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Congress poised to grant Israel its entire military wish list (in the middle of a US health crisis) with no strings attached

Josh Ruebner
Mondoweiss
Wed, 27 May 2020 16:42 UTC
aipac netanyahu
© Haim Zach/GPO
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the 2018 AIPAC policy conference in Washington DC.
Congress is set to pass its most far-reaching bill related to Israel at the height of a national public health emergency.

With the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's passage of the United States-Israel Security Assistance Authorization Act of 2020 last week, the current Congress is now poised to enact with little transparency its most far-reaching bill related to Israel at the height of a national public health emergency.

According to Lara Friedman, President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP), the committee vote took place "without even bothering with a pretense of public discussion" and was especially egregious because the committee voted on a wholly new version of the bill which "was not made public until long after the hearing ended."

The opacity of the committee's vote on the bill was even more shocking considering its importance.

Ostensibly the main purpose of the bill, S.3176, is to codify in law the levels of military aid and funding for missile defense agreed to by the United States and Israel in a 2016 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

Comment: To be sure, some of that "aid" will find its way back into congressional pockets:

The power of the Israel Lobby in the US - How many politicians can you buy with $6.3billion?

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Gold Coins

China aims to launch digital yuan by 2022 Winter Olympics

Issaku Harada
Nikkei Asian Review
Wed, 27 May 2020 16:00 UTC
2022 Winter Olympics
© International Olympic Committee
An ice rink for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
China seeks to have its planned sovereign digital currency ready in time for the 2022 Winter Olympics here, the central bank revealed Tuesday, as the coronavirus pandemic accelerates a shift away from cash.

The government plans to run pilot tests at Olympic venues, though there remains no official timetable for a release, People's Bank of China Gov. Yi Gang told Chinese media in an interview released by the central bank. Limited trials are underway in Shenzhen, Suzhou, Chengdu and the Xiongan New Area in the northern province of Hebei, he said.

If the government is satisfied with the results of this year's tests, the currency "will be issued next year," said a member of the State Council, China's cabinet, with knowledge of the project. "If it's not satisfied, more tests will be conducted next year."

Comment: Looks like the fake pandemic is paving the way for long desired controls over how people spend their money or if they can spend their money at all.

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Footprints

Trump: 'I have no target date.' Bring US troops home from Afghanistan 'as soon as is reasonable'


Sputnik
Tue, 26 May 2020 21:25 UTC
TrumpTroops
© unknown
President Trump and the US Military
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he has no target for when US troops in Afghanistan should return home and that troop withdrawal should occur "as soon as is reasonable."

The US president noted that while he desires a full military withdrawal from Afghanistan, he has not yet set a target date. Trump told a White House news conference:
"We're not acting as soldiers, we're acting as police, and we're not sent over there to be policemen. But we're there 19 years, and I think that's enough. We want to bring our soldiers back home ... we can always go back if we have to. If we have to go back, we'll go back raging, and they [the soldiers] will go back as warriors, fighters, but right now we're policing, and we're not meant to be police force."
When asked if the US Thanksgiving holiday on November 26 was a target date, Trump responded:
"No, I have no target. [US troops will return] as soon as is reasonable. Over a period of time, but as soon as reasonable. We're down to 7,000-some-odd soldiers right now, and in Iraq, we're down to 4,000 soldiers. So we're making a lot of progress."
Senior US military officials are expected to discuss options for withdrawing American troops from Afghanistan with Trump over the next few days. Complete withdrawal of troops could occur as early as before the November presidential election, officials familiar with the matter told the New York Times this week.
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Laptop

Tech looking at a long, hot summer of antitrust

Margaret Harding McGill
Axios
Tue, 26 May 2020 01:00 UTC
Big Tech guys
© MarketWatch photo illustration/Getty Images/iStockphoto
Acquisition sprees by at least two of the four big tech companies under scrutiny — Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Facebook Inc. — has piqued the interest of lawmakers and privacy advocates.
Google, Facebook and other tech giants face a summer of regulatory grilling as long-running investigations into potential anticompetitive practices likely come to a head.

The big picture: Probes into the power of Big Tech launched by federal and state authorities are turning a year old, and observers expect action in the form of formal lawsuits and potentially damning reports — even as the companies have become a lifeline for Americans during the pandemic lockdown.

What they're saying: William Kovacic, a George Washington University law professor and former Federal Trade Commission chairman:
"I think all of [the antitrust enforcers] have foreshadowed there would be some event by the end of the summer. I think they've poured a lot of cement around their feet so they don't have a lot of room to maneuver on this. They have to do something that indicates forward motion come early autumn."

Comment: With the November election right around the corner, and the reality of a faulty mail-in fiasco already in the making, big tech will most likely opt to delay any current legalities in favor of a jiggered change of leadership. There is no doubt these companies will 'support' a win for the Democratic Party and thereby self-alter the parameters of their individual legal predicaments.

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Syringe

Clinical Trial, Phase 1: Novavax injected coronavirus vaccine into 130 healthy Aussie volunteers; Phase 2: Expand to USA

Michael Bonner
Mass Live
Tue, 26 May 2020 00:00 UTC
Gates and C-19 bottle
© Reuters/Athit Perawongmetha/Arnd Wiegmann
Covid-19 vaccine bottle • Bill Gates
About 130 healthy volunteers were injected with a potential vaccine for the coronavirus at two sites in Australia, Novavax, a United States biotechnology company, announced on Monday.

The potential vaccine is in the first of a two-step phase, Novavax said. The company expects to have results from the clinical trials in July. President and Chief Executive Officer of Novavax Stanley C. Erck said in a statement:
"Administering our vaccine in the first participants of this clinical trial is a significant achievement, bringing us one step closer toward addressing the fundamental need for a vaccine in the fight against the global COVID‑19 pandemic. We look forward to sharing the clinical results in July and, if promising, quickly initiating the Phase 2 portion of the trial."
The second portion is expected to be conducted in multiple countries, including the United States, Novavax said. It would also assess immunity, safety and COVID‑19 disease reduction in a broader age range. In the first portion, the potential vaccine was provided to volunteers from 18 to 59 years of old.

Comment: The Novavax testing is kicking off a storm of concerns:
The new initiative got off the ground with a massive $388-million investment from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovation (CEPI) - its largest donation to date - a public health foundation established by billionaire Bill Gates.

In doling out his vast fortune to a number of similar health initiatives over the years - primarily through his own Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation - the Microsoft mogul has drawn intense suspicion and doubt from the conspiracy-minded, who posit that Gates is committed to a "depopulation" agenda to rid the planet of its useless eaters.

News of Gates' connection to the Novavax trial set off alarms for some netizens, many warning the project is "not to be trusted" and urging Gates himself to volunteer to be the first guinea pig to receive the rushed-out vaccine.

Novavax is not the first US biotech firm to launch clinical trials for a coronavirus inoculation, however, with Massachusetts' Moderna rolling out human testing in March and reporting positive results - to which internet sleuths have yet to discover any 'damning ties.' At least five other vaccines are underway elsewhere, including three in China and two others in the United Kingdom and Russia.
It's not about following the money...doing that is late to the game. In the age of a complete overabundance of rules and regulations for EVERYTHING...the bankrolling of a fake pandemic in order to require a mandatory global vaccine by one rich guy has somehow been overlooked?

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Target

Trump: WH will 'do something' on Hong Kong issue by end of the week

Charles Lanyon
South China Morning Post
Wed, 27 May 2020 04:54 UTC
Van Hollen/Toomey
© Bloomberg/Capital-Star file/KJN
Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) • Pat Toomey (R-PA)
Lawmakers in the United States on Tuesday hoped to ratchet up pressure on Beijing over moves from the Chinese government to crack down on Hong Kong's autonomy, even as President Donald Trump told reporters his administration would soon "do something" about the situation.

US senators have proposed a bill that would allow for sanctions against anyone with a role in violating "China's obligations to Hong Kong under the [Sino-British] Joint Declaration and the Basic Law", and on banks who do business with them.

The bipartisan "Sanctions Bill to Defend Hong Kong's Autonomy" is the work of Democratic senator Chris Van Hollen and Republican senator Pat Toomey, and is in response to what Toomey's office calls "increasingly brazen interference from the Chinese Communist Party".

When asked if he was prepared to use sanctions against China over the issue, the president said:
"We're doing something now. I think you'll find it very interesting. It's something you're going to be hearing about ... before the end of the week - very powerfully."
The bill's proposal follows a new national security law for Hong Kong put forward by Beijing last week that would ban treason and other perceived offences in the city. The Chinese government's move was met with widespread dismay and alarm in Hong Kong, which has already been roiled by massive pro-democracy protests over the past year, as well as the coronavirus pandemic.

Comment: Wow...no interference there! These are China's lessons and it is up to China to find its way - or not. These senators might take a long look at the USA and see what needs fixing here.
China is reportedly attempting to outlaw "any act of treason, secession, sedition [or] subversion against the Central People's Government" in Hong Kong.

People's Daily newspaper dismissed the prospect of US sanctions as a "nothingburger" and a bluff - and - Trump's claims about Hong Kong "will hardly fool all Westerners, let alone manipulate the whole international community. As the US is entangled in the [Covid-19] epidemic, its actual ability to intervene externally is weakening. The White House claimed it would impose sanctions on China, but the tools and resources at its disposal are fewer than those it could mobilize before the outbreak. It is only bluffing."


