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Google executives caught on video pledging to sway public opinion, stoking fear over Trump's election


Sputnik
Thu, 13 Sep 2018 16:25 UTC
Trump Google
© CNN
A video recording of a Google all-hands meeting leaked to Breitbart News shows the atmosphere of panic following Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 US presidential election, and the company's determination to use its resources to sway public opinion.

A video recording of a Google all-hands meeting that took place immediately following the November 2016 US presidential election has been leaked to Breitbart News and posted on the outlet's website.

In the hour-long meeting, which Breitbart encourages readers to watch in full in order to get "the full context of the meeting and the statements made," Google staff, including co-founder Sergey Brin, express their anxiety and frustration over the arguably unexpected election result.

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Handcuffs

Former Iranian Vice President Mashaei convicted and sentenced to prison for 'threatening national security'


RFE/RL
Wed, 12 Sep 2018 16:36 UTC
Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei

Former Iranian Vice President Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei speaks with journalists during a press conference after registering as a candidate for president in Tehran in May 2017.
Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, a vice president, chief of staff, and senior aide under former Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, has been sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison after being convicted on charges including threatening national security, Iranian media report.

A top press aide to Ahmadinejad, Ali Akbar Javanfekr, received a four-year prison sentence in the same case, the official government news agency IRNA reported on September 12. IRNA cited the chief justice of Tehran Province, who said the sentences can be appealed within 20 days.

Comment: Jailed for 'threatening national security'? Sounds like the Iranians are taking from the US playbook. Here's more of the story about Mashaei, and why Iranian authorities may have targeted him:

Making a comeback? Ahmadinejad throws down gauntlet, calls for Rouhani's resignation
The authorities' response to Ahmadinejad's attempt at a comeback has been to use the judiciary to intimidate and silence the former president's supporters. Several of the former president's closest aides are currently languishing in jail, either convicted or awaiting trial. These include former vice president Hamid Baghai, who has been sentenced to 15 years imprisonment on corruption charges, and another vice president, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, who was arrested in late March.

Mashaei's arrest and continuing detention has sparked fears that the authorities are intent on smashing the Ahmadinejad faction altogether, possibly by even going to the extraordinary length of arresting the former president himself. A former intelligence official, Rahim Mashaei, is widely considered to be the chief ideologue of the Ahmadinejad movement.


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Chess

EU extends sanctions against Russia 'over Ukrainian conflict' by 6 months


Sputnik
Thu, 13 Sep 2018 18:28 UTC
Ukrainian nationalist protesters and military veterans
© AFP 2018 / Aleksey FILIPPOV
Ukrainian nationalist protesters and military veterans take part in a blockade against ongoing trade with the Donbass self-proclaimed republics, on February 23, 2017, in Kryvyi Torets railway station, Donetsk region
The European Union is extending its current sanctions against certain Russian individuals and entities "over actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity" of Ukraine for another six months, the Council of the European Union announced on Thursday.

"The Council has prolonged the restrictive measures over actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine for a further six months, until 15 March 2019. The measures consist of asset freezes and travel restrictions. They currently apply to 155 persons and 44 entities," the statement read.

The news come following US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's announcement last week that the US and EU sanctions against Russia would remain in place until the conflict in eastern Ukraine is resolved.
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Sherlock

'We're Not Agents': UK's Suspects in Skripal Case Interviewed by RT's Editor-in-chief


RT
Thu, 13 Sep 2018 15:44 UTC
skripal suspects interview

Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov
RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan has spoken exclusively to the two men the UK named as suspects in the Skripal poisoning - Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov.

UK prosecutors claimed their names were not real, but Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov have confirmed their identities in an interview with RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan.

Both men said emphatically that they were not Russian intelligence agents and were merely sightseeing in Salisbury. They said they wanted to visit the "wonderful town" of Salisbury but realized they came at a bad time - and not just because of the wet English weather.

The subsequent accusations caught them completely by surprise.

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Propaganda

The most trusted name in news? CNN totally ignores knife attack on republican congressional candidate


CNN
Thu, 13 Sep 2018 16:25 UTC
SWITCHBLADE ATTACK
© The Daily Caller
More than 24 hours after authorities announced the arrest of a California man who allegedly tried to stab a Republican congressional candidate, CNN has yet to inform its audience of the story.

Farzad Fazeli, 35, allegedly made disparaging remarks about the Republican Party before pulling out a switchblade and attempting to stab Rudy Peters at a festival Sunday, according to the Alameda County Sheriff's Office.

