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PM May relinquishes Britain's 6-month 2017 EU presidency ahead of Merkel meeting


RT
Wed, 20 Jul 2016 11:55 UTC
Britain's Prime Minister, Theresa May
© Peter Nicholls / Reuters
Britain will give up its scheduled six-month European Council presidency following last month's referendum vote for Brexit, Downing Street has said.

Prime Minister Theresa May told council president Donald Tusk of the decision on Tuesday.

"The prime minister suggested that the UK should relinquish the rotating Presidency of the Council, currently scheduled for the second half of 2017, noting that we would be prioritizing the negotiations to leave the European Union," a spokesperson for the prime minister said, according to Reuters.

"The prime minister explained that we will need to carefully prepare for the negotiations to leave the EU before triggering Article 50. Donald Tusk reassured the prime minister that he will help to make this process happen as smoothly as possible."
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Bad Guys

US mulls 'pause' in support of Syrian rebels following gruesome beheading of Palestinian boy


RT
Wed, 20 Jul 2016 11:50 UTC
Syrian moderate rebels
© Daniel Leal-Olivas / AFP
The US says it may reconsider its affiliation and support for the Syrian opposition if reports of anti-Assad rebels beheading a Palestinian boy are confirmed. The State Department has vowed "consequences" if the gruesome videos of the death are true.

"If we [the United States] can prove indeed what happened and this group [al-Zenki] was involved in it... it would give us pause about any assistance or frankly any further involvement," Deputy Spokesperson for the State Department, Mark Toner, told reporters at a daily briefing Tuesday.

Toner refused to elaborate on what consequences the Syrian opposition would face if it turns out that they had been behind the "appalling" beheading of the Palestinian boy.

"I can't take what these consequences would be, but this would give certainly a pause and we'll look at any affiliation or cooperation with this group," he reiterated when asked for details.
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Question

Russian ban at Rio Games: Integrity of the McLaren report compromised?


Yahoo! News
Wed, 20 Jul 2016 10:41 UTC
Olympic ban on Russia
© AFP Photo/Damien Meyer
Russian track and field athletes have been banned from international competition by athletics world governing body the IAAF after an earlier inquiry said there was "state-sponsored" doping
Russian track and field athletes have been banned from international competition by athletics world governing body the IAAF after an earlier inquiry said there was "state-sponsored" doping
World sport leaders were on edge Sunday awaiting a report on allegations of widespread state-sponsored doping in Russia that US and Canadian anti-doping officials say could warrant a full ban of Russia from the Rio Olympics.

Although Russia is already banned from international athletics because of a doping storm, European Olympic Committees (EOC) president Pat Hickey said he was "shocked" by a call for a blanket ban of Russia before the findings of Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren's investigation are made public on Monday.

"My concern is that there seems to have been an attempt to agree an outcome before any evidence has been presented," Hickey said on Saturday.

"Such interference and calls ahead of the McLaren Report publication are totally against internationally recognised fair legal process and may have completely undermined the integrity and therefore the credibility of this important report."
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Newspaper

Five minutes of common sense: Post-coup Turkey will compromise with Russia

Ruslan Ostashko (translated by J. Arnoldski)
Fort Russ / PolitRussia
Wed, 20 Jul 2016 10:16 UTC
Putin - Erdogan
© unknown
I've long since noticed that our people have developed an interesting way of understanding the most complex, confusing, and obfuscated situations. This method is very simple and effective. Here is its essence: if you don't know whom to support, look who the pro-Western liberals and the journalists from "Echo" and "Rain" are supporting, and support the opposite.

This method works flawlessly, as we've seen with the example of the Turkish putsch. Once the first reports of the coup in Turkey began to appear, our liberal crowd rushed in hordes to support the coup. In fact, it is quite funny that our Westernizers rejoiced over Erdogan's overthrow together with the pseudo-patriots whose personal hatred for Erdogan is completely disconnected from any kind of logic.

I know that the theory that there wasn't actually a coup, but that it was all a hoax by Erdogan, is now making its rounds through social networks. But I don't believe in this version. It is difficult to imagine staging such a large-scale coup, moreover with the participation of 200 corpses as props, downed helicopters, and the storming of the presidential hotel and the shelling of government buildings with tanks. This was a real coup, albeit one simply made in an extreme hurry.

