Puppet MastersS


Tornado2

Trump mistakenly praises Church for 'abolition of civil rights,' Dems go wild


RT
Fri, 08 Feb 2019 18:53 UTC
Donald Trump
© Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Donald Trump mistakenly lauds Christians for suppressing civil rights - the opposite of what he was due to say - and his political opponents mock the president, and hint that he was sending a coded message to his base.

"Since the founding of our nation, many of our greatest strides, from gaining our independence to abolition of civil rights to extending the vote for women, have been led by people of faith," Trump said to a primarily religious audience in a speech during the National Prayer Breakfast.

A transcript released in the aftermath by the White House showed that Trump, who was reading off a teleprompter for the majority of the speech was meant to say "from gaining our independence, to abolition [of slavery], TO civil rights," which would have given his words the opposite, and expected, meaning.
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Gold Bar

Dump dollar for gold: Russia mulls eliminating gold tax to boost investment at greenback's expense


RT
Fri, 08 Feb 2019 18:43 UTC
Margarita Mamun
© Reuters / Mike BlakeMargarita Mamun
Russia's Finance Ministry told the Izvestia newspaper it is considering complete abolition of value added tax (VAT) on gold purchases. This would give Russian savers an option of investing in gold, rather than foreign currencies.

The ministry said earlier the measure could also help returning capital worth tens of billions of rubles to the country.

Gold bar buyers in Russia are currently obliged to pay 20 percent VAT. However, when selling ingots, the tax is not returned. As a result, demand for gold investment in the country sits at just under 3 tons per year. Experts say that if the tax is dropped, demand could skyrocket to 50-100 tons.

The abolition of VAT will create an investment gold market in Russia, Sberbank Vice President Andrey Shemetov told the newspaper. According to him, as a financial instrument, gold is protected from inflation, and at a time of geopolitical risks, the metal could be an excellent substitute for traditional investments in US dollars.

Resetting the VAT on gold bullion could support the idea of de-dollarization of the Russian economy, said Aleksey Panferov, deputy chairman of the board of Sovcombank. The inclusion of impersonal metal accounts in the deposit insurance system could become another important step in that direction, he added.

According to the World Gold Council, demand for gold in Russia in 2018 was 2.8 tons. In China it reached 304.2 tons, in India - 162 tons, and in Germany - 96 tons. Compared to 2014, demand in Russia has dropped almost three-fold. A significant increase in demand for gold was recorded in China and Kazakhstan after their abolition of the tax.
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Chess

EU-Iran trade mechanism will be 'good way' to bypass US sanctions, Zarif tells RT


RT
Fri, 08 Feb 2019 18:40 UTC
Mohammad Javad Zarif
Mohammad Javad Zarif
Despite mounting pressure from the US, Iran and the EU will work together to restore mutual trade and 'go around' American sanctions placed on Tehran, the nation's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told RT Arabic.

As Washington stepped up sanctions against Tehran, the EU announced that it would create a mechanism protecting European companies that were willing to do "legitimate business" with the Islamic Republic. It will be "just a preliminary phase" before Tehran can fully "restore trade relations" with Europe, Zarif said in an exclusive interview with RT Arabic.
We will see how the mechanism works in practice but in theory it seems quite effective. I believe that it provides us with a good way around the sanctions.
The minister said Europeans believed they would be able to announce the mechanism much earlier, and he wondered whether they had been pressured by the US. But once implemented, the protective mechanism can be expanded to include non-EU states, he noted.
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Light Saber

'Death to America' means death to Trump, Bolton & Pompeo not the American people - Iran's supreme leader


RT
Fri, 08 Feb 2019 19:50 UTC
iranian supreme leader
© Reuters / Nazanin Tabatabaee Yazdi / TIMA
The slogan "Death to America" is directed against the "evil" US President Donald Trump and his associates, not the American people, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said.

Speaking to a gathering of Iranian Air Force officers, Khamenei hit back at Trump's State of the Union address, which included an attack on the Iranian "regime that chants 'Death to America.'"

