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International moon mining pact being drafted by Trump administration

Joey Roulette
Reuters
Tue, 05 May 2020 10:04 UTC
moon
© REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
FILE PHOTO: The full moon, known as the "Buck Moon", is seen from West Orange, in New Jersey, U.S. July 16, 2019.
The Trump administration is drafting a legal blueprint for mining on the moon under a new U.S.-sponsored international agreement called the Artemis Accords, people familiar with the proposed pact told Reuters.

The agreement would be the latest effort to cultivate allies around NASA's plan to put humans and space stations on the moon within the next decade, and comes as the civilian space agency plays a growing role in implementing American foreign policy. The draft pact has not been formally shared with U.S. allies yet.

The Trump administration and other spacefaring countries see the moon as a key strategic asset in outer space. The moon also has value for long-term scientific research that could enable future missions to Mars - activities that fall under a regime of international space law widely viewed as outdated.

Comment: Whilst these accords could greatly bring nations together, Trump will have his work cut out for him preventing the Pentagon from using them to sow further discord, and they'll be worth very little until those countries at the forefront of space technology, like China and Russia, are on board:

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Yoda

Republicans demanding interviews with FBI's Priestap, Pientka after bombshell Michael Flynn revelations

Gregg Re
Fox News
Tue, 05 May 2020 16:41 UTC
priestap
© Reuters
In this July 26, 2017 photo, Bill Priestap, assistant director of the FBI's Counterintelligence Division, testifies during a Judiciary Committee hearing into alleged collusion between Russian and the Trump campaign.
Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Mike Johnson, R-La., on Monday demanded that FBI Director Christopher Wray provide a slew of information after last week's bombshell revelations in the case of former national security adviser Michael Flynn -- and the lawmakers are specifically seeking to question a mysterious FBI agent, Joe Pientka, who participated in the January 2017 White House interview that led to Flynn's prosecution.

Fox News has previously determined that Pientka was also intimately involved in the probe of former Trump aide Carter Page, which the DOJ has since acknowledged was riddled with fundamental errors and premised on a discredited dossier that the bureau was told could be part of a Russian disinformation campaign.

Pientka was conspicuously removed from the FBI's website after Fox News contacted the FBI about his extensive role in Crossfire Hurricane Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) matters -- a change first noticed by Twitter user Techno Fog -- but sources say Pientka remains in a senior role at the agency's San Francisco field office.

Comment: General Flynn's ordeal has been one of the most shameful chapters in recent US political history.

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Eye 1

Biden voted to block creation of Senate office that handles sexual harassment complaints

Collin Anderson
The Washington Free Beacon
Tue, 05 May 2020 16:54 UTC
Joe Biden
© Getty Images
Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden voted in favor of a motion that would have blocked the creation of the Senate office that receives sexual harassment complaints.

Biden was one of six Democrats who joined an effort to block the Office of Senate Fair Employment Practices in 1991 on the grounds that it was unconstitutional. The vote came less than two years before Tara Reade allegedly filed a complaint about her treatment as an employee in Biden's Senate office.

Created as a part of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 in the shadow of Anita Hill's testimony on Capitol Hill, the Office of Senate Fair Employment Practices was an attempt to remedy the fact that Congress was, at the time, exempt from workplace discrimination laws. An amendment to the civil rights law introduced by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) chartered the office and provided "procedures to protect the right of Senate and other government employees ... to be free from discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, or disability."

Grassley's amendment sparked fierce opposition from some of his colleagues, led by then-Republican senator Warren Rudman (N.H.), who argued that the office would become a "Son of Frankenstein" and warned that "everyone here will be in jeopardy and we will have done much violence to this body and the Constitution."
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MIB

US: Russia could try to covertly advise candidates in 2020

Eric Tucker
The Associated Press
Mon, 04 May 2020 14:30 UTC
Department of Homeland Security
© AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File
FILE - In this June 5, 2015, file photo, the Homeland Security Department headquarters in northwest Washington. The Department of Homeland Security and FBI warned states earlier this year that Russia could look to interfere in the 2020 U.S. elections by covertly advising political candidates and campaigns. That's according to a law enforcement memo obtained by The Associated Press.
The Department of Homeland Security and FBI warned states earlier this year that Russia could look to interfere in the 2020 U.S. elections by covertly advising political candidates and campaigns, according to a law enforcement memo obtained by The Associated Press.

