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Trump Administration freezes funding that was intended to benefit Hong Kong protesters

Billy Perrigo
TIME
Fri, 26 Jun 2020 10:26 UTC
HongKongProtestGroup
© Willie Siau—SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty ImagesRiot police round up a group protesting a law criminalizing insulting the Chinese national anthem in Hong Kong.
The Trump Administration has frozen funding intended to help people in Hong Kong evade surveillance by the Chinese government, sources with knowledge of the matter tell TIME, just as Beijing prepares to impose a new national security law that protesters fear will erode civil liberties there.

The funding freeze came on June 9, five days after Michael Pack, an ally of President Trump, was confirmed by the Senate to lead the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees federal funding of several Internet freedom and foreign news initiatives, including Voice of America and Radio Free Asia.

Senior staff at the agency were informed in an email, obtained by TIME, that Pack had suspended funding on a range of activities at the agency. In the email, USAGM's chief financial officer Grant Turner cited a request by Pack to immediately freeze "new contracts or extensions of any contract" from the agency's federal operations and grantees, as well as on new hires and promotions.


Comment: See also:



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Briefcase

US prosecutors file new suit in attempt to seize Iranian fuel destined for Venezuela

Tim Korso
Sputnik
Thu, 02 Jul 2020 15:24 UTC
oil storage/tankers
© Reuters/Henry RomeroVenezuelan tankers and oil storage facilities
Iran has recently been helping Venezuela, another nation hit by US sanctions, by supplying it with fuel after the country's own refineries lost most of their capacity to work with the ultra-heavy blend of crude extracted from Venezuela's oilfields, leading to petrol shortages.

The US has made another attempt to stop the oil trade between Venezuela and Iran as federal prosecutors have filed a new suit seeking to seize gasoline that Tehran has purportedly sent to Caracas in four tankers, The Wall Street Journal reported. According to the newspaper, Washington is looking to both stop the delivery of gasoline to Venezuela as well as the payments for the shipped resources, which will allegedly be used to fund the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) - a branch of the Iranian Armed Forces that the US has designated as a "terrorist organisation". US Attorney for the District of Columbia Zia Faruqui claims in the filing:
"[These payments] support the IRGC's full range of nefarious activities, including the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery, support for terrorism, and a variety of human rights abuses, at home and abroad."
The US prosecutors claim that an Iranian businessman, Mahmoud Madanipour, is affiliated with the IRGC and has been using his firms based in the United Arab Emirates to organise the sale of Iranian crude while evading the unilateral American sanctions, according to the newspaper.

Comment: Give it up, America. There is no benefit to economic terrorism.

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Pistol

Fourth Estate has murdered America

Paul Craig Roberts
paulcraigroberts.org
Wed, 01 Jul 2020 00:00 UTC
papers/microphones
© The Indian ExpressThe Fourth Estate
The "news service" of multi-billionaire Bloomberg echoes the New York Times lie that Russia paid the Taliban to kill US occupying troops:
"Lawmakers from both U.S. political parties demanded President Donald Trump hold Russia accountable over allegations it offered cash bounties for the killing of American troops. Trump has denied reports by several major news organizations that he was briefed on the matter; he has not demanded an investigation of the allegations; and he has yet to even threaten Moscow with retaliation should the reporting be confirmed. Trump's lack of action has reignited concerns that the Republican is more interested in maintaining cordial relations with Vladimir Putin than defending American interests — including its troops."
Notice all the innuendos in this dishonest report:
"Trump has denied," "he has not demanded an investigation," "he has yet to even threaten Moscow," 'Trump's lack of action," "more interested in cordial relations with Putin than defending American troops."

The claim itself is so absurd that it indicates the media regard Americans as completely stupid. The US and Taliban have been killing each other since October 2001 when the Cheney/Bush regime illegally attacked Afghanistan. For 19 years the Taliban has known who its enemy is and does not need Russian bribes to kill US occupiers.

Comment: See also: Pelosi demands new sanctions on Moscow for bogus bounties' allegations

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Arrow Up

Pelosi demands new sanctions on Moscow for bogus bounties' allegations


RT
Thu, 02 Jul 2020 20:34 UTC
pelosi
© Reuters/Jonathan ErnstSpeaker of the House Nancy Pelosi conducting a news conference July 2, 2020.
As the fallout from dubiously sourced allegations about 'Russian bounties' on US troops in Afghanistan continues, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for fresh sanctions against Russia's defense and intelligence sectors.

