Puppet MastersS


Bad Guys

China deploys navy ships to warn France vessel that illegally entered Taiwan Strait


RT
Wed, 24 Apr 2019 16:56 UTC
French Navy frigate Vendemiaire
© Reuters / Romeo RanocoA tugboat escorts French Navy frigate Vendemiaire on arrival at a port in Metro Manila on March 12, 2018.
China had to deploy navy ships to escort off a French vessel which "illegally" entered the Taiwan Strait, the country's defense ministry said.

"China's military sent navy ships in accordance with the law to identify the French ship and warn it to leave," defense ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang said.

The official did not specify the vessel but it was believed to be the frigate Vendemiaire. The French warship passed through the narrow waterway between China and Taiwan on April 6 in a rare move by a vessel of the European country, Reuters reported earlier.

Following the incident, China revoked France's invitation to the parade marking the 70th anniversary of the country's Navy, the agency's sources said.
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Smiley

Best of the Web: At It Again: Russian Phone Pranksters Trick Macron With Fake Call From Ukraine's Zelensky


RT
Thu, 25 Apr 2019 15:39 UTC
Vovan Lexus russian phone pranksters
© Reuters/Philippe Wojazer; Russian Look/Pravda KomsomolskayaRussian prankster team Vladimir ‘Vovan’ Kuznetsov and Alexei ‘Lexus’ Stolyarov
The French president has fallen victim to infamous Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus, who posed as Ukraine's President-elect Volodymyr Zelensky after his recent landslide victory, a video from the trolling duo claims.

Vladimir 'Vovan' Kuznetsov and Alexei 'Lexus' Stolyarov released a 15-minute recording of the call on Wednesday with a person they claim is Macron - although the identity of the prankee has not been confirmed.

At one point during the call, the supposed Zelensky says he believes it is time for Ukraine to again "build a dialogue with Russia," to which Macron replies this is "absolutely right."

Comment: The latest in a long line of epic exposures by the Russian duo of Vovan and Lexus. They should be getting journalism awards.

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Propaganda

Rosneft helps Venezuela evade US sanctions? Reuters amends story as firm vows to get agency banned


RT
Wed, 24 Apr 2019 15:44 UTC
rosneft
© Reuters/Ilya Naymushin
Reuters has corrected its piece alleging a shady scheme involving Russian oil giant Rosneft helping Venezuela evade US sanctions. The news agency said it did not determine that any payments actually took place.

The exclusive story was originally published by Reuters on April 18. Based solely on undisclosed "documents and sources," it claimed that Rosneft was receiving oil from the Venezuelan company PDVSA at a discount, paying for it immediately to bypass the regular transaction timeframe, and then receiving the full amount from the final customers while keeping the difference as a reward.

The allegations caused an angry reaction by Rosneft, which dismissed them as "a blatant lie"and "a provocation." The company vowed to address the issue with law enforcement and get the "pseudo-agency" banned in Russia altogether.

It was not immediately clear whether it was the result of Rosneft's outrage, but Reuters ended up heavily altering the story on Tuesday. Apart from added "clarifications" that experts have seen no violation of US sanctions in the alleged scheme, the names of the banks supposedly involved in it have been dropped from the article altogether.
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Dominoes

Turkey will look for 'best technology' elsewhere if US blocks F-35 transfer


RT
Wed, 24 Apr 2019 15:37 UTC
F-35 aircraft
© REUTERS/Axel SchmidtF-35 aircraft
If Turkey can't buy F-35 fighter jets from the US, it will look for a substitute elsewhere, the Turkish foreign minister said. The US threatened to boot Ankara from the program over its S-400 deal with Russia.

Speaking to media after a reception at the Turkish Grand National Assembly on Tuesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that his country might consider other options if Washington follows through with its threats and leave it without F-35 stealth fighter jets.

"We are already partners in the F-35 manufacturing program, we participate in this project, we have paid the necessary amount," Cavusoglu said.

"There are currently no problems with this. But in the worst case scenario, we will have to satisfy our need in another place, where the best technologies will be offered," he added.
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Chess

Trump's Iran decision could kill the OPEC+ deal

Nick Cunningham
Oilprice.com
Tue, 23 Apr 2019 15:28 UTC
oil rig
Trump's decision to let Iran waivers expire could kill off the OPEC+ deal while dealing a serious blow to the coalition's ability to coordinate production cuts.

The Wall Street Journalreported that the Trump administration's decision to let waivers expire "surprised buyers and others who had been told by State Department officials in recent weeks to expect a renewal of exceptions."

The White House said that Saudi Arabia and the UAE have agreed to offset lost barrels from Iran, although Saudi Arabia was more measured in its response, saying only that it would add supply if needed. In theory, Saudi Arabia could add a few hundred thousand barrels per day above current levels and still keep output below its ceiling as part of the OPEC+ deal, but that may not be enough to compensate for outages in Iran, which could be significant. After all, the whole point of the U.S. campaign is to take Iranian oil exports to zero, down from roughly 1.3 mb/d in March.
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Heart - Black

Russia fast tracks citizenship for residents feeling war in Ukraine's rebel regions


RT
Wed, 24 Apr 2019 20:14 UTC
passport ukraine russia
© Reuters / Maxim ShemetovFILE PHOTO. Ukrainian (L) and Russian (R) passports.
Russia's decision to facilitate getting Russian passports for residents of Ukraine's breakaway regions has caused an angry reaction in Kiev, which condemned the "aggression" and even filed a complaint with the UN Security Council.

