Puppet MastersS


NPC

Mask tyranny: Iran's president says wear masks, or be denied public services


RFE/RL
Sat, 04 Jul 2020 17:17 UTC
rouhani
© EPA-EFE
Iranian President Hassan Rohani says Iranians who do not wear masks will be denied public services and workplaces that fail to comply with health protocols will be shut for a week.

Rohani made the comments on July 4 as he announced new steps to try to curb the coronavirus pandemic that was first confirmed in Iran in February.

"Not wearing a mask is a de facto violation of other people's rights," the Iranian president said, according to the presidential website.

The death toll from the outbreak in the country stood at 11,408, while the total number of infections reached 237,878, according to official figures released by the Health Ministry on July 4. The actual number of cases is believed to be significantly higher.

Wearing masks becomes mandatory from July 5 in covered public places, Rohani announced, after tougher curbs were imposed in cities and towns in five provinces where the number of infections are rising after a gradual easing of lockdowns from mid-April.
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Better Earth

Aguila Saleh on Libyan crisis: Cairo Declaration is 'the only solution'


Sputnik
Sat, 04 Jul 2020 16:58 UTC
saleh
© AP Photo / Craig Ruttle
Aguila Saleh, the president of the eastern-based Libyan Parliament, arrived in Moscow on Thursday to meet with Russian officials to discuss several issues, at the top of which was the initiative on a ceasefire, the return to the political process, and the Cairo Declaration on Libya, as well as the output of the Berlin Conference.

The President of the eastern-based Libyan Parliament, Aguila Saleh, said on Friday that the Cairo Declaration is the only solution to the crisis in Libya, pointing out that there is consensus among Libyans.

"In the Cairo Declaration, of course, as I mentioned [...] we believe that it is the only solution to the crisis in Libya because there is no marginalization or exclusion for anyone, and therefore, we even see that there is consensus among the Libyans on this declaration," Saleh said on Friday. "We came [to Moscow], actually, to confirm this declaration and urge our Russian friends to move forward in this direction".

The President said that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is in favor of the Cairo Declaration, adding that he would be visiting Geneva within two days to meet with Acting Special Representative of the UN, Secretary-General for Libya Stephanie Williams and urge her to "come to Libya to work on the implementation of this declaration, which we believe is the only way out of the crisis in Libya".

Saleh also said that he is intending to visit Rome, Algeria and other countries with the same purpose.
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Bad Guys

Flashback Best of the Web: Epstein's lawyers told federal prosecutors in 2007 he helped conceive Clinton Global Initiative

Andrew Kerr
Daily Caller
Mon, 08 Jul 2019 16:06 UTC
bill clinton
© Roy Rochlin/Getty Images
Billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein forged a close relationship with former President Bill Clinton and helped conceive an arm of the Clinton Foundation, his lawyers said in a 2007 letter to federal prosecutors.

"Mr. Epstein was part of the original group that conceived the Clinton Global Initiative, which is described as a project 'bringing together a community of global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world's most pressing challenges," lawyers Alan Dershowitz and Gerald Lefcourt wrote in the letter, according to Fox News, which first reported the matter in 2016.

The letter was written to boost Epstein's public image during plea negotiations that ultimately led to a highly criticized sweetheart deal in 2008 where the financier served only 13 months in prison and home detention after allegedly soliciting an underage girl.
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Magnify

The Philippines' Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020: Five things to know


Asian Review
Wed, 10 Jun 2020 17:28 UTC
Philippines
Days after being marked "urgent" by President Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines' House of Representatives last week approved the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, adopting the Senate's version, which was passed in February.

The bill has triggered online and street protests even as community quarantine restrictions are in place due to the coronavirus outbreak. A multisectoral backlash has also ensued, but supporters of the bill are pressing on.

Here are five things to know about the legislation that has polarized the Southeast Asian nation as it grapples with the pandemic's economic fallout.