Peters is the Republican nominee in California's 15th Congressional District, where he is challenging incumbent Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell.
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Footprints

Trump pushes for declassification of FBI, DOJ docs on campaign surveillance

Saagar Enjeti & Chuck Ross
The Daily Caller
Tue, 11 Sep 2018 16:19 UTC
Trump on plane
© CC0/The White House
  • President Donald Trump is insistent on releasing FBI and DOJ documents related to surveillance of campaign advisers, but he has received pushback from White House lawyers, according to multiple sources.
  • House Republicans have pressed Trump to release the documents.
  • Congressional sources say they expect Trump to release the records, but they have tempered their expectations on when they will be made public.
White House lawyers are actively reviewing controversial FBI and Department of Justice documents relating to the 2016 presidential campaign for possible declassification, multiple sources with knowledge tell The Daily Caller News Foundation.
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Gold Coins

'Countries will move away from the dollar because the US uses it as a weapon', says CEO of Russia bank


RT
Thu, 13 Sep 2018 16:08 UTC
dollar don't walk sign
© Maxim Shemetov / Reuters
Countries will stop using the US dollar as a settlement currency because of Washington's aggressive policy, according to Russia's second largest bank CEO Andrey Kostin at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.

"I think it's inevitable. The current situation is that the United States uses the dollar as a weapon. So I believe that if the US continues to use the dollar as a weapon, it is inevitable that not only in Russia, but in other countries, we will see a tendency to move away from the dollar," Kostin said in an interview with Bloomberg TV.

The process of switching from the greenback to national currencies is unlikely to be fast or easy, Kostin said. "You cannot immediately abandon the dollar. Probably, impossible taking into account its role in the economy. But if we do not start, we will never come to this, so we need to start now and we are already doing such work," he said separately on the sidelines of the Forum.
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Snakes in Suits

Duma approves Putin's bill granting employee protections for workers of 'pre-pension age'


RT
Thu, 13 Sep 2018 16:02 UTC
Russian Pension Fund
© Alexey Malgavko / Sputnik
Visitors to the Russian Pension Fund office in Simferopol, Crimea
The Russian Lower House has approved the bill granting additional social protection to people approaching retirement age, like substantial fines for employers who fire such workers or refuse to hire them without valid reasons.

In particular, the bill states that unmotivated sacking or refusal to hire workers of pre-retirement age should be punished by fines up to 200,000 roubles (about $2900) or in the amount of the fired worker's 18-month salary. Violators can also be sentenced to up to 360 hours of correctional labor.

The bill introduces the definition of pre-retirement age and describes it as "up to five years that precede the moment when a citizens receives his pension insurance in accordance with the law. The current retirement age in Russia is 60 for men and 55 for women, but once the reform is complete these figures are set to rise.
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Eye 1

European court rules UK mass surveillance broke human rights convention


RT
Thu, 13 Sep 2018 16:03 UTC
snowden
© REUTERS
The UK's mass surveillance program is in violation of human rights, the European Court of Human Rights has declared. The challenge was instigated following the revelations from US whistle-blower Edward Snowden.

The court stated there is "insufficient oversight" and "inadequate safeguards" over the government's 'bulk interception' of communications. Furthermore, it found the UK "was not in accordance with the law" over it's obtaining of communications data from service providers.

In an extensive condemnation of UK's protection of human rights, the judges also deemed there to be "insufficient safeguards" for journalistic sources under government's surveillance policy.

Aspects of the policy, the court declared, breached two articles of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) - the right to private life (Article 8) and the right to free expression (Article 10).
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Stock Down

JPMorgan predicts economic crash to come in next few years


RT
Thu, 13 Sep 2018 15:53 UTC
crash económico
© Desconocido
With the 10th anniversary approaching of the catalyst for the last major global stock market crash - the Lehman Brothers' collapse - strategists from JPMorgan are predicting the next financial crisis to strike in 2020.

Wall Street's largest investment bank analyzed the causes of the crash and measures taken by governments and central banks across the world to stop the crisis in 2008, and found that the economy remains propped up by those extraordinary steps.

According to the bank's analysis, the next crisis will probably be less painful, however, diminished financial market liquidity since the 2008 implosion is a "wildcard" that's tough to game out.

Comment: JPMorgan is not so subtly setting up Trump as a reason for the coming collapse. It's surprising they don't include Russia in there as well! In any case, an economic crash has been a long time coming.

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