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Russian MoD assures ceasefire for Khan Sheikhoun if experts come to probe Syria chemical incident


RT
Mon, 24 Apr 2017 21:20 UTC
Syrian child receives treatment at a hospital in Khan Sheikhun
© Omar haj kadour / AFP
Fighting in the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun will cease when experts arrive to investigate the alleged chemical attack, the Russian Ministry of Defense has said in a statement.

"After an address from the Ministry of Defense, the Syrian command expressed its readiness to stop any military activity in the area, if a special experts mission will come to investigate the events on April 4 in Khan Sheikhoun," the ministry said, as cited by RIA Novosti news agency.

A complete ceasefire will be declared "to ensure safe work [in the area] for the experts."
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Nuke

Fallon proudly declares Tory government would launch preemptive nuclear strike


RT
Mon, 24 Apr 2017 21:12 UTC
HMS Vengeance, a British Royal Navy Vanguard class Trident Ballistic Missile Submarine
© David Moir / Reuters HMS Vengeance, a British Royal Navy Vanguard class Trident Ballistic Missile Submarine.
Prime Minister Theresa May would be prepared to launch a preemptive nuclear strike against any enemies, even if Britain was not under attack, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has claimed.

"In the most extreme circumstances we have made it very clear that you can't rule out the use of nuclear weapons as a first strike," Fallon told the BBC's Today program.

When asked in what circumstances, he replied: "They are better not specified or described, which would only give comfort to our enemies and make the deterrent less credible.

"The whole point about the deterrent is that you have got to leave uncertainty in the mind of anyone who might be thinking of using weapons against this country."
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Snakes in Suits

Kiev preparing for new 'gas war' with Russia


Sputnik
Sun, 23 Apr 2017 20:47 UTC
Western Ukraine pipeline station
© AP Photo/ Sergei Chuzavkov
Ukrainian authorities seem to be willing to fuel tensions further in relations with Russia. Kiev is attempting to seize the property of Russian energy giant Gazprom in Ukraine, and this can only mean one thing - the confiscation of the gas transferred through the transit pipeline to Europe.

Earlier, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) warned that it will seize Gazprom's property and assets in Ukraine. As Gazprom has no other physical assets in the country, this only means the confiscation of the Russian gas from the transit pipeline, the Russian newspaper Vzglyad wrote.

"This is the most terrible scenario," the head of Russia's National Energy Security Fund, Konstantin Simonov, told the newspaper. "In 2009, Ukraine stole gas for its own needs, and now it will seize it officially. Ukraine will disrupt the transit and admit that," he added.
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Info

EU foreign policy chief Mogherini meets with Lavrov: "We count on Russia and Astana in Syria", call for full OPCW probe of alleged chem attack


Sputnik
Mon, 24 Apr 2017 20:41 UTC
mogherini lavrov
© Sputnik/ Eduard Pesov
According to the EU foreign policy chief, the bloc and Russia share views on the need to improve humanitarian access to Syria.

The European Union and Russia share views on the need to improve humanitarian access to Syria, and Brussels counts on Russian support in this regard, including through the Astana process, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini told reporters Monday.

"We share the same approach that access to humanitarian aid in Syria has to be improved. We count on Russian work, including through Astana process. We share an interest of putting end to this war," Mogherini said after meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Comment: This was Mogherini's first meeting with Lavrov. They also discussed Ukraine:
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia is 'ready to influence' the leadership of the proclaimed LPR and DPR republics to 'fulfill the Minsk agreements'.

This was said at an April 24th press conference, after talks with the head of EU diplomacy, Federica Mogherini.

Lavrov added that this will happen if Germany and France will seek the same from the regime in Kiev.
Russian Foreign Minister stressed that the Kiev leadership openly sabotages everything that is written in the Minsk document. Such actions, according to Lavrov, have to garner some kind of reaction from those who support the Ukrainian government.

Sergei Lavrov also expressed bewilderment why Western sanctions apply only to Moscow. They are not imposed against Ukraine, despite the fact that it is Kyiv that disrupts the implementation of the Minsk agreements in the Donbass.


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Blackbox

CrossTalk Bullhorns: French elections 1st round - Globalism versus Sovereignty

CrossTalk
RT
Mon, 24 Apr 2017 19:32 UTC
france election 2017
We are told we live in era of great change - a time to question the status quo and political elites. Brexit and Trump are testaments to this. As the French vote for president, will they continue this trend. CrossTalking with Dmitry Babich, Mark Sleboda, and Xavier Moreau.

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Info

Former Fox News anchor Heather Nauert named State Department spokeswoman

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Mon, 24 Apr 2017 20:12 UTC
Heather Nauert
Confirming a Bloomberg report from early March, on Monday the State Department issued a statement that Former Fox News anchor and correspondent Heather Nauert will be the new U.S. State Department spokeswoman.

"The Department of State is pleased to welcome Heather Nauert as the new State Department spokesperson," the announcement said.

"Nauert comes to the department with more than 15 years of experience as an anchor and correspondent covering both foreign and domestic news and events, including the 9/11 terror attacks, the war in Iraq, and the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. Heather's media experience and long interest in international affairs will be invaluable as she conveys the administration's foreign policy priorities to the American people and the world."

