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Sorting out the history of Ukraine's conflict

James W. Carden
Consortium News
Thu, 15 Jun 2017 23:13 UTC
Barack Obama talks with President Petro Poroshenko
© Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
While the good folks of the Washington establishment have been keeping themselves busy trying to invent new ways to cripple and delegitimize the presidency of Donald J. Trump, the war in Ukraine, now entering its fourth year, has, of late, gone largely unremarked upon.

Yet it continues. A report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights published on June 13 finds that over the past three months there have been ceasefire violations committed by both parties to the conflict. According to the report, the "routine use of small arms and light and heavy weapons in the conflict zone" has resulted in "damage to critical infrastructure, including schools, hospitals and water facilities." To date, over 10,000 people, including roughly 3,000 civilians, have been killed since the conflict began in 2014.

This past February marked the three-year anniversary of Euro-Maidan uprising, which saw Ukraine's democratically elected President Viktor Yanukovych overthrown and replaced by a pro-Western coalition government made up of his political opponents.
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X

US with nuclear weapons is a 'demented maniac with delusions of grandeur'

Diana Johnstone
Global Research
Sat, 17 Jun 2017 12:29 UTC
Nuclear explosion
© pixabay
In a context of almost total indifference, marked by outright hostility, representatives of over a hundred of the world's least powerful countries are currently opening another three-week session of United Nations talks aimed at achieving a legally binding ban on nuclear weapons. Very few people even know this is happening.

Ban nuclear weapons? Ho hum... Let's change the subject.

Let's talk about Russian hacking instead, or the rights of trans-sexuals to use the toilet of their choice, or even about something really important: climate change.
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Stormtrooper

Justice or revenge: Relatives demand punishment after US troops indiscriminately kill Afghan father and 2 sons


RT
Fri, 16 Jun 2017 09:19 UTC
US troops kill Afghan farmer
© Erik Castro/ReutersFile photo
The relatives of an Afghan father and two of his sons, who they say were killed and disfigured by heavy US fire in the country's Nangarhar province, told RT they demand the American troops be punished. The US military says it's unaware of civilian casualties.

The incident took place in the Ghani Khel district, in the southern Nangarhar province on Afghanistan's border with Pakistan, early Monday.

The US military command in Kabul said that a convoy was hit by a roadside bomb, which was followed with an attack by armed militants, Reuters reported.

"The convoy returned fire in self-defense and there were no US casualties," the command said in a statement, adding that no civilian casualties were reported.

However, the accounts on the ground in Ghani Khel are different, with local police saying that three civilians - an owner of a small brick factory and two of his sons - were killed by the indiscriminate firing of the US troops.
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Snakes in Suits

Ashes to ashes for get-rich Britain

Finian Cunninghaml
Sputnik
Fri, 16 Jun 2017 19:39 UTC
London_building
© Sputnik/ Jenny McCall
The smoldering high-rise tower block in London where families were burned alive this week now stands as a vile condemnation of Britain's get-rich Tory government.

Not just the present Conservative (Tory) government of Prime Minister Theresa May. But decades of successive British governments that have systematically abandoned impoverished communities because they are too busy ensuring the richest members of society suck up even more wealth.

Years of public spending "austerity" cuts are directly related to why people died in this week's inferno in London. Those systematic spending cuts - which have provided tax breaks for the rich over the decades - are the reason why so many people are forced to live in unsafe, shoddy accommodation. It's a despicable sign of the callous priorities of successive British governments.

No wonder when Prime Minister May visited the smoldering tower block her political minders kept her well away from the shell-shocked residents. There is widespread public disgust that Britain is not merely witnessing a tragic fire accident, but rather a case of "corporate manslaughter" as one furious Labour politician called it.
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Vader

Be very afraid: Europol warns ISIS training jihadists to carry out attacks in the West, has no shortage of volunteers


RT
Fri, 16 Jun 2017 14:17 UTC
Islamist militants Paris
© ReutersIslamist militants, Paris
Europol has warned that Islamic State has no lack of volunteers, who are often literate and increasingly include women and children ready to carry out attacks in the West, where 10 of 13 terrorist plots successfully hit their targets in 2016.

Despite suffering major defeats in Syria and Iraq, Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) continues to plan more complex, mass-casualty attacks in the West, particularly in Europe, the EU's main police agency, Europol, warned in its 2017 Terrorism Situation and Trend Report.

