flashpoint Idlib village in renewed push to take back terrorist-held province


Sputnik
Sun, 22 Dec 2019 17:32 UTC
syrian army idlib
© Sputnik / Mohamad Maruf
The Syrian government has reclaimed control of Alteh, a flashpoint village in the Idlib province, according to a source in the Syrian military.

"The Syrian army has taken the strategic settlement of Alteh, in northeastern Idlib, under its control," the source said.

The village was a major stronghold of what used to be known as al-Qaeda in Syria, or the Nusra Front.

The Syrian government began a military campaign on Thursday to reclaim control of the Idlib province, the last Islamist bulwark in the war-torn country. Several more villages have recently been freed from the jihadists' grip.

The statement comes after Syrian government troops regained control over several villages in the southeastern part of the province of Idlib.

"The Syrian army regained control of the villages of Al Bustan, Al Haraqi and Abu Sharjah northwest of Tal Damm, the village of Al Burj north of Sarja Gharbiya, Harran hills west of Sarja Gharbiya and Homs west of Al Burj," according to a field commander with the Syrian military.

Earlier in the day, Maj. Gen. Yuri Burenkov, head of the Russian Defence Ministry's Syria reconciliation centre, said that about one hundred Syrian jihadists tried to storm the Idlib village of Qarratin al-Qabira over the weekend but were repelled by government forces.

Comment: Here is South Front's latest map showing the territory re-taken in the past few days:
idlib december 2019
© South Front


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Arrow Down

China will lower import tariffs on over 850 products from January 1, finance ministry says


CNBC
Sun, 22 Dec 2019 17:19 UTC
shipping containers shanghai china
© Aly Song | ReutersContainers sit at the Yangshan Port in Shanghai, China, Aug. 6, 2019.
China will lower tariffs on products ranging from frozen pork and avocado to some types of semiconductors next year as Beijing looks to boost imports amid a slowing economy and a trade war with the United States.

Next year, China will implement temporary import tariffs, which are lower than the most-favored-nation tariffs, on more than 850 products, the finance ministry said on Monday. That compared with 706 products that were taxed at temporary rates in 2019.

The tariff changes were made to "increase imports of products facing a relative domestic shortage, or foreign specialty goods for everyday consumption," the ministry said in a statement on its website.

China and the United States cooled their drawn-out trade war earlier this month, announcing a Phase 1 agreement that would reduce some U.S. tariffs in exchange for more Chinese purchases of American farm products and other goods.

The finance ministry said the tariff rate for frozen pork will be cut to 8% from the most-favored-nation duty of 12%, as China copes to plug a huge supply gap after a severe pig disease decimated its hog herd.

An outbreak of African swine fever that started in August last year has nearly halved China's pig herd, official data showed, sending pork prices soaring to record levels.

Comment: See also:

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Map

Best of the Web: All aboard the Eurasian Express! Train traffic opens on Crimea Bridge - Putin rides across it in opening ceremony


RT
Mon, 23 Dec 2019 17:08 UTC
train crimea bridge
President Putin has opened railway traffic on the 19-km-long Crimea Bridge, which connects the peninsula with mainland Russia and is the longest in Europe. He called the bridge "a beauty" as he took a ride in the driver's cabin.

The construction of the bridge kicked off in February 2016, less than two years after the Crimean people overwhelmingly voted to reunite with Russia in a referendum. The link was crucial for Crimea, which only has a land border with Ukraine, so the 15,000 builders worked hard, often in difficult stormy conditions, to make it happen.

Automobile traffic across the 19-kilometer bridge, which became the longest not only in Russia, but in the whole of Europe, was opened in May 2018.

"It's not a bridge, but a beauty," Putin exclaimed as he gazed at the engineering marvel.
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Bad Guys

An invasion of falsehoods: India's 'liberals' running propaganda war over new citizenship law

Abhijit Majumder
RT
Mon, 23 Dec 2019 17:04 UTC
Protesters India
© REUTERS TV / ANIProtesters pelt stones at police personnel during clashes over citizenship law in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India December 20, 2019
As cops are being beaten up and trains and buses burnt by communal mobs, an info war has been unleashed against Modi's government to twist the CAA and spin large-scale violence and bigotry as spontaneous, progressive resistance.

This protest movement has many fathers, the most useful being the one that should disown it the quickest: Liberals.

It is through them that a massive information war against India's new Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) -- which offers shelter to persecuted Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Parsis from Islamic Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh -- is being carried out.
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Handcuffs

ICC Chief Prosecutor launches probe into Israeli war crimes


PressTV
Sun, 22 Dec 2019 16:03 UTC
Netanyahu Aviv Kochavi
© AFPIsraeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R), accompanied by military chief of staff Lieutenant General Aviv Kochavi (L), visits a military base near Petah Tikva on January 30 2019.
A recent decision by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to launch a full investigation into war crimes in Palestinian territories has raised alarm among current and former Israeli officials and military personnel, who may face global arrest warrants as a result of the probe.

Israel's Channel 12 TV reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with ministers of military affairs, army chiefs, low-ranking soldiers and the heads of the Shin Bet security service in the past five years could all be vulnerable to international prosecution.

Israel is not expected to cooperate with the ICC's pre-trial chamber in the coming 120 days.

"There will be no cooperation with the court... certainly not if it will eventually be decided to open an official probe," Channel 12 cited diplomatic sources as saying.
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