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Texas seeks greater economic ties with China despite US trade war


Xinhua
Thu, 13 Jun 2019 16:54 UTC
Houston Texas
© Xinhua/Yi-Chin Lee
A woman takes a photograph with a "moonGARDEN" sphere with urban scenery shadows at Discovery Green park in downtown Houston, Texas, the United States, Oct. 6, 2018.
U.S. state of Texas should keep developing economic and trade relations with China, its third largest trading partner, regardless of the uncertainty brought by the U.S.-initiated trade tensions with China, a business leader has said.

"Texas has been enjoying investment of Chinese capital, primarily in energy and agriculture sectors," but the foreign capital has been affected recently because of the trade conflicts, Texas Association of Business CEO Jeff Moseley said in a Monday interview with Xinhua.

In the name of protecting domestic industries, Washington has placed steep tariffs on billions of U.S. dollars' worth of products from China, a heavy blow to the two countries' economic and trade relations.
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Attention

It's happening: UK Home Secretary approves extradition request for Assange to stand trial in the USA on charges of 'spying'

Matthew Weaver and Owen Bowcott
The Guardian
Thu, 13 Jun 2019 17:02 UTC
assange belmarsh prison
© Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images
Julian Assange gestures from the window of a prison van.
Home secretary opens way for court to consider whether Assange should be sent to US

The home secretary, Sajid Javid, has revealed he has signed a request for Julian Assange to be extradited to the US where he faces charges of computer hacking.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Thursday, Javid said: "He's rightly behind bars. There's an extradition request from the US that is before the courts tomorrow but yesterday I signed the extradition order and certified it and that will be going in front of the courts tomorrow."

Comment: George Galloway nails it:
Julian Assange's extradition to the US would be a deathblow for all truth seekers, George Galloway told RT, warning that anyone who fails to support Assange will one day share the same fate as the persecuted Wikileaks co-founder.

Galloway, a former MP who has campaigned tirelessly for Assange's freedom, quipped that the "dark" episode shows that Theresa May's "zombie" government was "not content with all the other disasters for which it's responsible."

He insisted that Assange's supporters would "never give up" the fight to stop his extradition to the US and secure his safe release from UK custody.

Failing to support Assange now will have disastrous consequences for journalism and all who profess to hold progressive values, Galloway warned. He expressed particular discontent with those who would have ordinarily protested Assange's treatment at the hands of the UK authorities, but remained silent because the Wikileaks co-founder was accused of sexual misconduct - what Galloway decried as a politically-motivated smear.
The liberals and the progressives, as they describe themselves, they will one day be a victim of this tyranny themselves, that is unless they eventually give up any pretense of actually being liberals and actually being progressives.
Asked about what would happen if Assange is ultimately extradited, Galloway said that the consequences for allowing such an injustice would be devastating.

"Every truth seeker will go down if Julian goes down."


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MIB

Why didn't the Mueller Report include an investigation of Seth Rich?

Daniel Lazare
Consortium News
Thu, 13 Jun 2019 16:19 UTC
Seth Rich
© LinkedIn
Slain Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich.
The idea that the DNC email disclosures were produced by a hack - not a leak -makes less and less sense.

After bungling every last aspect of Russia-gate since the day the pseudo-scandal broke, the corporate press is now seizing on the Mueller report to shut down debate on one of the key questions still outstanding from the 2016 presidential election: the murder of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich.

No one knows who killed Rich in Washington, D.C., on July 10, 2016. All we know is that he was found at 4:19 a.m. in the Bloomingdale neighborhood "with apparent gunshot wound(s) to the back" according to the police report. Conscious and still breathing, he was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead at 5:57.
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Yoda

Putin fires two police generals over drug-trafficking case launched against investigative journalist Ivan Golunov


RFE/RL
Thu, 13 Jun 2019 16:46 UTC
protester

Police detain a participant of a rally in support of Russian investigative journalist Ivan Golunov
Russian President Vladimir Putin has fired two police generals over a drug-trafficking case launched against investigative journalist Ivan Golunov, who was released on June 11 amid a public outcry and claims that the case against him was fabricated.

The Kremlin press service said on June 13 that Putin dismissed Major General Yury Devyatkin, the head of the Moscow police department's drug-control directorate, and Major General Andrei Puchkov, the police chief in Moscow's West administrative region.

Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev had said on June 11 that he would ask Putin to fire the two senior police officials over the Golunov case.

Kolokoltsev also said all charges against Golunov, a 36-year-old journalist who works for the Latvia-based online journal Meduza, were dropped because "the alleged crime has not been proven."

Comment: Previously:

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Dollars

Bernie Sanders: Americans 'will be delighted' to pay more taxes for free health care, education

Joseph A. Wulfsohn
Fox News
Thu, 13 Jun 2019 16:44 UTC
Bernie Sanders
© Gage Skidmore/Flickr
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, continued to defend Democratic socialism and argued that Americans would be "delighted to pay more in taxes" if his policies are carried out.

On Wednesday, Sanders attempted to sway voters into the ideology of Democratic socialism and argued in favor for what he called an "Economic Bill of Rights," where every American would have a right for items like free health care and education. He also insisted that President Trump is a "corporate socialist" for providing billions in subsidies and tax breaks for corporations.

