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'I was very close to going the other way': Candace Owens asks Trump why he didn't pardon Assange, Snowden

Amanda Prestigiacomo
The Daily Wire
Wed, 22 Dec 2021 00:01 UTC
candace owens donald trump
© The Daily Wire
Former President Donald Trump told Candace Owens in an exclusive interview for The Daily Wire's "Candace" that he was "very close to going the other way" on issuing a pardon for either Julian Assange or Edward Snowden.

Owens asked the former president about pardons for Assange or Snowden, amongst a host of other questions, during an in-depth conversation, airing December 21 on Daily Wire, exclusively for Daily Wire members.

"You could have had a chance to pardon these individuals," Owens said of Assange and Snowden. "Why decide not to in that moment?"

Comment: Kind of a cop-out answer on Trump's part. If Candace was worth her salt as an journalist, she would go after him for that. It seems unlikely that she did, however, because if she had, that would be the clip we'd be seeing as a promo for the interview. We await more news...

See also:

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Eye 1

US can't be trusted to honor its promises - Putin

Layla Guest
RT
Tue, 21 Dec 2021 10:53 UTC
Vladimir Putin
© Sputnik / Sergey GuneevRussian President Vladimir Putin speaks during an expanded meeting of Russian Defence Ministry Board in Moscow, Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that hopes for a deal with Washington to limit NATO expansion in Eastern Europe are slim, arguing that even a signed agreement could be torn up by the American side at a moment's notice.

In a speech to his country's most senior military officers on Tuesday, Putin said he no longer viewed the West as a dependable partner. Russia has been seeking written assurances about the presence of US troops and hardware near its borders, he said, but even those assurances could not be depended on.

"We need long-term legally binding guarantees. But you and I know them well. And that is something that cannot be trusted," Putin went on, noting that the US "easily withdraws from international treaties that it becomes uninterested in," apparently referencing Washington's unilateral withdrawal from the landmark Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002. The accord, inked between the USSR and US in 1972, intended to limit both sides' missile defense capabilities.

"You and I both know very well: under various pretexts, including the purpose of ensuring their own security, that they act thousands of kilometers away from their national territory," he said. "When international law and the UN Charter interfere, they declare it all obsolete and unnecessary."
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Star of David

Codifying the existing reality: IDF begins 'allowing' troops to shoot at FLEEING rock-throwers

Judah Ari Gross
Times of Israel
Mon, 20 Dec 2021 22:00 UTC
sheikh jarrah palestinians protest rock throwing
© AFP / Jaafar AshtiyehAnger at planned expulsions in Sheikh Jarrah sparked anger elsehwere; here Palestinian protesters hurl rocks amid confrontations with Israeli security forces at the Hawara checkpoint south of Nablus city, in the occupied West Bank, on May 21, 2021
Military says soldiers are still directed to first try to make an arrest without using deadly force, but experts raise questions about legality of new guideline

The Israeli military has revised its open-fire policies for the West Bank, officially allowing troops to shoot at Palestinians who had thrown rocks or firebombs at cars, even if the assailants no longer present an immediate threat.

The policy change was first reported by Israel's Kan broadcaster on Sunday night, and was later confirmed to The Times of Israel by a military spokesperson, who said it had been in effect for the past month or so.

While the spokesperson described the change as a corrective to a situation that allowed suspects to evade justice, experts raised questions over the legality of using lethal force against a person who no longer poses a threat.

Comment: The remark about whether illegal Israeli settler extremists would be subject to the same treatment is on point. Some current headlines from around the internet regarding settlers attacking with stones and bats:

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Oil Well

Gazprom halts gas transit to Germany via Yamal pipeline

Jonny Tickle
RT
Tue, 21 Dec 2021 19:58 UTC
worker yamal gas pipeline germany russia
© Reuters / Vasily Fedosenko (BELARUS)A worker turns a valve at a gas compressor station at the Yamal-Europe pipeline near Nesvizh, some 130 km (81 miles) southwest of Minsk.
Deliveries of Russian natural gas to Germany through the Yamal-Europe pipeline have been completely halted, data from the country's transport operator, Gascade, revealed on Tuesday morning.

