Puppet MastersS


Bad Guys

UK deepens warmongering in Ukraine with plans to supply long-range missiles

Robert Stevens
World Socialist Website
Wed, 10 May 2023 00:00 UTC
The UK's Storm Shadow long-range missile
© Rept0n1x / CC BY-SA 3.0The UK's Storm Shadow long-range missile
The UK is again leading the way in a massive further escalation of the NATO war against Russia.

On Monday, the Washington Post reported that the UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) had issued a call to weapons manufacturers, on behalf of the International Fund for Ukraine (IFU), to supply missiles capable of striking Russian-annexed Crimea or cities deep inside Russia's borders. Over £300 million in funding has been made available through donations from the UK, Norway, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, plus Iceland and Lithuania.

The MoD's notice referred to "Missiles or Rockets with a range 100-300km; land, sea or air launch" and "Payload 20-490kg". Listed as "Desirable requirements" were: "Low Probability of Intercept (LPI); includes Mission Planning Capability; Assured navigation (with hardened Global Navigation Satellite System capability) in the face of advanced countermeasures and EM spectrum denial; Air defence penetration methods to increase probability of successful strike; Technical Readiness Level of at least 8".
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Bullseye

US 'should be in the dock' for violation of international law - China


RT
Thu, 11 May 2023 14:28 UTC
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin
© CGTNFILE PHOTO: Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin. Washington is "in no position to point fingers" at Beijing, Foreign Ministry official Wang Wenbin has argued.
The US has blatantly violated international law while imposing its own rules upon the world by force, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin has claimed. The comments followed reports that Washington and its allies are planning to use an upcoming G7 summit to demand that China "act responsibly."

During Wang's regular press briefing on Thursday, a journalist with China's Global Times mentioned speculation that G7 leaders will ask Beijing "to abide by international rules" when they meet in Japan later this month.

Issuing a lengthy response, Wang began by asserting that "for the overwhelming majority of countries in the world" the term "international rules" means the basic standards of relations enshrined in the UN Charter.
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Stop

Court blocks Biden admin policy of releasing illegal immigrants into US without court dates, as Title 42 expires

Caden Pearson
Zero Hedge
Fri, 12 May 2023 03:20 UTC
migrants
© Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty ImagesEl Paso border migrants • May 11, 2023
A federal judge in Florida has issued a two-week restraining order on the Biden administration's policy of releasing illegal immigrants into the United States without court dates, just hours before Title 42 was due to expire.

Judge T. Kent Wetherell II, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, issued a temporary restraining order on Thursday night against the Biden administration's new parole policy that would have replaced Title 42, the measure that allowed for the immediate expulsion of illegal border crossers to Mexico during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The temporary restraining order comes into place from 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, May 11, according to court filings (pdf).

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, who sued the Biden administration over the policy, announced the ruling on Twitter late Thursday:
"We took swift action to protect the American people from [President Joe Biden's] unlawful plan to release thousands of illegal immigrants when Title 42 lifts in an hour. I am grateful for the quick decision by the federal judge."
Moody argued the new policy is "materially identical" to a similar program, known as Parole plus Alternative to Detention (Parole + ATD), which was deemed unlawful by a Florida court in March. The judge agreed, writing in his ruling the policy was "materially indistinguishable" from Parole + ATD, "both in its purpose" to reduce overcrowding at detention facilities and "manner of operation."

Comment: In a downhill run everyone ends up at the bottom.

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Beaker

Ukraine using chemical weapons, Russian journalist claims


RT
Thu, 11 May 2023 18:11 UTC
Ukraine soldiers
© Muhammed Enes Yildirim/Anadolu Agency/Getty ImagesUkrainian soldiers
Banned substances were reportedly deployed in Zaporozhye Region...

Ukrainian forces have used chemical weapons that caused loss of consciousness after inhalation, Komsomolskaya Pravda correspondent Alexander Kots reported on Thursday, citing sources in the Russian military. The alleged attack happened near Orekhov, in Zaporozhye Region. The use of substances banned by international conventions appears to be part of the much-anticipated Ukrainian offensive, the journalist wrote on Telegram.

According to Kots, Western-supplied tanks have been spotted outside of Kharkov, while Ukrainian troops have launched attacks on Russian positions north and south of Artyomovsk, which they call Bakhmut.

On Thursday evening, the Russian Defense Ministry said there were "no active operations" on the Zaporozhye front, and that the "general situation in the area of the special military operation is under control."

Multiple Western officials have said over the past week that all the weapons, ammunition and supplies required for Ukraine's grand counteroffensive had already been delivered. On Thursday, the UK confirmed it had supplied Kiev with long-range 'Storm Shadow' missiles.

Comment: Unlike the fakes in Damascus, these chemical weapons and its victims are real.