Comment: See also:

Erdogan benefits from Turkish coup attempt because it failed, not because he engineered it

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Bad Guys

Seeding chaos: US wages hybrid war in Armenia


Katehon
Wed, 20 Jul 2016 10:01 UTC
Armenia protest
© Netwars
The US wages hybrid war in Armenia
The militants who seized the police station in Yerevan are demanded concessions from the authorities. 5 hostages are still in the hands of the bandits. The deputy head of the Armenian police, Major-General Vardan Yeghiazaryan and Deputy Chief of Yerevan Police, Colonel Valery Osipyan, are among the hostages. A group of radicals unsuccessfully tried to join militants at Monday.

Comment: See also:
Next theaters of chaos: Terrorist groups moving operations to Central Asia

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Jet5

US air strike in Syria kills up to 85 civilians 'mistaken for Isil fighters'

Josie Ensor
Telegragh
Tue, 19 Jul 2016 16:32 UTC
Syrian families, who fled the assault
© AFP
Syrian families, who fled the assault launched by Arab and Kurdish forces against Islamic State (IS) group fighters in the town of Manbij, arrive at an encampment on the outskirts of the town
A US air strike killed more than 85 civilians, including children, in Syria on Tuesday after the coalition mistook them for Islamic State fighters.

Some eight families were hit as they tried to flee fighting in their area, in one of the single deadliest strikes on civilians by the alliance since the start of its operations in the war-torn country.

Pictures of the aftermath of the dawn strikes on the Isil-controlled village of Tokhar near Manbij in northern Syria showed the bodies of children as young as three under piles of rubble.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes appeared to have been carried out in error, with the civilians mistaken for Islamist militants.


Comment: SOHR is one guy in the UK. When he's not fabricating or being a stenographer for al-Nusra, blaming Assad and Putin for deliberately targeting civilians, he is sometimes forced to report a U.S. airstrike. Of course, when his UK/U.S. heroes actually kill civilians, it's 'in error'.


It is thought Tuesday's bombing was among the first by jets taking off from Incirlik air base in Turkey since it reopened after the failed coup.

The area has seen intense fighting between extremists and members of the US-backed Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) that have been advancing towards the Isil stronghold of Manbij under the cover of intense airstrikes by the US-led coalition.

The coalition has carried out more than 450 air strikes around the city since the operation to take the town began in May.

The SDF, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, is trying to seize the last territory held by Islamic State on the frontier with Turkey.

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War Whore

Hillary veep pick? The swath of destruction left by career-toady James G. Stavridis

Andrew Cockburn
Counterpunch
Fri, 15 Jul 2016 02:30 UTC
Kerry Nato Stavridis

James Stavridis getting his schmooze on with John Kerry.
At least for a moment, Donald Trump seriously considered picking retired General Michael Flynn, fired as DIA chief for correctly predicting that Obama's covert Syrian intervention would generate a jihadist monster such as ISIS. Hillary Clinton meanwhile is reportedly pondering the selection of retired Admiral James G. Stavridis, a former Rumsfeld lickspittle who helped destroy Libya and thinks it would be a fine idea to hook up with Al Qaeda in Syria. Clinton's putative defense secretary, Michelle Flournoy, herself an ardent proponent of escalation in Syria and elsewhere, acclaims him as "one of the finest military officers of his generation." One might think that for a candidate politically burdened by her vote for the invasion of Iraq, not to mention the Libyan disaster, Stavridis, currently Dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, might not be the best choice.

Stavridis' military record exhibits all the signs of an accomplished courtier, ably negotiating the reefs and shoals of service politics as he shinned up the ranks faster even than David Petraeus. The key accelerant on his progress came in 2004, when he was picked by the odious Larry di Rita, Rumsfeld's Svengali-spokesman , as the secretary's Senior Military Assistant. In the process, he was "frocked," vaulting from his former rank of one-star admiral straight to three stars - an almost unprecedented leap. Occupying this immensely powerful post, Stavridis oversaw the secretary's schedule, travel and, crucially, controlled the flow of information reaching Rumsfeld's desk. Reveling in the perks of his lofty position, Stavridis insisted on the provision of a special car for himself in motorcades, while junior officers, whom he importuned to do his shopping when traveling, staggered under the weight of his bags.
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Mail

Fed judge decision on Clinton email deposition coming soon

Katie Bo Williams
The Hill
Mon, 18 Jul 2016 02:13 UTC
hillary scary
© Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call
A federal judge on Monday declined to order the deposition of Hillary Clinton over whether she deliberately thwarted federal record-keeping laws — but did not rule out the possibility that the former secretary of State may yet be forced to testify.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan said he would issue a ruling "as soon as I can," prolonging the uncertainty in a protracted legal battle over Clinton's use of a private email server while in office.

The conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, which has brought a bevy of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits against the State Department, argued before Sullivan that Clinton needs to be deposed to answer its questions about how and why the unauthorized system was created and maintained.

The group has requested three hours of testimony.

Lawyers representing both the former secretary of State and the State Department pushed back on the request, insisting that there is no legal basis to force Clinton to testify in the case — and that further, there is no new information to be gained that is not already a matter of public record.
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Vader

The Warsaw Communiqué: NATO's leaders planning the crime of aggression

Christopher Black
New Eastern Outlook
Tue, 19 Jul 2016 01:57 UTC
NATO warsaw

NATO leaders
I have been a defence lawyer most of my working life and am not used to gathering evidence for a prosecution, but circumstances impelled me to open a file for the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, or perhaps some future citizen's tribunal, in which is contained the evidence that the NATO leaders are guilty of the gravest crime against mankind, the crime of aggression. I would like to share with you some brief notes of interest from that file, for your consideration.

Article 8bis of the Rome Statute, the governing statue of the International Criminal Court states:
For the purpose of this Statute, "crime of aggression" means the planning, preparation, initiation or execution, by a person in a position effectively to exercise control over or to direct the political or military action of a State, of an act of aggression which by its character, gravity and scale, constitutes a manifest violation of the Charter on the United Nations.
The NATO communiqué issued from Warsaw on July 9th is direct evidence of such planning and preparation and therefore of a conspiracy by the NATO leaders to commit acts of aggression against Russia, and would be the subject of an indictment of the International Criminal Court against the leaders of the NATO military alliance, if the prosecutor of the ICC was in fact independent, which she is not, and of course, if the articles relating to crimes of aggression were in effect which will not take place until January 1, 2017, if at all, under the articles of the Rome Statute.

Nevertheless, the technical issue of jurisdiction that prevents the issuance of an indictment against the NATO leaders at this time does not legitimate the planning and preparation of acts of aggression as are contained in the NATO communiqué nor reduce the moral weight of the crime of aggression set out in the Statute and the Nuremberg Principles, for the crime of aggression is the supreme crime of war.
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Attention

Next theaters of chaos: Terrorist groups moving operations to Central Asia

Martin Berger
New Eastern Outlook
Tue, 19 Jul 2016 00:00 UTC
ISIS, Daesh, terrorist
Against the background of the ever mounting number of terrorist attacks around the globe, including the recent tragic events in Nice, a particular emphasis should be laid on the strengthening of anti-terrorist efforts. Certain positive results can be attributed to the anti-terrorist operations in Iraq and Syria, that are being carried out by the so-called "coalition forces". ISIS forces are not simply suffering losses, they found themselves unable to coordinate their operations properly. The continuous bombardment of the illegal oil infrastructure in Syria and Iraq has deprive terrorists of financial incomes, which resulted in ISIS being unable to pay its militants for their "services."

In the previous years terrorists were pretty comfortable in their ability to capture swiftly new territories and create new formation in Libya, Saudi Arabia and other neighboring states. It's been reported that ISIS units have even reached Afghanistan. However, as both Russian and American forces stepped their efforts up against ISIS, the surviving terrorists started searching areas of the Middle East where they won't fall victims of military actions against them. Given the fact that the anti-terrorist actions against ISIS remain uncoordinated between the leader of the coalition, while the regional contradictions remain unresolved, ISIS militants are taking full advantage of the fact that they can enjoy relative security in certain areas of the world.

It has been noted by numerous analysts that a growing number of foreign jihadists are starting to return to the countries of their origin or even looking for alternatives that would allow them to hide from counter-terrorist efforts of the coalition.
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