The suspension of the flow comes after a weekend in which the volume being sent through the network dropped significantly, just as demand for energy in both Russia and the rest of Europe reached its winter peak. On Monday, it was reported that state-owned giant Gazprom, the system's operator in Russia and Belarus, had booked no capacity at all for transiting natural gas on Tuesday.

Comment: Kremlin spokesman Peskov commented on the halt in supplies:
Peskov was asked whether the supply of gas to the rest of Europe was being halted due to the current situation with Nord Stream 2. The pipeline was completed in September and now connects Russia to Germany without passing through any third country. This means that, once it starts operation, gas transit will become less reliant on third parties, thereby lowering the commodity's price.

However, due to issues with bureaucracy, it is yet to be certified. Some Western officials have accused Moscow of purposefully reducing gas supplies, allegedly to force the EU to approve the pipeline.

"There is no connection here," Peskov clarified.

The Yamal-Europe transnational gas pipeline runs from northwest Siberia to Frankfurt-an-der-Oder in eastern Germany. Last year, around one-fifth of all natural gas sent to Western Europe went via Belarus. Energy supplies through the system vary based on consumption, including within Russia, which Gazprom prioritizes over sending fuel abroad.

On Monday, Kiev also accused Russia of sending the minimal amount of gas through Ukraine, suggesting that Moscow is trying to "blackmail" Europe into certifying Nord Stream 2. Writing on Facebook, the head of Ukraine's state-owned Gas Transport System said that Russia had broken promises to increase supply to the EU while noting that the contract had been fulfilled.


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Attention

China's greying future

Nathan Carson
shatterpoints.substack.com
Tue, 21 Dec 2021 00:00 UTC
China plaza monument
© STR/AFP/Getty Images
China is the beating heart of globalization. Everything that we think we know about the world today is because of China.

But let's hold up a moment. We're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's rewind about 50 years back to 1971.

It's the height of the Cold War. The US and Soviet Union are both staring down the gun of nuclear annihilation. Both sides are looking for any edge that might give them an advantage in the game of great power politics.

An opening presents itself with Maoist China.

Despite the rhetoric of global communism, the Soviets and Chinese relationship status is closer to "it's complicated" rather than "bffs". A few years back, in 1969, Soviet and Chinese border forces clash resulting in hundreds dead. The Soviets briefly consider nuclear retaliation. Sino-Soviet relations plummet.

Sensing the opportunity, American President Richard Nixon announces his intention to visit China the following year. What follows in 1972 is nothing short of world changing. With a single meeting, Communist China is pulled into the American bloc opposing the Soviet Union. The strategy of containment is now complete.

There is, however, a tradeoff for the Americans. Sure, there's now one more power opposing the Soviets, but there's also a cost. That cost is trade concessions. China is given access to U.S. markets.

Comment: A beyond the box view of power, economics, maneuvers and outcomes that define the future.

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Eye 1

Polish opposition duo hacked with NSO spyware

Frank Bajak, Vanessa Gera
Yahoo! News/ AP
Mon, 20 Dec 2021 20:00 UTC
Roman Giertych Ewa Wrzosek
The aggressive cellphone break-ins of a high-profile lawyer representing top Polish opposition figures came in the final weeks of pivotal 2019 parliamentary elections. Two years later, a prosecutor challenging attempts by the populist right-wing government to purge the judiciary had her smartphone hacked.

In both instances, the invader was military-grade spyware from NSO Group, the Israeli hack-for-hire outfit that the U.S. government recently blacklisted, say digital sleuths of the University of Toronto-based Citizen Lab internet watchdog.

Citizen Lab could not say who ordered the hacks and NSO does not identify its clients, beyond saying it works only with legitimate government agencies vetted by Israel's Defense Ministry. But both victims believe Poland's increasingly illiberal government is responsible.

A Polish state security spokesman, Stanislaw Zaryn, would neither confirm nor deny whether the government ordered the hacks or is an NSO customer.
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Magnify

Ukraine accuses ex-President Poroshenko of treason


RFE/RL
Mon, 20 Dec 2021 17:42 UTC
PPoroshenko
© eurosolidarity.orgFormer Ukraine president Petro Poroshenko said the Minsk agreements "meant nothing" and claimed credit for giving Kiev enough time to militarize.
Ukrainian authorities have placed Petro Poroshenko under formal investigation for high treason, accusing the former president of links to financing Russia-backed separatists fighting government forces in the country's east.