The decree, implementing a simplified three-month period to get Russian citizenship for residents of the rebel-controlled areas of the Lugansk and Donetsk regions was signed by Russia's President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday. While Putin explained the move was solely humanitarian and designed to ease up the hardships of people trapped in the civil conflict in the east of Ukraine, the decision caused a meltdown in Kiev.

Ukraine's outgoing president, Petro Poroshenko, who's been telling the public and the West, that his country has been battling "Russian aggression" for years already, said Putin's move was actual proof of it. Moreover, Moscow is plotting to get to a whole new level in its "aggression," he claimed.

Comment: The puppets in Ukraine can cry foul all they like but the statistics show that even those citizens living in the (relatively) stable areas of Ukraine want out, and who can blame them? For more insight on the situation, check out: The Saker interviews Dmitry Orlov

See also:

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Question

Jordan Peterson: Are all Democrats socialist? Don't believe the hype

Gregg Hurwitz and Jordan B. Peterson
The Wall Street Journal
Tue, 23 Apr 2019 18:35 UTC
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez AOC
© Yana Paskova/Bloomberg NewsDemocratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York, April 17.


Pragmatists like Pelosi, not radicals like Omar and Ocasio-Cortez, are the party's real leaders.

To judge by Twitter and cable news, the Democratic Party has become a raging leftist cult of socialists hell-bent on transforming the U.S. into Venezuela. But what if that's wrong and the media are wildly misrepresenting the party, which remains quite moderate?

The reasons are simple. Right-leaning media like to lavish the lion's share of coverage on the radicals of the Democratic Party - to paint the entirety of their opposition as out-of-step cry-bully socialists. But the left-leaning media bear responsibility as well. The same journalists who decry "alternative facts" seize on every Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Ilhan Omar tidbit with Gollum-like zeal.

Yet it's not clear that the social-media warriors they've elevated to pop-star status are the least bit representative of the party. As Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota told Politico: "Suddenly an entire party is being branded by the perspectives of two of its members, who represent 1% of the caucus." The rest of the Democratic freshmen are less visible not only due to clickbait bias but because they are busy creating legislation or holding town halls in their districts - that is, doing their jobs.

Comment: See also:

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Question

Sara Netanyahu received jewels worth $10 million from King of Saudi Arabia, claims princess

Rutger Bregman
Medium
Sat, 06 Apr 2019 10:02 UTC
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's wife sara
© AP Photo/ Gali Tibbon
In an interview with the Gulf today, Reema bint Bandar, a Saudi Arabian princess and the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States claimed that King Salman had done something unexpected to impose political control four years ago.

It is believed that these things included the expansion of relations with European countries and politicians of the United States of America to protect King Salman from his relatives and keep him in power. Also Reema bint Bandar claims that King of Saudi Arabia gave precious jewels worth $ 10 million to Sara Netanyahu as gift.

Rima concluded that, for protection, King Salman offered precious jewels worth $ 10 million and a small yacht in the Red Sea as a gift to Sarah Netanyahu.

Comment: What is clear is that Israel's relationship with Saudi Arabia is on much better terms than its relations with many other countries in the Middle East: And that the Netenyahu's are dogged by claims of corruption and fraud:

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Telescope

Russian spy plane set to fly over America this week as part of Open Skies agreement

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Tue, 23 Apr 2019 20:25 UTC
spy plane
Earlier this month, it was an incredible sight to see: a Russian Tu-154M-ON (NATO reporting name: "Careless") reconnaissance plane conducting a surveillance mission over US sensitive military sites -- places where even US commercial jets are generally forbidden to fly over, we reported.

A new report Monday from Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star), translated and reported by Sputnik, said that another Russian military reconnaissance plane will fly over US territory April 22-27.

The Russians will use a Tupolev Tu-214 for the second surveillance mission carried out within the guidelines of the international Treaty on Open Skies, Red Star said, citing Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation Sergei Ryzhkov.

Online flight tracking software provided by Flightrader24, shows the Tu-214, with the registration number RF-64525, and using an Open Skies call sign, OSY332T, landed in Reykjavik, Iceland on Monday morning. The aircraft took off around noon to continue its journey to the US.

Comment: It appears that the US isn't satisfied with the Open Skies program because just yesterday it was reported that, yet again, a US spy plane was spotted snooping near Russia's maritime border in the Black Sea.

See also:

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Broom

Cost of US F-35 program just went up $100 Billion, totaling $1.196 trillion

Anthony Capaccio
Bloomberg
Mon, 22 Apr 2019 18:28 UTC
F-35A Lightning II
© Matt Cardy/Getty ImagesF-35A Lightning II
Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F-35 jet, the world's costliest weapons program, just got even costlier.

The estimated total price for research and procurement has increased by $22 billion in current dollars adjusted for inflation, according to the Pentagon's latest annual cost assessment of major projects. The estimate for operating and supporting the fleet of fighters over more than six decades grew by almost $73 billion to $1.196 trillion.

The increase to $428.4 billion from $406.2 billion in acquisition costs, about a 5.5 percent increase, isn't due to poor performance, delays or excessive costs for labor or materials, according to the Defense Department's latest Selected Acquisition Report sent to Congress last week and obtained by Bloomberg News.

Comment: It's no secret thtat the Pentagon is overseeing "astonishing fraud", one way it does this is by stashing billions in funding, only to spend it later, thus avoiding accountability, and it seems the F-35 project is no different. It's also no wonder the Pentagon failed its first ever audit, even after changing the accountancy rules: "accuracy" problems in $2.7 trillion organization

See also:

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