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IMF execs refuse to recognize Guaido as Venezuela's 'interim president' - a twist the US didn't see coming


teleSUR
Sun, 14 Apr 2019 00:00 UTC
Guaido
© AFPPretender Juan Guaido
Majority of the IMF executive committee members failed to recognize Juan Guaido as "interim president" of Venezuela.

The director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, said Saturday that majority of the organization's executive committee members have failed to recognize opposition lawmaker Juan Guaido as the "interim president" of Venezuela.

"It has to be a large majority of the membership actually recognizing diplomatically the authorities that they regard as legitimate," Lagarde said in a press conference at the IMF and World Bank spring meetings in Washington.

This sets back the effort of U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin who said Saturday that he had had discussions with the IMF about the process for recognizing Guaido as Venezuela's leader. "There were discussions we had this week at the IMF about that, and what their process would be to do that," he said.

The IMF, based in Washington is one of the instruments used by the United States President Donald Trump's administration to attack the Venezuelan economy with the aim of destabilizing the government of Nicolas Maduro. On April 11, the agency suspended access of the Venezuelan government to US$400 million of special drawing rights (SDR), a fund that every country in the world is entitled to.

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Question

Too little, to late? Poroshenko, reinvented, offers apologies, new promises and slick moves


RFE/RL
Wed, 17 Apr 2019 15:19 UTC
Poroshenko
© Serhil Nuzhnenko/RadioSvoboda.org/RFE/RLUkranian President Petro Poroshenko takes selfies, Olimpiyskiy Stadium, Kyiv, April 14, 2019.
There is one presidential candidate Ukrainians have become accustomed to watching sing and dance on stage. It is not incumbent President Petro Poroshenko. And yet there the 53-year-old was, gyrating and pumping his fist beside yellow-overall-clad rockers at a campaign rally at Kyiv's Olimpiyskiy Stadium on April 14.

Fighting for his political survival -- one week before the election.

Then, in another act his aides said was unscripted, Poroshenko led a gushing crowd of a few thousand people inside the 70,000-seat stadium for nearly an hour, rousing them with patriotic chants and posing for selfies with supporters.

Hours earlier, at a press conference that was supposed to be a debate with comedian and presidential front-runner Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Poroshenko made his case for a second term and pleaded for another chance to deliver on promises that many Ukrainians say have been unfulfilled during a presidency that has seen his popularity plummet.

Zelenskiy refused to attend Poroshenko's debate, demanding the two go head-to-head at the stadium on April 19 instead.

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Attention

N. Korea tests mysterious 'tactical guided weapon' after a failed Trump-Kim summit


RT
Wed, 17 Apr 2019 23:48 UTC
Kim Jong-un
© Reuters via KCNANorth Korean Leader Kim Jong-un and military
Kim Jong-un has supervised the test of a new "tactical guided weapon" just months after the summit in Vietnam failed to achieve any results as the US continues to demand unconditional denuclearization before any sanctions relief.

The North Korean leader personally observed the new weapon test on Wednesday, KCNA said, without providing details, other than saying it has a "peculiar mode of guiding flight" with a "powerful warhead."

"The completion of the development of the weapon system serves as an event of very weighty significance in increasing combat power," Kim said.

The White House said it was aware of the weapons test report but refused to issue a comment.


Comment: From RT: NK tells US: Replace Pompeo!
North Korea signaled that it would like to see US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo replaced by someone more careful and "mature" in talks with Pyongyang. If he engages in nuclear talks again, the "table will be lousy," it warned.

Pompeo is believed to have laid some groundwork for the historic first summit between Trump and Kim in Singapore last year, meeting the North Korean leader in Pyongyang several weeks prior.

The latest gathering between the US leader and Kim (in Hanoi, Vietnam) was also poised to become a diplomatic breakthrough but essentially collapsed, with Trump saying "they [N. Korea] wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety and we couldn't do that."

For the last two months, the negotiations have stalled although both sides traded fairly positive comments about the future of the nuclear talks.

Also this month, Kim broke the silence on the nuclear talks, accusing the US of escalating hostility "despite its suggestion for settling the issue through dialogue." He called the US sanctions and pressure as "foolish and dangerous an act as trying to put out fire with oil."


