Puppet MastersS


Propaganda

European court is 'propaganda machine for neoliberals', says Russian lawmaker in response to ruling against gay propaganda law


RT
Tue, 20 Jun 2017 13:05 UTC
gay pride activist
© Bogdan Cristel / Reuters
The Russian Justice Ministry has announced plans to appeal a ruling that found Russia's ban on the promotion of non-traditional sexual relations to minors discriminatory and awarded damages to several activists previously convicted under the act.

According to the statement published on the ministry's website on Tuesday, the ban does not contradict international practices and the sole purpose of the law was to protect children's morals and health.

The statement was released soon after the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled that the law, often described in the mass media as a 'gay propaganda ban', was discriminatory and encouraged homophobia. The court took the side of three Russian activists who were convicted in Russia for violating the ban between 2009 and 2012, and ordered the Russian state to pay compensation for damages.
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Jet5

Wise decision: Australia halts air strikes in Syria after Russia-US tensions over downed Damascus jet


RT
Tue, 20 Jun 2017 12:18 UTC
A Royal Australian Air Force F/A-18A Hornet
© Wikipedia
The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) has suspended flights over Syria after Russia said it halted sky incident prevention interactions with the US as of June 19, due to the coalition's downing of a Damascus warplane.

"As a precautionary measure, Australian Defence Force (ADF) strike operations into Syria have temporarily ceased," Australia's Department of Defense said in a statement, adding its operations in Iraq would continue as part of the coalition.

"ADF personnel are closely monitoring the air situation in Syria and a decision on the resumption of ADF air operations in Syria will be made in due course."

"Australian Defence Force protection is regularly reviewed in response to a range of potential threats," the Department of Defense said.
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Bad Guys

'Shape up or ship out!' It's make-or-break week for PM Theresa May


RT
Mon, 19 Jun 2017 15:06 UTC
Theresa May
© Toby Melville / Reuters
With history conspiring against her, and forces inside and outside her own party baying for Theresa May's downfall, RT looks at the prime minister's troubles and examines her prospects of clinging to power beyond Friday.

May's tenure as PM has lasted less than a year and has already been rocked by a disastrous election that cost the Tories their majority.

She has also been hit hard by questions over the impact of austerity on police numbers after a spate of terrorist attacks in London and Manchester.

More recently critics have slammed her "inhuman" response to the Grenfell Tower tragedy, while her entire premiership has been marked by questions about her ability to lead Brexit negotiations.

Her current attempts to prop up a minority government by thrashing out a confidence and supply deal with Northern Ireland's hard-right Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) have been fraught, with the delayed Queen's Speech set to take place on Wednesday.
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Arrow Up

US State Department outraged over Hungary's new 'foreign supported' NGO bill


Sputnik
Tue, 20 Jun 2017 02:14 UTC
Hungary flag
The US Department of State has warned the Hungarian government against adopting the law requiring that NGOs receiving more than $26,000 in donations from abroad be registered as "foreign-supported organizations."

Hungary will take another step away from NATO and EU principles if it signs a measure which imposes limitations on foreign-funded non-governmental organizations, the US Department of State said in a press release.

Comment: The State Department sees any movement toward sovereignty as an attack on the "principles and values central to the EU and NATO". It's perfectly reasonable for foreign funded NGO's to register as being foreign funded. Of course that blows the cover of one of the US' primary tools for control, and that is why Russia made the same move.

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Bad Guys

Birds of a feather: US awards Saudi Arabia war-criminals with $185 million contract for support services to fighter-bomber fleet


Sputnik
Tue, 20 Jun 2017 02:06 UTC
saudi fighter jets
The Al Raha Group for Technical Services based in Riyadh has received a more than $185 million US Air Force contract to provide support services for Saudi Arabia's air fleet of US-supplied F-15 Eagle fighter bombers, the Department of Defense said in a press release.

"Al Raha Group for Technical Services (RGTS), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, has been awarded a $185.7 million... contract for F-15 Saudi Arabia depot prime vendor support services," the announcement said on Monday.

Under the contract, the company will obtain procurement services, warehousing, and bench stocking of consumables and spares for the Royal Saudi Air Force F-15 program over the next three and a half months until October 4, 2017, the Defense Department said in a press release. The Saudi Air Force F-15 force has been heavily involved in the bombing campaign of rebel-held areas in Yemen in which an estimated 10,000 civilians have so far been killed.
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Star of David

Jerusalem, Nicosia and WW3: What is Israel up to in Cyprus?

Gilad Atzmon
Gilad.co.uk
Mon, 19 Jun 2017 21:37 UTC
Israel-Europe gas pipeline map
Cypriot Press reported last week on a large joint Israeli-Cypriot military drill.

The following Israeli video publicizes an elite Israeli commando brigade engaged in aggressive military routines around Cyprus' Troodos Mountain range.
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Stop

World remains silent: Yemeni general vows to respond to deadly Saudi airstrikes


Sputnik
Mon, 19 Jun 2017 20:58 UTC
Yemen house destroyed by Suadi Arabia
© AP Photo/ Hani Mohammed
Dozens of people were killed in the north of Yemen during an airstrike, carried out by the Saudi-led coalition on June 18. In an interview with Sputnik Arabic, a representative of the Yemeni army, Brigadier General Aziz Rashid, said that the attack was not an accident.

The UN Security Council has recently issued a resolution calling on Yemeni forces to cease attacks against the Saudi army.
According to Rashid, the resolution has given a green light to the Arab coalition to continue airtrikes against Yemeni citizens.

"The world is silent about the crimes committed against Yemen by the international coalition and terrorist organizations financed by certain countries," Rashid said.

"But we, the Yemeni army, tell our compatriots that these crimes will not remain unpunished. The response to the committed crimes will be an attack on military infrastructure in the center of Saudi Arabia. We will choose the right time to respond to this aggression," he added.
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Network

Obama administration ignored Russia's proposal for a cyber war treaty

Max de Haldevang
Quartz
Fri, 16 Jun 2017 20:39 UTC
putin obama
© Sputnik/Kremlin/Alexei DruzhininNo love lost.
Much of the legal turmoil that has swept through Washington in recent months can be traced back to one major thing: Russia's alleged hacking of the 2016 presidential election in US president Donald Trump's favor.

Now, Russian president Vladimir Putin (who denies any Russian part in the hacking) claims the Obama administration ignored a proposal in 2015 that might have avoided all of this. His administration suggested working out a cyber treaty with the US but was ignored by Obama officials, Putin told film director Oliver Stone in Showtime's four-part series broadcast this week.

"A year and a half ago, in fall 2015, we made proposal to our American partners that we work through these issues and conclude a treaty on the rules of behavior in this sphere," he said in Stone's documentary The Putin Interviews. "The American side was silent, they didn't reply to us."

Comment: Putin is entirely correct when he says Russia had nothing to do with the DNC's email debacle or the election's outcome. Killary's own hubris in thinking she could flout basic data security protocols with a home-brewed, unsecure server, plus her complete disdain for her staff did the trick just fine.

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Eye 1

Google says will do more to suppress terrorist propaganda

Lindsey Rupp and John Lauerman
Bloomberg
Sun, 18 Jun 2017 20:35 UTC
Google logo
© Baz Ratner / Reuters
Alphabet Inc.'s Google says it is creating new policies and practices to suppress terrorism-related videos, a response to U.K. lawmakers who have said the internet is a petri dish for radical ideology.
Google will increase its use of technology to identify extremist and terrorism-related videos across its sites, which include YouTube, and will boost the number of people who screen for terrorism-related content, Google's General Counsel Kent Walker wrote in an editorial in the Financial Times Sunday. The company will also be more aggressive in putting warnings on and limiting the reach of content that, while not officially forbidden, is still inflammatory.

"While we and others have worked for years to identify and remove content that violates our policies, the uncomfortable truth is that we, as an industry, must acknowledge that more needs to be done," Walker wrote.
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Bad Guys

Theresa May's 'Bedfellow from Hell': The History of the Democratic Unionist Party

Seth Ferris
New Eastern Outlook
Mon, 19 Jun 2017 19:27 UTC
Democratic Unionist Party DUP
Following Theresa May's loss of majority the Democratic Unionist Party, DUP, from Northern Ireland has suddenly come to international prominence. Who are they, what do they want, and what does their propping up of a UK government mean for that country and all the others who have to deal with it?

Very few people in mainland UK could answer these questions. Everyone has a vague idea about Northern Ireland being divided into Protestant and Catholic, Loyalist and Republican, but few want to know any more because everyone of voting age has lived through The Troubles and their aftermath.

For most people living in the UK Northern Ireland equals violence, terrorism, extremism and intractable political differences. But few nowadays want to think about Northern Ireland, because it is too complicated to understand and too unpleasant to try to understand. However now they are being forced to, as their futures are bound up with whether the DUP reaches an agreement with the Conservatives, and if so, what these Northern Ireland people will want in return from a country already long sick of them.

Comment: Further reading: Meet the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Britain's loyal fundamentalists in Ireland

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