Moscow paid Taliban fighters bounties to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan, and President Donald Trump ignored intelligence briefings on the matter, an anonymously sourced New York Times report claimed last Friday. Trump called the story a "phony hit job" against him, his Defense Department found no corroborating evidence, and National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien said on Wednesday that the president was never briefed, due to the flimsiness of the intelligence.

However, the report has whipped up yet another wave of 'Russiagate' hysteria in Washington. Pelosi called on Thursday for the application of sanctions on Russia's intelligence and defense sectors.
"When Congress in a bipartisan way passed sanctions on Russia, the administration told us to take out the sanctions on the GRU - the intelligence, as well as the defense sectors of Russia. We should have those in there."
The bipartisan bill likely referenced by Pelosi is the 2017 Countering American Adversaries Through Sanctions Act. Despite signing this bill into law, the Trump administration opted not to enforce sanctions on Russia, with the State Department claiming the threat alone was deterrent enough.

Comment: Before issuing commands and demands, get the facts! They have a way of clarifying everything.

See also:

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Bulb

WaPo admits 'Russian bounties' info "deemed sketchy" after Pentagon says "No corroborating evidence"

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Wed, 01 Jul 2020 19:28 UTC
Trump Afghanistan
© ReutersTrump at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan in 2019
Congressional leaders have demanded answers, and those answers have come in the form of multiple US intelligence agencies and chiefs essentially throwing cold water on the NY Times Russian bounties to kill American troops in Afghanistan story, as we've detailed.

We expect this "bombshell" will be very short-lived, perhaps being memory holed by the weekend, akin to the fate of other Russiagate-related 'anonymous sources say' type stories.

The Pentagon is the latest to say that DOD-wide there is currently "no corroborating evidence at this time to validate the recent allegations regarding malight activity by Russian personnel against US forces in Afghanistan," according to a late Tuesday evening statement by Defense Secretary Mark Esper.
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Snakes in Suits

Joe Biden campaign is hiding the results of his cognitive tests

Kyle Olson
Breitbart
Thu, 02 Jul 2020 02:52 UTC
biden
© JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images
Joe Biden told reporters on Wednesday he has taken a cognitive test, used to detect mental issues, but his campaign will not specify what exactly that means or if it will release the results of whatever test he took - if he actually took a test.

"I've been tested and I'm constantly tested," Biden said when asked at his first press conference in three months if he is experiencing cognitive decline issues.

Biden did not specify during the press conference exactly what he meant by his claims he has been and is "constantly tested." His campaign has not replied to a number of follow-up requests from Breitbart News as to whether he means he took the same test that President Donald Trump aced, or if he took a different test, or if he was just speaking colloquially, claiming that his daily rigor is what tests his cognitive capabilities. Also, Biden was possibly confused by the question, in which he was asked if he has been formally tested on this front.
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Bad Guys

Dutch MH17 judge refuses to accept Russian evidence that Buk missile was Ukraine's

John Helmer
johnhelmer.net
Fri, 03 Jul 2020 18:38 UTC
Hendrik Steenhuis
The presiding judge in the trial of the shooting-down of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 announced on Friday afternoon that he will not allow the evidence of Major-General Igor Konashenkov and other Russian Defence Ministry officers on the Ukrainian Army's possession of the BUK missile alleged to be the weapon which shot down the aircraft, killing all 298 people on board.

Judge Hendrik Steenhuis declared that the Russian evidence revealed so far of the parts of the missile is limited to the manufacture of the weapon in Russia in 1986, and delivery of the weapon to a Ukrainian Army unit between December 1986 and early 1987. Steenhuis refused to allow Russian military intelligence to reveal where the missile was located between 1987 and July 17, 2014, when the Dutch prosecution claims the missile was fired by a Russian military crew at MH17.

