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Russia starts delivery of S-400 to Turkey, US continues with thinly veiled threats


RT
Fri, 12 Jul 2019 08:04 UTC
s-400
© AFP / Alexander NEMENOV
Turkey has received the first shipment of S-400 air defense missile system equipment from Moscow, defying pressure from Washington to scrap the arms deal with Russia.

The components arrived at the Murted military airfield outside Ankara on Friday, the nation's Ministry of National Defense said in a short statement. Russia's Defense Ministry has also confirmed that the shipment has started and will continue as scheduled.

Both countries signed a contract for the delivery of four S-400 batteries in 2017. The contract earned Ankara the ongoing row with Washington, which strongly opposes the deal, claiming the purchase of advanced Russian-made weapons undermines the security of NATO and goes against American interests.

Comment: See also:


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Bullseye

Alex Acosta resigns as labor secretary amid intense scrutiny of his handling of Jeffrey Epstein case

John Wagner, Ashley Parker and Josh Dawsey
The Washington Post
Fri, 12 Jul 2019 10:56 UTC
Trump and Acosta
Labor Secretary Alex Acosta resigned Friday amid intense scrutiny of his role as a U.S. attorney a decade ago in a deal with Jeffrey Epstein that allowed the financier to plead guilty to lesser offenses in a sex-crimes case.

President Trump told reporters Friday morning that Acosta had decided to step aside. He called Acosta a "great labor secretary, not a good one" and a "tremendous talent."

"This was him, not me," Trump said of the resignation decision, as Acosta stood by his side. "I said to Alex, you don't have to do this."

Acosta, the only Hispanic in Trump's Cabinet, said he had submitted his resignation to take effect in a week.

Comment: See also: Disgraced billionaire Jeffrey Epstein spread political donations around Washington for years - including to Schumer and Kerry
Jeffrey Epstein arrested for sex trafficking of minors: Sources - UPDATES

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Target

'Clueless': New pro-EU Green Party British MEP Magid slams undemocratic Brussels


RT
Fri, 12 Jul 2019 12:57 UTC
Magid
© Reuters / Vincent Kessler
(Main) Green Party MEP candidate Magid Magid AFP / Tolga Akmen (Top left) EU flag, Strasbourg
A newly-elected British Green Party MEP, who has been a passionate EU supporter before entering Parliament, has given a damning verdict on his first two weeks - insisting that they don't have "any clue."

In an article for Politico, Magid Magid, who became Sheffield's youngest Lord mayor at the age of 28, has revealed his disappointment with fellow EU politicians and the institutions - claiming that he "felt duped."

"Next to nobody in Brussels has any clue what the European Union truly stands for — beyond a flag and an anthem — and more crucially, where it is heading."

The black MEP revealed how on his first day in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, he was "asked to leave by someone," suggesting it may have had something to do with his ethnicity.

Comment: See also:

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Handcuffs

15% of Russian Mayors prosecuted over past decade


The Moscow Times
Fri, 28 Jun 2019 15:15 UTC
Russia police
© Kirill Kukhmar / TASS
Nearly one in six Russian mayors have faced criminal prosecution over the past decade, according to a new study critical of Russia's move to phase out direct mayoral elections in recent years.

Local government reforms in 2014 led cities to abolish direct elections in favor of local lawmakers approving appointees. Only a handful of Russian cities, including Moscow and St. Petersburg, have retained direct mayoral elections since then.

One in five former mayors advanced to regional posts while 15 percent were prosecuted between 2008 and 2019, the study published ин the Civic Initiatives Committee on Thursday said.

Comment: Putin's vow to rout out corruption is making some headway:

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Oil Well

Tanker insurance rates skyrocket after attacks in the Strait of Hormuz - ten-fold increase in two months


CNBC
Tue, 09 Jul 2019 12:41 UTC
oil tankern attack Gulf of Oman June 2019
© ISNA / Reuters
An oil tanker is seen after it was attacked at the Gulf of Oman, June 13, 2019.
Insurance rates for tankers transiting through the world's most important oil choke point have skyrocketed in recent weeks, according to the CEO of a U.S.-listed shipping company.

Six oil tankers and a U.S. spy drone have been attacked since May either in, or near, the Strait of Hormuz — a strategically important waterway which separates Iran, Oman and the United Arab Emirates.

"As a shipping company and part of the global shipping industry, we are taking the threat to our crew and ships very seriously," Anthony Gurnee, CEO of Ardmore Shipping, told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" on Tuesday.

Ardmore Shipping is a U.S.-listed company based in Ireland, with a business of owning and operating a fleet of tankers that move refined oil products.

"At the moment, it is business as usual (but) insurance to transit the Strait of Hormuz has actually increased 10-fold in the last two months as a consequence of the attacks," Gurnee said.

Comment: To add to the price volatility caused by ongoing Middle East tensions, oil markets have been rattled by an impending Atlantic storm, sending crude futures to their highest in over a month as Gulf of Mexico oil rigs are evacuated. Prices slightly eased Thursday as OPEC forecasts slower demand:
Brent crude futures fell 39 cents to $66.61 a barrel. During the session, they hit their highest since May 30 at $67.65 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures dipped 23 cents, or 0.4%, to settle at $60.20 a barrel, after hitting their highest since May 23 at $60.94.

Ahead of what could be one of the first major storms of the Atlantic hurricane season, U.S. oil producers have cut nearly a third of their output in the Gulf of Mexico

Phillips 66 said it expected to complete the closing of its 253,600-barrel-per-day (bpd) Alliance, Louisiana, refinery because of the storm threat.

Tropical Storm Barry formed with heavy rains expected across the north-central U.S. Gulf Coast, the National Hurricane Center said. [..]

