RTSun, 19 May 2019 17:36 UTC
© Reuters/Joshua RobertsRep. Tulsi Gabbard
Democratic presidential hopeful Tulsi Gabbard's anti-war stance has seen her slammed in the media for over-friendliness to Moscow.
After this week's hit piece the Hawaiian Congresswoman called these accusations "fake news."Speaking to ABC's George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, Gabbard repeated several of her core foreign policy messages:
Regime change operations are "counterproductive and wasteful," and
escalating military tension with Russia and China is a "dangerous" game for the US.
Veronica Ek
BloombergMon, 20 May 2019 15:03 UTC
© GettyAssange in a government vehicle following his arrest on April 11, 2019.
Swedish prosecutors submitted an application to court to detain Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in his absence, according to a
statement on Monday.
The request comes after Swedish prosecutors
reopened a probe into rape allegations against Assange last week. There is already an extradition process in the U.K., which could lead to him being extradited to the U.S.
Comment: What are the Swedish authorities playing at here? They have more or less admitted the charges were trumped up, with one of the women stating that she was pressured into filing charges against Assange. Yet in the face of all these facts, Swedish officials have decided to pursue charges.
RTSat, 18 May 2019 09:44 UTC
© REUTERS/Leonhard FoegerAustrian Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache
Austria's ruling coalition party is under fire after a leaked video showed the vice chancellor discussing alleged quid pro quo arrangements with a "Russian oligarch niece" ... and some pundits quickly had their Russiagate meltdowns.
The scandal rocked the Freedom Party of Austria (FPO) on Friday after two German publications,
Spiegel and
Suddeutscher Zeitung, released exposes of a video leaked to them by an unnamed party.
The video shows a July 2017 meeting at an Ibiza villa, where Heinz-Christian Strache, the party leader and vice chancellor of Austria, and Johann Gudenus, Strache's protégé and senior figure in the FPO, discuss alleged shady deals with an unidentified woman.The conversations reportedly lasted for hours.
One of the options "discussed" there was that the mysterious woman "and her companion" would buy a majority share in Austria's major tabloid - Kronen Zeitung - and use it to prop up FPO's bid in the October 2017 national election.The FPO narrowly came in third place and became a junior partner in the current ruling coalition.
In exchange, the politicians said the woman's construction business could get government contracts once the party is in power. The politicians also discussed alleged circumventing of Austria's transparency laws for political donations by funneling money through a charity.
Comment:
After the leaked video scandal,
Strache tendered his resignation
Speaking to the media on Saturday, Strache said he has submitted his resignation letter to Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. Strache also stepped down as leader of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPO), the junior member of the Austrian ruling coalition.
He insisted that he and his fellow party member Johann Gudenus were victims of a long-running smear campaign, which culminated in the release of the "illegally recorded" footage. "It was political assassination," the politician stated.
During the media conference, Strache insisted his party didn't benefit in any way from the meeting and that the nature of the conversations has been misrepresented by the German journalists.
He did stress those behind it were "waiting for two years" to release the footage. Notably, the publication comes days ahead of the European Parliament election in Austria. Transport Minister Norbert Hofer is to replace him as both party leader and vice chancellor, provided that the coalition survives the unfolding scandal.
The scandal has sparked a wave of public outrage leading to a spontaneous massive protest in Vienna, outside of the Chancellor's Office, which was joined by some 5,000 people.
Snap elections 'as soon as possible' says Chancellor Kurz:
President Alexander van der Bellen confirmed he and Kurz have already discussed snap elections, calling them "the only way to restore trust in public institutions."
Kurz criticized the leak that led to the scandal by saying that the methods used to expose Strache's misdeeds were "despicable". "What is really problematic and of great importance here is the ideas of power abuse and misuse of taxpayers' money as well as the approach to the media landscape in our country."
The scandal rocked the Austrian society with thousands of people taking to the streets to demand snap elections.
This was clearly a 'hit' against Austria. The recorded sting operation took place in 2017, and has clearly been 'on the books' since then for use 'when the time was right'.
That it was released by German media means it came via German intelligence, and thus with US-UK involvement. Chancellor Kurz is already onto them though, calling their bluff by calling snap election, likely to happen after the summer.
We'll see then whether Austrian voters are 'appalled' that its leadership even dared to consider doing business with Russia...
UPDATE: 5/19/2019, RT: So who wasn't this mystery woman?
Igor Makarov, a Russian oligarch whose supposed "niece" was filmed discussing alleged shady deals with the Austrian vice-chancellor, stated he has no family links to that woman as he was "an only child" in his family.
"It is widely known that I was the only child in my family, and I have no nieces whatsoever," Makarov's spokesperson told Forbes' Russian edition. "I have no family bonds with the woman who calls herself Alena Makarova and I don't know her at all," he added.
While Spiegel did not identify the woman in their initial article, Suddeutsche Zeitung wrote that she was introduced to the politicians as "a niece" of Igor Makarov, "a Russian oligarch close to [President Vladimir] Putin." As the story unfolds, Makarov's company is now "using all lawful means to establish who was behind the illegal use of [his] name."
