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Lebanese minister denies request to quiz security chief over Beirut blast


Reuters
Fri, 09 Jul 2021 11:16 UTC
interior minister Mohamed Fahmy

Interior minister Mohamed Fahmy
A Lebanese minister has denied a request by the judge probing the Beirut port explosion to question a top security official, a document seen by Reuters on Friday showed, as attempts to deliver justice over the catastrophe continue to flounder.

Nearly a year after the Aug. 4 explosion, which killed more than 200 people, wounded thousands and devastated swathes of the capital, many Lebanese are furious that no senior officials have been held to account.

The blast was caused by a massive quantity of explosive chemicals that had been stored unsafely at the port for years.


Comment: That theory seems highly unlikely: Forbes asks: 'Was Israel responsible for the Beirut explosion?'

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Attention

'Ending the war' in Afghanistan?

Kit Knightly
Off-Guardian
Fri, 09 Jul 2021 22:13 UTC
The media is all abuzz with the US "drawdown", but does that really mean the war is over?

Us Soldiers Afghanistan
© Off-Guardian / Reuters
The "big news" in the last couple of days is the American "drawdown" in Afghanistan. Yes, after nearly two decades, the US is finally pulling its troops out of one of the many countries they never had a legal right to be in.

"President" Biden re-affirmed today that the US will be pulling all its forces out of the country by August 31st, adding that the people of Afghanistan must "decide their own future".

This is being sold all across the media as an end to the (totally illegal and obviously economically motivated) war. Not only that, but the universal message is that ending the war is a bad thing.

The Economist headlines "America's longest war is ending in crushing defeat", and warns that life for the Afghanistan people will be worse once NATO has left.

Politico mournfully atones that America "never understood" its war there. While the New York Times comes over all nostalgic and compares the US leaving Afghanistan to the "betrayal" at the end of the Vietnam war in 1975.

Further coverage is already trying to sell us the "cost" of the US withdrawal.

The BBC is reporting that the Taliban are making territorial gains, and the Guardian report that Iran and Russia will step into the "diplomatic vacuum" in the region.

The Evening Standard is going one better, and already priming people for the idea NATO forces will have to go back and start again: "We've left Afghanistan but we may well be back".

But is all this messaging accurate? Is the fighting really over? Did Biden just end a war?
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Clock

Britain won't return to normal until at least next spring, Chris Whitty warns

Connor Boyd
Daily Mail
Tue, 06 Jul 2021 21:05 UTC
uk covid deaths
Britain will not return to a pre-pandemic normal this year even though ministers are pressing ahead with Freedom Day, Chris Whitty warned today.

England's chief medical officer hinted that some curbs may have to be rolled back later this year when the NHS faces a 'difficult winter'.

But, in a glimmer of hope, Professor Whitty claimed he anticipated that the UK could return to the 'status quo' by next spring.

However, he admitted that he would be 'surprised' if British life managed to return to pre-Covid normality before then, adding it was 'going to take quite a long time to get back to normality'.

Covid hospital admissions and deaths are expected to rise in the weeks and months after July 19, when all social distancing measures are due to be lifted in England.

Officials are also bracing for a rise in other respiratory illnesses that have been suppressed by lockdown measures during the pandemic, such as flu.

But it's hoped enough people will have been vaccinated or protected due to prior infection by next spring that the coronavirus will no longer trigger a deadly surge.

Speaking to the Local Government Association's (LGA) annual conference, Professor Whitty said: 'There will almost certainly be a Covid surge [in winter] and that will be on top of a return to a more normal respiratory surge.
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X

As social media giants censor free speech online, Russia and China lead the charge to break free from American control of the web

Glenn Diesen
RT
Fri, 09 Jul 2021 09:19 UTC
Twitter/Facebook/Paris
© Getty Images/metamorworks/AFP/Olivier Douliery/Ethan Miller
When it comes to online censorship, few voices outside the Western mainstream are safe. Not even a US president. Now, this near-total lack of accountability among tech giants is pushing states to develop sovereign internet spaces.

Over the past few years, China and Russia have taken the lead in nationalising the internet, putting their own mark on the online world and championing alternatives to foreign platforms. As a result, somewhat predictably, both governments have been accused of attempting to clip the wings of the supposedly ultimate space for freedom of expression, turning it into an instrument of government power.

