Puppet MastersS


Light Sabers

'Hyping a threat for selfish political gain': Beijing slams Australia's Defense Minister's foreign policy 'delusional miscalculation'


RT
Wed, 01 Dec 2021 12:20 UTC
china australia
© Getty Images / Oleksii Liskonih
China has called out Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton over an "irresponsible" assessment of its foreign policy, after a speech in which he questioned if a potential takeover of Taiwan would be enough to "satisfy" Beijing.

During a press conference on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian specifically referred to Dutton's "irresponsible" remarks and criticized him for "brazenly [distorting]" China's efforts to "safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity."

In his address at Canberra's National Press Club on Friday, Dutton had warned that the current strategic atmosphere in the region had "echoes of the 1930s" - seemingly referring to the tensions ahead of WWII.

Comment: Even the West's own experts admit that the AUKUS pact is intended as an alliance against China, and so China is simply calling the antagonistic alliance, and the propaganda used to promote it, out for what it is: Also check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: Why You Should Question Media Reports About China 'Causing Covid' And 'Invading Taiwan'



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Airplane

Best of the Web: The FAA accidentally disclosed more than 2,000 flight records associated with Jeffrey Epstein's private jets

Angela Wang
Business Insider
Mon, 29 Nov 2021 08:02 UTC
Jeffrey Epstein
The FAA accidentally disclosed more than 2,000 flight records associated with Jeffrey Epstein's private jets
Domestic flight records associated with Jeffrey Epstein's private jets, provided by the FAA, reveal more than 700 previously unknown flights.
  • Insider requested all flight-history data associated with four planes owned by Jeffrey Epstein.
  • The FAA rejected the request but later provided the records in response to an unrelated request.
  • The new FAA records include hundreds of previously unknown flights made by Epstein's jets.
  • They corroborate Insider's reporting on Epstein's travel patterns as documented in court records and flight-signal data.
  • A searchable database now contains 2,618 flights made by Epstein's private jets from 1995 to July 6, 2019.
In January 2020, Insider asked the Federal Aviation Administration for all the agency's flight records, including departure and arrival data, associated with a fleet of private jets owned by Jeffrey Epstein. Filed under the Freedom of Information Act, our request seemed to have a decent chance of success: The agency in 2011 released its entire database of US-based flights to The Wall Street Journal.

Comment: See also:

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Black Magic

EU 'loans' ANOTHER €600 million to non-member Ukraine to cover cost of lockdown, country now owes EU €4.4 billion


EU Reporter
Tue, 26 Oct 2021 12:00 UTC
ukraine IMF
The European Commission, on behalf of the EU, has disbursed €600 million in macro-financial assistance (MFA) to Ukraine. This is the second and final tranche under Ukraine's current MFA programme following the first €600m disbursement in December 2020. With this disbursement, the outstanding amount of loans to Ukraine under its multiple MFA programmes reaches €4.4 billion.

This disbursement is part of the €3bn emergency MFA package for ten enlargement and neighbourhood partners, which aims to help them limit the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. The programme is a concrete demonstration of the EU's solidarity with its partners to help respond to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.


Comment: It's a 'concrete demonstration' that nonsensical and tyrannical lockdowns destroyed economies and the countries that enforced them have to compromise their sovreignity in needing a bailout. One might suppose that at some levels this was known, and was a desireable consequence. Notably, Lukashenko of Belarus refused multiple offers from the IMF and the World Bank totalling hundreds of millions of dollars to enforce harsh lockdown restrictions, to lockdown, but he refused, and the country has been under attack ever since:


Comment: On November 30th Reuters reported that the IMF announced it is willing to further indebt Ukraine of at least another $2.3 billion if it continues to follow orders. Ukraine, on the other hand, wants $5 billion; unsurprisingly there's no mention of how they intend to pay any of it back:
Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said on Tuesday Ukraine would seek another International Monetary Fund loan programme when the current one ends in June next year to signal to investors that the country is committed to reforms.

The IMF said on Nov. 24 Ukraine could secure loans worth $2.3 billion next year by sticking to a path of reform to stamp out endemic corruption and organised crime, improve corporate governance, carry out privatisations, ensure the independence of the central bank and judiciary, and maintain fiscal discipline.