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Arrow Down

'You will fail again, like in the Bay of Pigs': US is rebuffed by Cuban officials


RT
Wed, 17 Apr 2019 21:30 UTC
Cubans
© AFP/Miguel VinasUS-backed Cuban counter-revolutionaries from Assault Brigade 2506 after their capture in the Bay of Pigs in April 1961.
Cuban officials didn't even need to look for a punchline for their response to new US sanctions, announced on the same day that, almost six decades ago, the failed US-sponsored invasion of the socialist island began.

On April 17, 1961, a well-armed group of Cuban exiles, who were trained and financed by the CIA, landed in the Bay of Pigs with the aim of overthrowing Fidel Castro's government. But the invaders faced a strong response from the Revolutionary Armed Forces and surrendered after just three days of fighting, while the US faced a massive international backlash for plotting the coup.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez was quick to remind Washington of the embarrassing blunder, writing on Twitter: "Aggressive escalation of US against Cuba will fail. As in Giron (Bay of Pigs), we shall overcome."

Rodríguez blasted the sanctions, which he called "an attack against International Law and the sovereignty of Cuba and third states."

The head of the US Division in the Cuban Foreign Ministry, Josefina Vidal, also chipped in, promising that the US will lose once again, just as had happened in the Bay of Pigs.

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Dollars

NXIVM sex-cult prosecutors claim evidence for illegal Clinton campaign contributions seeking "political influence"

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Thu, 18 Apr 2019 18:43 UTC
NXIVM Executive Success Programs
The NXIVM Executive Success Programs sign outside of the alleged cult's Albany office.
US Attorney Richard Donoghue asked a federal judge last month for permission to present a mountain of new evidence in the NXIVM sex-cult trial - including evidence of an "illegal scheme to exceed contribution limits to a presidential primary campaign," in the "hopes of obtaining political influence to advance their own agenda," according to a March court filing.

"At the suggestion of a political operative, who has since pleaded guilty to an unrelated New York state bribery charge also involving campaign contributions, the contributions were "bundled" and presented to the candidate at a fundraising event attended by conspirators," the filing continues.

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Mr. Potato

Heard the latest? Putin's vast riches are hidden at Costco!

Phil Butler
New Eastern Outlook
Thu, 18 Apr 2019 18:27 UTC
Putin pleasant face
© Alexei Druzhinin, Kremlin Pool/Associated PRessRussian President Vladimir Putin, right, attends a meeting with students in Yaroslavl, Russia, Friday, Sept. 1, 2017.
What if we all woke up one morning and everybody understood the Russian mentality? Just think, instead of listening to fairytales about Russia and Vladimir Putin, the world would be able to swiftly wade through mountains of negative bullshit to see the truth. This is the story of the "other" Vladimir Putin, the one whose meager salary and means were just revealed.

The angry pirates that tried to rob Russians of their legacy hate Vladimir Putin. They also hate the Russia Putin and his colleagues are trying to lift up. The Bill Browders, Mikhail Khodorkovskys, George Soros, and even Russian media tycoons like Vladimir Gusinsky are the poster boys for the banking elite's vendetta against Russia's leader. Browder got a crooked U.S. Congress to pass the Magnitsky Act, a ludicrous law to punish Russia and Putin for not knuckling under to the supra-capitalists bent on stealing their country's vast wealth. But the larger plan grows more evident with each passing Washington Post Russophobia story.
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TV

Liberals furious with Sanders for Fox town hall: Why no complaints when Obama and Clinton appeared?


RT
Thu, 18 Apr 2019 17:23 UTC
Sanders Fox News
© Agence France-Presse/ Mark MakelaBernie Sanders speaks on Fox News
Liberal pundits are enraged with Bernie Sanders for his appearance on "destructive" Fox News, and with other Democrats for following suit, all while forgetting Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton did the same to no ado.

Fox News could never be mistaken for a liberal news channel. From President Trump's frequent phone-in exclusives on Fox & Friends to former host Bill O'Reilly's invectives against Democrats, immigrants, and rock music, the network makes its political leanings well known.

However, Fox is still a news network, and even in hyper-partisan, Trump-era America, news networks interview political candidates from both parties. Fox aired a town hall with Sanders on Monday night, an event that saw the Vermont Senator's ideas - chief among them universal health care and tax hikes on the wealthy - resonate with the studio audience and draw more than 2.5 million viewers at home.

