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Poroshenko wants urgent meeting of contact group over conflict escalation


Sputnik
Mon, 30 Jan 2017 23:45 UTC
Petro Poroshenko
© AFP 2016/ TOBIAS SCHWARZ
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has tasked his aides with calling for the extraordinary session of the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine to discuss the situation near the town of Avdeevka, presidential administration deputy head Kostiantyn Yeliseyev said Monday.

Earlier in the day, water supply and power were reported to be cut in Avdeevka, located in Donetsk region.

"The president has just now ordered to call for the urgent session of the trilateral contact group in any format, including videoconferencing, to discuss the situation around [the town of] Avdeevka that is becoming critical," Yeliseyev said to the Ukrainian TV broadcaster Channel 5.

Comment: Kiev has escalated the conflict by violating the ceasefire and now wants a meeting with the contact group. Are things not going well?

Ukrainian military violate ceasefire in Lugansk Republic
Units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces over the past 24 hours four times opened fire on the militia's positions in the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic (LPR), the republic's defense authority told LuganskInformCenter on Sunday.

"From Krymskoye they shelled Frunze and Novogrigorovka, using IFV weapons, mortars and small arms," the agency quoted the authority.

Under fire were also Kalinovo and Kalinovka, the source added.


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Jet1

Trumped up claim? 'We cut $600 million from F-35 program'


Sputnik
Mon, 30 Jan 2017 22:43 UTC
US F-35 fighter jet
© Flickr/ Lockheed Martin
"We cut approximately $600 million off the F-35 fighter," US President Donald Trump said Monday at the White House, adding that it "only amounts to 90 planes," referring to the tenth and largest order of the costly jets.

"I think it was a great achievement," Trump said. "But that really means much more than that if you think about the fact that that's 90 planes out of close to 3,000 planes that are being ordered." Trump commended Lockheed Martin and its CEO, Marillyn Hewson, "for being so responsive" in reducing the costs, adding that the US government will save "billions, and billions, and billions, of dollars."

After seven years of cost overruns, "we've really, really got that program in good shape," he said. It marked a 180-degree reversal from a news conference earlier in January in which Trump blasted the F-35 program as "way, way behind schedule and many, many billions of dollars over budget," especially since he has only been President for ten days.
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Airplane Paper

Lavrov says 'safe zones' in Syria possible, as long as Damascus agrees


RT
Mon, 30 Jan 2017 21:23 UTC
Sergey Lavrov
© APRussian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, meeting in Moscow Jan. 16, 2017.
Russia may support the US initiative to establish so-called 'safe zones' for refugees in Syria, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. The plan would require close cooperation with the UN and approval from Syrian President Bashar Assad's government, he added.

Lavrov said the American proposal to create secure areas for refugees within Syria was put forward in the context of migrant flows to the neighboring countries, the Middle East, as well as Europe, and "at the end of the day, the US."

"If this is about the people who were forced to leave their homes by the conflict, [...] getting their basic needs covered, [...] then I think that the idea to create areas within Syria for those internally displaced could be discussed with the UN's High Commissioner for Refugees and other organizations," he said.

Though promising, the proposal would require negotiations with Damascus to agree on the principles of creating such safe zones on Syrian territory, Lavrov added.


Comment: Many in the alt media seem to have lost the plot on this one. There's nothing inherently wrong with a no-fly/safe zone. The reasons it was such a big deal when Clinton proposed it were the following:
  • for her, a no-fly zone means a zone where no one can fly except American bombers, who then drop bombs (as in Libya)
  • for her, a safe zone meant a place to keep terrorists where they cannot be harmed, who will eventually take power
  • for her, a safe zone would be a declaration of war on Russia, and requires the destruction of the target country's anti-air defense systems (because such a safe zone is to be implemented unilaterally and against the government in question)
That's obviously not what Trump is proposing, as Lavrov pointed out above. The Syrian government would have nothing wrong with a real safe/no-fly zone, as long as they agreed to it and it did what it was supposed to. Also consider this bit of rumor about Tulsi Gabbard's recent trip to Syria, and the messages she is said to have delivered to Assad:
The second message has to do with Trump's willingness to help the Syrian government to control the out-flux of refugees by establishing a "safe zone" for Syrians in areas controlled by either the Syrian Army or the Russian Air Force. I have been informed that Dr. Assad has accepted this kind of benign interference as long as it was coordinated with the Syrian government.

