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DPRK Foreign Minister: Pompeo is the "diehard toxin" of US diplomacy


KCNA Watch
Fri, 23 Aug 2019 17:22 UTC
NK FM Ri Yong-ho
© TIME
North Korea Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho, UN General Assembly
Foreign Minister of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea Ri Yong Ho made public the following statement Friday:

U.S. State Secretary Pompeo, when interviewed by a U.S. newspaper Wednesday, said if north Korea does not set out to denuclearize itself, the U.S. will maintain the strongest sanctions in history to make it confirm that the denuclearization is the right way.

Just as a saying goes "A crow never becomes whiter for often washing", he is the diehard toxin of the U.S. diplomacy.

On April 24 he cited what he called a "lane change" in an interview with the U.S. media only to be snubbed.

Nothing decent can be expected from Pompeo, a man subject to strong censure from many countries for adopting the most wicked methods of the Central Intelligence Agency as diplomatic means in every part of the world. But what arouses concerns is a string of senseless remarks made by the man heading the U.S. negotiation team at a time when the DPRK-U.S. dialogue is high on the agenda.

There is a proverb saying "Sow the wind and reap the whirlwind". Now that he made rhetoric about the DPRK without elementary obligation as a human being, losing his face as the diplomatic boss of a country, I can not but respond to it in kind.

Comment: North Koreans come up with the best insults. It's doubtful anyone will be able to top John "Defective Human Product" Bolton anytime soon, for instance.

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Star of David

Report: Israel preparing to join Saudis in attacking Houthis in Yemen - because Iran


PressTV
Fri, 23 Aug 2019 17:16 UTC
Israeli Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopter
© AFP
An Israeli Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopter takes part in a military exercise at the Hatzerim base in the Negev desert on June 27, 2019.
The Israeli military is planning to attack Yemen's Houthi Ansarullah movement, a new report says, a move that is claimed to be part of the Tel Aviv regime's attempts to ensure the group never comes in contact with Iran.

The Kuwaiti newspaper al-Jaridah said Thursday that Israel was gearing up to pound targets of the Ansarullah and Lebanon's Hezbollah resistance movement in Yemen, near the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb separating the Red Sea from the Gulf of Aden.

The report claimed that the Israeli spy agency Mossad as well as the regime's Military Intelligence were specifically looking for alleged attempts to deliver weapons from Iran.

It further claimed that some of the Houthis' drones and missiles had been transferred to Iraq instead in an alleged attempt to mislead the Israeli military, which is said to be behind a series of bombings that have targeted Iraqi popular mobilization forces, Hashd al-Sha'abi, over the past weeks.

According to al-Jarida and some Iraqi experts, the attacks on the group's ammunition depots across Iraq have been carried out by Israel.

Comment: Indeed. How DID they do it?!

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Flashlight

Foot in mouth? VIDEO shows Boris 'gaffe' was really part of Macron joke


RT
Fri, 23 Aug 2019 16:55 UTC
bojo footstool
© Christophe Petit Tesson/Pool via REUTERS
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson invoked the wrath of the Twitterati after appearing to disrespect France's Emmanuel Macron. However, video of the key moment shows that people jumped to the wrong conclusion.

The MSM denunciations of Johnson's apparent bad behavior came thick and fast as the well-timed snap was strewn across social media Thursday.

A picture may be worth a thousand words (or retweets perhaps) but in this instance the critical context was missing, as video of the alleged 'gaffe' shows.

Indeed, one political correspondent even suggested that Boris' apparent boorishness was actually in response to a joke the French leader had made.
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War Whore

This is What Gloating Looks Like... NY Times Distorts War-Torn Syria

Finian Cunningham
RT
Thu, 22 Aug 2019 16:48 UTC
syria destruction
© AFP / Delil SOULEIMAN
A supposed survey of war-torn Syria by America's so-called "newspaper of record" was not merely shoddy journalism; it was a cynical attempt to rewrite the history of the eight-year war.

The meandering report of more than 2,700 words was headlined: "What 'Victory' Looks Like: A Journey Through Shattered Syria." It would have been more accurate to have used the title, "What Gloating Looks Like."

Even the sly way the word 'victory' is put in quotation marks indicates, from the outset, the insidious purpose of the article. To pour scorn on how Syria and its people have in actual fact defeated a foreign-sponsored criminal war for regime change. The regime-change plot goes back to at least 2005 as this old CNN interview clumsily admits.

