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Venezuelan military to provide escort for Iranian tankers delivering fuel


Sputnik
Wed, 20 May 2020 21:17 UTC
oil tanker
© AFP/Atta Kenare
Oil tanker • Port of Bandar Abbas, Southern Iran
Venezuela's military will escort Iranian tankers delivering fuel to the country when they enter Venezuela's exclusive economic zone, the country's Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino revealed Wednesday.

In a state television interview, Padrino said the escort would "welcome them in and thank the Iranian people for their solidarity and cooperation," Reuters reported. Padrino also said that the Venezuelan government had been in contact with Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami.

US sanctions on Venezuela have strangled the South American country's economy. In January, the country was forced to shut down its last oil refinery. Despite the fact that the primary export is petroleum, Venezuela is currently experiencing a fuel shortage.

Last Thursday, a US official said that the country believes with a "high degree of certainty" that Venezuela is paying Iran tons of gold in exchange for fuel. "It is not only unwelcome by the United States but it's unwelcome by the region, and we're looking at measures that can be taken," the official said, Reuters reported.

The official did not outline what measures are being considered but said that all options would be presented to US President Donald Trump.
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Brick Wall

Following failed coup attempt, US vetoes Russian UNSC proposal in support of Venezuela


RT
Thu, 21 May 2020 08:03 UTC
Venezuela flag/rally
© Global Look Press/dpa/Pedro Rances Mattey
The US has rejected a draft statement condemning terrorism and voicing support for Venezuela's sovereignty at the UN Security Council. The Russian-sponsored draft did not assign blame for the botched incursion.

The short statement was watered down to sound "politically neutral" in hopes it would not face any opposition from the UNSC members, the Russian mission to the United Nations said.

However, despite the text not even mentioning the recent boat incursion that led to the capture of two former US Green Berets, Washington did not give the document any chance, "killing" it "within 9 minutes" from the start of the voting process, according to Russia's first deputy envoy to the organization, Dmitry Polyanskiy.

The draft calls on UNSC member-states to "reject the use or threat of use of force," "terrorism in all of its forms and manifestations" as well as "the use of mercenaries."
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X

Nord Stream 2's complaint rejected by EU court to amend unfair gas transport rules instated by EU Gas Directive


RT
Thu, 21 May 2020 11:07 UTC
Nord Stream
© Nord Stream 2/Axel Schmidt
Nord Stream 2
The operator of Nord Stream 2 plans to challenge a ruling by the European Court of Justice that could see Russia's Gazprom losing partial control of the massive gas pipeline project it spent years and billions to develop.

The companies operating the gas links between Russia and Germany, Nord Stream AG and Nord Stream 2 AG, filed the complaint in November last year, seeking a partial annulment of the amendment to European gas transportation rules, known as the EU Gas Directive. The legislature requires that the rules governing the European gas market must apply to all pipelines to and from third countries, under which separate companies must produce and transport natural gas.

This would force Russia's Gazprom, which designed and paid for most of the project, to allow third parties to use half of the capacity of the pipeline after its launch at the end of this year. The Nord Stream 2 operators argued that the amended regulation would weaken the basis for funding of the project, which was launched long before the new EU rules came into force.

In its ruling on Wednesday, Europe's second highest court said that the companies' claims are "inadmissible," adding that the directive was for member states to implement. "Concerning both Nord Stream 2 AG and Nord Stream AG, the General Court finds that they are not directly concerned by the amending directive," the General Court of the European Union declared.
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Stormtrooper

'You have no rights' - Lockdowns, raids and forced vaccinations

John W. Whitehead
The Rutherford Institute
Wed, 20 May 2020 19:00 UTC
"You have no right not to be vaccinated, you have no right not to wear a mask, you have no right to open up your business... And if you refuse to be vaccinated, the state has the power to literally take you to a doctor's office and plunge a needle into your arm." — Alan Dershowitz, Harvard law professor
George Carlin on Rights
© Twitter
You have no rights.

That's the lesson the government wants us to learn from this COVID-19 business.

Well, the government is wrong.

For years now, the powers-that-be — those politicians and bureaucrats who think like tyrants and act like petty dictators regardless of what party they belong to — have attempted to brainwash us into believing that we have no right to think for ourselves, make decisions about our health, protect our homes and families and businesses, act in our best interests, demand accountability and transparency from government, or generally operate as if we are in control of our own lives.