During an appearance on CNN, the Democratic candidate was asked how he will respond to Trump's attacks on the campaign trail, specifically when the president invokes Venzuela as an example of failed socialism.
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Gold Bar

Russia bringing back the gold standard may kill US dollar & solve main problem of cryptocurrencies


RT
Thu, 13 Jun 2019 16:43 UTC
gold bars
© Global Look Press / Frank May
The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) is studying a proposal to create a gold-backed cryptocurrency, which could be used for cross-border settlements with other countries.

The bold proposal was made by Russia's State Duma member Vladimir Gutenev. He has suggested initiating discussion to set up national cryptocurrency, denominated in gold.

Commenting on Gutenev's proposal, the head of CBR Elvira Nabiullina said: "As for mutual settlements, we will consider, of course, a proposal on a cryptocurrency that is tied to gold. But, in my opinion, it is more important to develop settlements in national currencies."
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No Entry

Twitter restricts Project Veritas for expose of Pinterest

Lucas Nolan
Breitbart
Wed, 12 Jun 2019 15:25 UTC
Twitter restricts Project Veritas
© Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images
Social media platform Twitter has reportedly temporarily suspended the account of investigative journalism group Project Veritas following its publication of internal documents from Silicon Valley company Pinterest.

According to journalist James O'Keefe, Twitter has limited the account of the investigative journalism group Project Veritas following the group's publication of internal communications from Pinterest. O'Keefe wrote in a tweet that Project Veritas "has been temporarily suspended from posting for tweeting internal communications from @Pinterest which show them calling @benshapiro a 'white supremacist'." The tweet can be seen below along with a photo of a warning


A person familiar with the situation told Breitbart News that the Project Veritas account was locked for violating the Twitter Rules, specifically the private information policy, but clarified that Project Veritas was not locked out due to the content of their communications.

Comment: See also:

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Penis Pump

Trump considering sanctions against Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to 'protect Germany from Russia'


RT
Thu, 13 Jun 2019 09:50 UTC
Eugal
© Global Look Press / Stefan Sauer
FILE PHOTO: A section of the Eugal pipeline, which will feed the Nord Stream 2 into the European gas grid
US president Donald Trump says he is considering slapping sanctions on Russia's Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline project, insisting that the US has a much "better" alternative for Europe.

"[It's] something that I've been looking at and I'm thinking about," the US president said, answering a reporter's question about using sanctions to block the project.

He added that he was the one who'd brought up "the pipeline problem," referring to his earlier attacks against Russia's energy supplies to Europe, and Germany in particular, as it is the entry point of the new export gas pipeline.

"You know this gas is going into Germany. I say, 'How can you do that?' So, we're protecting Germany from Russia," he went on.

Comment: While those in the political class may be willing to sell out their countries and pay more for gas to appease the US but European businesses, and more particularly the citizens of Europe, who are already struggling to heat their homes in winter, will not be best pleased to see their bills increase even further just so that the US economy can scrape by for a little longer: Also check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal #26: Globalization vs Nationalism - The Hidden Causes of The Yellow Vest Protests in France

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Snakes in Suits

US must develop "new way of war" or risk defeat to Russia & China - think tank


RT
Thu, 13 Jun 2019 00:41 UTC
Marines
© Facebook / 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit/ Marine Corps / Lance Cpl. Harrison C. Rakhshani
FILE PHOTO
The Pentagon's military posture based on post-Cold War dominance will not work against new Russian and Chinese strategies and must be urgently updated, or the US risks losing a war against either power, a new report warns.

America needs a "new way of war," according to a report authored by Chris Dougherty of the Center for New American Security (CNAS) and published on Wednesday.

"For the first time in decades, it is possible to imagine the United States fighting-and possibly losing-a large-scale war with a great power," Dougherty warns.

While the US remains stuck in the "implicit and explicit mental framework" for military strategy and operations that emerged during the 1991 Gulf War, he adds, China and Russia have been devising new strategies and weapons to defeat the US in war should that become necessary.

Comment: Sadly it's unlikely ever to occur to many of those who've reached positions of influence in the US that the way out of this mess is not by coming up with a new way of war but instead is through cooperation:

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No Entry

Mexico to deploy National Guard forces to southern border to stem flow of Central American migrants

Jose Cabezas
Reuters
Wed, 12 Jun 2019 14:09 UTC
Central American Migrants Mexico

Federal police officers talk with an African migrant as she waits to be admited outside of Siglo XXI migration facility in Tapachula, Mexico, June 12, 2019.
Deployment of National Guard forces to Mexico's southern border will advance quickly under a migration control deal signed last week with the United States, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Wednesday, although there were no visible signs on the ground late in the day.

Under the deal signed on Friday, Mexico agreed to take steps to control the flow of people from Central America, including deploying 6,000 members of the country's National Guard across its border with Guatemala.

"Starting from today, and in the coming days, the deployment is going to progress rapidly," Ebrard said during President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's regular morning news conference.

However, a Reuters photographer in Southern Mexico said there was no sign of National Guard forces being deployed late on Wednesday - only regular checkpoints by the army, marines and the Federal Police.

The deal agreed on Friday averted escalating import tariffs of 5% on Mexican goods, which President Donald Trump had vowed to impose unless Mexico did more to curb illegal migration into the United States. Mexico also agreed to a 45-day timeline to show that increased enforcement efforts were effective.

Comment: More on the migration crisis:

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