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Foreign agent? Leading Russian independent pollster Levada Center loses court bid


RT
Sun, 20 Nov 2016 18:01 UTC
Levada Center pollster
© Taras Litvinenko / Sputnik
A district court in Moscow has rejected a lawsuit by NGO the Levada Center, which had sought to cancel its inclusion in the register of 'foreign agents' - groups engaged in politics that receive sponsorship from foreign organizations and individuals.

According to the law, which was introduced in late 2012, all Russian NGOs that receive funding from abroad while engaging in political activities must register as foreign agents.

In mid-2016, lawmakers amended the law, providing a more precise definition of political activity. Among other things, they classed this as participation in street rallies and marches, any activity aimed at influencing the result of an election, public appeals to state agencies seeking changes in laws, circulating appraisals of existing laws or state policies, and attempts to influence views on political issues through opinion polls.
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Attention

APEC summit draws Peruvian protests to TPP and Obama's visit, clashes with police


RT
Sat, 19 Nov 2016 02:08 UTC
Peru protests
© EDUARDO CAVEROPeruvians protest APEC Summit and Obama's visit.
Police surrounded and scuffled with over 100 activists who gathered in Lima's financial quarter to denounce the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal and visiting US President Barack Obama, who is there to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Forum (APEC).

The demonstrators were holding signs with the letters TPP crossed over, slogans reading "TPP kills" and other banners as they sought to march towards the Lima Convention Center, the official site of the 24th APEC summit, which kicks off on Saturday, but were blocked by riot police. They also chanted slogans against the visit of US President Barack Obama, who is to take part in the summit. About 200 officers and a helicopter were mobilized to ensure the protestors did not break through several rows of police cordons.


Comment: Trump's clout precedes his taking office. He has virtually nixed the TTIP deal with the EU and now TPP is looking shaky.

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Question

Erdogan: Turkey could join Shanghai Pact instead of EU


PressTV
Sun, 20 Nov 2016 10:34 UTC
Erdogan
© AFPDecisions, decisions...so many options.
The Turkish president says his country should not be "fixated" on joining the European Union and could instead seek accession to the Eurasian Shanghai Pact organization dominated by China and Russia. "Turkey should first of all feel relaxed about the EU and not be fixated" about its membership, Recep Tayyip Erdogan was cited in Sunday media reports as saying, as Ankara continues to rile up Brussels with its EU-unfriendly moves.

Turkey has been trying to join the EU since the 1960s. The formal negotiations started in 2005. The two sides reached a landmark deal in March to stem the unprecedented flow of refugees into Europe. Under the agreement, Ankara agreed to receive all refugees landing on the coasts of Greece in return for concessions, including billions of dollars in funding, accelerated talks on Turkey's accession to the EU, and visa-free travel for Turks to the Schengen Area.

The bloc, however, has only opened 16 chapters of the 35-chapter accession process for Ankara and refused to lift the visa ban, finding fault with Ankara's treatment of opposition, especially in the aftermath of a mid-July failed coup against Erdogan. The putsch has been followed by mass arrests and expulsions as well as reported torture, ruffling feathers in Brussels.

For its part, Ankara has accused the EU of treating the country differently regarding its accession attempt and failing to unlock all the cash it had promised to disburse to Turkey on the back of the refugee deal. "Some may criticize me but I express my opinion," Erdgoan added, explaining on why the country should not put too much emphasis on EU membership. "For example, I say 'why shouldn't Turkey be in the Shanghai 5?," he asked.

Comment: Erdogan, once again, is trying to play all sides against the middle, which will likely result in nothing gained and all options closed.

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X

Khaled Meshaal: Muezzin Bill, Israel's ban on Muslim calls to prayers, is "playing with fire"


PressTV
Sun, 20 Nov 2016 03:38 UTC
Meshaal
© Anadolu News AgencyKhaled Meshaal, the political bureau chief of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas
The political bureau chief of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has warned the Israeli regime about the recent ban on the use of speakers for Muslim calls to prayers, stating that such legislation is tantamount to "playing with fire." Speaking in an exclusive interview with Turkey's official news agency, Anadolu, on Sunday, Khaled Meshaal said the controversial and so-called muezzin bill "has drawn a strong reaction from the Palestinian people and Muslims worldwide."

Meshaal added that Israel has opted to reverse the proposed bill for the fear that it would serve as an excuse to stop Jewish rituals in the occupied Jerusalem al-Quds, stressing that the Palestinian nation's outrage signaled that muffling Muslim calls to prayers is their red line. The Hamas leader noted that there will be no stability in the Middle East region, unless Palestinian rights are recognized and Israel withdraws from Palestinian lands.

During a cabinet meeting last Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would support the bill, claiming that calls to prayer make excessive noise. Palestinian leaders argue that the bill is not about noise, but is rather intended only to silence mosques. "This bill is the ugly product of Islamophobia that has come to dominate Israel," Thabet Abu Ras of the Abraham Fund commented.

Comment: Isn't Islamophobia just the flip side of Anti-Semitism? Who should understand this better than Netanyahu and the Jews? Then again, Israel has utilized the anti-semitism label for all kinds of purposes, gaining mileage, manipulating favors the whole world over. Muffling prayer calls is a deliberate outrage. For that matter, no one makes "noise" like Netanyahu.