We have every right, and you know why? Because we were born free.

As the Declaration of Independence states, we are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights — to life, liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness — that no government can take away from us.

Unfortunately, that hasn't stopped the government from constantly trying to usurp our freedoms at every turn. Indeed, the nature of government is such that it invariably oversteps its limits, abuses its authority, and flexes its totalitarian muscles.

Take this COVID-19 crisis, for example.
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Info

DeSantis defends Florida coronavirus response, disputes claims from fired data official

Zack Budryk
The Hill
Wed, 20 May 2020 17:20 UTC
Ron DeSantis
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) defended his administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic Wednesday and disputed allegations by a former state employee who claims she was fired after refusing to manipulate COVID-19 data.

Rebekah Jones, a data expert at the Florida Department of Health, wrote last week in an email that she was being removed from oversight of the state's COVID-19 dashboard and warned "I would not expect the new team to continue the same level of accessibility and transparency that I made central to the process during the first two months."

"[S]he's somebody that's got a degree in journalism communication and geography. She is not involved in collating any data, she does not have the expertise to do that," DeSantis said Tuesday after Vice President Pence was asked about the case.

"She is not an epidemiologist, she is not the chief architect of our web portal, that is another false statement, and what she was doing was she was putting data on the portal, which the scientists didn't believe was valid data," the Florida governor added. "So she didn't listen to the people who were her superiors, she had many people above her in the chain of command and so said she was dismissed because of that."

DeSantis went on to claim Jones had an active warrant for "cyber stalking and cyber sexual harassment." A West Palm Beach CBS affiliate reported that in 2019 a man accused Jones of targeting him with "revenge porn."

Comment:



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Dollars

Not just Trump: FBI offered Christopher Steele big bucks to dig up dirt on Flynn

Chuck Ross
The Daily Caller
Thu, 21 May 2020 17:00 UTC
chistopher steele

Christopher Steele
An FBI offer to pay former British spy Christopher Steele to collect intelligence on Michael Flynn in the weeks before the 2016 election has been one of the more overlooked revelations in a Justice Department inspector general's report released in December.

The reference to the FBI proposal, which was made in an Oct. 3, 2016, meeting in an unidentified European city, has received virtually no press attention. But it might have new significance following the recent release of government documents that show that Steele peddled an unfounded rumor that Flynn had an extramarital affair with a Russian woman in the United Kingdom.

It is not clear how and when Steele came across the rumor, or if it was the result of the FBI asking him to look into Flynn.

Comment:

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Bad Guys

US intel report contradicts Pompeo: Iran not a threat to US-led peace process in Afghanistan

Matthew Petti
National Interest
Tue, 19 May 2020 17:03 UTC
pompeo
© Kevin Lamarque / AP
Iran is not looking to destabilize Afghanistan, U.S. military intelligence recently said, contradicting earlier statements by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Pompeo had claimed in January that Iran is "actively working to undermine the peace process." But the Defense Intelligence Agency painted a much different picture for U.S. government investigators supervising the war effort in Afghanistan, claiming that Iranian goals match up with a recent U.S.-Taliban peace deal and downplaying the threat of Iranian-backed forces.

The DIA told the Lead Inspector General in a Tuesday report that Iran has not indicated that it will "actively oppose" the peace accords, which call for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan.

"Iran's strategic objectives relating to Afghanistan continue to be maintaining a stable Afghan central government and security along Iran's eastern border," the Lead Inspector General wrote in a Tuesday report, summarizing the DIA's statements. "Iran's objectives also include protecting Shia populations, eliminating [the Islamic State in Central Asia], opposing the U.S. presence in the region, and securing Iranian economic interests."

U.S. forces are preparing to leave Afghanistan as part of a peace deal signed in February. U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad left for Afghanistan and Qatar on Sunday to push for talks between the Afghan government and Taliban rebels.
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Snakes in Suits

So Joe Biden wants a female sexual assault survivor as his running mate. Why on Earth does he think that might be helpful?

Jason O'Toole
RT
Wed, 20 May 2020 16:47 UTC
biden and whitmer
© Reuters / Brendan McDermid
The Democrat front-runner for the White House is considering Governor Gretchen Whitmer as his vice-presidential pick. But why would she - a victim herself - endorse a man with questions to answer over a sexual assault allegation?

