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Trump receives letter from Kim Jong-un, expects meeting with him soon to discuss denuclearization

Trump Kim
© Reuters / Jonathan Ernst
US President Donald Trump has said that his administration will be setting up another meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in the "not too distant future."

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Wednesday, Trump said he had received a "great" letter from Kim and expected to meet with him soon.

Trump defended his policy on North Korea and said that there would have been a "big fat war in Asia" if he had not sat down with Kim during their historic summit in Singapore last June.

Comment: Expect the war party to go yet crazier should Trump make a comprehensive and 'great deal' with North Korea. Imagine Trump pulling troops out of South Korea like he's planning to with Syria!


Footprints

Russian Foreign Ministry: US officials allowed to visit American arrested for espionage in Moscow

Paul Whelan
© Paul Whelan family archive
Paul Whelan
Paul Whelan, the US security specialist held in Russia since Friday over an "act of espionage," has received a diplomatic delegation from his homeland. Consular access had been demanded by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

The visit was separately confirmed to the Russian news agency RIA, and to CNN by foreign ministry officials in Moscow.

Earlier, Pompeo said the US needed to have a better understanding of what Whelan has purportedly done, as no details have been made public, and may press for his instant release.

Airplane

MH17: Ukraine's guilt decisively proven?

MH17 crash site
Finally, a clear and convincing - and unrefuted - case can now be presented to the public, as to precisely whom the guilty party was, that downed the MH17 Malaysian airliner over Ukraine on 17 July 2014, and why it was done. The complete case, which will be fully documented here, displays unequivocally who needed the MH17 murders (of 298 persons) to be perpetrated. This mass-murder was done for one leader's very pressing obsession. For him, it simply had to be done, and done at that precise time.

The full MH17 case will be presented here, to be judged by the public, because no court of law which possesses the power to bring this (or even any) case on the MH17 murders, is willing to do so, and because the evidence in this 17 July 2014 case has become overwhelming, and is unrefuted. This evidence is accepted by both sides. But it still remains effectively hidden from the publics in the United States and its allied countries. (The present news-report, which is the first ever to present this entire case, is submitted to all news-media in English-speaking countries, so that any of them that wishes to provide its audience access to this uncontested and conclusive evidence in the MH17 case can do so, by publishing this article. Any of them that won't, don't want their audience to have access to the conclusive evidence in this case, because this article is being made available to all of them to publish, free of charge; so, there is no other reason not to publish it.)

Propaganda

Five weeks after fake Guardian Assange/Manafort 'scoop', no evidence, just stonewalling

guardian assange

Guardian online edition (left); Guardian print edition (right)
FIVE WEEKS AGO, the Guardian published one of the most extraordinary and significant bombshells in the now two-plus-year-old Trump/Russia saga. "Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort held secret talks with Julian Assange inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and visited around the time he joined Trump's campaign," claimed reporter and best-selling "Collusion" author Luke Harding, Dan Collyns, and a very sketchy third person whose name was bizarrely scrubbed from the Guardian's byline for its online version but appeared in the print version: Fernando Villavicencio, described by the Washington Post, discussing this mysterious discrepancy, as "an Ecuadoran journalist and activist."

That the Guardian story would be seen as an earth-shattering revelation - one that would bring massive amounts of traffic, attention, glory and revenue to the paper - was obvious. And that's precisely how it was treated, as it instantly ricocheted around the media ecosystem with predictable viral speed: "The ultimate Whoa If True. It's ... [the] ballgame if true," pronounced MSNBC's Chris Hayes who, unlike many media figures reacting to the story, sounded some skepticism: "The sourcing on this is a bit thin, or at least obscured."

But Hayes' cable news colleague Ari Melber opened his MSNBC show that night excitedly touting the Guardian's scoop while meticulously connecting all the new inflammatory dots it uncovered, asking one guest: "how does this bombshell impact the collusion part of the probe"?

Russian Flag

Bloomberg suggests Russia considering constitution changes to keep Putin in office

putin
© Sputnik / Mihail Klimentьev
The speaker of Russia's parliament raised the possibility of changing the constitution as speculation grows that the Kremlin is considering ways to allow President Vladimir Putin to remain in power beyond the end of his current term, when current law requires him to step down.

"This is about the transfer of power," said Gleb Pavlovsky, a political analyst and former Kremlin aide. "Putin encourages this game, dropping ambiguous hints."

The comments from Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the State Duma and a top member of the ruling party, at a scripted Kremlin meeting with Putin late Tuesday were vague and didn't mention succession. But analysts said they showed the authorities already are preparing the ground for changes before the end of Putin's current term in 2024.

"There are questions in society, esteemed Vladimir Vladimirovich," Volodin said, addressing Putin in the respectful form, according to a Kremlin transcript. "This is the time when we could answer these questions, without in any way threatening the fundamental provisions" of the constitution, he added. "The law, even one like the Basic Law, isn't dogma."

Comment: The problem with a lack of term limits is that the precedent is set for a bad leader to game the system and stay in power longer than is helpful. The problem with term limits is that a good leader doesn't have time to implement good policies and see them come to fruition. It's a tough nut to crack, and it will be interesting to see how the Russians choose deal with it in the coming years.


Attention

Former intel chief of IDF wanted to illegally assassinate Syrian President Assad

kochavi assad
© WIKIMEDIA COMMONS & SANA/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS
Aviv Kochavi (L) and Bashar Assad (R).
Incoming IDF Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi advocated toppling the regime Syrian President Bashar Assad, but was rejected by Israel's government, which preferred to deal with a known adversary, Saudi Arabia's Elaph newspaper reported.

Quoting an unnamed senior Israeli official, the Saudi daily said that Kochavi, then director of Military Intelligence, was in favor of removing Assad from power - even by assassination - over the regime's support of Hezbollah.

