Puppet MastersS


Attention

Venezuela intel claims it foiled a 'Maduro assassination and military coup' plot


RT
Thu, 27 Jun 2019 00:20 UTC
Maduro
© Reuters/Miraflores PalaceVenezuelan President Nicolas Maduro at Miraflores Palace
Venezuelan intelligence says it has foiled an assassination attempt against President Nicolas Maduro, which envisioned a group of rogue officers storming the presidential palace and installing an imprisoned general in his stead.

The plot by current and former military officers involved breaking retired General Raúl Isaías Baduel out from a maximum security prison in Fuerte Tiuna, where he is kept since 2017 for wanting to overthrow the government, and seizing state-run Venezolana de Televisió where he would be pronounced president. Intelligence agencies said they had been unraveling the plot for 14 months.

The main part of the plan that was scheduled for June 23-24, involved assassinating Maduro and leader of the National Constituent Assembly Diosdado Cabello, while seizing the Miraflores presidential palace as well as the Carlota military base in Caracas.

"140,000 seized cartridges for machine guns and several combat groups were predetermined to be used to capture president Nicolas Maduro," Minister of Communications and Culture Jorge Rodriguez told the nation on Wednesday, announcing the arrests of conspirators.

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Network

US-Israeli cyber firm: China is prime suspect in global espionage campaign (maybe)


Sputnik
Wed, 26 Jun 2019 00:50 UTC
Chinese flag/Cyberspy
© PBANN/Ransomware NK FINAL Wired/KJN
All eyes are on Beijing after a Tuesday release from a US-Israeli cybersecurity company said that state-sponsored spying and other cyber crimes were committed by state-supported hackers in China with the hopes of obtaining data pertinent to a number of high profile persons worldwide.

Following a nearly year-long cyber investigation, US-Israeli cyber firm Cybereason announced on June 25 that a number of "state-sponsored adversaries" had been utilizing private infrastructure companies around the world to carry out "state-sponsored espionage and cyber war."

The investigation found that hackers were able to infiltrate cellular providers' IT networks and lift a number of records, including usernames, passwords, billing information and call records. According to the Times of Israel, targeted persons included individuals in government positions, law enforcement and politics.

This isn't one breach, but a series of sophisticated and targeted breaches. What is really troubling is this is an example of being hacked and not knowing it because the victims aren't aware and have no way to trace the attack," Mor Levi, Cybereason's vice president of global security services, said in the release.

With said information, Cybereason claims hackers could even track the so-called high profile individuals' meetings, mobile messages and active locations. Though only a select few are said to be targets of the attack, entire directories of information and credentials were allegedly stolen in these attacks.

The US-Israeli cybersecurity company claims China's government may be behind the series of attacks, as the unknown hackers' tactics, techniques and procedures (TTP) can be traced back to APT10, a Chinese cyberespionage group. "There's an asterisk, though," Amit Serper, head of Cybereason's Nocturnus security research team, informed SC Media. "All the tools are associated with APT10, but since they are all available online, someone else can get them, modify them and pretend to be APT10."

Comment: See also: New hacker attempt to break into US Democratic voter files thwarted

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Attention

Merkel has another shaking episode during official ceremony


RT
Thu, 27 Jun 2019 07:40 UTC
Merkel/Steinmeier
© Reuters/REUTERS TVGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel • German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier
Concerns for German Chancellor Angela Merkel's health grow once more as she was filmed struggling to keep her composure and visibly shaking during an official ceremony for the second time this month.

The incident happened during the formal appointing of the new justice minister in Berlin's Bellevue Palace on Thursday morning. The chancellor began shaking while standing next to German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who was delivering a speech. The shaking stopped and resumed several times.

Merkel was visibly distraught and placed both hands on her chest, trying to control herself. Nevertheless, she continued with the ceremony, and later shook hands, smiled, and posed for photos with other officials. At one point, the chancellor was offered a glass of water.


Comment: See also: Concerns for her health as Chancellor Merkel shakes uncontrollably at meeting with Ukrainian president

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Target

Russia blamed for 'mysterious GPS system disruption at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Thu, 27 Jun 2019 11:10 UTC
BenGurionAirport
© UnknownBen Gurion Airport, Tel Aviv, Israel
GPS systems in Israeli airspace were "mysteriously disrupted", but the country has put measures in place to allow safe landings and takeoffs at its main international airport, according to Reuters.

The Israel Airports Authority (IAA) made an announcement following a report on Tuesday by the International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations (IFALPA) that many pilots had somehow lost satellite signals from the Global Positioning System around Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport.