Increased state control over the digital space deserves scrutiny and, in many cases criticism. But the efforts in Moscow and Beijing to assert national control over what goes on online is a reaction to what is perceived there as increasing digital authoritarianism on the part of the US.

As Washington's power in the world wanes, the US has become increasingly inclined to use its role in the global economy, its international companies and its place in major international institutions to coerce both adversaries and allies to uphold its former authority. The natural consequence is that its rivals have sought to reject American influence online, as well as offline.
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Pistol

Haiti's president killed by 'foreign hit squad' of ex-Colombian military & Haitian-Americans, 11 arrested inside 'Taiwan embassy'


RT
Fri, 09 Jul 2021 04:31 UTC
Moise investigation culprits/arms
© Reuters/Estailove St-Va
Weaponry, mobile phones, passports and other items are being shown to the media along with suspects in the assassination of President Jovenel Moise
Port-au-Prince, Haiti • July 8, 2021
Haiti's national police force has claimed that two Americans and 26 Colombians were responsible for the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, while Taiwan has confirmed that 11 arrests were made at its diplomatic compound.

At least 28 people carried out the murder plot earlier this week, police chief Leon Charles told reporters on Thursday, noting that several suspects were brought into custody, while others were killed in firefights with authorities.
"We have arrested 15 Colombians and the two Americans of Haitian origin. Three Colombians have been killed while eight others are on the loose. Weapons and materials used by the assailants were recovered. We will strengthen our investigation and search techniques to intercept the other eight mercenaries."
Rifles, machetes and other tools that were seized were displayed on a table near the police chief.


Comment: See also:

Haiti president Jovenel Moïse assassinated - UPDATE

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Briefcase

'I love talking about election fraud': Trump says he's 'looking forward' to sitting for deposition in Big Tech lawsuit


RT
Thu, 08 Jul 2021 18:07 UTC
Trump GoogTwitFace
© Facebook/Twitter/Google/Otago Daily Times/KJN
Former US President Donald Trump and Big Tech
Donald Trump has revealed that he plans on and is committed to giving a deposition in the recently announced class-action lawsuit against the Big Tech companies Facebook, Twitter, and Google.

After announcing that he would be the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit against the various social media companies who banned his accounts following the January 6 Capitol riot, Trump expanded on his role in the suit in an interview with Bill O'Reilly.

"I look forward to it, actually," the former president said, when asked about sitting for a deposition in the suit, which will mean answering direct questions about the day of the Capitol riot and facing the accusation he incited an insurrection - an accusation from Democrats that morphed into an impeachment vote which ultimately failed in the Senate.

Trump confirmed to O'Reilly that he would address the Capitol riot issue head-on and even get into the accusations of "election fraud."

"I love talking about the election fraud," he said.
Both Trump and O'Reilly described the legal battle ahead as a "war."
"Everything's a war," Trump said. "With me, life is a war."
Facebook, Twitter, and Google, the former president added, "may be in the process of destroying our nation."
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Footprints

Taliban strike key Afghan city as US speeds up withdrawal

Emma Graham-Harrison, Akhtar Mohammad Makoii
The Guardian
Wed, 07 Jul 2021 12:41 UTC
Afghan Security
© AFP/Getty Images
Afghan security personnel stand guard along a road in the western city of Qala-i- Naw after the Taliban launched a major assault on the provincial capital.
The Taliban fought their way into the centre of a key western Afghan city on Wednesday and accepted the surrender of senior security officials, as militants and Afghan government representatives met in Iran for negotiations.

Insurgents attacked Qala-i-Naw, the capital of Badghis province, overnight and seized the provincial headquarters of the police and the intelligence service, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), before being pushed back by special forces.

The Taliban have taken swaths of Afghanistan as the US has accelerated the departure of its forces in recent weeks despite warnings from Afghans and the US commander on the ground that such a rapid exit could tip the country into full-blown civil war.

The attack on Qala-i-Naw was the first major assault on a provincial city since the militants began their sweeping advance, although several others have been encircled and are in effect besieged.

The US has announced its withdrawal is now more than 90% complete.

Comment: Videos shared online purported to show members of the Taliban riding into Qala-e-Naw on motorbikes.

Local media said the Taliban offensive on Qala-e-Naw was the first time they have taken over a provincial capital since US President Joe Biden's announcement in April that American troops would begin to withdraw from Afghanistan, with only a few hundred set to remain. The latest update from the Pentagon on Tuesday said the US has now withdrawn around 90% of its troops and equipment from Afghanistan.

