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UK Defense Ministry to allocate over $1.32 billion for first stealth submarine


Sputnik
Mon, 01 Aug 2016 12:53 UTC
UK Trident submarine
© Wikipedia
The UK Defense Ministry will allocate a billion pounds ($1.32 billion) to begin the construction of the first ultra-stealth submarines out of four planned, media reported Monday.

According to Financial Times newspaper's sources, the Defense Ministry's industrial partners, UK companies BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce may receive the funding by September and begin the manufacturing.

The financing is expected to last for up to one and a half years, being the first payment of the program with an over $54 billion budget.

Comment: The UK appears to be gearing up its military: UK ready to grow defense budget even further for new $240 million naval gun but will it work? UK begs US to hurry F-35 deal through while Royal Navy's next-gen frigate 'delayed indefinitely'

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Info

Head of US Joint Chiefs of Staff Dunford arrives at Turkish Incirlik airbase


Sputnik
Mon, 01 Aug 2016 12:29 UTC
Incirlik Airbase Turkey
© AFP 2016/ STR
US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford arrived at the Turkish southern Incirlik airbase on Monday, local private broadcaster NTV reported.

According to the Turkish broadcaster, Dunford is expected to meet US troops and hold talks with Turkish high-profile military officials in Ankara.

It comes a day after media reported that the Turkish army stepped up security at Incirlik military base amid unconfirmed reports on a new coup attempt.

Incirlik military base is used by the United States and shelters combat planes of the US-led coalition launching airstrikes in Syria and Iraq against Daesh outlawed in many countries, including Russia.
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Info

Daesh threats will not derail Russia's fight against terrorism


Sputnik
Mon, 01 Aug 2016 12:05 UTC
Russian TU-160 bomber
© Sputnik/ Yury Strelets
The outlawed Daesh's threats against Russia cannot influence Moscow's stance on the fight against international terrorism, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday.

"Such threats are not able in any way to impact Russia's and President [Vladimir] Putin's consistent policy on the fight against international terrorism, which of course will continue in all directions," Peskov told reporters.

He stressed that, following the banned terrorist organization's purported video urging jihad in Russia, the Kremlin "treats such publications with the necessary attention."

"Certainly, the special services responsible for anti-terrorist operation and security take such publications into account. Surely the Ministry of Defense overseeing the Aerospace Forces' operation in Syria are taking the necessary measures," Peskov stressed.
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Bad Guys

Daesh allegedly threatens Russia and Putin with terror attacks


Sputnik
Mon, 01 Aug 2016 12:09 UTC
Islamic flag
© REUTERS/ Ali Hashisho
Daesh released a video urging extremists to attack Russia, however the authenticity of the video could not be confirmed.

According to Reuters, the link to the video has been loaded to the Telegram account used by the terrorists.

The video lasts nine minutes and ends with a masked man addressing President Vladimir Putin and urging Daesh supporters to attack Russia.

Daesh terrorist group, outlawed in the United States, Russia and numerous other countries throughout the world, has seized vast areas in Iraq and Syria, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes. The radical Sunni group has become notorious for its human rights atrocities, such as public beheadings of foreign journalists.
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Cut

Clinton, Palestine and 'lesser evilism'

Steven Salaita
The New Arab
Tue, 26 Jul 2016 11:01 UTC
Killary
© Getty Images
In the United States presidential race, we have officially entered into the moment of lesser evilism, which demands grudging support of the unappealing Democratic candidate in order to prevent the election of an even more deplorable Republican.

Few things inspire such acrimonious debate among liberals and leftists. Rather than rehearsing the usual (and by now painfully familiar) arguments for and against voting Democrat, let's explore what lesser evilism means for the communities on the receiving end of the necessary evil.

Lesser evilism makes sense in the framework of electoral pragmatism.The US two-party system forces voters into terrible choices. Plenty of liberals maintain the system because it works well for them, which isn't a good reason for anybody else to concede.

The elite enjoy unprecedented power and wealth, no matter who ostensibly runs the country. Analysis that stops short of this recognition is useless to everybody but the ruling class.

The most explicit discourse of US exceptionalism in existence today, lesser evilism assumes that certain communities are disposable. It apportions people into rigid hierarchies. It judges who is worthy of safety and security. It asks us to voluntarily defer liberation. Lesser evilism may sound appealing as a practical metric, but it comes with severe human costs.

It's okay to reject a system that requires complicity in the oppression of fellow human beings.
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V

Jill Stein: American foreign policy is a marketing strategy for selling weapons


RT
Mon, 01 Aug 2016 10:18 UTC
jill stein
© Dominick Reuter / ReutersGreen Party presidential candidate Jill Stein
Democrats and Republicans are controlled by banks, oil giants, insurance companies and war profiteers, says Green Party presidential candidate, Dr. Jill Stein. Her party, she claims, gets no money from corporations and has liberty to really address problems.

As the two major US political parties have officially selected their nominees for president, Chris Hedges, host of RT's On Contact program, discussed with the Green Party candidate for president, Dr. Jill Stein, what could be an alternative way forward.

According to Dr Stein, in the current presidential race, the American public is "clamoring for something else at unprecedented levels".

"People have rejected not only both of these parties, which are minority parties by actual polling...Their candidates are running at record levels, all time highest for people disliking the Democratic and Republican candidates," she said.

"The American people and the people all over the world are being thrown under the bus by this political system...in which both parties are basically funded by and controlled by predatory banks, by fossil-fuel giants, by war-profiteers, the health insurance industry - the usual suspects who are calling the shots from behind the closed doors," Stein says.