If fame is a "psychological drug," then it's safe to say that it looks like Gretchen Whitmer is fast on her way to becoming an out-and-out addict.

Most Americans wouldn't have been able to pick the Michigan state governor out of a lineup before the Covid-19 pandemic brought her widespread attention and she found herself at loggerheads with Donald Trump, who is doing his utmost to undermine her hard lockdown blueprint in Michigan.

She introduced "some of the strictest stay-at-home rules" in her home state, which is one of the hardest hit regions of the US outside of the New York epicentre. But that hasn't stopped Trump from rubbing her nose in it by scheduling an upcoming visit on Thursday to a Ford Motor Co. factory there, which flies in the face of her new law stating that manufacturing facilities must "suspend all non-essential in-person visits, including tours."
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Bad Guys

US just piled more misery on Venezuelans already hit by sanctions & pandemic. Now they are deprived of most popular TV service

Eva Bartlett
RT
Wed, 20 May 2020 15:47 UTC
People make a line to receive food from a charity in Caracas
© REUTERS/Manaure Quintero
People make a line to receive food from a charity in Caracas, Venezuela
America's meddling in Venezuela has no boundaries. After a failed coup attempt, trying to install a bogus president, and imposing crippling sanctions, will it ever be held to account?

Venezuela is back in the news again, just weeks after yet another failed coup attempt that was almost certainly backed by the US. This time, it's the American sanctions against the country that are making the headlines - measures that caused US company AT&T to shut down satellite TV provider, DirecTV, thereby depriving Venezuelans of a number of foreign channels.

The irony, of course, is that while it's US sanctions that are the cause of this shutdown, had it been President Nicolas Maduro who closed DirecTV, you can bet Western media headlines would be screaming about censorship of the media (although most were rather quiet when Estonia shut down Sputnik).
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Airplane

US to withdraw from Open Skies Treaty, citing violations by Russia


RFE/RL
Thu, 21 May 2020 16:28 UTC
tupolev 214

A Russian Tupolev-214 airplane displays the Open Skies markings.
The United States has announced that it intends to withdraw from the Open Skies treaty because of violations of the agreement by Russia.

U.S. media reported that President Donald Trump's administration on May 21 notified the other 34 signatories to the accord that it was giving the six months' notice to leave, as required by the treaty.

The 18-year-old treaty, which includes Russia, aims to increase international stability by allowing signatory states to conduct surveillance flights over one another's territories to observe military installations and other objects.

The White House has accused Russia of violating the treaty, saying Moscow has been blocking the United States from conducting flights over the Baltic Sea city of Kaliningrad and near Georgia, which are permitted by the agreement.


Comment: Here's an explanation of the violations:
As with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which the administration recently backed out of, Russia hasn't always been a perfect party to the agreement. For years, for instance, they have restricted flights over Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave on Poland's border; as well as over Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia. Specifically, in 2014, they announced a 500-kilometer sublimit on Open Skies flights over Kaliningrad and restricted several flights to above 500 km, according to the State Department. They also denied flight access to a ten-kilometer corridor over the disputed region of Georgia, which Russia claims is part of Russia but which the international community recognizes as Georgia. The United States responded by restricting Russian flights over its territory. Engel supports the U.S. restrictions. The State Department has concluded that Russia's moves don't actually present an obstacle to U.S. intelligence collection over the areas. But they did determine that the Russian restrictions violated Article VI of the treaty.

The bigger concern is that Russia gets more out of the treaty than does the United States since U.S. intelligence satellites are better than their Russian counterparts.

In 2016, Adm. Cecil Haney, then-commander of U.S. STRATCOM, testified to lawmakers, "I don't have the Russian intelligence guidebook available to me, but I will say that given the lack of overhead capability that the Russians have, Open Skies gives them a capability to be able to reconnoiter parts of our country and other nations as part of that."

The withdrawal is the latest move by Trump to unilaterally pull the United States from a major global treaty. Last year Washington withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia.

Comment: Russia will reportedly be officially informed on Friday:
While no official communication has come from the White House yet, Moscow has been expecting the move for some time. In April, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the decision "has already been taken in Washington."

Lavrov said European members of the treaty are unlikely to pull out, because they understand it has "value as an instrument [to secure] trust, predictability, and transparency."


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