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UN is toothless on the issue of sanctions, leaves Venezuela vulnerable to instability


21st Century Wire
Sat, 09 Mar 2019 00:00 UTC
MaduroTrumpGuaido
© unknownVenezuela President Maduro • US President Trump • Juan Guaido
According to 21WIRE editor Patrick Henningsen, the fact that Juan Guaido is allowed to roam free even after openly plotting a military coup and stealing Venezuelan state assets with the help of Washington - will actually help the Maduro government in its public relations battle in the short-term. But how long can Caracas tolerate the open sedition being coordinated by Washington? How long can Venezuela withstand the economic pressure being place on it?

Washington's self-proclaimed "interim president" of Venezuela, Juan Guaido, claims that Venezuela's recent expulsion of the German ambassador Daniel Kreiner, is a 'threat against Germany,' and that Venezuela lives under a "dictatorship" - and yet when Guaido, an operative working on behalf of the US government, eventually returned to Caracas - he was not arrested by the Maduro government which belies claims made by Guaido and the Trump Administration.

Comment: See also:

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Network

Russia's Crimea to become part of China's new Silk Road, despite Western sanctions


RT
Mon, 18 Mar 2019 10:13 UTC
crimea bridge
© Reuters / Pavel RebrovRoad-and-rail bridge connecting Russian mainland with the Crimean peninsula
Private businesses in China are interested in involving Russia's Crimea in the implementation of projects under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Beijing's development & investment project in 152 countries on five continents.

That's according to the head of the association of Chinese compatriots on the peninsula, Ge Zhili. "Our organization is bolstering cooperation ties, exchanges and friendly contacts with the Crimean society," he said at an event dedicated to the fifth anniversary of Crimea's reunification with Russia, which was held in the Russian Embassy in Beijing on Monday.

The official explained that the association he leads wants "to help people understand what Crimea is, establish reliable relations with the peninsula, and implement joint private projects under the Belt and Road Initiative."

Comment: Ukraine's absence from the project speaks volumes about the damning impact the US-backed coup has had on the potential prosperity of the country:

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Green Light

Best of the Web: Putin launches 2 new power stations in Crimea on anniversary of reunification with Russia


RT
Mon, 18 Mar 2019 12:58 UTC
putin power station crimea
Russian President Vladimir Putin has launched new power stations in Crimea as the region marks the fifth anniversary of reunification with Russia. The facilities will boost the peninsula's energy independence.

The Russian president came to the Balaklava power station, developed by Russian state-run conglomerate Rostec, in the city of Sevastopol on Monday to see the station start work at full capacity.

Putin also observed the opening of another facility in Simferopol and a substation in the Taman area, located across the Kerch Strait, via a video conference.


Comment: The improvement in Crimea is stark when compared with how dire life for most Ukrainians has become:

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SOTT Logo Radio

SOTT Focus: NewsReal #30: Christchurch Massacre - Don't Fall For The Manipulation


Sott.net
Mon, 18 Mar 2019 22:59 UTC
NewsReal terror shooting christchurch
Whenever a horrific terror attack or mass shooting occurs, it is of course proper to mourn or at least acknowledge the victims and their loved ones. The 50 innocent people killed at two mosques in Christchurch under a hail of bullets last Friday deserve the respectful treatment they have been afforded in supportive media coverage since then, both in New Zealand and internationally.

What is entirely missing, however, from all media accounts, is a proper accounting of what took place in the city of Christchurch that afternoon. Eyewitness statements and police reports of multiple armed men, arrested suspects, and defused bombs at diverse locations in the city have simply been 'dropped' from media coverage, replaced with a narrative focusing on one sole actor, Australian Brenton Tarrant.

The sadistic psychopath who filmed his part in the events is undoubtedly a perpetrator, but was he the sole perpetrator?

In this NewsReal, Joe and Niall discuss the bloody events in Christchurch and point to some of the evidence that indicates Tarrant was not acting alone. They also discuss why it's important to consider this and similar events in the context of organized criminal conspiracies: the fractious fallout inflames and reinforces divisions in society globally.

If this is the intention not just of the 'lone gunman', but of his powerful backers, then it behooves us to know when we are being manipulated...


Running Time: 01:42:04

Download: MP3 - 93.4 MB

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Bad Guys

Attempt to prosecute Assad at ICC is aimed at undermining Syrian peace process

John Laughland
RT
Mon, 18 Mar 2019 20:23 UTC
anti assad demonstration ICC offices
© REUTERS/Michael KoorenA man wearing a mask of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad demonstrates against Assad in front of the ICC offices in The Hague
The announcement that "a group of Syrian refugees and their London lawyers" have found "a neat legal trick" to press for an indictment against Syrian President Bashar Assad by the International Criminal Court demonstrates, yet again, the dangerous corruption of international justice, against which I have been warning for over a decade.

The Syrian war is nearly over, thanks to the military successes of the Syrian army and its Russian and Iranian allies. Exhaustion on both sides has probably helped. Diplomatic overtures have started to re-integrate Syria into the international system, starting at the regional level: the United Arab Emirates have re-opened their embassy in Damascus; the Sudanese president, Assad's near namesake, Omar Al-Bashir, has visited Syria, as have senior Egyptian officials; Syrian officials have attended pan-Arab summits; even Israel is maintaining its dialogue with Russia over Syria. In short, the situation is being slowly normalised as Syria herself embarks on the painful search for internal peace.
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Handcuffs

US Supreme Court to rule on identity fraud committed by illegal immigrants

Greg Stohr
Bloomberg
Mon, 18 Mar 2019 19:44 UTC
social security theft
The U.S. Supreme Court will consider letting states prosecute undocumented immigrants for identity theft if they use someone else's Social Security number to apply for a job, agreeing to take up what could be a polarizing fight.