"The defence wishes to interview these witnesses in order to establish the evidential value and credibility of the parts of the missile administration supplied by Russia," Steenhuis announced. He refused to identify Russian Army generals Igor Konashenkov, the Defence Ministry spokesman, and Nikolai Parshin, head of the Ministry's Missile and Artillery Directorate, whose detailed briefing on the missile parts, their origin, and their deployment in the Ukrainian Army was broadcast from the Defence Ministry in Moscow on September 18, 2018. "The court finds that the relevant records relate to the years 1986 and 1987. In that light, the court does not see how interviewing this witness [Gen. Konashenkov] can contribute to the question of where a specific missile mentioned in that record is located in the year 2014. For that reason alone the court is of the opinion that interviewing this witness cannot be of importance for any decision to be taken in the criminal case of the accused. The request is therefore rejected."
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Eiffel Tower

Édouard Philippe resigns as French prime minister, replaced with Jean Castex

Jon Henley
The Guardian
Fri, 03 Jul 2020 18:20 UTC
French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe
Former French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe
Édouard Philippe has been replaced as prime minister after seeing France through the coronavirus crisis, as President Emmanuel Macron embarked on a high-stakes reshuffle to "set a new course" for the last two years of his mandate.

Macron named Jean Castex, 55, a career civil servant from the centre-right of French politics who coordinated France's successful exit from lockdown and is widely known as "Monsieur Déconfinement", as Philippe's successor. The Elysée Palace said Castex would form the next government.

The palace said on Friday morning that Philippe - who dined with Macron on Wednesday and met him again on Thursday, and whose calm, unshowy handling of the pandemic has made him increasingly popular - had submitted his resignation.
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Bad Guys

U.N. Chief Guterres Calls for One Supreme Body of 'Global Governance'

Simon Kent
Breitbart
Fri, 26 Jun 2020 17:47 UTC
UN Chief Guterres
© CRISTINA QUICLER/AFP via Getty
The world needs an overarching level of multilateral governance that can sideline problematic "national interests" U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said Thursday, as he lamented existing U.N. instruments such as the Security Council have teeth but "show little or no appetite to bite."

As the world body on Friday commemorates the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the U.N. Charter, the founding instrument of the globalist organisation, Guterres said there is a need to "re-imagine the way nations cooperate."

"We need a networked multilateralism, bringing together the U.N. system, regional organisations, international financial institutions and others. And we need an inclusive multilateralism, drawing on the indispensable contributions of civil society, business, cities, regions and, in particular, with greater weight given to the voices of youth," Guterres said at a virtual press conference Thursday.


Comment: Sorry to rain on Guterres' parade, but he's way to late to the party. A one world government already exists and is plainly seen in the global shutdowns in response to a virus less harmful than the seasonal flu.

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Handcuffs

UN alarmed at number of arrests in Hong Kong over new national security law

Stephanie Hebehay
Reuters
Fri, 03 Jul 2020 17:17 UTC
Hong Kong flag
© Hong Kong Police/TwitterHong Kong independence flag
The U.N. human rights office voiced concern on Friday that "vague and overly broad" provisions in Hong Kong's new national security law may lead to activists being prosecuted in violation of fundamental freedoms of assembly and expression.


Comment: Doesn't take a genius to come to that conclusion.


National security legislation imposed by China this week on Hong Kong will punish crimes of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison, heralding a more authoritarian era for the city.


Comment: "Subversion." Vague and overly broad:
"Both subversion and terrorism have been very broadly characterised within mainland China," says Shoebridge. "Subversion is anything that undermines the power or authority of the central government - and being critical of the central government is enough to meet that woolly definition. ..."
Like comparing Xi to Winnie the Pooh, for example?


"We are alarmed that arrests are already being made under the law with immediate effect, when there is not full information and understanding of the scope of the offences," U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said.

Hundreds were arrested at a protest on Wednesday, a day after the new law went into effect, and at least 10 have been charged under it, he told a Geneva news briefing.

"We are concerned that the definition of some of the offences contained in the law are vague and overly broad and do not adequately distinguish between violent and non-violent acts. This may lead to discriminatory or arbitrary interpretation and enforcement of the law, which could undermine human rights protection," Colville said.

Comment: On the positive side, perhaps this law will be useful in rooting out actual examples of American interference. On the negative side, China's criminal justice system leaves a lot to be desired. With a 99.9% conviction rate, good luck having any nuance brought to your trial if you happen to be mistaken for an actual American-backed agitator. Legislation like this makes it very easy to scoop up any dissidents guilty of "subverting" the government through their criticism - however mild - and blaming it on alleged foreign actors or influence. That's a key feature of practically all "Communist" governments, and has been increasingly used by Western government and media in recent years in regards to Russia.

See also:

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