Puppet MastersS


Snakes in Suits

'Cocky' Davis caves to EU Brexit demands on day 1, gets trolled on social media


RT
Tue, 20 Jun 2017 14:07 UTC
David Davis
© Francois Lenoir / Reuters
By the end of day one of Brexit negotiations in Brussels, the man responsible for getting Britain the best possible deal, David Davis, had already capitulated to one of Europe's key demands.

After hours of discussion with Europe's lead negotiator, Michel Barnier, Davis agreed to set aside discussions on free trade for a later date, pushing forward instead with negotiations on Britain's multimillion-euro divorce bill.

The EU's insistence on a two-phased negotiation had previously been described by Davis as "the row of the summer."
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Bomb

Best of the Web: Truth bomb: Washington Senator calls US base in Syria a violation of international law, Assad would easily win new election


Sputnik
Tue, 20 Jun 2017 13:56 UTC
Bashar Assad
© Press Service of the President of Syria
State Senator from Virginia Richard Black said that the establishment of a US military base in Syria, a "sovereign country that has never taken any offensive action towards" America, is an "obvious violation of international law."

The US base in Syria's At Tanf area is a clear violation of international law, State Senator from Virginia Richard Black told Sputnik.

"We've even set up a base at Al Tanf in the southern part, it's an American base within the country of Syria," Black said. "You can't get a more obvious violation of international law than to actually move in and set up a military base in a sovereign country that has never taken any offensive action towards our country."

Comment: Very refreshing to hear some truth from the US but will this be enough to change Washington's foreign policy?

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Stock Up

Net worth of wealthy Chinese skyrockets 900% since 2006


Sputnik
Tue, 20 Jun 2017 13:56 UTC
china economy yen
"The number of Chinese individuals with net worth of at least 10 million yuan expanded to 1.58 million in 2016, almost 900 percent of the figure in 2006, which stood at 180,000," the 2017 China Private Wealth Report, released by Bain Consulting and China Merchants Bank on Tuesday, said.

According to the report, about 90 percent of these individuals accumulated their wealth in the last ten years, with about 70 percent of them becoming rich in the last five years. The overall value of private wealth available for investment in China reached 165 trillion yuan ($24.2 trillion) in 2016, growing about 21 percent annually since 2014.

The number of rich Chinese individuals is concentrated in five regions, including the Guangdong province, Shanghai, Beijing, the Jiangxu province and the Zhejiang province, accounting for about 47 percent of the national total. The value of their total wealth accounted for about 62 percent of the overall value of the high net wealth individuals covered in the report.
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Wall Street

Barclays Bank and four execs charged with fraud over 2008 Qatar-backed rescue


RT
Tue, 20 Jun 2017 13:47 UTC
Barclays Bank sign
© Toby Melville / Reuters
British multinational bank Barclays and four former executives have been charged with conspiracy to commit fraud in the bank's 2008 capital raising from Qatar.

The announcement by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) marks the culmination of a five-year investigation into the emergency action Barclays took in 2008 to avoid a state bailout when Britain's banking system was on the verge of collapse.

The case revolves around the £322 million ($410 million) in fees the British bank paid to Qatari investors for a loan as part of a wider £12 billion fundraising during the 2008 financial crisis. The Barclays deal with Qatar also included a $3 billion loan.
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Cowboy Hat

German defense commissioner: 'There will be a European army'


RT
Tue, 20 Jun 2017 13:04 UTC
Army Soldiers
© Michaela Rehle / Reuters
Germany's parliamentary defense commissioner, Hans-Peter Bartels, has renewed calls for a joint EU army amid concerns about the reliability of the NATO alliance and disorganization and fragmentation of national defense structures.

Speaking to the German Press Agency on Monday, Hans-Peter Bartels, the Germany Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces, called on the 28-nation bloc's militaries to unite into a single armed force.

"We are currently disorganized, technically fragmented and duplicate structures unnecessarily," Bartels said, as quoted by the Telegraph. "We do not want to go down the solitary national path anymore. Not in Germany, not in the Netherlands, not in the Czech Republic and not in Italy."

Comment: Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, the award-winning author of The Globalization of NATO, made the following observation about a possible European Army back in 2015:
An EU military force is being justified as protection from Russia, but it may also be a way of reducing US influence as the EU and Germany come to loggerheads with the US and NATO over Ukraine. [...]

The intelligentsias in the US are already alarmed at the risks that an EU military would pose to American influence. The American Jewish Committee's influential Commentary Magazine, which is affiliated to the neo-cons in the Washington Beltway, has asked, as the title of the article by Seth Mandel illustrates, "Why Is Germany Undermining NATO?" This is while the Washington Examiner has asked, as the title of the article by Hoskingson says, "Whatever happened to US influence?"

This is why Washington's vassals in the EU — specifically Britain, Poland, and the three Baltic states — have all been very vocal in their opposition to the idea of a common EU military force. While Paris has been reluctant to join the calls for an EU army, French opposition politician Marine Le Pen has announced that the time has come for France to come out of the shadow of the United States.