According to the report, Kochavi recommended removing the Assad regime because "it would bring calamities to Israel from Iran, Hezbollah, the militias and Russian influence in the region." But the head of the Mossad, Yossi Cohen, "wanted an address in Syria" - someone it could communicate with by back channels if need be.

The "prolonged conflict in Syria saw Israel often hold negotiations with the regime in Damascus in order to reach an agreement in Syria," the report quoted the official as saying, adding that the diplomatic-security cabinet "held extensive discussions on the situation about Syria and decided that Israel would not allow an Iranian military presence there."

The report stated that while Israel had several opportunities to target Assad and his top leaders during the eight-year long civil war, Jerusalem instead decided to focus on preventing Iranian entrenchment in the country by targeting Iranian and Hezbollah assets instead, "while making sure [Israel] inflicts minimal damage to the Damascus regime."

Star of David

Israel steals more Palestinian land for their illegal settlement construction

Israel wall
© AFP
A picture taken on September 27, 2018 shows Israel's controversial wall separating the settlement of Pisgat Zeev (foreground) and the Palestinian neighborhood of Anata in East Jerusalem al-Quds.
Israeli authorities have confiscated thousands of square meters of private Palestinian land in the southern West Bank to expand a settlement in blatant violation of international law and defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions condemning Tel Aviv regime's land expropriation and settlement expansion policies in the occupied territories.

On Sunday, the Wall and Settlement Resistance Committee lodged an appeal to the so-called Israeli Supreme Court, denouncing the Israeli regime's seizure of approximately 1,200 dunams (1.2 square kilometers) of Palestinian-owned land.

Hassan Bureija, head of the committee, told the Arabic-language Voice of Palestine radio station that Israeli officials have granted 1,182 dunams (1.18 square kilometers) of private Palestinian land to the Israeli Ministry of Construction and Housing in order to erect an outpost south of Bethlehem, situated about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) south of Jerusalem al-Quds.

Magnify

Leaked documents reveal Facebook's biased, convoluted censorship practices

facebook police
Facebook's thousands of moderators have been relying on outdated, inaccurate and biased "maze of PowerPoint slides" to police global political speech, according to a trove of 1,400 internal documents obtained by the New York Times.

Moderators say they often rely on Google Translate to read posts, while facing pressure to make decisions on acceptable content within a matter of seconds, according to the report.

The guidelines - which are reportedly reviewed every other Tuesday morning by "several dozen Facebook employees who gather over breakfast," are filled with "numerous gaps, baises and outright errors," according to the Times.
Moderators were once told, for example, to remove fund-raising appeals for volcano victims in Indonesia because a co-sponsor of the drive was on Facebook's internal list of banned groups. In Myanmar, a paperwork error allowed a prominent extremist group, accused of fomenting genocide, to stay on the platform for months. In India, moderators were mistakenly told to flag for possible removal comments critical of religion. -NYT

Comment: It's not just that they have a convoluted policy, there seems to be a willful censoring of content they disagree with, whether it falls under the guidelines or not. But perhaps that is intended, since a convoluted policy provides them a neat little excuse in the form of 'plausible deniability'. See also:


Snakes in Suits

'Nostradamus' Macron mercilessly mocked on Twitter for last year's New Year "cohesion" vow

macron new year speech
© Reuters
Looking back at 2018 and the French president's vows to unite the nation, disappointed twitteratti noted the situation in the country, divided by the Benalla affair and the Yellow Vests riots, is not so rainbow-bright after all.

"In my view, 2018 will be the year of national cohesion," the centrist Macron ambitiously wrote in his New Year's Eve message a year ago. That prediction hasn't aged well, and Twitter noticed.

"We saw that [cohesion] with the Benalla affair and Yellow Vests," one user noted, adding that "words are no longer enough to conceal poor management of the country and decisions that go against the interests of [French] people."

"What clairvoyance","#nostradamus", the sarcastic comments went on.

And, if 2018 was thought to be the year of unity, many people got worried about imminent 2019. "And after the cohesion of the nation, what would you call Year 2019?"

Others said that Macron was right, and there was "cohesion" in the country - against his government, that is.

Comment: As if more evidence was needed as to how out of touch Macron really is, he prances off to St Tropez to celebrate New Year protected in his elitist bubble. Although, he must have been feeling a bit more comfortable considering over Christmas he refused to divulge his whereabouts for fears the people of France might come looking for him: Yellow Vest protesters attempt to storm Macron's Mediterranean castle

See also: Meanwhile, and for an idea of how a true statesmen behaves, this is how President Putin spent his new year:


Snakes in Suits

UK: House of Commons writes off £17,000 in unpaid food and drink bills for MPs and peers

river terrace House of commons bar
© Graham Barclay/TMG
MPs and their guests enjoy a drink on the River Terrace at the House of Commons
MPs refusing the pay bar and restaurant bills at the House of Commons have cost taxpayers thousands of pounds.

A Freedom of Information request found that the parliamentary authorities have had to write off more than £17,000 worth of unpaid catering bills since 2010.

The debt was wracked up by four unnamed MPs, 21 tradespeople and one internal member of staff on food and drink.

The research also found that a peer had a £243 restaurant bill written off while an MP left a £30 catering bill outstanding.

All restaurant facilities are subsidised for MPs, who earn £77,379 a year and members of the House of Lords, who earn a £305 per day attendance allowance, plus travel expenses.

Comment: The same MPs who 'awarded' themselves £11,000 worth in payrises in just 3 years, and who are currently overseeing devastating 'austerity' measures and a devastating surge in poverty in Britain. If this were any old commoner, bailiffs would be at their door demanding payment: