Puppet MastersS


Boat

£1bn UK Royal Navy destroyer aborts Gulf mission after breakdown


RT
Fri, 24 Nov 2017 12:40 UTC
HMS Diamond Royal Navy warship
© WikipediaHMS Diamond
One of the most advanced Royal Navy warships, which cost around £1 billion, had to abort its mission in the Persian Gulf and return to the UK. This leaves the country without a seaworthy destroyer as five other vessels are already undergoing maintenance.

The HMS Diamond Type 45 destroyer, which was on a 9-month mission to protect trade routes in the region, was forced to head home after just two months. "We can confirm HMS Diamond has experienced technical issues, but we do not discuss the detailed material state of our operational ships and are unable to comment further," a Navy spokesman said.

Comment: It looks like the Royal Navy has contracted the disease currently afflicting the US Navy: Can we say hubris-induced incompetence?

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Red Flag

Say No to America's monster: Mexico revokes Monsanto's permit to market GMO soy


RT
Fri, 24 Nov 2017 11:45 UTC
Mexico GMO Soy
© Henry Romero / ReutersA farmer holds corn cobs near other farmers and activists protesting against Monsanto in downtown Mexico City
The US agrochemical company Monsanto said Mexico's agriculture sanitation authority SENASICA had revoked its permit to commercialize genetically modified soy in seven states. The company criticized the decision as unjustified. According to Monsanto, the permit had been withdrawn on unwarranted legal and technical grounds. It has warned that it would take the necessary steps to safeguard its rights and those of farmers using the technology.

Mexican newspaper Reforma cited a SENASICA document saying the permit was revoked due to the detection of transgenic Monsanto soya in areas where it was not authorized. Monsanto rejected the argument, claiming the authorities had not analyzed how the soy on which their decision was based was sown.

Comment: "We have no right to use GMOs until we understand the possible adverse effects, not only to ourselves but to future generations as well" - Russian biologist Alexey V. Surov.
See also:

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Hardhat

Czech president backs construction of Nord Stream-2 project


Tass Russian News Agency
Fri, 24 Nov 2017 11:58 UTC
oil gas pipes pipeline
© EPA/ARMANDO BABANI


The Nord Stream-2 natural gas pipeline is planned to be commissioned by the end of 2019

Czech President Milos Zeman said that the republic supports the construction of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline.

The Czech leader, who is on an official visit to Russia, said this in an interview with Prague's Barrandov TV channel, which was broadcast late on Thursday.

"I can express the Czech Republic's support to the Nord Stream-2. I am glad that the Czech Republic has its own stance (on this issue - TASS) and protects its own interests," Zeman said.

Comment: It is good to see that at least some in Europe understand that it is in their best interest to buy gas from Russia. It is fine for the US to demand sanctions against the Eastern Bear because it hurts a competitor and forces Europe to make business with the US instead - but for Europe this is catastrophic. Germany, of all European nations, needs to wake up.

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Black Cat

Flashback If Nikki Haley doesn't drop her absurdly pro-Israeli propaganda line at the UN, she is likely to cause big problems for Lebanon

Robert Fisk
Independent
Thu, 14 Sep 2017 10:30 UTC
Nikki Haley’s
© AFP/GettyNikki Haley’s codswallop may have gone down fine in South Carolina but now she needs to read up on what she’s talking about
Under sane leadership, the US usually managed to broker ceasefires in past Lebanon wars. But the current problem is that the US President is mad. Nikki Haley is thus reduced to using a string of clichés in the UN worthy of Theresa May - it's getting embarrassing and dangerous

Under a broiling hot midday sun on the south Lebanese-Israeli border this summer, an extraordinary and very angry meeting took place between two major generals: the 60-year-old Irish UN force commander in Lebanon and the 54-year-old deputy chief of staff of the Israeli army. Listening to them was the ambitious, pro-Israeli - but very inexperienced - US ambassador to the United Nations. The row between the two men appears to have been pre-planned by the Israelis to impress the highly impressionable Nikki Haley. It worked.

Haley had been helicoptered up to the border from Jerusalem on 8 June by Israeli General Aviv Kochavi for a tour regularly laid on for visiting - and gullible - US officials: a walk to the Lebanese frontier wire with many a fearful warning from the Israelis about Hezbollah "terrorists", "secret" Hezbollah missile bunkers in UN-controlled territory and the failure of UN troops to "disarm" the "terrorists" in Lebanon. This is a familiar horror story, trotted out for American and other Western diplomats and politicians over more than 30 years.

