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Sky News host's epic fail at interview 'ambush' of Jeremy Corbyn

Kerry-anne Mendoza
The Canary
Mon, 22 May 2017 19:49 UTC
corbyn interview
© Wales OnlineSky News reporter Sophie Ridge and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn
On Sunday 21 May, Sky News host Sophy Ridge attempted an 'ambush' during an interview with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. It did not end well for her.

The ambush that never was

On Sunday, Corbyn succeeded in debunking an attempted smear from Sky's Sophy Ridge. The Sky host had apparently intended to ambush him with an article from the Labour Briefing magazine from the 1980s. Ridge was under the mistaken belief that Corbyn was editor of the magazine when it ran a controversial piece after the Brighton bombing which killed five people and very nearly ended the life of Margaret Thatcher. Just one problem, Corbyn was never editor. Like many Labour MPs of the day, he wrote some articles for it occasionally.
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Dollars

Trump: No more handing out foreign grant money for nothing


Sputnik
Sun, 21 May 2017 22:24 UTC
$$$$ etc.
© Obey Giant
A budget proposal to be submitted this week by the administration of US President Donald Trump will include conditions that replace American military grants to foreign countries with loans, potentially ending several billion dollars in weapons and logistics giveaways by Washington. These military grants allow countries allied with the US to acquire American-built ammunition, ground transportation, aircraft and naval vessels.

Currently Israel receives about $3 billion in US military grants annually, while Egypt gets $1.3 billion. Jordan is the recipient of some $350 million in military giveaways and Pakistan gets about $265 million. All of the countries involved in the grant program would see, under the Trump budget, grant figures either drop significantly, or be replaced altogether by a loan to be used to purchase US military hardware.

Trump's full budget proposal will be released on Tuesday, and reportedly includes up to 31-percent cuts to the budgets of the State Department and the US Agency for International Development, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Pushback on Capitol Hill against the move, however, is growing, as current and former lawmakers point out that the grant program allows allies that would not otherwise be eligible for international loans the opportunity to purchase cutting-edge US military hardware. Those countries now receiving grants would likely look to China and Russia if Washington shifted the playing field, according to reports.

Comment: Bravo Trump. Overhaul of this money gushing is sorely needed. Here is only one example of the global financial burden on the US. But what are the chances Trump does anything about this one?

The cost of Israel to US taxpayers: (Such a sweet deal.)
  • Sept. 2016: Agreement to pay Israel $38B over 10 years - an increase yearly to $3.8B.
  • Not included are US tax dollars to Israel from other means: Budgets of the State, Defense and Commerce departments and other federal agencies, and are not included in official estimates of U.S. foreign aid. The Department of Commerce budget also contains funds for Israel's use which appear nowhere in U.S. foreign aid totals. As of 2014, Israel assistance since 1949 reached $121B.
  • Additional aid per year...example 1997: $5.526M with loans forgiven.
  • Loans to Israel of $84.8B from just 1949-1998 cost the US taxpayers $134.5B in interest payments to borrow this money.
  • Preferential treatment: Exemptions from U.S. laws, oversight as U.S. aid recipient, disregard of Israeli abuses.
  • Israel's current economic profile suggests that it no longer needs U.S. financial largess. Nevertheless, a pattern has developed whereby neither Congress nor the White House dares dismantle Israel's "aid industry."
  • Cranston Amendment: The US has to provide Israel enough ESF funds to meet its debt burden to the US. (However, Israel ignores this and the US government continues to pay interest on the money it originally borrowed to lend to Israel, and also pays the interest on the money Israel borrowed from the U.S.)
  • Israel is also a beneficiary of cash flow financing - which allows Israel to pay only the current-year charges for multi-year contracts unlike contracts with other countries. This means the US is required to furnish more aid during the following years to pay for already agreed-to-contracts.
  • US is not Israel's only funder. Example: Germany for "restitution payments" to victims of Nazi atrocities. German assistance to the Israeli government, individuals and private institutions is around $31B.


