US intelligence may have used Macau casinos owned by an American tycoon to set a trap for Chinese functionaries who gamble with public money,in order to blackmail and recruit them.

The "highly confidential" report on the gambling industry exposing the possible CIA operation in Macau, was prepared by a private investigator in 2010 and remained secret until it was uncovered by the Investigative Reporting Program at the University of California, Berkeley, the Guardian reports.

The document dated June 25, 2010, was presented by Sands China Limited, the Macau branch of the gambling empire of Las Vegas tycoon Sheldon Adelson, as part of an ongoing lawsuit filed by Steven Jacobs, former head of Sands Macau casinos, who is suing the company for wrongful dismissal. The civil action hearing is being held at a Las Vegas court.

Just let that headline sink in.

Here is the actual language: "The ATO* spokesmen [Major General Taran and colonel Sergei Galushko] have presented proof that Donetsk is being shelled by the rebels themselves, in order to provoke return fire from the UAF forces, and then blame them for shelling Donetsk." SOURCE
So, here is the reality as presented by "Voice of Langley" in East Europe:

The rebels start randomly shelling their own families in Donetsk. UAF see it, get "provoked" by somebody else doing their job, and start indiscriminately shelling Donetsk as well.

Now we just wait for John Kirby and Co. to start parroting these claims...

The dual summits that took place in Russia's Ufa beginning 9 July were anything but routine. In fact it may be seen by future historians as a signal event that marked the definitive decline of the global hegemony of European civilization including North America. This is no small event in human history. It's the most significant shift in relative global economic relations since the Fourth Crusade in 1204 when the Republic of Venice emerged as a world power following their brutal, disgraceful capture and sacking of Constantinople, marking the demise of the Byzantine Empire.

First a look at what transpired. Russia was host to two overlapping summits of emerging alternative organizations, the annual meeting of the BRICS nations as well as the annual meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The larger significance has been all but entirely blacked out by western mainstream media such as the New York Times.

First we look at the results from the BRICS meeting where Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are the five member states. The BRICS formally put their New Development Bank (NDB) into operation. It has world headquarters in Shanghai, China's banking and financial center with a branch in South Africa to serve the African region.
It is explicitly operating as an alternative to the post-1945 domination of the IMF and World Bank, the heart of Washington's Dollar System. It has member contributions of $50 billion for infrastructure projects mainly, but not exclusively, in the BRICS states. As well it has created a $100 billion financial defense fund, a so-called Contingent Reserves Arrangement, in event of speculative attacks such as were launched by Washington with the Soros Quantum Fund in 1997 to destroy the independent Asian Tiger economies.

The NDB bank is in business one year after the last BRICS summit agreed to its creation, and the meeting announced that first approved infrastructure projects will begin at the beginning of 2016. That's an impressive testament to the mutual will to create an alternative to the IMF and World Bank, both of the latter controlled by Washington where they are headquartered. Notably BRICS agreed for the first time to institute formal cooperation with the leaders of the Eurasian Economic Union of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan.

As well they agreed to meet the leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) - Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

The former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi has allegedly been offered a position in the Russian Economy Ministry, and Russian citizenship by President Putin, Italian media reported.

La Stampa newspaper quoted the ex-premier as saying, "My future? Becoming minister for my friend Putin."

"Think about it: in Italy I am marginalized, while Putin tells me he is ready to give me [Russian] citizenship and get me the lead of the Russian Economy Ministry," the controversial politician added.

Berlusconi reportedly said it during a dinner with the 'Forza Italia' ('Forward Italy') political party.

Australian investigative TV program 60 minutes recently aired a program that exposes the fact that high level British politicians, government ministers, intelligence, police and military chiefs have all been involved in decades-long, systematic sexual abuse, rape and murder of hundreds or perhaps thousands of children as young as 8 years old.

This is not a case of a 'few bad apples' but rather a pervasive culture among the British 'elite' where the bodies, hearts, minds and souls of young children are effectively 'consumed' by individuals in positions of almost absolute power. In addition, the crimes of these vicious predators have been deliberately covered up through the use of blackmail and death threats.

