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Duterte's 'priority market': Phillippines strike deals worth $12.6 million with Russia, including nuclear power plant option


Source
Sat, 05 Oct 2019 00:00 UTC
The Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, Philippines
© Reuters / Romeo Ranoco
The Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) in Morong town, Bataan province, Philippines.
The Philippines have signed 10 trade and investment agreements with Russia amounting to some $12.6 million. From seafood to car exports, these include a deal to explore nuclear power plant construction possibilities.

"10 trade agreements were concluded. Thanks to the good relations between governments and business, we are confident that we can expand our cooperation," the Philippines' Minister of Trade and Industry Ramon Lopez said after the signing ceremony on Friday. He also noted a huge potential in trade and investment cooperation since the "markets have not been really maximized in the past."
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Newspaper

Taliban Representatives Report Meeting With US special envoy Khalilzad In Pakistan


RFE/RL
Sat, 05 Oct 2019 21:37 UTC
Zalmay Khalilzad
© Karim Jaafar(AFP)
Taliban representatives say they have met in Pakistan with U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad.
Taliban negotiators say they have met in Pakistan with Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. peace envoy for Afghanistan, for the first time since President Donald Trump in September called the peace process "dead."

A Taliban representative on October 5 said the meeting took place between Khalilzad and the Taliban delegation led by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a co-founder of the extremist group.

The representative did not offer further details of the meeting, which he said took place in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, and he did not characterize the event as a "negotiation."

U.S. officials did not confirm the meeting.
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Arrow Down

Hong Kong masked protesters beat & set fire to 'off-duty cop'


RT
Sat, 05 Oct 2019 21:41 UTC
Hong Kong police on fire
© FILE PHOTO REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui
A camera has captured the dramatic moment when a man - reportedly an off-duty police officer - was dragged away from his car and firebombed by rioters amid violent clashes in Hong Kong.

Footage shared by Xinhua news agency shows masked mobsters surrounding the man's car in a Hong Kong street. They then hurl a petrol bomb at the victim, who was wearing a white T-shirt, before he runs away to escape the blaze. He dropped a sidearm on the ground.

Further into the clip, he is seen making a phone call, at which point a second petrol bomb explodes under his legs.

Comment: See also:

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Light Saber

Brazil's ex-president Lula: 'Mexico would've been Canada' - US does NOT help Latin America


RT
Sat, 05 Oct 2019 18:02 UTC
bolsonaro trump brazil
© Reuters / Kevin Lamarque
Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro presents a mock Brazil national soccer team jersey to US President Donald Trump.
Latin American countries must unite and pursue independent policies instead of trading their sovereignty for empty promises of US aid, former Brazilian president Lula da Silva told RT in an exclusive interview from jail.

Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva, who was Brazil's leader from 2003 to 2010, is now serving a 12-year prison term on charges of corruption and money laundering. He vigorously denies the accusations, saying that his sentencing was politically motivated. In late September, the 73-year-old rejected the offer of semi-open prison conditions and insisted that he would only leave his cell after being fully acquitted.

"Every president, who won an election in Latin America, is expecting help from the US now. It's just unprecedented," Lula said in the extensive interview.

Comment:

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Attention

It's not a war against Trump, Dems want to destroy the American system

Sara Carter
saraacarter.com
Fri, 04 Oct 2019 00:00 UTC
NadlerTrumpCortezSchiff
© Fox News
Jerry Nadler • President Donald Trump • Ocasio Cortez • Adam Schiff
Democrats and Republicans went head-to-head Friday, as lawmakers clashed regarding the closed door testimony of a former special envoy to Ukraine, and whether President Donald Trump allegedly pressured officials in a 'quid pro quo' to withhold funding in return for investigating former Vice President Joe Biden and his son.

Kurt Volker, the former envoy, who testified for more than eight hours Thursday at a closed door hearing with lawmakers offered no evidence of any wrongdoing on the part of the president. However, that doesn't seem to matter as Democrats continue to pursue endless inquiries in their quest to impeach the president. They do this with the leadership of one of Trump's most vocal enemies on Capitol Hill: House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff.

