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Orthodox schism: Western European priests reject Constantinople for Moscow


RT
Sat, 14 Sep 2019 21:06 UTC
Archbishop John of Chariopoulis.
© AFP/Stephane de Sakutin
Archbishop John of Chariopoulis
Some 100 parishes of the Russian Orthodox tradition in France and other Western European nations are to become part of the Moscow Patriarchate after rejecting an order to dissolve given by Moscow's rival Constantinople.

The world of Orthodoxy is currently experiencing a tectonic change after a schism between its two leading branches, the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchy and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. The focal point of the conflict is Ukraine, which Constantinople claimed as its domain last year, in violation of centuries of tradition that kept it under Moscow. But the clash for loyalty of Orthodox priests is happening throughout the world, and Moscow seems to have scored a major win.

The Archdiocese of Russian Orthodox churches in Western Europe (AROCWE) was granted its request to come under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchy, the Russia-based church reported on Saturday. AROCWE leader, Archbishop John (Renneteau) of Chariopoulis and any priest and diocese willing to join him, are to become part of a new branch of the Moscow Patriarchy, fully autonomous and self-governing.

Comment: See also:

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Russian Flag

Taliban's delegation welcomed in Moscow after US abandoned peace talks

Paul Antonopoulos
FRN
Sat, 14 Sep 2019 00:28 UTC
taliban delegation Moscow
© www.avapress.com
Taliban delegation meets Russian envoy in Moscow
The head of the Asian department of the Russian Foreign Ministry and representative of the Russian President in Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, received a delegation from the Taliban in Moscow.

Russia's foreign ministry stressed in a statement the need to resume talks between the US and Taliban.
"The special representative of the Russian Presidency in Afghanistan, director of the Second Asian Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Zamir Kabulov, welcomed the Taliban delegation in Moscow. The Russian side emphasized the need to resume negotiations between the United States and the Taliban. The Taliban, in turn, reaffirmed its willingness to continue dialogue with Washington."
In recent months, the Taliban movement and the United States have negotiated a peace agreement, which should guarantee the withdrawal of foreign troops in exchange for the guarantee that the movement would sever ties with terrorist organizations. Negotiations, however, excluded the Afghan government.

Comment: See also:

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Red Flag

Who benefits from the drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities?

Tony Cartalucci
New Eastern Outlook
Sun, 15 Sep 2019 00:00 UTC
Drone attacks Aramco owned Saudi oil facilities

Either it is retaliation against Saudi Arabia for its criminal activities across the region or it was a staged provocation that will be used by the US to to ratchet up tensions with both Iran and Yemen’s Houthis.
Huge blazes were reported at two oil facilities in Saudi Arabia owned by Aramco. While Saudi authorities refused to assign blame, media outlets like the BBC immediately began insinuating either Yemen's Houthis or Iran were responsible.

The BBC in its article, "Saudi Arabia oil facilities ablaze after drone strikes," would inject toward the top of its article:
Iran-aligned Houthi fighters in Yemen have been blamed for previous attacks.
Following an ambiguous and evidence-free description of the supposed attacks, the BBC even included an entire section titled, "Who could be behind the attacks?" dedicated to politically expedient speculation aimed ultimately at Tehran.

Comment: More on the attacks on Saudi oil facilities:

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TV

US predictably blames Iran for Yemen drone attacks that halted half of Saudi oil production


RFE/RL
Sat, 14 Sep 2019 07:55 UTC
Abqaiq

The predawn attacks, which sparked large blazes at the Abqaiq and Khurais oil-processing facilities, were claimed by Iranian-backed Huthi rebels in Yemen.
Ten drone attacks for which the United States blames Iran disabled nearly half of Saudi Arabia's oil-production capacity on September 14.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tehran had "launched an unprecedented attack" on global energy supplies.

A leading Republican lawmaker, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said it was "time" to consider an attack on "Iranian oil refineries if they continue their provocations or increase nuclear enrichment," he said on social media.

Comment: Sputnik provides more details:
Houthi Drone Attacks on Saudi Aramco Oil Production Halt 5.7 Million Barrels Daily - Minister

The minister also explained that the explosions stopped production of an estimated 2 billion cubic feet of petrochemical compounds per day that are used to produce 700 thousand barrels of natural gas liquids, reducing the supply of ethane and other natural gases by some 50 percent, the SPA said.

Bin Salman, however, stressed that the attack has not resulted in any impact on the supply of electricity and water, or on the supply of fuel to the local market, nor has it resulted in injuries among workers at these sites, although the company is assessing the impact, according to SPA.

The Saudi energy minister also emphasized, cited by SPA, that the attacks are an extension of a recent Houthi campaign targeting oil and civil facilities, pumping stations and oil tankers in the Arabian Gulf, suggesting that the attacks are targeting the security of the world's oil supply.