An IAA statement confirmed that the disruption only affected airborne crews and not terrestrial navigation systems. They said there had been GPS disruptions "for approximately the past three weeks".

Israeli authorities have been working to locate the source of the problem, but so far haven't been able to. An IAA spokesperson, when asked if they had found an explanation, simply said: "No. I don't know. At no stage has there been a safety incident stemming from the GPS disruption in the context of the precision of navigation and flight corridors."

The Israeli Defense Ministry, when asked for comment, said that the disruption was "an IAA matter." According to YnetNews, Israeli Army Radio reported that the disruption was a result of a satellite signal jammer used by the Russian military at Hmeimim Air Base base in Syria.

"It's fake news, we can't take it seriously," said a Russian source in response.

Comment: See also: Multiple jets losing GPS signal in Israeli airspace - 'unexplained disruptions'

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Eye 2

Leaked Google doc of blacklisted search terms appears to show interference in 2018 Irish elections


Project Veritas
Wed, 26 Jun 2019 17:42 UTC
google blacklist terms irish election
© Alex Wong, Win McNamee/Getty, Screenshot/YouTubeGoogle regularly manipulates its algorithms for “politically sensitive” content and employs blacklists on YouTube to manipulate video search results.
Blocked terms include "Abortion is murder", "Repeal the 8th," "Irish Catholic," "Pro-life" Ireland's 8th Amendment Protected The Right to Life of Unborn

UPDATE: Breitbart News obtained a response from YouTube: "... In the midst of the Irish referendum on abortion, our systems brought authoritative content to the top of our search results for abortion-related queries. This happened for both pro-choice and pro-life queries, there was no distinction."

***

Project Veritas has obtained a document from an insider at YouTube which appears to show the manipulation of political content in an Irish elections.

The document entitled, "youtube_controversial_query_blacklist," seems to show a series of blacklisted terms by YouTube. These terms include phrases that are directly related to the referendum that occurred in May of 2018 to repeal the 8th Amendment in Ireland.

Comment: And a small Irish government agency is supposed to be investigating whether or not Google has been naughty with people's data??

They're going 'massive' with meddling in democracy - anywhere and everywhere.

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Dominoes

China imports first Iranian oil since US ended sanction waivers

Tsvetana Paraskova
Oilprice.com
Wed, 26 Jun 2019 17:11 UTC
oil tanker
© Reuters / Francisco Bonilla
Iran has delivered the first crude oil to a Chinese refinery complex since the United States removed as of May all sanction waivers for Iranian oil customers, including its biggest buyer China, Bourse & Bazaar reports, citing an analysis from TankerTrackers.com.

According to TankerTrackers, a medium-sized Suezmax vessel, named SALINA and owned by the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC), loaded around 1 million barrels of crude oil from Iran and departed on May 28. The tanker arrived on June 20 at Jinxi Refining and Chemical Complex in China in a first independent tanker-tracking confirmation that China is defying the U.S. sanctions on Iran's oil exports.

The arrival of an Iranian crude cargo at the Jinxi complex, which is ultimately owned and operated by state giant China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), suggests that China is resuming Iranian crude oil imports as part of a government policy, according to Bourse & Bazaar.
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Bulb

Kazakhstan president promises to forgive debts of the poor and end bank bailouts


RT
Thu, 27 Jun 2019 17:07 UTC
Nur-Sultan
© Sputnik / Ekaterina Chesnokova
In a first major policy announcement, the newly elected president of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said he will write off bad loans held by as much as a sixth of the country's population.

As part of the debt forgiveness program he aims to end costly state rescues of private banks. The 66-year-old was elected president on June 9 after longtime leader Nursultan Nazarbayev stepped down as head of state in March.

The Central Asian country has been struggling with a decade-long crisis which forced the government to pump at least $18 billion into lenders as the banking sector was collapsing under the weight of bad debts. Kazakhstan's central bank is conducting a review of asset quality which prompted speculation that a new round of bailouts could be in the works.
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Stock Down

Congressional Budget Office projects 'unprecedented' debt of 144 percent of GDP by 2049

Niv Elis
The Hill
Tue, 25 Jun 2019 17:02 UTC
us dollar
Federal debt held by the public is on track to hit "unprecedented" levels, rising from the current 78 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) to 144 percent by 2049 if current laws are maintained, according to a new report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

But the report found that if Congress works to wipe out scheduled spending and tax changes currently in law, which include sharp spending drops set to go into effect in 2020 and the expiration of income tax cuts scheduled for 2026, debt would rise to 219 percent of GDP.

The CBO says that such debt increases could pose "substantial risks."

