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Kiev is preparing provocation to discredit Russia and detract from Ukrainian war crimes published by UN — Russian Defense Ministry


TASS
Sat, 08 Apr 2023 00:20 UTC
Russian Defense Ministry
© Sergey Bobylev/TASSThey specified that the Kiev regime would hold a special information campaign to divert the attention of the international community from the facts of numerous war crimes published by the UN
Kiev is preparing a large-scale information campaign to discredit Russia on the international arena. A representative of the interdepartmental coordination headquarters of Russia for humanitarian response in Ukraine said this to reporters on Saturday.

"According to available data, confirmed by several independent sources, a large-scale provocation aimed at discrediting the Russian Federation on the international arena is being prepared under the leadership of the office of the President of Ukraine," the headquarters said.

They specified that the Kiev regime would hold a special information campaign to divert the attention of the international community from the facts of numerous war crimes published by the UN, committed by the Ukrainian army and militants of nationalist groups.
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Bullseye

Iran and Saudi Arabia: a Chinese win-win

Pepe Escobar
The Cradle
Fri, 07 Apr 2023 23:24 UTC
xi iran saudi arabia
© The CradleThe single Iranian-Saudi handshake buried trillions of dollars of western divide-and-rule investments across West Asia, and has global leaders rushing to Beijing for global solutions.
The idea that History has an endpoint, as promoted by clueless neoconservatives in the unipolar 1990s, is flawed, as it is in an endless process of renewal. The recent official meeting between Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in Beijing marks a territory that was previously deemed unthinkable and which has undoubtedly caused grief for the War Inc. machine.

This single handshake signifies the burial of trillions of dollars that were spent on dividing and ruling West Asia for over four decades. Additionally, the Global War on Terror (GWOT), the fabricated reality of the new millennium, featured as prime collateral damage in Beijing.

Beijing's optics as the capital of peace have been imprinted throughout the Global South, as evidenced by a subsequent sideshow where a couple of European leaders, a president, and a Eurocrat, arrived as supplicants to Xi Jinping, asking him to join the NATO line on the war in Ukraine. They were politely dismissed.

Comment: See also: Syria, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye: Truces, not peace

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Russian Flag

Can Russia really break away from the West?

Ivan Timofeev
RT
Wed, 05 Apr 2023 09:05 UTC
St Basil
© Will & Deni McIntyre/Getty ImagesSt. Basil's Cathedral • Red Square, Moscow, Russia
Long before relations between Russia and the West spiralled into a comprehensive political crisis, officials and experts here were enthusiastically voicing ideas about developing ties with the rest of the world. At the administrative level, such a course began to take shape as early as the 1990s, starting from the views of former Foreign Minister Evgeny Primakov. Subsequently, it also received practical development within the framework of a multi-vector foreign policy.

The gradual growth of contradictions with the West accelerated the formation of 'pivot to the East' ideas, although their implementation was slow. It was limited by objective infrastructural and economic conditions, as well as the absence of a direct and painful incentive for such a 'turn'. However, the current crisis in relations between Russia and the West, for all its appearances, is irreversible, and has driven an increase in the number and quality of ties with countries which are outside the control of the US. The 'sanctions tsunami' and the impasse in relations with the West have become a very sharp stimulus for long overdue changes. At the same time, a number of difficulties and obstacles await us on our way to the 'world majority'. Moscow must assess them realistically and objectively, and we must avoid the illusion that the pivot itself will solve all our problems. We have hard and painstaking work ahead, for decades to come.

Comment: A surprisingly insightful article exploring the twists and turns for Russia's way forward and pragmatism for its past.

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Arrow Down

Bragg's 'Indictment' even fails as an indictment

Andrew C. McCarthy
National Review
Tue, 04 Apr 2023 10:02 UTC
Abragg
© Brendan McDermid/ReutersNew York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg
What a disgrace.

It's always possible to be surprised. The indictment brought by Manhattan's elected Democratic district attorney Alvin Bragg against Donald Trump is even worse than I'd imagined.