Comment: Its outline doesn't sound much different to the anti-terror laws in the West, and the Philiphines has had significant problems battling terrorism, in the end how it is implemented will be more revealing:

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Bad Guys

Galloway: UK denying Maduro access to Venezuelan gold is not only theft, it's the death of London's reputation

George Galloway
RT
Fri, 03 Jul 2020 14:18 UTC
gold venezuela
© Getty Images / Vitoria Holdings LLC
The standards are poor at the Bank of England these days, I don't know why anyone would want to do business with them. George Galloway gives British banking, and justice, a triple-fail rating.

It used to be "a thing" when I was growing up. "As safe as the Bank of England" was the acme of trustworthiness and security. But as Venezuela - and any other Global South country foolish enough to entrust the British with their sovereign wealth just found out in the High Court in London - the Bank of England isn't any longer safe at all.

Almost a billion dollars worth of Venzuelan gold bullion has just been stolen by the British government, theft has just been legalized, and the thieves didn't even bother to wear a mask.
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Snakes in Suits

Is there actually anything conservative about Bojo's Tories?

Guy Birchall
RT
Fri, 03 Jul 2020 07:54 UTC
bojo
© REUTERS/John Sibley/File PhotoFrom culture to the economy, they're drifting ever leftwards
The prime minister lauding Franklin Delano Roosevelt's "New Deal" this week is just the latest step along the Conservative Party's long road to leftism. He's not so much a "Brexity Hezza" as a wetter version of Ted Heath.

The Conservative Party appears to be increasingly in need of a name change. Devotees of the Guardian, New Statesman and lefty Twitter would have you believe that Boris Johnson's Tories are the "most right-wing government in 50 years." They act as if BoJo is Maggie Thatcher on amphetamines, about to deregulate everything, slash the top rate of income tax to about 15 percent, deport anyone who doesn't have a double-barrelled surname, and sell Wales to Best Western Hotels. Nothing could be further from the truth.

There is virtually nothing about this government, nor the previous nine years of Tory-led rule in Britain, that can be construed as a "conservative" policy. Indeed, in many ways they have in fact been more left wing than any Labour government in history, particularly on cultural and social issues.

Comment: See also: And check out SOTT radio's: The Truth Perspective: Radical political correctness, liberal ideologies and the decline of modern civilization

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USA

Does the next US presidential election even matter?

The Saker
Unz Review
Thu, 02 Jul 2020 22:37 UTC
Psychopaths
© DoD photo by U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Marianique SantosU.S. President Barack Obama and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden head toward the Capitol Platform during the 58th Presidential Inauguration in Washington, D.C., Jan. 20, 2017. More than 5,000 military members from across all branches of the armed forces of the United States, including reserve and National Guard components, provided ceremonial support and Defense Support of Civil Authorities during the inaugural period.
Just by asking the question of whether the next Presidential election matters, I am obviously suggesting that it might not. To explain my reasons for this opinion, I need to reset the upcoming election in the context of the previous one. So let's begin here.

The 2016 election of Donald Trump

The first thing which, I believe, ought to be self-evident to all by now is that there was no secret operation by any deep state, not even a Zionist controlled one, to put Donald Trump in power. I would even argue that the election of Donald Trump was the biggest slap in the face of US deep state and of the covert transnational ruling elites this deep state serves. Ever. My evidence? Simple, look what these ruling "elites" did both before and after Trump's election: before, they ridiculed the very idea of "President Trump" as both utterly impossible and utterly evil.

As somebody who has had years of experience reading the Soviet press or, in another style, the French press, I can honestly say that I have never seen a more ridiculously outlandish hate campaign against anybody that would come even close to the kind of total hate campaign which Trump was subjected to. Then, as soon as he was elected, the US neo-liberals (who are not liberals at all!) declared that Trump was "not their President", that Trump was put into power by Putin and that he was a "Russian asset" (using pseudo-professional jargon is what journos typically do to conceal their abject ignorance of a complex topic) and, finally, that he was a White racist and misogynist who will deeply divide the country (thereby dividing the country themselves by making such claims).

The fact is that for the past four years the US liberals have waged a total informational war against Trump and it would be absolutely unthinkable for them to ever accept a Trump re-election, even if he wins by a landslide. For the US Dems and neo-liberals, Trump is the personification of evil, literally, and that means that "resistance" to him and everything he represents must be total. And if he is re-elected, then there is only one possible explanation: the Russians stole the election, or the Chinese did. But the notion that Trump has the support of a majority of people is literally unthinkable for these folks.
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USA

Best of the Web: Who really funded the Taliban to kill Americans?