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Info

4,000 NATO troops take part in Lithuania's largest exercise yet near Russia's border


RT
Sun, 20 Nov 2016 16:45 UTC
NATO soldier
© Ints Kalnins / Reuters
Eleven NATO countries have sent 4,000 troops to Lithuania, the largest Baltic nation, to participate in this year's Iron Sword exercises. The war games are meant to test the country's ability to rapidly deploy a large number of troops.

The exercise, which started on Sunday and is set to last till December 2, involves training at two separate sites in Lithuania.

"This time poses new unexpected challenges before our military. We have to prepare units and their commanders to efficiently respond to conventional military threats," General Waldemar Rupšys, the head of Lithuania's Land Forces, told journalists ahead of the exercise.

Comment: Can NATO prepare for the consequences of these exercises? Russian MoD: NATO building up offensive capabilities near Russia's border, Moscow will take reciprocal measures

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Jet4

Russia to ask president-elect Trump for help bombing Syria

Nigel Nelson
Mirror
Sat, 19 Nov 2016 16:07 UTC
Vladimir Putin
© GettyRussian President Vladimir Putin will ask Donald Trump for help
Russia is to ask Donald Trump to give it the OK to carry on bombing Syria.

In an exclusive article for the Sunday Mirror, President Vladimir Putin 's London ambassador says Russia has been trying to persuade US president Barack Obama to agree to the air strikes.

And Alexander Yakovenko says they will now talk to Trump when he takes office as Obama's successor in January hoping for a more sympathatic hearing.

He writes: "Use of the Air Force in Syria is part of a diplomacy backed by force.

"We have been trying to coordinate with this US Administration. We'll continue doing so with the next one."
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Propaganda

5 times MSM got caught for fake news causing the death & suffering of millions

Claire Bernish
The Free Thought Project
Thu, 17 Nov 2016 00:00 UTC
MSM Fake news
© Freethoughtproject
A now-notorious list of ostensibly "fake" news sites — created by a liberal professor, seemingly out of thin air — spread like wildfire online in the past two days and was eagerly reprinted by corporate media presstitutes hoping to vindicate their own failed reporting on the 2016 election.

But branding perfectly legitimate outlets with the same scarlet letter as those devoid of integrity deemed the professor's list a spurious attempt to defame alternative and independent media — anyone dissenting from the left's mainstream narrative — as a whole.

This is, in no uncertain terms, a hit list — or, at least, a laughable attempt — and it fits conveniently into the establishment's burgeoning war on independent media disguised as a battle against fake news.

When corporate media outlets from the Independent and Business Insider, to the Los Angeles Times and NYMag scrambled over one another to reprint this irresponsibly contrived hit list, they proved yet again a lack of journalistic integrity — the same issue that originally caused regular subscribers to abandon them in the first place.

Indeed, in this otherwise unknown professor's foray into the world of journalism, a glaring mistake was made — the only mainstream outlets making the list were those who had heralded Bernie Sanders as the best candidate for the White House.

Comment: See also:

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Megaphone

If gender identity debate at U of T was about free speech, then the battle is truly lost

Christie Blatchford
National Post
Sat, 19 Nov 2016 13:19 UTC
Jordan Peterson 2
© Dave Abel/Toronto Sun/Postmedia NetworkU of T Professor Jordan Peterson debates Bill C-16 and the gender provisions in the Ontario Human Rights Code at at the Sandford Fleming Building at the University of Toronto on Saturday November 19, 2016.
My God, if that thing at the University of Toronto on Saturday was a debate about free speech, then the battle is already well and truly lost.

This was the "forum" on Bill C-16 put on by the arts and sciences faculty, wherein the embattled psychology professor Dr. Jordan Peterson was to engage in presumably spirited discussion about implications of including "gender identity" and "gender expression" in the Canadian Human Rights Code and the Criminal Code.

Comment:
  • JordanPeterson: Gender pronouns and free speech war


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Snakes in Suits

The Great Con: Political correctness has marginalized the working class

Charles Hugh Smith
Of Two Minds
Thu, 17 Nov 2016 13:40 UTC
politicaal cartoon of makers and takers
So when the protected class of well-paid institutional "progressives" speak darkly of "reversing 40 years of social progress," what they're really saying is we're terrified that the bottom 95% might be waking up to our Great Con of identity politics and political correctness.

To understand the Great Con of political correctness, we must first grasp the decline of the working class (self-described as "the middle class"), i.e. those who must sell their labor to earn their livelihood. Labor's share of the national economy has been declining for 46 years:
Shares of gross domestic income chart
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Info

S. Korea's President Park implicated in corruption case, president's friend and aides charged


RT
Sun, 20 Nov 2016 13:32 UTC
South Korean protesters wearing masks
© Kim Hong-Ji / ReutersProtesters wearing cut-outs of South Korean President Park Geun-hye (R) and Choi Soon-sil attend a protest denouncing Park over a recent influence-peddling scandal in central Seoul, South Korea.
In the strongest accusation in the scandal to date, South Korean prosecutors said President Park Geun-hye had a role of an accomplice in the corruption case, which saw her friend and two former aides charged with abuse of power - but can't be charged due to immunity.

Park's friend Choi Soon-sil and ex-presidential aide An Chong-bum have been charged with abuse of power and are being probed over meddling into state affairs, the head of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, Lee Young-ryeol, has announced.

Another ex-aide Jeong Ho-seong has been indicted with leaking classified information to Choi. Both Jeong and An have stepped down.
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