The Taliban now control around one third of the country's 421 districts and district centers.
Force strength and strategy are the two important aspects in the post-US occupation scenario:

The areas under Taliban control in the north are increasingly strategic, running along Afghanistan's border with central Asian states. The Taliban in previous surrenders have shown video of Afghan soldiers taking transportation money and returning to their homes. From those who didn't return, many have joined the Taliban ranks as deserters from the Afghani army.

The Taliban reportedly captured the city of Farah, another provincial capital, and the largest city of the Farah Province in western Afghanistan. Footage of the city showed dozens of Afghani army soldiers, many of which were killed. Hundreds are being killed on each side every day, with reports coming in from scores of Taliban being killed by Afghan security forces, and still the Taliban are the ones coming in on top and capturing even more areas.
See also:

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Dig

Democrats dug themselves an election integrity hole; courts may bury them in it

John Solomon
Just the News
Wed, 07 Jul 2021 11:10 UTC
audit votes sign
© Jerod MacDonald-Evoy/Arizona Mirror
The will of the people demands election integrity
For months now, President Biden and key Democrats have waged endless battle against state laws designed to improve the integrity of elections, ones that make voting easier and cheating harder.

From the start, the mission was complicated since its message ran smack into strong American sentiments in the court of public opinion: Polling shows three quarters of Americans support integrity measures like voter ID that Biden called "Jim Crow in the 21st century."

Now the Democrat train has run into a similar harsh reality in the courts of law, where justices and judges alike have concluded integrity measures aren't unconstitutional if they aren't designed to suppress based on race or skin color or socio-economic status.

The latest blow to the Jim Crow 2.0 argument was delivered Wednesday, when a federal judge refused to issue a preliminary injunction blocking Georgia's new election integrity law.

Georgia has been the Democrats' ground zero, the first state to enact comprehensive voting reform after the contested November 2020 elections. From activist Stacy Abrams to Attorney General Merrick Garland, the Peach State law has come under withering assault from the left.

Comment: Elections polarize as 'might makes right'. Americans have seen how vastly and deeply this dynamic destroys when coupled with fraud and compromise - given time to evaluate and regroup.

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Rocket

US Forces are under constant rain of fire in both Syria and Iraq


SouthFront
Fri, 09 Jul 2021 03:46 UTC
Truck and rocket site
© Iraqi Media Security Cell/Reuters
Truck onsite from where rockets were launched
Smoke in al-Baghdadi following rocket attacks
Anbar Province, Iraq• July 7-8, 2021
The United States seems to have stepped in a wasp's nest after their most recent strikes on 'resistance' positions along the Syrian-Iraqi border. The US strike took place on June 27th. The response from the resistance came on the very next day.

The largest American base in Syria - at the al-Omar Oil Field came under fire by at least 8 rockets, which resulted in no casualties but significant material damage.

Exactly a week later, reports surfaced of another rocket attack on al-Omar, this time the rumors were first spread by a US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) spokesman. The reports of an attack were subsequently denied by both the US and the SDF.

Other reports, however, said the blasts were caused as a result of "training" activity taking place among foreign forces there. Alongside all of this, US convoys in Iraq are subject to daily IED attacks, with the most recent one taking place on July 5th, in the Baghdad governorate. There is no single area of focus for these attacks, as they happen all across Iraq's provinces.


Comment: Yankees go home!

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Pistol

Data shows US mass shootings rose during pandemic lockdown

Rob Roth
KTVU
Wed, 26 May 2021 17:47 UTC
mass shooting San Jose may 2021
© AP Photo/Noah Berger
Emergency personnel respond to a shooting at a Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) facility on Wednesday, May 26, 2021, in San Jose, Calif. Santa Clara County sheriff's spokesman said the rail yard shooting left multiple people, including the shooter, dead
It may appear as if the pandemic put the brakes on mass shootings. But in reality, mass shootings kept occurring during the coronavirus lockdown. They just weren't out in public as much.

"The overlying trend of gun violence has been moving in a bad direction both in 2020 and in 2021," says John Donohue, a Stanford University law professor who studies gun violence and mass shootings.

"The public mass shootings were suppressed in 2020. Now as we are coming out of the pandemic you see more of them," says Donohue.

Comment: What about the stressful, unnatural crowding together of people who, on a unconscious level, know their circumstances are based on a ever-changing, manipulative lie? That might send one or two over the edge.

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