Bragg's indictment fails to state a crime. Not once . . . but 34 times. On that ground alone, the case should be dismissed — before one ever gets to the facts that the statute of limitations has lapsed and that Bragg has no jurisdiction to enforce federal law (if that's what he's trying to do, which remains murky).

Bragg's indictment charges 34 counts, just as we said it would, based on media reporting that clearly came from illegal leaks of grand-jury information — a crime, you can be sure, that goes in the overflowing bucket of serious offenses that Bragg refuses to prosecute.

The 34 counts are arrived at by taking what is a single course of conduct and absurdly slicing it into parts, each one of which is charged as a separate felony carrying its own potential four-year prison term.

Trump reimbursed Michael Cohen in monthly installments during 2017 for the $130,000 paid to porn star Stormy Daniels right before the 2016 election for her silence about an alleged affair. That, in reality, is a single transaction: Trump paying back a debt to Cohen. Yet, because Trump paid in installments and each installment includes an invoice from Cohen, a bookkeeping entry by the Trump Organization, and a payment to Cohen by check, Bragg not only charges each monthly installment separately; he subdivides the installments into installments (as if the invoice, book entry, and check were independent criminal events). Voilà, one transaction becomes 34 felonies!

Comment: A throw-away prosecutor was selected for this shit show. So far he is living down to expectations.

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Network

China to launch rival undersea comms network


RT
Thu, 06 Apr 2023 16:29 UTC
sea pipe
© Serg Myshkovsky/Getty ImagesChina's undersea project
Beijing and its partners reportedly hope to challenge the US' dominance of the global communications infrastructure...

China's largest telecom firms are working on a massive undersea telecommunications cable network aimed at challenging the US' dominance in operating global internet infrastructure, four people involved with the project told Reuters on Thursday.

China Telecom, China Mobile Limited and China Unicom are in the planning stages of what is expected to be a $500-million undersea fiber optic project connecting Asia with the Middle East and Europe, the sources said. The sprawling network, known as EMA (Europe-Middle East-Asia), is reportedly intended to compete with another cable system currently under construction by US firm SubCom LLC called SeaMeWe-6 (Southeast Asia-Middle East-Western Europe-6).

Chinese firm HMN Tech (formerly Huawei Marine Networks) was initially selected in 2020 to manufacture the cable for SeaMeWe-6 by a consortium that included the Chinese telecoms now working on EMA. However, a sustained US pressure campaign that included millions of dollars in "training grants" to foreign telecoms in return for switching their votes ultimately pushed the contract to HMN's US competitor last year, despite significantly higher costs.

The three Chinese telecoms have reportedly signed agreements with telecoms in France, Pakistan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, with further deals in the works elsewhere in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The consortium hopes to bring EMA online by the end of 2025, the sources told Reuters.

Comment: Spying on data is assured no matter how the telecom systems are structured.

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Eye 2

U.S. government arguing for immunity in MK-ULTRA mind-control case before Quebec Court of Appeal

Sidhartha Banerjee
CTV News
Thu, 30 Mar 2023 02:29 UTC
protest mk-ultra victims trial canada
© CTVPatricia Edwards Roberge, (center) was among several dozen who protested Thursday outside the Court of Appeal building and attended the hearing.
A proposed class-action lawsuit over infamous brainwashing experiments at a Montreal psychiatric hospital was before Quebec's highest court Thursday, as victims attempted to remove immunity granted to the United States government.

The U.S. government successfully argued in Quebec Superior Court last August that the country couldn't be sued for the project known as MK-ULTRA -- allegedly funded by the Canadian government and the CIA. U.S. lawyers argued that foreign states had absolute immunity from lawsuits in Canada between the 1940s and 1960s, when the program took place.

But survivors, and their families, of the experiments at Montreal's Allan Memorial Institute -- which included experimental drugs, rounds of electroshocks and sleep deprivation -- appealed that decision.

On Thursday, a lawyer representing the United States government told the Quebec Court of Appeal that the country should be immune from prosecution and that any lawsuit against the U.S. government should be filed in that country.