The Feb. 3 document details tactics U.S. officials believe Russia could use to interfere in this year's elections, including secretly advising candidates and campaigns. It says that though officials "have not previously observed Russia attempt this action against the United States," political strategists working for a business mogul close to President Vladimir Putin have been involved in political campaigning in numerous African countries.

The memo underscores how Trump administration officials are continuing to sound alarms about the prospect of future Russian interference in American politics even as President Donald Trump has sought to downplay the Kremlin's involvement in his 2016 win over Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Because it was prepared before the coronavirus outbreak, the memo does not reflect how the pandemic might affect the tactics Russia might use to interfere with the election.

Comment: Is the best that U.S. agencies can come up with to justify their continued use of the "Russians may hack our elections" narrative really a poorly played game of six degrees of separation from Vladimir Putin? LOL!

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Propaganda

Anatomy of a fake news campaign: How the lie Kim Jong-un died was spread from US govt-funded outlet

Ben Norton
The Grayzone
Mon, 04 May 2020 00:00 UTC
Korean media
© Unknown
Corporate media outlets spread fake news claiming North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had died. The lie originated with a Seoul-based website funded by the US government's regime-change arm the NED.

There may be no other country on Earth lied about more than North Korea. Western corporate media outlets have absolutely zero editorial standards when reporting on the country.

Absurd lies are routinely treated as newsworthy stories, from the cartoonish claim that Kim Jong-un executed his uncle by feeding him to pack of starving dogs (fake news), to the notion that all North Koreans are drones forced to choose from state-mandated haircuts (racist-tinged fake news), to the assertion that state media swore it uncovered a unicorn lair (insanely stupid fake news based on a mistranslation).

But these lies are not just innocuous errors that come out of nowhere; they are part of an insidious pattern, and a decidedly political one.
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Arrow Down

Trump: White House to wind down coronavirus task force and shift focus to the aftermath

Steve Holland, Jeff Mason
WHTC
Tue, 05 May 2020 02:15 UTC
Trump
© Getty Images
US President Donald Trump
The White House coronavirus task force will wind down as the country moves into a second phase that focuses on the aftermath of the outbreak, President Donald Trump said on Tuesday.

Trump confirmed the plans after Vice President Mike Pence, who leads the group, told reporters the White House may start moving coordination of the U.S. response on to federal agencies in late May.

"Mike Pence and the task force have done a great job," Trump said during a visit to a mask factory in Arizona. "But we're now looking at a little bit of a different form and that form is safety and opening and we'll have a different group probably set up for that."

Asked if he was proclaiming "mission accomplished" in the fight against the coronavirus, Trump said, "No, not at all. The mission accomplished is when it's over."

Trump said Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, doctors who assumed a high profile during weeks of nationally televised news briefings, would remain advisers after the group is dismantled. Fauci leads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Birx was response coordinator for the force.

"We can't keep our country closed for the next five years," Trump said, when asked why it was time to wind down the task force.
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Gold Coins

China increases testing sovereign digital currency in a move away from dollar dependence

Svetlana Ekimenko
Sputnik
Tue, 05 May 2020 14:03 UTC
DECP
© Boxmining
China's DCEP Currency
Reports that China was launching a pilot program to test its ambitious Digital Currency Electronic Payment made headlines in late April, amid the emergence of screenshots on social media showing the DCEP wallet.

As China expands globally, seeking significant financial autonomy and less dependency on America amid its trade war with Washington, the country has long sought to wean itself from the US-dollar dominated financial system.

Finally, after years of effort, China is gearing up to release the world's first sovereign digital currency - DCEP (short for Digital Currency/Electronic Payments).