Sreeram Chaulia
RT
Fri, 03 Jul 2020 18:03 UTC
soldiers
© AP Photo/Rahmat GulAmerican soldiers wait on the tarmac in Logar province, Afghanistan
While accusing Russia, without proof, of paying the Taliban to kill American soldiers, US politicians are conveniently ignoring facts about who really armed and financed terrorist groups in Afghanistan.

The allegation by some US intelligence agencies that Russia paid the Taliban to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan has kicked up a partisan furore in Washington. It has renewed the tirade by the Democratic Party that President Donald Trump is soft on Russia and raised fresh demands for additional sanctions on Russia.

With a US presidential election due shortly, reusing the 'Russia' card to paint Trump as incompetent on national security or as a commander-in-chief who treacherously colluded with Russia to spill the blood of American troops is a handy political attack tool.
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Sherlock

'Israeli F-35s & cyberattack behind explosions at Iran's military complex, nuclear site' claim local media


Sputnik
Fri, 03 Jul 2020 21:26 UTC
iran power plant
© AP Photo / Atomic Energy Organization of Iran
On Thursday, Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation said that the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility "is operating as usual", since the reactor was not damaged in an explosion and there were no casualties following the incident.

The Kuwaiti daily al-Jarida has quoted an unnamed "senior" source as saying that Israel was allegedly behind last week's explosion at Iran's Parchin military complex and Thursday's blast at the Natanz nuclear site in the Islamic Republic. Israeli government officials have not commented on the matter yet.

The Jewish state has repeatedly accused Iran of supporting "terrorist" groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas, and of waging proxy wars in countries such as Syria which could pose a threat to Israel's security. Tehran, which refuses to recognise Israel's right to exist, denies the charges, saying that there are only Iranian military advisers in Syria.

Comment: RT reports:
Iran says cause of mysterious incident that damaged nuclear facility 'has been determined'

Natanz
© Reuters / Atomic Energy Organization of IranA view of a damaged building after a fire broke out at Iran's Natanz Nuclear Facility, July 2, 2020
An unspecified incident inflicted damage on the Natanz facility on Thursday, with photos published by Iran's Atomic Energy Organization showing a partly-burned shed and a door that appeared to be blown off its hinges. The governor of nearby Natanz city, Ramazanali Ferdosi, said the incident caused a fire but gave no further details.

National Security Council spokesman Keyvan Khoshravi said on Friday that "the main cause of the accident has been determined," according to the state-linked Tasnim News Agency.

"Due to some security concerns, the cause and manner of this incident will be announced at the appropriate time," he added, before confirming that there are no nuclear materials at the scene, and no leaks of radioactive material.

It is still unclear what the "security concerns" mentioned by Khoshravi are. However, the Natanz site has been targeted before, and in 2010 was hit by the Stuxnet cyberattack, a sophisticated operation that destroyed as many as 1,000 centrifuges. The US and Israel are widely suspected of launching the attack.
See also: What War Was Trump Trying to Stop by Killing Iranian General Soleimani?

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Bad Guys

Schiff briefed on 'Russian Bounty' intel in February but took no action

Sean Davis, Mollie Hemingway
The Federalist
Thu, 02 Jul 2020 20:09 UTC
Schiff CNN
Top committee staff for Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, were briefed in February on intelligence about Russia offering the Taliban bounties in Afghanistan, but he took no action in response to the briefing, multiple intelligence sources familiar with the briefing told The Federalist. The intelligence was briefed to Schiff's staff during a congressional delegation, or CODEL, trip to Afghanistan in February.

Schiff, who has acknowledged President Donald Trump was never briefed on the so-called intelligence, has thus far refused to disclose that his staff was personally briefed. The revelation raises serious questions that Schiff is once again politicizing, and perhaps even deliberately misrepresenting, key data for partisan gain.

Comment: Schiff took no action because it was there was no actual threat. It was propaganda then, and it is propaganda now.

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