Shmygal told Reuters in an interview that he was hopeful of one or two further disbursements under the existing, recently extended IMF programme in the first six months of 2022.

"We would like to negotiate with them to have one or two (loan) tranches during next year," Shmygal said, adding that this would hopefully be in the first six months of 2022. "I believe we will begin negotiations for the next IMF programme because it's what we really need for Ukraine."

Asked how much a new programme with the Washington-based global lender might be, he said another $5 billion - the same size as the existing loan - would be welcome, but what mattered was the programme itself.

"Money is important, but more important is the signal that Ukraine...is on the way of reform. An IMF programme and macro-financial support (from the European Union) are indicators for investors that the country is stable."

Shmygal, who is in Brussels to meet top European Union officials, said he would discuss a continuation of the EU macro-financial assistance programme, but that it would be linked to progress with the IMF.

"We are trying, we do our best to make very fast reforms ... judicial reform is the mother of all reforms in Ukraine," Shmygal said. "The resistance (to change in the judiciary) is so great because this system is corrupted on all levels."

Last week, Ukraine finally won nearly $700 million in new IMF financing and an extension of its $5 billion programme until next June. Loan disbursals had effectively been frozen due to concerns over a lack of progress on reforms.


AKA: Holding a country to ransom?


One of Europe's poorest countries, Ukraine is being urged by the West to reform to help qualify for eventual accession to the EU. The former Soviet republic secured an IMF deal in 2020 as it was dragged into recession by the COVID-19 pandemic.


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War Whore

AUKUS aimed at China, US confirms


RT
Wed, 01 Dec 2021 20:47 UTC
biden
© REUTERS/Tom Brenner
America's Asia security head has admitted that the AUKUS pact, which includes the sale of nuclear-powered submarines to Australia, was created to counter China in the Indo-Pacific.

Speaking on Wednesday, Kurt Campbell, the US coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs on the National Security Council, told an audience at the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based international policy think tank, that AUKUS was more about taking a stand against China, than technology sharing.

The AUKUS partnership "is both a clear anxiety about what we've seen in terms of certain actions and policies on the part of China, but it is also a determination that no, we have a role in our future and we're going to stand up," he said.
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Dollars

15 states threaten to pull $600B from banks that won't give equal service to energy industry

Tristan Justice
The Federalist
Tue, 30 Nov 2021 00:00 UTC
Oil rigs and facility
© Oil Price
Fifteen state financial officers sent a letter to U.S. banks last week noting $600 billion in assets they pledge to take elsewhere if the financial institutions embrace corporate wokeism and prohibit financing to the fossil fuel industry.

Led by West Virginia Republican Treasurer Riley Moore, the group promised "collective action" in the form of an "economic boycott." In a letter they said:
"Just as each state represented in this letter is unique in its governing laws and economy, our actions will take different forms. However, the overarching objective of our actions will be the same - to protect our states' economies, jobs, and energy independence from these unwarranted attacks on our critical industries."
Signatories to the letter putting banks on notice include chief financial officers from Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming, Alabama, Texas and Kentucky, in addition to West Virginia.
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Russian Flag

Russia tells US embassy staff to leave Moscow

Layla Guest
RT
Wed, 01 Dec 2021 09:44 UTC
Zakharova
© Sputnik/Russian Foreign AgencySpokeswoman Maria Zakharova
American embassy workers who have been stationed in Moscow for over three years have been given just weeks to leave the country, Russia's Foreign Ministry has announced, amid a growing row with Washington over diplomatic visas.

Speaking at a briefing on Wednesday, diplomatic spokeswoman Maria Zakharova announced that
"by January 31, 2022, employees of the US embassy in Moscow who have been on assignment for more than three years must leave Russia. "We consider the American move to be a clear expulsion and intend to react accordingly."
The news comes after Washington reportedly denied extending the visas of dozens of family members of Russian diplomats based in the US.

She said that "such a game" was started by America's policy decisions, rather than because Russia was eager to break off ties.
"We tried long and hard to reason with them and direct them to some constructive solution to the issue, but they made their choice."