With mawkish words, the New York Times reporters effect to lament the rubble and grief among the Syrian population. But all the while, the implication conveyed is that President Bashar Assad "presided over the destruction."
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Yoda

Putin orders 'exhaustive' response to US missile test, says Washington worked to breach INF


RT
Fri, 23 Aug 2019 16:42 UTC
missile
© Global Look Press/U.S. Navy
The Russian Armed Forces will scrutinize a recent cruise missile test, conducted by the US after ditching the landmark INF Treaty, and examine reciprocal measures. However, Moscow says it is not aiming for an arms race.

President Vladimir Putin has ordered the Defense Ministry and other bodies to "study the level of threat posed by these US actions and take exhaustive measures to prepare a symmetrical response."

Putin was speaking just days after the US military test-fired a ground version of Tomahawk cruise missile that travelled about 500km (310 miles) before hitting a mock target.

The type of weapon, fired from a universal Mk-41 launch system in California, was banned under the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty which the US formally withdrew from on August 2.
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Chess

Empire first! Trump backs off plan to slash foreign 'aid' (bribe money) as Swamp dwellers dig in heels


RFE/RL
Fri, 23 Aug 2019 16:35 UTC
trump
Facing criticism from Republicans and Democrats, U.S. President Donald Trump has backed off a plan to slash some $4 billion in foreign aid already approved by lawmakers.

U.S. news agencies on August 22 quoted unnamed senior administration officials and a Democratic congressional aide as confirming the White House had decided not to go forward with the planned cuts.

U.S. officials on August 7 said Trump had frozen foreign-aid funding until the White House Office of Management and Budget could review any money that hadn't been spent for the fiscal year ending September 30.

The freeze would have impacted 10 bank accounts overseen by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the State Department, a senior administration official told RFE/RL.

Comment: Yes it would be harmful to their 'national security', but what they mean by 'national security' is maintaining global empire.

A Pakistani space initiative? LOL! That money goes towards keeping Pakistan 'on-side' and a festering sore in south Asia... in the form of bribes to local politicians and warlords.

See also: State Department cuts Pakistan's handouts by $440 million, but Islamic state still receives billion$ from US taxpayers

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Handcuffs

Modi declares 'New India' tightening noose on corruption, former FM arrested for money laundering


RT
Fri, 23 Aug 2019 11:59 UTC
india FM
© AFP / PAL PILLAI
FILE PHOTO: Palaniappan Chidambaram
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday asserted that the resounding mandate of 2019 Lok Sabha polls was not just for a government, but for building a 'New India' that focuses on ease of doing business while ensuring ease of living.

Addressing Indian community at the UNESCO headquarters here after inaugurating a memorial in honour of the victims of two Air India crashes in France in the 1950s and 1960s, Prime Minister Modi said in 'new India' action is being taken against corruption, nepotism, loot of people's money, terrorism.

"In 'New India', the way in which action is being taken against corruption, nepotism, loot of people's money, terrorism, this has never happened before. Within 75 days of the new government coming to power, we took many strong decisions," PM Modi said.

Comment: RT reports:
Indian special forces have raided the house of former finance minister Palaniappan Chidambaram to arrest him on charges of corruption and money laundering.

Shortly after Chidambaram returned home from a press conference at Congress Party headquarters, a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team scaled the wall of his Jor Bagh residence in New Delhi to detain the 73-year-old politician.

The dramatic scenes televised across Indian media showed CBI officers jumping over the locked gate to let the main force inside, while another team entered the house from the back door. The senior Congress leader, accused of clearing foreign investments in exchange for bribes when he was finance minister, was then driven away in a CBI vehicle amid spirited protests outside his house.

CBI and Enforcement Directorate (which investigates financial crimes) officers have been scouting Chidambaram's house since Tuesday, the day the politician went missing after the High Court rejected his plea seeking protection from arrest. Earlier, the Enforcement Directorate issued a lookout notice against him seeking his detention and effectively preventing the politician from fleeing abroad.

At the press conference, the former finance minister denied any wrongdoing and claimed that he was "not hiding from the law" but rather "seeking protection of the law."

Chidambaram is accused of facilitating Foreign Investment Promotion Board clearance to the INX Media company in 2007 when he was the Finance Minister for Manmohan Singh's government. Investigators allege that his son Karti received kickbacks after INX Media secured funds equivalent to roughly $41 million.



