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Haley degrades UN report on US poverty as 'misleading, politically motivated'


RT
Fri, 22 Jun 2018 10:25 UTC
HaleyWarrenSanders
© News.com.au/Die Hard DemocratNikki Haley • Elizabeth Warren • Bernie Sanders
Washington's envoy to the UN Nikki Haley has blasted a report on poverty in the US, as "misleading and politically motivated". The document accuses the Trump administration of deepening poverty and inequality.

"It is patently ridiculous for the United Nations to examine poverty in America," Haley said in letters addressed to Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vermont) and Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts). The ambassador admitted poverty in America "remains a serious concern" however, "it does no one any good to inaccurately describe its prevalence or its causes."

Both Sanders and Warren were among over a dozen Democrats in the Congress who addressed Haley on the issues of inequality and poverty.
"I am deeply disappointed that the Special Rapporteur used his platform to make misleading and politically motivated statements about American domestic policy issues," Haley said. "Regrettably, his report is an all too common example of the misplaced priorities [of the UN]."
The report was written by the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty, Philip Alston, who is due to present it to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on June 22.
"The policies pursued over the past year seem deliberately designed to remove basic protections from the poorest, punish those who are not in employment and make even basic health care into a privilege to be earned rather than a right of citizenship," Alston said.
He stressed that he looks forward to responding to her comments in the Human Rights Council on Friday. "Too bad the US won't be there," he noted.

Comment: Attack dog Haley has one less venue for her spite and venom. While a debatable move by the US, some dare say she won't be missed.

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Family

Melania Trump's surprise visit to border facility

Kate Bennet, Betsy Klein
CNN
Thu, 21 Jun 2018 10:18 UTC
Melania shelter visit
© AFPFirst Lady Melania Trump visits Upbring New Hope Children's Shelter
First Lady Melania Trump touched down in McAllen, Texas, Thursday for a publicly unannounced and hastily planned trip to get a firsthand look at the crisis affecting immigrant families at the US border.

"I want to thank you for your hard work, your compassion and your kindness," the first lady said at a roundtable briefing at Upbring New Hope Children's Shelter, with doctors and medical staff, social workers and other experts on hand. "She wants to see what's real," the first lady's spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham told CNN during a news briefing en route to Texas, explaining Trump's decision to visit. Trump becomes the first member of the President's inner circle to personally witness the situation that has captured the country's attention.

Something else that grabbed attention: the jacket the first lady donned as she left Washington. She wore an olive green jacket, which said on the back: "I really don't care. Do U?" in white graffiti-style lettering. Trump was not wearing the jacket when she landed in McAllen. The $39 jacket is last season Zara. The first lady's team said there was no hidden meaning behind the sartorial choice. "It's a jacket. There was no hidden message. After today's important visit to Texas, I hope the media isn't going to choose to focus on her wardrobe," Grisham said.


Comment: There are many things Americans and the media do not care about, but Melania's unfortunate jacket choice isn't one of them. More importantly, the president signed an executive order to reunite parents and children and the first lady showcased the care and facility provided for the children of separated families. See also:

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Network

Deep State terrified that Putin-Trump summit might lead to new spirit of goodwill between East and West

Neil Clark
RT
Fri, 22 Jun 2018 17:16 UTC
trump putin
© Sputnik/Mikhail Klimentyev / ReutersDonald Trump and Vladimir Putin at the APEC summit in Danang, Vietnam November 10, 2017
The news that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are preparing to meet in Europe next month has been causing consternation among those keen to keep the temperature of the new 'Cold War' close to freezing point.

But these voices should be ignored, as a summit is just what is needed at the present time.

"Meeting jaw to jaw is better than war," Winston Churchill famously observed. Which sane person, desirous of world peace, could possibly disagree with the sentiment?

Yet, it seems that some people in the corridors of power in the West and in neocon think-tanks are seriously alarmed by the prospect of the presidents of the US and Russia getting together for a tete-a-tete and possibly defusing current tensions.

The London Times has cited Whitehall sources who told the paper how worried they were about a Trump-Putin get-together. "It would be a highly negative thing to do," one unnamed insider said. "Everyone is perturbed by what is going on, and is fearing for the future of the [Atlantic] alliance,"said another.
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Red Flag

"New partnerships": France's PM chooses China for first official visit amidst US sanctions and trade wars

John Goodrich
CGTN
Fri, 22 Jun 2018 13:26 UTC
French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe
Former French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe
French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe flew to China on Friday for a four-day visit during which he aims to build on foundations laid during President Emmanuel Macron's trip to Xi'an and Beijing in January.

The four-day visit is a rare official overseas trip for Philippe, the head of government, who has been focused on pushing through domestic reforms since his appointment in May 2017.


Comment: And they're not going down very well: Winter of Discontent in France: Protests, Endless Dark Skies, And Crazy New Laws


"I think it's a good sign that the first new international travel for the prime minister is to China," Denis Depoux, China CEO of global consultancy Roland Berger, told CGTN Digital. "It comes not so long after the visit of President Macron, so it means France is intensifying a bit the pace of its relationship with China, which from a business perspective is a very good sign."

Comment: In the wake of the US vs world trade war and sanctions, France isn't the only European country hawking for alternatives: Also check out SOTTs: Behind the Headlines: Trump Ditches Europe, Europe Bluffs, Russia and China Carry on With Eurasian Integration

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Biohazard

Russian MOD: Chemical weapons in Syria's Douma were produced with equipment made in W. Europe and N. America


Sputnik
Fri, 22 Jun 2018 16:50 UTC
douma chemical lab
© Sputnik / Mikhail VoskresenskyDouma chemical laboratory
The mission to probe the fact of chemical weapons use in Syria has strongly protracted the timing of the investigation in favor of the US and their allies' interests, the Russian Defense Ministry stated.