Heeding calls from Kansas and the Trump administration, the justices said they'll decide whether the Kansas Supreme Court was right to say that only the federal government has the power under U.S. immigration law to press those types of prosecutions.

A victory for Kansas would give states a new tool for battling illegal immigration, letting them be more aggressive on an issue handled primarily at the federal level. The court will hear the case during the nine-month termthat starts in October.

Kansas says the dispute is more about identity theft than illegal immigration. The state is trying to reinstate the convictions of three men who got restaurant jobs using another person's Social Security number.
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Chart Bar

Brexit could be 'terrific' for emerging markets... if it ever happens

Sam Meredith
CNBC
Mon, 18 Mar 2019 19:32 UTC
Theresa May
© Reuters TV via REUTERSBritain's Prime Minister Theresa May speaks in Parliament, following the vote on Brexit in London, Britain, March 13, 2019, in this screen grab taken from video.
The prospect of Britain leaving the European Union without a Withdrawal Agreement over the coming days could be "terrific" for emerging markets, according to veteran fund manager Mark Mobius.

His comments come as British Prime Minister Theresa May considers whether to put her embattled Brexit deal before Parliament for the third time.

May has urged U.K. lawmakers to make an "honourable compromise" on her twice-rejected Brexit deal, with less than 12 days to go before the world's fifth-largest economy is set to leave the bloc.

"If the U.K. says: 'Look, we are free trade. Everybody can come into our country, everybody can trade free of problems,' then (Brexit) is going to be terrific," Mark Mobius, founding partner at Mobius Capital Partners, told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" on Monday.
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Eagle

Pompeo perpetuates lies about Russia invading Ukraine in bid to woo US oil industry

The Duran
Seraphim Hanisch
Mon, 18 Mar 2019 00:00 UTC
Pompeo
Secretary Pompeo displayed either stunning ignorance or a mass-attack of propaganda about what must be the most invisible war in history.

After the 2014 Maidan revolution and the subsequent secessions of Lugansk and Donetsk in Ukraine, and after the rejoining of Crimea with its original nation of Russia, the Western media went on a campaign to prove the Russia is (/ was / was about to / had already / might / was thinking about / was planning to ... etc.) invade Ukraine. For the next year or so, about every two weeks, internet news sources like Yahoo! News showed viewers pictures of tanks, box trucks and convoys to "prove" that the invasion was underway (or any of the other statuses confirming the possibilities above stated.) This information was doubtless provided to US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo.
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Eye 2

Fouquet's Restaurant burns in Paris: Macron's false flag against the Yellow Vests


Stalker Zone
Mon, 18 Mar 2019 18:43 UTC
Fouquet’s Restaurant burns paris yellow vests
One may have heard in the last 24 hours that the "evil" Yellow Vests set fire to Fouquet's restaurant on the Champs-Élysées avenue in Paris during March 16th's protest. Of course, western media - both printed and digital - has tried its best to reduce the protest down to this one incident in an attempt to further mobilise the bourgeoise voters of Macron against the Yellow Vests. For example, here is one example from "Radio France Internationale", a state-owned propagandist:
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Star of David

Israeli high court bans far-right candidate from election, but politics are still apartheid to the core

Jonathan Ofir
Mondoweiss
Mon, 18 Mar 2019 17:18 UTC
Michael Ben-Ari
© Ronen Zvulun/ReutersMichael Ben-Ari (center) and members of the Jewish Power Party.
The Israeli High Court has ruled yesterday on several petitions regarding the upcoming elections. Taking the recommended position of Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, the court reversed the Knesset Elections Committee decision to ban the Palestinian-Israeli party union of Balad-United Arab List; to reverse the ban on Jewish Ofer Cassif who is part of Hadash (Hadash-Ta'al is another dual Palestinian-Israeli union); and finally, to ban the leader of Jewish Power Michael Ben Ari from running - Ben Ari was otherwise approved by the committee.

The merger of the rabbi Kahane disciples of Jewish Power with the Jewish Home party was a move orchestrated by Netanyahu, which drew widespread critique, as the Jewish Power is an extension of the Kahanist Kach party, which was banned from the Knesset in 1988 on grounds of racism. Netanyahu thus offered it political legitimacy, also in order to secure a future coalition and not lose votes under the 3.25% threshold.

The permitting of the Balad-UAL to run actually follows a familiar pattern - where these parties are banned by the Knesset Elections Committee on the basis of their advocacy for a state of all its citizens, and the ban is rescinded by the High Court. The Elections Committee bars them for violating the "Jewish and Democratic" clause of the Knesset party law, and then the High Court reverses it, citing a more liberal interpretation of the law (I will elaborate on this further down).

Nonetheless, the decision to bar an individual, rather than a whole party, sets a new precedent in Israeli election history.

Comment: For the background on why Israeli politics is so entho-centric, check out the following episodes of the Truth Perspective:

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