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UFO

Post-election release of secret dossier on UFO sightings in Britain


RT
Mon, 22 May 2017 15:58 UTC
BritXFiles
© UnknownOrigin
A dossier of secret government files believed to contain evidence of UFO sightings and cover-ups, which has been kept secret for almost 50 years, is set to be released after June's general election.

According to German paranormal news website Grenzwissenschaft-aktuell, the documents will reveal sightings of UFOs over almost five decades, from the 1970s, and be published by the National Archives. Alien hunters hope the files will show a number of high-profile incidents have been covered up, including an alleged UFO sighting in Rendlesham Forest in 1980, dubbed 'Britain's Roswell.'

A number of servicemen reported seeing lights in the forest near RAF Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge. The disputed sightings, which are said to have lasted for three nights in December of that year, occurred when Britain was on high alert during the Cold War. At the time, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said the event posed no threat to national security, and it was therefore not investigated.

The secret papers were meant to be released in 2013, but 18 documents were withheld. The latest publication date was set for March this year, but that date passed with no information given.

A spokesperson for the National Archives told Grenzwissenschaft-aktuell: "Due to the upcoming election here in the UK and the rules relating to the government departments during the pre-election period, the files will not be released until after the election."

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Nick Pope, who worked for the MoD investigating UFO sightings until 2009, said: "There's no smoking gun in these files that will confirm the existence of aliens, but there are plenty of fascinating UFO reports and MoD policy documents, so these really are the real-life X-Files.

"The delay has been a comedy of errors though, I think it's more bureaucracy than conspiracy."

Comment: X-Files conspiracy to withhold! Must question the multiple postponements and the timing of the release until after the election. (Mulder and Scully would!)

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Info

Ethics chiefs blast White House for blocking lobbyist data request


RT
Mon, 22 May 2017 19:51 UTC
the White House
© Uwe Kazmaier / Global Look Press
The Trump administration is reportedly refusing to honor a data request to disclose the number of lobbyists it allows to work in the White House - a move critics have called "unprecedented and extremely troubling."

The New York Times reports that administration officials sent a letter to the head of the Office of Government Ethics (OGE), Water M Shaub Jr Monday, challenging his legal authority to request a list of those made exempt from a ban on lobbying in federal agencies.

Speaking to the NYT, Marilyn L Glynn, a former general counsel and acting director of the ethics watchdog under George W Bush, raised her concerns."[It is] unprecedented and extremely troubling," said Glynn. "It challenges the very authority of the director of the agency and [Shaub's] ability to carry out the functions of the office."
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Info

Pepe Escobar: Iran bets its future on 'reformist' Rouhani

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
Sat, 20 May 2017 19:41 UTC
A woman holds a poster of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani during a campaign rally in Tehran
© ReutersA woman holds a poster of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani during a campaign rally in Tehran, Iran, May 17, 2017.
In the perennial electoral battle between principlists (conservatives) and reformists, Iranian reformists have once again won handsomely.

Iran's President Hasan Rouhani was reelected in a landslide on Saturday - with at least 56.88 percent of the votes according to the latest count at time of publishing and a projected vote share of 20 million votes (he got 18.6 million in 2013).

In the end, as predicted, it was all about turnout; over 70% in the main cities, with around 78% in Qom - the religious heart of Shi'ism. A low turnout would have benefited hardliners and their reliable 20% "true believer" electoral base. Twenty-nine percent of the Iranian electorate is composed by 18-to-29 year olds, who are very enthusiastic about voting.
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Info

Taiwan kicks off military drills aimed at fending off potential Chinese attacks


RT
Mon, 22 May 2017 19:32 UTC
Taiwan military drills
© FILE PHOTO Pichi Chuang / Reuters
Taiwan has launched live fire drills as part of exercises it holds annually to prepare its military to defend against potential attacks from mainland China, according to Taiwanese Defense Ministry officials. The 33rd Han Kuang drills will take place over five days.

All branches of Taiwan's military will be involved in the drills, which will include warplanes, the P-3C anti-submarine craft, the Mirage 2000, and F16 fighter jets, according to the South China Morning Post.

