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Russian MoD announces Syrian civil war has almost stopped


Sputnik
Fri, 09 Jun 2017 16:59 UTC
Syrian army troops
© Sputnik/ Mikhail Voskresenskiy
The Russian General Staff said that the Syrian civil war has almost stopped.
"The situation has changed for the better after a memorandum on the creation of de-escalation zones in the Syrian Arab Republic was signed on May 4, 2017 in Astana. De facto the civil war in Syria has stopped. Moreover, the memo's entrance into force let start works on the restoration of populated areas destroyed by war, which are not occupied by terrorists,"
chief of the Russian General Staff's Main Operational Directorate Col. Gen. Sergei Rudskoy said.

He said that the Syrians started returning in freed cities and towns.
"Humanitarian access to inhabited areas located within the de-escalation zones has been restored. In the last month alone, international organizations have sent 14 humanitarian convoys to these areas, which has significantly improved the life of their residents," Rudskoy said.
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Attention

Nine things to remember about James Comey's testimony

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Fri, 09 Jun 2017 00:00 UTC
JComey
© The EconomistFormer FBI Director James Comey
Former FBI Director Comey's evidence to the Senate Intelligence Committee confirms that there was no obstruction of justice by the President, either of the Russiagate probe or of the Flynn investigation.

Former FBI Director Comey has concluded the open part of his testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The quality of the questioning - both by Republicans and Democrats - struck me as extremely poor. I found Comey's written testimony to the Committee published yesterday far more informative than his answers today.

This was largely the result of the Senators' collective failure to ask pertinent questions or - given the short time for questioning permitted to each Senator - to coordinate their questioning properly with each other.

Here are the main points that came out from Comey's testimony as I see them:

(1) Comey's written testimony makes it clear what were the primary topics on the President's mind in his discussions with Comey. They were (a) his desire for a statement by the Justice Department or the FBI that he was not personally under investigation; and (b) his desire for an investigation of the leaks, which were destabilising his administration.

(2) Comey provided no evidence that the President interfered in or sought to interfere in the conduct of the Russiagate investigation. On the contrary the details of that investigation do not seem to have been discussed by Comey and the President at all. At one point in their discussions the President said that if any of the people in his campaign team were guilty of any wrongdoing then the law should take its course. In light of this the whole obstruction of justice allegation in relation to the Russiagate investigation collapses. I cannot see how it can be sustained any further.

I would add that Comey, in fairness to him, was at pains to say both in his verbal and in his written testimony that the FBI's Russiagate investigation is a counter-espionage investigation into Russia's alleged role in the US election not a criminal investigation. I have discussed the relevance of this here.

Comment: Much ado about something for Comey, or nothing for Trump, as the case may be.

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Wall Street

Republicans vote to roll back major Wall Street regulations stipulated in Dodd-Frank Act of 2010


RT
Fri, 09 Jun 2017 02:09 UTC
TrumpD-F
© Financial Times
Against a unified Democratic Party in the US House, Republicans have passed a bill to undo much of the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010, which further regulated the banking industry in response to the financial crisis of 2007 to 2008.

A largely partisan vote of 233 to 186 advanced House Resolution 10, the Financial Choice Act, to the US Senate on Thursday. The Choice Act repeals key aspects of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Only one Republican voted against the bill, Rep. Walter Jones of North Carolina, who was among just three Republicans to vote for Dodd-Frank in 2010.

The GOP claims the regulatory law prevented a true recovery from the so-called "great recession," while Democrats counter that its reforms are necessary to prevent another economic calamity.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), who sponsored the Choice Act, told Bloomberg News that Dodd-Frank imposes more rules "than all the other Obama-era regulations combined. We will replace bailout with bankruptcy," Hensarling said, adding, "We'll replace Washington micromanagement with market discipline."

Comment: Republicans are eager to strip away the Democrats' lock down on regulations. With Rs and Ds at different ends of the spectrum, the average consumer is caught in the middle and pays the price, no matter who is in control. It comes down to a government that is always moving sideways for its own purposes, never forward for the people.

