Puppet MastersS


Bad Guys

Blowing the BBC's claims to 'impartiality' out of the water

Bex Sumner
The Canary
Thu, 06 Jul 2017 12:04 UTC
BBC Fake News Media UK Britain
If you ever wondered who edits many of the BBC's political programmes, you now have an answer: it's people who want to help keep Theresa May in power. The Prime Minister is recruiting for her new Head of Communications. And The Guardian is reporting that two senior BBC figures have been interviewed for the role.

Weeks before the 2017 general election, May's Director of Communications Katie Perrior resigned. The PM is now recruiting for her replacement, and The Guardian reports that not one but two senior BBC figures were in the running:
James Landale, who was previously the corporation's deputy political editor, has been interviewed for the role as well as Robbie Gibb, who heads the BBC's operations at Westminster, according to Downing Street sources.
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Sherlock

Turkey in a 'diplomatic row' with US embassy over Gulen-linked coup suspects


RT
Thu, 06 Jul 2017 12:02 UTC
Erdogan
© REUTERS/ Huseyin Aldemir
Turkish government officials are bickering with the US embassy in Ankara over an investigation into two suspects accused of conducting an unlawful search of Turkish intelligence trucks illegally shipping weapons to Syria.

Istanbul's chief public prosecutor says his office sent a letter to the US embassy, requesting information about Bayram Andac and Muharrem Gozukucuk, two men whom Turkish authorities say are imams of the Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), the group blamed for the July 2016 coup attempt. Andac and Gozukucuk had several telephone conversations with the American embassy in Ankara and the US consulate in Istanbul, the prosecutor said.

The US embassy issued a statement Wednesday, saying it never received the letter, however, and was only aware of it because of media reports.
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Quenelle - Golden

Moscow dismisses Nikki Haley's attempts to 'strangle' North Korea at UNSC


RT
Thu, 06 Jul 2017 12:01 UTC
Vladimir Safronkov Russian Deputy Ambassador UN
© Mike Segar / ReutersRussian Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Vladimir Safronkov
Moscow has dismissed US-led calls at the UN Security Council to introduce new sanctions over Pyongyang's latest ballistic missile test, calling instead, for more "creative" diplomacy, citing the joint proposal by the Russian and Chinese leaders Tuesday.

Describing the North Korean ballistic missile launch on Tuesday as "dangerous, reckless and irresponsible," the American Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley urged the UN Security Council to implement new measures against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

The US has vowed to take measures to protect its security and that of its regional allies in case sanctions fail, even if it means using force against the North Korean regime.
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Chess

Team Trump forges ahead with voter fraud probe despite avalanche of fake news


RT
Thu, 06 Jul 2017 12:01 UTC
Kris Kobach Donald Trump
© Mike Segar / ReutersUS President Donald Trump and Kris Kobach
While multiple news outlets report that 44 states will not comply with President Donald Trump's commission to investigate voter fraud, the White House insists that number is "fake news" in its defense of the probe's goal.

According to a CNN inquiry of all 50 states, 44 states and the District of Columbia have refused to "provide certain types of voter information" to Trump's Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.

The commission's vice-chairman, Kris Kobach, who is also Kansas' secretary of state, called the media reports "patently false" and "fake news" in a White House statement Wednesday.
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Chess

Scott Adams: A possible solution to the North Korea situation

Scott Adams
Scott Adams Blog
Wed, 05 Jul 2017 02:10 UTC
US North Korea flag
I have some spare time this morning so I thought I would solve the North Korean nuclear threat problem.

The current frame on how all sides are approaching the problem is a win-lose setup. Either North Korea wins - and develops nukes that can reach the mainland USA - or the United States wins, and North Korea abandons its nuclear plans, loses face, loses leverage, and loses security. Our current framing of the situation doesn't have a path to success.

So how do you fix that situation?

First we must acknowledge that a win-lose model has no chance of success in this specific case because North Korea responds to threats by working harder to build nukes. That's no good. You need some form of a win-win setup to make any kind of deal. That's what I'm about to suggest. And by winning, I mean both sides get what they need, even if it isn't exactly what they said they want.

What the U.S. wants is a nuclear-free North Korea. That would be our win.

What North Korea wants is an ironclad national defense, prestige, prosperity, and maybe even reunification of the Koreas on their terms. So let me describe a way to get there.
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Info

EU Parliament votes to suspend Turkey accession talks


RT
Thu, 06 Jul 2017 12:19 UTC
EU flags
© Vincent Kessler / Reuters
The European Parliament has voted for Turkey's EU accession talks to be suspended if Ankara goes ahead with a planned constitutional reform which would grant sweeping powers to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The parliament passed a resolution on Thursday, calling for the "[EU] Commission and the member states, in accordance with the Negotiating Framework, to formally suspend the accession negotiations with Turkey without delay if the constitutional reform package is implemented unchanged."