Comment: Sanders scores big against the Establishment in Fox News town hall

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Attention

Moscow warns Islamic AND anti-Islamic terrorist a rising threat to Europe and beyond


RT
Thu, 18 Apr 2019 16:10 UTC
linwood christchurch
© REUTERS / Edgar SuPolice stand guard as worshippers gather for prayers outside the Linwood Mosque in Christchurch
"Anti-Islamic terrorism," which involves "psychopaths and murderers" fueled by racism and nationalism, is on the rise not only in Europe but all around the world, the director of Russia's security service has warned.

"A phenomenon of anti-Islamic terrorism is becoming a serious challenge," Alexander Bortnikov, head of the Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Thursday. He suggested that deep divides between immigrants and natives are fertile soil for "the rise of nationalist sentiments... and right wing, neo-racist radicalism."
The emergence of cold-blooded psychopaths and murderers who harbor plans to slaughter Muslims is becoming an alarming trend not only in Europe, but in the rest of the world.
The official referred to the New Zealand tragedy on March 15, when 28-year-old Australian Brenton Tarrant opened fire on Muslim worshippers at two city mosques as they gathered for Friday prayers. It was the worst shooting in the country's history, leaving 50 people dead and many more injured.
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Pirates

Newly discovered letter suggests ISIS leader Baghdadi still alive and kicking

Hollie McKay
Fox News
Wed, 17 Apr 2019 16:04 UTC
Abu Bakr Baghdadi
© AFP 2018 / Prakash Singh
The status of the most wanted man in the world remains unknown, but authorities are continuing to piece together clues indicating that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is at least alive.

Documents revealed this month by The Sunday Times showed that ISIS leadership had not only tasked members with "bringing in migrants" as a means to funnel finances and fighters from the crumpled "caliphate" in Syria into Europe and orchestrate attacks, but one letter in-particular among the document trove was specifically addressed to Baghdadi.

The December-dated letter, reportedly signed by six leaders, detailed the terrorist outfit's blueprint for operations in the wake of lost territory - ranging from bank robberies to computer hacking to vehicle rammings. Another letter to Baghdadi late last year, signed by ISIS commander Abu Taher al-Tajiki, lays out an array of potential target sites for striking in Europe.

The letters underscore that not only is ISIS seemingly devoted to overseeing global attacks, but that its shadowy commander still pulls rank.

"The latest information is that he is still in the Syrian desert, and could not enter into the Iraqi side because of concerns about evading the security measures on the borders," Sabah al Namaan, Baghdadi's spokesperson for the counterterrorism agency, told Fox News late last month, stressing that finding the shadowy figure remains of critical importance due to the "symbolic significance" Baghdadi holds in governing the brutal terrorist outfit.
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Mr. Potato

Bolton says Venezuela sanctions serve as warning to countries like Russia against helping Maduro


RT
Wed, 17 Apr 2019 15:52 UTC
John Bolton
© AP Photo / Cliff Owen
US National Security Advisor John Bolton has signaled that Washington's latest sanctions on Venezuela are a "warning" to "external actors" against deploying military assets to support the government of Nicolas Maduro.

The US imposed new sanctions on the Central Bank of Venezuela on Wednesday, restricting US transactions and cutting off access to US dollars. It also targeted Cuba with sanctions, including travel restrictions.

Bolton said the measures should be seen by other powers, including Russia, as a warning against providing any help for Maduro government, which the Trump administration has branded "illegitimate."


Comment: And if the U.S. says so, it must be true, and everyone else must fall in line. Obviously.


Bolton said Russia's recent deployment of military planes to Venezuela posed a "threat to security" in the region, just two months after the US openly attempted to instigate a military coup in the country.

He said Russia's "provocative" action was a threat to "international peace" and security.


Comment: Bolton really should invest in a mirror.


Comment: Bolton must go. Elijah Magnier summed up the Trump's approach to foreign policy well:
...the Trump Administration's "hyper-realist" foreign policy is centered on the notion that "might makes right" and that double standards don't matter as long as a state is strong enough to implement them with minimal consequences to its interests.
That's how a mendacious thug like Bolton get away with the endless stream of lies: simply because he can.

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