"The US is the embodiment of evil, but still complains when you chant 'Death to America,'"Khamenei said. He then explained that those chants specifically target the people ruling the country, not "the American nation."
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Light Sabers

US accuses China of preparing for WWIII: What you're not being told

Darius Shahtahmasebi
RT
Fri, 08 Feb 2019 18:17 UTC
china military parade
© Reuters / Damir Sagolj
A Republican senator has accused China of preparing for World War III. Like most of Washington's statements concerning China, the lawmaker has completely ignored the US' role in creating such a scenario in the first place.

Just last week, Republican Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma made the allegation that China's military was preparing for World War III.

"It's like you're preparing for World War III," he said during a Senate hearing focused on the so-called challenges presented by Russia and China. "You're talking to our allies over there and you wonder whose side they're going to be on."

According to Inhofe, the US has sat back and watched as China has built its military presence in the South China Sea, turning artificial islands into potential launch pads for its military.

The idea that the US has sat back and watched anything, ever, in the history of the world, is somewhat laughable. Even under the Obama administration, the president had an explicit containment strategy which was supposed to enclose and encircle China from all angles. The so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) was also designed for this purpose (yet for some reason Donald Trump, who is overtly anti-Chinese, thought the agreement was a bad idea).

Inhofe also said he was "concerned" that "our message" was "not getting across."
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Sherlock

Whistleblower Nicholas Wilson investigates Integrity Initiative, Browder & the HSBC connection


21st Century Wire
Wed, 06 Feb 2019 17:41 UTC
bill browder HSBC magnitsky act integrity initiative
© Real Media
"2 Degrees of separation" - a theory whistleblower Nicholas Wilson has, that wherever in the world a financial scandal occurs HSBC is to be found nearby.

Nicholas Wilson reveals the close associations between HSBC and the UK security forces, and asks whether the Foreign and Commonwealth Office should be giving public funding to the Institute of Statecraft. Watch:


Nicholas has been campaigning for 13 years after blowing the whistle on a High Street fraud of excessive bank charges applied to store cards administered by HSBC. He has recently been vindicated by a Financial Conduct Authority ruling and HSBC have had to begin paying back some of the money defrauded from customers. He was dubbed "Mr. Ethical" by his boss at the time for refusing to defraud debtors. In this first of several interviews for Real Media, he connects Government funding and the security services to the recently revealed psyops outfit, Institute for Statecraft and its 'integrity initiative'. He asks whether there might be a connection with the suspicious death of accountant Sergei Magnitsky, who was working for the Hermitage Fund there. HSBC bankrolled and jointly managed the Hermitage Fund with Bill Browder, who appears in Institute of Statecraft's documents. Browder, convicted of tax fraud in Russia connected with the Magnitsky affair, has spent years pointing the finger at the Russians over both the killing and the disappearance of nearly quarter of a billion pounds, but a film by Andrei Nekrasov casts suspicion on Browder and HSBC. If the film is to be believed, it would make sense that Browder is involved with a shadowy group set up to counter Russian "disinformation".

More HSBC revelations at nicholaswilson.com
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Pirates

Terrorist rehab? Turkey reportedly wants to make Nusra into a political group like Hezbollah


Sputnik
Fri, 08 Feb 2019 17:57 UTC
nusra
© AFP 2018 / RAMI AL-SAYED
Turkey wants to turn Nusra Front (a terrorist group banned in Russia) into a political force similar to the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, a source in the Syrian Negotiation Commission (SNC) has told Sputnik.

"Turkey is trying to handle the Nusra matter in Syria's north, and they [the Turks] want to make this group a political group, like Hezbollah in Lebanon", the source said.

The Turkish government hasn't yet confirmed the information.

The source in the Syrian Negotiation Commission (SNC) has also stated that Turkey wants to involve the Nusra Front terrorist group in a new army in the north of Syria, where Ankara wants to set up a safe zone.