The third message she carried to Dr. Assad was that the U.S. is intent upon wiping out every vestige of ISIS and Alqaeda, and, that it would do so in coordination with Russia and the Syrian government.


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Airplane

Are Dutch investigators incompetent or attempting to protract MH17 probe?


RT
Mon, 30 Jan 2017 13:38 UTC
MH17 wreckage
© Michael Kooren/ReutersWreckage of MH17
If Dutch investigators couldn't decipher data from Russia, they could have asked for help, says military expert Aleksandr Tazekhulakhov. The problem here is that the Dutch have attempted to keep Russian representatives out of the MH17 probe, he adds.

Dutch investigators reportedly said they can't read the radar images received from Russia in October as part of the investigation into the crash of flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine in 2014.

A spokesman for the Dutch prosecutor's office claimed the format of the data was not up to international standards and further information is needed to understand the images. "The Dutch prosecutor's office requested information they needed for the investigations - and we gave it to them," says Major General Aleksandr Tazekhulakhov, the former deputy head of the Russian Army Air Defense.

"Just let me remind you how it all happened. In July 2014, a few days after the tragedy, Russia sent the Netherlands the necessary video data. Why? Objective monitoring procedures stipulate that radar screens must be recorded on photo and video. But the Dutch prosecutor's office told us back then that that kind of data can be tampered with and requested for information in another format. There is no other internationally acknowledged and officially accepted format. Russia then gave the data taken directly from the radar station computer, and it cannot be falsified, changed or altered in any way," he told RT.

Comment: See also:

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Cut

European Commission to Facebook: Get rid of fake news or face the music


RT
Mon, 30 Jan 2017 11:07 UTC
Fake news
© Buffalo Almanack
European Commission (EC) has warned Facebook and other social media outlets they should eliminate fake news or face legal action from Brussels, the Financial Times reports. The latest events must be a "turning point" for social media platforms, as they are at risk of losing trust if they do not take more responsibility, said European Commissioner Andrus Ansip.

"I am worried, as all people are worried, about fake news, especially after the elections in the United States. I really believe in self-regulatory measures, but if some kind of clarification is needed then we will be ready for that," said the commissioner.

The warning follows a wave of fake news stories posted on Facebook that went viral during the US presidential elections. Facebook has been widely criticized and is under growing pressure to solve the problem. In response, the world's largest social network started testing several methods to terminate the posting of fake news.

The corporation began filtering suspicious content flagged by users with the help of fact-checking organizations. Facebook also announced it had launched a journalism project to teach users how to identify real stories with the support of news publishers.

Comment: He who determines what is 'fake news' and 'quality news' controls the news.

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X

Russian court: Navalny to be forcefully brought to corruption case hearings


RT
Mon, 30 Jan 2017 12:36 UTC
Navalny
© Evgenya Novozhenina / SputnikLawyer and politician Alexei Navalny
A court in the central Russian city of Kirov has ordered opposition activist Aleksey Navalny to be forcefully summoned to hearings on his re-trial over a 2013 corruption case involving a state-owned timber company.

The ruling was issued on Monday, after Navalny failed to attend a Friday court session without presenting a valid excuse. Former businessman Pyotr Ofitserov, who is being tried within the same case, also failed to appear in court on Friday, and was subsequently ordered to be forcefully delivered to the next hearing.

On Thursday evening Navalny held televised debates with Artemiy Lebedev, the owner of a large Russian company specializing in website and industrial design. Navalny had alleged earlier this month that Lebedev was complicit in corruption schemes as his company had won several federal and municipal tenders.

Navalny's Foundation for Fighting Corruption forwarded an official request to Russia's Federal Anti-Monopoly Service, demanding that it re-check the contracts won by Lebedev. The businessman, who is himself a prominent blogger known for aggressive promotion of his services, replied by challenging Navalny to a televised debate.

Comment: See also:

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Airplane

Britain given exemption on Trump visa ban as May faced criticism

James Pheby
Yahoo News
Sun, 29 Jan 2017 00:00 UTC
TrumpMayCorbyn
© GettyAbsurd. Jeremy Corbyn has demanded President Trump be banned from the UK.
British Prime Minister Theresa May faced criticism on Sunday for her initial response to Donald Trump's border clampdown, as the UK won an exemption for its citizens from the US president's restrictions.