Makarov is the founder of Itera (now Areti), Russia's first non-state gas company. In the late-1990s, the firm re-sold gas from the former Soviet republic of Turkmenistan, where Makarov was born. He is ranked 48th in the list of Russia's wealthiest people with an estimated net worth of $2.1 billion.
UPDATE: 5/19/2019, RT: Prosecutor won't launch probe into video scandal - 'No proof of crime'
Austrian prosecutors have examined the scandalous videotape which cost vice-chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache his job and said they couldn't find any grounds to launch an investigation over its content.
"There's no specific proof of a crime being committed coming from this [the video]," Oesterreich 1 radio revealed, citing the statement from the prosecutors.
The Justice Ministry's General Secretary Christian Pilnacek earlier warned that there were only extracts of the footage available, which would make it impossible to assess the full context of what was going on.
© AFP 2019 / Mohamed al-Bakour
The Russian Centre for Reconciliation in Syria reported on Sunday that
militants had violated the ceasefire regime in Idlib de-escalation zone 13 times in one day, injuring 3 Syrian servicemen.Besides Idlib, the militants continue shelling the government's forces in Hama, Latakia and Aleppo provinces, the statement issued by the centre reads.
The centre continued by saying that the Syrian Army unilaterally ceased fire in Idlib starting from May 18.
"Starting from midnight [21:00 GMT on Friday], the Armed Forces of the Syrian Arab Republic unilaterally ceased fire in the Idlib de-escalation zone. At the same time, the shelling of the government forces' positions and civilian population in the provinces of Hama, Latakia and Aleppo by militants continue", the center said in a statement.
RTMon, 20 May 2019 12:26 UTC
© Reuters / HandoutFILE PHOTO: The USS John C. Stennis, of the Fifth Fleet, transits the Strait of Hormuz in January
The US and its allies began enhanced maritime security patrols in the international waters of the Persian Gulf , amid Washington's tensions with Iran.
The Countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) were "specifically increasing communication and coordination with each other in support of regional naval cooperation and maritime security operations in the Arabian Gulf," Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet said in a statement on Facebook.
The navies and coast guards of the Arab states "are working in tight coordination with each other and the United States Navy," it added.The GCC, which has its headquarters in Riyadh, unites Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.Tensions have been high in the Persian Gulf recently as the US has deployed an aircraft carrier group and sent B-52 bombers on patrol there in a move to intimidate Iran.
RTMon, 20 May 2019 09:55 UTC
© Quartz/KJNFormer VP Joe Biden
Joe Biden has been roundly mocked on Twitter after making the unlikely claim to a young activist appealing for a presidential debate on climate change that he kicked-off the whole global warming movement back in the late 1980s.
A young activist from US Youth Climate Strike asked Biden if he would support a presidential climate policy forum organized by the group. Biden interrupted the girl before she was finished, asking
, "By the way, did you know I'm the guy who did all this? Read 'Real Clear Politics' - it will tell you about how I started this whole thing back in 1987 - climate change."
RTMon, 20 May 2019 09:55 UTC
US restrictions won't hurt Chinese telecom giant Huawei much, as it has long been prepared for it, CEO Ren Zhengfei stated, adding that the firm has no intention of changing its activities on the US' request."We have already been preparing for this," the founder of Shenzhen-based Huawei Technologies said, as cited by Nikkei in his first
speech since Washington severely
hampered access for the firm to the US market over alleged security risks. Ren Zhengfei's daughter, Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, was arrested by Canadian authorities at the end of last year, resulting in a diplomatic row between China, Canada, and the US amid the already flaring trade tensions.
He added that
the tech firm will advance by developing its own chips to lessen the impact of the ban on its production and can stay afloat even if Qualcomm and other American producers refuse to sell chips to Huawei amid escalating tensions.
American lobby groups and representatives from two US states were among those who urged the government to vote down the Occupied Territories Bill, records show.
Documents released to TheJournal.ie under the Freedom of Information Act reveal how international groups sought to influence the passage of the Bill through both Houses of the Oireachtas.
In one instance, a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives warned that the Bill's enaction into law
could affect the immigration status of Irish people living in the US.
CNBCSat, 18 May 2019 09:55 UTC
© Reuters / Andy Wong (L) ; Global Look Press / Rodrigo Reyes Marin (R)File Photo: UK and Chinese flags (L) and Huawei logo (R)
The Commerce Department, which had effectively halted Huawei's ability to buy American-made parts and components, is considering issuing a temporary general license to "prevent the interruption of existing network operations and equipment," a spokeswoman said.
Potential beneficiaries of the license could, for example, include internet access and mobile phone service providers in thinly populated places such as Wyoming and eastern Oregon that purchased network equipment from Huawei in recent years.
RTSun, 19 May 2019 14:00 UTC
© AFP / Mladen Antonov
If Washington wants to "get along with Moscow," the White House will have to refrain from using the sanctions stick, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says after the US extended anti-Russia restrictions.
In an interview to Russian state TV, the official weighed in on Trump's tweet that he posted on his favorite social media on May 3. The message followed a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin and featured Trump's notorious "getting along" with Russia is a "good thing."
Peskov, however, found the chosen definition a bit nebulous.
Comment: See also: