Puppet MastersS


Network

China to launch rival undersea comms network


RT
Thu, 06 Apr 2023 16:29 UTC
sea pipe
© Serg Myshkovsky/Getty ImagesChina's undersea project
Beijing and its partners reportedly hope to challenge the US' dominance of the global communications infrastructure...

China's largest telecom firms are working on a massive undersea telecommunications cable network aimed at challenging the US' dominance in operating global internet infrastructure, four people involved with the project told Reuters on Thursday.

China Telecom, China Mobile Limited and China Unicom are in the planning stages of what is expected to be a $500-million undersea fiber optic project connecting Asia with the Middle East and Europe, the sources said. The sprawling network, known as EMA (Europe-Middle East-Asia), is reportedly intended to compete with another cable system currently under construction by US firm SubCom LLC called SeaMeWe-6 (Southeast Asia-Middle East-Western Europe-6).

Chinese firm HMN Tech (formerly Huawei Marine Networks) was initially selected in 2020 to manufacture the cable for SeaMeWe-6 by a consortium that included the Chinese telecoms now working on EMA. However, a sustained US pressure campaign that included millions of dollars in "training grants" to foreign telecoms in return for switching their votes ultimately pushed the contract to HMN's US competitor last year, despite significantly higher costs.

The three Chinese telecoms have reportedly signed agreements with telecoms in France, Pakistan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, with further deals in the works elsewhere in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The consortium hopes to bring EMA online by the end of 2025, the sources told Reuters.

Comment: Spying on data is assured no matter how the telecom systems are structured.

Read More...
Eye 2

U.S. government arguing for immunity in MK-ULTRA mind-control case before Quebec Court of Appeal

Sidhartha Banerjee
CTV News
Thu, 30 Mar 2023 02:29 UTC
protest mk-ultra victims trial canada
© CTVPatricia Edwards Roberge, (center) was among several dozen who protested Thursday outside the Court of Appeal building and attended the hearing.
A proposed class-action lawsuit over infamous brainwashing experiments at a Montreal psychiatric hospital was before Quebec's highest court Thursday, as victims attempted to remove immunity granted to the United States government.

The U.S. government successfully argued in Quebec Superior Court last August that the country couldn't be sued for the project known as MK-ULTRA -- allegedly funded by the Canadian government and the CIA. U.S. lawyers argued that foreign states had absolute immunity from lawsuits in Canada between the 1940s and 1960s, when the program took place.

But survivors, and their families, of the experiments at Montreal's Allan Memorial Institute -- which included experimental drugs, rounds of electroshocks and sleep deprivation -- appealed that decision.

On Thursday, a lawyer representing the United States government told the Quebec Court of Appeal that the country should be immune from prosecution and that any lawsuit against the U.S. government should be filed in that country.

Comment: Julie Tanny was interviewed by Global News in 2019:

May there be an "ultra"-special place in hell for Dr. Cameron and his minions.

Read More...
Microscope 1

US resumes biolabs program in Ukraine - Russian MOD


RT
Fri, 07 Apr 2023 17:23 UTC
biohazardous chemicals
© Milos DimicFILE PHOTO.
The US has quietly resumed its controversial biolabs program in Ukraine and is focusing on the construction of secretive new facilities and the training of personnel, the Russian Defense Ministry has claimed.

A new trove of documents on alleged US-funded biological programs in Ukraine was presented by the commander of Russia's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defense Forces, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, during a media briefing on Friday.

Kirillov cited the protocol from a meeting dated October 20, 2022, which was attended by representatives of the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and multiple Ukrainian officials, as well as figures from the Jacobs/CH2M engineering company. The meeting reportedly focused on the resumption of biological research in Ukraine, which was "paused" due to the hostilities between Moscow and Kiev.

"Now, the project has been resumed with focus on renewal of legislative support, revision of training schedule, as well as conclusion and resumption of construction work," the Ukrainian-language protocol stated, citing Jacobs/CH2M's David Smith.

The program was previously known as 'Joint biological research' but has been rebranded as 'Biological control research', the document indicated. It cited concerns over an alleged "Russian disinformation campaign" on the issue.

The US has engaged in damage control efforts to prevent potential leaks from Ukrainian specialists on the true nature of the biological research programs, Kirillov asserted.
Read More...
Dominoes

CIA chief admits US 'blindsided' by Saudi-Iran deal - WSJ


RT
Fri, 07 Apr 2023 16:54 UTC
William Burns
© AP / Carolyn KasterFILE PHOTO: CIA Director William Burns arrives to testify at a House Select Committee on Intelligence hearing at the Capitol in Washington, DC, March 9, 2023.
CIA Director William Burns has told Saudi officials that the United States was caught off guard, after the kingdom agreed to a normalization deal with Iran brokered by China, according to the Wall Street Journal.

During an unannounced trip to Saudi Arabia this week, Burns "expressed frustration" with Riyadh and said Washington "felt blindsided" by its renewed diplomacy with both Iran and Syria, multiple unnamed sources told the Journal on Thursday.

The foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia held talks in the Chinese capital on Thursday, where they discussed a number of issues related to the new initiative, including reopening embassies in both countries, designating ambassadors, and even a visit to Riyadh by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.
Read More...
Stock Down

Gloomy outlook issued for US dollar


RT
Thu, 06 Apr 2023 08:21 UTC
US Dollar
© Getty Images / Jonathan Kirn
The greenback may fall by another 15% against rival currencies by mid-2024, an investment services company says.

The US dollar could weaken by as much as 15% against major world currencies over the next 18 months, as inflation continues to cool, allowing the Federal Reserve to loosen its monetary policy, according to Eurizon SLJ Capital.

A research note released on Tuesday by the firm's chief executive, Stephen Jen, said the US Federal Reserve is likely close to - or already beyond - peak hawkishness, meaning that rate cuts are on the horizon.

The Fed's nine previous hikes, in addition to the tighter credit conditions caused by the US banking crisis, already suggest inflation is trending to the downside, he concluded.

Comment: See also:

Read More...
People 2

Sex is a 'beautiful thing': Pope Francis


New York Post
Thu, 06 Apr 2023 09:51 UTC
pope francis
© APPope Francis said sex was “one of the beautiful things” God gave to people in a documentary on Disney+.
Pope Francis has praised the virtues of sex in a documentary released on Wednesday, describing it as "one of the beautiful things that God has given to the human person."

The 86-year-old pontiff made the comment in the Disney+ production "The Pope Answers", which captures a meeting he had last year in Rome with 10 people in their early 20s.

Francis was quizzed by them on a variety of topics, including LGBT rights, abortion, the porn industry, sex, and faith and sex abuse within the Catholic Church.

Comment: See also:

Read More...
Arrow Down

How BBC coverage is enabling Israeli state violence at al-Aqsa

Jonathan Cook
Middle East Eye
Thu, 06 Apr 2023 14:08 UTC
Israeli Thugs
© Associated PressIsraeli police violently cracks down on peaceful Muslim worshippers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan on 5 April 2023.
The late Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a Nobel laureate and tireless campaigner against South African apartheid, once observed: "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor."

For decades, the BBC's editorial policy in reporting on Israel and Palestine has consistently chosen the side of the oppressor - and all too often, not even by adopting the impartiality the corporation claims as the bedrock of its journalism.

Instead, the British state broadcaster regularly chooses language and terminology whose effect is to deceive its audience. And it compounds such journalistic malpractice by omitting vital pieces of context when that extra information would present Israel in a bad light.

BBC bias - which entails knee-jerk echoing of the British establishment's support for Israel as a highly militarised ally projecting western interests into the oil-rich Middle East - was starkly on show once again this week as the broadcaster reported on the violence at Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Social media was full of videos showing heavily armed Israeli police storming the mosque complex during the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Police could be seen pushing peaceful Muslim worshippers, including elderly men, off their prayer mats and forcing them to leave the site. In other scenes, police were filmed beating worshippers inside a darkened Al-Aqsa, while women could be heard screaming in protest.

What is wrong with the British state broadcaster's approach - and much of the rest of the western media's - is distilled in one short BBC headline: "Clashes erupt at contested holy site."