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Bullseye

Tucker Carlson takes down Florida mayor who can't explain why Paris agreement will stop 'global warming'

Daniel Lang
SHTFplan.com
Wed, 07 Jun 2017 00:00 UTC
Tucker Carlson
Ever since President Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement, leftists have been hyperventilating over what was effectively, a non-binding agreement. They act like Trump has just hammered the final nails in the coffin for the human race, even though there was never any guarantee that every nation would go along with this agreement. And if the US had stuck with it, it would have been a disaster for our economy.

The agreement would basically have the US send billions of dollars to other countries, and significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions over the next ten years (probably through draconian regulations). Meanwhile, some of the world's biggest Co2 emitters, like China and India, wouldn't have to cut emissions for many years, and wouldn't have to pledge any money.

And assuming that every nation actually kept their promises with this agreement (and assuming that Co2 is as grave a threat as environmentalists claim it is), the UN's own climate models suggest that it would only reduce global temperatures by .3 degrees by the end of the century.


Comment: Trump correct to withdraw from Paris Agreement - right choice for America and the world

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Footprints

Erdogan ratifies legislation for troop deployment to Qatar


RT
Thu, 08 Jun 2017 23:34 UTC
Erdogan and Thani
© Qatar TribunePrime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Emir His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani
President Recep Erdogan of Turkey has ratified legislation, which were fast-tracked by its parliament, to deploy Turkish troops to Qatar. The training and assistance mission will boost the "security of the entire region," the Qatari foreign minister said amid a diplomatic rift with its Gulf neighbors.

Erdogan signed off on the Turkish Parliament's approval late Thursday night, after earlier criticizing the Arab nations which had moved to isolate Qatar over its alleged support of terrorism, the presidential office said in a statement.

"Turkish troops are coming to Qatar for the sake of the securıty of the entire region," Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani told the press on Thursday, as cited by Hurriyet. Up to 5,000 Turkish soldiers might be deployed to Qatar under the new legislation, Rudaw news reports, adding that the troops are now on standby and ready for their deployment.

Turkey's cooperation with Qatar comes as several countries and organizations - including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Egypt, Yemen, the Maldives, and one of Libya's three rival governments - cut ties with Doha on Monday, accusing it of financing terrorist groups ranging from Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) to Iran-backed militants.

Erdogan almost immediately voiced support for Doha, saying on Tuesday that "we don't find sanctions against Qatar right," as quoted by Bloomberg. "The most appropriate way for the Gulf Cooperation Council countries to solve their internal issues is through dialogue. In this regard, we admire Qatar's constructive and cool-headed approach," Erdogan added.

Comment: Turkey and Qatar have a cooperative military understanding and economic relationship justifying Erdogan's support in honoring bilateral relations (and visa-free travel!).

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Star of David

It's been 50 years, time for a paradigm shift

Neve Gordon, Mark Levine
CounterPunch
Thu, 08 Jun 2017 00:00 UTC
Snake Israel
© Pinterest
At what point does an occupation transform into something entirely different? Is fifty years enough? Half a century after Israel's 1967 lightning takeover of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, is it still accurate to characterize its control of these territories as a "military occupation," which by definition has always meant a temporary phenomenon?

Occupations are at the core military systems established to regulate the temporary presence and behavior of a foreign army over a conquered territory and its indigenous population. The underlying assumption informing the law of occupation is that a pronounced de facto and de jure difference exists between the occupying country and the territory it has occupied.

Yet, over the past fifty years the Green Line separating pre-1967 Israel from the areas it captured has been geographically and politically erased. In addition to connecting the two regions with roads, electricity grids, and a customs union, Israel has moved hundreds of thousands of settlers to East Jerusalem and the West Bank, including today two Supreme Court Justices, several Cabinet and Knesset Members and numerous other public servants.

Far from ameliorating this situation, the Oslo process—which is today almost half as old as the Occupation itself—enabled its intensification. Effectively, then, for well over a generation there has been one state between the Jordan Valley and the Mediterranean Sea, and the Israeli government is its sovereign.

