Puppet Masters
According to CNN, Banks planned on calling the head of the Capitol Police Union, a loud critic of the security failures from that day, to testify as a GOP witness. Banks had been planning with Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), the select committee's chairman, Tuesday evening on how the logistics of the investigation would work after it was announced he would be the ranking member.
By Wednesday morning, Pelosi said Banks, and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), would not serve on the panel.
Located to the south of Al-Aqsa Mosque, Silwan is one of the largest, oldest and nearest Palestinian towns to the mosque, as only the southern wall of Jerusalem, which is adjacent to Wadi Hilweh neighborhood, separates its northern entrance from the mosque.
Israeli authorities have been demolishing homes for weeks in the area to make way for a biblical theme park, known as the "City of David." Palestinians say the demolitions are aimed at driving them from Jerusalem in an attempt to further "Judaize" the city. Israeli authorities, for their part, claim the homes have been illegally built. Yet Palestinians note that receiving building permits in the area is nearly impossible.
"Thus far, we've identified seven individuals who were former members of the Colombian military that had received some sort of ... US funded and provided education and training," Defense Department spokesman John Kirby said on Thursday, stressing that such training is "very common," and did not "[lead] to or [encourage] what happened in Haiti."
While Kirby declined to provide details on an individual basis for the seven assassins, he said the instruction included
"cadet leadership development, counter-drug operations, noncommissioned officer professional development, small-unit leadership training, human rights training, emergency medical training, some helicopter maintenance training, and those kinds of things."He went on to say that he knew of no plans at the Pentagon to reconsider this "very valuable, ethical leadership training" program despite recent events in Haiti, which saw President Jovenel Moïse shot dead by gunmen at his home near Port-au-Prince earlier this month. Around two dozen suspects have since been brought into Haitian custody, the majority of them former members of Colombia's military now working for private security firms, some based in the US.
Comment: See also:
- Ex-military were conned into assassination of Haitian leader, Colombia's president says, though some were willing participants
- Haiti's president killed by 'foreign hit squad' of ex-Colombian military & Haitian-Americans, 11 arrested inside 'Taiwan embassy'
- Haiti police say murder suspect is middleman living in Florida
Two Israeli F-16 jets fired the guided missiles from Lebanese airspace, around 01:11 local time on Thursday.
"All four missiles were destroyed by on-duty Syrian air defense units, using Russian-made Buk-M2E systems," the Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria said in a statement.
YouTube said in a press release the decision was taken "after careful review" and without consideration for Bolsonaro's job or political ideology. The far-right former army captain, who has overseen the world's second deadliest outbreak, has won widespread criticism for railing against lockdowns, touting unproven miracle cures, sowing vaccine doubts and shunning masks.
Comment: As with Trump, it's likely Bolsonaro's was targeted precisely because he's the President of Brazil and will have a significant following whom Youtube wanted to stop accessing critical, life-saving information.
"Our rules do not allow content that states that hydroxychloroquine and/or ivermectin are effective in treating or preventing COVID-19, that states there is a cure for the disease, or says that masks do not work to prevent the spread of the virus," it said in a statement.
Comment: Since when was Youtube capable of peer-review level medical analysis? It's notable that everything it claims above is incorrect, and there's adequate data to prove it, which further confirms the agenda they're pushing.
In a statement to the TASS news agency, the ECHR revealed that Russia requested the court invoke Article 39, a provision that allows measures to be placed before any hearing or decision. In particular, Moscow asked that Ukraine be forced to cancel restrictions on Russian speakers and demanded that Kiev "end its water blockade of Crimea."
These propositions came as part of Russia's first-ever interstate complaint against Ukraine. Moscow's case deals with a wide range of issues stemming from the 2014 Maidan uprising in Kiev and the subsequent war in eastern Ukraine. In particular, it states that the Ukrainian authorities are responsible for the deaths of civilians and accuses them of cruel treatment.
The tit-for-tat sanctions are set to increase tensions between the two nations, ahead of an upcoming visit by US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman to Tianjin.
A statement by the Chinese foreign ministry said the retaliation is needed as Washington issued an advisory warning to American businesses about risks to their operations and activities in Hong Kong and imposed sanctions on Chinese officials.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the activist, who fled abroad after last summer's disputed presidential elections, said that she had "a fruitful meeting with the US Agency for Global Media's CEO, Kelu Chao." Chao oversees state-run media brands including Voice of America and RFERL.
Tikhanovskaya thanked those organizations for supportive coverage of the opposition in Belarus, and called upon them to "help repressed media in Belarus." In addition, she asked Chao to commit to re-launching Voice of America's service in the country.
That's according to Russia's Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov, who has accused American officials of taking a confrontational stance towards his country over the Russian-backed gas link. In a statement issued on Thursday, he wrote that the new agreement, published by officials the day before, was based on "misunderstandings and political attacks on Russia."
According to the ambassador, the "hostile tone" of the deal "fundamentally contradicts the spirit of the meeting between the two presidents last month in Geneva." American leader Joe Biden met with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, for a crunch summit in June, with both sides praising the talks as constructive and positive.

President Joe Biden participates in a town hall-style interview at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati, Ohio, July 21, 2021.
Deadline, citing Nielsen ratings, reported that CNN pulled in an average of 1.46 million viewers between 8 p.m. and 9:15 p.m., when the president was on stage in Cincinnati. That's a 58 percent drop in viewership from the previous CNN town hall with Biden this past February, which drew 3.5 million viewers.
Over the same 75-minute period Wednesday, Fox drew an average of 2.76 million viewers for Tucker Carlson Tonight and the first part of Hannity. The latter program featured a town hall with Florida Republicans, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Marco Rubio, Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez discussing the ongoing pro-freedom protests in Cuba.
Comment: Even MSNBC drew better numbers? If Biden was a TV series, he would have been cancelled long ago.
The Twitterati were quick to remark on the abysmal turnout for Biden:














Comment: This 'committee' has become a Democratic-stacked deck to protect the queen at all costs. Are we surprised?