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Ukraine government hikes gas prices for population by 25% as part of deal with IMF


RT
Sat, 20 Oct 2018 12:14 UTC
gas meter
© Reuters/Gleb Garanich
Kiev has announced that Ukrainians will have to pay nearly 25 percent more for gas starting from November. The decision follows an agreement with the International Monetary Fund that demands increases as part of aid program.

"Starting from November 1, gas prices will increase only by 23.5 percent. Not by 60 percent. This is what we managed to achieve with incredible efforts as a result of negotiations," Ukrainian Prime Minister Vladimir Groysman said on Friday.


Comment: Trying to make bad news look good. The population won't be happy with this price hike.


The prime minister noted that the Ukrainian government had been negotiating with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to remove the issue of raising gas prices from the agenda of cooperation with the organization.
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Star of David

IDF boosts military presence on Gaza border while politicians call for war


RT
Sat, 20 Oct 2018 11:51 UTC
tanks Gaza border IDF
© Reuters / Amir Cohen
Israel has boosted its military presence along the border with Gaza amid top politicians' calls for a full-scale military campaign like the conflict of 2014, to put an end to the violence and rocket attacks that it links to Hamas.

The IDF has stationed around 60 tanks and armored personnel carriers at a deployment area near the Palestinian border, according to Reuters, in what may be the largest military maneuver from Israel since 2014's Operation Protective Edge.

In the latest exchange this week, a rocket from Gaza hit the southern Israeli city of Be'er Sheva, damaging a house, while another fell into the sea. In a series of retaliatory airstrikes Tuesday night, the IDF killed one Palestinian and injured several more, targeting eight "terrorist locations."

Comment: Also see: Israel's policies in Gaza are categorically genocidal

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Star of David

Israel lobbyists smear Khashoggi as 'terrorist who deserved to die' in order to maintain Saudi alliance

Philip Weiss
Mondoweiss
Sat, 20 Oct 2018 11:51 UTC
Josh Block
Even as headlines around the world say that it murdered a critical journalist, Saudi Arabia has some friends in the U.S. The Israel lobby is going to bat for the theocratic dictatorship over the alleged killing of Jamal Khashoggi.

Last night on i24 news, EJ Kimball, an Israel advocate at the Middle East Forum, suggested that Khashoggi deserved to die. The journalist's "ties to al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood" raise "a whole lot of other issues" about the Saudi tradition of exporting terror, Kimball said. The much bigger picture, he said, is the new Saudi Arabia taking on Iran.

Josh Block of the Israel Project made a similar allegation about Khashoggi two nights back. Pro-Al-Qaeda media are pushing the Khashoggi story, Block said, "because Khashoggi was a radical Islamist terrorist ally who was close to Osama Bin Ladin, ISIS, Hamas & wanted to overthrow the Saudi ruling royals, who oppose both the Sunni terrorists, sponsored by Turkey & Qatar, as well as Irans's Shia terrorist armies & allies."

Comment: Also see:

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Bizarro Earth

Trump touts Saudi arms deal while talking sanctions over Khashoggi death


RT
Fri, 19 Oct 2018 21:04 UTC
trump
US President Donald Trump has again warned that Saudi Arabia will face consequences if it was behind the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi - but he also suggested that Washington will not be axing its arms deal with Riyadh.

When a reporter, employing some lingo previously used by the president, asked Trump what "severe consequences" against Saudi Arabia would entail, the president had a rather vague answer.

"I think it's too early to say," he said, while stressing that it's "very serious stuff" and "something we don't like" if Riyadh was indeed behind Khashoggi's murder. He added that Congress would be involved when it came to determining an appropriate response.

However, he once again touted the arms deal between Washington and Riyadh, citing the $450 billion and 600,000 jobs it is bringing into the country, and adding that it would be "very hurtful" to the US if it was dropped.

Comment: For more on the issue, see: And check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: West Discovers Saudi Arabia Has Human Rights Issues & The Real Reason People Hate Trump

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Eye 1

US attempts to create civil war in Ukraine's Orthodox Church

Andrew Korybko
Sputnik
Sat, 20 Oct 2018 10:00 UTC
ukraine priest flag
In a brazen display of disrespect, Ukraine's parliament lobbies the Ecumenical Patriarch to grant a schismatic Church full legitimacy and self-rule - all at once
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church's efforts to obtain autocephaly, or what can for all practical intents and purposes be regarded as independence, from the Moscow Patriarchate threatens to spark a spiritual civil war that could result in yet another schism within Christianity.

Kiev recently received permission from the Holy Synod of the Constantinople Patriarchate to go forward with its plans to break from Moscow and found its own church, which it claims will free the country from Russian influence. Moscow, for its part, fiercely objects to this hostile move and expressed serious concern over the fate of its church's property and the safety of its believers in an increasingly ultra-nationalist Ukraine. It also vowed to protect them through all legal means at its disposal.

The issue is extremely sensitive because Kiev is regarded as the historic cradle of Russian civilization, which is one of the reasons why the aftermath of the American-backed spree of urban terrorism popularly referred to as "EuroMaidan" was so painful for many Russians. Now, however, they're forced to confront the nightmarish scenario of potentially having the spiritual bonds with their ancient motherland severed for what appears to be nothing more than self-serving political reasons that are irresponsibly - though possibly even deliberately - widening the divide between these two brotherly people. This can't help but have geopolitical consequences, which is why the theory of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church's campaign for autocephaly being a weaponization of religion for strategic ends is becoming more widespread.