"The prospect of such large deficits over many years, and the high and rising debt that would result, poses substantial risks for the nation and presents policymakers with significant challenges," said CBO Director Phillip L. Swagel.
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Better Earth

Seoul says US, N. Korea in talks to set up 3rd Trump-Kim summit - NK denies secret talks

Adam Schreck, Hyung-Jim Kim, and Kim Tong-Hyung
AP
Wed, 26 Jun 2019 16:32 UTC
trump kim us north korea
North Korean and U.S. officials are holding "behind-the-scenes talks" to arrange a third summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on the fate of the North's expanding nuclear arsenal, South Korea's president said, four months after a second meeting between the leaders in Vietnam collapsed without any agreement.

There have been no public meetings between Washington and Pyongyang since the breakdown of the Vietnam summit. But the prospects for a resumption of U.S.-North Korea diplomacy have brightened since Trump and Kim recently exchanged personal letters. Trump called Kim's letter "beautiful" while Kim described Trump's as "excellent," though the contents of their letters have not been disclosed.

Trump was asked Wednesday as he departed for Asia if he would be meeting with Kim at the Group of 20 summit in Japan.

Trump said he wouldn't be meeting with Kim, but then added: "I may be speaking with him in a different forum. I will be going, as you know, to South Korea after the summit." He didn't elaborate.

In a response Tuesday to questions by The Associated Press and six other news agencies, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said that Trump's and Kim's "willingness to engage in dialogue has never faded" and that their recent letter exchanges prove that.

Comment: Kwon Jong Gun, a top official in the North Korean foreign ministry, denied that such "behind-the-scenes talks" have taken place.
Moon made the bold claim while speaking to several media agencies in Seoul on Wednesday. However a top official in NK's Foreign Ministry, Kwon Jong Gun, accused the president of lying "to refurbish their image" and give the impression that South Korea is "mediating" a nuclear deal.

"If we have anything to liaise with the US, it will be simply done through the liaison channel already under operation between the DPRK and the US, and the negotiation, if any, will be held face to face between the DPRK and the US," Kwon, director general of the Department of American Affairs at the Foreign Ministry, told state media on Thursday.

He added that no such engagement would "go through the South Korean authorities."
Meanwhile, the U.S. is subtly threatening to exclude South Korea from intelligence on the North ... because Huawei.
A thinly veiled threat that this could happen came from Randall Schriver, the US assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs. In an interview with South Korea's Dong-a Ilbo daily, the Pentagon official said the US "doesn't want to see a situation arise where we don't have confidence in sharing sensitive information with our ally."

Directly asked if the flow of intel on North Korea would stop over the Huawei row, he said: "We hope that situation doesn't come about."
...
Seoul has so far not moved to take any action against Huawei, leaving the decision of which equipment to use in a nationwide upgrade to 5G in the hands of its providers. One of its three major carriers, LG Uplus, chose Chinese base stations and transmitters, while two others bought hardware from Samsung Electronics, Ericsson, and Nokia.

South Korea, which sells about a quarter of its export goods to China, has previously felt how devastating Beijing's economic retaliation can be. After the previous Korean administration agreed in 2017 to host American THAAD anti-missile systems in defiance of Chinese objections, South Korean firms faced an unofficial boycott from China. The tourist industry alone lost US$6.7 billion over nine months, according to the South Korean government. Cosmetic firms, car makers, and TV drama producers were hit as well.


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Biohazard

US military is a bigger polluter than as many as 140 countries - shrinking this war machine is a must

Benjamin Neimark, Oliver Belcher and Patrick Bigger
The Conversation
Mon, 24 Jun 2019 16:53 UTC
military trucks
© EPA/Mohammed MessaraEnvironmentalists should argue for going beyond simply 'greening' military infrastructure
The US military's carbon bootprint is enormous. Like corporate supply chains, it relies upon an extensive global network of container ships, trucks and cargo planes to supply its operations with everything from bombs to humanitarian aid and hydrocarbon fuels. Our new study calculated the contribution of this vast infrastructure to climate change.

Greenhouse gas emission accounting usually focuses on how much energy and fuel civilians use. But recent work, including our own, shows that the US military is one of the largest polluters in history, consuming more liquid fuels and emitting more climate-changing gases than most medium-sized countries. If the US military were a country, its fuel usage alone would make it the 47th largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, sitting between Peru and Portugal.

In 2017, the US military bought about 269,230 barrels of oil a day and emitted more than 25,000 kilotonnes of carbon dioxide by burning those fuels. The US Air Force purchased US$4.9 billion worth of fuel, and the navy US$2.8 billion, followed by the army at US$947m and the Marines at US$36m.
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