So the Saudi's are placing the blame on the the Houthi's, not Iran?


Saudi Aramco, a state-owned fossil fuel giant, operates and controls the majority of the kingdom's refinery production and oilfields.

Fires hit the Abqaiq oil refinery, a gated production facility and living community in the nation's Eastern Province, as well as an oil-processing facility near the Khurais oil field, located 100 miles east of Riyadh, according to SPA.

The armed Yemeni Houthi opposition movement claimed responsibility for the attacks.

According to a statement from the Houthi armed forces broadcast by Almasirah TV channel, the group attacked the Abqaiq and Khurais oil refineries with 10 drones, the biggest Houthi operation within Saudi territory to date, according to a spokesperson.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed Iran for the attacks on Saudi Aramco oil fields and urged the international community "to publicly and unequivocally condemn Iran's attacks".


Pompeo leaves no room for anyone but Iran to be attacked.


Tehran is reportedly expected to comment on the issue in the coming days.

Houthi armed forces previously carried out a drone attack on Riyadh's Shaybah oil field and refinery, prompting a counter-attack by the Saudis on targets in northern Yemen.

Yemen has since 2015 been engulfed in a war between government forces led by exiled President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi and the armed Houthi political opposition faction.

A Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes against the Houthis at Hadi's request since March 2015.
See also: The economic entrails at the heart of the 'deal of the century'

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Quenelle

Iran signs $440 million deal to develop Belal gas field it shares with Qatar


RT
Sat, 14 Sep 2019 12:44 UTC
Gas field
© Reuters / Raheb Homavandi/TIMA
A general view shows a unit of South Pars Gas field in Asalouyeh Seaport, north of Persian Gulf, Iran.
Tehran has signed a $440 million contract with a local company to develop the Belal gas field Iran shares with Qatar. The country's oil minister has celebrated the deal as a sign that no US sanctions can stop Iran's oil industry.

The contract was signed between Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC), a subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), and local development company Petropars. According to Iran's Shana news agency, POGC will serve as the employer of the contract, making reservoir studies and performing sideline licensing for the purposes of the project. Petropars, in turn, is to drill eight wells in the offshore oil field, build and install a gas production topside and construct a 20 kilometers (12 miles) seabed pipeline.

Under the contract, in 34 months the oil field is to produce 500 million cubic feet (the equivalent of 14 million cubic meters) of rich gas a day. The produced gas is to be processed at the onshore refinery of South Pars Phase 12.

Comment: See also:

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Star of David

God help us! Trump says US, Israel discussing mutual defense treaty


RT
Sat, 14 Sep 2019 19:58 UTC
us israeli flags soldier
© Reuters / Nir Elias
An Israeli soldier helps to roll up the Israeli and American flags
The US and Israel are discussing a mutual defense treaty that would further cement the already "tremendous" alliance between the two countries, President Donald Trump has revealed.

"I had a call today with Prime Minister Netanyahu to discuss the possibility of moving forward with a Mutual Defense Treaty, between the United States and Israel, that would further anchor the tremendous alliance between our two countries," Trump tweeted.


Trump voiced not-that-veiled support for Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections in Israel.

"I look forward to continuing those discussions after the Israeli Elections when we meet at the United Nations later this month!" Trump wrote.

Comment: Just what the U.S. needs: even closer relations with a bellicose, rogue nuclear nation whose entire existence is an affront to international law and basic morality.

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Arrow Up

Bolton revives his political action committees; endorses Congress' top 5 Republican warmongers


RT
Sat, 14 Sep 2019 00:52 UTC
Bolton
© Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
John Bolton
Former National Security Advisor John Bolton has wasted no time relaunching his political action committees and endorsing five Republican congressmen, all of whom appear to love war almost as much as he does.

The John Bolton PAC has endorsed Senators Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), Cory Gardner (R-Colorado), and Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), along with Reps Adam Kinzinger (R-Illinois) and Lee Zeldin (R-New York), according to its first post-resurrection press release on Friday, which referred to the now-unemployed hawk as "Ambassador John Bolton" despite the fact that he has not held a diplomatic position in years.

"The John Bolton PAC and John Bolton Super PAC seek a strong, clear, and dependable US national security policy, resting on constancy and resolve," reads the statement from the ex-advisor who advocated bombing Iran, taking "the Libya option" on North Korea, military intervention in Venezuela, and continuing to bomb Afghanistan and Syria for the foreseeable future.