Comment: Apartheid...the next phase in the scheme? Israel has introduced the redefinition of 'antisemitism' as anti-Israelism - thereby hamstringing all criticism of Israeli with condemnation. It would be hard to pass up the redefinition of 'occupation, torture, genocide and inhumanity' as 'apartheid' if it validates what Israel has illegally done to Palestine for 50 years and gains them legitimate control without consequence. That's a win and they are counting on it.

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Dominoes

Assange calls Comey an 'intelligence porn star'; Snowden defends 'leak'


RT
Thu, 08 Jun 2017 22:03 UTC
SnowdenAssange
© YouTubeWhistleblowers Edward Snowden and Julian Assange
James Comey's revelation Thursday that he leaked information to the media received mixed reactions from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Assange seized the opportunity to play on the former FBI Director's own words, when he coined the term "intelligence porn" in his criticism of WikiLeaks' activities. Meanwhile, Snowden, reacted somewhat more empathetically, tweeting: "sometimes the only moral decision is to break the rules."


Comey confirmed under oath to the Senate Intelligence Committee that he leaked details of a meeting with President Donald Trump to the media via a friend. The leaked memo included the claim that Trump asked Comey to drop the investigation into former national security advisor Michael Flynn's contacts with Russian officials.

Weighing in on Thursday's proceedings, Snowden subtly pointed out the similarities in their situations.


Comment: Assange and Snowden provide unique perspectives, knowing what it is like to be ostracized for their actions and views.

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USA

Breakdown of the Comey testimony

Guy Benson
Townhall
Thu, 08 Jun 2017 16:03 UTC
james comey testimony
Over the span of nearly three hours today, Senators from both parties grilled former FBI Director James Comey about his relationship with President Trump, the circumstances of his firing, and various aspects of the federal probe into Russia's 2016 election meddling. For the most part, the hearing was conducted professionally, with important lines of questioning emerging from each side of the aisle.

As we anticipated earlier, a number of aspects of Comey's testimony were profoundly unflattering to President Trump, including Comey's multiple assertions that he does not believe Trump to be a truthful and trustworthy person. Other sworn statements undercut anti-Trump narratives, especially the notion that the president sought to stymie or shut down the Russia investigation, which goes to the crux of the cries for impeachment. Here are the moments and revelations that stuck out to me, in both directions.
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Quenelle

Theresa May fails: Disastrous snap election backfires - no majority, hung parliament


RT
Fri, 09 Jun 2017 15:49 UTC
uk commons chamber
© Justin Tallis / ReutersGeneral view of the interior of The Commons Chamber at the Houses of Parliament in central London
The 2017 general election will go down among the worst mistake in British political history, as Prime Minister Theresa May's gamble saw her lose her majority in the face of unexpected Labour gains.

May insisted she would not resign, instead she has struck a deal with the northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party and is said to meet the Queen and request to form a new government at 12.30h BST.

Scottish National Party (SNP) leader Nicola Sturgeon called the night as "disastrous" for the Conservative leader. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn demanded the PM steps down.

In a first statement on the night's results, a visibly shaken May insisted that "at this time, more than anything else this country needs a period of stability."

"If the Conservative Party has won the most seats and probably the most votes then it will be incumbent on us to ensure that we have that period of stability and that is exactly what we will do," she added after winning her Maidenhead seat.

Comment: Corbyn turned a 24-point Conservative lead into a hung parliament. And that is after having many in his own party ridicule him, not to mention practically all mainstream media. He was branded as unelectable, incompetent and unpatriotic:
Over the past two years he has endured a vote of no confidence, fought a successful re-election campaign, battled rebellions within his own partly and withstood embarrassing leaks to the media.

In short, Corbyn's mettle has been tested to the limits of most politicians, and he has not been found lacking.

Now it looks like the Leader of Her Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition is the strongest politician in the country with a hitherto unseen momentum behind him.