Chemical weapons in Syria were produced by militants and equipment was manufactured in Western Europe, said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

"The equipment, the leakage of which came out a few days ago... I would like to say that some of it is equipment that was used by militants, terrorists. It was discovered in the city of Douma," Zakharova said at a briefing of the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Defense for the diplomatic corps to investigate the use of chemical weapons in Syria.

The militants' chemical lab in Syria's Douma produced high-tech pentaerythritol tetranitrate (TEN) explosives and also had precursors of mustard agent and chlorine, Maj. Gen. Igor Kirillov said.
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Light Sabers

Chinese media: 'Trump's trade war a symptom of paranoid delusions'


RT
Fri, 22 Jun 2018 16:48 UTC
made in china
© Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
The China Daily has accused the Trump administration of "manipulative maneuvers," which have led to a trade war and the lowest level of Chinese investment in the US economy in seven years.

"The woes the administration is inflicting on Chinese companies do not simply translate into boons for US enterprises and the US economy," the state newspaper said in an editorial headlined "Protectionism symptom of paranoid delusions."

The paper refers to research by Rhodium Group, which found that Chinese investment in the United States declined by 92 percent to $1.8 billion in the first five months of this year - its lowest level in seven years. "The fast-shrinking Chinese investment in the US reflects the damage being done to China-US-trade relations... by the trade crusade of Trump and his trade hawks," it said.
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Mail

Stephen Cohen: Russiagate's 'core narrative' never had any actual evidence

Stephen F. Cohen
The Nation
Wed, 20 Jun 2018 16:14 UTC
Russiagate Putin Trump
Stephen F. Cohen, professor emeritus of Russian studies and politics at NYU and Princeton, and John Batchelor continue their (usually) weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. (You can find previous installments, now in their fifth year, at TheNation.com.)

Cohen reminds listeners that the Russiagate scandal, which first leaked into the media in mid-2016, has already done immense political damage during these two years. It has cast doubt on the legitimacy of this presidency and possibly future ones. It has questioned the authenticity of a popular election and probably future ones, and thus of American democracy itself. And with high-level former US officials, influential columnists, and an array of mainstream-media outlets regularly declaring that President Trump is "a quisling" and "a Russian agent," the scandal has greatly diminished his capacity to avoid war with Russia, conceivably nuclear war. Meanwhile, as happened during the McCarthy era, a myriad of official and media "investigations" have cast an ever-widening net in search of evidence of other "colluders," from peripheral Trump "advisers" and shadowy "informants" to a Russian prostitute and her pimp in Thailand. After all this time and frenzy, substantiated charges and indictments amount to little more than customary financial corruption on the part of the bipartisan top 2 percent and "lying to the FBI," the latter apparently open to interpretation as to what was actually said and perhaps involving entrapment. Meanwhile, reputations are slurred, lives ruined, once-respectable media degraded, and public discourse-especially about international affairs, but not only-chilled by self-censorship and growing institutional forms of "preventing disinformation."

Amid this daily frenzy, it's often forgotten that Russiagate's "core narrative," as one of its most devout and prominent promoters terms it, was inspired by, and continues to be based on, two documents, both published in January 2017: an "Intelligence Community Assessment" and the anti-Trump "dossier" compiled by a retired UK intelligence officer, Christopher Steele. The "core narrative" of both was, of course, that Putin's Kremlin had intervened in the 2016 presidential election-essentially an "attack on America" - in order to damage Hillary Clinton's candidacy and abet Trump's. At the time, a few critics questioned the authenticity of the ICA and the dossier, but for political and media Russiagaters, they instantly became, and have remained, canons, despite their deficit of facts and logic. Reread today, in light of what is now known, they are examples of the adage "rubbish in, rubbish out."
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Piggy Bank

Philip and Theresa May profit from Trump's caging of children in detention centers


RT
Fri, 22 Jun 2018 15:17 UTC
Theresa and Philip May children
© (L) Hannah Mckay/ (R) Reuters
Capital Group, the company of UK PM's husband Philip May, profited from Donald Trump's caging of children in immigration detention centers. The centers are run by General Dynamics, which is partly owned by May's investment firm.

General Dynamics has been assisting the US Office of Refugee Resettlement in processing immigrant-children cases during President Trump's "zero tolerance" immigration policy. As many as 2,000 children are reported to have been separated from their parents in just six weeks under the controversial policy. A distressing audio clip of children sobbing went viral on social media.
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Car Black

Trump threatens 20% tariffs on all European cars coming into US


RT
Fri, 22 Jun 2018 16:26 UTC
imported cars tariffs
© Getty Images
US President Donald Trump has issued another warning to the EU, threatening to slap the bloc's automakers with 20 percent tax levies unless trade barriers placed on American corporations are lifted.

The warning comes two days after US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said that the White House had not made any decision on whether to extend the tariffs which had recently been introduced on other European goods.

The US president's tweet dragged down stocks of European automakers BMW, Volkswagen, Fiat Chrysler and Mercedes. Shares of American car companies Ford and General Motors also plunged following the threat, but have since bounced back.

Comment:

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Chalkboard

SOTT Focus: Trade War with China - Easy to Win?

Chris Kanthan
Sott.net
Fri, 22 Jun 2018 18:27 UTC
US China trade war
Trump and his supporters are convinced that we can easily win the trade war against China. After all, we buy $500 billion worth of goods from them, and they buy only $130 billion of goods from us. So the logic goes, "they need us more than we need them!" But is it that simple? Let's analyze.
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