The Democrats push for impeachment and the methods being utilized by members of the intelligence community and Democrats to target Trump should concern every American. It isn't about Trump, it's about the American people who put him in office.

Comment: See also:

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Mail

Powell's letter to Barr: General Flynn was set up to 'take out' Trump

Petr Svab
The Epoch Times
Wed, 02 Oct 2019 00:00 UTC
Sidney Powell
© Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times
Sidney Powell, author of the bestseller "Licensed to Lie" and lead counsel in more than 500 appeals in the Fifth Circuit, in Washington on May 30, 2019.
Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn's lawyer, Sidney Powell, wrote a letter to Attorney General William Barr in early June outlining her belief that the government targeted Flynn for "concocted and political purposes" in order to "take out" President Donald Trump.

She informed Barr that she intended to demand production of a large volume of evidence and suggested "a just resolution" to the Flynn case "if the evidence shows what we believe to be true." She also made several requests, including for Barr to replace the prosecution team on the case and to determine "when, how, and on what basis the first investigation of General Flynn began." The letter, marked confidential and dated June 6, was released by the Flynn case prosecutors with minor redactions on Oct. 1 (pdf).

Flynn, former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency and former national security adviser to Trump, pleaded guilty on Dec. 1, 2017, to one count of lying to FBI agents during a Jan. 24, 2017, interview.

The letter outlines a plethora of documents that Powell believed would show that the agents didn't have a proper reason to interview Flynn to begin with.
"It is increasingly apparent that General Flynn was targeted and taken out of the Trump administration for concocted and political purposes. We believe there is specific evidence of that fact. He was the tip of the spear aimed at President Trump."
Powell demanded that prosecutors produce dozens of pieces of evidence in an Aug. 30 court filing that to a degree mirrors the June letter. She also moved to have the judge hold the government in contempt of court for withholding the documents.

Comment: See also:

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Arrow Down

Testimony by Trump's Ukraine envoy shoots down Dems' impeachment narrative


RT
Fri, 04 Oct 2019 00:00 UTC
Kurt Volker
© Reuters/Tom Brenner
Former Ukraine envoy Kurt Volker arrives at the US Capitol for questioning.
Another transcript has poked a hole in the narrative of House Democrats trying to impeach President Donald Trump, as former US special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker testified he never pushed Kiev for 'dirt' on former VP Joe Biden.

Volker was grilled for nine hours in a closed-doors session of the House Foreign Affairs, Intelligence, and Oversight committees on Thursday. Democrats on the committees claimed that he was instrumental in pushing the Ukrainian government to reopen a corruption investigation into Joe Biden's son Hunter's business dealings in Ukraine.

House Intelligence chair Adam Schiff (D-California) - one of the loudest voices calling for impeachment on Capitol Hill - did not release a transcript of Volker's testimony.

Instead, the Democrats published a select few text messages provided by Volker, amid grim pronouncements that the envoy engaged in a "shadow shakedown," and helped Trump pressure "a foreign power to investigate a political rival," to quote Schiff and fellow Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-California).
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Hiliter

Surprise! Court docs reveal UK govt to request Article 50 extension. Brexit is NOT happening this month

Severin Carrell, Heather Stewart
The Guardian
Fri, 04 Oct 2019 10:06 UTC
BJohnson
© AP
Prime Minister Boris Johnson leaves Downing Street to attend Parliament, Oct. 3, 2019.
The UK government has promised a court that Boris Johnson will send a letter to the EU seeking an extension to article 50 as required by the Benn act.

The undertaking appears to contradict the prime minister's statements on the UK leaving the EU on 31 October regardless and unattributed claims from Downing Street that he will find a way to sidestep the act.

The pledge has been given in legal papers submitted to the court of session in Edinburgh after anti-Brexit campaigners began legal action to force Johnson to uphold the act's requirements.