No one should be under any illusion that the alleged 'investigation' being conducted by the British government will reveal the real truth or see justice served, because this is merely a case of the guilty investigating themselves.

30 min video:

The governmental commission for legislation has approved a bill that if passed would allow Russia to impound property of foreign states, so long as Russian courts rule these countries are infringing the sovereignty of Russian jurisdiction.

According to business daily Kommersant, the government will shortly look into the draft and then it will be submitted to the parliament.

The current draft, developed by the Justice Ministry, would give Russian courts more powers to impound the property of foreign states. Currently such steps are only allowed on condition the government of the country in question agrees. The new rules would cancel this stipulation and introduce another - impounding would only be possible as a reciprocal measure after a court decides that a nation has damaged the economic or other interests of the Russian Federation.

The Justice Ministry said in comments that the main idea behind the bill was to ensure a "jurisdiction balance" between Russia and foreign states. "The number of lawsuits against the Russian Federation is constantly growing and this happens without asking for our agreement for participation in these processes," ministry sources told Kommersant. Therefore, recognizing the ruling of foreign courts is equal to conceding national sovereignty, they added.

In early July, mass media reported that several European countries, such as Belgium and France had frozen Russian state companies' assets and curtailed their agencies in these countries. The move was in connection with the June 2014 ruling by the International Court in The Hague that ordered Russia to pay compensation of $39.9 billion, $1.85 billion and $8.2 billion to three companies connected with Yukos. The oil giant was dissolved in 2007 after its top managers and key owners were jailed for tax evasion.

Germany, the largest and most industrialized economy in the EU, projected as a key member of the continent's economic, political, and defense organizations, is set to remain within the tight grip of the US, as Washington fears becoming isolated in the international arena amid the rise of the BRICS countries, according to a Russian Colonel General.

Germany, Europe's most industrialized and populous country, famed for its technological achievements, is prohibited from acquiring its own nuclear weapons. It renounced the nuclear option in the Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968.

However, it is among the nations with the dubious distinction of hosting US nuclear weapons, along with Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey.

The removal of the US nuclear warheads from Germany is a long-term aim of the country's government. However, the weapons remain in place.

The Ukrainian companies that have lost their property in Crimea after the Black Sea peninsula's reintegration into Russia may claim a total of $2 billion from Moscow, ex-Governor of the Dnipropetrovsk Region, billionaire businessman Igor Kolomoisky said on Wednesday.

The Ukrainian oligarch declined to comment in detail on the intention of PrivatBank, part of Kolomoisky's Privat Group empire, to file a relevant lawsuit against Russia to The Hague Tribunal.

"I don't want to comment on anything [on The Hague Tribunal]. I believe lawsuits from all various structures and not only from PrivatBank will total about $2 billion," he said in reply to a question put by a TASS correspondent.

The European Commission has set up a €315 billion European Fund for Strategic Investments. It has the potential to add up to €440 billion to the EU's GDP and create over one million new jobs in the coming three years.

The Fund represents an Investment plan for Europe, which was unveiled by EU Commission President Jean-Claude Junker last year. It's supposed to make billions of euros available for investment projects throughout the 28-nation bloc, with a heavy emphasis on financing for infrastructure, small businesses, education, youth employment and telecoms.

"Investments is what the European Union is missing today, as the level of investments currently is 15 percent lower than in 2007," European Commission Vice-President Jyrki Katainen, responsible for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness, said in a press release Wednesday. He also expressed confidence that "the project is an important step for growth and employment in Europe."

President Barack Obama used his last appearance on the Daily Show to defend the Iran nuclear deal and his other achievements. Host Jon Stewart pointed out that diplomacy might work better than failed US policies of bombing, invasion and regime change.

"Whose team are we on in the Middle East?" Stewart, host of the popular comedy program for over 16 years, asked the president. "Who are we bombing?"