See also:

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Stock Down

IMF says tariffs are ineffective, China threatens retaliation on any further US moves


Wealth Arabia
Thu, 22 Aug 2019 12:00 UTC
Shipping Containers
© Global Look Press / Jacek Sopotnicki
The fund suggests alternative ways to address concerns about trade imbalances that better support global growth, noting that trade tensions are dimming the fund's global growth outlook.

Tempting as it might be to think a stronger dollar offsets higher US tariffs by making Chinese imports cheaper, the International Monetary Fund says the greenback's global prevalence tells a different story, reported Bloomberg.

Gita Gopinath, the IMF Chief Economist, said, "US importers and consumers are bearing the burden of the tariffs, the stronger US currency has had a minimal impact thus far on the dollar prices Chinese exporters receive because of dollar invoicing."

Comment: RT reports that China is threatening retaliatory measures should the US go ahead with any further tariffs:
China's Commerce Ministry warned the US against further escalating the trade war as it urged Washington not to proceed with new tariffs against Chinese imports, some of which are set to take effect September 1.

If Washington resorts to the promised tariffs, Beijing will have to retaliate, ministry spokesman Gao Feng said on Thursday. The same was promised by the State Council Tariff Committee last week, but neither Gao nor the committee clarified what steps China will take.

"Despite the US decision to delay tariffs on some Chinese goods... if the United States rides roughshod over China's opposition and impose any new tariffs, China will be forced to adopt retaliatory actions," the spokesman told a news briefing as cited by Reuters.

Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump threatened to hit China with 10-percent levies on $300 billion worth of imports. While additional levies for certain goods were later postponed till December 15, some products worth more than $100 billion are still on the hit-list which will come into force on September 1.

Trade talks between the two sides are still in progress, but there has been no breakthrough leading to a final deal. Last month's meeting in Shanghai brought no results, and the date of next round of face-to-face talks has not been announced.

On Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said he hopes that the US and China can "get along" and resume "mutually beneficial" trade.

"We hope the United States will meet China halfway," the spokesman said referring to a trade agreement that can end the protracted trade row.

Trump has recently linked the success of a trade agreement with China to Beijing's policies towards the Hong Kong protests, which have been ongoing for weeks. The president said that a violent crackdown on the protesters would make the deal "much harder" to sign. Beijing urged Washington to stay out of its domestic affairs.
The outlook for the global economy is looking particularly bleak:

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Brick Wall

Crisis-level migrant surge eases following Trump's border protection deal with Mexico


Fox News
Thu, 22 Aug 2019 20:45 UTC
Trump Border Wall
When people think of the southern border, it may bring to mind a vast, open desert, flecked with cacti and etched by a thin trail of fencing.

Not so here in Laredo Sector, where the Rio Grande narrows and separates the bushy banks of Mexico and the U.S. by mere feet of water. Migrants, predominantly adult men from Mexico rather than the Central American families common in other sectors, take advantage of the low river surrounded by trees. They know, as do the smugglers who assist illegal immigrants, that if they scramble across the water and into the trees, they are a short sprint from disappearing in Laredo amid its many fast-food restaurants, tiny houses and money exchanges.

But lately, the crisis-level surge in crossings has eased.
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Headphones

An interview with University of Tehran's Professor Seyed Marandi

The Saker
The Unz Review
Thu, 22 Aug 2019 20:06 UTC
Seyed Mohammad Marandi

Professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi
Introduction: first, several friends recently suggested that that I should interview Professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi; then I read this most interesting text on Moon of Alabama and I decided to ask Professor Marandi to share his views of the current situation in Iran, the Persian Gulf the rest of the Middle-East who very kindly agreed to reply to my question in spite of his most hectic and busy schedule. I am most grateful to Prof. Marandi for his time and replies. Crucially, Prof. Marandi debunks the silly notion that Russia and Israel are allies or working together. He also debunks that other canard about Russia and Iran having some major differences over Syria. Prof. Marandi, who is currently in Iran, is superbly connected and informed, and I hope that with this interview some of the more outlandish rumors which were recently circulated will finally be seen for what they are: utter, total, nonsense. Enjoy the interview!

The Saker: It is often said that there is an "axis of resistance" which comprises Syrian, Hezbollah, Iran, Russia and China. Sometimes, Venezuela, Cuba or the DPRK are added to this list. Do you believe that there is such an "axis of resistance" and, if yes, how would you characterize the nature of this informal alliance? Do you think that this informal alliance can ever grow into a formal political or military alliance or a collective security treaty?
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