The European Union (Withdrawal) (No. 2) Act states that if Westminster does not agree to a Brexit deal by 19 October, the prime minister has to write to the EU seeking an extension to article 50 until 31 January.

Comment: For those who really believed BoJo was their man... we told you the UK's not going anywhere!

Not this month, not next month, not next year, not ever!

(Absent catalysing and catastrophic events, of course...)

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Arrow Up

While impeachment fever heats up Washington, Ukraine prosecutor to reopen Biden probe


RT
Fri, 04 Oct 2019 15:24 UTC
Ryaboshapka
© Maxym Marusenko/NurPhoto via ZUMA
Prosecutor General of Ukraine Ruslan Ryaboshapka (R) during a session of the Ukrainian Parliament in Kyiv, Ukraine, 29 August 2019.
As Democrats clamor to impeach President Donald Trump for allegedly pressuring Ukraine into probing the Biden family, Kiev's top prosecutor announced that he will reopen the investigation.

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Ruslan Ryaboshapka announced on Friday that he will review 15 high-profile corruption cases. Among them is an investigation into the owner of energy firm Burisma, which paid former vice president Joe Biden's son Hunter $50,000 per month to sit on its board for five years, despite his lack of qualifications in the field.

President Trump believes that Joe Biden wielded his political influence to land Hunter the job, using the promise of military aid to Ukraine as leverage. In a July phone call to newly elected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump suggested that he reopen a closed investigation into Burisma, a demand he reiterated on Thursday.


Comment: Suggesting and requesting is not the same as demanding. According to the transcripts of the call, there was no demand.


Though a Biden spokeswoman called the allegations against her boss the stuff of "conspiracy theories," a foreign corruption investigation would certainly cast a pall over Biden's 2020 campaign.

However, Ryaboshapka insisted on Friday that the decision to reopen the Burisma case was not politically motivated, even if it came a day after Trump publicly stated that Ukraine "should investigate the Bidens" and their "crooked deal."

Comment: More from RT, 4/9/2019: Dems publish Trump admin. officials' texts
Several top Democrats have released text messages between US officials which they claim expose the Trump administration's drive to 'coerce' the Ukrainian government to target Joe Biden, for purely political reasons obviously. The Democratic chairs of the House Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs Committees released the messages in a letter to fellow representatives late Thursday.

The letter features over a dozen text messages between US diplomats - including former Trump administration envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker, Ukrainian embassy official Bill Taylor, EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland, as well as the president's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani.

Ukraine Texts by M Mali on Scribd


See also:

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Broom

Erdoğan: Turkey is ready for purge operation east of Euphrates


Daily Sabah
Sat, 05 Oct 2019 11:04 UTC
Erdogan
© AA
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Turkey will carry out an air and ground operation in the east of the Euphrates River in Syria and purge the region from terrorists to establish peace there, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Saturday.

Speaking at the opening of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party)'s annual camp in Ankara, Erdoğan said Turkey aimed to "water the east of Euphrates with fountains of peace" and settle refugees there.
"Turkey saw that land and air patrols with the U.S. were a tale; we've made our preparations, we've completed our operation plans, given the necessary instructions. Turkey would carry out air and ground actions as soon as today or tomorrow. We gave all warnings to our interlocutors regarding the east of Euphrates and we have acted with sufficient patience."
Turkey has on many occasion expressed that it aims to settle up to 2 million Syrian refugees in the zone, and has repeatedly warned of unilateral military action if it is not satisfied with progress.

Comment: More from RFE/RL, 5/10/2019: US-backed SDF warns of 'all-out war'
The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have warned of "all-out war" against Turkey if Ankara carries out its threat to launch air strikes and a ground attack against them in northeastern Syria.

The SDF responded in a statement, saying on October 5 that it will "not hesitate to turn any unprovoked [Turkish] attack into an all-out war" to defend its region.

The SDF is an alliance of anti-government forces in Syria composed primarily of Kurdish, Arab, and Assyrian militias. The SDF also includes some smaller Armenian, Turkmen, and Chechen forces.


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