Tensions in the Middle East also kept investors on edge. A day after Iran warned Britain would face "consequences" over the seizure of an Iranian oil tanker, three Iranian vessels tried to block passage of a British ship run by BP through the Strait of Hormuz, the British government said. They withdrew after warnings from a British warship.


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Radar

US naval coalition build-up in the Persian Gulf - yet another provocation too far


Strategic Culture Foundation
Fri, 12 Jul 2019 00:00 UTC
US nave persian gulf
America's top General Joseph Dunford this week announced plans for a US-led naval coalition to patrol the Persian Gulf in order to "protect shipping" from alleged Iranian sabotage.

The move is but the latest in a series of efforts by the Trump administration to mobilize Arab allies into a more aggressive military stance towards Iran. It follows recent visits to the region by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton, both of whom have been urging a more organized military front led by the US to confront Iran.

The latest naval coalition proposed by General Dunford will be charged with escorting oil tankers as they pass through the Strait of Hormuz exiting the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean, and also through the Bab al Mandab entrance to the Red Sea on the Western side of the Arabian Peninsula. The former conduit serves oil supply to Asia, while the latter position between Yemen and Eritrea leads shipping to the Suez Canal on the way to the Mediterranean and Europe. Both narrow sea passages are strategic chokepoints in global oil trade, with some 20-30 per cent of all daily shipped crude passing through them.

The apparently chivalrous motives of the US to "guarantee freedom of navigation" sounds suspiciously like a pretext for Washington to assert crucial military control over international oil trade. That is one paramount reason for objecting to this American proposal.
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Snakes in Suits

The new leaders of the EU - A more incompetent and corrupt bunch we've never seen

Iain Davis
In This Together
Thu, 04 Jul 2019 00:00 UTC
New EU leaders
New EU leaders have just been chosen. Which one did you vote for? Well, none of course. This is the EU after all. Decisions about who makes the policies which rule our lives aren't for the likes of us. No, no.

EU leaders are carefully selected for what they bring to the table. They need to be able to enact the favoured policies, such as sustainable development goals, and further the ambitions, like military expansionism, of the corporate cartel who run the EU. All to be funded by the European tax paying citizenry.

So who has been chosen to deliver.
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Attention

Freeland's message to Putin: Liberalism will prevail (and Nazis will help)

Matthew Ehret
Strategic Culture Foundation
Wed, 10 Jul 2019 00:00 UTC
Chrystia Freeland
© Morocco World News
Canadian FM Chrystia Freeland
The elite attempting to control the world under an "end of history" neo-liberal doctrine have created a mountain of unresolvable paradoxes for themselves in Ukraine since unleashing the anti-Russian Euromaidan color revolution in late 2013 that unseated a pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovych government, and replaced it with a Nazi-infested technocratic regime which has played out like a disastrous circus for the past five years.

The paradox created is fairly straight forward: The Euromaidan was always wired to promote the integration of Ukraine into the Euro-Atlantic neo liberal order. When Yanukovych announced his plans to reject that euro integration in favour of joining the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union, some thought there could be no other way but violent regime change. Sounds simple and the plan worked. Within months, Yanukovych was out and a pro-NATO/EU regime was in power.

Here's the rub: The only way to activate a violent overthrow required the unleashing of vast networks of third generation neo Nazis to carry out the sort of dirty work which no one else had the stomachs to handle.

Comment: See also:

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Question

Putin bemused by Zelensky's inclusion of May to chaperone their upcoming talks


RT
Thu, 11 Jul 2019 14:17 UTC
ZelenskyMayPutin
© Efrem Lukatsky/AP/Daily Mail/Bloomberg/KJN
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, UK PM Theresa May, Russian President Vladimir Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin offered a tongue-in-cheek approval for a proposed multilateral meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, but questioned his choice of the outgoing British PM as a participant.

On Monday, Zelensky's office released a video address to Putin, in which he claimed that the two leaders needed to talk in person. "We do not change or reject any diplomatic format. We suggest talking. We need to have a talk, don't we?" Zelensky said.

Putin, who was asked for a response during a press conference on Thursday, agreed that a meeting with Zelensky "may be interesting," but chided the Ukrainian president over the list of proposed attendees. Zelensky wants the leaders of the US, the UK, Germany and France to chaperon him during the talks with Putin, and referred to them all by name in the address. The Russian leader said that the inclusion of the outgoing British Prime Minister Theresa May seemed strange to him.

"As far as I know, in a couple of weeks she resigns from the office of the prime minister of Britain. In what capacity is she being invited to the meeting? It's not clear. Did she even agree to it or not?" Putin remarked.

Comment: See also:

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Hammer

Federal judge puts another nail in the Russiagate coffin - destroys a key Mueller report claim


RT
Thu, 11 Jul 2019 01:21 UTC
Mueller/report
© Unknown
Special counsel Robert Mueller's claim of "sweeping and systematic" Russian meddling in the 2016 US election just took another body blow, as a federal judge ruled that his indictment of a 'troll farm' is not actual proof of it.

Mueller's charges against Concord Management & Consulting, the Russian company accused of running a "troll farm" and "sowing discord" on US social media in 2016, do not establish a link between that private company and the Russian government, US District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich pointed out.

Yet the special counsel's much-publicized final report claims to have "established" and "confirmed" Russian government activities based in part on the indictment against Concord, which is a breach of prosecutorial rules, Friedrich said.

For example, Mueller's report says that Concord CEO Yevgeny Prigozhin "is widely reported to have ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin." That's an assertion, not evidence.


Comment: Daniel Lazare's commentary (video) cuts to the chase in analysis of Mueller's report.

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