Comment: To the last question of the article, the answer is: you can't. Nikki Haley is a part of an all too idiotic clan of political hacks in Washington who are abysmally ignorant of facts, and blinded by their own hubris. Though Trump is very likely not mad, he does appear to be misinformed - and is in dreadful need of competent support from his own administration that seem to be littered with know-nothings like Haley.

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Attention

North Korea fires back: Trump's terror listing is a 'tool to destroy independent states'


RT
Wed, 22 Nov 2017 18:01 UTC
trumpkim
© Graphic Online
North Korea says Washington's decision to relist Pyongyang as a "state sponsor of terrorism" is nothing more than an American instrument to destroy independent countries.

In an interview with the official party newspaper Rodong Sinmun, a foreign ministry spokesperson termed the designation "a serious provocation and violent infringement." Pyongyang has never been involved in any type of terrorism activities, the official claimed.

The US has been using the terrorism designation to crack down on defiant states, the spokesperson insisted, calling it an instrument "of destroying independent countries." The latest move by US has only made North Korea more determined to strengthen its nuclear arsenal, the official added.

President Donald Trump declared North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism earlier Monday, asserting that Pyongyang "has supported international acts of terrorism including assassinations on foreign soil. The North Korean regime must be lawful, must end its nuclear ballistic missile development and cease all support for international terrorism, which it is not doing," Trump said. The state sponsor of terrorism classification means more sanctions on Pyongyang as part of US pressure against North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.

Comment: And who would know better than the US government about sponsoring terrorism and utilizing it to its own selfish end. Bully tactics.

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Heart - Black

Top Samantha Power aide lobbies to undermine opponents of war in Yemen

Alex Emmons
The Intercept
Wed, 22 Nov 2017 12:10 UTC
Chemali/Power
© Luiz Rampelotto/Pacific Press/LightRocket/Getty ImagesSamantha Power and Hagar Chemali brief journalists at U.N. headquarters in 2015.
Starving children with haunting eyes and emaciated bodies. Bombed-out hospitals and homes. A cholera epidemic that is the largest and fastest-spreading in modern history. These scenes have sparked outrage and a flurry of denunciations of the U.S.-backed war in Yemen, which is led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

But that's not to say the war has no defenders in the United States. In fact, a public relations consultant and former U.S. diplomat enlisted by the UAE has worked to discredit U.S.-based groups raising awareness of atrocities in Yemen.

Hagar Chemali previously served as a top spokesperson for Samantha Power, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Now, she is paid six figures to shape the debate about the war at the U.N., including by discrediting NGOs that advance evidence of human rights violations in Yemen, according to public disclosures and emails obtained by The Intercept.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE launched a military intervention in March 2015 against the Houthi rebels, who are allied with former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and backed by Iran. The Saudi-led coalition, which aims to reinstate ousted president Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, blockaded the country and has indiscriminately bombed civilian centers such as markets, hospitals, and children's schools.

Last week, Power weighed in on the conflict, condemning American support for the coalition. But during her time at the U.N., Power maintained a code of silence on what U.S. allies were doing in Yemen. She is now criticizing a Trump administration policy that is largely a continuation of her former boss's approach.

Comment: See also:

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Biohazard

'JIM' is dead: Russia wants new 'objective/unbiased' Syria chemical inquiry


RT
Thu, 23 Nov 2017 04:14 UTC
OPCW
© OPCW
Russia is open for discussions on establishing a new, truly impartial mission to investigate chemical attacks in Syria, which, Russia's UN envoy hopes, will not bear the same chronic deficiencies of the OPCW-UN mechanism that expired last week.

"JIM is dead," Russia's UN envoy, Vasily Nebenzya, said Wednesday after the UN Security Council (UNSC) held closed-door discussions on the fate of JIM - the Joint Investigative Mechanism. "JIM has discredited itself completely and cannot continue in the present form. But we are ready to talk about establishing, creating a new mechanism that would replace JIM and do the work in a truly professional, objective and unbiased manner."