China's central bank launched a trial program across four cities - Shenzhen, Suzhou, Xiongan and Chengdu - to test the use of its digital currency, touted as incorporating some features of cryptocurrencies, but lacking the anonymity of such digital assets, the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People's Bank of China confirmed to the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

Comment:


See also:

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Microscope 2

Israeli DM claims Israel's biological institute developed a virus antibody


The Times of Israel
Tue, 05 May 2020 00:00 UTC
Bennett
© Mondoweiss
Israeli DM Naftali Bennett
Defense Minister Naftali Bennett on Monday said he witnessed a "significant breakthrough" by Israel's defense biological research institute in developing an antibody to COVID-19, as the researchers wrapped up the development phase and moved to patent and mass produce the potential treatment.

Bennett visited the labs of the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR), a secretive unit that works under the Prime Minister's Office, in Ness Ziona and was shown the "antibody that attacks the virus in a monoclonal way and can neutralize it within the bodies of those ill," according to a statement from his office.

The statement said the antibody's development had been completed. The institute was in the process of patenting the find "and in the next stage, researchers will approach international companies to produce the antibody on a commercial scale."
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Bad Guys

Pandemic pushers, economy destroyers and sold out science: Imperial College are still open for business

Gilad Atzmon
gilad.online
Mon, 04 May 2020 12:00 UTC
money education
Back in the 1960s, the British academic establishment was rather excited about the work of Karl Popper, the philosopher who developed the concept of empirical falsification. Popper was keen to define the demarcation between the scientific and that which only mimics empiricism and scientism. A theory, according to Popper, can be considered scientific if, and only if, it is potentially falsifiable by experiments or its predictions. Popper attempted to create criteria that would deny psychoanalysis, Marxism and astrology any scientific status based on the fact that these theories are not falsifiable.

One may wonder what Popper would have to say about the 'science' of Neil Ferguson, the man who predicted up to 550.000 Coronavirus dead in the UK and 2.2 million dead in the USA.

On 29 April, Off-Guardian published what I believe to be the most insightful criticism of the lockdown policy so far. In the article Iain Davis digs into the work or shall we say, blunders, he attributes to Ferguson. Davis writes, "both Public Health England (PHE) and the Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens (ACDP) were satisfied that COVID-19 (C19) presented a 'low risk' of mortality and downgraded it from the status of a High Consequence Infectious Disease (HCID) on March 19th. The ACDP board members include Professor Neil Ferguson from Imperial College. Presumably Prof. Ferguson was among the dissenting voices on the ACDP board as he completely ignored the majority opinion of his scientific colleagues."

Comment: See also: The British Corona Middle Man And The Bill Gates Connection

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Newspaper

Iraq: The US, Iran, ISIS, plus a divided cabinet

Elijah J. Magnier
ejmagnier.com
Tue, 05 May 2020 12:00 UTC
Iraq
Just at the time when the country is being led by a caretaker Prime Minister, Adel Abdel Mahdi, and the newly elected Prime Minister, Mustafa al-Kadhemi (boycotted by many powerful political groups) is struggling to form his cabinet, the terror group "ISIS" is increasing its attacks on a number of Iraqi provinces. The Shia majority has asked for the withdrawal of US forces while the Sunnis and Kurds want these forces to remain, and ask instead for the withdrawal of the Iraqi security forces al-Hashd al-Shaabi or "Popular Mobilisation Forces" (PMF). ISIS is testing the military readiness of the Iraqi security forces and is taking advantage of the severe domestic differences between all political parties, knowing that the country is also facing serious financial difficulties and has a pandemic to deal with as well. The country is in crisis and the pressure is overwhelming.

ISIS is aware of the presence of security holes in various parts of Iraq, particularly around the Hamrin mountains in Salahuddin province, Jurf al-Nasr (south of Baghdad) in Babil province, Jalawla and Baqubah in Dyala province, in Karbala province, wadi Houran, along the Iraqi-Syrian borders in the al-Anbar province. Since a month ago ISIS has been harassing the security forces, mainly the PMF, and engaging with them to test their readiness- and exhaust their resources. It is also establishing fake checkpoints with men dressed as members of the Iraqi Army who arrest and kill tribal men. This is happening in the Sunni areas, whose political leaders are asking the PMF to leave their provinces and for the US to remain in Iraq. The US, with perfect timing, has ceased its intelligence collaboration with the Iraqi forces

Comment: See also:

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