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Anti-coup activists arrested as police batter down door of Venezuelan Embassy in DC - flagrant violation of international law


RT
Thu, 16 May 2019 13:36 UTC
Venezuela embassy raided
© Reuters / Jonathan Ernst
Police outside DC Venezuelan Embassy
In clear violation of international law, police broke into Venezuela's embassy in Washington DC, arresting activists invited by staff. They prevented the building from being seized by US-backed coup leader Juan Guaido's people.

After spending over a month camped out in the embassy, the final four activists of the Venezuelan Embassy Protection Collective have been placed under arrest after police broke down doors and entered the premises on Thursday.
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Quenelle - Golden

Garbage war: Manila recalls diplomats as Canada fails to reclaim truckloads of illegally dumped trash from Philippines


RT
Thu, 16 May 2019 07:31 UTC
Canada dumps trash philippines

“They have been sending their trash to us. Well, not this time. We will quarrel with each other. So what if we quarrel with Canada? We’ll declare war against them, we can beat them,” Duterte said.
Manila has recalled its diplomats from Canada after Ottawa failed to reclaim truckloads of garbage that was dumped in the Philippines years ago. The move came after President Rodrigo Duterte threatened war if nothing changed.

Foreign secretary of the South Asian nation, Teodoro Locsin Jr, wrote on Twitter that until the North American state takes back its trash, the Philippines "shall maintain a diminished diplomatic presence in Canada."


A Canadian company illegally dumped more than 100 containers of trash in the Philippines between 2013 and 2014. The Canadian government took the responsibility of shipping the trash back, but failed to meet the deadline.

Comment: See also: Duterte threatens to 'declare war' on Canada for illegally dumping waste in the Philippines

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Snakes in Suits

US won't start war with Iran says coup enthusiast Rubio


RT
Wed, 15 May 2019 16:38 UTC
rubio
© REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
The pullout of non-emergency government staff from Iraq is not a "prelude" to an attack but a precaution, Senator Marco Rubio has explained on his Twitter. Many users, however, perceive it to be laying the groundwork for war.

Rubio took a break from tweeting non-stop in support of the US regime-change activities in Venezuela on Wednesday, shifting his efforts towards another potential flashpoint - Iran.

The senator took to his social media of choice and tried hard to explain why US activities in the Middle East are not actually preparations for war with Tehran. In fact, it's the Iranians who are seeking to harm Americans, the senator claimed, assuring his followers that Washington won't start a war, but "it will win one that Iran starts."

Comment: See also:

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Snakes in Suits

Desperate Guaido begs EU to impose more sanctions on Venezuela


TeleSUR
Thu, 16 May 2019 10:17 UTC
guaido
The self-proclaimed president of Venezuela is trying to recover from his embarrassing coup by punishing the people of the Bolivarian Republic with new sanctions.

Juan Guaido called on the European Union via Twitter Sunday to impose new sanctions against Venezuela in order to weaken the country after his failed coup.

"We ask our allies in Europe to legitimize our representatives to the maximum for the consolidation of our government. In addition, we urge the European Union to extend sanctions against the regime as a measure to pressure to achieve a solution to the crisis," Guiado tweeted.

Comment: Also see: Guaido now calling for 'direct relationship' with Pentagon to help overthrow Maduro government

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Bad Guys

Bolton is pushing US to 'fatal over-reach' in Iran

Helena Cobban
Mondoweiss
Thu, 16 May 2019 10:17 UTC
Bolton, explosion, planes
© AFP/Yuri Kadobnov; Reuters/Adam Ploessl; Reuters/US Navy/Grant G. Grady
National Security Advisor John Bolton and his wish list
Washington DC, May 14-In the 13 months since he became Pres. Trump's national security adviser, the extreme hawk John Bolton has successfully ramped up Washington's tensions with Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, and to some extent also Syria. But in the case of Iran, he may have met his match, since Iran's government has a broad network of capable allies all across the Levant and plays a non-trivial role in 21st-century geopolitics, too.

Just one month after he appointed Bolton to his role, Trump withdrew the United States from the six-party Iran denuclearization deal (also known as the JCPOA) that Pres. Obama had signed back in 2015. Trump and his people started disentangling the United States from the deal almost immediately, reimposing on Iran several layers of the tough bilateral sanctions that the deal had earlier lifted.

Last month, the administration dug deeper, announcing tough new sanctions on Iran and other sanctions, for the first time, on third-party entities-including many in Europe-that do business with Iran. Last week, it announced that the aircraft carrier the USS Abraham Lincoln and its accompanying battle group would be redeployed from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf. All these moves have been enthusiastically welcomed by (or were even, reportedly, suggested by) Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.
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Bad Guys

New York Times joins the propaganda campaign to push for war against Iran

James North
Mondoweiss
Thu, 16 May 2019 10:17 UTC
new york times fake news
I'm old enough to remember the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident, which the U.S. used as the pretext to massively escalate the Vietnam war. In early August that year, the American press indignantly reported that the USS Maddox, innocently patrolling in the South China Sea, had been the victim of two attacks by North Vietnamese patrol boats. The truth later emerged; the attacks were either made up, exaggerated, or a deliberate U.S. provocation. But President Lyndon Johnson used the episode to convince Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which enabled him to eventually send half a million American soldiers to Vietnam.