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Magnify

CIA had 'no evidence' Biden laptop was Russian disinformation, says top intel officer during 2020 election

Brooke Singman
Fox News
Fri, 12 May 2023 10:30 UTC
Lobby
© Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty ImagesCIA Headquarters • Langley, Virginia
Official says President Biden's allies lacked 'clear and compelling evidence' to claim Russian involvement...

A former top intelligence officer with oversight of threats ahead of the 2020 election said the Central Intelligence Agency had "no evidence" at the time that Hunter Biden's laptop had anything to do with a Russian disinformation campaign, despite claims from then-candidate Joe Biden's allies.

Just before the election, 51 former national security officials wrote a public letter claiming the Hunter Biden laptop had "all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation." It was signed by former President Obama CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former CIA director and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, among others.

However, in an interview with Fox News Digital, former National Intelligence Officer for Cyber Chris Porter said that claims from Biden's supporters "did not reflect" the actual intelligence.

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Attention

US interfering in Türkiye's elections - Ankara


RT
Fri, 12 May 2023 11:30 UTC
Soylu
© Omar Haj Kadour/AFPTurkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu
Washington's coup attempt in 2016 failed, but it has now found a new way to try to oust the government...

The US is meddling in Türkiye's upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections, Ankara's Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu claimed on Friday.

Speaking to CNN Turk, Soylu weighed in on the decision by presidential candidate Muharrem Ince, who leads the opposition Homeland Party, to drop out of the race on Thursday ahead of Sunday's vote.

Ince attributed his withdrawal to a "slander campaign," which involved the release of an alleged sex tape that he dismissed as fake. The withdrawal of Ince came amid fears among opposition figures that his candidacy could damage the electoral chances of Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the CHP party chairman, who has emerged as the main rival to incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Soylu claimes:
"America has been interfering in this election from the very beginning. [US President Joe] Biden said that we weren't able to do this with a coup in 2016. This time we will do it with an election, not a coup. [That's] basic logic. If we pull Ince... we will get the votes that went to him.

"Ince was attacked in this election from outside. It is clear who produced it. The perpetrator is the Gulen movement and the US."

Comment: The US failed to eliminate Erdogan in 2016...try, try again.

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Attention

Cries and whispers along the Russian watchtowers

Pepe Escobar
Strategic Culture
Fri, 12 May 2023 18:44 UTC
Putin and Entourage
© Public Domain
Whispers of an 'evil power' were heard in lines at dairy shops, in streetcars, stores, apartments, kitchens, suburban and long-distance trains, at stations large and small, in dachas, and on beaches. Needless to say, truly mature and cultured people did not tell these stories about an evil power's visit to the capital. In fact they even made fun of them and tried to talk sense into those who told them.

Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita
To quote Dylan, who might have been a Bulgakov epigone: "So let us stop talking falsely now/the hour's getting late." By now it's quite clear the delusion of a "peace" deal in Ukraine is the latest wet dream of the "non-agreement capable" usual suspects, always hooked on lies and plunder while deftly manipulating selected liberals among the Russian elite.

The goal would be to appease Moscow with a few concessions, while crucially keeping Odessa, Nikolaev and Dnipro, and safeguarding what would be NATO's access to the Black Sea.

All that while investing in rabid, resentful Poland to become an armed to the teeth EU military militia.

So any "negotiations" towards "peace" in fact mask a drive to postpone - just for a little while - the original masterplan: dismembering and destroying Russia.

There are very serious discussions in Moscow, even at the highest levels, on how the elite is really positioned. Rougly three groups can be identified: the Victory party; the "Peace" party - which Victory would describe as surrenders; and the Neutral/Undecided.

Victory certainly includes crucial actors such as Dmitry Medvedev; Rosneft's Igor Sechin; Foreign Minister Lavrov; Nikolai Patrushev; head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, Aleksandr Bastrykin; and - even under fire - certainly Defense Minister Shoigu.

"Peace" would include, among others, the head of Telegram, Pavel Durov; billionaire entrepreneur Andrey Melnichenko; metal/mining czar Alisher Usmanov (born in Uzbekistan); and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Neutral/Undecided would include Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin; mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin; Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office, Anton Vaino; First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential administration and media czar, Alexey Gromov; Sberbank's CEO Herman Gref; Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller; and - special bone of contention - perhaps FSB supremo Alexander Bortnikov.

It's fair to argue the third group represents the elite majority. This means they heavily influence the entire course of the Special Military Operation (SMO), which by now has metastasized into an Anti-Terror Operation (ATO).
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Bizarro Earth

Western European leaders reach peak dystopia on Victory Day

Rachel Marsden
RT
Fri, 12 May 2023 07:30 UTC
President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen
© Roman Pilipey / Getty ImagesPresident of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen speaks during her joint press briefing with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on May 9, 2023 in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Top EU officials showed off their revisionism skills as Russia commemorated the 78th anniversary of Nazi Germany's defeat.