Responding to the EU Parliament's decision, Turkey's EU affairs minister, Omer Celik announced that Ankara does not accept the EU Parliament report.

Comment: This vote comes as no surprise: Euro MPs formally urge scrapping Turkey accession talks over Erdogan's sweeping powers

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Info

EU and Japan strike free trade deal, challenging Trump


RT
Thu, 06 Jul 2017 12:14 UTC
New Japanese cars
© Toru Hanai / Reuters
After nearly four years of negotiations, the European Union and Japan have signed a trade agreement, opening up each other's markets. The deal aims to support global trade in the wake of rising protectionism in the US.

The agreement was concluded by Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels on Thursday, a day before G20 leaders meet in Germany.

"We did it. We concluded EU-Japan political and trade talks. EU is more and more engaged globally," European Council President Donald Tusk tweeted.

The deal will remove tariffs on many goods traded between Japan and the EU.
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Attention

Libyan National Army General Haftar declares liberation of Benghazi from jihadists


RT
Thu, 06 Jul 2017 12:05 UTC
Libian army tank
© Esam Omran Al-Fetori / Reuters
After more than three years of fighting, the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) has liberated Libya's second-largest city from Islamist militants, General Khalifa Haftar announced on state TV, declaring a "new era of peace" in Benghazi.

Several Islamist militant and jihadist cells belonging to the so-called Revolutionary Shura Council of Benghazi managed to capture the cradle of the Libyan uprising in 2014, prompting competing centers of power in the fractured country to battle for the city.

After three years of fierce fighting, which began in May 2014, Field Marshal Haftar, the leader of the Libyan National Army (LNA), finally announced that his forces are now in full control of Benghazi.

"After a continuous struggle against terrorism and its agents that lasted more than three years... we announce to you the liberation of Benghazi from terrorism," Haftar said in a speech broadcast on television.
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Document

Russian OPCW rep to RT: 'Many gaps and omissions' plague chemical watchdog's Idlib incident report


RT
Wed, 05 Jul 2017 23:41 UTC
People stand near a dead body, described by rescue workers as a suspected gas attack victim
© Ammar Abdullah / ReutersPeople stand near a dead body, described by rescue workers as a suspected gas attack victim in the town of Khan Shaykhun in Idlib, Syria April 4, 2017.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) fact finding mission has failed to meet even the basic procedures of an investigation, thus rendering the Idlib chemical incident report inconclusive and full of gaps, the Russian representative to the OPCW has told RT.

The OPCW report on April's chemical incident in Syria's Idlib province was presented last Friday despite being inconclusive and lacking evidence. It stated the mission had established the fact of sarin gas use.

The said document was used by the US and its allies Wednesday, to once again pin blame for the incident on the Syrian government during an extraordinary session of OPCW's executive council, Alexander Shulgin, Russia's Permanent Representative to the Hague based organization told RT.

"It was the United States-led western group of countries that came forward with the initiative of this meeting. As it turned out their purpose was to make some noises about the culpability of the Syrian government and president Assad personally in the tragedy of the use of chemical weapons in the Khan Shaykhun region on April 4," Shulgin said.
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Snakes in Suits

The Saudi-Qatar spat: Qatar and Iran are winning while Mohammad bin Zayed and Mohammad bin Salman lose face


Moon Of Alabama
Wed, 05 Jul 2017 22:38 UTC
Mohammad bin Zayed and Mohammad bin Salman
© WamMohammad bin Zayed and Mohammad bin Salman
The Saudi/UAE campaign against Qatar quickly turned into a mess. Qatar did not fold as had been expected. There was no plan B. The instigators of the plan have now to fear for their head.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar have all build up and pampered extremists groups fighting in other countries. They supply money, weapons and political and media support to various kinds of murderous Takfiris. Unlike the other three, Qatar not only supported arch-conservative Salafists but also groups aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood. The MB do not accept the primacy of the Arab absolute monarchs. They provide an alternative way of governing by adopting some democratic participation of the people. That makes them an imminent danger to the Saudis and other family dictatorships. The military dictator of Egypt, which joined the Saudis on the issue, had led a coup against the elected MB government of his country.

In the view of the Saudis and the other three Qatar had to be reigned in. While its media arm Al-Jazeerah Arabic promotes the sectarian and anti-Iran positions the Saudis support, it also promotes the Muslim Brotherhood. That needed to be stopped.
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