Today, the New York Times must have cut and pasted its 1964 coverage to create an offensive and incompetent article about the alleged sabotage of four oil tankers in the Persian Gulf, implying that Iran was behind the attacks. The paper, compounding its dishonesty, also published another bizarre anti-Iran article, with the headline: "A 'Disinformation Assembly Line:' Spreading Fake News to Bolster Iran."
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Handcuffs

UK Defence Secretary promises veterans new protection from prosecution over past offences

Mikey Smith
The Mirror
Thu, 16 May 2019 10:17 UTC
Penny Mordaunt
© Image: AFP/Getty Images
New Defence Secretary Penny Mordant plans to grant stronger legal protections to British troops facing investigation over historical offences.

But the new measures won't apply to cases in Northern Ireland.

Ms Mordaunt wants new a new law to stop veterans and serving personnel being subject to repeated investigations.

It would mean current and former personnel would only be prosecuted in "exceptional circumstances" over offences committed in the course of duty more than 10 years ago.
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Bullseye

'Foolish and disastrous': China's Xi calls out US' belief that it's superior and can transform other nations

Dandan Li
Bloomberg
Tue, 14 May 2019 23:32 UTC
Xi Jinping
© Nicolas Asfouri/AFP via Getty Images
Xi Jinping on May 15.


How Does the Trade War Impact Chinese Growth?

Chinese President Xi Jinping denounced as "foolish" foreign efforts to reshape other nations as he pushes back against U.S. trade demands.

"To think that one's own race and civilization are superior to others, and to insist on transforming or even replacing other civilizations, is foolish in understanding and disastrous in practice," Xi said Wednesday at the opening ceremony of the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations in Beijing. He made no direct mention of the trade dispute or the U.S. in his remarks.


Comment: He doesn't need to mention the US directly, anyone who's paying attention knows which country he is referring too. And the US' lame trade war is likely one of the least of his concerns at the moment: US accuses Iran of attack on Saudi tankers


Xi's speech at the regional gathering Wednesday was closely watched since it was his first address since the U.S. proposed billions of dollars of fresh tariffs on Chinese goods. His sentiments were likely to resonate for an audience including representatives from several former colonies, and the crowd applauded after his "foolish" remark.

"Exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations should be reciprocal and equal," Xi said. "They should be diversified and multidirectional, rather than compulsory or coercive. They should not be one-way."

Comment: See also:

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Document

Leaked Pentagon plan calls for sending 120,000 troops to the Middle East against Iran

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Tue, 14 May 2019 06:00 UTC
iranian soldiers
As Michael Pompeo travels to Brussels to discuss the Iranian threat amid a flare-up in tensions that has brought the US to the brink of an armed conflict, the New York Times has published details from a confidential military plan presented to top national security officials that envisions sending as many as 120,000 troops to the Middle East should Iran attack American forces or start ramping up work on nuclear weapons (something it has promised to do if its European partners don't meet their commitments under the Iran deal).

Though the revised plan - it had been modified to incorporate suggestions from John Bolton - doesn't include plans for a land invasion, it does reflect "the influence of Mr. Bolton, one of the administration's most virulent Iran hawks, whose push for confrontation with Tehran was ignored more than a decade ago by President George W Bush."

It's unclear whether Trump himself has seen, or been briefed on, the plan. Asked about it, Trump said "we'll see what happens with Iran. If they do anything, it would be a very bad mistake."

Here are a few key details from the plan according to more than a half-dozen senior administration officials who spoke with the NYT:

Comment: See also:

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Eye 1

Smearing Syria's Victory: The New York Times latest hit piece

Finian Cunningham
Sputnik
Tue, 14 May 2019 06:47 UTC
syria
© REUTERS / Ammar Abdullah
The campaign is on for Syrian national forces to retake the last-remaining redoubt of militants in northwest Idlib. That might explain why the New York Times was prompted to publish a 5,000-word article based on flimsy anti-Syrian propaganda.

It is the Damascus government's sovereign right to recover all of its national territory, yet Western media are again trying to spin another "Aleppo-style" onslaught to discredit the Syrian army from its ultimate task.

This week Russia blocked a discussion at the UN Security Council on the grounds that Western powers were traducing the Idlib military operations as a criminal violation against innocent-sounding "rebels". Most of the militants holding out in Idlib province are foreign-backed mercenaries affiliated with internationally proscribed jihadist terror groups, such as Nusra Front or ISIS (Daesh in Arabic).

At this critical juncture along comes a suspicious New York Times' article published on May 11, headlined: 'Inside Syria's Secret Torture Prisons: How Assad Crushed Dissent'.

To be sure, the article is a re-run of a tired old story dating from 2014 when several Western media outlets had back then published sensational claims alleging a barbaric prison, torture and execution system overseen by President Bashar al-Assad.

Strangely, the NY Times seems to be only Western media outlet still pushing the story with its recent update, while other outlets have left it behind. The anomaly could be because the original "torture story" has since been convincingly debunked by several independent researchers. The main source for Western media claims was a mysterious, alleged Syrian military police defector nicknamed "Caesar". He was supposed to be a photographer working for Syrian military police who smuggled out tens of thousands images purporting to show how detainees were tortured, starved and beaten to death, among other horrors.

Comment: See also:

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