Shortly after the prime minister held talks with Trump at the White House on Friday, the new president signed an executive order to suspend refugee arrivals and impose tough new controls on travelers from seven Muslim countries.

Trump's move prompted an online petition to stop him making a planned state visit to Britain, a regal and glitzy affair which involves formalities such as a royal banquet in the Buckingham Palace Ballroom. By late Sunday the petition to the British parliament had attracted over 800,000 signatures.

May sparked controversy Saturday after refusing to condemn Trump's immigration clampdown when pressed by journalists during a trip to Turkey, but later issued a stronger statement as it emerged British citizens had been affected.

Comment: President Trump is acting with forethought and logic by ensuring the US has solid and proper procedures in place before opening the door. Restrictions are for 90 days while protocol is established.

There is little Jeremy Corbyn can do about Trump's state visit. It was requested by the Queen.

To view the draft limiting the entry of foreign nationals: See also:

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Folder

Brexit ruling from UK supreme court puts Scottish independence back on the table

John Wight
Sputnik
Wed, 25 Jan 2017 19:56 UTC
protest brexit scotland
© SputnikPro-EU rallies held throughout Scotland as rest of the UK votes for Brexit
The UK Supreme Court has just kicked over a constitutional hornet's nest with its rejection of the British Government's appeal of a previous ruling of the country's High Court when it comes to the legal basis for triggering Article 50, the clause within the EU constitution that needs to be invoked to formally start the process of exiting the EU.

What this means is that before the Government can invoke Article 50, the Prime Minister, Theresa May, will now have to seek and obtain the authorization of Parliament. It opens the possibility of a majority of parliamentarians voting against the process being triggered, though at this stage it is unlikely they would do so. It does require, however, that the Prime Minister publish her plans for the negotiations with Brussels on the terms of Brexit — i.e. whether she will be seeking to retain membership of the single market, membership of the customs union, her intentions when it comes to the status of the 3 million EU citizens who currently reside and work in the UK, and so on.


As many have pointed out, leaving the single market will have a deleterious impact on the nation's economy, businesses and jobs, given that we are talking the largest tariff-free market in the world, one that is currently the single largest destination for UK exports and source of its imports.

That Brexit has pitched the British political establishment into a crisis that evinces no signs of being resolved or ending anytime soon is now inarguable. Indeed the future of the UK itself is again under threat as the prospect of a second referendum on Scottish independence looms. A firm majority of Scottish voters in the EU referendum voted to remain in the EU, translating to 62 percent for Remain and 38 percent for Brexit.
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Arrow Up

RT achieves victory in NatWest negotiations, bank scraps plans to close UK accounts


RT
Mon, 30 Jan 2017 17:59 UTC
Russia Today
© Sputnik/ Igorь Rusak
Britain's National Westminster Bank has scrapped its plans to close RT UK's accounts in Britain. In October 2016, the bank announced its intent to close RT's bank accounts and the decision was met with a negative public response.

As a result of negotiations, all parties reached agreement to continue the relationship.

"Thank you for your patience whilst this matter was reviewed. I can confirm that a decision has now been made to retain all of the accounts you hold with the bank. Whilst I believe the bank followed its process correctly, I am happy we have been able to agree a way forward after further discussions with you," a Natwest representative said in an official letter to RT.

"Common sense has finally prevailed. Thank you all for your support," commented Margarita Simonyan, RT's editor-in-chief.
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Brick Wall

Trump's executive orders give immigration officers dramatically expanded powers

Tal Kopan
CNN
Sat, 28 Jan 2017 19:25 UTC
immigration suspension countries
The immigration executive orders signed by President Donald Trump this week could amount to a vast expansion of authority for individual immigration officers and a dramatic increase in efforts to detain and deport undocumented immigrants.

The order lays out a series of categories of undocumented immigrants that immigration law enforcement officials should prioritize for removing from the country, a reaction to what was criticized by the right as lax enforcement of immigration law by former President Barack Obama.

But experts say the descriptions include virtually every person in the country illegally and give broad latitude to individual immigration officers to decide who should be detained for deportation.In addition to a strain on resources, critics worry the orders could cause legal concerns.

The Obama administration had prioritized expulsion of undocumented immigrants who threatened public safety or national security, had ties to criminal gang activity, committed serious felony offenses or were habitual misdemeanor criminal offenders.

Trump's order goes far beyond that, using a sweeping definition of "criminal" and giving a single immigration officer the ability to make judgments on threats to public safety.
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