Bolton's picks are, unsurprisingly, a rather hawkish crew. Cotton has repeatedly called for airstrikes on Iran, while he and Zeldin have advocated encouraging Israel to bomb Iran. Kinzinger, too, wants to see Iran bombed. Gardner sponsored legislation to bribe Venezuelan officials to renounce President Nicolas Maduro and pressure other countries to sanction Venezuela, and tried to derail peace negotiations with North Korea. Tillis, along with the others, was an outspoken opponent of the Iran nuclear deal.

Comment: Bolton had a lot invested in his war ideology. Trump's firing left him suddenly high and dry and, as we see, Bolton is 'not going gentle into his goodnight!' A fixated and determined neocon is dangerous, especially one freed of policy restraints.

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Arrow Down

Britain's Tory party may well be heading for extinction

Finian Cunningham
RT
Sat, 14 Sep 2019 15:55 UTC
chair England
© BBC News
The ultimate Brexit casualty could very well be Britain's ruling Conservative Party. Cabinet resignations and the purging of rebel parliamentarians by Boris Johnson point to his party heading for a historic schism.

The walking out of cabinet by Johnson's own brother in protest over Brexit policy epitomizes the fundamental, bitter shift going on in British politics.

Another illustration of just how intense the fracturing strains within the Tory party have reached was this: among the 21 MPs that Johnson expelled this week for defying his no-deal Brexit plans, were two former chancellors, Kenneth Clarke and Philip Hammond, and Sir Nicholas Soames. They will not be allowed to stand in any future election as party candidates.

Soames is the grandson of Conservative icon and wartime leader Winston Churchill, who is also said to be a political hero of the current prime minister. However, in a scathing putdown, Soames said there was no comparison between Churchill and Johnson, saying the latter was neither a statesman nor a diplomat, having made his career by telling lies about the European Union. The Tory grandee said he feared the Conservative Party was doomed to split because it was now being led by what he called a "Brexit sect."

This apprehension about the emergence of a hard-right, nationalistic version of the Conservative Party led by Johnson and his Brexiteer cabinet has been voiced repeatedly by former MPs who have quit in protest. They claim the Brexit crisis is warping the party from what they view as its traditional political beliefs.
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Arrow Down

MIT Media Lab concealed its relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, new documents and updates

Ronan Farrow
The New Yorker
Fri, 06 Sep 2019 00:00 UTC
MIT Media Lab
© MIT
MIT Media Lab
Update: On Saturday, less than a day after the publication of this story, Joi Ito, the director of the M.I.T. Media Lab, resigned from his position. "After giving the matter a great deal of thought over the past several days and weeks, I think that it is best that I resign as director of the media lab and as a professor and employee of the Institute, effective immediately," Ito wrote in an internal e-mail. In a message to the M.I.T. community, L. Rafael Reif, the president of M.I.T., wrote, "Because the accusations in the story are extremely serious, they demand an immediate, thorough and independent investigation," and announced that M.I.T.'s general counsel would engage an outside law firm to oversee that investigation.

The M.I.T. Media Lab, which has been embroiled in a scandal over accepting donations from the financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, had a deeper fund-raising relationship with Epstein than it has previously acknowledged, and it attempted to conceal the extent of its contacts with him. Dozens of pages of e-mails and other documents obtained by The New Yorker reveal that, although Epstein was listed as "disqualified" in M.I.T.'s official donor database, the Media Lab continued to accept gifts from him, consulted him about the use of the funds, and, by marking his contributions as anonymous, avoided disclosing their full extent, both publicly and within the university. Perhaps most notably, Epstein appeared to serve as an intermediary between the lab and other wealthy donors, soliciting millions of dollars in donations from individuals and organizations, including the technologist and philanthropist Bill Gates and the investor Leon Black. According to the records obtained by The New Yorker and accounts from current and former faculty and staff of the media lab, Epstein was credited with securing at least $7.5 million in donations for the lab, including two million dollars from Gates and $5.5 million from Black, gifts the e-mails describe as "directed" by Epstein or made at his behest.

Comment: See also: MIT Media Lab director resigns in wake of institute's hidden financial ties to Epstein

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Camera

Busted or just stupid? Photos of Juan Guaido with members of notorious Colombian drug cartel


Reuters
Fri, 13 Sep 2019 20:41 UTC
Juan Guaido
© Reuters/Ivan Alvarado
Pretender Juan Guaido
Juan Guaido may have some explaining to do. Photos have emerged depicting the Venezuelan opposition leader with gang members, confirmed by Colombian police to be leaders in the violent drug trafficking outfit, Los Rastrojos.

The photos first appeared in a tweet on Friday, shared by Wilfredo Canizares of the Fundacion Progresar (Progress Foundation), a Colombian NGO. They depict the US-sponsored "interim president" of Venezuela Juan Guaido posing chummily with two known drug lords, known under the aliases "The Brother," and "The Minor."
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