Puppet MastersS


Fire

Theresa May admits 600 buildings are in danger of Grenfell's fate


RT
Thu, 22 Jun 2017 14:15 UTC
grenfell tower
© AFPFlames and smoke coming from Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire broke out there on June 14, 2017.
Around 600 buildings in the UK have similar "combustible cladding" to Grenfell Tower, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Theresa May has said.

Tests have revealed that at least three tower blocks across the UK are fitting with combustible cladding, with hundreds more checks planned, Sky News reports.

The Department for Communities and Local Government says details of at-risk structures will be revealed after residents are informed.

Comment: Further reading:

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Jet3

Russian FM: ISIS leader al-Baghdadi's death is 'highly likely'


RT
Thu, 22 Jun 2017 14:18 UTC
al-Baghdadi
© Reuters
The Russian Foreign Ministry has said it is "highly likely" that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Islamic State (IS, former ISIS/ISIL), was eliminated in an airstrike carried out by the Russian Air Force in Syria earlier in May.

"It is highly likely that Islamic State leader [Abu Bakr] al-Baghdadi was eliminated in an airstrike of the Russian Air Force on a militant command post in a southern suburb of the city of Raqqa in late May," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov told Sputnik News, citing data provided by the Russian Defense Ministry.

Syromolotov added that the information about al-Baghdadi's death is now being verified through "various channels."
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MIB

Spiegel reports German intel agency spied on White House, State Dept and US military for years


RT
Thu, 22 Jun 2017 14:51 UTC
Whie House
© Saul Loeb / AFP
Germany's intelligence agency spied on high-profile US targets, including the White House, the State Department and the military for almost a decade, Spiegel has reported. Even US-based international organizations such as the IMF and HRW were on the watchlist.

The Spiegel report comes four years after Chancellor Angela Merkel famously said "spying on friends" was unacceptable, when commenting on the National Security Agency spy row that had put a strain on ties at the time.

In 2013, it was revealed the chancellor's mobile had been "monitored" by the NSA as part of systematic wiretapping operations worldwide.

Comment: The West should learn a thing or two from Putin:
"Our intelligence services always conform to the law," Putin said. "That's the first thing. And secondly, trying to spy on your allies, if you really consider them allies, is just indecent. Because it undermines trust. And it means that in the end it deals damage to your own national security."


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Snakes in Suits

Don't cede influence to China and Russia: Schaeuble warns US pullback could 'end our liberal world order'

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Thu, 22 Jun 2017 14:40 UTC
Wolfgang Schaeuble
Less than a month after German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that "Europe must take its fate into its own hands," Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble implored US President Donald Trump to reconsider his "America First" policy, claiming that a pullback by the US would risk the destruction of "our liberal world order" by ceding influence to the Chinese and the Russians.

Trump's hostility toward his European partners has strained relations between the US and its Continental allies. Since taking office, Trump has insulted fellow G-7 and NATO leaders, pulled out of the Paris Accord and attempted to ban travelers and refugees from six Muslim majority countries. Though Trump has treated at least one NATO leader with respect: Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, whom he honored with a Rose Garden press conference.

Comment: Schauble sounds like he would be lost without the US control over Europe or for the world for that matter.

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Attention

Contingency plan: China may finance Russia's Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline to Europe


RT
Thu, 22 Jun 2017 14:35 UTC
Natural gas pipeline being laid
© Zamir Usmanov / Global Look Press
Gazprom's Nord Stream 2 pipeline may get Chinese financing if European companies are forced out of the project by the latest round of US sanctions, business daily Vedomosti reports.

Russian officials have already contacted Chinese banks, sources have told the media.

"Nord Stream 2 has a good rate of return and low risks for creditors. Chinese banks may be interested," explains Aleksey Grivach, deputy CEO at Russia's National Energy Security Fund.
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Info

Iran's Revolutionary Guard to RT: US seeks to 'milk' terrorism sponsor Saudi Arabia


RT
Thu, 22 Jun 2017 13:29 UTC
Trump and the globe
© Saudi Royal Palace / AFPThe inauguration of the Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology in Riyadh on May 21, 2017
As the US influence in the Middle East wanes, it increasingly associates itself with dictatorships like Saudi Arabia, whose "dark face" and "role in supporting terrorism is known to everyone in the region," a high ranking Iranian Revolutionary Guard official told RT.

