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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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Bell

London could lose 4,000 police officers due to budget cuts amid crime surge


RT
Mon, 22 May 2017 17:27 UTC
London police
© Neil Hall/Reuters
Budget cuts could mean that London is about to lose thousands of police officers, leaving the capital's residents at a heightened risk from terrorism and rising crime.

Internal estimates seen by the Times suggest that police ranks could be cut from 32,000 to 28,000 due to government pressure to come up with savings.

The cuts would mean that officers who leave the force will not be replaced. The reduction, which could ultimately return the force to staffing levels not seen since 2003, comes amid fears about rising crime.

The Met figures indicate that gun crime is up by 42 percent and knife crime has increased by 24 percent since 2016.

There are also fears that the Met's ability to respond to acts of terrorism or cyberattacks will also be undermined.
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Newspaper

Prominent Chinese newspaper applauds anti-spy efforts after a number of CIA sources were reported imprisoned or killed

Ben Blanchard
Reuters
Mon, 22 May 2017 17:17 UTC
Chinese soldier holds flag, China
© REUTERS/Jason LeeA soldier from Honour Guards holds a red flag during a welcoming ceremony held for Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang outside the Great Hall of the People, in Beijing, China May 11, 2017
An influential state-run newspaper applauded China's anti-espionage efforts on Monday after the New York Times said China had killed or imprisoned up to 20 CIA sources, hobbling U.S. spying operations in a massive intelligence breach.

The Chinese killed at least a dozen people providing information to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency between 2010 and 2012, dismantling a network that was years in the making, the New York Times reported on Saturday.

China's Global Times, published by the official People's Daily, said in an editorial in its Chinese and English-language editions that, if true, it was a victory for China.

"If this article is telling the truth, we would like to applaud China's anti-espionage activities. Not only was the CIA's spy network dismantled, but Washington had no idea what happened and which part of the spy network had gone wrong," the paper said.

"It can be taken as a sweeping victory. Perhaps it means even if the CIA makes efforts to rebuild its spy network in China, it could face the same result," it said.

Comment: China 'dismantled entire CIA operation': Killed and jailed 'scores of CIA spies'

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Info

President-elect Vucic admits Serbia joining NATO would split the nation


RT
Mon, 22 May 2017 16:50 UTC
Aleksandar Vucic
© Bernadett Szabo / Reuters
Serbia joining NATO would split the nation for decades and would have grave long-term consequences as the overwhelming majority of Serbs oppose the idea, Prime Minister and President-elect Aleksandar Vucic said.

Becoming a member of the alliance would solve many of Serbia's problems, Vucic said as he gave a lecture to students of Belgrade University's Faculty of Security Studies.

At the same time, he admitted that such a decision would go against the will of 75 percent of the population and would only "bring a deep division and discord" to Serbia, which would have long-term consequences.

He went on to say that Serbia should maintain its military neutrality instead of seeking to join any military bloc.

Comment: More on Serbia's troubles:

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Red Flag

Fmr Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich says Seth Rich was assassinated for being WikiLeaks source

Jack Burns
The Free Thought Project
Mon, 22 May 2017 15:22 UTC
Seth Rich Wikileaks
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich showed on Sunday he is not going to go along with the narrative put out by the mainstream media that murdered Democratic National Committee's Director of Voter Expansion Data, Seth Rich, was killed by thugs. He told FoxNews' Fox and Friends Sunday, Rich was assassinated.

Gingrich was asked about the appointment of former FBI Director Robert Mueller as a Special Prosecutor to investigate the allegations Russia colluded with the Trump campaign to influence the 2016 presidential election. After briefly stating any investigation into Russian connections to American politicians should also investigate Bill Clinton's receipt for 500k dollars, and Hillary's Russian deal with Uranium One, Gingrich dropped what some are calling a bombshell.
We have this very strange story now of this young man who worked at the Democratic National Committee, who apparently was ASSASSINATED, at four in the morning, uh having given Wikileaks something like 23,000, um I'm sorry 53,000 emails and 17,000 attachments. Nobody is investigating that. And what does that tell you about what was going on? Because it turns out it wasn't the Russians. It was this young guy who I suspect was disgusted by the corruption of the Democratic National Committee. He's been killed and apparently nothing serious has been done to investigate his murder. So, I'd like to see how Mueller is going to define what his assignment is. And if it's only narrowly Trump, the country will not learn what it needs to learn about foreign involvement in American politics.
Immediately after Gingrich made his remarks, The Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF) wrote a story titled, "Newt Gingrich Spreads Debunked Story About Murdered DNC Staffer," written by Chuck Ross. Ross regurgitated the debunking talking points the establishment seems to be clinging to, that Rod Wheeler recanted his story, and that Rich's family says all the talk surrounding their son's assassination is fodder for conspiracy theory.

Comment:

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