Comment: See also:

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Eye 1

Best of the Web: CIA review shows US intelligence community 'struggled' to brief Trump in 2016

Mychael Schnell
The Hill
Mon, 29 Nov 2021 19:42 UTC
Trump CIA
© Reuters / RT
The U.S. intelligence community "struggled" to brief former President Trump in the weeks before he entered office, according to a newly published account of his transition released by the CIA's academic center.

John Helgerson, a retired intelligence officer who wrote the chapter on Trump's transition in the CIA's book on briefing presidents, wrote that Trump's transition to the White House in late 2016 and early 2017 was "far and away the most difficult" experience the intelligence community (IC) had briefing new presidents.
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Light Saber

Russia's government REJECTS mandatory vaccinations, 50% of Russians reject vaccine passports


RT
Wed, 01 Dec 2021 11:46 UTC
russia vaccine
© Sputnik / Pavel LisitsynBelow the nose: A medical worker is going to be vaccinated against coronavirus in the vaccination office of the polyclinic in Yekaterinburg.
Russia has ruled out the possibility of slapping fines on people who refuse vaccination against Covid-19, despite regions across the country passing directives requiring elderly and vulnerable citizens to sign up for jabs.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov was asked whether those who refused to comply would be handed financial penalties. "No, we won't permit such measures to be taken in Russia," he answered.

On Monday, local media in Austria reported that the country was considering implementing mandatory vaccination beginning in February 2022. A draft of the plan showed that residents of Austria who refuse vaccination would face fines up to €3,600, or four months imprisonment if they failed to pay. People who repeatedly refused orders to get vaccinated could be fined up to €7,200.

Comment: Because Russia's ruling government continues to reject dystopian enforcement, like the vaccine mandates, it would appear that, at least for now, the upper levels have managed to stave off the pathology that is overwhelming governments in the West. However, it seems the same can't said for some of Russia's regional officials who appear to be quite eager to adopt any and all of the draconian measures being tested out in the West:
Greece threatens monthly FINES for over 60s who remain unvaccinated after January

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Putin

Putin to NATO: We can make a deal


RT
Wed, 01 Dec 2021 18:50 UTC
Putin receive ambassadors
© Sputnik / Grigory SysoevRussian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a ceremony to receive credentials from foreign ambassadors at the Moscow Kremlin's Alexander Hall, in Moscow, Russia
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he will request talks with NATO to ensure that the US-led military bloc does not creep closer to his country's borders, as Ukraine moves to allow Western troops into the country.

Speaking to a group of newly-arrived ambassadors in the Kremlin on Wednesday, Putin said that his country will "insist on guarantees being set out to exclude the possibility of NATO moving any further to the east, and deploying threatening weapons close to Russian territory."

Comment: Putin is still giving the failing West a chance to save face in the light of decades of perfidy. But Russia's patience will run out the moment the Motherland is truly threatened. Given that Russia is light-years ahead in new military hardware, one hopes the madmen running NATO will think twice about any aggressive moves.

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Bad Guys

UK, Israel attempt to "thwart" Iran nuclear deal and prevent removal of sanctions, sign deal to work together on trade, cybersecurity, defence


Reuters
Mon, 29 Nov 2021 12:22 UTC
Yair Lapid
© Gil Cohen-Magen/Pool via REUTERSIsrael's Foreign Minister Yair Lapid arrives to attend a weekly cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem November 7, 2021.
Britain and Israel will "work night and day" in preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power, the foreign ministers of the two countries wrote in a joint article.

"The clock is ticking, which heightens the need for close cooperation with our partners and friends to thwart Tehran's ambitions," the UK's Liz Truss and her Israeli counterpart Yair Lapid wrote in the Telegraph newspaper on Sunday.


Comment: The UK is already quite closely allied with Israel: Colluding in war crimes: Britain's unreported military alliance with Israel


Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said earlier in the day that his country was "very worried" that world powers will remove sanctions on Iran in exchange for insufficient caps on its nuclear programme, as negotiators convene in Vienna on Monday in a last-ditch effort to salvage a nuclear deal.

Comment: With Israel at the forefront of cyber warfare, it should be no surprise that the UK wants to partner with them: The cyber espionage state of Israel

See also: Cameras installed at Iran's nuclear sites under JCPOA deactivated after other parties fail to honor commitments

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