British Prime Minister David Cameron's government responded to Jean-Claude Juncker by slamming his idea as an outrageous fantasy, declaring that the military is a national responsibility and not an EU responsibility. Poland and Latvia also reacted skeptically towards the proposal. These statements all serve US interests in preserving NATO as a tool for its influence in Europe and Eurasia.
Further reading:

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Bad Guys

Paving the Road to Hell: ISIS in the Philippines is a US Project

Federico Pieraccini
Strategic Culture
Tue, 20 Jun 2017 13:04 UTC
ISIS US made
In a recent chain of events, the Philippines has been rushing towards chaos. The failure by the Philippine special forces to capture Isnilon Hapilon, considered to be the top brass of the infamous Abu Sayyaf organization in the country, coincided with a quick operation by a series of Daesh-affiliated terrorist groups to take the city of Marawi. This is an escalation of internal and external pressure on the Duterte administration brought on by his foreign-policy shift.

The events of May 23 in Marawi in the Philippines, the first city to fall into the hands of Daesh in Asia, shows disturbing parallels with the operational methods of Daesh in Syria, Iraq and Libya. The presence of 500 operatives, part of different dormant cells in Marawi, allowed a coordinated assault on the police station and the city prison, enlarging the number of recruits and acquiring multiple firearms in the process. In a series of events difficult to verify, Daesh took control of the city and established several checkpoints. Employing an operational mix of tactics inspired by the beginning of the attacks on Syria in 2011 and in 2014, Daesh quickly expanded into Syria from Iraq.
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Star of David

Palestinian Authority asks Israel to cut Gaza power supply in bid to oust Hamas


Sputnik
Tue, 20 Jun 2017 13:16 UTC
electrical station
© Sputnik/ Pavel Lisitsin
Israel has started cutting its electricity supply to the Gaza Strip, in accordance with a request from West Bank authorities. If cuts come into full effect, the Gaza Strip will have electricity for just a couple of hours a day.

Israel has started cutting down on the electricity it provides to the Gaza Strip, fulfilling a request filed by the Palestinian Authority, according to a statement by The Palestinian Energy and Natural Resources Authority (PENRA).

According to the statement, Israel has already decreased the amount of supplied electricity by eight megawatt-hours. This is the first decrease from the 125 megawatt-hours it supplied for over two months, which was enough electricity for Gaza to run for four to six hours a day, according to Times of Israel.

Once Israel has completed the reduction in full, Gaza will have power for only two to three hours a day, according to Mohammad Thabbet, Gaza electricity distribution company spokesperson.

Palestinian Authority officials seek to force Hamas to cede control of Gaza, which it has held since 2007. The power cuts are part of a larger plan which includes the reduction of government salaries to Gaza workers and cuts to medical aid supplies.

Comment: Classic divide-and-conquer tactics. Hamas came to power in Gaza because the people could see the PA had become Israel's lapdog.

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Propaganda

European court is 'propaganda machine for neoliberals', says Russian lawmaker in response to ruling against gay propaganda law


RT
Tue, 20 Jun 2017 13:05 UTC
gay pride activist
© Bogdan Cristel / Reuters
The Russian Justice Ministry has announced plans to appeal a ruling that found Russia's ban on the promotion of non-traditional sexual relations to minors discriminatory and awarded damages to several activists previously convicted under the act.

According to the statement published on the ministry's website on Tuesday, the ban does not contradict international practices and the sole purpose of the law was to protect children's morals and health.

The statement was released soon after the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled that the law, often described in the mass media as a 'gay propaganda ban', was discriminatory and encouraged homophobia. The court took the side of three Russian activists who were convicted in Russia for violating the ban between 2009 and 2012, and ordered the Russian state to pay compensation for damages.
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Jet5

Wise decision: Australia halts air strikes in Syria after Russia-US tensions over downed Damascus jet


RT
Tue, 20 Jun 2017 12:18 UTC
A Royal Australian Air Force F/A-18A Hornet
© Wikipedia
The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) has suspended flights over Syria after Russia said it halted sky incident prevention interactions with the US as of June 19, due to the coalition's downing of a Damascus warplane.

"As a precautionary measure, Australian Defence Force (ADF) strike operations into Syria have temporarily ceased," Australia's Department of Defense said in a statement, adding its operations in Iraq would continue as part of the coalition.

"ADF personnel are closely monitoring the air situation in Syria and a decision on the resumption of ADF air operations in Syria will be made in due course."

"Australian Defence Force protection is regularly reviewed in response to a range of potential threats," the Department of Defense said.
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Bad Guys

'Shape up or ship out!' It's make-or-break week for PM Theresa May


RT
Mon, 19 Jun 2017 15:06 UTC
Theresa May
© Toby Melville / Reuters
With history conspiring against her, and forces inside and outside her own party baying for Theresa May's downfall, RT looks at the prime minister's troubles and examines her prospects of clinging to power beyond Friday.

May's tenure as PM has lasted less than a year and has already been rocked by a disastrous election that cost the Tories their majority.

She has also been hit hard by questions over the impact of austerity on police numbers after a spate of terrorist attacks in London and Manchester.

More recently critics have slammed her "inhuman" response to the Grenfell Tower tragedy, while her entire premiership has been marked by questions about her ability to lead Brexit negotiations.

Her current attempts to prop up a minority government by thrashing out a confidence and supply deal with Northern Ireland's hard-right Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) have been fraught, with the delayed Queen's Speech set to take place on Wednesday.
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