A Labour source told the Guardian: "If [the] exit poll is correct, Labour has had biggest increase in popular support during campaign by any party in British political history."
...
Shortly after the snap election was called, Guardianacolyte Polly Toynbee warned the Labour Party faced "annihilation" and launched a scathing attack on Corbyn.

"Was ever there a more crassly inept politician than Jeremy Corbyn, whose every impulse is to make the wrong call on everything?" she asked.

What Toynbee did not count on was the popularity of Labour's manifesto, the surge in young voters and the impact of Bernie Sanders-style campaigning.

Shortly after Labour's manifesto was leaked to the press, opinion polls found the policies were extremely popular with the electorate.
...
Young voters are being touted as another reason for Labour's landmark success and the Tories dismal performance.

Some estimates put the turnout among 18-24 year olds as high as 74 percent, significantly higher than the 66 percent turnout in the last election.
While May says she doesn't intend to resign, many are calling for her to do just that. With just 11 days until Brexit talks start, EU leaders aren't happy either. One big question for Corbyn now is whether or not his "fellow" Labour members will stop trying to sabotage him at every turn:
Corbyn crushed a 'coup' against his leadership by winning a second contest with an even greater margin of 61.8 percent (compared to his original 59.5 percent victory in 2015).

The revolt was led in June by his one-time Shadow Foreign Secretary Hilary Benn, whom Corbyn had sacked days prior. More than 170 MPs supported a vote of no confidence in Corbyn, but their hopes to see the back of the socialist leader were crushed by September.

The June 8 election night started off with a surprising twist for Labour internal politics as former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said he was "delighted" with Jeremy Corbyn's campaign performance. Straw was a close ally of Tony Blair and claimed in 2015 that Corbyn "would lead Labour into political oblivion."

Then it was Labour-center MP David Lammy to perform a mea culpa in a series of tweets congratulating Corbyn and speculating on the results a more united Labour Party could achieve. "Congratulations to @jeremycorbyn. Despite being underestimated and the underdog he has run one of the very best campaigns of all time," he wrote.

"Just imagine what we could have achieved if we had more self-belief. Tonight the political landscape has been fundamentally redrawn. I want to pay tribute to the fantastic Labour activists across the country who worked so hard to deliver Labour holds and Labour gains. Let this result answer all those who claim that Labour has lost working class Britain. We have not. We are the working class party."

And his former shadow cabinet member-turned-leadership-challenger, Angela Eagle, told the BBC Corbyn's campaign had "resonated with the electorate," praising the leader for his "authenticity and honesty."

Ilford North MP Wes Streeting, too, humbly congratulated Corbyn during his first interview with Sky News after holding his seat.

Pundits began wondering who else would do a U-turn and fully support the leader following the extraordinary results.

However, some of Corbyn's internal adversaries preferred to stick to their gripes, with Birmingham Yardley MP Jess Phillips saying: "I might just do the Birmingham bit of my job from now and pretend Parliament doesn't exist."


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Blue Planet

Vladimir Putin speaks at the most important geo-political event of the year - welcomes India and Pakistan into the SCO

Adam Garrie
The Duran
Fri, 09 Jun 2017 15:45 UTC
Shanghai Cooperation Organization Putin
India and Pakistan have officially joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on June 9 in Astana.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation just welcomed India and Pakistan to its ranks. The multi-polar east is close to completing a very important partnership for peace and prosperity.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is in Astana along with the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in a ceremony and conference welcoming India and Pakistan to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

Putin spoke of the need for further cooperation on all matters of mutual interest ranging from trade to anti-terrorism measures. Putin's speech which emphasised the need for unity between Asia and Eurasia and spoke of using the SCO as a means to help and better coordinate China's One Belt - One Road trade project.

The SCO now represents a group of nations that features one-time rivals China and Russia, China and India (who still have some lingering issues) as well as India and Pakistan who are not allies to say the least.

However, just as China and Russia have gone from decades long competitors to deeply important partners, the SCO provides India the opportunity to resolve lingering disputes with China as well as those which exist between India and Pakistan.

Comment:

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