"IS is training operatives in Syria/Iraq to carry out terrorist acts in the West and has no shortage of volunteers to be part of teams to be sent abroad for this purpose," it said.

Comment: Western government's continued invasions of Muslim and Arab countries and support of ISIS and other terrorist groups is the primary reason for the growth of the Islamic State.

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Document

State Dept releases documents shedding light on CIA-orchestrated Iranian coup of '53


RT
Fri, 16 Jun 2017 22:44 UTC
computer users
© Dado Ruvic / Reuters
The US State Department has released a volume of declassified documents detailing the role the United States played in the 1953 coup against the Iranian government of Mohammad Mosaddegh.

Released Thursday, the 1,000-page Foreign Relations of the United States, Iran, 1951 - 1954 provides information on the use of covert operations in Iran by the Truman and Eisenhower administrations.

The documents cover the period around the 1953 coup d'état, which saw the overthrow of democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh and the strengthening of the monarchical rule of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
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Document

Trump releases financial disclosure forms but not tax return


RT
Fri, 16 Jun 2017 22:37 UTC
Donald Trump
© Joshua Roberts / Reuters
President Donald Trump reported at least $585,581,420 in income and employment assets in financial disclosure forms released Friday evening. Included was about $57 million from both the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, and his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.

In the filing, Trump reported at least $6,255,600 in other assets and income, which includes real estate and growth funds for Barron, checking and savings accounts, stocks, and more.

In addition to the $19.7 million from the Trump Hotel in DC, which opened in September 2016, Trump also reported $37.2 million in income from his private resort in Florida, Mar-a-Lago. The Mar-a-Lago figure is up from $29.8 million in his 2015 disclosure.

Critics have pointed to Trump's hotel in DC as a conflict of interest, and he has been sued twice for violations of the Emoluments Clause of the US Constitution over the hotel.
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Info

Trump says he is under investigation by Mueller 'for firing Comey'

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Fri, 16 Jun 2017 21:38 UTC
Robert Mueller
Special Investigator Robert Mueller
With no evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia the Special Counsel appears to be looking into the circumstances of the firing of former FBI Director Comey instead.

In an early morning tweet today US President Donald Trump appeared to confirm earlier reports that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is now investigating his handling of former FBI Director Comey to see whether there might be grounds for a charge of obstruction of justice.
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Snakes in Suits

Clinton Foundation shenanigans: How Hillary may find her way to jail

Ekaterina Blinova
Sputnik
Fri, 16 Jun 2017 21:15 UTC
Hillary Clinton
© REUTERS/ Carlos Barria
Hillary Clinton has repeatedly managed to escape from the arms of the law, but it appears that this time the former Democratic presidential nominee may be brought to justice, according to Wall Street analyst Charles Ortel, and it's not the Clinton email case or her "pay-to-play" scheme.

Hillary Clinton may find herself behind bars sooner than anyone expects; however, it's not her private email server or much discussed "pay-to-play" scheme that is her main Achilles' heel.

While it seems nerdy and not as sexy as the much-discussed Clinton "death list," the seemingly trivial discrepancies in the financial and founding documents of the Clinton Foundation are most damning.

"Let's start from the very beginning," Charles Ortel, a Wall Street analyst who has been investigating the alleged charity fraud for about two years and publishes his findings on his website, says.

Comment: Also see: New corruption probe: Will Hillary Clinton go to jail?

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Heart - Black

'Whole families perished': Survivor recalls horror of deadly airstrike on Mosul's Zanjili district


RT
Fri, 16 Jun 2017 20:40 UTC
ISIS airstrike Zanjili Mosul May 2017
© Karim Sahib / AFP Smoke billows in western Mosul's Zanjili neighbourhood as government forces advance in the area during their ongoing battle against Islamic State (IS) group fighters on May 31, 2017.
Whole families were killed in an airstrike that reportedly took the lives of 80 people in the Islamic State-held Zanjili district of Mosul, Iraq, on May 31, a survivor of the attack said.

"I was at home in Zanjili. Airplanes hit our street and we went to rescue people under the rubble," Manhal Mohammed Jasem told RT's Ruptly video agency.

The bombardment brought down at least "four houses," causing the death of "approximately four families," he said.

Jasem said that he and his neighbors rushed to help those in trouble, removing several "women, children and men" from the debris.


Comment: Whether from ISIS shells or US-led coalition bombs, heavy toll taken on Mosul's civilians (VIDEO)

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