On the day that Russia was marking the victory of the Soviet Union and its Western allies over Nazi Germany, the unelected president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, thought it would be a good idea to head over to Kiev, where neo-Nazis have recently been re-emerging in Europe.

"Nazi defeat day" is an odd occasion for a Western figurehead to go praise Ukraine as "the beating heart of today's European values" considering the country integrated neo-Nazi fighters into the military and welcomed Western countries in training and equipping them. Perhaps next year's Paris Olympics can introduce a new event for Queen Ursula to showcase her world-class mental gymnastics skills.

Comment: See also:

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Stop

What is Title 42? What the end of the border policy means for the US

Ashlyn Messier
Fox News
Thu, 11 May 2023 11:59 UTC
Biden
© Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post/Getty ImagesThe Biden administration has promised stricter immigration policies with the end of Title 42.
With the clock winding down on Title 42, there are many questions circulating about what the end of the policy means for the United States' border security.

The policy was one instated by the Trump administration in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and has been in place since. With its expiration upon us, the immigration policy is going to look different for the United States, with migrants already lining up to enter the country.

Here are some commonly asked questions about Title 42 answered.
  1. What was the Title 42 policy?
  2. What does Title 42 expiring mean?
  3. What is the difference between Title 42 and Title 8?

Comment: NYC anticipates a new wave of migrants as Title 42 expires. McAdams is under fire:

NYC officials are reviewing plans to block off large sections of the street to aid the thousands of migrants seeking shelter in New York.

The memo suggested placing shipping containers or foldable tiny homes of 420 square feet in the streets to house the homeless migrants who arrive in the city. Being on the street bed would provide access to water, sewer and electricity and could then support trailers or modular/prefabricated housing - a two-bedroom, and it's a foldable unit that can be deployed on site.

The office of Mayor Eric Adams did not say whether the city would move forward with the reported plan outlined in the memo, but it did tell Fox News Digital that officials were considering all options.

The city reached its limit for available temporary migrant housing, forcing them to use unconventional measures in order to deal with the situation. Fabien Levy, press secretary to Adams said:
"We've been clear that the burden of caring for asylum seekers shouldn't fall on any one city alone. We have reached our limit of new shelters that we can open right now, and we currently have no other option but to temporarily house recent arrivals in gyms. With Title 42 set to be lifted this week, we expect more to arrive in our city daily. We are considering a multitude of options, but, as we've been saying for a year, we desperately need federal and state support to manage this crisis."
Gov. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., declared a state of emergency Tuesday evening ahead of the Trump-era policy's expiration, after already dealing with the 60,000 migrants who arrived in NYC from the southern border.

Counties in the New York suburbs, such as Orange County and Rockland counties, also declared a state of emergency after hearing of state Democrat plans to bus migrants to upstate counties across the Empire State.
"We're closely monitoring the situation as the lifting of Title 42 approaches. We've already seen a massive increase of asylum seekers arriving in recent days and seeing over 500 asylum seekers entering our care on some days."
On top of struggling to house the multitude of migrants seeking asylum in the state under their "right to shelter" law, immigration appointments in New York are reportedly booked out until 2033, meaning many migrants may not see an immigration judge to discuss their stay for another a decade.

Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, recently said during an immigration hearing:
"It's a little concerning that some of them have to wait to 2033 just to appear before you, and then they have to get another two to three years before they even go to an immigration judge."
According to sources at the Customs and Border Protection, officials are apprehending about 10,000 illegal migrants daily, but are expecting even larger numbers in the coming days.




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Pistol

Biden is selling weapons to the majority of the world's autocracies

Stephen Semler
The Intercept
Thu, 11 May 2023 06:00 UTC
BidenMbS
© Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty ImagesUS President Joe Biden • Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
Jeddah Security and Development Summit • Jeddah, Saudi Arabia • July 16, 2022
Since President Joe Biden came into office in 2021, he has described a "battle between democracies and autocracies" in which the U.S. and other democracies strive to create a peaceful world. The reality, however, is that the Biden administration has helped increase the military power of a large number of authoritarian countries. According to an Intercept review of recently released government data, the U.S. sold weapons to at least 57 percent of the world's autocratic countries in 2022.

Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has been the world's biggest weapons dealer, accounting for about 40 percent of all arms exports in a given year. In general, these exports are funded through grants or sales. There are two pathways for the latter category: foreign military sales and direct commercial sales.

The U.S. government acts as an intermediary for FMS acquisitions: It buys the materiel from a company first and then delivers the goods to the foreign recipient. DCS acquisitions are more straightforward: They're the result of an agreement between a U.S. company and a foreign government. Both categories of sales require the government's approval.

Country-level data for last year's DCS authorizations was released in late April through the State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. FMS figures for fiscal year 2022 were released earlier this year through the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency. According to their data, a total of 142 countries and territories bought weapons from the U.S. in 2022, for a total of $85 billion in bilateral sales.

Comment: The 'big guy' is gunning for sales.

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