Comment: Evidently nothing is sacred in US attempts to sow discord:

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Better Earth

China intervenes in its economy to moderate growth

Phillip Inman
Guardian
Fri, 19 Oct 2018 18:40 UTC
china stock down
© Imaginechina/REX/ShutterstockChina's leading stock market has seen shares tumble over the last six months.
Chinese officials have reacted quickly to a sharp slowdown in growth at the world's second largest economy, promising that it remained strong despite an escalating trade war with the US.

The intervention on Friday by the vice-premier, Liu He, and the central bank governor gave China's leading stock market a brief respite from six months of tumbling shares that have sliced more than a third from the value of Shanghai-listed companies.

Growth in the three months to the end of September slipped to 6.5% from 6.7% in the previous quarter, official data showed, to mark the slowest rate of quarterly GDP growth since early 2009.

Much of the blame for the slowdown was heaped on Beijing's credit controls, which had restricted lending and investment, especially in heavy industries.

Comment: China's plan is to not become part of the boom and bust cycles so synonymous with Western economies, which is one reason for government interventions, and it's working, because the growth seen in the Chinese economy is the envy of the slow burn economies of the West: Also check out SOTT radio's:

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Stock Down

What sanctions on Russia and China really mean

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
Thu, 18 Oct 2018 08:09 UTC
economic sanctions sign
© IStockThe Trump administration has taken a hard line against China and Russia.
A crucial Pentagon report on the US defense industrial base and "supply chain resiliency" bluntly accuses China of "military expansion" and "a strategy of economic aggression," mostly because Beijing is the only source for "a number of chemical products used in munitions and missiles."

Russia is mentioned only once, but in a crucial paragraph: as a - what else - "threat," alongside China, for the US defense industry.

The Pentagon, in this report, may not be advocating total war against both Russia and China - as it was interpreted in some quarters. What it does is configure the trade war against China as even more incandescent, while laying bare the true motivations behind the sanctioning of Russia.

The US Department of Commerce has imposed restrictions on 12 Russian corporations that are deemed to be "acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the US." In practice, this means that American corporations cannot export dual-use products to any of the sanctioned Russian companies.

There are very clear reasons behind these sanctions - and they are not related to national security. It's all about "free market" competition.

At the heart of the storm is the Irkut MC-21 narrow-body passenger jet - the first in the world with a capacity of more than 130 passengers to have composite-based wings.

Comment: The US can sanction Russia and tax China all they want. It only strengthens the ties between the two countries, rather than advance the US' economic agenda.

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Pirates

Former Clinton adviser floats 'slim' possibility Killary may run in 2020, conservatives have a field day


RT
Sat, 20 Oct 2018 03:06 UTC
Hillary Clinton
© Reuters / Joshua Roberts
With no clear frontrunner emerging from the Democratic camp, one former adviser reckons 2020 might be Hillary Clinton's time to shine - much to the amusement of the White House.

Philippe Reines, a former senior adviser to Clinton during her tenure as Secretary of State, told Politico on Friday that while Clinton's chances of running in 2020 are "somewhere between highly unlikely and zero," people shouldn't be so quick to write her off.

No other Democrat has "anywhere near a base of 32 million people," Reines argued, referring to how many votes Clinton could muster if half of her 2016 supporters voted for her again. Reines added that Clinton is "smarter," "tougher," and could fundraise easier than any other Democrat.
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Attention

Latest caravan of Central American migrants puts Trump legacy on the line

Patrick J. Buchanan
http://buchanan.org
Thu, 18 Oct 2018 20:10 UTC
merkel migrants Germany
Angela Merkel unleashed a tsunami of migrants into Germany in 2015
Our mainstream media remain consumed with the grisly killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, and how President Donald Trump will deal with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Understandably so, for this is the most riveting murder story since O.J. Simpson and has strategic implications across the Middle East.

Yet far more critical to the future of our civilization is the ongoing invasion of the West from the Third World.

Consider the impact of the decision by Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2015 to throw open Germany's doors to 1 million refugees from Syria's civil war.

Comment:

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Newspaper

President Trump praises Montana Congressman who body-slammed Guardian reporter


RT
Fri, 19 Oct 2018 16:36 UTC
Trump in Missoula, MT
© Reuters / Jonathan ErnstPresident Trump speaks at a rally in Missoula, Montana
US President Donald Trump praised the wrestling skills of Republican Congressman Greg Gianforte, who body-slammed a Guardian reporter to the ground at a campaign event last year. Needless to say, the liberal media is appalled.

Gianforte was convicted of assault after he grabbed Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs by the neck and body-slammed him to the ground at a campaign event on the eve of Montana's special election in 2017. The slam broke Jacobs' glasses and Gianforte punched the winded reporter on the ground.

Gianforte later apologized to Jacobs, donated $50,000 to the Committee To Protect Journalists, paid a fine and served 40 hours of community service. He went on to beat his Democratic challenger - country musician Rob Quist - and now represents Montana in the House of Representatives.

Speaking to supporters at a campaign-style rally in Missoula, Montana, on Thursday, Trump praised Gianforte's wrestling skills, drawing cheers and laughs from the crowd.
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