The Russian diplomat pointed out that the basic parameters of such a mechanism were outlined in the Russian draft resolution, and which was rejected by the UNSC last Thursday. Nebenzya said there is still "hope" for further negotiations on the issue.

The mandate of the Joint Investigative Mechanism of the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) expired last Friday following a number of failed attempts by the UNSC to extend its authority. On November 18, Russia vetoed the Japan-initiated draft which aimed to provisionally extend JIM's mandate by 30 days.

Comment: Hard to imagine why countries do not agree to upgrade a deterministic process to the most honest and effective level possible. Apparently doing so doesn't fit with the blame game where truth becomes detrimental to the narrative.

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Laptop

Spain's cyber intelligence: No evidence of Russian cyber attacks in Catalan crisis


RT
Thu, 23 Nov 2017 01:53 UTC
Catalan flag
© AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti
No Moscow-linked intrusion was detected during the Catalonia crisis, Spain's cyber intelligence unit has announced. Earlier, Madrid decried cyber attacks as part of Russia's alleged wider online effort to support Catalan independence.

Spanish public administration websites have suffered dozens of cyber attacks in recent months. In just ten days following the application of Article 155 of Spain's constitution - which imposed direct rule on Catalonia on October 27 - the Spanish National Cryptologic Center (CCN) registered around 70 attacks. However, none of the detected attacks originated from Russia or any other state, Luis Jimenez, General Deputy Director of the National Intelligence Center (CNI) and the head of cybersecurity at CCN, Javier Candau, told Europa Press.

The research has shown that these have been low-level attacks, which have been discussed on various forums on social media, related to hackers groups, in various EU countries and outside the bloc. All these actions by no means have been connected with cyberattacks, authorized by governments," the CCN told Sputnik.


Comment: Russia has become the global default button for election results that do not favor the losers. It is a ploy to demonize Russia in the West on a broad societal level.

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Arrow Down

UK students give cold shoulder to Israeli 'whitewash' diplomats

Alia Malak
The Electronic Intifada
Wed, 22 Nov 2017 00:00 UTC
bristol protest
© Bristol-PSCWhile the British government celebrated the centenary of the Balfour Declaration, students demonstrated their support of Palestinian rights.
As Israel and the UK government celebrate 100 years of the Balfour Declaration - marking Britain's support for the settler project that led to the ethnic cleansing of Palestine - students on British campuses are asserting their support for Palestinian rights.

Last month, dozens of students demonstrated when Michael Freeman, counsellor for civil society affairs at the Israeli embassy in London, visited Bristol. Students say they opposed Freeman's visit because of the policies he represents as an Israeli diplomat.

Student protesters engaged with passersby on campus and passed out educational leaflets on Israel's war crimes. The protest lasted for the entire duration of Freeman's two-hour event.

Whitewashing

Freeman's visit to Bristol was part of a series of talks given by Israeli diplomats at universities around the UK. The talks are an attempt by the Israeli embassy to whitewash Israel's crimes against the Palestinian people.
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Popcorn

Another one bites the dust: MBS arrests Mohammed 'The Sheikh' Al-Amoudi, the second richest man in Saudi kingdom


Middle East Monitor
Thu, 23 Nov 2017 20:14 UTC
Mohammed Hussein Al-Amoudi
Mohammed Hussein Al-Amoudi, not in Saudi garb
Saudi authorities have arrested Mohammed Hussein Al-Amoudi, a duel national with Saudi and Ethiopian citizenship, and is reportedly the second richest Saudi, after Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal.

While bin Talal's arrest has gained most media attention, Al-Amoudi's arrest is especially important because it could potentially destabilize the economy of an entire country, according to Middle East Eye.

Al-Amoudi, who is also known as "the Sheikh", has invested in almost every sector of Ethiopia's economy, including hotels, agriculture and astrology.

According to a leaked diplomatic cable from 2008 "the Sheikh's influence on the Ethiopian economy cannot be underestimated."

In the nearly ten years since then it has become even harder to estimate the exact value of Al-Amoudi's total investment in Ethiopia, which is among the fastest developing countries in Africa. One analyst estimated the value of the Sheikh's investment at $3.4 billion, which represents 4.7 per cent of Ethiopia's current GDP.

Comment: Will this one also end up on the rack?

Saudi insider: 'American mercenaries are torturing' arrested Saudi elite - Prince Alwaleed was hung upside down 'just to send a message'

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