Into a sentence of just six words, the BBC manages to cram three bogusly "neutral" words, whose function is not to illuminate or even to report, but to trick the audience, as Tutu warned, into siding with the oppressor.
Read More...
Bad Guys

US sees in Finland's NATO accession encirclement of Russia

M. K. Bhadrakumar
India Punchline
Thu, 06 Apr 2023 00:00 UTC
Foreign minister Pekka Haavisto
Foreign minister Pekka Haavisto (L) hands over Finland’s NATO accession document to US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, as secretary-general Stoltenberg looks on, Brussels, 4 Apr 2023
The national flag of Finland was raised for the first time at the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation in Brussels on Tuesday, which also marked the 74th anniversary of the western alliance. It signifies for Finland a historic abandonment of its policy of neutrality.

Not even propagandistically, anyone can say Finland has encountered a security threat from Russia. This is an act of motiveless malignity toward Russia on the part of the NATO, which of course invariably carries the imprimatur of the US, while being projected to the world audience as a sovereign choice by Finland against the backdrop of Russia's intervention in Ukraine.

Quintessentially, this can only be regarded as yet another move by the US, after the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines last September, with the deliberate intent to complicate Russia's relations with Europe and render it intractable for the foreseeable future.

On the other hand, suffice it to say, this will also make Europe's security landscape landscape even more precarious and make it even more dependent on the US as the provider of security. The general expectation is that Sweden's accession to NATO will now follow, possibly in time for the alliance's summit in Vilnius in July.
Read More...
Broom

Home raided of Scotland's recently resigned First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, husband arrested

Severin Carrell
The Guardian
Fri, 07 Apr 2023 00:15 UTC
Sturgeon
© Andrew Milligan/PANicola Sturgeon with husband Peter Murrell in 2019. Some critics have even asked if Police Scotland was asked to delay the operation. But there's no sign she anticipated it .
When Nicola Sturgeon thought she had finished her resignation press conference at Bute House in February, and was gathering up her speaking notes, she was asked a direct question that seemed to make her grimace.

Glenn Campbell, BBC Scotland's political editor, asked her: "Have you been, or do you expect to be, interviewed by the police who are looking into your party's finances."

Sturgeon's response, given with a tense shake of her head, was brisk: "I'm not going to discuss an ongoing police investigation. I wouldn't do that on any issue and I'm not going to do it now."

Comment: It seems that despite Nicola Sturgeon selling out her country to the establishment agenda, she won't be entirely shielded from the consequences of her corruption - although it remains to be seen, and it's unlikely, that justice will really be served:

Read More...
Bad Guys

The West sets a disturbing new precedent over murdered Russian military blogger

Rachel Marsden
RT
Thu, 06 Apr 2023 21:29 UTC
Vladlen Tatarsky
© Evgeny Biyatov/SputnikFlowers are placed near a portrait of Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, (real name Maxim Fomin), who was killed in a cafe explosion in St. Petersburg on April 2, 2023.
Apparently terrorism and murdering reporters get a free pass if the Western establishment doesn't like the target's profile - or if the perpetrator risks being linked to an ally.

The radio silence from the West is deafening in the wake of the murder of military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky at a cafe in St. Petersburg. Tatarsky was killed after being handed a statue by a young woman, Darya Trepova, that subsequently blew up the entire venue.

For all of the Western officials' differences with Russia, can they really not at least bring themselves to condemn a blatant act of terrorism in the middle of a major city center? We're talking here about the same folks who spent two decades kicking down doors around the world under the guise of fighting a "Global War on Terrorism."

Just a few years ago, cartoonists and writers for the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo were gunned down in broad daylight at their Paris office by jihadists who objected to the publication's portrayal of Islam and the Prophet Mohammed. Western leaders roundly condemned that terrorist act, standing firmly on the principle that you couldn't just go around murdering people who conveyed thoughts and views that you didn't like. Many of these leaders even traveled to Paris to march alongside a massive crowd in defense of freedom of expression and the press.

Now, however, they can't even bother to muster the most meager defense of the same principles in the wake of Tatarsky's murder in an attack that investigators claim is linked to Ukraine.
Read More...