The United States and President Trump in particular consider only one "dimension" of convergence with Saudi Arabia, ignoring the "ideological and intellectual" challenges and costs such ties entail, media adviser to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Commander-in-Chief Hamid Reza Moghadam Far told RT in an exclusive interview.

"That was one of Trump's senseless moves. He was just seeking to milk this cow and thinking about only business," Moghadam Far said.

"The first challenge is that Trump goes to such a country as his first trip after being elected... That is the behavior shown towards a dictatorial regime in which democracy is meaningless and no elections take place and the people have no presence on the scene. The next challenge is that they claim that they are combating terrorism. It is no secret that Saudi Arabia has provided the most support for terrorism."
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Blackbox

Will June or July bring the end of May?

Neil Clark
Sputnik
Thu, 22 Jun 2017 13:10 UTC
Theresa May
© REUTERS/ Toby Melville
How much longer can Theresa May survive as British Prime Minister? On 20th May she famously posted on her Facebook page: "the cold hard fact is that if I lose just six seats I will lose this election."


In the end, she lost more than six seats, but the far from "Strong-and-Stable" one still clings on at Number Ten — the female version of Kaufman & Hart's, The Man Who Came to Dinner.
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Mr. Potato

Poroshenko says Trump guaranteed him continued sanctions against Russia

Inessa Sinchougova
Fort Russ News
Thu, 22 Jun 2017 13:10 UTC
Poroshenko
© RusVesna
The President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, said that the US president Donald Trump assured him that sanctions against Russia will be maintained.

According to him, the sanctions will remain until the implementation of the Minsk agreements.

He also publicly thanked Trump and vice-president Mike Pence for this support.

Washington has traditionally associated sanctions with the Minsk agreement, although Moscow has repeatedly stated that it is not party to the agreement, as a party to the conflict. US urges Russia to "leave" the east of Ukraine, not perceiving reasoned answers from representatives of the Russian Federation. Thus, Kiev is in no hurry to fulfill said Minsk agreements

Comment: Only a monumental ego such as Poroshenko would have the idea that the US' actions are taken solely for Ukraine's benefit.

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Map

Pepe Escobar: Fear and loathing on the Afghan Silk Road

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
Wed, 21 Jun 2017 12:52 UTC
Afghan policeman
© Reuters / Omar Sobhani
Will the New Silk Roads, a.k.a. Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) ever manage to cross the Hindu Kush?

Temerity is the name of the game. Even though strategically located astride the Ancient Silk Road, and virtually contiguous to the US$50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) - a key BRI node - Afghanistan is still mired in war.

It's easy to forget that way back in 2011 - even before President Xi Jinping announced BRI, in Kazakhstan and Indonesia, in 2013 - the then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton touted her own Silk Road, in Chennai. No wonder the State Dept.'s vision bit Hindu Kush dust - because it assumed war-torn Afghanistan as the plan's lynchpin.
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Info

Iranian Official: Tehran plans to release evidence of US backing of Daesh terrorists


Sputnik
Thu, 22 Jun 2017 12:48 UTC
Daesh billboard
© REUTERS/ Nour Fourat
Iran is planning to publish evidence of US actions supporting Daesh, media adviser to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRIGC) commander-in-chief told the RT broadcaster in an interview.

On June 11, the Iranian military announced that they had evidence of direct US support of Daesh militants.

"These documents are planned to be released. It is necessary to mention that these documents are not written texts or some kind of contracts that could be published in a written form. This evidence is related to the aspects of battle actions. This means that the evidence show, in which locations [the United States] provided assistance to the IS. Weapons, supplies, logistical and medical assistance — all these point at this support," Hamid Reza Moghadam Far said.

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