The drills kicked off with the warplanes leaving their respective airbases west of the island to stage emergency evacuations of airbases in the east, including those in Hualien and Chiashan.
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Health

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary visits Liberia where Ebola killed 4,800

Jonathan Paye-Layleh
ABC News
Thu, 18 May 2017 19:04 UTC
Tom Price in Liberia
© AP//Jonathan Paye-LaylehUS Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price in Monrovia, Liberia.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price on Thursday made his first trip overseas to Liberia, the West African country where Ebola killed more than 4,800 people.

Price praised Liberia for its "remarkable cooperation" on health care issues. The U.S. sent troops into the country to intervene to help stop the outbreak, which killed more than 11,300 people, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

The World Health Organization declared an end to the world's deadliest outbreak of the virus in June. Now, a new outbreak, the first since the one in West Africa, has been blamed for three deaths in a remote area of Congo.

Price, who did not address the latest outbreak, toured the West Point community that was hit hard by the hemorrhagic fever in 2014.

Dr. Mosoka Fallah, a Liberian health ministry official, told Price there had been resistance from people there to report for testing. "People said the Ebola situation was one-way traffic ... people go to the (Ebola Treatment Units) but don't come back alive," Fallah said.

Comment: See also: Foreign news outlets are linking US bio-warfare labs and Ebola outbreak

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Arrow Down

Dramatic decrease in Ukrainian population has exceeded even the most gloomy UN forecasts

translated by Ollie Richardson
Stalker Zone
Fri, 19 May 2017 17:52 UTC
Ukraine woman
Today Ukraine takes second place in the death rate of the population, on the same level as countries such as the Republic of South Africa and Lesotho.

This was stated from the tribune of the Verkhovna Rada by the deputy of the Verkhovna Rada Ann Romanova.

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Bomb

Iraqi units shoot on hostile US coalition jets operating inside Syrian desert

Chris Tomson
Al Masdar News
Mon, 22 May 2017 20:28 UTC
Iraqi anti aircraft unit fires at US jet
Footage emerged on Saturday of Iraqi pro-government fighters using anti-aircraft weaponry to shoot at US coalition jets near the Al-Tanf border crossing in eastern Homs.

The amateur video was published by a fighter of the Badr Movement, an Iraqi contingent which operates alongside the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), 313 Forces (Syrian militia), Hezbollah (Lebanese paramilitary), Harakat al-Abdal (Iraqi paramilitary), Kata'ib al-Imam Ali (Iraqi paramilitary), Kata'ib Hezbollah (Iraqi paramilitary) along the Damascus-Baghdad highway.

The Shi'ite fighters from Iraq have controversially been bombed by the US Air Force on two separate occasions; this is explained by their blitz offensive targeted an area controlled by US vetted rebels.

In the weeks to come, the SAA - heavily assisted by foreign fighters - hopes to capture the Al-Tanf border crossing. If succesful, land trade between Damascus and Baghdad will resume for the first time in years.

Comment: See also: US-Led Coalition Strikes Hit Syrian Army Near At Tanf - UPDATES

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Snakes in Suits

'What's the protocol?' Trump arrives in Israel 'to bring peace in the region'


RT
Mon, 22 May 2017 19:34 UTC
Mr. Trump at the Western Wall
© Stephen Crowley/The New York TimesMr. Trump at the Western Wall
US President Donald Trump has landed in Israel, being welcomed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the entire cabinet after the Israeli leader made it mandatory for all ministers to attend the reception, having learned that some planned to skip the ceremony.

Trump arrived at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport alongside his wife Melania, daughter and adviser Ivanka, and senior adviser Jared Kushner. The Americans were greeted on the tarmac by Netanyahu, who said "welcome, our good friend" as he shook hands with Trump. Netanyahu's wife Sara and the US ambassador to Israel were also present, along with members of Israel's armed forces.


Trump and his entourage were met with 28C (82F) heat, prompting some to question the attire of Ivanka and Kushner.


Despite the seemingly formal welcome, it appeared that much of the procedure was off-the-cuff. Israeli PM Netanyahu confessing that "we have all this protocol, we never know what it is," Channel 2 reported.

Trump replied, "what is the protocol? You have any idea what it is?"

Comment: See also: Israel pushing to legalize West Bank settlements as Trump arrives in Tel Aviv

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