"Under the Turkish plan, Nusra will be involved in the national army in the north, which Turkey is trying to build now", the source said.

Comment: If true, Turkey is just trying to put lipstick on the Nusra pig. But they're in a tough spot. The Turks have supported Nusra for so long that it's hard to just abandon them. This last move smacks of desperation. Turkey agreed to handle the terrorists in Idlib. They failed. So when the time comes, the Syrians are legally justified in launching their Idlib offensive to cleanse the province of the thousands of al-Qaeda terrorists occupying it.

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Bomb

MSF calls Saudis' health center bombing investigation unacceptable


Médecins Sans Frontières
Wed, 06 Feb 2019 17:45 UTC
yemen msf
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is dismayed by several findings of the team appointed by the Saudi and Emirati-led Coalition (SELC) to investigate the bombing of an MSF cholera treatment centre (CTC) in Abs, Yemen, on 11 June 2018. We demand that the results of the investigation be reviewed and false allegations against MSF be withdrawn.
In a press conference held without notice on 16 January 2019, the SELC-appointed platform for investigating such incidents, the Joint Incidents Assessment Team (JIAT), made various unacceptable and contradictory claims that portray MSF as responsible for, rather than a victim of, the bombing.

While the report recognises that the SELC was partly responsible for the bombing, it fails to shed full light on - and attribute clear responsibilities for - yet another attack on humanitarian and medical work in Yemen. Instead, the report seeks to shift responsibility for the attack away from the SELC, claiming that MSF did not take the appropriate measures to prevent the bombing.

Comment: The Saudis do everything the West accuses Assad of doing:

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Bad Guys

Paris agrees to compromise on Nord Stream 2 oversight after pushing for EU control


France 24
Fri, 08 Feb 2019 17:36 UTC
nord stream oil pipeline worker
© AFP
France and Germany have struck a compromise allowing Berlin to remain the lead negotiator with Russia on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Europe, a proposed deal showed Friday.

France, a pivotal player in the EU gas talks, had said earlier it would support European Union oversight of new offshore energy pipelines, a move that could have crippled plans for the undersea pipeline between Russia and Germany.

But France and Germany have now agreed to oversight from the "territory and territorial sea of the member state where the first interconnection point is located," according to a copy of the draft obtained by AFP.

The pipeline is due to emerge at the German Baltic port of Greifswald, from where gas will be distributed to other EU countries.

The draft text replaces the older wording stating the EU rules on gas imports will be applied by "the territory of the member states" and or the "territorial sea of the member states".

The draft compromise was submitted to a meeting of the EU ambassadors discussing a revision of gas market rules for the 28-nation bloc, diplomats said.

Comment: See also:

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Chess

German union industry chief warns Washington is dragging its allies into a harmful economic war with China


RT
Fri, 08 Feb 2019 15:59 UTC
huawei US Ban
© ReutersHuawei's billboard featuring 5G technology at the PT Expo in Beijing, China.
Washington seeks to enforce its China policy upon its allies, a German industry union head has said in a rare remark. He warned that conceding to Washington's demand to ban the Chinese giant Huawei would be harmful for Germany.

The US apparently pushes a motto "whoever my enemy is, must also be my friend's enemy," Dieter Kempf, the chief of the Federation of German Industry (BDI), said, commenting on Washington's continued efforts to derail the business of the Chinese telecommunications company.

The US wants its allies in Europe and elsewhere to ban Huawei from taking part in developing the latest generation of 5G mobile networks on their territories.

The US might "be tempted to use its economic might to enforce its own sanctions on others," Kempf said, adding that the approach contradicts the very idea of "free, rules-based international trade," which Europe cherishes.

He also warned that yielding to Washington's demands would simply "make no sense" and harm Germany's own economic interests.

Comment: Huawei is being targeted primarily because it poses a threat to the profits of western corporations. See: Huawei, Tech War and Geopolitics

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