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Green Light

Rouhani: All governmental bodies to implement law 'countering Israel' hostility to Iran or Palestinian Authority


Sputnik
Tue, 26 May 2020 17:40 UTC
Rouhani
© AP/Office of the Iranian Presidency
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has issued an executive order to all government structures to implement the law passed last week on launching a comprehensive retaliation against any of Israeli's action that Tehran might consider hostile to itself or the Palestinian Authority, the IRNA news agency reported on Tuesday.

Hassan Rouhani ordered all ministries, the Supreme National Security Council and the Judiciary to each work out measures within their respective frameworks in response to Israel's actions that are believed to be a threat to international and regional peace and security, especially with regard to Palestine. Such measures may reportedly include producing movies that reveal the Israeli war crimes and atrocities committed during the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

There is a total of 16 articles in the anti-Israeli bill, which was unanimously adopted by 43 votes in the Iranian parliament on 12 May. It was then approved by the country's Guardian Council and, until now, only lacked the president's green light before becoming a law.
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Star of David

US disapproves; Israel rejects: China loses bid to build world's largest desalination plant

Lahav Harkov, Eytan Halon
The Jerusalem Post
Tue, 26 May 2020 20:41 UTC
Israeli desalination plant
© Nir Elias/Reuters
Israeli desalination plant in city of Hadera, Israel
Israel has selected local company IDE Technologies, rather than a Chinese firm, to construct the world's largest desalination plant, the government announced Tuesday. The decision avoids another undesirable showdown with the Trump administration over Chinese participation in major infrastructure projects.

Three groups bid to build Sorek 2, a private-public partnership (PPP) that will be the world's largest reverse-osmosis seawater desalination plant when completed in 2023. Among them was Israeli Hutchison Company, an affiliate of Hong Kong-based Hutchison Company.

The US has asked its allies, including Israel, in recent weeks to sever ties with China - Israel's third-largest trading partner - in areas with security risks, a US official with knowledge of talks on the matter said last week.

Comment: Pompeo speaks up, Israel bows out of a deal with China
The fresh water will sell at about 41 US cents per cubic meter and promises to save the country almost a billion dollars over the plant's planned 25-year lifetime.

The selection of IDE over Hutchison had a geostrategic angle. Less than two weeks before the final decision came, Israel was visited by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who used the occasion to pressure the country over its cozy economic ties with Washington's arch rival China.

"When they arrive in a way that has a political dimension to it, when it is a state-owned enterprise, or it is an entity that has a nefarious mission, we want to make sure that our friendly partners all around the world understand that risk," Pompeo told Israeli Public Broadcasting.

Pompeo has discussed the issue with both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Speaker Benny Gantz. Washington was reportedly unhappy that the desalination project had not been reviewed by a new body, established by Israel last October under US pressure to monitor foreign investments. The Israeli side had argued that the bidding process started before the new watchdog was created and thus didn't fall under its mandate.


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Bizarro Earth

Video allegedly shows Hezbollah's elite troops training with targets marked with 'Star of David'

Tim Korso
Sputnik
Wed, 27 May 2020 17:18 UTC
hezbollah
© AFP 2020
The unit was formed almost a decade ago for the purpose of infiltrating the Jewish state and wreaking as much chaos as possible in a short amount of time.

Israel's Ynet website reported that Hezbollah has published a video purportedly showing a drill session of its elite Radwan Unit. In the footage, the authenticity of which could not be independently verified by Sputnik, a group of men dressed in military-like clothing without distinctive insignia are training in hand-to-hand combat and shooting at targets. Some of the targets in the footage are marked with a Star of David - a symbol closely associated with Israel.

Comment: It could be worse: Is your local police department using pictures of pregnant women and children for target practice?

For more on Israel and Hezbollah: The war scenario between Israel and Hezbollah

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Light Sabers

Moscow denies US general's unfounded claim of 'Russian mercenary jets in Libya'


RT
Tue, 26 May 2020 20:36 UTC
AFRICOM
© Twitter/@USAfricaCommand/screenshot
AFRICOM tweet showing pictures of 'Russian' jets allegedly sent to Libya, May 26, 2020
Reports of repainted Russian fighter jets being sent to bomb Libya have nothing to do with reality, Moscow said in response to the latest sensational claims by US Africa Command about alleged Russian involvement in the region.

The accusation that Russia sent combat aircraft to Libya "does not correspond to reality," Andrey Krasov, first deputy chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee, told Interfax on Tuesday.

"Russia's position is well known: we are in favor of ending the bloodshed in Libya, we urge all parties to the conflict to refrain from using weapons and sit at the negotiating table," Krasov added.

Krasov was addressing the claims by AFRICOM earlier in the day, featuring a series of grainy photos of MiG and Sukhoi fighters and a claim by General Charles Townsend that they "watched as Russia flew fourth generation jet fighters to Libya - every step of the way."

Comment: See also: Russia's Big Gamble in Libya

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