Taking the job that CNBC's John Harwood would have been delighted to land had Hillary Clinton won, Nauert reportedly accepted the job last month although it was not confirmed until now.
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Light Sabers

Xi calls Trump's bluff, makes it clear China is not going to support unilateral US action against North Korea

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Mon, 24 Apr 2017 19:59 UTC
xi jinping
As the Carl Vinson carrier group resumes its zigzag journey towards North Korea, comes news of a telephone call yesterday by Chinese President Xi Jinping to US President Donald Trump. Importantly it seems it was President Xi who initiated the call as he set out to President Trump China's position on the North Korean issue.

The People's Daily - the official newspaper of China's Communist Party - has provided a summary of the call
China hopes all parties can exercise "restraint" on the DPRK issue, and not take "provocative actions", said Chinese President Xi Jinping during a phone conversation with his US counterpart Donald Trump on Monday.

Xi stressed China is strongly against any action that would violate any UN Security Council resolutions. The Chinese president added that only if all parties take their responsibilities and work together can the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue be solved.

The phone conversation came amid rising tensions over Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs, with concerns growing over the possibility of a sixth DPRK nuclear test.
(bold italics added)
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Snakes in Suits

Russia backs Iranian membership in Shanghai Pact


RT
Mon, 24 Apr 2017 09:33 UTC
Zarif and Lavrov
© Sergei Karpukhin / ReutersIran's Minister Foreign Affairs Mohammad Zarif • Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
Russia strongly backs Iranian membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), now that UN Security Council sanctions have been lifted from the country, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.

Iran is ready to become a full-fledged member of the organization, Lavrov said Friday during an SCO Council of Foreign Ministers meeting in Astana. Tehran has "settled the problem of the UN Security Council sanctions and hence fully meets the SCO membership criteria," according to Lavrov. "We hope that during their June summit in Astana, the heads of our states will be able to discuss the possibility of launching the procedure for admitting Iran into the organization as a full member," Lavrov said.

The political, economic and military organization was founded in 2001 in Shanghai by the leaders of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Pakistan and India were granted membership status in 2016, and both are expected to become full-fledged members in 2017 during the June summit.

Iran currently has observer status in the organization. It submitted an official application for full-fledged SCO membership in 2008. The application, however, was blocked due to sanctions imposed on Iran by the UNSC. After 2015 nuclear deal implementation, as Iran agreed to drastically limit its nuclear fuel enrichment capabilities in exchange for lifting the sanctions, both Russia and China expressed their support for country's full membership.

"We believe that after Iran's nuclear problem was solved and United Nations sanctions lifted, there have been no obstacles left," Russian President Vladimir Putin said during the July 2016 SCO summit in Tashkent.

Comment: SCO is a Eurasian political, economic, and military organization. Cooperating is more fun than war. Must be an "eastern" thing.

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USA

Who poses the greater threat in Korea? History holds the answers

James O'Neill
NEO
Mon, 24 Apr 2017 00:00 UTC
TrumpKim hairhands
© HallToons.com/Ed Hall/KJN"Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" by Paul McCartney
The election of Donald Trump as US President has seen the ramping up of US rhetoric about North Korea. Trump recently demanded that China should use its influence with the North Koreans and if China did not intervene, then, according to an interview Trump gave to the UK Financial Times, the "US would act alone."

US Vice President Mike Pence, currently on a visit to Australia where he will undoubtedly seek Australian support for the US position, said that his country's "era of strategic patience" with North Korea was over.

Trump also claimed to have dispatched "an armada", by which he was presumably referring to the aircraft carrier the USS Vinson and its support vessels, to Korean waters. Perhaps typical of Trump's loose association with the truth, the Vinson was at that very time steaming in the opposite direction.

Quite what is to be made of this fresh rhetorical belligerence is not clear. One thing however has been abundantly clear for nearly the whole of North Korea's short existence and that is US antipathy and refusal to take meaningful steps to resolve what has become a festering problem for East Asia.

Comment: It seems like the US has no use of or reference to history, at least in any accurate capacity. It makes decisions based on an exceptionalism strategy rather than focusing on any particular issue that could be resolved. This approach provides the widest structure and the most options -- 'negating to incidental' its part in the issue as well as the facts, rights, reasons and willingness of the opponent to come to a lasting agreement.

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Snakes in Suits

Candidate Macron: An insider disguised as an outsider, wrapped in opportunism

Adam Garrie
The Duran
Mon, 24 Apr 2017 00:00 UTC
Macron
© The IndependentMacron's 'outsider' disguise. (The guy with the kid must be the insider!)
Macron is the arch-establishment figure. Statements to the contrary are worse than misleading, they are lies. The French elections have made it easier than usual to spot fake news merchants. Anyone who calls Emmanuel Macron a 'political outsider' or 'anti-establishment' is telling a lie. That of course includes Macron himself.

Macron was the Minister of the Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs from 2014 to 2016. He was a member of Francois Hollande's Socialist party during this time. Being a government minister under a President whose popularity was so low that he saved himself the embarrassment of seeking a second term, is as far from being a political outsider as one could imagine. Only it gets worse.

Between 2004 and 2008 Macron worked in the French Ministry of Economy but then left in order to pursue work in the private sector. To be specific, he left his government post to work as an investment banker at Rothschild & Cie Banque, a position which has about as much anti-establishment credibility as being Hillary Clinton's speech writer, the EU President or the Prince of Wales.

Comment: Will the French keep buying the image or will they face facts and figure this out?

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