© Reuters/Mario Anzuoni
Some of Trump's tweets from Obama's first term are coming back to haunt him again in light of the eerie similarities between the warnings and the current aggressive moves by his own administration.
Puppet Masters
'Attack Iran to get reelected': Twitter discovers Trump 'warned' of Iran conflict plot - but Obama's
Some of Trump's tweets from Obama's first term are coming back to haunt him again in light of the eerie similarities between the warnings and the current aggressive moves by his own administration.
© AFP/Yuri Kadobnov; Reuters/Adam Ploessl; Reuters/US Navy/Grant G. Grady
National Security Advisor John Bolton and his wish list
National Security Advisor John Bolton and his wish list
"Mercifully John Bolton doesn't command the military," Carlson said bitingly - however, the question of how strong his influence on President Donald Trump's foreign policy remains.
Although President Trump was elected in part based on his turn-away from the traditional neo-con interventionist outlook, his national security advisor pick has been as hawkish as ever since assuming office last year.
© Getty Images
US troops in Iraq
US troops in Iraq
"Iraq is a sovereign nation. We will not let [the US] to use our territory," Haidar Mansour Hadi, the Iraqi envoy to Russia, told journalists at a press conference in Moscow when asked about Iraq's stance on the rising tensions in the region, fuelled by the feud between Washington and Tehran.
The ambassador expressed his hope that "nothing will happen" eventually, adding that his nation "does not want a new devastating war in the region." He also said that Baghdad could try to use its close ties with both the US and Iran to ease tensions.
"Iraq made it clear that we want to be part of a solution and not part of the problem."
© Your Middle East
The Netherlands decided to halt the mission which provided assistance to the Iraqi authorities because of a security threat, the Dutch ANP news agency said. The Dutch Defense Ministry confirmed the suspension of the mission to the media. The ministry's spokesperson told ANP that withdrawal of Dutch forces from the area is "currently not discussed."
Around 50 Dutch soldiers train Kurdish forces in Iraq's northern city of Erbil, others are stationed in Baghdad. According to some reports, the decision to suspend the training mission was taken by the commander of the international coalition which currently operates in Iraq. The report gave no details about the alleged danger. The Dutch military take part in a training mission, alongside other foreign nations, including Germany.
The German Defense Ministry has earlier announced that it halted its mission aimed at training the Iraqi soldiers, citing increasing tensions on the ground. The developments came after Washington ordered all the non-essential personnel of the American embassy in Bagdad and a consulate in Erbil to leave Iraq as soon as possible.
© Getty Images North America / Ramin Talaie
Very often when media coverage of war is analysed, there is a focus on how hawkish pundits cheerlead for conflict and journalists parrot official narratives while dissenting voices are drowned out. Mainstream networks, for example, have been heavily criticized by media watchdogs for almost exclusively inviting pro-war guests and ex-military hawks onto their news shows to convince Americans that war is the only reasonable course of action, while refusing to let anti-war commentators get a look in.
But there is another more subtle and unnoticeable way that the media deceives us. Even when they are not outright cheerleading for military action (as was the case in the lead up to the Iraq War), the language they use to describe events is designed to absolve Washington of blame.
Next time you read the news, notice how the US is always "stumbling into" war, or "drifting into" war or "sliding into" war - or even "sleepwalking into" war. To "stumble into" war seems to be a firm favorite among headline writers. The US has"stumbled" into war in Iraq and Syria and has been, at one time or another, at risk of "stumbling" into war with Russia, North Korea and most recently Iran.
© REUTERS/Aly Song
"No spying, no back doors," promised Liang Hua, Huawei's chairman during his visit to London on Tuesday where he tried to reassure European partners that Huawei doesn't plan to snoop on them. In evidence Liang said the Chinese high-tech giant was ready to sign a "no-spy agreement" with the British government.
While Brits are weighing all the pros and cons of the possibility of future surveillance by Beijing, neither they nor other foreign politicians seem overly concerned about a snooping act which did actually happen. An unknown number of phones were attacked via a vulnerability in the popular American messaging app WhatsApp with spyware developed by the state-linked, secretive Israeli company, NSO Group.
Comment: The West plays the outrage game when it's convenient or serves their agenda, but when it comes to Israel doing the same thing that others are only accused of doing then it's perfectly fine.
© Getty Images/Anadolu Agency/Carlos Becerra; Global Look Press/ZUMAPRESS.com/Erik Mcgregor
It echoes the bombastic & hollow humanitarian-crisis type of war propaganda which has been used repeatedly in resource-rich nations, from Afghanistan to Iraq to Libya to Syria. And now we're seeing it in Venezuela.
The regime-change recipe is straightforward: demonize the leadership and those who defend the country; support an opposition that is inevitably violent and whitewash their crimes; sanction the country & attack the infrastructure to create unbearable conditions; create fake news about humanitarian issues; possibly wage false flag incidents to incriminate the government; control the narrative; and insist that intervention is necessary for the well-being of the people.
Israeli officials expressed shock at the attack and said they were investigating the assault on Marek Magierowski on Tuesday.
A 65-year-old man from Herzilya was arrested for allegedly spitting at Magierowski while the Polish diplomat was sitting in his car. The suspect was released from custody on Wednesday.
At his custody hearing, the suspect told the court that he was unaware the person in the car was the Polish ambassador. A lawyer for the man was quoted by Walla News as saying he had been turned away from the Polish Embassy after trying to inquire about restitution.
© Sputnik
"Austria is not going to leave the Nord Stream 2 project, and Austrian oil and gas corporation OMV especially," Van der Bellen said during a joint news conference after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin ahead of the Sochi Dialogue Forum.
Putin supported the Austrian head of state, expressing confidence that the project will be implemented on time. The Russian president stressed that Nord Stream 2 serves the interests of the entire European continent.
© AP
The announcement was made in a security alert on its website early Wednesday morning. The alert also said that normal visa services would be temporarily suspended.
This comes amid a standoff between the U.S. and Iran, which has recently threatened to pull out of the nuclear deal and resume higher uranium enrichment if no new deal is put in place.
The move coincided with Germany's decision on Tuesday to suspend training of Iraqi soldiers due to tensions in the region, though the government indicated no specific threats to its own troops.
Comment: See also:
Iraqi president hits back at arrogant Trump, says he never asked permission to stay in Iraq to 'watch Iran'