Stein says that since her campaign and the Green Party "are the only candidates and party" that do not take money from corporations and lobbyists, and do not have super PACs, they have "the liberty to address the crises" that the US people are facing.
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Ambulance

Russian helicopter on aid mission shot down in Syria - all 5 on board killed


RT
Mon, 01 Aug 2016 00:44 UTC
russian helicopter shot down
© Ammar Abdullah / ReutersMen inspect the wreckage of a Russian helicopter that had been shot down in the north of Syria's rebel-held Idlib province, Syria August 1, 2016
A Russian Mi-8 helicopter has been shot down by ground fire in Syria following delivery of humanitarian supplies to Aleppo, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. The three crew and two officers from Russia's reconciliation center were returning to base.

The condition of those on board has yet to be established, the ministry said.

"On August 1, an Mi-8 transport helicopter has been shot down by ground fire in Idlib province after a delivery of humanitarian aid to the city of Aleppo. Three crew members and two officers from the Russian Reconciliation Center in Syria were on board," the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The helicopter was returning to the Russian air base at Khmeimim, the statement added. The ministry has not yet revealed identities of those on board.
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Arrow Down

America's "achievements" in the Middle East

Eric Zuesse
Sott.net
Mon, 01 Aug 2016 05:42 UTC
What's especially interesting there, is that in all of these missions, except for Iraq, the U.S. was doing it with the key participation of the Saud family, the royals who own Saudi Arabia, and who are the world's largest buyers of American weaponry.

Since Barack Obama came into the White House, the operations โ€” Libya, Yemen, and Syria โ€” have been, to a large extent, joint operations with the Sauds. 'We' are now working more closely with 'our' 'friends', even than 'we' were under George W. Bush

Here are before-and-after pictures, of what the U.S. government has achieved, in the Middle East:
Before and After Pics
© ุฃููƒุงุฑ ูˆุญูƒโ€@MAL0m/Twitter
As President Obama instructed his military, on 28 May 2014:
When issues of global concern do not pose a direct threat to the United States, when such issues are at stake โ€” when crises arise that stir our conscience or push the world in a more dangerous direction but do not directly threaten us โ€” then the threshold for military action must be higher. In such circumstances, we should not go it alone. Instead, we must mobilize allies and partners to take collective action.

We have to broaden our tools to include diplomacy and development; sanctions and isolation; appeals to international law; and, if just, necessary and effective, multilateral military action. In such circumstances, we have to work with others because collective action in these circumstances is more likely to succeed.
So: 'we' didn't achieve these things only on our own, but instead in alliance with the royals of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Kuwait, and other friendly countries, which finance jihadists everywhere but in their own country. And, of course, all of 'us' are allied against Russia, so we're now surrounding that country with 'our' NATO partners before we do to it what we've previously done to Iraq, Libya, Yemen, and Syria. America is becoming even more ambitious, because of 'successes' like these in Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Ukraine.
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Jet3

US Navy's hope for a sixth-generation fighter jet gone with bloated F-35 costs


Sputnik
Mon, 01 Aug 2016 04:06 UTC
F-35 cost overrun
© Flickr/ Official U.S. Navy PageThe massive cost overrun on the $337 million per aircraft F-35C fighter jet has so hamstrung the US Navyโ€™s budget that their plans for an F/A-XX sixth generation fighter jet may be nothing but a pipe dream.
'The United States Navy's tactical aircraft plan for the post-2030 threat environment is in disarray as officers remain skeptical about the performance capabilities of the F-35C, but the cost override on the fifth-generation fighter jet may force the military branch to discard plans for the F/A-XX sixth-generation fighter jet program.

After spending over $1.5 trillion in US taxpayer money, the Pentagon budget will only enable the US navy to field a handful of Lockheed Martin F-35C Joint Strike Fighters after the aircraft's budget bloated due to an unprecedented number of design and software problems that set the fighter jet several years behind schedule.

"They're looking at it in a very short-sighted way. They're still skeptical because the expense hasn't come down to the degree they wanted," a source told The National Interest. "Already the aircraft squadron buy of the new air plane is smaller than the Hornet squadron they're supposed to replace - 10 aircraft versus 12 - simply because they can't afford it."

The Navy's budget is weighted down by a flat top line such that if an aircraft is more expensive than the military branch predicted, they are forced to simply purchase fewer fighter jets even though the majority of the cost is on the design and development side, not the whole-scale production.
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Pistol

Police station siege over: 20 Armenian gunmen surrender


Sputnik
Mon, 01 Aug 2016 02:59 UTC
siege yerevan police station
© Ruptly
A group of 20 gunmen that captured a police station in Yerevan on July 17 demanding the release of an opposition politician have surrendered. Two officers died in the standoff, which also triggered opposition protests with clashes and arrests.

"With their consistent and coordinated actions, special units of Armenian law enforcement bodies have forced members of the armed group to surrender to the authorities," Armenia's National Security Service said in a statement on July 31. "Twenty terrorists have been arrested."

Those arrested face accusations of killing two police officers, but deny the charges.

The armed group seized the police station in the Erebuni district of Yerevan on July 17, taking several police officers hostage, while killing one in the process. Police cordoned off the area and began a siege.

Negotiations continued for two weeks. All of the hostages were released a week after the siege began, but the armed men then captured emergency responders who had come to tend the wounded. The last two were allowed to leave on Saturday.
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