Comment: Julie Tanny was interviewed by Global News in 2019:

May there be an "ultra"-special place in hell for Dr. Cameron and his minions.

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Microscope 1

US resumes biolabs program in Ukraine - Russian MOD


RT
Fri, 07 Apr 2023 17:23 UTC
biohazardous chemicals
© Milos DimicFILE PHOTO.
The US has quietly resumed its controversial biolabs program in Ukraine and is focusing on the construction of secretive new facilities and the training of personnel, the Russian Defense Ministry has claimed.

A new trove of documents on alleged US-funded biological programs in Ukraine was presented by the commander of Russia's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defense Forces, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, during a media briefing on Friday.

Kirillov cited the protocol from a meeting dated October 20, 2022, which was attended by representatives of the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and multiple Ukrainian officials, as well as figures from the Jacobs/CH2M engineering company. The meeting reportedly focused on the resumption of biological research in Ukraine, which was "paused" due to the hostilities between Moscow and Kiev.

"Now, the project has been resumed with focus on renewal of legislative support, revision of training schedule, as well as conclusion and resumption of construction work," the Ukrainian-language protocol stated, citing Jacobs/CH2M's David Smith.

The program was previously known as 'Joint biological research' but has been rebranded as 'Biological control research', the document indicated. It cited concerns over an alleged "Russian disinformation campaign" on the issue.

The US has engaged in damage control efforts to prevent potential leaks from Ukrainian specialists on the true nature of the biological research programs, Kirillov asserted.
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Dominoes

CIA chief admits US 'blindsided' by Saudi-Iran deal - WSJ


RT
Fri, 07 Apr 2023 16:54 UTC
William Burns
© AP / Carolyn KasterFILE PHOTO: CIA Director William Burns arrives to testify at a House Select Committee on Intelligence hearing at the Capitol in Washington, DC, March 9, 2023.
CIA Director William Burns has told Saudi officials that the United States was caught off guard, after the kingdom agreed to a normalization deal with Iran brokered by China, according to the Wall Street Journal.

During an unannounced trip to Saudi Arabia this week, Burns "expressed frustration" with Riyadh and said Washington "felt blindsided" by its renewed diplomacy with both Iran and Syria, multiple unnamed sources told the Journal on Thursday.

The foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia held talks in the Chinese capital on Thursday, where they discussed a number of issues related to the new initiative, including reopening embassies in both countries, designating ambassadors, and even a visit to Riyadh by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.
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Stock Down

Gloomy outlook issued for US dollar


RT
Thu, 06 Apr 2023 08:21 UTC
US Dollar
© Getty Images / Jonathan Kirn
The greenback may fall by another 15% against rival currencies by mid-2024, an investment services company says.

The US dollar could weaken by as much as 15% against major world currencies over the next 18 months, as inflation continues to cool, allowing the Federal Reserve to loosen its monetary policy, according to Eurizon SLJ Capital.

A research note released on Tuesday by the firm's chief executive, Stephen Jen, said the US Federal Reserve is likely close to - or already beyond - peak hawkishness, meaning that rate cuts are on the horizon.

The Fed's nine previous hikes, in addition to the tighter credit conditions caused by the US banking crisis, already suggest inflation is trending to the downside, he concluded.

Comment: See also:

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People 2

Sex is a 'beautiful thing': Pope Francis


New York Post
Thu, 06 Apr 2023 09:51 UTC
pope francis
© APPope Francis said sex was “one of the beautiful things” God gave to people in a documentary on Disney+.
Pope Francis has praised the virtues of sex in a documentary released on Wednesday, describing it as "one of the beautiful things that God has given to the human person."

The 86-year-old pontiff made the comment in the Disney+ production "The Pope Answers", which captures a meeting he had last year in Rome with 10 people in their early 20s.

Francis was quizzed by them on a variety of topics, including LGBT rights, abortion, the porn industry, sex, and faith and sex abuse within the Catholic Church.

Comment: See also:

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