The State Investigation Bureau said on December 20 it suspected Poroshenko of "committing treason" and supporting the activity of "terrorist organizations," referring to the separatists controlling parts of Ukraine's eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

During his presidency, Poroshenko helped the separatists to sell some 1.5 billion hryvnia ($54 million) worth of coal to Kyiv in 2014-2015, it said in a statement.

The 56-year-old politician, who is now a lawmaker, faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

The ex-president gave no immediate comment on the announcement, but Oleksander Turchynov, a senior member of his European Solidarity party, said the accusation was "fabricated" on the instruction of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Poroshenko's party said he had left the country for a planned trip.
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Arrow Down

BoJo's popularity sinks to record low


RT
Mon, 20 Dec 2021 17:13 UTC
B Johnson
© Reuters/Peter NichollsUK Prime Minister Boris Johnson 'having a moment'
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's woes grew on Monday, as new figures show his approval rating has declined to its lowest level since he took office, with most Britons expecting him to resign or be forced out in the near future.

An opinion poll released by Ipsos Mori found that six out of 10 respondents believe Johnson would not be prime minister by the end of 2022. The poll comes in the wake of a wave of allegations that a number of Conservative Party ministers and their staff - including Johnson and his office - had breached lockdown restrictions last year.

Meanwhile, a separate YouGov tracker poll has shown that the prime minister's approval rating has fallen to its lowest level, 29%, since he entered Downing Street in 2019. Some 64% of respondents said they felt he was doing "badly" as PM.

The latest figures mark a steep decline in support for the Conservative leader, who, in April 2020, secured a record-high approval rating of 66% as he worked to combat the Covid pandemic.

The findings also come a day after The Guardian published a photo purportedly showing Johnson, his wife, and 17 Downing Street staff members violating the government's own rules during the first lockdown in May 2020. Downing Street has defended the image, claiming it shows a "work meeting." despite bottles of wine and a cheese board being visible.

This is the latest alleged infringement of the rules to rock the government, with an investigation already underway into reports a number of parties were held in violation of Covid restrictions during November and December 2020.

Comment: This won't phase Johnson. Next item on the 'to do' list? Seize control of polling results.

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X

Busted! The great Fauci/NIH anti-science conspiracy

Daniel McAdams
Ron Paul Institute
Mon, 20 Dec 2021 00:00 UTC
collins-fauci
© Javier Rojas/Zuma Press/www.wsj.com/KJNNIH Director Francis Collins • Dr. Anthony Fauci
Busted by their own emails! Fauci and his boss, NIH Director Francis Collins, engaged in a conspiracy to defame and destroy the work of three prominent scientists from Stanford, Harvard, and Oxford, which challenged the Fauci/Collins lockdown strategy to address last year's virus outbreak.

Thanks to a Freedom of Information request we see how Anthony "I'm the science" Fauci really operates behind the scenes. Also today, Fauci says force your fully-vaxxed family members to take a covid test before tucking into the turkey. Don't miss today's Liberty Report:

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Calendar

Davos Economic Forum postponed amid omicron concerns

Mychael Schnell
The Hill
Tue, 21 Dec 2021 03:48 UTC
WEForum
© Eric Piermont/AFP/Getty Images
The Davos Economic Forum, which was set to take place next month, will be postponed until the summer because of concerns over the COVID-19 omicron outbreak. The World Economic Forum announced on Monday that the annual forum in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, is now planned for early summer.

"The World Economic Forum will defer its Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, in the light of continued uncertainty over the Omicron outbreak," the group said in a statement.

The organization said that the current state of the pandemic has made it "extremely difficult to deliver a global in-person meeting." It said its plans have been driven by expert advice benefitted by close collaboration with the Swiss government.
"Despite the meeting's stringent health protocols, the transmissibility of Omicron and its impact on travel and mobility have made deferral necessary."

Comment: WEF just provided a booster shot to flailing omicron scare tactics.

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